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SHORT STUDIES IN

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

AND BIOGRAPHY



SHORT STUDIES

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

AND BIOGRAPHY

BY THE

Rev.

H.

N.-'OXENHAM,

M.A,

LATE SCHOLAR OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD

Sonboii

CHAPMAN AND HALL, 1884 [./!//

rights reseri'ed.^

Limited


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TO

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DEAN OF MANCHESTER, IN

GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF A VALUED FRIENDSHIP LASTING FROM OLD OXFORD DAYS,

IS

WITH MUCH REGARD AND AFFECTION INSCRIBED.



PREFACE. The

Essays are reprinted, by the kind per-

following

mission of the Editor, from the Saturday Reviezv, with

some sion

corrections

and additions, and the occasional omis-

of matter of merely temporary interest.

one

In

or two cases portions of different articles bearing on the

same subject have been incorporated.

It

was of course

inevitable in dealing, under the necessary limitations of

space, with themes of wide

and varied import, on many

of which whole volumes might be written, that a of treatment

method

should be adopted suggestive rather than

exhaustive, with a view to bringing out the salient points,

and thus refreshing the memory or stimulating the minds of those

also

who may

lack leisure or opportunity for

And

in

a

busy and

a reading age, but

is

somewhat apt

serious

study.

restless,

more

which

to regard

is

"a

great book, as a great evil," the author ventures to hope that to

may

many

readers such aids to

their

own

reflection

prove not unacceptable.

While however he has thousjht

it

most suitable to


PREFACE. the all

character of the work

to

avoid, as far as possible,

display of learning, and not to load his pages with

references,

which to some might appear wearisome and

to others superfluous,

it

must not therefore be supposed

judgments expressed have been

that the

lightly formed,

or are based on authorities which have not been carefully verified.

honest, as

It if

of a

has been his aim throughout to offer an

but a modest and

single

stone,

towards

great temple of historic truth.

May

I,

1884.J

fragmentary, contribution, the

building up of the


CONTENTS. PAGE I.

II.

III.

IV.

V. VI. VII. VIII. I.K.

X.

XL XII. XIII.

XIV.

XV. XVI.

CHRISTIANITY BETWEEN TWO FOES

I

CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN ART

9

CONFLICT OF EARLY CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN THOUGHT

1

RELIGIOUS ATTITUDE OF THE EMPEROR HADRIAN

2/

HELLENISM AND

ITS

...

REVIVAL

35

THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE CHURCH

42

UNITY AND VARIETY IN CHURCH AND STATE LATIN CHRISTIANITY RISE

...

49 57

'

AND GROWTH OF ULTRAMONTANISM

64

LATIN HYMNOLOGY

74

FOURTEENTH BENEDICTINE CENTENARY

86

PROPHECIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA

94

LATER CHRISTIAN PROPHECIES

PROPHECY OF

ST.

I04

MALACHY

112

SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY

PENAL LAWS AGAINST HERESY

I20 '

...

I30

XVII.

TOLERATION AND INDIFFERENTISM

140

XVIII.

"black and BLOODY GARDINER"

151

ICONOCLAS-M

163

CHRISTIAN TEACHING ON THE RIGHT OF REBELLION

171

XXI.

DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS

180

XXII.

FESTIVAL OF CHRISTMAS

19I

MIRACLE PLAYS

199

XIX.

XX.

XXIII.


CONTENTS. XXIV.

XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII.

XXIX.

XXX. XXXI. XXXII. XXXIII.

ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF UNIVERSITIES

2o8

JEWISH PATRIOTISM

219

THE yUDENHASS

IN HISTORY

REVIVAL OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

228

239

INTOLERANCE OF SCOTCH CALVINISM

248

FORCE OF INDIVIDUALISM IN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS

259

PREACHING ANCIENT AND MODERN

269

HUGO GROTIUS

281

^

SWEDENBORG AND SWEDENBORGIANISM

289

STRAUSS

297

XXXIV.

JOHN BERNARD DALGAIRNS

309

XXXV.

BISHOP DUPANLOUP

318

XXXVI. XXXVII. XXXVIII.

XXXIX. XL. XLI. XLII. XLIII.

CANON OAKELEY

32s

GUMMING

333

DR.

DEAN STANLEY

344

WILLIAM GEORGE WARD

358

DR. PUSEY

AND THE OXFORD MOVEMENT

THE LATE PROVOST OF ORIEL

367 375

ARCHBISHOP TAIT

385

DEAN CLOSE AND THE EVANGELICALS

394


SHORT STUDIES ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

I.

CHRISTIANITY BETWEEN

TWO

FOES.

In an address which he delivered some years ago before a rehgious Congress at Munich, Dr. DoUinger starts from the assertion that by the cradle of Christian theology stood

two mighty

foes,

heathen philosophy and the heretical

gnosis, with both of

which

it

both also had much to learn.

had to contend, and from

No

student of ecclesiastical

But

history will question the correctness of his statement.

a

still

broader truth

is

conveyed

in

a remark

we came

across the other day, which applies, not only to the early

Church, but to the whole course of Christian history from the beginning until now. in

Christianity,

it

was observed, has

every age been confronted by two rival religions

;

its

morality has been threatened by the higher Paganism, or

worship of beauty;

its

doctrinal system

by a

scientific

Theism, or worship of what claims to be pure and absolute truth.

With both

of these

it

has always been

in conflict,


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

2

and yet tions

;

to both

and

this

own

has been constrained to

it

its

obliga-

mutual interchange of blows and courtesies

was never more conspicuous than

our

in

own

day.

A

distinguishing feature of the last half-century has been the revival of artistic taste

and culture

throughout Europe, of which

movement

is

in the service of religion

the

one subordinate phase

grown up a

ecclesiastical restoration there has artj

independent of

them much

all

Ritualistic

religion of

theological restraints, and looking on

Roman and

as the

so-called

but alongside of this

;

Florentine literati of the

Mean-

Renaissance looked on the reforms of Savonarola. while the dominant scientific school

is

impatient of any

Deity that cannot be resolved into an impersonal abstraction,

and declines to

proffer

more than

"

a silent worsh'p

Unknowable and Unknown."

at the altar of the

Yet, at

the same time, the exponents of the extremest form of scientific

Atheism loudly

prophets of a

new and

however much we

may

assert

their

be

claim to

exclusively true religion.

the

And,

smile at the half-grotesque details

of the Comtist creed, with

elaborate

its

mimicry of the

hierarchy, the discipline, and the ritual of Catholicism, no

one can

fail

unexpected a homage to

to be struck with so

the inextinguishable cravings of the religious sentiment,

which

it

Nor can

as fully recognises as

it

entirely fails to satisfy.

the Church, which has in former periods accepted

the services of an Augustine, an Aquinas, and a Pascal, affect to

ignore

in

our

champions of her cause.

own day

the need for scientific

may

perhaps be said that

It

these opposite forms of faith or scepticism, in whichever light

we choose

and impetuous

to regard them, are in their assault

now more

confident

than has usually been the


TWO

CHRISTIANITY BETWEEN case before, and that they functions, not of

Whether

or

Theist— and

more

mere negative

FOES.

distinctly

criticism,

3

assume the

but of rival creeds.

not Mr. Mill could be fairly considered a his nearest

approach to

it

a kind of revived Manichean dualism

appears to have been

—he inculcated a kind

of religious and ethical system of his own, often borrowing .the language, if not

which he rejected. writers

the ideas, of the historical religions

This

who would be

category with him.

may

And

be said of some living

also

more or

classed

less in the

same

thus again the artistic religion

of Paganism finds a passionate apologist in Mr. Swinburne.

But

if

there

is

some

difference in their

the same triangular duel, so to call

and

its

two powerful

since the

first

rivals

it,

methods of warfare, between Christianity

has been in progress continually

The two mighty by

preaching of the Gospel.

antagonists stood, to repeat Dr. Bollinger's language,

the cradle of the nascent faith

proved strong enough to coerce, rather succeeded in bending

yet mightier than

been no doubt

them

not to strangle, them, or

power

to the service of a

Some change

themselves.

in their relative

but the infant Hercules

;

if

has

there

importance, as mankind has

gradually advanced from what has been termed the mythological to the physical stage.

Pagan

art

was a

formidable opponent to reckon with in the

than Pagan philosophy

;

far

first

more

century

the opposition of science, which

cannot always be thrust aside as

false,

gives

much

greater

trouble to the apologists of Revelation in the nineteenth.

Let us begin with

From

art.

the earliest period of which

has been

mankind.

any records remain,

a powerful factor in the religious It

art

development of

has been by turns the instrument and the B 2


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

4

tyrant of the national

AND BIOGRAPHY.

or sometimes both together.

faith,

Greek reHgion, which was the worship of natural beauty, expressed

itself in

those unrivalled artistic forms which

have riveted the admiring gaze of successive generations for

above two thousand years; but the chisel which wrought

so marvellously in

service

its

was tracing the

most exquisite

Its

corruption.

was the

art

lines of its

efflorescence

The gods who were worshipped with

of decay.

sincere

devotion were the deities of Homer, not the creations of Pheidias,

that

and

it

was only by crushing the genius of

its artists

Egypt so long preserved the sombre grandeur of

hereditary faith.

its

Christianity could afford to be less jealous,

although the early fathers betray an uneasy suspicion of

whatever had been associated with Paganism. ingly the Catacombs, which were the

first

shops, as well as the sepulchres, of the fusely

And

accord-

homes and work-

new

religion, are pro-

ornamented with sculpture borrowing the imagery of

existing forms of

art.

A refined and graceful Christian sym-

bolism was by degrees superinduced on these ancient models

but

it

showed nothing of that darker and sterner aspect

of Gospel teaching which was afterwards so abundantly

exhibited

in

churches and cemeteries

;

there were no repre-

sentations of hell or purgatory, or of the Last

and, what seems stranger, there were at

first

Judgment

no represent-

The fiery persecution, through which who were thus piously commemorated

ations of the Passion.

so

many

of those

had passed

to their reward,

was but distantly alluded

occasional picture of Daniel

among

holy children walking unharmed amid the flames.

was changed of course

to in

an

the lions, or the three

All this

at a later date, and, in spite of the

triumphs of mediaeval architecture,

it is

true to say that, as


CHRISTIANITY BETWEEN

TWO

the purely religious sentiment attained

FOES.

5

ascendency

its

in

the "ages of faith," aesthetic art on the whole declined, to revive with the irreligious, or at least non-religious, outburst

Yet Christianity never

of the Renaissance.

narrower and more mission imposed on

creeds, that

artificial it

at

forgot, like

its

world-wide

once the capacity and the obliga-

tion of

embracing every genuine product of the human

intellect

and

if

we

only hold

own

its

proscribing

by

against the inroads of idolatry

The Arabian

art.

not prevent his

could

said,

The contrast is strikingly exemplified, moment to Mahometanism, which could

heart.

turn for a

prophet,

it

from worshipping

disciples

images, except by absolutely forbidding them

any

•made

to

make

he preserved his religion from idolatry, but

the deadly

it

since.

to

"

and thus

;

sternly

has been truly

The same

the illogical

enemy

of art," as

has remained ever

it

criticism applies, in a

more limited

sense,

compromise by which the Iconoclastic

controversy was eventually settled in the Eastern Church, permitting pictorial, sentations

but

sculptured,

prohibiting

of sacred subjects.

On

Renaissance was not a religious movement.'

development there been noticed

in

is

In

its artistic

a close analogy to what has already

the case of ancient Greece.

Instead of

using his art to do honour to religion, the painter

conceptions

religious artistic

are

power.

distinct,

dominate natural

in

that

The

subservient to

the

made

display of

his

devotional and the aesthetic temper

though not incompatible, and seldom prethe

same

class

of minds.

an ardent reformer

head a crusade against a not only the

repre-

the other hand, the

arts,

like

classical revival

but the

It

was perfectly

Savonarola should

which had brought,

tastes, the sensuality,

and the


6

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

scepticism of classical Greece in

AND BIOGRAPHY.

its train.

It

had

already-

been strongly denounced, and indeed forcibly suppressed,

by Paul

II.,

though

his successors in the

some time afterwards by no

Roman

rrieans followed his

See

for

example

in

But neither Pope nor preacher could perma-

this respect.

nently arrest the degradation of religious art which rapidly followed, and the course of which

may

even be traced

comparison of the earlier and later pictures of

There cannot be said

to

be a school of religious painters

some of the

the present day, though

may have

prse-Rafifaellites

in a

Rafifaelle.

earlier

suggested an anticipation not

In another department

destined to be realised.

in

works of the

we have

indeed witnessed a remarkable resuscitation of distinctively religious art, for

is

it

and the love of

it

quite true that Gothic architecture are

intimately connected

Christian, as contrasted with the

of mind

;

and Mr. Lecky

"we mainly owe

is

Pagan or

with the

secular, habit

certainly right in saying that

the revival of Gothic architecture to the

Catholic revival of the present century," though a party

powerful of

late

in

the

Roman

Catholic

Church have

betrayed their instinctive aversion to history by opposing

it.

In the early Christian centuries physical science was not sufficiently

advanced to present any serious

the Christian apologist.

St.

difficulties to

Augustine could easily dispose

of Manichean objections to the Mosaic cosmogony in a fashion which would never occur to a very inferior class

of thinkers pleustcs

now

— carried

and

in

the sixth century

public opinion with

the antipodes,

among

;

Cosmas Indico-

— the special butt of Mr. Matthew Arnold's in his

raillery

him when he argued against

TopograpJiia Christiana, for this reason,

others, that St. Paul speaks of all

men

living

"on


CHRISTIANITY BETWEEN

TWO

the face of the earth," which proves that

round. later,

It is right to

add that when

to

saint,

and not

two centuries

profoundly scandalized. critical instance

We

bishop,

but the religious world

of the day, which found a mouthpiece in

St. Boniface,

was

need not stay to dwell here

of the Copernican controversy, but

notorious that there has been a chronic feud between

theologians and is

flat

it is

Virgilius,

condemn him, and he became a

and eventually a canonized

on the

7

maintained the existence of the antipodes, Pope

Zachary dechned

it is

FOES.

men

of science, which one class of writers

fond of representing as the gradual triumph of science

over a dwindling supernaturalism. for instance, frequently

This

the leading idea,

is

avowed and always implied, which

runs through Mr. Lecky's History of Rationalism.

On

the

other hand, as was pointed out before,

if

been jealous of

encroachments on

her

scientific, as

own domain,

of

artistic,

the Church has

she has numbered great philosophers as

well as brilliant artists

among

her most devoted servants.

In the fifteenth century, Christianity appeared to be engaged in

an internecine struggle with the Pagan revolt against

her ethical code

;

day the controversy has passed arguments which were Bishop Butler

fail

philosophy

in the eighteenth, a Deistic

questioned the primary articles of her creed. into a

unanswerable

new

in

to convince disputants

In our

own

phase,

and

the

mouth

who

repudiate,

not his reasoning, but the premisses admitted in at the

time by himself and

his opponents.

It

of

common is

not

unreasonable, however, to believe that a religion which has survived so

equal to the in

many open or insidious attacks will still be crisis. A way may be found in the future, as

the past, for acknowledging the legitimate claims

of


8

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BICGRAPHY.

science, without resolving into a beautiful but

Aberglaube the soled the

Meanwhile

last it

faith

which has ennobled the

life

visionary

and con-

hours of sixty generations of Christians. is

significant that the great

positive philosophy in

master of the

France should have passionately

proclaimed the indestructible necessity of a religion, while the chief upholder of a similar system in England has

left

on record his conviction that the Christian religion has certainly been useful,

part at least

may

if

not indispensable, hitherto, and in

not impossibly be true.


n.

CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN ART. It has been of decay.

said,

with some truth, that art

There are two senses

understood, poHtical and reh'gious.

modern Europe the highest

artistic

"

bloom

may be

The zenith of Athenian ;

and

in

rank has been attained

that country which was popularly said,

be a

the

is

this

decay of pohtical power

art coincided with the

by

which

in

lately, to

till

geographical expression," and which has over and

over again been the battle-field but never the leader of the nations.

Of

Rome, on the

ancient

contrary, the poet's

words were emphatically verified; her "arts" were those of conquest and of empire

;

what she borrowed

in

her later

days from the conquered Greece never became more than

an exotic growth, and served but to grace the decadence of

There

her imperial might.

is

planation of this phenomenon.

of course one obvious ex-

A

people whose energies

are absorbed in political or military struggles lack both the

time and the taste for

artistic niceties

on the other hand, that where there grandeur of national

life,

intellectual

;

is

while

it

is

natural,

lese of the stir

and

and

artistic cultivation

should be more eagerly pursued, as the resource of faculties that

for

might otherwise

instance,

one

reason

lie

dormant.

why German

This

is

no doubt,

scholarship -and


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

lo

many departments

literature are in

so far superior to our

But there must be some other explanation of the

own. fact, if

such

it

be, of religious art

— and art has been — illustrating the decay in all

ages closely dependent on religion

rather than the vigour of religious

To

faith.

extent

a certain

The

this is especially true of ancient art.

oldest

and most profoundly reverenced images of the gods were

The

more than hideous blocks.

little

beautiful creations of

Pheidias or Praxiteles were admired, but not worshipped, by

a people who, to say the

mythological

about Christian

He

least, sat

very loosely to their

Mr. Ruskin has a remark somewhere

belief. art,

w^hich points in the

same

direction.

says that, so far as he has observed, the pictures which

excite popular devotion are invariably staring daubs, while

the masterpieces of Rafifaelle or Perugino are gazed at with appreciation

critical

by the

cultivated few, and

may

this

at least be

admitted

neither

So much

appreciated nor reverenced by the vulgar.

either case, that art

in

as is

necessarily self-conscious, whereas the natural atmosphere

of devotion

unconscious awe.

is

It

was not

till

they had

begun

to theorize about their

gods that the Greeks could

make

elaborate sculptures of

them

istic religion, to

not, of course,

theorize

means

;

and, with a polythe-

This need

to rationalize.

be the case with Christianity.

Frescoes of

Good Shepherd," and

other typical subjects of Chris-

tian teaching, were traced

on the walls of the Catacombs

the

"

in the ages of

martyrdom.

Yet we can hardly

under any circumstances, the "Sistine faith.

It

but that,

Madonna" being is

if

it

or

the

painted in those days of early

not simply that the genius for

there,

conceive,

" Transfiguration "

would have been

it

was wanting,

differently

employed.


CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN ART. That profound sense of the unseen which made the beings of another world almost a visible presence to the primitive Christian,

and taught him to

listen in

each fresh political

convulsion for the tokens of the approaching Judgment,

could hardly consist with a minute attention to the details of artistic effect.

There

a great step even from Fra

is

Angelico to Raffaelle, and we

feel at

once that the

artist

has triumphed over the saint.

But

if in

this respect there is

must not be pressed too art,

far,

some analogy, though

some very observable

there are

it

between Christian and Pagan

The

differences.

which has so often been dwelt upon, that sculpture special glory of ancient, as painting

is

of modern,

fact,

is

the

art, is at

once suggestive of some deeper contrast than meets the eye at change.

first

sight.

The

Many

reasons

higher and

may be

given for the

more scrupulous standard of

purity introduced by the Gospel, and which shrank from

the exhibition of the nude form,

Another may be found atry,

in

is

of course one of them.

the dread of a relapse into idol-

which long exercised so marked an influence over

ecclesiastical discipline

and worship, and of which we have

a permanent record in the prohibition of sculptured images, as distinguished from "icons," or pictures, in the

Greek Church.

dently do not go to the root of the matter.

maintained

still

But explanations of

this

An

kind evi-

observation

of Winckelmann's, quoted by Mr. Lecky, suggests what

probably the real solution of the problem.

beauty of Greek than female."

art,"

he very justly

And

insists, "is

pected, for

is

genuine art

this

is

The supreme male rather

Strength, freedom, masculine grace are

prominent characteristics. all

"

was only

its

to be ex-

the expression of a moral


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

12

ideal,

and the moral

ideal of

Paganism

in its best

days was

Courage, independence, constancy,

essentially masculine.

patriotism, were the qualities

it

most highly honoured

the

;

softer virtues of charity, gentleness, meekness, benevolence,

kindness, loftiest

pressly distinguishes " as

males

differ

Without

this.

Stoicism was the

either despised or ignored.

it

Pagan conception of excellence, and Cicero exit

from

all

other philosophical sects

from females."

Christianity reversed

all

discrediting, except in a relative sense, the

masculine virtues,

gave a wholly unprecedented import-

it

ance to the feminine type of goodness.

Compare the

Beatitudes with the moral standard of Stoicism, or of the best classical literature, whether poetry or prose, and they

read almost like an explicit condemnation of qualities

which Christ pronounced

it.

Of all

" blessed," there is

the

not

one which the Pagan ideal would recognise as virtuous there

is

more than one which

contemptible. the

artistic.

And

it

would

reject as

;

simply

the ethical ideal in either case inspired

Sculpture was instinctively chosen by the

Greeks as best suited to the expression of masculine grace.

There was a further reason, partly growing out of the former, which

it

is

impossible to dwell upon, though

The

cannot be passed over. cises of the palaestra,

public

which accustomed the Greeks

habitual contemplation of the nude

it

games and the exer-

human

to the

form, tended

to foster the masculine ideal of beauty and the peculiar

forms of vice with which world.

And

it

was connected

in

the ancient

the taste thus generated sought both

pression and aliment in contemporary

art.

The

ex-

type, as

well of courage as of passion, which the Greeks desired especially to idealize

is

sufficiently illustrated

by the

fact


CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN ART. that the

first

men were

by Athenians

statues erected

13

to their country-

Harmodius and Aristogeiton.

those of

It

is

not

type should have been so well pre-

a Httle curious that the

served in the. days of Rome's lowest moral degradation in the perfect purity of the Antinous.

The artistic

led

reasons which

made

sculpture the chosen vehicle of

utterance to the Pagan are precisely those which

Christian art to eschew

gave but inadequate

It

it.

scope for the expression of those virtues which Christian

sentiment had learnt to canonize, and

it

suggested an ideal

partly indifferent and partly abhorrent to the sense.

Painting, on the other hand,

for bringing

purity,

new

religious

was admirably adapted

out those feminine attributes of tenderness,

and patience which belonged to the Christian

saint,

and which mediaeval piety found most perfectly embodied

Take

the Virgin Mother.

Madonna and

the Belvedere Apollo.

pletely satisfies the tian ideal.

Both

Pagan

in

as typical instances the Sistine

The one

com-

as

as the other satisfies the Chris-

ways are of matchless

in their respective

beauty, but the one expresses devoutness, the other strength.

To

the mediaeval Catholic the Belvedere could be no

wholly unintelligible to Greek

taste.

It is a striking

firmation of this view that, so far as the artist

by the Christian or the

classical sentiment,

give expression to the other. tions of our

Lord

more

Madonna would have been

than a curiosity, and the Sistine

is

con-

dominated

does he

fail

to

Michael Angelo's representa-

in the Sistine

Chapel are as conspicuous

a failure as Perugino's frescoes of the ancient heroes and sages.

His figure of Cato, says an

approaches the type of that a poet of our

own

St.

John."

days,

observer,

Nor can

whose

artistic

it

"almost

be accidental

sympathies are


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

14

intensely classical, also rebels fiercely against the ethical

We may again

standard of Christianity. tration from ancient

borrow an

With

sort of diiTerence reappears.

which only bring out the general

a few trifling exceptions,

fact

more

clearly, there

nothing tender or subjective in classical poetry. instance,

illus-

and modern poetry, where the same

no single ancient poet ever dwells on

is

Thus, for his child-

hood, while scarcely any modern poet of note has failed to

do

so.

we

If

we

turn from sculpture and painting to architecture,

shall find

something of the same contrast, though other

considerations also

come

long to enter upon here.

has

said, that,

"

it

human

architecture

noble masses."

may

properly speaking,

arts possible to the

and that

which

in,

It

But

is

be "

it

would take us too

true, as a great

— sculpture

race

judge

there are only two fine

and painting,"

only the association of these in

for practical convenience, at all events,

requires to be separately treated.

And

Gothic, which

was the creation of mediaeval Europe, may be

fairly called

the specifically Christian type of architecture, as bearing the intellectual impress of that period of

when men's minds were most ruled then,

history

by purely religious influences. Speaking broadly, we may say that size and symmetry are the dominant

characteristics

of the Grecian

;

delicacy, tenderness,

reverential awe, of the Gothic style.

to exhibit the greatness of man,

that there

and a

modern

exclusively and powerfully

is

a

God above him

;

The one

calculated

and the other

to suggest

the one to rouse admiration

feeling of pride, the other to inspire humility.

quite in accordance with this,

and

is

if

It is

the story be true, that

Louis XIV., who was so great an admirer and promoter of


CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN ART. Renaissance

the

have

should

style,

himself

expressed

shocked at hearing that Christ spoke the language of the

The

humble and poor.

heroes and philosophers of anti-

We

quity would have entirely agreed with him. carry out the comparison into

its

need not

low

details here, but the

doors and lofty roofs, the elaborate carving, even where

be seen, the disregard of mere symmetry,

least likely to

and the subdued

light,

which are characteristic of Gothic

There

churches, will serve to illustrate our meaning. further

point to be borne in

mind

is

a

reference both to

in

Christian painting and architecture as distinguished from

The former was designed

Pagan. latter.

Greek

art

commemoration

secrated to the

like the priesthood

religious, that

it

for

the

And

but,

functions of the

in the ancient world.

time presented

first

;

had no

and the prophet were kept separate, and the

preacher in the same person.

con-

is,

gods or heroes

and worship of Paganism,

had no existence elsewhere tianity

of

Even under Judaism the

didactic office. priest

to teach, but not the

was indeed mostly

latter

Chris-

the priest and the

Christian

art,

from the

rudest frescoes on the walls of the Catacombs to the most finished compositions of the great mediaeval painters,

designed not simply to Pheidian period, but

and to teach." this

also, or rather chiefly, " to

Painting

reflex action

was observed

which gave

it

is

much

strengthen

obviously more available for

So

far as ancient sculpture

on popular morality,

it

would tend,

just now, to foster the ethical conceptions

birth.

Painting and architecture in later

times would do the same

probably

was

charm," like the sculpture of the

purpose than sculpture.

had any as

"

less

widely

;

but this kind of influence felt

than

we

is

are apt to imagine,


i6

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

and would be pretty well confined to the cultivated

—the

immense majority

of citizens

Athens, but a small minority

by

in

classes

perhaps in ancient

any modern

State.

It

was

the personages, scenes, and stories represented that the

picture and the painted

window were expected

direct instruction to the multitude.

actual effect, both in nature oailis siibjecta fiddibus,

What

to

convey

has been the

and extent, of these appeals

on the

faith

and devotion of Chris-

tendom, would be an interesting subject of inquiry historian of religion or of art.

for the

But the question has been

so darkened and perplexed by the rival zealots of image

worship and iconoclasm, from the days of Charlemagne

downwards, that fiction,

and

it is

decision.

ctiiu

a

far

from easy to disentangle

fact

from

arrive at the requisite data for a trustworthy

-ling of

^

quite in accordan*-

Louis XIV., who was


III.

CONFLICT OF EARLY CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN THOUGHT.

At (for

tian

the opening of a paper in the Contemporary Review 1879), on "

May,

Philosophy,"

struggle

Origen and the Beginnings of Chris-

Dr.

philosophy during the is

Westcott touches on

between the Pagan and

at once a

first

Christian

We

think, in a loose sort of

great

three centuries of our era, which

deeply interesting and a

subject of inquiry.

the

systems of

much

neglected

are apt to speak, or at least to

way

of the

conversion of the

Empire, as though up to the year 313 A.D. Christians were

undergoing a chronic and almost unintermittent persecution, until

suddenly the whole edifice of Greek and

Paganism collapsed,

like the

Roman

walls of Jericho before the

trumpets of Joshua, and thenceforth the Church was coextensive with the civilised world. that a view

conceived.

more grotesquely

It

need hardly be said

unhistorical could hardly be

Christianity, in spite of frequent outbreaks of

persecution, very unequal in duration

and

intensity,

was

carrying on an active and continuous conflict, and on the

whole making a steady advance, during the time of which preceded

Paganism

its

public recognition.

On

trial

the other hand,

after the formal conversion of the

Emperors

still


i8

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

retained

hold on a large proportion

its

majority

— of

— at

first

the population under their rule

outward forms and

splendour

its

a decided

and even

;

— maintained a protracted,

ments, and ceremonials

what precarious existence, long

after

its

endow-

priesthoods,

some-

if

might have been

it

supposed that imperial edicts or popular sentiment would public manifestations of a defeated and

have suppressed

all

decaying

The

faith.

Dr. Westcott puts

between the closed

by a

rival forces of

in

There were,

;

they met

"

new and

the old in the

political

words, conflicts

we

was the second, not the

creed,

market

in the discussions of the schools

of thought, and of the State of thought, with which

three centuries, as

They met

the

the institutions of

in other

first

the history of a threefold contest

threefold victory.

and the house they met

history of the

it, is

in

the region of

and the victory

;

;

government."

in the

life,

world

are at present chiefly concerned,

first.

"

The

victory of the soldiers

"

— the common mass who supplied the multitude of martyrs, confessors,

practice

and humble examples of Christian

— came

Christ's army,"

" the

before

who

victory of

the

The

period

of

during which this

second conflict was waged Dr. Westcott defines, speaking," to be

and

vindicated the philosophical claims of

the conquering creed.

"

faith

captains

"

roughly

from the middle of the second to the

middle of the third century"— the special age of what are called " the Apologists,"

Fathers,"

Of course

longer, but for

correct enough. this, that, in

moment

its

which precedes the age of

the

discussion

immediate purpose the

And

one of

its

limit of time

is

leading characteristics was

the words of another recent writer,

in the history of the

" the

much

really lasted

it

"

was a

human mind when East and


CONFLICT OF CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN THOUGHT, West were blending

their traditions to

rg

form the husk of

Christian creeds and the fantastic visions of Neoplatonism,"

while moreover

its "

whole creative and expansive force

in the despised Christian sect."

The

peculiar centre

lay-

and

point of contact of these diverse influences, at once conflicting

and yet converging, was found

at Alexandria, " the

forge of fanciful imaginations, the majority of which were

destined to pass like clouds and leave not a wrack behind,

while a few fastened with the force of a

conscience of awakening Christendom." far

wrong when he says

dogma on

Mr. Lecky

that "the influence

is

which

the

not this

[Alexandrian or Neoplatonic] school exercised over Christianity forms

one of the most remarkable pages

ecclesiastical history," in

suggesting that Neoplatonic modes of

reflected in St. John's Gospel.

Newman's

part played

politah

one familiar with Dr.

his works, can

be ignorant of the important

by the Alexandrian school

Christian "

No

it,

thought are

Aria?is of the Fourth Century, one of the earliest

and greatest of

of

in [early]

though he certainly exaggerates

doctrine.

in the

development

After referring to the

tendencies of the age. Dr. Westcott adds

As

"

cosmo-

:

a necessary consequence, the teaching of the Bible Greek began to attract serious attention among the heathen. The assailants of Christianity, even if they aff"ected contempt, showed that they were deeply moved by its doctrines. The memorable saying of Numenius, " What is Plato but Moses speaking in the language of Athens.-"' shows at once the feeling after spiritual sympathy which began to be entertained, and the want of spiritual insight in the representatives of Gentile thought. Though there is no evidence that Numenius studied or taught at Alexandria, his words express the form of feeling which prevailed there. Nowhere else were the characteristic tendencies of the age more marked than in that marvellous city. Alexandria C 2

accessible in


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

20

had been from its foundation a meeting-place of the East and West of old and new the home of learning, of criticism, of syncretism. It presented a unique example in the Old World of that mixture of .races which forms one of the most important features of modern society. Indians, Jews, Greeks, Romans, met there on common ground. Their characteristic ideas were discussed, exchanged, combined. The extremes of luxury and asceticism existed side by side. Over all the excitement and turmoil of the recent city rested the solemn shadow of Egypt. The

—

—

thoughtful Alexandrian inherited in the history of countless ages, sympathy with a vast life.

And

he goes on to

cite the

personage of philosophical

though

times,

grounds

on

testimony of a prominent

tastes,

with being actually a

credited

who has indeed some-

absurdly

fact that the

vogue there

Alexandrian Museum, and

;

practice of

Celsus, according to Origen, "

taught by Egyptians."

showing that

reached the

its

period

a

revelation

the

first

immediately

in

possible."

the

preceding

successful

remarkable that

some

made

efforts in

among men

for

and a conviction Incredulity

and

in,

had

during

following

From

century a reaction began to set

expiring Paganism

compared the

who have been

Roman Empire

of the Christian era.

a growing desire for

rarily

was

extreme point

commencement

a curious

Dr. Westcott naturally interprets

there was a longing

sensible revelation of the unseen,

such

that

"

is

it

magic was already coming into

miracles of the Lord with the feats of those

some

Emperor

Hadrian had himself disputed with the pro-

Hadrian,

fessors at the

this as

been

inadequate,

Christian, the

the

the middle of

and there was

positive religious belief

The

desperate and sometimes tempoto

doing so

satisfy this it

desire,

was constrained

and

it

is

to borrow,

consciously or unconsciously, from the powerful rival whose


CONFLICT OF CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN THOUGHT. advance of

this,

was striving to

it

A

of Hadrian.

startling

example

it, is

closely connected with the

recent writer has traced out with

care and ingenuity the true significance of

what he

canonization of Antinous," which has proved a

calls " the

standing puzzle to historians. "

One

which helps to support Dr. Westcott's argument,

though he does not notice

name much

arrest.

Milman speaks

of the act as

tending to alienate a large portion of the thinking

already wavering in their cold and to

21

class,

doubtful polytheism,

any purer or more ennobling system of

religion,"

and

quotes a prediction from the Sibylline (probably Christian) poet about Hadrian TTaiba deov

:

b^LKi'vcrei,,

airavTa a^^acrfxaTa Kvcrei.

was by no means the immediate

This, however,

effect of

the procedure, which served rather to bolster up than to

shake the tottering

There was nothing of course

fabric.

out of the

way

favourite.

These posthumous compliments were a common

in itself in the deification of

fashion of the Empire,

Christian times

But what

is

;

at

and strangely enough lasted on

there were fifty-three of first

sight

them

into

altogether.

very perplexing— especially

considering the circumstances as is

an imperial

commonly reported

the exceptional duration and tenacity on popular senti-

ment of a

cult

which

may

in the first instance

have sprung

from a mere personal whim of the reigning Emperor. This might account

for the fact of the city near

death of Antinous occurred being rebuilt and him, and a

new

same time being

which the

named

constellation which appeared

after

about the

identified with his glorified spirit.

It will

not account for the rapid spread of his worship throughout


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

22

AND BIOGRAPHY.

the provinces of the Mediterranean, and

some three works of

art

games were

survival for

produced to perpetuate his memory

;

public

periodically celebrated at Antinoe, at Mantinea,

and elsewhere,

Eleusis, Athens,

in his

temples, priesthoods, oracles, miracles

wreaths of

its

Medals were struck and countless

centuries.

red

on

lotus

his

;

honour; he had great cities wore

His worship

day.

feast

extended not only over Greece and Asia, but into Italy also,

where

his

name

frequently found in

is

Neapolitan inscriptions, and his statues

No

the Campagna. a

other imperial apotheosis took such

hold on popular

success his

.''

It is

Roman and

in various cities of

What was

belief.

the secret of

elaborate discussion of the

its

Symonds

into

different versions of

the

needless here to follow Mr.

legend about the death of the Bithynian slave boy, and the

comparative evidence on which they

rest.

But he seems

to have clearly established the actual motif, so to say, of his

cult

as

it

came

to

be generally accepted.

It

was

adopted as supplying a nobler and more spiritual element to the effete forces of the ancient Paganism. there, in

"

Here and

the indignant utterance of a Christian Father,

stung to the quick by Pagan parallels between Antinous

and

Christ,

we

catch

emotion upon which

godhood or

perverted

his vicarious sacrifice,

to the sublimity of his short,

a

his cult reposed,

young

life

echo of the popular

which recognised

his

and paid enduring tribute untimely quenched."

In

"the most rational conclusion seems to be that

Antinous became

in truth

some new need

Paganism,

in

and more respectable

a popular saint, and satisfied for

which none of the elder

deities sufficed."

The

belief in the

value of vicarious suffering, of which classical literature


CONFLICT OF CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN THOUGHT.

many

presents so

illustrations,

and

23

which Christian

to

preaching had given a fresh and powerful impulse, attached

new demigod, and

the

itself to

time to have become more or

appears

in process

of

recognised by

Prudentius, Clement of Alexandria,

Christian Apologists. Tertullian,

this

less distinctly

Eusebius, Justin

Martyr, Tatian,

all

inveigh

against the base adulation of the worship of the imperial favourite

—which

however

and increase long

not explain

will

after Hadrian's death

its

maintenance

but Origen treats

;

the matter more seriously in his controversy with Celsus.

Celsus had

Antinous

deliberately put forward the self-devotion of

in rivalry

replies, justly

with the

Christ.

Origen

real parallel

between

sacrifice of

enough, that there

is

no

the lives thus strangely compared, and that the alleged divinity of the favourite

the

is

a

fiction.

method of treatment on both

Antinous had become endeared to

and formidable, or

at

least

originated,

it

how

his

is

clear

from

name

the

Pagan

of

votaries,

odious rather than simply

contemptible, to Christian Apologists. it

But

sides

His

cult,

however

had been adapted, by a kind of plagiarism

very characteristic of the age, for the satisfaction of cravings which

the

Christian

doctrines of self-devotion and

immortality had awakened throughout the

Roman

world.^

Alexandria, at the opening of the third century, offered

an epitome of the old world which Christianity aspired to quicken in

all

was made,

in

its

parts.

the second

And

there too the

first

attempt

century, to give a philosophic

form to the Christian solution of the problems of the age.

To

the questions uppermost in men's minds at the time

1 This curious problem is discussed more fully Excursus of my Catholic Doctrine of the Atonement.

in

the

Third


24

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

three types of answers were being returned, the Gnostic,

the

Neoplatonist, and

the

Gnostic, the teachers of the

universe was created, not or bad, but

by any

faith

against

the

maintained that the

inferior demiurgus,

by the one Supreme Deity, and that

not inherent

by the

As

Christian.

new

good

evil

is

matter, but due to the misuse of free will

in

As

creature.

against the Neoplatonist, they insisted

on the separate and true personality of the Deity, and the reality of the Incarnation

and

alien

from the world

and that man

He

As

its results.

alike they maintained that the Creator

is

against both

distinct but not

made, which was originally good,

the crown and end of creation.

is

Moreover,

while Gnostic and Neoplatonist were agreed in despairing of the world as

it is,

and saw no salvation

for the multitude,

the Christian was content to appeal not to the few but to

the many, and claimed to be the bearer of a message

common divine faculty, to all who bore the stamp of the Creator, and were the But while his answer subjects of a common redemption. addressed, in virtue of a alike

propounded was a widely

to the difficulties

the

Christian

teacher was prepared

philosopher on his

own ground.

to

He

"did not lay aside

the philosopher's mantle in virtue of his

assumed

it "

;

so literally indeed

was

different one,

meet the Pagan

office,

but rather

this the case that

convert philosophers continued to wear the cloak or mantle

which had been the outward badge of

their

former calling.

At Alexandria a Christian School '—the well-known Catechetical School— arose by the side of the Museum,"

"

'

and from the

first

more than mere in later

they were connected with each other by

local proximity, as

was curiously

typified

days by the intimate relations of Hypatia with


AND PAGAN THOUGHT.

COx\FLICT OF CHRISTIAN

25

Synesius, both before and after his conversion and elevation

Both Pantoenus and Clement, the

to the episcopate.

names

great

first

were led

School,

Catechetical

the

in

to

embrace the Gospel through the study of philosophy, and both of them carried on their philosophical studies as Origen, the most famous of them

Christians.

was born

all,

of Christian parents, and trained from the cradle in the exercise of piety father

was

became

and

He was

faith.

and

martyred,

but sixteen when his

before he was

eighteen

a teacher in the Catechetical School.

Ammonius

shrink from attending the lectures of

he

Nor did he Saccas,

the founder of Neoplatonism, whose lessons appeared to

him

to unveil fresh depths in the Bible

when charged with

;

and

in after years,

listening to the opinions of heretics

and

heathens, he defended himself by the example of Heraclas, his fellow disciple in the school of

now

a presbyter at Alexandria,

Ammonius, who, "while wears the philosopher's

still

He

dress and diligently studies the works of the Greeks."

exhorted his theological scholars to study

moment

in his Christian steadfastness,

his fault that the torture

him

in the

But

a discussion of the

he

and imprisonment

and

it

faltered

was not

inflicted

upon

Decian persecution were not consummated by

a violent death.

As

the philo-

Yet he never

sophers and poets of every nation. for a

first

this is not the

life,

writings,

place to enter into

and opinions of Origen.

a great master of the Alexandrian Catechetical School,

may

be taken to

illustrate

the

points as

well

of

contact as of divergence between the Pagan and Christian

modes of thought It

is

true,

of comm.on

as

at the beginning of the third century.

was observed

life "

preceded

in

before,

the

that " the victory

long struggle of the


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

26

early

Church

" the

organization."

orbem

As

force.

and

of thought,"

of "

civil

St. Augustine said afterwards, domiiit

scd ligno, by patient

iion ferro,

outward

victory

The martyrs came

suffering, not

by

before the Apologists,

and the populace were already being won over before philosophers and teachers of the

statesmen would lend an ear to the

new

religion.

In Dr. Westcott's words,

"the discipline of action precedes the as,

we may add,

effort of reason," just

the process of reasoning precedes

elaboration of the formal rules of logic.

stage

is

not less indispensable than the

the

But the second

first.

The triumph

of Christianity in the world could never have been assured

able to satisfy the intellectual no

if it

had not proved

less

than the moral cravings of mankind.

itself


IV.

RELIGIOUS ATTITUDE OF THE EMPEROR HADRIAN.

An

on

article

Emperor Hadrian and

" the

Christianity,"

from the pen of M. Renan, which appeared some years ago in

an American periodical, deals with a vexed question of ac-

knowledged to throw

historical interest,

much new

light

though

on the

it

can hardly be said

That Hadrian

subject.^

among

has usually been reckoned by Christian writers " the

good Emperors

"

over, a notion has prevailed in

not only

"

an earnest

devoted the best and

was self

that he

was

with rare virtues,

who

some quarters

man endowed

finest part of his life to

more than half a convert

at least

The two main grounds

appears, are,

first

But more-

was of course notorious.

that

for

mankind," but

to Christianity him-

this

belief,

so far as

he caused certain temples to be

erected in which no images were placed, and which

absence of any description, dedication, or

known

—

in

the

object

he was not unreasonably supposed to have intended for Christian churches

;

and secondly, that a policy of

tion

was consistently pursued during

two

facts there

his reign.

can be no doubt; the question

are to be explained.

And

it

will

is

tolera-

Of

these

how they

perhaps be found that

the same explanation, based on a careful estimate of the '

See North American Review for May, 1878.


28

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

Emperor's character and tone of mind,

sufficiently

will

account for both alike without having recourse to what, without some better evidence to support

say the

deed we are told that

"

difficult to restrain

"seemed

?)

whom

of

for "

Christian

apology,"

Such a monstrous

last

demon

(does he

mean Satan

from the

most

sufficiently startling,

is

at all

fact of its

more

and favourites had

Narcissus

and

sister,

Emperors and

among

apotheosis.

it

true,

is

Claudius to his grandmother, Nero

Pallas,

favourite

worshipped

freedmen of

far higher

his

uncle.

and more permanent

the gods than any previous subject of imperial

The

city of

Antinoe or Antinopolis was

over the spot where he died

games celebrated he had

often,

his wife Poppaea, Vitellius

But Antinous obtained a place

it

Caius assigned these posthumous

been deified before.

and

nor would

having bequeathed to us one of the

their relations, wives,

to his father

it

tolerable to the early Christians

perfect models of ancient sculpture.

honours to his

—whether

act of heroic self-sacrifice or a selfish

subsequent deification and cult of the

departed favourite

have appeared

or

more ancient and

story of the death of Antinous be accepted

was an accident or an

— the

is

Certainly, whatever version of the

easy to reach."

immolation

it

adds

act,"

every one had heard was employed

to overthrow the other gods, which were less

in-

to be the culminating point of the

This

reign of Satan.

Antinous

a smile.

be, to

When

even Hadrian's relations with

Antinous became a theme

the writer,

would

it,

a somewhat violent hypothesis.

least,

in his

;

honour

at

Mantinea and elsewhere;

prophets, priests, and oracles

coins bearing his likeness are

built

temples were erected and

still

all

found

over the Empire in

Greece, Syria,


RELIGIOUS ATTITUDE OF THE EMPEROR HADRIAN. Asia, and

Egypt

covering a

new constellation which represented

spirit.

What

;

and astrologers were not long

is still

dis-

in

his glorified

was so

stranger, this worship

ending with Hadrian's reign that

29

far

from

lasted for centuries

it

afterwards, especially in Egypt, where the

new

deity con-

tinued to work miracles which both Christian and Pagan

An

writers have noticed.

explanation of this remarkable

phenomenon has been suggested elsewhere^; but

it

not

is

one that would occur to contemporary Christians, who fact

ad absurdinn

providentially designed for a rcdiictio

whole system, and of the Eighth

this

Book

is

of the

distinctly implied in a passage

of the Sibylline Oracles

could hardly attribute any such intention to it

in

regarded this abnormal development of polytheism as

its

;

but they

author,

and

must have been with important reservations that they

spoke of him as an earnest and virtuous man.

The

remains that Hadrian discountenanced persecu-

fact

But persecution

tion of the Christians,

use

a

" political "

stitious

in

those days, to

phrase of Mr. Goldwin Smith's, was rather than theological.

among

There was

Its

the vulgar, prudential

little real

belief in the

" tribal "

or

motive was super-

among

their rulers.

gods of Olympus surviv-

ing in either class, but the populace were shocked at the

open defiance of the established worship, which was so inextricably

and

social

men who

mixed up with

life,

the

main incidents of

deliberately disobeyed the law.

there was something "

civil

To both

alike

uncanny " about such stubborn and Hadrian,

who was

of a speculative

intellectual cast of mind, felt

probably

little

exceptional perversity,

and

all

and the magistrates suspected the loyalty of

1

Cf. supr. p. 22.

sympathy


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

30

with these sentiments or

fears.

AND BIOGRAPHY.

He took indeed an

exceed-

ingly practical view of the interests of the Empire, as

shown

in

one of

his first acts,

when he withdrew

was

Roman

the

garrisons from Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Assyria, and

once more made the Euphrates the boundary of the

Nor can

world.

it

under his sagacious

Gibbon

and the minutest

same

rule.

embraced

says,

Roman

be doubted that the Empire flourished

at

details.

His vast and active genius, as once the most enlarged views

But

it

is

equally true, as the

writer proceeds to observe^ that the ruling passions of

his soul

were curiosity and vanity.

His curiosity

may

not

improbably have led him to inquire about the Christian as well as about other forms of contemporary belief, but letter to Servianus is genuine, in

which Christianity

if

his

studi-

—whether from ignorance as Milman — with the worship of Serapis, the result of

ously confounded thinks, sarcasm

is

or,

these inquiries cannot have produced any very deep effect

on

However, he issued a

mind.

his

sul of

rescript to the procon-

Asia forbidding Christians to be punished

ence to popular outcry, without a formal tion of all

some

legal offence,

false accusers.

were

left

And

trial

in defer-

and convic-

and ordering the punishment of

as a matter of fact the Christians

unmolested during his reign by the Government,

though they suffered horrible tortures at the hands of the

may have helped to open the Roman masters to the distinction between rival religionists whom they had been accustomed loosely to identify as members of the same sect. At all events,

Jewish insurgents, which eyes of their

when Hadrian

rebuilt

Jerusalem under the

name

of Colonia

new

city,

which the Jews are said to have been forbidden to

enter,

yElia Capitolina, Christians flocked into the


RELIGIOUS ATTITUDE OF THE EMPEROR HADRIAN. and certainly did not approach

31

perhaps the dedication of

;

a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus on the

site

of their

own

ancient temple would alone have proved a sufficient de-

But

terrent to them.

Rome

it

was neither on Jerusalem nor on

but on Athens that the affections of the philosophic

He

and cultivated Emperor were concentrated.

spent a

winter there enjoying to the utmost the strenua inertia of learned

dilettantism,

building,

and endeavouring to reproduce a kind of shadowy

" Panhellenism "

disputing,

on the old

conversing,

He

historic site.

numerable philosophical chairs

;

in-

;

he completed

Temple of Jupiter Olympius and

rebuilt the

one quarter of which received the name of Hadriano-

city,

polis

;

he chose to be

initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries

and he solemnly assumed the ancient and

founded

he fused the laws of Draco

and Solon into a new Athenian constitution the unfinished

legislating,

titles

At Athens he was regarded

" agonothetes."

only philosophical but very religious

;

" of " archon

— somewhat

as not in

the

sense in which St. Paul applied the term to the Athenians

of his

own day

tastes

led

a

him

— and to

the spirit of discussion which

foster

new development

of

did

undoubtedly give

Christian

literature,

his

rise

to

though

it

cannot plausibly be maintained to have inspired him with

any Christian

belief.

His mind was

sceptical, in the strictest sense of the

in fact essentially

word

;

he neither

accepted nor denied any religion or philosophy, but bal-

anced one impartially against another, or rather played with each in turn.

The very levity

to his " aninmla, vagnla, blandula "

the

man

as truly as the savage

recorded words

marks the very

of his dying apostrophe

marks the character of blasphemy of different

spirit

his

last

of

the


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

32

Emperor him

:

—

Julian two centuries later.

" II

M.

St.

Croix says of

parut constamment livre a cette incertitude

d'opinions, fruit de la bizarrerie de son caractere, et d'un

savoir superficiel ou

We

mal digere."

have said that Hadrian's policy gave occasion to a

novel species of Christian

already borne

fruit at

literature.

Athens

Rome

as at

Christianity

contrast of the two great centres of ancient

was reproduced

tion

None

of the early Popes were

literary distinction still

;

relations

their

in

the very

men

names

had

but the secular

;

Pagan the

to

civilisa-

Church,

of any intellectual or of several of

them are

But from a very early period some-

open to dispute.

thing of the old imperial instinct seems to have

taken

possession of them, and whereas Eastern theologians and prelates were exercised on the subtlest questions of the

Divine nature and attributes, the

—towards

Roman

Pontiff

first official

utterance of a

the close of the fourth century

enjoins the observance of clerical celibacy. speciality of Athens, as

M. Renan words

" individual Christian thinkers,"

were found the

who from time

to time

its

outward symbol

fession they naturally

;

title

The

" philosophers "

its

feel it

or the peculiar dress which

being writers and orators by pro-

became the

advocates of their adopted

had never been put on

was the

embraced the Gospel did not

necessary to abandon their

was

It

to produce

and among these thinkers

" Apologists."

first

it,

faith.

doctors, disputants,

Hitherto

and

Christianity

defence, argumentatively that

is.

Its strongest and only available arguments had been written in

the blood of martyrs.

Even had the advocates been

prepared, there was no one ready to listen to them. previous

Emperor had challenged such explanations

No or


RELIGIOUS ATTITUDE OF THE EMPEROR HADRIAN. would have deigned

to read them,

and Christ ianos ad

33

leoncs

was a method of attack that did not admit of controversial But Hadrian's

rejoinder.

temper and known

inquisitive

love of free discussion invited overtures, which

would have been scornfully ignored; flattered

by an appeal

by one Quadratus, who at the time

it

Christians,

To

is

Apology on record

first

been a disciple of

said to have

but

It is lost, unfortunately,

was highly esteemed

to have refuted

was

to his superior discernment.

him accordingly was addressed the

the Apostles.

then

till

his very vanity

;

we know

the author

the calumnies of "evil

men "

is

that

reported

against the

and to have dwelt on the miracles of our Lord,

men whom He had healed or raised from the alive. The Emperor had probably heard miracles already from his secretary, Phlegon, who

insisting that

dead were of these

still

was familiar with the subject. Another convert philosopher, Aristides, also presented an

we only know his

least

mind there

is

have confirmed

ness of the

Apology

was not

it

less

to Hadrian, of

new

no reason

we have

They must

to doubt.

at

his conviction of the perfect harmless-

religion,

and there

is

some evidence of

having shown signs of genuine respect as

which

admired than that of

That these writings made some impression

Quadratus.

on

that

seen, the

erection

of a

for

it.

number

He

his

ordered,

of temples

or basilicas, which were never dedicated, and the precise destination of which

is

not distinctly known.

When

in the

next century Alexander Severus expressed a desire to build a temple to Christ, the Christians asserted, not with-

out plausibility, that Hadrian had design,

and had only at

last

entertained a similar

abandoned

response of the oracles that,

if

it

on account of the

such a temple was

built, all


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

34

the others would be deserted, and the world would Christian.

They pointed

in

become

proof of this to the singular

omission of placing any images in these temples, and the alleged ground of Hadrian's pausing in his design in

accord with

all

we know

of his character.

is

quite

Several of

these Hadriaiia were in fact turned into Christian churches after the conversion of the

way

proves that

Empire.

Still

Hadrian ever meditated

Christian, but only that

he was disposed,

all

this in

no

becoming a

like Severus, to

provide a niche for the Founder of Christianity in his

comprehensive pantheon.


V.

HELLENISM AND In the short and which he deHvered lecture, Dr.

ITS REVIVAL.

very imperfectly reported

M. Kenan's

at the close of

last

address

Hibbert

Martineau drew out what he conceived to be

the moral of the whole course more pointedly than the lecturer

had cared to do himself.

in the early Christian ages.

to call Hellenism in a

— and

Paganism

He

considered that, as

— or what he preferred

Atheism were apparently engaged

death struggle for religious supremacy

Empire, which however resulted

in the

in the

form of belief ignored or trampled on by both in our

own

between the

day,

when

Roman

triumph of a third alike,

so

the future of religion seems to

lie

rival forces of Christianity

and Agnosticism,

a third solution of the problem might eventually be found;

and

his

hearers were

would be a

may

purified

left

to infer that this tertium quid

and enlightened Theism.

Whatever

be thought of the analogy suggested between the

traditional

Paganism of the Empire and the

Christianity of to-day, or of the proposed

traditional

Church of the

Future, Dr. Martineau had good reason for tracing in the present

unsettled

and fluctuating condition of

thought something analogous to the

restless

religious

temper of the

age when a corrupt and exploded Paganism was gradually


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

36

to the nascent faith of the sect that

succumbing

He

where spoken against.

was every-

might indeed have gone

further,

and have shown how one of the most curious among the moral and intellectual phenomena of our own day "

of spurious revival of rather than fifteenth

a kind

is

darker

its

Renaissance of the

brighter features the

its

century.

common

the

Hellenism," recalling in

But that Renaissance did not end

in

and Christian

absorption of the Hellenic

elements into some newer, and presumably nobler, phase of creed or culture, but in the great schism of the sixteenth century,

and the

somewhat divisions

of-

of spiritual

striking revival

different

which

forms,

followed

We

Western Christendom.

life,

under

in

both

it,

need not essay

prediction, but no fairly intelligent observer can have failed

to notice that peculiar

own day which itself at

once

is

in

classical

Pagan

or

a present and a patent art, in

literature,

and

revival of our

in social

recent Catholic writer has not inaptly described

reappearance of a passionate love in

revealing

fact,

and a desire

for,

A

as " the to rest

and thoroughly sympathize with, mere nature, accom-

panied by a more or

less

complete and sympathetic rejec-

tion of the supernatural,

and

One

its terrors."

must

its

classic

desire to speak with

does not widely

differ

aspirations, its consolations,

of the leading prophets of the

evangel, of whose high

from

and

respect,

literary culture

Mr.

J.

[i.e.

this external estimate,

the

will

of

a

modern

it

and

Divine Governor," whereas

Greek morality was radically

which

all

when he "

Christian] morality has hitherto been theological,

has implied

new

A. Symonds,

rem.inds us (to the discredit of the former) that

"

life.

it

scientific

eventually rested was a belief in

;

the belief on

(pvaL?, in

the order


HELLENISM AND of the universe

one system Christ,

is

is

"

and to die

in Gothe's

37

and accordingly, while the motto of the

;

contained in

St. Paul's

words, "

gain," the other

is

well-known

resolut zu leben."

ITS REVIVAL.

lines, "

may

Gothe

may

Im Ganzen,

To me to live summed up

be

Guten, Schonen

indeed be fairly taken as the

typical representative or precursor of this revived Hellenism. It is

recorded of him that " repugnance to the supernatural

was an inherent part of approach of death

might

still

"

his

mind

" ;

and therefore on the

he only calculated the chances that

remain to him of

means he might employ

and enjoyment, and the

life

for increasing

them,

among

the

foremost of which he placed care in keeping at a distance all

gloomy thoughts," and when the end was

hand

his last

light

may come

own day among of this

"

words were,

close at

more

the shutters, that

room."

the

into

Open

Conspicuous

in

our

the literary exponents, in prose or verse,

Pagan or

naturalistic reaction,

though

differing

widely from one another, are writers like -Mr. Pater, Mr.

Symonds, and Mr. Swinburne, the the

"Hymn we

movement

keynote of the

latter of in

whom

Walt Whitman

recognise in the obscene rhapsodies of

—which are as dull as ditchwater and a good deal its

drunken

helot.

too far to say that "all

able

but

aggressive atheists,"

many writers make it the Unknown Factor,

the

and "Our Lady of Pain," while

to Proserpine"

the shout of

strikes

such poems as

it

is

It

dirtier

would be going much

authors quite

are

avowed and "

that

true

a

good

a condition of ability to exclude .

.

.

and

in fact to

speak from the

Agnostic standpoint." This

last

extract

Hellenism and

the

is

"

Debased

the

CImrch

taken from a paper on

New

Renaissance"

in


38

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

much

inter-

esting matter, though one could wish the writer had

drawn

Quarterly Revieiv (for April, 1880), containing

out more fully and distinctly than he has done the signs

and

characteristics of the

We

demns.

movement he him

quite agree with

so earnestly con-

that, if the worst vices

of Greek civilisation and art were repeated, and

exaggerated

own

both of literature and

schools,

repeat them now, and that a protest

That

this

if

possible,

Rome, the tendency of some of our

old

in

seems to be to

art,

is

accordingly needed.

new Renaissance should emulate,

as indeed that

of the fifteenth century did, the lower and debased rather

than the higher moral tone of Greek art and culture, was

perhaps inevitable, and

would

is

Those who

certainly the fact.

revert from belief in a Divine Ruler of the world to

belief in

Nature

— to

distinction of the

adopt Mr. Symonds's account of the

two systems

with thinkers of an greatest

among

really "looking

— are not

in

the

same

position

age who, like some of the

earlier

the old Greek poets and philosophers, were

through nature up to nature's God."

an echo of the baser, not the

men exchange

the

" lilies

better,

It is

Hellenism that bids

and languors of virtue

for the

raptures and roses of vice," and calls on the dethroned

goddess of virtue."

lust

There

is

to "

come down and redeem

moreover a

to apply a phrase used in another connection

Newman — " bad

us

from

fatal defect inherent in this

by Cardinal

imitation of polished ungodliness."

Every

attempt at the galvanized revival of a defunct form of civilisation

doubled

is

necessarily

in this case, for

it

unreal, is

an imitation of an imitation. descent

first

from

Pericles

but

the

unreality

is

not merely an imitation but

to

We

have to measure the

Politian,

and then from


HELLENISM AND Politian

modern pretenders who ape

the

to

ITS REVIVAL.

39

his

worst

extravagances. It

that

any attempt among

delighted

animalism of Greek

has been already shown

ourselves to revive " the life" is a

ually,

very different thing, both morally and intellect-

from what the pursuit of their cherished ideal was to

who had never known

those old Athenians,

any better and purer

boyhood

learnt from

faith.

But that

is

something

to gaze in

admiration on that wonderful product of

Athens of

not

human

who being dead

and whose glowing words have rung music

a perfectly natural one

recent poet puts '*

genius, the

;

yet speak,

the spectacle

is

our admirunique, for

such another marvel to record.

history has not

it

have

in the ears of

And

some seventy generations of mankind. is

We

like a rapture of

and Pheidias and Socrates, of those

Pericles

unrivalled orators and poets

ation

or rejected

all.

As

a

:

Every thought of all their thinking swayed the world for good or Every pulse of all their life-blood beats across the ages still."

ill,

But then we must remember that there was also a darker side to the picture, from which, as Professor Jovvett

prejudiced or unfriendly

critic

— observes,

"

turned away with loathing and detestation." darker side

would be

— not

felt

of course in

to

its

be intolerable

— no

we should have

And

that

naked deformity, which

is

what some of our

classical revivalists, like their predecessors four centuries

ago,

seem constrained or determined

Two prominent may be specified, slavery.

The

to unveil.

causes of the moral decline of Athens the

critical

disorder of sexual relations and significance

of this

last

point

is


40

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

rather apt to be overlooked.

It really divides

from every variety of modern

life

and renders

all

or political

social

all

gulf,

analogies to a great

When we

extent nugatory or misleading.

the Greek

by an impassable

recollect that

mechanical labour, whatever was esteemed iSdvavaov,

or unfit for a gentleman, was devolved on a helot class

immensely outnumbering the citizens,

becomes

it

democracy

in

its

we

life

of

which

and

Greek,

still

On

that

one part of the subject

it

— for

Mahaffy here that

he shows that

in his Social it

we need not

is

difficult for

in its

dwell here. evil.

an English

darker and

its

had a nobler side

it

nobler

— by Mr.

But we may observe

Life in Greece,

art.

As Winckelmann remarked,

"the supreme beauty of Greek art female," and sculpture

is

capacity of expressing is

Roman

has a direct bearing on one prominent contrast

of Christian and classical

painting

the moral

later

has been treated with great

It

and discrimination, both

aspects

On

by any means the only cause of the

writer to speak in detail. tact

more of

domination over a subject

this absolute

class offered such fatal facilities,

Nor was

free

are familiar with, in one

and oppressive aristocracy.

sense, a close

society, to

community of

most democratic days was, as compared

with any form of political

degradation

little

once evident that the Athenian

at

superior to

feminine grace.

This

is

rather male than

as far superior to painting in the

masculine vigour and beauty as sculpture in is

the

expression

of

undoubtedly one reason why

sculpture has always been regarded as distinctively Pagan,

and painting as

distinctively Christian, the

Pagan

instinct

delighting rather to glorify the masculine and the Christian instinct the feminine qualities,

both moral and physical.


HELLENISM AND

ITS REVIVAL.

41

Here again our modern Renaissance naturally manifests unmistakable preference

its

for the

Pagan or Hellenic

as

distinguished from the specifically Christian type of excel-

not of course the recognition of masculine

lence.

It

virtues,

which must have their place and value under every

is

— amounting

system, but the depreciation

Greece and

Rome

both

in

almost to simple contempt

feminine type, which

ancient

— of

the

This one-sided conception

is in fault.

of excellence culminated philosophically in the hard and Stoic ideal, while

pitiless

lent itself

it

And

less readily to

there are not wanting ominous signs of a tendency

the bastard Renaissance of our

in

no

Harmodius and Aristogeiton.

the popular canonization of

own day

to reproduce

the twin characteristics so inseparably united old

which

civilisation

and unbridled have a

and the

life

cruelty

selfishness, for

they

in the

Italian Hellenists of

of the

the latter

;

under that

— reckless

were abundantly exemplified

root,

fifteenth century

prototype

its

Both forms of

license.

common

literature

is

is

the

exhibited with an almost

incredible shamelessness, far exceeding the worst passages

of Ovid

or Martial, in the Lusus Qtimgue

Venerem,

Poetarum

in

notably in the HerinapJiroditus of Beccadelli,

which nevertheless was much admired by contemporary scholars. in

Both have found

the " debased Hellenism

even be a

difficult,

at least literary expression

of our own.

"

It

however ungracious, task

might not to point to

ugly revelations which suggest that in some quarters these

neo-Pagan aspirations are beginning already to be translated into act.

But

of warning, not at

it

all

must

before

suffice to it

have struck a note

was required.


VI.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE CHURCH.

An

interesting paper

by Professor

Zeller of Berlin, on

the " Contest of Heathenism with Christianity as reflected in

Greek and

Roman

Literature,"

Hibbert Lectures and

bears on a cognate

^

by M. Renan, both

question to that dealt with

his

in

review article already noticed

in a

on the Emperor Hadrian.

Considering that the period

referred to includes the golden age of

Roman, which

is itself

a borrowed reflection from the golden age of Greek literature,

it

may seem

strange at

test " should occur.

and represents

Rome

its

first

For the

any such

"

con-

an age expresses

highest civilisation, and in Greece and

posterity has agreed to recognise the representative

unquestionably have

civilisation

idea, their

But Christianity and

of the ancient world.

civilisation

much

in

methods, and their history.

been justly observed, waited its

sight that

literature of

most perfect form before

till it

common

in their

Christianity,

it

has

the world had attained

appeared,

and

it

soon

coalesced and has ever since co-operated, and often seemed identical,

Both

with the civilisation which are

alike ^

based on

common

is

ideas,

See Contemporary Review for

May

its

companion.

have 1877.

common


THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE CHURCH. views and principles, and a

are to the one

Homer may be

has

and

patriarchs

its

to the

apostles,

considered the patriarch, and the great

Greek poets of a

later

age the apostles and evangelists,

of the typical culture of the

Greek, for the

standard of appeal,

rising out of the classics

what Scripture and the Creeds are

If Christianity

other.

common

and the studies

for the classics

43

human

already

fact,

We

must say

that

the best

race.

referred

to,

Latin literature and philosophy were mainly a transcript

from the Greek, seems

to

indicate

the familiar saying of Horace

that

— the

— according

Attic writers

to

were

destined to be, as they have in fact proved, the teachers

and schoolmasters of

all

future generations.

to use theological language, tianity

is

in

is

Civilisation,

what Chris-

the supernatural order, and there surely need

not be, and ought not

between them.

to

be,

any clash or

"

contest

Nevertheless, while in the long run they

have coalesced and co-operated, cal,

in the natural

their

aims are not identi-

and as every power has an inevitable tendency to

encroach beyond

its

own

legitimate boundaries, there have

often been quarrels between the two. conflict

of Church

and

State,

The almost

though

it

questions also of a purely dynastic kind,

sense part of the

same great dichotomy.

ences, whatever they be,

and between the

is

in

and

civil order,

other

a wider

But the

between Christianity and

ecclesiastical

chronic

involves

differ-

culture,

which are

constantly reappearing in various forms, have never since

culminated in so violent and radical a divergence as during the

first

three centuries of our era,

when

the brilliant but

deeply corrupted civilisation of the mighty Empire, already sinking into premature decrepitude, was pitted against the


44

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

vigorous and growing

of the nascent Church.

life

to that contest, so far as

It

is

reflected in the h'terature of

is

it

the period, that Professor Zeller would call our attention,

and there

much

is

that

and suggestive

fresh

is

in

his

handling of a familiar theme.

He

—what naturally follows from —that the new was not

begins by pointing out

what has been already without

many

said

religion

points of contact with the mental tendencies

and needs of the

age.

had

It

some

really in

common

with Hellenic culture than with Judaism

it

certainly

had much

contrasts, with

became current

the

common,

in

more

respects

in

in spite of

;

philosophy, whence the

Stoic

—for which

there

even the slightest probability

is

no

and

important story

real evidence, nor

— that Seneca,

if

not secretly

a Christian, was at least partly indebted to the teaching of St. Paul.

It is

thus the more remarkable that Christianity

should have appeared to

all

of

classes

Roman society "The Chrisand " Down with

something simply and unmixedly abhorrent. were Atheists

tians in the first place

the Atheists

"

martyr stake

" ;

was the cry which rung round at

Smyrna.

Being

St.

Polycarp's

they were of

atheists,

course obnoxious to the charge of every form of atrocious crime, and hence the horrible

worshipping an

ass's

and grotesque

their orgies of nameless obscenity.

historian Tacitus thinks

universally hated credited,

fables of their

head, their Thyestean banquets, and

for

it

their

Even the great

perfectly natural that

critical

"a

though untruly, with the burning of Rome.

to him, as to his ally, their

more

original sin

sect

shameful deeds" should be

But

intellectual contemporaries gener-

was not atheism but

though they were not the

less for that "

superstition,

the enemies of the


THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE CHURCH. human

Atheism and fanaticism were indeed

race."

45

only-

different forms, suited to the capacity of the vulgar or the

learned, of conveying the

same indictment; the

We

was that Christians were monotheists. of a

modern

whose

writer,

knowledge and

his

logic,

real offence

have heard

zeal considerably outran his

beginning his attack on the

doctrine of eternal punishment with a disclaimer of any desire to adjudicate

between the opposite alternatives of

Universalism or annihilationism, though he might have

known

that the rival theories are,

if

possible,

more abso-

lutely incompatible with each other than with the doctrine

they are intended to supplant.

Romans

In

the merits of atheism and polytheism established cult in his

;

the former,

day the general

reasonable to worship it

same way the

the

did not seriously care to discriminate between

if

belief.

the latter was the

;

we may

trust Juvenal,

But whether

many gods

— to

was

was more

or to reverence none,

was equally opposed to reason and

adopt a later phrase

it

believe in

as Professor Zeller rightly observes,

to- "

civism

One God. its

It

"

— to was,

monotheism that

placed Christianity in undisguised enmity to the national religion. .

But the root of

this

enmity lay deeper than any purely

theological ideas in the national mind.

We

have seen that

Tacitus considered the Christians a sect of loathsome and criminal fanatics, though he admits their innocence of the particular crime, of setting fire to the city, for which they

were being executed. share this opinion.

Pliny,

He had

who knew no special

better,

did not

fault to find with

the Christians, except the one unpardonable sin of resisting the State religion, to which they opposed their

own


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

46

"

strange and absurd superstition

"

but for this treason-

;

able conduct he thought they deserved death,

home

judicially brought

mandate governed of

Rome

And

them.

to

hundred and

for a

fifty

when

it

was

Trajan, whose years the policy

the matter, approved his view of the case.

in

All other religions were compatible with the established

worship

;

one alone maintained a resolute

this

and Christians, whatever

isolation,

their virtues or their vices, " could

not be permitted to break the laws against making pro-

and against unauthorized

selytes

The way

societies."

which they held together among themselves, and

in

their care

to hold aloof, as far as possible, from the heathen world

around, conveyed to an outsider, educated or uneducated, the impression of a secret society, a conspiracy against

And

the established order of things.

deepened among the higher

classes

that feeling was

by

their

well-known

practice of recruiting their ranks from slaves, freedmen,

and

artisans,

equality, but

•

with

wlxom

a contempt which

whom

they associated on

their masters looked is

but faintly reflected

Southern slaveowner

of a

niggers.

Here we touch

in

terms of

down upon with in

the feelings

former days towards

at last

his

upon the root of that

hopeless estrangement between the Empire and the Church which,

if it

occasionally smouldered, broke out again and

again into fierce energy during three centuries of more or less persistent persecution.

A true, though

at first

uncon-

scious, instinct taught the ruling classes that there was' a vital

antagonism between the new

national order, which

destruction of one or the other.

known remark

in Dr.

faith

must sooner or

And

and the existing

later

issue in the

therefore a well-

Arnold's Lectures on Modern History


THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE CHURCH. must be regarded as only a seem to a casual reader Dollinger in his Christians

"

them now,"

Rome

hereafter, but

men who might change as men who disobeyed and immediate motive

true of the conscious

is

of the early persecutors

;

it

may-

is

That the

Church.

the

were punished, not as

the laws of

it

be partly endorsed by Dr.

to

Age of

First

though

half truth,

47

only very partially true of

the later and more intelligent representatives of the same Dr. Dollinger says, with his usual accuracy, that

policy. "

the authorities and philosophers did not for some time

understand clearly

was the

how completely

Roman

rival of the

have persecuted by

and

fits

the Christian Church

State, or they starts "

;

would not only

but the very form

of expression implies that they began to discern this after-

And

wards.

so only can

we account

at first so perplexing, that

for the startling fact,

Marcus Aurelius, the best of

the Emperors and one whose character and

much

belief

had

of moral and even religious affinity to Christianity,

was the severest of persecutors, and denounced the constancy of the Christian martyrs as proceeding from

"

mere

defiance." If

we come

to later

Roman

we

writers,

and worldly Lucian content to sneer fanciful

friend

Celsus takes a

imposture

;

their

serious

view of the

Founder with deliberate

but the head and front of their offending

as in the

in less

much more

them and

and

His Platonist

fanaticism of the Christian sect.

matter, and charges

still,

find the sceptical

at the foolish

days of Tacitus

vehement language

of patriotism.

—though

— their

it

is

is

expressed

exclusiveness, their

want

Originally apostates from the national faith

of Judaism, they were accused of remaining indifferent or


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

48

hostile to the welfare of the

AND BIOGRAPHY.

Roman

After the

State.

middle of the third century the antagonism to the new faith

took a somewhat different form with the

rise

of the

Philostratus and Porphyry and

Neoplatonic philosophy.

Hierocles display more of the critical and carping tone of

modern

sceptical writers,

good deal of truth and highly

in the

artificial

moribund Paganism an

elaborate

superstition,

had

and are obliged

system they

into a

new

life

from the

was

in fact

despised

which he both hated and been prematurely cut

of

"

brief

into

the

even

was doomed

failure.

wrote his ten books against Julian the

Paganism had sunk

based on Galilean

feared, and, short,

from the nature of the case to inevitable St. Cyril

The

attempt of Julian to galvanize the

plagiarism

his reign not

admit a

to

assail.

When

last

hope

grave with him, and

thenceforth even literary attacks on Christianity gradually diminished. out, that the

It

is

quite true, as Professor Zeller points

heathen polemics have been revived by

recent assailants of the Gospel, but that subject to enter upon here.

is

many

too wide a


.VII.

UNITY AND VARIETY

The in

CHURCH AND

IN

problem and puzzle of

Church or

Governments, whether

all

State, has been to

STATE.

combine authority with

freedom, or in other words, variety of action with unity

For since individual judgments^

of principle and aim. tastes,

and tendencies must always

of uniformity

level

There

tyranny.

is

differ widely, a

dead

the sure sign of stagnation or of

no necessary opposition between order

is

and hberty, though they are popularly supposed to represent contrary

if

not incompatible ideas.

There has been

a good deal of talk of late years about Imperialism, but in its

We

proper sense the word

have indeed

Empires

in

is

now

be absolute

Emperor may be as

is

less

moment, but the

Emperor

may

both

so-called,

and there are no this

our

now

little

like

may

own day in the

rise

and

fall

of

Old World and the New,

than three Emperors in Europe at distinction

between a King and an

more than a verbal

one.

A King

Louis XIV., and the powers of an

strictly limited

old

Imperialism disappeared,

who

are

by

constitutional checks,

The

the case in Austria.

still living,

be said to be obsolete.

seen the

in

the

last

shadow of the

memory

of

some

with the formal extinction of the Holy


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

50

Roman Empire

the reality had departed centuries before.

;

Empire

For

in truth

the

Romans, from

understood

become

it

in

the old sense

whom we

— means a power that

universal

;

— the

sense in which

have borrowed the term,

and hence the

is

or at least aspires to

common

difficulty

governments of reconciling liberty and authority such a rule enormously increased.

It

was

is

to all

under

this universal

domination which "the King," as the Greeks called the Persian monarch, aimed at in his assault on their liberties, to

whom

the acquisition of which Alexander, for

world was not

sufficient,"

and which was

in large

measure carried on

though with very various degrees of under the sway of imperial Rome, Caesars

was reproduced

"

devoted the energies of his

in

for centuries,

stability

And

theory and

one life,

and vigour,

the rule of the in

name

in

the

Holy Roman Empire

of mediaeval Europe, which suggested

the ideal of Dante's

De

more than an

Moiiai-cJiid,

though

ideal very imperfectly realised.

it

was never

The

counter-

acting principle of liberty was supplied then not only by the action of independent States, but spiritual

still

power, which through the long

more by the

strife

of Guelf

and Ghibelline represented, on the whole and in the long run, the cause of moral and intellectual freedom as opposed to

brute force.

garded

in

The impcrium and

sacerdotiiun were re-

mediaeval theology as the opposite poles of a

great cosmopolitan system for the government of mankind.

All later attempts to revive the scheme of universal empire,

which was supposed to be the best guarantee for universal peace and happiness, have been temporary and spasmodic,

and have passed away with their authors. It was certainly the ideal of Charlemagne and of Napoleon, possibly of


UxNITY

AND VARIETY

CHURCH AND

IN

There

is

one

51

But the conditions of the

Charles V., and of Maximilian.

modern world are

STATE.

fatal to its success.

however, which has survived the

institution,

wreck of dynasties and empires, and which from the nature of the case can hardly help laying claim to this cosmopolitan

character;

that

the

is

One of The

Church.

