Chapter IV: The Counter-Reformation (11)

§ 113.3. =Nominalists and Realists.=--After nominalism
(§ 99, 2) in the person of Roscelin had been condemned by the
Church (§ 101, 3) realism held sway for more than two centuries.
Both Thomas and Duns supported it. By sundering philosophy
and theology Duns opened the way to freer discussion, so that
by-and-by nominalism won the ascendency, and at last scarcely
any but the precursors of the Reformation (§ 119) were to be
found in the ranks of the realists. The pioneer of the movement
was the Englishman =William Occam=, a Franciscan and pupil of
Duns, who as teacher of philosophy in Paris obtained the title
_doctor singularis et invincibilis_, and was called by later
nominalists _venerabilis inceptor_. He supported the _Spirituals_
(§ 112, 2) in the controversies within his order. He accompanied
his general, Michael of Cesena, to Avignon, and escaping with
him in A.D. 1328 from threatened imprisonment, lived at Munich
till his death in A.D. 1349. There, protected by Louis the
Bavarian, he vindicated imperial rights against papal pretensions,
and charged various heresies against the pope (§ 118, 2). In
philosophy and theology he was mainly influenced by Scotus.
In accordance with his nominalistic principles he assumed the
position in theology that our ideas derived from experience
cannot reach to a knowledge of the supernatural; and thus he
may be called a precursor of Kant (§ 171, 10). The _universalia_
are mere _fictiones_ (§ 99, 2), things that do not correspond to
our notions; the world of ideas agrees not with that of phenomena,
and so the unity of faith and knowledge, of theological and
philosophical truth, asserted by realists, cannot be maintained
(§ 103, 2). Faith rests on the authority of Scripture and the
decisions of the Church; criticism applied to the doctrines of
the Church reduces them to a series of antinomies.--In A.D. 1339
the University of Paris forbade the reading of Occam’s works, and
soon after formally condemned nominalism. Thomists and Scotists
forgot their own differences to combine against Occam; but all
in vain, for the Occamists were recruited from all the orders.
The Constance reform party too supported him (§ 118, 4).[333]
Of the Thomists who succeeded to Occam the most distinguished
was =William Durand= of St. Pourçain, _doct. resolutissimus_,
who died in A.D. 1322 as Bishop of Meaux. =Muertius of Inghen,=
one of the founders of the University of Heidelberg in A.D. 1386
and its first rector, was also a zealous nominalist. The last
notable schoolman of the period was =Gabriel Biel= of Spires,
teacher of theology at Tübingen, who died A.D. 1495, a nominalist
and an admirer of Occam. He was a vigorous supporter of the
doctrine of the immaculate conception, and delivered public
discourses on the “Ethics” of Aristotle.

§ 113.4. =Casuistry=, or that part of moral theology which
seeks to provide a complete guide to the solution of difficult
cases of conscience, especially where there is collision of
duties, moral or ecclesiastical, makes its first appearance in
the penitentials (§ 89, 6), and had a great impetus given it in
the compulsory injunction of auricular confession (§ 104, 4). It
was also favoured by the hair-splitting character of scholastic
dialectics. The first who elaborated it as a distinct science
was Raimundus [Raimund] de Pennaforte, who besides his works on
canon law (§ 99, 5), wrote about A.D. 1238 a _summa de casibus
pœnitentialibus_. This was followed by the Franciscan _Antesana_,
the Dominican _Pisana_, and the Angelica of the Genoese Angelus
of A.D. 1482, which Luther in A.D. 1520 burned along with the
papal bull and decretals. The views of the different casuists
greatly vary, and confuse rather than assist the conscience.
Out of them grew the doctrine of probabilism (§ 149, 10).

§ 113.5. =The Founder of Natural Theology.=--The Spaniard
=Raimund of Sabunde= settled as a physician in Toulouse in
A.D. 1430, but afterwards turned his attention to theology.
Seeing the need of infusing new life into the corrupt
scholasticism, he sought to rescue it from utter formalism and
fruitless casuistry by a return to simple, clear, and rational
thinking. Anselm of Canterbury was his model of a clear and
profound thinker and believing theologian (§ 101, 1). He also
turned for stimulus and instruction to the book of nature.
The result of his studies is seen in his _Theologia naturalis
s. liber creaturarum_, published in A.D. 1436. God’s book
of nature, in which every creature is as it were a letter,
is the first and simplest source of knowledge accessible to
the unlearned layman, and the surest, because free from all
falsifications of heretics. But the fall and God’s plan of
salvation have made an addition to it necessary, and this we
have in the Scripture revelation. The two books coming from the
one author cannot be contradictory, but only extend, confirm,
and explain one another. The facts of revelation are the
necessary presupposition or consequences of the book of nature.
From the latter all religious knowledge is derivable by ascending
through the four degrees of creation, _esse_, _vivere_, _sentire_,
and _intelligere_, to the knowledge of man, and thence to the
knowledge of the Creator as the highest and absolute unity, and
by arguing that the acknowledgment of human sinfulness involved
an admission of the need of redemption, which the book of
revelation shows to be a fact. In carrying out this idea Raimund
attaches himself closely to Anselm in his scientific reconciling
of the natural and revealed idea of God and redemption. Although
he never expressly contradicted any of the Church doctrines, the
Council of Trent put the prologue of his book into the _Index
prohibitorum_.

