Mores catholici, or, Ages of faith

Chapter I

Effects of the thirst after justice— Devotion included imitation as well 09 prayer — The view token by modern historians — General character of the middle ages in relation to justice — Their peculiar merit — The satirists und censors — Tendency of the ancient works of fiction — The number of the just not revealed by history . . . . . . . p. 5

CHAPTER IL

Historic difficulties opposed to its discovery — What kind of evidence may be had — Incidental testimonies— Tone of literature — Tendency of the confraternities, and of chivalrous orders — Legislation and government of the ancient Catholic state — Direct testimonies— Justice of men in different ranks ; general views taken by ancient writers . . . . . . p. 21

Chapter III

Domestic manners— Filial and parental duties — Fidelity of dependents — Sanctity of marriage— Justice in relation to property — Hospitality — Domestics — Feudal life and its rural exercises— Whole families composed of saints — The women of the ages of faith — Character of female piety in Catholic countries— The conventual life of ntms, and its influence on domestic manners — The recluses — Origin of the cloistral life of women — The convent of the middle ages — Learning of the nuns — Moral and social condition of women in ages of faith contrasted with pagan times — Women of the Catholic type a new creation — Judgment of the holy fathers — Influence of women in respect to justice — The Catholic lady, her justice and charity — The erudition and political importance of some in the middle ages — Their heroic virtue — The maternal character — Modesty and grace of daughters ; their employments and recreations — The spirit which presided over marriage — The marital love of the middle ages— Heroic examples — The regard and respect evinced for women . . . . « p. 30

Chapter IV

The loves of the middle age9 sanctified and rendered a source of moral improvement : associated with the life of faith and the hopes of heaven — Examples of devotion in love — The danger and evil incident to it — How atoned for . . . . . p. 87

SUMMARY.

ii

Chapter V

Institution and action of the clergy in relation to justice — Discipline— Celibacy— The hierarchy — Supremacy of the Roman See — Origin of its temporal power — The council of cardinals — Legates — The episcopal state in general — The parish priests— Life in community — 8ynods — Appeals to Rome — Support of the clergy in relation to justice — Tithes— Annate, exemptions — Reverence shown to the sacerdotal office — General causes of promotion — No national and local prejudices — Intellectual greatness of the episcopacy in the middle ages — Provisions against simony — Justice of the men in ecclesiastical order — The popes — The sacred college — The bishops — The parish priests — Distribution of the church revenues in relation to justice— Charity and poverty of the clergy personally — Manual labour practised by them : keep aloof from temporal affairs — Origin of their employment in the civil government — Their iuttgrity in regard to it — The beneficial result to society — Their frugality and moderation — They keep aloof from profane amusements — Their hospitality — Their direct influence in regard to justice — Their particular and incidental action — Their ordinary and universal action — The missionaries of the middle ages — The preachers of the middle ages— Ideas of the modems respecting them — The sermons of the

middle age in relation to justice In relation to eloquence and taste, and effect— Incidental evidence

furniahod by them to the spirit of those times . . . . . p. 93

‘ CHAPTER VI.

The justice of the ages of faith, heroic— Consequent interest inspired by Catholic histories — Grandeur and virtue of the middle ages — The local histories — The heroic justice of canonised saints — The high standard proposed to all men — The mercantile character — The knightly character — The moral philosophy of the middle ages opposed to the utilitarian — The Catholic doctrine respecting motives p. 173

The justice of the ages of faith, supernatural; yet in harmony with nature — Testimony of the Gentiles —Insufficiency of nature — The morality of faith higher, and in some points different — A supernatural standard proposed to all men — Opposition to the sensual ideal— Thoughts of the ancients respecting

CHAPTER VIII.

