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XV  3^  134 


HISTORY 


OF 


LATIN   CHRISTIANITY, 


s 


HISTORY 


OF 


LATIN     CHRISTIANITY; 

INCLUDING    THAT    OF 

THE    POPES 


TO 


THE    PONTIFICATE   OF   NICOLAS   V 

By   HENHY   HAHT  MILMAN,   D.D., 

DEAN  OF   6T.  PAUL'S. 


EIGHT  VOLUMES  IN   FOUR. 
VOLS.  L,  II. 


NEW   YORK: 
A.  C.  ARMSTRONG    AND    SON, 

714  BUOADWAY. 

1889. 


iJ 

John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambriixie. 


PREFACE 

TO 

THE   SECOND    EDITION. 


In  this  editiofi  I  have  carefully  revised  the  whole  ; 
but  the  corrections  which  I  have  thought  it  necessary 
to  make  are  in  general  confined  to  the  style  and 
language.  Excepting  in  a  few  instances,  I  have  not 
myself  detected  any  important  errors  or  inaccuracies 
as  to  the  facts  in  the  history;  neither  have  such,  as 
far  as  I  know,  been  pointed  out  by  friendly  or  un- 
friendly critics  —  not  indeed  that  I  have  any  right  to 
say  that  I  have  met  with  unfriendly  critics.  The  ad- 
ditions which  1  have  made  —  in  some  cases  deiived 
from  older  books,  which  had  not  fallen  in  my  way,  but 
chiefly  from  books  published  since  the  appearance  of 
the  first  edition  —  are  almost  entirely  confined  to  the 
notes.  Among  these,  besides  the  "  Life  of  Moham- 
med," by  Dr.  Sprenger,  I  may  specially  name  one 
or  two  original  pieces  in  the  new  volume  of  Pertz, 
"  Monumenta  Germanise  ;  *'  the  "  Chronicon  Placen- 
tinum,"  from  the  British  Museum  ;  and  the  curious 
documents  relating  to  the  "Friends  of  God,"  published 
by  Dr    Carl  Schmidt. 


PREFACE 

TO 

THE    FIRST    EDITION. 


The  History  of  Latin  Christianity  is  a  continuation 
of  "  The  History  of  Christianity  to  the  Extinction  of 
Paganism  in  the  Roman  Empire."  But  Latin  Chris- 
tianity appears  to  possess  such  a  remarkable  historic 
unity,  that  I  have  thought  fit,  in  order  to  make  this 
work  complete  in  itself,  to  trace  again  its  origin  and 
earher  development,  and  to  enter  in  some  respects  with 
greater  fulness,  yet  without  unnecessary  repetition,  into 
its  history  during  the  first  four  centuries.  On  one 
extremely  dark  part  of  that  history  a  book  but  recently 
discovered  has  thrown  unexpected  light. 

The  sentence  of  Polybius  which  describes  the  unity, 
and  the  plan  of  his  History  of  Republican  Rome,  might 
be  adopted  by  the  historian  of  the  Rise  and  Progress 
of  Christian  Rome.  "Ovxog  yaQ  hog  (qjov  hoi  dsuiiarog 
8vog  zov  (jv^iTtavtog,  vntQ  rovzov  yQacpeiv  k7tvAEX£tQii^a^ev  tov, 
7t(og  xai  Ttozs,  xai  diu  zi  m'cvza  za  yvcoQil^ofisva  ^sQrj  rtjg  ohov- 

utvrjg  vno  zijv  'PoD^iaicov  Svvaaz^iav  lytvEzo 1.   iii.   c.   i. 

•'  Tlie  work  wlilch  we  have  undertaken  beins;  one,  the 


PREFACE  TO   THE  FIRST   EDITION.  Vll 

whole  forming  one  great  design,  how,  when,  and  b}' 
what  means  all  the  known  world  became  subject  to 
the  Roman  rule."  Though  the  great  sphere  of  Latin 
Christianity  was  Western  Europe,  yet,  during  the  first 
seven  or  eight  centuries,  it  is  so  mingled  up  with  the 
rehgious  history  of  the  Greek  empire ;  the  invasion  of 
Western  Europe  by  the  Mohammedans,  and  the  Cru- 
sades, so  involved  it  again  in  the  affairs  of  the  East ; 
that,  in  its  influence  at  least,  it  extended  to  the  limits 
of  the  known  world. 

My  aim  has  been  to  write  a  history,  not  a  succession 
of  dissertations  on  history ;  to  give  with  as  much  hfe 
and  reality  as  I  have  been  able,  the  result,  not  the 
process,  of  inquiry.  This,  where  almost  every  event, 
every  character,  every  opinion  has  been  the  subject  of 
long,  intricate,  too  often  hostile  controversy,  w^as  a  task 
of  no  slight  difficulty.  Where  the  conflicting  author- 
ities have  seemed  to  be  nearly  balanced,  I  have  some- 
times, but  rarely,  admitted  them  into  the  text,  not 
desiring  to  speak  with  certainty,  where  certainty  ap- 
peared unattainable  ;  in  general  I  have  reserved  sucli 
discussions,  when  inevitable,  for  the  notes.  Even  in 
the  notes  I  have  endeavored  to  avoid  two  things  —  a 
polemic  tone  and  prolixity.  I.  —  I  have  cited  the 
names  of  modern  writers,  in  general,  only  when  their 
observations  have  been  remarkable  in  themselves,  as 
original,  or  as  characteristic  of  the  progress  of  opinion. 
II. —  I  have  usually  contented  myself  with  quoting  the 
authority  which  after  due  consideration  I  have  thought 


viii  PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION 

it  right  to  follow,  instead  of  occupying  a  large  space 
with  concurrent  or  conflicting  statements.  Nothing 
can  be  more  easy,  now  that  we  possess  such  admirable 
manuals  of  ecclesiastical  history  (especially  the  inval- 
uable one  of  Gieseler),  than  to  heap  together  to  im- 
measurable extent  citations  from  ancient  authors  or  the 
opinions  of  learned  men.  I  notice  this  solely  that  I 
may  not  be  suspected  either  of  the  presumption  of 
having  neglected  the  labors,  or  of  want  of  gratitude 
for  the  aid,  of  that  array  of  writers  who  —  from  the 
Magdeburg  Centuriators,  Baronius  and  his  Continua- 
tors,  through  the  great  French  scholars,  Tillemont, 
Fleury,  Dupin ;  the  Germans,  Mosheim,  Schroeck, 
Neander,  and  countless  others  (where,  alas  1  are  the 
English  historians  of  those  times  ?)  —  have  wrought 
with  such  indefatigable  industry  on  the  annals  of  Chris- 
tianity. 1  have  studied  compression  and  condensation, 
rather  than  fulness  and  copiousness,  simply  in  onler  to 
brin^  the  woik  within  reasonable  compass. 


PKEPACE  TO  VOLUME  IV. 

FIRST  EDITION. 


1  CANNOT  offer  the  concluding  volumes  of  tne 
History  of  Latin  Christianity  without  expressing  my 
grateful  sense  of  the  kind  and  liberal  manner  in  which 
the  former  portion  of  the  work  has  been  generally  re- 
ceived. In  these  volumes  I  trust  that  I  have  not  fallen 
below  my  constant  aim  —  calm  and  rigid  impartiality  ; 
the  fearless  exposure  of  the  bad,  full  appreciation  of 
the  good,  both  in  the  institutions  and  in  the  men  who 
have  passed  before  my  view.  I  hope  that  I  may  aver 
without  presumption  that  my  sole  object  is  truth  — 
truth  uttered  in  charity ;  and  where  truth  has  ap- 
peared to  me  unattainable  from  want  of  sufficient 
authorities,  or  from  authorities  balanced  or  contradic- 
tory, I  have  avoided  the  expression  of  any  positive 
opinion.  I  am  unwilling  to  claim  the  authority  of 
history  for  that  for  which  there  is  not  historical  evi- 
dence. I  would  further  remind  the  reader  that  if  the 
course  of  affairs  during  these  ages  should  appear  dark, 
at  times  almost  to  repulsiveness,  still  in  tlie  dreariest 
and  most  gloomy  period  of  Christian  history  there  was 


X  PREFACE  TO  VOL.   IV.,  FIRST   EDITION. 

always  an  undercurrent  of  humble,  Christian  goodness 
flowing  on,  as  the  Saviour  himself  came,  "  without 
observation,"  the  light  of  which  we  can  discern  but  by 
faint  and  transitory  glimpses. 

Only  one  book,  as  far  as  I  know,  has  appeared  since 
the  publication  of  the  first  part  of  my  work,  which 
has  further  elucidated  any  of  the  subjects  treated  in 
those  volumes  —  the  "  Life  of  Mohammed,"  by  Dr. 
Sprenger.  After  the  perusal  of  that  work,  so  much 
more  full  than  any  former  history  on  the  earlier  and 
more  authentic  traditions  of  the  Prophet,  I  have  the 
satisfaction  to  find  that  though  I  might  be  disposed  to 
add  a  few  sentences,  I  find  nothing  in  my  own  more 
brief  and  rapid  sketch  to  alter  or  to  retract.  More- 
over (I  wi'ite  with  diffidence),  it  appears  to  me  that 
Dr.  Sprenger  has  hardly  drawn  the  line,  if  it  can  be 
drawn,  between  the  Historical  and  the  Legendary  in 
the  life  of  Mohammed.  I  cannot  but  think  that  the 
Koran,  after  all,  is  the  one  safe  and  trustworthy  au- 
thonty  for  the  life,  the  acts,  and  the  aims,  of  the 
founder  of  Islam. 


CONTENTS 


THE   FIRST   VOLUME. 


mXRODUCTION. 

Design  and  Plan  op  the  Work 19 

Chronology  of  First  Four  Centuries 32 

♦ 

BOOK  I. 

CHAPTER  I. 
Bkginning  of  Roman  Christianity. 

Roman  Pontificate 41 

Epochs  in  Latin  Christianity 42-4  7 

Growth  of  Christianity  in  Rome 47 

Obscurity  of  Bishop  of  Rome 60 

6 7  Persecution  of  Nero 52 

95  of  Domitian ib. 

114  of  Trajan  —  Ignatius  of  Antioch 53 

Church  of  Rome  Greek 54 

African  origin  of  Latin  Christianity 57 

Church  of  Rome  centre  of  Christianity ib. 

of  Christian  controversy 59 

Judaizing  Christianity —  The  Clementina 60 

196  Pope  Victor —  Quarto-deciman  controversy 64 

180-193  Reign  of  Commodus  —  Marcia 65 

^^  Montanism 68 

Monarchianism 70 

Hippolytus  Bishop  of  Porto 74 

201-219  Pope  Zephyrinus 75 

Pope  Callistus ib. 

235-247  Persecution  of  Maximin  —  Decian  persecution 80 


«i  CONTENTS   OF  VOL.  I. 

A  D.  PAOt 

Cyprian  of  Carthage 82 

254  Novatus  —  Novatian  —  Cornelius   of  Rome  —  The 

Lapsi ib. 

Cyprian's  unity  of  the  Church 86 

Dispute  between  Rome  and  Carthage 88 

258  Death  of  Cyprian  —  of  Pope  Xystus 90 

259-304  Dionysius  —  Marcellinus  —  Marcellus « •  91 


CHAPTER  II. 

Rome  after  the  Conversiojj  of  Constajitine, 

312  Conversion  of  Constantine  —  Pope  Silvester 93 

Donation  —  Edict  of  Milan 95 

824-334  Foundation   of    Constantinople  —  Division   of   the 

empire 96 

Latin  Christianity  in  Rome,  and  the  West 97 

325  Trinitarian  controversy  —  1st  period — Council  of 

Nicea 98 

347               2d  period  —  Council  of  Sardica 101 

352  Pope  Liberius —  Council  of  Aries  —  of  Milan*  •  •  •  102 

357  Felix   Antipope  —  Constantius  in  Rome*** 104 

367  Damasus  and   Urslcinus Ill 

Monasticism  in  Rome  —  Saint  Jerome 112 

384-398  Pope  Siricius  —  First  Decretal 119 

Celibacy  of  the  clergy 120 


BOOK  11. 

CHAPTER  I. 

Innocent  I. 

Rome  centre  of  the  West 126 

Succession  of  St.  Peter —  Unity  of  the  Church*  •  *  128 

402  Innocent  I. 134 

404  Innocent  and  Chrysostom - 139 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL    I.  xiii 

A.V.  PADB 

405  Siege   of    Rome   by   Alaric  —  by   Rhadagaisus  — 

Stilicbo 143 

410  Capture  by  Alaric  —  Innocent  absent 150 

Restoration  of  Rome —  Greatness  of  the  bishop*  •  •  161 


CHAPTER  II. 

Pklagianism. 

Pelagianism  —  Pelagius  in  the  East 1 64 

Origin  of  controversy 168 

Augustinianism 1 70 

Sacerdotal  system 172 

Transmission  of  original  sin 1 74 

417  Death  of  Pope  Innocent  I.  —  Zosimus 1 78 

418  Council  of  Carthage  —  Zosimus  retracts 182 

Julianus  of  Eclana 185 

Semi-Pelagianism  —  Cassianus • 189 

CHAPTER    III. 
Nestorianism. 

Nestorianism 1  y& 

418  Death  of  Zosimus  —  Disputed  election ib. 

419  Edict  of  Honorius  —  Boniface  Pope  —  Celestine  L«  198 
428  Nestorius  at  Constantinople 206 

Cyril  of  Alexandria 210 

Persecution  of  Jews  —  Hypatia 211 

Cyril  against  Nestorius 216 

Both  parties  look  to  Rome  —  Pope  Celestine 219 

430  Council  of  Rome 221 

430  Nestorius  excommunicated 224 

431  Council  of  Ephesus  —  General  Councils 226 

Memnon  of  Ephesus  —  Juvenal  of  Jerusalem 231 

Decree  of  Council  —  Arrival  of  Syrian  Bishops 236 

Violent  contest  —  Constantinople 239 

Council  of  Chalcedon  —  Pulcheria 242 

Nestorius  abandoned 244 

Treaty  of  Peace 247 

Nestorianism  proscribed 25  J 


XIV  CONTENTS   OF  VOL.  I. 


CHAPTER    IV. 
Leo  thb  Gbkat. 

A.D.  PAQl 

440  Leo  the  Great 253 

Character  of  Leo  —  Sermons 254 

The  Manicheans  at  Rome 259 

Afialrs  of  Africa 261 

Affairs  of  Gaul  —  Hilarius  of  Aries 269 

Affairs  of  Spain  —  Priscillianism 276 

lUyricum  —  The  East 279 

Eutyches  —  Eutychianism 281 

449  Robber  Synod  of  Ephesus  —  Death  of  Flavianus*  •  286 

451  Council    of   Chalcedon  —  Condemnation    of   Dios- 

corus 291 

Coequality  of  Constantinople  and  Rome 296 

452  Attila —  Embassy  of  Leo  to  Attila 301 

455  Invasion  of  Genseric  —  Capture  and  pillage  of  Rome  303 

457-461  The  Emperor  Majorian 308 

Three  founders  of  Latin  Christianity  —  Jerome,  Am- 
brose, Augustine 309 


BOOK   IIL 
CHAPTER    I. 

MONOPHYSITISM. 

Monophysitism • 312 

468  Pope  Simplicius  —  Close  of  the  Western  Empire- •  814 

Church  in  the  East 315 

Simeon  Styhtes , , ,  318 

467-474  Revolutions  in  Constantinople  —  Death  of  Marcian  320 

Zeno  expelled  by  Basillscus 321 

482  Ilenoticon  of  Zeno 323 

Question  of  Roman  supremacy 324 

483  Death  of  Pope  Simplicius —  Decree  of  Odoacer.  •  •  327 
Felix  III.  Pope  —  Excommunicates  Acacius  of  Con- 
stantinople   328 


CONTENTS   OF  VOL.   1.  XV 

A.D.  PAOB 

484  Acacius  exeonimunicates  Pope  Felix 331 

Schism  of  forty  years ii). 

Four  parties  in  the  East 333 

495  Macedonius  Bishop  of  Constantinople 334 

&06-6  Tumults  in  Constantinople  —  The  Emperor  Anas- 

tasius 338 

510  Deposition  of  Macedonius 339 

513  Constantinople  in  insurrection 340 

514  Revolt  of  Vitalianus —  Humiliation  of  Anastasius*  •  342 
Influence  of  the  Monks 344 

492  Pope  Gelasius  I. 347 

496  Pope  Anastasius  iL 349 

498  Pope  Symmachus • 850 


CHAPTER    II. 

Conversion  of  the  Teutonic  Kaces. 

Conversion  of  the  Teutonic  races 353 

Conversion  of  Germans  within  the  Empire 355 

Teutonic  character 356 

Teutonic  religion  —  Woden 35  7 

Human  sacrifices  —  Annual  sacrifices  —  Holy  groves  360 

Priesthood 362 

Teutons  encounter  Christianity 364 

Christ  a  God  of  battle 365 

No  Teutonic  priesthood  in  their  migrations 366 

Effect  of  invasion  on  Christians 367 

Teutons  in  the  Roman  empire 370 

Successive  conversion  of  the  tribes 371 

Arianism  of  first  converts ib. 

Ulphilas 372 

History  of  conversion  unknown,  except  of  Burgun- 

dians 376 

Conversion  of  Franks 378 

496  Clovis  the  only  orthodox  sovereign 382 

Religious  wars 384 

Influence  of  clergy  —  Clergy  Latin 386 

Effects  of  conversion  on  Teutons 389 


xvi  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.   I. 

A-D.  t'AGB 

Eflects  of  conversion   on  moral  purity  —  German 

character  in  this  respect 390 

Merovinijian  kinjjs 395 

Christianity  barbarizes ' 397 

Increase  of  sacerdotal  power  —  Bishops  a  separate 

order 399 


CHAPTER  III. 

Theodoric  the  Ostrogoth. 

Ostrogothic  kingdom  in  Italy 403 

Odoacer ib. 

Union  of  the  races  imperfect  —  Division  of  lands*  •   406 

Theodoric  —  Peace  of  Italy 408 

Theodoric's  religious  rule 412 

499  Contested  election  for  the  popedom 416 

Theodoric  in  Rome —  Charges  against  Symmachua  418 

Tumults  in  Rome  —  Synod 419 

Decree  of  the  Palmary  Synod 421 

Affairs  of  the  East 422 

514  Pope  Hormisdas 423 

The  Emperor  Anastasius ib. 

Papal  embassy  to  Constantinople 424 

518  Death  of  Anastasius  the  Emperor-  •  •  •    429 

618  Accession  of  Justin ib. 

Close  of  the  schism 431 

Prosperity  of  Theodoric 432 

Rumors  of  conspiracies 434 

State  of  Theodoric's  family 436 

Charges  against  Albinus 438 

525  Correspondence  with  the  East  —  Mission  of  Pope 

John 439 

Boethius  —  His  death 443 

Death  of  Theodoric 447 

Ravenna 44>f 


CONTENTS   OF  VOL.   I.  X\U 


CHAPTER  IV. 


Justinian. 

A.I).  PAOB 

527  Justinian  —  Theodora 449 

Persian  and  African  Wars 452 

Suppression  of  schools  at  Athens 453 

Conquest  of  Africa 455 

Ostrogothic    kingdom  —  Death    of   Athalaric  —  of 

Amalasuutha 450 

Witiges  king ih. 

526-535  Popes  Felix  IV.,  Boniface  II.,  John  II.,  Agapetus-  •  457 

Agapetus  in  Constantinople 459 

636  Conquest  of  Italy  by  Justinian 461 

Rome  surrendered  to  Belisarius   ih. 

Vigilius 462 

537  Silverius  degraded  —  Vigilius  Pope 463 

544  The  three  Chapters 465 

Vigilius  summoned  to  Constantinople 466 

548  Tergiversation  of  Vigilius 467 

554  Banishment  —  Death 470 

556  Pope  Pelagius  I. 471 

Totila ib. 

The  eunuch  Narses 473 

Popes  John  III.,  Benedict  I.,  Pelagius  II. 474 


CHAPTER  V. 

Christian  Jurispkudence. 

Christian  jurisprudence <  ♦  —   479 

effects  of  Christianity  on ih. 

I.  Jurisprudence  of  Roman  empire ih. 

II.  Barbaric  codes 480 

III.  Christian  jurisprudence 481 

Supremacy  of  the  Emperor. -  •  •  •  482 

I.  Justinian  code 483 

Justinian  a  Christian  emperor-  • 485 

Preamble  —  Laws  foi    the  cleruy  —  Bishops- ••  •      ih. 
Roman  law  piuvly  Ucuiaa 489 

VOL.   1.  2 


rviii  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.   I. 

A  D.  PAGB 

A.  Law  of  persons 491 

Freemen  and  slaves if>- 

Law  of  slavery 493 

Slave-trade 495 

Christian  family ib. 

Parental   power ih- 

Marriage 496 

Prohibited  degrees 497 

Spiritual  relationship 498 

Divorce 500 

Concubinage 503 

Parental  power 504 

Infanticide 505 

B.  Law  of  Property 507 

Church   property 508 

C.  Criminal  Law 511 

Some  crimes  more  severely  punished ib. 

Crime  of  heresy 512 

11.  Barbaric  codes • 514 

Of  Theodoric  and  Athalaric  —  King  supreme-  •  •  515 

Difference  of  ranks  —  Clergy  co-legislators 517 

Lombard  laws  —  Salic  law  —  Gothic  law ib. 

Bishops  in  popular  and  judicial  assemblies 524 

A.  Law  of  persons 527 

Freemen  and  slaves  —  Emancipation ib. 

Law  of  marriage 528 

B.  Law  of  property 535 

Church  property ib. 

C.  Criminal    law 637 

Asylum  —  Ordeal 539 

in.  Church  jurisprudence 542 

Clergy  legislative  and  executive 543 

Home  sole  patriarchate  of  the  West 514 

Clergy  Latin  •  •  • .    5 1  (* 

Penitential  system 550 

Eflfbcts  on  tiic  clergy  —  on  the  community  551 


HISTORY 


OF 


LATIN    CHRISTIANITY, 


INTRODUCTION. 

DESIGN  AND  PLAN  OP^  THE   WORK. 

The  great  event  in  the  history  of  our  rehgioii 
and  of  mankind,  during  many  centurievS  after  the 
extinction  of  Paganism,  is  the  rise,  the  development, 
and  the  domination  of  Latin  Christianity.  ^^^5^  chris- 
Though  the  reh'gion  of  Christ  had  its  ori-  "^"'^y- 
gin  among  a  Syrian  people — though  its  Divine  Au- 
thor spoke  an  Aramaic  dialect  —  Christianity  was 
almost  from  the  first  a  Greek  religion.  Its  Christianity 
primal  records  were  all,  or  nearly  all,  writ-  Greek. 
ten  in  the  Greek  language ;  it  was  promulgated  witli 
the  greatest  rapidity  and  success  among  nations  either 
of  Greek  descent,  or  those  which  had  been  Grecised 
by  the  conquests  of  Alexander ;  its  most  flourish- 
ing churches  were  in  Greek  cities.  Greek  was  tlie 
commercial  language  in  which  the  Jews,  through 
whom  it  was  at  first  disseminated,  and  who  were 
even  now  settled  in  almost  every  province  of  the 
Roman  world,  candied  on  their  intercom'se.  Prim- 
itive   Christianity   no    doubt    continued    to    speak   in 


20.  GREEK  CHRISTIANITY.  Introd 

Syriac  to  vast  numbers  of  disciples  in  the  Syrian 
provinces ;  it  spread  eastward  to  a  considerable  ex 
tent,  in  Babylonia  and  beyond  the  Euphrates,  into 
regions  where  Greek  ceased  to  be  the  common 
tongue.  Oriental  influences,  influences  even  fi^om 
the  remoter  East,  worked  into  its  doctrine  and  into 
its  system ;  yet  even  these  flowed  in  chiefly  or  in 
great  part  through  Greek  channels.  The  Indian 
Monasticism^  had  already  been  domiciliated  in  Pal- 
estine and  among  the  Egyptian  Jews.  Oriental  and 
Egyptian  notions  had  found  then-  way  into  the 
Greek  philosophy.  Among  the  earlier  Christian 
converts  were  some  of  these  partially  orientalized 
Greek  philosophers.  Many  of  the  first  teachers  had 
been  trained  in  their  schools.  In  Antioch,  in  Alex- 
andria, even  in  Ephesus  there  was  something  of  an 
Asiatic  cast  in  the  Greek  civihzation. 

Greek  Christianity  could  not  but  be  affected   both 
Character  of  in   its    doctruial    procrress    and    in    its    i)()l- 

Greek    Chris-  .  .  ^         t  •    •  , 

tianity.  ity    by    its     Grcck     origm.      Among     the 

Greeks  had  been  for  centuries  agitated  all  those  ])ri- 
mary  questions  wdiich  he  at  the  bottom  of  all  re- 
ligions; —  the  formation  of  the  worlds  —  the  exist- 
ence and  nature  of  the  Deity — the  origin  and  cause 
of  evil,  though  this  seems  to  have  been  studied 
even  with  stronger  predilection  in  the  trans-Eu- 
phratic  East.  Hence  Greek  Christianity  was  insa- 
tiably inquisitive,  speculative.  Confident  in  the  in- 
exhaustible   copiousness    and    fine     precision     of    its 

1  Compare,  on  Buddhist  raonasticism,  the  very  curious  visitation  of 
tlie  Buddhist  monasteries  at  the  close  of  the  fourth  century,  the  con- 
tinuation of  earlier  visitations  anterior  to  the  Christian  era,  the  Foe 
Xouoki,  translated  by  M.  A.  R^^musat,  Paris,  183C;  also  the  recent  more 
popular  work  by  Mr.  Hardy,  Eastern  Monachism,  London,  1850. 


IKTRCD.        CHARACTER   OF   GREEK   CHRISTIANITY.  21 

lano'Udo-e,  it  endured  no  limitation  to  its  curious 
investigations.  As  each  great  question  was  settled 
or  worn  out,  it  was  still  ready  to  propose  new  ones. 
It  began  with  the  Divinity  of  Christ  (still  earher 
pej'haps  with  some  of  the  Gnostic  Cosmogonical  or 
Theophanic  theories),  so  onward  to  the  Trinity:  it 
expired,  or  at  least  drew  near  its  end  as  the  rehg- 
ion  of  the  Roman  East,  discussing  the  Divhie  Light 
on  Mount  Tabor. 

In  their  polity  the  Grecian  churches  were  a  fed- 
eration of  republics,  as  were  the  settlements  of  the 
Jews.  But  they  were  founded  on  a  religious,  not 
on  a  national  basis ;  external  to,  yet  in  their  boun- 
daries, mostly  in  their  aggregative  system,  following 
the  old  commonwealths,  which  still  continued  to  sub- 
sist under  the  supremacy  of  the  Roman  Prefect  or 
Proconsul,  and  in  later  times  the  distribution  of  the 
Imperial  dioceses.  They  were  held  together  by  com- 
mon sympathies,  common  creeds,  common  sacred 
books,  certain,  as  yet  simple,  but  common  rites, 
common  usages  of  life,  and  a  hierarchy  everywhere, 
in  theory  at  least,  of  the  same  power  and  influence. 
They  admitted  the  Clmstians  of  other  places  by  some 
established  sign,  or  by  recommendatory  letters.  They 
were  often  bound  together  by  mutual  charitable  sub- 
ventions. StiU  each  was  an  absolutely  independent 
community.  The  Roman  East,  including  Greece, 
liad  no  capital.  The  old  kingdoms  might  respect 
the  traditionary  greatness  of  some  city,  which  had 
been  the  abode  of  their  kings,  or  w^hich  was  the 
seat  of  a  central  provincial  government:  other  cities, 
from  their  wealth  and  population,  may  have  as- 
sumed  a   superior   rank,  Antioch   in  Syria,  Alexan- 


22  GKEEK  CHRISTIANITY.  Intkod, 

drla  in  Egypt,  Epliesus  in  Asia  Minor.  Bat  tliougb 
churclies  known  or  reputed  to  have  been  founded 
by  Apostles  might  be  looked  on  with  peculiar  re- 
spect, there  was  as  yet  no  subordination,  no  suprem- 
acy ;  their  federal  union  was  a  voluntary  associa- 
tion. Whether  the  internal  constitution  had  become 
more  or  less  rapidly  or  completely  monarchical ; 
whether  the  Bishop  had  risen  to  a  gi-eater  or  less 
height  above  his  co-Presbyters,  the  whole  episcopal 
order,  the  representatives  of  each  church,  were  on 
the  same  level.  The  Metropolitan  and  afterwards 
the  Patriarchal  dignity  w^as  of  later  growth.  Jeru- 
salem, which  might  naturally  have  aspired  to  the 
rank  of  the  Christian  capital,  at  least  in  the  East, 
had  been  destroyed,  and  remained  desolate  for  many 
years :  it  assumed  only  at-  a  later  period  (at  one 
time  it  was  subject  to  Ca3sarea)  even  the  Patri- 
arclial  rank. 

But  at  the  extinction  of  Paganism,  Greek,  or,  as 
it  may  now  be  called  in  opposition  to  the  West, 
Eastern  Christianity,  had  almost  ceased  to  be  ag- 
Not  aggies-  gi'^ssivc  or  crcativc.  Except  the  contested 
"''^-  conversion  of  the    Bulgarians,  later   of  the 

Russians,  and  a  few  wild  tribes,  it  achieved  no 
conquests.  The  Nestorians  alone,  driven  into  exile 
by  cruel  persecutions,  formed  settlements,  and  prop- 
agated their  own  form  of  Christianity  in  Persia, 
India,  })erhaps  in  still  more  distant  lands.  The 
ICastern  Church  never  recovered  the  ground  which 
it  had  lost  before  the  revived  Mamanism  of  the 
Sassanian  kings  of  Persia ;  and  it  was  compelled  to 
retire  within  still  narrowino;  bounds  before  trium- 
phant   Mohammedanism.     The   Greek   hierarchy  had 


INTROD.        CHARACTER  OF  GREEK  CHRISTIANITY.  23 

now  lost  their  unity  of  action.  Tlie  great  Patriar- 
chates, which  by  this  time  had  been  formed  on  the 
authority  of  Councils,  were  involved  in  perpetual 
.strife,  or  were  contested  by  rival  bishops,  till  three 
of  them,  Antioch,  Alexandria,  Jerusalem,  sank  into 
administrators  of  a  tolerated  religion  under  the  Mo- 
hammedan domriion.  The  Bishop  of  Constantinople 
was  the  passive  victim,  the  humble  slave,  or  the 
factious  adversary  of  the  Byzantine  Emperor :  rarely 
exercised  a  lofty  moral  control  upon  his  despotism. 
The  lower  clergy,  whatever  their  more  secret  benef- 
icent or  sanctifying  workings  on  society,  had  suffi- 
cient power,  wealth,  rank,  to  tempt  ambition,  or  to 
degrade  to  intrigue ;  not  enough  to  command  the 
pubhc  mind  for  any  great  salutary  purpose ;  to  re- 
press the  inveterate  immorality  of  an  effete  age  ;  to 
reconcile  jarring  interests ;  to  mould  together  hostile 
races:  in  general  they  ruled,  where  they  did  rule, 
l)y  the  superstitious  fears,  rather  than  l^y  the  rever- 
ence and  attachment  of  a  grateful  people.  They 
sank  downward  into  the  common  ignorance,  and 
yielded  to  that  worst  barbarism  —  a  worn  out  civili- 
zation. Monasticism  withdrew  a  great  num-  q^^^  Monas- 
ber  of  those  who  might  have  been  ener-  *^*^*^'"- 
getic  and  useful  citizens  into  barren  seclusion  and 
religious  indolence  ;  but  except  where  the  monks 
formed  themselves,  as  they  frequently  did,  into  fierce 
political  or  polemic  factions,  they  had  little  effect  on 
the  condition  of  society.  They  stood  aloof  from  the 
world,  the  anciorites  in  their  desert  wildernesses, 
the  monks,  in  their  jealously-barred  convents;  and 
secure,  as  the3;  sujiposed,  of  their  own  salvation, 
lefi  the  rest  of  mankind  to  inevitable  perdition. 


24  GREEK  CHRISTIANITY.  Introd. 

Greek  theology  still  maintained  its  speculative  ten- 
Greek  Theoi-  dency ;  it  went  on  defining  with  still  more 
^^^-  exquisite  subtlety  the  Godhead  and  the  na- 

ture of  Christ.  The  interminable  controversy  still 
lengthened  out,  and  cast  forth  sect  after  sect  from 
the  enfeebled  community.  The  great  Greek  writers, 
Athanasius,  Basil,  the  Gregories,  had  passed  away 
and  left  only  unworthy  successors ;  the  splendid  pub- 
lic eloquence  had  expired  on  the  lips  of  Chrysostom. 
There  was  no  writer  who  laid  strong  hold  on  the 
imagination  or  reason  of  men,  except  the  author  of 
that  extraordinary  book,  ascribed  to  Dionysius  the 
Areopagite,  of  which  perhaps  the  remote  influence 
was  greater  in  the  West  than  in  the  Byzantine 
empire.  John  of  Damascus,  the  poweiiul  adversary 
of  Iconoclasm,  is  a  splendid  exception,  not  merely 
on  account  of  the  polemic  vigor  shoAvn  in  that  con- 
troversy, but  as  a  theologian  doubtless  the  ablest 
of  his  late  age.  The  Greek  language  gradually,  but 
slowly,  degenerated ;  at  length,  but  not  entirely  till 
after  the  fall  of  Constantinople,  it  broke  up  into 
barbarous  dialects ;  but  it  gave  birth  by  fusion  with 
foreign  tongues  to  no  new  language  productive  of 
noble  poetry,  of  oratory,  or  philosophy.  A  rude 
and  premature  reformation,  that  of  Iconoclasm,  at- 
tempted to  overthrow  the  established  traditionary 
Faith,  but  offered  nothing  to  supply  its  place  which 
(X)uld  either  enlighten  the  mind  or  enthrall  the  re- 
ligious affections  :  it  destroyed  the  images,  but  it 
did  not  reveal  the  Onginal  Deity,  or  the  Christ  in 
his  pure  and  essential  spirituality.  Greek  Christian- 
ity remained  however,  and  still  remains,  a  separate 
and  peculiar  form  of  faith  ;    it  repudiated  all  the  at- 


INTROD.  LATIN  CHKISTIANITY.  25 

tempts  of  the  feebler  sovereigns  of  tlie  East  to  bar- 
ter its  independence  for  succor  against  the  formida- 
ble Turks:  it  is  still  the  religion  of  revived  Greece, 
and  of  the  vast  Russian  empire. 

Latin  Christianity,  on  the  other  hand,  seemed  en- 
dowed with  an  inexhaustible  principle  of  ^atin  chris 
expanding  life.  No  sooner  had  the  North-  "*"^*y- 
ern  tribes  entered  within  its  magic  circle,  than  they 
submitted  to  its  yoke :  and,  not  content  with  thus 
conquering  its  conquerors,  it  was  constantly  pushing 
forward  its  own  frontier,  and  advancing  into  the 
strongholds  of  Northern  Paganism.  Gradually  it  be- 
came a  monarchy,  with  all  the  power  of  a  concen- 
trated dominion.  The  clergy  assumed  an  absolute 
despotism  over  the  mind  of  man :  not  satisfied  with 
niling  princes  and  kings,  themselves  became  princes 
and  kings.  Their  organization  was  coincident  with 
the  bounds  of  Christendom  ;  they  were  a  second 
universal  magistracy,  exercising  always  equal,  assert- 
ing, and  for  a  long  period  possessing,  superior  power 
to  the  civil  government.  They  had  their  own  juris- 
prudence—  the  canon  law,  —  coordinate  with  and  of 
equal  authority  with  the  Koman  or  the  various  na 
tional  codes,  only  with  penalties  infinitely  more  ter- 
rific, -almost  arbitrarily  administered,  and  admitting 
no  exception,  not  even  that  of  the  greatest  tempo- 
ral sovereign.  Western  Monasticism,  in  its  j^^^q  Mouas- 
general  character,  was  not  the  barren,  idly  *^''^^°^- 
laborious  or  dreamy  quietude  of  the  East.  It  was 
industrious  and  productive:  it  settled  colonies,  pre- 
served arts  and  letters,  built  splendid  edifices,  fer- 
tilized deserts.  If  it  rent  from  the  world  the  most 
powerful    minds,   having    trained    them    by    its    stem 


26  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY  lNTRt)D 

discipline,  it  sent  them  back  to  rule  the  world. 
It  continually,  as  it  were,  renewed  its  youth,  and 
kept  up  a  constant  infusion  of  vigorous  life,  now 
quickening  into  enthusiasm,  now  darkening  into  fa- 
naticism ;  and  by  its  perpetual  rivalry,  stimulating 
the  zeal,  or  supplying  the  deficiencies  of  the  secular 
clergy.  In  successive  ages  it  adapted  itself  to  the 
state  of  the  human  mind.  At  first  a  missionary  to 
barbarous  nations,  it  built  abbeys,  hewed  down  for- 
ests, cultivated  swamps,  enclosed  domains,  retrieved 
or  won  for  civilization  tracts  which  had  fallen  to 
waste  or  had  never  known  culture.  With  St.  Dom- 
inic it  turned  its  missionary  zeal  upon  Christianity 
itself,  and  spread  as  a  preaching  order  throughout 
Christendom ;  with  St.  Francis  it  became  even  more 
popular,  and  lowered  itself  to  the  very  humblest  of 
mankind.  In  Jesuitism  it  made  a  last  effort  to 
govern  mankind  by  an  incorporated  caste.  But 
Jesuitism  found  it  necessary  to  reject  many  of  the 
peculiarities  of  Monasticism :  it  made  itself  secular 
to  overcome  the  world.  But  the  compi'omise  could 
not  endure.  Over  the  Indians  of  South  America 
alone,  but  for  the  force  of  circumstances,  it  might 
liave  been  lasting.  In  Eastern  India  it  became  a 
kind  of  Christian  Paganism ;  in  Europe  a  moral 
and  religious  llationaHsm,  fatal  both  to  morals  and 
to  religion. 

Throughout  this  period,  then,  of  at  least  ten  cen- 
latin  Chris-  tvu'ics,  Latin  Christianity  was  the  religion 
tia.uty.  ^£  ^j^^  Western  nations  of  Europe  :  Latin 
the  religious  language  ;  the  Latin  translation  of  the 
Scrij)tm'es  the  religious  code  of  mankind.  Latin 
theology   was    alone    inexhaustibly    prolific;    and    held 


Im'kod.  controversies.  ^7 

wide  and  imsliaken  authority.  On  most  speculative 
tenets  tliis  tlieology  had  left  to  Greek  controversial- 
ists to  argue  out  the  endless  transcendental  ques- 
tions of  religion,  and  contented  herself  with  reso- 
lutely embracing  the  results,  which  she  fixed  in  her 
iiiflexible  theory  of  doctrine.  The  only  controversy 
which  violently  disturbed  the  Western  Church  was 
the  practical  one,  on  which  the  East  looked  almost 
with  indifference,  the  origin  and  motive  principle  of 
Imman  action — grace  and  free  will.  This,  from 
Augustine  to  Luther  and  Jansenius,  was  the  inter- 
minable, still  reviving  problem.  Latin  Christian  lit- 
erature, like  Greek,  might  have  seemed  ah'eady  to 
have  passed  its  meridian  after  Tertullian,  Cyprian, 
Ambrose,  and,  high  above  all,  Augustine.  The  age 
of  true  Latin  poetry,  no  doubt,  had  long  been  over ; 
the  imaginative  in  Christianity  could  only  find  its 
expression  to  some  extent  in  the  legend  and  in  the 
ritual ;  but,  except  in  a  very  few  hymns,  it  was  not 
till  out  of  the  wedlock  of  Latin  with  the  Northern 
tongues,  not  till  after  new  languages  had  been  born 
in  the  freshness  of  youth,  that  there  were  great 
Christian  poets :  poets  not  merely  writing  on  relig- 
ious subjects,  but  instinct  with  the  religious  life  of 
Christianity,  —  Dante,  Ariosto,  Tasso,  Shakspeare, 
Milton,  Calderon,  Schiller.  But  not  merely  did 
Latin  theology  expand  into  another  vast  and  teem- 
ing period,  that  of  the  Schoolmen,  culminating  in 
Aquinas ;  but  Latin  being  the  common  language, 
the  clergy  the  only  learned  body  throughout  Europe, 
it  was  that  of  law  in  both  its  branches ;  of  science, 
of  i)liilosophy,  even  of  history ;  of  letters ;  in  short, 
of   civihzation.      Latin    Christianity,    when   her   time 


28  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Inirod. 

was  come,  had  lier  great  era  of  art,  not  only  as 
the  preserver  of  the  traditions  of  Greek  and  Roman 
skill  in  architecture,  and  some  of  the  technical  oper- 
ations in  sculpture  and  painting,  but  original  and 
creative.  It  was  art  comprehending  architecture, 
painting,  sculpture,  and  music,  Christian  in  its  full- 
est sense,  as  devoted  entirely  to  Christian  uses,  ex- 
pressive of  Christian  sentiments,  arising  out  of  and 
kindling  in  congenial  spirits  Christian  thought  and 
feeling. 

The  characteristic  of  Latin  Christianity  was  that 
Its  character,  of  the  old  Latin  world — a  firm  and  even 
obstinate  adherence  to  legal  form,  whether  of  tra- 
ditionary usage  or  written  statute ;  the  strong  asser- 
tion of,  and  the  severe  subordination  to,  authority. 
Its  wildest  and  most  eccentric  fanaticism,  for  the 
most  part,  and  for  many  centuries,  respected  exter- 
nal unity.  It  was  the  Roman  empire,  again  ex- 
tended over  Europe  by  an  universal  code  and  a 
])rovincial  government  ;  by  a  hierarchy  of  religious 
prajtors  or  proconsuls,  and  a  host  of  inferior  officers, 
each  in  strict  subordination  to  those  immediately 
above  them,  and  gradually  descending  to  the  very 
lowest  ranks  of  society :  the  whole  with  a  certain 
degree  of  freedom  of  action,  but  a  restrained  and 
limited  freedom,  and  with  an  appeal  to  the  spiritual 
Cuisar  in  the  last  resort. 

Latin  Christianity  maintained  its  unshaken  domin- 
ion until,  what  I  venture  to  call,  Teutonic  Chris- 
tianity,^   aided    by    the    invention    of  paper    and    of 

1  Throughout  the  world,  wherever  the  Teutonic  is  the  groundwork  of 
the  language,  the  lieforraation  either  is,  or,  as  in  Southern  Germany, 
has  been  dominant;  wherever  Latin,  Latin  Christianity  has  retained  its 
ftscendencv. 


[NTROD.  TEUTONIC  CHRISTIANITY.  29 

printing,  asserted  its  independence,  threw  off  Teutonic 
the  great  mass  of  traditionary  religion,  and  ciinstianitv. 
out  of  the  Bible  summoned  forth  a  more  simple  faith, 
which  seized  at  once  on  the  reason,  on  the  conscience, 
and  on  the  passions  of  men.  This  faith,  with  a  less 
perfectly  organized  outward  system,  has  exercised  a 
moi'e  profound  moral  control,  through  the  sense  of 
strictly  personal  responsibility.  Christianity^  became 
a  vast  influence  working  irregularly  on  individual 
minds,  rather  than  a  great  social  system,  coerced  by 
a  central  supremacy,  by  an  all-embracing  spiritual  con- 
trol, and  held  together  by  rigid  usage,  or  by  outward 
signs  of  common  citizenship.  Its  multiplicity  and 
variety,  rather  than  its  unity,  was  the  manifestation 
of  its  life  ;  or  rather  its  unity  lay  deeper  in  its  being, 
and  consisted  more  in  intellectual  sympathies,  in  affin- 
ities of  thought  and  feeling,  of  principles  and  motiAcs, 
in  a  more  remote  or  rather  untraceable  kindred  through 
the  common  Father  and  common  Saviour.  Ceremo- 
nial uniformity  seemed  to  retire  into  subordinate  im- 
portance and  estimation.  Books  gradually  becatne, 
as  far  as  the  instniction  of  the  human  race,  a  cotirdi- 


1  It  is  obvious  that  I  use  Christianity,  and  indeed  Texitonic  Christianity, 
in  its  most  comprehensive  significance,  trom  national  episcopal  churches, 
like  that  of  England,  which  aspires  to  maintain  the  doctrines  and  organi- 
zation of  the  apostolic,  or  immediately  post-apostolic  ages,  onward  to  that 
dubious  and  undefinable  verge  Avhere  Christianity  melts  into  a  high  moral 
theism,  a  faith  which  Avould  expand  to  purer  spirituality  with  less  distinct 
dogmatic  system;  or  that  which  would  hardly  call  itself  more  than  a 
Christian  philosophy,  a  religious  Rationalism.  I  presume  not,  neither  is  it 
the  office  of  the  historian,  to  limit  the  blessings  of  our  religion  either  in 
this  world  or  the  world  to  come;  "there  is  One  who  will  know  his  oa\m." 
As  an  historian  I  can  disft'anchise  none  who  claim,  even  on  the  sligliti'st 
grounds,  the  privileges  and  hopes  of  Christianity:  repudiate  none  who  do 
not  place  themselves  without  the  pale  of  believers  and  worsshippers  of 
Christ,  or  of  (rod  through  Christ. 


30  LATIN  CHRISTIANTTT.  IxrRon 

nate  priestliood.  No  longer  rare,  costly,  inaccessible, 
or  unintelligible,  they  descended  to  classes  wliicli  they 
had  never  before  approached.  Eloquence  or  argument, 
instead  of  expiring  on  the  ears  of  an  entranced  but 
limited  auditory,  addressed  mankind  at  large,  flew 
through  kingdoms,  crossed  seas,  perpetuated  and  j^ro 
mulgated  themselves  to  an  incalculable  extent.  In- 
dividual men  could  not  but  be  working  out  in  their 
own  studies,  in  their  own  chambers,  in  their  own 
minds,  the  great  problems  of  faith.  The  primal  rec- 
ords of  Christianity,  in  a  narrow  compass,  passed  into 
all  the  vernacular  laniTuao;es  of  the  world,  where  they 
could  not  be  followed  by  the  vast,  scattered,  and  am- 
biguous volumes  of  tradition.  The  clergy  became  less 
and  less  a  separate  body  (the  awakened  conscience  of 
men  refused  to  be  content  with  vicarious  religioji 
through  them)  ;  they  ceased  to  be  the  sole  arbiters  of 
man's  destiny  in  another  life :  they  sank  back  into 
society,  to  be  distinguished  only  as  the  models  and 
promoters  of  moral  and  religious  virtue,  and  so  of 
order,  happiness,  peace,  and  the  hope  of  immortality. 
They  derived  their  influence  less  from  a  traditionary 
divine  commission  or  vested  authority,  than  from  their 
individual  virtue,  knowledge,  and  earaest,  if  less  au- 
thoritative, inculcation  of  divine  truth.  Monasticism 
Avas  rejected  as  alien  to  the  primal  religion  of  the  Gos- 
pel ;  the  family  life,  the  life  of  the  Christian  family, 
resumed  its  place  as  the  highest  state  of  Christian 
grace  and  perfection. 

This  progi*essive  development  of  Christianity  seems 
Progrossive  tlic  inevitable  consequence  of  man's  progress 
of  uilrLstkin-  ^'^  kuowlcdgc,  and  in  the  more  general  dis- 
"^'  semination     of     that     knowledge.       Human 


Introd.  rEUTONIC  CTIRISTrANITY.  31 

thought  is  almost  compelled  to  assert,  and  cannot  help 
asserting,  its  original  freedom.  And  as  that  progress 
is  manifestly  a  law  of  human  nature,  proceeding  from 
the  divine  Author  of  our  being,  this  self-adaptation  of 
the  one  true  religion  to  that  progress  must  have  the 
divine  sanction,  and  may  be  supposed,  without  pre- 
sumption, to  have  been  contemplated  in  the  counsels 
of  Infinite  Wisdom. 

The  full  and  more  explicit  expansion  of  these  views 
on  this  Avatar  of  Teutonic  Christianity  must  await 
its  proper  place  at  the  close  of  our  history. 


BOOK  I. 


CHRONOLOGY  OF   FIRST   FOUR   CENTURIES. 


A.  D 

42 

43 
44 
45 

46 

47 

48 

49 
60 
51 


Bishops  of  Rome. 


Emperors. 


1  St.  Peter  (accord- 
ing to  Jerome). 

3  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

4    

5    

6    

7    

8      

9 

10 

11    


12  

13  

14 

15  

16  

17  

18  

19  

20      

21 

22      

23      

24 

20      

1  Linus  (according  to 
Jerome,  Irenjiv 
ua,  Eusebiu^). 


Claudius, 
2. 


year 


Nero,  Oct.  13. 


Remarkable  Events,  &c. 


>jO' 


Claudius  in  Britain. 

Death  of  Herod. 

Agrippa  the  Younger  in  favor 
witli  Claudius. 

St.  Paul  visits  Jerusalem  with 
Barnabas. 

Tiberius  Alexander,  Governor 
in  Judea. 

Agrippa  the  Younger  succeeds 
his  uncle,  Herod. 

Cumanus,  Governor  of  Judea. 

Council  of  Jerusalem.  1  Epistle 
to  Tlies.«!alonians. 

The  date  of  the  expulsion  of  Mio 
Jews  (Suet.  Claud.)  uii<er- 
tain,  but  as  Agripp.i  \'.i 
Rome  was  in  high  favor,  and 
would  protect  the  Jewish 
interests,  it  was  probably 
after  his  departure  from 
Rome. 

Felix,  Governor  of  Judai  *2 
Epistle  to  Thessalouians. 

Paul  at  Ephesus.     1  Epistle  to 

Corinthians. 
At  Corinth.  Epistle  toG.alati.ina. 
At  Corinth.     Epistle  to  Romans. 
Death  of  Agrippa. 
Paul  before  Felix.     Before   Fes- 

tus.  In  Malta. 
Paul  iu  Rome,  writes  to  the  Ephe 

sians. 
Paul  acquitted.    Epistles  to  i'li'- 

lippians,  Colossians,    I'hiio- 

mon. 
Fire  of  Home.  Persecution  of  the 

Christians.       Florus,     GOT- 

ernor  of  Judea. 
N<'ro  goes  to  Greece. 
MartvnloMi  of  St.  Paul  —and  of 

lit.  I'eter  (?). 


Book  I.  CHRONOLOGY  OF  FIRST  FOUR  CENTURIES. 


Bishops  of  Rome. 


Emperors. 


Remarkable  Erents,  &o. 


2  Clement  (accord- 
ing to  Tertul- 
lian  and  Rufi- 
nus). 

8 

4      

6 

6 

7 

8 

9 
10 
11 

1  Gletos,    or    Ana- 

cletus  (?). 

2    

i> 

4      

5 


10 
11 
12 
13 
1  Clement    (?)    (ac- 
cording to  later 
writers). 


Qalba,      Otho, 
Titellius, 
Vespasian. 


Death  of  Nero,  in  June. 


Capture  and  destruction  of  J*- 


Titnfl. 
Domitian. 


Death  of  l^tns,  Sept.  18 


4 

6      

6      

7 

8      

9      

1  Bvari8tu3(?). 
2 

8 

4      

6      

6 
7 


1  Alexander  (?). 
2 


Nenra. 
Trajan. 


10 

1  Sixttifl(T) 
2 
3 

4 


Death  of  the  Consnl  FlaTtiu 
Clemens,  on  account  of 
Jewish  superstition. 

Death  of  St.  John  (IrensBOS, 
Eusebius). 


Pliny  in  Bithynla. 
Pliny's  Letter  to  Trajan. 


Hadrian. 


Trajan  in  the  East.  Sedition  of 
the  Jews  in  Egypt  and  Gy- 
rene. Martyrdom  of  Igior 
tius. 


34 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  I. 


BiBhops  of  Borne. 


Kemarkable  Events,  &e. 


5      

6 
7 
8 
9 
10 

1  Telesphonu. 
2 
8      

4      

5 

6      

7     

8      

9 

10      

1  Hyginiu. 

2 

3 

4 

1  Pius  I. 

2 

3 

4 

6 

6 

7 

8      

9      

10 

11 
12 
13 
14 

1  Aidcetos. 

2 

3 

4 

5      

6 

7 
8 
9 

10      

11      

1  Soter. 

2      

8 

4  

6  

6 

7  


Antoninus  Pius. 


Hadrian  at  Athens.     Apologies 
of  Quadratua  and  Axistides. 


Hadrian  in  Egypt. 
Jewish  War. 


Um 


Bar     Cochba    persecutes 

Christians. 
End  of  the  Jewish  War. 
Foundation  or  reconstruction  of 

^Ua  on  the  ruins  of  Jeru8»> 


Polycarp  in  Rome. 
Marcion  in  Rome.    Justin  Mar> 
tyr,  Apology  I. 


M.  Aurelius 
(Verus). 


1  Elentherins 
«      178). 
2 


(or 


Parthian  "War  ended.  Marcus 
Aurelius  in  the  East.  Mar- 
tyrdom of  PolycArp  (?). 

Terror  about  Marcomannian 
War.    Justin  Martyr. 

Apology  of  Atheuagoras. 

Death  of  Verus. 

Letter  of  Dionysius. 

Apology  of  Melito,  B.  of  Corinth, 

Euseb.  U.  E.  iv.,  28. 
Battle    with     Quadi  —  Storm 

thought  miraculous. 

Martyrs  of  Lyons. 


Book  I.    CHRONOLOGY  OF  FIRST  FOUR  CENTURIES. 


35 


Bishops  of  Rome. 

Emperors. 

8 

4      

Gommodus. 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

1  Victor  (?). 

Pertinax. 

2 

Julianus. 

8     

Niger. 
Sever us. 

4      , 

5      

6 

7      ••••■••••••••■• 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

1  Zephyrinu8(?). 

3 

4 

5 

6      ..,,, 

7 

8 

9 

10      

Caracalla,  Geta. 

11 , , 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16      

Macrinns. 

17      

Elagabalus. 

1  Callistufl. 

2 

8 

4      

Alexander  Seve- 

1  Urbantis. 

rus. 

2 

3 

4 

6 

6 

7 

1  Pontianua,     July 

22. 

2 

8 

4 

5 

6  Anteroa  (PontianTifl 

Maximinus, 

died  Sept.  28). 

The  2  Qordians, 

Anteroa       died 

Pupienus  Bal- 

June  18,  236. 

binus. 

Remarkable  Events,  fto. 


Montanus,  Priscilla  and  Mazl 

milla. 
Dispute  about  Easter.  —  Euseb 

H.  E.  V.  24. 


Persecution  of  Severus  in  Egypt 
Origen  teaches  in  Egypt. 


Tertullian,  Lib.  I.  Adv.  Mansion. 
He  is  now  a  Montanist. 


Origen  at  Rome.    Tertullian  ad 
Scapulam  (?). 


Hippolytns  bishop  of  Porto. 


Pontianus  banished  to  Sardinia, 
Hia  Martyrdom  (?).   Martyrdom 
ofHippolytU8(?). 


86 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  I 


Bishops  of  Rome. 


Emperors. 


Ilemarl:able  Events,  &«. 


1  Fabianufl. 
2 


4 

6 

6 

7 

8 

9      

10 
11 
12 

13      

14      

See  vacant. 

1  Cornelius,  June  4, 

d.  Sept.  14. 
1  Lucius. 

1  Stephen. 

2      


Sixtufl  n.,  Martyr, 
d.  Aug.  2,  258. 
Vacancy. 

1    Bionyeius,    July 
22 


Gordianus  J  a- 
nior. 


Phlllppus  Arabs. 


Decius. 
Gallua. 


^imilianus  Va- 
lerianus. 


10      

1  Felix. 

2      

8 

4      

5 
6 

1  Eutyehianus. 

2      

8 

4 
5 
6 
7 
8      

1  Caius. 

2      

3 

4      

6 
6 
7 


Qallienus. 


Olaudiiu. 
Aurelian. 


Tacitus,  Probus. 
Florianus. 


Canis,  Carinas. 

NumerianuB. 

Diocletian. 

Maxim  ian. 


Cyprian,  bishop  of  Carthage. 
Martyrdom  of  Fabianus,  Jan.  20 

St.  Cyprian. 


Death  of  Origen. 

Controversy  concerning  the  Lap- 

fii,  Novatian  Antipope. 
Controversy  about   baptism  oi 

Heretics.    III.   Council   of 

Carthage. 
Exile  of  Cyprian. 

Martyrdom  of  Sixtus.    Martyr- 
dom of  Cyprian,  Sept.  14. 


Paul  of  Samosata  deposed. 
Manes  from  A.v.  241  to  A.i>>  27) 


Laetaatiiw. 


Book  I.    CHRONOLOGY  OF  FIRST  FOUR  CENTURIES. 


87 


Bishops  of  Rome. 


Emperors. 


B«markable  Events,  fro. 


H 
12 
13 

1  Marcellinus,  Jane 
30. 

2 

3 

4 

6 


Died  Oct.  24. 

See  vacant. 


Marcellus,  May  19. 

Ensebius,  6  months. 

1  Vacancy.    Meichi- 

ades,  July  2. 


1  Sylvester,  Jan.  31. 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10      

U      

12      

13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 

1  Marcus,  Jan  18. 

1  Julius  I.,  Feb.  6. 


2 
8 
4 

5 
6 


Two  Caesars, 
Coustautius, 
Qalerius. 


Constantius, 
Galerius. 
Severus  Maximin. 
Constantiue, 
Maxentius, 
Licinius, 
Maximian. 
Six  Emperors. 


Constantino, 
Constans, 
Constantius. 


AmobiiU. 


Persecution. 

Abdication   of  DiocIeiSaB 


Death  of  Severtis. 

Death  of  Maximian. 
Death  of  Galerius. 

Victory    of    Constantlne 

Maxentius. 
EdictofMilan,  Oct.  28. 


Defeat  and  death  of  Licinius. 
Constantine  sole  Emperor. 
Council  of  Nicea,  June  19. 


Exile  of  Athanasius. 
Baptism  of  Coustautin«. 


Athanasius  returns  from  exile. 

Constantine  defeated  and  killed 
by  Constans.  Death  of  Eu- 
sebius  of  Caesarea. 

Athanasius  in  Rome.  Law 
against  Pagan  sacrifices. 


"38 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  I. 


A.D. 


Bishops  of  Rome. 


10 

11 

12      

13      

14      

15 

1  Julius  died  April 

5 ;        Liberiufl, 
May  22. 

2      

8      

4      


6  (Felix,  Antipope.) 


Emperors. 


Magnentius. 


Gonstantius 
alone. 


6      

7      

8      

9 
10      

Julian 

11      

12      

13      

A'^alf'tif.ininn 

14 

16  died  Sept.  29. 

1  Damaeus. 

2 

8 

4 

5 

6 

7     

Talens. 
Gratian. 

8 

9      

Valentinian  II. 

10 
11 
12      

13      

14      

Enip.  of  the 

East. 

15 
16 
17 
18  DamasuB  died  Dec. 

11. 
1  Siricius. 
2 
3      

4 
6 
6      

7 
8 

Bemarkable  Events,  &o. 


Athanasius  at  Milan,  in  OauL 


Council  of  Sardica. 
Council  of  Pliilippopolia. 
Athauasius  in  Alexandria. 
Constaus    killed   in    Spain    bj 
Magnentius. 


Battle    of   Mursa.     Death    of 

Magnentius. 
Birth  of  Augustine. 
Council     of    Aries.       Council 

of  Milan.     Banishment    of 

Liberius. 
Julian's    Campaign    in    Gaul. 

Athanasius  exiled  from  Al- 
exandria. 
Constantius  at  Rome. 
Recall  of  Liberius. 
Council  of  Rimini.    Council  of 

Seleucia. 
Death  of  Constantius. 
Athanasius  returns  to  Alexan- 

di-ia  —  again  expelled. 
Attempt  to  rebuild  the  Temple 
Death  of  Juhan,  June  26. 

Tumults  at  Rome  on  the  con- 
tested election  of  Damaeua 
and  Ursicinus. 


Death  of  Athanasius,  May  2. 
Ambrose,  Bishop  of  Milan. 


Dejith  of  Valens. 
Theodosius  expels  the  Arians. 
Synod  against  Priscilhan. 

Council  of  Constantinople.  Ad- 
dress of  Symmachus  on  Stat- 
ute of  Theodosius  de  Heret- 
icis. 

Jerome  i"etires  to  Bethlehem. 


Chrysostom  ad  Antiochenos. 
Temple  of  Serapis  destroyed. 


Book  I.    CHRONOLOGY  OF  FIRST  FOUR  CENTURIES. 


39 


A.D. 

Bishops  of  Rome. 

Emperors. 

Remarkable  Events,  &o. 

393 

9      

394 
395 

10 

11      

Honorius,    Ar- 
cadius. 

396 
397 
398 

12 
13 

14  died  Nov.  26. 
Anastafiius. 

399 

Ghrysostom  Bishop  of  Constan- 
tinople. 

400 

HISTORIC  FEKIUI  S.  41 


BOOK  L 


CHAPTER   I, 

lEGmNING  9¥  RtMAN  CHRISTIANITY. 

Latin  Christianity,  from  its  commencement,  in  its 
character,  and  in  all  the  circumstances  of  its  ^^^^^  pQ^^^ 
development,  had  an  irresistible  tendency  to  Sfof^L^tuT'" 
monarchy.  Its  capital  had  for  ages  been  the  «^"^«^"^*y- 
capital  of  the  world,  and  it  still  remained  that  of  Western 
Europe.  This  monarchy  reached  its  height  under  Hilde- 
brand  and  Innocent  III. ;  the  history  of  the  Roman 
Pontificate  thus  becomes  the  centre  of  Latin  Christian 
History.  The  controversies  of  the  East,  in  which  Occi- 
dental or  Roman  Christianity  mingled  with  a  lofty  dic- 
tation, sometimes  so  unimpassioned,  that  it  might  seem 
as  though  the  establishment  of  its  own  supremacy  was 
its  ultimate  aim  —  the  conversion  of  the  different  races 
of  Barbarians,  who  constituted  the  world  of  Latin 
Christendom  —  Monasticism,  with  the  forms  which  it 
assumed  in  its  successive  Orders  —  the  rise  and  con- 
quests of  Mohammedanism,  with  which  Latin  religion 
came  at  length  into  direct  conflict,  at  first  in  Spain  and 
Gaul,  in  Sicily  and  Italy  ;  afterwards  when  the  Popes 
placed  themselves  at  the  head  of  the  Crusades,  and 
Islam  and  Latin  Christianity  might  seem  to  contest  the 
dominion  of  the  human  race  —  the  restoration  of  the 


42  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I. 

Western  empire  beyond  the  Alps  —  the  feudal  system 
of  which  the  Pope  aspired  to  be  as  it  were  the  spmtual 
Suzerain  —  the  long  and  obstinate  conflicts  with  the 
temporal  power  —  the  origin  and  tenets  of  the  sects 
which  attempted  to  withdi'aw  from  the  unity  of  the 
church,  and  to  retire  into  mdependent  commmiities  -  - 
the  first  struggles  of  the  human  mind  for  freedom  within 
Latin  Christendom  —  the  gradual  growth  of  Christian 
literature,  Christian  art,  and  Christian  pliilosophy  —  all 
these  momentous  subjects  range  themselves  as  episodes 
in  the  chronicle  of  the  Roman  bishops.  Hence  our 
history  obtains  that  unity  which  impresses  itself  upon 
the  attention,  and  presents  the  vicissitudes  of  centmies 
as  a  vast,  continuous,  harmonious  whole ;  while  at  the 
same  time  it  breaks  up  and  separates  itself  into  distinct 
periods,  each  with  its  marked  events,  peculiar  character, 
and  commanding  men.  And  so  the  plan  of  our  work 
may,  at  least,  attempt  to  fulfil  the  two  great  fijnctions 
of  history,  to  arrest  the  mind  and  carry  it  on  with 
imflagging  interest,  to  infix  its  whole  course  of  events 
on  the  imagination  and  the  memory,  as  well  by  its 
broad  and  definite  landmarks,  as  by  the  life  and  reality 
of  its  details  in  each  separate  period.  The  writer  is 
unfeignedly  conscious  how  far  his  own  powers  fall  below 
the  dignity  of  his  subject,  below  the  accomplishment 
of  his  own  conceptions. 

I.  —  The  first  of  these  periods  in  the  history  of  Latin 
A.  D.  366-401.  Christianity  closes  with  Pope  Damasus  and 
his  two  successors.^  Its  age  of  total  obscurity  is  passed, 
its  indistinct  twilight  is  brightening  into  open  day.    The 

1  There  is  another  advantage  in  this  division;  the  first  authentic  decretal 
is  that  of  Pope  Siricius,  the  successor  of  Damasus. 


Chap.  I.  HISTORIC  PERIODS.  43 

Cliristian  bishop  is  become  so  important  a  personage  in 
Rome,  as  to  be  the  subject  of  profane  history.  His 
election  is  a  cause  of  civil  strife.  Christianity  more 
than  equally  divides  the  Patriciate,  still  more  the  peo- 
ple ;  it  has  already  ascended  the  Imperial  tin-one. 
Noble  matrons  and  virgins  are  becoming  the  vestals  of 
Christian  Monasticism.  The  bitterness  of  the  Heathen 
party  betrays  a  galling  sense  of  inferiority.  Paganism 
is  writhing,  struggling,  languishing  in  its  death  pangs, 
Chi'istianity  growing  haughty  and  wanton  in  its  tri- 
umph. 

II.  —  The  second  ends  with  Pope  Leo  the  Great. 
Paganism  has  made  its  last  vam  effort,  not  a.  d.  461. 
now  for  equality,  for  toleration.  It  has  been  buried 
under  the  ruins  of  the  conquered  capital.  Alaric 
tramples  out  its  last  embers.  Rome  emerges  from  its 
destruction  by  the  Goths  a  Christian  city.  The  East 
has  wrought  out,  af^er  the  strife  of  two  centuries,  the 
dogmatic  system  of  the  church,  which  Rome  receives 
with  haughty  condescension,  as  if  she  had  imposed  it 
on  the  world.  The  great  Western  controversy,  Pela- 
gianism,  has  been  agitated  and  has  passed  away.  Pre- 
tensions to  the  successorship  of  St.  Peter  are  a.  d.  402-417 
already  heard  from  Innocent  I.  Claims  are  made  at 
least  to  the  authority  of  a  Western  Patriarch.  In  Leo 
the  Great,  half  a  century  later,  the  pope  is  a.  d.  440^61. 
not  merely  the  greatest  personage  in  Rome,  but  even 
m  Italy  ;  he  takes  the  lead  as  a  pacific  protector 
against  the  Barbarians.  Leo  the  Great  is  likewise  the 
first  distinguished  writer  among  the  popes. 

III.  —  To  the  death  of   Gregory   I.    (the    Great) 


44  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  L 

A.  D.  604.  Christianity  is  not  only  the  religion  of  the 
Roman  or  Italian,  but  in  part  of  the  barbarian  world. 
Now  takes  place  the  league  of  Christianity  with  Bar- 
barism. The  old  Roman  letters  and  arts  die  away  into 
almost  total  extinction.  So  fallen  is  Roman  literature, 
that  Boethius  is  a  great  philosopher,  Cassiodorus  a 
great  historian,  Prudentius,  Fortunatus,  Juvencus  great 
poets.  The  East  has  made  its  last  effort  to  unite  tho 
Christian  world  under  one  dominion.  Justinian  has 
aspired  to  legislate  for  Chiistendom.  Monastic  Chris- 
tianity, having  received  a  strong  impulse  from  St.  Ben- 
edict, is  in  the  ascendant.  Gregory  I.  as  a  Pope,  and 
as  a  writer,  offers  himself  as  a  model  of  its  excellenciej* 
and  defects. 

IV.  —  To  the  coronation  of  Charlemagne  as  Em 
A.  D.  800.  peror  of  the  West.  Mohammed  and  Mo- 
hammedanism arise.  The  East  and  Egypt  are  severed 
from  Greek,  Africa  and  Spain  from  Latin  Christianity. 
Anglo-Saxon  Britain,  Western  and  Southern  Ger- 
many are  Christian.  Iconoclasm  in  the  East  finally 
separates  Greek  and  Latin  Clu-istianity.  The  Pope 
has  become  the  great  power  in  Italy.  The  Gothic 
Idngdom,  the  Greek  dominion  of  Justinian  have  passed 
away.  The  Pope  seeks  an  alliance  against  the  Lom- 
bards with  the  Transalpine  kings.  Charlemagne  is 
Patrician  of  Rome  and  Emperor  of  the  West. 

V.  —  The  Empire  of  Charlemagne.  The  mingled 
Temporal  and  Ecclesiastical  supremacy  of  Charle- 
magne breaks  up  at  his  death.  Under  his  successors 
the  spiritual  supremacy,  in  part  the  temporal,  falls  to 
the   clergy.     Growth   of  the   Transalpine   hierarchy. 


Chap.  I.  HISTORIC  PERIODS.  45 

Pope  Nicholas  the  Fh^st  accepts  the  false  decretals. 
Invasion  of  the  Northmen.     The  dark  ages  a.  d.  996. 
of  the  Papacy  lower  and  terminate  in  the  degradation 
of  the  Popes  into  slaves  of  the  lawless  Barons  of  the 
Romagna. 

VI.  —  The  line  of  German  Pontiffs.  The  Transal- 
pine  powers  interpose,  rescue  the  Papacy  a.  d.  996-106I. 
from  its  threatened  dissolution,  from  the  hatred  and 
contempt  of  mankuid.  For  great  part  of  a  century 
foreign  ecclesiastics  are  seated  on  the  Papal  throne. 

VII.  —  The  restoration  of  the  Itahan  Papacy  under 
Gregory  VII.  (Hildebrand).     The  Pontifi- ^„  joei- 
cates  of  his  immediate  predecessors  and  sue-  ^^'^' 
cessors.     Now  commences  the  complete  organization  of 
the  sacerdotal  caste  as   independent  of,  and  claiming 
superiority  to,  all  temporal  powers.     The  strife  of  cen- 
tm'ies  ends  in  the  enforced  celibacy  of  the  clergy.     Ber- 
engar  disputes  Transubstantiation.     Urban  II.  places 
himself  at  the  head  of  Christendom  on  the  a.  d.  1095. 
occasion  of  the  first  Crusade. 

VIII. — Continuation  of  contest  about  Investitures. 
Intellectual  movement.  Erigena.  Gotschalk.  An- 
selm.  Abelard.  Arnold  of  Brescia.  Strong  revival 
of  Monasticism.  Stephen  Harding.  St.  Ber-  The  12th  cen- 
nard.  Strife  in  England  for  immunities  of  *"''^' 
the  clergy.  Thomas  a  Becket.  Rise  of  the  Emperors 
of  the  line  of  Hohenstaufen.     Frederick  Barbarossa. 

IX.  —  Meridian  of  the  Papal  power  under  Innocent 
III.     Innocent  aspires  to  rule  all  the  king-  ^^°^  ii^s. 


46  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  1. 

doms  of  the  West.  Latin  conquest  of  Constantinople. 
Wars  of  the  Albigenses.     St.  Dominic.     St.  Francis. 

X.  —  The  successors  of  Innocent  III.  wage  an  inter- 
necine conflict  with  the  Emperors.  Fruitless  and  pre- 
mature attempt  at  emancipation  under  Frederick  II. 

,^     The  Decretals,  the  Palladium  of  the  PapaJ 

Gregory  TX.  n  i  i  i  i  i 

1228-1238.  power,  are  collected,  completed,  promulgated 
as  the  law  of  Christendom  by  Gregory  IX.  Con- 
tinued conflict  of  the  Papal  and  Sacerdotal  against  the 
Innocent  IV.  Imperial  and  Secular  power.  Innocent  IV. 
dies  1254.       YslW  of  the  Housc  of  Hoheustaufen. 

XI.  —  The  Empire  is  crushed,  and  withdraws  into 
its  Teutonic  sphere.  The  French  descend  into  Italy. 
In  the  King  of  France  arises  a  new  adversaiy  to  the 
Boniface  dies  Pop^'  Philip  the  Fair  aud  Boniface  VIII. 
1303.  (jIqsq  the  open  strife  of  the  temporal  and 
spiritual  power. 

XII.  —  The  Popes  are  become  the  slaves  of  France 
at  Avignon.  What  is  called  the  Babylonian  cap- 
A.  D.  1305  to  tivity  of  seventy  years.  Clement  V.  abol- 
^^^'  ishes  the  Templars.  The  Empire  resumes 
its  claims  on  Italy.  Henry  of  Luxemburg.  Louis 
of  Bavaria.     John  XXII.  and  the  Fraticelli.     Rienzi. 

XIII.  —  Restoration  to  Rome.  The  great  Schism. 
Councils  of  Pisa,  of  Constance,  of  Basil,  of  Florence,  — 
the  Councils  advance  a  claim  to  supremacy  over  the 
Popes.  Last  attempt  to  reconcile  Greek  and  Latin 
Christianity.  Popes  begin  to  be  patrons  of  Letters 
and  Arts. 


Chap   I.    FIRST  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN  ROME.      47 

XIV.  —  Retrospect  of  Mediaeval  Letters  and  Arts. 
Revival  of  Greek  Letters. 

CoN(  LUSION.  — Advance  of  the  Reformation.  Teu- 
tonic Christianity  aspires  and  begins  to  divide  the 
world  with  Latin  Christianity. 


Like  almost  all  the  great  works  of  nature  and  of 
human  power  in  the  material  world  and  in  the  world 
of  man,  the  Papacy  grew  up  in  silence  and  obscurity. 
The  names  of  the  earlier  Bishops  of  Rome  are  known 
only  by  barren  lists,^  by  spurious  decrees  and  epistles 
inscribed,  centuries  later,  with  their  names ;  by  their 
collision  with  the  teachers  of  heretical  opmions,  almost 
all  of  whom  found  their  way  to  Rome  ;  by  martyrdoms 
ascribed  with  the  same  lavish  reverence  to  those  who 
lived  under  the  mildest  of  the  Roman  emperors,  as 
well  as  those  under  the  most  merciless  persecutors.^ 
Yet  the  mythic  or  imaginative  spirit  of  early  Chris- 
tianity has  either  respected,  or  was  not  tempted  to 


1  The  catalogue  published  by  Bucherius,  called  also  Liberianus,  is  gen- 
erally the  most  accredited.  M.  Bunsen  promises  a  revision  of  the  whole 
question.  (Hippolytus,  i.  279.)  Historically  the  chronological  discrepan* 
cie«  in  these  lists  are  of  no  great  importance.  But  it  is  remarkable  that 
almost  all  the  earlier  names  are  Greek ;  Clemens,  Pius,  Victor,  Caius,  are 
among  the  very  few  genuine  Roman. 

^  In  a  list  of  Popes,  published  by  Fabricius  (Bibliotheca  Graeca,  xi.  p. 
794),  from  St.  Peter  to  Sylvester,  two  unhappy  pontiffs  alone  (who  are  ac- 
knowledged to  be  Greeks)  are  excluded  from  the  honors  of  martyrdom, 
Dionyslus  and  Eusebius.  It  might  seem  that  this  list  was  composed  after 
Greek  and  Latin  Christianity  had  become  hostile.  As  an  illustration  of  the 
worthlessness  of  these  traditions,  Telesphorus  is  reckoned  as  a  martyr  on 
the  authority  of  Irenasus  (1.  ii.  c.  3;  compare  note  of  Feuardentius).  But 
Telesphorus  was  bishop  of  Rome  during  the  reign  of  Hadrian ;  his  martyr- 
dom is  ascribed  to  the  first  year  of  Antoninus  Pius.  Their  character,  as 
well  as  the  general  voice  of  Christian  history  (see  Hist,  of  Christianity, 
vol.  i.  p.  151, 156),  absolves  these  emperors  from  the  charge  of  persecution. 


48  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book.  L 

indulge  its  creative  fertility  by  the  primitive  annals  of 
Rome.  After  the  embelHshment,  if  not  the  invention, 
of  St.  Peter's  Pontificate,  liis  conflict  with  Simon 
Magus  in  the.  presence  of  the  Emperor,  and  the  cir- 
cumstance of  his  martyrdom,  it  was  content  with 
raising  the  successive  bishops  to  the  rank  of  martyrs 
without  any  peculiar  richness  or  fulness  of  legend.^ 

It  would  be  singularly  curious  and  instructive  to 
trace,  if  it  were  possible,  the  rise  and  growth  of  any 
single  Christian  community,  more  especially  that  of 
Rome,  at  once  in  the  whole  church,  and  in  the  lives  of 
the  bishops ;  the  first  initiatory  movements  in  the  con- 
quest of  the  world,  and  of  the  mistress  of  the  world, 
by  the  rehgion  of  Christ.  How  did  the  Church 
enlarge  her  sphere  in  Rome?  how,  out  of  the  popu- 
lation (fi:om  a  million  to  a  million  and  a  half),^ 
slowly  gather  in  her  tens,  her  hundreds,  her  thousands 
of  converts  ?     By  what  processes,  by  what  influences, 

1  Two  remarkable  passages  greatly  weaken,  or  rather  utterly  destroy  the 
authority  of  all  the  older  Roman  martyrologies.  In  the  book,  De  libris 
recipiendis,  ascribed  to  the  pontificate  of  Damasus,  of  Hormisdas,  more 
probably  to  that  of  Gelasius,  the  caution  of  the  Roman  Church,  in  not 
publicly  reading  the  martyrologies  is  highly  praised,  their  writers  being 
unknown  and  without  authority.  Singulari  cautela  a  S.  Rom.  Ecclesia 
non  leguntur,  quia  et  eorum  qui  conscripserint  nomina  penitus  ignorantur, 
et  ab  infidelibus  vel  idiotis  superflua  aut  minus  apta  quam  rei  ordo  fuerit 
esse  putantur  ....  The  authors  "Deo  magis  quam  hominibus  noti  sunt." 
Apud  Mansi,  sub  Pont.  Gelasii,  A.d.  492,  496.  Gregory  I.  makes  even  a 
more  ingenuous  confession,  that  excepting  one  small  volume  (a  calendar,  it 
should  seem,  of  the  names  and  days  on  which  they  were  honored)  there 
were  no  Acts  of  Martyrs  in  the  archives  of  the  Roman  See  or  in  the 
libraries  of  Rome.  Praeter  ilia,  quae  in  ejusdem  Eusebii  libris  (doubtless 
the  de  Martyr.  Palajst.  of  the  historian),  de  gestis  sanctorum  marty- 
rum  continentur,  nulla  in  archivis  hujus  nostrae  Ecclesiae  vel  in  Romanae 
urbis  bibliothecis  esse  cognovi,  nisi  pauca  quaedam  in  unius  codicis  volu- 
mine  collecta,  et  seqq.    Greg.  M.  Epist.  viii.  29. 

2  Notwithstanding  the  arguments  of  M.  Dureau  de  la  Malle,  Mr.  Meri- 
vale,  and  other  learned  writers  who  have  also  investigated  this  subject,  I 
■till  think  the  estimate  of  Gibbon  the  most  probable. 


Chap.  I.    FniST  PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN  ROME.       49 

l^  what  degrees  did  the  Christians  creep  onward 
towards  dangerous,  towards  equal,  towards  obscurity  of 
superior  numbers  ?  How  did  they  find  ac-  res^g  o?chr£- 
cess  to  the  public  ear,  the  public  mind,  the  ***°*'y- 
pubhc  heart?  How  were  they  looked  upon  by  the 
government  (after  the  Neronian  persecution),  with 
what  gradations,  or'  alternations  of  contempt,  of  indif- 
ference, of  suspicion,  of  animosity?  When  were  they 
entirely  separated  and  distinguished  in  general  opinion 
from  the  Jewish  communities  ?  When  did  they  alto- 
gether cease  to  Judaize  ?  From  what  order,  from  what 
class,  from  what  race  did  they  chiefly  make  their  pros- 
elytes ?  Where  and  by  what  channels  did  they  wage 
their  strife  with  the  religion,  where  with  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  times?  To  what  extent  were  they  per- 
mitted or  disposed  to  hold  public  discussion?  or  did 
the  work  of  conversion  spread  in  secret  from  man  to 
man?  When  did  their  worship  emerge  fr^om  the 
obscurity  of  a  private  dwelling;  or  have  its  edifices, 
like  the  Jewish  synagogues,  recognized  as  sacred 
fanes?  Were  they,  to  what  extent,  and  how  long,  a 
people  dwelling  apart  within  their  own  usages,  and 
retiring  from  social  communion  with  their  kindred, 
and  with  the  rest  of  mankind  ? 

Rome  must  be  imagined  in  the  vastness  and  multi- 
formity of  its  social  condition,  the  mingling  and  con- 
ftision  of  races,  languages,  conditions,  in  order  to 
conceive  the  slow,  imperceptible,  yet  continuous  ag- 
gression of  Christianity.  Amid  the  affairs  of  the 
universal  empire,  the  perpetual  revolutions,  which  were 
constantly  calling  up  new  dynasties  or  new  masters 
over  the  world,  the  pomp  and  state  of  the  Imperial 
palace,  the  commerce,  tlie  business  flowing  in  from  all 

VOL.  I.  4 


50  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  1. 

parts  of  the  world,  the  bustle  of  the  Basilicas  or  courts 
of  law,  the  ordinary  religious  ceremonies,  or  the  more 
splendid  rites  on  signal  occasions,  which  still  went  on, 
if  with  diminishing  concourse  of  worshippers,  with 
their  old  sumptuousness,  magnificence,  and  frequency, 
the  public  games,  the  theatres,  the  gladiatorial  shows, 
the  Lucullan  or  Apician  banquets,  —  Christianity  was 
gradually  withdrawing  from  the  heterogeneous  mass 
some  of  all  orders,  even  slaves,  out  of  the  vices,  the 
ignorance,  the  misery  of  that  corrupted  social  system. 
It  was  ever  instilling  feelings  of  humanity  yet  un- 
known or  coldly  commended  by  an  impotent  philoso- 
phy, among  men  and  women,  whose  infant  ears  had 
been  habituated  to  the  shrieks  of  dying  gladiators  ;  it 
was  giving  dignity  to  minds  prostrated  by  years,  almost 
centuries,  of  degrading  despotism  ;  it  was  nurturing 
purity  and  modesty  of  manners  in  an  unspeakable  state 
of  depravation ;  it  was  enshrining  the  marriage  bed  in 
a  sanctity  long  almost  entirely  lost,  and  rekindling  to  a 
steady  warmth  the  domestic  affections ;  it  was  sub- 
stituting a  simple,  calm,  and  rational  faith  and  worship 
for  the  worn-out  superstitions  of  heathenism ;  gently 
establishing  in  the  soul  of  man  the  sense  of  immor- 
tality, till  it  became  a  natural  and  inextinguishable 
part  of  his  moral  being. 

The  dimness  and  obscurity  which  veiled  the  growing 
Obscurity  of   churcli,  uo  doubt  thrcw  its  modest  conceal- 

the  Bishop  of  «      i         -r^     i 

Rome.  ment   over  the   person   of  the  Bishop.     He 

was  but  one  man,  with  no  recognized  function,  in  the 
vast  and  tumultuous  population.  He  had  his  un- 
marked dwelling,  perhaps  in  the  distant  Transteverine 
region,  or  in  the  then  lowly  and  unfrequented  Vatican. 
By  the  vulgar,  he  was  beheld  as  a  Jew,  or  as  belonging 


Chap.  I.      OBSCURITY  OF  THE  BISHOPS  OF  ROIilE.  51 

to  one  of  tliose  countless  Eastern  religions,  which,  from 
the  commencement  of  the  Empire,  had  been  flowing, 
each  with  its  strange  rites  and  mysteries,  into  Rome. 
The  Emj)eror,  the  Imperial  family,  the  court  favciites, 
the  mintary  commanders,  the  Consulars,  the  Senators, 
the  Patricians  by  birth,  wealth,  or  favor,  the  Pontiffs,  tlie 
great  lawyers,  even  those  who  ministered  to  the  public 
pleasures,  the  distinguished  mimes  or  gladiators,  wlien 
they  appeared  in  the  streets,  commanded  more  pubhc 
attention  than  the  Christian  Bishop,  except  when 
sought  out  for  persecution  by  some  })olitic  or  fanatic 
Emperor.  Slowly,  and  at  long  intervals,  did  the 
^Bishop  of  Rome  emerge  to  dangerous  eminence.  Yet, 
was  there  not  more  real  greatness,  a  more  solemn 
testimony  to  his  faith  in  Christ,  in  this  calm  and 
steadfast  patience  which  awaited  the  tardy  accomplish- 
mi»nt  of  tlie  divine  promises,  than  if,  as  he  is  some- 
times described  by  the  fond  reverence  of  later  Roman 
writers,  he  had  already  laid  claim  to  supreme  power 
over  expanding  Christianity,  or  had  been  held  of  suffi- 
cient importance  to  be  constantly  exposed  to  death  ? 
The  Bishop  of  Rome  could  not  but  be  conscious  that 
he  was  chief  minister  in  the  capital  of  the  world  of 
a  relio-ion  which  was  confrontino;  Paganism  in  all  its 
power  and  majesty.  His  faith  was  constantly  looking 
forward  to  the  time,  when  (if  not  anticipated  by  the 
more  appalling  triumph  at  the  coming  of  Christ  in  His 
glory)  that  vast  fabric  of  idolatry,  in  its  strength  and 
wealth,  hallowed  by  the  veneration  of  ages,  with  all 
its  temples,  pomps,  theatres,  priesthood,  its  crimes  and 
its  superstitions,  and  besides  this,  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
philosophic  aristocracy,  would  crumble  away ;  and  the 
successor  of  the  Galilean  fisherman  or  the  persecuted 


52  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I 

Jew  be  recognized  as  the  religious  sovereign  of  tlie 
Christianized  city.  The  peaceful  head  of  a  ^mall 
community  (small  comparatively  with  the  believers  in 
the  old  religions  or  the  behevers  in  none,)  even  though, 
'jke  the  Apostle,  he  may  have  had  some  converts  in  high 
places,  "  in  Caesar's  household,"  yet  who  had  no  doubt 
in  the  future  universality  of  Christianity,  and  who  was 
content  to  pursue  his  noiseless  course  of  beneficence 
and  conversion,  is  a  nobler  example  of  true  Christian- 
ity, than  he  who,  in  the  excitement  of  opposition  to 
power,  and  in  the  absorbing  but  brief  agony  of 
martyrdom,  laid  down  his  life  for  the  Cross. 

Christianity,  indeed,  might  seem,  even  from  the 
Persecution  ^^'^^'  ^^  hsiVQ  disdaiucd  obscurity  —  to  have 
of  Nero.  sprung  up  or  to  have  been  forced  into  terri- 
ble notoriety  in  the  Neronian  persecution  and  the  sub- 
sequent martyrdom  of  one  at  least,  according  to  the 
vulgar  tradition,  of  its  two  great  Apostles.  Wliat 
caprice  of  cruelty  directed  the  attention  of  Nero  to 
the  Christians,  and  made  him  suppose  them  victims 
important  enough  to  glut  the  popular  indignation  at 
the  burning  of  Rome,  it  is  impossible  to  determine : 
(the  author  has  ventured  on  a  bold  conjecture,  and 
OfDomitian.  adhcrcs  to  his  own  paradox).^  The  cause 
and  extent  of  the  Domitian  persecution  is  equally  ob- 
scure. The  son  of  Vespasian  was  not  likely  to  be 
merciful  to  any  connected  with  the  fanatic  Jews.  Its 
known  victims  were  of  the  imperial  family,  against 
whom  some  crime  was  necessary,  and  an  accusation  of 
Christianity  served  the  end.^ 

At  the  commencement  of  the  second  century,  under 

1  Hist,  of  Christianity,  ii.  p.  36. 

2  Ibid.,  ii.  p.  59. 


Chap.  I.  ROMAN  CHURCH   UNDER  TRAJAN.  53 

Traian,  iiersecution  ao;ainst  the  Christians  is  Roman 

.  •  ^         T^  n^i  1  ^T     p     1   Church  undeu 

ragmg  in  tlie  ii,ast.  1  hat,  however  (^1  leel  Ti-ajaa. 
increased  confidence  in  the  opinion),  was  a  local,  or 
rather  Asiatic  persecution,  arising  out  of  the  vigilant 
and  not  groundless  apprehension  of  the  sullen  and 
brooding  preparation  for  insurrection  among  the  whole 
Jewish  race  (with  whom  Roman  terror  and  hatred 
still  confounded  the  Christians),  which  broke  out  in 
the  bloody  massacres  of  Cyrene  and  Cyprus,  and  in 
the  final  rebellion,  during  the  reign  of  Hadrian,  under 
Barchochebas.  Bvit  while  Ignatius,  bishop  of  Antioch, 
is  carried  to  Rome  to  suffer  martyrdom,  the  Roman 
community  is  in  peace,  and  not  without  influence. 
Ignatius  entreats  his  Roman  brethren  not  to  interfere 
with  injurious  kindness  between  himself  and  his  glo- 
rious death.  1 

The  wealth  of  the  Roman  community,  and  their 
lavish  Christian  use  of  their  wealth,  by  contributing 
to  the  wants  of  foreign  churches,  at  all  periods,  espec- 
ially in  times  of  danger  and  disaster,  (an  ancient  usage 
which  lasted  till  the  time  of  Eusebius,)  testifies  at  once  to 
their  flourishing  condition,  to  their  constant  commimica- 
tion  with  more  distant  parts  of  the  empire,^  and  thus  in- 

1  ^ojSovfiai  yap  lijv  vfiijv  ayd-KTjv,  fiTj  avrrj  fie  u^LKTjori^  vfuv  yap>  evx^pH 
tsTiv  b  i^eAere  noLTJGai.  —  p.  41.  ''Eyd  ypcKpu  Tznoac^  rale  eKKTirjolatg  Kal 
ivTEkh^iiaL  TTuaLV  OTL  ey(j  eKuv  virep  Qeov  awo&VTiaKU,  eavnep  i'fiecg  fjsf 
K0)7MGTjTi  (//£).  YiapaKaTi-ib  vueig  y.^  [hv)  evvoia  ciKoipu  yevrja&i  fioi 
...  —  Corpus  Ignatianum  a  Cureton,  p.  45.  I  quote  Mr.  Cureton's  Syriac 
Ignatius,  not  feeling  that  the  larger  copies  have  equal  historical  authority. 

2  The  first  notice  of  this  is  in  the  latter  half  of  the  second  centur}^,  during 
the  bishopric  of  Setter,  either  173-177,  or  168-176,  as  appears  from  the  let- 
ter of  Dionysius  of  Corinth,  i;  apxriq  yap  vfuv  et^oq  earl  tovto.  He  calls  it 
also  TTaTpiTTapaSoTov  Mof — Euseb.  H.  E.  iv.  23.  It  continued  during  the 
Decian  persecution;  Syria  and  Arabia  are  described  as  rejoicing  in  the 
bounty  of  Rome.  H.  E.  vii.  5.  Eusebius  himself  speaks  of  it  as  lasting 
to  his  time,     to  fiexpt  rov  Ka&'  vfjLug  diuy/xov  (pvXax'&EV  Tcj/j.ai(jv  e&og. 


54  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I. 

cidentally,  perhaps,  to  the  class,  the  middle  or  mercantile 
class,  which  formed  the  greater  part  of  the  believers. 

But  the  history  of  Latin  Christianity  has  not  begun. 
For  some  considerable  (it  cannot  but  be  an  undefinable) 
Church  of  P^i'^  ^^  ^^^^  fi^s*  three  centuries,  the  Church 
Borne  Greek,  ^f  Rome,  and  most,  if  not  all  the  churches  of 
the  West,  were,  if  we  may  so  speak,  Greek  religious 
colonies.  Their  language  was  Greek,  their  organiza- 
tion Greek,  their  writers  Greek,  their  Scriptm-es 
Greek  ;  and  many  vestiges  and  traditions  show  that 
their  ritual,  their  Liturgy  was  Greek.  Through  Greek 
the  communication  of  the  churches  of  Rome  and  of 
the  West  was  constantly  kept  up  with  the  East ;  and 
through  Greek  every  heresiarch,  or  his  disciples,  hav- 
ing found  his  way  to  Rome,  propagated,  with  more  or 
less  success,  his  peculiar  doctrines.  Greek  was  the 
commercial  language  throughout  the  empire  ;  by  which 
the  Jews,  before  the  destruction  of  their  city,  already 
so  widely  disseminated  through  the  world,  and  alto- 
gether engaged  in  commerce,  carried  on  their  affairs.^ 

1  At  the  commencement  of  the  second  century,  from  the  time  of  the 
great  peace,  which  followed  the  victories  of  Trajan,  and  which,  with  some 
exceptions,  occupied  the  whole  reigns  of  Hadrian,  Antoninus  Pius,  INIarcus 
Aurelius,  till  the  IMarcomannic  war;  when  the  Cjcsars  had  become  cosmo- 
politan sovereigns  of  the  Roman  Empire,  rather  than  emperors  of  Rome; 
Greek,  in  letters,  appears  to  have  assumed  a  complete  ascendancy.  Greek 
literature  has  the  names  of  Plutarch,  Appian,  Arrian,  Herodian  (the  his- 
torian), Lucian,  Pausanias,  Dion  Cassius,  Galen,  Sextus  Empiricus,  I'3pic- 
tetus,  Ptolemy.  The  Emperor  IMarcus  Aurelius  wrote  his  philosophy  in 
Greek.  The  poets,  such  as  they  were,  chiefly  of  the  didactic  class,  Oppiau, 
Nicander,  are  Greeks.  (See,  in  Fynes  Clinton's  Appendix  to  Fasti  Ro- 
niani,  the  catalogue  of  Greek  authors.)  Latin  literature  might  seem  to 
have  been  in  a  state  of  suspended  animation  after  Quintilian,  the  Plinys, 
and  Tacitus.  Not  merely  are  there  no  writers  of  name  who  have  survived, 
but  there  hardly  seem  to  have  been  any.  From  Juvenal  to  Claudian  there 
is  scarcely  a  poet.  The  fragments  of  Fronto,  lately'  discovered,  do  not 
make  us  wish  for  more  of  a  writer  who  had  greater  fame  than  most  of  his 
■Jay.     Apuleius  was  an  African. 

.Tiirisprudence  alone  maintain(Ml  the  dignity  and  dominion  of  Latin.     Tha 


Chat.  I.  CHURCH  OF  ROME  GREEK.  65 

The  Greek  Old  Testament  was  read  in  tlie  synagogues 
of  the  foreign  Jews.  The  churches,  formed  sometimes 
on  the  foundation,  to  a  certain  extent  on  the  model,  of 
the  synagogues,  would  adhere  for  some  time,  no  doubt, 
to  their  language.  The  Gospels  and  the  Apostolic 
writings,  so  soon  as  they  became  part  of  the  public 
worship,  would  be  read,  as  the  Septuagint  was,  in  their 
original  tongue.  All  the  Christian  extant  writings 
which  appeared  in  Rome  and  in  the  West  are  Greek, 
or  were  originally  Greek,^  the  Epistles  of  Clement, 
the  Shepherd  of  Hernias,  the  Clementine  Recognitions 
and  Homilies  ;  the  works  of  Justm  Martyr,  down  to 
Caius  and  Hippolytus  the  author  of  the  Refutation  of 
All  Heresies.  The  Octavius  of  Minucius  Felix,^  and 
the  Treatise  of  Novatian  on  the  Trinity,  are  the  ear- 
liest known  works  of  Latin  Christian  literature  which 
came  from  Rome.  So  was  it  too  in  Gaul :  there  the 
first  Christians  were  settled  chiefly  in  the  Greek  cities, 
which  owned  Marseilles  as  their  parent,  and  which 
retained  the  use  of  Greek  as  their  vernacular  tongue. 
Irena3us  wrote  in  Greek ;  the  account  of  the  Martyrs 
of  Lyons  and  Vienne  is  in  Greek.  Vestiges  of  the  old 
Greek  ritual  long  survived  not  only  in  Rome,  but  also 
in  some  of  the  Gallic  churches.  The  Kyrie  eleison 
still  lingers  in  the  Latin  service.^     The  singular  fact, 

great  lawyers,  Ulpian,  Paulus,  and  their  colleagues,  are  the  only  famous 
writers.  Latin  law  alone,  of  Latin  letters,  was  studied  in  the  schools  of 
the  East.  The  Greek  writers  of  the  day  were  many  of  them  ignorant  of 
Latin, 

1  Ubrigens  war  die  Griechische  Sprache  noch  fast  die  einzige  Kirchen- 
Bprache.     Gieseler,  i.  p.  203.     (Compare  the  passage.) 

2  Some  place  the  Octavius  in  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  others  be- 
tween Tertullian  and  Cyprian.     Gieseler,  note,  p.  207. 

8  Martene,  de  Antiquis  Ecclesiai  ritibus,  i.  p.  102:  he  quotes  the  anony- 
aious  Turonius.    Nos  canimus  illud  Graecfe  juxta  morem  antiquum:  Roma 


56  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Boor  I. 

related  by  the  liistorian  Sozomen,  that,  for  the  first  cen- 
turies, there  was  no  pubhc  preaching  in  Rome,  here 
finds  its  explanation.  Greek  was  the  ordinary  lan- 
guage of  the  community,  but  among  the  believers  and 
worshippers  may  have  been  Latins,  who  understood 
nc^,  or  understood  imperfectly,  the  Greek.  The  Gos- 
pei  or  sacred  writings  were  explained  according  to  the 
capacities  of  the  persons  present.  Hippolytus  indeed 
composed,  probably  delivered,  homilies  in  Greek,  in 
imitation  of  Origen,  who,  when  at  Rome,  may  have 
preached  in  Greek  ;  and  this  is  spoken  of  as  something 
440-461.  new.  Pope  Leo  I.  was  the  first  celebrated 
Latin  preacher,  and  his  brief  and  emphatic  sermons 
read  like  the  first  essays  of  a  rude  and  untried  elo- 
quence, rather  than  the  finished  compositions  which 
would  imply  a  long  study  and  cultivation  of  pulpit 
oratory.     Compare  them  with  Chrysostom.^ 

Africa,^  not  Rome,  gave  birth  to  Latin  Christianity. 

nae  ecclesire,  cui  tarn  Graeci  quam  Latini  solebant  antiqiiitus  deservire,  et  a 
Grsecis  habitabatur  maxima  pars  Italiaj,  et  seqq.  This  is  evidence  for  the 
Church  of  Tours.  It  is  by  no  means  clear  when  the  Latin  service  began, 
even  in  Rome.  There  is  much  further  illustration  of  the  coexistence  of  the 
Latin  and  Greek  service  in  the  West,  to  a  late  period.  Compare  Martene, 
ill.  35.  The  Epistle  and  Gospel  were  read  in  both  languages  to  a  late 
period.  Mabillon,  Iter  Italicum,  ii.  pp.  168  and  453.  In  Southern  Gaul 
Latin  had  not  entirely  dispossessed  Greek  in  the  fifth  century:  Greek  was 
Btill  spoken  by  part  of  the  population  of  Aries.  (See  Fauriel,  Gaule  Mdri- 
dionale,  i.  p.  432.)  A  Saint  Martial  de  Limoges  on  chantait  en  Grec  dana 
le  X.  si^cle  a  la  Messe  du  jour  de  la  Pentecote  le  Gloria,  le  Sanctus,  I'Ag- 
nus,  &c.  Ce  fait  est  dtabli  par  un  MS.  de  la  Biblioth^que  Royale,  4''  4458. 
Jourdain,  Traductions  d'Aristote,  p.  44. 

1  In  Rome  neither  the  Bishop  nor  an}'  one  else  publicly  preached  to  the 
people,  mre  (5e  6  knioKOTTog  ovre  a/l^of  nf  kv^a6e  kir'  eKKXTjalac  du^aoKei. 
H.  E.  vii.  19.  In  Alexandria  the  bishop  alone  preached.  Compare  Buu- 
sen's  Hippolytus,  vol.  i.  p.  318. 

2  Of  Afi-ica  Greek  was  the  general  language  no  further  East  than  the 
Cyrenaica;  westward  the  old  Punic  language  prevailed,  even  where  the 
Roman  conquerors  had  superinduced  Latin.     Even  Tertullian  wrote  also 


Chap.  I.   AFRICAN  ORIGIN  OF   LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  67 

Tertullian  was  the  first  Latin  writer,  at  least  the  first 
who  commanded  tlie  pubhc  ear  ;    and  there  AWca  parent 

,      p  .  -,  .  of  Latin 

IS  strong  gromid  tor  supposmg  that,  smce  Christianity. 
TertnlHan  quotes  the  sacred  writings  perpetually  and 
copiously,  the  earliest  of  those  many  Latin  versions, 
noticed  by  Augustine,  and  on  which  Jerome  grounded 
his  Vulgate,  were  African.^  Cyprian  kept  up  the  tra- 
dition of  ecclesiastical  Latin.  Amobius,  too,  was  an 
African.^ 

Thus  the  Roman  church  was  but  one  of  the  confed- 
eration of  Greek  religious  republics,  founded  church  of 
by  Chi-istianity.    As  of  Apostolic  origin,  still  J^chr^Ste^ 
more   as   the    church    of  the   capital   of  the  ^^"^• 
world,  it  was,  of  coui'se,  of  paramount  dignity  and  im 
portance.     It  is   difficult  to  exaggerate  the  height  at 
which  Rome,  before  the  foundation  of  Constantinople, 

in  Greek.  Latin  e  quoque  ostendam  virgines  nostras  velari  oportere.  (De 
Virgin,  veland.)  Sed  et  huic  materiaB  propter  suaviludios  nostros  Grasco 
quoque  stylo  satisfecimus.    De  Coron.  MiL  vi. 

1  Vetus  hgec  interpretatio  vix  dubitari  potest  quin  inter  earn  gentem  quje 
GrcTcsc  lingua;  minimi  perita  esset,  nata  fuerit,  hoc  est  in  Afi'ica.  Lach- 
man,  Pref.  in  Nov.  Test.  Laehman  quotes  a  learned  Dissertation  of  Car- 
dinal Wiseman  as  conclusive  on  this  point.  In  this  Dissertation  (reprinted 
in  his  Essays,  London,  1854)  the  author  ventures  on  the  forlorn  hope  of  the 
vindication  of  the  disputed  text  in  St.  John's  Epistle.  I  can  only  express 
my  surprise  that  so  acute  a  writer  should  see  any  force  in  such  argunients. 
But  the  Dissertation  on  African  Latinity  appears  to  me  valuable,  scholar- 
like, and  sound.  The  dubious  passage  of  St.  Augustine,  on  which  alone 
rests  the  tradition  of  the  Versio  Italn.,  I  would  read,  after  Bentley,  as  Bishop 
Marsh  and  most  of  the  later  biblical  scholars,  lUa.  —  Marsh's  Introduction, 
note,  vol.  ii.  p.  623. 

1  would  suggest,  as  a  curious  investigation,  if  it  has  not  yet  been  executed 
by  any  competent  scholar  (which  I  presume  not  to  assert),  a  critical  com- 
l>arison  of  the  I>atinity  of  the  old  version,  as  published  by  Sabatier,  and 
even  of  the  Vulgate,  with  the  Latin  of  Tertullian,  Cyprian,  Apuleius  of 
Madaura,  and  other  Afi-ican  writers. 

2  Minucius  Felix,  Arnobius,  Lactantius  are  to  the  Greek  divines  what 
Cicero  was  to  the  Greek  philosophers  —  writers  of  popular  abstracts  in 
hat  which  in  his  hands  was,  in  theirs  aspired  to  be,  elegant  Latin. 


5S  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I» 

stood  above  the  other  cities  of  the  earth ;  the  centre 
of  commerce,  the  centre  of  affairs,  the  centre  of 
empire.  The  Christians,  Hke  the  rest  of  mankind, 
were  constantly  ebbing  and  flowing  out  of  Home  and 
into  Rome.  The  church  of  the  capital  could  not  but 
assume  something  of  the  dignity  of  the  capital ;  it  was 
constantly  receiving,  as  it  were,  the  homage  of  all  the 
foreign  Christians,  who,  from  interest,  business,  ambi- 
tion, em'iosity,  either  visited  or  took  up  their  residence 
in  the  Eternal  City. 

The  Roman  Church,  if  it  had  become  prematurely 
Latin,  would  have  been  isolated  and  set  apart  from  the 
rest  of  Christendom  ;  remaining  Greek,  it  became  also 
the  natural  and  inevitable  centre  of  Christianity.  The 
publig  documents  of  the  Christian  world  spoke  through- 
out the  same  language  ;  no  interpretation  was  neces- 
sary between  the  East  and  the  West.^  To  the  unity 
of  the  Church  this  was  of  mfinite  importance.  The 
Roman  Christians  and  their  Bishop  were  the  consti- 
tuted guardians  and  protectors  of  what  may  be  called 
the  public  interests  of  Christianity.  In  Rome  they 
beheld,  or  had  the  earliest  intelligence  of,  every  revolu- 
tion hi  the  empire ;  they  had  the  first  cognizance  of 
all  the  Imperial  edicts  which  might  affect  the  brethren. 
On  them,  even  if  they  had  no  access  to  the  counsels  or 
to  the  palace  of  the  Emperor,  on  their  influence,  on 
tlieir  conduct,  might  in  some  degree  depend  the  fate 
of  Christendom.  They  were  in  the  van,  the  first  to 
foresee  the  thi*eatened  persecution,  the  first  to  suffer. 
The  Bishop  of  Rome,  as  long  as  the  Emperor  ruled  in 

1  As  late  as  the  middle  of  the  third  century,  after  the  Novatian  schism, 
Pope  Cornelius  writes  in  Greek  to  Fabius  of  Antioch.  Eusebius  records  as 
loniethirifc  n*^w  and  extraordinary  tliat  letters  from  Cyprian  to  the  Asiatic 
oishops  are  in  Latin.     M.  E.  vi.  43. 


Chap.  I.  ROME  THE  CENTRE  OF  CONTROVERSIES.      59 

Rome,  was  at  once  in  tlie  post  of  the  greatest  distinc- 
tion, and  in  that  of  the  greatest  difficulty  and  danger. 
The  Christian  world  would  look  with  trembhng 
interest  on  his  conduct,  as  his  example  might  either 
glorify  or  disgrace  the  Church  ;  on  his  prudence  or  his 
temerity,  on  his  resolution  or  on  his  wealviiess,  might 
depend  the  orders  despatched  to  every  prefect  or  pro- 
consul in  the  Empire.  Local  oppressions  or  local  per- 
secutions would  be  confined  to  a  city  or  a  province ; 
in  Rome  might  be  the  signal  for  general  proscription. 
The  eyes  of  all  Christendom  must  thus  have  con- 
stantly been  fixed  on  Rome  and  on  the  Roman  Bishop. 
But  if  Rome,  or  the  Church  of  Rome,  was  thus  the 
centre  of  the  more  peaceful  influences  of  centre  of 
Christianity,  and  of  the  hopes  and  fears  of  controversies 
the  Christian  world,  it  was  no  less  inevitably  the 
chosen  battle  field  of  her  civil  wars ;  and  Christianity 
has  ever  more  faithfnlly  recorded  her  dissensions  than 
her  conquests.  In  Rome  every  feud  wliich  distracted 
the  infant  community  reached  its  height ;  nowhere  do 
the  Judaizing  tenets  seem  to  have  been  more  obstmate, 
or  to  have  held  so  long  and  stubborn  a  conflict  with 
more  full  and  genuine  Christianity.  In  Rome  every 
heresy,  almost  every  heresiarch,  found  welcome  recep- 
tion. All  new  opinions,  all  attempts  to  harmonize 
Christianity  with  the  tenets  of  the  Greek  philosophers, 
with  the  Oriental  religions,  the  Cosmogonies,  the 
Theophanies,  and  Mysteries  of  the  East,  were  boldly 
agitated,  either  by  the  authors  of  the  Gnostic  ^^out 
systems  or  by  their  disciples.  Valentinus  the  *"  °"  -^^^ 
Alexandrian  was  himself  in  Rome,  so  also  was  Mar- 
cion  of  Sinope.  The  Phiygian  Montanus,  with  his 
prophetesses,  Priscilla  and  Maximilla,  if  not  present, 


60  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  1. 

had  tlieir  sect,  a  powerful  sect,  in  Rome  and  in  Africa. 
In  Rome  their  convert,  for  a  time  at  least,  was  the 
Pope ;  in  Afiica,  TertuUian.  Somewhat  later,  the 
precursors  of  the  great  Trinitarian  controversy  came 
from  all  quarters.  Praxeas,  an  Asiatic  ;  Theoclotus,  a 
Byzantine ;  Artemon,  an  Asiatic ;  Noetus,  a  Smyi- 
niote,  at  least  his  disciples,  the  Deacon  Epigenes  and 
Cleomenes,  taught  at  Rome.  Sabellius,  from  Ptole- 
mais  in  Cyrene,  appeared  in  person  ;  his  opinions  took 
their  full  development  in  Rome.  Not  only  do  all  these 
controversies  betray  the  inexhaustible  fertility  of  the 
Greek  or  Eastern  imagination,  not  only  were  they  all 
drawn  from  Greek  or  Oriental  doctrines,  but  they  must 
have  been  still  agitated,  discussed,  ramified  into  their 
parts  and  divisions,  through  the  versatile  and  subtile 
Greek.  They  were  all  strangers  and  foreigners ;  not 
one  of  all  these  systems  originated  in  Rome,  in  Italy, 
or  in  Africa.^  On  all  these  opinions  the  Bishop  of 
Rome  was  almost  compelled  to  sit  in  judgment ;  he 
must  receive  or  reject,  authorize  or  condemn ;  he  was  a 
proselyte,  whom  it  would  be  the  ambition  of  all  to  gain. 
No  one  unfamiliar  with  Greek,  no  one  not  to  a  great 
extent  Greek  by  birth,  by  education,  or  by  habit,  could 
m  any  degree  comprehend  the  conflicting  theories. 

The  Judaizing  opinions,  combated  by  St.  Paid  in 
judaizing  ^^^  Epistlc  to  the  Romans,  maintained  their 
chruitianity.  g^.Q^n^i  amoug  some   of  the   Roman    Chris- 

1 A  passage  of  Aiilus  Gcllius  illvistrates  the  conscious  inadequacy  of  the 
Latin  to  express,  notwithstanding  the  innovations  of  Cicero,  the  finer  dis- 
tinctions of  the  Greek  philosophy:  H?ec  Favorinum  dicentem  audivi  Gra>ca 
oratione,  cujus  sententias,  quantum  nieminisse  potui,  retuli.  Amoenitates 
vero  et  copias  ubertatcsque  verborum,  Latina  omnis  facundia  vix  quideni 
indipisci  potuerit.  Noct.  Att.  xii.  Favorinus,  of  the  time  of  Hadrian 
was  a  native  of  Aries  iu  Gaul. 


Chap.  I.  JUDAIZING  IN   ROME.  61 

tiaiis  for  above  a  century  or  more  after  that  Apostle's 
death.  A  remarkable  monmnent  attests  their  power 
and  vitality.  There  can  be  slight  doubt  that  the 
author  of  that  singular  work,  commonly  ^j^^  ciemen- 
called  tlie  Clementina,  was  a  Roman,  or  *^^*' 
rather  a  Greek  domiciled  in  Rome.^  Its  Roman  origin 
is  almost  proved  by  the  choice  of  the  hero  in  this 
earliest  of  religious  romances.  Clement,  who  sets 
forth  as  a  heathen  philosopher  in  search  of  truth,  be- 
comes the  companion  of  St.  Peter  in  the  East,  the  wit- 
ness of  his  long:  and  stubborn  strife  with  his  i2:reat 
adversary,  Simon  the  Magician  ;  and  if  the  letter  pre- 
fixed to  the  work  be  a  genuine  part  of  it,^  becomes  the 
successor  of  St.  Peter  in  the  see  of  Rome.  It  bears  in 
its  front,  and  throughout,  the  character  of  a  romance ; 
it  can  hardly  be  considered  even  as  mythic  history. 
Its  groundwork  is  that  so  common  in  the  latest  Greek 
and  in  the  Latin  comedy,  and  in  the  Greek  novels  ; 
adventures  of  persons  cast  away  at  sea,  and  sold  into 
slavery ;  lost  children  by  strange  accidents  restored  to 
their  parents,  husbands  to  their  wives ;  amusing  scenes 
in  what  we  may  call  the  middle  or  mercantile  life  of 
the  times.  It  might  seem  borrowed,  in  its  incidents, 
from  a  play  of  Plautus  or  Terence,  or  from  their  origi- 
nals ;  a  kind  of  type  of  the  ^thiopics  of  Bishop  Heli- 
odorus,  or  the  Chterea  and  Callirhoe.  The  religious 
interest  is  still  more  remarkable,  and   no   doubt  faith- 

1  This  is  the  unanimous  opinion  of  those  who,  in  later  days,  have  criti- 
cally investigated  the  Clementina  —  Schlieman,  Neander,  Baur,  Gieseler. 
lyd  KA^,a?/f  'Pufxaloc  wv,  in  init.     This  does  not  prove  much. 

2  I  entertain  some  doubt  on  this  point.  A  good  critical  edition  of  this 
work,  in  its  various  forms,  is  much  to  be  desired.* 

♦There  are  now  two  good  editions  of  the  Clementina — 1.  by  Schwegler,  Stiit- 
gard,  1847;  2.  The  last  and  best,  by  Dressel,  Gottingen,  1853;  besides,  3.  The  Latiu 
translation  of  Rufinus,  by  Gersdorf,  Leipsic,  1838. 


62  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I. 

fully  represents  the  views  and  tenets  of  a  certain  sect 
or  class  of  Christians.  It  is  the  work  of  a  Judaizing 
Christian,  according  to  a  very  peculiar  form  of  Ebion- 
itism.^  The  scene  is  chiefly  laid  in  Palestine  and  its 
neicrhborhood,  its  orimnal  lano-uao-e  is  Greek.  The 
views  of  the  author  as  to  the  rank,  influence,  and  rela- 
tive position  of  the  Apostles,  is  among  its  most  singu- 
lar characteristics.  So  far  from  ascribing  any  primacy 
to  St.  Peter,  though  St.  Peter  is  throuo;hout  the  leadinor 
personage,  James,  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  is  the  acknowl- 
edged head  of  Christendom,  the  arbiter  of  Christian 
doctrine,  the  Bishop  of  Bishops,  to  whom  Peter  him- 
self bows  with  submissive  reverence.  Of  any  earlier 
visits  of  Peter  to  Rome  the  author  is  ignorant.  Clem- 
ent encounters  the  Apostle  in  Palestine  ;  in  Palestine 
or  in  the  East  is  carried  on  the  whole  strife  with  Simon 
Magus.  Yet  Peter  is  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  to 
Peter  the  heathens  owe  their  Christianity.  More  than 
this,  there  is  a  bitter  hatred  to  St.  Paul,  which  betrays 
itself  in  brief,  covert,  sarcastic  allusion,  not  to  be  mis- 
taken in  its  object  or  aim.^  The  whole  purpose  of  the 
work  is  to  assert  a  Petrine,  a  Judaizing,  an  anti-Pau- 
line Christianity.  The  Gospel  is  but  a  republication 
of  the  Law,  that  is,  the  pure,  genuine,  original  Law, 
which  emanated  from  God.  God  is  light,  his  Wisdom 
or  his  Spirit  (these  are  identified  and  are  both  the  Son 
of  God)   has  dwelt  in  different  men,  from  Adam  to 

1  This  is  abundantly  proved  by  Schlieman  and  by  Neander. 

2  In  the  letter  of  St.  Peter,  riveg  yap  ruv  and  Mvwv,  rd  di'  ifzov  vofiiuov 
avrechKifxaaav  Kf/()vyfj,a,  tov  kx'^pov  uv&punov  uvofj.6v  riva  kuI  <j)^V' 
apo)6ij  TzpooTiKd/ievoL  didaaKokiav.  If  we  could  doubt  that  here  St.  Paul, 
not  Simon  Magus  is  meant,  the  allusions  xi.  35,  xvii.  19,  and  elsewhere,  to 
the  very  acts  and  Avords  of  St.  Paul  are  conclusive.  Compare  Schlieman, 
Die  Clementine,  74,  9G,  534,  t&c. 


Chap.  I.  ^q.      JUDAIZING  IN  ROME.  63 

Jesus.  The  wliolo  world  is  one  vast  system  of  Dual- 
isms, or  Antagonisms.  The  antagonism  of  Simon 
Magus  to  St.  Peter  is  chiefly  urged  in  the  Clementine 
homilies ;  but  there  are  manifest  hints,  more  perhaps 
than  hints,  of  a  second  antagonism  between  Peter  and 
Paul,  the  teacher  of  Christianity'  with  tiie  Law,  and 
the  teacher  of  Christianity  without  the  Law.  Here 
then  is  tlie  representative  of  what  can  scarcely  be  sup- 
posed an  insignificant  party  in  Rome  (the  various 
forms,  reconstiTictions,  and  versions  in  which  the  Clem- 
entina appear,  whole,  or  in  fragments,  attest  their 
wide-spread  popularity)  who  does  not  scruple  to  couple 
fiction  with  the  most  sacred  names.  Of  the  whole 
party  it  must  have  been  the  obvious  interest  to  exalt 
St.  Peter,  to  assert  him  as  the  founder,  the  Bishop  of 
the  true  Church  in  Rome ;  and  it  is  certainly  singular 
that  in  all  the  early  traditions,  which  are  more  than 
allusions  to  St.  Peter  at  Rome,  Simon  Magus  appears  as 
his  shadow.  Has,  then,  the  myth  grown  out  of  the  ])ure 
fiction,  or  is  the  fiction  but  an  expansion  of  the  myth  ?  ^ 
At  all  events  these  works  are  witnesses  to  the  perpe- 
tuity and  strength,  to  a  late  period,  of  these  Judaizing 
opinions  in  Rome.^  Their  fictitious  form  in  no  way 
invalidates  their  authority  as  expressing  living  opinions, 
tenets,  and  sentiments.  If  not  Roman  (I  have  slight 
doubt  on  this  head),  there  is  an  attestation  to  the  wide- 
spread oppugnancy  of  a  Petrine  and  a  Pauline  pai'ty ; 

1  Strictly  speakiiif^  the  authority  for  Simon  Ma^is  being  at  Rome  it 
earlier  than  that  for  St.  Peter.  The  famous  passage  of  Justin  Martyr  on 
the  inscription  Semoni  Sanco,  is  about  twenty  years  older  than  the  Epistle 
of  Dionysius  of  Corintli  (a.  d.  171),  —  the  iirst  distinct  assertion  of  St. 
Peter  in  Rome.    Euseb.  H.  E.  ii.  13, 14. 

2  Schlieman  assigns  the  Recognitions  to  some  time  between  212  and 
?30  —  the  Clementina,  no  doubt,  are  of  an  earlier  date.    p.  327,  et  seqq. 


64  •  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I. 

to  strong  divergence  of  opinion  as  t6  tlie  relative  rank 
and  dignity  of  the  Apostles. 

Out  of  the  antagonism  between  Judaic  and  anti- 
controversy  Judaic  Christianity  arosc  the  first  conflict,  in 
about  Easter.  ^|^^|^  ^j^g  Bisliop  of  Rome,  as  the  leader  of 
a  great  part  of  the  Christian  confederation,  assumed 
unwonted  authority.  Diflererice  of  opinion  did  not 
necessarily  lead  to  open  strife  —  from  difference  of  ob- 
servance it  was  unavoidable.  The  controversy  about 
A.  D.  109.  the  time  of  keeping  Easter,  or  rather  the 
Paschal  Feast,  had  slept  fi'om  the  days  of  Polycarp 
and  Anicetus  of  Rome.  Towards  the  close  of  the 
second  century  it  broke  out  again.  Rome,  it  is  re- 
markable, now  held  the  anti-Judaic  usage  of  the  varia- 
ble feast,  and  in  this  concurred  with  the  churches  of 
Palestine,  of  Cassarea,  and  Jerusalem.  These  were 
chiefly  of  Gentile  descent,  and  probably  from  near 
neighborhood  to  the  Jews  were  most  averse  to  the 
usages  of  that  hostile  and  odious  race.  The  Asiatic 
churches  had  adhered  to  the  ancient  Je^vish  custom, 
the  observance  of  the  14th  day  of  the  month  (Nisan). 
The  controversy  seems  to  have  been  awakened  in 
Rome  by  one  Blastus,^  denounced  as  endeavoring 
secretly  to  enslave  the  Church  to  Judaism.  The 
Bisliop  Victor  deposed  the  obstinate  schismatic  from 
A.D.  196.  the  Roman  Presbytery.  But  the  strife  was 
jiot  conflned  to  Rome.  The  Asiatic  Christians,  under 
Polycrates  of  Ephesus,  maintained  their  o^^^l,  the  Ju- 
daic usage,  sanctioned,  as  was  asserted,  by  the  martyr 


lEst  pnvterea  Iiis  oiiiiiil)iis  Blastus  accedens,  qui  latenter  Judaismura 
vult  iutrodiicere.  Pasclia  enim  dicit  non  aliter  custodicndum  esse  nisi 
pecimduin  loj^eni  Moysi  xiiii  mensis.  —  Pripscript.  Ila'ret.  This  is  from 
an  addition,  probably  an  ancient  one,  to  the  Treatise  of  TertuUian. 


Chap.  I.  CONTROVERSY  ABOUT  EASTER.  65 

Polycarp,  by  Philip  the  Deacon,  and  even  by  St. 
John.  Victor,  supported  by  the  Bishops,  Theophilus 
of  the  Palestinian  Ca3sarea,  by  Narcissus  of  Jerusalem, 
by  some  m  Pontus,  in  Osroene,  in  Gaul,  and  by  Bac- 
cliylides  of  Corinth,  peremptorily  demanded  a  Council 
to  judge  the  Asiatic  Bishops ;  threatened  or  actually 
[)ronounced  a  disruption  of  all  communion  with  those 
who  presumed  to  maintain  their  stubborn  difference 
from  himself  and  the  rest  of  the  Christian  world.^ 
The  strife  was  appeased  by  the  interposition  of  Ire- 
nseus,  justly,  according  to  the  Ecclesiastical  historian, 
called  a  Man  of  Peace.  Irena^us  was  Bishop  of 
Vienne  in  Gaul ;  and  so  completely  is  Christianity 
now  one  world,  that  a  Bishop  of  Gaul  allays  a  feud  in 
which  the  Bishop  of  Rome  is  in  alliance  with  the 
Bishops  of  Syria  and  of  the  remoter  East,  against  those 
of  Asia  Minor.  Africa  does  not  look  with  indifference 
on  the  controversy.  Irenasus  had  already  written  an 
epistle  to  Blastus  in  Rome,  reproving  him  as  author  of 
the  schism  :  he  now  wrote  to  the  Bishop  Victor,  assert- 
in  o;  the  rio;ht  of  the  Churches  to  maintain  their  own 
usages  on  such  points,  and  recommending  a  milder 
tone  on  these  ceremonial  questions.^ 

It  was  not  till  the  Council  of  Nicea  that  Christen- 
dom acquiesced  in  the  same  Paschal  Cycle.. 

The  reign  of  Commodus,  commencing  with  the  last 
twenty  years  of  the  second  century,  is  an  ^«^  of 

'' ,    "^  ,  ,  Commodus 

epoch  in  the  history  of  Western  Christendom.  18O-193. 
The  feud  between  the    Judaizmg  and  anti-Judaizing 

1  Euseb.  H.  E.  v.  15. 

2  The  Latin  book  ascribed  to  Novatian,  against  the  Jewish  distinction  of 
meats,  shows  Judaism  still  struggling  within  the  church  on  its  most  vital 
pccnliarities.  The  author  of  this  tract  wrote  also  against  circumcision  and 
*he  Jewish  Sabbalh. 


66  LATIN-  CIirvISTIANITY.  Book  I 

parties  in  Rome  seemed  to  expire  with  the  controversy 
about  Easter.  The  older  Gnostic  systems  of  Valenti- 
nus  and  Marcion  had  had  their  day.  Montanism  was 
expelled  from  Rome  to  find  refuge  in  Africa.  In 
Africa  Latin  Christianity  began  to  take  its  proper  form 
in  the  writings  of  Tertullian.  Rome  was  absorbed  in 
the  inevitable  disputes  concerning  the  Divinity  of  the 
Saviour,  the  prelude  to  the  great  Trinitarian  contro 
vorsy.  The  Bishops  of  Rome,  Eleutherius,  still  more 
Victor,  and  at  the  commencement  of  the  third  century 
Zephyrinus  and  Callistus,  before  dimly  known  by  scat- 
tered allusions  in  Tertullian  and  Eusebius,  and  still 
later  writers,  have  suddenly  emerged  into  light  in  the 
contemporary  work,  justly,  to  all  appearance,  attrib- 
uted to  Hippolytus  Bishop  of  Portus.^ 

1  The  Chevalier  Bunsen's  very  learned  work  has  proved  the  authorship 
of  Hippolytus  to  my  full  satisfaction  —  so  likewise  Dr.  "Wordsworth  —  Hip- 
polytus. I  have  also  read  the  '  Hippolytus  und  Kallistus '  (just  published), 
by  J.  Dollinger,  the  church  historian ;  I  must  say  with  no  conviction  but 
of  the  author's  learning  and  ingenuity.  It  appears  to  me  that  M.  Dollin- 
ger's  arguments  against  M.  Bunsen  (e.  g.  from  the  ignorance  of  St.  Jerome) 
are  quite  as  fatal  to  his  own  theory.  I  still  think  it  most  probable  that 
Hippolytus  was  Bishop  of  Portus,  and  that  these  suburbicarian  bishops 
formed  or  were  part  of  a  kind  of  presbytery  or  college  with  the  bishops  of 
Rome.  I  hardly  understand  how  those  (seven)  bishops  (the  cardinal- 
bishops)  can  have  gained  their  peculiar  relation  to  Kome,  in  later  times, 
without  any  earlier  tradition  in  their  favor.  The  loose  language  of  latei 
Greek  writers  might  easily  make  of  a  bishop,  a  member  of  such  a  presby- 
tery, a  bishop  in  Rome,  or  even  of  Rome.  More  than  one,  at  least,  of  these 
writers  calls  Hippolytus  Bishop  of  Portus:  and  hence,  too,  he  may  have 
been  sometimes  described  as  Presbyter. 

Portus,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  was  a  very  considerable  town ;  but  a  new 
and  flourishing  haven  cannot  have  grown  up  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber, 
after  half,  at  least,  of  the  commerce  and  concourse  of  strangers  had  de- 
serted Rome,  after  the  foundation  of  Constantinople,  and  during  the  Bar- 
barian invasions.  Birkenhead  would  not  have  risen  to  rival  Liverpool 
excepting  in  a  most  prosperous  state  of  English  trade. 

I  cannot  but  regret  that  M.  Diillinger's  book,  so  able,  and  in  some  re- 
spects so  instructive,  should  be  written  with  such  a  resolute  (no  doubt  con- 
scientious) determination  to  nuvke  out  a  case.     It  might  well  be  entitled 


Chap.  I.  CONTROVERSY  ABOUT   EASTER.  67 

The  Christians  from  the  death  of  M.  Aurellus, 
throughout  the  reign  of  Commodus,  en-  Mama, 
joyed  undisturbed  peace  with  the  civil  government.^ 
But  many  of  the  victims  of  the  persecution  under 
Aurelius  were  pining  in  the  unwholesome  mines  of 
Sardinia.  Marcia,  the  favorite  concubine  of  the  Emperor 
Commodus,  whom  he  treated  as  his  wife,  and  who  held 
the  state  of  an  Empress,  was  favorable  to  the  Chris- 
tians :  how  far  she  herself  had  embraced  the  doctrines, 
how,  if  herself  disposed  to  Christianity,  she  reconciled 
it  with  her  life,  does  not  appear.^  The  Bishop  Victor 
did  not  scruple  (such  scruples  had  been  too  fastidiously 
rigorous)  to  employ  her  influence  for  the  release  of  his 

Apologia  pro  Callisto;  and  I  must  presume  to  say,  in  my  judgment,  a  most 
unfortunate  case  for  his  own  cause.  Were  I  polemically  disposed  as  to  the 
succession  to  the  Papacy,  the  authority  and  supremacy  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome,  or  even  the  unity  of  the  Church,  I  could  hardly  hope  for  so  liberal  a 
concession  as  that  twice  within  thirty  years,  during  the  early  part  of  the 
third  century,  rival  bishops,  one  a  most  distinguished  theologian,  should 
set  themselves  up  in  Rome  itself  against  the  acknowledged  Pope,  and  de- 
clare their  own  communities  to  be  the  true  Church.  Dollinger  indeed 
could  not  but  see,  that,  whoever  the  author,  he  writes,  from  station,  from 
character,  or  from  influence,  as  quite  on  a  level  with  the  Pope;  he  seems 
altogether  unconscious  of  awe,  and  even  of  the  respect  for  that  office,  which 
is  of  a  later  period.  The  Abbd  Cruice,  in  his  Histoire  de  I'Eglise  de  Rome 
sous  les  Pontificats  de  St.  Victor,  St.  Zephyrin,  et  de  St.  Calliste  (Paris, 
1856),  is  bolder  and  more  dutiful.  With  him  the  Popes  are  already  in- 
vested in  all  their  power  (of  excommunication),  in  their  ex  officio  wisdom 
and  holiness.  They  are  all,  by  the  magical  prefix  S,  Saints;  Victor  and 
Callislus,  on  the  authority  of  legend,  martyrs.  This  unhistoric  history  (not 
unamusiug),  this  theology  without  precision,  seems  to  pass  in  France  for 
profound  learning. 

1  Asterius  Urbanus  apud  Eusebium,  H.  E.  v.  16.  Compare  Moyle's 
works,  ii.  p.  265.  —  The  peace  lasted  for  thirteen  years  after  the  death  of 
Maximilla  the  Montanist,  just  the  period  of  the  reign  of  Commodus. 

2  ovdev  de  Ilkelxs  yafisTTig  yvvatKoc,  uTiXu  iravra  vr.Tjpx^v  baa  He^aoT-^ 
lOiTiv  Tov  TTvpog.  Herodian,  i.  50.  Her  complicity  in  the  murder  of  Com- 
modus was  but  to  avert  her  own.  Commodus  must  have  been  insane; 
Marcia  strove,  even  with  tears,  to  dissuade  him  from  the  disgrace  of  ap- 
pearing in  public  as  a  gladiator  ;  his  two  ministers  joined  their  strong  re- 
monstrances.    Commodus,  in  revenge,  marked  down  her  name,  and  those 


68  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I. 

exiled  brethren  :  they  all  returned  to  Rome.^  This 
Discord  in  State  of  peace  seemed  to  quicken  into  more 
Rome.  active  life  the  brooding  elements  of  discord, 

and  to  invite  the  founders  of  new  systems,  or  their 
busy  proselytes,  to  Rome.  Already  had  spread  to 
Europe,  to  Africa,  to  Rome  itself,  from  the  depths  of 
Phrygia,  the  disciples  of  Montanus.  It  is  probable 
Montanism.  that  thcse  Moutauist  or  kindred  prophecies 
of  coming  wars,  and  the  approaching  Dissolution  of 
the  World  (a  vaticination  which  involved  or  rather 
signified  to  the  jealous  Roman  ear  only  the  iiiin  of  the 
Empire),  may  have  aided  in  exciting  the  religious  ter- 
ror and  indignation  of  the  philosophic  Emperor  and  of 
the  Roman  world  against  the  Christians,  and  so  have 
been  one  cause  of  the  persecutions  under  Marcus  Au- 
relius.^  Montanus  himself,  and  Maximilla,  his  chief 
prophetess,  seem  not  to  have  travelled  beyond  the  con- 
fines of  Phrygia.^  But  their  followers  swarmed  over 
Christendom.  They  dispersed  or  reA^ealed  to  the  initi- 
ated in  countless  books,  the  visions  of  Montanus,  and 
his  no  less  inspired  female  followers,  Priscilla  and  Max- 
imilla.^ Montanism,  strictly  speaking,  was  no  heresy  ; 
in  their  notions  of  God  and  of  Christ,  these  sectaries 
departed  not  from  the  received  doctrine.     But  beyond, 

of  Laetus  and  Eclectus,  his  faithful  counsellors,  for  death.  The  fatal  tablet 
fell  into  the  hands  of  Marcia.  They  anticipated  their  own  doom  b}'-  that 
of  Commodus.  Herodian,  ibid.  Marcia  afterwards  married  Eclectus. — 
Dion  Cassius,  or  Xiphylin,  Ivii.  4. 

1  Rcfutatio  Hjeresium,  p.  287. 

2  This  further  confiiTns  the  author's  view  of  the  cause  of  the  persecutions 
under  M.  Aurelius.     Hist,  of  Christianity,  Book  ii.  c.  7. 

8  Their  fate  was  so  obscure,  that  rumors  spread  abroad  among  their  ene- 
mies that  they  had  died  like  Judas,  had  hanged  themselves.  See  the  un* 
certain  author  quoted  by  Euscbius.     H.  E.  v.  16. 

4  This  we  learn  from  the  Kefutatio  Ilairesium.  uv  ^i^Tuovg  dTrapovf  l;j^oi»' 
rrc  n?>,avC)VTaiy  p.  275. 


CHAP.  I.  MONTANISM.  69 

and  as  the  consummation  and  completion  of  the  Chris- 
tian Kevelation,  the  Holy  S})irit,  the  Paraclete,  dwelt 
in  Montanus  and  the  Pro})hetesses.  At  mtervals, 
throughout  the  annals  of  Christianity,  the  Holy  Ghost 
has  been  summoned  by  the  hopes,  felt  as  present  by  the 
kindled  imaginations,  been  proclaimed  by  the  passionate 
enthusiasm  of  a  few,  as  accomplishing  in  them  the  im- 
perfect revelation  ;  as  the  third  revelation  —  which  is  to 
supersede  and  to  fulfil  the  Law  and  the  Gospel.  This 
notion  will  appear  again  in  the  middle  ages  as  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Abbot  Joachim,  of  John  Peter  de  Oliva 
and  the  Fraticelli ;  in  a  milder  form  it  is  that  of  George 
Fox  and  Barclay.  The  land  of  heathen  orgies  was  the 
natural  birthplace  of  that  wild  Christian  mysticism  ;  it 
was  the  Phrygian  fanaticism  speaking  a  new  language ; 
and  as  the  ancient  PluTgian  rites  of  Cybele  found  wel- 
come reception  in  heathen  Rome,  so  also  that,  which 
was  appropriately  called  Cataphrygianism,  in  the  Chris- 
tian Church.^  A  stern  intolerant  asceticism,  which  had 
already  begun  to  harden  around  the  Christian  heart, 
a  rigor,  a  perfection  of  manners  as  of  creed  (so  they 
deemed  it)  beyond  the  Law,  the  Prophets,  and  the 
Gospel,  distinguished  the  Montanists,  who,  by  their 
own  asserted  superiority,  condemned  the  rest  of  the 
Christian  world.^  They  had  fasts  far  more  long  and 
severe,  their  own  festivals,  their  own  food,  chiefly 
roots  ;  ^  they  held  the  austerest  views  on  the  connection 
of  the  sexes  ;  if  they  did  not  absolutely  condemn, 
hardly  permitted  marriage  ;  a  second  marriage  was  an 

1  Compare  the  Super  alta  vectus  Atys  with  the  extravagancies  of  Mon- 
tanism. 

2  n?^eiov  6h  avrcjv  (Jx/gkovtec  ug  fxefj.aT&7]Kevat,  rj  Ik  vojxov  kol  Tzpo^rjTuv 
«o2  T(bv  Evayyeliuv.    Euseb.  H.  E .  p.  275. 

*  The  author  of  the  Refiitatio  speaks  of  their  ^rjpo^dyia. 


70  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY .  Book  I. 

inexpiable  sin.  Their  visions  enwrapt  tlie  imagination, 
their  rigor  enthralled  minds  of  congenial  tempera- 
ment. They  seized  on  the  African  passions,  they  fell 
in  with  tlie  austerity,  they  satisfied  tlie  holy  ambition 
of  TertuUian,  who  would  not  rest  below  what  seemed 
the  most  lofty,  self-sacrificing  Christianity,  In  Rome 
itself  (so  TertuUian  writes,  with  mingled  indignation 
and  contempt)  the  Bishop  had  been  seized  with  ad- 
miration, had  acknowledged  the  inspiration  of  the 
Prophets  ;  he  had  issued  letters  of  peace  in  their  favor, 
■which  had  tended  to  quiet  the  agitated  churches  of 
Asia  and  of  Phrygia.  But  at  the  instigation  of  Prax- 
eas  the  Heresiarch,  if  not  the  author,  among  the  first 
teachers  of  that  doctrine,  afterwards  denounced  as  Pa- 
tripassianism,  he  had  revoked  his  letters,  denied  their 
spiritual  gifts,  and  driven  out  the  Prophets  in  disgrace.^ 
The  indignation  of  TertuUian  at  the  rejection  of  his 
Montanist  opinions  urges  him  to  arraign  the  Pope,  with 
what  justice,  to  what  extent  we  know  not,  as  having 
embraced  the  Patripassian  opinions  of  Praxeas.  This 
Monarchianism,  or,  as  it  was  branded  by  the  more 
Monarchian-  odious  name,  Patripassianism,  was  the  contro- 
ism.  versy  which  raged  during  the  episcopate  of 

Victor,  Zephyrinus,  and  Callistus.^     It  called  forth  the 

1  Ita  duo  negotia  Diaboli  Praxeas  Romaj  procuravit,  prophetiam  expulit 
et  luuresiiu  iutulit.  Paracletiim  fiigavit,  et  Patrem  crucitixit.  Adversus 
Praxeain,  c.  i.  Who  was  this  bisliop  of  Rome?  It  has  been  usually  sup- 
posed Victor.  Neander  (Anti-Gnosticus,  p.  486)  argues  strongly,  I  think 
not  conclusively,  that  it  was  his  predecessor  Eleutherius.  The  spurious 
passage,  at  the  close  of  the  De  Pra'scrip.  Hairet.,  which,  though  not  Ter- 
tuUian's,  seems  ancient,  has  these  words:  —  "Praxeas  (|uidem  h:ci-esini  ia- 
troduxit,  quam  Victorinus  (the  Hishop  Victor?)  corroborare  curavit." 

2  The  oppugnancy  of  the  Latin  and  (Jreok  mind  is  well  illustrated  by  the 
contrast  of  TertuUian  with  the  early  (Jreek  writers,  e.  </.  Justin  Martyr.  In 
TertuUian  there  is  no  courteous  respect  for  the  Greek  philosophy:  he  ia 
dead  to  the  beauty  of  the  dying  houio  of  Socrates;  his  Dicmou  is  a  devil. 


Chap.  I  MONARCHIANISM.  71 

'  Refutation  of  Heresies.'  That  paramount  doctrine 
of  Christianity,  the  nature  of  Christ,  his  relation  to  the 
primal  and  paternal  Godhead,  which  had  been  con- 
tested in  a  vaguer  and  more  imaginative  form  under 
the  Gnostic  systems,  must  be  brought  to  a  direct  issue. 
Home,  though  the  war  was  waged  by  Greek  comba- 
tants in  the  Greek  language,  must  be  the  chosen  battle- 
field of  the  conflict.  There  was  division  in  the  Chiu'ch. 
Pope  Victor,  a  stern  and  haughty  Prelate,  who  had 
demanded  implicit  submission  to  liis  opinions  on  the 
question  of  Easter,  now  seemed  stunned  and  bewil- 
dered by  the  polemic  din  and  tumult.^  The  feebler 
Zephyrinus,  through  his  long  pontificate,  vacillated  and 
wavered  to  and  fro.  Callistus,  if  w^e  are  to  believe  his 
implacable  and  uncompromising  adversary,  not  only 
departed  from  the  true  faith,  but  left  a  sect,  bearing 
his  name,  to  perpetuate  his  reprehensible  opmions. 
From  Theodotus,  a  follower  of  Valentinus,  to  ^bout 
Noetus  and  his  disciple  Epigonus,  there  was  ^'°'  ^^^ 

•'No  man  comes  to  God  but  by  Christ;  of  these  things  the  heathen  knew 
nothing."  T.  de  Anim.  i.  39.  Compare  Ritter,  Gesch.  Christ.  Philosophic, 
p.  335.  TertuUian  cannot  conceive  immaterial  being.  Nihil  mcorporale 
quod  non  est.    De  Carn.  Christ.  Neander,  iii.  p.  965. 

1  Victor  condemned  indeed  and  excommunicated  Theodotus,  who  re- 
duced the  Saviour  to  his  naked  manhood;  he  was  but  an  image  of  Melchis- 
edek.  This  was  asserted  fifty  years  later,  when  the  doctrine  of  the  naked 
manhood  of  Christ  was  taught  in  its  most  obnoxious  form  by  Artemas,  and 
afterwards  by  Paul  of  Samosata.  These  teachers  appealed  to  the  unbroken 
tradition  of  the  church,  from  the  Apostles  to  their  own  days,  in  favor  of 
their  o^^^l  tenet.  It  was  answered  that  Victor  had  condemned  Theodotus, 
tlie  author  of  this  God-denying  apostacy ;  on  Bkrwp  tov  aicvTia  Qeodorov, 
rbv  apxvyov  TOVTrjQ  rrjg  apvTjati^Eov  aTTOGTaaiag,  uizeKypv^e  Tijg  kolvu- 
vlag,  TvpuTOV  etTzovra  tpiAov  avOpcjirov  rbv  XpioTov.  Euseb.  H.  E.  v.  15 
Epiphan.  54, 55.  Compare  Pseudo-Tertullian  de  Prtescrip.  Hneret.  On  the 
Theodoti,  compare  Bmisen,  Hippolytus,  p.  92.  Yet  Victor,  it  should  seem, 
was  deceived  by  Praxeas  (see  note  above).  Florinus,  condemned  -with 
iJIastus  the  Quartodeciman,  was  a  Monarchian ;  but  there  were  manifestly 
many  shades  of  Mouarchiauism. 


72  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I, 

a  constant  succession  of  strangers,  each  with  liis  own 
About  A.D.  system.  The  shades  of  distinction  were  infi- 
^^'  nite,  from  that  older  Ebionitish  or  Judaic 
doctrine,  which  kept  down  the  Saviour  to  mere  naked 
manliood,  hardly  superior  to  the  prophets ;  and  that 
wliich  approximated  to,  if  it  did  not  express  in  absolute 
terms,  the  full  Godhead  of  the  Nicene  Creed.  The 
broad  divisions,  up  to  a  certain  period,  had  been  three- 
fold :  1.  Those  who  altogether  denied  the  Godhead  — 
the  extreme  Ebionites.  2.  Those  who  denied  the 
Manhood  —  all  the  Gnostic  sects.  In  their  diverging 
forms  of  Docetism,  these  held  the  unreal,  or  but  seem- 
ing human  nature  of  the  Redeemer ;  whether,  as  Val- 
entinus  said,  the  ^on  Christ  had  descended  on  the 
man  Jesus,  the  psychic  or  animal  man  ;  or  as  Marcion, 
maintained  the  manhood  to  be  a  mere  phantasm.  3. 
All  the  rest  (even  the  Roman  Ebionites,  represented  by 
the  Clementine  Homilies)  acknowledged  some  Deity, 
some  efflux,  eradiation,  emanation  of  the  primal  God- 
head. The  Logos,  the  Wisdom,  the  Spirit  of  God 
(the  distinction  was  not  always  maintained,  nor  as  yet 
accurately  defined)  indwelt  in  various  manners  and 
degrees  within  the  Christ.  The  difficulty  was  to  cJaim 
the  plenary  Godhead  for  the  Son,  the  Redeemer,  with- 
out infringing  on  the  so^s,  original  Principality  of  the 
Father;  to  admit  subordination  without  inferiority. 
So  grew  up  a  new  division  between  the  Monarchians, 
the  assertors  of  one  immutable  primary  Principle,  who 
yet  acknowledged  the  divinity  of  the  Redeemer;  and 
those  who,  while  they  mostly  acknowledged  in  terms, 
were  impatient  of  any  real  or  definite  subordination. 
B^ach  drew  an  awful  conclusion  from  the  tenets  of  his 
adversary ;  each  used  an  opprobrious  term  which  ap- 


Chap.  I.  MONARCHIANISM.  /3 

pealed  to  the  resentful  passions.  The  Monarchians 
were  charged  with  the  appalling  doctrine,  that  tlie 
Father,  the  one  primary  Principle,  must  have  suftered 
on  the  cross  ;  they  were  called  Patripassians.  They 
retorted  on  those  who  were  unable,  or  who  refused  to 
define  the  subordination  of  the  Son,  as  worshippers  of 
two  Gods,  Ditheists.  Sabellius,  who  at  first  repressed, 
or  brought  forward  his  views  with  reserve  and  caution, 
attempted  to  mediate,  and  was  disdainfully  cast  aside 
by  both  parties.  The  notion  of  the  same  God  under 
three  manifestations,  forms,  or  names,  seemed  to  annul 
the  separate  personality  of  each.^ 

Pope  Victor  saw  but  the  beginning  of  this  strife. 
With  Pope  Zephyrinus,  whose  Episcopate  of  a.d.  201-219. 
nineteen  years  commences  with  the  third  century,  ap- 
pears his  antagonist,  the  antagonist  of  his  successor 
Callistus,  the  author  of  the  Refutation  of  all  Heresies, 
Accorchng  to  his  own  distinct  statement,  this  writer 
was  not  a  casual  and  transient  visitor  in  Rome,  but 
domiciled  in  the  city  or  in  its  neighborhood,  invested 
in  some  high  public  fmiction,^  and  holding  acknowl- 
edged influence  and  authority.  He  describes  himself 
as  the  head  of  what  may  be  called  the  orthodox  party, 
resisting  and  condemning  the  wavering  policy  of  one 
Pope,  actually  excommunicating  another,  and  handing 
him  down  to  posterity  as  an  heresiarch  of  a  sect  called 
after  his  name.  Who  then  was  this  antagonist  ?  What 
rank  and  position  did  he  hold  ?     Fifty  years  a.d.  201.-250. 

1  Sabellius,  according  to  the  Refutation  of  Heresies,  might  have  been 
kept  within  the  bounds  of  orthodoxy,  had  he  not  been  driven  into  ex- 
tremes by  the  injudicious  violence  of  the  Pope. 

2  0rigen  visited  Rome  about  the  year  211,  but  his  visit  was  not  long; 
and,  with  all  his  fame  and  learning,  to  the  height  of  which  he  had  not  at- 
tained, he  was  a  stranger,  without  rank  or  authority.  He  was  not  even  iu 
orders. 


74  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I. 

later  ^  tlie  Roman  church  comprehended,  besides  its 
Bishop,  forty-six  Presbyters,  and  seven  Deacons,^  with 
their  subordinate  officers.  Each  Presbyter  doubtless 
presided  over  a  separate  community,  each  with  its  ba- 
silica, scattered  over  the  wide  circuit  of  the  city :  they 
were  the  primary  Parish  Priests  of  Rome.  But  be- 
sides these,  were  Suburbicarian  Bishops  of  the  adjacent 
towns,  Ostia,  Tibur,  Portus,  and  others  (six  or  seven), 
who  did  not  maintain  their  absolute  independence  on  the 
metropolis,  each  in  the  seclusion  of  his  own  community  ; 
they  held  their  synods  in  Rome,  but  as  yet  with  Greek 
equality  rather  than  Roman  subordination  ;  they  were 
the  initiatory  College  of  Cardinals  (who  still  take  some 
of  their  titles  from  these  sees),  but  with  the  Pope  as 
one  of  this  coequal  college,  rather  than  the  dominant, 
certainly  not  the  despotic,  head. 

Of  all  these  suburban  districts  at  this  time  Portus 
was  the  most  considerable,  and  most  likely  to  be  occu- 
pied by  a  distinguished  prelate.  Portus,  from  the 
reign  of  Trajan,  had  superseded  Ostia  as  the  haven 
of  Rome.  It  was  a  commercial  town  of  growing 
extent  and  opulence,  at  which  most  of  the  strangers 
from  the  East  who  came  by  sea  landed  or  set  sail. 
Through  Portus,  no  doubt,  most  of  the  foreign  Chris- 
Hippoiytus.  tians  found  their  way  to  Rome.^  Of  this 
city  at  the  present  time,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted, 
Hippolytus  was  the  bishop,  Hippolytus  who  afterwards 
rose  to  the  dignity  of  saint  and  martyr,  and  whose 

1  Calculating  fi-oin  the  accession  of  Zephyrinus  to  the  Decian  persecution. 
Letter  of  Pope  Cornelius  in  Eiiscb.  H.  E.  vi.  42. 

2  Each  (lencon  appears  to  have  roniprcheiidcd  under  his  charitable  super- 
intendence two  out  of  the  fourteen  regions  of  the  city. 

8  In  the  letters  of  Mneas  Sylvius  tliere  is  a  curious  account  of  a  visit 
which  he  made  to  the  site  of  this  aiu;ient  bishopric,  then  held  by  one  of  hia 
(rieuds.    Dr.  Wordswurlh  has  bouie  interesting  details  coiuu'.niiug  Portus. 


Chap   I.  PORTUS.  76 

statue,  discovered  in  tlie  Laurentian  cemetery,  now 
stands  in  the  Vatican.  Conclusive  internal  evidence 
indicates  Hippolytiis  as  the  author  of  the  Refutation 
of  all  Heresies.  If  any  one  might  dare  to  confront 
the  Bishop  of  Rome,  it  was  the  Bishop  of  Portus. 

Zephyrinus,  according  to  his  unsparing  adversary, 
was  an  unlearned  man  ;  ignorant  of  the  Ian-  Pope  zephy. 

,  .   .  />     1        r^i  1  •     I'iQus.    2U2- 

guage  and  dennitions  ot  tlie  Olmrcli ;  avari-  219. 
cious,  venal,  of  unsettled  principles ;  not  holding  the 
"balance  between  conflicting  opinions,  but  embracmg 
adverse  tenets  with  all  the  zeal,  of  wdiich  a  mind 
so  irresolute  w^as  capable.  He  was  now  a  disciple  of 
Cleomenes,  the  successor  of  Noetus,  and  teacher  of 
Noetianism  in  Rome  (Noetus  held  the  extreme  Mo- 
narchian  doctrine,  so  as  to  be  obnoxious  to  the  charge 
of  Patripassianism),  now  of  Sabellius,  who,  become 
more  bold,  had  matured  his  scheme,  wdiich  was  odious 
alike  to  the  other  two  contending  parties.  Zephyrinus 
was  entirely  governed  by  the  crafty  Callistus  ;  and 
thus  constantly  driven  back,  by  his  fears  or  confusion 
of  mind,  to  opposite  tenets,  and  involved  in  the  most 
glaring  contradictions.  At  one  time  he  publicly  used 
the  startling  language :  "I  acknowledge  one  God, 
Jesus  Christ,  and  none  beside  him,  that  was  born  and 
suffered  ;  "  at  another,  lie  refuted  himself,  "  It  w\is  not 
the  Father  that  died,  but  the  Son."  So  througli  the 
long  episcopate  of  Zephyrinus  there  was  endless  con- 
flict and  confusion.  The  author  of  the  Refutation 
steadily,  perseveringly,  resisted  the  vacillating  Pontiff; 
lie  himself  was  branded  with  the  opprobrious  appella- 
tion of  Ditheist. 

Callistus,  w^ho  had  ruled  the  feeble  mind  caiiistus 

.  ,  .  Pope.    219- 

of  Zephyrinus,  aspired  to   be  his  successor ;  223. 


76  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I 

as  head,  it  should  seem,  of  one  of  the  contending 
parties,  he  attained  the  object  of  his  ambition.  The 
memory  of  theologic  adversaries  is  tenacious.  His 
enemies  were  not  hkely  to  forget  the  early  life  of 
Callistus,  which  must  have  been  public  and  notorious, 
at  least  amono^  the  Christians.  He  had  been  a  slave 
in  the  family  of  Carpophorus,  a  wealthy  Christian,  in 
the  Emperor's  household.  He  was  set  up  by  his  mas- 
ter in  a  bank  in  the  quarter  called  the  Piscina  Publica. 
The  Christian  brethren  and  widows,  on  the  credit  of 
the  name  of  Carpophorus,  deposited  their  savings  in 
this  bank  of  Callistus.  He  made  away  with  the  funds, 
was  called  to  account,  fled,  embarked  on  board  a  ship, 
was  pursued,  threw  himself  into  the  sea  —  was  rescued 
—  brought  back  to  Rome,  and  ignominiously  con- 
signed to  hard  labor  in  the  public  workhouse.  The 
merciful  Carpophorus  cared  not  for  his  own  losses,  but 
for  those  of  the  poor  widows ;  he  released  the  prisoner 
on  the  pretext  of  collecting  moneys,  which  he  pretended 
to  be  due  to  him.  Callistus  raised  a  riot  in  a  Jewish 
synagogue,  was  carried  before  the  Prefect  Fuscianus, 
scourged  and  transported  to  the  mines  in  Sardinia. 
On  the  release  of  the  exiles  tlu'ough  the  intercession 
of  Marcia,  Callistus,  though  not  on  the  list  furnished 
by  the  Bishop  Victor,  persuaded  Hyacinthus,  the  Eu- 
nuch appointed  to  bear  the  order  for  the  release  of 
the  captives  to  the  governor,  to  become  responsible 
for  his  liberation  also.^  He  returned  to  Rome ;  the 
Pope  Victor,  though  distressed  by  the  affair,  was  too 

1  This  singular  picture  of  Roman  and  Christian  middle  life  has  an  air  of 
minute  truthfuhu'ss,  though  possibly  somewhat  darkened  by  polemic  hos- 
tility. Some  have  supposed  that  they  detect  a  difterence  in  the  style  from 
the  rest  of  the  treatise.  I  perceive  none  but  that  which  is  natural  in  a 
trantjitiou  from  polemic  or  argumeututive  writhig  to  simple  narrative 


CHAP.  1.  THE  PATRIPASSIANS.  77 

merciful  to  expose  the  fraud ;  Callistiis  was  sent  to 
Antlum  with  a  monthly  allowance  for  his  maintenance. 
At  Antium  (for  tliis  release  of  the  Sardinian  prisoners 
must  have  been  at  the  commencement  of  Victor's 
episcopate)^  he  remained  nine  or  ten  years.  Zephy- 
rinus  recalled  him  from  his  obscure  retreat ;  and  placed 
him  over  the  cemetery. ^  By  degrees  the  Pope  entirely 
surrendered  himself  to  the  guidance  of  Callistus. 

The  first  act  of  Callistus  on  his  advancement  to  the 
bishopric  was  the  excommunication  of  Sabellius,  an 
act  cordially  approved  by  Hippolytus,  and  ascribed  to 
the  fear  of  himself.  Callistus  formed  a  new  scheme, 
by  wliich  he  hoped  to  elude  the  charge  on  one  side  of 
Patripassianism,  on  the  other  of  Ditheism.  Hippoly- 
tus denounces  his  heresy  without  scruple  or  reserve.^ 

The  suggestion  that  it  is  a  Novatian  interpolation  is  desperate  and  prepos- 
terous. Novatian  was  not  heard  of  till  thirty  years  after,  his  followers,  of 
course,  later.  What  possible  motive  could  they  have  for  blackening  the 
memory  of  Zephyrinus  and  Callistus?  Novatian  was  no  enemy  of  the 
Bishop  of  Rome;  had  no  design  to  invalidate  his  powers.  He  was  the 
enemy  of  Cornelius,  his  successful  rival  for  the  see;  he  aspired  himself  to 
be  bishop  —  was,  in  fact,  anti-Pope.  The  great  point  on  which  Novatian 
made  liis  stand  had,  indeed,  been  mooted,  but  did  not  become  a  cause  of 
fatal  division  till  after  the  persecution  of  Deeius,  the  treatment  of  the  Lapsi 
—  those  who  in  the  persecution  had  denied  the  faith. 

Hippolytus,  it  is  true,  in  the  poetic  legend  of  Prudentius  (who  borrows 
the  circumstances  of  his  martyrdom  from  the  destiny  of  his  namesake  in 
the  tragedy  of  Euripides),  is  charged  with  holding  the  tenets  of  Novatus, 
which  he  recanted,  and  in  his  death-agony  became  a  good  Catholic.  But 
the  author  of  the  Refutation  of  all  Heresies  can  hardly  have  been  involved 
in  the  schism  of  Novatian,  who  did  not  appear  till  so  many  years  after 
the  death  of  Callistus.  Novatian,  with  such  a  partisan,  Avould  not  have 
sought  out  three  obscure  bishops  for  his  ordination.  I  cannot  but  thiak 
the  Spanish  legendarj^  poet  of  the  fourth  century  utterly  without  historical 
authority,  — possibly  he  confounded  different  Hippolyti. 

1  The  release  of  the  prisoners  took  place  probably  in  the  tenth  year  of 
Commodus,  the  year  of  A'"ictor's  accession,  a.d.  190. 

2  We  are  naturally  reminded  of  the  cemetery  called  of  Callistus.  Arin- 
ghi  supposes  this  cemetery  older  than  the  time  of  Callistus. 

8  Callistiaiiism  differed  but  slightly  from  Noetism.     God  and  his  divine 


78  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I, 

Christian  doctrine,  the  profound  mystery  of  the 
Saviour's  Godhead,  was  not  the  only  subject  of  col- 
lision between  the  adverse  parties  in  the  Church  of 
Rome.  The  difficult  reconciliation  of  Christian  ten- 
derness and  Christian  holiness  could  hardly  fail  to 
produce  a  milder  and  more  austere  party  throughout 
Christendom.  The  first  young  influences  of  Mona- 
ehism,  the  perfection  claimed  by  celibacy  over  the  less 
ostentatious  virtue  of  domestic  purity,  the  notion  of 
the  hei'oism  of  self-mortification,  led  to  inevitable  dif- 
ferences. Montanism,  with  its  fanatic  rigor,  had 
wrought  up  this  strife  to  a  great  height.  The  more 
Controversy    scvcrc,  who  did  not  embrace  the  Montanist 

on  Christian  i    i        i  •         • 

morals.  tcucts,  would  uot  bc  surpasscd  by  heretics  m 
self-abnegation.  The  lenity  to  be  shown  to  penitents, 
the  condescension  to  the  weaknesses  of  flesh  and  blood, 
raised  perpetual  disputes.  CalHstus  throughout,  un- 
like those  whose  early  lives  demand  indulgence,  who 
are  usually  the  most  severe,  was  himself  indulgent  to 
others  ;  and  this  was  the  dominant  tone  at  the  time  in 
the  Roman  Church.  The  author  of  the  Refutation, 
though  uninfected  by  Montanist  tenets,  inveighs  against 
the  leniency  of  Callistus,  as  asserting  that  even  a 
bishop,  guilty  of  a  deadly  sin,  was  not  to  be  deposed. 
The  nature  of  this,  according  to  Hippolytus,  deadly 
sin,  .which  Callistus  treated  with  such  offensive  ten- 
derness, appears  from  the  next  sentence:^  it  related 

Word  were  one ;  together  they  were  the  Spirit,  the  one  Spiritual  Being. 
This  Spirit  took  flesh  of  the  Virgin;  so  the  Father  was  in  the  Son,  but  he 
suffered  not  as  the  Son,  but  with  the  Son. 

1  OvTOQ  idoyfiuTLoev  oirug  d  emoKonog  aiidproL  ti,  el  kol  irpbg  ^avarov, 
u^  (kiv  KaraTi-dea&ai.  'Ett^  tovtov  r/p^avro  ImaKOTcoi  Kal  npe<j(3vTepoi  Koi 
StdKovoL  diya/iot  Koi  rplyafioi  KadiaTac^ai  sig  Klrjpovg.  E/  61  Kal  rif  kv 
K?i7jp(.)  Cfv  yaiioiTj,  fiEVELv  Tov  TOLovTQv  kv  T(j  Kkijpui  tOf  fi^  TjiiapTTjKOTa.  ix. 
12.  p.  290. 


Chat.  I.       CONTROVERSY  ON  CTITUSTTAN  MORALS.  79 

to  that  grave  question  whicli  liad  begun  to  absorb 
the  Christian  mind  —  the  marriao;e  of*  the  clero-v. 
That  usage,  which  lias  always  prevailed,  and  still 
prevails,  in  the  Greek  Church,  as  yet  seems  to  have 
satisfied  the  more  rigorous  -at  Rome.  Those  who  were 
already  married  when  ordained,  retained  their  wives. 
But  a  second  mari'iage,  or  marriage  after  ordination, 
was  revolting  to  the  incipient  monkery  of  the  Church. 
But  Callistus,  according  to  his  implacable  adversary, 
went  further,  he  admitted  men  who  had  been  twice, 
even  thrice  married,  to  holy  orders ;  he  allowed  those 
already  in  orders  to  marry.  His  more  indulgent  party 
appealed  to  the  evangelical  argument,^  "  Who  art 
thou  that  judgest  another  man's  servant  ? "  They 
alleged  the  parables  of  the  tares  and  wheat,  the  clean 
and  unclean  beasts  in  the  ark.  This  the  more  austere 
denounced  as  criminal  flattery  of  the  passions  of  the 
multitude ;  as  the  sanction  of  voluptuousness  pro- 
scribed by  Christ,  with  the  base  design  of  courting 
popularity,  and  swelling  the  ranks  of  their  faction. 
There  is  a  heavier  charge  behind.  The  widows,  if 
they  could  not  contain,  were  not  only  allowed  to 
marry,  but  to  take  a  slave  or  freedman,  below  their 
own  rank,  who  could  not  be  their  legal  husband.^ 
Hence  abortions,  and  child  murders,  to  conceal  these 
disgraceful  connections.  Callistus,  therefore,  is  sanc- 
tioning adultery  and  murder.  But  even  this  is  not  the 
height  of  his  offence,  he  had  dared  to  administer  a 
second  baptism.  So  already  had  ecclesiastical  offences 
become  worse  in  the  estimation  of  vehement  religious 

1  R.  H.  p.  290. 

2  The  widows,  who  had  taken  on  themselves  the  office  of  deaconesses, 
»nd  who,  though  not  bound  by  vow,  were  under  a  kind  of  virtual  en- 
Sfagement  against  second  marriage. 


80  LATIN  CHRISTIAXITY.  Book  L 

partisans  tlian  moral  enormities.  Here,  at  least,  it  is 
fair  to  mistrust  the  angry  adversary.  But  this  con- 
flict between  a  more  indulgent  and  a  more  austere 
party  in  Rome,  and  some  declaration  of  the  Pope 
Zephyrinus,  probably,  rather  than  Callistus,  —  but 
Zephyrinus  acting  under  the  influence  of  Callistus  — 
on  the  connection  between  the  sexes,  had  already  ex- 
cited the  indignation  of  TertuUian  in  Africa,  now  still 
more  hardened  by  his  Montanist  tenets.  "  The  Bishop 
of  Bishops  had  promulgated  an  edict,  tliat  he  would 
remit  to  penitents  even  the  sins  of  adultery  and  for- 
nication. This  license  to  lust  is  issued  in  the  strong- 
hold of  all  wicked  and  shameless  lusts."  ^ 

Persecution  restored  that  peace  to  the  Roman 
Church,  which  had  been  so  much  disturbed  througli- 
out  her  uninvaded  prosperity,  during  the  tolerant  rule 
of  Alexander  Severus.  In  the  sudden  outburst  of 
hostility,  during  the  short  reign  of  the  brutal  Thracian 
Maximin,  Pontianus,  who  had  followed  Urban  I.,  the 
A.D.  235.  successor  of  Callistus,  and  witli  him  a  pres- 
byter, Hippolytus,  suffered  sentence  of  deportation  to 
the  usual  place  of  exile  —  Sardinia.  There  Pontianus 
is  said  (nor  is  there  much  reason  to  doubt  the  tradi- 
tion) to  have  endured  martyrdom.  Hippolytus,^  ac- 
cording to  the  poetic  legend  in  Prudentius  of  two 
centimes  later,  suffered  in  the  suburbs  of  Rome.^ 

1  De  Pudicitia.  —  Did  the  title  Episcopus  Episcoporum,  which  I  think 
cannot  but  mean  Rome,  arise  from  liis  superiority  to  the  suburbicarian 
bishops?  See,  however,  on  this  title  the  note  of  Baluzius  on  the  vii.  Con- 
cil.  Carthag.  —  or  in  Routh,  ii.  153. 

2  Compare  Bunsen.  The  title  of  Presbyter  assigned  to  Hippolytus,  if,  as 
is  most  probable,  the  same  with  the  author  of  the  Refutation  and  other 
works,  even  if  he  were  Bishop  of  Portus,  raises  no  difficulty.  These 
bishops  were  members  of  the  Roman  Presbyter}'. 

8  At  this  time,  more  likely  than  fifteen  years  afterwards,  in  the  Decian 
persecution.     Legend  respects  not  dates. 


Chap.  I.  DECIAN  PERSECUTION.  81 

The  Decian  persecution,  about  thirty  years  after  tho 
death  of  CalHstus,  was  the  birth  epoch  of  ^^^5^^^^  ^^ 
Latin  Christianity ;  Cyprian  its  true  parent,  c^^io*^- 
Rome,  the  recognized  metropolis  of  the  West,  Car- 
thage, the  metropolis  of  the  African  churches,  are 
in  constant  and  reo;ular  intercourse.^  There  is  first  a 
Punic  league,  afterwards  at  least  a  threatened  Punic 
war.  In  the  j)ersecution  the  churches  are  brought  into 
close  alliance  by  common  sympathies,  common  perils, 
common  sufferings,  singularly  enough  by  common 
schisms ;  slowly,  but  no  doubt  at  length,  by  their 
common  language.  The  same  Imperial  edict  endan- 
gers the  life  of  the  Roman  and  of  the  Carthaginian 
Bishop ;  malcontents  from  Rome  find  their  way  to 
Carthage,  from  Cartilage  to  Rome.  The  same  man, 
Novatus,  stirs  up  rebellion  against  episcopal  authority 
in  Rome  and  in  Carthage ;  the  letters  of  the  churches 
to  each  other  are  promulgated  in  Latin,  though  at  a 
period  somewhat  later  those  from  the  African  churches 
sent  into  the  East  are  distino-uished  from  those  which 
came  from  Rome,  as  written  in  the  Roman  tongue.^ 
So  too  in  Rome  and  in  Carthao-e  (in  Carthage  in  the 
most  mature  and  perfect  form,  from  the  master  mind 
of  Cyprian)  appear  the  Roman  strength  and  the 
Roman  respect  for  law,  the  imperious  assertion  of 
hierarchical  despotism.  In  the  community  there  is 
trembling  deference  for  hierarchical  authority,  though 
at  first  with  a  bold  but  short  resistance.  There 
is  an    anti-Bishop   in  Rome   and   in    Carthage.     But 

1  The  intercourse  between  Carthage  and  Rome,  on  account  of  the  com 
trade  alone,  was  probably  more  regular  and  rapid  tlian  in  any  other  part 
of  the  empire  —  mutatis  mutandis  —  like  that  between  Marseilles  and 
Algeria. 

2  Euseb.  H.  E.     See  above,  p.  53,  note. 


82  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I. 

in  botli  Churches  disciphne  becomes  of  equal  im- 
portance with  doctrine ;  tlie  unity  of  tlie  Church  is 
made  to  depend  on  obedience  to  its  outward  polity ; 
rebelHon  to  episcopal  authority  becomes  as  great  a 
crime  as  erroneous  opinion ;  schism  as  hateful  as 
heresy. 

Fabianus,  under  Decius,  is  the  first  martyr  Bishop 
Pabianus  o'l  of  Romc,  whosc  death  rests  on  certain  testi- 
A.T249.  mony.^  The  papal  chair  remained  vacant 
for  a  short  time ;  either  the  Christians  dared  not  choose, 
Cyprian  of  or  no  ouQ  darcd  to  assume  the  perilous  rank. 
Carthage.  Qyprian  of  Carthage  on  the  same  occasion, 
not  from  timidity,  but  from  prudent  and  parental  re- 
gard for  his  flock,  retired  into  a  safe  retreat.  There 
were  already  divisions  in  the  Church  of  Carthage. 
Novatus.  Novatus,  a  turbulent  presbyter,  with  five 
others,^  had  been  jealous  of  the  elevation  of  Cyprian. 
Novatus,  whose  character  is  darkly  drawn  by  Cyprian, 
had  presumed  to  interfere  with  the  bishop's  prerogative 
(a  crime  hardly  less  heinous  than  peculation  and  licen- 
tiousness) and  himself  ordained  a  deacon,  Felicissimus. 
This  hostile  party  would  no  doubt  heap  contempt  on 
the  base  fhght  of  Cyprian  ;  while  they,  less  in  danger, 
seemed  to  have  remained  to  brave  the  persecutor. 
The  party  took  upon  themselves  the  episcopal  func- 
tions.^ On  their  own  authority,  too,  the  faction  of 
Novatus  determined,  in  the  more  lenient  way,  the 
great  question,  the  reception  of  the  fallen,  those  who 

1  Perhaps  that  of  Pontianus  may  be  above  suspicion.    (See  above.) 

2  It  is  doubtful  whetlier  Novatus  was  one  of  these  five. 

8  Cy])rian,  from  his  retreat,  sent  two  bishops  to  collect  and  administer 
the  alms,  probably  of  {?reat  amount,  in  Carthage.  Walch  conjectures,  with 
mach  probability,  that  Felicissimus  may  have  resented  this  intrusion  on  his 
province  as  Deacon. 


Chap.  1.  NOYATUS   AND  NOYATIAN.  83 

had  denied  the  faith  and  offered  sacrifice,  and  those 
who,  with  more  pardonable  weakness,  had  bought  cer- 
tificates of  submission  from  the  venal  officers.^  Cyp- 
rian in  vain  remonstrated  from  his  retreat :  he  too 
had  somewhat  departed  from  his  old  sternness,  when 
he  had  shut  the  doors  of  the  Church  ao'ainst  die  rene- 
gades.  He  was  not  now  for  inflexible  and  peremptory 
rejection  of  those  weak  brethren,  for  whom  he  may  have 
learned  some  sympathy  ;  he  insisted  only  on  their  less 
hasty,  more  formal  reception,  after  penance,  confession, 
imposition  of  liands  by  the  bishop.  Each  case  was  to 
be  separately  considered  before  an  assembly  of  the 
bishops,  presbyters,  deacons,  the  faithful  who  had  stood,^ 
and  the  laity  ;  so  popular  still  was  Cyprian's  view  of 
episcopal  authority.  Cornelius,  in  Rome,  oorueiiua 
had  been  elected  bishop  on  the  return  oF  iiome. 
peace.  The  same  question  distracted  his  Church,  bi^t 
with  more  disastrous  results.  The  same  Novatus  was 
now  in  Rome :  true  only  to  his  own  restlessness,  he 
here  embraced  the  severer  party,  at  the  head  of  which 
stood  a  leader,  by  some  strange  coincidence,  almost  of 
the  same  name  with  his  own,  Novatian.^  This  Novatian. 
man  had  been  a  Stoic  philosopher.  His  hard  nature, 
in  the  agony  of  wrestling  after  truth,  before  he  had 
found  peace  in  Christianity,  broke  down  both  body  and 
mind.     His  enemies  afterwards  declared  that  he  had 

1  Tliey  were  called  Libellatici.  Compare  Mosheim  de  Eeb.  Christian, 
ante  Constant.  M.,  pp.  482,  489. 

2  Throughout  this  is  his  language  —  Yiderint  laid,  hoc  quomodo  curent. 
pip.  liii.,  also  xi.  xxix.  xxxi.  Compare  Conoil.  Carthag.  iii.,  where  it  is 
among  the  ohjections  that  a  fallen  had  been  received  sine  petitu  et  con- 
Bcieutia  plebis.     Mansi  sub  ann.  252,  or  Routh,  vol.  ii.  p.  74. 

3  The  Greek  writers  all  called  Novatian,  Novatus.  We  are  on  historical 
ground,  or  what  a  myth  might  be  made  out  of  these  two  Innovators!-^ 
Novatus  and  Novatian. 


84  LATIN  CHPJSTIAXTT  Y.  Book  L 

been  possessed  ;  the  demon  was  not  completely  exor- 
cised. He  had  only  received  what  was  called  Clinic 
baptism  (an  imperfect  rite)  on  what  was  supposed  his 
death-bed.  Tlie  Stoic  remained  within  tlie  Christian  ; 
he  became  a  rigid  ascetic.  Novatian  sternly  declared 
that  no  mercy  but  that  of  God  (from  that  he  did  not 
exclude  the  fallen)  could  absolve  from  the  inexpiable 
sin  of  apostacy  ;  the  Church,  which  received  such  un- 
absolvable  sinners  into  its  bosom,  was  unclean,  and 
ceased  to  be  the  Church.  Novatian  might  have  con- 
tented himself,  like  the  Thraseas  of  old,  with  protest- 
ing against  the  abuse  of  episcopal  despotism,  no  less 
abuse  because  it  erred  on  the  side  of  leniency.  When 
charged  with  ambitious  designs  on  the  Bishopnc  of 
Rome,  of  having  been  the  rival,  and  therefore  having 
become  the  enemy,  of  Cornelius,  he  solemnly  declared 
t^at  he  preferred  the  solitary  virtue  and  dignity  of  the 
ascetic  ;  it  was  only  by  compulsion  that  he  took  upon 
himself  the  function  of  an  Antipope.  Cyprian  attrib- 
utes the  schism  to  the  malignant  influence  of  Novatus : 
— "  In  proportion  as  Rome  is  greater  than  Carthage, 
so  was  the  sin  of  Novatus  in  Rome  more  heinous  tlian 
that  in  Carthage.  In  Carthage  he  had  ordained  a  dea- 
con, in  R(mie  he  had  made  a  bishop."  ^  Novatian  was 
publicly  but  hastily  and  irregularly  consecrated,  as 
Bishop  of  Rome,  by  three  bishops,  it  is  said,  of  obscure 
towns  in  Italy.  Novatian  was  in  doctrine  rigidly  or- 
thodox ;  but  in  Cyprian's  view  (who  makes  common 
cause  with  the  Bishop  of  Rome  against  the  common 
enemy)  what  avails  orthodoxy  of  doctrine  in  one  out 

1  Vhmb  quoniam  pro  inajjciiitiuline  sua  dobeat  Cart  hatpin  em  Roma  prae- 
cedere,  illic  majora  et  p-aviora  commisit.  (^ui  istic  adversiis  ecclesiam  di- 
aconum  fccerat  illic  epipcopum  fecit.  Epist.  xlix.  The  preeminence  of  th« 
Bisli(»p  of  Rome  arises  out  of  the  preeminent  gniatness  of  lionie. 


Chap.  I.  NOVATUS  AND  NOVATIAN.  85 

of  tlie  CliLirc'li  ?  ^  He  is  self-excluded  from  tlie  pale 
of  salvation.  Cyprian  had  grounds,  if  not  for  his  ab- 
horrence, for  liis  fears  of  Novatianism.  It  aspired 
itself  to  be  the  Church,  to  set  up  rival  bishops  through- 
out Chi'istendom ;  the  test  of  that  Church  was  this  un- 
compromising, inflexible  severity.  Even  in  Carthage 
arose  another  bishop,  Fortunatus,  who  asserted  himself 
to  have  been  consecrated  by  twenty-three  Numidian 
bishops.  Cyprian,  not  without  bitterness,  while  he  ad- 
mits that  Cornelius  had  rejected  his  rebelhous  Deacon 
Fehcissimus  from  communion,  complains  that  he  had 
been  weakly  shaken,  and  induced  to  waver,  by  the 
false  representations  of  the  partisans  of  Fortunatus.^ 
This  transient  difference  was  soon  lost  in  Cyprian's 
generous  admiration  for  the  intrepidity  of  Cornelius, 
in  whose  glorious  Confession  the  whole  Chmxh  of 
Home,  even  the  fallen,  who  had  been  admitted  as  peni- 
tents, now  nobly  joined.  Cornelius  was  banished,  it 
is  said,  by  the  Emperor  Gallus,  to  Civita  Vecchia  ; 
he  was  followed  by  vast  numbers  of  belle  v^ers,  who 
shared  his  exile,  and  his  danger.  The  Church  returned 
from  banishment,  but  under  a  new  bishop,  Lucius  ; 
Cornelius  had  died,  the  words  of  Cyprian  hardly  assert 
by  a  violent  death.^     The  Novatians  alone,  during  this 

^  Quod  vero  ad  Novatiani  personam  pertinet,  pater  carissime,  desiderasti 
tibi  scribi  quam  haeresin  introduxisset,  scias  nos  primo  in  loco  non  curiosos 
esse  debere  quid  ille  doceat,  cum  foris  doceat.  Quisquis  ille  est,  et  qualis- 
cunque  est,  Christianus  uou  est,  qui  in  Cliristi  ecclesia  non  est.  Ad  Anton. 
Epist.  lii. 

2  Read  the  whole  remarkable  letter,  Iv.  ad  Cornelium  —  the  strongest 
revelation  of  the  views,  reasonings,  passions,  fears,  hatreds  of  Cyprian.  I 
cannot  consent,  with  a  late  writer,  to  the  abandonment  of  all  these  docu- 
ments as  spurious.  Forgery  would  not  have  left  the  argument  so  doubtful, 
W  rather  so  decisive  against  the  object  imputed  to  the  forgers. 

8  Epist.  ad  Lucium  P.  R.  reversum  ab  exilio  —  Iviii.  See,  however,  Epist. 
Ixviii.  —  He  is  described  as  martyrio  quoque  dignatioue  Domini  hoiioratus 
Compare  Routh's  note,  ii.  132. 


86  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Boor  1. 

new  trial  of  tlie  faitli,  stood  aloof  in  sullen  liostility. 
i.D.  253.  They  were  too  obscure,  Cyprian  suggests,  to 
provoke  tlie  jealousy  of  the  rulers.  But  Cyprian  mis- 
calculated that  strength  and  vitality  of  Novatianism. 
It  spread  throughout  Christendom :  even  in  the  East, 
Fabius,  Bishop  of  Antioch,  was  hardly  restrained  fi'om 
joining  the  party.  Dionysius  of  Alexandria  treated 
their  advances  with  greater  wisdom ;  he  earnestly 
urged  Novatian,  now  that  Cornelius  was  dead  and  the 
question  laid  almost  at  rest  by  the  cessation  of  perse- 
cution, to  return  into  the  bosom  of  the  Church.  On 
Novatian's  stubborn  refusal,  he  condemned  in  strong 
terms  his  harsh  Christianity,  as  depriving  the  Saviour 
of  his  sacred  attribute  of  mercy.  But  Novatianism 
endured  for  above  two  centuries ;  it  had  its  bishops  in 
Constantinople,  Nicea,  Nicomedia,  Citiseus  in  Phrygia, 
in  Cyzicum  and  Bithynia ;  even  in  Alexandria,  in 
Italy,  in  Gaul,  in  Spain.  It  had  its  saints,  its  hermits, 
its  monks.  St.  Ambrose  in  Italy,  Pacianus,  Bishoj) 
of  Barcelona,  and  towards  the  end  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury Leo  the  Great,  thought  it  necessary  to  condemn 
or  to  reHite  the  doctrines  of  Novatian.  The  two 
Byzantine  ecclesiastical  historians,  Socrates  and  his 
follower  Sozomen,  have  been  accused  of  leaning  to 
Novatianism.^ 

Novatianism,  like  all  unsuccessful  opposition,  added 
Cyprian's  strcuo-th  to  its  triumphant  adversary.  It  was 
Church.  not  so  much  by  its  rigor,  as  by  its  collision 
with  the  Hierarchical  system,  that  it  lost  its  hold  on  the 
Christian  mind.     It  declared  that  there  were  sins  be- 


1  Compare  Walch  Ketzer-Geschichte.  Walch  has  collected  every  pas- 
sage relating  to  Novatianism  with  his  usual  industry,  accuracy  and  fair- 
uess,  ii.  pp.  185,  288. 


Chap.  I.  CYPRIAN'S  UNITY.  87 

yond  tlie  aosolving  power  of  the  clergy.  By  setting 
up  rival  bishops  in  Home,  Carthage,  and  other  cities, 
it  only  evoked  more  commandingly  the  grow'ing  theory 
of  Christian  unity,  and  caused  it  to  be  asserted  in  a 
still  more  rigid  and  exclusive  form.  Within  the  pale 
of  the  Church,  under  the  lawful  Bishop,  were  Christ 
ami  salvation  ;  without  it,  the  realm  of  the  Devil,  the 
woi'ld  of  perdition.  The  faith  of  the  heretic  and  schis- 
matic was  no  faith,  his  holiness  no  holiness,  his  martyr- 
dom no  martyrdom.^  Latin  Christianity,  in  the  mind 
of  Cyprian,  if  not  its  founder,  its  chief  hierophant,  had 
soared  to  the  ideal  height  of  this  unity.  This  Utopia 
of  Cyi^rian  placed  St.  Peter  at  the  head  of  the  College 
of  coequal  Apostles,  fi'om  whom  the  Bishops  inherited 
coequal  dignity.  The  succession  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome  from  St.  Peter  was  now,  near  200  years  after 
his  death,  an  accredited  tradition.  Nor,  so  long  as 
Carthage  and  Rome  were  in  amity  and  alliance,  did 
Cyprian  scruple  to  admit  (as  Carthage  could  not  but 
own  her  inferiority  to  Imperial  Rome)  a  kind  of  pri- 
macy, of  dignity  at  least,  in  the  Metropolitan  Bishop.^ 

1  The  second  Council  of  Carthage  touches  on  tliis  absolving  power  of  the 
priesthood  — "  Quando  permiserit  ipse,  qui  legem  dedit  ut  ligati  in  terris 
etiani  incoelis  ligati  essent,  solvi  autem  possent  illaquaj  hie  prius  inecclesia 
solverentur."  The  decree  of  this  Council  anticipates  another  instant  per- 
secution, and  urges,  with  great  force  and  beauty,  the  necessity  of  strength- 
ening all  disciples  against  the  coming  trial  —  quos  excitamus  et  hortamur 
ad  prcelium  non  inermes  et  nudos  relinquaraus,  sed  protectione  corporis  et 
Banguinis  Christi  muniamus.  Mansi,  sub  ann.  252,  or  Routh,  Eel.  Sacrae, 
V.  iii.  p.  70. 

2  Hoc  erant  utique  et  cseteri  Apostoli,  quod  fuit  Petrus,  pari  consortio 
prgediti  et  honoris  et  potestatis:  sed  exordium  ab  unitate  proficiscitur,  et 
primatus  Petro  datur,  ut  una  Christi  ecclesia  et  cathedra  una  monstretur. 
De  unit.  Eccles.  There  is  little  doubt  that  this  famous  passage  is  an  intei% 
polation ;  it  is  not  found  in  tlie  best  manuscripts.  The  whole  passage  with- 
out these  words  seems  to  me  to  bear  out  the  guarded  assertion  of  the  text 


88  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I. 

The  Piiiiic  league  suddenly  gives  place  to  a  Punic 
Dispute  ^^^^^^'  ^  I'lG^v  controversy  has  sprung  up  in 
Eouirand  the  iutcrval  between  the  Decian  and  Vale- 
Carthage.  ^-^^^  persecutions,  ou  the  rehaptism  of  here- 
tics. Africa,  the  East,  Alexandria  with  less  decision, 
declared  the  baptism  by  heretics  an  idle  ceremony,  and 
even  an  impious  mimicry  of  that  holy  rite,  which  could 
only  be  valid  from  the  consecrated  hands  of  the  lawful 
A.T>.2x'5.  clergy.  Lucius  of  Rome  had  ruled  but  a 
few  months:  he  was  succeeded  by  Stephen.  This 
pope  adopted  a  milder  rule.  Every  baptism  in  the 
name  of  Christ  admitted  to  Christian  privileges.  He 
enforced  this  rule,  according  to  his  adversaries  (his 
own  letters  are  lost),  with  imperious  dictation.  At 
lena;th  he  broke  off  communion  with  all  the  churches 
of  the  East  and  of  Africa,  which  adhered  to  the  more 
rigorous  practice.^  But  the  Eastern  hatred  of  heresy 
conspired  with  the  hierarchical  spirit  of  Africa,  which 
could  endure  no  intrusion  on  the  prerogatives  of  the 
clergy.  Cyprian  confronts  Stephen  not  only  as  an 
equal,  but,  strong  in  the  concurrence  of  the  East  and 
of  Alexandria,  as  his  superior.  The  primacy  of  Peter 
has  lost  its  authority.  He  condemns  the  perverseness, 
obstinacy,  contumacy  of  Stephen.  He  promulgates, 
in  Latin,  a  letter  of  Firmilian,  Bishop  of  the  Cappado- 
cian  C^esarea,  still  more  unmeasured  in  its  censures. 
Firmilian  denounces  the  audacity,  the  insolence  of 
Stephen  ;  scoffs  at  his  boasted  descent  from  St.  Peter  ; 
declares  that,  by  his  sin,  he  has  excommunicated  him- 
self: he  is  the  schismatic,  the  apostate  from  the  unity 

^  He  denounced  Cyprian,  according  to  Firmilian,  as  a  false  Christ,  a  fals* 
ftpoatle,  a  deceitful  workman.     Firm.  Epist.  apud  Cyprian.  Opera. 


Chap.  I.    SEPARATE  UNITY   OF  LATIN  CHRISTENDOM.       89 

of  the  Church.^  A  solemn  Council  of  eiglity-seven 
bishops,  assembled  at  Carthage  under  Cyprian,  asserted 
the  independent  judgment  of  the  African  Churches, 
repudiated  the  assumption  of  the  title,  Bishop  of 
Bishops,  or  the  arbitrary  dictation  of  one  bishop  to 
Christendom. 

Yet  even  during  this  internal  feud,  Latin  Chris- 
tendom was  gathering  into  a  separate  unity.  The 
Churches  of  Gaul  and  Spain  appeal  at  once  to  Rome 
and  to  Carthage ;  Aries,  indeed,  in  southern  Gaul, 
may  still  have  been  Greek.  But  the  high  character  of 
C3q)rian,  and  the  flourishing  state  of  the  African 
Churches,  combined  with  their  Latinity  to  endow  them 
with  this  concurrent  primacy  in  the  West.  Martia- 
nus,  Bishop  of  Aries,  had  embraced  Novatianism  in  all 
its  rigor.  The  oppressed  anti-Novatian  party  sent  to 
Carthage  as  well  as  to  Rome,  to  entreat  their  aid. 
Cyprian  appears  to  acknowledge  the  superior  right  in 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  to  appoint  a  substitute  for  the  re- 
bellious Novatianist.  He  urges  Pope  Stephen,  by  the 
memory  of  his  martyred  predecessors  Cornelius  and 
Lucius,  not  to  shrink  from  this  act  of  necessary  rigor.^ 
This,  however,  was  but  a  letter  from  one  bishop  to 
another,  from  Cyprian  of  Carthage  to  Stephen  of 
Rome.^  The  answer  to  the  Bishops  of  Spain  is  the 
formal  act  of  a  synod  of  African  Bishops,  assembled 

1  Excidisti  enim  temet  ipsum ;  noli  te  fallere.  Siquidem  ille  est  vere 
echismaticus,  qui  se  a  conimunione  Ecclesiasticae  unitatis  apostatam  fecerit. 
Firm,  ad  Cv^prian.  I  see  no  ground  to  question,  with  some  Roman  Catho- 
lic -writers,  the  authenticity  of  this  letter.  No  doubt  it  is  a  translation  from 
the  Greek ;  if  by  Cyprian  himself,  it  accounts  for  the  sameness  of  style.  A 
Donatist  forgery  would  have  been  in  a  different  tone,  and  directed  against 
different  persons.  Compare  Walch  Ketzer-Geschichte,  ii.  323,  et  seqq. 
Routh,  note  ii.  p.  151. 

2a.d.  256.    Apud  Mausi,  sub  anu.  or  Routh,  Rel.  Sac.  iii.  p.  91. 

S  Cypriani  Epist.  Ixvii. 


90  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  i. 

under  tlie  presidency  of  the  Bisliop  of  Carthage.  It 
is  a  Latin  rehgious  state  paper,  addressed  by  one  part 
of  Latin  Christendom  to  the  rest.^  The  Spanish 
Bishops,  Basihdes  and  MartiaHs,  of  Leon  and  Astorga, 
had,  during  the  Decian  persecution,  denied  the  faith, 
offered  sacrifice,  according  to  the  language  of  the  day, 
I'eturned  to  wallow  in  the  mire  of  paganism.  Yet  they 
had  dared  to  resume,  not  merely  tlieir  privileges  as 
Christians,  but  the  holy  office  of  bishops.  Whatever 
leniency  might  be  shown  to  humbler  penitents,  that  the 
immaculate  priesthood  should  not  be  irrevocably  for- 
feited by  sucli  defilement,  revolted  not  only  the  more 
severe,  but  the  general  sentiment.  Two  other  bishops, 
Felix  and  Sabinus,  were  consecrated  in  their  place. 
Basilides  found  his  way  to  Rome,  and  imposed  by  his 
arts  on  the  unsuspecting  Stephen,  who  commanded  his 
reinstatement  in  his  high  office.  Appeal  was  made  to 
Carthage  against  Home.  Cyprian  would  strengthen 
his  own  autliority  by  that  of  a  synod.  At  the  head  of 
his  thirty-five  bishops,  Cyjorian  approves  the  acts  of  the 
Presbyters  and  people  of  Leon  and  Astorga  in  reject- 
ing such  unworthy  bishops  ;  treats  with  a  kind  of  re- 
spectfiil  coin})assion  the  weakness  of  Stephen  of  Rome, 
who  had  been  so  easily  abused  ;  and  exliorts  the  Span- 
iards to  adhere  to  their  rightful  prelates,  Felix  and 
Sabinus.2 

The  pei'secution  of  Valerian  joined  the  Bislioi)s 
of  Rome  and  of  Carthage,  Slxtus,  the  successor  of 
Stephen,  and  the  famous  Cyprian,  in  the  same  glori- 
ous martyrdom.^ 

1  The  Decrees  of  the  Council  of  Carthage  are  the  earliest  Latiu  publU 
locuments. 

2  Cyprian.  Kpist.  Ixvii. 

8  On  the  martyrdom  of  Cyi>rian,  Hist,  of  Christ,  ii.  251 


Chap.  I.  MAECELLINUS  AND  MARCELLUS.  91 

Dionjsius,  a  Calabrian,  is  again  a  Greek  Bishop  of 
Rome,  minoliiig  with  something  of  congenial  a.d.  259. 
zeal,  and  in  tlie  Greek  language,  in  the  controversies 
of  Greek  Alexandria,  and  condemning  the  errors  of 
the  Bishop  of  the  same  name,  who  had  the  evil  report 
of  having  been  the  predecessor  of  Ai'ius  in  doctrine. 
Dionysius,  of  Alexandria,  however,  a  prelate  of  great 
virtue,  it  should  seem,  was  but  incautiously  betrayed 
into  these  doubtful  expressions  ;  at  all  events,  he  repu- 
diated the  conclusions  drawn  from  his  words.  With 
all  the  more  candid  and  charitable,  he  soon  resumed  his 
fame  for  orthodoxy.  When  the  Emperor  Aurehan^ 
transferred  the  ecclesiastical  judgment  over  a.d.  270. 
Paul  of  Samosata,  a  rebel  against  the  Empire  as  against 
the  Chiu-ch,  from  the  Bishops  of  Syria  to  those  of 
Rome  and  Italy,  a  subtle  Greek  heresy,  maintained  by 
Syrian  Greeks,  could  not  have  been  adjudicated  but  by 
Greeks  or  by  Latins  perfect  masters  of  Greek.  Dio- 
nysius,  as  Bishop  of  Rome,  passed  sentence  in  this 
important  controversy. 

Towards  the  close  of  this  third  century,  tlu-oughout 
the  persecution  of  Diocletian,  darkness  settles  again 
over  the  Bishops  of  Rome.  The  apostacy  of  Marceiiinus 
Marcellinus  is  but  a  late  and  discarded  fable,  ^'°-  ^^^" 
adopted  as  favoring  the  Papal  supremacy.  Legend 
assembles  three  hundred  Bishops  at  Sinuessa,  three 
hundred  Bishops  peaceably  debating  at  such  times  in  a 
small  Neapolitan  town.  This  synod  refused  to  take 
cognizance  of  the  crime  of  St.  Peter's  successor.  Mar- 
celhnus  was  forced  to  degrade  himself. 

The  legend,  that  his   successor,  Marcellus,  was  re- 

1  Compare,  on  the  act  of  Aurelianus,  Hist,  of  Christ,  ii.  p.  257.. 


92  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  L 

duced  to  the  servile  office  of  a  groom,  rests  on  Marcciius, 
no  better   autliority.     Had  it  any  claim  to  ^•"-  ^^• 
truth,  the  successors  of  Marcellus  liad  full  and  ample 
revenge,  wlien  kings  and  emperors  submitted  to  the 
same  menial  service,  and  held  the  stirrup  for  the  Popes 
to  mount  their  horses. 


Chap  II.  CONVERSION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  93 


CHAPTER  11. 

ROTilE  AFTER  THE   CONVERSION  OF    CONSTA^^TINE. 

Thus,  down  to  the  conversion  of  Constantlne,  tlie 
bioorrapliy  of  tlie  Roman  Bishops,  and  the  conversion 
histoiy  of  the  Roman  Episcopate,  are  one  ;  tine. 
the  acts  and  pecnliar  character  of  the  Pontiffs,  the  in- 
fluence and  fortunes  of  the  See,  excepting  in  the  doubt- 
ful and  occasional  gleams  of  lio;ht  which  have  brouo;ht 
out  Victor,  Zephyrinus,  Callistus,  Cornelius,  Stephen, 
into  more  distinct  personality,  are  involved  in  a  dim 
and  vao-ue  twilioht.  On  the  establishment  of  Cliris- 
tianity,  as  the  religion  if  not  of  the  Empire,  of  tlie 
Emperor,  the  Bishop  of  Rome  rises  at  once  to  the  rank 
of  a  great  accredited  functionary  ;  the  Bishops  gi'adu- 
ally,  though  still  slowly,  assume  the  life  of  individual 
character.  The  Bishop  is  the  first  Christian  in  the  first 
city  of  the  world,  and  that  city  is  legally  Christian. 
The  Supreme  Pontificate  of  heathenism  might  still 
lino;er  fi'om  ancient  usasjie  amono;  the  numerous  titles 
of  the  Emperor ;  but  so  long  as  Constantino  was  in 
Rome,  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  the  head  of  the  Emperor's 
religion,  became  in  public  estimation  the  equal,  in  au- 
thority and  influence  immeasurably  the  superior,  to  all 
of  sacerdotal  rank.  The  schisms  and  factions  of 
Christianity  now  become  affairs  of  state.  As  long  as 
Rome  is  the  imperial  residence,  an  appeal  to  the  Em- 
peror  is  an    appeal   to   the   Bishop    of   Rome.     The 


94  LATIN  CIIRISTIANrrY.  Book  I 

Bishop  of  Rome  sits,  l)y  tlie  imperial  antliority,  at  the 
head  of  a  sjmod  of  Itahan  prelates,  to  judge  the  dis- 
putes with  the  African  Donatists. 

Melchiades  held  the  See  of  Rome  at  the  time  of 
Meichiades.  Constautiue's  couversiou,  but  soon  made 
Jan".  3L^^*'  Toom  for  Silvester,  whose  name  is  more  in- 
Siiveyter.  separably  connected  with  tliat  great  event. 
Silvester  has  become  a  kind  of  hero  of  religious  fable. 
But  it  was  not  so  much  the  genuine  mythical  spirit 
which  unconsciously  transmutes  history  into  legend  , 
it  was  rather  deliberate  invention,  with  a  specific  aim 
and  design,  which,  in  direct  defiance  of  history,  accel- 
erated the  baptism  of  Constantino,  and  sanctified  a 
porphyry  vessel  as  appropriated  to,  or  coimected  witli, 
Melchiades,     that    liolv  usc :    aud  at  a   later   period  T)ro- 

Silvostcr.  "^  '  .^ 

A.T>.  3r2-3i4.  duced  the  monstrous  fable  of  the  Donation.^ 

Jan.  31. 