§ 113.6. =Nicholas of Cusa= was born in A.D. 1401 at Cues,
near Treves, and was originally called Krebs. Trained first by
the Brothers at Deventer (§ 112, 9), he afterwards studied law
at Padua. The failure of his first case led him to begin the
study of theology. As archdeacon of Liège he attended the Basel
Council, and there by mouth and pen supported the view that the
council is superior to the pope, but in A.D. 1440 he passed over
to the papal party. On account of his learning, address, and
eloquence he was often employed by Eugenius IV. and Nicholas V.
in difficult negotiations. He was made cardinal in A.D. 1448,
an unheard of honour for a German prelate. In A.D. 1450 he was
made bishop of Brixen, but owing to a dispute with Sigismund,
Archduke of Austria, he suffered several years’ hard imprisonment.
He died in A.D. 1464 at Todi in Umbria. His principal work
is _De docta ignorantia_, which shows, in opposition to proud
scholasticism, that the absolute truth about God in the world
is not attainable by men. His theological speculation approaches
that of Eckhart, and like it is not free from pantheistic
elements. God is for him the absolute maximum, but is also the
absolute minimum, since He cannot be greater or less than He is.
He begets of Himself His likeness, _i.e._ the Son, and He again
turns back as Holy Spirit into unity. The world again is the
aggregated maximum. His _Dialogus de pace_, occasioned by the
fall of Constantinople in A.D. 1453, represents Christianity
as the most perfect of all religions, but recognises in all
others, even in Islam, essential elements of eternal truth.
Like Roger Bacon (§ 103, 8), he assigns a prominent place to
mathematics and astronomy, and in his _De separatione Calendarii_
of A.D. 1436 he recommended reforms in the calendar which were
only effected in A.D. 1582 by Gregory XIII. (§ 149, 3). He
detected the pseudo-Isidore (§ 87, 2) and the Donation of
Constantine (§ 87, 4) frauds.

§ 113.7. =Biblical and Practical Theologians.=

1. The Franciscan =Nicholas of Lyra=, _doctor planus et utilis_,
a Jewish convert from Normandy, and teacher of theology at
Paris, did good service as a grammatico-historical exegete
and an earnest expositor of Scripture. Luther gratefully
acknowledges the help he got in his Bible translation from
the postils of Lyra.[334] He died in A.D. 1340.

2. =Antonine of Florence= played a prominent part at the
Florentine Council of A.D. 1439, and was threatened
by Eugenius IV. with the loss of his archbishopric. He
discharged his duties with great zeal, especially during
a plague and famine in A.D. 1448, and during the earthquake
which destroyed half of the city in A.D. 1457. As an earnest
preacher, an unwearied pastor, and upright churchman he was
universally admired, and was canonized by Hadrian VI. in
A.D. 1523. He had a high reputation as a writer. His _Summa
historialis_ is a chronicle of universal history reaching
down to his own time; and his _Summa theologica_ is a
popular outline of the Thomist doctrine.

3. The learned and famous abbot =John Trithemius=, born
in A.D. 1462, after studying at Treves and Heidelberg,
entered in A.D. 1487 the Benedictine cloister of Sponheim,
became its abbot in the following year, resigned office
in A.D. 1505 owing to a rebellion among his monks, and
died in A.D. 1516 as abbot of the Scottish cloister of
St. James at Würzburg. Influenced by Wessel’s reforming
movement (§ 119, 10), he urged the duty of Scripture study
and prayer, but still practised and commended the most
extravagant adoration of Mary and Ann. Though he was keenly
alive to the absurdity of certain forms of superstition,
he was himself firmly bound within its coils. He lashed
unsparingly the vices of the monks, but regarded the
monastic life as the highest Christian ideal. He pictured
in dark colours the deep and widespread corruption of the
Church, and was yet the most abject slave of the hierarchy
which fostered that corruption.

§ 114. THE GERMAN MYSTICS.[335]

The schoolmen of the 13th century, with the exception of Bonaventura, had little sympathy with mysticism, and gave their whole attention to the development of doctrine (§ 99, 1). The 14th century was the Augustan age of mysticism. Germany, which had already in the previous period given Hugo of St. Victor and the two divines of Reichersberg (§ 102, 4, 6), was its proper home. Its most distinguished representatives belonged to the preaching orders, and its recognised grand-master was the Dominican Meister Eckhart. This specifically German mysticism cast away completely the scholastic modes of thought and expression, and sought to arrive at Christian truth by entirely new paths. It appealed, not to the understanding and cultured reason of the learned, but to the hearts and spirits of the people, in order to point them the surest way to union with God. The mystics therefore wrote neither commentaries on the Lombard nor gigantic _summæ_ of their own composition, but wrought by word and writing to meet immediate pressing needs. They preached lively sermons and wrote short treatises, not in Latin, but in the homely mother tongue. This popular form however did not prevent them from conveying to their readers and hearers profound thoughts, the result of keen speculation; but that in this they did not go over the heads of the people is shown by the crowds that flocked to their preaching. The “Friends of God” proved a spiritual power over many lands (§ 116, 4). From the practical prophetic mysticism of the 12th and 13th centuries (§§ 107; 108, 5) it was distinguished by avoiding the visionary apocalyptic and magnetic somnambulistic elements through a better appreciation of science; and from the scholastic mysticism of that earlier age (§§ 102, 3, 4, 6; 103, 4) by abandoning allegory and the scholastic framework for the elevation of the soul to God, as well as by indulgence in a somewhat pantheistic speculation on God and the world, man and the God-Man, on the incarnation and birth of God in us, on our redemption, sanctification, and final restoration. Its younger representatives however cut off all pantheistic excrescences, and thus became more practical and edifying, though indeed with the loss of speculative power. In this way they brought themselves more into sympathy with another mystic tendency which was spreading through the Netherlands under the influence of the Flemish canon, John of Ruysbroek. In France too mysticism again made its appearance during the 15th century in the persons of d’Ailly and Gerson (§ 118, 4), in a form similar to that which it had assumed during the 12th and 13th centuries in the Victorines and Bonaventura.

