Chapter V: The Position of Women (7)

284 Bollandists, June 6. I avail myself again of the version of
Tillemont. “Lorsque S. Pemen demeuroit en Egypte avec ses frères,
leur mère, qui avoit un extrême désir de les voir, venoit souvent au
lieu où ils estoient, sans pouvoir jamais avoir cette satisfaction.
Une fois enfin elle prit si bien son temps qu’elle les rencontra qui
alloient à l’église, mais dès qu’ils la virent ils s’en retournèrent
en haste dans leur cellule et fermèrent la porte sur eux. Elle les
suivit, et trouvant la porte, elle les appeloit avec des larmes et
des cris capables de les toucher de compassion.... Pemen s’y leva et
s’y en alla, et l’entendant pleurer il luy dit, tenant toujours la
porte fermée, ‘Pourquoi vous lassez-vous inutilement à pleurer et
crier? N’êtes-vous pas déjà assez abattue par la vieillesse?’ Elle
reconnut la voix de Pemen, et s’efforçant encore davantage, elle
s’écria, ‘Hé, mes enfans, c’est que je voudrais bien vous voir: et
quel mal y a-t-il que je vous voie? Ne suis-je pas votre mère, et ne
vous ai-je pas nourri du lait de mes mammelles? Je suis déjà toute
pleine de rides, et lorsque je vous ay entendu, l’extrême envie que
j’ay de vous voir m’a tellement émue que je suis presque tombée en
défaillance.’ ”—_Mémoires de l’Hist. ecclès._ tome xv. pp. 157, 158.

285 The original is much more eloquent than my translation. “Fili, quare
hoc fecisti? Pro utero quo te portavi, satiasti me luctu, pro
lactatione qua te lactavi dedisti mihi lacrymas, pro osculo quo te
osculata sum, dedisti mihi amaras cordis angustias; pro dolore et
labore quem passa sum, imposuisti mihi sævissimas plagas.”—_Vita
Simeonis_ (in Rosweyde).

286 Bingham, _Antiquities_, book vii. ch. iii.

287 Ibid.

288 Bingham, _Antiquities_, book vii. chap. 3.

289 Milman’s _Early Christianity_ (ed. 1867), vol. iii. p. 122.

290 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 153.

291 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 120.

_ 292 De Virginibus_, i. 11.

293 See Milman’s _Early Christianity_, vol. iii. p. 121.

_ 294 De Virginibus_, i. 11.

_ 295 Epist._ xxiv.

296 St. Jerome describes the scene at her departure with admiring
eloquence. “Descendit ad portum fratre, cognatis, affinibus et quod
majus est liberis prosequentibus, et elementissimam matrem pietate
vincere cupientibus. Jam carbasa tendebantur, et remorum ductu navis
in altum protrahebatur. Parvus Toxotius supplices manus tendebat in
littore, Ruffina jam nubilis ut suas expectaret nuptias tacens
fletibus obsecrabat. Et tamen illa siccos tendebat ad cælum oculos,
pietatem in filios pietate in Deum superans. Nesciebat se matrem ut
Christi probaret ancillam.”—_Ep._ cviii. In another place he says of
her: “Testis est Jesus, ne unum quidem nummum ab ea filiæ derelictum
sed, ut ante jam dixi, derelictum magnum æs alienum.”—Ibid. And
again: “Vis, lector, ejus breviter scire virtutes? Omnes suos
pauperes, pauperior ipsa dimisit.”—Ibid.

297 See Chastel, _Etudes historiques sur la Charité_, p. 231. The
parents of St. Gregory Nazianzen had made this request, which was
faithfully observed.

298 Chastel, p. 232.

299 See a characteristic passage from the _Life of St. Fulgentius_,
quoted by Dean Milman. “Facile potest juvenis tolerare quemcunque
imposuerit laborem qui poterit maternum jam despicere
dolorem.”—_Hist. of Latin Christianity_, vol. ii. p. 82.

_ 300 Ep._ xiv. (_Ad Heliodorum_).

301 St. Greg. _Dial._ ii. 24.

302 Bollandists, May 3 (vol. vii. p. 561).

303 “Hospitibus omni loco ac tempore liberalissimus fuit.... Solis
consanguineis durus erat et inhumanus, tamquam ignotos illos
respiciens.”—Bollandists, May 29.

304 See Helyot, _Dict. des Ordres religieux_, art. “Camaldules.”

305 See the charming sketch in the _Life of St. Francis_, by Hase.

306 The legend of St. Scholastica, the sister of St. Benedict, has been
often quoted. He had visited her, and was about to leave in the
evening, when she implored him to stay. He refused, and she then
prayed to God, who sent so violent a tempest that the saint was
unable to depart. (St. Greg. _Dial._ ii. 33.) Cassian speaks of a
monk who thought it his duty never to see his mother, but who
laboured for a whole year to pay off a debt she had incurred.
(Cœnob. _Inst._ v. 38.) St. Jerome mentions the strong natural
affection of Paula, though she considered it a virtue to mortify it.
(_Ep._ cviii.)

_ 307 Life of Antony._ See, too, the sentiments of St. Pachomius, _Vit._
cap. xxvii.

308 “Nec ulla res aliena magis quam publica.”—Tertullian, _Apol._ ch.
xxxviii.

309 “Quid interest sub cujus imperio vivat homo moriturus, si illi qui
imperant, ad impia et iniqua non cogant.”—St. Aug. _De Civ. Dei_, v.
17.

310 St. Jerome declares that “Monachum in patria sua perfectum esse non
posse, perfectum autem esse nolle delinquere est.”—_Ep._ xiv. Dean
Milman well says of a later period: “According to the monastic view
of Christianity, the total abandonment of the world, with all its
ties and duties, as well as its treasures, its enjoyments, and
objects of ambition, advanced rather than diminished the hopes of
salvation. Why should they fight for a perishing world, from which
it was better to be estranged?... It is singular, indeed, that while
we have seen the Eastern monks turned into fierce undisciplined
soldiers, perilling their own lives and shedding the blood of others
without remorse, in assertion of some shadowy shade of orthodox
expression, hardly anywhere do we find them asserting their
liberties or their religion with intrepid resistance. Hatred of
heresy was a more stirring motive than the dread or the danger of
Islamism. After the first defeats the Christian mind was still
further prostrated by the common notion that the invasion was a just
and heaven-commissioned visitation; ... resistance a vain, almost an
impious struggle to avert inevitable punishment.”—Milman’s _Latin
Christianity_, vol. ii. p. 206. Compare Massillon’s famous _Discours
au Régiment de Catinat_:—“Ce qu’il y a ici de plus déplorable, c’est
que dans une vie rude et pénible, dans des emplois dont les devoirs
passent quelquefois la rigueur des cloîtres les plus austères, vous
souffrez toujours en vain pour l’autre vie.... Dix ans de services
ont plus usé votre corps qu’une vie entière de pénitence ... un seul
jour de ces souffrances, consacré au Seigneur, vous aurait peut-être
valu un bonheur éternel.”