Christian

Cardinal Newman's old Oxford Sermons

entitled "

is

Christian Church an Imperial Power," and he explains in

the discourse that by a

kingdom

bound together by common

is

meant

laws, ruled

"

a

body

ing intercourse part with part, acting together" this particular

kingdom

or empire

in

its

ment and the hke.

And

Church has shown

that

recur here

student of ecclesiastical history

fail

then that

It follows civil

governments,

system of

to the continuance of a

fatal

ordin-

such no doubt the Christian

itself in history.

universal dominion, will

is

— extended

enemies, aggression, acts of judg-

the same problem which has perplexed

and has proved

all

the idea of a great empire

dominion, warfare on

and that

;

was to be international

and coextensive with the world, including arily involved

politic,

by one head, hold-

also.

Nor can any

to observe the con-

stant struggle carried on, in various forms

and with very

various alternations of success, between the rival principles of authority and independence.

The

conflicts of national

Churches with the sovereign jurisdiction of Council, Pope, or Patriarch claiming their allegiance, of religious orders

with bishops or Popes, of heretics or reputed heretics with ecclesiastical tribunals,

with the clerisy, are rivalry.

It is

and of

all

"

"

the lay element

generally

examples of the same standing

obvious of course that,

when the

pushed on either side beyond a certain point,

contest

it

is

becomes

E 2


AND BIOGRAPHY.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

52

fatal to the

of

maintenance of unity.

intermittent

and

conflict

After several centuries

compromise

Eastern

the

Patriarchates finally repudiated the advancing claims of

the Papacy, and period

contention

a similar

issued at a later

the disruption of Western Christendom into

in

With the

Latin and Teutonic elements.

theological

controversial aspect of these questions we. are not

The

concerned. in

this relation

Catholic and

in either

to

or

here

but complementary principles which convenience sake be designated

for

Protestant, the

must ever coexist

forces,

is

rival

may

its

centripetal

and centrifugal

the Church as in the State, and

in

sphere the great problem of sound statesmanship

harmonize the two without

sacrificing the

due

interests

of organization on the one hand or of liberty on the other.

But

is

it

a

common

temptation of rulers ecclesiastical and

civil to

imperil both alike

unity.

This

is

troversialists against the fact a

tell

who boasted by looking

Church of Rome, but

The French

wider appHcation.

Instruction

could

by confounding uniformity with

one of the stock charges of Protestant con-

that at the

who boasted

army to which he had simply "

same minute, which he

was It

same

lesson,

that his clergy

to give the

March, and they march," betrayed a

to the regimental

has in

at his watch, the children in every

school in the country were learning the

the French bishop

it

Minister of Public

and

was an

word of command,

common

method of administration.

addiction

Uniformity

their notion of unity.

has been for

many

years past a cherished object of

Ultramontane zeal to suppress every lingering trace of diversity,

Roman

whether

pale

;

in great

matters or small, within the

and accordingly during the

last pontificate,


UNITY AND VARIETY IN CHURCH AND STATE. in deference to in

France

such .wishes,

— many

them

of

judges very superior to the

The

one after another.

the various diocesan

all

in the

use

— were

known

the grave of Archbishop Darboy.

in

"

suppressed

Breviary, well

liturgiologists without as well as within the Latin

was buried

uses

*'

opinion of competent

Roman

Paris

53

to

Church,

Yet three

centuries ago not even St. Charles Borromeo, the saintly

and

strictly

Ultramontane Archbishop of Milan, would

consent to sacrifice the Ambrosian

witnessed there to

this

day

;

rite,

may be

which

and the Eastern Uniates

may

perhaps prove equally firm

rites,

which are more distinctive and probably older than

But we merely

the Ambrosian. in

illustration

of

local specialities

a

in refusing to

refer to the

general principle.

are not

to

If

surrender

matter here

be tolerated, even

in

miimticB where confessedly no difference of doctrine stake,

we may

and

national

ritual is

at

recognise at once the narrow and impolitic

temper which pursues uniformity

The Church, which

is

described

at the in

risk of schism.

prophecy

diS

circum-

amicta varietatibus, was not weaker but stronger for

important purposes when

it

included in one visible

all

body

a variety of disciplinary and liturgical arrangements, as well as

of nationalities, and

rigid uniformity of detail has

of communions and creeds. seen, the

the

ended

attempt to enforce

In the State, as

we have

scheme of an ecumenical empire has long since

been abandoned as impracticable, however plausible theory.

a

in creating a diversity

in

In the Church, as the organ of a religion which

claims to be universal, the principle must always be upheld, but

it

has

now and

again been so applied as to limit

her range of comprehension by snapping the cord

till

it


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

54

broke.

To

use theological language, Catholicity has been

sacrificed to

Ultramontanism.

How

far precisely

the con-

between the Christendom of the early ages and the

trast

modern

" spirit of disruption," in " the

but glories

which not only acquiesces

Protestantism of the Protestant religion

and the dissidence of Dissent," may be due

to this cause

be wrong

in

is

But we cannot

too wide an inquiry to be undertaken here.

assuming that what has proved a

fatal diffi-

culty of imperialism in the State has also very seriously affected the policy

and fortunes of the Church.

may

In this respect, as in some others, a certain analogy

be traced between the Greece and of modern times.

Rome alike

That imperial

instinct,

of ancient and

which the great

Latin poet claimed as the proud prerogative of his people, reappears under

new

strong hand of the

conditions in the steady advance and

Roman same

political temper, the

the

same

tenacity of purpose, the

same

pontificate

;

there

is

subordination of the abstract and ideal to the practical, the

same

stern intolerance of rivalry or opposition

;

the Ponti-

fex Maxiinus of the new order inherited the sceptre of the Greece, on the other hand, in the classic age was

Caesars.

the

home

up

into a

of philosophy, not the scat of empire

number of

rival

independence and refusing they like

fell

"

fruitful

monwealth

;

was

split

mother of speculative theology,

mother and mistress its

it

common organization, till And the Greek Church in

all

under a foreign yoke.

manner was the

not the

;

States, jealous of their separate

"

of an ecclesiastical com-

several Patriarchates were independent of

each other, and would acknowledge none but an honorary

primacy either

in

the Old or the

New Rome

;

its

schools

were the hotbeds of heresy as well as the nurseries of


UNITY AND VARIETY IN CHURCH AND STATE. sacred learning

it

;

55

aspired to shape the thought, not to

There have been Greek

rule the destinies, of Christendom.

theologians and preachers

who might

rival the subtlety of

Plato and the eloquence of Demosthenes, but no line of imperial pontiffs has sat on the thrones of Alexandria or

dominion has been the

If the instinct of

Constantinople.

ruling principle of the Latin Church, the secret alike of

weakness and

been absorbed and often wasted it

its

strength, the energies of the East have

its

in controversial discussion

;

has produced no Hildebrand and provoked the opposi-

tion of

no Luther,

internal coherence first to

And

as ancient Greece,

from lack of

and power of organization,

a Macedonian and then to a

Roman

fell

a prey

master, so has

the Eastern Church too often succumbed to the despotism

But we need not pursue the Enough has been said to show how, alike and sacred history, East and West exhibit the con-

of the Sultan or the Czar. parallel further. in secular

trast of

ization shall

an individuality tending to anarchy and a central-

hardening into despotism.

An

imperial rcginie that

combine the excellences and avoid the

faults of

both

extremes has been the dream of philosophical statesmen, since Plato imagined a republic where philosophers should reign,

and Aristotle sketched the idea of the

who should be

TTajxlSaa-iXevs

absolute in power as in justice.

world has long since resigned ideal carried out in practice

all "

;

But the

expectation of seeing the

the balance of power

replaced the MonarcJiia of Dante.

It is not so

"

has

easy for

religious minds, familiarized with the old conception of a

Civitas Dei, to

abandon

tendom of the principles

which

future

all

hope of witnessing

the harmonious

in their divorce

in the Chris-

co-ordination

of

have been subiect to so


56

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

much

perverse exaggeration.

however belongs

phecy

;

This perfect consummation

as yet to the region of unfulfilled pro-

perhaps we must wait for

—-who ought to present Pontiff— to make

Angelicus

come it

St.

fifth in

a reality.

Malachy's Pastor

succession from the


Viii.

LATIN CHRISTIANITY.

Dean Milman'S Church is

is

well-known history of the medic-Eval

There

entitled the History of Latin Christianity.

a fitness in the

title,

The author

exception.

though uses

in

one sense

it

is

to distinguish the

it

open to Western

from the Eastern Church, and he has no doubt purposely chosen a term which indicates that the distinction thing more than a geographical one. several centuries the Christian

as

it

had derived

its origin,

is

some-

It is true that for

Church received

its

impress,

The

mainly from the East.

great majority of the early Fathers and theologians, several even of the early Popes, as Dr. out,

were Greeks.

and

Milman has pointed

All the seven Councils which met before

the great schism were assembled

occasioned by Eastern heresies.

cities,

and

Pelagianism was the

first

in

Eastern

heresy that stirred the West, and characteristically enough it

concerned, not the nature of God, but the free will of

man.

On

the other hand, the

mediaeval

Councils

of

Western Christendom were concerned much more with discipline

than with doctrine.

The

subtleties of

Greek

theology and of Greek heresy were alike alien to the sterner

and more practical

spirit

which the

Roman

Church inherited from the Republic and

the

Catholic

Empire.


58

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

The

first

summoned

Eastern Council was

nature of the Trinity

;

the

first

Pope, about half a century

define the

to

recorded decree of a Latin

was

later,

to enjoin,

what the

East had never admitted, the celibacy of the priesthood.

The words

Roman poet describe no less the disRoman Church than of the Roman

of the

tinctive genius of the

people

:

Tu

And

Romane, memento

regere imperio populos,

Hte

tibi

accordingly, from the

most powerful

in

Eastern influences were

first, if

shaping the creed,

it

was

left

somewhere that the Church

is

aim of the Papacy has been not,

without

therefore,

a great idea

to

a

make

Latin Christianity.

As

it

is

West

the dominant

;

a great fact.

It

meaning that the

special

history of the mediaeval Church

to the

M. Guizot says

to organize the polity of Christendom.

is

;

erunt artes.

called the history of

the old intellectual civilisation of

the East succumbed before the inroads of the barbarians, there were no renovating influences at fresh lease of

work

Action had never been

life.

and from the time of Photius,

in

whom

its

to give

its

;

we have

bility of progressive

sive emergencies

healthy

life,

is

to succes-

an inseparable attribute of

whether mental or moral.

If

all

we compare

either the monasticism or the theology of the divisions of

sterile

to look to its rival for that capa-

development and adaptation

which

vigour

Thenceforth

out.

Eastern Christianity presents at best a spectacle of conservatism

a

the expiring flame

shot up with a bright but evanescent radiance, of thought seems also to have died

it

strong point,

two great

Christendom from the eighth century onwards,

the same conclusion

is

forced

upon

us.

There may be


LATIN CHRISTI\NITY.

much

that

one who

open to

is

59

criticism in both systems, but

will contrast the dull stagnation of

no

an Egyptian

Laura, or the passive immobility of the peopled solitude of

Mount Athos, unbroken

in

the living world around, with the studious labours of

Monte Cassino or

still

or St. Maur, or the active zeal of a Jesuit

Franciscan community, can

difference

by the revolutions of ages

to

fail

There

between them.

note the radical

an almost ludicrous

is

perversity in the popular Protestant misconception of the

mere refuge of broken

cloister, as a

and crushed

hearts, fainting spirits,

It is certainly true that the

affections.

prominent characteristic of the Western monks

and that the

fore a

was

cell

world they had

in

them

to

v^^s,

most

power,

as really a battle-field as the

And

one sense abandoned.

it is

there-

mistake of Montalembert's to attribute the origin of

the monastic

as far as they are concerned, solely, or

life,

chiefly, to a desire for solitude.

Bernard from his

cell at

Clairvaux was the adviser of popes, the healer of schisms, the mouthpiece of synods, the protagonist of Catholic ortho-

doxy, and helped

— alike

in

matters ecclesiastical and

monasticism

Church

offer

any

Nor can the

Latin form.

in its

parallel to the

civil

Such was mediaeval

to control the destinies of Europe.

huge

later

Eastern

edifice of scholastic

theology, which tasked and tested the logical acuteness of

contemporary thinkers

in the

have been the permanent the eighth century

West, however limited

result.

was her

St.

may

John of Damascus

in

last theologian.

These considerations abundantly

suffice

to explain, if

not to justify. Dr. Milman's use of the term Latin Christianity.

of

its

But, without explanation, there

misleading

us.

It

is

serious danger

must not be forgotten

that, if


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

6o

the

Roman

much

Pontiffs inherited

organizing spirit of the succeeded, there would

of the imperial and

whose throne they

Caesars, to

have been

opportunity of

little

giving practical effect to their policy, had not a very differ-

come

ent element

into play to.

supplement and regenerate

The barbarian who swept down from the North, and, like the Romans in their conflict with Greece, were van-

the decaying energies of the Latin race.

hordes ancient

quished by the civilisation of those they had conquered in war, added

much more than

Church of

the

Roman and

spirit

fifth

a merely numerical force to

adoption.

their

centuries.

the stern

Little of

among the They retained

survived

old

Italians of the fourth

the passive virtues of

submission and obedience, but the vigour, the energy, the

much

self-reliance to which, quite as

genius of Rome, Christianity owed

as to the organizing

its

noblest conquests in

the middle ages, were the contribution of the Teutonic

nations to the religion which had reclaimed

barbarism.

Latin

elements

While, therefore, the Latin as

them from

And, broadly speaking, the Teutonic and

company

parted

we may

in

at

the

Reformation.

one sense speak

along of

all

synonymous with the Western Church,

at least as true to say, in another sense, that the

Catholic

Church became the

At

Council of Trent.

Latin

its

dominion

;

it

it

gave up

No

anathemas."

" in

thus limiting the

its

strength and

after

the

of

braced up

its

it

the circumscrip-

claims upon the Greeks

repudiated with count-

Ranke immediately

doubt, as field

"owned

all

and the East, and Protestantism less

is,

that period, in the words of the

great historian of the Papacy, tion of

Church

it

Roman

operations,

all

its

it

adds,

concentrated

energies."

But the


LATIN CHRISTIANITY. and

morally

both

limitation,

6i

was

materially,

a

very

important one. In his work on TJie Church in

and

the Churches, published

1861, Dr. Bollinger observes that,

"as each new and

vigorous population enters into the Church, she becomes not

numerically

only

people, in whatever

Every

dynamically enriched.

biit

way

gifted, contributes its share

in

religious experience, ecclesiastical customs, interpretations

of Christian doctrine, in It

impress on

its

and science.

life

adds thus to the great Church capital which

product of former times and older nationalities."

Newman

says,

the Apologia,

in

with

reference to our immediate subject:

nations

who

(if

so be)

Church

are in the fold of the

to have acted for in

its

more

still

—"The

is

the

Cardinal direct

multitude of will

be found

any narrowness

protection against

Rome. ...

the various authorities at

It

stands to reason that, as the Galilean Church has in

an element of France, so of Italy.

It

seems to

it

Rome must have in it an element me that Catholicity is not only

one of the notes of the Church, but, according to the divine purpose, all

one of

European races

and assuredly say the

I

German

think that element, in

serious misfortune."

securities.

its

will ever

.

tJie

loss

its

trust

I

.

have a place

in

that

the Church,

of the English, not

to

composition, has been a

In other words, the combination of

various races, with their diversities of national character,

contributed not only numerically but morally

Dollinger words

it,

dynamically

great whole whereof they

And the

in

this

Roman

— to

—

or,

as Dr.

the strength of the

became constituent

portions.

sense " the Teutonic element " was lost to Catholic Church at the

Reformation.

It is


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

62

true

that

several

Germans and

million

several

million

English-speaking Celts, as well as a small fraction of

Anglo-Saxons,

still

merest tyro

Church history

in

mind on her

intellectual

we have

as

seen,

the very life-blood of the version.

her communion.

in

is

But the

aware how infinitesimal

date has been the influence of the Teutonic

since that

ages,

remain

It

or

the

moral

In the middle

life.

Teutonic

peoples supplied

body they joined on

was the German Emperors

their con-

the eleventh

in

century whose aid was invoked, and who, by procuring

German Popes,

the election of

the Papacy said that

"

—

after that " iron

Christ

was sleeping

largely contributed to raise

age in

"

when

the ship

it

"

was currently

— to the highest

point of authority over the conscience and convictions of

Europe

it

has ever attained.

The reforming

Councils of

the fifteenth century were convoked and carried on, and the

Council of Trent was summoned, under

But the

came too

latter

German

influences.

late to arrest the Protestant revolt,

and the Church tightened her grasp on the Latin

race, in

The German element General Council now German

despair of recovering the Teutonic.

would count

for little in a

;

Catholic divines, however eminent, have long been viewed

with something more than suspicion by the authorities at

Rome.

For the

last three centuries of

the Latin Church,

her administration, her theology, her devotional literature,

and the ruling

spirit

of her whole religious

exclusively represented Italian element.

And

life,

have almost

what Cardinal Newman

calls the

dominant Italianism

has been

this

it

the persistent aim of the Ultramontane school to import into

England

;

even the Italian language has been extolled

as peculiarly sacred, or Catholic, or "dear to Catholic hearts."


LATIN CHRISTIANITY.

One

'63

cause which has largely contributed to the preva-

lence of this exclusive spirit in the Church, for three centuries in the chair of St.

Pope

— and

Cardinals,

and a half none but Peter

— Adrian

that hence

who

also

the

the fact that

is

Italians

have sat

VI. was the last foreign great

majority of

the

are the special Senate or Privy Council of

the reigning Pontiff, as well as the electors of his successor,

have also usually been

Italians.

And

there was at least a

plausible ground for this while the Pontiff

Sovereign.

But

it

was an

Italian

noteworthy here that there are

is

Of

already signs of change.

by Leo XIII. nine are

the twenty Cardinals

non-Italian, one of

named

them being

Newman, while of the fifty-eight members at this moment composing the Sacred College no less than twentyCardinal

six

— between half and

States than Italy. Irish,

Of

a third

— are

also citizens of other

these last three are English, one

and one American, giving a much larger proportion

of English-speaking Cardinals than at any previous period either before or since the

Reformation

indeed been more than one at a time.

depend

in the future of

Teutonic clement

:

there has seldom

Much

will

probably

Catholicism on the influence of the

among

the advisers

chief Pastor of the Church.

and electors of the


IX.

RISE

Few

AND GROWTH OF ULTRAMONTANISM. when we penetrate

things are so remarkable,

at all

beneath the mere surface aspect of events, as the silent revolutions of history, and the unnoticed insignificant or accidental agencies

depend.

No

moral as

in

and seemingly-

on which they so often

doubt there are occasional cataclysms the material universe

what Newton

in the

but for the most part

;

said of the order of nature

is

true equally of

the progressive sequence of national, as of individual,

changes

in

life

The most momentous

non vcro per saltiun.

Continuo,

the character of a society or an institution are

accomplished quietly succeeds, but

it "

the old order passes and the

;

cometh not with observation," and

recognised long afterwards in

We

its results.

is

new only

can point to

the Edict of Milan as marking the precise date of the public

recognition of Christianity, yet

it

did but proclaim and

sanction the ultimate issue of a process which had been secretly

working

for centuries.

the triumph of the

new

faith

Had

that recognition of

over the old civilisation

from Marcus Aurelius, instead of from Constantine' looks like a mere accident that late the difference

it

it

did not

might have made

history of Christendom

?

We

come

— and

it

—who can calcu-

in the

subsequent

can point our finger again,

if


AND GROWTH OF ULTRAMONTANISM.

RISE

65

not to the exact year, to the very decade, somewhere

between 835 and 845, when the Isidorian forgeries were compiled

in the province of

Tours, and palmed off on the

patient credulity of an uncritical age centuries that their full significance

but

;

it

was not

was revealed

altered relations of the Papal See to the hierarchy,

estrangement of East and West.

final

to the spurious Decretals

—

still

less,

It is not,

as

is

most mistakenly imagined, to Hildebrand

montanism owes was

its rise.

in

for

the

and the

however,

popularly^ but

— that

Gregory VII., whatever

Ultra-

his faults,

too great a man, both morally and intellectually, to

far

stoop to the vulgar ambition of ruling as a despot over

and the system so often associated, both by

willing slaves

;

his admirers

and

his enemies, with his

name, can lay no

claim to so venerable an antiquity or so distinguished a

He

parentage.

sought to work out in practice, imperfectly

enough, no doubt, but honestly and

in

accordance with the

needs and circumstances of his day, that ideal of the of

God

greatest his

"

"

City

which had floated as a glorious vision before the

mind of the ancient Church.

It

was no part of

aim to convert the Church into a vast bureaucratic

despotism, with a well-drilled episcopal police obedient to

every intimation of the unseen hand that pulls the wires at

He

the Vatican.

left

it

for lesser

men and a later age to down all the taller

essay the Tarquinian policy of cutting

poppy-heads, and importing into the ecclesiastical govern-

ment that of so

vicious centralisation which has been the

many

secular States.

bane

Gregory desired to strengthen

the hands of metropolitans and primates, whose influence it

afterwards

depress, partly

became the policy of by

his

curtailing their privileges,

successors

to

and partly by


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

66

multiplying their number; so that at the present daythere

is

one archbishop on an average

bishops of the Latin

five

there

— since

— a single

rite

is

the suppression of the old Gallican hierarchy

province containing as

originally assigned

The etymology

many

to the primates

But we are anticipating.

of the term " Ultramontane

cating a party or principle dominant

meaning an

suffragans as were

by Gregory the Great

of Canterbury and York.

"

four centuries has attached in

Northern

application which for the last

theological

had been used

as indi-

",

beyond the Alps,"

Italian one, sufficiently reveals its

origin, in the

it

for every four or

throughout the world, nor

Italy,

to

At an

it.

earlier period

but in a purely geographical

sense, to describe nations lying to the north of the Alps.^

In the century immediately preceding the Reformation,

when

the demand,

more loudly uttered from day

for " a reform of the "

bers

Church

head and

in her

had become the watchword of

was passing over her whole

spirit

all

to day,

in her

mem-

serious men, there

and constitution one of

those silent changes, the origin and growth of which

not

difficult

final issue.

to trace, but

The

it is

which has not yet attained

" seventy years' captivity " of

Avignon

its

in

the thirteenth century, and the schism of the anti-Popes

which followed directly on

men

the Church must be held to reside

a Council

when, 1

in

practical

.''

The

?

Was

it

in a

Pope or

question received an authoritative answer

1409, the Council of Pisa, acting in the spirit of

^., Urban VI., in 1378, "openly avowed his design to so large a nomination (of Cardinals) that the Italians should

Thus,

make

had forced on

its close,

the important inquiry, where the supreme authority of

^.

recover their ascendency over the Ultramontanes." CJirist. viii. 42.)

(Milman, LaL


RISE

AND GROWTH OF ULTRAMONTANISM.

Gerson's famous work

De Aiiferibilitate Papce, deposed

the rival Pontiffs, and appointed Alexander V. place

and again, eight years

;

later,

67

both their

in

when the Council of

Constance, having deposed two Popes and extorted the resignation of a third, proceeded to elect Martin V. to the

Had

chair of St. Peter.

consistently upheld

the principle then affirmed been

— and,

above

all,

had not the Council

of Constance, against the urgent reclamations of earnest members, elected

who

at once dissolved

Church

to be taken

it,

to appoint

first

In checking

its

most

new Pope,

and leave the reformation of the

up afterwards

— the future of

history might have been very different from

was.

a

what

Christian it

actually

reforms that did not emanate from

all

themselves exclusively, and

in

drawing continually tighter

the reins of the central autocracy, Martin V. and his successors were at once sowing the seeds of

and of the Reformation.

From

Ultramontanism

that time forward the de-

pression of national Churches, the exaltation of purely Papal authority,

and the

fatal

plan of seeking to get rid of scandals

not by correction of abuses but by silencing complaints,

became the normal policy of the Roman Court. been

said,

with substantial

if

It

has

not with technical accuracy

and we are of course exclusively concerned with the matter here in

its historical,

hitherto the Popes

not

its

theological, aspect

—that whereas

had claimed extraordinary, they hence-

forth claimed ordinary, jurisdiction over national Churches.

This

may

be illustrated from the history of the English

Church during the

with

the

century which

intervened

between

Council of Constance and the complete severance

Rome

between the

under Henry VIII. rival

Indeed

the

struggle

systems, though seldom breaking out


68

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

into

open antagonism, forms the chief element

ecclesiastical history of the period.

the

in

The appointment

of

Cardinal Beaufort to the purple, without consent of the

Crown, and the attempt to make him legate a the

first

latere,

was

encroachment, and was resisted, with only partial

by Archbishop Chicheley. When, soon afterwards, Kemp, Archbishop of York, was made a cardinal, the Pope

success,

that he

ruled

Primate of

should take precedence, as such, of the

England, on the curious ground that the

all

Cardinals were "those venerable priests mentioned by Moses in

Deuteronomy, and that they were afterwards

by

St.

Peter

"

;

instituted

which reminds one of M. About's equally

remarkable statement, at the opening of his pamphlet on the

Roman

Question, that " the Catholic Church

erned by a Pope and seventy Cardinals, Christ and

the twelve Apostles."

Reformation, some bishop always, the Primate

— who

in

Thenceforth

was

is

gov-

memory

of

till

the

usually, but

not

—was made legate a latere in England,

and three of the Archbishops of Canterbury

— Kemp, who — were

was translated from York, Bouchier, and Morton also Cardinals.

It

was as Cardinal Legates, not as national

Primates, that they were to exercise supreme ecclesiastical authority in the country

;

and

this of course

increased the actual power of the Pope,

immensely

who began

to inter-

much more than before in episcopal appointments and other matters. The last effective resistance made to the new system occurred in Henry VI. 's reign, in the case of

fere

Pecock, Bishop of Chichester, istic

whom

Foxe, with character-

blundering (probably in this case ignorant rather than

dishonest), has

metamorphosed

He

excited general opposition by his extreme

had, in

fact,

into a Protestant martyr.


AND GROWTH OF ULTRAMONTANISM.

RISE

Ultramontane views, as we should ing

among

though

it

them now

call

;

69

maintain-

other things, what was then a startling novelty,

has since been revived by some of the Jesuit

Papacy

divines, that the

is

the sole Divine institution in

the Church, and the Episcopate a creation, not of Christ,

Pecock was charged with seeking to

but of the Pope.

change the religion of England, and was censured heresy and imprisoned

wards prevailed.

but his leading principles

;

was by Papal authority only that

It

Archbishop Morton and Archbishop

Warham assumed

the

which served to expose but not to

visitatorial functions

remedy the crying abuses of the existing monastic

institu-

In Henry VII. 's reign indulgences were publicly

tions.

hawked about papal

for

after-

sale

for

England, under sanction of a

in

by one John de

bull,

Gigliis, for all sorts

of crimes,

including simony, theft, murder, and uncleanness.

while

in Italy

well as the

throne,

Pius

name

Meanwho had abandoned the opinions as ^neas Silvius on ascending the papal

II.,

of

condemned

in a

bull

Exccrahilis the appeal from a

thus annulling on his at three ^

own

with the ominous

Pope

title

of

to a General Council,

authority the principle affirmed

General Councils held during his own lifetime.^

The claim

of Pisa to be reckoned

among

the General Councils has

by Ultramontane writers, and is still made matter of dispute, but no doubt was entertained about it at the time by the Council itself, by Pope Alexander V., whom it elected in place of the two rival claimants it deposed, or in Europe generally. The (Jecrees entitle it "Sancta at Universalis Synodus, Universalem Ecclesiam repraesentans," and the Bull of Alexander sanctions them as " Universahs Ecclesiae auctoritate et corcordia facta.''

been subsequently called

in question

Milman justly describes it as "the most august assembly as to the number and rank of the Prelates, and the Ambassadors of Christian Kings, which for centuries had assumed the functions of a representative

{Du

Senate of Christendom" {Lat. Christ, viii. 114). Bishop Maret Concile Geniral, i. 380) says, " Legitime dans sa convocation, le


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

70

In Spain the practical

fruits

AND BIOGRAPHY. new system were ex-

of the

hibited in the establishment of the Inquisition

the earliest

;

mito-da-fc was held at Seville in 148 1, and no less than two

thousand heretics were burnt

The

in that year.

epoch of Ultramontanism, which commenced

first

with the Council of Constance, closed with the Council of

For a while the two principles hung

Trent.

had the counsels of men

balance, and

Contarini prevailed, cessions the

can be

who

strove to avoid

consummation of the

like

in

the

Pole and

by timely con-

religious schism, there

doubt that a bond fide reformation of at

little

least the graver practical corruptions

would have followed,

and

have conquered

the Teutonic element would

itself its natural place

and recognition

in the

for

development

The

of the Cathohc Church,

But

movement which

Europe from the obedience of

Rome

rent half

it

was not

its

allegiance.

paved the way

for the

was

in

in

to pre-

doing so

growing pretensions which culmin-

movement of the

fifteenth, that

contributing to the success of the Reform-

also preparing

Concile de Pise

much

East and West, and

ated in the Ultramontane

movement,

tightly

If the Isidorian

Decretals of the ninth century had done cipitate the severance of

be.

more

riveted the chain of Latinism all the

on the half which retained

ation,

to

its

own temporary ascendency

dans sa composition, car il reprdsenta vdritablement I'Eglise Universelle. On ne pcut douier de cette tiniversalUd^' &c. Hefele indeed declines to acknowledge it, but on grounds the reverse of convincing, and which would prove equally fatal to the claims of other mediaeval Councils (such as Constance, e.g) whose title has not been seriously impugned in the West. Even the Ultramontane Bellarmine, while he abstains from positively committing himself, was too much of an historian not to call it a General Council, and he gives very sufficient grounds for so regarding it. fut g(^ndral


RISE

AND GROWTH OF ULTRAMONTANISM.

within the more limited area

became

Catholic

to

left

still

71

When

it.

of Ultramontanism was an inevitable sequel, even

had

the

virtually the Latin Church, the victory

not been avowedly one of the

first

if

it

aims of the

master mind of Ignatius, in organizing those indefatigable " praetorians

of the Papacy," of

whom

has been said

it

not by their enemies, but their admirers last three centuries

in to

became

doctrine

the

obsolete, the

of spiritual terrorism and pious frauds

take their place.

the

is

Church gone into Commission.''

the old methods of persecution

new methods

" for

the history of the Jesuit Order

history of the Catholic

As

—that

It

asserted in the

was dangerous

name

came any

to question

of the Church, though

it

might be merely the private opinion of an individual or a school

;

and equally dangerous to admit any estimate

claimed to represent her. or Audin, or

Dom

Historians, like

Rohrbacher,

Gueranger, too plainly show that the

favourite temptation of theological partisans of to

lie " for

charm.

the greater glory of

Jn one Roman

between the after the

more

rival

who

Church, or to those

to the

of facts discreditable

God

Catholic

",

country the

systems was continued

Reformation, and the great

illustrious for his

tion of the national as

all

schools,

has not yet lost

for

its

struggle

two centuries

name of Bossuet

is

not

eloquence than for his bold vindica-

opposed to the Ultramontane theory

of Catholicism.^ But, in this as in other respects, the Revolution sealed the fall

^

work of the Reformation, and with the

of the old Galilean Church the last corporate protest Ultramontanism, in its contest with

has been defined by an impartial

this later

phase of Gallicanism,

"a

jealousy of liberties,

critic,

as

stimulated by an equal jealousy of authority."


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

72

Papacy was ex-

against the raodern pretensions of the

A

tinguished.

opportunity

national

Church's

necessity

Rome's

is

and though the devout and high-minded

;

Pius VII. deeply resented the pressure put upon him by

Napoleon, and only yielded unwillingly at avoid greater

away

and

last,

less certain that to

not the

to

sweep

one stroke of the pen the hierarchy of a thousand

at

years,

evils, it is

and substitute another

of Papal power which as yet

in its place, its

was an exercise

extremest advocates had

In an age like ours there could

scarcely dared to claim.

not well have occurred a contingency more favourable to the progress of those principles which the

Bossuet so resolutely the French

Church

of

but which the Church of

resisted,

Empire was content

to

make

her own.

The Ultramontane movement gained

a fresh impetus,

not only from the incidents of the French Revolution,

but from the line adopted by the reactionary school of Catholic apologists to which

it

gave

birth, of

whom De

Maistre and Lamennais, in his orthodox phase, were the chief representatives.

The

latter,

according to Bishop

even more than De Maistre, the true founder

Maret, was,

"

of modern

Ultramontanism," and he illustrated

later career

what has too often proved the

in

his

effect of

such

opinions on a sensitive nature and keen intellect.

Of

De

Maistre Maret justly observes that "his mind was

essentially

aim was in the

the to

and eminently

political"

and that

his leading

to restore the principle of authority or sovereignty

Divine order.

Hence

" the political dictatorship of

Popes, the theocracy of the middle ages, appeared

him the

ideal of Christian society,"

an extreme view of Papal

and he advocated

infallibility

—which

had not


AND GROWTH OF ULTRAMOxMTANISM.

RISE then in

any sense been authoritatively proclaimed

grounds neither theological nor " infallibility is

was not his

room was

judgment, whether

mattered

for

little,

to

any

a

sary in the nature of things that

and

argument State.

is

Pope

Council or to conscience

appeal

authority savoured of revolution.

his

If the

an appeal against

for

left

— on

but because

historical,

identical with sovereignty."

infallible,

73

against

it

the

supreme

was therefore neces-

It

should be

infallible, if

to be consistently applied, alike in

Church

Indeed, he says expressly that " infallibility in

the spiritual order and

sovereignty in the temporal

terms perfectly synonymous." principles in detail

of minds from

De

was the work of a very Maistre's,

are

But to carry out these different class

who would have turned

scorn or disgust from the petty jealousy of

personal independence which busies

itself,

in

all

local or

e.g.,

with the

suppression of national liturgies, or the gagging of "writers,

however eminent, and however sincerely and intensely Catholic,

who cannot frame

shibboleths.

In an age

the Inquisition

can

make

is

little

their lips to re-echo its peculiar

when education

is

general,

and

out of date, this sort of Ultramontanism

way

with thoughtful

minds.

indeed, a reaction has visibly set in against

a sceptical or a Protestant point of view, but

devoutest believers and deepest thinkers

in

Already,

it,

not from

among

the Church.

the


X.

LATIN HYMNOLOGY. It has been justly observed by a recent writer

in the

Quarterly Revieiv} that not the least important side of the history of the Christian Church that

and

is

written in her hymns,

is

of course the history of her internal development

religious

" It is with a

life.

hymn

that

it

opens, the

sublime Canticle of the Incarnation, Magnificat aiiiina vica

Domimim ; and

in the

Apocalyptic vision which presents

the last glimpse of the City of

God

the glorious

company

Lamb have we may add,

gathered in adoration around the Immaculate '

a

new song

'

in their

the Bencdictus and

hymns

mouths."

And

hence,

Magnificat, the two great prophetic

of the Incarnation, have held from an early period

a prominent place in the Lauds and Vespers respectively of the Latin Breviary, from which they were transferred

Nor

to the English Prayer-book.

is it

only the history of

the Church, but the history of every great religious move-

ment

in the

Church, that has been marked by a fresh

outburst of hymnology.

Two

Nicene and the Qnicunqiie creeds,

and may be said

of the ancient Creeds, the

vult, are

to

hymns

celebrate an

onward march of the Church as well as of her doctrinal system.

as

epoch

well

as

in the

in the elaboration

Thus Cardinal Newman speaks

of the Quicunque as " the war-song of faith," celebrating 1

Quarterly Review, July, 1882.


LATIN HYMNOLOGY. a triumph over

hymn

of

Arian assailants

its

of

praise,

75

" it

;

a psalm or

is

and of profound,

confession,

self-

prostrating homage, parallel to the canticles of the elect in

the Apocalypse

as

much

call

the

Nicene Creed a

Rugby

services of

later times, the

to the

appeals to the imagination quite

it

"

And

Dr. Arnold used to

hymns

hymn

triumphant

and made a point of having

giving," in the

;

to the intellect."

as

School

To come to much

Chapel.

German Reformation owed of Luther, with

quite as

to the

was largely indebted

to

hymns

of

its

founder, and

exaggerate the influence

popularising the

of

double

captivating

their

The Wesleyan

rhymes, as to his translation of the Bible. revival again

of thanks-

always chanted

it

for its early successes it

the

would be

difficult

Christian

Year

in

and teachings of the more im-

spirit

movement which succeeded it. It is not indeed much to say that every religion, Christian or not, relies more or less on its hymnology, as may be exemplified in the Vedic songs of our Aryan ancestors, just as ballad portant too

poetry, like the songs of Tyrtus,

history of almost every nation,

" Give

me

the

however,

is

making of making of

leave you the

fourth century

body

of

power

in

laws."

Our

what

it

is

— or as

hymns

to

more

—

and

for its origin dates

which age

Spiritus of a

I

will

present concern, calls the

correct to call the Latin

Dean Church

from the Ambrosian

the early

familiar saying,

a nation's ballads,

its

hymnology of the Church

its offering,

a

with what the Quarterly Reviewer

mediaeval, but

ful

is

whence the

puts

after

it,

"

from the

that wonder-

age has contributed

hymn

to the Veni Sancte

King of France, the Pange lingua of Thomas

Aquinas, the Dies Ires and the Stabat Mater of the two


76

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

Franciscan brethren,

Thomas

of Cclano and Jacopone."

His predecessor, Dean Milman, observes that singularly solemn

Hemans, by the

The

and majestic tone." by, considered

the Sfabut

"has a

it

Mr. C.

late

Mater

more probably the composition of Pope Innocent century earher, than of Jacopone.

It is

and

English,

to

splendid

this

Catholic devotion, the principal the

subject

who both hymns as well

own day should both German

writers,

treasure-house

of

old

English contributors to

Newman and

being Cardinal

a

only natural then

that the great ecclesiastical revival of our

have drawn the attention of learned

to be III.,

the late Mr.

Isaac Williams,

edited and translated the greater

part of the

of the

Roman

Breviary, Archbishop Trench, Mr.

has translated the poems of

Adam

late Dr. Neale, ^vho both edited

the Latin

Hymns and

as of the Parisian

Digby Wrangham, who of St. Victor, and the

and translated many of

Sequences, and discussed the general

question in a paper on "the Ecclesiastical Latin Poetry of the Middle far indeed,

or any of

hymns

Ages " and

them

in

How

in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana.

what

relative degree, these translations

are satisfactory, or

how

far

again translated

are as a rule suitable for use in public worship, are

questions which

we cannot do more than glance

at here.

All translation, and notably translation of poetry,

is

con-

fessedly a difficult problem, and there can be no doubt that

the Latin lator,

hymns

present peculiar difficulties to the trans-

from the obvious

fact that

they are cast in the mould

not only of another language but of another age. not easy to avoid the opposite dangers either of exactness,

which produces a

stiff

It

is

literal

and pedantic version

wholly unsuitcd to popular singing, or of substituting


LATIN HYMNOLOGY. paraphrase for translation.

And,

'j-j

as to the latter,

it

may

be questioned whether original hymns embodying the same ideas would not really possess for English congregations

more of the spontaneity and verve of the

originals

;

to

and idiom of a Latin hymn, whether of

transfuse the spirit

the fourth century or the twelfth, into a modern English

hymn

is

— certainly not

impossible, for

it

has sometimes at

Newman and Dr, much more common

been achieved, notably by Cardinal

least

Neale

—but

is

a task -where failure

And

than success.

here

it

may

the righteous protest of John

and inexcusable

many

in

is

be well to put on record

Wesley against the

cases illegal

reckless

— manipulations to

which the makers of hymn-books, almost without exception, are

lated,

wont

to subject the compositions, original or trans-

whom

whether of living or departed authors,

pl-eases

them

to fancy they can

adapt or improve

it

:

Many gentlemen have done my brother and me, though without naming us, the honour to reprint many of our hymns. Now they are perfectly welcome to do so, provided they print them just as they are. But I desire they would not attempt to mend them, for they really are not able.

None

of them

is

able to

mend

either the sense or

the verse.

Both Dr. Neale and the ologist of the

late Dr. Faber, the great

day among English

whose pieces have found

Catholics,

hymn-

and many of

way into various Protestant make similar complaints, as illustrious composers who have

their

compilations, found reason to well

as other

and

suffered from the

to the Latin It

less

same fraudulent

dealing.

But

to return

Hymns.

would be a complete misapprehension to look on the

hymnology

of Western

Christendom as a corrupt and


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

78

deteriorated excrescence on the silver, or post-silver, age of

Latin Classicalism. created

Age

tion, in his First

passed

It really represents a

by the Church.

of the CJnirch, to the change which

Greek

over the

new language

Dr. Dollinger has called atten-

language when " the richness,

them

depth, and speciality of Christian ideas constrained [Christian writers] to form

a

much by

as

new words

coining

The Latin

old ones."

new terminology, not by giving a new sense

so to

tongue, which became the vehicle

of theology and worship for the most powerful and energetic portion of the

new community, underwent

a yet

more

thorough transformation, and nowhere perhaps does revolution

show

itself

contrast between

in its best estate

this

the

in

The

and Christian poetry.

classical

Rome

poetry of ancient

more conspicuously than

had been a more

or less skilful imitation and adaptation of Greek models

poetry was not in any form germane to the

and could only were

artificial,

and the

There

refined.

is

its

origin

for the exigencies

and

its

had any ballad poetry of

And

a type of literature

form was the

of a popular religion.

least fitted

The

characteristic of Latin ecclesiastical poetry, from its

other peculiarities were ultimately derived,

and

essential popularity of its construction.

of the Gospel

graces

in their national infancy the

deserving the name.

so unreal in

genius,

no clear proof, begging Lord

stern nurslings of the she-wolf

own

its

;

and appealed exclusively to the learned

Macaulay's pardon, that even

their

Roman

flourish as a delicate exotic

in

those days of

advance lay not so much

in

its

is

leading

which

all

the intense

The

strength

early struggles

and

the power of intellect, or the

force of logical demonstration, or the prestige of authority,


LATIN HYMNOLOGY. as in

its

man

appeal to

as

naturaliter Christiance ;

man, to the

anhncB

testiinoniuui

answer

in the

79

offered to the

it

immemorial yearnings of our common humanity.

any external

therefore not in obedience to

but

in

mere

It

was

arbitrary law,

her mission and from the nature of

fidelity to

the case, that the Christian Church gradually, and to

some

extent unconsciously, evolved a literature of her own,

which

and vigour

in its passionate directness

by graces of

and was too stern

diction,

set little store

in

its

objective

sublimity to hanker after the studied prettinesses of foreign

The

imitation.

process was necessarily a gradual one, for

the Church could only utilise the materials placed ready

and

to her hand,

Reviewer therefore Latin

effete

is

no uncouth

is

time went on, her

infuse, as

somewhat

their

into

right

formalities.

and principles of

definite rules

but a real language, with its

own and

"

can no more

be judged by Augustan standards than Westminster

by the The

spirit

Quarterly

observing that mediaeval

in

patois,

own

The

Abbey

rules of Vitruvius." first

great change, not so

much adopted perhaps

as

unconsciously evolved, was the substitution of accent for quantity, as better meeting the needs of public singing

or recitation in the Church service, where, as Archbishop

Trench remarks, " the

classical or prosodical valuation of

words would have been clearly inappreciable by the greater

number of those who worship.

.

.

.

it

was desired should take part

Quantity, with

its

in the

value so often fictitious

and involving so many inconsistencies, could no longer be maintained as the basis of harmony. ally

fell

back on accent, which

appealing to the

common

is

The Church essentially

natur-

popular,

sense Šf every ear, and in

its


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY,

8o

broader features,

which full

simple

in its

The next and

all."

rise

and

fall,

appreciable by

more important

still

transition, to

change led the way, was consummated by the

this

development of rhyme, which, however, began

assonance of vowels, and hardly reached

in

mere

perfection

its

Dr. Neale

before the age of Hildebert and St. Bernard.

distinguishes two great periods of Latin hymnology, the

marked by a decay of the

chiefly

first

old

life,

and ending

with Gregory the Great, the second illustrating the growth of a

new and

better

life,

and beginning with Venantius

Fortunatus, who, however, only survived Gregory by years,

dying

To

in 609.

Ambrose, the reputed author of the Te Deiun, and

whom, by

of Latin hymnology," to

nine of the twenty-one

hymns

the way, not

regularly, or display a

those which

;

him

rhyme

want of metrical exactness, though

The

be certainly rejected.

Veni Redemptor Gentiinn,

who

father

not infrequent in his undoubted poems, must

is

tion here.

"

more than

traditionally ascribed to

can with any confidence be assigned

rhyming

five

the former period belongs St.

To

is

noblest of his compositions, too well

known

to need quota-

the same early period belongs Prudentius,

in his fifty-seventh

year

first

devoted himself to the

production of the ecclesiastical poetry which has conferred

And

on him an enduring fame.

Gregory the Great,

at

its

authentic

hymn, Primo dicrum

tendency

towards

Fortunatus, it,

Bishop of

His

two

but not

omnium,

the

itself.

comes

growing

Venantius

been, as Archbishop Trench puts

vers de societies' but

Poitiers,

least,

whose undoubtedly

in

rhyme manifests

who had

"a master of

last,

close,

became afterwards

opens a new epoch

grandest poems,

Vexilla

in

hymnology.

Regis prodeunt and


LATIN Pangc lingua

HYMN O LOGY.

— not to be confounded with

Pange lingua of Aquinas

— are

Passion-tide offices of the

the Sacramental

both embodied

in

the

and have become

Breviary,

famihar to EngHsh readers and worshippers in Dr. Neale's

The second, beginning

excellent translation.

Pange lingua

lauream

gloriosi

certarainis,

from which the following characteristic stanzas are extracted,

is

a fine specimen of the rolling trochaic tetrameter

which had been once or twice incidentally used before, but

which

was

he

the

systematically to

first

arrange

or

adopt :— Crux

fidelis, inter

omnes arbor una

nobilis,

germine Dulce lignum, dulci clavo dulce pondus sustinens.

Nulla talem silva profert fronde,

flore,

Flecte ramos arbor alta, tensa laxa viscera, Et rigor lentescat ille quem dedit nativitas,

Ut

superni

membra Regis

Sola digna tu

miti tendas stipite.

pretium

fuisti ferre

\

sceculi,

Atque portum pra^parare area mundo naufrago, Quem sacer cruor perunxit fusus Agni corpore.

Between the century and

its

rise

of the

Victor in the twelfth,

hymns

of

new

school

the seventh

in

Adam

culmination in the verse of

unknown

we

of St.

have, besides several striking

authorship, such masterpieces as the

Veni Creator by Charlemagne, the Veni Sancte Spiritus

by King Robert of France, the Chorus Novce HieriLsalem of St. Fulbert,

and a

hymn on

to St. Augustine, but

the Joys of Paradise, attributed

which

Damiani, and later on the Bernard, and the exquisite

is

really the

work of

St.

Peter

Jcsu, dulcis mcnioria of St.

hymn by

his

contemporary

and countryman, Bernard of Morlaix, which has attained a wide

popularity in

Dr.

Neale's

ringing

translation,


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

82

"Jerusalem the Golden." The introduction of

sung between the Epistle and Gospel which

their

in

Notker Balbulus

St.

" the

Trench

ages," as

Sequence. great

it

;

"

was

proses

the

"

Adam

left for

Sequences,"

VictinicE

ascribed to

is

of St. Victor

the sacred Latin poets of the middle

him

calls

must

It

of

a notable example,

is

among

foremost

form

earlier

Paschali for Easter

"

in the Missal, of

— to

suffice to

hymns composed by

develop the rhythmical

mention

St.

in passing the four

Thomas Aquinas

for the

newly-instituted festival of Corpus Christi, the greatest of

which,

Lauda Sion Salvatorem, has been

modern

by the noble music

ears

has wedded

it.

About

fifty

to

familiarised to

which Mendelssohn

years after

Adam

of St. Victor

comes Thomas of Celano, the author of what has been

own age down to that of Gothe and its murmured words on his

regarded from his Sir

W.

lips

— as

is

Scott

—who

died with

the masterpiece of ecclesiastical poetry, while

it

rhyme

in

also the solitary extant

which

it

too well

is

composed

known

;

example of the

the solemn and pathetic

his

on the four Evangelists, a

Sequence on

Two

to require citation here.

stanzas, however, shall be cited from a St. Victor

St.

Agnes, quoted

Jucundare, plebs

Cujus Pater est

hymn

finer

in the

fidelis,

in ccelis,

Recolens Ezechielis Prophetce prteconia;

Est Joannes testis ipsi, Dicens in Apocalypsi,

Vere vidi, vere scripsi Vera testimonia,

Circum throna

Cum

triple

majestatis,

spiritibus beatis,

of

Z^/Vi- Irce,

specimen

Adam

of

one even than

Quarterly

;


LATIN HYMNOLOGY.

83

Quatuor diversitatis Astant animalia ;

Formam primum

aquilinam,

Et secundum leoninam, Sed humanam et bovinam

Duo

From

gerunt

alia.

the close of the thirteenth century the old founts

of Christian inspiration, in poetry as in theology, and even in

"

were beginning to run dry.

architecture,

Sinai

and

Calvary were deserted for Parnassus and Olympus," and

under the blighting influence of the Renaissance "imitation took the place of invention, pedantry of inspiration."

was the

a purely negative one.

evil

and

Renaissance Popes

It

poetasters,

like

Clement VII. and Zacharius Farrerius, to

Nor

seemed good to Medicean

the

whom

he com-

mitted the ignoble task, to replace the splendid heritage

hymns by a new series of pseudo-classical made to order, in the style of the following

of old Breviary

compositions

Horatian doxology Unus

:

est

divum sacer Imperator,

Triplicis formae, facie sub una.

Qui polum,

terras,

tumidosque

Temperat

The volume strosities

fluctus

alti.

containing this collection of mongrel

and authorized

happy and

for use in the

rather

Divine

unaccountable

office,

but by some

accident

clergy

the

declined to avail themselves of the proffered boon. ecclesiastical authorities,

of the existing it

on

The

however, were not so easily to be

balked of their pet scheme, and

to reform

mon-

was actually published with Papal approbation

hymnology

if

they could not get rid

altogether, they

classical models,

determined

and the charge was finally

G

2


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

84

by Urban VIII.

entrusted

to three' Jesuit fathers,

among

the most approved pedants of their day, of reducing the old

hymns

" ad

bonum sermonem

et metricas leges,"

A

adding some new ones to the Breviary.

Abbe Pimont —whose work

siastic of the present day, the

Hymns

on the

of the

and

French eccle-

Roman

Breviary,

is

it

fair to say,

was published with the express imprimatur of the

Pope

—has justly

complained how

in this revision "

late

under

the pretext of elegance or clearness the correctors have

too often, alas

!

on the whole, merely

for the

sacrificed,

sake of classical expressions, the primitive words which

were nearly always mysticism."

rich

In his

in

symbolism and a profound

Introduction the

Abbe

insists

at

length on the very important point already referred

to,

that

" Christianity

the expression of

He

inadequate."

made some

created

a

new Latin language °

ideas to which

might,

further,

classical

till

advantage have

with

reference to the collection of hymns, decidedly

superior on the whole to those of the

which

for

forms were

Roman

Breviary,

within the last few years were sung in

all

or

The ruthless scythe of that ultramontane centralising movement which culminated under the last pontificate has swept away the Paris Breviary, in common with many other local or national

nearly

all

French churches.

" uses," but

and

may be

it

ritualist,

fabulous legends,

Roman

still

lectionary

Bute's translation its

permitted to the Christian scholar

as well as to those left

— touched

— to

who

after

scruple at the

with a gentle hand in

deplore

its

fall.

many

prunings, in the

several

Not

least

Lord

among

merits were the preservation in their pristine form of

ancient

hymns which Urban's

correctors

had done

their


LATIN HYMNOLOGY.

85

best, to use a phrase of Ruskin's, " to polish into inanity,

and the wonderful beauty of some of the modern ones of comparatively recent date, which were not unworthy to

There are few,

stand beside them.

Latin

hymns

of

any age

the musical rhythm and

e.g.,

to equal,

subhme

among

still

the shorter

fewer to excel,

simplicity of the lines

beginning

O

luce qui mortalibus

Lates inaccessa, Deus,

which some in

may

recollect hearing

France, and will

regret

to

opportunity of hearing again.

sung at Sunday Vespers

know they But

can

have no

this is not the place

to enter on a discussion of comparative

hymnology.


XL FOURTEENTH BENEDICTINE CENTENARY. In the year 1880 there was observed throughout the whole Benedictine Order, and especially at the famous

Abbey

Cassino, which was the cradle and

Monte

of

the centre of

still

its

organic

anniversary of the birth of dict, in

may

480.

The

its

first

informing hand, since established

centenary

is

in

fact

the Latin Church.

apart from

all

to

Benedict

Western monasticism,

impetus and

mould from

its

his

religious orders, or at least

Reformation, are directly or

before the

modifications

founder, St. Bene-

was a natural one.

all later

indirectly

in

its illustrious

celebration

is

the fourteen-hundredth

justly be styled the father of

which received

all

life,

of

his

rule.

To

celebrate

his

keep the birthday of monachism

And

the institution

is

one to which,

theological or ethical differences of view,

Protestants need not be, and of late years have not been,

slow to acknowledge their indebtedness. as Mr.

Lecky has

It is not only,

rightly pointed out, that to the

and especially to the Benedictines, we owe dignity of labour

forms of

came

civilisation

modern Europe.

it

to be appreciated, as

it

monks,

that

the

under Pagan

never ha,d been appreciated, in

Nor was

the rapid spread of monasticism

due simply to the popular belief— a

beh'ef not difficult to


FOURTEENTH BENEDICTINE CENTENARY. account for

in a

87

rude and barbarous age, when " conver-

sion" seemed almost to imply seclusion from the world that the cloister

was the

sole or the shortest road to heaven.

had other and more sublunary attractions

It

classes of minds.

It

combined the elements of

and democratic power of the abbot,

whom

for

many

aristocratic

the princely position and prestige

in

who ranked with

the highest of the land, from

common-

indeed he was often sprung, and the vast

wealth of monks, where peasants and emancipated serfs

found a secure refuge, and took their place side by side with the tonsured knight or noble,

influence of vast wealth

the choir and chapter

in

There too was seen the corporate

house or at the plough.

— generally,

the merit of individual poverty. the philanthropic, and

in

And

inviting than to the devout.

— combined with

thus to the ambitious,

Benedictine

to the studious, the cloister offered

less

houses especially attractions hardly

Monasteries were the

nurseries not only of labour but of learning

;

great eleemosynary institutions of the age

abbots

Of

made

this vast

and comprehensive system

Nursia was the founder, and from him

been intimated already, not merely

it it

all

they were the ;

and mitred

and parliaments.

their voices heard in courts

shape and form which, throughout

remember,

fair to

it is

expended with discretion and benevolence

St.

it

its

Benedict of

derived, as has origin,

but the

variations of detail,

has substantially preserved from his day to our own.

be true that "the Benedictine statutes

living code, written

in

in

If

remain a

the heart of multitudes in every

province of the Christian world," that

remarkable union

still

is

partly due to the

the person of their author of those

opposite characteristics, active and passive, which usually


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

88

divide

mankind

-and a

thinker,

he had the instincts at once of a worker

;

a ruler and

And

a recluse.

whole

his

nature was dominated by that fervent yet profound enthu-

siasm without which no

such an age as his

— can

man

any age

in

hope

least of all in

to exert a lasting influence

over his fellows.

Benedict was born at Nursia,

in the

480, of respectable parents, and,

gave early presage of ristic

hymns

for his education,

of the capital

which

is still

duchy of Spoleto,

we may

his future sanctity

mother's

in his

if

womb.

and took refuge

in

by singing eucha-

He was

but the sensitive boy

in

credit Mabillon,

fled

sent to

Rome

from the vices

a cave near Subiaco,

pointed out to travellers, not far from the

site

of Nero's villa of SnblaqneHin, and here he was wont, like St.

Jerome, to subdue his animal passions by rolling his

naked body among the thorns and sharp points of the

At

rocks.

his sanctity led a

fame of

to choose

him

and attempted

broke

in his

neighbouring convent of monks

for their head, in spite of his earnest

They soon

strances. .rule

length his hiding-place was discovered, and the

tired,

to poison him, but the

their

wickedness

possible for him.

grew up around

thither

Little his

us,

and

the youthful

after

abbot

But solitude was no longer

returned to his old solitude.

including

cup miraculously

hands, as the Breviary assures

calmly reproving

remon-

however, of the severity of his

communities of monks or hermits

retreat

and under

his

government,

some noble youths from Rome who were drawn

by

afterwards

his

growing reputation, one of whom, Maurus

known

as St. Maur, founder of the Order in

France— began very soon There was another attempt

to share

his

gift

of miracles.

to poison him, the culprit this


FOURTEENTH BENEDICTINE CENTENARY. named

time being a priest his fame, left

and then

envious of

at last, about his fiftieth year, Benedict

He

Subiaco, never to return.

travelled to a hill over-

looking the fountain head of the

Liris,

where an ancient temple of Apollo

Monte

Cassino,

have been

said to

is

standing, to which the ignorant peasants brought their

still

Benedict converted them, destroyed the idol-

offerings.

atrous temple, cut

on

who was

Florentinus,

89

its

site;

and

down

the grove, and raised a monastery

Milman's words, "arose that

here, to use

great model republic, which gave

whole of Western Monasticism." retreat he

was not

swept over

Italy,

visit

him,

when

the saint rebuked

We

in this final

The storm

Totila, the Gothic

predicted his conquest of years.

laws to almost the

But even

undisturbed.

left

and

its

him

Rome and

of war

monarchy came to

for his cruelties, his

and

death after ten

are told that the last days of Benedict were

darkened by a vision of the destruction of

his

abbey by

the Lombards, which happened forty years afterwards, but

consoled by another vision, which also

came

true, of the

extension of his rule throughout every part of Europe.

He

died

March

21,

543,

and was buried

in the

oratory

of St. John the Baptist, which stood on the site of the

demolished sanctuary of Apollo.

The Benedictine Rule

is

of course

bound

together, as

its

animating principle, by the threefold cord of monastic perfection

—poverty,

chastity,

and obedience

occupations into which the Benedictine day are divine worship, study, and

manual

of which found no counterpart the East.

and the three is

apportioned

labour, the last

among

Monte Cassino was not

;

two

the coenobites of

a reproduction of the

Egyptian Laura, or the model of Mount Athos.

But the


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

90

comprehensive vigour and wisdom of

made kind

the model for

it

Western Europe

in

all

his pohty,

which has

subsequent institutions of the

the skilful adjustment of abbatial

;

dominion with universal suffrage of the monks, concentrating power and diffusing

it

;

at

once

and that prescient

human heart, which has moulded some men and women (for there are Bene-

insight into the

forty generations of

nuns

dictine

ments of capacity

in

observes,

may

—

all this

for

reject the theory

"a phenomenon

affording

And we may

curiosity."

liberal

James Stephen

Sir

who

well appear to those

a

instru-

does certainly show a legislative

founder which, as

the

of supernatural guidance exercise

and submissive

into voluntary

also)

his will

ample further

agree with him that, great as are the services rendered

by

the Benedictine Order for

many

centuries,

by

their agri-

cultural labours, their marvellous architectural achievements,

and

their priceless libraries, their greatness

attested

by the names of so many worthies

for active piety, for administrative

The names

would alone

to

suffice

show the

most signally

illustrious alike

wisdom,

learning, for devout contemplation, and,

missionary enterprise.

is

for

profound

we may

of Lanfranc and

add, for

Anselm

influence produced

by

mediaeval Benedictines on English history and theological thought. fulfilled

seen.

The dying

vision of

St.

Benedict was indeed

with a rapidity which he could scarcely have fore-

In Italy houses of his Order began at once to

rise,

increasing as time went on in spaciousness and splendour,

from Calabria to the Alps, and to

this day, or at least

till

the recent changes, scarcely a town of any size was without its

Benedictine convent.

Cassino expressed

it,

His monks, as an abbot of Monte

"swarmed

like

bees,"

and began


FOURTEENTH BENEDICTINE CENTENARY. everywhere to plant new monasteries. Italy that they have

won

Yet

French Benedictine abbey

first

rose at Glanfeuille on the Loire near Angers.

of

many

learning,

and

It

and noble foundations, famous

rich still

Before

Maurus had

the death of Benedict, his faithful disciple

first

hardly in

it is

their highest reputation.

crossed the Alps, and the

" the

name

91

of St.

Maur

is

was the for their

dear to

letters."

During the seventeenth century no fewer than a hundred and

five writers

of that Congregation shared their literary

renown, and to them we owe the best editions the works of

many

as well as of

some

later celebrities, not to

the gigantic task accomplished Spicilcgiiim, his

dictine Order,

To to

of

speak here of

by Mabillon alone

Acta Sanctorum,

Annals of

his

in

his

the Bene-

and other works.

English readers

remember

known

of the Fathers, both Latin and Greek,

it

may be more

directly interesting

that with St. Augustine the rule of St. Bene-

we might almost To quote Milman once more,

dict passed into this country, and,

say,

took possession of

" In

it.

every rich valley, by the side of every clear and deep stream, rose a Benedictine abbey, and usually the most convenient,

and peaceful spot

fertile,

be found to have been the

will

may

be generally assumed,

contrary,

that

an

English

till

in

site

any part of England

of one of them."

It

evidence appears to the

monastery belonged to

this

Order, for the Cistercian was only a stricter reform of the

Benedictine

rule.

Far the greater number of our old

many

parish churches

The names

of Canterbury,

abbeys, several of our cathedrals, and

were St.

in

Benedictine hands.

Albans, Westminster, Glastonbury, and Tewkesbury in

the south, of

Wearmouth, Yarrow, and Lindisfarne

in

the


92

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

north, will recall ecclesiastical

many

others to those familiar with our

So strongly

history or our ruined shrines.

indeed were the English Benedictines rooted

the

in

soil,

that after the suppression of their houses at the Reformation they resolved at least to retain in the Order

all their

old titular dignities, in the hope of better days.

And we

believe that at this

moment Dean Bradley

existence somewhere

—though

it

is

has a rival in

not on record that he

has ever claimed his seat in the Upper House

shape of a mitred Abbot of Westminster. England, as on the Continent before the

rise

—

in

the

In mediaeval

of the Jesuits,

the education of youth was conducted chiefly in the schools

attached to Benedictine monasteries. these schools are frequented

upper

classes,

liberal

many

of

whom

To

this

day indeed

by Roman Catholics of the prefer their milder

and more

discipline to that of the Jesuit teachers.

But

in

the present stage of civilisation, religious orders, whatever their

permanent merits from an

ascetic or theological point

of view, are hardly likely to reconquer the wider influence or reputation that once belonged to them.

They

still

of

course have their uses, but their glories must be sought rather in the past than the present.

which has flourished already

And

and shows no signs of decay, may afford laurels

community

to repose

on

its

and dwell with a pardonable pride on the memory

of a founder whose

amid

a

for nearly fourteen centuries,

all

name

is

honoured and

his will

obeyed,

the social and moral revolutions of later ages, by

a multitude of

and beyond

men and women throughout modern Europe To a thoughtful observer this abiding

it.

influence in a world so

full

of change will perhaps appear a

greater miracle than any of those which his biographers


FOURTEENTH BENEDICTINE CENTENARY. have recorded. his

associates

It

would have amazed John Knox and

know

to

93

that,

three

centuries after " the

rookeries had been pulled down, and the rooks had fled,"

a large Benedictine monastery and school would be erected in the heart of Presbyterian Scotland,

Caledonian Canal

on the banks of the

while another, not without architectural

;

pretensions, has arisen almost under the ford Cathedral,

and as the centre of a

shadow of Hererival See, to

say

nothing of the more ambiguous establishment set up by "

Father Ignatius

granted,

by

"

friends

at

and

Llanthony.

It

may

at

least

be

foes alike, that St. Benedict has

more than earned the honours of

his fourteenth centenary.


XII.

PROPHECIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.

There

has never probably been a period or a nation in

the world's history that has not

borne witness to that

craving for a knowledge of the hidden future, which seems

human mind, whilst it human faculties to inevitFrom the savage who reads in a

to be an ineradicable instinct of the is

doomed by

the limitation of

able disappointment.

thunderstorm or an eclipse the anger of his offended Deity, or the

somewhat more systematic reasoner who argues,

cometafulsit, bdliim

of

"

erit,

to the

most elaborate organization

wizards that peep and mutter,"

common

all

feeling of hopeless curiosity

to gratify

it.

Even

who had been down in the cave

Saul,

destroying witches, bows

by thousands among the educated

even formed while, is

in

Endor.

classes,

America the basis of a

on the other hand,

science,

if

ternatural power have

many

its

In

vota-

and has

religious

sect

;

the Positivist theory

to be accepted, proposes to establish

that prescience in which so

a

zealous in

so at

our own day the spirit-rapping superstition counts ries

by

are dominated

and a common desire

by

rival

competed and

natural methods

claimants to prefailed.

There

is,

however, this distinction, broadly speaking, between the prophecies of the ancient and modern, or rather,

let

us say,


PROPHECIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.

— —that

the Pagan and Christian world

we

are not concerned here

95

with Jewish prophecy

for

the former was purely

national, referring mainly to wars or approaching political

revolutions, while the latter has also wider bearings,

often points to a

more distant

future.

The

and

nations of

mediaeval Europe, without losing their separate individuality, felt

themselves to be parts of a great religious com-

monwealth,

in which,

moreover, the three leading nations

Germany, France, and tinct

and special

Italy

—were

the chief priesthood, to

supposed

To

offices to fulfil.

Germany

Italy

to

have

dis-

was committed

the Empire, to France

We may again

the leadership of intellectual culture.

make

a fourfold division of the subject-matter of Christian pro-

which are either purely

phecies,

come

those bearing on

Church

— predictions,

religious, or dynastic, or

Under

cosmopolitan.

national, or

the last

the fortunes of

e.g., of a

reunion of separated bodies

affect

And

if

Universal

great reformation, or of the

— which,

however, have often

a secular as well as an ecclesiastical aspect,

they

head would

the

in so far as

the history of the principal civilised nations.

we turn from

these prophecies

their subject-matter to their origin,

seem sometimes

neous product of the

soil

to be a kind of sponta-

or of the temper of the age,

sometimes to be deliberately framed with a view to pro-

moting

their

own

fulfilment,

and sometimes

to be

due to

the predictive glance of genius, inferring the future from

the past.

Prophecies with a purpose, which

" prospective history, as history

is

are such as John of Bridlington's

Edward is

III.,

where a bitter

satire

may

be called

retrospective prophecy,"

poem

in the reign of

on contemporary vices

disguised under the form of a prediction.

So again a


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

96

good specimen of dynastic prophecy may be found

Enghsh proverb of EHzabethan

old

When hempe

in the

days, spun,

is

England's done

where the five

of the

five letters

word

hempe " stand for the VI., Mary and

"

Tudor monarchs (Henry VIII., Edward

and the chances of invasion or revolu-

Philip, Elizabeth),

Such, too,

tion at Elizabeth's death are indicated.

the

is

old catalogue of mottoes for successive Popes, ascribed to St.

Malachy, who died

in 1148,

which begins with Celestine nine Popes felicity,

tolicus,"

still

to

come.

but

II.

and Pius IX.

"

interpretation

Sometimes

it

crux de cruce

may

heard of

eagles.

who was torn from his To Leo XIII. is assigned

"

in coelo."

" "

peregrinus apos;

while a more

Dr. Dollinger

— one

like the Papstfdheln,

of those

the appropriate

thrown

Era, published

little

off

"

to

throne by the French

These remarks are partly suggested by a short the Christian

to

has had a curious

adapt " aquila rapax

Pius VII.,

on PropJiecies of

in 1595,

and extends

1143,

as in giving Pius VI. the motto

far-fetched

lumen

first

in

satellites,

title

of

treatise

in 1871,

by

so to speak,

from his larger works

in

the process of composition, and bearing similar evidence to the wonderful range and minute accuracy of his information.

In

it

is

given a sketch of the course of popular

prediction in successive Christian ages, which in

some

is

of course

respects a measure of the course of popular feel-

ing and belief.

It

must be remembered that the early

Christians inherited from the Jews

composed partly

the Sibylline books,

before, partly after, the time of Christ, to


PROPHECIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.

97

which both alike attached a high authority, and whence the Christians inferred the triumph of the Church over the

For many ages indeed the chief subject of

Pagan Empire.

Christian prediction

was the reign of Antichrist and the

end of the world, which

was believed from

last, in

the tenth century especially,

be very near at hand, but

to

the Apocalypse

who was expected

— could

to be a Jew,

— as was gathered

not ensue

till

Antichrist,

had appeared, and tyran-

nized for three years and a half over the afflicted Church. It

was not of course

shaping

itself into

till

later,

when. Christendom was

separate States, that there was

room

for

national prophecies to spring up, which, so far as they are

not distinctively religious, seem usually to be the expression of the

common hopes

or fears of the people.

they cannot be referred to any known author

some mythical personage, such Orpheus,"

as

be accepted as an historical

Merlin, "the

illud Merlini," or " ut

who has is

British

reality.

English chroniclers

high repute in which Merlin was held

their frequent use of such phrases as " tunc

work,

Often

and then

usually credited with them, and comes to

is

testify to the

fridus,

;

impletum

impleretur Merlini prophetia."

by est

Gal-

incorporated Merlin's prophecy into his

open to the reproach of having altered the legend

about him by making a dcsmon incubus his father, and thus sanctioning the dark superstition, afterwards raised almost into a

dogma by Aquinas, and even authorized by Popes, lives of so many thousands of innocent per The tough hold which national prophecies get on the

which cost the sons.

popular mind

may be

illustrated

from a contemporary

writer, O'Curry,

who

script Materials

of Irish History, \hdX

Irish

Manu"he himself knew

says, in his Lectures on the

H


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

98

hundreds, including highly-educated

men and women, who

neglected the ordinary means of obtaining provision for hfe from

predictions

in

faith

of a great restoration in

Ireland, for which, however, no fixed period

was

In the middle of the seventeenth century the in Portugal, the Jesuit Vieira,

assigned."

first

preacher

wrote a History of the Future,

announcing that Portugal was to be the centre of a

Empire of the world. the

zeal, for

But he paid dearly

Inquisition

fifth

for his patriotic

of Coimbra scented

out some

occult heresy in the book, and, after a year's imprisonment,

compelled him to recant.

Among

the most copious at once and most interesting

of mediaeval prophecies are those relating to the city of

Rome, which has been

for

above two thousand years one

of the chief factors in the history of the world.

heathen period

was

it

Nursia

"

in the sixth

and earthquakes. wasted by its

barren

fire

site.

brow of the apocalyptic

Babylon the Great."

St.

by

harlot

Benedict of

St.

century foretold that

destroyed, not indeed

its

was the name

early Christians, like St. Jerome, thought this

of blasphemy written on the

and designating

In

called the " Eternal City," but the

Rome

would be

by tempests

foreign invasion, but

Bridget predicted that

it

would be

and sword, and the plough should pass over St.

Frances of

Rome

at

one time believed

that her intervention had arrested the impending woe, but

afterwards she had another vision of the destruction of the city.

An

English

dicted that

from the tions.

its fall

Roman

In

1

5

19

monk

century pre-

of the fourteenth

would coincide with a general separation Church, on account of

its

gross corrup-

an English prophecy was

brought to

Venice, that Charles V., then just elected Emperor, would


PROPHECIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA. subdue

nations,

all

and reduce the Mahometans

tion to the cross, but

would

a prophecy

in spirit,

years

fulfilled

first

burn

when Rome was taken by

later,

to subjec-

Rome and

though not his

99

Florence

;

in letter, eight

Rome had

army.

already been identified with the Babylon of the Apocalypse,

and

is

indeed called Babylon by St. Peter, and there were

prophecies as early as the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries of the seat of the

Papacy being removed elsewhere, while

Rome, the adulterous

The whole found

Jesuit

city,

was given over to destruction.

Order

accepted

Lapide.

Prophets,

necessarily to

be

their predictions.

it

which

is

and Cornelius a

must be observed, were not supposed

saints,

St.

view,

this

in writers like Bellarmine, Suarez,

nor were saints always right

Bernard was unfortunate

in

in his pro-

mises of a victorious crusade, and the announcement of St.

old,

Vincent Ferrer, that Antichrist was already nine years

and would appear shortly

borne out by the event.

St.

after his

death,

was not

Catherine of Siena was equally

at fault in ^her predictions of a vast crusade of the

whole of

Europe, and of a thorough reformation of the Church.

who spoke

the other hand, St. Bridget, ruin of the

Church and the rents

On

of the approaching

in its walls,

had her words

Indeed two conflicting streams

verified in the Reformation.

of prophecy, one of the downfall, the other of the cleansing

and restoration of the Church, arising from a

common

sense of the urgent need of reform, permeate the literature

of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. find expression in the all

sides the conviction prevailed that a free

Council,

superior

machinery

to

Both

feelings

burning words of Savonarola.

the

On

QEcumenical

Pope, was the only available

for effecting the

necessary reforms.

Cardinal


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

loo

Nicholas of Cusa predicted that the Church would sink deeper,

still

till

seemed to be

it

One

emerge triumphant.

lost,

but would again

of the earliest of these stern

censors of hierarchical and Papal corruptions was St. Hilde-

garde of Bingen on the Rhine, whose prophecies were

examined and solemnly approved

at a large Council assem-

She was consulted by three

bled under Eugenius III.

Popes, two Emperors, and innumerable bishops and abbots.

Yet she was not

afraid

to predict, in the true spirit of

Teutonic indignation against prelatical greed and ambition, peoples would strip the Papacy of

that princes and

power because of countries would

reject

would have only rule.

no

St.

it

its

its

some

and that the Popes

altogether,

Rome and

environs

under their

left

Bridget of Sweden in the fourteenth century was

outspoken than

less

the

faithlessness to its trust, that

its

St.

Catherine of Siena in denouncing

judgment of God on the crimes of Popes and Cardinals,

some of whom she described

as " like unto Lucifer,

unjust than Pilate, more cruel than Judas,

more

more abominable

than the Jews," while she roundly declared several previous

Popes

had a

Her namesake,

to be in hell.

the Irish St. Bridget,

vision seven centuries earlier not very flattering to her

countrymen, but which subsequent history cannot be said "

to have disproved.

She inquired

what Christian land were most showed her a land

in the

good angel, Of '

damned

?

The angel

'

west part of the world [Ireland].

She inquired the cause why. is

of her

souls

The

angel said, for there

most continual war, root of hate and envy, and of vices

contrary to charity saved."

;

and without charity souls cannot be

^

1

Froudc's History of Englajid,

vol.

ii.

p. 248.


PROPHECIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA. Passing

over

several

pausing to note that

in

kindred

and

predictions,

Roger Bacon we have the

of the Pastor Angelicus, destined to reform

lor

only

first

hint

abuses, so

all

often promised since, but so long in appearing,

we come

to the striking series of " Joachimite " prophecies, so called

from the Abbot Joachim, who founded a monastic congregation in Calabria towards the century.

He,

what God had revealed

to

him

and many French and English

in

after his death

Honorius

Richard

;

would hereafter

sit

of England,

III. affirmed his

that Antichrist

He

;

orthodoxy,

and number-

in Calabria,

miracles were ascribed to him.

King and bishops

I.

prelates, sought his advice

and he was venerated as a saint less

twelfth

Three Popes exhorted him not to keep back

his lifetime.

and

of the

close

was much honoured

like St. Hildegarde,

told the English

was already born, and

on the Papal throne

;

and, indeed, the

profound corruption of the Church through the poisonous influence of the dictions.

Roman

Curia was the keynote of his pre-

These were multiplied

after his

death by the

publication of spurious works in his name, issuing from the " Spirituals," as

they were called,

in

the Franciscan Order,

and thus a Joachimist school came to be formed. characteristic principle

three periods

was the

Its

distinction of history into

the Old Testament period, or that of the

:

Father, before Christianity, the Petrine period

Testament period, or that of the Son, up to Pauline period

;

;

the

New

A.D, 1250, the

and that of the Holy Ghost,

after 1250,

The Church, through the had been made into a brothel and

the Johannean period.

evil rule

of the Popes,

a den of

thieves, the people

pastors,

and

were deceived and corrupted by their

Rome was

the very centre and focus of

all


ZZ2

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY .AND EICGRAPHY.

impurit}-

and corruption

in

Christendom, and was to be

overthrown by the Saracens and the German Empire. Then

would come the conversion of the heathen and the Jews,

and the restoration of the Church by means of a new Order This teaching was maintained for a long

of Eremites.

time in the Franciscan Order, and " Spirituals " suffered death or

XXII. in consequence of it. attributed to Joachim,

Curia should

itself

had

many hundreds

of the

imprisonment under John

The commentar)^ on

Jeremiah,

foretold long before that " the

be murdered as

had murdered others";

it

and as Boniface VIII.. the author of the

Unam

had been openly denounced as "a new

Lucifer," for his

Sauctam,

tjTanny and unchastity, the fate of the uncompromising prophets excites less wonder than regret. Rienzi,

and

his Laureate, Petrarch,

political aspirations

dictions of the

an ardent

Pafa

The

tribune

combined with their

faith in the Joachimist pre-

A/i^clicus

and the coming age of the

Holy Ghost.

