LIBRARY OF PRINCETON JAN ~ 7 2003 THEOLOGICAL SE^^!NARY BR151 .S34 1854 Scenes from Christian history. \/ SCENE \m 24 1327 f gradual creation, which, in fact, cannot be explained by- men. In India there was a like statement, always show- ing the many gods who were presented to the common people in groups of three. The heathen philosophers, who, under the name of Platonists, taught in Alexandria, in Origen and Clement's time, took a similar idea of a triple nature of God. And they made use of some passages in the works of the great philosopher Plato, to show that he held similar views. A, D. 204.] CHRISTIAN DREAD OF SPECULATION. 55 Meanwhile, the old Roman and Greek gods grew more and more ridiculous to all. Pliny's letter has shown us how their temples were deserted. Many of their old worshippers had become Christians. In the unsettled state of opinion on religious matters, many others went wildly into such speculations as these, of which we have given some specimen. Those men who carried such wild flights farthest called themselves Knowing Ones, or Gnostics. But the Christians generally dreaded their fancyings. For the Christian Church often had to take the credit of them. They would profess to be, in some sense. Chris- tian believers. Those whose name they took saw the danger of that connection. Indeed, the early Christians, to a time long after Trajan and Ignatius, and that gener- ation which had seen the Lord or his disciples, dreaded the effects of much study of books. Their preachers would not write their own sermons. They discounte- nanced human learning. For this reason, among others, we have but few remnants of Christian writings for the first hundred years after Jesus's death. They disliked, and the Jews hated, these speculations about the nature of God. Moses had made the Jews hold for ever to the doctrine that God is one and indivis- ible. And the Jewish Christians, to the last moment we hear of them as a separate community, retained a great dread lest this doctrine should be abandoned, in any way. . There is no doubt that heathens converted to Chris- tianity had the same dread, though, as more and more learned men became Christians, they had less fear of 56 ORIGEN. [a. d. 204, the evil effects of human literature and philosophy. When, in their persecutions, they were brought to trial, they were always charged with being atheists, godless men ; because they worshipped a God who could not be seen, heard, or felt. They answered, of course, that, though their Infinite God was invisible, yet he had un- veiled himself, or revealed himself in his Son. Jesus was the power of God, and the wisdom of God. In the sense in which the Jews called those " gods to whom the word of God had come," he might be called a god. All that he spoke was God's word to the world. All that he did was God's deed to the world. For he con- stantly said that he did nothing of himself. Yet the Christian writers, using such language at times, spoke of God himself as invisible, and supreme. They did not answer the charge of atheism by saying that their God had walked the earth in human form. When such a charge was made to Minucius Felix, he answered : — " But you say we worship a God whom we cannot show to others, nor see ourselves. Yes, because we can perceive and feel him, but cannot see him, there- fore we believe that he is God. For in his works, and in all the agencies of his world, we trace his ever-pres- ent efficacy ; in thunder, in lightning, in clear weather. Do not be surprised not to see God. Every thing is agitated and borne on by the wind, yet the wind is no object of sight. By means of the sun it is that we see, but we cannot look into the sun. It repels and disables the vision, and if you gaze long, the sight is quenched. What! will you look at the Maker of the sun, at the Fountain of light, when you avert your eye from his A. D. 204,] JUSTIN MARTYR. 57 lightnings, when you hide away from the reverberation of his thunder ? Will you look upon God with the out- ward eyes, when you cannot so much as see or appre- hend that spirit of your own, by which you live and speak ? " So clear is it, that among the Christians for more than a hundred years after Jesus's death there was not the doctrine which was stated by Athanasius or Hilary, two hundred years later. Yet, that " Our Lord Jesus Christ is God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father," — this is the doctrine of the Catholic Church now. But, as the most distinguished author in that Church in our time and language * says, it is not to be made out from the Bible, or the Fathers of the first three centuries. He sustains it on later authorities. Those Christians, who made no boast of learning, made no effort to describe the position or precise nature of our Lord. It was as impossible, of course, then, as now, to say in what way God's spirit filled Jesus's heart. But then Christian men agreed to differ on this point, know- ing that it was one on which human language must be doubtful. Justin, who wrote only a hundred and ten years after the crucifixion, himself supposed that Jesus was the angel who appeared to Moses in the bush ; but he added, with great sincerity, in his letter to the Em- peror of Rome : " If I am not able to prove that Jesus existed before his birth in Palestine, it will not therefore follow that he is not the Christ. I may say, then, if it * Dr. Newman. 58 OKIGEN. [a. d. 204. be proved that he is a man born of man, that I was de- ceived as to his preexistence, and that he was elected to be the Messiah." Learned and unlearned Christians, Jewish or Gentile Christians, were as willing then, as all Christians, of whatever name, are now, to own Jesus as the power of God and the wisdom of God. It was then as impossible as it is now to say in any man's life where God's action ends, and where the man's action begins. So it was as hard then as now to say where in Jesus's life the power of God ended or began. While all Christians then agreed in speaking of God as su- preme, — of Christ as coming from him, — their lan- guage, when they began to study and to write, varied, though not as widely, still in the same way, as Chris- tian language does now, as to the nature of Christ, and how far he shared the nature of God. Turning, however, to Origen, and the teachers of the Christian school in Egypt, we find they had no dread of human learning. They used the best training they could find. And, not willing to lose the name of the Knoicing, or Gnostics, they said that Christians who ad- vanced in faith became true Gnostics. They owned that the simple faith of a Christian might be wholly un- accompanied by any knowledge of these difficult specu- lations. But they said very truly, that every faithful Christian, as he grew in grace, gained in his own heart knowledge of the power of the Spirit. Such men, they said, became " Gnostics,''' And then, to win, if they could, heathen Gnostics, or Jews, or Egyptians, to the Christian doctrine, they went on to show its similarity in some of its more difficult speculations with the spec A. D. 204.] THE TRINITY. 59 ulations of the other systems. So Clement and Origen pressed with more zeal than they would otherwise have thought worth while, the fact that their faith too was threefold ; that they believed in God, in Jesus, and in the present power of God's Spirit. Jesus, indeed, was the Word of God ; and this was the very name given to one of the principles of the triad of the Platonists and of some Gnostics. Such similarities the Christian philoso- phers loved to dwell upon. It was natural that they should push them to the utmost. It was as natural that the heathen whom they won by such parallels should push them farther still. At the very same time, in Alex- andria, the Egyptian priests were expounding the old Egyptian trinity ; the followers of Plato were making a new Platonic trinity ; the philosophic Jews, leaving the orthodox Jewish faith, were reviving the specula- tions of Philo on Plato's trinity. And in the midst of these men were Origen and Clement, trying to win them to Christ, and to baptize them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is not wonderful, for they were not more than human, that they bent to- wards the views \vith which they were so entangled. It was, indeed, under such circumstances that a doc- trine of the Trinity, somewhat resembling that which three hundred years afterwards generally prevailed, was first stated in Christian writings. It was stated for the learned alone. "The simple, the ignorant, th6 un- learned," says Tertullian, a Christian father writing at this, time, " who are always a majority of believers, are horror-struck at this economy, imagining that this num- ber and disposition of the Trinity is a division of the 60 ORIGEN. [a. d. 204. unity." And Origen says, that " to the carnal they taught the Gospel in a literal way, preaching Jesus Christ and him crucified ; but to persons farther advanced, and burning with love for divine celestial wisdom, they com- municated the Logos.'''' The statement of the Alexandrian teachers of this time may be summed up in these words of Clement : "The most perfect nature, the most holy, supreme, royal, and beneficent, is that of the Son ; and it ap- proaches nearest to that of the Almighty." Again : " Our Teacher is the God Jesus, the Word, which is the guide of all the human race ; the God which loves men." Again : " God hates nothing, nor does the Word ; for both these are one, that is, God." These are his ex- treme statements, as selected by an author* who was trying to show that he held the view afterwards held by the Catholic Church. But that view had not yet come into being. And when it did, its supporters denounced Clement and Origen as blasphemers, because they did not admit it. There is no more agreeable way to show, not the learned, but the popular Christian theology of their time, than by copying this little hymn, which Clement proba- bly wrote. It is a Hymn of Children to Christ. Thy children, free from guile, awake, Like saints to praise, and purely hymn The Christ who saves the child ! Thou Curb of untamed steeds, Thou Wing of fearless birds, A. D. 204.] Clement's hymn. 61 Sure Rudder of the young, Shepherd of royal sheep ! Thou King of saints, Almighty Word Of God most high. Of wisdom chief, our stay in grief. Gracious eternally ! O Christ ! the Saviour of our race, The wing which wafts to heaven. The Helm, the Curb, Sower, and Shepherd Of the flock untaught before ; — Fisher of men whom God has saved. Who with the bait of happy life Dost draw thy fish From angry waves of wicked seas ; — Lead us, thou Shepherd of the sheep divine. Lead us, thou holy King of children undepraved. O steps of Christ, our path to heaven ! O Word Eternal ! Power untold ! O Light unfading ! Source of grace And Fount of truth ! Christ Jesus, Light divine of those Who praise their God, We children, fed with dewy grace, By thy bride wisdom. We little ones together sing. Thus simply sing praise undefiled And hymns unstained To Christ our King ; — Such pious tribute give the mighty Child Who taught us how to live. NO. VIII. 6 62 MARY OF NUMIDIA. [a. D. 202-250. Ye people called, Ye born in Christ, A band of peace, Join all to praise the peace of God. NOTE TO CHAPTER IV. Young readers may illustrate the last half of the second century by reading Palfrey's Lowell Lectures, Vol. II. Lect. 11 and 12. Persons old enough to read this book will in many cases know Latin enough to read with ease Minucius Felix's Apology, quoted above, which with many other similar works, in one volume, may be bought for half a dollar in a Leipsic edition. Translations of these fathers will be found in large libraries. There are many recent books on the Egyptian philosophy and customs. To persons who can read French, Champollion-Figeac's " L'Egypte," published in a cheap edition, by Didot, in 1840, is still the best of the shorter books on the subject. Rev. \V. B. Greene's pamphlet on the Trinity. CHAPTER V. MARY OF NUMIDIA. MARION. CHRISTIAN LIFE. NuMiDiA was a province in the North of Africa, in the region we now call the Barbary States. The life of Mary, a Christian woman there, may be so told, per- haps, in this lesson, as to show what were the ways of Christians, in domestic life and in their meetings, in those days. There is but little which we can tell of her. But we will tell of her, besides the particular in- A. D. 2()2-250.] MARY BAPTIZED. 63 cidents of her life, what we might of any Christian child or woman of her country and time. There is much in it that differs from our customs, or from the customs of any Christian nation now. Mary was born about the time spoken of in the last chapter, when Clement was driven from Egypt, and Origen took the care of the Catechetical School. But we do not know that her father and mother, who were Christians, suffered under any of the public persecutions of their times. The little girl was but a few weeks old, when, with their friends, they took her to the minister, that he might baptize her. The custom was, that all persons who were not sick should be wholly dipped in water, as those were who were baptized in Jesus's time in the Jordan. So, on the appointed day, little Mary, and the others who were baptized with her, were taken to the baptistery, as the place provided was called, and there the minister baptized her. The service was sim- ple. He made a prayer, dipped the little infant in wa- ter, and said, " I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit." He gave to her her name, " Mary," and kissed her, and said, " Peace to you," and the glad parents carried their little one away. As she grew up, they took more pains with her learn- ing, and she saw that other Christian parents took more pains with their children, than any of her little play- mates enjoyed who were not Christians. She was taught to read and write as soon as she was old enough. Her copies were from the Psalms, and she read passages from the Old and New Testament. Her father and 64 MARY OF NUMIDIA. [a. D. 202-250. mother went about among all the people of the town, without secluding themselves from those who were not Christians ; but Mary soon learned to distinguish a dif- ference, even in appearance, not easy to describe, be- tween their Christian and their heathen friends. Thus, in her father's house, the furniture was not so showy, though it was quite as convenient, as in their next neigh- bors'. Neither he, nor her mother, nor the little girl herself, were ever dressed in garments which could at- tract attention from shape or color. Still they wore no special Christian uniform. There was more difference at meal-times between them and the heathen neighbors, than at any other time. They were not poor, but the table was always provided very simply, and without any of the luxuries which Mary saw on the tables of other persons, when she was on visits away from home. Her father sometimes drank the wine which they made in their own vineyard, but the children and their mother never did, and she observed that he used it very spar- ingly. When they were seated at dinner, he always made a prayer to God, thanking him for his bounties, and asking for his blessing. As the meal went on, some one who sat apart read to them from the Scrip- tures. And when it was over, they gathered together, the father read a few verses, and then taught the chil- dren some prayer or Scripture lesson, and before they parted they sang a hymn. So different was the daily gathering of the family from the huny of our meeting and parting. Out of doors, in those days, there was seldom a chance for religious conversation, and there was even danger in religious confession. But in the A. D. 202-250.] TRAVELLERS. 65 house there was safety ; the domestic apartments were guarded from intrusion in those countries then, as they are now. And these private devotions were the more dear because the dangers of persecution, and the neces- sary secrecy of the pubhc services, made attendance on them less frequent and certain. Mary's Httle companions sometimes wondered why there were so many strangers who came and staid at her house in their travels. This was because the cus- tom was universal by which Christians entertained other Christians who were away from home, — from Rome, from Greece, from Asia, or Egypt ; whatever Christian in travelling came to their town always found out a Christian household, introduced himself as a Christian, and received from them their best hospitality. In this way they learned much of the customs and his- tory of those distant lands, — and such intercourse sup- plied to the children, particularly, a great deal of infor- mation such as we gain from books of travel, or from letters, or from newspapers. Mary did not begin to go to meeting as early as chil- dren do with us. For, even in the best times, the meeting together of Christians was prohibited by the laws against meetings of citizens, — and therefore they could not conduct their services in a public way. They used to meet on the Lord's day, therefore, before light in the morning, and after sunset at night. It was hardly Sun-day to them. When Mary was old enough to understand what worship was, and old enough to be trusted with the secrets, which, if a careless child be- trayed, many Christians might be exposed to persecu- 6G MARY OF NUMIDIA. [a. D. 202-250. tion, her father took her early one Sunday morning to the church where the Christians of the town assembled. It had not been built for a church, and, in its out- ward aspect, had nothing to distinguish it from the other buildings round. As Mary went in, her mother kept her with her, and they went and sat with other women and girls, who w-ere by themselves. Her father and her elder brothers sat opposite them, on the other side of the building. As Mary looked round, she could see the minister, whom she knew, opposite the door by which they had entered, standing in a sort of pulpit. Behind him was a table covered with a white cloth, and on this, Mary had been told, were the preparations for the Communion. Near the door were some persons together who were penitents, undergoing some disci- pline for offences. Between them and the congrega- tion were some converts who were not yet baptized. The service began with a simple hymn, and Mary was glad to find that she could join in it, — for it was one they were used to sing at home. The minister then read from the Old Testament and from the New ; and, a part of the time, a younger person, called a reader, read the Scripture. When he came to the passage from the Gospel, he said, "Stand up, — the Gospel will now be read," and began with the words, " Thus saith the Lord." All the people stood while the Gospel was read. Then the minister said to the people, " Peace be with you," and delivered a sermon to them on the Gospel which had been read. And it would happen sometimes that other brethren would speak also. If they had a letter from another church, A. D. 202-250.] CATECHIZING. 67 it was read to the people. While this service went on, the speaker sat down, and the audience stood. For this was the custom in Africa, — as the speaker's sit- ting was in Palestine.* At the end of the sermon, one of the officers of the church bade all faithless to retire. Then the minister offered a very short prayer, as nearly as possible in the w^ords of Scripture. He prayed for all the believers, — for the young persons who were learning the doctrines, and had not been baptized, — for the penitents who were passing through any discipline. As these last were spoken of, they left the church quietly ; and those of the congregation remained for the service of Com- munion. Mary partook with her mother in this service. All young people did, who had been baptized and educated in the Christian religion. Yet she did not the less o-o, at the proper times, to be catechized. Here she met with many who had not been baptized, who had only lately been interested in the persecuted faith. There were some persons quite old, whom the deacons and the minister instructed with her, in the simple lessons which were necessary before their baptism. Mary had learned all of these at home. They were the ten com- mandments, a creed which the minister explained to them,t and the Lord's prayer. After the converts had learned these, and seemed * See Luke iv. 20, 21. t What particular form the church in this toAvn in Numidia used, cannot be told. But it could not liave been unlike that which is known as the Apostles' Creed. 68 MARY OF NUMIDIA. [a. D. 202-250. to understand and really believe them, they were bap- tized, and afterwards took their place with the congre- gation. Before they parted, at the end of the service, they all said, — " To God the Father, and his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, be honor and might for ever and ever. Amen." The service of the Communion varied but little from the forms common now. The oldest description we have of it — of a hundred years before Mary's time — will show probably quite nearly what it was then. " After prayer," says Justin Martyr, '' bread, wine, and water are brought in. The president of the meet- ing again prays according to his ability, and gives thanks, to which the people respond. Amen. After this, the bread, wine, and water are distributed to those present, and the deacons carry portions to such as are necessarily detained from the meeting. Those who are able and willing contribute what they please in money, which is given to the president of the meeting, and is appropriated to the support of widows and or- phans, the sick, the poor, and whomsoever is neces- sitous." Frequently, when there was an opportunity, they met on week-days for religious services, of which the forms varied, more or less, from these we have de- scribed. Singing was an important part of their exer- cises. They sang such simple hymns as we have spoken of, and Psalms from the Jewish Psalms. The love-feast, a feast where none but Christians came, and A. D. 202-250.] HER BOY MARION. 69 which was accompanied by religious services, was one of these social meetings. In such a simple life must this young Christian girl have^ grown up. With an account of the form of her marriage, and one sad story of her life, we will close this chapter. She was to marry a Christian. Now, though a legal marriage could be made without the presence of the priest, this never was permitted among Christians. When Mary was married, she and the young man who was to be her husband went to the church wearing wreaths of flowers, Mary wearing a veil, and having on her finger the gold betrothal-ring which he had put there the day of their public espousal. They carried with them an offering for the poor ; they then partook together of the Lord's Supper, and ihe minister asked a blessing. There must have been a groomsman, for that is a very early custom ; — the deaconesses were present too, with their other friends. The bride and bridegroom joined hands, as the pastor blessed them ; — they kissed each other, — and he pronounced them one. From such a union they went forth to a life whose close we know to have been more bleak and sad than we have supposed its opening. Among their children was a boy whom they named Marion, in memory of his mother's name. He grew up devoted to the faith into which he was born and baptized. He, too, was early taught to read in the Scriptures, and so well did he read, that as he grew up he was appointed one of the readers in their church ; who read sometimes alternately with their bishop or 70 MARION. [a. d. 202-250. minister, and sometimes alone. A great pleasure this to Mary, to see her boy growing up to be really of use in that service of God which she loved. We do not know how old young Marion was when made a reader, but boys of tender age were sometimes appointed to that office. He must have been still young when the minister, whose name is lost, started once upon a jour- ney, and took with him Marion and one of the deacons, whose name was James. They stopped one night at a place called Muguas, near where the city of Constan- tine now stands, in Algeria. Unfortunately, it proved that the people and Roman officers here were carrying on a bitter persecution. They had even seized on some persons who w^ere there in banishment from their old homes, and had tried and punished them for their Chris- tianity. Here the " stationaries," as the governor's deputies were called, suspecting our travellers to be Christians, seized them, and hurried them off to prison to be tried. The old narrative of their fate is told with a simplicity which seems to show that, as it professes, some friend wrote it. They were examined by torture, hung by their thumbs only in the air, with heavy weights fastened to their feet, and then thrown into prison. Marion slept soundly, says the simple story, — and it goes on to tell what each of them dreamed. He dreamed that he was led up a great many steps upon the scaffold where the governor was to try them, as he supposed. On each side were lines of faithful con- fessors, whom he knew were to be beheaded. At last he heard them cry, " Call Marion." " I mounted the A. D. 202-250.] Marion's dream. 71 scaffold," he said, in telling his dream in the morning, " and there was amazed* to see Cyprian seated on the right hand of the judge." Cyprian was the Bishop of Carthage, who had suffered martyrdom a short time before. " Cyprian," continued Marion, " held out his hand, lifted me to the highest seat, and said to me, smiling, ' Come, sit with me.' Then I sat with them while all the others were called for. Then the judge rose, and we accompanied him to his judgment-hall, walking through an agreeable meadow, surrounded with beautiful thick green trees, among which were some cypresses which rose to the sky, so that we could only see the wood all around the meadow. In the middle of it was a very large fountain of the purest water. All of a sudden the judge disappeared ; and Cyprian took a vase, which was by the side of the fountain, and filled it and gave it to me. I drank gladly, and as I gave thanks to God, the sound of my voice waked me." The story tells the dreams of some of his fellow- prisoners, — but does not tell as much as we should be glad to know of them or of their previous lives. After some days' imprisonment they were brought out before one of the magistrates. A Christian in the immense mob around them showed so much interest in their fate, that he was seized and joined with them, as they were all dragged before the governor. The journey was long and tedious, and the delay afterwards, from the great number of Christians who were tried, still more long and tedious. At last their turn came. They were sentenced, with all the others who held any office in the Church, to death. 72 CONSTANTINE. [a. D. 273-337. They were led out to die into a valley with hills on both sides, where were crowds looking on. A great number of the Christians were ranged in order, to be beheaded. Their eyes were bandaged, — and they said to those near them, that they saw in vision white horses mounted by riders in white, — recollecting the vision in the book of Revelation. Marion said aloud, that vengeance would come for their innocent blood, and that plague, pestilence, and famine would ravage the world. These were their last words before they were beheaded. And his mother Mary was there. They had sent for her that she might be near him. When she saw him dead, she thanked God that she had given birth to such a son, embraced his lifeless body, and kissed it again and again. And thus closes the very little that we know of her , and of him. CHAPTER VI. CONSTANTINE. In the year 273, not many years after the death of Marion, in a province of the immense Roman Em- pire far distant from Numidia, there was born, in a village called Naissus, a child whose parents called him Constantine. His father was a brave soldier, named Constantius, of noble descent. His mother was the daughter of an innkeeper. Her name was Helena. A. D. 273-337.] THE YOUNG SOLDIER. 73 Neither his father nor mother were Christians. They would hardly have been able to tell, perhaps, what their religion was. They did not carry their child to bap- tism therefore, — they did not send him to be trained in the Christian schools, — and he could only have at- tended Christian worship as those did who went to look on, but were not believers. He did not care much for books or study, and in his boyhood had not many op- portunities for learning. For his father and mother went to different regions as the army moved, and, very naturally, the son of a soldier grew up with more love of adventure and battle than of books. He was a finely formed young man, and well trained in the exercises of the camp. When he was old enough he became a soldier himself. He rose in rank very fast, for this was about the time when his father was promoted to the dignity of " CcBsar,'''' which made him only next to the two Emperors. The young man was pleasant in his bearing, — tall and of fine figure, — always temperate in the pursuit of pleasures, and so successful a soldier that he was a favorite with his fel- low-soldiers and the people. He did not serve in the armies which his father com- manded. They were in Gaul, the region we know as France. The jealousy of the Emperor Diocletian, who was unwilling, perhaps, that such a father and such a son should be near each other, — and of Galerius, who was also a " Ccesar^'''' — kept him quite in the east of the Empire, while his father was quite in the west. There he fought in wars in Egypt, and against the Parthians. He was a prince of such promise, that Ga- NO. VIII. 7 74 CONSTANTINE. [a. D. 273-337. lerius dreaded his joining his father, and exposed him to different dangers, in the hope that he might lose his life. He sent him once into a conflict with a lion, where Constantino got the better of his savage adver- sary. Another such cowardly attempt gave him the opportunity in which he joined his father. He was in a battle in Parthia, and having overcome one of the enemy''s heroes he dragged him, as he rode, by the very hair of his head, to Galerius to beg for life. The Ccesar replied by bidding him make a difficult charge through a morass on the enemy. This the young sol- dier did, opened a way for the Roman troops, and came back victorious. Galerius affected to rejoice at his vic- tpry. He told him to prepare to go the next morning to his father in Gaul, who was sick and had sent for him. Constantine knew that he meant to give orders to have him arrested on the way, and therefore set out instantly. Galerius, as soon as he waked the next morning, did give the orders for the arrest, but his young rival was quite beyond his power. He travelled with the government post-horses as quickly as possible across Europe, and overtook his father just as he was crossing into Britain. His father had been lately pro- claimed " Augustus," a higher rank than that of " Cae- sar." In this island, now so well known to the world, they achieved a victory over some insurgent Caledonians. And there Constantius died, and his son Constantine was proclaimed his successor by the soldiers. So that he became, when thirty-two years old, the " Augus- tus " or Emperor of the West. A. D. 273-337.] THE CHURCH PILLAGED. 75 This was in the year 308. Now at this very time the Christians, in ahnost all parts of the world, were suffering under the most wide-spread and terrible per- secution they had ever known. It began in Nicomedia, a city where the Emperor now lived, for they had de- serted Rome. Nicomedia was in Bithynia, of whose eager Christianity we have already seen something.* It was the city which Pliny tried to save from fire when he was governor of that province. In this city the Christians had a beautiful and costly church. It stood on a high hill, overlooking most of the town and the Emperor's palace. To their dismay, one morning, by the Emperor's own command, it was entered by the officers of the court. The pagans, to their astonish- ment, found no statue there of the Deity worshipped. But they seized the Holy Scriptures and burned them, and the soldiers plundered whatever they could find in the building. They wanted to burn it, but the Emperor was afraid lest the flames should spread to the palace, and commanded that it should be pulled down ; and the poor Christians saw in a few hours their church de- stroyed. Thus publicly did the Emperor and his " Cse- sar " Galerius show that they had begun in earnest a new career against the Christians. The next day an edict against them was published. It was the most severe ever issued against them. All their churches were to be destroyed, and their Scriptures were to be burned. They were degraded from all office and rank, and no assemblies for worship were to be permitted. * In Chapter III. 76 CONSTANTINE. [a.d. 273-337 Only a few weeks after, the Emperor's splendid pal- ace in Nicomedia was destroyed by fire. It is a little curious that that old want of a fire department, or of the hook and ladder company which Pliny asked for, should last so long, and have such fatal consequences. The fire was at once charged on the Christians. The per- secution was all the more bitterly carried out in conse- quence. In almost all other parts of the Empire it was enforced with care, so that it became the most general persecution ever known. It began while Constantius still lived. He only, of the Roman princes, delayed its execution, as far as he could, in the provinces under his direction. The effort to destroy the Christian books was the most cunningly devised of all. But it proved inefTectual, though great numbers of books which we now long for were destroyed in obedience to it. So numerous were the Christians now, however, and in so many places of trust, that this no longer seemed the persecution of a few slaves or insignificant people, — a movement of no consequence to persons of influence. It was a real civil war in the very heart of every city and country in the civilized world. There were Christians enough in the army, to have become there a very serious matter. It made the troops in some quarters very loth to serve such Emperors. And the unwillingness with which Constantius carried it out in Gaul endeared him in the same proportion to the troops under him. The Christian Church did not in the least dimmish under these distressing sufferings. Persecution has never weakened it. And at this time there can be no A. D. 273-337.] GALERIUS HUMILIATED. 77 doubt that so much luxury had come into it, and so many contentions, and so much pride and personal am- bition, in consequence of luxury, that such a discipline greatly improved it in morals and dignity. Such was the state of affairs in the Church and in the Empire, when Constantino became Emperor, or " Augustus," with the rule of all those parts of Europe which we know as Great Britain, France, Holland, Bel- gium, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal. He showed no desire for the extension of his empire. A dissolute prince, named Maxentius, ruled Italy and Africa. Max- imin ruled Egypt and Syria, and the Emperor Galerius was the lord of the rest of the Roman world. All these, except Constantino, kept up the severity of the new de- cree against the Christians for eight long years. But in 311 the cruel Galerius fell sick of a disgusting and terrible disorder. He got no relief. He found he must die. And then, in the agonies of his disease, reviewing his cruelties, he hoped to conciliate the God of the Christians, whom he so feared he might meet in judg- ment, by withdrawing at the last the fatal instrument under which they had so suffered. From his death-bed he issued an edict, which apologized for the past sever- ities against the Christians, permitted the free exercise of the Christian religion, — on the ground that it was better than none. " Let them be Christians as before," says the humiliated Emperor, conquered by the long en- durance of his enemies ; and he ended with these touch- ing words : " In using the grace which we bestow, they will be obliged to pray God for our health, for the state, and for themselves." A letter a few days after, provid- 7* 78 CONSTANTINE. [a. D. 273- 337. ing for the execution of this edict, says, that " the Em- perors make this grant, impelled by their natural good- ness and piety, since it has been proved now, by long experience, that there is no means of persuading the Christians, or curing them from their obstinacy." Such a triumph had the Church after its hardest trial. So true did it prove that they who endured to the end should be saved. There had been no insurrection, m this long persecution ; no effort to meet force with force. There had been willing martyrdom, there had been flight, so that the kingdom of Armenia, east of the Ro- man Empire, was made Christian by the emigration, and gained the glory of being the first Christian kingdom in the world. There had been crowded prisons; there had been untold suffering in private ; but no battles, no sedi- tions, — and here was the victory ! Everywhere where the edict was proclaimed, the prisons were thrown open, and the laborers sentenced to the mines returned to their homes. Everywhere, in long processions, the Christians hastened to visit the loved spots where their churches had been destroyed. The number of confes- sors, who had been compelled to keep secret, amazed tlieir enemies ; and the novelty of toleration called forth from the Church more demonstrations o^ its faith than ever. The dissolute Maxentius was, meanwhile, losing all his popularity in Rome. He had been another Nero there in his lust and tyranny. He was the only gov- ernor of the Roman world who had dared resist the edict of toleration. The Popes say that he condemned Mar- cellus, the Bishop of Rome in his time, to sweep his sta- A. D. 273-337.] THE SIGN IN THE SKY. 79 ble, as his groom. But it mattered little which side he took between the Christians and the heathen. Constan- tine had been called into Italy from Gaul, by the op- pressed people. Constantino, for the first time since he was Emperor, left his own province, crossed the Alps, and marched down into Italy. Maxentius affected not to fear him. One of his generals was to oppose him near Verona. And Maxentius consulted the books of the Sibyls to know the result. The answer was, " The enemy of the Romans shall conquer " ; an answer which told but little, as each army was a Roman army His general was beaten. Maxentius marched out with his own army from Rome, and posted them on the other side of the river Tiber. Constantino, with his faithful troops, rejoiced to see them there, for he had dreaded the necessity of a siege. He was completely success- ful in the battle which followed. Maxentius's troops were routed, and he was killed. Constantino entered Rome in triumph, and added the dominions of Maxen- tius to his own. A long time after this victory of Constantino's, there was told this story of it, which was not, however, invent- ed till long after. It is said that Constantino, doubting which of the different faiths in the world he should choose, prayed God to guide him. And suddenly, " As he marched with his army, just after noon, the sun be- ginning to go down, the sign of a cross in light ap- peared in the sky, above the sun, with the inscription ' Conquer by this.' He and all the soldiers who were with him in that march saw this, and were greatly amazed." He did not know, the story says, what this 80 CONSTANTINE. [a. d. 273 - 337. meant. Night came on. " Then the Christ of God appeared to him with that sign which was shown to him in the sky, and ordered him to make a mihtary stand- ard hke that which he had seen in the heavens, and to use it as a safe talisman in his battles." The story thus told is an invention. It would have been the first time and the last that Jesus offered him- self to lead battles, were it true. He seeks, as has been said of this matter, to make us unwarlike, and not to give us war-cries. But it is true that Constantino made such a banner, and this was long preserved as the sa- cred banner of the Empire. It was a cross with the letters of the name of Christ curiously united on the top of it, and a purple banner fastened to it. It was called the Laharum^ and often led the Emperors' troops to victory. Nor can we doubt that Constantino, as he saw more and more of Christian constancy, and knew more and more of the Redeemer, was almost persuaded to be a Chris- tian, as many men in circumstances like his have been. That is, his reason was satisfied that the cross was the only sign by which one could really conquer ; but his own selfishness was not subdued, nor his heart touched, so that he should really conquer by it ; — conquer him- self first, and so all obstacles before him. As different writers tell the story, different places are assigned for the vision. It was probably before he entered Rome that he made and first used the Labarum. After his conquest of Maxentius he joined Licinius, then Csesar in the East, and they two together issued an edict of complete toleration to all Christians everywhere. They even recalled the little clauses which had been left ii. D.273-337.] SUNDAY. 81 in Galerius's decrees, which required the Christians "not to offend law"; — vague clauses, which might have been made dangerous to them. Constantine did not profess Christianity. But he gave this entire tolerance to all religionists. He had always been, as far as he had any religion, a heathen, reverencing Apollo par- ticularly as the messenger from the Most High. Hea- thenism had its fashions, and this worship of Apollo was its fashion just then. It probably had an Egyptian ori- gin. For the Egyptians recognized the sun as the em- blem of their Amoun, the first representative of the Su- preme. The Christian bishops of the day, eager to con- vert Constantine, used to try to show him that his Apol- lo was in fact their Christ. The young soldier, who be- gan life generous, but prudent, had grown more cunning as he grew older. He played with the bishops ; he used to converse with them, go to church with them, talk Christianity with them, and all the time he was measur- ing the weight of the Christian influence in the state. He found it was very strong. The Christians were a minority probably. But they were a united minority. And a united minority always prevails against a divided majority. Constantine was satisfied that they were the powerful party. He did not submit himself to the Gos- pel, but he gradually gave to the state the Christian name. The bishops, alas ! over-estimated the worth of his alliance. They bent to meet him. As j^ears passed on, more and more favorable edicts and state arrano^e- ments befriended the Christians, and called them into places of power. One very singular one made Sun-da.y observed through the Empire, as a day when no public 82 CONSTANTINE. [a. d. 273 - 337. duties were to be done. But no Christian character was given to the decree. It was as Sim day, and not as the resurrection day, that it was thus honored. So eagerly did the cunning Emperor win two parties at once ; the Christians by the gift, — the heathen by its name. A decisive victory made Constantine sole Emperor ; and now, twelve years after his first edict of toleration, he felt strong enough to proclaim Christianity the religion of the Empire. And he sits now, president of Christian councils, called to settle the dissensions of Christian churches. He builds Constantinople. He ornaments it, not with pagan temples, but with beautiful Christian churches. But so little of the Redeemer's spirit was in this great prince, that in the midst of such professions he killed his son, a fine young man, of great service to the state and to his father, because jealous of his popularity. He killed then, in some wild impulse, his own wife Fausta, the mother of his surviving children. Bloody battles were at an end for him, for he was ruler of the world. But the Christians, no longer persecuted, were wrangling with each other. Every sort of dissension was among them, and the Emperor found himself called upon as eagerly as even when he was charging the Parthians when a boy. He was better fitted for that duty than for this. The question whether Jesus were the Infinite God was up now for the first time as a matter of con- test. The older Christians had never stated their opin- ion with a controversial zeal upon it. Now it divided the Church to its centre. And the Church was so won by the mockery of being called the "state religion, that A. D. 273 - 337.] A CHRISTIAN EMPEROR ! 