I  This  document  —  the  Imperial  Edict  of  Donation  —  a  forgery  as  clumsy 
as  audacious,  ought  to  be  inspected  by  those  who  would  judge  of  the  igno- 
rance Avliich  could  impose,  or  the  credulity  which  would  receive  it,  as  the 
title-deed  to  enormous  rights  and  possessions.  (IMunvtori  ascribes  the  forg- 
ery of  the  act  to  the  period  betAveen  755  and  766.)  —  Talatium  nostrum 
.  .  .  .  et  urbem  Romam,  et  t()tiusltali?e,et  occideutalium  regioniim  provin- 
cias,  loca,  civitates  ....  pnedicto  beatissimo  patri  nostro  Silvestro  Cathol- 
ico  Papaj  tradentes  ct  cedentes  hujus  et  successoribus,  ejus  Pontilicatus  po- 
testate  ....  divino  nostro  hoc  pragniatico  decreto  administrari  ditrinimus, 
juri  sanctic  Romanorum  ecclesiix?  subjicienda  et  in  eo  permnnsura  exhibe- 
mus.  The  Donation  may  be  found,  prefixed  to  Lanrcntius  Valla's  famous 
refutation.  Read,  too,  the  more  guarded  and  relnctant  surrender  of  Nicho- 
las of  Cusa,  the  feeble  murmur  of  defence  from  Antoninus,  archbishop  of 
Florence,  —  apud  Brown,  Fasciculus,  pp.  124,  161.  Before  the  Reformation, 
the  Donation  had  fallen  the  first  victim  of  awakening  religious  inquiry. 
Dante,  while  he  denounces,  does  not  venture  to  question  the  truth  of  Con- 
Rtantine's  gift.  By  .the  time  of  Ariosto  it  had  become  the  object  of  unre- 
buked  satire,  even  in  Italy.  Astolpho  finds  it  among  the  chimeras  of 
earth  in  the  moon, 

"  or  piizza  fort«. 
Questo  era  il  don  (.''e  poro  ilir  Hce) 
Che  Constantino  al  buon  Silvestro  fece." 

Orl.   Fur.  xxxlv.  80. 


Chap.  II.  OBSCURITY  OF  ROMAN  BISHOPS.  95 

But  tliat  with  which  Constantino  actually  did  invest 
the  Church,  the  right  of  holding  landed  Qrant  of  con- 
property,  and  receiving  it  by  bequest,  was  ^'^"'''"®' 
tar  more  valuable  to  the  Christian  Hierarchy,  and  not 
ieast  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  than  a  premature  and 
prodigal  endowment,  which  would  at  once  have  plunged 
them  in  civil  affairs ;  and,  before  they  had  attained 
their  strength,  made  them  objects  of  jealousy  or  of 
rapacity  to  the  temporal  Sovereign.  Had  it  been 
possible,  a  precipitate  seizure,  or  a  hasty  acceptance 
of  large  territorial  possessions  would  have  been  fatal  to 
the  dominion  of  the  Church.  It  was  the  slow  and 
imperceptible  accumulation  of  wealth,  the  nnmarked 
ascent  to  power  and  sovereignty,  which  enabled  the 
Papacy  to  endure  for  centuries. 

The  obscurity  of  the  Bishops  of  Rome  was  not  m 
this  alone  their  strength.  The  earlier  Pontiffs  (Cle- 
ment is  hardly  an  exception)  were  men,  who  of  them- 
selves commanded  no  great  authority,  and  awoke  no 
jealousy.  Rome  had  no  Origen,  no  Athana-  Roman  Bish- 
sius,  no  Ambrose,  no  Augustine,  no  Jerome.  *''^*  ^^^cure. 
The  power  of  the  Hierarchy  was  established  by  other 
master-minds:  by  the  Carthaginian  Cyprian,  by  the 
Italian  Ambrose,  the  Prelate  of  political  weight  as 
well  as  of  austere  piety,  by  the  eloquent  Chrysostom.^ 
The  names  of  none  of  the  Popes,  down  to  Leo  and 
Gregory  the  Great,  appear  among  the  distinguished 
writers  of  Christendom.^  This  more  cautious  and 
retired  dignity  was  no  less  favorable  to  their  earlier 

1  Chrysostom's  book  on  the  Priesthood  throughout. 

2  Early  Christianity,  it  may  be  observed,  cannot  be  justly  estimated  froin 
its  "writers.  The  Greeks  were  mostly  trained  in  the  schools  of  philosophy 
—  the  Latin  in  the  schools  of  rhetoric;  and  polemic  treatises  could  not  but 
form  a  great  part  of  the  earliest  Christian  literature. 


96  LATIN  CKRISTIANITT.  Book  I. 

power,  than  to  their  later  claim  of  infallibility.  If 
more  stirring  and  ambitious  men,  they  might  have 
betrayed  to  the  civil  power  the  secret  of  their  aspiring 
hopes;  if  they  had  been  vohnninons  writers,  in  the 
more  speculative  times,  before  the  Cin^istian  creed  had 
assumed  its  definite  and  coherent  form,  it  might  have 
been  more  difficult  to  assert  their  unimpeachable  ortho- 
doxy. 

The  removal  of  the  seat  of  empire  to  Constanti- 
Foundatiou     noi^lc  Consummated  the  separation  of  Greek 

of  Coiistan-  ,      t        •         .r^i      •      •        • 

tinopie.  and  Latm  Christianity ;  one  took  the  do- 
minion of  the  East,  the  other  of  the  West.  Greek 
Christianity  has  now  another  centre  in  the  new  capi- 
tal ;  and  the  new  capital  has  entered  into  those  close 
relations  with  the  great  cities  of  the  East,  which  had 
before  belonged  exclusively  to  Rome.  Alexandria  has 
become  the  gi-anary  of  Constantinople  ;  her  Christian- 
ity and  her  commerce,  instead  of  floating  along  the 
Mediterranean  to  Italy,  pours  up  the  jEgean  to  the 
city  on  the  Bosphorus.  The  Synan  capitals,  Antioch, 
Jerusalem,  the  cities  of  Asia  Minor  and  Bithynia, 
Ephesus,  Nicea,  Nicomedia,  own  another  mistress. 
The  tide  of  Greek  trade  has  ebbed  away  from  the 
West,  and  found  a  nearer  mart;  political  and  rehgious 
ambition  and  adventure  crowd  to  the  new  Eastern 
Court.  That  Court  becomes  the  chosen  scene  of 
Christian  controversy ;  the  Emperor  is  the  proselyte  to 
gain  whom  contending  parties  employ  argument,  in- 
fluence, intrigue. 

That  which  was  begun  by  the  foundation  of  Con- 
pivisionof  stantinople,  was  com])leted  by  the  partition 
thoemi.ivc.  ^^  ^1^^  empire  between  the  sons  of  Constan- 
tlne.     There   are  now  two  Roman  worlds,   a   Greek, 


Chap.  II.         APOSTOIJCAL  ANTIQUITV  OF  KOMIC.  97 

and  a  Latin.  In  one  respect,  Rome  lost  in  dignity, 
slie  was  no  longer  the  sole  Metropolis  of  the  empire ; 
the  East  no  longer  treated  her  with  the  deference  of  a 
subject.  On  the  other  hand,  she  w^as  the  uncontested, 
unrivalled  head  of  her  own  hemisphere ;  she  had  no 
rival  in  those  provinces,  which  yet  held  her  allegiance, 
either  as  to  civil  or  religious  supremacy.  The  separa- 
tion of  the  empire  was  not  more  complete  between  the 
sons  of  Constantine  or  Theodosius,  than  between 
Greek  and  Latin  Christianity. 

In  Rome  itself  Latin  Christianity  had  long  been  in 
the  ascendant.     Greek  had  slowly  and  im-  Latin  chns 

■^  tianity  that 

perceptibly  withdraw^n  from  her  services,  her  of  iioiue. 
Scriptures,  her  controversial  writings,  the  spirit  of  her 
Christianity.  It  is  now  in  the  person  of  Athanasius, 
a  stranger  hospitably  welcomed,  not  a  member  at  once 
received  into  her  community.  Great  part  of  the  three 
years,  during  which  Athanasius  resided  in  Rome,  must 
be  devoted  to  learning  Latin,  before  he  can  obtain  his 
full  mastery  over  the  mind  of  the  Roman  Pontiff, 
perhaps  before  he  can  fiilly  initiate  the  Romans  in  the 
subtle  distinctions  of  that  great  controversy.^ 

The  whole  West,  Africa,  Gaul,  in  which  so  soon  as 
the  religion  spread  beyond  the  Greek  settle-  Of  the  West 
ments,  it  found  Latin,  if  not  the  vernacular,  the 
dominant  language  (the  native  Celtic  had  been  driven 
back  into  obscurity),  Spain,  wdiat  remained  of  Britain, 
formed  a  religious  as  well  as  a  ci^al  realm.  In  her 
Apostolical  antiquity,  in  tlie  dignity  therefore  of  her 
Church,  Rome  stood  as  much  alone  and  unapproach- 
able among  the  young  and  undistinguished  cities  of 
the  West,  as  in  her   civil   majesty.     After  Cyprian^ 

1  GiUnon,  c.  xxi.  p.  3G0. 

VOL.   1  7 


98  LATIN  CHTIISTTAXITY.  Book  I 

Carthage,  until  the  days  of  Augustine,  had  sunk  back 
into  her  secondary  rank  :  Africa  had  been  long  rent 
to  pieces  by  the  Donatist  schisms.  Rome,  therefore, 
might  gather  up  her  strength  in  quiet,  before  she 
committed  herself  in  strife  with  any  of  her  more  for- 
midable adversaries ;  and  those  adversaries  were  still 
weakening  each  other  in  the  turmoils  of  unending 
controversy ;  so  as  to  leave  the  almost  undivided 
Unity  of  the  West  an  object  of  admiration  and  envy 
to  the  rest  of  Christendom. 

For  throughout  the  relicrious  and  civil  wars,  which 
Trinitorian  almost  simultaucously  with  the  conversion  of 
controversy.  Q^j^g^j^ntine  distractcd  the  Christian  world, 
the  Bishops  of  Rome  and  the  West  stood  aloof  in 
unimpassioned  equanimity  ;  they  were  drawn  into  the 
Trinitarian  controversy,  rather  than  embarked  in  it  by 
their  own  ardent  zeal.  So  long  as  Greek  Christianity 
predominated  in  Rorne,  so  long  had  the  Church  been 
divided  by  Greek  doctrinal  controversy.  There  the 
earliest  disputes  about  the  divinity  of  the  Saviour  had 
found  ready  audience.  But  Latin  Christianity,  as  it 
grew  to  predominance  in  Rome,  seemed  to  shrink  from 
these  foreign  questions,  or  rather  to  abandon  them  for 
others  more  congenial.  The  Quarto  Deciman  contro- 
versy related  to  the  establishment  of  a  common  law  of 
Christendom,  as  to  the  time  of  keeping  her  great 
Festival.  So  in  Novatianism,  the  readmission  of  apos- 
tates into  the  outward  privileges  of  the  Cluirch,  the 
kindred  dispute  concerning  the  rebaptism  of  heretics, 
were  constitutional  points,  which  related  to  the  eccle- 
siastical ]K)lity.  Donatism  turned  on  the  legitimate 
succession  of  the  African  Bishops, 

The  Trinitarian   controversy  was  an  Eastern  ques- 


es. 

10 


Chap.  n.  ORTHODOXY  OF  THE  WEST.  99 

tion.  It  began  in  Alexandria,  invaded  the  Syrian 
cities,  was  ready,  fi'om  its  foundation,  to  disturb  the 
churches,  and  people  the  streets  of  Constantinople 
with  contending  factions.  Until  taken  up  by  the 
fierce  and  busy  heterodoxy  of  Constantius  when  sole 
Emperor,  it  chiefly  agitated  the  East.  The  Asiatic 
Nicea  was  the  seat  of  the  Council ;  all  but  a  very  few 
of  tlie  three  hundred  and  twenty  Bishops,  wdio  formed 
the  Council,  were  from  Asiatic  or  Egyptian  so 
There  Avere  two  Presbyters  only  to  represent  tl 
Bishop  of  Rome ;  ^  the  Bishop  by  his  absence  hap- 
pily escaped  the  dangerous  precedent,  which  might 
have  been  raised  by  his  appearance  in  any  rank 
inferior  to  the  Presidency.  Besides  these  Presbyters, 
there  were  not  above  seven  or  eight  Western  Prelates. 
Hosius  of  Cordova,  if,  as  some  accounts  state,  he 
presided,  did  so  as  the  favorite  of  the  Emperor ;  if 
it  may  be  so  expressed,  as  the  Court  divine.^ 

During  the  second  period  of  the  Trinitarian  contra 
versy,  when  the  Arian  Emperor  of  the  East,  2nd  period. 
Constantius,  had  made  it  a  question  which  involved 
the  whole  world  in  strife ;  and,  though  it  was  not  the 
cause  of  the  fratricidal  war  between  the  sons  of  Con- 
stantine,  yet  no  doubt  it  aggravated  the  hostility ; 
Rome  alone,  except  for  a  short  time  of  compulsory 

1  T^C  6e  ye  BaniTiEvovoTjc  ToXsug  6  fiev  Trpoiarug  dia  yvpa^  varepet' 
Trpsa^vTepoL  (Vs  avrov  Ttapovrec  rfjv  avrov  ra^iv  enlTjpuaav.  The  expres- 
aion  "  the  rcyal  citv  "  is  significant,  Socrat.  H.  E.,  i.  8.  The  presbyters' 
names  are  reported,  Vitus  and  Vincentius. 

2  Hosius  is  named  by  writers  of  the  fitlh  century  as  the  first  among  the 
bishops  at  Nicea  to  sign  the  decrees.  (Gelas.  Cyzicen.  Act.  Concil.  sub 
ann.  325.)  Theodoret  assigns  a  kind  of  presidency  to  Eustathius  ot 
Antioch.  In  all  the  earlier  accounts  it  is  impossible  to  discern  any  presi- 
dent, certainly  none  when  the  emperor  is  present.  Hosius,  in  later  times, 
was  taken  up  as  the  representative  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  Compare 
Shroeck.  C  K.  v.  p.  335. 


100  LATIN  CTTRTSTIANITY.  Book  I. 

submission,  remained  faithful  to  the  cause  of  Athana- 
sius.  The  great  Athanasius  himself,  a  second  time  an 
exile  from  the  East,^  the  object  of  the  Eastern  Emper- 
or's inveterate  animosity,  had  found  a  hospitable  recep- 
tion at  Rome.  There,  having  acquired  the  knowledge 
of  Latin,  he  laid  the  spells  of  his  master-mind  on  the 
Pope  Julius,  and  received  the  deferential  homage  of 
Latin  Christianity,  which  accepted  the  creed,  which  its 
narrow  and  barren  vocabulary  could  hardly  express  in 
adequate  terms.  Yet  throughout,  the  adhesion  of 
Rome  and  of  the  West  was  a  passive  acquiescence 
in  the  dogmatic  system,  which  had  been  wrought  out 
by  the  profounder  theology  of  the  Eastern  divines, 
rather  than  a  vigorous  and  original  examination  on  her 
part  of  those  mysteries.  The  Latin  Church  was  the 
scholar,  as  well  as  the  loyal  partisan  of  Athanasius. 
New  and  unexpected  power  grew  out  of  this  firmness 
in  the  head  of  Latin  Christianity,  when  so  large  a  })art 
of  Eastern  Christendom  had  fallen  away  into  what 
was  deemed  apostacy.  The  orthodoxy  of  the  West 
stood  out  in  bold  relief  at  the  Council  of  Sardica.''^ 

i  On  his  first  exile  he  had  been  received  by  the  Emperor  Constans  at 
Treves. 

2  Even  those  Latin  writers  (for  Latin  Christianity  could  not  altogether 
be  silent  on  the  controversy)  who  treated  on  the  Trinity,  rather  set  forth 
or  explained  to  tlieir  flocks  the  orthodox  doctrines  determined  in  the  East, 
than  refuted  native  heresies,  or  proposed  their  (nvn  irrefragable  judgment. 
Nor  were  the  more  important  treatises  written  in  the  cajutal,  or  in  the  less 
barbarized  Latin  of  Rome,  but  bj-^  Hilary,  the  Gallic  bishop  of  Poitiers,  in 
the  nide  and  liarsli  Koman  dialect  of  that  province;  ami  Hilar}'-  had  been 
banished  to  the  East,  where  he  had  become  impregnated  with  tiie  spirit,  to 
his  praise  be  it  said,  by  no  means  with  tlie  acrimony  of  the  strife.  At  the 
close  of  the  controversy  a  Latin  creed  eml)odied  the  doctrines  of  Atliana- 
Bius  and  of  the  anti-Nestorian  writers;  but  even  this  was  not  so  much  a 
work  of  controversy,  as  a  final  summary  of  Latin  Christianity,  as  to  the 
ultimate  result  of  the  whole.  It  is  the  creed  commonly  called  that  of  St. 
Athanasius. 


Chap.  II.  COUNCIL  OF  SARDICA.  101 

At  this  Council,  held  under  the  protection,  and 
within  the  reahn  of  the  orthodox  Constans,  the  oc- 
cupation of  all  the  greater  sees  in  the  East  by  Arian 
or  semi- Arian  prelates,  the  secession  of  the  Eastern 
minority  from  the  Council,  left  Latin  Christianity,  as  it 
were,  the  representative  of  Christendom.  It  assmned 
to  itself  the  dignity  and  authority  of  a  General  a.d.  347. 
Council,  and  it  might  seem  that  the  sufirage  of  that 
Council  awed  the  reluctant  Constantius,  and  enforced 
the  restoration  of  Athanasius  to  his  see.  By  some 
happy  fortune,  by  some  policy  prescient  of  future 
advantage,  it  might  be  unwillingness  to  risk  his  dignity 
at  so  great  a  distance  from  his  own  city,  the  trouble  or 
expense  of  long  journeys,  or  more  important  avocations 
at  home,  or  the  uncertainty  that  he  would  be  allowed 
the  place  of  honor,  the  Bishop  of  Rome  (Julius  I.) 
was  absent  from  Sardica  as  from  Nicea.  councilor 
Hosius  of  Cordova  again  presided  in  that  saroica. 
assembly.  Three  Italian  bishops  appended  their  sig 
natures  after  that  of  Hosius,  as  representing  the 
Roman  Pontiff.  Unconsciously  the  representatives 
of  these  times  prepared  the  way  for  the  Legates 
of  future  ages.  Western  Christendom  might  seem 
disposed  to  show  its  gratitude  to  Rome  for  its  pure 
and  consistent  orthodoxy,  by  acknowledging  at  Sar- 
dica a  certain  right  of  appeal  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
irom  Illyricum  and  Macedonia.  These  provinces 
were  still  part  of  the  empire  of  the  West,  and  the 
decree  might  seem  as  if  the  Primacy  of  Rome  was 
to  be  coextensive  wdth  the  Western  Empu'e.  The 
metropolitan  power  of  Latin  Christianity  thus  gath- 
ered two  large  provinces,  mostly  Greek  in  race  and 
in  language,  under  its  jurisdiction.     The  bishops   of 


102  LATIN  CllIlISTlANlTr.  Look  1. 

lllyricui/i  and  Macedonia,  in  seeking  a  temporary 
protector  (no  doubt  their  immediate  object)  from  tlie 
lawless  tyranny  of  their  Eastern  and  heterodox  su- 
periors, foresaw  not  that  they  were  imposing  on  them- 
selves a  master  who  would  never  relax  his  claim  to 
their  implicit  obedience. 

Liberius,  the  successor  of  Julius  I.,  had  to  enduro 
PopeLibe-  the  fiercer  period  of  conflict  with  the  Arian 
862,  May  22.  Jimperor.  (Jonstantuis  was  now  sole  master 
of  the  Roman  world.  From  the  councils  of  Aries  and 
Council  of  of  Milan  had  been  extorted  by  bribes,  by 
A.D.  355.  threats,  and  by  force,  th r3  condemnation  of 
Council  of  Athanasius.  Liberius  had  commenced  his 
A.D  355.  pontificate  with  an  act  of  declared  hostility 
to  Athanasius.  He  had  summoned  the  Prelate  of 
Alexandria  to  Rome :  he  had  declared  him  cut  ofl 
from  the  communion  of  the  West.^  But  if,  from  fear 
of  Constantius,  he  had  rejected  Athanasius,  he  soon 
threw  off  his  timidity :  he  as  suddenly  changed  his 
policy  as  his  opinions.  He  disclaimed  his  feeble  Leg- 
ate, the  Bishop  of  Capua,  who  in  his  name  had 
subscribed  at  Aries  the  sentence  against  the  great 
Trinitarian.  Himself,  at  length,  after  suffering  men 
ace,  persecution,  exile,  was  reduced  so  fir  to  com 
promise  his  principles  as  to  assent  to  that  condem- 
nation. Yet  nothing  could  show  more  strongly  the 
different  ])lace  now  occupied  by  the  Bishop  of  Rome, 
m  the  estimation  of  Rome  and  of  the  world.  Libe- 
rius is  no  mai-tvr,  calmly  laying  down  his  life  for 
Christianity,  inflexibly  refusing  to  sacrifice  on  an 
heathen  altar.  He  is  a  prelate,  rejecting  the  sum- 
mary  connnands    of  an   heretical    sovereign,    treating 

1  Liberii  l'4)islul.  apud  Hilar.  Frai^ni.  v. 


Chap.  II.  PONTIFICATE  OF  LIBERIUS.  103 

his  messages,  his  blandishments,  his  presents,  with 
lofty  disdain.  The  Arian  Emperor  of  the  world 
discerns  the  importance  of  attaching  the  Bishop  of 
Home  to  his  party,  in  his  mortal  strife  with  Athana- 
sius.  His  chief  minister,  the  Eunuch  Eusebius,  ap- 
pears ii  Rome  to  negotiate  the  alliance,  bears  with  him 
rich  pr:5sents,  and  a  letter  from  the  Emperor  J  Libe- 
rius  coldly  answers  that  the  Church  of  Rome  a.d.  356. 
having  solemnly  declared  Athanasius  guiltless,  he 
could  not  condemn  him.  Nothing  less  than  a  Coun- 
cil of  the  Church,  from  which  the  Emperor,  his  offi- 
cers, and  all  the  Arian  prelates  shall  be  excluded,  can 
reverse  the  decree.  Eusebius  threatens,  but  in  vain ; 
he  lays  down  the  Emperor's  gifts  in  the  Church  of 
St.  Peter.  Liberius  orders  the  infected  offerings  to  be 
cast  out  of  the  sanctuary.  He  proceeds  to  utter  a 
solemn  anathema  against  all  Arian  heretics.  Thus 
Roman  liberty  has  found  a  new  champion.  The  Bish- 
op stands  on  what  he  holds  to  be  the  law  of  the 
Church ;  he  is  faithful  to  the  Prelate,  whose  creed 
has  been  recognized  as  exclusive  Christian  truth  by  the 
Senate  of  Christendom.  He  disfranchises  all,  even 
the  Emperor  himself,  from  the  privileges  of  the  Chris- 
tian polity.  Constantius,  in  his  wrath,  orders  the  seiz- 
ure of  his  rebellious  subject ;  but  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
is  no  longer  at  the  head  of  a  feeble  community  ;  he  is 
respected,  beloved  by  the  whole  city.  All  Rome  is  in 
commotion  in  defence  of  the  Christian  prelate.  The 
city  must  be  surrounded,  and  even  then  it  is  thought 
more  prudent  to  apprehend  Liberius  by  night,  and 
to  convey  him  secretly  out  of  the  city.     He  is  sent 

1  Athanas.  Hist.  Arian.  ad  Monach.  p.  764,  et  seqq.    Theodoret,   H.  E 
li.  c.  15  16.    Sozomen,  iv.  c.  11.    Amniian.  Marcell.  xv.  c  7. 


104  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book.  1 

Liberiusat  ^^  ^^^^  Emperoi'  at  Milan.  He  appears  bo 
^*'^'  fore   Constantius,  with  the  aged   Hosius  of 

Cordova,  and  aU  the  more  distinguished  orthodox 
prelates  of  the  west,  Eusebius  of  Vercelli,  Lucifer  of 
Cagliari,  Hilary  of  Poitiers.  He  maintains  the  same 
lofty  tone.  Constantius  declares  that  Athanasius  has 
been  condemned  by  a  Council  of  the  Church;  he 
msists  on  the  treason  of  Athanasius  in  corresponding 
with  the  enemies  of  the  Emperor.  Liberius  is  un- 
shaken :  "  If  he  were  the  only  friend  of  Athanasius, 
he  would  adhere  to  the  righteous  cause."  The  Bishop 
of  Home  is  banished  to  cold  and  inhospitable  Thrace. 
He  scornfully  rejects  offers  of  money,  made  by  the 
Emperor  for  his  expenses  on  the  way.  "  Let  him 
keep  it  to  pay  his  soldiers."  To  the  eunuch  who 
made  the  like  offer,  he  spoke  with  more  bitter  sarcasm. 
"Do  you,  who  have  wasted  all  the  churches  of  the 
world,  presume  to  offer  me  alms  as  a  criminal  ? 
Away,  first  become  a  Christian  !  "^ 

Two  years  of  exile  in  that  barbarous  region,  the 
Faiiof  Libe-  (h'cad  of  worse  tlian  exile,  perhaps  disastrous 
A.D.  357.  news  from  Rome,  at  length  broke  the  spirit 
of  Liberius  ;  he  consented  to  sign  the  semi-Arian 
creed  of  Sirmium,  and  to  renounce  the  communion 
of  Athanasius.^ 

For  the  Emperor  had  attempted  to  strike  a  still 
j-giix  heavier  blow  against  the  rebelHous  exile.     A 

Antipope.  j,|^.^|  yg]j()p^  jis  though  tlic  Scc  Were  vacant, 
bad  usurped  the   throne.     Felix   was   elected,   it  was 

1  Athanas.  Apolog.  Contra  Aiian.  p.  205.  Ad  Monach.  p.  368.  Theod- 
oret,  ii.  c.  16, 17. 

2  Tlie  jealousy  of  Felix,  accordiiii^  to  Raronius  (sub  aim.  357),  was  the 
Dalila  wliich  robbed  tiie  Episcopal  Sauisou  (Libcriius)  of  his  strength  aud 
fortitude. 


Chap.  H.  THE  ANTIPOPE  FELIX.  105 

said,  by  three  eunuclis,  who  presumed  to  represent  tlie 
people  of  Rome,  and  consecrated  by  three  courtly 
prelates,  two  of  them  from  the  East.  But  the  cler^^y 
of  Rome,  and  the  people  with  still  more  determinate 
resolution,  kept  aloof  from  the  empty  churches,  where 
Bishop  Felix,  if  not  himself  an  Arian,  did  not  scruple 
to  communicate  with  Arians.^  The  estrangement 
continued  through  the  two  years  of  the  exile  of  Libe- 
rius ;  the  Pastor  was  without  a  flock.  At  the  close 
of  tliis  period,  the  Emperor  Constantius  a.d.857. 
visited  Rome ;  the  females,  those  especially  of  the 
upper  rank,  (histoiy  now  speaks  as  if  the  whole 
higher  orders  were  Christians,)  had  most  strenuously 
maintained  the  right  of  Liberius,  and  refused  all 
allegiance  to  the  intrusive  Felix.  They  endeavored 
to  persuade  the  Senators,  Consulars,  and  Patricians, 
to  make  a  representation  to  the  Emperor ;  the  timid 
nobles  devolved  the  dangerous  office  on  their  wives. 
The  female  deputation,  in  their  richest  attire,  as  be- 
fitting their  rank,  marched  along  the  admiring  streets, 
and  stood  before  the  Imperial  presence ;  by  their  fear- 

1  Theodoret  (H.  E.  ii.  16)  and  Sozomen  (H.  E.  iv.  15)  plainly  assert  that 
Felix  adhered  to  the  creed  of  Nicea.  Socrates  (H.  E.  ii.  37)  condemns  him 
as  infected  by  the  Arian  heresy.  By  Athanasius  (ad  Monach.,  p.  861)  \e 
is  called  a  monster,  raised  by  the  malice  of  Antichrist,  worthy  of.  and  fit  to 
execute,  the  worst  design  of  his  wicked  partisans.  This  prelate  of  (lues- 
tionable  faith,  this  usurper  of  the  Roman  See,  has  stolen,  it  is  difficult  to 
conjecture  hoAV,  into  the  Roman  Martyrology.  It  seems  clear  that  he  re- 
tired from  Rome,  and  died  a  few  ^-ears  after  in  peace.  Gregory  the  Thir- 
teenth, when  searching  investigations  into  ecclesiastical  history-  became 
necessary,  startled  by  the  perplexing  difficulty  perhaps  of  a  canonized 
Arian,  certainly  of  an  antipope,  with  the  honors  of  a  martyr,  ordered  a 
regular  inquiry  into  the  claims  of  Felix.  (Baron.  Ann.  sub  ann.  357.) 
The  case  looked  desperate  for  the  nr.emory  of  Felix:  he  was  in  danger 
of  degradation,  when,  by  a  seasonable  miracle,  his  body  was  discovered 
vith  an  ancient  inscription,  "  Pope  and  Martyr."  Baronius  wrote  a  book 
ibout  it,  which  was  never  published. 


106  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I. 

less  pertinacity  they  obtained  a  promise  for  the  release 
of  Liberius.  Even  then  Constantius  was  but  imper- 
fectly informed  concerning  the  strength  of  the  factions 
which  himself  having  exasperated  to  the  utmost,  he 
now  vainly  attempted  to  reconcile.  His  Edict  de- 
clared that  the  two  Bishops  should  rule  with  conjoint 
authority,  each  over  his  respective  community.  Such 
an  edict  of  toleration  was  premature  by  nearly  four- 
teen centuries  or  more.  In  that  place,  the  uncongenial 
atmosphere  of  which  we  should  hardly  have  expected 
Christian  passions  to  have  penetrated,  the  Circus  of 
Home,  the  Edict  was  publicly  read.  "  What !  "  ex- 
claimed the  scoffing  spectators,  "  because  we  have  two 
factions  here,  distinguished  by  their  colors,  are  we  to 
have  two  factions  in  the  Church  ? "  The  whole 
audience  broke  forth  in  an  overwhelming  shout,  "  One 
God !  one  Christ !   one  Bishop  !  " 

Liberius  returned,  in  the  course  of  the  next  year,  to 
Liberius  in  Romc.  His  entrance  was  an  ovation  ;  the 
A.D.  368,        people  thronged  forth,  as  of  old  to  meet  some 

^"  '  triumphant  Consul  or  Cicero  on  his  return 
from  exile.  The  rival  bishop,  Felix,  fled  before  his 
face ;  ^  but  Felix  and  his  party  would  not  altogether 
abandon  the  coequal  dignity  assigned  him  b}^  the  de- 
cree of  Constantius,  and  confirmed  by  the  Council  of 
Sirmium.  He  returned  ;  and,  at  the  head  of  a  body 
of  faithful  ecclesiastics,  celebrated  divine  worship  in 
the  basilica  of  Julius,  beyond  the  Tiber.  He  was  ex- 
])elled,  patricians  and  populace  uniting  against  this,  one 
of  the  earliest  Antipopes  who   resisted  armed  force.^ 

1  Hieron.  Chron.  Marc,  et  Faust,  p.  4. 

2  This  curious  j)assa/^e  in  the  Pontifical  Annals  (apud  Muratori  iii.  oub 
Ru.)  is  evidently  I'rom  the  party  of  Felix;  —  it  asserts  his  Catholicity 


CiiAi'.  11.  TPIE  ANTIPOPE  FELIX.  107 

A  tradition  has  survived  in  the  Pontifical  Annals,  of  a 
proscription,  a  massacre.^  The  streets,  the  baths,  the 
churches  ran  with  blood,  —  the  streets,  where  the  par- 
tisans of  rival  bishops  encountered  in  arms  ;  the  baths, 
where  Arian  and  Catholic  could  not  wash  together 
without  mutual  contamination ;  the  churches,  where 
they  could  not  join  in  common  worship  to  the  same 
Redeemer.  Felix  himself  escaped,  and  lived  some 
years  in  peace,  on  an  estate  near  the  road  to  Portus.^ 
Liberius,  Rome  itself,  sinks  back  into  obscurity ;  the 
Pope  mingled  not,  as  far  as  is  known,  in  the  fray, 
which  had  now  involved  the  West  as  well  as  the  East, 
Latin  as  well  as  Greek  Christianity  ;  he  was  absent 
from  the  fatal  Council  of  Rimini,^  which  de-  a.d.  359. 
luded  the  world  into  unsuspected  Arianism.* 

The  Emperor  Julian,  during  his  short  and  eventful 
reign,  might  seem  to  have  forgotten  that  there  a.d.  361-363. 
was  such  a  city  as  Rome.  Paris,  Athens,  Constanti- 
nople, Antioch,  Jenisalem,  perhaps  Alexandria,  might 
seem  to  be  the  only  Imperial  cities  worthy  of  j^^.^^ 
his  regard.  It  was  a  Greek  religion  which  Emperor. 
he  aspu'ed  to  restore  ;  liis  philosophy  was  Greek  ;  his 
writings  Greek  ;  he  taught,  niled,  worshipped,  perished 
in  the  East.^  Under  his  successors  (after  Jovian), 
Valentinian,   and  Valens,  while  Valens   af-  vaientinian. 

'  '  Sept.  23  or 

flicted  the  East  by  his  feeble  and  frantic  zeal  24, 366. 

1  Gibbon  (who  for  once  does  not  quote  his  special  authority,  neverthe- 
less accepts  it),  c.  xxi.  v.  iii.  p.  385.  It  is  rejected  by  Bower  (v.  i.  p.  141/ 
and  by  Walch,  "  Lives  of  Popes,"  in  be. 

2  He  died  the  year  before  Liberius,  365. 
8  Hist,  of  Christ,  iii.  p.  46. 

4  Liberius  had  already  subscribed,  during  his  banishment,  the  creed  ot 
Simaium.  Constantius  and  liis  semi-Arian  or  Arian  counsellors  may  hav< 
been  content  with  that  act  of  submission,  which  had  not  been  formally  re- 
roked. 

*  On  Julian.  Hist,  of  Christ,  vol.  iii.  c.  vi. 


108  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  L 

for  Aiianism,  Valeiitlnlan  maintained  tlie  repose  of  tlie 
West  by  his  rigid  and  impartial  toleration.^ 

On  tlie  death  of  Liberius,  the  factions,  which  had 
smouldered  in  secret,  broke  out  again  with  fatal  fury. 
The  Pontificate  of  Damasus  displays  Christianity  now 
strife  on  the   not  merclv  the  dominant,  it  mipht  almost  seem 

death  of  '  o 

Liberius.  the  sole  religion  of  Rome  ;  and  the  Roman 
character  is  working  as  visibly  into  Christianity.  The 
election  to  the  Christian  bishopric  arrays  the  people  in 
adverse  factions  ;  the  government  is  appalled  ;  chm*ches 
become  citadels,  are  obstinately  defended,  furiously 
stormed  ;  tliey  are  defiled  with  blood.  Men  fall  in 
murderous  warfiire  before  the  altar  of  the  Prince  of 
Peace.  In  one  sense  it  might  seem  the  reanimation 
of  Rome  to  new  life  ;  ancient  Rome  is  resuming  her 
wonted  but  long-lost  liberties.  The  iron  hand  of  des- 
potism, fi'om  the  time  of  the  last  Triumvirate,  or  rather 
from  the  accession  of  Augustus  to  the  Empire,  had 
compressed  the  unruly  populace,  which  only  occasion- 
ally dared  to  break  out,  on  a  change  in  the  Imperial 
dynasty,  to  oppose,  or  be  the  victims  of,  the  Prietorian 
soldiery.  Now,  however,  the  Roman  populace  appears 
quickened  by  a  new  principle  of  fi-eedom  ;  of  freedom, 
if  with  some  of  its  bold  independence,  with  all  its  blind 
partisanship,  its  headstrong  and  stubborn  ferocity.  The 
great  offices,  which  still  perpetuated  in  name  the  an- 
cient Re])ublic,  the  Senatorship,  QuiBstorship,  Consul- 
ate, are  quietly  transmitted  according  to  the  Imperial 
mandates,  excite  no  popi;lar  commotion,  nor  even  in- 
terest ;  for  they  are  honorary  titles,  which  confer 
neither  influence,  nor  authority,  nor  wealth.  Even 
the  Prefecture  of  the  city  is  accepted  at  the  will  of  the 

1  Compare  Hist,  of  Christ,  iii.  p.  111. 


Chap.  II.    CONTESTS  FOR  THE  BISHOPRIC  OF  ROME.       109 

Emperor,  who  rarely  condescends  to  visit  Rome.  But 
the  election  to  the  bishopric  is  now  not  merely  an  affair 
of  importance  —  the  affair  of  paramount  importance  it 
might  seem  —  in  Rome;  it  is  an  event  in  the  annals 
of  the  world.  The  heathen  historian,^  on  whose  notice 
liad  already  been  forced  the  Athanasian  controversy^ 
Athanasius  himself,  and  the  acts  and  the  exile  of  Libe- 
rius,  assigns  the  same  place  to  the  contested  promotion 
of  Damasus  which  Livy  might  to  that  of  one  of  the 
great  consuls,  tribunes,  or  dictators.  He  interprets,  as 
well  as  relates,  the  event :  ^  —  "  No  wonder  that  for  so 
magnificent  a  prize  as  the  Bishopric  of  Rome,  men 
should  contest  with  the  utmost  eagerness  and  obstinacy. 
To  be  enriched  by  the  lavish  donations  of  the  princi- 
pal females  of  the  city  ;  to  ride,  splendidly  attired,  in 
a  stately  chariot  ;  to  sit  at  a  profiise,  luxuriant,  more 
than  imperial,  table  —  these  are  the  rewards  of  success- 
ful ambition."  2  The  honest  historian  contrasts  this 
pomp  and  luxury  with  the  abstemiousness,  the  humility, 
the  exemplary  gentleness  of  the  provincial  prelates. 
Ammianus,  ignorant  or  regardless  as  to  the  legitimacy 
of  either  election,  arraigns  both  Damasus  and  his  rival 
Ursicinus*  as   equally  guilty  authors   of  the  tumult. 

1 1  assume,  without  hesitation,  the  heathenism  of  Ammianus,  though, 
with  regard  to  him,  as  to  other  writers  of  the  time,  there  is  as  much  truth 
as  sagacity  in  tlie  obsei-vation  of  Heyne  —  Est  obvia  res  in  lectione  scripto- 
rum  istius  temporis,  prudentiorum  plerosque  nee  patrias  religiones  abjecisse, 
nee  novas  damnasse,  sed  in  his  quoque  pro  suorum  ingeniorum  facultate 
probanda  probasse.     Heynii  Prolus.  in  Wagner's  edit.  p.  cxxxv. 

2  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  xxvii.  3,  sub  ann.  3(37. 

8  Compare  —  it  is  amusing  and  instructive  —  the  Cardinal  Baronius  writ- 
ing in  the  splendid  Papal  court,  and  the  severe  Jansenist  Tillemont,  on  this 
passage. 

4  On  the  side  of  Ursicinus  (Ursinus)  is  the  remarkable  document  pub- 
lished by  Sirmond  (Opera,  i.  p.  127),  the  petition  of  Marcellinus  and  Faus- 
tinus  to  the  Emperor  Theodosius,  who,  in  his  answer,  though  they  were 


110  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Bock  1 

Of  the  Christian  writers  (and  there  are,  singularly 
enough,  contemporary  witnesses,  probably  eye-witness- 
es, on  each  side),  the  one  asserts  the  priority  and 
legality  of  election  in  favor  of  Damasus,  the  other  of 
Ursicinus  ;  the  one  aggravates,  the  other  extenuates 
the  violence  and  slaughter.  But  that  scenes  occurred 
of  frightful  atrocity  is  beyond  all  doubt.  So  long  and 
obstinate  was  the  conflict,  that  Juventius,  the  Praefect 
of  the  city,  finding  his  authority  contemned,  his  forces 

afterwards  Luciferians  (an  unpopular  sect),  testifies  to  their  character  by  hi« 
gracious  promises  of  protection.  According  to  the  Preface  (is  it  quite  cer- 
tain that  the  Preface  is  of  the  same  date?)  to  this  Libellus  Precum,  Dama- 
sus was  supported  by  the  party  of  Felix;  he  was  the  successor  of  Felix,  the 
reputed  Arian,  Ursicinus  of  Liberius.*  The  Presbyters,  Deacons,  and 
faithful  people,  who  had  adhered  to  Liberius  in  his  exile,  met  in  the  Julian 
Basilica,  and  duly  elected  Ursicinus;  who  was  consecrated  by  Paul,  bishop 
of  Tibur.  Damasus  was  proclaimed  by  the  followers  of  Felix,  in  S.  M. 
Lucina.  Damasus  collected  a  mob  of  charioteers  and  a  wild  rabble,  broke 
into  the  Julian  Basilica,  and  committed  gi-eat  slaughter.  Seven  days  after, 
having  bribed  a  great  body  of  ecclesiastics  and  the  populace,  and  seized  the 
Lateran  Church,  he  was  elected  and  consecrated  bishop.  Ursicinus  was  ex- 
pelled from  Rome.  Damasus,  however,  continued  his  acts  of  violence. 
Seven  Presbyters  of  the  other  party  were  hurried  prisoners  to  the  Lateran: 
their  faction  rose,  rescued  them,  and  carried  them  to  the  Basilica  of  Liberius 
(S.  Maria  INIaggiore).  Damasus,  at  the  head  of  a  gang  of  gladiators,  char- 
ioteers, and  laborers,  with  axes,  swords,  and  clubs,  stormed  the  church:  a 
hundred  and  sixty  of  both  sexes  were  barbarously  killed;  not  one  on  the 
Bide  of  Damasus.  The  party  of  Ursicinus  were  obliged  to  withdraw,  vainly 
petitioning  for  a  synod  of  bishops  to  examine  into  the  validity  of  the  two 
elections.  Ursicirms  returned  from  exile  more  than  once,  but  Damasus  had 
the  ladies  of  Rome  in  his  favor;  and  the  council  of  Valentinian  was  not 
inaccessible  to  bribes.  New  scenes  of  blood  took  place.  Ursicinus  was 
compelled  at  length  to  give  up  the  contest. 

On  the  other  hand  Damasus  had  on  his  side  the  great  vindicator  —  suc- 
cess. Rutinus,  and  Jerome  (then  at  Rome,  afterwards  the  secretary  of  Da- 
masus) assert,  witli  the  same  minuteness  and  particularity,  the  priority  and 
the  lawfulness  of  his  election:  they  treat  Ursicinus  as  a  schismatic:  but 
they  cannot  deny,  however  they  may  mitigate,  the  acts  of  violence  and 
bloodshed. 

*  Damasus,  from  other  authority,  is  said  to  have  sworn  as  Proshyter  to  own  no 
bishop  but  Liberius,  to  liavo  accompanied  him  in  exile,  but  speedily  deserted  him, 
returned  to  Rome,  and  at  laxt  submitted  to  Felix. 


LHAP.  n.  DAMASUS  AND  URSICINUS.  Ill 

unequal  to  keep  the  peace,  retired  into  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Rome.  Churches  were  garrisoned,  churches 
besieged,  churches  stormed  and  deluged  with  blood. 
In  one  day,  relates  Ammianus,  above  one  hundred  and 
thirty  dead  bodies  were  counted  in  the  basilica  of  Sisin- 
nius.  The  triumph  of  Damasus  cannot  relieve  his 
memory  from  the  sanction,  the  excitement  of,  hardly 
from  active  participation  in,  these  deeds  of  blood.^ 
Nor  did  the  contention  cease  with  the  first  discomfiture 
and  banishment  of  Ursicinus :  he  was  more  than  once 
recalled,  exiled,  again  set  up  as  rival  bishop,  and  re- 
exiled.  Another  frightftil  massacre  took  place  in  the 
church  of  St.  Agnes.  The  Emperor  was  forced  to 
have  recom'se  to  the  character  and  firmness  of  the  fa- 
mous heathen  Praetextatus,  as  successor  to  Juventius 
in  the  government  of  Rome,  in  order  to  put  down  with 
impartial  severity  these  disastrous  tumults.  Some  years 
elapsed  before  Damasus  was  in  undisputed  possession 
of  his  see. 

The  strife  between  Damasus  and  Ursicinus  was  a 
prolongation  or  rival  of  that  between  Liberius  Damasua 
and  Felix,  and  so  may  have  remotely  grown  ^°'^^ 
out  of  the  doctrinal  conflict  of  Arianism  and  Trinita- 
rianism.2  No  doubt  too  it  was  a  conflict  of  personal 
ambition,  for  the  high  prize  of  the  Roman  Episcopate. 
But  there  was  another  powerful  element  of  discord 
among;  the  Christians  of  Rome.    The  heathen  historian 

1  Baroniixs  ingeniously  discovered  a  certain  Maximus,  a  man  of  notorioua 
cruelty,  who  afterwards  held  a  high  office,  and  might,  perhaps,  have  been 
accessory  to  the  late  scenes  of  tumult;  and  so  quietly  exculpates  Damasus, 
by  laying  all  the  carnage  upon  Maximus,  who  was  not  in  authority,  possi- 
bly not  in  Rome  at  the  commencement  of  the  strife. 

2  Jerome,  Epist.  xv.  t.  i.  p.  39,  asserts  the  orthodoxy  of  Damasus,  the 
Arianisui  of  Ursicinus:  but  Jerome  is  hardly  conclusive  authority  against 
the  eueiuy  of  Damasus. 


112  LATIN  CHRISTIAN riY.  ?ook  I. 

saw  and  described  the  outward  ai^pocr  ,.,,  »,  the 
tumults  which  disturbed  the  peace  of  tl    ci^^  con- 

flagrations, the  massacres,  the  assRulted  air  3nded 

churches,  the  two  masses  of  believirs  stiivmg  :  arms 
for  the  mastery.  So  too  he  saw  the  more  net  "rious 
habits,  the  public  demeanor  of  the  bishoj>s  anrl  .f  the 
clergy,  their  pomp,  wealth,  ceremony.  The  letters  of 
Jerome,  while  they  confirm  the  statements  of  Ammia- 
nus,  reveal  the  internal  state,  the  more  secret  workings, 
in  this  new  condition  of  society.  Athanasius  had  not 
merely  brought  with  him  into  the  West  the  more  spec- 
ulative controversies  which  distracted  Greek  Christian- 
ity, he  had  also  introduced  the  principles  and  spirit  of 
Monasticism  Eastcm  Monasticism :  and  this  too  had  been 
In  Rome.  embraced  with  all  tlie  strength  and  intensity 
of  the  Roman  character.  That  which  durine;  the 
whole  of  tlie  Roman  history  had  given  a  majesty,  a 
commanding  grandeur  to  the  virtues  and  to  the  vices 
of  the  Romans,  to  their  patrician  pride  and  plebeian 
liberty,  to  tlieir  frugahty  and  rapacity,  to  their  courage, 
discipline,  and  respect  for  order  ;  to  their  prodigality, 
luxury,  sensuality ;  to  their  despotism  and  their  ser- 
vility ;  now  seemed  to  survive  in  the  force  and  devo- 
tion with  whicli  they  threw  themselves  into  Christian- 
ity, and  into  Christianity  in  its  most  extreme,  if  it  may 
be  so  said,  excessive  foiTn.  On  the  one  hand  the 
Bishop  and  the  clergy  are  already  aspiring  to  a  sacer- 
dotal power  and  preeminence  hardly  attained,  hardly 
aimed  at,  in  any  other  part  of  Christendom  ;  the  Pon- 
tiff cannot  rest  below  a  mao-nificence  wliicli  would 
contrast  as  strongly  with  the  life  of  the  pi'imitive 
Bishop,  as  that  of  Lucidlus  with  that  of  Fabricius. 
The  prodigality  of  the  offerings  to  the  Church  and  tc 


Chap.  II.  LAW  AGAINST  HErwP:DIPETY.  113 

the  clergy,  those  more  especially  by  bequest,  is  so  im- 
moderate, that  a  law  ^  is  necessary  to  restrain  -^^^  against 
the  profuseness  on  one  hand,  the  avidity  on  ^^^^^P^'y 
the  other,  a  law  wliich  the  statesman  Ambrose  ^  and 
the  Monk  Jerome  approve,  as  demanded  by  the  abuses 
of  the  times.  "  Priests  of  idols,  mimes,  charioteers, 
harlots  may  receive  bequests ;  it  is  interdicted,  and 
wisely  interdicted,  only  to  ecclesiastics  and  monks." 
The  Church  may  already  seem  to  have  taken  the  place 
of  the  emperor  as  miiversal  legatee.  As  men  before 
bought  by  this  posthumous  adulation  the  favor  of 
Caesar,  so  would  they  now  that  of  God.  Heredipety, 
or  legacy  hunting,  is  inveighed  against,  in  the  clergy 
especially,  as  by  the  older  Satirists.  Jerome  in  his 
epistles  is  the  Juvenal  of  his  times,  without  his  gross- 
ness  indeed,  for  Christianity  no  doubt  had  greatly 
raised  the  standard  of  morals.  The  heathen,  as  repre- 
sented by  such  men  as  Prsetextat'^s  (they  now  seem  to 
have  retired  into  a  separate  comniunity,  and  stood  in 
relation  to  the  general  society,  as  the  Christians  had 
stood  to  the  heathen  under  Vespasian  or  the  Anto- 
nines),  had  partaken  in  the  moral  advancement.  But 
with  this  great  exception,  this  repulsive  license,  Jerome, 
both  in  the  vehemence  of  his  denunciations,  and  in 
his  description  of  the  vices,  manners,  habits  of  Rome, 
might  seem  to  be  writing  of  pre-Christian  times.^ 

iThe  law  of  Valentinian  (a.d.  370),  addressed  to  Damasus,  bishop  of 
Rome,  and  ordered  to  be  read  in  all  the  churches  of  the  city.  Cod. 
Theodos.  xiv.  2,  20. 

2  Ambros.  Epist.  xxii.  1.  5,  p.  200.  Hieronyin.  Epist.  ii.  p.  13.  Solis 
clericis  et  monachis  hac  lege  prohibetur,  et  prohibetur  non  a  persecutoribus, 
sed  a  principibus  Christianis.  Nee  de  lege  conqueror,  sed  doleo  cur  meru- 
erimus  banc  legem.    Hieronym.  ad  Nepotian. 

3  Prudentius,  with  poetic  anachronism,  throws  back  the  jealousy  of  the 
heathens  of  the  enormous  Avcalth  offered  on  the  altars  of  the  Christians,  and 


114  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  1, 

But  the  Roman  character  did  not  interwork  into  the 
general  Christianity  alone,  it  embraced  monastic  Chris- 
tianity, in  all  its  extremest  rigor,  its  sternest  asceticism, 
with  the  same  ardor  and  energy.  Christian  Stoicism 
could  not  but  find  its  Catos ;  but  it  was  principally 
among  the  females  that  the  recoil  seemed  to  take  place 
from  the  utter  shamelessness,  the  unspeakable  profli- 
gacy of  the  Imperial  times,  to  a  severity  of  chastity,  to 
a  fanatic  appreciation  of  virginity  as  an  angelic  state, 
as  a  kind  of  religious  aristocratical  distinction,  far 
above  the  regular  virtues  of  the  wife  or  the  matron. 
Pope  Damasus,  though  by  no  means  indifferent  to  the 
splendor  of  his  office,  was  the  patron,  as  his  secretary 
Jerome  was  the  preacher,  of  this  powerful  party ;  and 
between  this  party  and  the  priesthood  of  Rome  there 
was  already  that  hostility  which  has  so  constantly  pre- 
vailed between  the  Regulars,  the  observants  of  monas- 
tic rule,  and  what  were  called  in  later  times  the  secular 
clergy.  The  Monastics  inveighed  against  the  worldly 
riches,  pomp,  and  luxury  of  the  clergy ;  the  clergy 
looked  with  undisguised  jealousy  on  the  growing,  irre- 
sistible influence  of  the  monks,  especially  over  the 
high-born    females.^     Jerome  hated,    and   was    hated 

the  alienation  of  estates  from  their  right  heirs,  into  the  third  century.  The 
Prefect  of  Rome  reproaches  the  Deacon  Laurentius,  hefore  his  martyrdom 
(about  258),  with  the  silver  cups  and  golden  candlesticks  of  the  service:  — 

"  Turn  summa  cura  est  fratribus  —  Ut  sermo  testatur  loquax, 
Offerre,  fundis  venditis  —  Sestertiorum  millia. 
Addicta  avorum  prsedia  —  Foedis  sub  auctionibus, 
Successor  exhscres  pemit  —  Sanctis  egens  parentibus. 
H8ec  occuluntur  abdltis  —  Ecclcsiarum  in  anpulis. 
Bt  summa  pietas  creditur — Nudare  dulces  liberos." 

Ftristeph.  Hymn  11. 

Compare  Paolo  Sarpi  delle  Materie  Bcneficiarie,  c.  vi.  v.  iv.  p.  74. 

1  Jerome  spared  neither  the  clergy  nor  the  monks.     On  the  clergy,  see 
the  passage  (ad  Kustochium):  Sunt  alii,  de  hominibus  loquor,  mei  ordinia. 


Chap.  II.    CONTEST   BETWEEN  RFONKS   AND   CLERGY.       Ho 

with  the  most  cordial  reciprocity.  The  austere  Jerome 
was  accused,  unjustly  no  doiibt,  of  more  than  spiritual 
intimacy  with  his  distinguished  converts ;  his  enemies 
brought  a  charge  of  adultery  against  Pope  Damasus 
himself.^ 

Nor  was  this  a  question  merely  between  the  superior 
clergy  and  a  man  in  the  high  and  invidious  position  of 
Jerome,  renowned  for  his  boundless  learning,  and  hold 
ing  the  eminent  office  of  secretary  under  Pope  Dama- 
sus. It  was  a  dispute  which  agitated  the  people  of 
Rome.  Among  the  female  proselytes  who  crowded  to 
the  teaching  of  Jerome,  and  became  his  most  fervent 
votaries,  were  some  of  the  most  illustrious  matrons, 
widows,  and  virgins.  Marcella  had  already,  when 
Athanasius  was  at  Rome,  become  enamoured  of  the 
hard  and  recluse  life  of  the  female  Egyptian  anchor- 
ites. But  she  was  for  some  time  alone.  The  satiric 
Romans  laughed  to  scorn  this  new  and  superstitious 
Christianity.  A  layman,  Helvidius,  wrote  a  book 
against  it,  a  book  of  some  popularity,  which  Jerome 
answered  with  his  usual  controversial  fury  and  con- 

qui  ideo  presbyteratum  et  diaconatum  ambiunt  ut  mulicros  licentius  vide- 
antur.  Then  follows  the  description  of  a  clerical  coxcomb.  His  Avhole 
care  is  in  his  dress,  that  it  be  well  perfumed;  that  his  feet  may  not  slip 
about  in  a  loose  sandal;  his  hair  is  crisped  with  a  curling-pin;  his  fingera 
glitter  with  rings ;  he  walks  on  tiptoe  lest  he  should  splash  himself  with  the 
wet  soil ;  when  you  see  him,  you  would  think  him  a  bridegroom  rather 
than  an  ecclesiastic.  Jerome  ends  the  passage.  Et  isti  sunt  sacerdotes 
Baal.  Then  on  the  monks  (ad  Nepot.):  Nonnulli  sunt  ditiores  monachi, 
quam  fiierant  saeculares  et  clerici,  qui  possident  opes  sub  Christo  paupere, 
quas  sub  locuplete  et  fallaci  Diabolo  non  habuerant,  et  seqq.  Compare, 
throughout,  the  account  of  Jerome,  in  the  Hist,  of  Christianity,  vol.  iii.  p. 
323,  et  seqq. 

1  Quem  in  tantum  matronte  diligebant,  ut  matronarum  auriscalpius  di- 
ceretur.  So  says  the  preface  to  the  hostile  petition,  the  Libellus  Precum. 
Apud  Sirmond.  i.  p.  136.  The  charge  of  adultery  is  in  Anastasius  Vit. 
Damasi. 


116  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  u 

temptuousness.  Marcella  was  a  widow  of  one  of  tlie 
oldest  patrician  liouses,  connected  with  all  the  consular 
families  and  with  the  prefect  of  the  city.  She  was 
extremely  rich.  She  became  the  most  ardent  of 
Jerome's  hearers  ;  her  example  spread  with  irresistible 
contagion.  The  sister  of  Marcella,  Paula,  with  her 
two  daughters,  Blesilla  and  Eustochium,^  threw  them- 
selves passionately  into  the  same  devotion.  Paula, 
like  her  sister,  was  very  wealthy  ;  she  possessed  great 
part  of  Nicopolis,  the  city  founded  by  Augustus  to 
commemorate  the  battle  of  Actium.  Blesilla,  her 
younger  daughter,  was  a  widow  at  the  age  of  twenty. 
She  rejected  the  importunate  persuasions  of  her  friends 
to  contaminate  herself  with  a  second  marriage.  She 
abandoned  herself  entirely  to  the  spiritual  direction  of 
Jerome ;  her  tender  frame  sank  under  the  cruel  pen- 
ances and  macerations  wliich  he  enjoined.  The  death  of 
the  young  and  beautiful  widow  was  attributed  to  these 
austerities.  All  Rome  took  an  indignant  interest  in 
her  fate ;  her  mother,  for  her  unnatural  weakness, 
became  an  object  of  general  reprobf^tion,  and  the 
public  voice  loudly  denounced  Jerome  as  guilty  of  her 
death.  A  tumult  broke  out  at  the  funeral ;  there  was 
a  loud  cry,  —  "Why  do  we  tolerate  these  accursed 
monks  ?  Away  with  them,  stone  them,  cast  them 
into  the  Tiber  I  " 

The  pontificate  of  Damasus,  with  those  of  his  two 
immediate  successors,  Siricius  and  Anastasius,  is  an 
epoch  in  the  history  of  Latin  Christianity,  distinguished 

1  Among  the  other  names  of  Jerome's  female  admirers,  one  sounds  He- 
brew,—  Lea;  some  Greek, — Eustochium,  INlehinium;  besides  these  are 
Principia,  Felicitas,  Feliciana,  Marcellina,  Asella.  On  Asella  and  the  whole 
subject,  see  Hist,  of  Christianity,  iii.  p.  328,  et  seqq.  Compare  also  a  later 
work  Gfrorer,  Kirchen-Geschichte,  ii.  p.  631,  et  stqt/. 


Chap.  H.  EXTENSION  OF  MONACHISM.  117 

by  the  commencement  of  three  great  changes:--!. 
The  progress  towards  sovereignty,  at  least  over  the 
Western  Church :  tlie  steps  thus  made  in  advance  will 
.find  their  place  in  the  general  view  of  the  Papal  power 
on  the  accession  of  Innocent  I.  II.  The  rapidly  in- 
creasing power  of  monasticism.  III.  The  promulga- 
tion of  a  Latin  version  of  the  Scriptures,  which  be- 
came the  religious  code  of  the  West,  was  received  as 
of  equal  authority  Avith  the  original  Greek  or  Hebrew, 
and  thus  made  the  Western  independent  of  the  Eastern 
churches,  superseded  the  original  Scriptures  for  centu- 
ries in  the  greatest  part  of  Christendom,  operated  pow- 
erfully on  the  gi'owth  of  Latin  Christian  literature, 
contributed  to  establish  Latin  as  the  lano-uao-e  of  the 
Church,  and  still  tends  to  maintain  the  unity  with 
Rome  of  all  nations  whose  languages  have  been  chiefly 
formed  from  the  Latin. 

Of  both  these  events,  the  extension  of  monasticism, 
and  the  promulgation  of  the  Vulgate  Bible,  Jerome 
was  the  author  ;  of  the  former  principally,  of  the  latter 
exclusively.  This  was  his  great  and  indefeasible  title 
to  the  appellation  of  a  Father  of  the  Latin  Church. 
Whatever  it  may  owe  to  the  older  and  fragmentary 
versions  of  the  sacred  writings,  Jerome's  Bible  is  a 
wonderful  work,  still  more  as  achieved  by  one  man, 
and  that  a  Western  Christian,  even  Avith  all  the  advan- 
tage of  study  and  of  residence  in  the  East.  It  almost 
created  a  new  lano-uao-e.  The  inflexible  Latin  became 
pliant  and  expansive,  naturalizing  foreign  Eastern  im- 
agery, Eastern  modes  of  expression  and  of  thought, 
and  Eastern  religious  notions,  most  uncongenial  to  its 
own  genius  and  character  ;  and  yet  retaining  much  of 
*ts  own  pecuHar  strength,  solidity,  and  majesty.     If  the 


118  LATIN  CHRI3TlANI?r.  Book  I 

Nortliern,  tlie  Teutonic  languages,  coalesce  with  greater 
facility  with  the  Orientalism  of  the  Scriptures,  it  is  the 
triumph  of  Jerome  to  have  brought  the  more  dissonant 
Latin  into  harmony  with  the  Eastern  tongues.  The 
Vulgate  was  even  more,  perhaps,  than  the  Papal  power 
the  foundation  of  Latin  Christianity. 

Jerome  cherished  the  secret  hope,  if  it  was  not  the 
avowed  object  of  his  ambition,  to  succeed  Damasus  as 
the  Bishop  of  Rome.  He  was  designated,  he  says, 
almost  by  unanimous  consent  for  that  dignity.^  Is  the 
rejection  of  an  aspirant  so  singularly  unfit  for  the  sta- 
tion, from  his  violent  passions,  his  insolent  treatment 
of  his  adversaries,  his  utter  want  of  self-command,  his 
almost  unrivalled  faculty  of  awakening  hatred,  to  be 
attributed  to  the  sagacious  and  intuitive  wisdom  of 
Rome?  Or,  as  is  far  more  probable,  did  the  vanity 
of  Jerome  mistake  outward  respect  for  general  attach- 
ment, awe  of  his  abilities  and  learning  for  admiration, 
and  so  blind  him  to  the  ill-dissembled,  if  dissembled, 
hostility  which  he  had  provoked  in  so  many  quarters  ? 
It  is  difficult  to  refrain  from  speculating  on  liis  eleva- 
tion. How  signally  dangerous  would  it  have  been  to 
have  loaded  tlie  rising  Papacy  with  the  responsibility 
of  all,  or  even  a  large  part  of  the  voluminous  works 
of  Jerome !  The  station  of  a  Father  of  the  Church, 
one  of  the  four  great  Latin  Fathers,  committed  Chris- 
tendom to  a  less  close  adhesion  to  all  his  opinions,  while 
at  the  same  time  it  placed  him  above  jealous  and  hos- 
tile scrutiny.  It  was  not  till  two  centuries  later,  when 
sjioculative  subjects  had  ceased  to  agitate  the  Christian 
mind,  and  the  creed  and  the  disci])line  had  settled  down 

1  Omnium  piene  judicio,  diy;iius  suiuiuo  sacerJotio  deceriiobatur.     Epist 
xlv.  ad  Asellam,  3. 


Chap.  II.  THE  FIRST  DECRETAL.  119 

to  a  mature  and  established  form,  that  a  Father  of  the 
Church,  a  vohiminous  writer,  could  safely  appear  on 
the  episcopal  throne  of  Rome.  Gregory  the  Great 
was  at  once  the  representative  and  the  voice  of  the 
Christianity  of  his  age.  Nor  could  the  great  work  of 
Jerome  have  been  achieved  at  Rome,  assuredly  not  by 
a  Pope.  It  was  in  his  cell  at  Bethlehem,  meditating 
and  completing  the  Vulgate,  that  Jerome  fixed  for 
centuries  the  dominion  of  Latin  Christianity  over  the 
mind  of  man.  Siricius  was  the  successor  of  p  gir^cius. 
Damasus.^  Jerome  left  ungrateful  Rome,  *•"•  3S4-398. 
against  whose  sins  the  recluse  of  Palestme  becomes 
even  more  impassioned,  whose  clergy  and  people  be- 
come blacker  and  more  inexcusable  in  his  harsher  and 
more  unsparing  denunciations. 

The  pontificate  of  Siricius  is  memorable  for  the  first 
authentic  Decretal,  the  first  letter  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome,  which  became  a  law  to  the  Western  Church, 
and  the  foundation  of  the  vast  system  of  ecclesiastical 
jurisprudence.  It  betrays  the  Roman  tendency  to 
harden  into  inflexible  statute  that  which  was  left  before 
to  usage,  opinion,  or  feeling.  The  East  enacted  creeds, 
the  West  discipline. 

The  Decree  of  Shicius  was  addressed  to  Himerius, 
Bishop  of  Tarragona.^  Himerius  had  writ-  The  Decretal, 
ten  before  the  death  of  Damasus  to  consult  ^'^'  ^^" 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  on  certain  doubtful  points  of 
usage,  the  valifhty  of  heretical  baptism,  the  treatment 
of  apostates,  of  religious  persons  guilty  of  incontinence, 
the  steps  which  the  clergy  were  to  pass  through  to  the 
higher  ranks,  and  the  great  question  of  all,  the  celi- 

1  Damasus  died  Dec.  11. 

^  Apud  Mausi,  sub  anu.  385,  or  Constaut.  Epist.  Pontificuin. 


120  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I. 

bacy  of  the  clergy.  The  answer  of  Siriclus  is  in  tlie 
tone  of  one  who  supposes  that  the  usages  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  were  to  be  received  as  those  of  Chris- 
tendom. It  was  to  be  communicated  beyond  the  prov- 
ince of  Tarragona,  throughout  Spain,  in  Carthagena, 
Bsetica,  Lusitania,  Gahcia :  it  appears,  by  an  allusion 
in  a  wi'iting  of  Pope  Innocent  I.,  even  in  Southern 
Gaul.  The  all-important  article  was  on  the  marriage 
of  the  clergy  ;  this  was  peremptorily  interdicted,  as  by 
an  immutable  ordinance,  to  all  priests  and  deacons. 
This  law,  while  it  implied  the  ascendancy  of  monastic 
opinions,  showed  likewise  that  there  was  a  large  part 
of  the  clergy  who  could  only  be  controlled  into  celibacy 
by  law.  Even  now  the  law  was  forced  to  make  some 
temporary  concessions.  Those  who  confessed  that  it 
was  a  fault,  and  could  plead  ignorance  that  celibacy 
was  an  established  usage  of  the  Church,  were  exempted 
from  penalties,  but  could  not  hope  for  promotion  to  a 
higher  rank. 

This  unrepealed  law  was  one  of  the  characteristics 
of  Latin  Christianity.  Her  first  voice  of  authority 
Celibacy  of  flight  sccm  to  utter  the  stern  prohibition, 
the  Clergy,  'pj^jg^  morc  tliau  any  other  measure,  sepa- 
rated the  sacerdotal  order  from  the  rest  of  society,  from 
the  common  human  sympathies,  interests,  affections. 
It  justified  them  to  themselves  in  assuming  a  dignity 
superior  to  the  rest  of  mankind,  and  seemed  their  title 
to  enforce  acknowledo-ment  and  reverence  for  that 
supenor  dignity.  The  monastic  principle  admitting, 
virtually  at  least,  almost  to  its  ftill  extent,  the  Mani- 
chean  tenet  of  the  innate  sinfulness  of  all  sexual  inter- 
course as  partaking  of  the  inextinguishable  impurity 
of  Matter,   was  gradually   wrought   into   the  genera] 


Chap.   II.  CELIBACY  OF  THE  CLERGY.  121 

feeling.  Wliether  marriage  was  treated  as  in  itself  an 
evil,  perhaps  to  be  tolerated,  but  still  degrading  to 
human  nature,  as  by  Jerome^  and  the  more  ascetic 
teachers ;  or  honored,  as  by  Augustine,  with  a  specious 
adulation,  only  to  exalt  virginity  to  a  still  loftier  height 
above  it;^  the  clergy  were  taught  to  assert  it  at  once 
as  a  privilege,  as  a  distinction,  as  the  consummation 
and  the  testimony  to  the  sacredness  of  their  order. 
As  there  was  this  perpetual  appeal  to  their  pride  (they 
were  thus  visibly  set  apart  from  the  vulgar,  the  rest  of 
mankind),^  so  they  were  compelled  to  its  observance 
at  once  by  the  law  of  the  Church,  and  by  the  fear  of 
falling  below  their  perpetual  rivals,  the  monks,  in  the 
general  estimation.  The  argument  of  their  greater 
usefulness  to  Christian  society,  of  their  more  entire 
devotion  to  the  duties  of  their  holy  function  by  being 
released  from  the  cares  and  duties  of  domestic  life : 
the  noble  Apostolic  motive,  that  they  ought  to  bo 
bound  to  the  world  by  few,  and  those  the  most  fragile 
ties,  in  order  more  fearlessly  to  incur  danger,  or  to  sac- 
rifice even  life  more  readily  in  the  cause  of  the  Cross ; 
such  low  incentives  were  disdained  as  beneath  consid- 
eration. Some  hardy  opponents,  Helvidius,  Jovinian, 
Vigilantius,  and  others  of  more  obscure  name,  endeav- 
ored to  stem  the  mingling  tide  of  authority  and  popu- 
lar sentiment ;  they  were  swept  away  by  its  resistless 

1  On  Jerome's  views  see  quotations  Hist,  of  Christianity,  iii.  320,  et  seqq. 

2Gaudium  virginum  Christ!  —  de  Christo,  in  Christo,  cum  Christo,  post 
Christum,  per  Christum,  propter  Christum.  Sequantur  itaque  agnum  qui 
virginitatem  corporis  amiserunt,  non  quocunque  ille  ierit,  sed  quousque  ipsi 
potuerint.  De  Sanct.  A^irgin.  cap.  27.  —  The  virgin  and  her  mother  may 
both  be  in  heaven,  but  one  a  bright,  the  other  a  dim  star.  Senn.  35-i,  ad 
Continent. 

3  Quid  interessel  inter  populum  et  sacerdotem,  si  iisdem  ad  stringerentuf 
tegibus.    Ambros.  Epist.  Ixiii.  ad  Eccl.  VerceU 


122  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I. 

force.^  They  boldly  called  in  question  the  first  princi- 
ples of  the  new  Christian  theory,  and  in  the  name  of 
reason,  nature,  and  the  New  Testament,  denied  this 
inherent  perfection  of  virginity,  as  compared  with  law- 
ful marriage.  Ambrose,  Jerome,  Augustine,  lifted  up 
at  once  their  voices  against  these  unexpected  and  mis- 
timed adversaries.  Jerome  went  so  far  in  his  dispar- 
agement of  marriage,  as  to  be  disclaimed  by  his  own 
ardent  admirers:  but  still  his  adversaries  have  been 
handed  down  to  posterity  under  the  ill-omened  name 
of  heretics,  solely,  or  almost  solely  on  this  accomit. 
They  live,  in  his  vituperative  pages,  objects  of  scorn 
more  than  of  hatred.  So  unpopular  was  their  resist- 
ance to  the  spirit  of  the  age.  The  general  feeling 
shuddered  at  their  refusal  to  admit  that  which  had 
now  become  one  of  the  leading  articles  of  Latin 
Christian  faith.  Yet,  notwithstanding  this,  the  law 
of  the  Celibacy  of  the  Clergy,  even  though  imposed 
with  such  overweening  authority,  was  not  received 
without  some  open  and  more  tacit  resistance.  There 
were  few,  perhaps,  courageous  or  far-sighted  enough 
to  oppose  the  principle  itself,  though  even  among 
bishops  Jovinian  was  not  without  followers.  Others, 
incautiously  admitting  the  principle,  struggled  to 
escape  from  its  consequences.  In  some  regions  the 
married  clergy  formed  the  majority,  and,  always  sup- 
porting married  bishops  by  their  suffrages  and  influ- 
ence, kept  up  a  formidable  succession.  Still  Chris- 
tendom was  against  them  ;  and  in  most  cases,  those 
who  were  conscientiously  opposed  to  these  austere  re- 
strictions, had  recourse  to  evasions  or  secret  violations 

1 1  have  entered  somewhat  more  at  length  into  this  controversy  in  the 
Uiat,  ol  Chribtianily. 


Chap.  li.  EXTINCTION  OF  PAGANISM.  123 

of  the  law,  iiifinitelj  more  dangerous  to  public  morals. 
Throughout  the  whole  period,  from  Pope  Siricius  to 
the  Reformation,  as  must  appear  in  the  course  of  our 
history,  the  law  was  defied,  infringed,  eluded.  It 
never  obtained  anything  approaching  to  general  ob- 
servance, though  its  violation  was  at  times  more  open, 
at  times  more  clandestine. 

The  Pontificates  of  Damasus  and  Siricius  beheld 
almost  the  last  open  struggles  of  expiring  Koman  pagan- 
ism, the  dispute  concerning  the  Statue  of  Extinction  of 
Victory  in  the  Senate,  the  secession  of  a  large  ^^samsm. 
number  of  the  more  distinguished  senators,  the  plead- 
ings of  the  eloquent  Symmachus  for  the  toleration  of 
the  religion  of  ancient  Kome.  To  such  humiliation 
were  reduced  the  deities  of  the  Capitol,  the  gods,  who, 
as  was  supposed,  had  achieved  the  conquest  of  the 
world,  and  laid  it  at  the  feet  of  Rome.  But  in  this 
great  contest  the  Bishop  of  Rome  filled  only  an  mferior 
part ;  it  was  Ambrose,  the  Bishop  of  Milan,  who  en- 
forced the  final  sentence  of  condemnation  agamst  pa- 
ganism, asserted  the  sin,  in  a  Christian  Emperor,  of 
assuming  any  Imperial  title  connected  with  pagan  wor 
ship,  and  of  permitting  any  portion  of  the  public  reve- 
nue to  be  expended  on  the  rites  of  idolatry.  It  was 
Ambrose  who  forbade  the  last  marks  of  respect  to  the 
tutelar  divinities  of  Rome  in  the  public  ceremonies. 

Latm  Christianity,  in  truth,  in  all  but  its  monarclu- 
cal  strength,  in  its  unity  under  one  Head,  and  under  one 
code  of  ecclesiastical  law,  enacted  and  executed  in  its  last 
resort  by  that  Head,  was  establislied  in  its  dominion  over 
the  human  mind  without  the  walls  of  Rome.  It  was 
Jerome  who  sent  forth  the  Vulgate  from  his  retreat 
in  Palestine  ;  it  was  Ambrose  of  Milan  who  raised  the 
sacerdotal  power  to  more  than  independence,  limited 


124  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I 

the  universal  homage  paid  to  the  Impenal  authority, 
protected  youthful  and  feeble  Emperors,  and  in  the 
name  of  justice  and  of  humanity  rebuked  the  greatest 
sovereign  of  the  age.  It  was  Augustine,  Bishop  of 
the  African  Hippo,  who  organized  Latin  theology ; 
wrought  Christianity  into  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men 
by  his  impassioned  autobiography  ;  and  finally,  under 
the  name  of  the  "City  of  God,"  established  that  new 
and  undefined  kingdom,  at  the  head  of  which  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  was  hereafter  to  place  himself  as  Sov- 
ereign ;  that  vast  polity,  which  was  to  rise  out  of  the 
ruins  of  ancient  and  pagan  Rome ;  if  not  to  succeed 
at  once  to  the  temporal  supremacy,  to  superinduce  a 
higher  government,  that  of  God  himself.  This  divine 
government  was  sure  eventually  to  fall  to  those  who 
were  already  aspiring  to  be  the  earthly  representatives 
of  God.  The  Theocracy  of  Augustine,  comprehending 
both  worlds.  Heaven  as  well  as  earth,  was  far  more 
Bublime,  as  more  indefinite,  than  the  spiritual  monarchy 
of  the  later  Popes.  It  established,  it  contemplated  no 
such  external  or  visible  autocracy,  but  it  prepared  the 
way  for  it  in  the  minds  of  men  ;  the  spiritual  City  of 
God  became  a  secular  monarchy  ruling  by  spiritual 
means. 

It  may  be  well  here  to  close  the  fourth  century  of 
Christianity,  which  ended  in  the  uneventful  pontificate 
Anastasius  I.  of  Auastasius  I.  Four  hundred  years  had  now 
elapsed  since  the  birth  of  the  Redeemer.  The  gospel 
was  the  established  religion  of  both  parts  of  the  Roman 
Empire ;  Greek  and  Latin  Christianity  chvided  tlie 
Roman  world.  Most  of  the  barbarians,  who  had  set- 
tled within  the  frontiers  of  the  Empire,  had  submitted 
to  her  religion.  With  Christianity  the  hierarchical  sys- 
tem had  embraced  the  world. 


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126  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  R. 


BOOK  IL 


CHAPTER  I. 

INNOCENT  V' 

The  fifth  century  of  Christianity  has  begun,  and 
now  arises  a  Hne  of  Roman  prelates,  some  of  them 
from  their  personal  character,  as  well  as  from  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  time,  admirably  qualified  to  advance 
the  supremacy  of  the  See  of  Rome,  at  least  over  West- 
ern Christendom. 

Christianity,  in  its  Latin  form,  which  for  centuries 
was  to  be  its  most  powerful,  enduring,  prolific  develop- 
ment, wanted,  for  her  stability  and  unity  of  influence, 
a  capital  and  a  centre  ;  and  Rome  might  seem  deserted 
by  her  emperors  for  the  express  purpose  of  allowing  the 
spiritual  monarchy  to  grow  up  without  any  dangerous 
collision  against  the  civil  government.  The  emperors 
had  long  withdrawn  from  Rome  as  the  royal  residence. 
Of  those  who  bore  the  title,  one  ruled  in  Constanti- 
nople, and,  more  and  more  absorbed  in  the  cares  and 
Rome  centre  Calamities  of  the  Eastern  sovereignty,  became 
of  the  West,  gradually  estranged  from  the  affairs  of  the 
West.  Nor  was  it  till  the  time  of  Justinian  that  any 
attempt  was  made  to  revive  his  imperial  pretensions  to 
Rome.  The  Western  Emperor  lingered  for  a  time  in 
inglorious  obscurity  among  the  marshes  of  Ravenna, 


Chap.  I.  ROME  CENTRE  OF  THE  WEST.  127 

till  at  length  the  faint  shadow  of  monarchy  melted 
away,  and  a  barbarian  assumed  the  power  and  the  ap- 
pellation of  Sovereign  of  Italy.  Still,  of  the  barba- 
rian kings,  not  one  ventured  to  fix  himself  in  the  an- 
cient capital,  or  to  inhabit  the  mouldering  palaces  of 
the  older  Cassars.  Nor  could  Ravenna,  Milan,  or 
Pavia,  though  the  seats  of  monarchs,  obscure  the  great- 
ness of  Rome  in  general  reverence  :  they  were  still 
provincial  cities  ;  nor  could  they  divert  the  tide  of 
commerce,  of  concourse,  of  legal,  if  not  of  administra- 
tive business,  which,  however  more  irregular  and  inter- 
mitting, still  flowed  towards  Rome.  The  internal  gov- 
ernment of  the  city  retained  something  of  the  old 
republican  form  whic  had  been  permitted  to  subsist 
under  the  despotism  oi  the  emperors.  Above  the  con- 
suls or  Senate,  the  shadows  of  former  magistracies,  the 
supreme  authority  was  vested  in  a  delegate,  or  repre- 
sentative of  the  Emperor,  the  prefect,  or  governor ; 
but,  with  the  empire,  that  authority  became  more  and 
more  powerless.  The  aristocracy,  as  we  shall  erelong 
see,  were  scattered  abroad  after  the  capture  of  the  city 
by  Alaric,  and  were  never  after  reorganized  into  a 
powerful  party.  Some  centuries  elapsed  before  that 
feudal  oligarchy  grew  up,  which,  at  a  later  period, 
were  such  dangerous  enemies  to  the  Papacy,  degrading 
it  to  the  compulsory  appointment  of  turbulent  or  im- 
moral prelates,  or  by  the  personal  insult,  and  even  the 
murder,  of  popes.  During  the  following  period,  there- 
fore, the  Bishop  of  Rome,  respected  by  the  barbarians, 
even  by  the  fiercest  pagans,  none  of  whom  were  quite 
without  awe  of  the  high  priesthood  of  the  Roman  relig- 
ion, and,  by  that  respect,  commended  still  more  strongly 
to  the  reverence  of  all  Latin  Christians  ;  alone  hallowed, 


128  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  H. 

as  it  were,  ana  permitted  to  maintain  his  serene  dignity 
amid  scenes  of  violence,  confusion,  and  bloodshed ; 
grew  rapidly  up  to  be  the  most  important  person  in  the 
city;  if  not  in  form  the  supreme  magistrate,  yet  dom- 
inant in  influence  and  admitted  authority,  the  all-vene- 
rated Head  of  the  Church  ;  and  where  the  civil  power 
thus  lay  prostrate,  assuming,  without  awakening  jealousy 
and  for  the  public  advantage,  many  of  its  functions, 
and  maintainino;  some  show  of  order  and  of  rule. 

It  was  not  solely  as  a  Christian  bishop,  and  bishop 
of  that  city,  which  was  still,  according  to  the  prevail- 
ing feeling,  the  capital  of  the  world,  but  as  the  suc- 
Successionto  ccssor  of  St.  Peter,  of  him  who  was  now 
St.  Peter.  ackuowlcdgcd  to  be  the  head  of  the  apos- 
tolic body,  that  the  Roman  pontiff  commanded  tlie 
veneration  of  Rome  and  of  Christendom.  The  pri 
macy  of  St.  Peter,  and  the  primacy  of  Rome,  had  been 
long  reacting  upon  each  other  in  the  minds  of  men, 
and  took  root  in  the  general  sentiment.  The  Church 
of  Rome  would  own  no  founder  less  than  the  chief 
Apostle  ;  and  the  distance  between  St.  Peter  and  the 
rest  of  the  Apostles,  even  St.  Paid  himself,  was  in- 
creased by  his  being  acknowledged  as  the  spiritual 
ancestor  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  At  the  commence- 
ment of  the  fifth  century,  the  lineal  descent  of  the 
Pope  from  St.  Peter  was  an  accredited  tenet  of  Chris- 
tianity. As  yet  his  pretensions  to  supremacy  were 
vague  and  unformed;  but  when  authority. is  in  the 
ascendant,  it  is  the  stronger  for  being  uideiinite.  it 
is  almost  a  certain  sign  that  it  is  becoming  precarious, 
or  has  been  called  in  question,  when  it  condescencis 
to  appeal  to  precedent,  written  statute,  or  regular  j' a-  >- 
diction. 


Chap.  I.  UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  129 

Evervthing  tended  to  confirm,  notliing  to  impede 
or  weaken  the  graduiil  condensation  of  the  supreme 
ecclesiastical  power  in  the  Supreme  Bishop.  The 
majesty  of  the  notion  of  one  all-powerful  ruler,  to 
which  the  world  had  been  so  long  familiarized  in 
the  emperors ;  the  discord  and  emulation  among  tlie 
other  prelates,  both  of  the  East  and  West,  and  the 
manifest  advantage  of  a  supreme  arbiter ;  the  Unity 
of  the  visible  Church,  which  was  becoming,  xjnityof  the 
—  or  had,  indeed,  become  —  the  dominant  <^^'*"^''^- 
idea  of  Christendom ;  all  seemed  to  demand,  or  at 
least,  had  a  strong  tendency  to  promote  and  to  main- 
tain the  necessity  of  one  Supreme  Head.  As  the 
unity  in  Christ  was  too  sublimely  spiritual,  so  the 
supremacy  of  the  collective  episcopate,  which  endowed 
each  bishop  with  an  equal  portion  of  apostolic  dignity 
and  of  power,  was  a  notion  too  speculative  and  meta 
physical  for  the  common  mind.  Councils  were  only 
occasional  diets,  or  general  conventions,  not  a  standing 
representative  Senate  of  Christendom.  There  was  a 
simplicity  and  distinctness  in  the  conception  of  one 
visible  Head  to  one  visible  body,  such  as  forcibly 
arrests  and  fully  satisfies  the  less  inquiring  mind, 
which  still  seeks  something  firm  and  stable  whereon 
to  repose  its  faith.  Cyprian,  in  whom  the  unity  of 
the  Church  had  taken  its  severest  form,  though  prac- 
tically he  refused  to  submit  the  independence  of  the 
African  churches  to  the  dictation  of  Rome,  did  far 
more  to  advance  her  power  by  the  primacy  which 
he  assigned  to  St.  Peter,  than  he  impaired  it  by  his 
steady  and  disdainful  repudiation  of  her  authority, 
whenever  it  was   brought  to   the  test  of  submission.^ 

1  Qui  cathedram  Petri,  super  queni  fundata  est  Ecclesia,  deserit,  in  ec- 


130  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II. 

In  the  West,  tliroiigliout  Latin  Christendom,  the 
Roman  See,  in  antiquity,  in  dignity,  in  the  more 
regular  succession  of  its  prelates,  stood  alone  and 
unapproachable.  In  the  great  Eastern  bishoprics  the 
holy  lineage  had  been  already  broken  and  -  confused 
by  the  claims  of  rival  prelates,  by  the  usui-pation  of 
bishops,  accounted  heretical,  at  the  present  period 
Arians  or  Macedonians  or  Apollinarians,  later  Nes- 
torians  or  Monophysites.  Jerusalem  had  never  ad- 
vanced that  claim  to  which  it  might  seem  entitled  by 
its  higher  antiquity.  Jerusalem  was  not  universally 
acknowledged  as  an  Apostolic  See ;  at  all  events  it  was 
the  capital  of  Judaism  rather  than  of  Christianity; 
and  the  succession,  at  the  time  of  the  Jewish  war, 
and  during  the  period  of  desolation  to  the  time  of 
Hadrian,  had  been  interrupted  at  least  in  its  local 
descent.  At  one  period  Jerusalem  was  subordinate 
to  the  Palestinian  Ccesarea.  Antioch  had  been  per- 
petually contested  ;  its  episcopal  line  had  been  vitiated, 
its  throne  contaminated  by  the  actual  succession  of 
several  Arian  prelates.^  In  Alexandria  the  Arian 
prelates  had  been  considered  lawless  usurpers :  the 
orthodox  Church  had  never  voluntarily  submitted  to 
their  jurisdiction ;  and  Alexandria  had  been  hallowed 
as  the  episcopal  seat  of  the  great  Athanasius.  But 
Athanasius  himself,   when   driven  from   his    see,  had 

clesia  se  esse  confidit?  This  was  a  plain  and  intcllif^ible  doctrine.  Episcc 
patus  unus  est,  cujus  a  singulis  in  solidum  pars  tenetur  —  was  a  conception 
far  more  vague  and  abstract,  and  therefore  far  less  popular.  De  Unit. 
Ecci.     See  for  the  dispute  with  Stephen,  Bishop  of  Rome,  ch.  i. 

1  The  obvious  difficulty  of  the  Primacy  of  Antioch  as  the  first  See  of  St. 
Peter,  which,  it  might  seem,  had  been,  if  not  objected,  at  least  suggested, 
was  thus  met  by  Innocent  I.  Quas  urbis  Roma?  scdi  non  cederet,  nisi  quod 
ipsa  in  transitu  meruit,  ista  susceptum  apud  se,  consummatumque  gaudet 
—  Innocejit.  Epis.  xLx.  ad  Alexand. 


Chap.  I.  SILENT  AGGRESSIONS  OF  ROME.  131 

found  a  hospitable  reception  at  Rome,  and  constant 
support  from  the  Roman  Bisliops.  His  presence  liad 
reflected  a  glory  upon  that  see,  which,  but  for  one 
brief  period  of  compulsory  apostacy,  had  remained 
rigidly  attached  to  the  orthodox  Trinitarian  opinions. 
Constantinople  was  but  a  new  city,  and  had  no  pre- 
tensions to  venerable  or  apostolic  origin.  It  had  at- 
tained, indeed,  to  the  dignity  of  a  patriarchate,  but 
only  by  the  decree  of  a  recent  council ;  in  other 
respects  it  owed  all  its  eminence  to  being  the  prelacy 
of  new  Rome,  of  the  seat  of  empire.  The  feuds 
and  contests  between  the  rival  patriarchate's  of  the 
East  were  constantly  promoting  the  steady  progress 
of  Rome  towards  supremacy.  Throughout  the  fierce 
rivalry  between  Alexandria  and  Constantinople,  the 
hostilities  which  had  even  now  beo;un  between  Theo- 
philus  and  Chrysostom,  and  which  were  continued 
with  implacable  violence  between  Cyril  and  Nesto- 
rius,  Flavianus  and  Dioscorus,  the  alliance  of  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  was  too  important  not  to  be  pur- 
chased at  any  sacrifice  ;  and  if  the  independence  of 
the  Eastern  churches  was  compromised,  if  not  by  an 
appeal  to  Rome,  at  least  by  the  ready  admission  of 
her  interference,  the  leaders  of  the  opposing  parties 
were  too  much  occupied  by  their  immediate  objects, 
and  blinded  by  factious  passions,  to  discern  or  to 
regard  the  consequences  of  these  silent  aggressions. 
From  the  personal  or  political  objects  of  these  feuds 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  might  stand  aloof;  in  the  relig- 
ious questions  he  might  mingle  in  undisturbed  dignity, 
or  might  offer  himself  as  mediator,  just  as  he  might 
choose  the  occasion,  and  almost  on  his  own  terms. 
At  the  same  time,  not  merely  on  the  great  subject 


132  LATIN  CHRISTIANIir.  Book  U. 

of  the  Trinity,  had  Rome  repudiated  the  more  ob- 
noxious heresy,  even  on  less  vital  questions,  the  Latin 
capital  happy  in  the  exemption  from  controversial 
bishops  had  rarely  swerved  from  the  canon  of  severe 
orthodoxy ;  and  if  any  one  of  her  bishops  had  been 
forced  or  perplexed  into  a  rash  or  erroneous  decision,  as 
Liberius,  during  his  short  concession  to  semi-Arian- 
ism ;  or,  as  we  shall  see  before  long,  Zosimus  to  Pela- 
gianism  ;  and  a  still  later  pope,  who  was  bewildered 
into  Monophytism ;  their  errors  were  effaced  by  a 
speedy,  full,  and  glorious  recantation. 

Thus  the  East,  agitated  by  ftirious  conflicts  con- 
TheEast  ccming  thc  highest  doctrines  of  Christian- 
eourtsRome.  '^^^  conccming  thc  preeminence  of  the  rival 
sees  for  dominant  influence  with  the  Emperor,  was 
still  throwing  itself,  as  each  faction  was  oppressed  by 
its  rival,  at  the  feet  of  remote  and  more  impartial 
Rome.  In  the  West,  at  the  same  time,  the  disputes 
which  were  constantly  arising  about  points  of  disci- 
pline, the  succession  of  bishops,  the  boundaries  of 
conflicting  jurisdictions,  still  demanded  and  were  glad 
to  have  recourse  to  a  foreign  arbitrator ;  and  who  so 
fitting  an  arbiter  as  the  Bishop  of  that  city,  which, 
in  theory  at  least,  was  still  the  centre  of  civil  govern- 
ment, the  seat  of  Caesar's  tribunal,  to  whom  the  Roman 
world  had  acquired  a  settled  and  inveterate  habit  of 
appeal  ?  Rome  the  mother  of  civil,  might  likewise 
give  birth  to  canonical  jurisprudence.^ 

For  the  great  talisman  of  the  Papal  influence  was 

1  Until  the  Roman  Curia  became  inordinate  in  its  exactions,  and  so 
utterly  venal  as  it  is  universally  represented  in  later  centuries,  this 
arbitration,  when  so  much  was  yet  unsettled,  while  the  new  society  was 
yet  in  the  process  of  formation,  must  have  tended  to  peace  and  so  to  the 
strength  of  Christianity. 


Chap.  I.  NAME  OF  ROME.  138 

the  jet  majestic  name  of  Rome.  The  Ijishops  ^^^^  ^^ 
gave  laws  to  the  city,  which  had  so  long  *^°"^®* 
given,  and  still  to  so  great  an  extent,  gave  laws  to 
the  world.  In  the  sentiment  of  mankind,  at  least  in 
the  West,  Rome  had  never  been  dethroned  from  her 
supremacy.  There  were  still  Roman  armies,  Roman 
Uws,  Roman  municipalities,  Roman  literature,  in  name 
at  least  a  Roman  Empire.^  Constantinople  boasted 
rather  than  disdained  the  appellation  of  New  Rome. 
But  while  the  Bishops  of  Rome  retained  much  of  the 
awe  and  reverence  which  adhered  to  the  name,  they 
stood  aloof  from  all  which  desecrated  and  degraded 
it.  It  was  the  idolatrous  and  pagan  Rome  which  fell 
before  the  barbarians,  or  rather  was  visited  for  its  vices 
and  crimes,  its  persecutions,  and  its  still  obstinate  in- 
fidelity, by  those  terrible  instruments  of  the  divine 
vengeance.  As  our  history  will  show,  the  discom- 
fiture of  the  heathen  Rhadagaisus,  and  the  tutelary, 
though  partial,  protection  which  Christianity  spread 
over  the  city  during  the  capture  by  Alaric  (to  which 
Augustine  triumpliantly  appealed),  were  not  oblit- 
erated by  the  unawed  and  remorseless  devastation 
of  Genseric.  The  retreat  of  Attila,  the  most  ter 
rible  of  all  the  Northern  conquerers,  before  the  im- 
posing sanctity,  as  it  was  universally  believed,  of  Pope 
Leo,  blended  again  in  indissoluble  alliance  the  sacred 
security  of  Rome  with  the  authority  of  her  bishop. 


1  See  in  Ausonius  the  curious  ordo  of  tlie  cities  of  the  Empire.  —  1. 
Prima  urbes  inter,  divum  domus,  aurea  Roma.  —  2.  Constantinople,  before 
whom  bows  3.  Carthage  —  4.  Antioch  —  5.  Alexandria  —  6.  Treves  —  7. 
Milan  —  8.  Capua  —  9.  Aquileia  — 10.  Aries  — 11.  Merida  — 12.  Athens  — 
13.  14.  Catania,  Syracuse  — 15.  Toulouse  — 16.  Narbonne  — 17.  Bordeaux. 
The  poet  is  a  Gaul,  a  native  of  Bordeaux.  Ravenna  seems  to  have  fallen 
into  obscurity.    Ausonii.  Poem. 


134      '  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  n. 

Leo  himself,  a3  will  be  hereafter  seen,  exalts  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul  into  the  Romulus  and  Remus  of  the  new 
universal  Roman  dominion. 

It  was  at  this  period  (the  commencement  of  the 
Accession  of  ^^^^  ccnturj),  wlicn  the  Imperial  power  was 
Innocent.  decHning  towards  extinction  in  the  hands 
of  the  feeble  Honorius,  and  the  Roman  arms  were 
for  the  last  time  triumphant,  under  Stilicho,  over  the 
Northern  barbarians,  that  a  prelate  was  placed  on  the 
episcopal  throne  of  Rome,  of  a  bolder  and  more  impe- 
rious nature,  of  unimpeachable  holiness,  who  held  the 
pontifical  power  for  a  longer  period  than  usual  in  the 
rapid  succession  of  the  bishops  of  Rome.  Ambrose 
was  now  dead,  and  there  was  no  Western  prelate, 
at  least  in  Europe,  whose  fame  and  abilities  could 
obscure  that  preeminence,  which  rank  and  position, 
and  in  his  case,  commanding  character,  bestowed  on 
the  Bishop  of  Rome.  Innocent,  like  most  of  the  great- 
er Popes,  was  by  birth,  if  not  a  Roman,  of  the  Roman 
A.D.  402.  territory.  He  was  born  at  Albano.^  The 
patriotism  of  a  Roman  might  mingle  with  his  holier 
aspirations  for  the  spiritual  greatness  of  the  ancient 
mistress  of  tlie  world.  Upon  the  mind  of  Innocent 
appears  first  distinctly  to  have  dawned  the  vast  con- 
ception of  Rome's  universal  ecclesiastical  supremacy, 
dim  as  yet  and  shadowy,  yet  full  and  comprehensive 
in  its  outlhie. 

Up  to  the  accession  of  Innocent,  the  steps  by  which 
the  See  of  Rome,  during  the  preceding  century,  had 
advanced  towards  the  legal  recognition  of  a  suprem- 

1  There  is  an  cxprossioii  in  one  of  St.  Jerome's  letters,  which,  taken  lit- 
erally, asserts  Innocent  to  have  been  the  son  of  his  predecessor  Anustasiu8. 
Qui  apostolicie  cathedra;  et  siipradicti  viri  successor  alfdins  est.  Is  it  t<>  b» 
presumed  that  this  is  an  incautious  ineUiphor  of  St.  Jerome  V 


Chap.  I.  ACCESSION  OF  INNOCENT.  i  T7 

acy,  were  few  but  not  unimportant;  the  first  had 
been  made  by  the  Council  of  Sardica,  the  reno^vn  of 
whose  resolute  orthodoxy  gave  it  peculiar  weight  in 
al]  parts  of  Cliristendom,  where  the  Athanasian  Trini- 
ta:.ianism  maintained  its  ascendency.  It  is  not  difficult 
to  trace  the  motives  which  influenced  the  Bishops  at 
Sardica.  Great  principles  are  often  established  by 
measures  which  grow  out  of  temporary  interests.  The 
Western  orthodox  Bishops  at  Sardica  hardly  escaped 
being  out-numbered  by  their  heretical  adversaries ; 
there  were  ninety-four  on  one  side,  seventy-six  on 
the  other.  Had  not  the  turbulent,  but  irresolute, 
minority  withdrawn  to  Phllippopolis,  and  there  set  up 
a  rival  synod,  the  issue  might  have  been  almost  doubt- 
ftil ;  at  all  events,  where  parties  were  so  evenly  bal- 
anced, intrigue,  accident,  activity  on  one  part,  supine- 
ness  on  the  other,  or  the  favor  of  the  Emperor,  sardica  347. 
might  summon  an  assembly,  in  which  the  pre-  ^"^^  ^^• 
ponderance  would  be  in  favor  of  Arianism  (it  was  so 
a  few  years  after  at  Rimini)  ;  and  thus  might  heresy 
gain  the  sanction  of  a  Council  of  Christendom.  But 
Rome  had,  up  to  this  time,  before  the  fall  of  Liberius, 
so  firmly,  so  repeatedly,  so  solemnly,  embraced  the 
cause  of  Athanasius,  that  it  might  seem  to  be  irrevo- 
cably committed  to  orthodoxy  ;  an  appeal  to  Rome, 
therefore,  would  always  give  an  opportunity  to  an 
orthodox  minority,  to  annul  or  to  suspend  the  decrees 
of  an  heretical  Church.  In  all  causes,  therefore,  of 
bishops  (and  not  merely  were  the  bishops  in  general 
the  chief  members  of  Councils,  but  the  first  proceed- 
ing of  all  the  Councils,  at  this  period,  was  to  depose 
the  prelates  of  the  opposite  party)  an  appeal  to  Rome 
would  both  secure  a  seccuid  hearing,  by  more  favorable 


134  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II 

judges,  of  the  subject  under  controversy,  and  nilglit 
maintain,  notwitlistanding  adverse  decrees,  all  the  or- 
thodox bishops  upon  their  thrones.  The  Council  of 
Sardica,  therefore,  in  its  canons,  established  the  law, 
that  on  an  appeal  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  he  might 
decide  whether  the  judgment  was  to  be  reconsidered, 
and  appoint  judges  for  the  second  hearing  of  the  cause ; 
he  might  even,  if  he  thought  fit,  take  the  initiative ; 
and  delegate  an  ecclesiastic  "  from  his  side,"  to  institute 
a  commission  of  inquiry.^ 

The  right  of  appeal  to  Rome,  thus  established  by 
ecclesiastical,  was  confirmed  by  Imperial  authority  dur- 
A.D.  421.  ins;  the  reign  of  Valentinian  III.  Up  to  that 
eutinian.  time  the  Emperors,  if  they  did  not  possess  by 
the  constitution  of  the  Church,  exercised  nevertheless 
by  virtue  of  their  supreme  and  indefeasible  authority, 
and  by  the  irresistible,  and,  as  yet  rarely  contested, 
tenure  of  power,  the  right  of  summary  decision  in 
religious  as  in  civil  causes.  A  feeble  emperor  would 
willingly  devolve  on  a  more  legitimate  court  these 
troublesome  and  perplexing  affairs.  To  a  monarch, 
another  spiritual  Monarch  would  appear  at  once  the 
most  natural  and  the  most  efficient  deleirate  to  relieve 
him  from  these  burdens  ;  he  would  feel  no  jealousy 
of  such  useful  and  unconflicting  autocracy ;  and  the 
Western  Emperor  would  of  course  invest  in  this  part 
of  the  Imperial  prerogative  the  Bishop  of  the  Imperial 
City. 

Now  too  the  temporal  power,  the  Empire,  was  sink- 
ing rapidly  into  the  decrepitude  of  age,  the  Papacy 

1  Et  si  judicavcrit  renovandum  esse  judicium,  rcnovctur,  et  dot  judiees; 
si  autem  probavcrit,  talem  causam  esse,  iit  noii  refricetur,  ea  quie  acta  sunt, 
quaj  decrevcraiit,  conlinnata  erant.  Can.  3.  —  Can.  5  permits  him  to  send 
this  presbyterum  a  latere.     Maiisi,  sub  auu. 


Chap.  I.         DECREPITUDE  OF  TEMPORAL  POWER.  137 

rising  in  the  first  vigor  of  its  youthful  ambition. 
Honorius  was  cowering  in  the  palace  of  Ravenna 
from  the  perils  which  were  convulsing  the  empire  on 
all  sides,  while  the  provinces  were  withdrawing  their 
doubtful  allegiance,  or  in  danger  of  being  dissevered 
from  the  Roman  dominion.  Innocent  was  on  the 
episcopal  throne  of  Rome,  asserting  his  almost  des- 
potic spiritual  control  over  those  very  provinces. 

Iimocent,  in  his  assertion  of  supremacy,  miglit  seem 
to  disdain  the  authority  of  Council  or  Emperor.  He 
declares,  in  one  of  his  earliest  epistles,  that  all  the 
churches  of  the  West,  not  of  Italy  alone,  but  of 
Gaul,  Spain,  and  Africa,  having  been  planted  by  St. 
Peter  and  his  successors,  owe  filial  obedience  to  the 
parent  See,  are  bound  to  follow  her  example  in  all 
points  of  discipline,  and  to  maintain  a  rigid  uniformity 
with  all  her  usages.^  To  the  minutest  point  Rome 
will  ao;ain  be  the  le^-islator  of  the  world ;  and  it  is 
smgular  to  behold  a  representative,  as  it  were,  of  each 
of  these  provinces  bringing  the  first  fruits  of  that  def- 
erence, which  was  construed  into  unhmited  allegiance, 
to  the  feet  of  the  majestic  Pontiff.  The  Bishop  of 
Rouen  requests  fr'om  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  the  rules 
of  ecclesiastical   disciplme   observed   within  his   See.^ 


1  Cum  sit  manifestum  in  omnem  Italiam,  Gallias,  Hispanias,  Aftisam 
atque  Siciliam  insulasqne  intervenieutes  nullum  instituisse  ecclesias  nisi 
eos  qnos  venerabilis  Apostolus  Petrus  ejusque  successores  constituerint 
sacerdotes.     Epist.  ad  Decent.  Episcop.  Eugubin. 

JafFe  dates  this  Epist.  416.  March  19.     Labbe,  ii.  p.  1249. 

2  In  the  third  rule,  which  gives  the  provincial  synods  of  bishops  supreme 
authority  in  their  own  province,  the  words  "sine  prejudicio  tamen  Ro- 
iiana3  ecclesioe,  cui  in  omnibus  causis  debet  revei-entia  custodiri,"  are  re- 
jected as  a  late  interpolation.     Epist.  ad  Victricium.   Labbe,  ii.  p.  1249- 

Dilectio  tua  institutum  secuta  prudentium,  ad  sedem  apostolicam  referre 
maluit,  quid  de  rebus  dubiis  custodiri  deberet,  potius  quam   usurpatione 


138  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II. 

Innocent  approves  the  zeal  of  the  Gauhsh  Bishop 
for  uniformity,  so  contrary  to  the  lawless  spirit  of 
hmovation,  which  prevailed  in  some  parts  of  the  Chris- 
tian world ;  and  sends  him  a  book  containing  certain 
regulations  of  peculiar  severity,  especially  as  to  the 
i04.  Feb.  15.  cclibacy  of  the  clergy.  Exuperius,  Bishop 
of  Toulouse,  is  commended  in  a  still  more  lofty  and 
protecting  tone  of  condescension  for  his  wise  recoiu*se 
to  the  See  of  Rome,  rather  than  the  usurpation  of 
undue  authority.  To  the  Spanish  Synod  of  Toledo, 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  speaks  sometliing  in  the  character 
of  an  appellant  judge.  The  province  of  Illyricum, 
including  Macedonia  and  Greece,  on  the  original  divis- 
405.  Feb.  iou,  had  been  adjudged  to  the  Western  Em- 
pire. The  Bishop  of  Rome  exercised  a  certain  juris- 
diction, granted  or  recognized  by  the  Council  of  Sar- 
dica,  as  the  Metropolitan  of  the  West.  Damasus 
had  appointed  the  Bishop  of  Thessalonica,  as  a  kind 
of  legate  or  representative  of  his  authority.  Innocent, 
in  his  epistle  to  the  Bishops  of  Macedonia,  expresses 
a  haughty  astonishment  that  his  decisions  are  not 
admitted  without  examination,  and  gi'avely  insinuates 
that  some  wrong  may  be  intended  to  the  dignity  of 
the  Apostolical  See.^  More  doubtful  was  the  allegiance 
A.D.  414.  of  Africa.  At  the  commencement  of  Inno- 
cent's pontificate,  liis  influence  with  the  Emperor  was 

priBSumpta,  qua?  sibi  viderentur,  de  singulis  obtinere.  Ad  Exup.  Episc. 
Tol.  Labbe,  ii.  p.  1254. 

1  In  quibus  (epistolis)  multa  posita  pervidi  qua^  stuporem  mentibus  nos- 
tris  inducerent,  facerentquc  nos  non  uiodicuiu  dul:)itare  utrum  aliter  putare- 
mus  an  ita  esse  pov.'tH^  quenuidnioduni  persduabant.  Qua;  cum  saepius 
repeti  fecissem,  adverti,  sedi  apostolic:e  ad  quani  relatio,  quasi  ad  caput 
ecclesiarum  missa  esse  debebat,  aliquani  fieri  injuriam,  cujus  adhuc  in 
ambiguuui  seutentia  duceretur.  Epist.  xxii.  ad  Episc.  Maccdon.  Labbe,  ii. 
1272. 


Chap.  I.  CHRYSOSTOM.  139 

solicited  for  the  suppression  of  the  obstinate  Donatists. 
Towards  the  close  of  his  life,  a  correspondence  took 
place  concerning  Pelagius  and  his  doctrines.  The 
African  Churches,  even  Augustine  himself,  did  not 
disguise  their  apprehension,  tliat  Innocent  might  be 
betrayed  into  an  approbation  of  those  tenets;  they 
desired  to  strengthen  their  own  stern  and  peremp- 
tory decrees  with  the  concurrence  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome.  The  language  of  Innocent  was  in  a.d.  417. 
his  wonted  imperious  style ;  the  African  Churches 
seem  to  have  treated  his  pretensions  to  superiority 
with  silent  disregard. 

In  the  East,  Constantinople,  Alexandria,  and  even 
Antioch,  were    driven  by    their  own   bitter  innocent  and 
feuds  and  hostilities,  to  court  the  alliance  of  chr^sostom 
Rome  ;  it  could  hardly  be  without  some  com-  a.d.  404. 
promise  of  independence. 

In  espousing  the  cause  of  Chrysostom  against  his 
rival  Theophilus  of  Alexandria,  Innocent  took  that 
side  which  was  supported  by  tlie  better  and  wiser,  as 
well  as  by  the  popular  voice  of  Christendom.  He  was 
the  fearless  advocate  of  persecuted  holiness,  of  elo- 
quence, of  ecclesiastical  dignity,  against  the  aggressions 
of  a  violent  foreign  prelate,  who  was  interfering  in  an 
independent  diocese,  and  against  the  intrigues  of  a 
court  notoriously  governed  by  female  influence.  The 
slight  asperities  of  Chrysostom's  character,  the  monas- 
tic austerities  which  seemed  to  some  ill  suited  to  the 
magnificence  of  so  great  a  prelate,  the  aggressions  on 
the  privileges  of  some  churches  not  strictly  under  his 
jurisdiction,  but  which  were  notoriously  ventured  for 
the  promotion  of  Christian  holiness  by  the  suppression 
of  simony  and  other    worse  vices ;  these  less  obvious 


140  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  D 

causes  of  Clirysostom's  unpopularity  hardly  transpired 
beyond  the  limits  of  his  diocese,  were  lost  in  the  daz- 
zling splendor  of  his  talents  and  his  virtues,  or  forgot- 
ten among  his  cruel  wrongs.^  Chrysostom  appeared 
before  the  more  distant  Cluristian  world  as  the  greatest 
orator  who  had  ever  ascended  the  pulpit  of  the  church. 
His  name,  the  Golden  Mouth,  expressed  the  universal 
admiration  of  his  powers. 

After  having  held  Antioch  under  the  spell  of  liis 
oratory  for  many  years,  he  had  been  called  to  the 
episcopal  throne  of  the  Eastern  Metropolis  by  general 
acclamation.  Now,  notwithstanding  the  fond  attach- 
ment of  the  greater  part  of  Constantinople,  and  the 
manifest  interposition,  as  it  was  sui)posed,  of  heaven, 
which  on  his  banishment  had  shaken  the  guilty  city 
with  an  earthquake  and  compelled  his  triumphant  re- 
call, he  was  again  driven  from  his  see,  degraded  by  the 
precipitate  decree  of  an  illegal  and  partial  council,  and 
exposed  to  the  most  merciless  persecution.  The  one 
crime,  which  could  have  blinded  into  hatred  the  love 
and  admiration  of  the  Christian  world,  heterodoxy  of 
opinion,  was  not  charged  against  him  by  his  most  ma- 
licious enemies.  His  only  ostensible  delinquency  was 
the  uncompromising  rebuke  of  vice  in  high  places,  and 
disrespect  to  the  Imperial  Majesty,  which,  even  if  true 
to  the  utmost,  however  it  might  astonish  the  timidity, 
or  shock  the  servility  of  the  East,  in  the  West,  to 
which  the  dominion  of  Arcadius  and  Eiuloxia  did  not 
extend,  would  be  deemed  only  a  hold  and  salutary 
assertion  of  episcopal  dignity  and  Christian  courage. 
The  letter  addressed  by  Chrysostom,  according  to  the 

1  Compare  Hist,  of  Christianity,  b.  iii.  c.  ix 


Chap.  I.  SEE  OF   ANTIOCH.  141 

copies  in  the  Greek  writers,  to  the  three  great  prelates 
of  the  West,  the  Bisliops  of  Rome,  Milan,  and  Aqui- 
leia,  in  the  Roman  copies  to  Innocent  alone,^  was  writ> 
ten  with  all  his  glowing  fervor  and  brilliant  per- 
spicuity. After  describing  the  scenes  of  outrage  and 
confusion  in  the  church  at  Easter,  the  violation  of  the 
sanctuary,  and  the  insults  inflicted  on  the  sacred  per- 
sons of  priests  and  dedicated  virgins  and  bishops,  the 
Bishop  of  Constantinople  entreats  the  friendly  interpo- 
sition of  the  Western  prelates  to  obtain  a  general  and 
legitimate  Council  empowered  to  examine  the  whole 
affair.  The  answer  of  Innocent  is  calm,  moderate, 
dignified,  perhaps  artful.  He  expresses  his  awful  hor- 
ror at  these  impious  scenes  of  violence,  deep  interest 
in  the  fate  of  Chrysostom ;  he  does  not  however  pre- 
judge the  question,  he  does  not  even  refuse  to  commu- 
nicate with  Theophilus,  till  after  the  solemn  decree  of 
a  council.  Yet  the  sympathies  of  Innocent,  as  of  all 
the  better  part  of  Christendom,  were  with  the  eloquent, 
oppressed,  and  patient  exile.  The  sentiments  as  well 
as  the  influence  of  the  Roman  prelate  were  erelong 
proclaimed  to  the  world,  by  an  Imperial  letter  in  favor 

1  There  is  great  variation  in  different  parts  of  the  Roman  copy:  it  is 
sometimes  addressed  to  persons  in  the  plural  number,  sometimes  to  an  in- 
dividual in  the  singular.  This  appears  to  me  no  verj-  important  argument, 
though  adduced  by  the  most  candid  Protestant  -writers,  e.  g.  Shroeck.  This 
cry  of  distress  would  not  be  carefully  or  suspiciously  worded,  so  as  to  pro- 
vide against  any  incautious  admission  of  superiority,  of  which  Chrysostom, 
under  such  circumstances,  thought  little,  even  if  any  such  claims  had  been 
already  made.  But  the  strongest  proof  (if  I  must  enter  into  the  contro- 
versy) that  Chrj^sostom  and  his  followers  addressed  themselves  to  the 
bishops  of  Italy,  as  well  as  to  that  of  Rome,  seems  to  me  the  very  passage 
in  the  Epistle  of  the  Emperor  Honorius,  which  is  adduced,  even  by  Pagi, 
to  prove  the  contrary.  Missi  ad  sacerdotes  urbis  aeternse  atqu$  Italice  utrft- 
que  ex  parte  legati ;  expectabatur  ex  omnium  auctoritatc  sententia  ...» 
Nainque  hi,  quorum  expectabatur  auctoritas 


142  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  H. 

of  Chiysostom,  wliicli  no  persuasion  but  that  of  Inno- 
cent could  have  obtained  from  the  Emperor  of  the 
West.  Honorius  openly  espoused  tlie  cause  of  the 
A.D.  406.  exile  :  and  though,  throughout  the  whole  of 
the  transaction,  the  East,  with  something  of  the  irrita- 
blo  consciousness  of  wrong  and  injustice,  resented  the 
interference  of  the  West,  and  treated  the  messengers 
of  the  Italian  prelates  with  studied  neglect  and  con- 
tumely, the  defenders  of  Chrysostom  were  so  clearly  on 
the  side  of  justice,  humanity,  generous  compassion  for 
the  oppressed,  as  well  as  of  ecclesiastical  order,  that 
the  Bishop  of  Rome,  the  Head  at  least  of  the  Italian 
prelates,  could  not  but  rise  in  the  general  estimation 
of  Christendom.  The  fidelity  of  Innocent  to  the 
cause  of  Chrysostom  did  not  cease  with  the  death  of 
the  persecuted  prelate :  he  refused  to  communicate 
with  Atticus,  his  successor,  or  the  usurper,  according 
to  the  conflicting  parties,  of  the  See  of  Constantinople, 
unless  Atticus  would  acknowledge  Chrysostom  to  have 
been  the  rightful  bishop  until  his  death.^  Common 
reverence  for  Chrysostom,  and  common  hostility  to 
Atticus,   brought    Innocent    into    close   aUiance  with 

1  There  is  a  regular  act  of  excommunication,  in  some  of  the  Latin 
writers  —  (it  was  brought  to  light  by  Baronius)  —  in  which  Innocent  boldly 
excludes  the  Emperor  Arcadius  from  the  communion  of  the  faithfiil.  It  is 
expressed  with  all  the  proud  humility,  the  unctuous  imperiousness  of  a 
later  period.  It  is  given  up,  by  all  the  more  sensible  writers  of  the  Roman 
('atholic  church,  principally  on  account  of  a  fatal  blunder.  It  includes  the 
Dalila,  the  Empress  Eudoxia,  under  the  anathema.  Eudoxia  had  been 
dead  several  years.  (See  Pagi,  sub  ann.  407.)  I  am  in  constant  perplex- 
ity; fearing,  on  one  hand,  to  omit  all  notice  of,  on  the  other  feeling  some- 
thing like  contempt  for,  these  forgeries,  which  are  always  so  injurious  to  the 
cause  they  wish  to  serve.  As  an  impartial  historical  inyuirer,  I  continually 
rise  from  them  with  my  suspicion,  even  of  better  attested  documents,  so 
much  sharpened,  that  I  have  to  struggle  vigorously  against  a  general 
akeptieism. 


Chap.  I.  CAPTURE  OF  ROME  BY  ALARIC.  143 

Alexander,  Bishop  of  Antioch.  During  his  corre- 
spondence with  Alexander,  Innocent  is  dis-  a.d.  416. 
posed  to  attribute  a  subordinate  primacy  to  Antioch, 
as  the  temporary  See  of  St.  Peter.  Rome  now  chose 
to  rest  her  title  to  supremacy  on  the  succession  from 
the  great  Apostle.  Peter  could  hardly  have  passed 
through  any  see,  without  leaving  behind  him  some 
inheritance  of  peculiar  dignity;  while  Rome,  as  the 
scene  of  his  permanent  residence  and  martyrdom, 
claimed  the  undoubted  succession  to  almost  monarchi- 
cal supremacy. 

That  which  might  have  appeared  the  most  fatal 
blow  to  Roman  greatness,  as  dissolving  the  giege  and 
spell  of  Roman  empire,  the  capture,  the  con-  Som"by**^ 
flagration,  the  plunder,  the  depopulation  of  '^^^"*'- 
Rome  by  the  barbarian  Goths,  tended  directly  to 
establish  and  strengthen  the  spiritual  supremacy  of 
Rome.  It  was  pagan  Rome,  the  Babylon  of  sensual- 
ity, pride,  and  idolatry  which  fell  before  the  triumphant 
Alaric ;  the  Goths  were  the  instruments  of  divine 
vengeance  against  paganism,  which  lingered  in  this  its 
last  stronghold.  Christianity  hastened  to  disclaim  all 
interest,  all  sympathy  in  the  fate  of  the  "  harlot  that 
sat  on  the  seven  hills."  Paganism  might  seem  rashly 
to  accept  this  desperate  issue,  girding  itself  for  one 
final  effort,  and  proclaiming,  that  as  Rome  had  brought 
ruin  on  her  own  head  by  abandoning  her  gods,  so  her 
gods  had  forever  abandoned  the  unfaithful  capital. 
The  eternal  city  was  manifestly  approaching  one  of 
the  epochs  in  her  eternity.  Three  times  during  the 
first  ten  years  of  the  fifth  century  and  of  the  pontif- 
icate of  Innocent,  the  first  time  under  Alaric,  the 
second    under    Rhadagaisus,   the   third    again   under 


144  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  BooE  II. 

Alaric,  tlie  barbarians  crossed  the  Alps  with  over- 
wlielming  forces.  Twice  the  valor  and  military  abil- 
ities of  one  man,  Stilicho,  diverted  the  storm  from 
400  to  403.      the  walls  of  Rome.     In  his  first  expedition 

Battle  of  .  .  , 

Pouentia.  Alaric,  after  his  defeat  at  Pollentia,^  endeav- 
ored to  throw  himself  upon  the  capital.  He  was  re- 
called by  the  skilful  movements  of  Stilicho,  to  suffer 
a  final  discomfiture  under  the  walls  of  Verona.  The 
poet  commemorates  the  victories  of  Stilicho,  the  tri- 
umph of  Honorius  in  Rome  for  these  victories.  In 
the  splendid  verses  on  the  ovation  of  Honorius,  it  is 
no  wonder  that  Pope  Innocent  finds  no  place.  Clau- 
dian  maintains  his  invariable  and  total  silence  as  to  the 
existence  of  Christianity.  From  his  royal  mansion  on 
the  Palatine  Honorius  looks  down  on  no  more  glorious 
sight  than  the  temples  of  his  ancestors,  which  crowd 
the  Forum  in  their  yet  inviolable  majesty ;  the  eye  is 
dazzled  and  confounded  with  the  blaze  of  their  bronzed 
columns  and  their  roofs  of  gold  ;  and  with  their  statues 
which  studded  the  skies  :  they  are  the  household  gods 
of  the  emperor.  That  the  emperor  w^orshipped  other 
gods,  or  was  ruled  by  other  priests,  appears  from  no 
one  word.^  The  Jove  of  the  Capitol  might  seem  still 
the  tutelar  god  of  Rome.  Claudian  had  wound  up 
his  poem  on  the  Gothic  war,  in  which  he  equals  the 

1  Gibbon,  c.  xxx. 

2  "  Tot  circum  delubra  videt,  tantisque  Deorum 
Cingitur  excubiis.     Juvat  infra  tecta  Totiantis 
Ceruere  Tarpciu  pendontes  rupe  Gigantas, 
Caelatasque  fores,  mediisque  volantia  signa 
Nubibus,  et  densuin  stipaatibus  sethera  templis 

Acies  stnpet  igne  metalli. 
Et  circumfuso  trepid;ius  obtunditur  auro. 
Agnoscisne  tuos,  Priiiceps  veuerande,  Penates  ?  ** 
de  VI.  Cons.  Hon.  43,  53. 

Compare  on  Claudian  note  in  Hist,  of  Christianity. 


Chap.  1.  RHADAGAISUS— STILICflO.  145 

victoiy  of  Pollentia  with  that  of  Marius  over  the 
Ciiubrians  ;  he  ends  with  that  solemn  admonition, 
"  Let  the  frantic  barbarians  learn  hence  respect  for 
Rome." 

But  tliree  years  after,  the  terrible  Rhadagaisus,  at 
the  head  of  an  enormous  force  of  mingled  barbarians, 
swept  over  the  whole  North  of  Italy,  and  encamped 
before  the  walls  of  Florence.  Rhadagaisus  was  a 
pagan  ;  he  sacrificed  daily  to  some  deity,  whom  the 
Latin  writers  call  by  the  name  of  Jove.  The  party 
at  Rome,  attached  to  their  ancient  worship,  are  accused 
of  having  contemplated  with  more  than  secret  joy  the 
approach  of,  it  might  seem,  the  irresistible  barbarian. 
They  did  this,  notwithstanding  his  terrible  threats 
that  he  would  sacrifice  the  senate  of  Rome  on  the 
altars  of  the  gods  wliich  delight  in  human  blood. 
The  common  enmit}^  to  Christianity,  according  to  St. 
Augustine,  quenched  the  love  of  their  country,  their 
proud  attachment  to  Rome.  But  God  himself,  by 
the  unexpected  discomfiture  of  Rhadagaisus,  a.d.  405. 
crushed  their  guilty  hopes,  and  rescued  Rome  from 
the  public  restoration  of  paganism. 

The  consummate  generalship  of  Stilicho,^  by  which 
he  gradually  enclosed  the  vast  forces  of  Rhadagaisus 
among  the  mountains  in  the  neighborhood  of  Florence, 
himself  on  the  ridge  of  Faesulse,  till  they  died  off  by 
famine  and  disease,  was  utterly  incomprehensible  to 
his  age.  Christianity  took  to  itself  the  whole  glory 
of  Stilicho,  the  relief  of  Florence,  the  dispersion  and 
reduction  to  captivity  of  the  barbaric  forces,  and  the 
death  of  Rhadagaisus,  who  was  ordered  to  summary 
execution.     A  vision  of  St.  Ambrose  had  predicted 

1  Gibbon,  loc.  cit.,  will  furnish  the  authorities. 

VOL.   I.  10 


146  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  n> 

the  relief  of  Florence,  and  nothing  less  than  the  imme- 
diate succor  of  God,  or  of  his  Apostles,  could  account 
for  the  unexpected  victory :  and  this  strong  religious 
feelino;  no  doubt  mino-led  with  the  common  infatuation 
wliich  seized  all  parties.  Rome,  it  was  thought,  with 
a  feeble  emperor  at  a  distance,  with  few  troops,  and 
those  mostly  barbarians,  was  safe  in  the  majesty  of  her 
name  and  the  prescriptive  awe  of  mankind.  Christ, 
or  her  tutelar  Apostles,  who  had  revealed  the  discom- 
fiture of  Rhadagaisus,  had  protected,  and  would  to  the 
end  protect,  Christian  Rome  against  all  pagan  invaders, 
baffle  the  treasonable  sympathy,  and  disperse  the  sacri- 
legious prayers,  of  those  who,  true  to  the  ancient  re- 
ligion, were  false  to  the  real  o-reatness  of  Rome.  So 
often  as  heathen  forces  should  menace  the  temples, 
not  of  the  Capitoline  Jove,  or  those  yet  uncleansed 
from  the  pollutions  of  their  idolatries,  but  those,  if  less 
splendid,  more  holy  fanes  protected  by  the  relics  of 
Apostles  and  Martyrs,  Rome  would  witness,  as  she 
had  already  witnessed,  the  triumph  of  her  Christian 
emperor,  the  consecration  of  the  spoils  of  the  defeated 
barbarians  on  the  altars  of  St.  Paul,  St.  Peter,  and  of 
Christ.i 

The  sacrifice  of  Stilicho^  to  the  dark  intrigues  of 
Disgrace        the  court  of  Ravcuua  was  the  last  fatal  sism. 

and  death  n         .  . 

of  stiiicho.  of  this  pride  and  security.  Both  Christian 
and  pagan  writers  combine  to  load  the  memory  of 
Stihcho  with  charges  manifestly  intended  to  exculpate 
the  court  of  Ilonorius  from  the  guilt  and  folly  of  his 


1  Paulinus  in  vit.  Ambrosii,  c.  50.   Augustin.  de  Civ.  Dei,  v.  23.    Orosins, 
vii.  37. 

2  Stiiicho  was  married  to  Serena,  the  sister  of  Honorius.    Honoriiis  had 
mwried  in  succession  Maria  and  Thennantia,  (he  daughters  of  Stiiicho 


Chap.  I.  DEATH  OF  STILTCHO.  147 

disgrace,  and  his  surrender  by  a  Christian  bishop  after 
he  liad  sought,  himself  a  Christian,  sanctuary  at  tlie 
altar  of  the  church  of  Ravenna,  and  his  perfidious 
execution.  The  Christians  accuse  him  of  a  design  to 
depose  the  em])eror,  who  was  both  his  brother-in-law 
and  his  son-in-law,  and  to  elevate  his  own  heir  Euche- 
rius  to  the  Imperial  throne.  Eucherius,  it  is  asserted, 
but  with  no  proof,  and  with  all  probability  against  it, 
was  a  pagan ;  the  public  restoration  of  paganism,  as 
tlie  religion  of  the  Empire,  was  to  be  the  first  act  of 
the  new  dynasty.  ^  The  ungrateful  pagans  seem  to 
have  been  imiorant  of  this  mao;nificent  scheme  in  their 
favor ;  they  too  brand  Stilicho  with  the  name  of  traitor, 
and  ascribe  to  his  perfidious  dealings  with  Alaric  the 
final  ruin  of  Rome.^  They  hated  him  as  the  enemy, 
the  despoiler  of  their  religion ;  as  having  robbed  the 
temples  of  their  treasures,  burned  the  Sibylline  books, 
stripped  from  the  doors  of  the  Capitol  the  plates  of 
gold.  Stilicho  knew  the  weakness  as  well  as  the 
strength  of  Rome  ;  that  may  have  been  but  wise  and 
necessary  policy,  in  order,  by  timely  concession  and 
tribute  under  the  honorable  name  of  boon  or  largess, 
to  keep  the  formidable  barbarian  beyond  the  fi-ontiers 
of  Italy,  which  may  have  seemed  treasonable  degrada- 
tion to  the  haughty  court,  Wind  to  its  own  impotence. 

1  Orosius,  vii.  38. 

2  So  Rutilius  Numatianus,  who  hated  Christianity — 

"  Quo  magis  est  facinus  cliri   Stilichonis  iniquum, 
Proditor  arcani  qui  fuit  imperii. 
Romano  generi  dum  nititur  esse  superstes, 

Crudelis  surumis  miscuit  ima  furor. 
Dumque  timet,  quicquid  se  fecerat  ante  timeri, 
Immisit  Latife  barbara  tela  neci." 

Rutil.  Itin.  ii.  41. 

«  Compare  Gibbon,  c.  xxx. 


148  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IL 

The  death  of  Stilicho  was  the  signal  for  the  reap- 
Aiaric's  pearaiice  of  Alaric  again  in  ai-ms  in  the 
Invasion.  Centre  of  Italy.  His  pretext  for  this  se'cond 
invasion  was  the  violation  of  the  treaties  entered  into 
by  Stilicho.  At  all  events,  the  unanswerable  testi- 
mony to  the  abilities  of  Stilicho,  if  not  to  his  fidelity, 
is  that  v/hich  seemed  to  be  the  immediate,  inevitable 
consequence  of  his  disgrace  and  execution.  No  sooner 
was  Stilicho  dead,  than  Rome  lay  open  to  the  barba- 
rian conqueror.  Unopposed,  almost  without  a  skir- 
mish, laughing  to  scorn  the  slow  and  inefficient  pre])a- 
rations  of  the  emperor  and  of  Oljnupius  who  ruled  the 
emperor,  and  who  had  misguided  him  to  the  ruin  of 
Stilicho,  Alaric  advanced  from  the  Alps  to  the  walls 
of  Rome.  The  first  act  of  defence  adopted  by  the 
senate  of  Rome  was  the  judicial  murder  of  Serena,  the 
widow  of  Stilicho.  She  was  accused  of  a  design  to  be- 
tray the  city  to  the  Goth.  Both  parties  seem  to  have 
consented  to  this  deed.  The  heathens  remembered 
that  when  Theodosius  the  Great  had  struck  the  deadly 
blow  against  the  rites  and  the  temples  of  paganism,  by 
prohibiting  all  public  expenditure  on  heathen  ceremo- 
A.D.  408.  nies,  Serena  had  stripped  a  costly  necklace 
from  the  statue  of  Rhea,  the  most  ancient  and  venera- 
ble of  Rome's  goddesses,  and  herself  ostentatiously 
wore  the  precious  spoil  ;  that  neck  was  now  given  up 
to  strangulation,  a  righteous  and  a])propriate  punish- 
ment for  her  impiety.  The  historian  seems  to  inti- 
mate ^  that  the  Romans  were  surprised  that  the  death 
of  Serena  produced  no  effect  on  the  remorseless  Goth. 

Siege  of  Rome.  "^^^^  ^^^S^  ^^  ^^^^^  ^^'^^^  fomicd ;  the  vast 
i.D.  408.        population,  accustomed  to  live,  the  wealthy 

iZosimiis  —  Sozomcn,  ix.  6. 


Chap.  I.  ETRUSCAN    DIVINERS.  149 

in  luxury  perliaps  to  no  great  extent  moderated  hy 
Christianity,  the  ])Oor  by  gratuitous  distributions  at 
the  expense  of  the  public  or  of  the  rich,  to  which 
Christian  charity  had  now  come  in  aid,-^  were  suddenly 
reduced  to  the  worst  extremities  of  famine.  The 
public  distributions  were  diminished  to  one  half,  to  one 
third.  The  heai)s  of  dead  bodies,  which  there  wanted 
space  to  bury,  produced  a  pestilence.  In  vain  the 
Senate  endeavored  to  negotiate  an  honorable  capitula- 
tion. Alaric  scorned  alike  their  money,  their  despair, 
their  pride.  When  they  spoke  of  their  immense  pop 
ulation,  he  burst  out  into  laughter,  —  "  The  thicker 
the  hay,  the  easier  it  is  mown."  On  his  demand  of 
an  exorbitant  ransom,  the  Senate  humbly  inquired, 
"What,  then,  do  you  leave  us?"  "Your  hves!" 
replied  the  insulting  Goth. 

Durino[  this  first  siecre  Innocent  was  in  Rome.  The 
strange  story  of  the  desperate  proposition  to  deliver 
the  city  by  the  magical  arts  of  certain  Etrus-  Etruscan 
can  diviners,  who  had  power,  it  was  sup-  ^^^^'^**^^- 
posed,  to  call  down  and  direct  the  lightnings  of  heaven, 
appears,  in  different  forms,  in  the  pagan  and  Christian 
historians.2  Innocent  himself  is  said,  by  the  heathen 
Zosimus,  to  have  assented  to  the  idolatrous  ceremony. 
If  this  be  true,  it  is  possible  that  the  mind  of  the 
Christian  Prelate  may  have  been  so  entirely  unhinged 
by  the  terrors  of  the  siege  and  the  dreadful  sufferings 
of  the  people,  that  he  may  have  yielded  to  any  hope, 
however  wild,  of  averting  the  ruin.     It   is   possible, 

1  Laeta,  the  wife  of  Gratian,  and  her  mother,  were  distinguished  by  theii 
abundant  charities,  which  at  least  mitigated  the  sufferings  of  multitudes. 

2  Compare  Hist,  of  Christianity,  iii.  181.     Zosimus,  v.  41.     Sozomeu, 
be.  6. 


150  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U 

tliougli  less  probable,  that  he  may  have  known  or  sup- 
posed the  Etruscans  to  be  possessed  of  some  skilful, 
and  in  no  way  su])ernatural,  means  of  producing  ap- 
parent wonders,^  which  might  awe  tire  ignorant  barba- 
rians, and  of  which  the  use  might  be  justified  by  the 
dreadful  crisis ;  and  if  these  arts  were  thought  sui)er- 
natural,  it  was  not  for  him  to  expose,  at  least  for  the 
present,  the  useful  delusion.  At  all  events,  to  judge 
the  conduct  of  Innocent,  we  must  throw  ourselves 
completely  back  into  the  terror  and  affliction,  the  con- 
fusion and  prostration  of  that  disastrous  time.  The 
whole  history  is  obscm'e  and  contradictory.  The 
Christian  w^riter  asserts  that  the  ceremony  did  take 
place,  but  that  the  Christians  (he  does  not  name  Inno- 
cent) stood  aloof  from  the  profane  and  ineffectual  rite. 
The  heathen  aver,  that  the  Senate,  after  grave  dehber- 
ation,  refused  to  sanction  its  public  performance,  and 
that,  in  fact,  it  did  not  take  place.  The  barbarian,  at 
Capitulation,  length,  coudesccndcd  to  accept  a  ransom,  in 
some  proportion  to  the  wealth  of  the  city  —  5000 
pounds  of  gold,  30,000  of  silver,  four  thousand  silken 
robes,  3000  pieces  of  scarlet  cloth,  3000  pounds  of 
pepper.  To  make  up  the  deficiency  of  the  precious 
metals,  the  heathen  temples,  to  the  horror  of  that 
party,  were  despoiled ;  the  time-honored  statues  of 
gods  were  melted  to  make  up  the  amount  demanded 
by  the  barbarian.  The  last  fatal  sign  and  omen  of 
the  departure  of  Roman  greatness  was,  that  the  statue 
of  Fortitude,  or  Virtue,  was  thrown  into  the  common 
mass.2 


1  See  Eusebe  Salverte,  on  the  knowledge  possessed  by  the  ancients  in 
conducting  lightning.  —  Sciences  Occultes. 

'•^'AXAa  nal  i^d^rcfcrav  nva  tCjv  Ik  xp^f^ov  nai  upyvpov  TrenoLrjiievuu,  ut 


Chap.  I.  CAPITULATION  OF  HOME.  151 

Alaric  retired  from  Rome,  his  army  increased  by 
multitudes  of  slaves  from  the  city  and  the  neighbor- 
hood, who,  it  is  said,  to  the  number  of  40,000,  had 
found  refuge  in  his  camp.  The  infatuated  pride,  the 
insincerity,  the  treachery  of  the  court  of  Ravenna, 
rendered  impracticable  all  negotiations  for  peace.  The 
minister  01ymi)ius,  the  chief  agent  in  the  assassination 
of  Stilicho,  has  found  favor,  of  which  he  seems  to  have 
been  utterly  unworthy,  fi-om  Christian  writers,  on 
account  of  some  letters  addi^essed  to  him  by  St.  Augus- 
tine. Even  his  fall  produced  no  great  change.  Hono- 
rius,  indeed,  seems  to  have  occupied  his  time  at  this 
crisis  in  framing  edicts  against  Jews  and  heretics,  and 
other  decrees,  as  if  for  a  peaceful  and  extensive  empire. 
Under  Olympius,  he  had  promulgated  the  Imperial 
rescript,  which  deprived  the  heathen  temples  of  their 
last  revenue  ;  it  was  confiscated  for  the  use  of  the  de- 
vout soldiers.  The  statues  of  the  gods  were  ordered 
to  be  thrown  down  ;  the  temples  in  the  cities  were 
seized  for  public  uses,  others  were  to  be  destroyed  ;  the 
banquets  (epula^)  prohibited.^  But  he  was  compelled 
to  repeal  a  law  which  deprived  him  of  the  services  of 
all  heathens.  Generides,  a  valiant  and  able  pagan, 
was  permitted  to  resume  the  military  belt,  and  to  take 
the  command  of  part  of  the  Imperial  forces.  A  sec- 
ond time  Alaric  appeared  before  Rome.  He  seized 
upon  the  port  of  Ostia,  and  this  cut  off  at  once  almost 

tjv  KoX  TO  r^g  avdpiaQ,  riv  KaTiovai  'Pw//aioi  OuipTovTE/j.'  ovTtep  6La<^&apivToq 
taa  TTJg  avdpiac  ijv  koI  aper^g  napa  'Fufialotg  WKsa^r}.  .  .  .  Zosimus 
V.  41. 

1  This  law  is  dated  the  17th  of  the  calends  of  December,  408.  Templo- 
mm  detrahantur  annonae  et  rem  annonariam  jubent,  expensis  devotissimo- 
rum  militum  profuturge,  &c.  Compare  Beugnot,  ii.  p.  49,  et  seqq.  Cod 
Theodos.  xvi.  10, 19. 


152  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IL 

all  the  supplies  of  the  city.^  Rome  opened  her  gates, 
Attains         and  Alaric  set  up  a  pageant  emperor,  Attalus, 

Emperor.  •       i  i  •        -r»  n^i 

A.D.  409.  as  a  rival  to  the  emperor  m  Kavenna.  1  he 
Christians  beheld  the  elevation  of  Attalus,  a  pagan, 
who  submitted  to  Arian  baptism,  but  openly  attempted 
to  restore  the  party  of  paganism,  with  undisguised 
aversion.  Lampadius,  the  Senator,  at  the  head  of 
this  party,  was  PrtBtorian  Pra^fect,  Tertullus  Consul. 
Tertullus  boldly  declared  that  to  the  Consulate  he 
should  add  the  High  Priesthood.^  The  Pagan  histo- 
rian describes  the  universal  joy  of  Rome  at  the  eleva- 
tion of  such  just  and  noble  magistrates.  The  Chris- 
tians^ looked  eagerly  to  the  court  of  Ravenna.  Alaric 
was  encamped  between  the  Christian  and  pagan  cities, 
between  Ravenna  and  Rome.  Tlie  feeble  government 
of  Attalus  had  to  encounter  an  enemy  even  more  for- 
midable than  the  Christians.  The  Count  Heraclian 
closed  the  ports  of  Africa :  a  famine  even  more  ter- 
rible than  during  the  former  siege,  and  even  that  had 
reduced  men  to  the  most  loatlisome  and  abominable 
food,  afflicted  the  enfeebled  and  diminished  population. 
A  strano;e  and  revoltinoi;  anecdote  ilhistrates  at  once 
Roman  manners  and  this  dire  calamity.  The  Romans, 
though  they  had  no  bread,  had  still  their  Circensian 
games.  In  the  midst  of  the  excitement,  the  ears  of 
the  Emperor  were  assailed  with  a  wild  cry  —  Fix  the 
tariff  for  human  flesh.^  All  these  calamities  the  Chris- 
tians ascribed  to  the  restoration  of  heathen  rites. 

1  As  usual,  the  dealers  in  gram  were  accused  of  hoarding  their  stores,  in 
*rder  to  possess  themselves  of  all  the  remaining  wealth  of  the  city. 

2  Sozom.  ix.  9.  8  Oros.  vii.  42. 

4  Zosimus  inserts  the  words  in  Latin  —  Pone  pretium  carni  humanje. 
The  price  of  bread,  as  of  all  other  articles,  was  fixed  by  the  governmyut 
Zosunus,  vi.  11. 


Chap.  I.        THIRD  SIEGE  AND  CAPTURE  OF  ROME.  153 

Attalus,  at  the  word  of  lils  Gothic  master,  descended 
from  his  throne,  and  sank  back  to  his  former  ^j^j^^  gj^g^ 
insignificance.  But  Rome,  when  Alaric  ap- ^*^ ^*''"®- 
peared  a  third  time  under  its  walls,  prepared  to  close 
her  gates,  and  to  act  on  the  defensive  (the  Emperor 
Honorius  had  received  the  scanty  succor  of  six  cohorts 
from  the  East,  and  Rome  was  in  frantic  hope  of  rescue 
fi'om  Ravenna).  Weakness  or  treachery  baffled  this 
desperate,  if  courageous,  determination.  At  the  dead 
of  night,  the  Salarian  gate  was  opened  ;  the  morning 
beheld  Rome  in  the  possession  of  the  conqueror  ;  but 
the  conqueror,  though  a  barbarian  and  a  heretic,  was 
a  Chiistian.  Over  the  fail  of  Rome,  history  might 
seem,  in  horror,  to  have  dropped  a  veil.^ 

However  the  first  appalling  intelligence  of  this  event 
shook  the  Roman  world  to  the  centre,  and  capture  of 
the  fearful  scene  of  pillage,  violation,  and  de-  T.D^Iio. 
struction  by  fire  and  sword,  was  imagined  to  ^"^' 
suqoass  in  its  horrors  everything  recorded  in  profane  cr 
sacred  history,  yet  the  shock  passed  away  ;  and  Rome 
quietly    assumed   her    second,    her    Christian    empire. 
When  the  first  stunning  tidings  of  the  fall  of  the  Im- 
perial City  reached  Jerome  in  his  retirement  in  Pales- 
tine, even  some  time  after,  when  he  had  held  inter- 
course with  ftigltlves  fi'om  Rome,  the  capture  represents 
itself  to  his  vivid  fancy  as  one  dark  and  terrific  mass 
of  havoc  and  ruin.     It  was  accompanied  by  no  mitigat- 
ing or  relieving  circumstances  ;  by  none  of  those  strik- 
'ng  incidents  of  Christian  piety  and  mercy,  which,  in 


1  Rome  may  be  said  to  have  fallen  without  an  historian.  Her  ruin  was 
mdeed  described  by  the  Greek  Zosimus,  but  his  sixth  book  is  lost.  Orosiua 
cannot  be  dignified  by  the  name  —  his  work  is  but  a  summar}'  of  Augus- 
tine's City  of  God. 


154  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U 

the  pages  of  Augustine  and  Orosius,  are  thrown  across 
die  general  gloom.  The  sudden  horror,  as  well  as  con- 
sternation, joined  with  the  gloomy  temperament  of  Je- 
rome to  deepen  the  darkness  of  the  scene.^  He  asserts 
that  the  famine  had  already  so  thinned  the  population, 
that  few  remained  in  the  city  to  be  taken.  He  heaps 
together  the  awful  passages  in  the  Old  Testament,  on 
the  capture  of  Jerusalem  and  other  eastern  cities,  and 
the  noble  lines  of  Virgil  on  the  sack  of  Troy,  as  but 
feebly  descriptive  of  the  night  in  which  fell  the  Moab 
of  the  West.  Nor  can  it  be  supposed  that,  whatever 
the  disposition  or  even  the  orders  of  Alaric,  the  captm^e 
of  a  city  so  wealthy,  so  luxurious,  so  populous,  by  a 
vast  and  ill-disciplined  host  of  barbarians,  at  least  at 
their  first  irruption,  could  be  more  than  a  wild  tumult 
of  fury,  license,  plunder,  bloodshed,  and  conflagration. 
Multitudes  of  that  host,  no  doubt,  still  held  their  old 
warlike  Teutonic  faith.  In  those  who  were  called 
Christians  the  ferocity  of  the  triumphant  soldier  was 
hardly  mitigated  by  the  softening  influences  of  the  Gos- 
pel. The  forty  thousand  slaves  said  to  have  joined  the 
army  of  Alaric,  brought  their  revenge  and  their  local 
and  personal  knowledge  of  the  richest  palaces,  and  of 
the  most  opulent  families,  which  would  furnish  the  most 
attractive  victims  to  lust  or  to  pillage.  But  the  calam- 
ities that  involved  in  ruin  almost  the  whole  pagan  pop- 
ulation and  the  palaces  of  the  ancient  families,  which 

1  Tcrribilis  de  Occidcnte  rumor  affcrtur  .  .  .  .  —  Ha?rct  vox  et  singultus 
intercipiunt  verba  dictantis.  Capitur  urbs,  quae  totum  cepit  orbem,  imo 
fame  perit,  ante(iuam  gladio,  et  vix  pauci,  qui  cai)erentur,  iuventi  sunt. 
Epist.  xciv.  IMarcclUe  JCpita])b.  Yet,  in  the  same  letter,  he  writes  to  Mar- 
cella  —  Sit  mihi  fas  aiiditw  loqui;  inio  a  Sanctis  viris  visa  narrare,  qui  inter- 
fuere  jmesentes.  —  lOUl. 

Nocte  Moab  cafita  est,  uocte  cccidit  murus  ejus.  Hieronym.  i.  121,  ad 
Principiam. 


CnAi>.  I.  INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  156 

still  adhered  to  tlieir  ancestral  gods,  are  lost  in  oblivion  ; 
while  Christianity  has  boastfully,  or  gratefully,  pre- 
S'erved  those  exceptional  incidents,  in  which  through  her 
influence,  and  in  her  behalf,  the  common  disaster  was 
rebuked,  checked,  mitigated.  The  last  feeble  mm-murs 
of  paganism  arraigned  Christianity  as  the  Extinction 
cause  of  the  desertion  of  the  city  by  her  an-  ^^^^s^^^ 
cient  and  mighty  gods,  and,  therefore,  of  her  inevitable 
fate.  Christianity  was  now  so  completely  the  mistress 
of  the  human  mind,  as  to  assert  that  it  Vv^as,  indeed,  the 
power  of  her  God  —  her  justly  provoked  and  right- 
eously avenging  God  —  which  had  brought  to  its  final 
close  the  Gentile  sovereignty  of  Rome.  Nothing  pagan 
had  escaped,  but  that  which  found  shelter  unde^r  Chris- 
tianity. For  Alaric,  though  an  Arian,  was  a  Christian. 
His  conduct  was  strongly  contrasted  with  what  might 
have  been  feared  from  the  heathen  Rhadagaisus,  if  God 
liad  abandoned  Rome  to  his  fury.  The  Goth  had  been 
throughout  under  the  awful  control  of  Christianity.^ 
He  is  said  to  have  issued  a  proclamation,  influence  of 
which,  while  it  abandoned  the  guilty  and  lux-  ct^ristianity. 
urious  city  to  plunder,  commanded  regard  for  human 
life  ;  and  especially  the  most  religious  respect  fcr  the 
Churches  of  the  Apostles.     In  obedience  to  these  com- 

1  The  great  Christian  argument  is  summed  up  in  this  noble  passage  cf 
Augustine :  — 

Quicquid  igitur  vastationis,  trucidationis,  depredationis,  concremationis, 
afflictionis  in  ista  recentissima  Romana  clade  commissum  est:  facit  hoc 
consuetudo  belloiiim.  Quod  autem  more  novo  factum  est,  quod  musitata 
rerum  facie  immanitas  barbara  tarn  mitis  apparuit,  ut  amplissimae  basiUca? 
implendaj  populo,  cui  parceretur,  eligerentur  et  decemerentur,  ubi  nemo 
feriretur,  unde  nemo  raperetur,  quo  liberandi  multi  a  miserantibus  hostibus 
iucerentur,  unde  captivandi  nuUi,  nee  a  ci-udelibus  hostibus  abducerentur: 
hoc  Christi  nomini.  lioc  Chvistiano  tempori  tribuendum,  quisquis  non  videt, 
caecus;  quisquis  videt,  nee  laudat,  ingratus;  quisquis  laudanti  reluctatur, 
insauus  est.    Augustin.  Tract,  de  excid.  Urbis. 


156  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  D 

niands,  and  under  the  especial  control  of  the  Almiohty, 
among  the  smoking  ruins,  the  plundered  houses  and 
temples,  the  families  desolated  by  the  sword,  or  by  out> 
rages  worse  than  death,  the  Christian  edifices  alone 
commanded  at  least  some  reverence  and  security. 
Everywhere  else  was  promiscuous  massacre,  peace  and 
safety  alone  in  the  churches.  The  heathens  them- 
selves fled  to  these,  the  only  places  of  refuge  ;  they 
took  shelter,  in  their  terror  and  despair,  under  the  al- 
tars which  they  despised  or  hated.  The  more  solid 
and  majestic  structures  of  paganism  would,  no  doubt, 
defy  the  injuries  which  might  be  wrought  by  barbari- 
ans, more  intent  on  plunder  than  destruction,  but  their 
most  hallowed  sanctuaries  were  violated.  Before  the 
Christian  Churches  alone  rapacity,  and  lust,  and  cru- 
elty were  arrested,  and  stood  abashed.  When  the  con- 
flagration raged,  as  it  did  in  some  parts  of  the  city, 
amid  private  houses,  palaces,  or  temples,  some  of  the 
sacred  edifices  of  the  Christians  might  be  enveloped 
in  the  flames.  But  the  more  important  churches  — 
those  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  —  were  res])ected  by 
the  spreading  fires,  as  well  as  by  the  infuriated  soldieiy.* 
There  the  obedient  sword  of  the  conqueror  paused  in 
its  work  of  death,  and  even  his  cupidity  was  overawed.^ 
Of  all  the  temi)le  treasuries,  the  public  or  private 
hoards  of  i)recious  metals,  which  the  owners  were  com- 
pelled to  betray  by  the  most  excruciating  tortures,  the 
jewels,  the  plate,  the  spoils  of  centuries  of  conquest, 
the  accumulated  plunder  of  provinces,  only  the  sacred 

'  Augustin.  de  Civ.  Dei,  ii.  1.  a.  7.  Yet  this  was  unknown  to  Jerome. 
He  says,  In  cineres  ac  favillas  sacra?  quondam  ecclesiie  conciderunt.  Epist. 
xciii. 

■^  Perhaps  the  I'emote  and  even  extramural  situation  of  these  churches 
night  tend  to  their  security. 


Chai-.  I.        PROTECTION  OF  FEMALES.  157 

vessels  and  ornaments  of  Christian  worship  remained 
in\aolate.  It  was  said  that  sacred  vessels  found  with- 
out the  precincts  of  the  Church  were  borne  with  rev- 
erential decency  into  the  sanctuary.  Of  this  Orosius 
relates  a  remarkable  and  i)articular  history.  A  fierce 
soldier  entered  in  quest  of  plunder  into  the  dwelling  of 
an  ao;ed  Christian  virmn.  He  demanded,  in  courteous 
terms,  the  surrender  of  her  treasures.  She  exposed  to 
his  view  many  vessels  of  gold,  of  great  size,  weight, 
and  beauty  ;  vessels  of  which  the  soldier  knew  neither 
the  use  nor  the  name.  "  These,"  she  said,  "  are  the 
pi^operty  of  the  Apostle  St.  Peter.  Take  them,  if  you 
dare,  and  answer  for  your  act  to  God.  A  defenceless 
woman,  I  cannot  protect  them  from  your  violence  ;  my 
soul,  therefore,  is  free  from  sin."  The  soldier  -stood 
awe-struck.  A  message  was  sent  to  Alaric,  and  orders 
were  instantly  despatched  that  the  Adrgin  and  her  holy 
treasures  should  be  safely  conducted  to  the  Church  of 
the  Apostle.  The  procession  (for  the  virgin's  dwelling 
was  far  distant  from  the  Church)  was  led  through  tlie 
long  and  wondering  streets.  The  people  broke  out 
into  hymns  of  adoration,  and  amid  the  tumult  of  dis- 
order and  ruin,  the  tranquil  pomp  pursued  its  course  ; 
the  name  of  Christ  rose  swelling  above  the  wild  disso- 
nance of  the  captured  city.  Even  more  lawless  pas- 
sions yielded  to  the  holy  control.  In  the  p,ot^pti,^ ,,, 
loathsome  scenes  of  violation,  the  chastity  of  ^'^'"^^^^• 
Clu'istian  virgins  alone  —  at  least,  in  some  instances  — 
found  respect  from  the  lustful  barbarian.^     There  is 

1  Demetrias  escaped,  according  to  St.  Jerome.  Diidiun  inter  barbaras 
tremuisti  maniis;  avite  et  matris  sinu  et  palliis  tegebaris.  Vidisti  te  capti- 
vam,  et  pudicitiam  tuam  non  tuje  potestatis:  borruisti  truces  bostium  v-ul* 
tus:  raptas  virgines  Dei  gemitu  tacite  conspexisti.  Hieronym.  Epist.  8 
Compare  Augustin.  de  Civ.  Dei,  i.  16. 


158  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II 

an  instance  of  a  beautiful  virgin  who  tlius  preserved 
her  honor.  Indignant  at  her  resistance,  the  young 
soldier  into  wliose  power  she  had  fallen,  drew  his  sword 
and  slightly  wounded  her.  Though  bleeding,  she 
calmly  held  out  her  neck  to  tlie  stroke  of  death. 
The  soldier,  though  an  Arian,  observes  the  Catholic 
writer,  could  not  but  admire  her  fidelity  to  Christ  her 
spouse.  He  led  her  to  the  Church,  and,  with  a  gift  of 
six  pounds  of  gold,  surrendered  her  to  those  who  were 
on  guard  over  the  sanctuary.^  Marcella,  the  friend  of 
Jerome,  did  not  escape  so  easily  tlie  only  dangers  to 
which,  on  account  of  her  age,  she  was  exposed.  As 
he  had  heard  from  eye-witnesses  of  the  scene,  it  was 
not  till  she  had  been  beaten  and  scourged,'"^  to  compel 
lier  to  reveal  her  secret  treasures,  treasures  long  before 
expended  in  charity,  that  her  admirable  courage  and 
patience  enforced  the  respect  of  the  spoiler,  and  in- 
duced him  to  lead  her  to  the  asylum  of  the  Church 
of  St.  Paul.3 

1  Sozomen,  H.  E.  ix.  10. 

2  Cjesain  fustibus  flagellisque,  aiunt  te  non  sensisse  tormenta.  Hieronym. 
Epist.  loc.  cit. 

3  The  most  extraordinary  passage  relating  to  the  sack  of  Rome  is  in  St. 
Jerome's  next  letter.  All  the  horrors  on  which  he  has  dwelt, — the  capture 
of  Rome,  the  massacre,  rape,  pillage,  and  conflagration,  —  are  not  merely 
miti<j(ittd^  but  amply  compensated  to  Rome  and  to  the  world  by  the  profes- 
sion of  virginity  made  by  Demetrias.  It  was  as  great  a  triumph  as  the 
discomfiture  of  the  Gothic  army  would  have  been.  We  can  neither  under- 
stand Jerome  nor  his  age  without  considering  these  strange  sentences. 
Her  vows  of  chastity  were  against  the  wishes  of  her  Avhole  family;  the 
greater,  therefore,  their  merit.  Hence  "  invenisse  earn  quod  prucstaret  gen- 
eri,  quod  .Roiname  urbis  cineres  7nitigareC  After  describing  the  rejoicing 
of  Africa,  he  proceeds:  Tunc  lugubres  vestes  Italia  mutavit,  et  semirufce 
urhis  Rointe  iii.oenln,prhtlnu7n  171  parte  recepei'ef  ulyai'em,  propUium  sibi  ex- 
istim(mtes  JJtiim,  sic  aluinme  converslone  pevfectd.  Putares  extinctam  Go- 
thorum  manum,  et  colluviem  perfugarum  et  ser\'ornm,  Domini  desuper 
intonantis  fulmine  cecidisse.  Non  sic  post  Trebiam,  Thrasymenum,  et 
Cannas,  in  quibus  locis  Romanorum  exorcituum  ciesa  sunt  millia,  Marcelli 


CnAP.  I.  INNOCENT    ABSENT   FROM  RO.MK.  159 

Innocent  was  happily  absent  from  Rome  during  the 
last  sieo;e   and  sack   of  the  city.     After  the  innocent 

1  PAi'P  ^      n  n       absent  from 

second  retreat  of  Alaric  from  before  the  walls,  Rome. 
lie  had  accompanied  a  deputation  to  Ravenna,  to  seek, 
and  seek  in  vain,  from  the  powerless  Emperor,  some 
protection  for  the  capital.  He  did  not  return,  and  the 
fate  of  the  city  was  left  to  the  resolutions  of  a.d.  409. 
the  Senate.  He  thus  escaped  the  horrors  of  that  fatal 
night,  and  the  three  days'  pillage  of  the  city.  If  his 
presence  did  not  contribute  to  the  comparative  security 
of  the  Christians,  neither  did  his  holy  person  endure 
the  peril  of  exposure  to  insult,  or  the  blind  and  undis- 
criminating  fury  of  a  heathen  soldiery.  Innocent  re- 
turned to  a  city,  if  in  some  parts  ruined  and  desolate, 
now  entirely  Christian  ;  the  ancient  religion  was  buried 
under  the  ruins.  Many  of  the  noblest  families  of  Rome 
were  reduced  to  slavery  by  the  Goths  ;  some  had  antici- 
pated the  capture  of  the  city  by  a  shameful  flight : 
many  more  abandoned  forever  their  doomed  and  hope- 
less country.  Alaric  and  his  host,  satiated  with  three 
days'  plunder,  at  the  end  of  six  days  broke  up  from 
Rome  to  ravage  the  rich  and  defenceless  cities  of  south- 
em  Italy.  The  estates,  which  had  so  long  maintained 
the  enormous  luxury  of  the  Roman  patricians,  were 

primum  apud  Nolam  praelio,  se  populus  Romanus  erexit,  &c.  &c.  Jerome 
has  some  notion  that  he  is  surpassing  Tully  and  Demosthenes,  whose  elo- 
quence would  1)6  unequal  to  this  wonderful  event.  Compare  with  this  let- 
ter the  Epistle  addressed  to  the  same  Demetrias,  there  is  little  doubt,  by  no 
less  a  person  than  the  heresiarch  Pelagius.  Pelagius,  in  the  spirit  of  his 
age,  is  an  admirer  of  virginity.  But  throughout  the  Epistle  there  is  a  sin- 
gular calmness  as  well  as  elegance  of  style,  which  forcibly  con'^rasts  with 
the  passionate  hyperboles  of  Jerome.  Pelagius,  too,  alludes  to  the  sack  of 
Rome,  and  urges  it  as  an  image  of  the  last  day.  Eadem  omnibus  imago 
mortis,  nisi  quia  magis  eam  timebant  ill),  quibus  fuerat  vita  jucundior.  Si 
ita  mortales  timemus  liostes,  ct  humanam  manum,  cum  clangore  terribili 
tuba  iutonarc  de  ctelo  cieperit,  &c.     In  Oper.  Hieronyra.  v.  p.  29. 


160  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book 

ravaged  or  confiscated :  whole  families  swept  away  into 
bondage.     Without  the  city,  as  within,  almost  all  that 
remained  of  eminent  and  famous  names,  the  ancestral 
houses,  which  kept  up  the  tradition  of  the  glory  of  the 
republic,  or  the  wealth  of  the  Empire,  sank  into  ob- 
scurity or  total  oblivion.      The  fugitives  from  Rome 
were  found  in  all  parts  of  the  world,^  and  among  these 
no  doubt  were  almost  all  the  more  distinguished  hea- 
thens,*'^  who,    no    longer   combining    into    a    powerful 
party,  no  longer  held  together  by  the  presence  of  the 
old  ancestral  temples,  or  by  the  household  gods  of  their 
race  and  family,  reduced  to  poor  and  insignificant  out- 
bisporsionof  casts  froui  descendants  and  representatives  of 
pagans.         ^^iq  noblcst  houscs  iu  Rome,  gradually  melted 
into  the  general  Christian  population   of  the  empire. 
Those,  whom  Jerome  beheld  at  Bethlehem,  were  doubt- 
less Christians  ;  but  the  whole  coasts,  not  only  of  Italy 
and  its  islands,  of  Africa,  Egypt,  and  the  East,  swarmed 
with   these  unfortunate  exiles.^     Carthage  was  full  of 
those  who,  to  the  great  indignation  of  Augustine,  not- 
withstanding   this   visible   sign    of    Almighty   wrath* 
crowded  the  theatres,  and  raised  turbulent  factions  con- 
cerning rival  actors  ;  they  carried  with  them  no  doubt, 
and  readily  pronmlgated  that  hostile  sentiment  towards 
Christianity,  which  attributed  all  the  calamities  of  the 

1  Nulla  est  regio,  quae  non  exules  Komanos  habeat.  —  Hieronym.  Epist. 
xcviii. 

'■^  Compire  Prefut.  ad  Ezckiel. 

8  ilonorius,  in  the  mean  time,  was  still  issuing  sanguinary  edicts  against 
heretics.  Oraculo  pcnitus  reinoto,  quo  ad  ritus  suos  hicreticje  superstitionis 
obrepserant,  sciaiit  ounies  sanctai  legis  inimici,  plectendos  se  pffina  et  pro- 
Bcriptionis  et  sanguinis,  si  ultra  convetiire  per  publicum  execrandii  sceleris 
Bui  temeritate  tentaverint.  To  this  law.  addressed  to  Ileraclian,  count  of 
AlVica,  (Cod.  Tluiodos.  c.  51,  de  Ua;ret.)  IJaronius  ascribes  the  speedy  de- 
liverance of  the  city  from  Alaric,  so  highly  was  it  approved  by  God!  Sub 
Ann.  410. 


Chap.  I.  RESTORATION  OF  ROME.  161 

times,  consummated  in  tlie  sack  of  Rome,  to  the  new 
religion.  It  was  this  last  desperate  remonstrance  of 
paganism  which  called  forth  Augustine's  City  of  God, 
and  the  brief  and  more  lively  perhaps,  but  meagre  and 
superficial  work  of  Orosius.  Babylon  has  fallen,  and 
fallen  forever ;  the  City  of  God,  at  least  the  centre 
and  stronghold  of  the  City  of  God,  is  in  Christian 
Rome. 

Nor  did  Innocent  return  to  rule  over  a  desert.  The 
wonder,  which  is  expressed  at  the  rapid  res-  Restoration 
toration  of  Rome,  shows  that  the  general  con-  °^  ^^^^' 
sternation  and  awe,  at  the  tidings  of  the  capture,  had 
greatly  exaggerated  the  amount  both  of  damage  and 
of  depopulation.  Some  of  the  palaces  of  the  nobles, 
who  had  fled  from  the  city,  or  perished  in  the  siege, 
may  have  remained  in  ruins  ;  above  all  the  temples, 
now  without  funds  to  repair  them  from  their  confiscated 
estates,  from  the  alienated  government,  or  from  the 
munificence  of  wealthy  worshippers,  would  be  left  ex- 
posed to  every  casual  injury,  and  fall  into  irremediable 
dilapidation,  unless  seized  and  appropriated  to  its  own 
uses  by  the  triumphant  faith.  Now  probably  began  the 
slow  conversion  of  the  heathen  fanes  into  Christian 
churches.^  It  took  many  more  sieges,  many  more 
irruptions  of  barbaric  conquerors,  to  destroy  the 
works  of  centuries  in  the  capital  of  the  world's  wealth 
and  power.  If  deserted  temples  were  left  to  decay, 
churches  rose  ;  palaces  found  new  lords  >  le  humbler 
buildings,  which  are  for  the  most  part  the  y ,  37  of  ruin 
and  conflagration,  are  speedily  repaired ;  it  .  j  hardly 

1  In  Rome  this  was  rare,  till  the  late  conversion  of  the  Panthetj  into  a 
Christian  church.  Few  churches  stand  even  on  the  sites  of  ancient  temples 
The  Basilica  seems  to  have  been  preferred  for  Christian  worship. 

VOT..     I.  11 


102  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U 

less  labor  to  demolish  than  to  build  solid,  massy  and 
substantial  habitations  ;  and  fire,  which  probably  did 
not  rage  to  any  great  extent,  was  the  only  destructive 
agent  which,  during  Alaric's  occupation,  endangered 
the  grandeur  or  majesty  of  the  city. 

If  Christian  Rome  rose  thus  out  of  the  ruin  of  the 
tness  pagan  city,  the  Bishop  of  Rome  rose  in  pro- 
of  Bishop,  portionate  grandeur  above  the  wreck  of  the 
old  institutions  and  scattered  society.  Saved,  as 
doubtless  it  seemed,  by  the  especial  protection  of 
God  from  all  participation,  even  fi'orn  the  sight  of 
this  tremendous,  this  ignominious  disaster,  according 
to  the  phrase  of  the  times,  as  Lot  out  of  the  fires 
of  Sodom,^  he  alone  could  lift  up  his  head,  if  with 
A.D.  411.  sorrow  without  shame.  Honorius  hid  him- 
self in  Ravenna,  nor  did  the  Emperor  ever  again, 
for  any  long  time,  make  his  residence  at  Rome. 
With  the  religion  expired  all  the  venerable  titles  of 
the  religion,  the  Great  High  Priests  and  Flamens, 
the  Auspices  and  Augurs.  On  the  Pontifical  throne 
sat  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  awaiting  the  time  when 
he  should  ascend  also  the  Imperial  throne ;  or,  at 
least,  if  without  the  name,  possess  the  substance  of 
the  Imperial  power,  and  stand  almost  as  much  above 
the  shadowy  form  of  the  old  republican  dignities, 
which  still  retained  their  titles  and  some  municipal 
authority,  as  the  Caesars  themselves.  The  capture 
of  Rome  by  Alaric  was  one  of  the  great  steps  by 
which  the  Pope  arose  to  his  plenitude  of  power. 
There  could  be  no  question  that  from  this  time  the 
greatest  man  in  Rome  was  the  Pope ;  he  alone  was 
invested  with   pennanent  and  real  power ;   he  alone 

1  Orosius. 


Chap.  I.  GREATNESS  OF  BISHOr.  163 

possessed  all  the  attributes  of  supremacy,  the  rever- 
ence, it  was  his  own  fault,  if  not  the  love  of  the 
people.  He  had  a  sacred  indefeasible  title ;  authority 
unlimited,  because  undefined ;  wealth,  which  none 
dare  to  usurp,  which  multitudes  lavishly  contributed 
to  increase  by  free-will  offerings ;  he  is,  in  one  sense, 
a  Caesar,  whose  apotheosis  has  taken  place  in  his  life- 
time, environed  by  his  Praetorian  guards,  his  eccle- 
siastics, on  whose  fidelity  and  obedience  he  may,  when 
once  seated  on  the  throne,  implicitly  rely ;  whose 
edicts  are  gradually  received  as  law;  and  who  has 
his  spiritual  Prsetors  and  Proconsuls  in  almost  every 
part  of  Western  Christendom. 


164  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IL 


CHAPTER  II. 

PELAGIANISM. 

The  Pelagian  question  agitated  the  West  during  tLe 
peia^an  l^ter  years  of  Innocent's  pontificate.  This 
controversy,  j^^^  \)Qen  the  great  interminable  controversy 
of  Latin,  of  more  than  Latin,  of  all  Western  Chris- 
tianity. The  nature  of  the  Godhead  and  of  the 
Christ  was  the  problem  of  the  speculative  East : 
that  of  man,  his  state  after  the  fall,  the  freedom 
or  bondage  of  his  will,  the  motive  principle  of  his 
actions,  that  of  the  more  active  West.  The  East 
might  seem  to  dismiss  this  whole  dispute  with  almost 
contemptuous  indifference.  Though  Pelagius  himself, 
and  his  follower  Celestius,  visited  Palestine  and  ob- 
tained the  suffrages  of  a  provincial  council  in  their 
favor;  though  from  his  cell  near  Bethlehem,  Jerome 
mingled  in  the  fray  with  all  his  native  violence, — 
there  the  controversy  died  rapidly  away,  leaving  hard- 
ly a  record  in  Grecian  theology,  none  whatever  in 
Greek  ecclesiastical  history.^ 

So  completely,  however,  throughout  the  Roman 
Pelagius.  world  is  Christianity  now  an  important  part 
of  human  affairs,  as  to  become  a  means  of  intercourse 
and  communication  between  the  remotest  provinces. 

1  Walch  has  observed,  that  none  of  the  Greek  historians,  neither  Socra- 
tes, Sozomen  nor  Theodoret  notice  the  Pelagian  controversy.  Ketzer- 
Geschichte,  iv.  p.  531. 


Chap.  11.  PELAGIAN  CONTROVERSY.  1(55 

On  the  one  hand  new,  and,  as  they  are  esteemed, 
heretical  opinions  are  propagated,  usually  by  their 
authors  or  by  their  partisans,  from  the  most  distant 
quarters,  and  so  spread  throughout  Christendom ;  on 
the  other  hand,  the  Christian  world  is  leagued  together 
in  every  part  to  suppress  these  proscribed  opinions. 
A  Briton,  Pelagius,  by  some  accounts  two  Britons, 
Pelagius  and  Celestius,  leave  their  home  at  the  ex- 
tremity of  the  known  earth,  perhaps  the  borders  of 
Wales,  the  uttermost  part  of  Britain,  to  disturb  the 
whole  Christian  world.  Pelagius  is  said  to  have  been 
a  monk,  and  though  no  doubt  bound  by  vows  of  celi- 
bacy, yet  was  under  the  discipline  of  no  community. 
He  arrives  in  Rome,  from  Rome  he  passes  to  Africa, 
fi'om  Afi'ica  to  Palestine.  Everywhere  he  preaches 
his  doctrines,  obtains  proselytes,*  or  is  opposed  by  in- 
flexible adversaries.  The  fervid  relio;ion  of  the  Afri- 
can  Churches  repudiated  with  one  voice  the  colder 
and  more  philosophic  reasonings  of  Pelagius :  ^  they 
submitted  to  the  ascendency  of  Augustine,  and  threw 
themselves  into  his  views  with  all  their  unextinguish- 
able  ardor. 

But  in  the  East  the  glowing  writings  of  Augustine 
were  not  understood,  probably  not  known  ;  ^  p^j^^.^^  .^ 
his  predestinarian  notions  never  seem  to  have  *^®  ^^*- 
been  congenial  to  the  Christianity  of  the  Greeks.     In 
Palestine,  however,  Pelagius  was  encountered  by  two 
implacable  adversaries,  Heros  and  Lazarus,  bishops  of 

1  My  history  of  the  earlier  period  of  Christianity  entered  into  the 
general  character  of  Pelagianism,  especially  as  connected  with  the  char- 
acter and  writings  of  Augustine.  I  consider  it  at  present  chiefly  in  its 
relation  to  Latin  Christianity.  —  Hist,  of  Cln-istianity,  iii.  pp.  264,  270. 

2  Except  by  Jerome,  who,  however,  received  his  writings  irregularly  and 
with  mur^  delay.  —  The  ordinary  cori'espondence  between  the  provinces 


166  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  n. 

Gaul.^  It  is  probable  indeed,  that  the  persecution  was 
to  be  traced  to  the  cell  of  Jerome,*^  with  whose  ve- 
hement and  superstitious  temperament  his  doctrines 
clashed  as  violently  as  with  those  of  Augustine. 
Councilor  Pelagius  was  arraigned  before  a  synod  of 
Diospoiis.  fourteen  prelates,  at  Diospolis  (the  ancient 
Lydda),  and,  to  the  astonishment  and  discomfiture 
of  his  adversaries,  solemnly  acquitted  of  all  hereti- 
cal tenets.  It  is  asserted  that  the  fathers  of  Dios- 
polis were  imposed  upon  by  the  subtle  and  plausible 
dialectics  of  Pelagius.  Considering,  indeed,  that  his 
accusers,  the  Gallic  bishops  (neither  of  whom  per- 
sonally appeared),  and  his  third  adversary,  Orosius, 
the  friend  and  disciple  of  Augustine,  only  spoke  Latin, 
that   the    Palestinian   bishops    only  understood  Greek 

Beems  now  to  have  been  slow  and  precarious.  Nothing,  writes  Augus- 
tine to  Jerome,  grieves  me  so  much  as  your  distance  from  me  —  *'ut 
vix  possim  meas  dare,  vel  recipere  tuas  litteras,  per  interv'alla  non 
dierum  non  mensium,  sed  aliquot  annorum.  —  August.  Epist.  xxviii. 
Were  any  of  his  works  translated  into  Greek  ? 

1  Orosius  too  was  in  Palestine,  it  should  seem,  in  search  of  relics.  He 
had  the  good  fortune  to  carry  otF  the  body  of  the  protomartyr  St.  Stephen. 
Compare  Baronius,  sub  ann. 

2  The  letter  to  Demetrias,  in  the  works  of  St.  Jerome,  seems  admitted  to 
be  a  genuine  writing  of  Pelagius.  That  both  Pelagius  and  his  antagonist 
Jerome  should  have  addressed  an  epistle  to  the  same  Demetrias  suggests 
the  suspicion  of  some  strong  personal  rivalry.  They  were  striving,  as  it 
were,  for  the  command  of  this  distinguished  and  still  probably  wealthy 
female. 

The  whole  tenor  of  the  letter  of  Pelagius  confirms  the  position,  that  the 
opinions  of  Pelagius  had  no  connection  with  mon;istic  enthusiasm,  and  did 
not  arise  out  of  that  pride  "of  good  works"  which  may  belong  to  the 
consciousness  of  extraordinary  austerities.  (Comjiare  Neander,  Christliche 
Kirche.)  Pelagius  arrives  at  his  conclusions  by  a  calm,  it  might  seem 
cold,  philosophy.  Excepting  as  to  the  praise  of  virginity,  tlie  greater 
part  of  the  letter  might  have  been  written  by  an  ancient  Academic,  or  by 
a  modern  metaphysical  inciuirer.  Jerome  traces  the  origin  of  Pelagianism 
to  the  Greek,  particularly  the  Stoic  philosophy.  He  quotes  Tertullian's 
saying,  P]iilosoi)lii,  patriarchx'  lutretii  jrum.  —  Ilicronym  Epist.  ad  Ctesi* 
nhont 


Chap.  U.  PELAGIAN  CONTROVERSY.  1G7 

(perhaps  imperfectly  any  language  but  their  own  ver- 
nacular Syrian),  and  that  Pelagius  had  the  command 
of  both  languages ;  that  these  questions,  which  de- 
manded the  most  exquisite  nicety  of  expression  and 
the  strictest  accuracy  of  definition,  must  have  been 
carried  on  by  the  clumsy  means  of  interpreters,  —  the 
council  of  Diospolis,  to  the  dispassionate  inquirer,  can- 
not carry  mach  weight.  The  usual  consequences  of 
religious  controversies  in  those  days,  and  in  those 
regions,  were  not  slow  to  appear.  Jerome  was  at- 
tacked in  his  retirement,  his  disciples  maltreated  by 
their  triumphant  adversaries.  Pelagius  himself  seems 
entirely  exempted  from  any  concurrence  in  these  law- 
less proceedings ;  but  his  fanatic  followers  (and  even 
his  calm  tenets  in  the  East  could  for  once  kindle 
fanaticism)  are  accused  of  perpetrating  every  crime, 
pillage,  murder,  conflagration,  on  the  peaceful  disci- 
ples of  Jerome,  especially  on  some  of  the  noble 
Roman  ladies  who  shared  his  sohtude.^ 

Wliile  ignorance,  or  indifference,  or  chance,  or  per- 
sonal hostility  to  the  asserters  of  anti-Pelagian  opinions 

1  Innocent  Epist.  ad  Aurel.  et  ad  Johannem,  Episcop.  Hierosolym. 
These  revengeful  violences  against  Jerome  appear  to  me  better  evidence 
that  he  was  at  least  supposed  to  be  the  head  of  the  faction  opposed  to 
Pelagius,  than  the  reasons  alleged  by  P.  Daniel,  Hist,  du  Concile  de  Pales  - 
tine,  and  Walch,  p.  398.  The  strong  expressions  as  to  these  acts  are  from 
Innocent's  letter.  Direptiones,  csedes,  incendia,  omne  facinus  extremae 
dementiiB,  generosissimje  sanctae  virgines  deploraverunt  in  locis  ecclesiae 
tute  perpetrasse  diabolum,  nomen  enim  hominis  causamque  reticuerunt.  — 
Apud  Labbe,  Concil.,  ii.  p.  1315.  If  the  odious  Pelagius  had  been  the  man, 
they  would  hardly  have  suppressed  his  name.  And  it  must  be  acknowl- 
edged that  Jerome  suffered  only  the  natural  results  of  his  own  principles. 
In  his  third  dialogue  against  the  Pelagians  he  introduces  their  advocate  as 
scarcely  daring  to  speak  out,  lest  he  should  be  stoned :  Statim  in  me  pop  ulo- 
rum  lapides  conjicias,  et  quern  viribus  non  potes,  voluutate  interficias.  To 
this  the  Catholic  rejoins,  Ille  htereticum  interficit,  qui  luweticum  esse 
patitur.  —  Hieronym.  Opcr.,  iv.  2.  p.  544. 


168  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U. 

decided  the  question  in  the  East,  the  West  demanded 
a  more  solemn  and  authoritative  adjudication  on  this 
absorbing  controversy.  By  the  decrees  of  the  Council 
of  Diospolis,  Africa  and  the  East  Avere  at  direct  issue  ; 
and  where  should  the  Africans  seek  the  arbiter,  or 
the  powei-fiil  defender  of  their  opinions,  but  at  Rome  ? 
Constantinople,  and  Alexandria,  and  Antioch,  took  no 
interest  in  these  questions,  or  were  occupied,  especially 
the  two  former,  by  their  own  religious  and  political 
quarrels.  The  African  Church,  when  such  a  cause 
was  on  the  issue,  stood  not  on  her  independence.  As 
a  Western  monk,  Pelagius  was  amenable,  in  some 
degree,  to  the  patriarchal  authority  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome.  Both  parties  seemed  at  least  to  acquiesce  in 
the  appeal  to  Innocent :  the  event  could  not  be  doubt- 
ful in  such  an  age  and  before  the  representative  of 
Latin  Christianity. 

All  great  divergences  of  religion,  where  men  are 
Origin  of  really  religious  (and  this  seems  acknowl- 
controversy.  edged  as  to  Pclagius  himself,  and  still  more 
as  to  some  of  his  semi-Pelagian  followers,  Julianus 
of  Eclana  and  the  Monastic  Cassian),  arise  from  the 
undue  dominance  of  some  principle  or  element  in  our 
religious  nature.  This  controversy  was  in  truth  the 
strife  betv/een  two  such  innate  principles,  which  phi- 
losophy despairs  of  reconciling,  on  which  tlie  New 
Testament  has  not  pronounced  with  clearness  or  pre- 
cision. The  religious  sentiment,  which  ever  assumes 
to  itself  the  exclusive  name  and  authority  of  religion, 
is  not  content  without  feeling,  or  at  least  supposing 
itself  to  feel,  the  direct,  immediate  agency  of  God 
upon  the  soul  of  man.  This  seems  inseparable  from 
the  divine  Sovereignty,  even  from   Providential  gov- 


Chap.  II.  PELAGIAN  CONTKOVEKSY.  169 

ernmont,  which  it  looks  Hke  impiety  to  limit,  and  of 
which  it  is  hard  to  conceive  the  self-limitation.'  ]\Iust 
not  God's  grace,  of  its  nature,  be  irresistible  ?  What 
can  bound  or  fetter  Omnipotence  ?  This  seems  the 
first  principle  admitted  in  prayer,  in  all  intercom'se 
between  the  soul  of  man  and  the  Infinite :  it  is  the 
life-spring  of  religious  enthusiasm,  the  vital  energy, 
not  of  fanaticism  only,  but  of  zeal.^  On  the  other 
hand,  there  is  an  equally  intuitive  consciousness  (and 
out  of  consciousness  grows  all  our  knowledge  of  these 
things)  of  the  fi-eedom,  or  self-determining  power  of 
the  human  will.  On  this  depends  all  morality,  and 
the  sense  of  human  responsibility ;  all  conception,  ex- 
cept that  which  is  unreasoning  and  instinctive,  of  the 
divine  justice  and  mercy.  This  is  the  problem  of 
philosophy ;  the  degree  of  subservience  in  the  human 
will  to  influences  external  to  itself,  and  in  no  way 
self-orisinated  or  self-controlled,  and  to  its  inward 
self-determining  power.^  In  Christianity  it  involved 
not  merely  the  metaphysic  nature,  but  the  whole  bib- 
lical history  of  man  ;  the  fall,  and  the  sin  inherited 
by  the  race  of  Adam ;  the  redemption  of  Christ, 
and  the  righteousness  communicated  to  mankind  by 
Christ. 

Pelagius  came  too  early  for  any  calm  consideration 
of  his  doctrines,  or  any  attempt  to  reconcile  the  diffi- 
culties which  he  suggested,  with  the  sacred  writino;.s. 

i  The  absolute  abandonment  of  free  will  seems  the  highest  point  of  true 
devotion.     Prosper  thus  writes  of  Augustine :  — 

Et  dum  nulla  sibi  tribuit  bona,  fit  Deus  illi 
Omiiia,  et  in  sancto  regnat  Sapieatia  templo. 
2  Compare  this  argument  in  another  form,  Hist,  of  Christianity,  iii.  n. 
267. 

8  Edwards  on  the  Will  throughout,  which  on  this  pomt  coincides  witL 
the  phuosophy  of  Hume 


170  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  TL 

In  his  age  tlie  religious  sentiment  was  at  its  height, 
and  to  the  rehgious  sentiment  that  system  was  true 
which  brought  the  soul  most  strongly  and  imme- 
diately under  divine  agency.  To  substitute  a  law 
for  that  direct  agency,  to  interpose  in  any  way  be- 
tween the  Spirit  of  God  and  the  spirit  of  man,  was 
impiety,  blasphemy,  a  degradation  of  God  and  of  his 
sole  sovereignty.  This  sentiment  was  at  its  height 
in  Western  Christendom.  In  no  part  had  it  grown 
to  a  passion  so  overwhelming  as  in  Africa,  in  no 
African  mind  to  such  absorbing  energy  as  in  that  of 
Augustine. 

Augustine,  after  the  death  of  Ambrose,  was  the 
st.Augus-  one  great  authority  in  Latin  Theology: 
'^"*^'  from   him   was   now  anxiously   expected,   if 

it  had  not  appeared,  tlie  great  work  which  was  to 
silence  the  last  desperate  remonstrances  of  Paganism, 
the  City  of  God.^  His  Confessions  Jiad  become  at 
once  the  manual  of  passionate  devotion,  and  the  his- 
tory of  the  internal  struggle  of  sin  and  grace  in  the 
soul  of  man.  Augustine  had  maintained  great  in- 
fluence at  the  court  of  Ravenna :  of  the  ministers 
of  Honorius  some  were  his  personal  friends,  others 
courted  his  correspondence.  Africa,  the  only  gran- 
ary, held  tlie  power  of  life  and  death  over  Italy  • 
and  political  and  religious  interests  were  now  insepa- 
rably moulded  together.  But  it  was  probably  not  so 
much  either  the  autliority  or  the  influence  of  Augus- 
tine, which  swayed  tlie  mind  of  Innocent  to  establish 
the  Augustinian  theology  as  the  theory  of  Western 
Christianity ;  it  was  rather  its  full  coincidence  with 
his  own  views  of  Christian  tmtli. 

1  Ou  the  City  of  Cod  coiui.aiv  Hist,  ol'  Cliribtiauity,  iii.  p.  279  282. 


Ch4J'.  TT.  ST.  AUGUSTINE.  171 

Augustiniaiiism  was  not  merely  the  expression  of 
the  universal  Christianity  of  the  age  as  administering 
to,  as  being  in  itself  the  more  full,  fervent,  continuoui 
excitement  of  the  religious  sentiment,  it  was  also  closely 
allied  with  the  two  great  characteristic  tendencies  of 
Latin  Christianity. 

Latin  Christianity,  in  its  strong  sacerdotal  system,  in 
its  rigid  and  exclusive  theory  of  the  church,  Latin 

^  1  .   ."  1       1  Christiauity 

at  once  admitted  and  mUigated  the  more  anti-Peiagiau 
repulsive  parts  of  the  Augastinian  theology.  Pre- 
destinarianism  itself,  to  those  at  least  within  the  pale, 
lost  much  of  its  awful  terrors.  The  Church  was  the 
predestined  assemblage  of  those  to  whom  causes. 
and  to  whom  alone,  salvation  was  possible ;  the 
Church  scrupled  not  to  surrender  the  rest  of  man- 
kind to  that  inexorable  damnation  entailed  upon  the 
human  race  by  the  sin  of  their  first  parents.  As  the 
Church,  by  the  jealous  exclusion  of  all  heretics,  drew 
around  itself  a  narrower  circle ;  this  startling  limita- 
tion of  the  divine  mercies  was  compensated  by  the 
gi-eat  extension  of  its  borders,  which  now  compre- 
hended all  other  baptized  Christians.  The  only  point 
in  this  theory  at  which  human  nature  uttered  a  feeble 
remonstrance^  was  the  abandonment  of  infants,  who 
never  knew  the  distinction  between  good  and  evil,  to 
eternal  fires.  The  heart  of  Augustine  wrung  from 
his  reluctant  reason,  which  trembled  at  its   own  in 


1  Julianus  of  Eclana  put  well  the  insuperable  difficulty  which  has  con 
stantly  revolted  the  human  mind,  when  not  under  the  spell  of  some  ab- 
sorbing religious  excitement,  against  the  extreme  theory  of  Augustine  and 
of  Calvin.  Deus,  ais,  ipse  qui  commeudat  caritatem  suam  in  nobis,  qui 
dilexit  nos,  et  tilio  suo  non  pepercit,  sed  pro  nobis  ilium  tradidit,  ipse  sic 
judicat,  ipse  est  nascentium  persecutor,  ijjse  pro  mala  voluntate  aeternis 
ignibujs  parvulos  tradit,  quos  nee  bonam  iiec  uialani  voluntatem  scit  haber« 


172  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U 

consistency,  a  milder  damnation  in  their  favor.  But 
some  of  liis  more  remorseless  disciples  disclaimed  the 
illogical  softness  of  their  master.^ 

Through  the  Church  alone,  and  so  through  the 
Sacerdotal  hierarchy  alone,  man  could  be  secure  of  that 
Bystem.  (direct  agcucy  of  God  upon  his  soul,  after 
which  it  yearned  with  irrepressible  solicitude.  The 
will  of  man  surrendered  itself  to  the  clergy,  for  on 
them  depended  its  slavery  or  its  emancipation,  as  far 
as  it  was  capable  of  emancipation.  In  the  clergy, 
divine  grace,  the  patrimony  of  the  Church,  was  vested, 
and  through  them  distributed  to  mankind.  Baptism, 
usually  administered  by  them  alone,  washed  away 
original  sin  ;  the  other  rites  and  sacraments  of  which 
they  were  the  exclusive  ministers,  were  still  conveying, 
and  alone  conveying,  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
to  the  more  or  less  passive  soul.  This  objective  and 
visible  form  as  it  were,  which  was  assumed  for  the  in- 
ward workings  of  God  upon  the  mind  and  heart,  by 
the  certitude  and  security  which  it  seemed  to  bestow, 
was  so  unspeakably  consolatory,  and  relieved,  especially 
the  less  reflective  mind,  from  so  much  doubt  and  anx- 
iety, that  mankind  was  disposed  to  hail  with  gladness 
rather  than  examine  with  jealous  suspicion  these 
claims  of  tlie  hierarchy.  Thus  the  Augustinian  theol- 
ogy coincided  with  the  tendencies  of  the  age  towards 
the  growth  of  the  strong  sacerdotal  system ;  and  tlie 
sacerdotal    system    reconciled   Christendom    with   the 

potuisse.  —  Apud  Augustin.  Open  Imperf.  i.  48.  Aus^ustine  struggles 
in  vain  to  elude  the  difficulty.  Julianus  as  well  as  Pelagius  himself 
Btrenuously  asserted  the  necessity  of  infant  baptism,  not  however  aa 
giving  remission  of  sins,  but  as  admitting  to  Christian  privileges  and 
blessings. 
1  Compare  Hist,  of  Christ.,  iii.  note,  and  quotation  from  Fulgeutius. 


Chap  II.  SACERDOTAL  SYSTEM.  173 

Aiigiistinian  tlieology.  But  the  invariable  progress 
of  the  human  mind,  as  to  this  question,  is  in  itself  re- 
narkable ;  and  necessary  for  the  full  comprehension 
of  Christian  history.  All  established  religions  subside 
into  Pelagianism,  or  at  least  semi-Pelagianism.  The 
interposition  of  the  priest,  or  the  sacrament,  or  of  both, 
between  the  direct  agency  of  God  and  the  soul  of 
man,  for  its  own  purposes,  gradually  admits  a  growing 
freedom  of  the  will.  Conformity  to  outward  rites, 
obedience  to  orders  or  admonitions,  every  religious  act 
is  required  on  the  one  hand,  as  within  the  self-deter- 
mining power  of  the  will,  and  is  in  itself  a  more  and 
more  conscious  exertion  of  that  power.  The  sacerdo- 
tal system,  in  order  that  it  may  censure  with  more 
awfulness,  and  incite  with  more  persuasiveness,  admits 
a  greater  spontaneity  of  resistance  to  evil,  and  of  incli- 
nation to  good.  It  emancipates  to  a  certain  extent, 
that  it  may  rule  with  a  more  absolute  control.  And 
as  it  was  with  Pelagius,  so  it  is  with  his  followers.  No 
Pelagian  ever  has  or  ever  will  work  a  religious  revolu- 
tion. He  who  is  destined  for  such  a  work  must  have 
a  full  conviction  that  God  is  acting  directly,  imme- 
diately, consciously,  and  therefore  with  irresistible 
power,  upon  him  and  through  him.  It  is  because  he 
believes  himself,  and  others  believe  him  to  be  thus 
acted  upon,  that  he  has  the  burning  courage  to  under- 
take, the  indomitable  perseverance  to  maintain,  the 
inflexible  resolution  to  die  for  his  religion ;  so  soon  as 
that  conviction  is  deadened,  his  power  is  gone.  Men 
no  longer  acknowledge  his  mission,  he  himself  has 
traitorously  or  timidly  abandoned  his  mission.  The 
voice  of  God  is  no  longer  speaking  in  his  heart ;  men 
no  longer  recognize  the  voice  of  God  from  his  lips. 


i  f4  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U. 

.The  prophet,  the  inspired  teacher,  tlie  all  but  apostle, 
LAS  now  sunk  to  an  ordinary  believer.  He  who  is  not 
[/redestined,  who  does  not  declare,  who  does  not  be- 
lieve himself  predestined  as  the  author  of  a  great  re- 
ligious movement,  he  in  whom  God  is  not  manifestly, 
sensibly,  avowedly  Avorking  out  his  preestabiished 
designs,  will  never  be  Saint  or  Reformer. 

But  there  was  another  part  of  the  Augustinian 
Tie  trans-  theology,  wliich  has  quietly  dropped  from  it 
flrigiuai  sin.  in  all  its  later  revivals,  yet  in  his  day  was  an 
integral,  almost  the  leading  doctrine  of  the  system  ; 
and  falling  in,  as  it  did,  with  the  dominant  feelings  of 
Christendom,  contributed  powerfully  to  its  establish- 
ment, as  the  religion  of  the  Church.  Augustine  was 
not  content  to  assert  original  sin,  in  the  strongest  lan- 
guage, against  Pelagius,  but  did  not  scruple  to  dogma- 
tize as  to  the  mode  of  its  transmission.  This  was  by 
sexual  intercourse,^  which  he  asserts  in  arguments, 
which  the  modesty  of  our  present  manners  will  not 
permit  us  to  discuss,  would  have  been  unknown  but 
for  the  Fall ;  and  was  in  itself  essentially  evil,^  though 
an  evil  to  be  tolerated  in  the  regenerate,  for  the  pro- 
creation of  children,  themselves  to  be  regenerate.^ 

1  The  whole  argument  of  the  Book  de  Concupiscentia  et  de  Nuptiis. 
Intentio  igitur  hujus  libriest  ut  .  .  .  carnalis  concupiscentiie  malum,  pi\?p- 
ter  quod  homo  qui  per  earn  nascitur,  trahit  originale  peccatum,  discernamua 
a  bonitate  nuptiarum. 

2  Sed  quia  sine  illo  malo  (carnalis  concupiscentise)  fieri  non  potest  nup- 
tiarum bonum,  hoc  est  propagatio  filiorum,  ubi  ad  hujusmodi  opus  venitur, 
gecreta  quairuntur.  Hinc  est  quod  infantes  etiam,  qui  peccare  non  possunt, 
non  tamen  sine  peccati  contagione  nascuntur,  non  ex  hoc  quod  licet,  sed  ex 
hoc  quod  dedecet.  —  De  Peccat.  Origin.,  c.  xxvii.  His  standing  argiunent  is 
from  natural  modesty,  which  he  confounds  with  the  shame  of  conscious 
guilt. 

3  The  doctrine  of  original  sin,  as  it  is  explicated  by  St.  Austin,  had  two 
parents;  one  was  the  doctrine  of  the  Encratites  and  some  other  heretics. 


Chap.  II.  TRANSMISSION  OF  ORIGINAL  SIN.  175 

Tims  this  great  Oriental  principle  of  the  inherent 
evil  of  matter,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  course  of  our 
Christian  history,  was  the  dominant  and  fundamental 
tenet  of  Gnosticism,  lay  at  the  root  of  Arianism,  and 
will  hereafter  appear  as  the  remote  parent  of  Nestori- 
anism  ]  and  this  was  the  primary  axiom  of  all  Monas- 
ticism.  and  so  became,  almost  imperceptibly,  the  first 
recognized  principle  of  all  Latin  theology.  Augus- 
tine, in  this  theory  of  the  transmission  of  sin,  betrays 
that  invincible  horror  of  the  intrinsic  evil  of  the  ma- 
terial and  corporeal,  which  had  been  infused  into  his 
mind  by  his  youthful  Manicheism.^  Most  of  the  other 
leading  tenets  of  the  Manicheans,  the  creation  of  man 
by  the  antagonistic  malignant  power,  the  unreality  of 
the  Christ,  the  whole  mystic  mythology  of  the  imagin- 
ative Orientals,  Augustine  had  rejected  with  indigna- 
tion, and  with  the  practical  wisdom  of  the  West ;  but, 
notwithstanding  all  his  concessions  on  the  dignity  of 
marriage,  he  is,  in  this  respect,  an  irreclaimable  Mani- 
chean.  Sin  and  all  sensual  indulgence,  as  it  was 
called,  all,  however  lawful,  union  between  the  sexes, 
were  convertible  terms,  or  terms  so  associated  In  human 
thought  as  to  require  some  vigor  of  mind  to  discrim- 
inate between  them.     It  was  the  vice  of  the  theology 


who  forbade  marriage,  and  supposing  it  to  be  evil,  thought  that  they  weie 
wan-anted  to  say  it  was  the  bed  of  sin,  and  children  the  spawn  of  vipers 
and  sinners ;  and  St.  Austin  himself,  and  especially  St.  Hierome,  speaks 
Bome  things  of  marriage,  which  if  they  were  true,  then  marriage  were 
highly  to  be  refused,  as  being  the  increaser  of  sin  rather  than  of  children, 
and  a  semination  in  the  flesh  and  contrarj'-  to  the  spirit ;  and  such  a  thing, 
whiih  being  mingled  with  sin,  produces  univocal  issues ;  the  mother  and 
the  daughter  are  so  alike  that  they  are  worse  again.  —  Jer.  Taylor, 
Answer  to  a  Letter. 