311 See a very striking passage in Salvian, _De Gubern. Div._ lib. vi.

312 Chateaubriand very truly says, “qu’Orose et saint Augustin étoient
plus occupés du schisme de Pélage que de la désolation de l’Afrique
et des Gaules.”—_Études histor._ vime discours, 2de partie. The
remark might certainly be extended much further.

313 Zosimus, _Hist._ v. 41. This was on the first occasion when Rome was
menaced by Alaric.

314 See Merivale’s _Conversion of the Northern Nations_, pp. 207-210.

315 See Sismondi, _Hist. de la Chute de l’Empire romain_, tome i. p.
230.

316 Eunapius. There is no other authority for the story of the
treachery, which is not believed by Gibbon.

317 Sismondi, _Hist. de la Chute de l’Empire romain_, tome ii. pp.
52-54; Milman, _Hist. of Latin Christianity_, vol. ii. p. 213. The
Monophysites were greatly afflicted because, after the conquest, the
Mohammedans tolerated the orthodox believers as well as themselves,
and were unable to appreciate the distinction between them. In Gaul,
the orthodox clergy favoured the invasions of the Franks, who, alone
of the barbarian conquerors of Gaul, were Catholics, and St.
Aprunculus was obliged to fly, the Burgundians desiring to kill him
on account of his suspected connivance with the invaders. (Greg.
_Tur._ ii. 23.)

318 Dean Milman says of the Church, “if treacherous to the interests of
the Roman Empire, it was true to those of mankind.”—_Hist. of
Christianity_, vol. iii. p. 48. So Gibbon: “If the decline of the
Roman Empire was hastened by the conversion of Constantine, the
victorious religion broke the violence of the fall and mollified the
ferocious temper of the conquerors.”—Ch. xxxviii.

319 Observe with what a fine perception St. Augustine notices the
essentially unchristian character of the moral dispositions to which
the greatness of Rome was due. He quotes the sentence of Sallust:
“Civitas, incredibile memoratu est, adeptâ libertate quantum brevi
creverit, tanta cupido gloriæ incesserat;” and adds: “Ista ergo
laudis aviditas et cupido gloriæ multa illa miranda fecit,
laudabilia scilicet atque gloriosa secundum hominum existimationem
... causa honoris, laudis et gloriæ consuluerunt patriæ, in qua
ipsam gloriam requirebant, salutemque ejus saluti suæ præponere non
dubitaverunt, pro isto uno vitio, id est, amore laudis, pecuniæ
cupiditatem et multa alia vitia comprimentes.... Quid aliud amarent
quam gloriam, qua volebant etiam post mortem tanquam vivere in ore
laudantium?”—_De Civ. Dei_, v. 12-13.

320 “Præter majorum cineres atque ossa, volucri
Carpento rapitur pinguis Damasippus et ipse,
Ipse rotam stringit multo sufflamine consul;
Nocte quidem; sed luna videt, sed sidera testes
Intendunt oculos. Finitum tempus honoris
Quum fuerit, clara Damasippus luce flagellum Sumet.”—Juvenal, _Sat._
viii. 146.

_ 321 Nat. Quæst._ iv. 13. _Ep._ 78.

322 “Pessimum vitæ scelus fecit, qui id [aurum] primus induit digitis
... quisquis primus instituit cunctanter id fecit, lævisque manibus,
latentibusque induit.”—Plin. _Hist. Nat._ xxxiii. 4.

323 See a curious passage in his _Apologia_. It should be said that we
have only his own account of the charges brought against him.

324 The history of false hair has been written with much learning by M.
Guerle in his _Éloge des Perruques_.

325 The fullest view of this age is given in a very learned little work
by Peter Erasmus Müller (1797), _De Genio Ævi Theodosiani_.
Montfaucon has also devoted two essays to the moral condition of the
Eastern world, one of which is given in Jortin’s _Remarks on
Ecclesiastical History_.

326 See on these abuses Mosheim, _Eccl. Hist._ (Soame’s ed.), vol. i. p.
463; Cave’s _Primitive Christianity_, part i. ch. xi.

327 Cave’s _Primitive Christianity_, part i. ch. vii.

_ 328 Ep._ lxi.

329 Evagrius describes with much admiration how certain monks of
Palestine, by “a life wholly excellent and divine,” had so overcome
their passions that they were accustomed to bathe with women; for
“neither sight nor touch, nor a woman’s embrace, could make them
relapse into their natural condition. Among men they desired to be
men, and among women, women.” (_H. E._ i. 21.)

330 These “mulieres subintroductæ,” as they were called, are continually
noticed by Cyprian, Jerome, and Chrysostom. See Müller, _De Genio
Ævi Theodosiani_, and also the _Codex Theod._ xvi. tit. ii. lex 44,
with the Comments. Dr. Todd, in his learned _Life of St. Patrick_
(p. 91), quotes (I shall not venture to do so) from the _Lives of
the Irish Saints_ an extremely curious legend of a kind of contest
of sanctity between St. Scuthinus and St. Brendan, in which it was
clearly proved that the former had mastered his passions more
completely than the latter. An enthusiast named Robert
d’Arbrisselles is said in the twelfth century to have revived the
custom. (Jortin’s _Remarks_, A.D. 1106.)

331 St. Jerome gives (_Ep._ lii.) an extremely curious picture of these
clerical flatterers, and several examples of the terms of endearment
they were accustomed to employ. The tone of flattery which St.
Jerome himself, though doubtless with the purest motives, employs in
his copious correspondence with his female admirers, is to a modern
layman peculiarly repulsive, and sometimes verges upon blasphemy. In
his letter to Eustochium, whose daughter as a nun had become the
“bride of Christ,” he calls the mother “Socrus Dei,” the
mother-in-law of God. See, too, the extravagant flatteries of
Chrysostom in his correspondence with Olympias.

332 “Pudet dicere sacerdotes idolorum, mimi et aurigæ et scorta
hæreditates capiunt; solis clericis et monachis hoc lege prohibetur,
et prohibetur non a persecutoribus, sed a principibus Christianis.
Nec de lege conqueror sed doleo cur meruerimus hanc legem.” _Ep._
lii.

333 See Milman’s _Hist. of Early Christianity_, vol. ii. p. 314.

334 This was one cause of the disputes between St. Gregory the Great and
the Emperor Eustace. St. Chrysostom frequently notices the
opposition of the military and the monastic spirits.

335 Hieron. _Ep._ cxxviii.

336 St. Greg. Nyss. _Ad eund. Hieros_. Some Catholic writers have
attempted to throw doubt upon the genuineness of this epistle, but,
Dean Milman thinks, with no sufficient reason. Its account of
Jerusalem is to some extent corroborated by St. Jerome. (_Ad
Paulinum_, _Ep._ xxix.)