The justice consequent on confession and penance — Origin and history of the institution — Thoughts of the middle ages respecting it — Zeal for effecting conversions to justice — The confessional in relation to the feelings of men — Its influence and effects— Objections of the moderns respecting examination of conscience, penance, and absolution — Indulgences— Their origin — Doctrine of the church — The practical effects . . . . . . . . p. IAS

CHAPTER IX,

Contrast between the Catholic morality and that of the ancient and modern world — A glance at the justice of the Gentiles, and at that of the modems— Change of manners consequent on the change of faith — The proposition that morality is now better understood, considered — Essential character of the modem systems— Testimony of their supporters — Contrast of modern to Catholic manners in relation to the love of truth, to the delicate sense of justice, to integrity in public life, to the absence of ambition, to national justice, to wisdom of government, to the obedience of subjects, to parity of morals in the people, to the sense of a spiritual combat, to the ideal and realisation of a just man, to practical consistency with the Christian doctrine, and to heroism in justice . . . . p- 223

SUMMARY. iii

I

CHAPTER X.

OlheT features of the Catholic morality — Its precise and certain law — Its practical and poetic character —Its provisions against all extravagance — Its strictness respecting common dnties — Payment of creditors — Justice of municipal laws — Provisions against usury — It included all virtues in one — Its influence even upon art — Effects seen in the ediHces of the middle age— General ideas of justice derived from the example of Christ — From the models which he proposed, and from the observation of the visible

CHAPTER XI.

The subject resumed — Doctrines were the foundation of duties, and the divine authority their principle of force and efficacy — Motives furnished by the knowledge of a future judgment — The Catholic morality was spiritual and living — The charge against it of superstition refuted — Its efficacy in the determination i of the will — Free agency of man and power of the will, maintained, and the practical consequences in 1 the middle ages— The fatalism of the modems, and the custom of life resulting from it — Genuine and exalted merit of the Catholic morality acknowledged by a late philosopher . . p. 257

CHAPTER XII.

Objection to the Catholic morality on the supposed ground of its incompatibility with the Christian doctrine of justification, refuted by tlte testimony of the holy fathers— Of the scholastic and mystic authors — Of the church herself in her liturgy — Of the laity, philosophers, and poets, and of the tombs and other material monuments of the middle ages — Conclusion . . . p. 206

*,iv

T

MORES CATIIOLICI;

on.

AGES OF FAITH.

THE SIXTH BOOK.

Chapter I

OW let us to the blind, xfernnl world descend, for some will say that we ' have hitherto seen only shadows of justice onideal ground ; yet, reader, after we shall have left the region of desires, and advanced some space along the path on which we are now entering. which seems with mors realities beset, you will perhaps, at times, be well content to have incurred that charge. There may be moments in which you will feel like the pensive traveller at twilight hour, who journeys on through an obscure, cold forest, when he looks back with regret to the pdeaaant cloister's pale which had received him for a short space at noon ; brings before his mind's eye the rich garniture of its sanctuary, and imagines that he still gazes upon each peaceful nook, which he had noted with such interest, remarking how sweetly it was for prayer and meditation meet ; thinks too that he sees the solemn, hooded men, and their youthful disciples, assembled in angelic choir, leaving no place vacant, while rings aloud that quick melody,

"Te local ante ten»mtun."

Your feelings perchance will resemble bis, when be contrasts this scene of peace and order which he has left, with die desert around him, dusk with horrid shades, and with his own wild state, solitary, wending he knows not whither — when o’er the broken passes, now each moment darker, there comes a gloomy sound, and a wind impetuous, sprung from conflicting vapours, drives all its might against the forest, plucks off the branches, burling them afar, while beasts and shepherds fly.

“Beati qui esurient et sitiunt justitiam: quoniam ipsi saturabuntur truly mystic words of the Divine Ruler, which seem at first to promise no spoedy consolation ; for how can the natural thirst, ne’er quenched but from the well whereof the woman of Samaria craved, be ever satiated on that earth which is not his kingdom? It is true, a confidence in the ultimate triumph of justice characterized in a very remarkable manner the men of the middle ages. 41 One finds.” says William of Jumidge, “ in almost every page of Scripture that the son's house is overthrown by the iniquities of a wicked father, and also conversely, that it is rendered firmer by the merits of a good father.”* Sjieaking again of the conquest of England by William, the same historian beholds only fresh proof of the justice of God. “ The English.” he says, “ were punished for tire murder of the innocent Alfred, and for their remorseless massacre of Toustain;

• Hist. Norman. I.ib. VII. c. 1.