§ 114.1. =Meister Eckhart.=--One of the profoundest
thinkers of all the Christian centuries was the Dominican
Meister Eckhart, the true father of German speculative mysticism.
Born in Strassburg about A.D. 1260, he studied at Cologne under
Albert the Great, but took his master’s degree at Paris in
A.D. 1303. He had already been for some years prior at Erfurt
and provincial vicar of Thuringia. In A.D. 1304 he was made
provincial of Saxony, and in A.D. 1307 vicar-general of Bohemia.
In both positions he did much for the reform of the cloisters
of his order. In A.D. 1311 we find him teacher in Paris;
then for some years teaching and preaching in Strassburg;
afterwards officiating as prior at Frankfort; and finally as
private teacher at Cologne, where he died in A.D. 1327. While
at Frankfort in A.D. 1320 he was suspected of heresy because
of alleged intercourse with Beghards (§ 98, 12) and Brothers
of the Free Spirit (§ 116, 5). In A.D. 1325 the archbishop
of Cologne renewed these charges, but Eckhart succeeded in
vindicating himself. The archbishop now set up an inquisition
of his own, but from its sentence Eckhart appealed to the pope,
lodged a protest, and then of his own accord in the Dominican
church of Cologne, before the assembled congregation, solemnly
declared that the charge against him rested upon misrepresentation
and misunderstanding, but that he was then and always ready to
withdraw anything that might be erroneous. The papal judgment,
given two years after Eckhart’s death, pronounced twenty-eight
of his propositions to be pantheistic in their tendency,
seventeen being heretical and eleven dangerous. He was therefore
declared to be suspected of heresy. The bull, contrary to reason
and truth, went on to say that Eckhart at the end of his life
had retracted and submitted all his writings and doctrines
to the judgment of the Holy See. But Eckhart had indignantly
protested against the charge of pantheism, and certainly in his
doctrine of God and the creature, of the high nobility of the
human soul, of retirement and absorption into God, he has always
kept within the limits of Christian knowledge and life. Attaching
himself to the Platonic and Neoplatonic doctrines, which are met
with also in Albert and Thomas, and appealing to the acknowledged
authorities of the Church, especially the Areopagite, Augustine,
and Aquinas, Eckhart with great originality composed a singularly
comprehensive and profound system of religious knowledge.
Although in all his writings aiming primarily at quickening and
edification, he always grounds his endeavours on a theoretical
investigation of the nature of the thing. But knowledge is for
him essentially union of the knowing subject with the object to
be known, and the highest stage of knowledge is the intuition
where all finite things sink into the substance of Deity.[336]

§ 114.2. =Mystics of Upper Germany after Eckhart.=--A noble band
of mystics arose during the 14th and 15th centuries influenced
by Eckhart’s writings, who carefully avoided pantheistic extremes
by giving a thoroughly practical direction to their speculation.
Nearest to Eckhart stands the author of “=The German Theology=,”
in which the master’s principles are nobly popularized and
explained. Luther, who took it for a work of Tauler, and
published it in A.D. 1516, characterized it as “a noble little
book, showing what Adam and Christ are, and how Adam should
die and Christ live in us.” In the most complete MS. of this
tract, found in A.D. 1850, the author is described as a “Friend
of God.”--The Dominican =John Tauler= was born at Strassburg,
studied at Paris, and came into connection with Eckhart, whose
mysticism, without its pantheistic tendencies, he adopted. When
Strassburg was visited with the Black Death, he laboured as
preacher and pastor among the stricken with heroic devotion.
Though the city was under an interdict (§ 110, 3), the Dominicans
persisted for a whole year in reading mass, and were stopped
only by the severe threats of the master of their order. The
magistrates gave them the alternative either to discharge their
official duties or leave the city. Tauler now, in A.D. 1341,
retired to Basel, and afterwards to Cologne. In A.D. 1437
we find him again in Strassburg, where he died in A.D. 1361.
His thirty sermons, with some other short tracts, appeared
at Leipzig in A.D. 1498. The most important of all Tauler’s
works is, “The Imitation of the Poverty of Christ.” It was
thought to be of French authorship, but is now admitted to be
Tauler’s.[337]--=Rulman Merswin=, a rich merchant of Strassburg,
in his fortieth year, A.D. 1347, with his wife’s consent,
retired from his business and forsook the world, gave his
wealth to charities, and bought in A.D. 1366 an old, abandoned
convent near the city, which he restored and presented to the
order of St. John. Here he spent the remainder of his days in
pious contemplation, amid austerities and mortifications and
favoured with visions. He died in A.D. 1382. Four years after
his conversion he attained to clear conceptions and inner
peace. His chief work, composed in A.D. 1352, “The Book of the
Nine Rocks,” was long ascribed to Suso. It is full of bitter
complaints against the moral and religious corruption of all
classes, and earnest warnings of Divine judgment. Its starting
point is a vision. From the fountains in the high mountains
stream many brooks over the rocks into the valley, and thence
into the sea; multitudes of fishes transport themselves from
their lofty home, and are mostly taken in nets, only a few
succeed in reaching their home again by springing over these
nine rocks. At the request of the “Friend of God from the
Uplands” he wrote the “Four Years from the Beginning of Life.”
His “Banner Tract” describes the conflict with and victory
over the Brothers of the Free Spirit under the banner of
Lucifer (§ 116, 4, 5).

§ 114.3. =The Friend of God in the Uplands.=--In a book
entitled “The Story of Tauler’s Conversion,” originally called
“The Master’s Book,” but now assigned to Nicholas of Basel,
it is told that in A.D. 1346 a great “Master of Holy Scripture”
preached in an unnamed city, and that soon his fame spread
through the land. A layman living in the Uplands, thirty miles
off, was directed in a vision thrice over to go to seek this
Friend of God, companion of Rulman. He listened to his preaching,
chose him as his confessor, and then sought to show him that
he had not yet the true consecration. Like a child the master
submitted to be taught the elements of piety of religion
by the layman, and at his command abstaining from all study
and preaching for two years, gave himself to meditation and
penitential exercises. When he resumed his preaching his success
was marvellous. After nine years’ labour, feeling his end
approaching, he gave to the layman an account of his conversion.
The latter arranged his materials, and added five sermons of
the master, and sent the little book, in A.D. 1369, to a priest
of Rulman’s cloister near Strassburg. In A.D. 1486 the master
was identified with Tauler. This however is contradicted by
its contents. The historical part is improbable and incredible,
and its chronology irreconcilable with known facts of Tauler’s
life. We find no trace of the original ideas or characteristic
eloquence of Tauler; while the language and homiletical
arrangement of the sermons are quite different from those
of the great Dominican preacher.