1  Augustine  strongly  protests  against  the  charge  which  was  even  then 
nade  against  him  of  Manicheism.  —  De  Concup.  et  Nupt.,  lib.  ii. 


176  LATIN  CHRISTLVNITY.  Book  H. 

of  tliis  period,  and  not,  perhaps,  of  this  period  alone, 
that  it  seemed  to  make  the  indulgence  of  one  passion 
almost  the  sole  unchristian  sin ;  a  passion  which  is 
probably  strengthened  rather  than  suppressed  by  com- 
pelling the  mind  to  dwell  perpetually  upon  it.  This 
(and  on  this  the  whole  stress  was  laid  throughout  the 
controversy)  was,  the  concupiscence  of  the  flesh,  in- 
herited from  Adam,  which  was  not  washed  away  in 
the  sanctifying  waters  of  baptism,  but  still  clave  to  the 
material  nature  of  man,  and  was  to  be  kept  under  con- 
trol only  by  the  most  rigid  asceticism.  Celibacy  thus 
became  not  merely  a  hard  duty,  but  a  glorious  distinc- 
tion :  the  clergy,  and  those  females  who  aspired  to 
more  perfect  Christianity,  not  merely  chose  a  more 
difficult,  and  therefore,  if  successful,  a  more  noble 
career — but  were  raised  far  above  those  lower  mortals, 
who,  in  the  most  legitimate  and  holy  form,  that  of 
faithful  marriage,  submitted  to  be  the  parents  of  children. 

Pelagius  himself,^  so  completely  was  the  human 
mind  possessed  with  this  notion,  almost  rivalled  Augus- 
tine in  his  praises  of  virginity,  which  he  considered 
the  great  test  of  that  strength  of  free  will  which  he 
asserted  to  be  weakened  only,  if  weakened,  by  the 
fall  of  Adam. 

The  Augustinian  theology,  exactly  to  the  extent  to 
which  it  coincided  with  Latin  Christianity,  would  no 
doubt  harmonize  with  the  opinions  of  one  so  com- 
innocent       pletclv  representino!  that  Christianity  as  Inno- 

Augustinian.    ^  •'        -i  o  ^~*  -i  » 

417.  Jau.  27.  ccut  I.  When  the  African  Churches,  m 
their  councils  at  Carthage,  and  at  Milevis  in  Numidla, 
addressed  the  Pontiff  on  this  momentous  subject,  the 
character,  as  well  as  the  station  of  Innocent,  might 

1  Epist.  ad  Demetriad. 


<:hap.  n.  APPEAL  TO  ROME.  177 

command  more  than  respectful  deference.  Had  tliey 
felt  any  jealousy  as  to  their  own  independence,  under 
the  absorbing  passion,  the  hatred  of  Pelagianism,  they 
would  have  made  any  sacrifice  to  obtain  the  concur- 
rence of  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  The  letters  inform 
Innocent  that  the  Africans  had  renewed  the  unre- 
garded anathema  pronounced  against  this  wicked  error, 
especially  of  Celestius,  which  had  been  issued  five 
years  before.  They  assert  the  power  of  Innocent  to 
summon  Pelagius  to  Rome  to  answer  for  his  guilt,  and 
to  exclude  him  from  the  communion  of  the  faithful.^ 
They  implore  the  dignity  of  the  Apostolic  throne,  of 
the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  to  complete  and  Both  parties 

.p         1  ,   .    ,       .  .  ,      .  appeal  to 

ratify  that  which  is  wanting  to  their  more  ^^ome. 
moderate  power.^  Pelagius  himself,  even  if  he  did 
not  acknowledge  the  jurisdiction  of  the  tribunal,  en- 
deavored to  propitiate  the  favor  of  the  judge  :  he  ad- 
dressed an  explanatory  letter,  and  a  profession  of  faith, 
to  the  Bishop  of  Rome.^ 

Yet  Augustine  and  the  Afi-icans  were  not  without 
solicitude  as  to  the  decision  of  Innocent.  Since  Pela- 
gius, they  knew,  hved  in  Rome,  undisturbed  by  the 
inquisitive  zeal  of  the  bishop,  Augustine,  in  a  private 
letter,  signed  by  himself  and  four  bishops,  informed 
the  Pope  that  some  of  these  persons  boasted  that  they 
had  won  him  to  their  cause,  or,  at  least,  to  think  less 
unfavorably  of  Pelagius.^ 

1  Aut  ergo  a  tua  veneratione  accersendus  est  Romam,  et  diligenter  intei- 
rogaiidus.  —  Epist.  Cone.  Milev.  Labbe,  ii.,  p.  1547. 

2  Ut  statutis  nostras  mediocritatis,  etiani  Apostolicse  sedis  adhibeatur  auc- 
toritas,  pro  tuenda  salute  multoruin  et  qiioriindam  etiani  pcrversitate  corri- 
genda.—  Epist.  Cone.  Carthag.  ad  Innocent,  Labbe,  ii.  p.  1514. 

8  Augustin.  de  Grat.  Christ.,  cap.  30.  De  Pecc.  Origin.,  17,  21,  «&€. 
^  Quidam  scilicet  quia  vos  talia  porsuasisse  perhibent.  —  Ibid. 

VOL.   I.  12 


178  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II. 

The  answer  of  Innocent  allayed  their  fears.  He 
did  not  pass  by  the  opportunity  of  asserting,  as  an 
acknowledged  maxim,  the  dignity  of  the  Apostolic 
See,  the  source  of  all  episcopacy,  and  the  advantage 
of  an  appeal  to  a  tribunal,  which  might  legislate  for 
all  Christendom. 1  On  the  Pelagian  question  he  places 
himself  on  the  broad,  popular,  and  unanswerable 
ground,  that  all  Cliristian  devotion  implies  the  assist- 
ance of  divine  grace ;  that  it  is  admitted  in  every 
response  of  the  service,  in  every  act  of  worship.  He 
pronounces  the  opinions  anathematized  by  the  African 
bishops  to  be  heretical ;  and  declares  that  the  unsound 
limb  must  be  severed  without  remorse,  lest  it  should 
infect  the  living  body.^  Africa,  and  all  those  who 
held  the  opinions  of  Augustine,  triumphed  in  what 
might  seem  the  unqualified  sentence  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome.  At  this  period  in  the  controversy,  jj^j^^j^^j^ 
and  before  the  arrival  of  the  letter  from  ]J"°°5i7** 
Pelagius,  died  Pope  Innocent  I.  March  12 

So  far  the  Bishop  of  Rome  had  floated  onwards 
towards  supremacy  on  the  full  tide  of  dominant  opin- 
ion ;  his  decrees  v/ere  so  acceptable  to  the  general  ear, 
that  the  tone  of  authority  in  which  they  began  to  be 
touched,  jarred  not  on  any  quivering  chord  of  jealousy 

1  Qui  ad  nostrum  referendum  approbastis  esse  judicium,  scientes  (juid 
Apostolicse  sedi  (cum  omnes  hoc  loco  positi  ipsum  sequi  desideremus  Apos- 
tolum)  debeatur,  a  quo  ipse  episcopatus  et  tota  auctoritas  nominis  hujus 
emersit.  —  Innocent.  Epist.  ad  Episc.  Afric. 

Ut  per  cunctas  orb  is  totius  ecclesias,  quod  omnibus  prosit,  decemendum 
una  esse  deposcitis.  —  Ibid. 

2  The  lines  of  Prosper,  who  has  written  a  long  poem  on  this  abstruM 
■nhi*v>t  »'""-i  been  referred  to  this  decree  of  Innocent  I. — 

In  causam  fidci  flagrantins  Africa  nostra 
Exequeris;   tecumque  suum  jungente  vigorem 
Juris  Apostolici  solio,  fera  viscera  belli 
Conflcis,  et  lato  prosteruis  limite  victos. 


Chap.  II.  DEATH  OF  INNOCENT  I.  179 

or  suspicion.  The  secret  of  that  power  lay  in  Rome's 
complete  impregnation  with  the  spirit  of  the  age  ;  and 
this  lasted,  almost  unbroken,  till  the  Reformation.  It 
were  neither  just  nor  true  to  call  this  worldly  policy, 
or  to  suppose  that  the  Bishops  of  Rome  dishonestly 
conformed,  or  bent  their  opinions  to  their  age  for  the 
sake  of  aggrandizing  their  power.  Their  sympathy 
with  the  general  mind  of  Christianity  constituted  their 
strength  ;  from  their  conscious  strength  grew  up,  no 
doubt,  their  bolder  spirit  of  domination  ;  but  they  be- 
came masters  of  the  Western  Church  by  being  the 
representative,  the  centre,  of  its  feelings  and  opinions. 
It  was  not  till  a  much  later  period  that  the  claim  to 
personal  infallibility,  to  the  sole  dictatorship  over  the 
Christianity  of  the  world,  was  either  advanced  or 
thought  necessary ;  the  present  infallibility  was  but  the 
expression  of  the  universal,  or  at  least  predominant 
sentiment  of  mankind. 

Once  at  this  period,  and  but  for  a  short  time,  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  threw  himself  directly  across  the 
stream  of  religious  opinion.  Zosimus,  the  zos5„^us 
successor  of  Innocent,  was  by  birth  a  Greek,^  ^^"'  ^^^^'  ^^' 
and  seemed  disposed  to  treat  the  momentous  questions 
agitated  by  the  Pelagian  controversy  with  the  contempt- 
uous indifference  of  a  Greek.  Whether  from  this 
uncongeniality  of  the  Eastern  mind  with  these  debates ; 
whether  from  the  pride  of  the  man,  which  was  flattered 
by  the  submission  of  both  these  dangerous  heresiarchs 
to  his  authority;  whether  from  an  earnest  and  well 
intentioned,  but  mistaken  hope,  of  suppressing  what 
appeared  to  him  a  needless  dispute,  Zosimus  annulled 
at  one  blow  all  the  judgments  of  his  predecessor,  In- 

1  Anastasius  Bibliothec.  c.  42. 


180  LATIN  CHRIST! AOTTY.  Book  II 

nocent ;  and  absolved  the  men,  wliom  Innocent,  if  he 
had  not  branded  with  a  direct  anathema,  had  declared 
deserving  to  be  cut  off  from  the  communion  of  the 
faithful.'' 

The  address  of  Pelao;ius  to  Innocent  had  not  amved 
in  Rome  before  the  death  of  that  prelate  ;  it  was  ac- 
companied with  a  creed  elaborately  and  ostentatiously 
orthodox  on  all  the  questions  which  agitated  the  East- 
ern mind,  and  a  solemn  and  minute  repudiation  of  all 
the  heresies  relatino;  to  the  nature  of  the  Godhead.  It 
might  seem  almost  prophetically  intended  to  propitiate 
the  favor  of  a  Greek  Pope.  He  touched  but  briefly 
on  the  freedom  of  the  will,  and  the  necessity  of  divine 
grace ;  rejecting,  as  Manichean,  the  doctrine,  that  sin 
was  inevitable  ;  as  a  doctrine  which  he  ascribes  to  Jo- 
vinian,  the  impeccability  of  the  Christian.^  Celestius, 
who  had  remained  some  time  in  peaceful  retirement  at 
Ephesus,  had  passed  to  Constantinople ;  from  thence 
he  is  said  to  have  been  expelled  by  the  Bishop  Acacius. 
He  now  appeared  in  Rome,  and  throwing  himself,  as  it 
were,  at  the  feet  of  the  Pontiff,  declared  that  he  was 
ready  to  submit  to  a  dispassionate  examination  and 
authoritative  judgment  on  his  tenets. 

A  solemn  hearing  was  appointed  in  the  Basilica  of 
St.  Clement.  Celestius  was  listened  to  with  favor  ;  if 
Peiagius  *^'^  positive  sentence  was  delayed,  his  accusers 
3°d.ued'""'  Heros  and  Lazarus,  the  Gallic  bishops,  were 
rrniodox.       denounced  in  the  strono-est  terms  to  the  Afri- 

1  The  creed  apud  Baronium  —  sub  ami.  417  —  Liberiim  sic  esse  conlite- 
mur  arbitriuni,  ut  dicamus  nos  semper  Dei  iiuligere  auxilio,  et  tam  illos 
errare  qui  cuvi  Mn7iicheis  dicunt  homiuem  peccatum  vitare  non  posse, 
quam  illos  qui  cum  Joviniano  asseniiit,  hominem  non  posse  peccare.  uter- 
que  enim  tollit  libertatem  arbitrii.  —  Was  the  first  clause  aimed  at  Augus- 
tiue  and  the  Africans? 


Chap   II.  TRIAL  OF  CELESTIUS.  181 

can  Council  as  vagabond,  turbulent,  ^iid  intrin-iilng 
prelates,  who  had  either  abdicated  or  abandoned  their 
sees,  and  travelled  about  sowing  strife  and  calumny 
wherever  they  went.^  The  African  prelates  were 
summoned  within  a  short  period  to  make  good  their 
charges  against  Celestius,  who  in  this  first  investigation 
had  appeared  unimpeachable.^  Zosimus  went  fuither ; 
he  had  warned  Celestius  and  his  accusers  alike  to  ab- 
stain from  these  idle  questions  and  unedifying  disputes, 
the  offspring  of  vain  curiosity,  and  of  the  desire  for 
the  display  of  eloquence  on  subjects  unrevealed.^  Such 
to  Zosimus  appeared  these  questions,  which  had 
wrought  Africa  into  a  frenzy  of  zeal  and  distracted  the 
whole  West.  The  trial  of  Celestius  was  followed  by 
the  public  recital  of  a  letter  fi'om  Praylas,  Sept.  21. 
Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  asserting  in  the  most  unqualified 
terms  the  orthodoxy  of  Pelagius.  It  was  read  with 
joy,  with  admiration,  almost  with  tears  of  delight. 
"  Would,"  writes  Zosimus  to  the  African  bishops, 
"  that  one  of  you  had  been  present  at  the  edifying 
scene.  That  such  a  man  should  be  impeached,  and 
impeached  by  a  Heros  and  a  Lazarus  !  There  was 
no  point  in  which  the  grace  and  assistance  of  God 

1  Zosimus  Aurelio  et  univ.  Episcop.  African.  — Apud  Labbe,  ii.,  1559. 

Heros,  according  to  Zosimus,  had  been  Bishop  of  Aries,  Lazarus  of  Aix. 
Their  rise  was  owing  entirely  to  the  t\Taut  (probably  the  usurper  Constan- 
tiue);  it  was  accompanied  with  tumult  and  bloodshed,  persecution  of  the 
priesthood  who  opposed  them.  With  Constantine  they  fell,  driven  out  by 
the  execrations  of  the  people,  and  abdicating  their  sees.  —  So  the  Bishop  of 
Home.     S.  Prosper  gives  a  high  character  of  both.  —  S.  Prosper,  Chi-on- 

■^  Innotescere  sanctitati  vestrae  super  absoluta  Ccelestii  fide  nostrum  exa- 
men.  —  lb. 

*  Admoneri,  has  tendiculas  quaestionum,  et  inepta  certamina  quas  non  edl- 
ficant,  sed  magis  destruunt,  ex  ilia  curiositatis  contagions  protiuere,  dum 
nnusquisque  ingenio  suo  et  intemperanti  eloquentia  supra  scripta  abutitun 
-Ibid. 


182  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II 

could  be  iissei'ted  by  a  faithful  Christian,  which  was 
not  fully  acknowledged  by  them."  ^ 

But  the  authority,  which  was  received  with  deferen- 
tial homage,  so  long  as  it  concurred  with  their  own 
views,  lost  its  magic  directly  that  it  espoused  the 
opposite  cause.  The  African  bisho})S  inflexibly  ad- 
hered to  the  condemnation  of  Pelagius,  of  Celestius, 
and  their  doctrines.  Carthage  obstinately  refiised  to 
yield  to  Rome  ;  it  appealed  to  the  sentence  of  Inno- 
cent, and  disdainfully  rejected  the  annulling  power  of 
Zosimus.  Augustine,  indeed,  continued  to  speak  with 
conciliating  mildness  of  the  Roman  Prelate  ;  but  he 
let  fall  some  alarming  and  significant  expressions  as  to 
the  prevarication  of  the  whole  Roman  clergy. 

To  the  long  representation  addressed  to  him  by  the 
Councilor      Council  of  Carthage,   Zosimus  replied  in  a 

Carthage,  ,  ,  °.  ,  \.  . 

March,  418.  liaughty  touc,  asscrtuig  that,  accordnig  to  the 
tradition,  no  one  might  dare  to  dispute  the  judgment 
of  the  Apostolic  See.  But  the  close  of  the  epistle 
betrayed  his  embarrassment.  Whether  his  natural 
sagacity  had  discovered  that  he  had  rashly  attempted 
to  stem  the  torrent  of  opinion  ;  his  brotherly  love  for 
the  African  Churches  would  induce  him  to  communi- 
cate all  his  determinations  to  them,  in  order  that  they 
might  act  together  for  the  common  good  of  Christen- 
dom. He  had  stayed,  therefore,  all  fui'ther  proceed- 
ings in  the  affair  of  Celestius.^ 

It  was  time  for  Zosimus  to  retrace  his  precipitate 
Appeal  to  course.  Augustiuc  and  the  African  bishops 
the  Emperor,  j^^j  summoned  to  their  aid  a  more  poweiful 

1  Tales  enini  absolutae  fidci  infamari  posse?  Est  ne  ullus  locus  in  que 
Dei  gratia  vel  adjutorium  praiterinissum  sit?  Zosiui.  ad  Episcop.  Afric 
l^abbe,  ii.  p.  1561. 

^  ZosLui.  ad  Episcop.  Afi-icaj. 


Chai-.  II.       APPEAL  TO  THE  EMPEKOR.  183 

ally  than  even  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  While  the  Pope 
either  still  adhered  to  the  cause  of  Pelagius,  or  but  be- 
gan to  vacillate,  an  Imperial  edict  was  issued  from  the 
court  of  Ravenna,  peremptorily  deciding  on  this  ab- 
struse question  of  theology.'  This  law  was  issued  be- 
fore the  final  sitting  of  the  Council  of  Carthage,  in 
which,  on  the  autliority  of  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
tln-ee  bishops,  eight  canons  were  passed,  condemnatory 
of  Pelagianism.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  that  the  law 
was  obtained  by  the  influence  of  the  African  bishops 
with  the  Emperor  or  his  ministers  ;  there  is  great  like- 
lihood by  the  personal  authority  of  Augustine  with 
the  Count  Valerius.  Italy,  indeed,  could  hardly  re- 
ftise  to  listen  to  tlie  voice  of  Africa.  This  appeal  to 
the  civil  magistrate  is  but  another  instance,  that  the 
ecclesiastical  power  has  no  scruple  m  employing  in  its 
own  favor  those  arms  of  which  it  deprecates  the  use, 
the  employment  of  which  it  treats  as  impious  usurpa- 
tion, when  put  forth  against  it.  By  this  law  it  became 
a  crime  against  the  state,  to  be  visited  with  civil  penal- 
ties, to  assert  that  Adam  was  born  liable  to  death.^ 
The  dangerous  heresiarchs  were  condemned  by  name, 
and  without  hearing  or  trial,  to  banishment  from  Rome.^ 
Informers  were  invited  or  commanded  to  apprehend 


1  The  law  is  dated  April  30,  a.d.  418.  The  final  council  was  held  early 
in  !Rtay. 

2  Hi  parent!  cunctoruni  Deo  ....  tarn  triicem  inclementiam  saevae  vol- 
untatis assignant  ....  ut  mortem  prainiitteret  nascituro  (Adamo,  sc  ), 
con  hanc  insidiis  vetiti  fliixisse  peccati,  sed  exegisse  penitus  legem  immu- 
tabilis  constituti.  —  Rescript.  Honor,  et  Theodos.  apud  Augustin.  Open 
X.,  Append.,  p.  106. 

3  Hos  ergo  repertos  ubicunque  de  hoc  tarn  nefando  scelere  conferentes  a 
quibuscunque  jiibemiis  corripi,  deductosque  ad  audientiam  publicam  pro- 
miscLie  ab  omnibus  accusari  .  .  .  ipsis  inexorati  exilii  deportation!  damna- 
Us.  —  Ibid. 


184  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II 

and  drao;:  before  the  tribunals,  and  to  accuse  the  main- 
tainers  of  these  wicked  doctrines.  In  the  order  issued 
by  the  Praetorian  Prefects  of  Italy  and  the  East,  to 
carry  this  law  into  effect,  not  merely  were  the  he- 
resiarchs  banished,  but  their  accomplices  condemned 
to  the  confiscation  of  their  estates,  and  to  perpetual 
exile.^ 

Zosimus  threw  off  the  dangerous  tenderness  with 
zosimus  which  he  had  hitherto  treated  Celestius  and 
retracts.  jjjg  p^i-ty.  Already,  before  the  promulga- 
tion of  the  Imperial  edict,  he  had  demanded  his  une- 
quivocal condemnation  of  certain  eiTors,  charged 
against  him  by  Paulinus,  a  Carthaginian  deacon,  who 
had  been  sent  to  Rome  to  represent  the  African  opin- 
ions. Celestius  was  now  again  summoned  to  render 
an  account  of  his  tenets ;  under  the  ban  of  the  Impe- 
rial law,  an  object  of  hatred  to  the  populace,  certain 
that  the  Pope  had  withdrawn  his  protection,  of  course 
he  dared  not  appear;  he  had  quietly  retired  from 
Rome.^  Zosimus  proceeded  to  condemn  the  fliith,  to 
anathematize  the  doctrines  of  Pelagius  and  Celestius, 
to  excommunicate  them  from  the  body  of  the  faithfxil, 
if  they  did  not  renounce  and  abjure  the  venomous 
tenets  of  their  impious  and  abominable  sect.  Nor  was 
this  all :  the  Bishop  of  Rome  addressed  a  circular  let- 
ter to  all  the  bishops  of  Christendom,  condemning  the 
doctrines  of  Pelagius.  To  this  anathema  they  were 
expected  to  subscribe.^ 

Eighteen  bishops  alone,  of  those  who  took  this  letter 

1  The  convicted  heretic,  by  the  edict  of  Palhidius,  was  to  be  facultatiuu 
publicatione  iiudatus. 

2  Augustin.  de  Pecc.  Origin.,  c.  6.     The  gratulatoiy  letter  of  Paullnua 
bimself  on  the  condenniation  of  Celestius,  in  liaronius,  sub  ann.  418. 

8  Augistin.  de  Pecc.  Grig.,  3,  4;  in  Julian,  1,  c.  4.     Prosper  in  Chronic 


OiiAP.  n.  SEMI-PEL  AG  lANISM.  185 

into  consideration,  refused  to  condemn  their  „.  , , 
fellow    Christians    unheard.      They    turned  '^e^usants. 
against    Zosimus    his    own    language    to    the   African 
bishops,   in  whicli   he  had  accused   their  precipitancy 
and  injustice  in  condemning  these  very  men  without 
process  or  trial.     They  appealed  to  a  General  Council. 

Of  these  eighteen,  the  most  distinguished  was  Juli- 
anus,  Bisliop  of  Eclana,  in  Campania.  His  j^jj^^^^^  ^^^ 
opinions  did  not  altogether  agree  with  those  ^^^^^ 
of  Pelagius  and  Celestius ;  ^  he  was  the  founder  of 
what  has  been  called  Semi-Pelagianism.  Julianus 
from  his  birth,  his  character,  and  the  events  of  his  life, 
was  a  remarkable  man.  He  was  of  a  noble  family, 
the  son  of  a  bishop,  Memor,  for  whom  Augustine  en- 
tertained the  warmest  friendship.^  He  was  early  ad- 
mitted into  the  lower  order  of  the  clergy,  and  married 
a  virgin  of  birth  and  virtue  equal  to  his  own.  She 
was  of  the  ^milian  family,  daughter  of  the  Bishop 
of  Beneventum. 

The  epithalamium  ot  Julianus  and  la  was  written 
by  the  holy  Paulinus,  Bishop  of  Nola.  The  poet 
ui'ges  upon  the  young  and  ardent  couple  not  to  break 
off  their  dangerous  nuptials,  but  after  their  marriage 
to  preserve  their  inviolate  chastity.  The  pious  bishop 
has,  indeed,  some  misgivings  as  to  the  success  of  his 
poetic  persuasions,  and  adds,  that  if  they  are  betrayed 
into  the  weakness  of  having  offspring,  he  tnists  that 
they  will  make  compensation  to  that  state,  whicli  they 
have  robbed  of  its  brightest  ornaments,  by  dedicating 

1  The  great  point  of  difference  was  that  Pelagius  held  Adam  to  have 
been  born  mortal ;  Julianus  admitted  that  the  sin  of  Adam  had  broughl 
death  into  the  world. 

2Augustin.  contr.  Julian.,  i.  12. 


186  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II 

all  their  cliildren,  a  sacerdotal  family,  to  virginity^ 
Julianus  was  a  man  of  great  accomplishments,  well 
read  in  the  writers,  especially  the  poets  of  Italy  and 
Greece.  But  neither  his  illustrious  descent,  his  Roman 
or  his  Christian  kindred,  nor  his  talents,  nor  liis  vir- 
tues, nor  his  station,  availed  in  the  least  in  this  desper- 
ate conflict  at  once  with  power  and  popular  opinion. 
There  were  now  arrayed  in  formidable  and  irresistible 
confederacy,  the  three  commanding  influences  in  West- 
ern Christendom,  the  Pope,  the  Emperor,  and  Au- 
gustine. The  Pope,  indignant  at  the  demand  for  a 
General  Council,  proceeded  to  involve  Juhanus  and  the 
rest  of  the  eighteen  remonstrants  under  the  anathema 
pronounced  against  Pelagius,  and  to  depose  him  from 
his  see.  Julianus  had  but  the  unsatisfactory  consola- 
tion of  asserting;  that  Zosimus  dared  not  meet  him  be- 
fore  a  General  Council.  The  Emperor  was  at  first 
disposed  to  accede  to  the  demand  for  a  Council,  but 
the  influence  of  Augustine  with  the  Count  Valerius 
changed  the  impartial  judge  into  an  implacable  adver- 
sary. He  is  even  accused,  and  by  his  most  respected 
adversary  Julianus,  of  employmg  every  means,  even 
those  of  corrai)tion,  to  inflame  the  minds  of  the  power- 
ful against  the  followers  of  Pelagius.^  A  new  Imperial 
edict  sentenced  to  exile  Julianus  and  all  the  bishops 
who  had  fallen  under  the  anathema  of  Zosimus.  A 
second  rescript  followed,  commanding  all  bishops  not 

1  Ut  sit  in  ambobus  concordia  yirginitatis, 

Aut  sint  ambo  sacris  semina  virginibus. 
Votoruui  prior  hie  gradus  est,  ut  nescia  carnls 
Meuibra  gerant,  (juod  si  corpore  congrueriut, 
Casta  sacerdotale  genus  ventura  propago, 
Et  domus  Aaron  sit  tofci  domus  Memoria. 

Faull.  Nolan.  Epithaluinium,  circa Jinem. 
*  See  note  infra. 


Chap.  II.       JULIANUS,  PELAGIUS,  AND  CELESTIUS.  187 

merely  to  subscribe  the  dominant  opinions  on  these 
profound  and  abstruse  topics,  but  to  condemn  theii 
authors,  Pelagius  and  Celestius,  as  irreclaimable  here- 
tics, and  this  under  pain  of  deprivation  and  banish- 
ment. Justly  might  Julianus  taunt  his  ecclesiastical 
brethren  with  tliis  attempt  to  crush  their  adversaries 
by  the  civil  power.  With  shame  and  sorrow  we  hear 
from  Augustine  liimself  that  fatal  axiom,  which  for 
centuries  reconciled  the  best  and  holiest  men  to  the 
guilt  of  persecution,  the  axiom  which  impiously  arrayed 
cruelty  in  the  garb  of  Christian  charity  —  that  they 
were  persecuted  in  compassion  to  their  souls ;  ^  that 
they  ought  to  be  thankful  for  the  Idnd  violence,  which 
did  them  no  real  injury,  but  coerced  them  for  their 
good ;  and  that  if  for  this  end  the  secular  power  was 
called  in,  it  was  to  restrain  them  from  theu'  sacrilegious 
temerity.^ 

Thus,  then,  on  these  men  had  fallen  the  ban  of 
ecclesiastical  and  secular  power,  and  in  the  j^^  persecu 
West,  at  least,  of  popular  opinion.^  Pela-  *^°"* 
gius  vanishes  at  this  time  from  history ;  he  had  been 
condemned  by  a  Council  at  Antioch,  and  driven,  a 
second  Catiline  as  he  is  called  by  Jerome,  from  Jeru- 
salem :  of  his  end  nothing  is  known.  The  more  cou- 
rageous and  active  Celestius  still  kept  up  the  vain  strife. 

1  Non  impotentite  contra  vos  precamur  auxilium,  sed  pi'O  vobis  potius  ut 
ab  ausu  sacrilego  cohibeainini,  Chi-istiauae  potentitB  laudamus  officium.  — 
Oper.  Imperf.,  1.  ii.,  c.  14. 

2  Compare  I.  10,  where  he  saj'S  that  Christian  powers  (he  means  the  civil 
powers)  are  bound  to  use  discipliuam  coercitionis  against  all  opponents  of 
the  Catholic  faith. 

3  Julianus,  it  appears,  objected  to  Augustine  that  all  his  authorities  were 
Western  bishops.  This  Augustine  does  not  deny,  but  demands  whether 
the  authority  of  St.  Peter  and  his  successor,  Innocent,  is  not  enough. — 
Contr.  Julian.,  1,  c.  13.  He  quotes,  however,  Gregoiy  of  Nazianzum  anc* 
Basil. 


188  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II. 

Twice  lie  returned  to  Rome  during  the  episcopacy  of 
the  successor  of  Zosimus,  and  twice  again  was  ban- 
ished. At  length,  with  Julianus,  he  took  refiige  at 
Constantinople,  where  he  obtained  a  more  favorable 
hearing  both  from  the  reigning  Emperor,  the  younger 
Theodosius,  and  from  Nestorius,  the  bishop.  But  his 
enemies  were  watchful,  and  Constantinople  refused  to 
entertain  the  condemned  heresiarch :  of  his  death  like- 
wise history  is  silent.  The  accomplished  Julianus,^ 
exiled  from  his  see,  proscribed  not  merely  by  the  harsh 
edicts  of  })ower,  but  hunted  by  popular  detestation 
from  town  to  town,  wandered  through  Christendom, 
as  if  he  bore  a  divine  judgment  upon  him.  His  long 
and  weary  life  was  protracted  thirty  years  after  his 
exile.^  At  length  he  settled  as  teacher  of  a  school,  in 
an  obscure  town  of  Sicily.  The  last  act  of  the  pro 
scribed  heretic  w^as  to  sacrifice  all  he  had  to  relieve 
the  poor  in  a  grievous  famine.  Some  faithful  follower, 
it  is  said,  whether  in  zeal  for  his  tenets  or  admiration 
for  his  virtues,  inscribed  on  his  tomb,  "  Here  sleeps  in 
peace  Julianus,  the  Catholic  Bishop." 

1  The  fragments  of  the  writings  of  Julianus,  especially  those  in  the  Opus 
Imperfectuin  of  Augustine,  show  great  acuteness  and  eloquence,  and  a 
facility  and  perspicuity  of  style  which  bears  no  unfavorable  comparison 
with  the  great  African  father.     His  piety  is  unimpeachable. 

2, Julianus  constantly  taunts  Augustine  with  this  appeal  to  the  passions 
of  the  rude  and  ignorant  vulgar  on  such  abstruse  subjects,  and  with  even 
>orse  means  of  persecuting  his  adversaries.  Cur  seditiones  Komre  conduc- 
tis  populis  excitastis?  Cur  de  sumptibus  pauperum  saginastis  per  totam 
pccne  African!,  equorum  greges,  quos  prosequenti  Olybrio,  tribunis  et  cen- 
turionibus  destinastisV  Cur  matronarum  oblatis  luereditatibus  potestates 
sajculi  corrupistis,  ut  in  nos  stipula  furoris  publice  ardeat?  Cur  dissipastis 
Ecclesiarum  quietem?  Cur  rcligiosi  principis  tempora  persecutionum  im- 
pietate  maculastis?  —  Oper.  Imperfect.,  iii.  74. 

Augustine  contents  himself  by  simply  denying  these  charges,  the  last 
of  which,  by  his  own  showing  and  by  the  extant  edicts,  was  too  true. 

In  another  place  Julianus  says,  Ut  erecto  coi'uu  dogma  populare.  —  Oi)er 
Imperfect.,  ii.  2. 


CnAP.  n.  SEMI-PELAGIANTSM.  189 

While  tlie  West  in  general  bowed  before  the  com- 
manding authority  of  Augustine  ;  trembled  gg^j. 
and  shrunk  from  any  opinion  which  might  ^^'eiagianism. 
even  seem  to  impeach  the  sovereignty  of  God ;  laid  its 
free  will  down  a  ready  sacrifice  before  divine  grace,  as 
contained  in  the  sacraments  of  the  Church  and  admin- 
istered by  the  awfiil  liierarchy ;  hesitated  not  to  aban- 
don the  whole  world,  external  to  the  Church,  to  that 
inevitable  hell  which  was  the  patrimony  of  all  the 
children  of  Adam  ;  Semi-Pelagianism  arose  in  another 
quarter,  and  under  different  auspices,  and  maintained 
an  obstinate  contest  for  considerably  more  than  a  cen- 
tury. This  school  grew  up  among  the  monasteries  in 
the  south  of  France.  Among  its  partisans  were  some 
of  the  most  eminent  bishops  of  that  province.  The 
most  distinguished,  if  not  the  first  founder,  of  this 
Gallic  Semi-Pelasiianism  was  the  monk  Cassi-  Cassianus. 
anus.  The  biilhplace  of  Cassianus  is  uncertain,  but 
if  not  Greek  or  Oriental  by  birth,  he  was  either  one  or 
the  other,  or  both,  by  education.^  His  youth  was 
passed  in  the  Eastern  monasteries,  first  in  Bethlehem, 
afterwards  in  Eg}i3t.  Eastern  and  Egyptian  mona- 
chism,  like  its  more  remote  ancestor  in  India,  and  its 
more  immediate  parent,  the  Essenism  or  Therapeutism 
of  the  Jews,  was  anything  but  a  blind  or  humble  Pre- 
destinarianism.  It  was  the  strength  and  triumph  of 
the  human  will.  It  was  the  self- wrought  victory  over 
the  bondage  of  matter ;  the  violent  avulsion  and  stern 
estrangement  from   all  the  indulgences,   the  pursuits, 

1  Notwithstanding  the  express  words  of  Gennadius,  Cassianus  natione 
Scytha,  he  has  been  supposed  an  African.  He  is  called  Afer  in  the  h'st  of 
ecclesiastical  writers  by  Honoriiis  (Ixi.  c.84);  an  Egyptian  (Pagi,  Basnage 
Fabricius);  a  Latin  (Photius,  c.  197);  a  Gaul  (Card.  Non'is  and  the  Bene- 
iictines.  Hist.  Lit.  de  la  France). 


190  T.ATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II 

the  afFections,  the  society  of  the  world.  The  drcamj 
and  passive  state  of  the  monk,  in  which  he  was  surren- 
dered to  spiritual  influences,  began  not  till  his  own 
determination  had  withdrawn  him  into  the  austere  and 
eremetical  solitude.  There  man  might  be  commingled, 
in  absolute  identity,  with  the  Godhead.  Every  act  of 
remorseless  asceticism  was  a  meritorious  demand  on 
the  divine  approbation.  The  divine  influence  was 
wrestled  for  and  won  by  the  resolute  and  prevailing 
votary,  not  bestowed  as  the  unsought  gift  of  God. 
Cassianus  passed  from  Egypt  to  Constantinople,  where 
he  became  the  favored  pupil  of  that  Greek  Father 
whose  writings  are  throuo-hout  the  most  adverse  to  the 
Augustinian  system.  The  whole  theology  of  Chrysos- 
tom,  in  its  general  impression,  is  a  plain  and  practical 
appeal  to  the  free  will  of  man.  He  addresses  man  as 
invested  in  an  awfal  responsibility,  but  as  self-depend- 
ent, self-determining  to  good  or  evil.  The  depravity 
against  which  he  inveighs  is  no  inherited,  inherent  cor- 
ruption, to  be  dispossessed  only  by  divine  grace,  but  a 
personal,  spontaneous,  self-originating,  and  self-main- 
tained surrender  to  evil  influences ;  to  be  broken  otf 
by  a  vigorous  effort  of  religious  faith,  to  be  controlled 
by  severe  self-imposed  religious  discipline.  As  far  as 
is  consistent  with  prayer  and  devotion,  man  is  master 
of  his  own  destiny.  The  Augustinian  questions  of 
predestination,  grace,  the  foreknowledge  of  God,  even, 
in  general,  the  atonement  and  the  extent  of  its  conse- 
quences, lie  without  the  sphere  of  Chrysostom's  theol- 
ogy. Cassianus  received  at  least  the  first  holy  orders 
from  Chrysostom.  During  the  disturbances  in  Con- 
stantinople relating  to  his  deposal,  Cassianus  was  sent 
to  Rome  on  a  mission  to  Pope  Innocent  I.     To  the 


Chap.  IL  CASSIANUS.  191 

memory  of  Chiysostom  he  preserved  the  most  fervent 
attachment.  Cluysostom  was  to  him  a  second  Jolui 
the  Evangeh'st.-^ 

Prohably  after  the  fall  of  Chrysostom,  Cassiaims 
settled  at  Marseilles,  and  founded  two  mon-  cassianus 
asteries,  one  of  men  and  one  of  women,  in  '"  ^^"^' 
which  he  introduced  the  severe  discipline  of  the  East. 
Marseilles  was  Greek;  it  .retained  to  a  late  period  the 
character  and,  to  some  degree,  the  language  of  a 
Grecian  colony ;  no  doubt,  on  that  account,  it  was 
conf^enial  to  Cassianus.  But  Cassianus  became  so 
completely  master  of  Latin  as  to  write  in  that  lan- 
guage his  Monastic  Institutes,  the  austere  and  inflexi- 
ble code  followed  in  most  of  the  ccenobitic  foundations 
north  of  the  Alps ;  and  it  is  chiefly  from  this  work 
that  posterity  can  collect  the  Semi-Pelagian  opin- 
ions of  its  author.^  Already,  however,  some  of  the 
faithful  partisans  of  Augustine  had  given  the  alarm 
at  this  tendency  towards  rebellion  against  the  dictator- 
ship of  their  master.  Prosper  and  Hilarius  denounced 
this  yet  more  secret  defection  of  those  who  presumed 
to  impugn  with  vain  objections  the  holy  Augustine  on 
the  grace  of  God.^     The  last  works  which   occupied 

1  Adoptatus  a  beatissimae  memoriae  Joanne  in  ministerium  sacrum  atque 
oblatus  Deo  ....  Mementote  magistrorum  vestrorum  veterum  sacerdo- 
tumque  vestrorum  ....  Joannis  tide  ac  puritate  mirabilis:  Joannis  in- 
quara,  Joannis  illius  qui  vere  ad  similitudinem  Joannis  Evangelistae,  et 
discipulus  Jesu  et  Apostolus,  quasi  super  pectus  domini  semper  affectumque 
discubuit  ....  Qui  communis  mihi  ac  vobis  magister  fuit;  cujus  discipuli 
et  institutio  sumus,  et  seqq.  —  Cassianus  de  Incarn.  c.  31. 

2  There  has  been  a  controversy  whether  Cassianus  was  a  Semi-Pelagian, 
With  his  works  before  them,  even  from  the  same  passages  of  his  works, 
grave  and  learned  men  have  argued  on  both  sides. 

8  Gratiam  Dei,  qua  Christiani  sumus,  qui  tam  dicere  audent  a  sanctaa 
memoriae  Augustino  Episcopo  non  rect6  esse  defensam,  librosque  ejus 
contra  errorem  Pelagianum  conditos  immoderatis  caluraniis  impetere  non 
auiescunt.  —  Prosper  contr.  Collatorem,  c.  1. 


192  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U. 

Augiistlne  were  addressed  to  Prosper  and  Hilarius, 
in  order  to  check  this  daring  inroad,  and  to  estabUsh 
on  irrefragable  grounds  the  predestination  of  the  saints 
and  the  gift  of  perseverance.^ 

The  partisans  of  Augustine  continued  to  wage  the 
Controversy  ^^^^  '^^^^^  ^^^  ^^^^  burning  zcal  and  imperious 
In  Gaul.  authority  of  their  master.  A  school  arose, 
not  of  theology  alone,  but  of  poetry.  Prosper,  in  a 
long  poem,  compelled  the  reluctant  language  and  form 
of  Latin  verse  to  condemn  the  "  ungrateful,"  who  in 
their  wanton  pride  ascribed  partly  to  themselves,  not 
absolutely  to  the  grace  of  God,  the  work  of  their 
salvation.  Prosper  and  Hilarius  were  followed  by  a 
lono;  line  of  assertors  of  the  Auo-ustinian  Predestina- 
rianism,  of  which  Fulgentius  was  the  most  rigid  and 
inexorable  advocate.^ 

Cassianus,  on  the  other  side,  handed  down  to  a 
succession  of  more  or  less  bold  disciples  the  aversion 
to  the  extreme  views  of  Augustine.  It  is  doubtftil 
whether  the  Vincentius,  who  espoused  his  opinions, 
was  the  celebrated  Abbot  of  Lerins,  the  author  of  the 
*  Oommonitory.'  At  a  later  period  Faustus,  Bishop  of 
Riez,  brought  the  sanction  of  learning,  high  character, 
and  sanctity  to  the  same  cause. 

Semi-Pelagianism  aspired  to  hold  the  balance  be- 
tween Pelagius  and  Augustine  ;2  to  steer  a  safe  and 
middle  course  between  the  abysses  into  which  each,  on 

1  De  Priedestiuatioiie  Sanctorum  liber  ad  Prosperiun  et  Ililarium  .... 
De  dono  perseveraiitia;  liber  ad  Prosperum  et  Ililarium  secundus. 

2  Fuli^entius  was  the  predecessor  of  that  modem  divine  who  is  said  to  havo 
spoken  of  the  comjhrtttblt  doctrine  of  the  eternal  damnation  of  little  children. 

8  Sed  nee  cum  hivreticis  tibi,  nee  cum  Catholicis  plena  concordia  est  .  .  . 
tu  informe,  noscio  quid,  tertium  et  utraque  parte  inconveniens  reperisti,  quo 
nee  inimicorum  consensum  adquirercs,  nee  in  nostrorum  permanerea. — 
Prosper,  c.  ii.  p.  117. 


Chap.  H.  CONTROVERSY  IN  GAUL.  193 

either  side,  had  plunged  in  desperate  presumption.^ 
It  emphatically  repudiated  the  heresy  of  Pelagius  in 
the  denial  of  original  sm ;  it  asserted  divine  grace, 
but  it  seemed  to  confine  divine  grace  to  the  outward 
means,  the  Scriptures  and  the  sacraments,  rather 
than  to  its  inward  and  direct  workings  on  the  soul 
itself. 

But  it  condemned  with  equal  resolution  the  system 
of  Augustine,  by  which  the  grace  of  God  was  hard- 
ened into  an  iron  necessity ;  it  reproached  him  with 
that  Manicheism  which  divided  mankind  into  two 
hard   antagonistic  masses.^ 

But  of  all  relimous  controversies  this  alone  had  the 
merit  of  not  growing  up  into  a  fatal  and  implacable 
schism.^  The  Semi-Pelagians,  though  condemned  in 
several  successive  councils,  were  not  cast  out  of  the 
Church,  and  did  not  therefore  form  sejmrate  and 
hostile  communities.  This  rare  mutual  respect, 
which  now  prevailed,  is  no  doubt  to  be  attributed 
to  one  important  cause.  The  monasteries,  which 
were  held  in  such  profound  and  universal  venera- 
tion, were  the  chief  schools  of  these  doctrines ;  some 


1  Compare  Walch,  v.  p.  56. 

2  Compare  the  letter  of  Prosper  to  Rufinus,  in  which  Augustine  is  said  to 
make  duas  human i  generis  massas,  an  error  as  bad  as  that  of  heathens  or 
Manicheans, 

3  No  question  has  been  more  disputed  in  later  days,  or  with  less  certain 
result,  than  whether  there  was  a  distinct  sect  of  Predestinarians  at  this 
period.  The  controversy  originated  in  the  publication  of  a  remarkable 
tract,  the  "  Prssdestinatus,"  by  the  Jesuit  Sirmond.  The  great  object  was 
to  clear  the  memory  of  Augustine,  who  was  claimed  both  by  Jesuits  and 
Jansenists.  Such  a  sect,  if  it  existed,  would  carry  off  from  St.  Augustine 
all  the  charges  heaped  upon  Predestinarianism  at  that  time.  If  they  were 
^e?'eie'cs,  Augustine  was  of  unimpuached  orthodoxy,  and  therefore  could  not 
have  held  a  condemnable  PredestinariaiuHm.  Walch  discusses  the  question 
at  length,  vol.  v. 

VOL.  I.  13 


194  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II. 

of  the  most  austere  and  most  admired  of  these 
Coenobites  were  the  chief  assertors  of  the  free  will 
of  man.^ 


*  Prosper  himself  betrays  this  enforced  respect  and  its  peculiar  source  i^— 

Nee  tibi  fallacis  subrepat  imago  decoris, 
Nullum  ex  his  errare  putes,  licet  in  Cruce  Titam 
Ducant,  et  jugi  afficiant  sua  corpora  morte: 
Abstineant  opibus ;  sintcasti;  sintque  benjgni ; 
Terrenisque  ferant  animum  super  astra  relictis; 
Si  tamen  haec  propria  virtute  capessere  quenquam 
Posse  putant,  sitve  ut  dignus  labor  iste  juvari 
Ingenium  meruisse  aiunt  bona  vera  petentis; 
Crescere  quo  cupiunt,  minuuntur;  proficiendo 
Deficiunt;  surgendo  cadunt.  currendo  recedunt; 
Unde  etenim  vani  frustra  splendescere  quacrunt, 
Inde  obscurantur :  quoniam  sua,  laudis  amore, 
Non  quae  sunt  Christi  quasrunt,  nee  fit  Deus  illis 
Principium  et  capiti  non  dant  in  corpore  regnum. 

Prosper  ad  Ingratos,  zxrvU. 


CiiAP.  m.  DEATU  OF  ZOSIMUS.  11)5 


CHAPTER   III. 

NESTORIANISM. 

ZosTMUs  filled  the   See  of  Rome   only  a  year  and 
nine  months.     His  short  pontificate  was  agi-  ^vi^r.  is,  417. 
tated  not  only  by  the  Pelagian  controversy,  SSthV^^' 
but  by  disputes  with  the  bishops  of  Southern  2°«^"«- 
Gaul  and  of  Africa,  hereafter  to  be  considered  when 
the  relations  of  those  provinces   to  the  See  of  Rome 
shall  take  their  place  in  our  history. 

The  death  of  Zosimus  gave  rise   to  the  third  con- 
tested election  for  the  See  of  Rome. 

The  greater  the  dignity  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  and 
the  more  lofty  his  pretensions  to  supremacy,  the  more 
would  ambition  covet  this  post  of  power  and  distinc- 
tion ;  the  more,  on  the  other  hand,  would  holy  and 
Christian  emulation  aspire  to  place  the  worthiest  pre- 
late in  this  commandino;  station ;  and  men's  Disputed 
opinions  would  not  always  concur  as  to  the  Dec.  27,'28. 
ecclesiastic  best  qualified  to  preside  over  Western 
Christendom.  Thus  while  the  most  ungovernable 
worldly  passions  and  interests  would  intrude  them- 
selves into  the  election,  honest  religious  zeal,  often 
the  blindest,  always  the  most  obstinate  of  human 
motives,  would  esteem  it  a  sacred  duty  to  espouse, 
an  impious  weakness  to  abandon,  some  favorite 
cause. 

The  unsettled  form  of  the  election,  and  the  unde- 


196  LATIN   CHRISTIAMTY.  Book  [1 


Unsettled  fined  rlglits  of  tlie  electors,  could  not  but 
election.  iucreasc  the  difficulty  and  exasperate  the 
strife.  The  absolute  nomination  by  the  clergy  would 
have  been  no  security  against  contested  elections  ;  for 
in  every  double  election  a  large  part  of  the  clergy  was 
rancred  on  either  side,  and  formed  the  rival  factions. 
A  certain  assent  of  the  people  was  still  considered 
necessary  to  ratify  the  appointment.  At  all  events, 
tb.e  people  looked  on  the  election  with  such  profound 
interest,  during  a  contest  with  such  violent  excitement, 
that  it  was  impossible  to  exclude  them  from  interfer- 
ence :  and  both  factions  were  so  anxious  for  their  sup- 
port, that  only  the  losing  party  would  see  the  impro- 
priety of  their  tumultuous  minglmg  in  the  fi'ay.  The 
election  of  the  Bishop  was  now  as  much  an  affair  of 
the  whole  city  as  that  of  a  consul  or  a  dictator  of  old, 
without  the  ancient  and  time-honored  regulations  for 
collecting  the  suffrages  by  centuries  or  by  tribes. 

And  who  were  the  people  ?  Was  this  right  equally 
The  people,  shared  by  all  the  members  of  the  religious 
community,  now  almost  coextensive  in  number  with 
the  inhabitants  of  the  city?  Had  the  Senate  any 
special  privilege,  or  were  all  these  rights  of  the  laity 
vested  in  the  Emperor  alone  as  the  supreme  civil 
power,  and  so  in  the  Prefect  of  Rome,  the  representa- 
tive of  imperial  authority  ?  The  popular  universal 
suffrage,  which,  in  a  small  primitive  church,  one  per- 
vaded with  pure  Christian  piety,  tended  to  harmony, 
became  an  uncontrolled  democratic  anarchy  when  the 
bishopric  included  a  vast  city.  It  is  surprising  that 
this  difficulty,  which  was  not  removed  until,  at  a  com- 
paratively recent  period,  the  election  was  vested  in  the 
College  of  Cardinals,  was  not  fatal  to  the  supremacy 


CHAP.  HI.  THE  PEOPLE.  197 

of  Rome.  But  tliough  the  wild  scenes  of  anarchy  and 
tumult,  which,  especially  from  the  eighth  to  the  elev- 
enth century,  impaired  the  authority  of  the  Pope  in 
Rome  itself,  and  desecrated  his  person  ;  though  the 
successful  Pontiff  was  often  only  the  head  of  a  trium- 
phant faction,  and  was  either  disobeyed,  or  obeyed  with 
undisguised  reluctance,  by  the  defeated  party ;  still  dis- 
tance seemed  to  soften  off  all  this  unseemly  confusion, 
above  which  the  Pope  appeared  seated  on  his  serene 
and  lofty  throne  in  undiminished  majesty.  It  con- 
stantly happened  that  at  the  very  time  at  which  in 
Rome  the  Pope  was  insulted,  maltreated,  wounded, 
imprisoned,  driven  from  the  city,  the  extreme  parts  of 
Christendom  were  bowing  to  his  decrees  in  unshaken 
reverence. 

Twice  already  —  perhaps  more  than  twice  —  had 
Rome  been  afflicted  with  a  fierce  and  prolonged  con- 
test. The  austere  bigotry  of  Novatian  had  maintained 
his  claim  against  the  authority  of  Cornelius.  Felix 
had  been  the  antipope  to  Liberius.  The  streets  of 
Rome  had  run  with  blood,  the  churches  had  been  de- 
filed with  dead  bodies,  in  the  more  recent  strife  of  Da- 
masus  and  Ursicinus. 

On  the  death  of  Zosimus,  some  of  the  clergy  chose 
the  Archdeacon  Eulalius  in  the  Lateran  Church  ;  on 
the  same,  or  the  next  day,  a  larger  number  met  in  the 
Church  of  S.  Theodora,  and  elected  the  Presbyter 
Boniface.  Three  bishops,  among  whom  was  the 
Bishop  of  Ostia,  either  compelled,  it  was  said,  or, 
yielding  through  the  weakness  of  extreme  old  Dec.  27, 28. 
age,  consecrated  Eulalius.  Boniface  was  inaugurated 
by  nine  bishops,  in  the  presence  of  seventy  double 
presbyters,  in  the  Church  of  St.  Marcellus.  ^^^^^^^^ 


108  LATIN  CHRISTUNITY.  Book  n. 

Rome  miglit  apprehend  the  return  of  those  terrible  and 
bloody  days  which  marked  the  elevation  of  Damasus. 
The  Prefect  of  Rome  was  S}'mmachus,  son  of  that 
eloquent  orator  who  had  defended  with  so  much  en- 
ergy the  lost  cause  of  paganism.  The  outward  con- 
formity, at  least,  of  Symmachus  to  Christianity  may 
be  presumed  from  the  favor  of  Honorius ;  but  it  is 
curious  to  find  a  contest  for  the  Papacy  dependent  for 
its  decision  on  the  son  of  such  a  father.  Symmachus, 
in  his  report  to  the  Emperor,  inclines  toward  the  party 
Euiaiius.  of  Eulalius.  Bouifacc  was  summoned  to  Ra- 
venna. He  delayed  to  obey  the  mandate,  which 
reached  him  when  he  was  performing  his  sacred  func- 
tions without  the  city  ;  the  officers  of  the  Prefect  were 
maltreated  by  the  populace  of  his  party.  The  gates 
of  Rome,  therefore,  were  closed  upon  Boniface,  and 
Jan.  6.  Eulalius,  in  great  state,  amid  the  acclamations 

of  part,  at  least,  of  the  people,  took  possession  of  St. 
Peter's,  the  Capitol,  as  it  were,  of  Christianity. 

The  party  of  Boniface  were  not  inactive,  or  without 
influence  at  the  court  of  Ravenna.  The  petition  to 
the  Emperor  declared  that  all  the  Presbyters  of  Rome 
would  accompany  Boniface,  to  make  known  her  will, 
or,  ratlier,  the  judgment  of  God.^  Honorius  issued  a 
Edict  of  rescript,  with  supercilious  impartiality  com- 
Hoaorius.  maudiug  botli  prelates  to  remain  at  a  distance 
from  the  city,  until  the "  cause  should  be  decided  by  a 
synod  of  bishops  from  Italy,  Gaul,  and  Africa.  In  the 
mean  time,  as  the  Roman  people  could  not  be  deprived 
of  the  solemn  rites  of  Easter,  Achilleus,  Bishop  of 
Spoleto,  was  ordered  to  officiate  during  the  vacancy. 

i  Prelectis  singulis   Titulis,  prcsbytcri  omnes  aclcrunt,  qui  voluiitatera 
Buam,  hoc  est,  judicium  Dei  pruloquantur.  —  Apud  Baron iuui,  sub  aim.  419. 


Chap.  III.  BONIFACE  POrE.  199 

Eulalius  would  not  endure  this  sacrilegious  usurpation 
of  the  powers  of  his  see.  He  surprised  by  niglit,  at 
the  head  of  that  part  of  tlie  populace  which  was  on 
his  side,  the  Lateran  Church  ;  and  in  contem})t  of  the 
Emperor's  orders,  celebrated  the  holy  rites.  But  the 
days  of  successful  conflict  with  the  civil  power  were 
not  yet  conie%  The  rashness  of  Eulalius  estranged 
even  Symmachus  from  his  cause  :  ^  this  act  was  treated 
as  one  of  rebellion.  Eulalius  was  expelled  from  the 
city.  He  was  threatened,  as  well  as  all  the  Mar.  18-28. 
clergy  who  adhered  to  him,  with  still  more  fearful  pen- 
alties. The  laity  who  communicated  with  Eulalius 
were  to  be  punished,  the  higher  orders  with  banish- 
ment and  confiscation,  slaves  with  death.  The  pri- 
mates of  the  Regions  of  Rome  were  to  be  responsible 
for  all  popular  tumults.  Such  was  the  commandmg 
Judgment  of  the  Emperor.^ 

Boniface  took  possession  without  fiirther  contest  of 
the  Pontifical  throne.  He  was  the  son  of  a  Bouiface 
presbyter  ^  named  Jocondus,  a  Roman  by  Apr.  lo 
birth  ;  he  was  an  aged  prelate,  of  mild  and  blameless 
character ;  wisely  anxious  to  prevent,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, the  scandals,  and  even  crimes,  in  which  he  had 
been  so  nearly  involved.  He  addressed  the  Emperor, 
urging  the  enactment  of  a  law,  a  civil  law,  which 
should  restrain  ecclesiastical  ambition,  and  coerce  those 
who  aspired  to  obtain  by  intrigue,  what  ought  to  be 
the  reward  of  piety  and  holiness.  Honorius  issued  an 
edict,  that  in  case  of  a  contested  election  both  the  rival 
candidates  should  be  excluded  from  the  office,  and  a 
new  appointment  made.      Thus  the  Imperial   power 

1  Symmachi  rescript,  apud  Baron. 

2  See  the  rescript  of  Honorius,  apud  Baronium 
8  Platin.  vit.  Bonifac. 


200  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY  Book  II 

assumed,  and  was  acknowledged  to  possess,  full  au- 
thority to  regulate  the  election  of  Bishops  of  Rome.^ 
During  the  three  years  of  the  pontificate  of  Boniface, 
the  Pelagian  controversy  was  still  drawing  out  its 
almost  interminable  length. 

On  the  death  of  Boniface,^  Eulalius  refused  to  leave 
the  seclusion  into  which  he  had  retired  ;  the  decline  of 
life  may  have  softened  his  ambition  —  for  he  died  the 
Sept.  4, 422.  following  year.  Celestine  was  elected,  and 
ruled  in  peace  the  See  of  Rome.  The  Pontificates  of 
Nov  10  Celestine  I.^  and  his  successor  Sixtus  I.*  were 
Celestine  I.  occu})ied  by  the  Nestorian  controversy  :  oc- 
cupied, but  hardly  disturbed.  The  East,  as  it  has  ap- 
peared, had  stood  aloof  serene  and  unimpassioned 
throughout  the  Pelagian  controversy;  in  Palestine, 
the  Latin  Jerome  alone,  and  his  partisans  the  two 
Western  bishops  of  doubtful  fame,  would  not  endure 
the  presence  of  Pelagius.  In  Alexandria  and  Con- 
stantinople, Predestination,  Grace,  Free  Will,  excited 
no  tumults,  arrayed  against  each  other  no  hostile  fac- 
tions, demanded  no  councils.  The  Bishop  of  Con- 
stantinople pronounced  his  authoritative  decrees,  which 
no  one  desired  to  question  ;  and  expelled  from  his  dio- 
cese Celestius,  or  Pelagius  himself,  whom  no  one  cared 
to  defend.  They  alone,  of  all  powerful  heresiarchs  in 
Constantinople,  neither  distracted  the  Imperial  court, 
nor  maddened  popular  faction. 

Latin  Christianity  contemplated  with  almost  equal 
,  ,.„  indifference  Nostorianism,  and  all  its  prolific 

Indifference  '  ^   ^  i 

of  the  West,    race,  Eutychianism,    Monophysitism,   Mono- 

1  Rcpcriptum  Tlonorii,  apud  Baronium. 

2  Boniftice  died  Nov.  4,  422. 

8  Celestine  I.,  Nov.  10,  422;  died  July,  432. 
4  Sixtus  I..  432;  died  440. 


Chap.  HI.         STATE  OF  THE  EASi  201 

tlielltism.  Willie  in  this  contest  the  two  great  Patri- 
archates of  the  East,  Constantinople  and  Alexandria, 
brought  to  issue,  or  strove  to  bring  to  issue,  their  rival 
claims  to  ascendency  ;  while  council  after  council  pro- 
mulgated, reversed,  reenacted  their  conflicting  decrees  ; 
while  separate  and  hostile  communities  were  formed  in 
every  region  of  the  East ;  and  the  fears  of  persecuted 
Nestorianism,  stronger  than  religious  zeal,  penetrated 
for  refuge  remote  countries,  into  which  Christianity 
had  not  yet  found  its  way  :  in  the  West  there  was  no 
Nestorian,  or  Eutychian  sect.  Some  councils  con- 
demned, but  with  hardly  an  audible  remonstrance, 
these  uncongenial  heresies :  the  doctrines  are  con- 
demned, but  there  appears  no  body  of  heretics  Avhom 
it  is  thought  necessary  to  strike  with  the  anathema. 

In  the  East,  religion  ceased  more  and  more  to  be  an 
affair  of  pure  religion.  It  was  mingled  upgtateof 
with  all  the  intrigues  of  the  Imperial  court,  '^^  ^''^'' 
with  all  the  furies  of  faction  in  the  great  cities.  The 
council  was  the  arena,  not  merely  for  Christian  doc- 
trine, but  for  worldly  ascendency.  Secular  ambition 
could  no  longer  be  distinguished,  nor  could  the  warring 
prelates  themselves  distinguish  it,  from  zeal  for  ortho- 
doxy. Religious  questions  being  decided  by  the  favor 
of  the  Emperor,  the  Empress,  or  the  ruling  minister, 
eunuch  or  barbarian,  that  favor  was  sought  by  the 
most  unscrupulous  means  —  by  intrigue,  by  adulation, 
by  bribery  ;  and  these  means  became  hallowed.  There 
was  no  sacrifice  with  which  Alexandria  would  not  pur- 
chase superiority  over  Constantinople,  or  Constantino- 
ple over  Alexandria  :  the  rivalry  of  the  sees  darkened 
into  the  fiercest  personal  hostility. 

In  the  mean  time  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  unembarrassed 


202  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IL 

with  the  intricacies  of  the  question,  which  had  no 
temptation  for  his  more  practical  understanding,  with 
the  whole  West  participating  in  his  comparative  apa- 
thy, could  sit,  at  a  distance,  a  tranquil  arbiter,  and  in- 
terfere only  when  he  saw  his  own  advantage,  or  when 
all  parties,  exasperated  or  wearied  out,  gladly  submit- 
ted to  any  foreign  or  unpledged  judg-ment.  The  East- 
ern prelates,  too  eager  to  destroy  each  other,  were 
either  blind  to,  or  in  the  heat  of  mutual  detestation 
disregarded  this  silent  aggression,  and  admitted  princi- 
ples without  suspicion  fatal  to  their  own  indepen- 
dence. 

On  the  nature  of  the  Godhead  the  inexhaustible 
East  had  not  yet  nearly  run  the  whole  round  of 
speculative  thought ;  the  Greek  language  still  found 
new  gradations  on  which  it  might  employ  its  fine 
and  subtile  distinctiveness.  All  these  controversies, 
which  began  anew  with  Nestorianism,  sprang  by  lineal 
and  unbroken  descent  from  the  great  ancestral  princi- 
ple. The  same  Oriental  tenet  (however  it  may  not, 
at  first  sight,  be  apparent)  which  gave  birth  to  the 
various  Gnostic  sects,  and  to  Manicheism,  had  lain  at 
the  root  of  Arianism,^  now  quickened  into  life  Nes- 
torianism and  all  its  kindred  race.  Arianism  had 
arisen  out  of  that  profound  sense  of  the  mahgnancy 
of  matter,  which   in   its  grosser  influence  had  led  to 

1  Hist,  of  Christianity,  vol.  ii.  p.  443.  Add  to  the  autliorities  there 
quoted  this  decisive  passage  from  Arius  himself,  apud  Athanas.  xvi.  de  Syii. 
el  6e  rd  l^  avrov,  kqI  to  Ik  yaarpog  (Psalm,  ex.  8)  kul  to  ek  tov  Tiarpbg 
i:^T}X-&ov,  nat  r/KU,  wf  fxepog  avrov  ofioovoiov  Kal  tjg  -npolioTa]  VTcd  tlvuv  vouTat, 
cvv^eroc  larai  6  nar^p  Kal  dtaLperdg  Kal  Tpenrbc  Kal  (ju  fia  Kar'  avToiig. 
Arius  accused  his  adversaries  of  destroying  this  pure  spirituality  of  the 
Father,  by  asserting  tin-  6/ioovaLa  of  the  Soai.  The  Father  became  likewise 
composed  of  parts,  divisible,  mutable,  corporeal,  and  to  him  this  was  an 
OnansweraMe  argument. 


Chap.  III.  TRINITARIANISM  ESTABLISHED.  203 

the  Manicheaii  Dualism.  The  pure,  primal,  parental 
Deity  must  stand  entirely  aloof  from  all  connection 
with  that  in  which  evil  was  inherent,  inveterate, 
inextinguishable.  This  was  the  absolute  essence  of 
Deity  ;  this  undistm'bed,  miattainted  Spirituahsm,  wliich 
disdained,  repelled,  abhorred  the  contact,  the  approxi- 
mation of  the  Corporeal,  which  once  assimilating  to, 
or  condescending  to  assume  any  of  the  attributes  of 
Matter,  ceased  to  be  the  Godhead. 

By  the  triumph  of  the  Athanasian  Trinitarlanism,  and 
by  the  gradual  dominance  which  it  had  ob-  Trinitarian- 
tained  over  the  general  mind  of  Christendom,  lished. 
the  coequal  and  consubstantial  Godhead  in  the  Trinity 
had  become  an  article  of  the  universal  creed  in  the 
Latin  Church.  Arianism  survived  only  among  the  bar- 
barians. The  East  adhered  almost  as  generally  to  the 
Creed  of  Nicea.  The  Son,  therefore,  had  become,  if 
the  expression  may  be  ventured,  more  and  more  divine  ; 
he  was  more  completely  not  merely  assimilated,  but 
absolutely  identified,  with  the  original,  perfect,  uncon- 
taminated  Godhead.  Yet  his  descent  into  the  material 
world,  his  admixture  with  the  external,  the  sensible, 
the  created  —  his  assumption  of  the  form  and  being 
of  man  (which  all  agreed  to  be  essential  to  the  Chris- 
tian scheme,  not  in  seeming  alone,  according  to  the 
Docetic  notion,  but  actually  and  really)  —  must  be 
guarded  by  the  same  jealousy  of  infecting  his  pure 
and  spiritual  essence  by  the  earthly  contagion  :  that 
which  would  have  been  fatal  to  the  spirituality  of 
the  Father,  might  endanger  the  same  prerogative  of 
the  Son.  The  divine  and  human  nature  could  not 
indeed  be  kept  separate,  but  they  must  be  united 
with  the  least  possible  sacrifice  of  their  essential  at- 


204  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IL 

tributes.  If  (according  to  Nestorius)  the  Eternal 
and  Coequal  Word  were  horn^  this  was  a  denial 
Views  of  of  liis  preexistence ;  and  to  assert  that  he 
Nestorius.  ^ould  be  liable  to  i)assion  or  suffering,^  in 
the  same  manner  violated  the  pure  spirituality  of*  the 
Godhead.  He  proposed,  therefore,  that  the  appella- 
tion, Christ,  should  be  confined,  and,  as  it  were, 
kept  sacred,  as  signifying  the  Being,  composed  of 
the  blended,  yet  unconfounded,  God  and  man  ;  and 
that  the  Virgin  should  be  the  mother  of  Christ,  the 
God-man,  not  the  mother  of  God,  of  the  unassociated 
divinity.^  This  is  the  key  to  the  whole  controversy. 
Never  was  there  a  case  in  which  the  contending 
parties  approximated  so  closely.  Both  subscribed, 
both  appealed  to  the  Nicene  Creed ;  both  admitted 
the  preexistenee,  the  impassibility  of  the  Eternal 
Word;  but  the  fatal  duty,  which  the  Christians  in 
that  age,  and  unhappily  in  subsequent  ages,  have 
imposed  upon  themselves,  of  considering  the  detec- 
tion of  heresy  the  first  of  religious  obligations,  mingled, 
as  it  now  was,  Avith  human  passions  and  interests,  made 
the  breach  irreparable.  Men  like  Cyril  of  Alexandria, 
in  whom  relimon  mio;ht  seem  to  have  inflamed  and 
embittered,  instead  of  allaying,  the  worst  passions  of 
our  nature,  pride,  ambition,  cruelty,  rapacity;  and 
Councils  like  that  of  Ephesus,  with  all  the  tumult  and 
violence  without  the  dignity  of  a  senate  or  popular 
assembly,  convulsed  the  East,  and  led  to  a  fierce  and 
irreconcilable  schism. 

The  stern  repudiation  of  the  term,  the  Mother  of 
Worship  of  God,  encountered  another  sentiment,  which 
the  Virgin.     ^^^  hQQVi  rapidly  growing  up,  as  one  of  tha 

1  Patibilis.  2  XpiGTOTOKoc,  not  Osotokos. 


Cttap.  III.  WORSHIP  OF  THE  VIRGIN.  20 ^ 

dominant  influences  of  the  Christian  mind.  The  wor- 
si  lip  of  tlie  Virgin  had  arisen  from  the  confluence  of 
many  pure  and  gentle,  and  many  natural  feelings. 
The  reverence  for  everything  connected  with  the 
Redeemer,  especially  by  ties  so  close  and  tender, 
would  not  with  cold  jealousy  watch  and  limit  its  ardent 
language.  The  more  absolute  deification,  if  it  may 
be  so  said,  of  Christ ;  the  forgetfulness  of  his  human- 
ity induced  by  his  investment  in  more  remote  and 
awful  Godhead,  —  created  a  want  of  some  more  kin 
dred  j.nd  familiar  object  of  adoration.  The  worship 
of  the  intermediate  saints  admitted  that  of  the  Virgin 
as  its  least  dangerous,  most  affecting,  most  consolatory 
part.  The  exquisite  beauty  and  purity  of  the  images, 
the  Virgin  Mother  and  the  Divine  Infant,  though  not 
as  yet  embodied  in  the  highest  art,  by  painting  or 
sculpture,  appealed  to  the  unreasoning  and  unsuspect- 
ing heart.  To  this  was  added,  the  superior  influence 
wdth  which  Christianity  had  invested  the  female  sex, 
and  which  naturally  clave  to  this  gentler  and  kindred 
object  of  adoring  love.  In  one  of  the  earliest  docu- 
ments relating  to  this  controversy,  the  honor  con- 
ferred on  the  female  sex  by  the  birth  of  the  Lord 
fi'om  the  Virgin  Mary  is  dwelt  upon  in  glowing 
terms :  woman's  glory  is  inseparably  connected  with 
that  of  the  Virgin  Mother.  The  power  exercised 
by  females  at  the  court  of  Constantinople,  now  by 
the  sisters  and  wives,  the  Pulcherias  and  Eudoxias, 
at  other  times,  by  the  mothers  of  Emperors,  the 
Helenas  and  Irenes,  as  in  some  degree  sprincjing 
from  Christianity,  was  strengthened  by,  and  in  its 
turn  strengthened,  this  adoration  of  the  Vircrin  jVIarv, 
which   interposed   itself  between   that  of  Chnst,   and 


206  LATIN  CHRISTIAmTY.  Book  H. 

Ktill  more  that  of  God  the  Father,  and  the   worship- 
ping Christian. 

With  this  view  accords  the  whole  course  of  tlie 
Promotion  of  historv.     On  the  death  of  Sisinnius  Bishop 

Nestorius,  n    r~^  •  i  i         t^  i 

A.D.  428.  or  Constantinople,  the  l^mperor,  the  younger 
TheodosiuR,  to  terminate  the  intrigues  and  factions 
among  tlie  clergy  of  the  city,  sunnnoned  Nestorius 
from  Antioch  to  the  Episcopal  Throne  of  the  Eastern 
Rome.^  Nestorius  appeared,  simple  in  his  dress,  grave 
in  his  demeanor,  pale  and  meagre  from  ascetic  observ- 
ances, and  with  the  fame  of  surpassing  eloquence.^ 
He  revived  to  the  expecting  city  the  fond  remem- 
brance of  Chrysostom,  who,  like  him,  had  been  called 
from  Antioch  to  Constantinople.^  The  Golden  jMouth 
was  again  to  appall  and  delight  the  city.  But  the 
religion  of  Chrysostom,  from  its  strong  practical  char- 
acter, had  escaped  that  speculative  tinge  which  seemed 
natural  to  the  Syrian  mind.  The  last  lingering  ves- 
tiges of  Gnosticism  survived  in  Syria.  Arius,  though 
not  a  Syrian  Presbyter,  found  his  most  ardent  adher- 
ents in  that  province  ;  and  now  from  the  same  quarter 
sprang  this  new  theory,  which,  though  it  rested  its 
claim  to  orthodoxy  on  its  irreconcilable  hostility  to 
Ai'ianism,  grew  out  of  the  same  principle. 

Anastasius,  a  presbyter,  who  accompanied  Nestorius 
Commence-  from  Autiocli,  first  soimdcd  the  clarion  of 
Sriau^sn^'^^"  Strife  and  confusion.     He  [)ubllcly  preached 

A  D   429  1  •  •  1  •  • 

that    it  was  nnproper  and   even   impious   to 

1  Nestorius  was  a  Syrian,  a  native  of  Germanicia. — Socrat.  vii.  29. 
Theodoret,  Hasret.  Fab.  iv.  12.  Simeon  Batharsani.  apucl  Assemanni, 
Biblioth.  Orient,  i.  346. 

2  Tanta  antea  opinione  vixisti,  iit  tuis  te  aliena  civitas  invideret.  Such 
IS  the  lionorable  testimony  borne  to  the  character  of  Nestorius  by  Pope 
Celestine.  —  E[)istul.  ad  Nestor.,  Mansi,  iv.  1206. 

8  Cassian  De  Incarn.  vii.  30.     Tillemont,  page  286. 


Chap.  Til.  OPINIONS   OF  NESTORriS.  207 

address  the  Virgin  Mary  as  tlie  Motlier  of  God.  The 
indignation  and  excitement  of  tlie  city  was  heightened 
by  fast-spreading  rumors,  that  the  Bishop  not  merely 
refused  to  silence  the  sacrilegious  Presbyter,  but  openly 
avowed  the  same  opinion.^  As  is  usual,  the  subtile 
distinctions  of  Nestorius  were  unheard  or  unintelligible 
to  the  common  ear.  He  proscribed  an  appellation  to 
which  the  pulpits  and  the  services  of  the  Church  had 
habituated  the  general  mind.  The  tenet  jarred  upon 
the  hio'h-sti-ung  sensitiveness  of  an  inveterate  faith, 
and  awoke  resentment,  on  which  the  finest  argument 
was  lost.  In  the  great  Metropolitan  Church  sermons  of 
the  Bishop  delivered  a  sermon  on  the  Incar-  ^*^^*^""^- 
nation  of  the  Lord.^  As  an  orator  he  placed  his  own 
theory  in  the  most  brilliant  light.  He  dwelt  on  the 
omnipotence,  the  glory,  and  all  the  transcendent  at- 
tributes of  God  the  Creator,  and  of  God  the  Re- 
deemer. "  And  can  this  God  have  a  mother?"^ 
"  The  heathen  notion  of  a  God  born  of  a  mortal 
mother  is  directly  confuted  by  St.  Paul,  who  declares 
the  Lord  without  father  and  without  mother.  Could 
a  creature  bear  the  Uncreated  ?  Could  the  Word 
which  was  with  the  Father  before  the  worlds,  become 
a  new-born  infant?  The  human  nature  alone  was 
born  of  the  Virgin :  that  which  is  of  the  flesh  is 
flesh.*  The  manhood  was  the  instrument  of  the  di- 
vine purposes,  the  outward  and  visible  vesture  of  the 
Invisible.  God  was  incarnate,  indeed,  but  God  died 
not ;  his  death  was  but  casting  off  the  weeds  of  mor- 
tality, which  he  had  assumed  for  a  time."     A  second 

1  Socrates,  H.  E.  vii.  29,  32. 

2  Socrates,  H.  E.  vii.  32.    Evagrius,  i.  2.    Liberatus,  Breviar  c  4 
8  Socrates,  ut  supra. 

*  Marius  Mercator,  edit.  Gamier,  ii.  p.  5. 


208  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U. 

and  a  third  sermon  followed,  in  which  Nestorius  still 
further  unfolded  his  opinions :  "  Like  can  but  bear 
like ;  a  human  mother  can  only  bear  a  human  being. 
God  was  not  born  —  lie  dwelt  in  that  wliich  was  born  ; 
the  Divinity  underwent  not  the  slow  process  of  growth 
and  development  during  the  nine  months  of  preg- 
nancy." But  the  more  perplexing  and  subtle  are 
arguments  addressed  to  those  whose  judgment  is  al- 
ready ratified  by  their  passions,  they  only  inflame 
resentment  instead  of  working  conviction.  The  whole 
city  was  in  an  uproar  ;  every  ecclesiastical  rule  broken 
asunder.  The  presbyters,  in  every  quarter,  preached 
against  their  bishop ;  and  a  bold  monk  (the  monks 
were  always  the  faithful  representatives  of  the  relig- 
ious passions  of  their  age)  forbade  the  Bishop,  as  an 
obstinate  heretic,  to  approach  the  altar.  Nestorius 
(and  in  all  his  subsequent  afflictions  it  must  be  re- 
membered that,  when  in  power,  he  scrupled  not  to 
persecute)  did  not  bear  these  insults  with  Christian 
equanimity,  or  repress  them  with  calm  dignity.  The 
refractory  priests  and  the  tumultuous  people  were 
seized,  tried,  and  scourged  more  cruelly  than  in  a  land 
of  barbarians.  Nestorius,  it  is  said,  with  his  own 
hand,  struck  the  presumptuous  monk,  and  then  made 
him  over  to  the  officers,  who  flogged  him  through 
the  streets,  with  a  crier  going  before  to  proclaim  his 
oifence,  and  then  cast  him  out  of  the  city.^ 

1  This  is  the  account  indeed  rif  a  partisan  —  the  report  of  Basilius  to  ihe 
Emperor  Theodosius.  Labbe,  Concil.  But  liis  whole  history  shon'-s  the 
persecuting  sjtirit  of  Nestorius:  —  "The  lifth  da}'  after  his  consecration 
he  endeavored  to  deprive  the  Avians  of  tiieir  cluirch :  they  burned  it  down 
in  despair.  He  was  called  b}'  his  enemies  Nestorius  the  Incendiary." 
Socrat.  vii.  29.  He  excited  also  a  violent  i)ersecution  against  the  Nova- 
tians,  Quarto-decmians  and  Macedonians.  —  Ibid,  et  c.  31.  The  most 
damning  fact  against  him,  however,  is  his  own  boast  that  he   procured 


Chap.  in.  OriNIONS    OF   NESTORIUS.  209 

Nestoriiis  found  in  Constantinople  itself  a  more 
dano'eroiis  antao-onist.  On  a  festival  in  honor  of  the 
Virgin,  Proclus  Bishop  of  Cyzicum  (an  unsuccessful 
rival,  it  is  said,  of  Nestorius  for  the  Metropolitan  See) 
delivered  a  passionate  appeal  to  the  dominant  feeling. 
The  worship  of  the  Virgin,  in  the  most  poetic  ages 
of  Christianity,  has  hardly  surpassed  the  images  which 
Proclus  poured  forth  in  lavish  profusion  in  honor  of 
the  Mother  of  God.  "  Earth  and  sea  did  homage 
to  tlie  Virgin,  the  sea  smoothing  its  serene  waters, 
earth  conducting  the  secure  travellers  who  thronged 
to  her  festival.  Nature  exulted,  and  womankind  was 
glorified."  "  We  are  assembled  in  honor  of  the 
Mother  of  God  "  (the  appellation  condemned  by  Nes- 
torius) ;  "  the  spotless  treasure-house  of  virginity ;  the 
spiritual  paradise  of  the  second  Adam  ;  the  workshop, 
in  which  the  two  natures  were  annealed  together ;  the 
bridal  chamber  in  which  the  Word  wedded  the  flesh ; 
the  living  bush  of  nature,  which  was  unharmed  by 
the  fire  of  the  divine  birth ;  the  light  cloud  which 
bore  Him  which  sate  between  the  Clierubim ;  the 
stainless  fleece,  bathed  in  the  dews  of  Heaven,  with 
which  the  Shepherd  clothed  his  sheep  ;  the  handmaid 
and  the  mother,  the  Virgin  and  Heaven ;  "  —  and  so 
on  throuo-h  a  wild  labvrinth  of  untranslatable  meta- 


an  imperial  law  of  the  utmost  severity  against  all  heretics:  Ego,  certe 
legem  inter  ipsa  meae  ordinationis  initia  contra  eos,  qui  Christum  purum 
hominem  dicunt,  et  contra  reli(iuas  hasreses  innovavi.  Mansi,  v.  731  or  763. 
For  the  Law,  see  Cod.  Theodos.  de  Hgeret.  Vincentius  Lirinensis  writes 
of  Nestorius,  Ut  uni  hseresi  aditum  patefaceret,  cunctarum  hjereseon  blas- 
phemias  insectabatur.  —  Commonit.  c.  16.  Nestorius  Avas  in  character  a 
monk,  without  humility.  "  Give  me  (such  is  the  speech  ascribed  to  him  as 
addressed  to  the  Emperor)  a  world  freed  from  heresy,  and  I  will  give  you 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Aid  me  in  subduing  the  heretics,  I  will  aid  you 
in  routing  th-^  Persians." 

vnr      I  1^ 


210  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U 

phor.'  The  cloudy  opening  cleared  off  into  something 
like  argument ;  it  became  an  elaborate  reply  to  Nes- 
torius,  the  declaration  of  war  from  one  who  felt  his 
strength  in  the  popular  feeling. 

But  the  war  was  not  confined  to  Constantinople  ; 
Cyril  of  it  involved  the  whole  East.  Now  rushed 
Alexandria,  f^jj-^^^^j^j  ^jj  adversary  far  more  formidable 
in  station,  in  ability,  in  that  character  for  Christian 
orthodoxy  of  doctrine  which  then  hallowed  every  act, 
even  every  crime,  but  fi^om  which  true  Christianity 
would  avert  its  sight  in  shame  and  anguish,  that  such 
a  champion  should  be  accepted  as  the  representative 
of  the  Gospel  of  peace  and  love.  Cyril  of  Alexan- 
dria, to  those  who  esteem  the  stern  and  uncompro- 
mising assertion  of  certain  Christian  tenets  the  one 
paramount  Christian  virtue,  may  be  the  hero,  even 
the  saint :  but  while  ambition,  intrigue,  arrogance, 
rapacity,  and  violence  are  proscribed  as  unchristian 
means  —  barbarity,  persecution,  bloodshed  as  unholy 
and  unevangelic  wickednesses  —  posterity  will  condemn 
the  orthodox  Cyril  as  one  of  the  worst  of  heretics 
against  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel.  Who  would  not 
meet  the  judgment  of  the  Divine  Redeemer  loaded 
with  the  errors  of  Nestorius,  rather  than  with  the 
biirbarities  of  Cyril  ? 

Cyril  was  the  nephew  of  Theophilus,  Patriarch  of 
Alexandria,  the  worthy  successor  to  the  see  and  to 
the  character  of  that  haughty  and  unscrupulous  prel- 

1  This  sermon  of  Proclus  (to  be  found  Labbe,  Concil.  sub  ann.)  is  said, 
in  the  ancient  preface,  to  have  been  delivered  in  the  great  church,  in  the 
presence  of  Nestorius.  Nestorius  appears  to  have  answered  this  attack 
with  moderation.  In  dieser  ganzer  Rede  (the  answer  of  Nestorius)  herss- 
chet  so  viel  Bescheideuheit,  als  gewiss  in  andern  polemischen  Schriften 
dieses  Zeitalters  kaum  angetroffen  wird.  — Walch,  p.  376. 


V.HAP.  m.  CYRIL  OF  ALEXANDRIA.  211 

ate,  tlie  enemy  of  Chrysostom.  Jealousy  and  animosity 
towards  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  was  a  sacred 
legacy  bequeathed  by  Theophilus  to  his  nephew,  and 
Cyril  faithfully  administered  the  fatal  trust.  He  in- 
herited even  the  bitter  personal  hatred  of  Chrysostom ; 
refused  to  concur  in  the  general  respect  for  his  mem- 
ory, and  in  the  reversal,  after  his  death,  of  the  unjust 
sentence  of  deposition  from  his  see.  He  scrupled  not 
to  call  the  eloquent,  and  in  all  religious  tenets  and 
principles  absolutely  blameless  Christian  orator,  a 
second  Judas.^  The  p;eneral  voice  of  Christendom 
alone  compelled  him  to  desist  from  this  posthumous 
persecution.  Nor  was  Cyril  content  without  surpass- 
ing his  haughty  kinsman  in  the  pretensions  of  his 
archiepiscopate.  From  his  accession,  observes  the  ec- 
clesiastical historian  of  the  time,  the  bishops  of  Alex- 
andria aspired,  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  sacerdotal 
power,  to  rule  with  sovereign  authority.^  They  con- 
fronted, and,  as  will  appear,  contended  on  equal  terms 
and  with  the  same  weapons,  against  the  Imperial 
magistracy.^ 

The  first  act  of  Cyril's  episcopacy  was  that  of  a 
persecutor.     He  closed  the  churches  of  the  cynPs  perse- 

Novatians,  seized  and   confiscated   all   their 

'  .  -IP  ^^^  Nova- 

sacred  treasures,  and  stripped  the  bishop  of  tians. 

all  his  possessions.     The   war   which   he   commenced 

against  the  heretics  he  continued  against  the  Jews  and 

heathens.     But   the  numerous  and  wealthy  The  Jews. 

Jews  of  Alexandria,  who  multiplied  as  fast  as  they 


1  Epist.  ad  Attic,  apud  Labbe,  204. 

*^  Kai  ydf)  e^  ekelvov  tj  kmanoTzr}  'Ale^avdpeiag,  itapa  r^f  lEpanKTJc  Ta^e(>K 
xaraiSvvaGTEVEtv  tCjv  irpay(idTtiv  kla^E  t^v  apxvv.     Socrat.  H.  E.  vii.  7. 
8  Ibid.  loc.  rit. 


212  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  H 

were  tllminished  by  their  own  feuds  or  feuds  with 
the  Christians,  were  not  to  be  oppressed  so  easily 
as  a  small  and  unpopular  sect  of  Christians.  Cyril 
must  have  been  well  acquainted  with  the  fierce  and 
violent  temperament  of  the  Alexandrian  populace, 
and  with  their  proverbial  character,  that  their  fac- 
tions never  ended  without  bloodshed.^  But  Cyril 
had  himself  too  much  of  the  hot  Egyptian  blood  in 
his  veins ;  and  the  bishop,  instead  of  allaying  this 
sanguinary  propensity  by  the  gentle  and  humanizing 
influences  of  Christianity,  was  rarely  the  last  to  raise 
the  banner  of  strife,  never  the  first  to  lay  it  down, 
never  laid  it  down  until  his  enemies  were  prostrate 
at  his  feet.  Both  Jews  and  Christians  in  Alexandria 
had  so  far  departed  from  the  primitive  habits  of  their 
religion,  that  their  most  frequent  and  dangerous  col- 
lisions took  place  in  the  theatre  ;  and  the  drama,  in 
its  noblest  form  a  part  of  the  pagan  religion,  had  now 
deo;enerated  into  such  immodest  or  savage  exhibitions, 
or  in  itself  gave  rise  to  such  maddenins;  factions  that, 
instead  of  allaying  hostile  feelings  by  the  common 
amusement  and  hilarity,  it  inflamed  them  to  fiercer 
animosity.'*^  The  contested  merits  of  a  pantomimic 
actor  now  exasperated  the  mutual  hatred  of  the  re- 
ligious parties.  Orestes,  the  prefect  of  the  city,  deter- 
mined to  suppress  these  tumults,  and  ordered  strict 
police  regulations  to  that  eflect  to  be  hung  up  in  the 
theatre.  Certain  partisans  of  the  archbishop  entered 
the  theatre,  with  the  innocent  design,  it  is  said,   of 

1  Atxa  yap  aifiarog  ov  naveTai  tt^/c  opfirjc.     Socrat.  vii.  13. 

2  These  entertainments  usually  took  place  on  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  and 
on  that  idle  day  the  theatre  was  thronged  with  Jews,  who  preferred  this 
profane  amusement  to  the  holy  worship  of  their  Synagogue.  —  Hist,  of 
Jews,  iii.  199. 


Chap.  IH.  CYRIL'S  PERSECUTIONS.  218 

reading  this  proclamation.  Among  these  was  one 
Hierax,  a  low  schoolmaster,  a  man  conspicuous  as  an 
admirer  of  Cyril,  whom  he  was  wont  (according  to 
common  usage  in  the  church)  to  applaud  vehemently 
whenever  he  preached.  From  what  cause  is  not  quite 
clear,  the  Jews  supposed  themselves  insulted  by  the 
presence  of  Hierax  ;  ^  they  raised  a  violent  outcry  that 
the  man  was  there  only  to  stir  up  a  tumult.  Orestes, 
jealous,  it  is  said,  of  the  archbishop  on  account  of 
his  encroachments  on  the  civil  authority,  sided  with 
the  Jews,  ordered  Hierax  to  be  seized  as  a  disturber 
of  the  peace  and  publicly  scourged.  The  archbishop 
sent  for  the  principal  Jews,  and  threatened  them  with 
exemplary  vengeance,  if  they  did  not  cause  all  tumults 
against  the  Christians  to  cease.  The  Jews  detemiined 
to  anticipate  the  menace  of  their  adversaries.  Having 
put  on  rings  of  palm  bark,  in  order  to  distinguish  each 
other  in  the  dark,  they  suddenly,  at  the  dead  of  night, 
raised  a  cry  that  the  great  church,  called  that  of  Alex- 
ander, was  on  fire.  The  Christians  rose  and  rushed 
fi-om  all  quarters  to  save  the  church.  The  Jews  fell 
upon  them  and  massacred  on  all  sides.  When  day 
dawned,  the  cause  of  the  uproar  was  manifest.  The 
archbishop  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  a  formidable 
force,  attacked  the  synagogue  of  the  Jews,  expelled 
the  whole  race,  no  doubt  not  without  much  bloodshed, 
from  the  city,  and  allowed  the  populace  to  pillage  all 
their  vast  wealth.  The  Jews,  who  from  the  time  of 
Alexander  had  inhabited  the  city,  were  thus  cast  forth 


1  My  suggestion,  in  a  former  work,  that  these  regulations  might  have 
appointed  different  days  for  the  different  races  of  the  people  to  attend  the 
&eatre,  would  make  the  story  more  clear.  The  excuse  which  Socrateg 
suggests  for  the  presence  of  Hierax  implies  that  he  had  no  business  there- 


214  LATIN  CHRISTL4NITY.  Book  n 

naked  and  outraged  from  Its  walls.  The  strong  part 
which  Orestes  took  against  the  archbishop,  and  his 
regret  at  the  expulsion  of  so  many  thriving  and  opu- 
lent Jews  from  the  city,  warrant  the  suspicion  that 
their  rising  was  not  without  great  provocation.  Both 
parties  sent  representations  to  the  Emperor :  in  the 
interval  Cyril  was  compelled  by  the  people  of  Alex- 
andria to  make  overtures  of  reconciliation. ^  On  one 
occasion  he  went  forth  to  meet  Orestes  with  the  Gospel 
in  his  hand  :  the  prefect,  probably  supposing  that  he  had 
not  much  of  its  spirit  in  his  heart,  refused  his  advances. 
The  monks  of  the  Nitrian  desert  had  already  been 
Monfcfl  of  employed  in  the  persecutions  by  Theophilus. 
Nitna,.  These  fiery  champions  of  the  Church   took 

arms,  to  the  number  of  five  hundred,  and  poured  into 
the  city  to  strengthen  the  faction  of  the  patriarch. 
They  smTounded  the  chariot  of  the  prefect,  insulted 
him,  and  heaped  on  him  the  opprobrious  names  of 
heathen  and  idolater.  The  prefect  protested,  but  in 
vain,  that  he  had  been  baptized  by  Atticus,  Bishop  of 
Constantinople.  One  of  these  monks,  named  Ammo- 
nius,  hurled  a  great  stone  and  stimck  him  on  the  head ; 
the  blood  gushed  forth,  and  his  affrighted  attendants 
fled  on  all  sides.  But  the  character  of  Orestes  stood 
high  with  the  people.  The  Alexandrians  rose  in  de- 
fence of  their  magistrate;  the  monks  were  driven 
from  the  city ;  Ammonius  seized,  tortured,  and  put  to 
death.  Cyril  commanded  his  body  to  be  taken  up  : 
the  honors  of  a  Christian  martyr  were  prostituted  on 
this  insolent  ruffian  ;  liis  panegyric  was  pronounced  in 
the  Church,  and  he  was  named  Thaumasius,  the  Won^ 

1  TovTO   yap  ^    ^^^   ^f^'^   'A^^avdpeuv    abrov   ttouxv    KarrjvdyKat^ev 
Bocrat.  loc.  cit. 


Chap.  III.  HYPATIA.  215 

deifiil.  But  the  more  Christian  of  the  Christians  were 
shocked  at  the  conduct  of  the  Archbishop.  Cyril  was 
for  once  ashamed,  and  glad  to  bury  the  affair  in  ob- 
livion. 

But  before  long  his  adherents  were  guilty  of  a  more 
atrocious  and  an  unprovoked  crime,  of  the  guilt  of  which 
a  deep  suspicion  attached  to  Cyril.  All  Alexandi'ia  re- 
spected, honored,  took  pride  in  the  celebrated  nypatia. 
Hj^atia.  She  was  a  woman  of  extraordinary  learn- 
ing ;  in  her  was  centered  the  lingering  knowledge  of 
that  Alexandrian  Platonism  cultivated  by  Plotinus  and 
his  school.  Her  beauty  was  equal  to  her  learning ; 
her  modesty  commended  both.  She  mingled  freely 
with  the  philosophers  without  suspicion  to  her  lofty 
and  unblemished  character.  Hypatia  lived  in  great 
intimacy  with  the  prefect  Orestes  ;  the  only  charge 
whispered  against  her  was  that  she  encouraged  him 
in  his  hostility  to  the  patriarch.  Cyril,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  said  not  to  have  been  superior  to  an  unwortliy 
jealousy  at  the  greater  concourse  of  hearers  to  the  lec- 
tures of  the  elegant  Platonist  than  to  his  own  ser- 
mons.^ Some  of  Cyril's  ferocious  partisans  seized  this 
woman,  dragged  her  from  her  chariot,  and  with  the 
most  revolting  indecency  tore  her  clothes  off,  and  then 
rent  her  limb  from  limb.^  The  Christians  of  Alexan- 
dria did  this,  professing  to  be  actuated  by  Christian 
zeal  in  the  cause  of  a  Christian  prelate.  No  wonder, 
in  the  words  of  the  ecclesiastical  historian,  that  by 
Buch  a  deed  a  deep  stain  was  fixed  on  Cyril  and  the 
Chm'ch  of  Alexandria.^ 

1  Socrates,  H.  E.  vii.  13.  2  Damascius  J^ud  Suidam. 

«  TovTO  oi)  fiLKpbv  fiufiov  KvptXAw,  Kal  Ty  ' kle^avdpeuv  kKKknda  Eipya^ 
toTO.    Socrat.  loc.  cit. 


216  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  H 

It  was  this  man  who  now  stood  forth  as  tlie  head 
and  representative  of  Eastern  Christendom,  the  assertor 
Cyril  against  ^^  P^^^  Christian  doctrine,  the  antagonist  of 
Nestorius.  heresy  on  the  episcopal  throne  of  Constan- 
tinople. Cjril  was  not  blind  to  the  advantage  offered 
by  this  opportunity  of  humiliating  or  crushing  by  this 
odious  imputation  the  Bishop  of  the  Imperial  See, 
which  aspired  to  dispute  with  Alexandria  the  primacy 
of  the  East.  The  patriarchs  of  Alexandria  had  seen 
the  rise  of  Constantinople  with  un dissembled  jealousy. 
To  this  primacy  Antioch,  perhaps  Jerusalem,  might 
advance  some  pretensions.  Ephesus  boasted  of  her 
connection  with  St.  John.  But  Byzantium  had  been 
a  poor  see  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Heraclea ;  its  claim 
rested  entirely  on  the  city  having  become  the  seat  of 
empire.  This  jealousy  had  be^n,  no  doubt,  the  latent 
cause  of  the  bitter  and  persivering  hostility  of  The- 
ophilus  towards  Chrysostom.  The  more  ambitious 
Cyril  might  now  renew  the  contest  with  less  suspicion 
of  unworthy  motives  ;  he  was  waging  war,  not  against 
a  rival,  but  against  a  heretic. 

The  intelligence  of  the  disturbances  in  Constantino- 
ple and  the  unpopular  doctrines  favored  at  least  by 
Nestorius  spread  rapidly  to  Alexandria ;  the  monks  of 
both  regions  probably  maintained  a  close  correspond- 
ence. Cyril  commenced  his  operations  by  an  Easter 
sermon,  in  which,  without  introducing  the  name  of 
Nestorius,  he  denounced  his  doctrines.  He  followed 
up  the  blow  with  four  epistles,  at  certain  inteivals: 
one  addressed  to  his  faithful  partisans,  the  monks  of 
Egypt ;  one  to  the  Emperor ;  one  to  the  Empress 
mother,  the  guardian  of  her  son ;  the  last  to  Nestorius 
himself.     The  address  to  the  Emperor  commences  in 


Chap.  III.  CYRIL  AGAINST  NESTORIUS.  217 

an  Oriental  tone  of  adulation,  the  servility  of  which 
would  have  been  as  abhorrent  to  an  ancient  Roman  as 
its  impiety  to  a  primitive  Christian.  The  Emperor  is 
the  image  of  God  upon  earth :  as  the  Divine  Majesty 
fills  heaven  and  awes  the  angels,  so  his  serene  dignity 
the  earth,  and  is  the  source  of  all  human  happiness. 
This  emperor  was  the  feeble  boy,  Theodosius  II.  To 
the  Empresses,  the  mother  and  the  sister  of  Theodo- 
sius, as  more  worthy  auditors,  and  judges  better  quah- 
fied  to  enter  on  such  high  mysteries,  Cyril  pours  out 
all  the  treasures  of  his  theology.  In  the  letter  to  Nes- 
torius,  who,  it  seems,  had  taken  offence  at  the  dissem- 
ination of  the  address  to  the  Egyptian  monks  in  Con- 
stantinople, Cyril  states,  with  some  calmness,  that  the 
whole  Christian  world,  Rome,  Syria,  Alexandria,  were 
equally  shocked  by  the  denial  of  the  title  "  Mother  of 
God"  to  the  Blessed  Virgin.^  This  epistle  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  second,  which  called  forth  an  answer  from 
Nestorius.  This  answer,  as  well  as  the  whole  of  the 
controversy,  more  completely  betrays  the  leading  no- 
tions which  had  obtained  such  full  possession  of  the 
mind  of  Nestoiius.  The  Godhead,  as  immaterial,  is 
essentially  impassible.  The  coeternal  Word  must  be 
impassible,    as   the   coeternal    Father.^      The   human 

1  Labbe,  Coucil.  iii.  p.  51. 

2  Kal  Tov  -ddov  knelvov  tuv  narepcov  evp^aug  x^P^v,  ov  lijv  6fioovcuri' 
9e6TTjTa  nad^riT^v  elprjKora,  ov6s  avaoTaaav  tov  ?i€2.v{dvnv  vdbv  uvaarf/aav- 
ra.  Epist.  Nestor.,  apud  Labbe,  p.  321.  Tov  yap  ev  rolr  npuToic  dira^n, 
KTjpix'd^svra,  Kal  Sevripag  jevvrjasug  u^sktov,  naltv  Tza&rjTov,  koX  veoktlo- 
TQV  ovK  ot6'  OTTUC  eloriyev,  p.  322.  This  is  throughout  the  point  at  issue. 
Compare  the  third  part  (in  the  Concil.  Labbe)  containing  the  tAvelve  chap- 
ters of  Cyril,  the  objections  of  the  Oriental  prelates,  and  the  apology  of 
Cyril  for  each  separate  chapter.  The  one  party  contend  against  the  passi- 
bility,  the  mutability  of  the  Godhead ;  Christ  being  God,  is  aTra&ri^  koX 
ivoKKoLurog.     The  Hesh,  which  endured  all  the  passion  and  the  change, 


218  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY  Book  U. 

nature  was  the  temple  in  which  dwelt  the  serene  and 
impassive  Divinity.     To  degrade  the  Divinity  to  the 
brute  and  material  processes  of  gestation,  birth,  pas- 
sion, death,  the  inalienable  accidents  of  the  flesh  and 
the  flesh  alone,  was  pure  heathenism,  or  a  heresy  worse 
than  that  of  Arius   or  Apollinaris.     Cyril  himself  is 
driven  by  this  difficulty  to  the  very  verge  of  Nestorian 
opinions,  and  to  admit  that  the  Godhead  cannot  prop- 
erly be  asserted  to  have  suffered  wounds  and  death. ^ 
But  throughout  this  age  the  strong  repulsive  power  of 
religious  difference  subdues  the  feebler  attractive  force 
of  conciliation  and  peace.     The  epistolary  altercation 
between  Cyril  and  Nestorius  grew  fiercer,  and  with 
less    hope    of   reconcilement.     Nestorius,   though    he 
might  not  foresee  the  formidable   confederacy  which 
was   organizing   itself  against   him,   might    yet  have 
known  on  what  dangerous  ground  he  stood  even  in 
state  of  Con-  Constantinople.     The  clergy  of  both  factions, 
Btaniinopie.    ^^^  ^^^^  engaged  in   the  strife  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  Philippus  or  of  Proclus,  the  rivals  of 
the  ruling  archbishop  for  the  see,  mutually  indignant 
at  the  intrusion  of  a  stranger,  were  already  combined 
in   hatred   towards   Nestorius.     All  the  monks    were 
furious  partisans  of  the  "  Mother  of  God."     Against 

was  intimately  connected  with  the  Deity;  was  its  pavilion,  its  dwelling- 
place;  and  this  may  explain  "  The  Word  became  Flesh."  Compare  pp. 
844,  881,  892. 

i  Cyril  was  reduced  to  the  expression  ana&cic  eTra'&e.  We  find,  too, 
this  remarkable  passage :  ovx  5ti  irdvTu  (  avTog  6  iK  i?£oi)  Kara  ({>vaiv 
yevvrj'&dg  Tcoyoc  uTre.'&avev,  r]  tvvx'&V  r^  "^oyx^  ciC  tV'^  iz'kevpdv,  Tvoiav  yofi 
ex^t-,  fiTTE  [lOL,  Tz7[,£vpav  Tb  uoo)fiaTOV,  ?j  7r(7)f  av  uni-&avev  r]  ^u)?)-  uXk'  on  tvo) 
i9e^f  r^  capKi,  eha  Tranxovmjg  uvtt/^,  wf  tov  idiov  nacxovTOC  oufiaroc, 
&VTog  irpdc  iavrdv  oiKsiovrai  rb  7rai9df.  In  the  Alexandrian  Liturgy  of 
S.  Gregory,  this  expression  has  been  introduced,  kol  na^dv  kKovaiug  aaoKi. 
Kol  fjieiva^  ('inad7j(;  uc  iJfOf.     Apud  Kcnaudot,  I.  p.  114. 


L'liAP.  III.    BOTH  PARTIES  TURN  TO  ROME.        219 

this  confederacy  Nestorius  could  array  only  the  preca- 
rious favor  of  the  Emperor,  the  support  of  some  of  his 
Syrian  brethren,  his  archiepiscopal  authority,  and  the 
allegiance  of  some  of  his  clergy.  Nestorius  rashly 
precipitated  the  strife.  Dorotheus,  a  bishop  of  his 
party,  in  his  presence  pronounced  a  solemn  anathema 
on  all  who  should  apply  the  contested  appellation  to 
the  Virgin.^  A  fiery  and  injurious  protest  ^  was  im- 
mediately issued,  professing  to  speak  the  sentiments  of 
the  whole  clergy  of  Constantinople,  and  peremptorily 
condemning  the  bishop,  as  guilty  of  heresy,  and  com- 
paring his  language  to  the  unpopular  and  proscribed 
opinions  of  Paul  of  Samosata.  It  was  read  in  most 
of  the  churches.^ 

Both  parties,  Nestorius  and  Cyril  themselves,  could 
not  but  look  with  earnest  solicitude  to  Rome.  Both  parties 

turn  to 

She  held  the  balance  of  power.  If  the  Rome. 
Bishop  of  Rome  had  been  the  most  unambitious  of 
mankind,  he  could  hardly  have  declined  the  arbitra- 
tion, which  was  almost  an  acknowledgment  of  his  su- 
premacy. Nothing  tended  more  to  his  elevation  in 
the  mind  of  Christendom  than  these  successive  Eastern 
controversies,  if  considered  only  as  affecting  his  dignity 
in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  The  deeper  the  East  was 
sunk  in  anarchy  and  confusiim,  the  more  commanding 
the  stately  superiority  of  Rome.  While  the  episcopal 
throne  of  Constantinople  had  been  held  in  succession 

■^  The  chronolog}'  of  the  events  is  not  quite  clear,  but  this  seems  to  be  tha 
natural  order. 

'^  This  protest  preserves  some  of  the  expressions  attributed  to  Nestorius. 
"How could  a  mother,  born  in  time,  give  birth  to  him  who  ^yas  before  th« 
ages?  "  The  word  "  birth,"  it  occurred  to  neither  party  was  used  in  di- 
rectly opposite  senses. 

8  Compare  the  strong  address  of  the  monks  to  the  emperor,  p.  225. 


220  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Boor  II 

by  the  persecuted  Chrysostom,  by  the  heretic  Nesto- 
rius,  as  it  was  afterwards  by  Flavianus,  who,  if  not 
murdered,  died  of  ill  usage  in  a  council  of  bishops ; 
that  of  Alexandria  by  Theophilus,  and  his  nephew 
Cyril,  whose  violence  disgraced  their  orthodoxy ,  a 
succession  of  able,  at  least  blameless.  Pontiffs  of  Rome 
was  now  about  to  close  with  Leo  the  Great.^ 

Each,  too,  of  these  Eastern  antagonists  for  ascen- 
dancy was  disposed  to  admit  one  part  of  the  claims  on 
which  rested  the  supremacy  of  Rome.  Alexandria, 
that  of  the  descent  from  St.  Peter :  ancient  and  apos- 
tolic origin  was  so  clearly  wanting  to  Constantinople, 
that  on  this  point  the  Roman  superiority  was  undenia- 
ble. On  her  side,  Constantinople  was  content  to  rec- 
ognize the  title  of  Rome  to  superiority  as  the  city  of 
the  Caesars,  from  whence  followed  her  own  secondary, 
if  not  coequal  dignity  as  New  Rome. 

Celestine,  of  Roman  birth,  who  had  held  high  lan- 
Pope  g^^g®  *^  t^^^  Churches  of  Africa  and  of  Gaul, 

Celestine.       ^^  ^|^jg  present  period  was  bishop  of  Rome. 

Nestorius  was  the  first  wdio  endeavored  to  propitiate 
the  Roman  Pontiff.  Some  misunderstanding  had 
already  arisen  between  them  concerning  certain  Pela- 
gians, the  only  heretics  whom  Nestorius  was  slow  to 
persecute ;  and  whom,  as  if  ignorant  how  obnoxious 
they  were  to  Rome  and  the  West,  he  had  treated  Avith 
something  of  Eastern  indifference.  He  addressed  to 
Celestine  a  letter,  fully  explaining  the  grounds  of  his 
aversion  to  the  term  "Mother  of  God."  This  he 
Avrote  in  Greek  ;  it  was  sent  into  Gaul,  to  be  correctly 
translated  by  the  famous  monk  Cassianus.^ 

1  Not  immediate  succession,  but  the  succession  of  the  greater  names. 

2  Celestinus  ad  Ncstorium.    Walch  rather  tlirows  doubt  on  this  transla- 
tion by  Cassian,  p.  433. 


Chap.  HI.  MANDATE  OF  CELESTINE.  221 

In  the  mean  time  arrived  the  Deacon  Posiclonius 
from  Alexandria,  with  an  elaborate  letter  from  Cyril, ^ 
which,  with  the  Sermons  of  Nestorius,  he  had  the 
forethought  to  send  already  translated  into  Latin. 
Thus  the  hostile  representations  of  Cyril,  though  de- 
livered last,  obtained  the  advantage  of  preoccupying 
the  minds  of  the  Roman  clergy .^ 

To  them,  indeed,  the  Nestorian  opinions  were  utterly 
uncongenial,  as  to  the  whole  of  Western  Christendom. 
They  had  not  comprehended  and  could  not  compre- 
hend that  sensitive  dread  of  the  contamination  of  the 
Deity  by  its  connection  with  Matter :  they  were  equally 
jealous  of  any  disparagement  of  the  Virgin  Mary. 
Already  her  name,  with  the  title  of  Mother  of  God, 
had  somided  in  hymns  ascribed  to  St.  Ambrose,  and 
admitted  into  the  public  service.  The  Latin  language 
was  not  flexible  to  all  the  fine  shades  of  expression  by 
which  Nestorius  defined  his  distinctive  diiferences 
from  the  common  creed. 

Still  Nestorius  was  not  entirely  without  hope  of  ob- 
tainino;  a  favorable  hearins;  from  Celestine.     The  first 
reply  of  the  Roman  was  not  devoid  of  courtesy.     But 
his  hopes  were  in  a  short    time  utterly   confounded. 
A  synod  of  Western  Bishops,  presided  over  ^  ^  ^g^ 
by  Celestine,  met  at  Rome.     The  sentence  -^"s^st. 
was  decisive,  condemnatory,  imperious.     Celestine,  in 
the   name  of   the  Synod,   and  in  his  own,^  jj^^^^^^g^^f 
commanded  Nestorius  to  recant  his  novel  and  Celestine. 

1  Posidonius  was  instructed  not  to  deliver  the  letters  of  Cyril,  if  iLose  of 
Nestorius  had  not  been  delivered  to  Celestine.  —  Statement  of  Peter  the 
Presbyter,  Concil.  Ephes.  in  init. 

2  Nestorius  bitterly  complained  of  the  misrepresentations  of  Cyril  in  this 
letter,  by  which  he  deceived  Celestine,  a  man  of  too  great  simplicity  to  judge 
>f  religious  doctrines  with  sufficient  acuteness.  — Ireutv^'i  Tra;;  :'<1.  in  Synodic. 

8  ^avtpa  KoX  eyypa(^u  d/xo7Myla.     p.  361. 


222  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Bc^k  U. 

unauthorized  opinions  in  a  public  and  written  apology 
within  ten  days  from  the  arrival  of  the  monition :  in 
Aug.  11.  case  of  disobedience,  he  was  to  hold  himself 
under  excommunication  from  the  Church.^ 

This  haughty  mandate  to  Nestorius  was  accompa- 
nied by  an  address  to  the  clergy  and  people  of  Constan- 
tinople. It  expressed  the  parental  care  of  Celestine 
for  their  spiritual  welfare,  and  announced  the  decree 
which  had  been  issued  against  Nestorius  by  the  Bishop 
of  Rome.  The  Western  Church  would  take  no  ac- 
count of  any  anathema  or  excommmiication  pro- 
nounced by  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  ;  but  having 
declared  such  anathema  null  and  void,  would  continue 
to  communicate  with  all  persons  under  such  interdict. 
And  because  the  presence  of  Celestine  in  the  East, 
however  necessary,  was  impossible,  on  account  of  the 
distance  by  land  and  sea,  he  delegated  his  full  power 
in  the  affair  to  his  brother  Cyril,  in  order  to  arrest 
the  spreading  pestilence.^ 

The  Syrian  bishops  alone,  of  those  who,  from  their 
Bishops  of  station  and  character,  had  weight  in  the 
Syria.  Christian   world,   were  yet   uncommitted  in 

the  strife,  Acacius  of  Berea,  the  Patriarchs  of  Jerusa- 
lem and  of  Antioch.  Each  party  courted  their  sup- 
port. Cyi'il,  with  his  usual  activity,  urged  them  to 
unite  in  the  confederacy  against  Nestorius.  Either 
from  the  sincere  love  of  peace,  or  some  clearer  percep- 
tion of  the  principles  on  which  Nestoi^ius  grounded 
Ills   opinions,   or   some    secret   sympathy   with   them, 

1  Epist  Cyrill.  p.  396. 

2  Kal  k'KELdf]  hv  TrfkiKovTi^  TcpayfxaTi  rj  rjfisTEpa  cr.Yff'^v  napovaia  dvayKaia 
(<l>alveTO,  TTjv  T/fieripav  dinchx^v,  6ia  tu  Kara  {^alaTxav  kol  yr/v  Stan-rrifiaTa, 
uvtC)  tu  &yi(f)  udeTicpC)  fiov  Kvp/A/lcj  unevelfiafiev,  fifj  avri)  rj  voaog  a<j>opfiy 
r^f /zaxpcir?/rof  eTTLTpt(3/j.     Epist.  Cyril,  p.  37."]. 


Chaf.  ni.  CELESTINE'S  ENVOYS.  223 

these  hisliops  endeavored  to  allay  the  storm.  John  of 
Antioch,  in  a  letter  full  of  Christian  persuasiveness, 
entreated  Nestorius  not  to  plunge  Christendom  into 
discord  on  account  of  a  word,  and  that  woi-d  not  inca- 
pable of  being  interpreted  in  his  sense,  but  which  had 
become  familiar  to  the  Chi'istian  ear;  Rome,  Alex- 
andria, even  Macedonia,  had  declared  against  him- 
John  x'equired  no  degrading  concession,  no  disingen- 
uous compromise  or  suppression  of  opinion.  If  his 
enemies  were  stx'ong  and  violent  before  the  con-espond- 
ence  had  begun  with  Rome  and  Alexandria,  how 
would  their  boldness  increase  after  these  unhappy  let- 
ters^ from  Cyril  and  from  Celestine!  But  the  time 
for  reconciliation  was  passed.  Four  bishops,  Theo- 
pemptus,  Daniel,  Potamon,  and  Komarius,  ceiestine's 
arrived  in  Constantinople,  with  the  ultimate  c^usSnti 
demands  of  Rome  and  Alexandria.  They  °°p^®- 
entered,  after  divine  service,  the  Bishop's  chamber, 
where  were  assembled  the  whole  clergy,  and  many  of 
the  most  distinguislied  laity  :  they  delivered  the  letters 
to  Nestorius.  Nestorius  received  them  coldly,  and 
commanded  them  to  return  the  next  day  for  the 
answer.  The  next  day  when  they  presented  them- 
selves, they  were  refused  admission.^  Nestorius  as- 
cended the  pulpit,  and  preached  in  sterner  and  more 
condemnatory  language  than  before.  Celestine  and 
Cyril  had  demanded  unquahfied  submission :  Cyril 
had  declared  that  it  was  not  enough  to  subscribe  the 

1  Vpafifidnov  tovtuv  tuv  aTtevKTibv.  Epist.  Joan.  Antioch.  p.  393.  Nes- 
torias  had  almost  consented  to  yield  so  far  as  to  assert  that  it  was  not  so 
much  the  word  itself  as  the  abuse  of  it  which  was  irreconcilable  with  his 
views  of  the  Godhead. 

2  The  account  of  this  transaction  is  given  by  the  Bishops  TheopempMs 
«nd  the  rest. 


224  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U. 

Creed  of  Nicea,  without  receiving  the  sense  of  that 
Creed  according  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Bishops 
Nestorius  ^f  the  Church.  The  twelve  articles  of  ex- 
catedCSrc^e,  communication  were  promulgated,  by  the 
*^'  zeal  of  the  Bishop's  adversaries,  throughout 

Constantinople.  But  Nestorius,  unappalled,  on  his 
side  launched  forth  his  interdict ;  anathema  encoun- 
tered anathema.  Nestorius  excluded  from  salvation 
those  who  denied  salvation  to  him.  For  in  the  awful 
meaning  which  the  act  of  excommunication  conveyed 
to  the  Christian  mind  of  that  age,  it  meant  total  exclu- 
sion, unless  after  humiliating  penitence,  and  hard- 
wrung  absolution,  from  the  mercy  of  the  Most  High, 
—  inevitable,  everlastino;  damnation. 

With  stern  serenity  the  enemies  of  Nestorius  con- 
template these  awful  consequences ;  those  of  worldly 
strife  they  behold  almost  with  satisfaction.  Cyril  ap- 
plies to  these  times  the  much  misused  words  of  the 
Saviour,  —  "  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  send  peace 
upon  earth :  for  I  am  come  to  set  a  man  at  variance 
against  his  father^  and  the  daughter  against  her  mother.'^ 
If  faith  be  infringed  —  faith  even  in  these  minutest 
points  —  away  with  idle  and  dangerous  reverence  for 
parents ;  cast  oif  all  love  of  children  and  of  brethren. 
Death  is  better  than  life  to  the  pious  (those  who  ad- 
here to  the  orthodox  opinions),  for  to  them  alone  is 
the  better  resurrection.^ 

The  anathemas  of  Nestorius  are  not  less  remorse- 
Nestorius       less.    They  also  aim  at  involving  Cyril  iii  the 

excommuni-  "^  .  _^,  i 

eates  Cyril,     odious  cliargc  01  hcrcsy.     1  lu'oughout  IS  n.an- 


1  TliaTecoc  yap  aSiKOvixhTjc  *  =*  *  e^/Sertj  niv  wf  tw/lof  Kal  i'7na<l>a?af(  if 
irpdc  yoviag  aidug-  ^pc/xdrco  6e  Kal  6  rf/g  da  reKva  Kal  d<5f/l^f  <pOuocrof>- 
yiac  vofiog.    Cyril.  Epist.  p.  396. 


Chap.  III.  INFLUENCE  OF  NESTORtUS.  225 

ifest  the  peculiar  jealousy  of  Nestorius  lest  he  should 
mingle  up  the  Deity  in  any  way  with  the  material 
flesh  of  man.  Christ  was  the  Emmanuel,  the  God 
with  us.  The  Divinity  assumed  at  his  birth  the  mortal 
form  and  attributes,  and  so  became  the  Christ,  the  co- 
existent God  and  man.  The  Christ  laid  aside  the  man- 
hood, which  he  had  associated  to  his  divinity,  after  his 
death  and  resurrection.  Accursed  is  he  who  asserts 
that  the  Word  of  God  was  changed  into  flesh.  Ac- 
cursed is  he  who  disparages  the  dignity  of  the  divine 
nature  by  attributing  to  it  the  acts  and  passions  of  the 
human  nature  which  it  assumed  for  the  display  of  its 
Godhead.^ 

The  secret  of  the  undaunted  courage  shown  by  Nes- 
torius was  soon  revealed.  He  had  still  un-  jjis  influence 
shaken  possession  of  the  mind  of  the  Imperial  **  ^^^^*^' 
Court.  The  triumph  of  Cyril  was  aiTested  by  an  hu- 
miliating rescript  from  Theodosius.  He  was  arraigned 
not  merely  for  disturbing  the  peace  of  the  world,  but 
even  that  of  the  Imperial  family.  The  rescript  ad- 
dressed to  Cyril,  i'Q  unambiguous  language,  relates  his 
haughty  and  dictatorial  demeanor,  reproves  him  as  the 
author  of  all  the  strife  and  confusion  which  disturbed 
the  tranquillity  of  the  Church.  In  order  to  sow  dis- 
sension even  in  the  palace,  Cyril  had  written  in  differ- 
ent lano;uao;e  to  his  auo;ust  sister  Pulcheria,  and  to  the 
Empress  and  himself.  The  same  curious,  restless,  in- 
solent, and  unpriestly  spirit  had  led  him  to  pry  into  the 

1  The  anathemas  of  Nestorius  are  extant  only  in  a  bad  Latin  translation. 
It  is  curious  to  find  the  Syrian  bishop,  Acacius,  urging  that  the  poverty  of 
the  Latin  language  prevented  it  from  forming  expressions  with  regard  to 
to  the  Trinity  equivalent  to  the  Greek.  Tw  horevuc^at  Tfjv  ^Pufiaut^ 
fo)vyv,  KoX  [iri  dvvna^ai  irpoQ  rfjv  rjnerepuv  rCov  TpatKtJv  (ppacip  rpelc  ifiroa 
rdaetg  Xiyetv.     Epist.  Acac.  p.  384. 


226  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II. 

secrets  and  disturb  the  harmony  of  the  Imperial  family, 
as  well  as  to  confound  the  quiet  of  the  Church,  as 
though  this  confusion  were  his  only  means  of  obtaining 
fame  and  distinction.^ 

Theodosius  had  already  acceded  to  the  universal 
Council  of  demand  for  a  General  Council.  This  alone, 
Ephesus.  according  to  the  opinion  of  the  time,  could 
allay  the  intestine  strife  which  had  set  Rome  and 
Alexandria  at  variance  with  Constantinople,  divided 
Constantinople  into  fierce  and  violent  factions,  and 
appeared  likely  to  renew  the  fatal  differences  of  the 
Arian  and  Macedonian  contests.  The  Imperial  sum- 
mons was  issued,  and  in  obedience  tO  that  mandate 
assembled  the  first  General  Council  of  Ephesus. 

It  might  have  been  supposed  that  nowhere  would 
oenerai  Christianity  appear  in  such  commanding  maj- 
counciis.  Q^^j  g^g  jj^  ^  Council,  wliich  should  gather 
from  all  quarters  of  the  world  the  most  eminent  prel- 
ates and  the  most  distinguished  clergy ;  that  a  lofty 
and  serene  piety  would  govern  all  their  proceedings, 
profound  and  dispassionate  investigation  exhaust  every 
subject ;  human  passions  and  interests  would  stand  re- 
buked before  that  awful  assembly  ;  the  sense  of  their 
own  dignity  as  well  as  the  desire  of  impressing  their 
brethren  with  the  solemnity  and  earnestness  of  their 
belief  would  at  least  exclude  all  intemperance  of  man- 
ner and  language.  Mutual  awe  and  mutual  emulation 
in  Christian  excellence  would  repress,  even  in  the  most 
violent,  all  un-Christian  violence.  Their  conclusions 
would  be  grave,  mature,  harmonious,  for  if  not  harmo- 

^  Kal  fi7}  yeyovbg  (hostility  in  tlie  Imperial  family)  noiyaai  ^ovlecr&ai 
iravrdg,  /laXTiOV  rj  lepedg'  6p//^f  fxevTOi  /xtdg  Kal  rf/g  avrrjg  irpodeoiuc  ra  re 
rwv  kKK7i,rjaiC)v,  ru  te  ribv  (SaaiTiiuv  iiDikeiv  x^pK^^'^  (3ov?ieo&ai,  wf  9VK 
9i)Oiqg  w^op^ijjg  trepag  ev6oKLfj.7/OEO)t:.     Sacr.  Theodos.  ImDer.  ad  Cyrill. 


Chap.  in.     IXCONGRUITY  OF  GENERAL  COUNCILS.  227 

nious  the  confuted  party  would  hardly  acquiesce  in  the 
wisdom  of  their  decrees ;  even  their  condemnations 
would  be  so  tempered  with  charity  as  gradually  to  win 
hack  the  wanderer  to  the  still  open  fold,  rather  than 
drive  him,  proscribed  and  branded,  into  inflexible  and 
irreconcilable  schism.  History  shows  the  melancholy 
reverse.  Nowhere  is  Clu'istianity  less  attractive,  and, 
if  we  look  to  the  ordinary  tone  and  character  of  the 
pi'oceedings,  less  authoritative,  than  in  the  Councils 
of  the  Church.  It  is  in  general  a  fierce  collision  of 
two  rival  factions,  neither  of  which  will  yield,  each  of 
which  is  solemnly  pledged  against  conviction.  In- 
trigue, injustice,  violence,  decisions  on  authority  alone, 
and  that  the  authority  of  a  turbulent  majority,  decisions 
by  wild  acclamation  rather  than  after  sober  inquiry, 
detract  from  the  reverence,  and  impugn  the  judgments, 
at  least  of  the  later  Councils.  The  close  is  almost  in- 
variably 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.  Even  the  venerable 
Council  of  Nicea  commenced  with  mutual  accusals  and 
recriminations,  which  were  suppressed  by  the  modera- 
tion of  the  Emperor ;  and  throughout  the  account  of 
Eusebius  ^  there  is  an  adulation  of  the  Imperial  convert, 
with  something  of  the  intoxication,  it  might  be  of  par- 
flonable  vanity,  at  finding  themselves  the  objects  of 
royal  favor,  and  partaking  in  royal  banquets.  But  the 
more  fatal  error  of  that  Council  was  the  solicitation,  at 
least  the  acquiescence  in  the  infliction  of  a  civil  penalty, 
that  of  exile,  against  the  recusant  Prelates.  The  de- 
generacy is  rapid   from  the  Council  of  Nicea  to  that 

1  Hist,  of  Christianity,  ii.  p.  440. 


228  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IL 

of  Ephesus,  where  each  party  came  determined  to  use 
every  means  of  haste,  manoeuvre,  court  influence,  bri- 
bery, to  crush  his  adversary  ;  where  there  was  an 
encouragement  of,  if  not  an  appeal  to,  the  violence  of 
the  populace,  to  anticipate  the  decrees  of  the  Council ; 
where  each  had  his  own  tumultuous  foreign  rabble  to 
back  his  quarrel ;  and  neither  would  scruple  at  any 
means  to  obtain  the  ratification  of  their  anathemas 
through  persecution  by  the  civil  government. 

Some  considerations  will  at  least  allay  our  wonder 
at  this  singular  incongruity.  A  General  Council  is  not 
the  cause,  but  the  consequence,  of  religious  dissension. 
It  is  unnecessary,  and  could  hardly  be  convoked,  but 
on  extraordinary  occasions,  to  settle  some  questions 
which  have  already  violently  disorganized  the  peace  of 
Christendom.  It  is  a  field  of  battle,  in  which  a  long 
train  of  animosities  and  hostilities  is  to  come  to  an 
issue.  Men,  therefore,  meet  with  all  the  excitement, 
the  estrangement,  the  jealousy,  the  antipathy  engen- 
dered by  a  fierce  and  obstinate  controversy.  They 
meet  to  triumph  over  their  adversaries,  rather  than 
dispassionately  to  investigate  truth.  Each  is  committed 
to  his  opinions,  each  exasperated  by  opposition,  each 
supported  by  a  host  of  intractable  followers,  each  prob- 
ably with  exaggerated  notions  of  the  importance  of  the 
question ;  and  that  importance  seems  to  increase,  since 
it  has  demanded  the  decision  of  a  general  assembly  of 
Christendom.  Each  considers  the  cause  of  God  in  his 
hands  :  heresy  becomes  more  and  more  odious,  and 
must  be  suppressed  by  every  practicable  means.  The 
essentially  despotic  character  of  the  government,  which 
entered  into  all  transactions  of  life,  with  tlie  deeply 
rooted  sentiment  in  the  human  mind  of  the  supreme 


Chap.  UI.  COUNCIL  OF  EPHESUS.  229 

and  universal  power  of  the  law,  the  law  now  centred 
in  the  person  of  the  Emperor,  who  was  the  State  ;  the 
apparent  identification  of  the  State  and  Church  by  the 
adoption  of  Christianity  as  the  religion  of  the  Empire, 
altogether  confounded  the  limits  of  ecclesiastical  and 
temporal  jurisdiction.  The  dominant  party,  when  it 
could  obtain  the  support  of  the  civil  power  for  the  exe- 
cution of  its  intolerant  edicts,  was  blind  to  the  danger- 
ous and  unchristian  principle  which  it  tended  to  estab- 
lish. As  the  Council  met  under  the  Imperial  authority, 
so  it  seemed  to  commit  the  Imperial  authority  to  enforce 
its  decisions.  Christianity,  which  had  so  nobly  asserted 
its  independence  of  thought  and  faith  in  the  face  of 
heathen  emperors,  threw  down  that  independence  at 
the  foot  of  the  throne,  in  order  that  it  might  forcibly 
extirpate  the  remains  of  Paganism,  and  compel  an 
absolute  uniformity  of  Christian  faith. 

The  Council  of  Ephesus  was  summoned  to  ^^^^^    ^f 
open  its  deliberations  at  Pentecost ;  the  fifty  Jgi^^^Easter' 
days  from  Easter  were  allowed  for  the  assem-  ^J]jjj.|u'jj. 
bling  of  the  Prelates.  ^^y*  -^^"^^  '^• 

Candidianus,  Count  of  the  domestics,  a  statesman  of 
high  character,  was  appointed  to  represent  the  Emper- 
or in  the  Council.  His  instructions  were,  not  to  inter- 
fere in  the  theological  question,  the  exclusive  province 
of  the  Bishops  ;  to  expel  all  strangers,  monks  and  lay- 
men, from  the  city,  lest  they  should  disturb  the  proceed- 
ings ;  to  maintain  order,  lest  the  animosities  of  the 
Bishops  should  prevent  the  fair  investigation  of  the 
truth ;  to  permit  no  one  to  leave  the  Council,  even 
under  pretence  of  going  to  the  Court ;  to  permit  no  ex- 
traneous discussions  to  be  introduced  before  the  assem- 
bly.    Candidianus  did  not  arrive  till  after  Pentecost. 


230  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II. 

Already,  however,  Epliesus  had  begun  to  be  crowded 
with  strangers  from  all  quarters.  Nestorius  came  ac- 
companied by  not  more  than  sixteen  Bishops  of  his 
party.  Cyril  arrived  attended  by  fifty  Egyptian  Bish- 
ops ;  Memnon,  the  Bishop  of  Ephesus,  a  declared  ene- 
my of  Nestorius,  had  summoned  thirty  Prelates  from 
Asia  Minor.  Nor  were  these  antagonists  content  Avith 
mustering  their  spiritual  strength  ;  each  was  accompa- 
nied by  a  rabble  of  followers  of  more  unseemly  char- 
acter ;  Cyril  by  the  bath-men  and  a  multitude  of 
women  from  Egypt  ;  Nestorius  by  a  horde  of  peasants, 
and  some  of  the  lower  populace  of  Constantinople. 
The  troops  of  Candidianus,  after  his  arrival,  begirt  the 
city ;  Irenasus,  with  a  body  of  soldiers,  was  intrusted, 
by  the  special  favor  of  the  Emperor,  with  the  protec- 
tion of  the  person  of  Nestorius. 

The  adverse  parties  could  not  await  the  opening  of 
the  Council  without  betraying  their  hostility  ;  skirmish- 
ing disputes  took  place,*  and  no  opportunity  was  passed 
of  darkening  the  fame  and  the  opinions  of  Nestorius  in 
the  popular  mind.  If  Nestorius  came  under  the  fond 
hope  of  being  heard  on  equal  terms,  and  allowed  to 
debate  in  a  calm  and  dispassionate  spirit  the  truth  of 
his  tenets,  such  were  not  the  views  of  Cyril  or  of  Ce- 
lestine.  To  them  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  was 
already  a  condemned  heretic ;  the  business  of  the 
Council  was  only  the  confirmation  of  their  anathema, 

I  'A/cpoSoAitT/zovf  Tuv  ^oyuv.  Socrat.  vii.  34.  Joanne  Antiochcno  "emo- 
rante  *  *  *  Cyrillus  deflorationes  quasdam  librorum  Nestovii  faciebat, 
eum  perturbare  vobins.  Et  qmnn  phirinii  Deuni  confitercntur  Jesum  Chri- 
fctiim,  ego,  inqult  Nestorius,  qui  fuit  duorum  vel  trium  mensium  nunquam 
confiteor  Deum;  qua  gratia  niundus  sum  a  sanguine  vc^tro,  et  amniodo  ad 
vos  non  veniani.  Liberatus,  Cbron.  c.  5.  This  is  a  good  illustration  of  the 
Latin  misconception  of  the  opinions  of  Nestorius. 


Chap  III.  MEMNON  OF  EPHESUS.  231 

and  tlio  more  aiitlioritative  deposition  of  the  unortho- 
dox Prelate.  With  them  the  one  embai-rassino;  diffi- 
culty  was  whether,  in  case  Nestorius  recanted  his 
opinions,  they  were  to  annul  the  sentence  of  excom- 
munication and  of  deposal,  and  admit  him  to  a  seat 
in  the  Council. ^ 

Memnon  of  Ephesus  lent  himself  eagerly  to  all  the 
schemes  of  Cyril.  Nestorius  was  treated  as  Memnon  of 
«,  man  under  the  ban  of  excommunication ;  ^p^^esus. 
all  intercourse,  even  the  common  courtesies  of  life  were 
refused.  All  the  Churches  of  Ephesus  were  closed 
against  the  outcast  from  Christian  communion.  When 
he  expressed  his  solicitude,  if  not  to  attend  the  morning 
and  evening  service,  at  least  to  partake  in  the  solemn 
mysteries  of  that  season,  not  merely  was  he  ignomin- 
iously  repelled  from  the  Churches,  even  from  that  of 
the  Martyr  St.  John,  but  the  avenues  were  beset  by 
throngs  of  rude  peasants  brought  in  from  the  country, 
and  prepared  for  any  violence,  and  by  the  Egyptian 
sailors  from  the  vessels  of  Cyril.^ 

Pentecost  had  passed  ;  five  days  after  arrived  Juve- 
nalis.  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  a  prelate  known  jy.,enai  of 
to  be   hostile   to    Nestorius.      But   John    of  J^^"^*^^^"^ 
Antioch,  with  the  greater  part  of  the  Eastern  Bishops, 
did   not  appear.      The  Patriarchs   of  Constantinople 
and  of  Alexandria  were  arrayed  as  parties  in  the  cause : 

1  Etenim  quaeris  utrura  sancta  synodus  recipere  debet  hominem  a  se  prse- 
dicata  damnantem ;  an  quia  induciarum  tempus  emensum  est,  sententM  du- 
dum  lata  perduret.  This  is  from  an  answer  to  a  letter  of  Cyril  which  is 
lost.  Celestine's  reply  to  this  question  is  perhaps  studiously  ambiguous. 
But  the  letter,  as  extant,  is  probably  a  translation.  The  secret  instructions 
of  Celestine  to  his  legates  (apud  Baluzium,  p.  381)  show  his  intimate  alli- 
ance with  Cyril.  —  Labbe,  Cone.  p.  622.    Compare  Walch,  p.  466. 

2  Epist.  Nestorii,  p.  565.     Epist.  ad  Imper.  p.  602.    Epist.  ad  Senat 


232  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IL 

each  clia  'ged  the  other  with  heresy.  The  Roman  Pa- 
triarch of  the  West  was  not  present  in  person  :  the 
Patriarch  of  Antioch,  therefore,  might  seem  necessary, 
if  not  to  the  vahdity,  to  the  weight  and  dignity  of  tlie 
CounciL  Cyril  and  his  partisans  were  clamorous  for 
the  immediate  opening  of  the  Council ;  the  Bishops 
had  been  already  too  long  withdrawn  from  their  dio- 
ceses. Nestorius  insisted  on  awaiting  the  arrival  of 
John  of  Antioch  and  his  prelates  ;  Candidianus  gave 
the  weight  of  the  Imperial  authority  for  delay.  The 
Emperor  had  required  the  presence  of  John  of  Antioch 
and  the  Eastern  Prelates  at  the  Council.^  Strong  rea- 
were  afterwards  alleged  by  John  of  Antioch  for 
!iis  ..IK  '  arrival.  His  departure  from  Antioch  had 
been  a  .    -ted  by  i  "amine  in  the  city,  and  daily  insur- 

'•ctions  of  the  p    tple  on   that  account;  inundations 

iad  impeded  his  march.^  Many  of  the  Bishops  of  his 
vast  province  wore  ten  or  twelve  long  days'  journey 
beyond  .  Viitioch  ;   •.  ley  could  not  leave  their  cities  be- 

oro  Ef;-  ter.^  C\  1  himself  had  received  a  courteous 
letter  iVom  John  >f  Antioch,  stating  that  he  had  ar- 
rived ^^  ithin  siy  st.  :ions  of  Ephesus  ;  that  he  was  trav- 
elling ^ith  tho  ut'  lost  speed,  but  that  the  roads  were 
bad;  tliey  had  lo:!.  many  of  their  beasts  of  burden; 

r.id  son^e  of  tlie  m)Te  aged  Bishops  had  been  unable  to 

)ioceed  .    ^li^it  rapid  rate. 

Oynl,  J)owever,  chose  to  consider  the  delay  of  the 
iiishop<>i  Antioch  intentional  and  premeditated,  eithei 
ivi  oi'der  to  shield  he  guilty  Nestorius  from  the  anath- 
onia      '  ^^  1,  or  to  escape  any  participation  in 

i  Difeas.  trium  Cajn       »r.     Facundus,  apud  Sinnoiid  Opera,  ii.  p.  007 
*  Tli8  epistle  of  Joint       Antioch  to  the  Emperor 
"  Evai^rius,  H.  i.'.  i.  4    •■.    Lubbe,  Cuiicii.  p.  443 


Chat.  III.    FIRST  GENERAL  COUNCIL  OF  EPHESUS.  233 

such  a  sentence  against  one  so  well  known,  and  for- 
merly at  least  so  popular,  in  Antioch.^ 

Only  sixteen  days  were  allowed    to   elapse  by  the 
impatient  zeal  (the  noblest  motive  that  can  opening  of 
be  assigned)  of  Cyril  for  the  opening  a  Coun-  Monday' 
oil  which  was  to  represent  Christendom,  to  ^'^'^®'  ^• 
absolve  or  to  condemn  as  an  irreclaimable  heretic  the 
Bishop  of  the  second  capital  of  the  world.     On  Mon- 
day the  22nd  of  June,  in   the  Church  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  (an  ill-omened  scene  for  the  cause  of  Nestorius,) 
met  the  Council  of  Ephesus.^ 

The  Count  Candidianus,  in  a  public  report  to  his 
Imperial  master,  describes  the  violence,  unfairness, 
even  the  treachery  of  the  proceedings.  No  sooner  had 
he  heard  that  Cyril,  Memnon,  and  their  partisans  were 
prepared  to  open  the  assembly,  than  he  hastened  to  the 
Church.  In  the  Emperor's  name,  he  inhibited  the 
meeting;  he  condescended  to  entreaties  that  they 
would  await  the  arrival  of  the  Eastern  Bishops ;  he 
declared  that  they  were  acting  in  defiance  of  the  Im- 
perial Rescript.  They  answered  that  they  were  igno- 
rant of  the  contents  of  that  ordinance.  Thus  com- 
pelled, and  lest  he  should  be  the  cause  of  popular  insur- 

1  Cyril's  imputations  against  John  of  Antioch  are  inconsistent  and  con- 
tradictory. In  one  place  he  charges  him  with  hypocrisy,  and  insinuates 
that  he  kept  aloof  to  favor  Nestorius  (if  the  partisan  of  Nestorius,  his  nres- 
ence  would  have  been  more  useful  than  his  absence);  in  another  that,  con- 
scious of  the  badness  of  the  cause  of  Nestorius,  he  kept  aloof  to  avoid  tak- 
ing any  part  in  his  inevitable  condemnation:  "Do  what  you  will  (Trparrere 
u  TTpdrreTe),  only  let  me  not  be  personally  involved  in  the  business." 
Compare  Cyril's  Letter  to  the  Clergy  of  Constantinople,  p.  561,  Avith  th« 
Epistol.  Imper.,  p.  602. 

2  The  eflfect  of  this  arrangement  may  be  conceived  from  the  Sermon  of 
Cyril  (Labbe,  p.  584),  in  which  he  lavishes  all  his  eloquence  in  her  praise, 
through  whom  {6C  tjq)  all  the  wonders  and  blessings  of  the  Gospel,  which 
he  recites,  descended  ou  man. 


234  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IL 

rection  and  rebellion,  Canclidianus  read  the  Rescript ; 
and  concluded  by  solemnly  warning  tliem  against  their 
indecent  precipitation.  This  was  their  object ;  the  read- 
ing the  Rescript  they  considered  as  legalizing  the  Coun- 
cil ;  it  was  followed  by  loud  and  loyal  clamors.  The 
Count  fondly  supposed  that  these  cries  intimated  obedi- 
ence to  the  Imperial  command  ;  instead  of  this,  they 
instantly  commanded  Candidianus  to  withdraw  from  an 
assembly  in  which  he  had  no  longer  any  place  ;  insult- 
ingly and  ignominiously  they  cast  out  the  representative 
of  the  Emperor.  They  proceeded  summarily  to  eject 
the  few  Bishops  attached  to  Nestorius  ;  and  then  com- 
menced their  proceedings  as  the  legitimate  Senate  of 
Christendom.  1 

The  council  consisted  of  rather  more  than  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  bishops  —  about  forty  from  Egypt,  thirty 
from  Asia  Minor,  several  from  Palestine  with  Jnvenalis 
of  Jerusalem,  the  rest  from  Thrace,  Greece,  the  islands 
Crete,  Rhodes,  and  Cyprus,  and  from  some  parts  of 
Asia.  Rufus  of  Thessalonica  professed  to  represent 
the  bishops  of  Illyricum.^  The  proceedings,  according 
to  the  regular  report,  now  that  all  opposition  was  ex- 
pelled, flowed  on  in  unobstructed  haste  and  unprece- 
dented harmony.  Peter,  an  Alexandrian  presbyter, 
who  acted  as  chief  secretary,^  opened  the  business  with 
a  statement  of  the  dispute  between  Nestorius  on  one 
hand,  Cyril  and  the  Bishop  of  Rome  on  the  other. 
On  the  motion  of  Juvenal  of  Jerusalem  was  then  read 
the  Imperial  convocation  of  the  bishops.     It  was  asked 

1  See  the  statement  of  Camlidianus,  pp.  689-592.  In  another  place  h« 
Bays,  "  A  vobis  injurios6  et  ignominios6  ejectus  sum."  —  In  Synodico. 

2  According  to  Nestorius,  not  only  the  Eastern  bishops  were  expected 
but  those  of  Italy  and  Sicily. 

^  npifi/uKTipio^  NuTupiuv.     riiuiicerius  Notanorum. 


Chap.  III.  CITATION  OF  NESTORIUS.  235 

how  long  a  period  IiJid  elapsed  since  the  day  appointed 
by  the  Emperor  for  the  meeting  ;  Memnon  of  Ephesus 
replied  "  sixteen  days."  Cyril  then  rose,  and  asserting 
that  on  account  of  the  long  delay  (of  sixteen  days  !) 
some  bishops  had  fallen  ill,  and  some  had  died,  declared 
that  it  was  imperative  to  proceed  at  once  to  determine 
a  question  which  concerned  the  whole  sublunary 
world. ^  The  Imperial  Rescript  itself  had  commanded 
the  prelates  to  proceed  without  delay. 

One  citation  had  been  already  sent  by  four  bishops, 
summoning  Nestorius  to  appear  before  the  Citation  of 
council.  Nestorius  had  declined,  not  uncour-  Nestorius. 
teously,  to  acknowledge  the  validity  of  the  assembly 
before  the  arrival  of  all  the  bishops.  A  second  and  a 
third  deputation  of  the  same  number  of  bishops  was 
sent.  The  first  reported  that  they  were  not  permitted 
by  the  guard  to  approach  the  presence  of  Nestorius, 
but  received  from  his  attendants  the  same  answer  ;  the 
tliird  that  they  were  exposed  to  the  indignity  of  being 
kept  standing  in  the  heat  of  the  smi,  and  not  allowed 
to  enter  the  palace. 

The  proceedings  now  commenced:  the  Nicene  Creed 
was  read,  and  then  Cyril's  letter  to  Nestorius.  proceedings 
The  bishops  m  succession  declared  their  full  commence, 
faith  in  the  creed,  and  the  perfect  concordance  of 
Cyril's  exposition  with  the  doctrines  of  the  Nicene 
Fathers.  Then  followed  the  answer  of  Nestorius  to 
Cyril.  Cyril  put  the  question  of  its  agreement  with 
the  creed  of  Nicea.  One  after  another  the  bish- 
ops rose,  and  in  language  more  or  less  vehement, 
pronounced  the  tenets  of  Nestorius  to  be  blasphemous, 
and  uttered  the  stern  anathema.     All  then  joined  in 

'  E/c  C)(^i7iuav  arcaaiir  riji;  inr'  ovimcvov.     p.  4.53. 


236  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II 

one  tumultuous  cry,  "  Anathema  to  him  who  does  not 
anathematize  Nestorius."  The  church  rang  with  the 
fatal  and  reechoed  word,  "  Anathema,  anathema  !  The 
whole  world  unites  in  the  excommunication  :  anathema 
on  liim  who  holds  communion  with  Nestorius  !  " 

The  triumph  of  Cyril  ceased  not  here.  The  con- 
demnatory letters  of  C  destine  of  Kome  to  Nestorius 
were  read  and  inserted  in  the  acts  of  the  council.  Cer- 
tain bishops  averred  that  of  their  personal  knowledge 
Nestorius  had  not  retracted  his  obnoxious  doctrines. 
Then  were  read  extracts  from  the  works  of  the  great 
theologians,  Athanasius,  Gregory,  Basil,  and  others; 
many  of  these  were  of  very  doubtful  bearing  on  the 
question  raised  by  Nestorius  ;  they  were  contrasted  with 
large  extracts  from  his  writings.  A  letter  was  read 
from  Capreolus,  Bishop  of  Carthage,  excusing  the  ab- 
sence of  the  African  clergy  on  account  of  the  miserable 
desolation  and  the  wars  which  afflicted  the  province, 
asserting  in  general  terms  their  cordial  adherence  to  the 
Catholic  doctrine,  and  their  abhorrence  of  heretical 
innovations. 

The  Council,  it  is  said,  compelled  by  the  sacred 
Decree  of  cauons  and  amid  the  tears  of  many  bishops, 
couuci .  proceeded  to  dehver  its  awful  sentence  ;  ^ 
Jesus  Christ  himself,  blasphemed  by  Nestoi-ius,  (so 
ran  the  decree,)  declares  him  deposed  from  his  epis- 
copal rank,  and  from  all  his  ecclesiastical  functions. 
All  the  bishops  subscribed  the  sentence.^  The  whole 
of  this  solemn  discussion,  with  its  fearful  conclusion, 
was  crowded  into  one  day  !     The  im})atient  populace 

^  * kvayKolio^   KareireiX'&evTec  vtto  re  nov  Kavovuv  *  ^  *  daKpvoavTei 

rroTihiKlg  "*  *  *  OKvSpuK^v  an6(paaiv.  Labbe,  p.  533. 

2  Above  two  hundred  iiaiues  appear.  Some  perhaps  were  added  as  con- 
curring in  the  sentence. 


Chap.  HI.  ARRIVAL  OF  SYRIAN  BISHOPS.  237 

had  been  waiting  from  mom  till  evening  the  issue 
of  the  Council.  No  sooner  had  they  heard  the  dep- 
osition of  this  new  Judas,  than  they  broke  out  into 
joyous  clamors ;  escorted  the  Prelates  with  torches 
to  their  homes ;  women  went  before  them  biu^ning 
incense.  A  general  illumination  took  place.  Thus 
did  the  Saviour,  writes  Cyril,  proudly  recounting  these 
popular  suffi-ages,  show  his  Almighty  power  against 
those  who  blasphemed  his  name.^ 

Five  days  after  arrived  John  of  Antioch,  and  the 
Eastern   Prelates  ;   they  were  received  with  Arrival  of 

''  ,    .  Syrian 

great  honor  by  Count  Candidianus,  by  the  Bishops. 
other  bishops  not  only  wdth  studied  discom'tesy,  but 
with  tumultuous  and  disorderly  insult.^  Nestorius 
kept  aloof  in  judicious  seclusion.  These  Prelates  pro- 
ceeded to  instal  themselves  as  a  Council,  under  the 
sanction  of  the  Imperial  Commissary.  Their  first 
inquiry  was  whether  the  former  Council  had  been 
conducted  with  canonical  regularity,  and  the  sentence 
passed  after  dispassionate  investigation.  Candidianus 
bore  testimony  to  the  indecent  haste  and  precipita- 
tion of  the  decree.  But  instead  of  calmly  protesting 
against  these  violent  proceedings,  and  declaring  them 
null  and  void,  as  wanting  their  own  concurrent  voice, 
this  small  synod  of  between  forty  and  fifty  bishops,^ 
rushed  into  the  error  which  they  had  proscribed  in 
others ;  with  no  calmer  or  longer  inquiry,  before  they 

1  Cyril's  letter  to  the  people  of  Alexandria. 

2  Compare,  however,  the  statement  of  Memnon,  a  suspicious  witness, 
p.  763. 

3  These  bishops  did  not  all  come  with  John ;  some  were  of  those  pre- 
viously assembled  at  Ephesus,  who  had  refused  to  take  part  in  the  council. 
Their  adversaries  assert  that  some  of  them  were  deprived  bishops,  others 
not  bishops  at  all.  According  to  this  statement  John's  party  did  not 
amount  to  more  than  thirty. — Epist.  Cyril,  ct  IMemnou.  \k  G38. 


238  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II. 

had  shaken  the  dust  off  their  feet,^  they  condemned 
the  doctrines  of  Cyril,  as  tainted  A^dth  Arianism, 
Eunomianism,  and  Apollinarianism ;  pronounced  the 
sentence  of  deposition  against  the  most  religious  Cyril 
(ecclesiastical  courtesy  held  this  appellation  inseparable 
from  that  of  bishop)  and  against  Memnon  of  Ephesus ; 
and  recorded  their  solemn  anathema  against  the  Prel- 
ates of  the  adverse  Council.^  The  sentence  condemned 
not  their  heresy  alone,  but  likewise  their  disobedience  to 
the  Imperial  authority,  and  their  impious  violence  in 
excluding  the  faithful  from  the  holy  ceremonies  of  Pen- 
tecost, their  closing  the  churches,  and  besetting  them 
with  gangs  of  Egyptian  sailors  and  ecclesiastics,  and 
with  Asiatic  boors.  The  excommunication  was  pub- 
lished throughout  the  city  with  the  solemnity  of  an 
Imperial  proclamation.  Cyril  and  Memnon  launched 
a  counter-anathema ;  and  instead  of  abstaining,  as  ex- 
communicated persons,  from  the  sacred  offices,  cele- 
brated them  with  greater  pomp  and  publicity. 

In  the  mean  time  letters  arrived  from  the  Bishop  of 
July  10.         Rome,    Celestine.     Cyril's   council   reassem- 

Letters  of         .  ,  '  .  ,  '^ 

Celestine,  blcd  to  reccivc  them  ;  every  sentence  was  m 
such  full  accordance  with  their  views,  that  the  whole 
assembly  rose  in  acclamation.  "  The  council  renders 
thanks  to  the  second  Paul,  Celestine ;  to  the  second 
Paul,  Cyril ;  to  Celestine,  protector  of  the  faith ;  to 
Celestine,  unanimous  with  the  council.  One  Celes- 
tine, one  Cyril,  one  faith  in  the  whole  council,  one 
faith  throughout  the  world."  ^  The  Bishops  Arcadius 
and  Projectus,  with  Philip  the  Presbyter,  the  legates 
of  Rome,  gave  their  deliberate  sanction  to  the  deposi- 

1  Cyril,  Epist.  ad  Celestin.  p.  663. 

2  Labbe,  Coiicil.  599. 

8  Actio  Secmula  Conoilii,  p.  618. 


Chap.  HI.  RIOTOUS  PROCEEDINGS.  239 

tion  of  Nestoriiis.  At  another  sitting  it  was  reported 
that  endeavors  had  been  made  to  bring  John  of  An- 
tloch,  now  accused  as  an  accompKce  in  the  guilt  and 
heresj  of  Nestorius,  to  an  amicable  conference.  Three 
bishops,  deputed  to  him,  had  been  repelled  by  the  fierce 
and  turbulent  soldiery  who  guarded  his  residence.  A 
second  deputation  had  been  admitted  to  liis  presence : 
he  loftily  refused  to  enter  into  negotiations  with  excom- 
municated persons.  On  this  report  the  council  pro- 
ceeded to  annul  all  the  decrees  of  John  and  his  synod. 
Having  thrice  cited  liim  to  appear,  they  declared  John 
of  Antioch  deposed  and  excommunicated,  as  well  as 
all  the  bishops  of  his  party.^  Cyril  was  not  idle  in  his 
more  public  sphere  of  influence.  He  thundered  from 
the  pulpit  against  the  bold  man  who  had  interfered 
in  his  triumphant  conflict  with  the  dragon  of  heresy, 
which  vomited  out  its  poison  against  the  Church ;  he 
asserted  that  he  was  ready  to  encounter  this  new 
Goliath  with  the  arms  of  faith. ^ 

Both  parties  were  disposed  to  employ  weapons  of 
a  more  worldly  temper.  John  of  Antioch  violent 
threatened  the  election  of  a  new  Bishop  of  *'°°*^^*- 
Ephesus  in  the  place  of  the  deprived  Memnon.^  A 
peaceful  band  of  worsliippers  according  to  one  account, 
more  probably  an  armed  host,  determined  to  force  their 
way  into  the  cathedral  of  St.  John.     They  found  it 

1  The  Bishop  of  Jerusalem  claimed  jurisdiction,  as  of  ancient  usage, 
over  the  see  of  Antioch.  —  p.  642. 

2  'En^pev,  (bg  opug,  6  iroTiVKE^aTuo^  dpdKuv  r^v  avbaiov  koi  3i^7j?iov  ke<^ 
(OJqv,  Tolc  TTjQ  EKKTiTjalag  TeKvoig  tov  rfjg  Idlac  avoaiorrirog  ibv  hirnrTViov. 
"  This  Goliath  from  the  East  shall  fall  by  stones  from  the  scrip  of  Christ; 
and  what  is  the  scrip  of  Christ?  the  Church,  which  contains  many  stones, 
elect  and  precious."  This  is  a  specimen  of  the  Archbishop's  religious  rhap* 
sody.     Homil.  Cyril,  p.  667. 

'  Labbe,  p.  710 


240  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  l\. 

beset  by  Memnon  with  a  strong  garrison.  Content, 
according  to  tlieir  own  partial  statement,  with  wor- 
sliipping  without  the  doors,  they  were  retreating  in 
peace,  when  the  partisans  of  Memnon  made  a  des- 
perate sally,  took  men  and  horses  prisoners,  assailed 
them,  and  drove  them  through  the  streets  with  clubs 
and  stones,  not  without  much  bloodshed.^ 

The  court  of  Tlieodosius  was  perplexed  with  the 
Constant!-  coutradictory  and  doubtful  reports  from  Eph- 
*^°^^^"  esus.     Candidianus  and  the  party  of  N'esto- 

rius  jealously  watched  the  issues  of  the  city,  that  no 
representations  from  Cyril  and  his  council  should 
reach  the  imperial  ear.  Tlieodosius  still  maintained 
his  impartiality,  or  more  probably  a  minister  favorable 
to  Nestorius  ruled  in  the  court.  An  imperial  letter 
arrived,  written  in  the  interval  between  the  deposition 
of  Nestorius  and  the  arrival  of  John  of  Antioch,^ 
strongly  reproving  the  proceedings  of  the  council, 
annulling  all  its  decrees,  commanding  the  reconsidera- 
tion of  the  creed  by  the  whole  assembly,  forbidding  any 
bishop  to  leave  Ephesus  till  the  close  of  the  council,  and 
announcing  the  appointment  of  a  second  commissary  to 
assist  the  Count  Candidianus.  But  all  the  watchful- 
ness of  the  government  and  of  Nestorius  could  not  in- 
tercept the  secret  correspondence  of  Cyril's  party  with 
tlieir  faithful  allies,  the  earliest  and  most  inveterate 
enemies  of  Nestorius,  the  monks  of  Constantinople.  A 
beo:o:ar  brought  a  letter,  announcino;  to  them  the  glad 
tidings  of  the  deposition  of  Nestorius,  which  the  court 
had  not  condescended  to  communicate  to  the  people. 

1  Their  own  despatches  urged,  and  no  doubt  exaggerated,  the  contempt 
of  the  imperial  authority,  tlie  lawlessness  of  the  rabble  at  the  command  of 
Cyril  and  of  Memnon. 

2  It  was  sent  in  great  haste,  b}'  the  imperial  officer,  Palladius. 


Chap.  III.  EMPEROR'S  RESCRIPTS.  241 

The  court  must  be  overawed ;  these  spiritual  dema- 
gogues would  not  await  the  tardy  and  doubtful  ortho- 
doxy of  the  Emperor. 

Dalmatius,  a  monk  of  high  repute  for  his  austere 
sanctity,  who,  it  is  said,  had  in  vain  been  sohcited 
by  the  Emperor  himself  to  quit  his  cell  and  inter- 
cede for  the  city  during  an  earthquake,  now,  com- 
pelled by  this  more  weighty  call,  came  fortli  from  his 
solitude.  A  vision  had  confirmed  his  sense  of  the 
imperious  necessity.  At  the  head  of  a  procession 
of  archimandrites  and  monks  he  passed  slowly  through 
the  streets  and  sate  down,  as  it  were,  to  besiege  the 
palace.  Wherever  he  passed,  the  awed  and  wondering 
people  burst  out  into  an  anathema  against  Nestorius. 

But  the  court  did  not  as  yet  stoop  from  its  lofty 
dictatorship  in  ecclesiastical  affairs.  A  new  Emperors 
Imperial  Commissary,  one  of  the  highest  ^'^''^"p'^- 
officers  of  state,  named  John,  appeared  in  Ephesus. 
His  first  measure  was  one  of  bold  and  severe  impar- 
tiality, a  vigorous  assertion  of  the  civil  supremacy, 
humiliating  to  the  pride  of  sacerdotal  dignity.  The 
Imperial  letters  sanctioned  equally  the  decrees  of  each 
conflicting  party,  the  deposition  of  Cyril  and  Memnon, 
as  well  as  of  Nestorius.  John  summoned  all  the 
Prelates  to  his  presence.  At  the  dawn  of  morning 
appeared  Nestorius  with  John  of  Antioch.  Some- 
what later,  Cyril  presented  himself  with  the  bishops 
of  his  party ;  Memnon  alone  refused  to  come.  Here- 
upon arose  a  clamorous  debate.  Cyril  and  his  bishops 
would  not  endure  the  presence  of  the  heretical  and 
excommunicated  Nestorius.  The  divine  and  awful 
letters  could  not  be  read  either  in  the  absence  of 
Cyril,   or  in   the  presence    of  Nestorius.     The  party 

VOL    I.  IB 


242  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II. 

of  Nestorius  and  John  as  peremptorily  demanded  the 
expulsion  of  the  deposed  and  excommmiicated  Cyril. 
The  dehate  maddened  into  sedition,  sedition  into  a 
battle.  The  Imperial  Representative  was  compelled 
to  use  his  military  force  to  restrain  the  refractory 
churchmen,  before  he  could  read  the  Emperor's  let- 
ters. At  the  sentence  of  deposition  against  Cyril  and 
Memnon,  the  clamors  broke  out  with  fresh  violence. 
John,  the  Prefect,  took  a  commanding  tone ;  he  or- 
dered the  arrest  and  committal  to  safe  but  honorable 
custody  of  all  the  contending  prelates.  Nestorius  and 
John  of  Antioch  submitted  without  remonstrance. 
Cyril,  after  a  homily  to  the  people,  in  which  he 
represented  himself  as  the  victim  of  persecution,  in- 
curred by  Apostolic  innocence  and  borne  with  Apos 
tolic  resignation,  yielded  to  the  inevitable  necessity. 
Memnon  at  first  concealed  himself,  and  attempted  to 
elude  apprehension,  but  at  length  voluntarily  surren- 
dered to  the  Imperial  authority. 

The  throne  was  besieged,  and  confused  by  strong 
representations  on  both  sides.  At  length  it  was  de- 
termined that  eight  deputies  for  each  party  should  bo 
permitted  to  approach  the  court,  and  stand  before  tho 
sacred  presence  of  the  Emperor.  In  Constantinople 
this  assembly  might  cause  dangerous  tumults :  they 
oounciiof  inet  therefore  in  the  suburb  of  Chalcedon. 
chaicedon.     q^^    ^j^^   ^jj^    ^^  ^^^,^^   appeared  Phihp  tho 

Presbyter,  the  representative  of  Pope  C destine,  and 
the  Western  Bishop  Arcadius,  Juvenal  of  Jerusalem, 
Flavianus  of  Philippi,  Firmus  of  the  Cappadocian 
Caesarea,  Acacius  of  Melitene,  Theodotus  of  Ancyra, 
Euoptius  of  Ptolemais.  On  that  of  the  Orientals,  the 
Metropolitans   John   of  Antioch,  John   of  Damascus, 


CiiAr.  HI.  PULCIIERIA.  "ZlS 

Hlmerius  of  Nicomedia ;  the  Bishops  Paul  of  Emesa, 
Macaiius  of  Laodicea,  Apringius  of  Chalcis,  Theod- 
oret  of  Cyrus,  and  Hehadius  of  Ptolemais.  Though 
the  Bishop  of  Chalcedon  endeavored  to  close  the 
churches  on  the  Oriental  bishops,  and  the  fanatic 
Monks  from  Constantinople  threatened  to  stone  them,i 
the  people,  according  to  their  statement,  listened  with 
absorbed  interest  to  the  eloquence  of  Theodoret,  Bishop 
of  Cyrus,  and  to  the  mild  exhortations  of  John  of 
Antioch.  The  youthful  Emperor  himself,  when  they 
taunted  the  adverse  doctrine  with  deo;radino;  the  God- 
head  to  a  passible  being,  rent  his  robes  at  the  blas- 
phemy.2  The  Oriental  Bishops  gradually  began  to 
separate  the  cause  of  Nestorius  from  their  own.  They 
insisted  much  more  on  the  heresy  of  Cyril  than  on  the 
orthodoxy  of  Nestorius.  They  accused  him  of  assert- 
ing that  the  Godhead  of  the  only  begotten  Son  of 
God  suffered,  not  the  Manhood.^  They  protested  that 
they  would  rather  die  than  subscribe  the  twelve  chap- 
ters of  Cyril,  in  which  the  anti-Nestorian  doctrine  had 
now  taken  a  determinate  form ;  or  communicate  with 
a  Prelate  deposed  by  their  legitimate  authority. 

Other  influences  were  now  at  w^ork  at  the  court  of 
Constantinople.     The  masculine  but  ascetic  mind  of 
Pulcheria,  the  sister,  the  guardian,  the  Em-  Puichena. 
press,  she  may  be  called,  of  the  Emperor,  with  her 

1  "  N'ara  Constantiaopoli  neque  nos,  neque  adversavii  nostri  intrare  per- 
missi  suraus,  propter  seditiones  bonorum  monachorura."  —  Epist.  OKeataJ. 
p.  732. 

2  See  the  short  but  curious  statement  m  Latin:  —  "  Passibilem  esse  deita 
tern.  Quod  usque  adeo  gravatim  tulitpius  rex  noster,  ut  excuteret  pallium, 
et  retrorsum  cederet  prce  bhisphemije  multitudine."  — p.  716. 

3  'Q^  if  -^eorrig  tov  [xnvoyevovc  Qeov  vlov  eivade,  koi  ovk  tj  av&pu/TrorriQ. 
This  they  considered  nearly  allied  to  Arianism,  as  making  the  Son  a 
created  being.    See  the  full  view  of  their  tenets  in  the  Epist.  Oriental,  p.  740 


244  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II. 

rigid  devotion  to  orthodoxy  and  her  monastic  character, 
was  not  Hkely  to  swerve  from  the  dominant  feehng  of 
the  Church  ;  to  comprehend  the  fine  Oriental  Spirit- 
uaUsm  w^hich  would  keep  the  Deity  absolutely  aloof 
from  all  intercourse  with  matter,  as  implied  in  his  pas- 
sibility :  least  of  all,  to  endure  any  impeachment  on 
the  Mother  of  God,  the  tutelar  Deity,  and  the  glory 
of  her  sex.  The  power  of  the  Virgin  in  the  Court  of 
Heaven  was  a  precedent  for  that  of  holy  females  in  the 
courts  of  earth.  To  the  Virgin  Empress,  in  latei 
times,  the  gratitude  of  the  triumphant  party  of  Cyril 
and  of  the  West  attributed  the  glory  of  the  degrada- 
tion and  banishment  of  Nestorius,  and  the  discomfiture 
and  dispersion  of  his  followers.  Still  later,  the  Pope  Leo 
addresses  her  as  having  expelled  the  crafty  enemy  from 
the  Church :  and  her  name  was  constantly  saluted  in 
the  streets  of  Constantinople  as  the  enemy  of  heretics.^ 

Nestorius  was  quietly  abandoned  by  both  parties. 
Nestorius  '^^^  sccrct  of  tliis  cliauge  lies  deeper  in  the 
abandoned,  reccsscs  of  the  Imperial  councils.  The  Eu- 
nuch minister,  who  had  been  his  powerful  supporter, 
died ;  he  might,  indeed,  not  long  have  enjoyed  this 
treacherous  favor,  for  the  Eunuch  had  most  impartially 
condescended  to  receive  bribes  from  the  opposite  fac- 
tion also.  When  the  Emperor  ordered  his  vast  treas- 
ures to  be  opened,  confiscated  no  doubt  to  the  Imperial 
use,  a  receipt  was  found  for  many  pounds  of  gold  re- 
ceived from  Cyril  through  Paul,  his  sister's  son.^ 

Nestorius  was  allowed  the  vain  honor  of  a  voluntary 

1  "  Quo  dudum  suhdoluni  saiicta;  religionis  hostem,  jib  ipsis  viseeribug 
ecclesiic  dcpulistis,  quiini  luvresin  suam  tucri  impietas  Nestoriana  non  pot- 
uit."  —  S.  Leon.  Kpist.  59. 

2  Epist.  Acacii  IJencoiis.  ad  Alexandruiu  Episc.  Ilierapol.  Acacius  heard 
tills  from  John  of  Antioch. 


in 
Alexandria. 


CiiAP.  III.  CYRIL   IN  ALEXANDRIA.  i245 

abdication.  From  Epliesus  he  was  permitted  to  retire 
to  a  monastery  at  Antiocli.  This  monastery,  of  St. 
Euprepius,  had  been  the  retreat  of  his  early  youth ;  he 
retm'ned  to  it,  having  endured  all  the  vicissitudes  of 
promotion  and  degradation.  There  he  lived  m  peace 
and  respect  for  four  years. 

Cyi'il  in  the  mean  time  had  escaped  or  had  been  per- 
mitted to  withdraw  from  the  custody  of  the  cyj.^  j^ 
Imperial  officers  at  Ephesus.  He  returned 
to  Alexandria,  where  he  was  received  in  triumph  as 
the  great  Champion  of  the  Faith.  Thence,  from  the 
security  of  his  own  capital,  almost  with  the  pride  of 
an  independent  potentate,  but  with  the  unscinipulous 
use  of  all  means  at  his  command,  he  directed  the  move- 
ments of  the  theologic  warfare,  which  was  maintained 
for  three  weary  years  with  the  Oriental  Prelates.  The 
wealth  of  Alexandria  was  his  most  powei-ful  ally. 
While  yet  at  Chalcedon,  the  desponding  Orientals 
complain  that  their  judges  are  all  bought  by  Egyptian 
gold.^  But  this  fact  rests  even  on  more  conclusive 
testimony.  Maximian,  a  Roman,  had  been  raised  to 
the  vacant  see  of  Constantinople.  His  first  measure 
betrayed  his  bearing.  He  commanded  all  the  churches 
of  Constantinople  to  be  closed  against  the  Oriental 
Bishops,  who  desired  to  pass  over  from  Chalcedon  to 
visit  the  capital,  as  being  under  the  unrepealed  ban  of 
the  Church.  A  letter  has  survived,  addressed  by 
Cyril's  avowed  agents  to  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople. 
They  urge  the  willing  Prelate  to  endeavor  to  rouse  the 
somewhat  languid  zeal  of  the  Princess  Pulcheria  in  the 

iThis  is  asserted  in  the  letter  of  Theodoret  of  Cyrus:  "Nihil  enim  hmc 
6oni  sperandum,  eo  quod  judices  omiies  auro  confidant."  ..."  Sic  euim 
poterit  zEgyptius  omues  excaicare  muneribiis  suia."  — Epist.  Legat.  p.  716. 


216  LATIN  CIIPJSTIANITY.  Book  IL 

cause  of  Cyril,  to  propitiate  all  the  courtiers,  and,  if 
possible,  to  satisfy  their  rapacity.^  The  females  of  the 
court  were  to  be  solicited  with  the  utmost  importu- 
nity ;  the  monks,  especially  the  Abbot  Dalmatius,  and 
Eutyches  (afterwards  himself  an  heresiarch),  were  to 
overawe  the  feeble  Emperor  by  all  the  terror  of  re- 
ligion, and  by  no  means  neglect  to  impress  the  Lords 
of  the  Bedchamber  with  the  same  sentiments.  They 
were  to  be  lavish  of  money ;  already  enormous  sums 
had  been  sent  from  Egypt ;  1500  pounds  of  gold  had 
been  borrowed  of  Count  Ammonius ;  and  the  wealth 
of  the  Church  of  Constantinople  was  to  be  as  prodi- 
gally devoted  to  the  cause.  Ministers  were  to  be  de- 
graded, more  obsequious  ones  raised  to  their  posts  by 
the  influence  of  Pulcheria,  in  order  to  strengthen  the 
pure  doctrine,  "  the  pure  doctrine  of  Christ  Jesus  I"^ 

Theodosius,  weary  of  the  strife,  dissolved  the  meet- 
Synod  of  i^g  ^^  Chalcedon,  and  thus  the  Council  of 
Sssiived'^  Ephesus,  which  had  assumed  the  dignity  of 
A.D.  431.  |.]-jg  third  Ecumenical  Council,  was  at  an 
end.  All,  however,  was  still  unreconciled  hatred  and 
confusion.  The  Oriental  Bishops,  as  they  retm^ned 
home,  found  the  churches  at  Ancyi'a  and  other  cities 
of  Asia  Minor  closed  against  them,  as  being  under  an 

1  Eunapius,  the  heathen,  gives  a  frightful  picture  of  the  venality  of  the 
court  of  Pulcheria.  See  the  new  tiaguieut  in  Niebuhr's  Byzanliue  hifitck- 
rians,  p.  97. 

2  The  Letter  in  the  Synodicon.  The  Latin  is  very  bad ;  in  some  parts 
unintelligible.  A  few  sentences  must  be  given:  —  "Et  Dominuni  meum 
sanctis.simum  abbatem  roga  ut  Iniperatoreni  niandet,  terribili  cum  conjura- 
tione  constringens,  et  ut  cubicularios  omnes  ita  constringat.  .  .  .  Sed  de 
tua  Ecclesia  prajsta  avaritiaj  quorum  nosti,  ne  Alexandrinorum  Ecclesiam 
contristent.  .  .  .  Festinet  autem  Sanctitas  tua  rogare  Dominam  Pulche- 
riam,  ut  Aiciat  Dominuni  Lausum  intrare  et  Pra.'positum  fieri,  ut  Chrysore- 
tis  potentia  dissolvatur,  et  sic  doyvia  nostrum  roboi'etur.  Alioquin  semper 
tribulandi  sunius." 


CuAr.  III.  SYNOD  OF  TARSUS.  247 

interdict.  Tliej  met  together,  on  the  other  hand,  at 
Tarsus,  and  afterwards  at  Antioch,  con- Synod  of 
demned  the  twelve  articles  of  Cyril,  con-  a.d.  432. 
firmed  the  deposition  of  Cyril  and  Memnon,  and  in- 
cluded under  their  ban  the  seven  Bishops,  their  antag- 
onists at  Chalcedon.  Maximian  ventured  on  the  bold 
step  of  deposing  four  Nestorian  Bishops.  The  strife 
was  hardly  allayed  by  the  vast  mass  of  letters  ^  which 
distracted  and  perplexed  the  world  ;  there  was  scarcely 
a  distinguished  Prelate  who  did  not  mingle  in  the  fray. 
Theodosius  himself  interfered  at  length  in  the  office  of 
conciliation.  Misdoubting,  however,  the  extent  of  the 
Imperial  authority,  which  had  so  manifestly  failed  in 
controlling  this  contest  into  peace,  he  cultivated  the 
more  potent  intercession  of  the  famous  Simeon  Stylites  : 
the  prayers  of  the  holy  "  Martyr  in  the  air  "  might 
effect  that  which  the  Emperor  had  in  vain  sought  by 
his  despotic  edicts.  John  of  Antioch  and  his  party 
deputed  Paul,  the  aged  Bishop  of  Emesa,  to  Alexan- 
dria, to  negotiate  a  reconciliation.  Paul  bore  with 
him  a  formulary  agreed  upon  at  Antioch,  the  subscrip- 
tion to  which  by  Cyril  was  the  indispensable  prelimi- 
nary of  peace.  On  the  acceptance  of  this  formulary, 
and  the  consent  of  Cyril  to  anathematize  all  who 
should  assert  that  the  Godhead  had  suffered,  or  that 
there  was  one  nature  of  the  Godhead  and  the  Man- 
hood, he  and  the  Orientals  would  revoke  the  sentence 
of  excommunication  against  Cyril.^ 

But  Paul  of  Emesa,  amiably  eager  for   peace,  and 
not  insensible  to  the  dignity  of  appearing  as  rj>j.catj  ct 
arbiter  between  these  two  great  factions,  was  ^'^^' 

1  They  occupy  page  after  page  of  tbe  great  Collection  of  the  Councils. 

2  Ibas.  Epist.  ad  Maron.  in  Synodico. 


248  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II. 

no  match  for  the  subtlety  of  Cyril.  Cyi'il  was  ill  at  the 
time  of  Paul's  arrival,  and  some  time  elapsed  in  fruit- 
less negotiation.  At  length,  after  an  ambiguous  assent 
to  the  formulary  of  Antioch  by  Cyril,  a  treaty  was  con- 
cluded, in  which  Paul  unquestionably  exceeded  his 
powers.  But  no  sooner  were  the  terms  agreed  upon 
than  the  doors  of  the  Alexandrian  churches  flew  open, 
and  ths  contending  parties  vied  with  each  other  in  flat- 
terino"  homilies.^  At  first  the  Orientals  were  startled 
at  what  appeared  the  unwarrantable  concessions  of 
Paul :  "it  was  a  peace,"  in  the  language  of  one, 
"  which  filled  us  with  confusion  of  face  and  apprehen- 
sion of  the  just  judgment  of  God."^  The  more  vio 
lent  of  Cyril's  friends  were  equally  displeased  with  the 
event.  Isidore  of  Pelusium  openly  reproached  him 
with  his  time-serving  concessions  and  with  the  recanta- 
tion of  his  own  doctrines.^ 

After  some  further  contest,  the  peace  negotiated  in 
Alexandria  was  ratified  at  Antioch.  The  Oriental 
yielded  their  assent  to  the  deposition  of  Nestorius,  the 
condemnation  of  his  doctrines,  and  acknowledged  the 
legitimate  nomination  of  his  successor  Maximianus  in 

1  See  the  three  homilies  of  Paul,  and  one  of  C^'ril. 

2  Epist.  Theodoret.  Cyren.  ad  finem. 

8  Isidor,  Pelus.  Epist.  ad  Cyrill.  Facundus  de  Trib.  Capit.  xi.  9.  Isidore 
of  Pelusium  was  no  friend  of  Cyril.  From  the  first  he  saw  through  his 
character.  During  the  Council  of  Ephcsus  he  solemnly  admonished  his 
bishop  in  terms  like  these:  "  Strong  favor  is  notkeensighted,  hate  is  utterlj 
blkid:  keep  thyself  unsullied  by  both  these  faults:  pass  no  hasty  judg- 
ments: try  every  cause  with  strict  justice.  .  .  Many  of  those  summoned 
to  Ephesus  mock  at  thee  {oe  KioiiuihvGi)  as  one  who  seeks  only  to  giut  his 
private  revenge,  and  has  no  real  zeal  for  the  ortnodoxy  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus.  He,  they  say,  is  the  sister's  son  of  Thcopliilus,  and  follows  the  ex- 
ample of  his  uncle.  As  he  manifestly  gave  free  scope  to  his  animosity 
Bgainst  the  God-inspired  and  God-beloved  Chrysostom,  so  does  this  mar 
against  Nestorius,"  &c.  &c.  —  Isid.  Peltis.  Epist.  i.  310.  See  also  the  Lc 
ters  to  the  Em[)er-)r  Thcodosius,  311,  and  to  Cyril,  323,  3-24,  370. 


Chap.  m.  TREATY  OF  PEACE.  24 & 

the  see  of  Constantinople.  On  the  other  hiind  Cjril, 
though  spared  the  public  disavowal  of  his  own  tenets, 
had  purcliased,  in  the  opinion  of  many,  his  restoration 
to  communion  with  the  Orientals  by  a  dishonorable 
compromise  of  his  bolder  opinions. 

It  was  a  peace  between  John  of  Antioch  and  Cyril 
of  Alexandria,  not  between  the  contending  p^^^^.^  ^^^^^ 
factions,  which  became  more  and  more  es-  '^""^  ^"^^• 
tranged  and  separated  from  each  other.  But  the  peace 
between  John  and  Cyril  soon  grew  into  a  close  alli- 
ance, and  John  began  to  persecute  his  old  associates. 
The  first  victim  was  Nestorius  himself,  now  sunk  to  so 
low  a  state  of  insignificance  as  to  expose  him  to  the 
suspicion  and  hatred  of  his  enemies,  without  retaining 
the  attachment  of  his  former  friends.  His  obscure  fate 
contrasts  strongly  with  the  vitality  of  his  doctrines. 
By  an  Imperial  edict,  obtained  not  improbably  by  John 
of  Antioch,  who  was  weary  of  a  troublesome  neighbor, 
Nestorius  in  his  old  age  was  exiled  to  the  Egyptian 
Oasis,  as  the  place  most  completely  cut  off  from  man- 
kind, so  that  the  contagion  of  his  heresy  might  be  con- 
fined to  the  narrowest  limits.  Even  there  he  did  not 
find  repose.  The  Oasis  was  overrun  by  a  tribe  of  bar- 
barous Africans,  the  Blemmyes.  These  savages,  out  of 
respect  or  compassion,  released  their  aged  captive,  who 
found  himself  in  Panopolis  ;  and,  having  signified  his 
arrival  and  his  adventures  to  the  Prefect  of  the  city, 
expressed  his  hope  that  the  Roman  Government  would 
not  refuse  him  that  compassion  which  he  had  found 
among  the  savage  heathen.  The  heretic  reckoned 
too  much  on  human  sympathies.  He  was  hastily  de- 
spatched under  a  guard  of  soldiers  to  Elephantine,  the 
very  border  of  the  Roman  territory,  and  recalled  as  has- 


250  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  H 

tily.  These  journeys  wore  out  his  old  and  hiflrm  body  ; 
and,  after  a  vain  appeal  to  the  coui't  to  be  spared  a  fourth 
exile,  whicli  is  mocked  by  the  ecclesiastical  historian  as 
a  new  proof  of  his  obstinacy,  he  sunk  into  the  grave. 
But  there  the  charity  of  the  historian  Evagrius  does 
not  leave  him  in  peace  :  he  relates  with  undisguised 
satisfaction  a  report  that  his  tongue  was  eaten  with 
worms ;  and  from  these  temporal  pains  he  passed  to  the 
eternal  and  unmitigable  pains  of  hell.^ 

The  three  great  Sees  were  now  in  possession  of  the 
AD. 434.  anti-Nestorians.  Cyril  ruled  in  Alexandria  ; 
Maximian  had  been  succeeded  in  Constantinople  by 
Proclus,  the  ancient  and  inveterate  antagonist  of  Nes- 
torius  ;  and  John  in  Antioch.  But,  besides  the  Nes- 
torians,  there  was  a  strong  anti-Cyrilhan  party  among 
the  Orientals,  the  former  allies  of  John  of  Antioch, 
who  protested  against  the  terms  of  the  peace.  They 
maintained  the  uncanonical  deposition  of  Nestorius, 
though  they  disclaimed  his  theology  ;  they  asserted  the 
unrepealed  excommunication  of  Cyril.  Alexander, 
Bishop  of  Hierapolis,  declared  that  he  would  suffer 
death  or  exile  rather  than  submit  to  Church  communion 
with  the  Egyptians  on  such  terms  ;  and  declared  that 
John  must  be  lost  to  all  sense  of  shame.  On  this  prin- 
ciple the  leading  Bishops  of  nine  provinces  revolted 
against  their  Patriarchs,  —  the  two  Syrias,  the  two  Ci- 
licias,  Bithynia,  Moesia,  Thessalia,  Isauria,  the  second 
Cappadocia.  Tliey  even  ventui'cd  to  send  a  protest  to 
Sixtus,  who  had  now  succeeded  Celestine  in  the  See  of 
Rome,  in  whicli  they  inveighed  against  the  versatility 
and  perfidy  of  John  of  Antioch.  But  an  edict,  ob- 
tained by  the  two  dominant  influences  in   the  Byzan 

1  Evaiirius,  11.  E.  i.  6. 


»,HAP.  III.  NESTORIANISM  PROSCRIBED.  25] 

tine  court,  tliat  of  gold  ^  and  that  of  the  Princess  Pulche- 
ria,  armed  John  with  powers  to  expel  the  refractory 
Prelates  from  their  sees;  and  John  had  no  scruples  in 
punishing  that  mutinous  spirit  which  he  had  encouraged 
so  long.  Nor  were  these  Bishops  prepared  to  suffer 
the  martyrdom  of  degradation.  Andrew  of  Samosata, 
Theodoret  of  Cyrus,  Helladius  of  Tarsus,  the  leaders 
of  that  party,  submitted  to  the  hard  necessity.  It  is 
probable,  however,  that  the  milder  terms  enforced  upon 
them  only  required  communion  with  John  ;  they  were 
not  compelled  to  give  their  formal  assent  to  the  depo- 
sition of  Nestorius,  or  to  withdraw  their  protest  against 
the  twelve  articles  of  Cyril,  or  to  repeal  the  anathema 
against  him.  Some,  however,  were  more  firm ;  Mele- 
tius  of  Mopsuestia  was  forcibly  expelled  fi'om  his  city 
by  a  rude  soldiery,  and  fourteen  other  Bishops  bore 
degradation  rather  than  submit  to  these  galling  conces- 
sions. 

At  the  same  time  that  Nestorius  was  banished  from 
Antioch,  an  Imperial  edict  proscribed  Nesto-  Nestorianism 
rianism.2  The  followers  of  Nestorius  were  p'^^^^"'^^'^- 
to  be  branded  by  the  odious  name  of  Simonians,  as 
apostates  from  God  ;  his  books  were  prohibited,  and, 
when  found,  were  to  be  publicly  burned  ;  whoever  held 
a  conventicle  of  the  sect  was  condemned  to  confiscation 
of  goods.  But  however  oppressed  in  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, Nestoiianism  was  too  deeply  rooted  in  the  Syrian 
mind  to  be  extinguished  either  by  Imperial  or  by  ecclesi- 

1 "  Audivimus  olim  quod  multum  sategerit  Verius,  qui  pro  Joanne 
C'lnatantinopoli  latitat,  et  aurum  multum  distribuerit  aliquibus  ut  posset 
obtinere  sacram,  quae  nos  cogeret  aut  communicare  Joanni,  aut  exire  ab 
ecclesiis:  quod  etiara  veraciter  contigit."  —  Meletii  Epist.  ad  Maximin. 
Anagarb. 

2  Codex  Theodos.  de  Hicret.  xvi.  v.  60. 


252  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IL 

astical  persecution.  It  took  refuge  beyond  tlie  frontiers, 
among  the  Christians  of  Persia.  It  even  overleaped 
the  stern  boundary  of  Magianism,  and  carried  tlie  Gos- 
pel into  parts  of  the  East  as  yet  unpenetrated  by  Chris- 
tian missions.  The  farther  it  travelled  eastwards  the 
more  intelligible  and  more  congenial  to  the  general  sen- 
timent became  its  Eastern  element,  the  absolute  impas- 
sibihty  of  the  Godhead.  Even  in  the  Roman  East  it 
maintained,  in  many  places  a  secret,  in  some  an  open 
resistance  to  authority.^  The  great  Syrian  School, 
that  of  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia  and  Diodorus  of  Tar- 
sus, the  most  popular  of  the  Syrian  theologians,  were 
found  to  have  held  opinions  nearly  the  same  with  those 
of  Nestorius.  Cyril  and  Proclus  demanded  the  pro 
scription  of  these  dangerous  writers  ;  but  the  Eastern 
Prelates,  those  of  Edessa,  and  the  successors  of  Theo- 
dore, indignantly  refused  submission.  A  new  contro- 
versy arose,  which  was  not  laid  to  rest,  but  was  rather 
kept  alive  by  the  new  heresy  which,  during  the  next 
twenty  years,  confused  the  Eastern  Churches  and  de- 
manded a  fourth  General  Council  —  Eutychianism. 
A.D.  432-440.  Sixtus,  the  successor  of  Celestine,  had 
Aug.  is!  ruled  in  Home  during  these  later  transactions 
in  the  East ;  he  was  to  be  succeeded  by  one  of  greater 
name. 

1  Gibbon,  at  the  close  of  his  47th  chapter,  has  drawn  one  of  his  full,  rap- 
id, and  brilliant  descriptions  of  the  Oriental  con([uests  of  the  Nestorians, 
from  Assemanni,  Kenaudot,  La  Croze,  and  all  other  authorities  extant  in 
his  day.  Nestorianism  and  its  kindred  or  rival  sects  retired  far  beyond  the 
sphere  of  Latin  Christianity;  it  was  not  till  the  Portuguese  conquests  in  the 
East  that  they  came  into  contact  and  collision.  The  very  recent  works  of 
Layard  and  the  Kev.  Mr.  Badger  reveal  to  us  the  present  state  of  the  settle- 
ments of  the  Nestorians  —  the  latter,  their  creed  and  discipline  —  in  th« 
Bcipjhborhood  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates. 


Chap.  IV.  LEO  THE  GREAT.  253 


CHAPTER  IV. 

LEO  THE  GREAT. 

The  Pontificate  of  Leo  the  Great  is  one  of  the 
epochs  in  the  histoiy  of  Latin,  or  rather  of  Leo  the 
universal  Christianity.  Christendom,  wher-  a. ^1^440 
ever  mindful  of  its  divine  origin,  and  of  its  ^^^' 
proper  humanizing  and  hallowing  influence,  might 
turn  away  in  shame  from  these  melancholy  and  dis- 
graceful contests  in  the  East.  On  the  throne  of  Rome 
alone,  of  all  the  greater  sees,  did  religion  maintain  its 
majesty,  its  sanctity,  its  piety ;  and,  if  it  demanded 
undue  deference,  the  world  would  not  be  inclined 
rigidly  to  question  pretensions  supported  as  well  by 
such  conscious  power  as  by  such  singular  and  unim- 
peachable virtue ;  and  by  such  inestimable  benefits 
conferred  on  Rome,  on  the  Empire,  on  civilization. 
Once  Leo  was  supposed  to  have  saved  Rome  from 
the  most  terrible  of  barbarian  conquerors ;  a  second 
time  he  mitigated  the  horrors  of  her  fall  before  the 
King  of  the  Vandals.  During  his  pontificate,  Leo 
is  the  only  great  name  in  the  Empire ;  it  might  almost 
seem  in  the  Christian  world.  The  Imperial  Sover- 
eignty might  be  said  to  have  expired  wdth  Theodosius 
the  Great.  Women  ruled  in  Ravenna  and  in  Con- 
stantinople, and  their  more  masculine  abilities,  even 
their  virtues,  reflected  a  deeper  shame  on  the  names 
of  Theodosius  II.  and  Valentinian  HI.,  the  boy  Sov- 


254  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  XT. 

ereigns  of  the  East  and  West.  Even  after  the  death 
of  Theodosius,  Marcian  reigned  in  tlie  East,  as  tlie 
husband  of  Pulcheria.  In  the  West  the  suspected 
fidehty  impaired  the  power,  as  it  lowered  the  char- 
acter of  Aetius ;  his  inhuman  murder  deprived  tlie 
A.D.  4ao.  Empire  of  its  last  support ;  and  the  Count 
Boniface,  the  friend  of  Augustine,  in  his 
fatal  revenge,  opened  Africa  to  the  desolating  Vandal. 
Leo  stood  equally  alone  and  superior  in  the  Christian 
world.  Two  years  before  the  accession  of  Leo, 
Augustine  had  died.  He  had  not  lived  to  witness 
the  ca})ture  and  ruin  of  Hippo,  his  episcopal  city, 
A.D.  445.  The  fifth  year  after  the  accession  of  Leo, 
died  Cyril  of  Alexandria ;  Nestorius  survived,  but 
in  exile,  his  relentless  rival.  Cyi'il  was  succeeded 
by  Dioscorus,  who  seemed  to  have  inherited  all  which 
was  odious  in  Cyril,  with  far  inferior  polemic  ability ; 
afterwards,  an  Eutychian  heretic,  and  hardly  to  be 
acquitted  of  the  murder  of  his  rival,  Flavianus.  This 
future  victim  of  the  enmity  of  Dioscorus  filled  the  see 
of  Constantinople.  Domnus,  a  name  of  no  great  dis- 
tinction, was  Patriarch  of  Antioch.  In  the  West  there 
are  few,  either  ecclesiastics  or  others,  who  even  aspire 
to  a  doubtful  fame,  such  as  Prosper,  the  poet  of  the 
Pelagian  controversy,  and  Cassianus,  the  legislator  of 
the  Western  monasteries. 

Leo,  like  most  of  his  great  predecessors  and  succes- 
sors, was  a  Roman.  He  was  early  devoted  to  the 
service  of  tlie  Church ;  and  so  high  was  the  opinion 
of  his  abilities,  that  even  as  an  acolyte  he  was  sent 
to  Africa  with  letters  condemnatory  of  Pelagianisra. 
By  the  great  African  Prelates,  Aurelius  and  St.  Au- 
gustine, he  was   confirmed    in  his   strong  aversion   to 


CiTAP.  IV.  ELECTION  OF  LEO.  'ISo 

those  doctrines,  wliicli  might  seem  irreconcilahle  with 
his  ardent  piety.  He  urged  upon  Pope  Sixtus  the 
persecution  of  the  unfortunate  JuHanus.^  When  Leo 
was  yet  only  a  Deacon,  Cassianus  dedicated  to  him  his 
work  on  the  Incarnation.  At  the  decease  of  Pope 
Sixtus,  Leo  was  absent  on  a  civil  mission,  Election  of 
the  importance  of  which  shows  the  lofty  ^' 
estimate  of  his  powers.  It  was  no  less  than  an  at- 
tempt to  reconcile  the  two  rival  generals,  Actius  and 
Albinus,  whose  fatal  quarrel  hazarded  the  domhn'on 
of  Kome  in  Gaul.  There  was  no  delay ;  all  Rome, 
clergy,  senate,  people,  by  acclamation,  raised  the 
absent  Leo  to  the  vacant  see.  Leo  disdained  the 
customary  hypocrisy  of  compelling  the  electors  to 
force  the  dignity  upon  him.  With  the  self-confidence 
of  a  commanding  mind  he  assumed  the  office,^  in  the 
pious  assurance  that  God  would  give  him  strength  to 
ftilfil  the  arduous  duties  so  imposed.  Leo  was  a  Roman 
in  sentiment  as  in  birth.  All  that  survived  of  Rome, 
of  her  unbounded  ambition,  her  inflexible  persever- 
ance, her  dignity  in  defeat,  her  haughtiness  of  lan- 
guage, her  belief  in  her  own  eternity,  and  in  her 
indefeasible  title  to  universal  dominion,  her  respect  for 
traditionary  and  written  law,  and  of  unchangeable 
custom,  might  seem  concentred  in  him  alone.^     The 

1  "His  insidiis  Sixtus  Papa,  diaconi  Leonis  hortatu,  vigilanter occurrens, 
nullum  aditum  pestiferis  conatibus  patere  penuisit,  et  .  .  .  omnes  catho- 
licoa  de  rejectioiie  fallacis  bestial  gaudere  fecit."  —  Prosper,  in  Chronic. 

2  "  Etsi  necessarium  est  trepidare  de  merito,  religiosum  est  gaudera  de 
done  .  .  .  ne  sub  magnitudine  gratiie  succumbat  infirmus,  dabit  virtutem, 
qui  contulit  dignitatem."  —  Sermo  11. 

8  Nothing  can  be  stronger  than  the  Popes'  declarations  that  even  they  are 
strictly  subordinate  to  the  law  of  the  church.  "  Contra  statuta  patrum 
concedere  aliquid  vel  mutare  nee  hujus  quidem  sedis  potest  auctoritas." 
Zos.  Epist.  sub  ann.  417.  "  Sumus  subjecti  canonibus,  qui  canonum  prae- 
cepta  servamus."  —  Coelest.  ad  Episc.  Illyr.     "Privilesia  sanctorum  p» 


236  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U. 

union  of  the  Churchman  and  the  Roman  is  singularly 
displayed  in  his  sermon  on  the  day  of  St.  Peter  and 
St.  Paul  ;  their  conjoint  authority  was  tliat  double 
title  to  obedience  on  which  he  built  his  claim  to  power, 
but  chiefly  as  successor  of  St.  Peter,  for  whom  and 
for  his  ecclesiastical  heirs  he  asserted  a  proto-Apostolic 
dignity.  From  Peter  and  through  Peter  all  the  other 
Apostles  derived  their  power.  No  less  did  he  assert 
the  predestined  perpetuity  of  Rome,  who  had  only 
obtained  her  temporal •  autocracy  to  ])repare  the  way, 
and  as  a  guarantee,  for  her  greatei'  spiritual  supremacy. 
St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  were  tlie  Romulus  and  Remus 
of  Christian  Rome.  Pagan  Rome  had  been  the  head 
of  the  heathen  world ;  the  empire  of  her  divine  re- 
ligion was  to  transcend  that  of  her  worldly  dominion. 
Her  victories  had  subdued  the  earth  and  the  sea, 
but  she  was  to  rule  still  more  widely  than  she  had 
by  her  wars,  through  the  peaceful  triumphs  of  her 
faith.^  It  was  because  Rome  was  the  capital  of  the 
world  that  the  chief  of  the  Apostles  was  chosen  to 
be  her  teacher,  in  order  that  from  the  head  of  the 
world  the  light  of  truth  might  be  revealed  over  all 
the  earth. 

The  haughtiness  of  the  Roman  might  seem  to  pre- 
dominate over  the  meekness  of  the  Christian.  Leo 
is  indignant  that  slaves  were  promoted  to  the  dignity 
(f  the  sacerdotal   office;  not   merely  did   he   require 

(rum  caiionibus  iiistitiita  et  Niceoc  synodi  fixa  deorotis  iiiilla  possunt  impro- 
bitate  convelli,  nulla  novitatc  violari."  —  S.  Leo.  Epist.  78:  compare  Epist. 
80.  "Quoniam  contra  staluta  paternorum  canonum  nihil  cuiquam  audiro 
concftditur,  ita  si  quis  diversum  aliquid  dccemere  velit,  se  potius  minuet, 
quam  ilia  corrumpat;  quic  si  (ut  oportet)  a  Sanctis  rontiticibus  obsen'antur 
per  universas  ecclcsias,  tranquilla  erit  pax  et  finna  concordia."  —  Epist.  79, 
i"Per  sacram  beati  Petri  sedem  caput  orbis  cft'ccta,  latius  praesiderea 
reli^ione  divinu  (luani  dominatiune  tcrrcnu."  — Serni.  Ixxxiii. 