Digitized by C and on the following night God avenged them in causing a great slaughter of the Normands, because they had sought plunder, and ‘ their feet had been swift to shed blood.’ "* Such observations are common in all writers at that time. Nevertheless, profoundly was it felt in the hearts of those thoughtful men that the beatitude arising from the spectacle of justice was not reserved for them here. Follow St. Honaventura in his meditations on the Baptist’s death : “ 0 God, how didst thou permit this?” exclaims the seraphic doctor, “ What is to be thought of this, that John should thus die, who was of such perfection and sanctity that he was thought to be Christ? Consider the greatness and excellence of John. Peter is crucified, and Paul is put to death with the sword, but yet the dignity remains to the precursor. Rome is purpled with the blood of Martyrs, but John is admirable above them all. Who so gloriously announced ? Who thus filled with the Holy Ghost even in his mother’s womb ? Of what other man does the Church celebrate the nativity ? It was he who first preached penance ; it was he who baptized the King of Glory. John was a patriarch, but the chief and end of patriarchs. John was a prophet, but more than a prophet. John was an angel, but chosen among angels. John was an evangelist, but he first announced the Gospel. John was a martyr, but between the nativity and the death of Christ. He was the voice ‘ crying in the wilderness,’ the precursor of the Judge, the herald of the Word. If now you contrast the excellence and dignity of John with the profound wickedness of those who slew him, you will have a just subject for astonishment ; and, if it be allowable to say so, even of murmuring against God. For an executioner is sent to cut off his head, as if he were the vilest murderer. Behold him, then, reverently and with grief : see how he offers his neck to the executioner, and bends his knees, and, giving thanks, to God, lays down his sacred head upon some block or stone, and patiently endures the stroke. Behold in what manner John departs— the intimate friend and relation of our Lord Jesus.’’f

You perceive, reader, what strong language was permitted in the middle ages, in reference to the delay of justice, and you may conclude that it certainly was not

• Hist. Norman. Lib. VII. 36. t Median. Vine Christi, cap. 30.

by the beatitnde of vision that just men expected to be satiated on earth. How, then, you will ask, did they interpret this divine promise?

It belongs not to an historian’s part, to speak of its present and literal accomplishment in the heart’s of men, by the operation of these ineffable mysteries of the Passion, designed by the Eternal Wisdom to fill with divine justice the weak and fragile vessels of the human nature.* Only on what is visible to mortal eyes and productive of fruit on earth can he be required to speak ; yet not less important is his evidence within just limits, to show how the sacred thirst of sweet desire might be at once partially allayed. Let us hear the gracious words again :

'• Beati qui esuriunt etsitiunt justitiam.” “ Not the satiated, therefore,” concludes Hugo de St. V'ictor, “ but the thirsty are blessed ; for,” continues he, “ all the good that mortal life can attain to, is to wish for good, since to possess it is reserved for the future life. If it had been ‘blessed are the just,' who could have applied this to himself? But having regard to our imperfections, and compassionating our infirmity, the Divine Master pronounced those to be blessed who desired justice.”-) Here a clue is given to relieve us from our embarrassment, and to encourage us to proceed in the present history ; for, having pointed out the thirst or the desire intellectual, which animated men in the middle ages, and being about to speak of the effects discernible, we infer from it that there is no necessity for our undertaking the task which the objectors would lay upon us, desiring us to exhibit that fulfilment which is only to take place when the Divine glory shall be revealed to human eyes, where souls shall never more hunger or thirst, but enjoy that fulness of pure and everlasting joy which the prophet tells of, when he says, “ Satiabor cum apparuerit gloria tua." J No, excepting by the ardour of desire and the light of faith, that glory had not appeared during the times of which we trace the history, any more than to these latter ages, or than it will appear to those which will succeed while the present state of things endures ; for whatever some vain speculators may suggest, from time to time, to entice and deceive unstable minds, the infallible page

• Ludovic. Bios. Scriniolum. Spiritual.1.

+ Hugo de St. Victor, Eniditioaes Theologicw, Lib. I. tit. 133. { Fa. 16.

AGES OF FAITH.