337 “Præterea non taceo charitati vestræ, quia omnibus servis Dei qui
hic vel in Scriptura vel in timore Dei probatissimi esse videntur,
displicet quod bonum et honestas et pudicitia vestræ ecclesiæ
illuditur; et aliquod levamentum turpitudinis esset, si prohiberet
synodus et principes vestri mulieribus et velatis feminis illud iter
et frequentiam, quam ad Romanam civitatem veniendo et redeundo
faciunt, quia magna ex parte pereunt, paucis remeantibus integris.
Perpaucæ enim sunt civitates in Longobardia vel in Francia aut in
Gallia in qua non sit adultera vel meretrix generis Anglorum, quod
scandalum est et turpitudo totius ecclesiæ vestræ.”—(A.D. 745) _Ep._
lxiii.

338 See Milman’s _Latin Christianity_, vol. ii. p. 8.

339 Tillemont, _Hist. eccl._ tome xi. p. 547.

340 This was enjoined in the rule of St. Paphnutius. See Tillemont, tome
x. p. 45.

341 “Omnimodis monachum fugere debere mulieres et episcopos.”—Cassian,
_De Cœnob. Inst._ xi. 17.

342 We also find now and then, though I think very rarely, intellectual
flashes of some brilliancy. Two of them strike me as especially
noteworthy. St. Arsenius refused to separate young criminals from
communion though he had no hesitation about old men; for he had
observed that young men speedily get accustomed and indifferent to
the state of excommunication, while old men feel continually, and
acutely, the separation. (Socrates, iv. 23.) St. Apollonius
explained the Egyptian idolatry with the most intelligent
rationalism. The ox, he thought, was in the first instance
worshipped for its domestic uses; the Nile, because it was the chief
cause of the fertility of the soil &c. (Rufinus, _Hist. Mon._ cap.
vii.)

343 Palladius, _Hist. Laus._ cap. xix.

344 Rufinus, _Hist. Monach._ cap. xxix.

345 Tillemont, _Hist. eccl._ tome viii. pp. 583, 584.

346 Ibid. p. 589.

347 Theodoret, _Philoth._ cap. iii.

_ 348 Verba Seniorum._

349 Theodoret, _Philoth._ cap. ii.

350 Tillemont, tome viii. pp. 594-595.

351 Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ viii. 1. Many anecdotes of elephants are
collected viii. 1-12. See, too, Dion Cassius, xxxix. 38.

352 Pliny, viii. 40.

353 Donne’s _Biathanatos_. p. 22. This habit of bees is mentioned by St.
Ambrose. The pelican, as is well known, afterwards became an emblem
of Christ.

354 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ x. 6.

355 A long list of legends about dogs is given by Legendre, in the very
curious chapter on animals, in his _Traité de l’Opinion_, tome i.
pp. 308-327.

356 Pliny tells some extremely pretty stories of this kind. (_Hist.
Nat._ ix. 8-9.) See, too, Aulus Gellius, xvi. 19. The dolphin, on
account of its love for its young, became a common symbol of Christ
among the early Christians.

357 A very full account of the opinions, both of ancient and modern
philosophers, concerning the souls of animals, is given by Bayle,
_Dict._ arts. “Pereira E,” “Rorarius K.”

358 The Jewish law did not confine its care to oxen. The reader will
remember the touching provision, “Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his
mother’s milk” (Deut. xiv. 21); and the law forbidding men to take a
parent bird that was sitting on its young or on its eggs. (Deut.
xxii. 6, 7.)

359 “Cujus tanta fuit apud antiquos veneratio, ut tam capital esset
bovem necuisse quam civem.”—Columella, lib. vi. in proœm. “Hic
socius hominum in rustico opere et Cereris minister. Ab hoc antiqui
manus ita abstinere voluerunt ut capite sanxerint si quis
occidisset.”—Varro, _De Re Rustic._ lib. ii. cap. v.

360 See Legendre, tome ii. p. 338. The sword with which the priest
sacrificed the ox was afterwards pronounced accursed. (Ælian, _Hist.
Var._ lib. viii. cap. iii.)

361 Diog. Laërt. _Xenocrates_.

362 There is a story told by Herodotus (i. 157-159) of an ambassador who
was sent by his fellow-countrymen to consult an oracle at Miletus
about a suppliant who had taken refuge with the Cymæans and was
demanded with menace by his enemies. The oracle, being bribed,
enjoined the surrender. The ambassador on leaving, with seeming
carelessness disturbed the sparrows under the portico of the temple,
when the voice from behind the altar denounced his impiety for
disturbing the guests of the gods. The ambassador replied with an
obvious and withering retort. Ælian says (_Hist. Var._) that the
Athenians condemned to death a boy for killing a sparrow that had
taken refuge in the temple of Æsculapius.

363 Quintilian, _Inst._ v. 9.

364 In the same way we find several chapters in the _Zendavesta_ about
the criminality of injuring dogs; which is explained by the great
importance of shepherd’s dogs to a pastoral people.

365 On the origin of Greek cock-fighting, see Ælian, _Hist. Var._ ii.
28. Many particulars about it are given by Athenæus. Chrysippus
maintained that cock-fighting was the final cause of cocks, these
birds being made by Providence in order to inspire us by the example
of their courage. (Plutarch, _De Repug. Stoic._) The Greeks do not,
however, appear to have known “cock-throwing,” the favourite English
game of throwing a stick called a “cock-stick” at cocks. It was a
very ancient and very popular amusement, and was practised
especially on Shrove Tuesday, and by school-boys. Sir Thomas More
had been famous for his skill in it. (Strutt’s _Sports and
Pastimes_, p. 283.) Three origins of it have been given:—1st, that
in the Danish wars the Saxons failed to surprise a certain city in
consequence of the crowing of cocks, and had in consequence a great
hatred of that bird; 2nd, that the cocks (_galli_) were special
representatives of Frenchmen, with whom the English were constantly
at war; and 3rd, that they were connected with the denial of St.
Peter. As Sir Charles Sedley said:—

“Mayst thou be punished for St. Peter’s crime,
And on Shrove Tuesday perish in thy prime.”

Knight’s _Old England_, vol. ii. p. 126.

_ 366 De Natura Rerum_, lib. ii.

_ 367 Life of Marc. Cato._

368 “Quid meruere boves, animal sine fraude dolisque,
Innocuum, simplex, natum tolerare labores?
Immemor est demum nec frugum munere dignus.
Qui potuit curvi dempto modo pondere aratri
Ruricolam mactare suum.”—

_Metamorph._ xv. 120-124.

369 “Cujus
Turbavit nitidos extinctus passer ocellos.”

Juvenal, _Sat._ vi. 7-8.

There is a little poem in Catullus (iii.) to console his mistress
upon the death of her favourite sparrow; and Martial more than once
alludes to the pets of the Roman ladies.