CHAP.  IV.  ELECTION  OF  LEO.  257 

the  consent  of  the  master,  lest  the  Church  shouUl 
become  a  reiiige  for  contmnacious  slaves,  and  the  es- 
tablished rights  of  property  be  invaded,  but  the  base- 
ness of  the  slave  brought  discredit  on  the  majesty  of 
the  priestly  office.^ 

Though  Leo's  magnificent  vision  of  the  universal 
dominion  of  Rome  and  of  Christianity  blended  the  in- 
domitable ambition  of  the  ancient  Roman  with  the  faith 
of  the  Clmstian,  the  world  might  seem  rather  darkening 
towards  the  ruin  of  both.  Leo  may  be  imagined  as 
taking  a  calm  and  comprehensive  survey  of  the  ardu- 
ous work  in  which  he  was  engaged,  the  state  of  the 
various  provinces  over  which  he  actually  exercised,  or 
aspired  to  supremacy.  In  Rome  heathenism  appears, 
as  a  religion,  extinct ;  but  heretics,  especially  the  most 
odious  of  all,  the  Manicheans,  were  in  great  numbers. 
In  Rome,  Leo  ruled  not  merely  with  Apostolic  author- 
ity, but  took  upon  himself  the  whole  Apostolic  func- 
tion. He  was  the  first  of  the  Roman  Pontiffs  whose 
popular  sermons  have  come  down  to  posterity.  The 
Bishops  of  Constantinople  seem  to  have  been  the  great 
preachers  of  their  city.  Pulpit  oratory  was  their  rec- 
ommendation to  the  see,  and  the  great  instrument 
of  their  power.^     Chrysostom  was  not  the  first,  though 

1 "  Tanquam  servilis  vilitas  hunc  honorem  capiat.  .  .  .  Duplex  itaque  m 
hac  parte  reatus  est,  quod  et  sacrum  ministerium  talis  consortii  vilitate  pol- 
luitur,  et  dominorum  .  .  .  jura  eolvuntur."  —  Epist.  iv. 

2  Sozomen  asserts  that  it  was  a  peculiar  usage  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
that  neither  the  bishop  nor  any  one  else  preached  in  the  Church :  ovre  6e  6 
emaKonog  ovre  a?Ju)c  rcg  kv^a&e  £tt'  EKK^-ijaiag  StduGKei.  H.  E.  vii.  19. 
This  statement,  defended  liy  Valesius,  is  vehemently  impugned  by  many 
Koman  Catholic  writers.  Quesnel  confines  it  to  sermons  on  particular 
occasions.  But  the  assertion  of  Sozomen  is  clearly  general,  and  con- 
trasted with  the  usage  of  Alexandria,  where  the  bishop  was  the  only 
preacher.  If  this  be  true,  the  usage  must  have  been  subsequent  to  th« 
Jjeginuing  of  Arianism,  perhaps  grew  out  of  it.     The  presumption  of 

VOL.  I.  17 


258  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U. 

the  greatest,  who  had  been  summoned  to  that  high 
dignity,  for  the  fame  of  his  eloquence.  From  the 
pulpit  Nestorius  had  waged  war  against  his  adver- 
saries. Leo,  no  doubt,  felt  his  strength  ;  he  could 
cope  with  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  make  the 
pulpit  what  the  rostrum  had  been  of  old.  His  ser- 
mons singularly  contrast  with  the  florid,  desultory, 
and  often  imaginative  and  impassioned  style  of  the 
Greek  preachers.  They  are  brief,  simple,  severe ; 
without  fancy,  without  metaphysic  subtlety,  without 
passion :  it  is  the  Roman  Censor  animadverting  with 
nervous  majesty  on  the  vices  of  the  people ;  the 
Roman  Praetor  dictating  the  law,  and  delivering  with 
authority  the  doctrine  of  the  faith.  They  are  singu- 
larly Christian  —  Christian  as  dwelling  almost  exclu- 
sively on  Christ,  his  birth,  his  passion,  his  resurrection ; 
only  polemic  so  far  as  called  upon  by  the  prevailing 
controversies  to  assert  with  especial  emphasis  the  per- 
fect deity  and  the  perfect  manhood  of  Christ.^     Either 

ignorance  or  error  in  Sozomen  arises  out  of  the  generality  of  his  state- 
ment, that  there  was  in  fact  no  preaching  in  Rome.  The  style  of  Leo's 
sermons,  brief,  simple,  expository,  is  almost  conclusive  against  any  long 
cultivation  of  pulpit-oratory.  They  are  evidently  the  first  efforts  o  Chris- 
tian rhetoric  —  the  earliest,  if  vigorous,  sketches  of  a  young  art.  Com- 
pare page  21. 

1  One  class  were  what  may  be  described  as  charity-sermons.  At  a  cer- 
tain period  of  the  year,  collections  were  made  for  the  poor  throughout  all 
the  regions  of  Rome.  This  usage  had  been  appointed  to  supersede  some 
ancient  superstition,  it  is  supposed  the  Ludi  Apollinares,  held  on  the  6th  of 
July.  The  alms  of  the  devout  were  to  surpass  in  munificence  the  ofierings 
of  the  heathen.  These  collections  seem  to  have  rejilaced  in  some  degree  the 
gportula  of  the  wealthy,  and  the  ostentatious  largesses  of  the  Enperors. 
On  ahns-giving  Leo  insists  with  great  energy.  It  is  an  atonement  for  sin. 
—  Senn.  vii.  In  another  place,  "  eleemosyna;  peceata  dcleut."  Fasting, 
without  alms,  is  an  aflliction  of  the  flesh,  no  sanctificntion  of  the  soul. 
There  is  a  beautiful  precept  urging  the  people  to  seek  out  the  more  modest 
of  the  indigent,  who  would  not  beg:  Sunt  enim  qui  palam  poscere  ea, 
quibus  indigent,   erubescuut.  'it   nialunt  niiseria   tacito)  egestatis  alBigi, 


Chap.  IV.  THE  MANICHEES.  259 

the  practical  mind  of  Leo  disdained,  or  in  Rome  the 
age  had  not  yet  fully  expanded  the  legendary  and 
poetic  religion,  the  worship  of  the  Virgin  and  the 
Saints.  St.  Peter  is  not  so  much  a  sacred  object  of 
worship  as  the  great,  ancestor  from  whom  the  Roman 
Pontiff  has  inherited  supreme  power.  One  martjT 
alone  is  commemorated,  and  that  with  nothing  mythic 
or  miraculous  in  the  narrative  —  the  Roman  Lauren- 
tius,  by  whose  death  Rome  is  glorified,  as  Jerusalem 
by  that  of  Stephen.^ 

Leo  condemns  the  whole  race  of  heretics,  from 
Arius  down  to  Eutyches ;  but  the  more  immediate, 
more  dangerous,  more  hateful  adversaries  of  the  Ro- 
man faith  were  the  Manicheans.  That  sect,  in  vain 
proscribed,  persecuted,  deprived  of  the  privilege  of 
citizens,  placed  out  of  the  pale  of  the  law  by  rj,^^  jj^^.. 
successive  Imperial  edicts ;  under  the  abhor-  *^'^'^^^- 
rence  not  merely  of  the  orthodox,  but  of  almost  all 
other  Christians ;  were  constantly  springing  up  in  all 
quarters  of  Christendom  with  a  singularly  obstinate 
vitality.  At  this  time  they  unquestionably  formed  a 
considerable  sect  in  Rome  and  in  other  cities  of  Italy. 
Manicheism,  according  to  Leo,  summed  up  in  itself  all 
which  was  profane  in  Paganism,  blind  in  carnal  Juda- 
ism, unlawful  in  magic,  sacrilegious,  and  blasphemous 
in  all  other  heresies.^  It  does  not  appear  how  far  the 
Manicheism  of  the  West  had  retained  the  wilder  and 
more  creative  system  of  its  Oriental  founder ;  or,  sub- 
dued to  the  more  practical  spirit  of  the  West,  adhered 

quam  publica  petitione  confundi  .  .  .  paupertati  eorum  consultiun  fuerit  et 
piulori."  —  Serm.  ix.  p.  32-3.  Leo  denounces  usury  —  "foenus  pecunias, 
funus  animae."  —  Serm.  xvii. 

1  Serm.  Ixxxv. 

2  Serm.  xvi. 


260  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  a 

only  to  the  broader  anti-Materialistic  and  Dualistic 
tenets.  But  these  more  general  principles  were  obnox- 
ious in  the  highest  degree  to  the  whole  Christianity  of 
the  age.  Where  the  great  rivalship  of  the  contending 
parties  in  Christendom  was  to  assert  most  peremptorily, 
and  to  define  most  distinctly,  the  Godhead  and  the  hu- 
manity of  the  Redeemer,  nothing  could  be  more  uni- 
versally abhorrent  than  a  creed  which  made  the  human 
person  of  the  Redeemer  altogether  unreal,  and  was  at 
least  vague  and  obscure  as  to  his  divinity :  which  in 
that  Redeemer  was  clearly  extraneous  and  subordinate 
to  the  great  Primal  Immaterial  Unity.  All  parties 
would  unite  in  rejecting  these  total  aliens  from  the 
Christian  faith. ^  But  Leo  had  stronger  reasons  for 
his  indignation  against  the  Roman  Manicheans. 
Whether  the  asceticism  of  the  sect  in  general  had  re- 
coiled into  a  kind  of  orgiastic  libertinism,  or  whether 
the  polluting  atmosphere  of  Rome,  in  which  no  doubt 
much  of  pagan  licentiousness  must  have  remained,  and 
which  would  shroud  itself  in  Christian,  as  of  old  in 
pagan  mysteries,  the  evidence  of  revolting  immoralities 
is  more  strong  and  conclusive  against  these  Roman 
Manicheans  than  against  any  other  branch  of  this  con- 
demned race  at  other  times.  The  public,  it  might 
seem  the  ceremonial  violation  of  a  maiden  of  tender 
years,  in  one  of  their  religious  meetings,  was  witnessed, 
it  was  said,  by  the  confession  of  the  perpetrator  of  the 
crime ;  by  that  of  the  elect  who  were  present ;  by  the 
Bishop,  who  sanctioned  the  abominable  wickedness.^ 
Tlie  investigation  took  place  before  a  great  assembly 

1  S.  Leo,  Senn.  xvi.  and  xlii. 

2  Epist.  ad  Turib.  xiv.    Epist.  viii.  Rescript.  Valentin.    "  Coram  Senata 
smplisbimo  uianifesta  ipsoruju  confessiuiie  patufucta  sunt. 


CiTAP.  TV.    DIFFICULTIES   OF   TPIE  AFRICAN  CIIURCn.       261 

of  the  principal  of  the  Roman  priesthood,  of  Oct.  lo,  443. 
the  gi'eat  civil  officers,  of  the  Senate,  and  of  the  peo- 
ple. We  cannot  wonder  that  the  penalties  fell  indis- 
criminately upon  the  whole  sect.  Some,  indeed,  were 
admitted  to  penance,  on  their  forswearing  Manes  and 
all  his  impious  doctrines,  by  the  lenity  of  Leo ;  others 
were  driven  into  exile ;  still,  however,  no  capital  pun- 
ishment was  inflicted.  Leo  wrote  to  the  Jan.  444. 
Bishops  of  Italy,  exhorting  them  to  search  out  these 
pestilent  enemies  of  Christian  faith  and  virtue,  and  to 
secure  their  own  flocks  from  the  secret  contamination. 
The  Emperor  Valentinian  III.,  no  doubt  by  the  advice 
of  Leo,  issued  an  edict  confirmatory  of  those  laws  of 
his  predecessors  by  which  the  Manicheans  were  to  be 
banished  from  the  whole  world.  They  were  to  be 
liable  to  all  the  penalties  of  sacrilege.  It  was  a  public 
offence.  The  accusers  were  not  to  be  liable  to  the 
charge  of  delation.  It  was  a  crime  to  conceal  or  har- 
bor them.  All  Manicheans  were  to  be  expelled  from 
the  army,  and  not  permitted  to  inhabit  cities  ;  they 
could  neither  make  testaments  nor  receive  bequests. 
The  cause  of  the  severity  of  the  law  was  their  flagrant 
and  disgraceful  immorality. 

If  Italy  did  not  fully  acknowledge,  it  did  not  contest 
the  assumed  supremacy  of  the  Roman  See.  Leo  writes 
17 ot  only  to  the  Bishops  of  Tuscany  and  Campania,  but 
to  those  of  Aquileia  and  of  Sicily,  as  under  his  imme- 
diate jurisdiction. 

Africa   was    among   the  provinces  of  the  Western 
Empire.     It  was  a  part  of  the  Latin  world  —  AWca. 
an  indispensable  part  —  as  being  now,  since  the  Egyp- 
tian supplies   were  alienated  to  the  East,  with  Sicily, 
the  sole  granary  of  Rome  and  of  Italy.     If  the  patri- 


262  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II. 

arcliate  of  Rome  was  coextensive  with  tlie  Western 
Empire,  Africa  belonged  to  her  jm'isdiction,  and  the 
closest  connection  still  subsisted  between  these  parts  of 
Latin  Christendom.  Latin  had  from  the  first  been  the 
language  of  African  theology ;  and  of  the  five  or  six 
greatest  names  among  the  earlier  Western  fathers, 
three,  TertuUian,  Cyprian,  and  Augustine,  were  of 
those  provinces.  In  every  struggle  and  in  every  con- 
troversy Africa  had  taken  a  leading  part.  She  had 
furnished  her  martyrs  in  the  days  of  persecution ;  she 
had  contended  against  all  the  heresies  of  the  East,  and 
repudiated  the  subtle  metaphysics  of  Greek  Chi'isten- 
dom ;  orthodoxy  had  in  general  triumphed  in  her  de- 
liberations. By  the  voice  of  St.  Augustine  she  had 
discomfited  Manicheism :  and  it  was  her  burnino;  tem- 
perament  which,  in  the  same  great  writer,  had  repelled 
the  colder  and  more  analytic  Pelagianism,  and  made 
the  direct,  immediate,  irresistible  action  of  divine  grace 
upon  the  soul  an  established  article  of  the  Western 
creed.  Her  councils  had  been  frequent,  and  com- 
manded general  respect;  her  bishops  were  incredibly 
numerous  in  the  inland  districts  ;  and,  on  the  whole, 
Christianity  might  seem  more  completely  the  religion 
of  the  people  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  empire. 

But  the  fatal  schism  of  the  Donatists  had,  for  more 
than  a  century,  been  constantly  preying  upon  her 
strength,  and  induced  her  to  look  for  foreign  interfer- 
ence. The  orthodox  church  had,  in  her  distress,  con- 
stantly invoked  the  civil  power.  The  emperor  natu- 
rally looked  for  advice  to  the  bishops  around  him, 
especially  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome ;  and  fi'om  the 
earliest  period,  when  Constantine  had  referred  this  con- 
troversy to  a  council  of  Italian  prelates,  they  had  been 


Chap.  IV.    DIFFICULTIES   OF  THE  AFRICAN   CHURCH.        263 

tlius  indirectly  the  arbiters  in  the  irreconcilable  con- 
test. For  even  down  to  the  days  of  St.  Augustine, 
and  beyond  the  Vandal  conquest  of  Africa,  the  Don- 
atists  maintained  the  strife,  raised  altar  against  altar, 
compared  the  number  of  their  bishops  with  advantage 
to  those  of  their  adversaries,  resisted  alike  the  reason- 
ings of  the  orthodox,  and  the  more  cogent  arguments 
of  the  imperial  soldiery.  The  more  desperate,  the 
more  fierce  and  obstinate  the  fanaticism.  The  ravages 
of  the  Circumcellions  were  perpetually  breaking  out  in 
some  quarter ;  the  civilization  wdiich  had  covered  the 
land,  up  to  the  borders  of  the  desert,  with  peaceful 
towns  and  villages,  so  much  promoted  by  the  increased 
cultivation  of  corn,  and  which  at  once  contributed  to 
extend  Christianity  and  was  itself  advanced  by  Chris- 
tianity, began  to  suffer  that  sad  reverse  which  was 
almost  consummated  by  the  Vandal  invasion.  The 
wild  Moorish  tribes  seemed  training  again  towards  their 
old  unsubdued  ferocity,  and  preparing,  as  it  were,  to 
sink  back,  after  two  or  three  more  centuries,  into  the 
more  congenial  state  of  marauding  Mahometan  sav- 
ages. 

But  Africa,  notwithstanding  the  difficulties  whicn 
arose  out  of  these  sangumary  contentions,  and  the  con- 
stant demands  of  assistance  from  the  civil  power  in 
Italy,  conscious  of  her  own  intellectual  strength,  and 
prv)ud  of  the  unimpeached  orthodoxy  of  her  ruling 
churches,  by  no  means  surrendered  her  independence. 
If  Rome  at  times  was  courted  with  promising  submis- 
siveness,  at  others  it  was  opposed  with  inflexible  obdu- 
racy. Though  Cyprian,  by  assigning  a  kind  of  pri- 
macy to  St.  Peter,  and  acknowledging  the  hereditary 
descent  of  the  Roman  Bishop  from  the  great  apostle, 


264  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IL 

had  tended  to  elevate  the  power  of  the  Pontiff,  yet  liis 
great  name  sanctioned  hkewise  almost  a  contemptuous 
resistance  to  the  Roman  ecclesiastical  authority.  The 
African  Councils  had  usually  communicated  their  de- 
crees, as  of  full  and  unquestioned  authority,  not  sub- 
mitted them  for  a  higher  sanction.  The  inflexibility 
of  the  African  Bishops  had  but  recently  awed  the 
Pelagianizing  Zosimus  back  into  orthodoxy.  Some 
events,  which  had  brought  the  African,  churches  into 
direct  collision  with  the  Roman  Pontiff,  betrayed  in 
one  case  an  admission  of  his  power,  on  the  other  a 
steadfast  determination  of  resistance,  which  would  dis- 
dain to  submit  to  foreign  jurisdiction.  In  the  first, 
Augustine  himself  might  seem  to  set  the  example  of 
homage  —  opposing  only  earnest  and  deprecatory  argu- 
ments to  the  authority  of  the  Roman  Pontiff.^  It  was 
the  African  usage  to  erect  small  towns,  even  villages, 
into  separate  sees.  St.  Augustine  created  a  bishopric 
in  the  insignificant  neighboring  town  of  Fussola.  He 
Antonius  appolutcd  a  promising  disciple,  named  Anto- 
Fussoia.  nius,  to  the  office.  But,  removed  from  the 
grave  control  of  Augustine,  the  young  bishop  aban- 
doned himself  to  youthflil  indulgences,  and  even  to 
violence,  rapine,  and  extortion.  He  was  condemned 
by  a  local  council;  but,  some  of  the  worst  charges 
being  insufficiently  proved,  he  was  only  sentenced  to 
make  restitution,  deprived  of  his  episcopal  power,  but 
not  degraded  from  the  dignity  of  a  bishop.  Antonius 
appealed  to  Rome  ;  he  obtained  the  support  of  the 
aged  Primate  of  Numidia,  by  the  plausible  argument 
that,  if  he  had  been  guilty  of  the  alleged  enormities, 
he  was  unworthy  of,  and  ought  to  have  been  degraded 

1  Aiigustin.  Epist.  261. 


CiiAr.  IV.    DIFFICULTIES   OF   THE  AFRICAN  CHURCH.       266 

Ji'om,  the  episcopal  rank.  Boniface,  who  was  tlien 
Pope,  commanded  the  Numidian  bisliops  to  restore 
Antonius  to  his  see,  provided  the  facts,  as  he  stated 
them,  were  true.  Antonius,  as  though  armed  with  an 
absolute  decree,  demanded  instant  obedience  from  the 
people  of  Fussola  :  he  threatened  them  with  the  Impe- 
rial troops,  whom,  it  would  seem,  he  might  summon  to 
compel  the  execution  of  the  Papal  decree.  The  peo- 
ple of  Fussola  wrote  in  the  most  humble  language  to 
the  new  Pope,  Celestine,  entreating  to  be  relieved  from 
an  oppression,  as  they  significantly  hinted,  more  griev- 
ous than  they  had  suffered  under  the  Donatist  rule, 
from  which  they  had  but  recently  passed  over  into  the 
Catholic  Church.  They  threw  the  blame  on  Augus- 
tine himself,  who  had  placed  over  them  so  unworthy  a 
bishop.  Augustine  confessed  his  error,  and  urged  the 
claims  of  the  people  of  Fussola  for  redress  in  the  most 
earnest  terms.  He  threatened  to  resign  his  own  see. 
The  dispute  ended  in  the  suppression  of  the  see  of 
Fussola,  by  the  decree  of  a  Council  of  Numidia,  and 
the  assent  of  Celestine.  It  was  reunited  to  that  of 
Hippo. 

But  the  second  dispute  was  not  conducted  with 
the  same  temper  —  it  terminated  in  more  Apiarius. 
important  consequences.  Apiarius,  a  presbyter  of  Sic- 
ca, was  degraded  for  many  heinous  offences  by  his 
own  bishop.  On  his  appeal,  he  was  taken  under  the 
protection  of  Rome  without  due  caution  or  inquiry  by 
the  hasty  Zosimus.  Zosimus  commanded  a.d.  419. 
his  restoration  to  his  rank,  as  well  as  to  the  com- 
munion of  the  Church.  The  African  bishops  pro- 
tested against  this  interference  with  their  episcopal 
rights.     In  an  assembly  of  217  bishops  at   Carthage, 


2GG  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II 

appeared  Faustinus,  Bishop  of  Picenum,  and  two  Ro-^ 
man  presbyters.  They  boldly  produced  two  canons  of 
the  Council  of  Nicea,  that  first  and  most  sacred  legisla- 
tive assembly,  to  which  Christendom  owed  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  sound  Trinitarian  doctrine,  and  which 
was  received  by  all  the  orthodox  world  with  un- 
bounded reverence.  These  canons  established  a  gen- 
eral right  of  appeal  from  all  parts  of  Christendom  to 
Rome.  The  Bishop  of  Rome  might  not  only  receive 
the  appeal,  but  might  delegate  the  judgment  on  appeal 
to  the  neighboring  bishops,  or  commission  one  of  his 
own  presbyters  to  demand  a  second  hearing  of  the 
cause,  or  send  judges,  according  to  his  own  discretion, 
to  sit  as  assessors,  representing  the  Papal  authority 
with  the  bishops  of  the  neighborhood.^  The  African 
bishops  protested,  with  exemplary  gravity,  their  respect 
for  all  the  decrees  of  the  Nicene  Council ;  but  they 
were  perplexed,  they  said,  by  one  circumstance  —  that 
in  no  copy  of  those  decrees,  which  they  had  ever  seen, 
did  such  Canons  appear.  They  requested  that  the 
authentic  copies,  supposed  to  be  preserved  at  Con- 
stantinople, Antioch,  and  Alexandria,  might  be  in- 
spected.2  It  turned  out,  that  either  from  ignorance 
in  himself,  almost  incredible,  or  from  a  bold  presump- 
tion of  ignorance  in  others,  not  less  inconceivable,  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  had  adduced  Canons  of  the  Synod 
of  Sardica,  a  council  of  which  the  authority  was  in 
many  respects  highly  questionable,  and  which  did  not 
aspire  to  the  dignity  of  a  General  Council,  fui  the 
solemn  decrees  of  the  great  CEcumenic  Senate.     The 

i"E  latere  ouo  Presbyterum"  is  the  expression  —  probably  heard  for 
the  first  time  in  these  canon?. 

2  "  Habentes  auctoritatem  ejus  a  quo  destinati  sunt." — Labbe,  Cone.  ii. 
p.  1590 


Chap.  IV.    DIFFICULTIES   OF  THE  AFRICAN  CHURCH.      267 

close  of  this  affair  was  as  unfavorable  as  its  conduct  to 
the  lofty  pretensions  of  the  Roman  Bishop.  While 
the  Africans  calmly  persisted  in  asserting  the  guilt  of 
Apiarius,  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  through  his  legate, 
obstinately  pronounced  him  to  be  the  victim  of  injus- 
tice. Apiarius  himself,  seized  by  a  paroxysm  of  re- 
morse, suddenly  and  publicly  made  confession  of  all 
the  crimes  imputed  to  him  —  crimes  so  heinous  and 
offensive,  that  groans  of  horror  broke  forth  from  the 
shuddering  judges.  The  Bishop  of  Rome  was  left  in 
the  humiliating  position  of  having  rashly  embarked  in 
an  iniquitous  cause,  and  set  up  as  the  judge  of  the 
Afr'ican  bishops  on  partial,  unsatisfactory,  and  as  it 
appeared,  utterly  worthless  evidence.  The  African 
bishops  pursued  their  advantage,  adduced  the  genuine 
Canons  of  Nicea,  which  gave  each  Provincial  Council 
full  authority  over  its  own  affairs,  and  quietly  rebuked 
the  Roman  Prelate  for  his  eagerness  in  receiving  all 
outcasts  from  the  Churches  of  Africa,  and  interfering 
in  their  behalf  concerning  matters  of  which  he  must 
be  ignorant.  They  asserted  that  God  would  hardly 
grant  to  one  that  clear  and  searchuig  judgment  which 
he  denied  to  many.^  Thus,  in  fact,  they  proclaimed 
the  entire  independence  of  the  African  Churches  on 
any  foreign  dominion ;  they  forbade  all  appeals  to 
transmarine  judgments.^ 

But  Afr'ica   had  not  to  contest  that  independence 
with  the  ambition  and  ability  of  Leo.     The  ]ong  age 

1  "  Nisi  forte  quispiam  est  qui  credat,  unicuilibet  posse  Deum  nostrum 
examinis  inspirare  justitiam,  et  innumerabilibus  congregatis  in  unum  con- 
cilium denegare." — Labbe,  Concil.  ii.  p.  1675. 

2  "  Quod  si  ab  eis  provocaudum  putaverunt,  non  provocent  ad  trans 
marina  jndicia,  sed  ad  Primates  suarum  Frovinciarum  (ant  ad  Universale 
C/oncilium)  sicut  et  de  Episcopis  saepe  constitutum  est."  —  IMd- 


268  LATIN  CIIRrSTIANITY.  Book  IL 

of  peace,  wealth,  fertility,  and  comparative  happiness 
which  had  almost  secluded  Africa,  since  the  battle  of 
Thapsus,  from  the  wars  and  civil  contentions  of  the 
Empire,  and  had  permitted  Christianity  to  spread  its 
beneficent  influence  over  the  whole  provmce,  was 
drawing  to  a  close.  The  Vandal  conquest  began  that 
long  succession  of  calamities  —  the  Arian  persecutions 
under  Hunneric  and  Thrasimund,  the  successors  of 
Genseric  —  the  re-conquest  by  the  Eastern  Empire, 
and  the  internal  wars,  with  their  train  of  miseries, 
famine,  pestilence,  devastation,  which  blasted  the  rich 
land  into  a  desert;  silenced  altogether  the  clamors 
of  Christian  strife  still  maintained  by  the  irreclaim- 
able Donatists,  and  quenched  all  the  lights  of  Chris- 
tian learning  and  piety ;  until,  at  length,  the  whole 
realm  was  wrested  by  the  strong  arm  of  Mahomedan- 
ism  from  its  connection  with  Christendom  and  the 
civilization  of  Europe. 

The  Vandal  conquest  under  Genseric  alone  belongs 
Vandal  con-  to  this  period.  The  Vandals,  until  the  in- 
Mrica.  vasion    of  the    Huns,  had  been   dreaded  as 

the  most  ferocious  of  the  Northern  or  Eastern  tribes. 
Their  savage  love  of  war  had  hardly  been  mitigated 
by  their  submission  to  Arian  Christianity.  Yet  the 
invasion  of  Genseric  was  at  first  a  conquest  rather 
than  a  persecution.  The  churches  were  not  sacred 
against  the  general  pillage,  but  it  was  their  wealth 
which  inflamed  the  cupidity,  rather  than  the  op]:)ug- 
nancy  of  the  doctrine  within  their  walls  which  pro- 
voked the  insults  of  the  invaders.  The  clergy  did 
not  escape  the  general  massacre :  many  of  them  suf- 
fered cruel  tortures,  but  they  fell  in  the  promiscuous 
ruin  :  they  were  racked,  or  exposed  to  other  excruciat- 


Chat.  IV.  VANDAL  CONQUEST  OF  AFRICA.  269 

ing  torments  to  compel  tlic  surrender  of  their  treasm*es, 
which  they  had  concealed,  or  were  supposed  to  have 
concealed.  After  the  capture  of  Carthage,  bisho})s 
and  ecclesiastics  of  rank,  as  well  as  nobles,  were 
reduced  to  servitude.  The  successor  of  Cyprian, 
«  Quod  vult  Deus,"  (''What  God  wills,"  — the  Afri- 
can prelates  had  anticipated  our  Puritans  in  their 
Scriptural  names,)  and  many  of  his  clergy  were 
embarked  in  crazy  vessels,  and  cast  on  shore  on  the 
coast  of  Naples.  Yet  Genseric  permitted  the  elevation 
of  another  orthodox  bishop,  Deo  Gratias,  at  the  prayer 
of  Valentinian,  to  the  see  of  Carthage.  Valentinian 
might  seem  prophetically  to  prepare  succor  and  com- 
fort for  the  Romans  who  should  hereafter  be  carried 
captives  to  Carthage. 

During  the  later  years  of  his  reign  Genseric  became 
a  more  cruel  persecutor.  He  would  admit  only  Arian 
counsellors  about  his  court.  The  honors  of  martyr- 
dom are  claimed  for  many  victims,  perhaps  rather  of 
his  jealousy  than  of  his  intolerance ;  for  the  Vandal 
dominion  was  that  of  an  armed  aristocracy,  few  in 
numbers  when  compared  with  the  vast  population  of 
Koman  Africa.  He  closed  the  churches  of  the  ortho- 
dox in  Carthage  after  the  death  of  Deo  Gratias ;  they 
were  not  opened  for  some  time,  but  at  lengtli,  at  the 
intervention  of  the  Emperor  of  the  East,  they  were 
permitted  a  short  period  of  peace,  until  the  reign  of 
Genseric's  more  fiercely  intolerant  successors,  Hun- 
neric  and  Thrasimund.^ 

Gaul  was  the  province  of  the  Western  empire, 
beyond  the  limits  of  Italy  (perhaps  excepting  Gaui. 

1  Victor  Vitensis,  lib.  i.,  with  the  notes  of  Faiinart,  Hist.  Persecutiouia 
Vandalicai. 


270  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY  Book  IL 

Africa),  wliich  was  most  closely  connected  by  civil 
aqd  ecclesiastical  relations  with  the  centre  of  govern- 
ment. But  Northern  and  Western  Gaul,  as  well  as 
the  two  Germanics,  were  already  occupied  by  Teutonic 
conquerors,  Goths,  Burgundians,  and  Franks,  and  were 
either  independent,  or  rendered  but  nominal  allegiance 
to  the  descendants  of  Theodosius.  Britain  appeared 
entirely  lost  to  the  Roman  empire  and  to  Christianity. 
Her  Christianity  had  retired  to  her  remote  mountain 
fastnesses  in  Wales,  Cornwall,  Cumberland,  and  to 
th3  more  distant  islands ;  it  was  cut  off  altogether 
from  the  Roman  world.  But  in  Gaul  the  clergy,  at 
least  the  orthodox  clergy,  were  as  yet  everywhere  of 
pure  Roman,  or  Gallo-Roman  race :  the  Teutonic 
conquerors,  who  were  Christians,  Goths,  Burgundians, 
Vandals,  had  not  shaken  off  the  Arianism  into  which 
they  had  been  converted ;  and  the  Franks  were  still 
fierce  and  obstinate  pagans.  The  Southern  Province 
alone  retained  its  full  subordination  to  the  Com't  of 
Ravenna;  and  the  jealousies  and  contests  among  the 
Bishops  of  Gaul  had  already  driven  them  to  Rome, 
the  aggrieved  for  redress  against  the  oppression,  the 
turbulent  for  protection  against  the  legitimate  authority 
of  their  Bishops  or  Metropolitans,  the  Prelates  whose 
power  was  contested,  for  confirmation  of  their  domin- 
ion. The  acknowledged  want  of  such  a  superior  juris- 
diction would  thus  have  created,  even  if  there  had 
been  no  pretensions  grounded  on  the  succession  to  St. 
Peter,  a  jurisdiction  of  appeal.  Nowhere  indeed  can 
the  origin  of  appeals  be  traced  more  clearly,  as  arising 
out  of  the  state  of  the  Church.  The  Metropolitan 
power  over  Narbonese  Gaul  was  contested  by  the 
Churches  of  Aries  and   Vieime.     The   circumstances 


Chap.  IV.  ORIGIN  OF  APPEALS.  271 

of  the  times,  the  retirement  of  the  Prefect  of  Gaul 
from  Treves  to  Aries,  the  dignity  which  that  city  had 
assumed  as  the  seat,  however  of  an  usurped  empire, 
had  given  a  supremacy  to  Aries.  But  neither  would 
the  metropolitan  nor  the  episcopal  dignity  be  adminis- 
tered with  such  calm  justice  as  to  command  universal 
obedience.  Severe  discipline  and  strict  adherence  to 
the  canons  by  the  austere  would  excite  rebellion,  laxity 
and  weakness  encourage  license.  A  remote  tribunal 
would  be  sought  by  all,  by  some  out  of  despair  of  find- 
ing justice  nearer  home,  by  some  in  the  hope  that  a 
bad  cause  might  find  favorable  hearing  where  the 
judges  must  be  comparatively  ignorant,  and  propitiated 
by  that  welcome  deference  which  submitted  to  their 
authority.  Yet,  though  there  are  several  instances  of 
Bishops  deposed,  not  seldom  unjustly,  by  synods  of 
Gallic  Bishops,  none  had  carried  his  complaint  before 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  until  towards  the  end  of  the  fourth 
century.^  Priscillian  appealed  from  the  Council  of 
Bourdeaux,  not  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  but  to  the 
Emperor.  During  the  Pontificate  of  Zosimus,  Patro- 
clus.  Archbishop  of  Aries,  was  involved  in  an  implaca- 
ble feud  with  Proculus,  Bishop  of  Marseilles.^  That 
degradation  of  Proculus  which  he  could  not  a.d.  385. 
inflict  by  his  own  power,  the  Metropolitan  of  Aries 
endeavored  to  obtain  by  that  of  Zosimus.^     Zosimus, 

'  Quesnel,  Dissertat.  v.  p.  384. 

2  Every  point  in  this  controversy  has  been  discussed  with  the  most  uc- 
wearied  pertinacity  by  the  advocates,  —  on  one  side  of  the  high  Papal  su- 
premacy; on  the  other,  by  the  defenders  of  the  Gallican  liberties.  I  hava 
endeavored  to  hold  an  equal  hand,  and  to  dwell  only  on  the  facts  which 
rest  on  evidence.  There  is  an  implacable  war  between  the  successive  editors 
of  the  works  of  Leo  the  Great, — the  Frenchman  Quesnel,  and  the  Italiang, 
the  Ballerinis. 

^  Sulpic.  Sever.  11. 


272  juATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U, 

it  appears  to  be  admitted,  was  deceived  by  the  misrep- 
resentations of  Patroclus,  and  scrupled  not  to  issue 
Feb.  9, 422.  the  Sentence  of  degradation  against  the 
Bishop  of  Marseilles.^  Proculus  defied  the  sentence, 
and  continued  to  exercise  his  episcopal  powers.  The 
more  piTident  Pope,  Boniface,  in  a  case  of  appeal  from 
the  clergy  of  Valence  against  their  Bishop,  releri'ed 
the  affair  back  to  the  Bishops  of  the  province.^ 

Under  Leo,  the  supremacy  of  the  Roman  See  over 
Gaul  was  brought  to  the  issue  of  direct  assertion  on 
his  part,  of  inflexible  resistance  on  that  of  his  oppo- 
nent. Hilarius,  a  devout  and  austere  prelate,  invested 
by  his  admiring  biogi'apher  in  every  virtue,  in  the  holi- 
ness and  charity  of  a  saint,  a  perfect  monk  and  a  con- 
summate prelate  —  (as  a  preacher,  it  was  said  that 
Augustine,  if  he  had  lived  after  Hilarius,  would  have 
been  esteemed  his  inferior)  —  was  Archbishop  of 
Arles.^  His  zeal  or  his  ambition  aspired  to  raise  that 
metropolitan  seat  into  a  kind  of  Pontificate  of  Gaul. 
He  was  accustomed  to  make  visitations,  accompanied 
by  the  holy  Germanus  of  Auxerre,  not  improbably 
beyond  the  doubtful  or  undefined  limits  of  his  metro- 
poHtan    power.^      During    one    of   these   visitations, 

1  Zosim.  Epist.  12  ad  Patrocl. 

2  Bonifac.  Epist.  ad  Episcop.  Galliae. 

8  The  account  of  his  election,  by  his  biographer,  is  curious.  He  was 
designated  as  bishop  by  his  predecessor  Honoratus.  He  was  then  a  monk 
of  Lerins.  A  large  band  of  the  citizens  of  Aries,  with  a  troop  of  soldiers, 
set  out  to  take  him  by  force.  They  did  not  know  him:  *' spiritalis  pra^da 
adstat  ante  oculus  inquirentium,  et  nihilominus  ignoratur."  He  is  uiscov- 
ered,  but  requires  a  sign  from  heaven.  A  dove  settles  on  his  head.  —  S. 
Hilar.  Vit.  apud  Leon.  Oper.  ]).  323. 

4  "  Ordinationes  sibi  omnium  per  Gallias  ecclesiarum  vindicans,  et  debi- 
tam  metropolitanis  sacerdotibus  in  suam  transferens  dignitatem;  ipsius 
qnoque  beatissimi  Tetri  reverentiam  verbis  arrugantibus  minueudo  .  .  .  ita 
6uaj  vos  cupiens  subdeie  jxAestati.  ut  so  Bcato  apustolo  I'ctro  non  patiatur 


Chap.  IV.  IlILARIUS   BEFORE  LEO.  273 

charges  of  disqualification  for  tlie  episcopal  office  were 
exhibited  against  Celldonlus,  Bishop,  according  to  some 
accounts,  of  Besancon.  He  was  accused  of  having: 
been  the  husband  of  a  widow,  and  in  his  civil  state  of 
having  pronounced  as  magistrate  sentences  of  capital 
punishment.  Hilarius  hastily  summoned  a  council  of 
Bishops,  and  pronounced  sentence  of  deposition  against 
Celidonius.  On  the  intelligence  that  Celldonlus  had 
gone  to  Rome  to  appeal  against  this  decree,  Hilarius 
set  forth,  it  is  said,  on  foot,  crossed  the  Alps,  and  trav- 
elled without  horse  or  sumpter  mule  to  the  Great  City. 
He  presented  himself  before  Leo,  and  with  a.d.  445. 
respectful  earnestness  entreated  him  not  to  infringe  the 
ancient  usages  of  the  Gallic  Churches,  significantly 
declaring  that  he  came  not  to  plead  before  Leo,  or  as 
an  accuser  in  a  case  of  appeal,  but  to  protest  against 
the  usurpation  of  his  rights.^  Leo  proceeded  to  annul 
the  sentence  of  Hilarius  and  to  restore  Celidonius  to 
his  bishopric.  He  summoned  Hilarius  to  rebut  the 
evidence  adduced  by  Celidonius,  to  disprove  the  justice 
of  his  condemnation.  So  haughty  was  the  language 
of  Hilarius,  that  no  layman  would  dare  to  utter,  no 
ecclesiastic  would  endure  to  hear  such  words.^  He  in- 
flexibly resisted  all  the  authority  of  the  Pope  and  of 
St.  Peter ;  and  confronted  the  Pope  with  the  bold 
assertion  of  his  own  unbounded  metropolitan  power. 
Hilarius  thought  his  life  in  danger ;  or  he  feared  lest 

esse  subjectum." — Leo.  Epist.  This  may  have  been  stated  by  Leo  under 
indignation  at  the  resistance  of  Hilarius  to  his  authority,  and  on  the  testi- 
mony of  the  enemies  of  Hilaritis;  but  his  biographer  admits  that  the  verj' 
humility  of  Hilarius  had  generated  a  kind  of  supercilioas  haughtiness ;  ho 
was  rigid,  but  to  the  proud,  terrible,  but  to  the  worldly.  —  p.  326. 

1  *'  Se  ad  oflficianon  ad  causam  venisse;  protestandi  ordine  non  accusandf 
quai  sunt  acta  suggerere."  — Vit.  Hil. 

2  "  Qute  nullus  luicorum  dicere,  nullus  sacerdotmn  posset  audire."  — Ibid 
VOL,.  I.  18 


274  LATIN  CIIKISTIANITY.  Book  II. 

he  should  be  seized  and  compelled  to  communicate  with 
the  deposed  Celidonius.  He  stole  out  of  Rome,  and 
though  it  was  the  depth  of  winter,  found  his  way  back 
to  Aries. 1  The  accounts  of  St.  Hilarius,  hitherto 
reconcilable,  now  diverge  into  strange  contradiction. 
The  author  of  his  Life  represents  him  as  having  made 
some  weak  overtures  of  reconciliation  to  Leo,  as  wast- 
ing himself  out  with  toils,  austerities,  and  devotions, 
and  dying  before  he  had  completed  his  forty-first  year. 
He  died,  visited  by  visions  of  glory,  in  ecstatic  peace ; 
his  splendid  funeral  was  honored  by  the  tears  of  the 
whole  city ;  the  very  Jews  were  clamorous  in  their  sor- 
row for  the  beneficent  Prelate.  The  people  were 
hardly  prevented  from  tearing  his  body  to  pieces,  in 
order  to  possess   such  inestimable  relics.^ 

The  counter-statement  fills  up  the  interval  before 
Hilarius  died  ^^^^  death  of  Hilarius  with  other  important 
A.i>.  449.  events.  Leo  addresses  a  letter  to  the  Bishops 
of  the  province  of  Vienne,  denouncing  the  impious 
resistance  of  Hilarius  to  the  authority  of  St.  Peter, 
and  releasing  them  from  all  allegiance  to  the  See  of 
Aries.  For  hardly  had  the  affair  of  Celidonius  been 
decided  by  the  See  of  Rome  than  a  new  charge  of 
ecclesiastical  tyranny  had  been  alleged  against  Hilarius. 
The  Bishop  Projectus  complained,  that  while  he  was 
afflicted  with  illness,  Hilarius,  to  whose  province  he 
did  not  belong,  had  consecrated  another  Bishop  in  his 

A  The  accounts  of  this  transactiou  in  the  Life  and  in  the  Letters  of  Pope 
J^eo  appear  to  me,  considered  i'rom  the  point  of  view  of  each  writer,  strictly 
coincident,  instead  of  obstinately  irreconcihible. 

2  Tlie  writer  describes  himself  as  a  witness  of  this  remarkable  fact: 
"  Etiam  Judyeorum  concurrunt  aymina  copiosa.  .  .  .  Ilebnvam  concinen- 
tium  linguam  in  excquiis  honorandis  audisse  me  rccolo.  Nam  nostros  ita 
mocror  obsedcrat,  ut  ab  oliicio  solito  impatiens  doh)ris  inhibuerit  magni- 
tudo."  — p.  339. 


Chap.  IV.  HILARIUS  CENSURED.  275 

place,  and  this  in  such  haste,  that  he  had  respected 
none  of  tlie  canonical  forms  of  election ;  he  had 
awaited  neither  the  suffrage  of  the  citizens,  the  testi- 
monials of  the  more  distinguished,  nor  the  election  of 
the  Clergy.  In  this,  and  in  other  instances  of  irregu- 
lar ordinations,  Hilarius  had  called  m  the  military 
power,  and  tumultuously  interfered  in  the  affairs  of 
many  chm^ches.  It  is  significantly  suggested,  that  on 
every  occasion  Hilarius  had  been  prodigal  of  the  last 
and  most  awful  power  possessed  by  the  Church,  that 
of  excommunication,^  Hilarius  was  commanded  to 
confine  himself  to  his  own  diocese,  deprived  of  the 
authority  which  he  had  usurped  over  the  province  of 
Vienne,  and  forbidden  to  be  present  at  any  future  ordi- 
nations. But  a  sentence,  in  those  days  more  awful 
than  that  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  was  pronounced 
against  Hilarius.  At  the  avowed  instance  of  Leo, 
Valentinian  promulgated  an  Imperial  Edict,  denounced 
the  contumacy  of  Hilarius  against  the  primac}'^  of  the 
Apostolic  throne,  confirmed  alike  by  the  merits  of  St. 
Peter,  the  chief  of  the  episcopal  order,  by  the  majesty 
of  the  Roman  city,  and  by  the  decree  of  a  holy  Coun- 
cil. Peace  can  alone  rule  in  the  Church,  if  the  uni- 
versal Church  acknowledge  its  Lord.  Hilarius  is  ac- 
cused of  various  acts  of  ecclesiastical  tyranny  and 
\dolence,  irregular  ordinations,  deposals  of  Bishops 
without  authority  :  of  entering  cities  at  the  head  of 
an  armed  force,  of  waging  war  instead  of  establishing 
p(?ace.  The  sentence  of  so  great  a  Pontiff  as  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  did  not  need  Imperial  confirmation  ; 
but  as  Hilarius  had  offended  against  the  Majesty  of 

1  "  Sed  quod  mirum  eum  in  laicos  talem  existere,  qui  soleat  in  sacerdo- 
Vim  damnatione  ^audere?  "  —  S.  Leon.  Epist.  ad  Vieun. 


276  LATIN  CimiSTlANITY.  J3ook  II 

the  Empire,  as  well  as  against  the  Apostolic  See,  he 
was  reminded  that  it  was  only  through  the  mildness  of 
Leo  that  he  retained  liis  see.  He  and  all  the  Bishops 
were  warned  to  ohserve  this  perpetual  Edict,  which 
solemnly  enacted  that  nothing  should  be  done  in  Gaul, 
contrary  to  ancient  usage,  without  the  authority  of 
the  Bishop  of  the  Eternal  City ;  that  the  decree  of 
the  Apostolic  See  should  henceforth  be  law  ;  and  wlio- 
evej.'  refused  to  obey  the  citation  of  the  Roman  Pontiff 
should  be  compelled  to  do  so  by  the  Moderator  of  the 
Province.^ 

Spain  was  already  nearly  dissevered  from  the  empire 
Spain.  of  Rome.     It  had  been  overrun,  it   was   in 

great  part  occupied,  by  Teutonic  conquerors,  Suevians, 
Goths,  and  Vandals,  all  of  whom,  as  far  as  they  were 
Christians,  adhered  to  the  Arianism  to  which  they 
had  been  converted  by  their  first  Apostles.  The  land 
groaned  under  the  oppression  of  foreign  rulers,  the  or- 
thodox Church  under  the  superiority  of  Arian  sover- 
eigns. If  the  provinces  looked  back,  at  least  with  the 
regret  of  interrupted  habit,  to  the  Impeiial  government, 
and  in  vain  hoped  for  deliverance  from  the  sinking  house 
of  Theodosius,  the  orthodox  Church  uttered  its  cry  of 
distress  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  It  was  not  however 
against  Arianism,  but  a  more  formidable  and  dangerous 
antagonist ;  one  kindred  to  that  which  Leo  had  suj)- 
pressed  with  such  difficulty  in  his  own  immediate  terri- 
tory. 

The  blood  of  the  Spanish  Bishop  Priscillian,  the  first 
martyr  of  heresy,  as  usual  had  flowed  in  vain.  He 
had  been  put  to  death  by  the  usurper  Maximus,  at  the 

i  Constitutio  Valeutiaiani,  iii.  August!  a])utl  S.  Leouis  Opera,  Epist.  xi 
p  642. 


OwAP.  IV.  CONDITION   OF   SPAIN.  277 

instigation  of  two  other  Spanish  prelates,  Ithaeins  and 
Valens  ;  but  to  the  undisguised  liorror  of  such  Church- 
men as  Ambrose  and  Martin  of  Tours.  Leo  more 
sternly  approved  this  sanguinary  intervention  of  the 
civil  power.  But,  in  justice  to  Leo,  it  was  the  moral 
and  social,  rather  than  civil  offence  of  which  he  sup- 
posed the  Priscillians  guilty,  which  justly  called  forth  tlie 
vengeance  of  the  temporal  Sovereign.  In  such  case 
alone  the  spiritual  power,  which  abhorred  legal  acts  of 
bloodshed,  would  recur  to  the  civil  authority.^  But 
the  opinions  of  Priscillian  still  prevailed,  and  even 
seemed  to  have  taken  deeper  root  in  Spain.  Prelates 
were  infected  with  the  indelible  contagion.  Turibius, 
the  Bishop  of  Astorga,  laid  the  burden  of  his  sorrows 
before  Leo ;  he  asked  his  advice  in  what  manner  to 
cope  with  these  dangerous  adversaries.  The  doctrines 
of  the  Priscillians  are  summed  up  in  sixteen  articles. 
In  these  appear  the  great  universal  princijiles  of  Gnos- 
ticism or  Manicheism,  or  rather  of  Orientalism  :  the 
sole  existence  of  the  primal  Godhead,  which  preceded 
the  emanation  of  his  virtues.  In  this  primal  Godhead, 
if  they  recognized  a  Trinity,  it  was  but  a  trinity  of 
names.  In  these  articles  their  enemies  detected  Arian- 
ism  and  Sabellianism.  To  the  Godhead  was  opposed 
the  uncreated  Power  of  darkness,  equally  eternal, 
sprung  from  chaos  and  gloom.  The  Christ  existed  not 
till  he  was  born  of  the  Virgin ;  it  was  his  office  to 

1  "  Videbant  euim  oranem  curam  honestatis  auferri,  omnem  conjugioruin 
copiiLim  solvi,  simulque  divinum  jus  humanumque  subverti,  si  hujusmodi 
hominibus  usquam  vivere  cum  tali  professione  licuisset.  Proftiit  diu  ista 
districtio  ecclesiasticre  lenitatis,  quai  etsi  sacerdotali  contenta  judicio,  cruen- 
tas  refugit  ultiones,  severis  tamen  Christianorura  principum  constitutionibus 
adjuvatur,  dum  ad  spiritale  nonnunquam  recurrunt  rcuiedium,  qui  timent 
corporale  supplicium."  —  S.  Leon.  Epist.  See  Hist,  of  Christianity,  iii. 
262. 


278  LATIN   CHRISTIAN  IT  Y.  Book  II. 

deliver  tlu  souls  of  men,  those  souls  bcino;  of  the  di- 
vine  Essence,  from  the  bondage  of  the  body,  that  body 
created  by  the  spirit  of  darkness.  The  Priscillianites 
fasted  rigidly  on  the  day  of  the  Nativity,  and  on  every 
Sunday,  as  the  day  of  Resurrection,  no  doubt  not  on 
account  of  the  unreality  of  the  Saviour's  body,  but  for 
an  opposite  reason,  because  at  his  birth  he  was  de- 
graded to  an  union  with  a  material  body,  and  at  his 
resurrection  reassumed  that  infected  condition.  It  was 
this  that  set  them  in  perpetual,  implacable  antagonism, 
not  merely  in  their  secret  opinions,  but  in  their  public 
and  outward  usages,  with  the  rest  of  the  Christian 
world.  Their  austere  proscription  of  marriage,  and 
aversion  to  the  procreation  of  beings  with  material 
bodies,  led  to  the  accustomed  charge,  perhaps  in  many 
A.D.  447.  cases,  amonor  the  rude  and  io'norant,  to  the 
natural  consequence,  gross  licentiousness.  The  peculi- 
arity of  the  Priscillian  system  was  an  astrological  Fa- 
talism. The  superstition  which  j)revailed  for  so  long 
a  period  in  Europe,  of  assigning  certain  parts  of  the 
human  body  to  the  influences  of  the  signs  of  the  Zo- 
diac, assumes  its  first  distinct  form  in  their  tenets.^  It 
was  the  earthly  part  which  was  subject  to  these  powers, 
who  in  some  mysterious  way  were  concerned  in  its  cre- 
ation. Leo  proceeded  not,  by  a  summary  edict,  to 
evoke  tliis  question  from  the  Churches  of  Spain  ;  he 
recommended  tlie  convocation  of  a  jxeneral  Council  of 
Bishops  from  the  four  Provinces  of  Tarragona,  Cartha- 
gena,  Lusitania,  and  Gallicia.     If  the  times  prevented 

1  Cap.  xiv.  apud  Leon.  Oper.  p.  705.  "  Ad  banc  insaniam  pertinet  pro- 
digiosa  ilia  tntius  hiimani  corporis  per  duodecim  ccrli  signa  distinctio,  ut 
diversis  parti))us  diversa;  pnvsideant  potostatcs;  ct  croatura,  qiiam  Dcus  ad 
imaginem  suam  fecit,  in  tauta  sit  ohiitjiationc  siderum,  in  quanta  estconnex- 
one  niembrorum."  —  S.  Ijet)n.  Epist.  xv. 


Chap.  IV.  ILLYRICUM.  279 

this  general  assembly,  the  Bishop  of  Astorga  might 
appeal  to  a  Provincial  Council  fi'om  Gallicia  alone. 
Two  Councils  were  held,  one  at  Toledo,  the  other  at 
Braga  in  Gallicia,  in  which  Priscillianism  was  con- 
demned in  the  usual  terms  of  anathema.^ 

Illjricum,  in  the  primary  division  of  the  Empire, 
had  been  assigned  to  the  West ;  it  would  be  niyricum. 
comprehended  under  the  patriarchal  jurisdiction  of  tlie 
Bishop  of  Rome.  As  early  as  the  pontificate  of  Siri- 
cius,  the  metropohtan  of  Thessalonica  was  appointed  as 
delegate  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  to  rule  the  province. 
To  this  precedent  Leo  appeals,  when  he  invests  Anas- 
tasius,  Metropolitan  of  the  same  city,  with  equal  pow- 
ers?  But  he  does  not  rest  his  title  to  supremacy  on 
his  Patriarchal  power,  or  on  the  claim  of  the  Western 
Empire  to  the  allegiance  of  Illyricum  ;  he  grounds  it 
on  the  universal  dominion  which  belono-s  to  the  sue- 

o 

cessors  of  St.  Peter.  The  province  appears  to  have 
acquiesced  in  his  authority,  and  received  with  due 
submission  his  ordinances  concerning  the  election  of 
Bishops  and  Metropolitans.  But  all  graver  causes 
were  to  be  referred  to  Rome  for  judgment. 

The  East,  again  plunged  into  a  new  controversy, 
might  look  with  envy  on  the  passive  peace  of  The  East. 
the  West.  Supremacy,  held  by  so  firm  and  vigorous 
a  hand  as  that  of  Leo,  might  seem  almost  necessary  to 
Christendom.  The  Bishop  of  Rome,  standing  aloof, 
and  only  mingling  in  the  contests  by  legates,  whom  he 

1  It  is  declared  in  this  decree,  that  all  who  had  been  twice  married,  who 
had  married  widows,  or  divorced  women,  were  canonically  unfit  for  the 
priesthood.  Nor  was  it  any  excuse  that  the  first  wife  had  been  married 
before  baptism.  "  Cum  in  baptismate  peccata  deleantur,  non  uxorum  nu- 
merus  abrogetur." 

■2  Epist.  V.  ad  Episcop.  Metropul.  per  Illyricum  constitutos  (Jan.  12,  444). 


280  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II. 

might  disclaim  at  any  time  as  exceeding  their  powers, 
could  not  but  be  heard  with  anxious  submission  by 
both  parties,  and  by  the  Christian  world  at  large. 
He  would  be  contemplated  with  awful  reverence,  as 
attempting  to  command  troubled  Christendom  into 
repose.  Nestorianism  had  been,  if  not  suppressed 
within  the  empire,  reduced  to  the  utmost  weakness ;  it 
had  been  cast  forth  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Roman 
world  into  distant  and  miserable  exile.  Nestorius  him- 
self had  been  the  victim  of  the  remorseless  persecu- 
tion. 

But  the  theological  balance  was  too  nicely  poised  on 
this  question,  not  speedily  to  descend  on  the  opposite 
side.  Cyril  himself,  by  some  of  his  strong  expressions, 
had  given  manifest  advantage  to  the  Oriental  Bishops.^ 
Many  who  condemned  the  heresy  of  Nestorius,  loudly 
impeached  the  "orthodoxy  of  the  Alexandrian  Prelate. 
The  Monks.  Almost  tlirougliout  the  East,  the  m.onks, 
mindful  perhaps  of  their  Egyptian  origin,  had  been 
strenuous  in  the  cause  of  Cyril.  In  Constantinoi)le 
they  had  overawed  the  government,  and  powerfully 
contributed  to  the  discomfiture  of  Nestorius.  But  from 
character,  education,  and  habits  the  Eastern  monks 
were  least  qualified  to  be  the  arbiters  in  a  controversy 
which  depended  on  fine  shades  and  differences  of  expres- 
sion. Their  dreamy  and  recluse  life,  their  rigid  ritual 
observances,  even  their  austerities,  instead  of  sharpen- 
ing their  intellects,  led  to  vague  conceptions  ;  and  the 
ivant  of  commerce  with  mankind  disabled  them  from 
wielding  the  keen  Aveapons  of  dialectics,  or  of  compre- 
hending the  subtle  distinctions  tauo;ht  in  the  schools  of 
philosophy.     From  the  temperament  which  drove  them 

1  See  p.  142 


Chap.  IV.  THE  MONKS  — EUTYCITES.  281 

to  the  cell  or  cloister,  and  which  was  not  corrected  by 
enlightened  education,  their  opinions  quickly  became 
passions ;  those  passions  were  inflamed  by  mutual  en- 
couragement, emulation,  and  the  corporate  spirit  of 
small  communities,  actuated  by  a  dominant  feeling.  Nor 
with  them  were  these,  points  of  abstract  and  specula- 
tive theology  ;  the  honor  of  the  Redeemer,  the  dignity 
of  the  Virgin  Mother  now  so  rapidly  rising  into  an  ob- 
ject of  adoration,  were  deeply  committed  in  the  strife. 
Such  men  were  to  speak  with  precise  and  guarded  lan- 
guage on  the  unity  of  the  divine  and  human  nature  in 
the  person  of  Christ ;  on  the  unity  which  combined 
the  two  in  perfect  harmony,  yet  allowed  not  either  to 
encroach  on  the  separate  distinctness,  the  unalterabla 
and  uninterchangeable  attributes  of  the  other. 

The  foremost  adherent  of  Cyril  in  Constantine^le 
had  been  Eutyches,  a  Presbyter,  the  Archi-  Eutyches. 
mandrite  or  Superior  of  a  convent  of  monks  without 
the  walls  of  the  city.^  At  his  bidding  the  swarms  of 
monks  had  thronged  into  the  streets,  defied  the  civil 
power,  terrified  the  Emperor,  and  contributed,  more 
than  any  other  cause,  to  the  final  overthrow  of 
Nestorius.  He  had  grown  old  in  the  war  against 
heresy  ;  he  had  lived  in  continence  for  seventy  years ;  ^ 
nor  was  it  till  after  liis  departure  from  strict  ortho- 
doxy that  men  began  to  discover  his  total  deficiency 
in  learning. 

A  new  race  of  Metropolitans  had  arisen  in  the  more 
important  sees  of  the  East.     That  of  Antioch  was  filled 

1  Eutyches  is  three  times  mentioned  as  a  powerful  ally  of  Cyril  in  the 
memorable  letter  to  Maximianus,  cited  above.  Flavian.  Epist.  ad  Leon. 
Brev.  Hist.  Eutj'ch.  p.  759.    Liberatus  in  Breviar. 

2  Ad  Leon.  Epist.  sub  fin.  He  complains  in  another  place  that  Flavian-as 
had  not  respected  his  gray  hairs. 


282  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Booii  XL 

„  ,  ^     ,     by  Domnus,  that  of  Alexandria  by  Diosco- 

Prelates  of  •^  '  -^ 

Metro1)UtL  ^'^^  J  Flavianus  ruled  the  Church  of  Constan- 
sees.  tinople.     All  these  prelates  inherited  the  or- 

thodox aversion  to  Nestorianism.  Dioscorus,  though 
he  persecuted  the  relatives  of  Cyril,  despoiled  them 
of  their  property,  and  degraded  them  from  their  offices, 
with  the  violence,  the  turbulence,  and  the  intolerance 
of  his  predecessor,  adhered  to  his  anti-Nestorian  opin- 
ions. A  great  effort  had  been  made  to  crush  tho 
linc^erins:  influence  of  those  Prelates  who  had  resisted 
Cyril.  The  aged  Theodoret  of  Cyrus,  who  had  ac- 
cepted the  peace  of  Antioch,  but  had  not  consented 
either  to  the  condemnation  or  to  the  complete  absolu- 
tion of  Cyril ;  Ibas  of  Edessa,  who  had  defended  the 
suspected  writings  of  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia ;  Ire- 
nasus  of  Tyre,  who,  as  a  civilian,  when  Count  of  the 
Empire,  had  been  held  a  partisan  of  the  Nestorian 
party,  and  though  he  had  been  twice  married,  had 
been  promoted  to  that  see :  these,  with  some  others, 
were  degraded  from  their  rank,  and  sent  into  exile. 
In  all  these  movements,  Eut^^ches  and  his  monks 
had  joined  —  always  their  clamors ;  where  tumults  in 
the  streets  of  Constantinople  or  elsewhere  were  neces- 
sary to  advance  their  cause,  succors  less  becoming  their 
secluded,  peaceful,  and  unworldly  character.  On  a 
sudden,  Eutyches,  fi'om  the  all-honored  and  boastful 
champion  of  orthodoxy,  to  his  own  surprise  (for  in 
justice  to  him  he  seems  to  have  had  no  very  distinct 
notions  of  his  own  heterodoxy),^  is  arraigned,  con- 
demned, and  finally  branded  to  posterity  as  the  head 
of  a  new  and  odious  heresy. 

1  Leo  writes  of  him  with  sovereign  contempt:  "  Qni  ne  ipsius  quidem 
Bymboli  initia  oo'ni)rehenJit."  This  old  man  has  not  learned  what  are  the 
first  lessons  of  the  Christians.    Ad  Flavian. 


C.tA.'.  IV.  EUTYCUKS  ACUITSED.  283 

In  a  Synod  held  at  Constantinople,  under  the  Bishop 
Flavianus,  Eusebius,  Bishop  of  Doryleum,  Eutyches 
solemnly  charged  Eutyches  with  denying  tlie  ^^'^^^^ 
two  natiu'cs  in  Christ.  Thrice  was  Eutyches  sum- 
moned before  this  tribunal,  thrice  he  resisted  or  eluded 
the  formal  citation.  He  declared  himself  bound  by  a 
vow  not  to  quit  his  monastery ;  a  vow  which,  as  his 
adversaries  reminded  him,  he  had  not  very  religiously 
respected  during  the  tumults  against  Nestorius :  he 
pleaded  bad  health ;  he  promised  to  come  forward  on 
a  future  day.  At  length  he  condescended  to  appear, 
but  environed  by  a  rout  of  turbulent  monks,  and  with 
an  Imperial  officer,  Florianus,  who  demanded  to  take 
his  place  in  the  Synod.  The  affair  now  proceeded 
with  more  decent  gravity.  The  charge  was  made  bv 
Eusebius,  who  had  practised  in  the  schools  as  a  Master 
of  Rhetoric.^  Eutyches  in  vain  struggled  to  extricate 
himself  from  the  grasp  of  the  rigid  logician.  He  took 
refuge  in  vague  and  ambiguous  expressions,  he  equivo- 
cated, he  contradicted  himself;  his  merciless  antagonist 
pressed  him  in  his  dialectic  toils,  and  at  length  extorted 
the  heretical  confession :  the  two  natures  which  were 
distinct  before  the  Incarnation,  in  the  Christ  were 
blended  and  confounded  in  one.  The  Synod  heard 
the  confession  with  horror,  amazement,  and  regret ; 
the  awful  sentence  of  excommunication  was  Exeommu- 
passed ;  the  implacable  assertor  of  orthodoxy  "^*'''*®'^- 
against  Nestorius  found  himself  cast  forth  as  a  con- 
victed and  proscribed  author  of  heresy. 

But  this  grave  ecclesiastical  proceeding  has  another 
side.  The  secret  history  of  the  times,  preserved  by  a 
later  but  trustworthy  authority,  if  it  does  not  a.d.  441. 

1  Evagrius. 


284  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IL 

resolve  the  whole  into  a  wretched  court  intrigue, 
connects  it  too  closely  with  the  rise  and  fall  of  con- 
flicting female  influence,  and  the  power  of  an  Eunuch 
minister.^  The  sage  and  virtuous  Pulcheria  had  long 
ruled  with  undisputed  sway  the  feeble  mind  of  her 
Imperial  brother,  Theodosius  II.  Chrysaphius  the 
Eunuch  had  risen  to  the  chief  administration  of  public 
affairs.  He  was  scheming  to  balance,  or  entirely  to 
overthrow  the  authority  of  Pulcheria  by  the  influence 
of  the  Empress,  the  beautiful  Eudocia.  Chrysaphius 
was  the  godson  of  Eutyches.  He  had  hoped  to  raise 
the  monk  to  the  see  of  Constantinople.  The  elevation 
of  Flavianus  crossed  these  designs.  But  Chrysaphius 
did  not  despair  of  his  end ;  he  still  hoped  to  expel 
Flavianus  from  the  throne,  and  replace  him  by  his  own 
spiritual  father.  Either  to  estrange  the  mind  of  the 
Emperor  from  Flavianus,  or  to  gratify  his  own  rapac- 
ity, he  demanded  the  customary  present  to  the  Em- 
peror on  the  Prelate's  inauguration.  Flavianus  ten- 
dered three  loaves  of  white  bread.  The  minister 
indignantly  rejected  this  poor  offering,  and  demanded 
a  considerable  weight  of  gold.  Such  offering  Fla- 
vianus could  only  furnish  by  a  sacrilegious  invasion  of 
the  treasures,  or  profanation  of  the  sacred  vessels  of 
the  Church.  This  quarrel  was  hardly  appeased  when 
Chrysaphius  endeavored,  with  more  dangerous  friend- 
ship, to  implicate  Flavianus  in  his  own  intrigTies 
against  Pulcheria.  Flavianus  not  merely  eluded  the 
snare,  but  the  Eunuch  suspected  the  Bishop  of  betray- 
ing his  secret  designs.  Eusebius,  the  antagonist  of 
Eutyches,  was  of  the  party  of  Pulcheria  before  his 
advancement  to  the  see  of  Doryleum ;  he  had  held  a 

1  Tlicophancs,  Clirono;r.  p.  153.     Edit.  IJonn. 


Chap.  IV.  EUTYCHES  APPEALS.  285 

civil  office,  probably  in  the  liouseliold  of  the  Emperor's 
sister.  He  had  been  an  early  and  an  ardent  adversary 
of  Nestorius ;  he  now  stood  forward  as  the  accuser  of 
the  no  less  heretical  Eutyches. 

But  Eutyches  was  too  powerful  in  the  support  of 
liis  faithful  monks,  and  in  the  favor  of  the  Eutyches 
minister,  to  submit  either  to  the  Bishop  of  ^pp®^^- 
Constantinople,  or  to  a  local  Synod.  He  appealed  to 
Christendom  —  from  the  Metropolitan  of  Constanti- 
nople to  the  Metropolitans  of  Jerusalem,  Thessalonica, 
Alexandria,  and  Rome.  He  accused  the  Bishops  at 
Constantinople  of  forging  or  of  altering  the  Acts  of 
their  Synod.  He  demanded  a  General  Council  to 
examine  his  opinions.  The  Emperor,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Chrysaphius,  acceded  to  the  request ;  the 
Council  was  summoned  to  meet  at  Ephesus,  under 
the  presidency  of  Dioscorus  of  Alexandria.  Letters 
were  despatched  to  the  West  by  both  parties,  by 
Eutyches  not  only  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  but  to 
the  Bishop  of  Ravenna,^  and  no  doubt  to  others. 
The  support  of  Leo  was  too  important  not  to  be 
sought  with  earnest  solicitude.  But  Eutyches  ad- 
dressed him  as  a  suppliant,  imploring  his  protection 
against  injustice  and  persecution ;  Flavianus  as  an 
equal,  who  condescended  to  inform  his  brother  Bish- 
op of  the  measures  which  he  had  taken  against  an 
heretical  subject  of  his  diocese,  and  requested  him 
to  communicate  the  decree  of  the  Constantinopolitan 
Synod  to  his  brethren  in  the  West.  The  consentient 
voice   of  Leo  might   restore   peace   to    Christendom. 

1  The  answer  of  the  Bishop  of  Raveima  is  extant  in  the  works  of  S.  Leo 
Epist.  XXV.  The  close,  in  which  Clirj-^solo^us  defers  most  humbly  to  Rome. 
Beems  to  me  suspicious. 


286  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U 

But  Leo  was  too  wise  to  be  deluded  by  tlie  servility? 
of  Eutyches,  or  offended  by  the  stately  coui^tesy  of 
Flavianus.^  He  w^aited  to  form  his  decision  with 
cautious  dignity. 

At  Ephesus  met  that  assembly  which  has  been 
Councilman-  branded  by  the  odious  name  of  the  "  llob- 
syuod  "  of     ber  Synod."    But  it  is  difficult  to  discover  in 

Ephesus,  Aug.  ^  .  ,  •  i  i  i  •  n    • 

8,  A.D.  M9.  what  respect,  either  m  the  legality  oi  its 
convocation,  or  the  number  and  dignity  of  the  assem- 
bled prelates,  consists  its  inferiority  to  more  received 
and  honored  Councils.  Two  Imperial  Commissioners,^ 
Elpidius  and  Eulogius,  attended  to  maintain  order  in 
the  Council,  and  peace  in  the  city.  Dioscorus,  the 
Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  by  the  Imperial  command, 
assumed  the  presidency.''^  The  Bishops  who  formed 
the  Synod  of  Constantinople  were  excluded  as  par- 
ties in  the  transaction,  but  Flavianus  took  his  place, 
with  the  Metropolitans  of  Antioch  and  Jerusalem, 
and  no  less  than  three  hundred  and  sixty  bishops 
and  ecclesiastics.  Three  ecclesiastics,  Julian,  a  Bish- 
op, Renatus,    a   Presbyter,    and    Hilarius,   a   Deacon, 

1  Quesnel  and  Pagi  on  one  side,  Baronius  and  the  Ballerinis  on  the  other, 
contest  the  relative  priority  of  two  lettei-s  addressed  by  Flavianus  to  Leo. 
The  (iuestiou  in  debate  is  whether  Flavianus  initiated  an  appeal  to  iiome. 
But  neither  of  them  contains  any  recognition  of  Leo's  authority.  In  tho 
first,  according  to  Ballerini,  he  sends  the  account  of  the  proceedings. 
'Hare  nat  tjjv  oyv  oatuTiiTa  yvovaav  rd  Kar'  avrdv,  ituai  Tolg  viro  ttjv  arjv 
i)toaij:itiav  Te'XovaL  T&eo(j)i?i£aTUTOtg  Ltilskot^olq  Cii{ktiv  'KOUtaaL  tijv  avrov 
6}icati3aav.  —  p.  757.  The  second  letter,  as  printed  by  the  Ballerinis,  is  in 
the  same  tone:  dinaiov  6i  ual  tovto,  ug  ijyovnai,  cMaxdrjvai  iffiuc,  wf 
un  K.  T.  A. 

2  Dioscorus  wanted  the  severe  and  unimpeached  austerity  of  Cyril.  He 
was  said  to  have  had  a  mistress  named  Irene.  He  is  the  subject  of  tha 
well-known  epigram  which  illustrates  Alexandrian  wit  and  boldness  — 

** Eip^Tj  nuvrtaatv,"  'EniaKonoi;  dntv  int'A&uv, 
Hue  ivvaraL  Truvrtao',  yv  uuvog  tvduu  t:\ei] 


Chap.  IV.  ROBBER  SYNOD.  287 

were  to  represent  the  Bishop  of  Rome.^  The  Abbot 
Barsumas  (this  was  an  innovation)  took  his  seat  in  the 
Council,  as  a  kind  of  representative  of  the  monks. 

Though  commenced  with  seeming  regularity,  the 
proceedings  of  the  assembly  soon  degenerated  into 
disgraceful  turbulence,  violence,  and  personal  conflict. 
But  it  is  impossible  to  deny  that  in  this  respect  the 
Robber  Synod  only  too  faithfully  followed,  if  it  ex- 
ceeded, the  legitimate  and  Qjicumenic  Council  of 
Ephesus.  Its  acts  were  marked  with  the  same  in- 
decent precipitation ;  questions  were  carried  by  fac- 
tious acclamations  within,  and  the  Council  was  over- 
awed by  riotous  mobs  without.  But  that  which  was 
pardonable  and  even  righteous  zeal  in  the  cause  of 
Cyril,  was  sacrilegious  tumult  in  that  of  Eutyches : 
the  monks,  who  had  been  welcomed  and  encouraged 
as  holy  champions  of  the  faith  when  they  issued  from 
their  cells  to  aflPright  the  Emperor  into  the  condemna- 
tion of  Nestorius,  when  they  thronged  around  Euty 
ches,  became  a  mutinous  and  ignorant  rabble.^ 

The  Egyptian  faction  (for  Dioscorus,  though  tyran- 
nical to  the  kindred  and  adherents  of  Cyril,  embraced 
his  opinions  with  the  utmost  ardor)  looked  to  this 
Council,  not  so  much  for  the  vindication  of  Eutyches, 
as  for  the  total  suppression  of  Nestorianisiii,  and,  no 
doubt,  the  abasement  of  Flavianus,  and  in  the  person 
of  Flavianus,  of  the  aspiring  see  of  Constantinople. 
But  in  their  blind  heat  they  involved  themselves  with 
the  creed  of  Eutyches.  The  Council  commenced  with 
the  usual  formalities.     The  proposition  to  read  the  let- 

1  They  were  attended  by  Dulcitius,  a  notary.  S.  Leo.  and  Synod  Eplies. 
One  Bishop,  Renatus,  had  died  on  the  road.  Hilarius  seems  to  have  taken 
the  lead  among  Leo's  legates. 

'■^  Compare  Walch,  p  215. 


288  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  H. 

ters  of  Leo  to  Flavianus,  wliicli  condemned  tlie  doc- 
trine of  Eutjclies,  was  refused  with  the  utmost  con- 
tempt.^ Then  were  reliearsed  the  acts  of  tlie  Synod 
of  Constantinople.  On  the  first  mention  of  the  two 
natures  in  Christ  an  angry  dispute  arose.  But  when 
the  question  put  to  Eutyches  by  Eusebius  of  Doryleum 
was  read,  whether  lie  acknowledged  the  two  natures 
Decree  of  the  after  the  iucamation,  the  assembly  broke  out 
A.D.m  with  one  voice,  "  Away  with  Eusebius ! 
banish  Eusebius !  let  him  be  burned  alive !  As  he 
cuts  asunder  the  two  natures  in  Christ,  so  be  he  cut 
asunder !  "  The  President  put  the  question,  "  Is  the 
doctrine  that  there  are  two  natures  after  the  incarna- 
tion to  be  tolerated  ? "  The  sacred  Council  replied, 
"  Anathema  on  him  who  so  says  !  "  "I  have  your 
voices,"  said  Dioscorus,  "  I  must  have  your  hands  ! 
He  that  cannot  cry,  let  him  lift  up  his  hands !  "  With 
an  unanimous  suftrage  the  whole  assembly  proclaimed, 
"  Accursed  be  he  who  says  there  are  two !  "  The 
Council  proceeded  to  absolve  Eutyches  from  all  sus- 
picion of  heterodoxy,  and  to  reinstate  him  in  all  his 
ecclesiastical  honors ;  to  depose  Flavianus  and  Euse- 
bius, and  to  deprive  them  of  all  their  dignities.  Fla- 
vianus alone  pronounced  his  appeal ;  Ililarius,  the 
Roman  deacon,  alone  refused  his  assent.^  The  una- 
nimity of  the  assembly  is  unquestionable,  but  it  is 
asserted,  and  on  strong  grounds,  that  it  was  an  unanim- 
ity enforced  by  the  dread  of  the  imperial  soldieiy  and 

1  *'  Qucm  AloxandrinuR  antistes,  qui  totuin  solus  ibi  ])()tenti:e  su.ne  vindi- 
cavit,  audire  conteiupsit,"  uKovoai  KaTiTrrvaev  in  tlie  Greek.  —  S.  Leon. 
Kpist.  1.  ad  Constantinoii.  Leo's  letter  exists  in  indillerent  Greek,  and 
worse  Latin,  dated  449,  Jan.  13. 

■-i  We  hear  nothing  of  the  other  legate  of  Leo,  the  Bishop  .Tulian;  the 
Presbyter  Kenatus  >vas  dead. 


vjHAP.  IV.  DEATH  OF  FLAVIANUS.  289 

the  savage  monks,  who  environed  and  even  broke  in, 
and  violated  the  sanctity  of  the  Council. ^  Dioscorus 
pursued  his  triumph.  The  deposition  of  Ibas  of 
Edessa,  Theodoret  of  Cyrus,  Irenseus  of  Tyre,  and 
of  others  who  were  suspected  of  Nestorianism,  or  at 
least  refused  to  subscribe  the  anathemas  of  Cyril,  was 
confirmed.  Domnus  of  Antioch  was  involved  in  their 
fate.  Hilarius  the  deacon  fled  to  Rome  ;  but  not  so 
fortunate  was  Flavianus.  After  suffering  personal  in- 
sults, it  is  said  even  blows,  from  the  furious  Dioscorus 
himself,  instigated  by  the  monk  Barsumas,  who  shouted 
aloud,  '*•  Strike  him,  strike  him  dead  ! "  he  ^  ,,    _ 

'  '  Death  of 

expired  after  a  few  days,  either  of  his  wounds,  Fiavianus. 
of  exhaustion,  or  mental  suffering.     Thus  was  this  the 
first,  but  not  the  last,  Christian  Council  which  was  de- 
filed with  blood.2 

Alexandria  had  succeeded  in  dictating  its  doctrine 
to  the  whole  of  Christendom ;  the  Patriarch  of  Alex- 
andria had  triumphed  over  both  his  rivals,  had  deposed 
the  Metropolitan  of  Antioch,  and  the  more  dreaded 
Bishop  of  Eastern  Rome.  Nor  was  this  all.  An  Im- 
perial edict  avouched  the  orthodoxy  and  confirmed  the 
acts  of  the  second  Council  of  Ephesus.  It  involved 
Flavianus  and  Eusebius  in  the  charge  of  Nestorianism ; 
it  proscribed  Nestorianism  in  all  its  forms,  branding  it 
by  the  ill-omened  name  of  Simonianism:  it  forbade 
the  consecration  of  any  bishop  favorable  to  Nestorius 
or  Flavianus,  and  deposed  them,  if  unwarily  conse- 
crated :  it  condemned  all  worship  or  religious  meet- 
ings of  the  Nestorians   (and  all  who  were  not  Euty- 

1  See  the  evidence  of  Basil,  Bishop  of  Csesarea. 

2  Leo,  writing  from  the  report  of  Hilarius,  the  Deacon,  "  Magnum  facinua 
Alexandrino  Episcopo  auctorc  vel  executore  commissum  est."  — Epist.  ad 
Anat. 

VOL.  I.  19 


290  LATIN  CIIEISTIANITY.  Book  II 

chians  were  in  danger  of  being  declared  Nestorians), 
under  the  penalty  of  confiscation  and  exile  ;  and  inter- 
dicted the  reading  of  all  Nestorian  books,  which  are 
ranked  with  the  anti-Christian  writings  of  Porphyry ; 
that  is,  the  Avorks  of  Nestorius  and  of  Theodoret,  and 
according  to  one  copy  of  the  law,  those  of  Diodortls  and 
Theodore  of  Mopsuestia  also,  under  the  same  penalties. 

But  the  law  might  command,  it  could  not  enforce 
peace.  Eastern  Christendom  was  severed  into  two 
conflicting  parties.  Egypt,  Palestine,  and  Thrace  ad- 
hered to  Dioscorus,  while  the  rest  of  Asiatic  Christen- 
dom, Pontus  and  Asia  Minor,  still  clung  to  the  cause 
of  Flavianus.^  Strengthened  by  the  unanimous  con- 
sent of  the  West,  which  entered  so  reluctantly  into 
these  fine  metaphysical  subtleties,  Leo,  the  Bishop  of 
E-ome,  refused  all  recognition  of  the  Ephesian  Council. 
Dioscorus,  in  the  heat  of  his  passion  and  the  pride  of 
success,  broke  off  (an  unlieard  of  and  unprecedented 
boldness)  all  communion  with  Rome. 

A  sudden  and  total  revolution  at  once  took  place. 
The  change  was  wrought,  —  not  by  the  commanding 
voice  of  ecclesiastical  authority,  —  not  by  the  argu- 
mentative eloquence  of  any  great  writer,  who  by  his 
surpassing  abilities  awed  the  world  into  peace,  —  not 
by  the  reaction  of  pure  Christian  charity,  drawing  to- 
gether the  conflicting  parties  by  evangelic  love.  It 
was  a  new  dynasty  on  the  throne  of  Constantinople. 

The  feeble  Theodosius  dies ;  the  masculine  Pulche- 
ria  —  the  champion  and  the  pride  of  orthodoxy  —  the 
friend  of  Flavianus  and  of  Leo,  ascends  the  throne, 
and  gives  her  hand,  with  a  share  in  the  empire,  to  a 
hrave  soldier  named  Marcianus. 

1  Liberal.  Brev.  c.  xii. 


Chap.  IV.  COUNCIL  OF  CHALCEDON.  291 

The  hopes  of  one  party,  and  the  ap})rehensions  of 
the  other,  were  reahzed  with  the  utmost  rapidity.  The 
first  act  of  the  Government,  which  Anatohus,  the  new 
bishop,  who,  though  nominated  by  the  Egyptian  party, 
was  a  moderate  prudent  man,  either  acquiesced  in  or 
promoted,  was  the  quiet  removal  of  Eutyches  ifi-om  the 
city.  This  measure  was  confirmed  by  a  synod  at  Con- 
stantinople. 

A  more  full  and  authoritative  Council  could  alone 
repeal  the  acts  of  the  "  Robber  Synod  "  of  Ephesus. 
The  only  opposition  to  the  summons  of  such  Council 
at  Chalcedon  arose  from  Leo.  The  Roman  Pontiff 
had  urged  on  the  Western  Emperor  (it  is  said,  on  his 
knees)  the  necessity  for  a  general  Council ;  but  Leo 
desired  a  Council  in  Italy,  where  no  one  could  dispute 
the  presidency  of  the  Roman  prelate.  Prescient,  it 
might  seem,  of  the  decree  at  Chalcedon,  which  raised 
the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  to  an  equality  with  the 
Bishop  of  Rome,  he  dreaded  the  convocation  of  a 
Council  in  the  precincts  and  under  the  immediate  influ- 
ence of  the  Byzantine  court. 

At  Chalcedon,  the  Asiatic  suburb  of  Constantinople, 
met  that  assembly,  which  has  been  admitted  councu  of 
to  rank  as  the  fourth,  by  some  as  the  last,  of  ocl  8^*^°°' 
the   great   (Ecumenic   Councils.     Anatolius,  ^'^'  '^ ' 
Bishop  of  Constantinople,  was  present,  with  Maximua 
of   Antioch,   and  Juvenalis   of   Jerusalem.     Leo    ap- 
pointed as  his  representatives  two  bishops  and  a  presby- 
ter. ^     Above  five  hundred  bishops  ^  made  their  appear- 

1  Paschasinus,  Bishop  of  Lilybaeum,  Lucentius,  Bishop  of  Esculanum 
(Ascoli),  Boniface,  Presbyter  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 

2  This  is  the  number  in  the  Breviarium :  Marcellinus  raises  the  number 
to  six  hundred  and  thirty.  Between  four  and  five  huudi'ed  signatures  ara 
ippended  to  the  acts. 


292  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U 

ance.  Dioscorus  of  Alexandria  was  there,  but  sat 
not  in  the  order  of  his  rank,  and  was  not  allowed  the 
right  of  suffrage.  Theodoret  of  Cyrus  claimed  his 
seat,  but  did  not  obtain  it  without  violent  resistance 
from  the  Egyptian  faction,  who  denounced  him  as  a 
Nestorian  :  his  own  party  retorted  charges  against  the 
Egyptians,  as  persecutors  of  Flavianus,  and  as  Mani- 
cheans.  The  Imperial  Commissioners  reproved  with 
firmness,  and  repressed  with  dignity,  but  with  much 
difficulty,  these  rabble-like  proceedings.^ 

The  first  act  of  the  Council,  after  the  decrees  of  the 
Synod  at  Ephesus  had  been  read,  was  to  annul  the 
articles  of  deposition  against  Flavianus  and  Eusebius. 
Many  of  the  bishops  expressed  their  penitence  at  theii 
concurrence  in  these  acts :  some  saying  that  they  were 
compelled  by  force  to  subscribe  —  others  to  subscribe  a 
blank  paper.  The  Council  proceeded  to  frame  a  reso- 
lution, deposing  Dioscorus  and  five  other  bishops,  as 
having  iniquitously  exercised  undue  influence  in  the 
Oct.  10.  Council  of  Ephesus ;  but  the  right  of  appro- 
bation of  this  decree  was  reserved  to  the  Emperor. 
Durino;  the  whole  of  this  first  session,  Dioscorus  had 
confronted  his  adversaries  with  the  utmost  intrepidity, 
readiness,  and  self-command.  He  cried  aloud,  "  They 
are  condemning  not  me  alone,  but  Athanasius  and 
Cyril.  They  forbid  us  to  assert  the  two  natures  after 
the  incarnation."  The  night  drew  on  ;  Dioscorus  de- 
manded an  adjournment  ;  the  Senate  refused ;  the  acts 
were  read  over  by  torch-light.  The  bishops  of  Illyria 
proclaimed  their  abandonment  of  the  cause  of  Dios- 
corus.    The  night  was  disturbed  by  wild  cries  of  accla- 

1  It  is  said  in  the  Breviar.  Hist.  Eutych.  that  the  Emperor  and  Senate 
were  present.     The  Senate  appeals  hi  the  acts. 


Chap.  IV.  CONDEMNATION  OF   DIOSCORUS.  *293 

matlon  to  the  Emperor  and  the  Senate,  appeals  to  God, 
anathema  to  Dioscorus  —  ••'  Christ  has  deposed  Dios- 
corus  —  Christ  has  deposed  the  murderer  —  God  has 
avenged  his  martyrs  !  "  The  Council  at  the  next  ses- 
sion proceeded  to  the  definition  of  the  true  faith.  The 
Creeds  of  Nicea  and  of  Constantinople,  the  two  Epis- 
tles of  Cyril,  and  above  all  the  Epistle  of  Leo  to  Fla- 
vianus,  were  recognized  as  containing  the  orthodox 
Christian  doctrine.  The  letter  of  Leo  excited  accla- 
mations of  unbounded  joy.  "  This  is  the  belief  of  the 
Fathers,  —  of  the  Apostles  !  "  "  So  beheve  we  all !  " 
"  Accursed  be  he  that  admits  not  that  Peter  has  spoken 
by  the  mouth  of  Leo  !  "  "  Leo  has  taught  what  is  right- 
eous and  true  ;  and  so  taught  Cyril !  "  "  Eternal  be 
the  memory  of  Cyiil  I  "  "Why  was  not  this  read 
at  Ephesus  ?  It  was  suppressed  by  Dioscorus  !  "  With 
this  there  was  again  a  strange  mingled  outcry  of  the 
Bishops,  confessing  their  sin  and  imploring  forgiveness, 
and  of  the  adversaries  of  Dioscorus,  chiefly  the  clergy 
of  Constantinople,  clamoring,  "  Away  with  the  Egyp- 
tian, the  Egyptian  into  exile!  " 

The  Imperial  Commissioners,  who,  with  some  few 
of  the  Bishops,  were  anxious  that  affairs  should  pro- 
ceed with  more  dignified  calmness,  hardly  restrained 
the  impulse  of  the  Council,  who  were  eager  to  pro- 
ceed by  acclamation,  and  at  once,  to  the  condemnation 
of  Dioscorus  ;  they  accused  him  of  being  a  Jew.  It 
would,  perhaps,  have  been  better  for  that  prelate,  if 
they  had  been  permitted  to  follow  their  impulse  ;  for 
charges  now  began  to  multiply  and  to  darken  against 
the  falling  Patriarch  — charges  of  disloyalty,  (,^„^^^^^t;„^ 
of  tyranny,  of  rapacity,  of  incontinence.  °^  ^^^"^°™«- 
Thrice  was  he  summoned  to  appear  (he  had  not  been 


294  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  It 

peraiittecl  to  resume  his  scat,  or  had  withdrawn  during 
the  stormy  course  of  the  proceedings),  thrice  he  diso- 
beyed, or  attempted  to  ekide  the  summons.  The  sol- 
emn sentence  was  then  pronounced  by  one  of  the 
Western  Bishops,  the  representatives  of  Leo.  It 
stated  that  Dioscorus,  sometime  Bishop  of  Alexandria, 
had  been  found  guilty  of  divers  ecclesiastical  oflPences. 
To  pass  over  many,  he  had  admitted  Eutyches,  a  man 
under  excommunication  by  lawful  authority,  into  com- 
munion ;  he  had  haughtily  repelled  all  remonstrances ; 
he  had  refused  to  read  the  Epistle  of  Leo  at  the  Coun- 
cil of  Ephesus  ;  he  had  even  aggravated  his  guilt  by 
daring  to  place  the  Bishop  of  Rome  himself  under  in- 
Oct.  13  terdict.      Leo,  therefore,  by  their  voice,  and 

with  the  authority  of  the  Council,  in  the  name  of 
the  Apostle  Peter,  the  Rock  and  Foundation  of  th« 
Church,  deposes  Dioscorus  from  his  episcopal  dignity, 
and  excludes  him  from  all  Christian  rights  and  privi- 
leges. The  unanimous  Council  subscribes  the  judg- 
ment.i 

The  decree  was  temperate  and  dignified;  it  con- 
tained no  unfair  or  exaggerated  accusations ;  though  it 
might  dwell  with  undue  weight  on  the  insulting  con- 
duct towards  Leo,  it  condescended  to  no  fierce  and 
abusive  appellations.  Nor  was  the  grave  majesty  of 
the  assembly  disturbed  by  a  desperate  rally  of  the 
Barsumas  mouks,  headed  by  Barsumas.  This  man,  as 
the  monk.      ^^^  uujustly  suspcctcd  of  being  implicated  in 

1  It  is  remarkable  that  the  decree  took  no  notice  of  the  various  imputa- 
tions of  heresy  against  Dioscorus,  none  of  the  accusations  of  murder  said 
to  have  been  perpetrated  by  him  in  Alexandria.  Compare  especially  the 
libel  of  Tschyrion  the  Deacon,  who  offers  to  substantiate  his  charges  by 
witnesses.  Either  Dioscorus  was  one  of  the  most  wicked  of  men,  or  Ischy- 
rion  the  most  audacious  of  calumniators.  —Labbe,  p.  398-400. 


CiiAP.  IV.  BARSUMAS   TUE  MONK.  2^ 

the  death  of  Flavianus,  tlie  assembly  refused  to  admit 
to  the  honors  of  a  seat.  Repelled  on  all  sides,  and 
awed  by  the  Imperial  power,  the  monks  appealed  to 
Christ  from  Caisar,  shook"  their  garments  in  contempt 
of  the  Council,  and  as  a  protest  against  the  injustice 
done  to  Dioscorus ;  and  then  sullenly  retired  to  their 
solitudes  to  brood  over  and  propagate  in  secret  their 
Monophysite  doctrines.  Some  of  their  traditions  assert, 
in  chai'acteristic  language,  that  Barsumas,  thus  igno- 
minioasly  expelled  by  the  Council  and  by  the  Emperor, 
prono  meed  his  curse  against  Pulcheria.  She  died  a 
few  days  afterwards,  and  Barsumas,  while  he  took  rank 
among  his  followers  as  a  prophet  and  man  of  God,  be- 
came from  that  time  an  object  of  cruel  and  unrelenting 
persecution  by  his  enemies. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  formulary  of  faith  adopted 
finally  by  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  was  brought  for- 
ward by  the  Imperial  Commissioners.  After  much  al- 
tercation and  delay,  it  received  at  length  the  sanction 
of  the  Council.  After  this  the  Civil  Government  (the 
Emperor  Marcian)  issued  two  laws,  addressed  to  all 
orders,  to  the  clergy,  to  the  military,  and  to  the  com- 
monalty; one  prohibited  the  ftiture  agitation  of  these 
questions,  as  tending  to  tumult :  it  denounced  as  the 
penalty  for  oftences  against  the  statute,  degradation  to 
the  ecclesiastic,  to  the  soldier  ignominious  expulsion 
from  the  army,  to  the  common  man  exile  from  the  Im- 
perial city.^  The  second  decree  confirmed  all  the  pro- 
cee«lings  at  Chalcedon,  enforced  on  the  public  mind 
the  deferential  conclusion,  that  no  private  man  could 
hope   to   arrive  at   a   sounder  understanding  of  these 

1  A  strong  canon  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  against  simony  implies 
that  the  benefices  in  the  East,  as  in  the  West,  were  highly  lucrative. 


296  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U. 

mysteries  than  had  been  painfully  attained  by  so  many 
holy  bishops,  and  only  after  much  prayer  and  profound 
investigation.  The  punisliment  of  dissent  was  left  in- 
definite and  at  the  will  of  the  civil  rulers. 

But  before  the  final  dissolution  of  the  Council  at 
Chalcedon,  among  thirty  canons  on  ecclesiastical  sub- 
jects, appeared  one  of  singular  importance  to  Christen- 
dom. It  asserted  the  supremacy  of  the  Roman  See, 
not  in  right  of  its  descent  from  St.  Peter,  but  solely  as 
the  Bishopric  of  the  Imperial  City.  It  assigned,  there- 
fore, to  the  Bishop  of  the  New  Rome,  as  equal  in  civil 
dignity,  a  coequal  and  coordinate  ecclesiastical  author- 
ity.^ This  canon,  it  is  averred,  was  passed  by  a  few 
bishops,  who  lingered  behind  the  rest  of  the  Council ; 
it  claims  only  the  subscription  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
prelates,  and  those  chiefly  of  the  diocese  of  Constan- 
tinople. It  is  not  indeed  likely  that  the  Alexandrian 
Church,  though  depressed  by  the  ignominious  degrada- 
tion of  its  head,  still  less  that  the  more  ancient 
Churches  of  Antioch  and  Jerusalem  should  thus 
tamely  acquiesce  in  the  assumption  of  superiority  (un- 
less it  were  a  measure  enforced  by  the  Imperial  power) 
by  the  modern  and  un-Apostolic  Church  of  Byzan- 
tium.2     Leo  from  this  period  denounces  the  arrogance 

1  Kal  yap  tg)  ■QpovCi  r^g  TrpealSvTepag  Pw/z^f ,  6ta  rb  ^aaikeveiv  t^v  irakiv 
kxeivijv,  ol  ndrepec  e'lKOTug  ('ntodedunaoL  tu.  irpea^Ela.  — Can.  xxviii.  p.  769. 

2  Leo,  in  his  three  epistles  on  the  subject,  seems  to  espouse  the  cause  of 
Antioch  and  Alexandria,  as  insulted  by  their  degradation  from  the  second 
and  third  rank ;  rivalry  with  Rome  on  their  part  is  a  pretension  of  which  he 
will  not  condescend  to  entertain  a  suspicion.  "  Tanquam  opportune  se 
tempus  hoctibi  obtulerit,  quo  secwwcZi  honoris  privilegium  sedes  Alexandrina 
perdiderit,  et  Antiochena  Ecclesia  proprietatem  tert'uB  dignitatis  amiserit, 
at  his  locis  juri  tuo  subditis,  Metropolitani  Episcopi  proprio  honore  priven- 
tur." — Epist.  liii.:  ad  Anatol.  Const.  Episc.  The  Bishop  of  Rome  rebukes 
the  ambition  of  his  bro  her  prelate  in  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  "  Be  not  high* 
minded,  but  fear! !  " 


Chap.  IV.  THE   BISHOP   OF   ROME.  297 

and  presumption  of  Anatolins,  the  Bishop  of  Constan- 
tinople ;  and  this  canon  of  the  CEcumenic  Council  has 
been  refused  all  validity  in  the  West. 

Throughout  this  long  and  melancholy  ecclesiastical 
civil  war,  the  Bishop  of  Rome  could  not  but  continue 
to  rise  in  estimation  and  reverence,  and  in  their  insep- 
arable result,  authority.  While  the  East  had  thus 
been  distracted  in  every  province,  the  West  had  en- 
joyed almost  profound  religious  peace.  The  circum- 
stances of  the  time  contributed  to  this  state  of  things ; 
the  preoccupation  of  the  whole  Western  empire  by  the 
terrors  of  the  most  formidable  invasion  which  had  ever 
menaced  society  ;  the  general  disinclination  to  those 
fine  theologic  distinctions,  which  rose  out  of  the  Grecian 
schools  of  philosophy ;  and,  perhaps,  the  desolation  by 
the  savage  Vandals  of  the  African  Churches,  which 
were  most  likely  to  plunge  hotly  into  such  disputes, 
and  to  drao;  with  them  the  rest  of  Latin  Christendom. 
During  the  whole  feud  the  predecessors  of  Leo,  and 
Leo  himself,  had  calmly  and  firmly  adhered  to  those 
doctrines  which  were  finally  received  as  orthodox. 
They  had  acted  by  common  consent  as  heads  and  rep- 
resentatives of  Western  Christendom,  and  had  fully 
justified  the  unquestioning  confidence  of  the  West  by 
their  congeniality  with  the  universal  sentiment.  Nor 
had  their  dignity  suffered  in  the  eyes  of  men  by  the 
humiliatirig  scenes  to  which  the  great  prelates  of  the 
East,  the  Metropolitans  of  Antioch,  of  Constantinople, 
and  Alexandria,  had  been  continually  exposed ;  ar- 
raignment as  heretics,  as  criminals,  before  successive 
Councils,  deposition,  expulsion  from  their  sees,  excom- 
munication, exile,  even  death.  The  feeble  interdict 
issued   by   Dioscorus    against   Leo   might   have   been 


298  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  11 

shaken  off  with  silent  contempt,  if  it  had  not  rather 
suited  him  to  treat  it  with  indignation.  Still  more  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  had  stood  uncontaminated,  in  digni- 
fied seclusion  from  the  wretched  intrigues  and  bribery, 
the  venal  favor  of  unpopular  ministers,  and  the  trem- 
bling dependence  on  Imperial  caprice.  Every  year  be- 
came more  and  more  manifest  the  advantage  derived 
by  the  Bishop  of  Rome  from  the  abandonment  of 
Rome  as  the  Imperial  residence.  The  Metropolitan 
of  Constantinople  might  claim  by  an  ecclesiastical 
canon,  equality  with  the  Roman  Pontiff;  but  the  one 
was  growing  up  into  an  independent  Potentate,  while 
the  other,  living  under  the  darkening  shadow  of  Imp^ 
rial  pomp  and  power,  could  not  but  shrink  into  a  help- 
less instrument  of  the  Imperial  will.  The  fate  of  the 
Bishop  of  Constantinople,  his  rank  and  his  authority 
in  the  Church,  even  his  orthodoxy,  depended  virtually 
on  the  decree  of  the  Emperor.  Appearing  in  all  the 
controversies  of  the  East  only  in  the  persons  of  his 
delegates,  the  Bishop  of  Rome  had  preserved  his  maj- 
esty uninsulted  and  unhumbled  by  the  degrading  in- 
vectives, altercations,  even  personal  contumelies,  which 
had  violated  the  sanctity  of  the  great  Eastern  prelates. 
Even  if  they  had  not  provoked ;  if  they  had  borne 
with  the  most  saintly  patience  the  outrages  of  the  pop- 
ular or  monkish  rabble  at  Ephesus  or  Constantinople, 
in  tlie  general  mind  the  holy  character  could  not  but 
be  lowered  by  these  debasing  scenes. 

Leo  seemed  fully  to  comprehend  the  importance  and 
the  dignity  of  his  position.  He  took  the  most  zealous 
interest  in  tlie  whole  controversy,  but  his  activity  was 
grave,  earnest,  and  serious.  His  language  to  the  East- 
ern Emperors,  and  especially  to  the  Princess  Pulcheria, 
may  sound  too  adulatory  to  modern  ears.     The  divinitv 


Chap.  IV.  THE  HUNS.  299 

of  the  earthly  sovereign  was  acknowledged  in  terms 
too  nearly  approaching  that  reserved  for  the  great 
divine  Sovereign.  This,  however,  must  be  judged 
with  some  regard  to  the  sentiments  and  expressions 
of  the  age ;  and  his  deference  was  in  language  rather 
than  in  thouglit.  Leo  addi'esses  these  earthly  masters 
with  an  independence  of  opinion,  more  as  their  equal, 
almost  more  as  their  master,  than  would  have  been 
ventured  by  any  other  subject  at  that  time  in  either 
empire. 

In  the  West,  meantime,  Leo  might  seem,  under  the 
sole  impulse  of  generous  self-dcA^otion  and  reliance  on 
the  majesty  of  religion,  to  assume  the  noblest  func- 
tion of  the  civil  power,  the  preservation  of  the  Empire, 
of  Italy,  of  Rome  itself,  of  Christianity,  from  the  most 
tremendous  enemy  which  had  ever  threatened  their 
freedom  and  peace.  While  the  Emperor  Valentinian 
III.  took  refiige  in  Rome,  and  rumors  spread  abroad 
of  his  meditated  flight,  abdication,  abandonment  of  his 
throne,  Leo  almost  alone  stood  fearless.  An  embassy, 
of  which  the  Bishop  of  Rome  was  no  doubt  considered 
by  the  general  reverence  of  his  own  age,  as  well  as  by 
posterity,  as  the  head  and  chief,  arrested  the  terrible 
Attila  on  the  frontiers  of  Italy,  and  dispersed  the  host 
of  savage  and  but  half-human  Huns.  Leo,  to  grateftil 
Rome,  might  appear  as  the  peaceftil  Camillus,  as  the 
unarmed  Marius,  repelling  invaders  far  more  fearful 
than  the  Gauls  or  the  Cimbrians. 

The  terror  of  Europe  at  the  invasion  of  the  Huns 
naturally  and  justifiably  surpassed  that  of  all  former  bar- 
baric invasions.  The  Goths  and  other  German  tribes 
were  familiar  to  the  sight  of  the  Romans  ;  some  of  them 
had  long  been  settled  within  the  frontier  of  the  empire  ; 
they  were  already  for  the  most  pnrt  Cliristi.iii,  and,  to 


300  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  DL 

a  certain  extent,  Romanized  in  their  manners  and 
habits.  The  Mongol  race,  with  their  hideous,  mis- 
shapen, and,  as  they  are  described,  scarcely  human 
figures,  their  wild  habits,  their  strange  language,  their 
unknown  origin,  their  numbers,  exaggerated  no  doubt 
by  fear,  and  swollen  by  the  aggregation  of  all  the 
savage  tribes  who  were  compelled  or  eagerly  crowded 
to  join  the  predatory  warfare,  but  which  seemed  ab- 
solutely inexhaustible ;  their  almost  unresisted  career 
of  victory,  devastation,  and  carnage,  from  the  remotest 
East  till  they  were  met  by  Aetius  on  the  field  of 
Chalons :  at  the  present  time  the  vast  monarchy 
founded  by  Attila,  which  overshadowed  the  whole 
Northern  frontier  of  the  Empire,  and  to  which  the 
Gothic  and  other  Teutonic  kings  rendered  a  compul- 
sory allegiance ;  their  successful  inroads  on  the  Eastern 
Empire,  even  to  the  gates  of  Constantinople  ;  the 
haughty  and  contemptuous  tone  in  which  they  con- 
ducted their  negotiations,  had  almost  appalled  the  Ro- 
man mind  into  the  apathy  of  despair.  Religion, 
instead  of  rousing  to  a  noble  resistance  against  this 
heathen  race,  which  threatened  to  overrun  the  whole 
of  Christendom,  by  acquiescing  in  Attila's  proud  ap- 
pellation, the  Scourge  of  God,  seemed  to  justify  a 
dastardly  prostration  before  the  acknowledged  emissary 
of  tlie  divine  wrath.  The  spell,  it  is  true,  of  Attila's 
irresistible  power  had  been  broken ;  he  had  suffered  a 
great  defeat,  and  Gaul  was,  for  a  time  at  least,  wrested 
from  his  dominion  by  the  valor  and  generalship  of 
Aetius.  But  when,  infarlated,  as  it  might  seem,  more 
than  discouraged  by  his  discomfiture,  the  yet  formidable 
Hun  suddenly  descended  upon  Italy,  the  whole  penin- 
sula lay  defenceless  before  him.  Aetius,  as  is  most 
probable,  was  unable,  as  his  enemies  afterwards  de- 


Chap.  IV.  INVASION   OF  ATTILA.  SOI 

clared,  was  traitorously  unwilling,  to  throw  himself 
between  the  barbarians  and  Rome.  The  last  struggles 
of  Roman  pride,  which  had  rejected  the  demand  of 
AttUa  for  the  hand  of  the  Princess  Honoria  (his  self- 
offered  bride,  whose  strange  adventures  Illustrate  the 
degradation  of  the  Imperial  family),  and  which  had 
been  delayed  by  the  obstinate  resistance  of  Aqullela  to 
the  whole  army  of  Attlla,  were  crushed  by  the  fall  and 
utter  extermination  of  that  city,  and  the  total  subju 
gatlon  of  Italy  as  far  as  the  banks  of  the  Po.^  Valen- 
tinian,  the  Emperor,  fled  from  Ravenna  to  Rome.  To 
some  no  doubt  he  might  appear  to  seek  succor  at  the 
feet  of  the  Roman  Pontiff;  but  the  abandonment  of 
Italy  was  rumored  to  be  his  last  desperate  determina- 
tion. 

At  this  fearful  crisis,  the  insatiable  and  victorious 
Hun  seemed  suddenly  and  unaccountably  to  invasion  of 
pause  in  his  career  of  triumph.  He  stood  '^"'^^' 
rebuked  and  subdued  before  a  peaceful  embassy,  of 
which,  with  the  greater  part  of  the  world,  the  Bishop 
of  Rome,  as  he  held  the  most  conspicuous  station,  so 
he  received  almost  all  the  honor.  The  names  of  the 
rich  Consular  Avienus,  of  the  Prefect  of  Italy,  Trlge- 
tius,  who  ventured  with  Leo  to  confront  the  barbarian 
conqueror,  were  speedily  forgotten ;  and  Leo  stands 
forth  the  sole  preserver  of  Italy.  On  the  shores  of  the 
Benacus  the  ambassadors  encountered  the  fearful  At- 
tila.  Overawed  (as  the  belief  was  eagerly  propagated, 
and  as  eagerly  accepted)  by  the  personal  dignity,  the 
venerable  character,  and  by  the  religious  majesty  of 
Leo,  Attlla  consented  to  receive  the  large  dowry  of 
the  Princess  Honoria,  and  to  retire  from  Italy.     The 

1  Compare  Gibbon,  c.  xxxv.     Observe  the  cluirueteristic  words  of  Jor» 
aandes:  "  Dum  ad  aula;  dccui  vir>;iniLuteiu  tiuaiu  co^tJiutiu'  custodire." 


302  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II 

death  of  Attila  in  the  following  year,  by  the  bursting 
of  a  blood-vessel,  on  the  night  during  which  he  had 
wedded  a  new  wife,  may  have  been  brooding,  as  it 
were,  in  his  constitution,  and  somewhat  subdued  his 
fiercer  energy  of  ambition.  His  army,  in  all  proba- 
bility, was  weakened  by  its  conquests,  and  by  the 
uncono-enial  climate  and  unaccustomed  luxuries  of 
Italy.  But  religious  awe  may  still  have  been  the 
dominant  feeling  which  enthralled  the  mind  of  Attila. 
The  Hun,  with  the  usual  superstitiousness  of  the 
polytheist,  may  have  trembled  before  the  God  of  the 
stranger,  whom  nevertheless  he  did  not  worship.  The 
best  historian  of  the  period  relates  that  the  fate  of 
Alaric,  who  had  survived  so  short  a  time  the  conquest 
of  Rome,  was  known  to  Attila,  and  seemed  to  have 
made  a  profound  impression  upon  him.^  The  daunt- 
A.u.  452.  less  confidence  and  the  venerable  aspect  of 
Leo  would  confirm  this  apprehension  of  encountering, 
as  it  were,  in  his  sanctuary  the  God  now  adored  by 
the  Romans.  Legend,  indeed,  has  attributed  the  sub- 
mission of  Attila  to  a  visible  apparition  of  the  Apostles 
St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  who  menaced  the  trembling 
heathen  with  a  speedy  divine  judgment  if  he  repelled 
the  proposals  of  their  successor.  But  this  materializ- 
ing view,  though  it  may  have  heightened  the  beauty  of 
Raffaelle's  painting  of  Leo's  meeting  with  Attila,  by 
the  introduction  of  preterhuman  forms,  lowers  the 
moral  grandeur  of  the  whole  traiTsaction.  The  simple 
faith  in  his  God,  which  gave  the  Roman  Pontiff  cour- 
age to  confront  Attila,  and  threw  that  commanding 
majesty  over  his  words  and  actions  which  wrought 
upon  the  mind  of  the  barbarian,  is  far  more  Chris- 
tianl}' sublime  than  this  unnecessarily  imagined  miracle. 

I  rriscus.  <iitulc'd  bv  JoniaiiUes,  c  42- 


Ch-U>.  IV.       INVASION  OF  GENSERIC  303 

The  incorrigible  Romans  alone,  in  their  inextingulsli- 
able  pagan  superstition,  or  their  ineradicable  pagan 
passion  for  the  amphitheatre,  attributed  the  deliverance 
of  the  city  not  to  the  intercession  of  Leo  (like  the  rest 
of  the  world),  or  to  the  mercy  of  God,  but  to  the 
influence  of  the  stars.  They  crowded  (to  his  indig- 
nation) to  the  Circensian  games,  rather  than  to  the 
tombs  of  the  martyrs.^  Leo  might  save  Rome  from 
the  sword  of  the  heathen  barbarian,  he  could  not  save 
it  from  the  vices  of  the  Clu'istian  sovereign,  which 
were  precipitating  the  Western  Empire  to  its  fall,  and 
brought  down  on  Rome  a  second  capture,  more  de- 
structive than  that  of  the  Goth,  by  the  Vandal  Genseric. 
Valentinian  IIL  had  taken  refuge  at  Rome ;  but  he 
found  Rome  not  only  more  secure,  but  in  its  society, 
its  luxury,  and  its  dissoluteness,  a  more  congenial  scene 
for  his  license  than  the  confined  and  secluded  Ravenna. 
He  returned  to  it  to  indulge  more  freely  in  his  promis- 
cuous amours.  At  length  the  violation  of  the  wife 
of  a  Senator,  Petronius  Maximus,  of  the  highest  rank 
and  great  wealth,  caused  his  assassination.  In  Valen 
tinian  closed  the  Westeiii  line  of  descendants  from  the 

1  "  Pudet  dicere,  sed  oportet  non  tacere :  plus  impeuditur  daemoniis  quam 
apostolis,  et  majorem  obtiuent  insaua  spectacula  ft-equentiam,  quam  beata 
martyria." — S.  Leon.  Serm.  Ixxxiv.  lam  inclined  to  concur  with  Ba- 
ronins  (Annal.  sub  ann.)  rather  than  with  the  later  editors  of  S.  Leo's 
works,  Quesnel  and  the  Balerinis,  in  assii^'ning  the  short  sermon  on  the 
Octave  of  St.  Peter  to  the  deliverance  from  Attila,  not  to  the  evacuation  of 
the  city  by  Genseric.  Ballerini's  view  seems  impossible.  The  death  of  the 
Emperor  Maximus  (see  below)  took  place  on  the  12th  of  June,  three  days 
after  Genseric  entered  the  city;  the  sack  of  the  city  lasted  fourteen  days, 
till  St.  Peter's  Day,  the  29th;  yet  Ballerini  would  suppose  that  on  the 
octave  of  that  day  the  Romans  were  so  far  recovered  from  their  consterna- 
tion, danger,  and  ruin,  as  to  celebrate  the  Circensian  games  at  great 
expense,  and  to  attend  them  in  multitudes,  which  provoked  the  holy 
indignation  of  the  bishop.  The  deliverance,  which  they  ascribed  to  the 
Btars,  rather  than  to  the  mercy  of  God,  can  hardlj'-  have  been  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  plundered  and  desolate  city,  with  hundreds  of  the  inltabitanta 
carried  away  hito  captivity. 


304  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  II. 

great  Theodosius.  The  vengeance  of  Maximus  was 
not  content  with  the  sceptre  of  the  murdered  Valen- 
tinian ;  he  compelled  Eudoxia,  the  Empress,  during 
the  first  months  of  her  widowhood,  to  receive  him 
as  her  husband ;  and  in  the  carelessness  or  the  inso- 
lence of  his  triumph,  betrayed  liis  own  complicity, 
which  was  before  doubtful,  in  the  assassination  of 
Valentinian.  Eudoxia  determined  on  revenge ;  from 
her  Imperial  kindred  in  the  East  she  could  expect  no 
succor ;  the  Vandal  fleets  covered  the  Mediterranean  ; 
Genseric,  not  satiated  with  the  conquest  of  Africa,  had 
already  subdued  Sicily.  At  the  secret  summons  of 
the  Empress  he  landed  with  a  powerful  force,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Tiber.  The  defenceless  Romans  has- 
tened to  sacrifice  the  cause  of  their  calamities;  they 
joined  the  followers  of  Eudoxia  in  a  general  insurrec- 
tion, in  which  the  miserable  Maximus  perished ;  his 
body  was  hewn  in  pieces  and  then  cast  into  the  Tiber.^ 
But  the  ambition  and  the  rapacity  of  Genseric  were 
not  appeased  by  this  victim ;  he  advanced  towards 
Rome,  where  no  measures  of  defence  had  been  taken ; 
none  perhaps  could  have  been  organized  in  a  city 
without  a  ruler,  and  without  a  standing  force.  Leo 
was  again  the  only  safeguard  of  the  city ;  but  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  was  still  a  man  of  Christian  peace. 
Unarmed,  at  the  head  of  his  clergy,  he  issued  forth 
to  meet  the  invader ;  and  though  the  Arian  Vandal, 
within  sight  of  his  prey,  and  actually  master  of  Rome, 
still  the  centre  of  riches  and  luxury,  Rome  open  to 
Ills  own  ra})acity,  and  that  of  his  soldiers  —  was  less 
submissive  than  the  heathen  Hun ;  yet  even  he  con- 
A.D.  455.       sented  to  some  restraint  on  the  cruelty  and 

1  Procop.  Hist.  Vandal.     On  tlic  tliarac  tor  and  history  of  Maximus,  read 
Letter  oi'  ijiduii.  Apuiliuai.  11,  13. 


Chap.  IV.  TILLAGE  OF  ROME  BY   GENSERIC  305 

license  which  attend  the  sack  of  a  captured  city.  The 
lives  of  those  who  offered  no  resistance  were  to  be 
spared ;  the  buildings  to  be  guarded  against  c(^flagra- 
tion,  the  captives  protected  from  torture.  But  that 
was  all  (and  it  was  much  at  such  a  crisis)  which  the 
authority  of  the  Pontiff  could  obtain.  The  Roman 
Leo  with  the  rest  of  his  countrymen  must  witness, 
what  may  seem  to  have  aggravated  the  calamity  in 
the  estimation  of  the  world,  the  late  revenge  of  Car- 
thage, the  plunder  of  Rome  by  the  conquering  Afri- 
cans.^ In  the  pillage,  which  lasted  for  fourteen  days, 
if  the  edifices  were  spared,  the  treasuries  of  the 
churches  were  forced  to  surrender  all  which  they  had 
accumulated  from  the  pious  munificence  of  the  public, 
during  the  forty-five  years  which  had  elapsed  since  the 
sack  by  Alaric.^  It  has  been  observed  as  a  singular 
event  that  Genseric,  a  barbarian  from  the  shores  of 
the  Baltic,  compelled  Rome  to  surrender,  and  trans- 
ported to  the  shores  of  Africa  the  spoils  of  two  relig- 
ions. From  the  Temple  of  Peace  in  Rome  he  carried 
off  the  plunder  of  the  Jewish  Holy  of  Holies,  the  gold 
table  and  the  seven-branched  candlestick,  which  had 
been  deposited  as  trophies  by  the  Emperor  Titus. 
Roman  paganism  suffered  loss  no  less  insulting  than 
that  she  had  inflicted  on  Jerusalem.     The  statues  of 

1  See  the  spii-ited  lines  of  Sidonius,  — 

Heu  facinus !  iu  bella  iterum  quartosque  labores 
Perfida  Elisseae  crudescunt  classica  Byrsae. 
Nutritis  quod  fata  malum  !  Conscenderat  arces 
Evandri  Massj  la  phalanx,  montesque  Quirini 
Marmarici  pressere  pedes,  rursusque  revexit 
Quae  captiya  dedit  quondam  stipendia  Barche. 

Sid.  Apoll.  Panegyric.  —  444. 

2  Leo  from  the  wx-eck  saved  three  large  silver  vessels,  of  100  pounds  each, 
which  he  caused  to  be  cast  into  communion  plate  for  the  other  destitute 
churches.  Baronius,  fi-om  this,  and  other  equally  insufficient  reasons, 
infers  that  the  three  great  cliurches  of  St.  Peter,  St.  Paul,  and  the  Laterau 
(?)  escaped. 

VOL.   I.  20 


^0()  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  li. 

the  ffods  and  heroes  of  ancient  Rome  had  been  still 
permitted  to  adorn  the  Capitohne  Temple.  These, 
with  the  roof  of  gilt  bronze,  became  the  prey  of  the 
African  Vandals,  and  were  consigned  as  trophies  to 
Carthage.  Rome  thus  ceased  altogether  to  be  a  pagan 
city ;  and  Genseric  accomplished  what,  by  the  disper- 
sion of  the  old  pagan  families,  had  been  more  than 
begun  by  Alaric.  The  last  bond  was  broken  between 
Christian  Rome  and  the  religion  of  ancient  Rome. 
The  ship  which  bore  the  gods  of  Rome  to  Carthage 
foundered  at  sea.  The  amount  of  plunder  from  the 
Imperial  palace  and  those  of  the  still  wealthy  nobil- 
ity, from  the  temples  and  the  churches,  is  vaguely 
stated  at  many  thousand  talents.  The  Vandal  ava- 
rice stooped  to  the  meaner  metals ;  the  copper  and 
the  brass  w^ere  swept  away  with  remorseless  rapacity. 
The  Roman  aristocracy,  which  had  been  scattered  to  so 
great  an  extent  by  the  conquest  of  Alaric,  were  now^  in 
numbers  carried  away  into  captivity ;  families  were 
broken  up,  wives  separated  from  husbands,  children 
from  parents.  Even  the  Empress  Eudoxia  and  her 
daughters,  the  sole  survivors  of  the  Western  line  of 
Theodosius,  were  transported  as  honorable  bond-slaves 
to  Carthage ;  one  of  the  daughters,  Eudocia,  Genseric 
married  to  his  son ;  the  mother  and  the  other  daughter, 
who  w^as  already  married  he  released  at  the  request  of  the 
Byzantine  Emperor  Leo,  and  sent  them  to  Constantino- 
])le.  But  with  every  successive  decimation  which  thus 
fell  on  the  Roman  nobility,  the  relative  importance  of 
the  clergy  must  have  increased,  as  did  that  of  the  Pon- 
tiff, from  the  absence  of  the  Emperor  from  the  capital. 
Rome,  after  the  departure  of  Genseric's  fleet,  laden  with 
the  spoils  and  crowded  with  captives,  selected  for  their 
rank,  their  accomplishments,  the  females  no  doubt  for 


CJiAr.  IV.        PILLAGE  OF  ROME  BY   GENSERIC  807 

tlieir  beauty  or  for  their  easy  submission  to  the  will 
of  the  conquerer,  was  left  without  government,  almost 
without  social  organization,  except  that  of  the  Church. 
The  first  Emperor  who  aspired  to  the  succession  of 
Maximus  was  Avitus  in  Gaul. 

The  calamity  which  could  not  be  averted  by  the 
commanding  authority  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  was 
mitigated  by  the  active  and  judicious  chanty  of  the 
Bishop  of  Carthage.  Deo  Gratias,  by  the  manner  in 
which  he  devoted  himself  to  the  service  of  the  wretched 
captives  dragged  away  from  Rome,  has  extorted  tlie 
sincere  admiration  of  an  historian  in  general  too  blind 
to  the  true  beauty  of  the  Christian  religion.^  The 
Bishop  of  Carthage  had  no  scruple  in  sacrificing  that 
which  had  been  offered  to  give  splendor  to  the  worshij) 
of  God,  to  the  more  holy  object  of  alleviating  human 
misery.  In  order  to  reunite  those  who  had  been 
severed  by  the  cruelty  or  the  covetousness  of  the 
conquerors  —  the  husbands  from  the  wives,  the  parents 
from  their  chilch'en  —  he  sold  all  the  gold  and  silver 
vessels  belono-ino;  to  the  churches  of  his  diocese.  Dis 
eases  and  sicknesses  followed  this  sudden  and  violent 
cliano;e  of  life.  To  mitio;ate  these  sufferincrs  he  con- 
verted  two  large  churches  into  hospitals,  furnished 
til  em  with  beds  and  mattresses,  and  with  a  daily  allow- 
ance of  food  and  medicine.  The  good  bishop  himself 
by  night  and  day  accompanied  the  physicians,  visiting 
every  bed,  and  adding  the  comforts  of  tender  and  affec- 
tionate sympathy  and  of  gentle  Christian  advice,  to 
tlie  substantial  gifts  of  food  and  the  proper  remedies.^ 
The  aged  man  wore  himself  out  in  these  cares.  Pie 
may  have   been  obnoxious    on  other   accounts  to   the 

1  Gibbou.  2  Gibbon  well  describes  this 


808  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  U 

Arian  rulers,  and  may  have  escaped  the  persecutioiiis 
with  which  Genseric  and  the  Vandals  afterwards  af- 
flicted the  African  Churches  by  his  timely  death ;  ^ 
but  the  judgment  must  be  strangely  infected  with  the- 
ological hatred  which  would  suppose  that  his  life  was 
endangered  by  the  jealousy  of  the  Arians  at  these 
acts  of  true  Christian  mercy .^ 

The  sudden  but  brief  and  transitory  effort  of  the 
Koman  Empire,  under  Majorian,  to  arrest  its  hasten- 
ing extinction,  to  resume  something  of  its  ancient 
energy,  to  mitigate  the  calamities,  and  avert  the  im- 
pending disorganization  by  wise  legislation,^  by  the 
remission  of  burdensome  taxation,  by  the  restoration 
of  the  municipal  government  in  the  cities  —  this  last 
and  exhausting  paroxysm  of  strength  continued  till 
the  close  of  the  Pontificate  of  Leo.  But  it  was  too 
late ;  wisdom  and  virtue,  at  certain  periods,  are  as 
fatal  to  those  at  the  head  of  affairs,  as  improvidence 
and  vice.  He  that  would  stem  a  torrent  at  its  fall 
is  swept  away.  Majorian  perished  through  a  lawless 
conspiracy,  as  though  he  had  been  the  worst  of  tyrants. 
Tlie  last  of  the  Roman  Emperors  who  showed  any- 
thing of  the  Roman  in  his  character,  and  the  Pontiff 
who,  in  a  truly  Roman  spirit,  chiefly  founded  her 
spiritual  empire,  were  coincident  in  the  period  of  their 
death.*     Majorian   died  in  the  year  461,  leaving  the 

1  Victor.  Vit.  de  Persccut.  Vandal. 

2  This  is  the  charitable  conclusion  of  Baronius:  "Quo  livore  Ariani  suc- 
censi,  dolis  eum  quam  plurimis  voluerunt  s:i'pius  enecare.  Quod,  credo, 
pran-idens  Domiiuis  passereni  suum  de  manibus  accipitium  voluit  liberare." 
—  Annal.  sub  ann.  453. 

3  Compare  the  laws  of  IMajorian  at  the  end  of  the  Codex  Theodosianus. 

4  Leo  was  still  occupied  by  the  disputes  in  the  East,  which  followed  Iha 
foudenuiatiou  of  Eutychiaiiisni  by  the  Council  of  Chalccdon,  but  this  sub 
ject  will  be  continuously  treated  in  the  following  Book. 


3nAr.  IV.  FOUNDATION   OF  THE  TOPEDOM.  309 

affiiirs  of  Rome  and  the  still  subject  provnncos  In 
irrecoverable  anarchy.  One  or  two  obscure  names 
fill  up  the  barren  annals,  till  the  Western  Empire 
expired  in  the  person  of  Augustulus.  Leo  died  m 
the  same  year,  leaving  a  regular  succession  of  Pon- 
tiffs, wlio  gradually  rose  to  increasing  temporal  influ- 
ence, which,  nevertheless,  was  entirely  subordinate  to 
the  barbarian  kings  of  Italy,  the  Hemlian  and  tlie 
Ostro-Gothic  line,  till,  after  the  reconquest  of  Italy 
by  the  Eastern  Emperor,  and  the  gradual  abandon- 
ment of  Justinian's  conquests  by  his  feebler  successors, 
the  Popes  became  great  temporal  potentates. 

Latin  Christianity,  at  the  close  of  the  fourth,  and 
during  the  first  decennial  period  of  the  fifth  century, 
had  produced  three  of  her  gi'eat  fathers  —  the  foun- 
ders of  her  doctrinal  and  disciplinarian  system  —  Je- 
rome, Ambrose,  Augustine ;  Jerome,  if  not  the  fither, 
the  faithful  and  zealous  guardian  of  her  young  monas- 
ticism,  Ambrose  of  her  sacerdotal  authority,  Augustine 
of  her  theology. 

Before  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  the  two 
great  founders  of  the  Popedom,  Innocent  I.  and  Leo 
I.,  (singularly  enough,  each  contemporary  with  one  of 
the  sieges  and  sacks  of  Imperial  Rome  by  Teutonic 
barbarians,)  had  laid  deep  the  groundwork  for  the 
Western  spiritual  monarchy  of  Rome.  That  monar- 
chy must  await  the  close  of  the  sixth  century  to  behold 
her  fourth  Father,  the  author,  if  we  may  so  speak,  of 
her  popular  religion,  and  the  third  great  founder  of 
the  Papal  authority,  not  only  over  the  minds,  but 
over  the  hearts  of  men  —  Gregory  the  Great. 


810 


LATIN  CIIRTSTTAXTTY 


Book  ITT 


BOOK  III.     CONTEMPORARY   CHRONOLOGY. 


PATBIAROHB   or 

FATBIAKOBB   OF 

FATBIABOBB   OF 

rOPBB, 

OO.NBTANTINOPLB. 

ALBZANDBIA, 

ANTIOOH. 

«EBD8A1.I!H. 

A.D.                            A.D. 

A.^.                             A.D. 

458.  GennadiuB.    471 

A.D.                             A.D. 

460.  Solofaoiolus.  482 

.... 

400,  Martyriua. 

A.D.                             A.D. 

453.  Anastaaiua.    478 

481.  nuariua.         468 

T.  .£iuTua.    477 

resigned,        471 

468.  Simplioiua.     483 

4n.  AoaoiuB.        489 

471.  Peter  the  Fuller, 

deposed,          471 

471.  Julian.             475 

475.  Peter  the  Fuller, 

again  dep.ised.  478 

478.  John  CuJona- 

478.  Martyrius.     4^0 

tus,  deposed.  478 

47«.  Stephen  II.     481 

481.  Stephen  III.    482 

483.  John  Talalas, 

482.  Calaudiou, 

deposed.         482 

deposed.          486 

482.  Peter  Mon- 

483.  Pelli  m.       492 

489.  PravlUa.        490 

490.  Euphemius, 
deposed.        496 

guB,                490 

490.  Athanaaiua 

U.                 490 

485.  Peter  the 

Puller.             488 
488.  PalladiuB.      498 

486.  SaUusdu..      494 

492.  Gelaalufl  I.      490 

495.  Maoedoniui 

494.£lUa, 

deposed.         BIS 

499.  ADa9tas!u9n.498 

U.,  deposed.  611 

490.  Johannei  He- 

498.  Symmachua.   514 

mala.              505 

498.  Flavianus, 

498.  LaurentiM, 

606.  Johannei 

deposed.         611 

antiiMpe.       605 

511.  Timotheufl,     517 

Niceota.         617 

511.  Severus. 

614.  Hormisdas.     623 

617.  John  the  Cap- 
padocian.       530 

517.DiO30Oru8U.519 
519.  TimotheUB 

deposed,         618 
.119.  Paul,  abdi- 

513, John  m.        6M 

UI.                 637 

cated.             621 
631.  Euphrasioa,   627 

583.  John  I.           626 

624.  Petc».            544 

528.  Felbt  IV.         630 

530.  Buniface  U. 

637,  Ephrem.         M6 

530.  DiosooruB, 

^s./ot^iT- 

(Meronriug),  635 

535.  Agapetufl  I.    630 

636.  Anthimue, 

deposed.          m 

536.  SIlveriuB.        557 

636.  Meuuaa.        552 

537.  VigOiuB.          650 

553.  Eutychlui, 

537.  Gaianug, 

deposed.          637 

637.  Theod09iB8, 
dop.^sod.         538 

638.  Paul, 
deposed,          641 

641.  ZoUiiB, 

deposed.         661 

661.  ApoUinaris.   669 

^i-l.  Domnus  m.  659 

644.  Eustochlua, 

deposed.         605 

555.  Pelagios  I.      660 

SCHISM. 

5r>9.  Anastasius  1. 

560.  John  III.         673 

505.  Jolm  Soolas. 

«ATHOLIO. 

deposed.          669 

5C5.  Macarius.       674 

tioia.              677 

509.  John  IV.        579 

669.  Gregory, 

574.  Benedict  I.     673 

580,  Eulogiua,        607 

abdicated.      603    674.  John  IV.         694  | 

677.  Eutyohlus, 

578.  Pclagiua  II,    600 

testorcil.        682 
682.  .John  the 

JAOOBITB. 

r.90.  Gregory  I.       604 

Faster.           695 
595.  Cjriao.          006 

609.  DamianuB.     606 

693.  Anastasius  I. 

a»:ain.             698 
598.  AnastasiuB 

11,                   610 

594.  Amoi.             801 
eoi.Isaao.            009 

Chap.  1. 


CONTEMPORARY   POTENTATES. 


811 


mPBBOBS 

WBBTBBll 

ctires 

TIBIOOTHIO   Kinai 

TAKDAL   KIR03 

■  HrSKOBS. 

or   FBANKB. 

in  8PAI». 

!■  AVBIOA. 

*57.'LeoI.           *474 

A.O.                             A.D. 

A.D.                            A.B. 

A.9.                        .     A.V. 

A.D.                              A.n. 

426.  Genserie.         470 

461.  Severris.         464 
464.  Vacant.           460 
407.  Anttiemius.    471 

46a.£ario.             484 

Zeno. 
BasiUasua. 

491 

472.  Olybrius. 
OlyoeriiM. 
NepoB. 
AuLTistuluB.    476 

476.  Hnnneiie.       484 

481.  CIotIs.            610 



KINGS    0?   ITALT. 

476.  Odoacer  the 

Uerulian.       493 

divided. 

510.  Descendant* 
ofOloviB. 

484.  Alario  XL       607 

484.  Gondebald.     495 

49.    ioistudugl 

bib 

49.1  Theodorio  the 
Ostrogoth.     636 

KIKOS 

451.  Gunderio.      473 

607.  Gesatrte.        611 

495.  Thrasimon-l.    622 

(VHalianus.) 
518.  Justin  L 

615 
6S7 

472.  Gundcbald  and 
his  brothers.  509 

609.  Sigismond.     634 

511.  Amalario.       631 

522.  BUderlc.         680 

627.  JMUnlMi. 

665 

699.  Athtlario.      634 

S34.Theodstut.     636 
630.  VitSgei.         640 

64a  Theodebaia. 
541.  Arario. 

TotilA.            168 

558.  Tel*. 

624.  Gondemar.     632 
Conquered  by 
Western  Franks. 

631.  Thendes.       548 

&4&  Theodegeaild.  549 

549.  AgUa.              558 

658.  Athanagfld.   6«7 

630.  Gilimer,          634 

631.  Conquered  by 

565.  JoBtin  n. 

678 

607.  Uuba.           672 

578.  Tiberitu. 
682.  Maurioe. 

582 

603 

672.  LeoTiglld.       889 
686.  Beeared-        600 

1 

1  auc  Phooaa. 

610 

8S-  For  Eastern  Empire,  &o.  —  See  bottom  of  next  page. 


312 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  IIL 


BOOK  III 


CHAPTER  I. 


MONOPHYSITISM. 


Leo  the  Great  had  not  lived  to  witness  the  last 
feeble  agonies  of  the  Western  Empire ;  he  escaped  the 
ignominious  feeling  which  must  have  depressed  the 
spirit  of  a  Roman  at  the  assumption  of  the  strange 
title,  the  King  of  Italy,  by  a  Barbarian :  he  was  not 
called  upon  to  render  his  allegiance,  or  to  acknowledge 
the  title  of  Odoacer. 

The  immediate  successor  of  Leo  was  Hilarius,  by 
Nov.  19, 461.  birth  a  Sardinian.  As  deacon,  Hilarius  had 
lanus.  |3een  the  representative  of  Leo  at  the  Coun- 
cil of  Ephesus.  His  firmness  during  those  stormy 
debates  displays  a  character  unlikely  to  depart  from 
the  lofty  pretensions  of  his  predecessor.  He  reasserted 
in  the  East  the  unbending  orthodoxy  of  Leo  ;  in  the 
West,  he  maintained,  to  the  utmost  extent,  the  author- 
ity which  had  been  claimed  over  the  churches  of  Gaul 


BAST8RW     BMPIBI. 

554.  NarseB,  Governor.     669. 


BCO.  Longinug.  ri84 
684.  BmaraRdus.  587 
687.  Romanus.  r>08 
see.  OalUniciu.    mi 


ft«9.  Alboln.  673 

572.  ClcophU.  674 
574.  Dukea  rule  to  584 
684.  AuUiaris,        5U0 


CiiAP    1.      EXTINCTION    OF    ROSLVN    SOVEREIGNTY.  313 

and  Spain.  Rusticus,  Bishop  of  Narbonne,  on  his 
death-bed,  nominated  Hermes  as  successor  to  his  see. 
This  precedent  of  a  bishop  making  his  see,  as  it  were, 
a  subject  of  testamentary  bequest,  seemed  dangerous, 
thouo-h  in  this  case  the  lawful  assent  liad  been  obtained 
from  the  clergy  and  tlie  people.  Hilarius,  at  Nov.  3, 462. 
the  head  of  a  synod  in  Rome,  condemned  the  prac- 
tice, but  for  the  sentence  of  degradation  substituted 
the  lesser  punishment,  the  deprivation  of  the  right 
to  confer  ordination.  In  another  dispute  concerning 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Metropolitans  of  Aries  and 
Vienne  over  the  Bishop  of  Die,  the  successor  Feb.  24, 464. 
of  St.  Peter  at  least  confirms,  if  he  does  not  ground 
his  whole  ecclesiastical  authority  on  the  decrees  of 
Christian  Emperors.  The  Imperial  sanction  was  want- 
ing to  ratify  the  edicts  of  the  Apostolic  See.^  The 
bishops  of  the  province  of  Tarragona  addressed  Pope 
Hilarius  in  humbler  language,  and  were  treated,  there- 
fore, in  a  loftier  tone  of  dictation. 

The  only  act  of  Hilarius  which  mingles  him  up  with 
the  temporal  affairs  of  the  age,  is  his  solemn  rebuke  of 
the  Emperor  Anthemius,  the  sovereign  who  had  been 
sent  from  Constantinople  to  rule  the  West,  for  presum- 
ing to  introduce  those  maxims  of  toleration,  to  which 
his  father-in-law,  Marcian,  had  compelled  unruly  Con- 
stantinople ;  and  even  to  look  with  favor  on  the  few 

1  "  Fratri  enim  nostro  Leontio  nihil  constituti  a  sanctae  memoriiB  deces- 
sore  meo  potuit  abrogari,  nihil  voluit,  quod  honori  ejus  debetur,  auferri ; 
quia  Christianomm  qxwque  piHncipum  lege  decrehim  est,  ut  quidquid  eccle- 
siis  earumque  rectoribus,  pro  quiete  omnium  domini  sacerdotum,  atque 
ipsius  observantia  disciplinae,  in  auferendis  confusionibus  apostolical  sedis 
antistes  suo  pronunciasset  examine,  veneranter  accipi,  tenaciterque  ser- 
vari,  cum  suis  plebibus  caritas  vestra  cognosceret:  nee  unquam  possent 
sonvelli,  qufe  et  sacerdotali  ecclesiastica  prajceptione  fulcirentur  et  reqidJ'^ 
—  Hilarii  Papje  Epist.  xi.  Labbe,  p.  1045. 


bl4  LATIN    CIIEiSTIA^ITY.  13oos  iIL 

surviving  partisans  of  the  ancient  philosophy,  if  not  of 
the  ancient  religion.  Under  the  reign  of  Anthemius, 
the  old  heathen  festival,  the  Lupercalia,  Avas  still  cele- 
brated in  Rome.  The  venerable  rite  which  still  com- 
memorated at  once  the  genial  influences  of  the  open- 
scpt.487.  ing  year,  and  the  birth  of  Rome  from  the 
she-wolf  which  nursed  her  twin  founders,  was  but 
slightly  disguised  to  the  worshipping  Christians.^ 

It  was  Simplicius,  the  successor  of  Hllarius,  born  at 
Feb.  25,  468.  Tibur,  wlio  beheld  the  sceptre  wrested  from 
Simplicius.  ^j^g  helpless  hand  of  Augustulus,  and  heard 
the  demand  of  the  allegiance  of  Italy  from  Odoacer, 
a  barbarian  of  uncertain  race.  The  Papal  Epistles 
dwell  only  on  the  polemic  controversies  of  the  day,  on 
Close  of  the  questious  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  or  cere- 
Empire  mouial  Qisclipline ;  they  rarely  notice,  even 
incidentally,  the  great  changes  in  the  civil  society 
around  them.  We  endeavor  in  vain  to  find  any  ex- 
]^ression  or  intimation  of  the  feelings  excited  in  a  Ro 
man  of  the  high  station  and  influence  of  the  Pope,  at 
the  total  extinction  of  that  sovereignty  which  had  gov- 
erned the  world  for  centuries,  and  from  which  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  acknowledged  himself  to  hold  to  some 
extent  his  authority  ;  by  whose  edicts  Christianity  had 
become  the  established  religion  of  the  world,  to  which 
the  orthodox  faith  looked  for  its  support  by  the  legal 
proscription  of  heretics ;  which  had  been  at  least  the 
civil  lawgiver  of  the  Church,  and  by  whose  grants  she 
held  her  vast  increasino;  estates.  How  far  was  the 
conscious  possession  of  a  power,  which  might  hereafter 
Rway  opinions  as  widely  as  the  republic  or  the  empire 
..ad  enforced  outward  submission  and  by  force  of  arms 

1  Compare  Gibbon,  ch.  xxxvi 


CTfAP.  I.  CIIURCIT  IN  THE  EAST.  ,515 

had  quelled  every  thought  of  resistance,  accepted  as  a 
consolation  for  the  departed  name  of  sovereignty  ? 
How  far  did  Roman  pride  take  refuge  under  the  pre- 
tensions of  her  Bishop  to^be  the  head  of  Christendom, 
from  the  degradation  of  a  foreign  and  barbarian  yoke  ? 
Christendom,  from  all  her  monuments  and  records, 
might  seem  to  have  formed  a  world  of  her  own.  Of 
the  fall  of  Augutulus,  of  the  rise  of  Odoacer,  we  hear 
not  a  word.  Even  in  the  midst  of  this  extraordinary 
revolution  the  active  energy  of  the  Popes  seems  con- 
centred on  the  East.  The  Bishop  of  Rome  is  busy 
in  Constantinople,  opposing  the  intrigues  of  Timotheus 
Ailurus,  the  Bishop  of  Alexandria,  and  jealously  watch- 
ing the  ambition  of  Acacius,  the  Bishop  of  Constan- 
tinople, a  more  formidable  enemy  than  Odoacer,  as 
threatening  the  religious  supremacy  of  Rome.^  He 
takes  deep  interest  in  the  changes  on  the  throne  of  the 
East,  congratulates  the  Emperor  Zeno  on  his  restora- 
tion, but  it  is  because  Zeno  is  an  enemy  to  the  Euty- 
chian  heretics,  because  he  rises  on  the  ruins  of  Basil is- 
cus,  the  patron  of  the  Monophysite  faction. 

For  while  the  West,  partly  from  her  want  of  interest 
in  these  questions,  partly  from  the  unsettled  state  of 
public  affairs,  from  the  breaking  up  of  Attila's  king- 
dom, the  Vandal  invasion  of  Italy,  the  Visigothic  con- 
quests in  Gaul  and  Spain,  and  the  final  extinction  of 
the  empire,  reposed,  as  to  its  religious  belief,  under  the 
paternal  sway  of  Pope  Leo  and  his  succes-  church  in 
sors,  the  distracted  East,  in  all  its  great  capi-  *^®  ^^'' 
tals,  was  still  agitated  with  strife,  that  strife  perpetually 
breaking  out  into  violence  and  bloodshed.  The  Coun- 
cil of  Chalcedon  had  commanded,  had  defined  the  or- 

1  Simplicii  Epist.  p.  1078. 


316  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

thodox  creed  in  vain.  Everywhere  its  decrees  were 
received  or  rejected,  according  to  the  domiiifint  party 
in  each  city,  and  the  opinions  of  the  reigning  Emperor. 
On  all  the  metropolitan  thrones  there  were  rival 
bishops,  anathematizing  each  other,  and  each  supported 
either  by  the  civil  power,  by  a  part  of  the  populace,  or 
by  the  monks,  more  fierce  and  unruly  than  the  unruly 
populace.  For  everywhere  monks  were  at  the  head  of 
the  religious  revolution  which  threw  off  the  yoke  of 
Jerusalem,  the  Couucil  of  Clialccdon.^  In  Jerusalem 
Theodosius,  a  monk,  expelled  the  rightful  prelate,  Ju- 
venalis  ;  was  consecrated  by  his  party,  and  maintained 
himself  by  acts  of  violence,  pillage,  and  murder,  more 
like  one  of  the  lawless  bandits  of  the  country  than  a 
Christian  bishop.  The  very  scenes  of  the  Saviour's 
Alexandria,  mcrcics  rau  with  blood  shed  in  his  name  by 
his  ferocious  self-called  disci])les.  In  Alexandria  the 
name  of  Dioscorus  (who  remained  quiet  till  his  death, 
at  Gangra,  his  place  of  exile)  was  still  dear  to  most  of 
the  monks,  and  to  many  of  the  people,  who  asserted 
the  champion  of  orthodox  belief  and  Alexandrian  dig- 
nity to  have  been  sacrificed  to  the  Nestorian  Council 
of  Chalcedon.  A  prelate  named  Proterius  had  been 
appointed,  in  the  triumph  of  that  Council,  to  the  vacant 
see.  The  bold  wit  of  the  Alexandrian  populace  had 
always  delighted  in  afiixing  nicknames  upon  the  rulers 
anrl  kings  of  Egypt ;  in  their  strong  religious  animos- 

1  Leon  is  Epist.  cix.  a  cxxiv. ;  Marciani  Epist.  ad  calc.  Cone.  Chalced.; 
Evagrius,  11,  5.  The  latter  writer  says  the  difference  between  the  two 
parties  was  between  the  two  prepositions  cv  and  e|.  Leo  makes  a  remarka- 
ble admission.  His  words  might  have  been  misunderstood  by  those  who 
"  non  valentes  in  Grajcum  apt6  et  propria  Latina  transferre,  cum  in  rebus 
Bubtilibus  et  difficilibus  explicandis,  vix  sibi  etiam  in  sua  lingua  disputator 
quisque  sufficiat." 


Chap.  I.  EXCESSES    OF    THE    MONKS.  317 

ity,  tliey  scrupled  not  to  profane  their  holy  bishops  with 
equally  irreverent  appellations.  Timotheus,  a  monk, 
called  Ailurus  the  Weasel,  perhaps  because  he  was 
said  to  have  slunk  by  night  to  the  secret  meetings  of 
the  rabble,  or  because  he  stole  into  the  bish-  a.d.  457. 
opric  of  another,  was  consecrated  by  the  anti-Chalce- 
donian  faction,  as  a  rival  metropolitan.  We  are  im- 
patient of  these  dreary  and  intricate  feuds.  That  of 
Alexandria  ended,  it  must  not  be  said,  for  it  might 
seem  interminable,  but  came  to  a  crisis,  in  the  horrible 
assassination  of  Proterius.  So  little  had  centuries  of 
Christianity  tamed  the  savage  populace  of  this  great 
city,  that  the  Bishop  was  not  only  murdered  in  the 
ba])tistery,  but  his  body  treated  with  shameless  indig- 
nity, and  other  enormities  perpetrated  which  might 
have  appalled  a  cannibal.^  Timotheus,  however,  is 
acquitted  as  to  the  guilt  of  participation  in  these  mon- 
strous crimes.  But  the  Weasel  did  not  assume  the 
throne  of  Alexandria  without  a  rival.  Another  Timo 
tlieus,  called  Solofaciolus,  was  set  up  (Timo-  a.d.  460. 
theus  the  Weasel  having  been  banished  on  the  author- 
ity of  the  Emperor  Leo),  after  no  long  interval,  by 
the  Chalcedonian  party.^ 

At  Antioch,  some  years  later,  a  third  monk,  Peter, 
called  from  his  humble  birth  and  occupation  the  Fuller,^ 
with  the  apparent  countenance  of  Zeno,  the  Antioch. 
Emperor  Leo's  son-in-law,  whom  he  had  accompanied 

1  Kal  ov6£  Tuv  kvro^  dTroyevead-ai  /card  tov^  ■Ofjpag  <j>eid6/xevoi  iKeivov,  ov 
exeiv  iteairrjv  i^eov  kol  av&pu'nuiv  evayxoc  kvo[ua-&7)aav.  —  Evagrius,  11,  9, 
quoting  the  letter  of  the  Bishops  and  Clergy  to  the  Emperor  Leo. 

^  Timotheus  was  allowed  to  go  to  Constantinople  to  plead  his  caiise; 
thence  he  was  dismissed  into  banishment.  —  S.  Leon.  Epist.  ad  Gennadium 
e*  ad  Leonem  Imper. 

3  The  history  of  Peter  the  Fuller  is  related  diiTerently;  the  time  of  hw 
invasion  of  the  church  of  Antioch  is  not  quite  certain. 


J 18  LATIX    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  HI. 

during  liis  wars  in  the  East,  began  to  intrigue  with  the 
discontented  party  in  that  city.  He  led  a  procession, 
chiefly  of  monastics,  through  the  streets,  which  added 
to  the  "  Thrice  Holy  "  in  the  hymn,  "  who  wast  cru- 
cified for  us."  In  a  short  time  Peter  succeeded  in 
expelling  the  Bishop  Martyrius,  who  voluntarily  abdi- 
cated his  see. 

Barsumas,  the  notorious  leader  of  the  monks  in  Con- 
stantinople, who  had  been  driven  fi'om  that  city  by  the 
Council  of  Chalcedon,  was  not  inactive  during  his 
exile.  Throughout  Syria  he  spread  the  charge  of  Nes- 
torianism  against  the  Council,  and  exasperated  men's 
minds  against  the  prelates  of  that  party.  On  one  re- 
ligious subject  alone  the  conflicting  East  maintained  its 
perfect  unity,  in  the  reverence,  it  may  be  said  the  wor- 
ship, of  the  Hermit  on  the  Pillar.  Simeon  Stylites 
had  been  observed  by  his  faithful  disciple  to  have  re- 
mained motionless  for  three  days  in  the  same  attitude 
of  prayer.  Not  once  had  he  stretched  out  his  arms  in 
the  form  of  the  cross ;  not  once  had  he  bowed  his  fore- 
head till  it  touched  his  feet  (a  holy  exploit,  which  his 
wondering  admirers  had  seen  him  perform  twelve  hun- 
dred and  forty-four  times,  and  then  lost  their  reckon- 
ing). The  watchful  disciple  climbed  the  pillar  ;  a  rich 
odor  saluted  his  nostrils ;  the  saint  was  dead.  The 
news  reached  Antioch.  Ardaburius,  general  of  the 
forces  in  the  East,  hastened  to  send  a  guard  of  honor, 
lest  the  neighb(n'ing  cities  should  seize  —  pt^rliaps  meet 
in  desperate  warfare  for  —  the  treasure  of  his  body. 
Antioch,  now  one  in  heart  and  soul,  sent  out  her  Patri- 
arch, with  three  other  bishops,  to  lead  the  funeral  pro- 
cession. The  body  was  borne  on  mules  for  three 
hundred  stadia  ;    a  deaf  and  dumb  man   touched  tlie 


CiiAP.  I.  SDIKON    STYLITES.  319 

bier,  he  burst  out  into  a  crj  of  gratulation.  The 
whole  city,  with  torches  and  hymns,  followed  the  body. 
The  Emperor  Leo  implored  Antioch  to  yield  to  him  the 
inestimable  deposit.  The  Emperor  implored  in  vain. 
Antioch,  so  long  as  she  possessed  the  remains  of  Simeon, 
might  defy  all  her  enemies.  In  the  same  year,  when 
Antioch  thus  honored  the  funeral  rites  of  him  whom 
she  esteemed  the  greatest  of  mankind,  Rome  was  la- 
menting in  deep  and  manly  sorrow  her  Pontiff,  Leo. 
Contrast  Simeon  Stylites  with  one  Emperor  crouching 
at  the  foot  of  his  pillar,  and  receiving  his  dull,  inco- 
herent words  as  an  oracle,  then  with  another,  a  man 
of  higher  character,  supplicating  for  the  possession  of 
his  remains,  and  Pope  Leo  on  his  throne  in  Rome,  and 
in  the  camp  of  Attila.  Such  were  then  Greek  and 
Latin  Christianity.  Nor  was  the  lineage  of  the  Holy 
Simeon  broken  or  contested.  The  sees  of  Constantino- 
ple, Antioch,  Alexandria,  the  throne  of  the  East,  might 
be  the  cause  of  long  and  bloody  conflict.  The  hermit 
Daniel  mounted  his  pillar  at  Anaplus,  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Euxine ;  in  that  cold  and  stormy  climate,  his 
body,  instead  of  being  burned  up  with  heat,  was  rigid 
with  frost.  But  he  became  at  once  the  legitimate, 
acknowledged  successor  of  Simeon,  the  Prophet,  the 
oracle  of  Constantinople.  Once  he  condescended  to 
appear  in  the  streets  of  Constantinople ;  his  presence 
decided  the  fate  of  the  Empire.^ 

The  religious  affairs  in  the  East  were  indissolubly 

1  On  Simeon.  Antonii  vit.  S.  S.  Theodoret  Lect.,  Evagr.  i.  13;  on  Daniel 
vit.  Dan.  Theodoret.  This  kind  of  asceticism  was  the  admiration  of  the 
East  to  a  later  period.  Eustathius  of  Thessalonica  addressed  a  Stylites  in 
the  xiith  century,  admonishing  the  Saint  against  pride,  yet  at  the  same 
time  asserting  this  to  be  the  utmost  height  of  religion.  Eustath.  Opuscula, 
Edit.  Tafel,  p.  182. 


820  LATIN    CHEISTIANITY.  Book  HI. 

blended  with  the  poHtical  revolutions,  to  which  the 
Revolutions    i'elio;ious   factions    added    their   weioht,    and 

iu  Coustanti-  °         .  ii        i-i  •   •  i  • 

jiopie.   From  Unquestionably  did  not  mitio;ate  the  animos- 

A.D.  457t0  .       ^       rJ^^  i        •  n 

474.  ity.      inese   revolutions   were   ii'equent   and 

Death  of  violent.  Leo  the  Thracian,  the  successor  of 
Marcian.  Marciau,  tlirougliout  his  long  reign,  adhered 
firmly  to  the  Council  of  Chalcedon.  Towards  the 
close  of  his  reign  the  treacherous  murder  of  Aspar 
the  Patrician,  and  his  son  Ardaburius,  to  whom  Leo 
had  owed  his  throne ;  the  violation  of  the  Imperial 
word,  solemnly  given  in  order  to  lure  Aspar  from 
the  sanctuary  to  which  he  had  fled  (the  inviolability 
of  the  right  of  sanctuary  Leo  had  just  established  by 
a  statute)  ;  the  same  contempt  of  the  laws  of  hos- 
pitality (the  murder  took  place  at  a  banquet  in  the 
Imperial  palace,  to  which  he  had  invited  Aspar  and 
his  son),  all  this  execrable  perfidy  was  vindicated  to 
a  large  part  of  his  subjects,  because  Aspar  was  an 
Arian.^  The  Eastern  world  was  in  dano-er  of  fallin*^ 
under  the  sway  of  the  Caesar  Ardaburius,  who  was 
either  an  open  Arian,  or  but  a  recent  and  suspicious 
convert.  This  was  in  itself  enough  to  convict  him 
and  his  partisans  of  treasonable  designs,  and  to  justify 
any  measures  which  might  avert  the  danger  from  the 
Emperor  Leo.  Empire.  Duriug  the  whole  reign  of  Leo, 
Eutychianism  had  been  repressed  by  the  known  or- 
thodoxy of  the  Emperor.2  Timotheus  the  Weasel 
had  been  permitted,  as  has  been  said,  through  the 
weak   and  suspicious  favor  of  Anatolius,  the  Bishop 

1  Niceph.  XV.  27. 

■■2  A  law  of  Leo  betrays  the  fears  of  the  government  of  these  monkish 
factions:  "Qui  in  monasteriis  agunt,  ne  jwtcstatem  habeant  a  nionasteriis 
exeundi."  The  forte  of  hiw  was  necessary  to  compel  thet-e  disciples  of 
Paul  and  Antony  to  be  what  they  had  taken  vows  to  be. 


CHA1-.  I.  ZENO   EXPELLED   BY   BASILISCUS.  321 

of  Constantinople,  to  visit  the  court,  but  he  liad  been 
repelled  and  sent  into  exile  by  the  severe  Emperor. 
But  with  the  exception  of  the  first  distuj'bances  ex- 
cited at  Antioch  by  Peter  the  Fuller,  the  reign  of 
Leo  the  Thracian  was  one  of  comparative  religious 
peace.  Eutychianism  liid  its  head  in  the  sullen 
silence  of  the  monasteries.  With  the  contested  Em- 
pire on  the  death  of  Leo,  the  religious  contests  broke 
out  in  new  fury.  Zeno,  who  had  married  Leo's 
daughter,  Ariadne,  was  driven  from  the  zeno  expeiied 
throne  by  Basiliscus,  the  brother  of  Verina,  a.d.  476. 
the  widow  of  Leo.  With  Basiliscus,  the  anti-Chalce- 
donian  party  rose  to  power.  An  Imperial  encyclic  letter 
branded  with  an  anathema  the  whole  proceedings  at 
Chalcedon,  and  the  letter  of  Pope  Leo,  as  tainted  with 
Nestorianism.  Everyw^here  the  Eutychian  bishops 
seized  upon  the  sees,  and  expelled  the  rightful  prel- 
ates. Peter  the  Fuller,  who  had  for  a  time  been 
excluded,  reascended  the  throne  of  Antioch.  Paul 
resumed  that  of  Ephesus.  Anastasius  of  Jerusalem 
rendered  his  allegiance.  Timotheus  the  Weasel  came 
from  his  exile  to  Constantinople,  and  ruled  the  Em- 
peror Basiliscus  with  unrivalled  sway.^  Acacius,  the 
Bishop  of  Constantinople,  was  a  man  of  great  ability. 
He  beheld  the  unwelcome  presence,  the  increasing 
influence  of  the  rival  Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  with 
jealous  suspicion,  and  refused  to  admit  him  to  the 
communion  of  the  Church.  Fierce  struggles  for 
power  distracted  Constantinople.^     On  one  side  were 

1  See  the  triumphant  reception  of  Timotheus  in  Constantinople,  Evagr. 
iii.  4. 

2  The  language  of  the  Pope  Simplicius  shows  the  manner  in  which  the 
hostile  parties  Avrote  of  each  other:  "Comperi  Timotheum  parricidam,  qui 
/Egyptiacae  pridem  vastator  Eccles^iiv,  in  movem  Cain  .  .  .  ejectus  a  facie 

VOL.    I.  21 


322  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

the  Eutycliian  monks  ;  on  tlie  other,  the  Bishop  Aca- 
cins  unci  a  large  part  of  the  populace  and  of  the 
monks  of  Constantinople,  for  fierce  bands  of  monks 
now  appeared  on  either  side.  But  his  most  powerful 
supporter  was  the  Hermit  Daniel,  who  descended  from 
the  pillar,  where  he  had  received  the  suppliant  visits 
of  the  former  Emperor,  to  take  part  in  these  tumults, 
that  pillar  which  more  sober  Christians  might  almost 
have  mounted  in  order  to  rise  above  the  turbid  at- 
mosphere of  strife.  With  this  potent  ally  the  Bishop 
of  Constantinople  (probably  indeed  supported  by  the 
strong  faction  of  the  expelled  Zeno)  waged  an  equal 
war  against  the  Emperor.  Ere  long  the  strange  spec- 
tacle was  presented  of  a  Roman  Emperor  flying  before 
a  naked  hermit,  who  had  lost  the  use  of  his  legs  by 
standing  for  sixteen  years  on  his  column.  Basiliscus 
too  late  revoked  his  encyclic  letter.  He  fell,  and  Zeno 
Zeno  empe-  Tcsumed  the  powcr.  The  tide  turned  against 
ror,  A.D.  477.  ^\^q  Mouopliysite  or  anti-Chalcedonian  party. 
But  the  rest,  though  some  bishops  hastened  to  make 
their  peace  with  the  Emperor  and  with  Acacius,  con- 
tended obstinately  against  the  stream.  Stephanus,  the 
Bishop  of  Antioch,  was  murdered  in  the  church  by 
the  partisans  of  Peter  the  Fuller.  Timotheus  the 
Weasel,  spared  from  all  extreme  chastisement  on  ac- 
count of  his  age,  died ;  but  in  his  place  arose  another 
monk,  Peter,  called  Mongus,  or  the  Stammerer,  an^ 
laid  claim  to  the  see  of  Alexandria.  Timotheus  Solo- 
faciolus,  however,  under  the  Imperial   authority,  re^ 

Dei,  hoc  est  Ecclesiae  dignitate  seclusus."  ...  He  then  describes  his  re- 
sumption of  the  Alexandrian  See:  "Quo  procul  dubio  Cain  ipso  ]ong6 
detestabilior  approbatur;  ille  siquidem  a  perpetrato  semel  facinore  damna- 
tus  abstinuit,  hie  profecit  ad  crimina  majora  post  poenam." — Siniplic. 
Epist.    Labbe,  1070. 


Chap.  I.  HENOTICON  OF  ZENO.  328 

siimoci  tlie  Patriarchate,  and  endeavored  to  reconcile 
the  heretics  by  Christian  gentleness.^  The  Emperor 
Zcno  beheld  with  commiseration  and  dismay  liis  dis- 
tracted empire  ;  he  determined,  if  possible,  to  assuage 
the  animosities,  and  to  reconcile  the  hostile  factions. 
After  a  vain  attempt  to  obtain  the  opinions  of  the 
chief  ecclesiastical  dignitaries,  without  assembling  a 
new  Council,  a  measure  which  experience  had  shown 
to  exasperate  rather  than  appease  the  strife,  Zeno 
issued  his  famous  Henoticon,  or  Edict  of  a.d.  482. 
Union.  This  edict  was  composed,  it  was  zeno. 
believed,  if  not  by  Acacius,  Bishop  of  Constantinople, 
under  his  direction  and  with  his  sanction.  It  aimed 
not  at  the  reconcilement  of  the  conflicting  opinions, 
but  hoped,  by  avoiding  all  expressions  offensive  to 
either  party,  to  allow  them  to  meet  together  in  Chris- 
tian amity ;  as  if  such  terms  had  not  become  to  both 
parties  an  essential  part,  perhaps  the  whole,  of  their 
Christianity. 

The  immediate  effects  of  the  Henoticon  in  the  East 
might  seem  to  encourage  the  fond  hope  of  success. 
The  feud  between  the  rival  Churches  of  Constan- 
tinople and  Alexandria  was  for  a  time  appeased. 
Acacius  and  Peter  the  Stammerer  recognized  their 
mutual  claims  to  Christian  communion.  Calendion, 
the  Chalcedonian  Bishop  of  Antioch,  had  been  ban- 
ished to  the  African  Oasis.  Peter  the  Fuller  had 
resumed  the  throne.  Peter  acceded  to  the  Henoticon  ; 
and  these  three  Patriarchal  churches  commended  the 
Imperial  scheme  of  union  to  the  Eastern  world.^ 

1  Liberatus  says  that  the  heretics  used  to  cry  out  as  he  passed,  "  Though 
tve  do  not  communicate  with  you,  )^et  we  love  you."  — Breviar.  Baronius 
is  indignant  at  this  "  nimia  indulgentia  "  of  the  bisliop  (sub  ann.  478^. 

2  Evagrius,  iii.  26. 


324  LATIN    CPIRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

It  was  but  a  transient  lull  of  peace.  The  Henoti- 
Aiexandria.  cou,  wltliout  reconciling  the  two  original 
conflicting  parties,  only  gave  rise  to  a  third  :  in 
Three  parties.  Alexandria  the  two  factions  severed  into 
three.  One  half  of  the  Eutychian  or  anti-Chalce- 
donian  party  adhered  to  Peter  the  Stammerer;  the 
other  indignantly  repudiated  what  they  called  the  base 
concession  of  Peter ;  they  were  named  the  Acephali, 
without  a  head,  as  setting  up  no  third  prelate.  The 
strong  Chalcedonian  party  had  nominated  as  successor 
John  Taiajas.  to  the  mild  Timotlicus  Solofaciolus,  a  man  of 
a  different  character.  John  Taiajas,  while  at  Con- 
stantinople, had  been  compelled  by  the  provident,  but 
vain  precaution,  no  doubt,  of  Acacius,  to  pledge  him- 
self not  to  aspire  to  the  see  of  Alexandria.^  The  ob- 
ject of  Acacius  was  to  unite  the  Alexandrian  Church 
under  Peter  the  Stammerer,  beneath  the  broad  com- 
prehension of  the  Henoticon.  No  sooner  was  Timo- 
theus  dead,  and  John  Taiajas  safe  at  Alexandria, 
than  he  accepted  the  succession  of  Timotheus.  On 
the  union  between  Acacius  and  Peter  the  Stammerer, 
John  Taiajas  fled  to  Rome;  he  was  welcomed  as  a 
second  Athanasius. 

For  now  a  question  had  arisen,  which  involved  the 
Question  of     BislioDS    of  Romc,   uot    mcrclv  as   dio;nified 

Unman  ^      ^  n  ^  i         •       i 

pupremacy.  arbiters  on  a  high  and  profound  metaphysical 
question  of  the  faith,  but,  vital  to  their  power  and  dig- 
nity, plunged  them  into  the  strife  as  ardent  and  implac- 
able combatants.  The  Roman  Pontiffs  had  already,  at 
least  from  the  time  of  Innocent  I.,  asserted  their  in- 
alienable supremacy  on  purely  religious  grounds,  as 
successors  of  St.  Peter.     If,  as  in  the  recent  act  of 

1  Evaffrius,  on  the  authority  of  Zacharias. 


Chap.  I.  v^UESTION   OF  ROIMAN   SUPREMACY.  325 

Hilariiis,  they  had  appealed  to  the  laws  of  the  empire, 
as  confirmatory  of  that  supremacy,  it  was  to  enforce 
more  ready  and  implicit  obedience.  But  with  the 
world  at  large  the  ecclesiastical  supremacy  of  Rome 
rested  solely  on  her  cIa^I  supremacy.  The  Pope  was 
head  of  Christendom  as  Bishop  of  the  first  city  in  the 
world.  Already  Constantinople  had  put  forth  claims 
to  coequal  ecclesiastical,  as  being  now  of  coequal 
temporal  dignity.  This  claim  had  been  ratified  by 
the  great  QEcumenic  Council  of  Chalcedon,  —  that 
Council  which  had  established  the  inflexible  line  of 
orthodoxy  between  the  divergent  heresies  of  Nestorius 
and  Eutyches.  This  was  but  the  supplementary  act, 
it  was  asserted,  of  a  small  and  factious  minority,  who 
had  lingered  behind  the  rest;  but,  it  appeared  upon 
the  records,  it  boasted  the  authority  of  the  unanimous 
Council.^  The  ambition  of  Acacius,  now,  under  Zeno, 
sole  and  undisputed  Bishop  of  Constantinople,  was 
equal  to  his  ability.  He  seemed  watching  the  gradual 
fall  of  the  Western  Empire,  the  degradation  of  Rome 
from  the  capital  of  the  world,  which  would  leave  Con- 
stantinople no  longer  the  new,  the  second,  rather  the 
only  Rome  upon  earth.  The  West,  in  the  person  of 
Anthemius,  had  received  an  emperor  appointed  by 
Constantinople;  the  Western  Empire  at  one  moment 
seemed  disposed  to  become  a  province  of  the  East. 
Acacius  had  already  obtained  from  the  Emperor  (we 
must  reascend  in  the  course  of  our  history  to  connect 
the  East  with  the  West),  Leo  the  Thracian,  who  liad 
ruled  between  Marcian  and  Zeno,  a  decree  confirming 
to  the  utmost  all  the  privileges  of  a  Patriarchate  claimed 
by  Constantinople.      In  that  edict  Constantinople  as- 

1  Compare  Baroiiius  sub  aun.  472. 


826  LATIN    CHKISTIANITY.  Book  III 

sumed  tlie  significant  and  tln'eatenino;  title  of  "  Motlier 
of  all  Christians  and  of  the  orthodox  Religion."  The 
Pope  Siniplicius  had  protested  against  this  usurpation, 
but  his  protest  is  lost.  The  aspiring  views  of  Acacius 
were  interrupted  for  a  short  time  bj  his  fall  under  the 
Emperor  Basiliscus ;  but  his  triumph  (an  unwonted 
triumph  of  a  Bishop  of  Constantinople  over  an  Em- 
peror), his  unbounded  favor  with  Zeno,  might  warrant 
the  loftiest  expectations.  As  the  acknowledged  and 
victorius  champion  of  orthodoxy,  Acacius  could  now 
take  the  high  position  of  a  mediator.  In  the  Henot- 
icon  Zeno  the  Emperor  spoke  his  language,  and  in 
that  edict  appeared  a  manifest  desire  to  assuage  the 
discords  of  the  East,  and  to  combine  the  Churches 
in  one  harmonious  confederacy.  On  the  murder  of 
Stephanus  of  Antioch,  Acacius  had  consecrated  his 
successor ;  a  step  against  which  the  Pope  Simplicius, 
A.D.  479.  Re- who    was    watcliiug   all   his   actions,  sent   a 

monstrance  -r»    p  i  i  t 

of  Simplicius.  stroug  remoustrance.  Jieiore  the  publica- 
tion of  the  Henoticon,  the  Western  Empire  had  de- 
parted from  Rome;  but  though  her  political  suprem- 
acy, even  her  political  independence  was  lost,  shi 
would  not  tamely  abandon  her  spiritual  dignity.  For 
Rome,  in  the  utmost  assertion  of  her  power  against 
the  Bishop  of  Constantinople,  might  depend  on  the 
support  of  above  half  the  East;  of  all  who  were 
discontented  with  the  Henoticon  ;  and  who,  in  the 
absorbing  ardor  of  the  strife,  would  not  care  on  what 
terms  they  obtained  the  alliance  of  the  Bisliop  of 
Rome,  so  that  alliance  enabled  them  to  triumph  over 
their  adversaries.  The  dissatisfaction  with  the  Henot- 
Factionsin  ^^^^^  Comprehended  totally  opposite  factions, 
tiicKast.        — ^l^^,^   followei's  of  Nestorius   and   of  Eutv- 


Chap.  I.  FACTIONS   IN   THE  EAST.  327 

clies,  wlio  were  impartially  condemned  on  all  sides  ;  — 
and  the  ecclesiastics,  who  considered  it  an  act  of  pre- 
smnption  in  the  Emperor  to  assume  the  right  of  legis- 
lating in  spiritual  matters,  a  right  complacently  admitted 
when  ratifying  or  compulsorily  enforcing  ecclesiastical 
decrees,  and  usually  adopted  without  scruple  on  other 
occasions  by  the  party  with  which  the  Court  happened 
to  side.  But  the  strength  of  the  malcontents  was  the 
high  Chalcedonian  or  orthodox  party,  who  condemned 
the  Henoticon  as  tainted  with  Eutychianism,  and  de- 
nounced Acacius  as  holding  communion  with  Eutychian 
Prelates,  and  therefore  himself  justly  suspected  of 
leaning  to  that  heresy.  In  Constantinople  the  more 
formidable  of  the  monks  were  of  this  party ;  the 
Bishops  of  Rome  addressed  more  than  once  the  clergy 
and  the  archimandrites  of  that  city,  as  though  assured 
of  their  sympathy  against  the  Bishop  and  the  Empe- 
ror. John  Talajas,  the  exiled  Bishop  of  Alexandria, 
filled  Rome  with  his  clamors.  The  Pope  Simplicius 
addressed  a  remonstrance  to  Acacius,  to  which  Aca- 
cius, who  to  former  letters  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  had 
condescended  no  answer,  coldly  replied  that  he  knew 
nothing  of  such  a  Bishop  of  Alexandria ;  that  he  was 
in  communion  with  the  rightful  Bishop,  Peter  Mongus, 
who,  like  a  loyal  subject,  had  subscribed  the  Emperor's 
Edict  of  Union.^ 

At  this  juncture   died    Pope    Simplicius.     On   the 
1  acancy  of  the  see  occurred  a  singular  scene.  March, 
The  clergy  were   assembled  in   St.    Peter's.  Death  of 
In    the   midst   of  them    stood    up    Basilius,  "'"'^  "^'"^ 
the  Patrician  and  Prefect  of  Rome,  acting  as  Vice- 
gerent  of    Odoacer,    the    barbarian    King.      Pie    ap- 

1  Libciat.  Bruviar. 


828  LATIN    CHEISTIANITY.  Book  III 

pearcd  bj  the  command  of  his  master,  and  by  the 
admonition  of  the  deceased  Simplicius,  to  take  care 
that  the  peace  of  the  city  was  not  disturbed  by  any 
sedition  or  tumult  during  the  election.  That  election 
conid  not  take  place  without  the  sanction  of  his  Sover- 
eign. He  proceeded,  as  the  Protector  of  the  Church 
from  loss  and  injury  by  Churchmen,  to  proclaim  the 
Dexreeof  followiug  cdict I  "That  no  one,  under  the 
Odoacer.  penalty  of  anathema,  should  alienate  any 
farm,  buildings,  or  ornaments  of  the  Churches ;  that 
such  alienation  by  any  Bishop  present  or  future  was 
null  and  void."  So  important  did  this  precedent  ap- 
pear, so  dangerous  in  the  hands  of  those  schismatics 
who  would  even  in  those  days  limit  the  sacerdotal 
power,  that  nearly  twenty  years  after,  a  fortunate 
occasion  was  seized  by  the  Pope  Symmachus  to  annul 
this  decree.  In  a  synod  of  Bishops  at  Rome,  the 
edict  was  rehearsed,  interrupted  by  protests  of  the 
Bishops  at  this  presumptuous  interference  of  the  laity 
with  affairs  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction.^  The  authen- 
ticity of  the  decree  was  not  called  in  question  ;  it  was 
declared  invalid,  as  being  contrary  to  the  usages  of  the 
Fathers,  enacted  on  lay  authority,  and  as  not  ratified 
by  the  signature  of  any  Bishop  at  Rome.  The  same 
Council,  however,  acknowledged  its  wisdom  by  re- 
enactino;  its  ordinance  ao;ainst  the  alienation  of  Church 
property. 

Felix,  by  birth  a  Roman,  succeeded  to  the  vacant 
Felix  ni.       see.     He  inherited   the   views   and  ]>assions, 

Pope.  .  .    .       ^  / 

A.D.  483.  as  well  as  the  throne  of  Simplicius  and  his 
strife  with  the  East.  His  first  act  was  an  indignant 
rejection  of  the  Henoticon,  as  an  insult  to  the  Council 

i  Synodus  Itouiaiiu.    Labbc,  sub  aim.  502. 


Chap.  I.  FELIX    HI.  829 

of  Chalcedon ;  as  an  audacious  act  of  the  Emperor 
Zeno,  wlio  dared  to  dictate  articles  of  faith ;  as  a  seed- 
plot  of  impiety.^  He  anathematized  all  tlie  Bishops 
who  had  subscribed  this  edict.  At  the  head  of  a  Roman 
synod,  Felix  addressed  a  strong  admonitory  letter  to 
Acacius  of  Constantinople,  and  another,  in  a  more 
persuasive  tone,  to  the  Emperor  Zeno.  These  letters 
were  sent  into  the  East  by  two  Bishops,  Misenus  and 
Vitalis,  as  Legates  of  Pope  Felix.  To  Peter  the 
Fuller  was  directed  another  letter,  arraigning  him  as 
involved  in  every  heresy  which  had  ever  afflicted  the 
Church,  or  with  something  worse  than  the  worst.^ 
Whether  he  awaited  any  reply  from  the  re-  Excommuni- 
fractory  Bishop  or  not  seems  doubtftil ;  but  the  Fuiier. 
he  proceeded  to  fulminate  a  sentence  of  deposition  and 
excommunication  against  Peter  in  his  own  name,  and 
to  assume  that  this  sentence  would  be  ratified  by  Aca- 
cius of  Constantinople. 

The   Legate   Bishops,    Misenus   and   Vitalis,  wer« 

1  Theodorus  Lector. 

2  The  introduction  by  Peter  the  Fuller  of  "  who  wast  crucified  for  us," 
after  the  angelic  hymn,  the  Holy,  Holy,  Holy,  struck  the  ears  of  the  ortho- 
dox with  horror.  Felix  relates  with  all  the  earnestness  of  faith,  and  with 
all  the  authority  of  his  position,  the  miraculous  origin  of  this  hymn  in  its 
simple  form.  During  an  earthquake  at  Constantinople,  while  the  whole  peo- 
ple were  praying  in  the  open  air,  an  infant  was  visibly  rapt  to  heaven,  in  the 
sight  of  the  whole  assembly  and  of  the  Bishop  Proclus;  and  after  staying 
there  an  hour,  descended  back  to  the  earth,  and  informed  the  people  that 
he  had  heard  the  whole  host  of  angels  singing  those  words.  It  was  not 
merely  that  the  words,  added  at  Antioch,  left  it  doubtful  which  of  the 
Persons  of  the  Trinity  was  crucified  for  us;  the  term  was  equally  impious 
as  regarded  any  one  of  those  consubstantial,  uncreated,  invisible,  impassi- 
ble Beings.  Kai^o  roivvv  6  fxovoyevyc  vio^  kari  tov  Tzarpo^  ofioovaLog,  koL 
elg  Trie  wkaiperov  TptuSoc,  uktigto^  koI  a^iaToq,  efie/isv^Ket  urrai^/g  koI 
Mdvarog.  To  ovv  aKTLOTOv  koc  u^dvarov  t^  Kriaei  firj  avvrarTE,  koI  roii 
r^f  TTO/iv^etag  Tioyov  [itj  KpciTVve,  did  to  Xeyeiv  te^vuvui  tov  tva  rf/c  Tpidchc 

^Epist.  Felic.  HL  ad  Petr.  Full.,  Labbe,  1058. 


330  LATIN    CHIIISTIANITY.  Book  III 

attacked  at  Abydus,  and  their  papers  seized.  At 
Constantinople  tliey  were  compelled,  bribed,  or  be- 
trayed into  communion  with  Peter  the  Stammerer ; 
at  least  they  were  present,  and  without  protest,  at 
the  divine  service  when  the  name  of  Peter  was  read 
in  the  diptychs  as  lawful  Bishop  of  Alexandina.  On 
th(iir  return  they  were  branded  as  traitors  by  Felix 
at  the  head  of  a  synod  at  Rome,  and  degraded  from 
their  episcopal  office.  Felix  proceeded  (his  tardiness 
had  been  sharply  rebuked  by  the  monks  of  Constan- 
tinople, especially  the  sleepless  monks,^  whose  archi- 
jxcommuui-  niandritc  Cyril  and  his  whole  brotherhood 
of^constonu-  wcrc  the  implacable  enemies  of  Acacius) 
nopie.  ^^   issue   the    sentence   of   excommunication 

against  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople.  The  sentence 
was  pronounced,  not  on  account  of  heresy,  but  of 
obstinate  communion  with  heretics  —  with  Peter  of 
July  28, 484.  Alexandria,  who  had  been  condemned  by 
Pope  Simplicius  for  his  violent  conduct  to  the  Papal 
Legates,  and  his  contemptuous  refusal  to  admit  the 
third  ambassador,  Felix  the  Defensor,  to  his  presence. 
Acacius  was  declared  to  be  deprived,  not  merely  of 
his  episcopal,  but  of  his  priestly  honors,  separated  from 
the  communion  of  the  faithful  ;  and  tliis  anathema,  an 
unusual  form,  was  declared  irrepealable  by  any  power.^ 
But  how  was  this  process  to  be  served  on  the  Bishop 
of  Constantinople  ?  Acacius  was  strong  in  the  favor 
of  the  Emperor  Zeno.     It  is  remarkable  that,  while  he 

1  'AKolliTfTOt. 

2  "  Nunquamque  anathematis  vinculis  eruendus."  —  Epist.  Felic.  ad 
Acacius.  Felix,  in  a  subsequent  letter  to  Zeno,  maintains  this  impla- 
cable doctrine  :  "  Undo  divino  judicio  nullatenus  potuit,  etiam  cum  id 
mallcmus,  absolvi."  —  Epist.  xi.  Writing'  to  Fravitta,  his  successor,  lie 
mliuiatos  that  uo  doubt  Acacius  li;is  ^-onc,  like  Judas,  to  hell. 


CiiAr.  I.  SCHISM   OF  FORTY  YEARS.  331 

thus  precipitately  proceeds  to  the  last  extremity  against 
his  rival  Bishop,  the  Emperor  is  still  sacred  against 
the  condemnation  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  Zeno  had 
issued  the  Henoticon.  Zeno  had,  by  so  doing,  usurped 
the  power  of  dictating  religious  articles  tc  the  clergy. 
Zeno,  if  he  had  not  ordered,  sanctioned  all  this  re- 
establishment  of  the  Bishops  who  had  not  acceded 
to  the  Council  of  Chalcedon ;  but  to  Zeno  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Pontiff  is  respectful,  and  bordering  on 
adulation.  The  monks,  the  allies  of  Felix,  w^ere  ready 
to  encounter  any  peril.  One  of  the  sleepless  fastened 
the  fatal  parchment  to  the  dress  of  Acacius,  as  he 
was  about  to  officiate  in  the  Church.  Acacius  quietly 
proceeded  in  the  holy  ceremony.  Suddenly  he  paused ; 
with  calm,  clear  voice,  he  ordered  the  name  Aug.  i,  a.d. 

.  484. 

of  Felix,  Bishop  of  Rome,  to  be  struck  out  Acacius  ex- 


communi- 


of  the  roll   of  bishops   in  commmiion  with  c'ltes  Feiix. 
the  East.     The  ban  of  Rome  was  encountered  by  the 
ban  of  Constantinople.^ 

The  schism  divided  the  Churches  of  the  East  and 
West  for  nearly  forty  years,  down  to  the  schism  of 
Pontificate  of  Hormisdas  and  the  empire  of  ^^''yy''^'- 
Justinian,  under  whose  sway  Italy  became  subject  to 
the  Byzantine  sovereign.  Overtures  of  reconciliation 
were  made,  but  Felix  at  least  adhered  inflexibly  to  his 
demand,  that  the  name  of  Acacius  should  be  erased 
from  the  diptychs.  The  great  Eastern  Patriarchs  of 
Antioch,  Alexandria,  and  Jerusalem,  utterly  disregard- 
ing the  anathema  of  Rome,  continued  in  communion 
with  Acacius  and  his  successors.  Acacius,  notwith- 
Btanding  the  incitements  to  spiritual  rebellion  addressed 

1  Julius,  the  niessengor  of  Felix,  (luailed  bcfure  the  danger,  or  was  bribed 
by  Byzantine  gold. 


332  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III, 

by  the  Bishop  of  Rome  to  his  clergy  and  to  the  turbu- 
lent monks,  maintained  his  throne  till  his  death  ^ 

Acacius  (I  trace  rapidly  the  history  of  Eastern 
A.D.  489.  Christianity  until  the  reunion  with  the  West) 
Bishop  of  was  succeeded  by  Fravitta  or  Flavitta,  who 
nopie.  occupied  the   throne   but   for   four   months.^ 

Euphemius.    The  election  then  fell  on  Euphemius. 

The  Bishops  of  Constantinople  might  defy  the  spir- 
itual thunders  of  Rome,  but  though  Acacius  had  once 
triumphed  over  an  usurping  Emperor,  in  daring  to  con- 
flict with  the  established  Imperial  authority,  they  but 
betrayed  their  own  weakness.  During  the  reign  of  the 
Emperor  Anastasius,  two  Bishops  of  Constantinople, 
having  justly  or  unjustly  incurred  the  Imperial  dis- 
pleasure, were  degraded  from  their  sees.  The  Em- 
peror Anastasius  has  been  handed  down  to  posterity 
with  the  praise  of  profound  piety,  and  the  imputation 
of  Eutychianism,  Arianism,  and  even  Manicheism. 
Anastasius  ascended  the  throne,  though  Euphemius 
had  exerted  all  his  authority  to  prevent  his  elevation, 
through  his  marriage  with  the  Empress  Ariadne.  It 
is  said  that  an  old  quarrel,  while  Anastasius  was  yet  in 
a  humbler  station,  rankled  in  both  their  hearts.  The 
Bishop  had  threatened  to  shave  the  head  of  the  domes- 
tic of  the  palace,  and  expose  him  as  a  spectacle  to  the 
people.  The  mother  of  Anastasius  and  his  mother's 
brother  had  been  Arians,  and  Euphemius  took  care 
that  dark  susj^icions  of  Anastasius  on  this  vital  point 
should  be  disseminated  in  the  empire.  But  Anastasius, 
in  the  conscientious  conviction  of  his  own  orthodoxy, 

1  Felicis  Epist.  x.  xi, :  ad  Clcrum  et  PIcbeiu  Constantin.  et  ad  Monachos 
Constantin.  et  Bithynije. 

2  Felix  addressed  a  letter  to  Fravitta  adjuring  hiiu  to  abaudou  the  causo 
of  Acacius  aiul  Peter,  and  uuite  with  Uoiue. 


Chap.  I.  FOUR    TARTIES    IN    THE    EAST,  333 

and  that  virtue  whicli  had  called  forth  the  popular 
acclamation,  "  Reign  as  you  have  lived,"  dared  to  en- 
force despotic  toleration.  The  East  was  now  divided 
into  four  religious  parties.  1.  Those  who,  with  the 
Roman  Pontiff  and  the  monks  of  Constantinople,  held 
inflexibly  to  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  and  ^omj.  parties 
demanded  the  distinct  recognition  of  its  doc-  *"  "^^  *^*' 
trines.  These  were  not  content  with  the  anathema 
against  Nestorius,  Eutyches,  and  Dioscorus :  they  in- 
sisted on  includino;  under  the  malediction  Acacius  and 
Peter  the  Stammerer.^  2.  Those  who,  holding  the 
tenets  of  Chalcedon,  had  yet  subscribed  the  Henoticon, 
and  for  the  sake  of  peace  would  not  compel  the  accept- 
ance of  the  Chalcedonian  decrees.  Among  these  were 
Euphemius  of  Constantinople  before  the  accession  of 
Anastasius,  and  at  first  his  successor  Macedonius,  and 
the  Patriarchs  of  Antioch  and  Jerusalem  ;  all  the  four 
great  Prelates  had  subscribed  the  Henoticon.  3. 
Those  who  subscribed  the  Henoticon,  and  abhorred  the 
decrees  of  Chalcedon ;  these  were  chiefly  the  Patriarch 
of  Alexandria,  with  the  Bishops  of  Egypt  and  Libya. 
4.  The  Acephali,  the  Eutychian  party,  who  held  the 
Council  of  Chalcedon  to  be  a  Nestorian  conclave,  and 
cherished  the  memory  of  Dioscorus  and  of  Eutyches. 
Anastasius  issued  his  mandate,  that  no  bishop  should 
compel  a  reluctant  people  to  adhere  to  the  Council  of 
Chalcedon ;  no  bishop  should  compel  a  people  which 
adhered  to  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  to  abandon  its 
principles.  Many  who  infringed  on  this  law  of  Impe- 
rial charity  were  deposed  with  impartial  severity. 
Euphemius  had  extorted  from  the  Emperor  Anastasius, 
as  a  kind  of  price  for  his  accession,  a  written  assevera- 

1  Evagrius,  iii.  31. 


334  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  HI. 

tion  of  allegiance  to  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  and  an 
oatli  that  he  would  maintain  inviolate  those  articles 
which  he  had  been  with  difficulty  compelled  to  surren- 
der. Euphemius,  it  might  seem,  as  a  rebuke  against 
the  comprehensive  measures  of  the  Emperor,  held  a 
synod,  in  which  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Chalce- 
don were  confirmed ;  but  though  this  might  be  among 
the  secret  causes,  it  was  not  the  crime  for  which  Anas- 
tasius  demanded  the  degradation  of  Euphemius.^ 

The  Isaurian  rebellion  disturbed  the  earlier  period 
of  the  reign  of  Anastasius ;  it  lasted  for  five  years. 
The  Bishop  Euphemius  tampered  in  treasonable  pro- 
ceedings ;  he  was  accused  of  traitorous  correspondence, 
A.T).495.  or  at  least  of  betraying  the  secrets  of  the 
state  to  these  formidable  rebels.  The  Emperor  sum- 
moned a  Council ;  Euphemius  was  deposed,  sent  into 
exile,  and  died  in  obscurity :  he  has  left  a  doubtful 
feme.  The  Latin  writers  hesitate  whether  he  was  a 
martyr  or  a  heretic.^ 

Macedonius  was  promoted  to  the  vacant  See.^     Mac 
Macedonius    edouius,  a  man  of  gentle  but  too  flexible  dis- 
coSuM-      position,  began  his  prelacy  by  an  act  of  unu- 
°°P^^"  sual  courtesy  to  his  fallen  predecessor.     He 

performed  the  act  of  degradation  with  forbearance. 
Before  he  saluted  him  in  the  Baptistery,  he  took  off"  the 
episcopal  habiliment,  and  appeared  in  the  dress  of  a 
Priest;  he  supplied  the  exile  with  money,  borrowed 
money,  for  his  immediate  use.  Macedonius  subscribed 
the  Henoticon,  and  still  the  four  great  Patriarchates 
were  held  in  Christian  fellowship  by  that  bond  of 
union.     At  the  command  of   the   Emperor,  Macedo- 

1  Evagrius,  Theophanes,  p.  117.     Victor,  xvi.  xvii. 

2  Walch,  p.  974.  3  Theophanes. 


(JnAP.  I.  MACEDONIUS.  835 

nius  undertook  the  hopeless  task  of  reconcIHTig  the 
four  great  Monasteries,  among  them  that  of  the  Akoi- 
metoi,  and  the  female  convent  then  presided  over  hy 
Matrona,  with  the  communion  of  the  Church  under 
the  Henoticon.  The  inflexible  monks  would  give  up 
no  letter  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  —  they  declared 
themselves  prepared  rather  to  suffer  exile.^  Matrona, 
a  woman  of  the  austerest  life,  endured  with  patience, 
which  wrought  strongly  on  men's  minds,  acts  of  vio- 
lence used  by  a  Deacon  to  compel  her  to  submission. 
The  mild  Macedonius,  instead  of  converting  them,  was 
himself  overawed  by  their  rigor  into  a  strong  partisan 
of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  ;  he  inclined  to  make 
overtures  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  Gelasius  I. ;  but 
Anastasius  prohibited  such  proceedings ;  he  had  de- 
clared himself  resolved  against  all  innovations. 

The  Eastern  wars  occupied  for  some  years  the  mind 
of  Anastasius.  In  the  mean  time  the  compressed  fires 
of  religious  discord  were  struggling  to  burst  forth  and 
convulse  the  realm.  Macedonius  had  hardened  into  a 
stem,  almost  a  fanatic  partisan  of  the  Council  of  Chal- 
cedon. John  Nicetas  had  ascended  the  throne  of  Al- 
exandria: he  subscribed  the  Henoticon,  but  declared 
that  it  was  an  insufficient  exposition  of  the  true  doc- 
trine, as  not  explicitly  condemning  the  Council  of 
Chalcedon.  Flavianus  filled  the  See  of  Antioch  — 
Elias  that  of  Jerusalem.  Elias  was  disposed  to  reject 
the  Council  of  Chalcedon  ;  Flavianus  was  in-  confusion  at 
clined  to  rest  on  the  neutral  ground  of  the  ^°^"-^ 
Henoticon.  But  the  Monophysite  party  in  Syria, 
which  seemed  greatly  reduced  in  numbers,  and  content 
to  seclude  itself  within  the  peaceful  monasteries,  sud- 

1  Theophanes,  Chronog.,  ed  Bekker,  i.  219. 


336  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

deiily  having  found  a  bold  and  reckless  leader,  burst  out 
in  fierce  insurrection.  Xenaias/  or  Philoxenus,  Bishop 
of  Hierapolis,  began  to  agitate  the  whole  region  by  ac- 
cusing Flavianus  as  a  Nestorian.  Flavian  us,  to  excul- 
pate himself,  issued  his  anathema  against  Nestorius  and 
his  opinions.  Xenaias  imperiously  demanded  the 
anathema,  not  of  Nestorius  alone,  but  of  Ibas,  The- 
odoret  of  Cyrus,  and  a  host  of  other  bishops,  who  from 
time  to  time  had  been  charged  with  Nestorianism. 
Flavianus  resisted.  But  the  followers  of  Eutyches 
and  Dioscorus  sprung  up  on  all  sides.  Eleusinius,  a 
bishop  of  Cappadocia,  and  Nicias  of  the  Syrian  Laodi- 
cea,  joined  their  ranks.  Flavianus  consented  to  involve 
all  whom  they  chose  thus  to  denounce  in  one  sweeping 
malediction.  Xenaias,  flushed  with  his  victory,  still 
refused  to  absolve  the  timid  bishop  from  the  hated  name 
of  Nestorian.  He  required  his  explicit  condemnation 
of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  and  of  all  who  asserted 
the  two  natures  in  Christ.  Flavianus  still  struggled  in 
the  toils  of  these  inexorable  polemics,  who  were  re- 
solved to  convict  him,  subscribe  what  he  might,  as  a 
secret  Nestorian.  Swarms  of  monks  crowded  from  the 
district  of  Cynegica,  and  filling  the  streets  of  Antioch, 
insisted  on  the  direct  condemnation  of  the  Council  of 
Chalcedon  and  the  letter  of  Pope  Leo.^  The  people 
of  Antioch  rose  in  defence  of  their  bishop,  slew  some 
of  the  monks,  and  drove  the  rest  into  the  Orontes, 
where  many  lost  their  lives.  Another  party  of  monks 
from  Coelesyria,  where  Flavianus  liimself  had  dwelt  in 
the  convent  of  Talmognon,  hastened  to  form  a  guard 
for  his  person. 

^  Xenaias,  interpreted  by  the  hostile  monks  of  Jerusalem,  "  The  stranger 
to  Catholic  doctrine." 
2  Evagrius,  iii.  31,  32. 


Chap.  I.  CONFUSION  AT  iVNTIOCU.  337 

The  Emperor  Anastasius  in  the  mean  time  on  his 
return  from  the  East  found  Macedonius,  in-  a.d.  605-6. 
stead  of  a  mild  assertor  of  the  Henoticon,  at  the  head 
of  one,  and  that  the  most  dangerous  and  violent  of  the 
religious  factions.  Rumors  were  industriously  spread 
abroad,  that  the  Emperor's  secret  Manicheism  had 
been  confirmed  in  the  East.  A  Persian  painter  had 
been  employed  in  one  of  the  palaces,  and  had  covered 
the  walls,  not  with  the  orthodox  human  forms  wor- 
shipped by  the  Church,  but  with  the  mysterious  and 
symbolic  figures  of  the  Manichean  heresy.  Anastasius, 
insulted  by  the  fanatic  populace,  was  escorted  to  the 
Council  and  to  the  churches  by  the  Prefect  at  the  head 
of  a  strong  guard.  Anastasius  was  driven  by  degrees 
(an  Emperor  of  his  commanding  character  should  not 
have  been  driven)  to  favor  the  opposing  party.  John, 
Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  sent  to  offer,  it  is  a.d.  510. 
said,  two  hundred  pounds  of  gold,  as  a  tribute,  a  sub- 
sidy, or  a  bribe,  to  induce  the  Emperor  to  abrogate  the 
Council  of  Chalcedon.  John,  however,  publicly  main 
tained  the  neutrality  of  the  Henoticon,  neither  receiv- 
ing nor  repudiating  the  Council.  His  legates  were 
received  with  honor.  Anastasius  compelled  the 
Bishop  Macedonius  to  admit  them  to  communion. 
Xenaias,  the  persecutor  of  Flavianus,  was  likewise 
received  with  honor.  Worse  than  all,  two  hundred 
Eastern  monks,  headed  by  Severus,  were  permitted 
to  land  in  Constantinople  ;  they  here  found  an  honor- 
able reception.  Other  monks  of  the  opposite  faction 
Bwarmed  from  Palestine,  The  two  black-cowled  ar- 
mies watched  each  other  for  some  months,  working  in 
secret  on  their  respective  partisans.^     At  length  they 

1  Each  party  of  course  throws  the  l)lame  of  the  insurrection  on  'he  other. 
VOL.  I.  22 


388  LATIN  CIIEISTLVNITY.  Book  m 

*.D.  511.  came  to  a  nipture  ;  and  in  their  strife,  which 
he  either  dared  not,  or  did  not  care  to  control,  tlie  tlu*one, 
the  liberty,  the  life  itself  of  the  Emperor  were  in  peril. 
The  Monophysite  monks  in  the  church  of  the  Arch- 
angel within  the  palace  broke  out  after  the  "  Thrice 
Holy,"  with  the  burden  added  at  Antioch  by  Peter 
the  Fuller,  "  who  wast  crucified  for  us."  The  ortho- 
dox monks,  backed  by  the  rabble  of  Constantinople, 
endeavored  to  expel  them  from  the  church  ;  they  wero 
not  content  with  hurling  curses  against  each  other, 
sticks  and  stones  began  their  work.  There  was  a 
wild,  fierce  fray  ;  the  divine  presence  of  the  Emperor 
lost  its  awe;  he  could  not  maintain  the  peace.  The 
Bishop  Macedonius  either  took  the  lead,  or  was 
Tumults  in    Compelled  to  lead  the  tumult.     Men,  women, 

Constanti-  i  -i  i  i  p  n  i 

nopie.  children,  poured  out  from  all  quarters;    the 

monks,  with  their  Archimandrites,  at  the  head  of  the 
raging  multitude,  echoed  back  their  religious  war-cry : 
"  It  is  the  day  of  martyrdom.  Let  us  not  desert  our 
spiritual  Father.  Down  with  the  tyrant !  the  Mani- 
chean  !  he  is  unworthy  of  the  throne."  The  gates  of 
the  palace  were  barred  against  the  furious  mob ;  the 
imperial  galleys  were  manned,  ready  for  flight  to 
the  Asiatic  shore.  The  Emperor  was  reduced  to 
the  humiliation  of  receiving  the  Bishop  Macedonius, 
whom  he  had  prohibited  from  approaching  his  presence, 
as  his  equal,  almost  as  his  master.  As  Macedonius 
passed  along,  the  populace  hailed  him  as  their  beloved 
father ;  even  the  military  applauded.  Macedonius 
rebuked  the  Emperor  for  his  hostility  to  the  Church. 