I

forbids us to expect on earth the unresisted reign of justice — “ Donee finiatur saeculum, sursum est Dominus."* It was in fact enough therefore, for our purpose, to have proved that the men of the middle ages felt sorrow at the spectacle of injustice, and bore that mystic and expressive sign which in old prophetic days was shown to the man of God.

No one, however, required to be told that the Church, by such indications of a spiritual thirst, understood something more than barren sighs or empty symbols. “Constitutum est,” says an ancient author, “ veram devotionem non tam in precationibus quasi imitatione consistere."f She knew of no justice towards God, which did not include analogous duties towards man ; of no beatitude for those who were unwilling to combat, and who did not exert all their efforts to win by perseverance the celestial crown.

“ Non enim dormientibus divina beneficia," says St. Ambrose, “sed observantibus deferantnr.”! The language which she addressed every evening to her combatants, resembled that of a general to his troops when in an enemy's country, and might have been taken for a passage out of Thucydides, as that which gives the words of Nicias to his soldiers on the retreat from Syracuse. “ Be courageous, for there is no place near where you can with indolence and effeminacy be saved,” ir fiq ovrot xatpiov tyyvf on oi &v paXaxur&Vre?

In the middle ages, this necessity was forcibly and briefly expressed by the letter of the mystic branch first used with such signification of Pythagoras, and, in Christian times, adopted by St. Isidore in his Etymologies to represent human life ; the stem signifying youth, uncertain as to its way, and the right arm most arduous to denote the laborious path of justice. || Those will, indeed, hare read the last book to little purpose, who will need much assurance here ; for to love and worship the divinity, was, as the Church declared, to be just. She prayed to Him who sheweth the light of his truth to those who err, that they may return into the way of justice ; that all who made profession of Christianity might avoid the things which were hostile to that name, and follow those

• St. August, do Cons ec. dist. 2.

f Instruct, novit, III. c. 4.

J Horn. Lib. IV. in cap. 4 Luca.

I Lib. VII. 77.

Isidori Etymolog. 1. 3.

which were suitable to it.* It was, in short, an universal conviction during the middle ages, that neither desire nor sorrow, nor prayers, nor hymns, nor festivals, nor any exercise of religion, could be more than vain, unless accompanied with works of justice, in obedience to the divine laws. Every one knew that there were two ways, as John, the monk of Cluni, observes in writing the life of St. Odo, in which men could become apostates from God ; “ that each man might depart from his Creator either in faith or in works ; and that, as he who departed in faith was an apostate, so he who returned to the works of sin without doubt was to be considered an apostate, although he might seem to bold faith. "f

“Every Catholic," says Kaban .Maur, “ought to cultivate all virtues equally, that being nobly adorned within and without, he may be a worthy guest of the Eternal King, and being mounted in the spiritual chariot, may pass on to the everlasting country. He ought to study prudence, he ought to be filled with understanding and justice, to be religious and humble, with fortitude to possess magnanimity, confidence, patience, perseverance, and with temperance, to be clement and moderate ; and above all these, he should have peace and charity, which is the bond of perfection ”! We have not, therefore, in the preceding book been conversing with airy visions, and unsubstantial reveries, for by the triple hunger and thirst which Bernardine of Sienna distinguishes as that of justice, of grace, and of glory, man gave three things to God, honour to his Creator, love to his Redeemer, and fear to his J ndge ; three things to himself, purity, watchfulness, and discipline; and three to bis brethren, obedience, concord, and beneficence, according to the social relation in which he was placed towards them.§ It belonged to the wonderful character of Catholicism, in consequence of the eucharistic faith, to unite the interests of the interior, for which the mysteries of the Church provided ; and those of the social life, while each of these, perhaps, naturally tended to a separation, and to be satisfied at the expense of the other. This faith, as a modern philosopher remarks, united them indissolubly; for if this mystery,

• Third Sund. after Easter.

f Bibliothera Cluniacensis, 49.

I Rabani Mauri de Inslitutioue Clericorum, Lib. III. c. 27.

S S. Bem&rdini Senensis, Lit. III. do Boat. Serin.

which was itself only an initiation into the mysteries of the future existence, carried the soul beyond the present order, on the other hand, the disposition which was strictly necessary to every one who approached it, was the accomplishment of all the obligations of common life, and particularly of those which one was most disposed to disdain. Extending its vivifying influence to the two extremities of the moral world, it reached at once the most bumble duties and ecstacy ; and the same actions which made the soul enter into the angelic society, drew it back by the line of justice into the society of men.