Compare the charming description of the Prioress, in Chaucer:—

“She was so charitable and so pitous,
She wolde wepe if that she saw a
mous Caught in a trappe, if it were ded or bledde.
Of smale houndes had she that she fedde
With rosted flesh and milke and wastel brede,
But sore wept she if one of them were dede,
Or if men smote it with a yerde smert:
And all was conscience and tendre herte.”

_Prologue to the __“__Canterbury Tales.__”_

370 Philost. _Apol._ i. 38.

371 See the curious chapter in his Κυνηγετικός, xvi. and compare it with
No. 116 in the _Spectator_.

372 In his _De Abstinentia Carnis_. The controversy between Origen and
Celsus furnishes us with a very curious illustration of the
extravagances into which some Pagans of the third century fell about
animals. Celsus objected to the Christian doctrine about the
position of men in the universe, that many of the animals were at
least the equals of men both in reason, religious feeling, and
knowledge. (Orig. _Cont. Cels._ lib. iv.)

373 These views are chiefly defended in his two tracts on eating flesh.
Plutarch has also recurred to the subject, incidentally, in several
other works, especially in a very beautiful passage in his _Life of
Marcus Cato_.

374 See, for example, a striking passage in Clem. Alex. _Strom._ lib.
ii. St. Clement imagines Pythagoras had borrowed his sentiments on
this subject from Moses.

375 There is, I believe, no record of any wild beast combats existing
among the Jews, and the rabbinical writers have been remarkable for
the great emphasis with which they inculcated the duty of kindness
to animals. See some passages from them, cited in Wollaston,
_Religion of Nature_, sec. ii., note. Maimonides believed in a
future life for animals, to recompense them for their sufferings
here. (Bayle, _Dict._ art, “Rorarius D.”) There is a curious
collection of the opinions of different writers on this last point
in a little book called the _Rights of Animals_, by William Drummond
(London, 1838), pp. 197-205.

376 Thus St. Paul (1 Cor. ix. 9) turned aside the precept, “Thou shalt
not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn,” from its
natural meaning, with the contemptuous question, “Doth God take care
for oxen?”

377 I have taken these illustrations from the collection of hermit
literature in Rosweyde, from different volumes of the Bollandists,
from the _Dialogues_ of Sulpicius Severus, and from what is perhaps
the most interesting of all collections of saintly legends, Colgan’s
_Acta Sanctorum Hiberniæ_. M. Alfred Maury, in his most valuable
work, _Légendes pieuses du Moyen Age_, has examined minutely the
part played by animals in symbolising virtues and vices, and has
shown the way in which the same incidents were repeated, with slight
variations, in different legends. M. de Montalembert has devoted
what is probably the most beautiful chapter of his _Moines
d’Occident_ (“Les Moines et la Nature”) to the relations of monks to
the animal world; but the numerous legends he cites are all, with
one or two exceptions, different from those I have given.

378 Chateaubriand speaks, however (_Études historiques_, étude vime, 1re
partie), of an old Gallic law, forbidding to throw a stone at an ox
attached to the plough, or to make its yoke too tight.

379 Bollandists, May 31. Leonardo da Vinci is said to have had the same
fondness for buying and releasing caged birds, and (to go back a
long way) Pythagoras to have purchased one day, near Metapontus,
from some fishermen all the fish in their net, that he might have
the pleasure of releasing them. (Apuleius, _Apologia_.)

380 See these legends collected by Hase (_St Francis. Assisi_). It is
said of Cardinal Bellarmine that he used to allow vermin to bite
him, saying, “We shall have heaven to reward us for our sufferings,
but these poor creatures have nothing but the enjoyment of this
present life.” (Bayle, _Dict. philos._ art. “Bellarmine.”)

381 I have noticed, in my _History of Rationalism_, that, although some
Popes did undoubtedly try to suppress Spanish bull-fights, this was
solely on account of the destruction of human life they caused. Full
details on this subject will be found in Concina, _De Spectaculis_
(Romæ, 1752). Bayle says, “Il n’y a point de casuiste qui croie
qu’on pèche en faisant combattre des taureaux contre des dogues,”
&c. (_Dict. philos._ “Rorarius, C.”)

382 On the ancient amusements of England the reader may consult
Seymour’s _Survey of London_ (1734), vol. i. pp. 227-235; Strutt’s
_Sports and Pastimes of the English People_. Cock-fighting was a
favourite children’s amusement in England as early as the twelfth
century. (Hampson’s _Medii Ævi Kalendarii_, vol. i. p. 160.) It was,
with foot-ball and several other amusements, for a time suppressed
by Edward III., on the ground that they were diverting the people
from archery, which was necessary to the military greatness of
England.

383 The decline of these amusements in England began with the great
development of the theatre under Elizabeth. An order of the Privy
Council in July, 1591, prohibits the exhibition of plays on
Thursday, because on Thursdays bear-baiting and suchlike pastimes
had been usually practised, and an injunction to the same effect was
sent to the Lord Mayor, wherein it was stated that, “in divers
places the players do use to recite their plays, to the great hurt
and destruction of the game of bear-baiting and like pastimes, which
are maintained for Her Majesty’s pleasure.”—Nichols, _Progresses of
Queen Elizabeth_ (ed. 1823), vol. i. p. 438. The reader will
remember the picture in _Kenilworth_ of the Earl of Sussex
petitioning Elizabeth against Shakespeare, on the ground of his
plays distracting men from bear-baiting. Elizabeth (see Nichols) was
extremely fond of bear-baiting. James I. especially delighted in
cock-fighting, and in 1610 was present at a great fight between a
lion and a bear. (Hone, _Every Day Book_, vol. i. pp. 255-299.) The
theatres, however, rapidly multiplied, and a writer who lived about
1629 said, “that no less than seventeen playhouses had been built in
or about London within threescore years.” (Seymour’s _Survey_, vol.
i. p. 229.) The Rebellion suppressed all public amusements, and when
they were re-established after the Restoration, it was found that
the tastes of the better classes no longer sympathised with the
bear-garden. Pepys (_Diary_, August 14, 1666) speaks of bull-baiting
as “a very rude and nasty pleasure,” and says he had not been in the
bear-garden for many years. Evelyn (_Diary_, June 16, 1670), having
been present at these shows, describes them as “butcherly sports, or
rather barbarous cruelties,” and says he had not visited them before
for twenty years. A paper in the _Spectator_ (No. 141, written in
1711) talks of those who “seek their diversion at the bear-garden,
... where reason and good manners have no right to disturb them.” In
1751, however, Lord Kames was able to say, “The bear garden, which
is one of the chief entertainments of the English, is held in
abhorrence by the French and other polite nations.”—_Essay on
Morals_ (1st ed.), p. 7; and he warmly defends (p. 30) the English
taste. During the latter half of the last century there was constant
controversy on the subject (which may be traced in the pages of the
_Annual Register_), and several forgotten clergymen published
sermons upon it, and the frequent riots resulting from the fact that
the bear-gardens had become the resort of the worst classes assisted
the movement. The London magistrates took measures to suppress
cock-throwing in 1769 (Hampson’s _Med. Æv. Kalend._ p. 160); but
bull-baiting continued far into the present century. Windham and
Canning strongly defended it; Dr. Parr is said to have been fond of
it (_Southey’s Commonplace Book_, vol. iv. p. 585); and as late as
1824, Sir Robert (then Mr) Peel argued strongly against its
prohibition. (_Parliamentary Debates_, vol. x. pp. 132-133,
491-495.)

