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and perfect knowledge after which the heathen vainly sighed. In the asemblies of the faithful a language was spoken which none but the faithful could understand; for, says St. Bernard, as a man "without knowledge of Greek cannot understand him who speaketh in Greek, or one who is ignorant of Latin, him who speaketh in Latin: so to him who is without love, the language of love will be as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal *:" and it was in the language of love that the Church spoke; moreover, it was in the language of desire. The Psalms formed her offices of devotion; and it was from their terms being often involved in such veiled and undefined majesty, that they furnished the best expression for the desires of the Christian soul. Great hearts cannot direct a tongue to inform men of their present wants; and how much less can they find utterance, when moved by grace to approach God? "Ecclesia columba est," said St. Bernard, 66 Columba quia innocens, quia gemens +." Hence he chose the most obscure part of the sacred Scriptures, to serve as the text for his spiritual instruction. "To seek God," says, "is the great good." It forms an accession to no virtue; it yields to no virtue. To what should it form an accession, when nothing can precede it? To what should it yield, which is the consummation of all? For what virtue belongs to him who seeks not God? or what end can be prescribed to him who seeks God?" Quærite fa ciem ejus semper :" justly, evermore; because even when found, there will be no end of seeking. God is to be sought by desires, and a happy finding does not make an end of a holy desire, but extends it. Thus the consummation of joy is not the destruction of desire; but it is rather like oil for the flame. So it is: joy shall be full, but of desire and of seeking there shall be no end." Men still saw through a glass darkly; but the being a man of desires drew down an angel to Daniel and to love and hope and believe was substituted for the disputation and fears and suspicions, which had harassed men before the dawn of this glorious light. Religion was now love and pardon, and the indulgence of Heaven ‡ was imparted in

he

*In Cantica Serm. 78.

In Cantica Serm. 62.

‡ Vide Holden Divinæ Fidei Analys. II. c. 6. §.3.

jubilees through the ministry of the servant of the servants of God, and to the end of sanctification and peace. It was a pilgrimage to Rome during the jubilee which delivered Petrarch, as he himself declared, from the tyranny of licentious habits; and it was to the jubilee, through the grace of God, that he ascribes his conversion from the world. Even the ideas which men had entertained of virtue, were to be submitted to the influence of this divine dispensation. They who opposed the Catholic Church fixed their standard of perfection upon any ground but that of the beatitudes, though so solemnly pronounced by the Saviour, in whom they professed to believe; while on the other hand, those who remained faithful were indifferent to the charges of their enemies, as long as they felt hope of being included in the number whom he had said were blessed: "the poor in spirit, the meek, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst after justice, the merciful, the clean in heart, the peace-makers, those who suffer persecution and reviling for the sake of justice." Yet, how sublime were these views, even according to the weak conceptions of man! If they excluded the pugnacious spirit of the academy, they united the depth of Plato with the sweetness of Xenophon; and well might the Christian orator exclaim, "Quisquam est, qui alias omnes, si in \unum conferantur, scientias cum hac, qua ista tam pulcra, tam admirabilia, tam divina traduntur, ullo modo comparandas putet? Hæc una est non tam liberalis vocanda, quam liberatrix. Hæc aurea illa catena est, qua cum cœlestibus terrestria copulantur. Hæc scala illa est, quam olim per quietem sanctissimus Patriarcha vidit, cujus gradibus in cœlum scandere liceat, atque illic Deum intueri, admirari, adorare, demittentem semet ipsum ex augustissimo illo majestatis suæ fastigio, seseque accommodantem ad humanæ conditionis humilitatem +." Would you observe the humanized, and, as it were, sensible harmony which followed from this union? Hear the young and philosophic Solger, though outwardly at least a disciple of the moderns: "With what feelings of peaceful joy, with what open hearts do we travel through these happy countries of the Swiss Catholics! We fancy ourselves in the fabu

Petrarch. Senil. viii. 1.

† Antonii Mureti Orat. I,

lous age of the world, when the earth gave all things in spontaneous profusion; when no one had separate pro perty; every one could take freely from the common abundance, and all were united in love *." Or have your a wish to contemplate that sublime elevation of soul raised to an unalterable unimpassioned region of eternal peace, which enabled St. Thomas Aquinas to view with equal eye the different fate of mortals? Hark the anthem which comes upon us like the voice of an angel, or the trump of judgment:

"Sumunt boni, sumunt mali, sorte tamen inæquali

Vitæ vel interitus.

Mors est malis, vita bonis, vide paris sumptionis

Quam sit dispar exitus."