In retracing the manners of the Christian Society of past ages, far be it from any disciple of the humble school, to imitate the style of those modern writers, who seem to consider their own personal judgment as au infallible tribunal, by which they may judge as with the balance of Omniscience, the thoughts and deeds of mortals, declaring where fell the just, and when was their fall irreparable.

There is nothing in common, between the Christian philosophy and this pretension to behold human affairs with the same eyes as those of Providence, and to judge them with the calm security of eternal justice,— this high historical optimism, which shows truth and error as merely relative and never absolute, — these sonorous apologies of the victory according to which the present is always in the right, in short, this dramatic development of humanity, of which each act is to be represented in succession.”*

Ah ! who are we, to sit in judgment thus to determine what men were guilty, and what innocent, in these ancient times ? " Nullo modo eorum innocentia coronamur, nullo modo eorum iniquitate damnamur,” as St. Augustin said respecting the Donatists.f

What is to us the number of the just, or of the unjust, in past ages? It will be sufficient if we can say of all men with truth, in the words of the ancient poet ; “ neque qu® recte f admit culpo, neque qua? delinquunt amo." And yet with what caution and timidity should even this be uttered ! For who is to judge them ? The historians of the middle age never presume to explain the troubled course of the world, by tracing the secret sources of disorder, which they knew were often hidden from

* De la Philosophic au commencement du XIX sidcle. f Me Unico bapt. cap. 16.

the eyes even of contemporaries. Pascasius Uadbert, in his life of Wala, speaking of the events which attended the dethronement of the emperor Louis, says, “ there is no one who can believe, no one who can conceive, the things that were done, in what way they were done, or how many were done. There is no one who can understand why or how they happened ; who were the authors of the evil, or who of the good.”*

Men must wait for that burning day when the Supreme and Omniscient Judge will make inquiry, and will choose them as a man chooses his son who hath served him ; and then O man, as a voice from heaven declareth, “ videbitb quid sit inter justum et iniquum, et inter servientem Deo et eum qui non servit ei.”

Modern historians have never any doubts respecting the secret motives and causes of actions and events. All is unveiled to their eyes. Nothing is left obscure, and as there is more ingenuity required to discover a bad than a virtuous motive, it would be always easy to foresee, before consulting them, what view they would take of actions. Du Fresnoy says, that this alone should lead us to suspect Davilla and Varillas, and esteem their histories but slightly.

Even without weighing the historic difficulty, it is clearly absurd for any men to write as if they were themselves removed to an infinite distance above the wisest and greatest souls that were given to the times which they pass in review. Acute little men, but certainly neither humble nor wise, pass thus like beings of a different order from mortals, through the walks of history, os through those of real life, rashly judging rather from their own preconceived fantasies, than from any calm and cautious scrutiny of things, and then pronounce their sentence with a cool, incomparable assurance, that but ill conceals the fierce and turbulent passions which are often raging beneath the surface. St. Augustin well describes such men, styling them, “ curiosum genus ad cognoscendum vitam alienam, desidiosum ad corrigendam suam.”f

In proceeding to speak of the admirable fruits of justice which characterized the men of Catholic ages, 1 am prepared to witness the incredulity of many ; for as Nicias said of the Athenians, respecting what had passed in Sicily, 1 know that

* Lib. II. t Confess. Lib. X. cap. 3.

the moderns in general will not judge of these things as they really are, and as those know who beheld them, dAX' Sv ns n Aryur tiuzjiaMoi. It is from whatever may be advanced by any who can speak well, by any vain flashy man declaiming, that they will be convinced.*

One must be prepared also to witness more than incredulity. Many historical writers resemble those democratic leaders who used to denounce as enen'ies of the people all who questioned the justice of their particular views. Like Anathagorns ; the Syracusan, who on the approach of the Athenians being as Thucydides says, the man most credited by the multitude, cried out, “ Whoever is of a different 1 opinion, is either not a liberal man, or not a friend to the constitution of the state."f “ This is an age,” says Sylvio Pellico, “ in which to lie and to mistrust to excess, are things so common, that they are hardly regarded as vices. J Speak with twenty men in private, nineteen will only express their horror against such and such persons. All seem inflamed with indignation against iniquity, as if each alone of all the world were just. To calumniate all the individuals of whom society is composed, with ! the exception of a few friends, appears to he the universal wish.” It is the same with writers of history.