384 Bacon, in an account of the deficiencies of medicine, recommends
vivisection in terms that seem to imply that it was not practised in
his time. “As for the passages and pores, it is true, which was
anciently noted, that the more subtle of them appear not in
anatomies, because they are shut and latent in dead bodies, though
they be open and manifest in live; which being supposed, though the
inhumanity of _anatomia vivorum_ was by Celsus justly reproved, yet,
in regard of the great use of this observation, the enquiry needed
not by him so slightly to have been relinquished altogether, or
referred to the casual practices of surgery; but might have been
well diverted upon the dissection of beasts alive, which,
notwithstanding the dissimilitude of their parts, may sufficiently
satisfy this enquiry.”—_Advancement of Learning_, x. 4. Harvey
speaks of vivisections as having contributed to lead him to the
discovery of the circulation of the blood. (Acland’s _Harveian
Oration_ (1865), p. 55.) Bayle, describing the treatment of animals
by men, says, “Nous fouillons dans leurs entrailles pendant leur vie
afin de satisfaire notre curiosité.”—_Dict. philos._ art. “Rorarius,
C.” Public opinion in England was very strongly directed to the
subject in the present century, by the atrocious cruelties
perpetrated by Majendie at his lectures. See a most frightful
account of them in a speech by Mr. Martin (an eccentric Irish
member, who was generally ridiculed during his life, and has been
almost forgotten since his death, but to whose untiring exertions
the legislative protection of animals in England is
due).—_Parliament. Hist._ vol. xii. p. 652. Mandeville, in his day,
was a very strong advocate of kindness to animals.—_Commentary on
the Fable of the Bees._

385 See his _Life_ by Sulpicius Severus.

386 Milman.

387 Greg. Turon. ii. 29.

388 This was the first step towards the conversion of the
Bulgarians.—Milman’s _Latin Christianity_, vol. iii. p. 249.

389 A remarkable collection of instances of this kind is given by
Ozanam, _Civilisation in the Fifth Century_ (Eng. trans.), vol. i.
pp. 124-127.

390 St. Gregory, _Dial._ iii. 7. The particular temptation the Jew heard
discussed was that of the bishop of the diocese, who, under the
instigation of one of the dæmons, was rapidly falling in love with a
nun, and had proceeded so far as jocosely to stroke her on the back.
The Jew, having related the vision to the bishop, the latter
reformed his manners, the Jew became a Christian, and the temple was
turned into a church.

391 William of Malmesbury, ii. 13.

392 See Milman’s _Hist. of Latin Christianity_, vol. ii. p. 293.

393 Cassian. _Cœnob. Instit._ v. 4. See, too, some striking instances of
this in the life of St. Antony.

394 This spiritual pride is well noticed by Neander, _Ecclesiastical
History_ (Bohn’s ed.), vol. iii. pp. 321-323. It appears in many
traits scattered through the lives of these saints. I have already
cited the visions telling St. Antony and St. Macarius that they were
not the best of living people; and also the case of the hermit, who
was deceived by a devil in the form of a woman, because he had been
exalted by pride. Another hermit, being very holy, received pure
white bread every day from heaven, but, being extravagantly elated,
the bread got worse and worse till it became perfectly black.
(Tillemont, tome x. pp. 27-28.) A certain Isidore affirmed that he
had not been conscious of sin, even in thought, for forty years.
(Socrates, iv. 23.) It was a saying of St. Antony, that a solitary
man in the desert is free from three wars—of sight, speech, and
hearing: he has to combat only fornication. (_Apothegmata Patrum._)

395 “Pride, under such training [that of modern rationalistic
philosophy], instead of running to waste, is turned to account. It
gets a new name; it is called self-respect.... It is directed into
the channel of industry, frugality, honesty, and obedience, and it
becomes the very staple of the religion and morality held in honour
in a day like our own. It becomes the safeguard of chastity, the
guarantee of veracity, in high and low; it is the very household god
of the Protestant, inspiring neatness and decency in the
servant-girl, propriety of carriage and refined manners in her
mistress, uprightness, manliness, and generosity in the head of the
family.... It is the stimulating principle of providence on the one
hand, and of free expenditure on the other; of an honourable
ambition and of elegant enjoyment.”—Newman, _On University
Education_, Discourse ix. In the same lecture (which is, perhaps,
the most beautiful of the many beautiful productions of its
illustrious author), Dr. Newman describes, with admirable eloquence,
the manner in which modesty has supplanted humility in the modern
type of excellence. It is scarcely necessary to say that the
lecturer strongly disapproves of the movement he describes.

396 Thus “indagatio veri” was reckoned among the leading virtues, and
the high place given to σοφία and “prudentia” in ethical writings
preserved the notion of the moral duties connected with the
discipline of the intellect.

397 St. Augustine reckoned eighty-eight sects as existing in his time.

398 See a full account of these persecutions in Tillemont, _Mém.
d’Histoire ecclés._ tome vi.

399 Socrates, _H. E._, iv. 16. This anecdote is much doubted by modern
historians.

400 Milman’s _Hist. of Christianity_ (ed. 1867), vol. ii. p. 422.

401 St. Athanasius, _Historical Treatises_ (Library of the Fathers), pp.
192, 284.

402 Milman, _Hist. of Christianity_, ii. pp. 436-437.

403 The death of Arius, as is well known, took place suddenly (his
bowels, it is said, coming out) when he was just about to make his
triumphal entry into the Cathedral of Constantinople. The death
(though possibly natural) never seems to have been regarded as such,
but it was a matter of controversy whether it was a miracle or a
murder.

404 Socrates, _H. E._, vii. 13-15.

405 Milman, _Hist. of Latin Christianity_, vol. i. pp. 214-215.

406 Milman, _Hist. of Christianity_, vol. iii. p. 145.

407 Milman, _Hist. of Latin Christianity_, vol. i. pp. 290-291.

408 Ibid. vol. i. pp. 310-311.

409 Milman, _Hist. of Latin Christianity_, vol. i. pp. 314-318. Dean
Milman thus sums up the history: “Monks in Alexandria, monks in
Antioch, monks in Jerusalem, monks in Constantinople, decide
peremptorily on orthodoxy and heterodoxy. The bishops themselves
cower before them. Macedonius in Constantinople, Flavianus in
Antioch, Elias in Jerusalem, condemn themselves and abdicate, or are
driven from their sees. Persecution is universal—persecution by
every means of violence and cruelty; the only question is, in whose
hands is the power to persecute.... Bloodshed, murder, treachery,
assassination, even during the public worship of God—these are the
frightful means by which each party strives to maintain its opinions
and to defeat its adversary.”