No longer was wisdom confined within the groves of academus, or peace to the learned disciples of philosophy. What the deputies of Ghent said in their address to Charles the Bold, when they entreated pardon, was true in a greater or less degree of every Catholic' city: "Gand n'est pas comme Sodome et Gomorre que pour dix justes, qui les y eust peu trouver, Dieu eust épargné de son juge ment horrible. En Gand a par nombre de milliers dévotes et saintes créatures, espoir, et qui ont divines revelacions maintes par bonté de vie et divines communications en so⭑ litude t." Hence Father Lewis of Grenada concludes, when speaking of the multitudes who have gone astray from the path of God, "After all, St. John teaches us that the company of the blessed will be so great, that no man is able to count them; and we are assured that those who have kept their innocence, or who shall have done worthy penance for their sins, will be received into that company. Not only did religion impart to men the true needful wisdom, but it also inspired those in the humbler ranks with the gentleness and even the honour able feelings and lofty sentiments of chivalry, while it pro tected men of learning and science from giving credit to those extravagant absurdities, from the admission of which

Solger's Nachgelassene Schriften, I. vol. 37.

+ Chronique des ducs de Bourgogne par Georges Chastellain, tome Ì. chap. cclx.

Catech. II. 30.

we find not unfrequently in the present day, that no learning or science can preserve them.

XX. We have seen long since with what zeal and attention knights and temporal men assisted at the divine offices. Many dark scenes of history give evidence of this religious observance. Thus it was, at the foot of the altar in a church at Viterbo, that Henry, son of Richard, Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans, was murdered in the year 1271, by Gui, Comte de Montfort, son of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, belonging to the two kingdoms of England and France, who thus revenged the death of his father slain in battle against Henry III., King of England. It was while praying before the altar at vigils, in the church of St. Laurence, that Drogon de Coutances, son of Tancred de Hauteville, was assassinated by Gnazon, Count of Naples. It was one evening while travelling during his bitter misfortunes, that the brave young Prince René II. of Lorraine, having entered an old church, and being in prayer, a woman covered with a long veil approached him in silence, made a low reverence, and passed into his hand a purse of gold, and disappeared. Castiglione relates, that at Rome a young and beautiful Roman lady, though for a long time followed by one who professed love, never favoured him with so much as a look. At last he found means to bribe her woman, who, one day which was not a festival, persuaded her mistress to visit St. Sebastian's church; and she led her into one of those dark grottos which are commonly visited in that church. There the man was concealed; and finding that all his prayers were vain, fearing the consequence, with the assistance of the woman, he strangled the unhappy lady, and there left her, and fled, and was never heard of; but the woman being apprehended confessed *.

On the steeple of St. Hilaire, at Poitiers, a lantern used to be placed on certain festivals, to direct the pilgrims and others who sought to assist at matins; and in the steeple of All-Saints' church, at York, a large lamp used formerly to be suspended for the same purpose, as a mark for those who were passing the immense forest of Galtres. King Alfred, when he was riding, used to dismount and go into

Lib. III. 313.

the churches, and make his offering, and hear the office. Many of the old knights chose for their motto "Dilexi decorem domus tuæ." St. Louis made his children every day hear matins, vespers, and complin, haultement en note et vouloit qu'ils fussent au sermon pour entendre la parolle de Dieu. They were also to say the office of our Lady, and to study "pour entendre les escriptures." In Gerard de Roussillon, when Peter de Monrabey arrives at the castle of Roussillon, he passes over the first bridge into the court, rides under the arch of the Portcullis, gives his sword to his page, and then goes into the chapel to perform his devotions. In the regulations of Henry Percy, the fifth earl of Northumberland, in 1512, mass is ordered to be said at six o'clock every morning, that all my Lord's servants may rise early. There were seven priests in the house, besides seventeen chaunters and other persons belonging to the chapel. The Duke of Burgundy's chapel was served by forty persons, monks and priests, chaplains and organist. The alms often exceeded 20,000 livres a year *. St. Chrysostom advised rich men to build little chapels and oratories on their estates. So Gilles de Rome says in his Mirror, "the prince should have an oratory in the upper part of his house, where he might withdraw privately, and remain in silence. Justinian forbad mass to be celebrated in private chapels; but his decree was either never, or for a very short time, observed †. In the 13th century it was usual with German nobles to give freedom to some of their vassals, who, being ordained, might recite the canonical hours in a private chapel. When Louis IX. was taken prisoner by the Sarrassins, the first day, when the hour of vespers came, he asked for his book to say vespers as he was accustomed; but no one could give it to him, for it was lost with the harness; and as the king thought of it and was sad, some one brought it to him, at which the men wondered t. Many knights and temporal men were in habits of saying the regular office for each day. In palaces and in dungeons they loved to hear these holy

Olivier de la March L'Estat de la Maison du Duc Charles.
Thomassin, I. 2. 93.

Chronique de St. Denis, II. 71.

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