83 Christian men, ministers even, bishops even, were will- ing to call in a cunning statesman like Constantino, his hands reeking with the blood of his own household, his heart haunted by remorse, to be the arbiter of such a question ! While they so threw away self-respect, wc must be grateful that Constantino himself saved the Church from the disgrace of owning him as a Christian. He would not all this time consent to be baptized. On this great question he was now on one side, now on the other, as the balance of parties might turn. Now one was up, and now the other, and the Emperor's smile, which guided the changes in part, was guided by them all the while. This great controversy lasted for centu- ries. Arius was the leader of those who thought Jesus was not God. Athanasius led those who maintained that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were three persons, but one God. From their names, this is called the Arian and Athanasian contro- versy. And at last Constantino found that he must die. Then first he sent to the bishops and bade them baptize him. He put off the imperial purple, to put on the white robe of the baptized, and never wore the purple again. In that white dress, a few hours after, he died. Constantino is generally called the first Christian Emperor. Little hope for Emperors would there be, if none of them were more Christian than he. Under his reign it is generally said that the Christian religion triumphed over the pagan system. But such a triumph ! The Church lost all the surety it had had of sincerity in its converts. It gained immense accessions, because 84 CONSTANTINE. [a. D. 273 - 337. now it was worth while for selfish men to join it, as eagerly as they had shunned it before. Its humble of- fices had been posts of honor, because posts of danger ; now they were posts of honor because they had patron- age and wealth to dispense. From that time to our time, the Christian Church has been tangled up with webs of state policy and intrigue. Men of personal ambition have sought its offices as they might seek those in an army. Cardinals and bishops have shown the same spirit as senators or generals in their quest for power. The victory which led to such results cannot be compared with that victory of patient endurance which won from the dying Galerius the edict of tolera- tion, and gave the persecuted believers an even right with all other worshippers, or with all who worshipped not, before the law. That fair field is the field where the Church is most sure of her triumphs. For in that her children are least selfish ; and her enemies are left to contend, unassisted, against the arm of Eternal Truth, which is invincible, if we leave it to itself, unfettered when it seems unaided. A. D. 331-363.] CHAPTER VII. JULIAN. Six years before the death of Constaiitine, his nephew Julian was born. This is the prince who is generally known as Julian the Apostate. His history is interest- ing, because it was well told by all parties who sur- rounded him. It has not, indeed, the real importance, in the history of Christianity, which has sometimes been ascribed to it. But still, a sketch of his short life will answer our purpose here, by showing the real position and the real strength of the Christian Church and its enemies in Constantino's days and his successors'. Julian's earliest memories, almost, were of cruelty and danger. He was but six years old when the Em- peror Constantino died, and the new Emperor, Constan- tius, then showed his fear of other heirs to the throne, by putting to death at once almost all his relatives. Among those who thus suffered were .Julian's father and his elder brother. Of course he could not have formed a very high idea of the Christianity of the prince who could be guilty of such a crime. The little boy had but one brother left, Gallus, who was of feeble body ; and they two were spared only on account of their weakness. Since his birth he had been separated from his mother, and now was sent with his brother to a re- tired province, where they were brought up in the most entire seclusion. His education was intrusted to the oversight of the Bishop Eusebius ; but although the boy NO. VIII. 8 JULIAN. [a. D. 331-303. was food of learning, he liad no great respect or regard for the bishop. He did turn with real aflection to a faithful slave, Mardonius, who had always been with him, and taken care of him. Mardonius, like many of the slaves of those times, was a thoroughly educated scholar, — learned m the ancient literature of Greece. He became therefore really Julian's tutor, directed his studies, and was de- lighted to guide him in the old mythology, as he read with delight the poems of Homer, always delightful. But Mardonius, whether he owned it or not, was no Christian. As the young Julian read of gods and goddesses on Olympus, or fighting on the plains of Troy, and of their descendants, the heroes of Homer's poems, ]\Iardonius took pains to explain to him his no- tion of these things ; to give him as clear an idea as possible of the old mythology, and to make him love the old gods, whom his uncle Constantino had deserted. Julian, meanwhile, was instructed by his Christian teachers in the history of the Christian faith. But their own faith was not high or ardent. They loved their religion because it was the religion of the Emperor, — ■ and they did not examine very closely the sincerity of Julian or of his brother. Nor, indeed, is it probable that, as a boy, .Julian questioned his own faith very severely. Sometimes he had dreams, which he has related, which he thought visions from the gods. But none the less was he eager to learn ; — a bright, ready boy, who had not yet come to the age of careful in- quiry or criticism. He learned from Mardonius of the rireek gods, therefore, and from his other teachers of A. D. 331-3(33.] A READER IN CHURCH. 87 Jesus and of the Bible. And while believing still in these visions, none the less was he willing to be bap- tized as a Christian. And before he was twenty, he was so carefully educated as one, that he became a public reader of the Bible in the church of Nicomedia. He is another instance of those who, so young in life, have had the most important influence in history. By this time a habit of concealment and double deal- ing began with him. Because Christianity, or what was called so, was the religion of the court, paganism and polytheism were, of course, studied somewhat by stealth, though scarcely prosecuted openly. Julian's interest in Homer and Homer's heroes, and a love he had for show and curious studies, became well known to the teachers and professors of the old religions. Poor Ju- lian, meanwhile, had no great reason to love Christianity for its fruits. For the Christian Emperor, as Constan- tius chose to call himself, was always jealous of him, sending him back and forth from one province to an- other ; sometimes keeping him at court to have him under his, own eye, — and then sending him away, be- cause afraid of his popularity there. It was in this way that he was sent to Nicomedia, where they made him, as we have said, a reader in the church ; too proud, perhaps, to have the Emperor's nephew to serve the Church, to stop to ask questions as to the sincerity of his faith. Now Nicomedia was a city where learned men of all Asia Minor met together. And it soon happened to the young prince, more eager for study, as he was, than for any thing beside, to hear of the fine-drawn discus- 88 JULIAN. [a. D. 331-363. sions of the heathen philosophers, about the heathen mysteries. One of these men, talking to him one day, warned him against another, Majjmus, who taught magic, and came at his learning by a royal road. Ju- lian took the warning as it was not meant. " You may stay here with your books," he said, " that is the very man I want." And he went at once to Maximus, an ingenious, learned man, who acquired at once a great influence over him. For Julian was quick, — a hard student, imagina- tive, easily ex-cited, conceited, and. energetic. He had the feeling which all young men of twenty have, if they have any power, and which it must be hoped they always will have, — that he could mend the order of things as he saw it all around him. The same feeling might have been led to magnificent results for Chris- tianity and the world. It was seized upon by the heathen philosophers. They interested him in their secret societies. They showed him the exciting won- ders of their magic and worship. So they won upon him, that, while still in pretence a Christian, he was initiated into their own secret rites as one of themselves. The form of heathenism which he particularly pro- fessed for his own was, as Constantine's was, the wor- ship of the Sun. As we have said, it was the form which grew out of a favorite statement of the Egyp- tian priests. Julian's description of the vision in which he thus selected Apollo, or was selected by him, is this : — " He [Julian] fell into a sleep or trance ; and he be- held The Sun himself, the invisible god, of whom the A. D. 331-363.] HE IS MADE AUGUSTUS. 89 sun in the heavens is the visible symbol. Beside him- self at this sight, the young man spake thus, ' To thee, O father of the gods, I henceforth entirely devote my- self, in gratitude for all this which thou hast shown me.' Clinging with his hands to the knees of the Sun, he be- sought him to take him into his protection." Julian thus adopted the Sun, as Constantino had, as his tutelar god ; just as our native Indians each has his " Medicine." But he had to conceal his avowal of the old faith. Doubtless the concealment gave it half its charm. In a year or two more he was ordered to the army in Gaul. There he showed his real talents, which were those of a consummate general. He gained the love of the troops. He chastised the barbarians. He re- built fortifications and cities. He set every thing in ex- cellent order, though he had found all things in confu- sion. Sometimes he sacrificed fifty oxen to the gods, — but in general he kept up the pretence of Christian wor- ship. He kept up his studies all the time. There are accounts which he wrote of the Germans whom he had to fight, which are among our most curious notices of the early history of that remarkable people. In the midst of this success the Emperor sent for some of his chosen troops to go east to him, to fight against the Persians. The troops rebelled, refused to go ; crowned Julian as their " Augustus," and pro- claimed him so. When the Emperor heard of this, he sent threats to his cousin, and bade him lay down his dignity. Julian replied by a masterly march, — which Napoleon never surpassed, — at the head of a chosen 90 JULIAN. [a. D. 331-363. army, through unknown forests, over unbridged rivers, to the Danube. He sailed quickly down that stream, defeated the forces he surprised there, and was ad- vancing against Constantinople and the Emperor, when the Emperor died, and left to Julian an undisputed throne. As late as the feast of Epiphany of that year, he had thought fit to attend Christian worship ; but as soon as he became a rebel, he became an apostate. He offered public sacrifices to Jupiter and the other gods, — had the old omens consulted in the old way, — and, as he marched, restored the ancient worship, to the great joy of all those, Jew or gentile, who hated the Christian name. As soon as he arrived. Emperor, at Constantinople, he ordered that temples should be opened for the gods. In a proclamation he made all religions lawful ; but it was known what his views were, and of what religion those must be who wanted the Emperor's favor. And so the Christian churches lost a vast number of their pretended friends, quite as fast as they had gained them. Julian was now thirty years old. From this time to his death is not two years. But he crowded those two years full. He reestablished the pagan worship every- where. He exhausted the treasury, and taxed the Christians, to rebuild the deserted temples. He fairly bought worshippers. He had to do so, for it proved, as it always proves in such cases, that those who wel- comed the destruction of one faith were not all so eager to assist at the incoming of another. The army, however, readily acknowledged the renewal of the old A. D. 331-363.] AroLLo's goose. 91 services. For, every time when Julian's faith offered a hundred oxen in sacrifice, the soldiers surrounding the rites had the flesh of these oxen to feast upon, and they patronized a system which brought to them such feasting. Priests were found to undertake the services thus renewed. And Julian, almost the only man in earnest in this mummery, exerted himself with amaz- ing zeal to put life into the system he had made. But, alas for him ! the world never goes backward. It was all a wretched farce that they were enacting. For instance, when Julian came to the splendid tern- pie of his patron god, Apollo, near Antioch, — where he had spent large sums to refit its old beauties, — he found, to his amazement, no festival, no troops of worshippers. He called the senate of Antioch together, and thus de- scribed his disappointment : — "I had pictured to myself the festive processions, I imagined the victims and the holy choirs, the rows of youths attuning their voices in honor of the god, and dressed in garments of dazzling whiteness. But when I entered the grove I saw no burning of incense, no wafer cakes, no victims. I was amazed. I inquired of the priest, ' What offering does the city bring to-day in honor of the annual festi- val of the god t ' And he replied, ' I bring from my own house a goose, as an offering to Apollo ; but the city has prepared nothing for him.' " The rebuke which he then delivers to the men of Antioch shows that, in all their degeneracy, they were not wholly un- worthy the place where the disciples of Jesus were first called Christians. " Every one of you," he says, " al- lows his wife to give ail she has to the Galileans (or 92 JULIAN. [a. D. :]31-363. Christians) ; you support the poor among them by your goods ; and thereby promote the spread of atheism among the people. You give large and splendid enter- tainments on your oion birthdays, and yet no one brings even a little oil for the lamps at Apollo's festival, now after so long an interval revived, nor the smallest of- fering for the god." This took place while Julian was starting on his great expedition against Persia. At the same time, by way of irritating the Christians to the utmost, he undertook the building of a great Jewish temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, which should eclipse the grandeur of the Christian church already erected on Mount Calvary. He meant to restore there the Jewish nation and priesthood. Now Jerusalem was already a centre for the travels of Christian pilgrims from every land. He could have hit on no better way to excite and enrage the Christians. They were delighted in the same proportion, therefore, when, by every means, his workmen were disconcerted. Ammian, the historian, without carefully examining the circumstances perhaps, says the masons were fairly driven from their work by the balls of fire which broke out from the hill. These discouragements, the uni- versal hatred with which the great Christian population of the city regarded the work, and the death of Julian, put an end to the enterprise. Julian was killed in a skirmish in Persia, after he had advanced successfully to a great distance against Sapor, the Persian emperor. With the new reign of Jovian, the Christian religion was again proclaimed as the religion of the court. Meanwhile, in Julian's short A. D. 331-363.] A NEW PERSECUTION.' 93 rciiiii, it had been threatened with some persecution, and begun to experience it. True, he had professed toler- ation. But he really hated the Galileans, as he called the Christians, and at every turn he showed his hatred. He began by compelling officers of the Christian Church to resume the duties of petty burdensome offices, from which they had been exempt, while he banished them from honorable office in the state. He went on to tax their communities especially. A mob called Christian was always punished. But if a mob killed a bishop, it escaped Julian's anger. Perhaps the Christian Church would gladly have tempted him to greater violence. " It knew that its enemy was lost if his prudence aban- doned him." * Its members rushed into excesses. Tliey destroyed temples and altars in their indignation. They considered all Christians as martyrs, whom his courts punished for any offences. And they succeeded in rousing him, if such was their intention. Perhaps it is more fair to say, that such a hatred as he had for their faith could not remain inactive. The history of the last months of his reign is full of horrors, assassi- nations, secret murders of large companies. Nero and )iocletian seemed to live again. But his own speedy death saved the Church from a long catalogue of such listresses. His short reign taught this ; that Constantino's nomi- nal Christianity, and his son Constantius's wicked pre- cnc8 of Christianity, had not won the great mass of the eople to a real faith. They threw it off as easily as they had put it on. * Jules Simon, Life of Julian. 94 JULIAN. [a. II. 331-363. But it taught this also : that there was no deep-seated love of the old faith. The worship which Julian re- established was ridiculous. The old line of faith was broken, and it could not be so patched that the elec- tricity of the old enthusiasm should ever flash along again. It taught this too, even by Julian's own lips, — that though Christianity was disgraced by its nominal ad- herents in the court of Constantius, and worse disgraced by the quarrels of the followers of Arius and Athana- sius, still Christian communities cared for their own poor ; maintained their faith in the face of whatever temptation to abandon it ; and would make no terms with any form of philosophy or idolatry which made to them direct or open proposals for alliance. So far the Church maintained its integrity. NOTE TO CHAPTER VII. Besides general works already named, we commend young readers to Neanders Life of Julian. Translated by Cox. New York* Riker & Co. Dr. Palfrey's Lowell Lecture, No. 13. A. D. 354-430.] THE GOTHS. ' 95 CHAPTER VITL THE GOTHS. AUGUSTINE AND PELAGIUS. In the different scenes and characters of early Chris- tianity at which we have thus far looked, we have had no occasion to leave the wide-spread boundaries of the Roman Empire. This is not because the Apostles or other teachers of Christianity had not passed those boundaries. Some of the Apostles even went into Ar- menia, Parthia, and India. And there are traces to be found of Christian influences at a very early day in those regions. It is thought that there are traces of the return to Abyssinia of the Christian minister of Queen Candace, to whom Philip preached. But the only detailed his- tory which we have of those times comes to us through classical or through Chinese literature. It does not ap- pear that any missionaries had thus early visited China ; and in tracing the history of Christianity, we are con- fined, therefore, to the Roman Empire, — not because there were no Christians beyond its boundaries, but be- cause we have no historians of those who were. Advancing, however, a generation beyond Julian, we come to a time when we meet one of the Christian na- tions which had been converted by missionaries who had left the knovv^n confines of Rome. Faithful men, cross- ing the Danube to the north, into the regions now known as Eastern Germany and Hungary, had converted the Goths to the Christian faith. It was not, indeed, such unselfish, unwarlike, submissive, and gentle Christianity 96 THE GOTHS. [a. D. 354-430. as that of the first centuries. But the Goths were a simple people, not given to metaphysics or to the learn- ing of books, and their Christianity, from this cause and from the earnestness of those who instilled it into them, was of a simpler and more binding character than that which by this time prevailed in the courts or in the camps of the Roman Empire. That Empire was grow- ing weaker every day. Its people had forgotten how to fight, — it was centuries since they had a chance to govern. The Emperor of the West, Honorius, had been Emperor since he was eleven years old. He was a weak prisoner in his palace, in the hands of intriguing courtiers. The most warlike thing he ever did was to practise with arrows at timid deer in his park, and this effort proving too serious, he was most fond of feed- ing chickens. Upon him and his successors, the war- like and simple Goths, under the lead of Alaric, their king, made repeated invasions, with varying success. Sometimes they were defeated. Sometimes they were bought off. Sometimes they were made allies. But at last, in the year 410, Alaric and his army took, and en- tered, the city of Rome. The whole history of the events which led to this capture, and which followed it, is a miserable tissue of conspiracies, and falsehoods, and treachery, and baby- wars. The whole Western Empire, at the last gasp though it was, could not furnish such armies or such generals as one or two provinces would have done in the glorious days of Rome. But this was no evil in itself. The real misery was the cause of this want of power. The Roman Emperors, it is true, pretended, A. D. 354-430.] AUGUSTINE AT SCHOOL. 97 at this very time, to abolish paganism. They made churches of the temples. They put an end to sacri fices. They destroyed old idols of the gods. But the people were none the more Christian. They were li- centious. They were cowardly. They were cruel, and loved still the fights of men with beasts. They were lazy, and lived on rations furnished from the gov- ernment treasuiy. Still they were quarrelsome, and at the choice of a bishop in Rome, its streets ran with blood, which they dared not shed to defend it against Alaric. And so, although this is marked as the time of the final prostration of paganism, it may be marked also as a time of the real prostration of Christianity. Only Christianity knows no final prostration. The bishops and clergy alone seem to have had any power. Emperors had none ; even generals had none. The people had forgot that they ever had any. The bishops, or ministers of the large towns, were already using to the utmost the influence of their position. Their quarrels with each other made a part of the general dis- sension. Their care of the people under them sup- plied in part the want of all other strong administration. Augustine, for more than thirty years bishop of Hip- po in Numidia, lived through seventy-six years of this period of wretched disgrace and confusion. He" was born in Numidia. His mother, a lovely Christian wom- an, whose life is well worth study, may have had some such early training as that of the Mary of Nu- midia whom we have described, who lived a hundred years before. But Augustine's father was a dissolute man, — a pagan till near his death. 98 AUGUSTINE. [a. D. 354-430. Still, under his mother's tender care, he had a Chris- tian training. He went to school much as boys do now. And though he says he was a bad boy there, — and in many things this must be true, — still, then there were pleasant traits, which showed what a mother he had, and what a Father in heaven. " I began then," he says, " O God, to pray to thee ; and I broke the fetters of my tongue to call upon thee, praying, though small, yet with no small earnestness, that I might not be beaten at school." And then he makes a tender plea for boys, — as in his manhood he writes this : that teachers will re- member, that boys fear their torments little less than the martyrs fear theirs, nor pray less, sometimes, to es- cape them. " Will any of sound discretion approve of my being beaten as a boy, because, by playing at ball, I made less progress in my studies ? For he who beat me, if worsted in some trifling discussion with his fellow- tutor, was more bitter and jealous than I when beaten at ball by a playfellow." He loved too much to go to the theatre and the circus, he says ; he hated Greek because it was taught him as a task, while he loved Latin, which he had learned as we learn English, without rule, in the nursery and at home. He says he stole from his parents' cellar and table, enslaved by greediness, or that he might have something to give to boys who sold him their playthings, which all the while they loved no less than he did. And in play, carried away by his eagerness to be first, he sought and took unfair advantages. " But what," he adds, " could I so impatiently endure, or, when I detected it, upbraid so fiercely, as that which I was do- A. D. 354-430.] A BAD BOY. 99 ing to others ; and yet, when I was detected and up- braided, I chose rather to quarrel than to yield." Of all these boyish sins he tells afterwards, saying very truly, that just such sins are transferred from tutors and masters, as boys grow up, to magistrates and kings ; from nuts and balls and sparrows, to gold and manors and slaves, just as the schoolmaster's ferule gives place to severer punishments. They made him feel that the state of childhood which Jesus said was the state of the kingdom of heaven, was not that of new-born infancy ; — and here was a mystery to him, for he was sure he had seen even a new-born child turn pale with anger. When he was sixteen years old, he went away from home to school. And this adventure, which happened there, wanton and mischievous as it is, seems like an account of what might have happened yesterday : — "I stole that of which I had enough, and much better. Nor cared I to enjoy what I stole, but joyed in the theft and sin itself. A pear-tree there was near our vine- yard, laden with fruit, tempting neither for color nor taste. To shake and rob this, some lewd j^oung fellows of us went, late one night (having, according to our wretched custom, prolonged our sports in the streets until then), and took huge loads, not for our eating, but to fling them to the very hogs, having only tasted them. And this we did onjy because we would do that which was not lawful." At this academy, which was at Madaura, he was guilty of worse sins than pear-stealing ; worse, because they showed a premature development of vicious incli- nation. He plunged into licentiousness, and almost 100 AUGUSTINE. [a. d. 354-430. broke his mother's heart by his dissolute behaviour. His account of his hfe there and her grief for it is an account of what has happened to a thousand sons and a thousand mothers. And any one of them, tempted to go on in such a Hfe, may do well to read his account of his. He was a thoroughly bad boy. He was reck- less, sensual, and cruel. But he was bright, of fine powers, and of elegant manner and person. He had been, in his fondness for the theatre, particularly inter- ested in rhetoric. And he left the school at Madaura, and went to the great city of Carthage, partly for the teachers there, but chiefly, as it seems, from the attrac- tions which so large a city offered to a dissipated boy. His father had died. He lived here at first on the allowances he received from his mother. He haunted the theatre, and gave himself more and more to a reck- less life. At nineteen years of age, however, he had somewhat exhausted the novelty of such a career, and a book — the loss of which we now regret — fell in his way, which somewhat weaned him from it. It was " Hor- tensius," by Cicero. It was an exhortation to such philosophy as Cicero knew of, but it lifted poor Augus- tine to a higher learning. " It altered my affections," he says, " and turned my prayers to thyself, O Lord ; and made me have other purposes and desires." He turned to study the Scriptures. But he was still a rhet- orician. Cicero's book had won him, in part at least, by the elegance of its style ; and the severe simplicity of the Gospels, which we so prize, seemed hard to him and bald. So he almost pushed them by. He went to A. D. 354-430.] MANICHEANS. 101 the various teachers of philosophy, and studied with them. Especially was he allured by the Manicheans. We must give some account of the Manicheans, for there are Manicheans in the world to this day, though none who take the name openly. A hundred years before Augustine, a Persian named Mani, studying Christianity and the old Persian belief together, had taught a doc- trine which found many followers. They received this name of Manicheans. It had a wide variety of strange results, but this was its simple beginning; — that all matter is evil from its nature ; that it is under the con- trol of an Evil God, who is constantly at war with the God of Spirit, who is the Good God of the world. Wherever the theory is stated, that because a thing is made of matter it is wicked, there is a bit of Manicheism. Wherever it is supposed that our Father in heaven is contending always with another god, who is seeking to ruin the world and men, there is a bit of Manicheism. Now, with all the brilliant gorgeousness of most Eastern language and ways of thought, these theories were proclaimed and flung upon the world. A certain Faustus, who was perhaps the first Dr. Faustus, was the herald of them in Carthage. Augustine heard him with delight. Such doctrines have always been favorite doctrines with dissolute men. For they say, when they believe such a philosophy, that their flesh as natu- rally tends to sin, as the fire to the sky, or the rain to the ground. They excuse themselves from their sen- suality, on the ground that it is in the nature of things. Poor Augustine's mother was distressed all the more when he called himself a Manichean. But she prayed 9* 102 AUGUSTINE. [a. d. 354-430. on for him. He was now a fashionable teacher of rhetoric. And after some years he resolved to go to Rome. She knew it was the head-quarters of dissipa- tion. It had been for centuries. She begged him not to go. But he deceived her and went. At Rome he was taken sick, and almost died. The sickness gave him a chance for thought. A professorship at Milan, then the court of the Emperor, was offered to him. He accepted the office, and taught rhetoric there with success. He lived there when the great Bishop Am- brose withstood the Emperor and his mother, — who hoped to have one church open to themselves and their Avian friends. Ambrose raised the mob of the city against the Emperor's guards, and, like a bishop of those times, had his way. Augustine used to go to hear Ambrose preach. He meant only to study his manner, it was so fine. But he could not hear the rhetoric without hearing what was said. The earnest bishop's faith took him captive in spite of himself. He was brought at last to see the vanity of his life, — the meanness of his ambition, — how bitterly he had sinned against Heaven and in his Father's eyes. He was still living in open profligacy. But his mother was near him again, hoping for him and praying for him. Some old companions were with him, moved as he had been moved. All together they studied the Gospel. Together he and Alypius confessed to each other the wretched sinfulness of their lives. They studied Paul together. Together they tried the renunciation of their intemper- ate and licentious habits, — but with wavering success. Till one day, in agony of conscience, they left the A. D. 354-430.] IN THE GARDEN. 103 house and walked in the garden, neither speaking to the other. " That I might pour forth wholly a shower of tears in its natural expressions, I rose from Alypius," he says. " Solitude seemed to me fitter for the business of weeping ; so I retired so far that even his presence could not be a burden to me. He understood this, and remained where we were sitting, quite overpowered. 1 cast myself down, I know not how, under a certain fig-tree, giving full vent to my tears ; and the floods of mine eyes gushed out, an acceptable sacrifice to thee, Lord. And not indeed in these words, yet to this purpose, spoke I much unto thee. ' And thou, O Lord, how long ? how long. Lord ? wilt thou be angry for ever .'' Remember not our former iniquities,' for I felt that I was held by them. I sent up these sorrowful words : ' How long ? how long ? to-morrow and to-mor- row ? Why not now ? why this hour is there not an end to my uncleanness ? ' " So was I speaking, and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when lo ! I heard from a neigh- boring house a voice, as of boy or girl, I know not, chanting, and oft repeating, ' Take up and read ; take up and read.' Instantly my countenance altered ; I be- gan to think most intently whether children were wont in any kind of play to sing such words ; nor could I remember ever to have heard the like. So, checking the torrent of my tears, I arose ; interpreting it to be no other than a command from God, to open the book, and read the first chapter I should find. Eagerly then 1 returned to the place where Alypius was sitting; for there had I laid the volume of the Apostle when I arose 104 AUGUSTINE AND PELAGIUS. [a. D. 354-430. thence. I seized, opened, and in silence read tha't section on which my eyes first fell : ' Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying ; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in concu- piscence.' No further would I read ; nor needed I : for instantly, at the end of the sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the dark- ness of doubt vanished away." From that moment his resolutions held. He kept them. He gave up his old lusts. He studied the Bible, and was baptized with his companions. His mother died happy. And he returned to Africa, — having given up his duties in Milan. In Africa he became first an elder, and then the chief bishop of the church in Hippo, — at that time the chief city in Numidia. He preached eloquently, and wrote learnedly. He administered the church affairs firmly, and compelled the people to obey. And he died at last in his seventy- seventh year, at Hippo, while the Goth Genseric was besieging the town. We have a great many of his sermons, his writings, and his private letters. It is very curious to see from them the private customs of the times, — of people, of the churches, of trade, of religion, and of politics. For these we have no room here ; and must close this chap- ter by some account of his great battle of books, where^ for the time, he won the victory over the British priest, Pelagius. Pelagius means "of the sea"; and Pelagius's name untranslated was Morgan, which in the old British Ian- A. D. 354-430.] THEIR CONTROVERSY. 105 guage means the same. Not many years after Au-. gustine became bishop, Morgan, or Pelagius, came to Rome, and his preaching attracted interest there. From that time, ahTiost till he died, he and his followers were in contest with Augustine about human nature, and the ways of its redemption. Augustine thought of man kind what any being would have thought who had never seen any man but Augustine. He thought that in child- hood, from birth, they were desperately wicked. He thought they had no power to help themselves from this wickedness. And he thought that God did not mean to give his favor alike to each man, but selected some vv^hom he would save by a miracle, — as Augustine felt he was saved by the voice which bade him take up and read. Pelagius held none of these doctrines. He was charged with heresy because he held that Adam's fall only affected himself ; that all men were born as pure as Adam was born, and, if they used their facul- ties rightly, might remain so, — for that God helped each man, always, and from the beginning of his life. Starting from such opposite grounds, these two heroes of the Church led on armies of disputants on either side. For once the people did not mix in the contro- versy, it is said, although they did not understand it. But priests and students, in all the countries round the Mediterranean, engaged in it. At last they seduced the poor, weak Honorius to stop from his chicken-feed- ing long enough to pronounce an anathema, the most bitter curse, on Pelagius and his followers. This was in 420 ; but Pelagius lived till 450, and never abandoned 106 AUGUSTINE AND PELAGIUS. [a. D, 854-430. his views, — which have remained, indeed, in one branch o|" the Church or another from that day to this. And the Catholic Church has long since embraced the doc- trine it then cursed. We do not enter here upon the details of the contro- versy. It has been alluded to in another volume of this series. We can only say here that the controversj'- has never died, and never will. Men of different sorts of temper and mind will accept different views in this matter. At this day it divides almost every h6dy of Christians within itself. It is worthy of remark, as more than a curious coincidence, that the scholar whose own bitter experience led him in this controversy to deny man's freedom, and to bind him so closely as Augustine bound him, is of Africa, — the land which never knew what free institutions were, — in politics, in society, or in religion ; the land whose hot sun has always shone upon impulsive races, which were will- ing, in Egypt, in Carthage, in Numidia, or in Ethio- pia, to be slaves ; — and, on the other hand, the scholar who maintained men's equality before God, and the freedom of their will, was from Britain, — the land which from the beginning has been impatient of power, and was in the earliest days called the land of rebels ; the land whose climate, whose seas, and whose for- ests had taught her, before her written history began, something of the lesson she has since taught the world, — of the worth of freedom, — freedom to the separate man, — the lesson of the strength of the individual will, and of that self-reliance which relies upon self because it knows that so best it gains the alliance of our God. A. D. 414-453.] RELIGION IN THE PALACE. 107 CHAPTER IX. RELIGION IN THE PALACE. PULCHEKIA AND EUDOCIA. We have spoken with great contempt of the quality of the Christianity of the court after Constantino made Christianity the rehgion of the state. It was impossible to do otherwise, in speaking of such Emperors as Con- stantino, as Constantlus, or Honorius. Before we leave the Roman or Greek Empire, however, it will be but just to show that there were instances, as centuries passed on, where the rulers really felt the worth of the faith which they professed. In such cases there is often less of written history than in the lives of more cruel sovereigns. Written history grows fastest in times of bloodshed and eventful tyranny. Our readers will find in the lives of the Emperors at Constantinople, before the capture of that city by the Turks in 1453, some of these cheering exceptions, where the successors of Constantino proved themselves more worthy of the Christian name than he. Such an exception was the Empress Pulcheria, who was called to the throne at the early age of fifteen, a girl heroine, even younger than some of the boy heroes of whom we have spoken already. She was the grand- daughter of the great Emperor Theodosius, and while Augustine was ruling his little city of Hippo, and writ- ing great books against all whom he thought heretics, she was administering the affairs of the Empire of the East in Constantinople. Her father, Arcadius, died 108 PULCHERIA AND EUDOCIA. [a. D. 414-453. when she was nine years old. He was a weak prince, and her mother was a beautiful and imperious woman, who used her power as Empress to persecute many of the Christians, among others the great preacher St. John Chrysostom.* It is somewhat remarkable that so beau- tiful a character as that of Pulcheria should have been formed in the child of the feeble Arcadius and the cruel Eudoxia. It may be that the faults of the par- ents were so striking, as to impress the mind of the youthful princess, and to serve her as a warning and an incentive to a course of conduct opposite to theirs. Her talents were early found to be very remarkable, and she cultivated them with such diligence that she became Empress at the early age we have named. She was the oldest of her family, having two younger sisters, and a brother a year younger than herself, who was in name the Emperor, though the affairs of the Empire were managed by his tutor Anthemius, who was also prime minister. But the talents and wisdom of Pulcheria were such, that she was made the partner of her brother Theodosius in the imperial office ; and she conducted the affairs of the Empire with great dis- cretion while she superintended the education of her brother Theodosius. To this task she devoted herself with the greatest energy ; she gave him the best mas- ters, that he might become well learned in the various languages, in the arts and sciences, and in philosophy ; and in order that he might not become effeminate, she surrounded him with young men of his own age, who * This name means St. Jolm the Golden-mouthed. A. D. 414-453.] THEODOSIUS CALIGRAPH. 109 were to share his studies, and join him in all those nnanly exercises which would strengthen his body. But Theodosius the younger was weak, like his father Arcadius. He was quite willing to be governed, and seemed to have no jealousy of his older and wiser sister. While Pulcheria called in the assistance of old and wise scholars to instruct her brother, and active and earnest young men to improve and strengthen him, she endeav- ored by her personal instructions to set before him the duties of a r&ler of the people. Her own clear and vigorous mind saw what a great power he had to do good in the high position in which God had placed him, and she saw how much evil would arise if he neglected to do his duty. But Pulcheria found it very difficult to awaken in the mind of her effeminate brother the power and will to act well his part as a Roman Emperor. He was relig- ious after the fashion of his time. He spent his days and nights in prayers and direct acts of devotion, with- out feeling that he would have best served God by using the great power which was put into his hands in the active service of his fellow-men, in doing good and pre- venting evil. He spent much of his time in recreation. He loved painting and carving, and was fond of tran- scribing manuscripts. He gained great reputation for his handwriting, and he won by his success with his pen the title of Caligraph. This accomplishment is a step higher than that of Honorius, but it is not a title for an emperor to be proud of. Theodosius escaped, however, falling into those vices which have so often disgraced the rulers of his and of ro. VIII. 10 110 PULCHERIA AND EUDOCIA. [a. D. 414- 453. later times. He was very tender-hearted, and used his imperial power almost solely in pardoning criminals who implored his mercy. " O sister," he would say, " it is easy to make a man die, but God alone can bring him to life." Pulcheria was very willing to take upon herself this imperial burden of care which her brother so willingly cast aside. But she strengthened herself for it in the only true way. She was very devout and pious, and considered her first duty as due to her Gdd. In the en- thusiasm and superstition of her time, she made a vow that she would never marry, but would devote herself entirely to the service of God and of the state ; and her influence over her younger sisters was so great, that they joined her in this vow. To make it more solemn and binding, Pulcheria caused it to be engraved in large letters on a gold plate, studded with jewelry, which was publicly offered to God in the great church of Constan- tinople. The practice of her religious duties was to her a re- pose and relief from the heavy burdens of government, the duties of which she executed with great fidelity and diligence. But when the affairs of the state did not call for her attention, she shared the pious exercises of her sisters, and spent many hours eveiy day in the devout and attentive study of the Scriptures. Her holy study and meditation were often carried on even till the late hours of the night. The sisters lived together, in the part of the palace devoted to them, with other young women whom they had selected as companions, and formed a sort of relig- A. D. 414-453.] THE CHRISTIAN SISTERS. Ill ious community. They were very assiduous in their public devotions, and cultivated music carefully, espe- cially sacred music, to which they gave much of their time. They were veiy liberal in their charities, and sought out and assisted such persons as were in need. They were most fondly attached to each other, and all worked and prayed together, their sisterly affection be- ing sanctified by the most perfect Christian sympathy. The only difference between them was, that Pulcheria ruled the state, a dignity which the younger sisters yielded up to her with the most modest humility. She alone bore the title of Augusta ; while they were called nobilissimse, " most noble." They were addressed as queens, and although living in great simplicity, so ex- cellent were they in every respect that they well main- tained the royal dignity. They did not confine their charities to private objects of benevoknce, Arcadia, the elder of the two, erected at her own expense the public baths at Constantinople, which took from her their name, the Arcadian baths. Pulcheria was perfectly adapted to use the power which seemed to have thus fallen upon her, and which vv^as willingly yielded up to her by her gentle brother. She carried on all state affairs with great despatch, and an activity that was never wearied. She was an excel- lent scholar, and knew familiarly the Greek and Latin languages, and could write and speak them, when there was occasion for her doing so in public, with perfect ease and dignity. But, like all truly great persons, her perfect prudence gave a balance to her character, so that no one propensity gained an undue mastery over 112 PULCHERIA AND EUDOCIA. [a. D. 414-453. the rest ; and the crowning grace of her character was her entire and constant reliance upon the Divine aid. On every occasion for action, she prayed to Heaven for assistance ; she reflected deeply, deliberated slowly, and took the advice of the wise and good counsellors whom she had gathered about her. She took no honor to her- self, but always acted in the name of Theodosius, her brother. The fame of these noble and pious sisters extended, as might be expected, far and wide. About the time when the Emperor Theodosius had reached the age of twenty, there died at Athens a lear/ied man by the name of Leontius. He had two sons, named Neocles and Eumidas, and one daughter, Athenais. The sons were not marked by any superiority of talent or acquisition of learning, but the daughter was the pride of her father, and well repaid by her diligence and the aptness of her intellect qU the care the old Leontius had bestowed upon her education. She particularly excelled in math- ematics, and the other more severe studies, so that her father, and all who knew her, looked upon her with the greatest admiration. For not only did she exhibit a re- markable intellectual superiority, but she was very lovely in her person, graceful in her manners, and alto- gether devoted to her father. The fame of the young Athenian spread through all the cities where the sci- ences and arts were cultivated ; and people came from Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, to listen to her. She sometimes appeared in the galleries of the Academy, made illustrious by the lessons of Plato and the other philosophers, and when she did so, her words were lis- A. D. 414-453.] ATHENAIS DESEKTED. 