410 See a striking passage from Julianus of Eclana, cited by Milman,
_Hist. of Latin Christianity_, vol. i. p. 164.

411 “Nowhere is Christianity less attractive than in the Councils of the
Church.... Intrigue, injustice, violence, decisions on authority
alone, and that the authority of a turbulent majority, ... detract
from the reverence and impugn the judgments of at least the later
Councils. The close is almost invariably a terrible anathema, in
which it is impossible not to discern the tones of human hatred, of
arrogant triumph, of rejoicing at the damnation imprecated against
the humiliated adversary.”—Ibid. vol. i. p. 202.

412 See the account of this scene in Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_, ch.
xlvii.; Milman, _Hist. of Latin Christianity_, vol. i. p. 263. There
is a conflict of authorities as to whether the Bishop of Alexandria
himself kicked his adversary, or, to speak more correctly, the act
which is charged against him by some contemporary writers is not
charged against him by others. The violence was certainly done by
his followers and in his presence.

413 Ammianus Marcellinus, xxvii. 3.

414 Cyprian, _Ep._ lxi.

415 Milman, _Hist. of Christianity_, vol. ii. p. 306.

416 Ibid. iii. 10.

417 “By this time the Old Testament language and sentiment with regard
to idolatry were completely incorporated with the Christian feeling;
and when Ambrose enforced on a Christian Emperor the sacred duty of
intolerance against opinions and practices which scarcely a century
before had been the established religion of the Empire, his zeal was
supported by almost the unanimous applause of the Christian
world.”—Milman’s _Hist. of Christianity_, vol. iii. p. 159.

418 See the Theodosian laws of Paganism.

419 This appears from the whole history of the controversy; but the
prevailing feeling is, I think, expressed with peculiar vividness in
the following passage:—“Eadmer says (following the words of Bede) in
Colman’s times there was a sharp controversy about the observing of
Easter, and other rules of life for churchmen; therefore, this
question deservedly excited the minds and feeling of many people,
fearing lest, perhaps, after having received the name of Christians,
they should run, or had run in vain.”—King’s _Hist. of the Church of
Ireland_, book ii. ch. vi.

420 Gibbon, chap. lxiii.

421 An interesting sketch of this very interesting prelate has lately
been written by M. Druon, _Étude sur la Vie et les Œuvres de
Synésius_ (Paris, 1859).

422 Tradition has pronounced Gregory the Great to have been the
destroyer of the Palatine library, and to have been especially
zealous in burning the writings of Livy, because they described the
achievements of the Pagan gods. For these charges, however (which I
am sorry to find repeated by so eminent a writer as Dr. Draper),
there is no real evidence, for they are not found in any writer
earlier than the twelfth century. (See Bayle, _Dict._ art. “Greg.”)
The extreme contempt of Gregory for Pagan literature is, however,
sufficiently manifested in his famous and very curious letter to
Desiderius, Bishop of Vienne, rebuking him for having taught certain
persons Pagan literature, and thus mingled “the praises of Jupiter
with the praises of Christ;” doing what would be impious even for a
religious layman, “polluting the mind with the blasphemous praises
of the wicked.” Some curious evidence of the feelings of the
Christians of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, about Pagan
literature, is given in Guinguené, _Hist. littéraire de l’Italie_,
tome i. p. 29-31, and some legends of a later period are candidly
related by one of the most enthusiastic English advocates of the
Middle Ages. (Maitland, _Dark Ages_.)

423 Probably the best account of the intellectual history of these times
is still to be found in the admirable introductory chapters with
which the Benedictines prefaced each century of their _Hist.
littéraire de la France_. The Benedictines think (with Hallam) that
the eighth century was, on the whole, the darkest on the continent,
though England attained its lowest point somewhat later. Of the
great protectors of learning Theodoric was unable to write (see
Guinguené, tome i. p. 31), and Charlemagne (Eginhard) only began to
learn when advanced in life, and was never quite able to master the
accomplishment. Alfred, however, was distinguished in literature.

424 The belief that the world was just about to end was, as is well
known, very general among the early Christians, and greatly affected
their lives. It appears in the New Testament, and very clearly in
the epistle ascribed to Barnabas in the first century. The
persecutions of the second and third centuries revived it, and both
Tertullian and Cyprian (_in Demetrianum_) strongly assert it. With
the triumph of Christianity the apprehension for a time subsided;
but it reappeared with great force when the dissolution of the
Empire was manifestly impending, when it was accomplished, and in
the prolonged anarchy and suffering that ensued. Gregory of Tours,
writing in the latter part of the sixth century, speaks of it as
very prevalent (_Prologue to the First Book_); and St. Gregory the
Great, about the same time, constantly expresses it. The panic that
filled Europe at the end of the tenth century has been often
described.

425 Maitland’s _Dark Ages_, p. 403.

426 This passion for scraping MSS. became common, according to
Montfaucon, after the twelfth century. (Maitland, p. 40.) According
to Hallam, however (_Middle Ages_, ch. ix. part i.), it must have
begun earlier, being chiefly caused by the cessation or great
diminution of the supply of Egyptian papyrus, in consequence of the
capture of Alexandria by the Saracens, early in the seventh century.

427 Bede, _H. E._ iv. 24.

428 Mariana, _De Rebus Hispaniæ_, vi. 7. Mariana says the stone was in
his time preserved as a relic.

429 Odericus Vitalis, quoted by Maitland (_Dark Ages_, pp. 268-269). The
monk was restored to life that he might have an opportunity of
reformation. The escape was a narrow one, for there was only one
letter against which no sin could be adduced—a remarkable instance
of the advantages of a diffuse style.

430 Digby, _Mores Catholici_, book x. p. 246. Matthew of Westminster
tells of a certain king who was very charitable, and whose right
hand (which had assuaged many sorrows) remained undecayed after
death (A.D. 644).

431 See Hauréau, _Hist. de la Philosophie scolastique_, tome i. pp.
24-25.

432 On the progress of Roman civilisation in Britain, see Tacitus,
_Agricola_, xxi.

433 See the Benedictine _Hist. littér. de la France_, tome i. part ii.
p. 9.

434 A biographer of St. Thomas Aquinas modestly observes:—“L’opinion
généralement répandue parmi les théologiens c’est que la _Somme de
Théologie_ de St. Thomas est non-seulement son chef-d’œuvre mais
aussi celui de l’esprit humain.” (!!)—Carle, _Hist. de St.-Thomas
d’Aquin_, p. 140.