The

tone of prophecy from the fourteenth centur}' to

the Reformation

Abbot Joachim. already referred

is

not very different from that of the

St. to,

Bridget and St, Catherine of Siena,

are the great xisionaries of the period

their denunciations are not less sharp than his,

him, they were honoured Popes.

St.

by

and

yet, like

theologians. Cardinals,

Pope should be confined

to the

Leonine

cit>'

—a prediction

which Italians of the present day have naturally not gotten.

and

Bridget prophesied that the sovereignty- of the

The

nearer

we approach

the

for-

outbreak of the

Reformation, the more threatening becomes the language of these prophets.

had declared on

In a similar

his deathbed, in

spirit

Bishop Grostete

1253, that only

bv

fire


PROPHECIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.

103

and sword could the maladies of the Church be healed, and Machiavelli did but repeat the same sentiment in other

words when he said that either ruin or

Roman

must overtake the

Church.

bitter chastisement

It

must

suffice

here

to note in passing the unique grandeur of the character

and position of Savonarola, whose it

was nothing more

— was

visions of the future glory of the

foresight

political

seldom at

fault,

Church

closes his record of Christian Prophecies, from

examples are mostly taken.

would well repay the

The

prophecies.

subject

which these

is

one which

closer study of historians.

has been said of a nation's ballads its

await their

still

With the Reformation Dr. DoUinger

adequate fulfilment.

true of

is

If men's characters

clearly exhibited in their

hopes and

may

And

fears.

putting aside supernatural claims, which is

be judged

we

least as

prediction,

are not here

the record of the highest aspirations

or the darkest anxieties of a nation or a particular stage of

What

perhaps even more

from what they love to remember, they are at

concerned with,

— if

while his

its

existence.

Church

at

any


XIII.

LATER CHRISTIAN PROPHECIES.

The

treatise

by Dr. Dollinger noticed

Das Prophetenthum first

in the last essay.

in der chvistlichen Zeit, ranges from the

age of the Church to the Reformation.

But

it

must

not be supposed that the passion for peering curiously into the future, which seems to be an ineradicable instinct of

humanity, has died out since then, or that the demand has

The

ceased to create a supply.

second-sight of which Sir

Walter Scott has told us so much, and many of the best authenticated dreams and ghost-stories

hope

to gain

some

further

of the Psychical Society desire of

mankind

bility of gratifying " prophet,"

— bear

employed

for

in

ordinary apprehension to be

seer, or foreteller

prophet

so largely

and poet, and

employed

of the future,

in

the

Testament, does not,

strictly speaking,

of coming events at

all.

"

one who speaks

a is

Greek term

the Septuagint and the

New

it,

is

In Latin the same word

teller

translate

their robust in the possi-

Indeed the very use of the word

it.

which has come

significant indication of this.

'7Tpo(f)i]Tr]s,

and to

former disappointments,

simply identified with

may

witness to the persistent

to pierce the veil,

faith, in spite of all

— of which we

knowledge through the labours

mean

a fore-

Liddell and Scott rightly for another,"

and especially


LATER CHRISTIAN PROPHECIES. "

one who speaks

as

its

New

"

— an

This

is

" interpreter "

also, of course, its

The Jewish Prophets were

or preachers to the people

phetic" function, as

give

;

Old Testament

the interpreters of God's their predictive or " pro-

we have come

word, was entirely subordinate to

man

— and

" an interpreter of Scripture,

Testament sense

a preacher." sense. will,

God

for

105

to limit the sense of the this.

When

Dr.

New-

styled on'e of his early Anglican works Lectures on the

Prophetical Office of the Church, he was as accurate as he

always

is

in his choice of

But there can be

language.

little

doubt that nine-tenths of ordinary Christians, and probably a good

many

Christian ministers,

if

they were asked

who

the Prophets were, would reply at once, without any hesitation, that

they were persons who foretold future events

completely has that one incident of the

office

discharged in the Jewish Church obscured of their other functions

in

the

;

so

which they recognition

all

And

popular mind.

the

enormous multiplication of the prophets of Baal who "with one mouth declared " that is, predicted " good things

unto the king," but v/ho do not seem to have greatly concerned themselves about any moral or spiritual instruction,

shows that

this one-sided estimate of the prophetic office is

by no means of merely modern growth. It

has been observed that the stream of Christian pro-

phecy by no means' dried up there are, moreover, still

many

at

the Reformation, while

predictions of an earlier date

eagerly canvassed, as being unfulfilled, or only partially

fulfilled.

Many

of these,

which were not long ago popular

amongst Legitimist and Ultramontane

had reference

to a Monarchafortis,

identified with

the

First

or

circles

who was

in

at

France,

one time

Second Napoleon, and was


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

io6

afterwards supposed to be the Count of Chambord, though

the circumstance of his being sometimes described as

young prince

"

is

a

rather complicated that apphcation latterly.

With the great King was

who

"

usually associated a great Pope,

called in the prophetical catalogue ascribed to St.

Malachy, which Angelicus.

is

really

The monk

about three centuries

of Orval,

who

old,

Pastor

died in the middle of

the sixteenth century, and whose written prophecies were

buried with him, but were dug up in 1793, and afterwards

published

now

it is

—whether

with or without being tampered with

impossible to say

— adds some further —whom

According to him, three great Kings

particulars.

the Times'

Correspondent some years ago specified as the Czar, the

King of England, and a German Prince

— are

to be con-

verted to Catholicism, and two island nations also are to

embrace the true

faith.

This

is

indeed a favourite topic of

these later seers, and a famous vision, said to have been related

by Edward

the Confessor on his deathbed,

He

preted in the same sense. tree,

representing England, cut

tance of three furlongs from

This

was replaced. of

is

saw,

explained to refer to the separation for the space of

Still

more elaborate was the prophecy of lived in the twelfth century,

distant ages the Christian

St.

" in

nations would very generally

destructive, vast multitudes cities

Hildegarde,

and foretold that

depart from the fear of God, wars would

many

three

speedy conversion.

its

who

the sword, and

inter-

down and moved to a disown root, after which it

and therefore to point to

become more

is

are told, a green

its

England from Catholic unity

centuries,

we

be destroyed

;

increase

and

would perish by but, at last,

man-

kind, purified through heavy tribulations, would return to


LATER CHRISTIAN PROPHECIES. the practice of the laws of as so often it

happens

no doubt lends

in

The

Holy Church."

such cases,

itself readily to

107

language,

sufficiently vague,

is

but

the antecedents and out-

break of the Reformation and the religious wars which followed in

its

The prophetess goes on

wake.

to describe

the reign of righteousness and peace which shall follow the

repentance of the nations and usher

Second Advent,

in the

partly in language derived from Isaiah, and the conversion

A

of the Jews.

century and a half later

St.

Gertrude

expatiated in more general terms on the glory reserved for the latter days of the Church. predictions of the hermit

our

own

day,

who

Far more

explicit are the

Bartholomew Holtzhauser, nearer

foretold in detail the reunion of Greeks

and Latins, the return of England and Germany to Catholic unity, the fall of the Turkish Empire,

and unbelief

shall

general peace, while to perfection,

There are strange

here, taken

De

own

all arts

and sciences

shall

full

be brought

accomplishment."

stories of predictions of the

Garendon Park,

Unity of Christendom.

in

be given

1857 by the late Mr.

Leicestershire,

He was

kind current

may

days, of which a specimen

from a work published

Lisle of

" all idolatry

and the promises of the inspired Prophets of

the Old Testament shall receive their

even in our

and that

be rooted out, and the nations enjoy a

on the Future

travelling in

Wales

at the

time, and, in the course of conversation with the priest at

whose chapel he had been hearing mass, asked him whether he thought England would ever again become Catholic

The good

:

he priest said with much believed it would. And he added a most remarkable history that tended to confirm his opinion. About a hundred and fifty years before that time there was a saintly Catholic gardener in that very town, who was a man of extraordinary earnestness that


io8

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

•

and prayer indeed his life was one continued prayer, and next to his own sanctification no object occupied so prominent a place in his multiplied petitions to the throne of grace as the return of his own dear country England to virtue

;

the unity of the Catholic Church. One morning, three years before his happy death, he had received the holy communion, and all at once he was rapt in spirit, and Jesus, whom in the Sacrament of His love he had just received, manifested Himself to His humble servant, and with a sweet and gracious aspect said to him, " My son, I have heard your prayer so often poured out before me I At these words, the will have mercy upon England." poor gardener, overwhelmed with gratitude, exclaimed " When, Lord, oh " Not now," replied our when " Saviour " but when England shall build as many churches as she destroyed at the change of religion, and when she shall restore and beautify the remainder." ;

:

.-'

!

;

The

narrator of the tale proceeds to quote a contemporary

authority to the effect that about three thousand churches

had then

(in

1857) been restored, and nearly two thousand

new churches century, and relation

The

built,

in

Great Britain during the present

he considers that there

between the

facts

is

" a

mysterious

and the prediction."

prophecies already mentioned chiefly concern the

fortunes of the Church, and indeed there are

mediaeval predictions,

and nuns, which have not a

religious bearing,

often include political references also,

Rome, the home both of an sovereignty,

is

concerned.

tions about Paris,

few of the

many of which emanated from monks though they

and especially where

ecclesiastical

and a

civil

There are also many vaticina-

which was looked on as the second centre

many years ago seemed if we may credit high family in France who

of Latin Christendom, and these not to be

still

exerting a perceptible influence,

statements as to personages of

were then said to be holding aloof from the capital

at the


LATER CHRISTIAN PROPHECIES. moment, from dread of being involved Still more frequent, as is

destruction.

about

predictions authorities,

is

It

would be interesting

many modern and centuries, as

to

examine how

may be

far

traced to

Christian apologists of the early

well known, invariably recognised a genuine

is

prophetic element in

Paganism, as well as

and boldly appealed to

And Neander

it.

end to which

" Christianity is the

all

in

doing

development of the

But he also admits

so.

lack of critical taste or

skill,

they

Judaism,

insists that, as

religious consciousness necessarily tended," they justified in

imminent

between a Jew and a

Christian prophecies

The

a Pagan source.

its

natural, are the

who, according to some

Antichrist,

to be born of the union

Mahometan.

in

109

that,

made many

were

fully

with their mistakes,

especially in using all sorts of spurious or interpolated

writings

which

passed

under

high-sounding

mythical

names, as of the Grecian Trismegistus or the Egyptian

Thoth;- and

it

seems that Christian as well as Jewish

writers freely interpolated the Sibylline oracles themselves.

Celsus at least publicly reproached them with doing

so,

and Origen could only answer that the

earlier Sibylline

writings were also

The tendency

fabricate

of interpolations.

full

predictions and

which necessarily react on one another, spring a

common

source.

their disciples as

It

is

are

no doubt

in

in fact

knaves and

fools,

and a generation or

classification

would have

educated society as exhaustive.

still

Joanna Southcott, or

from

easy to classify the prophets and

two ago such a rough and ready passed current

to

the tendency to credit them,

There

who regard Swedenborg or even Edward Irving, as mere vulgar

persons

impostors, and their followers, past or present, as idiots or


no ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. stark mad.

But psychology and history aUke rebel against

this process of coarse rationalizing.

very doubtful

It is

any impostor ever gained a following who was not half an enthusiast, and

it

The

of fools.

certain that nine-tenths of the

is

followers in such cases are

much more

feverish hankering

may be as irrational as the any one who offers to satisfy it

futurity

to

but denunciation will do

tious,

if

at least

of enthusiasts than

knowledge of

after a

ready credence accorded is

often purely supersti-

little

to dispel a curiosity

which repeated disappointment seems wholly powerless to diminish.

was just as unreasonable

It

an excep-

to feel

tional dread about the result of the Prince of Wales's illness

on the anniversary of

his father's death,

when

sense of hopefulness

the day

and an exceptional

was over

;

yet

it

is

probable that not one in ten even of the educated classes

was altogether exempt from such a unlikely that

it

How many

selves.

feeling,

sit

if

they can help

down

start

who

belief

is

Yet

!

ladies,

who

will

this is

much more

irra-

to a prediction, not in

man

of apparently saintly

believes himself to be inspired from above.

of course

more

natural,

though not therefore

more reasonable, when the prophecy happens a surmise or a wish of our own.

perhaps a wise

politician,

by the

fact

that

to

jump with

Archbishop Laud was not

but he was certainly very far

indeed from being a visionary or a attested

from

on a journey on a Friday or

some weight

absurd, coming from a

character

And

it,

thirteen to dinner

tional than to attach itself

far

persons are there of sound digestion

and well-stored mind, and not exclusively never,

and

was shared by the Royal Family them-

he has

English Church to this day.

The

fool, as is sufficiently left

his

mark on the

late Professor

Mozley


LATER CHRISTIAN PROPHECIES. observes

:

"

That we have a Prayerbook, an Altar, even

our Episcopacy

Laud

.

.

.

itself,

we may, humanly

speaking, thank

any one of Catholic predilections can

that

belong to the English Church

Laud attached what

is

now

owing to Laud."^

is

ance to his dreams, and was not ashamed to avow the privilege of a well-regulated

mind

matters with a lofty indifference, but the privilege

may

ties, "

we

are not sure that

Man

not be too dearly purchased.

to the deduction

It is

it.

to regard all such

not only " a rational animal," as the logic manuals

and according

Yet

considered a ridiculous import-

drawn by the same authori-

a cooking animal," but he also possesses what Bishop

Butler rather unceremoniously designates "that delusive faculty

"

forward

of imagination^ which plays to the

full as

important a part in the mental development of most as the reason.

holds

is

tell us,

its

And

place, there will always

women, who

be plenty of

men and

are neither knaves nor fools, so organized as

to have a capacity for seeing visions

and a vastly greater number eager and more than half inclined 1

men

" as long as that " delusive faculty

Historical

and

and dreaming dreams, to listen to their tale,

to believe

it.

Theological Essays, vol.

i.

p. 227.


XIV.

PROPHECY OF

Under

the

title

ST.

MALACHY.

of Corona CatJiolica, and in a gorgeous

binding of scarlet and gold, Mr. Charles Kent has "offered

epigram

at the feet of the Successor of Peter" an

in fifty

many

languages, ancient and modern, and from as

differ-

ent hands, on his accession to the pontifical throne, which

he considers a suitable method of testifying reverence for the eminent virtues

The

world." is

neat,

if

and learning of the

original English stanza,

not particularly striking.

"

Ruler of the

which

is

so involved as to be rather difficult to construe

by Professor Paley,

On

classical.

be

left

critical

Sayce,

to

as

might be expected,

the greater

number of

more accomplished

subjoined,

The Latin ;

version

pure and

is

translations

linguists

to

is

the Greek,

it

must"

pronounce a

judgment, but such names as those of Professor

Max

Muller,

and Renouf may be accepted as

vouchers for the correctness of the Assyrian, Sanskrit, and Egyptian.

The English

original runs as follows

:

Through the Cross on Cross of Pius, As through Mary's Dolours Seven, Lo from Death what Life emerges, Joy from anguish, Light from Heaven. !

It will at

once be observed by connoisseurs that the two

mottoes of the late and present Pope respectively

in

St.


PROPHECY OF

worked

into this epigram,

which

Armagh,"

main object

that his

Malachy, Archbishop of to rehabihtate that curious

is

We

document, which he evidently believes to be genuine.

how

are reminded

St.

—

appears from Mr. Kent's

it

" S.

headed

is

in Ccclo

and indeed the actual words

And

occur in the Latin form. preface,

113

Crux de Cruce and Lmnen

Malachy's Prophecy are

MALACHY.

ST.

Malachy

flourished in the

half

first

of the twelfth century, and was an intimate friend of the

great

who wrote

Bernard,

St.

him

Life of

a

— which

is

hardly perhaps considered generally " to be one of his

most

says nothing at visions

St.

all

of this "most

renowned of

and prophecies attributed to heard

fact never

as Mr.

and a half

centuries

though

of,

Bernard, while

with miraculous and prophetic

friend

his

But

masterpieces."

finished

crediting

him,''

the

which was

Kent candidly admits,

after his death.

gifts,

all

It is true,

till

no doubt,

scarcely seems a sufficient explanation of this

it

long silence, that the art of printing was not invented the latter half of the fifteenth century

more had

to elapse

Prophecy of

St.

Arnold Wion, but he thinks

before

the

first

till

but a good century

;

publication

of the

Malachy by a learned French Benedictine,

in

Kent prudently rious

in

four

it

Under

1595.

these circumstances

declines to " insist

upon

its

bears a certain analogy to

Fourth Eclogue of Virgil,"

in

Mr.

authenticity," "

that myste-

which the Advent of

our Lord and His birth of a Virgin were predicted forty years before the event, and to the Sibylline acrostics. it

does, but

on that point a word

Several fresh editions century,

dedicated

and

in

1675

shall

So

be said presently.

appeared during the seventeenth

one

by permission

in

two splendid quartos was

to the reigning Pope,

Clement

X.,


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

[4

AND BIOGRAPHY.

and "formally authenticated by the notable words, con

To Mr.

licenza del siipcriori."

Kent's mind this dedication

seems to be conclusive evidence of authenticity, though he does not exactly say

A

so.

certain

Father

Jesuit

Menestrier did indeed in 1689 venture to express the

doubt as to the authenticity of the document, and

O'Hanlon

John

the' Rev.

scepticism

is

published

a Life

rendered innocuous,

if

of

Saint

But their

he reiterated that doubt.

Malacltf, in which

first

1859

in

not excusable, by the

consideration that Father Menestrier either ignored or let

us charitably hope

—was

ignorant of the fact that Pope

Clement X. had scarcely two decades before deigned accept, as Pontiff, the dedication

"

of those

quartos, in which the authenticity of the predictions

formally

Father

maintained," while

to

two splendid

O'Hanlon

was

frankly

acknowledges his regret at having been unable to obtain a sight clear,

of

"

that most remarkable publication."

X. did not go

for

Kent urges

of astounding

thinks, however,

these four, are

illustrate

It

coincidences,"

will suffice to

we may

observe,

all

invariably selected

mention

first

of which

four.

to

he

Three of

of comparatively recent

whenever

it

is

desired

to

the striking coincidences in St. Malachy's Pro-

phecy, from which are

Finally Mr.

that these Prophecies " present from

a series

date,

seems

much with Father O'Hanlon, whatever

he might have thought of the arguments.

last

It

however, that the condescending approval of Clement

It

is

only' natural

somewhat exceptional, even

be said to prove an opposite

if

rule.

to Infer that they

the exceptions cannot

These four are the

mottoes of Plus VI., Pcrcgrinus Apostolicus ; of Pius VII.,

Aquila Rapax ; of Pius IX., Crux de Cruce ; and of Leo


PROPHECY OF Lumen

XIII.,

Pope

in Ccslo.

being

first

The

who had

personage

of evidence for

pubHcation

its

—belongs

Some

history.

— and there

is

and

work on the

may

no shred

existence before the time of

its

1595

in

composition

first

its

to a vast family of visions

through the

predictions, running

little

to be Pastor Angelicus,

that St. Malachy's Prophecy, whatever

is

be the exact date of

a

is

figured in earlier vaticinations,

mentioned by Roger Bacon.

fact

Church

115

shall perceive that the fourth

after his present Holiness

this is a

and

We

MALACHY.

ST.

whole course of

years ago Dr. Dollinger published

subject, already noticed, giving copious

examples from the beginning of the Christian era to the

And

period of the Reformation. later illustrations,

human

ineradicable future.

era

coming down

It is

both

in India, as

among

confined to the Christian

all

the ancient Greeks and

Clement of Alexandria

to the Sibylline oracles Mr. long-lived,

own purpose is

In referring

testifies.

recalls the earliest,

most

these Christian pro-

all

more than questionable

discretion for

in

may have

first

of the fourteen Sibylline eight

circulation,

suggested

the

of which

we now Messianic

strangely

colouring of the Fourth Eclogue of Virgil.

But what

the origin of the Sibylline books, so far as

it

as

to

Romans, and

of helping to authenticate St. Malachy.

very possible that the

Books formerly possess,

Kent

and most famous of

phecies, but with

It

day, of this

thus a special gift of prophecy was attributed

;

virgins,

his

own

prying curiously into the

instinct for

not of course at

there have been various

to our

yet clearly ascertained

}

The

earliest

is

has been

of them was

probably composed by an Alexandrian Jew, at the beginning of the second century, B.C.

;

it

closes with predictions I 2


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

ii6

of the future coming of the Messiah, borrowed from Old

Testament prophecies, and may have become known to

The second and

Virgil.

books also betray their

third

Jewish authorship, but must have been composed after the destruction of the

the end of the

Temple of Jerusalem, somewhere about century of our era. The next five

first

books are evidently of Christian composition, and are assigned

by most

critics

to

the

third

is

That

century.

fragments of the old Pagan oracles are embedded

in

them

more than probable, but they can only be regarded on

The

the whole as deliberate impostures. titles

of our Lord, to which Mr.

another on the Cross, quoted by the eighth book.

The

adopted because

it

original

Sibylline

acrostic

Kent St.

on the as

Augustine, occur

in

form seems to have been

was a known

verses.

acrostic

refers, as well

characteristic

For some

sixteen

of

the

centuries

these pretended oracles were accepted as genuine through-

out Christendom, without a shadow of a misgiving.

were habitually cited from the

first

in

They

controversy with

Pagans by the most eminent Christian Apologists and Fathers,

such

as

Tatian, Athenagoras, Justin

Martyr,

Clement of Alexandria, Lactantius, and the great Augustine himself.

Justin

Martyr ascribed the Pagan prohibition to

read them, under pain of death, to the express instigation of the devil.

Clement of Alexandria has preserved the

tradition that St. Paul advised Christians to study them.

The Emperor Constantine quoted them oration

before

the

Lactantius reproach the Pagans

with dishonesty in

in

a

solemn

Council of Nice, and both he and

— not

unjustly perhaps

seeking to discredit testimonies so

cogent against themselves.

The adoption

of the fish as


PROPHECY OF

MALACHY.

ST.

117

a sacred symbol was derived from the acrostic already mentioned, and the opening stanza of one of the grandest

hymns almost ranks

of the old Latin

the Sibylline oracles

with the inspired prophecies of the Psalter, in the famous third

of the Dies

line

missal,

though altered

expandens

The

vcxilla.

and published

Irce^

at Basle

still

some

in

first

retained in the

Roman

later versions into

by Vossius

Cnicis

books were collected

eight

and Castellio

in 1545,

about the same time pointed out that they contained passages which must be spurious. Jesuit, Possevin,

many

In the next century a

observed that there were

many

passages

purporting to be written before the time of Moses, which

must therefore have been interpolated, as the Sibyls were

known

to

have flourished at a

later date

;

but he attributed

these interpolations to the malice of Satan,

thereby to discredit the rest of the work. 1649,

^

French

who At

Protestant preacher, Blondel

ventured, for the

first

time

among

desired last,

in

by name,

Christians, to

denounce

the entire compilation as a tissue of clumsy and deliber-

And

ate forgeries.

later

at all follow, nor

is

the early Christian fathers

and the Sibylline ture of the

New

forgeries

in

Testament

does not of course for supposing, that

and controversialists did not

faith.

It

was an

uncritical age,

formed part of a whole

same ambiguous

remain to us

It

any reason

there

appeal to them in good

has established the

criticism

substantial correctness of his view.

litera-

kind, portions of which

still

the apocryphal adjuncts to both Old and e.

g. the

Preaching of Noah, the Book of

Enoch, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Apocryphal Gospels, the

Clementine Recognitions,

and

the

like,

all

spurious, though not always of fraudulent origin.

equally


ii8

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

Nor has

the fount of prophecy, as was observed before,

by any means run dry

own

to our

middle ages or even down

in the

day, and these popular predictions often deal

with secular as well as religious and ecclesiastical matters.

There

is,

whole

instance, a

for

them connected

of

series

with English history, ascribed to the mythical

which

wondered

put on record.

has

Galfridus

some of

at that

It

these predictions

Merlin,

not

is

to

— like

be

those

of St. Bridget and St. Hildegarde, which pointed to the

Reformation

— should

have

There are many, no doubt, Mr. Kent

— and

been

remarkably

fulfilled.

the present day besides

in

not exclusively

Roman

Catholics

— who

attach a more or less definite credence to this Prophecy of St.

Malachy, and whose belief would not be disturbed,

were

it

who

first

conclusively proved to have originated with those

published

that

if

to the world, at the close of the

it

They would

sixteenth century.

the Papal mottoes of the

half were

mere ingenious

rising

first

historical

Hemans

of them indeed, as Mr.

argue, plausibly enough,

above the dignity of puns

four centuries and a

applications

— many

has pointed out, hardly

in their

obvious derivation

from the family names, names of birthplaces, or heraldic devices of pontiffs

no predictive

value.

it

does not follow that the rest have

And

they would point triumphantly

to such startling congruities as those to

which Mr. Kent

some recent popes. But the modern readers this prophetic cata-

refers in the description of

circumstance that for logue carries with

it,

by necessary

implication,

an an-

nouncement of the approaching end of the world would alone give

it

a peculiar,

many minds; and

if

somewhat sombre,

believers in Dr.

Gumming

interest to

at all events


PROPHECY OF

adumbrated

De

" In

Roman

Peter),

tribulations,

have only nine

thus mysteriously

labore

solis,

et

Nauta, Flos Jloriim,

Gloria

olives.

De

Then comes

Roman Roman (or

the last persecution of the holy

Church the chair the

is

119

Ignis ardens, Religio depopulata, Fides intre-

:

viedietate luncz,

end.

to

is

whose character or destiny

pida, Pastor Angeliais, Pastor

the

MALACHY.

Leo XIII.

cannot blame them. successors,

ST.

be

shall

who

filled

by

Peter, a

shall feed the flock

amidst ^many

which being accomplished, the Seven-hilled

City shall be destroyed, and the tremendous Judge shall

As

judge the people."

the average reign of a Pope lasts

seven years only, this method of reckoning would fix the final

of

persecution

all

things

century.

of the Church and

the consummation

somewhere about the middle of the next

And

that,

we may

fairly suspect, is

the true

explanation of this sudden revival, after two centuries of oblivion, of a critical

called

Prophecy of

and devotional St.

Malachy,

strengthened by the curious

felicity

interest in the

which

is

so-

no doubt

of the designations

severally assigned to the late and the present Pope.


XV. SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.

The

Universelle

Bibliothcqiie

et

Revue

Suisse,

which

frequently contains articles of interest on various subjects, is

hardly as well In 1876

be.

it

known

in this

country as

it

deserves to

contained a very remarkable posthumous

paper of Montalembert's

— originally written for the

by

spo7idant, but declined

it,

and published

in

Corre-

accordance

with directions given by the author after his death. ^

Two

years later appeared a paper by M. Ernest Naville, on the " Social

Influence of Christianity," which does not perhaps

say anything very new difficult

well worn a theipe

simply certain

in

substance

for

it

would be

without being paradoxical on so

to be original

— but

does bring out very forcibly and

facts which,

however undeniable, are apt

the present day to be forgotten.^

writer's theological views, his historical estimate is

entitled to alike,

command

based as

it

is,

in

Whatever may be the one well

the assent of heterodox and orthodox

not on any doctrinal assumption even

of the truth of Christianity, but on a review of the course of Christian history. 1

takes as his text the concluding

See Bibliothcqjie Utiiverselle for January, February, March, April,

and May, "-

He

Ibid.,

1876, "

L'Espagne

August, 1878.

et la Liberie."


SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.

121

sentence of a paper read by M. Troplong in 1842 before the Institute of France

:

the foundation of our social

we

The

Christian philosophy It lies at

life.

though the

principles of right; and,

recognised,

"

fact

much more by

live

is

is

the root of our

not universally

than by the ideas

it

which have survived from the ruin of the Greek and

Roman

This

world."

when we

refused to be

made

centuries

And

a King,

was

this

Yet what

Church.

the result

is

moreover

question

— from

to

which

civil

the

Christ

We

.''

life

Newman

the principles

of

His

must distinguish

— which

is

not here

bearing on social and

rise.

It is

one of the most

quite true, as striking

Oxford Sermons,^ that the

characteristic of his

of influence

has given

it

out in

points

for the first

condition

the

strictly

the Christian faith as a religious system in

as

that

recollect

claimed nor exercised any political power, and

neither

three

more remarkable,

the

is

reviewer justly observes,

latter

and kind

not the direct and primary object of the

is

Gospel, which addresses itself to the spiritual nature and

needs of man.

always

done

far

As M.

But

more

in the

almost

is

are

"

Christian

satirical as

and the policy of nevertheless.

It

also true that Christianity has

borrow an untranslatable phrase

world than

Naville expresses

deserved sarcasm, there

it

iv TTapipy(o, to

it

its

immediate ends.

Abstracting from faith and worship,

Such

nations."

language

sounds

applied to the character of individuals States, but

it

has a very real sense

designates the broad and radical distinc-

tion of Christian nations from,

See Pa7-ochial Sermons, Sake of the Elect." 1

fulfil

with grave, but hardly un-

vol.

^.^.,

iv.,

Buddhist or Mahometan

"The

Visible

Church

for the


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

122

How

nations.

as

we have

is

be explained

this distinction to

seen, disclaimed all temporal power.

His disciples "render to Cassar the things that were

and

God

to

disclaimer political

Yet

the things that were God's."

Christ,

.-'

He

bade

Caesar's,

in this very-

contained the secret of the great social and

is

which

revolution

destined to accomplish in

the

Christian

was

religion

In every ancient

the world.

State the temporal and spiritual were inextricably con-

founded, whether the State ruled religion, or priests ruled the

The words

State.

of Christ for ever separated the

temporal and spiritual order.

And

hence followed at once

two eventful consequences, on which our whole system of civilisation

in great

measure depends— the emancipation

of the religious conscience, and the emancipation of

By

society.

virtue of the

first "

the

as the imperishable seed of liberty " civil constraint

The

cluded.

exercised in the

influence of Christ

was therefore

society

to

by the second

;

name

of religion

is

on national as well as individual

If

all

ex-

and of His Church on But

be "purely moral."

moral influence has produced the most momentous

consist

civil

word of Christ abides

this

effects

In what does

life.

it

.''

we come

God

to analyse the great law of love to

and our neighbour, which Christ

laid

down

pendium of the whole duty of man, we main elements of obligation

find in

those which

;

com-

as the it

three

concern the

dignity of man, as distinct from the lower animals, those

of justice, and those of beneficence. illustrations

Among

which suggest themselves of the

the copious social action

of Christianity under these three heads, M. Naville selects three

typical

examples, and

it

may

be doubted

if

any


SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. better

could have been

selection

what hes most obviously on the

we have

aspects of Christianity,

Taking

made.

surface, the

a striking confession cited

engrafted virtue of the forces which had

He

priests

life

was

endeavour to put new wine into

in the abortive

old bottles and galvanize a decaying superstition

life.

first,

beneficent

from the works of Julian the Apostate, whose absorbed

123

complained that

"

by the

destroyed

its

the negligence of our (heathen)

about the poor has suggested

the

to

impious

Galileans the notion of benevolence towards them," and he desired to recover for

piety," that

is

this

" for the progress of

im-

of the Gospel,

ism had no pity the sick, and

Paganism the advantages which

had gained

active beneficence

"

for the

Of

course he

unhappy, the

him that hath no

hospitals in ante-Christian times.

There were no

Lives that were useless

Naville observes, has even been

The

blamed

for preserving the lives of feeble children

old men.

We

a return

to the

fashion

among

is

Gospel, as for its care

and worn out

have lately heard ominous suggestions of

more

drastic

methods of treatment

in

the nations of antiquity, under the pretty

sobriquet of " euthanasia." there

Pagan-

suffering, the feeble,

helper."

to the State were not worth preserving.

M.

failed.

It

is

curious to observe

how

hardly a touch in classical poetry of that love for

childhood, and tender reminiscence of their

own

childish

days, which hardly a single Christian poet fails to exhibit.

The

reviewer quotes an interesting passage from Gratry's

works, in which he

tells

unbelieving or sceptical to take charge of

us that he has often advised

young men who consulted him

some poor

family, and that they have

always come to the same conclusion

;

"

no progressive


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

124

moral

prosperity without

no

progress,

moral

progress

This charitable influence of

without religious progress."

the Gospel then has passed into the manners and even the legislation of

But there that

Justice

justice.

is

Christian States.

all

something which comes before charity, and

is

was recognised

by Pagan philosophy, but

virtue

in the institutions of

deal with

it

How

She could not suppress

}

it,

for she neither

and the

than before.

result

was

to

make

it

was

Spartacus not

against Christian ethics to preach revolt.

long before had headed a revolt of

critical

the Church

did

claimed any temporal power, and

possessed nor

slaves,

cardinal

a

Take one

every Pagan State.

example, the system of slavery.

as

was grossly outraged

it

seventy thousand

their condition

worse

But Christianity enforced principles which

sapped the foundation of the whole system of slavery. It

proclaimed, for the

bility

and

slaves are men,

of

first

time

history, the responsi-

in

and therefore the true dignity of man;

human

men

all

are brothers.

personality must have

revelation on

the

first

taught that

it

The

sacredness

come almost

Christian converts.

Church merely proclaim an abstract

principle.

as a

Nor

new

did the

She bound

on her own members the obligation of carrying out that principle

to

its

legitimate

results.

The master who

seduced a slave was obliged to marry her, and the master

who

ill-treated a slave

was excommunicated.

Slaves were

forbidden to obey their masters in disobedience

to

the

law of God.

Christian slaves received the Eucharist, while

their masters,

if

A

penitents or catechumens, were excluded.

slave could be ordained,

and he thereby became the

superior of his master in the Church.

The emancipation


SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.

And

of slaves was encouraged and largely practised. gradually, as the Christian spirit produced

its

125

natural

slavery was softened, modified, and transformed,

till

almost disappeared from Western Europe. There

thus

fruits, it

had

indeed

is

a darker side to the picture to be seen in the revival of slavery in the fifteenth century,

among

first

the Portuguese

and then among the other nations of Europe.

Hardly a But as

century ago negroes were publicly sold in Paris. the

Mahometans had

suggested this infamous

first

to the Portuguese, so

it

was the

conscience which eventually put in

it

traffic

revolt of the Christian

In America and

down.

Russia that work has been accomplished under our

own

America the protest came from the Quakers.

In

eyes.

In England at an earlier date the work was done by " positive Christians " like

And

Wilberforce and Buxton.

the Russian imperial manifesto of February 1861 closes

with an exhortation to " the pious and faithful people to sign their

brows with the

ours to call first

down

labour."

free

cross,

and join

the blessing of the If

it

is

their prayers with

Most High on

century took part in the work, and that there of the far to

Convention liberating seek.

"The

their

objected that the eighteenth

slaves,

is

a decree

the answer

Christian tradition

is

not

had formed the

eighteenth century," and in labouring for the emancipa-

philosophers were serving the cause of

tion of slaves

its

Christianity.

And, while abolished throughout Christian

nations,

slavery

Mahometans.

still

slaves for their hard

captured in Africa, every one

who

survives

Persians,

work and and,

in

all

Arabians,

its

and

horrors

among

Turks

require

their harems.

They

are

according to Livingstone, for

arrives at the slave

market four or

five at


AND BIOGRAPHY.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

126

on the road

least die

the process.

in

auspices of the

A

;

they are mutilated, and often killed

Society has

these horrors, which owes tions

On

been formed under the to put an end to

King of the Belgians its

origin to the vigorous exer-

and appeals of the Christian missionary, Livingstone.

M. Naville

this

justly remarks

:

Livingstone was an English Protestant missionary. Let us seize the opportunity of signalizing the accord of the two great branches of Western Christianity on the question On August i, 1838, by virtue of an Act of of slavery. the British Parliament, the sun in rising on the English On November 3, 1839, Antilles shone only on freemen. a Bull of Pope Gregory XVL, recalling the efforts of his predecessors in favour of the slaves, confirmed and completed their decisions by pronouncing in a definitive and solemn manner the absolute condemnation of slavery in all its

forms.

From

principle

great

justice let us pass to the third

enunciated by Christianity, the rights of the individual conscience and

true

dignity of man.

trated under one aspect,

It

may

be

illus-

by contrasting the moral action

of the old Attic drama and of Shakespeare, though both alike,

but in a manner wholly diverse, maintain the great

principle of retribution (hpaa-avri 'na^elv). familiar

example may

principle

to

Rome

striking

suffice to

One

was appreciated

in

the ancient world.

can forget what

is

perhaps

monument

— the

crucial

remind us how

its

Colosseum.

No

an

effort

to our

imagination

to

visitor

grandest and most

And

few can

the Colosseum without thinking of the gladiators. is

and

far this

realise

at

visit

But

it

once the

hideous atrocity and the unnatural popularity of those ghastly spectacles. life,

Not content with witnessing them

wealthy Romans would leave large sums by

in

will for


SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. gladiatorial contests to

honour

Schmidt records two cases of one

all

the

young men

their

memory after death. who bequeathed,

rich citizens

in his establishment, the other all

From Rome

his beautiful slave girls, for these combats.

the custom spread

127

over Italy, and gladiatorial

were introduced between the courses of a banquet,

contests like the

performance of a band, for the amusement of the guests.

And

be

this,

it

remembered, not among a barbarous, but a

who could appreciate the poetry who had brought the fine arts and

highly civilised people, of Virgil and Horace,

the tactics of mihtary organization to a rare degree of perfection,

and from

whom we

have inherited the science of

Yet delicate and high-born ladies vied with each

law.

other in their frantic enjoyment of these hideous exhibitions of " the gladiator pale for their pleasure ", writhing in his last agonies of

Not only would Emperor Commodus himself

groans and blood.

a worthless wretch like the

" the

descend into the arena, but

good Titus

"

reserved his

Jewish captives for the same horrible pastime. startling

passage

in

the

which shows the hold

He

tells

us

how

it

Confessions

had on the

his friend Alypius,

There

Roman

is

a

Augustine

of St.

imagination.

who had

a horror of

the circus, and had resolved never to approach

it,

was one

day almost forced by

his

companions to accompany them

to a gladiatorial show,

and

at first kept his eyes obstinately

shut,

but at last the shouts from 80,000 spectators so

excited

him

that he could

as he gazed, he

no longer contain himself, and,

became intoxicated with the sanguinary

delight, in spite of himself.

retired at last burning with a

And how was

this

He

shouted, he raved, he

mad

abomination

desire to finally

come put

again.

down

}


I2S

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

Christian

liad vainly forbidden

Emperors

it,

and nearly a

century after the conversion of Constantine the Colosseum still

recked with gladiators' blood.

He was

the combatants.

first

of

at the

into the arena to separate

moment, flung himself

critical

But on the

monk named Telemachus,

January, 404, a young

instantly

hacked to pieces amid

the howls of the furious spectators balked of their enter-

tainment, but he had done his work; his blood was the

sands of the amphitheatre.

last that stained the

These examples are enough

Nor

ence of Christianity.

shortcomings or

condemnation

is

sins just,

of

but

is

to establish the it

any reply

Christians.

Their

homage

sanctity of the doctrine they are

to the

influ-

very severity renders

individual its

moral

to point to the

grievously dishonoured in their

lives.

felt

And

to have so

same may

the

be said of the persecutions which stain the annals of the Church.

Christian spirit

They

are

in

direct

of the

violation

of Christianity, and recall the old Pagan confusion

between the things of Caesar and the things of God,

which the Founder of Christianity so emphatically con-

The Massacre

demned.

of St. Bartholomew, the dragon-

nades of Louis XIV., and the Republican noyades, alike illustrate the saying of Christ that " those

the sword

shall

perish

completely the true institutions

entirely

by the sword."

spirit of Christianity

And

who sought

more

and customs of Christian nations, the more

The worst

Church have been those of her own household, to serve her cause

by the weapons

their

forbade them to borrow from her assailants. points,

the

penetrates the

such contradictions will disappear.

foes of the

all

who take

and especially

in his

exposition of the

In

Master

many

new teaching


SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. of Christianity as to the dignity

— which

and responsibility of man

would of course bear a much

detailed treatment

knowing

ently without

Dollinger

— M, Naville

in his

it,

fuller

and moi"e

has closely, though appar-

followed the line taken by Dr.

work on the Apostolic Age.

incidentally throws a

129

good deal of

light

His

article

on a question often

raised in the present day, as to the bearing of Christian belief

on morality, but that

upon

here.

lion

It

sua poma

is

must

is

too wide a question to enter

suffice for the present to

the proper description of

remark that

many

excellences

which are sometimes attributed to a non-Christian or even to an anti-Christian source.

The

effects of Christianity are

not to be looked for always or exclusively

in its

nominal

more or

less

closely to adhere, whether they will or no, to those

who

professors, while their antecedents cannot fail

have renounced

it.


XVI.

PENAL LAWS AGAINST HERESY.

One

of the

many

growing out of

collateral questions

by Mr. Gladstone some years ago

the controversy stirred

about the Vatican Decrees concerns the history of persecution, or of penal legislation against heresy, during the

Christian era.

Dr.

Newman

indeed, as an argiunentuni

has shown conclusively

ad honiineni,

telling points in his Letter to the if "

are preserved in the Encyclical

— and

one of the most

Duke of Norfolk

Empire "

the traditions of the old

it is

in religious

— that,

matters

and Syllabus of Pius IX.

they have also been preserved in the general system of

European

The

civilisation,

Puritans and

testifies,

and

in particular

among

ourselves.

Scotch Presbyterians, as Mr. Buckle

held these principles quite as firmly as the school

of Laud, and they have survived in Blackstone, and in the

theory

our

if

own

not the practice of day.

Christianity

Enghsh jurisprudence down is still

officially

the law of the land, and within living

had a very

practical meaning.

to

declared to be

memory

the phrase

Those who are shocked

at

the enunciation of the principle in Papal manifestoes are

shocked at witnessing grandfathers."

Dr.

"

the words, ways, and works of their

Newman

gives various illustrations of

the actual recognition of this system in quite recent times, and a writer so

England down

little in

to

harmony with


PENAL LAWS AGAINST HERESY. him

as Sir Fitzjames Stephen admits that he

quite right

is

In some shape or other, though

in his facts.

131

in

very vari-

ous methods and degrees, the punishment of heresy has existed in Europe for fifteen hundred years that it

is,

the

Empire became

Christian.

some

sense, the

also true that, in

is

At

Roman

a

is

maxim

work of the very highest authority,

Pontifical, a

is

Ecdcsia ab-

of the canon law, and in the

the Bishop, in delivering over a secular judge,

condemned

heretic to the

directed efficaciter et ex corde et

stantid to intercede that he

death or mutilation,

since,

same time

Church has always

disclaimed the responsibility of persecution. horrct a sanguine

— ever

the

in the

may

omni

in-

not be punished with

following prescribed form

:

Domine Judex, rogamus vos cum omni affectu, quo possumus, ut amore Dei, pietatis et misericordia^ intuitu, et nostrorum interventu precaminum, miserrimo huic nullum mortis vel mutilationis periculum inferatis. It

is

often said

—but, as —that

perfect accuracy

will presently appear,

this

with very im-

only makes matters worse by

adding hypocrisy to cruelty, and that the

severities

which

the Church thus affects to deprecate were in reality her

own work, and

at a

word from

would have disappeared. persecution

is

her,

And

enough laid down in the Bull Unam some modern Ultramontanes regard as

clearly

Sanctam, which

Bishop Doyle denied

in

his

had any

at

all,

infallible,

though the

letter to

Lord Liverpool that

inasmuch

as, "

it

late

it

so far from being received

force

by the Church,

is

there expressly laid

that there are two swords in the

power of the Church,

was violently opposed."

down

which was never spoken,

no doubt the principle of

For

it

by the

the spiritual and material, the one to be used

K

2


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

J3'-

Church, the other /^r the Church, sed ad mitipn

And

saccrdotis.

Indeed Boniface

and death.

Bull, ruled that

secular arm,

et patientiam

the sword must imply the power of

Bishops might surrender criminals to the

knowing that the intercession

not be attended to

;

and

this ruling

for

mercy would

was quite

in

harmony

Nor

with the general opinion of the .fourteenth century.

would

it

be

judge the sentiment of that age by the

fair to

Heresy was then

habits and circumstances of our own.

the

full

as

much an outrage on

of right and selves,

wrong

as

in

to

the acknowledged standard

Atheism or blasphemy among our-

both of which are

Mormonism

or

life

the author of the

VIII.,

still

punishable by English law,

The

the United States.

Lollards

in

England and the Albigenses on the Continent were looked on with the sort of feeling now entertained in respectable

and

religious society

towards Mr. Bradlaugh and his

with this difference, that in those of the received belief

was

far

"

ages of faith

when

in

1484 went so far as to excommunicate six

sentence of the Inquisitors,

as a

the strictest

make some allowance

chances of involuntary error or ignorance.

who delayed more than

allies;

a denial

more keenly resented

crime of the deepest dye than in days religionists feel obliged to

"

for

the

Innocent VIII. all

magistrates

days to carry out the capital

who

nevertheless

were

still

obliged to use the form of intercession prescribed in the Pontifical.

But

it

would be a great mistake to suppose

that the forcible suppression of heresy had been from the first

a recognised principle in the Catholic Church, or that

the practice was suffered to take root without protest from the most orthodox and influential quarters. The language of the

Roman

Pontifical represents

a

genuine tradition,


PENAL LAWS AGAINST HERESY. though

had

it

centuries

for

A

desuetude.

into

fallen

133

glance at the original introduction of capital punishment for heresy will serve to illustrate this.

Sir Fitzjames

Stephen asserts that penal laws against on the conversion of the Empire,

heretics followed close

and to a secular

certain extent this

power went

is

But so

true.

beyond giving

far as the

effect

civil

spiritual sentences of Councils, in the deposition of

and the tain

action

like, its

was

for

some time of

a very uncer-

and spasmodic kind, and was exerted, to say the

quite as

much

The almost

Athanasius at the hands

lifelong persecution of is

ample of the execution of worthy that

may

it

a case in point.

heretics

is

in

every

put forward by those

Two

who

chief pleas are

that

or

Catholics

;

it is

power was alone responsible

— as

moment commonly

sometimes alleged

is

urged that

for the proin

excuse of

wholesale torturing and hanging of

—heresy was

ment of treason

or

trines of Wicliffe

ex-

condemning the conduct

of ecclesiastical authority in former ages

Elizabeth's

first

so note-

shrink alike from defending per-

secution in the abstract and from

cedure,

The way

be worth while to dwell for a

upon the circumstances.

either the civil

least,

heresy as of Catholicism.

in the interests of

of Arianizing Emperors

the

to

Bishops

Roman

merely the cloak or the accompani-

some other heinous

and Huss,

crime.

for instance,

The doc-

were notoriously

dangerous to the State, and Dr. Maitland has shown that a similar excuse crusade.

Now

may

be pleaded for the Albigensian

both these explanations

may

be alleged,

the former with unquestionable justice, in the case of the Priscillianists,

doxy.

The

who were

the

first

to suffer death for hetero-

facts are briefly these

:

— In

380 the Synod of


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

134

Saragossa condemned and excommunicated Priscillian and his adherents,

who taught

a kind of Gnosticism, and the

Bishops Idacius and Ithacius procured an Imperial rescript

banishment from Spain, which

for their

contrived, by bribing the Court

Upon

this Ithacius

who had

mus,

to

however they get rescinded.

betook himself to the Emperor Maxi-

usurped

just

the

supreme

power,

and

himself at Treves, and Priscillian was sum-

established

moned

officials, to

answer before a new Synod at Bordeaux.

He

came, but forestalled his sentence by an appeal to the

Emperor, and to

this

appeal to the secular power

ecclesiastical

all

internal discipline

became

precedent

—was

in

— contrary

questions of

allowed by Ithacius,

faith

who

his accuser before the Imperial tribunal.

or

himself

But here

Martin of Tours, one of the saintliest and most influ-

St.

ential first

men

of his age, appeared

upon the scene, protesting

indeed against the gross and unprecedented

breach

of ecclesiastical discipline, but also vehemently deprecating

the infliction of

civil

punishment on the

length obtained a promise from lives

;

but as soon as he had

left

He

heretics.

Maximus

at

to spare their

Treves the persecuting

Bishops renewed their importunities, and the Emperor had Priscillian is

to

and several of

to be observed that

Pope

Siricius

his

But

adherents beheaded.

he took pains to explain,

in

it

writing

on the subject, that these " Manichaeans

"

were not put to death simply for heresy, but for the practice ties,

and encouragement of the most hideous impuri-

of which

torture

— on

they had been convicted

their

own

confession.

— perhaps

under

The explanation was

not deemed satisfactory, for a solemn protest against the

whole proceedings was entered by

Siricius,

St.

Ambrose,


PENAL LAWS AGAINST HERESY. and two habits

Italian

Councils.

Ithacius, a

man

and insolent temper, was deposed

municated, and when

135

of luxurious

and

excom-

Ambrose afterwards came to hold communion with Maximus.

St.

Treves, he refused to

Martin himself, on his return to Treves

order to inter-

in

cede with the Emperor for some political offenders, would

communion with

not hold

only yielded this point at

him

the persecuting Bishops, and

last,

as the condition of inducing

whom

to recall the military officers

Spain with a commission to put sufficiently

he had sent into

heretics to death

all

—

alarming measure, as a pale face and peculiar

dress were the tests of heresy adopted

by the

To

soldiers.

Martin also Maximus had represented the executions as crimes within the cognisance of

inflicted

for

courts.

Fifty

years

later

apologetic tone to this still

Leo the Great

earliest

the

refers

civil

in

an

sanguinary persecution,

however on the assumption that the doctrines of the were as utterly subversive of morality as had

Priscillianists

been alleged

;

and

monly reported

worth noting that they were com-

is

it

to be a

Manichsean

sect.

For the Mani-

chaeans " had a singular power of exciting animosity," as Sir Fitzjames

Stephen justly observes, though he omits to

give the reason, which in

one of

his extracts

they are described as tiam pervenerint." Confessions that

is

however pretty

men

" qui

We may the

clearly indicated

from the Code of Justinian, where

charges

ad

infer

imam from

against

scelerum nequiSt.

them

Augustine's

were

not

altogether without foundation. It

was towards the end of the fourteenth century,

in the

period intervening between the persecuting enactments of

Boniface VIII. and 'Innocent VIII. referred to just

now


AND BIOGRAPHY.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

[36

that a regular system of penal legislation against heresy

England, with the Act of

began

in

arrest

of heretical

5

Henry V,

somburcndo, confirmed by 2

II. for

Henry IV. de

statute of 2

1400 by the famous

Richard

the

was followed up

preachers, which

in

in

hceretico

which

1414,

authorized justices of the peace to inquire into heresies

and commit

up

These Acts 'remained

heretics.

to the time of the Reformation.

they were repealed by

after stating that

after a short revival finally repealed

in full force

Sir Fitzjames Stephen,

Edward

VI., and,

during the reign of Mary,^ were again

by Elizabeth, adds that the burning of

two Arians under James

I.

was therefore

illegal

;

and he

has since explained that the same remark applies to the burnings for heresy which unquestionably took place in the reigns of

Edward VI. and Elizabeth also— one being Cranmer played

the famous case of Joan Bocher, in which so discreditable a part

— although

these executions are not

generally supposed to have been illegal.

Serjeant Stephen

indeed expressly affirms that the writ de

Jicsretico conibii-

rendo was

and Mr. Lecky

still

in force in

fixes its repeal in 1677.

witches were burnt last

much

James

To which later

afterwards.

heresy, for

And

— whether

reign, it

must be added that

than that

execution took place in 171

years

I.'s

2, in

witchcraft

;

in

England the

Scotland ten or

was

or not the elaborate

closely

fifteen

akin

to

daemonology of

The Marian

persecution, cruel and impolitic as it was, demonemanated from the Government, not the Church it was neither inspired nor encouraged, but— so far as their power went moderated by the ecclesiastical authorities. Something will be said on this point in the essay on Gardiner. No doubt Mary's personal, and very intelligible, dislike of Cranmer and his associates had a good deal to do with it. '

strably

;


PENAL LAWS AGAINST HERESY. the

middle ages, with

evil

its

hierarchy of inaibi and

—witches were always punished

siicciibi,

was accepted

for the

crime of a compact with the

Charles

II.

entire

'37

But the Act of

devil.

abolishing capital punishment for heresy leaves

untouched the power of the Ecclesiastical Courts to

inflict,

"

not only spiritual censures, but other punishments,

extending to death,"

for " atheism,

And

schism, and other damnable doctrines and opinions." this

since

power they

still

retain,

become a dead

letter

though

it

has of course long

except as applied to

delinquents.

But to the end of Charles

very serious

reality,

being

in

not

blasphemy, heresy, or

I.'s

reign

a kind

fact

clerical it

was a

of modified

Inquisition.

There are also certain provisions of the

common and

statute law against heresy, blasphemy,

Atheism

in force, to

still

which Dr.

passage on the Encyclical acted upon within his society

and

There

is

and

refers, in

the

Letter, as having been

own memory and

giving a tone to

to the publications representing public opinion.

a curious

two writers

Newman

his

in

Newman

of

such

by

coincidence in the view taken

widely

opposite

opinions

as

Dr.

and Sir Fitzjames Stephen, not only of the

facts

but of the moral deducible from them.

The

latter sets

out by disclaiming any abstract theory about persecution,

and considers

it

perfectly natural that sincere believers in

Christianity should desire to

make

the confession of anti-

Christian opinions penal, and only proper that sincere disbelievers should either remain silent or be ready to take the

consequences of avowing their dissent.

be impossible,

in

But he holds

it

to

view of "several broad, patent, notorious

facts " of the present day, to carry out with

any consistency

or success the system of repression

existing in the

still


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

138

theory of the law, and thinks therefore that

And

be frankly and formally abandoned.

it

sketching put a short Act for the purpose.

avows himself

in

now superseded" ment of respect

the abstract

world.

in

principles

— meaning apparently such limited enforceorthodoxy as was

for

But he admits

such a system

Newman

Dr.

"an admirer of the

lately a recog-

till

nised principle of the English law courts opinion.

had better

he concludes by

to

it

and of public

be impossible to maintain

the present intellectual condition of the

No Government

could be formed on the principle

of religious unanimity, and "as a necessary consequence the whole theory of Toryism, hitherto acted upon, pieces and went the

that in centuries to

came

to

And he only hopes come some way may be found of

way

of

uniting the freedom of the

all flesh."

new system of

society with the

authority of the old without any base compromise.

can hardly be two opinions

among

thinking

There

men

as to

the practical conclusion arrived at on independent grounds

by these two

diverse authorities.

No

reasonable man, for

instance, could desire the " unequal justice" of prosecutions for coarse

and vulgar blasphemy, as such, while the

subtler,

but for that reason far more effective, ridicule of refined

and educated sceptics must inevitably go unpunished of course a further question

is

involved,

when the

sentiment of the great body of citizens

blasphemy becomes a public nuisance, in

as

is

condition of things

who

may

regret the change,

may

naturally

alleged,

The

e.

o-.,

altered

be frankly accepted even by those

and

it

need not

an unqualified condemnation of those

which

outraged, and

was

the recent prosecution of the Freethinker.

but

;

religious

have

been

in

any case involve

who upheld

thought

a policy

tolerable

or


PENAL LAWS AGAINST HERESY. expedient under very diftcrent circumstances.

probably be many, even

among

139

There

the sincerest believers

Avill

in

dogmatic creed, ready heartily to welcome the change, view of the

atrocities,

moral and intellectual

which never

the hypocrisies, and the manifold

generated by the old system,

evils

lost the original sin of its

profligate prelate

parentage from a

and an usurping Emperor.^

Murray of Maynooth,

a in

in his written

Professor

evidence delivered to

the Parliamentary Commissioners in 1854, after examining at

some length the opinions of distinguished

both

Roman

tion,

sums up with the avowal of

"the punishment of heresy, as the province

words

may

authorities,

Catholic and Protestant, on religious persecu-

of the

his

heresy,

own judgment does not

magistrate."

civil

fall

that

within

His concluding

be profitably commended to the notice of

theologians both of his

own and

other

communions

:

I wish that all parties. Catholics and Protestants, would agree together that heretics should be coerced only by the force of argument, burned only in the fire of charity, cut off only with the sword of prayer and all good works that not only temporal punishments and civil disabilities, except for civil crimes, should be abandoned, but all angry revilunchristian passions under the ings and recriminations mask of Christian zeal. For my own part " I have faith in my faith," and I believe that if we tried only the weapons which the Divine Founder of Christianity has put into our hands, we would come nearer to a united decision on that great controversy which can never be decided by the arms of worldly warfare. ;

— .

.

.

^ It may be as well to explain that this paper was in type before the Blasphemy and appearance of Sir Fitzjames Stephen's article on Blasphemous Libel," in Xhc. Fortnightly Review for March 1884, which, however, only confirms his previous argument.


XVII.

TOLERATION AND INDIFFERENTISM. It

is

frequently affirmed or assumed that toleration and

indiffercntism are

are

synonymous, or

at least correlative, terms;

other words, that those whose faith

or, in

sure

persecute

to

toleration, if

it

—

if

is

in a

somewhat

the works of Mr. Froude.

the

far as to

Roman

bound,

whenever

say that no

it

"

different

connexion,

writers,

in general,

who

in

are

have even

exclusive " religion, such as

consistency, to

has the power.

this

crops up again

Catholic, ought to be tolerated, because

common

in

it

Some modern

thorough-going advocates of toleration

gone so

an

is

constantly harping on

History of Rationalism, and

and again, though

means, while

though possibly unconscious, doubt.

Mr. Lecky, for instance, in his

unhesitating

is

the

from anything but weakness,

arises

infallible sign of real,

theme

they have

suppress

Those who speak

all

it

is

dissent

in this

way

do not usually care to argue about a point which strikes

them think

broad

as self-evident it

enough

;

or, if

any argument

to appeal to

facts of history,

is

required, they

what they would

call

and observe that the ages of

the faith

were the ages of persecution, and that toleration was the result of the

Reformation.

And

it

may be

allowed that,

on a mere prima facie view, the testimony of history does


TOLERATION AND INDIFFERENTISM. seem so

far to

be

Yet we

in their favour.

maintain, at the risk of what

may

it

and that

it

would be

shall venture to

look like a paradox, that

the half-truth they have seized upon truth,

141

is

not even half the

less inaccurate to say,

would be an exaggeration, that doubt

mother of persecution, and

though

the foster-

is

faith of tolerance.

It

is

not

true in fact that the most rigorous persecutions have been

based on religious principles, any more than that they

have served the cause of religion

means

true

;

neither

those religions which

that

is

it

by any

commonly

are

regarded as the most dogmatic and exclusive have always

been the most persecuting Here, however, rather

to

language.

is

principle

in

Of course, all

if

common

practice.

true, to

indifferentism,

as saying that a spade

confusion

to tolerate all religions

about equally

synonymous with

or in

necessary to draw a distinction, or

guard against a very

regard them as is

it

is

is

a spade.

the proper meaning of the word.

the

same thing

But then that

is

not

yet this confusion

runs through a great deal of the popular nonsense that

Thus, for instance, we saw

talked on the subject. the other day that

it

is

the

High Church

it is

it

is

stated

absurd and intolerant to deny the

orthodoxy of Churches which have no episcopate can only mean that

to

say that toleration

much

And

of

means

;

which

absurd and intolerant to maintain

doctrines of apostolic succession and

sacramental grace, for

it

follows of necessity from those

doctrines that Churches which have no succession are, so far at least,

heterodox

;

but

it

does not at

all

follow that

they ought not to be tolerated, any more than that Jews are not to be tolerated, though the broadest of Broad Churchmen

might hesitate to admit a Rabbi

to his pulpit.

Yet there


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

142

was a great deal of angry complaint not long ago about

made by some few Anglican

the frustration of an attempt

an interchange of

clergymen to establish

Dissenting preachers, and

with

pulpits

we were loudly assured

great principle of toleration was at stake.

that the

But the

question at issue was something totally different

real

— namely,

whether there are any differences worth considering between the

Church of England and the Nonconformist bodies

To

which have separated from her communion. a religion does not mean to treat free

a

from the most serious claim to exist and

fair

but simply as having

errors,

enjoy

tolerate

as true, or even as

it^

civil

With the

rights.

improper and purely arbitrary sense often attached to the

word we are not now concerned, and for the present,

it

may

be dismissed

with the obvious remark that

inconceivable that

all

or

religions,

all

it is

varieties

simply

compre-

hended under the common designation of Christianity, should be equally true, though that they

all

Taking

might be equally

it

is

of course conceivable

false.

toleration then in its proper sense,

ground either of abstract reasoning or for alleging that

belief

None

.?

it

is

there

incompatible with genuine religious

is

whatever.

There are a hundred reasons

why men may

persecute besides the conviction that

heretics will be

damned— for

principle

assumed

just as there are a

power,

why

they

in the

Mahometans

put

it

plainly,

is

all

the

argument we are dealing with

tolerate religions

Toleration

of superiority so strong that thus

that, to

hundred reasons, besides mere want of

may

believe to be false.

any

historical evidence

it

may

which they firmly

spring from a sense

despises

all

dissidents,

and

are sometimes said to be tolerant from


TOLERATION AND INDIFFERENTISM. But

their scorn of " infidel dogs."

point, for

Mahometans have

the

ing in

little

present day, and

hardly a case in

intolerance

is

certainly a

by the sword, and that by the

as Christianity never was, its

is

opportunity of persecut-

was originally propagated,

principle of their creed, which

express directions of

this

143

founder.

Still

own

a profound conviction of their

remains true that

it

faith

would naturally

incline believers to trust to its inherent strength,

and that

the bitterest religious persecutors have for the most part

been men whose sincerity was questionable. something

may

be wrong.

the case of Christians,

it

scepticism to believe that

and others an uneasy suspicion

To is

all

confine ourselves here to

surely

no proof of latent

forcible

methods of propa-

gating truth are directly condemned by the letter or

body of the

sacrifice their

early Fathers,

own

Spanish bishops about the fourth century. ;

who

yet never hesitated to

lives for their faith, as

illustrated in the dispute

the other side

spirit

This was unquestionably the belief of the

of the Gospel. great

is

by which waverers sometimes endeavour

fident professions

to disguise from themselves

that they

There

analogous to the hard and con-

in persecution

St.

between

St.

was conspicuously

Martin and certain

Priscillianists at the

Augustine

may

end of the

indeed be cited on

but as he was one of the most voluminous

of writers, and almost always wrote pro re natd to meet

some immediate

call,

he

is

by no means always

consistent

with himself, and the general tenor of his writings points the other way. cution see

It

was not

till

the middle ages that perse-

became a recognised system, and

presently,

that, as

on grounds more secular than

Some, again, advocate

toleration

neither

we

shall

religious.

from religious


AND BIOGRAPHY.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

144

called in this country the traditional

Whig

society,

in

which

it

be

theory, that an

and sharpen the

opposite system serves to concentrate reH|[ious element

may

on what

principle nor religious indifiference, but

wisdom of

the

is

much as possible in abeyance. This why so many Englishmen heartily disliked

statesmen to keep as is

one reason

Prince Bismark's ecclesiastical policy in the Kultiirkampfy

many

though there were of course

condemned

as

it

persecution

is

unjust.

weak would

by a

though

it,

sufficiently

it

may sometimes

keenly, while

it

would not

He

would

And

an earnest believer

affect the

argument from

is

successful for the

pretty sure in the long run to injure religious interests

it

is

supposed to be

example, English

are suffering to this

day

is

identified.

Roman

Thus,

Catholics

for the disastrous policy of the

few years of Catholic ascendency But, in fact,

all

recorded in history have sprung political

that

moment

any cause with whose

to take an obvious

Philip.

political

remember

also be likely to

even a persecution which

and

be

the religious force of this objection the most

feel

Mary and

sincerely

thorough process, to stamp out a

or nascent sect altogether.

expediency.

last

who

also

obvious again, that no

is

likely to alter the inner belief of its victims,

except by intensifying possible,

It

in

England under

the chief persecutions

much more from

than from religious motives.

This

social will

at

once be admitted as to the persecution of Christians during the

first

three centuries of our era, which

was

carried on

under some of the best as well as some of the worst of the

Roman

Emperors, and had from their point of view

a good deal to say for itself

contempt

for the religion

It

was only

to

show

his

he had abandoned that Julian


TOLERATION AND INDIFFERENTISM. the Apostate did not choose to dignify

What

is

that he

revival of

had he Hved longer,

their ineffectual severities, and,

more than probable

by a

it

145

would have changed

not so generally understood

is

same

that the

is,

it

his mind.

principle lay at the root of the mediaeval treatment of

No

heresy. justify

it,

doubt a theological theory was framed to

which eventually found

law, but the theory

way

its

grew out of the

real or supposed, not vice versa.

canon

into the

practical necessity,

Thus, to take a

critical

example, the extermination of the Albigenses was considered, it,

and there were plausible grounds

for considering

and

essential for the preservation of Christian society,

that not simply on account of their immoralities, but of

the social and political principles of the sect, which was

moulded on a

radically different ethical standard.

regarded by contemporary public opinion should regard a community of Thugs, parallel,

regarded

as

the

Salt

acted upon in cases to which It

And

was thought dangerous

to

its

to take a

or,

Lake settlement

United States.

in the

much

It

was

as

we

modern

coming

is

to

be

the same idea was

application

is less

obvious.

admit any new religion into a

Now

State organized on the basis of religious uniformity.

there are obvious advantages in religious uniformity from

a purely political point of view

— witness

perplexing to modern statesmen

argued that

it

development.

" the

religious

educational and other matters, which

difficulty," in

is

— and

it

may

is

so

even be

necessary at a certain stage of political

In

the youth

of States,

when they

are

maturing their system of law and imbibing that religious spirit

which

lies

at

the

basis of all

law,

and again

in

their weakness, so long as they cannot stand without the

L


AND BIOGRAPHY.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

146

support of an ecclesiastical organization and the sanction

may be

of definite religious ideas, this uniformity

than others, and more at all events

be

fragile

sensitive to religious diaeent.

This

came

it

alise

v^hat

It is

tenable arguments, and

less

then to .be continued when anachronism.

of mediaeval

inevitably in course of time to

by simpler and

justified

States again are

the historical explanation

is

intolerance, but

said to

more

Some

be necessary to them.

had already become an

it

always a temptation to

men

to gener-

from their immediate experience, and to imagine that right or expedient or excusable in a given

is

holds good as a universal law.

case

Thus the Southern States

of the American Union held a theory of slavery, and the

Northern States held a theory of abolition, equally absolute

and equally unreasonable.

Catholic

persecution

in

and indeed

political

that

reality, like

by the Roman Empire against the

carried on

more

Mediaeval,

was

generally,

Christians,

than theological, and defensive rather than

aggressive, the great exception to this rule being found in

the cruel and senseless religious policy of Louis

But the

practice,

XIV.

which had been formulated into a system

by theologians and

canonists, survived

when

original

its

grounds had passed away, and we look with natural horror at the tion,

most glaring instance of

which

may

it

in

the Spanish Inquisi-

properly be regarded in the light of a

gigantic anachronism

;

partly explicable, however,

by the

peculiar circumstances of early Spanish history, which identified Catholic with national sentiment,

much

sixteenth

century

identified

national

sentiment

political rather

Protestantism in

England.

became It

was

to

had

as in the

with

the last

a

than an ecclesiastical institution, and dealt


TOLERATION AND INDIFFERENTISM.

147

with sundry offences of a wholly secular kind, such as After making

selling horses across the Pyrenees.

tions for current exaggerations

successfully demolished it

was bad enough

ing that

it

in his

—

does not seem to have done such

fatal injury to

is

but

in all conscience,

often represented,

From 1500

and

we might

as

a priori

to 1670 Spanish literature

and Spanish theologians took the lead

zenith,

Council of Trent.

Cervantes died

in

was

at the

the same year as

much

Shakspeare, Lopez and Calderon

who

Life of Ximeties

worth observ-

have expected. its

by Hefele

deduc-

all

Llorente's figures are

it is

literature as

at

— and

later.

Mariana,

has been called " the only Jesuit that ever saw and

spoke the truth

Church and

in

State,"

and who was per-

haps the ablest writer that powerful Order ever produced, lived tion.

their

ished

and wrote and published

in

Spain under the Inquisi-

Historical science, as distinct

own

from the history of

country, and physical science, have never flour-

among

the

Spaniards, but that seems to be due

rather to their national character than to the Inquisition, for national history

censorship,

and theology are more provocative of

and Spain has done no more

the tribunal was abolished than before.

way.

It

is

for science since

But

this

by the

not of course meant as an apology for the

Spanish Inquisition, but merely as noting some points, apt to be overlooked, which

appreciation of

its

may

contribute to a

historical position.

the cruelties perpetrated,

gensian crusade and

it still

represented, like the Albi-

other mediaeval severities,

under altered circumstances and with political

more accurate

Shocking as were

though

far less excuse, the

and defensive rather than the aggressive and

theological principle of intolerance.


AND BIOGRAPHY.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

U8

Wc

have seen that the principal persecutions, Christian

well

as

Pagan, were

as

capable of being

or

justified,

plausibly justified, on other than doctrinal grounds, accord-

ing to the circumstances of the case.

But the practice

gradually generated a theory, which came

Not

authoritatively sanctioned.

to

in

condemned Luther's statement that

burn heretics

to

contra caritatan Spiritils ; Benedict XIV., the

of Popes,

VL

in

is

time to be

go further back, Leo X. is

most tolerant

hardly less explicit in a Brief of 1748, and Pius

At

a Brief of 179 1.

could easily be

shown

far

is

it

true,

is

to

and

their

and purely theological prin-

writings, that the speculative ciple of intolerance

same time

the

by copious references

more universally and emphatically

taught by the early Protestant divines than had ever been All the leading Reformers of the

the case previously.

sixteenth century, without a single exception, are most

emphatic on

and they

this point,

insist

on

it

strictly as

much as for when they had

a religious duty, and for aggressive quite as

Nor

defensive purposes.

did they shrink,

the power, from translating their theory into practice.

This

arose partly no doubt from the Calvinist doctrine, 'which

has always shown an affinity with persecution, partly from

a

literal

and yet

in

application of

Old Testament precedents, partly

great measure from the belief

— that the

Pope

is

heretics simply, but idolaters.

there can be no

of

all

Of

shadow of doubt.

burning Anabaptists

;

the fact at

all

events

Cranmer was zealous

in

and Calvin won the warm approval

the Protestant leaders in

Servctus to the stake.

— by no means extinct

Anti-Christ, and his adherents not

The

Germany when he

sent

gentle Osiandcr wished both

Papists and Anabaptists to be suppressed.

Luther, in spite


TOLERATION AND INDIFFERENTISM. condemned by Leo

of the thesis

149

X., proclaimed the

duty

down " abominations," and he expressly reckoned among them a denial of his dogma of justification by faith no Government could tolerate heresy without of the State to put

;

being responsible for the souls

it

destroyed, and the

must be suppressed as the worst kind of Melancthon

insisted that

new

idolatry.

Mass

Even

opinions should be punished

with death, and highly applauded the burning of Servetus as

"a pious and memorable example

for posterity,"

Bucer

and Zwinglius maintained the same view, and Bullinger boasted that "by the grace of heresy with

God we have always punished

Beza wrote an elaborate

fire."

defence of the same

thesis.

John Knox, as

is

treatise

in

well known,

called toleration

"opening the floodgates of heresy," and

objected to the

Queen being allowed

of the

Mass

" in

said that the

to have " the idol

Nor can

her private chapel.

it

be

fairly

Reformers merely inherited these views from

their Popish ancestors.

For we have seen already that

the latter had usually based their persecutions on grounds of ecclesiastical or ities,

civil policy,

while the Protestant author-

almost without exception, laid down the "principle"

that religious error, as such, deserved the severest punish-

ment.

In the next century the

intolerance

is

laid

down by two

same abstract

principle of

writers so widely differing

from the early Reformers and from each other as Archbishop

Laud and

Milton.

But

it

must

called attention to this important fact

to

pursue the subject

further

here.

requires to be noticed in conclusion.

pleaded

in

defence or

in

;

suffice

there

One

is

to

have

no need

other point

Whatever may be

excuse of intolerance, under given

circumstances, on grounds independent of religious doctrine.


ISO

AND BIOGRAPHY.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

can hardly apply to the

infliction

on the adherents of any particular preserve

of

civil

religion,

disabilities

which do not

uniformity but supremacy, and are shown

experience to be a great political

evil.

instance, to justify the expulsion of the

by

It is easier, for

Moors from Spain,

or the attempted suppression of Christianity in the

Roman

Empire, than the humiliating and unprofitable restrictions

imposed on

Roman

on Protestants has been said duty, as

all

in ;

Catholics in England before 1829, and

Austria before 1859.

To sum up what

so far from intolerance being a religious

the Reformers and several Popes have taught,

the principle of toleration comes to us

commended by

all

the best as well as the earliest traditions of the Christian

Church.

been held

It is

a principle, however, which has frequently

liable

to

exception from ethical, social, and

enough

to observe

making an exception

requires at

pohtical considerations, on which

here that the necessity for all

it

is

events to be in each case distinctly proved.


XVIII.

''BLACK If there

is

AND BLOODY GARDINER." in the proverb, "

any truth

mud, and some

will stick,"

it

cases where the odium theologicum

There are no

charge.

lies

plenty of

comes

in to clench the

that die so hard as

The whole

have a controversial importance. " the B. Reformation,"

Throw

no doubt applies especially to

from whatever side

conspicuous illustration of this

;

but

it

it

lies

that

history of

is

told, is a

only with the

is

English Reformation, and with one distinguished personage

whose name

mixed up

is

diately concerned here.

name

with the call

bloody,"

meant

for

bitesheep."

or,

of

"

in the contest, that

Bonner,

whom

all

it

call

is

familiar shall

coarseness,

him, " that bloody

was something new to

epithet " which Fuller

imme-

are

generations

as Foxe, with characteristic

humour, delights to

But

we

Everybody of course

find the " fixed

and Foxe have succeeded

in attach-

ing to Bonner, like Homer's "rosy-fingered morn," quietly

extended, with hardly a word of explanation or evidence in a

speech of Sir William Harcourt's ten years ago on the

Public Worship Bill— to "the black and bloody Gardiner."

There may be some prima facie ground really

nothing

Bonner"

;

more

but there

is

for

speaking

—though

of

" the

it

is

bloody

not even any plausible pretext for


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

152

That he has been

affixing such an epithet to Gardiner.

denounced by historians

Hume, and

like

Mr. Froude, as a persecutor

amount

true

"

our days by

in

enough

with what

;

But to

of reason will appear presently.

such a description as is

is

justify

black and bloody," something more

required than to show that a high

took the part

official

required by his office in the legal punishment of heretics, in

on

an age when the very notion of toleration was scouted

by the Protestant

sides alike, certainly not least

all

That there

leaders.

persecutors

are

the sixteenth

of

century fairly open to the charge of cruelty student

impartial

of

history

Gardiner nor even Bonner only

remember

to

fair

is

doubt

can

true

is

And

among them.

that Gardiner, unlike

no

;

neither

that

some

it

is

of his

contemporaries, did not seek to impose upon others a faith to which he

was himself

indiffisrent, or

Edward, been content to

which he had

for

not, during the six years of Protestant

ascendency under

suffer with patience

and

dignity.

His position was rather a peculiar one, and Mr. Froude,

who has

a keen eye for theological distinctions,

altogether

wrong

canism."

He was

in calling

firmly

him the

"

attached

is

not

inventor of Anglito

those

Catholic

doctrines which continued to form part of the established religion

to the close of

after the breach with

Henry's reign, both before and

Rome, and he

suffered imprisonment

.throughout the reign of his successor rather than abandon

them.