The  later  writers,  who  are  all  of  the  orthodox  party,  ascribe  it  to  tho 
Syrian  monks.  Evagrius  (iii.  c.  44)  quotes  a  letter  of  Sevenis,  written  be- 
fore he  was  Bishop  of  Antioch,  charging  the  whole  disturbance  on  Mace- 
donius and  the  clergy  of  Constantinople. 


Chap.  I.  EXILE  OF  MACEDONIUS.  339 

Anastaslus  condescended  to  dissemble ;  peace  was 
restored  with  difficulty.  Macedonius  seems  to  liave 
been  of  feeble  character,  unfit  to  conduct  this  inter- 
necine strife  between  the  Patriarchate  and  the  Empire 
for  supreme  authority.  Enemies  would  not  be  wanting, 
even  had  the  strife  not  been  for  religion,  to  the  enemy 
of  the  Emperor ;  and  all  acts  of  enmity  to  the  Patri- 
arch, whether  sanctioned  or  not  by  the  Emperor,  would 
be  laid  to  his  charge.  An  accusation  of  loathsome 
incontinence-  was  brought  forward  against  the  Bishop  ; 
he  calmly  refuted  it  by  proving  its  impossibility.  His 
life  was  attempted ;  he  pardoned  the  assassin.  But 
this  Christian  gentleness  softened  into  infirmity.  One 
day  he  weakly  subscribed  a  Creed,  in  which  he  recog- 
nized only  the  Councils  of  Nicea  and  Constantinople; 
his  silence  about  those  of  Ephesus  and  Chalcedon  im- 
plied his  rejection  of  their  authority.  His  monkish 
masters  broke  out  in  furious  invectives.  The  Patriaich 
stooped  to  appear  before  them  in  the  monastery  of  Samt 
Dalmatius ;  and  not  merely  expressed  his  adhesion  to  the 
Council  of  Chalcedon,  he  uttered  his  anathema  against 
all  recusants  of  its  decrees.  The  Emperor  had  been 
silently  watching  his  opportunity.  The  Bishop  was 
seized  by  night ;  without  tumult,  without  resistance, 
he  was  conveyed  to  the  Asiatic  shore,  thence  ^  j,  ^^ 
into  banishment  at  Euchaita,  his  predecessor's  anrexiirot 
place  of  exile.  A  well-chosen  synod  of  bish-  ^-^^^--'-'^ 
ops  declared  the  deposition  of  Macedonius  ;^  Timo- 
theus  was  elected  Bishop  of  Constantinople.    Timotheus 

1  Evagrius  intimates  that  Macedonius  was  persuaded  to  a  voluntary 
abdication.  According  to  Theophanes,  (Edd.  Bekker,  i.  240,)  Anastasius 
endeavored  to  gain  possession  of  tlie  original  registers  of  the  Council  of 
Chalcedon,  to  destroy  or  to  corrupt  them.  Macedonius  scaled  them  up  and 
Dut  them  in  a  place  of  safety. 


840  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY,  Book  HI 

signed  the  Henoticon  ;  he  went  ftirther,  he  laid  his 
curse  (»n  tlie  Council  of  Chalcedon.  Timotheus  was 
acknowledged  by  Flavianus  of  Antioch,  by  John  of 
Alexandria,  and  by  Elias  of  Jerusalem.  But  this  con- 
cession secured  not  the  throne  of  Flavianus.  The 
Monophysite  monk  Severus,  who  had  stirred  np  the 
populace  of  Alexandria  and  of  Constantinople  to  relig- 
ious riot,  and  had  won  the  favor  of  Anastasius  as 
acquiescing  in  the  Henoticon,  now  appeared  in  Antioch 
as  the  rival  of  Flavianus.  Flavianus  was  deposed, 
Severus  was  bishop.  He  would  now  no  longer  keep  on 
the  mask  ;  he  condemned  in  the  strongest  terms  the 
Council  of  Chalcedon.  The  monkish  party,  which 
had  been  persecuted  by,  and  in  turn  persecuted  Fla- 
A.D.  513.  vianus,  and  to  which  he  had  in  vain  made 
such  ignoble  concessions,  was  dominant  in  Antioch  : 
Severus  ruled  supreme.  At  Jerusalem  the  orthodox 
were  the  strongest ;  and  Elias,  who  would  not  go  all 
lengths  with  them,  was  likewise  compelled  to  abdicate 
his  see.  Throughout  Asiatic  Christendom  it  was  the 
same  wild  struggle.  Bishops  deposed  quietly ;  or, 
where  resistance  was  made,  the  two  factions  fio-htino;  in 
the  streets,  in  the  churches  :  cities,  even  the  holiest 
places,  ran  vntli  Christian  blood. 

In  Constantinople  it  was  not  the  throne  of  the 
Bishop,  but  that  of  the  Emperor  which  trembled  to  its 
Constantino-  basc.  Auastasius,  who  had  so  nobly  and  suc- 
lu-surrection.  ccssflilly  wiclded  the  arms  of  the  Empire 
against  the  Persians,  found  his  power  in  Constantino- 
ple, in  his  Asiatic  provinces,  in  his  European  domin- 
ions, crumbling  beneath  him.  His  foes  were  not  on 
the  frontier,  they  were  at  the  gates  of  Constantinople, 
in   Constantinople,  in  his  palace.     He  was  now  eighty 


Ch.u-.  I.         CONST^VNTINOPLE   IN  INSUllRECTION.  841 

years  old.  The  martial  courage  wliicli  lie  had  dis- 
played in  his  Eastern  campaigns  might  seem  decayed  ; 
his  aged  hand  could  no  longer  hold  with  the  same 
equable  firmness  the  balance  of  religious  neutrality  ;  it 
may  have  trembled  towards  the  Monophysite  party  ; 
he  may  have  brought  something  of  the  irritability  and 
obstinacy  of  age  into  the  contest.  The  year  a.i>.  512. 
after  the  exile  of  Macedonius,  Constantinople,  at  the 
instigation  of  the  clergy  and  the  monks,  broke  out 
again  in  religious  insurrection.  The  blue  and  green 
factions  of  the  Circus  —  such  is  the  lancruase  of  the 
times  — gave  place  to  these  more  maddening  conflicts. 
The  hymn  of  the  Angels  in  Heaven  was  the  battle-cry 
on  earth,  the  signal  for  human  bloodshed.  Many 
palaces  of  the  nobles  were  set  on  fire  ;  the  officers  of  the 
crown  insulted  ;  pillage,  conflagration,  violence,  raged 
through  the  city.  A  peasant  who  had  turned  monk 
was  torn  fi:om  the  palace  of  the  favorite  Syrian  minister 
of  Anastasius,  Marinus  (he  was  accused  of  having 
introduced  the  profane  burden  to  the  angelic  hymn)  ; 
his  head  was  struck  off,  carried  about  on  a  pole,  with 
shouts,  "  Behold  the  enemy  of  the  Trinity."  ^  The 
hoary  Emperor  appeared  in  the  Cii*cus,  and  commanded 
tlie  heralds  to  announce  to  the  people  that  he  was  pre- 
pared to  abdicate  the  Empire,  if  they  could  agree  in 
the  choice  of  his  successor.  The  piteous  spectacle 
soothed  the  fury  of  the  people ;  they  entreated  Anas- 
tasius to  resume  the  diadem.  But  the  blood  of  two  of 
liis  ministers  was  demanded  as  a  sacrifice  to  appease 
'.heir  vengeance.^ 

1  Evagrius,  iii.  44. 

2  The  Pope  Gelasius  writes  to  the  Emperor,  "  You  fear  the  people  of 
Constantinople,  wlio  are  attached  to  the  name  of  Acacius ;  the  peo))le  of 
Cons"^ntinopIe  have  preferred  Catholic  trutli  to  tlie  cause  of  their  bishopa 


8 12  LATIN  CHKISTIANITY.  Book  HI 

But  it  is  not  insuiTection  in  Constantinople  alone, 
Uevoitof  the  empire  is  in  revolt  on  the  question  of  the 
A.D.  514.  two  natm^es  m  Ohrist.  ihe  rirst  great  rehg- 
ious  war,  alas  for  many  centuries  not  the  last !  emper- 
ils  the  tottering  throne  of  Anastasius.  The  Thracian 
Vitalianus  is  in  open  rebellion  ;  obtains  a  great  victory 
over  the  Imperial  general  Hypatius ;  wastes  Thrace, 
depopulates  the  whole  country  —  the  whole  realm  — 
up  to  the  gates  of  Constantinople.  He  is  before  the 
city  at  the  head  of  60,000  men.  His  banner,  his  war- 
cry,  is  that  of  religious  orthodoxy ;  he  proclaims  him- 
self the  champion,  not  of  an  oppressed  people,  of  a 
nobility  indignant  at  the  tyranny  of  their  sovereign, 
but  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon.  Cries  are  heard 
within  the  city  (not  obscurely  traced  to  the  clergy  and 
the  monks)  proclaiming  Vitalianus  Emperor ;  and  the 
army  of  this  first  religious  w^ar  in  Christendom  is  com- 
posed chiefly  of  Huns  and  Barbarians,  a  great  part  of 
them  still  heathens.  But  Vitalianus  had  allies  in  the 
West:  from  some  obscure  quarrel,  or  from  jealousy 
of  the  Emperor  of  the  East,  he  boasts  the  alliaiice  of 
Theodoric,  the  Arian  Ostrogoth ;  as  the  cham})ion  of 
orthodoxy  he  boasts  too  the  countenance  of  Hormisdas, 
Bishop  of  Rome.^ 

Macedonius  (then  supposed  to  be  unsoimd)  and  Nestorius.  You  have 
suppressed  their  tumults  in  the  games,  you  will  control  them  if  they  break 
out  in  religious  insurrection."  A  singular  testimony  to  the  two  great  rivaJ 
causes  which  roused  the  mob  of  Constantinople  to  mutiny. 

1  The  accounts  of  these  transactions,  and  their  dates,  are  confused,  almost 
irreconcilable.  According  to  Evagrius  (iii.  43),  Vitaliunus  was  defeated 
ill  a  naval  battle,  and  iled  in  a  single  ship:  according  to  Theophanes  and 
others,  he  dictated  terms  of  peace,  the  restoration  of  the  bishops,  and  thu 
\J()iiucil  of  Heraclea.  These  terms  Anastasius  perfidiously  violated,  declar- 
ing that  an  emperor  was  justified,  more  than  justified,  in  swearing  to  trea- 
ties, and  breaking  hia  oath  to  preserve  his  power,  —  b  61  ■napdvoi-Log  avau^uii 
^Atyev  vufiuv  dvou  KtXevovra  SaaiMa  kut'  uvuynTjv  kmopadv  kol  iptrvdta- 


Chap.  I.  STATE  OF  THE  EAST.  343 

The  grey  hairs  of  Anastasius  were  again  brought 
down  to  shame  and  sorrow  ;  he  must  stoop  to  Humiliation 
an  ignominious  peace.  If  we  are  to  credit  the  °^^°*s*^^i"« 
monastic  historians,  the  end  aimed  at  and  attained  by 
this  insurrection,  which  had  desolated  provinces  and 
caused  the  death  of  thousands  of  human  beings,  was  a 
treaty  which  promised  the  reestabhshment  of  Mace- 
donius  and  Flavianus  on  the  archiepiscopal  thrones  of 
Constantinople  and  Antioch  ;  and  the  summoning  a 
Council  at  Heraclea,  in  which  Hormisdas,  Bishop  of 
Rome,  was  to  appear  by  his  legates,  and  no  doubt 
hoped  to  dictate  the  decrees  of  the  assembly. 

The  few  last  inglorious  years  of  the  reign  of  Anas- 
tasius, its  dark  close,  his  miserable  death,  his  a.d.  514^18. 
damnation,  according  to  his  relentless  foes,  must  be  re- 
served for  the  period  when  the  Bishop  of  Kome  (Hor- 
misdas) appears  in  a  commanding  character  in  the 
arena  of  Constantinople  :  and  if  he  does  not  terminate, 
prepares  the  termination  of  the  schism  of  above  forty 
years  between  Eastern  and  Western  Christianity. 

We  turn  away  Avith  willingness  from  the  dismal  and 
wearisome  period,  in  which,  in  the  East,  all  g^j^^e  of  the 
that  is  noble  and  2;enerous  in  religious  con-  ^^^^' 
viction  disappears  and  gives  place  to  dark  intrigues  and 
ignorant  fury.  Men  suffer  all  the  degradation  and 
misery,  incur  all  the  sin  of  persecution  almost  without 
the  lofty  motive  of  honest  zeal.  It  is  a  time  of  fierce 
and  busy  polemics,  without  a  great  writer.  The  He- 
noticon  is  a  work  of  some  skill,  of  some  adroitness,  in 
attempting  to  reconcile,  in  eluding,  evading,  theolog- 

&ai.  ravra  6  napavofiuTarog  fxavtxaiofpuv.  —  p.  248.  I  think,  with  Gib- 
bon, following  Tillemont  and  older  authorities,  that  there  is  no  doubt  of  the 
two  insurrections  in  Constantinople. 


344  LATIN  CimiSTIANITY.  Book  III 

ical  difficulties ;  it  is  subtle  to  escape  subtleties.  But 
there  was  no  vigorous  and  manly,  even  if  intolerant 
writer,  like  Cyril  of  Alexandria,  whom  we  contemplate 
with  far  different  estimation  in  his  acts  and  in  his 
writings. 

But  that  which  is  the  characteristic  sign  of  the 
The  influence  timcs,  as  a  social  and  political,  as  well  as  a 
of  the  monks,  ^^jjgj^^^g  pheuomenou,  is  the  complete  do- 
minion assumed  by  the  monks  in  the  East  over  the 
2:)ublic  mind,  and  the  depravation  of  monasticism  from 
its  primal  principles.  Those  who  had  forsaken  the 
world  aspire  to  rule  the  world.  The  minds  which  are 
to  be  absolutely  estranged  from  earth  mingle  in  its  most 
furious  tumults.  Instead  of  total  seclusion  from  the 
habits  and  pursuits  of  men,  the  Coenobites  sweep  the 
streets  of  the  great  cities  in  armed  bodies,  displaying 
an  irregular  valor  which  sometimes  puts  to  shame  the 
languid  patriotism  of  the  Imperial  soldiery.  Even  the 
Eremites,  instead  of  shrouding  themselves  in  the  re- 
motest wilderness,  and  burying  themselves  in  the  dark- 
est and  most  inaccessible  caverns,  mount  their  pillars  in 
some  conspicuous  place,  even  in  some  place  of  public 
resort.  While  they  seem  to  despise  the  earth  below, 
and  to  enjoy  the  undisturbed  serenity  of  heaven,  they 
are  not  unconscious  that  they  are  the  oracles  as  well  as 
the  objects  of  amazement  to  the  admiring  multitudes 
around ;  that  Emperors  come  to  consult  them  as 
seers  and  prophets,  as  well  as  infallible  inteq^reters  of 
divine  truth.  They  even  descend  into  the  cities  to  be- 
come spiritual  demagogues.  The  monks,  in  fact,  exer- 
cise the  most  comi)lete  tyranny,  not  merely  over  the 
laity,  but  over  bishops  and  })atriarchs,  whose  rule, 
though  nominally  subject  to  it,  they  throw  oli'  when- 


Chai.  I.  TYRANNY   OF  THE  MONKS.  345 

ever  it  suits  their  purposes.  Those  who  might  seem 
the  least  quahfied,  from  their  vague  and  abstract  devo- 
tion, to  decide  questions  which  depended  on  niceties  of 
lano-uao-e,  on  the  finest  rhetorical  distinctions,  are  the 
dictators  of  the  world.  Monks  in  Alexandria,  monks 
in  Antioch,  monks  in  Jerusalem,  monks  in  Constanti- 
nople, decide  peremptorily  on  orthodoxy  and  hetero- 
doxy. The  bishops  themselves  cower  before  them. 
Macedonius  in  Constantinople,  Flavianus  in  Antioch, 
Ehas  in  Jerusalem,  condemn  themselves,  and  abdicate 
or  are  driven  from  their  sees.  Persecution  is  uni- 
versal ;  persecution  by  every  means  of  violence  and 
cruelty  ;  the  only  question  is  in  whose  hands  is  the 
power  to  persecute.  In  Antioch,  Xenaias  (Philoxe- 
nus,  a  famous  name)  justifies  his  insurrection  by  the 
persecutions  which  he  has  endured ;  Flavianus  bitterly 
and  justly  complains  of  the  persecutions  of  Xenaias. 
Bloodshed,  murder,  treachery,  assassination,  even  dur- 
ing the  public  worship  of  God,  —  these  are  the  fright- 
ful means  by  which  each  party  strives  to  maintain  its 
opinions,  and  to  defeat  its  adversary.  Ecclesiastical 
and  civil  authority  are  alike  paralyzed  by  combinations 
of  fanatics  ready  to  suffer  or  to  inflict  death,  utterly 
unapproachable  by  reason.  If  they  had  not  mingled 
in  the  fray,  peace  might  perhaps  have  been  restored 
with  no  serious  detriment  to  orthodox  doctrine.  If  in 
the  time  of  Zeno  there  had  been  no  monks,  no  Akoi- 
metoi,  in  Constantinople ;  if  these  fanatics  had  not 
been  in  treasonable  correspondence  with  strangers,  and 
supported  by  the  Bishop  of  Rome  —  temperate  and 
orthodox  bishops  like  Macedonius  and  Flavianus  might 
have  allayed  tlie  storm.  The  evil  lay  partly  in  the 
uiode  of  life  ;  tlie  seclusion,  which  fostered  botli  igno- 


846  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IH 

ranee  and  presumption,  and  magnified  insignificant 
matters  to  questions  of  spiritual  life  and  death  ;  and  the 
strong  corporate  spirit,  which  gave  a  consciousness  of 
strength  which  bound  them  together  as  one  man  in 
whatever  cause  they  might  espouse.  The  Emperor 
might  depose  a  busy  and  refractory  bishop,  what  could 
be  done  with  a  fraternity  of  a  thousand  men  ?  They 
liad  already  the  principle  of  organization,  union,  and 
mutual  confidence,  and  arms  in  their  hands.  They 
became  legions.  It  is  at  the  head  of  such  an  army  that 
Severus,  a  stranger,  makes  himself  formidable  in  Con- 
stantinople. A  more  powerful  adverse  army  heads  the 
mob  of  Constantinople  and  reduces  the  Emperor  Anas- 
tasius  to  beg  his  crown,  if  not  his  life.  Relying  on 
these  internal  allies  in  the  heart  of  his  enemy's  camp, 
Vitalianus  besieges  Constantinople,  and  dictates  a  capit- 
ulation, embodying  their  demands  and  those  of  their 
acknowledged  head,  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  Alexandria 
is  at  the  mercy  of  such  hosts,  who  pour  in  fi-om  the 
surrounding  monasteries  on  all  sides.  Even  during 
the  last  years  of  Anastasius,  at  the  election  of  the 
bishop,  another  Dioscorus,  the  chief  Imperial  officer, 
is  slain  in  the  streets.  Hosts  of  monks  encounter  in 
Syria,  meet  in  the  field  of  battle,  consider  that  zeal  di- 
vine with  which  they  strive,  not  to  instruct  and  en- 
ligliten,  but  to  compel  each  other  to  subscribe  the  same 
confession,  each  slaying  and  dying  in  unshaken  assur- 
ance that  eternal  salvation  depended  on  the  proper 
sense  of  the  words  "  in  "  and  "  out  of; "  the  acceptance 
or  rejection  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  includ- 
ing its  du*e  anathemas. 1     To  monasticism  may  unques- 

1 1  have  incorporated  with  my  own  obsen'ations  many  sentences  from  a 
passage  in  a  writer  of  the  old  ('crman  school,  Walch,  who,  having  invcsti- 


CiiAP.  I.  GELASIUS  :.  347 

tionablj  be  attributed  the  obstinate  continuance,  per- 
haps the  furj,  of  the  Monophysite  war.  We  shall 
hereafter  encounter  monasticism  in  the  West  in  another 
character,  as  compensating,  at  least  in  a  great  degree, 
for  its  usurpation  of  the  dignity  of  a  higher  and  holier 
Christianity,  by  becoming  the  guardian  of  what  was 
valuable,  the  books  and  arts  of  the  old  world ;  as  the 
missionary  of  what  was  holy  and  Christian  in  the  new 
civilization ;  as  the  chief  maintainer,  if  not  the  restorer 
of  agriculture  in  Italy ;  as  the  cultivator  of  the  forests 
and  morasses  of  the  north ;  as  the  apostle  of  the  hea- 
thens which  dwelt  beyond  the  pale  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire. 

We  are  again  in  the  West,  reascending  and  passing 
in  review  Latin  Christianity  and  its  j^rimates  j^gt^^^  ^^  ^^xe 
during  the  same,  by  no  means  a  brilliant  ^^^'^• 
period:  their  sometimes  enforced  or  uncongenial,  but 
still  ever  ready  intervention  in  the  affairs  of  the  East, 
from  the  time  when  Pope  Felix  and  Acacius  issue 
their  hostile  interdicts,  and  Constantinople  a.d.  484-519. 
and  Rome  are  at  open  war,  more  or  less  violent,  dur- 
ing five  and  thirty  years. 

Between  the  pontificate  of  Felix  III.  and  the  rup- 
ture with  Constantinople  (it  might  seem  the  Geiasius  i. 
implacable   estrangement   of   the   East    and  ^arch  1,492 
West)  to  the  accession  of  Hormisdas,  intervened  three 
Popes,  Geiasius  I.,  Anastasius  I.,  Symmachus. 

Geiasius,  a  Roman,  seemed,  as  a  Roman,  to  assume 
the  plenitude  of  Roman  dignity.  From  the  first,  he 
adhered  to  all  the  lofty  pretensions  of  his  predecessor, 

gated  the  whole  of  these  transactions  with  unrivalled  industry  and  candor, 
and  with  the  almost  apathetic  impartiality  of  his  school,  seems  suddenly  to 
break  out  into  suinuthing  approaching  to  eloquence.  Walch,  Ketzer-Ge-s- 
ehichte,  vol.  vii. 


348  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  in 

and  in  liis  frequent  and  elaborate  writings  vindicated 
all  tlie  acts  of  Felix.  He  inexorably  denianeled,  as  the 
preliminary  to  any  peaceful  treaty,  that  the  name  of 
Acacius  should  be  expunged  from  the  diptychs.  No 
power  could  now  retrieve  or  rescue  Acacius  from  his 
inevitable  doom  —  Acacius,  who  had  not  only  disre- 
garded the  excommunication  of  the  Bishoj)  of  Kome, 
but  presumed  to  emulate  his  power  of  pronouncing 
damnation.  Constantinople  must  absolutely  abandon 
the  champion  of  her  coequality,  if  not  her  superiority. 
Acacius,  all  his  followers,  all  who  respect  his  memory, 
must  share  his  irrevocable  proscription.^  The  Roman 
Gelasius  endeavors  to  awaken  a  kindred  pride  in  the 
Emperor  Anastasius,  now  the  sole  representative  of 
Roman  sovereignty  ;  ^  for  Italy  is  under  the  dominion 
of  the  Goth.  Gelasius  might  even  seem  to  cherish 
some  secret  hope  of  the  deliverance  of  Rome  from  its 
"barbaric  lord,  by  the  intervention  of  the  yet  Roman 
East.  But  at  the  same  time  Gelasius  asserts  boldly, 
for  the  first  time,  in  these  strono;  and  discriminating 
terms,  the  supremacy  of  the  clergy  in  all  religious  mat- 
ters.    "  There  are  two  powers  which  rule  the  world, 

1  The  letter  of  Gelasius  to  Euphemius  of  Constantinople  is  a  model  of 
that  haughty  humility  which  became  the  ordinary  language  of  the  Roman 
bishops.  Euphemius  had  written,  that  by  condescension  and  the  best  dis- 
position Gelasius  could  restore  concord  ("  annectis  condescendibilem  me  at 
optima  dispositione  revocare  posse  coucordiam  ").  —  "Do  you  call  it  con- 
descension to  admit  among  true  bishops  the  names  of  heretics  and  excom- 
municated persons,  and  of  those  who  communicate  with  them  and  their 
successors?  Is  not  this,  instead  of  descending  like  our  Lord  trom  heaven 
to  redeem,  to  jjlunge  ourselves  into  hell?"  "Hoc  non  est  condesccndere 
ad  subveniendum,  sed  evidenter  in  inferum  demergi."  He  summons  Euphe- 
mius to  meet  him  before  tlie  tribunal  of  Christ,  in  the  presence  of  the  apos- 
tles, and  decide  whether  his  austereness  and  asperity  is  not  truly  apostolic 
—  Epist.  1. 

2  "  Te  sicut  Romje  natus,  Romanum  principeu),  amo,  colo,  suscipio."  - 
Ad  Anastas.,  A.D.  493. 


CiT.vr.  I.  POPE   ANASTASIUS.  349 

the  Iiii}>erial  and  the  Pontificah  You  are  the  sov- 
ereign of  the  human  race,  but  you  bow  your  neck 
to  those  who  preside  over  things  divine.  ^  The 
[)riesthood  is  the  greater  of  the  two  powers  ;  it  has 
to  render  an  account  in  the  last  day  for  the  acts  of 
kings."  2 

Pope  Anastasius  II.,  the  successor  of  Gelasius,  spoke 
a  milder,  more  conciliatory,  even  more  suppli-  Pope  Anas- 
ant  langTiage.  He  dared  to  doubt  the  damna-  Nov.  24, 496. 
tion  of  a  bishop  excommunicated  by  the  see  of  Rome : 
— ''  Felix  and  Acacius  are  now  both  before  a  higher 
tribunal;  leave  them  to  that  unerring  judgment."  ^ 
He  would  have  the  name  of  Acacius  passed  over  in 

1  Gelasius  refers  to  the  authoritative  example  of  Melchisedek,  a  type  in- 
terpreted with  curious  variation  during  the  Papal  history.  "  In  the  oldest 
times  Melchisedek  was  priest  and  king.  The  devil,  in  imitation  of  this 
holy  example,  induced  the  emperor  to  assume  the  supreme  pontificate. 
But  after  Christianity  had  revealed  the  truth  to  the  world,  the  union  of  the 
two  powers  ceased  to  he  lawful.  Neither  did  the  emperor  usurp  the  pon- 
tifical, nor  the  pontiff  the  imperial  power.  Christ,  mindful  of  human 
frailty,  has  separated  forever  the  two  offices,  leaving  the  emperors  depend- 
ent on  the  pontiffs  for  their  everlasting  salvation,  the  pontiffs  dependent  on 
the  emperors  for  the  administration  of  all  temporal  affairs.  So  the  ministers 
of  God  do  not  entangle  themselves  in  secular  business ;  secular  men  do  not 
intrude  into  things  divine."  Pass  over  eight  or  nine  centuries,  and  hear 
Innocent  IV. ;  we  give  the  pregnant  Latin :  "  Dominus  enim  Jehsus  Christ- 
us  .  .  .  secundum  ordinem  Melchisedek,  verus  rex  et  verus  sacerdc3 
existens,  quemadmodum  patenter  ostendit,  nunc  utendo  pro  hominibus 
honorificentia  regiie  majestatis,  nunc  exequendo  pro  illis  dignitatem  pon- 
tificii  apud  Patrem,  in  apostolica  sede  non  solum  pontificatum,  sed  et  re- 
galem  constituit  monarchatum,  beato  Petro  ej usque  successoribus  terreni 
simul  et  coelestis  imperii  concessos  habemus." — Apud  Hoefler.  Albert  von 
Beham,  p.  88.  Stuttgard,  1847. 

2  "  Quando  etiani  pro  ipsis  regibus  domino  in  divino  reddituri  sunt  ex- 
amine rationem." — Ad  Auastas.,  Mansi,  vii. 

3  "  Namque  et  predecessor  noster  Papa  Felix,  et  etiam  Acacius  illic  pvo- 
culdubio  sunt:  ubi  unusquisque  sub  tanto  judice  non  potest  perdere  sui 
meriti  qualitatem." — Anastaa.  Epist.  a.d.  496.  This  letter  was  sent  to 
Constantinople  by  two  bishops,  Cresconius  of  Todi  and  Germanus  of  Capua, 
with  private  instructions,  not  recorded  in  liistory. 


350  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  Rl 

silence,  quietly  dropped,  rather  than  publicly  expunged 
from  the  diptychs.  This  degenerate  successor  of  St. 
Peter  is  not  admitted  to  the  rank  of  a  saint.  The 
Pontifical  book  (its  authority  on  this  point  is  indig- 
nantly repudiated)  accuses  Anastasius  of  having  com- 
municated with  a  deacon  of  Thessalonica,  who  had 
kept  up  communion  with  Acacius ;  and  of  having 
Nov.  19, 498.  entertained  secret  designs  of  restoring  the 
name  of  Acacius  in  the  services  of  the  Church.^  His 
death,  according  to  Baronius,  his  sudden  death  by  the 
manifest  hand  of  God,  destroyed  altogether  these  hopes 
of  peace.  But  how  deep  and  lasting  was  the  tradition 
of  detestation  against  this  meek  renegade  to  papal  au- 
thority, may  be  supposed  by  its  survival  for  at  least 
nine  centuries.  Dante  beholds  in  hell  the  unhappy 
Anastasius,  condemned  forever  for  his  leniency  to  the 
heresy  of  Constantinople.^ 

On  the  death  of  Pope  Anastasius,  the  contested  elec- 
Symmachus.  tion  for  the  pontificate  between  Symmachus, 
a  convert  from  paganism,^  and  Laurentius,  was  exas- 
perated by  these  divergences  of  opinion  on  the  schism 
with  the  East.  Festus,  the  legate  of  Anastasius,  the 
deceased  Pope,  at  Constantinople,  the  bearer,  as  it  was 

1  "  Revocare  Acacium"  —  so  I  translate  the  words — as  Acacius  had  lon^ 
been  dead. — Lib.  Pontif.,  Vit.  Anastas. 

2  "  E  quivi  per  1'  orribile  soperchio 

Del  puzzo,  che  '1  profondo  abisso  g\tta 
Ci  raccostammo  dietro  ad  un  coperchio 
D'  un  fjrand'  avello,  ov'  io  vidi  una  scritta, 
Che  diceva:  Anastagio  Papa  guardo, 
Lo  qual  trasse  Fotino  della  via  dritta." 
Fotinus  is  said  to  have  been  the  Deacon  of  Thessalonica. 

8  "  Catholica  fides,  quam  in  sede  beati  Petri,  veniens  ex  paganitate, 
Buscepi."  —  Epist.  ad  Anastas.  The  date  of  this  is  uncertain.  Was  he 
a  son  or  descendant  of  the  famous  Symmachus?  The  latter  is  more 
probable. 


oHAr.  1.      DEATH  OF  POPE  ANASTASIUS.         351 

supposed,  of  conciliatory  terms  obtained  by  the  con- 
cessions of  the  Pope,  on  his  return  to  Rome,  threw 
himseh'  as  a  violent  partisan  into  the  cause  of  Lau- 
rentius.  The  Emperor  Anastasius  himself,  either  in 
private  letters  to  his  adherents  in  Rome  or  in  some 
public  document,  accused  the  successful  Symmachus, 
who,  by  the  decision  of  King  Theodoric,  had  obtained 
the  throne,^  as  a  Manichean  ;  and  as  having  audacious- 
ly conspired  with  the  Senate  of  Rome  (a  singular 
Council  for  the  Pope)  to  excommunicate  the  Emperor. 
The  sovereign  of  the  East  inflexibly  withheld  the  cus- 
tomary letters  of  gratulation  on  the  accession  of  Sym- 
machus. The  apologetic  invective  of  Symmachus  to 
the  Emperor  is  in  the  tone  of  fearless  hostility.  He 
retorts  against  the  Eutychian  the  odious  charge  of 
Manicheism.  He  denies  the  excommunication  of  the 
Emperor  Anastasius  ;  Acacius  only  was  excommuni- 
cated. Yet  he  leaves  him  to  the  inevitable  conclusion 
that  all  who  were  in  communion  with  the  excommuni- 
cate must  share  their  doom.^  Anastasius  is  arraigned 
as  departing  from  his  boasted  neutrality  only  against 
the  Catholics.  The  unyieldmg,  almost  turbulent  resist- 
ance of  the  Roman  party  in  Constantinople  is  justified 
by  the  aggressions  assumed  to  be  entirely  on  the  part 
of  the  tyrannical  Emperor.  Peace  between  two  such 
opponents  was  not  likely  to  make  much  prog-  a.d.  498-514 
ress.  Throughout  the  pontificate  of  Symmachus,  the 
Roman  faction  in  the  East  kept  up  that  fierce  and 
tumultuous,  or  more  secret  and  brooding  opposition, 
which  lasted  till  the  death  of  Anastasius.  Symmachus 
may  have  heard  the  first  tidings  of  the  orthodox  revolt 

1  See  on,  under  the  reign  of  Theodoric,  the  elevition,  stniggle,  and  final 
establishment  of  Symmachus. 

2  Between  499-512.     Baronius  places  it  503. 


3,^2  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

of  Vitalianus ;  liis  successor  Hormisdas  reaped  the 
fruits  of  the  humihation  of  Anastasius,  followed  hi  due 
time  by  the  reconciliation  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
Churches.^ 

1  See  on,  under  the  reign  of  Theodoric. 


CiiAP.  n.  PKOGllESS  OF  CHlilSTIANITY.  853 


CHAPTER    II. 

CONVERSION  OF  THE  TEUTONIC  RACES. 

Christianity  within  the  Roman  Empire  might 
seem  endangered  in  its  vital  existence  by  these  un- 
genial  inward  dissensions.  Its  lofty  assertions  that  it 
came  down  from  heaven  as  a  religion  of  peace  —  of 
peace  to  the  individual  heart  of  man,  as  reconciling 
it  with  God,  and  instilling  the  serene  hope  of  another 
life  —  of  peace  which  should  incorporate  mankind  in 
one  harmonious  brotherhood,  the  type  and  preestab- 
hshment  of  the  sorrowless  and  strifeless  state  of  beati- 
tude—  might  appear  utterly  belied  by  the  claims  of 
conflicting  doctrines  on  the  belief,  all  declared  to  be 
essential  to  salvation,  and  the  animosities  and  bloody 
quarrels  which  desolated  Christian  cities.  Anathema 
instead  of  benediction  had  almost  become  the  general 
language  of  the  Church.  Religious  wars,  at  least  rare 
in  the  pagan  state  of  society,  seemed  now  a  new  and 
perpetual  source  of  human  misery  —  a  cause  and  a 
sign  of  the  weakness  and  decay,  and  so  of  the  inevi- 
table dissolution,  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

But  Christianity  had  sunk  into  depths  of  the  human 
heart,  unmoved  by  these  tumults,  which  so  fierceh 
agitated  the  surface^f  the  Christi^  world.  Far  be- 
low, less  observed jPsf, visible  in  its  mode  of  operation, 
though  manifest  in  its  effects,  was  that  profound  con- 
VOL.  I.  23 


354  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IIL 

viction  of  the  truth  of  the  Gospel,  that  infelt  sense 
of  its  blessings,  which  enabled  it  to  pursue  its  course 
of  conversion  throuo-hout  the  world,  to  brino;  the  Ro- 
man  mind  more  completely  under  subjection,  and  one 
by  one  to  subdue  the  barbarian  tribes  which  began  to 
overspread  and  mingle  with  the  Greek  and  Latin 
population  of  the  Empire.  For  Christianity  had  that 
within  it,  which  overawed,  captivated,  enthralled  the 
innate  or  at  least  universal  religiousness  of  man- 
kind ;  that  which  was  sufficiently  simple  to  arrest  by 
its  grandeur  the  ruder  barbarian,  while,  by  its  deeper 
mysteries,  it  led  on  the  philosophic  and  reflective  mind 
through  unending  regions  of  contemplation.  It  had 
its  one  Creator  and  Ruler  of  the  universe,  one  God, 
one  Redeemer,  one  Spirit,  under  which  the  ancient 
polytheism  subsided  into  a  subordinate  hierarchy  of 
intermediate  beings,  which  kept  the  imagination  in 
play,  and  left  undisturbed  almost  all  the  hereditary 
superstitions  of  each  race.  It  satisfied  that  yearning 
after  the  invisible,  which  seems  inseparable  from  our 
nature,  the  fears  and  hopes  which  more  or  less  vaguely 
have  shadowed  out  some  future  being,  the  fears  of 
retribution  appeased  by  the  promises  of  pai'don,  the 
hope  of  beatitude  by  its  presentiments  of  peace.  It 
had  its  exquisite  goodness,  which  appealed  to  the  in- 
delible moral  sense  of  mankind,  to  the  best  affections 
of  his  being ;  it  had  that  equality  as  to  religious  privi- 
leges, duties,  and  advantages,  to  which  it  drew  uj)  all 
ranks  and  classes,  and  both  sexes  (slaves  and  females 
being  alike  with  others  under  the  divine  care),  and  the 
abolition,  so  far,  of  the  ordinary  castes  and  divisions 
of  men ;  with  the  substitution  of  the  one  distinction, 
the  clergy  and  the  laity,  and  i)erhaps  alsdlthat  of  tho 


CiiAP.  II.  CONVEKSION   OF  GERMANS.  355 

ordinary  Christian  and  the  monk,  who  aspired  to  what 
was  asserted  and  beheved  to  be  a  higher  Christianity. 
All  this  was,  in  various  degrees,  at  once  the  manifest 
sign  of  its  divinity,  and  the  secret  of  its  gradual  sub- 
jugation of  nations  at  such  different  stages  of  civiliza- 
tion. It  prepared  or  found  ready  the  belief  in  those 
miraculous  powers,  which  it  still  constantly  declared 
itself  to  possess ;  and  made  belief  not  merely  prompt 
to  accept,  but  creative  of,  wonder,  and  of  perpetual 
preterhuman  interference.  Some  special  causes  wdll 
appear,  which  seemed  peculiarly  to  propitiate  certain 
races  towards  Christianity,  while  their  distinctive  char- 
acter reacted  on  their  own  Christianity,  and  through 
them  perhaps  on  that  of  the  world. 

We  are  not  at  present  advanced  "beyond  the  period 
when  Christianity  was  in  general  content  (this  indeed 
gave  it  full  occupation)  to  await  the  settle-  conTersion 
ment  of  the  Northern  tribes,  if  not  within  the  ^thS™hr 
pale,  at  least  upon  the  frontiers  of  the  Em-  ^"^p'"^®- 
pire :  it  had  not  yet  been  emboldened  to  seek  them  out 
in  their  own  native  forests  or  morasses.  But  it  was 
a  surprising  spectacle  to  behold  the  Teutonic  nations 
melting  gTadually  into  the  general  mass  of  Christian 
worshippers.  In  every  other  respect  they  are  still  dis- 
tinct races.  The  conquering  Ostrogoth  or  Visigoth, 
the  Vandal,  the  Burgundian,  the  Frank,  stand  aj)art 
from  the  subjugated  Roman  population,  as  an  armed 
or  territorial  aristocracy.  They  maintain,  in  great 
part  at  least,  their  laws,  their  language,  their  habits, 
their  character ;  in  religion  alone  they  are  blended  into 
one  society,  constitute  one  chui'ch,  Avorship  at  the  same 
altar,  and  render  allegiance  to  the  same  hierarchy. 
This  is   the  single  bond  of  their  common  humanity ; 


856  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  HI. 

and  so  long  as  the  superior  Roman  civilization  enabled 
tlie  Latins  to  retain  exclusively  the  ecclesiastical  func- 
tions, they  might  appear  to  have  retreated  from  the 
civil  power,  which  required  more  strenuous  and  robust 
hands  to  wield  it,  to  this  no  less  extensive  and  impor- 
tant influence  of  opinion ;  and  thus  held  in  suspense 
the  trembling  balance  of  authority.  They  were  no 
longer  the  sovereigns  and  patricians,  but  they  were 
still  the  pontiffs  and  priests  in  the  new  order  of  society. 
There  might  appear  in  the  Teutonic  religious  char- 
Teutonic  acter  a  depth,  seriousness,  and  tendency  to 
the  mysterious,  congenial  to  Christianity, 
which  would  prepare  them  to  receive  the  Gospel.  The 
Grecian  polytheist  was  often  driven  into  Christianity 
by  the  utter  void  in  his  religion,  and  by  the  incon- 
gruity of  its  poetic  anthropomorphism  with  the  prog- 
ress of  his  discursive  reason,  as  well  as  by  his  weari- 
ness with  his  unsatisfactory  and  exhausted  philosophy : 
the  Roman  was  commanded  by  its  high  moral  tone 
and  vigor  of  character.  But  each  had  to  abandon 
temples,  rites,  diversions,  literature,  which  had  the 
strono;est  hold  on  his  habits  and  character,  and  so  utterly 
incongruous  with  the  primitive  Gospel,  that  until  Chris- 
tianity made  some  steps  towards  the  old  religion  by 
the  splendor  of  its  ceremonial,  and  the  incipient  pagan- 
izing, not  of  its  creed,  but  of  its  popular  belief,  there 
were  powerful  countervailing  tendencies  to  keep  him 
back  from  the  new  faith.  And  when  the  Greek 
entered  into  the  Church,  he  was  not  content  with- 
out exercising  the  quickness  of  his  intelligence,  and 
the  versatilities  of  his  language  on  his  creed,  without 
analyzing,  discussing,  defining  everything.  Or  by  in- 
truding that  higher  part  of  his  })hilo8ophy,  which  best 


CHAP.  II.  TEUTONIC   RELIGION.  357 

assimilated  with  Christianity,  he  eitlier  pb.ilosophized 
Christianity,  or  for  a  time,  as  under  the  Neo-Platonists 
and  Juhan,  set  up  a  partially  Christianized  philosophy 
as  a  new  and  rival  religion.  The  inveterate  corrup- 
tion of  Roman  manners  confined  that  vigorous  Chris 
tian  morality,  its  s,trongest  commendation  to  the  Roman 
mind,  at  first  within  the  chosen  few  who  were  not 
utterly  abased  by  licentiousness  or  by  servility:  and 
even  with  them  in  large  part  it  was  obedience  to  civil 
authority,  respect  for  established  law,  perhaps  in  many 
a  kind  of  sympathy  with  the  lofty  and  independent 
sacerdotal  dignity,  the  sole  representative  of  old  Roman 
freedom,  wliich  contributed  to  Christianize  the  Latin 
world. 

How  much  more  suited  were  some  parts  of  the 
Teutonic  character  to  harmonize  at  first  with  Chris- 
tianity, and  to  keep  the  proselytes  in  submission  to 
the  authority  of  its  instructors  in  these  sublime  truths ; 
at  the  same  time  to  invigorate  the  Church  by  the 
infusion  of  its  own  strength  and  independence  of 
thought  and  action,  as  well  as  to  barbarize  it  with 
that  ferocity  which  causes,  is  increased  by,  and  main- 
tains, the  foreign  conquests  of  ruder  over  Teutonic 
more  polished  races  !  Already  the  German  ^^^^^lou. 
had  the  conception  of  an  illimitable  Deity,  towards 
whom  he  looked  with  solemn  and  reverential  awe. 
Tacitus  might  seem  to  speak  the  language  of  a  Chris- 
tian Father,  almost  of  a  Jewish  prophet.  Their  gods 
could  not  be  confined  within  walls,  and  it  was  degrada- 
tion to  these  vast  unseen  powers  to  represent  them 
under  the  human  form.  Reverential  aAve  alone  could 
contemplate  that  mysterious  being  w^hich  they  called 
divinity.^     These  deities,  or  this  one   Supreme,   were 

1  "  Cfleterum  non  cohibere  parietibus  Deos,  neque  in  ullam  humani  oris 


358  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IIL 

shrouded  in  the  untrodden,  impenetrable  forest.  Such 
seems  to  have  been  the  subhme  conception  above,  if 
not  anterior  to,  what  may  be  called  the  mythology  of 
Teutonic  religion.  This  mythology  was  the  same, 
only  in  its  elemental  form,  tln-oughout  the  German 
tribes,  with  that  which,  having  passed  through  more 
than  one  race  of  poets,  grew  into  the  Eddas  of  Scan- 
dinavia. Vestiges  of  this  close  relationship  are  traced 
in  the  language,  in  the  mythic  conceptions,  and  in  the 
superstitions  of  all  the  Teutonic  tribes.  Certain  relig- 
ious forms  and  words  are  common  to  all  the  races  of 
Teutonic  descent.^  In  every  dialect  appear  kindred  or 
derivative  terms  for  the  deity,  for  sacrifice,  for  temples, 
and  for  the  priesthood.  This  mythic  religion  was  in 
some  points  a  nature-worship,  though  there  might  haA^e 
existed,  as  has  been  said,  something  more  ancient,  and 
superior  to  the  worship  of  the  visible  and  impersonated 
powers  or  energies  of  the  material  world.  The  Romans 
discovered,  not  without  wonder,  that  the  supreme  deity 
of  the  actual  German  worship  was  not  invested  in  the 
attributes*  of  their  Jove,  but  rather  of  Mercury.^  There 
Woden.  is  no  doubt  that  Woden  was  the  divinity  to 
whom  they  assigned  this  name,  a  name  which,  in  its 
various  forms,  (it  became  at  length  Odin,)  is  common 
to  the  Goths,  Lombards,  Saxons,  Frisians,  and  other 
tribes.  In  its  primitive  conception,  if  any  of  these 
conceptions  were  clear  and  distinct,  Woden  appears  to 
have  been  the  all-mighty,  all-permeating  Spirit  —  the 
Mind,  the  primal  mover  of  things,  the  all-Wise,  the 

speciem  adsimilare  ex  magnitiidine  coelestium  arbitrantur,  Deorumque  no- 
minibus  appellant  secretum  illud  quod  sola  reverentia  vident."  —  Tac.  Ger- 
man, ix. 

1  Grimm,  Deutsche  Mythologie,  Einleitung,  pp.  9-11  (2d  edit.).      The 
wliole  large  volume  is  a  minute  and  laborious  commentary  on  this  axiom. 

2  "  Deum  maxima  Mercurium  colunt."  —  Tac.  Germ.  ix. 


Chai'.  II.  TEUTONIC   RELIGION.  359 

God  of  speech  and  of  knowledge.^  But  with  a  warlike 
people,  the  supreme  deity  could  not  but  be  a  god  of 
battle,  the  giver  of  victory.  He  possessed  therefore 
the  attributes  of  Mars  blended  with  those  of  Mercury .^ 
The  conduct  or  the  reception  of  departed  spirits,  which 
belonged  to  the  pagan  Mercury,  may  have  been  one 
function  which  led  to  his  identification  with  the  Teu- 
tonic Woden.  Already,  no  doubt,  their  world  of  the 
dead  was  a  rude  Valhalla. 

In  the  earlier  belief,  the  Thunderer,  with  the  sun, 
the  heavenly  bodies,  and  the  earth,  the  great  objects  of 
nature-worship,  held  only  the  second  place.  The  Her- 
thus  of  Tacitus  was  doubtless  Hertha,  the  mother 
earth,  or  impersonated  nature,  of  which  he  describes 
the  worship  in  language  singularly  coincident  with 
tliat  of  the  Berecynthian  goddess  of  Phrygia.^ 

1  "  Wodan  sane  quem  adjecta  litera  Gwodan  dixerunt,  ipse  est  qui  apud 
Romanos  Mercuriiis  dicitur,  et  ab  universis  Germaniie  gentibus  ut  Deas 
adoratur."  —  Paul.  Diacon.  i.  9.  See  also  Jonas  Bobbiens.  Vit.  Bonifac. 
('Dies  Mercurii  became  Wodan's  day,  —  "Wednesday.  J  Compare  Grimm, 
p.  116,  Grimm,  pp.  108,  &c.,  and  the  whole  article  Wuotan,  which  he  closes 
with  the  following  observation :  "  Aber  noch  zu  einen  anderu  Beti-achtung 
darf  die  hohe  stelle  fiihren,  welche  die  Germanen  ihrem  Wuotan  anweisen. 
Der  Monotheismus  ist  etwas  so  uothwendiges  und  wesentliches,  das  fast 
alle  Heiden  in  ihrer  Gutter  bunten  Gewimmel,  bewusset  oder  unbewusset, 
darauf  ausgehn,  einen  obersten  Gott  anzuerkennen,  der  schon  die  Eigen- 
schaften  aller  iibrigen  in  sich  tragt,  so  dass  diese  nur  als  seine  Einfliisse, 
verjiingenden  und  erfrischungen,  zu  betrachten  sind.  Daraus  erklart  sich 
wie  einzelne  Eigenheiten  bald  einem  bald  diesem  einzelnen  Gott  dargelegt 
werden,  und  waruni  die  hcichste  Macht,  nach  Verschiedenheit  der  Volker 
auf  den  einen  oder  den  andern  derselben  fallt." 

2  Paulus  Diacon.,  loc.  cit.  He  is  called  Sigvodr  (Siegvater)  in  the  Edda. 
—  Grimm,  p.  122. 

8  After  recounting  the  tribes  who  worship  this  goddess,  he  proceeds 
"  In  commune  Herthum,  id  est,  Terram  matrem  colunt,  eamque  intervenire 
rebus  hominum,  invehi  populis  arbitrantur.  Est  in  insula  Oceani  castum 
nemus,  dicatum  in  eo  vehiculum,  veste  contectum,  attingere  uni  sacerdoti 
concessum.  Is  adesse  penetrali  Deam  intelligit,  vectamque  bobus  feminis 
multa  cum  veneratione  prosequitur.  Lseti  tunc  dies,  festa  loca,  qufecunquo 
adventu  hospitioque  dignatur.     Non  arnia  summit,  clausum  omne  ferrum. 


360  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

There  were  other  religions  usages  —  most  absolutely 
repugnant  to  Christianity,  and  demanding,  as  it  were, 
Human  ^^^^'  ^^^^  intervention,  —  so  universal  as  to 
Baci-ifices.  imply  a  closer  relationship  than  that  of  un- 
connected races,  which  resemble  each  other  from 
being  in  the  same  state  of  civilization.  From  the 
borders  of  the  Roman  Empire  to  the  shores  of  the 
Baltic,  from  the  age  of  Tacitus  to  that  of  the  Northern 
Chroniclers,  human  sacrifices  appeased  the  gods,  or 
rewarded  them  for  the  victories  which  they  had  be- 
stowed upon  their  worshippers.  The  supreme  god, 
Woden,  the  Mercury  of  Tacitus,  was  propitiated  by 
human  victims.  The  tribunes  and  principal  centurions 
in  the  army  of  Varus  were  slain  on  these  horrid  altars.^ 
The  Goths  sacrificed  their  captives  to  the  god  of  war.^ 
The  Greek  historian  of  the  age  of  Justinian  imputes 

pax  et  quies  tunc  tantum  nota,  tunc  tantiim  amata,  donee  idem  sacerdos 
satiatam  conversatione  mortalium  Deam  templo  reddit;  mox  vehiculum  et 
vestes,  et,  si  credere  velis,  numen  ipsum  secreto  lacu  abluitur.  Servi  min- 
istrant,  quos  statim  idem  lacus  haurit.  Arcanus  hinc  terror,  sanctaque 
ignorantia,  quid  sit  illud  quod  tantum  perituri  vident."  —  Tacit.  Germ,  xl 
Contrast  and  compare  these  secret  and  awful  rites  (and  their  "  truce  ot 
God  ")  with  Lucretius,  — 

Quo  nunc  insigni  per  magnas  praedita  terraa 
Horrifice  fertur  divinae  Matris  imago  .  .  . 

Ergo  cum  primum  magnas  invecta  per  urbes 
Magnificat  tacita  mortales  muta  salute  : 
^re  atque  argcnto  sternunt  iter  omne  viarum, 
Largifica  stipe  donantes,  ninguntque  rosarum 
Floribus,  vimbrantes  Matrem  comitumque  catervajs. 

ii.  597  et  sag. 
(Also  Ovid.  Fasti,  iv.  337.)  Grimm,  in  another  part  of  his  book,  illustrates 
all  this  by  a  circumstance  related  during  the  persecution  of  the  Christian 
Goths  by  Athanaric  (Sozora.  H.  E.  vi.  37.)  An  image  on  a  wagon  was 
led  in  procession  round  the  tents  of  the  people ;  all  who  refused  to  worship 
and  make  their  offerings  to  this  Gothic  deity  were  burned  alive  in  their 
tents. 

1  Tac.  Germ.  ix.  and  xxxix.    Ann.  i.  61.    The  Hermanduri  and  Catti 
are  particularly  mentioned  as  slaying  human  victims. 

2  Jomandes,  86. 


Chap.  II.  ANIMAL    SACRIFICES.  361 

the  same  ferocious  usage  to  the  Thuletes  (the  Scan- 
dinavians), and  to  the  Heruli ;  ^  Sidonius  Apollinarius 
to  the  Saxons.2  The  Frisian  law  denounces  not  merely 
the  penalty  of  death,  but  describes  as  an  immolation  to 
the  gods  the  punishment  of  one  who  violates  a  temple. 
At  a  later  period  St.  Boniface  charges  some  of  his 
Christian  converts  with  the  sale  of  captives  to  the 
pagans  for  the  purpose  of  sacrifice.^  At  the  great 
temple  at  Upsala  every  kind  of  animal  was  suspended 
in  sacrifice :  seventy-two  dogs  and  men,  mingled  to- 
gether, were  counted  on  one  occasion.*  The  northern 
poetry  contains  many  vestiges  of  these  human  immola- 
tions. The  Northmen  are  said  by  Dithmar  of  Merse-- 
burg  to  have  sacrificed  every  year,  about  Christmas, 
ninety-nine  men  in  a  sacred  place  in  Sea-land.  This 
execrable  custom  was  suppressed  by  the  Em-  a.d.  926. 
peror  Henry  I.  the  Fowler.^ 

Among  animals  the  horse  was  the  chosen  victim  of 
all  the  Teutonic  tribes.     It  was  offered  in  the  Ammai 
age  of  Tacitus  in  the  German  forests,  which  ^'"^'^'' 
had   been  just  penetrated  by  the  Roman  arms,  and, 
according  to  the  Sagas,  by  the  yet  unconverted  Danes 
and  Swedes. 

Throughout  the  wide  regions  occupied  by  the  Teu- 
tons the  sacred  grove  was  the  sanctuary  of  jjoiy 
the   deity.      The   Romans   could   not   tread  ^^^ 

1  Procop.  de  Bell.  Gothic,  ii.  14,  il.  15. 

2  Epist.  viii.  5. 

8  "  Quod  quidem  ex  fidelibus  ad  immolandum  paganis  sua  venundent 
mancipia."  — Epist.  xxv. 

4  "  Ita  etiam  canes,  qui  pendent  cum  hominibus,  quorum  corpora  mixta 
luspensa,  nan'avit  mihi  quidam  Christianorum  se  septuaginta  duo  vidisse." 

6  Miiller,  Saga  Bibliothek.  ii.  560,  v.  93.  See  also,  in  Mr.  Thorpe's 
Mythology  of  Scandinavia,  a  copious  list  of  references  on  the  sanctity  of 
groves,  vol.  i.  p.  255  (note) ;  on  temples,  p.  259 ;  on  human  sacrifices,  p.  264 


362  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  Hi. 

without  awe  these  dark  dwelhng-places  of  the  gods  of 
tlieir  enemies  ;  they  were  astonished  at  the  absence  of 
all  images,  and  perhaps  did  not  clearly  distinguish  the 
shapeless  symbols  which  were  set  up  in  some  places, 
from  the  aged  trunks,  which  w^ere  also  the  objects  of 
worship.  The  reverence  for  these  hallowed  places,  the 
adoration  of  certain  trees,  survived  the  introduction  of 
Christianity.  The  early  missionaries  and  the  local 
councils  are  full  of  denunciations  against  this  inveterate 
heathen  practice.  We  shall  behold  St.  Boniface  and 
others,  as  their  crowning  triumph,  daring  to  hew  down 
stately  trees,  the  objects  of  the  veneration  of  ages,  and 
the  barbarians  standing  around,  awaiting  the  event  in 
sullen  suspense,  and  leaving  their  gods,  as  it  were,  on 
this  last  trial.  If  they  were  gods,  would  they  endure 
this  contumelious  sacrilege  ? 

The  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  in 
another  life,  though  not  perhaps  so  distinct,  or  con- 
nected with  the  transmigration  of  the  soul,  as  in  Gaul, 
yet  seems  to  have  been  universal,  dominant ;  as  far  as 
warlike  contempt  of  death,  an  active  and  influential 
faith.  But  it  was  to  most  men  vague,  dreary,  dismal, 
—  the  Nifleheim,  the  home  of  clouds  and  darkness,  was 
the  common  lot ;  the  Valhalla  that  alone  of  the  noble, 
and  of  select  and  distinguished  warriors. 

The  priesthood  were  held  in  the  same  reverence 
throughout  Germany.  It  was  not  an  organized  and 
Priesthood.  ])u\verful  hierarchy,  or  a  separate  caste,  like 
that  of  the  Druids  in   Gaul   and  Britain ;  ^    but   the 

1  Csesar  says  of  the  Germans,  "  Neque  Druides  habent  oui  reliii«5  divinis 
pr.Tsint,  neque  sacrificiis  student." — B.  G.  vi.  21.    /'  strictlj' 

true,  is  true  in  the  sense  in  which  C;v!sai*  wrote,  as  c  le  hier- 

►rchy  of  Gaul. — "Ungleich  betraclitlicher  war  ir  bildung 

ias  celtische  PrieBterthum."  —  Grimm. 


Chap.  Xl  PRIESTHOOD.  363 

priests  officiated  in  and  presided  over  tlie  sacred  cere- 
monials of  sacrifice  and  worship,  and  administered  jus- 
tice. In  the  early  German  wars,  when  Rome  was,  as 
it  were,  invading  the  sanctuaries  of  the  Teutonic 
deities,  the  priesthood  appear  as  a  kind  of  officers  of  the 
god  of  war,  enforcing  discipline,  branding  cowardice, 
and  inflicting  punishment,  which  the  free  German  spirit 
would  endure  only  from  those  who  bore  a  divine  com- 
mission.^ In  all  affairs  of  pubHc  concern  —  the  priest ; 
in  private  affairs  —  the  head  of  the  family,  interpreted 
the  lots  by  which  the  gods  rendered  their  oracles.^ 
The  priest  or  the  king  might  alone  harness  the  sacred 
horses ;  the  allusions  to  the  priesthood  in  the  late 
writers  on  the  various  conquering  tribes,  are  not  very 
frequent,  but  sufficient  to  show  that  they  had  that  ven- 
eration inseparable  from  the  character  of  persons  who 
performed  sacrifices,  consulted  the  gods,  and  by  aus- 
pices, or  other  modes  of  divination,  predicted  victory  or 
disaster.^  Prophetic  women  characterize  the  Teutonic 
faith  in  all  its  numerous  branches.  The  Velleda  of 
Tacitus,  who  ruled  like  a  Queen,  and  was  worshipped 
almost  as  a  goddess,  is  the  ancestress  of  the  Nomas  of 
the  poetic  Sagas.*     In  the  East  the  gift  of  prophecy 

1  *'  Cfeterum  neque  animadvertere,  neque  vincire,  nee  verberare  quidem, 
nisi  sacerdotibus  permissum;  non  quasi  in  pcenam,  nee  ducis  jussu,  sed 
velut  Deo  imperante,  quern  adesse  bellantibus  credunt."  —  Tacit.  Germ.  vii. 

2  Tac.  Germ.  x.  and  xi.  A  priest  of  the  Catti  was  led  in  the  triumph  of 
Gennanicus.  —  Strabo. 

3  Even  Grimm's  industry  is  baffled  b}''  the  question  of  the  power  of  the 
priesthood  in  Germany :  "  Aus  der  folgenden  zeit  und  bis  zur  einfiihrung 
des  Christenthums,  haben  wir  fast  gar  keine  kunde  weiter  wie  es  sich  in 
innern  Deutschland  mit  dem  priesteni  verhielt:  ihr  dasein  folgt  aus  den 
der  tempel  und  opf"." — p.  61.  Among  the  Anglo-Saxons  the  priests 
might  not  bear  arms,  )r  ride,  except  on  a  mare.  — Bede,  Hist.  Ecc.  ii.  13. 

4  Tac.  Germ.  viii.  Hist.  iv.  61.  "  Ea  virgo,  nationis  Bructer?e,  lat6 
impcritabat.  Vetera'  apud  Germanos  more,  quo  pleras'iae  Ibemiiiarura 
fatidicas,  et  augescente  superstitione,  arbitrantur  Deas."'  (Jompare  iv.  65, 
*-  24.  Grimm.  Art.  Wcise  Fraiien. 


364  LATIN  CIIEISTIANITY.  Book  III 

is  sometimes,  but  rarely,  vouchsafed  to  females  *  m 
Greece  it  was  equally  shared  by  both  sexes  ;  the  seer 
or  prophet  is  the  exception  in  the  Northern  my- 
thology. This  reverence  for  women,  especially  for 
sacred  virgins,  no  doubt  prepared  them  to  receive 
one  article  of  the  new  religious  faith,  which  had 
already  begun  to  grow  towards  its  later  all-absorbing 
importance  ;  while  it  harmonized  with  the  general  ten- 
dency of  Christian  doctrine  to  elevate  the  female  sex. 

Such  was  the  general  character  of  the  Teutonic  re- 
ligion, disposed  to  the  dark,  the  awful,  the  mysterious, 
with  a  profound  belief  in  prophetic  revelations,  and  a 
priesthood  accustomed  to  act  in  a  judicial,  as  well  as  in 
Teutons        a  rcligious  capacity.    And  with  such  religious 

encounter  .  . 

Christianity,  conceptious,  and  habits  of  thought  and  feel- 
ing, the  Northern  tribes,  first  on  the  frontiers,  after- 
wards within  the  frontiers,  and  gradually  in  the  heart 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  came  into  the  presence  of 
Christianity  —  of  Christianity  now  organized  under  a 
powerful  priesthood,  a  hierarchy  of  bishops,  priests,  and 
inferior  clergy :  laying  claim  to  divine  inspiration  ;  and 
though  that  divine  inspiration  was  gathered  and  con- 
centred, as  it  were,  into  a  sacred  book  —  in  a  wider 
and  more  vague  and  indistinct  sense,  it  remained  with 
the  rulers  of  the  Church.  The  Teutonic  conqueror, 
already  expatriated  by  the  thirst  for  conquest  or  the 
aggression  of  more  martial  tribes,  by  his  migration  had 
broken  off  all  local  associations  of  sanctity ;  he  had  left 
far  behind  him  his  hallowed  grove,^  and  his  reeking 
altar ;  ^  even  the  awe  of  his  primeval  forests  must  have 

1  The  Lombards  even  in  Italy  found  stately  trees  to  wc.  -  -a- 
tori,  Dissert.  59,  especially  a  curious  quotation  about  u  he 
dukedom  of  Beuevento.  The  Gallic  Councils  (Aries,  452;  i  aurrf,  d'j7  j 
Nanfes,  658)  prohibit  the  worship  of  trees,  the  latter  of  c^'tain  stone?. 

2  Luitprandi  Leg.  1.  vi.  30 


Chap.  II.      TEUTONS    ENCOUNTER    CHRISTIANITY.  365 

gra^dually  worn  away  as  he  advanced  into  the  southern 
sunshine,  and  took  possession  of  the  regular  towns  or 
the  cultivated  farms  of  his  Roman  subjects. 

The  human  sacrifices  not  merely  belonged  of  ancient 
usage  to  these  gloomy  sanctuaries :  but  even  before 
they  had  learned  the  Christian  tenet,  that  all  sacrifice 
had  ceased  with  the  one  great  sacrifice  on  the  cross, 
the  milder  manners,  which  they  could  not  but  insensi- 
bly, if  slowly,  acquire  by  intercourse  with  more  pol- 
ished nations,  would  render  such  dire  offerings  more 
and  more  unfi-equent :  they  would  be  reserved  for  sig- 
nal occasions,  till  at  length  they  would  fall  into,  total 
desuetude. 

In  one  respect,  in  which  the  genius  of  Christianity 
might  have  been  expected  to  clash  with  his  own  re- 
ligious notions,  Christianity  had  already  advanced 
many  steps  to  meet  the  Teuton.  The  Christian  God, 
and  even  the  gentle  Saviour  of  mankind,  had  ^^^^^  ^  q^^ 
become  a  God  of  battle.  The  cross,  the°^^*"^*'- 
symbol  of  Christian  redemption,  glittered  on  the  stand- 
ards of  the  legions ;  and  every  victory,  and  every  new 
conquest,  might  encourage  the  hope  that  this  God,  the 
God  of  the  southern  people,  did  not  behold  them  with 
disfavor,  was  deserting  his  own  votaries,  and  would 
gladly  receive  and  reward  the  allegiance  of  more  manly 
and  valiant  worshippers.  Notwithstanding  the  proud 
consciousness  of  their  own  superior  prowess  as  warriors, 
the  Teutonic  conquerors  could  not  enter  into  the  do- 
minions of  Rome,  cross  the  Roman  bridges,  marcli 
along  the  Roman  roads,  encamp  before  the  walled 
cities,  with  their  towers,  temples,  basilicas,  forums, 
aqueducts,  baths,  and  churches  now  aspiring  to  grand- 
eur, if  not  magnificence,  without  awe  at  the  sujierior 


36b  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IU 

intellectual  power  of  those  whom   they  had  subdued. 
..       It  was  natural  to  coniYfect  this  intellectual  su- 

Respect  tor 

the  clergy,     perioritj  with  the  rehgion  ;  and  while  every- 
thing  else,   the   civil   power,   the   ordinary  course  of 
affairs,  as  well  as  the  army,  bgwed  before  them,  the 
rehgion  alone  stood  up,  resolute,  unyielding,  almost  un- 
disturbed.    The  Christian  bishops  and  clergy  (hke  the 
aged  senators  of  old,  as  they  are  described  in  the  noble 
passage  of  Livy,  awaiting  their  doom  in  the  Capitol, 
and  appalling  for  a  time  the  ruthless  Gaul  by  the  ven- 
erable majesty   of  their  dress   and  demeanor)   might 
seem. to  awe  their  conquerors  into  respect;  and  though 
at  times,  when  the  paroxysm  of  wonder  was  broken,  as 
in  the  former  instance,  the  conquerors  might  insult  or 
even  massacre  the  objects  of  their  adoration,  still  in 
general  the  sacred  character  would  work  on  the  super- 
stitious  mind   of    the    barbarian.      The    Teuton    had 
already  the  habit  of  contemplating  the  priest  as  the 
representative  of  divinity.     According  to  the  general 
feeling  of  polytheism,  acknowledging  the  gods  of  other 
tribes  or  nations,  as  well  as  his  own,  to  possess  divine 
power,  he  arrayed  the  priesthood  of  the  stranger  in  the 
same  fearfulness ;  the  mysterious  sanctity  which  dwe] 
with  the  Christian's  God  hallowed  the  Christian  bishop. 
Nor,  though  individual  priests  might  and  did  ac^com- 
No  Teutonic   pauy  tlic  migratory  tnbcs,  does  there  appear 
priesthood,     ^^^y  ^f  ^i^^^  strong  sacerdotal  spirit  which  be- 
longs to  an  organized  hierarchy,  by  which  its  influence 
is  chiefly  maintained  and  established,  which  is  pledged 
to  and  supported  by  mutual  emulation,  and  by  fear  of 
the  reproach  of  treason    to  thd  ocmmon  cause,  or  of 
base  abandonment  of  the  wervltUitAe  power,  and  the 
credit  of  the  fraternity.     With  t'hosa  (Elements  then  of 


Ch\p.  II.  EFFECT   ON  CHRISTUNS.  367 

faith  within  his  heart,  the  German  was  migrating  into 
tiie  territory  as  it  were  of  a  new  God,  and  was  encoun- 
tered everywhere  by  the  priest  of  that  God.  That 
priest  was  usually  fidl  of  zeal,  and,  with  all  to 
whom  his  language  was  intelligible,  of  eloquence  ;  con- 
fessedly in  all  intellectual  qualities  a  superior  being, 
and  asserting  himself  to  be  divinely  commissioned  to 
impart  the  truth  ;  seizing  every  opportunity  of  vicissi- 
tude, of  distress,  of  sickness,  of  affliction,  to  enforce 
the  power  and  goodness  of  his  God ;  himself  perhaps 
in  perfect  faith  turning  every  one  of  those  countless 
incidents,  which  to  a  barbarian  mind  was  capable  of  a 
supernatural  tinge,  into  a  manifest  miracle ;  opening  a 
new  and  more  distinct  and  terrible  hell  and  a  heaven 
of  light  and  gladness,  and  declaring  himself  to  possess 
the  keys  of  both. 

At  no  time,  under  no  circumstances,  would  Chris- 
tianity appear  more  sincere,  more  devout,  ^^^^^  ^^ 
more  commanding,  or  more  amiable.  As  ^^"s*^^'^- 
has  always  been  observed  during  a  plague,  an  earth- 
quake, or  any  other  great  public  calamity,  men  be- 
come either  more  recklessly  godless,  or  more  profoundly 
FDlio;ious  ;  so  durino;  the  centuries  of  dano;er,  disaster 
and  degradation,  which  were  those  of  barbarian  inva- 
sion and  conquest,  the  fire  must,  as  it  were,  have  been 
trying  the  spirits  of  men.  Those  who  had  no  vital  or 
rooted  relio-ion  w^ould  fall  off,  as  some  of  them  would 
assert,  from  a  God  who  showed  them  no  protection. 
These  while  fi^ee  would  waste  away  the  few  remaining 
years  or  days  of  their  wealth,  or  at  all  events  of  their 
freedom,  in  licentiousness  and  luxmy  ;  if  slaves,  they 
would  sink  to  all  the  vices,  as  well  as  the  degradation 
of  slavery.     The  truly  religious,  on  the   other  hand. 


868  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  ID. 

would  clasp  more  nearly  to  their  heart  the  one  remain 
ing  principle  of  consolation  and  of  dignity.  They 
would  fly  from  a  world  which  only  offered  shame  and 
misery,  to  the  hope  of  a  better  and  more  happy  state 
of  being.  Death  was  their  only  release,  but  beyond 
death,  they  were  secure,  they  were  at  peace ;  they 
would  take  refuge,  at  least  in  faith,  from  the  face  of  a 
tyrannical  master,  or  what  to  a  freeborn  Roman  was 
as  galling  and  humiliating,  a  lord  and  proprietor,  in  the 
presence  of  the  Redeemer.  They  would  flee  from 
down-trodden  servitude  on  earth  to  glory  and  beatitude 
in  heaven.  The  darker  the  calamity,  the  more  entire 
the  resignation  ;  as  wretchedness  would  be  more  ram- 
pant, so  devotion  would  be  more  devout.  The  Provin- 
cial with  his  home  desolated,  his  estate  seized,  his  fam- 
ily outraged  or  massacred  or  carried  away  into  bondage, 
would,  if  really  Christian,  consider  himself  as  taking 
up  his  cross;  he  would  be  a  more  fervent,  as  it  were,  a 
desperate  believer.  In  the  letters  of  Sidonius  Apolli- 
naris,  we  find  the  Bishop  of  Clermont  writing  to  Ma- 
temus,  the  Bishop  of  Vienne,  for  the  form  of  certain 
litanies  or  rogations,  which  were  used  in  that  city  dur- 
ing an  earthquake  and  conflagration ;  he  proposes  to 
institute  the  same  solemn  ceremonies  in  apprehension 
of  the  invasion  of  the  Goths  into  Provence.  Salvian 
bitterly  reproaches  the  Roman  Gauls  with  their  passion 
for  theatric  games,  which  they  indulged  during  such 
days  of  peril  and  disaster  only  with  more  desperate  in- 
tensity. But,  even  if  the  true  Christians  in  those 
hours  of  trial  were  fewer  in  number,  it  cannot  be 
doubted  that  their  piety  took  a  more  vehement  and  im- 
passioned character.  It  was  the  time  for  great  Chris- 
tian virtues,  as  well  as  fur  more  profound  Christian  cou« 


Chap.  11.  EFFECT   ON  CURISTIANS.  36V> 

solations,  virtues  wliicli  in  some  points  would  be  strik- 
ingly congenial  to  barbaric  minds,  as  giving  a  sublime 
patience  and  serenity  in  suffering,  a  calm  contempt  of 
death.  The  Germans  would  admire  the  martyr  whom 
in  their  wantonness  they  slew,  if  that  martyr  showed 
true  Clu'istian  tranquillity  in  his  agony.  There  was  no 
danger  which  the  better  bishops  and  clergy  would  not 
encounter  for  their  flocks ;  they  would  venture  to  con- 
front unarmed  the  fierce  warrior  ;  all  the  treasures  of 
the  unplundered  churches  were  willingly  surrendered 
for  the  redemption  of  captives.  The  austerities  prac- 
tised by  some  of  the  clergy,  and  by  those  who  had 
commenced  the  monastic  life,  would  arrest  the  atten- 
tion and  inthral  the  admiration  of  barbarians,  to  whom 
self-command,  endurance,  strength  of  will,  would  ap- 
pear kindred  and  noble  qualities.  In  the  early  period, 
when  the  Germans  still  dwelt  separate  in  their  camps, 
or  in  the  ceded  settlements  within  the  frontier,  the  cap- 
tives would  be,  and  as  history  shows,  were  the  "*hief 
missionaries.  The  barbarians  on  the  one  hand  would 
more  and  more  feel  the  intellectual  superiority  of  their 
bond-slaves,  which  would  induce  them  to  look  favor- 
ably on  their  religion.  The  captives,  some  of  them 
bisliops,  some  females  of  high  rank  and  influential 
beauty,  where  they  were  truly  Christians,  would  be 
urged  by  many  of  the  purest,  and  many  less  holy  mo- 
tives, to  convert  their  masters.  The  sacred  duty  of 
disseminating  the  Gospel,  the  principle  of  love  which 
would  impart  its  blessings  to  all  mankind  ;  the  strong 
conviction  that  they  were  rescuing  the  barbarians  from 
eternal  damnation,  the  doom  of  all  but  the  true  believ- 
ers in  Christ ;  and  so  in  the  noblest  form  the  returning 
good  for  evil,  would  conspire  with  the  pride  and  con- 

VOL.    I.  24 


370  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

solation  of  rulin<T  their  rulers ;  of  maintaininor  in  one 
sense  the  Roman  supremacy  over  the  minds  of  men. 
The  end  would  sanctify  all  arts,  dignify  all  humilia- 
tions ;  Christian  zeal  and  worldly  ambition  would  act 
together  in  perfect  harmony. 

Where  the  Teutonic  nations  had  penetrated  more 
Teutons  in  ^^^^^  ^^^^  midst  of  tlic  Roman  Empire ;  where 
of  thi^Em-  ^^^^y  ^^^^  settled  down,  as  they  did  succes- 
pire.  sively,  in  all  the  provinces,  as  lords  of  the 

soil,  they  would  be  more  fully  in  the  presence  and  con- 
centred influence  of  Christianity.  Themselves  Avith- 
out  temples,  without  shrines,  without  altars,  perhaps 
without  a  priesthood,  they  would  be  daily  spectators  of 
the  lofty  and  spacious  edifices,  perhaps  the  imposing 
processions,  the  ceremonial,  which  had  already  begun 
to  assume  some  grandeur,  of  the  Christian  churches. 
If  admitted,  or  forcing  their  way  within,  or  hearing 
from  without  the  hymns  and  the  music,  the  ordinary 
ceremonial  Avhich  they  would  witness,  and  still  more 
perhaps  the  more  solemn  mysteries  which  were  jeal- 
ously shrouded  from  their  sight,  would  lay  hold  upon 
their  unpreoccupied  religiousness,  and  ofi:er  them  as 
almost  ready  captives  to  the  persuasive  teacher  of  these 
new  and  majestic  truths.  Their  conversion  therefore 
was  more  speedy,  and  comparatively  more  complete. 
They  too  contributed  much  to  establish  that  imposing, 
but  certainly  degenerate  form  of  warHke  and  sacerdo- 
tal Christianity,  which  had  been  growing  up  for  two  or 
three  centuries.  No  doubt  they  retained  and  infused 
into  the  Cliristianlty  of  the  conquered  provinces  many 
of  their  old  native  superstitions  and  modes  of  religious 
thought  and  feeling,  but  far  less  than  survived  in  Ger- 
many itself.     There  the  nature-worship   ling<ired  be- 


Chap.  II  CONVERSION  OF  TEUTONS.  371 

hind  ill  tlie  bosom  of  Christianity ;  and  under  the  sub- 
lime Monotheism  of  Christianity,  as  the  old  benefi- 
cent or  malignant  deities  of  paganism,  became  angels 
or  spirits  of  evil.  Everywhere  among  the  converted 
tribes,  the  groves,  the  fountains,  the  holy  animals,  pre- 
served their  sanctity.  As  we  accompany  the  missiona- 
ries in  their  spiritual  campaigns  we  shall  encounter 
many  curious  circumstances,  which  will  appear  more 
striking  when  in  their  proper  position,  than  brought  to- 
gether and  crowded  in  one  general  view.  The  char- 
acter of  the  Christianity  which  grew  up  out  of  these 
discordant  elements  w^U  be  best  discerned  in  the  prog- 
ress of  its  growth.^ 

About  the  year  300  Christianity  had  found  its  way 
among  the   Goths  and  some  of  the  German  successive 
tribes    on   the   Rhine.      The   Visigoths  first  ^?\^^;y,"j;, 
embraced  the  Gospel,  as  a  nation ;  they  were  *"^''^' 
followed  by  the   Ostrogoths  ;  with   these  the  Vandals 
and  the  Gepidse  were  converted  during  the  fourth  cen- 
tury.    At  the  close   of  the  fifth  century  the  Franks 
were  converted,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixth,  first 
the  Alemanni,  then  the  Lombards ;  the  Bavarians  in 
the  seventh  and   eighth,   the   Frisians,    Hessians,  and 
TImrlnglans  in  the  eighth  ;  the  Saxons  by  the  sword 
of   Charlemagne  in   the  ninth.     Our  present  inquiry 
limits  itself  to  the  conversions  within  the  pale  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  and  closes  with  that  of  the  Franks. 
With  the  exception  of  the  latter,  the  whole  of  these 
nations  were  the  conquests  of  Arlan  ChristI-  Arianism  of 
anity,  or  embraced  It  during  the  early  period  ^^""^  couverta 

1  The  description  of  the  Holstenians  by  Helmold  (i.  47)  will  apply  more 
or  less  to  most  of  the  early  German  converts:  "Nihil  de  religione  nisi  no 
men  tantum  Christiuuitatis  habetis  .  .  .  nam  lucorum  et  fontium  ca,tera- 
omique  superstition um  multiplex  error  apud  vos  habetm'." 


372  LATIN    CHEISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

of  tlieir  belief.  That  diversity  of  religious  creed  whicli 
perplexed  the  more  mature  Christiau,  especially  the  dis- 
putatious Greek  and  imaginative  Asiatic,  touched  not 
these  simple  believers.  The  Arian  Goth  had  submis- 
sively received  the  lessons  of  his  first  teacher,  and  witli 
some  tribes  the  difference  Avas  so  little  felt,  that  he  ditl 
not  persecute  on  account  of  it.  Nations  changed  their 
belief  with  but  slight  reluctance.  The  Burgundians 
in  Gaul  were  first  Catholic,  then  Arian  under' the  Vis- 
igothic  rule,  Catholic  again  with  the  Franks.  The 
Suevians  in  Spain  were  first  Catholic,  then  fell  off  into 
Arlanism  :  it  was  not  till  the  sixth  century  that  Spain 
was  Catholic.  For  soon,  indeed,  religious  difference 
became  a  pretext  for  cruelty  and  ambition,  made  the 
Vandal  in  Africa  a  persecutor  as  well  as  a  tyrant,  and 
became  the  battle-word  of  the  Frank  when  he  would 
invade  the  dominions  of  the  Burgundian  or  the  Visi- 
goth, or  when  he  descended  into  Italy  to  protect  the 
orthodox  Bishop  of  Rome  against  the  heterodox  Lom- 
bard. 

But  of  these  early  Arian  missionaries,  the  Arian 
uiphiias.  records,  if  they  ever  existed,  have  almost  en- 
tirely perished.  The  Church  was  either  ignorant  of  or 
disdained  to  preserve  their  memory.  Uiphiias  alone, 
the  apostle  of  the  Goths,  has,  as  it  were,  forced  his  way 
into  the  Catholic  records,  in  which,  as  in  the  frag- 
ments of  his  great  work,  his  translation  of  the  Script- 
ures into  the  Ma3so-Gothic  lano;uao;e,  this  admirable 
man  has  descended  to  posterity.^     Uiphiias  was  a  Goth 

1  The  orthodox  abbrcviator  of  Philostorglus  acknowledges,  but  carefully 
suppresses,  the  praises  which  Philostorgius  had  lavished  on  Uiphiias.  We 
would  almost  have  forgiven  him  the  suppression  of  the  praise,  if  he  had 
imparted  the  more  extensive  uiformation  which  Thilostorgi us  seems  to  hav« 
preserved  of  this  great  event. 


Chap.  II.  ULPIIILAS.  373 

bj  birth,  not  by  descent.  His  ancestors,  during  a 
[)redatory  expedition  of  the  Goths  into  Asia,  under  the 
reign  of  Gallienus,  had  been  swept  away  with  many 
other  captives,  some  belonging  to  the  clergy,  from  a 
village  in  Cappadocia,  to  the  Gothic  settlements  north 
of  the  Danube.^  These  captives,  faithful  to  their 
creed,  perpetuated  and  propagated  among  their  masters 
the  doctrines  of  Christianity.  Ulphilas  first  appears  as 
the  Bishop  of  the  Goths,  and  as  their  ambassador  at 
the  Court  of  Valens.^  His  religion,  and  his  descent 
from  a  Roman  provincial  family,  as  well  as  high  influ- 
ence, mio;ht  designate  him  for  this  mission  to  the  Ro- 
man  Emperor  of  the  East.^  The  Goths  beyond  the 
Danube,  pressed  by  the  more  powerful  and  ferocious 
Huns,  requested  permission  to  cross  the  Danube,  and 
settle  in  Moesia,  within  the  Roman  frontier.  Among 
the  motives  which  induced  the  Emperor  to  consent, 
and  to  accept  this  nation  of  hardy  but  dangerous  sub- 
jects, was  their,  at  least  partial,  conversion  to  Christian- 

1  The  name  of  Eutyches,  called  by  St.  Basil,  the  Blessed,  has  siirvived, 
as  having,  from  the  same  region,  Cappadocia,  established  a  church  among 
the  Scythians,  (the  Sarmatians,)  who  had  been  subdued,  and  were  mingled 
with  the  Goths.  St.  Cyril  asserts  that  the  Scythians  had  no  cause  to  envy 
the  empire;  they  had  their  bishops,  priests, deacons,  sacred  virgins.  —  Cyril 
Hierosolym.  Catech.  xvi. 

2  Basil,  Epist.  16,  tome  iii. 

8  It  is  said  that  the  Gothic  bishop,  like  his  predecessor  Theophilus,  re- 
ported to  have  been  present  at  the  Council  of  Nicea  (Socrates,  ii.  41),  had 
professed  that  creed ;  that  he  was  threatened,  bribed,  persuaded  by  Valens 
to  accede  to  his  Ariauism,  and  acquiesced  in  it  as  a  mere  verbal  dispute. 
OvK  ELvai  doy/iaTO)V  e^ri  r^w^o/  tv,  uXXa  /mraiav  eptv  Epyaaaa^ai  rrjv  did- 
araaiv  — Theodoret,  iv.  37.  l^ut  see  the  very  curious  character  and  creed 
of  Ulphilas,  in  the  speech  of  his  disciple  Bishop  Auxentius  at  the  Council 
of  Aquileia  (a.d.  381),  reported  by  Bishop  Maximinus.  This  remarkable 
fragment  was  edited  by  Dr.  Waitz  from  a  MS.  in  Paris.  Uber  das  Leben 
und  die  Lehre  des  Ulfila,  von  George  Waitz.  Hanover,  1840.  Also  the 
Preface  to  the  new  and  excellent  Edition  of  the  Bible  of  Ulfilas,  by  th« 
irery  learned  II.  F.  Massmann.    Stutgard,  1856. 


374  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

ity.  Ulpliilas  was  called  by  the  grateful  Cliristian 
Goths,  who  might  now  pasture  their  herds  in  the  rich 
plaiiis  of  Thrace,  the  Moses,  who  had  led  them  into 
Mi-ration  ^^^®  ^^^^^  °^  promise.^  But  the  disciples  of 
across'the  Ulpliilas  fomicd  but  a  small  part  of  the 
Danube.  y^^^  migration,  which,  partly  under  permis- 
sion, partly  by  bribery  of  the  Imperial  officers,  partly 
by  stealth,  and  partly  by  force,  came  swarming  over 
the  river,  and  took  possession  of  the  unprotected  Ro- 
man province.  The  heathen  part  of  the  population 
brought  over  their  own  priests  and  priestesses,  Avith 
their  altars  and  rites  ;  but  on  those  mysterious  rites  they 
ma«itained  an  impenetrable  silence ;  they  disguised 
their  priests  in  the  garb  and  manners  of  Christian  bishops. 
They  had  even  fictitious  monks  clothed  in  black,  and 
demeaning  themselves  as  Christian  ascetics.^  Thus, 
relates  the  heathen  historian,  who  makes  this  curious 
statement,  while  they  faithfully  but  secretly  adhered  to 
their  own  religion,  the  Komans  were  weak  enough  to 
suppose  them  perfect  Christians.  But  once  on  the  Ro- 
man side  of  the  Danube,  the  more  martial  Goths 
spurned  the  religion  which  they  had  condescended  to 

1  Philostorg.  ii.  5.  Auxentius  (apud  Waitz,  p.  20)  uses  the  same  com- 
parison to  Moses  and  the  Red  Sea  (the  Danube),  and  adds,  "  eo  populo  in  solo 
Romanian  ubi  sine  illis  septem  annis  triginta  et  tribus  annis  veritatem  praj- 
dicavit,  &c."  — and  so  makes  up  the  forty  years  of  Moses. 

2  This  remarkable  passage  of  Eunapius  is  one  of  the  most  important  his- 
torical fi-agments  discovered  in  the  Palimpsest  MSS.  by  Monsignor  Ma 
It  was  of  course  unknown  to  the  older  historians,  including  Gibbon.-  - 
Mai,  p.  277.  In  the  reprint  of  the  Byzantines  (Bonn,  1829,  edit.  Niebuhr), 
p.  82.  Eunapius  speaks  of  the  false  bishops  having  much  of  the  fox.  The 
hatred  of  Eunapius  to  the  monks  breaks  out  in  his  description  of  these  im- 
postors. "  The  niimiory  of  the  monks  was  not  diflicult;  it  was  enough' to 
sweep  the  ground  willi  black  robes  and  tunics,  to  be  good  for  nothing  and 
be'  eved  in."  Ov6ev  exovorjg  Tjjg  fii/nTjaeo)^  npay/xarcb^ec  aal  fivoKolov,  a%- 
kii  *:4/}0Ktt  (paLu  IfiUTca  avpovai  kqI  xnuvia,  x^ov7jpol(;  re  elvai  kol  KLarevtadcu 


t  HAP.  II.  STRIFE  AMONG   THE   GOTIIS.  375 

feign  with  barbarian  cunning.^  Ulphilas,  as  a  true 
missionary  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  aspired  not  merely 
to  convert  his  disciples  to  Christianity,  but  to  peaceful 
habits.  In  his  translation  of  the  Scriptures  he  left  out 
the  Books  of  Kings,  as  too  congenial  and  too  stimula- 
tive to  their  warlike  propensities.^  The  Goths  divided 
into  two  factions,  each  with  its  great  hereditary  chief- 
tain :  of  the  one,  the  valiant  Athanaric ;  of  g^^jj-^  among 
the  other  Fritigern,  the  friend  of  Ulphilas.  "^^  «°^^^- 
The  warlike  and  anti-Christian  party  appealed  to  their 
native  Gods,  and  raised  a  violent  persecution.^  The 
God  of  their  fathers  was  placed  on  a  lofty  wagon,  and 
drawn  through  the  whole  camp ;  all  who  refused  their 
adoration  were  burned,  with  their  whole  families,  in 
their  tents.  A  multitude,  especially  of  helpless  women 
and  children,  who  took  refuge  in  their  rude  church, 
were  likewise  mercilessly  burned  with  their  sacred  edi- 
fice.* But  while  in  their  two  great  divisions,  the  Os- 
trogoths and  Visigoths,  the  nation,  gathering  its  de- 
scendants from  all  quarters,  spread  their  more  or  less 
rapid  conquests  over  Gaul,  Italy,  and  Spain,  Ulphilas 
formed  a  peaceflil  and  populous  colony  of  shepherds 
and  herdsmen  on  the  pastures  below  Mount  Hsemus.^ 

1  Are  we  to  attribute  Jerome's  triumphant  exclamations  to  these  events  ? 
Probably  not  altogether.  "  Getarum  rutilus  et  flavus  exercitus,  Ecclesia- 
rum  circumfert  tentoria."  —  Ad  Lfet.  "Stridorem  suum  in  dulce  crucis 
fregerunt  melos."  — Ad  Heliod.     "  Hunni  discunt  Psalterium."  — Ad  Lat. 

2  Philostorgius,  loc.  cit. 

3  These  persecutions  are  by  some  placed  before  the  migration  over  the 
Danube.     I  think  the  balance  of  probability  favors  the  view  in  the  text. 

4  Sozomen,  iv.  37.  Compare  the  legend  of  St.  Saba,  apud  Bolland,  April 
12  —  remembering  that  it  is  a  legend. 

5  "  Gothi  minores,  populus  imniensus  cum  suo  Pontifice  ipsoque  Primate 
Wulfila  ...  ad  pedes  montis.  Gens  multa  sedit,  pauper  et  imbellis,  nisi 
armento,  diversi  generis  pecorum  et  pascuis,  silvaque  lignorum,  paruno 
aabcns  tritici."  — Jornandes,  c.  lii. 


3T6  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Boon  IlL 

He  became  the  Primate  of  a  simple  Christian  nation. 
For  them  he  formed  an  alpliabet  of  twenty-four  letters, 
and  completed  (all  but  the  fierce  Books  of  Kings)  his 
translation  of  the  Scriptures.  Thus  the  first  Teutonic 
Christians  received  the  gift  of  the  Bible,  in  their  own 
language,  from  the  Apostle  of  their  race.^ 

No  record  whatever,  not  even  a  legend  remains,  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  tw^o  great  branches  of  the 
History  of  Gotliic  racc,  the  Visigoths  in  France,  the 
unknown,  Ostrogoths  iu  Paunouia,  and  the  Suevians 
in  Spain,  the  Gepidoe,  the  Vandals,  the  mingled  hosts 
which  formed  the  army  of  Odoacer,  the  first  king  of 
Italy,  and  at  length  the  fierce  Lombards,  ^vere  con- 
verted to  Christianity.^  They  no  doubt  yielded — but 
secretly  and  imperceptibly  —  to  those  influences  de- 
scribed above ;  the  faith  appears  to  steal  from  nation  ta 
nation,  and  wins  king  after  king  ;  and  it  is  only  when 
they  become  sovereigns  of  great  independent  kingdoms, 
conquerors  like  Alaric,  founders  of  dynasties  like  The- 
odoric  in  Italy  and  the  Visigothic  and  Suevian  mon- 
archs  in  France  and  Spain,  or  raise  fierce  persecutions, 
like  the  Vandals  in  Africa  against  the  Catholics,  that 
we  recognize  them  as  professed  Christians,  and  Chris- 
tians holding  a  peculiar  form  of  faith.^ 

Of  the  Burgundians  alone,  and  the  motives  of  their 

1  It  is  difficult  to  discriminate  between  the  rhetoric  and  the  facts  recorded 
by  Jerome.  If  we  are  to  take  his  words  in  their  phxin  sense,  thcologic 
studies  were  far  advanced  among  the  Goths :  "  Quis  hoc  crederet  ut  bar- 
bara  Getarum  lingua  Hebraicam  qujcreret  veritatem?  et  dormitantibus 
imo  contendentibus  Graecis,  ipsa  Germania  Spiritus  Sancti  eloquia  scrutare- 
tur."  —  Epist.  ad  Juniam  et  Fretilam,  tom.  ii.  p.  626. 

2  Idacius  (Chron.  448)  says  the  Suevians  were  first  CathoHc;  if  so,  they 
were  converted  to  Arianism  by  the  Goths. 

8  Comj)are  a  modern  book  of  research  and  judgment,  and  on  the  whole, 
of  candor,  L'Arianisme  des  Peuples  Germaniques,  par  Ch.  J.  Keveillot. 
Paris:  Besan(?on,  1850. 


CnAr.  II.  GOTHS   ALL  APJANS.  £77 

conversion,  remains  a  curious  detail  in  one  of  p^cept  of 
the  Byzantine  ecclesiastical  historians.  Tlie  «"^-'""d5an3. 
Burgundians  occupied  at  that  time  the  left  bank  of  the 
Rlione,  had  acquired  peaceful  habits,  and  employed 
themselves  in  some  kind  of  manufiicture.^  The  ter- 
rible invasion  of  the  Huns  broke  in  upon  their  quiet 
industry.  Despairing  of  the  aid  of  man,  they  looked 
round  for  some  protecting  Deity ;  the  God  of  the  Ro- 
mans appeared  the  mightiest,  as  worshipped  by  the 
most  powerful  people.  They  set  off  to  a  neighboring 
city  of  Gaul,  requested,  and  after  some  previous  fasting, 
received  baptism  from  the  bishop.  Their  confidence  in 
their  new  tutelar  Deity  gave  them  courage,  they  dis- 
comfited with  a  small  body  of  troops,  about  3000,  a 
vast  body  of  the  Huns,  who  lost  10,000  men.  From 
that  time  the  Burgundians  embraced  Christianity,  in 
the  words  of  the  historian,  with  fiery  zeal.^ 

But  all  these  nations  were  converts  to  the  Arian 
form  of  Christianity,  except  perhaps  the  Bur-  ah  Arians 
gundians,^  who  under  the  Visigoths  fell  off  to  Arianism 
Ulphilas  himself  was  a  semi- Arian,  and  acceded  to  the 
creed  of  Rimini.  Hence  the  total  silence  of  the 
Catholic  historians,  who  perhaps  destroyed,  or  dis- 
dained to  preserve  the  fame  of  Arian  conquests  to  the 
common  Christianity.*  The  first  conversion  of  a  Teu- 
tonic nation  to  the  faith,  of  which  any  long  and  par- 

1^  Socrates,  Ecc.  Hist.  vii.  30.  OvTot  (3c<yp  ayrpdyfiova  ^uaiv  uel,  tektove^ 
■yap  axedov  iravreg  elaiv.  Of  what  were  they  artisans  ?  This  was  during 
the  reign  of  Theodosius  II.,  a.d.  408-449. 

2  To  £T^og  diaTTL'pug  expi(yTidvi<yev,  loc  cit. 

3  Orosius,  vii.  22. 

4  Salvian  is  absolutely  charitable  to  the  errors  of  the  German  Arians. 
''  Hajretici  ergo  sunt,  sed  non  scientes.  Errant  ergo,  sed  bono  animo  eiTant. 
non  odio  sed  affectu  Dei."  But  this  is  to  contrast  them  with  the  vice?  of 
he  orthodox.  —  De  Gubem.  Dei. 


378  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

ticular  account  siu'vives,  was  that  of  the  Franks,  and 
that  by  CathoHc  prelates  into  stern  proselytes  to  the 
Catholic  faith.i 

This  conversion  of  the  Franks  was  the  most  impor- 
Conversioa  ^^^^^  cvcnt  in  its  rcmotc  as  well  as  its  immediate 
of  Franks,  consequcnccs  in  European  history.  It  had  great 
influence  on  the  formation  of  the  Frankish  monarchy. 
The  adoption  of  the  Catholic  form  of  faith,  by  arraying 
on  the  side  of  the  Franks  all  the  Catholic  prelates  and 
their  followers,  led  to  their  preponderance  over  the 
Visigothic  and  Burgundian  kings,  to  their  descent  into 
Italy  under  Pepin  and  his  son,  and  to  their  intimate 
connection  with  the  Papal  see  ;  and  thus  paved  the 
way  for  the  Western  Empire  of  Charlemagne.  They 
were  the  chosen  champions  of  Catholicism,  and  Ca- 
tholicism amply  repaid  them  by  vindicating  all  their 
aggressions  upon  the  neighboring  kingdoms,  and  aid- 
ing in  every  way  the  consolidation  of  their  formidable 
power.  The  Franks,  the  most  barbarous  of  the  Teu- 
tonic tribes  (though  in  cruelty  they  seem  to  have  been 
surpassed  by  the  Vandals),  had  settled  in  a  Christian 
country,  already  illustrious  in  legendary  annals  for  the 
wonders  of  Saints,  as  of  Martin  of  Tours,  the  founda- 
tion of  monasteries,  and  the  virtues  of  Bishops  like 
Remigius,  who  gave  his  name  to  the  great  cathedral 
city  of  Rheims.  The  south  of  France  was  ruled  by 
Arian  sovereigns.  Clovis  was  a  pagan,  then  only  the 
chief  of  about  4000  Frankish  warriors,  but  full  of 
adventurous  daring  and  unmeasured  ambition.  His 
conversion,  if  it  had  not  issued  in  events  of  such  pro- 

1  Gregory  of  Tours  is  the  great  authority  for  this  period:  he  wrote  for 
those  "  qui  appropiiK^uaute  mundi  line  desperant."  —  In  Prolog.  Sec  Loebel, 
Grcgor  von  Tours;  Ampere,  II>st.  Lit.  dc  lu  France. 


Chap.  II.  CLOVIS.  379 

found  importance  to  mankind,  miglit  have  seemed  but 
a  trivial  and  fortuitous  occurrence.  Tlie  influence  of 
a  female  conspires  with  the  conviction  that  the  Chris- 
tians' God  is  the  stronger  God  of  battle  ;  such  are  the 
impulses  which  seem  to  bring  this  bold  yet  crafty  bar- 
barian, who  no  doubt  saw  his  advantage  in  his  change 
of  belief,  to  the  foot  of  the  Cross,  and  made  liim  a 
strenuous  assertor  of  orthodox  faith.  Clovis  had  ob- 
tained in  marriage  the  niece  of  Gundebald,  king  of  the 
Burgundians.  The  early  life  of  this  Princess  was 
passed  amid  the  massacre  of  her  parents  and  kindred  ; 
it  shows  how  little  Christianity  had  allayed  the  ferocity 
of  these  barbarians. 

Gundicar,  king  of  the  Burgundians,  left  four  sons. 
The  fate  of  the  family-  was  more  like  that  of  Gundicar  the 
a  polygamous  Eastern  prince,  where  the  sons  ^^^^s""'^'^'^- 
of  different  mothers,  bred  up  without  brotherly  inter 
course  in  the  seraglio,  own  no  proximity  of  blood. 
Gundebald,  the  elder  son,  first  slew  his  brother  Chilperic, 
tied  a  stone  round  the  neck  of  Chilperic's  wife,  and 
cast  her  into  the  Rhone,  beheaded  his  two  sons  and 
threw  their  bodies  into  a  well.  The  dauo-hters,  of 
whom  Clotilda  was  one,  he  preserved  alive.  Godemar, 
his  next  brother,  he  besieged  in  his  castle,  set  it  on  fire, 
and  burned  him  alive.  Godesll,  the  third  brother,  as 
will  be  related  at  a  subsequent  period,  shared  the  same 
fate.  Gundebald,  as  yet  only  a  double  fratricide,  either 
felt,  or  thought  it  right  to  appear  to  feel,  deep  remorse 
for  his  crimes.  Avitus,  Bishop  of  Vienne,  saw  or  imag- 
ined some  inclination  in  the  repentant  king  to  embrace 
Catholicism.  In  far  different  lanfi^ua^e  from  that 
spoken  by  Ambrose  to  the  Emperor  Theodosius,  the 
Bishop  addressed  the  bloody  monarch,  —  "You  weep 


580  LATIN  ClffilSTIANTTY.  Book  Jl 

with  inexpressible  grief  at  the  death  of  your  brothers, 
your  sympathizing  people  are  afflicted  by  your  sadness. 
But  by  the  secret  counsels  of  God,  this  sorrow  shall 
turn  to  joy  ;  no  doubt  this  diminution  in  the  number 
of  its  princes  was  intended  for  the  welfare  of  the  king- 
dom, those  alone  were  allowed  to  survive  who  are 
needed  for  the  administration  of  the  kingdom."  ^ 

Gundebald,  however,  resisted  these  flattering  argu- 
ments, and  remained  obstinately  Arian  ;  but  Clotilda, 
his  niece,  it  is  unknown  through  what  influence,  was 
educated  in  orthodoxy.  Clotilda  took  the  opportunity, 
when  the  heart  of  her  husband  Clovis  might  be  softened 
by  the  birth  of  her  first-born  son,  to  endeavor  to  wean 
him  from  his  idolatry.  Clovis  listened  with  careless 
indifference ;  yet  with  the  same  indifference  common  in 
the  Teutonic  tribes,  permitted  the  baptism  of  the  infant. 
But  the  child  died,  and  Clovis  saw  in  his  death  the 
resentment  of  his  offended  Gods ;  he  took  but  little 
comfort  from  the  assurance  of  the  submissive  mother, 
that  her  son,  having  been  baptized,  was  in  the  presence 
of  God.  Yet  with  the  same  strange  versatility  of  feel- 
ing, he  allowed  his  second  son  also  to  be  baptized.  This 
child  too  declined,  and  Clovis  began  to  renew  his 
reproaches ;  but  the  prayer  of  the  mother  was  heard, 
and  the  child  restored  to  health.^ 

It  was  not,  however,  in  this  gentler  character  that 
the  Frank  would  own  the  power  of  the  Christians' 
Clovis.  God.     The  Franks  and  the  Alemanni  met  in 

battle  at  Tolbiac,  not  far  from  Cologne.     The  Franks 

1  Alcimi  Aviti  Epist.  apud  Sirmond.  oper.  vol.  ii. 

2  According  to  Gregory  of  Tours,  she  argued  with  her  husban<l  against 
the  worship  of  Saturn,  Jupiter,  Mars,  and  Mercury.  Was  it  ignorance 
or  did  Gregory  suppose  that  he  was  writing  like  a  Roman?  —  Grcgor 
Turon.  ii 


Chap.  n.  CLOVIS.  881 

were  worsted,  when  Clovis  betlioaglit  liim  of  Clotilda's 
God.  He  cast  oft'  liis  own  inefficient  divinities  ;  he 
prayed  to  Christ,  and  made  a  solemn  vow,  that  if  he 
were  succored,  he  would  be  baptized  as  a  Christian. 
The  tide  of  battle  turned  ;  the  king  of  the  Alemanni 
was  slain  ;  and  the  Alemanni,  in  danger  of  total  de- 
struction, hailed  Clovis  as  their  sovereign.^ 

Clotilda,  without  loss  of  time,  sent  the  glad  tidings 
to  Remigius,  Bishop  of  the  city,  which  afterwards  took 
his  name.  Clovis  still  hesitated,  till  he  could  consult 
his  people.  The  obsequious  warriors  declared  their 
readiness  to  be  of  the  same  religion  as  their  king.  To 
impress  the  minds  of  the  barbarians  the  baptismal 
ceremony  was  performed  with  the  utmost  pomp ;  the 
church  was  hung  with  embroidered  tapestry  and  white 
curtains ;  odors  of  incense  like  airs  of  Paradise  were 
diffused  around;  the  building  blazed  with  countless 
lights.  When  the  new  Constantine  knelt  in  the  font 
to  be  cleansed  from  the  leprosy  of  his  heathenism, 
"  Fierce  Sicambrian,"  said  the  Bishop,  "  bow  thy 
neck  :  burn  what  thou  hast  adored,  adore  what  thou 
hast  burned  !"  Three  thousand  Franks  followed  the 
example  of  Clovis.  During  one  of  their  subsequent 
religious  conferences,  the  Bishop  dwelt  on  the  barbar- 
ity of  the  Jews  in  the  death  of  the  Lord.  Clovis 
was  moved,  but  not  to  tenderness, — "HadA.D.  496. 
I  and  my  faithful  Franks  been  there,  they  had  not 
dared  to  do  it." 

At    that    time    Clovis    the    Frank    was    the    only 
orthodox    sovereign   in    Christendom.     The    Emperor 

1  "  Invocavi  enim  Deos  meos,  sed,  ut  experior,  elongati  sunt  ab  auxilio 
meo,  unde  credo  eos  nullius  esse  potestatis  pr:»ditos,  qui  sibi  obedientibus 
non  succurrunt.  Te  nunc  invoco,  et  tibi  credens  desidero,  tantiim  ut  eruar 
%h  adversariis  meis."  —  GrciC.  Turon,  ii.  30. 


382  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

ciovisthe      Anastasius  lay  at  least  under  the  suspicion 

only  orthodox      p      «  .  *^,  _,  ,  .  .  n-n 

sovereign.  OT  lavoring  the  JCiUtychian  heresy.  Ihe 
Ostrogoth  Theodoric  in  Italy,  the  Visigothic  ^  and 
Burgundian  kings  in  France,  the  Suevian  in  Spain, 
the  Vandal  in  Africa  were  Arians.  If  unscrupulous 
ambition,  undaunted  valor  and  enterprise,  and  deso- 
lating warfare,  had  been  legitimate  means  for  the 
propagation  of  pure  Christianity,  it  could  not  have 
foui  d  a  better  champion  than  Clovis.  For  the  first 
time  the  diffusion  of  belief  in  the  nature  of  the  God- 
head became  the  avowed  pretext  for  the  invasion  of  a 
neighboring  territory .^  Already  the  famous  Avitus, 
Bishop  of  Vienne,  has  addressed  a  letter  to  Clovis,  in 
which  he  augurs  from  the  faith  of  Clovis  the  victory 
of  the  Catholic  faith ;  even  the  heterodox  Byzantiue 
emperor  is  to  tremble  on  his  throne;  Catholic  Greece 
to  exult  at  the  dawning  of  this  new  light  in  the  We^t. 
The  wars  of  Clovis  with  Burgundy  were  all  but  openly 
declared  wars  of  religion  ;  the  orthodox  clergy  hardly 
condescended  to  disguise  their  inclination  to  the  Franks, 
whom  they  supported  with  their  ])rayers,  if  not  with 
more  substantial  assistance.^    Before  the  war  broke  out, 

1  Euric,  the  greatest  of  the  Visigothic  kings,  was  now  dead ;  he  liad  left 
but  feeble  successors.  Euric  hibored  under  the  evil  fame  of  a  persecutor; 
he  had  attempted  what  Theodoric  aspired  to  effect  in  Italy,  but  with  far  less 
success,  the  fusion  of  the  two  races  —  the  Roman  and  Teutonic;  but  that 
of  which  Sidonius  so  bitterly  complains,  of  so  many  sees  vacant  b}'  the 
intolerance  of  Euric,  the  want  of  bishops  and  clergy  to  jierpetuate  the 
Catludic  succession,  ruined  churches,  and  grass-grown  altars,  reads  as  too 
elociucnt.  Kcveillot  a(hnits  that  the  vicAVS  of  Euric  were  political  rather 
than  religious  (p.  141 ). 

2  The  rebellion  of  Vitalianus  in  the  East  was  a  few  years  later. 

8  The  barbarous  Clovis  must  have  heard,  it  must  not  be  said,  read,  still 
less,  considering  the  obscure  style  of  the  prelate,  understood,  the  somewhat 
gross  and  lavish  flattery  of  his  faith,  his  humility,  even  his  mtrcy,  to  which 
the  saintly  Bishop  scrupled  not  to  condescend:  "  Vestra  tides  nostra  victoria 
est.  .  .  .  Gaudcat  ergo  quidem  Griccia  se  habere  principem  legis  nostrae 


CiTAP.  if.  CLOvis.  38? 

a  synod  of  the  orthodox  Bishops  met,  It  is  said,  under 
the  advice  of  Remigius,  at  Lyons.  With  Avitus  at 
their  head,  they  visited  King  Gundebald,  and  proposed 
a  conference  with  the  Arian  bishops,  whom  they  were 
prepared  to  prove  from  the  Scripture  to  be  in  error.^ 
The  king  shrewdly  replied,  —  "If  yours  be  the  true 
doctrine,  why  do  you  not  prevent  the  King  of  the 
Franks  from  waging  an  unjust  war  against  me,  and 
from  caballing  with  my  enemies  against  me  ?  ^  There  is 
no  true  Christian  faith  where  there  is  rapacious  covet- 
ousness  for  the  possessions  of  others,  and  thirst  for 
blood.  Let  him  show  forth  his  faith  by  his  good  works." 
Avitus  skilfully  eluded  this  question,  and  significantly 
replied,  that  he  was  ignorant  of  the  motives  of  Clovis, 
"  but  this  I  know,  that  God  overthrows  the  thrones  of 
those  who  are  disobedient  to  his  law."  ^  When  after 
the  submission  of  the  Burgundian  kingdom  to  the  pay- 
ment of  tribute  to  the  Franks,  Gundebald  resumed  the 
sway,  his  first  act  was  to  besiege  his  brother  Godesil, 
the  ally  of  Clovis,  in  Vienne.  Godesil  fled  to  the  Arian 
church,  and  was  slain  there  with  the  Arian  Bishop.* 

Numquid  fidem  perfecto  prjedicabimus  quam  ante  perfectionem  sine  pra*. 
dicatore  vidistis  ?  an  forte  humilitatem  .  .  .  a.n  misericordiam  quam  solatus 
a  vobis  adhuc  nuper  populiis  captivus  gaudiis  mundo  insinuat  lacrymis 
Deo?  "     The  mercy  of  Clovis !  —  Avitus,  Epist.  xli. 

1  It  is  remarkable  that  all  the  distinguished  and  influential  of  the  clergy 
appear  on  the  Catholic  side.  The  Arians  are  unknown  even  by  name.  It 
is  true  that  we  have  only  Catholic  annalists.  But  I  have  little  doubt  that 
tlie  Arian  prelates  Avere  for  the  most  part  barbarians,  inferior  in  education 
and  in  that  authority  which  still,  in  peaceful  functions,  attached  to  the  Ro- 
man name.  It  was  Rome  now  enlisting  a  ncAV  clan  of  barbarians  in  her 
own  cause,  and  under  her  own  guidance,  against  her  foreign  oppressors. 

2  The  Bishop  Avitus  of  Vienne  was  in  correspondence  with  the  insurgent 
Vitalianus  in  the  court  of  the  Emperor  Anastasius.  So  completely  werg 
now  all  wars  and  rebellions  religious  Avars. 

8  Collatio  Episcop.  apud  D'Achery,  Spicileg.  iii.  p.  304. 

*  M.  Reveillot  has  very  ingeniously,  perhaps  too  ingeniously,  worked  ou' 


384  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IH. 

On  this  occasion  Avitus  tried  again  to  work  on  the 
obstinate  mind  of  Gundebald ;  his  arguments  con- 
founded but  did  not  persuade  the  king,  who  retained 
his  errors  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

When,  however,  Clovis  determined  to  attack  the 
Religious  kingdom  of  the  Visigoths,  the  monkish  his- 
wars.  torian  ascribes  to  him   this  language  :  —  "I 

am  sore  troubled  that  these  Arians  still  possess  so  large 
a  part  of  Gaul."^  Before  he  set  out  on  his  campaign 
the  King  of  the  Franks  went  to  perform  his  devotions 
before  the  shrine  of  St.  Martin  at  Tours.  As  he 
entered  the  church  he  heard  the  words  of  the  Psalm 
which  they  were  chanting,  —  "  Thou  hast  girded  me, 
O  Lord,  with  strength  unto  the  battle  ;  thou  hast  sub- 
dued unto  me  those  which  rose  up  against  me.  Thou 
hast  given  me  the  necks  of  mine  enemies,  that  I  might 
destroy  them  that  hate  me."  ^  The  oracular  words 
were  piously  fulfilled  by  Clovis.  The  Visigothic  king- 
dom was  wasted  and  subdued  by  the  remorseless  sword 
of  the  Frank.  These  are  not  the  only  illustrations  of 
the   Christianity  practised   by  Clovis,  and   related   in 

the  religious  history  of  the  reign  of  King  Gundebald  (p.  189  et  seq.)-  But 
he  is  somewhat  tender  to  tiie  Bishop,  who  "  almost  praises  Gundebald  for 
the  murder  of  his  brothers."  The  passage  is  too  characteristic  to  be 
omitted:  *' Flebatis  quondam  pietate  ineffabili  funera  germanorum  (he 
had  murdered  them),  sequebatur  lletum  publicum  universitatis  aHlictio, 
et  occulto  dlmnitatis  intuilu,  instrumenta  moestitijB  parabantur  ad  gaudium 
....  Minuebat  regni  felicitas  numerum  regalium  personarum  et  hoc  solum 
servabatur  mundo,  quod  sutliceret  imperio  (the  good  Turkish  maxim). 
Illic  repositum  est  quicquid  prosperum  fuit  catholicic  veritati."  This  is 
said  of  an  Arian,  but  the  father  of  an  orthodox  son,  Sigismund,  cunvertod 
by  Avitus. — Epist.  v.  p.  95. 

1  Valde  molcste  fero,  quod  hi  Ariani  partem  Galliarum  tcnent.  Eamus 
cum  Dei  adjutorio,  et  superatis  eis  terram  rcdigamus  in  ditioncm  nostram. 
—  Greg.  Tur.  ii.  37. 

2  I'salm  xviii.  39.  Did  Clovis  understand  Latin?  or  did  the  orthodox 
clergy  of  Tours  interpret  the  flattering  projihecyr' 


CiiAP.  11.  CLOVis.  385 

perfect  simplicity  by  his  monkish  historian.^  Gregory 
of  Tours  describes  without  emotion  one  of  the  worst 
acts  which  darken  the  reign  of  Clovis.  He  suggested 
to  the  son  of  Sigebert,  King  of  the  Ripuarian  Franks, 
the  assassination  of  his  father,  with  the  promise  that 
the  murderer  should  be  peaceably  established  on  the 
throne.  The  murder  was  committed  in  the  neio-hborina: 
forest.  The  pariicide  was  then  slain  by  the  command 
of  Clovis,  who  in  a  full  parliament  of  the  nation 
solemnly  protested  that  he  had  no  share  in  the  murder 
of  either ;  and  was  raised  by  general  acclamation  on  a 
shield,  as  King  of  the  Ripuarian  Franks.  Gregory 
concludes  with  this  pious  observation  :  —  "  For  God 
thus  daily  prostrated  his  enemies  under  his  hands,  and 
enlarged  his  kingdom,  because  he  walked  before  him 
with  an  upright  heart,  and  did  that  which  ^^^^  ^  ^ 
was  pleasing  in  his  sight."  ^     Yet  Gregory  ^>^-^^^ 

1  Miracles  accompany  his  bloody  arms;  a  hind  shows  a  ford;  a  light 
from  the  church  of  St.  Hilary  in  Poitiers  summons  him  to  hasten  his  attack 
before  the  arrival  of  the  Italian  troops  of  Theodoric  in  the  camp  of  the 
Visigoth.  The  walls  of  Angouleme  fall  of  their  own  accord.  Gregory 
Tur.  ii.  37.  According  to  the  life  of  St.  Remi,  Clovis  massacred  all  the 
Arian  Goths  in  the  city.  —  Ap.  Bouquet,  iii.  p.  379.  St.  Cesarius,  the 
Bishop  of  Aries,  when  that  city  was  besieged  by  Clovis  and  the  Burgun- 
dians,  was  suspected  of  assisting  the  inv^ader  by  more  than  his  prayers. 
He  was  imprisoned,  his  biographers  assert,  his  innocence  proved.  —  Vit.  S. 
Ciesar.  in  Mabill.  Ann.  Benedic.  saec.  i. 

2  Greg.  Turon.  ii.  42.  "  Prosternebat  enim  quotidie  Deus  hostes  ejus 
glib  inanu  ipsius  et  augebat  regnum  ejus,  eo  quod  ambulavit  recte  corde 
omniiio,  et  fecerit  quae  placita  erant  in  oculis  ejus."  There  follows  a  long 
list  of  assassinations  and  acts  of  the  darkest  treachery.  "  Clovis  fit  pdrir 
tons  les  petits  rois  des  Francs  par  une  suite  de  perfidies."  —  Michelet,  H. 
de  France,  i.  209.  The  note  recounts  the  assassinations.  Throughout,  the 
triumph  of  Clovis  is  the  triumph  of  the  orthodox  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
over  Arianism.  "  Dominus  enim  severe  credentibus,  etsi  insidiante  ini- 
mico  aliqua  perdant,  his  centuplicata  restituit;  haeretici  vero  nee  acquirunt, 
sed  quod  videntur  habere,  aufertur.  Probabat  hoc  Godigeseli,  Gundobaldi, 
atque  Godomari  interitus,  qui  et  patriam  simul  et  anhnas  perdiderunt."  - 
Prolog,  ad  lib.  iii. 

VOL.  I.  25 


38(5  LATIN    CTTRISTIAXITY.  Book  111 

of  Tours  was  a  prelate,  himself  of  gentle  and  blameless 
manners,  and  of  profound  piety. 

Throughout  indeed  this  dark  period  of  the  contest 
inflnenceof  between  the  Franks,  the  Visigoths,  and  the 
clergy.  Burguudiaus  for  the  dominion  of  France,  as 

well  as  through  the  long  dreary  annals  of  the  Me- 
rovingian kings,  it  will  be  necessary,  as  well  as  just, 
to  estimate  the  character,  influence,  and  beneficent 
workings  of  the  clergy  on  the  whole  society.  But  the 
more  suitable  place  for  this  inquiry  will  be  when  the 
two  races,  the  Roman  provincial  and  the  Teutonic,  are 
more  completely  mingled,  though  not  fused  together, 
for  it  was  but  gradually  that  the  clergy,  who  never 
ceased  to  be  Roman  in  the  language  of  their  services 
and  of  letters,  ceased  to  be  so  in  sentiment,  and  through- 
out northern  France  especially,  in  blood  and  descenti 
There  is  more  even  at  this  time  of  the  first  conversion 
of  the  Franks  to  Christianity,  in  the  close  alHance  be- 
tween the  Roman  clergy  of  Gaul  with  the  Franks, 
than  the  contest  of  Catholicism  with  heterodoxy.  The 
Clergy  Ariaii  clergy  of  the  Visigotlis  were  probably, 

Latin.  ^Q  ^  considerable  extent,  of  Teutonic  race, 

some  of  them,  like  Ulphilas,  though  provincials  of  the 
Empire  by  descent,  of  Gothic  birth.  Their  names 
have  utterly  perished;  this  may  partly  (as  has  been 
said)  be  ascribed  to  the  jealousy  of  the  Catholic  writcj-s, 
the  only  annalists  of  the  time.  But  the  conversion  of 
the  Franks  was  wrought  by  the  Latin  clergy.  Tlie 
Franks  were  more  a  federation  of  armed  adventurers 
than  a  nation  migrating  with  their  families  into  new 
lands ;  they  were  at  once  more  barbarous  and  more 
exclusively  warlike.  It  would  probably  be  long  before 
they  would   be  tempted    to  lay  aside  their  arms  and 


CnAP.  II.  FRANKS   AND   LATINS.  387 

aspire  to  the  peaceful  ecclesiastical  functions.  The 
Roman  Gauls  might  even  imagine  that  they  beheld  m 
the  Franks  deliverers  from  the  tyranny  of  their  actual 
masters,^  the  Burgundians  or  Visigoths.  Men  im- 
patient of  a  galling  yoke  pause  not  to  consider  whether 
tliey  are  not  forging  for  themselves  another  more  hea^^ 
and  oppressive.  They  panted  after  release  from  their 
present  masters,  perhaps  after  revenge  for  the  loss  of 
their  freedom  and  their  lands,  for  their  degradation, 
their  servitude ;  and  cared  not  to  consider  whether  it 
would  not  be  a  change  from  bad  masters  to  worse. 
Clovis,  it  is  true,  had  commenced  his  career  by  the 
defeat  of  Syagrius,  the  last  Roman  who  pretended  to 
autliority  in  Gaul,  and  had  thus  annihilated  the  linger- 
ing remains  of  the  Empire ;  but  that  would  be  either 
pardoned  by  the  clergy  or  forgotten  in  the  fond  hope 
of  some  improvement  in  their  condition  under  the  bar- 
barian sway.  It  was,  of  course,  a  deep  aggravation 
of  their  deo-raded  state  that  their  masters  were  not 
only  foreigners,  barbarians,  conquerors  —  they  were 
Arians.  The  Franks,  as  even  more  barbarous,  were 
more  likely  to  submit  in  obedience  to  ecclesiastical 
dominion  ;  and  so  it  appears  that  almost  throughout 
the  reign  of  the  Merovingian  dynasty  the  two  races 
lield  their  separate  functions  —  the  Franks  as  kings, 
the  Latins  as  churchmen.  The  weak  prince  who  was 
.ieposed  from  his  throne,  or  the  timid  one  Avho  felt 
himself  unequal  to  its  weight,  was  degraded,  accord- 
ing to  the  Frankish  notion,  into  a  clerk  ;'^  he  lost  his 

1  Gregory  of  Tours  ingenuously  admits  "quod  omnes  (the  Catholic  clergy) 
desiderabili  amore  cupiverunt  eos  regnare."     1.  ii.  23. 

2  Queen  Clotilda,  when  her  two  sons  seized  their  nephews,  her  favorite 
gi'andsons  (the  children  of  Chlodoiuir),  and  gave  her  the  choice  of  their 
death  or  tonsure,  answered  like  a  Frankish  queen,  "  Satius  niihi  est,  si  ad 
regnum  uou  veuiant,  niortuos  eos  videre  quani  tousos."  —  iii.  18. 


388  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  TH. 

national  eminence  and  distinction,  but  disqualified  by 
the  tonsure  from  resuming  liis  civil  office,  according  to 
the  sacerdotal  notion,  he  was  admitted  to  the  blessed 
privilege  of  the  priesthood ;  while  at  the  same  time  his 
feeble  and  contemptible  character  was  a  guarantee 
against  his  becoming  a  dangerous  rival  for  the  higher 
honors  of  the  Church.  Hence,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
unchecked  growth  of  the  sacerdotal  authority,  and  the 
strong  Catholicity  of  the  clergy  among  the  Franks, 
the  retention  of  all  the  higher  offices,  at  least  in  the 
Church,  by  the  Roman  Provincials,  till  they  had  be- 
come of  such  power,  wealth,  and  dignity,  as  to  rouse 
the  amibition  of  the  noble,  and  even  of  the  royal 
families.^  Until  that  time  the  two  races  remained 
distinct,  each  in  possession  of  his  separate,  uncontested 
function ;  and  each  might  be  actuated  by  high  and 
noble,  as  well  as  selfish  and  ambitious  motives.  The 
honest  and  simple  German  submitted  himself  to  the 
comparatively  civilized  priest  of  that  God  whom  he 
now  worshipped  —  the  expounder  of  that  mysterious 
creed  before  which  he  had  bowed  down  in  awe  —  the 
administrator  in  those  imposing  rites  to  which  he  was 
slowly  and,  as  it  were,  jealously  admitted,  —  the  award- 
er of  his  eternal  doom.  On  the  other  hand  the  clergy, 
fully  i)ossessed  with  the  majesty  of  their  divine  mission, 
would  hold  it  as  profanation  to  impart  its  sanctity  to  a 
rude  barbarian.     Not  merely  would  Roman  pride  find 

1  In  the  year  566  a  certain  Meroveus,  from  whose  name  he  may  be  con- 
cluded to  have  been  a  Frank,  appears  as  Bishop  of  Poitiers. — Grej^.  Turon. 
ix.  40.  Compare  Planck,  Christliche  Kirchliche  Verfassunf:^,  ii.  p.  96.  It 
is  a  century  later  that,  at  the  trial  of  Pra;textatus,  Archbisliop  of  Rouen, 
are  twelve  prelates,  six  Teutons  —  Raglieremod,  of  Paris:  Landowald, 
Bayeux;  Renialuiire,  Coutances;  Merowij;,  Poitiers;  IMelulf,  ScMilis;  Ber- 
thran,  Bourdeaux.  Compare  Thierry,  Recits  des  Temps  Mdrovinpens, 
the  one  writer  wlio,  by  his  happy  selecliun  and  artistic  skill,  has  made  the 
Merovingian  history  readable  (tome  ii.  p.  135). 


Chap.  II.  ELEVATION   OF  MORAL   TONE.  889 

its  consolation  in  what  thus  maintained  Its  influence 
and  superiority,  and  look  down  in  compassion  on  the 
ignorance  of  the  Teuton  —  his  ignorance  even  of  the 
language  of  their  sacred  records,  and  of  the  service: 
of  their  religion ;  the  Komans  would  hold  themselves 
the  heaven-commissioned  teachers  of  a  race  long  des- 
tined to  be  their  humble  and  obedient  scholars. 

We  return  to  the  general  view  of  the  conversion  of 
the  German  races.     The  effect  of  this  infu-  Effects  of 

n  rr\  '111'  1  1      1       -r»  conversioa  on 

sion  01  ieutonic  blood  nito  the  whole  Koman  xeutous. 
system,  and  this  establishment  of  a  foreign  dominant 
people  (of  kindred  manners,  habits  and  religion,  though 
of  various  descent)  in  the  separate  provinces  of  the  Em- 
pire which  now  were  rising  into  independent  kingdoms, 
upon  the  general  Christian  society,  and  on  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  age,  demands  attentive  consideration. 
Though  in  each  ancient  province,  and  in  each  recent 
kingdom,  according  to  the  genius  of  the  conquering 
tribe,  the  circumstances  of  the  conquest  and  settlement, 
and  the  state  of  the  Roman  population,  many  strong 
differences  might  exist,  there  were  some  general  results 
which  seem  to  belong  to  the  whole  social  revolution. 
In  one  important  respect  the  Teutonic  temperament 
coincided  with  Christianity  in  raising  the  moral  tone. 
In  all  that  relates  to  sexual  intercourse,  the  Roman  so- 
ciety was  corrupt  to  its  core,  and  the  contagion  had 
si>read  throughout  the  provinces.  Christianity  had 
probably  wrought  its  change  rather  on  the  few  higher 
and  more  dlstlno-uished  individuals  than  on  the  whole 
mass  of  worshippers.  Most  of  these  few,  no  doubt, 
had  broken  the  bonds  of  habits  and  manners  by  a 
strong  and  convulsive  effort,  not  to  cultivate  the  purer 
charities  of  life,  but  in  the  aspiration  after  virtue,  unat- 


590  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  m. 

tainablc  by  the  many.  Celibacy  bad  many  lofty  minds 
and  devoted  hearts  at  its  service,  but  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  conjugal  fidelity  had  made  equal  progress. 
Christianity  had  secluded  a  certain  number  from  the 
v^orld  and  its  vices  ;  but  in  the  world  itself,  now  out- 
wardly Christian,  it  had  made  in  this  respect  far  less 
impression.  Not  that  it  was  without  power.  The 
Oa  moral  courts  of  the  Christian  Emperors,  notwith- 
punty.  standing  their  crimes,  weaknesses,  and  in- 
trigues, had  been  awed,  even  on  the  throne,  to  greater 
decency  of  manners.  Neither  Rome,  nor  Ravenna, 
nor  Byzantium,  had  witnessed,  they  would  not  have 
endured,  a  Nero  or  an  Elagabalus.  The  females  (be- 
lieving the  worst  of  the  early  life  of  the  Empress  The 
odora)  were  more  disposed  on  the  whole  to  the  crimes 
of  ambition,  and  political  or  religious  intrigue,  than  to 
that  flacrrant  licentiousness  of  the  wives  and  mothers 
of  the  older  Csesars.  But  the  evil  was  too  profoundly 
seated  in  the  habits  of  the  Roman  world  to  submit  to 
the  control  of  religion  —  of  relio;ion  embraced  at  first 
by  so  large  a  portion,  from  the  example  of  others,  from 
indifference,  from  force,  from  anything  rather  than 
strong  personal  conviction,  and  which  had  now  been 
long  received  merely  as  an  hereditary  and  traditional 
faith.  The  clergy  themselves,  as  far  as  may  be  judged, 
did  not  stand  altogether  much  above  the  general  level. 
They  had  their  heroes  of  continence,  their  spotless  ex- 
amples of  personal  purity ;  but  though  in  general  they 
might  outwardly  submit  to  the  hard  law  of  celibacy,  by 
many  it  was  openly  violated,  by  many  more  secretly 
eluded  ;  and,  as  ever  has  been,  the  denial  of  a  legiti- 
mate union  led  to  connections  more  unrestricted  and 
injurious  to  public  morality.       Scarcely   a   Provincial 


Chap.  II.  GERMAN  MORALS.  391 

Comiril  but  finds  itself  called  upon  to  enact  more  strin- 
gent, and,  it  should  seem,  still  ineffective  proliihitions. 

Whether  as  a  reminiscence  of  some  older  civilization, 
or  as  a  peculiarity  in  their  national  character,  German  chais 

rr^  111  •  1      1        1  •    1  acter  in  this 

tlie  Teutons  had  always  paid  the  highest  re-  respect. 
si)ect  to  their  females,  a  feeling  which  cannot  exist 
without  high  notions  of  personal  purity,  by  which  it  is 
generated,  and  in  its  turn  tends  to  generate.  The 
colder  northern  climate  may  have  contributed  to  this 
result.  This  masculine  modesty  of  the  German  char- 
acter had  already  excited  the  admiration,  perhaps  had 
been  highly  colored  by  the  language,  of  Tacitus,  as  a 
contrast  to  the  effeminate  voluptuousness  of  the  Ro- 
mans —  marriages  were  held  absolutely  sacred,  and 
producing  the  most  perfect  unity  ;  adulteries  rare,  and 
visited  with  public  and  ignominious  punishment.^  The 
Christian  teachers,  in  words  not  less  energetic,  though 
wantino;  the  inimitable  conciseness  of  the  Roman  an- 
nalist,  endeavor  to  shame  their  Latin  brethren  by  the 
severity  of  Teutonic  morals,  and  to  rouse  them  from 
their  dissolute  excesses  by  taunting  them  with  their  de- 
grading inferiority  to  barbarians,  heathens,  and  here- 
tics. Salvian  must  be  heard  with  some  reserve  in  his 
vehement  denunciation  ao-ainst  the  licentiousness  of  the 
fifth  century.  He  is  seeking  to  vindicate  God's  provi- 
dential government  of  the  world  in  abandoning  the 
Roman  and  the  Christian  to  the  sway  of  the  pagan  and 

1  "  Inesse  quinetiam  sanctum  aliquid  et  providum  putant."  —  Germ 
viii.     "  Quanquam  severa  illicmatrimonia,  nee  ullam  morum  partem  magis 

laudaveris Ergo  septa  pudicitia  agunt,  nullis  spectaculorum  illeecbris, 

nullis  conviviorum  irritationibus  con-uptaa  ....  Nemo  .  .  .  illic  vitia 
ridet,  nee  corrumpere  et  corrumpi  saeculum  videtur.  .  .  .  Sic  unum  acci- 
piiint  maritum,  quomodo  unum  corpus  unamque  vitam,  ne  ulla  cogitatio 
ultra,  ne  longior  cupiditas  ne  tanquam  maritum,  sed  tanquani  malrimo- 
nium  ament."  —  xviii.  xix. 


392  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IIL 

the  barbarian.  "  Among  the  chaste  barljarians,  Ave 
alone  are  unchaste :  the  very  barbarians  are  shocked  at 
our  impurities.  Among  themselves  they  will  not  tol- 
erate whoredom,  but  allow  this  shameful  license  to  the 
Romans  as  an  inveterate  usage.  We  cherish,  they  ex- 
ecrate, incontinence ;  we  shrink  from,  they  are  enam- 
ored of  purity;  fornication,  which  with  them  is  a 
crime  and  a  disgrace,  with  us  is  a  glory."  ^  Salvian 
describes  the  different  races,  who,  though  in  other  re- 
spects varying  in  their  character,  and  some  more  con- 
spicuous than  others  for  these  virtues,  were  all  never- 
theless far  superior  to  the  Romans.  The  Goths  are 
treacherous,  but  continent ;  the  Alemanni  less  treach- 
erous, and  also  less  continent;  the  Franks  false,  but 
hospitable  ;  the  Saxons  savagely  cruel,  but  remarkable 
for  chastity .2  The  Vandals,  if  Salvian  is  to  be  cred- 
ited, maintained  their  severe  virtue,  not  only  in  Spain, 
but  under  the  burning  sun  and  amidst  the  utter  deprav- 
ity of  African  morals,  and  in  that  state  of  felicity,  lux- 
ury, and  wealth  which  usually  unmans  the  mind. 
They  not  only  held  in  abomination  the  more  odious 
and  unnatural  vices  which  had  so  deeply  infected  the 
habits  of  Greece  and  Rome,  but  all  unlawful  connec- 
tions with  the  female  sex.^  According  to  the  same  au- 
thority, they  enforced  the  marriage  of  the  public  pros- 

1  De  Gubernat.  Dei,  1.  vii.  p.  66.  He  draws  the  same  contrast  between 
the  Roman  inhabitants  of  Spain  and  their  Vandal  conquerors. 

2  "  Gothorura  gens  perfida  sed  pudica  est,  Alemanni  impudica  sed  minus 
perfida,  Franci  mendaces  sed  hospitales,  Saxones  crudelitate  efteri,  sed  cas- 
titate  venerandi."  — Ibid. 

3  "  Et  certd  ob  ea  tantum  continentissimi  ac  modestissimi  judicandi 
ftrant  quos  non  fecisset  corruptiores  ipsa  felicitas  .  .  .  igitur  in  tanta 
affluentia  rerum  atque  luxuria,  nuUus  eorum  mollis  efFectus  est  .  .  . 
abomiuati  enim  sunt  virorum  improbitates;  plus  adhuc  addo,  abominati 
etiam  foeminarum ;  horruerunt  lustra  ac  lupanaria,  horruerunt  contact U9 
concubitusQue  meretricum."  —  Ibid. 


Chap.  II.      STRINGENCY   OF   GOTHIC   MOIIAL   CODE.  39o 

titutcs,  and  enacted  severe  laws  against  unchastity,  thus 
compelling  the  Romans  to  be  virtuous  against  their  will. 
Under  the  Ostrogothic  kingdom,  the  manners  in  Italy 
might  seem  to  revert  to  the  dignified  austerity  of  the 
old  Roman  republic.  Theodoric  indignantly  reproves  a 
certain  Bardilas,  who  had  married  the  wife  of  an  officer 
(from  his  name  also  of  Gothic  blood)  while  the  hus- 
band was  absent  with  the  army.  He  speaks  of  it  as 
bringing  disgrace  on  the  age  and  on  the  Gothic  charac- 
ter.^ The  Ostrogothic  law  is  silent  as  to  incest  and  the 
crime  against  nature,  as  if,  in  its  lofty  purity,  it  did  not 
imao;ine  the  existence  of  such  offences.  This  code  was 
for  the  Goths  alone ;  the  Romans  were  still  amenable 
to  their  own  law.^  In  the  laws  of  Theodoric  the  Ger- 
man abhorrence  of  adultery  continued  to  make  it  a 
capital  crime ;  the  edict  was  inexorably  severe  against 
all  crimes  of  this  class  ;  the  seducer  or  ravisher  of  a 
free  virgin  was  forced  to  marry  her,  and  endow  her 
with  a  fifth  of  his  estate ;  if  married,  he  forfeited  a 
third  of  his  property  to  his  victim ;  if  he  had  no  prop- 
erty, he  atoned  for  liis  crime  by  death :  if  the  virgin 
was  a  slave,  the  criminal,  being  a  free  man,  was  de- 

1  "  In  injuriam  nostrorum  temporura,  adulterium  simulatur,  matrimonii 
lege  commissum."  The  husband's  name  was  Patzena.  It  is  amusing  to 
hear  the  King  of  the  Goths  reminding  unchaste  women  of  the  fidelity  of 
turtledoves,  who  pine  away  in  each  other's  absence,  and  remain  in  strictly 
continent  widowhood:  "Kespicite  impudicte  gementimn  turturum  castis- 
simum  genus,  quod  si  a  copula  fuerit  eam  intercedente  divisum,  perpetua 
se  abstinentise  lege  constringit;  "  and  this  is  a  royal  or  imperial  edict. 

2  Sartorius,  Essai  sur  I'Etat  des  Peuples  d'ltalie  sous  le  Gouvernement 
des  Goths  (p.  95).  "Odious  as  homicide  is,  it  would  be  more  odious  to 
punish  than  to  commit  that  crime  in  certain  cases,  as  in  that  of  open  adul- 
tery. See  we  not  that  rams,  bulls,  and  goats  avenge  themselves  against 
their  rivals?  Shall  man  alone  be  unable  to  preserve  the  honor  of  his  bed? 
Examine  the  cause  of  Candax;  if  he  only  killed  the  adulterers  who  dis- 
honored him,  remit  all  his  penalties;  if  he  has  slain  innocent  men,  let  hira 
be  pmiished."  — Var.  1.  37. 


394  1.ATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

graded  into  a  slave  of  tlie  wife  of  the  maiden's  master, 
if  lie  could  not  redeem  his  guilt  by  supplying  two 
slaves ;  the  rape  of  a  free  widow  was  subject  to  the 
capital  punishment  of  adultery.  The  parents  or  guar- 
dians of  a  female  who  had  suffered  rape  were  bound  to 
prosecute  on  pain  of  exile. 

In  some  provinces,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  that 
the  vices  as  well  as  the  religion  of  Rome  assert  theii 
unshaken  dominion ;  or  rather  there  is  a  terrible  inter- 
change of  the  worst  parts  of  each  character.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  conceive  a  more  dark  and  odious  state  of  society 
than  that  of  France  under  her  Merovino-ian  kino;s,  th^ 
descendants  of  Clovis,  as  described  by  Gregory  of  Tours, 
[n  the  conflict  or  coalition  of  barbarism  with  Roman 
Christianity,  barbarism  has  introduced  into  Christianity 
all  its  ferocity,  with  none  of  its  generosity  or  magna 
nimity ;  its  energy  shows  itself  in  atrocity  of  cruelty 
and  ev6n  of  sensuality.  Christianity  has  given  to  bar- 
barism hardly  more  than  its  superstition  and  its  hatred 
of  heretics  and  unbelievers.  Throughout,  assassinations, 
parricides,  and  fratricides  intermingle  with  adulteries  and 
rapes. ^  The  cruelty  might  seem  the  mere  inevitable  re- 
sult of  this  violent  and  unnatural  ftision  ;  but  the  ex- 
tent to  which  this  cruelty  spreads  throughout  the  wIioIq 
society  almost  surpasses  belief.  That  King  Chlotaire 
should  burn  alive  his  rebellious  son  with  his  wife  and 
daughter  is  fearful  enough  ;  but  we  are  astounded  even 
in  these  times  with  a  Bishop  of  Tours  burning  a  man 
alive  to  obtain  the  deeds  of  an  estate  which  he  coveted.^ 
Fredegonde  sends  two  murderers  to  assassinate  Childe- 
bert,  and  these  assassins   are  cleiks.     She  causes  the 

1  See  a  fearful  simmary  in  Loebel,  Gvegor  von  Tours,  pp.  60-74. 

2  iii.  1. 


GiiAP.  II.  MEROVINGIAN   LICENTIOUSNESS.  895 

Arclibisliop  of  Rouen  to  be  murdered  while  he  is 
cli anting  the  service  in  the  church ;  and  in  this 
crime  a  Bishop  and  an  Archdeacon  are  her  accom- 
phces.  Slie  is  not  content  with  open  violence,  she 
administers  poison  with  the  subtlety  of  a  Locusta  or 
a  modern  Italian,  apparently  with  no  sensual  design, 
but  from  sheer  barbarity. 

As  to  the  intercourse  of  the  sexes,  wars  of  conquest, 
^here  the  females  are  at  the  mercy  of  the  victors,  espe- 
cially if  female  virtue  is  not  in  much  respect,  Merovingian 
would  severely  try  the  more  rigid  morals  of  *™®^" 
the  conqueror.  The  strength  of  the  Teutonic  char- 
acter, when  it  had  once  burst  the  bonds  of  habitual  or 
traditionary  restraint,  might  seem  to  disdain  easy  and 
effemniate  vice,  and  to  seek  a  kind  of  wild  zest  in  the 
indulgence  of  lust,  by  mingling  it  up  with  all  other  vio- 
lent passions,  rapacity,  and  inhumanity.  Marriage  was 
a  bond  contracted  and  broken  on  the  lightest  occasion. 
Some  of  the  Merovingian  kings  took  as  many  wives, 
either  together  or  in  succession,  as  suited  either  their 
passions  or  their  politics.  Christianity  hardly  interferes 
even  to  interdict  incest.  King  Chlotaire  demanded  for 
the  fisc  the  third  part  of  the  revenue  of  the  churches  ; 
some  bishops  yielded  ;  one,  Injuriosus,  disdainfully  re- 
fused, and  Chlotaire  withdrew  his  demands.  Yet 
Chlotaire,  seemingly  unrebuked,  married  two  sisters 
at  once.  Charibert  likewise  married  two  sisters  :  he, 
however,  found  a  Churchman,  but  that  was  Saint  Ger- 
manus,  bold  enough  to  rebuke  him.  This  rebuke  the 
King  (the  historian  quietly  writes),  as  he  had  already 
many  wives,  bore  with  patience.  Dagobert,  son  of 
Chlotaire,  King  of  Austrasia,  repudiated  his  wife  Gom- 
atrude  for  barrenness,  married  a   Saxon  slr.ve  Mathil- 


396  1.ATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IIL 

dis,  then  another,  Regnatnide  ;  so  that  he  had  three 
wives  at  once,  besides  so  many  concubines  that  the 
chronicler  is  ashamed  to  recount  them.^  Brunehaut 
and  Fredeo'onde  are  not  less  famous  for  their  licen- 
tiousness  than  for  their  cruelty.  Fredegonde  is  either 
compelled  or  scruples  not  of  her  own  accord  to  take  a 
public  oath,  with  three  bishops  and  four  hundred  nobles 
as  her  vouchers,  that  her  son  was  the  son  of  her  hus- 
band Chilperic.  The  Eastern  right  of  having  a  concu- 
bine seems  to  have  been  inveterate  among  the  later 
Frankish  kings :  that  which  was  permitted  for  the  sake 
of  perpetuating  the  race  was  continued  and  carried  to 
excess  by  the  more  dissolute  sovereigns  for  their  own 
pleasure.  Even  as  late  as  Charlemagne,  the  polygamy 
of  that  great  monarch,  more  like  an  Oriental  Sultan 
(except  that  his  wives  were  not  secluded  in  a  harem), 
as  well  as  the  notorious  licentiousness  of  the  females  of 
his  court,  was  unchecked,  and  indeed  unreproved,  by 
the  religion  of  which  he  was  at  least  the  temporal  head, 
of  which  the  Spiritual  Sovereign  placed  on  his  brow 
the  crown  of  the  Western  Empire.  These,  however, 
seem  to  have  been  the  royal  vices  of  men  gradually  in- 
toxicated by  uncontrolled  and  irresponsible  power, 
plunging  fiercely  into  the  indulgences  before  they  had 
acquired  any  of  the  humanizing  virtues  of  advanced 
civilization. 

In  such  times  the  celibacy  or  even  the  continence  of 
the  clergy  was  not  likely  to  be  very  severely  observed. 
The  marriage  of  bishops,  if  not  general,  was  common.^ 
Firmilio  had  a  wife  named  Clara.     There  is  an  ac- 

1  "  Nomina  concubinarum  eo  quod  plures  erant,  increvit  huic  chron  '.c» 
inseri."  —  Fredegar.  c.  60. 

2  G.  T.  X.  10.     The  son  of  a  bishop  of  Verdun  (vi.  35).     Daughter  c' 
.•ishop  (viii.  32).     Compare  throughout  Loebel,  ^regor  von  Tours. 


Chap.  II.  mLITARY  ECCLESIASTICS.  397 

count  of  s  )me  strange  cruelties  practised  by  a  bishop's 
wife.^ 

Yet  clerical  incontinence  was  not  without  rebuke 
from  above.  Gregory  tells  a  strange  story  of  the  pax 
with  the  consecrated  host  leaping  out  of  a  deacon's 
hands,  and  flying  through  the  air  to  the  altar.  All 
agreed  that  the  clerk  must  be  polluted.  He  confessed, 
it  was  said,  to  several  acts  of  adultery .^ 

If,  however,  with  some  exceptions,  more  especially 
this  great  exception  of  the  Prankish  monarchs,  Chris- 
tianity found  an  unexpected  ally  in  the  higher  moral 
tone  of  the  Teutonic  races,  the  religion  in  other  re- 
spects and  throughout  its  whole  sphere  of  conquest 
suffered  a  serious,  perhaps  inevitable  deterioration. 
With  the  world  Christianity  began  rapidly  to  barbar- 
ize. War  was  the  sole  ennobling  occupation.  Even 
the  clergy,  after  striving  for  some  time  to  be  the  pacific 
mediators  between  the  conquerors  and  the  conquered  ; 
to  allay  here  and  there  the  horrors  of  war,  at  times  by 
the  awe  of  their  own  holiness  and  that  of  their  relig- 
ion ;  to  keep  the  churches  during  the  capture  of  a 
city  as  a  safe  sanctuary  for  the  unarmed,  the  helpless, 
the  women,  and  the  children ;  to  redeem  captives  from 
slavery ;  to  mitigate  the  tyranny  of  the  liege  lord,  who 
as  a  Christian,  perhaps  in  the  ardor  of  a  new  convert, 
was  humbly  submissive  to  their  dictates ;  even  the 
clergy  were  at  length  swept  away  by  the  torrent.     In 

1  Of  two  hemiits  (viii.  39),  one  was  drunken,  one  had  a  wife! 

2  One  priest  only,  three  women,  one  of  whom  Avas  Gregory's  mother, 
witnessed  this  miracle.  Gregory  was  present,  but  the  privilege  was  not 
vouchsafed  to  him.  "  Uni  tantum  presbytero,  et  tribus  mulieribus,  ex 
quibus  una  mater  mea  erat,  hsec  videre  licitum  fuit;  caeteri  non  viderunt. 
Aderam  fateor,  et  ego  huic  festivitati,  sed  Iiaec  videre  non  merui." — Pa 
Glor.  Martyr,  vol.  ii.  p.-3Gl. 


398  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IIL 

the  fifth  century  we  find  bishops  in  arms,  and  at  the 
head  of  fighting  men  ;  and  though  at  first  the  common 
feehng  protested  against  this  desecration,  though  bear- 
ing arms  was  prohibited  by  the  decrees  of  councils  ; 
yet  where,  as  in  some  cases,  the  wars  in  which  tliey 
might  engage  were  defensive,  and  for  the  preservation 
of  the  most  sacred  rights  of  man  ;  the  step  once  taken, 
the  siMit  once  famiharized  to  this  incongruous  confu- 
sion  of  the  armed  warrior  and  the  peaceful  ecclesiastic, 
the  evil  would  grow  up  with  fatal  rapidity.  When 
the  ecclesiastical  dignities  and  honors,  from  their  wealth 
and  authority,  began  to  tempt  the  barbarians,  who 
would  no  longer  leave  them  to  the  exclusive  posses- 
sion of  the  Romans,  those  barbarians  would  be  the  moro 
disposed  to  assume  them,  if  they  no  longer  absolute- 
ly imposed  inglorious  inactivity  or  humiliating  patience. 
While  on  the  other  hand,  the  barbarian  invested  in  the 
priesthood  would  more  jealously  justify  himself  for 
thus,  in  one  sense,  descending  fi'om  his  high  place  as  a 
warrior,  by  retaining  some  of  the  habits  and  character 
of  the  free  German  conqueror.  At  length,  though  at 
a  much  later  period,  the  tenure  of  land  implying  mili- 
tary service,  as  the  land  came  more  and  more  into  the 
hands  of  the  clergy,  the  ecclesiastic  would  be  embar- 
rassed more  and  more  by  his  double  function  ;  till  at 
length  we  arrive  at  the  Prince  Bishop,  or  the  feudjil 
Abbot,  alternately  with  the  helmet  and  the  mitre  on 
bis  head,  the  crozier  and  the  lance  m  his  hand ;  now 
in  the  field  in  the  front  of  his  armed  vassals,  now  on 
his  throne  in  the  church  in  the  midst  of  his  chanting 
choir.^ 

1  The  first  bishops  who  appeared  m  arms,  and  actually  slew  their  cne* 
uiies,  shocked  Gregory  of  Tours.     "  Sularius  et  Sagittarius  fi-atres  atqu« 


Chap.  II  DONATFONS  TO  THE  CLERGY.  399 

All  things  throughout  this  great  social  revolu- 
tion tended  to  advance  and  consolidate  the  sacerdota: 
power.  The  clergy,  whether  as  among  the  Goths  and 
other  Arian  nations,  who  had  their  own  bishops,  or 
among  the  Franks,  where  they  were  reverenced  for 
their  intellectual  as  well  as  their  spiritual  superioiity, 
became  more  completely  a  separate  and  distinct  cor- 
porate body,  filling  up  their  own  ranks  by  their  own 
election,  with  less  and  less  regard  even  to  the  assent  of 
the  laity ;  for  the  barbarous  laity,  of  another  race, 
ceased  to  pretend  to  any  share  of  the  election  of  the 
clergy.  They  possessed  more  completely  the  power 
of  ecclesiastical  legislation.  In  the  confusion  and 
breaking  up  of  all  ancient  titles  to  property,  more 
would  be  constantly  falling  into  their  hands.  The 
barbarians  for  the  good  of  their  souls  would  abandon 
more  readily  lands  which  they  had  just  acquired  by  the 
sword,  and  of  which  they  had  hardly  learned  the  value ; 
while  the  Romans,  in  perpetual  danger  of  being  forci- 
bly despoiled,  would  more  easily  make  over  to  the  safei? 
custody  of  Churchmen,  lands  which  under  such  protec- 
tion they  might  more  securely  cultivate.  Already  in 
France  the  kings  are  jealous  of  their  vast  acquisitions  ; 
King  Chilperic  hated  the  clergy  for  this  reason,  and 
was  hated  by  them  with  emulous  intensity.     He  com- 

episcopi  qui  non  cruce  coelesti  muniti,  sed  galea  aut  lancea  sa;culan  arniatl, 
multos  manibus  propriis  quod  pejus  est,  interfecisse  referuntur." — iv.  41 
Compare  v.  17.  —  Menjviugian  France  still  offers  the  most  startling  anom- 
alies. While  thus  advancing  in  power,  their  persons  are  not  sacred  in 
these  "wild  times.  The  Bishop  of  Marseilles  is  exposed  to  cruel  usage 
Even  the  strong  feeling  of  caste  has  lost  its  influence.  They  are  murdered 
and  burned  with  as  little  remorse  as  the  profane.  Gregory,  who  stands  up 
on  some  occasions  for  their  inviolability,  on  others  despondingly  acquiesces 
m  their  fate;  if  not  in  its  justice,  in  its  being  too  much  in  the  common 
order  of  things  to  shock  public  feeling.  Some  of  them,  by  his  own  accouu*, 
richly  deserved  their  doom. 


400  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

2^1ained  tliat  all  the  wealth  of  the  crown  was  swallowed 
up  by  the  Church. ^  The  Church  revenged  itself  by 
consoling  visions  of  Chilperic's  damnation.  The  juris- 
diction of  the  bishops,  at  first  confined  to  strictly  relig- 
ious concerns,  would  gradually  extend  itself,  perhaps 
from  confidence  in  their  superior  justice,  their  intel- 
lectual superiority,  the  absence  or  the  deficiency  of  the 
administrators  of  the  Roman  law,  under  which  every- 
where the  Romans  still  lived.  Where  other  magistrates 
were  suppressed,  or  had  forfeited  or  abandoned  their 
fiinctions,  they  would  become  the  sole  magistrates. 
Causes  regarding  property,  bequests,  and  others  of  a 
more  intricate  kind,  which  might  perplex  the  greater 
simplicity  of  the  barbaric  codes,  or  embarrass  the 
straightforward  justice  of  baibaric  tribunals,  would  be 
referred  to  their  superior  wisdom.  The  bishops  thus 
gradually  became  more  independent  of  their  college  of 
presbyters ;  they  grew  into  a  separate  order  in  the 
State  as  well  as  in  the  Church. 

Nor  can  it  be  wondered  that  partly  in  self  defence, 
partly  for  his  own  relative  aggrandizement,  the  weak- 
er and  conquered  Roman,  conscious  of  his  intellect- 
ual superiority  —  especially  the  Roman  ecclesiastic  — 
should  abuse  his  power,  and  make,  as  it  were,  reprisals 
on  the  rude  and  ignorant  barbarian  conqueror.^  His 
own  religion  would  become  more  and  more  supersti- 
tious, for  the  more  superstitious  the  more  awfiil.  Art 
and  cunning  are  the  natural  and  constant  weapons  of 

1  "  Aiebat  enini  plerunique,  ecce  pauper  remanet  fiscus  noster,  ecce  divitiae 
iiostrse  ad  ecclcsias  translatiB:  milli  pcnitus  nisi  soli  episcopi  regnant;  peri 
thonos  noster,  et  translatus  est  ad  episcopos  civitatum."  —  vi.  46. 

2  The  Jews  were  their  rivals  in  wealth.  Cantinus,  the  cruel  Bishop  of 
Tours,  has  large  money  dealings  with  the  Jews.  Eufranius  borrows  largo 
Bums  of  the  Jews  to  buy  the  same  bishoj)nc.  —  iv.  35.  / 


Chap.  II.  DONATIONS   TO  THE  CLERGY.  401 

enfeebled  civilization  against  strong  invading  barbarism. 
Tlirougliout  the  period  the  strongest  superstitious  ter- 
rors cross  the  most  lawless  and  most  cruel  acts.^  There 
are  several  curious  instances  in  the  Frankish  annals  in 
wliich  the  ecclesiastical  kindred  speaks  more  strongly 
to  the  alarmed  conscience  than  that  of  blood  to  the 
heart.  Those  who  without  compunction,  murder  their 
nearest  relatives,  their  children  or  their  husband,  have 
some  reluctance  to  shed  the  blood  of  those  whom  they 
have  held  over  the  baptismal  font.  Brunehaut  spares 
Borthefrid  because  she  has  been  godmother  to  his 
daughter. 

The  ecclesiastics  must  have  been  almost  more  than 
men,  certainly  far  beyond  their  time,  to  have  resisted 
the  temptation  of  what  would  seem  innocent  or  benefi- 
cent fraud,  to  overawe  or  to  control  the  ignorant  bar- 
barian. 

The  good  Bishop  Gregory  of  Tours  is  himself  con- 
cerned in  an  affair  in  which  the  violence  and  relio-ious 
fears  of  King  Chilperic  singularly  contrast  with  the 
subtlety  of  the  ecclesiastics.  Chilperic  sends  a  letter  to 
St.  Martin  of  Tours  requesting  the  Saint  to  inform  him 
whetlier  he  might  force  Meroveus  out  of  the  sanctuary. 
It  will  hardly  be  doubted  that  he  received  an  answer  ; 
and  that  the  majesty  of  the  sanctuary  suffered  no  loss. 
St.  Martin  of  Tours  was  the  great  oracle  of  the  Franko- 
Latiu  kingdoms :  ^  kings  flock  to  his  shrine  to  make 
their  offerino-s,  to  hear  his  iudcrments.     No  two  cities 

1  A  bishop  of  Rheims  gives  a  safe  conduct  under  oath  on  a  chest  of 
relics;  but  having  first  stolen  away  tlie  relics,  holds  the  oath  not  binding. 
—  Fredegar.  c.  97.  Eichhorn  quotes  a  similar  fraud  of  Hatto,  Archbishop 
of  Maintz. — i.  p.  514. 

2  Michelet  writes  in  his  flashing  way,  "  Ce  que  Delphes  dtait  pour  la 
Grc'ce. 

VOL.  I.  26 


402  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  HI 

in  the  north  of  France,  not  even  the  royal  residences, 
approached  the  two  great  ecclesiastical  capitals,  Rheims 
and  Tours.  Lands  and  wealth  were  poured  at  the  feet 
of  the  Church.  Dagobert  bestowed  twenty-seven  ham- 
lets or  towns  on  the  monastery  of  St.  Denys.^  His  son 
bestowed  on  St.  Remaclus  of  Tongres  twelve  square 
leagues  in  the  forest  of  Ardennes.^  The  Church  of 
Rheims  possessed  vast  territories,  some  of  which  it  may 
have  received  from  the  careless  and  lavish  bounty  of 
Clovis  himself;  much  more,  by  a  pious  anachronism, 
was  made  to  rest  on  that  ancient  and  venerable  tenure.^ 

A  Gesta  Dagobert.  c.  35. 

2  This  subject  is  resumed  when  the  clergy  are  considered  as  co-legislators 
with  the  Teutonic  kings  and  people. 

3  Vit.  St.  Sigebert.  Austras.,  c.  4.   Script.  Franc.  See  the  curious  passagt 
in  Frodoard,  quoted  by  Michelet. 


CiTAP.  III.  OSTROGOTIIIC  KINGDOM.  40B 


CHAPTER  III. 

THEODORIC  THE  OSTROGOTH. 

The  Ostrogothic  kingdom  of  Italy  shows  tlie  earliest 
aiid  not  the  least  noble  form  of  this  new  so- 0^4^,0^^^^^.,, 
ciety,  which  grew  out  of  the  yet  unfused  ^'"^s^^om. 
elements  of  the  Latin  and  Teutonic  races.  To  the 
strong  opposition  between  the  barbarian  and  Roman 
parts  of  the  community  was  added  the  almost  strong- 
er contrast  of  religious  difference.  The  Sovereign  of 
Italy,  the  civil  monarch  of  the  Papal  Diocese,  was  an 
Arian. 

Theodoric's  invasion  of  Italy  was  the  migration  of  a 
people,  not  the  inroad  of  an  army.^  His  Goths  were 
accompanied  by  their  wives  and  children,  with  all  the 
movable  property  which  they  had  possessed  in  their 
settlements  in  Pannonia.  Theodoric  had  extorted  from 
the  gratitude  and  the  fears  of  the  Eastern  Emperor,  if 
not  a  formal  grant  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy,  a  permis- 
sion to  rescue  the  Roman  West  from  the  dominion  of 
Odoacer.  The  Heruhan  king,  after  two  great  battles, 
and  a  siege  of  three  years  in  Ravenna,  wrested  from 
Theodoric  a  peace,  by  the  terms  of  which  the  Herulian 
and  the  Gothic  monarchs  were  to  reign  over  Odoacer 

1  Compare,  on  the  number  of  the  Gothic  invaders,  Sartorius,  Essai  sui 
PEtat  Civil  et  Physique  des  Peoples  d'ltalie  sous  le  Gouvernement  dea 
Goths,  note,  page  242. 


104  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

Italy,  in  joint  sovereignty.  Such  treaty  could  not  be 
lasting.  Odoacer,  either  the  victim  of  treachery,  or  his 
own  treacherous  designs  but  anticipated  by  the  superior 
craft  and  more  subtle  intelligence  of  Theodoric,  was 
assassinated  at  a  banquet.^  The  Herulians  were  dis- 
possessed of  the  third  portion  of  the  lands  which  they 
had  extorted  from  the  Roman  proprietors,  and  dis- 
persed, some  into  Gaul,  some  into  other  parts  of  thfe 
Empire.  The  Gothic  follow^ers  of  Theodoric  took  their 
place,  and  Theodoric,  the  Ostrogoth,  commenced  a 
A.D.  493-526.  reign  of  thirty-three  years,  in  wdiich  Italy 
reposed  in  peace  under  his  just  and  vigorous,  and  pa 
rental  administration. 

Throughout  the  conquest,  and  the  establishment  of 
the  Gothic  kingdom,  the  increasing  power  and  impor 
tance  of  the  Christian  ecclesiastics  forces  itself  upon  the 
attention.  They  are  ambassadors,  mediators  in  trea 
ties,  decide  the  wavering  loyalty  or  instigate  the  revolt 
of  cities.  Even  before  the  expiration  of  the  Em])ire, 
Glycerins  abdicates  the  throne,  and  retires  to  the  bish- 
opric of  Salona,  not,  it  should  seem,  from  any  strong 
Bishops  em-  I'^ligious  vocation,  or  weariness  of  political 
ployed.  intrigue.  He  is  afterwards  concerned  in  the 
murder  of  another  of  his  short-lived  successors,  the 
Em])ei'or  Nepos,  and  is  promoted,  as  the  reward  of  his 
services,  to  the  Archbishopric  of  Milan.  Epiphanius, 
the  Bishop  of  Pavia,  bears  to  Theodoric  at  Milan  the 
surrender  and  offer  of  allegiance  from  that  great  city. 

i  The  most  probable  view  of  this  transaction  is,  that  the  Herulian  chief- 
tains, impatient  of  the  equal  dominion  of  the  Goths,  had  organized  a  for- 
midable insurrection,  of  which  Odoacer,  possibly  not  an  accomplice,  was 
nevertheless  the  victim.  The  Byzantine  writers,  Procopius,  MarceUinus, 
betray  their  hatred,  luuiodius  and  Cassiodorus  of  course  favor  Theodoric 
Gibbon  declares  atjainst  him. 


cIiiAP.  III.  BlSIIOrS  Em'LOVED.  405 

Jolin,  the  Bishop,  Avas  employed  by  Odoacer  to  nego- 
tiate the  treaty  of  Ravenna.^  Before  this  time,  when- 
ever a  difficult  negotiation  occurred,  Epiphanius  was 
persuaded  to  undertake  it.  He  had  been  ambassador 
from  Ricimer  to  Anthemius,  from  Nepos  to  Euric  the 
Visigoth.  Theodoric  admired  the  dignified  beauty  and 
esteemed  the  sainthness  of  character  in  the  Cathohc 
Epiphanius,  and  perhaps  intended  that  his  praises  of 
the  bishop  should  be  heard  in  Pavia,  where  from  his 
virtues  and  charities,  he  enjoyed  unbounded  popular- 
ity :  "  Behold  a  man  w^hose  peer  cannot  be  found 
throughout  the  West :  he  is  the  great  bulwark  of  Pa- 
via ;  —  to  his  care  I  may  intrust  my  wife  and  children, 
and  devote  myself  entirely  to  war."  ^  Epiphanius  was 
permitted  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  Herulians  who  had 
risen  in  arms  in  the  north  of  Italy  after  the  death  of 
Odoacer.  The  eloquence  of  the  Bishop  arrested  the 
inexorable  vengeance  or  justice  of  Theodoric.  He 
was  employed  even  on  a  more  apostolic  mission — to 
rescue  from  slavery  those  who  had  been  sold  or  had 
fled  into  slavery  beyond  the  Alps.  Gundebald  the 
Burgundian  and  his  chieftains  melted  at  the  persuasive 
words  of  Epiphanius,  who  entered  Pavia  at  the  hea^ 
of  6000  bond-slaves,  rescued  by  his  influence  from  sla- 
very. Epiphanius  made  a  third  journey  to  Ravenna, 
to  obtain  a  remission  of  taxes  in  favor  of  his  distressed 
people.^ 

The  Ostrogothic  kingdom  was  an  mtermediate  state 
between  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  barbarian  mon- 

1  Procop.  1.  i.  c.  i.  p.  9,  Edit.  Bonn. 

2  Ennodii  Vita  Kpiphan. 

S  Ennodius  says  of  Epiphanius,  — "Inter  dissidentes  principes  solus  esset, 
qui  pace  frueretur  amborum."— p.  1011.  He  even  overawed  the  fierce 
Rufjians,  at  one  time  masters  of  Pavia. 


406  LATIN   CmilSTIANITY.  Book  IJL 

Union  of  the  ai'cliies.  It  was  the  avowed  object  of  Theod- 
races  ^^,-^^  ^^  £^^q  together  the  Teutonic  vigor  with 

the  Roman  civilization,  to  alloy  the  fierceness  of  the 
Gothic  temperament  with  the  social  culture  of  Italy.^ 
The  Romans  still  held  many  of  the  chief  civil  offices. 
Liberius,  Symmachus,  Boethius,  Cassiodorus,  were  the 
ministers  of  the  Gothic  king.  Yet  the  two  elements 
of  the  society  had  no  tendency  to  assimilation  or  union , 
the  justice  and  wisdom  of  the  king  might  mitigate,  he 
very  imper-  could  not  rcconcilc  tliis  discord,  which  could 
feet.  Qj^jy  l^g  finally  extinguished  by  years  of  mu- 

tual intercourse,  by  intermarriages,  and  above  all  by 
perfect  community  of  religious  faith.  The  Gothic  and 
the  Roman  races  stood  apart  in  laws,  in  usages,  in  civil 
position,  as  well  as  in  character.  Possessors,  by  the 
right  of  conquest,  of  the  one-third  of  the  lands  in 
Italy,  of  which  they  exacted  the  surrender,  and  for 
which  they  tacitly  engaged  to  protect  the  whole  from 
foreign  invasion,^  the  Goths  settled  as  an  armed  aristoc- 
racy among  a  people  who  seemed  content  to  purchase 

1  "li  semper  fuerint  (Gothi,  so.)  in  laudis  medio  constituti,  nt  et  Ro 
manorum  prudcntiam  caperent,  et  virtutem  gentium  possiderent.  .  .  . 
Consuetudo  nostra  feris  mentibus  inseratur  donee  truculentus  animus 
vivere  velle  consuescat."  —  Cassiod.  Var.  Epist.  iii.  23.  In  another  pas- 
Ba^e  lie  exliorts  the  Gotlis  to  put  on  the  manners  of  the  toga,  and  to  cast 
off  those  of  barbarism.  "  Intelligite  homines  non  tarn  cor|)orea  vi  quam 
ratione  pncferri." — Lib.  iii.  Epist.  17.  When  he  invaded  Gaul,  Theodoric 
declared  himself  the  protector  of  the  Romans:  "  Delectamur  jure  Romano 
vivere  quos  armis  vindicamus.  .  .  .  Nobis  propositum  est,  Deo  juvante, 
bIc  vivere,  ut  subjccti  se  doleant  nostrum  dominium  tardius  acquisisse."  — 
iii.  43.  But  the  most  clear  and  distinct  indication  of  his  views  is  in  the 
formula  for  the  appointment  of  the  Count  of  the  Goths:  "Uniun  vos 
aiii])lectatur  vivendi  votum,  quibus  unum  esse  constat  imperium."  The 
anonym.  Vales,  says  that  the  poor  Roman  (miser)  aftected  to  be  a  Goth, 
the  rich  (utilis)  Goth  to  be  a  Roman. 

2  "  Vos  auteni  Romaiii  magno  studio  Guthos  diligere  dcbetis,  qui  in  pace 
muuerosos  vobis  ]>opulos  faciunt,  et  univcrsam  renipublicam  per  belia  dfr 
fendunt."  —  Cassiod.  vii.  3 


CiiAv.  III.  DIVISION  OF  LANDS.  407 

tlieii-  security  at  the  price  of  one  third  of  their  posses- 
sions. This  transfer  was  carried  on  with  nothin^T  of 
the  violence  and  irregularity  of  plunder  or  confiscation, 
but  with  the  utmost  order  and  equity.  It  was,  in  truth, 
but  a  new  form  of  the  law  of  conquest,  which  Rome 
had  enforced,  first  upon  Italy,  afterwards  on  the  world. 
Nor  was  it  an  obsolete  and  forgotten  hardship,  the  ex- 
pulsion of  a  free,  and  flourishing,  and  happy  peasantry 
fi.'om  their  paternal  homesteads,  and  hereditary  fields  , 
they  were  only  like  those  more  partial  no  doubt,  but 
more  cruel  ejectments,  when  the  conquering  Triumvir, 
during  the  later  republic,  confiscated  whole  provinces, 
and  apportioned  them  among  his  own  sol-  Dj^sjon  ^^ 
diery.^  The  followers  of  Odoacer  had  already,  ^'^'"^• 
if  not  to  so  great  an  extent,  enforced  the  same  surren- 
der, and  the  Goth  only  expelled  the  Herulian  from  his 
newly  acquired  estate.  Large  tracts  in  Italy  were  ut- 
terly desolate  and  uncultivated  —  almost  the  whole 
under  imperfect  culture.^  This,  in  the  best  times  of 
the  Roman  aristocracy,  had  been  the  natural  and  re- 
corded consequence  of  the  vast  estates  accumulated  by 
one  proprietor,  and  cultivated  by  slaves  or  at  best  by 
poor  metayers,  and  was  now  aggravated  by  the  general 
ruin  of  that  aristocracy,  the  difficulty  of  maintaining 
slaves,  and  the  effects  of  long  warfare.  This  revolu- 
tion at  least  assisted  in  breaking  up  these  overgrown 
properties,  combining  as  it  did  with  constant  aliena- 


1  Theocloric  considered  that  he  had  succeeded  to  the  right  of  the  Roman 
people  in  apportioning  land :  he  prohibited  the  forcible  entrance  upon  farms 
without  authority. 

2  "  Vides  universa  Italiifi  loca  originariis  viduata  cultoribus."  Read  tha 
whole  speech  of  Theodoric  to  Epiphanius  of  Pavia  on  the  desolation  espec- 
ially of  Liguria.  —  Eunod.  Vit.  p.  1014.  "  Latifundia  perdidere  Italiam," 
the  axiom  of  all  the  Roman  economists. 


408  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  HI. 

tions  to  the  Church,  and  afterwards  to  monasteries. 
Agriculture  in  Italy  received  a  new  impulse,^  the  more 
necessary,  as  it  ceased  to  command  foreign  resources. 
The  harvests  of  the  East,  and  of  Egypt  and  Libya, 
had  long  been  assigned  to  the  maintenance  of  the  new 
capital ;  and  Western  Africa,  desolated  by  the  Van- 
dals, no  longer  poured  in  her  supplies.  Theodoric 
watched  with  parental  solicitude  the  progress  of  agri- 
culture, and  the  irregular  and  uncertain  supplies  of 
corn  to  his  Italian  subjects,  who  were  now  thrown  on 
their  own  resources.  His  correspondence  is  full  of 
orders  on  this  important  subject.  Italy  began  to  ex- 
port corn.  The  price,  both  of  corn  and  wine,  fell  to  a 
very  moderate  amount.^ 

The  Gothic  king  claimed  all  the  imposts  formerly 
paid  to  the  imperial  treasury  ;  the  Curia?  were  still  re- 
sponsible for  the  collection,  but  Theodoric  inculcated 
moderation  in  the  exaction  of  the  imperial  claims.^ 
The  Goths  appear  to  have  been  liable  to  the  same 
taxes  with  the  Romans.'^  The  clergy  had  as  yet  no 
Theodoric.  immunities.  Theodoric  himself  aspired  to  be 
the  impartial  sovereign  of   both   races.      In  him  met 

1  It  is  curious  that  most  of  these  edicts  prohibit  exjMrtation.  See  Cassi- 
odorus.  Var.  Lib.  i.  31,  34,  35  (:i  strange  document  in  point  of  style). 
Lib.  ii.  12,  is  a  prohibition  of  the  export  of  bacon,  an  important  article  of 
food;  20  gives  orders  to  send  corn  from  llavenna  to  Liguria,  which  was 
suffering  famine.  The  Gothic  army  in  Gaul  Avas  supported  by  the  prov- 
ince, not  from  Italy  (iii.  41,  2),  and  during  a  famine  Southern  Italy  and 
Sicily  relieved  Gaul  (iv.  5,  7).  On  the  other  hand,  Theodoric  endeavored 
to  obtain  corn  from  Spain  for  the  sujiply  of  Kome;  but  it  seems  the  ilealera 
liad  f()un<I  a  better  market  in  Africa  (v.  35). 

2  "  Sexaginta  modios  triticorum  in  solidum  ipsius  tempore  ftierunt,  el 
vinum  triginta  amphone  in  solidum."  —  Anon.  Vales.  Without  ascer- 
taining the  exact  relative  value,  we  may  infer  that  these  were  imusually  lev 
prices. 

8  Var.  i.  19,  iv.  19. 
4  iv.  14. 


CiiAP.  III.  THEODORIC.  409 

and  blended  the  Roman  and  the  Goth :  in  peace  he  ex- 
changed the  Gothic  military  dress  for  the  purple  of  the 
Roman  Emperor.^  He  preserved  the  ancient  titles  both 
of  the  Republic  and  of  the  Empire.  He  appointed 
Consuls,  Patricians,  Qusestors,  as  well  as  Counts  of 
largesses,  of  provinces,  and  some  of  the  more  servile 
titles  of  the  East.^  The  conqueror  was  earnestly  de- 
sirous to  secure  for  his  Italian  subjects  the  blessings  of 
peace :  though  his  arms  were  employed  in  Gaul  for 
thirty  out  of  thirty-three  years  of  his  reign,  Italy, 
under  his  dominion,  escaped  the  ravages  of  war.'^  The 
police  was  so  strict  throughout  Italy,  that  merchants 
thronged  from  all  parts.  A  man  might  leave  his  silver 
or  gold  as  safely  on  his  farm  as  in  a  walled  city.*  He 
bequeathed  peace  to  his  successors ;  he  en-  pg^ce  of 
couraged  all  the  arts  of  peace.  The  posts  ^^''^^^' 
were  arranged  on  a  new  and  effective  footing.^  The 
great  roads,  the  bridges,  the  ruined  walls,  and  falling 
buildino-s  were  restored  to  their  ancient  streno-th  and 
splendor.  Verona,  Pavia,^  above  all  Ravenna,  were 
adorned  with  new  palaces,  porticos,  baths,  amphithea- 
tres, basilicas,  and,  doubtless,  churches.     In  the  latter 


1  Muratori,  Annal.  cl'  Italia,  iv.  380. 

2  See  the  sixth  book  of  the  Epistles. 

8  Eunodius  says,  in  Vit.  Epiphan.  —  "  Cujus  post  triumphum  spoliatum 
vajjjina  gladium  nullus  aspexit."  —  p.  1012.  "Ergo  prasclarus  et  bonae 
voliuitatis  in  omnibns,  qni  regnavit  annos  xxxiii.  cujus  temporibus  felicitaa 
est  sequuta  Italiam  per  annos  xxx.  ita  ut  etiam  pax  pergentibus  esset 
(I'eryerUiOus  successoribus  ejus)."  —  Wagner's  note,  Anonym.  Vales. 

'*  Anonym.  Vales. 

6  Epist."  i.  29,  iv.  47,  V.  5. 

6  Anonym.  Vales.  This  writer,  in  his  admiration  of  the  golden  age  of 
Theodoric,  declares  that  he  did  not  repair  the  gates  of  the  cities,  as,  being 
now  never  closed,  the  inhabitants  entering  and  going  out  by  night  as  well 
as  by  day,  they  had  become  of  no  use.  "  Hoc  per  totam  Italiam  augurium 
Uabebat,  ut  nulLi  civitati  portas  faceret." 


410  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Boor  UI 

city  Theodorlc  avowedly  aimed  at  rivalling  the  magnif- 
icence of  Rome ;  but  Rome  was  not  plundered  or  sac- 
rificed to  the  new  capital.  The  care  of  Theodoric 
was  extended  to  the  restoration  of  her  stately  but  in- 
jmx^d  edifices.^  The  Cloacae,  which  excited  the  won- 
der of  the  barbarians,  and  distinguished  Rome  from  all 
other  cities,  were  to  be  repaired  entirely  at  the  public 
cost.2  The  water  from  the  aqueducts  was  no  longer  to 
be  directed  to  private  use,  for  the  turning  of  mills,  or 
irrigation  of  gardens,  but  devoted  to  the  general  bene- 
fit of  the  citizens.^  The  prefect  of  the  city  and  his 
lieutenant,  the  Count  of  Rome,  and  the  public  arclii- 
tect  *  were  especially  charged  to  keep  up  the  forests  of 
stately  buildings,  the  statues  which  peopled  the  city, 
the  herds  of  equestrian  images.^  In  these  tenns  the 
barbarians  expressed  their  astonishment  at  the  yet  in- 
exhausted  treasures  of  art  in  the  imperial  city.  The 
florid  panegyric  of  Theodoric  describes  the  aged  city 
as  renewing  her  youth  ;  noble  edifices  were  completed 
nearly  as  soon  as  planned.  Theodoric  is  almost  a  second 
Romulus  —  as  it  is  greater  to  ward  off  the  full,  than  to 
have  commenced  the  foundations  of  a  city.^ 

1  Var.  i.  21.    Compare  ii.  34. 

2  Var.  iii.  30. 

3  Var.  iii.  31. 

4  On  the  general  policy  of  Theodoric  in  this  respect,  "  Decet  principem 
cura,  qnie  ad  I'empublicam  prsestat  augendam,  et  vere  dignum  est  regem 
wdHiciis  palatia  decorare.  Absit  enim  ut  ornatui  cedanius  veterum,  qui 
inipares  non  suinus  beatitudini  steculoriim."  —  Var.  i.  6.  "Decora  faciea 
imperii,  testimonium  prseconiale  regnorimi."  —  Var.  vii.  5. 

6  "  Mirabilis  sylva  mipnium,  populus  statuarum,  greges  eiiuorum."  — 
Var.  vii.  5:  compare  vii.  13,  16.  These  latter  are  the  formularies  for  the 
appointment  of  the  Comes  Romanus,  and  the  architect  of  the  public  works. 
—  Ennod.  apud  Sirmond.  p.  967. 

6  Theodoric  comuuinds  maniiorarii  to  be  sent  from  Ravenna  to  Rome: 
these  were  workers  in  mosaic  (we  hear  notiiing  of  painters  or  sculptors), 
which  art  the  barbarians  seem  to  have  especially  admired.     '"  Qui  eximi^ 


Chap.  III.  THEODORIC  411 

When  Tlieodoric  appeared  in  Rome,  tlie  Emperor 
might  seem  to  revive  in  greater  power  and  majesty 
than  he  had  displayed  since  the  days  of  Theodosius  the 
Great.  The  largesses  of  corn  were  distributed,  though 
to  a  smaller  population,  with  a  liberality  which  rivalled 
the  earlier  days  of  the  Empire.^ 

Though  himself  taking  no  pleasure  in  savage  or  idle 
amusements,  the  barbaric  king,  considering  such  sub- 
^'ects  not  quite  beneath  the  care  of  the  sovereign,  per- 
haps not  without  some  politic  design  to  occupy  the 
])roud  and  turbulent  metropolis,  indulged  his  subjects 
with  their  ancient  spectacles,  in  such  pomp  as  to  recall 
the  famous  names  of  Trajan  and  Valentinian.^  The 
gladiators  alone  had  been  suppressed  by  the  influence 
of  Christian  opinion ;  and  even  if  humanity  had  not 
won  this  triumph,  Rome  had  no  longer  barbarian  cap- 
tives, whom  she  could  devote  to  the  carnage  of  these 
mimic  wars.  But  the  arena  was  still  open  to  the  com- 
bats of  wild  beasts.^  The  pantomimes,  of  which  alone 
Tlieodoric  speaks  with  interest,  were  frequent  and 
splendid.^  The  chariot  races  were  attended  with  all 
the  old  passionate  ardor,  and  the  contending  colors 
were  espoused  with  fanatic  zeal  by  the  opposite  factions, 

divisa  conjungunt  et  venis  colludentibus  illigata  naturalem  faciem  lauda- 
biliter  mentiantur.  .  .  .  D*e  arte  veniat,  quod  vincat  naturam,  discoloria 
crusta  maniiorum  gratissima  picturarum  varietate  texantur."  — Var.  i.  6. 

1  Anonym.  Vales.  Compare  the  formulary  for  the  appointment  of  the 
Pnefectus  annonae. 

2  Anonym.  Vales.  The  edicts  are  prefaced  with  a  kmd  of  apology. 
'  Licet  inter  gloriosas  reipublicas  curas  .  .  .  pars  minima  videatur,  princi- 
pcm  de  spectaculis  loqui,  tamen  pro  amore  reipublicie  Romanae  non  pigebit 
has  cogitationes  intrare."  —  Var.  i.  20. 

3  Var.  V.  42,  where  the  fevitas  spectaculi  is  reproved.  Among  Theodoric'a 
Duiklings  is  mentioned  an  amphitheatre  at  Pavia. 

4  He  calls  it  a  wonderful  art,  which  is  often  more  expressive  than  lan- 
guage. —  Var.  i.  20. 


^12  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

on  wliicli  the  Sovereign,  though  he  did  not  condescend 
to  take  a  part,  looked  with  indulgence.  He  allowed  the 
utmost  license  to  the  expression  of  public  feeling,  and 
strongly  reproved  the  officious  or  haughty  hiterference 
of  the  Senate  for  attempting  to  repress  this  legitimate 
freedom.^ 

But    Theodoric,   in    his   rehgious    character,   is   the 
Theodoric's     chief  objcct   of  our  study.      The  Christian 

religious  .  ^     r?      i    i  •  i  •        xl. 

ruie.  sovereign  must  nnd  his  proper  place  m  the 

history  of  Christianity.  The  King  of  the  Ostrogoths 
not  merely  held  together  in  peace  and  amity  the  two 
races,  the  Roman  and  the  Barbarian,  but  even  the 
Orthodox  and  tlie  Arian  reposed  throughout  his  reign, 
if  not  in  friendly  quiet,  at  least  without  any  violation 
of  the  public  peace. 

It  was  fortunate,  perhaps,  that  in  a  state  so  divided, 
the  Sovereign  was  of  the  religion  of  the  few.  He 
escaped  the  temptation  to  persecute,  since  it  would 
have  been  idle  to  suppose  that  he  could  persuade  or 
compel  so  strong  a  majority  to  embrace  his  detested 
opinions.  If  the  wise  spirit  of  toleration  had  not  led 
him  to  moderate  measures,  the  good  sense  of  the 
Sovereign  would  have  compelled  him  to  respect  the 
inveterate  tenets  of  the  larger,  the  more  intellectually 
powerful  part  of  his  subjects.  Still,  though  his  Byzan- 
tine education  might  have  warned  Theodoric  against 
the  danger,  if  the  Sovereign  should  plunge  too  deei)b 
into  ecclesiastical  affairs,  his  forbearance  was  neverthe- 

1  "  Mores  autem  graves  in  spectaculo  quis  requirit?  Ad  circuni  iiesciuiit 
convenire  Catoncs."  — i.  27.  It  is  evident  that  the  senate  and  the  people 
had  taken  different  sides.  The  senators  are  reproved  for  introduciNg  their 
armed  slaves  among  the  audience.  On  the  other  hand,  the  complaint  of  a 
senator  of  personal  insult  was  to  be  carried  before  the  i)ra't()rian  pra^tjjct 
There  is  a  remarkable  tone  of  good-humored  moderation  in  all  the  edicts 
compare  Var.  i.  27,  30  to  33. 


Chap.  111.  THEODORIC'S   BrPAKTIALITY.  413 

less  oxtraordinaiy,  considering  the  all-searching,  all- 
pervading  activity  of  his  administration ;  and  that  the 
religious  supremacy  had  heen  so,  long  a  declared  pre- 
rogative of  that  Imperial  power,  which  had  now  passed 
into  his  hands.  Imperial  edicts  since  the  days  of 
Constantino  had  been  solicited,  respected,  enforced  by 
the  hierarclis  so  long  as  they  spoke  the  dominant 
doctrine ;  they  had  become  part  of  the  code  of  the 
Empire ;  even  when  adverse  to  the  prevailing  opinion, 
they  had  been  always  supported  by  one  faction  at  least, 
and  received  with  awe  by  the  more  indifferent  multi- 
tudes. The  doctrine  that  the  clergy,  the  bishoi)s,  or 
the  Roman  Pontiff,  were  the  sole  legislators  of  Chris- 
tianity, was  so  precarious  and  undefined,  that  we  still 
cannot  altogether  withhold  our  admiration  from  the 
wisdom  of  Theodoric.  The  Arianism,  indeed,  of  the 
Goths  had  not  the  fresh  ardor  or  burning  zeal  of  recent 
proselytism.  It  was  a  kind  of  religious  accident,  arising 
out  of  their  first  conversion,  which  happened  to  take 
place  during  the  reign  of  an  Arian  Emperor,  and 
throuo-h  Arian  missionaries.  It  had  settled  into  a  quiet 
hereditary  faith.  There  was  no  peculiar  congeniality 
in  its  tenets  with  the  Teutonic  mind,  which  was  rather 
disposed  to  receive  what  it  was  taught  with  implicit 
faith ;  and,  though  no  doubt  averse  to  the  subtleties  of 
the  Greek  theology,  neither  comprehended,  nor  cared  to 
comprehend,  these  controversies.  It  was  content  to 
adhere  to  the  original  creed,^  or,  possibly,  might  feel 

1  Salvian  is  inclined  to  judge  the  heresy  of  the  barbarians  with  charity; 
perhaps  that  he  might  inveigh  more  fiercely  against  the  vices  of  the 
Catholic  Romans.  "  Barbari  quippe  homines,  innno  potius  hainan*  enidi- 
tionis  expertes,  qui  nihil  omnino  sciunt.  nisi  quod  a  doctoribus  suis  audinnt, 
quod  audiunt,  sic  sequmitur  .  .  .  hairetici  ergo  sunt,  sed  non  scientes." — 
De  Gubernat.  Dei,  lib.  v. 


414  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  HI. 

some  pnde  in  clifFenno;  from  tlie  abject  race,  over  wiiich 
it  asserted  its  civdl  and  military  supenority. 

The  serene  impartiality  of  Theodoric's  government 
Theodoric's  J^  religious  affairs  extorts  the  praise  of  the 
Impartiality.  ^^^^^  zcalous  Catholic.^  He  attempted  nothing 
against  the  Cathohc  faith.  Towards  the  close  of  the 
Gothic  monarchy,  the  royal  ambassadors  to  Belisarius 
defied  their  enemies  to  prove  a  case  in  which  the 
Goths  had  persecuted  the  Catholics.^  Theodoric  treat- 
ed the  Pope,  the  Bishops,  and  Clergy,  with  grave 
respect:  in  the  more  distinguished,  such  as  Epipha- 
nius,  he  ever  placed  the  highest  esteem  and  confidence. 
We  shall  behold  him  showing  as  much  reverence, 
and  even  bounty,  to  the  Church  of  St.  Peter,  as 
though  he  had  been  a  Catholic.  The  poor  Avho  were 
dependent  on  that  Church  were  maintained  by  his 
liberality.^  The  Arian  clergy  also  shared  in  the 
tolerant  sentiments  of  their  King.  Of  their  position, 
character,  influence ;  of  the  churches  they  built  or  oc- 
cupied ;  of  their  services,  of  their  processions,  of  their 
ceremonies ;  of  any  aggression  or  intrigue  on  their 
part ;  of  any  collision,  which  we  might  have  supposed 
inevitable  with  the  Latin  clergy,  history,  and  history 
entirely  written  by  the  Catholics,  is  totally  silent ;  and 
that  silence  is  the  best  testimony,  either  to  their  unex- 
ampled moderation,  as  the  religious  teachers  of  the  few 
indeed,  but  those  few  the  conquerors  and  rulers,  or  to 
the  wiser  policy  of  the  King,  which  could  constrain  even 

1  "  Nihil  contra  religionem  catholicain  teutans,"  thus  -writes  the  anony- 
mous historian,  himself  a  devout  Catholic.  Ennodius,  in  praising  the 
religion,  forgets  tlie  Arianism  of  Theodoric.  —  Faneg.  p.  971.  Anonym. 
Vales. 

2  Procop.  de  bell.  Gothic,  ii.  c  6. 

•  Procop.  Hist.  Arcan.,  p.  145,  edit.  Bonn. 


Chap.  III.  TIIEODORIC'S   IMI'AETIALITY.  415 

honest  religious  zeal.  Theodonc  himself  adhered  firmly 
but  calmly  to  his  native  Arianism  ;  but,  all  the  conver- 
sions seem  to  have  been  from  the  religion  of  the  King ; 
even  his  mother  became  a  Catholic  ;^  and  some  other 
distinguished  persons  of  the  court  embraced  a  different 
creed  without  forfeiting  the  royal  favor.^  Theodoric 
was  the  protector  of  Church  property ,3  which  he  him- 
self increased  by  large  grants.*  This  property,  mth 
some  exceptions,  was  still  liable  to  the  common  im- 
posts. His  wise  finance  would  admit  no  exemptions, 
but  in  gifts  he  was  prodigal  to  magnificence.  The 
clergy  were  amenable  to  the  common  law  of  the 
Empire,  and  were  summoned  before  the  royal  courts 
(the  stern  law  would  not  be  eluded)  for  all  ordinary 
crimes  ;  ^  but  all  ecclesiastical  offences  were  left  to  the 
ecclesiastical  authorities.^     Nor,  although  the  Herulian 

1  "Mater  Theodorici,  Erivileva  dicta,  catholica  quidera  erat  quae  in 
baptisnio  Eusebia  dicta."— Anonym.  Vales. 

2  Xote  of  Valesius  to  Anonym,  at  the  end  of  Wagner's  Ammianua 
Marcellinus,  page  399.  — Var.  x.  34  a.  26.  These  cases  belong  to  the  suc- 
cessors of  Theodoric.  With  Gibbon,  I  reject  the  story  of  his  beheading  a 
Catholic  priest  for  turning  Arian  in  order  to  gain  his  favor!  It  is  most 
probable  that  the  man  had  been  guilty  of  some  capital  crime,  and  sought 
to  save  his  life  by  apostacy.  It  was  not  improbably  either  Theodoras  or 
Count  Odoin,  who  had  formed  a  conspiracy  against  him  in  Rome,  and  was 
beheaded  for  his  treason:  compare  Hist.  Miscel.  p.  612. 

3  Var.  iv.  17,  orders  to  his  general  Bas  in  Gaul  to  restore  certain  lands 
to  the  Church  of  Narbonne. 

4  "  If,"  he  writes  to  Count  Geberic,  "  in  our  piety,  we  bestow  lands  on 
the  church,  we  ought  to  maintain  rigidly  what  she  possesses  already."  — 
Var.  iv.  20. 

5  Januarius,  Bishop  of  Salona,  is  sued  for  a  debt,  though  for  lights  for 
the  church ;  a  Bishop  Peter  for  the  restitution  of  an  inheritance ;  the  Priest 
Laurence  for  sacrilegious  violation  of  a  tomb  in  search  of  treasure ;  Antony, 
Bishop  of  Pola,  for  the  restitution  of  a  house:  compare  Du  Roure,  Hist, 
sie  Theodoric,  i.  p.  358. 

6  See  the  celebrated  privilege  accorded  to  the  clergy  of  Rome  by  Atha- 
laric— Var.  viii.  24.  This,  however,  was  no  more  than  arbitration.  "  Ex- 
ceptos  a  tramite  justitia;  nor  natimur  inveniri."  —  Cassiod.  ii.  29.     Tet 


416  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  .  I. 

Odoacer  had  claimed  and  exercised  tlie  right  of  con- 
firming the  Papal  election,  did  Theodoric  interfere  in 
those  elections  until  compelled  by  the  sanguinary 
tumults  which  distracted  the  city.  Even  then  he  inter- 
fered only  as  the  anxious  guardian  of  the  i)ublic  peace, 
and  declined  the  arbitration  between  the  conflicting 
claims,  which  both  parties,  hoping  for  his  support, 
endeavored  to  force  on  the  reluctant  monarch. 

The  feuds  of  the  Roman  clergy,  which  broke  out  on 
the  customary  occasion  of  the  election  of  a  new  Pope, 
and  brouo'ht  them  to  the  foot  of  their  Arian  sovereifni, 
A.D.  498.  ^^^J  ^^  traced  back  to  a  more  remote  source. 
Sectfoi'^for  Anastasius,  as  has  been  seen,  during  his  short 
the  Popedom.  pQj^^-g^^^g^   had  deviated  into   the  paths  of 

peace  and  conciliation.  He  had  endeavored  by  mild- 
ness, and  by  no  important  concession  (he  insisted  not 
on  the  condemnation  of  Acacius),  to  reunite  the 
Churches  of  Rome  and  Constantinople.  This  un- 
wonted policy  had  apparently  formed  two  parties  in 
the  Roman  clergy,  one  inclined  to  the  gentler  measures 
of  Anastasius,  the  other  to  the  sterner  and  more  inex- 
orable tone  of  his  predecessors.  Each  party  elected 
Dec.  22.  their  Pope,  the  latter  the  Deacon  Symma- 
A.D.  4'J9.  elms,  the  former  the  Archpresbyter  Lau- 
rentius.^  The  rival  Pontiffs  were  consecrated  on  the 
same  day,  one  in  the  Lateran  Church,  the  other  in  that 
of  St.  Mary.  At  the  head  of  the  party  of  Laurentius, 
stood  Festus  or  Faustus  Niger,  the  chief  of  the  Senato- 
rial order.  He  had  been  the  ambassador  of  Theodoric 
at  Constantinople,  to  demand  the  acknowledgment  of 

Theodoric,  from  respect,  was  unwilling  to  punish  a  priest.     "  Scelus  quoa 
rio.-t  pro  sacerdotal!  lionore  relinquinius  impunitum." — iv.  18. 
1  Anastasius  died  Nov.  17.  —  Muratori,  sub  anu 


Chap.  III.  CONTESTED  ELECTION  FOR  POPEDOM.     417 

the  Goth  as  King  of  Italy.  He  had  succeeded  in  his 
mission ;  perhaps  had  been  prevailed  upon  to  attempt 
the  reconciliation  of  the  two  Churches,  either  by  per- 
suading the  acceptance  of  the  Henoticon  by  the  Roman 
clergy,  or  more  probably  on  the  terms  of  compromise 
approved  by  Pope  Anastasius.  The  two  factions  en- 
countered with  the  fiercest  hostility  ;  the  clergy,  the 
senate,  and  the  populace  were  di^dded  ;  the  streets  of 
the  Christian  city  ran  with  blood,  as  in  the  days  of 
repubhcan  strife. ^  The  conflicting  claims  of  the  prel- 
ates were  brouo-ht  before  the  throne  of  Theodoric. 
The  simple  justice  of  the  Goth  decided  that  the  bishop 
who  had  the  greater  number  of  suffrages,  and  had  been 
first  consecrated,  had  the  best  right  to  the  throne. 
Symmachus  was  acknowledged  as  Pope  :  he  held  a 
synod  at  Rome  which  passed  two  memorable  decrees, 
one  almost  m  the  terms  of  the  old  Roman  law,  severely 
condemning  all  ecclesiastical  ambition,  all  canvassing, 
either  for  obtaining  subscriptions,  or  administration 
of  oaths,  or  promises  for  the  papacy  during  the  life- 
time of  the  Pope  ;  ^  the  other  declared  the  election  to 
be  in  the  majority  of  the  clergy,  thus  virtually  abro- 
gating the  law  of  Odoacer.  Laurentius  (the  rival 
Pope  was  present  at   this   synod)    subscribed   its   de- 

1  Each  party  charged  the  other  with  these  cruelties.  The  author  of  the 
Hist.  Micell.  asserts  that  Festus  and  Probinus,  of  the  party  of  Laurentius, 
slew  in  the  midst  of  Rome  tlie  greater  part  of  tlie  clergy  and  a  great  num- 
ber of  citizens:  a  fragment  of  a  writer  on  the  other  side  (published  by  the 
impartial  Muratori)  ascribes  these  acts  of  violence,  slaughter,  and  pillage, 
with  many  other  vices,  to  Symmachus.  Compare  Annal.  d'ltal.  sub  ann. 
498. 