113 tened to with the greatest attention. One day, when some Egyptians who had come to Athens to admire her presented her a crown of hyacinths and laurels, she took the flowers and shared them with her compan- ions, and refused more than her portion of them. On another occasion, when some of her fellow-country- women presented her a crown of the most beautiful flowers, she pretended to think they intended them for an offering to the goddess Minerva, and went to lay her crown at the foot of the statue of that goddess. When she was thus at the height of her glory, the young Athenais lost her father. Her unkind brothers pe-suaded him, before his death, to leave all his wealth to them ; they told him that Athenais did not need the gifts of fortune, her talents were more to her than any wealth could be. The world would take care of the fair philosopher ; what prince would not be proud to have her for his bride ? These arguments were yielded to by the feeble old man, and when his daughter re- turned from the solitude to which she retired with her nurse to weep for his departure, she found that all her father's fortune had been divided between her two un- natural brothers. Finding herself thus deserted by her natural protec- tors, Athenais resolved to have recourse to the noble- minded Empress, the pious Pulcheria Augusta. She went to Constantinople and presented" herself to the Empress. She had previously introduced herself by a letter to Pulcheria, who had appointed an hour and a day when she would receive her. Athenais ap- proached with a trembling step the palace of "Blacher- 10* 114 PULCHEEIA AND EUDOCIA. [a. D. 414-453. nse, where the Empress held her court. She was at last admitted to the young Empress, who was seated under a richly adorned canopy, surrounded with the great men of the Empire, and the most illustrious state officers. She told her story, how she had been deprived of her patrimony by cruel and wicked men ; but she refused to tell who they were. When she announced her name, a murmur of astonishment went through the assembly, for the fame of the virtues and talents of the fair Athe- nais were well known at the court of the virgin Em- press. The Empress received her with great kindness, and invited her to visit her the next day, when she received her in her own apartments. Athenais was amazed at the contrast between the royal splendor with which she had seen Pulcheria surrounded on her first visit, and the simplicity and plainness of the private apartments of the royal sisters. They received the young Athenian with the greatest kindness, and before they separated it was arranged that Athenais should be received into their lit- tle circle, should join the royal sisters in their studies and their labors ; and thus the fair orphan found herself established in the imperial palace. Among the occupations of the youthful Emperor was that of painting. He was at that time engaged in a pic- ture intended to ornament one of the churches, and he begged his sister to allow one of her young friends to sit to him as the model of a Madonna. Pulcheria had become so much interested in Athenais, that she thought she would make a suitable wife for her brother, who A. D. 414-453.] EUDOCIA AND HER BROTHERS. 115 had intimated to his sister that she, who had heretofore provided for all his wishes, should select for him a com- panion for life. The young Empress therefore con- sented to introduce Athenais to her brother first as a sit- ter, hoping that she might make such an impression on the young man, that he would be willing to select her for a wife. The wishes of Pulcheria were answered. The young Emperor was dazzled by her great beauty, was charmed by her graceful and modest manners, and soon became enamored of his fair model. In the mean time Athenais, in her intercourse with the noble sisters, had learned to take an interest in the re- ligion which made them so good and disinterested ; she had read with them the Scriptures ; she had studied the writings of Chrysostom and the other Christian writers, in which they took so much delight ; she became con- verted to Christianity, and was baptized by the name of Eudocia. She was married to Theodosius in the year 421, and two years after gave birth to a daughter. She was then raised to the rank of Augusta. Instead of visiting her unkind brothers with any pun- ishment for their ill treatment of her, Eudocia sum- moned them to court, and gave them offices of honor and of profit. Nor did the splendor and magnificence of the station to which she was raised turn her mind away from her early love of study. She still contin- ued to give much of her time to literary pursuits. She made a paraphrase in verse of the first eight books of the Old Testament, and the prophecies of Daniel and Zechariah. She also wrote a Life of St. Cyprian, and composed a panegyric on the Persian victories of Theo- 116 PULCHERIA AND EUDOCIA. [a. D. 414-453. dosius. She was also the author of a singular Life of Christ, composed from verses picked out of Homer, an idea not peculiar to Eudocia, but practised upon bv other writers of that time. The love of the Emperor for his wife increased as they grew older. Her influence also increased, and in some measure superseded that of his sister, who had still continued to govern the state with her usual pru- dence and discretion. Pulcheria appears, however, to have made great efforts to induce the Emperor to take more part in the government. One artifice which she employed for this purpose was somewhat singular, and appears to have been unfortunate in its results. She could never persuade the indolent Theodosius to read the papers which it was his daily duty to sign. In order to make him feel how wicked this neglect was, she at length, after many fruhless remonstrances, drew up a paper by which the Emperor sold to her his wife Eudocia. Shortly afterwards, on his sending for the Empress, who was in Pulcheria's apartments, she refused to let her leave them, and acquainted the Em- peror with the nature of the paper he had so carelessly signed. But this practical lesson was rather too much for the feeble Theodosius, and the strong-minded Athe- nais was still less pleased with it. Probably some jeal- ousy of the power of her noble sister-in-law might have been gathering about the mind of the wife of Theodo- sius. She forgot how entirely she was indebted to Pul- cheria for all she enjoyed, and resolved to deprive her of the power she had so long used in so exemplary a manner. A. D. 414-453.] JEALOUSY AT COURT. 117 For this purpose she persuaded her husband to have Pulcheria made a deaconess, an office which was some- times conferred on noble ladies, for the very purpose for which Eudocia now used it, to exclude her sis- ter from the court. Theodosius yielded to the wishes of his wife, and ordered Flavian, Bishop of Constanti- nople, to ordain his sister to this office. Flavian refused to do this, and privately advised Pulcheria to go into retirement, lest he should be compelled to obey the Em- peror. She accepted his advice, left the palace, and re- tired to a country seat, in the plains of Hebdomon. Her sisters were no longer living. But Eudocia was far inferior to her sister-in-law in virtue and the power to govern, though she may have excelled her in intellectual attainments. Her rule was marked by great disorders both in church and state. ^Theodosius at last became jealous of his wife, and ac- cused her of fondness for his friend Paulinus. He car- ried his feeling so far as to separate from Eudocia, and put Paulinus to death. The Empress made a second pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where she died in the year 460, asserting her innocence in the most solemn man- ner. Pulcheria, in her retirement, heard of the fate of her brother's wife. She also learned that heresy prevailed at court ; and she left her retirement, and returned to the palace. She expostulated with her brother upon his religious heresies, and the evils of the government of the eunuchs which he had authorized. The Emperor yielded to her old influence, and she was restored to her former power, soon after which restoration Theodo- 118 PULCHERIA ANP EUDOCIA. [a. D. 414-453. sius died, in the year 450. Pulcheria was then unani- mously proclaimed Empress of the East, and was the first woman to whose acknowledged sway the Romans submitted. Pulcheria showed herself equal to this new state of things, as she had done to all the previous situations in which she had been placed. She was then fifty-one years old ; but feeling that the whole power was too great for her, she resolved to share it with one who could assist her to bear its burdens. She selected Marcian, a brave general, a wise statesman, and a sincere and zealous Christian. She offered to marry him, and in that way make him Emperor, provided he would con- sider himself her husband only in name. In this way she may be thought to have broken the vow of her youth, but she had probably learned by experience that it is unwise to make rash vows, since the true Christian, stands always ready to do whatever God appoints ; and that, if a rash vow has been made which circumstances prove afterwards to be unwise or wicked, it is the part of wisdom and of religion to break it. Marcian consented to share the labors of the govern- ment with Pulcheria. They were married, and for three years conducted the affairs of state with great energy and wisdom. Pulcheria died on the 10th of September, in the year 453. Marcian survived her four years, and remained sole master of the Empire. Pulcheria met her death piously and calmly. She bequeathed all her wealth to the poor, whom she anx- iously served through her life, and she was made a saint after her death, both by the Greek and Roman A. D. 570-633.] MAHOMET. 119 branches of the Church. Few women in any age of the world have been called to positions of so much respon- sibility, and few have shown, as far as history has re- vealed it to us, a more perfect character. We would gladly know more of a life which appears so admirable and so worthy of imitation, from what we can gather of it in the short accounts which have been preserved to us in ancient history. NOTE TO CHAPTER IX. This is the first of our lessons in which we have been able to use Miss Julia Kavanagh's '• Women of Christianity," a delightful book, wliich we recommend to young readers, and to those Avho collect libraries for them. It becomes necessary to pass over other points of the history of the Eonian or Greek Empire. The history of the Arian contro- versy, the position of the Emiteror Justinian, and the great code of Christian and Roman law which bears his name, with other points of the fifth and sixth centuries, will engage the attention of careful readers. Milman's History closes with the fourth cen- tury. After that period consult his notes to Gibbon. CHAPTER X. MAHOMET. The temple called the Caaba, at Mecca, in Arabia, was a place for all sorts of worship. Jews were there, and Christians, and heathen. For the Arabs of the city were a careless, refined people, who did not often trou- ble themselves about religion ; and each man followed what faith he liked, and most men followed none. So 120 BIAHOMET. [a. d. 570 - 633 in their great temple there were idols, and a statue of the Virgin Mary and her child, and the great magic stone, which is there to this day, which was said to have fallen from heaven. And one person worshipped one, and another another, without much faith, but with no hindrance. One day when the Koreischites, a powerful tribe there, held a feast in honor of their idols, four men, of more sense than the rest of them, met together, away from the crowd. " All this is wrong," they said. " This is not the religion of Abraham.'" And the Arabs then, as now, believed that they were descended from Abra- ham through his son Ishmael. " What is this mock god, around whom they are making these processions, and who receives all these sacrifices ? We will find out the truth ; and to find it, let us travel through foreign lands, if we must, till we come to it." So they bound themselves to each other to find the truth. Their names were W^araca, and Othman, and Obeydallah, and Zeyd. Waraca went to the Jews and the Christians. He stud- ied their books, and he made sure that God was going to send another prophet to the earth, and that this time the prophet would be an Arab. He described this prophet as well as he could. And at last one day Khadidja, his cousin, came to him, and told him that her husband Mahomet had had a vision. During a month of fasting, he lay wrapt in his mantle in a cave. He heard a voice calling on him, and uncovered his head. A flood of light burst upon him, so bright that he swooned away. As he recovered, he saw an angel standing, which showed to him a cloth written over, and bade him read. A. D. 570-633.] THE TRUTH-SEEKERS. 121 " I know not how to read ! " said Mahomet. "Read!" repUed the angel, "in the name of the Lord, who has created all things ; who created man from a clot of blood. Read in the name of the Most High, who taught men the use of the pen ; who sheds on his soul the ray of knowledge, and teaches him what before he knew not." Mahomet felt at once that he was enlightened from above. He read the scroll, which contained decrees afterwards written in the Koran. The angel heard him, and then said, " Thou art the prophet of God, — and I am the angel Gabriel," — and vanished. Khadidja told her cousin of this vision. And the wise Waraca declared that Mahomet was the very- prophet he had waited for. And soon he died. But his words confirmed Mahomet in the belief that he was the prophet of God. Othman, another of the four truth-seekers, set out to travel ; questioning all who could give him any light. Some Christians instructed him in their faith, and he went to Constantinople, where he was baptized. Obey- dallah waited, uncertain, till Mahomet appeared, — then tried to believe in him, failed, and also became a Christian. Zeyd neither studied nor travelled at first, but went every day to the temple and prayed God for light. There he might be seen resting against the wall of the temple, in pious meditation, in which he would cry out, " Lord ! if only I knew how to serve thee, 1 would obey thee ; but I know not!" Then he wouid fling himself down with his face on the ground. Learn- ing something from what the Jews told him, and sonie- NO. VTTT. jl 122 MAHOMET. [a. D. 570-633. thing from what the Christians told him, he tried to make a religion of his own, and worship as Abraham wor- shipped. He attacked the idol worship of the Caaba, and so was driven from the city. Wherever he went, he talked of religion with all the learned men. At last he met a wise monk, who told him that there had ap- peared at Mecca an Arab prophet, who preached the religion of Abraham. It was what poor Zeyd was seek- ing for. And he turned to Mecca again. But as he went, a band of robbers met him and put him to death. This account of the four truth-seekers is an old Arab story. Whether exactly true or not, it shows truly the unsettled, anxious state of the people to whom Mahomet, when he was^^orty years old, announced that there was one God, and Mahomet was his prophet. There were enough teachers there before. Christians, Jews, and " Come -outers," like Zeyd, to teach that there was one God. Indeed, men of the race of Shem's sons, as the Arabs were, have never readily believed any thing else, when they believed at all. But this was taught by careless men, in a careless way. All these idols, and forms, and mixtures of worships, had come in, so that searchers for truth did not find it, — and wandered lost and sad. To such a people Mahomet addressed his straightforward appeal, declaring, " There is one God, and Mahomet is his prophet." He was as much startled by his first vision, whatever it was, as were those around him. But Waraca con- firmed him in his resolution to carry it out, and his faithful wife Khadidja believed him. He never forgot her faith. " When I was poor," said he, after she had A. D. 570-633.] THE BOY ALL 123 died, " she enriched me ; when others said I lied, she believed me ; when I was cursed by my nation, she was faithful to me ; and the more I suffered, the more she loved me." She was the first believer ; then came his slave Zeid, and his friend Abu-Beker, and his young cousin Ali. Three years of secret teaching brought to him fourteen proselytes ; in the fourth year he assumed the prophet's office publicly ; he prepared a banquet and called all the faithful, with other guests of his own fam- ily, to feast with him. Then he announced his new duty, and asked, " Who among you will support my burden ? Who among you will be my companion and vizier ? " They were all silent, in doubt and contempt, till the boy Ali, then thirteen years old, having waited in vain for his elders, cried out, " O prophet, I am the man, I will be thy vizier over them." Mahomet accepted the ofler eagerly, " Behold my brother," he cried, " my vice- gerent, my vizier ; let all listen to his words and obey him." The kinsmen of the boy laughed at his presump- tion. But he persevered in his allegiance. He became indeed the successor of Mahomet ; and the name of Ali is now a sacred name to half the Mussulman world. The energy and spirit of a boy shows itself thus in the history of that faith, as we have seen it, once and again, in the scenes of Christian history which we have been studying. They labored with little success in Mecca. As soon as the new sect was strong enough to attract attention, they were driven from Mecca, and Mahomet fled to Medina, This was the Hegira,* or flight, from which » * Pronounced Hij-e-ra, 124 MAHOMET. [a. D. 570 - 633. the Mahometans reckon time. It was in our year 622. Medina received him, he became king and priest there, gathered strength, and constantly made revelations to the faithful. Seven years afterwards he was strong enough to capture the city of Mecca, and to make it the capital of his kingdom. This conquest made him master of the Arabian tribes ; and, though this and other wars with diflerent unruly and faithless bands and people kept him a soldier till he died in 632, still when he died there was no considerable part of Arabia which did not own in words, that " there is one God, and Mahomet is his prophet." His death happened as an army was on its march to the conquest of Syria and the Holy Land. " God be with me in the death-struggle," he prayed, and then, as his wife rested his head upon her lap, he cooled his face with the water she held for him. " O God, be it so," he murmured, — "among my fellow-spirits in paradise," and died. " I knew," said she, " that his last moment had come, and that he had made choice of the life above." Her outcries called a crowd, who looked amazed upon the corpse. " Dead ! " they cried. " Is not ho our mediator with God ? How can he be dead? IJe is in a trance, and carried up to heaven, as JesUs and the other prophets were." Omar, one of his great generals, arrived in the midst of the confusion. Wv drew his sword, and declared he would cut off the head of any one who said the prophet could die. " He has departed for a time," said he, " as Moses went forty days into the mountain; and like him he will reluni A. D. 570-633.] MUSSULMAN CONQUESTS. 125 again." But the wise Abu-Beker, whom Mahomet had made his successor in the direction of religion, came und said, " Did you worship Mahomet, or the God of Mahomet ? God cannot die. But God has told you in ihe Koran, that Mahomet was his prophet and would die. Will you turn your heel upon him, and abandon his doctrine because he is dead ? If you do, you honor not God, but condemn yourselves. And God's bless- ino-s will remain for the faithful." The despair of the people subsided. These coun- sellors around Mahomet's dead body carried farther his conquests. And with such zeal as this scene shows, Omar, and Abu-Beker, and Ali, and their generals, before that century had ended, had carried the sign of the crescent, Mahomet's banner, and the simple faith which he declared, through Western Asia and Northern Africa ; and in the next century they were battling the Christians in Spain. This rapid conquest of theirs was, in its external effects on Christendom, the most severe blow Christen- dom ever had. Christianity has never regained any of those conquests, except Spain and Algiers. It is true that real Christianity has had far more terrible enemies than Mahomet. Constantino proved such, in the result of his friendship for the Church. Some of the stronger Popes have done it far more evil than ever Mahomet could do. Mahomet, however, in the wars of his fol- lowers, wrested from it more territory than any enemy has ever done. For centuries the Mussulman arms were the terror and reproach of Christian nations. The reasons of this triumph may be simply sta' ' 11* 12G MAHOMET. [a. D. 570-633. Mahomet gained an absolute sway over his people, be- cause he really believed what he taught, that there was a God, — one God, — not to be honored by image- worship, or by labored forms of any kind ; but to be absolutely obeyed. This was Mahomet's living faith. With the decision it gave him, with the energy it com- pelled, it made him ruler of all around him. They pretended to believe it too. Some of them did, as heartily and simply as he did. Most of them did not. It was a lip faith which they rendered. From Job's time down, the Arabs had supposed there was one God, and really only one. But they were indifferent as to his worship, and careless as to his will. All the more were they the weak and willing followers of bmve men like Mahomet, who did believe him to be at hand, their immediate guide in war, in doctrine, or at home. With -this faith, perfectly pure at first, and even in his am- bitious days, left uncriticized by himself, Mahomet com- posed the chapters of the Koran, which then, as now, commanded the immediate reverence, as the direct words of God, of those who, having taken the highest name, claim no other, but are known as " the Faithful," full of faith in one God. When Otba first heard the Koran, he cried, " Mahomet has spoken as I never heard before. It is not poetry, it is not prose, it is not magic ; but it pierces me through and through." This real faith of Mahomet's and of his immediate followers was enough to give them their power over their soldiers and people. He probably never pre- tended to work miracles. His accounts of miracles are always the angel Gabriel's. And though the Persian A. I). 570-633.] MUSSULMAN FAITH. 127 Mussulmans surrounded his life v/ith wonders, his own Arabians are much more sparing of them, and show him in as simple traits as if he were not a wonderful man. They tell how he opened the door that his cat might go to drink, how he played with his grandchil- dren, Hasan and Hosein, "jumped" them and danced with them, and talked to them in baby-talk, which is repeated to this day. With so little of pretence did he maintain the reverence of his soldiers. Their faith, and the faith of the terrible Mussulman warriors who came after them, was not so deep as his. They believed in God no more earnestly, perhaps, than did the pretended Christians or the heathen whom they conquered. But they did believe heartily, that, whoever God was, he had sent them to sweep from the earth a crowd of faithless faiths and of false professors, who had lived long enough for his purposes in the world. And here they were perfectly right. The dissolute Greek Emperors, and the bishops under them, who were forgetting their Lord and Saviour while they quarrelled about his nature, and the people of the first Christian lands, now wholly given over to an adoration of images and relics, were all in themselves useless for Christ's kingdom. Yet God never deserts his world. He is never without a witness in the courses of his his- tory. So he ordered that, where the Greek Emperor Justinian had wasted Samaria, in wanton cruelty, that wasted province should be the undefended gate through which the Mussulman hordes should pour down on his successor's empire. So he ordered that the Christians, who had persecuted each other under the names of 128 MAHOMET. [a. d. 570 - 633. Arian and Athanasian, should prove too much divided to stand firm together against any invader. So he ordered, that men who had talked about Jesus's nature till they failed to feel the power of his life, should give way everywhere, half distrusting their own dead creed, indeed, before passion-led armies, who did believe " Mahomet is God's prophet," if they had little faith beside. In this way God did send those armies to break up the rotten dynasties of the earth. They knew he sent them. Even those dynasties feared he sent them. And so the Mussulman triumph was se- cure. NOTES TO CHAPTER X. " The Arabian Nights' Entertainment" furnishes constant illus- tration of Mahomet's religion ; as well as of many Eastern cus- toms mentioned in the Bible. Ining's Life of Mahomet. Irving's Successors of Mahomet. The Hyat-ul Kaloob is the Persian history of Mahomet, trans- lated from the original. The Persian writers add a great deal of wild, Eastern romance to the accounts of the Arabs. Rev. Mr. Merrick's translation is published by Phillips, Sampson, & Co. Boston, 1849. In Carlyle's Heroes, W. H. Perkins's Writings, Maurice's Boyle Lectures on the Religions of the World, are valuable essays on Mahomet. These are easily procured here, except the last, which ought to be reprinted. Hon. William Sullivan's " Historical Causes and Effects from 476 A. D. to 1517 A. D.," a very valuable book, begins to be of ser- vice from the period first named. Boston : James B. Dow. 1837. pp. 612. Rev. S. Osgood's Studies in Christian Biography begin with lives as early as Augustine, Jerome, and Chrysostom, and come down as late as Swedenborg. C. S. Erancis, New York. A, D. 616-683.] cLOvis and his vow. 129 CHAPTER XI. CHRISTIANS MADE BARBAROUS, AS THE BARBARIANS ARE CONVERTED. ST. LEGER. The events at which we have looked have all passed in civilized countries. But, as has been said, the Chris- tian missionaries meanwhile were extending the power of the cross, or its name, beyond the regions of the Ro- man Empire. In the time of Augustine, even, the western provinces of Rome were beginning to give way before barbarian attacks, v/hile the Roman legions were drawn home to take care of the Roman capitals. Those barbarians became more and more insulting. But the Christian missionaries of those times met them even more readily than the troops who should have repelled them. And when Clovis, the first successful invader of Gaul, at the head of his Franks, had succeeded in mount- ing the throne of that disturbed province, the Christian bishops of the day succeeded also in gaining his alle- giance, in name, to their faith. His wife was a Christian princess of Burgundy. The history of his conversion (9 I (O will show what such conversions were worth, — how far the real Church suffered from them, and how little the converts gained from them. The Germans were threat- ening to pass the Rhine. The Franks called Clovis to their command to resist them. During the battle, he vowed that, if he gained it, his wife's god should be his god. He did gain it, — kept his vow, — was baptized ; and three thousand of his warriors followed his example. 130 ST. LEGER. [a. d. 616-683. When they came to tell the new convert some of the history of the faith which he had thus assumed, and dwelt on our Lord's torture at the hands of Jews and Romans on Calvary, the new Christian cried out, " Oh ! if I had been there with my Franks, I would have avenged him for such agonies." With such Chris- tianity among its kings, France became an independent nation ; the rule of the dying Roman Empire gradually falling entirely away. In fact, however, its kings were not its rulers. While the imbecile Greek and Roman emperors were ciphers in the hands of the leading priests of their nations, these Frank kings were the generals who did the fighting of a land which was really governed by its bishops and clergy. The Bishop of Vienne wrote to Clovis, " When thou fightest, it is to us that victory is due." So, again, when on the eve of a campaign the king once sent to consult the dead St. Martin at Tours, as to what he should do. As the messengers entered the church, they heard the words of a psalm which describes a victory, and they carried this news to Clovis. This encouraged him to go on and conquer. With such influence over the kings, the priests used the revenues of the kingdom much as they chose. The monasteries, where their more laborious and more gentle students and recluses assembled, grew richer and richer. King Clovis gave to St. Remigius all the land he could walk around while he took his noon nap. The saint took a long walk, and the grant remained for many centuries with the church at Rheims. We will look at some of the details of such a state of A. D. 616-683.] LIFE IN MONASTERIES. ]31 things, as they come together in the hfe of Leger, now the St. Leger of the Cathohc Church, — a great poli- tician of those days ; king for years, except in name ; and in name the Bishop of the See of Autun. While Mahomet was in exile from Mecca, in the year 616, St. Leger was born. In the year 683 he died, — after Mahomet had founded his faith and em|)ire. As his life went on in the intrigues and politics of France, he heard sometimes of such calamities as the fall of Je- rusalem, and of invasions of one and another Christian province by these ruthless Saracens. But he had too many fightings near home to be able to pay much thought to them or to theirs, and he hardly conceived that in his own days there was rising, far from him, the power which should be one of the greatest enemies of the Christian Church. Leger's uncle was Bishop of Poitiers, a prudent man, and immensely rich, as in those times bishops were. Not so much from any religious turn, as because the Church offices were the offices of special influence, Leger studied to be a priest. He was a careful student in their way of study, — which to us would be very strange. He probably was at the college of Rheims, which was endowed in part by the long noon walk of Remigius, and existed for four or five centuries. When he was old enough, his uncle made him Archdeacon of Poitiers, his own see. This was a different thing from becoming a monk. For, just as the Church had origi- nally been the refuge for quiet and devoted spirits, who renounced the temptations of the world, so now the monks' houses, or monasteries, became the refuge of 132 ST. LEGER. [a. d. 616 - 683. such spirits, when they renounced the activity and temptations of the Church. The young Leger had no such disposition. He went into the Church, and be- came Archdeacon of Poitiers, just as a young Ameri- can studies law when he is ambitious of political influ- ence ; or as a young Englishman goes into the House of Commons. Among the clergy who were not monks were all those men of business who really controlled the state and society. Kings and armies called for the hands and energies of young men of adventurous and energetic disposition, such as now make themselves merchants, or seamen, or workmen in whatever active labor. But as society arranged itself, these men were then under the control of the ambitious leaders of the Church, who were kings m every thing but the name. ■ Leger grew up at Poitiers, a good man of business, and a respectable priest. He got the favor of the queen, and she, when he was forty-five years old, made him Bishop of Autun, a large town in the veiy heart of France. Little enough was this like Paul's making Timothy Bishop of Ephesus. It was not that he might take care of the poor, or convert sinners, or comfort the broken-hearted, that he was put there ; but that he might be one of the rulers of France. The kings of that day are called the do-nothing kings,* and rightly enough called so. Mr. Hallam says, that in that whole century there was not a person or ac- tion in France worth mention. But the biographer of Leger did not think so. After Leger became bishop, he says he so applied his soul to keeping God's * Les rois faineans. A. D. 616-683.] DAGOBERT's FUNERAL. 133 commandments, that his will became so powerful that the Lord enabled him always and without difficulty to gain all things which he had resolved to accomplish. This is strong language, which the history hardly bears out. For poor Leger spent many years in captivity, was blinded, and suffered much in other ways, before his violent death. It is quite easy to see why the do-nothing kings did nothing. The clergy of the time did their real work for them. There is a long account of the death-bed of Dagobert, who died when Leger was a young man. He was surrounded by priests and other grandees, and made a long speech, they say, in which he left to the Church much valuable property ; and ended by saying, " We believe that, with the aid of God, this will afford something for the poor, in whom we have been often interested, and that they, living thus by our alms, will pray more abundantly and more devotedly for the sal- vation of our soul." He certainly needed such hope, for a more licentious or wicked man never lived. But the history goes on to say, " Embalmed with spices, his body was borne, in the midst of the assembly of lament- ing people, into the mausoleum of the holy martyrs, which he had adorned with gold, and with precious stones. He was buried, very properly, at the right of their tomb ! " Leger was surrounded, through his life, by one and another of such kings. The life of a bishop was spent in making the most of them and of their fears. At one time he himself became Mayor of the Palace, or prime minister, with absolute power. This was with the alliance of the queen of the time. Such a position NO. VIII. 12 134 ST. LEGER. [a. D. 616 -683. exposed him to constant quarrels with other ambitious men. Here is an account of a scene which took place be- tween him and one of the kings, as related by an ad- mirer of the bishop, which will give some idea of the civilization and Christianity to which they had all at- tained. " The night when they celebrated Easter at Autun, the king, as if he were afraid of something, did not choose to go into the cathedral, but with a little com- pany of attendants went to the hypocrite we have spoken of, and even dared to partake of the holy com- munion there. After this, and having been drinking, passing madly through the cathedral, he called Leger by his name, as if the bishop had fled from the rumor that the king was going to kill him. But he found the bishop boldly waiting him in the place of baptism, and there the king himself stood, stupefied by the light of the lamps and the odor of the holy ointment ; and when the bishop replied to him, ' I am here,' he passed abashed from his presence. The bishop boldly followed him, and asked a reason for his violence. The king had no reason to give, and the bishop left him in trouble at the recollection of his sacrilege." This distress did not last long, however. One of the bishop's friends was killed, and he was imprisoned. He found in the prison his greatest enemy, Ebroin, who, in the fortunes of party, had been imprisoned also. In the years which they spent there, they were reconciled to each other ; and when the king died, they left the prison as if friends. At this time one of his enemies attempted A. D. 616-683.] THE TREASURES DISTRIBUTED. 135 to assassinate the bishop. " But," says the history, " as he came near him he was seized with such terrible fear that he acknowledged his crime, fell at his feet, and begged his pardon." The history goes on to say, that men knew that evil was impending, because there appeared in the heavens " that star which the astrologers call a comet, the appa- rition of which is a sign that the world will be troubled by famine, by the change of kings, by attacks from the Gentiles, and the evils of war." War enough, and evils enough, followed the comet ; but it would be hard to say that there were then more than in the years before it was seen. In one of these wars, of which no man knows the cause, if, indeed, any man ever knew it, Ebroin, having with his captivity renounced his friend- ship for his old enemy, marched an army against him and his city, Autun. The people thronged around him and begged him to buy peace with the treasures of the town and church. But he said, " My brothers, I have kept faithfully all these treasures which I now show to you, as long as God has given me favor with the men of my time. I have kept them for the ornament and glory of the Church. Now that these men are excited against me, and God wishes to call me to heavenly favor, why should I surround myself with wealth which cannot follow me." So he sent for silversmiths, who broke up the sacred vases, and he distributed them to all the poor people, — to the widows and orphans of the town. And then, confident in their good-will, he await- ed the enemy. They surrounded the town, and attacked it eagerly. 136 ST. LEGER. [a. D. 616-683. The citizens maintained themselves. But after a day Leger forbade any more fighting, — bade adieu to all his brethren, — partook of the communion, — comforted those around him, — and then, going to the gates, threw them open and offered himself to those who sought his life. " They received him as wolves do a lamb." They tortured him in the most terrible way, — tearing out his eyes and his tongue, — and sent him into con- finement in a lonely monastery, pretending that he was dead. The narratives of these times are all written by monks of the same or the next centuries, and abound in super- stitious accounts of miracles by which those fighting in these wars were assisted. Some of these are ludicrous, but all of them are sad, because they show how poor was the best idea of Christian power. We have already given an account of one of St. Martin's directions for a battle. Here is an event said to have happened in his church, by a French writer to whom we owe part of this history. "Another barbarian, trying to mount on the altar of the same church, consecrated to St. Martin of Tours, put his hand on one of the corners of the altar ; but his hand at once attached itself to the marble, and he could not take it away. As his companions did not wish to leave him there, they broke the part of the stone which his hand held, by blows of a mallet, and took him with them, carrying, to his great regret, the piece of stone for ever joined firm to his hand. And captives who have since returned to France say that he went thus back to his own country, and that his arm had withered ; and he A. D. 616-683.] HIS DEATH. 137 confessed that this misfortune happened to him through the power of St. Basle." Before Leger died, his friends surrounded him again, and by a miracle, as they thought, he regained the pow- er of speech, although his lips and tongue had been cut off. At length, four executioners were sent to kill him. They took him into a forest to do so. And he said to them, " I will not weary you any longer, my children ; do at once that which you have come to do, and fulfil the wish of the wicked." But three of them, overpow- ered, fell at his feet, and begged him to pardon them, and to grant them his blessing. The fourth remained firm, drew his sword, and, after Leger had prayed and bidden him strike, he beheaded him. " They say that his body stood erect for almost an hour. The ex- ecutioner, seeing that it did not fall, kicked it with his foot ; but soon after, seized by demons, he lost his mind, and, struck by the vengeance of God, threw himself into the fire, and so died." The chronicle is full of accounts of miracles wrought by the power of his dead body. For these we have no room here. We have quoted enough from it to show how little of the spirit of Christianity or of faith was in the nominal Christianity of those times. The conver- sion of the barbarians to Christianity was accompanied with a conversion of Christians to barbarism. The Church eagerly baptized all whom it could persuade to accept baptism. It accommodated its teachings to them, as meanly as it had done to the Roman Emperors. Next, it received among its teachers those who had thus been admitted into its number. So that with every gen- 12* 138 ALFRED. [a. D. 849-900. eration, for a long time, the evil grew, to appearance, rather than diminished. Although there were ways in which Christ's true kingdom was advancing, yet, in the external history of the nations of the earth, it seemed everywhere to be losing its true ground. NOTES TO CHAPTER XI. There are two lives of St. Leger in French, besides abridgments in all Lives of the Saints : — Ursin's, in the Recueil des Historiens de France; Fi-edegaire's, in Guizot's Collection of Memoires relatifs k I'His- toire de France. Consult — Sismondi's History of France. Stephen's Lectures on French History. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1851. 1 vol. 8vo. pp. 710. Michelet's History of France, translated by Smith. Apple- ton & Co. 1846-47. 2 vols. Svo. CHAPTER XII. fj/f ALFRED. S^^f> Our Christianity came from England. The Chris- tianity and civilization of England is a fruit which was ripened by many different storms, rays of sunshine, and clouds of dew. It is to be ascribed to no one single man or event, but to a combination of causes, uniting as God only knows how to unite causes to produce so great a result. In the time of King Alfred, — who de- serves the title of Alfred the Great, — we can observe A. D. 849-900.] NATIVE BRITONS. 139 most of these causes, noticing some just in the end, and some just in the beginning, of their influence. The island of Great Britain, small as it is, had then been long divided into many different kingdoms. At the north there were different Scotch clans and tribes, of which we know little. England itself, till a {ew years before Alfred, had been divided into seven or eight kingdoms, of which the names of some are now retained as counties. These were known as the Heptarchy, or Octarchy, that is, the Seven Kingdoms, or Eight Kingdoms. The condition of England dif- fered from that which we have seen in the time of the Franks in France. The Romans had left the island for four hundred years. There never had been so many towns established by them, or other results of their power, as in Gaul. The country was much more thinly inhabited, and from the want of Roman influence it was much less civilized than was Gaul. Its native inhabitants had been conquered first by the Romans, and afterwards by the Saxons. In both cases, however, they had intermarried with their conquerors, so that, although they existed only in the West as a separate race, yet the descendants of native Britons, especially of British women who had married Roman or Saxon men, lived in the old homes of their ancestors. And thus there is old British blood in our veins. Claudia, whom St. Paul alludes to,* is said to have been a British lady. If so, there was at least one Christian belonging to this island in his day. It has * 2 Tim. iv. 24. 