But while he consistently adhered from

to the

whole cycle of

beliefs

fashion to stigmatize under the

which

name

it

bitterness

first

the

to last

modern

of " sacerdotalism

— and that may perhaps help to explain and Mr. Froude's peculiar

is

Sir

W.

against

"

Harcourt's

him

— he


"BLACK AND BLOODY GARDINER." cannot

without

great

a

abuse

Romanizer or Romanist, hardly

Roman

indifiference in itself,

after six years' experience of

may

questionable

seldom or never the

Of the

cutions.

number appears

critical

to

though,

Supremacy

But

substitute.^

was

this

question in the Marian perse-

three hundred or so of victims to be 277

a

Edward's Protestant head-

naturally have thought the Royal

than

worse

a

terms be called

even, strictly speaking, a

The Papal Supremacy he seems

Catholic.

have regarded as a matter of

ship, he

of

153

—put to death

—the precise

for heresy during

her reign, scarcely any suffered for rejecting the Pope's

Their

supremacy. denial

trial

doctrines

of

almost always

about which

turned on

— unlike

the

Cranmer, who

burnt Zwinglians, while he shared their opinions

—neither

Bonner nor Gardiner had ever wavered, most often on the There

Real Presence.

is

no evidence whatever that either

of these prelates was harsh or bloodthirsty in enforcing the law on that matter, and there

contrary

;

Let us

and first

of the last Protestant,

is

much

evidence to the

this is especially true of Gardiner.

take the testimony of an impartial historian

generation,

whose sympathies are

of correcting popular misconceptions of history.

common

assumption, repeated

which a word

He had

strongly

and who had not the means which now

shall

by

be said presently

Sir

W.

Harcourt

— that Gardiner

Henry VI H.

exist

To

the

— on

had a

Royal book De Vera Obedietitia, to which Bonner contributed a preface. But in a sermon at St. Paul's Cross, preached the Sunday after the public reconciliation of the realm by Cardinal Pole, he made a general retractation of the errors he had fallen into under Henry VIII. He preached before Edward VI. against the Papa Supremacy, but in defence of the Real Presence and Sacrifice of the Mass, for which he was sent to prison. 1

Supremacy,

written in the reign of in his

in defence of the


154

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

hand

in

"

the

AND BIOGRAPHY.

Six Bloody Articles," or was their main

James Mackintosh does not even does indeed assert that Gardiner was " at

He

allude.

author, Sir

least in the

beginning" a chief author of the Marian persecution, but only on the wholly inadequate ground abilities,

commanding

allow us to doubt

it;

that

his

great

and high station do not

character,

but he adds that the Chancellor

probably did not intend the persecution to extend beyond the Protestant ringleaders, and that, their resistance,

shed."

he

"

when disappointed by

withdrew from a share

That Gardiner did

in vain

blood-

his best to confine the

execu-

tions for heresy within these limits

we may

similar inference as to Bonner.

secution

perfectly true,

is

at

all

— and

as well as the

it

If there

most merciful

this

was

to be per-

them could have

of

neither

that

prevented, had he desired

was obviously the wisest Sir

policy.

James Mackintosh

— what has since been proved Maitland — that many of the prelates are

goes on to say Dr.

and

gather even from Foxe's one-sided narrative a

in detail

by Protestant

writers

to

have

exercised

and perhaps hazardous humanity, and that language was often a cloak the accused.

He

more

for

an

effectual

their violent

effectually screening

observes that of fourteen dioceses they

altogether prevented bloodshed in nine, and reduced

within limits in the remaining five requires

it

to be

bloodless class."

by

recorded

mentioned that

And

;

his diocese

was of the

although he quotes with approval

Fuller's libellous description of

Bonner

not then exposed

— he

its

it

"justice to Gardiner

absurdity

— Dr.

feels

Maitland had

bound

out that Fuller's charge against the Bishop of

burning about one-half the martyrs

.in

the

to point

London

kingdom

of

really


"BLACK AND BLOODY GARDINER."

155

proves nothing, inasmuch as they were sent to the capital

from

all

parts of

many

that

come

England

to be sifted, prove just as

little,

by a large woodcut ology

—

— of Bonner's holding the hand of Thomas " to try

exhausting

all

Tomkins,

his constancy,"

powers of persuasion to induce

his

to recant, simply proves,

to save the prisoner

illustrated

Foxe's Martyr-

in the old editions of

the weaver, over a lighted taper

him

not often the

is

Thus, for instance, the well-known story

case.

add

when they

even assuming their

accuracy to be beyond dispute, and that

after

We may

for the purpose.

of Foxe's most ill-natured stories,

true, his persistent desire

if

from a punishment which

it

was not

As Maitland justly remarks, " Whether it was wisely done, people may dispute but that it was kindly meant no person of common sense can within his discretion to remit.

;

doubt."

And

it

is

worth noting that

about Bonner's cruelty, he

is

in all similar tales

never alleged to have done

these things in order to extort confession of guilt or

names

of accomplices by torture^ but always with a view of in-

ducing convicted

heretics

to

adopt the

means of saving themselves from he for

often,

on Foxe's own showing, kept them

weeks or months, notwithstanding

to his persuasions, in the

hope of

This hardly corresponds elegant couplet This cannibal,

They were

But

it

only available

further punishment. in

And

confinement

their refusal to listen

their eventual submission.

with the language

of

Foxe's

:

hundred martyrs slew, he spared none he knew.

in three years' space, three

his food

;

he loved so blood

;

would be mere waste of time

to follow

the details of his nauseous indictment

:

Foxe through

Maitland's Essays


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

156

may

be consulted for a minute exposure of his wholesale

mendacity.

we

If

turn back from Mackintosh to

Hume, we

shall

him taking the ordinary Protestant view of Gardiner's

find

character,

and implicitly crediting him with the Act of the

Six Articles, but without alleging any evidence whatever for

charge,

this

or

saddling him with

for

graver

the

Marian persecution, while he men-

responsibility of the

After

tions one fact which looks entirely the other way.

Mary's accession, Peter Martyr, anticipating trouble, was anxious to leave the country, but some zealous Catholics

moved

for his

the

commitment

Gardiner not only

to prison.

come over by invitation of Government, but supplied him with the means for his

opposed

this,

urging that he had

journey home.

more

way

explicit

Mr. Froude, as might be expected,

and much more

of dealing with the case

tells

us in his third

Act of Six

is

than

bitter

is

Hume.

highly characteristic.

volume that the

both

His He.

cruel nature of the

was attributed "by sound authority"

Articles

to the influence of Gardiner, but the only authority he gives, besides Foxe's

much

—

Vni.,

is

"Oh

cursed

is

comes

in the sixth

I

Dixon, ii.

who

as

Bill,''

wicked

to

sum up

When, however, he Gardiner's character

opens with

though

gives the letter in

it

full

Henry

Winchester!"

"

He

passed the

were one of the most {Hist.

Church of England,

pp. 159, 160), observes, with obvious justice, that the writer

evidently hitting at the

advisers of the King.

them.

oh

no more.^

volume

his death, the indictment

Six Articles

vol.

he admits not to be worth

bishops!

certainly worth

which

on

— which

a phrase in a letter of Melanchthon's to

King

What

in

hitting the

is

bishops, the supposed

he dared not say of the King he said of


"BLACK AND BLOODY GARDINER."

157

notorious facts of history, instead of resting at best on

mere gratuitous conjecture.

His

other

As

of evidence. State, Mr.

and

to his high abilities

Froude of course

allegations

much

cruelty against Gardiner are based on

the

services to the

finds himself obliged to

man who was

with decent respect of a

of

same kind speak

conspicuously

among the foremost statesmen and ecclesiastics of his age. But when he calls him " vindictive, ruthless, and treacherand "the incarnate expression of the fury of the

ous,"

faction,"

ecclesiastical

he simply describes his character

and career by contraries the dogmatic assertion a

Latin extract

down

— that

and when he winds up with

;

— veiled after

to hell," his authority

interpolating this

new

under the thin disguise of

may

may perhaps be put

Lingard

History

and he

no particular reason

ha-d

in

is

Act of Six

admiring a prelate

for

He

Rome.

mentions Gardiner's being

Articles

that,

—as was also

as there

extant

is

believing the

King himself

states absolutely

that

Gardiner voted for the that there

is

made

it

to be

was

Bill.

for

Cranmer a

is

its

so.

mentions

nearly

similar

good reason

real author.

Cranmer

as

for

Blunt well

as

Lingard emphatically denies

any authentic document against

drawing up the

— but

Bill

Henry's own handwriting, there

charge

prejudiced

one sense a staunch Catholic, was very vacillating

in his allegiance to

in

a

as

generally colourless enough,

on one of the two Committees named

further

be questioned for

the Protestant creed.

aside

his

if

fairly

into

article

witness, yet

who,

death Gardiner "went

his

to

support

the

Gardiner by Reformed writers of

being responsible for the Marian persecution, while the

whole tenor of

his

conduct contradicts

it.

It

was Gardiner,


158

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

who saved

as he points out,

Elizabeth and

not without considerable risk to his

own

Courtenay

reputation with

the Queen, from the penalties of treason to which their

had exposed them

share in Wyatt's rebellion further first

how, when

records

the

"

epithet

and he

;

bloody

"

was

applied to him by Francis Hastings, Parsons indig-

"any good-natured Protestant

nantly replied that lived in

Queen Mary's

time,

and indifference to speak the truth without passion, confess that no one great further off from blood

man

most tender-hearted and mild

who was known

man

contemporary

to

will

government was

in that

and bloodiness, or from cruelty and

revenge, than Bishop Gardiner,

To come down

that

and hath both wit to judge

to be a

in that behalf."

writers, the estimate of

Gardiner's character and conduct given in Dixon's History

of the CJmrch of England

— far the fullest and

most impartial

work on the English Reformation published day

— accords entirely with

The work has not as of Edward VI., but but a purely

in

our

own

that of Lingard and Maitland.

yet advanced beyond the second year the author acquits Gardiner of any

and formal share

official

in

the passing or

enforcement of the Act of Six Articles, and points out, opposition to Foxe,

how

in

his influence as well as Bonner's

was habitually employed to mitigate rather than the flame of persecution.

The testimony

to fan

of Mr. Blunt,

another learned Anglican writer, in his Reformation of the

Chnrch of England,

is

still

more

explicit.

After citing the

savage indictment of Foxe and Fuller, he observes charge against Bishop Gardiner

may

So long

"

as

his

influence

m2,xx'va%Q-^'' 110 perso7i

was

lasted

/.

:

"

The

be soon dismissed. e.

till

the Queen's

execnted on the groiind of heresy


"BLACK AND BLOODY GARDINER." after that time

During the year he lived of heretics only,

trial

had

he sat on one

upon a Commission over which he

Lord Chancellor, and here

to preside as

159

it

to his

fell

duty to pronounce formal sentence of excommunication; but

"

in his diocese

no persons

were burnt

And

a year and a half after his death." this solitary trial,

a

way

for heresy until in the case of

he used his utmost endeavours to provide

of escape for Hooper, Rogers, and the rest of the

accused, as he also did his best to procure the pardon of

whom

he had every personal reason for disliking

distrusting,

and who had shown him no mercy or

Cranmer,

and

justice in

Edward's

reign.

by the infamous Poynet into

see under

his

Such was the man described

— a favourite of Cranmer's intruded who

Edward, and

lived

adultery with a butcher's wife of Nottingham

worth putting on record, as an Protestant fable

in

there

in

language

illustration of the traditional

about Gardiner, the

some

endorsed, with

—

slight reserve,

more so as

it

is

by the veracious Foxe,

though contradicted by the testimony alike of Holbein's portrait, of the

Gardiner's

own

that he was a

monumental writings,

man

effigy at

which

" give

of solid learning."

doctor hath a swart colour.

He

Winchester, and of

abundant evidence Poynet says

:

"

This

hath a hanging look,

frowning brown eyes an inch within his head, a nose

hooked

like a buzzard's, nostrils like a horse, ever snuffing

in the wind, a

sparrow mouth, and great paws like the

devil,

talons on his feet like a gripe, two inches longer than the

natural toes, and so tied to with sinews that he cannot

abide to be touched, nor scarce suffer them to touch the stones."

1

As

to this last detail of the " monstrous

making

Poynet elsewhere calls him " the great devil and cut-throat of England, the Papists' God." 1


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

i6o

and misshaped fashion of

his feet

"hath been constantly reported"

enough

self-respect to decline

and

toes,"

Foxe says

it

to him, but retains just

positively to

commit him-

After dismissing Gardiner, Mr. Blunt proceeds to

self

Bonner, who, according to Cowper's familiar couplet, based

on Foxe, " blithe as shepherd at a wake,

Enjoyed the show, and danced about the stake,"

though is

in fact

shown

he was never present at the stake at

his office as ecclesiastical judge,

power or authority stood, than

which he " had no more

to refuse to exercise, as the law then to try the

a judge of assize has to refuse

prisoners brought before

shown that

further

him

at a gaol delivery "

in the discharge of his office

the utmost gentleness and forbearance, so

;

and

Of him, as

on which writers relied, is

much

so indeed,

like

Strype and Burnet have implicitly

a categorical contradiction of the

As "

by the

of Gardiner, the great Foxian tradition,

not only a baseless myth, but a

myth founded on

facts.

regards the Six Articles Act, however, there

word more

to be said.

Lingard naturally enough

a severe and barbarous statute," and so

any modern standard of framed

in

it is

he exhibited

that he was publicly reprimanded for his leniency

Crown.

It

all.

he also did no more than discharge

at length that

toleration.

it

a

is

calls

was, judged

it

by

But the Act was

a severe and barbarous age, and the offences

against which

it

was

nature that would not

in fact

mainly directed were of a

now be

tolerated in

Subsequent events show that

any

civilised

it

was intended

to frighten people rather than to hurt them,

and was never

society.

1

Blunt's RefonnatioH, vol.

ii.

pp. 229 sqq., 282 sgq., pp. 124 sq.


"BLACK AND BLOODY GARDINER." meant

to be executed according to the letter.

more

several of the

made

list,

which

eight years

not likely to be defective, only twenty-

death under the Act during the

suffered

it

was

"

;

may sound

It

" sort of " ribalds

were

but when

Paul's

in

we

find

or

",

time

punished

for

depraving the Sacra-

the

that

collecting a multitude of people

"

for the

strange to our ears

persons being arraigned and

hear of

reading the Bible

ment"

But the

chiefly put in use

effectually suppressed.

to

home

stayed at

the outside, according to

continued in force.

it

whom

against

is

who

those

At

more quiet and peaceable. Foxe's

caused

It

violent partisans of the Reformation to

quit the country, and

eight persons

i6i

first

charge meant

and making a tumult

in

the Cathedral, while the second includes such practises as

maintaining boys to sing songs against the Sacrament of the Altar in public, and

interrupting the solemnities of

Divine service with studied mockery of what was it

remembered, the

of the nation,

religious belief of the

we can hardly wonder

should have thought

it

Nor

proof that the Bishops carried out the Act

manner, but the reverse. place under tions,

it,

Of all the

Dixon observes

not clerical

;

:

"

is

there any

in

a violent

prosecutions that took

These were lay prosecu-

they were neither instigated by the clergy

nor in the main conducted by them." for instance,

On

one occasion,

when two hundred persons had been presented

to Gardiner for tumultuous proceedings of this kind, he " content that this

as

one should be bound

easy bail they were

was said

any hand

be

Government

that the

time to interfere.

still,

immense majority

before, in

all

for another,"

discharged.

There

is,

was

and on

however,

no reason to believe that Gardiner had

originating the

Act, and

of the

first

four


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

162

persons condemned to death under

begged before in

off

his.

And

by him.

provisions one was

its

his dealings with those

Mary's reign were quite of a piece with

to Winchester," as

Foxe expresses

and grossly insulted him course,

if

this

who "gave

although, like Lawrence Saunders,

it,

to his face.

they often publicly It

would be easy of

be placed on writers

show what sort of

said to

conduct,

a privy nip

space permitted, to go more fully into

enough has now been

brought

for sedition or heresy

Court as Lord Chancellor

detail,

but

reliance can

and Foxe, or even on

like Fuller

Strype and Burnet, who, like some later writers, are their servile copyists

in describing the

bishops of the Marian

period generally as a whole forest of wild beasts raging

among

-a

flock of defenceless sheep,

cular as an ogre

whose fury no

escape.

language about

is

now

is

a

If their

held up to odium as

trifle

less

"

"

in parti-

wily Winchester,"

who

black and bloody Gardiner,"

grotesquely virulent,

more consonant with the

and Bonner

sex, quality, or age could

it

is

truth of history.

still

not one whit


XIX.

ICONOCLASM.

The

gram announcing in

May

made on most

impression

first

promptitude

sufficient

in

mastering

were the reproaches levelled at the Philistine

bitter

brutality of in 1875

Red Republicanism, and was

it

the vacant

site of

for the

next four years,

restored, English visitors took

parable about the curse of

mob

what had been

up

Nor can

it

for sixty years

love

of

destruction

destruction

of

for

anything

in

the

the

column

men

in the

of

Paris

sake,

and

be con-

a passion strongly

Place

;

"

and we may well believe

gazed on the downfall of the

Vendome

with

of coarse satisfaction which inspired as

is

may

manly bosoms of those who delight

to call themselves " the People

that

own

its

that

sidered a badge of superior authority,

developed

one of capital.

be said that such reproaches were unreason-

The

especially

their

they turned from

rule, as

the most conspicuous ornaments of the French

able.

Many

wanton Vandalism.

Paris to anticipate this act of

till

Vendome column,

was one of regret that the Versailles Govern-

1871,

ment had not shown and

readers of the tele-

the destruction of the

much "

the

the

men

same of

feeling

London

",

they witnessed or helped to effect some few years

before

the

smashing of the Hyde Park

railings.

Only


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

i64

their

satisfaction

would be so

more

far

intense, as the

column was not only a symbol of sovereignty, but a very beautiful

and costly work of

Most of us

art.

are not dis-

posed to think very highly of the culture of the Commune, notwithstanding Mr. Bridges' favourable estimate of

compared with the the indignant

results of

censors of

an Oxford education

it

;

as

and

the iconoclastic tendencies of

Republicanism might point their moral by reminding us that the Parisian democrats of to-day are but treading in the footsteps of their

ancestors in the

destroyed the statue of Louis afterwards selected by Napoleon

commemorate

one of outward form.

I.

Nor

his victories.

first

Revolution,

XIV. on for the

is

monument

virtue,

and history has a heavy

indictment to bring against the principles and

But that

administration.

greatest rulers

who

to

the analogy merely

Neither Louis XIV. nor Napoleon

was a model of exalted

their

who

the very spot

policy of.

two of the

they were

ever swayed the destinies of France,

and that they raised her to a height of material splendour unequalled at any other periods of her history, question.

Their rule

an immoral despotism to treat with

whose

may

faults represented

respect the

and

No

hke the

The

Commune

of despots

to the realisation of

its

ideal

sans culottes of the '89 Revolu-

of 1871, were otherwise minded.

sense of historic continuity or aesthetic grace could

avail to stay their

hand

in defacing the beautiful records

of a magnificent but monarchical past. all

memory

flattered the national character,

and who contributed so much

tion,

beyond

but Frenchmen might be expected

;

some decent

of national greatness.

is

not unfairly be characterized as

They

the hard words that are said of them.

quite deserve

But

it

would be


ICONOCLASM. a mistake to regard iconoclasm as a lican excess.

mere incident of repub-

one of those natural

It is

good, partly

165

instincts, partly-

which have played an important part

evil,

in the history of the world.

We

are reminded of the passion of destruction for

own sake among

the uneducated

Darwin would

us that

tell

a

it is

relic

of that earlier stage

when we were gradually

of development

way

fighting our

humanity by the process of natural

to full

its

Perhaps Mr.

masses.

selection,

and

with the aid of those destructive organs which have gradusince the struggle for existence ceased.

ally disappeared

At

all

events

it is

smashing a toy boor

is

a

The

fact.

very

much

smashing a work of

in

pleasure

felt

by

akin to the pleasure

Probably

art.

in

a baby in felt

by a

both cases

it

consists partly in a sort of rude sense of power, or " conscious-

ness of the ego" which finds manfiiJilt sick of the

its

German

intellectual expression in the

student

who

is

breaking loose

same

sort

of feeling that leads a savage to value himself on

the

from the trammels of hereditary

It is the

belief.

men he has killed in battle. To make is of course a much higher test of power than to unmake, but it is also much more difficult, and children and savages number

of

naturally catch

at

that

exercise

of independent

which comes readiest to their hand. little

or no education remain in

children

all

for the time is

from

a story in the

who surrounded where

in the

far to

respects

have

grown-up

account for the

— mischief of a mob who are set free

all restraints life

many

This goes

their lives.

often quite purposeless

action

And men who

of custom or police.

There

of John Vv^esley of a lawless rabble

the house where he was staying, some-

North of England, and spent half the night


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

i66

him about from one place

carrying

in

more

occasional threats of ducking or

then took him

home

spite against him,

them.

It

and

Yet they had no particular

and cheered

lustily

when he addressed

was simply a stupid and brutal

local magistrates

frolic,

which the

were too orthodox or too inert to interfere

The midnight

with.

again.

to another, with

serious outrage,

revellers

who destroyed

the

Hermes

busts at Athens were probably of a very different class, but

probably also

they were drunk

;

and the characteristic

made him overgrown schoolboy than a man of " insolence "

of Alcibiades

But

culture.

of mischief,

act

more

like

genius and

an

high

iconoclasm was not the mere instinct

his

still less

the boorish pleasure in defacing

what

one cannot appreciate.

The Hermes

popular

have been exceedingly ugly, but

idols, are said to

they were the object of profound veneration, and to deface

keenest possible

insults

if

them was on

the

wanton destruction decency, which,

if

as because

suffered to

it

most

like

not very intelligent to inflict

national

the sense of power, not so

gratified

busts,

one of the

religion.

much by an

It

act of

was an outrage on public

go unpunished, would show

that the perpetrators could hold themselves superior to the

laws by which the rest of their countrymen were bound.

And

thus

it

was a more

refined, but not

one whit a nobler,

form of iconoclasm than the vulgar pleasure of a Parisian

mob mob

in

pulling

at the

down Imperial

Reformation

statues, or of a Protestant

in tossing elaborate missals

and

vestments into a bonfire, and dancing to the music of an ecclesiastical chant It

must

instinct

is

round the burning

not, however,

pile.

be supposed that the iconoclastic

never an}'thing more than the aimless passion


ICONOCLASM. for destroying, with a consciousness

of the exercise of power in the act.

such a sentiment

is

more or

less realised

In coarser natures

almost sure to be present, even when

The

does not predominate.

it

167

who breaks with

reformer

axes and hammers the carved work which his ancestors

had reverently laboured

at,

is

apt to be quite as

much

by love of mischief as by hatred of idolatry but the latter motive has dominated some of the strongest, if not the largest, minds among those which have shaped influenced

Iconoclasm, when

rises

above

mere wanton destructiveness, expresses abhorrence

either

the course of history.

for the thing destroyed or for the ideas

it

it

is

supposed or

The distinction is necessary to be The column in the Place Vendome was commemorate Napoleon's German victories

intended to convey.

borne

in

mind.

designed to

but the more rational agents perpetrated there in

May

hatred, not of French

Puritan

again, the

images of the assail

as

regards

the

objectionable

the piece of Vandalism their

So

victory, but of Imperialism.

zealots,

who smashed

saints, did not,

sacred

the

in

1871 meant to signalize

personages

crucifix

— but

crucifixes

and

we must presume, wish represented

— at

all

to

events

what they considered an

method of honouring them.

But iconoclasm

implies feelings and tends to produce results very

much

beyond what the iconoclasts themselves are thinking of. This may be illustrated by two comments which have been made, from very opposite points of view, on the great

iconoclastic

centuries,

pictures

controversy of the eighth and

which ended

— we

point of this

in

ninth

the use of images, as distinct from

need not trouble ourselves here with the

somewhat

fanciful contrast

— being

proscribed


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

i68

the Eastern Churchy and authoritatively sanctioned in

in

the West.

The

bitterness of feehng

which

evoked may-

it

be judged from the opprobrious sobriquet of Copronymus,

bestowed on the Greek Emperor who had made himself

most notorious as a leader of the iconoclast party.

why

should the question between images and

Yet

" icons," as

the Greeks called their pictures, so violently embitter those

who had no disagreement

about what either

in their belief

symbol equally represented

.''

It

was hinted

and has often been said since by Latin

at the time,

writers, that the

doctrine of the Incarnation was at stake, and dislike to

that

the

images of Christ was prompted by a repulsion of

the subtle Greek intellect from the anthropomorphic side

There

of Christianity. criticism,

intention

is

certainly

some

force

in

the

but the Easterns as certainly had no conscious of disparaging the

and the

Incarnation,

first

decree against images was immediately prompted by the

reproaches of the

Mahometans

Christian Church.

Dean

Stanley,

On

against the idolatry of the

the other hand,

Greek Church rejecting

in

influences of Christian art

And

it

is

iconoclastic controversy

of

all

religious

writers, like

her prohibition of images the

and

civilisation,

and have con-

Rome

accepting the

trasted her conduct with that of

Renaissance.

modern

have spoken, not without reason, of the

and

in

quite true that the close of the

marks the period of the decadence

intellectual

energy

in

the East.

We

need not adopt Mr. Froude's extreme, not to say extravagant, view that the Eastern Christians stood on an

surably lower level than their

Mahometan

immea-

assailants,

but

there can be no doubt that Eastern Christianity, for the last

thousand years, has presented very much the appear-


ICONOCLASM. ance of a

petrifaction of

sterile

would be absurd

169

former

its

Yet

self.

it

Emperors

to suppose that the iconoclastic

and Synods of the eighth century had any conscious intention of repudiating art, and the civilising influences

which

But the iconoclastic

indicates or effects.

it

though

it

has

instinct,

nobler side, and has not unfrequcntly

its

been the vehicle of righteous indignation against falsehood and oppression, is in itself essentially narrow and debasing. It

belongs to the lower, not the higher part of our nature,

and

inclines us directly not so

refuse to recognise

The at

what

much

to reject the evil as to

good.

is

was

religious narrowness of iconoclasm

Reformation

the

in

the

illustrated

demolition of

reckless

all

outward adjuncts of devotion, because some of them had been perverted to narrowness

is

idle or superstitious uses.

Its political

not the exclusive badge of any one party,

though, for reasons already referred

to,

it

has a natural

affinity

with the violence of democratic agitators.

leon

whose statue was demolished

I.,

almost puerile littleness visible

in

stringent orders

XIV. had indeed

fallen already,

to obliterate the flcurs de

lis,

found, were hardly less absurd than the attempt to

from French literature things, as

but

it is

spirit

18

forget

Brumaire.

The

but his

wherever

expunge

mention of the former state of

though he really thought

make Frenchmen

before the

all

an

anxiety to efface every

his

memorial of the ancient monarchy of France.

statue of Louis

to

Napo-

in Paris, displayed

that

This

is

it

would be possible

they had any history

no doubt an extreme,

also a highly characteristic, instance of the genuine

of iconoclasm.

As

there can be no image worship

without images, so there can be no iconoclasm without


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

I70

images to break.

It is essentially

has hitherto been held

AND BIOGRAPHY. a protest against what

honour, and

in

radical vice

its

because

the resolve to break with the past,

in

is

the past

there have been errors and abuses, as though forsooth the

present or the future were at

from them.

tribute to the builders, their

life

all

Far truer and nobler

memory

whose and

faith

be

likely to

of those great mediseval church

earth,

:

"

Of them, and

one reward, one evidence,

us in those grey heaps of deep-wrought stone.

left to

free

Mr. Ruskin's eloquent

he does not share

upon the

toil

more

is

is

They

have taken with them to the grave their powers, their honours, and their errors

No

adoration."

;

but they have

doubt there are some

to be utterly abolished, but

it is

idols

left

us their

which deserve

not often that the outward

symbol even of a rejected creed or a justly dispossessed sovereignty has no historic or artistic interest which gives it

a claim to

think

it

live.

The most ardent

Christian would hardly

a discredit to the Popes that they have done their

best to preserve the relics of

Pagan and Imperial Rome,

although the Paganism had become

and heartless

superstition,

To make

of tyranny and corruption. past

is

in its

dotage a coarse

and the Empire a gigantic system a clean sweep of the

an unhopeful augury for the future.

nations as of individuals

is

made up

experiences, and France can as traditions of the

little

The

life

of

of their accumulated divest herself of the

monarchy or of the Empire

as

England

can ignore the elements of national life which the Stuart We reigns or the Commonwealth have bequeathed to her. should have more faith in the stability of some future

Government

in

France,

if

she had shown less eagerness in

effacing all traces of those which are passed away.


XX. CHRISTIAN TEACHING ON THE RIGHT OF REBELLION, Ix a Papal Encyclical, issued about

years ago,

five

occurred a passage which was criticized at the time in

some quarters

as teaching that

bad, is not to be resisted, except

that which

God

is

is

to be

rebellion against

it

"

a government, Jioivever

require from

God, but that

obeyed rather than man."

that this theory, unless very freely

its

subjects

in that case

was observed

It

interpreted, "

would

hardly cover the ground of most Catholic rebellions."

But

the words in the' original Latin are patient, not to say suggestive, of a different construction. as

follows

ultra

:

—" Si

modum

The passage runs

tamen quandoque contingat temere

Catholicae Ecclesiae doctrina in eos insurgere/r^/r/c

non

sinit,

proprio Marte," especially

added

for this prohibition,

seditious actions

the general

capiat.''

when coupled with seems to point

The phrase the reason

to violent

and

on the part of individuals, who have not

body

of the nation at their back.

Pope does not profess of his

Marte

ne ordinis tranquillitas magis magisque turbetur,

neve societas viajus exinde dctrinientuui "

et

publicam a principibus potestatem exerceri,

own, but

Catholic Church,"

to be laying

And

down any new

as the

doctrine

only recording " the teaching of it

may

the

be worth while to inquire what


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

172

that teaching

is,

as a matter of history, which

a question of considerable interest.

any formal dogma or mediaeval

Church

doctrine,"

if

definition

on

the

There

is

is

in itself

not indeed

either of the ancient or

subject,

and

" Catholic

the

any, must therefore be gathered

there be

from the general Christian tradition and the teaching of

And

accredited divines.

if

we go back

to the Fathers,

it

cannot be denied that the most stringent interpretation of the

language would be supported and even

Pope's

demanded by

the almost

unanimous tenor of

their teach-

ing on the absolute duty of submission.

The very few

apparent exceptions occasionally quoted

only serve to

prove the Cyril

St.

rule, as, e.g.,

inveigh

when

against

St.

the

Gregory Nazianzen and

memory

of

the

Julian

Apostate, after his death, and St. Hilary denounces the

Arian Emperor Constantius as a precursor of Antichrist

and the

like,

when he may be supposed

early Fathers to

seem

to

have taken

obey the powers that be

in

to have already

As

a rule, the

St. Paul's

admonition

been virtually deposed for his heresy.

its

most rigorous

sense,

and would admit no right of rebellion against a Nero or

many of them regarded De Maistre stands almost

a Caligula, though Nero was by as

the personal

alone view.

Antichrist.

among modern

He

declares

Catholic writers in maintaining this it

to

be a

maxim

of the

religion " that against our legitimate Sovereign,

Catholic

though he

be a Nero, we have no other right than respectfully to

him the

truth,

and

let

him cut

That the maintenance of

off our

this principle,

only taught but consistently acted ^

heads for doing

Correspondance Diploni.,

tell

so."

^

which was not

upon by the early II. 13?,


CHRISTIAN TEACHING ON RIGHT OF REBELLION. Christians throughout the ages of persecution by,

modern writer expresses

a

as

when the

and barbarism were engaged salutary in

its results,

may

in

rival

— and where-

it,

they constituted

in

an age of turbu-

themselves the champions of legality lence and disorder,

forces of civilisation

an internecine

strife

be readily admitted.

It

have introduced fresh and disastrous complications Christians,

173

—was

would if

the

when they became strong enough, had assumed

the position of insurgents against the persecuting Empire.

They

acted on a true and generous instinct, but

their

theory was certainly an excessive one, and this became

when

manifest stances

in

it

was reproduced under altered circumEnglish

the

Church

of the

sixteenth

and

seventeenth centuries, where the doctrine which has been ascribed,

on very

insufficient grounds, to

persistently inculcated in all

We

Leo XIII. was

its fulness.

need not endorse the characteristic maledictions of

Macaulay against the Church he so

little

"continued to be for one hundred and servile

for a

"

moment

was touched, forgot taught."

which

years the

handmaid of monarchy, the steady enemy of

public liberty," and

and but

loved,

fifty

once, and but once — a moment, —when her own dignity and property for

to practise the submission she

had

But he has not misrepresented what may be

called the consensus of the great Anglican divines on the

duty of passive obedience.

Their teaching

with unmistakable emphasis and precision ised Homilies

VI., in

was enlarged

summed up the author-

on Obedience and on Wilful Rebellion, form-

ing part of the First Book, published

Edward

is

in

in

1547, but the

Homily

by Cranmer under against Rebellion

1573 under Elizabeth.

We

are

there


174

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

taught that "eternal damnation

is

tent rebels in hell, with Satan, the

while "heaven hell the prison

any

impeni-

the place of good obedient subjects, and

is

the badness of the government

their

make

paramount obligation of obedience,

difference in the

for " a rebel is

all

founder of rebellion,"

and dungeon of rebels against God and

Nor does

prince."

prepared for

first

worse than the worst prince, and rebellion

worse than the worst government of the worst prince hath

Bad government

hitherto been."

"

sin.

God

indeed to be accepted

is

made an

as a righteous punishment, not

occasion of fresh

placeth as well evil princes as good," and

it

follows that " for subjects to deserve through their sins to

have an

evil prince,

double and treble

And

them."

and then

evil

to rebel against him,

by provoking God more

were

to plague

example of the Jews submitting

the

Nebuchadnezzar, and

St.

evidence of this view.

Jeremy Taylor,

Paul

Nero, are cited

to

in the chief

to in

Angli-

can work on Moral Theology, the Ductor Dubitantiiwi^ lays

down

set

forth

the in

same

doctrine, declaring

Scripture

it

to be so plainly

hardly to need

as

the

comment

supplied in the teaching and practice of the Church, which is

however equally unmistakable.

Hooker, whose moral

and philosophical teachings are much more shaped on scholastic than patristic models,

acknowledge

though he does not always

his obligations, takes a different line,

stands almost alone.

And

even he, though he lays

principles very like those of Suarez will

be said presently

clusion.

He

to

down

something

draw the natural con-

considers the royal power to be derived from

the people, and

comes

—hesitates

— of whom

but he

to inquire

subject to the law

whether

"

the

;

body

and yet when he politic

"

may

with-


CHRISTIAN TEACHING ON RIGHT OF REBELLION. draw the authority

has delegated, when

it

175

misused, he

it is

only ventures to reply that

" it

supreme governors

such cases oppose themselves

and be

stiff in

detriment the

;

will not in

must be presumed that

detaining that the use whereof

but surely without their consent

body should be

by any

able

fresh

means

saving when dominion doth escheat."^ There

with public

is

how

see not

I

to help is

itself,

no need to

follow the course of this absolutist teaching in secular and

even sceptical English writers of later date, like Barclay, Filmer, Hobbes, Bolingbroke,

question, as

the

Hume, and

others, as

we

are

concerned with the theological aspect of the

present

at

it

has in successive ages presented

We

mind of the Church.

itself to

have seen that the great

Anglican divines reproduced on

this

matter the stringent

teaching of the Fathers, without making any allowance for the altered social and political conditions of their

But they

own

day.

certainly did not inherit that teaching

by un-

earliest ages to their

own, as

broken succession from the Taylor's language would doctrine of the Church

is

imply,

when he says

" without

any

that

the

variety, dissent, or

interruption, universally agreed upon, universally practised

and taught, will,

that, let the

we must

Two

suffer

distinct

it

and

powers set over us be what they

and never right ourselves."

in

some sense opposite tendencies

of

mediaeval thought conspired to induce a gradual modifica-

On

tion of the patristic doctrine of passive obedience.

one hand, the growth of the Papal power, with ascending claim of supreme jurisdiction over

governments, introduced a new sion.

In

its

all

the

steadily

temporal

element into the discus-

deposing tyrannical and heretical sovereigns, 1

Eccl. Pol., VIII.

ii.

10.


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

176

who, unlike the Pagan Emperors of a former day, had

become by baptism her own children and Church professed

and often did

to act,

subjects, the

act, as

the organ

and executor of the moral sense of the Christian community, and thus the idea was at once suggested, under

whatever limitations and control, of the nation having rights as against

On

rulers.

its

the other hand, the rise

marked a great upheaval of

of the scholastic philosophy

thought, struggling to emancipate itself from the fetters of

a mere dead traditionalism.

has been called, and

It

sense not unjustly, a rationalistic movement, for

it

in

one

aimed

at bringing all questions within the sphere of its cognisance

under the domain of reason, though

it

accepted as ultimate

premisses and starting points of inquiry revealed as well as

scientific

truths

assumed

be certainly and

to

finally

Archbishop Trench speaks of the Schoolmen as

fixed.

seeking "to inaugurate a supernatural rationalism in the

Thomas Aquinas,

Church."

the

greatest

of them, was

probably influenced by both religious and rational considerations

when he argued

secular princes requirit, ruler.

and

It

is

is

that the duty of obedience to

only obligatory

therefore forfeited

m

quantum ordo justitics

by an unjust or usurping

was the general teaching of the Schoolmen that

the power of Kings

from God, and

is

derived mediately, not immediately,

directly

doctrine was reasserted

from

and

the

people.

developed

And

this

by Bellarmine,

Suarez, and other great Jesuit theologians of the Reformation period, mainly of course, but sively,

in

governments, and

in

by no means exclu-

Papal supremacy over

civil

opposition to Protestant princes.

The

the interests

of

Galilean divines naturally took a different

line,

harmoniz-


CHRISTIAN TEACHING ON RIGHT OF REBELLION. much more

ing

177

closely with that of the Caroline school in

England, and Bossuet quietly observes that the Schoolmen,

who

some

for

unanimous festly

in

centuries

after

Thomas were

St.

nearly

maintaining the view he opposes, are mani-

The works both

mistaken.

Bellarmine

of

and

Suarez were publicly burnt by order of the Parliament of

The work

Paris.

of Suarez

—which

England

— distinctly

by the way,

was,

name

written in reply to one bearing the

of James

of

I.

subordinates the rights of the sove-

reign to those of the nation, even independently of the interposition of the Pope, or the lapse of the sovereign into

heresy, which ipso facto annulled his right to the throne,

though

in

that case

was better

it

await a definitive

to

sentence of deprivation from the Pope

nor does he shrink

;

from maintaining, as indeed Aquinas had done before him, that in extreme cases the sovereign

may

be put to death.

But the most remarkable work on the subject

by

the Spanish Jesuit Mariana

— who

was

at once

is

that

one of

the ablest and the most honest and independent writers

of his order

De Rege

et

Regis Institutione, which elabor-

ately vindicates the doctrine of tyrannicide, and pronounces a warni,eulogium on those practise to the

it,

who have had

young Dominican Clement, "the

France,"

who

killed

Henry

originally

no right to

by governing on interests of his

them.

Of

was only

selfish

And

III.

explained that a tyrant does not

had

the courage to

from Harmodius and Aristogeiton and Brutus eternal glory of is

it

mean only

carefully

a ruler

his throne, but a sovereign

principles,

instead

who who

of for the

people, has forfeited his right to govern

course this

extreme remedy of assassination

to be resorted to in

extreme

cases,

and when

N

all


178

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. methods of putting down the tyrant had

constitutional failed

or

had been rendered

The same

Mariana

but

unavailable,

evidently supposes such cases not to be so very

uncommon. by other

doctrine of tyrannicide was defended

Jesuit writers, though

it

had been expressly condemned by

a decree of the Council of Constance, occasioned by Jean Petit's

advocacy of

rejects altogether,

while Suarez,

writers of the

the

This decree Mariana

Paris.

at

who admits

applying to a

principle,

it

confirmed by the Pope,

as not being its

legitimate

authority, explains

it

as only

Protestant

Reformation period advocated the same

which was acted upon

Duke

Many

sovereign.

of Guise

in the assassination of

and of 'Cardinal

But

Beaton.

its

systematic elaboration and defence was the special work of the Jesuits.

It

that the Church of

doctrine

of

would of course be most untrue

Rome

tyrannicide,

is

in

to say

any way committed

though canonized

to the

and

Saints

Popes, like St. Pius V. and St. Charles Borromeo, as well as Protestants like

Buchanan and unbelievers

have deliberately maintained

But

it.

it

like Sarpi,

would be equally

untrue to say that the duty of passive obedience, as taught

by the Caroline

divines,

intelligible sense of the

is

a

"

word.

Catholic doctrine

was an

It

generally asserted and acted upon

"

in

by the early

Christians,

but never thrown into a formal or dogmatic shape

when questions

of this kind

came

any

ethical principle

;

and

to be handled as matters

of philosophical discussion, which was not the case in the early ages,

repudiated. insists

it

was

De

at

once challenged and very generally

Maistre has already been referred

that the absolute despotism,

infallibility,

of the civil ruler

is

and

in

fact

to.

He

virtual

the proper corollary of the


CHRISTIAN TEACHING ON RIGHT OF REBELLION.

179

absolute infallibility of the Pope, and that both are alike essential for the preservation State.^

In

practice,

Church and

respectively of

both Catholics and

Protestants

in

periods of fierce religious conflict have been too apt to

bend

their theories into conformity with

the

immediate

exigencies and interests of their respective causes close

similarity

theories of

may

be

traced

between

the

;

but a

abstract

Ultramontane and Puritan divines as to the

proper method of dealing with

John

sovereigns.

" heretical "

Knox's First Blast

or of;

"

idolatrous

the

"

Trumpet

against the monstrous Regimen of lVome7i, issued at Geneva

Queen Mary's

in

reign,

is

an example

in

point.

But,

putting aside the extreme theory of tyrannicide, which

condemned,

to say the least,

is

by the verdict of enlightened

experience, the doctrine of Mariana, that nations have an

ultimate right of resisting an unjust ruler, whether his original

title

be legitimate or

formally or practically rejected

persons in our thinking that the

common

not, has never

by

been either

the Church, and most

own day would probably agree with him

it

is

supported by

"

in

the voice of nature and

sense of mankind."

" II

ne peut y avoir de societd liumaine sans gouvernement, ni de gouvernement sans souverainete, ni de sotiverainete sans infaillibilite et ce dernier privilege est si absolument ndcessaire qu'on est forcd de supposer 1' infaillibilite mhne dans les souverainetes temporelles {on elle n'est pas) sans peine de voir I'association se dissoudre. L' Eg Use ne demande rien de plus qne les atitres soiiveraineth."' Du Pape, p. 147. Lamennais at the time expressed his full agreement with this view. ^

—

N

2


XXL DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS.

The

Prussian

surprise

royal

rescript

which took Europe

by-

two years ago, whatever may be thought of

it

from a constitutional or practical point of view, did not profess to claim for the Prussian dynasty an indefeasible

hereditary right to the throne.

forward go

and

far, if at all,

Nor do

the claims

to a large extent successfully enforced

in this

country

less

it

put

beyond those habitually asserted

than a century ago.

by George

The

III.

doctrine of

the Divine right of kings, satirized by Pope, and in our

own day by Macaulay,

as " the right Divine of kings to

govern wrong," meant a good deal more.

It is rightly

called a "doctrine," for the theory of royal prerogative

once maintained

in this

country by a powerful school both

of jurists and divines was for about a century regarded

and taught almost as a thirteenth Creed.

It will

article of the Apostles'

perhaps surprise some readers, who

may

have been accustomed to laugh at the belief as an exploded mediaeval superstition, to be told that originated

at the

close

of the

the seventeenth century, and was in fact coeval in

and

its

it

only

sixteenth or opening of its

decay with the succession of the Stuart

England, including the reign of Queen Anne,

if

origin line in

we choose


DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS. to treat the Sacheverell affair as a kind

of

posthumous

survival or recrudescence of the principle virtually expelled

with James

No

II.

both

doubt,

England and

in

Christendom generally, there had been

in

days a

earlier

in

reverent appreciation of the Divinity which doth hedge

But the highest expression and representa-

about a king.

tion of monarchical

supremacy

Europe throughout the

in

Roman

middle ages was " the Holy

Empire," so called, as

Mr. Bryce points out, as being nothing

less

Church or Christian society organized on under a form Divinely appointed.

avowedly not hereditary but

his

supreme

secular side

Yet the Empire was nor was the elected

elective,

Emperor authorised by custom

than the visible its

or public opinion to assume

he had received coronation at

title till

from the hands of the Pope.

Divine right indeed,

Rome if

the

powers that be are ordained of God, every legitimate

Government, whether monarchical or possess, or

it

far the phrase, at least in the

innocuous truism.

But what

known

under

to

history

mouth

must

of a theist,

name

that

in

one sense

at all

;

and so

is

a mere

meant by the doctrine

is

hereditary right to the succession

And

not,

would have no right to exist

that in this sense the doctrine

is

an indefeasible

by Divine ordinance. was as

little

known

England as elsewhere before the reign of James matter of history. pire,

was

though the at first

fact

England,

may

like the

sovereigns did not succeed

is

Holy Roman Em-

Our Saxon and Norman

by simple

though a high regard was paid

lineal descent,

in

not be so readily acknowledged,

an elective monarchy.

fortes creantiir fortibiis et

I.

(5(9;/w

—

right of inheritance,

partly perhaps on the

principle

— to

the claim of

and thus Henry IV. sought to justify

his


i82

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

usurpation by showing that he had right than Richard

modern James

better hereditary

a

which was not the

case.

that "the

King never

There was sometimes a

was

dies,"

as yet

title

till

sacred unction of Coronation.

Queen Mary

of the anxiety

unknown.

is

the due consecration of the

;

Roman Emperor,

the

Sovereign, like

venture to assume his

it

it

and the did

not

had been sealed by the

That

perhaps one reason

is

said to have betrayed about

oil to

be used at her corona-

Saxon kings were formally

tion.

the

long interregnum, nor was

always closed by the election of the next of kin elected

Still

which we have inherited from the days of

rule,

I.,

II.,

by the Witan,

elected

and the very form of Coronation, both

in

Saxon and

Norman times, included an appeal to popular acceptance. Some of our kings, like Henry VIII. afterwards, assumed the right of bequeathing the crown by

will,

and the Con-

queror based his claims on the will of Edward the Confessor. •Several of them, including five out of the eight Henrys,

reigned in defiance of the

was chosen

John because

his

Lancaster its

in his veins,

security

eccentricities,

of descent.

nephew Arthur was

who had

VIII. himself,

but

strict rule

Stephen

order to exclude a female sovereign, and

in

the blood

still

little

respect did

hereditary principle that he had

his

matrimonial

he show for the

an Act of Parliament

passed to enable him to bequeath the throne by

he actually made a

will,

an Act of Elizabeth's the very family

Henry

could put in an undisputed claim,

was again imperilled by

and so

a boy.

both of York and

will,

afterwards confirmed afresh

reign,

and

by

excluding from the succession

who immediately succeeded

her.

Edward

VI. was induced by Cranmcr, without any Parliamentary


DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS. authority, to

Mary and for

it

make

183

a will excluding his sister Mary.

Both

Elizabeth reigned only by Parliamentary right,

was impossible that both of them could be

and the highest authority both to be

in

legitimate,

the realm had pronounced

Elizabeth went further than

illegitimate.

Henry, and got an Act of Parliament passed making

it

high treason to dispute her right to leave the crown by

Yet within a few hours of her death, James

will.

I.,

who

was doubly excluded by law from the succession, but was

King amid the The nation had though by instinct, and

the heir by lineal descent, was proclaimed universal

acclamations of the people.

settled the

when

matter for

the line of

itself as

Henry VHI. had

lineal representative of

principle of Divine right

and with James H.

it

With James

the

was banished. of course,

about, and what endeavours were

how

made

this

was brought

after the fact to

But meanwhile

bring theory and practice into accord.

important to emphasize the fact that James

our English Sovereigns, did reign right, if

I.

mounted the throne of England,

It is a further question,

is

back on the

failed, fell

Henry VH.

by

he reigned by any right at

virtue

all.

He

I., first

it

of

of Divine

not only

had no Parliamentary claim, but he was expressly excluded

by

the will of one Sovereign

sanction,

made under Parliamentary

and endorsed by a second Act of Parliament

passed in another reign.

It is

true, indeed, that

on his

accession Parliament hastened to acknowledge him, but in

the very act of doing so

it

virtually admitted his right to

be not Parliamentary, but Divine. his

reign declared

Elizabeth, late

" that

The

first

Act passed

in

immediately on the decease of

Queen of England, the imperial Crown of


i84

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

the realm of England, and of

and

all

the kingdoms, dominions,

rights belonging to the same, did, by inJicrcnt birtJiriglit

and lawful and

iindoubted succession, descend and

your Most Excellent Majesty, as being lawfully next

and

sole heir of the blood

This was almost to assert

realm."

come

to

and

lineally, justly,

royal of this

totideni

the

verbis

unknown

principle of hereditary Divine right, hitherto

to

English law or history, and, so far as the immediate succession of the next heir to the throne on the death of his

predecessor, without waiting for any formal ratification of

Parliament or for coronation,

is

But how came

it

ever since.

peacefully recognised

prepared for

to be

it

has held good

universally and

so

doubt the way had

been

by the troubles about the succession

it

the death of

No

}

concerned,

Henry VIII. and the pressure

since

of dangers

from opposite quarters to which the country was believed to be exposed.

Elizabeth, on whatever basis her rights

reposed, clung tenaciously, and with the general assent of

the nation, to her supremacy. assailed,

very

And

from points of view more or

opposite parties

Puritans,

who were

called

respectively

Both

by two

Papists

and

the

two

as

alike denied her religious

and not only held her

astical censure

less cognate,

accordingly denounced

great enemies of the State. authority,

supremacy was

that

to be liable to ecclesi-

and excommunication

in

the abstract, but

held also that, unless she would consent to reform the national

Church

on

their

own

principles,

deserved or had

incurred

divines generally,

and the Jesuits

it.

she actually

Moreover, the scholastic especially,

had always

maintained a theory of popular as opposed to Divine right,

and argued that a power which the people had


DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS. might again

originally given they

resume

;

185

in certain

contingencies

and the question was further complicated by the

Moreover

dispute about the deposing power of the Pope.

the famous Jesuit, Father Parsons, had published, towards the close of Elizabeth's reign, a treatise elaborately discussing the rival pretensions of five different families and

twelve possible claimants, plausibly

dispute

who

after

her

This

succession.

the

death

may

might

help

to

explain why, immediately upon her decease, the Earl of

Northumberland wrote

James that the eyes of

to inform

the whole nation were fixed on him, while

nobody gave a

thought to any of his competitors.

Thus then the way had been paved succession to the throne

was

and

also required,

;

this

popular indeed,

theory

the

of

We

after

Jesuits

the

James's peaceful

became the business of

it

theologians and jurists to supply.

schoolmen, and

for

but some theoretical Justification

of

right

have seen that the

them, maintained

government.

a

Suarez

one of the most distinguished theologians the

Order has produced, wrote a work against the Divine right of Kings, in reply to right of the

James

Pope over

but dealing chiefly with the

heretical sovereigns.

mistake, however, as Mr. that

I.,

Lecky

It

would be a

justly observes, to suppose

the Jesuit divines advocated

popular principles of

government only on theological grounds, or as applied to Protestant countries.

Mariana, e.g.

— perhaps the greatest

and certainly the most impartial writer they can boast has discussed the v/hole question of tyrannicide from an entirely'

independent point of view, nor does he admit the

distinction usually

a lawful

drawn between a tyrant

King who governs

tyrannically)

in rcgiinine

{i. e.

and a tyrant in


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

i86

tititlo,

i. e.

a usurper

who governs

in his

;

or at least he insists that a tyrant

own

interests,

selfish

and not

however legitimate

interests of his people,

pretensions,

is

no better than a usurper, and

deposed, or

if

necessary killed.

how Hooker, who had

It

is

in the

his hereditary-

may be

curious to notice

studied the schoolmen carefully,

modified their theories on this matter, though he does not

go the whole length of the Divine right doctrine wards developed

And

it

by Filmer and

the

after-

Caroline divines.

must be remembered that the Eighth Book of the

Ecclesiastical Polity, in

which he discusses

towards the close of his own

though not published

till

it,

was written

and of Elizabeth's

life

years

fifty

reign,

afterwards.

He

begins by laying down the obviously reasonable principle

"on

that

whom [supreme

power]

therefore "unto kings by right

king

is is

due"; but major

bestowed even at men's

by Divine

it

human

power

this

singulis,

is

do hold

discretion, they likewise

is

universis

right

right,"

and

honour by Divine

not unlimited, for "the

minorr

Hooker allows

then with the old Latin divines that royal power comes originally from the people, but he deserts

the

new theory

that,

just then

once given,

recalled.

He

it

coming

into

them and favours

vogue

in

maintaining

becomes hereditary, and cannot be

expressly rejects, as " strange, untrue, and

unnatural conceits," the opinion that no man's birth can

make him

a king, or that succession, in a

family once

established on the throne, depends on the acceptance or election of the incoming heir

" in

kingdoms hereditary

;

whereas, on the contrary,

birth giveth right unto sovereign

dominion, and the death of the predecessor putteth the successor by blood in seisin."

The

question then arises


DIVINE RIGHT OF KLNGS. whether the body pohtic may,

187

for sufficient cause, with-

draw from the dynasty or the individual sovereign the power once bestowed. Hooker thinks " it must be presumed

when

that,

"

"

grave inconvenience doth grow

thereby," they will be willing to resign

hardly borne out by history

— but

it

—a

presumption

denies that

taken from them " without their consent."

very like the doctrine of " non-resistance

may

but we

hotly contested,

perhaps

"

can be

it

This reads' afterwards so

infer

from the

context that Hooker would have allowed some modifications of

is

at all events

bear

the last three books of the Ecclesiastical

that

Polity were not

may

and we must

in practice,

it

mind

in

published

not have received

no just ground

for the

the author's lifetime, and

in

his

touches, though there

final

doubts sometimes cast on their

authenticity.

then was the

This

James

accession of

the

of

state

when

I.,

divines

time in taking up the question.

condemning

a draft of canons

authority did

terms

in

and dc facto James only snubbed them Cowell, published prerogative "

though

for the

it

of Civil

Professor

to

be

Law

at

a dictionary which

above

all

positive

Cambridge, defined

ment, he neither

make is

laws only

bound

by the laws when they

politic

mercy

by consent of

to ask their consent, nor

are made.

Dr.

the royal

enactments, and

be a merciful policy, and also a

king to

they

as

but,

kings de jure for their pains.

^

the

no

resistance to sovereign

sweeping,

not very clearly distinguish between

Then

the

lost

Convocation prepared

all

sufficiently

controversy at

and lawyers

The House

of

"

Parlia-

bound

Commons

not unnaturally protested against this work, and James


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

iS8

discreetly

as

suppressed

we have

was indebted

— what

came

who had

and one Talbot,

in,

refused

fact

to

he

" a

Popish

the deposing

repudiate

power, was prosecuted by Bacon,

however,

—that

But then again

to the law for his crown.

the Papal controversy recusant,"

acknowledging

it,

was certainly not the

seen,

Attorney-General,

as

before the Star Chamber, and this helped on the growing

tendency to

words, an indefeasible and

assert, at least in

absolute right of the hereditary sovereign.

was strength-

It

ened no doubt by that passionate personal devotion which

we may choose

the Stuarts, however

had an almost unique

many minds by

the aureole of

the brows of " the Blessed

in

First,"

the Stuarts the power of touching for

Evil

went

Divine

out.

right,

and was

the Anglican Prayer Book.

With "

fact,

martyrdom which wreathed

King Chafles the

two centuries enshrined

for

to explain the

of evoking, and consecrated in

gift

"

the King's

But the great exponent of the theory of

who has

therefore been the favourite butt for

the bitterest ridicule of later Liberal assailants from the time

of Bishop Burnet, though Locke did not disdain to answer him, was Sir Robert Filmer, a zealous royalist whose house in

Kent was ten times plundered during the

the reign of Charles

L

written in 1642, was not published

afterwards tions of his

wars

in

till

nearly forty years

when he had long been dead, but other publicahad appeared during

nounced by a very competent merely

civil

His Patriarcha, said to have been

for sagacity

his lifetime,

critic

but for shrewd

argument of the Patriarcha

is

which are pro-

to be remarkable not

common

briefly this.

sense.

He

The

began by

denying the scholastic theory, affirmed alike by "Calvinists

and

Jesuits," and,

we may

add, by Hooker, that sovereign


DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS. power was

originally

bestowed

from which radical sophism

at the will of the multitude,

they inferred

enough that the multitude might

consistently

any lawful cause

for

of which they were themselves to be the judges

—with-

draw or change the powers they had

Filmer

insisted,

on the contrary, that

nature, but from the

all

conferred.

men were

Adam, and then

first

not equal by

the Patriarchs,

had by Divine

institution

after the flood

and subsequent dispersion of the descend-

Noah "we

ants of

power over

their children,

inferred that,

however

have originated

power

find the establishment of regal

throughout the kingdoms of the world

—by

From

."

this or that particular

and

this

he

dynasty might

election, usurpation, or otherwise

— the

"natural right of a supreme father over every multitude"

remained an established principle, and therefore the actual king must always enjoy a Divine right over his subjects^

God may

suffer

him

to

be removed by the instrumentality

of men, but their action in displacing sinful

and damnable.

legitimate heir to

him

" to

independent heads of families," as a

the

kind

whom

so elected claims not his

they pleased.

power

natural

"And

he that

by God, from

he receives his royal charter of a universal father,

though people."

testified

by the

The theory

ministry of

thus stated

is

the

heads of the

not otherwise than

plausible in itself; the real difficulty lay in as

of

as a donative from the

people, but as being substituted properly

whom

prime and

and on them devolved the duty of conferring

the crown afresh on is

not the less

the throne, the sovereign power " es-

cheated," not to the multitude, but

aristocracy,

is

In the case of there being no

expounded by Caroline and Jacobite

its

application,

divines, into

whose


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

I90

treatment of the question

But

here.

ciple

may

it

any

is

it

would take too long

than the modern

defensible

less

to enter

be asked whether Filmer's prin-

fairly

popular

dogma, as repeated and interpreted usque ad nauseam from a thousand

platforms,

For

people.

that

politicians like

power comes from the

all

Gambetta or Victor Hugo the

Divine right of the Republic

as absolute

is

a truth as

ever was the Divine right of Kings for Strafford or Laud.

Bishop Sanderson, one of the very few casuists the Church has produced, maintains a view not greatly

of England differing

from Filmer's

he lays down,

ab ipso Deo popiilo "

;

first, "

in his

De

Obligatione Lcguvi, where

praesidendi in republica potestatem

esse, solo

et

patriae potestatis

the

rule

propaginem

monarch

of a single

fuisse,"

conferenda regia potestate nuUos

fuisse,

ad eam perveniatur," holds at a later

day declined

its

" in

nee quidem esse

Royalty there-

"

quocunque modo

power from God.

Burke

the abstract question

to discuss

the sovereignty of the people

"

finally,

the Divinely ordained form of government, and the

sovereign or dynasty actually in power,

of

which implies

and hence,

;

potuisse, populi partes, certo certius est." is

.

secondly, " dominationem politicam ab initio non

nisi

fore

.

immediate, nuUatemis autem a

",

but to the practical

question, whether anything can justify their resuming the

sovereignty,

whose

would

been

seat has once

peremptorily as Hooker

:

" I

am

fixed,

he replied as

satisfied that

justify such a resumption,

no occasion

which would not equally

authorise a dispensation with any other moral duty, per-

haps with all

all

of

them

the horrors of the

his eves.

together."

first

But Burke wrote with

French Revolution fresh before


XXII.

FESTIVAL OF CHRISTMAS. Christmas nificance is

;

it

has, at least in this country, a double sig-

is

both a secular and a religious

indeed rather curious that, even

character,

it

should

hold

England than anywhere Scotland, which

France,

it

is

is

more

a

else.

still

New

in all

Roman

retains the singular

Catholics

— of the

Catholic

overshadowed by the

Year

in

it is

the following

not solemnly

Catholic countries, where

and appropriate distinction

abolished strangely enough of late years

be said presently.

still,

although

—

among English

Midnight Mass, on which a word

But

in

in Presbyterian

enough, but in

intelligible

It

festival.

ecclesiastical

prominent place

That does not mean of course that

observed in church it

its

Not only

virtually superseded or

great secular anniversary of the

week.

in

shall

holds confessedly

it

the third place in the Christian calendar, yielding only to

Easter and Pentecost,

among any

it

is

certainly not

the boars'-head, the plum-pudding, waits,

made so much of The Yule-log,

other people as with ourselves.

the mince-pies, the

and the mummers, as well as the

" roast

beef of old

England," are specialities of our Christmas, partly of Scandinavian origin. for

An

ingenious reason has been suggested

the precedence which

its

domestic observance has


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

192

established over Easter in the fact that roast beef easily

more

is

and widely procurable than the lamb of the Paschal Another incident of

feast.

its

domestic observance which

appears to be peculiarly Teutonic

—as Santa " Klaus and us — was pro"

Germany may remind

the Christmas-trees of

bably borrowed from the old Pagan

mas superseded

among

the

in

Romans, representing

the

festivals

Church.

early

the

which Christ-

The Saturnalia golden age and

abolishing for a while the distinction of ranks, had been associated with the custom of

and

making presents

Saturnalia closed with the festival of infants

—when

children were presented with as

fictilibns),

Macrobius

the

new

sun,

little

images

less

Then again

day of the winter

solstice

designed to celebrate the birthday of

was of course directly suggestive of the

Christian celebration of the birthday of the True

Righteousness.

{pscillis

more or

Holy Innocents.

festival of the shortest

{dies invicti Solis),

the

— the Sigillaria

coinciding

us,

tells

closely with the Feast of the

Roman

And

following this ancient practice.

Christians for

the

{strencz),

as early as the second century Tertullian reproached

And

hence

Faustus,

the

Sun of

Manichean,

charged the Catholics of his own day with observing the

Pagan

solstitia.

But

it

does not at

points out, that the date of the actually suggested

by

contrary, there can be

these little

all follow,

Christmas

as

Neander

festival

On

older observances.

doubt that

it

was the

arose out of a

very ancient tradition, for which Benedict XIV.

cites vari-

ous early authorities, that the Nativity really took place at this season of the year.

of Prudentius

came

thought that at the

to

In aftertimes the words of a

be

first

literally accepted,

and

hymn it

was

and each recurring Christmas,


FESTIVAL OF CHRISTMAS.

193

"the cry of the Holy Child imparted to the earth a verdant

The words

spring."

of Isaiah

(i.

3)

were interpreted to

not only the presence of the ox and ass in the

signify,

down year

stable of Bethlehem, but that the cattle knelt

by year

Christmas midnight.

at the

told Mr. Brand, in 1790, that he

Eve seen

A

Cornish peasant

had himself on Christmas

the two oldest oxen in their stalls

knees at midnight, and " make a

moan

on their

fall

Christian

like

In the words of the old hymn,

creatures."

" Cognovit bos et asinus

Quod Puer

ei'at

Dominus."

— sounds — formerly existed, and some

Several other touching traditions of this kind

hard to still

them

call

superstitions

survive, both in our

own country and

Europe, such as are noticed by the poet

it

other parts of in

a familiar

passage oi Hamlet "

Some

say, that ever 'gainst that season

comes

Wherein our Saviour's birth The bird of dawning singeth

all

And The

then no planets strike,

No

celebrated.

night long

:

then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad

nights are

fairy takes,

wholesome

;

all

is

;

nor witch hath power to charm.

So hallow' d and so gracious

But best of

is

is

the time.''

the time-honoured traditional usage

enshrined of old in one of the capitularies of Charlemagne,

and to

this

England varied

day nowhere more

religiously observed than in

— of making Christmas the special season

ministries

of

human

kindliness

for those

and beneficence,

which are our response to the Divine message of

on earth" proclaimed

in

"

peace

the angels' midnight song

at

Bethlehem. It is clear

from Church history that

St. Paul's

warning O


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY,

194

"

against the Jewish observance of

times and years

"

days and months, and

was never understood, as some Protest-

ants have imagined, to preclude or discourage the setting

com-

apart of special seasons for religious worship and

There

memoration.

is

evidence indeed in the

ment of Sunday being kept Resurrection, and

Friday

the

by a

Testa-

the weekly feast of the

as

appropriation of

— named stationes

New

m.ilitary

Wednesday and

metaphor

— to com-

memorate the Betrayal and Death of Christ followed very soon

The

after.

yearly anniversary of the Resurrection

had already become an estabhshed and highly prized institution

in

the second century, as

we know from

the

long and angry disputes as to the proper method of fixing

Christmas was added rather

the day.

later,

but certainly

not later than the fourth century, and was closely con-

nected with the proximate feast of the Epiphany, tuted mainly to

commemorate

the Baptism of Christ.

insti-

But

whereas the Epiphany originated in the East, Christmas first

came

some

be observed

to

in the

places, as at Antioch,

Western Church, and

in

introduction into the East

its

met with considerable opposition. The Donatists, on the other hand, " refused to communicate with the Eastern Church, where that star appeared," as us,

because of

demned

its

St.

Augustine

tells

keeping the Epiphany, which they con-

The Gnostics seem, from what

as an innovation.

Clement of Alexandria

says, to

have been particularly

zealous in observing the Epiphany, to which they gave an interpretation of their own, but

the observance was

Church would them.

It

is

their

it is

own

absurd to suppose that

invention.

The

Catholic

certainly not have chosen to borrow

it

of

not impossible however, as Neander suggests,


FESTIVAL OF CHRISTMAS.

195

that the Epiphany, representing the unction of the Messiah

by the Holy

Spirit for

may have

His earthly work,

origin-

ated with the Jewish Christians, while Christmas, which presents

Him

"

God-man, the Word made

as the

whose humanity was from the

first

flesh,

with the Divine

filled

Essence," undoubtedly had a Western origin.

Be

that as

may, these two great

it

festivals of the Birth

and Baptism of Christ, though existing early times, tury,

first

came

when indeed

Church were freely, as

in

germ from very

into general use in the fourth cen-

the public worship and ritual of the

for the first

time able to develop themselves

the pressure of persecution was withdrawn.

Chrysostom speaks,

in

St.

a sermon preached at Antioch, of

the Epiphany as one of the ancient and principal feasts of

the Asiatic Chuich, and the only one having reference to

among men. West

the appearance of the Lord

penetrated into some regions of the Marcellinus records

new meaning, Baptism of

how

But

year at Vienna.

in

the

had

it

it

it

that

acquired a

and, without dropping the reference to the

Christ, the Latin service for the festival dwells to the Gentiles,

time of

the Nativity,

it

was closely associated

symbolized by

And

of the Magi to Bethlehem.

Western form in the

361

Julian kept

passing westwards

mainly on his manifestation the visit

Emperor

By

at all events, for

thus in

its

in idea, as well as

its

celebration, with the greater festival of

It

was

also

"beginning of miracles"

in

taken to commemorate the Public Ministry

the

conversion of water into wine at

Cana of

Galilee,

Christ "manifested forth his glory" to the Gentiles.

day

by the

whereby This

expressly noted in the

triple

significance of the

ritual,

"Tribus miraculis ornatum diem sanctum colimus; O 2

is


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

196

Magos duxit ad praesepium

hodie Stella

aqua factum

ad nuptias

est

hodie vinum ex

;

hodie in Jordane a Joanne

;

Christus baptizari voluit ut salvaret nos."

Nor

is it

unlikely

that the importance attached in the Latin Church to the festival of

may have been

Christmas

prominent place assigned of original

sin,

of infant baptism it

first

;

connected with the

Latin theology to the doctrine

from which

required to be cleansed

whence

in

all

men born

coming

into the world

accounts for the practice

this also

into general use in the

spread to the Eastern Church.

Pope Liberius the Christmas

that in the time of

had become an established usage throughout

Some

Christendom.

years later

thirty

West,

Certain

it

is

festival

Western

Chrysostom

St.

preaching again at Antioch, on Christmas day, speaks of the feast having been recently introduced there, but dwells

on

rapid and general reception, calling

its

(fx-qTpoTTokii)

of

In

"

it

the mother

Epiphany,

and Pentecost derived

their origin

and

some Eastern Churches, as

at Jerusalem

and

Easter, Ascension,

meaning."

it

the festivals, since from

all

Alexandria, the commemoration of the Nativity was for a

time united

in a

common

the Epiphany or "

festival with the celebration of

Theophany

course be explained as another

And

name

which could of

for the Licarnation.

the simultaneous observance of the two festivals was

further justified, according to

Cosmas

strange inference from

Luke

Christ took place on the

day of

One

iii.

Indicopleustes,

by a

23 that the Baptism of

his Birth.

of the most ancient and characteristic distinctions of

the festival in the the

" of Christ,

first

West was

the treble celebration of mass,

taking place at midnight in

the Nativity, which

is

found

in the

memory

of the time of

Sacramcntary of Gclasius


FESTIVAL OF CHRISTMAS. in

the

mass

fifth

The Pope used

century.

in the

197

to celebrate the first

Liberian basihca, the second, at daybreak, in

the church of St. Anastasia, the third in the Vatican

and

;

hence the custom grew up of every priest saying three masses on Christmas day.

Gregory the Great speaks of

these three masses, of which various explanations are given

by

liturgical writers

;

but that of Aquinas

monly adopted, that by the

is

midnight

at

first

most comis

signified

the Everlasting Generation of Christ from the Father, concealed from

human gaze

;

by the second

temporal birth of the Virgin Mary spiritual

nativity

by grace

in the

still

tion,

at Easter also, traces

survive in the forms of the Latin ritual,

perhaps at some other

which has of

festivals,

late years

His His

third

hearts of the faithful.

There was formerly a midnight mass of which

at daybreak,

and by the

;

and

but the Christmas celebra-

been popularised

in

many

Anglican churches, and originated the now universal cus-

tom

of ringing the church bells on Christmas night, has

alone held

place.

its

Christmas night

is

The custom

of carol-singing on

another very old-established and popu-

lar speciality of the festival,

and the wording of many of

our English carols reaches far back into the middle ages. It is curious, as

traditions

Milman

observes,

— sometimes

strange than

how many

of the quaint

very touching, sometimes

reverential

— enshrined

in

Gospels have thus been preserved and handed

own

day.

But

this transmission

mediaeval miracle plays,

some

is

also

due

idea of which

from the Play of the Nativity

in

more

the Apocryphal

down

to our

in part to

may be

the

gained

Longfellow's Golden

Legend ; and with the Christmas miracle plays were associated the

more questionable and boisterous burlesques of


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

198

the

Boy

Bishop, the

tion,

Misrule, and the hke, which

Abbot of

must have ministered

to

merriment rather than to

and must too often have degenerated

profanities as

Scott has depicted at

quhair in the Abbot.

St.

edifica-

into such coarse

Mary's Kenna-

was remarked some years ago

It

on a Christmas sermon of Dean Stanley's at Westminster

Abbey, about the coronation of William the Conqueror, festival, that "

which took place there on that

he seemed

unaware of the day having been rendered memorable by

He might, however,

any previous event." still

earlier historical event of

and more pregnant

significance,

recurrence of the same

Norman

before the 800, during

Crown on

which had marked the

more than two

festival

On

Conquest.

High Mass

have recalled one

an equally secular, but wider

centuries

the Christmas day of

at St. Peter's,

Leo HI. placed the

the head of Charlemagne, and thus consecrated

the revival or inception, as

Holy Roman Empire. Christmas, while

it

our great domestic'

we may choose

to view

it,

of the

is

a sense therefore in which

has become

from immemorial usage

There

festival,

may be

also regarded as the

birthday of the Christian State, as well as of the Church.


XXIII.

MIRACLE PLAYS. It has

come

to pass

from various causes, during the

last

twenty or thirty years, that the Passionsspiel at Ober-

Ammergau, formerly known only

as a local religious so-

lemnity, has risen into a centre of interest and attraction,

not only for England, but for the whole Christian world.^

And

this naturally suggests

some inquiry

into the origin

and history of those Mysteries or Miracle Plays once so

common

throughout Europe, but of which this decennial

celebration in an obscure Tyrolese valley solitary

memento

;

for

is

now

we cannot reckon

in

the almost

the

same

V The performance of 1850 was described by the Baroness Tautphsus in a novel entitled Quits, -which first drew attention to the subject in England.

among them Dean his experiences in

In i860 there were several English visitors, and Dean Milman. The former recorded

Stanley and

an

article in

Macmillan's Magazine, the

latter in

a

note to the third edition of Latin Christianity (vol. ix. p. 180), where he relates, with an enthusiasm unusual in his pages, how he had " never witnessed a performance more striking for its scenic effect," or " passed

a day in more absorbed and unwearied attention." After this there was naturally a rush of visitors from England, as well as elsewhere, to the next decennial celebration in 1870, which moreover was interrupted by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war at the end of July, and had therefore to be continued in the August and September of 1871.

My own

Recollections of

Ober-Amviergau

in

describes a visit paid in the August of that year.

187

1

(Rivingtons),


200

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

category the grotesque, not to say profane, representations of sacred subjects occasionally interpolated into the dramatic

programme

some Spanish

at

Passion Play

is

not indeed

The Ammergau

theatres.

a mediaeval institution, but

itself

it can only be rightly understood in connexion with those popular " Mysteries " and " Moralities " of the middle ages,

and they again must be traced back to a more remote

The drama,

antiquity and to earlier forms of faith.

been justly nature to

said,

— that

based on

of imitation

And

any age or people.

early existence

Greece and

in

it

which

hence there

among the most

Not only was

nations. in

is

instinct

in

diverse

is

not peculiar

evidence of

is

high repute at the same time

Hindostan, but even the Chinese have theatre,

and the

ancient Peruvians had both tragedies and comedies.

selves.

in

But there

is

a further point in

though

it is

common among

all

we have any

most conspicuously brought out

in the

known

to us.

case of the Greek drama, which

They seem,

And

each case have invented the drama for them-

the earliest dramatic performances of which record,

its

and even the rudest

from time immemorial possessed a regular

they must

as has

human

a principle inherent in

is

the best

like ancient art generally, to

a religious origin and significance.

have always had

Mythology supplied

the materials alike for the Comic and the Tragic Muse,

and the frequently recurring deities

afforded

the occasion

festivals of local or national

for

Music and poetry, wherever they enlisted in the service of religion,

public representations. exist,

are sure to be

and with an agricultural

population like that of early Greece, Dionysos, the god of the vineyard, held necessarily a prominent place in the national worship.

The hymns sung round

the festal altar.


MIRACLE PLAYS. whether solemn or jocose, gradually developed into artistic

ode, with the Satyric chorus,

tragedy, and the

comedy

the

by Greek

mythological origin

;

became the

basis of

Greek

song was expanded into the

Phallic

We

of Aristophanes,

tragedies

know

of but two historical

which therefore have not a

poets,

the Capture of Miletus by Phrynichus,

And

and the Persiaus of ^schylus. the

all

splendours of the drama; the stately dithyrambic

the exception proves

Phrynichus was fined by the Athenians for

rule.

harrowing their feelings by the representation of contemporary misfortunes.

It

must be remembered too that the

Eleusinian and other Mysteries of ancient Greece, to which the initiated alone were admitted, consisted, as far as any-

thing can be ascertained about them, mainly of symbolical

and dramatic representations.

And

we touch on

here

the

connecting link between the classical and Christian drama.

The

early Fathers of the Church, whether with or with-

out sufficient information

it

may

be

determine,

difficult to

invariably denounce the Greek Mysteries in the strongest

Even

terms as hotbeds of the grossest obscenity.

Clement of Alexandria, with philosophy,

is

no exception.

all his

And

St.

admiration of Greek

for

many

centuries no

Christian could be present at the theatre without forfeiting his religious position

baptized without the authorities

and

first

of the

privileges,

and no actor could be But

renouncing his profession.

Church were unsparing

in

if

their

denunciation alike of the Mysteries and of the Stage, they

were too wise to ignore the human

instincts to

drama appeals. They put forward Mysteries of a counter-attraction to these old heathen Christian

rites,

drama grew up by degrees on

which the

their

own

as

and thus the

the ruins of the


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

202

Greek

ment

;

During the ages of persecution there was

theatre.

comparatively

scope for such a process of develop-

little

yet even then a considerable dramatic element

be traced

may

and the modes

in the earliest Christian liturgies,

And no

of celebrating the greater Church festivals.

did the Church emerge from the Catacombs than

sooner

we

find

not only a rapid elaboration of ceremonial splendour in worship, but

direct attempts

also

Greek tragedians on of this

their

given in the " Dying Christ

is

which was acted

in

compete with the

to

An

own ground.

church at Constantinople, partly

tableaux vivants and

partly

by

dialogue.

still

in

Gregory dance

performed at Easter before the high altar of the

cathedral at Seville, which of a Greek chorus.