§ 114.4. =Nicholas of Basel.=--After long hiding from the
emissaries of the Inquisition the layman Nicholas of Basel,
in extreme old age, was taken with two companions, and burned
at Vienna, as a heretic, between A.D. 1393-1408. He has been
identified by Schmidt of Strassburg with the “Friend of God.”
This is more than doubtful, since of the sixteen heresies,
for the most part of a Waldensian character, charged against
Nicholas, no trace is found in the writings of the Friend of
God; while it is made highly probable by Denifle’s researches
that the “Friend of God” was but a name assumed by Rulman Merswin.

§ 114.5. =Henry Suso=, born A.D. 1295, entered the Dominican
cloister of Constance in his 13th year. When eighteen years old
he took the vow, and till his twenty-second year unceasingly
practised the strictest asceticism, in imitation of the
sufferings of Christ. He completed his studies, A.D. 1325-1328,
under Eckhart at Cologne, and on the death of his pious mother
withdrew into the cloister, where he became reader and afterwards
prior. The first work which he here published, in A.D. 1335, the
“Book of the Truth,” is strongly influenced by the spirit of his
master. Accused as a heretic, he was deposed from the priorship
in A.D. 1336. His “Book of Eternal Wisdom” was the favourite
reading of all lovers of German mysticism. Blending the knight’s
and fanatic’s idea of love with the Solomonic conception of
Wisdom, which he identifies sometimes with God, sometimes with
Christ, sometimes with Mary, he chose her for his beloved,
and was favoured by her with frequent visions and was honoured
with the title of “Amandus.”--Like most of his fellow monks at
Constance, Suso was a supporter of the pope in his contest with
Louis the Bavarian, while the city sided with the emperor. When,
in A.D. 1339, the monks, in obedience to the papal interdict,
refused to perform public worship, they were expelled by the
magistrates. In his fortieth year Suso had begun his painful
career of self-discipline, which he carried so far as to endanger
his life. Now driven away as an exile, he began his singularly
fruitful wanderings, during which, passing from cloister to
cloister as an itinerant preacher, he became either personally
or through correspondence most intimately acquainted with all
the most notable of the friends of mysticism, and made many
new friends in all ranks, especially among women. In A.D. 1346,
along with eight companions, he ventured to return to Constance.
There however he met with his sorest trial. An immoral woman,
who pretended to him that she sorrowed over and repented of her
sins, while really she continued in the practice of them, and
was therefore turned away by him, took her revenge by charging
him with being the father of the child she was about to bear.
Probably this painful incident was the occasion of his retiring
into the monastery of Ulm, where he died in A.D. 1366. In him
the poetic and romantic element overshadowed the speculative,
and in his attachment to ecclesiastical orthodoxy he kept aloof
from all reformatory movements.

§ 114.6. =Henry of Nördlingen= is only slightly known to us
by the letters which he sent to his lady friend, the Dominican
nun =Margaret Ebner=. He was spiritually related to Tauler,
as well as to Suso, and shared with the great preacher in his
sorrows over the calamities of the age, which his sensitive
nature felt in no ordinary degree during enforced official
idleness under the interdict. His mysticism, by its sweetly
sentimental character, as well as by its superstitious tendency
to reverence Mary and relics, was essentially distinguished
from that of Tauler. His friend Margaret, who had also a
spiritual affinity to Tauler, and was highly esteemed by all
the “Friends of God,” was religiously and politically, as a
supporter of the anathematized emperor, much more decided.
In depth of thought and power of expression however she
is quite inferior to the earlier Thuringian prophetesses
(§ 107, 2).--=Hermann of Fritzlar=, a rich and pious layman,
is supposed to have written, A.D. 1343-1349, a life of the
saints in the order of the calendar, as a picture of heart
purity, with mystic reflections and speculations based on the
legendary matter, and all expressed in pure and simple German.
Hermann, however, was only the author of the plan, and the actual
writer was a Dominican of Erfurt, =Giseler of Slatheim=.--A
Franciscan in Basel, =Otto of Passau=, published, in A.D. 1386,
“The Four-and-Twenty Elders, or the Golden Throne,” which became
a very popular book of devotion, in which the twenty-four elders
of Revelation iv. 4, one after another, show the loving soul
how to win for himself a golden throne in heaven. Passages of
an edifying and contemplative description from the Fathers and
teachers of the Church down to the 13th century are selected by
the author, and adapted to the use of the unlearned “Friends of
God” in a German translation.

§ 114.7. =Mystics of the Netherlands.=

1. =John of Ruysbroek= was born, in A.D. 1298, in the village
of Ruysbroek, near Brussels. In youth he was addicted more
to pious contemplation than to scholastic studies, and
in his sixtieth year he resigned his position as secular
priest in Brussels, and retired into a convent of regular
canons (§ 97, 3) near Brussels, where he died as its prior
in A.D. 1481, when eighty-eight years old. He was called
_doctor ecstaticus_, because he regarded his mystical
views, which he developed amid pious contemplation in the
shades of the forest, and there wrote out in Flemish speech,
as the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. His mysticism was
essentially theistic. The _unio mystica_ consisted not
in the deification of man, but was wrought only through
the free grace of God in Christ without the loss of man’s
own personality. His genuine practical piety led him to
see in the moral depravity of the clergy, not less than
of the people generally, the cause of the decay of the
Church, so that even the person of the pope did not escape
his reproof. Numerous pilgrims from far and near sought
the pious sage for counsel and quickening. His favourite
disciple was Gerhard Groot of Deventer, who impressed
much of his master’s spirit upon the brotherhood of the
Common Life (§ 112, 9).--Of this noble school of mystics
the three following were the most distinguished.