2  It  was  the  language  of  the  law  de  Ambitu,  applied  to  ecclesiastical 
distinctions.  It  is  enacted  "  propter  frequentes  ambitus  quorundam,  et 
ecclesia;  puritatem,  vel  populi  collisionem,  quae  molesta  et  iniqua  incom- 
petenter  episcopatum  desiderantium  generavit  aviditas."  — Labbe,  Concil.^ 
p.  1313. 

VOL.  I.  27 


41 S  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

crees,^  and  returned  to  the  more  peaceful,  perhaps  to 
a  wise  man,  the  more  enviable  bishopric  of  Nocera. 

During  this  interval  of  peace,  Theodoric  for  tlie 
Theodoric  in  first  time  visitcd  the  imperial  city.  He  was 
A.D.499.  met  by  Pope  Symmachus  at  the  head  of  his 
clergy,  by  the  Senate,  which  still  numbered  some  few 
old  and  famous  names,  Anicii,  Albini,  Marcelli,  and 
by  the  whole  people,  who  crowded  with  demonstra- 
tions of  the  utmost  joy  around  their  barbarian  sover- 
eign. Catholic  and  Arian,  Goth  and  Roman,  mingled 
their  acclamations.  Theodoric  performed  his  devotions 
in  St.  Peter's  with  the  fervor  of  a  Catholic.  In  the 
Senate  he  swore  to  maintain  all  the  imperial  laws,  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  the  Roman  people.  He  cele- 
brated the  Circensian  games,  in  commemoration  of  all 
his  triumphs,  with  the  utmost  magnificence ;  ordered  a 
distribution  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  bushels  of  corn 
annually  to  the  poor,  and  set  apart  two  hundred  pounds 
of  gold  for  the  restoration  of  the  imperial  palace.  The 
Bishop  Fulgentius,  witness  of  the  splendor  of  Theod- 
oric's  reception,  breaks  out  into  these  rapturous  words : 
"  If  such  be  the  magnificence  of  earth,  what  must  be 
that  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem  !  "  ^  Theodoric  re- 
mained in  Rome  six  months,  and  then  returned  to 
Ravenna. 

During  all  this  period,  and  the  three  or  four  follow- 
charges         mpr   years,    the   faction   of  Laurentius    were 

ai?ainst  ,  .  ,      .  .  ■no 

Symmachus.   watchuig  thcir  Opportunity  to  renew  the  strife.* 

1  Baronius  sub  ann.     INInratori  has  some  doubts. 

2  Anonym.  Val(>s.  Vita  B.  Fulfjentii. 

8  There  are  two  accounts  of  these  transactions,  —  one  that  of  Anastasius 
Bibliothecarius,  or  the  anon3-mous  papal  biographer,  favorai)le  to  Symma- 
chus; the  other  the  anonymous  Veronensis,  published  by  Muratori.  I  have 
endeavored  to  hai"nH)nize  them.  Both  agree  that  some  years  elapsed  be- 
tween the  accession  of  Symmachus  and  this  new  contest. 


Chap.  III.  TUMULTS  IN  ROME.  419 

Fearful  charges  began  to  be  rumored  against  Synnna- 
elms,  no  less  than  adultery,^  and  the  alienation  of  the 
property  of  the  see.  Faustus,  his  implacable  adversary, 
with  the  Consul  Probinus  and  great  part  of  the  Senate, 
supported  these  criminations.  The  accusation  was 
brought  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Theodoric,  sup- 
ported by  certain  Roman  females  of  rank,  who  had 
been  suborned,  it  was  said,  by  the  enemies  of  Symma- 
chus.  Symmachus  w^as  summoned  to  Ravenna,  and 
confined  in  Rimini.  But  finding  the  preju- ^^^^^^^^  .^ 
dices  in  Ravenna  darkenino;  ao-ainst  him,  he  ^^'"®- 
escaped  and  returned  to  Rome.  Laurentius  had  also 
secretly  entered  the  capital.  The  sanguinary  tumults 
between  the  two  factions  broke  out  with  greater  fury  ; 
priests  were  sacrilegiously  slain,  monasteries  fired,  and 
even  sacred  virgins  treated  with  the  utmost  indignity. 
The  Senate  petitioned  the  King  to  send  a  a.d.  503. 
visitor  to  judge  the  cause  of  the  Pontiff.  A  royal 
commission  was  issued  to  Peter,  Bishop  of  Altino. 
But  instead  of  a  calm  mediator  between  the  conflicting 
parties,  or  an  equitable  judge,  the  visitor  threw  himself 
into  the  party  of  Laurentius.^  The  possessions  of  the 
Church  were,  in  part  at  least,  seized  and  withholden 
from  Symmachus ;  he  was  commanded  to  give  up  the 
slaves  of  his  household  that  thev  mio^ht  be  examined,^ 

u  CD  ' 

it  should  seem,  by  torture  according   to  the  ancient 
usage.* 

1  Anonym.  Veron.  —  confirmed  by  Ennodius,  p.  1366. 

2  Ennod.  Apologet.  pro  Synod.,  p.  987. 

3  This  corresponded  with  the  two  heads  of  accusation.  The  tonne; 
provided  against  the  alleged  alienation  of  the  church  property,  the  latter 
referred  to  that  of  adultery. 

4  This  is  a  remarkable  fact,  in  the  tirst  place,  showing  that  slaves  formed 
the  household  of  the  Pope,  and  that,  by  law,  they  were  yet  liable  to  torture. 
This  seems  clear  from  the  words  of  Ennodius,  "  Sed,  credo,  replicabitis. 


420  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  UL 

Tlieodoric,  still  decKning  the  jurisdiction  over  these 
Synods  of  ecclesiastical  offences,  summoned  a  synod  of 
^™®*  Itah'an  prelates  to  meet  at  Rome.     The  synod 

held  two  successive  sessions,  and  throughout  their  pro- 
ceedings may  be  traced  their  consciousness  of  their 
embarrassing  position,  which  is  increased  as  the  reports 
of  these  proceedings  have  passed  through  later  writers.^ 
They  were  assembled  under  the  authority  of  a  layman, 
an  heretical  sovereign,  too  powerful  to  be  disobeyed, 
and  acting  with  such  cautious  dignity,  justice,  and 
impartiality  as  to  command  respect.  They  were  as- 
sembled to  judge  the  supreme  Pontiff,  the  Metropolitan 
of  the  west,  the  asserted,  and  by  most  acknowledged, 
head  of  Christendom.  Symmachus  himself  had  the 
prudence  to  express  his  concurrence  in  the  convocation 
of  this  synod.  At  the  first  session  he  set  forth  to  attend 
the  Council.  He  was  attacked  by  the  adverse  party, 
showers  of  stones  fell  around  him  ;  many  presbyters 
and  others  of  his  followers  were  severely  wounded  ;  the 
Pontiff  himself  only  escaped  under  the  protection  of  the 
Gothic  guard.  The  final,  named  the  Palmary,  synod 
was  held  in  some  edifice  or  hall  in  the  palace  called  by 
that  name ;    of  this  assembly  the  accounts  are  some- 

veritatem  quam  sponte  prolata  in  illis  vox  habere  non  poterat,  banc  diver- 
sis  cruciatibus  e  latebris  suis  religiosus  tortor  exegerat,  ut  cliim  pocnis  cor- 
pora solverentur,  qua;  gesta  fiiisse  noverat  anima  non  celaret."  Ennodius 
is  so  obscure  and  figurative  that  be  may  seem  to  say,  in  tbe  next  sentence, 
tbat  tbis  proceeding  was  illegal,  perbaps  contrary  to  tbe  canons.  He  ap- 
pears to  consider  it  most  contumelious  tbat  ecclesiastics  sbould  be  judged  on 
servile  evidence. 

1  Tbe  wbole  question  of  tbe  number  and  dates  of  tbe  synods  beld  at  tliis 
time  is  inextricably  obscure.  I  cbielly  follow  Muratori.  Tiie  synodus  pal- 
maris  is  usually  considered  tbe  fourtb.  One,  in  all  probability  two,  were 
beld  by  Symmacbus  before  tbis  new  strife.  Tbe  fourtb  was  aj)parently  a 
continuation  of  tbe  Ibinl,  but  beld  in  a  difl'erent  place  —  unless  tbe  third 
wa'j  "ue  beld  by  I'eter  of  Altino. 


Chap.  TH.  DECREE   OF   PALMARY   SYNOD.  421 

what  more  full  and  distinct.  Thronghont  appears  tlio 
manifest  struo;o;le  in  the  ecclesiastical  senate  between  tlio 
duty  of  submittino;  to  the  King,  who  earnestly  Decree  of  tiie 

•^  »  ="  -^    Palmary 

urges  them  to  restore  peace  to  Kome  and  to  Synod. 
Italy,  and  the  reluctance  to  assume  jurisdiction  over 
the  Bishop  of  Rome.  Some  expressions  intimate  that 
already  the  Bishop  of  Rome  was  held  to  be  exempt 
from  all  human  authority,  and  could  be  judged  by  God 
alone.  If  the  Pope  is  called  in  question  the  whole 
episcopacy  of  the  Church  is  shaken  to  its  foundation.^ 

Symmachus,  however,  had  the  wisdom  to  suppress 
all  jealousy  of  a  Council  ^  whose  authority  alone  could 
completely  clear  him  of  these  formidable  accusations, 
and  which  he  probably  knew  to  be  favorably  impressed 
with  his  innocence.  With  the  full  authority  of  a  synod 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  bishops  he  resumed  the 
pontifical  throne,  without  having  compromised  his  dig- 
nity by  thus  condescending  to  their  juriscUction.  In 
the  wordincr  of  the  sentence  the  Council  claims  at  once 
the  authority  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  yet  confines  the  jus- 
tification of  Pope  Symmachus  to  immunity  and  freedom 
from  censure  before  men ;  ^  it  leaves  to  the  secret  coun- 

1  "  In  sacerdotibus  c^eteris  potest  si  quid  forts  nutaverit,  reformari :  at  si 
papa  urbis  vooatur  in  dubium,  episcopatus  videbitur,  non  jam  episcopus, 
vacillare."  — Avit.  ad  Senat.  apud  Labbe,  p.  1365.  Avitus  uses  this  argu- 
ment to  the  senators  of  Rome,  "  Nee  minus  diligatis  in  ecclesia  nostra 
sedem  Petri,  quam  in  civitate  apicem  mundi;"  but  Avitus  acknowledges 
all  priests,  even  the  Pope,  to  be  amenable  to  secular  tribunals,  of  course  for 
secular  offences,  "quia  sicut  subditos  nos  esse  terrenis  potestatibus  jubet 
arbiter  cceli ;  staturos  nos  ante  reges  et  principes  in  quacunque  accusatio/ie 
priedicens;  ita  non  facile  datur  intelligi,  qua  vel  ratione,  vel  lege  ab  in- 
ferioribus  (inferior  in  ecclesiastical  order)  eminentior  judicetur," 

2  "  Judicia  et  iste  voluit,  amavit,  attraxit,  ingressus  est;  et  quod  posset 
tideli  corda  doloris  justi  aculeis  excitare,  venerando  concilio  etiam  contra 
%e  si  mereretur,  indulsit."  —  Ennod.,  p.  981. 

^  "  Quantum  ad  homines  respicit  (quia  totum  causis  obsidentibus  supe- 
•lus  designitis,  constat  arbitrio  divino  fuisse  dimissum)  sit  immunis   et 


422  LATIN  CimiSTIANITY.  Book  ITL 

sel  of  God  tlie  ultimate  decision  which  they  might  not 
presume  to  pronounce ;  ^  nevertheless,  with  inconsis- 
tency, which  it  is  difficult  to  understand,  they  seem  to 
grant  permission  to  the  Pope  to  offer  the  divine  mys- 
teries to  the  Christian  people  in  all  the  churches  of  his 
jurisdiction.^ 

Content  with  having  restored  peace  to  the  Roman 
Affairs  of  the  ^ec,  ThcodoHc  kept  aloof  from  the  religious 
*^^^-  dissensions  which  brooded  in  deepening  dark- 

ness over  the  east.  The  Gothic  kino;  was  devoting 
himself,  dare  we  not  say,  to  the  more  Christian  office 
of  maintaining  the  peace,  securing  the  welfare,  promot- 
ing the  civilization,  lightening  the  financial  burdens  of 
his  people,^  in  exercising  for  the  benefit  of  Italy,  the 

liber,  et  Christianae  plebi  sine  aliqua  de  objectis  oblatione,  in  omnibus 
ecclesiis  suis,  ad  jus  sedis  suae  pertinentibus,  tradat  divina  mysteria."- 
Labbe,  p.  1325. 

1  Considering  the  horror  in  which  the  crime  of  adultery  was  held  in  an 
ecclesiastic,  we  can  scai'cely  suppose,  either  that  the  severe  Theodoric 
would  not  have  driven  him  from  his  presence,  or  that  an  assemblage  of 
prelates  would  have  attempted  to  shield  a  pontiff,  of  precarious  and  dis- 
puted title,  without  full  and  conclusive  evidence  of  his  guiltlessness. 

2  The  decisions  of  this  synod  were  indeed  impeached  by  the  enemies  of 
Symmachus,  and  Ennodius  found  it  necessary  to  vindicate  tliem  in  an 
apology,  as  he  thought,  eloquent,  and  therefore  in  parts  altogether  unin- 
telligible, at  least  so  as  to  give  but  obscure  glimpses  of  the  facts.  He 
would  seem,  perhaps  only  figuratively,  to  retort  the  charge  of  adultery 
against  the  partisans  of  Laurentius.  —  p.  992.  At  the  close,  Ennodius  per- 
sonifies Rome,  who  has  still  some  compunctious  feelings  for  the  inevitable 
damnation  of  all  her  older  heroes.  "  Qujb  Curios,  Torquatos,  Camillos,  quos 
Ecclesia  non  regeneravit,  et  reliquos  misi,  plurimas  prolis  infoocunda  mater, 
ad  Tartarum,  dum  exhaustis  emarcui  male  foeta  visceribus;  quia  Fabios 
servata  patria  non  rcdemit,  Deciis  multo  sudore  gloria  parta  nil  praestitit 
profligata  est  operum  sine  fide  innocentia:  criminosis  junctus  est,  ajqui 
obscrvantissimus  Scipio." — p.  993,  apud  Sinnond. 

3  "  Sensimus  auctas  illationes,  vos  addita  tributa  nescitis.  Ita  utcumque 
sub  admiratione  perfectum  est,  ut  et  fiscus  crescebat,  et  privata  utilitas 
nulla  damna  perferret." — Var.  ii.  16.  The  panegyric  of  Ennodius  must 
be  read  with  that  reserve  which  these  eloqzient  adulations  suggest;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  must  be  remembered  that  Ennodius  was  a  Catholic  and 
ft  bishop. 


OiiAP.  III.  AFFAIRS    OF   THE  EAST.  423 

virtues  of  wisdom,  justice,  and  humanity.  His  foreign 
wars  in  Pannonia,  with  a  horde  of  the  Bulgarian  race, 
in  Gaul,  in  defence  of  his  kindred  the  Visigoths  against 
the  ambitious  Franks,  brought  fame  to  the  king,  with- 
out disturbing  the  repose,  or  interrupting  the  progress 
of  improvement  in  Italy.  Far  different  was  the  state  of 
the  East;  the  long  religious  quarrel  in  which  the  Em- 
peror Anastasius  had  been  engaged,  had  shaken  its 
throne  to  the  base,  it  needed  only  a  successful  insur- 
rection to  degrade  it  to  still  lower  humiliation. 

The  Pope  Symmachus  watched  no  doubt  with  pro- 
found interest  the  holy  war  which  had  now  broken  out 
in  the  East.  The  polemic  controversies  had  become  the 
causes  or  pretexts  of  revolt  and  battles.  The  formid- 
able Scythian  Vitalianus  (with  whom  Theodoric  had 
some  political  connection  on  account  of  the  hostilities 
in  which  he  had  been  involved  on  the  Dacian  frontier 
with  the  Eastern  empire)  had  raised  the  standard  of 
rebellion  and  of  orthodoxy  against  the  aged  Anastasius. 
Symmachus  did  not  live  to  witness  the  sad  latter  years 
of  the  Emperor  Anastasius ;  the  revolt  of  Vitalianus  ; 
the  hollow  peace  on  the  hard  conditions  of  religious 
submission  ;  the  full  acceptance  of  the  council  of  Glial 
cedon,  the  restoration  of  the  exiled  Gatholic  Bishops, 
and  the  summoning  an  CEcumenic  Council  at  Heraclea. 
His  successor  Hormisdas^  reaped  the  fruits  of  the  hu- 
miliation of  the  eastern  Emperor,  and  be-  p^p^  g-or- 
came,  though  at  first  the  vassal,  at  last  the  "^^<^*^- 
humble  subject  of  the  Arian  Theodoric,  the  dictator  of 
the  religion  of  the  world.  Anastasius  in  his  helpless 
state  souojht  the  mediation  not  of  the  civil  but  of  the 
religious   sovereign    of  Italy.      He   might  justly   fear 

1  Hormisdas,  Pope  fi-om  July,  514,  to  Aug.  6,  523. 


124  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IIL 

A.D.  509.  Tlieodoric,  himself  bad  once  some  years  be- 
fore entered  into  suspicious  alliance  with  Clovis  tbe 
Frank,  he  had  meditated  or  threatened  a  descent  on  the 
coast  of  Italy.  The  Emperor  addressed  a  letter  to 
Hormisdas,  the  fame  of  whose  mild  disposition  tempt- 
ed him  to  renew  a  correspondence  broken  off  by  the 
harshness  of  former  Popes.  But  Hormisdas,  while  he 
warmly  approved  the  Emperor's  disposition  to  peace 
and  unity,  declined  this  flattery  at  the  expense  of  his 
predecessors.  Yet,  on  the  whole,  the  language  of  the 
Pope's  reply  was  moderate,  neither  dissembling  nor  as- 
serting in  too  haughty  terms  the  pretensions  of  his  See. 
The  proposed  Council  of  Heraclea  came  to  nothing ;  a 
Council  in  the  East,  under  present  circumstances,  suit- 
ed the  policy  neither  of  the  Pope,  nor  of  the  Emperor. ^ 
July  8, 515.  Four  ambassadors,  the  Bishops  Ennodius  and 
Fortunatus,  the  Presbyter  Venantius,  with  Vitalis  a 
Papal  Em-  dcacou,  sct  fortli  in  the  name  of  Pope  Plor- 
stantjaopie.  misdas  to  Constantinople.  Their  instructions 
are  extant,  a  remarkable  manual  of  ecclesiastical  diplo- 
macy in  a  nice  and  difficult  affair.  In  the  question- 
able and  divided  state  of  the  Eastern  clergy,  espe- 
cially of  Constantinople,  as  to  orthodoxy,  the  ambas- 
sadors were  to  receive  their  personal  advances  with 
decent  courtesy,  lest  the  episcopal  character  should  be 
lowered  in  the  estimation  of  the  laity ;  but  to  avoid  all 
intimate  intercourse  with  men,  who  might  at  least  be 
heretics ;  to  receive  no  presents,  not  even  provisions, 
only  means  of  conveyance ;  to  incur  no  obligations,  and 
to  decline  all  invitations  to  feasts,  until  they  could  all 

1  The  story  in  Theophanes  as  to  the  perfidy  of  Anastasius  in  these  pro-' 
ceedijigs,  is  altogether  inconsistent  with  the  whole  course  of  events,  as  ap 
pears  from  existing  documents. 


Chap.  III.     PAPAL   EMBASSY   TO   CONSTANTINOPLE.  425 

meet  together  at  the  gi'eat  feast  of  the  Holy  Eucharist. 
In  Constantinople  they  were  to  go  at  once  to  the  lodg- 
ings provided  by  the  Emperor,  but  to  avoid  all  inter- 
course with  their  own  partisans,  till  they  had  presented 
their  credentials  to  the  Emperor.^  Besides  these  cre- 
dentials they  were  armed  with  letters  to  Vitalianus, 
letters  however  so  cautiously  worded,  that  they  might 
acknowledge  the  possession  of  them,  and  though  stead- 
ily declining  to  surrender  them  to  the  Emperor,  might 
permit  them  to  be  read  to  Vitalianus  in  the  presence  of 
an  imperial  commissioner.  Their  instructions,  how 
they  were  to  fix  the  wavering  Emperor,  and  extort 
concession  after  concession,  are  marked  with  the  same 
subtle  and  dexterous  policy.  They  were  to  demand, 
I.,  his  unequivocal  assent  to  the  Council  of  Chalce- 
don,  and  to  the  letters  of  Pope  Leo.  If  he  yielded 
this  point,  they  were  to  express  their  gratitude  and 
kiss  his  breast,  and  then,  11. ,  to  require  him  to  demand 
the  same  assent  from  all  the  clergy  of  the  East.  If 
he  should  assert  the  general  orthodoxy  of  the  clergy, 
and  their  disposition  to  quiet  submission,  if  affairs  had 
not  been  thrown  into  confusion  by  certain  unadvised  let- 
ters of  Pope  Symmachus,  they  were  to  declare  that  those 
letters,  now  in  their  hands,  contained  only  general  ex- 
hortations to  accept  the  Council  of  Chalcedon.  They 
were  to  press  this  point  with  prayers  and  tears,  to  re- 
mind the  Emperor  of  God,  and  of  the  day  of  judgment. 
Should  the  Emperor  reply,  "  What  would  you  have  ? 

1  There  was  a  preliminary  caution  that,  as  it  was  customary  in  Constan- 
tinople for  all  persons  admitted  to  the  emperor  on  ecclesiastical  business  to 
oe  presented  by  the  bishop,  they  were  to  omit,  if  possible,  receiving  this 
pourtesy  fi-ora  Timotheus,  and  if  he  should  officiously  thrust  himself  in  the 
tray,  and  enforce  the  right  of  presentation,  to  declare  that  they  were  di- 
rectly accredited  to  the  emperor  alone. 


426  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IIT 

I  receive  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  and  the  letters  of 
Leo  : "  they  were  to  elude  any  assent  to  this  protest, 
unless  he  would  issue  his  imperial  letters  compelling  a 
general  union  with  the  Church  of  Rome.  Should  the 
Emperor  say,  "  Will  you  then  receive  the  Bishop  of 
Constantinople  into  communion  ? "  Here  was  the 
nicest  point  of  all,  to  avoid  the  recognition  of  either  of 
the  contending  prelates,  and  so  to  bring  the  absolute 
nomination  of  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  under  the 
cognizance  of  the  proposed  Council,  over  which  Coun- 
cil was  to  preside  the  representative  of  Rome.  The 
instructions  even  anticipate  a  dangerous  objection, 
which  might  occur  to  Anastasius,  that  the  rival  prel- 
ate, Macedonius,  was  a  notorious  heretic.  This,  they 
were  to  rejoin,  is  a  question  to  be  calmly  considered 
when  the  Church  is  restored  to  unity.  "  What,"  should 
the  Emperor  say,  "  is  my  city  to  be  without  a  bishop?  " 
'*  The  canons,"  they  are  to  answer,  "  provide  remedies 
for  such  a  difficulty."  But  these  inexorable  terms  were 
not  all.  Anastasius  was  not  only  to  be  compelled  to  be 
a  persecutor.  Besides  the  acceptance  of  the  Council  of 
Chalcedon,  and  the  Leonine  letters  by  the  Emperoi, 
and  the  compulsory  enforcement  of  obedience  from  the 
clergy,  were  demanded  from  the  Emperor,  as  to  be  rat- 
ified by  the  Council,  III.  The  public  anathema  of  Nes- 
torius,  Eutyches,  Dioscorus,  and  also  of  their  followers, 
(the  maintainers  of  the  Henoticon,)  Timotheus  JElu- 
rus,  Peter  of  Alexandria,  Acacius,  formerly  Bishop 
of  Constantinople,  and  Peter  of  Antioch.  IV.  The 
innnediate  recall  from  exile  of  all  ecclesiastics  in  com- 
munion with  Rome,  the  causes  of  their  respective  ban- 
ishments to  be  examined  by  the  Apostolic  See.  V.  The 
\udgment  of  those  accused  of  persecuting  the  Catliolics 


Chap.  III.  TROCEEDINGS   OF  ANASTASIUS.  427 

to  be  in  like  manner  submitted  to  tlie  court  of  Rome. 
On  the  full  acceptance  of  these  terms,  Hormisdas  con- 
sented to  honor  the  future  Council  with  his  personal 
presence,  not  to  deliberate  but  to  ratify  his  own  solemn 
determinations. 

But  Anastasius  was  not  reduced  so  low  as  to  submit 
to  these  debasing  conditions.  The  condemnation  of 
Acacioas  was  unpopular  at  Constantinople,  the  memory 
of  the  Bishop  dear  and  sacred  to  a  large  party.  Anas- 
tasius chose  this  point  of  resistance.  He  accepted  on 
his  own  part  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  but  why  should 
the  living  be  kept  excommunicated  from  the  Church  on 
account  of  the  dead  ?  The  terms  of  Hormisdas  could 
not  be  enforced  w^ithout  much  bloodshed.^  a.d.  507. 
The  embassy  returned  to  Rome.  Anastasius  continued 
to  temporize.  An  imperial  embassy  appeared  in  Rome, 
accredited  to  the  Senate  as  well  as  to  the  Pope.  It  en- 
treated the  intervention  of  that  venerable  body  with 
the  glorious  Theodoric  to  unite  the  afflicted  Christian 
Church  and  Empire.  Hormisdas  treated  these  lay  am- 
bassadors, who  presumed  to  interfere  in  ecclesiastical 
affairs,  with  supercilious  contempt.  The  churches  of 
Illyria,  of  which  the  opinions  had  as  yet  hung  in  doubt, 
had  now  given  their  unqualified  adhesion  to  Honnlsdas 
and  the  Council  of  Chalcedon.  Far  from  retracting, 
he  rose  in  his  demands ;  he  condescended  indeed  to 
send  a  second  legation,  Ennodius,  Bishop  of  Pavia,  and 
Peregrinus,  Bishop  of  Misenum,  to  Constantinople. 
His  answer  by  them  was  a  vehement  and  implacable 
invective  against  the  memory  of  Acacius.^    That  Bish- 

1  "  Grave  esse  dementia  nostra  judicat  de  ecclesia  venerabili  propter 
mortuos  vivos  expelli,  nee  sine  multa  efFusione  sanguinis  scimus  posse  ea, 
qufB  super  hoc  scribitis,  ordinari."  — Epist.  Anaslas.  Laljhe.  p.  1432. 

2  Epistola  Hormisdfe  apud  Labbe. 


428  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

op's  communion  with  the  followers  of  Dioscorus  and  of 
Entyches  infected  him  with  their  most  heinous  guilt. 
All  who  hated  those  heretics,  must  hate  Acacius.  The 
crime  of  Acacius  was  darker  than  that  of  the  orio-inal 
authors  of  the  heresy.  The  condemnation  of  Acacius, 
the  unpardonable  Acacius  —  Acacius  who  had  claimed 
equality  with  the  Pope  — was  now  the  only  obstacle  to 
the  peace  between  Eastern  and  Western  Christendom, 
a  consummation  to  which  the  West,  even  the  remotest 
Gaul  (so  wrote  Hormisdas,  alluding  to  the  Catholic 
Franks)  looked  forward  with  eager  interest.  Anasta- 
sius  was  now  more  secure  upon  his  throne,  his  formida- 
ble subject,  Vitalianus,  had  lost  his  power.  To  his 
honor,  he  would  not  abandon  even  the  memory  of  Aca- 
cius, who  had  been  guilty  only  of  firmly  carrying  out 
the  Emperor's  scheme  of  toleration  ;  he  broke  off  all 
further  communication  with  the  merciless  Prelate. 
"  We  may  submit  to  insult,  we  may  endure  that  our 
decrees  be  annulled,  but  we  will  not  be  commanded.^ 
Hormisdas  must  await  the  accession  of  a  new  Emperor 
Justin,  before  the  Churches  of  Rome  and  Byzantium 
are  reunited  by  the  sacrifice  of  him,  who  besides  his 
communion  with  Eutychians,  had  dared  to  equal  him- 
self with  the  successor  of  St.  Peter." 

But  with  the  age  and  decay  of  Anastasius  the 
strength  of  the  Chalcedonian  party  increased  rapidly. 
Timotheus,  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople,  gave  hopes 
at  least,  that  he  would  secure  himself  by  timely  conces- 
sion. Hormisdas  addressed  encouraging  letters  to  the 
Catholic  bishops,  and  though  Anastasius  ventured  to 
punish  with  severity  certain  monks  who  strove  to  stir 
up  rebellion,  he   dared  not  to  resent  this  treasonablf' 

1  Epist.  Anastas.  Labbe,  p.  14G0. 


Chap.  III.  ACCESSION   OF  JUSTIN.  429 

coiTesponclence  with  his  subjects.  The  monks  m  Syria, 
of  that  party,  appealed  from  the  Emperor,  whom  they 
accused  of  contemptuously  rejecting  their  humble  sup- 
plications for  protection  and  redress  against  their  rivals, 
charged  with  the  massacre  of  their  brethren  in  the 
church,  to  the  representative  of  St.  Peter  and  St. 
Paul.i 

The  strife  ended  with  the  death,  if  we  are  to  believe 
Baronius,  the  damnation  of  Anastasius.  The  death 
of  an  old  man,  at  least  of  eighty-one,  more  likely 
eighty-eight  years  of  age,  was  ascribed  to  the  visible 
vengeance  of  God.  There  was  a  ten-ible  tempest,  and 
that  tempest  transported  away  the  affrighted  soul  of  the 
Emperor,  or  struck  him  dead  by  its  lightning.  His 
death  was  revealed  to  a  saint  at  a  great  distance,  who 
communicated  the  awful  fact  to  three  of  his  brethren, 
intimating  at  the  same  time  that  he  himself  w^as  sum- 
moned to  appear  before  the  tribunal  of  God  within  ten 
days,  to  bear  witness  against  the  Emperor.^  This 
Elias  departed  before  the  end  of  ten  days  on  his  chari- 
table errand,  so  necessary  to  enlighten  Omniscience  as 
to  the  deeds  of  a  mortal  man.  So  deeply  had  the  pas- 
sion of  hatred,  offering  itself  to  the  heart  in  the  garb 
of  religious  zeal,  infected  the  Christian  mind,  that  Car- 
dinal Baronius,  reviving  the  inexorable  resentment 
which  had  slept  for  centuries,  calls  upon  the  Church  to 
sing  a  hymn  of  rejoicing  over  this  new  Pharaoh,  tliis 
Emperor,  thus,  for  his  resistance  to  the  Pope,  judged, 
damned,  and  thrust  down  into  hell. 

Justin,  a  rude  unlettered  Dacian  peasant,  seized  the 
throne  of  Constantinople ;    and  there  was  an    instan- 

1  Relatjo  Archimaiulrit.  et  Monacli.  ii.     Syriaj  apud  Labbe,  146] 

2  Barouius,  aub  aim.  518,  with  his  authorities. 


430  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  m 

Accession  of  taneous  religious  revolutioH  in  tlie  Byzantine 
July  9,"  518.  court  and  city,  and  tlu^ougliout  tlie  East.  Jus- 
tin, though  ignorant,  was  known  to  be  of  unbending 
orthodoxy.  Only  six  days  after  his  proclamation,  the 
July  15.  Emperor,  with  his  wife  Lupicina,  who  had 
been  his  slave  and  concubme,  and  who  took  the  more 
decorous  name  of  Euphemia,  entered  the  great  church. 
The  populace  broke  out  in  acclamations,  "  Long  life 
to  the  new  Constantine  and  the  new  Helena."  Their 
clamors  ceased  not  with  these  loyal  expressions: 
"  Away  with  the  Manicheans,  proclaim  the  Council 
of  Chalcedon."  They  demanded  the  degradation  of 
Severus  of  Antioch,  immediate  reconciliation  with 
Rome,  and  even  that  the  bones  of  the  Manicheans  (the 
Emperor  Anastasius  and  his  party)  should  be  torn  up 
from  their  sepulchres.  John  of  Cappadocia,  the  Pa- 
triarch of  Constantinople,  a  man  of  servile  mind, 
though  unmeasured  ambition,  had  acquiesced  without 
remonstrance  in  all  the  measures  of  Anastasius.  He 
now  ascended  the  pulpit,  declared  his  adhesion  to  the 
four  great  Councils,  especially  that  of  Chalcedon. 
The  populace  summoned  him  to  utter  his  anathema 
against  Severus;  the  Prelate  obeyed.  The  next  day 
was  celebrated  a  festival  in  honor  of  the  Council  of 
Chalcedon.  John  of  Cappadocia  hastily  assembled  a 
Council  of  forty  bishops,  which  confirmed  all  the  de- 
mands of  the  rabble  ;  Justin  ratified  their  decrees  by 
an  imperial  edict,  commanding  the  recall  of  all  the 
exiled  bishops,  and  the  expulsion  of  those  who  had 
usurped  their  sees.  A  second  edict  disqualified  all 
heretics  from  holding  civil  or  military  office.  The 
whole  East  followed  the  example  of  the  capital,  and 
became  orthodox  with  the  orthodox  Emperor.     Hera- 


Chap.  III.  CLOSE  OF  THE  SCHISM.  431 

clea,  Nicea,  Nicomedia,  Gangi-a,  Jerusalem,  Ptolemais, 
Tyre,  restored  the  Chalcedonian  bishops,  (.j^^g^  ^,f  ^.j^^ 
Antioch  shook  ofF  the  yoke  of  Severus.  «^^^^ 
Tliessalonica  and  Alexandria  alone  made  resistance, 
but  were  awed  into  submission.  The  death  of  tlio 
Eunuch  Amantius,  who  had  aspired  to  dispose  of  the 
empire,  which  he  could  not  usurp  himself;  by  whose 
gold,  intrusted  to  him  for  other  purposes,  Justin  had 
bought  the  crown ;  had  been  demanded  as  a  sacrifice 
by  the  populace,  and  was  readily  conceded  by  Justin, 
his  treason  being  aggravated  by  his  notorious  Mani- 
cheism.  Theocritus,  whom  he  had  intended  to  raise  to 
the  empire,  shared  his  unpopularity  and  his  doom.  But 
Vitalianus,  the  pillar  of  orthodoxy,  met  no  better  fate , 
he  was  treacherously  invited  to  Constantinople,  pro- 
moted to  the  highest  dignity,  and  in  the  seventh  month 
of  his  consulate  assassinated  by  the  agents  of  Justin- 
ian, the  Emperor's  nephew,  now  clearing  the  way  for 
liis  own  accession  to  the  throne.  Even  before  these 
necessary  precautions  for  the  security  of  his  reign,  the 
zealous  Emperor  had  opened  negotiations  with  Rome.^ 
All  opposition  shrunk  away.  Hormisdas  had  the  satis- 
faction not  merely  of  compelling,  by  the  aid  of  the 
Emperor,  the  whole  East  to  accept  his  theologic  doc- 
trines, but  his  anathemas  also  of  the  living  and  of  the 
dead.  At  the  demand  of  his  legates,  the  names  of 
Acacius,  and  all  who  communicated  with  him,  those 
of  the  Emperors  Zeno  and  Anastasius,  were  erased 
from  the  diptychs.  John  the  Patriarch  vainly  stinig- 
gled  to  save  the  blameless  names  of  Euphemius  and 
Macedonius  from  the  same  ignominy  :  they  were  in- 
cluded with  the  rest  (they  were  severely  orthodox,  but 

1  The  first  letter  of  Justin  was  dated  August  1;  the  second,  September  7 


432  LATIN    CHRISTIANIIT.  Book  III 

they  had  been  guilty  of  acknowledging  Acacius  and 
his  successor  as  legitimate  patriarchs) ;  ^  yet,  never- 
theless, the  East  has  continued  to  reverence  them  as 
of  undoubted  orthodoxy.  John  however  contrived  a 
happy  expedient  to  elude  the  direct  recognition  of  the 
supremacy  of  Rome,  by  declaring  that  the  Churches 
of  old  and  new  Rome  were  one.  He  assumed,  by  the 
March  28,  pcrmissiou  of  Justiu,  the  yet  pregnant  title 
A.D.  519.  ^f  oQcumenic  Patriarch.  So  closed  the  schism 
which  had  lasted  for  thirty-five  years.  Latin  and 
Greek  Christianity  held  again  one  creed  —  East  and 
West  were  at  peace. 

Theodoric  had  stood  aloof,  whether  in  contemptuous 
Theodoricat   indifference,  or,  as  he  might  suppose,  intent 

the  height  of  ,,  ,.  ^  iii  •• 

prosperity,  ou  uoblcr  objccts,  ii'om  all  these  mtrigues, 
embassies,  and  negotiations.  He  left  his  subject,  the 
Bishop  of  Rome,  to  assert,  as  he  might,  his  ecclesiasti- 
cal superiority  over  Constantinople ;  to  league  with  the 
rebellious  subjects  of  Byzantium  against  the  eastern 
Emperor  ;  to  treat  with  Justin  almost  as  an  indepen- 
dent sovereign.  Theodoric  was  now  at  the  height  of 
his  fame  and  power,  his  kingdom  of  its  peace  and  felic- 
ity. His  dominion  extended  without  rival,  without 
opposition,  fi'om  the  Alps  to  Calabria.  His  sovereignty 
extended  over  the  ancient  provinces  of  Noricum  and 
Pannonia,  and  some  large  adjacent,  if  not  distinctly 
bounded  territories  ;  over  tlie  whole  south  of  P^rance, 
and  even  parts  of  S])ain.  But  not  all  the  victories,  not 
all  the  virtues,  not  the  wisdom,  justice,  and  moderation 
of  Theodoric,  nor  the  prosperity  of  Italy  under  his 
rule,  could  secure  his  repose,  or  enable  him  to  close  his 
reign  without  strife,  injustice,  ])ersecution,  and  blood- 

i  Compare  Wakh,  vii.  p.  109. 


CiiAi-.  III.  CATHOLICISM.  438 

slied.  His  firm  character  might  overawe  the  elements 
of  civil  dissension,  the  jealousy  of  the  two  races  which 
formed  his  subjects,  and  the  feeble  impatience  of  Rome 
under  the  barbarian  sway.  It  was  religious  strife 
which  broke  up  the  quiet  of  his  life  and  reign,  and  per- 
haps, by  imbittering  his  temper  in  the  decline  of  his 
days,  by  awakening  suspicions  not  altogether  ground- 
less, and  fears  not  without  warrant,  led  to  the  crimes 
which  liave  so  deeply  sullied  his  memory,  the  death  of 
Boethius  and  of  Symmachus.  Notwithstanding  the 
natural  repugnance  of  the  Romans  to  a  foreign  sway, 
and  the  secret  dissatisfaction  with  which  the  Emperor 
of  the  East  must  have  beheld  the  West  alto-  Catholicism 
getlier  severed  from  the  Roman  Empire,  yet  Theodoric 
the  Goth  might  have  lived  and  ruled,  and  transmitted 
his  sceptre  in  peace  to  his  posterity  ;  but  an  orthodox 
empire  would  not  repose  in  unreluctant  submission 
under  an  Arian.  It  was  the  unity  of  the  Church, 
upon  the  accession  of  Justin,  wliich  endangered  his 
government.  Heresy,  at  the  head  of  a  prosperous 
kingdom,  and  a  powerful  fleet  and  army  in  the  West, 
had  commanded  respect,  so  long  as  Eutychianism,  or 
the  no  less  odious  compulsory  toleration  of  the  Henoti- 
con,  sate  on  the  throne  of  Constantinople.  Catholi- 
cism had  concentrated  all  its  hatred  on  the  Maniclieans, 
as  they  were  called,  who  refused  the  Council  of  Chal- 
cedon ;  but  no  sooner  were  those  dissensions  healed, 
than  it  began  to  resent,  to  look  with  holy  jealousy 
upon,  and  to  burn  with  fiery  zeal  against  the  older 
heterodoxy ;  it  would  no  longer  brook  the  equality  of 
the  detested  Arians. 

The  first  aggression  was  confined  to  the  East.     Jus- 
tin in  a  terrible  edict  commanded  all  Mani-  ad. 523 
VOL.  1.  28 


434  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  in. 

clieans  to  leave  the  empire  on  pain  of  death ;  all  other 
heretics,  who  were  ranked  with  pagans  and  Jews,  were 
incapacitated  for  all  civil  and  military  offices,  excepting 
the  Goths,  and  other  foreign  soldiers  in  the  service  of 
the  empire.^  The  exception  might  seem  intended  to 
lull  the  jealousy  of  Theodoric  ;  yet  the  Arians  of  the 
East  could  not  but  see  that  this,  hard  measure  as  it 
was,  was  only  the  beginning  of  the  persecution  ;  they 
looked  to  the  Sovereign  of  Italy  for  protection,  for  the 
continued  possession  of  that  tacit  exemption  which  they 
had  long  enjoyed,  from  the  intolerant  rigor  in  force 
against  other  heretics.  It  was  precisely  at  this  junct- 
ure that  rumors  were  spread  abroad  of  dangerous 
speeches  —  at  least  concerning  their  independence  of 
the  Gothic  yoke,  of  the  assertion  of  the  liberties  of 
Rome  —  having  been  ventured  in  the  capital.  Vague 
intelligence  reached  Ravenna,  of  an  actual  and  wide- 
spread conspiracy  which  involved  the  whole  Senate  ; 
Rumors  of  ^^^^  ^^  wliich  Albiuus,  the  most  distinguished 
conspiracies,  ^f  ^|-^g  I^omau  patriciaus,  was  the  head.  In- 
dignation, not  without  apprehension,  at  this  sudden, 
and,  as  it  appeared,  simultaneous  movememt  of  hos- 
tility, seized  the  soul  of  Theodoric.  The  whole  cir- 
cumstances of  his  position  demand  careful  considera- 
tion. Nothing  could  be  more  unprovoked  than  the 
religious  measures  of  Constantinople,  as  far  as  they 
menaced  the  West,  or  assailed  the  kindred  of  Theod- 
oric in  the  East  or  even  those  who  held  the  same 
faith.  His  equity  to  his  Catholic  and  Arian  subjects 
was  unimpeachable  ;  to  the  Pope  he  had  always  shown 
respectful  deference  ;  he  had  taken  no  advantage  of  the 
contention    for   the    Pontificate   to   promote   his    own 

1  Thcophancs.     Cedrenu^in  loc. 


Chai'.  hi.  CATHOLICISM.  435 

tenets.     Even  as  late  as  this  very  year,  lie  a.t>.  523. 

-I  1        /^i  1         p  o        -Tk  OfTheodoric'fl 

had  bestowed  on  the  Church  01  bt.  l^eter  two  reigu  31. 
niaonificent  chandeliers  of  solid  silver.  But  the  Catho- 
lies  resented,  no  doubt,  the  unshaken  justice  with  which 
Theodoric  had  protected  the  Jews.^  At  Rome,  a<- 
Milan,  and  at  Genoa  the  Jews  had  been  The  Jews. 
attacked  by  the  irrepressible  hostility  of  the  Catholics  : 
their  synagogues  had  been  burned  or  destroyed,  01 
their  property  unjustly  seized.  Theodoric  compelled 
the  restoration  of  the  synagogues  at  the  public  expense. 
The  Catholics  had  taken  the  pretext  of  the  demolition 
of  a  small  chapel  dedicated  to  St.  Stephen  at  Verona, 
probably  for  the  fortification  or  embellishment  of  the 
city,  as  another  indication  of  aggression  on  the  part 
of  Theodoric.^  These  were  slight  but  significant  signs 
of  the  growing  hostility.  Nor  was  it  in  the  East  alone 
that  Catholicism  menaced  the  life  of  Arianism.  The 
Council  of  Epaona,  in  Burgundian  Gaul,  at  which 
bishops  from  the  territories  of  Theodoric  had  met, 
had  passed  severe  canons  closing  the  churches  of  the 
Arians. 

Though  Clovis  was  now  dead,  orthodoxy  was  still 
the  battle-cry  of  the  Franks ;  in  all  the  Gothic  king- 
doms the  government  might  dread  the  prayers,  if  not 
the  more  active  interference  of  the  Catholic  clergy  on 
the  side  of  their  enemies. 

It  was  in  connection  with  the  bad  feeling,  which 
claused  and  was  no  doubt  aggravated  by  the  demolition 
of  the  chapel  in  Verona,  that  Theodoric  took  the 
strong  measure  of  totally  disarming  the  Roman  popu 

1  Hist,  of  the  Jews,  v.  iii.  p.  115. 

2  Gibbon  supposes  that  Theodoric  may  have  been  anathematized  froiu 
Uie  pulpit  of  that  chapel. 


436  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  TIL 

lation.  He  proliibited  tliem  from  bearing  any  oiFensive 
weapons  ;  the  only  instrument  permitted  was  a  small 
knife,  for  the  common  purposes  of  life. 

No  less  doubtful  and  menacing  was  the  aspect  of 
State  of         civil  affairs.     The  heir  of  Theodoric   was  a 

Thoodoric's  t.ii  tt-  n  •      i  t-^i 

family.  cluld.     His  gallant  son-m-law  iiutharis,   the 

hopeful  successor  to  his  valor,  his  wisdom,  as  well  as 
his  religious  opinions,  was  now  dead.  Notwithstanding 
all  her  virtues  and  her  accomplishments,  Amalasuntha, 
his  only  daughter,  as  a  female  could  hardly  cope  with 
the  difficulties  of  the  times,  sole  guardian  of  a  boy-king. 
Theodoric  knew  that  the  Emperor  of  the  East  in  his 
pride,  still  considered  the  barbarian  king  as  his  vassal, 
as  originally  holding  Italy  by  his  grant,  and  so,  no 
doubt,  claimed  the  power  of  revoking  that  grant.  The 
Goths  might  be  safe  from  hostile  aggression,  so  long  as 
the  aged  Justin,  who  was  sixty-eight  years  old,  at  his 
accession,  occupied  the  throne :  but  he  could  not  be 
ignorant  of  the  character,  the  unmeasured  and  un- 
scrupulous ambition,  the  unbending  orthodoxy  of  Jus- 
tinian. Theodoric's  prophetic  sagacity  might  well 
anticipate  the  events  which  in  a  few  years  would  not 
merely  endanger,  but  extinguish  the  Italian  kingdom 
of  the  Goths. 

It  was  at  this  juncture,  when  the  Emperor  of  the 
East  might  be  at  least  suspected  of  designs,  if  he  had 
not  committed  overt  acts,  in  order  to  recover  and 
reunite  the  severed  empire ;  when  he  might  seem  to 
be  enlisting  all  the  religious  and  all  the  Roman  sym- 
])athies  of  Theodoric's  subjects  in  a  kind  of  initiatory 
treason,  in  a  deep,  if  yet  silent  and  inactive  dissatisfac- 
tion, that  these  dark  rumors  began  to  spread  of  secret 
intellioence  between  the  senate  of  Rome  and  the  East 


CiiAr,  III.  BOETIIIUS.  437 

Men,  it  is  asserted  by  Boethius  himself,  of  infamous 
cliaracter,  yet  who  had  held,  and  who  afterwards  held 
liio;h  offices  of  trust  and  honor,  accused  Albinus,  the 
chief  of  the  Senate,  of  disloyal  correspondence  with 
Constantinople. 

Albinus  was  the  friend  of  Boethius.  Boethius  the 
senator,  the  patrician,  the  descendant  and  Boethius. 
head  of  the  noble  Anician  family,  who  connected  him- 
self with  the  old  republic  by  the  name  of  Manlius  ;  the 
philosopher,  the  theologian,  the  consummate  master  of 
all  the  arts  and  sciences  known  at  that  period  —  had 
been  raised  to  the  highest  civil  honors  ;  not  only  had 
he  himself  received  the  ensigns  of  the  Consulate,  but 
the  father  had  seen  his  two  sons  in  the  same  year  raised 
to  that  honor,  which  still  maintained  its  traditionary 
grandeur  in  the  Roman  mind.  On  the  day  of  their 
inauguration,  Boethius,  too,  pronounced  a  panegyric 
on  his  munificent  Gothic  sovereign,  and  displayed  his 
own  magnificence  by  distributing  a  noble  largess  to  the 
people  at  the  games.  In  his  public  capacity  Boethius 
had  declared  himself  the  protector  of  the  Romans 
against  the  oppressions  of  Theodoric's  ministers.  He 
had  repressed  the  extortions  of  Cunegast,  the  more 
violent  tyranny  of  Treguella,  the  chamberlain  of  The- 
odoric's househoV]  -  -  (these  names  betray  their  Gothic 
origin).  Bv  a  dangerous  exercise  of  his  authority  he 
had  rescuod  many  unfortunate  persons  from  the  rapac- 
ity of  the  barbarians;  he  had  saved  the  fortunes  of 
many  other  provincials  from  private  exaction,  and  from 
unjust  and  inordinate  taxation.  He  had  opposed  the 
PraBtorian  Pri^fect  in  certain  measures,  by  which  a 
famine  in  Campania  would  have  been  greivtly  aggra- 
v^ated  ;  on  this  act  he  had  received  the  public  approba 


438  LATIN    CimiSTlAXITV.  1500K   Til 

tion  of  the  King.  He  had  plucked  PaulHnus,  a  man  of 
senatorial  rank,  from  the  very  jaws  of  those  liounds  of  the 
palace,  who  had  already  in  hope  devoured  his  confiscat- 
ed estate.  Such,  according  to  Boethius  himself,  were 
his  merits  towards  his  own  countrymen,  the  causes  of 
the  hostility  towards  him  among  the  Gothic  courtiers 
of  Theodoric.  And  even  under  the  rigid  equity  of  The- 
odoric,  such  abuses  might  be  almost  inevitable  in  that 
form  of  society.  Boethius  hastened  to  Verona  to  con- 
front the  accuser  Cyprianus,  the  great  referendaiy,  when 
he  heard  the  accusation  of  treason  against  Albinus,^ 
Charges         aud  iu  the  face  of  the  Emperor  declared,  "  If 

against 

Aibinus.  Albinus  is  criminal,  I  and  the  whole  Senate 
are  equally  guilty."  The  generous  boldness  of  Boe- 
thius awoke  no  admiration  or  sympathy  in  the  heart 
of  Theodoric.  Instead  of  saving  his  friend,  Boetliius 
was  involved  in  his  ruin.  Three  persons,  one  of  whom 
Basilius  (according  to  Boethius)  had  been  dismissed 
ignominiously  from  the  royal  service,  and  whom  pov- 
erty drove  to  any  crime ;  two  others,  Opilio  and  Gau- 
dentius,  who  had  been  exiled,  had  taken  refuge  in  the 
sanctuary  of  a  church,  and  had  been  threatened,  if  they 
should  not  leave  Ravenna  in  a  certain  number  of  days, 
with  branding  in  the  forehead,  were  admitted  as  wit- 
nesses against  Boethius.  He  was  accused  of  more  than 
hoping  for  the  freedom  of  Rome.  His  signature, 
forged  as  he  declared,  was  shown  at  the  foot  of  an 
address,  inviting  the  Emperor  of  the  East  to  reconquer 
Italy.2      Boethius  was  refused   permission   to  examine 

1  Gibbon  says  tbat  Albinus  was  only  accused  of  liop'mg  the  liberty  of 
R/)me.  The  Anonym.  Vales,  declares  the  charge  to  have  been  of  ti-eascn- 
able  correspondence  with  the  East. 

2  The  specific  charges  against  Boethius  were,  that  ho  had  endeavored  to 
tnaintain  inviolate  the  authority  of  the  senate;  that  he  had  prevented  an 


Chap.  III.     CORRESPONDENCE  OF  EAST  AND  WEST.        439 

tlie  informers.  He  admits  the  latent,  but  glorious 
treason  of  his  heart.  "  Had  there  been  any  hopes  of 
liberty,  I  should  have  fi^eely  indulged  them.  Had  I 
known  of  a  conspiracy  against  the  King,  I  should  have 
answered  in  the  words  of  a  noble  Roman  to  the  frantic 
Caligula,  you  would  not  have  known  it  from  me." 
The  King,  now,  in  the  words  of  Boethius,  eager  to 
involv^e  the  whole  Senate  in  one  common  ruin,^  con- 
demned Boethius  to  imprisonment.  He  was  incar- 
cerated in  Calvenzano,  a  castle  between  Milan  and 
Pavia/'^ 

In  the  mean  time  the  religious  affairs  of  the  East 
became  more  threatening  to  the  kinsmen,  and  to  those 
who  held  the  same  relio-ious  creed  with  Theodoric. 
The  correspondence  between  the  monarchs  correspond- 
had  produced  no  effect.  Theodoric  had  writ-  Eastamr^" 
ten  in  these  words  to  Justin  :  —  "To  pretend  ^^®^*^- 
to  a  dominion  over  the  conscience,  is  to  usurp  the  pre- 
rogative of  God ;  by  the  nature  of  things  the  power  of 
sovereigns  is  confined  to  political  government ;  they 
have  no  right  of  punishment  but  over  those  who  dis- 
turb the  public  peace  ;^  the  most  dangerous  heresy  is 
that  of  a  sovereign  who  separates  himself  from  part 
of  his  subjects,  because  they  believe  not  according  to 
his  belief."  Golden  words  !  but  mistimed  above  twelve 
Imndred  years. 

infonner  from  forwarding  certain  documents  inculpating  the  senate  to  the 
king ;  that  he  Iiad  been  privy  and  assenting  to  an  address  from  the  senate 
to  the  Emperor  of  the  East. 

1  Avidus  communis  exitii. 

2  The  narrative  of  these  events  is  perplexed  by  making,  as  many  wi'iters 
(following  the  Anom'-m.  Vales.)  have  done,  the  death  of  Boethius  inimedi 
ately  consequent  upon  his  imprisonment.  But  he  had  time  during  that  in» 
ovisonment  to  write  the  De  Consolat.  Philosophiae. 

8  Cassiod.  ii.  6,  iii.  28. 


440  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

Justin  coolly  answered,  that  lie  pretended  to  no 
authority  over  men's  consciences,  but  it  was  his  pre- 
rogative to  intrust  the  public  offices  to  those  in  whom 
he  liad  confidence ;  and  public  order  demanding  uni- 
formity of  Avorship,  he  had  full  right  to  command  the 
churches  to  be  open  to  those  alone  who  should  conform 
to  the  religion  of  the  state.  The  Arians  of  the  East 
were  thus  stripped  of  all  offices  of  honor  or  emolu- 
ment, were  not  only  expelled  from  the  Catholic 
churches,  but  their  own  were  closed  against  them,  and 
they  were  exposed  to  all  the  insults,  vexations,  and  per- 
secutions of  their  adversaries,  who  were  not  likely  to 
enjoy  their  triumph  with  moderation,  or  to  repress 
their  conscientiously  intolerant  zeal.  Great  numbers 
who  held  but  loosely  to  their  faith,  conformed  to  the 
state  religion  ;  the  more  sincere  appealed  in  the  strong- 
est terms  to  the  protection  of  Theodoric.  Tho  King 
of  Italy  at  first  maintained  something  of  hi»  usual 
calm  moderation ;  he  declined  all  retaliation,  to  which 
he  had  been  incessantly  urged,  on  the  orthodox  of  the 
Theodoric  West.  Hc  determined  on  an  embassy  to 
johnt^Xn-  Constantinople  to  enforce  upon  the  Eastern 
Btantmopie.  Empcror  tlic  wisdom  of  mutual  toleration  , 
the  ambassador  whom  he  selected  for  this  mission  ol 
peace  was  the  Pope  himself,  not  the  vigorous  Hormis- 
das,  but  John  the  1st.  who  had  quietly  succeeded  to  the 
See  of  Rome  on  the  death  of  that  Prelate.^  This 
extraordinary  measure  shows  either  an  overweening 
reliance  in  Theodoric  on  his  own  power,  or  a  confidence 
magnanimous,  but  equally  unaccountable,  a  confidence 
bordering  on  simplicity,  that  for  his  own  uninterrupted 
exercise  of  justice,  humanity,  and  moderation  he  had  a 

1  John,  Pope,  August  13,  a.d.  523. 


en\r.  III.  niEODORIC   AND   THE  POPE.  441 

riglit  to  expect  the  return  of  fidelity  and  gratitude. 
Could  he  fondly  suppose  that  the  loyalty  of  the  Popo 
would  be  proof  against  the  blandishments  of  the 
Eastern  court,  that  the  Bishop  of  Rome  would  be 
zealous  in  a  cause  so  directly  at  issue  with  his  own 
principles  ?  The  Pope  summoned  to  Pavenna,  was 
instructed  to  demand  of  Justin  the  reopening  of  their 
churches  to  the  Arians,  perfect  toleration,  and  the 
restoration  to  their  former  faith  of  those  who  on  com- 
pulsion had  conformed  to  the  Catholic  religion.^  To 
the  Pope's  remonstrances  and  attempts  to  limit  his 
mediatorial  office,  to  points  less  unsuited  to  his  character, 
Theodoric  angrily  replied,  by  commanding  the  envoys 
instantly  to  embark  on  the  vessels  which  were  ready 
for  the  voyage.^  The  Pope,  attended  by  five  other 
bishops  and  four  senators,  set  forth  on  a  mission  of 
which  it  was  the  -ostensible  object  to  obtain  indulgence 
for  heretics,  heretics  under  the  ban  of  his  Church,  here- 
tics looked  upon  with  the  most  profound  detestation. 

Hitherto  the  Pope  had  remained  in  his  unmoved 
and  stately  dignity  Avithin  his  own  city.  Excepting  in 
the  case  of  the  exiled  Liberius,  he  had  hardly  ventured 
further  than  the  court  of  Ravenna,  or  on  such  a  service 
as  that  of  Leo  to  the  camp  of  Attila.  The  Pope  had 
not  even  attended  any  of  the  great  Councils.  Aware, 
as  it  might  almost  seem,  that  much  of  the  awe  which 
attached  to  his  office,  arose  from  the  seat  of  his  author- 
ity, he  had  but  rarely  departed  from  the  chair  of  St. 
Peter  ;  and  but  recently  Hormisdas  had  demanded  the 
unconditional  submission  of  the  Emperor  of  Constanti 

1  This  seems  the  meaning  of  the  sentence  in  the  Anonym.  Vales,  "ut 
reconciliatos  haereticos  in  catholica  restituat  religione."  —  p.  626. 

2  Their  names  in  the  Anonym.  Vales. 


442  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  in. 

nople  to  his  decrees,  as  the  price  of  liis  promised  con- 
descension to  appear  at  a  Council  in  that  city. 

The  Pope  was  received  in  Constantinople  with  the 
Pope  John  ia  most  flattering  honors,  as  thougli  he  had  been 
pie.  St.  Peter  himself.     The  whole  city,  with  the 

Emperor  at  its  head,  came  forth  to  meet  him  with 
tapers  and  torches,  as  far  as  ten  miles  beyond  the 
gates.  The  Emperor  knelt  at  his  feet  and  implored  his 
March 30, 525.  benediction.  On  Easter  day  he  performed 
the  service  in  the  great  Church,  Ej)iphanius  the  Bish- 
op ceding  the  first  place  to  the  more  holy  stranger. 
It  was  hinted  in  the  West  that  the  Pope  had  placed 
the  crown  on  the  head  of  Justin.  But  of  the  course  and 
the  success  of  his  negotiations  all  is  utterly  confused 
and  contradictory.  By  one  account,  now  abandoned 
as  a  later  forgery,  he  boldly  confirmed  the  Emperor  in 
the  rejection  of  all  concessions,  and  himself  consecrated 
all  the  Arian  Churches  for  Catholic  worship.^  By 
another,  he  was  so  far  faithful  to  his  mission,  as  to 
obtain  liberty  of  worship,  and  the  restitution  of  their 
Churches  to  the  Arians.  The  Emperor  refused  only 
the  restoration  of  those  Arians  who  had  embraced  the 
Catholic  faith.2  All  that  is  certahily  known  is,  that 
John  the  Pope  on  his  return  was  received  as  a  traitor 
Imprison-  by  TheodoHC,  thrown  into  prison,  and  there 
death  of  the  highest  ecclesiastic  of  the  West  Ian- 
May  18, 526.  guished  for  nearly  a  year,  and  died.  But  be- 
fore his  return,  the  deep  and  wide  spread  conspiracy, 
which  Theodoric  had  discovered,  or  supposed  that 
he  had  discovered,  led   to  the  death  of  a  far  greater 

1  Baronius  rested  this  on  a  supposititious  letter  of  Isidoriis  Mercator; 
this  letter  is  exploded  by  Pagi,  sub  ann.  526. 

2  Anonym.  Vales,  p.  027.     Ilistor.  Mlscell.  ap  id  Muratori. 


Chap.  iri.  BOETIIIUS.  443 

man,  Boctliius,  and  subsequently  to  tliat  of  the  vir- 
tuous fiitlier-in-law  of  Boethius,  the  Senator  Sym- 
niacluis.  Boethius  had  hghtened  the  hours  in  his 
dreary  confinement  by  the  composition  of  his  Boethius's 

n  111/^1'  p    T-»i  M  1  Consolation  of 

famous  booiv,  the  Consolation  or  rhilosophy,  Philosophy. 
the  closing  work  of  Roman  literature.  Intellectually, 
Boethius  was  the  last  of  the  Romans,  and  Roman 
letters  may  be  said  to  have  expired  with  greater 
dignity  in  his  person,  than  the  Empire  in  that  of 
Auo-ustulus.  His  own  ao;e  min^ht  iustlv  wonder  at 
the  universal  accomplishments  of  Boethius.  Theodoric 
himself,  writing  by  the  hand,  and  no  doubt  in  the  pe- 
dantic language  of  his  minister  Cassiodorus,  had  paid 
homage  to  his  knowledge.  "  Through  him  Pythagoras 
the  musician,  Ptolemy  the  astronomer,  Nicomachus 
the  arithmetician,  Euclid  the  geometer,  Plato  the  theo- 
logian, Aristotle  the  logician,  Archimedes  the  mechani- 
cian, had  learned  to  speak  the  Roman  language."  Boe« 
thius  had  mingled  in  theologic  controversy,  had  dis- 
cussed the  mysterious  question  of  the  Trinity  without 
any  suspicion  of  heresy,  and  steered  safely  along  the 
narrow  strait  between  Nestorianism  and  Eutychianism. 
He  is  even  said,  for  a  time,  to  have  withdrawn  to  the 
monastic  solitudes,  and  to  have  held  religious  inter- 
course with  Benedict  of  Nursia,  and  his  followers. 
All  this  constitutes  the  extraordinary,  the  peculiar 
character  of  the  Consolation  of  Philosophy,  which 
appears  as  the  last  work  of  Roman  letters,  rather  than 
as  eminent  among  Christian  writings.  It  is  equally 
surprising  that  in  such  an  age  and  by  such  a  man,  in 
his  imprisonment  and  under  the  terrors  of  approaching 
death,  Consolation  should  be  found  in  Philosophy 
rather  than  in  Religion;  that  he  should  have  sought 


444  I^ATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

his  examples  of  patience  in  Socrates  with  liis  hemlock 
cup,  or  among  the  arguments  of  the  Garden  or  the 
Porch,  rather  than  in  the  Gospel  or  the  Legends  of 
Christian  martyrdom.  From  the  beginning  of  the 
book  to  the  end,  there  is  nothing  distinctly  Christian  ; 
its  religion  is  no  higher  than  Theism ;  almost  the 
whole  might  have  been  written  by  Cicero  in  exile,  or 
by  Marcus  Antoninus  under  some  reverse  of  fortune. 
The  long  and  enduring  popularity  of  the  Consolation 
of  Philosophy  during  the  dark  ages  completes  the 
sino-ular  and  anomalous  character  of  the  work  itself. 

This  all-accomplished,  all-honored  man  was  not  only 
Death  of  torn  away  from  his  library,  inlaid  with  ivory 
Boethius.  ^j^^  glass,  from  the  enjoyment  of  ample 
wealth  and  as  ample  honor,  from  the  esteem  of  his 
friends  and  the  love  of  his  family,  left  to  pine  in  a  re- 
mote and  lonely  prison,  and  then  released  by  the  pub- 
lic executioner  —  the  manner  of  his  death,  if  we  are 
to  trust  our  authorities,  was  peculiarly  inhuman.  He 
was  first  tortured,  a  cord  was  tightly  twisted  round  his 
forehead,  whether  or  not  to  extort  confession  of  his 
suspected  treason  ;  and  he  was  then  beaten  to  death 
with  a  club.^ 

Nor  was  the  venjceance  of  Theodoric  satiated  with 
the  blood  of  Boethius.  Theodoric,  dreading  the  in- 
fluence of  Symmachus,  the  head  of  the  Senate,  a  man 
of  the  highest  virtues  ;  and  suspecting,  lest,  in  his  in- 
gynimachus.  diguatiou  at  the  death  of  his  son-in-law,  he 
should  engage  or  had  engaged  in  some  desperate  plot 
against  the  Gothic  kino-dom,  summoned  him  to  Ra- 
May  18, 526.  vcuua,  wlicrc  liis  licad  was  struck  oflP  by  the 
executioner.^     This  was  followed  by  the  imprisoiunent 

1  Anonym.  "Vales,  p.  626.  2  Anonym.  Vales,  p.  627. 


Chap.  III.  VENGEANCE  OF  THEODOEIC.  445 

of  Pope  John,  and  his  death.  Throughout  these  mel- 
ancholy scenes,  the  historian  is  reduced  to  a  sad  alter- 
native. He  must  either  suppose  that  the  clear  intellect 
and  generous  character  of  Theodoric  had  become  en- 
feebled  by  age ;  his  temper  soured  by  the  sudden  and 
harassing  anxieties,  which  seemed  to  break  so  unsea- 
sonably on  the  peace  of  his  declining  years,  and  the  in- 
gratitude of  his  Roman  subjects  for  above  thirty  years 
of  mild  and  equitable  rule ;  those  subjects  now  would 
scarcely  await  his  death  to  attempt  to  throw  off  the 
yoke,  and  would  inevitably  league  with  the  East  against 
his  infant  heir.  Theodoric,  therefore,  blinded  by  un- 
worthy suspicions,  yielded  himself  up  to  the  basest 
informers,  and  closed  a  reign  of  justice  and  humanity, 
with  a  succession  of  acts,  cruel,  sanguinary,  and  wan- 
tonly revengeful.  Or,  on  the  other  hand,  he  must  con- 
clude, that  notwithstanding  his  protestations  of  inno- 
cence, Boethius  and  his  friends,  dazzled  by  patriotic 
visions  of  the  restoration  of  the  Roman  power,  or, 
what  is  less  likely,  considering  the  philosophic  tone  of 
his  religion,  by  orthodox  zeal,  had  tampered  at  least 
with  the  enemies  of  the  existing;  government ;  and  that 
the  Roman  Senate  looked  forward  in  more  than  quiet 
prophetic  hope,  m  actual  traitorous  correspondence,  to 
that  invasion  from  the  East,  which  took  place  not  many 
years  after  the  death  of  Theodoric.  Both  views  are 
perhaps  true.  Theodoric  was  a  father,  a  Gotli.  Kings 
discriminate  not  between  the  aspirations  of  their  sub- 
ject ts  for  revolt,  and  actual  plans  for  revolt ;  they  are 
bound  to  be  far-sighted ;  their  vision  becomes  more 
jealously  acute,  the  more  remote  and  indistinct  the 
objects  ;  treason  in  men's  hearts  becomes  treason  in 
act.     On  the  other  liand,  insolent  Roman  vanity,  stern 


446  LATIN    CHIiTSTLlNITY.  Book  III 

religious  zeal,  were  not  likely  to  be  coldly,  timorously 
prudent;  desires,  hopes  would  find  words;  words  eager 
hearers,  hearers  become  informers ;  and  informers  are 
not  too  faithful  reporters.  Goths,  Arlans,  courtiers, 
mighty  even  with  no  dishonest  or  sinister  intent,  hear 
conspiracy  in  every  boast  of  Roman  freedom,  in  every 
reminiscence  of  Roman  pride. 

Theodoric  was  now  in  his  74th  year ;  almost  the  last 
act  of  his  reio^n  was  the  nomination  of  the  successor 

CD 

of  John.  His  interposition  was  enforced  by  the  fierce 
contentions  which  followed  the  death  of  that  prelate. 
His  choice  fell  on  Felix,  a  Samnite,  a  learned  and  a 
blameless  man.  But  the  clergy  and  the  people,  who 
Pope  Felix  wcre  agitated  with  strife,  threatening  the 
Consecrated  P^ace  of  thc  city,  and  a  renewal  of  the 
July  12.  bloody  scenes  at  the  election  of  Laurentius 
and  Symmachus,  united  in  stern  resistance  to  the  nom- 
ination, in  which  they  had  been  allowed  no  voice. ^ 
Theodoric  in  his  calm  wisdom  came  to  an  agreement 
to  regulate  future  elections  —  an  agreement,  which  in 
theory  subsisted,  till  the  election  of  the  Pope  was 
transferred  to  the  College  of  Cardinals.  The  Pope 
was  to  be  chosen  by  the  free  suffrages  of  the  clergy 
and  people,  but  might  not  assume  his  office  till  con- 
firmed by  the  sovereign.  For  his  confirmation  the 
Pope  made  a  certain  payment  to  be  distributed  among 
the  poor.  On  this  understanding  the  clergy  and  the 
city  acquiesced  in  the  nomination  of  Pope  Felix.'-^ 

1  Cassiod.  Var.  viii.  15.  This  nomination  was  absolute.  Athalaric 
writes  thus:  "  Oportebat  enim  arbitrio  boui  priucipis  (Tlieodorici)  obediri, 
qui  sapienti  delil)eratione  pertractans,  quauivis  iw  aliand  relifjione,  talcjii 
visus  est  pontilicciu  delegisse,  ut  nulii  merito  debeat  displicere.  .  .  . 
Kecepistis  itaque  viruin,  et  diviua  gratia  probabiiitcr  institutuni,  ot  regaU 
«xaniinatione  laudatuni." 

2  He  took  quiet  possussiou  of  the  throne  July  12,  526. 


CiiAP.  III.  DEATH   OF   THEODORIO.  447 

Theodoric  died  in  the  month  following  the  peaceful 
accession  of  Fehx  to  the  Pontifical  throne.  Death  of 

,  p  1  •  •  IP  Theodoric 

The  glory  oi  his  reign  passed  irom  the  mem-  Aug.  526. 
oiy  of  man  with  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  Italy. 
But  the  hatred  of  his  heretical  opinions  survived  the 
remembrance  of  his  virtues.  He  is  said  to  have  com- 
mitted to  a  Jew,  named  Symmachus  Scolasticus,  the 
framing  of  an  edict,  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Catholics 
from  all  their  churches ;  ^  a  statement  utterly  irrecon- 
cilable with  his  judicious  and  conciliatory  conduct  on 
the  election  of  the  Pope.  Theodoric,  it  Avas  observed, 
died  by  the  same  disease  which  smote  the  heresiarch 
Arius  in  the  hour  of  his  triumph.  The  Greek  histo- 
rian of  the  Gothic  war,  who  may  be  taken  as  repi'e- 
senting  the  Byzantine  aversion  to  the  memory  of  The- 
odoric, has  described  him  as  dying  in  a  terrific  agony  of 
remorse  at  his  own  crimes.  A  large  fish  was  placed 
before  Theodoric  at  his  supper.  The  King  Fate  after 
beheld  in  it  the  gory  head  of  Symmachus,  '^''^^^' 
with  the  teeth  set  and  gnawing  the  lower  lip,  and  the 
eyes  rolling  in  a  fierce  frenzy,  and  sternly  menacing  his 
murderer.  Theodoric,  shivering  with  cold,  rushed  to 
his  chamber ;  he  called  for  more  clothes  to  be  heaped 
upon  his  bed,  but  nothing  could  restore  the  warmth  of 
Hfe ;  he  sent  for  his  physician,  and  bitterly,  and  in  an 
agony  of  tears,  reproached  himself  with  the  death  of 
Symmachus  and  of  Boethius.^  He  died  a  few  days 
alter;  and  even  Procopius  adds,  that  these  were  the 
first  and  the  last  acts  of  injustice  committed  by  The- 
odoric against  his  subjects.  But  later  visionaries  did 
not  the  less  pursue  his  soul  to  its  eternal  condemnation ; 

1  Anonym.  Vales. ;  Agnell.  in  Vit.  Pontefic  Ravennat 

2  Procop.  de  bello  Gothico,  i.  pp.  11, 12. 


448  LATIN    CHKISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

he  was  seen  by  a  hermit  hurled  by  the  ministers  of  the 
divine  retribution  into  the  volcano  of  Lipari :  volcanoes 
in  those  days  were  believed  to  be  the  openings  to  hell.' 
Ravenna  still,  among  the  later  works  of  Justinian 
and  the  Byzantine  Exarchs,  preserves  some  memorials 
of  the  magnificence  of  Theodoric.  Of  his  stately  pal- 
ace remain  but  some  crumblino;  and  disfio;ured  walls. 
Byzantine  art  has  taken  possession  of  his  churches ; 
Justinian  and  Theodora  still  dimly  blaze  in  the  gold 
and  purple  of  the  mosaics.^  The  monument  of  The^ 
odoric,  perhaps  the  oldest  work  of  Christian  art,  is  still 
entire,  marking  some  tendency  to  that  transition  from 
the  Roman  grandeur  of  bold  and  massy  arches  to  the 
multiplicity  of  mediiBval  details.  Yet  in  these  remains 
nothing  can  be  traced  which  realizes  those  singular  ex- 
pressions of  Cassiodorus,  so  prophetic  it  might  seem  of 
what  was  afterwards  characteristic  of  the  so-called 
Gothic  architecture  —  the  tall,  slender,  reed-like  pil- 
lars, the  lofty  roof  supported,  as  it  were,  by  clustered 
lances.^ 

1  Gregor.  i.    Dialog,  iv.  36.    On  tliis  work,  see  hereafter. 

2  If  we  may  trust  a  passage  in  Agnelli  (Vit.  Pontefic.  Ravenn.  apud  Mu 
ratori,  iii.  p.  95),  the  church  of  San  Vitale,  erected  in  a  city  the  capital  of 
an  Arian  sovereign,  was  unequalled  in  its  splendor,  we  presume  in  the 
AVest.  It  cost  26,000  golden  solidi.  Taking  the  golden  solidus  (accordine 
to  Dureau  de  la  Malle,  Economic  Pol  it.  des  Komains,  i.  p.  40)  at  15  franct; 
10  c.,  about  12s.  iid.,  between  £15,000  and  £16,000. 

^  "Quid  dicinuis  columnaruin  junceani  proceritnlem.  .  .  .  Ercctis  hastil- 
ibus  contiuori  moles  illas  sublimissimas  fabricarum."  —  Cassiod.  viii.  15. 


Chap.  IV.  EMPIRE  OF  JUSTINIAN.  449 


CHAPTER  IV. 

JUSTINIAN. 

History  scarcely  offers  a  more  extraordinary  con- 
trast than  that  between  the  reign  and  the  cliaracter  of 
the  Emperor  Justinian.  Under  the  nephew,  colleague, 
and  heir  of  Justin,  the  Roman  Empire  ap-  Empire  of 

,  ,       ,  ,  .  .  Justinian. 

pears  suaaenly  to  resume  her  ancient  majesty  a.d.527. 
and  power.  The  signs  of  a  just,  able,  and  vigorous 
administration,  internal  peace,  prosperity,  conquest,  and 
splendor  surround  the  master  of  the  Roman  world. 
The  greatest  generals,  since  the  days  perhaps  of  Tra- 
jan, Belisarius  and  Narses  appear  at  the  head  of  the 
Roman  armies.  Persia  is  kept  at  bay,  during  several 
campaigns  if  not  contmuously  successful,  yet  honorable 
to  the  arms  of  Rome.  The  tide  of  barbarian  conquest 
is  rolled  back.  Africa,  the  Illyrian  and  Dalmatian  prov- 
inces, Sicily,  Italy,  with  the  ancient  Capital,  are  again 
under  the  empire  of  Rome  ;  the  Vandal  kingdom,  the 
Gothic  kingdom  fall  before  the  irresistible  generals  of 
the  East.  The  frontiers  of  the  empire  are  defended 
with  fortifications,  constructed  at  enormous  cost ;  ^  but 
become  necessary  now  that  Roman  valor  had  lost  its 
spell  of  awe  over  the  human  mind  ;  and  that  the  per- 
petual migrations  and  movements  from  the  North  and 

1  Procopius  de  ^dificiis,  passim.     The  first  book  describes  the  ecclesias- 
tical buildings  of  Constantinople;  the  rest  the  fortifications  and  defensivw 
buildings  throughout  the  empire, 
vox..  I.  29 


450  T.ATTN    CHIJISTIANITY.  Book  ITT. 

the  East  were  continually  propelling  new  and  formidable 
nations  against  the  boundaries  of  the  Roman  world. 
Justinian  as})ires  to  be  the  legislator  of  mankind  ;  a  vast 
system  of  jurisprudence  embodies  the  wisdom  of  an- 
cient and  of  imperial  statutes,  mingled  with  some  of 
the  benign  influences  of  Christianity,  of  which  the 
author  might  almost  have  been  warranted  in  the  pre- 
sumptuous vaticination,  that  it  would  exercise  an  unre- 
pealed authority  to  the  latest  ages.  The  cities  of  the 
empire  are  adorned  with  buildings,  civil  as  well  as  relig- 
ious, of  great  magnificence  and  apparent  durability, 
which,  with  the  comprehensive  legislation,  might  recall 
the  peaceful  days  of  the  Antonines.  The  empire,  at 
least  at  first,  is  restored  to  religious  unity :  Catholicism 
resumes  its  sway,  and  Arianism,  so  long  its  rival,  dies 
out  in  remote  and  neglected  congregations.  In  Spain 
alone  it  is  the  religion  of  the  sovereign. 

The  creator  of  this  new  epoch  in  Roman  greatness, 
at  least  he  who  filled  the  throne  during  its  creation,  the 
Emperor  Justinian,  unites  in  himself  the  most  opposite 
vices,  —  insatiable  rapacity  and  lavish  prodigality,  in- 
tense pride  and  contemptible  weakness,  unmeasured 
ambition  and  dastardly  cowardice.  He  is  the  uxorious 
slave  of  his  empress,  whom,  after  she  had  ministered 
to  the  licentious  pleasures  of  the  populace  as  a  courte- 
san, and  as  an  actress,  in  the  most  immodest  exhibitions 
(we  make  due  allowance  for  the  malicious  exaggera- 
tions in  the  secret  history  of  Procopius),  in  defiance  of 
decency,  of  honor,  of  the  remonstrances  of  his  friends, 
and  of  rehgion,  he  had  made  the  partner  of  his  throne. 
In  the  Christian  Emperor  seem  to  meet  the  crimes  of 
those,  who  won  or  secured  their  empire  by  the  assassi- 
nation of  all  whom  they  feared,  the  passion  for  publi<> 


Chap.  IV.  THE  EMFRESS   THEODORA.  451 

diversions  without  the  accomphshmeiits  of  Nero  or  tho 
brute  strength  of  Commodus,  the  dotage  of  Claudius. 
Constantinople  might  appear  to  retrograde  to  paganism. 
The  peace  of  the  city  and  even  the  stability  of  the  em- 
pire are  endangered  not  by  foreign  invasion,  not  at  first 
by  a  dangerous  rival  for  the  throne,  nor  even  by  relig- 
ious dissensions,  but  by  the  factions  of  the  Circus,  the 
partisans  of  the  Blue  and  of  the  Green,  by  the  colors 
worn  in  the  games  by  the  contending  charioteers.  Jus- 
tinian himself,  during  the  memorable  sedition,  the  Nike, 
had  nearly  abandoned  the  throne,  and  fled  before  a  des- 
picable antagonist.  "  The  throne  is  a  glorious  sepul- 
chre," exclaimed  the  prostitute  whom  he  had  raised  to 
that  throne,  and  Justinian  and  the  empire  are  saved  by 
her  courage.  This  imperious  woman,  even  if  from  ex- 
haustion or  lassitude  she  discontinued,  or  at  least  con- 
descended to  disguise  those  vices  which  dishonored  her 
husband,  in  her  cruelties  knew  no  restraint.  And  these 
cruelties,  exercised  in  order  to  gratify  her  rapacity,  if 
not  in  sheer  caprice,  as  a  substitute  for  that  excitement 
which  had  lost  its  keenness  and  its  zest,  are  almost  more 
culpable  indications  of  the  Emperor's  weakness.  This 
meanness  of  subservience  to  female  influence  becomes 
the  habit  of  the  court,  and  the  great  Belisarius,  like  his 
master,  is  ruled  and  disgraced  by  an  insolent  and  profli- 
gate wife.  Nor  do  either  of  them,  in  shame,  or  in  con- 
scious want  of  Christian  holiness,  stand  aloof  from  the 
aifairs  of  that  religion,  wliose  precepts  and  whose  spirit 
they  thus  trample  under  foot.  Theodora,  a  bigot  with- 
out faith,  a  heretic,  it  might  almost  be  presumed,  ^vith- 
out  religious  convictions,  by  the  superior  strength  of 
her  character,  domineers  in  this  as  in  other  respects 
over  the  whole  court,  mingles  in  all  religious  intrigues. 


452  LATIN    CHRISTIANITV.  Book  III. 

appoints  to  the  highest  ecclesiastical  dignities,  sells  the 
Papacy  itself.  Her  charities  alone  (if  we  except  her 
masculine  courao-e,  and  no  douljt  that  o-reat  abilitv 
which  mastered  the  inferior  mind  of  her  husband),  if 
they  sprung  from  lingering  womanly  tenderness,  or  that 
inextinguishable  kindness  which  Christianity  sometimes 
infuses  into  the  hardest  hearts,  if  they  were  not  de- 
signed as  a  deliberate  compromise  with  heaven  for  her 
vices  and  cruelties,  may  demand  our  admiration.  The 
feeling  which  induced  the  degraded  and  miserable  vic- 
tim of  the  lusts  and  contempt  of  men  to  found,  per- 
haps, the  first  penitentiaries  for  her  sisters  in  that 
wretched  class,  as  it  shows  her  superior  to  the  base  fear 
of  awakening  remembrances  of  her  own  former  shame, 
may  likewise  be  considered  as  an  enforced  homage  to 
female  virtue.  Even  in  Theodora  we  would  discover 
the  very  feeblest  emotions  of  Christianity.  Justinian 
aspires  too  to  be  the  legislator  not  of  the  empire  alone,  ^ 
but  of  Christendom,  enacts  ordinances  for  the  whole 
Church  ;  and  unhappily,  not  content  with  establishing 
the  doctrines  of  Nicea  and  Chalcedon  as  the  religion  of 
the  Empire,  by  his  three  Chapters  replunges  Christen- 
dom into  religious  strife. 

The  reign  of  Justinian,  during  the  period  between 
the  death  of  Theodoric  and  the  conquest  of  Italy,  was 
Persian  and  occupicd  by  the  Persian  and  African  wars, 
wlrr'"  and  the  commotions  arising  out  of  the  public 
A.D.  526-533.  ga^^-^(3g  [^  Constantinople.  The  only  event 
which  commands  religious  interest  is  the  suppression  of 
the   schools   in   Athens.     That   last  vain  struggle  of 

i  I  have  studied,  besides  the  ordinary  authorities,  a  life  of  Justinian  by 
Liidcwig.  —  Hal.  Salic.  1731.  To  the  great  lawj'-er  the  vices  and  weak- 
nesses of  Justinian  are  lost  in  admiration  of  his  jurisprudence. 


CJhap.  IV.      SUPPRESSION  OF  SCHOOLS   AT  ATHENS.        453 

Grecian  philosophy  against  Christianity,  which  had  so 
signally  failed  even  with  an  Emperor  Julian  at  its  head ; 
that  Platonic  theism  which  had  endeavored  to  cr[ve  new 
life  to  paganism,  by  enlisting  the  imagination  in  its  ser- 
vice, and  establishing  a  sensible  communication  with 
the  unseen  world ;  wliich,  in  order  to  command  the  in- 
nate superstition  of  mankind,  had  allied  itself  with  mag- 
ic ;  and  wliich  still  (its  better  function)  promulgated 
noble  precepts  of  somewhat  dreamy  morality  ;  suppression 

^       -,,  -,  .        T,  of  Schools  at 

was  not  allowed  to  expire  like  a  worn-out  vet-  Athens. 
eran  in  peaceful  dignity.  It  was  forcibly  expelled  from 
the  ancient  groves  and  porches  of  Athens,  where  re- 
cently, under  Proclus,  it  had  rallied,  as  it  were,  for  a 
last  gleam  of  lustre  ;  it  was  driven  out  by  the  impa- 
tient zeal  of  Justinian.  Seven  followers  of  Proclus,  it  is 
well  known,  sought  a  more  hospitable  retreat  in  Persia ; 
but  the  Macfianism  of  that  kino^dom  was  not  much  more 
tolerant  than  the  Christianity  of  the  East.  Philosophy 
found  no  resting-place  ;  and  probably  few  of  her  disci- 
ples could  enjoy  the  malicious  consolation  which  might 
have  been  drawn  from  the  manner  in  which  she  had 
long  been  revenging  herself  on  Christianity  by  sug- 
gesting, quickening  with  her  contentious  spirit,  and  aid- 
ing with  all  her  subtleties  of  language  those  disputes, 
which  had  degraded  the  f  litli  of  Jesus  from  its  sublime, 
moral,  and  religious  dictatorship  over  the  human  mind. 
Justinian,  when  he  determined  to  attempt  the  recon- 
quest  of  Africa,  might  take  the  high  position  of  the 
vindicator  of  the  Catholics  from  long,  cruel,  and  almost 
unrelenting  persecution.  The  African  Catholics  had 
enjoyed  a  short  gleam  of  peace  during  the  reign  of 
Hilderic,  who  had  deviated  into  toleration,  unknown  to 
the  Arianism  of  the  Vandals  alone  :  he  had  restored 


454  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

about  two  hundred  bishops  to  their  churches.  The 
Cathohcs  micrht  behold  with  terror  the  overthrow  of 
the  just  Hilderic  by  the  stern  Gihmer,  and  might  rea- 
sonably dread  a  renewal  of  the  dark  days  of  the  great 
persecutors,  of  Thrasimund  and  of  Hunneric.  The 
voices  of  those  confessors,  who  are  said  to  have  spoken 
clearly  and  distinctly  after  their  tongues  had  been  cut 
out  down  to  the  root ;  who  might  be  heard  to  s]^eak 
publicly  (for  one  of  them  was  a  deacon)  by  the  curious 
or  the  devout  in  Constantinople  itself,  might  excite  the 
compassion  and  animate  the  zeal  of  Justinian.^     The 

1  This  is  the  one  post-apostolic  miracle  which  appears  to  rest  on  the  strong- 
est evidence.  If  we  are  to  trust  Victor  Vitensis,  we  cannot  take  refuge  in 
the  notion  that  their  speech  was  imperfect.  Of  one  at  least,  the  Deacon 
Keparatus,  he  asserts  that  he  spoke  both  clearly  and  distinctly.  The  words 
of  Procopius  are  aKpatipvel  rij  (jxjvtj.  If  we  listen  to  /Eneas  of  Gaza,  it  is 
equally  impossible  to  recur  tc  the  haste,  or  slovenly  execution  of  the  punish- 
ment by  the  barbarian  executioner:  he  states,  fi'om  his  own  ocular  inspec- 
tion, that  the  tongue  had  been  torn  away  by  the  roots.  —  Victor  Vitens.  v. 
G;  Ruinart,  p.  483,  487;  ^neas  Gazensis  in  Theophrasto  in  Biblioth.  Patr. 
viii.  p.  664,  665;  Justinian,  codex  i.  tit.  xxvii.;  Marcelli  in  Chronic.  Pro- 
cop,  de  Bell.  Vandal,  i.  7,  p.  385;  Gregor.  Magn.  Dialog,  iii.  32.  The 
question  is,  the  credibility  of  such  witnesses  in  such  an  age.  A  recent 
traveller  has  furnished  a  curious  illustration  of  this  one  post-apostolic  mira- 
cle which  puzzled  Gibbon.  The  writer  is  describing  Djczzar  Pasha's  cruel 
ties :  —  "  Each  Emir  was  held  down  in  a  squatting  position,  with  his  hands 
tied  behind  him,  and  his  face  turned  upwards.  The  ofKciating  tefeketchy 
now  approached  his  victim;  and  standing  over  him,  as  if  about  to  extract  a 
tooth,  forced  open  his  mouth,  and,  darting  a  hook  througli  the  top  of  the 
tongue,  pulled  it  out  until  the  root  was  exposed:  one  or  two  passes  of  a 
razor  sufficed  to  cut  it  out.  It  is  a  curious  fact,  however,  that  the  tonfjuea 
(jreiv  again  sujficltnt  for  the  purposes  of  speech.''''  —  Colonel  Churchill's 
I<eban(»n,  vol.  iii.  p.  384.  A  friend  has  suggested  this  more  extraordinary 
passage:  — "  Zal  Khan  (condemned  by  Aga  Mohammed  Khan  to  lose  his 
eyes)  loaded  tlie  tyrant  with  curses.  '  Cut  out  his  tongue  '  was  the  second 
order.  This  mandate  Avas  imperfectly  executed;  and  the  loss  of  half  this 
jnember  deprived  him  of  speech.  Being  afterwards  persuaded  that  its 
being  cut  close  to  the  root  would  enable  him  to  speak  so  as  to  be  under- 
stood, he  submitted  to  (he  operation,  and  the  efl'ect  has  been,  that  his  voice, 
though  indistinct  and  thick,  is  yet  intelligible  to  persons  accustomed 
to  converse  with   him.       This  I  experitnced  from  diiilif  intercourse.      lid 


CiiAP.  IV.  CONQUEST  OF  AFRICA.  455 

frugal  John  of  Cappadocia,  tlie  minister  of  Justinian, 
remonstrated  against  an  expedition  so  costly  and  so  un- 
certain in  its  event  as  the  invasion  of  Africa.  His  appre- 
hensions seemed  justified  by  the  disastrous  and  ignomin- 
ious failure  of  that  under  Basiliscus.  But  John  was 
silenced  by  a  devout  bishop.  The  holy  man  had  seen 
a  vision,  which  commanded  the  Catholic  Emperor  to 
proceed  without  fear  to  the  rescue  of  his  Catholic 
brethren.  Africa,  subdued  by  the  arms  of  BeUsarius, 
returned  at  once  under  the  dominion  of  the  conquest  of 
empire  and  of  Catholicism.  The  Vandal  ^^"''^• 
Arianism  had  made  no  proselytes  among  the  hereditary 
disciples  of  Cyprian  and  Augustine,  the  hearers  of  Ful- 
gentius  and  of  Augustine's  scholars.  Persecution  had 
its  usual  effect  when  it  stops  short  of  extermination  ;  it 
had  only  strengthened  the  inflexible  orthodoxy  of  the 
province.  One  imperial  edict  was  sufficient  a.d.  533. 
to  restore  all  the  churches  to  the  Catholic  worship. 
Donatism,  which  still  survived,  though  included  under 

often  spoke  to  me  of  his  sufferings.  .  .  ."  Sir  John  Malcolm  adds,  that 
he  is  "  ignorant  of  anatomy,  .  .  .  but  the  facts  are  as  stated,  and  I  had 
them  from  the  very  best  authority,  old  Zal  Khan  himself."  —  Sketches  of 
Persia,  ii.  p.  116.  This  mutilation,  in  fact,  is  common  in  the  East.  I  have 
the  authority  of  Sir  John  Macneill,  "  that  he  knew  several  persons  who  had 
been  subjected  to  that  punishment,  who  spoke  so  intelligibly  as  to  be  able 
to  transact  business.  More  than  one  of  them,  finding  that  my  curiosity  and 
interest  was  excited,  shoioed  me  the  stumj).'^''  Sir  John  Macneill's  description 
of  the  mode  of  operation  fully  coincides  with  the  following  opinion  of  tha 
most  distinguished  surgical  authority  in  England:  —  "There  seems  to  me 
nothing  mysterious  in  the  histories  of  the  excision  of  the  tongue.  The  mod- 
ificatior.  of  the  voice  forming  articulate  speech  is  effected  especially  by  the 
motions  of  the  soft  palate,  the  tongue,  and  the  lips,  and  partly  by  means  of 
the  teeth  and  cheeks.  The  mutilation  of  au}-^  one  of  these  organs  will  aflect 
the  speech  a.sfar  as  thai  oryan  is  concerned  and  no  farther^  the  effect  being 
to  render  the  speech  more  or  less  imperfect,  but  not  to  destroy  it  altogether. 
The  excision  of  the  whole  tongue  is  an  impossible  operation."  What 
Colonel  Churchill  attributed  to  the  growth  of  the  tongue  is  explained  iif 
iiiother  manner 


450  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  in 

the  same  condemnation,  was  endowed  with  more  obsti- 
nate vitahty,  and  was  hardly  extinguished  before  the 
final  disruption  of  Africa  from  the  great  Christian  sys- 
tem by  Mohammedanism. 

The  Ostrogothic  kingdom  of  Theodoric,  in  the 
mean  time,  was  declining  through  internal  dissension  ; 
the  inevitable  consequence  of  female  sway,  and  tliat  of 
a  king  too  early  raised  to  the  throne,  too  soon  eman- 
cipated from  his  mother's  control  by  the  mistaken 
fondness  of  the  Goths,  who,  while  they  desired  to 
Ostrogothic  educate  him  as  a  warlike  Amala  among  his 
kingdom.  noblc  pccrs,  abandoned  him  to  the  unchecked 
corruption  of  Roman  manners.  Rome  conquered 
Athalaric  by  her  vices.  Premature  debauchery  wasted 
Death  of  t^^  bodily  frame,  and  paralyzed  the  intellect 
Athalaric.  ^f  ^|^q  youug  Gotliic  king.  Evou  the  all- 
accomplished  Amalasuntha,  who  spoke  the  languages 
of  all  her  subjects  with  the  most  exquisite  perfection, 
and,  in  some  degree,  blended  the  virtues  of  both  races, 
yet  wanted  somewhat  of  the  commanding  strength  of 
character  which  hallowed  the  noble  Teutonic  female. 
In  an  evil  hour,  while  her  son  was  sinking  towards  the 
Marriage  and  gravc,  slic  bcstowcd  her  liaud  and  the  king- 
Amaiasuntha.  dom  ou  her  cousiu,  the  unworthy  Theodo- 
tus.  Theodotus,  master  of  the  crown,  imprisoned 
Amalasuntha,  and  soon  put  her  to  death.  He  then 
witiges  dragged  out  a  few  years  of  inglorious  sov- 
bing.  ereignty,   till    the    indignant    Goths   wrested 

away  the  sceptre  to  place  it  in  the  hands  of  the  valiant 
Witiges. 

Justinian  watched  the  affairs  of  Italy  without  te- 
traying  his  ambitious  designs ;  but  all  who  were  dissat- 
isfied with  the  state  of  affairs,  turned  their  eyes  to  the 


Crap.  IV.  BONIFACE  II.  157 

East.  Amalasuntha  at  one  time  had  determined  to 
abandon  the  kingdom,  to  place  herself  nnder  the  pro- 
tection of  Justinian :  the  fleet  was  ready  to  sail  to 
Dvrracliium.  Constant  amicable  intercourse  was  still 
taking  place  between  the  Catholic  clergy  of  the  East 
and  West,  between  Constantinople  and  Rome,  between 
Justinian  and  the  rapid  succession  of  Pontiffs,  who 
occupied  the  throne  during  the  ten  years  between  the 
death  of  Theodoric  and  the  invasion  of  Italy. 

Felix   IV.   had  just   been    acknowledged    as   Pope 
when  Theodoric  died  ;  his  peaceful  pontificate  Pope  Feiix 
lasted  four  years.     The  contests  for  the  Pa-  526-530. 
pacy  were   not    prevented   by   the  agreement    under 
Theodoric.     A  double  election  took  place  on  the  death 
of  Felix.     The  partisans  of  either  faction  were  pre- 
pared for  a  fierce  struggle,  when   the  timely  death   of 
his   rival   Dioscorus   left  Boniface    II.   in   undisputed 
possession  of  the  throne.     Yet  so  exasperated  October  14. 
were  the   parties,  that  Boniface    would  not  a.d.  530. 
allow  his  competitor  to  sleep  in  his  grave ;  he  fulmi- 
nated an  anathema  against  him  as  an  anti-Pope,  and 
compelled  the  clergy  to  sign  the  decree.     It  was  re- 
voked during  the  next  pontificate.     Boniface  was  of 
Gothic  blood,^  perhaps  promoted  by  the  Gothic  party. 
He  attempted  a  bold  measure  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the 
disgraceful  and  disastrous  scenes  of  violence  a.d.  531. 
and  bribery,  which  now  seemed  inveterate  in  the  Papal 
elections.       He  proposed  that  during  his  lifetime  the 
Pope  should  nominate  his  successor ;  he  proceeded  to 
designate  Vigilius,  a  deacon,  who  afterwards  ascended 
the  Papal  throne.     An  obsequious  Council  ratified  this 

1  He  was  the  son  of  Count  Sigisbult  or  Sigisvult,  though  called  a  Roman 
by  Anastasius.  —  Anastas.  in  Vit. 


458  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IH. 

extraordinary  proceeding.  Both  parties,  however, 
equally  resented  tliis  attempt  to  wrest  from  them  their 
A.D.  532.  undoubted  privilege,  and  thus  to  reduce  the 
Papacy  to  an  ordinary  inlieritance  at  the  disposition  of 
its  possessor.  In  a  second  Council  they  showed  their 
repugnance  and  astonishment  at  the  daring  innovation. 
The  Pope  acknowledged  his  own  decree  to  be  an  act 
of  treason  against  ecclesiastical  and  even  civil  law, 
burned  it  in  public,  and  left  the  election  of  his  suc- 
cessor to  proceed  in  the  old  course.^  There  were 
again  at  the  death  of  Boniface  fierce  strife,  undisguised 
bribery,  and  shame  and  horror  after  all  was  over. 
Remedies  were  sought  for  this  ineradicable  disease. 
Dec.  31,632.  On  tlic  death  of  Boniface,  the  Roman  Senate 
resumed  some  of  its  ancient  authority,  and  issued  an 
edict  prohibiting  these  base  and  venal  proceedings, 
during  which  the  funds  designed  for  the  poor  were 
loaded  with  debts,  even  the  sacred  vessels  sold  for  these 
simoniacal  uses.  Athalaric  confirmed  this  edict.'^  John 
II.,  whose  former  name  was  Mercurius,  ruled  for  three 
years.  During  his  papacy  arrived  a  splendid  embassy 
from  the  East,  with  magnificent  offerings,  golden 
vessels,  chalices  of  silver,  jewels,  and  curtains  of  cloth 
of  gold  for  the  Church  of  St.  Peter.  The  pretext 
was  a  deferential  consultation  with  the  Pope,  concerning 
A.D.534.  the  sleepless  monks,  who  were  still  not  with- 
out  some    Nestorian   tendencies.     At   the   same   time 

1  Anastas.  in  Vit.,  and  Labbe,  p.  1G90. 

2  "  Ita  facilitates  pauperuni  extortis  promissionibus  ingravasse,  ut  (quod 
dictu  nefas  est)  etiani  sacra  vasa  emptioni  publicne  viderentur  exposita."  — 
Athalar.  Kcf;-.  Epist.  aptid  Labbe,  p.  1748.  This  law  annulled  all  bargains 
uiade  for  the  appointment  to  bishopries.  It  declared  the  offence  to  be  sac- 
rilege; and  limited  the  payments  to  the  chancery  on  contested  clcctious,  ■— 
for  (he  papacy  to  3000  golden  solidi,  for  archbishoprics  or  bishoprics  to  2000 
The  largess  to  the  poor  was  restricted  to  500. 


Chap.  IV.  AGAPETUS.  459 

came  an  ambassador  to  Tlieodotus,  now  Ostrogotliic 
King,  witli  expostulations,  or  rather  imperious  me- 
naces, on  alleged  violations  of  the  treaties  between  the 
Gothic  kingdom  and  the  Empire.  During  the  short 
and  troubled  reign  of  Tlieodotus,  Justinian  received 
petitions  from  all  parts  of  Italy,  and  from  all  persons, 
lay  as  well  as  clerical,  with  the  air  and  tone  of  its 
Sovereign. 

The  aged  Agapetus  had  sue  ceded  to  the  Roman  See 
before  Justinian  prepared  for  the  actual  in-  Agapetus. 
vasion  of  Italy.  In  the  agony  of  his  fear -^^^^  ^' ^^• 
Theodotus  the  Goth  had  recourse  to  the  same  measure 
which  Theodoric  had  adopted  in  his  pride.  He  per- 
suaded or  compelled  the  Pope  to  proceed  on  an  em- 
bassy to  Constantinople,  to  ward  off.  the  impending 
danger,  to  use  his  influence  and  authority  lest  a  Roman 
and  orthodox  Emperor  should  persist  in  his  attempt  to 
wrest  Italy  and  Rome  from  a  barbarous  Arian ;  and 
Theodotus  commanded  the  Prelate  to  be  the  bearer 
of  menaces  more  befitting  the  herald  of  war.  He 
w^as  to  declare  the  determination  of  the  Goth,  if  Jus- 
tinian should  ftilfil  his  hostile  designs,  to  put  the 
Senate  to  the  sword,  and  raze  the  city  of  the  Caisars 
to  the  gromid.^  Like  his  predecessor,  Agapetus  was 
received  with  the  highest  honors.  Justinian  had  already 
suspended,  for  a  short  time,  his  warlike  preparations  ; 
but  Agapetus  found  affairs  more  within  his  Agapetus 

.  I'l  Till*  Ti  ^'^  Constan- 

province,  which  enabled  hnn    to    display  to  tinopie. 
the    despot    of  the    East    the    bold    and    independent 
tone  assumed  even  against  the  throne  by  the  ecclesias- 
tics  of   the  West.      The   See   of   Constantinople  was 
vacant.     The  all-powerful  Theodora  summoned  Anthi- 

1  The  einbabiv  was  in  Coustantmople,  Feb.  2,  536. 


460  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

mus,  bishop  of  Trebisoncl,  to  the  Metropohtan  diocese. 
Anthimus  was  suspected  as  tamted  with  Eutychian 
opinions.  Agapetus  resohitely  decHned  to  communi- 
cate with  a  Prelate,  whose  appointment  not  merely 
violated  the  Canon  against  translation  from  one  see  to 
another,  but  one  likewise  of  doubtful  orthodoxy.  The 
venal  partisans  of  Anthimus  and  of  Theodora  insin- 
uated countercharges  of  Nestorian  inclinations  against 
the  Bishop  of  Rome.^  Agapetus,  in  a  conference, 
condescended  to  satisfy  the  Emperor  as  to  his  own 
unimpeachable  orthodoxy.  Justinian  sternly  com- 
manded him  to  communicate  with  Anthimus.  "  With 
the  Bishop  of  Trebisond,"  replied  the  unawed  ecclesi- 
astic, "when  he  has  returned  to  his  diocese,  and  ac- 
cepted the  Council  of  Chalcedon  and  the  letters  of 
Leo."  The  Emperor  in  a  louder  voice  commanded 
him  to  acknowledge  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  on 
pain  of  immediate  exile.  "  I  came  hither  in  my  old 
age  to  see,  as  I  supposed,  a  religious  and  a  Christian 
Emperor,  I  find  a  new  Diocletian.  But  I  fear  not 
Kings'  menaces,  I  am  ready  to  lay  down  my  life  for 
the  truth."  The  feeble  mind  of  Justinian  passed  at 
once  from  the  height  of  arrogance  to  admiration  and 
respect :  he  listened  to  the  charges  advanced  by  Aga- 
petus against  the  orthodoxy  of  Antliimus.  In  his 
turn  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  was  summoned  to 
render  an  account  of  his  theology  before  the  Emperor, 
convicted  of  Eutychianism,  and  degraded  from  the  see. 
Mennas,  nominated  in  his  room,  was  consecrated  by  the 
Pope.  Thus  one  patriarch  of  Constantinople  was  de- 
Aprii  22, 636.  graded,  another  })romoted  by  the  influence,  if 
not  by  the  authority  (the  distinction  was  not  marked, 

1  Libellus  de  Keb.  Ciestis  ab  A^ap.  ad  Constant,  apud  Baroiiiuiu,  536. 


Chap.  IV.     ROME   SURRENDERED  TO  BELISARIUS.  4G1 

as  in  later  theologic  disputes)  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome. 
Agapetus  did  not  Hve  long  to  enjoy  his  triumph  ;  he 
died  at  Constantinople ;  his  funeral  rites  were  cele- 
brated with  great  magnificence  ;  his  body  sent  to  Rome. 
His  memory  was  venerated  alilve  in  the  East  and  in  the 
West. 

But  the  next  few  years  beheld  the  Papacy  degraded 
from  its  loftv  and  independent  dignitv.    Rome  Justinian  con 

y  ,         .     .  ^        *^  quers  Italy 

was  now  withni  the  dommions  oi  the  sole  Em-  and  Rome. 
peror  of  the  world.  Belisarius,  in  his  unchecked  career 
of  conquest,  had  subdued  Africa,  Sicily,  Naples  ;  he 
entered  undefended  Rome  as  its  master.^  The  Pope 
became  first  the  victim,  then  the  base  instrument  of  the 
temporal  power.  Rome,  now  a  city  of  the  Eastern 
Empire,  was  brought  at  once  within  the  sphere  of  the 
female  intrigues  of  Constantinople ;  one  Pope,  Silverius, 
suffered  degradation  ;  another,  the  most  doubtful  char- 
acter who  had  yet  sat  on  the  throne  of  St.  Peter,  receiv- 
ed his  appointment  through  the  arts  of  the  infamous 
Theodora,  and  suffered  the  judicial  punishment  of  his 
weaknesses  and  crimes,  —  persecution,  shame,  remorse. 
Silverius,  the  new  Pope,  was  the  son  of  the  former 
Pontiff  Hormisdas,  the  legitimate  son,  born  before  the 
father  had  taken  holy  orders.  Silverius  was  Rome  sur- 
Bishop  of  Rome  by  command  of  Theodotus,  Beiisarius. 
yet  undegraded  from  the  Ostrogothic  throne.^  But 
the  Romans  saw  with  undisguised  but  miscalculating 
pride,  the  Roman  banners,  floating  over  the  army  of 
Behsarius,  approach  their  walls.  The  Pope  dared  (the 
Goths  were  in  confusion  at  the  degradation  of  The- 

1  See  the  war  in  Gibbon,  ch.  xli. 

2  Sine  deliberatione  decreti,  Vit.  Sylv.  Confer.  Marcell.  Cbron.  Jaflfa 
Retresta,  sub  ann.  536.    He  was  consecrated  June  8. 


462  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  m. 

odotus,  and  the  elevation  of  Witiges)  to  urge  the 
Romans  to  send  an  ambassador  to  hail  the  deliverer 
of  the  city  from  the  barbaric  Goth.^  The  Bishop  of 
Rome  received  the  General  of  the  East,  and,  as  it  were, 
restored  Rome  to  the  Roman  empire.  Belisarius  was 
lord  of  the  Capitol,  and  at  once  the  consequence  of 
Rome's  subjugation  to  the  East  broke  upon  the  Pope 
and  upon  Rome.  Theodora  had  never  abandoned  her 
hopes  of  promoting  her  favorite,  Anthimus,  to  the  See 
of  Constantinople ;  she  entered  into  a  league  with  the 
Deacon  Vigilius,  who  had  accompanied  the  Pope  Aga- 
vigiiius.  petus  into  the  East.  Vigilius  was  a  man  of 
unmeasured  ambition,  and  great  ability ;  ^  he  had  been 
designated  as  his  successor  by  Pope  Boniface ;  and 
when  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  clergy  and  the  people 
wrested  from  Boniface  the  usurped  right  of  nominating 
his  successor,  Vigilius  was  left  to  brood  over  other 
means  of  obtaining  the  pontificate.  The  compact  pro- 
posed by  the  Empress,  and  accepted  by  the  unscrupu- 
lous Vigilius,  stipulated  on  her  part  the  degradation  of 
Silverius,  and  a  large  sum  of  money,  no  doubt  to  secure 
his  election,  and  to  consolidate  his  interest  in  Rome ; 
on  that  of  the  ecclesiastic,  no  less  than  the  condemna- 
tion of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  and  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  Anthimus,  as  Bishop  of  Constantinople.  The 
deo-radation  of  Silverius  was  intrusted  not  to  the  all- 
powerful  Belisarius  alone,  but  to  the  surer  hands  of  his 
wife  Antonina,  the  accomplice  of  the  Empress  in  all 
her  intrigues  of  every  kind,  and  her  counterpart  in  the 

1  MulLaTa  ()e  avrov^  SiA/JepiOf  e/f  tovto  evrjyeVy  6  TTjode  TTjg  n62.eug  ao- 
Xiepevg.     Procop.  de  B.  G.  i.  c.  14. 

2  "Lubenter  ergo  suscepit  Vigilius  permissum  ejus,  aniore  episcopat&s  et 
auri."  —  Liberat.  Breviar.  c.  xxii. 


<;hap.  IV.  VIGILIUS.  463 

arbitrary  power  with  which  she  niled  her  glorious  but 
easy  husband.      The   Pope  Silverius   was  accused  of 
treasonable  correspondence  with  the  Goths,   witnesses 
were    suborned    to    support    this    improbable    charge 
against  him  who  had  yielded  up  the  city  to  the  con- 
queror.    Behsarius,  it  is  said,  endeavored  to  save  the 
Pope  from  degradation,  by  inducing  him  to  pebraary. 
accede  to  the  wishes   of  Theodora,  to  con- *^^''^' ^^• 
demn  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  and  to  communicate 
with    Anthimus.       The    resolution    of   Silverius,    who 
firmly  rejected  these  propositions,  left  him  the  defence- 
less victim  of  Visilius  and  of  Antonina.     The  successor 
of  St.   Peter  w^as   rudely  summoned   to   the  Pincian 
Palace,  the  military  quarters    of  Belisarius.      In  the 
chamber  of  the  General  sat  Antonina  on  the  bed,  with 
her  husband  at  her  feet.     "  What  have  we  done,"  ex- 
claimed the  imperious  woman,  "  to  you.  Pope  Silverius, 
and  to  the  Romans,  that  you  should  betray  us  to  the 
Goths  ? "      In  an  instant  the  pall  was  rent  from  his 
shoulders  by  a  subdeacon,  he  was  hurried  into  another 
room,  stripped  of  the  rest  of  his  dress,  and  clad  in  that 
of  a  monk.     The  clergy  who  accompanied  him  were 
informed  of  his  degradation  in  a  few  careless  words, 
"  The  Pope  Silverius  is  deposed,  and  is  now  a  monk." 
The  most  extraordinary  part  of  this  strange  transaction 
Is   the  utter  ignorance   of  Justinian   of  the  whole  in- 
trigue.     From   Patara,   the  place   of   his  banishment, 
Silverius  made  his  way  to  Constantinople,  and  to  the 
amazement  of  the  Emperor  prefeiTed  his  complaint  of 
the  unjust  violence  with  which  he  had  been  expelled 
from  his  See.     Justinian  commanded  his  instant  return 
to  Rome.     If,  on  further  investigation,  it  should  appear 
^hat  he  had  been  unjustly  accused  of  treason,  he  was 


464  LATIN   CimiSTIANTTY.  Book  III. 

to  be  reinstated  in  his  dignity.  The  sudden  reappear- 
ance of  Silverius  in  Rome  (he  had  outsailed  the  mes- 
sengers of  Theodora)  embarrassed  for  a  time,  only  for 
a  short  time,  the  unscrupulous  Vigilius,  and  his  more 
than  imperial  patrons.  By  the  influence  of  Antonina, 
Silverius  was  delivered  up  to  his  rival,  and  banished  by 
him  who  aspired  to  be  the  head  of  Christendom,  to  the 
island  of  Pandataria,  infamous  as  the  place  of  exile  to 
which  the  worst  heathen  emperors  had  consigned  the 
victims  of  their  tyranny.  On  this  wretched  rock  Sil- 
verius soon  closed  his  life,  whether  in  the  course  of 
nature  or  by  violent  means,  seems  to  have  been  known 
with  no  more  certainty  in  his  own  days  than  in  ours.^ 

Vigilius  was  now,  by  command  of  Belisarius,^  the 
Vigilius  undisputed  Pontiff  of  Rome.^  He  had  paid 
A.D.  544.  already  a  fearful  price  for  his  advancement, — 
false  accusation,  cruel  oppression,  perhaps  murder.  At 
Rome  he  declares  his  adhesion  to  the  four  councils 
and  to  the  letter  of  Leo ;  he  approves  the  anathema 
of  Mennas  of  Constantinople  against  the  Monophy- 
sites.*  But  four  years  after,  Theodora  demanded,  and 
Vigilius  dared  not  refiise,  the  rest  of  his  unholy  cove- 
nant, at  least  the  base  and  secret  adoption  of  all  her 
heretical  opinions.      In  a  letter  still  extant,^  but  con- 

1  Anastasii  vita.  Liberatus  writes  briefly  and  significantly,  "  Solus  in- 
gressus  a  suis  ulterius  non  est  visus."  —  Breviar.  c.  xxiii. 

2  "Erepov  6e  apxLepia.  oTuyco  vorepov  Btyiluiv  ovo/na  KarecTrjaaTO.  So 
MTJtes  the  Greek  Procopius  of  Belisarius. 

8  The  date  of  his  accession  is  a  point  of  grave  dispute.  If  it  is  reckoned 
from  his  first  nomination  to  the  see,  he  can  only  be  held  an  uncanonical 
usurper  of  an  unvacated  see,  and  that  nomination  must  have  been  null  and 
void.  A  second  election  therefore  has  been  supposed;  but  of  this  event 
there  is  no  accredited  record.  It  is  impossible  so  to  connect  the  broken 
li  iik.«5  of  the  spiritual  genealogy. 

4  A.D.  540,  September  17.  —  Mansi.  ix.  35,  38. 

*>  The  letter  is  given  by  Liberatus.     One  main  argument  against  Jta  au- 


Chap.  IV.  VIGILIUS  POPE.  4(>0 

tested  on  account  of  its  damning  effect  on  one  who 
was,  or  who  afterwards  became  Pope,  rather  than  from 
any  mark,  either  external  or  internal,  of  spuriousness, 
Vigilius  gave  his  deliberate  adhesion  to  Eutychianism. 
The  busy  and  restless  theology  of  the  East  had  now 
raised  a  new  question,  and  Justinian  aspired  to  the 
dignity  of  a  profound  divine,  and  a  legislator  of  Chris- 
tian doctrine  as  well  as  of  Christian  civil  affairs.  He 
plunged  with  headstrong  zeal  into  the  controversy.^ 
The  Church  was  not  now  disturbed  by  the  sublime, 
if  inexplicable,  dogmas  concerning  the  nature  of  God, 
the  Persons  of  the  Trinity,  or  the  union  of  the  divine 
and  human  nature  of  Christ ;  concerning  the  revela- 
tions of  Scripture,  or  even  the  opinions  of  the  ancient 
fathers:  the  orthodoxy  or  heterodoxy  of  certain  writ- 
ings by  bishops,  but  recently  dead,  became  the  subject 
of  Imperial  edicts,  of  a  fifth  so  called  (Ecumenic  Coun- 
cil, held  at  Constantinople,  and  a  religious  war  between 
the  East  and  the  West.  Under  the  name  of  the  three 
Chapters,   the   Emperor  and    the    obsequious    Council 

thenticity  is,  that  he  was  never  charged  with  it  by  his  enemies  or  by  Jus 
tinian.  But  it  was  a  private  letter  to  Theodora,  and  contains  this  sentence 
"  Oportet  ergo,  ut  hiec  quae  vobis  scribo,  nullus  agnoscat."  The  letter  may 
not  have  come  to  light  till  after  the  death  of  Theodora.  But,  with  some 
mistrust  of  their  own  feeble  critical  arguments,  the  high  papal  writers  assert 
that  Vigilius,  when  he  wrote  this  letter,  was  only  an  antipope  and  a  schis- 
matic. His  subsequent  legitimate  election  arrayed  him  in  perfect  Christian 
faith  and  virtue.  He  became  officially  orthodox.  Binii  not.  in  Liberatum. 
Dupin  ventures  to  say  that  Liberatus  is  better  authority  than  either  Baronius 
or  Binius. 

1  Justinian  had  already  made  an  essaj'  of  his  theological  powers.  In 
Palestine  the  controversy  concerning  the  opinions  of  Origen  had  broken  out 
again,  and  caused  violent  popular  tumults.  Pelagius,  the  legate  of  the 
Pope,  and  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  Mennas,  urged  the  interference 
of  Justinian.  The  emperor  threw  himself  headlong  into  the  dispute,  and 
issued  an  encyclic  letter,  condemning  the  Origenists:  the  imperial  anathema 
was  subscribed  by  Mennas  and  many  other  bishops  of  Constantinople. 
VOL.   I.  30 


466  LATIN  CIIRISTIA1?IT7.  Book  III 

condemned  certain  works  of  Tlieodorus  of  Mopsneslia, 
Theodoret  of  Cynis,  and  Ibas  of  Edessa.^  These  writ- 
ings, tliougli  questionable  as  the  soui'ce  of,  or  as  infected 
with  Nestorianism,  had  passed  uncondemned  by  the 
Council  of  Chalcedon.  The  imperial  edict  usurped 
the  form  of  a  confession  of  faith,  and  trespassed  on  the 
exclusive  right  of  the  clergy  to  anathematize  the  holders 
of  erroneous  doctrines.  Great  part  of  the  submissive 
or  consentient  East  received  the  dictates  of  the  imperial 
theologian  ;  the  West  as  generally  and  resolutely  re- 
fused compliance.  Vigilius  w^as  peremptorily  sum- 
A.D.  544.  moned  to  Constantinople.  He  set  forth, 
loaded  with  the  imprecations  of  the  Roman  people, 
and  assailed  with  volleys  of  stones,  as  the  murderer 
of  Silverius,  and  a  man  of  notorious  cruelty.  It  was 
said  that  he  had  killed  one  of  his  own  secretaries  in 
a  fit  of  passion,  and  caused  his  nephew,  the  son  of  his 
sister,  to  be  scourged  to  death.  "  May  famine  and 
pestilence  pursue  thee ;  evil  hast  thou  done  to  us,  may 
evil  overtjake  thee  wherever  thou  art."  A  strong 
guard  protected  his  person  first  to  Sicily,  and  thence 
after  near  two  years'  delay  to  Constantinople. 

His  departure  fi'om  Rome  was  fortunate  for  himself, 
fortunate  perhaps  for  the  dignity  of  the  Papacy.  Dur- 
ing his  absence,  Rome  was  besieged  by  tlie  Goths.  A 
supply  of  corn  sent  by  Vigilius  fi'om  Sicily  was  inter- 

1  The  condemnation  of  the  tliree  chapters  implied  at  least  a  covert  cen- 
sure of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon.  I.  The  fathers  of  that  coiuicU  had  re- 
ceived Theodoret  into  communion,  and,  content  with  his  condemnation  of 
Nestorius,  had  not  demanded  his  retractation  of  his  writinrjs  against  Cyril 
of  Alexandria.  II.  They  had  inserted  in  their  proceedings  a  letter  from 
Ihas  of  Edessa  to  the  Persian  Maris,  in  which  he  highly  praised  Theodonia 
of  Mopsuestia,  the  master  of  Nestorius,  blamed  Cyril,  and  accused  the 
Council  of  Ephesus  as  having  too  hastily  condemned  Nestorius.  —  Anastaa. 
ui  Vita. 


Chat.  IV.  VIGILIUS   AT   CONSTANTINOPLE.  4G7 

ce])ted  on  the  Tiber  by  the  barbarians  ;  the  Bishop 
V^alentinus,  who  accompanied  it,  was  summoned  before 
the  savage  conqueror,  and  appearing  to  prevaricate,  was 
mutilated  by  cutting  oflF  both  his  hands.  It  was  fortu- 
nate on  another  account :  Constantinople  alone  wit- 
nessed the  weakness  and  teroiversations  of  Vio:ilIus, 
who  at  least  three  times  pliantly  yielded  to,  and  then 
desperately  resisted  the  theologic  (hctatorship  of  Jus- 
tinian ;  three  times  condemned  the  three  Chaptei's, 
three  times  recanted  his  condemnation.  Constanti- 
nople alone  witnessed  the  personal  indignities,  the  per- 
secutions of  which  reports,  perhaps  exaggerated,  reached 
the  West,  but  which  were  neither  rendered  glorious  to  a 
servant  of  Christ  by  Christian  blamelessness  (the  sense 
of  which  might  have  allayed  their  bitterness)  or  by 
Christian  meekness  and  resolution,  which  might  have 
tui'ned  them  to  his  honor  and  to  his  peace.  He  had 
the  sufferings,  but  neither  the  outward  dignity  nor  the 
inward  consolation  of  martyrdom. 

It  was  a  perilous  crisis  for  a  Prelate  so  ambitious,  vet 
so  double-minded,  so  trammelled  by  former  obligations, 
and  so  bound  by  common  guilt  to  one  of  the  a.d.  548. 
contending  parties.  For  there  was  division  in  the 
court ;  Justinian  and  Theodora,  as  throughout  in  re- 
ligious interests,  Avere  on  opposite  sides ;  the  East  and 
the  West  were  irreconcilably  adverse.  Vigilius  was 
emboldened  by  his  honorable  reception  in  Constanti- 
nople ;  the  Emperor  and  the  Pope  are  said  to  June  n,  584. 
I  lave  wept,  when  they  first  met.^  The  death  of  Theo- 
dora soon  relieved  Yigilius  fi'om  some  part  of  his  embar- 
rassment. Yet  he  miscalculated  his  power,  and  dared 
to  resist  the  Imperial  will ;  he  refused  to  condemn  the 
1  Anastas.  in  Vit 


4G8  LATIX  CmilSTIANTTY.  Book  III. 

tliree  Chapters.  He  even  ventured  to  address  tlie  Em- 
peror under  the  favorite  appellation,  bestowed  on  all 
imperial  opponents  of  ecclesiastical  authority,  as  a  new 
Diocletian.  He  excluded  from  his  communion  Men- 
nas,  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople ;  he  excommuni- 
cated Theodorus  of  Cesarea,  and  even  the  departed 
Empress  herself.  Mennas  threw  back  the  anathema, 
and  on  his  side  excommunicated  the  Pope.  Vigilius 
was  ere  long  obliged  to  withdraw  his  censures,  and  to 
reconcile  himself  with  the  rival  Prelate.  Scarcely, 
indeed,  had  many  months  passed  before  the  Pope  at 
the  head  of  a  Council  of  seventy  bishops,  issued  his 
A.D.  548.  infallible  anathema  against  the  three  Chap- 
ters. The  West  at  once  threw  off  its  allegiance,  and 
refused  to  listen  to  the  ingenious  sophistry  with  which 
Vigilius  attempted  to  reconcile  his  solemn  judgment 
with  his  former  opinions.  Illyricum,  Africa  with  all 
her  old  dauntless  pertinacity,  even  his  own  clergy 
revolted  against  the  renegade  Pope.  He  revoked  his 
imprudent  concessions,  recanted  his  recantation,  and 
prevailed  on  the  Emperor  to  summon  a  Council,  in 
order,  it  should  seem,  either  to  obtain  the  support  of 
the  Council  against  the  Emperor,  or  to  compel  the 
Western  bishops  to  give  up  their  resistance.  The 
Eastern  prelates  assembled  in  great  numbers  at  the 
Council,  the  Western  stood  aloof.  Vigilius  refused  to 
sanction  or  recognize  the  Council  in  the  absence  of  the 
Western  bishops.  Justinian,  indignant  at  the  delay, 
promulgated  a  new  edict,  condemning  the  three  Chap- 
ters in  still  stronger  terms  on  his  own  plenary  au- 
thority. Vigilius  assembled  as  many  bishops  as  he 
could  collect,  solemnly  protested  against  the  usurpation 
of  ecclesiastical  authority,  and  cut  off  from   his  com' 


Chap.  IV.  EXILE  OF  VIGILIUS.  4(39 

111  union  all  who  received  the  edict.  But  a  Byzantine 
despot  was  not  to  be  thus  trifled  with  or  boldly  bearded 
ill  his  own  ca})ital,  and  the  Eastern  bishops  refused  to 
hold  communion  with  the  successor  of  St.  Peter.  A\)~ 
prehensive  of  violence,  the  Pope  took  reflige  in  a  sanctu- 
aiy ;  but  neither  the  Emperor  nor  his  troops  were  dis- 
posed to  reverence  the  sacred  right  of  asylum.  They 
attempted  to  drag  him  forth  by  the  feet,  he  clung  to 
the  altar,  and  being  a  large  and  powerful  man,  the 
pillars  of  the  baldachin  gave  way,  and  the  whole  fell 
crumbling  upon  him.^  The  populace  could  not  behold 
without  compassion  these  personal  outrages,  heaped  on  a 
venerable  ecclesiastic  ;  the  imperial  officers  were  obliged 
to  retire  and  leave  Vigilius  within  the  church.  He 
was  persuaded,  however,  on  certain  terms  to  leave  his 
sanctuary.  Again  he  suffered,  according  to  rumors 
propagated  in  the  West,  still  more  barbarous  usage  ; 
he  was  said  to  have  been  dragged  through  the  city 
with  a  rope  round  his  neck,  and  reproached  with  his 
crimes  and  cruelties,  then  committed  to  a  common 
dungeon,  and  kept  on  the  hardest  prison  diet,  a.d.  552. 
bread  and  water.  A  second  time  escaped  to  his  sanc- 
tuary, and  from  thence  by  night  fled  over  the  sea  to 
Chalcedon.  There  he  took  refuge  in  the  more  awful  and 
inviolable  sanctuary  of  Saint  Euphemia.  The  Emperor 
condescended  to  capitulate  on  honorable  terms  with  the 
Prelate.  He  revoked  his  edict,  and  left  the  three 
Chapters  to  the  decrees  of  the  Council.  Vigilius  had 
promised  to  be  present  at  the  Council ;  but  dared  not 
confront  alone  the  host  of  Eastern  bisliops  who  com- 

1  Vigilius  himself  relates  tiie  former  outrage,  but  does  not  mention  par- 
ticularly the  other  indignities:  but  he  says,  "  Dum  multa  mala  intolerabilia 
saepius  pateremur  quse  jam  omnibus  nota  esse  confidimus."  —  Epist.  En- 
:ycl.  apud  Labbe,  p.  330. 


470  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  Hi, 

posed  it.  The  Council,  according  to  tlie  dominant 
sentiment  of  tlie  East,  renewed  the  condemnation  of 
the  three  Chapters.  Vigilius  with  difficulty  collected 
A..D.  553.  sixteen  Western  bishops,  issued  a  protest 
against  the  decree,  and  a  Constitution,  solemnly  ac- 
quitting the  three  Chapters  of  heresy.  The  wrath 
of  the  Emperor  was  again  kindled  ;  ^  Vigilius  was  once 
more  seized  and  sent  in  exile  to  the  dreary  and  solitary 
rock  of  Procoiniesus.  There  his  courage  or  his  pa- 
tience failed.  Alarming  reports  reached  him,  that  his 
name  was  to  be  struck  out  of  the  diptychs  ;  that 
orders  were  preparing  for  Rome  to  elect  a  new  bishop. 
He  intimated  that  now,  at  length,  on  more  studious 
examination,  he  had  detected  the  subtle  and  latent 
errors  which  had  so  long  escaped  his  impeccable  judg- 
A.D.  554.  ment,  and  was  prepared  with  a  Constitution, 
condemnatory  of  those  baneful  writings.  He  was  re- 
called to  Constantinople,  obtained  leave,  after  his  full 
June?, 554.  submissiou,  to  rctum  to  Rome,  but  died  in 
Sicily  of  the  stone,  before  he  could  reach  his  see. 

Such  was  the  miserable  fate  of  a  Pope  who  came 
into  direct  collision  with  the  Imperial  despotism  of 
Constantinople.  A  Prelate  of  unimpeachable  charac- 
ter, uncommitted  by  base  subserviency  to  the  court,  and 
who  had  not  owed  his  elevation  to  unworthy  means, 
or  one  of  more  firm  relio:ious  couraore,  mi^jht  have 
escaped  some  portion  of  the  degradation  and  contem])t 
endured  by  Vigilius ;  but  it  is  impossible  not  to  ob- 
serve again  how  much  the  Papal  power  owed  to  the 
position  of  Rome.       Even    its   freedom,   far  more  its 

1  Theodoras  of  Cesarea  was  the  ecclesiastic  who  ruled  the  mind  of  Jus- 
tinian. See  the  imperfect  anathema  and  sentence  of  deposition  againsl 
nim.  —  Labbe. 


Chat.  IV.  PELAGIUS.  471 

aiitliority,  arose  out  of  its  having  ceased  to  be  the  seat 
of  Imperial  government,  and  the  residence  of  the  Em 
])eror.  During  the  conquest  of  Italy  by  the  Eastern 
Emperors,  and  for  some  time  after,  the  Pope  was  not 
confronted  indeed  in  Rome  by  a  resident  Emperor,  but 
summoned  at  the  will  of  the  Emperor  to  Constanti- 
nople, or  in  Rome  rebuked  before  a  victorious  general, 
or  an  Exarch,  who,  though  he  held  his  court  at  Ra- 
venna, executed  the  commands  of  a  sovereign  accus- 
tomed to  dictate,  rather  than  submit  to  ecclesiastical 
power.  At  scarcely  any  period  did  the  papal  authority 
suffer  greater  degradation,  or  were  the  persons  of  the 
Popes  reduced  to  more  humiliating  subserviency.  Nor 
is  this  passive  humiliation,  which,  by  the  patient  dig- 
nity with  which  it  is  endured,  may  elevate  the  char- 
acter of  the  sufferer ;  he  is  mingled  up  in  the  intrigues 
of  the  court,  and  contaminated  with  its  base  venality. 
He  is  hardly  more  independent  or  authoritative  than 
the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople. 

The  successor  of  Vigilius  was  Pelagius  I.  Pelagius 
had  been  the  legate  or  ambassador  of  Vigilius  a.d.  556. 
at  the  court  of  Constantinople.  He  had  won  the  favor 
of  Justinian,  and  accumulated  considerable  wealth. 
He  returned  to  Rome,  a  short  time  before  it  was  be- 
sieged by  Totila  ;  and  the  wealth,  obtained  it  might 
seem  by  doubtful  means  in  the  East,  was  nobly  dis- 
pensed among  the  poor  and  famishing  inhabitants  of 
the  beleaguered  city.  Pelagius  during  the  popedom 
of  Vigilius  had  been  employed  on  the  most  important 
services.  When  the  Goths  again  contested  the  domin- 
ion of  Italy,  he  had  undertaken  an  embassy  in  the 
name  of  the  Romans  to  avert  the  wrath  of  Totila  ;  ho 
had  been  received  with  stately  courtesy,  but  dismissed 


472  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  III 

with  no  concession  on  the  part  of  the  Goth.^  After  tlie 
capture  of  the  city,  Avhen  the  victorious  Totila  entered 
the  church  of  St.  Peter  to  perform  his  devotions,  he 
was  met  again  by  Pelagius,  with  the  Gos|)el  in  his 
hands.  "  Have  mercy  on  thy  subjects,"  implored  the 
earnest  priest.  "Now,"  tauntingly  replied  Totila, 
"  you  condescend  to  appear  as  a  suppliant."  ''  God," 
answered  Pelagius,  "  has  made  us  your  subjects,  be 
merciful  to  us  on  that  account."  His  calm  and  sub- 
missive demeanor  arrested  the  wrath  of  the  con- 
queror. Rome  owed  to  his  intercession  the  hves  of 
her  citizens,  and  the  chastity  of  her  females.  Mas- 
sacre and  violation  were  arrested ;  the  discipline  of  the 
Goths  respected  the  command  of  their  king.  Pelagius 
A.D  549.  was  sent  by  Totila  as  his  ambassador  to  Con- 
stantinople to  demand  peace,  under  the  menace,  that 
the  Goth,  if  Justinian  persisted  in  his  hostility,  would 
destroy  Rome,  and  put  the  Senate  to  the  sword.^  Pe- 
lagius again  in  Constantinople,  adhered  as  a  faithful 
partisan  to  Vigilius,  with  him  he  resisted  the  theologic 
tyranny  of  Justinian  ;  and,  if  he  did  not  share  his  hai'd 
usage  and  exile,  was  left  to  neglect  and  misery.  With 
Vigilius,  having  shown  himself  too  pliant  to  the  impe- 
rial doctrines,  he  returned  to  Rome,  and  on  the  death 
of  Vigilius,  by  the  command  of  Justinian,  was  elevated 
to  the  See.'^  But  now  in  Rome,  all  his  former  benefac- 
tions to  the  city  were  forgotten  in  his  treacherous 
aliandonment  of  the  orthodoxy  of  the  West,  and  his 
servile  compliance  with  the  will  of  the  Em[)eror  ;  he 
could  not  assemble  from  all  the  reluctant  order  three 

1  Procop.  de  Bell.  Gothic,  iii.  16. 

2  Procop.  de  Bell.  Gothic,  iii.  20. 

3  Acoonliug  to  Victor  Turon,  he  at  first  defended,  then  recalled  from  QX 
*le,  condemned  the  three  chapters  (ap.  Roncagl.  ii.  377). 


Chap.  IV.  PELAGIUS.  473 

bishops  for  the  ceremonial  of  his  consecra-  June  7, 556. 
tion ;  it  was  performed  by  two  bishops  and  a  presby- 
ter.^ His  favor  with  Justinian  exposed  him  to  worse, 
doubtless  to  unjust  suspicions.  He  was  accused  of 
having  been  the  instigator  in  Constantinople  of  all  the 
cruelties  suffered  by  Vigilius.  The  monks,  many  of 
the  clergy,  and  of  the  nobility  of  Rome,  withdrew 
from  his  communion.  Even  when  Narses  reconquered 
Rome,  the  avowed  protection  of  the  Emperor's  victo- 
rious representative  could  not  restore  the  public  con- 
fidence to  Pelagius.  The  Pope,  with  the  general  by 
his  side,  went  in  solemn  procession,  chanting  a  Litany, 
to  the  Church  of  St.  Peter;  and  there  Pelagius  as- 
cended the  chancel,  and  holding  above  his  head  the 
Book  of  the  Gospels,  and  the  Cross,  solemnly  declared 
that  he  had  never  wrought  or  suggested  any  evil  against 
Vigilius.  Pelamus  added,  and  to  this  he  demanded 
the  assent  of  the  people,  a  strong  denunciation  of  all, 
who  from  the  door-keeper  up  to  the  bishop  should  at- 
tempt to  obtain  any  ecclesiastical  office  by  simony.^ 
Rome,  after  this  expurgation,  acquiesced  in  the  rule 
of  her  Pontiff.  But  the  Western  bishops  could  not 
forgive  his  adhesion  to  the  fifth  Council  of  Constanti- 
nople, whose  decrees  had  in  some  degree  impeached 
those  of  the  great  Council  of  Chalcedon.  Even  in 
Italy  the  bishops  of  Tuscany  would  not  admit  his  name 
into  their  sacramental  liturgy.  Pelagius  bitterly  re- 
proached them  with  thus  yielding  to  vulgar  clamor ; 
by  separating  themselves  from  the  communion  of  an 
Apostolic  See  they  had  separated  themselves  fi'om  the 
communion  of  all  Christendom.  But  he  thought  it 
necessary  to  declare  his  unreserved  acceptance  of  all 

i  Victor  Turon.,  apud  Roiicagl.  ^  Marcell.  Chronic,  apiid  Roncagli. 


474  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IH- 

the  four  great  Councils  (maintaining  a  prudent  silence 
as  to  the  fifth),  and  the  Letter  of  his  predecessor  Leo. 
Whoever  should  not  be  content  with  this  declaration, 
might  demand  further  explanation  from  the  Pope 
himself.  Yet  he  condemned  all  that  his  predecessors 
had  condemned,  venerated  as  orthodox  all  that  they  re- 
ceived, especially  the  saintly  prelates,  Theodoret  and 
Ibas.^  The  Pope  addressed  a  letter  to  the  whole 
Christian  world,  in  which,  after  reasserting  his  allegi- 
ance to  the  four  Councils,  he  attempted  to  justify  the 
fifth  as  in  no  way  impeaching  the  authority  of  Chalce- 
don.  A  new  royal  theologian,  Childebert,  king  of  the 
Franks,  entered  the  field,  and  required  a  more  explicit 
statement.  With  this  the  Pope  condescended  to  com- 
ply ;  he  sent  his  confession  of  faith  to  the  King,  with 
an  admonition  to  the  orthodox  sovereign  to  exercise 
vigilance  over  all  heretics  within  his  dominions.  Still 
some  obstinate  dioceses,  chiefly  of  Venetia  and  Istria, 
refused  communion  with  all  who  adliered  to  the  Synod 
of  Constantinople.  Pelagius  had  recourse  to  the  all- 
powerful  Narses  to  enforce  submission ;  the  most  re- 
fractory, the  Bishop  of  Aquileia  and  the  Bishop  of 
Milan,  who  had  uncanonically  consecrated  that  prelate, 
were  sent  prisoners  to  Constantinople. 

On  the  death  of  Pelamus,^  Rome  waited  in  obse- 
quious  submission  the  permission  of  the  Em})eror  to 
July  14, 560.  inaugurate  her  new  Pope,  John  III.  The 
period  between  tlie  accession  of  John  III.  and  tliat  of 
Gregory  the  Great  is  among  the  most  barren  and 
obscure  in  the  annals  of  the  papacy.  One  act  of  mis- 
judging authority,  and  one  of  intercession,  are  recorded 
during  the  pontificate  of  John.     He  received,  accord- 

1  Mansi.  ix.  17.  2  Pclaijriiis  died  560. 


CiiAP.  IV.  THE  EUNUCH  NARSES.  475 

ing  to  the  permission  of  the  Frankish  King,  Gunthram, 
the  appeal  of  two  bishops,  Salonius  of  Embriin  and 
Sagittarius  of  Gap,^  who  had  been  deposed  for  crimes 
most  unbefitting  their  order  by  a  synod  at  Lyons. 
These  were  the  first  Christian  bishops  who  had  aj)- 
peared  in  arms,  the  prototypes  of  the  warhke  and 
robber-prelates  of  later  times.  The  Pope  urged 
their  restoration,  the  King  assented :  but  the  rein- 
stated prelates  returned  to  their  lawless  and  unepis- 
copal  courses,  and  were  again  degraded  by  the  common 
indignation. 

The  act  of  intercession  was  more  worthy  of  the  head 
of  Western  Christendom.  The  Eunuch  Nar-  a.d.  552-667. 
ses  had  ruled  Italy  and  Rome  as  Exarch  for  fifteen 
years  since  the  conquest,  with  vigor  and  justice. 
Justinian  and  Theodora  had  gone  to  their  account ; 
the  throne  of  the  East  was  occupied  by  Justin  the 
younger.  But  the  province  groaned  under  the  rapac- 
ity of  Narses.  Petitions  were  sent  to  Constantinople 
with  the  significant  words,  that  the  yoke  of  the  bar- 
barian Gauls  was  lighter  than  this  Roman  tyranny. 
Narses  was  superseded  by  the  Exarch  Longinus,  insult 
was  added  to  his  degi-adation.  "  Let  him  to  his  dis- 
taff," is  the  speech  ascribed  to  the  imperious  wife  of 
the  Emperor  Justin  the  younger.  "  I  will  weave  her 
such  a  web  as  vshe  Avill  find  it  hard  to  unravel,"  re- 
joined the  indignant  Eunuch.  He  returned  to  Naples, 
from  whence  he  entered  into  negotiations  with  the 
terrible  Lombards,  who  had  once  already  invaded 
Italy.  Revolt,  wnth  Narses  at  its  head,  threatened 
the  peace  of  Italy.  The  Pope  undertook  an  embass}' 
to  Naples,  appeased  the  wrathful  Eunuch,  who  return 

1  Ebrodoniuii.  Vapincum. 


476  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

ed  to  Rome,  and  closed  his  days  as  a  peaceflil  subject 
of  the  empire. 

The  few  years  of  the  pontificate  of  Benedict  I.  were 
Benedict  I.  occupicd  with  the  miseries  of  the  Lombard 
Junes, 574.  Ji^yasion.  His  successor  Pelagius  II.  in  those 
disastrous  times  was  consecrated  without  awaiting  the 
sanction  of  the  Emperor.^  Pelagius  in  vain  endeavored 
Nov.  27, 588.  to  rcduce  the  bishops  of  the  north  of  Italy 
to  accept  the  fifth  Council  of  Constantinople.  Some 
who  were  now  under  the  Lombard  dominion  paid  no 
regard  to  his  expostulations ;  a  synod  at  Grado  re- 
jected his  mandates,  and  the  bishops  defied  the  powei 
of  the  Exarch,  through  whom  Pelagius  sought  to  awe 
them  to  submission.  Yet  Pelagius,  in  one  respect, 
maintained  all  the  haughtiness  of  his  See.  The 
A.D.  588.  Bishop  of  Constantinople  had  again  assumed 
the  title  of  CEcumenic  Patriarch,  the  assumption  was 
confirmed  by  a  Council  at  Constantinople.  Pelagius 
protested  against  this  execrable,  sacrilegious,  diabolic 
A.D.  590.  usurpation  :  but  in  Constantinople  his  invec- 
tives made  no  impression.  Pelagius  was  succeeded  by 
Gregory  the  Great. 

Since  the  conquest  of  Italy  the  Popes  had  been  the 
humble  subjects  of  the  Eastern  Emperor.  They  were 
appointed,  if  not  directly  by  his  mandate,  under  his 
influence.  They  dared  not  assume  their  throne  with- 
out his  permission.  The  Roman  Ordinal  of  that  time 
declares  the  election  incomplete  and  invalid  till  it  had 
received  the  imperial  sanction.^  Months  elapsed,  in 
the  case  of  Benedict  ten  months,  before  the  clerg}' 
ventured  to  proceed  to  the  consecration. 

1  Sine  jussioiie  Printipis,  Vit.  Pelag.  II. 

2  Compare  Schroeck,  xvii.  p.  236. 


CiTAF.  IV.     OYEKTITROW   OF   THE   GOTHIC   KINGDOM.       477 

Pelacrius  TI.  was  cliosen  when  Rome  was  invested 
by  the  Lombards ;  for  this  ignominious  reason  he  had 
been  consecrated  without  the  consent  of  the  Emperor. 

The  conquest  of  Italy  by  the  Greeks  w^as,  to  a  great 
extent  at  least,  the  w^ork  of  the  Catholic  clergy.  Their 
impatience  under  a  foreign  and  an  Arian  yoke  is  by  no 
means  surprising ;  nor  could  they  anticipate  that  the 
return  to  Roman  dominion  would  be  the  worst  evil  yet 
endured  by  Italy.  Rome  suffered  more  under  the  al- 
ternate sieges  and  alternate  capture  by  the  Byzantines 
and  the  Goths  than  it  had  from  Alaric  or  even  Gen- 
seric,  as  much  perhaps  as  in  its  later  sieges  by  Robert 
Guiscard,  and  by  the  Constable  Bourbon.  The  feeble 
but  tyrannical  Exarchs  soon  made  Italy  regret  the  just, 
if  oppressive  and  ungenial  rule  of  the  Goths.  The 
overthrow  of  the  Gothic  kingdom  was  to  Italy  an  un- 
mitio-ated  evil.  A  monarch  like  Witio;es  or  Totila 
would  soon  have  repaired  the  mischiefs  caused  by  the 
degenerate  successors  of  Theodoric,  Athalaric  and 
Theodotus.  In  their  overthrow  began  the  fatal  policy 
of  the  Roman  See,  fatal  at  least  to  Italy  (how^ever,  by 
the  aggrandizement  of  the  Roman  See,  it  may  have 
been,  up  to  a  certain  time,  beneficial  to  northern  Chris- 
tendom), which  never  would  permit  a  powerful  native 
kingdom  to  unite  Italy,  or  a  very  large  part  of  it,  under 
one  dominion.  Whatever  it  may  have  been  to  Chris- 
tendom, the  Papacy  has  been  the  eternal,  implacable 
foe  of  Italian  independence  and  Italian  unity ;  and  so 
(as  far  as  independence  and  unity  might  have  given 
dignity,  political  weight,  and  prosperity)  to  the  welfare 
of  Italy.  On  every  occasion  the  Goths,  the  Lom- 
bards, as  later  the  Normans  and  the  House  of  Arra- 
gon,  found  their  deadliest  enemies  in  the  popes.     Aa 


478  LATIN  CHRISTIAmTY.  Book  IIL 

now  from  the  East,  so  then  from  beyond  tlie  Alps, 
they  summoned  some  more  remote  potentate,  Charle- 
magne, the  Othos,  Charles  VIII.,  Charles  of  Anjou, 
almost  always  worse  tyrants  than  those  whom  they 
overthrew.  From  that  time  servitude,  servitude  to  the 
stranger,  was  the  doom  of  Italy.  To  Rome  herself, 
the  foreign  sovereign  (the  tyranny  of  the  Eastern  Em- 
peror and  his  Exarchs  was  an  admonition  of  what  the 
transalpine  emperors  might  hereafter  prove)  was  hardly 
less  dangerous  than  a  native  and  indigenous  sovereign 
would  have  been.  And  if  the  papacy  had  been  more 
confined  to  its  religious  power,  less  tempted  or  less  com- 
pelled to  assume  temporal  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  su- 
premacy, that  power  had  been  immeasurably  greater, 
as  less  involved  in  political  strife,  less  exposed  to  that 
kind  of  personal  collision  with  the  temporal  monarchy, 
in  which  a  sovereignty  which  rests  on  the  awe  and  rev- 
erence of  men  must  suffer ;  it  might  have  maintained 
its  ecclesiastical  supremacy  over  obedient  and  tributary 
Christendom,  even  held  as  vast  possessions  on  the  ten- 
ure not  of  a  temporal  princedom,  but  of  an  ecclesiasti- 
cal endowment ;  and  thus  more  entirely  ruled  the 
minds  of  men  by  confining  its  authority  to  that  nobler 
and,  for  a  time  at  least,  more  unassailable  province. 

Rome,  jealous  of  all  temporal  sovereignty  but  her 
own,  for  centuries  yielded  up,  or  rather  made  Italy  a 
battle  field  to  the  Transalpine  and  the  stranger ;  and  at 
the  same  time  so  secularized  her  own  spiritual  suprem- 
acy as  to  confound  altogether  the  priest  and  the  poli- 
tician, to  degrade  absolutely  and  almost  irrevocably  the 
Idngdom  of  Christ  into  a  kingdom  of  this  world. 


Chap.  V.  FIRST  EFFECTS    OF   CHRISTIANITY.  479 


CHAPTER  V. 

CHRISTIAN  JURISPRUDENCE.! 

Christianity  had  been  now  for  more  than  two  cen- 
turies the  established  rehgion  of  the  Roman  Empire  ; 
it  was  the  rehgion  of  all  those  independent  kingdoms 
which  were  formino;  themselves  within  the  dissevered 
provinces  of  Rome.  Between  the  religion  and  the 
laws  of  all  nations  must  subsist  an  intimate  and  indis- 
soluble connection.  During  all  that  period  the  vast  and 
august  jurisprudence  of  Rome  had  been  constantly  en- 
larged by  new  imperial  edicts  or  authoritative  decrees, 
supplementary  to,  or  corrective  and  interpretative  of, 
the  ancient  statutes. 

I.  The  jurisprudence  of  the  old  Roman  Empire  at 
first  admitted,  but  only  in  a  limited  degree,  this  modi- 
fying power  of  Christianity.  The  laws  which  were 
purely  Christian  were  hardly  more  than  accessory  and 
supplementary  to  the  vast  code  which  had  accumulated 
from  the  days  of  the  republic,  through  the  great  law- 
yers of  the  empire,  down  to  Theodosius  and  Justinian, 
But  the  complete  moral,  social,  and  in  some  sense  polit- 
ical revolution,  through  Christianity,  could  not  be  with- 

1  Let  me  not  be  suspected  of  the  vain  ambition  of  emulating  Gibbon'3 
splendid  chapter  on  Roman  Law,  which  has  become  the  text-book  in  uni- 
versities (see  my  edition  of  Gibbon).  My  object  is  more  narrow  and 
limited;  and  appeared  necessary  to  the  history  even  of  Latin  Christianity; 
to  show  the  interworking  of  Christianity  into  the  Roman  jurisprudence. 


480  LATIN"  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

out  influence,  both  as  creating  a  necessity  for  new  laws 
adapted  to  the  present  order  of  things,  or  as  control- 
ling, through  the  mind  of  the  legislator,  the  general 
temper  and  spirit  of  the  legislation.  A  Christian  Em- 
Firat  effects    pcror  could  uot  exclude  this  influence  from 

of  Christian-     .  .  •      i        •   i  m        •  i  ■  i 

ity.  his  mind,  either  as  aiiecting  his  moral  appre- 

ciation of  certain  obliojations  and  transo-ressions,  or  as 
ascertaining  and  defining  the  social  position,  the  rights 
and  duties,  of  new  classes  and  divisions  of  his  subjects. 
Under  Christianity  a  new  order  of  men  of  a  peculiar 
character,  with  special  privileges,  immunities,  and 
functions,  had  grown  up  throughout  the  whole  society ; 
new  corporate  bodies,  the  churches  and  the  monaster- 
ies, had  been  formed,  holding  property  of  every  kind 
by  a  new  tenure  ;  certain  offences  in  the  penal  code 
were  now  looked  on  with  a  milder  or  more  severe 
aspect ;  a  more  strict  morality  had  attempted  to  knit 
more  closely  some  of  the  relations  of  life ;  vices  which 
had  been  tolerated  became  crimes  against  social  order ; 
and  an  offence,  absolutely  new  in  the  extent  of  odious- 
ness  in  which  it  was  held,  and  the  rigor  with  which  it 
was  punished.  Heresy,  or  dissent  from  the  dominant 
religion,  in  all  its  various  forms,  had  been  introduced 
into  the  criminal  jurisdiction,  not  of  the  Church  only, 
but  of  the  Empire.  The  imperial  legislation  could  not 
refuse,  it  was  not  inclined  to  refuse,  to  take  cognizance 
of  this  novel  order  of  things,  and  to  adapt  itself  to  the 
necessities  of  the  ao-e. 

o 

11.  The  Barbaric  Codes,  which  embodied  in  written 
Barbaric  statutcs  tlic  uuwritteu,  immemorial,  and  tra- 
rodes.  ditionary   laws  and   usages  of   the  Teutonic 

tribes  (the  common  law  of  the  German  forests),  assum- 
ing their  positive  form  after  the  different  races  had  sub- 


Chap.  V.  CHRISTIAN  JURISPRUDENCE.  481 

mitted  to  Christianity,  were  more  completely  interj^en- 
etrated,  as  it  were,  with  Christian  influences.  The 
unlettered  barbarians  willingly  accepted  the  aid  of  the 
lettered  clergy,  still  chiefly  of  Roman  birth,  to  reduce 
to  wilting  the  institutes  of  their  forefathers.  Though 
these  codes  therefore,  in  their  general  character  and 
main  principles,  are  essentially  Teutonic  —  in  their 
broad  principles  are  deduced  from  the  free  usages  of 
the  old  German  tribes  —  yet  throughout  they  are  mod- 
ified by  Christian  notions,  and  admit  a  singular  infu 
sion,  not  merely  of  the  precepts  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, but  of  the  positive  laws  of  the  Old. 

But  III.  Christianity  had  its  own  peculiar  and 
special  jurisprudence.  The  Christian  com- christian  ju- 
munity,  or  rather  the  separate  communities,  "^p^'^'^ence 
had  originally  exercised  this  power  of  internal  legisla 
tion.  They  held  each  its  separate  tribunal,  which  ad- 
judicated not  only  on  religious  matters,  but,  as  an 
acknowledged  wise  and  venerated  arbitrator,  in  civil 
litigation.  This  legislation  and  administration  of  law 
had  gradually  become  vested  in  the  clergy  alone ;  and, 
instead  of  each  community  ruling  its  own  internal  con- 
cerns, and  presiding  over  its  own  separate  members, 
the  Church,  as  chiefly  represented  by  the  bishops, 
either  in  local  or  national  synods,  or  in  general  coun- 
cils, enacted  statutes  or  canons,  considered  binding  on 
the  whole  Christian  world.  The  sanctions  of  this 
Christian  jurispiTidence  were  properly  altogether  relig- 
ious :  they  rested  on  opinion,  on  the  voluntary  submis- 
sion of  each  individual  mind  to  spiritual  authority. 
Their  punishments  and  rewards  were  properly  those  ol 
the  life  to  come.  The  only  punishments  in  this  world 
were  those  of  the  penitential  discipline,  or  excommuni- 

VOL.   1.  .  31 


482  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

cation  from  the  Christian  society,  which  was  tanta- 
mount, with  all  who  believed  salvation  to  be  the  exclu- 
sive privilege  of  the  Church,  to  a  sentence  of  eternal 
damnation.  Those  who  braved  that  disfranchisement 
—  who  either,  as  the  Jews,  never  had  entered  within 
the  community,  or  as  holding  heretical  opinions  had 
renounced  it  —  were  rightfully  beyond  its  jurisdiction. 
The  legislators  and  administrators  of  the  laws  had  lost 
all  cognizance  over  those  upon  whose  faith  or  whose 
fears  they  had  no  hold.  These  were  outlaws,  who,  as 
they  blindly  or  obstinately  disclaimed  the  inestimable 
privileges  of  the  Church,  could  not  be  amenable  at 
least  to  its  temporal  penalties.  Unhappily  the  civil  and 
canon,  the  Imperial  and  Christian,  legislation  would 
not  maintain  their  respective  boundaries.  This  arose 
pai'tly  from  the  established  constitutional  doctrine  of 
Rome,  that  the  Republic  (now  the  Emperor)  was  the 
religious  as  well  as  the  civil  head  of  the  Empire ; 
pr^^tly  f'ora  the  blindness  of  Christian  zeal,  which 
tiio\ight  all  means  lawful  to  advance  the  true,  or  to  sup- 
n  is,  belief;  and  therefore  fell  into  the  irrec- 
:radiction  of  inflicting  temporal  penalties 
uy  leiijpuiui  hands  for  spiritual  offences.  Athanasius 
8i:yrM-,-,u-  bar  ;d  and  applauded  the  full  civil  supremacy 
peror.  01     16  statc  wlien  it  commanded  tiie  exile  oi 

iiriu.  cm.  ted,  resisted,  branded  it  as  usurping  tyr- 
anny, wiicn  t  would  exact  obedience  from  himself. 
Thus,  though  the  Councils  were  the  proper  legislative 
senates  of  Christianity,  so  long  as  the  Empire  lasted  in 
the  West,  even  later;  and  in  the  East  down  to  tlie 
latest  times;  the  Emperors  enacted  and  enforced  the 
observation  of  the  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  of  the  civil 
law.     Theodosius  and  Gratian  define  or  ratify  the  defi 


Chap.  V.  CODE  OF  JUSTINIAN.  483 

nition  of  doctrines,  declare  and  condemn  heietlcs.  Jus- 
tinian is  a  kind  of  Caliph  of  Christianity,  at  once  in 
the  authoritative  tone  and  in  the  subjects  which  he 
comprehends  under  his  decrees  he  is  a  Pope  and  an 
Emperor.  In  the  barbaric  codes  there  is  the  same  ab- 
solute supremacy  of  the  sovereign  law  —  in  theory  the 
same,  but  restricted  by  the  more  limited  royal  power, 
and  the  peculiar  relation  of  the  clergy  to  tribes  newly 
converted  to  Christianity.  Where  there  is  a  strong 
monarchy,  it  assumes  a  dominion  scarcely  less  full  and 
complete  than  under  the  Christian  Emperors.  Charle- 
magne, in  his  imperial  edicts,  is  at  once  the  legislator 
of  the  Church  and  of  the  State. 

Thus  then  in  Christendom  there  are  three  systems  of 
jurisprudence,  the  Roman  Law,  the  Barbaric  Three  sys- 
or  Teutonic  Law,  the  Law  of  the  Church— *""^°^^^^- 
this  last,  as  yet  but  young,  humble  and  limited  in  its 
pretensions,  a  discipline  rather  than  a  law,  or  confined, 
in  a  great  degree,  to  the  special  observance  of  the  cler- 
gy- 

I.  The  Emperor  Justinian,  having  now  reunited  the 
Eastern  and  Western  Empires,  aspired  to  be  justinian 
the  legislator  of  the  world ;  on  Christendom  ^^'^^' 
and  on  the  Roman  Empire,  according  to  his  notions  com- 
mensurate, he  would  bestow  a  full,  complete,  indefeasible 
Code  of  Law.  Of  the  barbaric  codes,  if  even  in  their 
hiitiatory  growth  or  existence,  the  Roman  law,  whicli 
still  held  the  whole  Roman  world  to  be  its  proper 
dominion,  would  be  as  disdainfully  ignorant,  as  if  they 
were  yet  the  usages  of  wild  tribes  beyond  the  Rhine 
or  the  Danube.  Even  over  the  Church  or  Canoni- 
cal Jurisprudence  it  would  assert,  as  will  immedi- 
ately appear,  majestic  superiority ;  it  woidd  admit,  con- 


484  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

firm,  sanction  such  parts  as  might  demand  tlie  supreme 
imperial  intervention,  or  require  imperial  authority. 

Justinian  aspired  to  consolidate  in  his  eternal  legisla- 
Necessity  for  tiou  all  the  aucieut  and  modern  statutes  of 

consolidation      ,  ,  ,—,,  •         <-  i  i 

of  laws.  the  realm.  1  he  necessity  tor  a  complete  and 
final  revisal  —  an  authoritative  reconstruction  and  har- 
mony of  the  vast  mass  of  republican,  senatorial,  impe- 
rial decrees,  or  those  accredited  interpretations  of  the 
law  which  had  become  law,  and  were  admitted  in  the 
courts  of  justice  —  had  long  been  acknowledged.  The 
Roman  jurisprudence  must  become  a  Code ;  the  decis- 
ions of  the  great  lawyers  must  be  selected,  distributed 
mder  proper  heads,  and  rules  be  laid  down  for  the 
ouperiority  of  some  over  others.  This  jurisprudence 
comprehended  unwritten  as  well  as  written  law.  The 
unwritten  were  the  ancient  Roman  traditions,  and  the 
principles  of  eternal  justice.  Tlie  sources  of  the  writ- 
ten law  were  the  XII  Tables,  the  Laws  of  the  Repub- 
lic, whether  Senatus-Consults  or  Plebiscites,  the  de- 
crees of  the  Emperors,  the  edicts  of  the  Prietors,  and 
the  answers  of  the  learned  in  the  law.^  Already  at- 
tempts had  been  made  to  systematize  this  vast,  multifa- 
rious, and  comprehensive  jurisprudence  in  the  Grego- 
rian, Hermogenian,  and  finally  the  Theodosian  Codes. 
But  the  enormous  mass  of  laws  which  had  still  accu- 
mulated, the  conflicting  decisions  of  the  lawyers,  the 
oppugnance  of  the  laws  themselves,  seemed  to  demand 
this  ultimate  organization  of  the  whole ;  and  in  Tri- 
bonian  and  his  Byzantine  lawyers,  Justinian  supposed 
that  he  possessed  tlie  wisdom,  in  himself  the  nower 
and  authority,  to  establish  forever  the  jurisprudence 
of  Rome. 

1  Kespuiisa  prudent  mil. 


Chap.  V.  CODE  OF  JUSTINIAN.  485 

But  tlie  change  which  has  come    over  tlic  Roman 
Empire  is  manifest  at  once.     That  Justinian  Justinian  a 

/^i      .      .  -r-^  'in  n  Christian 

IS  a  Christian  Hdnperor  appears  m  the  rront  oi  emperor. 
his  jurisprudence.  Before  the  august  temple  of  the 
Roman  law,  there  is,  as  it  were,  a  vestibule,  in  which 
the  Emperor  seats  himself  as  the  religious  legislator  of 
the  world  in  its  new  relation  towards  God.  The  Chris- 
tian Emperor  treats  all  mankind  as  his  subjects,  in  their 
religious  as  well  as  in  their  civil  capacity.  The  Emper- 
or's creed,  as  well  as  his  edicts,  is  the  universal  law  of  the 
Empire.  That  which  was  accessory  in  the  code  of  the 
former  Christian  Emperors,  and  in  the  Theodosian  code 
fills  two  supplementary  books,  stands  in  the  front,  and 
forms  the  Preface  to  that  of  Justinian.  His  code  opens 
with  the  Imperial  Creed  on  the  Trinity,  and  the  Impe- 
rial Anathema  against  Nestorius,  Eutyches,  Apollina- 
ris.  Justinian  declares  indeed  that  he  holds  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Church,  of  the  Apostles  and  their  succes- 
sors. He  recognizes  the  authority  of  the  four  great 
Councils.  He  even  acknowledges  the  supremacy  of 
the  Roman  Church,  and  commands  all  Churches  to  be 
united  with  her.  At  the  time  of  the  publication  of  the 
code,  John  III.  was  Bishop  of  Rome  ;  but  he  had  been 
appointed  under  the  Exarch,  his  inauguration  had  sub- 
missively awaited  the  Emperor's  approbation.  Rome 
therefore,  it  was  hoped,  had  become,  notwithstanding 
the  rapid  advance  of  the  Lombards,  an  integral,  an  in- 
separable part  of  the  Empire.  Justinian  legislates 
therefore  for  Rome  as  for  the  East.  But  though  the 
Emperor  condescends  thus  to  justify  the  orthodoxy  of 
his  creed,  it  is  altogether  of  his  absolute,  uncontrolled, 
undisputed  will  that  it  is  law.  It  might  seem  indeed 
that   the   clergy  were  the  subjects,   as  first   in   rank, 


486  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

whose  offices,  even  whose  Hves,  must  first  be  regulated 
by  imperial  legislation. 

In  the  following  chapters  the  appointment,  the  organi- 
zation, the  subordination,  the  authority  of  the  ecclesias- 
Laws  for  the  tical,  as  of  the  civil  magistrates  of  the  realm, 
'^'^^^*  is  assumed  to  emanate  from,  to  be  granted, 

limited,  prescribed  by,  the  supreme  Emperor.  Excom 
munication  is  uttered  indeed  by  the  ecclesiastics,  but 
according  to  the  imperial  laws  and  with  the  imperial 
warrant.  He  deio;ns  indeed  to  allow  the  canons  of  the 
Church  to  be  of  not  less  equal  authority  than  his  laws ; 
hut  his  laws  are  divine,  and  those  divine  laws  all  met- 
ropolitans, bishops,  and  clergy  are  bound  to  obey,  and, 
if  commanded,  to  publish.^  The  hierarchy  is  regulated 
by  his  ordinance.  He  enacts  the  superiority  of  the 
Metropolitan  over  the  bishop,  of  the  bishop  over  the 
abbot,  of  the  abbot  over  the  monk.  Distinct  imperial 
laws  rule  the  monasteries.  The  law  prescribes  the  or- 
dinations of  bishops,  the  persons  qualified  for  ordina- 
tion,^ the  whole  form  and  process  of  that  holy  ceremo- 
ny. The  law  admitted  no  immunities  in  the  Clergy  for 
crimes  committed  against  the  state  and  against  society. 
It  took  upon  itself  the  severe  superintendence  of  cler- 
ical morals.  The  passion  for  theatrical  amusements, 
for  the  wild  excitement  of  the  horse-race  and  the  com- 
bat with  wild  beasts,  or  even  more  licentious  entertain- 
ments, had  carried  away  many  of  the  clergy,  even  of 
the  bishops.  A  law,  more  than  once  reenacted  and 
modified,  while  it  acknowledged  the  power  of  the  cler- 

1  Tovg  (5t-  T&eiovg  Kavovag  ovk  eTiaTTOv  tuv  vofiav  laxveiv  koI  ol  rjidrepoi 
BovXovrai  vofioL.  —  Cod.  ii.  3,  44.  They  are  to  publish  rhv  ^elov  yfiCoV 
TovTov  vofiov.  —  Cod.  ii.  3,  43. 

2  Especially  Nov.  cxxiii. ;  it  assesses  the  fees  to  be  paid  on  each  promo- 
tion. 


CiiAr.  V  LAWS   FOR  THE  CLERGY.  487 

^y's  prayers  to  obtain  victory  over  the  barbarians,  and 
to  obtain  from  Heaven  extended  empire,  declared  that 
for  this  reason  they  should  be  unimpeachable.  But, 
notmthstanding  the  most  solemn  admonition,  they 
could  not  be  persuaded,  not  even  the  bishops,  to  ab- 
stain from  the  gaming-table,  or  the  theatre  with  all  its 
blasphemies  and  license.  The  Emperor  was  compelled 
to  pass  this  law,  prohibiting,  under  pain  of  suspension 
for  the  first  offence,  of  irrevocable  deo;radation  and  ser- 
vitude  ^  to  the  ])ublic  corporations,  any  one  of  the  cler- 
gy, of  any  rank,  from  being  present  at  the  gaming-table 
or  at  any  public  spectacle.  These  penalties,  with  other 
religions  punishments,  as  fastings,  were  to  be  inflicted, 
according  to  the  rank  of  the  offender,  by  the  bishop  or 
the  metropolitan.  The  refusal  to  punish,  or  the  en- 
deavor to  conceal,  such  offences  made  both  the  civil  of- 
ficers and  ecclesiastics  liable  to  civil  as  well  as  to  eccle- 
siastical penalties. 

The  Bishop  was  an  imperial  officer  for  certain  tem- 
poral affairs.  In  each  city  he  was  appointed,  with 
three  of  the  chief  citizens,  annually  to  inspect  the  pub- 
lic accounts,  and  all  possessions  or  bequests  made  for 
public  works,  markets,  aqueducts,  baths,  walls  and 
gates,  and  bridges.  Before  him  guardians  of  lunatics 
swore  on  the  Gospels  to  administer  their  trust  with 
fidelity,'-^  and  many  legal  acts  might  be  performed 
either  in  the  presence  of  the  Defensor  or  the  bishop 
of  the  city."  For  the  discharge  of  these  temporal 
functions  the  bishops  were  reasonably  answerable  to 
the  Emperor ;    and  thus  the  empire  acknowledged  at 

1  AovTieveiv.  —  Cod.  i.  14,  34. 

2  Cod.  i.  4,  27. 

3  De  Episcop.  Audient,. 


488  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Bov>k  III. 

the  inspiration  of  Christianity  a  new  order  of  magis- 
tracy. 

The  law  limited  the  number  of  clergy  to  be  attached 
to  each  Church.  This  constitution  was  demanded  in 
order  to  check  that  multiplication  of  the  clergy  which 
exhausted  the  revenues  of  the  Church,  and  led  to  bur- 
densome debts.  In  the  great  Church  at  Constanti- 
nople the  numbers  were  to  be  reduced  to  425,  besides 
100  ostiarii.^  The  smaller  churches  were  on  no  ac- 
count to  have  more  than  they  could  maintain. 

The  State  issued  laws  for  the  regulation  of  monas- 
teries. None  were  to  be  established  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  Bishop.  The  Bishop  elected  the  superior 
from  the  community.  Slaves  might  be  admitted  as 
well  as  freemen.  A  probation  of  three  years  was 
required  from  all.  A  slave,  if  a  runaway  or  thief, 
might  be  claimed  by  his  master  during  those  three 
years.  When  a  monk,  he  could  no  longer  be  claimed, 
unless  he  abandoned  the  monastic  life.  All  were  to 
live  in  common,  to  sleep  in  one  chamber.  If  a  monk 
wished  to  leave  his  monastery  he  went  forth  a  beggar ; 
the  monastery  retained  all  his  property.  If  he  entered 
into  the  army,  it  could  only  be  into  the  lowest  rank. 
No  monk  could  leave  one  monastery  for  another.^ 

1  60  presbyters,  100  male  40  female  deacons,  90  subdeacons,  110  readers, 
25  singers.  —  Novell,  iii.  There  is  a  curious  law  concerning  interments  in 
Constantinople.  1000  shops,  or  their  rent,  seem  to  have  been  bestowed  on 
the  church  for  the  burial  of  the  poor;  they  had  a  bier  and  the  attendance 
of  the  clergy  without  charge.  The  rich  paid  according  to  their  means  and 
wll;  there  was  a  fixed  payment  for  certain  more  splendid  biers  and  more 
solemn  attendance.  —  Novell,  xciii. 

2  The  Institutes  acknowledge  the  Bishop,  with  the  Defensor,  to  have  cer- 
tain poweru  of  appointing  guardians. — i.  20,5.  Justinian  speaks  of  the 
modesty  of  his  times.  —  i.  22, 1.  Two  clauses  (2,  i.  8,  9)  relate  to  ch  irches. 
&c.,  iii.  28,  7.  Churches  named.  — iv.  18,  8.  Rape  of  nuns  made  a  capi 
tal  crime. 


nnAT>.  V.  NATURE  OF  ROJIAN  LAW.  489 

Such  were  the  all-comprehenrling  ecclesiastical  laws 
which  the  Emperor  claimed  the  power  to  enact.  In 
many  cases  he  commanded  or  hmited  tlie  anathema  or 
the  interdict.  The  obedient  world,  inclnding  the 
Church,  acknowledged,  at  least  by  submissive  obedi- 
ence, this  imperial  supremacy. 

It  is  not  till  Justinian  has  thus,  as  it  were,  fulfilled 
his  divine  mission  of  legislating  for  his  subjects  as 
Christians,  that  he  assumes  his  proper  function,  his  leg- 
islation for  them  as  Romans,  and  proceeds  to  his  earthly 
task,  the  consolidation  of  the  ancient  and  modern  stat- 
utes of  the  Empire. 

But  the  legislation  of  Justinian,  as  far  as  it  was  orig- 
inal, in  his  Code,  his  Pandects,  and  in  his  Institu- 
tions, witliin  its  civil  domain,  was  still  almost  Roman  law 
exclusively  Roman.  It  might  seem  that  Roman. 
Christianity  could  hardly  penetrate  into  the  solid  and 
well-compacted  body  of  Roman  law  ;  or  rather,  the 
immutable  principles  of  justice  had  been  so  clearly  dis- 
cerned by  the  inflexible  rectitude  of  the  Roman  mind, 
so  sagaciously  applied  by  the  wisdom  of  her  great  law- 
yers, that  Christianity  was  content  to  acquiesce  in  those 
statutes,  which  even  she  might,  excepting  in  some  re- 
spects, despair  of  rendering  more  equitable.  Chris- 
tianity, in  the  Roman  Empire,  had  entered  into  a  tem- 
poral polity,  with  all  its  institutions  long  settled,  its 
laws  already  framed.  The  Christians  had  in  their 
primitive  state  no  natural  place  in  the  order  of  things. 
That  separate  authority  which  the  Church  exercised 
over  the  members  of  its  own  community  from  its  ori- 
gin, and  without  which  the  loosest  form  of  society  can- 
not subsist,  was  in  no  way  recognized  by  the  civil 
power  ;  they  were  the  voluntary  laws  of  a  voluntary 


490  LATIN  cnRiSTiAifrrY.  book  ni. 

association.  But,  besides  these  special  laws  of  their 
own,  the  Christians  were  in  every  respect  subjects  of 
the  Empire.  They  were  strangers  in  religion  alone. 
After  the  comprehensive  decree  of  Caracalla,  they,  like 
the  rest  of  mankind  within  the  pale  of  the  Empire, 
became  Roman  citizens  ;  and  the  supremacy  of  the 
State  in  all  things  which  did  not  concern  the  vital  prin- 
ciples of  their  religion  (for  which  they  were  still  bound, 
if  the  civil  power  should  exercise  compulsion,  to  suffer 
martyrdom)  was  acknowledged,  both  in  the  West  and 
in  the  East,  both  before  and  after  the  conversion  of 
Constantine. 

The  influence  therefore  of  Christianity  on  the  older 
laws  of  the   Roman  Empire  could   only  be  exercised 

throuo-h  the  mind  of  the  legislator,  now  become  Chris- 
es o  ' 

tian  ;  and  the  general  moral  sentiment,  which  became 
more  pure  or  elevated,  might  modify,  and  gradually 
mitigate,  some  provisions,  or  more  rigidly  enforce  cer- 
tain obligations.  The  Roman  law,  in  its  original  code, 
might  seem  indeed  to  take  a  pnde  in  resting  upon  its 
antiquity  and  its  purely  Roman  character  ;  it  admits 
not  the  language,  it  appears  even  to  affect  a  supercil- 
ious ignorance  of  the  religion,  of  the  people.^  In  the 
Institutes  of  Justinian  ^  it  requires  keen  observation  to 
detect  the  Christianity  of  the  legislator.  Tribonian, 
the  great  lawyer,  to  whom  the  vast  work  of  framing 
the  whole  jurisprudence  was  committed  by  the  Em- 


1  There  are  several  quotations  from  Homer,  uot  one  allusion  to  any  of 
the  sacred  writings  of  Christianity. 

2  The  Institutes  are  without  those  prefatory  chapters  of  Christian  legisla- 
tion contained  in  the  Code.  From  those  chapters  we  pass  into  the  Roman 
Code,  as  into  another  land;  and  it  demands  our  closest  attention  to  discern 
riow  far,  now  that  he  has  abandoned  all  the  language  of  Christiarity,  tho 
spirit  of  the  religion  follows  the  emperor  into  th  i  ancient  realm. 


CiTAr.  V.  LAW   OF  PERSONS.  491 

peror,  has  uicniTed  the  suspicion  of  atlieism,  an  accusa- 
tion which,  just  or  not,  is  strong  evidence  that  his  work 
had  refused  to  incorporate  any  of  the  statutes,  and  bore, 
no  signs  of  Christianity.  The  prefatory  Cliristian  laws, 
though  now  become  fundamental,  are  altogether  extra- 
neous to  the  old  reenacted  system.  They  are  recorded 
laws  before  Tribonian  assumes  his  functions. 

The  Roman  Law  may  be  most  conveniently  consid- 
ered, in  connection  with  the  influence  of  Christianity, 
as   it    regards    A.    Persons ;    B.    Property ;    and    O 
Crime.^ 

A.    The  law   as  regards  Persons  comprehends  the 
ranks  and  divisions,  and  the  relations  of  mankind  to 
each  other,  sanctioned  or  recognized  by  the  ^^^^  ^^  p^j.. 
law,  with  the  privileges,  rights,  and  immuni-  ^°'^- 
ties  it  may  grant,  the  duties  it  may  impose  on   each. 
In  nothino;  is  the  stem  and  Roman  character  of  the 
Justinian  Code  more  manifest  than  in  its  full  freemen 
recognition  of  slavery.    Throughout,  the  broad  ^^^  ^^*^®^ 
distinction  of  mankind  into  freemen  and  slaves  is  the 
unquestioned,  admitted  groundwork  of  legislation.     It 
declares  indeed  the  natural  equality  of  man,  and  so  far 
is  in  advance  of  the  doctrine  which  prevailed  in  the 
time  of  Aristotle,  and  is  vindicated  by  that  j^hilosopher, 
that  certain  races  or  classes  of  men  are  pronounced  by 
the  unanswerable  voice  of  nature,  by  tbeir  physical  and 
intellectual  inferiority,  as  designed  for  and  irrevocably 
doomed  to  servitude.     But  this  natural  equality  is  ab- 
solutely and  entirely  forfeited  by  certain  acknowledged 
disqualifications  for  freedom,  by  captivity  in  war,  self 

i  This  in  some  degree  differs  fi"om  the  division  adopted  by  many  wntera 
from  the  Institutes  of  Justinian,  under  which  the  criminal  law  ranks  as  a 
oranch  of  the  law  of  actions  or  obligations. 


492  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  ItL 

vendition  into  slaveiy,  or  servile  descent.  Christianity 
had  indeed  exalted  the  slave  to  spiritual  equality,  as 
having  the  same  title  to  the  blessings,  consolations,  and 
promises  of  the  Gospel,  as  capable  of  practising  all 
Christian  \drtues,  and  therefore  of  obtaining  the  Chris- 
tian's reward.  This  religious  elevation  could  not  be 
without  influence,  besides  the  more  generous  humanity 
to  which  it  would  soften  the  master,  on  their  temporal 
and  social  position.  It  took  them  out  of  the  class  of 
brute  beasts  or  inanimate  things,  to  be  transferred  like 
cattle  or  other  goods  from  one  master  to  another,  which 
the  owner  might  damage  or  destroy  with  as  much  im- 
punity as  any  other  property  ;  and  placed  them  in  that 
of  human  beings,  equally  under  the  care  of  Divine 
Providence,  and  gifted  with  the  same  immortality. 
But  the  legislation  of  the  Christian  Emperor  went  no 
further.  It  makes  no  claim  to  higher  humanity ;  it 
does  not  attempt  to  despoil  the  pagan  Emperors  of  the 
praise  due  to  the  first  step  made  in  that  direction.  It 
ascribes  to  the  heathen  sovereign,  Antoninus,  the  great 
change  which  had  placed  the  life  of  the  slave  under  the 
protection  of  the  law.  Even  his  punishment  was  then 
restricted  by  legislative  enactment.^  But  the  abroga- 
tion of  slavery  was  not  contemplated  even  as  a  remote 
possibility.  A  general  enfranchisement  seems  never  to 
have  dawned  on  the  wisest  and  best  of  the  Christian 
writers,  notwithstanding  the  gi'eater  facility  for  manu- 
mission, and  the  sanctity,  as  it  were,  assigned  to  the  act 
by  Constantino,  by  placing  it  under  the  special  superin- 
tendence of  the  clergy. 

The  law  of  Justinian  gave  indeed,  or  recognized,  a 

1  Caius,  i.  53 ;  Just.  Instit.  i.  viii.  2.    Constantine,  in  312,  had  enlarged 
this  law.  —  C.  Theod.  de  emend,  serv.,  1.  9, 1. 


CiiAP.  V.  LAW  OF  SLAVERY.  493 

greater  value  In  the  life  of  the  slave.  The  i^^^  of 
edict  of  Antoninus  had  declared  the  master  ^^"^^^^y- 
who  killed  his  own  slave  without  cause,  liable  to  the 
same  penalty  as  if  he  killed  the  slave  of  another.' 
The  Code  of  Justinian  ratified  the  law  of  Constantine, 
which  made  it  homicide  to  kill  a  slave  with  malice 
aforethought ;  and  it  describes  certain  modes  of  barbar- 
ous punishment,  by  which,  if  death  follows,  that  guilt 
is  incurred.^  The  Code  confh'ms  the  law  of  Claudius 
against  the  abandonment  of  sick  and  useless  slaves  ;  it 
enjoins  the  master  to  send  them  to  the  public  hospitals. 
These  hospitals  were  open  to  slaves  as  well  as  to  poor 
freemen.  "  In  these  times,  and  under  our  empire," 
writes  Justinian,  '*  no  one  must  be  permitted  to  exer 
cise  unlawful  cruelty  against  a  slave."  The  motive, 
however,  for  this  was  not  evangelic  humanity,  but  the 
public  good,  which  was  infringed  if  any  man  ill-used 
his  property.^ 

But  while  it  protected  the  life,  to  a  certain  extent 
the  person,  of  the  slave,  it  asserted  as  sternly  as  ever 
his  mferior  condition.  He  was  the  property  of  his 
master.  Whoever  became  a  slave  lost  all  power  over 
his  children.*  His  testimony  could  be  received  against 
his  master  only  in  cases  of  high  treason.  His  union 
with  his  wife  was  still  only  concubinage,  not  mar- 
riage.^ The  slave  had  no  remedy  for  adultery  before 
the  tribunals ;  it  was  left  to  the  master  to  punish  the 
offence.     A  free  woman  who  had  unlawful  connection 

1  Caius,  i.  53. 

2  Cod.  Just.  Lx.  14. 

8  "  Expedit  enim  reipublicae,  ne  quis  re  sua  utatur  male."  —  lastit.  i 
viii. 
4  Instit.  i.  16,  and  ii.  9,  3.     Cod.  ix.  1,  20. 
ft  Contuberuium,  not  cuniiubiuiu. 


494  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IIL 

with  her  slave,  according  to  the  law  of  Coiistantine, 
not,  as  it  seems,  repealed  by  Justinian,  was  to  be  put 
to  deatli,  the  slave  to  be  burned  alive.  But  the  law 
of  Constantino,  confirmed  in  the  West  by  Anthemius, 
which  prohibited  the  union  of  a  freeman  and  a  slave, 
at  least  a  freeman  of  a  certain  rank,  under  the  penalty 
of  exile  and  confiscation  of  goods,  and  condemned  the 
female  to  the  mines,  appears  to  have  been  mitigated ; 
at  least  the  law  of  Claudius,  which  condemned  the 
free-woman  who  married  a  slave  to  servitude,  was  tem- 
pered to  a  sf^ntence  of  separation.  In  the  old  Roman 
society  in  th:.  Eastern  Empire  this  distinction  between 
the  marriasie  of  the  freeman  and  tlie  concubinao;e  of 
the  slave  was  long  recognized  by  Christianity  itself. 
These  unions  were  not  blessed,  as  the  marriages  of 
their  superiors  had  soon  begun  to  be,  by  the  Church.^ 
Basil  the  Macedonian  ^  first  enacted  that  the  priestly 
benediction  should  hallow  the  marriage  of  the  slave  ; 
but  the  authority  of  the  Emperor  was  counteracted 
by  the  deep-rooted  prejudices  of  centuries.  Later  laws 
appear  to  have  attempted  the  reconcilement  of  the 
Christian  privilege  with  the  social  distinction.  The 
marriao-es  of  slaves  were  to  be  celebrated  in  the 
Church ;  slaves  and  freemen  were  to  receive  the  same 
nuptial  benediction,  without  conferring  freedom  on  the 
slave.^  As  late  as  the  thirteenth  century  a  mandate  of 
Nicetas,  archbishop  of  Thessalonica,  excommunicates 
masters  who  refuse  to  allow  their  slaves  to  be  married 
in  the  Church. 


1  It  was  thonglit  that  the  marriaj^e  before  the  church  would  of  itself  coQ- 
fer  civil  freedom. — Biot,  sur  I'Esclavage,  p.  146. 

2  A.i).  867-886. 

8  Coustitut.  Imp.  xi.     Jus  Gr.  Roman,  i.  p.  1-45.     Biot,  p.  213. 


Chap.  V.  THE   CHRISTIAN   FAMU.Y.  495 

The  trade  in  slaves  was  still  a  principal  and  recog- 
nized branch  of  commerce.  Man  was  a  mar-  siave-trade. 
ketable  commocUty.  The  whole  code  of  Justinian 
speaks  of  the  slave  as  bearing  a  certain  appreciable 
value,  to  be  held  bj  the  same  tenm*e,  transferred  by 
the  same  form,  as  other  property.  It  was  the  weak- 
ness of  Rome,  not  her  humanity  or  her  Christianity, 
which,  by  ceasing  to  supply  the  markets  with  hordes 
of  conquered  barbarians,  diminished  the  trade  ;  and 
Roman  citizens  were  sold,  with  utter  disregard  of 
their  haughty  privileges,  by  barbarian  or  Jewish  slave- 
venders.  Throughout  Greek  and  Latin  Christendom, 
however  the  Church,  by  its  precept  and  example, 
might  rank  the  redemption  of  Christian  slaves  from 
bondage  as  a  high  virtue,  the  purchase  and  the  sale 
of  men,  as  property  transferred  from  vendor  to  buyer, 
was  recoo;nized  as  a  le2;al  transaction  of  the  same  valid- 
ity  with  the  sale  of  other  property,  land,  or  cattle. 

The  Christian  family,  in  its  more  restricted  sense, 
comprehending  the  relations  of  husband  and  rj,^^  christian 
wife,  of  parent  and  children,  had  been  the  ^^°"^^" 
centre  from  which  the  Gospel  worked  outwards  with 
all  its  beneficent  energy  on  society.  But  Christianity, 
conscious  of  its  more  profound  and  extensive  influence 
on  morals,  was  in  most  respects  content  to  rest  without 
intruding  into  the  province  of  laws.^  It  superadded 
its  own  sanctity  to  the  dignity  with  which  marriage 
had  been  arrayed  by  the  older  Roman  law :  it  super- 
added its  own  tenderness  to  that  mitigation  of  p-irentai 
the  arbitrary  parental  power  with  which  the  ^^^^'^'^ 

1  See  throughout  this  chapter — the  Codes,  Pandects,  and  Institutes.  Of 
modern  works.  Gibbon's  celebrated  chapter,  with  Wavnkiinig's  notes;  f^er- 
diuand  Walter,  Gescliichte  des  Komischen  Rcchts,  pp.  332  tt  seq. 


496  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

more  humane  habits  of  later  times,  and  the  wisdom 
of  the  great  lawyers,  had  controlled  the  despotism  of 
the  Roman  father.  The  Roman  definition  of  marriage 
Marriage.  might  almost  satisfj  the  lofty  demands  of 
Christianity.  Matrimony  is  the  union  of  man  and 
woman,  constraining  them  to  an  inseparable  cohabita- 
tion.^  Polygamy  had  been  prohibited  by  the  Praeto- 
rian Edict  with  a  distinct  severity  not  to  be  found  in 
the  New  Testament.^  Marriage,  in  the  oldest  Roman 
law,  was  a  religious  rite.  The  purchase  of  the  wife, 
the  partaking  of  food  together,^  took  place  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  pontiifs.  These  ceremonials  were  at  no 
time  absolutely  necessary  ;  but  even,  under  the  Repub- 
lic, marriage  was  altogether,  as  to  its  validity,  a  civil 
contract.  With  the  Christians  marriage  had  resumed 
a  more  solemn  religious  character.  Certain  forms  of 
espousals  or  of  wedlock  are  among  the  most  unques- 
tionable usages  of  the  earliest  Christian  antiquity.  On 
marriase  the  Christian  is  tauo^ht  to  take  counsel  of  the 
bishop.*     Some  kind,  of  benediction  in  the  Church,  or 

1 "  Nuptial  autem  sivp  inatrimonium  est  viri  et  mulieris  conjunctio,  iruU- 
vuhtam  vitae  consuetudineir  oontinens."  —  Instit.  i.  ix.  1. 

2  "  Nemii  -m  qui  sub  ditione  sit  Romani  noniinis  binas  uxores  habere 
posse  V!'^  go  patet;  cum  eti.m  in  Edicto  Prmtoris  hujiismodi  viri  infamia 
notati  sint:  quam  rem  com petens  judex  inultam  esse  non  patietur."  —  Cod. 
V.  tit.  5,  2.  The  silence  of  the  New  Testament  as  to  polygamy,  excepting 
in  the  doubtful  text  about  the  bishop,  has  been  the  subject  of  much  learned 
contest  and  inquiry.  The  desuetude  into  which  it  had  fallen  among  the 
Jews,  and  its  prohibition  by  Roman  manners,  if  not  by  Roman  laws,  ac- 
counts for  this  silence,  in  my  opinion  most  full}',  considering  the  popular 
character  of  our  Lord's  teaching  and  that  of  his  apostles. 

8  Coemptio  et  confarreatio.  —  The  conftirreatio  was  the  more  solemn  form 
of  marriage,  and  could  only  be  annulled  by  certain  tremendous  rites,  which 
represented  as  it  were  the  death  of  the  contracting  parties. —  Festus,  Defar- 
reatio.  It  had  fallen  into  disuse  with  the  extinction  of  the  older  families. 
The  other  two  forms  of  marriage-contract  were  coemptio  and  usus. 

4  Ignat.  Epist.  ad  Polycarp.  This  passage  is  found  in  Mr.  Cureton'i 
isyriac  version. 


Chap.  V.  MARRIAGE.  497 

ill  the  presence  of  the  community,  gave  its  pccuKar 
hoKness  to  the  marriage  ceremony.'  Christianity  did 
not  decline  some  of  the  gayer  and  more  innocent  usages 
of  Jewish  and  heathen  marriages  —  the  crowns,  the  ring, 
the  veil  of  the  virgin.  Still,  the  Christian  might  hal- 
low his  union  by  the  benediction  of  the  Church ;  the 
betrothal  or  the  espousals  might  take  place  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  religious  community ;  ^  yet  the  Roman 
citizen  w^as  bound  only  by  the  civil  contract.  On  this 
alone  depended  the  validity  of  the  marriage,  the  legit- 
imacy and  right  of  succession  in  the  children.  The 
Church,  or  the  clergy  representing  the  Church,  had  no 
jurisdiction  in  matrimonial  questions  till  after  the  legis 
lation  of  Justinian.  It  was  never  perfect  and  supreme 
in  the  East ;  in  the  West  it  grew  up  gradually  witli 
the  all-absorbing  sacerdotal  power. 

As  to  incestuous  marriages,  marriages  within  the 
more  intimate  degrees  of  relationship,  Christianity 
might  repose  upon  the  rigor  of  the  Roman  Prohibited 
law.2  There  was  no  necessity  to  recur  to  '^'''^^^^ 
the  books  of  Moses.  '  That  law  prohibited  the  union 
of  brothers  with  sisters,  of  uncles  and  aunts  with  neph- 
ews and  nieces  :  it  did  not  proscribe  that  of  cousins 
german.*     The  Roman  law  extended  this  prohibition 

i  TertuU.  ad  Uxor.  ii.  c.  2-9 ;  de  Monogam.  c.  11.  "  Uiide  sufiicianms 
ad  euarriiudam  felicitatem  ejus  matrimonii,  quod  ecclesia  conciliat,  et  con- 
firmat  oblatio,  et  obsignat  benedictio,"  &c.  &c. :  compare  Augusti,  Denk- 
wiirdigkeiten,  x.  p.  288. 

2  This  was  a  voluntary  rite,  superinduced  by  Christian  manners  upon  the 
law  of  the  reahii. 

3  On  forbidden  marriages,  Gains  i.  58-62;  Ulpian,  v.  6;  Collat.  Leg. 
Mosaic,  vi.  'ir-17 ;  J.  C  de  Nupt.  5,  4, 1  to  5. 

^  Plutarch,  Quiest.  Rom.  6;  Cicer.  pro  Cluent.  5;  Capitol.  M.  Antonin. 

The  Em]ierors  Arcadius  and  Honorius  married  their  cousins.     lustit.  i.  x. 

The  old  laAv  (Caius,  Instit.  p.  27)  allowed  a  man  to  marry  his  niece  on  the 

orother's,  not  on  the  sister's,  side.     The  Emperor  Claudius  availed  himst'if 

VOL.  I.  32 


498  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

to  connections  formed  by  affinity  and  by  adoption. 
Connections  formed  by  marriage  were  as  sacred  as 
those  of  natural  kindred,  and  an  union  with  an  adopted 
brother  or  sister  was  as  inflexibly  forbidden  as  in  the 
case  of  blood. 

But  of  the  few  passages  in  the  Code  of  Justinian 
Spiritual  re-  whicli  revcal  the  Christian  legislator,  that 
lationships.  extraordinary  one  stands  out  in  peculiar  con- 
trast, which  extends  the  prohibited  degrees  to  spiritual 
relationship.  But  the  manner,  almost  as  it  were  fur- 
tive, in  which  this  prohibition  is  introduced,  shows  how 
it  grew  out  of  the  existing  state  of  Roman  feeling. 
The  jealous  law  had  prohibited,  besides  the  incestuous 
degrees  of  relationship,  the  union  of  a  guardian,  or  the 
son  of  a  guardian,  with  his  ward.^  But  a  man  might 
marry  an  alumna  whom  he  had  educated  as  a  slave, 
but  to  whom  he  had  afterwards  granted  liberty .^  The 
education  as  a  slave  implied  that  he  had  not  towards 
her  the  affection  of  a  parent.  No  one,  hoAvever,  would 
be  so  impious  as  to  marry  one  whom  he  had  brought 
up  in  his  house  as  a  daughter.  On  this  principle  it 
was  that,  whether  brought  up  in  his  family  or  not,  the 
sponsorship  in  baptism  implied  an  affection  so  tender 
and  parental  as  to  render  such  a  marriage  unholy. 

of  this  privilege.  The  Roman  law,  in  fact,  was  not  greatly  extended  by  the 
canon  law,  the  prohibitoiy  degrees  of  which  are  summed  up  in  these  lines, — 

Nata,  soror,  ncptia,  matertera  patris,  et  uxor, 

Et  patrui  coiijux,  mater,  privigui,  noverca, 

Uxorisque  soror,  pi-ivigni  nata,  nurusque, 

Atque  soror  patris  coujuugi  lege  vetantur. 

1  Cod.  Justin,  v.  6, 1  et  7. 

2  Cod.  Justin.  V.  4,  26.  There  were  other  civil  prohibitions:  marriage  of 
freeman  Avith  slave  (see  above),  with  a  freed  man  or  woman,  by  the  Julian 
law  contined  to  senators  and  their  children  (Inst.  16,  de  Spousal.;  Justinian 
Cod.  de  Nupt.  28,  5,  4),  of  senators  with  actors  (Ulpian,  xiii.  1,  xvi.  2)  or 
persons  of  infamous  occupations,  &c.  &c.  — See  Walter,  p.  539. 


Chap.  V.  MAERIAGE.  '  499 

Roman  pride  and  rigid  Clmstian  morality  woidd 
concur  in  some  of  those  prohibitions  which  interdicted 
free  Romans  from  certain  degrading  or  disreputable 
marriao-es.  There  could  be  no  marriao-es  with  slaves : 
children  born  fi'om  that  concubinao;e  were  servile. 
The  Emperor  Valentinian  fui'ther  defined  low  and  ab- 
ject persons  who  might  not  aspire  to  lawful  union  with 
freemen  —  actresses,  daughters  of  actresses,  tavern- 
keepers,  the  daughters  of  tavern-keepers,  procurers 
(lenones)  or  gladiators,  or  those  who  had  kept  a  public 
shop.^ 

The  Roman  law  had  gradually  expanded  from  that 
exclusive  patrician  haughtiness  which  would  not  recog- 
nize the  marriage  with  plebeians  :  it  had  admitted  unions 
between  all  of  Roman  birth  ;  but  till  Roman  citizen- 
ship had  been  imparted  to  the  whole  Roman  Empire, 
it  would  not  acknowledo-e  marriag-e  with  barbarians  to 
be  more  than  concubinage.  Cleopatra  was  called  only 
in  scorn  the  wife  of  Antony.  Berenice  might  not  pre- 
sume to  be  more  than  the  mistress  of  Titus.  The 
Christian  world  closed  marriao;es  ao-ain  within  still 
more  and  more  jealous  limits.  Interdictory  statutes 
declared  marriages  with  Jews  and  heathens  not  only 
invalid  but  adulterous.  The  Councils  condemned  mar- 
riages with  heretics  in  terms  almost  of  equal  rigor. 
The  legislature  was  silent ;  though  Manicheans  espe- 
cially, being  outcasts  by  the  law,  marriages  with  them 
must  have  been  of  questionable  validity.^ 

1  All  this,  however,  was  in  the  spirit  of  the  ancient  Roman  law. 

2  Cod.  Theodos.  iii.  7,  2,  ix.  7,  5,  xvi.  viii.  6;  Cod.  Justin,  i.  9,  6.  These 
laws,  in  the  time  of  Augustine  and  Jerome,  were  by  no  means  unnecessary. 
''At  nunc  plerjeque  contemnentes  apostoli  jussionem,  junguntur  gentiiibus 
et  templa  Christi  idolis  prostituunt,  nee  intelligunt  se  corporis  ejus  {)Mrfem 
tsse  cujus  et  costae  sunt."  —  Hieron.     In  Jovin.  i.  10:  compare  August  in. 