140 ALFRED. [a. D. 849-900. been supposed that he travelled to Britain. We have already seen Constantine made a " Csesar " while in Britain. In the Roman armies at that time, and among the large numbers of persons who in the neighborhood of Roman ports established towns and villages, were Christians enough to introduce our faith among the na- tives of the island. It will be remembered that the great Pelagius was a Briton. So the native Britons had Christian churches and teachers among them, when they were defeated and driven back into the mountains of their island by the Saxons, who were still pagans. When defeated, however, they left Christian women, as we have said, who were wives of their conquerors, and in their mountain refuges they retained themselves something of their own faith, and kept up their churches and their customs of Christian worship. And in the time when St. Leger and the various rivals in France were all fighting together, a distinguished Benedictine Monk, named Austin, or Augustine, was sent by the Pope into England to attempt the conversion of the pagan Saxons. He found so much assistance from the remnants of Christianity there, and labored with so much piety and zeal, that his efforts and those of his successors brought the Saxon kings also into nominal allegiance to the cross. When Alfred was born, his father, Ethelwulf, under the title of King of the West Saxons, reigned over most of the Saxons in England. But the island suffered from constant attacks by the piratical Northmen, or Danes, from the coasts of Norway, Sweden, and Den- mark. These were the Vikings, or sea-kings, some- A. D. 849-900.] LEARNING TO READ. 141 times called Berserkr, so often alluded to in the litera- ture of the North of Europe. They were pagans, and the people of England, unskilled in war in comparison with them, looked upon them with all the more horror upon account of their irreligion. They did not disturb the kingdom so much, however, but that Alfred, while yet a boy, made two journeys to Rome, in one of which the Pope is said to have blessed him, anointing him as the future King of the West Saxons. So illiterate was England then, that the young prince grew to be twelve years old before he had learned his letters. Many British princes of his day never learned them at all. Happily for him, his step-mother Judith, who was the daughter of a French king, had more taste for literature than most of those around her. And one day, when her boys were standing by her, she showed them a Saxon book of poetry, and said, " Whichsoever of you shall soonest learn this volume, shall have it for his own." " Stimulated by these words," says Alfred's biographer, " or rather by the Divine inspiration, and allured by the beautifully il- luminated letter at the beginning of the volume, he spoke before all his brothers, who, though his seniors in age, were not so in grace, and answered, ' Will you really give that book to one of us, that is to say, to him who can first understand and repeat it to you ? ' At this his mother smiled with satisfaction, and con- firmed what she had before said. Upon which the boy took the book out of her hand, and went to his master to read it, and in due time brought it to his mother and recited it." But for this enticement, it would seem that he would not have learned to read. 142 ALFRED. [a. d. 849 - 900. This early taste for learning never left him. After- wards he became king, first of his father's kingdom, and eventually of all the Anglo-Saxons, or, as we should now say, of all England. The Northmen, pouncing down upon the coast with their terrible black ships, dis- tressed greatly one and another part of his kingdom, and finally all parts of it. Alfred had to show other kingly qualhies than those of a good reader, in gather- ing his dispirited subjects against such attacks of such enemies. At one time, his people, wholly discouraged by new visitations of swarms of Northmen, just when their utmost efforts had conquered those before there, abandoned the war and him. It was then that Alfred wandered, deserted, in his own land. But new cruelties roused his noblemen again. Again the people took up arms at his call. And his reign of twenty-nine years, crowded with wars against one and another swarm of these pirates, ended when he had completely subjugated them, and was undisputed king of the whole of Eng- land. The following account of his first success after his worst misfortune is by Asser, his friend, from whom we quoted before. .It will show the enthusiasm which surrounded Alfred, and be also another illustration of the conversions to Christianity of those times. " Here he was met by all the neighboring folk, who had not, for fear of the pagans, fled beyond the sea ; and when they saw the king alive, after such great tribu- lation, they received him, as he deserved, with joy and acclamations, and encamped there for one night. When the following day dawned, the king struck his camp, and went to Okely, where he encamped for one A. D. 849 - 900.] A ROYAL BAPTISM. 143 night. The next morning he removed to Edington, and there fought bravely and perseveringly against all the army of pagans, whom, with the Divine help, he de- feated with great slaughter, and pursued them flying to their fortification. Immediately he slew all the men, and carried off all the booty that he could find without the fortress, which he immediately laid siege to with all his army ; and when he had been there fourteen days, the pagans, driven by famine, cold, fear, and last of all by despair, asked for peace, on the condition that they should give the king as many hostages as he pleased, but should receive none of him in return, in which form they had never before made a treaty with any one. The king, hearing that, took pity upon them, and re- ceived such hostages as he chose ; after which the pa- gans swore, moreover, that they would immediately leave the kingdom ; and their king, Gothrun, promised to embrace Christianity, and receive baptism at King Alfred's hands. All of which articles he and his men fulfilled as they had promised. For after seven weeks Gothrun, king of the pagans, with thirty men chosen from the army, came to Alfred at a place called Aller, near Athelney, and there King Alfred, receiving him as his son by adoption, raised him from the holy laver of baptism on the eighth day, at a royal villa named Wedmore, where the holy chrism was poured upon him. After his baptism he remained twelve nights with the king, who, with all his nobles, gave him many fine houses." When his success in arms gave some rest to his na- tion, Alfred turned with all his early zeal to his books. 144 ALFRED. [a. d. 849 - 900. He even made his old soldiers, the noblemen of his kingdom, learn to read. They would much rather fight the Danes. But Alfred said to some of them who had been undertaking to administer justice : " I wonder truly at your insolence, that whereas, by God's favor and mine, you have occupied the rank and office of the wise, you have neglected the studies and labors of the wise. Either, therefore, at once give up the discharge of the temporal duties which you hold, or endeavor more zealously to study the lessons of wisdom." The poor earls trembled. But they could not bear to give up their offices, so they set themselves to learning to read as fast and as well as they could ; and if any of them, it is said, from old age or slowness of talent, wcs unable to make progress in study, he commanded some son or kinsman or servant to read to him night and day when he had any leisure, " And they lamented with deep sighs, in their inmost hearts, that in their youth they had never attended to such studies." Alfred's own studies were respectable. He devoted half his time, as well as much of his revenue, to the ser- vice of God ; and of this time much was occupied in translating into the Anglo-Saxon tongue such parts of old authors as he thought would be a benefit to his peo- ple. But he gave them greater gifts than a sudden impulse in learning ; from which, indeed, they fell back after his death. He arranged the institutions of domes- tic government, and so carefully carried them out, that he used to hang up and leave golden bracelets at the corners of the highways, certain that they would not be stolen, and as an evidence to all travellers of the safety A. D. 849 -900.] HIS PEOPLE. 145 of property in his dominions. He was indeed a Chris- tian king. He believed in the superstitions of his times, for he was the man of his times. But with the best light he had he worshipped God, advanced his kingdom, and obeyed the Saviour in whom he trusted. He found an uncultivated island, inhabited by a frightened, ignorant peasantry, ravaged by pagan tribes ; really without government, and without hope of im- provement. He left it a united nation ; its enemies respecting it, and a part of them, in name, converted to its faith. He left his people ignorant, but he left the foundation of institutions which should improve them. He left them barbarous, but he had established those systems of home government, of village administration, under which, as it has proved, there have sprung from them the most enlightened nations of the world. It cannot be said, that, in the highest sense of the word§, his was a Christian nation. The peasantry and priests were alike superstitious, and not only held to pagan traditions, but did not conform their lives to the Chris- tian spirit in thought or in action. Most of them were Christians in form more than at heart. But there was planted among them then that love of the truth, and in the nation's heart there was that uneasiness under con- trol, which has made them and theirs to be Protestants and free inquirers. And the Christianity of Protestants and free inquirers is always growing more and more pure. To produce such a state of things there have united in England, — 1. The old Roman influence, which is still seen in NO. VIII. 13 ]46 ^ ALFRED. [a. D. 849 -900. some features of our law and municipal government, and which in Alfred's time could be distinctly traced, even in Roman forts and roads and cities. 2. The early Christian influence, which affected even the Saxons when they conquered Britain. 3. The energetic element of the Saxon character, of which Alfred himself is a fine example. 4. The dashing, adventurous spirit of the Northmen. Afterwards, when more civilized, their kings became kings of England, and their noblemen her nobles. In the enterprise of the Danes and Northmen, in their pas- sion for the sea, in their recklessness of pure sentiment or high beauty until Christianity gives it to them, are elements of character easily found in the Englishman or New-Englander of to-day. 5. The deep Christian spirit of Alfred, and his best advisers, who sought from on high, in the darkness around them, the best light which there was for their time. This is the true spirit of the true Protestant. NOTES TO CHAPTEE XII. In Miss Bremer's tales are constant allusions to Danish or Northern mythology. Frithiofs Saga, the great poem of Bishop Tegner, is a beautiful illustration of it. The best translation is one by three Swedish la- dies, published at London. Mallet's Northern Antiquities is well edited in Bohn's Antiqua- rian Library. The first four A'olumes of this admirable series con- tain, also, Bede's Ecclesiastical History, AVilliam of Malmesbury's Chronicle, six other old English Chronicles, and the "Anglo- Saxon Chronicle," which cover very fully the early English his- A. D. 1013 - 1085.] HILDEBRAND. 147 tory ; and, like almost all originals, are far more entertaining than any "made-over" abridgments. Bulwer's beautiful poem, " King Arthur," contains a pleasing picture of the introduction of Christianity among the Saxons. CHAPTER XIII. HILDEBRAND, OR POPE GREGORY THE SEVENTH. CATH- OLIC SUPREMACY. About a hundred years after Alfred's death, in the year 1013, there was born in Tuscany a carpenter's son, who before his death gained more immediate power over the world than ever King Alfred had, and who left a system, built up by himself, which rules in the world, although with a power constantly diminish- ing, to this day. His name was Hildebrand. His father saw that he was a bright boy, and gave him a literary education. One of his teachers was John Gratian, af- terwards Pope Gregory the Sixth. When the boy had grown old enough, he became a priest, and entered the convent of Cluny, in the South of France. He was prior of this convent, and much respected by the brethren and by all who knew him, when, in the thirty-sixth year of his age, Bishop Bruno, who had just been appointed Pope, passed through Cluny, on his way to Rome to assume his office. The custom then was, that, on the death of a Pope, the Emperor of Germany should appoint his successor ; and accordingly the Em- peror Henry had appointed Bruno. Bruno had accept- 148 HILDEBRAND. [a. D. 1013- 1085. ed the appointment, and arrived at Cluny, on this occa- sion, on Christmas day, dressed in the garb of Pope, in great splendor, and with a rejoicing attendance. At Cluny the imposing train stopped to spend the Christmas holidays. While the new Pope, who as Pope took the title of Leo the Ninth, was here, he and Hildebrand and the abbot seem to have discussed very earnestly the position of Rome, of Christianity, and of Europe. Hildebrand was very sure, that, in the condition of the times, it was quite possible that the Pope might make claims as the head of the Church which had never been made sys- tematically before, — and might sustain them, by play- ing one power in Europe against another. He looked forward to the time when the Pope should crown or dis- crown, at his pleasure, every king in Christendom. He felt that in that day, when, by such jars and wars as we have seen in Alfred's time and in Leger's time, all kings were weakened to the last degree, and jealous of each other, there was the best chance for this bold claim on the part of the Popes. But for this the Pope must himself be independent of any sovereign. One who was to make kings and emperors must not own that he could himself be made by a Gernian Emperor. And therefore, when Bruno, after the Christmas festival, left Cluny for Rome, at Hildebrand's earnest advice he went not as Pope, in the dress of a Pope, but in the sober dress of a pilgrim, holding a pilgrim's staff. It was not Leo the Ninth, the Pope who had entered the convent, who left it. It was simple Bruno, the bishop of Toul Hildebrand accompanied him. Through crowds of peo- A. D. 1013-1085.] SIMONY. 149 pie, who had assembled to see the pomp of the proces- sion, there moved along only this humble pilgrim com- pany. For the Bishop announced that he should not re- gard himself as Pope, till the Roman clergy and people had confirmed the nomination which the Emperor had made. Barefooted, with his train, he entered Rome, and asked this confirmation. The Roman clergy and people of course gave it eagerly. And the new Pope, having thus an appearance of authority which the Emperor alone could not give, was able to proceed more boldly in the various measures which he pursued. Leo reigned as Pope but five years, nor did any of his immediate successors hold his seat long. But, dur- ing all their reigns, Hildebrand, under the names of Subdeacon and Chancellor, was the real mover in their plans. He knew that such empire as he sought for the Church of Rome was impossible while the clergy con- tinued as ignorant and licentious as they then were. He set his face against the custom of marriage in the clergy, which was then as general among Catholics, perhaps, as it is now among Protestants. Especially was he indig- nant at the custom, very prevalent in the Church, by which men bought with money spiritual offices. This custom is known as simony^ in reference to the propo- sal of this sort which Simon the magician made to St. Peter.* Hildebrand held councils which declared the sin of this course, and other councils which tried those who wei-e guilty of it. Such investigations excited great * Acts viii. 18-24. 13* 150 HILDEBRAND. [a. D. 1013 - 1085. dismay among the clergy. But he carried them on with a relentless hand. The following account of one of them is very probably true. At all events it was believed universally at the time, and had the same ef- fect as if true. A French archbishop was charged with having bought his office. He was summoned for trial, and Hildebrand himself sat as judge, representing the Pope. But the archbishop had taken care of the result, by bribing those who had informed against him to keep silent. When the assembly opened, he stepped boldly forward, and said, " Where are they who charge me ? Let my ac- cuser step forth." There was silence, and, as he in- tended, no one appeared. If, however, he triumphed in this success, his triumph was a short one. Hildebrand himself spoke. "Dost thou believe," said he, "that the Holy Ghost with Father and Son are one Being." " I believe it," replied he. Then Hildebrand bade him repeat, " Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost." And the archbishop began the familiar formula. But Hildebrand's eye was on him, and it quickened his conscience as such a piercing eye can ; so that, when the proud archbishop came to the words " the Holy Ghost," his voice failed him. He remem- bered, probably, what Christ said of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and had the mistaken feeling that he could blaspheme it more completely than in his lie he had already done. Again and again he tried to speak them, but failed. All present regarded this as a divine judgment. He did. He fell at Hildebrand's feet, and confessed himself unworthy of the priest's office. After A. D. 1013- 1085.] THE TWO LIGHTS. 151 this confession, he could speak the words on which he had failed before. The fame of the incident induced twenty-seven other churchmen, and several bishops, to lay down their offices, before they were accused of si- mony, because, in fact, they were guilty. For twenty-four years, Hildebrand held the real power of the Popes, under the name of Chancellor. After several short reigns he was himself appointed Pope, by the tumultuous nomination of the Roman peo- ple. He took the Papal name of Gregory the Seventh. All this time he had been strengthening the power of the Popedom. A generation of priests had grown up, used to his restrictions. Wherever he had had a chance to interfere in the political struggles of the nations, he had done so. Of course one side was always glad of his interference, and neutral powers had no occasion, as they thought, to take notice of it. More and more boldly did he make his declarations of his power. In one of his letters he says : " The world, then, is guided by two lights : by the sun, the larger, and the moon, the lesser light. Thus the apostolic power represents the sun, and the royal power the moon ; for as the latter has its light from the former, so only do emperors, kings, and princes receive their authority through the Pope, because he receives his authority through God. Therefore the power of the Roman chair is greater than the power of the throne, and the king is accord- ingly subject to the Pope, and bound in obedience to him. If the Apostles in heaven can bind and loosen, so may they also upon earth give and take, according to merit, empires, kingdoms, principalities, duchies, and 152 HILDEBRAND. [a. D. 1013 -1085. every other kind of possession. Besides, the Pope is the successor to the Apostles, and their representative upon the chair of St. Peter ; he is the vicar of Christ, and consequently placed over all." Such claims made no great commotion, as long as they did not interfere with any of the stronger powers. But when, on one occasion, he had threatened to excom- municate the Emperor Henry, from whose ancestors his predecessors had received their appointment, and whom he had permitted to confirm his own, the Em- peror answered by anathematizing him, in a council of his own, and wrote to him in these words : — " Henry, king, not by force, but by the sacred ordi- nation of God, to Hildebrand, — not the Pope, but the false monk : This greeting hast thou merited by the confusion thou hast spread throughout all classes of the Church. Thou hast trampled under thy feet ministers of the holy Church, as slaves who know not what their lord does ; and by that desecration hast thou won favor from the lips of the common herd of people. We have long suffered this, because we were desirous to maintain the honor of the Roman chair. But thou hast mistaken our forbearance for fear, and hast become em.boldcned to raise thyself above the royal power, bestowed upon us by God himself, and threatened to take it from us, as if we had received our dominion from thee. De- scend, therefore, thou that liest under a curse of excom- munication by our and all bishops' judgment, descend ! Quit the apostolic seat thou hast usurped ! And then shall the chair of St. Peter be ascended by one who does not conceal, under the divine word, his arrogance. A. D. 1018-1085.] THE EBIPRESS COASTING. 153 I, Henry, by God's grace king, and all our bishops, say to thee, ' Descend ! Descend ! ' " Upon this, the Pope held a council also, and not only pronounced the sentence of excommunication against Henry, but deposed him in the following words : — "In the name of the Almighty God, I forbid to King Henry, the son of the Emperor Henry, who with haughtiness unheard of has arisen against the Church, the govern- ment of the German and Italian Empire, and absolve all Christians from the oath which they have made or will make to him, and forbid that any one serve him as king. And, occupying thy office, holy Peter, I bind him with the bands of a curse, that all nations may learn that thou art Peter, and upon this rock the Son of the living God has built his Church, and that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." He followed up this excommunication with the ex- communication of a list, almost countless, of priests and noblemen who followed Henry. And so began the real struggle for the claim he had so long made for the Pa- pal power. Henry at first ridiculed the excommunication. But the politics of his own empire were involved, and every sort of rebel was glad to make use of the Pope's author- ity. Henry was frightened at finding himself deserted by almost all his followers. With his wife and one companion only, he started in the depth of winter to make his submission to the Pope. The winter was more severe than ever. As they crossed Mount Cenis, the poor Empress was wrapped in an ox-hide, and coasted down the steep roads, under the care of her 154 HILDEBRAND. [a. D. 1013- 1085. Matilda of Canossa. She solicited the Pope to make terms with him. He, however, at first " would by no mfeans hear of a reconciliation, but referred all to the decision of the Diet ; at last, however, upon much en- treaty, he yielded permission that Henry, in the garb of a penitent, covered with a shirt of hair, and with naked feet, might be received in the castle. As the Emperor advanced within the outer gate, it was immediately closed, so that the escort which had joined him in Sa- voy was obliged to remain outside of the fortress, and he himself was now alone in the outer court. Here, in January, in the midst of a severe and rigorous winter, he was obliged to remain three whole days barefooted and shivering with the cold. All in the castle were moved. Gregory himself writes in a letter, ' that every one present had severely censured him, and said that his conduct more resembled tyrannical ferocity than apostolic severity.' The Countess Matilda, while vainly pleading for him, was affected even to burning tears of pity and grief, and Henry, in his distress, at length only prayed that he might at least be allowed to go out again. On the fourth of these dreadful days, the Pope event- ually admitted him before him, and absolved him from excommunication ; but Herry was still forced to sub- scribe to the most severe conditions. He was obliged to promise to present himself at the day and place the Pope should appoint, in order to hear whether he might remain king or not, and meanwhile he was to abstain from all exercise of the royal attributes and monarchal power." * * Kohlrausch'R Germany^ A. D. 1013- 1085.] POWER OF THE POPE. 155 This was, perhaps, the greatest triumph which Pope Gregory ever had. Henry rallied from his alarm, made war against him again, took Rome, and besieged the Pope in his citadel of St. Angelo. And before his death, the poor old Pope was himself driven to Salerno, where he died. On his death-bed, he said, "I have loved justice, and hated evil, and therefore I die in ex- ile." The bishop in attendance heard the words, and replied, " No, Holy Father, you cannot die in exile ; for God has given you all nations for a heritage and the ends of the earth for a dominion." So far had Gregory given his own spirit to his clergy. -For more than two hundred years, the impulse which this remarkable man gave to the Roman power held its sway unabated. The Popes took new rights con- stantly in the kingdoms of Europe. They could ab- solve a king from his oath ; or they held him to their interpretation of it. They dissolved his marriage con- tract, or insisted upon it. All cases of controversy were brought by appeal before them, on the ground that they might judge if sin had been committed in previous decisions, so that they decided questions of trade, as warranties and mortgages. Such claims at supremacy had been hinted at before. But Hildebrand or Gregory was the first to make them real. It was about 250 years after his real reign began, that some weakness began to appear in the execution of such claims. In those two centuries and a half the Papal power was at its height. Since then it has been declining, till now the poor Pius Ninth holds his throne merely by suffer- ance, despised by his own people, who trusted him only 156 THE CRUSADES, [a. D. 1191 - 1194. too far, and the weakest power among the various sov- ereigns of Europe. His spiritual sway is wide indeed. But over crowns and sceptres he has as little power as had the humblest of his early predecessors. NOTES TO CHAPTER XIII. In J. H. Perkins's Writings (2 vols., Crosby & Nichols, 1851) there is a valuable article on Hildebrand, reprinted from the N. A. Review of July, 184.5. Kohlrausch's History of Germany, translated by Haas (Appleton & Co., 1845), is a good book of reference for the history on which this chapter only enters. Hallam's Middle Ages may seem formidable to young readers; but they can understand it, and will certainly profit by it. CHAPTER XIV. THE CRUSADES. — RICJIARD OF ENGLAND. The history of the Crusades is itself a subject far too large to be attempted in a chapter of this volume. And it is so often treated, and by such attractive authors, that every one who will read this book will have gained in other quarters such information with regard to these great expeditions as is necessary to our present view of them. It is very evident that in the end they greatly im- proved the civilization of Europe, and so of the world. To say this, is simply to say again that God rules the world. The Crusades happened, as he permitted. Of A. D. 1191-1194.] FALL OF JERUSALEM. 157 course, therefore, good follows from them. This lesson may be gained from all history. But it does not follow that those who entered upon them aimed at those re- sults which have come. To prove this would require argument going far deeper than that which shows that those results were benefits. In fact, the Crusades gave a common cause of effort to the warriors and kings of Europe ; and this common cause was a religious cause, and it therefore brought them sometimes into dependence upon their spiritual sov- ereign, the Pope. These were the two features without which they would never have existed. The Popes could have crushed them, had they chose. They would have chosen to do so, if they had not directly strengthened the newly established Papal system. As they did strengthen this system, the Popes favored them, seized eagerly on the first suggestion of a Crusade, fanned the spirit which made them into life, and kept it active for centuries, till, in spite of them, it died. Among the plans of Hildebrand was a Crusade. He felt that it would unite Europe, and make united Europe subser- vient to Rome. He bided his time for it. And when Peter the Hermit, with whom Hildebrand had consulted, returned from Jerusalem, eager to excite again the Christians of Europe, already incensed for centuries because infidels had any hold of the Holy City, Pope Urban, Hildebrand's successor, made him his instru- ment at once. He would have silenced him, as he silenced other fanatics, but that this excitement helped the Holy See. Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Christians. After NO. VIII. 14 158 THE CRUSADES. [a. D. 1 191 - 1 194. nearly a century they lost it ; and a new Crusade was then undertaken. The real leader in this was the gallant King Richard the Lion-hearted. He is a favorite hero in England, and in English literature. His deeds have often been ftivorably presented, with the best ornaments of litera- ture, under the best arrangements of modern style. We propose, therefore, to bring together a few anecdotes of his campaign in Palestine, as his own admirers in his time recorded them, that, even if in contrast to these civilized pictures, we may make a fair picture of what the Crusades were to the people of their time. Richard landed with his brave Englishmen at Acre. The Crusaders were besieging that town, and he assist- ed in the siege. It became closer and closer. The petrarise, or stone -throwers, one of which was named God's petraria, " never ceased to shake the walls day and night. And when the Turks saw this, they were smitten with wonder, astonishment, terror, and confu- sion ; and many, yielding to their fears, threw them- selves down from the walls by night ; and, without wait- ing for the aid promised by Saladin, very many sought with supplications the sacrament of baptism and Chris- tianity. There was little doubt, and with good reason as to their merits, that they presumptuously asked the boon more from the pressure of urgent fear than from any divine inspiration ; but there are different steps by which men arrive to salvation." Such is the cool remark of a priest of the time, writ- ing his- history in good faith. It did not offend the Christianity of his day. He goes on to tell how the A. D. 1191-1194.] THE HOSTAGES HUNG. 159 citizens capitulated. They made a treaty, to which Saladin, chief of the Saracens, assented, and gave hos- tages for its performance. But it was not performed. And in consequence, " When it became clearly evident to King Richard that a longer period had elapsed than had been fixed, and that Saladin was obdurate, and would not give himself trouble to ransom the hostages, he called together a council of the chiefs of the people, by whom it was resolved that the hostages should all be hanged, except a few nobles of the higher class, who might ransom themselves, or be exchanged for some Christian captives. King Richard, aspiring to destroy the Turks root and branch, and to punish their wanton arrogance, as well as to abolish the law of Mahomet and to vindicate the Christian religion, on the Friday after the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary or- dered two thousand seven hundred of the Turkish hos- tages to be led forth from the city and hanged. His soldiers marched forward with delight to fulfil his com- mands, and to retaliate, with the assent of the Divine Grace, by taking revenge upon those who had destroyed so many of the Christians with missiles from bows and arbalists." With so little grief were prisoners put to death, — and with so little Christianity was the conquest of the Sepulchre attempted. Yet there was not a want of a certain Christian sentiment among the troops. They marched from Acre inland. " When the king had pro- ceeded as far as Capernaum, which the Saracens had razed to the ground, he dismounted and took some food, the army, meanwhile, waiting; those who chose took 160 THE CRUSADES, [a. D. 1191 - 1194. food, and immediately after proceeded on their march to the house called ' of the narrow way,' because the road there becomes narrow. There they halted and pitched their tents. It was the custom of the army each night, before lying down to rest, to depute some one to stand in the middle of the camp and cry out with a loud voice, ' Help ! help ! for the Holy Sepulchre ! ' The rest of the army took it up, and repeated the words ; and, stretching their hands to heaven, amid a profusion of tears, prayed for the mercy and assistance of God in the cause. Then the herald himself repeated the words in a loud voice, ' Help ! for the Holy Sepulchre ! ' and p.very one repeated it after him a second time, and like- ./ise a third time, with contrition of heart and abundant weeping. For who would not weep at such a moment, when the very mention of its having been done would extract tears from the auditors. The army appeared to be much refreshed by crying out in this fashion." With such refreshment they marched to and fro through Palestine. They had not force enough to be- siege Jerusalem, but they gallantly met the Turks in the field, and the fighting really took place which is the theme of so many ballads and romances. The Marquis of Montferrat is chosen king, and assassinated, as may be read in " The Talisman." Count Henry of Cham- pagne is appointed his successor. Meanwhile, Easter passes. And on Easter eve, King Saladin, of the Saracens, visits the Holy Sepulchre " to assure himself of the truth of a certain fact, namely, the coming down from heaven of fire, once a year, to light a lamp. After he had watched for some time, with great atten- A. D. 1191-1194.] THE EASTER MIRACLE. 161 tion, the devotion and contrition of many Christian cap- tives, who were praying for the mercy of God, he and all the other Turks suddenly saw the divine fire descend and light the lamp, so that they were vehemently moved, while the Christians rejoiced, and with loud voices praised the mighty works of God. But the Saracens disbelieved this manifest and wonderful miracle, though they witnessed it with their own eyes, and asserted that it was a fraudulent contrivance. To assure himself of this, Saladin ordered the lamp to be extinguished ; which, hovt^ever, was instantly rekindled by the Divine power. And when the infidel ordered it to be extin- guished a second time, it was lighted a second time ; and so likewise a third time. God is all-patient. Of what use is it to fight against the Invincible Power ? There is no counsel against God, nor is there any one who can resist his will. Saladin, wondering at this miraculous vision, and the faith and devotion of the Christians, and exceedingly moved, asserted by the spirit of prophecy, that he should either die or lose possession of the city of Jerusalem. And his prophecy was fulfilled, for he died the Lent following." These are the words of the old chronicle. This miracle was annual, and greatly celebrated in those times. It was made to take place every year for some centuries. Nearly two hundred years before, the Kha- lif Hakem, governor of Jerusalem, was told, " that when the Christians assembled in their temple at Jeru- salem to celebrate Easter, the chaplains of the Church, making use of a pious fraud, greased the chain of iron that held the lamp over the tomb with oil of balsam ; 162 THE CRUSADES. [a. D. 1 191 - 1194. and that, when the Arab officer had sealed up the dooi which led to the tomb, they applied a match, through the roof, to the other extremity of the chain, and the fire descended immediately to the wick of the lamp and lighted it." He was angiy at such a fraud, and a persecution of the Christians followed, in which the church was destroyed, in the year 1008 or 1010. The Christian armies celebrated Easter in camp. But their dissensions increased. Richard was sent for from England, in consequence of great troubles at home. But the troops begged him to remain. And he promised to remain till after another Easter. It was at this time that, " on the third day before the feast of St. John the Baptist, i. e. St. Alban's day, while the army was staying there, they were much comforted by news which was brought to the king. For a devout man, the Abbot of St. Elie, whose countenance bespoke holiness, with long beard and head of snow, came to the king, and told him that a long time ago he had concealed a piece of the Holy Cross, in order to preserve it until the Holy Land should be rescued from the infidels, and restored entirely to its former state ; and that he alone knew of this hidden treasure ; and that he had often been pressed hard by Saladin, who had tried to make him discover the cross, by the most searching inquiries ; but that he had always baffled his questioners by am- biguous replies, and deluded them with false state- ments ; and that on account of his contumacy Saladin had ordered him to be bound ; but he persisted in as- serting that he had lost the piece of the cross during the taking; of the citv of Jerusalem, and had thus de- A.D. 1191-1194.] Richard's prayer. 1G3 luded him notwithstanding his anxiety to find it. Tlie king, hearing this, set out immediately, with the abbot and a great number of people, to the place of which the abbot had spoken ; and, having taken up the piece of the Holy Cross with humble veneration, they re- turned to the army ; and, together with the people, they kissed the cross with much piety and contrition." But, as might be expected of piety and contrition and comfort born out of this curious mixture of devo- tion and falsehood, these graces did not keep the armies from discord. The French threatened to return. Rich- ard prepared to. Saladin collected immense forces, and attacked Acre in his turn. Richard seized the chance for his peculiar devotion. " He was sitting in his tent talking with some returning officers, when, lo ! messen- gers from Joppa entered, and, tearing their garments, related to the king how the enemy had taken Joppa, all but the citadel. The king, hearing of the danger to which the besieged were exposed, and pitying their condition, interrupted the messengers. ' As God lives,' said he, ' I will be with them, and give them all the as- sistance in my power.' So the army was at once got ready, and moved with all celerity. But at Cayphas a contrary wind arose, and detained the ships. The king, vexed a:t this delay, exclaimed aloud, ' O Lord God ! why dost thou detain us here ? Consider, I pray thee, the urgency of the case, and the devoutness of our wishes.' No sooner had he prayed thus, than God caused a favorable wind to spring up, which wafted his fleet before it into the harbor of Joppa." The king stormed the town, and rescued the Chris- 104 THE CRUSADES. [a. D. 1191 - 1 194. tians in their citadel. And thus ends the account of his onslaught: — "The king, meanwhile, with brandished sword, still pursued and slaughtered the enemy, who were thus inclosed between the two bodies of the Chris- tians, and filled the streets with their slain. Why need I say more ? All were slain, except such as took to flight in time ; and thus those who had before been vic- torious were now defeated and received condign punish- ment, whilst the king still continued the pursuit, showing no mercy to the enemies of Christ's Cross, whom God had given into his hands ; for there never was a man on earth who so abominated cowardice as he." This was his last victory. He fell sick, and was obliged to conclude a truce of three years, three months, and three days, with the enemy. This he did in a rage, as may be seen by the words of his celebrated prayer as he submitted to it. The king had ordered " that it should be proclaimed through all the companies, that on the third day they must follow the king to battle, either to die as martyrs, or to take Jerusalem by storm." When the day came, the spirit of those going to fight had so greatly failed, that "there were not found of all the knights and shield-bearers above nine hundred. On account of which defection, the king, greatly enraged, or rather raving, and champing whh his teeth the pine rod which he held in his hand, at length unbridled his indignant lips as follows: — 'O God!' said he, 'O God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? For whom have we foolish Christians, for whom have we English, come hither from the farthest parts of the earth to bear our arms ? Is it not for the God of the Christians ? O A. D. 1191-1194.] ANOTHER PRAYER. 165 fie ! How good thou art to us thy people, who now are for thy name given up to the sword ! we shall become a portion for foxes. O, how unwilling should 1 be to forsake thee in so forlorn and dreadful a position, were I thy lord and advocate, as thou art mine ! In sooth, my standards will in future be despised, not through my fault, but through thine ; in sooth, not through any cowardice of my warfare art thou thyself, my King and my God, conquered this day, and not Richard, thy vassal.' " Such was the devotion and such the Christianity of the best hero of the third Crusade. It needs no words to show that such men, whatever their success in arms or in treaties, could do little to carry religion anywhere. The spirit is the same spirit which the Prankish King Clovis had, or which the Emperor Constantine had, or which any ambitious Mussulman or heathen might have. Such a spirit could only excite hatred of the cross which the Crusaders wore. And their enterprises did unite the nations of Western Asia in hatred to the Christian name. To the nations of Europe, taxed to carry them on, suffering by the loss of blood which they caused, they were a proclamation of the most false form of Christianity. For they assumed that in some sense Christ's kingdom was of this world, and that in some sense he was the leader of chivalry and of arms. Thus they made a new standard for Chris- tian attainment. It was not only unlike the Gospel standard, but it was wholly opposed to it. And in al- most every influence, they robbed the real motives of our religion of their pure power. 166 THE SLEEP OF THE PEOPLE, [a. D. 500-1500. They did strengthen the Popes. That they were meant to do. They united the states of Europe into a sort of general confederacy. That also, as we have said, Hildebrand intended. But God ordered also, what no man intended, that they should introduce Eastern learning into Europe, — that they should adjust the power of the nobility of Europe, — that also, while they went on, the great middle class of citizens should rise to their influence in the state, — and that thus popular freedom should be born. NOTES TO CHAPTER XIV. The extracts made above are all from " The Voyage of Bernard the Wise," A. D. 867 ; "The Chronicle of Richard of Devizes, containing the Deeds of King Richard the First, King of Eng- land"; ar from " Geoffrey de Vaisauf's Chronicle of Richard the First's Crusade." These, with many other originals, describing different journeys and crusades in Palestine and other parts of the East, make two volumes of Bohn's Antiquarian Library, referred to in a note to Chapter XII. James's History of Chivalry has been reprinted in this country, and is easily procured. CHAPTER XV. THE SLEEP OF THE PEOPLE. There is a common complaint that history tells so much of the princes and priests, and so little of the peo- ple. It is a complaint which may justly be made of the different chapters of this book, since we left Mary of A. D. 500-1500.] A vassal's oath. 167 Numidia. But the fault is only in the least part that of the historians, when they are writing of times be- tween the fifth and fifteenth centuries. Nothing can be told of the deeds of people who did nothing ; and through the whole of those ten centuries the great mass of the laborers of Western Europe did nothing which could be taken note of, but what their masters bade them do. The laboring men were, in all instances, the vassals or serfs of those who owned the land. They belonged to the land. The owner could not sell them to another owner ; but, on their part, they could not leave it for another home. They owed him service. This is the oath which a tenant or vassal took to his master : — " I, A. B., vassal, swear on the Holy Evangelists of God, that from this hour to the last day of my life I will be faithful to you, C. D., my lord, against all men, except the supreme bishop, the emperor, the king, or any lord whom I have heretofore acknowledged as such." In this ceremony, he was on his knees, holding his hands joined as if in prayer, and the lord inclosing them in his. If the owner needed, he took the serfs to batde, and they fought side by side ; if the lord lost his horse, the vassal gave him his ; and if the lord was taken pris- oner, the vassal was bound to contribute what was need- ed for his ransom. Such people had no influence. Even those who, just above this position, held a little property of their own, had none. And so it is all but impossible to trace them, or their daily doings. In deeds of land, you find the 168 THE SLEEP OF THE PEOPLE, [a. D. 500- 1500. number of farmers mentioned who were sold with the land. In accounts of wars, you find the number of the vassals who followed a leader to the wars. In accounts of plagues, you find the number of victims mentioned who were swept away by the contagion. But such notices are all that you find. What they were about, what they were doing, and how they did it, you cannot find. The history of the ten centuries which preceded the invention of printing is like the streets of a great city on the day of a military or ecclesiastical procession, when all laymen or civilians are ordered to keep out of the way. Nothing but cannons and pow- der-carts may be seen. No omnibuses, no wagons, no wheelbarrows. Nothing but soldiers or priests. There are no children playing, no women shopping, no ped- lers, no street-sweepers or street-pavers, and no errand- boys, or girls coming home from school. This was true of all Christendom till the dawn of the Reformation. We allude to it here that we may once for all contrast it with power of difl?erent sorts which has controlled Christian civilization. We will make some extracts which shall exhibit it in England, while Richard was away on his Crusade. While the scenes passed described in the last chap- ter, there were at home such men as are here described as sitting in an oak forest in the West Riding of York- shire, in England : — " The eldest of these men had a stern, savage, and wild aspect. His garment was of the simplest form imaginable, being a close jacket, with sleeves composed of the tanned skin of some animal, on which the hair A. D. 500- 1500.] A BORN THRALL. 