It

is

said to recall the

was thus

movements

the East that these

in

plays originated, and they were only imported

religious

at a later date, probably

by the Crusaders,

There

Germany

as early as the time of

are,

into

Western

however, records of convent plays

Europe.

earliest

St.

A solemn

Nazianzen was another sacred dramatist. is

early instance

of St. Chrysostom,

"

in

Charlemagne, though the

specimen of such compositions

manuscript of twelve dramas written

in

still

extant

is

a

Terentian Latin by

Hrotsvitha, abbess of Gandersheim in the tenth century,

and performed delight

and

in

her convent, as

edification of the nuns."

soon became popular so than in

England.

all

It

in

Germany.

that "Miracle" or

are told, " to

the

Such representations

over Europe, and nowhere more

may be

particularly the " Mysteries

and

we

"

interesting to notice

performed

Strictly speaking,

in it

our

more

own country

should be said,

"Mystery Play" designates a

repre-

sentation based on the Lives of the Saints, as distinguished


MIRACLE PLAYS. from the

"

Passion Play," which represented the sufferings

of Christ;

adhered

203

but the distinction of terms

not always

is

to.

Matthew Paris tells us that the story of St. Catharine was dramatized by one Geoffrey, master of a school at Dunstable, afterwards Abbot of St. Albans, and acted by his

boys early

in the twelfth century.

which has come down posed

in

to us

is

Latin two centuries

But the

later, in

play

which the principal

dramatis personcE are our Lord, Satan,

The

earliest

the Harrozving of Hell, com-

Adam, and

Eve.

so-called " Chester Mysteries," of about a century later

again, are the best

They

known

of the English Miracle Plays.

include both a tragic and comic element, and in fact

these performances seem always to have had a tendency, especially

in

England, to

degenerate into such coarse

buffoonery, as Longfellow has sought to reproduce in the "

Gaudiolum of Monks"

in the

to their often being placed under the

authority.

them

This was

Golden Legend.

no doubt one element of their popularity, but

ban of

it

also led

ecclesiastical

Bishop Grandison, of Exeter, expressly forbade

as early as 1360.

But they were too popular both

with the Court and the masses to be easily put down.

Edward IIL was

passionately addicted to such spectacles,

and appears to have himself taken part judge from an inventory of

articles

in

used

them,

in

if

we may

a play acted at

Guildford at Christmas 1347, which includes mention of " a

harness of white buckram, inlaid with silver

— namely,

a

tunic and shield, with the King's motto, 'Hay, hay, the

Wythe Swan, by God's soul I am thy of the King himself." To the Miracle

man,' for the use

Plays succeeded

"Moralities," in which abstract qualities— Justice, Mercy,


204

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

and the

like

—were personified, and these

in turn led to the

representation of real persons on the stage.

In the fierce

contests of the Reformation, the drama, like the pulpit,

eagerly appropriated attack.

by both

The marriage

of Luther with a nun was satirized

So profane

Latin Morality at Gray's Inn in 1529.

in a

was

mutual

sides for purposes of

and indecent were some of the controversial plays of the Reforming party that they were forbidden by the Privy Council, not only under

under the

Henry VIII. and Mary, but even

fiercely Protestant

still

down

living

to the time of Charles

who can remember

Miracle Play in their childhood

were

in

Wales.

at first

always

Edward

VI.,"

There are old men

I.

seeing something in

remote country

of England, as for instance in Cornwall of the kind was reported not

Chapel

" B.

But they held their ground never-

on pain of imprisonment. theless

sway of the

We have

;

like

a

districts

and a performance

many years ago

in a

Dissenting

seen that these Miracle Plays

in Latin.

They came, however,

before

long to be translated into the vernacular both in England

and Germany. One of the

earliest of the

German Mysteries

Lament of the Virgin, which was acted in church on Good Friday, and to this succeeded afterwards the is

the

" Passion Plays," representing the death

of Christ.

In

and resurrection

the fourteenth century the performances

were transferred from the church to the street and marketplace, is

and the number of actors largely increased.

There

a curious history attached to one of the most famous

of these early

German

the

plays,

Virgins, which was performed

at

celebrate the restoration of peace. eric,

named

the Joyful,

was

Tragedy of the Ten Eisenach

in

1332, to

The Landgrave Fred-

present,

and was terribly


MIRACLE PLAYS.

205

alarmed and angered by the close of the drama, where the Foolish Virgins are represented as appealing in vain to the

and

intercession of the Blessed Virgin, into hell, notwithstanding her

What means

"

pardon them.

finally thrust

entreaties

God

this, if

down

her Son to

to will

not pity us

even when Mary and the Saints intercede.^" he exclaimed.

His

fright

and indignation threw him

from which he never recovered

So painfully

afterwards.

become priest

in

on the

realistic

Germany, that

who took

in

still

fit

of apoplexy,

two years

his death

did these Passion Plays

one acted at Metz

priest,

narrowly escaped hanging himself. is

into a

in

1437 the

the principal part nearly died of exhaustion

and another

cross,

till

who represented Judas, The Crucifixion scene

found very trying to the principal performer at

Ammergau, who has

to

remain some twenty minutes on

the cross, and a younger actor had to be substituted in

consequence

in

for the

1870

who had taken

person

that

part in the three previous celebrations of the decennial solemnity. It is

remarkable that

old Miracle Plays

this

1633 a deadly plague raged three

in

The God would

inhabitants then

made

a solemn

vow

in

thankfulness for

mercies, represent the Passion of the Redeemer,

that not a single death occurred after this it

that,

hear their prayer and remove the pestilence,

they would every tenth year,

and

In

the Ammerthal, and" within

weeks eighty-four of the small community were

corpses. if

one remaining memorial of the

of comparatively recent origin.

is

His

It is said

vow was made, The King

has been religiously observed ever since.

of Bavaria has to give his sanction every time

performance, and

in

1

8 10

an attempt was

made

for

the

to put

it


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

2o6

down by

a general prohibition of

all

The

Miracle Plays.

Munich

inhabitants sent a deputation to

cause before King Louis, but in vain

plead their

to

he was, however,

;

induced to relent by the intervention of his chaplain, and

no

difficulty has since occurred

recurrence of the solemnity. suntide

till

was

interrupted, as in

summoned tions

On

1870,

to join the army,

It is a reniarkable

one previous occasion

by the performers being

and the omitted representa-

were then also supplied

who were

from Whit-

the end of September, being repeated on most

of the intervening Sundays. it

to disturb the periodical

It usually lasts

the following summer.

in

circumstance that of some sixty actors

called away, to take part in the Franco-Prussian

war, only seven were killed, and none of those taking any

important part were included

among

the

This

slain.

is

not

the place to discuss at length the obvious objections raised against dramatizing the Passion altogether, as derogatory to the sacredness of the subject.

Nor does

the precedent,

often noticed, of the dramatic character of the offices of the

Holy Week

Latin ritual offer a more than partial reply.

That such representations become injurious to those concerned

if

other than a religious spirit

is

at

once profane and

witnessed or enacted in any self-evident.

And

it

may

not unnaturally be feared that, in an age like ours, the

growing popularity of the eventually prove fatal to ever witnessed it

it

could

its

fail

Ammergau permanence

Passionsspiel will ;

but few

who have

to regard such a contingency,

occurs, as matter of very serious regret.

To

if

the simple

and devout denizens of that secluded mountain

village

the decennial solemnity as yet manifestly continues to be,

what

it

has ever been, not an occasion of histrionic display


MIRACLE PLAYS. or pecuniary profit, but

—

207

the words of the pious editor

in

of one of the local text-books

—" a

from

religious duty,

which they neither can be nor wish to be dispensed by any Their most general ordinary occupa-

earthly authority,"

tion as wood-carvers, chiefly of devotional objects, helps of

course to develop both their artistic and religious instincts,

and thus the study of the great

religious painters,

which

is

enjoined on those selected for the principal parts in the Play, especially for the highest,

labour of love. already quoted

And we may is

comes natural

to

them

as a

well hope that the writer

also at least substantially correct in the

expression of his charitable

belief,

that "all

who have

hitherto been spectators of the Passionsspiel have returned

home

nobler and better men."

that the fault, where

can

fail

it is

not

to be both edified

to witness the

drama

It

may

so, is their

safely

be asserted

own, and that none

and benefited who are content

in the spirit of those

who

enact

it.


XXIV. ORIGIN

The

festival

AND GROWTH OF

UNIVERSITIES.

observed at Munich, in August 1872, with

every circumstance of royal and popular solemnity, to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of the foundation

of the University, was naturally regarded in

an event of national

The

interest.

Germany

as

University, originally

founded at Ingoldstadt by Duke Albert

in

1472, trans-

ferred in the beginning of the present century to Landshut,

and then, twenty-six years Louis,

is

later,

the oldest and

one of

important of the German Universities

probably of those

And

in

Munich, by King

to still

one of the most

—the most important

Southern and Catholic Germany.

although the festival was of a strictly academical and

not ecclesiastical character, tional significance

from the

no doubt derived some addi-

it

fact of

Bavaria being just then

the centre of the Old Catholic movement, and from the

venerable Dr. Dollinger having been called by an almost

unanimous vote of Magnificiis

on

his colleagues to

the

occasion.

the office of Rector

fill

His

speech,

which

was

received with continuous and enthusiastic applause from all

his

interest.

hearers, It

young and old

was of course

alike,

has a permanent

to be expected that he

would

say something of the antecedents and distinctions of the


GROWTH OF

ORIGIN AND

UNIVERSITIES.

209

University which he was there to represent, and of which

he has

for so

many

years been a conspicuous ornament.

But he did -more than

He

this.

took the opportunity to

give what in less experienced hands might have been a

mere and

superficial sketch, while in reality

appreciation

critical

University education

in

origin

Europe.

That

which few men are so well qualified handled

it

contains a vivid

it

the

of

and growth of a subject on

is

to speak,

and he

with that depth and accuracy of learning, that

intellectual grasp

and breadth of moral sympathy, and that

ardent but intelligent patriotism, which will at once be

who

are

his writings.

It

recognised as characteristic of the speaker familiar with

him personally or through

by

all

worth while to put on record here the salient points of

is

a discourse which occupied nearly two hours

and which well deserves to be read are in a position to study

it

tion [of national unity a thousand years

Empire. the

first

revival in 1S71

its

delivery,

for themselves.^

Dr. Dollinger begins by referring to the

the German, and

in

by those who

in full

first

consolida-

ago under Louis

in the

new German

Since then the University of Munich has been to celebrate

its

anniversary, which

thus attains

a sort of national importance, and the more so as the differ-

German

ent

Universities are closely united, and there

frequent interchange of professors and students

The

a

corporate idea which was so powerful in the middle

ages, but

1

is

among them.

was wholly wanting under the old governments,

This discourse of Dr. Dollinger's has been collated,

for the

present

purpose, with an earlier one of his on the same subject, delivered before the University of

Munich

in 1867,

when

also

he held the

of Rector.

P

office


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

2IO

whether democratic or Imperial, of Greece and Rome, could alone

make

as independent privileges,

possible the foundation of Universities

own

communities, with their

between teachers and taught.

Among

and

rights

bound together by a community of

interests

such institutions

the University of Paris, dating from early

in

the thirteenth

century, for a long time stood supreme, and Paris became, far

more than Rome, the

Europe.

It

sacerdotium, and studiiim.

Far

Universities,

intellectual metropolis of

was a common saying

Germany different

that, as Italy

Western had the

the iniperiuin, France had the character

in

were the

which began to be founded

Italian

the twelfth

in

century, but never approached the theological and literary

eminence of Paris and Oxford, and made no claim to the universality of teaching

now

associated with the

name

they were schools of one or two sciences only, the

;

first

established, at Salerno, being a school of medicine only their

aim was

practical,

and the studies principally

vated were jurisprudence and canon law.

culti-

Their origin

and system were of a casual and purely democratic kind, without any recognised authority and position or State.

Two

or three professors of canon

and medicine combined

to

Church

in

and

civil

gradually gathered round them, but best fluctuating and uncertain.

its

prosperity was at

Leo X. founded

the Sapi-

enza with eighty-eight professors, but a few years

Clement VII. diverted the endowments its

days of prosperity were gone

at these Universities

later

to other objects,

for ever.

The

and

teachers

had no corporate status or dignity,

and were looked on simply of a marketable

law

form a University, and students

commodity

as paid agents for the supply ;

there was no genius

loci,

as


GROWTH OF

ORIGIN AND

no sense of pride

at Oxford, tion

among

either

in

UNIVERSITIES.

211

belonging to a great institu-

the teachers or the taught.

Bologna,

however, has an historical importance as the birthplace

and chief home of the

sciences

allied

of

Roman

civil

law and canon law, which exercised so large an influence

on the development of the Papal autocracy; there were 20,000 students of law there.

Innocent

III.,

and Innocent

the

maxims

supposed to to law.

;

there, too, the Ger-

learnt lessons of absolutism derived from

of the old inherit,

Paris,

III.,

IV., the great founders of the

system, had taught or studied there

man Emperors

1262

in

Alexander

Roman Empire which

and openly proclaimed

they were

their superiority

however, exerted a more direct influence

than the Italian Universities on the national

life

many, through the crowds of students who flocked

of Gerthither,

having as yet no Universities of their own, and who brought

back with them the French return

;

many men

spirit

Even

the study of theology.

Yet even

Paris

one, and the entire absence of

and the

left

unbounded room

forgeries. first

Ambassador says till

latterly

it

had

had no Faculty

But everywhere the curriculum was a very narrow

of Law.

sense

their

so late as the end of the

sixteenth century the Venetian

30,000 students.

and language on

spent fifteen or sixteen years there in

Two

men,

in

for

any

historical

and

critical

the dominance of fiction

Germany and England, made Albert the Great, who ice

attempt to break the

;

has been not inaptly called the Humboldt of his age, and

Roger Bacon, both of

whom

laboured to introduce the

study of natural science, while Roger Bacon also paved the

way

for the cultivation of

And now

the time was

Greek

come

literature. for

Germany

to take her

P 2


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

212

part

in

the

academical of

Universities

Europe.

of

life

own no founder and no

ancient

cognisable date of institution

But

"they were a natural growth." ^ secular and spiritual,

The

Oxford, Cambridge, and Bologna

Paris,

who

in the

it

was the

—

princes,

middle of the fourteenth

century began to establish Universities

in

Germany, and the

municipal authorities afterwards followed their example.

The and

first is

was founded

said to have

the century

man

;

at

Prague

but the quarrels between the Czech and Ger-

students, which have lasted

made an end

1348 by Charles IV.,

in

numbered 40,000 students by the end of

of

its

down

prosperity.

to our

own

day, soon

In the same century were

founded the Universities of Vienna, Heidelberg, Cologne,

and

Erfurt, all of

ecclesiastical

which were originally to a great degree

institutions,

of Church benefices.

professors of canon law.

Popes evoked a

spirit

and the German Paris,

and supported by the revenues

They

often

all

six

anti-

of reform throughout the Church,

Universities, following in

the

wake

of

threw themselves into the movement of which Gerson

and D'Ailly were the acknowledged in

had no fewer than

But the great schism of the

leaders,

and

all

united

proclaiming the superiority of Councils to Popes.

hope of an

effective

tion of Frederick III. to the Papal party,

and he forced the

University of Vienna, by the threat of withdrawing 1 The foundation Durham, who died

of University College in 1249,

But

reform was shattered by the transi-

marks the

its

by a bequest of William of

real beginning of the Univer-

Oxford as such, about half a century after the first formal recogdiploma of Philip Augustus, though there had been schools at Oxford for many centuries before. And there is good reason for believing that the original statutes were borro^yed almost wholesale from Paris.

sity oi

nition of the University of Paris in the


GROWTH OF

ORIGIN AND

UNIVERSITIES.

endowments, to renounce the Council of a distinct but cognate

Oxford by Wycliff, and was taken up

Meanwhile

Basle.

movement had been

213

originated at

Prague by Huss

at

with greater immediate success, while a third University, that of Wittenberg, eventually gave it

it

the form in which

has exercised so momentous an influence on the subse-

The

quent history of the Church.

Germany

rather than in Italy,

revival of classical literature which,

alliance

Universities, too, in

became the

nurseries of that

however

such an

little

was intended or acknowledged on

either

more German

Universities,

at

side,

Three

materially aided the progress of the Reformation.

Greifswald, Freiburg, and

Basle, were founded shortly before Ingoldstadt (in 1472),

and Tiibingen a of

them

all,

little later.

Paris

was the common mother

and Ingoldstadt borrowed

its

statutes from

Vienna, which had received them from Paris.

dark period

in

the political

life

of

Germany

It ;

was a

but for a

time, from 1494 to 15 18, Ingoldstadt gained celebrity for its

classical

teaching under Conrad Celtes, Locher, and

Reuchlin, and the historian Aventin was

The number

guished ornament. not large. mediaeval

It

may

be said that the

universities

illustrates

its

most

distin-

of students, however, was history

the distinctive

character of England, France, and Germany.

of these national

England,

which abjured centralisation, and has ever pursued a twofold aim,

of practical utility and

political

freedom, has

naturally had two Universities, correcting and supplement-

ing each other, which retain to this day their independent constitution,

and represent respectively

tendencies of the the mathematical."

" the

two leading

English mind, the ecclesiastical and

On

the other hand, the centralising


214

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

make

tendencies of the nation, which

where an educated Frenchman cares sion in

its

Germany

one University seated

Paris the only place

to live, found expres-

in

the metropolis.

In

the decentralising tendencies {particularismtis),

which gradually dissolved the unity both of the Empire

and the Church,

Then came

number

led to the separate foundation of a

of small Universities in various

cities.

the Reformation, of which Wittenberg was

new

the centre, and the

Universities of Marburg, Konigs-

thum, Jena, Altdorf, and Helmstadt were founded

for its

promotion, while Leipsic, Rostock, Greifswald, and Heidel-

berg joined the movement.

adhered to the old

faith,

Prague and Vienna, which

were almost deserted, and Ingold-

stadt became, and continued for

two

centuries,

chief strongholds of Catholicism; there, as at

all

Universities, Catholic or Protestant, theology

every other Faculty.

one of the

the

German

overshadowed

With the Reformation had

in fact

sprung up a new order of things, and the German-Universities

became

"

the arsenals where the weapons of war were forged,

and often the

battle-fields

rival doctrines

ingly,

where the victory or defeat of the

The German

was decided."

who always assumed

their subjects, used

them

princes accord-

the right to fix the faith of

— as the Jesuits of the period used pulpit — as

the confessional, and Lutheran preachers the instriunenta dontinationis, keeping in their

appointment

professorial

own hands

the

those

of

especially

German Universities survived " German history," and the Thirty

that the

period of

chairs,

All that can be said of the seventeenth century

theology. is

to

that

darkest

Years'

War

but the Catholic Universities scarcely deserved the name, while

the

Protestant

were completely subordinated

to


GROWTH OF

ORIGIN AND

UNIVERSITIES.

and antipathies, and

theological interests

their history

215

the

is

history of the conflict between Lutheran orthodoxy, on the

one hand, and Calvinism, Syncretism, and Pietism on the

Up

other.

lectures

to the beginning of the eighteenth century all

were delivered

real originality

the last century

hands of

in the

in

Latin, which

founded at Berlin the

men

;

any In

among

first

In 18 10 the King of

German

University

were included

earliest professors

its

Humboldt, Wolff, Fichte, Schleiermaeker, and

like

Savigny

to

which had no confessional character

since the Reformation

or -object, and

fatal

Kant made Konigsberg famous, and Jena Fichte and Schelling became the theatre

of a great philosophical movement. Prussia

was

and comprehensiveness of teaching.

it

now numbers over 2000 students. With the German Universities had received

eighteenth century the a

new

lease of

life,

Berlin and Bonn.

which culminated It

in the foundations of

curious that, at a period of such

is

intense theological energy throughout Europe, Paris, which

had long been "the Queen

in that region to

whose decisions

every one submitted," entered on her period of decline.

But the causes of decay were external, and are not difficult The place itself, which was now the constant to explain. scene of

civil

able

learning.

for

strife

and bloodshed, was most unfavourBut,

more than

that,

the immediate

neighbourhood of a Court which claimed supreme control over the minds and consciences, as well as the its

subjects,

impossible.

made Thus

lives,

of

all

freedom of writing and teaching

in

1624 a Royal decree forbade on

pain of death any divergence from Aristotelian doctrines

on physical and metaphysical subjects, and Louis XIV.

would have instantly lodged

in the Bastille

any professor


2i6

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

who

contradicted his opinions.

It is

not wonderful then

that during the seventeenth century Paris lost nine out

of her forty colleges, or that, while two-thirds of the most distinguished

German writers belong to the Universities, name eminent in French literature since

scarcely a single

1660

is

connected with the Parisian

of faith at

last

or'

any other French

Enforced subscription to arbitrary professions

University.

completed the work of degradation, and when the University

with the destruction

fell

of her

property, the event was hardly noticed, nor has any French

Government

since the Revolution thought of restoring

it

Louvain, which had long been a

etiam pcriere ruincB.

flourishing University almost

fit

to

compete with

Paris,

was

strangled under a similar system of coercion, and her one great scholar in the last century,

when an

for his life

old

Van Espen, had

to fly

Leyden, on

of eighty-two.

by the Prince of Orange, and with

the other hand, founded far smaller resources, has

scholars,

man

produced a long

and known no period of decay

and Portuguese

Universities,

have suffered a

total

and

;

line of illustrious

while the Spanish

which once stood so high,

tragical

eclipse.

The Scotch

Universities are very inferior to the English, and the North

American, which are simply

institutions

for

conferring

degrees in law and theology, do not deserve the name.

Nor can any very high

praise be accorded to those

Denmark, Holland, Belgium, are as yet a

There

is

mere

exotic,

or Sweden.

of

In Russia they

imported from Germany.

no need here to follow Dr. Dollinger through

the long catalogue of illustrious philosophers, linguists, historians, w<7/^r,

and divines who have adorned

his

own

aluia

and who naturally found honourableand appreciative


GROWTH OF

ORIGIN AND mention on such

UNIVERSITIES.

an occasion.

includes

It

217

Schelling,

Baader, Savigny, Feuerbach, Stahl, Windischmann, Sailer,

Mohler, and

many

other memorable, though less widely

When

celebrated, names.

he comes

on the present and future of

conclusion to dwell

in

his country,

he points, as might

be expected, with pardonable pride to the bright prospect

opened before her through the restoration

of political unity,

and to the mission assigned by general consent

Germans of enriching other nations out of the their

scientific

and

remembered that

literary wealth

in

though

;

it

to the

fulness of

must be

much

former ages they have learnt

successively from Italy, from France, and from England.

He

and unwearied pursuit of

trusts that the single-minded

truth for

its

own sake

of Germany,

tion

centralisation

always continue to be a distinc-

will

and that she

which,

in

avoid that vicious

will

intellectual

culture

point

— too

much

forgotten

in

imitation

of his

own, where he thinks that the College partially

supply a manifest and serious defect. is

his

— he earnestly

the example of the English Universities to the

unknown except

system,

other

in

important

some recent schemes of

academical reform at Oxford and Cambridge

commends

as

On one

matters, has proved the ruin of France.

caution

against

the

danger

Tiibingen,

at

And

no

would

less earnest

of sensualism

and

materialism incident to a widespread cultivation of the natural sciences, especially

among

the half-educated, which

would inevitably prove the harbinger of national decay. Against that danger the Universities, to

their

defence. this

high position

and

duties,

if

only they are true

will

provide a sure

"Let us then," are the concluding words of

most instructive and eloquent discourse,

"

continue to


2i8

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

labour indefatigably,

in

a pure scientific

loyal self-devotion, to build

That

and with truth.

be an imperishable monument, surviving

will

changes

spirit,

up the one temple of

of

Germany."

fortune,

of

the

honour

and

greatness

all

of


XXV. JEWISH PATRIOTISM.

A

QUESTION was debated some years ago

teenth Ccntnry,

beyond the

which has an

particular

historical

occasion

and

in

the Nine-

practical interest

which suggested

It

it.

opens out indeed an inquiry of such wide significance and bearings alike in a religious, a national, and an historical sense, that a very cursory treatment of

its

leading speciali-

ties

can alone be attempted within our present

The

point in dispute

may

be thus stated.

It is

limits.

maintained

on one side that the Jews are simply a religious

sect,

standing in the same relation as any other religious sect

say Unitarians or Methodists

— to their countrymen, having

the same stake in the national welfare, and the same claim

on the privileges and rights of this view, as represented all

"

desire to curtail

the

citizens.

The opponents

of

by Mr. Goldwin Smith, disclaim civil

'

privileges of Jews.

They

do not wish to repeal Jewish any more than Catholic

Emancipation" religious party

please, but

first

but just as they look suspiciously on that

;

who

profess

to be "

Englishmen,

Catholics," so they think there

is

if

you

some-

thing in the specific character of Judaism that requires political action to is

its

be watched with a jealousy which there

no need to exercise over the

political

action of the


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

220

members of any other Judaism

is

a religious

not, like

community,

religious

Methodism

but a distinction of race

belief,

because

or Unitarianism, merely also.

does

It

not quite meet this difficulty to ask, with Dr. Adler, than

whom own

no more competent authority can be found on his

side of the question,

Jewish religion

whether

" the sacred

books of the

to inculcate the virtue of patriotism "

fail

There can be no doubt whatever that patriotism

more strongly inculcated and

ment than

the

in

New.

illustrated in the

But then

it

is

is

?

far

Old Testa-

the patriotism of

the Jewish nation, as such, which was then indissolubly

bound up with it,

"

As Mr. Lecky

their religious belief.

puts

In Judsea the spirit of patriotism and of sect were

united

;

each intensified

intolerance which

the

and

other,

the

exclusive

the result of each existed with double

is

The grandest

religious traditions of the

Jews

were associated with their national triumphs, and

the

virulence."

Mosaic

Law

distinctions

accepts and

consecrates

rules of dealing with strangers is

equally and

maintain and those

Mosaic dispensation that

it

national

which are certainly abhorrent to modern ideas

of the universal brotherhood of man,

fact

exclusive

inevitably

who deny ;

as, e.ÂŁ^., in

the different

and with countrymen. admitted

the Divine authorship of the

though the former reasonably

marks a temporary and necessary stage

gradual education of mankind, and they in defence of this view to

This

by those who

the

clear

may

insist

in

the

justly point

superiority

of the

Hebrew over contemporary heathen systems in the matter It is further argued by of humane and equitable dealing. Mr. Goldwin Smith, as evidencing the exclusively national character of the Jewish religion, that

Warburton

is

clearly


JEWISH PATRIOTISM. maintaining that there

right in

is

no trace

Testament of the doctrine of a future doubt some ground

in

Old

the

There

Hfe.

no

is

Warburton's contention, but his

for

statements in the Divine Legation are as grossly exaggerated as the ingenious paradox he built upon them

However,

eccentric.

may be

it

be the value of the admission

admitted

— whatever

— that temporal

is

may

blessings are

the main inducements to righteousness held out under the

Old Law.

The

point

dwelt on, with his usual vigour

is

and subtlety of thought, by a writer as unlike Warburton as the late Professor Mozley, in one of his

So

essays.

far then,

while patriotism

prominent characteristic of Judaism, ing the

Hebrew people

in close

it is

bonds of

relationship with each other, but

posthumous

unquestionably a

is

a patriotism bindreligious

would seem

and

civil

at first sight

likely rather to hinder than to help their fusion into

one

homogeneous body with the various nations among whom their lot may be cast in their present state of dispersion. And when we speak to-day of the patriotism of the Jews,

we mean of course to inquire, not whether they were when they dwelt as one nation under the shadow

patriotic

of the Temple, of which there can be no sort of doubt, but

whether they are

to

likely

be patriotic citizens now of

England or France or any other European country where they have found a home. If

we look back on

destruction of the

the history of the Jews since the

Temple

they were regarded

in

of Jerusalem,

we

shall find that

a peculiar light, quite differently

from any other class of

religionists, first in

Empire, and then

community of

in the

which gradually took

its

place.

the

Roman

Christian States

Under the Empire they


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

222

were not subjected to such severe and persistent persecution as the Christians

and Mr. Lecky

;

probably right

is

thinking that this was mainly owing to the tribal and

in

which gave them

" inexpansive " nature of their religion,

no desire to direct

and constant

On

tutions.

and so

proselytise,

far

collision with

the other hand,

is

it

literature of the period that they

hatred and contempt of their

brought them into

Roman

from the

clear

in

the

classical

had incurred the deepest

Roman

masters

reacted on the popular estimate of the

were long regarded

less

ideas and insti-

Empire

and

;

this

Christians, v/ho

as

a

Jewish

sect,

with the additional demerit of an obstinate passion for

propagandism. Christians,

who

To

this

it

must be added that the early

generally viewed the Empire as a special

embodiment of Antichrist, could

not, in spite of their rigid

view of the duty of absolute submission to authority,

any very ardent sympathy and

When

for its welfare.

ecclesiastical organization of mediseval

succeeded to the rule of Pagan Rome,

we

feel

the civil

Europe had still

find

the

Jews holding an exceptional position everywhere, which, however, exposed them

now

not only to bitterer obloquy

but to sharper persecution than other dissentient is fair

St.

to

remember

Bernard

that several Popes and Saints

— creditably

sects.

—

It

as, e.g.,

exerted themselves to screen the

victims of so deep and universal an unpopularity, but, as

a

rule,

Jews were looked upon with even a deeper detesta-

tion than the

most detested

heretical sects.

Intermarriage

with them was denounced as a horrible pollution, and in

France and Spain any one taking a Jewish mistress was

liable to

be burnt to death.

St.

Thomas Aquinas main-

tained that their property might at any time be confiscated.


JEWISH PATRIOTISM. because

it

was gained by usury.

moment excusing subjected,

it

is

Without of course

for a

the horrible cruelties to which they were

difficult to believe that there

the character of the race to

in

223

sentiment of distrust.

explain

was nothing universal

this

And, apart from the charges of

usury, slave-holding, crucifixion of Christian children,

the

like, their isolation

ests, to

had

from

which Dean Merivale

certainly a

good deal

all

and

national aims and inter-

refers in his

to do. with

it

Roman

History,

:

The Jew,

with, a spirit no less restless, with propensities migratory, neither conquered nor colonised nor civilised. He intruded himself silently and pertinaciously into every known corner of the globe and no one could say wherefore he came or what was the object of his sojourn. His presence in foreign lands was marked by no peculiar aim or mission. He cultivated neither literature nor art, nor even commerce on a great scale or as a national pursuit. He subsisted for the most part by the exercise of active industry in petty dealings, evaded as much as he could the public burdens of the nations among whom he dwelt, while their privileges he neither sought nor coveted, and distinguished himself alike in every quarter, under every form of government, and in the midst of every social system, by rigid adherence to the forms of an obscure and exclusive creed.

no

less

;

That something of the same Christian side

may be

Liberals, while strongly religious disabilities,

feeling

inferred

survives on the

many

opposed to the general principle of

were found some years ago

who denounced "the

with those

still

from the fact that

in alliance

unchristianizing of our

Legislature," in their opposition to the emancipation

the Jews.

On

the other hand,

if

and Christians was considered a pollution Europe, the

JeivisJi

of

the intermarriage of Jews

World has quite

in

mediaeval

lately deprecated

it


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

224

on the very

intelligible

AND BIOGRAPHY.

ground that

it

must eventually lead

to an absolute extinction of Judaism.

does then seem obvious that Judaism

It

Methodism or any other merely nationalism

religious

the circumstance that

in

it

denotes a "tribal"

The same might be

as well as a theological distinction. said, mutatis mutandis, of

from

differs

form of denomi-

Mormonism, which

also does not

constitute a purely theological platform, but aspires to the

formation, as Judaism implies the preservation, of a special

form of national

any

for

But before

life.

this distinction

is

applied

purpose to the actual condition and

practical

claims of the Jews in the States of modern Europe, one or

two important considerations have In the

first

place, as indeed Mr.

to be borne in mind.

Goldwin Smith himself

admits, " before Christianity all religions were tribal," and

of

these

highest.

may

religions

tribal

And

it

is

Judaism

not be tending, under the intellectual

influences of the

and more

modern world,

universal.

And

among

the Jews of our

to

become

and

it

social

less exclusive

notice

the

two

parties, or rather

two

own

day, the one adhering

this

significant fact that there are sects,

was confessedly the

therefore natural to inquire whether

us to

leads

closely to their traditional creed, while the religion of the

other

is

hardly distinguishable from theism, and the latter

party are said to be rapidly gaining ground. this

process of disintegration should

satisfaction or the reverse

view,

is

another question.

there can be no

of the theistic, istic

section

from a

But

more reason or, as

Whether

be regarded with

strictly religious point of

it is

at all events clear that

for questioning the patriotism

they are sometimes called, rational-

of Jews, as such, than for

questioning the


JEWISH PATRIOTISM. patriotism

time

of, e.g.,

narrow and traditional type patriotism in a fusion of

there

is

And

Unitarians, as such.

must be remembered

it

modern

that,

at the

to be

inimical

to

as hindering the genuine

Jews with any nationality other than

also a point of view

same

Judaism of the

if

held

is

State,

225

their own,

from which Christianity

may

be regarded as a counter influence to patriotism, and that precisely because

The

it

is

not a tribal but a universal

been urged

has often

criticism

emphasis, and even pushed to paradoxical sceptical writers, but a

that

If there

just now, that

an exclusively national

lengths

moment's consideration

has a certain weight.

it

argument noticed

from

faith

is

any

Judaism its

faith.

with exaggerated

is

will

by

show

force in the

prov^ed to be

appealing to temporal

rewards and punishments only, the converse must hold true,

that a religion based on supernatural sanctions, and

which bids

its

votaries look for their recompense not in this

world but

in

the next, has a tendency to denationalise

them by withdrawing

And

their

minds from earthly and secular

and concentrating them on the world unseen.

interests

thus the early Christians were out of

the social

and

political

life

of the

because the language of St. Paul and

them

to look

on

Rome

as

harmony with

Empire, not merely St.

John had taught

an Anti-christian power, but

because there were laws and customs obligatory on citizens to

their

all

which they could not conform without violating

religious

belief.

this contrariety or

It

is

another

way

of expressing

divergence of character to say that the

heroic and the saintly ideal, though not of course incompatible,

do not exactly coincide.

Saints,

and especially

martyrs, are sometimes loosely designated Christian heroes.


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

226

may

and there

be some,

the designation

like St.

Louis of France, to

whom

pecuharly appropriate, but, broadly

is

speaking, heroism and sanctity represent different though

To

not inconsistent types of excellence.

Athenians as national heroes, but

it

would be

any point of view to regard them as words. Christian piety

may

Roman

allegiance of

its

allegiance,"

in

some years so

all

interests of its

necessarily

Hence

civil

prominent

as

far

membership of a second and

was the case

first

taken shape in

This need not and ordinarily

members.

recall a phrase very "

as

it,

visible organization claiming the religious

does not interfere with their

Vaticanism

from

In other

Empire.

Moreover Christianity has from the

some kind of

difficult

saints.

not identical with patriotism, and

is

even conceivably conflict with

under the

"

put an extreme

Harmodius and Aristogeiton were reverenced by the

case,

duties, but

it

does

in the controversy

ago

— introduce Christian

the

" a

— to

about

divided

recognises his

having independent laws

society,

own, and whose boundaries are not at

conterminous with those of the nation.

the frequent rivalries of Church and State, which

were unknown under the Jewish and Pagan systems of government, where Church and State were one.

happen here and there that run, so to speak, in the

religious

and

It

may

patriotic zeal

same groove, and thus the course

of history served at one time to identify Catholicism with

the national character of Spain, and Protestantism with the national character of England.

As

a

rule,

distinct,

But that

is

an accident.

the Christian and the national sentiment are

and may therefore become divergent or

antagonistic forces.

And

thus

if

even

the patriotism of Jews


JEWISH PATRIOTISM.

may may

227

be plausibly disputed, the patriotism of Christians be,

and has been,

Catholics,

unjustly

—

instance,

for

one sense very

for plausible but in

The

opposite reasons, disputed also.

was distrusted

loyalty of English

— as

a

the reign of Elizabeth, and the

in

rule

quite

Huguenots

were notoriously out of harmony with national sentiment in France.

a Jew

who

The

Judaism cannot loyalty

to

because his

a

result

seems to be that

heart-v/hole

is

at the

in

in the abstract

his loyalty

to

traditional

same time be heart-whole

in his

modern, and especially a Christian State,

own

nation,

though at present dispersed and

with no visible prospect of restoration, has a prior and

paramount claim upon Englishman suasion,

or

him.

On

other

the

Frenchman, of whatever

remains simply an

and can have no temptation

may

per-

Englishman or Frenchman, to prefer the interests of

other nation to those of England or France. siastical

hand, an

religious

But

take precedence of national interests

any

ecclein

his

mind, as was objected to the Ultramontane advisers of Louis Napoleon who were said to have forced him into the Franco-Prussian war. tical

danger to the State

From which is

seems hardly worth while to

most

discuss,

seriously proposes to deprive either

of equal

quarter

to be

any prac-

apprehended

it

inasmuch as no one

Jews or Ultramontanes

civil rights.

Q

2


XXVI.

THE yUDENHASS It

is

a curious and at

IN HISTORY. sight perplexing fact that

first

there has always been something strained and abnormal in

There

the relations of Christianity and Judaism.

is

a kind

of historical symbolism in the story of the drunken sailor

who

Good

thrashed a ]e\Y on

heard of the Crucifixion. again for centuries as

if

Friday, because he had just

Christians have acted again and

they had only just heard of the

offences of the Jews in days long past, and did not care to

draw

nice distinctions between the sins of the fathers

the children

;

while the Jews,

if

any

credit

is

to mediaeval chroniclers, have retaliated savagely

when they happened if

to

and

to be attached

have an opportunity.

enough

It looks as

an armed neutrality were the nearest approach to peace

that could be established between the rival creeds.

some apparently

inscrutable reason no considerable

For

body

of Christians seems to have been able to regard the Jews

with that feeling of mere indifference or compassion which is

entertained

circumstances

by the most orthodox of

temporary

towards other forms of

and

religion,

believers, except

special

such as

Mahometanism or

Buddhism, diverging yet more widely from

When

the Jews have not been

under

provocation,

their

own.

hated with a passionate


THE JUDENHASS and

fanatical hatred, as has

they have

— at least

nocuous

And

— been

loved with an

though comparatively

uncritical

affection.

thus

own day

our

in

grown up on what

periodical literature has

229

been too commonly the case,

modern times

in

equally strange and

IN HISTORY.

Anglo-Israel movement, which counts

its

called the

is

circulation

hundreds of thousands, and includes a bishop and a Indian judge with

among the

meetings, and the

like,

machinery of newspapers,

public

has been formed for the purpose of

maintaining that the Lost Tribes have found their

England, and that the Jew

in

unhappily an alien

in creed,

is

our brother

Such

to find their

however

silly crazes,

own

level.

in

home

blood,

if

and should be restored by

English arms or diplomacy to the sacred own.^

by

retired

contributors, while an organized

its

all

society,

in-

a vast

soil

ridiculous,

But they serve to

which

is

may be

illustrate

his left

from

another side the curious phenomenon already mentioned of

some

occult tension

which

Christians,

is

in

the

relations

of

Jews

and

apt to take the shape of paradoxical

may serve to modify our contemptuous ridicule of mediaeval and fanaticisms to remember that, towards the close of the nineteenth century, a body of ostensibly educated Englishmen, considerable in point of numbers, has deliberately set itself to propagate what is in ^

It

follies

fact a

new

religion,

—that

having for one of

its

not least credible articles of

Abbey is that on which Jacob's head rested at Bethel, which Jeremiah and Baruch, after the Captivity, conveyed to Ireland, being wrecked by the way on the Spanish coast, where it fell into the hands of the " King of Spain," whoever he may have been, and was rescued from him by its prophetic faith

;

the Coronation Stone at Westminster

who eventually deposited it at the Irish village of Tara, so named from Thora (the Jewish Law), with various other equally remarkable Taradiddles. The strangest legends in the lives of the bearers,

saints

are a

mythology.

trifle

after

this

marvellous

specimen of

Protestant


230

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

sympathy when

does not break out into a storm

it

of

fanatical antipathy.

This chronic feud, which still

is

shown by recent experience

to retain a perilous vitality,

yesterday.

It

as

is

old

of course no growth of

is

the

as

Christian

and was

era,

already at work long before the conversion of the Empire.

At

first

indeed the

Christians

a

as

mere

Roman Emperors sect

rather to despise than to persecute

Jews on the whole, at

Rome, escaped

in their favour,

looked on

them

in spite of their

persecution.

tells

us

For the

as such.

numbers and influence

Augustus issued a

which was confirmed by two

how Domitian imposed on them

special taxation, but this appears to

rescript

later edicts of

the proconsuls, Agrippa and Julius Antonius.

indeed

the

were disposed

of Jews, and

Suetonius a severe

and

have been more with

the object of replenishing an exhausted exchequer than

The Emperor

from any general motive of policy.

naturally petted them, desiring for ends of his

build the Temple.

And

own

Julian to re-

yet Jews were perhaps the most

hated, from various causes, of

all

Roman

subjects;

they

were held notorious, as we learn from Cicero, Juvenal, and other writers of the day, as the most sordid, most turbulent,

and most unsocial of mankind. But the exclusively national and therefore unaggressive character of their religion preserved them from the overt hostility provoked by Christian proselytism.

They were hated and

were not feared.

No

despised,

doubt they had spread

but they in

Rome

even the Empress Poppa?a was said to be a convert, and is

it

surmised by Gibbon that through her influence the Jews

escaped proscription under Nero passion for Jewish rites

;

Juvenal

among Roman

tells

ladies,

us of the

and Josephus


THE yUDENHASS

IN HISTORY.

has an extraordinary story of an exorcism performed

by a Jew named himself witnessed, when the demon was the reign of Vespasian

through the

nostrils of the

whole Judaism, unlike unexpansive creed

;

drawn out But on the

was an

essentially

the Jews simply held aloof from other

silent disdain,

religionists in

visibly

person possessed.

Christianity,

in

Eleazar, which he

and neither denounced nor

And

attempted to convert them.

thus, in spite of their

hatred of the Gentile world and their frequent and bloody rebellions against their

Roman

most part

they were

let

alone

;

masters, they were for the

But they detested the Christians,

not

whom

worth

attacking.

they regarded as

renegades from the Law, with a peculiar detestation, and, as Justin Martyr informs us, did their utmost to foment the

calumnies and passions of

the

Pagan populace against

In Milman's words, " the Jew,

them.

power of persecuting,

to the heathen persecutor against those

apostates."

heathen tians, •

They took

in the

who had

lost the

lent himself as a willing instrument

a

whom

he considered

more prominent part than the

martyrdom of

Polycarp.

St.

The

Chris-

on the other hand, exulted over the downfall of

Jerusalem and the dispersion of fulfilment of

citizens,

its

as a signal

prophecy and triumph of the Gospel.

And

thus already, during the ages of persecution and while both alike

were pressed down under the iron heel of Rome, the

seeds of a bitter antipathy were

The

Gnostics, the

even went so

sown between

most widely-spread

far as to treat the

them.

sect of early heretics,

Jewish religion as the work

of the Demiurgos, an inferior deity, or of the Principle of Evil

— a view which

is

obliquely censured in the Seventh of

the Thirty-Nine Articles.


232

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. antagonism was not

pre-existing

I'his

likely

be

to

diminished when at length after three centuries of

trial

and suffering the

Christians, through the conversion of

Con-

stantine, got the

upper hand.

some

Moreover the

rise of

Judaizing sects within the Christian body, and several cases of actual apostasy, had served just then to accentuate the

The Jews

prevalent feeling against the obnoxious race.

were accused of stoning converts from their own Christianity,

ingly

and of other enormities.

made a law sentencing and

burnt,

also

punishing

who

property any Christians of Jews, as

persecution

who took

themselves dealt

who

those

with

so acted to be

of

confiscation

But

apostatized.

of heretics,

the lead.

faith to

Constantine accord-

was the

it

The Arian

their

the

in

heretics

Constantius

more severely with them than Constantine, and the

Visigoths at a later day showed themselves more intolerant

than

manded

on the other

Theodosius,

either.

mob had wrecked

Christian it

hand, when

related

The

to be rebuilt at their expense.

alleged case of their crucifying a Christian

on them

so frequently charged

by Socrates {Ecd.

a

a Jewish synagogue, com-

Hist.,

in vii.

the

boy

earliest

—a

crime

middle ages

i6) as

—

is

having taken

place at Inmestar, a place between Chalcis and Antioch in

He

Syria.

records

it

as a fact, without the slightest inti-

mation of any doubt, and says that the perpetrators were searched out and punished.

As we come down

middle ages there were various

influences

at

sustain or intensify this anti-Jewish sentiment, to their trol.

own

Among

conduct,

some

the last

may

movement, which, however,

to causes

beyond

to the

work

to

some due their con-

be reckoned the crusading as will

appear presently,

in


THE yUDENHASS other ways

IN HISTORY.

Aheady

them.

indirectly benefited

the

at

beginning of the eleventh century, when the prevalent idea

Coming

that the Second

of our Lord was at

hand had led

to a great outburst of penitence and devotion, which found

one expression

crowded pilgrimages

in

in

Holy Sepulchre and other

Jerusalem razed

Christian

the ground.

to

rumoured, whether with

fierce persecu-

and had the

tion of the Christians of Palestine,

of the

Holy Land,

to the

Hakim, the Sultan of Egypt, organized a

or without

Church

buildings

was currently

It

grounds, that

the

Jews of Orleans had instigated him, and a savage persecution of

Jews

in

France was the

When

result.

close of the century the preaching of Peter the

had roused

seemed

Europe

all

distinguish

later period

— and

it

required even in

energy and courage

— to

tinction between the

press on

cities,

his

the

At

by

incited

Bernard confronted him

slight display of

them the obvious

dis-

a

in all

frightful

outbreak in the

monk named

Rudolph.

the dignity of Christian

heroism, and denounced the outrage in the severest terms "it

was not

for

a

enormous

armed Saracen and the defenceless

There had again been a

German

in

the Rhineland.

him no

to

and another,

massacre of Jews

Germany and

Bernard used the whole of

St.

crusade, it

not presumptuous,

if

class of misbelievers

a terrible

flourishing cities of

Jew.

needless,

between one

and there ensued

first

enthusiasm of the newly-enlisted

to the ardent

soldiers of the Cross

influence

to undertake the

at the

Hermit

men

God had punished by

to

punish by murder those

their dispersion."

Emperor Henry IV. had done

his

Jews, not perhaps from motives of

best

;

whom

Meanwhile the to protect

the

unmixed benevolence.


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

234

for while he ordered a strict restitution to be made to all who had been plundered of their wealth, he decreed that the property of those who had been put to death had

In France

escheated to the imperial treasury.

more than

a century afterwards Philip the Fair plundered impartially his

Jewish and Christian subjects, but the enormous wealth

of

the former was a tempting bait, and twice during

they were expelled from the country and their

his reign

whole property confiscated.

In the next reign they had

again become numerous and prosperous, and this time

they tempted the cupidity not of the monarch but of the

mob

throughout the south of France, in town and country

;

they were mercilessly massacred and pillaged, and

alike,

the royal officers refused to protect them.

At

the end of

the fourteenth century they were expelled from France altogether under Charles VI.

The

vast wealth amassed

by the Jews explains one main

cause of their unpopularity, which was further aggravated

by the way all

in

which they had obtained

it.

Usury had

along been strongly condemned by the patristic and

mediaeval Church, and as

it

was forbidden

to Christians

by

laws both of Church and State, the usurers in the early

middle ages were almost exclusively Jews, who adopted the profession partly as being one of the very few open to

them, partly for

Some were

may

notion in

the huge

profits

it

secured them.

be formed of the rate of interest they

the habit of charging from

Augustus of France limiting them

an edict of Philip

to 48 per cent.

The

crusades, however, led to a revival of commercial enterprise,

and

this

brought orthodox Catholics into amicable

relations with both

Jews and Mahometans, and tended to


THE yUDENHASS

IN HISTORY.

soften the prejudice against them.

remember

ecclesiastics

ledged

many

that

to

fair also to

some other leading

— as the Jewish historian Bedarride has acknow-

— made

efforts

only

It is

of the Popes, and

235

though not always successful

strenuous,

the violence of their assailants

arrest

whom

Alexander VI., of

there

is

not too

even

;

much good

to

be recorded, distinguished himself by his generosity to the Jews, and did

all

in his

power to

But the general sentiment ran it

found utterance both

They were compelled -a distinctive dress

alleviate their sufferings.

entirely the other way,

the canon and the

in

to live in separate quarters

enter into partnership,

still

less

a Jewish mistress was to be burnt alive criminal

At

between two dogs. it

;

till

by

the fourteenth

the beginning of the sixteenth

was proposed by the theologians of Germany

literature

the Old Testament,

Paris, to destroy

of the Jews, with the exception of

and

it

required

all

the influence of

Reuchlin to avert this wholesale proscription. burnt of course in large

They were

numbers, like heretics, by the

Spanish Inquisition before their in

;

who took

head downwards

was hung

and France, backed by the University of the whole

and wear

intermarry with them

the laws both of France and Spain a Christian

century

and law.

Christians might not eat, or bathe, or

;

century a Jewish

civil

expulsion from Spain

final

1495 by Ferdinand and Isabella

atrocity of the Spanish persecutions

;

is

but the exceptional in either case to

be

explained mainly by the peculiar conditions of the national history and character, on which to

enlarge

here.

had succeeded

in

In

the

it

Italian

would be out of place republics,

where they

making themselves indispensable

to the

Christian community, they were tolerated and protected in


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

236

their rights,

and were allowed to practise as physicians,

which was elsewhere forbidden.

But they were tolerated

because they were needed, not because they were loved or Besides the reproach of usury, the stigma of

repected.

slaveholding had from a very early period attached to

them, and one of the

most

as

by imperial

and most frequent, as well

first

measures

legitimate,

was

legislators

against

them

manumission of

their

directed

the

The number of the Christian slaves bought up by them was among the complaints of Agobard Christian slaves.

in the ninth century.

not

much

Christians,

on the other hand, had

scruple about enslaving Jews.

There was usually

fanaticism and

less of

interest in the policy of Christian

them than remembered

in

and

the popular sentiment,

that,

having no

more of

it

must

all

the Jews in

exacted 66,000 marks

England

into

ransom

their

for

King

;

prison,

on

day

by ordering one of

till

he

comphed.

his teeth to

In

threat of hanging

the

them

if

III.

exacted

1255, 8000

under

they refused compliance.

same reign Dispenser, the

Jews

in

Jew of

be drawn every

Henry

1241

20,000 marks of them, and again,

in order to extort a large

justiciary,

and

another

occasion he extorted 70,000 marks from a single Bristol,

be

rights or status^ they

civil

were normally beyond the protection of the law.

John threw

self-

governments towards

In

imprisoned 500

ransom from the wealthier

of them, and then abandoned the rest to the fury of the populace,

who massacred them

children.

In 1255 eighteen Jews were hanged, and their

all,

men, women, and

goods confiscated to the royal exchequer, on the charge, recorded by Matthew Paris and Chaucer, of crucifying a


THE JUDENHASS Christian boy,

Du Cange

known

IN HISTORY.

Hugh

afterwards as St.

237

of Lincohi.^

mentions a French law forbidding the con-

version of Jews to Christianity, under pain of forfeiture of goods

and chattels

to the king, as the convert

would no

longer have the opportunity of amassing usurious wealth

which Christian sovereigns could plunder; the law

is

apocryphal.

Edward

politic

than his predecessors

In his

first

and

principal

their

less

at

in

livelihood.

They coin, a

means of

when the

at a time

to be divided into halves

one year, and

England were thrown

money on

once of their occu-

than 280 of them were hanged

London only

in

into prison,

marks extorted from them.

silver

and quarters.

for this offence in

1287

all

and a

the Jews

fine of

in

12,000

In 1290 they were finally

expelled from the country, under pain of death

remained or returned, and

less

with the Jews.

and adulterating the

not so easily detected

penny was allowed

No

must be hoped

year they were forbidden to lend

took, therefore, to clipping

fraud

it

was sterner and

in his dealings

which was to deprive them

interest,

pation

I.

Hume

if

they

observes that "very few

of that nation have lived in England since."

We

have

seen already that within the next two centuries they were

banished from France and Spain. It will ^

for

be clear from this brief sketch

that, for

one cause

The best-known example of these mediaeval stories of crucifixion, some of which there may possibly have existed a basis in fact, is Bacharach on the Rhine from

that of St. Werner,

whose ruined chapel

whither his body

said to have miraculously floated 'up stream

is

at

—

will be familiar to English There are many more alleged cases of these boy-martyrs, as, ^., St. William of Norwich in 1144; St. Robert of Bury St. Edmunds in 1181 St. Rudolf of Berne in 1287 a boy murdered at Trent in Holy Wee'c 1475 and St. Robert of Poland in 1598.

Oberwesel, where he was martyred

tourists. <?.

;

;

;


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

238

or another, there has been a chronic antipathy between

Jew and

sometimes

Christian,

smouldering,

bursting into flame, from the time his

back on

stirred

" the unbelieving Jews,"

up the Gentiles against him.

observed that even

a protracted

Roman

their part

has been already-

the natural

after the

home

of

emancipation of

Catholics, and not then

struggle, in

ranged on opposite

sometimes

Paul turned

Emancipation did not follow

above a quarter of a century

Dissenters and

St.

who on It

in this country,

religious toleration, Jewish till

when

till

after

which professed Liberals

w^ere

There were many

sides.

like the late

Dr. Arnold, including some of Jewish descent though no longer of the Jewish ignore,

for

differences

faith,

who were eager

to

merge or

even ecclesiastical purposes,

or

political

however wide

among

professing

all

Christians,

while they argued that aliens not in creed but in race had

no part or monwealth. here.

It

lot in the

There

must

is

administration of a Christian com-

no need to reopen that discussion

suffice to

have traced the broad outlines of

the history of that JiidcnJiass, which in these closing years of the nineteenth century

still

shows

itself

strong enough

to

foment bitter antipathy and even provoke deadly feuds

in

more than one country of Europe.


XXVII. REVIVAL OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

On

Sunday

the

after Sir Gilbert Scott's death,

Dean

Stanley preached a sermon which was published under the title

The

of "

Religious Aspect of Gothic Architecture."

contains, as might be expected, a

good deal that

though not particularly new, but

it

from the inveterate passion its

The

versatile author.

which

is

closely

for

revival of Gothic architecture,

and notoriously connected with the great

of the discourse. to

be,

what

Christian

careful to

unknown

"

That

style has

Mr. Ruskin

calls

it,

suggested of

how

arose

—

it

— no

"

Of course

to justify, the

therefore

He

adds that

explanation being

it is

far to explain, if not is

so delusive

was undoubtedly unknown to and sufficiently obvious reasons

style

the early Christians, for

if it

by Catholic

this is true in a sense, but

seeming paradox that nothing

The Gothic

is

was altogether

died as completely as

one of those statements which go

as facts.

it

existed, being " repudiated alike

and Protestant." just

it

one specifically

the

antiquity."

after flourishing for four centuries

had never

the main subject

Dr. Stanley

style of architecture.

Pagan or Christian

is

been generally considered

begin by observing that

to

free

paradox characteristic of

religious revival of the present century,

"

by no means

is

It

true,

is

;


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

2-p

it

was rejected throughout Europe,

at the period of the

Renaissance, in CathoUc and Protestant countries ahke, for

But to

reasons not less easy of apprehension. this with the

infer

any peculiarly Christian and indeed peculiarly

possess

Catholic significance, but has nearer affinities with testantism, and

was therefore

churches

Catholic

of

churches

Protestant

of

first

restored "

England,

the

all

the

is

The first

at

more

the the

in

betray

to

as

deeper bearings

Let us look

of the question as could well be conceived. little

Pro-

among

than

rather

Continent,"

complete a misapprehension of

a

from

preacher that Gothic architecture does not

closely into the matter.

Christians

early

did

not

build

Gothic churches,

because they did not, and could not, build churches

Lord Shaftesbury had probably forgotten

all.

when he once

said,

on a memorable occasion, that

"

this

he had

rather worship with Lydia on the river's side than with

hundreds of surpliced

priests in the

temple of

St.

Barna-

bas"; but a professed scholar and historian might have been expected to remember persecution had passed

it.

away and

And when

the age of

Christians began to erect

temples for their worship, they naturally adopted the style

they found prevailing around them they

indeed basilicas

adopted

the

actual

;

certain

in

buildings,

and

cases

thus

were turned from courts of justice into Christian

churches.

The next

four centuries were

occupied with

theological controversy and the gradual construction of the edifice of Catholic

period of great

"

dogma, and then followed the dark

Europe's middle night," only broken by the

religious

reformation

eleventh century.

of the

In the twelfth

second

half of the

century Gothic archi-


REVIVAL OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Mr. Lecky puts

Christianity, as

tecture arose.

241

has

it,

created three things which have been recognised as special

types and expressions of

church first is

fifth

bell,

rehgious

"

sentiment,

the

The

attributed to Paulinus, bishop of Nola, early in the

century; the second took

was imported century

;

into

origin in

its

the East,

was due to the reawakening sense of beauty

interpreted

by

the Christian instinct of the twelfth century.

became the channel of the

and the

religious enthusiasm

purest expression of the religious feeling of the age,

gave abundant scope

There

fice."

baseness

and

Western Christendom about the seventh

the third, like the revival of painting which soon

followed,

It

its

the organ, and the Gothic cathedral."

in

is,

for the display of the "

lamp of

to cite Mr. Ruskin's words,

"an

and

sacri-

essential

the Renaissance, and an essential nobleness in

the Gothic, consisting simply in the pride of the one and

the humility of the other." subject from a

somewhat

Mr. Lecky, who approaches the

different point of view, coincides

entirely in Mr. Ruskin's estimate of the specifically Christian character of Gothic architecture.

He

observes that no

other building that the world has seen can rival a Gothic cathedral in producing a sensation of blended tranquillity, rest

the rebellion of the intellect, and creating that un-

most

but

worldly "

Church which

terrorism,

He

awe and

harmonizing or assuaging passion, lulling to

acts

atmosphere

befitting

a

and by images of solemn and entrancing beauty."

adds very justly

feeling

impressive

on the imagination by obscurity and

that, in proportion as these

have prevailed

or

fallen

into

modes of

disrepute,

Gothic

architecture has been rapturously admired, or has sunk into disfavour

and neglect.

It

was natural therefore that


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

!.

AND BICGRAPHY.

a form of architecture which was distinctively Christian,

and

" in

which the highest sense of beauty was subordinated

to the religious sentiment," should have arisen at a time

when

the dense

ignorance that

had overspread Europe

during the ninth and tenth centuries was yielding to a great revival of moral and intellectual energy under the control of the Church. "

was equally natural

It

that,

when

the moral and intellectual chaos that preceded the Re-

formation " was universal, when painting had been secularised,

and had passed entirely into the worship of sensuous

beauty, the Gothic style should be everywhere superseded

by one which some persons may consider more but which religious

is

The dominant

character.

Europe produced by the countries

beautiful,

universally admitted to be wholly devoid of a

issued

in

feeling

Protestantism, in

throughout

which

Renaissance,

others

some

in

in

a

kind

of diluted and rationalistic Catholicism, was a passionate recoil

from mediaeval Christianity to classical antiquity,

which might be summed up burne's "

O

Hymn

lips that the live

fairly

to Proserpine " blood faints

in,

enough

in

the leavings of racks and rods

1

all

men abase them

before you in

spirit,

!

Gods and all knees bend,

ghastly glories of Saints, dead limbs of gibbeted

Though

Mr. Swin-

:

!

kneel not, neither adore you, but standing, look to the end.

It

was not an age

to appreciate the great

works of those

who have only "left us their adoration." analogy may indeed be traced between the

A

certain

contrast of

Gothic and classical styles of architecture and the contrast of Christian and classical scenery, which his Kosnios

is

modes

illustrated

—by the

entire

— as

of appreciating natural

Humboldt

points out in

absence of descriptive poetry


REVIVAL OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

among

Greeks and Romans, whereas

the

expanded the views of men

He

nature."

Gregory Nazianzen

St.

retreat

upon and

— which

Newman's

very justly

forest

life

"

:

is

quoted

also

Iris in

(in

the

to his friend

St. Basil's

Historical Sketches

on the banks of the

it

Christianity

proof of this a striking letter

cites in

middle of the fourth century) of

connection in

"

communion with

their

in

243

in a different

— describing his

Pontus, and observes

In this simple description of scenery

feelings

are

expressed, which

intimately in unison with those of modern

more

are

times than

anything that has been transmitted to us from Greek or

Roman

antiquity."

And

^

the last century, which decried

Gothic as a barbarous monstrosity, could see nothing in a Swiss mountain but an object of shuddering disgust, and

would have found Coleridge's magnificent in the Vale of

Sunrise

Chamouni"

as

Hymn

"

before

unmeaning and

unmusical as a Gregorian chant. It

quite

is

repudiated,

Dean

Protestant alike

pudiated

it

then that

true

as

architecture

was

by Catholic

and

Gothic

Stanley

says,

"

the sixteenth century

" in

in virtue of

;

but they

were at that time dominated, entirely alien to the

And,

historical Christianity.

re-

an influence, by which both alike

as always

happens

spirit in

of

such

once formed survived and outran the

cases, the false taste

direct operation of the causes

which had

first

produced

it.

In the sixteenth century our greatest writers, like Spenser

and Shakspeare, have no word of sympathy, appreciation, or regret for Gothic architecture.

published not

Abbe

many

Corblet, on 1

A

curious

work was

years ago by a French priest, the

the Architecture of the Middle Ages

Kosmos,

vol.

ii.

p. 394.

Bohn's

edition.

R

2


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

244

judged by

among

who spoke

of

it,

not only without apprecia-

with mere unquahfied contempt, appear the

but

tion,

of the EigJiteenth Century, and

Writers

the

those

names— strangely combined

in

any common sentiment

of Fenelon, Bossuet, Moliere, Fleury, Rollin, Montesquieu

La Bruyere, Helvetius, Rousseau, Mengs, and Voltaire. Some reached the height of grotesque absurdity in their depreciatory

assumptions.

of Mithra

;

;

Dupuis

thought

the

Montluisant explained the sculptures on the

fagade of Notre stone

Thus

on cathedrals were a remnant of the worship

zodiacs

Dame by

the science of the philosopher's

a third critic traced the shape of the ogive to the

eggs of period,

Isis.

If

we

Smollet

turn to English writers of the

gravely

speaking

declares,

of

same

York

Minster, " that the external appearance of an old cathedral will

Durham as

man who

be displeasing to the eye of every

idea of propriety and

cathedral as

proportion

"

;

"a huge gloomy

pile "

— somewhat

Archbishop Whately called Milan cathedral

idolatrous

temple

"

— and

thought

it

in order to

" a

big

could associate no better idea

man

impaled.

Hutche-

work on the Philosophy of the

Beautiful,

with a church spire than that of a son, in an able

has any

while he describes

necessary to enter into an elaborate argument

show that the ancient preference of Gothic

to j

classical architecture

need not disprove the universality of

the sense of beauty, but was an accidental aberration due to historical associations.

At such

a time

it

was natural

that Cologne, the latest and one of the most splendid of

mediaeval cathedrals, which Wordsworth invoked help of angels to

complete," should be

left

" the

unfinished,

while the energies of Europe were concentrated on St.

!

j


REVIVAL OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. The "aspiring heat" had

Peter's.

Mr. Lecky's testimony once more,

And,

failed.

its

To

among

rather than

churches of the Continent,

wholly misleading

is

the

movement which

was of

eccentric genius," as Dr. Stanley

the

to

before his death.

of England

"

splendid

who

last

he retained strong

Roman

Catholic

Protestant churches

must be meant of course principally and

the extension of

Church of England,

" ecclesiological " taste to

places of worship

is

was precisely

for

Nonconformist

only a very recent afterthought, when

the turn in the tide had it

of

contributed to

And "the

By "the

directly those belonging to the

But

Germain

himself calls him,

with Anglicanism, became a

many years

St.

began as an Anglican High

in that revival

Churchman, and, while affinities

and

commencement

much

so

the architectural revival in England.

took the lead

Catholic

in fact,

the inference intended to be conveyed.

of the earliest Gothic restorations

the Tractarian

the Protestant

Roman

only partially true

is

des Pres at Paris, about the time of the

if

" to

we mainly

revival."

say that this revival took place

churches of England

One

to cite

unquestionably

it is

the Catholic revival of the present century that

owe

245

become too strong

to the

to be resisted.

renewed impulse given, not to

the Protestant but to the Catholic side of Anglicanism, as

Mr. Lecky has quite correctly apprehended, that the architectural revival

must be ascribed, which has covered the land

with some thousands of new Gothic churches, and restored the greater

number

of the English cathedrals to

their pristine grandeur.

by saying gained

It is

that the religious

" in

not very clear what

much of meant

is

power of our cathedrals has

proportion as our worship has become more


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

246

AND BIOGRAPHY.

solemn, more simple, more reverential, more comprehoisive,"

nor does the passage referred to

throw much

tianity

out

— what was

dral

is

"

full

with

music,

Milman

points

the Gothic cathe-

its

majesty and impressiveness of the mediaeval "

its

"

That the

remote central ceremonial,"

curling incense,"

and

its

solemn

its

long processions.

power of our old cathedrals

religious

by the Anglican

discredited

not

is

ritual is true, so far as

is

it

because of the likeness, not the unlikeness, of that

ritual to the

forms originally observed

mainly derived, as any one

is

by observing how cathedrals

— say "

Protestant that

— that

the consummation and completion of (what he

sary to the ritual,

it

obvious at a glance

mediaeval hierarchical Christianity," and was neces-

calls)

true,

Milman's Latin Chris-

in

on the matter,

light

"

it

at

may

in

them, from which

easily satisfy himself

fares with those Scotch

Basle, or Geneva, or

simplicity

"

and foreign

Glasgow

— where

completely emancipated from

is

cloud of superstition which has settled

down over

a

large part of the ecclesiastical world." It

is

indeed remarkable that a paper on Cologne cathe-

dral, contributed

Revieiv, as

some

forty years

was reported

at

the

ago to the Quarterly time,

by no

less

dis-

tinguished and staunch an Anglican than the late Judge Coleridge, should open with " It

is

a painful reflection,

this

melancholy confession

:

and one that conjures up a

multitude of others, that a great cathedral can never again

be built

in this

country.

It is

perhaps as painful to

on the utter disproportion of scale to use

in those

reflect

which

still

remain to

We

are accustomed to hear the glorious echoes of their

nave and

aisles

us,

but to this habit has familiarised

awakened

at best

to the

us.

footsteps of a


REVIVAL OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTl small congregation

are accustomed to see their grand

quadrangular

cloisters treated

to prebendal

back-doors

imaginable

greatest

used only, rubbish.

the

;

is

extinguished

England

" the echoes of

in

the

nave and

way

of restoring

aisles "

at build-

have once

to the tread of a procession, occasion-

even the defiled and desecrated

again turned to account,

extinguished candle

the

a visible change since then.

some attempt has been made

more been awakened ally

in

and

image,

doubt there

has been done

new ones

wealthy piety,

former

have forbidden the pilgrimage, levelled

old cathedrals, and

ing

beautiful chapels, those

of

as waste places for mouldering

all,

smashed the

No

candle."

Much

We

.

.

.

altar,

merely as covered passages

their

;

luxuries

used at

if

247

— for the most part only to those of the

We

solitary verger.

RE.

"

lit.

"

the altar

But

"

chapels

"

"

have been

replaced,

this has

and

" the

only become pos-

by applying a principle exactly the reverse of that recommended by Dean Stanley, and seeking by such

sible

means

as

were available to emulate or revive the old of Catholic

solemnities

devotion.

A

Gothic Cathedral

supreme value and significance from the con-

derives

its

viction

which prompted the original builders, and can

alone insure the permanence of their work

— that

it is

7wt

only or chiefly a "magnificent architectural monument,"

but the ideal

of

fitting

instrument and expression of the highest

Christian

worship.

It

is

precisely

because

dreamt not of a perishable home," who reared those glorious piles, and desired to bequeath to posterity "their adoration," not their handicraft, that both alike " they

still

survive.


XXVIII.

INTOLERANCE OF SCOTCH CALVINISM. It appears to be pretty generally agreed that there

is

a

great break-up going on of the old dogmatic temper once so characteristic of Scotch Calvinism, though there

may

be

differences of opinion as to the precise extent or the probable

consequences of the change.

No

traveller

can

fail

to be

struck with visible signs of a decrease of the rigid Sabbatarianism

once held sacred, and

difficult to realise

a

Free Kirk

minister was warned

scandalize the congregation

and Established to

already becoming

is

— the

by

his

by appearing

Sunday morning with a shaven loosely

it

latter

the Westminster

chin.

host not to

in the pulpit

fifty

especially

— are

said

to

Confession now, and

sit

Dr.

for heresy

years ago, received a doctor's degree from the

University of Glasgow before his death. of Linlathen, whose theology was of a

more

on

Ministers, both Free

Macleod Campbell, who was excommunicated about

when

the period, not so very far distant,

eclectic,

Thomas Erskine still

broader and

not to say nebulous, type, was a layman, but

he seems to have been popularly accepted almost as a prophet by his fellow-countrymen. always readily welcomed

in

Dean Stanley was

Presbyterian pulpits.

And

the

synods of more than one of the three disunited but doc-


INTOLERANCE OF SCOTCH CALVINISM.

249

concordant Churches which accept the formularies

trinally

of John

Knox

have been exercised by the open or impHcit

disavowal on the part of influential fessors, like Dr.

preachers and

Longer and Shorter Catechism and the Confession of It

pro-

Robertson Smith, of the authority of the

has even been rumoured that,

in

Faith.

the event of disestab-

lishment, a large section of the ministers of the Kirk would

pass over to the Episcopal Church and bring their flocks

any abstract preference

with them, not indeed from

for

episcopacy, but in pursuit of a wider freedom than the

Presbyterian platform seems that as

it

may

— and

with future possibilities recently taken place,

— the

if it

is

afford

Be

them.

here concern ourselves

change of feeling which has not greatly exaggerated,

is

a

remarkable phenomenon, and can hardly imply

sufficiently less

likely to

we need not

than a serious change, whether for better or for worse, of

national character.

Most of

us are familiar with Mr. Buckle's

elaborate comparison of Scotch and Spanish bigotry

even

identifies

ridden ation,

And

" in

Europe.

when it

may

facts, that

the

two countries as the most

The word no doubt

so applied, but the

meaning

is

;

he

" priest-

requires explan-

obvious enough.

be worth while to show by a brief review of the

there

was

in the

temper of Scotch religionism an

element of dogmatism, or bigotry, or intolerance, or whatever w^e

may

please to call

it,

distinguishing

it

alike

from

that of England and of most nations of the Continent. It

has been observed by a modern writer that there was

one country where the Puritan ministers succeeded

in

moulding alike the character and the habits of the nation,

and

that, while

stitions

England was breaking loose from old super-

and advancing along the paths of knowledge,


250

*'

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

Scotland

still

And

clergy."

cowered

was kept up was by

her

in helpless subjection before

one way

which

in

this

influence

clerical

fostering the belief in a continual suc-

cession of miracles, sometimes wrought for the protection

or greater honour of the clergy themselves, but in most miracles

cases

of terror.

tempest, famine, and

Disease,

other calamities were attributed to the direct intervention of evil

spirits,

bodily shape.

who were supposed

frequently to appear in

Walter Scott has pointed out

Sir

Letters on Deinonology that the Calvinists were of

in his

all

sects

the most suspicious of sorcery, and the most eager to punish it

Hence

as a heinous crime.

country where almost

in a

every kind of amusement was suppressed or tabooed, and

men's thoughts were concentrated with peculiar energy on theological ideas, the dread of witchcraft versal.

was

It

imposture

;

is

but uni-

by

These

recorded.

among

all

the terribly numerous

Scotland, not a single instance of imposture

trials in

by the

all

Mr. Buckle has called attention to the remark-

able circumstance that

witch

was

not, as elsewhere, a superstition diluted

trials

were almost entirely conducted

clergy, but " the secular

arm

"

was placed ungrudg-

ingly at their service for execution of the sentence.

On

the

hideous tortures employed to extract confessions, and the

punishments eventually Suffice

here.

it

to

inflicted, it is

observe

mentions having seen nine Lcith

in

demned James craft,

I.

1664, and to be burnt

— was

and had

of the Kirk,

how in

in

unnecessary to dwell

how one traveller casually women burning together at 1674 nine others were con-

a single day.

James VI.

— our

peculiarly sensitive in the matter of witchthis

whom

bond of hearty union with the ministers otherwise he so

little liked.

And

it

is


INTOLERANCE OF SCOTCH CALVINISM. noticeable, considering

what

and

the

superstition, that

is

said of mediaeval ignorance

law against witchcraft

first

Scotland was passed in 1563, and years later that

The

began

it

work of the Presbyterian which, partly from of

directly

on the

political

causes,

connected with the

Old than of the

for witchcraft

but not apparently by the good passed a resolution

a very special sense the

in

more

Reformation, was shaped

lines of the

These executions

in

thirty

till

ministry, or rather of their creed,

Scotch

the

was not

it

to be systematically carried out.

persecution was therefore

history

251

fifty

came

New

Testament.

an end about 1730,

to

who

will of the Presbytery,

years afterwards

deploring the

prevalent scepticism on the subject.

must

It

not,

however,

for a

moment be imagined

that the

dogmatism and intolerance of the Scottish Kirk showed zeal displayed in persecuting Papists

when opportunity

for

it

less

and other misbelievers

One

occurred.

itself

There was no

only or chiefly in the matter of witchcraft.

of the

first

results of

the final triumph of the Reformation in Scotland w^as a law prohibiting any priest from celebrating, or worshipper from

hearing mass, under pain of confiscation of his goods for the

first

third.

offence, exile for the second,

John Knox,

and death

according to Mr. Froude's characteristic paradox,

narrow fanatic who,

for the

" the ruffian of the Reformation,"

in

a world

/;/

ivJiicJi

"

who,

was no

Gods grace was

equally visible in a thousand creeds (he would have burnt

one

for

but

in his

saying

own

so),

formula,"

by Dr. Johnson as and an

"

is

described with perfect accuracy

the most intolerant of an intolerant creed

intolerant country."

his readers of

any

could see truth and goodness nowhere

IMr.

Froude

forgets to

remind

Knox's angry denunciation of permitting


252

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

the " idolatry

"

of the mass, even

the single case of

in

the Queen's private chapel at Holyrood, seeing that " one

mass was more were landed

fearful to

in

him than

10,000

if

them how Knox

armed enemies

Nor does he

any part of the realm."

in his Appellation teaches that "

tell

none pro-

voking the people to idolatry ought to be exempted from the punishment of death," while the charge of idolatry to include " the

carefully explained

At

Papistical clergy,"

is

whole rabble of the

Commonwealth

the time of the

the

Presbyterians did their utmost to thwart the more liberal policy of the Protector,

who was

to

willing

tolerate all

forms of Christianity, with the significant exceptions of "

Popery and Prelacy."

tolerated

who

and the

list

They wished

those only to be

accepted the "fundamentals

of fundamentals was so

not only Socinians,

who were

"

of Christianity,

drawn

as to exclude

to be punished with death,

but Papists, Arminians, Antinomians, Baptists, and Quakers,

who were

to be imprisoned for

In 1645 the Scotch

life.

Parliament solemnly protested against

any

sects or schisms contrary to our

Covenant."

And

practised at home.

founders had

Puritans carried with them across

the

new world

the Atlantic to the

been

" the toleration of

Solemn League and

Maryland

— much

the intolerance they had

in the

to

their

hands of credit

its

Catholic

— the

solitary

refuge of oppressed sectaries of every kind, but

when the

Puritans gained the upper hand there, they at once sub-

verted the existing rule, and enacted the whole penal code against those

who had

so generously received them.

So

again the Pilgrim Fathers revived in Massachusetts the Puritan panic about witchcraft, which was dying out

England though

still

dominant

in

Scotland.

in

Multitudes


INTOLERANCE OF SCOTCH CALVINISM. were scourged, tortured, and imprisoned on

and many were put

a century or so that

had

it

indeed, during the quarter of its

swing, represented with a

unattainable elsewhere

which

toleration,

the settlers had

is

charge,

to death.