2. =Hendrik Mande=, who died A.D. 1430, impressed by a sermon
of Groot’s, and favoured during a long illness by visions,
abandoned the life of a courtier for the fellowship of
the Brethren of Deventer, and in A.D. 1395 entered the
cloister of Windesheim, to which he bequeathed his wealth,
and where he continued to enjoy visions of the Saviour and
the saints. His works, written in Dutch, are characterized
by spirituality and depth of feeling, copious and
appropriate imagery, and great moral earnestness.

3. =Gerlach Peters= was the favourite scholar of Florentius
in Deventer. He subsequently entered the monastery of
Windesheim, where, after a painful illness, he died in
A.D. 1411, in his thirty-third year. “An ardent spirit
in a body of skin and bone,” praising God for his terrible
bodily sufferings as a means of grace bestowed on him,
his devotion reaches the sublimest heights of enthusiasm.
He wrote the _Soliloquium_, the voice of a man who has
daily struggled in God’s presence to free his heart from
worldly bonds, and by God’s grace in the cross of Christ
to have Adam’s purity restored and union with the highest
good secured.

4. =Thomas à Kempis=, formerly Hamerken, was born in A.D. 1380
at Kempen, near Cologne. He was educated at Deventer, and
died as sub-prior of the convent of St. Agnes, near Zwoll,
in A.D. 1471. To him, and not to the chancellor Gerson,
according to the now universally accepted opinion, belongs
the world renowned book _De Imitatione Christi_. Reprinted
about five thousand times, oftener than any other book
except the Bible, it has been also translated into more
languages than any other. Free from all Romish superstition,
it is read by Catholics and Protestants, and holds an
unrivalled position as a book of devotion. A photographic
reproduction of the original edition of A.D. 1441 was
published from the autograph MSS. of Thomas, by Ch. Ruelans,
London, 1879.[338]

III. The Church and the People.

§ 115A. PUBLIC WORSHIP AND THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
OF THE PEOPLE.

Preaching in the vernacular was carried on mainly by the Brothers of the Common Life, the mystics, and several heretical sects, _e.g._ Waldensians, Wiclifites, Hussites, etc.; and stimulated by their example, others began to follow the same practice. The so called _Biblia pauperum_ set forth in pictures the New Testament history with its Old Testament types and prophecies; _Bible Histories_ made known among the people the Scripture stories in a connected form; and, after the introduction of printing, the German _Plenaries_ helped also to spread the knowledge of God’s word by renderings for private use of the principal parts of the service. For the instruction of the people in faith and morals a whole series of _Catechisms_ was constructed after a gradually developed type. The “Dance of Death” in its various forms reminded of the vanity of all earthly pleasures. The spirit of the Reformation was shown during this period in the large number of hymns written in the vernacular. Church music too received a powerful impulse.

§ 115.1. =Fasts and Festivals.=--New =Mary Festivals= were
introduced: _F. præsentationis M._ on 21st Nov. (Lev. xii. 5-8),
_F. visitationis M._ (Luke i. 39-51), on 2nd July. In the
15th century we meet with the festivals of the Seven Pains of
Mary, _F. Spasmi M._, on Friday or Saturday before Palm Sunday.
Dominic instituted a rosary festival, _F. rosarii M._, on 1st
Oct., and its general observance was enjoined by Gregory XIII.
in A.D. 1571.--The =Veneration of Ann= (§ 57, 2) was introduced
into Germany in the second half of the 15th century, but soon
rose to a height almost equal to that of Mary.--The =Fasts= of
the early Church (§ 56, 7) had, even during the previous period,
been greatly relaxed. Now the most special fast days were mere
days of abstinence from flesh, while most lavish meals of fish
and farinaceous food were indulged in. Papal and episcopal
dispensations from fasting were also freely given.

§ 115.2. =Preaching= (§ 104, 1).--To aid and encourage preaching
in the language of the people, unskilled preachers were supplied
with _Vocabularia prædicantium_. Surgant, a priest of Basel,
wrote, in the end of the 15th century, a treatise on homiletics
and catechetics most useful for his age, _Manuale Curatorum_.
In it he showed how Latin sermons might be rendered into the
tongue of the people, and urged the duty of hearing sermons.
The mendicants were the chief preachers, especially the mystics
of the preaching orders, during the 14th century (§ 114), and
the Augustinians, particularly their German Observants, during
the 15th (§ 112, 5), and next to them, the Franciscans.--The
most zealous preacher of his age was the Spanish Dominican
=Vincent Ferrér=. In A.D. 1397 he began his unprecedentedly
successful preaching tours through Spain, France, Italy, England,
Scotland, and Ireland. He died in A.D. 1419. He laboured with
special ardour for the conversion of the Jews, of whom he is
said to have baptized 35,000. Wherever he went he was venerated
as a saint, received with respect by the clergy and prelates,
highly honoured by kings and princes, consulted by rich and
poor regarding temporal and spiritual things. He was canonized
by Calixtus III. in A.D. 1455. Certain Flagellants (§ 116, 3)
whom he met in his travels followed him, scourging themselves
and singing his penitential songs, but he stopped this when
objected to by the Council of Constance. His sermons dealt
with the realities of actual life, and called all classes
to repent of their sins. Of a similar spirit was the Italian
Dominican =Barletta=, who died in A.D. 1480, whose burlesque
and scathing satire rendered him the most popular preacher
of the day. In his footsteps went the Frenchmen =Maillard=
and =Menot=, both Franciscans, and the German priest of
Strassburg, =Geiler of Kaisersberg=, quite equal to them in
quaint terseness of expression and biting wit. All these were
preeminently distinguished for moral earnestness and profound
spirituality.[339]