I If these insatiable but fickle wanderers were asked, as was the original tempter sod calumniator of mankind, whence came they? their reply might be in his words ; “drcuivi terram, et perambulavi earn.” Like the troop described by /F.achylus,

•iMXarM

T€ fivrjfiovfs atfim't,

they show themselves at every turn ingenious, not forgetful of evils, and so pass on through regions which their breath has withered, to exercise their inglorious dis- , honoured office, insensible to mortal interests, and alienated from heaven.} The old Roman historian expresses always a reluctance to credit a narrative of turpitude, saying, “ non libct crederi.”|| But nothing seems to give such pleasure to our historians, who pretend to represent the middle age, as the discovery of some deed ' of atrocity, in an ancient chronicle, though

• Thueyd. Lib. VII. c. 48.

! t Id- Lib. VI. 96.

1 Kumenid. 381. |j Livy IV. 29.

indeed they need it not ;'for with them no might, nor greatness in mortality can censure 'scape : “ back-wounding calumny, the whitest virtue strikes." Their charges are general, and for that reason alone, their testimony would have been rejected by Socrates, who used always to say, ov fqrru iravapapov HvGptarrov.* In fact, they have praise for no one. “ He rides tolerably well, but what is it to a Hippocentanr ? " Thus they introduce into history, what Pasquier styles the Spavoir courtisan, far more dangerous than the peduntic knowledge, for this consists in seeking the reputation of ability, by never giving praise to any object, however excellent, by refusing admiration ; always having some defect to condemn, either in the style, or conduct, or choice, or motive, of the actions ; or if it be impossible to do so by significant gestures, that others may believe there is still something wrong, f

Novalis judges better of the office of an historian, saying, “ When I think upon the general right, it appears to me, that an historian ought necessarily to be a poet ; for it is a poet alone wbo can understand how to connect events together properly.

In their narratives, 1 have remarked with calm delight, the tender feeling which is evinced for the mysterious spirit of life. There is more truth in their relations than in learned histories. Although their personages and events are invented, yet the sense in which they are conceived is true to nature."

Whoever approaches modern history, with a sincere wish to avoid error, must 1 bear in mind that it is a domain which ; hath been for three hundred years constantly infested with false guides, who, from different motives, were all equally disposed to lead men astray, by calumniating the manners of the ancient Catholic civilization. In the first rank came the rash judging proselytes of the new religions, who sought to justify their separation, by denouncing the number of the reprobate, as if their reform was to extend even to what had been determined by heaven. “ They behold," says Louis of Blois, “a great heap of straw in the lord’s granary, from which they judge that there is no grain amidst it.” Paleas vident, grana non vident, vel videre nolunt.J After these came the Rationalists ; and it

• Plato Protagoras.

+ Leltres de Pasquier, Liv. X. 7.

♦ Ludovie. Bios. Kpist- ad Flurentium.

P4 is a curious and just remark of Donald, that the same doctrines which deny the original corruption of man, always exaggerate his social corruption. * In fine, the atheists and hypocrites laid the most dangerous snares of all, for being animated with an immortal hatred against Catholicism, they formed a diabolic school, which had its secret traditions, by means of which they were most skilled in all the cunning wiles of deception. These were the men who interrogated history with so much the greater severity, as their deductions and admonitions proceeded from a source different from charity. What is this cry from the broad way trodden by them who are not true to God or to themselves, which yet sounds like the voice that in the days of Damian, came from the desert 1 In the ages of faith, it would have deceived no one. Ives de Chartres was told by some calumnious persons, that the manners of the monks in his diocese were corrupt ; but that holy and acute bishop, after hearing their testimony, came to the conclusion, that they were not to be believed ; “ quibus non est credendum de aliena injustitia, quamdiu non discesserint a sua."f