The New England colony perfection

this

253

of

Puritan ideal

the

more remarkable considering that

the

from the ecclesiastical tyranny of

fled

Archbishop Laud and the Star Chamber, expressly and avowedly in order It

" to

enjoy the blessing of a pure Gospel."

was not perhaps unnatural that they should be some-

what exercised by the vagaries of a son, a " preacheress "

certain

Anne Hutchin-

two centuries and a half before her age

in resolving to flout the authority of St. Paul,

though the

result certainly justified the

wisdom of the

Not content with

the regular Puritan ministers

assailing

apostolic veto.

and

as " Baal's priests. Popish factors. Scribes, Pharisees,

opposers of Christ," she went on to propound a miscellane-

ous assortment of heresies, including inter alia a denial of the Personality of the

Holy Ghost, of heaven and

and

hell,

of what she termed " the deadly doctrine of the covenant of works."

who had say "

This was too much

already decided that "

for the ruling authorities, it

is

impious ignorance to

— what they denounced Laud for disputing —

"

ought to have liberty of conscience," inasmuch as admits of no eccentric notions," their

own,

— and therefore "

pen up the wolf"

was not

"

The

/.

e.

none

that

men

" religion

differing

from

for the security of the flock

we

lupine Mrs. Hutchinson, however,

penned," but excommunicated and banished, and

she afterwards

came

to a miserable

end

at

Long

Island in

a massacre of the colonists by the Indians, to the undis-

guised satisfaction of her former judges at Massachusetts.


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

254

The Rev. Thomas Welde, who had taken in

her condemnation^ lost no time

in

a prominent part

proclaiming from the

pulpit that, as no such outrage had hitherto been com-

mitted by the Indians,

"

therefore God's

hand

is

the

more

apparently seen herein, to pick out this woeful woman,

and make her and those belonging to her an unheard-of heavy example of

their cruelty

was not the worst.

proved of persecution on land, where, however, he

by Cromwell,

all

But

others."

this

all

sides,

had returned

Eng-

to

was himself shamefully persecuted

as a consistent

opponent of every form of

Meanwhile

arbitrary government. scription, fine,

above

Harry Vane, who sincerely disap-

Sir

in

New England

pro-

banishment, and capital punishment became

the order of the day for Anglicans, Quakers, Anabaptists,

Adamites, and other such

"

Not only did the

mens."

unhappy " Blue

parently as seeming to be written in "

reading the

Saints' days,

Common

and energu-

sectaries

— so blood —

Code "

named ap-

strictly forbid

Prayer, keeping Christmas

making mince-pies, or playing on any

Day

or

instru-

ment except the drum, the trumpet, and the Jews' harp," which were supposed to have a kind of Biblical flavour about them

;

it

also forbade mothers to kiss their babies

on the Sabbath day, and enjoined that no one "should run or walk in his garden, or elsewhere, except reverently to

and from meeting."

Readers of The Scarlet Letter

will

readily understand the moral results of this sort of legislation.

As

to religious toleration, " If," says

leading writers of that day,

" after

men

one of their

continue in obstin-

ate rebelhon against the light, the civil magistrate shall

walk towards them softness

in soft

and gentleness

is

and gentle commiseration, excessive large to foxes

still

his

and


INTOLERANCE OF SCOTCH CALVINISM.

255

wolves, but his bowels are miserably straitened and hard-

Nor

ened against the poor sheep and lambs of Christ. frustrating

it

advancing

it,

to destroy the bodies of those wolves

seek to destroy the souls of those for It

a curious satire on

is

whom

human weakness and

England by the very men who had it,

fled,

who

Christ died." inconsistency,

that the hideous system of persecution enjoined in

expressed

is

end of Christ's coming, but a direct

the

New

as they elegantly

from "those proud Anakimes, the tiranous

bishops, and their proud and profane supporters and cruel

defenders

"

under Charles

after the Restoration

by

There are no crimes

II.

name

I.,

was

at last

brought to an end

a peremptory order from Charles like those that are

wrought

in

the

of liberty.

In Scotland the interference of the Kirk Sessions with every department not only of public but private less inquisitorial

by

fines,

and vexatious.

whipping, branding with red-hot

iron,

till

penalties,

was no

and public

And

penances of the most humiliating kind.

which incurred those

life

Resistance was punished

the sins

and many of which have

very recently lain under the ban of public opinion in

Scotland, were of the most various and most fanciful kind.

For an innkeeper to admit a Catholic

to his house, or for a

town to hold a market on Saturday or Monday, too near the Sabbath, were friend, to

sins.

It

was a

water your garden, to shave, to

to whistle on the Sabbath.

To

as being

a

sin to visit

ride, to walk, or

bathe was a deadly

sin

on

Sunday, and of very questionable lawfulness at any time a boy had indulging

in

Kirk Sess'on

;

once been miraculously struck dead while that in

carnal

amusement, and the Glasgow

1691 invoked the aid of the

civil

power

to


2S6

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

As Chambers

prevent boys from swimming altogether. puts the

in his

it

Annals of Scotland,

was, as

life

it

sort of sin, to

and thus

" the

were, squeezed out of the

The standard

munity."

was a

spirits

far as possible suppressed,"

sunshine of

the Puritan Kirk of

seventeenth centuries every outward

sixteenth and

demonstration of natural good

be as

" to

of a

nation

religious

whole

com-

was the

prevalence of universal gloom.

That

scheme of

this

life

is

the consistent and logical

Calvinistic theology

outcome of the

we cannot wonder

that the

is

Scotch,

And

true enough.

who

are

a logical

people, should have thus exemplified in practice the faith

which had been so deeply ingrained into their national character.

Still less

need we be surprised to learn that the

outward change, which has of

late

years

attracted

notice even of casual observers, does not stand alone.

the It is

obvious that the Westminster Confession must have been subjected

to

"

a

verifying

faculty

"

Longer and Shorter Catech'sm have

of divines, and lost their

the

hold over

the popular mind, before the tone of ordinary preaching

and practice could undergo any material

may

alteration.

be the moral or religious results of this change

long run

is

a question on which

it

may

the

would be premature

yet to hazard any confident opinion.

diced creed

What in

A

often be better than none,

as

narrow or preju-

and the collapse

of a firmly compacted dogmatic system, whether true or false,

not unfrequently brings with

it,

at least for the time,

all religious belief;

if

not also of

a dissolution of restraints.

all

moral

Thus, as Macaulay observes, Catholic countries

have become

infidel

and again reverted to Catholicism, but

have never since the sixteenth century become Protestant.


IxMTOLERANCE OF SCOTCH CALVINISM.

On

the other hand,

sion,

however

obligation has

it

257

must be remembered that the profes-

sincere, of a rigidly ascetic

code of religious

by no means always proved a sure guaran-

tee for even an average obsei-vance of morality.

Nature

have her revenges, and when the most ordinary and

will

harmless recreations are forbidden as

compensation

in

The charges brought

willing to condone.

and Manicheans

tians

sinful, is

apt to seek

indulgences which no moralist would be against

Nova-

Church have

in the early ages of the

been brought with equal plausibility against Puritans in our

own

day.

One

vice at all events,

which Christians of

every school, as well as non-Christian moralists, are agreed in

condemning,

is

reputed to be a special opprobrium of

Scotland, and the strictest observance of

and oppressive Sabbatarian regulations,

was made

to

all

those minute

which reference

just now, has been found compatible with conse-

crating the

day of

rest to a quiet

but unlimited assimilation

And under

of the liquid which inebriates but does not cheer.

the old regime to be drunk in private, though of course not

sanctioned as allowable, would have been accounted a far less

heinous outrage on the dignity of the "honourable

Sabbath

"

than to whistle

in

the public street.

theological side Calvinism has in

shown a tendency

all

to develop into Socinianism,

early Calvinlsts, after the

On

its

continental countries

example of

which the

their founder,

who

burnt Servetus, never hesitated to treat as a capital crime,

and

it

old

orthodox strictness

will

direction.

be curious to watch whether a relaxation of the in

Swedenborg, we

Scotland tends in the same

may remember,

insisted

on

connecting the Nicene doctrine with Calvinism, and therefore repudiated both

together.

At

present perhaps the


258

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

prevailing disposition

Presbyterian divines

is

among

the Broad school of Scotch

to reject

dogmatic

speculate on future contingencies

;

let

restrictions of all

But

kinds, whether orthodox or the reverse.

it is

needless to

us be content for the

present to take note of existing facts.

For the

last three

centuries the traditional Calvinism of Scotland has

a stern and vigorous tenacity of in

life,

which has no

any of the Reformed Churches elsewhere.

for the first

It

shown parallel

has now,

time since the Reformation^ entered on a state

of transition of which as yet

which cannot

fail,

whatever

we

see only the beginning, but

may be

have an important bearing not only on

its

ultimate term, to

ecclesiastical matters,

but on the habits and character of the people.


XXIX. FORCE OF INDIVIDUALISM MOVEMENTS.

There interesting

ment

are

some passages

in

IN RELIGIOUS

Mr. Gladstone's

very

and suggestive paper on the Evangelical MoveQuarterly Reviciu for July 1879, which

in the British

open out a wider question than that with which the writer is

And

immediately concerned.

it

will therefore

able to introduce the present subject

by a

particular portion of his argument.

that the Evangelical

movement,

suit-

After pointing out

influential as

attained, even at the close of the last

be

reference to one

it

was, never

and the beginning of

the present century, anything like predominance in the

Church of England less

— that

it

remained to the

Gladstone proceeds to explain how, as has

left

its

it

appears to him,

The explanation may sound

paradoxical or far-fetched, but there can be it

is

Evangelical

substantially

movement

by process of

dis-

— Mr,

mark generally and permanently on the

English Church.

that

more or

by the great majority of the clergy

trust or aversion

it

last

under the ban of authority, and was viewed with

correct.

He

at

little

considers

first

doubt

that the

was, not simply in order of time or

reaction,

but in some degree by direct

causation, the parent of the Tractarian

movement which


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY

26o

followed

And

it.

he holds that

is

it

through

this

latter

movement, especially

in the later offshoot

Ritualism,

Evangelical revival has so largely-

that

There

life.

the

of Anglican

the tone

affected

is

preaching and

special stress.

He

indeed well known, but

how nearly movement

all

to our

recalls

is

the greatest of

them

all

men among

converts to

Rome

school.

was not divines trained

principles,

to

like

add another

much

as

"

the

also

its

may

still

stranger,

the Tractarian

high Anglican

in

Hook, or

Keble, Isaac Williams, and illustrious

name

Newmans_,

— Hugh

the

James Rose, so and

the

different,

who

Wilberforces,

shape and direction to the movement.

latter class also supplied the

to the

—began their

belonged originally to the same

Mannings," whose antecedents were very

gave

is

apt to be forgotten or ignored,

the most conspicuous

It

and justly

lays,

memory what

course as Evangelicals, and, what might seem all

religious

the great leaders of the specific Oxford

— notably

how

called

confine ourselves for the present to

one argument on which Mr. Gladstone lays,

it

a great deal to be said for this view of the

we may

matter, but

from

And

the

most distinguished converts

Church of Rome, such as the two Cardinals, who

be called respectively the moral and the

official

heads

of that Church in England, the Wilberforces, Mr. Sibthorpe, and, as the writer might have added, the late Dr. Faber,

whose early Evangelicalism was perhaps more pronounced than that of any of his fellows, and certainly exercised a more perceptible influence on teaching to the

On

last, in spite

his

religious

tone and

of his fervid Ultramontanism.

the other hand, Mr. Gladstone

is

surely mistaken in

speaking of Mr. Manning as a Tract-writer.

For some


INDIVIDUALISM IN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS.

261

time after his abandonment of the Evangelical party he

Hook and

sided with the pronounced Anglicanism of school.

High Church party was represented

the British Critic, the

by two quarterly reviews

—the

which took a broader

under the editorship of the

line

Mozley and the

Professor

his

forgotten perhaps that, on the collapse of

It is

late

Christian Remembrancer, late

Mr. Scott of Hoxton,

in

which Dean Church wrote most of the papers afterwards published as Essays

and Rcviezvs ; and

the English Revieiv,

the representative of the most rigid Anglicanism.

deacon Manning was a contributor to the

So

wc

far

disputed

are concerned with facts which can hardly be

and now

;

Arch-

latter periodical.

Mr. Gladstone

for the explanation.

indicates his belief that the extreme individualism which

was a weakness of the Evangelical movement, and which neither the

Roman Church

would have

tolerated, acted throughout as a

the

work of these men

them out of the Anglican

nor the Nonconformist bodies

Did the

"

may

drawback on finally

The

pal"e altogether.

of this assumption turns on what logical question.

and

as Anglicans,

drove

correctness

be termed a chrono-

Tractarian

"

seceders precede,

coincide with, or follow a remarkable change in this respect in the

temper of the Church of England

of doctrine

is

Church of England of

Rome

its limits

whom

it

would be

It

is

the

any of the Dissenting communities obvious that such toleration must

from the nature of the

case, for a clergy of

could justly be said qnot homines fatal to the coherence,

to the existence, of

in

which neither the Church

to an extent

nor, probably,

would endure. have

Individualism

.'*

no doubt at present virtually tolerated

any

tot sentcnticB

and therefore eventually

religious body.

And

it

may

be


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

232

true enough, as the writer hints, that

been nearly reached there

tliese

a risk of divergence increasing

is

Be

peril of disestablishment.

none the

less true

which

variety,

is

hmits have

Church of England, and that

in the

that as

it

may,

of this

spite

that, in

till

it

lets in it

the

remains

wide doctrinal

extreme form a thing of

in its present

very recent growth, and partly in consequence of

it,

the

Church of England has not usually shown herself very tolerant of clergy,

On

any other kind of individualism among her

and that she has suffered from want of doing

the other hand,

been not

but more scope given for this diversity of

less

some

is

evidently

at

least of

much

Roman

the

vocation, certainly in in

so.

surely quite clear that there has

is

it

force

Catholic Church, and

Nonconformist bodies.

the

There

Macaulay's famous contrast

in

between the position of John Wesley and that of Ignatius

Loyola

Rome

the Church of

;

utilised Ignatius, while the

Church of England drove Wesley on the part of her

different policy

pale,

is

Newman

Mr.

to retain

is

hardly

it

for himself, to

would be scarcely

fitting for others to discuss

he has expressly told

us.

And

at all that a different treatment into

one of

its

most

;

that the policy they

effective

rival.

himself should earliest

It

is

him out of

there can be no doubt

would have turned Wesley bulwarks, instead of the

founder of a sect which has proved

and powerful

possible,

answer confidently now, and

actually did pursue materially helped to drive it,

Whether a

would have availed

permanently within the Anglican

a question which

perhaps even

into revolt.

rulers

its

most determined

remarkable that Mr.

Newman

have taken as the theme of one of his

University sermons, preached the year before the


liNDIVIDUALISM IN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS. beginning

of

the

There are passages

now

in

it

Church

thing

who

is

is

— though

he has not quahfied

new

the

in

edition

—

the

ascribed to the moral influence of gifted persons,

are represented as the sole " legitimate interpreters

of Scripture.

But there

no reason

is

with his present opinions, and career, since the in

day when he

it is

sat "

The same

England."

The Course

December

assuming that

for

illustrated

by

harmony his

whole

"

on his

sobbing bitterly

;

of Truth

idea "

have a work to do

I

worked out

is

in the lines

poems

in the

Lyra Apos-

ends with the significant query, whether

"dim

future"

Creed."

And

we

shall "

in

on

written at Malta in the previous

while another of his

tolica

NEED

he reafiirms

it

(sic)

the

in

a prophet for Truth's

more

in

Apologia, where he observes that

come

"

an inn at Castro Giovanni, and replied to the

startled inquiries of his servant, "

"

for

almost put aside as a teacher, and every-

the main drift of the discourse would be out of

bed

1832),

which he might not be disposed

as they stand

them by any annotations visible

(January

Means of propagating the Truth."

" Personal Influence the

to endorse

movement

Oxford

263

prosaic form in the

" living

of Committees," but rather from

movements do not "

the force of per-

sonal influence and congeniahty of thought."

Nor can Cardinal

it

be said that there

Newman

is

anything peculiar to

in this insistence

on the importance of

individual action and influence in the promotion of religious truth,

though

home

with special force to

it

is

of course a conviction likely to

intensity of character.

on the surface of history of

all

men

But the

fact itself

all ecclesiastical

religions.

come

of exceptional genius and is

one which

lies

history, not to say of the

But, as the subject

is

a wide one,


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

264

we had

better here confine ourselves to Christian history.

Newman

In the Sermon already mentioned Mr. single "

example only of the

before

while time lasts to Athanasius,

The example Augustine

"

and

;

this

exp^ined

is

is

West have undoubtedly this

anthropological

of

Athanasius

the

be effaced

a note to refer

in his

alone the burden

the East and

impress

theological, the other in

its

But

aspect.

AtJianasiiis

in

left their

on the doctrine of the Church, the

this is not the ordinary

which individualism has taken

in

in

Athanasius

a critical one.

in the

one, as might be expected, in

speak

shall not

on whose works he was at the time engaged.

from that day to

way

that

now even one man has impressed an image on

Church which, through God's mercy,

its

gives a

when he says

principle,

effect.

When we

immdum, we mean

contra

day supported, or seemed of orthodox

on a point

belief,

that

to support, vital

to the whole structure of Christian doctrine, against

But such a doctrinal

heterodox world.

the Arian controversy

nor has

it

individual.

is

not

common

generally been met

The

elaboration of

on by theological

experts

action of the Church.

It

is

in

crisis

Church

history,

by the energy of a

dogma

is

an

as that of

single

mostly carried

and through the corporate rather in the conversion of

worldlings or unbelievers, the enforcement or application of great principles, and the development of the moral or spiritual life of the age, than in the abstract enunciation or

vindication of dogmatic truths, that personal influence has

played so prominent a part.

It

would be obvious

to the case of the Apostles, but

it

to refer

might be replied

though the reply would be only partially relevant

— that

the gift of inspiration and of miracles differentiates

them


INDIVIDUALISM IN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS.

Take, however, the gradual con-

from ordinary teachers.

Papacy

struction of the splendid edifice of the mediccval for a splendid edifice

Viewed on

it

was, whether

theological side,

its

265

it

we admire

may be

;

or not.

it

regarded by one

party as a creation of Divine Providence, and by another as the masterpiece of Satan it

was

chiefly the

periods,

in successive

nificance of their social

;

but viewed on

who had grasped

own

position

and

I.,

is

it

spirits

relations to the

we subtract from Leo I., Gregory I.,

Hildebrand, and the third and fourth Innodifficult

result could

side,

pontiffs

If

the catalogue of Popes such names as

cents,

human

at once the sig-

its

and religious needs of the age.

Nicholas

its

work of some half-dozen great

to

see,

humanly speaking, how the

have been achieved.

And what

these master

did for building up the external polity,

men

like

Benedict, Dominic, Francis of Assisi, and Ignatius Loyola did, in very different

ways and

at different periods, for

moulding or reforming the internal It

must be

ation

clear, for instance,

confined

is

discursive

to Sir

Church.

James Stephen's charming but

we may

said of the origin

And

the

and idea of the widely

result rigidly regimental,

centuries later

advancing tide of the

same may be and

diverse,

in

system introduced three

by Ignatius Loyola.

more than

indi-

use the term, was the Franciscan

revival of the thirteenth century.

influence

of the

and sketchy biography, how thoroughly

vidualistic, if

its final

life

even to those whose inform-

It

was

his individual

stemmed the Nor was Protestant Reformation.

anything

else

that

the success of the attack less due to the personal energy of

Luther than the successful resistance to Ignatius. both cases alike the determining force lay

far

And

more

in

in the


266

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

men than

vigorous personality of the

Luther, as a theologian,

ment.

same day with greater

;

Calvin, but

his peculiar

his

in theological argu-

named

not to be

is

was

influence

scheme of theology had a moral and

personal rather than an intellectual basis, and

be questioned whether it

it

may

well

would ever have taken the shape

it

ultimately assumed, had a Pope otherwise

Leo X. understood how as Innocent

in the

infinitely

minded than

to appropriate his reforming zeal,

IIL had appropriated the devotion of Francis.

But the Papacy of the Renaissance had

and Luther was rudely

repelled, like

lost its cunning,

Wesley afterwards,

with not very dissimilar results. If

we

turn

back to England, the same phenomenon

again presents

The English Reformation

itself.

exception which helps to prove the rule. speaking, not a

religious

or

It

is

an

was, properly

theological, but a political

movement there was not, as Dollinger has pointed out, a single man of first-rate eminence, either for character or ;

capacity,

them sank

among in

the

English Reformers

;

too

many

of

both respects below the level of respectability.

Unlike the Scotch and Continental movement,

it

emanated

from the Government, not from the people, and the Puritan revolt which

grew out of

it

advance of the democratic tion of the next century,

was

closely connected with the

spirit.

which has

But the Caroline reacleft its

on the Established Church, owes

its

mainly to the individual energy of

men

individual piety of

the awakening

men

like

it

influence of a few gifted

like

and success

Laud, and the

Andrewes and Ken

came from the long

the eighteenth century,

permanent mark

origin

spiritual

;

and when

slumber of

was again through the personal and devoted men that the work


INDIVIDUALISM IN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS. Wesley himself never

was wrought. from the

267

willingly departed

orthodoxy, and was so far

lines of the received

from sympathising with the Calvinism of Whitefield that he said he could sooner be a Turk, or a an

atheist,

deist, or

And

almighty tyrant.

Whitefield's

the masses gathered on the bleak

him did not

even

made God an

than believe a doctrine which

power over

electric hill-side

to

listen to

from the peculiar doctrine, or even

arise

exactly from the eloquence, of his sermons

commonplace enough

to read

— but

force of individual earnestness

— for

they are

from the marvellous

he put into them

;

was

it

with soul that gave reality to his

the contact of soul

down the grimy faces who had known little before

message, when the tears streamed of the rough Cornish miners, of the love of the Evangelical

God or man. In the Church of England movement owed whatever success it had

at the time to the personal zeal

and weight of men

if

Mr, Gladstone's estimate of the net result of the move-

ment be is

like

And

Simeon and Wilberforce and Fletcher of Madeley.

a

still

power. the

correct, as there

more

For, so far as

medium

good reason

is

to think

it

that

of Tractarianism, the process

agency alone,

authority,

but

persistent

opposition.

in

out,

its

has acted on the country through

individual

been pointed

it is,

striking testimony to the true secret of

not only

the teeth

The

of

its

was

effected

by

the aid

of

without

most strenuous and

Tractarian leaders, as

were most of them trained

Evangelical School, and the

new

revival

in

has the

was carried on

by the same means of direct individual action as the old one, but with far more commanding attributes of moral and

intellectual power.

It

was a true

instinct

which told


263

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

Dr.

Newman

"

he had

a work to do

movement which never bore retired at

an early stage of

able without

"

him.

A

his its

progress,

prophet

"

stantly needed " for truth's creed."

is

in

is

The

most perfect organization,

doctrine, the

England

in

"

;

the

name, and from which he hardly conceiv-

one sense conpurest system of will not

hold

its

own without

the individual energy which can alone breathe

into the dry

bones the breath of

of individual exertions, and

renewed by them.

And

Systems grow cut

life.

require to

be sustained or

hence Churches which repress

that energy, and in proportion as they repress

must be

it,

regarded as in a state of partial or incipient decadence.

The

Catholic Church was at

its

lowest ebb at the beginning

of the sixteenth century, and the Church of England at the close of the eighteenth. logical

opinion,

strictness

the

Heresy

obstinate

and the best security against

in giving free

vidual zeal.

signifies in

preference its

etymo-

of individual

triumph

is

found

scope in the service of orthodoxy to indi-

To

use Scriptural

language, unity of spirit

can only be preserved by a generous recognition of the diversity of gifts.


XXX. PREACHING ANCIENT AND MODERN.

A

WELL-KNOWN Oxford

when asked why he

tutor of a former generation,

Sunday

preferred long walks on

to

attendance at St. Mary's, replied that he preferred sermons

from stones to sermons from

sticks.

It

is

presumably

a similar preference or a similar dread which has inspired so

many

been

There have

discussions on preaching of late years.

articles in reviews,

and a book by Mr. Mahafify, better

known for his classical publications, and " Conferences on Pew and Pulpit " at the City Temple, and an address by Mr. Walter in the Chapter House of St. Paul's, both critical and suggestive. attached

its

It

may, however, be doubted whether he

due weight

to a preliminary distinction,

which

he mentioned, but scarcely appeared to have thought out

He

in all its bearings.

cultivated

now than

observed that oratory

in ancient

is

far less

Greece and Rome, where

public speaking monopolized that control of public opinion

which

it

has

sarily follows

come

to share with the press.

from

this that preaching,

and

But still

it

neces-

more the

public reading of the Bible, to which a large portion of his discourse was devoted, cannot hold the

Church of our own day as

in

same position

in the

days before printing was

invented, or even before "the schoolmaster was abroad."


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

270

very

It is in fact

difficult

us to realise to

for

full

its

extent the distinction between a hearing and a reading age.

has justly been

It

never

if

had

society

any but a reading age, the history of the

known

most

brilliant scenes,

greatest recorded triumph.

When Demos-

world would have

and oratory

observed that,

its

lost

one of

its

thenes persuaded the Thebans, while the Macedonian

was already hovering on

army

their frontiers, to join the alliance

of Athens, his eloquence wrought a wonder second only to that ascribed by poetry to

of that

same

Amphion's

when the

lyre,

Thebes rose obedient

city of

to

walls

its call.

But

the most eloquent speech of Demosthenes delivered in the present

House of Commons might hardly

The

dozen votes.

made

influence half-a-

day are

ablest speeches in the present

rather to be read than to be listened to,

holds good also of

many contemporary

and

this

It

may

sermons.

indeed be truly said that the whole character of modern as distinguished from ancient

fundamental change.

by

writing but

himself called

by word of mouth it,

obstetric

Herodotus recited

we

are told,

dides.

it

literature

by

affected

is

this

Socrates taught his philosophy not ;

the " erotetic,"

method was of

his history at the

its

or, as

he

very essence.

Olympic games, where,

drew tears from the sterner eyes of Thucy-

The poems

of

Homer,

if

our modern

critics will

allow them to be so named, were chanted by the Rhapsodists.

The same

theology.

As

distinction

has

left

a well-known writer puts

Luther and the sermons at

St. Paul's

mark on our

its it,

" the

Cross

may

hymns

of

find their

parallel in the first age of Christianity, not in the con-

fession of

Augsburg or the decrees of Trent."

Fathers of the Church, like

St.

Chrysostom,

The St.

greatest

Ambrose


PREACHING ANCIENT AND MODERN.

For

preachers of their day.

all

purposes the

practical

has been completely shifted by the

centre of influence

Thus, to take a very different

printing press.

Demosthenes has

!7I

us

left

(in

the

De

illustration,

Corona) a graphic

Athens of the messenger announcing

picture of the arrival at

Philip's seizure of Elateia,

and how

the prytanes downwards,

thronged to the market-place

all

the citizens, from

But when tidings arrived

to hear the news.

in

London

of the battles of Waterloo, Inkermann, or Sedan, the centre of attraction was the post or telegraph in

ordinary times the

object in

was

life

Roman

was there the

Athenian army

And

so even

whose

to hear or tell something new, loitered,

not in the Club or Coffee-house, but It

office.

or Athenian idler,

Sicily

in

in

the barber's shop.

news of the destruction of the

fatal

was

first

made known, and a

barber was actually put to the torture for spreading the

To come to later times, when Richard III. wished own succession to the English Crown by

report.

to secure his

discrediting

the

legitimacy of his unhappy nephews

public opinion, his article to a

first

political

in

care was, not to send an inspired

organ, but to cause Shaw, a noted

preacher of the day, to deliver a sermon to that effect at Paul's Cross.

To

return

to

our immediate subject,

we may

readily

conceive with what keen and breathless interest the public

reading of listened

apostolic

to

a

manuscript

by an infant

age.

And

for

Gospel

or

Christian

some

Epistle

would be

community

centuries

of the

afterwards the

reading of Scripture continued to form an integral portion of the worship of the

Church, as before of the Jewish


272

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

Synagogue

;

and

it

was usually followed, as

gogue, by what Justin Martyr tion,"

calls

Syna-

in the

"a word of exhorta-

which gradually developed, especially among the

Greeks, into a regular sermon by the bishop or some priest

by him. The selection of Scripture we should call them, was at first left to the

appointed

lessons, as

discretion of each bishop, but in course of time a systematic

arrangement was adopted with reference to the various seasons and solemnities of the Christian year.

St.

Chry-

sostom, himself the most eloquent preacher of his age, frequently complains of the prevalent habit of attaching

an exaggerated importance to the sermon, to the disparage-

ment of public

prayer,

on the one hand

and the

consequences, shown

evil

the growth of a too theatrical and

in

declamatory style of preaching, and on the other

in the

custom of

noisily applauding impressive passages of popular

preachers.

"This," he told his hearers on one occasion,

" is

no

theatre, nor are

a tragedy."

It

is,

you

sitting here as spectators

indeed, curious to observe

the similarity, in points of detail, between

modern preaching, though the day has banished,

stricter

at least in the

how

close

of is

ancient and

decorum of our own

Church of England,

outward demonstrations of approval from the sacred

all

walls.

Then, as now, the sermon was sometimes delivered from the altar steps, sometimes from the as now, shorthand writers eagerly

taking

down

jSvixa

or pulpit; then,

employed themselves

in

notes of the discourses of famous preachers,

so that St. Gregory of Nazianzus especially addresses in his farewell

sermon

at Constantinople,

and

them

at a later date

Gaudentius of Brescia complained of their transcribing him inaccurately.

Then

too, as

now, sermons were sometimes,


PREACHING ANCIENT AND MODERN. though as

is

so

rarely, read off entirely

common

like those of

from notes or manuscript,

England, or committed to memory,

in

Bourdaloue, Massillon, and the great French

preachers generally

;

sometimes delivered partly extempore,

according to a plan previously prepared

Thus

altogether extempore.

St.

;

and sometimes

Augustine

tells

us that

was occasionally suggested by the

his choice of subjects

passage of Scripture which the St.

273

lector

had been reading, and

Chrysostom speaks of something he witnessed on the

way

to church, or

which occurred during divine

service,

suggesting the theme of his discourse, as when the lighting of lamps during his sermon had drawn off the attention

Very

of his audience.

analogy

in

likely

another respect

we might be

also, if

remote ages were as

tion about those

able to trace an

our means of informafull

by the more various and voluminous

as those supplied literature

of the

But, as a matter of fact, only the discourses

present day.

of really distinguished writers have

come down

and

to us,

there are no journals or biographies, or serials and newspapers, of the patristic era to enlighten us on the popular

But we know that even apostles

taste in the matter.

pated the snare of " itching

ears,"

and

antici

more than probable

it is

preachers often won as cheap a reputation among the early Christians as among their descendants. By degrees, however, preaching died out altogether

that popular

in the East,

and

in

the middle ages

it

had from various

causes sunk to a low ebb in the Latin Church, still

pate,

It

was

supposed to be the special function of the episcobut the statesman or warrior prelates of mediaeval

Europe lacked discharging

it,

alike

time, inclination,

and aptitude

and thus again the Anglican prelates

for

at


274

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BICGRAPHY.

a later date were stigmatized by their Puritan assailants as "

dumb dogs

And

that cannot bark."

" the

became, as Milman observes, heresiarchs of

all

the sects,"

Dominic

St.

till

hence

naturally

it

strength of

the

all

the thir-

in

teenth century founded the Order of Friar Preachers, in

order to meet them with their ation,

it

own weapons. The Reform-

need hardly be added, gave a fresh impetus to

among

preaching both of the old

ning to share

its

And we must

the assailants and the defenders

though the pulpit was then already begin-

faith,

influence on public opinion with the press.

remember,

after

making

change of circumstances, that oratory

all

allowance for

will ever

be a power

'among men, while human nature remains what especially that sacred oratory can never

important place is

in the

fail

it

is,

and

hold an

to

prophetic ministry of the Church.

1

of course quite true, as has often been pointed out, that "

"preaching the Gospel

ment only

of the kind so lovingly

woman to

my

in

does not

or even chiefly

Loss and Gain,

in the

Testa-

still

less

Dear Mr. Spoutaway, he goes

"

heart, he goes through me,"

But

it

is

are,

— and

that the ritual

and were intended to

from the

also true that

we now understand

no part of the

the

official

be,

first,

preaching,

term, was a distinctive It

and

formed

duties of the Pagan, or even of the

Mosaic priesthood, though into the service of the " a

—

the Methodist old

almost unique peculiarity of Christian worship.

by

New

sermons,

a very real sense a proclamation or setting forth of

Christ.

as

call

commended by

and ordinances of the Church in

mean

what we

it

had

latterly

system of popular preaching the Stoics of the later

"

been introduced

Mr. Lecky speaks of

Synagogue.

being created and diffused

Empire

;

and he instances the


PREACHING ANCIENT AND MODERN. who may be compared

Cynics,

itinerant

who were

a kind of

But he admits that the analogy

lecturers.

the latter case

Mendicant Orders

to the

of the Church, and the Rhetoricians,

275

in

a faint one, neither the talents nor the

is

more than of the

Rhetoricians, any

character of these

Sophists of a previous age, being usually such as to com-

mand

And

respect.

doubted whether far as

it

as regards both classes,

existed at

all,

it

may

be

"system of popular preaching," so

their

was not consciously or unconsciously

borrowed from the contemporary usage of the Christian Church,

as

was

certainly

the

case with

Emperor

the

Julian's not very successful attempt to import

it

into his

unreal and semi-Christianized revival of the Pagan cult.

There can be no question then that the object of raising the standard of preaching ance.

As

is

one of high practical import-

to public reading, there can perhaps little

be done than to take

all

available

more

precautions against

The well-known example, to their own marvellous effect produced by Mr.

slovenliness or irreverence.

which Mr. Walter and others have referred from recollection,

of

the

Newman's reading

of the lessons at St. Mary's, Oxford,

at once sympathetic is

and suggestive yet perfectly simple,

one which ordinary men must be content to admire

rather than to imitate.

demned, there

is

If careless reading

also an opposite

is

to be con-

and by no means purely

hypothetical danger of affectation arising from overmuch care.

The

case

is

not singular of an Evangelical divine

of the last generation,

who had taken

lessons in reading

the service from Mrs. Siddons, and the result, though he

was himself not otherwise than devout, was decidedly more striking than devotional.

But with preaching

it is

different.


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

276

Orators indeed, like poets, are born and not made, but

may

a good deal

born orators cannot with impunity neglect as has been often said, " the secret of

be learnt on the knees," but that

more human elements of

the

still

be done by judicious training, and even

is

No

it.

doubt,

good preaching must

no excuse

for ignoring

A great

success,

barrister

is

reported to have expressed his surprise that the clergy did

make

not "

A

better use of their quite unique opportunities

whole week," he exclaimed,

no reply

" to

:

get up the case, and

But the requirements alike of conscience and

" !

of public opinion

would leave a parish

day a very limited fraction of the

"

priest of the present

whole week

" for

com-

posing his Sunday sermon, or possibly his two sermons,

and the absence of

"

reply

"

is

by no means an unmixed

benefit to the preacher, or at least to his discourse.

he

is

never under the

fire

to be shallow or supercilious,

and

some such purifying process of

criticism should

in

the education of preachers.

that what

is

That

may tempt him good reason why

of contradiction is

And

a

it

be supplied

does seem strange

practised almost everywhere else should

be

om.itted in the ordinary course of training for the Anglican

ministry.

The composition and

delivery of sermons form

part of the regular training of candidates for orders

among

the Presbyterians and Protestant Nonconformists, as also in

Catholic seminaries.^

And

without some such prepara-

^ Some such plan is said to have been adopted by the late primate, when Bishop of London, and an amusing story is told about it. He

had set a candidate for deacon's orders to preach in the private chapel at London House before himself and his Examining Chaplain, the late Dr. Stanley. The young preacher, whose conception of the duties of his office -was a very definite and somewhat narrow one, began by dividing his hearers into "the converted and the unconverted." The


PREACHING ANCIENT AND MODERN. we cannot

tory discipline

fairly

endowed with exceptional and a comparatively modern

England

is

it

;

are not

wish them, to a peculiarity,

is

peculiarity, of the

Church of

almost unknown, and would scarcely be

other communions, Catholic

tolerated, in

would

as neither

or even

Reading sermons

preach without book.

who

expect those

gifts,

277

be tolerated

it

public meeting, or in a law court.

or

Protestant,

Parliament, or at a

in It

does not of course

sermons any more than speeches should

at all follow that

The

not be carefully prepared.

great French preachers

used to write and learn their sermons by heart, like the

Greek orators of

old,

and

one

at

least

of

most

the

eloquent extempore preachers in the Church of England at

the

might

present the

find

day

is

said

to

preparation of

committing to memory certain

some

the habit of

is

Hill,

Others perhaps

passages,

critical

a danger in trusting too

as

much

who had been

him which passage

most.

" Sir,"

discoursing before

in his

was the prompt

sermon had struck him

reply,

"

what pleased me

most was your passage from the pulpit to the vestry." Walter, by the way, brought a charge against ",

;

to

and who afterwards pressed the great man

to tell

themselves

is

Every one has heard the story of an

ambitious young preacher,

Rowland

same.

sufficient,

of our greatest Parliamentary orators

not but that there

phrpurei panni.

do the notes

"

Mr.

our pulpits

which he had heard an American preacher

describe as

"an

enough that

" to

invention of the Devil."

And

be cabined, cribbed, confined

in

it

a

is

true

wooden

or stone

box a few

Bishop

once interposed: "Stop there. Sir; in which class do you

place

at

me ? "

feet

above the ground, with a brass


278

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

bookstand is

and a pair of candlesticks on each

in front,

not the most favourable position for giving

side,

expres-

full

In the early Church, as

sion to the impulses of the soul."

we have seen, the sermon was sometimes preached from the

ambo

—which,

however, was probably more spacious

than a modern pulpit

and there

steps,

is

— and

sometimes from the chancel

no reason why the

not be followed now, as indeed

should

latter practice

often

it

is,

where the

size

and arrangements of the building admit of it. Or the Italian plan might be adopted of making the pulpit a sort of open gallery running round a

pillar,

which would equally

meet the requirement that the whole person of the preacher should be

visible,

and would also leave room

of action and movement.

which

A

may

safely

be

freedom

for

But these are matters of

left to find their

detail

natural adjustment.

more important suggestion has been urged both by

They

Mr. Mahafify and Mr. Walter. that the Church of

are agreed in desiring

England should follow Catholic pre-

cedent in establishing an " Order of preachers

ment the work of the parochial however admirably

for

fitted

clergy,

their

" to

many

supple-

of

whom,

ordinary duties,

are

quite unequal to the task of preparing a fresh sermon of

any value every week, not often

demanded

of them.

to say

two or

Mr. Mahaffy

is

three,

which

careful to

is

add

and such a recommendation comes of course with peculiar significance from an Irish Protestant

of celibate preachers in the his reasons for

emphasising

sensible ones.

But

if

this condition,

"

"

an Order

;

he gives

"

which are very

that suggestion be thought imprac-

— and one can imagine the wry faces the Synod would make over — he pleads at

ticable "

clergyman

Reformed Churches

it

new

Irish

least for "

an


PREACHING ANCIENT AND MODERN.

279

Order of itinerant preachers," who, though having wives, to their occasional

knowledge of inents,

and scattered audiences, removed from

may be as though

all

and domestic desagre-

their personal foibles

And

they had none.

here no doubt

he has abundant Nonconformist precedent, Wesleyan and other,

on

his side.

A

Canon and

distinguished

Professor,

whose leanings are decidedly Protestant, was once heard

mounted the

to say that the first time he

pulpit, after his

marriage, he could not help feeling that half his authority

Apart from

criticism of graver de-

the faults of style most

commonly charged on

had gone from him. ficiencies,

modern preachers may be summed up under the two heads of priggishness and over familiarity. The former temper was exemplified by the lady

who was taken by

a friend to hear

much

a famous Jesuit preacher, and came away

complaining that church."

my

dear,

to do."

Her

"she

could

friend's reply

shocked her

more

:

in

"Well^

why didn't you that is just what he meant you The same confusion of thought between reverence .''

and priggishness was

differently illustrated

at the time of the Irish famine,

a word off"ensive to pious ears

their daily sustenance,"

root on which so

and which

of the potato

— as " that esculent succulent, many hungry

sinners of

and by another who called

many thousands depended

in the inscrutable

apart from doctrinal questions, minister,

it

" that

for support,

wisdom of Divine Providence

has for a time ceased to flourish."

Calvinistic

by the preacher,

who spoke

the loss of which has deprived so

the

still

shocked,

laughing

help

hardly

may

mentioned

But an opposite fairly

in

fault,

be charged on

Macmillan, who

never preached without referring to " the back settlements of eternity,"

wherein the predestination of the elect had


2So

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

been irrevocably fixed before the foundation of the world. It

must be remembered, however, that the

when employed upon sermons,

is

critical faculty,

peculiarly liable to be dis-

torted or obscured by personal or party bias, as

Evangelical spinster,

who had

what she fondly imagined

when the

listened in rapt attention to

to be a

most edifying discourse,

exclaimed in anguish, as the preacher turned to the altar at

its

close, "

Alas

!

but he has only the

I

thought he had the

gift

of the gab."

gift

and genuine power of speech are of course dients of

all

true eloquence.

preacher to be eloquent

;

and

of the Spirit,

Originality of thought essential ingre-

But we cannot expect every after

all,

the main distinction

between a good preacher and a bad one,

is

the difference

between the man who has to say something and the man

who has something

to say.


XXXI.

HUGO GROTIUS. The

observance

Hugo

of

known

Grotius

to

year at Delft of the tercentenary

last

—to

the world

him the name by which he

give

—

or,

is

he was called by his own

as

countrymen, Huig van Groot, serves at once to remind us of a great

memory and

it is

usually

of those

whom

that

of the truth that prophets are so

apt to be honoured in their

little

was not indeed

left for

their slain,

own

country, during

life,

the children to build the sepulchres fathers

have destroyed.

Grotius

but he was sentenced to perpetual

imprisonment by his native Government, and only escaped the

full

endurance of the penalty through the courage and

And

ingenuity of his wife.

suffered to elapse before the Delft,

three

when the Prince of Orange attended

monument

to him,

marked the

respect or reparation paid if

for erecting

tardy instalment of

first

by Holland

not her greatest citizen.

at

to lay a wreath

on his grave, and a subscription was organized a

had been

centuries

commemorative ceremony

to her greatest jurist,

However,

if

he has suffered

the usual fate of a great prophet at home, he has enjoyed

from his own day to ours an European of

the marvellous criticism

whose pen was too apt cipal

to run

celebrity.

hazarded

In spite

by De Quincey,

away with him, on the

work of Grotius, as a medley of

"

prin-

empty truisms and


282

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

time-serving Dutch falsehoods ties,

"

combined

in

the general verdict of posterity was

summed up

De Jure except

modern

many

Pads had done more

Belli et

fairly

than any writer

Smith to establish the working principles of His Mare Liberiun

society.

contain in

pretty

a remark of the Times, that the author of

in

Adam

equal quanti-

germ

may

even be said to

Like

at least the doctrine of Free Trade.

other great men, Grotius was a prodigy of precocious

genius, though infant prodigies

posed good Latin verses University course

Martianus Capella

;

verify

at twelve he entered

on

his

Leyden, where he came under the

at

guidance of Scaliger

;

by no means always

At. eight years old he com-

the promise of their youth.

;

at fifteen he published an edition of

he edited the remains of

at seventeen

Aratus, and took his degree of doctor of law, and began practice as

an advocate.

He had meanwhile

published

three Latin dramas on Scriptural themes, one of which,

Adamns

Exiil,

said to

is

of Paradise Lost.

At

have supplied hints to the author

the age of twenty he was appointed

historiographer to the United Provinces, and a year later

he composed a published

till

treatise

De Jure

Prcudcv,

which was never

1868, but Vv^hich in fact contains the ground

plan of his best-known work, the treatise et Pacis,

published twenty years

De Jure

Belli

The Mare

later, in 1626.

LiberuJH, printed without his sanction in 1609, and answered

by Selden

in his

3Iare Clausum, formed a chapter of the

unpublished treatise De Jure Prcedcz.

In 161 3, at the early

•age of thirty, Grotius succeeded Elias Oldenbarnevelt as

Pensionary of the city of Rotterdam long allowed to retain

— and

the

— an

office

he was not

same year he came

England with a deputation sent from Holland

to

to adjust


HUGO GROTIUS.

283

the rising differences between the two maritime States,

and was received with distinguished courtesy by James

But

as afterwards at the Court of Louis XIII. also influenced

him

a word may now be

said.

England this

We

have seen already

a jurist, Grotius was a

in

another direction, and of

that, in spite of his

man

I.,

his visit to

eminence as

of very varied interests and

acquirements, and was far from restricting himself to the

study of the law. poetry, found

and

studies in

fact

a

History, theology, politics, classics, even place,

as well

And

his writings.

as jurisprudence, in

his chief interest,

to the great misfortune of his

life,

and may be

said indirectly to have shaped his subsequent career,

theology. this,

He had

but his

define

it.

visit to

He

England helped both

to confirm

and

cultivated while in this country the society

High Church

school,

Overall and Andrewes, and became intimate with

Isaac Casaubon,

who warmly commends

and profound learning of

this

in his

the piety, probity,

"wonderful man," and "the

rare excellence of his divine genius."

implanted or fostered

The

mind by the

principles then

influence of the

Caroline school of divines adhered to him through

On

was

previously indeed given evidence of

of leading ecclesiastics of the nascent like

his

which led

his return to

Holland he found the

strife

life.

raging hotly

between the Armlnians and the Gomarists, or Anti-Remonstrants, as

they were then designated (the Supralapsarian

Calvinists),

But

Prince

and took part very decidedly with the former. Maurice of Nassau dreaded

of Oldenbarnevelt,

Arminian,

and

the Grand

determined

so-called "orthodox," or

Pensionary,

therefore

to

the

influence

who was an support

extreme Calvinist party

;

the

in 161


284

AND BIOGRAPHY.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

Oldenbarnevclt was condemned to death, and Grotius to confiscation of goods

and imprisonment

accordingly, on June

6,

up

1619, shut

for

He was

life.

in the fortress of

Loevestein, and there he remained for nearly two years,

during which period

he wrote his famous treatise

Veritate RcUgionis Christiancs.

share his imprisonment, and in April 162 his deliverance

to contain

to carry "

there

by placing him

books and dirty

1

in a chest,

The

linen.

she contrived

supposed only

employed

soldiers

complained of the weight, and observed that

it

must be an Arminian

His wife replied

inside."

that there were Arminian books in to Paris,

De

His wife was allowed to

He made

it.

his escape

where Louis XHI. received him graciously, and

promised him an annual pension of 3000

livres,

which, like

other French pensions of that day, was never paid, and he

was reduced

to great poverty.

At

this

time he composed

the work on which his reputation chiefly Belli et

Pads, based, however,

in large

rests,

before observed, on his earlier unpublished treatise

He

PrcedcE.

feeling

was prompted to write

it

sort of

which inspired another important work of a religious

him

Christendom of

reason at

"

all "

;

war waged with a licence even barbarous

ashamed

into

of,

for trivial reasons or for

he was writing amid

Thirty Years' War. translated

It dis-

to witness the spectacle presented throughout

nations might be

The

title

all

no

the horrors of the

of the work, which has been

every European language, gives a very

inadequate conception of treatise

De Jure

by the same

nature to be noticed presently, his love of peace. tressed

De Jure

measure, as has been

on moral,

social,

said to exhibit the

its

real scope.

It is in truth

a

and international law, and may be

first

serious attempt to establish on


HUGO GROTIUS.

2S5

independent grounds a principle of right and basis

Hallam has drawn out a

society and government.

abstract of

and Mackintosh pronounced

it,

it

for

careful

to be " per-

haps the most complete that the world has yet owed, at so early a stage in the progress of

and learning of one man."

any

science, to the genius

That the superadded know-

ledge and experience of two centuries and a half show his

theory to be

in

some

respects defective,

is

no disparagement

to the high merits of the work.

Nor were their

The

way.

the treatise, ChristiancB, getics,

but

treatises is

remarkable

less

in

and perhaps best known of them,

already mentioned, classical

De

Rcligionis

Veritate

manual of Christian Apolo-

and was translated not only into most European,

more

One

earliest

became a

several

work was is

theological writings

his

Oriental

his

languages.

Another

Commentary on Holy be

to

likely

remembered

considerable

But he

Scripture. for

two

theological

on what were then burning questions of the day.

the Dcfciice of the Catholic Faith on the Satisfaction

of Christ, written

in

vindication of the doctrine of the Atone-

ment against Socinianism, which, however, advocates a modification of the Lutheran rather than the Catholic view of the subject.

The Via et Votnm ad Pacem

published only three years before his death,

have given the side to the

first

Ecclesiasticam,

may be

Reunion movement of the seventeenth century,

taken up so warmly on the same 'side by Calixtus .

his contemporaries, nitz,

said to

powerful impetus from the Protestant

among

and afterwards by Molanus" and Leib-

and which met with a cordial response

same century from men

like

later

in the

Royas de Spinola, Cardinal

and Bishop of Neustadt, who acted with the

full

sanction


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

286

and encouragement of Pope Innocent XL, and Mr. Mark Pattison,

Bossuet.

Erasmus,

in the

latterly

who compares

by

Grotius to

Encydopcedia Britan7iica, says that both of

them, though for very different reasons, "indifference to dogma," which

felt

Erasmus put

the

same

aside with

the superior contempt of a scholar for monkish wrangles, while Grotius wished to get rid of religious unity

to the

way the

same

and concord

That, however,

view.

of stating the case.

as an

it

impediment to

and Hallam evidently

;

is

Grotius betrays

Atonement a very keen eye

— one

inclines

hardly an accurate in his treatise

on

might say the keen

insight of a jurist— for theological subtleties.

But he had

an overpowering conviction of the supreme importance of unity and authority, and was willing to go a long

meet the Catholic party

On

religious sanctions.

in

way

to

order to secure these great

the necessity, for instance, of a

centre of unity he spoke very decidedly, and hence he

was ready

to concede to the

Galilean school of that

defended

many

Papacy quite

as

day would have cared

much

as the

to claim

;

he

Tridentine doctrines in detail, and thought

the schism of the Reformation had done more

good.

It is

quite intelligible that an

harm than Amsterdam preacher

should have denounced him as "papisajis," and that reports

Rome

of his conversion to quarters.

should have been

rife in

many

Hallam, who thinks he had "a bias towards

Popery," expresses his conviction that, had Grotius lived a little

that

longer, he certainly " still

true, as

remained

" ;

Mr. Pattison

would have taken the easy leap

and he insists,

is

probably

right.

It

may

be

that he looked at the matter

rather from the standpoint of a statesman than of a divine,

from

his intense appreciation of the

need of ecclesiastical


HUGO GROTIUS.

287

organization and unity, but he had also a very deep senti-

ment of by the

piety,

and

his religious leanings

Calvinist intolerance to

subjected

—pointed

direction.

He

Church

in a

—

vivified

perhaps

which he had himself been

Catholic rather than a Protestant

avowedly much preferred the Anglican

to continental Protestantism.

His historical works, among which the chief place must be assigned to the Annals of the Loiv Countries published death, are of less

after his

permanent

theological and juridical treatises.

interest than his

But the many-sidedness

of his mind, his vast erudition, his wide range both of

thought and sympathy, and his curious anticipation

many

in

respects of principles repudiated or ignored at the

time, but which have since then passed into general accept-

and

his claim

human

progress.

ance, constitute his characteristic excellence, to rank

among

The bent tical,

the foremost pioneers of

of his genius

and

in

diplomatic

was speculative rather than praclife

he attained to no great success.

His mission was to lay down to others to develop

born

man

principles,

and apply.

of letters, but unlike

which

it

was

left

Like Erasmus he was a

Erasmus he

felt

a keen and

absorbing interest in the moral and religious welfare of

His great

mankind.

a genuine

harmony war.

desire to

political

treatise

was prompted by

promote the good government and

of Christian nations,

and to abate the horrors of

His great ecclesiastical treatise was designed, not to

minimise the importance of Christian dogma, but to enforce the paramount obligations of Christian unity, and exhibit

what appeared

to

him the grave

of a state of schism.

might entertain

religious evils

and dangers

Whatever abstract preference he

for particular Protestant doctrines,

he not


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

288

only did not love but intensely loathed

"

the dissidence of

Dissent and the Protestantism of the Protestant religion."

Such a man was scarcely his in

own day

in

intelligible to the Protestants of

France and Holland, with

outward communion, while

his

whom he remained

nominal Protestantism was

The

a scandal and perplexity to contemporary Catholics.

man who most say shared

—

thoroughly appreciated

his religious position

aim," as Mr. Pattison says,

Christendom."

"

— one might

was Casaubon.

indeed "

Their

was the same, the reunion of

Dollinger observes that he "insisted far more

strongly than Calixtus on the profound and extreme diverg-

ence of Protestantism from the Church of the early centuries,

and the necessity of either seeking reunion with the

ancient Church, or at least restoring rejected."

not unreasonably conjectures,

he did not

when

it

much which had been

But whatever might have occurred, as Hallam

in fact see his

if

way

was urged on him by

his residence in France.

his life

to a

his Gallican friends during

His health had never been robust,

and the end came rather suddenly to the Court of

Queen

had been prolonged,

change of communion

at last, after a brief visit

Christina of Sweden, where he was

He

cordially welcomed, but did not find himself at

home.

died in 1645 at the age of sixty-two.

remarkable

that, in a life of less

It is truly

than average length and more than'

average trouble and vicissitude, he should have accomplished so

much

as he did.

In an age of multiplied discoveries and

feverish competition such many-sidedness as his

But

almost or altogether impossible. to

name another

in his

own

it

would be

or perhaps in

earned a high and permanent,

if

becomes difficult

any age who has

not equal, celebrity, at once

as a scholar, a jurist, an historian,

and a

divine.


XXXII.

'SVVEDENBORG AND SWEDENBORGIANISM.

There in

are not probably a very large

England who

either

know

or care

number of people much about that

most mystical and eccentric of theologians and heresiarchs,

Emanuel Swedenborg, nor has had any large following ever, to

the sect he founded ever

in this country.

It appears,

be entering on a phase of special activity

United States, where a recent writer

in

disciples of the

Swedish

the

the North American

Revieiv informs us that strenuous efforts are being

by

how-

in

made

reformer to spread his opinions.

And

he adds with regret that "they naturally lay chief

stress

on

base

is

whereas

his religious opinions,"

better to approach secure."

him

"

from the

it

would be much where

scientific side,"

chief stress on the religious opinions of their founder. is,

" his

Possibly, but religionists are apt to lay the

There

however, an enlightened minority of American Sweden-

borgians, 94 in number, " receivers of the heavenly doctrines in this country,"

to

who

the " General

three years ago presented a memorial

Convention

ruling authority in their

"

—which apparently the — asking courteous

communion

is

in

terms, and with citations from Swedenborg's writings, that " the attitude of the organized

New

Church may no longer

continue to be one of seeming antagonism or conscious


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

290

other religious bodies,

superiority to

modest self-appreciation, and kindly, of other Christians."

but rather

one of

fraternal recognition

This looks rather

like

asking their

Church, which holds doctrines widely different from those

most

of

"

other

Christians,"

to

efface

itself.

One can

hardly wonder that, after being unfavourably noticed by the N'cw Jcrusalcvi Magazine, the memorial

dismissed, nor

is

New

controlling powers in the siv^e

system, perhaps fearing

might cause less

can

was quietly

easy to dispute the inference that " the

it

Church cling to the exclua

lest

removal of barriers

their alleged peculiarity to disappear."

Still

be reasonably denied that the controlling powers

it

are wise in their generation

;

we

all

know how much

the

growing disuse even of a distinctive dress has tended to

weaken the

force of

reviewer's belief

Quakerism as a

religious institution, has outlived is

likely

religious sect.

The

that " Swedenborgianism, as a form of

is

excuse for being," which

its

enough, but he can hardly expect that view to be

shared by the authorities of the Swedenborgian Church.

What

does appear strange, not to say paradoxical, in his

contention

is,

not the belief that Swedenborgianism

— like

Fourierism, the Individualism of Emerson, and other forms of

thought

America d'etre

it

which

forty years

may

were

closely

— has

ago

with

whatever

it

in

j-aison

once have had, but the bold suggestion that

Swedenborg's followers have

meaning of

associated

outlived

their

all

along mistaken the true

master's teaching,

when they turned

a

great philosopher into a seer and the founder of a sect.

"The

claim to

'

angelic

borg certainly made

'

authentication

" is

and the writer proceeds

to

really a drag

sum up

"—which Swedenon the doctrine

;"

the doctrine in a series of


SWEDENBORG AND SWEDENBORGIANISM. " truths "

some of which

or " divine commonplaces,"

commonplace enough, while

others,

being either

or

indisputable

291

true, are so far

if

are

from

undisputed that they are

repudiated by the immense majority of Christians of every

communion.

And

he thinks that Swedenborg was led to

adopt them from observing the utterly corrupt state of

all

existing Christian organizations, in support of which he

quotes from one of the prophet's works a long story of

what

"

the bishop, looking at me, said," which

episcopal interlocutor looked at

not

is

both so

and so profane that one cannot help suspecting the

silly

in

Be that as

the flesh.

it

Swedenborg

may,

to be told that tlie doctrines of

own age become

in vision,

Swedenborg have

religious truisms,

and

rather perplexing

it is

in

our

which form the burden

of popular preaching and are enunciated from

all

more or

less liberal pulpits. It

may be worth

while, in view of this marvellous asser-

tion, briefly to recall w^hat

religious

system really

the principal doctrines of his

are.

Emanuel Swedenborg, the

son of a Swedish Lutheran bishop, was born at Stockholm in

1688,

and began, according to

receive spiritual

inspirations undoubtedly

logical recoil

own

his

manifestations about

originated

versive of morality

rejected with

the Church.

it

— not ;

His theo-

without good

a

in

from the current Protestant doctrine of

which he regarded

account, to

1745.

violent

justification,

reason

— as

sub-

but in rejecting Lutheran doctrine he

the great

body of the

traditional belief of

His teaching on the Trinity

is

not easily

distinguishable from Sabellianism, and in order to cut up

by the

roots

the

denied original sin

Lutheran scheme of altogether.

The

justification,

he

reviewer says that

U

2


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

292

he "abolished the equally clear

;

his

devil,"

but that

is

not by any

whole teaching on the future

on future states of reward and punishment, obscure and mystical language, though

means and

life,

clothed in

is

includes very

it

precise statements about the condition in the next world

of the leading Reformers

who were doomed

by

of justification

theories

inculcated

One

here.

— Luther,

expiate

to

Calvin,

and others immoral

the

hereafter

they had

only which

faith

of Swedenborg's system, to

part

which he attached a high importance, and which had indeed long before been a favourite idea with both Jewish

commentators and early Christian Fathers, though application of

it

was "the doctrine of correspondencies." over and above the

literal

and

their

from his own,

differed of course widely

meant that

It

direct sense of Scripture,

which can be ascertained by the ordinary methods of exegesis, there

is

an occult and spiritual sense only to .

be discerned by the eye of historian facts, it

any

is

may

apparently relating a very simple narrative of

be the primary object,

rate of the writing,

know what

students

has

made

while the

thus,

if

not of the writer, at

composed under Divine guidance,

convey some deep Christian mystery.

to

is

And

faith.

All patristic

among

extensive use Origen

of this allegorical

method of

one which naturally commends

and somewhat visionary habit

itself to

of

others

interpretation.

men

mind, and

Swcden-

borg, strange as were his views, and in spite of a intellectual penetration,

was an

was one, and a devout

enthusiast.

enthusiast,

and he was no doubt describing

well as

his

"consists in

there

keen ever

" Piety," he observed

himself,

theory,

if

It

of a devout

his practice, as

thinking and

speaking


SWEDENBORG AND SWEDENBORGIANISM. much time

piously, spending

prayer, behaving

in

at that time, frequenting churches,

293

humbly

and attending devoutly Sacrament of

to the preaching there, often receiving the

the Supper every year, and performing the other parts of

worship according to Church ordinances."

Into his inter-

pretation of particular passages of Scripture, and details of his doctrinal system, there

here.

Enough has been

is

other

no need to enter

already to show that

said

a very peculiar one, and certainly does

it

is

not consist so

exclusively of " the cardinal doctrine of love to the Lord

and charity borgians

to

of

the

any

neighbour,"

plausible

as to

pretext

deprive for

Sweden-

continuing

to

maintain a separate religious organization of their own, as is

contended by the reviewer

certainly well qualified in

of Swedenborg,

if

;

who,

it

must be added,

is

one respect to be the exponent

obscurity of style be a qualification for

interpreting a writer

who

is

himself obscure.

It

must be

allowed that Swedenborg was a far more vigorous and

hardly more heterodox thinker than an earlier (German) "

theosophist,"

whose

by Hallam, and who

"

incoherencies of madness

is

best

known

in

"

are noted

England from the

circumstance that unhappily the wild mysticism of blessed

Bohmen "

— which

he learnt

"

the

years vir-

in his later

tually to prefer to the teaching of either Scripture or the

Church

— served to cloud

the keen and masculine intellect

of no less eminent a divine than William Law, author of

the Serious Call, and to convert his once robust theology into a strange farrago of

The

maundering

imbecilities.

reviewer seems to consider the real essence

of

Swedenborgian doctrine to correspond pretty much with the so-called rationalistic or very

"

Broad Church

"

teaching


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

294

of

present day, and

the

thus

Swedenborg, who anticipated

and was

few years

for a

in

"

age has overtaken

the

its drift,

interpreted

advance of

becoming

follows that, " as all churches are fast

the

New

doomed

Church, as a

Jerusalem

Swedenborg was

consider that

philosopher than a theologian

combination

of

separate

He

to inevitable extinction.

"

,

It

liberal,"

society,

much more

is

of

a

prodigy, a

a scientific

Copernicus,

Euclid,

secret,

further appears to

really

its

course."

its

Laplace, Vesalius,

Galen, Boerhaave, Harvey, Oken, Gothe, and whomsoever {sic)

may have

else

among

been distinguished

discoverers, inventors

"—and

that the false

which the perverse reverence of

explorers,

position

into

disciples

religious

his

intruded him has prevented his scientific eminence being as yet adequately recognised.

It

with this estimate on either point.

man

fessedly a his will

is

of considerable scientific attainments, but

chief claim to

posthumous

celebrity, valcat quantuin,

always be based on the peculiar form of religious

enthusiasm which he exemplified and

municated to

his

followers.

represent his teaching, in anticipation of

modern

its

Nor

" liberal "

Apostles' Creed except the subtle

so

dox

" ;

"

is

at all

correct

to

theology, single

though

it

of

article

is

the

can survive the application solvent.

It

is

therefore

one thing, and modern religious

a —which another. quite — affects

is

logically carried out

measure com-

in a it

Swedenborg's ideas are quite unortho-

but heterodoxy

liberalism " doxies "

first

and powerful a

perfectly true that

is

idea and intention, as a mere

more than doubtful whether any

of

impossible to agree

Swedenborg was con-

would

sublime

indifference

That Swedenborg's

result in

an

"

to

all

principles

extremely radical"


SWEDENBORG AND SWEDENBORGIANISM. form

"from

heterodoxy,

of

instinctively recoil,"

of heterodoxy

it

which

[most]

unquestionably true;

is

would be

after

tive " anti-preternaturalism," to

what cumbrous phrase.

295

reh'gionists

but a form,

and not a mere nega-

all,

adopt the reviewer's somecan his suggestion be

Still less

admitted— but here he becomes rather hopelessly obscure

— that

Swedenborg's

points not at

on earth for

;

what

all

life,

but to a perfected society

that he was, in short, endeavouring to substitute

his critic calls preternaturalism a

secularism,

"

To contemplate

one's breath away, for

power of the

it

so-called

forces

kind of glorified

he says,

this,"

"

almost takes

one to imagine the entire

religious

world diverted from

employment and devoted

present

humanity

regenerated

a

of

ideal

to a future

delightful prospect,

no doubt, but

Divine revelations,

in

ends."

social

to

its

A

this interpretation of the

which he unfeignedly and passion-

ately believed,

would not almost but altogether have taken

Svv^edenborg's

breath away,

we saw

who was much

just now, to church-going, prayer,

the Sacrament of the Supper."

on

gloss

h's

teaching,

may

be an ingenious

only in the same sense as

but

Euemerus put an ingenious

It

addicted, as

and "receiving

gloss

on the old Greek myths.

Even the reviewer shrinks from

insisting " that

Sweden-

borg fully entertained the views outlined above."

might

not, perhaps,

have anathematized them,

for

He

he was

not given to anathemas, but he would assuredly have consigned their teachers, had he

known

such uncomfortable purgatory, or the

Protestant

Reformers,

who

still

of

them, to some

worse position, as

propounded

immoral

theories of justification, occupied in his visionary world.

The

reviewer

" rejoices

in the existence of a

Swedenborg


296

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

may

Publication Society," which

AND BIOGRAPHY.

serve to diffuse the works

of the great philosopher of the future, but "cannot rejoice in the existence of a

New

Jerusalem Church," which only

serves to smother his philosophical light under the bushel " If

of an effete theology. establish itself on

schemes indicated just now plaint of

its

decadence."

New

indeed the

this rock "

— "there

There would

If secularism cannot hold its

Church," new or old,

"

the incongruous

be

for its continuance.

own without

preternaturalism

the help of

"

some

has no cause to

its

rival

least of

;

can secularism expect to gain a fresh lease of

the hypocritical

social

surely, however,

be alarmed at the future aggressions of all

and

would be no com-

no adequate reason, or ground of hope,

"

Church would

— of the secularist

tour de force of thrusting itself

by

life

under

patronage of the most eccentric, most

devout, and

most incomprehensible of modern

enthusiasts.

Meanwhile the American reviewer has simply

religious

reproduced, in a cruder form, the transparent fallacy of his

French Protestant biographer some twenty years ago, M. Matter,

who argued

that

therefore not a mystic

was

really both.

;

Swedenborg was a like

rationalist,

Bohmen, a century

and

earlier,

he


XXXIII. STRAUSS.

The

death ten years ago of David Frederick Strauss

was a notable event generally,

Germany and

in

were neither Germans nor divines.

who took no speculation

interest in theology, or

— as

it

To Englishmen even who looked on German

has been somewhere expressed

vast Hercynian forest,

He

— as

name

at

least

or

was

sceptical

school of theology, and in this sense his latest work,

und der

a

had long been dreaded or admired as the

chief living representative of the rationalist

Altc

"

out of which Bunsens and other

monsters occasionally emerge," his familiar.

the theological world

and could hardly pass unnoticed by those who

Neiie Glaubc, was

made

delivered the year before his death

Der

the text of an address

by Mr. Gladstone

at

Liverpool College, which provoked a good deal of com-

ment

at

the

time.

Nor was such an

estimate of his

position altogether an unreasonable one.

of kindred tendencies

may have

Other writers

shown, like Baur, a more

balanced judgment and a firmer argumentative grasp of their subject, or, like

Germany, a wider

Renan,

may have

circle of readers

attracted, even in

than Strauss.

But the

phrase so often applied as a mere idle conventionalism has


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AxMD BIOGRAPHY.

298

meaning- here.

its full

was

only twenty-seven years

epoch

" in

say that the

It is perfectly true to

appearance of the ^xsXLeben Jesu

in 1835,

of

age,

when

the author

" constituted

theological literature and thought in

His success as a writer was no doubt due

in

an

Germany,

some measure

to that transparent lucidity of style in which he contrasts

so remarkably with the great majority of his countrymen,

of whatever school, and which has been not inaptly com-

But

pared to DoUinger's.

in

the rival champions of faith

and unbelief that very clearness of language

is

partly,

if

not

mainly, due to the clearness of thought which distinguishes

many of their

both of them from too

know

contemporaries

to say it J. S. Mill,

A

similar

remark might be applied

whose conclusions

perhaps materially

differ

in

we can adequately

history of

from those of Strauss, though they

and

it

will

be necessary to glance at

Meanwhile the main incidents of be dismissed

in

how-

contemporary state of theological

speculation in Europe, and especially in his

may

Before,

appreciate Strauss's place in the

modern thought,

the antecedent

to the late

religious matters did not

were arrived at by a very different process. ever,

they

;

know how

exactly what they mean, and therefore

a few words.

his

Born

own

country.

uneventful in

wigsburg, and educated for the Protestant ministry, he described

by Quinet

as " a

young man

life

1808 at Lud-

full

is

of candour,

sweetness, and modesty, of a spirit almost mystical, and

saddened, as caused." in

1

83

1

it

were,

by the disturbances which had been

After completing his university studies, he went

to Berlin to hear Schleiermacher lecture

of Christ,

and returned

to Tubingen,

become acquainted with Baur,

as

on the Life

where he had already a privatdocent in the


STRAUSS.

299

The appearance

Protestant Faculty of The'ology.

Leben Jcsu led to his dismissal afterwards

a

Government armed

theological at

in

1835

;

of the

but four years

was offered him by the

chair

by an

Zurich, from which he was driven

insurrection of the orthodox Protestant party,

and

thenceforth he devoted himself to a literary career, hardly interrupted

by

his election in 1848 to a seat in the Diet of

Wurtembcrg, which the unpopularity of

his strong political

Conservatism led him soon afterwards to resign. be observed

in passing, that this

may

It

union of the most revo-

lutionary theories in philosophy and theology with a rigid

bureaucratic the

arapa^ia

Toryism

— reminding

theory of the

Stoics

phenomenon among advanced was disagreeably exemplified

—

is

thinkers

in

some ways of

common

a very

Germany

in

it

;

in the political pusillanimity

The Lcbcn Jcsu was

and toadyism of Gothe.

1840 by a work on Christian

Modern

one

Doctrine

in

followed in relation

to

Science, in which the pantheistic views which the

author had learnt from Hegel are more fully developed. In 1847 appeared Julian the Apostate, and

in

1858 a Life

of Ulrich von Hutten, the well-known author of Epistolcs

Obscurorum Virorum, which was republished

what altered form

in 1871,

something more than a purely pose, the

first

in a

some-

both editions having avowedly literary or historical pur-

being directed against the Austrian Con-

cordat, the second against the influence of " priestly obscurantists "

in

translation

the restored

German Empire.

by Mrs. Sturge appeared

author's death, in 1874.

second Leben Jesu lished in 1864,

'fiir

An

shortly

English

after

the

These are minor works, but the das deuische Volk

bearbeitet,

pub-

and the Der Alte und der Neue Glaube,

in


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

300

1872, complete the theological trilogy, so to call

which Strauss

much

It is so

Germany

the fashion to regard

many

fountain-head of modern Rationalism that

may be

surprised to learn, what

and

is

work

— that

expressly acknowledged the

England and France fell

the

first

assault

thence

into

its

rise

France, and from

"

Germany.

fact,

To England's

share

and the forging of the weapons, the

these weapons across

and adroitly

as the

in his latest

really took

into

work of the Freethinkers or Deists briskly

by

persons

undoubtedly the

is

by Strauss

movement

sceptical

England, and passed

in

it,

be permanently remembered.

will

;

Frenchmen brought wielded them

Channel, and

the

in constant light

skirmishing

;

while

Germany one man chiefly undertook the regular investment of the Zion of orthodoxy. Voltaire on one side,

in

Reimarus on the

character of their

the

typified

other,

The English Deistic school, of which Cherbury and Hobbes may be called the

respective nations."

Lord Herbert of founders,

and which culminated

and Chubb,

—whose

tianity as old as the Creation,"

development

by

sceptical writers,

from

is

reflex

who had

country

this

aggressive,

a

the

;

it

first

half

teaching of Tindal

be said to be ".Chris-

—was coloured influence

received their

became

less

of first

serious

in its later

the

French

inspirations

and

more

and the sneering tone of Voltaire and Diderot

reproduced in Gibbon and rule, is

in the

may

keynote

the temper of of

the

Tom

German

eighteenth

Paine.

Far

rationalism.

different, as

But

in the

century the philosophical

speculations of Wolff combined with the introduction of

English Deism, through translations of Tindal and other writers,

and the influence of French

infidel refugees at the


STRAUSS. court of Frederick II.

ward both

profession in

—himself disguising under the out-

Protestantism

of

morality and

301

its

cynical

his

Divine Author

— to

disbelief

the slug-

stir

Between

gish waters of traditional Lutheran orthodoxy. that time and 1835

we may

trace

first

a destructive and

then a reconstructive period in German Protestant theology.

The at

destructive criticism

was begun by Semler, a Professor

who meant, however,

Halle,

to

be an apologist, but

remodelled the Canon of Scripture on a priori grounds,

and

first

introduced the distinction, of which Baur and

others have so largely availed themselves since, between St.

Peter and St. Paul as leaders of two opposite parties in

the infant Church. to

have

left

whom

Lessing, of

Strauss

is

biography, though

an unfinished

reported

perhaps

himself rather a doubter than a Deist, gave a powerful

impulse to the same movement by the publication of the Woljfenbiittel Fraguients

criticism of

who

Semler

of Reimarus.

w^as continued

The

rationalistic

by Eichorn and Paulus,

eliminated the supernatural element from Scripture

altogether, while maintaining

its

historical accuracy.

miraculous portions of the narrative were not so

denied as explained away. sick

was

effected

Thus,

e.g.,

The much

the healing of the

by natural means or by

a

kind

of

magnetic influence on their minds, the multiplication of the loaves by a secret supply, walking on the water meant

walking on the bank beside

it,

and the Resurrection

was only a way of recording the never really died on the Cross. difficulties

of this

method of

fact that the

The

itself

Saviour had

critical

and moral

interpretation have been

by

no one more mercilessly exposed than by Strauss himself but

it

was popular

for a time,

and was applied

to Christian


302

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. by

doctrine

writers

The

scheider.

Bretschneider, Rohr, and

like

and Hegel tended of course they came into

in

the

same

though

direction,

immediate contact with the theological

less

of the

controversies

day.

was only natural that a

It

movement should be provoked, and

reactionary

country of mixed

it

was

religions

like

equally natural

in

Germany

should assume a double form.

that

Weg-

philosophical teaching of Fichte, Schelling,

it

a

On

the

one hand, there commenced with the present century a Catholic reaction, of which Count Stolberg, Frederick and

Augustus Schlegel, Tieck, and Novalis are leading representatives, '.though only the

Roman

Catholic Church.

macher,

who

was, as

two actually joined the

first

On

we have

the other hand, Schleier-

seen, one of Strauss's earliest

teachers, attempted in his GlaubenslcJire to find a basis for

orthodox it

belief, or

rather orthodox sentiment,

by founding

on the collective Christian consciousness, emulating to a

certain extent the " pietism " of

but

in fact,

Spener a century before

as Strauss has pointed out, he gave

;

up the

genuineness of the Gospels, the divinity of Christ, and the reality of prayer,

which

for

him had a purely

His treatment of the

value. differs

in

form rather than

in

New

subjective

Testament miracles

substance from that

of

Religion became in his hands a matter of devout

Paulus.

emotion,

independent of

history

and

dogma,

created a spirit rather than founded a school.

and Ewald, and

still

more of course Neander

and

he

De Wette

— whose Life

of CJirist was expressly designed as an answer to Strauss returned more nearly to the Evangelical standard of ortho-

doxy

;

while the advanced Lutheran school, represented by

Hengstcnberg, Havernick, and Stahl

— which

was partly a


STRAUSS.

303

reaction from the enforced fusion Calvinist Churches in

1

817

— may even

Thus we

England.

in

to the appearance in 1835 of the

was a

are brought

Lcbcn Jcsu, which

first

addressed, as the author was

protest,

and

III. of Prussia,

be said to have some analogy to the

movement

Tractarian

of the Lutheran

by Frederick Wihiam

careful

to

explain, not to the general public but to scholars, at once

against the rationalism of Paulus and the mysticism of

Schleiermacher

not, however, a protest in the interests of

;

In

orthodoxy.

1846,

when

the work had

Germany, an English

fourth edition in

from the pen of the

then unknown,

writer,

became famous under the

sobriquet of

The Lcbcn Jcsu may be divided giving an

introductory sketch

Biblical criticism

reached

its

translation appeared

who

George

afterwards

Eliot.

into three parts, the first

of

previous

systems

of

and the formation of the mythical theory,

the second examining the Gospel narrative in detail, the third

and concluding portion discussing

cance.