500  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

Yet,  however  loftj  the  theory  of  the  Roman  lawyer!? 
Divorce.  as  to  the  sanctity  and  perpetual  obligation  of 
marriage,  it  was  practically  annulled  by  the  admitted 
right  and  by  the  inveterate  usage  of  divorce.  It  was 
a  contract  which  either  party  might  dissolve,  almost 
Avithout  alleged  cause.  In  the  older  law,  the  wife 
being,  like  the  rest  of  his  family,  the  property  of  the 
husband,  he  might  dismiss  her  at  any  time  from  his 
service.  Even  the  law  of  the  Twelve  Tables  admitted 
divorce.  But  the  severer  morals  of  the  older  Repub- 
lic disdained  to  assert  this  privilege.  The  sixth  cen- 
tury of  Roman  greatness  is  said  to  have  begun,  before 
the  public  feeling  was  shocked  by  the  repudiation  of  a 
virtuous  but  barren  wife  by  Spurius  Carvilius  Ruga.^ 
But  in  the  later  Republic  the  frequency  of  divorce  was 
at  once  the  sign,  the  cause,  and  the  consequence  of  the 
rapid  depravation  of  morals.  Paulus  JEmilius  dis- 
carded the  beautiful  Papiria  with  a  scornful  refusal  to 
assign  any  reason.^  Cato,  Cicero,  exchanged  or  dis- 
missed their  wives.  And  the  wives  were  not  behind 
their  husbands  in  vindicating  their  equal  riglits.  Paula 
Valeria  repudiated  her  husband  without  cause  to  bo 
come  the  wife  of  Decimus  Brutus.^  Aumistus  mio'lit 
endeavor  by  laws  and  by  immunities  to  com})el  or  allure 
the  reluctant  aristocracy  of  Rome  to  marriage ;  he 
might  limit  divorce  by  statute :  *  but  his  example  more 

de  fid.  et  oper.  c.  19.  They  j,TadualIy,  as  heathenism  expired,  became  less 
dciiuiiciatoiy  against  such  marriages,  but  maintained  and  even  increased 
their  rigor  against  Jewish  connections.  —  Concil.  Laodic.  x. ;  but  add 
xxxi.;  Concil.  Agath.  Ixvii. ;  Concil.  Arelat.  xi. ;  lUiber.  xvi.  xvii. 

1  Diou.  Hal.  ii.  93;  Val.  Max.  ii.  1;  Aulus  Gellius.  iv.  3.    Tlutarcb  in 
Numfi. 

2  "  My  shoes  are  new  and  Avell-made,  but  no  one  knows  where  the}'  phich 
uie."  —  Plutarch.  Vit.  Paul.  iEmil. 

^  Cic.  ail  Fam.  ■*  See  the  lex  Papia  Poppaja. 


CiiAr.  V.  DR^ORCE.  501 

powerfully  counteracted  lils  own  laws.  He  compelled 
the  husband  of  Livia  to  divorce  her  during  a  state  of 
pregnancy,  and  by  marrying  her  became  the  father  of 
a  doubtful  offspring.  Mi^cenas  changed  his  wives  as 
he  changed  his  dress.^  Seneca,  in  his  lofty  Stoic  moral- 
ity, declares  that  the  noble  women  of  Rome  calculated 
the  year  not  by  the  Consuls,  but  by  their  husbands.^ 
Juvenal,  in  the  bitterness  of  his  satire,  might  describe 
the  husband  discarding  his  wife  for  the  slightest  infirm- 
ity;^ Martial  might  point  an  epigram  against  these 
legal  adulteries ; *  and  all  these  writers  might  dv^ell, 
and  with  licensed  exaggeration,  only,  or  principally,  on 
the  manners  of  the  capital  and  those  of  the  higher 
orders  ;  but  throughout  the  Roman  world  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  this  dissolution  of  those  bonds  which 
unite  the  family  was  the  corroding  plague  of  Roman 
society.  Christianity  must  have  subjugated  public 
feeling  to  a  great  extent ;  it  must  have  overawed,  and 
softened,  and  rendered  attractive  the  marriage  state  by 
countless  examples  in  every  part  of  the  Empire  (like 
that  so  beautifully  described  by  Tertullian),^  far  more 
than  by  its  monastic  notions  of  the  superior  dignity  of 
virginity,  before  even  Constantine  could  venture  on  his 
prohibitoiy  law  against  divorce.  Marriage  was  abso- 
lutely annulled  by  three  causes,  retirement  to  a  monas- 


1  "  Qui  iixorem  millies  duxit."  Such  is  tlie  hj-perboie  of  Seneca,  who 
hated,  perhaps  because  he  envied,  the  memory  of  Maecenas.  "  Quotidiana 
repudia."  —  De  Provid.  c.  3. 

2  Senec.  de  Benef.  iii.  16. 

8  Conlige  sarcinulas,  dicet  libertus,  et  exi; 
Jam  gravis  es  nobis,  et  si«pe  emungeris;  exi 
Ocius  et  propera:  sicco  venit  altera  naso. 

Sat.  vi.  146. 
<  "  Quae  nubit  toties,  non  nubit,  adultera  lege  est."  —  vi.  7 
*  Ad  uxor.  ii.  c.  9. 


502  LATIN    CIIEISTIAXTTY.  Book  111 

tic  life,  Impotence,  and  captivity.  The  period  at  wluch 
captivity  dissolved  the  tie,  and  permitted  the  husband 
or  the  wife  to  marry  again,  was  differently  defined  in 
successive  statutes.  The  divorce  law  of  Constantine 
limited  repudiation  to  three  causes :  against  the  hus- 
band, if  he  was  a  homicide,  a  magician,  a  violator  of 
tombs. ^  In  either  of  these  cases  the  wife  recovered 
her  dowry.  If  she  sued  for  a  divorce  for  any  other 
cause,  she  forfeited  her  dowry,  her  jewels,  even  to  the 
bodkin  of  her  hair,  and  was  sentenced  to  deportation 
into  a  desert  island.  Against  the  wife  the  three  crimes 
were  adultery,  witchcraft,  or  acting  as  procuress.  If 
the  husband  repudiated  her  for  one  of  these  causes  he 
retained  the  dowry ;  if  for  any  other  the  penalty  was 
the  forfeiture  of  the  dowry.  If  he  married  again,  the 
repudiated  wife  might  enter  his  house  and  seize  the 
dowry  of  the  new  bride.  But  the  severity  of  this  law 
was  mitigated  by  Honorius,^  its  penalties  abrogated  by 
Theodosius  the  younger.  This  law,  which  is  recited 
in  the  Code  and  in  the  Novelise  of  Justinian,  adds  to 
the  causes  which  justify  divorce :  on  the  part  of  the 
wife,  if  the  husband  is  guilty  of  adultery,  high  treason, 
or  forgery,  sacrilege,  pillage  of  churches,  robbery  or 
harboring  robbers,  cattle-driving,  man-stealing,  hav- 
ing, to  the  disgrace  of  his  family,  connection  with  loose 
women  in  the  sight  of  his  wife,  attempting  her  life  by 
poison  or  violence,  or  scourging  her  in  a  manner  insup- 
portable to  a  freewoman.  On  the  part  of  the  husband, 
besides  all  these,  frequenting  the  banquets  of  strangers 
without  his  knowledge  or  consent,  passing  the  night 

1  Cod.  Theod.  de  repiid.  iii.  xvi. 

2  Novell,  xvii.  de  repudiis  ad  calc.  cod.  Theodo.s.    Hitter  observes  tlial 
the  constitutions  were  not  annulled  by  this  edict,  only  the  penalties. 


Chap.  V.  CONCUBINAGE.  50i5 

abroad  without  just  cause  or  permission,  or  indulging 
m  the  Circus,  the  theatre,  or  the  amphitheatre,  without 
his  leave. ^ 

The  legislation  of  Justinian  is  obviously  embarrassed 
with  the  difficulty  of  the  question  of  repudiation  :  it 
reenacts,  but  with  some  hesitation,  the  severe  statutes 
of  Theodosius :  a  succession  of  new  laws  explains,  re- 
stricts, or  confirms  the  plainer  language  of  the  Code. 
Justinian,  indeed,  first  extended  the  penalties  of  the 
laws  against  divorce  to  cases  of  marriage  without 
dower :  if  the  husband  repudiated  an  undowered  wife 
without  just  cause,  he  forfeited  to  her  one  fourth  of  his 
property. 2  Eut  the  successor  of  Justinian  was  com- 
pelled to  sweep  away  all  these  provisions,  and  to  re- 
store the  liberty  of  divorce  by  mutual  consent.  The 
Emperor,  as  the  law  declares,  was  beset  by  complaints 
and  remonstrances,  that  inextinguishable  hatred  was  im- 
planted in  families  by  these  restrictions,  tliat  secret 
poisonings  would  become  common  :  he  resisted  long, 
but  was  compelled  to  yield  to  the  general  clamor.  The 
manners  of  Constantinople,  perhaps  of  the  Roman 
world,  triumphed  over  the  severer  authority  of  the 
Church. 

Concubinage,  a  kind  of  inferior  marriage,  of  which 
the  issue  were  natm*al  children  not  bastards,  Concubinage. 
had  been,  to  a  certain  extent,  legalized  by  Augustus. 
The  Christian  Emperors  endeavored  to  give  something 
of  the  dignity  of  legitimate  marriage  to  this  umon,  by 
enlarging  the  rights  of  natural  children  to  succession  ; 
but  in  the  East  it  was  not  abolished,  as  a  legal  union, 

1  Cod.  V.  xvii. ;  Pandects,  xxiv.  ii.;  Novelise,  xxii.  cxvii.  cxxxiv.  The 
Iniiititutes  avoid  the  subject. 

■^  Cod.  V.  xvii.  ii.  To  the  first  causes  were  added,  endeavor  to  procurfl 
abortion,  and  indecent  batliing  in  llie  public  baths  with  men. 


504  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

till  the  time  of  Leo  the  Philosoplier ;  in  the  West  it 
was  perpetuated  by  the  pride  of  the  conquering  races, 
and  in  some  respects  by  the  practice  of  the  clergy  them- 
selves to  a  much  later  period.^ 

That  primeval  constitution  of  Roman  society,  which 
Parental  Hiadc  cach  family  a  little  state,  with  its  pe- 
power.  culiar  sacrifices  and  peculiar  jurisdiction,  of 

which  the  father  was  Priest  and  King,  had  long  fallen 
into  disuse.  The  parental  power,  in  theory  absolute, 
had  been  limited  by  public  feeling  and  long  desuetude. 
Even  under  the  old  republic,  Brutus  and  Manlius  were 
magistrates  and  generals  as  well  as  fiithers  ;  the  execu- 
tion of  their  sons  was  a  sacrifice  to  Roman  liberty  and 
to  Roman  discipline,  not  an  exertion  of  parental  author- 
ity. Erixo,  a  Roman  knight  in  the  time  of  Seneca, 
whose  son  died  under  his  chastisement,  was  pursued 
through  the  forum  by  the  infuriated  people.^  Alexan- 
der Severus  limited  the  parental  power  by  law.  It  was 
well  perhaps  for  human  nature  that  this  change  had 
taken  place  before  the  promulgation  of  Christianity. 
It  was  spared  those  domestic  martyrdoms  which  might 
have  taken  place  in  many  families.  For  that  which 
the  divine  wisdom  of  its  founder  had  foreshown  was 
inevitable.  Youth,  in  its  prospective  ardor,  would  be 
more  prone  to  accept  the  new  religion,  than  age,  rig- 
idly attached  to  ancient  and  established  usages.  It  is 
the  constant  reproach,  with  which  the  apologists  of 
Christianity  have  to  contend,  that  it  nurtured  filial  dis- 
obedience, and  taught  children  to  revolt  against  the 
authority  of  parents.^     But  this  conflict  was  over  long 

1  Ducange,  art.  Concubina. 

2  Seneca  de  Clement,  i.  14. 

8  Tertull.  Apologet.  c.  3;    Origen  contra  Cels.;   Ilieronym.  Epist  ad 
Lactam. 


Ctiap.  V.  INFANTICTDE.  505 

before  Christianity  entered  into  Roman  legislation. 
The  life  of  the  child  was  as  sacred  as  that  of  the  par- 
ent ;  and  Constantine,  when  he  branded  the  murder 
of  a  son  with  the  name  of  parricide,  hardly  advanced 
upon  the  dominant  feeling.  Some  power  remained  of 
moderate  chastisement,  but  even  this  was  liable  to  the 
control  of  law.  Disinheritance  remained  the  only  pen- 
alty which  the  father  could  arbitrarily  inflict  upon  the 
son ;  for  by  degrees  that  absolute  possession  of  all  the 
property  of  the  son  which  of  old  belonged  to  the  father 
had  been  limited.  The  peculium  over  which  full  power 
was  vested  in  the  son  was  extended  by  Augustus,  Tra- 
jan, and  Hadrian  to  all  which  he  might  acquire  in 
military  service,  even  to  captives  who  became  his 
slaves,  to  be  disposed  of  by  gift  or  will ;  by  Constan- 
tine and  later  Emperors  to  all  emoluments  obtained  in 
civil  employments ;  by  Justinian  to  the  inheritance,  in 
certain  cases,  of  the  mother's  property. 

Infanticide  was  thus  a  crime  by  law,  but  the  sale 
and  exposure  of  children,  the  most  obstinate  infimticide. 
vestige  of  the  arbitrary  parental  power,  aggravated 
by  the  increasing  misery  of  the  times,  still  contended 
with  the  humane  severity  of  the  laws,  and  the  fervent 
denunciations  of  the  Christian  teachers.  ^  The  sale  of 
children  was  prohibited  by  law,  yet  prevailed  to  late 
times.  The  Emperor  Trajan  had  declared  that  a  free- 
bom  child,  exposed  by  its  parents  and  brought  up  by  a 
stranger,  did  not  forfeit  its  liberty.^  The  Christian 
Emperor  first  declared  exposure  of  infants  a  crime  ;^ 

1  Athenagor.  Apologet.  Tertullian,  Apologet.  9;  Lactantius,  D.  I.  vi.  20. 

2  Pliny,  Epist.  X.  7. 

3  The  Cod.  Justin,  iv.  43, 1,  confirmed  the  declaration  of  the  law  by  Dio- 
cletian. "  Liberos  a  parentibus  neque  venditionis  neque  donationis  titulo, 
aeque  pignoris  jurp,  aut  alio  quolibet  modo,  nee  sub  praetextu  ignoranti3 


50G  LATIN    CimiSTIANITY.  Book  III 

at  tlie  same  time  he  declared  the  children  of  such  poor 
parents  as  should  be  unable  to  nourisli  them,  children 
of  the  state,  to  be  clothed  and  su})ported  by  the  pub- 
lic treasury.  This  vast  poor  law  could  not  have 
been  carried  into  effect,  or  was  necessarily  modified  by 
new  laws,  providing  for  children  thus  exposed.  The 
stranger  who  took  up  such  child  and  maintained  it, 
might,  according  to  a  law  of  Th^eodosius  the  Great, 
bring  it  up  as  his  own  son,  or  as  his  slave.  The  father 
who  had  exposed  his  child,  having  abandoned  his 
paternal  power,  could  not  reclaim  it ;  he,  however, 
who  had  sohl  his  child  through  poverty  might  redeem 
it  by  paying  the  same  price,  or  replacing  it  by  another 
slave.  But  one  of  Justinian's  supplementary  laws 
both  shows  the  unrepressed  frequency  of  the  practice, 
and  by  its  strong  language  the  profound  sense  of  its 
inhumanity.  It  was  now  the  custom  to  leave  the  chil- 
dren not  merely  in  the  streets,  but  in  the  churches,  in 
order,  no  doubt,  to  appeal  to  the  kindness  of  the  clergy 
and  the  more  pious  worshippers.  If,  says  the  law, 
worn-out  slaves,  who  are  exposed  by  their  masters, 
obtain  their  freedom,  how  much  the  rather  fi-eeborn 
infants  ?  But,  as  if  aware  that  this  was  rather  a 
penalty  on  the  charitable  person,  who  might  undertake 
the  care  of  such  children  (for  whom  it  might  be  better 
to  be  brought  up  as  slaves  than  left  to  perish),  condign 
jnmishment  is  threatened,  it  is  to  be  presumed  the  penal- 
ty for  murder,  against  the  guilty  parties.  It  is  probable, 
however,  that  the  practices  though  not  so  clearly  trace- 

accipientus,  in  alium  transferri  posse,  manifestissimi  juris  est."  Yet  in  the 
life  of  Paphniitus  1)}'  Jorome  we  read:  "  Mihi  est  maritus  qui  fisoalis  debiti 
pratia,  suspensus  est  et  Hagellatus,  ac  poenis  omnibus  cruciatus,  servatur  iu 
carccre.  Tres  autem  nobis  filii  fuerunt,  qui  pro  ejusdeni  debiti  necessitate 
distract i  sunt." 


CiiAP.  V.  LAW   OF  PROPERTY.  bOl 

able,  expired  but  slowly  in  the  East ;  in  the  West  it  still 
required  the  decrees  of  Councils  and  the  edicts  of  sov- 
ereigns to  extirpate  this  pertinacious  crime.^ 

B.  Christianity  made  no  change  in  tlie  tenure  or 
succession  to  property.  The  Christian  churches  suc- 
ceeded to  that  sanctity  which  the  ancient  law  l^^  ^^ 
had  attributed  to  the  temples  ;  as  soon  as  they  P^'^P^^'^y- 
were  consecrated  they  became  public  property,  and 
could  not  be  alienated  to  any  other  use.  The  ground 
itself  was  hallowed,  and  remained  so  even  after  the 
temple  had  been  destroyed.  This  was  an  axiom  of 
the  heathen  Papinian.^  Gifts  to  temples  were  alike 
inalienable,  nor  could  they  be  pledged  ;  the  exception 
in  the  Justinian  code  betrays  at  once  the  decline  of  the 
Roman  power,  and  the  silent  progress  of  Christian 
humanity.  They  could  be  sold  or  pledged  for  the 
redem})tion  of  captives,  a  purpose  which  the  old  Roman 
law  would  have  disdained  to  contemplate.^  The  burial 
of  the  dead  made  ground  holy.  This  consecration 
might  be  made  by  any  private  person  ;  but  a  public 
burial-ground  became,  in  a  certain  sense,  public  prop- 
erty.* 

The  great  law  of  Constantino,  which   enabled  the 

1  Capit.  vi.  c.  142;  Decret.  Gregor.  de  exposit.  lib.  ii.  971,  972,  973. 

2  Instit.  ii.  1,  8.     Papinian  lived  under  the  reign  of  Severus. 

8  Property  might  be  bequeathed  in  general  terms  for  the  redemption  of 
captives,     c.  i.  3,  48. 

4  Instit.  ii.  1,  9.  If  the  owner  gave  consent,  a  body  might  be  interred  in 
any  ground,  which  thereby  became  sacred;  if  the  owner  afterwards  wished 
to  withdraw  his  consent,  he  could  not:  his  right  was  lost  in  the  sanctity  of 
the  ground.  Paolo  Sarpi  supposes,  but  quotes  no  authority,  that  the 
churches  had  even  before  Constantine  received  lands  by  bequest,  but  con- 
trary to  law.  They  were  confiscated  by  Diocletian.  The  following  is  a  law 
of  Diocletian  and  Maximian,  a.d.  290:  "Collegium,  si  nullo  speciali  privi- 
*egio  subnixum  sit,  hsereditatem  capere  non  posse,  dubium  non  est."  —  C 
B  de  hsered.  instit. ;  Sarpi  Opere,  iv.  71. 


508  LATIN  CITRfSTTANTTY.  Book  TH. 

Christian  churches  to  receive  gifts  and  bequests,  wan 
but  an  extension  or  transference  of  the  rioht  beloiio-inoj 
to  heathen  temples^  and  priesthoods,  many  of  which 
were  endowed  with  laroje  estates.^  Even  dorino;  the 
reign  of  Constantine  some  parts  of  the  estates  of  the 
heathen  temples  were  made  over  to  the  Christians  ;  but 
the  private  offerings  of  the  faithful,  by  donation  and  by 
will,  poured  in  with  boundless  prodigality.  Already 
lireridipety,  seeking  inheritances  by  undue  means, 
is  branded  as  an  ecclesiastical  vice  by  the  severer 
teachers,  and  restrained  by  law  ;  ^  already  the  abuses  of 
wealth  begin  to  appear.  The  Apostolic  Constitutions 
enact  that  the  property  of  the  bishop  should  be  kept 
distinct  from  that  of  his  see,*  his  owmi  he  may  be- 
queath by  will  to  his  wife,  his  children,  or  other  heirs ; 
the  property  of  the  Church  is  to  descend  sacred  and 
inviolate.  Already  bishops  are  reproached,  as  too 
much  involved  in  worldly  affairs  ;  Councils  declare  that 
they  must  be  relieved  from  the  administration  of  the 
temporal  concerns  of  their  churches ;  a  steward  or 
oeconomus  must  be  appointed  in  each  church  for  this 
end.^  The  sovereio;ns,  instead  of  endeavorino;  to  set 
bounds  to  this  tide  of  wealth  which  was  setting  into 
the  Church,  to  the  loss  of  the  imperial  exchequer, 
swelled  it  by  their  own  munificence,  as  well  as  by  the 

i  A  law  in  the  Justinian  code  declares  all  gifts  or  bequests  to  heathen 
persons  or  phices  (/.  e.  priests  and  temples)  null  and  void.  —  Leo.  I.  11,  9. 

2  On  the  church  property  of  the  ancients  see  the  curious  passage  in  Ap- 
pian.  During  the  pressure  of  the  Mithridatic  war,  Sylla  sold  as  much  of 
the  property  devoted  to  sacrifices  as  produced  9000  pounds  of  gold.  —  De 
Bcllo  Mithrid.,  c.  xxii. 

8  Hieronymus  in  Nepot.,  Epist.  xxxiv.  The  law  of  Valentinian.  Sea 
oage  68. 

4  Apostol.  Constit.  can.  33. 

6  Chrj'-s.  Horn.  Ixxxvi.  in  Mathaeura.  Concil  Antioch.  Synod.  Chalced. 
can.  26. 


Chap.  V  CHURCH  PROPERTY.  509 

tenor  of  their  laws.  Tliey  dared  not  incur  the  re- 
proach at  once  of  want  of  respect  to  the  clergy,  of 
j)arsimony  to  the  poor,  of  stinting  the  magnificence 
of  the  edifices,  now  everywhere  rising  for  the  honor  of 
God.  These  were  the  three  acknowledged  purposes  to 
which  were  devoted  the  ecclesiastical  revenues. 

The  legislation  of  Justinian  confirmed  all  the  pro- 
visions of  former  Christian  emperors  for  the  security 
and  enlargement  of  ecclesiastical  wealth.  A  law  of 
Leo  and  Anthemius  was  the  primary  palladium  of 
Church  property.  It  declared  every  kind  of  property 
in  land,  in  houses  or  rents,  in  movables,  in  peasants  or 
slaves,  absolutely  inalienable  even  with  the  concurrent 
consent  of  the  bishop,  the  steward,  and  all  the  clergy. 
All  such  sacrilegious  alienations  by  gift,  bequest,  or 
exchange,  were  absolutely  null  and  void.  The  steward 
guilty  of  such  alienation  lost  his  ofiice,  and  was  bound 
to  make  good  the  loss  out  of  his  own  property.  The 
notaries  who  drew  such  deeds  were  condemned  to  per- 
petual exile ;  the  judges  who  confirmed  them  lost  their 
office  and  forfeited  all  their  property.^  The  lease  or 
usufruct  only  could  be  granted  under  certain  precise 
stipulations. 

A  law  of  Valentinian  and  Marcian  empowered  all 
widows,    deaconesses,    or    nuns   to    bequeath    to    any 

1  "Nee  si  oimies  emu  religiose  episeopo  et  oeeonomo  cleriei  iu  eorum  pos- 
scssiouuni  alienationem  eonsentiaiit."  —  e.  i.  2,  xiv.  This  law,  wliieh  was 
originally  limited  to  the  ehiirch  of  Constantinople,  was  reenacted  with 
some  slight  alterations  by  Anastasius  and  by  Justinian.  —  Constit.  7.  Jus- 
tinian extended  this  law  to  the  whole  empire,  including  the  West. — Nov. 
7.  Const,  ix.  These  tAvo  constitutions  (c.  i.  11,  24)  gave  the  right  of  claim- 
ing bequests  to  the  church  for  lUO  years;  this  was  aftei'wards  limited  to 
iO.  —  Nov.  Constit.  iii.  131-36.  The  emperor  might,  for  the  public  good, 
receive  church  property  in  exchange,  giving  more  valuable  propertv-  — 
Nor.  7. 


OiO  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  Hi. 

church,  chapel,  body  of  clergy,  monastery,  or  to  the 
poor,  the  whole  or  any  part  of  then'  property.  Zeno 
enacted  that  any  one  who  liad  bestowed  any  property  on 
any  martyr,  prophet,  or  angel,  to  build  a  house  of  prayer ; 
in  case  he  died  before  the  work  was  finished,  his  heirs 
were  bound  to  complete  it.^  The  same  applied  to 
caravansaries,  hospitals,  or  almshouses.  The  bishop  or 
liis  officers  might  exact  the  completion  to  the  full.^ 
Justinian  recognizes  bequests  simply  to  Jesus  Christ, 
which  might  be  claimed  by  the  principal  church  of  the 
city ;  and  bequest  made  to  any  archangel  or  saint, 
without  specified  place,  went  to  the  nearest  church 
dedicated  to  that  angel  or  saint.^ 

Founders  of  churches  possessed  the  right  of  patron- 
age, but  the  bishop  might  refuse  an  unqualified  priest.^ 

All  church  property  was  declared  free  from  baser 
services,  and  fi'om  extraordinary  contributions. 

Thus  the  Church  might  constantly  receive  and  never 
depart  from  property ;  and  thus  began  its  immunities 
from  public  burdens.  In  the  rapid  change  of  mas- 
ters, undergone  in  far  the  larger  part  of  the  Roman 
world,  property  of  all  kinds  was  constantly  accumu- 
lating in  the  hands  of  the  Church,  which  rarely,  ex- 
cept through  fraud  or  force,  relaxed  its  grasp.  The 
Church  was  the  sole  proprietor,  whom  forfeiture  or 
confiscation  could  never  reach  ;  whose  title  was  never 
antiquated  ;  before  whose  hallowed  boundaries  violence 
stood  rebuked ;  whom  the  law  guarded  against  her 
own  waste  or  prodigahty;  to  whom  it  was  the  height 
of  l)iety,  ahnost  insured  salvation,  to  give  or  to  be- 
queath,  sacrilege   to   despoil,    or    to    defraud ;    whose 

iC.  i  2,  XV.  2C.  i.  3,  45. 

3  Cod  i.  2,  26.  4  Nov.  123.    Nov.  Constit.  57,  2. 


Chap.  V.  PENAL  LAWS.  511 

property  if  alienated  was  held  mider  a  perpetual  curse, 
wliich  either  withered  its  harvest,  or  brought  disaster 
and  mill  ou  the  wrongful  possessor. 

C.  The  penal  laws  of  the  Roman  Empire,  except- 
ing in  the  inflexible  distinction  drawn  between  the 
freeman  and  the  slave,  were  not  immoderately  severe, 
nor  especially  barbarous  in  the  execution  of  punish- 
ment. In  this  respect  Christianity  introduced  no  great 
mitigation.  The  abolition  of  crucifixion  as  a  punish- 
ment by  Constantine  was  an  act  rather  of  religious 
reverence  than  of  humanity.  Another  law  of  Con- 
stantine, if  more  rigorously  just,  sanctions  the  cruel 
iniquity,  which  continued  for  centuries  of  Christian 
legislation  —  the  torture.  No  one  could  be  executed 
for  a  capital  crime,  murder,  magic,  adultery,  except 
after  his  own  confession,  or  the  unanimous  confession 
of  all  persons  interrogated  or  submitted  to  torture.^ 

Some  crimes  w^ere  either  made  capital  or  more  rig- 
idly and  summarily  punished  with  death  by  the  ab- 
horrence of  Christianity  for  sensual  indulgences.  The 
violation  of  virgins,  widows,  or  deaconesses  professing 
a  religious  life,  was  made  a  capital  offence,  to  be  sum- 
marily punished.^ 

The  crime  against  nature,  the  deep  reproach  of 
Greek  and  Roman  manners,  was  capitally  punished.^ 

But  remarkable  powers  had  been  given  by  former 
Emperors,  and  enlarged  by  Justinian,  or  rather,  it  was 
made  a  part  of  tlie   episcopal  function,  to  visit  every 

1  By  the  Justinian  code,  Nov.  cxxiii.  c.  31,  torture  {(Sdaavtn)  and  exi.e 
were  the  punishment  of  any  one  who  insulted  a  bishop  or  presbyter  in  the 
church.    The  disturbance  of  the  sacred  rites  was  a  capital  oft'ence. 

2  Cod.  i.  3,  53. 

3  Two  bishops  were  publicly  executed  for  this  offence  by  Justinian.— 
rheophanes,  p.  27. 


512  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

month  the  state  prisons,  to  inquire  into  the  offences 
of  all  persons  committed,  and  to  admonish  the  civil 
authorities  to  proceed  according  to  the  law.^  Private 
prisons  were  prohibited  ;  the  bishop  was  empowered 
to  order  all  such  illegal  places  of  confinement  to  be 
broken  open,  and  the  prisoners  set  free.''^ 

In  certain  points  the  bishops  were  the  legal  as  well 
as  the  spiritual  guardians  of  public  morality.  They 
had  power  to  suppress  gaming  of  certain  prohibited 
kinds.^  With  the  presidents  of  the  provinces  they 
might  prevent  women  from  being  forced  on  the  stage, 
or  from  being  retained  against  their  will  in  that  dan- 
gerous and  infamous  profession.'*  If  the  president,  in 
his  office  of  purveyor  for  the  public  amusement,  should 
be  the  person  in  fault,  the  bishop  was  to  act  of  himself, 
either  of  his  own  authority  or  by  appeal  to  the  Em- 
peror. 

A  new  class  of  crimes,  if  not  introduced  by  Chris- 
tianity, became  multiplied,  rigorously  defined,  merci- 
lessly condemned.  The  ancient  Roman  theory,  that 
the  religion  of  the  State  must  be  the  religion  of  the 
people,  which  Christianity  had  broken  to  pieces  by  its 
inflexible  resistance,  was  restored  in  more  than  its 
former  rigor.  The  code  of  Justinian  confirmed  the 
laws  of  Theodosius  and  his  successors,  which  declared 
certain  heresies,  Manicheism  and  Donatism,  crimes 
against  the  State,  as  affecting  the  common  Avelfare. 
The  crime  was  punishable  by  confiscation  of  all  proper- 
ty, and  incompetency  to  inherit  or  to  bequeath.  Death 
did  not  secure  the  hidden  heretic  from  ]n"osecution ; 
as  in  high  treason,  he  might  be  convicted  in  his  grave. 

}  Cod.  i.  4,  22.  2  Cod.  i.  4,  22. 

3  Cod.  ii  4, 14.  4  De  Kpiscop  Audiciit.  ii.  4,  33. 


Chai>.  V.  HERETICS.  5l3 

Not  only  was  his  testament  invalid,  but  inheritance 
could  not  descend  through  him.  All  who  harbored 
such  heretics  were  liable  to  punishment ;  their  slaves 
might  desert  them,  and  transfer  themselves  to  an  or- 
thodox master.i  The  list  of  proscribed  heretics  grad- 
ually grew  wider.  The  Manicheans  were  driven 
still  farther  away  from  the  sympathies  of  mankind  ; 
by  one  Greek  constitution  they  were  condemned  to 
capital  punishment.  Near  thirty  names  of  less  de- 
tested heretics  are  recited  in  a  law  of  Theodosius  the 
younger,  to  which  were  added,  in  the  time  of  Justin- 
ian, Nestorians,  Eutychians,  Apollinarians.  The  books 
of  all  these  sects  were  to  be  burned  ;  yet  the  formida- 
ble number  of  these  heretics  made,  no  doubt,  the  gen- 
eral execution  of  the  laws  impossible.  But  the  Jus- 
tinian code,  having  defined  as  heretics  all  who  do  not 
believe  the  Catholic  faith,  declares  such  heretics,  as 
well  as  Pagans,  Jews,  and  Samaritans,  incapable  of 
holding  civil  or  military  offices,  except  in  the  lowest 
ranks  of  the  latter ;  ^  they  could  attain  to  no  civic 
dignity  which  was  held  in  honor,  as  that  of  the  de- 
fensors, though  such  offices  as  were  burdensome  might 
be  imposed  even  on  Jews.^  Tlie  assemblies  of  all  her- 
etics were  forbidden,  their  books  were  to  be  collect- 
ed and  burned,  their  rites,  baptisms,  and  ordinations 
prohibited.*  Children  of  heretical  parents  might  em- 
brace orthodoxy;  the  males  the  parent  could  not 
disinherit,  to  the  females  he  was  bound  to  give  an 
adequate  dowry.^     The  testimony  of  Manicheans,  of 

A  Cod.  de  Haeret.  i.  5, 11. 

2  There  was  an  exception  for  the  Goths  in  the  service  of  the  Empire. 
8  Cod.  i.  ix.  5.  4  Cod.  i.  5,  21. 

5Cod.  i.  5,  21. 
VOL.  I.  33 


5l4  LATIN    CHEISTLA.NITY.  Book  111 

Samaritans,  aiid  Pagans  could  not  be  received  ;  apos- 
tates to  any  of  these  sects  and  religions  lost  all  their 
former  privileges,  and  were  liable  to  all  penalties.^ 

II.  The  Barbaric  Laws^  differed  from  those  of  the 
Barbaric  empire  in  this  important  point.  The  Roman 
codes.  jurisprudence  issued  entirely  from  the  will  of 

the  Emperor.^  The  ancient  laws,  whether  of  the  Re- 
public or  of  his  imperial  predecessors,  received  theii 
final  sanction,  as  comprehended  within  his  code :  the 
answers  of  the  great  lawyers,  the  accredited  legal 
maxims,  obtained  their  perpetuity,  and  became  the 
permanent  statutes  of  the  realm  through  the  same  au- 
thority. The  barbaric  were  national  codes,  framed 
and  enacted  by  the  King,  with  the  advice  and  with 
the  consent  of  the  great  council  of  his  nobles,  the 
flower  and  representative  of  the  nation.'*     They  were 

1  Cod.  i.  7. 

2  All  the  barbarian  codes  are  in  Latin,  but  German  words  are  perpetually 
Introduced  for  offices  and  usages  purely  Teutonic.  —  Wergelda,  Rachim- 
burg.  See  Eichhom,  Staats-  und  Reclitsgeschichte,  i.  p.  232.  See  curious 
extract  from  Lombard  Law  on  manumission,  p.  331.  The  collection  which 
I  have  chiefly  used  is  the  latest,  that  of  Canciani,  Leges  Barbarorum,  Ven- 
ice, 1781. 

8  Many  Christians,  even  of  honorable  bii'th,  according  to  Salvian,  fled 
from  the  cruel  oppressions  of  the  Roman  law,  no  doubt  the  fiscal  part,  and 
took  refuge  among  the  heathen  barbarians.  "  Inter  base  vastantur  paupe- 
res,  viduai  gemunt,  or|)hani  proculcautur,  in  tantum  ut  multi  eorum  et  non 
obscuris  natalibus  editi  et  liberaliter  instituti  ad  hostes  fugiunt,  ne  persecu- 
tionis  publicse  afflictione  moriantur,  quajrentes  scilicet  apud  barbaros  Roma- 
num  humanum,  quia  apud  Romanos  barbaram  inhumanitatem  ferre  non 
possunt.  Et  quamvis  ab  his,  ad  quos  confugiunt,  discrepent  ritu,  discre- 
pent lingua,  ipso  etiam,  ut  ita  dicam,  corpornm  atque  induviarum  barbari- 
carum  foetore  dissentiant,malunt  tamen  in  barbaris  pati  cultum  dissimilem 
quam  in  Romanis  irijustitiam  sjevieutem."  —  De  Gub.  Dei,  lib.  v. 

4  "  Hoc  decretum  est  apud  Regem  ct  principes  ejus,  et  apud  cunctum  pop- 
vlum  Christianum,  qui  iiift-a  regnum  IMerovingorum  consistunt." — l*ra;f. 
ad  Leg.  Ripuar.  The  Salic  law  is  that  of  the  Gens  Fraiicerum  inclyta, 
among  whose  praises  it  is  that  they  had  sulxlued  those  Romans,  who  burned 
or  slew  the  martyrs,  while  the  Franks  adorn  their  relics  with  gold  and 
precious  stones.  —  Trajf.  ad  Leg.  Salic. 


CiiAP.  V.      LAWS  OF  THEODORIC  AND  ATHALARIC.         515 

the  laws  of  the  people  as  well  as  of  the  King.  As 
by  degrees  the  bishops  became  nobles,  as  they  were 
summoned  or  took  their  place  in  the  great  council, 
their  influence  becomes  more  distinct  and  manifest : 
they  are  joint  legislators  with  the  King  and  the 
nobles,  and  their  superior  intelligence,^  as  the  only 
lettered  class,  gives  them  great  opportunity  of  modi- 
fying, in  the  interest  of  religion  or  in  their  own,  the 
statutes  of  the  rising  kingdoms.  This,  however,  was 
of  a  later  period.  The  earliest  of  these  codes,  the 
Edict  of  Theodoric,  is  so  entirely  Roman,  La^g  ^^ 
that  it  can  scarcely  be  called  barbaric  juris-  and^At^^- 
prudence.  It  is  Roman  in  its  general  pro-  ^"^^ 
visions,  in  its  language,  in  its  penalties  ;  it  is  Roman 
in  the  supreme  and  imperial  power  of  legislation  as- 
sumed by  the  King:  there  is,  in  fact,  no  Ostrogothic 
code.  The  silence  as  to  ecclesiastical  matters  in  the 
edicts  of  Theodoric  and  Athalaric  arises  fi'om  the 
peculiar  position  of  Theodoric,  an  Arian  sovereign  in 
the  midst  of  Catholicism  dominant  in  Rome  and 
throughout  Italy .^  But  there  is  a  singular  illustra- 
tion of  the  theory  of  ecclesiastical  power,  as  vested 
in  the  temporal  sovereign.  The  Arian  Athalaric, 
the  son  of  Theodoric,  at  the  request  of  the  Pope  him- 
self, issues  a  strong  edict  against  simony,  which  by  his 
command  is  affixed,  with  a  decree  of  the  Senate  to 
the  same  effect,  before  the  porch  of  St.  Peter's.     The 

1  The  first  instance  of  this  is  in  the  preface  to  the  code  of  Alaric.  "  Util- 
Itates  populi  ncstri  propitia  divinitate  tractantes,  hoc  quoque  quod  in  legi- 
bus  videbatur  iniquum  meliori  deliberatione  corrigimus,  ut  omnis  legum 
Romanarum  et  antiqui  juris  obscuritas,  adhibit  is  sacerdotibus  et  nobilibua 
riris,  in  hicem  intellujeniuB  melions  deducta  resplendeat." 

2  There  are  some  provisions  favorable  to  tlie  church  borrowed  from  the 
Roman  law.  The  church  inherited  all  the  property  of  clergy  dying  intes- 
•■^te.  —  xxvii.;  apud  Canciani,  i.  p.  15 


616  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  B(»k  III 

points  in  which  the  Ostrogothic  edict  departs  from 
the  Roman  law  are  :  I.  The  stronger  difference  drawn 
between  the  crimes  of  the  nobles  and  of  the  inferior 
classes.  Already  the  Teutonic  principle  of  estimat- 
ing all  crimes  at  a  certain  pecuniary  amount,  accord- 
ing to  the  social  rank  of  the  injured  person,  the 
wehrgelt^  is  beginning  to  appear,  as  well  as  its  con- 
sequence, that  he  who  could  not  pay  by  money  must 
pay  by  his  life.^  False  witness  is  punished  with  death 
in  the  poor,  by  a  fine  in  the  rich ;  the  incendiary  is 
burned  ahve  if  a  slave  or  serf,  ^  if  free  he  has  only  to 
replace  the  amount  of  damage ;  should  he  be  insolvent, 
he  is  condemned  to  beating  and  exile.  Wizards,  if  of 
honorable  birth,  were  punished  with  exile ;  if  of 
humbler  descent,  with  death  ;  while  a  freeborn  adul- 
teress was  sentenced  to  death,  in  a  vile  and  vulgar 
woman  the  crime  was  venial.^  In  seduction,  the  se- 
ducer was  obliged  to  many  the  woman  ;  if  married, 
to  endow  her  with  a  third  of  his  estate  ;  if  ignoble,  Ke 
suffered  death.'*  11.  The  edict,  in  the  severity  of  its 
punishments,  exceeds  the  Roman  law,  especially,  as 
might  be  expected  among  the  Goths,  in  all  crimes  re- 
lating to  the  violation  of  chastity.  Capital  punish- 
ments were  multiplied,  and  capital  punishments  almost 
unknown  to  the  Roman  law.  The  author  of  sedition 
in  the  city  or  the  camp  was  to  be  burned  alive. ^  The 
male  adulterer  was  to  be  burned,  the  female  capitally 
punished.^  Death  was  enacted  against  pagans,  sooth- 
sayers, lowborn  wizards  ;  against  destroyers  of  tombs, 
against  kidnappers  of  freemen,  against  forgery,  against 
the  judge  who    sentenced    contrary  to    law  ;  ^   against 

1  xc.  1.  2  xcvii.  colonus.  ^  Ixii.  *  lix. 

6  cxii.  0  Ixi.  '  li. 


LHAr.  V.  CLERGY   CO-LEGISLATORS.  517 

robbery    of    churches,    or   forcibly    dragging    persons 
thence,  death.^ 

Not  only  were  adulterers  capitally  punished,  but 
whoever  lent  his  house  for  the  perpetration  of  the 
crime,  or  persuaded  the  w^oman  to  its  perpetration.2 
Rape  of  a  free-woman  or  virgin  was  death,  which  ex- 
tended to  all  who  were  aiding  or  abetting.  Parents 
neglecting  to  prosecute  for  rape  on  a  girl  under  age 
were  condemned  to  exile.  The  consenting  female  suf- 
fered  death.^ 

The  law  of  divorce,  however,  remained  Roman  :  it 
admitted  the  same  causes,  and  was  limited  by  the  same 
restrictions.*  The  Edict  of  Athalaric  against  concu- 
binage  reduced  the  children  of  the  freeborn  concubine 
to  slavery.  The  slave  concubine  was  in  the  power  of 
the  matron,  who  might  inflict  any  punishment  short  of 
bloodshed.     Polygamy  was  expressly  forbidden.^ 

The  Lombard  laws  are  issued  by  King  Rotharis,^ 
with  the  advice  of  his  nobles.'^  The  Bur^undian,  in 
their  whole  character,  are  intermediate  between  the 
Roman  and  Barbaric  jurisprudence.  The  bishops  first 
appear  as  co-legislators  among  the  Visigoths.  Already 
in  France  Alaric  the  Visigoth  adopts  the  dg^gy  co- 
abridgment  of  the  Roman  law,  by  the  ad-  ^^^s^^^^^^™- 
vice  of  his  priests  as  well  as  of  his  nobles.^     But  it  is 

1  cxxv. 

2  xxxix.  So  also  the  Lombard  Law,  ccxii.  A  man  might  defend  himself 
from  a  charge  of  adultery  by  an  oath  or  by  his  champion.  —  ccxiv. 

8  xvii.  xviii. 

Miv. 

6  VII.  vi. 

6  The  laws  of  Rotharis  were  written  seventy-six  years  after  the  invasion 
of  Italy  by  the  Lombards.  The  Lombards,  it  must  be  remembered,  were 
still  Arians.     The  church,  therefore,  is  not  co-legislative  with  the  nobles. 

'  *'  Cum  primatibus  meis  judicibus."  —  Praefat.  in  Canciani,  vol.  i. 

8  "  Adhibitis  sacerdotibus   ac   nobilibus  viris;"   compare   Canciani,   in 


518  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

in  Spain,  after  the  Visigoths  had  cast  off  their  Arian- 
ism,  that  the  bishops  more  manifestly  influence  the 
whole  character  of  the  legislation.  The  synods  of  To- 
ledo were  not  merely  national  councils,  but  parlia- 
ments of  the  realm. ^  After  the  ecclesiastical  affairs 
had  been  transacted,  the  bishops  and  nobles  met  to- 
gether, and  with  the  royal  sanction  enacted  laws.^ 
The  people  gave  their  assent.  The  King  liimself  is 
subject  to  the  Visigothic  law.  The  unlawful  usurper 
of  the  Crown  is  subject  to  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  to 
civil  penalties,  to  excommunication  as  well  as  to  death. 
Even  ecclesiastics  consenting  to  such  treason  are  to  be 
involved  in  the  interdict.  These  ecclesiastical  lawgiv- 
ers, while  they  arm  themselves  with  great  powers  for 
the  public  good,  claim  no  immunity.  Bishops  are  lia- 
ble to  fines  for  disregard  of  judges'  orders.^  The  clergy 
are  amenable  to  the  same  penalty  for  contumacy  as  the 
laity .^  But  great  powers  are  given  to  the  bishops  to 
restrain  unjust  judges,  even  the  counts.^  The  terrible 
laws  against  heresy,  and  the  atrocious  juridical  persecu- 
tions of  the  Jews,  already  designate  Spain  as  the  throne 
and  centre  of  merciless  bigotry. 

The  Salic  law  proclaims  itself  that  of  the  noble  na- 

Praefat.  p.  xiii.  Eichhom,  not  reckoning  the  Edict  of  Theodoric,  arranges 
the  codes  thus:  I.  Lex  Visigothica  —  the  origin  of  the  Fuero  Juzgo  — 
wliich,  however,  has  many  late  additions.  IT.  Lex  Salica.  III.  The  Bur- 
gundian.  IV.  Ripuarica,  Alemannica,  Bavarica.  These  betray  higher 
kingly  power. 

1  Canciani,  iv.  p.  52. 

2  Leges  Visigoth,  ii.  1,  6. 
8  ii.  1, 18,  ibid. 

4  ii.  1.  29,  30. 

5  In  the  Visigothic  code  the  observance  of  the  Sunday  and  of  holydays 
is  appointed  by  law.  The  holydays  were  fifteen  at  Easter,  seven  before, 
seven  after.  The  Nativity,  Circumcision,  Epiphany,  Pentecost,  Ascepsion, 
and  certain  days  at  harvest  and  vintage  time. 


Chap.  V.  TEUTONIC  KINGS   AND   LAWS.  619 

tion  of  the  Franks,  lately  converted  to  the  saiic  law. 
Catholic  faith,  and  even  while  yet  barbarians  untainted 
with  heresy.  In  a  later  sentence  it  boasts  that  it  has 
enshrined  in  gold  and  precious  stones  the  relics  of  those 
martyrs  whom  the  Romans  burned  with  fire,  slew  with 
the  sword,  or  cast  to  the  wild  beasts.^  But  it  is  the 
law  of  the  King  and  the  nobles  :  the  bishops  are  not 
named,  perhaps  because  as  yet  the  higher  clergy  were 
still  of  Roman  descent. 

Still,  however  the  Teutonic  kings  and  Teutonic  leg- 
islators at  first  perhaps  in  their  character  of  conquerors, 
assumed  supreme  dominion  over  the  Church  as  well  as 
over  the  State,  and  the  subject  bishops  bowed  before 
the  irresistible  authority.  St.  Remigius  violated  a  can- 
on of  the  Church  on  the  ordination  of  a  presbyter  at 
the  command  of  Clovis.^  Among  the  successors  of 
Clovis  no  bishop  was  appointed  without  the  sanction 
of  the  Crown.2  Theodoric,  son  of  Clovis,  commanded 
<»he  elevation  of  St.  Nicetius  to  the  see  of  Treves.* 
The  royal  power  was  shown  in  the  shameless  sale  of 
bishoprics.^  The  nomination  or  the  assent  of  the 
clergy  and  the  people  was  implied  in  the  theory  of  the 
election,  but  often  overborne  by  the  awe  of  the  royal 
authority.^    The  Council  of  Orleans,  which  condemned 

1  Apud  Canciani,  vol.  ii.  see  p.  370. 

2  "  Scribitis  canonicum  non  fuisse  quod  jussit Praesul  regionuni 

custos  patriae,  gentium  triumphator  illud  injunxit." — Epist.  S.  Remigii: 
Uouquet  iv.  p.  52. 

3  Planck,  ii.  114.     A.D.  529. 

4  "  Eum  ad  episcopatum  jussit  accersiri."  —  Gr.  Tur. 

5  "  Jam  tunc  germen  illud  iniquum  cceperat  fructificare,  ut  sacerdotium 
aut  venderetur  a  regibus,  aut  compararetur  a  clericis." — Greg.  Tur.  Vit. 
Patr.  vi.  3. 

6  "  Ut  nulli  episcopatum  praemiis  aut  comparatione  liceat  adipisci :  sed 
cum  volnntate  regis  juxta  electionem  cleri  ac  plebis,"  &c.  a.d.  549.  Concil 
Can.  10 


520  LATIN   CITPJSTIANTTY.  Book  III. 

the  sale  of  bishoprics,  ftilly  ackncwledged  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  royal  will.  A  few  years  later  a  Council  at 
Paris  endeavored  to  throw  off  the  yoke.  It  declared 
the  election  to  be  in  the  clergy  and  the  people.  It  dis- 
claimed the  royal  mandate,  and  condemned  the  bishop 
who  should  dare  to  obtain  ordination  throuo-h  the  King: 
to  be  excluded  from  the  fellowship  of  the  bishops  of  the 
province.^  But  the  fierce  Frankish  sovereigns,  while 
they  appeared  to  accede  to  these  pretensions,  tramp- 
led them  under  foot.  The  right  seems  to  follow  them 
in  their  career  of  conquest.  Dalmatius,  Bishop  of 
Rhodez,  in  his  last  will,  besought  the  King,  under  the 
most  terrible  adjurations,  not  to  grant  his  office  to  a 
foreigner,  a  covetous  person,  or  a  married  man.^  In 
562  a  synod,  held  under  Leontius,  Archbishop  of 
Bordeaux,  deposed  the  Bishop  Emerius,  as  consecrated 
by  a  decree  of  King  Chlotaire  without  his  sanction. 
When  the  new  Bishop  Herculius  presented  himself  at 
Paris,  "  What ! "  exclaimed  King  Charibert,  "  do  men 
think  that  there  is  no  son  of  Chlotaire  to  maintain  his 
father's  decrees,  that  ye  dare  to  degrade  a  bishop  ap- 
pointed by  his  will  ?  "  He  ordered  the  rash  intruder 
to  be  thrown  into  a  cart  strewn  with  thorns,  and  so 
sent  into  banishment ;  the  Bishop  Emerius  to  be  rein- 
stated by  holy  men.^     He  fined  the  synod.     The  royal 

1  "  Nullus  civibus  invitis  ordinetiir  episcopus,  nisi  qucm  populi  et  cleri- 
corum  electio  plenissiina  quassierit  voluntate.  Non  p-lncipis  impcHo^  neque 
per  quamlibet  conditionem,  contra  metropolis  voluntatem  vel  episcoporum 
provincialium  ingeratur.  Quod  si  per  ordinntionem  ref/iam  honoris  istius 
culmen  pervadere  aliquis  nimia  temeritate  praisumpserit,  a  comprovinciali- 
bus  loci  ipsius  episcopus  recipi  nullatenus  mereatur,  quern  indebitd  ordina^ 
turn  agnoscunt."  —  Can.  viii. 

2  Gregor.  Tur.  v.  47. 

8  Gregor.  Tur.  iv.  26.  Loebel  observes  that  Gregory,  from  his  expres- 
sion, "Et  sic  principis  ultus  est  injuriam,"  thought  the  king  in  the  right. 


Chap.  V.  AMENABILITY   OF   THE  CLERGY.  521 

prerogative  was  perpetually  asserted  down  at  least  to 
the  time  of  Charlemagne.^ 

In  the  Gothic  kingdom  of  Spain,  so  long  as  it  was 
Arian,  the  kings  interfered  not  in  the  appointment  of 
bishops.  Their  orthodox  successors  left,  it  should  seem, 
affairs  to  take  their  own  course.^  But  towards  the 
close  of  the  seventh  century  the  Council  of  Toledo 
acknowledged  the  King  as  invested  with  the  right  of 
electing  bishops.^  Ecclesiastical  synods  were  only  held 
by  royal  permission.  Their  decrees  required  the  royal 
sanction.*  This  theory  may  be  traced  through  the  nu- 
merous synods  for  ecclesiastical  purposes  in  Gaul,  be- 
tween the  conquest  and  the  close  of  the  sixth  century.^ 
In  Spain  the  custom  appears  distinctly  recognized  even 
under  Arian  kings.^ 

As  under  the  Roman  law  no  one  could  elude  civil 
office  by  retreating  into  holy  orders.  No  decurion 
could  be  ordained  without  special  permission.  No  free- 
man could  be  ordained  in  the  Barbaric  kingdoms  with- 

1  See  instances  in  LoebeL  King  Guntran,  in  584,  rejected  (it  seemed  an 
extraordinary  case)  gifts  for  episcopal  appointments.  "Non  est  principatus 
nostri  consuetudo  sacerdotium  venundare  sub  pretio,  sed  nee  vestrum  cum 
prtemiis  comparare :  ne  et  nos  turpis  lucri  infamia  notemur,  et  vos  mago 
Simoni  comparemini."  —  Greg.  Tur.  vi.  39. 

2  Pope  Hilarius  laid  before  a  synod  at  Rome  a  letter  of  the  Tarragonian 
bishops  complaining  that  in  the  other  provinces  of  Spain  episcopal  elections 
had  ceased.  The  bishop  nominated  his  successor  in  his  testament.  —  Baron, 
sub  ann.  466. 

8  "  Quod  regiae  potestatis  sit  episcopos  eligere." 

4  Planck,  ch.  ii.  p.  125 ;  from  511  to  590,  were  held  twenty-one  Gallic 
synods:  most  of  them  have  permission  "  gloriosissimi  regis,"  or  some  such 
phrase. 

5  Planck,  note,  page  130. 

6  King  Theudes,  in  531,  permits  the  orthodox  bishops  "  in  Toledanam 
arbem  con  venire,  et  quajcunque  ad  ecclesiasticam  disciplinam  pertinerent 
iicere,  licenterque  dicere." — Isid.  in  Chron.  ad  a.d.  531. 


622  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

out  the  consent  of  the  king,  because  thereby  the  king 
lost  his  mihtary  service.^ 

Below  the  sovereign  power  the  people  maintained 
the  right  of  the  joint  election  of  bishops  with  the 
clergy.  This  old  Christian  usage  would  fall  in  with 
the  Teutonic  habits.  As  the  Teutons  raised  their  king 
upon  the  buckler,  and  proclaimed  him  ^vith  the  assent  of 
the  freemen  of  the  tribe,  so  the  acclamation  of  the  peo- 
ple ratified  or  anticipated  the  nomination  of  the  bishop.'^ 

The  clergy  enjoyed  no  immunity  from  the  laws  of 
the  land.^  In  criminal  cases  two  successive  Councils, 
at  Macon  and  at  Poictiers,*  acknowledged  that  for  ali 
criminal  offences,  as  homicide,  robbery,  witchcraft,  to 
which  the  latter  adds  adultery,  they  were  amenable  to 
the  civil  jurisdiction.^  At  a  later  period  the  presence 
of  the  bishop  was  declared  necessary.^  If  indeed  the 
awe  of  the  clergy  might  repress,  or  the  obstinate  claim 
to  immunity  embarrass,  the  ordinary  judge,  the  royal 
authority  was  neither  limited  by  fear  nor  scruple.^   Nu- 

1  Cone.  Aurelian.  a.d.  511,  can.  6.  confirmed  by  a  capitulary,  a.d.  805.  I. 
c.  114.  —  Marculf.  i.  19. — Praeceptum  de  Clericatu.  —  Planck,  159. 

2  For  the  usage  under  the  Roman  dominion  in  Gaul,  from  the  earlies 
period  to  the  fifth  century,  see  Raynouard,  Histoire  du  Droit  Municipal  en 
France,  i.  ch.  xxvi.     It  continued  to  the  twelfth  century. 

8  The  appeal  of  the  clergy  to  the  civil  courts  for  the  redress  of  ecclesias- 
tical grievances  was  strictly  forbidden.  —  Concil.  Tolet.  iii.  13.  Cone.  Paris. 
A.D.  589.  c.  13.  Council  under  St.  Recared,  enacted,  "  Ne  amplius  liceat 
clericis  conclericos  suos  relicto  Pontifice  ad  judicia  secularia  pertrahere."  — 
A.D.  589.  c.  13. 

4  Concil.  Matiscon.  a.d.  581.     Concil.  Pictav. 

5  According  to  Gregory  of  Tours,  Count  Leudastes  of  Tours  had,  almost 
every  day,  when  he  sat  injustice,  priests  brought  before  him  in  chains.  — 
Lib.  V.  c.  49. 

9  Capit.  i.  23. 

7  At  the  end  of  the  sixth  century,  the  civil  authorities  in  Spain  took 
upon  them  to  enforce  clerical  continence.  They  visited  the  houses  of  the 
clergy,  and  took  out  all  suspicion':  females.     With  the  consent  of  the  bishops, 


Chap.  V.  AMENABnJTY  OF  THE  CLERGY.  523 

mcrous  instances  occur  of  bishops  treated  with  the  most 
cruel  indignity  by  the  fierce  Frankish  sovereigns  for 
real  or  imputed  crimes.^  At  times  indeed  they  sub- 
mitted to  the  tardier  process  of  a  previous  condemna- 
tion by  an  ecclesiastical  synod.  Pr99textatus,  Bishop 
of  Rouen,  was  accused  by  King  Chilperic  as  an  accom- 
plice in  the  rebellion  of  his  son,  before  a  synod  in 
Paris.  Pr^etextatus  was  in  danger  of  being  dragged 
from  the  church  and  stoned  by  the  Franks.  The  bish-r 
ops  were  prepared  to  utter  the  ban.  But  his  defence 
was  undertaken  by  the  historian,  Gregory  of  Tours. 
Neither  fear  nor  bribery  could  deter  the  intrepid  advo- 
cate from  maintaining  the  innocence  of  the  bisliop.^ 
When  the  King  could  not  obtain  his  condemnation,^ 
either  the  tearing  his  holy  vesture,  or  the  imprecation 
of  the  108th  Psalm  against  him,  or  even  his  exclusion 
from  Christian  communion,  Praetextatus  was  suddenly 
hurried  away  to  prison ;  on  his  attempt  to  escape, 
gi-ievously  beaten  and  sent  into  exile.*  This  transac- 
tion, notwithstanding  its  melancholy  close,  shows  some 
growing  respect  for  ecclesiastical  tribunals  in  cases  even 
of  high  treason.  The  Spanish  kings  threaten  bishops 
with  royal  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  censure.^ 

There  were  appeals  from  ecclesiastical  synods  to  the 
Crown ;  in  some  cases  the  royal  authority  interposed 

who  seem  to  have  approved  of  thi«  i«t)cedure,  they  might  seize  the  women 
as  slaves.  —  Concil.  Hispal.  3. 

1  Greg.  Tur.  vi.  24. 

2  "  Ducentas  argenti  libras  promisit,  si  Praetextatus,  me  impugnante 
opprimeretur." 

3  Gregory  himself  admits  the  8upremacy  of  the  king  over  the  clergy. 
"  Si  quis  de  nobis,  o  rex,  justitise  tramitem  transcendere  volnerit  a  te 
corrigi  potest ;  si  vero  tu  excesseris,  quis  te  corripiet  ?  " 

4  Greg.  Tur.  v.  18. 

5  Plauck,  ii.  188. 


524  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IH 

to    mitigate    or    to    relieve   from   ecclesiastical   penal- 
ties.^ 

But  there  is  a  strong  converse  to  this  subjec  tion  of 
the  Chiu'ch  to  the  power  of  the  King  or  the  nobihty. 
Already  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries,  the  bishops 
appear  in  all  the  great  assemblies  of  the  people.^  They 
have  a  voice  in  the  election  of  the  King;  before  long, 
his  coronation  becomes  a  religious  ceremony.  It  was 
not,  according  to  one  theory,  that  they  succeeded  the 
Druids  of  Gaul  and  the  Teutonic  priests  in  their  dig- 
nity (the  Druids  and  their  religion  had  long  ceased  to 
maintain  any  influence,  the  German  priests  do  not 
appear  to  have  formed  a  part  of  the  great  warlike  mi- 
grations of  the  tribes),  nor  that  the  bishops  claimed 
the  privilege  of  all  free  Franks  to  give  their  suffrage  in 
the  popular  assembly.  There  were  few  of  these  regu- 
lar parliaments  ;  they  were  rather  great  councils  sum- 
moned by  the  king.  The  position  of  the  Bishops, 
their  influence  with  the  people,  their  rank  in  public 
estimation,  their  superior  intelligence,  designated  them 
as  useful  members  of  such  council.  The  later  Gothic 
kings  of  Spain  felt  even  more  awe  of  the  clergy  :  they 
had  been  rescued  by  their  zeal,  not  merely  from  the 
terrible  retribution  which  awaited  heathenism,  but 
from  that  of  heresy.  Their  conversion  to  orthodoxy 
showed  the  power  which  the  Latin  clergy  had  obtained 
over  their  minds ;  and  they  would  hasten  to  lay  the 


1  See  the  curious  Hist,  of  the  Royal  nuns  (Greg.  Tur.  x.  20),  and  the  ex- 
communication of  Archbishop  Sisibert  of  Toledo :  "  Ut  in  fine  vitae  tantum 
(•ommunioncm  accipiat,  excepto,  si  regia  pietas  antea  eum  absolvendum 
crediderit."  —  a.d.  693.     Planck,  p.  194. 

2  According  to  Eichhorn,  the  first  manifest  '*  Concilium  mixtum  "  was  in 
A.i>.  615.  From  this  emanated  the  constitutions  of  Chlotaire  II.  which 
recognized  the  temporal  powers  of  the  hierarchy.  —  i.  p-  520. 


Chap.  V.  EPISCOPAL   AUTHORITY.  525 

first  fruits  of  their  gratitude,  submission,  and  reverence, 
at  the  feet  of  the  clergy.  Nor  were  the  affairs  discussed 
at  these  great  councils  strictly  defined.  There  was  no 
distinct  line  between  civil  and  religious  matters.  This 
distinction  belongs  to  a  later  period  of  civilization. 
The  clergy  were  not  unwilling  to  obtain  the  royal  or 
the  national  assent  to  their  spiritual  decrees.  The  king 
naturally  desired  the  intelligence,  the  love  of  order, 
the  authority,  the  influence  of  the  clergy,  to  ratify  his 
civil  edicts.  The  reciprocal  rights  of  each  party  had 
been  as  yet  too  little  contested  to  awaken  that  sensitive 
jealousy  of  interference  which  grew  up  out  of  centuries 
of  mutual  ao;o;ression. 

too 

But  if  in  the  great  public  assemblies  the  bishops  had 
already  taken  this  rank,  each  in  his  city  held  an  au- 
thority partly  recognized  by  law,  partly  resting  on  the 
general  awe  and  reverence. ^  As  in  the  East,  the  bishop 
had  a  general  superintendence  over  the  courts  of  law. 
He  had,  if  not  always  the  presidential,  a  seat  in  the 
judicial  tribunal.^  He  was,  if  not  by  statute,  by  uni- 
versal recognition,  what  the  defensor  had  been  in  the 
old  municipal  system,  only  with  all  the  increased  influ- 
ence of  his  religious  character.  To  him  the  injured 
party  could  appeal  in  default  of  justice.  He  was  the 
patron,  the  advocate  of  the  poor.  He  had  power  to 
punish  subordinate  judges  for  injustice  in  the  absence  of 
the  king.  In  Spain  the  Bishops  had  a  special  charge  to 
keep  continual  watch  over  the  administration  of  justice,^ 

1  So  King  Chlotaire  ordained.  —  Greg.  Tur.  vi.  31. 

2  On  the  residence  of  the  bisliops  in  the  cities,  its  effect  on  the  great 
increase  in  the  power  of  the  bishop,  and  on  the  fi-eedom  of  the  cities,  com- 
pare Thierry.  —  R(^cits.  M^rovingiens,  i.  266. 

8  "Ex  decreto  domiui  regis  —  simul  cum  sacerdotali  concilio  conveniaut 
ut  discant  quam  pi6  et  juste  cum  pupulis  agere  debeant."  — Coucil.  Tol^'t 
ill.  38. 


526  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  111. 

and  were  summoned  on  aJl  great  occasions  to  instruct 
the  judges  to  act  with  piety  and  justice.^ 

Thus  the  clergy  stood  between  the  two  hostile  races 
in  the  new  constitution  of  society  —  the  reconcilers, 
the  pacifiers,  the  harmonizers  of  the  hostile  elements. 
They  were  Latin  in  general  in  descent,  in  language, 
yet  comprehending  both  races  under  their  authority 
and  influence  ;  admitted  to  the  councils  of  the  Kings, 
and  equal  to  the  count  or  the  noble  in  estimation  ; 
controlling  one  race  by  awe,  looked  up  to  by  the  other 
as  their  natural  protectors  ;  opposing  brute  force  by 
moral  and  religious  influences  ;  supplying  the  impo- 
tency  of  the  barbaric  law  to  restrain  oppression  and 
iniquity  (where  every  injury  or  crime  had  its  commu- 
tative fine)  by  the  dread  of  the  religious  interdict  and 
the  fears  of  hell ;  stooping  unconsciously  to  the  super- 
stition of  the  times,  but  ruling  more  powerfully  through 
that  superstition.  They  were  the  guardians  and  pro- 
tectors of  the  conquered,  of  the  servile  classes,  whose 
condition  was  growing  worse  and  worse,  against  the 
privileged  fi'eemen  ;  enduring,  mitigating,  when  they 
could  not  control,  the  wild  crimes  of  the  different  petty 
kings,  who  were  constantly  severing  into  fi*agments  the 
great  Frankish  monarchy,  and  warring,  intriguing, 
assassinating  for  each  fragment.  The  Bishops  during 
all  that  period,  in  Spain,  in  France,  in  Italy  —  making 
every  allowance  for  the  legendary  and  almost  adoring 
tone  in  which  their  histories  have  descended  to  us  — 
appear  as  the  sole  representatives   of  law,  order,  and 

1  "  Sint  pvospectores  episcopi  qnaliter  judices  cum  popiilis  agant,  ut  ipsos 
priXimonitos  currigant,  aut  insolentiam  eorum  principum  aurihus  innotoscant. 
(iuod  si  correptos  einendare  nequiverint,  et  ab  ecclesiS,  et  a  commnnione 
Buspciidant."  — Ibid.:  compare  Leg.  Visigoth.  11.  1,  29,  30;  Syaod.  Tolet 
A.i>.  633,  can.  32. 


Chap.  V.  RIGHTS   OF  PERSONS.  d2i 

justice,  as  well  as  of  Christian  virtue  and  humanity. 
There  is  even  a  cessation  of  religious  persecution,  ex- 
cept against  the  Jews.  After  the  extinction  of  Arian- 
ism,  the  human  mind  had  sunk  into  such  inactivity  and 
barrenness  that  it  did  not  even  produce  a  new  heresy. 
Except  the  peculiar  opinions  of  Felix  and  ElipanduSj 
and  those  of  Adelbert  and  Clement  in  Gaul,  down  to 
the  time  when  the  monk  Gotschalk  started  the  question 
of  predestination,  the  West  slumbered  in  unreasoning 
orthodoxy. 

A.  The  Barbaric  codes,  like  the  Roman,  recognized 
slavery  as  an  ordinary  condition  of  mankind.^  Rights  of 
Man  was  still  a  marketable  commodity.  The  Se^Bar- 
captive  in  war  became  a  slave ;  and  it  was  hap-  ^^™  ^''^®^' 
py  for  mankind  that  he  became  so,  otherwise  the  wars 
which  swept  over  the  whole  world,  civilized  and  un- 
civilized, must  have  been  wars  of  massacre  and  exter- 
mination. The  victory  of  Stilicho  over  Rliadagaisus 
threw  200,000  Goths  or  other  Germans  into  the  market, 
and  lowered  the  price  of  a  slave  from  twenty-five  pieces  of 
gold  to  one.2  The  well-known  storv  of  the  Anglo-Sax- 
on  youths  who  excited  the  compassion  of  Pope  Grego- 
ry I.  shows  that  in  his  time  the  public  sale  of  slaves  was 
still  common  in  Rome.  The  redemption  of  captives  — 
that  is  the  repurchase  of  slaves  in  order  to  restore  them  to 
freedom  —  is  esteemed  an  act  of  piety  in  the  West  as  in 
the  East.  The  first  prohibition  of  this  traffic,  both  by 
law  and  by  public  sentiment,  was  confined  to  the  sale 


1  The  church  lived  according  to  the  Roman  law:  "  Legem  Romanam  quft 
ecclesia  vivit."  — Eichhorn,  i.  297.  In  the  Ripuarian  law  the  wehrgeld  of 
the  clergyman  was  at  first  according  to  his  birth,  "  Sen'us  ut  servum ; " 
afterwards  according  to  his  ecclesiastical  rank.  — Ibid. 

*  Orosiiis,  vii.  37 


528  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IIL 

of  Christians  to  pagans,  Jews,  and  in  some  cases  to 
heretics.  The  Jews  were  the  great  slave-merchants  of 
the  age.^  But  it  was  the  religion  rather  than  the  per- 
sonal freedom  which  was  taken  under  the  protection  of 
the  law.  The  capture  and  sale  of  men  was  part  of  the 
piratical  system  along  all  the  shores  of  Europe,  espe- 
cially on  the  northern  coasts.  The  sale  of  pagan 
prisoners  of  war  was  authorized  by  Clovis  after  the 
defeat  of  the  Alemanni ;  by  Charlemagne  after  that  of 
the  Saxons ;  by  Henry  the  Fowler,  as  to  that  unhappy 
race  which  gave  their  name  to  the  class  —  the  Slaves.^ 

The  barbarian  codes  seem  to  acknowledge  the  le- 
Marriages  of  g^^^^J  ^^  marriages  between  slaves,  and  their 
Biaves.  religious  sanctity ;   that  of  the  Lombards  on 

the  authority  of  the  Scriptural  sentence,  "  Whom  God 
liath  joined  together,  let  no  man  put  asunder."  All 
unlawful  connection  with  married  or  unmarried  slaves 
is  forbidden.^  The  slave  who  detected  his  wife  in  adul- 
tery might,  like  the  freeman,  kill  the  two  criminals.* 
Still,  however,  they  were  slaves.  The  law  interfered 
to  prohibit  marriages  between  the  slaves  of  different 
masters.  If  the  marriage  took  place  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  master,  the  slave  was  punishable,  by  the 
Salic  law,  either  by  a  mulct  of  threepence,  or  was 
to  receive  a  hundred  stripes.  The  later  laws  became 
more  lenient,  and  divided  the  offspring  between  the 
two  masters. 

The  barbarian  codes  Avere  as  severe  as  the  Roman  in 
prohibiting  the  debasing  alliance  of  the  freeman  with 

1  Hist,  of  Jews,  iii. 

2  Compare  Biot,  p.  185,  De  I'Abolition  de  I'Esclavage  ancien  en  Occident 
Paris,  1840. 

8  Lex  Salic,  tit.  xxviii. 
4  Lex  Salic,  xxviii.  5. 


Chap.  V.     MARRIAGE  OF  FREEMEN  AKD  SLAVES.  529 


of 
freemea  ;iud 


tlie  slave.  The  Salic  and  Ripuarian  law  Mamage 
condemned  the  freeman  guilty  of  this  degra-  slaves. 
dation  to  slavery  ;  ^  where  the  miion  was  between  a 
free-woman  and  a  slave,  that  of  the  Lombards-  and 
that  of  the  Burgundians  ^  condemned  both  parties 
to  death  ;  but  if  her  parents  refused  to  put  her  to 
death,  she  became  the  slave  of  the  crown.  The 
Ripuarian  law  condemned  the  female  delinquent  to 
slavery ;  but  the  woman  had  the  alternative  of  killing 
her  base-born  husband.  She  was  offered  a  distaff  and 
a  sword.  If  she  chose  the  distaff,  she  became  a  slave ; 
if  the  sword,  she  struck  it  to  the  heart  of  her  para- 
mour, and  emancipated  herself  from  her  degrading  con- 
nection.* The  Visigothic  law  condemned  the  female 
wdio  had  connection  with  or  wished  to  many  her  own 
slave,  or  even  a  fteedman,  to  death.^  For  the  same 
offence  with  the  slave  of  another,  both  were  punished 
with  a  hundred  stripes.  For  the  fourth  offence  the 
woman  became  the  handmaid  of  the  slave's  master. 
The  Saxon  law  still  more  sternly  interdicted  all  mar- 
riages below  the  proper  rank,  whether  of  nobles,  fi'ee 
men,  or  slaves,  under  pain  of  death.  The  laws  of  the 
Lombards  and  of  the  Alemanni  were  more  mild.  The 
latter  allowed  the  female  to  separate  from  her  slave 
husband  on  certain  conditions,  if  she  had  not  degraded 
herself  by  any  servile  occupation.^ 

1  Lex  SaL  xxix.  v.  3 :  Lex  Ripuar.  Iviii.  9. 

2  ccxxii. 

8  Tit.  XXXV.  2. 

4  Lex  Ripuar.  Iviii.  18. 

5  Lex  Visigoth,  iii.  ii.  2. 

6  Adam.  Brem.,  Hist.  Eccles.  i.  5.  By  the  Bavarian  law,  a  slave  commit- 
ting fornication  with  a  free-woman  was  to  be  given  up,  to  be  put  to  death 
if  they  pleased,  to  tlie  parents,  and  not  to  pay  any  mulct:  "  quia  talis  prae- 
sumptio  excitat  inimicitias  in  populo."  — ii.  ix. 

VOL.  I.  34 


630  LATIX   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  111 

Under  the  barbarian  as  under  the  Roman  law,  the 
slave  was  protected  chiefly  as  the  property  of  his  mas- 
ter. All  injury  or  damage  was  done  to  the  thing 
rather  than  the  person,  and  was  to  be  paid  for  by  a 
mulct  to  the  owner,  not  a  compensation  to  the  sufferer.^ 
By  the  edict  of  Theodoric,  he  who  killed  the  slave  of 
another  might  be  prosecuted  for  homicide,  or  sued  by  a 
civil  process  for  the  deUvery  of  two  slaves  in  place  of 
the  one  killed.^  But  slaves  bore  the  penalty  of  their 
own  offences,  and  even  of  those  of  their  masters.  If 
guilty  of  acts  of  violence,  though  under  their  masters' 
orders,  they  suffered  deatli.^  The  slave  was  not  to  be 
tortured,  except  to  prove  the  guilt  of  his  master,  un- 
less the  informer  would  pay  the  master  his  value.  If 
bought  in  order  to  suppress  his  evidence,  he  might  be 
repurchased  at  the  same  price,  and  put  to  the  torture.^ 
The  right  of  life  and  death  still  subsisted  in  the  master. 
According  to  some  of  the  barbaric  codes,  here  retro- 
grading from  the  Roman,  he  had  full  power  to  make 
away  with  his  own  property.  This  usage,  noticed  by 
Tacitus  as  common  to  the  Gennan  tribes,  continued  to 


1  In  the  Burgundian  law,  the  murder  of  a  slave  is  only  punished  by  a 
fine,  according  to  his  value.*  The  humaner  Visigothic  code  distinctly  pro- 
hibited the  murder  of  a  slave.  The  pimishment  was  fine  and  infamy.  An- 
other law  recognized  the  image  of  God  in  the  slave,  and  therefore  inter- 
dicted his  mutilation. 

2  The  Burgundian  law  shows  that  the  artisans  in  the  mingled  Roman  and 
barbarian  society  were  chiefly  slaves.  "  Quicunque  vero  servum  suum  au- 
rificem,  argentarium,  ferrarium,  fabrum  gerarium,  sartorem  vel  sutorem,  ia 
publico  adtributum  artificium  exercere  permiserit,"  &c.  — Tit.  xxi. 

*  Art.  Ixxvii. 

4  Art.  c.  ci.  By  the  Bavarian  law,  if  a  slave  was  unjustly  put  to  the  tor- 
ture, the  false  accuser  of  the  slave  Avas  to  give  another  slave  to  the  master 
if  the  slave  died  under  torture,  two.f 

*  Tit.  X.;  Logos  Visigoth,  vi.  v.  12;  Law  of  Egira,  vi.  v.  13. 
t  Tit.  viii.  18,  1,  2:  compare  Burguudiau  law,  Tit.  vii. 


CifAP.  V.  ElVLiNCIPATION  OF  SLAVES.  631 

the  Capitularies  of  Charlemagne.  That  code  adopts 
the  Mosaic  provisions.^  Under  Lewis  the  Debonnaire 
and  Lothaire,  the  arljitrary  murder  of  a  slave  was  pun- 
ished by  excommunication  or  two  years'  penance.^ 

The  runaway  slave  was  the  outcast  of  society.  At 
first  he  was  denied  the  privilege  of  asylum.^  It  was  a 
crime  to  conceal  him ;  he  might  be  seized  anywhere ; 
punished  by  his  master  according  to  his  will ;  and 
according  to  some  codes  he  might  be  slain  in  case  of 
resistance.  The  influence  of  the  Church  appears 
in  some  singular  and  contradictory  provisions.*  The 
Churches  themselves  were  slaveholders.^  There  were 
special  provisions  to  protect  their  slaves.  By  the  law 
of  the  Alemanni,  whoever  concealed  an  ecclesiastic's 
slave  was  condemned  to  a  triple  fine.^  In  the  Bava- 
rian law,  whoever  incited  the  slave  of  a  church  or  a 
monastery  to  flight,  must  pay  a  mulct  of  fifteen  solidi, 
and  restore  the  slave  or  replace  him  by  another.  The 
Church  gradually  claimed  the  right  of  asylum  for  fugi- 
tive slaves.  The  slave  who  had  taken  refuge  at  the 
altar  was  to  be  restored  to  his  master  only  on  his 
promise  of  remitting  the  punishment.'^ 

As  under  the  Roman  law,  peculiar  solemnity  at- 
tached to  the  emancipation  of  the  slave  in  the  church 


1  Exod.  xxi.  20,  21. 

2  Dacheiy,  Spicilej?.  Addit.  ad  Cap.  c.  49 ;  Biot,  p.  286 
8  Edict.  Theodor.  Ixx. ;  Leg.  Longobard.  cclxxxii. 

*  Lex  Salica;  Lex  Ripnar,xiv. 

5  "  Noil  v'  era  anticamente  Signer  Secolare,  Vescovo,  Abbate,  Capitolo 
di  Canonici,  e  Monastero,  che  non  avesse  al  suo  servigio  molti  servi." 
Manvimission  was  more  rare  among  the  clergj^  than  among  secular  masters, 
because  it  was  an  alienation  of  the  propert}'^  of  the  church.  —  Muratori,  Ant 
^taliane,  Diss.  xv. 

6  Lex  Alemann.  3. 

7  Concil.  Aurelian. :  compare  the  Visigothic  law,  ix.  1,  de  fugitivis. 


532  LATIX  CIIRISTIANITY.  Book  111 

and  before  tlie  priest ;  and  emancipation  thus  became 
an  act  of  piety.  So  in  some  of  the  Teutonic  codes,  ab 
in  the  Visigothic,  emancij^ation  before  the  parisli  priest 
was  an  ordinary  act  recognized  by  the  law.  It  was  a 
common  form  that  it  was  done  by  the  pious  man  for  the 
remedy  or  the  ransom  of  his  souL^ 

Easter  was  usually  the  appointed  time  for  this  pubHc 
manumission  in  the  churches ;  and  no  doubt  the  glad 
influences  of  that  holy  season  awoke  the  disposition  and 
the  emulation,  in  many  Christian  minds,  of  conferring 
the  blessing  of  freedom  upon  their  slaves. 

Gregory  the  Great  seems  to  have  been  the  first  who 
enfranchised  slaves  on  the  pure  and  noble  principle  of 
the  common  equality  of  mankind. 

But  the  great  change  in  the  condition  of  the  servile 
order  arose  chiefly  from  other  causes,  besides  the  influ- 
ence of  Christianity.  This  benign  influence  operated 
no  doubt  in  these  indirect  ways  to  a  great  extent,  first 
on  the  mitigation,  afterwards  on  the  abolition  of  domes- 
tic slavery ;  but  it  was  perhaps  the  multiplication  of 
slaves  which  to  a  certain  extent  slowly  wrought  its 
own  remedy.  The  new  relations  of  the  different  races 
consequent  on  the  barbaric  conquests,  the  liabits  of  the 
Teutonic  tribes  settled  within  the  Empire,  the  attach- 
ment of  the  rural  or  praidial  slave  to  the  soil,  the 
change  of  the  slave  into  the  serf,  which  became  uni- 
versal in  Europe,  tended  in  different  ways  to  the 
general  though  tardy  emancipation.  The  serf  was 
immovable  as  the  soil ;  he  became  as  it  were  part  of  it, 

1  Leges  Visigoth,  v.  vii. :  compare  note  of  Canciani,  and  the  15th  Dis- 
sertation of  Miu-atori.     This  began  early  both  in  East^^and  Wost.    "  Servum . 
tuuin  nianuniittendum  nianu  ducis  in  ecclesiam.     Fit  silcntium.     Libellua 
tunc  rccitatur,  aut  fit  desiderii  tui  jjrosccutio."  —  S.  August.  Senn.  xjixi. 
U  wiiA  done  pro  rcmodio,  or  pro  nicrccde  aniiuui  sua;. 


€uAr.  V.  BURGUNDIAN   LAW   OF   DIVORCE.  583 

and  so  in  some  degi'ee  beyond  tlie  capnce  or  despotism 
of  his  master.  Already  under  the  Empire,  the  sys- 
tem of  taxation  had  affixed  the  peasant  to  the  soil  :  the 
owner  paid  according  to  the  number  of  heads  of  slaves, 
as  he  might  of  cattle.  Whether  the  cultivators  were 
originally  born  on  the  estate  ascribed  to  them,  or  set- 
tled upon  it,  they  were  equally  irremovable.  No  one 
could  sell  his  estate,  and  transfer  the  slaves  to  another 
property.  The  estates  of  the  Church  were  no  doubt, 
as  they  yet  enjoyed  no  immunity  of  taxation,  subject 
to  the  same  laws.  It  may  be  generally  said  that  the 
whole  cultivation  of  the  Roman  empire  was  conducted, 
if  not  by  slaves,  by  those  whose  condition  did  not  really 
differ  from  slavery.  The  emancipation  began  at  a  pe- 
riod in  the  Christian  history,  centuries  later  than  that 
at  which  we  are  arrived  at  present.^ 

The  barbaric  codes,  as  well  as  the  edict  of  Theod- 
oric,^  retained  the  high  Teutonic  reverence  for  the 
sanctity  of  marriage.  In  the  Burgundian  law,  adultery 
was  punishable  by  death.^  In  all  cases  it  rendered  the 
woman  infamous.  A  widow  guilty  of  incontinency 
could  not  marry  again  —  at  least  could  not  receive 
dower.  In  the  Visigothic  code  the  adulteress  and  her 
paramour  were  given  up  to  the  injured  husband,  to  be 
punished  according  to  his  will :  he  might  put  them  to 
death.*    The  law  of  divorce  under  the  Burgundian  law 

1  Tit.  xl.-xlviii. :  compare  the  Justinian  code  "De  af?ricolis  et  censitis 
et  colonis."  Law  of  Constantius,  i.  —  Law  of  Valentinian  and  Valens. 
'*Omnes  omnino  fiigitivos  adscriptitios,  colonos  vel  inquilinos,  sine  ullo 
sexus,  muneris  conditionisque  discrimine  ad  antiquos  penates,  ubi  cendti 
vtque  educati  natique  sunt,  provinciis  pra?sidentes  redire  compellant."  On 
the  change  of  the  slave  into  the  serf  in  the  Carh)vingian  times,  compare 
Lahuiirou,  Institutions  Carlovingiennes,  page  204  et  seq. 

2  See  above. 

3  Tit.  LKviii.  and  lii. 

*  Leges  Visigoth,  iii.  iv.  14  et  seq. 


534  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IH. 

was  Roman,  excepting  that  the  woman  who  divorced 
her  hushand  without  cause,  according  to  an  old  German 
usage  as  to  hifamous  persons,  was  smothered  in  mud.^ 
Among  the  Visigoths,  divorce  was  forbidden,  except- 
ing for  adultery.  Incest,  by  the  Visigothic  law,  was 
extended  to  the  sixth  degree  of  relationship.  Rape  was 
punished  by  confiscation  of  property,  or  failing  that,  by 
reduction  to  slavery.^  This  code  contained  a  severe 
statute  against  public  prostitutes,  rendering  them  liable 
to  whipping.  Incontinence  in  priests  was  corrected  by 
penance  ;  the  woman  was  to  be  whipped.  The  former 
statute  was  in  that  stern  tone  towards  unchastity  which 
in  the  Goths  Salvian  contrasts  with  the  impurity  of 
Roman  manners.^  The  later  laws  seem  gradually  to 
soften  off  into  mulcts  or  compositions  for  these  as  for 
other  crimes. 

But  among  the  yet  un-Romanized  Saxons,  down  to 
the  days  of  St.  Boniface,  the  maiden  who  has  dishonor- 
ed her  father's  house,  or  the  adulteress,  is  compelled  to 
hang  herself,  is  burned,  and  her  paramour  hung  over  the 
blazing  pile  ;  ^  or  she  is  scourged  or  cut  to  pieces  with 
knives  by  all  the  women  of  the  village  till  she  is  dead. 

i  Necetur  in  luto,  xxxiv.  1.  "  Ignavos  et  imbelles  et  corpore  infames 
coeno  ac  palude  injecta  super  crate,  nieri^uut."  —  Tacit.  Germ.  c.  xii. 

2  Tit.  iii.  vi.  Unnatural  crimes  were  punished  by  castration.  By  the 
Bavarian  law,  whoever  took  away  a  nun  to  marry  her  committed  adultery. 
"  Scimus  ilium  crimini  obnoxium  esse  qui  alienam  sponsam  rapit,  quanto 
magis  ille  obnoxius  est  crimini  qui  Christi  usurpavit  sponsam."  — xii.  1. 

8  iii.  iv.  17.  "  Esse  inter  Gothos  non  licet  scoi-tatorem  Gothum,  soli  inter 
eos  praejudicio  nationis  ac  nominis  permittuntur  impuri  esse  Romani."  — 
Salvian.de  Gub.  Dei.  vii.  Lahuerou,  however,  observes:  "  Voyez  quelle 
enorme  disproportion  la  loi  met  entre  les  obligations  et  les  devoirs  des 
deux  ^poux!  Le  mari  pent  etre  infidcMe  autant  de  fois  et  a  tel  degr6 
qu'il  le  voudra,  sans  que  la  femme  ait  le  droit  de  s'en  plaindre."  The  Ger- 
man woman  was  in  fact,  though  in  a  less  degree  than  the  Roman,  the  prop 
erty  of  her  husband.  —  Lahuerou,  Institutions  Carlovingiennes,  p.  38. 

i  A.D.  743.    Bonifac.  Epist.  ad  Ethelbal.  Reg.  Mcrciaj. 


t'HAP.  V.  LAW  OF  PROPERTY.  535 

B.  In  the  barbaric  as  in  the  Roman  code,  the  law 
of  property  might  seem  enacted  with  the  special 
view  of  securing  to  the  Church  wealth  wdiich  l^w  of  prop- 
could  not  but  be  constantly  accumulating,  ^^^^' 
and  could  never  diminish.  Every  freeman  might 
leave  his  property  to  the  Church.  No  duke  or  count 
had  a  right  to  interfere.  The  heir  who  ventured  to 
reclaim  such  dedicated  property  was  liable  to  the  judg- 
ment of  God  and  to  excommunication,  recognized  in 
more  than  one  code.^  The  freeman  might  retain  to 
himself  and  so  enjoy  the  usufruct  during  his  own  life, 
and  leave  his  heirs  beggars.  The  proofs  of  such  dona- 
tions were  all  to  the  advantage  of  the  Church.  Tlie 
barbaric  codes  left  the  clergy  to  secure  the  inalienabili- 
ty of  their  property  by  their  own  laws.  At  first,  and 
until  the  bishop  began  to  be  merged  in  the  temporal 
feudatory,  it  was  comparatively  safe  in  its  own  sanctity. 
In  the  division  of  the  conquered  lands  by  the  barba- 
rians, the  Church  estates  remained  sacred.  The  new 
converts  could  not  show  their  sincerity  better  than  by 
their  prodigality  to  the  Church.  Clovis  and  his  first 
successors,  ignorant  of  the  value  of  their  new  acquisi- 
tions, awarded  large  tracts  of  land  with  a  word.  St. 
Remigius  received  a  great  number  of  lands  to  be  dis- 
tributed among  the  destitute  churches.  Their  successors 
complained  of  this  thoughtless  prodigality.  Already 
they  had  discovered  that  the  royal  revenues  had  been 
transferred  to  the  Church.^  The  whole  Teutonic  law, 
which  appointed  certain  compensations  for  certain 
crimes,  would  have  suggested,  had  suggestion  been  nec- 

1  Lex  Alemann.  et  Lex  Burgund.,  in  initio. 

-  "  Ecce,  aiebat  Rex,  pauper  remansit  fiscus  noster,  et  divitiae  nostrae  ad 
icclesias  sunt  translatae."  —  Greg.  Tur.  vi.  46. 


536  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IIL 

essary,  the  commutation  system  of  the  Church.  God^ 
hke  the  freeman  or  the  King,  might  be  propitiated  by 
the  wehrgeld ;  the  penance  of  the  Christian  be  compen- 
sated by  a  pecuniary  mulct.  Ah'eady  Queen  Frede- 
mmde  satisfies  the  conscience  of  two  hesitatino;  murder- 
ers  whom  she  would  employ  to  assassinate  her  brother- 
in-law,  King  Sigebert,  by  the  promise  of  large  alms  to 
the  Church,  in  order  to  secure  them  from  hell  or  pur- 
gatory.^ So  rapidly  and  alarmingly  was  the  Church  in 
France  becoming  rich,  that  King  Chilperic  passed  a  law 
annulling  all  testaments  in  which  the  Church  was  con- 
stituted heir ;  but  Gunthran,  not  long  after,  repealed 
the  sacrilegious  statute,  and  these  murderous  and  adul- 
terous and  barbarous  kings  and  nobles  were  again  ena- 
bled to  die  in  peace,  confident  in  the  remission  of  their 
sins  by  the  sacnfice  of  some  portion  of  their  plunder 
(the  larger  the  offering  the  more  secure)  on  the  altar 
of  God.2 

But  the  barbarous  times  which  bestowed  so  lavishly 
were  by  no  means  disposed  superstitiously  to  respect  the 
property  of  the  Church.  It  was  often  but  late  in  life  that 
the  access  of  devotion  came  on,  while  through  all  the 
former  part,  either  by  right  of  conquest,  by  terror,  or 
by  bribery,  the  barbarian  had  not  scrupled  to  seize  back 
consecrated  land.  Even  kings  were  obliged  to  ratify 
and  solemnize  their  own  grants  by  synods  or  by  nation- 
al assemblies.^     The  deepening  of  the  imprecations  ut- 


1  Gesta  Francorum.    Planck,  ii.  199. 

2  All  the  laws  acknowledged  the  right  of  alienating  some  portion  from 
the  rightful  heir,  "pro  remodio  anima;,"  or  "in  remissionem  peccatorum." 
There  are  legal  formuhv,  in  Marculf  to  this  effect.  Some  codes,  however, 
prohibited  the  abpolute  disinheritance  of  the  right  heir  for  the  good  of  the 
church.     Eichhorn,  p.  359:  compare  363  etseq. 

8  In  a  synod  at  Valence,  King  Gunthran  demanded  the  ratification  of 


Chap.  V.  BARBARIC  CRIMINAL  LAW.  537 

tered  by  these  synods  against  robbers  of  the  Church 
shows  their  necessity.  These  lands  began  to  be  guarded 
by  all  the  terrors  of  superstition ;  wild  legends  every- 
where spread  of  the  awful  and  miraculous  punishments 
which  had  fallen  on  such  offenders.^  In  a  few  centu- 
ries the  deliverer  of  Europe  from  the  Mahommedan 
3^oke,  Charles  Martel,  was  plunged  into  hell,  and  re- 
vealed in  his  torments  to  the  eyes  of  men,  as  a  standing 
and  awful  witness  to  the  inexpiable  sin  of  sacrilege. 

The  property  of  the  Church  as  yet  enjoyed  no  im- 
munity from  taxation.  Gradually  special  exemptions 
were  granted.  At  length  the  manse  of  the  church  (a 
certain  small  farm  or  estate)  was  entirely  relieved  from 
the  demands  of  the  state.  Even  the  claim  to  absolute 
freedom  from  contribution  to  the  public  expenses  was  ot 
a  much  later  period.^ 

C.  The  criminal  law  of  the  barbaric  codes  tended 
more  and  more  to  the  commutation  of  crime  or  criminal  law 
injury  for  a  pecuniary  mulct.  High  treason  °^^*'^^^"^'^*' 
alone,  compassing  the  death  of  the  King,  corresponding 
with  the  enemies  of  the  realm,  or  introducing  them 
within  its  frontier,  was  generally  a  capital  crime.  Yet 
in  the  Visigothic  code  the  capital  punishment  of  treason 
could  be  commuted  for  putting  out  the  eyes,  ^ex  Lombard, 
shaving  the  hair,  scourging,  perpetual  impris-  i^^^'i^igoth. 
onment,  or  exile,  with  confiscation  and  attainder,  and  in 


all  the  gifts  which  he,  his  wife,  and  daughters  had  bestowed  on  the  church. 
All  plunderers  of  this  property  "  anathemate  perpetui  judicii  divini  plec- 
tendi  atque  supplicii  seterni  obnoxii  tenendi  sunt."  King  Dagobert 
confirmed  his  legacies  in  a  parliament,  the  legacies  which  he  had  be- 
queathed "memor  malorum  quje  gesserit."  —  Planck,  203. 

1  Gregory  of  Tours  is  full  of  such  tales. 

2  Planck,  ii.  ch.  vii.     King  Chlotaire,  in  540,  demanded  a  third  part  of 
the  revenue  of  the  church  as  an  extraordinary  loan.—  Greg.  Tur.  iv.  2. 


538  LATIN    CHRISTLVNITY.  Book  IIL 

this  case  the  criminal  could  not  make  over  his  property 
to  the  Church.^  Such  donations  were  void.  But  of 
all  crimes  the  King  had  power  of  pardon  with  the  con- 
sent of  the  clergy  and  the  great  officers  of  his  palace. 
The  Bavarian  law  adds  sedition  in  the  camp  to  acts  of 
treason,  but  even  this  might  be  forgiven  by  the  royal 
mercy.2  As  to  other  crimes,  except  adultery  and  in- 
cest, it  was  Teutonic  usage,  not  Christian  humanity, 
which  abrogated  the  punishment  of  deatli.  In  the  Bur- 
gundian  law  homicide  is  still  a  capital  crime  ;  but  grad- 
ually the  life  of  every  man  below  tlie  King  is  assessed, 
according  to  his  rank,  at  a  certain  value,  and  the  wehr- 
geld  may  be  received  in  atonement  for  his  blood.^ 
Even  the  sacred  persons  of  the  clergy  had  their  price, 
which  rises  in  proportionate  amount  with  their  power 
and  influence.  By  the  Bavarian  law,  should  any  one 
kill  a  bisliop  lawfully  chosen,^  a  tunic  of  lead  was  to  be 
fitted  to  the  person  of  the  bishop,  and  the  commutation 
for  his  murder  was  as  much  gold  as  that  tunic  weighed : 
if  the  gold  was  not  to  be  had,  the  same  value  in  money, 
slaves,  houses,  or  land ;  if  the  offender  had  none  of 
these,  he  was  sold  into  slavery.  Nor  was  it  life  only 
which  was  thus  valued  ;  every  wound  and  mutilation  ot 
each  particular  member  of  the  body  was  carefidly  regis- 
tered in  the  code,  and  estimated  according  as  the  man 
was  noble,  freeman,  slave,  or  in  holy  orders.  The  slave 
alone  was  still  liable  to  capital  punishment  for  certain 


1  Lex  Visigoth,  vi.  1,  2. 

'  "Et  ille  linmo  qui  luce  commisit  benignum  imputet  regem  aut  ducem  si 
ei  vitam  concesserit."  —  Lex  Bavar.  ii.  iv.  3. 

3  Parricide  alone,  by  the  Visigothic  law,  was  punished  by  the  same  death 
an  that  inflicted. 

4  "  Si  quis  episcopum  qucm  constituit  rex,  vel  populus  elegit."  —  hex 
Oavar.  xi.  1. 


CiiAi'.  V.  THE  CHUIiCII   AN   ASYLUM.  539 

ofFeiu-es  ;^  the  Visigothic  code  condemned  him  to  be 
burned.^  Torture  was  not  only,  according  to  Roman 
usage,  to  be  applied  to  slaves,  but  even  to  freemen  in 
certain  cases.^ 

The  privilege  of  asylum  within  the  Church  is  recog- 
nized in  most  of  the  barbaric  codes.*  It  is  asserted  in 
the  strongest  terms,  and  in  terms  impregnated  with  true 
Christian  humanity,  that  there  is  no  crime  which  may 
not  be  pardoned  from  the  fear  of  God  and  reverence  foi 
the  saints.^  As  yet  perhaps  the  awe  of  the  Christian 
altar  only  arrested  justice  in  its  too  hasty  and  vindictive 
march,  and  in  these  wild  times  gave  at  least  a  tempo- 
rary respite,  for  the  innocent  victim  to  obtain  liberty 
that  he  might  plead  his  cause  against  the  fierce  popu- 
lace or  the  exasperated  ruler,  for  the  man  of  doubtful 
guilt  to  obtain  a  fair  trial,  or  for  the  real  criminal  to 
suffer  only  the  legal  punishment  for  his  offence.  As 
yet  the  priest  could  not  shield  the  heinous  criminal. 
By  the  Visigothic  code  he  was  compelled  to  surrender 
the  homicide.^  With  the  ruder  barbarians  the  sanctity 
of  holy  places  came  in  aid  of  the  sacerdotal  authority ; 
and  in  those  savage  times  no  doubt  the  notion  that  it 
was  treason  against  God  to  force  even  the  most  flagrant 
criminal  from  his  altar,  protected  many  innocent  lives, 
and   retarded  the   precipitancy  even  of  justice  itself^ 

J  Or  scourging,  for  theft,  by  the  Burgvindian  law.  —  iv.  2. 

2  Lex  Visigoth,  iii.  iv.  14. 

3  Lex  Visigoth,  vi.  1,  2,  ii.  iv.  4. 

4  On  the  subject  of  asylum,  compare  the  excellent  dissertation  of  Paolo 
Sarpi,  De  jure  Asylorum.  —  Opera,  iv.  p.  191. 

5  "  Nulla  sit  culpa  tarn  gravis,  ut  non  remittatur,  propter  timorem  Dei  et 
reverentiam  sanctorum."  —  Lex  Bavar.  vii.  3.  It  was  an  axiom  of  the  Ko- 
«ian  law,  "Templorum  cautela  non  nocentibus  sed  laesis  datar  a  lege."  — 
Justin.  Novell,  xvii.  7. 

6  Lex  Visigoth,  vi.  v.  16. 

*  See  Greg.  Tur.  vii.  19 ;  iv.  18. 


540  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

The  right  was  constantly  infringed  by  violent  kings  or 
rulers,  but  rarely  without  strong  remonstrance  from  the 
clergy ;  and  terrible  legends  were  spread  abroad  of  tlie 
awful  punishments  which  befell  the  violators  of  the 
sanctuary^. 

Already,  in  the  earliest  codes,  appears  the  abroga- 
tion of  the  ordinary  tribunals  of  justice  by  appeal  to 
arms,  and  to  the  judgment  of  God:  even  the  Bur- 
gundian  law  admits  the  trial  by  battle.^ 

The  ordeal  is  a  superstition  of  all  nations  and  of 
all  ages.  God  is  summoned  to  bear  miraculous  witness 
in  favor  of  the  innocent,  to  condemn  the  guilty.^  The 
Ripuarian  law  admits  the  trial  by  fire,^  the  Visigoth ic 
by  redhot  iron.^  The  Church,  at  a  later  period,  took 
the  ordeal  under  its  especial  sanction.  There  was  a 
solemn  ritual  for  the  ceremony.^  It  took  place  in  the 
church.  The  scalding  water,  the  redhot  iron,  or  the 
ploughshare  were  placed  in  the  porch   of  the  church 

1  Restrictions  were  placed  on  this  undefined  right.    In  a  capitular  of  779 
— "  Homicidae  et  caeteri  rei,  qui  mori  debent  legibus,  si  ad  ecclesiam  con- 
fugerint,  nou  excusentur,  neque  eis  ibidem  victus  detur." 
•■i  Tit.  xlv. 

8  Compare  Calmet  and  Grotius  on  Numbers  v.  31,  for  the  instances  from 
classical  antiquity.     Pliny  and  Solinus  mention  two  rivers,  which  either  by 
scalding  or  blinding,  detected  perjury.  —  H.  N.  xxxi,  cap.  xviii.  2. 
'H/zev  6'  eroijiot  koI  [xv()povg  a'fjeiv  x^poiv, 
Kal  TTvp  diepiteiv,  koX  iJeovf  opKu/xordv, 
Td  H7]re  dpdaai,  iirjre  ro)  ^vveidevaL 
rb  npayfia  (3ov'XevanvTi  fiijr'  eipyaojiEvij. 

Sop/iorl.  Antig.  264. 

"  Et  medium  freti  pietate  per  ignem 
Cultores  multi  premimus  vestigia  prun^." 

Virg  JEneid.  xi.  787. 

4  Tit.  XXX. 

5  Lex  Visigoth,  vi.  1,  3.     See  the  very  curious  note  of  Canciani,  and 
:]''.otation  from  the  Constitutions  of  Bae^a  on  this  passage. 

8  See  the  very  remarkable  ritual  in  Canciani,  ii.  453. 


€iiAi'.  V.  TIIE  ORDEAL.  643 

and  sprinkled  with  lioly-water.  All  the  most  awful 
mysteries  of  rehgion  were  celebrated  to  give  greater 
terror  and  solemnity  to  the  rite.  Inv^ention  was  taxed 
to  discover  new  forms  of  appeal  to  the  Deity ;  swear- 
ing on  the  Gospels,  on  the  altar,  on  the  relics,  on  the 
host ;  plunging  into  a  pool  of  cold  water,  he  who 
swam  was  guilty,  he  who  sunk  innocent ;  they  were 
usually  held  by  a  cord.  There  were  ordeals  by  hot 
water,  by  hot  iron,  by  walking  over  live  coals  or  burn- 
ing ploughshares.^  This  seems  to  have  been  the  more 
august  ceremony  for  queens  and  empresses  —  under- 
gone by  one  of  Charlemagne's  wives,  our  own  Queen 
Emma,  the  Empress  Cunegunda.  The  ordeal  went 
down  to  a  more  homely  test,  the  being  able  to  swallow 
consecrated  bread  and  cheese. 

The  new  crimes  which  the  Christianity  of  these  ages 
had  introduced  into  the  penal  code  of  the  Empire  found 
their  place  in  the  barbaric  codes.  At  first,  indeed, 
they  were  left  to  the  cognizance  of  the  clergy,  and  to 
be  visited  by  ecclesiastical  penalties.  The  Arianism 
of  the  primitive  Teutonic  converts  compelled  the  toler- 
ation of  the  laws,  and  retained  a  kind  of  dread  of 
touching  on  such  subjects  in  the  earlier  codes ;  but  in 
proportion  as  the   ecclesiastics   became   co-legislators, 


1  The  ordeal  was  condemned  in  later  days  by  many  popes  as  tempting 
God:  by  Alexander  II.,  Stephen  X.,  Honorius  III.  Murutori  thought  that 
it  was  abolished  in  the  twelfth  century.  Canciani  quotes  later  instances. 
That  of  Savonarola,  a  real  ordeal,  might  suffice.  Even  Canciani  seems  to 
look  back  upon  it  with  some  lingering  respect:  "Ego  reor  Deo  Opt.  Max. 
)lus  placuisse  majorum  nostrorum  simplicitatem  et  fidem  quam  recentio- 
rum  sapientum  acutissimam  philosophiam." — Vol.  ii.  p.  293.  Greg.  Tu- 
ron.  de  Mart}T.  69,  70.  All  the  ritualists,  Martene,  Mabillon,  Ducange, 
under  the  different  words,  Muratori  in  two  dissertations,  one  on  the  ordeal, 
one  on  duel,  furnish  ample  citations.  Almost  all,  however,  are  later  than 
".liese  primitive  barbaric  laws. 


542  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

heresies  became  civil  crimes,  and  liable  to  civil  pmiisli- 
ments.^  The  statutes  of  the  orthodox  Visio;othic  kiiio;s, 
so  terrible  against  the  Jews,  were  not  more  merciful  to 
heretics.  The  Franks  were  from  the  first  the  army  of 
orthodoxy ;  heretics  were  traitors  to  the  state,  as  well 
as  rebels  against  the  Church,  confederates  of  hostile 
Visigoths,  or  Burgundians,  or  Lombards. 

Witchcraft  was  a  crime  condemned  by  the  Visi- 
gotliic  law.^  Its  overt  acts  were  causing  storms,  invo- 
cation of  demons,  offering  nightly  sacrifices  to  devils. 
The  punishment  was  200  stripes,  and  shaving  the 
head.  Consulting  soothsayers  concerning  the  death 
of  the  King  was  punished  in  a  freeman  by  stripes  and 
confiscation  of  property,  and  perpetual  servitude  :  wiz- 
ards guilty  of  poisoning  suffered  death. 

III.  But  external  to  and  independent  of  the  Im- 
perial Law  and  the  constitutions  of  the  new  western 
kingdoms  was  growing  up  the  jurisprudence  of  the 
Church,  commensvirate  with  the  Roman  world,  or 
rather  with  Christendom.  Every  inhabitant  of  the 
Christian  empire,  or  of  a  Christian  kingdom,  was  sub- 
ject to  this  second  jurisdiction,  which  even  by  the 
sentence  of  outlawry  which  it  j)ronounced  against 
heretics,  assumed  a  certain  dominion  over  those  who 
vainly  endeavored  to  emancipate  themselves  from  its 
yoke.  The  Church  as  little  admitted  the  right  of  sects 
to  separate  existence,  as  the  empire  would  endure  the 
establishment  of  independent  kingdoms  or  republics 
within  its  actual  pale.  Of  this  peculiar  jurisprudence 
of  the  Church  the  clergy  were  at  once  the  legislature 

1  Laws  of  Recared,  xii.  2,  1. 

2  Lex  Visigoth,  vi.  2,  3.     There  was  a  singular  provision  against  judges 
consulting  diviners  in  order  to  detect  witches. 


Chap.  V.  ECCLESIASTICAL  JURISPRUDENCE.  548 

and  the  executive.  This  double  power  tended  more 
and  more  to  concentration.  In  the  State  all  power 
resided  in  the  Emperor  alone ;  the  unity  of  the  empire 
under  a.  monarch  inevitably  tended  to  that  of  the 
Church  under  one  visible  head.  As  the  clergy  more 
and  more  withdrew  itself  into  a  privileged  order,  so 
the  bishops  withdrew  from  the  clergy,  the  Metropoli- 
tans rose  above  the  bishops,  and  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
aspired  to  supreme  and  sole  spiritual  empire.  Had 
E-ome  remained  the  capital  of  the  whole  world,  the 
despotism,  however  it  might  have  suffered  a  perpetual 
collision  with  the  imperial  power,  ruling  in  the  Eternal 
City,  would  probably  have  become,  as  far  as  ecclesias- 
tical dignity,  an  acknowledged  autocracy.  A  people 
habituated  for  centuries  to  arbitrary  authority  in  civil 
affairs  would  be  less  likely  to  question  it  in  religion. 
The  original  independence  of  the  Christian  character 
which  induced  the  first  converts  in  the  strencrth  of 
their  faith  to  secede  from  the  manners  and  usages  as 
well  as  the  religious  rites  of  the  world,  to  form  self- 
governed  republics,  as  it  were,  within  the  social  system 
—  this  noble  liberty  had  died  away  as  Christianity 
became  a  hereditary,  an  established,  an  universal  re- 
ligion. Obedience  to  authority  was  inveterate  in  the 
Roman  mind ;  reverence  for  law  had  sunk  into  obedience 
to  despotic  power ;  arbitrary  rule  seemed  the  natural 
condition  of  mankind.  This  unrepining,  unmurmur- 
hig  servility  could  not  be  goaded  by  intolerable  taxation 
to  resistance.  Nothing  less  than  religious  difference 
could  stir  the  mind  into  oppugna,ncy,  and  this  differ- 
ence was  chiefly  concentred  in  the  clergy:  when  a 
heretic  was  in  power  the  orthodox,  when  the  orthodox 
the   heretic,    alone   asserted   liberty    of   acti<^<n    or    of 


544  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  111. 

tliouglit.  In  all  other  respects  the  law  of  the  Chiu'ch, 
as  enacted  by  the  clergy,  was  received  with  implicit 
submission.  In  the  provinces,  as  the  Presidents,  or 
Prefects,  or  Counts,  in  their  regular  gi'adation  of  dig- 
nity, ruled  with  despotic  sway,  yet  were  but  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  remote  and  supreme  central  power,  so 
the  Bishops,  Metropolitans,  Patriarchs  rose  above  each 
other,  and  culminated,  as  it  were,  to  some  distant  point 
of  unity.  The  Patriarchates  had  been  fixed  in  the 
greatest  cities  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  These 
were  the  seats  likewise  of  the  highest  provincial  govern- 
ments ;  the  other  chief  provincial  cities  were  usually 
the  seats  of  local  administration,  and  of  the  metropolitan 
sees  ;  and  so  the  stream  of  public  business,  civil  and 
ecclesiastical,  was  perpetually  flowing  to  the  same 
centre.  It  was  at  once  the  place  at  which  all  that  re- 
mained, the  shadow,  as  it  were,  of  the  old  popular 
assemblies,  as  well  as  the  ecclesiastical  synods,  were 
convened ;  appeals  came  thither  from  all  quarters, 
imperial  mandates  were  issued  to  the  province  or 
theme.  On  this  principle  Constantinople  continued 
still  to  rise  in  influence ;  Alexandria  for  above  a  cen- 
tury resisted,  but  resisted  in  vain,  the  advancement  of 
the  upstart  unapostolic  See.  The  new  Rome  asserted 
her  Roman  dignity  against  the  East,  while  on  every 
favorable  opportunity  she  raised  up  claims  to  indepen- 
dence, to  equality,  even  to  superiority,  against  the  elder 
Rome,  now  a  provincial  city  of  the  Justinian  em})ire. 

Rome  was  the  sole  Patriarchate  of  the  West,  the 
head  and  centre  of  Latin  Christianity.  Rome  stood 
alone,  almost  without  rival  or  reclamation.  Raven- 
na, as  the  seat  of  empire  under  the  exarchs,  might 
asj)ire    to   independence,   to    equality ;   her  pretensions 


Chap.  V.  ROME  THE  CENTRAL   POWER.  545 

were  soon  put  down  by  lier  ovm  impotence  and  by 
common  opinion.  Wherever  the  Latin  language  was 
spoken  there  was  no  rival  to  the  supremacy  of  Rome. 
The  African  churches,  distracted  by  the  Donatists, 
oppressed  and  persecuted  by  the  Arian  Vandals,  re- 
vived but  as  the  churches  of  a  province  of  the  Eastern 
empire.  Carthage  was  still  one  of  the  great  cities  of 
the  world,  her  bishop  the  acknowledged  head  of  tlie 
churches  in  Africa.  But  the  Afi-ican  Church,  though 
obedient  to  the  East,  after  Justinian's  conquest,  and 
just  emerging  into  ascendency  over  the  Arians,  had 
neither  ambition  nor  strength  to  assert  independence. 
Of  the  Teutonic  kino-doms  founded  within  the  ancient 
realm  of  Rome,  three  had  been  destroyed  during  the 
sixth  century,  those  of  the  Ostrogoths  in  Italy,  of  the 
Vandals  in  Africa,  of  the  Burgundians  in  France. 
Of  the  four  which  survived,  the  Lombard  was  still 
Arian,  the  Anglo-Saxon  was  heathen  and  not  yet  con- 
solidated into  one  kingdom  ;  those  of  the  Visigoths  in 
Spain  and  of  the  Franks  in  Gaul,  if  still  of  uncertain 
boundaries,  and  frequently  subdivided  in  different  pro- 
])ortions,  accepted  the  supremacy  of  Rome  as  part  of 
the  Catholicism  to  which  one  had  returned  after  a  lon^: 
apostacy,  with  all  the  blind  and  ardent  zeal  of  a  ncAV 
proselyte;  the  other,  whose  war-cry  of  conquest  had 
been  the  Catholic  faith,  would  bow  down  in  awe-struck 
adoration  before  the  head  of  that  faith.  The  Latin 
clergy,  who  had  made  common  cause  with  the  Franks, 
would  inculcate  this  awe  as  the  most  powerful  auxil- 
iary to  their  own  dominion. 

In  the  West  the  state  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  tended 
constantly  to  elevate  the  actual  power  of  the  single 
Patriarchate.     The  election  of  the  bishops  in  the  Ro- 

VOL.  I.  35 


546  LATIN    CHRISTIANIXr.  Book  IH. 

man  provinces  and  In  the  new  Teutonic  kingdoms  vvas 
in  the  clergy  and  the  people.  Strife  constantly  arose ; 
the  worsted  party  looked  abroad  for  aid  ;  if  they  found 
it  not  with  the  Metropolitan,  they  sought  still  further  ; 
and  as  the  provincial  of  old  appealed  to  Rome  against 
the  tyranny  of  the  civil  governor,  so  the  clergy  against 
the  bishop,  the  bishop  against  the  Metropolitan.  They 
fled  in  the  last  resort  to  what  might  seem  to  be  an  im- 
partial, at  least  might  be  a  favorable  tribunal. 

But  throucrhout  these  kingdoms  there  was  another 
The  Clergy  stroug  boud  to  Rouic  —  the  common  interest 
Latin.  ^^  ^]^g  Latin  part  of  the  community  against 

the  foreign  and  Teutonic.  The  old  Roman  aristocracy 
of  the  provinces,  except  in  some  municipal  towns,  per- 
ished or  were  degraded  from  their  station  by  the  new 
military  aristocracy  of  the  conquerors.  But  the  clergy 
could  not  but  continue,  it  has  been  seen  that  they 
did  continue,  for  a  considerable  period  to  be  Roman. 
They  were  thus  a  kind  of  peaceful  force,  bound  to- 
gether by  common  descent,  and  still  looking  to  Rome 
as  their  parent.  Nothing  is  known  of  the  Arian  clei'gy 
who  accompanied  the  Goths,  the  Vandals,  or  the  Lom- 
bards, and  kept  up  the  tradition  of  the  heterodox  faith, 
whether  they  too  were  chiefly  Roman,  or  had  begun  to 
be  barbarian.^  The  rare  collisions  which  are  recorded, 
the  general   toleration,  except  among   the  Vandals   in 

1  In  the  CoUatio  Episcoporum,  where  Avitus  of  Vienna  challenged  tlie 
Arian  clerg}'  to  bring  their  conflicting  doctrines  to  the  issue  of"  a  public 
disputation,  the  head  of  the  Arian  clergy  is  named  Boniface.  The  Arians 
(it  is  a  Catholic  account)  were  struck  dumb,  or  replied  only  in  unmeaning 
clamors;  one  sentence  alone  betrays  the  ground  they  took:  they  stood  on 
the  Scripture  alone;  the  Catholics  were  privstigiatores;  did  they  mean 
workers  of  false  miracles?  "  Sutiicere  sibi  se  habere  scripturam,  qu;e  sit 
fortior  omnibus  pncstigiis."  The  conference  was  in  the  year  419.  —  D'Ach- 
erv,  iii.  p.  304. 


Chap.  V.  ROME  THE  CENTRAL  POWER.  547 

Africa,  might  lead  to  the  conchislon  that  they  were  the 
Teutonic  clergy  of  a  Teutonic  people,  each  contentedly 
vvorsliipping  apart  ft-om  each  other,  as  under  its  sepa- 
rate law,  so  under  its  separate  religion,  until  the  superior 
intelligence,  the  more  ardent  activity  of  the  orthodox 
J^atins,  brought  over  first  the  kings  and  nobles,  as  Re- 
cared  in  Spain  and  the  later  Lombard  kings,  afterwards 
the  people,  to  the  unity  of  the  Church.  The  toleration 
of  the  Arians,  and  even  writers  like  Orosius  admit  that 
in  Gaul  the  Goths  and  Burgundians  treated  the  ortho- 
dox Christians  as  brothers,  v/as,  after  all,  but  indiffer- 
ence, or  ignorance  that  there  was  another  form  of 
Christianity  besides  that  which  they  had  been  taught.^ 
It  was  more  often  that  the  Catholics  provoked  than 
suffered  persecution  wantonly  inflicted.^  That  submis- 
sion which  the  Roman  paid  to  the  clergy  out  of  his 
innate  and  inveterate  deference  for  law,  if  not  from 
servility,  arose  in  the  Teuton  partly  from  his  inherent 
awe  of  the  sacerdotal  character,  partly  from  his  con- 
scious inferiority  in  intellectual  acquirements.^  No 
doubt  already  the  Latin  of  the  ordinary  Church  ser- 
vices had  become,  and  naturally  became  more  and 
more,  a  sacred  language.*     The  Gothic  version  of  the 

i  Orosius,  vii.  33.  There  was  a  kind  of  persecution  of  some  bishops  in 
Aquitaiue. —  Sidon.  Apoll.  vii.  6.  Modaharius  the  Goth,  a  citizen,  not  a 
L'lergynrian,  is  named  by  Sidonius  —  The  name  sounds  like  Latinized  Teu- 
tonism.  Of  Euric,  Sidonius  says,  "  Pectori  sue  catholici  mentio  nominis 
acet."  At  this  time  the  bishoprics  of  Bordeaux  and  eight  others  were 
vacant,  no  clergy  ordained,  the  churches  in  ruins,  herds  pasturing  on  the 
grass-grown  altars. 

2  See  on  thp  confederacy  of  the  orthodox  bishops  in  Burgundy  with  the 
Franks,  ch.  ii 

8  Compare  Paullus  Diaconus  on  the  conversion  of  the  Lombards,  iv.  44. 

4  I  cannot  refrain  from  quoting  the  observations  of  a  modem  writer:  — 
-  Christianity  offered  itself,  and  was  accepted  by  the  German  tribes,  as  a  law 
*nd  as  a  disciplme,  as  an  ineliable,  incomprehensible  mvsterv.     Its  fruits 


548  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

Scriptures  was  probably  confined  to  that  branch  of  tho 
nation  for  wliich  it  had  been  made  by  Ulphilas :  it  could 
not  have  been  disseminated  widely.  The  Latin  clergy, 
even  if  they  had  the  will,  could  not,  during  the  for- 
mation of  the  various  dialects  or  languages  which  grew 
up  in  Europe,  have  translated  the  sacred  books  or  the 
services  of  the  Church  into  the  ever-shifting  and  blend- 
ing  dialects.  Till  languages  grew  up,  recognized  as 
their  own  by  nations,  there  could  be  no  claim  to  a  ver- 
nacular Bible  or  a  vernacular  Liturgy.  Latin  would 
establish  a  strong  prescription,  a  prescription,  in  fact, 
of  centuries ;  and  that,  as  on  the  one  hand  it  would 
tend  to  keep  the  clerical  office  chiefly  in  the  hands  of 
those  of  Latin  descent,  would  likewise  preserve  the 
unity  of  which  the  centre  was  Rome.^ 

Rome  throughout  this  period  is  still  standing  in  more 
lonely  preeminence :  from  various  circumstances,  per- 
haps from  the  continually  shifting  boundaries  of  the 
kingdoms,  the  Metropolitan  power,  especially  in  Gaul, 
only  centuries  later,  if  ever,  assumed  its  full  weight. 
On  the  other  hand,  that  of  the  bishops  over  the  infe- 
rior clergy  became  throughout  the  western  kingdoms 
more  arbitrary  and  absolute.  The  bishop  stands  alone, 
the  companion  and  counsellor  of  kings  and  nobles,  the 

were,  righteousness  by  works  (Werkheilif^keit),  and  belief  in  the  tlead 
word.  But  in  a  barbarous  people  it  is  an  immense  advance,  an  unappreci- 
able  benelit.  Ritual  observance  is  a  taming,  humiliating  process;  it  is 
submission  to  law;  it  is  the  acknowledgment  of  spiritual  inferiority;  it 
implies  self-subjection,  self-conquest,  self-sacrifice.  It  is  not  religion  in  its 
highest  sense,  but  it  is  the  preparation  for  it."  —  Ritter,  Geschich.,  Christ. 
I'hilos.  i.  p.  40. 

1  Planck  supi)oses  that  for  half  a  century  after  the  conversion  of  the 
Franks  the  bishops  were,  without  exception,  Latin ;  about  5G6  appears  a 
Bleroveus,  Bishop  of  Poitiers. — Greg.  Tur.  ix.  40;  Phuick,  ii.  96.  In  the 
ei^^'hth  century'  the  clergy  were  chielly  from  the  servile  class,  —  p.  159. 


VtiAV.  V.      GROWTH  OF  EPISCOPAL  PREEMINENCE.  549 

judge,  the  ruler ;  the  College  of  Presbyters,  the  ad- 
visers, the  coordinate  power  with  the  bishop,  has  en- 
tirely disappeared.  It  is  rarely  at  this  pei'iod  that 
we  discern  in  history  the  name  of  any  one  below  the 
episcopal  rank.  Even  in  the  legends  of  this  age  we 
scarcely  find  a  saint  who  is  not  a  bishop,  or  at  least, 
and  that  as  yet  but  rarely,  an  abbot.^  The  monas- 
teries at  first  claimed  no  exemption  from  the  episcopal 
autocracy :  they  aspired  not  yet  to  be  independent, 
self-governed  republics.  The  primitive  monks,  laymen 
in  every  respect,  would  have  shrimk  from  the  awful 
assertion  of  superiority  to  the  common  law  of  subjec- 
tion. The  earlier  councils  prohibited  the  foundation 
of  a  monastery,  even  of  a  solitary  cell,  without  the 
permission  of  the  bishop.  Gradually  monks  were  or- 
dained, that  the  communities  might  no  longer  depend 
for  the  services  of  religion  on  the  parochial  clergy ; 
but  this  infringement  on  the  profound  humility  of  the 
monk  was  beheld  with  jealousy  by  the  more  rigid.  St. 
Benedict  admits  it  with  reserve  and  caution.  It  was 
not  till  splendid  monasteries  were  founded  by  relig- 
iously prodigal  nobles,  kings,  and  even  prelates,  and 
endowed  with  ample  territories  and  revenues,  that 
they  were  withdrawn  fi'om  the  universal  subordination, 
received  special  privileges  of  exemption,  became  free 
communities  under  the  protection  of  the  King,  or  of 
the  Pope.^  The  lower  clergy  were  in  fact  in  great 
numbers  ordained  slaves,  slaves  which  the  Church  did 
not  choose  at  hazard  from  the  general  servile  class, 
but  from  her  own  serfs,  and  who  were  thus  trained  to 


1  Planck,  ii.  368. 

2  Compare  M.  Guizot,  Civilisation  Modeme,  Lepon  xv.,  who  has  traced 
the  change,  and  cites  the  authorities  with  his  usual  sagacity  and  judgment. 


550  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  111 

habits  of  lioinao:e  and  submission.  The  first  Franks  or 
Goths  who  entered  into  holy  orders  would  hardly  be 
tempted  by  a  less  prize,  or  stoop  to  a  lower  dignity, 
than  that  of  a  bishop,  except  as  far  as  it  might  be 
necessary  to  pass  rapidly  through  the  lower  orders. 
The  clergy  were  so  entirely  under  the  power  of  the 
bishop  that  a  Spanish  council  thinks  it  necessaiy 
and  seemly  to  secure  them  from  arbitrary  blows  and 
stripes.^ 

The  ecclesiastical  jurisprudence,  therefore,  was  en- 
tirely, as  well  as  the  administration  of  the  law  in  its 
more  solemn  form,  in  the  bishops.  They  alone  at- 
tended the  synods  or  councils,  they  alone  executed  the 
decrees.  Their  mandate  or  their  sanction  was  neces- 
sary for  every  important  act  of  religion. 

The  whole  penitential  system  was  under  their  con- 
trol and  rested  on  their  authority.  Private  confession 
might  be  received,  absolution  for  private  offences  be 
granted  by  the  priest :  public  or  notorious  crimes  could 
be  remitted  by  the  bishop  alone. 

This  ecclesiastical  jurisprudence  had  its  specific  laws 
Penitential  ^^  ordiuauccs  for  the  government  of  the  cler- 
Bystem.  gy .  '^g  more  general  statutes,  which  em- 
braced all  mankind.  Every  man,  barbarian  or  Roman, 
under  whichever  civil  law  he  lived,  freeman  or  slave, 
was  amenable  to  this  code,  which  had  the  penitential 
system  for  its  secondary  punishment ;  excommunica- 
tion, which  in  general  belief,  if  the  excommunicated 
died  unreconciled,  was  tantamount  to  eternal  perdition, 
for  its  capital  punishment.     The  excommunication  as 

A  "  Ne  passim  unusquisque  episcopus  honorabilia  membra  sua  presbyteros 
Bive  Levitas,  prout  voluerit  et  complacuerit,  verberibus  subjiciat  et  dolori." 
—  Syn.  Bracar.  iv.  a.d.  675,  can.  7. 


Chap.  V.  DELINQUENCIES   OF  THE  CLERGY.  551 

yet  was  strictly  personal:  it  had  not  grown  into  the 
interdict  which  smote  a  nation  or  a  country. 

Of  this  twofold  law,  that  over  the  clergy  and 
that  over  the  laity,  the  administration  of  the  first  was 
absolutely  in  the  bishops — that  of  the  second  only 
more  remotely,  and  in  the  last  resort.  The  usual  pen- 
alties were  different.  The  sacred  person  of  the  priest 
had  peculiar  privations  and  penalties,  in  some  respects 
more  severe,  in  others  more  indulgent,  chastisements. 
The  attempt  to  reconcile  the  greater  heinousness  of  the 
offence  in  the  sinful  priest  with  the  respect  for  his 
order,  led  at  times  to  startling  injustice  and  contradic- 
tion.^ 

The  delinquent  clerk  might  be  deprived  for  a  time 
of  his  power  of  administrating  sacred  things  ;  Beiinquenciea 
he  might  be  thrown  back,  an  unworthy  and  ^^  ^^^  energy. 
a  despised  outcast,  into  the  common  herd  of  men,  or 
rather  lower  than  the  common  herd  (for  tlie  inefface- 
able ordination  held  him  still  in  its  trammels,  in  its  re- 
sponsibility, though  he  had  forfeited  its  distinctions  and 
its  privileges),  but  even  then  the  mercy  of  the  Church 
provided  courses  of  penance  more  or  less  long  and  aus- 
tere, by  which,  in  most  cases,  he  might  retrieve  the 
past,  and  rise,  to  some  at  least,  of  his  lost  prerogatives. 
The  monasteries,  in  later  times,  became  a  kind  of  penal 
settlements,  where  under  strict  provisions  the  exile 
might  ex|)iate  his  offences,  work  out  the  redemption  of 
his  guilt,  if  not  permitted  to  return  to  the  world,  at 

1  Throughout  the  Penitentials,  the  penalties  are  heavier  on  the  clergy 
than  the  laity.  For  murder,  a  clerk  did  penance  for  ten  years,  three  on 
oread  and  water;  a  layman  three,  one  on  bread  and  water.  The  clergy 
too  were  punished  according  to  their  rank,  where  one  in  inferior  orders  haa 
six,  a  deacon  has  seven,  a  priest  ten,  a  bishop  twelve  years  penance. — Mo- 
rums. 


552  LATIN  CIIRISTL\J\^ITY.  Book  III. 

least  die  in  peace  ;  at  all  events  his  degi'adation  was 
concealed  from  a  babbling  and  censoiious  world. 

The  law  administered  by  the  clergy,  tlu'oughout  the 
Of  the  rest     Christian  polity,  comprehended  every  moral 

of  the  com-  ,.     .  ,    ■  ^  ,  , 

munity.  or  religious  act ;  and  what  act  oi  man  could 
be  beyond  that  wide  and  undefined  boundary  ?  What- 
ever the  Church,  whatever  the  individual  clergyman, 
declared  to  be  sin  (the  appeal  even  to  the  bishop  was 
difficult  and  remote),  was  sin.  The  timid  conscience 
would  rarely  dare  to  judge  for  itself:  the  judge  there- 
fore was  at  once  the  legislator,  the  expounder  of  the 
law,  the  executioner  of  the  law.^ 

This  law  had  its  capital  punishment  —  excommuni- 
cation, which  absolutely  deprived  of  spiritual  life.  Ex- 
communication, in  its  more  solemn  form,  was  rarely 
pronounced  by  lower  than  bishops.^  It  was  the  weapon 
with  which  rival  bishops  encountered  each  other,  which 
they  reserved  for  enemies  of  high  rank.  It  was  the 
sentence  of  Councils  only  w^hich  cut  oiF  whole  sects 
from  the  communion  of  the  Church. 

But  excommunication  in  a  milder  form  —  the  tem- 
porary or  the  enduring  deprivation  of  those  means  of 
grace  without  which  salvation  was  hopeless,  the  refrisal 
of  absolution,  the  key  which  alone  opened  the  gates  of 
heaven  —  was  in  the  power  of  every  priest :  on  his 
judgment,  on  his  decree,  hung  eternal  life,  eternal  death. 

i*'ItaqTie  postqiiam  criminum  omnium  occultorum  pcena  quibuslibet 
presbj'teris  conccssa  est,  libelli  Poenitentiales  prjeter  canones  conditi  sunt  in 
quibus  b?ec  omnia  distincte  in  sinipliciornm  presbyterornm  c^atiam  et.  ne- 
cessariam  instructioncm  enarrabantur,  nt  pctni ten ti arum  imponendarum 
officio  defungi  possent."  —  Morinus.  This  work  of  Morinus  de  Poenitenti^ 
affords  ample  and  accurate  knowled^i^e  on  Uie  history  of  the  Penitential 
law,  and  of  the  different  penitentials  which  prevailed  in  the  Western 
churches. 

2  Public  penance  was  at  first  only  adjudged  by  the  bishops.  —  Sirmond. 
le  Pcenit.  Public. ;  Opera,  vol.  iv. 


Chap.  V.  THE  PENITENTIAI.S.  553 

But  tliough  tliis,  like  all  despotic  irresponsible  power, 
or  power  against  which  the  mass  of  mankind  had  no 
refuge,  was  liable  to  abuse,  was  often  no  doubt  abused, 
it  was  still  constantly  counteracted  by  the  Penitentials 
which  as  wisely  (lest  men  should  break  the  yoke  in 
utter  despair)  as  mercifully,  were  provided  by  the  relig- 
ious code  of  Christianity.  The  Penitentials  were  part 
of  the  Christian  law ;  how  early  part  of  the  written 
law,  is  no4;  quite  clear  ;  nor  were  they  uniform,  or  in 
fact  established  by  any  universal  or  central  authority  — 
that  of  Pope  or  Council  ;  ^  but  they  were  not  the  less 
an  admitted  customary  or  common  law,  a  perpetual 
silent  control  on  the  arbitrary  power  of  the  individual 
priest,  a  guarantee  as  it  were  to  the  penitent,  that  if  he 
faithfully  submitted  to  the  appointed  discipline,  he 
could  not  be  denied  the  inappreciable  absolution.  The 
Penitentials  thus,  by  regulating  the  sacerdotal  power, 
confirmed  it ;  that  which  might  have  seemed  a  hard 
capricious  exaction  became  a  privilege ;  the  mercies  of 
the  law  were  indissolubly  bound  up  with  its  terrors. 
However  severe,  monastic ;  unchristian,  as  enjoining 
self-tortm'e ;  degrading  to  human  natm'e,  as  substitut- 
ing ceremonial  observance  for  the  spirit  of  religion; 
debasing  instead  of  wisely  humiliating  ;  and  resting  in 
outward  forms  which  might  be  counted  and  calculated 
(so  many  hours  of  fasting,  so  many  blows  of  the 
scourge,  so  many  prayers,  so  many  pious  ejaculations, 
for  each  offence)  yet  as  enforcing,  it  might  be,  a  rude 
and  harsh  discipline,  it  was  still  a  moral  and  religious 
discipline.     It  may  have  been  a  low,  timid,  dependent 

1  The  three  oldest  were  the  Penitentials  of  Archbishop  Theodore  of  Can- 
terbury, of  Bede,  and  the  Roman.  That  of  Rabanus  Maurus  obtained  in 
Germany.  —  Morinus. 


554  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  lU. 

virtue  to  which  it  compelled  the  believer,  yet  still  vir- 
tue. It  was  a  perpetual  proclamation  of  the  holiness 
and  mercy  of  the  Gospel.  It  was  a  constant  preaching, 
on  one  hand,  it  might  be  of  an  unenlightened,  super- 
stitious Christianity,  but  still  of  Christianity.  Yet,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  was  a  recognition  of  a  divine  law, 
submission  to  a  religion  which  might  not  be  defied, 
which  would  not  be  eluded  —  a  relimon  wliich  would 
not  deny  its  hopes  to  the  worst,  but  would  have  at  least 
resolutions,  promises  of  amendment  —  the  best  security 
which  it  could  obtain  —  from  the  unreasonino;  and  fal- 
lible  nature  of  man.  It  aspired  at  least  to  effect  that 
which  no  human  law  could  do,  which  baffled  alike  im- 
perial and  barbaric  legislation,  to  impose  constraint  on 
the  unchristian  passions  and  dispositions.  When  sacer- 
dotal religion  was,  if  not  necessary,  salutary  at  least  to 
mankind,  it  was  the  great  instrument  by  which  the 
priesthood  ruled  the  mind  of  man.  If  it  increased  the 
wealth  of  the  clergy,  it  was  wealth  much  of  which 
lawless  possessors,  spoilers,  robbers,  had  been  forced  to 
regorge.  If  it  invested  them  with  an  authority  as 
dangerous  to  themselves  as  to  the  world,  that  authority 
was  better  than  moral  anarchy.  However  adminis- 
tered, it  was  still  law,  and  Christian  law,  grounded  on 
the  eternal  principles  of  justice,  humanity,  and  truth.^ 

1  It  will  hereafter  appear  in  our  Historj'  how  tlie  penitential  system 
degenerated  into  commutations  for  penance  by  alms  (alms  being  only  part 
)f  the  penance,  compensated  for  prayer),  fasting,  and  other  religious  observ- 
ances; alms  regulated  indeed  by  the  rank  and  wealth  of  the  transgressor, 
but  with  full  expiatory  value;  commutations  became  indulgences;  indul- 
gences, first  the  remission  of  certain  penitential  acts,  then  general  remissions 
of  sins  for  delhiite  periods,  at  length  for  periods  almost  approximating  to 
eternity;  and  these  for  the  easiest  of  religious  duties,  visits  to  a  certain 
church,  above  all  ami)le  donations. 

END   OF    VOL.    I. 


HISTORY   OF  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY; 


INCLUDING    THAT    OF 


THE    POPES 

TO    THE    PONTIFICATE    OF    NICHOLAS    V. 


VOLUME    II. 


CONTENTS 


THE   SECOND   VOLUME. 


BOOK   III.  {continued.) 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Western  Monasticism. 

PAQB 

Western  monasticism  contrasted  with  Eastern 15 

Early   monasticism   in   Italy,   Gaul,   Spain,  Africa, 

Britain 19 

St.  Benedict  of  Nursia 22 

Birth  —  Youth 24 

The  Priest  Florentius 28 

Rule  of  St.  Benedict 30 

St.  Scolastica 34 

Rapid  extension  of  the  order 35 


CHAPTER   VII. 

Gregory  the  Great. 

Gregory  the  Great 39 

Lombard  invasion ih. 

Birth  and  youth  of  Gregory 44 

Gregory  Abbot 4  fl 

Aspires  to  convert  Britain 4S 

In  Constantinople ih. 

Magna  Moraha 50 

590  Gregory  Pope  —  Monkhood 52 

Threefold  character  of  Gregory  ;  — 

I.  Administi-ator  of  the  See 55 

Periects  the  ritual tfc. 


CONTENTS   OF  VOL.  II. 

&.D.  PAQB 

Preacher  —  Music 56 

Administrator  of  property  of  the  See 67 

II    Patriarch  of  the  West 32 

In  Italy  —  Gaul ' ib. 

Conversion  of  Spain  from  Arianism 64 

Conversion  of  Africa  and  Britain 66 

Greijjory  and  tlie  Jews 68 

And  the  heretics 70 

Bishop  of  Constantinople  universal  Bishop  —  Let- 
ter to  Emperor  Maurice ih. 

III.  As  temporal  sovereign 73 

The  Lombards 74 

Gregory  defends  Rome 78 

599       Conversion  of  Lombards 79 

Imperial  law  about  monasteries 81 

Usurpation  of  Phocas —  Conduct  of  Gregory*  •  •  83 

604  Death  of  Gregory 87 

Epoch  of  Christianization  of  human  mind 81* 

Christianity   of  the   age  —  Christian   mythology  — 

Worship  of  the  Virgin 90 

Angels  —  Devils 94 

Martyrs  —  llelics 9tJ 

Sanctity  of  Clergy 98 

State  after  death  —  Hell  —  Heaven 100 


BOOK  IV. 

CHAPTER    I 

MOHAJVIMED. 


622  Rise  of  Mohammedanism 109 

Arabia • 1 10 

Character  of  Mohannnedanism 1  l^j 


CONTENTS   OF   VOL.    11.  vii 

^•^  PAGE 

Ceremonial  —  Faith 113 

The   Koran 121 

Mohammed  —  His  birth  and  youth 122 

Divine  mission 1 25 

Persecution  and  flight  —  (Hegira) 127 

Medina 129 

The  Jews ^^ 

630  Mohannued  Lord  of  Mecca 132 

Koran  becomes  intolerant  to  Jews — to  Christians-  •  135 

Koran  war  against  mankind 141 

Mohanmied's  views  of  empire 144 

Battle  of  Muta 147 


CHAPTER    II. 

Successors  of  Mohammed. 

Abubeker  —  Omar  —  Othman 150 

Conquest  of  Syria 1 5S 

636  Fall  of  Damascus  —  of  Jerusalem 15  7 

632-651   Conquest  of  Persia  —  of  Egypt 161 

647-698       And  of  Africa ^ 162 

Progress  of  Mohanniiedanism  —  Causes  —  Polygamy  1 63 

Extent  —  Religious   consequences 168 

Mohammedan  civilization 171 


CHAPTER    III. 

Conversion  of  England. 

Christianity  in  Britain 175 

697   Augustine 178 

Policy  of  Gregory .......•• 181 

Kelapse  into  heathenism 1 84 

Christianity  in  Northumberland  —  King  Edwin  •  •  185 

Penda 189 

Aidan  •  • ,    191 

Division  in  Anglo-Saxon  Church 1 96 

Anglo-Saxon  Christianity 197 


COxN  TENTS   OF   VOL.   II. 

AD  PAGE 

Wilfrid 201 

Monasticism 206 


CHAPTER  IV. 

WiLFKID  —  BeDE. 

Wilfrid  — Bede 209 

Benedict  Biscop 210 

G64   Theodorus  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 213 

Synod  of  Eastanfeld 220 

673-785  Bede 224 

Aiiojlo-Saxon   poetry  —  Caedmon 228 

Aldhehn  of  Mahnesbury • 230 

Anojlo-Saxon  Laws 232 


CHAPTER  V. 

Conversion  ok  tite  Teutonic  Races  beyond  the 
Roman  Empire. 

Abt.  650  St.   Columban 237 

610  St.  Gall 245 

Abt.  700  St.  Boniface 248 

Pope  Grejzory  II. 249 

Boniface  Archbishop  of  Mentz 253 

Monasteries 256 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Papacy  from  the  time  ok  Gkegouy  the  Great 
TO  Gregory  II. 

604  Sabinianus 262 

607  Boniface  IJI. • 264 

S08-625  Boniface  IV.  —  Deusdedit  —  Boniface  V. 266 

625-638  Honorius  T.  —  Monothelitism ib. 

Honorius  condemned  as  a  heretic 269 

638  The  Ecthcsis  of  the  Emperor  Ilcraclius 270 


CONTENTS   OF   VOL.   II.  IX 

AD  PAQl 

P()|)e  So\erinus 271 

John  IV.  —  Death  of  Heraclius 272 

642  Theodorus  I.  —  Excommunicates  Pyrrhus  and  Paul  274 

649  Marthi  I. 276 

653  Pope  Martin  at  Constantinople 279 

657  Pope  Euirenius  I.  —  Vitalianus 281 

663  The  Emperor  Constans  at  Rome 282 

6  72-678  Adeodatus  —  Domnus  —  Agatho 283 

Sixth  Ecumenic  Council 284 

682-701  Leo  II. 287 

Popes  Benedict  11,  John  V.,  Conon,  Sergius ih. 

Quinisextan  Council,  or  Council  in  Trullo 288 

702-707  John  VI. — John  VII.  —  Sisinnius — Constantine- •   290 
716  Gregory  11. 292 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ICONOCLASM. 

Iconoclasm 293 

71 7  Leo  the  Isaurian 305 

726  Edict  against  images 306 

Second  edict  —  Tumults 309 

Gregory  II.'s  letter 312 

Second  letter 317 

731  Degradation  of  Germanus  of  Constantinople 318 

John  of  Damascus ih. 

741   Constantino  Copronymus  Emperor 323 

743  Persecutions  —  The  Patriarch  Anastasius 825 

75C  Third  Council  of  Constantinople 327 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
Second  Council  of  Nicea — Close  of  Iconoclasm. 

The  Monk  Stephen  —  Persecutions 334 

775  Death  of  Copronymus 338 

780  Leo  IV. 339 

Irene ib 


CONTENTS   OF   VOL.   II. 

A.D.  PAGB 

783  Tarasius   Patriarch 343 

787  Second  Council  of  Nicea 345 

Decree  ot"  the  Council 348 

797  Blinding  of  Constantino  by  Irene 352 

802  Leo  the  Armenian  against  image- worship 357 

821  Murder  of  Leo 359 

Michael  the  Stammerer  Emperor ib. 

829  Theophilus  Emperor 360 

842  Theodora  Empress - 366 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Severance  of  Greek  and  Latin  Christianity. 

Exarchs  of  Ravenna 371 

Image-worship  in  Italy  —  John  VII. 373 

715-731   Gregory  IL 374 

The  Lombards  —  Liutprand •  •  • .  ib. 

730  Council  at  Rome 381 

731  Gregory  IIL 382 

Council  at  Rome •  •  •  383 

740  Gregory  appeals  to  Charles  Martel 386 

Charles  Martel ib. 


CHAPTER  X. 
Hierarchy  op  France. 
St  Leger *94 

CHAPTER  XI. 
Pepin  King  of  France. 

741  Pope  Zacharias 405 

742  Interview  with  Liutprand  —  Peace 404 

Kings  Monks * 407 

751   Pepin  King  of  France 410 

Teutonic  clergy • 414 


CONTENTS    OF   VOL.    II.  XI 

A.D.  PAflS 

752  Stephen  Pope ••.417 

Astolph  of  Lombardy*  •  •  •  '• ib. 

754  Stephen  sets  out  for  France 418 

Carloman  in  France 421 

Pepin  in  Italy —  Retires  —  Siege  of  Rome  by  Lom- 
bards     422 

755  Letters  of  Pope  Stephen 423 

756  Pepin  in  Italy  —  Lombards  yield  —  Grant  of  Pepin  426 
Desiderius  I.  King  of  the  Lombards • 427 

757  Pope  Paul  L 428 

767  Papacy  seized  by  Toto 482 

768  Pope  Stephen  IIL • 433 

Alliance  of  Pope  and  Lombards 436 


CHAPTER   XII. 
Charlemagne  on  the  Throne. 

771  Carloman  and  Charles  —  Proposed  marriage  with 

Lombard  Princesses 438 

Letter  of  Pope  Stephen 439 

768  Pope  Hadrian  I. 441 

773  Desiderius  before  Rome*  • 444 

773  Hadrian's  message  to  Charlemagne 445 

774  Charlemagne  in  Rome  —  Donation 447 

780-1   Charlemagne's  second  visit  to  Rome 451 

795  Leo  III.  Pope 454 

799  Assault  on  Pope  Leo • 455 

80C  Charlemagne  in  Rome 457 

Charlemagne  Emperor 458 


xii  CONTEJSTS   OF  VOL.  II. 


BOOK    V. 
CHAPTER  I. 

CHARLEaiAGNB. 

A.D.  PASS 

Empire  of  Charlemagne • 466 

Character  of  Charlemagne 471 

The  Saxons 473 

■^72,  &c.  Campaigns  of  Charlemagne  against  the  Saxons-  -  •  •  475 

Conversion  of  Saxons 481 

Charlemagne's   legislation 483 

Transalpine  hierarchy  —  Estates  of  the  Church 485 

Tithe ' 489 

Monasteries 492 

Bishops 494 

Parochial  clergy • 496 

794  Council  of  Frankfort 497 

Arts  and  Letters  under  Charlemagne 608 


CHAPTER  II. 

Louis  THE  Pious. 

Leo  TIL  Pope 512 

813  Accession  of  Louis 514 

Diet  of  Aix-la-Chapelle 617 

816  Pope  Stephen  IV. 618 

817  Pope  Paschal  L  —  Second  Diet  at  Aix-la-Chapelle-  519 
Law  of  succession 522 

822  Diet  of  Attigny 526 

Accusations  against  Pope  Paschal 529 

824  Death  of  Paschal  —  Pope  Eugenius  L  —  Lothair  in 

Rome lb. 

Weakness  of  Empire  —  Duke  Bernhard  of  Septi- 

mania 531 

830  Rebellion  of  sons  of  Louis 534 

Aristocratic  hierarchy. 637 


CONTENTS   OF   VOL.    n.  xiii 

*■**■                                         ,  PAGB 

1  01)0.  V  alcntinus  —  Gregory  IV.  —  Civil  War 540 

833  Field  of  Lies ^7,, 

Penance  of  Louis 542 

834  New  Revolution 545 

839  Partition  of  the  empire  —  Death  of  Louis 548 

Claudius  of  Turin 55O 


HISTOEY 


LATIN    CHRISTIANITY. 


BOOK    III.     (Continued.) 
CHAPTER    VI. 

WESTERN  MONASTICISM. 

MonAsticism  ascended  the  papal  tlirone  in  the  per- 
son of  Gregory  the  Great.  As  our  history  western 
approaches  this  marked  period  in  the  annals  "^<''^''-''*^«^^'^ 
of  Latin  Christianity,  it  is  necessary  to  describe  the 
rise  and  progress  of  those  institutions,  which  at  once 
tended  so  powerfully  to  propagate,  to  maintain,  and  to 
give  its  peculiar  character  to  the  Christianity  of  West- 
ern Christendom. 

Western  monasticism  was  very  different  fi'om  that  of 
the  East.  It  was  practical  more  than  speculative  ;  it 
looked  more  to  the  performance  of  rigid  duty,  the  ob- 
servance of  an  austere  ritual,  the  alternation  of  severe 
toil  wdth  the  recitation  of  certain  stated  offices  or  tiie 
reading  appointed  portions  of  sacred  books,  than  t{ 
dreamy  indolence  and  meditative  silence,  only  broken 
by  the  discussion  of  controverted  points  of  contrasted 
theology.  Labor  was  part  of  the  rule  of  "'^^  ^^'''"'■ 
all  the  eastern  monks  ;  it  was  urged  by  the  wiser  ad- 
vocates of  the  monastic  state,  Athanasius,  Basil,  Chrvs- 


16  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

ostom,  even  Jerome:  it  was  enforced  in  the  law  of 
the  monastic  life  brought  b}^  Cassianus  from  the  East  ;^ 
and  it  is  singular  that  it  was  first  repudiated  by  Martin 
of  Tours  and  his  disciples;'^  yet  the  eastern  element 
predominated  over  the  rule  almost  throuohout  Greek 
Christianity.  The  Greek  monks  have  done  little  or 
nothing  to  advance  the  cultivation  of  barren  lands,  for 
the  arts,  for  knowledge,  or  for  civilization.  But  the 
hermits  in  the  West  were  in  general  content  with  the 
wild  recesses  of  nature,  and  with  a  rigid  but  secret 
discipline.  They  had  neither  the  ingenious  nor  the 
ostentatious  self-tortiu'es  which  were  common  in  the 
East.  They  had  hardly  one  Stylites,  men  who  stood 
for  decades  of  years  ^  on  a  lofty  pillar,  a  pillar  elevated 
in  height  as  the  saint  drew  nearer  to  heaven  and  to 
perfection*  —  as  yet  no  rambling  and  vagabond  monks, 
astonishing  mankind  by  the  public  display  of  their 
miserable  self-inflicted  sufferings.  Nor  did  Coenobites 
disburb  the  peace  of  the  western  cities  by  crowding 
with  arms  in  their  hands,  reacly  with  iniscrupulous  and 
sanguinary  fanaticism  for  slaughter,  or  worse  than 
slausihter,  in  the  maintenance  of  some  favorite  doc- 
trine,  or  some   favorite    prelate.     Under  their  founder 

1  "  A  laboring  monk  is  troubled  by  one  devil,  an  idle  one  by  a  host  of 
devils."  —  Cassian.  x.  23.  Augustine  wrote  a  book,  de  Opcre  Monachorum. 
M.  Vilieniaiii  has  this  striking  observation:  "  De  cette  rude  dcole  du  deseit 
il  sortait  des  grands  homines  et  des  fous."  —  Melanges,  Eloquence  Chr(5- 
tienne,  p.  356.  The  East  had  few  great  men,  many  madmen;  the  West, 
madmen  enough,  but  still  very  many  great  men. 

2  Paulin.  de  vit.  Martini,  1.  ii.  Sulpic.  Severus,  c.  7. 

*  Fifty-six,  according  to  Evagrins,  t.  iii.  i.  13;  Theodoret.  Hist.  Rflig., 
p.  882.  For  Wulfilas  the  one  Stylites  of  the  West  at  Treves,  see  Fleiiry, 
xxiv.  22. 

4  "  The  Gallic  bishops  ordered  a  pillar  to  be  destroyed  on  which  an  am- 
bitious Western  as]iired  to  rival  the  ICiUst."  —  Greg.  Tur.  i-  X7.  Con\v»:i 
Schrueck,  viii.  p.  231. 

(' 
) 


/ 


Chap.  VI.  WESTERN  MONASTICISM.  17 

in  Northern  France,  Martin  of  Tours,  they  might  loud 
their  tumultuous  aid  in  the  demoHtion  of  some  heatl.en 
shrine  or  temple  ;  but  their  habits  were  usually  those  oi 
profound  peace;  they  aspired  not  yet  to  rule  the  world 
wliich  they  had  forsworn  :  it  was  not  till  much  later 
that  their  abbots,  now  endowed  with  enormous  wealtli, 
poured  upon  them  by  blind  admiration  of  their  holiness, 
assumed  political  existence.  The  western  monks  par- 
took of  that  compaiative  disinclination  to  the  more 
subtle  religious  controversy  which  distinguished  Roman 
from  Greek  and  Oriental  Christendom.  Excepting  the 
school  of  semi-Pelagianism,  propagated  by  the  Oriental 
Cassianus  among  the  monasteries  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Marseilles  (still  to  a  certain  extent  a  Greek  city, 
and  with  the  Greek  language  spoken  around  it),  the 
monasteries  were  the  scats  of  submissive,  uninquiring 
orthodoxy.  They  were  not  as  yet  the  asyla  of  letters. 
Both  the  ancient  Latin  prose  and  ancient  Latin  ])oetry 
were  too  repulsively  and  dangerously  heathen  to  be 
admitted  into  the  narrov/  cell  or  tlie  mountain  cloister. 
This  perilous  tendency  to  intellectual  indulgence  which 
followed  Jerome  into  liis  cave  in  Palestine,  and  could 
only  be  allayed  by  the  scourge  ami  unintermitting  fast, 
as  yet  did  not  penetrate  hito  the  solitudes  of  the  western 
recluses.  But  if  the  reason  was  suppressed  with  such 
unmitigated  proscription,  the  imagination,  while  it 
shrunk  from  tliose  metaphysic  abstractions,  Avhich  are 
so  congenial  to  eastern  mysticism,  had  full  scope  in  the 
ordinary  .occurrences  of  life,  wliich  it  transmuted  into 
perpetual  miracle.  The  mind  was  centered  on  itself; 
its  sole  occupation  was  the  watching  the  emotio^^s.  the 
pulsations  of  the  religious  life ;  it  impersonated  i^s  im- 
pulses, it  attributed  to  external  or  to  foreign  ^^^^  in- 


18  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

dwelling  powers  the  whole  strife  within.  Everything 
fostered,  even  the  daily  labor,  which  might  have 
checked,  cari'ied  on  in  solitude  and  in  silence,  encour- 
aged the  vague  and  desultory  dreaminess  of  the  fancy. 
Men  plunged  into  the  desert  alone,  or  united  themselves 
with  others  (for  there  is  no  contagion  so  irresistible  as 
that  of  religious  emotion)  under  a  deep  conviction  that 
there  was  a  fierce  contest  taking  place  for  the  soul  of 
each  individual,  not  between  moral  influences  and 
unseen  and  spiritual  agencies,  but  between  beings  pal- 
pable, material,  or  at  least  having  at  their  command 
material  agents,  and  constantly  controlling  the  course 
of  nature.  All  the  monks'  scanty  reading  Avas  of  the 
miracles  of  our  Lord  or  his  Apostles,  or  still  more  the 
les;ends  of  saints.  Their  singino;  was  of  the  same  sub- 
jects.  Their  fasts  were  to  expel  demoniacal  possessions, 
their  festivals  to  celebrate  the  actual  presence  of  the 
tutelar  saint.  And  directly  the  soul  escaped,  as  it 
could  not  but  escape,  from  the  narrow  internal  world, 
it  carried  into  the  world  svitliout,  not  merely  that  awful 
reverence  which  sees  God  in  e\'erything,  but  a  wonder- 
ful ignorance  of  nature  and  of  man,  which  made  miracle 
the  ordinary  rather  than  the  exceptional  state  of  things. 
The  scenes  among  wliicli  they  settled  were  usually  such 
as  would  promote  this  tendency — strange,  desolate, 
gloomy,  fearfid,  the  interminable  sea  or  desert,  tli(! 
mountain  immeasurable  by  the  eye,  the  unfathomed 
gl6n  ;  in  Italy  volcanic  regions,  either  cleft  or  distorted 
by  ancient  eruptions,  and  still  liable  to  earthquake  and 
disorder.  Their  solitudes  ceased  to  be  solitary;  they 
were  peopled  with  sounds,  with  apparitions  unaccount- 
able and  therefore  supernatural.  Wherever  a  few  met 
together,  they  met  u])on  the  j)rinciple  of  encouraging 


CuAP.  VI.      EAKLY   MONASTICISM   IN  THE  WEST.  19 

each  other,  of  vying  with  each  other,  of  measuring  the 
depth  of  their  faitli  by  their  unhesitating  behef.  The 
state  of  mind  was  contagious  ;  those  around  them  were 
mostly  peasants,  serfs,  who  admired  their  austerities, 
reverenced  their  hoHness  ;  and  whom  even  if  their  cre- 
duHty  outran  tlieir  own,  they  would  not  disabuse,  lest 
they  should  disturb  instead  of  deepen  their  religious 
impressions.  When  they  went  still  further  forth  into 
the  world,  the  fame  of  their  recluse  sanctity,  of  their 
miracle-working  holiness  preceded  them.  Men  were 
prepared  for  wonders,  and  he  who  is  prepared  for 
wonders  will  usually  see  them.  Emulation,  zeal  for 
the  glory  of  their  founder,  the  awe,  often  the  salutary 
awe,  which  controlled  multitudes,  the  mind  unbalanced 
by  brooding  upon  itself,  and  the  frame  distempered  by 
the  wildest  ascetic  usages,  the  self-walled,  self-barred, 
the  sunless  dreary  dungeons,  which  they  made  theni- 
Belves  in  the  midst  of  populous  cities,  wrought  the 
same  effects  on  the  monks  in  Rome,  or  Milan,  or 
Tours.  Thus  religion,  chiefly  through  monasticism, 
conspired  with  barbarism  to  throw  back  mankind  into 
a  new  childhood,  a  second  imaginative  youth.  The 
mythic  period  of  Christianity  had  begun  and  continued 
for  centuries  :  full  of  the  materials  of  poetry,  producing 
a  vast  mass  of  what  was  truly  poetic,  but  wanting  form 
and  order,  destined  to  await  the  creation  of  new  lan- 
guages before  it  should  culminate  in  great  Christian 
poems,  commencing  with  the  Divine  Comedy  and 
closing  with  the  Paradise  Lost. 

Monasticism,  as  we  have  seen,  was  introduced  into  the 
West  by  the  authority  and  by  the  writings  of  Rariymonas- 
the  great  Athanasms.    In  the  time  oi  Jerome  west. 
it  had  found  its  proselytes  among  the  patricians  and 


20  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.        *      ,        Book  III. 

hixj;hboni  matrons  and  vimins  of  Rome.  Many  mon- 
asteries  in  tliat  city  excited  the  admirati(m  of  Augus- 
tine ;  ^  and  that  of  Nola,  celebrated  by  St.  PauUinus. 
did  not  stand  alone  in  Southern  Italy.^  Milan  ^  vied 
with  Rome  in  tlie  antiquity,  in  the  severe  sanctity  of 
her  monastery,  which  rose  in  one  of  the  suburbs  under 
the  fostering  care  of  St.  Ambrose ;  and  Ambrose  ac- 
knowledged that  he  had  but  followed  the  holy  example 
of  Eusebius  of  Vercelli.  Monasticism  had  now  spread 
throughout  the  West.  In  the  recesses  of  the  Apen- 
nines; in  the  seckided  islands  along  the  coast  of  Italy  ; 
in  Gaul,  where  it  had  been  disseminated  by  the  zeal  of 
Martin  of  Tours;  in  Ireland;  in  the  parts  of  Britain 
yet  unwasted  by  the  heathen  Saxons ;  in  Spain  ;  in 
Africa,  these  young  republics  rose  in  all  quarters,  and 
secluded  themselves  from  the  ordinary  duties,  occupa- 
tions, pursuits,  aiid  as  they  fondly  thought,  the  passions 
and  the  sins  of  men.  In  Gaul  the  earliest  monasteries 
were  those  of  Liguge,  near  Toulouse,  and  of  Tours, 
both  founded  by  St.  Martin,  of  the  Isle  Barbc,  in  the 
Saone  above  Lyons,  Toulouse,  in  the  Islands  of  the 
Hieres  and  of  Lerins.  Ca3sarius,  the  Bishop  of  Ai'les, 
whom  his  age  considered  to  unite  in  an  unparalleled 
degree  the  virtues  of  the  ecclesiastic  and  the  monk, 
and  Cassianus,  who,  originally  an  Oriental,  settled  at 
INIarseilles,  and  endeavored  to  realize  in  his  monastery 
of  St.  Victor  in  that  city  the  severity  of  his  institutes, 

1  De  ^forib.  Ecd.  c  33. 

2  Ambros.  Epist.  Ixiii.     St.  August.  Confess,  iv.  6. 

8  Constructa  statuit  rc(|uiescere  cella 

Hcic  ubi  j,^au(lcnt(Mn  nouioris  vel  pabnitis  unibris 
Italiain  pingit  puklicrrima  iMediolanuni." 

Paul,  in  vit.  St.  Mart. 
The  Wcslcru  liiunk.s  alivadv  lovcil  tlie  bi.'aiilic.s  ol'  nature 


CiiAr.  VI.      EARLY   MOXASTICISIM    IN   THE    WEST.  21 

maintained  and  extended  the  dominion  of  monasticism 
in  tliat  province.  The  settlements  of  Columban  will 
appear  as  the  great  initiatory  measure  which  prepared 
and  accomplished  the  conversion  of  Germany. 

But  even  now  no  kingdom  of  the  West  is  inaccessible 
to  the  rapid  migrations,  or  sudden  apparitions  of  these 
religious  colonies. 

The  origin  of  Spanish  monasticism  is  obscure.  It  is 
reOvOgnized  by  the  decrees  of  various  councils,  in  spaia. 
those  of  Tarragona,  of  Lerida,  of  Barcelona,  of  Sara- 
gossa.  It  received  a  strong  impulse  from  Donatus,  an 
African,  who  landed  with  seventy  monks  from  that 
country. 

In  Africa,  monasticism,  under  St.  Augustine,  as- 
sumed a  peculiar  form,  intermediate  between  in  Africa, 
the  ordinary  sacerdotal  institutions  and  the  monasteiy. 
The  clergy  were  to  live  in  common  under  a  rule,  in 
some  respects  rigidly  monastic,  yet  to  discharge  all  the 
ordinary  duties  of  the  priesthood.  They  were  the  first 
regular  canons ;  but  the  Augustinian  Order  formed, 
as  it  was  designed,  on  this  ancient  and  venerable  model, 
is  of  much  later  date,  the  twelfth  century.^ 

In  Britain,  monasticism  had  arrived  before  the  Saxon 
mvasion.  It  fled  with  Christianity  to  the  in  Britain, 
fastnesses  of  Wales ;  the  monks  of  Banchor,  long 
established  on  the  border,  encountered  the  Saxon 
monks,  who  accompanied  Augustine  into  the  Island. 
Ireland  and  the  Western  Isles  were  already  studded 
with  these  religious  retreats ;  lona  had  its  convent,  and 
these  institutions,  which  were  hereafter  to  send  forth 
St.  Columban  to  convert  and  monasticize  the  German 

1  Compare  Thomassin,  La  Discipline  de  I'Eglise.  i.  31. 


22  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  lit. 

forests,  were  already  at  least  in  tlieir  early  and  initia- 
tory state. 

But  the  extension  and  organization  of  monasticism 
St.  Benedict  ^^^  the  Wcst  owes  its  principal  strength  and 
of  Nursia.  uniformity  to  Benedict  of  Nursia.^  The  life 
of  Benedict,  from  infancy  to  death,  is  the  most  perfect 
illustration  of  the  motives  which  then  worked  upon  the 
mind  of  man.  In  him  meet  together  and  combine  all 
those  influences  which  almost  divided  mankind  into 
recluses  or  coenobites,  and  those  who  pursued  an  active 
life ;  as  well  as  all  the  effects,  in  his  case  the  best 
effects,  produced  by  this  phasis  of  human  thought  and 
feeling.  Benedict,  it  was  said,  was  born  at  that  time, 
hke  a  sun  to  dispel  the  Cimmerian  darkness  which 
brooded  over  Christendom,  and  to  revive  the  expiring 
spirit  of  monasticism.  The  whole  world  was  desolated 
by  the  inroads  of  the  northern  conquerors ;  the  thrones 
of  the  new  western  kingdoms  were  filled  by  barbarian 
heretics ;  the  East  was  distracted  with  controversy. 
War  had  not  respected  the  monastic  institutions  ;  and 
those  were  fortunate  who  were  shrouded  in  the  moun- 
tain glens  of  the  Apennines,  or  lay  hid  in  some  remote 
and  sea-girt  island.  His  age  acknowledged  Benedict 
as  the  perfect  type  of  the  highest  religion,  and  Benedict 
impersonated  his  age. 

In  the  time  of  Benedict  no  man  could  have  made  a 
profound  impression  or  exercised  an  enduring  influence 
upon  the  mind  of  man,  without  that  enthusiasm  in 
nimself  which  would  environ  him  with  wonder,  or 
without  exciting  that  enthusiasm  in  others  which  would 
eagerly  accept,  propagate,  and  multiply  the  miracles 
which  avouched  his  sanctity. 

1  Bar^nius  sub  ann.,  but  chiefly  Mabillon,  Hist.  Ordin.  Benedict. 


Ch.m>.  VI.  ST.   BENEDICT.  23 

How  perfectly  the  whole  atmosphere  was  impreg- 
nated with  tliis  inexhaustible  yearning  for  the  super- 
natural, appears  from  the  ardor  with  which  the  mo- 
nastic passions  were  indulged  at  the  earliest  age.  Chil- 
dren were  nursed  and  trained  to  expect  at  every 
instant  more  than  human  interferences ;  their  young 
energies  had  ever  before  them  examples  of  asceticism, 
to  which  it  was  the  glory,  the  true  felicity  of  life,  to 
aspire.  The  thoughtful  child  had  all  his  mind  thus 
preoccupied ;  he  was  early,  it  might  almost  seem 
intuitively,  trained  to  this  course  of  life;  wherever 
there  was  gentleness,  modesty,  the  timidity  of  young 
passion,  repugnance  to  vice,  an  imaginative  tempera- 
ment, a  consciousness  of  unfitness  to  wrestle  with  the 
rough  realities  of  life,  the  way  lay  invitingly  open 
—  the  difficult,  it  is  true,  and  painful,  but  direct  and 
unerring  way  —  to  heaven.  It  lay  through  perils,  but 
was  made  attractive  by  perpetual  wonders ;  it  was 
awful,  but  in  its  awfulness  lay  its  power  over  the  young 
mind.  It  learned  to  trample  down  that  last  bond 
which  united  the  child  to  common  humanity,  filial 
reverence ;  the  fond  and  mysterious  attachment  of  the 
child  and  the  mother,  the  inborn  reverence  of  the  son 
to  the  father.  It  is  the  highest  praise  of  St.  Fulgentius 
that  he  overcame  his  mother's  tenderness  by  religious 
cruelty.^ 

History,  to  be  true,  must  condescend  to  speak  the 
language  of  legend ;  the  belief  of  the  times  is  part  of 
the  record  of  the  times  ;  and,  though  there  may  occur 
what  may  baffle  its  more  calm  and  searching  philoso- 

1  The  appro%nng bishop  said,  "Facile  potest  juvenis  tolerare  quemcunque 
imposuerit  laborem  qui  poterit  maternuni  jam  despicere  dolorem.'  — Ful- 
gcut.  Vit.  apud  Mabillou. 


24  lATIN    CIIJIISTIANITY.  Boor  III. 

j)liy,  it  must  not  disdain  that  which  was  the   primal, 
almost  universal,  motive  of  human  hfe. 

Benedict  was  born  at  Nursia,  in  tlie  province  of 
A.D.  480.  Spoleto,  of  respectable  parents.  He  was  sent 
to  Rome,  according  to  still-prevaihng  custom,  to  be 
instructed  in  the  liberal  arts.  But  his  pure  spirit 
slirunk  instinctively  from  the  vices  of  the  capital.  Ho 
gave  up  the  perilous  study  of  letters,  and  preferred  a 
holy  ignorance.^  He  fled  secretly  from  the  society  of 
his  dangerous  associates,  from  the  house  of  his  parents, 
who,  it  seems,  had  accompanied  him,  as  of  old  the 
father  of  Horace  his  son  to  Rome.^  His  faithful  nurse 
alone  discovered  his  design  and  accompanied  his  flight. 
This  incident  seems  to  imply  that  his  flight  took  place 
at  a  very  tender  age ;  a  circumstance,  told  at  a  later 
period,  intimates  that  it  was  not  before  the  first  im- 
pulses of  youthfiil  passion.  He  took  refuge  in  a  small 
village  called  Effide,  about  two  miles  from  Subiaco. 
Youth  of  The  rustic  inhabitants,  pleased  with  his  mod- 
Benedict.  ^g^.^  ^^^^  swcctncss  of  dispositiou,  allowed  him 
to  inhabit  a  cell  near  their  church.  Here  took  place 
his  first  miracle.  The  faithful  nurse,  Cyrilla,  had  bor- 
rowed a  stone  sieve,  commonly  used  in  that  part  of  the 
country  to  make  bread.  It  fell  from  her  hands,  and 
broke  in  two.  Benedict,  moved  by  her  distress,  united 
the  two  pieces,  prayed  over  them,  and  the  vessel  be- 
came whole.  The  wondering  rustics  are  said  to  have 
hung  the  miraculously  restored  sieve  over  their  church 
door.     But  the  sensitive  youth  shrunk  from  fame,  as 

1  "  Scienter  nesciens,  et  sapienter  indoctus."     Such  are  the  words  of 
Gregory  the  Great.  —  Dial.  1.  2. 

2  Compare  (how  strange  the  comparison!)  tlie  life  of  Horace  and  the  life 
of  St.  Benedict. 


Chap.  VI.  ST.   SCOLASTICA.  25 

be  had  from  vice:  lie  sought  a  deeper  solitude. 
In  the  neighborhood  of  Subiaco,  by  the  advice  and 
assistance  of  a  monk,  named  Romanus,  he  found  a  wild 
find  inaccessible  cavern,  into  which  he  crept,  and  for 
three  years  the  softly  and  delicately  educated  boy  lay 
hid  in  this  cold  and  dismal  dwelling  from  the  sight  of 
men.  His  scanty  food  was  supplied  by  Romanus,  who 
took  it  by  stealth  from  his  own  small  pittance  in  his 
monastery.  The  cave  was  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  on 
Avhich  the  monastery  stood,  but  there  was  no  path 
down  the  precipitous  rock.  The  food,  therefore,  was 
let  down  by  a  rope,  and  a  small  bell  tied  to  the  rope 
o;ave  notice  of  its  comino;.  Once  the  devil  broke  the 
rope ;  but  he  could  not  baffle  the  inventive  charity  of 
Romanus.  To  an  imagination  so  prepared,  what  scene 
could  be  more  suited  to  nurture  the  disposition  to  won- 
ders and  \asions  than  the  wild  and  romantic  region 
tibout  Subiaco  ?  The  cave  of  Benedict  is  still  shown 
as  a  hallowed  place,  high  on  the  crest  of  a  toppling 
rock,  with  the  Anio  roaring  beneath  in  a  deep  ravine, 
clothed  with  the  densest  forest,  and  looking  on  another 
wild,  precipitous  crag.  Half-way  up  the  zigzag  and 
laborious  path  stands  the  convent  of  Benedict's  sister, 
St.  Scolastica.^  So  entirely  was  Benedict  cut  off  from 
the  world  that  he  ceased  to  mark  not  merely  the  prog- 
ress of  ordinary  time,  but  even  the  fasts  and  festivals  of 
the  Church.     A  certain  priest  had  prepared  for  himself 

1  According  to  the  annalist  of  the  order,  Subiaco,  properly  Siib-lacu,  was 
a  town  at  the  foot  of  a  lake  made  by  the  waters  of  the  Anio,  which  had 
been  dammed  up  by  the  Emperor  Claudius.  On  the  20th  February,  1325, 
the  lake  burst  its  dam,  swept  away  the  road  and  bridge  to  San  Lorenzo, 
and  left  only  its  dry  bed,  through  which  the  torrent  of  the  Anio  still  pours. 
—  Amial.  Ordin.  Benedict,  i.  c.  viii.  The  old  monasteiy  must  have  been 
Dn  a  peak  higher  than  Benedict's  cave. 


26  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

some  food  of  unusual  delicacy  for  the  festival  of  Easter. 
A  mysterious  admonition  within  his  heart  reproved 
him  for  this  luxurious  indulgence,  while  the  servant 
of  God  was  pining  with  hunger.  Who  he  was,  this 
holy  and  heaven-designated  servant,  or  where  he 
dwelt,  the  priest  knew  not,  but  he  was  led  through 
the  tangled  thickets  and  over  the  rugged  rocks  to 
the  cave  of  Benedict.  Benedict  was  ignorant  that 
it  was  Easter,  and  not  till  he  was  assured  that  it 
was  that  festal  day,  would  he  share  in  the  heaven- 
sent banquet. 

The  secret  of  his  hiding-place  was  thus  betrayed, 
and  some  of  the  rude  shepherds  of  the  country,  seeing 
the  hermit  in  his  coarse  attire,  which  was  no  more  than 
a  sheepskin  throwh  round  him,  mistook  him  at  first  for 
a  wild  beast:  but  when  they  approached  him,  they 
were  so  melted  by  his  gentle  eloquence,  that  their 
hearts  yielded  at  once,  and  they  were  subdued  to  cour- 
tesy of  manners  and  Christian  belief.  But  the  young 
hermit  had  not  escaped  the  notice  or  the  jealousy  of  the 
enemy  of  mankind.  One  day  (we  must  not  omit  pue- 
rilities so  characteristic,  and  this  is  graA^ely  related  by  a 
late  serious  and  learned  writer)  he  appeared  in  the  shape 
of  a  blackbird,  and  flapped  him  over  the  eyes  with  his 
wino^s,  so  as  almost  to  blind  him.  The  evil  one  took  a 
more  dangerous  form,  the  unforootten  imao;e  of  a  beau- 
tiful  woman  whom  young  Benedict  had  known  at 
Rome  (he  could  not,  then,  have  left  it  so  very  young). 
This  was  a  perilous  probation,  and  it  was  only  by  rush- 
ing forth  and  rolling  his  naked  body  upon  the  brambles 
and  sharp  points  of  the  rocks  that  Benedict  obtained  the 
hard- wrung  victory.  Never  after  this,  as  he  said  to 
his  familiar  friends,  was  he  ex|  osed  to  these  fleshly  tri- 


Cir.vr.  VI.  FAME  OF  BENEDICT.  27 

als.  Yet  his  warfare  was  not  over.  He  had  triumphed 
over  sensual  lust,  he  was  to  be  tempted  by  rehgious  am- 
bition. A  convent  of  monks  in  the  neighborhood,  ex- 
cited by  the  fame  of  his  sanctity,  determined  to  choose 
Benedict  for  their  head.  He  fairly  warned  them  of 
the  rigorous  and  uncompromishig  discipline  which  he 
should  think  it  his  duty  to  enforce.  Either  fondly  be- 
lieving their  own  sincerity,  or  presuming  on  the  latent 
gentleness  of  Benedict,  they  could  not  be  dissuaded 
from  the  design.  But  in  a  short  time  the  firm  severity 
of  the  young  abbot  roused  their  fierce  resentment ;  ha- 
tred succeeded  to  reverence  and  love.  They  attempted 
to  poison  him  ;  but  the  cup  with  the  guilty  potion 
burst  asunder  in  the  hands  of  Benedict,  who  calmly  re- 
proved them  for  their  crime,  prayed  for  the  divine  for- 
giveness, reminded  them  of  his  own  warnings  before 
he  undertook  their  government,  and  withdrew  into  his 
happier  solitude. 

It  was  no  longer  a  solitude.     The  sanctity  of  Bene- 
dict, and  the  fame  of  his  miracles,  drew  to-  Fame  of 
gether  daily  fresh  aspirants  to  the  holiness  or  ^^"^^^*- 
the  quietness  of  his  recluse  life.     In  a  short  time  arose 
in  the  poetic  district,  on  the  peaks  and  rent  clefts,  un- 
der the  oaks  and  chestnuts  round  Subiaco,  twelve  mon 
asteries,    each     containing    twelve  votaries    (Benedict 
considered  that  less  or  more  than  this  number  led  to 
negligence  or  to  discord).    The  names  of  many  of  these 
cloisters  designate  their  romantic  sites  ;    the  Monastery 
of  the    Cavern,  St.    Angelo  and    St.  Clement   by  the 
Lake,  St.  John  by  the  Stream,  St.  Victor  at  the  foot  of 
the  Mountain  ;  Eternal  Life,  or  the  Holy  Valley ;  and 
one  now  called  Santa  Scolastica,  rising  amid  embower- 
ing woods  on  a  far-seen  ridge  of  the  Apennines.     The 


28  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III, 

fame  of  tliese  institutions  soon  spread  to  Rome.  Some 
of  the  nobles  joined  the  young  fraternities,  others  sent 
their  sons  for  the  benefit  of  a  severe  and  rehgious  edu- 
cation ;  and  ah'eady  considerable  endowments  in  farms 
and  other  possessions  were  bestowed  by  the  piety  and 
gratitude  of  parents  or  admirers.  Maurus  (afterwai^ds 
St.  Maur)  was  one  of  these  young  nobles,  who  became 
before  long  the  friend,  assistant,  and  successor  of  Bene- 
dict. To  Maurus  was  soon  attributed  a  share  in  the 
miraculous  powers,  as  in  the  holiness  of  Benedict. 
Though  wells  of  waters  had  broken  out  at  the  prayer 
of  Benedict,  on  the  thirsty  sumuiits  of  the  rocks,  where 
the  hermitages  hung  aloft,  they  were  not  always  at  hand 
or  always  full.  A  noble  youth  of  fifteen,  Placidus,  in 
drawing  water  from  the  lake,  fell  in,  and  was  carried  by 
the  waves  far  from  the  shore.  Benedict  cried  to  Mau- 
rus to  assist.  Maurus  rushed  in,  and,  walking  on  the, 
water,  drew  out  the  fainting  youth  by  the  hair.  A 
contest  of  humility  began  :  Maurus  attributed  the  won- 
der to  the  holiness  of  his  master,  Benedict  to  the  de- 
votion of  Maurus.  It  was  decided  by  the  youth,  who 
declared  that  he  had  seen  the  sheepskin  cloak  of  Bene- 
dict hoverino;  over  him.  It  would  not  be  difiicult  to 
admit  all  the  facts  of  this  miracle,  which  might  be  easily 
accounted  for  by  the  excitement  of  all  parties. 

It  is  strange  to  see  the  blackest  crimes  constantly,  as 
ThcPriost  it  were,  in  collision  with  this  high-wrought 
Fiorentms.  l^oHuess.  Florcutius,  a  neighboring  priest, 
was  envious  of  the  holy  Benedict.  He  attempted  to 
j)()i3on  him  in  some  bread  which  he  sent  as  a  present.^ 

1  Compare  the  attempt,  of  the  ambitious  archdeacon  to  poison  the  aged 
Bishop  of  Canosa.  The  bishop  drank  the  cup,  liaving  made  the  sign  of 
the  cross,  and  the  archdeacon  fell  dead,  as  if  the  poison  had  found  its  wa^ 
t<   I  is  stomach  — Greg.  Dial.  iii.  5 


Chap.  VI.  THE  PRIEST  FLORENTIUS.  29 

Benedict  had  a  prescient  consciousness  of  the  treason  ; 
and  a  raven  at  his  command  flew  away  with  the  infect- 
ed food.  Florentius,  baflled  in  his  design  upon  the  hfe 
of  tlie  master,  plotted  against  the  souls  of  the  disciples. 
He  turned  seven  naked  girls  into  the  garden  of,  one  of 
the  monasteries.  Benedict  determined  to  withdraw 
from  the  dano-erous  neio;hborhood.  He  had  set  forlh 
on  his  journey  when  Maurus  hastily  overtook  him, 
and,  not  without  some  signs  of  joy,  communicated  the 
tidings  of  the  death  of  Florentius.  The  wicked  priest 
had  been  buried  in  the  ruins  of  his  chamber,  which 
had  fallen  in,  while  the  rest  of  the  house  remained 
standing.  Benedict  wept  over  the  fate  of  his  enemy, 
and  imposed  penance  on  his  disciple  for  his  unseemly 
and  unchristian  rejoicing  in  the  calamity  even  of  the 
wicked. 

Benedict  pursued  his  way  (as  the  more  poetic  legend 
added,  under  the  guidance  of  two  visible  angels)  to 
Monte  Casino,  about  fifty  miles  from  Subiaco.  On 
Monte  Casino  still  arose  a  temple  of  Apollo  amid  its 
sacred  grove  ;  and  in  the  midst,  as  it  were,  of  Chris- 
tianity, the  pagan  peasants  brought  their  oflPerings  to 
their  ancient  god.  But  there  was  no  human  resistance 
when  the  zealous  recluse  destroyed  the  profane  and 
stately  edifice,  broke  the  idol,  overturned  the  altar,  and 
cut  down  the  grove.  Unreluctant  the  people  received 
the  religion  of  Christ  from  the  eloquent  lips  of  Bene^ 
diet.  The  enemy  of  mankind  attempted  some  obstruc- 
tion to  the  building  of  the  church  devoted  to  St.  Mar- 
tin. The  obstinate  stones  would  not  move  but  at  the 
prayers  of  Benedict.  They  fell  and  crushed  the  build- 
ers, who  were  healed  by  his  intercession.  The  last 
stronghold  of  paganism  was  replaced  by  a  Benedictine 


80  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

monastery ;  and  here  arose  that  great  model  repubhc, 
which  ga.ve  its  laws  to  almost  the  whole  of  Western 
Monasticism.  If  we  might  imagine  the  pagan  deity  to 
have  ny  real  and  conscious  being,  and  to  represent  the 
Sun,  .  •  ;,;night  behold  the  monastic  form  of  Christianity, 
which  .«.  ^  on  the  ruins  of  his  ancient  worship,  almost 
as  univerally  spread  throughout  the  world,  as  of  old 
the  adoration  of  his  visible  majesty. 

Three  virtues  constituted  the  sum  of  the  Benedictine 
Rule  of  St.  discipline.  Silence  with  solitude  and  seclu- 
Benedict.  gion,  humility,  obedience,  which,  in  the  strong 
language  of  its  laws,  extended  to  impossibilities.  All 
is  thus  concentrated  on  self.  It  was  the  man  isolated 
from  his  kind  who  was  to  rise  to  a  lonely  perfection. 
All  the  social,  all  patriotic  virtues  were  excluded  :  the 
mere  mechanic  observance  of  the  rules  of  the  brother- 
hood, or  even  the  corporate  spirit,  are  hardly  worthy  of 
notice,  though  they  are  the  only  substitutes  for  the  re- 
jected and  proscribed  pursuits  of  active  life. 

The  three  occupations  of  life  were  the  worship  of 
God,  reading,  and  manual  labor.  The  adventitious 
advantages,  and  great  they  were,  of  these  industrious 
agricultural  settlements,  were  not  contem})lated  by  the 
founder  :  the  object  of  the  monks  w^as  not  to  make  the 
wilderness  blossom  with  fertility,  to  extend  the  arts  and 
husbandry  ot  civilized  life  into  barbarous  regions,  it 
was  solely  to  employ  in  engrossing  occupation  that 
portion  of  time  which  could  not  be  devoted  to  worslilp 
and  to  study.  ^ 

For  the  divme  service  the  monks  awoke  at  midnlglit; 
they  retired  again,  and  rose  after  a  brief  repose  for 
matins.     After    matins    they   did    ilot  return  to  their 

1  "  Cuivis  piae  mentis  agitalioni,"  says  Mabillon,  p.  52. 


Chap.  VI.  RULE  OF  BENEDICT.  31 

beds,  but  spent  the  time  in  reading,  meditation,  or  the 
singing  of  psalms.  From  prime  to  noon,  and  all  after 
the  brief  meal,  and  another  period  of  reading  or  medi- 
tation, was  devoted  to  labor.  At  particular  periods,  as 
at  harvest,  the  laboring  brothers  did  not  return  home  to 
their  religions  service ;  they  knelt  and  perfo  ai^d  it  in 
the  fields.  The  mass  was  not  celebrated  on  ordinary 
days,  only  on  Sundays  and  holidays. 

Abstinence  from  ilesh,  at  least  that  of  four-footed 
animals,  was  perpetual  and  universal ;  from  that  of 
fowls  was  prescribed  with  less  rigor.  The  usual  food 
was  vegetable  broth,  bread,  and  a  small  measure  of 
wine.  From  Easter  to  Pentecost  there  was  no  fast. 
From  Pentecost  to  the  ides  of  September,  fasts  on  two 
days  in  the  week ;  the  rest  of  the  year  to  Easter  per- 
petual fast,  with  one  evening  meal  of  eggs  or  fish. 
Lent  was  still  more  rigorously  enforced  by  abstinence 
not  from  food  only,  but  from  sleep  and  from  speech. 
The  punishment  of  delinquents  was  sequestration  from 
the  oratory,  the  table,  and  the  common  meetings  ;  the 
contumacious  and  incorrigible  were  expelled  from  the 
community.  The  monastery  contained  within  its  walls 
the  null,  the  bakehouse,  and  everything  necessary  for 
life.  It  was  strictly  forbidden  to  partake  of  food  with- 
out the  walls  ;  all  wandering  to  any  distance  was  prohib- 
ited ;  and  if  the  monk  was  obliged  to  be  absent  during 
the  whole  day,  he  was  enjoined  to  fast  rather  than  par- 
take of  food  abroad. 

So  were  self-doomed  to  live  the  monks  of  St.  Bene- 
dict ;  so  all  monks,  whose  number  is  incalculable,  for 
the  long  centuries  during  which  Latin  Christianity 
ruled  the  western  world.  The  two  sexes  were  not 
merely  to    be    strangers,    but    natural,    irreconcilable 


32  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

enemies.  This  strong  repulsion  was  carried  not  only 
into  their  judgments  upon  themselves,  but  into  their 
'udgments  of  those  who  were  yet  in  the  world  without. 
All  monks  inevitably  embraced,  with  the  most  extreme 
severity,  the  dominant  notion  of  the  absolute  sinfulness 
of  all  sexual  intercourse ;  at  least,  its  utter  incompati- 
bility with  religious  service.  A  noble  lady  is  possessed 
with  a  legion  of  devils,  for  compliance  with  her  hus- 
band, before  a  procession  in  honor  of  the  bones  of  St. 
Sebastian.  The  less  questionable  natural  affections 
were  proscribed  with  equal  severity.  Attachment  to 
the  order  was  to  be  the  one  absorbing  affection.  A 
boy  monk,  who  loved  his  parents  too  fondly  and  stole 
forth  to  visit  them,  was  not  merely  suddenly  struck 
with  death,  but  the  holy  earth  refused  to  retain  his 
body,  and  cast  it  forth  with  indignation.  It  was  only 
by  the  influence  of  Benedict,  who  commanded  the  Holy 
Eucharist  to  be  placed  upon  the  body,  that  it  was  per- 
mitted to  repose  in  the  grave.  ^ 

But  the  later  days  of  Benedict,  at  Monte  Casino, 
though  adorned  with  perpetual  miracle,  did  not  seclude 
him  or  his  peaceful  votaries  from  the  disastrous  times 
Ravages  in  wliich  Overwhelmed  Italy  during  the  fall  of 
Italy.  ^i^g  Gothic  monarchy  and  the  reconquest  by 

the  Eastern  Emperor.  War  respected  not  these  holy 
sanctuaries  ;  and  in  prophetic  vision  Benedict  saw  his 

1  Gregor.  Dial.  i.  10.  There  is  another  strange  story  of  tlie  power  of 
Benedict:  he  had  exconiniunicated  certain  nuns  for  the  unbridled  use  of 
their  tongues.  .iThey  were  buried,  however,  in  the  church.  But  when  the 
sacrament  Y;}'-r^ J ;xt  administered,  at  the  voice  of  the  deacon,  commanding 
all  who  did  noi,  .  ,  niuuicate  to  depart,  the  bodies  rose  from  their  graves 
and  walked  out  of  the  church.  This  was  seen  by  their  nurse,  Avho  com- 
municated tiie  fact  to  Benedict.  The  pitying  saint  commanded  an  oblation 
to  be  made  for  them,  and  ever  after  they  rested  ([uietly  in  their  graves.  — 
Greg  Dial.  ii.  23. 


Chap.  VI.  TOTILA  —  MONTE  CASINO.  83 

establisliment  laid  waste,  and  all  its  lofty  buildings  in 
ruins  before  the  ravages  of  the  spoiler.  He  was  con- 
soled, however,  it  is  added,  by  visions  of  the  extension 
of  his  rule  throughout  Europe,  and  the  rise  of  flourish- 
ing Benedictine  monasteries  in  every  part  of  the  West. 
Nor  were  the  virtues  of  Benedict  without  influence  in 
assuaoinor  the  horrors  of  the  war.     Totila  himself,  the 

or?  ' 

last  and  not  least  noble  Gothic  sovereign,  came  to  con- 
sult the  prophetic  saint  of  Monte  Casino  as  an  oracle. 
He  attempted  to  practise  a  deception  upon  him,  by 
dressing  one  of  his  chieftains  in  the  royal  attire.  Ben- 
edict at  once  detected  the  fraud,  and  Riggo,  the  chief- 
tain, returned  to  his  master,  deeply  impressed  with  awe 
at  the  supernatural  knowledge  of  the  saint.  Totiia. 
Totila  himself,  it  is  said,  fell  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  Ben 
edict,  who  raised  him  up,  solemnly  rebuked  his  cruelties, 
foretold  his  conquest  of  Rome,  his  passage  of  the  sea,  his 
reign  of  nine  years,  his  death  during  the  tenth.  The 
greater  humanity  with  which  Totila  fi-om  this  time 
conducted  the  war,  his  severity  against  his  soldiers  for 
the  violation  of  female  chastity,  the  virtues,  in  short,  of 
this  gallant  warrior,  are  attributed  to  this  interview  with 
Benedict.  Considering  the  uncertainty  of  the  date 
assigned  to  this  event,  it  is  impossible  to  estimate  how 
far  the  fierce  warrior  was  already  under  the  control  of 
those  Christian  feehngs  which  led  him  to  seek  the  soli- 
tude of  the  saint,  or  was  really  awe-struck  into  more 
thoughtful  religiousness  by  these  prophetic  admonitions.^ 

1  There  are  several  other  anecdotes  of  Totila  iu  the  Dir'  ^gues  of  Gregor\ 
He  went  to  consult  the  Bishop  of  Canosa,  as  a  prophet  •    J  to  deceive 

him.  See  likewise  the  odd  story  of  Cassius,  Bishop  o.  xVarni,  whom  Totila, 
from  his  red  nose,  unjustly  suspected  of  drunkenness.  In  several  other  in- 
stances Totila  was  compelled  to  reverence  the  sanctity  of  bishops,  whom  he 
bad  begun  to  persecute.  —  c.  x.  and  xl. 

VOL.   II.  3 


34  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

Benedict  did  not  live  to  witness  the  ruin  of  Monte 
Bt.  Scoiastica.  Casino  ;  his  sister,  St.  Scolastica,  preceded 
him  in  her  death  but  a  few  days.  There  is  something 
striking  in  the  attachment  of  the  brother  and  sister,  the 
human  affection  struggling  with  the  hard  spirit  of 
monasticism.  St.  Scolastica  was  a  female  Benedict. 
Equally  devout,  equally  powerful  in  attracting  and 
ruling  the  minds  of  recluses  of  her  own  sex,  the  remote 
foundress  of  convents  almost  as  numerous  as  those  of 
her  brother's  rule.  With  the  most  perfect  harmony  of 
disposition,  one  in  holiness,  one  in  devotion,  they  were 
of  different  sexes,  and  met  but  once  a  year.  The  fem- 
inine weakness  of  the  dying  Scolastica  for  once  extorted 
an  unwilling  breach  of  his  rule  from  her  severer  broth- 
er. ^  He  had  come  to  visit  her,  probably  for  the  last 
time  ;  she  entreated  him  to  rest  for  the  nio;ht  in  her 
convent ;  but  Benedict  had  never,  so  spake  his  own 
laws,  passed  a  night  out  of  his  own  monastery.  But 
Heaven  was  more  indulgent  than  the  monk.  Scolastica 
reclined  her  head  in  profound  prayer.  Suddenly  the 
serene  sky  was  overcast,  lightnings  and  thunders  flashed 
and  roared  around,  the  rain  fell  in  torrents.  ''  The 
Lord  have  mercy  upon  you,  my  sister !  "  said  Benedict  ; 
"  what  have  you  done  ?  "  "  You,"  she  replied,  "have 
rejected  my  prayers  ;  but  the  Lord  hath  not.  Go  now, 
if  you  can."  They  passed  the  night  in  devout  spiritual 
exercises.  Three  days  after  Benedict  saw  the  soul  of 
liis  sister  soaring  to  heaven  in  the  shape  of  a  dove. 
Only  a  short  time  elapsed,  and  Benedict  was  seized 
with  a  mortal  sickness.  Six  days  before  his  death  he 
onh^red  his  grave  to  be  opened,  and  at  the  end  breath- 
ed his  last  in  prayer.      His  death  was  not  without  itn 

1  (ire;^.  Dial.  2,  xxxiii 


Chap.  VI.  BENEDICTINE  MONASTERIES.  35 

proplietic  announcements.  It  was  revealed  to  a  monk 
in  his  cell  at  Monte  Casino,  and  to  his  chosen  disciple, 
St.  Maurus,  who  had  already  left  Italy  to  establish  the 
rule  of  his  master  in  the  monasteries  of  Gaul.  In  a 
convent  near  Auxerre,  Maurus  was  wrapt  in  spirit, 
and  beheld  a  way  strewn  with  garments  and  hghted 
with  lamps,  which  led  direct  from  the  cell  of  Benedict 
to  heaven.  "  May  God  enable  us  to  follow  our  master 
along  this  heavenward  way."  Benedict  was  buried 
in  the  oratory  of  John  the  Baptist,  which  stood  upon 
the  site  of  the  sanctuary  of  Apollo. 

The  vision  of  St.  Benedict  of  the  universal  diffusion 
of  his  order  was  accomplished  with  a'rapidity  wonder- 
ftil  even  in  those  times.  In  Italy,  from  Calabria  to 
the  Alps,  Benedictine  monasteries  began  to  rise  on 
the  brows  of  beetling  mountains,  sometimes  in  quiet 
valleys.  Their  buildings  gradually  grew  in  spacious- 
ness and  splendor  ;  ^  nor  did  they  absolutely  abandon 
the  cities,  as  dangerous  to  themselves  or  beyond  tlie 
sphere  of  their  exemplary  rigor.  Few,  if  any  of  the 
great  towns  are  without  their  Benedictine  convent. 
Every  monastery  sent  forth  its  colonies.  The  monks 
seemed  to  midtiply  with  greater  fecundity  than  the 
population  of  the  most  flourishing  cities,  and  were 
obliged  to  throw  off  their  redundant  brethren  to  some 
new  settlement.  They  swarmed,  according  to  their 
language,  like    bees.^     Wherever   was   the   abode   of 

1  It  did  not  often  happen  that  a  monastery,  ashamed  of  its  mag:nificence, 
like  one  built  by  the  desire,  but  not  according  to  the  modest  notions,  of  St. 
Waltruda,  fell  of  its  own  accord,  and  gave  place  to  a  humbler  edifice.  — 
Mabillon,  Ann.  i.  p.  405. 

2  "Tanquam  apes  ex  coenobiali  alveario  de  more  egressi,  nova  monastfria, 
sive  dicas  cellas,  construere  amabant." — Note  of  Angelo  della  Noce,  Abljut 
of  Monte  Casino,  on  the  Chron.  Casinen. 


