he had been now a priest for fifty years) does he wish to found a new city ?" A mob was collected and inflamed by these leaders; they set fire to the bishop's granaries, which were all consumed when the holy man arrived at the spot. What then think you did he say and do? He alighted from his horse, and as it was the winter season, he approached as near as he could to the fire, as if to warm himself, saying, "A hearth is always good, especially for an old man." This was all the vengeance he took.* In the seventeenth century a troop of four hundred poor people from Orleans, driven out by the civil war, came to Jumièges, and the monks supported them, at the expense of 15,000 livres. I mention this last instance for the sake of repeating the remark of their historian, for he says, that "in consequence of their having received the reform of the congregation of St. Maur, they were enabled to accumulate at the very season of their greatest expenditure: so true is it that austerity and holiness were often the chief source of ecclesiastical riches."+ Thus then we are warranted in concluding from the whole, that the wealth of the Church in these ages of faith, was in its extent, in the mode of its acquisition, and in the rule of its dispensation, consistent with that spiritual poverty which belongs to the attainment of beatitude. But our meditations must not terminate with our enquiries respecting those who lived in external poverty or riches. We must proceed to examine from other sides in what manner men in these ages corresponded with the injunction from the Mount, following the first counsel that Christ gave; and the next point of view which offers itself for this purpose, is that which regards their humility, and the manners to which it gave rise. * Drexelius, de Conformitate Human. Volunt. cum Divin. Lib. IV. cap. 8. + Deshayes Hist. de l'Abbaye de Jumièges, p. 143. CHAPTER IV. E are arrived at a passage where an opinion must be expressed, that many will deem groundless and extravagant; but notwithstanding the prospect of such a reception, it must be expressed, though it should overwhelm me with ridicule and the reproach of incapacity, as Socrates used to describe it, coming upon me as if it were a laughing wave, ὥσπερ κῦμα ἐκγελῶν.—Be it affirmed then that to one who has studied the history of Christian ages, and the character of the present times, there can be no conclusion more certain, than that the real and practical adoption of the humble spirit in ages of faith is one cause to which must be ascribed, in a great measure, the contempt with which the modern writers are so inclined to speak of them, as it was certainly one most influential in placing them in opposition to those examples of proud glory which men had formerly been told to admire, and to which they have so often in later times recurred with approval and expressions of applause, for different results needs must be the fruit of principles formally opposed. Rome, as the mistress of the Pagan world, and Rome as the capital of Christendom, might be produced as symbolical of the two opposite characters into which ages and nations, as well as men, individually, may be divided; for as Plato says, "There are the same things, and the same number, in the state, as exist in each separate soul." Thus in the dark and sanguinary annals of Tacitus, we behold the combats of contending despots, or of the more despotic and capricious legions. We are present at the atrocious triumphs, we see the chained captives, the heads borne aloft on spears; we hear the horrid rattle of the martial car, and the subdued groans of those that read the list of proscriptions which is to complete the conqueror's glory. Or if we look to the condition of the same people at a period more remote, as described by the historians of the republic, we find the same restless humor of perpetual wars, along with an interminable contest between the different orders, which led at short intervals to crimes of the greatest atrocity and horror; we hear of nothing but the camp and the forum ; abroad we behold proud and merciless oppression in its most hateful form of affected protection; and at home, the ceaseless war of separate parties and interests, whose mutual accusations sufficiently exposed the delusion of that pretended liberty which could yield such small protection to the majority of the poorer citizens. All this * De Repub. Lib. IV. is now changed for the Catholic type of felicity. We now have nothing but images of quiet wisdom, sanctity, and innocence; symbols of infinite love, of divine and everlasting peace, the daily sacrifice, the evening hymn, the sweet music of the pilgrim's litany, the portals that open to receive the living to joy, and the dirge of requiem, to supplicate rest and deliverance for the dead. The one is the result of the world's theory of grandeur; the other, that of the Christian philosophy; and in ages of faith men were sensible of its superior advantages, Thus it was with a view to this latter kind of greatness, that the humble St. Isidore, when in the article of death, predicted to Spain, that if it ever fell from the true religion, it would be brought to ruin; but that if it persevered in observing it, its greatness would rise above that of other nations, and as Don Diego Savedra Faxardo remarks on this in his Christian Prince, from the time that Don Pelayo and his little band of faithful Christians had retired into the cavern of Covalonga, Spain has always increased in grandeur as the reward for its perseverance in the Catholic religion,* that is to say, in the Christian and real sense of grandeur; for a saint would have wished no other for his country. There will seem to many in this proposition (more shame for human wills disordered), something false or overbold; but the difficulty may be solved, or the hopeless nature of the mistake detected, by recurring to first principles. The fact is then, (not according to Paley, that there are two opposite descriptions of character under which mankind may always be classed,) but that the Christian faith has created a character which passes from men to nations, and even to ages in the history of the world, and which is diametrically opposed to that of animal, or, as religion expresses it, unregenerated men whether developed in the lives of men, or in the ages of nations. "The one,” as the same writer says, "possesses vigor, firmness, resolution; is daring and active quick in its sensibilities, jealous of its fame, eager in its attachments, inflexible in its purpose, violent in its resentments. The other meek, yielding, complying, forgiving, not prompt to act, but willing to suffer; silent and gentle under rudeness and insult; suing for reconciliation, when others would demand satisfaction ; giving way to the pushes of impudence; conceding and indulgent to the prejudices, the wrongheadedness, the intractibility of those with whom it has to deal. The former of these characters is, and ever hath been, the favorite of the world. It is the character of great men," he continues, without observing the opposite idea of greatness in the ages which beheld a St. Louis and a Godfrey on the thrones of the world. "There is a dignity in it," he adds, as if almost acknowledging his own identity with the character he describes, "which universally commands respect. The latter is poor-spirited, tame and abject. Yet so it hath happened, that with the Founder of Christianity, this latter is the subject of his commendation, his precepts, his example; and that the former is so in no part of its composition." Beati pauperes spiritu, * I. 267. The strains came o'er mine ear, e'en as the sound Of choral voices, that in solemn chant Come swelling, now float indistinct away.