Towards the end,

in

of the Orthodox system," which the

in

New

its

doctrinal signifi-

a section on the " Christology is

shown

have

to

Testament, the author describes

its

roots

in a strain of

almost rapturous eloquence the idea of Christ,

"

so

full

of

blessing and elevation, encouragement and comfort," which

prevailed

in

the

early

Church.

materials, he adds, in the

New

There were abundant Testament

for construct-

ing the rule of faith eventually formulated in the so-called Apostles' Creed

;

and the condemnation, as they

arose, of

the successive heresies, from the Ebionite to the Monothelite, ^

A

which contradicted that

faith,

fuller analysis of this section,

comparing

the second Leben Jesu^

of the Atonement.

is

given

m

was

Excursus VI. of

it

fully

justified.

with the preface of

my

Catholic Doctrine


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

304

Nearly thirty years elapsed before the author published in

1864 his second Leben Jcsu, addressed

to

a

learned

oddly phrases

but it,

"

time not

form, not in principle, and

rather

to the Gentiles,

when

But the two works

differ

as Paul turned

the Jews rejected his Gospel." in

this

a popular audience, as he

to

the preface to the latter

contains a distinct affirmation of their essential identity.

The

"

"

Christology of the Church

is

still

represented as

the product of several " groups of myths," of which twelve are enumerated

;

but the word must not be understood

the sense which Comparative Professor it.

Max

M

tiller

and

The Gospel myths

G. VV. Cox, has attached to

Sir

are not a poetical presentation of

and simset or other natural phenomena, but have

sunrise

grown up round a nucleus of

historic fact.

existence of Christ, which was

work,

in

Mythology, as treated, by

is

now

expressly affirmed

influence of the

Tubingen

are few great

men

of

whom

the religion which bears His rather than

now be

by Himself.

— and little

name

" Little

certainly ascertained

;

here

we

trace the

but he insists that there

;

so

personal

which practically means

school,

of Baur, on the mind of Strauss

The

uncertain in the earlier

left

is

known, and that

w^as created

by

St.

Paul

of His real history can

what

is

certain

is,

that the

supernatural acts and events on which the faith of the

Church has true,

chiefly fastened never occurred at all."

aiisgezeichnetcr

Wcisc) manifested

ample can only be regarded for,

as

it is

— perhaps He

It is

however, that the Divine wisdom was remarkably

is

in

Christ, but

as a partial

elsewhere stated with also with a view to

much

{in

His ex-

and onesided one,

force against

Keim

Schleiermacher— so long as

regarded as a mere man,

He

cannot be said to


STRAUSS.

30s

The same

represent the perfect ideal of humanity.

ment has been urged Professor F.

Newman on

country,

this

in

one

by

Hke

and Dr. Liddon on the

side,

These views

Unitarian compromise.

other, against the

argu-

writers

about the Hfe and character of our Lord are repeated and

upon

dwelt

Strauss's

in

The

work.

last

between the old orthodox Christianity

distinction

— which

is

again

declared to have been the belief, and the natural belief, of the early Church

— and

the religion of the future

out at length in the preface to the second Leben

is

drawn

jfesu,

and

resolves itself into the substitution of a purely rationalistic

and

system

intellectual

And

revelation.

or Protestant,

a faith resting on a professed

for

therefore the Church, whether Catholic

must

be superseded,

religion with sacraments

for

implies a sacerdotal hierarchy, and the

getting rid of the priesthood

eliminate the super-

The

author, while differing

important points, as well as

Vie

de Jesus, which

Germany through labourer in the

on

his

cause.

memory its

from the

circulation

Renan

as

If there

is little

in

a fellow-

His book opens with a long

of his brother,

publication,

fictitious aids of

and who

who is

died within

congratulated illness

a supernatural belief.

difference of view

later versions of the

but

enormous

manly endurance of a long and painful

without the

series,

in general tone,

translations, hails

same

dedication to the

a few months of

had an

step towards

first

to

is

natural element from religion. in

supernatural

a

and means of grace necessarily

between the earlier and

Leben Jesu, the closing work of the

which followed after an interval of eight years, does

sum up and expand,

in

what

is

meant

literary testament, the conclusions previously

for a sort of

worked

X

out.


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

3o6

It

mainly an answer to two questions, "Are we

is

?

Christians

"

Have we

"

and

a Religion

still

cannot

who

who

those

with

his

There

are

Christianity purged of

of a

talk

author replies to

emphatic negative.

an

dogma, a Christianity,

in short,

which

what an admirer of

in this

country, "

is

To

his

it,

" Christianity is

to

and

it

who

still

And

As

dead."

is

a definite form

be Christians,"

himself and those

in

proclaim an undogmatic Christianity,

possible to relinquish still

Chris-

system has lately repeated

to proclaim that Christianity

puts

all

sufficiently

is

But Strauss says

enlightened to dispense with Christ. effect,

is

from him most widely

differ

that the

respect,

to

question

first

tian

fail

still it

and clearness

characteristic of the straightforward honesty

of thought, which those

And

"

?

he himself

of religion

;

it

is

to be religious, but not

accordingly,

speaking

for

we would speak

" If

agree with him,

men, we must acknowledge that we are

as honest upright

He

no longer Christians."

will

have nothing to do with

the ingenious devices of a subtle rationalism or a vague

and inconsequent pietism, by which so many of cessors their

and contemporaries have, sought

followers

Christian

and

themselves,

theology must

but

says

be replaced by

kosmic conception educed painfully from

There

historical research."

age where he draws out of a Protestant pastor,

a quiet

is

Hebrew

first

sarily superior to

" to

scientific

humour

in

that

modern

the

and

the pass-

in detail the

supposed teaching himself obliged to

article of the Apostles'

For

not excepted.

prejudice

plainly "

who has found

explode one by one each successive Creed, the

his prede-

to deceive both

it is

in fact a

suppose that monotheism

polytheism

;

is

"mere neces-

both were but temporary


STRAUSS.

307

stages in the gradual advance to a higher truth.

God and

of a personal

a future

untenable, but

we need not

therefore

pessimism

Schopenhauer,

which

of

the contrary,

"we

acquiesce "

is

ideas to be

the

in

blasphemous,

we have no

religion.

claim the same piety for our

Kosmos

arrogant, and profane," or admit that

On

The now shown

are

life

which the devout of old claimed

for

But of

God."

his

course the notion of religion acquires, on this hypothesis, a

wholly new meaning. a worship, though

no longer produce or justify

It will

not

will

it

exert a moral influence

— an

fail,

the author thinks, to

assumption which, except

may

the case of very peculiarly constituted natures,

be questioned.

Kosmos, universe

in ;

It

is

and

that,

consist

to

words, on

other

we

the

in

dependence on the

laws of

the

are bidden to believe,

and nobler conception than the

"

in

well

is

material

a far truer

low anthropopathism

"

of

dependence on God. This tion

is

not the piace to enter into a detailed examina-

of the

merits,

theological

system,

materialism

is

religious

or

of

historical,

system which

a

if

in

The

by such a name.

to be called

Strauss's

ends

pure

praise of

a fearless and consistent thinker, and a luminous expositor of the views he had deliberately adopted and held unflinchingly to the to

last,

he

may

doubt the sincerity of

as he assures us, under

giving an account of

through

life

for that

fairly claim.

his

a solemn sense

his

all

stewardship,

it.

no reason

of the duty of that

him

he fought truth,

and

as untruth, while he dis-

desire to shake the faith of those

already lost

is

which appeared to him as

against what appeared to

claims

There

almost dying assertion, made,

who have not

Strauss's originality of genius, one cannot

X

2


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

3o8

but think, has sometimes been overrated. negative criticism there

is

He began

theories he advocates.

of Hegel, though Hegelianism variously interpreted

correct, as

was

intellect

it

clear

historical grasp

is

and

is

it

disciple

not

necessary here to

for

good

him, however

if

is

or evil,

little

the

His

one.

rather than creative, and in

critical

But he has

whom

left his

on German theology

;

and

mark,

for

one

serious believers are indebted

all

may sympathize He has unmasked

they

barren and unhopeful creed.

shams,

common

he was certainly inferior to Baur, to

important service at least to

and ended as a

certainly a very

indeed he owed a good deal.

whether

his

has no doubt been very

whether his interpretation of his master

inquire

most

and

;

Apart from

very Httle really new in the

he has put nothing better

with

his

a host of

in their place,

and has

the elaborate, however unconscious, subterfuges of

made

such teachers as Semler, Schleiermachcr, and Paulus for ever impossible in the future. faults, the

ally

he meets them with the downright challenge of an

;

able,

an honest, and an open

writers it

In Inm, whatever be his

advocates of revelation need fear no treacherous

was

foe.

whose names are familiar his misfortune to

He

does not, like some

to us, insult the faith

abandon by professing

Christianity,

while he repudiates the teaching and the mission of Christ.


XXXIV. JOHN BERNARD DALGAIRNS.

The announcement Rev. John

Oratory," could

April 1876 of the death of "the

in

Bernard

Dalgairns,

not

fail,

priest

of

over and above

interest for his

own

who remember

the Oxford of

London

the its

necessary

co-religionists, to recall to others also

some

forty years ago

many

cherished recollections and associations of the past.

Dalgairns took his degree in

the

same

class-list

in

1

839,

when

his

with Professor Jowett, Bishop Eraser

nephew of

of Manchester, Dr. Kay, and Dr. Anderdon, a

Cardinal Manning's,

he was one of the

who has

first

followed their great

since

become a

When

was arrested

chief author

and apologist, there

still

felt,

which

for the

may

The backwater

Dr.Whately had was

but

who

at least three stages

the advance of the Tracta-

rian revival

1.

and

;

leader in 1845 across the Rubicon.

of religious transition.

about 185

Jesuit

batch of Tractarian converts

Oxford has passed since then through

logical stagnation,

Mr.

name appears

time by the set

of

its

of theo-

be said to have lasted

till

of this great movement, which

characteristically christened " its first

loss

in a period

force

was

spent,

and

Newmania," in the turn

of the tide " the Oxford of the Lyj'a Apostolical' as

it

has

been observed with considerable truth, "was slowly giving


3IO

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BICGRAPHY.

way

to the

Oxford whose

spirit

is

best reflected

by the

poems of Clough and Matthew Arnold." Some exception might perhaps be taken to the coupHng of two such incongruous names, though both reverse of Tractarian

With the second

stantially accurate.

there began at Oxford what

movement

against the

may be

tutor,

who has

—gibbeted

— of whom

five

Reviczvs,

bishop,

as

far

in the University.

in

for the ministry of the

in

men

had a leader

Jowett was for the time

;

intended it,

was a

Anglican

of high ability, can hardly be said

in

the sense in which Mr.

had been the leader of that which

ship

little

introducing

still

One

party for the time in the ascendant, though

from deficient

its

but neither he

nor

it

Newman

had superseded.

Mr.

hero, on account of the long

about the endowment

quarrel

Septein

the

the supply of Oxford graduates,

in

and especially of classmen,

to have

emanating

had been or

conspicuous effect of the change, however

The

the sub-

time by an Oxford

either

by those who were instrumental

Church.

is

half of the century

and

were residents and office-bearers

sensible diminution

spirit

considered a reaction

at the

become a

since

contra Christnni

a

of 1833, which culminated in i860

with the publication of Essays

from seven writers

represent

but the statement of fact

;

of the

Dr. Stanley,

Greek professor-

who

then held

the chair of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford, and whose social capabilities fitted to

added much

to his influence,

On

had dropped.

the Broad Church reaction supervened

a revival, not exactly of Tractarianism

become things "

was exactly

wear the mantle while the author of Tract XC.

Ritualism

"

is

of the past at

all

— while

— for the Tracts had

the clumsy sobriquet of

events singularly inappropriate in


JOHN BERNARD DALGAIRNS. describing

A

academical phase.

its

designated, the force of which Pattison, it,

some years

High Church

name

however, there was, by whatever

may

it

by no means

is

right, that

cendent

gifts of

spent.

Mr.

movement of

not without bitterness, with the original

and learning the domina-

1833, as substituting for intellect

was

revival,

be best

Mind, contrasted

ago, in an article in

tion of an " ecclesiastical ring "

311

and so

;

far,

of course, he

no second leader had inherited the transMr. Newman.

At

present the rival schools

of Catholic tradition and of Rationalism are engaged hand to

hand

in

sharp conflict at Oxford, as

But

England generally.

it

must

in

suffice to

the Church of

have thus

briefly

sketched the successive waves of religious thought which

have passed over the

life

of Oxford, since Mr. Dalgairns

was a member of Exeter College, and one of the most

among

promising

the younger disciples of the Tractarian

movement.

When

the crash

came

in 1841,

and Mr.

Newman bowed

before the storm of academical and ecclesiastical censure,

he did

not, as is well

known, resolve

once on his

at

step, but retired for awhile to Littlemore, with a

chosen friends and followers, several of

some did

not, eventually

accompany him

Conspicuous among these

"

whom

final

band of

did, while

in his secession.

monks," as they were some-

times rather absurdly called, were Mr. Dalgairns and Mr.

Anthony Froude, both series of Lives refers

in

his

of the

of

whom

took part in the Littlemore

English Saints, to which Dean Milman

Latin Christianity as admirable for their

"research and exquisite charm of style," though he complains of their unhistorical character.

very easy at

first

It is certainly

not

sight to recognise the future author of


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

312

AND BIOGRAPHY.

the English History in the biographer of St. Neot, though

Dean Milman's charge

will

applicable to both works.

by many

By

critics

be held equally

general consent, however,

one of the most popular of these biographies was the to

which Dean Milman more especially

Harding, written by Mr. Dalgairns, who had

St. Stephen

already challenged

by

attention

his article

His

the Bi'itish Critic.

Da7ite in

first,

the Life of

refers,

style,

on Ozanam's

as

was natural

under the circumstances, bore evident marks of Mr, Newman's influence, though he could not be said to equal that great master of pure English

had too much copyist.

;

while, on the other hand, he

originality to be merely an even unconscious

Newman

In 1845 Mr.

Oxford and

finally quitted

the Church of England, and of those

who went

with him

the two best known, and best deserving to be known, at the time and since, were Faber and

Faber

Dalgairns.

passed away in 1863, after a long and painful

illness

and

;

the grave has since closed over his intimate friend and associate for

many

ship of the

London Oratory.

men were very

years,

who succeeded him

the head-

in

In some respects the two

unlike each other.

Faber was by nature

a poet and an orator, and his impassioned delivery of

"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean,

roll,"

in

the

Harrow Speech-room, was remembered long afterwards by

his schoolfellows

;

there

is

nothing to show that Mr.

Dalgairns ever wrote a line of poetry

in his

life.

As

a

preacher he lacked the persuasive eloquence and musical intonation favourite

of

voice

which

anywhere, and

would have made Faber a

which

helped

to

account for

the large gathering of Protestants, as well as of his

congregation, round

the

pulpit

of the

own

London Oratory,


JOHN BERNARD DALGAIRNS. whenever he was announced to preach thought while

sermons were

his

and

philosophical

in

hardly

313

but in power of

;

inferior

historical

to

Faber's,

knowledge

he

surpassed him.

There life

little

is

of interest to record in

He

after his conversion.

spent

studying theology, and was ordained return to

England he again joined

Mr. Dalgairns's

some years abroad

his old master,

then founding the Oratory at Birmingham

subsequently allied with Faber

remained a member to the

in

last,

him

who was

and he was

;

London, of which he

though

before his death failing health, induced the brain, had unfitted

in

his

establishment of a

in the

branch of the same institution

On

France.

in

some years

for

by overwork of

for active work.

To

the outer

world he was chiefly known as an able and acute, though not

Besides occasional contributions on

author.

prolific,

philosophical questions to the Contemporary Reviczv, the

Academy, and other

periodicals, he published

two works

displaying considerable historical as well as theological

and an interesting Essay on "Tauler and the

research,

German

Mystics," which originally appeared in the Dublin

His

Reviciv.

Heart, has

admiration

all

earliest

the

Roman

charm of

in the

Life of

Catholic work, on the Sacrea

style

which won Dean Milman's

Harding ; but the

St. Stephen

Introduction, on the history of Jansenism, able and interest-

ing as

it

certainly

is,

shows rather the

advocate than the judgment of a it it,

skill

of a brilliant

critical historian,

though

does not deserve the very severe censure pronounced on in

by the

the preface to

his

late Dr. Neale,

the Jansenists puts

him

Jansenist

CJuiixh of

whose strong

bias in

Holland, favour of

also out of court as an impartial


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

314

Both writers require the correction of some

witness.

independent authority, such History of the

as

Mr.

The

CJmrcJi of France.

really

admirable

Jervis's

subject of Mr.

Dalgairns's principal work, on the Holy Comiminion, offers

scope for religious partisanship, and

less

it

much

contains

of interest to students both of theology and ecclesiastical

whether they happen to agree with

history,

conclusions or not. life is

to

to

have

His

intellectual tastes

lain chiefly in a

all

the writer's

seem through

metaphysical direction, and

be regretted that he had not

fuller leisure

it

and oppor-

tunity for utilising his familiarity with the general course

of modern thought in this subject-matter, and especially his

knowledge

of the great

acquirements are not too

and are

essential

for

German

common

Such

metaphysicians.

even

in the present day,

many

the discussion of

questions

which, from different points of view, have a pressing claim

on the attention alike of the philosopher and the Christian

Among

Roman

Cathohcs, Mr.

Dal-

gairns, at the time, stood almost alone in these, his

most

apologist.

English

To

characteristic aptitudes.

to Mr, Renouf,

same kind

whose

It is certainly a

writers in this country

during the

not exactly of the

little

last

is still

leisure

for prosecuting

noteworthy circumstance

the exception of Cardinal Wiseman,

which

no disparagement

is

and unfortunately the absorbing duties of a

;

School Inspector leave him them.

say this

specialities are

who have

all

the

attained

half-century have been

more curious

that, with

Roman any

converts

Catholic celebrity ;

and

— this remark applies as much to

theological as to general literature.

The

fact suggests

one

or two concluding reflections which can only be indicated here.


JOHN BERNARD DALGAIRNS. It

315

has been observed that converts always bring to their

adopted

much more than they

faith

gain from

The

it.

statement can at best only be received with considerable

There are converts and converts, as

qualifications.

there

are

very

great

system and another. verbial,

it is

If " the zeal of a

sition to the cause

" is

to

pro-

be a very questionable acqui-

he has undertaken to support.

some systems communions

On

the

are so thoroughly rotten that no

infusion of fresh blood can be of

while rival

renegade

also

religious

often so entirely disproportionate to either his

knowledge or discretion as

other hand,

between one

differences

much

service to them,

are not likely to gain

much from The

the accession of any neophytes trained under them.

want of a good

Eastern Church, for instance,

is

deal of internal reform, but

could not expect

for that

it

probably

in

much help

purpose from a contingent of Turkish proselytes.

In the particular case before

among whom Mr. Dalgairns

us,

the Tractarian converts,

held a prominent place, did

unquestionably bring to their adopted Church an accession of moral and intellectual power out of

all

mere increase of numerical strength.

Fresh from the best

culture

Oxford had

taken the

fullest

to bestow,

advantage of

proportion to the

and having many of them

it,

their enthusiasm,

vehement and one-sided, was backed by a

ment of learning and It

is

ability

however

solid reinforce-

which could not

fail

to

tell.

actually the case that about forty years ago the English

Roman

Catholics had no single publisher of any standing.

As it happened, two publishers of established among the earliest converts, and in every form literature,

from the slender novelette

which ladies

"

repute were of religious

with a purpose,"

delisfht to write as well as read, to the

grave


3i6

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

theological treatise, convert authors supplied the wares for

And

their customers.

preachers

very soon too, again with the solitary

Cardinal Wiseman,

exception of

came

to

leading

the

Catholic

be exclusively converts, and Protestants

who would never before have dreamed of entering a "Romish" place of worship — unless it were to hear what Pugin used to

numbers

call

side to the picture, fresh

"

the shilling opera

There

to listen to them.

which

is

is

"

— came

by every

naturally suggested

announcement of the removal of a leading author

body from the

or preacher of the convert

immediate gain to the cause of Catholicism been manifest enough

;

but

now

in

of any great importance, as counted.

over

will it,

It

for several years past

recruits are to

its

ranks

be weighed as well

becomes therefore a question of some

interest

be the net result of the change which has passed

when the

died out.

if

The

scene.

England has

there have been comparatively few accessions to

what

large

in

of course another

original generation of converts shall

have

Within a week of the death of Dalgairns, news

arrived from

Rome

of the departure of another of the early

Tractarian contingent, Mr. Simpson, author of the Life of

Campion^ whose literary powers were of no mean order, while his sincere devotion to the faith

he had embraced was not

darkened by the slightest shade of theological

and

his

endeared him to

all

who knew

will

fill

Of both men indeed

him.

may be said that they had, as many friends, and never made a

it

who

bitterness,

genial kindliness of disposition and social gifts

they deserved to have, personal enemy.

their place in the future

indeed remains, and he

is

t

Cardinal

a host in himself.

But

Newman

But to no


JOHN BERNARD DALGAIRNS. cause and no communion the same century.

such a

is

gift

To many, who

may

significance

:

perhaps

Dim

"

Truth's Creed

?

!

listen lips,

now recur shall we need

even

Future

vouchsafed twice

still

reverence for every utterance from his

question

317

in

with eager

his

with

own a

old

fresh

a prophet for


XXXV. BISHOP DUPANLOUP.

The

M. Veuillot of the Univcrs composed

late

characteristic

described

epitaph on Bishop

as a

questionable

questionable theologian

he

and an equally

emphatically denied

politician,

model Bishop," and

a highly

whom

Dupanloup,

finally dismissed, in

be

to

" a

terms far more

applicable to himself, as im de ccs passants reinarquablcs

The

qui iiarrivent pas.

description

was

characteristic,

because neither good taste nor discretion ever restrains

Ultramontane organs of that type from throwing plenty of

are

some will stick, at the greatest own Church, whether living or dead, who suspected as such men are sure to be suspected

dirt, in

men

the hope that

of their

of any taint of Liberalism. the

memory

The

gross insults heaped on

of Montalembert will not easily be forgotten.

Archbishop Darboy's heroic, not to say martyr, death

name from something more than

did not shield his great

studied

obloquy and

greater

man among

during

life

beyond Curse

"

all

in

Christian,

ourselves,

by the same

who have shown remember

neglect.

little

"

Lacordaire,

like

a yet

was distrusted and snubbed

insolent

and aggressive

disposition

since

his

his splendid services to Catholicism.

faction,"

death

to

Horrible

expression— a kind of ghastly parody of

"

the

Southey's Kehania, translated into a jargon of or

rather

unchristian,

Billingsgate

— was

the


BISHOP DUPANLOUP. by M. Veuillot

elaborate imprecation hurled

fnm

de

Rome

at Passaglia, far

logian of his day,

and of a learned

319

the greatest

and the compiler of the Bull treatise in defence of

Inejfabilis,

when he dared

it,

Dupanloup

pronounce against the temporal power.

to

Par-

in his

Jesuit theo-

could expect no better treatment at such hands.

was not

man

in all respects a

already named, he was

of the

failure"

a sense which

is

If he

calibre as those

eminent alike as a preacher, a

speaker, a writer, a politician,

"he was a

same

and a

prelate.

To

say that

true of course in a sense, but only in

applies with at least equal force

to

the

He

leaders of the party that his critics delight to honour. failed

no doubt to realise his ideal of Church and State, and

was

inevitable, in the existing condition of the world, that

it

he should

fail.

It is still less

conceivable that Ultramontanes

of M. Veuillot's school should succeed in making their

programme

But

a reality.

own

in the ordinary sense of the

word, and as regards his own personal influence, Dupanloup

was anything but a a Cardinal, though

failure. it is

He

certainly did not

become

very likely, had he lived a year or

two longer, that he might under the present pontificate have attained to that dignity

served of a

still

;

but he was not, as was once ob-

more eminent personage, who

Sacred College,

"

the stuff Cardinals are

now

in

made

of,"

under

Even

then,

the sort of regime which then prevailed. ever, his opinion

for

something

at

is

the

how-

on French

ecclesiastical matters

counted

Rome,

as he

was loved

because

little

there,

he was well known to be the most active and influential

member of the national

episcopate.

By the

present Pope he

appears to have been unreservedly trusted and consulted,

and His Holiness was reported, no doubt

correctly, to be


320

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

deeply a

No French

afflicted at his death.

Cardinal for

many

long year has wielded half the influence of the late

Bishop of Orleans over his countrymen. But the reasons

why

the Univers refused to recognise that fact are not far to seek. It

was the

Dupanloup through

lot of

by Ultramontanes

as a

to

life

be assailed

and by Liberals

Liberal,

as an

Ultramontane, and both classes of assailants had some-

Not

thing to say for themselves. ever, at least

He

from being always consistent. sympathies

and

strong

Catholic

Liberalism always succumbed the two came into

Bishop cases,

ago,

that

the Bishop was

consciously, insincere, though

to

sympathies,

for a

mean anything short of Ultramontanism.

when Gallicanism was not only the

still

A

eloquence

He

French

extreme century

a power^ he would have

but

the

personality of

Bossuet, though of course the two are not for a to be compared.

his

There was much about him to

been a leading Galilean. recall

but

IX., could hardly, in

in the reign of Pius

far

Catholicism when

his

and Catholicism,

conflict,

he was

had strong Liberal

had

moment

inherited, to a great extent, the

dignified presence as well as the doctrinal traditions of the

old Galilean episcopate. less

than a

course to

prelatist,

Rome,

He was

heart a monarchist no

as the centre of unity, but independent in

was the object of

its

local self-government,

if

not of his practical aims.

nacity,

in

and a national Church, subordinate of

his aspirations,

In his sternness, his pug-

and something of personal hauteur

— which pre— he

vented his becoming popular

among

his clergy

produced characteristic

of the

famous Bishop of

Meaux.

He had

in

traits

him, however, as

is

clear from

re-

M.

Renan's Souvenirs, a vein of chivalry and tenderness which


BISHOP DUPANLOUP.

321

But above

evoked the passionate devotion of youth.

all

things he was to the backbone a Frenchman, and a French ecclesiastic

and that may account

;

ing inconsistencies.

a statesman, could say, as he reference to the

Roman

mais je suis papiste,"

who was very

it

for

many

of his seem-

M. Thiers, who was a layman and

If

is

reported to have said, in

question, "je ne suis pas Chretien,

not wonderful that Dupanloup,

is

emphatically a Christian and a Catholic, as

Frenchman, should have been "a Papist," as

well as a

some other

regards the temporal power and

The whole

points too.

course of French history since the Revolution

of '89 has tended to alienate the Church from the Govern-

ment, and thereby inevitably to throw

Rome.

Yet

trust his " a

in

own

Papist

"

;

feelings

and convictions, Dupanloup was not

That

Before going to

not the whole truth. the

Bishop

published

to

that " his submission to

the Vatican Council was tardy."

Council,

arms of

into the

and hence the Ultramontane antipathy

The Univers complained

him.

it

theological matters, so far as he dared to

a

is

but

true,

Rome

Pastoral

it

for

is

the

professedly

discussing the " opportuneness " of the proposed

dogma,

but most of the arguments urged against the expediency of defining

it

turned really on the evidence for

as his

it,

opponents were not slow to discover and indignantly to

And

proclaim.

during the sitting of the Council the most

vigorous Opposition pamphlets emanated from his pen.

That was a

fatal offence,

which no

"

tardy submission," no

zeal for the Church, or even for the temporal power, could

condone

what

is,

fault/'

in

Ultramontane

eyes.

And

moreover

it

or used in our schoolboy days to be called,

was not "

a

first

which might exempt the culprit from a flogging.

Y


AND BIOGRAPHY.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

322

Bishop DupanloLip had not been a good boy,

montane

had shown teristic

—what — his

years ago

strong common Abbe Gaume and

of

possession

pleased the

it

he

invariable charac-

Frenchmen, especially of French

even of gifted

ecclesiastics

Some

by no means an

is

the Ultra-

in

In one notable instance

sense, before that.

sense.

certain

other obscurantist wiseacres of his school in France to get

up a crusade against the use of the Greek and Latin, or they preferred to phrase education of youth. tradition of the

"

Pagan," classics

in

as

the

Dupanloup, backed by the immemorial

Church both

own

relying on his

the

it

in

France and elsewhere, and

educational experience, threw the whole

weight of his not inconsiderable influence into the opposite

The scheme

scale.

of teaching

the

Greek and Latin

languages from the writings of the Christian Fathers was certainly an original one, but

the time

by the Ultramontane

it

was warmly espoused

zealots,

the absurdity of drawing up a

modelled on

this

The scheme was

it

for classical learning

equalled by his ignorance of

it

;

books

eventually collapsed.

course ardently supported

of

at

perpetrated

of school

series

programme, but

whose contemipt

Veuillot,

who even

by M.

was only

and the Bishop of Orleans,

who had

not unjustly taunted him with making calumny

the chief

weapon of

religious journalism,

forgiven for his powerful opposition to

had forbidden

But is

if

for

"

Dupanloup defended fool,

the Pagan classics,"

atheism or unbelief.

remembered

Moreover, he

his clergy to read the Univers.

not a fanatic or a

of

was not readily

it.

as a priest

— as any educated

would be sure to defend it

man, who

— the study

was assuredly from no tenderness

One

of the

had been

first

acts for

to receive the

which he

is

dying abjur-


BISHOP DUPANLOUP.

323

and confession of Talleyrand, and among

ation

his earliest

achievements was a lecture against Voltaire, delivered before the students of the Sorbonne

owing

sorship,

literary efforts

—which it

cost

produced

his profes-

were directed against the recent Voltaire cen-

was

tious writer,

him

— while his latest

His detestation of Voltaire, as an

tenary.

to the

to the tumult

intensified

Maid of Orleans

infidel

and

licen-

by a kind of chivalrous devotion

— the heroine of his episcopal city

whose canonization he exerted himself

to procure,

and he

the gross outrage perpetrated on her

could not pardon

memory by the foul-mouthed author of La Pucelle. His inmany years to keep M. Littre out of the Forty of the French Academy, and when the Positivist

fluence availed for

whose deathbed conversion was not then foreseen last effected

an entrance

dust from his

feet,

and himself

retired

from the mystic

whose sanctity had been profaned, though of his

chair

was not accepted by

— had at

he shook off the

in spite of him,

his

circle

his resignation

colleagues.

But

within the limits of orthodoxy his sympathies were gener-

ous and comprehensive, and leaned always to the liberal

He

side.

used every

alembert, to

whom

effort,

through the medium of Mont-

he was warmly attached, to induce Dr.

Bollinger to attend the Vatican Council — to which, however,

he had not been invited

in order to join in

" the base acts " he thought only too likely to be

there

;

Dr.

Newman

Council, as his that, while the

"

opposing

attempted

he invited and urged to attend the

theologian."

It

was natural enough then

Univers refused him the praise of a model

bishop, the Debats, premising that he had always been

its

"

the

political

opponent, should offer a high tribute to

generosity, frankness,

and true nobility of

his nature," Y 2

and


324

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. him

declare

to be "

one of the

glories, or rather the glory,

of the French episcopate, whose place will not easily be

This

supplied,"

is

and not the

perfectly true,

less true

because his influence, like that of Bishop Wilberforce in

England, was of a kind to be to be perpetuated.

He was

felt at

the time rather than

a copious as well as a brilliant

but more of a pamphleteer than an author

writer,

in this

;

respect a thorough Frenchman, though not, like Renan,

whom

he sharply attacked, a master of French

wrote

endless

social,

educational,

pamphlets

make

calculated to

and

on

theological,

questions

political

He

style.

ecclesiastical,

of the day,

a telling impression for the

moment,

but had not leisure or patience for the composition of what the

Germans

call civige

He

from Bossuet.

Werke, and here he differed widely

cannot

in

fact

be said to have

any permanent contribution to theology or it

must be regarded

works

will live,

gotten.

of

though

and

more than questionable whether his

name

is

his

not likely to be for-

His career was a long and honourable one, and he

carried with

men

as

made

literature,

all

him

to the grave the respect of his country-

shades of opinion, with one conspicuous and not

very creditable exception.

Yet he can hardly be

fc/ix opportmiitate mortis, for while he outlived

months the

pontiff who, devout

called

by a

fcAv

and single-minded as he

was, could not appreciate and would never have rewarded his distinguished services to the

Church, his death followed

too closely on that of Pius IX. to give of profiting

Holy See

by

in

him the opportunity

the tardy but sincere appreciation of the

the person of his successor.

He

has

left

behind him no prelate of equal or nearly equal mark on the roll

of the French episcopate.


XXXVI.

CANON OAKELEY.

On

January

another of the oldest and most

29, 1880,

distinguished of the early Tractarian converts passed away.

Frederick Oakeley, formerly Balliol,

Catholic Church,

Duncan

Canon of Westminster, died leaving behind

Church of ill

will

as Fellow

and Tutor of

Missionary Rector of

for the last thirty years

Roman

known

and afterwards as Minister of Margaret Chapel, but

in

his seventy-eighth

him many kindly memories, both and of

his birth

anywhere.

Mr.

John's

St.

Terrace, Islington, and

his adoption,

year,

in

the

and probably no

Oakeley was a man of powers

decidedly above the average, and, had he been of a less retiring disposition

and

decided than they

w^ere,

rise to

his conscientious convictions

he might

fairly

less

have expected to

high distinction in the Church of England.

The

youngest son of Sir Charles Oakeley, formerly Governor of

Madras, he was born

in

1802,

and began,

like

Mozart, at

four years old to give evidence of his musical taste lasted through

life

—being able at

duce on the pianoforte simple fancy

;

—which

that early age to repro-

airs

which had taken

his

and at the age of eight the organist of Lichfield

Cathedral

(his

family were then

living in

the episcopal

him play the chants on week days.

Palace there) used to

let

When

he was sent as a private pupil to Mr.

he was

fifteen


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

326

Charles Sumner,

Bishop of

afterwards

Winchester,

whom,

in spite of all differences of opinion,

warm

affection

through

life

and a long

;

for

he retained a letter

of his

appears at the close of the Bishop's Life by his son, where it

is

amusing to

in his

him recounting how on one

find

undergraduate days, the Bishop, with

breakfasting, rebuked

him

he was

gently, but very justly, for his

Roman

sweeping abuse of

occasion,

whom

Catholics,

of

whom

he was

obliged to admit that he had no personal knowledge whatever.

He

went up

to Christ

Church

in 1821,

a second class three years later; in

Chancellor's prize for a Latin Essay "

Tribunes

among

English Essay

and obtained

1825 he gained the

On

the

Power of the

the Romans," and in 1827 the prize for an

"

On

the Influence of the Crusades on the

Art and Literature of Europe," and also the Ellerton Theological Prize.

In 1827 he was also elected Fellow and

three years afterwards appointed Tutor of Balliol, where he

had among

his colleagues

Mr. Tait, afterwards primate,

and the present Bishop of Salisbury. His friendly

we

relations

name Memoir of Catherine and Crawfurd Tait among those who were foremost to testify their sympathy with the with Dr. Tait were never interrupted, and in

find his

the

Archbishop of Public

in his

heavy bereavement.

He

Examiner and Select Preacher

was appointed

in

held the offices at Oxford,

and

1837 by Bishop Blomfield one of the

Preachers at Whitehall.

It

was

in

of Sermons preached there that he

the preface to a volume first

indicated his

sym-

pathy with the Tractarian movement, having previously been, like

nearly

Low Churchman. his

all

the

In 1839

new views, when he

left

leading Tractarians, a decided ^^^

gave practical testimony to

Oxford to take the incumbency


CANON OAKELEY.

327

of the Proprietary Chapel in Margaret Street, of which

Henry Drummond was

lessee,

the Church of

Rome some

had before belonged theological career

and which had been previ-

Dods worth

ously held by the late Mr.

—who himself joined

years after Mr. Oakeley

to the Unitarians.

may be

It is

— and

here that his

said to have begun.

Mr. Gladstone spoke of Mr. Oakeley some ten years ago, in

an

one "who much finer and much rarer and expressing the harmony between the

the Contemporary Revieiv, as

article in

united to a fine musical ear a gift in

discerning

inward purposes of Christian work and ture,

and who had

gathered

its

outward

round him

[at

investi-

Margaret

Chapel] a congregation the most devout and hearty that for one,

world."

have ever seen

In that congregation Mr. Gladstone himself and

the late Mr.

many

I,

any community of the Christian

in

others

Hope Scott were constant worshippers, while who had little sympathy with Tractarian

views, such as

Bishop Thirlwall, were attracted by Mr.

Oakeley's thoughtful and weighty sermons, which dealt

mainly with the ethical aspects of religious

was the specialty of Margaret Chapel the pioneer of what

is

now

in

truth.

But

it

those days to be

called " Ritualism " in

the

Established Church, though scarcely any of the distinctive details associated with the

term w^ere to be found there

or would then have been tolerated.

Mr. Oakeley's fond-

new

ness for ritual, which he carried with

him

communion, probably received

impulse from his

its

first

into his

boyish delight in the services of Lichfield Cathedral, where, as

we have already

week

days.

seen,

he used to play the organ on

But choral services and surpliced choristers

were then considered a startling innovation anywhere out


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

32S

of a cathedral, and the " eastward position

looked candles

;

must have

of vestments, or even of lighted

— except, as he afterwards explained, on fog-gy — there was no thought while the plain wooden "

mornings

"

;

altar cross find

more unusual

still

"

was considered quite alarming.

a letter in Bishop

It is curious to

(then Archdeacon)

Wilberforce's

Life expressing his disgust after going to Margaret Street at the

oddness and Romanizing character of Avhat would

now be thought very moderate ceremonial, hardly above the average of many " Evangelical " churches, and his conBut

sequent determination never to go there again. not too

much

it

is

to say that to Mr. Oakeley's ministry at

Margaret Chapel, more than to any other single instrumentality, ritual

due that marked restoration of musical and

is

solemnity Avhich has triumphed over the parson-and-

clerk duet constituting the almost solitary ideal of Anglican

Avorship in the days of our grandfathers, though

it

almost faded into a dim tradition of the past.

It

difficult for

in

now may be

has

those of a later generation to understand how,

1844 (which

falls

within the period of Mr. Oakeley's

incumbency), the Times was fiercely asserting "the repug-

nance of the novelties,"

laity to the introduction of these

which involved

"

about principles," and their indignant demand to worship as their fathers worshipped,

same

ritual

who

in

and

''

to be allowed

to observe the

they had been accustomed to from infancy

and how mobs hours

obnoxious

a contest not about words but

of thousands of persons would wait

" ;

for

pouring rain to hoot and yell at the clergyman

introduced these

"

obnoxious novelties," the whole

dispute being about the wearing of a surplice in the pulpit. It is still

harder perhaps for us to realise

how

a year later


CANON OAKELEY. London

a huge vestry meeting was gathered in

that it

"a parish containing upwards of 43,000

may

be doubted

if

43 had been

deranged service

who

complain

whom

attending

centre at the will

its

mere pleasure disturbed and

at his

beautiful

tJie

to

souls (of

in the habit of

the parish church) was disturbed to

of one individual,

and solemn ceremonial of Church

which had been handed down to us unchanged

more than two

At

329

last the

centuries,"

matter found

i.e.

its

and the Bishop of Exeter

way

to the

(Phillpotts)

House of Lords,

—who

had been

sharply admonished by the Times " as a conscientious to retire from the bench,

and

let

it

"

— ventured

man

the people of England

have the sacred service of the Church as their grandsires had

for

the parson-and-clerk duet.

these obsolete forms and usages were

"

and

sires

to ask Earl Fortescue "

what

which he had de-

nounced, and which, as was asserted, "forced the son to pass the grave of his father, the widower of his wife, the

mother of her

child, to seek in

tomed house of worship that novel practices at their able

?

"

some remote and unaccus-

own church had rendered unaccept-

Lord Fortescue, being thus brought

to reply that " the innovations complained

had caused preaching

all

in

which the

spiritual sustenance

the mischief, were three in

to book,

of,

had

and which

number

— namely,

the surplice, the sentences in the Offertory,

and the collection these extracts

after service."

may

It is likely

enough that

raise a smile of incredulity

;

but

is

it

necessary to bear the actual state of things in mind in estimating the nature and extent of the ritual reform, as

most Anglicans of every school would now agree first

since

inaugurated at the obscure

grown

into

one of the

little

stateliest

to call

it,

chapel which has

churches of London.


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

330

It

was while Mr. Oakeley was

that the disturbance arose at

at

still

Margaret Street

Oxford about

his friend

and

brother fellow Mr. Ward, whose Ideal of a Christian Church led to his being deprived of his

M.A. degree by a decree of

Convocation of very questionable

who had nothing

Mr. Oakeley,

legality.

do with the book, chivalrously placed

to

himself by his friend's side, declaring that he also " claimed the right to hold, though not to teach_,

and

this

avowal led to one of the

tical causes celkbres in

became so

frequent,

all

Roman

doctrine

" ;

earliest of those ecclesias-

the Arches Court which afterwards

and have

at last brought the

whole

machinery of the Anglican Church Courts under the hammer

But the defendant did not care

of a Royal Commission. to await

its

leader Mr.

Within a iew months

termination.

Newman had

his great

decided on leaving the Church of

England, and Mr. Oakeley almost immediately followed him.

After going

Edmund's St.

College,

through a theological course at

Ware, and serving

made

years afterwards

retained both offices

till

Duncan

Terrace, and was two

a Canon of Westminster, and he his death.

At

Islington, as before

Margaret Street, Mr. Oakeley paid great attention to

musical and ceremonial arrangements, and he to

St.

time at

George's Cathedral, Southwark, he was in 1850 appointed

to the charge of St. John's,

at

for a short

have effected no inconsiderable reform

in his

new

as well as in his old

then

"

forbidden by the to a well-trained

Roman

in

England

ritual

choir of

—he

men and

said

Discarding

of female pro-

almost universally in vogue

Catholic places of worship

may be

these respects

communion.

the services of the " shrieking sisterhood fessionals,

in

in

— though

Roman

expressly

entrusted the singing boys, and had soon


CANON OAKELEY,

331

established for his church the reputation of one of the best

musical services in London.

But

it

would be a great mis-

take to imagine that, either there or at Margaret Street, his attention

was absorbed by

Both

Anglican and

in

his

externals,

however important.

ministry he always

later

his

showed himself an indefatigable parish

and

priest,

his

church was thronged by a multitude of devout worshippers. It

may

perhaps be regretted that the career of active use-

fulness which

since he gave for literary

he had deliberately marked out

up residence

work.

tional treatises,

he has

left

at

Oxford

Some volumes

left

and several pamphlets and review

behind him, which go

One

show

far to

made

of the most popular of the

Series of Lives of the English Saints

evidently,

articles,

a

name

his pen,

His style was

though perhaps unconsciously, modelled on Car-

Newman's, and has much of the grace, though

It

taint of bitterness.

harmony with mind

free,

as he

was

himself,

it

Eng-

should be added that his controversial writings,

such they can be called, are

any

in

Littlemore

lacks the concentrated force, of that great master of lish.

time

that under

was from

the Life of St. Augustine of Canterbury.

dinal

little

of sermons and devo-

circumstances he might have

different literature.

for himself

him so

if

from

Nothing could be more out of

his refined taste

and with

than, e.g., to designate the

once a minister, as another

his

whole tone of

Church of which he was

clerical convert did

ago, " a monarch's cast-off mistress,

now

in her

not long

dishonour-

able age vainly striving to cover her nakedness with the gifts

which purchased her seduction

gible sarcasm, as the

"

— rather an

unintelli-

Church was not enriched but greatly

impoverished at the Reformation

— or to

describe English


332

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

He

Protestantism generally as an "offensive centipede."

kept up through

life,

was observed

as

before,

habits of

and

six years

friendly intercourse w^ith his old associates,

before his death he might have been seen at the Union

by the side of Mr. Matthew

Jubilee dinner at Oxford, sitting

Arnold, who was an undergraduate at Balliol when he was

One can hardly

a Fellow there.

help wondering, as the

Oxford converts of that generation are passing away one

by one

—there are few of the more eminent now besides that — how their departure may left

the two Cardinals

affect

far

better understanding between

Newman

munions on which Cardinal ago.

members of the discoursed

rival

There can be no doubt that the influence of

cedents and personal character has done

many ways

many

had shared to the

himself,

hatred of the Pope and

biographer

tells

their ante-

indirectly in

what once seemed an impassable

to bridge over

chasm, the more so as

much

com-

some years

of them, like Mr. Oakeley

full in

all

his

their earlier

days that

works which Dr. Hook's

us he used once to consider the essential

duty and characteristic of an Englishman.

And

Cardinal

Manning has thus been enabled,

in his

do much

social status of the Archi-

to raise the dignity

and

episcopal See of Westmhister, as well as influence. into,

but

It is

present position, to

its

directly spiritual

would be another point well worth inquiring

far too

wide a question to discuss here, what

kind and amount of permanent impression the Tractarian converts have is

made on

their

adopted communion.

certainly a conspicuous difference,

There

which can hardly

fail

to strike outsiders, between the general tone not only of

Roman

Catholic society in England, but of

worship and preaching, as forty years ago.

it

is

now and

as

Roman

Catholic

was

thirty or

it


XXXVII. DR.

The a

GUMMING.

news of Dr. Cumming's death would have created

much

greater sensation, than

it

had

did,

it

occurred a

dozen years earHer, when the Prophet of Crown Court was in

still

all

his glory, or

when

at all events the perennial

stream of unfulfilled prophecy had not yet run dry.

two or three years before public view, and for

his

some time previously the

been retiring from his pulpit.

reminded of

his old reputation

For

death he had retired from public had

Those who were suddenly

by

learning, in July 1881,

that he had passed away, were probably surprised to find that he was only seventy-two years old.

Dr.

Cumming began

to preach, which

The

fact is that

meant with him

to

prophesy, at a very early age, and occupied his familiar tripod in

Crown Court

for nearly half

a century.

That he

should have managed during most of that period to retain his hold over a numerically not inconsiderable section of

the religious world

— including at

other such notabilities

but

one time Duchesses and

— may seem

startling at first sight,

may be said without disrespect to that eminent poet Dr. Cumming was the Martin Tupper of theology.

it

that

And

if

it

be true that Martin Tupper has his tens of

thousands of readers, especially of the

fair

sex,

where


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

334

AND BIOGRAPHY.

Tennyson has

his thousands, we need not marvel that who turned away from Newma or Westcott or even from Dean Stanley, as from a sealed book, should

multitudes

have eagerly imbibed the

announced

Avhich

of the Seventh

fiery contents

and listened with awful suspense

Vial,

— though

to the

announced

it

trumpet tone

in

vain

imminent approach of the Battle of Armageddon.

was indeed one

little

drawback,

for the

— the There

predictions confi-

dently repeated year by year, and usually about twice a

somehow never came

year,

to be again

true,

and the

had

of the

" uncertain sound,"

Last Trumpet was found to give a very

and the Last Warning Cry was

fateful dates

The Sounding

and again reconstructed.

uttered, not indeed exactly

to heedless ears, but to ears too

likely

to

be rendered

heedless for the future by disappointment of the expected result.

But these

moment

the self-complacency or the self-confidence of the

He

prophet himself. tion ready, as to at

little

why

incongruities never

been

fulfilled,

always had some excellent explana-

all

way

anticipated, or

of showing that in fact

it

really

had

though nobody but he who had dreamed the

dream had the

We

a

the prediction had not been fulfilled

the precise time or in the precise

some ingenious way

ruffled for

gift

know how

of discerning the interpretation thereof. the Times, though

it

often changes,

is

always consistent, and never lacks an opportune quotation to prove that

has been always

it

though he traced

equally consistent, and always

what

is

fools,"

Nor

is

"

knew he was

more, he always got a great perhaps,

in

Dr.

right.

Gumming,

his inspirations to a higher source,

the

many

Carlylese sense

this altogether inexplicable.

right."

people

—to

In the

"

was

And, mostly

believe him.

first

place,

it is


DR. only

fair to

335

admit that he had the courage of

His

nations.

GUMMING.

was almost as queer

as his literary taste

no doubt that he really believed

The Pope was

to

him

and detestation as

more formidable

to

one,

but there can be

;

the main what he said.

in

as real an object of mingled terror

Bunyan's

and

" Pilgrim,"

his final

The Doctor gave indeed

in his latter

a constant

to the Apocalypse.

days a strong proof

of the sincerity of his sentiments on this point,

made

much

only a

doom was

theme of Divine prediction from Genesis

that he

his halluci-

appear presently,

literary conscience, as will

if it

be true

a pilgrimage to Exeter with his family on

the Fifth of November, and took lodgings in the Cathedral

Yard,

"

Young Exeter " year by year

Protestant zeal

of

huge bonfire whereby

order to witness the

in

pleases

official

— or

presumably

warnings, cordons

rowdyism

its

of

"

testify

it

its

in defiance

and the

police,

reclamations of the inhabitants of that city," especially

to

angry

ancient and loyal

those living in the precincts,

who

are

in

dread as each November comes round of their Cathedral

and themselves being involved

in

a

common

conflagration.

Then again Dr. Cumming was not only manifestly in his

sincere

strange vagaries, but he had a pleasing presence, an

unfailing supply of the kind of eloquence which the British Philistine

can appreciate, and a geniality of temper

— not

perhaps quite in harmony with his awful denunciations

which made him personally popular.

And

if

each new

composition that appeared, under vvhatever variety of

—Babylon, A nnageddon, The Last Woe, tion,

&c.

—was

little else

than a new setting of the

that one might almost literally say fresh events were

title

The Great Tribula-

Ex uno

last,

disce onincs,

so

still

constantly happening which could be


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

336

somehow

or other dovetailed into the general plan, and

fresh articles

and books were being published, which could

be quoted at any indefinite lengthy whether for approval or censure, though neither events nor extracts were always

much

very

what

To

to the purpose.

unintelligible

use a favourite but some-

got rem

quotation of his own, he

quoniodo rem.

Dr.

and

Gumming

will live, if

may

ill-natured critics

he

lives at all,

by

his works,

possibly suggest that he has

monument (Ere perennhis, Nobody can wish to be unkind

more senses

built himself a

in

than one.

to his

but last

it

simply impossible to accept him

is

he claimed to

be, a great teacher

for

memory,

what

to the

and prophet of the

wrong

highest truth.

Whether

in the abstract,

need not be discussed here, but his ignor-

his theology

was

ance was as unbounded as his confidence fact

is

that he had a habit

all his life,

right or

;

and the plain

which grew into a

second nature, of talking nonsense without knowing brief

glance

at

two or three of

his

later

it.

works

A will

sufficiently illustrate the point of this criticism.

In 1867 the Ritualistic movement, as called,

to Dr.

was beginning

Gumming

it

to attract attention,

new

that a

has come to be

and

it

occurred

variation of the old Babylonish

He

melody would be appropriate.

accordingly seized his

opportunity, and at once preached and published twelve lectures to

under the fascinating

Rome.

The date given

had already been fixed

was then

title,

Ritualism the Highzvay

for the destruction of the

— not indeed

definitively settled for

for the first

1868.

What

time

world

— and

occurred in

the short interval might therefore have been supposed to

be not very important.

But

in

the preface to this

new


DR. CUMMIxNG. "

work the author professed himself

337

deeply persuaded that

never was our country in greater peril in

A

holiest interests."

—which

must have borrowed

Cumming's prophetic tone time was coming

sung his

Roman

leading

"

highest and

its

Catholic newspaper

once something of Dr.

for

— had avowed

when High Mass

its

belief that the

will

once more be

Westminster Abbey," and the prediction bore to

in

mind an almost Apocalyptic

On

significance.

the

other hand, a serial called the Protestant CJntrchman had " tabular statistics " the fearful

shown by

priests, chapels, convents,

and

growth of Romish year

colleges, since the fatal

1829; and this increase was mainly due, he thought, to Ritualism or

ming had

its

Tractarian parent.

especially Irish

— are

poor

learn, that

Roman

already

the context implied, what

it

Catholics,"

" Ritualist ceremonial "

— was

somehow

had made them such.

even

" to

and

to have

Mary

"

priests to officiate

be paid out of the

an

—a

Ritualist

responsible for the mischievous

which allowed Romish

and

might surprise themselves to

Then, again, the Directorium Anglicaniun

work

Gum-

Moreover, Dr.

just discovered that "vast masses of the poor

in

gaols,

Act and

rates,

according to their work,"

altar, sacrificial

vestments, and " a Virgin

supplied in aid of their ministrations.

And

there

were actually men eating the bread of our Protestant

Establishment, who dared to call themselves what their own Prayer Book calls them "priests," and took every

means, by the use of candles and rich dresses,

whether at the

ball,

which,

or the opera, or a Ritualistic church,

are no doubt very attractive," to inculcate

Here was a

"

sufficiently

Romish dogmas.

alarming basis of fact to go upon,

and an elaborate argument follows

— borrowed

wholesale,


338

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

by the way, from Tillotson

— against

the Real Presence,

capped by a somewhat obscure inference from what contained

a

in

passage

long

of

probably saw the Apostle John

have been as a

was neither

—to

And

"

he ever

if

did,

it

nut

who

must

the effect that in his day there

liturgy, priesthood,

Church.

tian

baby

is

Martyr, "

Justin

there

nor sacrifice

another

is

still

in the Chris-

more obscure

argumentation against the Ritualistic and Popish figment of the apostolic succession.

But the learned Doctor also

adds more suo some touching

little

e.

g.

how he once met

La

ture,

" in

He

anecdotes.

tells

us

that exquisite Corinthian struc-

Madeleine," a venerable French priest,

who was

already " a real Christian," and had thoughts of coming to

London

to attend the

May

Meetings.

On

another occa-

however, at Bruges his landlord assured him that

sion,

"his

life

would not be

safe," if

he attempted to preach

Christ in that priest-ridden city, but he would be listened to with enthusiasm, "

if

he liked to preach the Virgin Mary,

We

even in very bad French."

are

to infer

left

that

under the circumstances he wisely preferred to remain silent.

Three years have been the

later final

—that

is,

two years

catastrophe

after

what should

— came the Vatican Council,

and here of course was another great opportunity

Gumming. assembly

dom

He

had

in person, if the

of speech

and almost

Pope would allow him

when he got

sarcastic

for Dr.

offered, indeed, to attend that venerable

there

;

full free-

but a somewhat curt

message conveyed to " Dr.

Cumming

of Scotland," through Archbishop Manning, intimated that his offer could not be entertained like a

man, and put

;

so he took his repulse

into print those views

on The Fall of


DR. GUMMING.

Her

Babylon Foreshadowed in

339

and

Teaching, in History,

in

Prophecy, which he had once hoped to utter in the Council

One can

Chamber.

who had

hardly help regretting that Pius IX.,

a considerable sense of humour, did not give

him

the opportunity of discharging his " olive branch out of a

catapult

" '

at the heads of the assembled fathers.

In this

work, which covers nearly 500 pages, the date of the Battle

Armageddon

of

time

^^

new.

is

once more rearranged, and placed

about 1870"; but there

is

We

Romish

natural,"

are told that the

not very

too

is

it

some few good Christians three are

of their creed."

named

At

is

man

became a

And

It is "

first

Roman

Cain was,

Popery

coeval in

Adam's

in

first-

and not

in

principle, the

Catholic priest," for he offered "an unbloody

by

the by, did

evil " principle "

appears to

exactly typical of the Mass."

Melchisedech.

have survived final

" in spite

was a Papist before he

unfortunately

"

it is

Rome — of

are assured that

in his original error,

subsequent conversion.

sacrifice,

in short,

;

time, so far from being a

we

Adam

Fall.

Protestant."

born followed his parent his

for the writer

Church of

nearly as old as the creation of man.

principle with the

it

super-

There have been, how-

in the

same

the

"

is

— but then they were good

corruption of Protestantism,

this

m

else

impious to come from

above, and too artful to be the work of " the masterpiece of the Devil."

ever,

religion

which evidently means infra-natural,

immediately adds that

whom

much

And

same

So,

chosen people up to the time of their

in the

rejection, for

the

we

are asked, "

What

land,

from

the

sacred heights of Calvary to the pinnacles of the Alps, has

not been drenched with the blood of martyrs,

been slain by her

"

(Rome)

}

It

who have

was the year of the z

2


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

340

Vatican Council, so we have of course a chapter to prove the

Ecumenical Councils, which

of

fallibility

strated

by the

Councils of the Church zvere o7'tJiodox

The

and

demon-

nineteen jLcreticair

are the author's, but he omits to

italics

is

that "in the fourth century nineteen

fact

add that only

two of these thirty-eight Councils were reputed Ecumenical,

both of which he historical

Teresias,"

apparently meaning

"

about

puzzles

There are

orthodox.

classifies as

some odd

the canonization of

Teresa, the

St.

revolting

immoralities of Pope Alexander VI. and of Borgia,

two

are treated as

of

"

Gregory " and

cated

the

in

different persons, "

Nyssen," whose personality

same uncomfortable

and some other very strange need not linger here.

We

of the end of the world 1870," but this

was

to last

is

who

and the proceedings

fashion.

is

bifur-

But on

this

we

historical complications

have seen already that the date fixed in this

is

volume

for "

about

based on a calculation that the world

6000 years, and had then reached the year

6002, which might seem to

show not that " the sands of mundane economy are nearly run out," -but that they had run out two years before. The prophet, however, our present

cautiously adds,

ments,

" I

give

mindful perhaps of former disappointdates.

refuse to decide."

I

book, issued some months "

one solution published

reversal or recasting,"

don may

"

with

later,

in

In another

he denied that there was

previous works that

demands

and thinks the battle of Armaged-

no great

difficulty "

be identified with

Sebastopol.

—in

This second work of 1870, entitled the Seventh Vial the rhythmical

Version

it

and euphonious diction of the

becomes the

"

Seventh Bowl

"

Revised

— appeared

after


GUMMING.

DR.

341

the prorogation of the Vatican Council,

when

"this unclean

from the Pope had inspired 533 prelates to proclaim an aged priest infallible " and we hear a good deal about spirit

;

" the

false prophet,"

and how " Rome,

lie,"

"

and

the croaking frogs," and

filthy,

and

bigoted,

cruel,

"

the

the

is

nursery of brigands, the nest of priests, and the throne of

beggars

"

much more

with

;

to the

same

One

Rome.

entered

which

is

of the following year,

is

what might

and

by

Emmanuel had

Cumming's

peculiarity of Dr.

signally exemplified in this

This,

effect.

the way, was published just after Victor

his

style,

next volume

a less devout and

in

unworldly kind of literature be designated bookmaking.

The simple

fact

that at least half the

is

volume

is

made up

of extracts from the newspapers and serials of the day, the

Times, the Standard, the Westminster Review tically

described

religious

organ

"

"

as

—and

making no

the_

taxed for the purpose. Great

Earthquake," we

— euphemis-

pretension

be

to

a

Saturday Revieiv being heavily

Then

again, a propos of " the

have

nearly

seventy pages of

extracts on the natural history of earthquakes, and several

more about

Waves and

" tidal

roaring

"

;

waves," to illustrate

stars " are illustrated

about "spots

"

the Sea and the

while the " signs in the sun and

in the sun."

by a

moon

further series of extracts

The work on

the Cities of the

Nations, which appeared in the following year, reads very like a sequel to the

Seventh Vial, and

is

also largely

made

up of cuttings from the daily papers and other publications of the day, together with long extracts from " Alison, the historian,"

who was a

great favourite of Dr. Cumming's.

In this work the author w^as able to exult over "the light that had broken on

Rome, and

the substitution of

"an


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

342

enlightened

civil

law

"

for the "

sanguinary canon law

" ;

but he had to mourn over the sceptical teaching of Dr.

Colenso and his

allies

for Dr.

the sceptics as well as on the

Gumming

kept an eye on

— and

he urged some

Pope

very odd arguments, partly based on personal experiences

But one cannot help

of his own, in reply to them.

sus-

pecting that this modern and

books

—the

mundane element in his and still more the gossiping

gossiping stories

extracts they are so

full

— constituted one of

of

There are

cipal charms.

religious people

reading newspapers or novels, and

them on Sundays.

To

who

their prin-

object to

especially object

such persons

it

quite a godsend to meet with an indubitably pious "

Sunday book," which was nevertheless choke

in a

If

;

their curiosity

manner not simply innocent, but

on the other hand we inquire

Gumming had world

is

why

hardly far to seek.

grow weary

will

in the

was

gratified

the popularity Dr.

Even the

last,

religious

end of the dull monotony of

perpetual repetitions and predictions constantly falsified the event

;

but there was a further cause

Gumming began

of

positively devotional.

enjoyed so long began to wane at

the explanation

and

full

They not only found

cuttings from the periodical press.

pleasure and piety combined

to

must have been

also.

When

by Dr.

to preach, the latent Protestantism of the

country had been recently lashed into fury by the Gatholic

Emancipation Act of 1829 with

its

Popery

direct "

;

and the Tractarian movement,

and incidental consequences, kept the

passion at fever heat for

many

But times had changed before the

new storms were breaking over

"No

years afterwards.

close of his ministry

;

the theological horizon, and

the old watchwords offered no guidance or protection amid


DR.

GUMMING.

343

dangers a former age had not experienced or foreseen. spite of the inspiration

seas.

A

knew not Joseph, and

Dr.

Prophet had no chart to steer by in these untried generation had grown up which

Gumming found

In

he almost claimed, the Protestant

his occupation

gone from him.

If

we

could hope his career might act as a warning to others against a course of unconscious, but not wholly innocuous,

charlatanism, vain.

But

to suggest to deserve.

it

it is

would be true difficult to

to say that

he did not

live in

point the moral without seeming

an imputation he was too transparently credulous


XXXVIII.

DEAN STANLEY. The

death of the late Dean of Westminster after only a

few days'

illness, at

no very advanced age and

in the full

vigour of his powers, removed with startling abruptness a

There are very few

conspicuous figure from the scene. persons not occupying a

who have

State,

attention,

still

higher position, in Church or

death would

universal a chorus of lamentation,

And

much

attracted of late years so

or whose

even for those

who

find

it

have called

of public forth

so

comment, and eulogy.

impossible to join unre-

servedly in the effusive laudations so copiously showered

on

his

memory, one thing

at least is attested

prominence of the place he had made world's estimation from the

first.

For

by the very

for himself in the it

may

fairly

be

day when Stanley and Vaughan, then Dr. Arnold's two most promising and devoted pupils, were

said that, from the

"

bracketed even," as Bishop Wordsworth,

them, has since reminded ation at

Rugby, he always held

he possessed

in a

who examined Form examinThe fact is, that

the Sixth

us, in

his

own.

remarkable measure what

is

alleged to be,

under the conditions of modern society, becoming less possible, the gift of individuality,

Arnold would

say, "distinction."

or, as

less

and

Mr. Matthew

In his whole character,


DEAN STANLEY. and tone of mind, as

attitude,

sure beforehand subject,

body

and that

One

else.

what it

in his person, there

You

unmistakable idiosyncrasy.

345

he would take on any given

line

would be

like himself

and unlike every-

of his panegyrists has observed that the

Dean "never twaddled,

or declaimed, or repeated himself

Certainly he did not twaddle, nor was declamation

much

his line, for that implies real or simulated passion,

was not a

religious enthusiast,

his never repeating himself,

it

say that he repeated himself

less

still

in

and he

an actor, but as to

would be more accurate to

in

every volume or article he

published, almost in every sermon he preached. this

was an

could generally be pretty

To

say

does not, of course, mean that he repeated himself in

the way, for instance, that Dr.

Gumming

did,

but that one

leading idea, which was apt to become somewhat tedious

from constant as of his

life.

iteration,

He

formed the keynote of

his teaching

string,

and

ecclesiastical discipline

was

was always harping on one

whether history, or theology, or

the professed subject of discussion, the supreme excellence of liberalism or "latitudinarianism"

—the term

was one not of reproach but of honour turn out to be the moral of the tale.

made by his admirers

their special

in his

— would

mouth

invariably

This has indeed been

theme of commendation,

but neither in an intellectual nor a moral sense can the praise be accepted without reserve. ever,

it

is

pleasant

to

unanimous agreement of

who came

principle,

all,

and genuine, and knew no ;

however widely

into contact with him.

conduct and demeanour his

or creed

In one respect, how-

be able to put on record

liberality

was

the

differing in

In his personal alike graceful

distinctions of opinion, school,

after the fiercest w^'anglings in the

Jerusalem


346

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. Dean and Archdeacon Denison, who

Chamber

the

the

opportunity of paying a

first

memory

converse

kind-hearted, life,

in

He

drawing-room.

private

tribute

seized to

his

Convocation, might be seen seated side by side

in

in friendly

warm

Deanery

the hospitable refuge of the

was, in short, a thoroughly amiable,

and generous man

in all

the relations of

and the various positions he successively occu-

pied, especially during his later years at Westminster,

gave

him abundant opportunities of exhibiting those estimable qualities, of

which he was never slow to avail himself.

It

has been said, probably with truth, that he never had a

enemy

personal

;

and

was added

to this kindliness of heart

made

the rare charm of conversational powers which

presence an

acquisition

There

more reason

is

the

company he

every

to

for

his

entered.

rendering this just tribute,

because, as will presently appear, there are decisive objections against unreservedly endorsing all the

commendations

bestowed on the impartial breadth of his

liberality in a

wider sphere.

But that inquiry runs up into a general

estimate of his position as a writer, a theologian, and a dignified

and

Churchman.

influential

Lord Beaconsfield exemplified

his

wonted

felicity of

phrase when he selected "picturesque sensibility" as the special characteristic of

Dean

Stanley's mind.

He was

not

a deep or philosophical thinker, and therefore was never likely to wield such influence as e.g. Cardinal

exercised on one side, allied to him. Professor

on the

other.

or,

to

name

Newman

has

more nearly

Jowett or the late Mr. Maurice

The marvellous

Newman's sermons

divines

at Oxford,

efl"ect

attributed

to

Dr.

which has been described

with thrilling force by the most unsympathetic hearers,


DEAN STANLEY.

who was

Stanley's,

by any discourse of Dean

produced

be

never

could

347

a graceful and picturesque rather than

a touching or eloquent preacher, and whose voice was the

For theology properly so

reverse of musical. is

for the abstract discussion of doctrine,

called, that

he had a positive

inaptitude and distaste, though he was constantly writing

about

was not so much that he

It

it.

idea of doctrine or

dogma

intellectual side

its

altogether,

analogies was matched

He

had an

noonday

Had

have

fully shared

were

in

of the

a

article of

"

the difference of a single little

willing to sub-

confessions as the Nicene

could almost imagine his sharing the fate

unhappy victim of Turkish red-tapism, who

to have been executed at

Mahometan

either

religion

or a Christian

— but

creeds he adhered.

is

said

Constantinople, not for being

—

for

he was free to profess

because he could not decide, or at

least could not intelligibly explain, to

years ago

but

conceive

Gibbon's unphilosophical contempt for a

condemn the Arian

One

an

false,

the fourth century, he would

diphthong," and would have been as

Creed.

little

specific heresy as for

he lived

Christendom divided about

scribe or to

for discern-

to every eye

instinctive aversion to definite state-

subjects, not because they

martyred for a

the Creed.

forms.

for tracing impossible

because they were definite, and one could as his being

on

his inability to

by an equal incapacity

ing distinctions plain as the sun at his.

grasp the

his liberality

him were empty

His paradoxical and morbid passion

ments on abstract

failed to

and

was largely based on

appreciate distinctions which to

but

disliked this or that

and

particular tenet, as that he disliked

which of the

In a lecture to working

Dean Stanley

rival

men some

ridiculed the notion of psychology


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

348

or theology being at

all

concerned

by the Darwinian theory of the referred, in

"

He

profane and

its

idyls,"

homage

He

an Oxford University Sermon, to Renan's Vie

de Jesus, with " Galilean

the problems raised

in

origin of species.

pastoral

loathsome ravings about

loves,

id genus

et

om?ie,

as

offered to Christ from an unexpected quarter."

told the students of St. Andrew's, on another occasion,

that " the faith of each successive epoch of Christendom

has varied enormously from the faith of

—which

its

predecessors

only shows his strange incapacity for distinguish-

ing fixed doctrines from passing phases of opinion that " the true faith

than to

indebted is

regarded by

either

the

all

"

the

excommunicated Spinoza," who

competent interpreters as having been

"

was vouchsafed the

published

Creeds,

dismissing,

as

clearest glimpse

In a paper on the three

into the nature of the Deity,"

only a year before his death, while

no better than

"

algebraic

symbols

"arithmetical enigmas," the doctrines they are

supposed to contain, he seeks to broader and

loftier,

of " Christianity, as

Gothe,

Mill,

it

from them some

has appeared to Voltaire, Rousseau,

He would

Renan."

"

Strauss, he recoiled from

and not the

and

not have said in so

words, with Strauss in the Leben Jesu, that "the

but from

in

elicit

"

commonly

but scarcely intelligible, conception

moral contents of Christianity

unhke

— and

has been to no one more largely

"

an Atheist or at best a Pantheist, but to whom,

Dean thought,

many

"

are all

alone valuable,

to last,

whenever he spoke

least typical

work on Christian

first

— as

in his latest

Institutions,

and

On

the

highly characteristic posthumous paper "

Revised Version of the

New

for,

definite statements

Testament

",

published in the


DEAN STANLEY. Times

— of

the great doctrines which

"

349

all

Christians alike

hold," he invariably and exclusively referred to the moral,

as distinct from the doctrinal, teaching of the Gospel. is

to understand

difficult

how such vague and

It

colourless

exhortations can, as Archbishop Tait declared after his

death in Convocation, have

"

confirmed in the faith vast

numbers whose temptations lay scepticism " ness

is

;

for, if

entirely in the direction of

anything beyond faith

must

intended, the question

were they to be confirmed

faith

loyalty to his friends

To

in

was stronger than

his critical

He was

a theologian at

all,

not and never could have his theo-

combined with the

paradox which grew out of them,

The

materially afiected his character as an historian also.

same vagueness

of

less

greatly to

is

and unfortunately

logical or anti-theological peculiarities,

inveterate passion for

acumen.

Dean was

a theologian than an ecclesiastical historian-

become

what

But the Archbishop's

?

say with one of his eulogists that the

understate the case.

moral good-

at once arise, in

mind which

led

him rather

to

adumbrate

than to define his theological views reappeared

in his treat-

ment both

As

of Jewish and Christian history.

he was versatile rather than accurate,

a writer

brilliant rather

than

profound, and was always happier in illustrating his subject

than like

in

explaining

it.

And

hence

in truth those

works,

Sinai and Palestine, and the interesting Memorials of

Canterbury and of Westminster, which gave the amplest scope for pictorial illustration and the least for theological or ecclesiastical disquisition, were at once the most pleasing

and most which

instructive of his writings

first

category by

;

the Life of Dr. Arnold,

brought him into public notice, stands itself,

in a

from the singular charm as well of the


350

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

subject as of the treatment.

In his Lectures on the Eastern

Church, his description of the Council of Nice throws far greater light on the details of the national costume

temperament

assembled

the

of

momentous, but to

mind comparatively

his

they met together to decide for

Church

;

all

and

than

on the

trivial,

question

prelates

future ages of the

while elsewhere he dismisses the whole series of

General Councils as of no practical value, because they failed to accomplish,

what of course they never attempted

or from the nature of the case could possibly have achieved,

and did not create the

art,

the science, the literature, the

poetry, the philanthropy, or even the theology of Chris-

tendom.

It did

not occur to him that the same line of

argument would equally prove the

Roman

English Parliament to be shams.

All competent judges

again will agree with Mr. Lecky that

Senate or the

Christianity has

created three things generally recognised as special types

and expressions of

its

religious sentiment, "the church bell,

the organ, and the Gothic Cathedral."

But Dean Stanley's

paradoxical temper led him to argue in Good Words, in defiance of

all

historical evidence, that there

distinctively Christian,

still

less distinctively

Gothic architecture, and that, in

fact, it

is

has closer

with Protestantism than with Catholicism.

affinities

But there

need to go further into detail on a familiar theme.

who

nothing

Catholic, in

is

no

Those

are acquainted with his writings will be aware that

Dr. Stanley was hardly more reliable as ^n historian than as a divine

;

and

it

was a

peculiarity of his

mind

that,

while he was constantly making mistakes, which were at

once detected and exposed by his

critics,

be persuaded to admit them himself.

he could never


DEAN STANLEY.

remains to say something of the Dean's career as a

It

Churchman,

" the successor,"

himself, " of the

the

351

fitness in his

English

was fond of

own views and

singularity of his

matters, there

as he

was a

curious,

policy in Church

though probably accidental,

independent of

episcopal

all

of Westminster were

superior jurisdiction save that of the

the

styling

considering

occupying the one post of eminence

Church

The mitred Abbots when

And

Abbots of Westminster."

exempt from

Roman

Pontiff,

Abbey was suppressed by Henry VIII.

immunity passed on

to

in the

control.

the

all

and

same

the Deans, subject only to the

supreme authority of the new Head of the Church, which for centuries past

has meant that for practical purposes

This exceptional immunity of

they can do as they please. the

Abbey Church enabled Dean Stanley

ments there which could have been

tried

to try experi-

nowhere

one occasion he induced a layman to preach

else.

On

in the nave,

and more than once he invited suspended clergymen or Nonconformist ministers to occupy the pulpit

— an

ofifer

they had what most people considered the good taste to decline.

That however was only one

ecclesiastical liberalism

illustration of the

which shaped the Dean's peculiar

view of the relations of Church and State.

He

is

credited

with being fearless and impartial in the breadth of his toleration,

and always ready

In one sense this

hardly be said that tudinarian

is

in the

to defend the

but not

But

in the outer it

is

in

unpopular

another.

It

present day the liberal or

really the popular side,

a wider popularity Westminster.

true,

is

side.

need lati-

and few men enjoyed

world than the Dean of

true that he braved, one might

almost say scorned, ecclesiastical public opinion, and

among


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

352

his

own

order and in the Church of England generahy he

was an object of

But

suspicion.

and independent

dignified

man

for a

opinion and very high authorities both at his back,

siastical

it

holding a

position, with a powerful public civil

and

eccle-

did not perhaps require any very

exceptional courage to face a clerical opposition which at

worst could only denounce him, and which, with personal forbearance to hesitated

to

denounce and

One

asperity, in return. little

reminded by

his lofty scorn of " sacerdotal " preten"

trampling on the pride "

of Plato,", as Plato quietly remarked,

wide,

On

hand

the other

was most readily and

wing of

his

own

without some

not

satirize,

can, hardly help indeed being a

sions of the old story of Diogenes

of his own,"

his

all

opponents, he never

individual

party.

We

with a greater pride

his liberality,

however

extended to the

freely

left

never heard for instance of his

voice being raised against the worrying Ritualist prosecutions or the harsh penalties

Yet, even assuming

them. to be

sound

respect

in law,

mistaken

which

all

in

is

much

a

in

every

strong assumption

— the

claim for toleration as Mr.

Gorham, or Dr. Colenso, or the

— of

whom

it

was

said

writers of Essays

did not escape, or Mr.

retire

"

incur legal censure, but

— or

felt

from an untenable position

Mr. Voysey, who

who

Brooke,

Stopford

;

and

the time that " they

at

escaped by the skin of their teeth

indeed

cases followed

and the Ritualist contention

— which

victims had surely as

Reviezvs

some

the Privy Council judgments

bound

and

Stanley manifested an active sympathy.

in

did

for all these It

may

not

honour

to

Dr.

be replied

that every one, however comprehensive his toleration,

most keenly

alive to the

wrongs of

his

own

is

party, and, of


DEAN STANLEY. course, that fairness

is

perfectly true

;

353

only something must

tolerance,

which

closely in

harmony with

towards partisans

exhibited

chiefly

is

whose extreme opinions

incline

to

one's own.

the

extremity most

And

the public pro-

by Churchmen of mark-

tests twice raised against himself

edly moderate and conservative temper

— one

by Bishop

Wordsworth, then Canon of Westminster, against lation in the Deanery, the

the

in

be discounted from the impartial largeness of a

Dean

of Norwich, against his appointment as Select

Preacher at Oxford

—

needed for himself a claimed for others. liberalism

his instal-

next some few years later by

suffice

It

in historical

prove that Dr. Stanley

to

measure of the toleration he

full

was

characteristic of his one-sided

questions

that,

while he

fiercely

denounced "the atrocious Act of 1662," which imposed subscription to the Prayer-Book, and led to the ejection of

two thousand Nonconformist ministers from the which they had been

illegally thrust,

livings into

he had no word of

censure for the far more arbitrary and sweeping ejection of

some 7000 episcopal

clergy under the

Commonwealth, whose

places these intruders had usurped. his eagerness to secure for the

In practical matters,

Abbey

the remains of the

of forcing

Socinian author of Pickwick, at the cost

hand of

his

family and

directions, contrasted

resting-place in the

contravening his

oddly with the omission to

same hallowed

the

own express offer

a

precincts to the author

of the Christian Year.