§ 115.3. =The _Biblia Pauperum_.=--The typological
interpretation of the Old Testament history received a fixed
and permanent form in the illustrations introduced into the
service books and pictures printed on the altars, walls, and
windows of churches, etc., during the 12th century. A set of
seventeen such picture groups was found at Vienna, of which the
middle panels represent the New Testament history, _sub gracia_,
above it an Old Testament type from the period _ante legem_, and
under it one from the period _sub lege_. This picture series was
completed by the =Biblia pauperum=, so called from the saying
of Gregory I., that pictures were the poor man’s Bible. Many of
the extant MSS., all depending on a common source, date from the
14th and 15th centuries. The illustrations of the New Testament
are in the middle, and round about are pictures of the four
prophets, with volumes in their hands, on which the appropriate
Old Testament prophecies are written. On right and left are Old
Testament types. The multiplication of copies of this work by
woodcuts and types was one of the first uses to which printing
was put.[340]

§ 115.4. =The Bible in the Vernacular.=--The need of
=translations of the Bible= into the language of the people,
specially urged by the Waldensians and Albigensians, was now
widely insisted upon by those of reformatory tendencies (§ 119).
On the introduction of printing, about A.D. 1450, an opportunity
was afforded of rapidly circulating translations already made
in most of the European languages. Before Luther, there were
fourteen printed editions of the Bible in High and five in Low
German. The translations, made from the Vulgate, were in all
practically the same. The translators are unknown. The diction
is for the most part clumsy, and the sense often scarcely
intelligible. Translations had been made in England by the
Wiclifites, and in Bohemia by the Hussites. In France, various
renderings of separate books of Scripture were circulated,
and a complete French Bible was issued by the confessor of
Charles VIII., Jean de Rely, at Paris, in A.D. 1487. Two
Italian Bibles were published in Venice, in A.D. 1471, one by
the Camaldulite abbot Malherbi, closely following the Vulgate;
the other by the humanist Bruccioli, which often falls back
on the original text. The latter was highly valued by Italian
exiles of the Reformation age. In Spain a Carthusian, Ferreri,
attempted a translation, which was printed at Valencia in
A.D. 1478. More popular however than these translations were the
=Bible Histories=, _i.e._ free renderings, sometimes contracted,
sometimes expanded, of the historical books, especially these
of the Old Testament. From A.D. 1470 large and frequent editions
were published of the German =Plenaries=, containing at first
only the gospels and epistles, afterwards also the Service of
the Mass, for all Sundays and festivals and saints’ days, with
explanations and directions.

§ 115.5. =Catechisms and Prayer Books.=--Next to preaching,
the chief opportunity for imparting religious instruction was
confession. Later catechisms drew largely upon the baptismal
and confessional services. In the 13th and 14th centuries the
decalogue was added, and afterwards the seven deadly sins and
the seven principal virtues. Pictures were used to impress
the main points on the minds of the people and the youth.
The catechetical literature of this period, both in guides
for priests and manuals for the people, was written in the
vernacular.--During the 15th century there were also numerous
so-called _Artes moriendi_, showing how to die well, in which
often earnest piety appeared side by side with the grossest
superstition. There were also many prayer books, _Hortuli animæ_,
published, in which the worship of Mary and the saints often
overshadowed that of God and Christ, and an extravagant belief
in indulgences led to a mechanical view of prayer that was
thoroughly pagan.

§ 115.6. =The Dance of Death.=--The fantastic humour of the
Middle Ages found dramatic and spectacular expression in the
Dance of Death, in which all classes, from the pope and princes
to the beggars, in turn converse with death. It was introduced
into Germany and France in the beginning of the 14th century,
with the view of raising men out of the pleasures and troubles
of life. It was called in France the Dance of the Maccabees,
because first introduced at that festival. Pictures and verbal
descriptions of the Dance of Death were made on walls and
doors of churches, around MSS. and woodcuts, where death was
generally represented as a skeleton. Hans Holbein the Younger
gave the finishing touch to these representations in his
_Imagines Mortis_, the originals of which are in St. Petersburg.
In this masterpiece, the idea of a dancing pair is set aside,
and in its place forty pictures, afterwards increased to
fifty-eight, full of humour and moral earnestness, pourtray
the power of death in the earthly life.[341]

§ 115.7. =Hymnology= (§ 104, 10).--The =Latin Church poetry= of
the 14th and 15th centuries was far beneath that of the 12th and
13th. Only the mystics, _e.g._ Thomas à Kempis, still composed
some beautiful hymns. We have now however the beginnings of
=German= and =Bohemian= hymnology. The German flagellators sang
German hymns (§ 116, 3), and so obtained much popular favour.
The Hussite movement of the 15th century gave a great impulse
to church song. Huss himself earnestly urged the practice of
congregational singing in the language of the people, and himself
composed Bohemian hymns. The Bohemian and Moravian Brethren
were specially productive in this department (§ 119, 8). In
many churches, at least on high festivals, German hymns were
sung, and in some even at the celebration of mass and other parts
of public worship. The spiritual songs of this period were of
four kinds: some half German, half Latin; others translations of
Latin hymns and sequences; others, original German compositions
by monks and minstrels; and adaptations of secular songs to
spiritual purposes. In the latter case the original melodies
were also retained. Popular forms and melodies for sacred songs
were now secured, and these were subsequently appropriated by
the Reformers of the 16th century.

§ 115.8. =Church Music= (§ 104, 11).--Great improvements were
made in organs by the invention of pedals, etc. =Church music=
was also greatly developed by the introduction of harmony and
counterpoint. The Dutch were pre-eminent in this department.
Ockenheim, founder of the second Dutch school of music, at
the end of the 15th century, was the inventor of the canon
and the fugue. The greatest composer of this school was
Jodocus Pratensis, about A.D. 1500, and next to him may be
named the German, Adam of Fulda.