169 had been originally left, but which had been worn off in so many places that it would have been difficult to distinguish from the patches that remained to what creature the fur had belonged The man had no covering upon his head, which was only defended by his own thick hair, matted and twisted together, and scorched by the influence of the sun into a rusty dark- red color, forming a contrast with the overgrown beard upon his cheeks, which was rather of a yellow or amber hue. One part of his dress is too remarkable to be sup- pressed ; it was a brass ring, resembling a dog's collar, but without any opening, and soldered fast round his neck, so loose as to form no impediment to his breath- ing, yet so tight as to be incapable of being removed, except by the use of the file. On this singular gorget was engraved in Saxon characters an inscription of the following purport : ' Gurth, the son of Beowulph, is the born thrall of Cedric of Rotherwood.' " * This description is Sir Walter Scott's, the best his- torian yet of those times. Each of our readers must remember that, if he be American-born, of the " native American stock," the most of his ancestors in King Richard's time were such men, or the wives of such men, bound in such allegiance to their masters. These masters were not always noblemen. The monasteries had serfs, as corporations now hold property. And from one of the convent historians of the same time comes this description of the way in which the wives of some of these serfs fared, when spinning at home. It * Ivanhoe, Chap. I. NO. VIII. 15 170 THE SLEEP OF THE PEOPLE, [a. D. 500- 1500. is the account of the collection of the repsehei' due, which the tenants of the convent had not paid. This was the penny which each householder had to pay for reaping the convent grain. " Our store-keeper," says one of the convent historians, " goes out to collect it. The rich people will not pay. The poor people have no penny, and make no promises. So he seizes as pledge for it, whatever he can, — here- a joint-stool, there a kettle, now even the house-door itself, — and carries it off, v.'hile the old women rush after him with their dis- taffs, abusing him and threatening him." In such a system of civilization, every work which is undertaken is planned by the owners of the serfs. They do all the thinking for the world. Now, Richard the Lion-hearted seems to us a great way off from us. He lived, indeed, a long time ago. But this form of power, or civilization, is still believed in in many re- gions. It is, indeed, the arrangement made for all well- bred children. In Mr. Abbot's excellent Franconia books, the law of it for them is well laid down, where we are told that Beechnut made the plans for his younger playmates to follow, and then gave to their hands, as far as he could, the execution. It is, undoubtedly, the best way to manage children. In all slave countries it is the way in which slaves are managed. The master or overseer makes the plans, and the slaves carry out the details, — bring to bear the handwork which shall fulfil the plans. But, in a larger instance than these, it is the rsal theory at the bottom of the great system of the Ro- man Catholic Church. Where that Church has had full sway, the civilization of the world has been arranged in A. D. 500-1500.] CALIFORNIA MISSIONS. 171 this way. California, for instance, which is now the most striking illustration of the opposite system, and shows each pair of hands directed by one head, was settled under the Catholic system, of one head for many hands. It was wholly in the hands of the Franciscans, a Cntholic brotherhood, for a century and p half. They gave the name of San Francisco, their founder, to our great seaport there. They established, on their system, twenty or more " missions " up and down the country. In these missions were priests, who did the thinking and planning for the country round. They won upon the simple Indians. They taught them how to work. They took care not to teach them how to think. They taught them the details. They took care to keep them from originating. The Indians formed no communities of their own. They nestled under the missions' wings. They gathered no property of their own. They took care of the missions' increasing wealth. It was the missions' bees whose hives they tended, the missions' cattle whom they reared, the missions' fields which they ploughed and reaped. With the priests of the missions to direct, they were a simple, inoffensive race, and an outside aspect of cheerfulness, wealth, and prosperity spread over the land. But it was an unnatural prosperity. God gives every man a head and a heart when he gives him a pair of hands. God meant that each pair of hands should work under the influence of its owner's mind, obeying its owner's conscience. He did not mean that these hun- dreds of Indians, for instance, should be nothing but hand-workers, rearing children who should be only such. 172 THE SLEEP OF THE PEOPLE, [a. D. 500- 1500. And thus, so unnatural is the system, that it never stands. When the priests were swept out of California by a popular Mexican revolution, the poor Indian vas- sals were no nearer civilization than their fathers were before the Franciscans came. They were like helpless cars upon a railroad, when their engine has been thrown off into a ravine. They could not direct their own hands, they could not plough their own fields, they could hardly collect the scattering oxen from the convent herds, or give homes to the swarms of the convent bees. And so the beautiful exterior of the seeming prosperity of the old missions fell back into decay, waiting for the Protestant system of a free land to tiy its renewal. This system gives each man his own chance, professes to leave to him all his own powers ; and if he carries out the plans of another, it is because he chooses so to do, and so far makes them his own. These two systems are yet face to face in the world. The Protestant system is nowhere fully carried out, — perhaps nowhere farther than in New England. The other system is nowhere fully carried out, but it is the basis of the Roman theoiy everywhere. The submis- sion of the separate conscience is the point which dis- tinguishes a Romanist from a Protestant. NOTES TO CHAPTER XV. Scott's Ivanhoe and Betrothed will show something of English domestic Hfe during this sleep of the people. Mrs. Cowden Clarke's story of Lady Macbeth -will interest yonng readers. Carlyle's Past and Present contains extracts from the convent history quoted above. A. D. 1208-1226.] EARLY CHURCHES. 173 In Sir George Simpson's Journey round the World is a spirited account of the Franciscan missions in California. Any history of Paraguay — there are no good ones — illus- trates the same experiment, as the Jesuits tried it there. CHAPTER XVI. OPPONENTS OF THE ROMAN POWER. THE ALBIGENSES. It must not be supposed that the Church of Rome, which claimed under Pope Gregory such power as we have described, embraced all Christians, or almost all. Some centuries passed after Christ's death before it as- sumed any power over other churches. Such claims as it then made were made also by other churches which were supposed to be founded by Apostles, as that at Antioch, that at Alexandria, and that at Consta,ntinople. Over these churches, and almost all those in Asia, the Roman Church has never had any more authority than has the First Church of Boston. The Patriarch of Con- stantinople is still the head of a part of " the Greek Church." Most of the Eastern churches, and those of Northern Africa, were swept away by the conquests of the Mussulmans. The Nestorian church in Asia Minor has maintained its own existence to this day. And the same may be said of many scattered communities in different parts of Western Asia. Under a scandalously corrupt form of Christianity, there is an Abyssinian church in Africa, which has no connection with the Church of Rome, but which has existed by itself from very early times. 15* 174 OPPONENTS OF ROME. [a. D. 1208- 1226. In Western Europe, very naturally, the Roman Church had more power. Until the Western branch of the Roman Empire fell, in the fifth century, Rome was the political capital, and by far the most important city of those parts of the world. From Rome came most of the missionaries who converted Franks and Saxons to the faith. Rome was, in some sense, their home and head-quarters. When, from time to time, an ambitious Pope made pretensions to new power, they cost him nothing, and lost him nothing, if, as usually happened, they failed. But where they succeeded, he made so much clear gain for the Roman see. For it must not be forgotten, that, in those centuries of darkness, there was nothing whatever of what we call pubhc opinion, which should react on a government which made absurd demands. And, again, there was so little information passing between country and coun- try, that half Europe, even Christian Europe, knew next to nothing of the Pope, and the Pope knew next to nothing of them. If the Popes before Hildebrand had made the extravagant claims he made on distant prov- inces of Europe, they would have been almost as idle, as if some village minister with us should make like claims on the Empire of Japan. The people of half Christen- dom would never hear that he had claimed such alle- giance. The Christian Britons in Wales lived foi centuries without any intercourse with Rome. When, afterwards. Christians went from England to Rome, it was as formidable a pilgrimage as it would be now for a man to walk from New England to California. And v/hen, therefore, Hildebrand, or Gregory the Seventh, A. D. 1208- 1226.] DISOBEDIENCE TO THE POPE. 175 began his exactions, they were received by such Eng- lish kings as William the Conqueror and William Ru- fus as absurdities, which they did not hesitate to inter- fere with or refuse. But it would so often happen that priests, and ambi- tious priests, were statesmen and prime ministers, that they bent such sovereigns as would be bent to submit to the Pope's desires. And weak kings were glad to get alHes where they could. So John of England, for instance, agreed to pay a thousand marks annually to the Pope, and that his successors should. For a hun- dred and thirty years, when in need of the Pope's alli- ance, the English kings paid it ; when strong and firm, they refused ; and the last payment was made in the year 1343, just before the Black Death, — to which our next chapter relates, — two hundred years before Lu ther's reformation. It stopped, because the real su- premacy of the Popes was even then at end for ever. We have said this to explain how, in such barbarous times, all Europe knew little of such controversies about religious doctrine as disturb religious men in enlightened times. It was not that the Pope had any more power to suppress them then than he has now, but rather that he had less; and that neither he, nor any man, had the means or disposition to bring to light the variations of religious sentiment and belief, which ex- isted then, as they must exist where there are separate men. All through the centuries before Luther there are instances of bishops disobeying the Pope, of kings disregarding his claims, — indeed, of whole nations who lived in their Christian faith as if there were no Pope. 176 OPPONENTS OF ROME. [a. d. 1208- 1226. The king of Hungary was so far from him, that, when the Pope crowned him, he expressly acknowledged that he and his successors should be regarded as apostles, and ordain bishops at their pleasure. What if, in such times, a village priest preached doctrine which was not the doctrine of Rome ? Nay, what if a bishop did the same thing .? It was much better, that, till public scan- dal called attention to the heresy, it should be let alone, than that men's attention should be called to it. Such heresies were let alone, till the invention of printing spread them broadcast, and then the pretence of uni- formity fell, of necessity. In fact, from the beginning, there were everywhere Protestants, — men, that is, who never gave the Pope any power over their Christianity. There were sects, of whom those in the Alps became famous, who held this position for centuries. Preachers, writers, and men who held it, without becoming famous, were every- where. Every king who proceeded without Papal authority is an evidence that there was an influential sentiment made by such men around him. Every heretic of whom the Church chose to take notice is an evidence that there were many whom it passed by. When its pride began to fall, — when in the fourteenth century it was divided against itself, and Europe was scandalized by the sight of two Popes for seventy years, — the Protestant voices' were heard all over Eu- rope. In the middle of that centuiy, the convulsion of the pestilence heaved up old foundations, so that from that period they were heard the more loudly. And as the new forms of civilization came in, a part of them, A. D. 1208-1226.] TWO HERETICS. 177 both cause and consequence, was a series of attacks upon the power of the Pope, — such as had existed through all the past centuries, but which till now hardly needed to be so expressed. There is no century, even the darkest, from which cannot be collected expressions of indignation against the abuses of the clergy, and bold denials that it was possible that any man should hold the keys of faith. When it is said, that in any nation no heresy arose, as was once said of England by a flattering Pope, we are to understand, that it was a nation so far from him that he had not heard its mutterings, and so ignorant of him that it did not care to make them known. We will take, as a single instance which will illustrate the treat- ment which the Roman Church had for heretics when they were near enough to attract its vengeance, the fate of the Albigenses. The inhabitants of the Alps had never cared for the Pope. The people of mountains are apt to breathe free. A like heresy extended in the beautiful regions of the South of France. Innocent the Third, therefore, organized a crusade against the heretical Albigenses, so called from Albi, their chief seat in that region, who from the earliest times had disregarded the power of his chair. Its commander was Count Simon de Mont- fort. The following details will illustrate its spirit. We take them from a Catholic historian : * — " At Castres, they brought before the Count two here- tics, of whom one was one of those whom they call the * rieury. 178 THE ALBIGENSES. [a. D. 1208 - 1226. Perfected, the other his disciple. The Count, after having taken counsel, condemned both of them to the flames, although the disciple declared that he wished to be converted, and abjured, indeed, his heresy. ' For,' said the Count, ' if he speaks in good faith, this fire will answer for an expiation of his sins ; if he lies, he will suffer the penalty of his imposture.' Then they bound them both strongly to a stake, and asked the novice, in what faith he chose to die. ' I renounce heresy,' said he ; ' I wish to die in the faith of the holy Roman Church, and I pray God that this fire may serve me in- stead of purgatoiy.' They then lighted a great fire around the stake, which in a moment consumed the ' perfected ' one, and burnt the bonds of the novice, so that he came out of the flame safe and sound, having only the ends of his fingers a little burned. This was regarded as a miracle." In such a vein of pleasantry is recorded the begin- ning of a series of atrocities which exposed large com- munities of mountain peasants to the cruelties of an im- mense army. " Many bishops," he goes on, " came with the Cru- saders against the Albigenses. The Bishop of Paris joined them, during the siege of Lavaur, which was taken by assault on the day of The Finding of the Holy Cross (!), May 3, 1211. There were captured Aimeri of Montreal, and eighty other knights, whom the Count de Montfort wished to hang. They began with Aimeri, but the gallows fell, having been carelessly planted in haste ; and the Count, seeing the execution thus delayed, ordered that the rest should be killed. The pilgrims. A. D. 1208 - 1226.] THE INQUISITION. 179 obeyed him with great eagerness. They even burned three hundred heretics, and by order of the Count they threw into a well the Lady of Lavaur, the sister of Aimeri, a very obstinate heretic, and buried her in a heap of stones. The Crusaders then took a castle named Casser, where the bishops who were with them entered, and began to exhort the heretics ; but not hav- ing been able to convert one, they left the castle ; and the pilgrims, taking the heretics, about sixty in number, burned them with great joy." This terrible war, thus conducted, lasted eighteen years. At the siege of Bexiers, when thousands were massacred at once, it was that a monk among " the pilgrims," when asked how the Catholics and the heretics could be distinguished from each other, made the terrible answer, " Kill them all ! God will know his own." Montfort, the leader, was to have an independent principality for his reward. But he gained one more fitting, when, at the siege of Toulouse, a stone fell upon him and crushed him to death. Francisco of Assisi, and Dominic of Toulouse, were both in this terrible expedition, with some of their followers. They had just begun the so- cieties of clergy nov/ known as the Franciscans and Dominicans. The Franciscans are organized nominal- ly for the conversion of the poor ; the Dominicans, who date from 1215, for the suppression of heresy. These last have maintained the institution of the Inquisition, of which Dominic was the first Inquisitor. The country of the Albigenses was the South of France, and on their ruin the principality of Toulouse also fell. Such atrocities in no sort helped the Church ISO THE BLACK DEATH. [a. D. 1348 - 1350. which contrived them. No sooner did the Reformation break out in Switzerland under Zuingle and Calvin, than it found a home at once on this oppressed soil. NOTE TO CHAPTER XVI. Browning's History of the Huguenots. Reprinted. Phila- delphia : Lea & Blanchard. 1845. Dr. Baird's History of the Waldenses. Boston. 1845. B. Per- kins & Co. Two very valuable articles by Dr. Sears, on Ullmann's Re- formers before the Reformation, in Bibliotheca Sacra, Vols. I., II. CHAPTER XVII. THE BLACK DEATH. " He lived, he died ; behold the sum, The abstract of the historian's page." It is true enough, that, of the thirteen centuries which these chapters have followed, these two words, lived and died^ would have told the abridged story. We see our heroes as boys, perhaps ; they grow into mature men, and then in old age pass off, other boys being in their places. Each century begins with a body of ac- tors wholly different from those with which the century before began. And yet this one universal fact, the death of all the actors, is not the fact of which history speaks. It takes a few years of their active lives ; and the last words of the death-bed, or its last struggles, are A.D. 1348-1350.] A YEi\R OF DEATH. 181 really almost as little to it as the first movings of the cradle. Millions of last partings had filled up these thirteen centuries. But the world had taken them as of course. There was not a minute in which some one somewhere was not dying. Still, because this was of course, festival and war and eager business pressed on, all the time, as if there were no death. It is so now. All men know now, that, of every forty persons round them, one will be dead before a year is over. Of the next forty persons you meet by accident in the street after you have read this chapter, it is as certain as is any thing human, that some one, at least, is within a twelvemonth of his grave. But this certainty, because it is the established certainty, does not check one step or one smile. But in the middle of the fourteenth century. Death spoke to the world with a voice which, for once, stopped festival, war, and eager care. In the yenr 1348, there began in Europe a plague which had been sweeping Asia. It cut right across the acts of Euro- pean life. It stopped wars ; it silenced revelry ; it left ships on the seas without seamen ; it left gold in the streets with none to pick it up. In six months its havoc in one nation would be over, and it would pass to anoth- er. In three years of such passing to and fro, it had swept through Europe. And there is no doubt, that, of all who lived in Europe when those three years began, more than a quarter part were in their graves when they were over. Of any single country, this might be said of the year when the plague struck it, — that of those alive when the year began, only three in four survived wo. vni, 16 182 , THE BLACK DEATH. [a. D. 1348 - 1350. the year. Of some countries the fate was worse. Cyprus lost ahnost all its inhabitants. Italy lost half its people. In Sardinia only a third survived ; and it was so in Padua. Travellers from Italy to Bohemia found cities and villages where no living person was left. The English historians of the time thought nine tenths of their countrymen died. It is certain that more than half did. There were places in France where it was known that only two persons out of twenty survived. The least estimate of its results in Europe, taking fa- vored regions with those which suffered most, is that which we have made. Twenty-five million persons, a quarter of the hundred million who were alive when this pestilence entered Europe, had sunk under its ter- rible touch before three years were over. Famine followed. Who should till the land, when in every house was death, and when every man dared not draw near his neighbor ? For the plague was terribly contagious. Mothers took it from their children ; hus- bands from the wives whose deaths they watched. " Flight was of no avail to the timid ; for their clothes were saturated with the pestiferous atmosphere, and every inspiration imparted to them the seeds of the destructive malady, which germinated only too rapidly." There were, as in all cases of pestilence, shocking in- stances of unchristian cowardice, by which the dying were deserted by the living who were afraid. But there were, as in all cases now, glorious instances of Christian bravery. There were physicians who studied the disease with all the gallantry of the noblemen of their profession, and hung over the sufferers with all 4. D. 1348-1350.] THE JEWS ACCUSED. 183 the tenderness with which they could ask to be watched themselves. In Avignon, where the Pope was living, driven out of Rome at the time, he consecrated the river Rhone as a place of burial, that the dead might be thrown there without delay. Many a river received them which had not been consecrated. In England the sit- tings of Parliament, and of almost all the courts, stopped. They were in presence of a Greater Law than man''s. The Pope, with the plague for his ally, adjusted the bloody quarrel between Edward the Third and Philip the Second. For they were in face of a more terri- ble soldier than either.* Beasts died as did men. They fell in their pastures. And the eagles and vul- tures, for once, did not gather where they fell. They shunned the certain death that was in a repast so ter- rible. As if these horrors were not enough, the cruelty of men added to them. At Chillon, on the beautiful Lake of Geneva, an absurd charge was made against the Jews, that they had poisoned the wells. They were tried, and tortured on trial. At once, in the horror of the times, the same accusation was made else- where. A few, to save themselves from the agony of the torture, confessed falsely that they were guilty. Their weakness brought renewed suffering on their miserable race. As the panic grew, a distinct charge * And yet, when this terrible soldier, Death, withdrew, these two children, as they would seem, whom his terror had awed, fell to blows again, — with other troops, indeed, for their own armies were gone. 184 THE BLACK DEATH. [a. D. 1348- 1350. was framed against them all, which, though it had no foundation, was greedily believed. It was everywhere reported that certain secret superiors, in Toledo in Spain, gave them their directions and means of opera- tion. These leaders were said to command all Jews to commit this poisoning, to murder Christian children, and to work other atrocities. It was said that they taught the rich men and Rabbis how to distil poison from spiders, owls, and other venomous animals, and sent it, indeed, in bags of powder from Toledo. Such bags were often found in wells, and although the poor hunted Jews frequently proved that Christians had put it in, to give occasion for murder and pillage, none the less did the rumors founded on such discoveries — rumors so fatal to them — spread through all Europe. The gates of cities were guarded with the greatest caution, lest poisoners should come in. All strangers were searched, and of whatever drug they had with them they were obliged to swallow a part, as a test that it was innocent. The noble and mean alike bound themselves by an oath to extirpate the Jews by fire and sword, and to snatch them from their protectors, of whom, indeed, there were so few, that in all Germany there are but few places, it is said, which were not stained then with the iniquity of the burning of these unfortunate people. And their fate seems to have been as sad in France and England. They were burned by hundreds, in buildings to which they had been forced to retreat. At Spires, in despair, they assembled in their own houses, which they set on fire. The Senate of Strasburg, after two thousand had A. D. 1348-1350.] HISTORY OF IT. 185 been burned alive in their own burial-ground, ordered all pledges and bonds to be returned to the debtors, and divided their money among the work-people. There were, as it is happy to see, some men who would not take the price of blood, — and from them it passed to the monasteries. This distribution of money, for an instant, stopped the dread of the omnipresent plague. But it soon reminded the cruel people of its power ; and the historian says, sadly, of this gold which the un- happy Jews had collected, " This was the real poison which killed the Jews." In such horrors three years went by. But God had not forgotten Europe, and he swept the plague away. Laborers sprung forward, and gained high wages, where they had starved before. Farms produced bountifully. New cattle took the place of the old. No one knew, of course, what would have been if the plague had not come, — and at the end of a hundred years no man lived who remembered its horrors. And so, to-day, there is not, perhaps., a general history of the time, which does not spend as much space in telling how in one of those three years King Edward picked up the garter of the Countess of Salisbury, as in telling of the havoc which swept into another world so many millions of King Edward's brothers and sisters. But although books thus pass it by, that larger rec- ord which is found in the condition of society shows everywhere the results which sprung from the almost instantaneous death of a quarter of the world. Such a convulsion leaves its traces, whether men write of it or not. And of all the institutions of Europe there is not 186 THE BLACK DEATH, [a. D. 1348- 1350. one which was not bent by so tremendous a blow to every man, woman, and child who lived under those institutions. Thus all property, all over Europe, changed hands, and passed from class to class. If these deaths had been, as usual, spread over thirty or forty years, it would have changed hands ; but then it would have passed from merchant to merchant, from noble to noble, — passing in most cases from father to son. Now, the richest merchants turned from their dying wives, their dead children, with no such love of their worldly goods but that they would gladly give them up for a hope of heaven. They rushed with their gold to the convents. Often the monks feared them more than they loved gold. They shut their gates against the tempting pes- tilence. Still, the precious treasures were thrown over the convent walls. At whatever sacrifice, the fright- ened sufferers sought prayers. And the wealth, else unaccountable, of many of the monasteries of Europe, which lived for centuries after, is to be ascribed to the gifts or the residuary legacies which they then gained from dying or dead men. The monks might fall, and did, under the pestilence ; but the associations, the mon- asteries, survived, to enjoy the treasures of those who had gone. It is said that the charitable orders of monks were generally firm against the fear of contagion, and did their duty to the suffering. The pestilence, however, mflicted a worse blow on them than the death of their members. The suffering it caused brought on, of course, the most eager piety, — the most anxious study A. D. 1348-1350.] ITS EFFECTS. 1R7 of the way to heaven. Men's only desire was eternity. So true and natural a wish gained but httle relief in the religion of those times. There sprung up crazy bands o^ jlagellants^ who traversed Europe, scourging them- selves, each man, for thirty-four days ; and promising heaven to all who would do the like. Multitudes of be- reaved men joined the orders of the clergy, to fill the vacant places, who had themselves no claim to such trust but the claim which was universal in those days, of broken hearts and sadness seeking cure. And thus at this instant literature, which was just awaken- ing, and the scientific study of theology, received a per- ceptible check, of which the Black Death is the simple cause. Wickliffe, of whom we are to speak, was already questiomng the power of Rome. Soon after, Huss awa- kened all Germany with the same questions. The Pa- pal supremacy died in this century. It never has been, it never will be, what it was before. Again, as trade, as agriculture, as commerce, resumed their channels, it was with new arrangements, each one of which rec- ognized a people starting into life. That people might have waited long for the advance which this sudden convulsion brought to them. Perhaps the contagion taught all men that lesson which contagion does teach so terribly, that all men are of one blood, — that the richest is the own brother of the poorest. However this may be, it is certain that the men of work, the men of war, the priests, the monks, and the Papacy itself, all felt the tremendous change which the Black Death brought to Europe, and that, through them, its influences remain to this i\r{y^ 188 WICKLIFFE AND HUSS. [a. D. 1348. From its day to this day, there has been a power to the people ; — the people began to wake from the sleep we have described. Two years before it began, at the battle of Crecy, the first cannon-shot was heard which was ever heard in battle. With that shot the old dis- tinction between mailed knight and half-naked vassal ended of course. Hired troops at once began to take place of levies of retainers. The change in arms came side by side with the change in society. Till the Black Death, all Europe seemed in a lethar- gic sleep. From the date of that calamity, history has action and motion to describe. NOTE TO CHAPTER XVII. Babington's ti-anslation of Ilecker's Treatise on the Black Death, published by the Sydenham Society, collects all the author- ities I have been usinsj. CHAPTER XVIII. WICKLIFFE AND HUSS. John Wickliffe was at Oxford, in college, when in a twelvemonth the Black Death swept half England into its grave. He had been eight years a student. He was now twenty-four yearc old, — just ready to begin life as a preacher. It would be strange if a young man, starting on such a duty in the midst of such des- olation, seeing all around him hardened men driven to prayer, should have bent to say any thing which he did A. D. 1348.] THE GOOD PARLIAMENT. 189 not feel to be God's own truth. At such a time, a true man would fear God more than a distant Pope. And John Wickliffe was a true man. So that it proved to be thus with him. Wickliffe joined in the opinion of those who thought the terrible pestilence a sign of the speedy end of the world. The first attack he made, in writing, on the wretchedly corrupt system of the Church, was in a lit- tle book called " The Last Age of the Church," writ- ten to show that by the end of that century the world would end. The pestilence, he said, was a special evi- dence of this. And without fear or favor he went on to arraign the vices of the clergy. He declared that with them was the seat of the nation's danger ; and that in their reformation must the nation and the world be pre- pared for its doom. In nearly forty years of life after- wards, he probably learned that his interpretation of prophecy was hasty. But in all that time he was deal- ing as heavy blows of reform as could be dealt by any man, on the rotten structure which then called itself the Church. He attacked the begging friars. He sus- tained the king in his refusal to pay tribute to the Pope. He lent his influence to " the good Parliament," which enacted that no Papal " collector or proctor," * seeking to remit money to the Pope, should remain in England, on pain of life and limb. He passed triumphantly through ecclesiastical trials and Papal bulls. He de- nounced the absurdity and scandal of the double Pope- dom then existing. He maintained constantly that the ♦ We should say " agent.'* 190 WICKLIFFE AND HUSS. [a. D. 1348. Scriptures only were the fountain of truth, and that each human soul was supreme over pope, bishop, or priest, in its right to judge of truth and to gain it. That all Englishmen might have this privilege, he added to his other gigantic labors a translation of the Bible. This, through many changes of language, still survives, as the basis of the translation in use to-day. Against such a man, the Popes used all their power. But Eng- land was not unused to heresy, nor afraid of it. Wick- liffe was protected in high quarters, and died quietly in his bed in the height of influence among his own peo- ple, — a most striking instance of the value to the world of one energetic man. For Wickliffe had no exalted station. But he had what was better, — a soul which he was trying to save, and a heart to help other men save theirs. We shall have room only for a passage or two from his sermons, and some specimens of his Bible. His sermons, not once or twice only, but often, or, indeed, almost always, speak directly of the Papacy as Anti- christ. In a sermon on this point come in these words : — " Popes and kings, therefore, should seek a reason above their own will, for such blasphemy often bringeth to men more than the pride of Lucifer. He said he would ascend and be like the Most High ; but he chal- lenged not to be the fellow of God [as the Popes do, is the intimation]. May God bring down this pride, and help that his word may reverse that of the fiend ! Well indeed I know, that, when it is at the highest, this smoke shall disappear." A. D. 1348.] THE BIBLE TRANSLATED. 191 Again : " Prelates, as the Pope and friars, may fail , accordingly Christ and his Apostles converted the world by making known to them the truths of Scripture in a language familiar to the people All Christians must come before the judgment-seat of Christ, and be answerable to him for all the goods wherewith he has intrusted them [including the Scriptures]. It is there- fore needful that all the faithful should know these goods, and the use of them ; for an answer by prelate or attorney will not then avail, but every one must then answer in his own person." His passion for circulating the Bible was his leading motive. He studied it at college, when its study was laughed at even by theologians. And he succeeded in scattering it widely, although in manuscript, through England. A few specimens of his version in the lan- guage of the time shall close our notice of the most fearless and most powerful reformer England ever knew. " And Jhesus seinge the people went up into a hil ; and whanne he was sett, his disciplis camen to him And he openyde his mouthe, and taughte hem ; and seide, Blessid be pore men in spirit ; for the kingdom of hevenes is herun. Blessid ben milde men ; for thei schulen weelde the erthe. Blessid ben thei that mourn- en ; for thei schal be coumfortid. Blessid be thei that hungren and thristen rigtirsnesse ; for thei schal be ful- filled. Blessid ben merciful men ; for thei schal gete mercy. Blessid ben thei that ben of clene herte ; for thei schulen se god. Blessid ben pesible men ; for thei schulen be clepid goddis children." 192 WICKLIFFE AND HUSS. [a. D. 1414. " At the beginning was the word, and the word was at god, and god was the word this was in the beginning at god. Alle things weren maad bi him : and withouten him was maad nothing. That thing that was maad in him was lif. And the lif was the light of men. And light schineth in darknessis and darknessis compre- hendid not it." Thirty years after Wickliffe's death, the Council of Constance ordered that his body should be dug up and burned. This was done, and his ashes thrown into the Swift brook. " Thus this brook," says Fuller, " has conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Sev- ern into the narrow seas, they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wickliffe became the emblems of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over." It was all the Council of Constance could do. They could not check the work his soul had wrought for the downfall of their pretensions. The Council of Constance was the most splendid and the largest assembly of the dignitaries of the Church which has ever come together. It met in 1414, for a purpose important enough to engage the Catholic Church's attention, if it meant to remain, in pretence even, one body. There had been two Popes for a hun- dred years. By this time there were three. The Coun- cil of Constance was an assembly where the Patriarchs of Constantinople, of Grado, and of Antioch, had been induced to come, — with twenty-two Catholic cardinals, two or three thousand of the lower clergy, students of various universities, and one thousand six hundred princes and noblemen, with their immense retinue, so A. D. 1415.] A TRIAL FOR HERESY. 193 that the whole number who attended was a hundred thousand men. They unmade all three of the Popes, and made an- other. Another act of theirs has given them more fame. John Huss had been not long before the presi- dent of a famous college in Bohemia. The queen of England in that time was a Bohemian princess. Com- munication was thus opened between the two nations, and a young Bohemian nobleman, returning from the University at Oxford, put into Huss's hands some of the writings of VVicklifTe, who was now dead. Huss read them. He had been satisfied himself of the corruption of the clergy. Wickliffe's clear statements excited him the more, and he preached and acted more earnestly than ever to check the corruptions of the Church. All sorts of controversies followed. Finally, the Pope ex- communicated Huss as a heretic, and he retired to his native place from the University. The Council of Con- stance, itself acknowledging numerous corruptions in the Church, sent for him to be present. The Emperor Sigismund gave him a safe-conduct to protect him on his way. Huss trusted it. This proved to be his great- est error. He was tried on various charges, many of which were true, such as these : — That he had said that there was no absolute neces- sity for a visible head to the Church ; That the Church was better governed in Apostolic times without one ; That a wicked Pope could not possibly be the Vicar of Christ ; NO. VIII. 17 194 WICKLIFFE AND HUSS. [a. D. 1415. That liberty of conscience was every man's natural right ; — and many others. In his examination, he did not hesitate to attack the simony, the lewdness, ignorance, and luxury of the clergy. The great assembly of them behaved with the most scandalous clamor while his trial went on. He would not abjure what he had said. The Emperor was persuaded that his pledge for Huss's safety was void, by the shameless doctrine embodied in a solemn decree of the assembly, " that no faith or promise ought, by nat- ural, divine, or human law, to be kept, if it conflict with the Catholic faith." And Huss was sentenced to be burned. The substance of the sentence is, " that John Huss, being a disciple of Wicklifle, of damnable mem- ory, whose life he had defended and whose doctrines he had maintained, is adjudged by the Council to be an obstinate heretic." After various insults, he was led to the Emperor. The Council had done all, they said, which the Church allowed. As was said on another similar occasion, they had " no power to put a man to death." Sigismund ordered the Duke of Bavaria to take him, and he gave him to an officer to be burned. One of the bishops had placed on his head a paper cap, with pictures of devils painted in horrid forms upon it. " Hereby," said he, " we commit thy soul to the Devil." Huss smiled, and said, " It is less painful than a crown of thorns." When he came to the stake he prayed, and at this moment, so earnest was his prayer, that some of the spectators cried out, " What this man hath said within doors we know not, but surely he pray- eth like a Christian." A. D. 1415.] leutze's picture. 195 It is at this moment that Leutze's great picture repre- sents this scene. To one who has seen that picture it becomes a reality. A group of peasantry watching him with eager sympathy, and some with perfect faith ; a cardinal, who has passed the eagerness of his own youth, when he, too, hoped the Church might be re- formed, and now shows, in the terrible expression of a calm face, intellectual and cultivated, that his head has got the better of his heart, — that he has learned to acqui- esce in what is, rather than what might be ; the Duke of Bavaria, far more tolerant, more distressed, while he submits to the decision of the Church, which ought in- deed to know ; and the kneeling martyr himself, for whom the pile is already lighted, make the prominent features of the sad picture ; which, however, like all pic- tures of martyrdom, is a picture of triumph. " I have no errors to retract," he said. " I have tried to preach Christ with the plainness of an apostle. I am ready to seal my doctrine with my blood." The fire was lighted, he asked God's blessing, and sang a hymn till his voice was stifled. His ashes, too, were scattered in the river, and so in the sea. His name was carried by the Council's mem- bers to the end of Christendom. He suffered July 6, 1415. His friend Jerome of Prague, after a glorious defence, suffered in like manner, a few months after. From that day, there were Protestant preachers in their country, Bohemia, where are till now remnants of the Hussites. And through that century, Goch, Tauler, Wessel, Wesel, and Ruysbroek were laying Protes- tant foundations up and down in Germany ; availing 196 SAVONAROLA. [a. D. 1452- 1497. themselves of labors which " the brethren of the Life in Common," a religious order founded by Gerard Groot, had begun half a century before. The invention of printing, in the middle of that cen- tury, made it impossible ever to stifle free inquiiy again, and their victory became sure. NOTE TO CHAPTER XVIII. I am sorry to say that Mr. S. Eliot's little volume, Passages from the History of Liberty, of which the life of Wickliffe is the longest, is very rare. Ticknor & Co. Boston. 1846. Lebas's Life of Wickliffe. Hai-pers' Theol. Library, Vol. I. Wickliffe and his Times. By Dr. Pond. Am. S. S. Union. 