* With St. Luke, who places only four beatitudes, and with St. Matthew, who hath eight, the first is that of the poor in spirit, for as St. Ambrose says, "it is in fact, the first in order, and as it were the parent of virtues. The character of the middle ages may be estimated in respect to it by referring to what was taught and believed, and to what was practised. Now it was taught and believed that humility adopted with sincerity and practised in all the circumstances of life, was the basis of all virtue and happiness, of all temporal honor, and of all eternal hopes. The truth of this proposition is so clear, from the slightest acquaintance with the history and learning of Christian antiquity, that one would rather comment upon it than proceed to prove it; one would rather fondly gaze "upon those patterns of meek humbleness" which they place before us, than bring forward reasons to believe that they existed. Throughout the whole literature of the ages of faith, we might in vain search for any of those ingenious speculations with which so many modern philosophers have sought to make the Christian rule of life reconcilable with worldly views of grandeur and elevation. It is clear that it continued to be received in the spirit in which it was first proposed, and we see that the whole Christian life in the first ages, when it was confronted with the proud seductive forms of heathen philosophy, was regarded by all men who did not embrace it as a poor servile form of life. Thus in the office of St. Agatha, which the Church reads on the fifth of February, we find that Quintianus, the Roman Prætor, said to her, "Nonne te pudet nobili genere natam humilem et servilem Christianorum vitam agere?" To which she only replied that the Christian humility and servitude were better than the wealth and pride of kings. There is never any attempt to represent it as reconcilable by any views of human philosophy or of earthly wisdom, with the proud ideal of intellectual greatness which is so flattering to the mere reason of man. If we proceed to examine their doctrines in detail, we find all their arguments and meditations directed to the same end. St. Augustin wonders why Eve should be called by a new name after her condemnation; and that then, for the first time, she should be styled, the mother of all living ; and he concludes that "it was on account of her having been humbled and deprived of celestial gifts, that she might feel her own wretchedness; for humility is the commencement of spiritual life." Nor was it forgotten, that she too, that pure and wondrous creature Created beings all in lowliness. Surpassing, as in height, above them all, that she, ennobler of her nature, through whom that spiritual life was to be restor * Dante, Purg. IX. Hom. Lib. V. in Luc. 6 In Genes. ed to the children of men, was indebted for her exaltation to the humility which was infused into her spotless soul. "Vide humilitatem, vide devotionem," cries St. Ambrose, alluding to the reply of the blessed Virgin to the angel. "She that is chosen to be the mother, styles herself the handmaiden of the Lord. She is not moved to high thoughts by the promise, but styling herself the servant, she vindicates to herself the prerogative of unprecedented grace." The same mind remains to her throughout the astonishing period which succeeds; for, as another holy writer observes, on no occasion of the miracles of Christ does she come forward to claim the honor of being his mother.* Let this serve to indicate the mark at which desire in these ages aimed. The facts which so repeatedly present themselves, in the history of the middle ages, of men declining and flying from honors and posts that offered great private advantage, not like the moderns, who sometimes refuse to accept dazzling prizes only from a cool calculation of selfish interests, but from a simple spirit of humility, and desire of obeying the precepts of Christ, can best be appreciated by contrasting them with all that the world, before Christianity, had beheld in men, placed in similar circumstances; and also, it must be admitted, with the recognized principles of action which now govern the multitudes which have refused to hear the Church. In this respect, the influence of the Christian spirit, in the middle ages, among the nations of the West, seems the more astonishing, because from the first there was no passion which offered so great an obstacle to its reception as the love of honors and separate distinction; and there was no offence against heaven, which so soon and so fatally opposed the happiness of the race of men, and the fulfilment of the beneficent and wondrous designs of their great Restorer, as the same passion developing itself in the East. The apostles, James and John, nourished in the school of Christ, the master of true humility, who gave not the pre-eminence to the disciple whom he especially loved, and imbued with his divine precepts, after such a discipline of wisdom and humility, were instigated by their mother to demand from their Lord the privilege of sitting, the one on his right hand, and the other on his left, in his kingdom! "So hardly," observes Lewis of Grenada, "can the thirst for honors and principality be quenched in the soul of man."+ And in the ninth century, the same thirst impelled the learned Photius to invade the see of the illustrious Ignatius, which was the original cause of the most deplorable event that is found in the records of history: for what followed after the lapse of two ages, was but the consummation of that first pride. If we proceed to the review of manners, and the intercourse of private life, the character of the ages of faith is perhaps equally admirable: all the other good effects, domestic, that would follow from this spirit, one can already see; for the humility of men then was not a feigned sentiment, such as Sismondi ascribes to them, * Arias de Imitatione B. Virginis, p. 43. Ludovic. Grenadensis in Festo B. Jacobi, Concio II. |