§ 115.9. =Legendary Relics.=--The legend of angels having
transferred the house of Mary from Nazareth, in A.D. 1291,
to Tersato in Dalmatia, in A.D. 1294 to Reccanati, and finally,
in A.D. 1295, to Loretto in Ancona, arose in the 14th century,
in connection with the fall of Acre (§ 94, 6) and the overthrow
of the last remnants of the kingdom of Jerusalem. When and how
the legend arose of the _Scala santa_ at Rome being the marble
steps of Pilate’s prætorium, brought there by St. Helena, is
unknown.--Even Frederick the Wise, at an enormous cost, brought
together 1,010 sacred relics into his new chapel at Wittenberg,
a mere look at which secured indulgence for 100 years. In a
catalogue of relics in the churches of St. Maurice and Mary
Magdalene at Halle, published in A D. 1520, are mentioned a
piece of earth, from a field of Damascus, of which God made
the first man; a piece from a field at Hebron, where Adam
repented; a piece of the body of Isaac; twenty-five fragments
of the burning bush of Horeb; specimens of the wilderness
manna; six drops of the Virgin’s milk; the finger of the
Baptist that pointed to the Lamb of God; the finger of Thomas
that touched the wounds of Jesus; a bit of the altar at which
John read mass for the Virgin; the stone with which Stephen was
killed; a great piece of Paul’s skull; the hose of St. Thomas
of Canterbury; the baret of St. Francis, etc. The collection
consisted of 8,933 articles, and could afford indulgence
for 39,245,100 years and 220 days! Benefit was to be had by
contributions to the church, which went into the pocket of the
elector-archbishop, Albert of Mainz. The craze for =pilgrimages=
was also rife among all classes, old and young, high and low.
Signs and wonders and newly discovered relics were regarded
as consecrating new places of pilgrimage, and the stories of
pilgrims raised the fame of these resorts more and more. In
A.D. 1500 Düren, by the possession of a relic of Ann, stolen
from Mainz, rapidly rose to first rank. The people of Mainz
sought through the pope to recover this valuable property,
but he decided in favour of Düren, because God had meanwhile
sanctioned the transfer by working many miracles of healing.

§ 115B. NATIONAL LITERATURE AND ECCLESIASTICAL ART.

Toward the close of the 13th century, and throughout the 14th, a national literature, in prose and poetry, sprang up in Italy, which in several respects has close relations to the history of the church. The three Florentines, Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, boldly burst through the barriers of traditional usage, which had made Latin the only vehicle for literature and science, and became the creators of a beautiful Italian style; while their example powerfully influenced their own countrymen, and those of other western nations, during the immediately succeeding ages. The exclusive use of the Latin language had produced a uniform hierarchical spirit, and was a restraint to the anti-hierarchical movements of the age after independent national development in church and State. The breaking down of this barrier to progress was an important step. But all the three great men of letters whom we have named were also highly distinguished for their classical culture. They introduced the study of the ancient classics, and were thus the precursors of the humanists. They also presented a united front against the corruptions of the church, against hierarchical pretensions, the greed and moral debasement of the papacy, as well as against the moral and intellectual degradation of the clergy and the monks. Petrarch and Boccaccio too warred against the depraved scholasticism. The Augustan age of German national poetry was contemporary with the age of the Hohenstaufens. It consisted in popular songs, these often of a sacred character. During the 14th century the sacred drama reached the highest point of its development, especially in Germany, England, France, and Spain. The spirit of the Renaissance, which during the 15th century dominated Italian art, made itself felt also in the domain of ecclesiastical architecture and painting.

§ 115.10. =The Italian National Literature.=[342]--=Dante
Alighieri=, born at Florence in A.D. 1265, was in A.D. 1302
banished as a Ghibelline from his native city, and died an
exile at Ravenna, in A.D. 1321. His boyish love for Beatrice,
which after her early death continued to fill his soul to
the end of his life, gave him an impulse to a “New Life,”
and proved the unfailing source of his poetic inspiration. His
studies at Bologna, Padua, and Paris made him an enthusiastic
admirer of Thomas, but alongside of his scholastic culture
there lay the quick perception of the beautiful, combined with
a lively imagination. He was thus able to deal with the burning
questions of his day in one of the greatest poetic masterpieces
of any age, people, or tongue. His _Divina Commedia_ describes
a vision in which the poet is led, first by the hand of
Virgil, as the representative of human wisdom, through Hell
and Purgatory, then by Beatrice, whose place at times is taken
by the German Matilda (§ 107, 2), and finally by St. Bernard,
as representatives of revealed religion, through Paradise and
the several heavens up to the empyræum, the eternal residence
of the triune God. The poet presents his readers with a
description of what he saw, and reports his conversations
with his guides and the souls of more important personages,
most of them shortly before deceased, in which the problems of
philosophy, theology, and politics are discussed. His political
views, of which he treats _ex professo_ in the three books of
his _De monarchia_, are derived from Aquinas’ theory of the
State, but breathe a strong Italian Ghibelline patriotism, so
that he places not only Boniface VIII. but also Frederick II.
in Hell. In the struggle between the empire and the papacy
he stands decidedly on the side of the former. With profound
sorrow he bewails the corruption of the church in its head and
members, but holds firmly by its confession of faith. And while
lashing vigorously the corruptions of monkery, he eulogizes
the heavenliness of the lives of Francis and Dominic.[343]
=Petrarch=, who died in A.D. 1374, broke away completely from
scholasticism, and turned with enthusiasm to classical studies.
He combated superstition, _e.g._ astrology, but also contends
against the unbelief of his age, and in his letters and poems
lashes with merciless severity the immorality of the papacy
and the secularization of the church.[344] In =Boccaccio=
again, who died in A.D. 1375, antipathy to scholasticism,
monkery, and the hierarchy had reached its utmost stage. He
has no anger and denunciation, but only contempt, reproach,
and wit to shoot against them. He also makes light of the
moral requirements of Christianity and the church, especially
the seventh commandment. But in later years he manifested
deep penitence for the lascivious writing of his youth, to
which he had given reckless and shameless expression in his
“Decameron.”