1841. I have not met with any life of Huss reprinted in America. CHAPTER XIX. SAVONAROLA. In the year 1445, Pope Clement issued a set of in- dulgences for sins, which were sold everywhere up and down Europe. He was not the first who had done this, for revenue to the Holy See ; but he is the first who used the phrase, " I forbid the angels in heaven to prohibit the passage into heaven " of the bearer. Seven years after this daring assumption, there was born one of those who was first loudly to oppose it. While Wicklifie was beginning to preach, when Huss was yet a boy, Girolamo Savonarola was born in Fer- A. D. 1452 - 1497.] LETTER TO HIS FATHER. J 97 rara. He was educated with extreme care, by a father worthy of such a son, and who loved him tenderly. At manhood, he determined to become a Dominican monk. Of the origin of the Dominicans we have spoken. As things were at that time, the life of a Dominican monk seemed to be the fittest position for a man of zeal and of eloquence, resolved on self-conquest and on the propagation of his own convictions. There are reasons, too, for supposing that a disappointment in love, which he experienced in his twentieth year, had much to do with the determination he then adopted of consecrating himself "to Christ and to the Church." Family affection alone contended for a while in the breast of the youth with the desire to become a " sol- dier of Christ." The struggle was long and painful. But the " sweet love of Jesus " triumphed, and Savo- narola left his home in 1475, being then twenty-three years of age, for a Dominican monastery at Bologna. He went away secretly, for, as he writes to his father, " Such was my distress at quitting you, that I verily believe, if I had uttered it, I should have broken my heart at leaving you ; nay, I might have changed my purpose and resolution. But though I could not tell you, I left behind the books which are propped up against the window writings which give you an ac- count of my proceedings. Dear father, then, do not weep, nor increase my grief; grief not for what I have done (for I would not revoke that to become greater than the Coesar), but because I am a man, as you know, and the sense resists reason, and I must resist the Devil that he may not conquer me, particularly when I think 198 SAVONAROLA. [a. D. 1452- 1497. of you. Soon will these present days pass, and we may be consoled, I hope, by grace here, and by glory hereafter. Nothing now remains, but that I beg you \o console with fortitude my mother, of whom I beseech it that she will bless me, and I will ever pray for both of you." We must feel that such a man was worthy to have received the benediction pronounced by Christ upon those who were able to leave father and mother for his sake. In the same beautiful letter Savonarola states as his reason for becoming a monk, " the great wretched- ness of the world, the iniquity of men, the theft, the un- cleanness, the violence, the idolatry, into which the age has fallen, so that one can no longer find a righteous man." This horror at the world's iniquities, this desire to flee from them and be at rest, was natural to a fresh and holy soul, on its first contact with the mingled reali- ties of life. For many years Savonarola remained in his convent, leading a humble, studious, and thoughtful life. But he found, alas ! that the world within the convent was hardly less foreign to his soul than the world without. A more intimate acquaintance with the clergy indis- posed him more than ever to receive ordination at their hands. "Would you have your son a wicked man," he used to say, " make him a priest ! O, how much poison will he swallow ! " The ceremonial of the Church, flattering the senses and subjugating the soul, the pomp of her offices, and her hierarchy, disgusted him. " The prelates," he said, " live like pagans ! " A. ». 1452 - 1497.] A DULL PEEACHER. 199 "1 find no gospel commanding us to keep in the churches crosses of gold and silver, but I find this : / was an hungered^ and ye gave me no meat ; I was aihirst^ and ye gave me no drink.^'' In 1475, he wrote an Italian poem, " On the Ruin of the Church," which well expresses his state of mind. " Luxury," he says, " is the popular philosophy. Rome, polluted with all vices, rushes on to a second fall. But to denounce her is but to excite fruitless enmity. Nothing remains, but silently to sorrow, and to holdfast the liope of a better future y So in silence he sorrowed and cherished his hope by meditating on the words and prophecies of great men ; of Aquinas, of Augustine, — whom he passionately loved and revered, as Luther did, — of the moderate but ear- nest Cassian, and above all, of the Scriptures, New and Old, At last he resolved to take orders, hoping to effect a reform in the priestly office itself. In 1483 (the year of Luther's birth), he appeared for the first time in the pulpit at Florence, to preach the sermons in Lent. Much had been expected of him. But most grievous was his failure ! The student and the thinker had been perfected at the expense of the orator. Day after day the audiences diminished, till only twenty-five women and boys were left ! Savonarola, however, was too sensible not to understand this. " I had," he says, " neither voice, lungs, nor style. My preaching dis- gusted every body. I could not have moved a chick- en ! " Ere long, this droning monk was to sway whole states by his eloquence, and to become the Demos- thenes of the Italian Athens ! His time came at last. 200 SAVONAROLA. [a. D. 1452- 1497. Roused by the crimes of the infamous Pope Inno- cent the Eighth, he preached in 1485 in Brescia, on the Apocalypse. The flood-gates were opened. The preacher poured forth a tide of burning speech, which kindled every heart before him. From the meanest monsignore, who had bought his petty office, up to the Pope, who bartered all the blessings and cursings of " God's Vicegerent " for gold, none escaped his scath- ing invective. " The chastity of the cloister is mur- dered. The princes openly tyrannize. Their subjects and their priests encourage them in every wickedness and sacrilege. The Popes have shamefully and cun- ningly bought the highest dignity, and then, when seated in Peter's holy chair, abandon themselves to a shame- fully voluptuous life, and an insatiable avarice. The cardinals and bishops follow their example. But after the human race has abused for so many centuries the long-suffering of God, then at last God's justice ap- pears, demanding that the rulers who with base exam- ples corrupt the rest shall be brought to chastisement, and that the people of Asia or of Africa, now dwellers in darkness, should receive the light ! " None other dared preach in this style. The people hailed the monk of Bologna as a prophet of God. Sa- vonarola believed himself to.be moved by an inward impulse, and guided by an inward illumination from Heaven ; and, if he is a prophet who feels that God himself now orders what he says, — who is wiioUy pos- sessed by imperious moral convictions, and governed by an absolute religious faith, — Savonarola was truly a prophet. It does not detract from his claim, to ad- A. D. 1452-1497.] FOND OF CHILDREN. 201 mit that he foretold events which never came to pass, and maintained doctrines in philosophy and theology which the enlightened reason of men now reject as false. Savonarola was not carried away by this sudden re- vulsion in his favor. In 1489, he was elected prior of the monastery of San Marco at Florence. That city was then afflicted with a tyranny of gentlemen. The rich family of the Medici had monopolized the power of the state, and though their influence was indeed favorable to the fine arts, which were advancing with an energy derived from a higher source, it was most fatal to the vigor and true prosperity of the state. It was the aim of Lorenzo, so much eulogized, and in- deed not unworthily, to surround himself with a circle of dilettanti^ and to convert the republic into an agree- able despotism. He was but too successful. But Savonarola paid no deference to him. Lorenzo, a wily and intelligent man of the world, was little moved by this, and sought the preacher's acquaintance, in the hope of attaching him to his cause. But in vain. And when the Duke sent gifts to the inaccessible monk, the latter only said from his pulpit, " The good dog barks to defend his master's house, and if a robber offers him a bone he pushes it aside and barks still ! " A very unsavory comparison ! While thus bearing witness to the truth that was in him, he did not neglect self-culture. He continued his studies, and sought wisdom wherever he had light to see it. He was especially fond of conversing on religious subjects with the young. " God oftentimes speaks his 20*^ SAVONAROLA. [a. d. 1452 - 1497. revelations by these simple minds," he said, " as by- pure vessels of his Holy Spirit." This trait confirms his claim to a place among the higher intelligences of our race. Of course Savonarola could not long pursue the course he had marked out for himself, without drawing around him a body of adherents. These soon became formidable in numbers and in character, and more for- midable in zeal. They adopted the name of Brethren, or Mourners. The party of the Medici sided with these in all cases of contests between them and the third civic faction, denominated the Compagnacci, consisting chief- ly of companies of young nobles jealous of the supreme influence of the house of Medici, and yet most hostile to the pietism and scrupulous morality of Savonarola and his friends. The materials were thus prepared for a civic com- motion, and all parties awaited only the death of Lo- renzo to commence their conflict. This event occurred in 1491. Lorenzo had lived long enough to do justice to the intentions and the character of his uncompromis- ing opponent, and when he found himself dying, he sent for one whom he regarded as " the only true monk he had ever seen." Savonarola came. In the trying interview which followed, he insisted that the prince should free Florence from usurped authority. Lorenzo refused. Savonarola insisted. Lorenzo was firm. And Savonarola refused to grant him absolution. Lorenzo may have best judged the people of Florence. But Savonarola thought differently. We cannot but com- mend the sincerity, whatever we may think of the char- ity, which he displayed on this trying occasion. A. D. 1452-1497.] THE POPE RENOUNCED. 203 Strange scenes of bloodshed followed. The kmg of France seized the city, and was obliged to leave it. Savonarola became its lawgiver and ruler. He pub- lished its constitution, impracticable indeed, unless, as he expected, God would turn the hearts of the people ; but full of maxims of wisdom. It recognized Christ as the Sovereign of the city. It proposed to make Flor- ence purely a religious commonwealth.* The Pope was roused by his reforms. He exhausted flattery, promises, and bribes upon him. Savonarola preached more boldly than ever. Things were drawing to a crisis. In 1497, he addressed letters to the princes of Europe calling for a general council. In these, he used this language : " I declare to you, by the authority of God's word, that this Alexander the Sixth is no Pope, on ac- count of his simony, his public vices, and his secret and scandalous crimes. He is no Christian ! " This was a declaration of war. The Pope followed it at once with all the craft which has made the name of Borgia terri- ble. At last, in March, 1498, he succeeded so far that the Signory of Florence was found to contain a major- ity of three unfavorable to Savonarola. This was the knell of his coming doom. On the 17th of that month a command was sent to him to forbear preaching. On the 18th, he appeared for the last time in the pulpit. Never had he spoken so fearlessly. " From the Pope I turn to the heavenly Pope, Christ Jesus ! " " This * Copies on parchment of this curious document, which offers an interesting parallel with the Pilgrims' constitution, drawn up in the Mayflower, still exists. 204 SAVONAROLA, [a. d. 1452-1497. power of the present Church is a hellish power of Sa- tan ! " Rome could bear no more. And her agents, zealous in her service, before proceeding to extremities, prepared for Savonarola a humiliation tenfold worse than death. A foolish disciple of his, one Domenico da Pescia, overwarm in confident ardor, had incautiously- accepted the challenge of a crafty Franciscan friar to undergo the ordeal of fire in vindication of his mas- ter's claims to inspiration. The multitude rejoiced in the prospect of this barbarous spectacle, while crowds of fanatics on either side were prepared to enter the lists. Savonarola unquestionably regretted the rashness of his advocate, and condemned the whole proceeding as absurd and wicked ; but he allowed himself to be drawn into giving his assent to the trial. When, after many delays, the arrangements were completed, the representatives of the two parties appeared in the Pi- azza. The pile had been carefully prepared, and the multitude awaited, with shuddering, the awful spectacle. But a controversy here arose, first about the dresses of the Dominicans of San Marco, which their antago- nists pretended to believe enchanted ; and then about a crucifix which Domenico da Pescia insisted on carrying through the flames. Before this point could be settled, a furious storm of rain and hail coming up deluged the pile, and put an end to the experiment. Then appeared the fickleness of the mob. They pursued Savonarola to his convent. In attack after attack they stormed it, and captured him. Plis trial for heresy was ordered. He was tortured by the Inquisitors. In the anguish of his suffering they wrung from him some ejaculations, A. D. 1452 - 1497.] BURNT AT THE STAKE. 205 which they afterwards pretended were a recantation. But whenever his senses returned, he declared himself steadfast to his old convictions. And at last they gave the lie to their own declarations by condemning him to be burned as an incorrigible heretic. When the fatal day at last arrived, and he was brought face to face with death, his behavior was that of a true confessor. He prayed with his companions, exhorted them to courage and faith, — bore with meekness the taunts of his enemies, — submitted calmly to the strip- ping off from his shoulders the outward insignia of that priestly office which a higher than the Pope had now laid upon him, and when the bishop, taking him by the hand, pronounced his sentence, " I separate thee from the Church Triumphant," he firmly replied, " Nay, from the Church Militant^ — from the Church Tri- umphant thou canst not separate me ! " The same resolved temper was manifested by him at the stake. We read that Cranmer, when brought to suffer the same fearful fate, thrust his right hand first into the flames, that it might thus expiate the crime of his previous recantation. A more sublime incident is recorded of Savonarola, — that, while the flames were circling around his arm, his hand was seen still raised, with the fingers extended in the form appropriate to the Latin benediction over the heads of the fickle multitude, whose shouts of rage and insulting jeers were the re- quiem of the soul that had so labored for their sake. The ashes of the martyr were gathered up by the ex- ecutioner, and flung into the yellow waters of the Arno. They went where WicklifTe's and Huss's had gone, — NO. VIII. 18 206 CHRISTIAN FINE ARTS AND EMBLEMS. and the lesson is the same. The flame which Savona- rola had lighted — a flame caught by him from the most sacred altars of Knowledge, Holiness, and Truth — seemed indeed to be stifled in Italy. But it spread into other lands, and we who enjoy so large a measure of freedom, religious and civil, should remember with grateful hearts those gifted men whose genius and whose faith made Italy the morning star of modern civilization. Among them all, no one has left us such plain traces of his personal character and influence as Girolamo Savonarola. In honoring him, we honor his predecessors, his companions, and his friends. NOTE TO CHAPTER XIX. For the facts embraced in this life of Savonarola, we are mainly indebted to two sources, Heraud's Life of Savonarola, and Rudel- bach's " Savonarola und seine Zeit." Hamburg, 1835. Interesting notices of the Italian are also to be found in Des Comines, Machiavelli (who speaks of his character as most truly venerable and holy), Guicciardini, and Bayle. Roscoe's account of him is exceedingly shallow, and worthless. There is an agreeable sketch in Mr. Eliot's book, already re- ferred to. CHAPTER XX. CHRISTIAN FINE ARTS AND EMBLEMS. The invention of printing was made within five and twenty years of Huss's death. It put an end for ever, as we have said, to the pretence of exact uniformity in PRINTING INVENTED. 207 the religious faith of Christendom. Men will differ in their feelings and statements of religious truth, as widely as they differ in affections, in mental gifts, or in per- son. And after this great invention scattered every- where the knowledge of this variety of opinion, always existing among men, any pretence that one set for- mula of belief could ever rule them all, became every day more absurd and more. This invention led also, of course, to a different intel- lectual and moral condition of the great mass of the people. It had been idle for them to learn to read while books were as dear as manuscripts must be. All men but the richest had been obliged till now to receive all their religious or mental instruction from others' lips, because they had no books from which to learn, and so no power to read books. This condition has changed. As fast as men have been able to obtain books, the abil- ity and the desire to use them have extended as far. We take this period, then, to speak in a few words of a great subject, which in so few words can be hardly touched upon. This is the Fine Arts and Emblems of Christianity. The emblematic representations which could be carved and painted, the pictures with which the churches were decorated, or which passed as minia- tures from hand to hand, and the hymns and chants of the Church, had made, till the invention of printing, almost the whole of the instruction on religion which the unlearned could receive. The earliest poetry of Christianity is in the words of the triumphal songs of Mary and of Zacharias, and of the angels, of Simeon, and Anna at the time of Jesus's 208 CHRISTIAN FINE ARTS AND EMBLEMS. birth. They have been, very naturally, kept m the liturgies and hymn-books of the Church. The poet of the Gospels, St. Luke, records them all. Passing from them, the Hymn of the Last Supper, which they sang before they went out to the Mount of Olives, is the first strictly Christian hymn spoken of in Christian his- tory. But, immediately after, the Acts and the Epistles of the infant Christian brotherhood show how constant- ly music made part of their united worshio. There is the record that, in the inner prison at Philippi, with their feet in the stocks, Paul and Silas sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. The pleasant sug- gestion has been made, that among those midnight songs of theirs may have been the triumphant Hundredth Psalm, sung to the same air of Old Hundred which lives to this day. This is certain, that in the earliest choral books of Pope Gregory, now thirteen centuries old, that air exists. Luther adapted it from them. And there is nothing to prevent us from thinking that it came down from the Apostles' times. Of the words of the Apostolic hymns, however, we have but a £ew traces. The Psalms of David were used in all the early churches. In the outset of the Epistle to the Hebrews, there is a passage compiled from sev- eral Psalms, which has the aspect of a hymn, familiar, in tliat form, to those to whom the Epistle is written : — "And thou, Lord, in the beginning Hast laid the foundation of the earth ; And the heavens are the works of thine hands : They shall perish ; but thou remainest. And they all shall wax old as doth a garment , EARLY HYMNS. 209 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, And they shall be changed : But thou art the same, And thy years shall not fail." This is a compilation from the passages of Hebrew poetry; but the two following passages are found, in the original, to be in Greek verse. They are not taken from the Hebrew, and we may regard them, therefore, as our oldest Christian hymns. From Ephesians v. 14 : — "Awake, thou that sleepest, And rise from the dead, And Christ shall give thee life." From 1 Tim. iii. 16*: ~ " He who was manifest in the flesh. Was justified in the spirit, Was seen of angels, Was preached to the heathen, Was believed in the world, Was received into glory ! " At the close of the fourth chapter of this book there is a version of the earliest Christian hymn now pre- served, of a later date than these. From that time there are hymns of every century, — fragments from some of which are in modern hymns in almost all the hymn-books now in use. In Clement's hymn, there are many figures used which have disappeared from sacred poetry, — scarce- ly any, however, which are not taken from the Scrip- tures. It was, of course, by a ready transition, that these were expressed in sculpture on tombs, or in paint- 18* 210 CHRISTIAN FINE ARTS AND EMBLEMS. ing. The ingenuity of the monks for a thousand years expended itself on discovering natural symbols to ex- press religious truth. And their number is inexhausti- ble, — for it is the same God who makes the world of nature and who gives to us our religious faith. Every new poet, of course, gives us an addition to those we have had before. That is a poet's duty. In our limited space it is impossible to name these with any approach to their great number and variety. A few instances of a few forms are all that we have space for. The just fear of idolatry long prevented any attempt to represent God. The earliest .symbol of the Father is an immense hand proceeding from a cloud, — or a ray of light from heaven. It was meant to imply that we only see Him in his works, or in his light shed upon the world. Later times more boldly represent, first, the face of God resting on a cloud, then the bust, and later yet, the whole figure. This was at first identical with that of the Son. But at the close of the fourteenth century the Father is represented older than the Son, — sometimes as if an older brother, then as an old man, — while the Son is in mature life, and the Spirit a youth. As time passed on, the fine arts again with- drew from the effort to represent the incomprehensible, and inscribed His name, Jehovah, in a triangle repre- senting the Trinity, surrounded with rays of glory. Of Jesus, the representations are very numerous. There are four pictures, which claim, wholly untruly, to be painted from him by St. Luke. An old fable said, that, as he walked to the cross, he took a handkerchief PICTURES OF JESUS. 211 from some by-stander and wiped his face ; that the cloth miraculously assumed the representation of his face, and was sent to the king of Edessa, where it wrought many miracles. The early Church, after those who re- membered Christ had died, maintained the notion, from some literal interpretations of Jewish poetry, that his per- son was mean and unseemly. But Jerome, Augustine, Chrysostom, and Ambrose, in the time of Constantino and after, insist that he was of majestic and engaging appearance. " He was beautiful," says Augustine, " on his mother's bosom, beautiful in his parents' arms, beautiful upon the cross, beautiful in the sepulchre. The earliest images of Jesus are referred to the Gnostic sects. One of these is a medal in metal, with a head of Christ, representing his hair parted over the forehead, covering the ears, and falling over the shoul- ders ; the face is long, the beard short and thin. It bears the name Jesus, and the inscription, " The Mes- siah comes, and lives, being made the Light of men."* It is probably the earliest representation of him, but its history cannot be traced certainly farther back than the fifth or sixth century. In Rome, there are early pictures and statues, some referred to the fourth cen- tury, agreeing in the representation of him ; which gives an oval countenance, slightly lengthened, and a grave, soft, and melancholy expression. Symbols, or emblems, from such poetry as we have * There are more than one of these medals extant. We have seen a seal, taken from an electrotype moulded from one of them, which is used as the church seal of one of our churches 212 CHRISTIAN FINE ARTS AND EMBLEMS. alluded to, are of course numerous. Every parable which Jesus used regarding himself supplies them. The cross is drawn in every possible way. Its re- semblance to the lines of longitude and latitude cross- ing on a map, is made to show that it is for the blessing of all, — north, south, east, and west. It is the figure of a man swimming ; — so it floats the sinking Christian over his Jordan. It is the mast and yard of a ship ; — and here comes the same application. It is the shape of the ancient standard, — and be- comes a sign of victory. It is the shape of a soaring bird ; — so it lifts us to heaven. Many centuries elapsed before any figure of the Sav- iour was wrought upon it. Other symbols of him were the lamb, from the New Testament language; — the shepherd, which was wrought, in the second century, on a communion cup ; — the fish, because its Greek name, Ix^vs, is made from the initial letters of 'Irjaovs Xpio-Tos Oeov Ylbs ^coTfjp, " Je- sus Christ, the Saviour, Son of God." In the Armenian convent near Venice is the representation of a pelican, who feeds her young with her own blood, a beautiful emblem of the Saviour's love. The dove descending was the most frequent repre- sentation of the Holy Spirit. Tongues of fire are used to renew the memory of Pentecost. White robes at Whitsunday, the anniversary of Pentecost, gave the name to that day ; they were worn as emblems of pu- rity by those about to be confirmed in the Catholic or English or Lutheran rituals. THE "GLORY." 213 An anchor denotes faith^ — as in Hebrews vi. 19. The cock is Christian vigilance. The stag is the hart who thirsteth for the water- brooks. The horse is the emblem of haste for salvation. The lion is Christian strength ; the hare, the Christian fleeing from his enemies. The phoenix indicated the resurrection. On Easter morning, the favorite symbol is an egg. For to the eye it is cold and dead as a stone ; — so was the sealed tomb ; — : but in God's time life will break it open, and the living bird comes forth from its stony sepulchre. Beautiful porcelain eggs, with paintings illustrating the life or death of Christ, are Easter gifts in Catholic countries. The birth of the butterfly from the cocoon is not so much a symbol of the resurrection, as an instance of it where we see both worlds of the creature's life. The passion-flower has been so named from very early times. Its tendrils are the cords which bound Jesus. Its deeply cut leaves show his open palm. Its fine petals, tinged with crimson, are the bloody crown of thorns, and the hammer and the nails may be found in its pistils and stamens. The palm has been always a Christian tree, since the day of hosannas. It is the emblem of conquest and of immortality. The glory or nimbus around sacred heads in paint- ings was first used in the seventh centuiy. It is now going out of use with the best masters. It is a rim of light, sometimes with rays shooting from it, supported by a cross, radiating from the head which bears it. 214 CHRISTIAN FINE ARTS AND EMBLEMS. The vestments put upon the Catholic priest, who, rep* resenting Jesus, performs the sacrifice of the Mass, are, — 1st, the Amice, which represents the rag with which the Jews muffled his face when they bade him prophesy who struck him ; 2d, the Alb, which is the white garment in which Herod invested him ; 3d, the Girdle, Maniple, and Stole, which represent the cords with which he was bound ; 4th, the Chasuble or outward vestment, which represents the purple robe. On the back of this a cross is embroidered, to represent that which he bore. The priest's tonsure is the representa- tion of the crown of thorns. The Catholic altars are made in the form of tombs, in memory of the times when Christian worship was secretly performed in old Roman places of burial. The constant light above the altar is a similar memorial of the underground worship of the Catacombs. We must not leave this subject without alluding to the Christian remains in the old Catacombs under Rome. There the Christians worshipped when driven from the open air. There are still their monuments. The simplicity and faith of the inscriptions is most pathetic. Some simple Christian symbol, with a few words, contrasts with the elaborate inscriptions on faith- less Roman tombs. " Victorina sleeps." " Agape, may you live for ever ! " " Sweet Faustina, may you live in God ! " Such are the whole inscriptions. Some- times a few words are added: — "Amelia, our sweet- est daughter, who departed from the world when Sev- erus and Quintus were consuls. She lived fifteen years and four months." The earliest of these yet deciphered is of the year 98. A. D. 1498-1513.] AMERICA. 215 The various festival days of the Church would prop- erly be spoken of here, but we have already outrun the limits of a chapter. The Christian arts of design achieved their highest triumphs in the very age when the invention of printing first opened another means for addressing the truths of religion to the people. Those masters of Christian art, of whom some have never been surpassed, Leonardo da Vinci, Bartolomeo, Michel Angelo, Titian, and RafTaelle, were all born within a few years of each other; the first in 1452, the last in 1483. NOTE TO CHAPTER XX. The articles Painting, or Fine Arts, in the cyclopasdias, cover ground which we have omitted to speak of. In the Christian Examiner for September, 1847, is a very inter- esting article on the Catacombs. In the Examiner for November, 1846, is an article on Christian Artistic Representations. CHAPTER XXI. CHRISTIANITY IN AMERICA. COLUMBUS. — BALBOA. We Americans ought never to forget that the discov- ery of this continent, as it was made in fact, is one of Christ's gifts to civilization. The history of that discov- ery is distinctly a part of Christian history. Columbus would never have held to his persevering effort, if he had not had the strength of a Christian's life. In all 216 coLTJMBrs. [a. d. 1498. his letters there appears Christian motive of one sort or another. And to the end of his Hfe he considered his great discoveries as being most worthy, because they were new accessions to the kingdom of Christ. This feeling is often mixed up with the pecuhar rehgious no- tions of the time. But it is none the less genuine. When he sailed on his last voyage, an old man who had suffered trials which would have overwhelmed any but a Christian adventurer, he had a hope which he had thus expressed in a letter to the king of Spain : — " I believe that, if I should pass under the equator in arriving at this higher region of which I speak, I should find there a milder temperature, and a diversity in stars and in the waters. Not that I believe the highest point is navigable whence these currents flow, nor that we can mount them, because I am convinced that there is the terrestrial paradise, where no one can enter but by the will of God." He sailed with this gallant notion of coming as near as man could come to the city of God. In this voyage he coasted along the Isthmus of Panama, now so inter- esting to the world, hoping to find a passage into the Western Ocean. He satisfied himself that there was the place to establish the great city of America, which should be the central point of its new civilization. And not far west of our new city of Aspinwall, which has been named from a successful merchant, he built his. And he gave to his the name of Bethlehem ; — for he hoped that there the Christianity of the New World was to be born. A. D. 1498.] HIS VISION. 217 In this little city he suffered every sort of distress. Mutiny, sickness, and cruel tidings from home wore upon his spirits. He was reduced himself to a sick 6ed. And there he had a vision, he says, which will give some idea of his view of his great discovery : — " Wearied and sighing, I fell into a slumber, when I heard a piteous voice saying to me, ' O fool, and slow to believe and serve thy God, who is the God of all ! What did he more for Moses, or for his servant David, than he has done for thee ? From the time of thy birth he has ever had thee under his peculiar care. When he saw thee of a fitting age, he made thy name to re- sound marvellously throughout the earth, and thou wast obeyed in many lands, and didst acquire honorable fame amonir Christians. Of the orates of the ocean sea, shut up with such mighty chains, he delivered thee the keys ; the Indies, those wealthy regions of the world, ne gave thee for thine own, and empowered thee to dispose of them to others according to thy pleasure. What did he more for the great people of Israel when ne led them forth from Egypt ? or for David, whom, from being a shepherd, he made a king of Judea ? Turn !o him, then, and acknowledge thine error. His mercy is infinite. He has many and vast inheritances yet in reserve ; fear not to seek them. Thine age shall be no impediment to any great undertaking. Thou urgest despondingly for succor. Answer! who has af- flicted thee so much, and so many times ? God, or tlK3 world ? The privileges and promises which God hath made thee, he hath never broken ; neither hath he said, after havinir received thy services, that his menninn- was 218 COLUMBUS. [a. d. 1498. different, and to be understood in a different sense. He performs to the very letter. He fulfils all that he prom- ises, and with increase. Such is his custom. I have shown thee what thy Creator hath done for thee, and what he doeth for all. The present is the reward of the toils and perils thou hast endured in serving others.' "I heard all this," says Columbus, "as one almost dead, and had no power to reply to words so true, ex- cepting to weep for my errors. Whoever it was that spake to me closed by saying, ' Fear not, Columbus, all these tribulations are written in marble, and are not without cause.' " It was true that God had other worlds for him to dis- cover, and other realms for so pure a spirit to travel in. But they were the other side that gate of para- dise, which his religious fancy thought he should dis- cover in his Pacific yoyages. This was his last earthly enterprise. The colony, which had, with a pride not blasphemous, been called Bethlehem, failed, — and the heart-broken old man returned to ungrateful Spain to die. From a colony established in the neighborhood, the expedition was led which discovered the great Pacific Ocean. In the lovely islands of that ocean, among its simple gentle islanders, some early navigators thought Columbus's hopes came true, and that there was indeed the terrestrial paradise. But it has not proved so. And if any paradise is to be there, it is to be wrought out by Christian civilization, working with the immense resources of that ocean, now just opening to Christian commerce. And, for this, Christian civilization must act more vigorously than it has yet begun to do. The A. D. 1513.] THE OCEAN VIEW. 219 first discovery of that ocean gave, however, beautiful promise to its future. It has proved to be a sea where the Buccaneers, the most ferocious of pirates, wrought for centuries their deeds of bloodshed, almost unmolest- ed. It has been disgraced by the cruelties of Pizarro and Almagro in the first adventures of Christians, as they called themselves, along its shores. But when Balboa, truly a Christian gentleman of his times, discovered it, he gave to it the Christian name of the Pacific. And in his first sight of it he had a high religious sense of the value of his discovery. He and his men had toiled on for many days, by a tedious march, over the densely wooded hills through which the new Panama Railroad winds its way. Their success is thus described by Mr. Irving : — " About ten o'clock in the morning of September 23, 1513, they emerged from the thick forests through which they had hitherto struggled, and arrived at a lofty and airy region of the mountain. The bald summit alone remained to be ascended, and their Indian guides point- ed to a moderate eminence, from which they said the Southern Sea was visible. " Upon this Balboa commanded his followers to halt, and that no man should stir from his place. Then, with a palpitating heart, he ascended alone the bare mountain- top. On reaching the summit, the long-desired prospect burst upon his view. It was as if a new world were unfolded to him, separated from all hitherto known by this mighty barrier of mountains. Below him extend- ed a vast chaos of rock and forest, and green savan- nas and wandering streams, while at a distance the 220 BALBOA. [a. d. 1513. waters of the promised ocean glittered in the morning sun. " At this glorious prospect Balboa sank upon his knees, and poured out thanks to God that he was the first European to whom it was given to make that great dis- covery. He then called his people to ascend. ' Behold, my friends,' said he, ' that glorious sight which we have so much desired. Let us give thanks to God that he has granted us this great honor and advantage. Let us pray to him to guide and aid us to conquer the sea and land which we have discovered, and which Chris- tian has never entered to preach the holy doctrine of the Evangelists.' " The Spaniards answered this speech by embracing him and promising to follow him to the death. Among them was a priest, who lifted up his voice and chanted ' Te Deum laudamus^'' — 'We praise thee, O God.' The rest, kneeling down, joined in the strain with pious enthusiasm and tears of joy, and never did a more sin- cere oblation rise to the Deity from a sanctified altar than from that wild mountain summit." Too much cannot be said, it is true, of the cruelty of those discoverers among the Spaniards, or other nations, who sought the New World with no motive but gold. But it is absurd to speak as if that were the only mo- tive, or they the only adventurers. Without Christian motive, America would not have been discovered as it was. And Christian zeal and Christian faith warmed many a gallant Catholic missionary, who gave his life to instilling faith in Christ into the hearts of the nati\ es of the land. A weak, formal sort of Christianity it >s as. A. D. 1521.] DIET OF WORMS. 221 But Still, to our day, the wrecks of the natives of those lands cling to it. They take the Christian name, and accept all the Christian faith which has been taught to them. This is a boast which we cannot yet make of the natives of the other parts of America. NOTE TO CHAPTEE XXI. Irving's Life of Columbus. " Companions of Columbus, Prescott's Mexico. " Peru. CHAPTER XXII. MARTIN LUTHER. Martin Luther, a monk, dressed in a nionk's dress, sat in an open wagon, with three friends, riding into the old city of Worms. It was the 16th of April, 1521. There was nothing in his simple arrangements for the journey which should show that that day opened on " the greatest scene in modern history," or that it was *' the point, indeed, from which the whole subsequent history of civilization takes its rise." But it was. And he felt it was. Luther had been preaching reform, in one and another way, for years. Germany was prepared for it by the various reformers we have spoken of, by the spirit of its people, and by countless reformers who died without leaving name or fame behind them. And now 19* 222 MARTIN LUTHEH. [a. D. 1521. the Emperor had sent for him, that, at a great Diet or assembly of the princes of the German Empire at Worms, some end might be put to the excitement. The Pope had sent his legate there, the Cardinal Alex- ander. But he found, to his amazement, a universal antipathy to his master. Songs, pictures, placards, and writings, caricaturing the Pope and himself, were eveiy- where. It was a new thing for a cardinal to be so handled. The Pope had long before condemned Luther as a heretic. And this year, on the 28th day of March, Holy Thursday, the condemnation had been in form con- firmed by the most solemn anathema of the Church. A vast multitude had assembled to receive his blessing in Rome. The magnificent square before the newly built St. Peter's was decorated with myrtle and laurel ; great wax candles were burning on the splendid balcony, and in presence of the concourse was the consecrated host. Of a sudden the sound of bells is heard, and the Pope, in his chair of state, is borne forward, most gorgeously dressed, upon the balcony. " The people fall on their knees ; every one is uncovered ; the flags are lowered before him ; the troops ground arms, and there is sol- emn silence. After a pause, the Pope stretches out his hands, lifts them to heaven, and then, making the sign of the cross, lets them gradually fall towards the earth. He repeats these gestures three times. The people cannot hear him, but the pealing bells announce every- where that he has blessed them. Then a train of priests advanced, each with a lighted torch. They rushed along swinging their torches wildly and madly A. D. 1521.] Charles's letter. 223 to and fro. The multitude are thrilled with awe and terror as the words of cursing were uttered in turn : — " 'We curse all heretics, — the Cathari,the Patarini, " the poor men " of Lyons, the Arnoldists, the Spero- nists, the Passageni, the Wickliffites, the Hussites, the Fraticelli, and Martin Luther, recently condemned by us for a like heresy, together with all his adherents and all persons, whoever they may be, who aid or abet him ; in like manner we curse all pirates and corsairs, especially such as infest our seas.' " The cardinal knew that his master's spirit was such as appears in these words. He pressed the Emperor and the council of princes to act in obedience to it, without waiting for Luther. But they all decided against him. And the Emperor Charles the Fifth, the grandson of the great Maximilian, and of Ferdinand and Isabella, so distinguished in our history, the greatest sovereign of his time and the greatest Emperor of Germany, had written to Luther to direct him to attend, in terms as respectful as are these : — " Charles, by the grace of God, Emperor elect of the Romans, always August, &c., &lc. " Worshipful, well beloved, and godly ! Whereas we, and the states of the holy Empire here assembled, have resolved to institute an inquiry touching the doc- trine and writings which thou hast lately put forth, we have on our own behalf of the Empire issued our safe- conduct, hereunto annexed, for thy journey hither and return to a place of security. Our hearty desire is that thou shouldst prepare thyself to set out immediately, so 224 MARTIN LUTHER. [a. D. 1521. that within the space of twenty-one days fixed by our safe-conduct thou mayst without fail present thyself before us. Fear no injustice or violence. We will steadily abide by our safe-conduct aforesaid, and we expect that thou wilt pay obedience to our summons. Such is our earnest injunction. Given in our imperial city of Worms, this 6th day of the month of March, in the year of our Lord 1521, and the second of our reign. " Charles." The safe -conduct inclosed in this writ was directed, " To the worshipful our well -beloved and goodly Doctor Martin Luther, of the order of the Augustines." Charles remembered, as he wrote, the safe-conduct which Sigismund gave Huss, a century before, and what came of it. Luther remembered as he read. All men remembered it. It was spoken of constantly. For the cases were the same, hut that a century had gone by. And a century makes great changes in such things. Even God's kingdom is not a stationary kingdom. It comes. It moves. And after a century, one can al- ways see the movement. Timid men had begged Luther not to go. But Luther had made his celebrated answer, "Were there as many devils at Worms as there are tiles on its roofs, I would enter it." His pas- sage through Germany was a triumph. It was one of those splendid demonstrations, in which governments on- ly follow the people, if they act at all, — when the people pour out to welcome an exile or a martyr, fascinated by the genius of the man, and excited to all enthusiasm by the grandeur of his cause. As he stopped one day A. D. 1521.] THE emperor's PROMISE, 225 by the way, with a monk, there hung on the wall of the cell a portrait of Savonarola. The fair complexion, the high, furrowed brow, the clear, calm blue eye, the ruddy hair, the full, firm lips, the graceful, steady bearing, all recalled the face of Jesus, as the earliest painters de- picted it, who scorned the Byzantine caricatures of his person. Luther gazed long and earnestly upon this representation of one who had " endured even unto the death." " Out of the fire into glory," said he at last, turning to his aged friend. " I take no fear, but comfort, from this picture thou hast showed me." So does one generation help the next. Luther travelled on. And when his wagon came to the city of Worms, a hundred cavaliers rode out to meet the monk, and became his escort. The Emperor's herald rode before him. A friend on horseback followed close, and the escort closed up around him. An immense crowd awaited him at the gates. They followed him through the streets. Doors and windows filled with gazers as he passed. He was taken to the quarters of the Knights of Rhodes, near his patron, the Elector of Saxony. He stepped from his carriage into the midst of the throng, and in reply to their salutation said, " God will de- fend me." The Pope's party was dismayed by the enthusiasm. They surrounded the Emperor, and begged him to rid himself of Luther at once. But Charles remembered Sigismundand Huss, and answered like a man, " What we promise, we maintain." The next day Luther appeared before the Diet. The excitement was intense. His books were named in or- 226 MARTIN LUTHER. [a. D. 1521. der, a.id his heresies repeated to him. He was asked to retract. He acknowledged that he was the author. And then the assembly was roused to the utmost, when he asked for time for his answer to the demand made on him. The young Emperor looked at the sick monk, and whispered, " That man will never make me a her- etic." And so, in great excitement, the assembly was adjourned. Such a day was that ! Luther was perhaps the only person at Worms perfectly undisturbed. A few minutes after his return from the Diet, he wrote to the counsel- lor Cuspianus : " I am writing to you from the yery midst of a tempest [perhaps he alluded to the noise of the crowd outside his hotel]. An hour ago I appeared before the Emperor and his brother I avowed myself the author of my books, and I have promised to give my answer to-morrow as to recantation. By the help of Jesus Christ, I will not retract a single letter of my writings." And, accordingly, the next day any hopes or any fears, which his respectful request for delay may have _ jused, vanished. He was summoned ; was asked if he wished to retract any thing in his writings. The ques- tion was put in Latin and in German. " Hereupon," say the Acts of Worms, " Doctor Martin Luther made answer in a low and humble tone, without any vehe- mence or violence, but with gentleness and mildness, and in a manner full of respect and diffidence, yet with much joy and Christian firmness." He said, that if in any thing he had used severe and bitter language to men, he was wrong ; but for his doctrine, " if they A. D. 1521.] "l RETRACT NOTHING." 