And now of

for a

the relations

prominent place

He

word of

in

conclusion on the peculiar theory

Church and

in the

State,

which

held

a

Dean's entire teaching and policy.

never, of course, precisely defined

it,

any more than he

A A


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

35+

defined his theological views, but

would probably have

it

coincided pretty closely in practical result with the scheme

propounded by

his

old master, Dr. Arnold, that

Roman

except Jews and

Act of Parliament,

one national communion.

in

differences of belief or worship

him

of

Their

would have appeared

importance,

infinitesimal

sects

all

Catholics should be united, by

or,

to

main

one

rather,

advantage of a Church Establishment was to hold such

At

differences in check.

a great meeting convened in St.

James's Hall, under the presidency of Archbishop Longley, to protest against the disestablishment of the Irish Church,

he commenced a speech, which the fervently

frantic

howls of his

Tory audience would not allow him

declaring that he was

"

a

Whig

of the

by

to finish,

Whigs and

a Liberal

of the Liberals," and intended to support the motion on

He would

Liberal principles. length,

no doubt have explained

at

had he been suffered to proceed, what he took

occasion to set forth in print more fully elsewhere, that the

essence of an Established Church

supremacy of the Crown, that Joseph n. of Austria Frederick H.

was

his

aptly

model of a

"

my

named liberal

is,

is

"

under

to be

of the law," and

the that

brother the Sacristan," as

the

meddlesome lay-pope

monarch.

He was

careful to

add that the possession of endowments, and

still

any exclusive system of doctrine or

any separate

clerical order, is it

should be

polity, or

more of

not of the essence of the Church

made

;

that

as comprehensive as the nation,

all

theological tests

being abolished, "except, perhaps, the

Apostles' Creed"

from some

man

this

later writings

doubtful

exception

disappears

— and

that "every

on the subject

capable of rendering good service to the community


DEAN STANLEY. be recognised

a

as

355

The advantages

minister."

arrangement are further explained to be that

it

the Church the supremacy of just and good laws

one hardly sees bad, and

all

why

all

of this

secures to

— though

Church laws should be necessarily

State laws necessarily good

— that

gives

it

scope for the growth of various diversities of opinion that

it

"

protects

humble and devout

souls

and

;

from being

borne down by the current of local and transitory clamour,"

which was supposed to

Bishop Colenso, whose

refer to

quarrel with the South African bishops height,

and whose pertinacity

in

was then

maintaining

at

conspicuous than his humility to ordinary observers. lecture he delivered

Dean pronounced

a

some years afterwards

in

In a

Scotland the

more emphatic eulogium on

still

its

was more

it

" the

principle of a national Establishment," not indeed that the

State gains anything from union with the Church, but, on

the contrary, "the contact,

however

Church

slight,

is

elevated and

enlarged by

with so magnificent and divine an

ordinance as the national commonwealth." strict

accordance with these views that, when

he habitually worshipped and preached

in

was

It in

in

Scotland,

the Established

Presbyterian Kirk, and held aloof entirely from the unestablished

Episcopal Communion.

The simple

establishment was to him a far more fundamental the Church ritual.

"

This

fact "

of

note of

than any specialty of doctrine, discipline, or is

not the place to discuss whether such an

establishment as he adumbrated and desired could ever

become it

came

a practical reality, or to be realised,

it

Goldwin Smith once called call

how

would "

far,

differ

if

per impossibile

from what Mr.

an established chaos."

To

such views Erastian would be an obvious misnomer.

A A 2


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

356

Erastianism subordinates the Church to the State leyan hypothesis reduces

it

;

the Stan-

to an impalpable abstraction,

which cannot even be conceived of except as a variable accident of the

The

administration, having no independent

civil

principles, doctrines,

officers,

or

ordinances

of

own.

its

wildest heresies which disturbed the early or mediaeval

Church were

utterly alien to the

less

whole temper and

teaching of historical Christianity than such an estimate of

Had

religious obligations.

the

"

least

persecutions

ten

by

nine, for the first

nance as

would have secured and

the Imperial polity of

suffice to

last to

his

But

and comprehensiveness

life

it

"

ideal of

— as an ardent

—which Dean Stanley made

to promote,

the

must

it

have indicated the true nature of the

panegyrist has worded

aim of

at

justified

Rome — incomparably

grandest polity the world has ever seen.

" toleration, charity,

it,

" so magnificent and divine an ordi-

their submission to "

the early Christians shared

would have been diminished

"

it

the

and which he appears to the

have expected or hoped might some day be trans-

lated into

fact.

Its

very vagueness and impracticability

give a sort of nebulous grandeur to the ideal, but

wonderful that the

man who

never tired of preaching

it,

in

it is

desperately clung to

it,

not

and

season and out of season, as

the last word of religious truth and wisdom, should have

found himself out of harmony with almost every section of his clerical brethren. It

was a curious coincidence that within the same week

with Dr. Stanley there passed away another representative

and

retiring nature,

and a

many ways from him an man of shy bookworm, but also a man of

dignitary, differing widely in

old-fashioned high-churchman, a Conservative, a


DEAN STANLEY.

357

deep learning, great kindliness of disposition, and munificent liberality, to

whom more

than to any other individual

owing the splendid restoration Chancellor Harington,

who was

loved by

all

is

—

of Exeter Cathedral

who knew

him, and reverenced, one might almost say, throughout the

whole West of England.

No two men

utterly unlike in their opinions, habits,

of their

lives,

could be more

and the

time of their death were not divided.

Dean Stanley was not exactly

might have been to

do

difficult to find

who

Meanwhile,

Westminster Abbey, viewed as a centre of ence,

entire course

than these cathedral dignitaries,

in

the

if for

spiritual influ-

the ideal head,

any one better

it

qualified

justice in its secular aspects to a position of unique

historical, social,

and national

interest.


XXXIX. WILLIAM GEORGE WARD. In a sketch of Cardinal the Century, Mr.

Newman

Kegan Paul

Mr. Ward's name

is

and

justly enough, "

from

infers

it,

dinal) considered Mr.

originally published in

refers to the curious fact that

not once mentioned in the Apologia,

how

little

Ward an exponent

he (the Car-

of his

own

views."

At the same time there are few of the old Tractarian party who took a more prominent part in the Oxford movement than the able writer and metaphysician who, after a brief

and painful the

illness,

passed from

Ward," which could not of

all

among

us in July 1882, at

His popular sobriquet of

age of seventy.

to bring a smile to the faces

fail

who knew anything

" Ideal

of his outer man, was derived

from a work which at the time produced an immense sensation in

;

and Mr, Mozley has reminded us that he was,

more senses than

one, " the largest contributor to the

British Criticl' the recognised organ of the school.

Ward was

indeed a

and mental, his

it

man whose

was impossible

Mr.

personality, both physical

to overlook or ignore.

achievements at Winchester there

is

little

to'

Of

record

;

but even as an undergraduate he had distinguished himself as a frequent

and

telling speaker at the

from the time he gained

his

Oxford Union, and

double second

in

1834, and


WILLIAM GEORGE WARD. was soon afterwards Tait, a

the

in

Fellow of

with Archbishop

elected, together

Balliol, his

University and

in

name

the

rapidly grew famous

Though

Church.

Rugbean, but a Wykehamist, he

359

fell

early

not a

under Dr.

Arnold's influence, and represented at Oxford, as Mr.

Mozley puts

it,

"

the intellectual force, the irrefragable logic,

the absolute self-confidence, and the headlong impetuosity

Rugby school." There is a story of his once paying Rugby to consult Dr. Arnold on his intellectual difficulties, when he plied his teacher so unsparingly with of the

a visit to

questions and arguments that on his departure the indomitable Doctor was fain to confess himself utterly exhausted,

and to

retire at

But

once to bed.

his allegiance

to be transferred to a yet

more

was a

Oxford that he

tradition current at

was soon There

illustrious master.

w^as instantane-

by a single line in the Newman's Parochial Ser-

ously converted to Tractarianism preface to the third volume of

— published

mons

in

1836

— to

the effect that " Ultra-Pro-

testantism could never have been silently corrupted into

Popery."

Converted at

events he was, very speedily

all

and very completely, from Arnoldian ideas,

and

his great literary

to

Anglo-Catholic

powers were at once devoted

As a writer he was Ward alone was enough

to the service of the rising school.

both startling and irrepressible to

fill

the world with alarms."

" ;

The

" doctrine of reserve,"

which was elaborately and somewhat ponderously preached

by Mr. Isaac Williams

in

one of the

later Tracts,

and

for

which the writer was mercilessly castigated by indignant Protestant

He

critics as "

not only

a Jesuit," was not at

knew what he meant, but

modern phrase would be

said

all it

in his line.

with what in

called " a brutal frankness."

And


36o

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

hence the enemies of the movement denounced him as at once impudent and treacherous, impudent for his avowed design of

"

un-Protestantizing the Church of England,"

treacherous for remaining to

"

Cuhrch

eat the bread of the

"

while he carried on this work, though in fact he never

The

held any ecclesiastical preferment.

writer of a long-

forgotten pasquinade, once widely circulated under the

title

of the OxJo7'd Argo, thus gibbeted him, in what unfortun-

was by no means the most

ately

offensive of his stanzas, in

point either of reverence or good taste

:

There's Balliol's honest knave,

Non-natural but

To

real,

them o'er the wave Winding a blast ideal.

And

if

waft

Mr. Ward's lucubrations acted on opponents

like

a red rag on a bull, they were in other ways hardly less

For one

irritating to his friends.

voluminous.

XC. covered 90 British

the

thing,

His Feiv More Words pages.

Qitic

editor that " for

so

The

in

length of his contributions to

overpowered the

many years

his idea of

young cuckoo, growing bigger and this the only grievance.

interest

was

philosophical,

From

much-enduring

Ward was

of a huge

bigger, elbowing the

legitimate progeny over the side of the

was

he was terribly

defence of Tract

the

and the

little first

editor,

Nor

nest."

Ward's chief

who

did not

profess to be a philosopher, records pathetically how,

if " I

did but touch a filament or two in one of his monstrous

cobwebs, off ran he instantly to

my

Newman

to complain of

gratuitous impertinence," so that he not only thought

of him as of a huge little

Cupid

young cuckoo, but

flying to his

also as of " a

plump

mother to show a wasp sting he


WILLIAM GEORGE WARD.

And

had just received."

361

" as for cutting short (his articles),

where was one to commence that operation when they were already without beginning or end

indeed

Ward had

less

.-'

Graces

"

from his friend Oakeley, who to the

much what Mr. Mozley

writer, very

in his earlier

Oxford days,

scholar;" his English felicitous,

At

the

but

is

"

last

remained, as a

describes

him

as being

an elegant and rather dilettante

always pleasant to read, and often

more remarkable

is

of style

than none, differing therein widely

for elegance

same time Mr. Mozley admits, what

is

than force.

not difficult

many readers of the Critic " looked to gem of the number." But moreover difficulties he threw in the way of editorial

to understand, that

Ward's

article as the

the practical revision

were vexatious enough

minute and detestable

;

it

" his

;

handwriting was

The MS.

defied correction.

consisted of bundles of irregular scraps of paper, which I

had

There

to despatch to the printer crying out for copy. "

was always indeed something of the humorous the alarming associated with the

and foe

The

alike.

brought about, as

is

crisis

well

name

of his

of

as well as

Ward, by

friend

Anglican career was

known, by the publication of

his

Ideal of a Christian Church and the censure pronounced on the book and

its

author by the Oxford Convocation

on that occasion he speech, to read

time

—but

his wife.

sat

— not

down

in the

his notes, as

a letter from the lady

Of the book

itself it is

:

and

middle of his great

was supposed

who

at the

afterwards became

superfluous at this distance

was marked by the keen

of time to say much.

It

and

which never deserted him, but he

logical acuteness

would probably have allowed himself

in later

insight

days

he did not exaggerate the slavery of the Church

"

that, if

working


362

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

in chains,"

at

which he had

somewhat

least

tried

idealized

AND BIOGRAPHY.

and found wanting, he had the actual working of the

Church which as yet he had only had the opportunity of observing

from without.

Oxford

1845 and

in

its

The

story

issue has

from almost every point of view, to

But

again.

it

may

for its

may

"

of

it

by the

the Edinburgh Review, referred to

in

accuracy

often,

at

and

need being told

"

writer of Mr. Ward's obituary in the

amusing

conflict

be worth while to observe that

very interesting and amusing account

Dean Stanley

the

of

been told too

"

the late

by the

Times, was chiefly

marvellous travesty of the

facts.

His own

be gauged by the novel information that

the votes ivere taken, and the majority was found to be

Tract XC], when the Senior Proctor,

for the censure [of

the present

words,

'

Dean

of St. Paul's, pronounced the famous

Nobis procuratoribiis non

dispersed."

The

proctors,

it

observe, have no such autocratic

of Convocation once given

;

and the swarm

placet',

ought to be unnecessary to

power of reversing a vote

the power they have, and

exercised on that memorable occasion,

is

to prohibit a

motion they deem objectionable being put to the vote at all.

Mr.

Ward was

deprived of his degree by a sentence,

the justice of which few adherents of any religious party

would now care to vindicate, and the

legality of

would have been challenged, probably with cared to retain his position at Oxford.

months he had vacated been received into the

his fellowship

success,

which

had he

But within a few

by marriage, and had

Roman Communion.

His marriage of course precluded him from pursuing an ecclesiastical career, but the

distinction

Pope recognised

his intellectual

by conferring on him the degree of Doctor of


WILLIAM GEORGE WARD. Wiseman appointed him

Philosophy, and Cardinal

Chair of Dogmatic Theology the Times stated

which he held

363

— not

—at the Seminary of

for several years,

to the

Moral Philosophy, as St.

Edmund's, Herts,

he came, by the death

till

of his uncle, into a considerable property in the Isle of

Wight.

In most respects he would have agreed with Sir

George C. Lewis, that amusements."

Of

" life

would be

tolerable, but for its

when com-

sionately fond, but he used to stop his ears, pelled to listen to

Gregorian

"

him of

always reminded

activity

was not checked

succession to a fortune

;

treatise

which, he said,

chanting,

original

either

by

His

sin."

literary

his conversion or his

constituted, in fact, his ruling

it

passion and his main interest in

an able

was pas-

operatic music, however, he

In i860 he published

life.

on Nature and Grace, and

for fifteen years

he held the editorship of the Dublin Revieiv, to which, as before to the British Critic, he was himself a copious contributor.

He had

while

an Anglican, and his Ultramontanism naturally

still

been, so

became more pronounced

in

have seen already that Dr.

him

as an exponent of his

to

speak, an

his

Ultramontane

adopted Church.

Newman

own views

We

never acknowledged at Oxford,

and

in his

Letter to Dr. Pusey on the Eirenicon, published in 1866,

while

commending

his " energy, acuteness,

reading," he peremptorily asserts

spokesman

for

extreme theological arrogance, in his

whom

view of the Pope's line

way

and

his

whose dissent he could

no sense a

very few "go

infallibility."

His

vehemence, not to say

of enforcing

into collision with writers

and theological

to be " in

English Catholics," of

his lengths in their

him

him

it,

frequently brought

of his

own communion,

least patiently endure,

notably with


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

364

Father Ryder of the Birmingham Oratory, and some of the contributors to the Rambler and the

those

Home and Foreign

and he had an unpleasant habit of intimating that

Revieiv,

who

differed

from him on some detail of theological

opinion, or ecclesiastical or educational discipline, ought in strict

Of his

consistency to be sceptics or atheists.

there can be no

But

unfair.

dealing with a theological opponent,

in

sincerity

shadow of doubt, nor did he ever intend

to

be

who had

the misfortune to be one of his co-religionists, fairness was to

him a psychological

doxy

impossibility.

Nobody

is

my doxy

;

"

was inconceivable

it

Catholic should not be heterodox, whose

from

ever

more consistently Warburton's dictum that

plified

his

He may

own.

same type of

fierce

be said

in

doxy

in the late

" differed

;

M.

Veuillot.

Ward was

unjust.

deep and powerful philosophical thinker

tion," Veuillot

rightly

named

was the

"

a

Veuillot was at

And if

more than a racy and shallow pamphleteer. is

ortho-

him that a

and aggressive Ultramontanism which

But the comparison would be doubly

John Knox

exem-

a sense to represent the

on the continent found a mouthpiece

best no

"

to

"

the ruffian of the Reforma-

ruffian of

modern Ultramontanism,

modified of course by this difference between the conditions of the sixteenth century and the nineteenth, that

command

Knox had

of knives and bludgeons, whereas Veuillot had

to content himself with stabbing reputations

the noblest of his Catholic contemporaries

—of some

— with

of

a pen

habitually dipped in the acidulated quintessence of vitriol.

Of Ward,

overbearing and arrogant as he was apt to be

theological controversy with his fellow Catholics,

be untrue to say vindictive.

this.

He was

it

\\\

would

not personally venomous or


WILLIAM GEORGE WARD. The Times was partly,

not

if

365

right in intimating

quite

Ward's

chiefly,

that

was

it

some

which

opposition

years ago wrecked the scheme of founding an Oratory

—

Roman Catholic College " at Oxford, as a religious centre for Roman Catholic undergraduates, for which Dr. Newman had already received generous promises of supnot " a

port and

warm

assurances of sympathy from a large body

Great as was Ward's admiration

of his co-religionists.

both personal and intellectual for his old leader, there was

from

to last a

first

marked divergence of sentiment and

opinion between them. religious controversy,

But, in spite of his keen interest in

and pugnacious advocacy of

side, his real greatness

was always rather

He was most

thinker than a theologian.

own

his

as a speculative

home

at

in the

Metaphysical Society, which he helped to found, and where

he met and argued on equal terms with some of the thinkers of the day, and

it

philosophical articles in

the British

Review which are the during

life

is

first

not his theological but his

and Dublin

Critic

He

likeliest to survive.

republished

one or two volumes of the former, but

who

all

are familiar with his series of papers on the Intuitional and Free-will

against the

controversies, directed

S. Mill

J.

conclusions or not, must desire to see reprinted like

the

theories

and Herbert Spencer, whether accepting

in

a permanent form

late

Mr. Mill, never

;

his

them

1

themselves

hesitated

add that the many controversies

While these sheets are passing through the

in

to

It is

which he was

press,

two

vols, are

advertised of Essays on the Philosophy of Theism by the late

Ward.

and

collected

leading opponents,

acknowledge him as a foeman worthy of their steeL^ fair to

of his

W. G.


366

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

engaged through

life

seldom or never involved any

ruption of personal friendships, though

it

inter-

has often been

observed that his relations were far more cordial with Protestants, from

whom he whom

" Liberal Catholics," self to

could afford to

differ,

than with

he could not easily bring him-

regard as any better than traitors in the camp.

In

one respect he was honourably distinguished from some of his clerical fellow-converts

who, owing to their marriage or

other circumstances, were constrained like himself to retire into lay

communion, and have been reproached with sink-

ing into a state of intellectual apathy.

Ward's nature

to suffer the

edge of

It

even rest for a moment, nor would he willingly

who came

into contact with

was not

in

his intellect to rust, or

him escape

let

" the

any one

keen en-

counter of their wits," which he was ever on the watch to challenge or eager to accept.


XL. DR.

On

PUSEY AND THE OXFORD MOVEMENT. Movement

the 14th of July 1883 the Tractarian

became

entitled to celebrate

Sermon Cardinal

at

did anything so

has reminded

has told

1833, marks, as

14,

what must be considered

us,

commencement, though some years had yet

its

to elapse before

it

could be said to be in

much

contribute, as the

who on

full

Nor

swing.

same high authority

consolidation and eventual success

us, to its

as the accession to

divine

Mr. Keble's Assize

jubilee.

Oxford on Sunday, July

Newman

the date of

its

its

ranks of the learned and saintly

Sept. 18, 1882, passed away, in a ripe

and

honoured old age, amid the regrets of thousands of friends

and

disciples,

and with the universal respect of

men of all shades of opinion. comment from many points uneventful indeed in large

its

There

is

room

of view on a

his country-

of course for

life,

singularly

outward circumstances, but of such

and manifold influence on the

destinies of the

Church

of England, and the course of religious thought in this country,

that

to

it

making" might not

the

hackneyed epithet of "epoch-

unfitly

confidently anticipate that

be applied.

full

theme of such wide and varied

now

in

course of preparation

And we may

justice will be interest in the

by

the writer of

done

to a

biography all

others


368

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

most competent to undertake the

task, as well

from his

intimate personal knowledge of Dr. Pusey, as from his

having so largely inherited both the convictions and the

Meanwhile a

influence of the teacher he loved so well.

few general remarks are

all

that can be attempted here, on

the significance of a career which will retain

its

permanent

place in the annals both of Oxford and of the religious

life

of England.

For more than half a century the

Hebrew

filled

Professor of

and the long and yet

at an unusually early age, in 1828,

imperfect

late

Oxford held the post to which he was appointed,

at

list

of his works, copied from Crockford, which

more than half a column of the obituary notice

Guardian, would alone lifelong assiduity. failing power.

sufifice

Nor was

any

there to the last

studies might sufficiently account

pubhshed only two years before Farrar's Eternal Hope, decisive,

and

sign of

Clearness of style was never Dr. Pusey's

strong point, and for this his Hebrew, patristic, and

and

in the

to prove his unwearied

is

his

German

but his latest work,

;

death

in reply to Dr.

not only one of the most masterly

but perhaps the most tersely and clearly

written, that ever

emanated from him.

of his death he was

engaged

lectures for the next term,

had been unequal

Within a few days

in preparing his

though

for

Hebrew

some years past he

to the task of himself delivering either

lectures or sermons,

which were read by others

But, while throughout his long

life

for him.

Dr. Pusey realised the

which we German than with English

wont

ideal of a student, in a sense

are

rather with

professors or divines,

he was never a mere book-vvorm.

To

call

to associate

him a party

leader would convey an incorrect impression, for no one


PUSEY AND THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

DR.

could have less of the ambition of leadership or the of a partisan

yet

;

it

was

at

bottom as true an

369

spirit

instinct as

that which almost invariably dictates schoolboy nicknames

that identified with his

commenced

at

Oxford

name

fifty

the great religious revival

he then was) was earlier in the

field,

Newman

Mr.

years ago.

and

his

is

ably a mind of more rare and commanding genius

made at one time by the movement with the sarcastic

late Dr.

the attempt,

saddle the

mania " from the

first

completely

;

yet

Arnold, to

New-

sobriquet of "

failed.

(as

unquestion-

Whether

it

would

ever have been begun, or would have attained the influential position in the University

and the country which

it

soon acquired, without the impetus derived from his devoted

may

energy and transcendent powers, but^ once fairly started

on

the long run, as Cardinal teristic generosity,

immense

learning,

course,

its

Newman

it

well be doubted

;

has owed more in

has himself, with charac-

been forward to remind

us, " to

diligence, scholastic mind,

the great

and simple

devotion to the cause of religion " of his loved and distinguished "

colleague,

whom

he

"

used

to

call

6 /xeyas."

There was henceforth," adds the author of the Apologia,

" a

man who

could be the head and centre of the zealous

people in every part of the country

new opinions furnished the

gained versity.

for .

.

it

.

;

and not only

movement with

so,

who were adopting the who

but there was one

a front to the world, and

a recognition from other parties in the Uni-

Dr. Pusey was, to use the

common

expression,

a host in himself; he was able to give a name, a form, and

a personality to what was without him a sort of mob..

Such was the nally

;

benefit he conferred

.

.

.

on the Movement exter-

nor was the internal advantage at

all inferior

B B

to

it.


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

370

He was mind

;

a

man

of large designs

he had a hopeful, sanguine

;

he had no fear of others

he was haunted by no

;

intellectual perplexities."

When

Dr. Pusey was appointed at the age of twenty-nine

to the chair of

Hebrew

at Oxford,

and

first

occupied the

canonry house at Christ Church which was ever afterwards his

home, he had already spent a considerable time

studying successively at three Gottingen, and

Bonn

German

universities

in

—Jena,

— and had published a work on German

theology, long since out of print, which incurred the charge

of rationalism, chiefly, no doubt, because anything coming

out of

was

Germany was then supposed

at all events the first

and

last

to deserve the

name.

It

time such a charge could

with any semblance of plausibility be brought against him. It is

somewhat curious

two

replies

filled

to recollect that the

Hugh James

later.

theologian.

a

Hebrew

who

movement of a

lecturer, a preacher,

and a

Dr. Pusey throughout a long and laborious

and consistently maintained the cause of

resolutely

Christian

As

book provoked

Rose, of Cambridge,

a conspicuous place in the Church

few years

life

from

orthodoxy against

But while

assailants.

all

circumstances rather than choice often forced on him the office

of a controversialist, and his

made him always an principle, there

own

deepest convictions

unflinching upholder of the dogmatic

was ever about him a largeness of mind

and a depth of Christian sympathy which rendered bitterness of feeling or expression

often bitterly attacked,

while he

felt

it

all

He was

and from opposite quarters, but

his duty, not so

in the interests of his

impossible.

much

for his

own sake

as

Church, to defend himself against

charges of disloyalty which involved an arraignment of his


PUSEY AND THE OXFORD MOVEMEx\T.

DR.

The

theological position, he never bitterly retaliated. called Evangelical party for

many

371

so-

years assailed him with

unsparing virulence, but when the appearance of Essays

and Reviezvs seemed to truths held in

him

to

menace

to indicate a serious

common by

all

sincere believers in the

Gospel, he did not hesitate to appeal to the readers of the

Record

for

sympathy and support

The

enemy.

many

of his followers, brought

ally,

with

into

what was evidently

against

common

in resisting the

secession in 1845 of his great friend

claims he

him

to

a most

position about which he

in

and

necessity

unwelcome

unable to admit,

felt

him of

conflict,

defence of a

had never entertained a doubt.

But of controversial animus against the great Communion which had attracted so many of those on whose continued support he had once confidently reckoned, or against the seceders themselves, whose fidelity to conscience he re-

spected while he dissented from their conclusions, there

no trace

in his writings,

And when the growing which had prompted

was none

appeal to the Evangelicals, seemed

on the part of

all

who

cherished their

traditional faith in Divine Revelation, not only in

but throughout Europe, he put title

of

An

Eirenicon, a

immediate practical

monument both

forth,

England

under the winning

work which, however barren of any

result, will certainly live, as

an abiding

of deep theological learning and of calm

far-sighted Christian

wisdom and

wild, paradoxical, or, in the

charity.

He was

never

bad sense of the word, enthu-

no one, begging Dr. Arnold's pardon, could be less Don Quixote. And if he sometimes lent his great

siastic

like

is

in his heart.

pressure of the Rationalistic attacks,

his

to call for united action

as there

name

;

to phases of opinion or practice

which were considered B B 2


372

*'

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

extreme," this arose from a

to virtue's side.

So

" safe

men

on which

over dangerous

Newman

far

fault,

if

fault

be,

it

which leant

from sharing that base disposition,

" are

allies, his

apt to pride themselves, to throw generosity of temper, as Cardinal

has somewhere observed, always inclined him

rather to go

beyond than

to fall short of his

convictions, in defending those with

agreed, though

it

whom

own

deliberate

he substantially

He

were to his own hindrance.

dis-

approved, for instance, at the time of the publication of

Tract

XC,

though

contained nothing to which he did

it

not in principle assent.

But when the author was assailed

with a storm of authoritative censure and popular abuse,

he at once came forward with an elaborate and unqualified vindication of

it

when

the

position,

and

So, again, at a later period,

it.

Oxford movement

itself

had won a recognised

had become the fashion

to contrast " Ritualism " with

new and

Tractarianism, as a

parasitical

excrescence,

might have been supposed that Dr. Pusey, who knew

and cared

less

about ceremonial details

been not inaptly

said, that " to

— so

condemn

it.

On

it

has

the end he remained in

practice a Berkshire country clergyman"

stand aloof from this

that

it

little

new development,

if

—would

at least

he did not openly

the contrary, while mingling words of

counsel and caution with his commendations, he did not hesitate to throw his shield over those

to be honestly carrying out in practice

or not

—the

principles

whom

which he had devoted

reaffirming and propagating

had incurred an obloquy

;

to

he believed

— whether judiciously his life

to

the fact that in doing so they

which

" the old Tractarians,"

as they were sometimes termed in contradistinction from theirja?<ier disciples,

were no longer subjected, was to him


DR.

PUSEY AND THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

an additional reason not

When

ledging them.

for disclaiming but for

Sisterhoods were a

new

373

acknow-

thing in the

English Church, and were almost as universally censured or disparaged as they are

now

encouraged, he was the

to

man and champion

first

universally accepted

come forward

less

power

to

it

—though

not

no one

mere personal popularity

— and

beneath him to say or do what lay

in his

sought or cared

never thought

He was

of this salutary revival.

indifferent to the force of public opinion

and

as the spokes-

for

disarm unreasonable prejudice and distrust; but

he would not consent to escape unmerited criticism by the sacrifice of his friends,

even when he might think that in

particular points they were indiscreet or mistaken.

The main intimated,

interest of Dr. Pusey's

life,

as has been already

relations to religion

lies in its

and to the Church

of which he was so conspicuous an ornament.

wonderful change, which during the

last

fifty

And

the

years has

passed over the worship, the teaching, and the general tone of the Anglican Church, constitutes at once

and

its

who

disagree with

him must

On

lived in vain.

as yet to pronounce

do so would be

alike confess that he has not

;

it

would be premature

any comprehensive and in

for

final verdict

effect to predict the future of the

National Church, and to

throughout Europe

explanation

the ultimate results of the movement,

which he did so much to promote,

to

its

Those who agree and those

crowning triumph.

it

some extent of was part

in

Christianity

fact of the general

Catholic reaction which followed on the French Revolution.

But

it

may

safely be asserted that

mark on the Communion he served so well, as few,

if

he has

left

his

so faithfully and loved

any, of her prelates or divines have done


374

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. Such as he found

since the Reformation, it

can never again become

after

him

;

it

be

will

to decide whether or not

it

years ago

it fifty

for those

who come from the

shall decline

higher standard which his teaching and example so largely contributed to establish. the place to speak.

Of

his private life this

outward course, but not wanting

More than

forty years

is

hardly

was uniform and monotonous

It

ago he

in severe trials

lost a wife to

in its

and sorrows.

whom

he was

deeply attached, and soon afterwards his eldest daughter

between two and three years before his death son was suddenly taken from him, who,

many would

be crushing bodily

in spite of

infirmities,

;

his only

what

to

had been not

only a comfort and support to his father in his advancing age, but a ready

labours.

and invaluable assistant

in

his

His sufferings from the separation, and

cases alienation, of friends, are too well

being dwelt upon.

But through

even tenor of his course

energy never flagged.

;

His

all trials

his spirit life

some

to need

he preserved the

was not soured, and

many

teaches

denial, charity, generosity, industry,

known

literary in

his

lessons of self-

and perseverance

;

but

perhaps the most precious memorial he has bequeathed not to his

own

disciples only, but to all

who,

in

whatever

ministry of action or of thought, would "serve their generation after the counsel of

God "

unselfish singleness of purpose,

of success.

—

is

the

which

is

example of that the surest secret


XLI.

THE LATE PROVOST OF

ORIEL.

It cannot exactly be said that the death of the

late

venerable Provost of Oriel, at the advanced age of ninetythree,

the

removed a prominent

first

place. Dr.

from residence at his duties as

Oriel,

from Oxford

life.

In

retired eight years before

and from

all

active discharge of

head of the College, which devolved on the

Vice-Provost, Mr. Monro,

His death threw open the competition,

figure

Hawkins had

as

the

who

has since succeeded him.

office for the first

time to lay

canonry which formed part of

endowment has now been annexed chair of Scripture Exegesis, which

the

to

happened by a curious

moment through

coincidence to be also vacant at the same

But neither can

the resignation of Dr. Liddon.

its

ill-endowed

it

be said

that the late Provost, though so long a well-known and familiar figure at Oxford, ever exercised

any commanding

influence as a leader of thought in the University or the

Church of England generally. critical

and cautious rather than

teristic attitude

His tone of mind was original,

was not such as to

kindle enthusiasm.

He

and

his charac-

conciliate disciples or

may be called School, and Dry High and

belonged to what

the broader section of the old

disliked innovations either religious or academical

beyond a


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

376

very limited range, and hence he had Httle sympathy with

two great

either of the

and the

tarian

intellectual

movements, the Trac-

which passed successively

Rationalistic,

over the Oxford world of his day.

account

Cardinal

of his personal

the Apologia

in

Newman's

influence over

himself remarkably illustrates this temper of mind

was the

first

my

cautious in limiting

who

and

taught

me

to

He

statements.

clearing

my

weigh led

words, and to be

me

to that

exact

mind

himself,

and he used

to

He

upon."

did, however,

own knowledge mind

or

of

and of

man

a

influence

of

me

severely

first

Sermons

I

was engaged

though probably beyond

intention,

his

Mr. Newman's

at the time in a Catholicizing direction, as well

by

him a copy of

his

the books he lent him. as by giving

famous University Sermon on

But the

much

is

snub

wrote and other compositions that

I

ideas,

He

.

.

.

on reading, as he was kind enough to do, the that

mode

sense in discussion and in contro-

obviating mistakes by anticipation.

most

He

"

my

and of distinguishing between cognate

versy,

—

:

in

"

special interest of Dr.

Unauthoritative Tradition."

Hawkins's

life

lies

not so

any paramount influence which he exerted over

others, as in the exceptional

prominence of the men and

the events he was brought into contact with during his long

University career, and the marvellous changes he lived to witness during the half-century of his provostship, as well in

Oriel

and Oxford as

in the entire social, political,

religious condition of the age.

Born

in the

and

very year of

the outbreak of the French Revolution, and elected to his fellowship two years before the battle of Waterloo, and to

the headship of his College the year before the Catholic

Eknancipation Act was passed, he seems, while

many who


THE LATE PROVOST OF knew him

intimately,

and many more to

form and sharp, clear-cut face with

among

white hair remain are

engaged

actively

still

ORIEL.

their

whom

his erect

wreath of snow-

its

most familiar

in the

377

work of

recollections>

already to

life,

belong rather to history than to the living world. it

Nor can

be forgotten that in his person passes away,

any means the

greatest, the last but

than himself— of that historic

group,

one

—a

if

not by

far greater

including

Keble,

Whateley, and Arnold, who combined to make the name of Oriel illustrious. It

was

in

1828, the

same year when Dr. Arnold, partly

through his own strong recommendation, was elected head-

master of Rugby, that Hawkins succeeded to the provostship of Oriel, in place of Copleston, author of the Prcelcctiones Academiccs

— considered —who had

Ciceronian Latinity Llandafif.

at the

time a model

of

been raised to the See of

His election strangely enough was

brought

about through the influence of Mr. Newman, who there-

upon succeeded him as vicar of

St.

Mary's, the

rival

candidates being Tyler, a late Fellow of the College and

then a

London

rector,

and John Keble.

The

latter

is

said to have jokingly proposed that " the Fellows should

divide the prize, giving Tyler the red gown,

work, and himself the money."

between Hawkins and Keble.

Hawkins the

But the choice It is idle

now

on the reasons which may have induced Mr.

really lay

to speculate

Newman

throw his whole weight on the side of Hawkins

;

but

it

to is

the light of subsequent events,

impossible not to

feel, in

how much

hinged on the decision, not only as

really

regards the fortunes of Oriel, but of the English Church.

The

Christian Year, indeed, would not in any case have


378

AND BIOGRAPHY.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

been

lost to the world, for

but

the later studies and

inevitably have

channel

if,

and

had appeared the year before energies of

its

;

author must

been directed into a somewhat different

down

instead of going

where he had ample logical

it

a country living,

to

leisure to devote himself to the theo-

questions of the day, he had,

ecclesiastical

during that busy and eventful period, occupied the headship of the most conspicuous College in Oxford.

greater

Still

might have been the difference as regards Mr. Newman's

and the whole history of the Tractarian movement,

career,

which so largely depended on him,

if

been

tutorial

forcibly

diverted

from the

College, to which he had

had not

work of

his

keenly addicted himself, and

own

thus driven by no seeking of his

another and wider sphere. words, "with a Provost

his activity

to find satisfaction in

In 1828, to cite Mr. Mozley's

who owed

his

election

him,

to

himself tutor, and with two other tutors, Robert Wilberforce

and Hurrell Froude, entirely devoted to him," he

seemed

to

have the College at

his

feet.

Within two

years he and his friends had found themselves compelled

by the action of the new Provost to resign their tutorships. They had desired to introduce some reforms moderate into enough when compared with subsequent changes

—

—

the College system, such as the use of illustrate the ancient classics,

modern books

to

paying an exacter regard to

the character and special gifts of each undergraduate, and establishing a

between tutor and

closer relation

Dr. Hawkins would not hear of revolutionary, and moreover a authority, and

PVench

" his

it

menace

idea," says

king's, Letat, dest inoi."

pupil.

he thought the scheme

;

to his

own supreme

Mr. Mozley, It

"

was the

would even then have


THE LATE PROVOST OF

ORIEL.

379

been an almost unprecedented stretch of authority

Head

for the

of a College to dismiss his tutors without

some

better reason than a mere difference of opinion, but the

Provost did what came practically to just the same thing.

He

"

announced that no more undergraduates would be

entered to their names, so that in three years they would

have no classes

and he anticipated

at all,"

which speedily followed

their resignation,

announcement, by a

this

which they had advocated, when he called

who was then

former Fellow

Lectures six years

late'r

far

more

on existing practice than any

revolutionary innovation

in

Hampden, a

married, and whose

Bampton

gained for him such an equivocal

notoriety, to give the College lectures in their place.

The

truth

colleges

little

— Dr.

be somewhat arbitrary

in his exercise of

whom

snubbing severely, as Dr. stance,

may

serve

method of procedure. Nov.

10,

asked a

1841,

Mr.

Newman

words

if

in the it.

to

he was

by

habit of

A

circum-

after this affair of

exemplify his peremptory

Mr. Hope, dated

In a letter to

Newman

man why he was

first

liked, especially

much

to

and

it,

he was

which occurred some ten years

the tutorships,

heads of

Hawkins was always apt

was feared rather than

his undergraduates,

— and

than autocrats before the

less

University Commission

respected, he

power lasted

that while his

is

were

says:

"Our

Provost has

not at Chapel on Nov.

5,

and

because he did not like the State Service has said he will 1

not give him testimonials for orders."

Memoir of

J. R.

Hope

Scott, vol.

i.

p.

31

5-

^

To

give a

Those who have denunciations,

ever heard the 5 Nov. Service—with its' reiterated " the hellish malice of Popish conspirators," in prayer after prayer, of and "all su:h workers of iniquity as turn religion into rebellion and often have myself) faith into faction "—read in church or chapel (as I


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

38o

same temper, which occurred some

fresh illustration of the

twelve years later

whom

he had

^

reason to

Community,

Irvingite

He

closely

belonging to the

suspect of

on the Provost before the

called

fellowship examinations to put date.

from another College,

Scholar

a

:

down

his

name

as a candi-

proceeded at once to cross-question his

on

his

religious

and

opinions,

spite

in

visitor

of

his

assurance that he was prepared ex animo to subscribe the

39 Articles, and was a regular attendant at the Chapel Services and "

You may

believe

Communions, he refused believe

a good

all

we

do,"

and

more,

deal

to allow

him

he observed, won't

that

"

to stand.

but you

do."

The

Provost had the absolute power of refusing permission to stand, and die

would of course have been authorized and

even bound at that time to reject a candidate who declined to subscribe the

Anglican formularies

;

but

it

was a very

arbitrary exercise of his official rights to go behind the

declaration of one

and

in fact

who

professed himself ready to comply,

did comply, with

all

the statutable requirements

of the University in the matter.

On

another occasion he

displayed the same animus in a characteristic but amusing his own College, of excellent who had therefore felt unable to honours. The Provost knew this well,

manner towards a member of abilities

go

in

but feeble health,

for classical

but did not choose to recognise the plea, and accordingly

took occasion one day at his own dinner-table, after the schools were over, but will appreciate the justice

the Provost to have been

— as

he had forgotten

and propriety

— as

—before

the

of this refusal, even supposing

he probably was not

—within his statut-

able rights. ^

This circumstance came directly under

at Balliol, the victim

my own

being a fellow-Scholar of mine.

cognisance,

when


THE LATE PROVOST OF was announced,

result

is

to ask the offender

not yet out,

spite

in

that,

of manner, his

way

reply,

addressing undergraduates, ;

and

there was someas

it,

may

be said mutatis mutandis of his style of reading

prayers and preaching in the College Chapel.

very tolerant of deflections his

and of

a certain old-world courtesy

of

of

thing cold, incisive, and at times sarcastic about also

class

There were other

was not conciliatory

especially freshmen,

he

class

The

which need not be repeated here,

stories current in Oriel,

showing

" ;

was the appropriate

sir,"

course there was no more to be said.

381

what

This time he found his match

had taken. list

ORIEL.

own somewhat first

or

Nor was he

those under his control from

rigid standard of practice

in matters academical

double

in

religious.

He

and opinion

was himself a

— there were only two schools in that day — and

one of his theories, not generally accepted, was that any-

body who took

classical

might

also, if

he pleased, take

mathematical honours, as the study of mathematics would supply the requisite relaxation reading.

and an

It

was more from

for the

mind from

critical distrust

of

instinctive dislike of enthusiasm, than

classical

new

what

special reverence for the past, that, without being

commonly

called narrow-minded,

he was

ideas

from any is

in all his feelings

Ne

and habits of thought cautiously conservative.

quid

nimis was a principle deeply ingrained in his moral and

Those

acquainted with

him

will

intellectual

nature.

recollect, as

an instance rather of his courtesy than of the

exactness Dr.

Newman

ascribes to him, that, at whatever

hour they happened to meet him

was eleven o'clock morning, Mr.

in the street,

though

at night, he never failed to say " ,"

as he lifted his cap in passing.

it

Good


AND BIOGRAPHY.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

382

That a man thus minded would have quite as Httle sympathy with the complete transformation which has passed over Oxford

life

during the

last

quarter of a century

movement which

as with the great religious

agitated

depths during the quarter of a century before,

its

It is not

readily understood.

and

clerical restrictions

merely that

all

to

it

be

will

religious tests

have been swept away, though that

a reform Dr. Hawkins could not be expected to approve.

is

But other changes, which perhaps cut

made

whether better or worse there at least radically different

of 1850.

So vast indeed

to realise

its

lifetime,

is

no need here to

discuss,

but

— from the Oxford of 1828 or even the revolution that

is

it is

difficult

having come to pass, not only within a single

but during the

When

College.

deeper, have

still

to-day a totally different place

the Oxford of

official rule

of the

same Head of a

Hawkins became Provost the

Dr.

first

had not yet

of the Tractarian controversy

faint whispers

been heard, and the great leader of the movement, which

was so powerfully

known only promise still

and

when

as

to affect both

an active

Evangelical

that

Oxford and England, was

College tutor of intellectual opinions.

He

was

Provost

movement was succeeded by another

of

a very different kind which, through the instrumentality of three successive

Commissions, has revolutionized the

whole discipline and of teaching

remodelled, and a versity

has

life

of Oxford.

and of examination

in

new

various

professoriate

ways

The system both been

has

been

created

completely ;

Uni-

the

developed

at

the

expense of the Colleges, and a new element independent of

Colleges

tached,"

altogether,

called

or

in

recalled

the into

person

of

the

"

unat-

academical existence,


THE LATE PROVOST OF which had

its

383

place indeed in mediseval Oxford, but has

been unknown there for the

last

government and mutual

internal

ORIEL.

three

centuries

;

the

relations of the Colleges

each other have undergone important modifications,

to

much

while they have lost or are losing of character and

viduality

de

esprit

of their old indi-

corps,

through the

introduction of married Fellows and other causes, the

which yet remains to be worked

result of

changes the

late

Provost lived to witness, and

them he was

ing out of the greater part of

an

active,

full

All these

out.

in the carry-

called to take

though often perhaps an unwilling,

And

part.

ominous signs had already become manifest,

the

first

his

withdrawal from Oxford, but before his death, of a

after

yet more startling and sweeping revolution, not only

academic but social

life

in

reproduce in sober earnest on the banks of the the

Cam

dowagers

the poet's satiric for deans,

dream

and sweet

Isis

would make

them, whereas

it

"

and

of " prudes for proctors,

girl

graduates

;

but with

"

a view the precise opposite of the Princess Ida's, "

in

England, which threatens to

who

death for any male thing but to peep at

mixed education,"

would have shuddered

at, is

now

in a sense

"

our fathers

the central aim.^

What

Provost Hawkins would have thought of such a programme not difficult to conceive.

it is

later

years was inclined to Oriel

illustrious "

He

probably too during his

fear,

phalanx who

with the

still

of that

last

survives

Phaeton had got into the chariot of the sun

him, that " ;

but so

an English dean, wiser in his generation than has recently advocated the right of women to enter the Christian ministry and to preach whether they are also to administer 1

It is

significant that

St. Paul,

;

Sacraments

is

not yet explained.


384

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

long as health and strength remained to him for the

— and he was eighty—he acquiesced calmly,

administration of his Collegiate office five if

before he dropped the reins

not cheerfully, in the

new

of things, which

condition

reduced the Provost from almost an autocrat into

more than primus one of

inter pares.

It

little

was a trying ordeal

for

temperament and antecedents, and we have the

his

who knew him

testimony of those

years at Oxford that he bore the

best during those latter trial well.

may

It

even

have served to evoke and strengthen those nobler elements of his nature, which had not always been so manifest on the surface, but which in earlier days had attracted, as

Cardinal

Newman

last survivor,

He was

assures us, his hearty love.

the

not only of a generation, but of a class which

For the Heads of Houses, as he had

has passed away.

known them, were a

class

who dwelt

apart, like the deni-

zens of the Homeric Olympus, in an awful solitude, and

wielded a power that could not easily be reckoned with or restrained. all

could

—that they them

It

would be a

be said of a

it

" lay

libel to

man

and somewhat

cum

though

leisure,

dignitate,

it

frigid

grandeur, an

was often a learned

which seemed to belong to a bygone day.

events, whether

we

regret

it

charm,

sentative

familiar, is

laid

many

still

in

and which was not without

extinct in

was

to

modern Oxford. his

At

all

or not, that peculiar type of

academical dignity, with which

were once

least of

Hawkins

beside their nectar," but there was about

as a class a stately

air of otiiim

its

say of them

so energetic as Dr.

rest,

on

one

middle its

life

merits or

Its last repre-

of the closing

days of November, 1882, under the shadow of Rochester Cathedral.


XLII.

ARCHBISHOP It has been

said,

and said

TAIT.

truly, that

Archbishop Tait,

though not a great theologian, or a great statesman, or

And

a great bishop, was yet a great man. that he has really than all

left his

mark on

is

other respects was sufficiently unlike him.

him by a

more

who somewhat of "the old is

It

in

cannot

commendation bestowed on

writer in the Quarterly

Ritualists,"

also true

any primate since the time of Laud, who

therefore be objected that the

if

it

the Church of England

Review {^or January

1883),

ostentatiously posed as the representative

High Church too high

;

Party,"

as

"opposed

to the

but his panegyrist praises him,

not too well, not too wisely either

;

his least estimable

peculiarities are exalted into virtues, while his real merits

are to a large extent overlooked.

Both

in

matters great

and small the reviewer seems to have misconceived the character and aims of the late Archbishop. his line of action nor of

pupil of Arnold in

any more

"

Neither in

thought can he be called "the

— and he was of course not Arnold's pupil except sense — nor can he be

literal

in

said,

the most vague and general way, to have been engaged in "carrying into effect the spirit of Arnold's life."

He

was indeed a warm admirer of Arnold, but a paper he c c


386

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

contributed shortly before his death to Maanillau shows

how

entirely he

range

of

was, was always

humorous

which, considerable

influence,

purely

as one of his

select

the

had miscalculated both the nature and

Arnold's

personal.

It

"

distinctive excellences

aspect

any

of

as

it

odd again to

is

an eye for

which

situation,"

the

reviewer no less oddly holds to be eminently the privilege

of Scotchmen,

apparently

forgetful

of

a

familiar

proverb on the subject, which points quite the other

way

;

that he " did not exhibit," and did not possess, " the high logical

race

and speculative power characteristic of the Scottish

" is

perfectly true, as also that he did possess a tact

and strong common sense which might often stand him out, in

of several

spite

for practical purposes

in better stead.

rather

too

The

article

studied

through-

disclaimers,

betrays a manifest tendency to represent the suppression of Ritualism as the crowning aim and glory of his episco-

pate and primacy, and to slur over or minimize the virtual

acknowledgment he made, with

characteristic

candour and

generosity, on his death-bed, that in the legislative action

which he had promoted with that view some years before

he had

fallen

strange,

by the by,

into a serious after

mistake.

however indiscreetly published, Wilbeiforce,

say that

to

It

sounds rather

the revelations on

"Mr.

in

the

the subject,

Life of

Disraeli,

in

Bishop Tait, who had been a decided Liberal

Bishop

nominating in politics (to

the primacy), set an honourable example of subordinating political to religious considerations in ecclesiastical appoint-

ments."

That

is

precisely what,

if

we may

trust

Wilberforce's testimony, he would not have done

been allowed his own way

in the matter,

if

Bishop he had

and certainly was


ARCHBISHOP not in the habit of doing.

On

TAIT.

3S7

one point, however,

pleasant to be able to agree with the reviewer,

speaks of the universal

and profound at large,"

regret,

"

it

is

when he

expression of admiration, affection,

on the part of the Church and nation

evoked by the death of the

the tribute was not undeserved.

late

Primate

;

and

In the main, and putting

aside the silly sneer at the party which

the writer, the following statement

is

is

the bete noir of

a just one

:

By common

consent, not excluding that of the narrow alone expressed any hostile feelings towards him, he asserted the influence and dignity of the great office with which he was entrusted, with a success which few of his predecessors, and none of his immediate predecessors, had attained. They had, indeed, all been men of beautiful personal character, of mild wisdom, and of laborious devotion to their duties. But Archbishop Tait added to all these excellences, by a touch like that of genius, something which at once raised the office to a higher point of influence. He was felt not merely to be the official head of the Church, but to be the true representative of the Church to the nation at large. He was a leader as well as a ruler; and the Church in his person exerted an influence which awakened a friendly response from every class of his countrymen, whether members of its communion or not. He was not merely a living power himself; he made his office a living power, and animated it with a new spirit. ch'que

who

But the chief

interest of the article

which the writer

and certainly

was the not at

lies

fails to

answer at

all

secret of this remarkable achievement

all

had been,

}

;

"

"

What It

did

events consist in the alleged fact that "Arch-

which he was translated the

to answer,

to the purpose

bishop Tait had been almost a Primate

for, in

in a question

asks, but scarcely attempts

first

"

in

the post from

窶馬amely, the bishopric of London

place, this

is

not a fact

;

and secondly,

;

if it

so far from explaining his subsequent influence, C C 2


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AxND BIOGRAPHY.

388

it

would

itself

Laud, during

explanation.

require

tenure of the see of London, was

"

almost Primate

the feeble rule of Abbot, and there

is

who during Bishop

and indeed during the

Tait's

But the only

it.

episcopate at London,

earlier years of his archiepiscopate,

could with any accuracy be called

And

Bishop Wilberforce.

"

excellent authority for saying that,

to the

in

preparing the

his

Archbishop

for

any

when

letters

it.

was

be

it

There

is

credit

the late

volume of the

first

"

almost Primate

nobody, to

spoken, was readier than himself to admit

Ashwell,

his

under

quite enough in his

character and antecedents to account for

person

"

Canon

Life, applied

he might have of Bishop

Wilberforce's, promising of course to publish nothing with-

make

out his sanction, the answer was a free permission to

any use of the correspondence he pleased, coupled with the observation, "

I

wish

it

who was

to be clearly understood

the true primate of the Church of England while Bishop

Wilberforce lived."

The

reply illustrates a side of the late

Archbishop's character, not perhaps always as fully recognised as

it

impress

all

deserved to be, but which could not

who were brought

fail

to

into personal contact with

him, and must have had something to do with the universal

and confidence he

respect

somewhat

stern exterior

Under a

inspired.

— more

commonly

the Scotch temperament than a sense of cealed a

from

cold

and

associated with

humour

—he

con-

warmth and generosity of heart, the more admirable

his lack of imaginative

course more natural to

men

power

;

for

sympathy

of a lively imagination,

is

of

who

can readily enter into a state of mind different from their

own.

His friendships were warm and constant

nothiner has been heard of his enmities.

Two

;

little

or

of his old


ARCHBISHOP Oxford

whose

friends,

TAIT.

389

he not only did

religious opinions

not agree with, but could hardly even understand religious

sentiment was very

type,

was natural from

as

Roman

Catholics

;

much

of the

early

his

— for his

Presbyterian

training

— became

but neither their change of communion,

nor his own subsequent elevation to high ecclesiastical

any interruption of friendship or friendly

dignity, led to

intercourse between them.

of

mind

in his

that he

was due

It

own Church, even when

harmony with

to the

same habit

had a sincere respect and love of goodness

his

it

took a shape quite out of

And

personal convictions.

hence, in

spite of the trenchant denunciations of Ritualism

his

London and Canterbury Charges,

much

refers with so

and more than

knew

satisfaction,

great Gospel truths

No

"

would

say,

in

whom

acknowledged, bishop and

to

in

for the souls

prosecution was ever,

Mr. Mackonochie,

it

is

said,

London

for one, has publicly

terms honourable alike to the Arch-

himself, the

kindness and sympathy he

always received from him as his diocesan. possible for

he

preaching " the

instituted with his sanction in the diocese either of

or of Canterbury.

in

he was throughout tolerant,

and earnestly labouring

Ritualist

both

which the reviewer

tolerant, of individual Ritualists,

to be zealous, as he

of men.

to

any one brought

Nor was

it

into intimate relations with

him, whether agreeing or not with his opinions, to doubt the reality of his piety.

On

the other hand, he had a

breadth of view and discernment of the vast possibilities of his high prelates,

office,

which

is

not

common

of late

among Anglican

indicated in a remarkable passage the

reviewer cites from his last Charge in London, but was far

more prominently shown

after his

translation to the


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY

390

primacy

who

and he was probably the

;

did not think his dignity

first

Bishop of London

compromised by going to

preach to the religious pariahs of his huge diocese in an

omnibus yard

:

How

Church of England, and far is the national especially the Church of this Diocese, fulfilling the work which Christ has committed to it, and how are we each The national Church and of us fulfilling our own part ? the Church of this Diocese for, indeed, it is as difficult to separate the two as it is to separate the diocese from its particular parishes, and the parishes from those who London, above all other dioceses, imist be minister in them. indissolubly connected ivith the luJiole national CJmrcJi. do not ignore those powerful elements of the softening

—

We

nor influences of country life, not found among ourselves the effect of the position, so different from ours, in which nor the vast the country Clergy stand to their flocks power of University life, moulding the thoughts of our But still London is the centre to London rising youth. flows yearly, in a steady tide, a large body of persons of all from London the stream of classes from every county ;

;

:

:

influence,

however unobserved,

sets in irresistibly,

through

newspapers, books, letters, the converse of friends, to hall, parsonage, farmhouse, and cottage, in the remotest country If we in London are faithless, all England suffers. London could but become the really Christian centre of the nation, how would our national Christianity grow

districts.

If

!

One

sentence

is

here italicized,

by way both

contrast.

London

as in one sense the centre of the

If

of emphasis

Bishop Tait regarded the see of

and of

life

of the National

Church, he learnt afterwards to regard the see of Canter-

bury as the centre of a first

still

wider organization.

From

the

he had insisted that the Primate required the aid of

a Suffragan, because of his immense correspondence from all

parts of the world, and " the care of

in

communion with

all

the Churches

"

the see of Canterbury, which was in


ARCHBISHOP some

sort

compare

kid upon him

his

would be

it

;

TAIT.

391

curious, indeed, to

language on the subject with that of some of

the most eminent of the early and mediaeval Popes.

would

be too much to say that there was about

it

ception

of his

primatial

office

a

Nor

his con-

Hildebrandine

certain

element, in the best sense of the term, in spite of his entire

The Archbishop

absence of sympathy with mediaevalism.

of Canterbury has sometimes been designated, whether in

Papa, but until the

jest or earnest, alteruis orbis

when an Anglican

century,

be formed, such a

anyhow

title

could have

little

certain that, although the phrase

occurred to him. Archbishop Tait was the situation, with it is

what looks

meaning.

may

It

his

is

never have to seize the

first

And

an intuition of genius.

like

more remarkable, considering

the

last half-

Colonial episcopate began to

somewhat Pres-

byterian type of mind, that he should have been so forward,

—that was not at

not indeed to magnify himself

—but

to

magnify

his office.

was most emphatically

This estimate of

when,

proclaimed

addressed " from the chair of

St.

Augustine

all his

its

way

grandeur

in

1878,

" in his

he

metro-

politan Cathedral the prelates assembled from

all

the world in the second Pananglican Conference,

who found,

as

the Church

Quarterly expressed

it

parts of

at the time, their

" natural Patriarchate at Canterbury." It is

not intended here to offer any complete reply to

the question which the Quarterly Review leaves unanswered, as to the secret of Archbishop Tait's extensive influence.

Nor would

how

it

it

came

logian, or a

indeed be easy to define with any precision to pass that one,

who was

not a learned theo-

deep thinker, or a born ruler of men, conciliated

to himself in his lifetime so general a

homage from

different


392

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

Church of England and from some outside

parties in the its pale,

was

as

AND BIOGRAPHY.

testified

by an exceptional unanimity

the effort to pay honour to his memory.

weak

points in his character and

He

admirers would deny.

in

That there were few of his

his policy

never understood the importance

of dogma, and was thus quite incapable of appreciating the value of such a document

e.

g. as the

Athanasian Creed, of

which another Broad Church prelate of more philosophical mind, Bishop Cotton of Calcutta, had learnt to form a juster estimate.

was due

It

insight, not to

any

to the

same

of intellectual

defect

intentional unfairness,

still

less to .any

personal jealousies or caprice, that his whole view of the

Oxford movement, which he expounded mentioned

The paper

and inexact.

nobility of his nature, discussion. for the

in

an

article

already

Macmillaits Magazine, was both superficial

in

reveals throughout at once the

and

his inaptitude for speculative

His notion that the Tractarians are responsible

scepticism of

modern Oxford

—which

foresaw, and did their best to guard against

they alone

— and

that

it

might have been averted by a wider acceptance of Dr. Arnold's " reasonable and large-hearted system of Christian teaching"

—when

characteristic.

in fact

he had no system at

It is perfectly true that

charged with being himself a sceptic, or scepticism,"

to the

"

is

curiously

is

unjustly

the father of

but the notorious scepticism of some of his

leading disciples to his entire

all

Arnold

not unjustly attributed,

is

in

part at least,

want of any theological system.

Archbishop

;

— many, no doubt,

in the

To

return

words of the

Quarterly reviewer, did not consider " that he duly appreciated the importance of the Apostolic organization which

the

Church of England

inherits,

or the extent to which


ARCHBISHOP her just claims on

TAIT.

the nation

393

But the conviction was shared

direction.

disagreed with him

—by

has taken a prominent part

in

Scripture phrase,

episcopal

They felt "a good man and a career,

He was office,

mean

or petty or

he was,

that

in

In spite of

just."

chiefly in the earlier period

which he would probably have

afterwards himself acknowledged and

generous

for organizing

Church as he under-

aims.

some conspicuous mistakes, of his

by men of

Dean Stanley — that he

at heart the best interests of his

his

alike

movement

stood them, and that there was nothing personal about

a contrary

Archdeacon Denison, who

the

a memorial fund, no less than by

had

it."

in

by those who agreed and those

the most opposite schools,

who

upon

founded

are

Others thought he did not go far enough

in his estimates of his clergy

deplored, he was

and of

their work.

men who are made great by their who make their office great and

not one of those

but one of those

;

the dignity of a grand position, too often feebly sustained,

has undoubtedly been enhanced

much

to recover for

it

in

his hands.

He

did

the influence and prestige which had

been seriously compromised by the otiose incompetence, diversified

by some

rather ludicrous blunders, of his penul-

timate predecessor. charities,

He was more

and nobly upheld the

than

liberal

be admitted on

all

sides.

While

it

is

analyse more exactly the secret of his power, true that he

had

in

intellectual greatness.

his

LamThus much

beth for a dignified and gracious hospitality. will

in

traditional repute of

difficult it

to

remains

him the elements both of moral and


XLIII.

DEAN CLOSE AND THE EVANGELICALS. The death

of

Dean

Close, in

December

exactly the last of the Evangelicals lives

and reigns

at Liverpool

— for

1882,

removed not

Bishop Ryle

still

— but the last surviving patriarch

of the old Evangelical party.

When we

reflect that Dr.

Close was born before the end of the last century, and took his degree in

1820 at Cambridge, where he was the con-

temporary of Thirlwall, Hare, and Whevvell, and a ciple of

Simeon,

it

will

dis-

be perceived at once that he lived to

witness the triumph and the decline of what in his earlier

years was the rising, and became afterwards for a time the

dominant, party origin

ment destined old

in the

Church of England,

and gradual increase of the great to supersede

it.

When

High Church party was supposed

as well as the

religious

move-

he was ordained, the to be in

its

dotage

;

a leading bishop of the day was credibly reported to have said he could count its

most

on

his fingers the

distinctive tenet.

in fact to

men who

believed in

High Churchmanship had come

be generally looked upon as

little

else than a

negative protest against " Methodism," which loved ortho-

doxy

less

than

it

hated enthusiasm, and cared more for

port wine than for either the future Tractarian or

surmise.

And

its

school

hatreds or

its

loves, while of

there was as yet

yet Dr. Close outlived

no sign

one venerable


DEAN CLOSE AND THE EVANGELICALS. leader of the movement,

had so long and so had once taken a survives

him

as an octogenarian Cardinal,

It is in truth

it

inevitably suggests, rather than in

life is

own

to

career, that

preacher, and

is

his reputation

as a leading Evangelical

said to have ruled the

Mr, Clough, when Tutor of

town with a rod of

Oriel,

used to

illustrate

a passage in the Clouds of Aristophanes by the pairs

He

be sought.

above thirty years the incumbent of Cheltenham,

where he gained

iron.

who

in its guidance,

special significance attaching to his

for

Church he

more prominent part

the main interest of Dr. Close's

was

months

three

regrets of the

faithfully served, while another,

still

in the historical review

any

who passed away

him amid the universal

before

395

of slippers," which Dr. Close was said

aimually from his female devotees.

"

1700

to receive

It is curious that

one

of his Evangelical colleagues at Cheltenham, the late Dr.

Boyd, there

like himself, is

gelical preacher

wrong

became a dean

;

curious, because,

if

one position more than another where an Evan-

would seem to be the wrong man

place, that position

is

a deanery.

One

in the

naturally

associates with the idea of a Cathedral a stately edifice,

solemn

ritual,

choral worship, and frequent services, and

these are precisely the things against which Evangelicalism

has raised a constant and angry protest. Close's

One

most famous sermons bore the ominous

of Dr, title

of

Restoration of Churches the Restoration of Popery, and yet

nearly

all

our old English Cathedrals— not indeed includ-

ing that over which he was afterwards called to preside

have undergone during the process of restoration. fate

when

it fell

apologist for the

to "

It

last

few decades

this

Popish

looked like a kind of irony of

Dean Boyd's

lot to figure as

idolatrous " images in the

the

official

new Exeter


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

396

reredos,

which a more consistent representative of

had vainly

striven to abolish.

It is

his party-

not recorded that any

such incongruous task devolved on Dean Close, or indeed that the twenty-five years of dignified repose, which

"merry

Carlisle,"

at

were otherwise signalized than by

his

secured

post

"

adding to his lifelong denunciations of Ritualism, and Rationalism," a fresh and pic against " those twin vampires of

The nave and

and tobacco."

Tractarianism,

still

human

for

fiercer philip-

existence, beer

be

Dean Close was hardly them, even

to rebuild

Nor was

feasible.

ments, for which

the

Common-

it

likely that

Cathedral

other respects, he

by

and Bishops Reco7'd,

man

undertake

to

the choral arrange-

had in

not his

the task

left

before been

hands

;

in that,

of reform to his

But Lord Palmerston's premiership was

successors.

tinguished

the

supposing such an enterprise to

remarkable, would specially prosper as in

were

cloisters of Carlisle

destroyed by the Puritans during the wars of the wealth, and

Lord

him

the

Palmerston's bestowal of

a wholesale

— a circumstance

when

dis-

promotion of Evangelical deans

after his death

remembered

for

good by the

some advocatus diaboli thought

proper, with questionable taste, to raise a discussion in

its

columns as to the religious character and "eternal prospects

"

of their patron.

McNeile,

And

who passed away

Dr. Close and

Dr.

Hugh

before him, were the two most

conspicuous, and therefore most conspicuously misplaced,

among

the Palmerstonian Deans.

It is difficult

for the present generation to realise the

Evangelicalism of

fifty

or sixty years ago.

It

has been

photographed, or rather daguerrotyped, with the touch of

a keen,

if

by no means sympathetic, observer

Reminiscences

;

in

Mozley's

and thousands of readers probably have


DEAN CLOSE AND THE EVANGELICALS.

397

sighed or smiled over his typical portrait of the Evangelical

Vicar of St. Werburgh's, Derby, who villa,

" resided in a pretty

surrounded by extensive grounds, out of his parish,

was never seen

and a good step out of the town

"

parish except on Sundays, and "

knew

of his

parishioners

;

;

"

while he

"

tradesman of the strongest and

deputed to a wealthy

bitterest Evangelical prin-

who

the selection of his curates,"

ciples

their vicar, "

in his

absolutely nothing

preached, like

nothing more than the coarse blasphemies of

the market-place put into longer words and

strung into

sentences," and were never supposed to let " their tone falter into

mercy and

That

grace."

is

one side of the picture,

and no doubt Mr. Mozley may be trusted of his personal recollections to

which ought

it,

ever they

may

their origin

;

but there

in fairness to

be kept

accuracy

for the

also another side

is

in

What-

mind.

have afterwards become, the Evangelicals

were the

religious party of the day,

according to their lights, to revive a

spirit

who

in

strove,

of devotion

in

a

cold and apathetic age, and in certain respects their position

may

be compared mutatis mutandis

would have of the

on

modern

itself

— though

Dr. Close

recoiled in horror from the suggestion

Each party

Ritualists.

in turn

— to that

has drawn

not only the rancorous abuse of theological oppo-

nents, but the

still

more indiscriminate and

censure of a class of

critics,

whose one

often calumnious

maxim

religious

is

shun the danger of being righteous overmuch, and who mentally translate the old saying that the cowl does not

to

make

the

monk

into

religious professors,

if

the

to be hypocrites at bottom.

of this generation

who

never heard

who

of,

portentous aphorism that

you scratch the There

ever read,

a tale

surface, will

are,

all

be found

perhaps, not

many

and there may be some

which had a great run

in its

day,


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

398

by Mrs. Trollope, mother of the brilHant novehst whose England was not long ago deploring, published

loss all

about half a century ago under the WrcxJdll.

It

title

of The Vicar of

was almost avowedly designed as a caricature

of a well-known Evangelical clergyman of the day, not free

indeed from some of the

little

weaknesses of his school, who

has long since gone to his rest justly honoured by

knew

him, and

authoress

— who

whom

all

who

impossible to believe that the

it is

had herself known him well

— can

and sanctimonious

really identified with the coarse

have villain

However, the book was

depicted as the hero of her story.

intended, and accepted at the time, as at worst a perfectly legitimate

caricature, t)y

Evangelicals designate

observe

how

strikingly

"

that

section

its

tone

is

of society which

And

the world."

it

spite of the utter unlikeness of all the details,

and olTensive entitled

anti-Ritualist novel published

Under

ivJdch

Lord

?

The

curious to

is

recalled to

memory,

some years

Ritualistic vicar

like his predecessor of Wrexhill, represented as a

swindler and

profligate

silly

is

ago, not,

downright

— that the present day would — but each alike a monster of in

hardly have been tolerated spiritual

in

by a stupid

is

pride and oleaginous hypocrisy, leading captive

women, whom

into his net

;

for his

and each

own

selfish

alike too

purposes he entices

reproached, though of

is

course for very opposite reasons, with unfaithfulness to his

own Church.

The

Evangelicals were not really to blame

for raising a higher standard

of devotion in a singularly

worldly and apathetic age, nor even exactly putable " simplicity" or " scantiness as

"

for the indis-

of the message which,

Mr. Mozley justly complains, comprised their very

defective

and arbitrary summary of Scripture teaching, but

because,

when

its

meagreness and inadequacy had been


DEAN CLOSE AND THE EVANGELICALS. demonstrated, they persistently refused correct their inumpsimiis.

abandon

to

by

faith

might or might not be

personal assurance truths

Justification

—we are not concerned

399

or

only and

theological

with that question here

—but

a doctrine which came to be virtually embodied in the "

popular doggerel,

was

death," '^

As

Doing, deadly doing, doing ends

clearly

shown

to

in

be a practical falsehood.

to the effect of this preaching repeated

Sunday

after

Sunday," says Mr. Mozley, speaking from his own experience, "

was

it

was simply none.

.

.

.

As

often as not everybody

asleep, except a few too stupid to

or quite asleep.

be ever quite awake

The sermon was bnitum fuhneiiy

And

hence the sceptre gradually passed from the grasp of the

who had

Evangelical school to those only, but

studied not Scripture

Church history and human nature, more deeply

than their teachers. to say that a

Or

it

would perhaps be more correct

change passed over the

spirit

of the party,

viewed not as a religious system but as a body of living men,

— Mr.

for with

only two exceptions

Williams

— every one of the Tractarian leaders, and without

Keble and Mr. Isaac

an exception every single leading convert, had been brought

up an Evangelical

;

and the same might be said of many

who are prominent among the Ritualists of our own From the standpoint of their rivals, the collapse Evangelical Christianity

movement was is

summed up

day. of the

explicable enough, for whereas

in Scripture

under the attributes

of grace and truth, Evangelicalism ignored or rejected the ecclesiastical authority of faith

of grace, and therefore

it

and the sacramental channels

only needed the lapse of time to

exhibit the radical defects of the system.

divergence of those

e.g.

The

startling

between the career of Mr. Wilberforce and

who were

trained under his roof, but were after-


400

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY "

wards

and wide," might be considered

scattered far

once the reality of his

illustrate at

Be

of his creed. refuse his

that as

cold indifferentism of the

"

and the

religious

to

deficiencies

man can

rise in a reaction

well

from the

sceaihan rationalisticiim'' which

had Cornwallis and Hoadley is

faith

may, no

it

sympathy to what took

Something

AND BIOGRAPHY.

for its representative prelates.

due to the piety which roused

such a

itself at

period of spiritual stagnation to form the Church Mission-

arySociety and abolish the Slave Trade, and whose

earliest

was not directed against any form of Catholic

protest

principle, but against a negation of all Christian principle,

whether of

faith or

Wesleyanism had been cast out

life.

much

the Establishment, not so it

was legitimately chargeable

intolerable to " a

for the errors

as for the moral earnestness

Church dying of dignity/'

as

most zealous champions afterwards confessed gelicalism succeeded in

Where

pale.

it

failed

making good

was

of

with which

its

;

some of

its

but Evan-

footing within the

at a subsequent stage,

negative and antagonistic elements became, in

determining characteristics of the school.

when the fact,

the

The diminutive

washing-stand, which served as a font, wheeled into the darkest corner of the church, or the tiny slop-basin, placed

on "the communion-table," when required old font

was perhaps relegated

garden

the table

;

and concealed descended less,"

itself,

behind

for use, while the

to uses vile in the vicarage

covered with a worm-eaten cloth,

hideous three-decker which

the

in stories, " small

by degrees and

beautifully

from preacher to parson, and from parson to

and sometimes used as a receptacle tiguous sitters

— kneeling

phenomena outraged of religious reverence.

was out of fashion then

alike

all

And

clerk,

for the hats of con;

— such

sense of aesthetic fitness and

the teaching

became gradually


DEAN CLOSE AND THE EVANGELICALS. as

meagre and negative

as the ritual.

Much

401

of the earher

movement had been drained off into Tractarian and much of its intelligence was merged in the

zeal of the

channels,

Broad Church theology which consistent

"

Recordites," like

The residuum

the late Dr. Close, abhorred.

presented the

ungracious appearance of a party clinging to the letter but

unmindful of the

maintain

of

spirit

invective, but feeble in

popularity, not so

its

to the standard of the world its

;

;

loud in

desperately striving to

much by

raising the world

by accommodating the Gospel

to the level of the Gospel as

fervour of

traditionary past

its

argument

;

which had

lost

the original

preaching, without reforming the coldness of

its

worship, and would fain compensate for the poverty of

its

theology by the narrow exclusiveness of

creed.

its

This

was the spectacle presented as time went on to external observers by the party, which had thriven under neglect

and persecution, but proved unequal

to the subtler trial of

prosperity and the fatal temptation to persecute in It

its

turn.

triumphed, when struggling to vindicate the powers of a

paralysed Christianity arrest

it

;

failed in the suicidal effort to

a larger movement, springing from

vindication of the

Church.

It

is

rights

midst, in

its

and functions of the Christian

a far cry from William Wilberforce and

"

Fletcher of Madeley

"

the three aggrieved

"

" in

to the

Church Association, and

buckram.

to reopen the discussion raised

There

is

no need now

by Dean Close himself

in

the Times a year or two before his death, whether the It is quite

Evangelical party as such has ceased to exist. certain that

has ceased to dominate, and that

abundant

plied

and

it

"

it

has sup-

" recruits to the rival forces of " Ritualism

Rationalism

",

against which

he made

it

his

life's


ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

403

business to contend.

If

it

be true that

"

he was the Pope

of Cheltenham, with pontifical prerogatives from which the

temporal had not been severed," there can be no sort of

doubt that

in the

absolutism of that Protestant pontificate,

neither at -Cheltenham nor elsewhere, has he any success-

He was

ors.

he was the

not exactly " the last of the Mohicans," but

last surviving representative of

Broad Church

as yet

was

own on equal terms

Few men resistance

not,

and when

against

to

High Church

their

in their early career

it

;

Tractarianism than the great prelate

must have been a

reflection to

rivals.

took a more active part

preceded Dr. Close by a fortnight grave

an age when

his party held their

him

in his last

in his

in

who

passage to the

painful, if not instructive,

hours on earth, that Archbishop

Tait had laboured almost with his dying breath to reconcile

the feuds he had once

deemed

There could hardly have been a more

to be irreconcilable. significant

ment, not perhaps that the Evangelical party

announceis

extinct,

but that the cause, which Dean Close had learnt virtually to identify with the Gospel, has past.

needed

Evangelicalism did ;

the grand

its

become a thing of the

work when that work was

mistake of

its

inability to understand that others

labours and their task was done.

THE END.

professors

had entered

was

their

into their


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" It is profusely illustrated, not merely with representations of the actual remains preserved in the British Museum, the Louvre, and elsewhere, but also with ingenious conjectural representations of the principal buildings from which those remains have been taken. To Englishmen familiar with the magnificent collection of Assyrian antiquities preserved in the British Museum the volume should be especially welcome. may further mention that an English translation by I\Ir. Walter Armstrong, with the numerous illustrations of the original, has just been published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall." Times.

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Jlnckut Sgg^jtian

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Translated

2

" The study of Egyptology is one which grows from day to day, and which has now reached such proportions as to demand arrangement and selection almost more than increased collecThe well-known volumes of MM. Perrot and Chipiez supply this requiretion of material. ment to an e.xtent which had never hitherto been attempted, and which, before the latest researches of Mariette and Maspero, would have been impossible. Without waiting for the illustrious authors to complete their great undertaking, INIr. W. Armstrong has very properly seized their first instalment, and has presented to the English public all that has yet appeared of a most useful and fascinating work. To translate such a book, however, is a task that needs the revision of aspecialist, and this Mr. Arrnstrong has felt, for he has not sent out his version to the world without the sanction of Dr. Birch and Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole. The Mr. Armstrong adds, in an appendix, a result is in every way satisfactory to his readers. description of that startling discovery which occurred just after the French original of these volumes left the press namely, the finding of 38 royal mummies, with their sepulchral furniture, It forms a brilliant ending to a work of great value in a subterranean chamber at Thebes. and beauty." Pall Mall Gazette. The Saturday Revleiv,_ speaking of the French edition, says : " To say that this magnificent work is the best history of Egyptian art that we possess, is to state one of the least of its titles to the admiration of all lovers of antiquity, Egyptian or other. No previous Not only are the best work can be compared with it for method or completeness engravings from the older authorities utilised, but numerous unpublished designs have been M. Chipiez has added greatly to the value of a work, in which the trained eye of inserted. the architect is everywhere visible, by his restorations of various buildings and modes of conand the engravings in colours of the wall paintings are a noticeable feature in a struction work which is in every way remarkable. This history of Egyptian art is an invaluable treasure-house for the student and, we may add, there are few more delightful volumes for the cultivated idle who live at ease to turn over— every page is full of artistic interest."

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