435 See Viardot, _Hist. des Arabes en Espagne_, ii. 142-166. Prescott’s
_Ferdinand and Isabella_, ch. viii. Viardot contends that the
compass—which appears to have been long known in China—was first
introduced into Europe by the Mohammedans; but the evidence of this
appears inconclusive.

436 Herder.

437 “Impius ne audeto placare donis iram Deorum.”—Cicero, _De Leg._ ii.
9. See, too, Philost. _Apoll. Tyan._ i. 11.

438 There are three or four instances of this related by Porphyry, _De
Abstin. Carnis_, lib. ii.

439 Muratori, _Antich. Italiane_, diss. lxvii.

440 See, on the causes of the wealth of the monasteries, two admirable
dissertations by Muratori, _Antich. Italiane_, lxvii., lxviii.;
Hallam’s _Middle Ages_, ch. vii. part i.

441 “Lors de l’établissement du christianisme la religion avoit
essentiellement consisté dans l’enseignement moral; elle avoit
exercé les cœurs et les âmes par la recherche de ce qui étoit
vraiment beau, vraiment honnête. Au cinquième siècle on l’avoit
surtout attachée à l’orthodoxie, au septième on l’avoit réduite à la
bienfaisance envers les couvens.”—Sismondi, _Hist. des Français_,
tome ii. p. 50.

442 Mr. Hallam, speaking of the legends of the miracles of saints, says:
“It must not be supposed that these absurdities were produced as
well as nourished by ignorance. In most cases they were the work of
deliberate imposture. Every cathedral or monastery had its tutelar
saint, and every saint his legend, fabricated in order to enrich the
churches under his protection, by exaggerating his virtues, his
miracles, and consequently his power of serving those who paid
liberally for his patronage.”—_Middle Ages_, ch. ix. part i. I do
not think this passage makes sufficient allowance for the
unconscious formation of many saintly myths, but no impartial person
can doubt its substantial truth.

443 Sismondi, _Hist. des Français_, tome ii. pp. 54, 62-63.

444 Milman’s _Hist. of Latin Christianity_, vol. ii. p. 257.

445 Durandus, a French bishop of the thirteenth century, tells how,
“when a certain bishop was consecrating a church built out of the
fruits of usury and pillage, he saw behind the altar the devil in a
pontifical vestment, standing at the bishop’s throne, who said unto
the bishop, ‘Cease from consecrating the church; for it pertaineth
to my jurisdiction, since it is built from the fruits of usuries and
robberies.’ Then the bishop and the clergy having fled thence in
fear, immediately the devil destroyed that church with a great
noise.”—_Rationale Divinorum_, i. 6 (translated for the Camden
Society).

A certain St. Launomar is said to have refused a gift for his
monastery from a rapacious noble, because he was sure it was derived
from pillage. (Montalembert’s _Moines d’Occident_, tome ii. pp.
350-351.) When prostitutes were converted in the early Church, it
was the rule that the money of which they had become possessed
should never be applied to ecclesiastical purposes, but should be
distributed among the poor.

_ 446 Verba Seniorum_, Prol. § 172.

447 This vision is not related by St. Gregory himself, and some
Catholics are perplexed about it, on account of the vision of
another saint, who afterwards asked whether Trajan was saved, and
received for answer, “I wish men to rest in ignorance of this
subject, that the Catholics may become stronger. For this emperor,
though he had great virtues, was an unbaptised infidel.” The whole
subject of the vision of St. Gregory is discussed by Champagny, _Les
Antonins_, tome i. pp. 372-373. This devout writer says, “Cette
légende fut acceptée par tout le moyen-âge, _indulgent pour les
païens illustres_ et tout disposé à les supposer chrétiens et
sauvés.”

448 See the solemn asseveration of the care which he took in going only
to the most credible and authorised sources for his materials, in
the Preface to the First Book of _Dialogues_.

_ 449 Dial._ iv. 36.

450 Ibid. iv. 30.

451 Ibid. iv. 35.

452 The fullest collection of these visions with which I am acquainted
is that made for the Philobiblion Society (vol. ix.), by M.
Delepierre, called _L’Enfer décrit par ceux qui l’ont vu_, of which
I have largely availed myself. See, too, Rusca _De Inferno_,
Wright’s _Purgatory of St. Patrick_, and an interesting collection
of visions given by Mr. Longfellow, in his translation of Dante. The
Irish saints were, I am sorry to say, prominent in producing this
branch of literature. St. Fursey, whose vision is one of the
earliest, and Tondale, or Tundale, whose vision is one of the most
detailed, were both Irish. The English historians contain several of
these visions. Bede relates two or three—William of Malmesbury that
of Charles the Fat; Matthew Paris three visions of purgatory.

453 The narrow bridge over hell (in some visions covered with spikes),
which is a conspicuous feature in the Mohammedan pictures of the
future world, appears very often in Catholic visions. See Greg. Tur.
iv. 33; St. Greg. _Dial._ iv. 36; and the vision of Tundale, in
Delepierre.

454 Few Englishmen, I imagine, are aware of the infamous publications
written with this object, that are circulated by the Catholic
priests among the poor. I have before me a tract “for children and
young persons,” called _The Sight of Hell_, by the Rev. J. Furniss,
C.S.S.R., published “permissu superiorum,” by Duffy (Dublin and
London). It is a detailed description of the dungeons of hell, and a
few sentences may serve as a sample. “See! on the middle of that
red-hot floor stands a girl; she looks about sixteen years old. Her
feet are bare. She has neither shoes nor stockings.... Listen! she
speaks. She says, I have been standing on this red-hot floor for
years. Day and night my only standing-place has been this red-hot
floor.... Look at my burnt and bleeding feet. Let me go off this
burning floor for one moment, only for one single short moment....
The fourth dungeon is the boiling kettle ... in the middle of it
there is a boy.... His eyes are burning like two burning coals. Two
long flames come out of his ears.... Sometimes he opens his mouth,
and blazing fire rolls out. But listen! there is a sound like a
kettle boiling.... The blood is boiling in the scalded veins of that
boy. The brain is boiling and bubbling in his head. The marrow is
boiling in his bones.... The fifth dungeon is the red-hot oven....
The little child is in this red-hot oven. Hear how it screams to
come out. See how it turns and twists itself about in the fire. It
beats its head against the roof of the oven. It stamps its little
feet on the floor.... God was very good to this child. Very likely
God saw it would get worse and worse, and would never repent, and so
it would have to be punished much more in hell. So God in His mercy
called it out of the world in its early childhood.” If the reader
desires to follow this subject further, he may glance over a
companion tract by the same reverend gentleman, called _A Terrible
Judgment on a Little Child_; and also a book on _Hell_, translated
from the Italian of Pinamonti, and with illustrations depicting the
various tortures.