227 could convince him from the Holy Scriptures that he was in error, he would forthwith throw the whole into the flames." The Chancellor said they were not there to argue, but to hear if he would retract. Then said Luther : — "I cannot submit my faith either to Pope or to the Councils, because it is clear as noonday that they have often fallen into error. If, then, I am not con- vinced by Holy Scripture, and if my judgment is not thus brought into subjection to God's word, I neither will nor can retract any thing, for it cannot be right for a Christian to speak against his conscience. " I stand here and can say no more. God help me. Amen." The assembly was motionless. The Emperor ex- claimed, " The monk speaks boldly, with firm courage." " If you do not retract," said the Chancellor, as soon as the assembly had recovered from the impression pro- duced by Luther's speech, " the Emperor and the states of the Empire will proceed to consider how to deal with an obstinate heretic." At these words Lu- ther's friends trembled ; but the monk repeated, " May God be my helper ! for I can retract nothing." In that word the spell of Rome was broken for ever. Luther's stay afterwards at Worms was crowded with conferences, efforts to bring about compromise, and discussions from which nothing came. Such inci- dents as this are recorded of that time : — " Luther had returned to his hotel, and w^as seeking in repose to recruit his strength, exhausted in the stern and trying events of the day, Spalatin and others of his friends surrounded him, giving thanks to God. As they were 228 BIARTIN LUTHER. [a. D. 1521 , discoursing, a servant entered, bearing a silver vase filled with Eimbeck beer. ' My master,' said he, as he offered it to Luther, ' desires you to refresh your- self with this beverage.' ' What prince is it,' said the Wittemberg doctor, ' who has me in such gra- cious remembrance ? ' It was the aged Duke Eric of Brunswick. The Reformer was moved by this offer- ing from a powerful lord belonging to the Pope's party. ' His Highness himself,' continued the messenger, ' drank of the cup before sending it to you.' Hereup- on Luther, being thirsty, poured out some of the Duke's beer, and after having drunk he said, ' As on this day Duke Eric has remembered me, may our Lord Jesus Christ remeiTiber him in the last hour of his struggle.' The gift was a trifling one ; but Luther, desiring to show his gratitude to a prince who thought of him at such a moment, gave him of such as he had, — a prayer ! The servant bore his message to his master. The aged Duke called to mind these words at the moment of his death, and addressing a young page, Francis Kram, who was standing at his bedside, ' Take the Bible,' said he, ' and read to me.' The youth read the words of Christ, and the soul of the dying man took comfort. ' Whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ,' said the Sav- iour, ' verily I say unto you he shall not lose his reward.' " Others, instead of thus encouraging Luther, begged him to give way. The young and gallant Emperor caused this message to be read in the Diet, the day af- ter Luther's refusal : — "Descended from the Christian Emperors of Germa- A. D. 1521.] THE GREAT DIVISION. 229 ny, from the Catholic Kings of Spain, from the Arch- dukes of Austria and Dukes of Burgundy, who have all distinguished themselves as defenders of the faith of Rome, I am firmly resolved to tread in the footsteps of my ancestors. A single monk, led astray by his own madness, erects himself against the faith of Chris- tendom. I will sacrifice my kingdoms, my power, my friends, my treasure, my body and blood, my thoughts and my life, to stay the further progress of this im- piety. I am about to dismiss the Augustine Luther, forbidding him to cause the least disturbance among the people. I will then take measures against him and his adherents, as open heretics, by excommunication, inter- dict, and every means necessary to their destruction. I call on the members of the states to comport them- selves like faithful Christians." But when Charles was surrounded by those who would persuade him to violate his safe-conduct of Lu- ther, he again refused. He extended it for twenty-one days. Luther returned in triumph from Worms. His friend, the Elector, secreted him for a time in his fa- mous retirement at Wartburg. From this moment, however, the division between the Protestant and the Catholic provinces of Germany, and, finally, the Protestant and Catholic countries of the world, began. NOTE TO CHAPTER XXII. D'Aubigne's History, too highly colored sometimes, has the two overruling merits, that it is intensely interesting, and that it quotes the originals where it is possible, instead of hashing them. NO. VIII. 20 230 LOYOLA. [a.d. 1521. up, and warming them over. Use Carter's edition, with notes, if possible. Oar quotations are almost all from these volumes. Mrs. Lee's Luther and his Times is very ingenious and entertain- ing. Boston: Hilliard, Gray, & Co. 1839. Carlyle's Hero as Priest, in Heroes in History. Michelet's Life of Martin Luther. Gathered from his own writings. Translated by G. H. Smith. New York: Appleton & Co. 1846. pp. 314. CHAPTER XXIII. THE JESUITS. LOYOLA. XAVIER. A Spanish gentleman, a daring soldier, who had been terribly wounded in leading some frightened troops at the siege of Pampeluna, lay in the hospital, waiting a half recovery, while Luther and the Diet at Worms were in discussion on the Reform of the Church. He was Ignatius Loyola, now thirty years old. He had been a reckless, dissipated man. He lay repining in his forced captivity. He asked for books, and they had no books of chivalry for him, but gave to him " The Lives of the Saints " to read. As he read, dreams of new forms of adventure came over him. As he recov- ered, he had, or thought he had, a vision from the Vir- gin Mary. He devoted himself to her in a vow, — as knights did to the ladies of their love. In his devotion to her, he lived as a beggar caring for the sick in hos- pitals. In his extravagances of poverty and religious exultation he excited the suspicion of the Inquisition. He applied to be made a priest, but was told he had not yet studied enough of theology. A. D. 1540.] THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. 231 So little did the Catholics of the time foresee the en- ergy of the man who was to give to the Catholic Church the enginery by which it withstood the rapid advance of the Reformation. Loyola went to Paris to study at the University. There he inspired several young men with an eager devotion, such as is always called fanaticism, like his own. They bound themselves by a vow to devote themselves in poverty, and without ambition, to conver' infidels. And first they agreed, if possible, to go to Jerusalem. But this proving impossible, they stopped at Rome, and obtained from the Pope, Paul the Second, a charter, by which the " Society of Jesus " was formed, for the conversion of infidels to the Faith. It was almost military in its organization. Its mem- bers were not necessarily priests. It was provided that they should be as far as possible skilled in the learning, graces, and accomplishments of the world. They vowed poverty, obedience, and chastity, and sub- mission to the Pope. They were to obey absolutely the command of their General. A well-organized system of government extended from him down to the humblest novice. So that at any time the General of the Jesuits could read in the reports made to him the character and fitness for especial duties of every member of the body. " We have," cried one of them, " men fitted for every thing, — teachers for teaching, governors for governing, and, if they are needed, martyrs for martyrdom." From that day to this, with the energy of an obedient army, the Jesuit body has worked as one man, almost. It has met countless obstacles. It has been all but over- 232 XAviER. [a. d. 1549. whelmed. Compared with its greatness in its first and second centuries, it is now ahiiost nothing. But it has held to its rules, and its members have held with signal gallantry to their oars. They are working on a sys-' tem which we have tried to describe,* where one head cares for many hands, — a system which seems to have an incurable weakness in its foundation. So thej al- most achieved empire in Paraguay, and at the very moment of success lost all. So in China they were prime ministers of the Emperor, and just as they grasped every thing lost all. So in Japan, they opened its secrets to the European world, passed from step«to step triumphantly, till, just as they were stepping up the footsteps of the throne, they lost all. But they never own they are discouraged. They teach, thus, a great lesson to the rest of the Christian world. " The spirit which appeared in them," says Macau- lay, " animated the whole Catholic woi'ld. The court of Rome itself was purified." And the issue of this change of spirit was, that, while " fifty years after the Lutheran separation Catholicism could hardly main- tain itself on the shores of the Mediterranean, a hun- dred years after Protestantism could scarcely main- tain itself on the shores of the Baltic. An illustration, especially interesting at the present moment, of their dashing rapidity of advance, may be drawn from Xavier's beginning in Japan. Francis Xavier was the friend of Loyola, and, after him, the * Chap. XY. p. 171. A. D. 1549.] PREACHES IN JAPANESE. 233 most prominent of the founders of the Order. As the closest abridgment would not follow his labors in the space we have here, we copy in its quaint detail the description of his first landing in Japan. He landed in 1549 from a pirate junk which he had chartered, with a few companions, one of whom was a native Japanese, named Paul, already converted at Goa. The king of the country, anxious to secure the Portu- guese trade, received him kindly. " Having therefore brought into the city the consecrated vessels, he bap- tized first the wife and daughter of Paul, and many of his kinsmen and friends. Others followed in the faith, and Xavier devoted himself to them with eagerness. He resolved, as soon as he had gained any use of the language, to go to Meacum, the capital, to carry th& Gospel to the king or emperor. Meanwhile opportunity served to preach at other cities. At Amangutium Xaviei addressed the king for an hour, explaining the Christian mysteries in a way which gained attentive hearing. He was dismissed without honor, but without injury ; — and he and his friend all that day harangued immense multi- tudes in the city. Their garments were old, and of out- landish fashion, and they themselves, of course, without any skill in rhetoric. At first, nothing could have seemed more absurd to the people. The gentry and the common people united in ridicule, and surrounded them with ev- ery sort of insult. Thence they started for the capital. Their journey took them two months of travel by land and water, through waters infested by pirates, and over land swarming with robbers. Snow and frost, forests and defiles, hindered them. But they made their jour- 20* 234 XAViER. [a. d. 1549. ney, notwithstanding, with no human aid. For their food they had parched corn,* which, with running wa- ter, made their meals. Ignorant of the road, not know- ing where they might meet robbers, they followed as fast as they could on foot the natives who travelled mounted, never laying off their long robes, always barefooted, and often wading the swollen torrents on their way. Their feet swelled with the cold of snow and ice. At night, drenched with rain, and worn out with cold and hunger, they slept under any roof that offered, or, if there were no hospitality, under the open sky. For often in the villages and towns they were greeted, not only by the scoffs of the people, but by showers of stones. And when there was a boat voyage in the jour- ney, they were made to go in the very hold of the boats, as if they were cattle. It was miraculous that they came safe to Meacum, through such sufferings. " And it proved that it was no time for planting the Gospel. Wars were breaking out, and all ears were deaf to the tidings of salvation. It was impossible to address the Emperor, although they exerted themselves to do so. And the end of the whole was, that, after they had learned all they could of the land and its peo- ple, they returned with like adventures to Amangutium, whence they had started." A single instance this of Xavier's perseverance. Not in the least discouraged, he now adopts a new plan of addressing the king of Amangutium. A Portuguese ship having arrived, he provides himself with costly * The Latin of Maffei is " bolos oryz^e seraitortse." A. D. 1549.] PRESENTS TO THE KING. 235 raiment and letters of testimony from the Governor of India and Bishop of Goa, and seeks audience. " The Governor of Malacca had sent presents to the Japanese. Among them vv^as a sumptuous Portuguese dress, and some wine of Portugal, a harp, and one of those clocks which, by the movement of weights and the mutual action of many-toothed wheels, indicate the passage of time by a regular and slow motion. For this invention of European ingenuity greatly amazes all those nations." With the presents thus quaintly described, Xavier went to court. The king offered presents in return, which he refused. The king saw that he had a great man to deal with, and offered him quarters in an empty convent of the Bonzes, a religious sect of the country, and proclaimed entire freedom for his preaching. The attention of the people was gained, in a measure, and the first converts to the faith were made. Xavier, meanwhile, with a zeal and skill which we now call Jesuitical, devoted himself eagerly to learn- ing the manners and customs of the Japanese ; although so strange to foreigners. As far as was in his power, he assumed their customs, as if he were a native born. The conversions, however, were not very rapid. " He did not fish with the net," says Bartoli, " bringing in whole tribes to be baptized, but only with the hook, calling them one by one." To gain new resources for the mission thus estab- lished, the indefatigable Xavier returned to Goa. After a hard-working and laborious journey, he prepared, at Canton, for a secret voyage to Japan. He sent home 236 THE POLISH UNITARIANS. [a. D. 1587- 1657. his sick companion, Ferreria. For one and another purpose he was left by the Portuguese. He waited for certain Chinese seamen. And there, where is now Macao, in one of the huts such as the Portuguese buih on the beach, open to the cold and the weather, a fever seized upon him. No help came. And, " destitute of every thing needful, the brother and disciple of Christ in death, as he had been in life, gathering from the Psalter little arrows, all burning with love divine, and darting them to heaven, calling gently on Jesus and Mary, he left the body which he had long before sub- dued." Such was the death of the most adventurous of mis- sionaries. But the foothold he had gained in Japan was retained by the Jesuit brethren. Their influence increased, till it became the controlling influence with the ruling party. But a counter-revolution threw them out of power. In 1622 Christianity was suppressed with great cruelty ; — thousands of Christians were killed, and Europeans driven by law from the kingdom. CHAPTER XXIV. THE POLISH unitarians. MARTIN RUARUS. Poland was still a nation. It was a nation which gave toleration to all religions. In Poland, therefore, till the year 1658, were the strongest bodies of Unitarian Christians who had gath- A. LI. 1587-1657.] PERSECUTED REFORMERS. 237 ered anywhere in Europe. Among those who protested against the doctrine of Rome were in all times em- braced many who did not regard Jesus as God. The Roman Church branded them as heretics under differ- ent names, most often using that of Arians. Of course they showed themselves in as large a proportion in all parts of Protestant Europe, as soon as the Reformation was proclaimed. Martin Ruarus, of whom this chapter is to speak, says, in a letter to one of his brothers, in speaking of Luther, " I was not disposed to follow the lictor when I could follow his sovereign." For though he had high regard for Luther, he still held Luther's opinion, that every man must take his religion from the Holy Scrip- tures alone. All around Luther were such men. He could not hold them to his faith. They studied the Bible as he did, and made their own faith as he did. But in almost all countries, the Reformers, eager to show that their footsteps were sure, and that they would not abuse their new-gained freedom, chose to do this by punishing those, even the purest of Reformers, who preached or believed that Jesus was not God. In Italy, the Inquisi- tion persecuted such men. In Geneva, the Calvinists burnt one of them. In England, one or more met the same fate ; and in Northern Germany and Holland,^ they were exiled. In Poland, for a while, they were at home. Martin Ruarus was driven thither in 1622. He was earnestly invited to go to England to take charge of some school or chapel there. But it was just when 238 THE POLISH UNITARIANS. [a. D. 1587- 1657. King James was " harrying out of England " the best blood of England, and he did not go. England was not then the safe home of bold thinkers. He took charge of a college at Rakow, which became a distin- guished institution. And so it happened that he was in correspondence with learned men all over Europe, who had any interest in freedom of thought. His letters show something of what Europe was beginning to be, — 'Very different from the Europe of Luther, more so from that of Huss or of King Richard, yet by no means the Europe of our time. Thus he answers let- ters which had been a year on their way to him by some circuitous channel, where now he would receive them in a day. Books were still dear ; and if he bought a precious volume, it was with the savings of an econo- my which long tortured him. His father and mother and brothers lived in Alsace. Their letters were four months, by the routes of trade, coming to him. Ru- mors came to them, much more quickly, perhaps, that he was a heretic. Of such rumors he speaks, showing that their anxiety for him costs him dear : — " In each of your letters, my dear brother, you speak to me of the rumor of my heresy, which men whom I have never injured have scattered among my parents and kinsfolk. If it is heresy to believe whatever is written in the Sacred Scriptures, or can be fairly drawn from them, I own that I do not shrink from the charge, which, indeed, I share with the Apostle Paul. But if there are those who are offended with me, because I have searched very freely into the doctrines of various sects, and do not adore certain theologians as if they A. D. 1587- 1657.] RUARTJS AND HIS MOTHER. 239 were magic shields fallen from heaven, or as if their words were oracles, I am willing to own that so far I offend. — taking this very Paul as my authority, who bids us quench not the spirit, despise not prophesyings, but prove all things ; and his disciples, the Bereans, also, who did not hesitate to compare the preaching even of so great an Apostle with their Scripture before they trusted it." Similar words might be quoted from Luther. Be- tween him and the Unitarians of Poland was the differ- ence, however, that he lost his toleration for those who, following his injunction, and for themselves searching the Scriptures, came to different conclusions from him. The Unitarians of his time never so far forgot his great principle. Indeed, as they were never in power in Europe, they had not the temptation to do so. Besides the sufferings which they endured at the hands of those who drove them from land to land, these boldest speculators of those times went through the harder sufferings which every one knows who has felt the force of Christ's words, " Whoso loveth father and mother more than me, is not worthy of me." In writ- ing to these brothers, Martin Ruarus uses words which might almost be supposed to come from some convert of to-day, so universal is the language of affection. " You repeat the old story of my heresy, which is in every mouth ; you tell me of sharp words, of the com- miseration of friends, and, worst of all, of the grief of my most beloved mother, who can hardly be per- suaded to live in such suffering. Do you think, my brothers, that this is not bitterness to me .? I am no such 240 THE POLISH UNITARIANS. [a. D. 1587-1657. Stoic. I have no such iron heart that I am not moved by these words of yours I am most distressed about her, — how I may lighten her anguish. Perhaps she wishes that I would return into our country. But this, if possible, I must defer ; not only because my du- ties here detain me, but because I am immersed here in a sea of controversy and discussion, which my whole nature abhors, — the more so, that it has just begun its surges. I have tried two or three times to console her wiih letters, but I do not know how these have succeed- ed ; for since your visit, I have not received a line from my parents. She is, as you know, too much given to grief. She is the enemy of her own happiness. How she wept when those verses of mine, which some one had cried up to heaven, were pulled down, like Vulcan, by some one else, and came limping to the earth. Will she always grieve so, when unkind men proclaim me a poor poet, or a boaster, or a perverse heretic, falsely ? Tell her, my brothers, boldly, that there is no damnable heresy in my mind ; that, though I may err, I can never be a heretic as long as God preserves to me my days." The passage is a simple one, from a private letter. We quote it only to contrast it with the sufferings of Xavier. To a true heart, the suffering of the Polish minister is as hard to bear as the labors of the mission- ary in Japan. It is by such different trials that God calls his children to lead the world along. The Polish Unitarians were not left to such sufferings only. In 1658, the year after Ruarus died, they were banished from Poland by the- Catholic influence, — the other Reformed Christians not interfering in their behalf. A. D. 1587- 1657.] PLEA BY RUARUS. 241 They took refuge with their brethren in Transylvania. And there, behind the mountains, in the only possession of unhappy Hungary which Austrian or Russian armies did not reach in the late struggle, their descendants, their schools, and their churches remain to this day. There is a curious plea by Ruarus, showing the grounds on which the Roman Church should extend sympathy to them. The name Socinians, which is used in it, is derived from Faustus Socinus, their distin- guished leader in the sixteenth century. Ruarus says in it, — 1st. That they sincerely make the Scriptures their rule of faith. 2d. That they are willing to accept " the Apostles' Creed." 3d. That all their own doctrines may be expressed in the words of Scripture, and are not denied by any Christians. Although the Roman Church adds some which they cannot accept, their faith ought not, there- fore, to be called false, because it rests in the things which they believe, not in those which they do not be- lieve. 4th. That the Roman Church sustains many of those opinions which they reject, on the authority of Coun- cils or the traditions of the Fathers, acknowledging that they are not to be expressly found in the Holy Scriptures. In rejecting these, the Unitarians and So- cinians are in the same position with other Protestants. 5th. Because the Unitarians condemn no one for error only, and are prepared to cultivate brotherhood with all who believe Jesus to be the Christ. NO. VIII. 21 242 THE POLISH UNITARIANS, [a. d. 1587- 1657. 6th. That they are not difficult about rites or phrases. 7th. That, in the chief doctrines of Christian faith, they agree with the Roman Church more than any other does ; for instance, in the doctrine of predestina- tion ; in that of conditional election and reprobation ; in the universality of the grace of God, and the value of the death of Jesus ; in the freedom of the will, and its intervention in converting men to the faith ; in justifi- cation which works by love ; in the necessity of good works, which they urge as no other church does ; in the possibility of obeying the directions of God ; in the difference between the Old and New Testament ; in the excellency of the latter above the former, both in its promises and in its precepts ; in the distinction be- tween venial and mortal sins ; in the distinction between the baptism of John and that of Christ. We must leave them and their history. Let this only be said of them in closing, that because they were the freest inquirers in Christendom, they were its most successful defenders. No one could charge them with shrinking from any truth. And so against all infidel writers they defended Christianity as no other writers of the seventeenth century knew how. And the churches and Christians who excommunicated them, and drove them from city to city, were glad to use their defences against scoffers and assailants. NOTE TO CHAPTER XXIV. Mr. Osgood's paper, Socinus and the Polish Unitarians, in Studies of Christian Biography. A. D, 1663-1728.] NEW ENGLAND LIFE. ^ 243 CHAPTER XXV. NEW ENGLAND. — COTTON MATHER. Clovis, St. Leger, Alfred, and Richard the First show different forms of Christianity, indeed, from these which we see in Luther's time, in the Socinians' time, or in our own time. Of various forms of reHgion and society which have appeared in the change between the earlier period and that in which we live, we can speak of but one more. This is the New England life of a century and a half ago, in the days of Cotton Mather. He was born to be a New England minister as cer- tainly as the eldest son of an English duke is born to be a duke. The Puritans in their exile had attempted to found a commonwealth, which should be itself a religious organization. And for a hundred years at least, the offices of the church were the highest offices, and made the aristocracy of the state. They obeyed Jesus's precept literally. And those who wished to be gKeat among them became their ministers. Cotton Mather's father was a minister. His father was one. And his father before him was one, who had been driven to emigrate because he had suffered loss for his con- stancy to the faith in England. So Cotton Mather was named as a child for the min- istry. He was named after the great John Cotton, who first preached the Gospel in Boston. In Boston, Cotton Mather was born and christened. At a Boston free school he learned his Latin and Greek, with wonderful 244 COTTON MATHER. [a. D. 1663- 1728. alacrity, so that when he was but eleven years of age he entered Harvard College. While he was a student there, his father was asked to become its president, but he declined. The young student studied well. He left college young, he began to preach young, and was settled as the minister of the North Church in Boston, almost as a matter of course, as colleague with his father. Now, this was in a colony which had been formed by people whose first principle was, that every congre- gation was independent of every other, and of the clergy ; and that the laymen themselves had a right to ordain a minister by their own act and choice. But in fifty or sixty years this bold independence had sub- sided into such quiet arrangements, as under the forms of congregational action left it to the ministers of the colony to make provisions for the churches very much as they themselves chose. Another change was in the spirit of the people them- selves. In affliction they had cried unto the Lord, and he had heard them. But the prosperity of sixty years, v/holly free from persecution, had left them, no doubt, a moral, and certainly a very formal people, but by no means a specially religious or Christly people, in the very highest sense of those words. And Cotton Mather himself was so far unlike the great John Cotton, whose name he bore, that, while that old Puritan, every Sunday and lecture day, was running over with topics of appeal to the people, who, in a log- built church, listened to him in the half-cleared forest, — topics which he drew from their own lives, their own A. D. 1663- 1728.] THUNDER. 245 sins, and their own eternal necessities, — the respecta- ble, well-trained young minister who bore his name was studying all useful and all useless science, crowding into his pulpit all the ends and scraps of a strange learning, astonishing his people with his Hebrew and his Greek, and wondering, at times, that they were not more devout and spiritual than they were. Not that Cotton Mather did not love to seize, even too eagerly, on the incidents around him. One of his ser- mons is called, — " Brontologia Sacra. The Voice of the Glorious God in the Thunder. Explained and ap- plied in a Sermon uttered by a Minister of the Gospel, in a Lecture unto an Assembly of Christians abroad, at the very same Time when the Thunder was, by the Per- mission and Providence of God, falling upon his own House. A Discourse useful for all Men at all Times ; but especially intended for an Entertainment in the Hours of Thundery This long title is followed by an advertisement three times as long, explaining how lie extemporized the sermon one Sunday when a storm arose which struck his house. And it is preceded by a longer Preface, full of theories now exploded on thunder and lightning. Having introduced the sermon elabo- rately, and arrived at its second head, he was inter- rupted by the messenger who told him that his own house was struck. Of this he informed the congrega- tion, adding, " As I remember there is in Aben Ezra this observable passage of Rabbi Moseh, quoted for a gloss upon it, ' The Levites there praise God for keep- ing them from hurt by the thunder.' What an occa- sion have I to do so this day ? Instead of being hereby 21* 246 COTTON MATHER. [a. D. 1663- 1728. diverted from the work which I have now undertaken, I would practically teach you, that, with a mind uncon- cerned about the things of this life, we should never be unfurnished with devout and proper thoughts in the mind of God in all our trials." He goes on to give what he calls the " Cartesian account " of thunder, and then his own ; which is, " that with the Vegetable Matter protruded by the Subterraneous Fire, and exhaled also by the Force of the Sun in the Vapor that makes our Shower, a Mineral Matter of Nitre and Sulphur does also extend into the Atmosphere, and there it goes off with fierce explosions." (These three would be the proper ingredients for gunpowder.) Then, at last, he passes to God, whose voice the thunder is, and so to the law of God ; then to the future coming of God ; then to the fear of God ; then to self-examination ; then to those sins which thunder punishes ; then to the word of God ; and, lastly, to thankfulness. " Such a serious thankfulness manifested in an an- swerable fruitfulness will be a better shelter to us from the mischiefs of the thunder than the crowns of laurels, or the tents of seal leather, whereby some old em- perors counted themselves protected ; or than all the amulets of superstition." So the sermon ends. It is crowded full with scraps of Latin, and occupied perhaps an hour and a half in its delivery. Its science is antiquated. But that is no fault of Mather's. All science grows old in time. But it is remarkable because it shows the spirit, almost of effrontery, certainly of patronage and condescending authority, with which Mather and other preachers of his time looked upon their people. A. D. 1663-1728.] FORMAL RELIGION. 247 In other things the same spirit appeared. Thus, if a poor girl were charged with witchcraft, Cotton Mather led the hue and cry against her. If a poor pirate were to be hanged. Cotton Mather, or the minister called upon to teach him, made it an occa- sion to promote his own honor before the people. In a matter about the College, he tells coolly that his father appointed all the Governor's Council of the time. And so many misfortunes, sicknesses, and sudden deaths does he relate, as judgments inflicted by God, that he seems the chronicler of all evil in his day. But such assumption of dignity and authority could not last, in a time when men could read. It was only possible in a state like Massachusetts, which had owed every thing to its religion, and much, therefore, to its clergy. It was a stage of society which existed only to give place to a better. The pictures of the time show how New England, between its eager devotional settle- ment and our active days, passed through a period of set, dry, formal, heardess display of religion. The Protestant countries of Europe had a like experience, which they did not pass through so safely. From such fanaticism there comes next irreligion, carelessness, and contempt for sacred things. But with us, just as that result came on, the American Revolution broke out. It started thought and compelled it. It gave freedom everywhere else, and it was impossible it should not have given it in religion. On the clear field, then, which the dry formalism of the first half of the century had left, — a field which the ardent flame of Whitefield had once burned over, — every man in New England 248 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. was able to plough, to plant, and to reap for himself. Every man of thought and of faith did so. And there sprung up that multitude of sects, — that eagerness of religious opinion, — that willingness to inquire, — which makes the religious aspect of the New England of to- day. New England will never again leave its religion or its thinking to its clergy only. It has gone through that lesson, and will not need to learn it in the future. CHAPTER XXVI. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. SWEDENBORG. The men of the nineteenth century have wasted much time and power in abusing the eighteenth. Yet we cannot help adding a word more, to say, that, dead as the religion of New England was through the beginning of that century, that of Europe was even more cold, formal, and heartless. The Wesleys and Whitefield in England made a gallant effort to rouse the people of England to feel that they had living souls, and that religion was not wholly satisfied with the paying of tithes, or receiving them. Occasionally a philanthropic man started up, and showed the cruelties and inhumanities of jails, of debtor laws, or of the marching Highland villagers into exile. In such a case he became a person to be studied, as an interesting specimen, by the philosophers of the cen- tury. If he was of good manners and agreeable con- STUDY OF SCIENCE. 249 versation, and could tell pleasant stories, as Howard could, about the Empress of Russia or the Electors of Germany, he would have a chance of being fashionable. The world was interested in him, as in the last elepliant exhibited. For it moved along as if it were looking at a great museum. It analyzed every thing. It asked very curious questions, and learned a great many facts. It found out what air was made of, and how far the earth was from the sun. And when it had found the fact, it kept it as a child on the sea-shore keeps a shell. While it was new, it was precious. But, tired with tlie weight, as the world w^ent on, it was always eager for new facts, and would let the old go without doing any thing with them ; and then treat the new like the old, in their turn, Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish philosopher, was one of the few men who lifted himself, or got lifted, above this baby-play of his time. He began, as the students of his time all did, in pulling things to pieces, — in analyzing, as their phrase is. The men of that day devoted themselves to analysis. They began with pulling to pieces flowers and crystals. They ended, in the French Revolution and the philosophy which led to it, in pulling to pieces kingdoms, and systems of thought, and philosophy, and religions. Swedenborg began by studying natural philosophy. He was a great miner and engineer. He helped Charles the Twelfth, a mad sol- dier of his time, in his sieges and wars. There was no research which he was afraid of. And so he went on, in anatomical research, with great success. He could tell of fibres of muscle which no one had dissected out U - 250 SWEDENBORG. [a. d. 1743. fore. And at. last he aimed at the most daring of dis- coveries, the finding by his anatomy and observation what Life was made of. He had " expected," says Sir J. G. Wilkinson, " that the kingdom of God would come upon him in the shape of clear principles deduced from all human knowledge. His expectations were ful- filled, not simply, but marvellously." It was in the course of this investigation that the light came to him, that life is something above machinery. This is a revelation which most people can get from the Bible, if they do not have it in their own hearts. But to Swedenborg it came as a supernatural revelation, which he supposed came from God himself " I was in London," he says, in describing its first demonstration to him, " and dined late at my usual quarters, where I had engaged a room in which at pleasure to prosecute my studies in natural philosophy. I was hungry, and ate with great appetite. Towards the end of the meal, I remarked that a kind of mist spread before my eyes, and I saw the floor of my room covered with hideous reptiles, such as serpents, toads, and the like. I was astonished, having all my wits about me, and being perfectly conscious. The darkness attained its height, and then passed away. I now saw a man sitting in a corner of the chamber. As I had thought myself entirely alone, I was greatly frightened when he said to me, ' Eat not so much ! ' My sight again became dim, but when I recovered it I found my- self alone in my room. The unexpected alarm hastened my return home. I did not suffer my landlord to per- ceive that any thing had happened ; but thought it over A. D. 1743.] SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 251 attentively, and was not able to attribute it to chance, or any physical cause. I went home, but the following night the same man appe.-xred to me again. I was this time not at all alarmed. The man said : ' I am God, the Lord, the Creator :uid Redeemer of the world. I have chosen thee to unfold to men the spiritual sense of the Holy Scripture. I will myself dictate to thee what thou shalt write.' The same night the world of spints, hell and heaven, were convincingly opened to me, where I found many persons of my acquaintance, of all conditions. From that day forth, I gave up all worldly learning, and labored only in spiritual things, according to what the Lord had commanded me to write. Thereafter the Lord daily opened the eyes of my spirit, to see in perfect wakefulness what was going on in the other world, and to converse broad awake with angels and spirits." People are apt to ask how such a vision came to such a man. The usual answer is, that any man might have had the same vision, — as truly a revelation from God, — under similar circumstances. Svveden- borg would have said so himself. But he believed it — as few men would — to be a distinct conversation with the Almighty in human form. From that time forward, for nearly thirty years of his life, he had simi- lar conversations. He had, as he says above, inter- views with the spirits of the departed. He brought ac- counts of the worlds in which they lived. In twenty- five or thirty books he records the new views of Chris- tianity which thus opened upon him, calling himself '' the servant of Jesus Christ " as he does so. His own account of the new revplntinn mndn to him is this ; — 252 SWEDENBORG. [a. d. 1688- 1772. " Instead of miracles, there has taken place at the present day an open manifestation of the Lord himself, an intromission into the spiritual world, and with it, illumination by immediate light from the Lord, in what- ever relates to the interior things of the Church, but principally an opening of the spiritual sense of the Word, in which the Lord is present in his own divine light. These revelations are not miracles, because every man, as to his spirit, is in the spiritual world, without separation from his body in the natural world. " As to myself, indeed, my presence in the spiritual world is attended with a certain separation, but only as to the intellectual part of my mind, not as to the will part. This manifestation of the Lord, and intromission into the spiritual world, is more excellent than all mira- cles ; but it has not been granted to any one since the creation of the world as it has been to me. The men of the Golden Age, indeed, conversed with angels ; but it was not granted to them to be in any other light than what is natural. To me, however, it has been granted to be in both spiritual and natural light at the same time ; and hereby I have been privileged to see the wonderful things of heaven, to be in company with an- gels, just as I am with men, and at the same time to pursue truths in the light of truth, and thus to perceive, and be gifted with them, consequently to be led by the Lord." Swedenborg's best biographer, and one of his most learned disciples in our time, says that he considers his state partly hereditary, physical, and acquired. His father and mother were as ready to believe in the a)i- A. D. 1688 - 1772.] HIS SYSTEM. 253 gc'lic inspiration of his childhood, as he himself in similar intercourse with spirits afterwards. His father sought in daily life for supernatural appearances ; and spirit-seeing has recently appeared* in a youthful de- scendant of the Swedenborg family now living in Sweden. These facts, which to his followers are so many evidences that he was of a prophet race, are as strong evidences, to those who do not believe that his inspiration was quhe what he thought it, that his visions came to him from jjo very high physical causes. His system stated, in distinct language, the power of Life and Spirit, independent of mere physical laws and combinations. To most thinking men this lan- guage seemed then, and seems now, to be hard and mechanical. But because he did believe in spiritual power, he made a great step from the most famous sci- entific men of his century, and from almost all its theo- logians. For they seem really to have lived as if they had no vital belief in the presence of such power. So he gathered, in what he called the New Church, earnest Christian believers in every country. He galh.ers them still. To most Christians, probably, his movement ap- pears the best spiritual movement of his time, seeking escape from the wretched materialism which its philos- ophy forced upon it. But most Christians feel also, that the world has found other means of escape, and better than his, from that dead pretence of religion : that it has helped itself by him in coming up to the real spirit of the Gospels, and that it will still help itself by liim^ — without adopting his forms, which seem but the lan^juao-e of his circumstances and times. His own NO. VIII. 22 254 TAHITI. [a. d. 1767. disciples show the earnestness of sincere believers, find more and more in his works of science and religion, and distinguish themselves by their affection for each other and their philanthropy in the world. NOTE TO CHAPTER XXVL The best Life of Swedenborg is Sir J. G. Wilkinson's; reprinted in Boston, 1849. Mr. Hobart's is undoubtedly careful, but is dull. Mr. Emerson's lecture on Swedenborg offended his disciples, but to one not of the New Church seems fair. CHAPTER XXVII. PROTESTANT MISSIONS. TAHITI. On the 18th of June, 1767, Captain Wallis, in com- mand of the British ship Dolphin, came in sight of the island of Tahiti, till then unknown. Thousands of amazed natives thronged to the shore to meet him. They fitted out their canoes by hundreds, and came round the ship to examine her. One of them, bolder than the rest, held up a branch of plantain in token of peace, and delivered a speech for a quarter of an hour, which no man on board understood. The English made pacific gestures, and invited them on board. At length a gallant young fellow dared the hazardous experiment, climbed the mizzen-chains lightly, and jumped out upon the top of an awning above the deck. In this retired position he watched the strange whites for a time ; — his report was favorable, and others fol- A. D. 1777.] KING OTOO. 255 lowed his example. They mounted the ship from every direction. The Englishmen gave them presents, and all things passed cordially, till an unfortunate goat butted against one of them, and mounted to strike him again. Instantly the simple natives all plunged into the sea. This incident illustrates the complete surprise with which the discovery by the whites of the different paradise-like islands of the Pacific has been accom- panied. Captain Wallis soon succeeded in overcoming the dread of the natives. He established a trade with them, spent some pleasant weeks with them, and carried tidings of them to England. The island, and the neighboring islands of the same group, attracted more attention some years after, when the celebrated Captain Cook made visits there while he conducted some astronomical observations. He be- came well acquainted with the people and their cus- toms. He even witnessed one of the terrible human sacrifices enjoined by their idolatry. In the midst of the most exquisite productions of nature, he found such evidences of superstitious barbarism. Heaps of skulls lay in the courts of the temples, — and to all remon- strances, the priests, who seemed reckless indeed, an- swered that their god delighted in such sacrifice, and was fond of feeding on the souls of those who were thus devoted to him. When Cook left the island, the chief, Otoo, told him that the fort he had built there should always be his. " This shows," he says, " with what facility a settle- ment might be made at Tahiti, which, grateful as I am 256 TAHITI. [a. d. 1796- 1815. for repeated offices, I hope will never happen. Indeed, it is very unlikely that any measure of this kind should ever be seriously thought of, as it can neither serve the purposes of public ambition nor of private avarice ; and, without such inducements, I may pronounce that it will never be undertaken." This little sentence shows how far the dead condition of religion in England, of which our last chapter spoke, had affected the brave navigator. He did not give a thought to that Christian zeal which, as we have seen, discovered America, discovered this veiy ocean on which he sailed,* and opened Japan to Europe, t But the world advanced from that torpor faster than he thought for. And the Christians of England, moved to a deeper, warmer sense of the value of their faith by one and another influence, such as we have tried to de- scribe, before twenty years passed made another effort to show that Protestants as well as Catholics could con- quer savage nations for the cross. In the Moravian missions, in our "own missions among the Indians, this had been shown before. An English Protestant society now sent out, in the year 1796, a body of missionaries to labor for the conversion of the people of beautiful Tahiti. They landed in the spring of the next year. The island is a garden paradise. The king, Otoo, and his queen met them on the beach, welcomed them kindly, and led them to a new house, where was to be their dwelling. They gave to them a tract of land around it, * See Chapter XXI. t See Chapter XXin. A. D. 1796-1815.] DIS.COURAGEMENTS. 