§ 115.11. =The German National Literature.=--The German
prose style was greatly ennobled by the mystics (§ 114), and
the highest development of German satire against the hierarchy,
clergy, and monks was reached by Sebastian Brant, of Strassburg,
who wrote in A.D. 1494 his “Ship of Fools.” Among popular
preachers John Tauler held the first rank (§ 114, 2). In
Strassburg, Geiler of Kaisersberg distinguished himself as
an original preacher. His sermons were full of biting wit,
keen sarcasm, and humorous expressions, but also of profound
earnestness and withering exposures of the sins of the clergy
and monks. His best known work is a series of sermons on Brant’s
“Ship of Fools,” published in A.D. 1498.

§ 115.12. =The Sacred Drama= (§ 105, 5).--The poetic merit of
most of the German mysteries performed at high festivals is not
great. The Laments of Mary however often rose to true poetic
heights. Comedy and burlesque too found place especially in
connection with Judas, or the exchangers, or the unconverted
Magdalene. A priest, Theodoric Schernberg, wrote a play on the
fall and repentance of the popess Johanna (§ 82, 6). On Shrove
Tuesday plays were performed, in which the clergy and monks
were held up to ridicule. Hans Roseuplüt of Nuremberg, about
A.D. 1450, was the most famous writer of German Shrovetide
plays. In France, about the end of the 14th century, a society
of young people of the upper rank was formed, called _Enfans
sans souci_, whose _Sotties_, buffooneries, in which the church
was ridiculed, were in high repute in the cities and at the
court. Their most distinguished poet was Pierre Gringoire, who,
in the beginning of the 16th century, in the French _Chasse
du Cerf des Cerfs_, parodied the _Servus servorum_ (§ 46, 10),
and the church is represented as the old befooled mother. The
numerous Italian mysteries were produced mainly by the gifted
and cultured sons of Tuscany, who had already developed their
native tongue into a beautiful and flexible language. In Spain,
during the 15th century, the _Autos_, partly as Christmas plays
and partly as sacramental or passion plays, were based on the
ancient mysteries, and in form inclined more to the allegorical
moralities.

§ 115.13. =Architecture and Painting= (§ 104, 12, 14)--=Gothic
architecture= was the prevailing style in the churches of
Germany, France, and England. In Italy, the humanist movement
(§ 120, 1) led to the imitation of ancient classical models,
and thus the Renaissance style was introduced, which flourished
for 300 years. Its real creator was the Florentine Bruneleschi,
who won imperishable renown by the grand cupola of the cathedral
of Florence. Bramante, died A.D. 1514, marks the transition
from the earlier Renaissance of the 15th century to the later
of the 16th, at the summit of which stands Michael Angelo,
A.D. 1474-1564. After a plan of Bramante Julius II., in
A.D. 1506, began the magnificent reconstruction of St. Peter’s
at Rome, the execution of which in its gigantic proportions
occupied the reigns of twenty popes. It was completed under
Urban VIII., in A.D. 1636. This great building, in consequence
of the traffic in indulgences, entered on to defray its cost,
became the occasion of the loss to the papacy of the half
of western Christendom.--Sacred =Statuary=, in the hands of
Ghiberti, died A.D. 1455, and Michael Angelo, reached the
highest stage of excellence.--Of =Painting=, the Augustan
age of which was the 15th century, there were properly four
schools. Giotto, who died in A.D. 1336, was founder of the
Florentine school, which was specially distinguished by its
delineations of sacred history. To it belonged the Dominican
Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, who painted only as he prayed,
Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Bartolomeo, and Michael Angelo. Then
there was the Lombard or Venetian School, at the head of
which stands Giovanni Bellini, died A.D. 1516, which turned
away from the church and applied itself with its fresh living
colouring to the depicting of earthly ideals. Its most eminent
representatives were Correggio, died A.D. 1534, and Titian,
died A.D. 1576. In the Umbrian school, again, the spirit of
St. Francis continued still to breathe. Its greatest master
was Raphael of Urbino, the noblest and most renowned of all
Christian painters, distinguished also as an architect. The
German school had its ablest representatives in the brothers
Hubert and John van Eyk, Albert Dürer, and Hans Holbein the
Elder.--Continuation § 149, 15.

§ 116. POPULAR MOVEMENTS.

In consequence of the shameful debasement of the papacy and the deep corruption of the clergy and monks, the influence of the church on the moral and religious culture of the people, in spite of the ardent zeal of the homilists and catechists, was upon the whole much less than formerly. Reverence for the church as it stood was indeed tottering, but was not yet completely overthrown. The religious enthusiasm of earlier times was fading away, but occasional phenomena still continued to arise, like St. Bridget and St. Catharine of Siena (§ 112, 4, 8), Claus of Flüe, and the Maid of Orleans. But in order to elevate a John of Nepomuk into a recognised national saint, it was necessary to produce forged legendary stories in post-Reformation times. The market-place tricks of John of Capistrano (§ 112, 3) were of such a kind, that even the papal curia only after a century and a half had passed could venture to adorn him with the halo of saintship. The ever-increasing nuisance of the sale of indulgences smothered religious earnestness and crushed all religious spirit out of the people. But earnestness showed itself again in the reactions of the Beghards and Lollards, or in the explosions of the Flagellants, and spirituality often found rich nourishment in the preaching of the mystics. One current issuing from the widespread Friends of God passed deep into the heart of the German people; another, springing probably from the same source, but with a quite different tendency, appears in the Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit. On the other hand, superstition also prevailed, and was all the more dangerous the more it parted with its poetic and naïve character (§ 117, 4). Toward the end of that period however a new era dawned in social life, as well as in national literature. Knighthood paled before gunpowder. The establishment of civic corporations developed a sense of freedom, and introduced a healthy understanding and appreciation of civil liberty. The printing of books began the dissemination of knowledge, and the discovery of America opened to view a new world for trade, colonization, and the spread of Christianity. To the pious heart of the discoverer the extension of Christ’s kingdom proved the most powerful motive to his continued exertions, and from the treasures of the new world he hoped also to obtain the means for conquering again the Holy Sepulchre and the Holy Land.