455 St. Greg. _Dial._ iv. 38.

456 Ibid. iv. 18.

457 Alger’s _History of the Doctrine of a Future Life_ (New York, 1866),
p. 414. The ignis fatuus was sometimes supposed to be the soul of an
unbaptised child. There is, I believe, another Catholic legend about
the redbreast, of a very different kind—that its breast was stained
with blood when it was trying to pull out the thorns from the crown
of Christ.

458 Wright’s _Purgatory of St. Patrick_, p. 26. M. Delepierre quotes a
curious theory of Father Hardouin (who is chiefly known for his
suggestion that the classics were composed by the mediæval monks)
that the rotation of the earth is caused by the lost souls trying to
escape from the fire that is at the centre of the globe, climbing,
in consequence, on the inner crust of the earth, which is the wall
of hell, and thus making the whole revolve, as the squirrel by
climbing turns its cage! (_L’Enfer décrit par ceux qui l’ont vu_, p.
151.)

459 Delepierre, p. 70.

460 Thus, in a book which was attributed (it is said erroneously) to
Jeremy Taylor, we find two singularly unrhetorical and unimpassioned
chapters, deliberately enumerating the most atrocious acts of
cruelty in human history, and maintaining that they are surpassed by
the tortures inflicted by the Deity. A few instances will suffice.
Certain persons “put rings of iron, stuck full of sharp points of
needles, about their arms and feet, in such a manner as the
prisoners could not move without wounding themselves; then they
compassed them about with fire, to the end that, standing still,
they might be burnt alive, and if they stirred the sharp points
pierced their flesh.... What, then, shall be the torment of the
damned where they shall burn eternally without dying, and without
possibility of removing?... Alexander, the son of Hyrcanus, caused
eight hundred to be crucified, and whilst they were yet alive caused
their wives and children to be murdered before their eyes, that so
they might not die once, but many deaths. This rigour shall not be
wanting in hell.... Mezentius tied a living body to a dead until the
putrefied exhalations of the dead had killed the living.... What is
this in respect of hell, when each body of the damned is more
loathsome and unsavoury than a million of dead dogs?... Bonaventure
says, if one of the damned were brought into this world it were
sufficient to infect the whole earth.... We are amazed to think of
the inhumanity of Phalaris, who roasted men alive in his brazen
bull. That was a joy in respect of that fire of hell.... This
torment ... comprises as many torments as the body of man has
joints, sinews, arteries, &c., being caused by that penetrating and
real fire, of which this temporal fire is but a painted fire....
What comparison will there be between burning for a hundred years’
space, and to be burning without interruption as long as God is
God?”—_Contemplations on the State of Man_, book ii. ch. 6-7, in
Heber’s Edition of the works of Taylor.

461 Perrone, _Historiæ Theologiæ cum Philosophia comparata Synopsis_, p.
29. Peter Lombard’s work was published in A.D. 1160.

462 “Postremo quæritur, An pœna reproborum visa decoloret gloriam
beatorum? an eorum beatitudini proficiat? De hoc ita Gregorius ait,
Apud animum justorum non obfuscat beatitudinem aspecta pœna
reproborum; quia ubi jam compassio miseriæ non erit, minuere
beatorum lætitiam non valebit. Et licet justis sua gaudia
sufficiant, ad majorem gloriam vident pœnas malorum quas per gratiam
evaserunt.... Egredientur ergo electi, non loco, sed intelligentia
vel visione manifesta ad videndum impiorum cruciatus; quos videntes
non dolore afficientur sed lætitia satiabuntur, agentes gratias de
sua liberatione visa impiorum ineffabili calamitate. Unde Esaias
impiorum tormenta describens et ex eorum visione lætitiam bonorum
exprimens, ait, Egredientur electi scilicet et videbunt cadavera
virorum qui prævaricati sunt in me. Vermis eorum non morietur et
ignis non extinguetur, et erunt usque ad satietatem visionis omni
carni, id est electis. Lætabitur justus cum viderit
vindictam.”—Peter Lombard, _Senten._ lib. iv. finis. These amiable
views have often been expressed both by Catholic and by Puritan
divines. See Alger’s _Doctrine of a Future Life_, p. 541.

_ 463 Legenda Aurea._ There is a curious fresco representing this
transaction, on the portal of the church of St. Lorenzo, near Rome.

464 Aimoni, _De Gestis Francorum Hist._ iv. 34.

465 Turpin’s _Chronicle_, ch. 32. In the vision of Watlin, however (A.D.
824), Charlemagne was seen tortured in purgatory on account of his
excessive love of women. (Delepierre, _L’Enfer décrit par ceux qui
l’ont vu_, pp. 27-28.)

466 As the Abbé Mably observes: “On croyoit en quelque sorte dans ces
siècles grossiers que l’avarice étoit le premier attribut de Dieu,
et que les saints faisoient un commerce de leur crédit et de leur
protection. De-là les richesses immenses données aux églises par des
hommes dont les mœurs déshonoroient la religion.”—_Observations sur
l’Hist. de France_, i. 4.

467 Many curious examples of the way in which the Troubadours burlesqued
the monkish visions of hell are given by Delepierre, p.
144.—Wright’s _Purgatory of St. Patrick_, pp. 47-52.

468 Comte, _Philosophie positive_, tome v. p. 269.

469 “Saint-Bernard, dans son sermon _De obitu Humberti_, affirme que
tous les tourments de cette vie sont joies si on les compare à une
seconde des peines du purgatoire. ‘Imaginez-vous donc, délicates
dames,’ dit le père Valladier (1613) dans son sermon du 3me dimanche
de l’Avent, ‘d’estre au travers de vos chenets, sur vostre petit feu
pour une centaine d’ans: ce n’est rien au respect d’un moment de
purgatoire. Mais si vous vistes jamais tirer quelqu’un à quatre
chevaux, quelqu’un brusler à petit feu, enrager de faim ou de soif,
une heure de purgatoire est pire que tout cela.’ ”—Meray, _Les
Libres Prêcheurs_ (Paris, 1860), pp. 130-131 (an extremely curious
and suggestive book). I now take up the first contemporary book of
popular Catholic devotion on this subject which is at hand, and
read: “Compared with the pains of purgatory, then, all those wounds
and dark prisons, all those wild beasts, hooks of iron, red-hot
plates, &c., which the holy martyrs suffered, are nothing.” “They
(souls in purgatory) are in a real, though miraculous manner,
tortured by fire, which is of the same kind (says Bellarmine) as our
element fire.” “The Angelic Doctor affirms ‘that the fire which
torments the damned is like the fire which purges the elect.’ ”
“What agony will not those holy souls suffer when tied and bound
with the most tormenting chains of a living fire like to that of
hell! and we, while able to make them free and happy, shall we stand
like uninterested spectators?” “St. Austin is of opinion that the
pains of a soul in purgatory during the time required to open and
shut one’s eye is more severe than what St. Lawrence suffered on the
gridiron;” and much more to the same effect. (_Purgatory opened to
the Piety of the Faithful._ Richardson, London.)