257 and, in great hopes of the wealth which would flow in on the island from the residence of whites, extended to them at first every hospitality. Their ship sailed away. And they were there, hardly knowing a word of the lan- guage, with no strength but God's to support them, to work as they could upon a barbarous tribe. They had, from the little vocabulary made by early voyagers, put together a few phrases for their first conversations. But they learned afterwards that these were quite unin- telligible. Where the Tahitians would have said, " May you have peace this night," in parting for sleep, the missionaries had said, " It is a mighty night," — from misconceptions of the idiom and meaning of the words they used. ^ut they labored on gallantly for years. The na- tives complained that they gave them too few hatchets and too many prayers. They found that years passed, in which no supplies were sent to the mission. Their selfish motives for assisting the preachers died out there- fore. Wars were constantly raging among the tribes. After twelve years they were fairly driven from the island in a rebellion, and retired to Port Jackson. Their beautiful gardens were destroyed, and their hopes seemed blighted. But this was only that coldest hour which always comes just before day. In 1811, the ex- iled king, who had been driven away by the same rebels, regained his own. It is said that his disappointments had subdued his spirit and softened his heart. When they landed again in the islands, he received them with joy. He had learned, before, to read and write, and now spent much of his time in " earnest inquiry about 22* 258 TAHITI. [a. d. 1796 - 1815. God, and the way of acceptance with him, through Je- sus Christ." They were encouraged thus to go on with their work at Eimeo, though they could not yet return to Tahiti. They estabUshed public worship. They opened a school again, and at last, at a moment when death was in their own circle, Pomare, the king of the islands who had recalled them, came publicly to profess his belief in God, his contempt for his idols, and his de- sire to be baptized. This was the beginning of after successes. The king's party gradually came to be known as the Chris- tian party. In a decisive battle, in the year 1815, he routed entirely his idolatrous enemies. By the unani- mous will of his people, he was reinstated on the throne of his father. • Best of all, he used his victory with a clemency unknown before in the feuds of those islands. And thus the permanent establishment of Christianity there began. It is impossible to add any thing here, of the account of after triumphs and reverses. The success of the American mission in civilizing the Sandwich Islands is another chapter in the Christian successes of this kind. Indeed, the institution, thus tested, of large societies banded together by the tie of a great Christian motive, became common in Protestant countries. Such socie- ties were formed on a scale wholly unknown before. Bible Societies, Education Societies, Temperance Soci- eties, Anti-Slavery and Colonization Societies, have been formed, and in their turn imitated, by those who sought any improvement whatever in morals or religion in Prot- CONCLUSION. 259 estant lands. And the nineteenth century has thus begun to remove the stigma, which the formal service of past years had begun to bring upon the Gospel, that, in their reverence to God, its votaries forget the love of men. NOTE TO CHAPTER XXVII. Ellis's Polynesian Researches. The Missionary Herald and Day- Spring. CHAPTER XXVIII. CONCLUSION. If the history of the Christian Church were rightly taught, Christians might learn exactly where their next step in the advance of the world must be. And these little chapters, if we could have told their story better, would have taught at least three lessons. I. Christian history, if rightly studied, would show that we are not so far distant from the direct influences of our Lord's life as men choose to think we are. The chain of events is not of such inconceivable length as it seems to be supposed. The men are living who knew the men who had seen our Pilgrim Fathers. Of the Pilgrims, some might have talked with companions of Columbus. Columbus was a remnant of the days of chivalry, — his father remem- bered those who served in the last Crusades. The Cru- sades cover less than three hundred years ; — but in looking at them, we are half way back to Jesus. We 260 CONCLUSION. look at times when, in Palestine, in the unchanging East, there must have been authentic and distinct per- sonal tradition of him and his. For instance, Peter the Hermit talked of the Saracen conquest there with Christians who were baptized by bishops who remem- bered the immediate descendants of the first Mahometan conquerors ; and to Mahomet Christ's religion was as a thing of yesterday. The aged hermit who converted to it Othman, Mahomet's forerunner, had seen Pulcheria in her splendid progress to the Holy Sepulchre. The bishops who instructed her were those who baptized Constantino. And Constantino had discussed the faith with men who could have learned of the Lord's Supper from those who had partaken of it with St. John. Twenty such lives as John's and his disciple Poly- carp's fill the gap between Jesus's ti^je and our own. II. A true and simple study of Christian history would show that, from the very beginning, the Gospel has been always advancing. We speak of it, it is true, in some periods, as if it were suffering a decline or fall. But in such events the more accurate language is, that the Gospel was then checked in certain efforts where it had succeeded before ; and the fact has always been, that at the same time it was gaining in others. We trust that this is clear in the chapters of this history. When Paul and the Christians of his time suffered, their sufferings were giving to later times the proof that what they said was true, — proof which so much depends upon to-day. When Ignatius suffered, he was soften- ing Trajan's heart toward other sufferers. The perse- cution under Galerius was to call out the sad decree of CONCLUSION. 261 toleration which he issued. The severest enemy the faith ever met was, perhaps, the Emperor Constantine, And yet, — to speak of one result alone, — without his life, Julian's must have been different ; and we should have lost every testimony which in his day was given. Later down, it is Wickliffe who enlightens Huss, — it is Savonarola who strengthens Luther. The suffer- ings of one day are not to be compared with the glory that awaits them in another. And so we are taught to trust that Christian difficul- ties, too near our times for our skilful study, shall bring harvests as great in their turn. The coldness of the last century, and the divisions which some persons dread in this, have undoubtedly had their duty, which they have performed, and which will appear from day to day. Jesus kindled a fire. These chapters should have shown that it was constantly spreading. At first it spread in the number of the converts. And for the first century or two there was no reason to doubt their sin- cerity. There was no motive to be insincere, when the stake was the prize or the penalty of belief. With Con- stantine, the faith spread over the Roman empire every- where, and gained voices in high places. With his suc- cessors, it gained a nominal assent everywhere. Per haps it lost in the number of its sincere adherents. No one but God can say. But it gained access to every ear in Southern Europe, in Western Asia, and in North- ern Africa, — that is, in the middle of the world. It is not to be presumed, however, that the myriads who were baptized had a hearty personal sense of its truth. And we know that those of intelligence who ruled them 262 CONCLUSION. had no sense of their brotherhood. Nor was there any period afterwards when this could have suddenly- changed for the better. But still, without sudden change, by the eternal help of God, who had promised that he would make of Christ's foes the most loyal sup- porters of his throne, the gradual changes have been wrought which have brought man more and more into brotherhood with man. Each century showed those rising to think, to pray, and to act for themselves, who, a century earlier, were somebody's vassals, or the Pope's slaves. Such a gradual change has been wrought in the great masses, which at the first the Church only pretended to have converted, and the world this day shows more true thought than ever, more fervent prayer, and more faithful action for man- kind. Far though it be from its goal, it is nearer a Christian family of sons of God than it ever was before. When some new enormity is turned up to light by the quick-eyed search of our Christianity, it should show us that our Christianity is sharper-sighted than has been that of past ages. An abomination in the labor of mines, a disgrace in the management of fleets, a can- ker and open wound like slavery, are indications to us who see them that we have eyes to see, where former generations went blindly on their way. III. Indeed, the great lesson of all history, — whether the history of Christianity or the times before Chris- tianity, — is this, that God never abandons the world. There is no event, however sad, from which, if time enough have followed, some result has not come full of meaning and value. God permits none, from which he DICTIONARY OF SECTS. does not draw such results, as his kingdom advances. We are not to look at history, then, as if he only inter- fered at certain terrible crises to save from ruin a neg- lected machine, whose disordered parts were crushing each other in a wild confusion. He is always in his- tory. Among the powers which we call the most mani- fest, which men court most and speak of oftenest, — amons them and beneath them all there is the Greatest of Powers, the Will of God. This makes good succeed in the end. It makes falsehood contradict itself and fail. CHAPTER XXIX. DICTIONARY OF SECTS. The object of this book is not fulfilled, if it does not give some help to young people in understanding the differences of sects which they find among Christians, as they read, or in their personal experience. Most of these differences are the results of historical causes. For some of them, the scenes here described will assign the origin. This chapter is devoted to an alphabetical list of those most frequently alluded to. Abyssinian Christians. See Chap. XVI. p. 173. Albigenses. Early Protestants in France. See p. 177. Anabaptists. See Baptists. Antinomians. Those who conceive that the Spirit will so direct them that they need obey no written law. 264 DICTIONARY OF SECTS. Arbienians. The Christians of Armenia ; — who hold relations with many Christians in Western Asia. They have been an independent church since the fourth centuiy. Arminian. The word is used as a theological term, to describe any Christian of whatever sect, who holds, as Arminius did, a Dutch Protestant of the seven- teenth century, that Christ's sufferings were made a reconciliation for the sins of all the world (not mere- ly of certain elect persons); that true faith comes from the action of the Holy Spirit, which, however, does not force men against their own inclinations ; that then they may persevere, but still may fall from grace. In all these points, they are opposed to Cal- vinists. The Arminians renewed the doctrines of Pelagius. See p. 104. Arnoldists, named in p. 223, are those who followed Arnold of Brescia, a bold Italian Reformer, who at- tacked the Pope, and was burned to death in 1155. Baptists are those who hold that the method of bap- tism by immersion, usual in early days (see Chap. V. p. 63), is an essential feature of the rite of bap- tism ; that baptism should not be administered to any but those who have themselves undergone such a re- ligious experience, that they are sure they have re- ceived the Holy Spirit ; and that those thus baptized form a visible church, to which the authority of Jesus descends. Calvinists, as a denomination, are those European Protestants who hold to the confession of faith es- tablished by the celebrated Reformer, Calvin. These DICTIONARY OF SECTS. 265 are perhaps half of the Protestants of the Continent. In Prussia the king has lately attempted, not very successfully, to unite in the " National Church of Prussia " the Calvinists and Lutherans in his domin- ions. The word is often applied as a theological definition to members of other denominations. Thus a Pres- byterian or an Episcopalian is a Calvinist, if he hold, with Calvin, that men's lives are predestined ; that God elects a certain number who are to be saved ; that the merits of Christ constitute a vicarious atone- ment for the sins of these elect, reconciling God to them ; and that the grace of God once obtained is never forfeited, nor can be. Cathari. Literally, the Pure. Catholics. The word generally means Roman Cath- olics, — the adherents to the supreme authority, over Christians, of the Pope or Bishop of Rome. Catholic means universal ; — and all Christians who feel that the spirit of Jesus works in every Christian sect are therefore catholic Christians ; but the word is not thus used as a proper name. " Christians." There is a body in America who take no creed but the Bible, — no name but the Christian name. Their church discipline is purely Congrega- tional. Their baptism is by immersion. CoNGREGATiONALisTS. See Independents. CoPTS. The Egyptian Christians. Episcopalians, strictly, are those who understand that bishops, ordained by other bishops, who were ordained by others in their time, receive thus peculiar author- No. VIII. 23 266 DICTIONARY OF SECTS. ity, descending from the very times of the Apostles. The word is usually applied in America, however, to the members of the Protestant Episcopal Churches, either of England, Scotland, or America. When the government of England, then under King Henry the Eighth, accepted the general principles of the Reformation (see Chap. XXII.), this Church, un- der a form of government partly connected with the state, was established. The theological doctrines of its members vary more or less, as men vary, and as the fashions of the times change, in matters of theo- logical controvei-sy. But all its officers subscribe " thirty-nine articles " of religion, which are the nom- inal standard of the Church. It is not uncharitable, perhaps, to say, that no one holds them in exactly the sense in which they were first held. Those members of these churches who hold with particular interest to strict obedience to its statutes and forms, are loose- ly said to be " High-Churchmen." Those who look with less interest on these, sympathizing more warm- ly with other Protestants, and making more constant and earnest statement of the necessity of " personal religion," are called "Low Churchmen," Lately, the name " Puseyites or Tractarians " has been given to those who have attempted to revive an interest in observances and doctrines familiar to the English Church when it first separated from the Roman, but since, in a measure, forgotten. Fraticelli, one of the early Protestant bodies. Friends. The proper name of " the people called Quakers." Nothing but the necessity of restricting DICTIONARY OF SECTS. 267 the size of this book has compelled us to omit the chapter in which we had wished to give an ac- count of that true Reformer, George Fox of Eng- land, with whom this Society began. They have a peculiar organization, by which they hope to avoid the disadvantages of grades of ministerial service. They have always " testified " against " every form of idolatry," against war, oaths, and slavery ; and have attempted to avoid temptation to these by the sim ■ plicity of their language and dress. They still wear the costume of the time in which their first preachers lived, feeling that any change of fashion from defer- ence to the opinion of the world is wrong. Their belief in the frequent and perceptible inward action of the Holy Spirit, is their most essential tenet. It marked them through the dreariness of the eighteenth century, when half Christendom seems to have for- gotten that " there was any Holy Ghost." See Chap. XXVI. The name " Quakers " was given them in deris- ion, but it has been so bravely worn that it is now an honor, and may be used, without unkindness, in conversation. The names " Christian " and " Puri- tan " were probably both applied originally in scorn, in the same manner. George Fox was born in 1624, and died in 1690. Greek Church. This Church has always been inde- pendent. It kept always at variance with the Roman Church on certain unintelligible points, really because neither Greek emperor's nor bishops chose to ac- knowledge supremacy out of their own dominions. 268 DICTIONARY OF SECTS. A part of the Greek Church only now regards the Patriarch at Constantinople as its head. The other parts are the Russian, whose Patriarch lives at Mos- cow ; and the Greeks of Greece proper. HiCKSiTES. A division of the Quakers in America bears this name. Huguenots. A name given to the French Prot- estants. Hussites. The followers of Huss, of whom fragments have subsisted under this name almost to our time. See Chap. XVIII. Independents. A name, first general in England, applied to certain of the Puritans, who insisted that each congregation or church has complete power to manage its own discipline and affairs, and to ordain its own ministers. The settlers of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay were Independents. Those at Plymouth had some peculiarities which gave them the ignominious name of Brownists. AH Congrega- tional churches in New England are Independents. Lutherans. All Protestants who hold to Luther's confession of faith. Methodists. Christians who adhere to the method of church discipline and instruction established by the Wesleys and sustained by Whitefield a century ago. Their revival of the spirit of the Protestant Church in England was very efficient, and came at a time when it was greatly needed. We have regretted that the limits of this series have not enabled us to dwell upon them. See Chap. III. p. 46, and Chaps. XXV., XXVI. DICTIONARY OF SECTS 269 MiLLERiTES. See Second Advent. Moravians. A community of earnest Evangelical Christians, established in its present form by Count Zinzendorf. Under the name of the Bohemian Breth- ren, or the Moravian Brethren, bodies of Christians, living in the life of a community, had kept together from the time of Huss. Zinzendorf invited a num- ber of them, at a time when they were greatly broken up by the Seven Years' War, to establish themselves on an estate of his in Lusatia, where they built their town, Herrnhut. Different branches have swarmed from this community, so that now there are nearly sixty thousand Moravian brethren in different parts of the world. Provision is made for the admittance of persons of every creed, but as they have none of their own, the distinctions of theology have quite died out among them. They have planted very successful missions among the Greenlanders and Indians. Nestorians. Followers of Nestorius, who parted from the Greek and Roman Churches in the fifth century, on an incomprehensible question on the nature of Jesus. See Chaps. IV., VI., VII., XVI. They still exist in Asia. New Church. The name given to those who receive the revelations of Swedenborg as inspired, in the way in which he thought them inspired, and join the or- der of worship and church government which he established. This church may also be called " the Church of the New Jerusalem." See Chap. XXVI. Orthodox means " of the true opinion." Every Chris- tian hopes that he is orthodox himself. In New Eng- 23* 270 DICTIONARY OF SECTS. land the word is applied, generally, to distinguish those Protestants who are not of the sect called Christians, nor Episcopalians, nor Swedenborgians, nor Unitarians, nor Universalists. Passageni. One of the ancient Protestant bodies. Paulicians. a body of Christians in Asia, pronounced heretics by the Roman and Greek Churches. Some of their descendants emigrated to Europe, and were found among the Albigenses, q. v. Presbyterians are so called because they have no bishops, but govern their churches by presbyteries-and synods of elders, meeting from time to time. The name relates to discipline only. Some Presbyterians are Calvinists, some Arminians, and some Unitarians, in theology. Quakers. See Friends. Second Advent. A material or physical explanation of the figures of speech in the Prophecies of the Old Testament, in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, in the Epistles, and in the Book of Revelation, has often given rise to the idea that Christ was to come again in person upon this earth, and that its destruction by fire would ensue. Persons who sup- pose this event near call themselves " Second Ad- vent Christians." The belief was general about the year 1000, and at the period of the Black Death. It was frequently expressed in the wars in England two hundred years ago, and revived by Mr. Miller's dis- ciples in America lately. Shakers. A small body, established in England in 1747, but now almost wholly confined to New Eng- DICTIONARY OF SECTS. 271 land. They claim that they still receive revelations of the highest authority and importance. They pro- hibit marriage, live in communities of property, and use a peculiar dance in their religious exercises. SwEDENBORGiANS. This name is frequently given to members of the New Church, q. v. Unitarians. See Chaps. III., V., and XXIV. The name was first given in Poland, without reference to theological opinion. In the year 1568, a decree was confirmed which secured to all denominations of the Reformers the free exercise of their religion. From the union of all parties in passing this edict, a union to which they were led by weighty reasons, they were designated as Uniti or Unitarii. A part of the Re- formers afterwards abandoned the decree, and the name was restricted to those who held to it, who were those who did not believe the identity of the Son and the Father. As all Christians believe in the Unity of God, the q,pplication of the name to those only who do not believe his Trinity, though conven- ient, is not strictly philosophical. Universalists. The name, as a theological term, be- longs to all Christians who believe that in the end all souls will be forgiven and happy. Some Univer- salists suppose that this will take place after certain preparatory stages in another world. These are called, for convenience, Restorationists. The name is that of a large religious organization in England and America, holding this fundamental tenet. They are strictly Congregationalist in their church govern- ment. 272 DICTIONARY OF SECTS. Waldenses. Anciently called Vallenses. A small body of Protestants in the valleys of the Alps, who have been under their own direction from the earli- est times. QUESTIONS. CHAPTER I. What is the close of the book of Acts i Why did Paul wish to see Rome ? How did he go there at last ? When did he arrive 1 Who was then Emperor ? How had he been trained to his office ? Where did Paul land 1 What other voyage to the same place was made in that spring? Describe the death of Agrippina. How did Paul go to Rome 1 How did Nero go, the same summer ? When was Paul's first trial ? Describe Seneca's plans with Nero. What was the result of Paul's examination ? What, probably, did he say to Nero and Seneca ? When was his second trial 1 What was the result of it ? CHAPTER II. When were the Christians first persecuted by the Romans ? What is Tacitus's account of that persecution ? Where was Paul at that time 1 Who was Trajan 1 274 QUESTIONS. Describe his entrance into Eome. What story does Dante tell of his kindness ? "Was he under Christian influences ? Describe the death of Simeon. On what charge were the Christians found guilty 1 Wliat was Trajan's objection to their meeting 1 Who was Pliny 1 Give some account of his letter to Trajan ftbout the Chrisiians. What did Trajan reply? Who was Ignatius 1 Where was he tried and sentenced 1 How was the sentence executed ? What was the result of such executions 1 CHAPTEK III. What was the early condition of Christianity in Asia? What causes helped its exteasion there 1 Where and when was Montanus born 1 How did he become a Christian ? What Avere his first Christian efforts ? What views did he press ? Who were his first converts ? What opposition did they meet? What was the success of Montanism ? With what signs was it accompanied ? What part did different bishops take in it ? What movements like this have there been since ? Who were Emperors of Rome in Montanus's time ? How did they treat the Christians ? What was the chief seat of Christian learning ? What is said of Mark's Gospel ? , Who was Clement ? CHAPTER IV. What was Origen's home ? How did his father die ? QUESTIONS. 275 Where did Origen go 1 What important duty was intrusted to him 1 What schools were there in his time in the city of Alexandria "? Give some account of Egyptian speculations. How did they represent these views to the people 1 What other philosophers had views somewhat similar ? How did the Christians generally receive these speculations 1 What did they teach of the invisibility of God ? Give an account of Minucius Pelix's argument. What did they say af Christ's nature generally ? Who were Gnostics ? * What did Origen and Clement say of Gnostics ? How was Christian doctrine affected by other doctrines around it ? What view of theirs is repeated 1 What hymn closes the chapter ? CHAPTER V. Where is Numidia ? When was Mary of Numidia born 1 What was the ceremony of baptism at that time ? What were the religious services at home ? What were the hours for the public religious services ? What was the order of these services 1 What lessons were the younger people expected to learn before their baptism ? What was the service of the Communion ? What was the form of marriage at that time ? To what office was Mary's son appointed 1 What was his fate 1 CHAPTER VI. Where and when was Constantino born ? What was his education ? Wliat was his fortune in the army 1 How did Diocletian treat him ? Why did Galerius expose him 1 276 QUESTIONS. How did he escape to his father 1 "Where and how was he made " Augustus " ? What was th<, oeginning of the persecution then raging * How did the Emperors attempt to destroy Christianity? Did the Church suffer permanent injury? How did Constantine execute the decree against Chi-istians ? When and why was it recalled ? Who was Maxentius 1 Describe Constantine's campaign against him. What is the story of the appearance of the cross in the sky ? What was the Labarum ? Did Constantine profess Christianity when he became Emperor ? How did he treat the Christians 1 How did the bishops treat him ? What was his decree about Sunday ? What were some of his cruelties 1 What questions were left to him to decide ? Who was Arius 1 Who was Athanasius 1 Describe Constantine's baptism and death. "What effect on Christianity had his reign ? CHAPTER VII. What relation to Constantine did Julian bear ? How old was he when Constantine died 1 What were his early experiences of the Emperor's cruelty 1 Who was his brother? Who had the charge of their education 1 Julian was trained in two forms of religion. How did this happen 1 What office in the church did he fill 1 How did Constantius treat him ? Whom did he find in Nicomedia ? How did he come to study magic 1 What god did he select as his own ? Describe the vision which led to this. "What was his life in Gaul 1 QUESTIONS. 277 How did he become " Augustus " 1 When did he give up Christianity'? What directions did he give at Constantinople 1 How did the army receive his rehgious schemes 1 Describe the feast of Apollo at Antioch. What enterprise did he attempt at Jerusalem 1 How did he die ? Who was the next Emperor 1 Had the Christians suffered personally under him ? Does his history show that the mass of people were Christians 1 Does it show that they were attached to the heathen worship 1 What does it show of those who were Christians 1 CHAPTER VIII. Into what distant countries did the Apostles penetrate 1 Why is the history of their travels confined to the Roman Empire? What was the Christianity of the Goths ? Who was the Emperor of the West at this period 1 Who was Alaric ? What is the date of his entrance into Rome ? What was the state of Christianity in Rome ? Who was Augustine, and where was he born ? How was he educated through his boyhood 1 What was his behaviour at school 1 Where did he go on leaving school ? What was it that impressed him at nineteen years of age ? Who were the Manicheans ? Where did Augustine go, and what was liis office ? Describe the manner of his conversion from his evil way ? What course of life did he follow 1 Who was Pelagius 1 What is the meaning of his name ? What were the opinions of Augustine ? What, those of Pelagius 1 What was the result of their controversy 1 What coincidence can be observed in studying the course of this controversy 1 NO. VITI. 24 278 QUESTIONS. CHAPTER IX. "What was the quality of the Christianity at court in the West- em Empire? "Who was Pulcheria 1 How old was she when she was called upon to act as a heroine 1 "What was her character 1 "What was her position 1 "What sort of a person was Theodosius 1 How did he spend his time 1 How did he use his imperial power 1 "What vow did Pulcheria make, and how did she render it more solemn ? How did she and her sisters pass their time 1 "What title did she bear 1 How did Pulcheria use her power ? Who was Athenais 1 Relate her life and her troubles. What befell her on her father's death ? Where did she go ? How was she received 1 How did the Emperor first meet her? What new name did Athenais take ? How did she employ herself? What was Theodosius's worst fault 1 How did he receive his sister's lesson for it 1 Did the Empress govern the country Avitli prudence ? How was Pulcheria made Empress ? What was her death ? CHAPTER X. What was the religion at the Caaba in Mecca ? In the story of the four truth-seekers, what were they seeking ? What was Waraca's success ? Othman's ? Obeydallah's ? Zeyd's 1 Hew eld was Mahomet whan he annoui-ccd himself as a prophet r QUESTIONS. 279 What was the disposition of the people of Mecca ? How did his wife receive his revelation 1 Who were his first converts ? How did they succeed in Mecca ? What is the Hegira ? What was Mahomet's success afterwards ? Describe his death. What conquests did his followers make ? What were the causes of their rapid triumphs ? Had the Mussulman soldiers as firm faith as Mahomet 1 What firm conviction had they, and on what foundation 1 CHAPTER XI. How was Clovis converted 1 What did he say of the crucifixion ? Who governed France in those days ? Who was Leger ? Where did he study when young 1 Of what city was he afterwards bishop ? Who were the do-nothing kings ? Why did they do nothing 1 Describe Dagobert's funeral. Relate the scene at Easter between the king and bishop ? What happened to Leger afterwards ? What sign of evil was observed in these times ? Describe the attack on Autun. Relate the miracle by which the barbarian is said to have been punished. How was Leger killed ? What resulted to Christianity from such conversions ? CHAPTER XII. How was Great Britain divided at the time of Alfred 1 What was the condition of England ? Who was Claudia, and by Avhom is she alluded to ? Hov/ could Christianity have been introduced into Great Britain ? 280 QUESTIONS. Who were the Vikings 1 How old was the prince Alfred when he learned to read 1 What first led him to learn 1 After he was made king, how was he obliged to occupy himself? What did he force his old soldiers to do, in time of peace 1 How did he then employ himself? What was his success in governing ? Was he a Christian king "? What was the Christianity of the priests and peasants ? What has survived of the characteristics belonging to them, that has served to make their descendants free inquirers ? What five causes are stated as having produced the present state of Protestant Christianity in England 1 CHAPTER XIII. When was Hildebrand born 1 Who was he 1 What was the custom with regard to the appointment of the Pope? Who had been appointed Pope at this time, and by whom 1 What was the advice of Hildebrand to the Pope 1 How did he leave Cluny for Rome 1 How was the Pope received at Rome 1 How long did he reign ? How great was the influence of Hildebrand ? What reforms did he attempt among the clergy 1 What is simony 1 Eind the passage in Acts alluded to. Repeat the account of the investigation made concerning the French archbishop. What Avas the result of this incident? What title did Hildebrand hold ? What office did he finally assume, and under what name ? What declarations did he make of his power ? How were these received by the royal powers 1 What answer did the Emperor Henry make to a threat of ex- communication 1 QUESTIONS. 281 What was the reply of the Pope "? What effect had this upon Henry ? Give an account of his going to the Pope, and reception. What was the end of the Pope ? What were his last words, and the reply of the bishop ? What influences did he leave behind him 1 Por how long was this observable 1 What is the state of things now, with regard to the Papal power 1 CHAPTER XIV. Did the Crusades advance civilization ? Did the Popes favor them 1 Who led the third Crusade, for the recovery of Jerusalem? Where did the English land ? Describe one of the sieges. How were the Saracens converted ? Why were the hostages hung ? What custom is described at encamping ? What was the "Easter miracle "? What account is given of a fraud by which it was wrought? How was a piece of the Holy Cross found 1 How did Richard take Joppa 1 What was the end of the campaign ? How did the Crusades affect the nations of Asia? What spirit did they nourish in Europe 1 Did they strengthen the Popes ? What benefit did they introduce into Europe ? CHAPTER XV. Why does history tell so little of the people in the Dark Ao-eg ? What was the condition of laboring men ? '^ What Avas a vassal's oath 1 What was the people's influence ? Describe Gurth's dress and badge. Desrvihp the rnni--i^^' rUn]\n^ ^yjf}^ ^i^pj,, ^^^.^^^ 282 QUESTIONS. What was repselver ? How was it paid in the instance given ? Where, now, does one person plan for another's action 1 Describe the settlement of California. What was the state of the Indians 1 How did they prosper"? How did this end 1 What other system of labor is contrasted with this ? CHAPTER XVI. Did the Church of Rome ever embrace all Christians ? What Eastern and African churches are named 1 Why had the Roman Church most power in the West ? What was the intercourse between distant regions and Rome ? How did they receive the Pope's commands 1 What was King John's agreement 1 How long did it last 1 Were there ever religious controversies in early times 1 What is a Pi-otestant 1 How early were there Protestants ? Where were they 1 Who were the Albigenses ? Describe the trial of two heretics. Describe the capture of Lavaur. How did they distinguish Catholics from heretics at Bexiers 1 What was the ecclesiastical history of the country of the Albi- genses afterwards 1 CHAPTER XVII. The Black Death began in 1348. Where did it come from upon Europe ? Describe its progress. How long did its havoc in one country continue 1 What was the extent of its ravages, as shown by the number of deaths 1 What charges were made against the Jews 1 QUESTIONS. 283 Who accused them unjustly ? What conduct of the Senate of Strasburg is described 1 What was the " real poison " which killed the Jews 1 How did Europe recover from the plague 1 What was its result 1 How did it affect property ? How did the monks behave, and how were they affected 1 Who were the Flagellants ? What effect was produced on the Pope's power? How did it affect labor, and the laboring people 1 CHAPTER XVIII. Where was Wickliflf} at the time of the Black Death ? What did he think it 1 What book did he then write 1 How did he treat the Church of Rome and the friars 1 What did he always say of the Scriptures 1 What of the right of the human soul 1 How did the Popes, and how did England, receive his doctrine 1 What is the spirit of the passages quoted from his sermons ? Repeat some passage of his version of the Bible. What did the Council of Constance do with Wickliffe's body 1 What was the Council of Constance 1 What did they do with the Popes 1 Who was John Huss 1 How did the Pope treat him 1 and how did the Emperor and the Council ? On what charges was he tried ? What was his sentence 1 Describe his execution, and Leutze's picture of it. What is said of Jerome of Prague 1 and what of other early Protestants 1 What effect had the invention of printing 1 284 QUESTIONS. CHAPTEK XIX. What new phrase was in Pope Clement's indulgences "^ Where was Girolamo Savonarola born ? How did he enter his manhood 1 What did he write to his father ? What reasons had he for being a monk 1 How did the convent satisfy him 1 What poem did he write 1 Describe his first preaching. What effect did his preaching on the Apocalypse produce 1 In what condition was Florence 1 How did Savonarola and Lorenzo meet each other ? What parties rose in Florence 1 Describe the scene at Lorenzo's death. For what did Savonarola ask a council 1 What act brought about his fall 1 Describe the ordeal by fire. Describe Savonarola's death. CHAPTER XX. How had most men received religious or mental instruction be- fore the invention of printing 1 What is the earliest Christian poetry ? In which Gospel are the earliest Christian hymns 1 What hymns are spoken of after the death of Christ 1 What is the origin of the tune of Old Hundred ? What fragments of hymns are in the Epistles ? What is the earliest emblem of God ? Wliat later ones are used 'i What profess to be the first pictures of Jesus t What Avas the handkerchief preserved at Edessa ? What was the early statement as to his appearance ? What is Augustine's 1 What are the earliest images of him ? What is the first medal 1 QUESTIONS, 285 What are the earliest pictures at Rome ? What resemblances are found to the cross ? Why are the lamb, the shepherd, the fish, and the pelican, em- blems of Christ ? Why are the dove, and tongues of fire, emblems of the Holy Spirit ? When are white robes used in Christian churches ? What is denoted by the anchor 1 the cock ? the stag 1 the horse ? the lion ? the hare ? and the phoenix 1 Why are eggs emblems of Easter ? What are the emblems in the passion-flower ? What is the Glory 1 What are the Amice 1 the Alb ? the Girdle, Maniple, and Stole 1 the Chasuble 1 What does the priest's tonsure represent? What suggests the form of the Catholic altars ? What the light above them 1 Repeat some of the inscriptions in the Catacombs. When was Christian art at its highest point ? CHAPTER XXI. In what view is America a gift of Christianity to the world 1 What motive had Columbus for his last voyage 1 What colony did he plant in it ? What troubles befell him there 1 Desci-ibe his vision. How did the colony succeed 1 How was the Pacific Ocean discovered 1 Has it been a pacific ocean ? Describe Balboa's march. Describe his first view of the South Sea. What motives led the first adventurers from Spain 1 What is the present condition in religious faith of the Indians of the regions which they discovered ? 286 QUESTIONS. CHAPTER XXII. What is " the greatest scene in modem history " ? How long had Luther been preaching reform when he was sum- moned to the city of Worms 1 Who was the Cardinal Alexander ? How had the Pope treated Luther 1 Describe the service of blessing and cursing at Rome. What did the cardinal ask of the Emperor 1 How did the Emperor summon Luther 1 How were circumstances changed since Huss's time ? How did Luther regard Savonarola's picture 1 How did he enter Worms 1 Describe the first day after his arrival. Describe the second. How did the Assembly receive his resolution 1 What did the Emperor say 1 What token did the Duke of Brunswick send him 1 What was the Emperors decision 1 Where did Luther go 1 CHAPTER XXIII. Who was Ignatius Loyola ? What is the story of his vow to the Virgin Mary ? How did the Inquisition treat him 1 What did he at Paris 1 What is the organization of the Society of Jesus 1 What has it done 1 How has it affected the Catholic world 1 Who was Xavier ? Describe his first efforts in Japan. How did his first preaching succeed ? What was the result of his journey to the capital ? How did he address the king of Amungutium on his return 1 How successful was he there as a " fisher of men " ? Where and how did he die ? What became of the Jesuit power in Japan;? QUESTIONS. 287 CHAPTER XXIV. Why was Poland a country of Unitarians ? What had been their fVite elsewhere ? When did Ruarus go there 1 What position was offered him in England ? How did his father and mother regard his faith 1 What does he say of the charge of heresy ? What was the fate of the Polish Unitarians ? Where are their descendants now 1 What are Ruarus 's seven reasons why the Church of Rome should sympathize with them 1 What service did they render to all Christendom 1 CHAPTER XXV. What was the family of Cotton Mather 1 Who was he named for 1 How was he educated 1 What was the fundamental principle of the New England churches 1 What change had been wrought in this 1 What change in them 1 How did Cotton Mather's preaching differ from the older Puritans' 1 Describe the title of his sermon on Thunder. What is his account of it ? What spirit does this sermon show 1 Where is the same spirit found in other matters ? What event put an end to the influences of such a state of so- ciety in New England 1 CHAPTER XXVI. What was the spirit of the religion of England a hundred years ago ? What effect had the Wesleys and Whitefield 1 288 QUESTIONS. What influence had other philanthropists in England ? What were Swedenborg's first studies ? To what did they lead him ? Describe the first demonstration of his revelation. What did he believe this to be 1 How does he say his entrance into the spiritual world diflFers from that of other men ? What is said of the origin of his state 1 How do Christians regard his revelations 1 What is said of his disciples 1 CHAPTER XXVII. Describe Wallis's discovery of Tahiti. When and why did Cook visit that island ? What offer did Otoo make to him ? How did he receive it ? When did the English efforts to convert Tahiti begin ? How were the missionaries met ? Wliat were their first failures 1 How did the natives treat them ? When were they driven away 1 How did they return ? What was the king's condition ? How did their success begin 1 And how was Christianity permanently established there ? What form of effort has sprung up from the success of Mission- ary Societies'? It is hoped that Chapters XXVIII. and XXIX. will suggest their own questions to teacher and learner. 13694YB 18l£ 12-12-02 32180 HS I Princeton Theoloqical , Seminary L-ibraries 1012 01292 2177