:^6  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

men  was  the  abode  of  these  recluses,  who  had  put  off 
the  ordinary  liabits,  attire,  occupations  of  men  ;  wher- 
ever they  settled  in  the  waste  wilderness  men  gathered 
around  them,  as  if  to  partake  of  their  sanctity  and 
security.^  Maurus,  the  faithful  friend  and  associate 
of  Benedict,  had  crossed  the  Alps  even  before  his 
death.  Bishop  Innocent,  of  Le  Mans,  who  had  in- 
vited him  to  Gaul,  had  died  before  his  arrival ;  but  he 
was  hospitably  received  in  Orleans.  The  first  Bene- 
dictine monastery  in  France  rose  at  Glanfeuille,  on  the 
Loire,  not  far  from  Angers  ;  it  was  but  the  first  of 
many  rich  and  noble  foundations  —  foundations  which, 
as  they  grew  in  wealth  and  splendor,  and,  in  conse- 
({uence,  in  luxury  and  ease,  were  either  themselves 
brought  back  by  some  stern  reformer,  who  wrought 
them  up  to  their  old  austere  disciphne,  or  rivalled  and 
supplanted  by  new  monasteries,  which  equalled  or  sur- 
passed the  rigor  of  Benedict  himself.^  The  name  of 
St.  Maur  is  dear  to  letters.  Should  his  disciples  have 
in  some  degree  departed  from  the  iron  rule  of  their 
founder,  the  world,  even  the  enlightened  Christian 
world,  will  pardon  them  if  their  profound  and  useful 
studies   have   withdrawn   them   from  mechanical  and 

1  The  Benedictine  nxle  was  universally  received  even  in  the  older  monas- 
teries of  Gaul,  Britain,  Spain,  and  throughout  the  West;  not  as  that  of 
a  rival  order  (all  rivalrv'  was  of  later  date),  hut  as  a  more  full  and  perfect 
rule  of  the  monastic  life;  as  simply  completing  the  less  consummate  work 
of  Cassian,  Martin  of  Tours,  or  Columhan.  It  gave,  therefore,  not  only  a 
new  impulse  to  monasticism,  as  founding  new  monasteries,  but  as  quick- 
ening the  older  ones  into  new  life  and  energy. 

2  Noirmoutier,  founded  by  St.  Meudon,  accepted  the  rule  of  St.  Benedict, 
and  became  the  head  of  the  Benedictine  order  in  France;  other  great  mon- 
asteries were  St.  Benigiius  at  Dijon;  St.  Dcnys;  the  (^haisi;  Dieu.  near  Puy 
de  Velay;  Fleury,  near  the  Loire.  In  England,  Canterbury,  Westminster 
Glastonbury,  St.  Albans.  In  the  north,  Wearmouth,  Yarrow,  Liudisfanu 
—  Ilelyot. 


CHAr.  VI.        RULE  OF  BENEDICT  IN  ENGLAND.  37 

automatic  acts  of  devotion.  In  Spain  tlie  monaster- 
ies mostly  fell  in  the  general  wreck  of  Christianity 
on  the  Mahommedan  conquest ;  few  scanty  and  doubt- 
ful records  survived,  to  be  gleaned  by  the  industry  of 
their  successors,  as  Christianity  slowly  won  back  the 
land.i 

With  St.  Augustine  the  rule  of  St.  Benedict  passed 
to  England ;  but  there  it  might  seem  as  if  the  realm, 
instead  of  banishing  them,  or  permitting  their  self- 
banishment,  to  the  wild  heath  or  the  mountain  crest, 
had  chosen  for  them,  or  allowed  them  to  choose,  the 
fairest  spots  in  the  land  for  their  settlements.  In  every 
rich  valley,  by  the  side  of  every  clear  and  deep  stream, 
arose  a  Benedictine  abbey.  The  labors  of  the  monks 
in  planting,  in  cultivation,  in  laying  out  the  sunny  gar- 
den, or  hanging  the  hill  with  trees,  may  have  added 
much  to  the  picturesque  gi'ace  of  these  scenes ;  but, 
in  general,  if  a  district  in  England  be  surveyed,  the 
most  convenient,  most  fertile,  most  peaceful  spot,  will 
be  found  to  have  been  the  site  of  a  Benedictine 
abbey. 

Their  numbers  at  any  one  time  it  may  be  difficult  to 
estimate.^  Abbeys  rose  and  fell,  like  other  human 
institutions ;  the  more  favored,  however,  handed  down 
the  sacred  tradition  of  their  foundation,  of  their  endow- 
ments, of  their  saints,  of  their  miracles,  of  their  good 
deeds  to   civilization,  till  the  final  wreck  of  monastic 

1  Flores,  Espafia  Sagrada,  passim.  This  valuable  work  gives  the  relig- 
oiis  history  of  Spain,  according  to  its  provinces,  so  that  the  annals  of  each 

church  or  abbey  must  be  followed  out. 

2  Mabillon^  Ann.  Ordin.  Benedict,  passim.  The  number  of  great  monas- 
teries founded  in  Italy,  Rhenane  Germany,  and  France,  between  520  and 
TOO,  is  astonishing.  There  are  some  after  the  conversion  oi  Recared, 
Toledo,  Merida,  &c.,  in  Spain. 


3y  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

institutions  during  the  last  century;  and  even  fi'om  that 
wreck  a  few  have  survived,  or  lifted  up  again  their 
venerable  heads. ^ 

1  Sarpi  (p.  78,  delle  Mater  Benefic.)  quotes  the  Abbot  Trithemius  as 
oscerting  tha*  in  his  day  there  were  15,000  Benedictine  convents. 


Chap.  YII.  GREGORY  THE  GREAT. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

GREGORY  THE  GREAT. 

The  sixth  century  of  Christianity  was  drawing  tow- 
ards its  close.  Anarchy  threatened  the  whole  ^lose  of  sixth 
West  of  Europe ;  it  had  already  almost  en-  ^^^'"'^y- 
veloped  Italy  in  ruin  and  desolation.  Italy  had  been 
a  Gothic  kingdom,  it  was  now  a  province  of  the  Eastern 
Empire.  Rome  had  been  a  provincial  city  of  Theodo- 
ric's  kingdom,  it  was  now  a  provincial,  at  least  only 
the  second,  city  in  the  monarchy  of  Justinian.  But 
the  Byzantine  government,  though  it  had  overtlu-own 
the  Gothic  kingdom,  had  exhausted  itself  in  the  strife. 
The  eunuch  Narses  had  drained  by  his  avarice  that 
wealth  which  had  begun  to  recover  under  the  vigor  of 
his  peaceful  administration.  But  Narses,  according  to 
the  popular  belief,  had  revenged  himself  upon  the 
groaning  province,  which  had  appealed  to  Constantino- 
]:»]e  against  his  oppressive  rule,  and  upon  the  jealous 
Emperor  who  had  feared  his  greatness.  He  had  sum- 
moned the  Lombards  to  cross  the  Alps.  The  Lombard 
death  of  Narses  had  left  his  successor,  the  i^^^^Jo'i- 
Exarch  of  Ravenna,  only  the  dignity  of  a  sovereignty 
which  he  was  too  weak  to  exercise  for  any  useful  pur- 
pose of  government.  Already  the  Lombards  occupied 
great  part  of  the  north  of  Italy,  and  were  extending 
their  desolating  inroads  towards  the  south.     The  ter- 


40  LATIN    CHEISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

rors  of  the  defenceless  province  cowered  before,  no 
doubt  exaggerated,  the  barbarity  of  these  new  invaders. 
The  CathoUcs  and  the  Romans  liad  leagued  with  the 
East  to  throw  off  the  Gothic  yoke  ;  they  were  not  even 
to  rest  under  the  more  oppressive  rule  of  their  new 
jnasters ;  they  were  to  be  the  prey,  the  victims,  the 
slaves  of  a  new  race  of  barbarians.  The  Goths  had 
been  to  a  great  degree  civilized  and  Romanized  before 
their  conquest  of  Italy ;  their  enlightened  rulers  had 
endeavored  to  subdue  them  to  the  arts  of  peace,  at 
least  to  a  less  destructive  system  of  warfare.  The 
Lombards  were  still  obstinate  barbarians ;  the  Chris- 
tianity which  they  had  partially  embraced  was  Arian- 
ism  ;  and  it  had  in  no  degree,  if  justly  described, 
mitigated  the  ferocity  of  their  manners.  They  had 
no  awe  of  religious  men,  no  reverence  for  religious 
places  ;  they  burned  churches,  laid  waste  monasteries, 
slew  ecclesiastics,  and  violated  consecrated  virgins  with 
no  more  dread  or  remorse  than  ordinary  buildings  or 
profane  enemies.^  So  profound  was  the  terror  of  the 
Lombard  invasion,  that  the  despairing  Italians,  even 
the  highest  ecclesiastics,  beheld  it  as  an  undoubted  sign 
of  the  coming  day  of  judgment.  The  gi'cat  writer  of 
the  times  describes  the  depopulated  cities,  the  ruined 
castles,  the  churches  burned,  the  monasteries  of  males 
and  female's  destroyed,  the  farms  wasted  and  left  with- 
out cultivation,  the  whole  land  a  solitude,  and  wild 
beasts  wandering  over  fields  once  occupied  by  multi- 
tudes of  human  beings.  He  draws  the  inevitable  con- 
clusion :  "  what  is  happening  in  other  parts  of  tlie 
world  we  know  not,  but  in  this  the  end  of  all  things 
not  merely  announces  itself  as  approaching,  but  shows 

1  On  the  ravages  in  Italy  by  thcye  couiiicts,  Greg.  Epist.  v.  21,  xiii.  38. 


Chap.  VII.      EFFECTS   OF  BYZANTINE   CONQUEST.  41 

itself  as  actually  begun."  ^  This  terror  of  the  Lom- 
bards seemed  to  survive  and  to  settle  down  into  an 
unmitigated  detestation.  Throughout  the  legends  of 
the  piety  and  the  miracles  wrought  by  bishops  and 
monks  in  every  part  of  Italy,  the  most  cruel  and  re- 
morseless persecutor  is  always  a  Lombard.^  And  this 
liatred  was  not  in  the  least  softened  when  the  popes, 
rising  to  greater  power,  became  to  a  certain  extent  the 
defenders  of  Italy :  it  led  them  joyfully  to  hail  the 
appearance  of  the  more  warlike  and  orthodox  Franks, 
whom  first  the  Emperor  Maurice,  and  afterwards  the 
popes,  summoned  finally  to  crush  the  sinking  kingdom 
of  the  Lombards.  The  internecine  and  inextinguisha- 
ble hatred  of  the  Church,  and  probably  of  the  Roman 
])rovincials,  to  the  Lombards,  had  many  powerful 
workings  on  the  fortunes  of  Italy  and  of  the  popedom. 
The  Byzantine  conquest  had  not  only  crushed  the 
independence  of  reviving  Italy,  prevented  the  quiet 
infusion  of  Gothic  blood  and  of  Gothic  institutions  into 
the  frame  of  society  ;  it  had  almost  succeeded  in  tram- 
pling down  the  ecclesiastical  dignity  of  Rome.  There 
are  few  popes  whose  reigns  have  been  so  inglorious  as 
those  of  the  immediate  successors  of  that  unhappy  Vi- 
gilius,  who  closed  his  disastrous  and  dishonorable  life 
at  a  distance  from  his  see,  Pelagius  I.,  Benedict  L, 
Pelagius  11.  They  rose  at  the  command,  must  obse- 
quiously obey  the  mandates,  not  of  the  Emperor,  but 
of  the  Emperor's  representative,  the  Exarch   of  Ra- 

"Finem  suum  mundus  jam  non  nunciat,  sed  osteudit."  —  Greg.  Mag. 
Dial.  iii.  sub  fine:  compare  ii.  29,  vii.  ii.  192.  Gregory  was  fully  persuaded 
of  the  approaching  Da  y  of  Judgment.  The  world  gave  manifest  signs  of 
its  old  age.  —  Horn.  v.  on  Matt.  c.  10. 

2  See  the  Dialogues  of  Gregorj^,  passim,  and  frequent  notices  in   the 
Epistles 


42  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

venna.  They  must  endure,  even  if  under  solemn  but 
A  D  553.  unregarded  protests,  the  pretensions  of  the 
to  560.  bishop  of  the  Emperor's  capital,  to  equality, 

perhaps  to  superiority.  Western  bishops  seem  to  take 
advantage  of  their  weakness,  and  supported,  as  they 
expect  to  be,  by  Imperial  Constantinople,  defy  their 
patriarch. 

Times  of  emergency  call  forth  great  men  —  men  at 
least,  if  not  great  in  relation  to  the  true  intellectual, 
moral,  and  spiritual  dignity  of  man,  great  in  relation  to 
the  state  and  to  the  necessities  of  their  age ;  engrossed 
by  the  powerful  and  dominant  principles  of  their  time, 
and  bringing  to  the  advancement  of  those  principles 
surpassing  energies  of  character,  inflexible  resolution, 
the  full  conviction  of  the  wisdom,  justice,  and  holiness 
of  their  cause,  in  religious  affairs  of  the  direct  and  un- 
deniable sanction  of  God.  Such  was  Gregory  I.,  to 
whom  his  own  age  and  posterity  have  assigned  the 
appellation  of  the  Great. 

Now  Avas  the  crisis  in  which  the  Papacy  must  re- 
awaken its  obscured  and  suspended  life.  It  was  the 
only  power  which  lay  not  entirely  and  absolutely  pros- 
trate before  the  disasters  of  the  times  —  a  power  which 
had  an  inherent  strength,  and  might  resume  its  maj- 
esty. It  was  this  power  which  was  most  imperatively 
required  to  preserve  all  which  was  to  survive  out  of 
the  crumbling  wreck  of  Roman  civilization.  To 
Western  Christianity  was  absolutely  necessary  a  cen- 
tre, standing  alone,  strong  in  traditionary  reverence, 
and  in  acknowledged  claims  to  supremacy.  Even  the 
perfect  organization  of  the  Christian  hierarchy  might 
in  all  human  probability  have  fallen  to  pieces  in  per- 
petual conflict :  it  might  have  degenerated  into  a  half 


CiiAP.  VII.      PAl'ACY   THE   LIFE  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  43 

secular  feudal  caste  with  hereditary  benefices,  more  and 
more  entirely  subservient  to  the  civil  authority,  a  priest- 
hood of  each  nation  or  each  tribe,  gradually  sinking  to 
the  intellectual  or  religious  level  of  the  nation  or  tribe. 
On  the  rise  of  a  power  both  controlling  and  conserva- 
tive, hung,  humanly  speaking,  the  life  and  death  of 
Christianity  —  of  Christianity  as  a  permanent,  aggres- 
sive, expansive,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  uniform  sys- 
tem. There  must  be  a  counterbalance  to  barbaric 
force,  to  the  unavoidable  anarchy  of  Teutonism,  with 
its  tribal,  or  at  the  utmost  national  independence,  form- 
ing a  host  of  small,  conflicting,  antagonistic  kingdoms. 
All  Europe  would  have  been  what  England  was  under 
the  Octarchy,  what  Germany  was  when  her  emperors 
were  weak  ;  and  even  her  emperors  she  owed  to  Rome, 
to  the  Church,  to  Christianity.  Providence  might 
have  otherwise  ordained,  but  it  is  impossible  for  man 
to  imagine  by  what  other  organizing  or  consolidating 
force  the  commouAvealth  of  the  Western  nations  could 
liave  grown  up  to  a  discordant,  indeed,  and  conflicting 
league,  but  still  to  a  league,  with  that  unity  and  con- 
formity of  manners,  usages,  laws,  religion,  which  have 
made  their  rivalries,  oppugnancies,  and  even  their  long 
ceaseless  wars,  on  the  whole  to  issue  in  the  noblest, 
highest,  most  intellectual  form  of  civilization  known 
to  man.  It  is  inconceivable  that  Teutonic  Europe, 
or  Europe  so  deeply  interpenetrated  with  Teutonism, 
could  have  been  condensed  or  compelled  into  a  vast 
Asiatic  despotism,  or  succession  of  despotisms.  Im- 
mense and  interminable  as  have  been  the  evils  and 
miseries  of  the  conflict  between  the  southern  and  north- 
ern, the  Teutonic  and  Roman,  the  hierarchical  and 
civil  elements  of  our  social  system ;  yet  out  of  these 


44  LATIX    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

conflicts  lias  at  length  arisen  tlie  balance  and  harmony 
of  the  great  states  which  constitute  European  Christen- 
dom, and  are  now  peopling  other  continents  with  kin- 
dred and  derivative  institutions.  It  is  impossible  to 
conceive  what  had  been  the  confusion,  the  lawlessness, 
the  chaotic  state  of  the  middle  ages,  without  the  me- 
dia3val  Papacy  ;  and  of  the  mediaeval  Papacy  the  real 
father  is  Gregory  the  Great.  In  all  his  predecessors 
there  was  much  of  the  uncertainty  and  indefiniteness 
of  a  new  dominion.  Christianity  had  converted  the 
Western  world  —  it  had  by  this  time  transmuted  it :  in 
all  except  the  Roman  law,  it  was  one  with  it.  Even 
Leo  the  Great  had  something  of  the  Roman  dictator. 
Gregory  is  the  Roman  altogether  merged  in  the  Chris- 
tian bishop.  It  is  a  Christian  dominion,  of  which  he 
lays  the  foundations  in  the  Eternal  City,  not  the  old 
Rome  associating  Christian  influence  to  her  ancient 
title  of  sovereignty. 

Gregory  united  in  himself  every  qualification  and 
Birth  and  endowment  which  could  command  the  vener- 
Gregory.  atlou  and  attachment  of  Rome  and.  of  his 
age.^  In  his  descent  he  blended  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
nobility.  He  was  of  a  senatorial  family ;  his  father 
bore  the  imperial  name  of  Gordian,  his  mother  that  of 
Sylvia.  A  pope  (Felix  II.)  was  his  ancestor  in  the 
iburth  degree  —  the  pope  who  had  built  the  church  of 
Sts.  Cosmos  and  Damianus,  close  to  the  temple  of 
Romulus.  Two  sainted  virgins,  Thlrsilla  and  Sylvia, 
were  his  aunts.  To  his  noble  descent  was  added  con- 
siderable wealth ;  and  all  that  wealth,  directly  he  be- 

1  Homil.  38,  in  Evang.  Dialog.  Epist.  iv.  16;  Joh.  Diac.  in  Vit.  Tlw 
date  of  his  birth  is  uncertain;  it  was  about  the  year  5-tO  —  Lau,  Gregor.  J 
der  Crcsbc,  page  10. 


Chap.  VII.      BIRTH  AND  DESCENT   OF  GREGORY.  45 

come  master  of  it  by  tlie  deatli  of  liis  father,  was  at 
once  devoted  to  religious  uses.  He  founded  and  en- 
dowed, perliaps  from  Sicilian  estates,  six  monasteries  in 
that  island ;  a  seventh,  in  Rome,  he  chose  for  his  own 
retreat ;  and  having  lavished  on  the  poor  all  his  costly 
robes,  his  silk,  his  gold,  his  jewels,  his  furniture,  he 
violently  wrenched  himself  from  the  secular  life  (in 
which  he  had  already  attained  to  the  dignity  of  prastor 
of  the  city  ^),  and  not  even  assuming  the  abbacy  of 
his  convent,  but  beginning  with  the  lowest  monastic 
duties,  he  devoted  himself  altogether  to  God.^  His 
whole  time  was  passed  in  prayer,  reading,  writing,  and 
dictation.'^  The  fame  of  his  unprecedented  abstinence 
and  boundless  charity  spread  abroad,  and,  as  usual,  took 
the  form  of  miracle.  He  had  so  destroyed  his  health 
by  fasting,  vigil,  and  study,  that  his  brethren  were 
obliged  to  feed  him  by  compulsion.  His  life  hung  on 
a  thread,  and  he  feared  that  he  should  not  have 
strength  to  observe  the  indispensable  fast  even  on  Good 
Friday.  By  the  prayers  of  the  holy  Eleutherius  his 
stomach  was  endowed  with  supernatural  strength,  and 
never  after  (he  had  manifestly,  however,  undermined 
his  constitution)  refused  the  sacred  duty  of  abstinence.^ 
His  charity  was  tned  by  an  angel  in  the  garb  of  a  shij)- 
wrecked  sailor,  whose  successive  visits  exhausted  all  he 

1  He  describes  his  secular  state,  Praefat.  ad  Job.  "  Diu  longeque  con- 
veTsionis  gratiani  distuli,  et  postquam  coelesti  sum  desiderio  afFectus,  secu- 
lari  liabitu  contegi  melius  putavi  ....  Cumque  adhuc  me  cogeret  animus 
prsesenti  mundo  quasi  specie  tenus  deservire,  coeperunt  multa  contra  me  ex 
ejusdem  mundi  cura  succrescere,  ut  in  eo  jam  non  specie,  sed  quod  est 
gravius,  meute  retinerer." 

2  The  date  of  Gregory's  monkhood  is  again  uncertain  —  probably  not 
earlier  than  573,  nor  later  than  577.  —  Lau,  p.  21. 

3  Greg.  Tur.  x.  1.  According  to  Jafft;,  the  Register  of  Gregory's  Letters 
not  only  marks  the  year  (the  indiction),  but  the  month  of  their  date. 

4  Dial.  iii.  13 ;  Jok  Diac.  i.  p.  9. 


46  LATIN   CHPJSTIANITY.  Book  III. 

nad,  except  a  silver  vessel  set  apart  for  the  use  of  his 
mother.  This  too  he  gave,  and  the  satisfied  angel  at 
tength  revealed  himself.^  The  monastery  of  St.  An- 
drew was  a  perpetual  scene  of  preternatural  wonder. 
Fugitive  monks  were  seized  upon  by  devils,  who  con- 
fessed their  power  to  Gregory ;  others  were  favored 
with  visits  of  angels  summoning  them  to  peace ;  and 
one  brother,  whose  whole  life,  excepting  the  intervals 
of  food  and  sleep,  was  spent  in  psalmody,  was  not 
merely  crowned  by  invisible  hands  with  white  flowers, 
but  fourteen  years  after,  a  fragrance,  as  of  the  concen- 
trated sweetness  of  all  flowers,  breathed  from  his  tomb. 
Such  was  the  poetry  of  those  days. 

Gregory  became  abbot  ;2  and  that  severe  discipline 
«regory  whicli  he  had  imposed  upon  him.self,  he  en- 
Abbot,  forced  with  relentlessness,  which  hardened 
into  cruelty,  upon  others.  Many  were  tempted  to  em- 
brace the  monastic  life  who  had  not  resolution  to  adhere 
to  it,  who  found  no  consolation  in  its  peace,  and  grew 
weary  of  its  monotonous  devotion.  Fugitive  monks 
were  constantly  revolting  back  to  the  world  which  they 
had  forsaken  :  on  these  Gregory  had  no  mercy.  On 
the  more  faithful  he  exercised  a  tyranny  of  discipline 
which  crushed  out  of  the  heart  not  only  every  lingering 
attachment  to  the  world,  but  every  sense  and  pulsation 
of  humanity.  The  most  singular  history  of  this  disci- 
pline, combining  ingratitude  and  cruelty  under  the 
guise  of  duty,  with  a  strange  confidence  in  his  own 
powers  of  appeasing  the  divine  wrath,  and  in  the  influ- 

1  See  Prajf.  ad  Dial.,  a  pleasing  passage,  in  which,  oppressed  bj  the 
cares  and  troubles  of  the  papacy,  he  looks  back  on  the  quiet  of  his  mon- 
astery. 

2  Lau  insists,  I  think  on  unsatisfactory  grounds,  that  he  was  abbot  only 
after  his  return  from  Constantinople.  -    d.  37. 


Chap.  VII.  GREGORY  ABBOT.  47 

ence  of  the  eucliaristic  sacrifice,  is  the  death  of  Justus, 
related  by  Gregory  himself.  Before  he  became  a 
monk,  Justus  had  practised  physic.  During  the  long 
illness  of  Gregory,  Justus,  now  a  monk,  had  attended 
him  day  and  night  with  affectionate  care  and  skill. 
On  his  own  death-bed  Justus  betrayed  to  his  brother 
that  he  possessed  three  pieces  of  gold.  This  was  in 
direct  violation  of  that  law  as  to  community  of  proj> 
erty  established  in  the  monastery.  After  long  search 
the  guilty  money  was  found  concealed  in  some  medi- 
cine. Gregory  determined  to  strike  the  offender  with 
a  due  sense  of  his  crime,  and  to  awe  the  brotherhood 
by  the  terror  of  his  example.  He  prohibited  every 
one  from  approacliing  the  bed  of  the  dying  man,  the 
new  Simon  Magus.  No  word  of  consolation  or  of 
hope  was  to  soothe  his  departure.  His  brother  alone 
might  approach  to  tell  him  that  he  died  detested  by  all 
the  community.  Nor  did  the  inhuman  disciplinarian 
rest  here.  The  body  was  cast  out  upon  the  dunghill, 
with  the  three  pieces  of  gold,  the  whole  convent  shout- 
ing aloud,  "  Thy  money  perish  with  thee ! "  After 
thirty  days  of  fiery  burnings,  the  inevitable  fate  of  an 
unabsolved  outlaw,  the  heart  of  Gregory  began  to  relent. 
He  permitted  the  mass  to  be  celebrated  for  the  afflicted 
soul.  The  sacrifice  was  offered  for  thirty  days  more, 
at  the  end  of  which  the  spirit  of  Justus  appeared  to  his 
brother,  and  assured  him  of  his  release  from  penal  tor- 
ture.^ 

But  a  mind  of  such  force  and  ability  as  Gregr^ry's 
could  not  be  permitted  to  slumber  in  the  holy  quiet  of 

1  "  Mira  sunt  quae  uarras  et  non  mediocriter  la;ta."  Such,  at  the  close  of 
this  story,  is  the  q  \aint  language  of  Gregory's  obsequious  hearer.  Greg 
Mag.  Dial.  i\-.  55 


48  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

a  monastery.  He  himself  began  to  comprehend  tliat 
there  were  higher  rehgious  avocations  and  nobler  ser- 
vices to  God.  He  was  still  a  monk  of  St.  Andrew 
when  that  incident  took  place  which,  by  the  divine 
blessing,  led  to  the  conversion  of  our  Saxon  ancestors. 
The  tale,  though  often  repeated,  is  too  pleasing  not  to 
find  a  place  here.  In  the  market-place  of  Rome 
Gregory  saw  some  beautiful  and  fair-haired  boys  ex- 
posed for  sale.  He  inquired  from  whence  they  came. 
"  From  Britain."  "  Are  they  Christians  ?  "  "  They 
are  still  pagans."  "  Alas !  that  the  Prince  of  Dark- 
ness should  possess  forms  of  such  loveliness  !  That 
such  beauty  of  countenance  should  want  that  better 
beauty  of  the  soul !  "  He  asked  of  what  nation  they 
were.  "  Angles  "  was  the  reply.  "  Truly,"  he  said 
"  they  are  angels  !  From  what  province  ?  "  "  That  of 
Deira.^'  "  Truly  they  must  be  rescued  de  ird  (from 
the  wrath  of  God).  What  is  the  name  of  their  king  ?  " 
"  ^lla.*'  "  Yea,"  said  Gregory,  "  Alleluia  must  be 
suno;  in  the  dominions  of  that  kino;."  To  be  the  first 
Gregory  missionary  to  this  beautiful  people,  and  win 
convert*^  this  rcmotc  and  barbarous  island,  like  a  Chris- 
Brituin.  ^j^j^  Caesar,  to  the  realm  of  Christ,  became 
the  holy  ambition  of  Gregory.  His  long-suppressed 
humanity  burst  forth  in  this  new  channel.  He  ex- 
torted the  unwilling  consent  of  the  Pope :  he  had 
actually  set  forth,  and  travelled  three  days'  journey, 
when  he  was  overtaken  by  messengers  sent  to  recall 
him.  All  Rome  had  risen  in  pious  mutiny,  and  com- 
pelled the  Po})e  to  revoke  his  permission. 

But  Gregory  was  not  to  retire  again  to  his  monas- 
Qregoryin  tcry.  He  was  forccd  to  embark  in  public 
nopie  affairs.     He  was  ordained  deacon  (he  was  one 


Chap.  VII.    GREGORY  IN  CONSTANTINOPLE.         49 

of  the  seven  deacons  of  the  Churcli  of  Rome,  the 
Regionarii),  and  sent  by  Pope  Benedict  on  an  imj)or- 
tant  embassy  to  Constantinople.  But  liis  occupations 
were  not  confined  to  his  negotiations  with  the  court. 
He  was  the  Pope's  apocrisiarius  or  secretary.  These 
negotiations  were  but  partially  successfuL  He  recon- 
ciled, indeed,  the  two  successive  emperors,  Tiberius 
and  Maurice,  with  the  person  of  the  Pope,  Pelagius ; 
but  the  aid  against  the  Lombards  w^as  sent  reluctantly, 
tardily,  inefficiently.  The  schism  between  the  East 
and  West  was  still  unallayed.  He  entered  into  a  char- 
acteristic controversy  with  Eutychius,  Bishop  of  Con- 
stantinople, on  the  nature  of  the  body  after  the  resur- 
rection.-^ The  metaphysical  Greek  imagined  an  impal- 
pable body,  finer  and  more  subtile  than  the  air.  The 
Western  theologian,  unembarrassed  by  the  materialism 
fi'om  which  the  Greek  endeavored  to  escape,  strenu- 
ously asserted  the  unrefined  identity  of  the  renovated 
body  with  that  of  the  living  man. 

In  Constantinople''^  Gregory  commenced,  if  he  did 
not  complete,  his  great  work,  the  '  Magna  Moralia,  or 
Exposition  of  the  Book  of  Job,'  at  which  the  West 
stood  astonished,  and  which  may  even  now  excite  our 
wonder  at  the  vast  superstructure  raised  on  such  nar- 
row foundations.  The  book  of  Job,  according  to 
Gregory,  comprehended  in  itself  all  natural,  all  Chris- 
tian, theology,  and  all  morals.  It  was  at  once  a  true  and 

1  The  controversy  mvist  have  been  somewhat  perplexing,  as  Gregory 
was  ignorant  of  Greek,  and  good  translators  were  not  to  be  found.  "  Quia 
hodie  in  Constantinopolitana  civitate,  qui  de  Latino  in  Graecura  dictata 
bene  transferant  non  sunt.  Dum  enim  verba  custodiunt  et  sensus  minimi 
attendunt,  nee  verba  intelligi  faciunt,  et  sensus  frangunt."  —  Greg.  Mag 
Epist.  vi.  27. 

2  Gregory  resided  three  years  in  Constantinople :  584-587. 

VOL.  II.  4 


50  LATIN  CPIPJSTIANITY.  Book  IIL 

wonJerflil  liistoiy,  an  allegory  containing,  in  its  secret 
sense,  the  whole  theory  of  the  Christian  Church  and 
Christian  sacraments,  and  a  moral  philosophy  applica- 
ble to  all  mankind.  As  an  interpreter  of  the  history, 
Gregory  was  entirely  ignorant  of  all  the  Oriental  lan- 
guages, even  of  Greek.^  He  read  the  book  partly  ac- 
cording to  the  older,  partly  according  to  the  later  Latin 
version.  Of  ancient  or  of  Oriental  manners  he  knew 
nothing.  Of  the  book  of  Job  as  a  poem  (the  most 
sublime  of  all  antiquity)  he  had  no  conception  :  to  him 
it  is  all  pure,  unimaginative,  unembellished  history. 
As  an  allegory,  it  is  surprising  with  what  copious  inge- 
Magna  nuity  Gregory  discovers  latent  adumbrations 

Moraiia,  ^f  ^jj  ^j^g  great  Christian  doctrines,  and  still 
more  the  unrelenting  condemnation  of  heresies  and  of 
heretics.  The  moral  interpretation  may  be  read  at  the 
present  time,  if  with  no  great  admiration  at  the  depth 
of  the  philosophy,  with  respect  for  its  loftiness  and  pu- 
rity. It  is  ascetic,  but  generally,  except  when  heretics 
are  concerned,  devout,  humane  and  generous.^ 

1  "  Nam  nos  nee  Gr£ec6  novimus,  nee  aliquod  opus  Gr«c6  aliquando  cou- 
scripsimus."  —  Greg.  Mag.  Epist.  ix.  69. 

2  It  may  be  safeh'  said  that,  according  to  Gregory's  license  of  interpreta- 
tion, there  is  nothing  which  might  not  be  found  in  any  book  ever  written; 
there  is  no  single  word  wliich  may  not  be  pregnant  with  unutterable  mys- 
teries, no  syllable  which  may  not  mean  everything,  no  number  which 
may  not  have  relation  to  the  same  number,  wherever  it  may  occur,  to 
every  multiple  or  divisible  part  of  such  number.  "  The  seven  sons  of 
Job  mean  the  twelve  apostles,  and  therefore  the  clergy,  because  seven  is 
the  perfect  number,  and  multiplied  within  itself,  four  b}-  three  or  three  by 
four,  produces  twelve.  The  three  daughters  mean  the  faithful  laity,  be- 
cause they  are  to  worship  the  Trinity."  "  In  septem  ergo  filiis  ordo  y)redi- 
cantium,  in  tribus  vero  liliabus  multitudo  auditorum  signatur."  The  three 
daughters  may  likewise  mean  the  three  classes  of  the  faithful,  the  pastores, 
continentes,  and  conjugati.  The  curious  reader  may  see  the  m3'stery  which 
is  found  in  the  sheep  and  the  camels,  the  oxen  and  the  asses,  —  Lib.  i.  c. 
vi.,  and  Lib.  ii.  c.  xiv.  —  where  the  friends  of  Job  are  shown,  from  the  latent 
meaning  of  their  names,  to  signify  the  heretics. 


Chap.  VII.  THE  MAGNA  MORALIA.  51 

So  congenial,  however,  was  this  great  work  to  the 
Christian  mind,  that  many  bishops  began  to  read  it 
pubUcly  in  the  churches  ;  and  it  was  perhaps  prevented 
from  coming  into  general  use  only  by  the  modest  re- 
monstrance of  Gregory  L"mself ;  and  thus  Gregory,  if 
his  theology  and  morals  had  been  sanctioned  by  the 
authority  of  the  Church,  would  have  become  the 
fo'inder  of  a  new  religion.  It  never  appears  to  have 
occurred  to  the  piety  of  that  or  indeed  of  other  ages, 
that  this  discovery  of  latent  meanings  in  the  books  of 
inspiration,  and  the  authoritative  enforcement  of  those 
intei'pretations  as  within  the  scope  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
is  no  less  than  to  make  a  new  revelation  to  mankind. 
It  might  happen  that  the  doctrines  thus  discovered 
were  only  those  already  recognized  as  Christianity,  and 
the  utmost  error  then  would  be  the  illustration  of  such 
doctrines  by  forced  and  inapplicable  texts.  But  it  can- 
not be  denied  that  by  this  system  of  exposition  the 
sacred  writings  were  continually  made  to  speak  the 
sense  of  the  interpreter  ;  and  if  once  we  depart  from 
the  plain  and  obvious  meaning  of  the  Legislator,  all 
beyond  is  the  enactment  of  a  new,  a  supplementary, 
an  unwarranted  law.  Compare  the  Great  Morals  of 
Gregory,  not  with  the  book  of  Job,  but  with  the  New 
Testament ;  and  can  we  deny  that  there  would  have 
been  a  new  authoritative  proclamation  of  the  Divine 
will? 

So  far  Gregory  had  kept  his  lofty  way  in  every  situ- 
ation, not  only  fulfilling,  but  surpassing,  the  Gregory  in 
highest  demands  of  his  age.     In  his  personal  ^°"®' 
character  austerely  blameless  ;  as  an  abbot  (he  resumed 
on  his  return  to  Rome  the  abbacy  in  his  monastery  of 
St.  Andrew),  mercilessly  severe,  the  model  of  a  strict 


{)2  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  tl 

disciplinarian ;  as   an  ambassador,   displaying  consum 
mate   ability  ;    as  a   controversialist,   defeating  in   tli. 
opinion  of  the  West  the  subtleties  of  the  rival  Bishoj 
of  Constantinople ;  as  a  theologian,  already  taking  tha/ 
place  which  was  assigned  him  by  the  homage  of  poster- 
ity,   that   of    the   fourth   great   father   of    the    Latin 
Church.^     Soon  after  his  return  to  Rome  the  city  be- 
A.D.  587.        came  a  scene  of  misery  and   desolation,  so 
that  all  eyes  could  not   but  be  turned  on  a  man  so 
highly  favored  of  God.     The  Lombard  invasions  con- 
tinued to  waste  Italy ;  the  feeble  Exarch  acknowledged 
that  he  had  no  power  to  protect  Rome ;  the  supplica- 
stateofthe    tious   for   effectual   aid  from   Constantinople 
^^*'^'  had  been  unavailing.     More  dire  and  press- 

ino;  calamities  darkened  around.  The  Tiber  over- 
flowed  its  banks,  and  swept  away  the  granaries  of  corn. 
A  dreadful  pestilence  ensued,  of  which  the  Pope  Pela- 
gius  was  among  the  first  victims.^  With  one  voice  the 
clergy,  the  senate,  and  the  people  summoned  Gregory 
to  the  pontifical  throne.^  His  modest  remonstrances 
were  in  vain.  His  letter  entreating  the  Emperor  Mau- 
rice to  relieve  him  from  the  perilous  burden,  by  refus- 
ing the  imperial  consent  to  his  elevation,  was  inter- 
cepted by  the  loving  vigilance  of  his  admirers.  Among 
Gregory  thcsc  was  the  prefect  of  the  city,  who  substi- 
^**P®'  tuted  for  Gregory's  letter  the  general  petition 

for  his  advancement.  But,  until  the  answer  of  the 
Emperor  could  arrive,  Gregory  assumed  the  religious 

1  Pelag.  Epist-  ad  Greg,  apud  J.  Diaconum  in  Vit. 

2  The  pestilence  was  attributed  to  a  vast  number  of  serpents  and  a  great 
dragon,  like  a  beam  of  timber,  carried  down  the  Tiber  to  the  sea,  and  cast 
back  upon  the  shore,  where  they  putrefied,  and  caused  the  pUigue.  —  Greg 
Turon. 

8  589-590,  Jaff6. 


Cm      VII.  GREGORY  POPE.  53 

direction  of  the  people.  He  addressed  them  with  deep 
solemnity  on  the  plague,  and  persuaded  them  to  acts 
of  humiliation.^  On  an  appointed  day  the  whole  city 
joined  in  the  religious  ceremony.  Seven  litanies,  or 
processions  with  prayers  and  hymns,  and  the  greatest 
pomp,  traversed  the  streets.  That  of  the  clergy  set 
out  from  the  Church  of  St.  John  the  Baptist ;  that  of 
the  men  from  St.  Marcellus  ;  the  monks  from  that  of 
the  martyrs  John  and  Paul ;  the  holy  virgins  from  Sts. 
Cosmos  and  Damianus ;  tlie  married  women  from  St. 
Stephen ;  tlie  widows  fi'om  St.  Vitalis ;  that  of  the 
poor  and  the  chihlren  from  St.  Csecilia.  But  the 
plague  was  not  stayed ;  eighty  victims  fell  dead  during 
the  procession  ;  ^  but  Gregory  still  urged  the  people  to 
j^ersist  in  their  pious  supplications. 

To  the  end  Gregory  endeavored  to  elude  the  com- 
pulsory honor  of  the  Papacy.  It  was  said  that, 
knowing  the  gates  to  be  jealously  watched,  he  pur- 
suaded  some  merchants  to  convey  him  to  a  solitary 
forest  in  disguise ;  but  a  light,  like  a  pillar  of  fire, 
hovered  over  his  head,  and  betrayed  his  flight.  He 
was  seized,  hurried  to  the  Church  of  St.  Peter,  and 
forcibly  consecrated  as  Supreme  Pontiff.^ 

1  The  speech  in  Greg.  Tur.  x.  i. ;  Paul.  Diac.  Ep.  ii. ;  Joh.  Diac.  i.  41. 

2  The  picturesque  legend,  from  which  the  monument  of  Hadrian  took 
the  name  of  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo,  cannot  be  reconciled  with  the  Letters 
of  Gregory.  It  ran,  that  as  the  last  procession  reached  this  building,  an 
angel  was  seen  sheathing  his  sword,  as  though  the  work  of  divine  ven- 
geance was  over.  The  statue  of  the  angel  in  this  attitude  commemorated 
the  wonder. 

3  The  biographer  of  Gregory  (John  the  Deacon)  thinks  it  necessary  to 
adduce  evidence  of  the  sincerity  of  this  reluctance,  Avhich  had  been  ques- 
tioned by  "  certain  perfidious  Lombards."  He  cites  a  curious  letter  to 
Theoctista,  the  emperor's  sister,  among  the  strange  expressions  in  which 
is  this:  "  Ecce  serenissimus  Dominus  Iinperator  fieri  Simiam  Leonem 
jussit  et  quideni  pro  jussione  illiu.s  vocari   Leo  potest;  fieri  autem  Leo 


54  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

Monasticism  ascended  the  Papal  throne  in  the  per- 
Monkhoodof  son  of  Grcgoiy.  In  austerity,  in  devotion, 
Gregory.  'j^  imaginative  superstition,  Gregory  was  a 
monk  to  the  end  of  his  days.^  From  this  turmoil  of 
affairs,  civil  and  spiritual ;  the  rehgious  ambition  of 
maintaining  and  extending  the  authority  of  his  see  ; 
the  affairs  of  pure  Christian  humanity  in  which  he  was 
involved,  as  almost  the  only  guardian  of  the  Roman 
population  against  the  barbarian  invasions ;  oppressed 
w^ith  business,  wuth  cares,  with  responsibilities,  he 
jierpetually  reverts  to  the  peace  of  his  monastery, 
where  he  could  estrange  himself  entirely  from  sub- 
lunary things,  yield  himself  up  to  the  exclusive  con- 
templation of  heaven,  and  look  forward  to  death  as 
the  entrance  into  life.^ 

But  he  threw  off  at  once  and  altogether  the  dream- 
ing indolence  of  the  contemplative  life,  and  plunged 
Consecrated  iuto  affairs  with  the  hurried  restlessness  of  the 
jaife.  most  ambitious  statesman.     His  letters  offer  a 

fsingular  picture  of  the  incessant  activity  of  his  mind, 

non  potest."     Compare  letter  to  John  of  Constantinople,  i.  24,  and  the 
lolluwing  epistles;  also  Epist.  vii.  4,  and  Kegiila  Past,  in  init. 

1  "Cum  quibus  (amicis)  Gregorius  diu  nocteque  versatus  nihil  monastic* 
perfectionis  in  palatio,  nihil  pontificalis  institutionis  in  ecclesia  dereliquit. 
Videbantur  passim  cum  eruditissimis  clericis  adhan-ere  Pontifici  religiosis- 
simi  monachi,  et  in  diversissimis  profession ibus  habebatur  vita  communis; 
ila  ut  talis  esset  tunc  snb  Gregorio  penes  urbem  Roniam  ecclesia,  qualem 
haiicfukse  sub  a2JostoUs  Lucas  et  sub  Marco  Evangelista  penes  Alexandriam 
Philo  commemorat."  Was  Joh.  Diaconus  as  ignorant  of  St.  Luke's  writ- 
ings as  of  Philo's?  —  Joh.  Diac.  ii.  12. 

2  "  Infclix  quippe  animus  mens,  occupationis  sine  pulsatus  vulnere, 
meminit  qualis  aiiquando  in  monastcrio  fuit,  quomodo  ei  labcntia  cuncta 
subter  erant;  quantum  rebus  omnibus,  quJB  volvuntur,  eniinebat;  quod 
nulla  nisi  coelestia  cogitare  consueverat;  quod  etiam  retentus  corpore,  ipsa 
jam  carnis  claustra  contemplatione  transibat:  quod  mortem  quocjue  quae 
pa-uc  cunctis  pa^na  est,  videlicet  ut  ingressum  vitie,  et  laboris  sui  pnemiuiB 
*mabat."  —  Prujfat.  hi  Dial.  Oper.  iii.  p.  233:  compare  Epist.  i.  4  to  7. 


Chap.  VII.  CHARACTER  OF  GREGORY.  55 

the  variety  and  multiplicity  of  his  occupations.  Nothing 
seems  too  great,  nothing  too  insignificant  for  his  ear- 
nest personal  solicitude ;  from  the  most  minute  point  in 
the  ritual,  or  regulations  about  the  papal  farms  in  Sici- 
Ij ,  he  passes  to  the  conversion  of  Britain,  the  extirpa- ' 
tion  of  simony  among  the  clergy  of  Gaul,  negotiations 
with  the  armed  conquerors  of  Italy,  the  re^N^olutions 
of  tne  Eastern  empire,  the  title  of  Universal  Bishop 
usurped  by  John  of  Constantinople. 

The  character  of  Gi'egory,  as  the  representative  of 
his  times,  mav  be  considered  I.  as  a  Christian  Threefold 

".    .  ,  ,      .  1  •  1  character  of 

bishop  organizmg  and  completing  the  ritual  Gregory. 
and  offices  of  the  Church  ;  as  administrator  of  the  pat- 
rimony of  the  Roman  See,  and  its  distribution  to  its 
various  pious  uses.  II.  As  the  patriarch  of  the  West, 
exercising  authority  over  the  clergy  and  the  churches 
ill  Italy,  in  Gaul,  and  other  parts  of  Europe ;  as  the 
converter  of  the  Lombards  from  Arianism,  and  the 
Saxons  of  Britain  from  heathenism  ;  and  in  his  conduct 
to  pagans,  Jews,  and  heretics,  as  maintaining  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Western  ecclesiastical  power  against  the 
East.  III.  As  virtual  sovereign  of  Rome,  an  author- 
ity which  he  was  almost  compelled  to  assume ;  as  guar- 
dian of  the  city,  and  the  protector  of  the  Roman  popula- 
tion in  Italy  against  the  Lombards ;  and  in  his  conduct 
to  the  Emperor  Maurice,  and  to  the  usurper  Phocas. 

I.  Under  Gregory  the  ritual  of  the  Church  as- 
sumed more  perfect  form  and  magnificence,  services  of 
The  Roman  ordinal,  though  it  may  have  ^'^^  ^'^"''^• 
received  additions  from  later  pontiffs,  in  its  ground- 
work and  distribution  belongs  to  Gregory.  The  or- 
ganization of  the  Roman  clergy  had  probably  been 
long  complete  ;  it    comprehended  the  wliole  city  and 


50  LATIN    CrmiSTIANlTY.  Book  m. 

suburbs.  The  fom'tcen  regions  were  divided  into 
seven  ecclesiastical  districts.  Thirty  titles  (corre- 
sponding with  parishes)  were  superintended  by  sixty- 
six  priests  ;  the  chief  in  each  title  was  the  cardinal 
priest.  Each  ecclesiastical  district  had  its  hospital  or 
office  for  alms,  over  which  a  deacon  presided ;  one  of 
the  seven  was  the  archdeacon.  Besides  these,  each 
hospital  had  an  administrator,  often  a  layman,  to  keep 
the  accounts.  The  clergy  of  the  seven  regions  offici- 
ated on  ordinary  occasions,  each  on  one  day  of  the 
week.  Gregory  appointed  the  stations^  the  churches 
in  which  were  to  be  celebrated  the  more  solemn  ser- 
vices during  Lent  and  at  the  four  great  festivals.  On 
these  high  days  the  Pope  proceeded  in  state,  usually 
on  horseback,  escorted  by  the  deacons  and  other  offi- 
cers, from  his  palace  in  the  Lateran  to  St.  Peter's,  St. 
Maria  Maggiore,  or  some  other  of  the  great  churches. 
He  was  received  with  obsequious  ceremony,  robed  by 
the  archdeacons,  conducted  to  the  choir  with  the  in- 
cense and  the  seven  candlesticks  borne  before  him. 
Psalms  were  sung  as  he  proceeded  to  his  throne  behind 
the  altar.  The  more  solemn  portions  of  the  service 
were  of  course  reserved  for  the  Supreme  Pontiff. ^  But 
Gregory  did  not  stand  aloof  in  his  haughty  sanctity, 
or  decline  to  exercise  more  immediate  influence  over 
Ore  or  as  *^^^  uiiuds  of  the  pcoplc.  He  constantly  as- 
preacher.  ceudcd  tlic  pulpit  himsclf,  and  in  those  days 
of  fear  and  disaster  was  ever  preaching  in  language 
no   doubt  admirably  adapted  to  their  state   of  mind, 


1  The  reader  who  may  not  be  inclined  to  consult  Gregory's  own  Sacra- 
mentarium  and  Antiphonarium,  or  the  learned  labors  of  Mabillon  on  the 
Ordo  liomanus,  will  find  a  good  popular  view  of  the  Konuvu  service  :'n 
Fleury,  11.  E.  xxxvi.  IG  ct  tstq. 


Chap   VII.  GREGORY  AS  ADMINISTRATOR.  bl 

tracing  to  their  sins  the  visible  judgments  of  God, 
exliorting  them  to  profound  humihation,  and  impress- 
ing them  with  what  appears  to  have  been  his  own 
conviction  —  that  these  multiplying  calamities  were 
the  harbingers  of  the  Last  day. 

The  music,  the  animating  soul  of  the  whole  ritual, 
was  under  the  especial  care  of  Gregory.  He  Music. 
introduced  a  new  mode  of  chanting,  which  still  bears  his 
name,  somewhat  richer  than  that  of  Ambrose  at  Milan, 
but  still  not  departing  from  solemn  simplicity.  He 
formed  schools  of  singers,  which  he  condescended 
himself  to  instruct ;  and  from  Rome  the  science  was 
propagated  throughout  the  West:  it  was  employed 
even  to  soothe  and  awe  the  barbarians  of  Britain. 
Augustine,  the  missionary,  was  accompanied  by  a 
school  of   choristers,  educated  in  their  art  at  Rome.^ 

As  administrator  of  the  Papal  patrimony  Gregory 
was  active  and  vigilant,  unimpeachably  just  Gregory  as 
and  humane.  The  Churches,  especially  that  of  the  See. 
of  Rome,  now  possessed  very  large  estates,  chiefly  in 
Calabria,  in  Sicily  ;  ^  in  the  neighborhood  of  Rome, 
Apulia,  Campania,  Liguria ;  in  Sardinia  and  Corsica ; 
in  the  Cozian  Alps  ;  in  Dalmatia  and  Illyricum ;  in 
Gaul ;  and  even  in  Africa,  and  the  East.^  There  are 
letters  addressed  to   the   admmistrators  of  the   Papal 

1  The  original  copy  of  Gregory's  Antiphonary,  the  couch  on  which  he 
reclined  while  he  instructed  the  singers,  and  the  rod  with  which  he  threat- 
ened the  boys,  were  preserved,  according  to  John  the  Deacon,  down  to  hia 
time.  —  Vit.  Greg.  M.  ii.  6. 

■^  These  estates  were  called  the  patrimony  of  the  patron  saints  of  the 
city,  in  Rome  of  St.  Peter,  in  IMilan  of  St.  Ambrose,  in  Ravenna  of  St. 
Apollinaris.     Ravenna  and  IMilan  had  patrimonies  in  Sicily. 

3  Pope  Celestine,  writing,  in  the  year  432,  to  the  Emperor  of  the  East, 
mentions  "  possessiones  in  Asia  constitutas  quas  illustris  et  sanctae  recordar 
tionis  Proba  longa  a  majoribus  vetustate  reliquerat  Romauai  ecclesiae  *' 
He  prays  the  emperor  that  they  may  not  be  disturbed. 


e58  LATIN    CHEISTIANITY.  Book  III 

estates  in  all  these  territories ;  and  in  some  cities,  as 
Otranto,  Gallipoli,  perhaps  Norcia,  Nepi,  Ciinia,  Cap- 
ua, Corsealano  ;  even  in  Naples,  Palenno,  Syracuse. 
Gregoiy  prescribes  minute  regulations  for  these  lands, 
throughout  which  prevails  a  solicitude  lest  the  peasants 
should  be  exposed  to  the  oppressions  of  the  farmer  or 
of  the  Papal  officer.  He  enters  into  all  the  small 
vexatious  exactions  to  which  they  were  liable,  fixes 
the  precise  amount  of  their  payments,  orders  all  unfair 
weights  and  measures  to  be  broken  and  new  ones  pro- 
vided :  he  directs  that  his  reo^ulations  be  read  to  the 
peasants  themselves ;  and,  lest  the  old  abuses  should 
be  revived  after  his  death,  they  were  to  be  furnished 
with  legal  forms  of  security  against  such  suppressed 
grievances.^  Gregory  lowered  the  seignorial  fees  on 
the  marriages  of  peasants  not  free.  Nor,  in  the  pro- 
tection of  the  poor  peasant,  did  he  neglect  the  rights 
and  interests  of  the  farmer ;  he  secured  to  their  rela- 
tives the  succession  to  their  contracts,  and  guarded  the 
interests  of  their  families  by  several  just  regulations. 
His  maxim  was,  that  the  revenue  of  the  Chm'ch  must 
not  be  defiled  by  sordid  gains.^ 

The  revenue  thus  obtained  with  the  least  possible 
intentional  oppression  of  the  peasant  and  the  farmer 
was    distributed  with  the  utmost  publicity,  and  with 

1  Seciiritatis  libellos.  The  whole  of  this  letter  (i.  42)  should  be  read 
to  estimate  the  character  of  Gregory  as  a  landlord.  The  peasants  were 
greatly  embarrassed  by  the  payment  of  the  iirst  term  of  their  rent,  which 
being'  due  before  they  could  sell  their  crops,  forced  them  to  borrow  at  very 
high  interest.  Gregory  directed  that  they  should  receive  an  advance  from 
the  church  treasury,  and  be  allowed  to  pay  by  instalments. 

2  In  more  than  one  instance  Gregoiy  represses  the  covetonsness  of  the 
clergy,  who  were  not  scrupulous  in  obtaining  property  for  the  church  by 
unjust  means.  —  Epist.  vii.  2,  23,  ii.  43.  Bcciuests  to  monasteries  coutin- 
ually  occur. 


Chap.  VII.  PAPAL  BOUNTY.  59 


nVid  regard  for  the  interests  of  the  diocese.^  Rome, 
which  had  long  ceased  to  receive  the  tributaiy  har- 
vests of  Afi'ica  and  of  Egypt,  «lepended  greatly  on 
the  bounty  of  the  Pope.  Sicily  alone  had  escaped 
the  ravages  of  war,  and  from  her  cornfields,  chiefly 
from  the  Papal  estates,  came  the  regular  supplies 
which  fed  the  diminishing,  yet  still  vast,  poor  popula- 
tion.^  In  a  synod  at  Rome  it  was  enacted  that  the 
Pope  should  only  be  attended  by  ecclesiastics,  who 
ought  to  enjoy  the  advantage  of  the  example  of  his 
life,  to  the  privacy  of  which  the  profane  laity  should 
not  be  admitted.^ 

The  shares  of  the  clergy  and  of  the  papal  officers, 
the  churches  and  monasteries,  the  hospitals,  deaconries 
or  ecclesiastical  boards  for  the  poor,  were  calculated  in 
money,  and  distributed  at  four  seasons  of  the  year,  at 
Easter,  on  St.  Peter's  day,  St.  Andrew's  day,  and  that 
of  the  consecration  of  Gregory.  The  first  day  in 
every  month  he  distributed  to  the  poor  in  kind,  corn, 
wine,  cheese,  vegetables,  bacon,  meat,  fish,  and  oil.^ 
The  sick  and  infirm  were  superintended  by  persons 
appointed  to  inspect  every  street.  Before  the  Pope 
sat  down  to  his  own  meal  a  portion  was  separated  and 
sent  out  to  the  hungry  at  his  door.     A  great  volume, 

1  The  quadripartite  division,  to  the  bishop,  the  clergy,  the  fabric  and 
services  of  the  church,  and  the  poor,  generally  prevailed  in  the  West.  — 
Epist.  iii.  11. 

^  Sicily,  since  its  conquest,  had  paid  as  tribute  a  tenth  of  its  corn  to  (he 
metropolis;  the  papal  patrimony  was  liable  to  this  burden.  But  in  case 
of  ship-nnreck  the  farmers  or  peasants  were  obliged  to  make  good  the  loss. 
Gregory  relieves  his  tenants  from  this  iniquitous  burden. 

3  Epist.  iv.  44. 

•*  Among  the  instances  of  munificent  grants  by  Gregory,  see  that  of 
A(iu£B  Salvia,  -vvith  its  farms  and  vineyards,  two  gardens  on  the  banks  of 
the  Tiber,  and  other  lands,  part  of  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  to  the  church 
jf  St.  Paul,  to  maintain  the  lights.  —  xiv.  14. 


60  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  HI. 

containing  the  names,  the  ages,  and  the  dwelKngs  of 
the  objects  of  papal  bounty,  was  long  preserved  in  the 
Lateran  with  reverential  gratitude.  What  noble 
names  may  have  lurked  in  that  obscure  list !  The  de- 
scendants of  Consuls  and  Dictators,  the  Flamens  and 
the  Augurs  of  elder  Rome,  may  have  received  the 
alms  of  the  Christian  prelate,  and  partaken  in  the  dole 
which  their  ancestors  distributed  to  their  thousand 
clients.  So  severe  was  the  charity  of  Gregory  that 
one  day,  on  account  of  the  death  of  an  unrelieved  beg- 
gar, he  condemned  himself  to  a  hard  penance  for  the 
guilt  of  neglect  as  steward  of  the  Divine  bounty.^ 

1  It  would  be  curious  to  obtain  even  an  approximation  to  the  value  oi 
the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter  at  these  times.  These  facts  may  be  collected 
from  the  letters.  1.  The  patrimony  in  Gaul  was  comparatively  small:  it  is 
repeatedly  called  (Epist.  iv.  14,  vi.  6)  patrimoniolum.  At  one  time  the  Pope 
received  400  solidi  in  money,  it  does  not  appear  clearly  whether  the  residue 
of  the  annual  rent.  But  the  patrimony  in  Gaul  seems  to  have  been  chiefly 
transmitted,  or  expended  (there  were  no  bills  of  exchange)  in  coarse  cloths 
of  Gallic  manufacture  for  the  poor.  Besides  this,  Gregory  ordered  the  pur- 
chase of  English  youths,  of  17  or  18,  to  be  bred  in  monasteries  for  mission- 
ary purposes.  —  vi.  33.  These  400  solidi  (putting  the  ordinary  current 
solidus  at  from  lis.  to  12s.  —  the  Gallic  solidus  was  one  third  less,  say 
7s.  Gd.)  would  not  be  above  160^.  In  one  case  the  Gallic  bishops  seem  to 
have  withheld  part  of  the  patrimony  —  in  Gregory's  eyes  a  great  oftence. 
"  Valde  est  execrabile,  ut  quod  a  regibus  gentium  servatura  est,  ab  episcopis 
dicatur  ablatum."  — vi.  53,  4.  But  in  Sicily  Gregory  orders  Peter  the  sub- 
deacon,  his  faithful  administrator,  to  invest  280  pounds  of  gold  in  his  handp 
in  corn.  Taking  the  pound  of  gold  at  40/.  (see  Gibbon  on  Greaves,  ch. 
xvii. ;  Epist.  vi.  35,  note),  this  would  amount  to  2000/. ;  if  the  value  of  money 
was  one  and  a  half  more  than  now,  5000/.  But  the  produce  of  Sicily  can- 
not be  estimated  at  the  money-rent.  It  had  great  quantities  of  cattle, 
espt-cially  horses  (to  the  improvement  of  which  Gregory  paid  great  atten- 
tion) in  the  plains  about  Palermo  and  Syracuse.  One  mass  or  farm  had 
been  compelled  by  a  dishonest  factor  to  pay  double  rent  to  the  amount  of 
507  aurei,  nearly  280/.  Gregory  ordered  it  to  be  restored  out  of  the  prop- 
erty of  the  factor.  The  number  of  farms  cannot  be  known,  but  suppose 
100,  and  this  an  average  rent.  Rather  more  than  a  ccntuiy  later,  the  Em- 
peror Leo  the  Isaurian  confiscated  to  the  public  treasury  the  rights  of  the 
Roman  See  in  Sicily,  valued  at  three  tK-ilents  and  a  half. — Theophanes, 
Chroii.  p.  C31,  edit.  Bonn.     Tiiis  passage,  which  ut  lirst  sight  promises  the 


Chap.  VTI.  PAPAL  BOUNTY.  61 

Nor  was  Gregory's  active  beneficence  confined  to 
the  city  of  Rome.  His  letters  are  full  of  paternal  in- 
terpositions in  favor  of  injured  widows  and  orphans. 
It  was  even  superior  to  some  of  the  strongest  preju- 
dices of  the  time.  Gregory  sanctioned  that  great 
triumph  of  the  spirit  over  the  form  of  religion,  by  au- 
thorizing not  merely  the  alienation  of  the  wealth  of  the 
clergy,  but  even  the  sale  of  the  consecrated  vessels 
from  the  altar  for  the  redemption  of  captives  —  those 
captives  not  always  ecclesiastics,  but  laymen.^ 

most  fall  and  accurate  information,  unfortunately  offers  almost  insuperable 
difficulties.  In  the  first  place,  the  reading  is  not  quite  certain ;  nor  is  it 
absolutely  clear  whether  it  means  some  charge  on  the  revenue  of  the 
island,  or  the  full  rents  and  profits  of  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter.  But 
the  chief  pei-plexity  arises  fi'om  our  utter  ignorance  of  what  is  meant  by  a 
talent.  The  loss  inflicted  on  the  hostile  see  of  Rome  must  no  doubt  have 
been  considerable;  otherwise  the  emperor  would  not  have  inflicted  it  on 
him  whom  he  considered  a  refractory  subject;  nor  would  it  have  com- 
manded the  notice  of  the  historian.  But  any  known  talent,  above  all  the 
small  gold  talent  of  Sicily,  would  give  but  an  insignificant  sum,  under 
900^.  It  had  occurred  to  me,  and  has  been  suggested  by  a  high  authority, 
that  it  may  mean  82  talents  in  weight,  paid  in  gold  money.  Fines  in  the 
Theodosian  code  are  fixed  at  so  many  pounds  of  gold.  Ij  cwt.  of  gold  (if 
Gibbon  be  about  right,  according  to  Greaves,  in  taking  the  pound  of  gold 
at  40^.)  would  give  a  large,  perhaps  not  an  improbable,  sum:  *  and,  if  the 
relative  value  of  money  be  taken  into  account,  must  have  been  a  most 
serious  blow  to  the  papal  revenue. 

1  Gregory's  humility  is  amusingly  illustrated  by  his  complaint,  that  of 
all  his  valuable  stud  in  Sicily,  his  subdeacon  had  only  sent  him  a  sorry 
nag,  and  five  fine  asses.  The  horse  he  could  not  mount  because  it  was  so 
wretched  a  one,  the  asses  because  they  were  asses.  "Prjvterea  unum  nobis 
caballum  miserum,  et  quinque  bonos  asinos  transmisisti ;  caballum  istum 
sedere  non  possum  quia  miser  est,  illos  autem  bouoa  sedere  non  possumi 
quia  asini  sunt."  —  ii.  32. 

*  Compare,  however,  Paolo  Sarpi,  who,  probably  taking  the  ordinary  talent,  makes 
a  much  lower  estimate  (delle  Mat.  Benefic.  c.  ix.);  but  where  did  he  find  three  tal- 
ents of  silver,  half  a  one  of  gold,  directly  contrary  to  the  text  in  Theophanes,  and 
to  the  translation  of  Anastasius?  Much  of  this  has  been  worked  out,  but  far  too 
positively,  by  the  writer  of  a  modern  book  for  popular  use.  and  therefore  with  no 
citation  of  authorities.  —  Bianchi-CJiovini,  Storia  dei  Pape.  (lapolago,  1851,  t.  iii.  pp. 
159-160. 


62  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  HI. 

II.  Gregory  did  not  forget   the    Patriarch    of   the 
Gregory         West  ui  the  BlshoD  of  Roixie.  Many  churches 

Pitririi'cli  of 

the  West.  in  Italy  were  without  pastors :  their  priests 
had  been  sold  into  slavery.^  He  refused  to  intermed- 
dle in  the  election  of  bishops,^  but  his  severe  discipline 
did  not  scruple  to  degrade  unworthy  dignitaries  and 
even  prelates.  Laurence,  the  first  of  the  seven  deacons, 
was  deposed  for  his  pride  and  other  unnamed  vices ;  ^ 
the  Bishop  of  Naples  for  crimes  capital  both  by  the 
laws  of  God  and  man.*  The  Bishop  of  Salona  is  re- 
proved for  neglect  of  his  solemn  duties,  and  indulgence 
in  convivial  pleasures  ;  for  his  contumacy  in  refusing 
to  reinstate  his  archdeacon,  he  is  deprived  of  his  pal- 
lium ;  if  he  continues  contumacious,  he  is  to  be  exclud- 
ed from  communion.  The  Pope  reproves  the  Bishop  of 
Sipontum,  in  more  than  one  angry  letter,  for  his  crim- 
inal and  irreligious  remissness  in  allowing  the  daughter 
of  a  man  of  rank  to  throw  off  her  religious  habit  and 
return  to  a  secular  life.^  He  commands  the  bishop  to 
arrest  the  woman  who  has  thus  defiled  herself,  and  im- 
prison her  in  a  monastery  till  further  instructions.^  He 
commands  Andrew  Bishop  of  Tarentum,  if  guilty  of 
concubinage,  to  abdicate  his  see ;  if  of  cruelty  to  a  fe- 
male, to  be  suspended  from  his  functions  for  two 
months.'^     To  Januarius,  the  Bishop  of  Cagliari,  he 

1  Epist.  i.  8,  15.  There  is  an  instance  of  a  clericus  sold  for  12  solidi,  at 
which  price  he  might  be  redeemed.  Gregory  directs  the  Bishop  of  Sipontum 
to  take  that  sum,  if  it  cannot  be  obtained  elsewhere,  from  the  captives' 
church.  — iii.  17. 

2  Epist.  ii.  29. 

8  Epist.  ii.  in  Praef. 

4  Epist.  ii. ;  the  ordo  and  plebs  were  to  elect  his  successor. 

B  Epist.  ii.  18. 

«  Epist.  iii.  43. 

'  Epiat.  iii.  45. 


Chap.  VII.     GREGORY  PATRIARCH   OF  THE  WEST.  03 

speaks  in  still  more  men.acing  terms  for  a  far  more  nei- 
iious  offence  —  ploughiixg  up  the  harvest  of  a  proprietor 
on  a  Sunday  before  mass,  and  removing  the  landmark 
after  mass.  Nothing  but  the  extreme  age  of  Januarius 
saved  him  from  the  utmost  ecclesiastical  punishment.^ 
He  gave  a  commission  to  four  bishops  to  degrade  the 
Bishop  of  Melita  for  seme  serious  crime :  certain  pres- 
byters, his  accomplices,  were,  it  seems,  to  be  impris- 
oned in  monasteries.^  We  find  the  Bishop  of  Rcme 
exercising  authority  in  Greece  over  the  Bishops  of 
Thebes^  and  Larissa  and  Corinth.*  The  Bishops  of 
Istria  were  less  submissive.  His  attempts,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  his  pontificate,  to  force  them  to  con- 
demn the  three  Chapters,  were  repressed  by  the  direct 
interference  of  the  Emperor. 

In  Gaul,  simony  and  the  promotion  of  young  or  un- 
worthy persons  to  ecclesiastical  dignities  constantly 
demanded  the  interference  of  the  Pontiff.  The  greater 
the  wealth  and  honors  attached  to  the  sacred  office, 
and  the  greater  their  influence  over  the  barbarian 
mind,  the  more  they  were  coveted  for  themselves,  and 
sought  by  all  the  unscrupulous  means  of  worldly  ambi- 
tion.^ The  epistles  of  Gregory  to  the  bishops,  to 
Queen  Brunehild,  to  Thierry  and  Theodobert,  and  to 
Chlotaire  kings  in  Gaul,  are  full  of  remonstrances 
against  these  irregularities.^ 

1  This  seems  to  be  the  sense  of  the  passage  vii.  ii.  1,  which  is  obscure, 
probably  corrupt.  Januarius  seems  to  have  given  Gregory  much  trouble. 
Another  epistle  censures  him  for  exacting  exorbitant  burial  fees. — vii.  ii. 
56.    Oblations  for  lights  might  be  received  for  those  buried  in  the  church. 

2  vii.  ii.  63. 

8  Epist.  iii.  6,  7 

4  iv.  51. 

6  iv.  54. 

•  ix  50  to  57.     The  privilegium  said  to  have  been  granted  by  Gregarv 


64  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

Of  all  the  great  events  of  his  pontificate,  Gregory 
looked  on  none  with  more  satisfaction  than  the  conver- 
sion of  the  Arian-Gothic  kingdom  of  Spain  to  Catholi- 
cism. He  compares,  in  his  humility,  the  few  who  in 
the  last  day  will  bear  witness  to  his  own  zeal  and  in- 
fluence, ta  the  countless  multitudes  who  would  OAve 
their  salvation  to  the  orthodox  example  of  King  Re- 
cared.^ 

The  Council  of  Toledo,  at  which  Spain  publicly 
May  8, 589.  proclaimed  its  Catholicity,  closes  the  history 
of  the  old  Teutonic  Arianism.  The  Lombards,  in- 
deed, remained  to  be  subdued  by  the  mild  and  Chris- 
tian wisdom  of  Gregory ;  but  in  Burgundy  and  in 
Visio^othic  Gaul,  the  zeal  and  oro;anization  of  the  Cath- 
olic  clergy,  and  the  terror,  the  power,  the  intrigues  of 
the  orthodox  Franks,  had  driven  it  from  the  minds  of 
the  kings,  and  from  the  hearts  of  the  people.  Twice 
Arianism  had  assailed  the  independence  of  Burgundy  ; 
twice  it  fell  before  the  victorious  arms  of  the  Franks, 
the  prayers,  and  no  doubt  more  powerful  aid  than 
Pall  of  Arian-  Dravers,    of    the    Catholic   hierarchy.       The 

iaui  in  Gaul.     >>,  .  .       . 

A.D.  517.  Council  of  Epaona  (though  Arianism  rallied 
for  the  last  desperate  conflict  under  the  younger  Gode- 
mar  after  that  Council)  witnessed  what  might  be  con- 
sidered the  act  of  submission  to  Latin  Christianity. 

The  history  of  Visigothic  Arianism  in  Spain  is  a 
In  Spain.  morc  dire  and  awful  tragedy.  During  the 
early  reigns,  both  of  the  Suevian  and  Visigothic  kings. 


to  the  monastery  of  St.  Medardus,  anathematizing  kings  and  all  secular 
persons  who  should  infringe  the  decrees  of  his  apostolic  authority,  and 
ranking  them  with  Judas,  is  proved  to  be  spurious  by  Launoi,  and  by 
Dupin. — Dissert.  7,  de  Antiq.  Eccl.  Discip. 
1  Epist  ad  Rechaisd.  Keg.  vii.  128. 


CiiAP    VII.  CONA^ERSIONS    IN   SPAIN.  65 

tlie  Catholic  ])Isliops  had  lield  their  councils  undis- 
turbed;  Arianisra  had  maintained  its  lofty  or  pru- 
dent or  indifferent  toleration.  Leovigild  ascended  the 
throne,  the  ablest,  most  ambitious  monarch  572  to  586. 
who  had  set  on  an  Arian-Gothic  throne,  except  Theod- 
oric  the  Ostrogoth.  Leovigild  aspired  to  subdue  the 
lawless  Gothic  lords  who  dwelt  apart  in  their  embat- 
tled mountain  fastnesses,  to  compel  the  whole  land 
(where  each  race,  each  rank,  each  creed  asserted  its 
wild  freedom)  to  order  and  to  law.  He  would  be  a 
kino*.  He  carried  out  his  schemes  with  rigor  and  sue- 
cess.  But  he  would  compel  religious  differences  also 
to  unity.  Himself  a  stern  Arian,  he  even  condescended 
to  approximate,  and  with  consummate  art,  to  Catholi 
cism ;  he  sought  by  confounding  to  harmonize  the  con- 
tending parties  ;  but  he  could  not  deceive  the  quick 
sight  of  the  more  vigilant,  more  intellectual  Catholic 
hierarchy. 

His  young  son,  Hermenegild,  became  a  Catholic  — 
the  Catholic  a  rebel.  Seville  and  the  southern  cities 
rose  against  the  King ;  Hermenegild  was  besieged  in 
Seville ;  the  Guadalquivir  was  blocked  up  ;  the  city 
suffered  the  extremity  of  famine.  Hermenegild  fled  to 
Cordova :  he  was  sold  by  the  Greeks,  who  possessed 
some  of  the  havens  under  allegiance  to  the  Byzantine 
Emperor.  He  was  imprisoned  first,  less  rigorously,  in 
pleasant  Valencia ;  afterwards  more  harshly  in  Tarra- 
gona. He  was  shut  up  m  a  noisome  dungeon,  with 
manacles  on  his  hands.  The  young  martyr  (he  was 
but  twenty-one  years  old)  increased  his  own  sufferincs 
by  the  sackcloth  which  chafed  his  soft  and  delicate 
limbs.  He  resisted  all  the  persuasions,  all  the  arts  of 
his  father.     A  fierce  Goth,  Sisebert,  was  sent  into  his 


06  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

cell,  and  clove  his  skull  witli  an  axe.  The  rebellious 
but  orthodox  Hermenegild,  about  ten  centuries  after, 
was  canonized  by  Pope  Sixtus  V.,  through  the  influ- 
ence of  Philip  II.,  the  father  of  the  murdered  Don 
Carlos.i 

Leovigild,  before  his  death,  was  compelled  at  least  to 
adopt  milder  measures  towards  his  Catholic  subjects. 
He  is  even  said  to  have  renounced  his  Arianism. 

The  first  act  of  his  son  Recared  was  to  avenge  his 
brother's  death  on  the  murderer  Sisebert.  He  hardly 
condescended  to  disguise,  even  for  a  year,  his  Cathol- 
icism ;  yet  Recared  was  obliged  to  proceed  with  caution 
and  reserve.  It  was  not  till  the  year  before  Gregory 
ascended  the  pontifical  throne  that  Spain  declared  her 
return  to  Roman  unity  .^ 

In  Afi'ica  Gregory  endeavored  to  suppress  the  undy- 
Africa,  ing  reuiaius  of  the  Donatist  factions,  which 

even  now  aspired  to  the  primacy  of  the  Numidian 
Churches ;  but  Donatism  expired  only  with  the  Chris- 
tianity of  Northern  Africa. 

By  Gregory  Britain  was  again  brought  within  the 
Britain.  pale  of  Christian  Europe.  The  visions  of  his 
own  early  spiritual  ambition  were  fulfilled  by  his  mis- 
sionary, the  monk  Augustine.  In  a  letter  to  the 
Bishop  of  Alexandria  he  relates  with  triumph  the  ti- 
dings of  this  conquest,  as  communicated  by  Augustine, 

1  The  religion  was  not  an  affair  of  race :  Massona,  the  Catholic  bishop 
of  Merida,  was  a  Goth.  Leovigild  set  up  Sanna  as  a  rival  bishop  of 
Merlda.  Leovigild  threatened  the  holy  Massona  with  exile.  "  If  you 
knew  where  God  is  not,  command  your  servants  to  conduct  me  thither." 
A  thunderclap  pealed  in  the  heavens.  "  That  is  the  King  of  whom  we 
and  you  should  stand  in  awe.  He  is  not  a  king  like  you."  —  Florez, 
Espaiia  Sagrada. 

2  Gregory  of  Tours  and  John  of  Bisclar  are  the  great  authorities  for  thia 
period  of  Spanish  history. 


Chap.  VII.  CONVERSION   OF   BRITAIN.  67 

who  boasts  already  of  ten  thousand  baptized  converts^ 
But  in  the  conversion  of  the  heathen  Gregory  was 
neither  a  fierce  nor  intolerant  iconoclast.  He  depre- 
cated the  destruction  of  the  pagan  temples ;  he  enjoined 
their  sanctification  by  Christian  rites ;  ^  the  idols  only 
were  to  be  destroyed  without  remorse.  Even  the  sacri- 
fic»:  ^  of  oxen  ^  were  to  continue,  but  to  be  celebrated  on 
the  saints'  days,  in  order  gently  to  transfer  the  adora- 
tion of  the  people  from  their  old  to  their  new  objects 
of  worship.  In  his  letters  to  the  King  and  Queen, 
Ethelred  and  Bertha,  he  is  gentle,  persuasive,  but  he 
intimates  the  rapidly  approaching  end  of  the  world  in 
those  awful  terms  which  might  appall  the  mind  of  a 
barbarian.^  Even  Ireland  was  not  beyond  the  sphere 
of  Gregory's  patriarchal  vigilance.  He  was  consulted 
by  certain  bishops  of  that  island  on  the  question  of  re- 
baptizing  heretics.  He  thought  it  necessary  to  inform 
those  remote  prelates,  who  perhaps  were  utterly  igno- 
rant of  the  controversy,  a's  to  his  views  on  the  three 
Chapters.  The  Irish  bishops  contrast  their  own  state 
of  peace  with  the  calamities  of  Italy,  and  seem  disposed 
to  draw  the  inference  that  God  approved  their  views 
on  the  contested  points  rather  than  those  of  the  Italian 
prelates.  Gregory  replies  that  the  miseries  of  Italy 
were   rather   signs   of  God's    chastening   love.       The 

1  Epist.  vii.  31. 

2  We  find  a  singular  illustration  of  the  commercial  intercourse  kept  up 
by  means  of  religion :  timber  was  to  be  brouglit  from  Britain  to  build  the 
churches  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  in  Rome;  and  in  several  letters  to  the 
Bishop  of  Alexandria,  Gregory  informs  him  that  he  has  sent  him  timber, 
an  acceptable  present  in  Egj'pt. 

8  It  is  curious  to  find  the  theory  of  the  Eg\T)tian  origin  of  many  of  the 
Hebrew  rites,  received  with  so  much  apprehension  in  the  writings  of 
Spencer  and  Warburton,  unsuspectingly  promulgated  by  Gregorj'.  —  Epist 
IX.  71. 

4  ix.  60 


68  LATIN   CHPJSTIANITY.  Cook  111, 

unconvinced  Irish,  liowever,  adhered  to  their  own 
opinions.^ 

But  if  to  these  remote  and  jet  unsubdued  regions 
Gregory  showed  this  wise  forbearance,  his  solicitude  to 
extirpate  the  last  vestiges  of  heathenism  which  still 
lingered  in  Sardinia,^  and  a  few  other  barbarous  parts, 
was  more  uncompromising  and  severe.  Towards  those 
obstinate  heathens  he  forgot  on  one  occasion  his  milder 
language.  He  instructs  the  Bishop  of  Cagliari  to 
preach  to  them.  If  his  preaching  is  without  effect^ 
to  compel  them  to  repentance  by  imprisonment  and 
other  rigorous  measures.^ 

Everywhere  throughout  the  spiritual  dominions  of 
Gregory  and  Gregoij  —  iu  Gaul,  lu  Italy,  in  Sicily,  hi 
the  Jews.  Spaiii  —  the  Jews  dwelt  mingled  with  his 
Christian  subjects.  To  them  Gregory  was  on  the 
whole  just  and  humane.*  He  censured  the  Bishop  of 
Terracina  for  unjustly  expelling  the  Jews  from  some 
place  where  they  had  been  accustomed  to  celebrate 
their  festivals.  He  condemned  the  forcible  baptism  of 
Jews  in  Gaul,  which  had  been  complained  of  by  certain 
itinerant  Jewish  merchants.^  Conviction  by  preaching 
was  the  only  legitimate  means  of  conversion.  He  did 
not  scruple,   however,   to   try  the  milder  method  of 

i  Letter  of  Columbanus  published  by  Usher.  —  Biblioth.  Vet.  Patr 
:.ugd. 

2  Epist.  iii.  23,  26;  vii.  1,  J:  compare  20. 

8  "  Siquidem  servi  sunt,  verberibus,  cniciatibusque,  quibus  ad  emenda 
tionem  pervenire  valeant,  castigare.  Si  vero  sunt  liberi,  inchisioue  dignft 
distinctfique  sunt  in  poenitentiam  dirigendi;  ut  qui  sahibria  ct  a  mortis 
periculo  revocantia  audire  contemnunt,  cruciat?«  {ibtis,  (ju.f)  saltern  eoa 
corporis  ad  desidorandam  mentis  valeas  reduccre  sanitatcm." — vii.  ii.  67. 

4  "  Eos  enim  qui  a  religione  Christiana  discordant,  mansuottidine,  be- 
nignitate,  admonendo,  suadendo,  ad  unitatem  fidei  necesse  est  congregare." 
—  Epist.  i.  33. 

6  Epistle  to  the  bishops  of  Aries  and  Marseilles,  i.  45. 


Chap.  VU.  TREATMENT   OF  THE  JEWS.  69 

bribeiy.  Certain  Jewish  tenants  of  Clmrcli  property 
are  told  tliat  if  they  ejnbrace  Christianity  their  rents 
will  be  lowered.^  Even  if  their  conversion  be  not  sin- 
cere, that  of  their  children  may  be  so.^  He  denied 
them,  however,  the  possession  of  Christian  slaves, 
though  where  the  slaves  belonged  as  coloni  to  their 
estates  (the  Jews  appear  here,  as  in  Sicily,  in  the  un- 
usual condition  of  landowners  and  cultivators  of  the 
soil),  they  were  to  maintain  their  uninyaded  rights.^ 
Slaves  of  Jewish  masters,  wdio,  whether  pagans  or 
Jews,  had  taken  refuge  in  a  church  from  the  desire 
of  embracing  Christianity,  were  to  be  purchased  from 
their  owners.^  Gregory  endeavored  to  check  the  Eu- 
ropean slave-trade,  which  was  chiefly  in  the  hands  of 
the  Jews,  but  his  efforts  were  by  no  means  successful.^ 
Gregory  reproved  the  Bishop  of  Cagliari,  who  had  per- 
mitted a  Jewish  convert  named  Peter  to  seize  the  syna- 
gogue, and  to  set  up  within  it  a  cross  and  an  image  of 
the  Virgin.  The  Jews  had  been  forbidden  to  build 
new  synagogues,  but  were  not  to  be  deprived  of  those 
which  they  possessed.  In  one  the  images  were  to  be 
removed  with  due  respect,  and  the  building  restored  to 

1  iv.  6.  This  is  remarkable  as  showing  the  Jews  in  the  rare  situation 
not  only  as  cultivators  of  the  soil,  but  as  cultivators  of  church  lands.  In 
another  passage  he  is  extremely  indignant  at  the  sale  of  church  vessels  to 
a  Jew,  who  was  to  be  compelled  to  restore  them.  —  i.  51. 

2  ii.  37.  See  the  curious  stoiy  of  a  Jew  who  had  deceived  the  Christiana 
by  setting  up  an  altar  to  St.  Elias,  at  which  they  were  tempted  to  Avorship. 
(Me  must  have  been  a  singularly  heretical  Jew.)  He  was  to  be  punished 
for  the  offence. 

3  Epistle  to  the  Bishop  of  Lima.  To  Queen  Branchild  Giegory  ex- 
presses his  Avonder  that  in  her  dominions  Jews  Avere  permitted  to  possess 
Christian  slaves.  —  vii.  ii.  115,  116. 

4  V.  31.  In  the  next  epistle  Gregor}-  expresses  his  indignation  that  cer- 
tain Samaritans  in  Catana  had  presumed  to  circumcise  their  slaves.  Com- 
pare vii.  1,  2,  and  xi.  15. 

5  vii.  ii.  30:  compare  Hist,  of  Jcw.s,  iii 


70  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  in. 

its  rightflil  owners.^  Directions  in  a  similar  spirit  were 
given  to  the  Bishop  of  Palermo. 

Gregory's  humanity  was  hardly  tiied  by  the  tempta- 
Gregory  and  ^^^^^  ^^  persocuting  lieretics.  He  was  happily 
the  heretics,  -vyr^^^jng  botli  in  power  and  in  opportunity. 
The  heresies  of  the  East,  excepting  as  to  the  three 
Chapters,  had  almost  died  away  in  the  West.  Ths 
Pelagian  controversy  had  almost  argued  itself  to  rest ; 
and  even  Manicheism,  which  was  later  to  spring  up  in 
new  forms,  lurked  only  in  obscure  places,  undetected 
by  the  searching  jealousy  of  orthodoxy.  Arianism  in 
Spain  had  recanted  its  errors ;  among  the  Lombards  it 
was  an  armed  antagonist  which  could  only  be  assailed, 
as  it  was  victoriously  assailed,  by  the  gentle  means  of 
persuasion  and  love. 

While  Gregory  waS  thus,  by  his  Christian  virtues, 
establishing  a  substantial  claim  to  Christian  suprem- 
acy, and  by  superstitions  congenial  to  the  age  still  fur- 
ther unconsciously  confirming  his  authority  over  the 
Bishop  of  mind  of  man,  he  heard  with  astonishment 
puTuniver^ai  aud  indiguatiou  that  John  the  Patriarch  of 
Bishop.  Constantinople  had  publicly,  openly,  assumed 

the  title  of  Universal  Bishop,  a  title  which  implied  In's 
absolute  supremacy  over  the  Christian  world.  Tliis 
claim  rested  on  the  civil  supremacy  of  Constantino])le. 
The  Western  empire  had  perished,  Italy  had  sunk  into 
a  province,  Rome  into  a  provincial  city.  Constanti- 
nople was  the  seat  of  empire,  the  capital  of  the  world  ; 
the  bishop  of  the  capital  was  of  right  the  chief  pontiff 
of  Christendom.  The  pretensions  of  the  successors  of 
St.  Peter  were  thus  contemptuously  set  aside ;  the  re- 
ligious supremacy  became  a  kind  of  appanage  to  the 

1  vii.  ii.  59:  compare  xi.  15. 


CfHAP.  VII.  TITLE  OF  UNIVERSAL   BISHOP.  71 

civil  sovereignty  ;  it  lost  at  once  its  permailence,  its 
stability,  its  independence  ;  it  might  fluctuate  with  all 
the  vicissitudes  of  political  dominion,  or  the  caprice  of 
human  despotism.^ 

The  letter  of  Gregory  to  the  Emperor  Maurice  pours] 
forth  his  indignation  with  the  utmost  vehemence,  yet 
not  without  skill.  All  the  calamities  of  the  empire 
are  traced  to  the  pride  and  ambition  of  the  clergy,  yet 
there  is  a  prudent  reservation  for  the  awfiilness  of  their 
power,  if  applied,  as  it  ought  to  be,  as  mediators  be- 
tween earth  and  heaven.  "  What  fleshly  arm  would 
presume  to  lift  itself  against  the  imperial  majesty, 
if  the  clergy  were  unanimous  in  insuring,  by  their 
prayers  and  by  their  merits,  the  protection  of  the  Re- 
deemer ?  Were  the  clergy  what  they  should  be,  the 
fiercest  barbarians  would  cease  to  rage  ao-ainst  the  lives 
of  the  innocent."  ^^  And  is  this  a  time,  chosen  by  an 
arbitrary  prelate,  to  invade  the  undoubted  rights  of 
St.  Peter  by  a  haughty  and  pompous  title  ?  Every 
part  of  Eur.ope  is  abandoned  to  the  dominion  of  the 
barbarians  ;  cities  are  destroyed,  fortresses  overthrown, 
provinces  depopulated,  lands  without  inhabitants,  the 
worshippers  of  idols  are  daily  revelling  in  the  massacre 
of  the  faithful,  and  the  priests,  who  ought  to  a.d.  595. 
be  wailino;  in  dust  and  ashes,  are  inventino-  new  and 
profane  appellations  to  gratify  their  pride.  Am  I  de- 
fending my  own  cause  ?     Is  this  any  special  injury  to 

1  From  the  jealous  and  even  angry  tone  in  which  Gregoiy  writes  to  John 
Archbishop  of  Ravenna,  who  had  dared  to  wear  the  pallium  out  of  the 
ciiurch,  and  had  ventured  on  other  irregularities,  at  the  same  time  that  he 
orotests  that  he  always  renders  due  honor  to  the  church  of  Ravenna,  it  may 
be  suspected  that,  as  the  residence  of  the  Exarch,  the  emperor's  represen- 
tative, Ravenna  was  beginning  to  aspire  towards  some  peculiar  ecclesias- 
tical superiority,  at  least  to  independence.  —  Epist.  iv.  ii.  15. 


72  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IU 

the  Bisliop  of  Rome  ?  It  is  the  cause  of  God,  tha 
cause  of  the  whole  Churcli.  And  who  is  he  that  usurps 
this  uncanonical  dignity  ?  —  the  prelate  of  a  see  repeat- 
edly ruled  by  heretics,  by  Nestorians,  by  Macedonians. 
Let  all  Christian  hearts  reject  the  blasphemous  name. 
It  was  once  applied,  by  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  in 
honor  of  St.  Peter,  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome  ;  but  the 
more  humble  pontiffs  of  Rome  would  not  assume  a  title 
injurious  to  the  rest  of  the  priesthood.  I  am  but  the 
servant  of  those  priests  who  live  as  becomes  their  order. 
But  '  pride  goes  before  a  fall ; '  and  '  God  resisteth  tho 
proud,  but  giveth  grace  to  the  humble.'  "  ^ 

To  the  Empress  (for  on  all  religious  questions  the 
Empress  is  usually  addressed  as  well  as  the  Emperor), 
Gregory  brands  the  presumption  of  John  as  a  sign  of 
the  coming  of  Antichrist  ;  and  compares  it  to  that  of 
Satan,  who  aspired  to  be  higher  tlian  all  the  angels.^ 

Among  the  exhortations  to  humility  addressed  to 
John  himself,  he  urges  this  awful  example:  —  ''No  one 
in  the  Church  has  yet  sacrilegiously  dared  to  usurp  the 
name  of  Universal  Bishop.  Whoever  calls  himself 
Universal  Bishop  is  Antichrist."  ^  Gregory  appeals 
also  to  the  Bishops  of  Antioch  and  Alexandria  to 
unite  with  him  in  asserting  the  superior  dignity  of  St. 
Peter,  in  which  they  have  a  common  interest ;  and  it 
is  remarkable  with  what  address  he  endeavors  to  enlist 
ihose  prclntoT  in  hi-^  cause,  without  di-tinf^t^y  admitting 
theii  '  '  claim  to  the  inheritance  of  St.  Peter,  to 
which  .      iloch  at  least  might  adduce  a  plausible  title.^ 

1  Ei'ist.  Mjiuvii.  Auffusto.  Epist.  iv.  82. 
"^  A(l<3oB8*«nL.  Imperatiic,  Epist.  iv.  33. 
«  Joaimi  Cf.-^"  '    i— ^   ^^  38. 

*  "Itaqu"'  ■  >8t«>li,  pro  ipso  tamcn  p:  u  sola  aposto 

lonii.i  niiiK  :.  ,'U-  luiivnliiit  qiiiu  ii?  i  -CIS  unius  est 


Chap.  VU.     GREGORY   AS   TEMPORAL  SOVEREIGN.  73 

III.  In  tlie  person  of  Gregory  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
first  became,  in  act  and  in  influence,  if  not  in  Gregory  aa 

,  ,         .  ,  .  temporal 

avowed  autliority,  a  temporal  sovereign.  JN  or  sovereign. 
were  liis  acts  the  ambitious  encroachments  of  ecclesi- 
astical usurpation  on  tlie  civil  power.  They  were 
forced  upon  him  by  the  purest  motives,  if  not  by  ab- 
solute necessity.  The  virtual  sovereignty  fell  to  him 
as  abdicated  by  the  neglect  or  powerlessness  of  its 
riglitful  owners  :  he  must  assume  it,  or  leave  the  city 
and  the  people  to  anarchy.  He  alone  could  protect 
Rome  and  the  remnant  of  her  citizens  from  barbaric 
servitude  ;  his  authority  rested  on  the  universal  feeling 
of  its  beneficence  ;  his  title  was  the  security  afforded 
by  his  government. 

Nothing  could  appear  more  forlorn  and  hopeless  than 
the  state  of  Rome  on  the  accession  of  Gregory  to  the 
pontificate  —  continual  wars,  repeated  sieges,  the  cap- 
ture and  recapture  of  the  city  by  barbarian  Goths  and 
Vandals,  and  no  less  barbarous  Greeks.  ^  Fires,  tem- 
])ests,  inundations  had  raged  with  indiscriminating  fury. 
If  the  heathen  buildings  of  the  city  had  suffered  most, 
it  was  because,  from  their  magnitude  and  splendor, 
they  were  more  exposed  to  plunder  and  d;evastation. 
The  Christian  city  was  indebted  for  its  comparative 
security,  if  partially  to  its  sanctity,  in  a  great  degree 
to  its  humility.  Epidemic  plagues,  the  offspring  of 
these  calamities,  had  been  constantly  completing  the 
work  of  barbarian  enemies  and  of  the  destructive  ele- 
ments. 

.  .  Cum  ergo  unius  atque  una  sit  sedes,  cui  ex  auctoritate  divina  his  nunc 
episcopi  prfesident,  quicquid  ego  de  voLis  boni  audio,  hoc  niihi  iinputo,  quod 
de  me  boni  creditis  hoc  vestris  meritis  imputate." — Epist.  vi.  37. 

1  Denina  thinks  that  gi-eater  miseiy  was  mflicted  upon  Italy  by  the  Gre- 
cian  reconquest  than  by  any  other  invasion.  —  Revoluz.  d'  Italia,  t.  i.  1.  v 
p.  247 


74  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IIL 

After  the  pestilence  which  raged  at  the  accession  of 
Gregory  had  been  arrested  (an  event  attributed  no 
donbt  to  the  solemn  religions  ceremonies  of  the 
J^ishop),  his  first  care  was  that  of  a  prefect  of  the 
c  ity  —  to  supply  food  for  tlie  famishing  people.  This, 
as  has  been  shown,  was  chiefly  furnished  from  Sicily 
and  from  the  estates  of  the  Church.  Durino;  this 
whole  period  the  city  was  saved  from  the  horrors  of 
famine  only  by  the  wise  and  provident  regulations  of 
the  Pope.^ 

But  it  was  the  Lombard  invasion  which  compelled 
The  Lorn.  tlic  Pope  to  take  a  more  active  part  in  the 
bards.  affairs    of    Italy.       For    seven    and    twenty 

years,  says  Gregory,  we  have  lived  in  this  city  in  ter- 
ror of  the  sword  of  the  Lombards.  If  during  the  few 
later  years  of  Gregory's  pontificate  of  thirteen  years 
Rome  enjoyed  a  precarious  peace,  that  peace  it  owed 
to  the  intervention  of  her  Bishop. 

In  their  first  invasion  of  Italy,  under  Alboin,^  the 
Lombards  extended  their  conquests  as  far  as  Tuscany 
and  Umbria.  Rome,  Ravenna,  and  a  few  cities  on 
the  sea-coast,  alone  escaped  their  devastations,  and  re- 
mained uilder  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Exarch  of  Ra- 
venna, the  representative  of  the  Byzantine  empire. 
The  tragedy  of  Alboin's  death,  and  that  of  his  adul- 
terous Queen,  Rosmunda  ;  the  cup  made  out  of  her 
father's  skull,  with  which  Alboin  pledged  her  in  a 
public  banquet,  her  revenge,  her  own  murder  by  her 
guilty  paramour,  though  in  the  latter  event  the  Exarch 

1  Gregory,  in  a  letter  to  one  of  his  agents  in  Sicily,  writes  thus:  —  "Quia 
Bi  qnid  minus  hue  transniittetur,  non  unus  quilibet  homo,  sed  cunctus  simul 
populus  trucidatur."  —  Kpist.  i.  2. 

'-^  A.i>.  567,  twenty-three  years  before  the  popedom  of  Gregory,  A.D. 
590. 


Chap.  VII.  LO:\rBARD  INVASION.  75 

of  Ravenna  had  taken  part,  belong,  nevertheless,  to 
the  unmitigated  ferocity  of  the  barbarian.  The  Lom- 
bard host  comprehended  wild  hordes  of  Teutonic  or 
Sclavonian  tribes.^  They  occupied  all  the  cities  of 
northern  Italy,  to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  Lom- 
bardy ;  civilization  retreated  as  they  advanced ;  the 
bishop,  at  their  approach,  fled  from  Milan.  Nothing 
withheld  them  from  the  immediate  and  total  subjuga- 
tion of  Italy  but  their  wars  with  the  Franks  —  w^ars 
excited  by  the  intrigues  of  the  Byzantine  court,  who 
by  these  means  alone  averted  for  a  time  the  loss  of 
their  Italian  territories. 

After  the  short  reign  of  Cleph,  the  elected  successor 
of  Alboin,  the  kingdom  was  divided  into  a.d.  573. 
dukedoms,  and  these  martial  independent  princes  con- 
tinued to  extend  their  ravages  over  the  still  retiring 
limits  of  the  Roman  dominion.  They  compelled  the 
cultivators  of  the  soil  to  pay  a  third  part  of  their  prod- 
uce ;  they  plundered  churches  and  monasteries  with- 
out scruple  ;  massacred  the  clergy,  destroyed  the  cities, 
and  mowed  down  the  people  like  corn.^ 

The  perpetual  wars  with  the  Franks,  who  still  poured 
over  the  Alps,  demanded  from  the  Lombards  a.d.  684. 
a  firmer  government.  Autharis  was  raised  by  accla- 
mation to  the  Lombard  throne.  Within  his  own  do- 
minions the  reign  of  Autharis  was  that  of  pr-osperity 
and  peace.  So  only  can  any  truth  be  assigned  to  the 
jioetic  description  of  his  rule  by  the  Latin  historian  the 
Deacon  Paul,  in  whose  glowing  words  the  savage  and 
desolating  Lombards  almost  suddenly  became  an  order- 

1  "TJnde  usque  hodie  eorum  in  quibus  habitant  vicos,  Gepidos,  Bulgares, 
Sannatas,  Pannonios,  Suavos,  Noricos,  sive  aliis  hujuscemodi  uominibus  ap- 
pellamus."  —  Paul.  Dial,  de  Gestis  Longobard.,  ii.  26. 

2  De  Gestis  Longobard.,  ii.  32. 


76  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  HI. 

ly,  peaceful,  Cliristian  people.  "  Wonderful  was  tlie 
state  of  tlie  Lombard  kingdom :  violence  and  treachery 
were  alike  unknown  ;  no  one  oppressed,  no  one  plun- 
dered another  ;  thefts  and  robberies  were  unheard  of ; 
the  ti'aveller  went  wherever  he  would  in  perfect  secu- 
rity."^ How  strange  a  contrast  with  the  bitter  and 
unceasing  complaints  in  the  works  of  Gregory  of  the 
savage  manners,  remorseless  cruelties,  and  sacrilegious 
unpieties,  of  tliese  most  wicked  Lombards,-  tliese  hea- 
tlien  or  Arian  enemies  of  Rome  and  of  true  religion  ! 
During  a  period  of  cessation  in  his  wars  with  the 
Franks,  King  Autharis  swept  unresisted  over  the  whole 
of  Southern  Italy.  At  Reggio,  the  extreme  point,  the 
conqueror  rode  his  horse  into  the  sea,  and  with  liis 
spear  struck  a  column,  which  ha.d  been  erected  there, 
exclaiming,  "•  This  is  the  boundary  of  the  Lombard 
kingdom."  During  this  or  former  expeditions  Lom- 
bard dukedoms  had  been  fomided  in  the  south,  of 
which  the  most  formidable  were  those  of  Spoleto  and 
Benevento.  These  half-independent  chieftains  waged 
war  upon  the  Romans  ;  the  latter  especially  carried 
liis  ravages  to  the  gates  of  Rome. 

The  Italians  sent  earnest  supplications,  and  the  Pope 
pressing  message  after  message  for  succor,  to  the  suc- 
cessive Emperors,  Tiberius  and  Maurice.  The  Byzan- 
tine government  was  too  feeble,  or  too  much  occupied 
by  nearer  enemies,  to  render  effectual  aid  to  this  re- 
mote province :  their  allies,  the  Franks,  were  the 
only  safeguards  of  Italy. 

It  was  towards  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Autharis 
that    Gregory   became   bishop    of   the    plague-stricken 

1  Paul.  Diac.  iii.  16. 

^  "  Ncfaudibsimos  Loiubardos  "  is  Gregory's  standing  epithet. 


Chap.  VII.  PROCEEDINGS  OF  GREGORY.  77 


com- 

act 


city.  In  tlie  second  year  of  his  pontificate,  ^^^.^g^^y 
Agilulf  became  the  husband  of  Theodelinda,  f,f  £i,^o?af 
the  widow  of  Autharis,  and  king  of  the  ^'^'*'''^' 
Lombards. 1  Tlie  Exarch,  who  had  not  the  power 
to  avert,  had  tlie  folly  to  provoke  the  Lombards  to 
new  invasions.  He  surprised  Perugia  and  some  other 
cities,  and,  to  protect  them,  withdrew  great  part  of  the 
insufficient  garrison  of  Rome.  Agilulf  poured  hl^ 
unresisted  swarms  into  Southern  Italy.^ 

Already  had  Gregory  made  peace  with  one  formichi- 
ble  enemy,  Ariulf,  the  Duke  of  Spoleto.^  The  pred- 
atory bands  of  the  Lombard  had  threatened  the  city, 
where  the  walls  were  scarcely  manned  by  a  diminished 
and  unpaid  garrison.  Agilulf,  with  his  army,  appeared 
at  the  gates  of  Rome."*  Gregory  suddenly  brought  to 
an  end  his  exposition  of  the  Temple  of  Ezekiel,  on 
which  he  was  preaching  to  the  people.  His  work 
closes  with  these  words  :  —  "If  I  must  now  break 
off  my  discourse,  ye  are  my  witnesses  for  what  rea- 
son, ye  who  share  in  my  tribulations.  On  all  sides 
we  are  girt  with  war;    everywhere  is  the  imminent 

1  Gregory  ascribes  the  death  of  "  Nefandissimus"  Autharis  to  a  direct 
judgment  of  God,  for  liis  prohibiting  the  baptism  of  Lombard  children  in 
the  Catholic  faith,  "  pro  qua  culpa  eum  divina  majestas  extinxit."  Autharis 
was  reported  to  have  died  by  poison  (Epist.  i.  16,  Nov.-Dec.  590)  —  prob- 
ably an  idle  tale.  —  Paul.  Diac.  iii.  36. 

2  "  Non  Romanorum,"  wrote  Gregory,  "  sed  Longobardorum  episcopus 
factus  sum." 

3  Gregory's  letter  to  the  Archbishop  of  Ravenna  shows  how  these  affairs 
were  thrown  upon  hira.  "  Movere  vos  non  debet  Romani  patricii  ani- 
mositas.  Age  cum  eo  ut  pacem  cum  Ariulpho  faciamus,  quia  miles  de 
Roma  ablatus  est.  Theodosiani  vero,  qui  remanserunt.  rogam  non  acci- 
pientes  vix  ad  murorum  custodiara  se  accommodant,  et  destituta  ab  omni- 
bus civitas,  si  pacem  non  habet,  quomodo  subsistat?"  —  Epist.  ii.  32. 

4  Chronologists  differ  as  to  the  date  of  this  siege.  Sigonius  gives  594, 
Baronius  595  I  should  agree  with  Muratori  for  592,  oi  at  latest  593. 
Jaffe  dates  it  592,  July.  —  Epist.  ii.  40. 


T8  LATIN    CIIPJSTIANITY.  Book  III. 

peril  of  dcatli.  Some  return  to  us  with  their  hands 
cliopped  off,  some  are  reported  as  captives,  others  as 
slain.  I  am  constrained  to  cease  from  my  exposition, 
for  I  am  weary  of  life.  Who  can  expect  me  now  to 
devote  myself  to  sacred  eloquence,  now  that  my  harp 
is  turned  to  mourning,  and  my  speech  to  the  voice  of 
them  that  weep  ?  "  ^ 

At  least,  by  encouraging  the  commanders  of  the 
Gregory  de-  garrisou,  who  sccm  to  have  done  their  duty, 
fends  Rome.  Q^^ggory  Contributed  to  avert  the  impending 
capture  of  the  city.  While  all  the  Romans,  even  tliose 
of  the  highest  rank  and  family,  without  the  city,  were 
dragged  like  dogs  into  captivity ,2  at  least  those  within 
were  in  safety,  and  owed  their  safety  to  the  Pope ;  and 
the  pacific  influence  which  Gregory  obtained  in  this 
momentous  crisis  led,  after  some  years,  to  a  definitive 
treaty  of  peace.^ 

Yet  while  Gregory  was  thus  exercising  the  real 
power,  and  performing  the  protecting  part  of  a  sov- 
ereign, the  Exarch,  the  feeble  and  insolent  Romaiuis, 
affected  to  despise  the  weakness  of  Gregory,  in  supj)os- 
ing  the  barbarous  Lombards  disposed  to  peace.^  The 
Emperor  Maurice,  safe  in  his  palace  at  Constantino])le, 
looked  with  jealousy  on  the  proceedings  of  Gregory, 


1  Job.  XXX.  31,  Exposit.  in  Ezekiel.  sub  fin. 

2  It  is  not  quite  clear  at  wbat  period  the  noble  Romans,  whom  Gregory 
was  anxious  to  ransom  from  the  nefandissimi  Lombardi,  were  carried  into 
captivity  upon  the  taking  of  Crotona.  —  Epi^t.  vi.  23. 

3  Sigonius  places  the  final  peace  in  590;  so  also  JaflTe,  March.  —  Epist. 
ix.  42. 

4  According  to  Gregory,  the  oppressions  of  the  Exarchs  were  even  worse 
than  the  hostilities  of  the  Lombards.  "  Quia  ejus  in  nos  malitia  gladios 
Longobardorum  vicit:  ita  ut  benigniores  vidoantur  hostes,  qui  nos  interi- 
nuint  quam  reipublicte  judices,  qui  nos  nialitia  sua,  rapinis  atqae  faUacii.s 
in  cogitatione  consumunt."  —  Epist.  ad  Sebast.  Episc.  vi.  42. 


Chap.  VII.        CONVERSION  OF  THE  LOMBARDS.  79 

who  thus  presumed  to  save  the  narrow  remnant  of  his 
dominions  without  his  sanction,  and  disowned  the 
peace,  made,  it  should  seem,  by  Gregory  on  his  own 
authority. 1  Gregory,  indeed,  according  to  his  own 
statement,  possessed  greater  powers  than  he  displayed. 
The  fate  of  the  whole  Lombard  race  depended  on  his 
will.  On  the  occasion  of  a  charge  made  against  hlni^ 
as  having  been  accessory  to  the  death  of  a  bishop, 
he  is  not  content  with  repelling  the  accusation  as 
false  and  alien  to  his  humane  disposition,  but  he  de- 
sires the  Emperor  to  be  reminded,  that  if  he  had  been 
disposed  to  mingle  himself  up  with  the  death  of  the 
Lombards,  the  nation  would  have  been  without  king, 
duke,  or  count,  and  would  haA^e  fallen  into  utter  con- 
fusion. But  the  fear  of  God  had  forbidden  him  to  be 
concerned  in  the  death  of  any  human  being.^  It  is 
difficult  to  reject  this  as  an  idle  boast ;  more  difficult 
to  fix  any  period  or  to  point  to  any  juncture  in  which 
the  Pope's  humanity  was  exposed  to  this  temptation. 

But  it  is  most  singular  that  the  influence  of  Gregory 
was  obtained  by  means  not  only  more  mild  conversion  of 

,,..  I  -,  T    '  Ti'     Lombards. 

and  legitnnate,  but  purely  religious.  In  their  March,  599. 
very  hour  of  conquest  he  was  subduing  the  conqueror. 
While  the  Lombard  king  was  at  the  gates  of  Rome, 
at  the  head  of  a  hostile  and  ferocious  army,  Gregory 
was  pursuing  t^ie  triumphs  of  the  Catholic  faith,  en- 
tertaining a  friendly  correspondence  with  the  orthodox 

A  Epist.  V.  40:  compare  v.  42. 

2  "  Quod  breviter  suggeras  domino  nostro,  quia  si  ego  sen'-us  eorum  in 
morte  Longobardorum  miscere  me  voluissem,  hodie  Longobardorum  gens 
nee  Regem,  nee  Duces  nee  Comites  haberet,  atque  in  simima  confusione 
esset  divisa."  —  Epist.  vii.  1,  ad  Sabin.,  quoted  also  in  Paul.  Diacon.  This 
eeems  to  point  at  some  conspiracy  devised  to  massacre  the  Lombard  chiefs. 
It  cannot  mean  any  fanatic  confidence  iji  his  own  prayers,  as  of  power  tc 
piuck  down  divine  vengeance  upon  Ihem. 


80  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

Queen  Tlieodelinda,  and  beginning,  at  least,  to  wean 
the  sovereign  and  liis  snhjects  from  wliat  he  thought^ 
doubtless,  the  worst  part  of  their  character,  their 
Arianism.  TheodeHnda  was  a  Bavarian  princess,  bred 
up  in  Trinitarian  belief,  and  to  her  Gregory  appeals 
to  show  her  genuine  Christianity  by  her  love  of  peace. 
Great  would  be  her  reward  if  she  should  check  the 
prodigal  effusion  of  blood.  To  Tlieodelinda  Greg- 
ory addressed  his  memorable  Dialogues  ;  and  perhaps 
the  best  excuse  which  can  be  made  for  the  wild  and 
extravagant  legends  thus  stamped  with  his  authority, 
and  related  apparently  with  such  undoubting  faith,  may 
be  found  in  the  person  to  whom  he  dedicated  this 
work.  They  might  be,  if  not  highly  colored,  selected 
with  less  scruple  in  order  to  impress  the  Lombard 
queen  with  the  wonder-working  power  of  the  Roman 
clergy,  of  the  orthodox  monks  and  bishops  of  Italy. 
Profound  as  was  the  superstition  of  Gregory,  many  of 
these  stories  need  some  such  palliation.^ 

Gregory  employed  the  influence  which  he  had  ob- 
tained over  Queen  Theodelinda  not  merely  to  secure 
for  Rome  the  blessings  of  peace  ;  through  him  like- 
wise, according  to  the  annalist  of  the  Lombards,  from 
heathens,  or,  at  most  Arians,  who  paid  no  regard  to 
the  sacred  possessions,  the  edifices,  or  the  ministers  of 
the  Church,  the  whole  nation,  witli  Agilulf,  their 
king,  became  orthodox  Christians.  Agilulf  restored 
the  wealth  which  he  had  plundered  from  the  chui'ches, 
reinstated  the  ejected   bishops,   and  raised  those  who 


1  Some  writers  have  endeavored  to  relieve  the  memory  of  Gregory  the 
Great  fi-om  the  authnrsiiip  of  the  Dialoi^ues.  But  there  can  be  no  reason- 
able doubt  of  their  aiilhonticity ;  they  are  entirely  in  his  style  and  manner, 
and  alluded  to  more  than  once  in  his  unquestioned  writings. 


Chap.  VII.      IMPERIAL    LAW   ABOUI    MONASTICS.  81 

had  remained  in  their  sees  from  abject  poverty  and 
degradation  to  dignity  and  power.^  At  what  period 
this  conversion  took  place  it  is  difficult  to  decide ; 
throuo-hout  Greo-orv's  wntincrs  the  Lombards  are  men- 
tioned  with  unmitigated  abhorrence ;  it  could  only, 
therefore,  be  towards  the  close  of  his  life  that  this 
important  event  can  be  thought  possible. 

Still,  however,  Gregory  acknowledged  himself  a  sul>- 
ject  of  the  Emperor.  Though  constrained  to  negotiate 
a  separate  peace,  this  measure  was  submissively  excused 
as  compelled  by  hard  necessity.  Even  in  his  strongest 
act  of  opposition  to  the  Byzantine  coui-t,  in  which  tho 
civil  power  of  the  Emperor  and  tlie  monastic  spirit 
of  the  Pope  seemed  to  meet  in  irreconcilable  hos- 
tilitv,  his  resistance  to  the  law  which    pro-  imperial  law 

..,.*'      -,         ,  -.  ,,  n     1  !•  1   about  mon;is 

hibited  soldiers  actually  enrolled  or  enlisted  tks. 
by  a  mark  on  the  hand  from  deserting  their  duty  to 
their  country  and  taking  refuge  in  monasteries,  Greg- 
ory did  not  dare  to  resist  the  publication  of  the  edict.^ 
His  language  is  that  of  supplication  rather  than  re- 
monstrance ;  the  humble  expostulation  of  a  subject, 
not  the  bold  assertion  of  spiritual  power.  "  I  confess, 
my  Sovereigns,  that  I  am  struck  with  terror  at  this 
edict,  by  which  heaven  is  closed  against  so  many ;  and 
that  which  before  was  lawful  to  all,  is  prohibited  to 
some.  Many,  indeed,  may  lead  a  religious  life  in  a 
secular  habit,  but  the  most  of  men  cannot  be  saved 
before  God  but  by  leaving  all  they  have.  What  am 
I,  who  thus  address  my  Sovereigns?  Dust,  and  a 
worm  !  But  I  cannot  be  silent  before  my  Sovereicrns, 
because  this  edict  is  directed  against  God,  the  author 

1  Paull.  Diac.  iv.  6. 

2  This  edict  dates  593.     Gregory's  letter,  Aug.  593.  —  Jaffe- 


82  LATIN   CimiSTIANITY.  Book  Hi 

of  all  tilings.  Power  was  given  to  my  Sovereigns 
over  all  men,  to  assist  the  good,  to  open  Avide  the  way 
to  heaven  ;  and  that  the  kino-dom  of  earth  mi^ht  be 
subservient  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  And  now,  be- 
hold, it  is  proclaimed  that  no  one  who  is  marked  as  an 
earthly  soldier,  unless  he  has  completed  his  service, 
or  is  discharged  from  infirmity,  shall  be  allowed  to  be 
a  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ.  To  this  Christ  answers,  by 
me,  the  lowliest  of  his  servants  and  ycurs:  'From 
a  notary  I  made  you  captain  of  the  guards ;  fi'om 
captain  of  the  guards,  Csesar  ;  from  Caesar,  emperor  ; 
and,  more  than  that,  the  father  of  emperors.  I  com- 
mended my  priests  to  your  care,  and  you  withdraw 
your  soldiers  from  my  service.'  Tell  your  servant 
what  answer  you  will  make  to  the  Lord  when  he 
comes  to  judgment.  It  is  supposed,  perhaps,  that 
such  conversions  are  not  sincere ;  but  I,  your  unwor- 
thy servant,  know  many  converted  soldiers  who  in 
our  own  days  have  worked  miracles  and  done  many 
signs  and  wonders.  And  will  you  prohibit  the  con- 
version of  such  men  by  law  ?  Inquire  what  emperor 
it  was  that  first  issued  such  a  statute.^  Consider  seri- 
ously, is  this  the  time  to  ])rohibit  men  from  lea  vino 
the  world,  when  tlie  end  of  the  world  is  at  hand'r 
But  a  short  time,  and  the  earth  and  the  heavens  will 
burn,  and  among  the  blazing  elements,  amid  angels 
and  archangels,  and  thrones  and  dominions,  and  prin- 
cipalities and  powers,  the  terrible  Judge  will  a]  pear. 
And  what,  if  all  your  sins  be  remitted  and  this  law 


i  The  allusion  is  tu  Julian  the  Apostate.  —  See  Epist.  65.  In  the  same 
letter  Gregory  asserts  tlie  temporal  dominion  of  the  sovereign  in  still 
stronger  terms.  "  Qui  dominari  eum  non  sohnn  militibus,  sed  etiaic 
tsaterdotibus  concessit." 


CnAi'.  VII.  USURPATION   OF  PllOCAS.  83 

rise  u})  against  you,  will  be  your  excuse  ?  By  that 
terrible  Judge  I  beseecli  you,  let  not  so  many  tears, 
so  many  prayers,  and  alms,  and  fastings  be  obscured 
before  the  sight  of  God.  Either  mitigate  or  alter  this 
law.  The  armies  of  my  Sovereigns  will  be  strengthened 
against  their  enemies  in  proportion  as  the  armies  of 
God,  whose  warfare  is  by  prayer,  are  increased.  I, 
who  am  subject  to  your  authority,  have  commanded 
the  law  to  be  transmitted  throughout  the  empire,  but 
I  have  also  avowed  to  my  Sovereigns  that  I  esteem  it 
displeasing  to  God.  I  have  done  my  duty  in  both 
cases ;  I  have  obeyed  the  Emperor,  and  not  com- 
promised my  reverence  for  God."  ^ 

The  darkest  stain  on  the  name  of  Gregory  is  his 
cruel  and  unchristian  triumph  in  the  fall  of  usurpation 
the  Emperor  Maurice  —  his  base  and  adula-  ""^  ^^'"'''^''■ 
tory  praise  of  Pliocas,  the  most  odious  and  sanguinaiy 
tyrant  who  had  ever  seized  the  throne  of  Constantino- 
ple. It  is  the  worst  homage  to  religion  to  vindicate  or 
even  to  excuse  the  crimes  of  religious  men  ;  and  the 
apologetic  palliation,  or  even  the  extenuation  of  tlieir 
misdeeds  rarely  succeeds  in  removing,  often  strength- 
ens, the  unfavorable  impression. 

The  conduct  of  the  Emperor  Maurice  to  Gregory 
had  nothing  of  that  vigor  or  generosity  which  had 
commended  him  to  his  Eastern  subjects,  while  the  ava- 
rice which  had  estranged  their  affections  contributed 
manifestly  towards  the  abandonment  of  Italy  to  the 
Lombard  invader.  Gregory  owed  not  his  elevation  to 
Maurice.  The  cold  consent  of  the  Byzantine  Em- 
peror had  ratified  his  election,  and  from  that  time  the 
Emperor  had  treated  him  with  neglect  and  contemj)t. 

1  Ad  Maurit.  Iniperat.  —  Epist.  ii.  62. 


84  LATIN   CnmSTlANlTY.  Book  IIT 

On  one  occasion  Maurice  had  called  him  in  plain  terms 
a  fool  for  allowing  himself  to  be  imposed  npon  by  the 
craft  of  the  Lombard  Ariulf.  "  A  fool  indeed  I  am." 
replied  Gregory,  ''  to  suflPer,  as  I  do,  among  the  swords 
of  the  Lombards."  ^  Throuo-hont  his  reign  Maurice 
had  impotently  resented  the  enforced  interference  of 
Gregory  in  temporal  affairs.  He  had  thwarted  and 
repudiated  his  negotiations,  by  which  Rome  was  saved. 
The  only  act  of  vigor  by  which  the  Emperor  had  at- 
tempted to  recruit  his  Italian  armies  had  been  that 
which  Gregory  in  his  monastic  severity  had  denounced 
as  a  flagrant  impiety.  Maurice  had,  at  least,  connived 
at  the  arrogant  usurpation  of  the  title  of  Universal 
Bishop  by  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  even  if  he 
had  not  deliberately  sanctioned  it.^ 

Could  it  be  expected  that  Gregory  should  rise  supe- 
rior to  all  these  causes  of  animosity ;  that  he  shoulc 
altogether  suppress  or  disguise  what  might  appear  his 
patriotic  and  religious  hopes  from  a  change  of  djmasty  ? 
Such  revolutions  were  of  so  frequent  occurrence  on 
the  throne  of  Byzantium  as  to  awaken  little  surprise 
and  less  sympathy,  in  the  remote  provinces  ;  and  the 
allegiance  of  Italy  was  but  of  recent  date  —  an  alle- 
giance which  subjected  the  land  to  all  the  tyranny  and 
oppression,  and  afforded  none  of  the  protection  and 
security,  of  a  regular  government. 

^  Epist.  iv.  31.  The  craft  whicli  has  been  imputed  to  Gregory  may  per- 
haps be  traced  in  this  remarkable  letter.  He  acknowledges  himself  and 
the  priesthood  in  general  subject  to  the  censure  of  the  emperor.  "  Sed  ex- 
cellenti  consideratione  propter  eum  cujiis  servi  sunt,  eis  ila  dominetur,  ut 
etiam  (IchUinn  rerereutiam  impendat.  Nam  in  divinis  eloquiis  sacei'dotea 
aliquando  dii,  ali<iuando  angeli  vocantur." 

2  Maurice,  according  to  the  biographer  of  Gregory,  had  meditated  more 
violent  hostility  against  the  I'ope,  but  had  been  deterred  by  the  alarming 
prophecy  tf  a  monk. —  Vit.  Grog. 


Chap.  VII.  DEATH  OF  MAURICE.  85 

At  the  time  of  his  Insurrection  Phocas  was  an  un 
distinguished  soldier,  raised  by  the  acclamations  of  the 
army  to  the  post  of  peril  and  honor ;  ^  his  mean  and 
cruel  character,  even  his  repulsive  and  hideous  person, 
might  be  unknown  in  Rome ;  and  Gregory  might  sup- 
pose that  In  such  an  exigency  the  choice  of  the  army 
would  not  fall  upon  a  man  without  courage,  energy, 
or  ability.  It  was  no  uncommon  event  in  the  annals 
of  the  empire  to  transfer  the  diadem  to  some  bold  mil- 
itary adventurer ;  Rome  and  Constantinople  owed  some 
of  their  best  rulers  to  such  revolutions. 

But  the  common  usage  of  such  revolutions  could  not 
vindicate  to  a  Christian  prelate  the  barbarities  with 
whicli  Maurice  and  his  Infant  family  were  put  to 
death ;  and  the  high-wrought  resignation  of  Maurice, 
it  might  have  been  supposed,  would  awaken  ardent  ad- 
miration In  a  mind  like  Gregory's.  "  If  he  is  a  cow- 
ard, he  wdll  be  a  murderer !  "  such  was  the  prophetic 
language  of  Maurice  concerning  the  successful  usurper. 
Maurice  had  taken  refuge  In  a  sanctuary  ;  but  when 
Phocas  appeared  as  Emperor  at  the  gates,  when.  In 
discharge  of  the  first  Imperial  duty  at  Constantinople, 
he  interfered  between  the  blue  and  the  green  factions 
in  the  Circus,  which  still  excited  fiercer  animosities 
than  those  of  the  state,  the  Blues,  against  whom  the 
usurper  took  part,  broke  out  Into  menacing  and  signifi- 
cant shouts,  "Maurice  Is  not  dead!"     Phocas  imme- 


1  Theophylact,  viii.  1,  vol.  i.  p.  706,  edit.  Bonn.  His  person  and  charac- 
ter are  thus  described  by  the  hatred  of  later  writers.  He  was  short,  de- 
formed, with  a  fierce  look,  and  red  hair,  with  his  brows  meeting  and  his 
chm  shaved.  He  had  a  scar  on  his  cheek,  which  looked  black  when  he 
was  angry.  He  was  a  drunkard,  leAvd,  sanguinary,  stern  and  savage  in 
speech,  pitiless,  brutal,  and  a  heretic!  His  wife  Leonto  Avas  as  bad.— 
Cedren.  Lib.  i.  p.  708. 


8Q  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

diately  ordered  the  fallen  emperor  to  be  drao:o;ed  fi-om 
his  sanctuary.  His  five  sons  were  butchered  before 
his  face.  The  unmoved  and  tearless  father,  as  each 
received  the  fatal  blow,  exclaimed,  "  Just  art  thou,  O 
Lord,  and  righteous  are  thy  judgments ! "  With  a 
sterner  feeling  of  self-sacrifice,  if  it  were  not,  indeed, 
despair  which  took  the  form  of  frenzy,  he  betrayed  the 
pious  fraud  of  a  nurse,  who  had  substituted  her  own 
child  for  the  youngest  of  the  Emperor.  Maurice  was 
beheaded  the  last ;  ^  the  heads  were  cast  before  the 
throne  of  Phocas,  who  would  not  allow  them,  till  com- 
pelled by  their  offensiveness,  to  be  buried. 

The  intelligence  of  these  events,  with  most,  at  least, 
of  their  revolting  circumstances,  must  have  arrived  at 
Rome  at  the  same  time  with  that  of  the  fall  of  Maurice 
and  the  elevation  of  Phocas.  It  is  astonishing  that 
even  common  prudence  did  not  temper  the  language 
of  the  triumphant  Pontiff,  who  launches  out  into  a 
panegyric  on  the  mercy  and  benignity  of  the  usurper, 
calls  on  earth  and  heaven  to  rejoice  at  his  accession, 
augurs  peace  and  prosperity  to  the  empire  from  his 
pious  acts,  and  even  seems  to  anticipate  the  return  of 
the  old  republican  freedom  under  the  rule  of  the  devout 
and  gentle  Phocas.^ 

1  According  to  the  biographer,  Maurice  owed  profound  obligations  to 
Gregory,  which  might  overbalance  such  merciless  rejoicings  at  his  worldly 
fate.  He  owed  his  eternal  salvation  to  the  prayer  of  Gregory.  "  Et  quia 
oratio  Gregorii,  qua  ilium  petierat  in  terribili  Dei  judicio  liberum  ab  omni- 
bus delictis  inveniri,  vacua  esse  non  potuit:  idem  Mauricius  id  recepit  quod 
meruit  et  in  cunctis  snis  incommodis  Deum  benedicens,  a  sempiteni)  sup- 
plicio  meruit  liberari." — Joaan.  Diac.  iii.  19. 

■•^  " Lajtentur  ccjeli  et  exultet  terra;  et  de  benignis  vestris  actibus  universae 
reipublicjB  populus,  nunc  usque  vehementer  alhictus,  hilarescat.  .  .  .  Hoc 
namque  inter  reges  gentium  et  reipublicae  Imperatores  distat,  quod  regea 
gentium  domini  servorum  sunt;  Imperatores  voro  reipublicie  domini  libe- 
rorum."  —  Epist.  xi.  38, 


Chap.YII.  death  of  GREGORY.  87 

The  sad  tnith  is,  tliat  Gregory  was  blinded  by  the 
one  great  absorbing  object,  the  interest  of  the  June,  603. 
Church,  which  to  him  involved  the  interest  of  religion, 
of  mankind,  and  of  God.  Loyalty,  justice,  candor, 
even  humanity,  yielded  to  the  dominant  feeling.  Mau- 
rice was  not  above  suspicion  of  heresy ;  the  unscrupu- 
lous hostility,  no  doubt,  of  political  enemies  taunted 
him  as  a  Marcionist.  At  all  events,  he  had  counte- 
nanced the  usurpation  of  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople. 
John  of  Constantinople,  with  his  sanction,  called  him- 
self Universal  Bishop.  The  new  emperor,  out  of 
enmity  to  the  old,  would  probably  espouse  the  opposite 
side.  Already  Phocas  seems  to  have  invited  in  some 
way  the  adulation  of  Gregory ;  and  reverence  for  the 
see  of  Rome,  obedience  to  legitimate  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority, were  in  themselves,  or  gave  the  promise  of, 
such  transcendant  virtues,  that  rebellion,  murder,  bru- 
tal barbarity,  were  overlooked,  as  the  accidental  result 
of  circumstances,  the  ine^^itable  evils  of  a  beneficial 
revolution.  So  completely,  by  this  time,  had  the  sa- 
cerdotal   obtained    the    superiority    over   the  Phocas 

1     •     n  n   /-i^      '      ■        '  i  Emperor. 

moral  nitluence  ot  Christianity,  that  even  a  a.d.  602-610. 
man  of    Gregory's  unquestioned   Christian  gentleness 
and  natural  humanity  could  not  escape  the  predomi- 
nant passion. 

Gregory  was  spared  the  pain  and  shame  of  w^itness- 
ing  the  utter  falsehood  of  his  pious  vaticinations  as  to 
the  glorious  and  holy  reign  of  Phocas.  Tn  the  second 
year  of  the  tyrant's  reign  he  closed  the  thirteen  im- 
portant years  of  his  pontificate.  The  ungrateful  Ro- 
mans paid  but  tardy  honors  to  his  memory.  Death  of  Gre- 
His  death  was  followed  by  a  famine,  which  10, 604.' 
die  starving  multitude  attributed  to  his  wasteful  dilapi- 


88  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  HI. 

elation  of  the  patrimony  of  the  Church  —  that  patri 
mony  which  had  been  so  carefully  administered,  and 
so  rehgiously  devoted  to  their  use.  Nothing  can  give 
a  baser  notion  of  their  deo;radation  than  their  actions. 
They  proceeded  to  wreak  their  vengeance  on  the 
library  of  Gregory,  and  were  only  deterred  from  their 
barbarous  ravages  by  the  interposition  of  Peter,  the 
I'aithful  archdeacon.  Peter  had  been  interlocutor  of 
Gregory  in  the  wild  legends  contained  in  the  Dia- 
logues. The  archdeacon  now  assured  the  populace  of 
Rome  that  he  had  often  seen  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  the 
visible  shape  of  a  dove,  hovering  over  the  head  of 
Gregory  as  he  wrote.  Gregory's  successor  therefore 
hesitated,  and  demanded  that  Peter  should  confirm  his 
pious  fiction  or  fancy  by  an  oath.  He  ascended  the 
2)ulpit,  but  before  he  had  concluded  his  solemn  oath  he 
fell  dead.  That  which  to  an  hostile  audience  might  have 
been  a  manifest  judgment  against  perjury,  was  received 
as  a  divine  testimony  to  his  truth.^  The  Roman 
Church  has  constantly  permitted  Gregory  to  be  repre- 
sented with  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  a  dove,  floating  over 
his  head.2 

A  Joann.  Diacon.  Vit.  iv.  00. 

2  I  am  disposed  to  insert  the  epitaph  on  Gregory  as  an  example  of  lh« 
poetry  and  of  the  religious  sentiment  of  the  times:  — 

Suscipe,  terra,  tuo  corpus  de  corpore  sumptum, 

Reddere  quod  valeas,  vivificaiite  Deo. 
Spiritus  alta  petit,  leti  niljura  nocebunt, 

Cui  vitae  alterius  mors  magis  ilia  via  est. 
Pontiflcis  suumii  hoc  clauduntur  membra  sepulcro. 

Qui  innuiiieris  semper  vivit  ubique  bonis. 
Esuriem  dapibus  superavit,  frigora  veste, 

Atque  animas  monitis  texit  ab  hoste  suis. 
Implebatque  actu  quicquid  scrmone  docebat, 

Ess(!t  ufc  exemplum  mysti(^a  verba  loqueus. 
Anglos  ad  (Ihristum  vertit,  pietate  miuistri, 

Acquireus  fideique  agmiiia  geute  nova. 


Chav.  VII.       EPOCH  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT.  89 

Tlie  historian  of  Christianity  is  arrested  by  certain 
characters  and  certain  epochs,  which  stand  as  land- 
marks between  the  close  of  one  ao;e  of  relisiion  and 
the  commencement  of  another.  Such  a  character  is 
Gregory  the  Great ;  such  an  epoch  his  pontificate,  the 
termination  of  the  sixth  century. 

Gregory,  not  from  his  station  alone,  but  by  the  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  admiring  world,  was  intellect- 
ually, as  well  as  spiritually,  the  gi-eat  model  of  his 
age.  He  was  proficient  in  all  the  arts  and  sciences 
cultivated  at  that  time  ;  the  vast  volumes  of  his  writ- 
ings show  his  indefatigable  powers  ;  their  popularity 
and  their  authority  his  ability  to  clothe  those  thoughts 
and  those  reasonings  in  language  which  would  awaken 
and  command  the  general  mind. 

His  epoch  was  that  of  the  final  Christianization  of 
the  world,  not  in  outward  worship  alone,  not  in  its 
establishment  as  the  imperial  religion,  the  rise  of  the 
church  upon  the  ruin  of  the  temple,  and  the  recog- 
nition of  the  hierarchy  as  an  indispensable  rank  in  the 
social  system,  but  in  its  full  possession  of  the  whole 
mind  of  man,  in  letters,  arts  as  far  as  arts  were  culti- 
vated, habits,  usages,  modes  of  thought,  and  in  popular 
superstition. 

Not  only  was  heathenism,  but,  excepting  in  the  laws 
and  municipal  institutions,  Romanity  itself  absolutely 
extinct.  The  reign  of  Theodoric  had  been  an  at- 
tempt to  fuse  together  Roman,  Teutonic,  and  Chris- 
tian usages.     Cassiodorus,  though  half  a  monk,  aspired 

Hie  labor,  hoc  studium,  haec  tibi  cura,  hoc,  pastor,  agebas, 

Ut  Domini  ofiFerres  plurima  lucra  greges. 
Hisque  Dei  consul  factus  laetare  triumphis, 

Nam  mercedem  operum  jam  sine  fine  tenes. 

Remark  Che  old  Roman  image  in  the  last  line  but  one. 


90  LATIN    CHPJSTIANITT.  Book  IH. 

to  be  a  Roman  statesman,  Boetliius  to  be  a  heathen^ 
philosopher.  The  influence  of  the  Roman  scliools  of 
rhetoric  is  betrayed  even  in  the  writers  of  Gaul,  such 
as  Sidonius  Apollinaris  ;  there  is  an  attempt  to  preserve 
some  lingering  cadence  of  Roman  poetry  in  the  Chris- 
tian versifiers  of  that  age.  At  the  close  of  the  sixth 
century  all  this  has  expired ;  ecclesiastical  Latin  is 
the  only  language  of  letters,  or  rather,  letters  them- 
selves are  become  purely  ecclesiastical.  The  fable  of 
Gregorj^'s  destruction  of  the  Palatine  Library  is  now- 
rejected,  as  injurious  to  his  fame ;  but  probably  the  Pal- 
atine Library,  if  it  existed,  would  have  been  so  utterly 
neglected  that  Gregory  would  hardly  have  condescended 
to  fear  its  influence.  His  aversion  to  such  studies  is  not 
that  of  dread  or  hatred,  but  of  religious  contempt ;  pro- 
fane letters  are  a  disgrace  to  a  Christian  bishop ;  the 
truly  religious  spirit  would  loathe  them  of  itself.^ 

What,  then,  was  this  Christianity  by  which  Gregory 
ruled  the  world  ?  Not  merely  the  speculative  and  dog- 
matic theology,  but  the  popular,  vital,  active  Chris- 
tianity, which  was  working  in  the  heart  of  man  ;  the 
dominant  motive  of  his  actions,  as  far  as  they  were 
affected  by  religion  ;  the  principal  element  of  his  hopes 
and  fears  as  regards  the  invisible  world  and  that  future 
life  which  had  now  become  part  of  his  conscious  belief. 

The  history  of  Christianity  cannot  be  understood 
without  pausing  at  stated  periods  to  survey  the  prog- 
christian  ^^^^  ^^^^  development  of  this  Christian  my- 
mythoiogy.      thology,  wluch,   gradually  growing   up   and 

1  See  the  pious  wonder  with  which  he  reproves  a  bishop  of  Gaul.  "  Post 
naec  pervenit  ad  uos  quod  sine  verecunrJid  memorare  non  possum  us,  fraterni- 
tatem  tuam  grammaticam  quibusdam  exponere.  .  .  .  Quam  grave  nefan- 
dum([ue  sit  episcopos  caiiere,  quod  nee  laico  religiose  conveniat,  ipse  con* 
hidera."  —  Epist.  ix.  48. 


Chap.  VII.  CHRISTIAN  MYTHOLOGY.  91 

springing  as  it  did  from  natural  and  universal  instincts, 
took  a  more  perfect  and  systematic  form,  and  at  length, 
at  the  lielght  of  the  Middle  Ages,  was  as  much  a  part 
of  Latin  Christianity  as  the  primal  truths  of  the  Gos- 
pel. This  growth,  which  had  long  before  begun,  had 
reached  a  kind  of  adolescence  in  the  age  of  Gregory, 
to  expand  into  full  maturity  during  succeeding  ages. 
Already  the  creeds  of  the  Church  formed  but  a  small 
portion  of  Christian  belief.  The  highest  and  most 
speculative  questions  of  theology,  especially  In  Alexan- 
dria and  Constantinople,  had  become  watchwords  of 
strife  and  faction,  had  stirred  the  passions  of  the  lowest 
orders ;  the  two  Natures,  or  the  single  or  double  Will 
in  Christ,  had  agitated  the  workshop  of  the  artisan  and 
the  seats  In  the  Circus.  But  when  these  great  ques- 
tions had  sunk  into  quiescence,  or,  as  in  Latin  Chris- 
tianity, had  never  so  fully  occupied  the  general  mind ; 
when  either  the  triumph  of  one  party,  or  the  general 
weariness,  had  worn  out  their  absorbing  interest,  the 
religious  mind  subsided  Into  its  more  ordinary  occupa- 
tions, and  these  bore  but  remote  relation  to  the  sublime 
truths  of  the  Divine  Unity  and  the  revelation  of  God 
in  Christ.  As  God  the  Father  had  receded,  as  It  were, 
from  the  sight  of  man  Into  a  vague  and  unapproachable 
sanctity  ;  as  the  human  soul  had  been  entirely  centred 
on  the  more  immediate  divine  presence  in  the  Saviour  ; 
so  the  Saviour  himself  might  seem  to  withdraw  from 
the  actual,  at  least  the  exclusive,  devotion  of  the  hu- 
man heart,  which  was  busied  with  intermediate  objects 
of  worship.  Christ  assumed  gradually  more  and  more 
of  the  awfulness,  the  immateriality,  the  incomprehen- 
sibleness,  of  the  Deity,  and  men  sought  out  beings 
more  akin  to  themselves,  more  open,  It  might  seem. 


92  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  in. 

to  human  sympathies.  The  Eucharist,  in  which 
the  Redeemer's  spiritual  presence,  yet  undefined  and 
untransubstantiated,  was  directly  and  immediately  in 
communicn  with  the  soul,  had  become  more  and  more 
wrapt  in  mystery  ;  though  the  great  crowTiing  act  of 
faith,  the  interdiction  of  which  was  almost  tantamount 
to  a  sentence  of  spiritual  death,  it  was  more  rarely  ap- 
proached, except  by  the  clergy.  Believers  delighted 
in  those  ceremonials  to  which  they  might  have  re- 
course with  less  timidity;  the  shrines  and  the  relics 
of  martyrs  might  deign  to  receive  the  homage  of  those 
who  were  too  profane  to  tread  the  holier  ground.  Al- 
ready the  worship  of  these  lower  objects  of  homage 
begins  to  intercept  that  to  the  higher;  the  popular 
mind  is  filling  with  images  either  not  suggested  at  all, 
or  suggested  but  very  dimly,  by  the  sacred  writings  ; 
legends  of  saints  are  supplanting,  or  rivalling  at  least, 
in  their  general  respect  and  attention,  the  narratives 
of  the  Bible. 

Of  all  these  forms  of  worship,  the  most  captivating, 
and  captivating  to  the  most  amiable  weaknesses  of  the 
human  mind,  was  the  devotion  to  the  Virgin  Mary. 
The  worship  of  the  Virgin  had  first  arisen  in  the 
East ;  ^  and  this  worship,  already  more  than  initiate, 
contributed,  no  doubt,  to  the  passionate  violence  with 
which  the  Nestorian  controversy  was  agitated,  while 
that  controversy,  with  its  favoi'able  issue  to  those  who 
might  seem  most  zealous  for  the  Virgin's  glory,  gave  a 
Bl nmg  impulse  to  the  worship.  The  denial  of  the  title 
**  The  Mother  of  God,"  by  Nestimus,  was  that  which 
rjounded  most  offensive  to  the  general  ear  ;  it  was  the 
uitelligible  odious  point  in  his  heresy.     The  worship  of 

1  EvaL^.  ii.  E.  v.  19. 


Chap.  yn.  WORSHIP  OF  THE  VIRGIN.  93 

the  Virgin  now  appears  in  the  East  as  an  integral  part 
of  Christianity.  Among  Justinian's  splendid  edifices 
arose  many  churches  dedicated  to  the  Mother  of  God.^ 
The  feast  of  the  Annunciation  is  already  celebrated 
under  Justin  and  Justinian. ^  Heraclius  has  imao;es 
of  the  Virgin  on  his  masts  when  he  sails  to  Constanti- 
nople to  overthrow  Phocas.^  Before  the  end  of  the 
century  the  Virgin  is  become  the  tutelar  deity  of  Con- 
stantinople, which  is  saved  by  her  mtercession  fi'om  the 
Saracens.^ 

In  the  time  of  Gregory  the  worship  of  the  Virgin 
had  not  assumed  that  rank  in  Latin  Chris-  Worship  of 
tianity  to  which  it  rose  in  later  centuries,  *^e '^'J^s^'i- 
though  that  second  great  impulse  towards  this  worship, 
the  unbounded  admiration  of  virginity,  had  full  posses- 
sion of  his  monastic  mind.  With  Gregory  celibacy 
was  the  perfection  of  human  nature  ;  he  looked  with 
abhorrence  on  the  contamination  of  the  holy  sacerdotal 
character,  even  in  its  lowest  degree,  by  any  sexual  con- 
nection.^ No  subdeacon,  after  a  certain  period,  was  to 
be  admitted  without  a  vow  of  chastity  ;  no  married 
subdeacon  to  be  promoted  to  a  higher  rank.  In  one 
of  his  expositions  ^  he  sadly  relates  the  fall  of  one  of 
his  aunts,  a  consecrated  virgin  ;   she  had  been  guilty 

1  Procop.  de  Edif.  c.  6. 

2  Niceph.  H.  E.  xvii.  28. 

3  Theophanes,  p.  429,  edit.  Bonn. 

4  Theophan.  p.  609  et passim. 

6  "  Nullus  debet  ad  ministeriura  altaris  accedere,  nisi  cujus  castitas  ante 
susceptum  ministerium  sit  approbata."  —  Epist.  i.  42.  He  protests  against 
the  election  of  a  bishop  who  had  a  young  daughter;  this  bishop,  however, 
was  also  simplex,  and  charged  with  usury.  —  viii.  40.  No  bigamist,  or  ono 
who  had  married  a  wife  not  a  virgin,  to  be  received  into  orders.  Marriages, 
however,  Gregory  declares,  cannot  be  dissolved  on  account  of  religion ; 
bvth  parties  must  consent  to  live  continently  in  marriage.  —  ix.  39. 

«  That  on  the  text,  "many  are  called,  but  few  chosen." 


94  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  HI. 

of  the  sin  of  marriage.  Of  all  his  grievances  against 
the  Exarch  of  Ravenna  none  seems  more  worthy  of 
complaint  than  that  he  had  encom^aged  certain  nuns 
to  throw  off  their  religious  hahits,  and  to  marry. ^ 
Gregory  does  not  seem  to  have  waged  this  war  against 
nature,  however  his  sentiments  were  congenial  with 
those  of  his  age,  with  his  wonted  success.^  His  letters 
are  full  of  appeals  to  sovereigns  and  to  bishops  to  re- 
press the  incontinence  of  the  clergy ;  even  monasteries 
were  not  absolutely  safe.^ 

It  was  not  around  the  monastery  alone,  the  centre  of 
this  preternatural  agency,  that  the  ordinary  providence 
of  God  gave  place  to  a  perpetual  interposition  of  mi- 
Angeis.  raculous  power.  Every  Christian  was  en- 
vironed with  a  world  of  invisible  beings,  who  were 
constantly  putting  off  their  spiritual  nature,  and  as- 
suming forms,  uttering  tones,  distilling  odors,  appre- 
hensible by  the  soul  of  man,  or  taking  absolute  and 
conscious  possession  of  his  inward  being.  A  distinction 
was  drawn  between  the  pure,  spiritual,  illimitable,  in- 
comprehensible nature  of  the  Godhead,  and  the  thin 
and  subtile,  but  bodily  forms  of  angels  and  archangels. 
These  were  perceptible  to  the  human  senses,  wore  the 
Imman  form,  spoke  with  human  language:  their  sub- 
stance was  the  thin  air,  the  impalpable  fire ;  it  resem- 

1  Epist.  iv.  18. 

2  The  absurd  story  about  Gregory's  fish-ponds  paved  with  the  sculls  of 
the  drowned  infants  of  the  Roman  clergy,  is  only  memorable  as  an  instance 
of  what  writers  of  history  will  believe,  and  persuade  themselves  they  be- 
lieve, when  it  suits  party  interest.  But  by  whom,  or  when,  was  it  in- 
vented?    It  is  much  older  than  the  Reformation. 

8  Epist.  viii.  21.  The  regulations  of  Gregory  about  the  monastic  life  are 
in  a  wiser  spirit.  None  were  to  be  received  as  monks  under  18  (Epist.  i.  41); 
none  without  two  years'  probation  (iv.  44,  viii.  23);  but  monks  who  left 
their  monasteries  were  to  be  confined  for  life  (i.  33,  40,  xii.  28).  He  men- 
lions  also  the  wandering  Africans,  who  were  often  secret  Manicheans. 


Chap.  VIL  ANGELS.  —  DEVILS.  95 

bled  the  souls  of  men,  but  yet,  whenever  they  pleased, 
it  was  visible,  peiibrmed  the  functions  of  life,  com- 
municated not  with  the  mind  and  soul  only,  but  with 
the  eye  and  ear  of  man.^ 

The  hearing  and  the  sight  of  religious  terror  were 
far  more  quick  and  sensitive.  The  angelic  DeyUs. 
visitations  were  but  rare  and  occasional ;  the  more  ac- 
tive Demons  were  ever  on  the  watch,  seizino;  and  mak- 
ing  every  opportunity  of  beguiling  their  easy  victims." 
They  were  everywhere  present,  and  eveiywhere  be- 
traying their  presence.  They  ventured  into  the  hohest 
places;  they  were  hardly  awed  by  the  most  devout 
saints ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  there  was  no  being  too 
humble,  to  whose  seduction  they  would  not  condescend 
—  nothing  in  ordinary  life  so  trivial  and  insignificant 
but  that  they  would  stoop  to  employ  it  for  their  evil 
purposes.  They  were  without  the  man,  terrifying 
him  with  mysterious  sounds  and  unaccountable  sights. 
They  were  within  him,  compelling  all  his  faculties  to 
do  their  bidding,  another  indwelhng  will  besides  his 
own,   compelling   his  reluctant  soul   to  perform  their 

1  The  following  definition  is  of  a  later  period,  but  represents  the  estab- 
lished notion :  —  Ilspt  tuv  uyyiXuv  aal  ap^ay}'£/lcjv,  kol  tuv  vnep  TOVTOvg 
dytuv  dvvafiEuv^  TrpoaiJ^aw  6e  koc  Tag  rj^erepaQ  -ipvxu-C  tuv  av^pomcov, 
vospovc;  {lev  avrovg  rj  Ka-&o2.iK^  EKKTirjaia  ytvcjaKet.,  ov  [itjv  daufidrovg  navrr] 
Kol  uopdrovc,  <jf  vfielg  ol  'EAA^vef  ^art  Xe-KToat^iidTOvg  6e  koX  uepudeig  tj 
TTvpudtig  Kara  to  ysypan/jtivov^  6  nocCbv  Toijg  dyyeTiovg  avTovg  rrvevfiaTa  kcU 
Tovg  XstTOvpyovg  avTOv  iwp  (fkeyov.  —  Joann.  Episcop.  Thessalon.  ipud 
Concil.  Nic.  ii.,  Labbe,  p.  354. 

2  Read  Cassian,  who  writes  indeed  of  monks,  but  the  belief  was  uni- 
versal. "Nosse  debemus  non  omnes  universas  diemones  passiones  ingerere, 
sed  unicuique  vitio  certos  spiritus  incubare :  et  alios  quidem  immunditiis 
ac  libidinum  sordibus  delectari ;  alios  blasphemiis,  alios  irse  furoriquie  pro- 
clivius  imminere,  alios  cenodoxia  superbiaque  niulceri ;  et  unumquemque 
illud  vitium  humanis  cordibus,  quo  ipse  gaudet,  mserere :  sed  uon  cunctos 
pariter  suas  ingerere  pravitates,  sed  vicissim  prout  temporis  vel  loci  vel 
»uscipientis  opportunitas  provocaverit."  — Cass.  Coll.  7,  c.  17. 


96  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IIL 

service.  Every  passion,  every  vice,  liacl  its  especial  de- 
mon ;  lust,  impiety,  blasphemy,  vainglory,  pride,  were 
not  the  man  himself,  but  a  foreign  power  working 
within  liim.  The  slightest  act,  sometimes  no  act  at  all, 
surrendered  the  soul  to  the  irresistible  indwellino;  ao;ent. 
In  Gregory's  Dialogues  a  woman  eats  a  lettuce  without 
making  the  sign  of  the  cross ;  she  is  possessed  by  a  devil, 
who  had  been  swallowed  in  the  unexercised  lettuce. 
Another  woman  is  possessed  for  admitting  her  husband's 
embraces  the  night  before  the  dedication  of  an  oratory. 
Happily  there  existed,  and  existed  almost  at  the  com- 
Martyrs.  uiaud  of  the  clcrgy,  a  counterworking  power 
to  this  fatal  diabolic  influence,  in  the  perpetual  pres- 
ence of  the  saints,  more  especially  in  hallowed  places, 
and  about  their  own  relics.^  These  relics  were  the 
treasure  with  which  the  clergy,  above  all  the  bishops 
of  Rome,  who  possessed  those  of  St.  Peter  and  St. 
Paul,  with  countless  others,  ruled  the  mind;  for  by 
these  they  controlled  and  kept  in  awe,  they  repaired 
the  evils  wrought  by  this  whole  world  of  evil  spirits. 
Happy  were  the  churches,  the  monasteries,  whose 
foundations  were  hallowed  and  secured  by  these  sacred 
talismans.  To  doubt  their  presence  in  these  dedicated 
shiines,  in  the  scenes  of  their  martyrdom,  obstinately 
to  require  the  satisfaction  of  the  senses  as  to  their  pres- 
ence, was  an  impious  want  of  faith ;  belief,  in  propor- 

1  Gregory  thus  lays  down  the  doctrine  of  his  age :  "  Ubi  in  suis  corpori- 
bus  sancti  raartyres  jacent,  dubium,  Petre,  non  est,  quod  multa  valeant  signa 
demonstrare,  sicut  et  fecerunt,  et  pura  mente  quaerentibus  innumera  mirac- 
ula  ostendunt.  Sed  quia  ab  infirmis  mentibus  potest  dubitari,  utmmne 
ad  exaudiendum  ibi  praesentes  sunt,  ubi  constat,  quia  in  suis  corporibus 
non  sunt,  ita  necesse  est  eos  niajora  signa  ostendere,  ubi  de  eoruin  pn^sentia 
potest  mens  infirma  dubitare.  Quorum  vero  mens  in  Deo  fixa  est,  tanto 
magis  habet  fidei  meritum,  quando  eos  novit,  et  non  jacere  corpore,  et 
tanien  non  deesse  ad  exaudiendum." 


Chap.  VII.  MARTYRS.  —  RELICS.  97 

tion  to  the  doubtfulness  of  tlie  miracle,  was  the  more 
meritorious.  Kings  and  queens  bowed  in  awe  before 
the  possessors  and  disi)cnsers  of  these  wonder-working 
treasures,^  which  were  not  only  preservative  against 
worldly  calamities,  but  absolved  from  sin.^ 

E-elics  had  now  attained  a  self-defensive  power ;  pro- 
fane hands  which  touched  them  withered  ;  Relics. 
and  men  who  endeavored  to  remove  them  were  struck 
dead.^  Such  was  the  declaration  of  Gregory  himself, 
to  one  who  had  petitioned  for  the  head  or  some  part  of 
the  body  of  St.  Paul.  It  was  an  awful  thing  even  to 
approach  to  worship  them.  Men  who  had  merely 
touched  the  bones  of  St.  Peter,  St.  Paul,  and  St.  Law- 
rence, though  with  the  pious  design  of  changing  their 
position  or  placing  the  scattered  bones  together,  had 
fallen  dead,  in  one  case  to  the  number  of  ten.  The 
utmost  that  the  Church  of  Rome  could  bestow  would 
be  a  cloth  which  had  been  permitted  to  touch  them ; 
and  even  such  cloths  had  been  known  to  bleed.  If, 
indeed,  the  chains  of  St.  Paul  would  yield  any  of  their 
precious  iron  to  the  file,  which  they  often  refused  to  do, 
this,  he  whites,  he  would  transmit  to  the  Empress ;  and 
he  consoles  her  for  the  smallness  of  the  gift  by  the 
miraculous  power  which  it  will  inherently  possess.* 

1  See  letters  to  the  Bishop  of  Xaintonge  and  Brunechild  Queen  of 
France. 

2  "  Ut  quod  illius  collum  ligat  ad  martyrium,  vestrum  ab  omnibus 
peccatis  solvat."  —  Dialog,  vi.  25. 

3  On  relics,  especially  those  of  St.  Peter,  compare  Epist.  i.  29,  30,  ii. 
ii.  32,  iii.  30,  v.  50,  51,  vi.  23,  25,  \ii.  2, 112,  vii.  ii.  88,  xii.  17.  They  were 
fonnerly  defended  by  law,  their  removal  and  sale  prohibited.  "  Nemo 
martyrem  distrahat,  nemo  mercetur."  —  C.  Theod.  ix.  17.  Compare  C. 
Justin,  i.  t.  2.  Augustine  speaks  of  vagabond  monks,  who  traded  in  false 
relics.  "Membra  martyrum,  si  tamen  martyrum  venditant."  —  De  Oper. 
Monach.  c.  28. 

^  All  this  is  verbatim  from  the  curious  letter  to  the  Empress  Constantia. 

VOIi.  XI.  7 


98  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

Gregoiy  doled  out  such  gifts  with  pious  parsimony. 
A  nail  which  contained  the  minutest  filings  from  the 
chains  of  St.  Peter  ^  was  an  inestimable  present  to  a 
patrician,  or  an  ex-consul,  or  a  barbaric  king.  Some- 
times they  were  inserted  in  a  small  cross ;  in  one  in- 
stance with  fragments  of  the  gridiron  on  which  St. 
Lawrence  was  roasted.^  One  of  the  golden  nails  of 
the  chains  of  St.  Peter  had  tempted  the  avarice  of  a 
profane,  no  doubt  a  heathen  or  Arian,  Lombard  ;  he 
took  out  his  knife  to  sever  it  off;  the  awe-struck  knife 
sprung  up  and  cut  his  sacrilegions  throat.  The  Lom- 
bard king,  Autharis,  and  his  attendants,  were  witnesses 
of  the  miracle,  and  stood  in  terror,  not  daring  to  lift 
the  fearful  nail  from  the  ground.  A  Catholic  was  for- 
tunately found,  by  whom  the  nail  permitted  itself  to  be 
touched,  and  this  peerless  gift,  so  avouched,  Gregory 
sends  to  a  distino-uished  civil  officer.^ 

That  sanctity,  which  thus  dwelt  in  the  relics  of  the 
Sanctity  of  saiuts,  was  naturally  gathered,  as  far  as  pos- 
the  clergy,  gible,  arouud  tlicir  own  persons  by  the  clergy, 
hallowed  as  they  were,  and  set  apart  by  their  ordina- 
tion from  the  common  race  of  man  ;  and  if  the  hier- 
archy had  only  wielded  this  power  for  self-protection ; 
if  they  had  but  arrayed  themselves  in  this  defensive 
awe  acjainst  the  insults  and  cruelties  of  barbarians,  such 
as  the  Lombards  are  described,  it  would  be  stern  cen- 
sure which  would  condemn  even  manifest  imposture. 
We  might  excuse  the  embellishment,  even  the  inven- 

—  iii.  30.  Gregory  had  forgotten  that  he  had  been  allowed  to  transport 
from  Constantinople  to  Rome  an  arm  of  St.  Andrew  and  the  head  of  St. 
Luke,  and  owed  a  more  liberal  return. 

1  Epist.  i.  29,  30.     King  Childebert,  vi.  vi.    "  Quaj  coilo  vestro  suspensaa 
a  malis  vos  omnibus  tueantur  " 

2  Epist.  ii.  ii.  32. 

8  Dial.  vi.  23;  see  also  25. 


Chat.  VD.  SANCTITY  OF  THE  CLERGY.  99 

tion  of  tlie  noble  story  of  the  Bishop  Sanctulus,  who 
offered  his  Hfe  for  that  of  a  captive  deacon,  before 
whom  the  Lombard  executioner,  when  he  hfted  up  his 
sword  to  beliead  him,  felt  his  arm  stiffen,  and  could  not 
move  it  till  he  had  solemnly  swoni  never  to  raise  that 
sword  ao;ainst  the  life  of  a  Christian.^  But  this  con- 
servative  respect  for  the  sanctity  of  their  order  darkens 
too  frequently  into  pride  and  inhumanity ;  the  awful 
inviolability  of  their  persons  becomes  a  jealous  resent- 
ment against  even  unintentional  irreverence.  A  demo- 
niac accused  the  holy  Bishop  Fortunatus  of  refusing 
him  the  rights  of  hospitality ;  a  poor  peasant  receives 
the  possessed  mto  his  house,  and  is  punished  for  this  in- 
ferential disrespect  to  the  Bishop  by  seeing  his  child  cast 
into  the  fire  and  burnt  before  his  eyes.  A  poor  fellow 
with  a  monkey  and  cymbals  is  struck  dead  for  uninten- 
tionally interrupting  a  Bishop  Boniface  in  prayer.^ 

The  sacred  edifices,  the  churches,  especially,  ap- 
proachable to  all,  were  yet  approachable  not  without 
profound  awe  ;  in  them  met  everything  which  could 
deepen  that  awe;  within  were  the  relics  of  the  tute- 
lar saint,  the  mysteries,  and  the  presence  of  the  Re- 
deemer, of  God  himself,  beneath  were  the  remains  of 
the  faithful  dead.^ 

Burial  in  churches  had  now  begun  ;  it  was  a  special 
privilege.  Gregory  dwells  on  the  advantage  of  being 
thus  constantly  suggested  to  the  prayers  of  fi:iends  and 
relatives  for  the  repose  of  the  soul.  But  that  which 
was  a  blessing  to  the  holy  was  but  more  perilous  to 

1  Dial.  iii.  37. 

2  Dial.  i.  10,  i.  9. 

8  Gregory  forbade  the  worship  of  images,  though  he  encouraged  them  as 
suggestive  memorials. — vii.  ii.  54;  compare  vii.  33,  iii.  "Pro  Icctione  pic- 
tura  est."  —  ix.  9 


100  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III 

the  unabsolved  and  the  wicked.  The  sacred  soil  re- 
fused to  receive  them ;  the  martyi's  appeared  and  com- 
manded the  fetid  corpses  to  be  cast  out  of  their  pre- 
cincts. They  were  seized  by  devils,  who  did  not 
fear  to  carry  off  their  own  even  froni  those  holy 
places.!  But  oblations  were  still  effective  after  death. 
The  consecrated  host  has  begun  to  possess  in  itself 
wonder-working  powers.  A  child  is  cast  forth  from 
his  grave,  and  is  only  persuaded  to  rest  in  quiet  by 
a  piece  of  the  consecrated  bread  being  placed  upon 
his  breast.  Two  noble  women,  who  had  }:een  ex- 
communicated for  talking  scandal,  were  nevertheless 
buried  in  the  church ;  but  every  time  the  mass  was 
offered,  their  spirits  were  seen  to  rise  from  their 
tombs,  and  glide  out  of  the  church.  It  was  only 
after  an  oblation  had  been  "  immolated "  for  them 
that  they  slept  in  peace.^ 

The  mysteiy  of  the  state  af\;er  death  began  to  cease 
State  after  ^^  ^®  ^  mystery.  The  subtile  and  invisible 
death.  g^^i  gradually  materialized  itself  to  the  keen 

sight  of  the  devout.  A  hermit  declared  that  he  had 
seen  Theodoric,  the  Ostrogothic  king,  at  the  instant 
of  death,  with  loose  garments  and  sandals,  led  be- 
tween Symmachus  the  patrician  and  John  the  Pope, 
and  plunged  into  the  burning  crater  of  Lipari.^  Ben- 
edict, while  waking,  beheld  a  bright  and  dazzling 
light,  in  which  he  distinctly  saw  the  soul  of  Germa- 
nus,  Bishop  of  Capua,  ascend  to  heaven  in  an  orb  of 
fire,  borne  by  angels.^ 

1  Dial.  iv.  50,  &c. 

2  Dial.  ii.  22,  23     Compare  the  last  two  chapters  of  Book  iv. 

8  "  Discinctus  et  discalceatus  "  —  such  was  the  confusion  of  the  attribute* 
af  soul  and  body.  —  Dial.  iv.  30. 
4  Dial.  iv.  30. 


Chap.  VII.        STATE  AFTER  DEATH.  101 

Hell  was  by  no  means  the  inexorable  dwelling 
which  restored  not  its  inhabitants.  Men  iieii. 
were  transported  thither  for  a  short  time,  and  re- 
turned to  reveal  its  secrets  to  the  shuddering  world. 
Gregory's  fourth  book  is  entirely  filled  with  legends 
of  departing  and  of  departed  spirits,  several  of  which 
revisit  the  light  of  day.  On  the  locality  of  hell  Greg- 
ory is  modest,  and  declines  to  make  any  peremptory 
decision.  On  purgatory  too  he  is  dubious,  though  his 
final  conclusion  appears  to  be  that  there  is  a  purgato- 
rial fire  which  may  purify  the  soul  fi'om  very  slight 
sins.^  Some  centuries  must  elapse  before  those  awfiil 
realms  have  formed  themselves  into  that  dreary  and 
regular  topography  which  Dante  partly  created  out 
of  his  own  sublime  imagination,  partly  combined  from 
all  the  accumulated  legends  which  had  become  the 
universal  belief  of  Christendom. 

The  most  singular  of  these  earlier  journeys  into  the 
future  world  are  the  adventures  of  a  certain  Stephen, 
the  first  part  of  which  Gregory  declares  he  had  heard 
more  than  once  from  his  own  mouth,^  and  which  he 
relates,  apparently  intending  to  be  implicitly  believed. 
Stephen  had  to  all  appearance  died  in  Constantinople, 
but,  as  the  embalmer  could  not  be  found,  he  was  left 
unburied  the  whole  night.  During  that  time  he  went 
down  into  hell,  where  he  saw  many  things  which  he 
had  not  before  believed.  But  when  he  came  before 
the  Judo-e,  the  Judo-e  said,  I  did  not  send  for  this  man, 
but  for  Stephen  the  smith.  Gregory's  friend  Stephen 
was  too  happy  to  get  back,  and  on  his  return  found 

1  *'  Sed  tamen  de  quibusdam  levibus  culpis  esse  ante  judicium  purgato- 
dus  'vj;ms  credendus  est."  —  Dial.  iv.  39. 
*  "  De  seuiet  ipso  miiii  uarrure  consueveriU.^^ 


1C2  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  III. 

his  neighbor  Stephen  the  smith  dead.  But  Stephen 
learned  not  wisdom  from  his  escape.  He  died  of  the 
plague  in  Rome,  and  with  him  appeared  to  die  a  sol- 
dier, who  returned  to  reveal  more  of  these  fearful 
secrets  of  the  other  world,  and  the  fate  of  Stephen. 
The  soldier  passed  a  bridge,  beneath  it  flowed  a  river, 
from  which  rose  vapors,  dark,  dismal,  and  noisome. 
Beyond  the  bridge  (the  imagination  could  but  go 
back  to  the  old  Eljsian  fields)  spread  beautiful,  flow- 
ery, and  fragrant  meadows,  peopled  by  spirits  clothed 
in  white.  In  these  were  many  mansions,  vast  and 
full  of  light.  Above  all  rose  a  palace  of  golden 
bricks,  to  whom  it  belonged  he  could  not  read.  On 
the  bridge  he  recognized  Stephen,  whose  foot  slipped 
as  he  endeavored  to  pass.  His  lower  limbs  were 
immediately  seized  by  frightful  forms,  who  strove  to 
drao;  him  to  the  fetid  dwellino-s  below.  But  white 
and  beautiful  beings  caught  his  arms,  and  there  was 
a  long  struggle  between  the  conflicting  powers.  The 
soldier  did  not  see  the  issue  of  the  conflict. 

Such  were  among  the  stories  avouched  by  the  high- 
est ecclesiastical  authority,  and  commended  it  might 
seem  by  the  uninquiring  faith  of  the  ruling  intellect 
of  his  age  —  such  among  the  first  elements  of  that 
universal  popular  religion  which  was  the  Christianity 
of  ages.  This  religion  gradually  moulded  together 
all  which  arose  out  of  the  natural  instincts  of  man, 
the  undying  reminiscences  of  all  the  older  religions, 
the  Jewish,  the  Pagan,  and  the  Teutonic,  with  the 
few  and  indistinct  glimpses  of  the  invisible  world  and 
the  future  state  of  being  in  the  New  Testament,  into 
a  vast  system,  more  sublime  perhaps  for  its  indefinite- 
ness,  which,  being  necessary  in  that  condition  of  man- 


Chap.  VH.  RIGHTS  OF  PERSONS.  103 

kind,  could  not  but  grow  up  out  of  the  kindled  imag- 
inatior  and  religious  faith  of  Christendom  ;  and  such 
religion  the  historian  who  should  presume  to  condemn 
as  a  vast  plan  of  fraud,  or  a  philosopher  who  should 
venture  to  disdain  as  a  fabric  of  folly,  only  deserving' 
to  be  forgotten,  would  be  equally  unjust,  equally  blind 
to  its  real  uses,  assuredly  ignorant  of  its  importance 
and  its  significance  in  the  history  of  man.  For  on 
this,  the  popular  Christianity,  popular  as  comprehend- 
ing the  highest  as  well  as  the  lowest  in  rank,  and  even 
in  intellectual  estimation,  turns  the  whole  history  of 
man  for  many  centuries.  It  is  at  once  the  cause  and 
the  consequence  of  the  sacerdotal  dominion  over  man- 
kind ;  the  groundwork  of  authority  at  which  the 
world  trembled  ;  which  founded  and  overthrew  king- 
doms, bormd  together  or  set  in  antagonistic  array  na- 
tions, classes,  ranks,  orders  of  society.  Of  this,  the 
parent,  when  the  time  arrived,  of  poetry,  of  art,  the 
Christian  historian  must  watch  the  growth  and  mark 
the  gradations  by  which  it  gathered  into  itself  the 
whole  activity  of  the  human  mind,  and  quickened  that 
activity  till  at  length  the  mind  outgrew  that  which  had 
been  so  long  almost  its  sole  occupation.  It  endured 
till  faith,  with  the  Schoolmen,  led  into  the  fathomless 
depths  of  metaphysics,  began  to  aspire  after  higher 
truths  ;  with  the  Reformers,  attempting  to  refine  re- 
ligion to  its  primary  spiritual  simplicity,  gradually 
dropped,  or  left  but  to  the  humblest  and  most  igno- 
rant, at  least  to  the  more  imaginative  and  less  practical 
part,  of  mankind,  this  even  yet  prolific  legendary 
Christianity,  which  had  been  the  accessory  and  sup- 
plementary Bible,  the  authoritati\^e  and  acciepted, 
though  often  unwritten,  Gospel  of  centuries. 


BOOK   IV. 

CONTEMPORARY  CHRONOLOGY. 


PATRIARCHS 

EMPERORS   OF  THE 

EXARCHS  OF 

POPES. 

OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 

EAST. 

RAVENNA. 

A.D.                          A.D. 

A.D. 

A.D. 

A.D.                           A.D. 

A.D.                            A.D. 

Cyriacus 

610 

Callinicus  602 

Gregory  I. 

602  Phocas          610 

died           604 

603  Smaragdus 

604  Sabinianus  606 

(restored)  610 

G06  Boniface  III.607 

608  Boniface  IV.  615 

610  Sergius 

638 

610  Heraclius     641 

610  John  Remi- 

gius           615 

615Deusdedit     618 

615  Eleutherius  619 

619  Boniface  V.  625 

619  Isaac            643 

62o  Honorius  I.  638 

ea  Severinus     640 

639  Pyrrhus, 

m)  John  IV.      642 

deposed 

641 

641  Paul  II. 

654 

641  Constantine 

ni., 

Heracleonas 

n42  Theodoras  1.649 

642  0onstansII.668 

649  Martin  I.      656 

643  Calliopas       650 

.554  Eugenius  I.  657 

654  Pyrrhus,  re 

. 

650  Olvmpius      662 

instated 

665 

652  Calliopas 

655  Peter 

666 

again        687 

657  VitaUan        672 

666  Thomas  II. 

669 

668  Constantine 

669  John  V. 

675 

Pogonatus  685 

672  Adeodatus    676 

676  Constantine, 

676  Bonus           678 

deposed 

677  Theodorus, 

deposed 

677 

678 

078  Agatho         681 

678  George  I. 

683 

682  Leo  II.          683 

683  (?)  Benedict 

683  Theodorus, 

11.             685 

reinstated  686 

085  Conon           687 

686  Paul  III. 

693 

685  Justin1a,n 

687  Paschal  (an- 

II.            694 

687  John  Platou  702 

tipope)      692 

687  Theodoras 

087  Sergius  I.     701 

693  CaUinicus, 

deposed 

705 

694  Leontius  I.  697 
697  Tiberius        704 

701  John  VI.      705 

702  Theophy- 

lact           710 

CONTEMPORARY  CHRONOLOGY. 


105 


LOMBARD   KINGS. 


KINGS   OP  PEANCE. 


A.D.  A.I>. 

590  AgUulf         616 


Burgundy. 
A.D. 

601  Thierri 

n. 


Austrasia. 


Neustria. 


A.D 

Theodebert  I  Chlotaire  n, 

n. 


616  Theodelinda 
and  Adel- 
wald  6 

626  Arivald        638 


Rotkaris       654 


664  Rodoald        659 


659  Aribert        662 


662  Gondibert    663 

663  Qrimoald      672 


672  aaribald. 

Pertharit  680 


680  Cunibert 

with  Per- 
thaiit        691 


691  Cunibert 

alone         701 


701  Liutprand 

702  Aribert  U.  712 


12  Ansprand     713 


614  Chlotaire  H.  alone  628. 


I  Part  of  Aqnitaine. 

628  Itagobert  |         Charibert     630 

Dagobert,  alone  637. 

Austrasia.  Neustria 

57  Sigebert  U.  654         Clevis  H.     655 

654  Childeric  n. 

656  ChlotaireTn.6 
(Queen  Bathildis 
guardian.) 


668  ChQderic  II.  alone 

Part  of  Austrasia. 

672  Dagobert  II. 
73  Thierri  m. 

679  Thierri  m.  alone  691 


{687  Pepin,  Mayor  of  the  Palace  714) 
690  Clovis  III.  695 


622  Mohammed 


632  Abubeker 
634  Omaa- 


644  Othman 
656  All 

660  Moawiiah 


679  Yezid 


685  Abduhnelek 


695  Chiidebert  III. 


ni  Dagobert  m. 


ni 


705  Walid  I. 


106 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  IV 


PATRIARCHS 

EiMPERORS  OF  THE 

EXARCHS  OP 

POPES. 

OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 

EAST. 

RAVENNA. 

A.D.                            A.D. 

A.D.                            A.D. 

A.D.                            A.D. 

704  Justinian  II., 

A.D.                          A.D. 

705  John  \'n.     707 

705  Cyrus, 

restored    711 

708  Sbinnius 

deposed     712 

708  Constantine 

710  John  Rizoco- 

I.              715 

712  John  VI., 

711  Philippicus  713 

pus               713 

deposed     715 

713  Anastasius 

II.             715 

713Schola8ticus725 

7 15  Gregory  II.   731 

715  Germanus, 

715  Theodosius 

deposed    731 

III.           717 
717  Leo  the 

Isaurian  741 

725  Paul  the 

Patrician      727 
727  F.utychius 

731  Gregory  m.  741 

731  Anastaeius    753 
"     deposed  746 

the  Eunuch  752 

741  Zacharias     742 

»    died       754 

741  Constantine 

Conquered  by 

742  Stephen  II. 

Copronymus  775 

Lombards. 

743  Stephen  ni.757 

754  Constantine, 
banished 

757  Paul  I.         767 

—  beheaded  766 

767  Constantine 

766  Nicetas  the 

II.             768 

Eunuch    780 

768  Philip 

768  Stephen  IV.  772 

772  Hadrian  I.    795 

775  Leo  IV.         780 

780  Paul  TV., 

780  Constantine 

deposed    784 

Porphyrogen- 

784  Tarasius       806 

itus,  with 

795  Leo  in.        816 

Irene            797 

806  Nicephorus, 

797  Irene 

deposed     815 

815  Theodorus 

Cassiteras  821 

CONTEMPORARY  CHRONOLOGT. 


107 


LOBIBABD   KINGS. 

KINGS  OP  PBANOB. 

CALIPHS. 

A.D.                            A.D. 

713  Ldutprand    743 

743  midebrand  743 

744  llachis  Duke 

of  FriuU 

750  Astolphus    756 
756  Desiderius    774 

A.D.                                                                   A.D. 

716  Chilperic  H.    Chlotalie  IV. 
720  Thtoni  IV. 

(736  Charles  Martol,  Mayor  of  tlie  Pal- 
ace) 
742  Childeric  IH.                          751 

751  Pepin 

768  Charlemagne  and  Carloman 
772  Charlemagne,  alone 

A.D. 

714  Suleiman 

717  Omar  n. 
719  Yezid  n. 

723  ffidjam 

742  Walid  IT. 

743  Yezid  III. 

744  Ibi-ahitn 

745  Merwan 
749  Abdalla  the 

Abbasside 
753  Abugyafar  Al- 
mansor 

775  Mohammed 
Manades 

785  Musa 

786  Haroun  Al- 

raschid 

108  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  R.»ok  IV. 


BOOK  IV. 
•    CHAPTER  I. 

MOHAMMED. 

The  seventli  century  of  Christianity  was  destined 
to  behold  a  new  rehgious  revolution,  only  inferior  in 
the  extent  of  its  religious  and  social  influence  to  Chris- 
Roman  East    tianity  itself,     Christianity  mioht  seem,  not- 

atcom-  .  T  T  1  .  r      ,.    °       .  T  ., 

niencement     withstanclmo-  her  internal   dissensions,  while 

of  seventh  i    i     •  i  i      i  p   -r< 

century.  slowly  subduiug  tlio  wliole  of  Europe,  to  be 
still  making  gradual  encroachments  in  Asia,  and  at 
least  to  apprehend  no  formidable  invasion  within  her 
own  frontier.  The  conflict  which  had  raged  on  the 
eastern  boundaries  of  the  Roman  world,  in  which  at 
one  time  the  Persians  had  become  masters  of  Syria 
and  plundered  the  religious  treasures  of  Jerusalem, 
was  a  war  of  the  two  empires  of  Rome  and  Persia, 
not  of  Christianity  and  Fire-worship.  The  danger 
which  threatened  the  Byzantine  empire,  and  which, 
if  unaverted,  would  have  yielded  up  Asia,  and  even 
Constantinople,  to  the  followers  of  Zoroaster,  had 
been  arrested  by  the  great  military  ability  and  en- 
warof  terprise    of   Heraclius,   the  successor  of  the 

Persia.  tyrant   Phocas   on  the  throne.     But  though 

Persian  conquest,  had  it  spread  over  Asia  Minor  and 
Syria  and  into  Europe,  might  have  brought  on  a  dan- 


Chap.  I.  MOHAMMEDANISM.  109 

geroiis  collision  with  the  religion  of  the  conquerors, 
yet  the  issue  could  not  eventually  have  been  fatal, 
even  to  the  dominance  of  Christianity.  Zoroastrian- 
isni  had  failed  to  propagate  itself  with  any  great  suc- 
cess in  the  parts  of  Christian  Armenia  which  it  had 
subjugated :  nor  can  we  imagine  that  religion,  even 
when  advancing  under  the  victorious  banner  of  its 
believers,  as  likely  to  obtain  any  firm  hold  on  the 
inhabitants  of  Western  Asia  or  Europe,  still  less  as 
tending  to  extirpate  the  deep-rooted  Christianity  of 
those  regions. 

In  the  meantime,  in  an  obscure  district  of  a  country 
esteemed  by  the  civilized  world  as  beyond  its  bounda- 
ries, a   savage,  desert,    and   almost    inacces-  Mohamme- 

.  ,  danism  in  ap 

sible  region,  suddenly  arose  an  antagonist  re-  pearance. 
ligion,  which  was  to  reduce  the  followers  of  Zoroaster 
to  a  few  scattered  communities,  to  invade  India,  and 
tread  under  foot  the  ancient  Brahminism,  as  well  as 
the  more  wide-spread  Buddhism,  even  beyond  the 
Ganges ;  to  wrest  her  most  ancient  and  venerable 
provinces  fi'om  Christianity;  to  subjugate  by  degrees 
the  whole  of  her  Eastern  dominions,  and  Roman 
.Vfi'ica  from  Egypt  to  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar ;  to 
assail  Europe  at  its  western  extremity ;  to  possess  the 
greater  part  of  Spain,  and  even  to  advance  to  the 
banks  of  the  Loire ;  more  than  once  to  make  the 
elder  Rome  tremble  for  her  security,  and  finally  to 
establish  itself  in  triumph  within  the  new  Rome  of 
Constantine.  Asiatic  Christianity  sank  more  and 
more  into  obscurity.  It  dragged  on  its  existence 
within  the  Mohammedan  empire  as  a  contemptuously 
tolerated  religion ;  in  the  Byzantine  empire  it  had 
still  strength  to  give  birth  to  new  controversies  —  that 


110  LATIN    CHEISTIANITY.  Book  IY. 

of  Iconoclasm,  and  even  still  later  that  concernino 
the  divme  light.  It  was  not  without  writers,  in  learn- 
ing, perhaps,  and  theologic  argument,  superior  to  any 
in  the  West  —  John  of  Damascus,  Eustathius  of  Thes- 
salonica.  Yet  its  aggressive  vigor  had  entirely  depart- 
ed, and  it  was  happy  to  be  allowed  inglorious  repose, 
to  take  no  part  in  that  great  war  waged  by  the  two 
powers,  now  the  only  two  living,  active,  dominant 
])owers,  which  contested  the  dominion  of  the  world  — 
Mohammedanism  and  Latin  Christianity.  These  im- 
placable adversaries  might  &  \)pear  to  divide  mankind  into 
two  unmingling,  irreconcilable  races.  Like  the  Iran 
and  Touran  of  the  remoter  East,  the  realm  of  light 
and  the  realm  of  darkness,  each  is  constantly  endeavor- 
ing to  push  forward  its  barriers,  appearing  on  every 
side,  or  advancing  into  the  heart  of  the  hostile  territory. 
The  realm  of  darkness,  as  regards  civilization,  at  times 
might  seem  to  be  the  realm  of  light,  the  realm  of  light 
that  of  darkness  ;  till  eventually  Mohammedanism  sank 
back  into  its  primeval  barbarism,  Latin  Christianity, 
or,  rather,  the  Christianity  of  later  Europe,  emerged 
into  its  full,  it  may  be  hoped,  yet  growing  authority, 
as  the  rehgion,  not  only  of  truth,  but  of  civilization. 
Arabia,  the  parent  of  this  new  religion,  had  been  a 
world  within  itself;  the  habits  and  character  of  the  peo- 
Arabia.  pie  might  sccm  both  to  secure  them  fi*om  the 
invasion  of  foreign  conquerors  and  to  prohibit  them 
I'rom  more  than  a  desultory  invasion  of  other  countries. 
Divided  into  almost  countless  petty  kingdoms,  an  ag- 
gregate of  small,  inde})endent,  and  immemorially  hos- 
tile tribes,  they  had  no  bond  of  union  to  blend  them 
into  a  powerful  confederacy.  The  great  empires  of 
I  lie   East,   of  Greece   and    of    Rome,   had   aspired    to 


CitAP.  1.  ARABIA.  Ill 

universal  sovereignty,  while  these  wandering  tribes 
of  the  desert,  and  even  the  more  settled  and  floui-ish- 
ing  kingdoms  of  Southern  Arabia  had  pursued  un- 
known and  undisturbed  their  intestine  warfare.  A 
nominal  and  precarious  sovereignty  had  been  exercised 
by  some  of  the  Asiatic  conquerors  over  the  frontier 
tribes ;  but  the  poverty  and  irreclaimable  wandering 
habits  of  most  of  these,  with  the  impracticable  nature 
of  the  country,  had  protected  from  the  ambition  of  the 
conquerors  the  southern  regions,  of  which  the  wealth 
and  fertility  had  been  greatly  exaggerated,  and  which 
Avere  supposed  to  produce  all  those  rich  commodi- 
ties, in  fact,  transmitted  to  them  from  India.  Arabia 
formed  no  part  of  the  great  eastern  monarchies. 
Alexander  passed  on  from  Egypt  and  Syria,  to  the 
remoter  East.  His  successors  in  Egypt  and  in  Syria, 
the  Ptolemies  and  Seleucidce,  were  in  general  content 
with  commercial  relations,  carried  on  with  Arabia  or 
through  Arabia.  The  Romans,  who  mio'ht  seem  to 
scrutinize  the  world  in  order  tlmt  nothing  might  escape 
tlieir  ambition,  had  once  or  twice  turned  their  arms 
towards  the  fabled  wealth  of  Arabia.^  The  unsuc- 
cessful, if  not  Ignominious,  result  of  the  expedition  of 
jElius  Gallus  had  taught  how  little  was  to  be  gained, 
how  much  hazarded,  in  such  a  warfare.  The  Romans 
contented  themselves  with  the  acquisition  of  Petra,  a 
city  not  strictly  Arabian,  but  Edomite  in  its  origin, 
though  for  some  centuries  occupied  by  the  Nabatean 
Arabs,  a  commercial  emporium,  as  a  station  between  the 
East  and  the  Roman  world,  of  the  greatest  importance, 
and  adorned,  during  the  age  of  the  Antonlnes,  with 

1  The  ^^intactis  nunc  Arabian  iuvides  gazis"  of  Horace,  shows  the  rela- 
tion in  which  Arabia  stood  to  the  rapacity  and  to  the  arms  of  Rom© 


112  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

magnificent  buildings  in  that  colossal  half-barbarous 
Roman  style  with  Avhich  at  that  time  they  built  temples 
in  so  many  of  the  great  cities  of  Syria,  Asia  Minor 
and  Egypt. 

If  Arabia  offered  no  great  temptation  to  the  foreign 
invader  from  the  civilized  world,  the  civilized  world 
}iad  as  little  dread  of  any  dangerous  irruption  from 
these  wild  and  disunited  tribes.  Here  and  there,  per- 
haps, beyond  the  proper  limits  of  Arabia,  in  districts, 
however,  which  seemed  to  belong  to  their  marauding 
habits  rather  than  to  the  settled  cultivation  of  more 
advanced  nations,  upon  the  eastern  frontier  of  Syria 
and  towards  the  Euphrates,  had  arisen  Arabian  king- 
doms. The  Nabatean  Petra  had  attained  to  some 
power  during  the  first  period  of  Christianity,  had 
waged  an  aggressive  war  against  Rome,  and  even 
gained  possession  of  Damascus.  This  territory,  how- 
ever, had  become  a  Roman  province ;  but  down  to 
the  reign  of  Justinian  petty  Saracenic  chieftains  who 
assumed  the  name  of  kings  were  engaged  on  either 
side  in  the  interminable  wars  between  Rome  and  Per- 
sia. Yet  while  the  prolific  North  and  East  were  peri- 
odically discharging  their  teeming  hordes  upon  Asia 
and  Europe,  Arabia  might  seem  either  not  gifted  with 
this  overflow  of  population,  or  to  consume  it  within 
her  own  limits.  The  continual  internal  wars  ;  polyg- 
amy, which  became  more  unfavorable  to  the  increase  of 
the  population  from  the  general  usage  of  destroying  fe- 
male infants ;  ^  the  frugal,  nomadic,  and  even  the  imag- 
inative character  of  the  race,  which  seemed  to  attach 
them  to  their  own  soil,  and  to  suppress  all  desire  of 
conquest   in   softer,   less    open,    more   settled    regions, 

1  Weil,  p.  19. 


Chap.  I.  ARABIA.  113 

conspired  to  maintain  the  immutable  cliaracter  of 
Arabia  and  of  the  Arab  people;  their  national  and 
tribal  pride,  their  ancient  traditions,  their  virtues, 
their  polity,  and  even  their  commerce,  which  ab- 
sorbed the  activity  of  the  more  enterprising,  might 
appear  to  coop  within  itself  this  pecuhar  people,  as 
neither  destined  nor  qualified  to  burst  the  limits  of 
their  own  peninsula,  or  to  endanger  the  peace,  the 
liberties,  or  the  religion  of  the  world. 

On  a  sudden,  when  probably  only  vague  rumors  had 
reached  the  courts  of  Persia  or  of  Constantinople  of 
the  religious  revolution  which  had  taken  place  in  Me- 
dina and  Mecca  (a  revolution  which  might  seem  to 
plunge  the  whole  region  in  still  more  desperate  internal 
liostiHty),  Arabia  appeared  in  arms  against  mankind. 
A  religious  fanaticism,  almost  unexampled  in  its  depth 
and  intensity,  had  silenced  all  the  fierce  feuds  of  cen- 
turies ;  the  tribes  and  kingdoms  had  become  one ; 
armies,  seemingly  inexhaustible,  with  all  the  w^ild  cour- 
ao-e  of  maraudino;  adventure  and  the  formidable  disci- 
pline  of  stubborn  unity  of  purpose,  poured  forth,  one 
after  another,  from  the  desert ;  and  at  their  head  ap- 
peared, not  indeed  the  apostle  himself  (he  had  dis- 
charged his  mission  in  organizing  this  terrible  confed- 
eracy), but  a  military  sovereign  who  united  in  himself 
the  civil  and  spiritual  supremacy,  wdiose  authority 
rested  on  the  ardent  attachment  of  a  clan  towards  its 
chief,  and  the  blind  and  passive  obedience  of  a  sect  to 
a  religious  leader.  The  reigning  Calij^h  was  king  and 
pontiff,  according  to  the  oriental  theory  of  sovereignty 
the  father  of  his  people,  but  likewise  the  successor  of 
the  Prophet,  the  delegate  of  God. 

Mohammedanism    appeared   before    the  world    as  a 


114  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  F^ok  IV. 

stern  and  austere  monotheism,  but  it  was  a  practical 
not  a  speculative  monotheism.^  It  liad  nothing  ab- 
stract, indistinct,  intellectual  in  its  primary  notion  of 
the  Godhead.  Allah  was  no  philosophic  first  cause, 
regulating  the  universe  by  estabhshed  laws,  while  itself 
stood  aloof  in  remote  and  unapproachable  majesty.  It 
was  an  ever-present,  ever-working  energy,  still  accom- 
phshing  its  own  purposes.^  Its  predestinarianism  was 
not  a  fixed  and  predetermined  law  wrought  out  by  tho 
obedient  elements  of  the  human  world,  but  the  actual, 
immediate  operation  of  the  Deity,  governing  all  things 
by  his  sole  will,^  and  through  his  passive  ministers."^ 
It  threw  aside  with  implacable  and  disdainful  aversion 
all  those  gradations  as  it  were  of  divinity  which  approx- 
imated man  to  God  and  God  to  man  —  the  Asiatic  or 
Gnostic  ^ons  and  Emanations ;  the  impersonated 
Ideas  of  the  later  Platonism,  with  their  all-compre- 
hending Logos ;  above  all,  the  coequal  Persons  of  the 
Christian  Trinity.  Nothing  existed  but  the  Creator 
and  the  Creation :  the  Creator  one  in  undistinguished, 
undivided  Unity,  the  Creation,  which  comprehended 
every  being  intermediate  between  God  and  man  :  an- 

1  One  of  the  sublimest  descriptions  of  God  may  be  found  in  the  second, 
chapter  of  the  Koran,  Sale's  translation,  i.  p.  47. 
'■^  See  the  fine  passage,  ch.  vi.  vol.  i.  p.  166,  &c. 

3  "  It  is  he  who  hath  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth  in  truth ;  and 
whenever  he  saith  unto  a  thing,  Be,  it  is."  This  whole  chapter  is  full  of 
striking  passages.  "  And  whomsoever  God  shall  please  to  direct,  he  will 
open  his  breast  to  receive  the  faith  of  Islam;  but  whomsoever  he  sliall 
please  to  lead  into  error,  he  will  render  his  breast  strait  and  narrow,  as 
though  he  were  climbing  up  to  heaven  (i.e.  attempting  an  impossibility). 
Thus  does  God  inflict  a  terrible  punishment  on  those  who  believe  not."  — 
p.  178. 

4  "  Though  men  and  angels  and  devils  conspire  together  to  put  one 
single  atom  in  motion,  or  cause  it  to  cease  its  motion  without  his  will  and 
approbation,  they  would  not  be  able  to  do  it."— Creed  of  orthodox  Mo- 
hamraedaus  in  Ockley,  vol.  ii.  p.  11. 


Chap.  1*^  'ULAR  MOHAMINIEDANISM.  115 

gels,   devils,   genii,  all  owed  their  being  to  almiglity 
power,  and  were  liable  to  deatli  or  to  extinction. 

Mohammedanism,  in  more  respects  than  one,  was  a 
republication  of  Mosaic  Judaism,  with  its  Mohamme- 
strong  principle  of  national  and  religious  <^*°^^'^- 
unity  (for  wherever  it  went  it  carried  its  language), 
with  its  law  simplified  to  a  few  rigid  and  unswerving 
observances,  and  the  w^orld  for  its  land  of  Canaan ;  the 
world  which  it  was  commissioned  to  subdue  to  the  faith 
of  Islam,  and  to  possess  in  the  right  of  conquest. 

Yet  nothing  was  less  simple  than  the  popular  Mo- 
hammedanism. It  rationalized,  if  it  might  be  called 
Rationalism,  only  in  its  conception  of  the  Deity.  It 
had  its  poetic^  element,  its  imaginative  excitement, 
adapted  to  the  youthful  barbarianism  of  the  state  of 
society,  and  to  the  Oriental  character.  It  created,  or 
rather  acknowledged,  an  intermediate  world,  it  dealt 
prodigally  in  angelic  appearances,  and  believed  in  an- 
other incorporeal,  or,  rather,  subtly-corporeal  race,  be- 
tween angels  and  men  ;  the  genii,  created  out  of  a  finer 
substance,  but  more  nearly  akin  to  man  in  their  weak- 
nesses and  trials.^  The  whole  life  of  man  was  passed 
under  the  influence,  sometimes  in  direct  communion 
with   these   half-spiritual    beings.^      Mohammedanism 

1  They  (the  idolaters)  say  tlie  Koran  is  a  confusetl  heap  of  dreams;  nay, 
he  has  forged  it;  nay,  he  is  a  jxiei.  —  oh.  xxii.  v.  ii.  p.  152. 

2  "  He  created  men  of  dried  clay,  like  au  earthen  vessel,  but  he  created 
the  genii  of  fire,  clear  from  the  smoke."  —  Ch.  Iv.  v.  ii.  p.  209 :  compare  vi. 
i.  p.  178. 

3  Mohammedan  tradition  adopts  for  the  genii  the  definition  of  the  das- 
mons  in  the  Talmud.  They  have  three  qualities  of  angels:  I.  They  have 
wings.  II.  They  pass  from  one  end  of  the  world  to  the  other.  III.  They 
know  future  events,  but  not  certainly:  they  only  hear  them  from  behind 
the  curtain.  They  have  three  human  qualities.  I.  They  eat  and  drink. 
II.  They  have  carnal  appetites.  III.  They  die. — Geiger,  Was  hat  Mo- 
hammed, p.  83 


116  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

borrowed  its  poetic  machinery  from  all  tlie  existing 
religions  —  from  Magianism,  Orientalism,  Judaism, 
Christianity.  No  religion  was  less  original.^  Its  as- 
sertion of  the  divine  unity  was  a  return  to  Judaism,  a 
stern  negation  at  once  of  the  vulgar  polytheism  whic  h 
prevailed  among  the  ruder  Arab  tribes,  and  of  the 
mysterious  doctrines  of  Trinitarian  Christianity.  As 
to  the  intermediate  world  it  only  popularized  still 
further  the  popular  belief.  Its  angels  were  those 
already  familiar  to  the  general  mind  through  Talmudic 
Judaism  and  Christianity ;  its  genii  were  those  of  the 
common  Eastern  superstition.  The  creation,  as  affirmed 
in  Islam,  was  strictly  biblical  ;^  the  history  of  man  was 
that  of  the  Old  Testament,  recognized  in  the  New, 
though  not  without  a  large  admixture  of  Jewish  legend. 
The  forefathers  of  the  Mohammedan,  as  of  the  Jewish 
and  Christian  religions,  were  Adam,  Noah,  Abraham ; 
and  to  the  older  prophets  of  God,  among  whom  were 
included  Moses  and  Jesus,  were  only  added  two  local 
prophets,  sent  on  special  missions  to  certain  of  the 
Arab  tribes,  to  Ad  and  to  Thamud.^     Even  Moham- 

1  In  ttiis  respect,  how  different  from  Chrirftianitj !  The  religion  of  Christ, 
on  its  tirst  promulgation,  had  to  introduce  into  the  world  new  conceptions 
of  the  Deity,  new  forms  of  worship,  its  sacramWitB  of  Baptism  and  the 
Eucharist,  new  vices,  and  new  virtues;  a  new  historvyof  man,  both  as  to  his 
creation  and  his  destiny;  new  religious  ancestors,  Adam,  Noah,  Abraham, 
INIoses,  David,  the  Jewish  prophets,  besides  the  divine  author  of  the  religion 
and  his  apostles.  All  these  names  were  almost  strange  to  the  Koman 
Avorld,  and  were  to  supersede  those  alreadj"^  sacred  and  familiar  to  the 
thoughts  of  all  the  Christian  converts. 

2  Compare  Geiger,  p.  64;  but  Mohammed  was  impatient  of  the  ascribing 
7-tst  to  God  on  the  seventh  day.  The  strictness  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath  was 
enforced  upon  them  for  their  obstinacy  in  preferring  the  day  of  the  sup- 
posed rest  of  the  Almighty  to  Friday,  the  proper  day  of  divine  worship. — 
ch.  xvi.  v.  ii.  p.  94. 

3  These  were  no  doubt  the  mythic  forms  of  some  historic  events;  the 
impersonated  memorials  of  some  fearful  calamities  ascribed  to  the  hand  of 
God;  and  still  living  hi  Arabic  tradition. 


Chai'  I.  POPULAR  MOHAMMEDANISM.  117 

medan  fable  had  none  of  the  inventive  originality  of 
fiction.  There  is  scarcely  a  legend  which  is  not  either 
from  the  Talmud,  or  rather  the  source  of  most  of  the 
Talmud,  the  religious  tradition  of  the  Jews  ^  or  the 
spurious  (not  the  genuine)  Gospels  of  Christianity. 
The  last  day,  the  judgment,  the  resurrection,  hell,  and 
paradise,  though  invested  in  a  circumstantiality  of  de- 
tail, much  of  it  foreign,  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  to  the 
Pharisaic  notions  of  our  Saviour's  day,  and  singularly 
contrastino;  with  the  modest  and  less  material  imaoos 
of  the  New  Testament,  were  already  parts  of  the  com- 
mon creed.  The  Koran  has  scarcely  surpassed  the 
grosser  notions  of  another  life  which  were  already  re- 
ceived by  the  Talmudic  Jews  and  the  Judaizing  Chris- 
tians, the  Chiliasts  of  the  early  ages.  It  only  adapted 
this  materialism  to  the  fears  and  hopes  of  a  Bedouin  and 
a  polygamous  people.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  it 
goes  beyond  the  terrific  imaginations  of  the  Tahnu- 
dists  in  those  minute  and  particular  effects  of  hellHre 
which  glare  in  all  its  pages. ^  In  its  paradise  it  dwelt 
on  that  most  exquisite  luxury  to  a  wanderer  in  the 


1  Sale  has  traced  in  his  notes  many  of  the  fables  in  the  Koran  to  their 
Talmudic  or  Rabbinical  sources.  A  prize  Essay,  on  a  theme  proposed  by 
the  University  of  Bonn,  "  Was  hat  Mohammed  aus  dem  Judenthum  genom- 
raen,"  by  Abraham  Geiger,  Rabbi  of  Wiesbaden,  is  modest,  sensible,  and 
contains  much  curious  information.  The  names  for  Paradise  and  Hell,  the 
garden  of  Eden,  and  Gehenna,  are  Hebrew:  and  he  gives  twelve  other 
words  in  the  Koran,  including  Shechinah,  all  taken  from  Rabbinical  Ju- 
daism. 

2  Koran  passim,  e.  g.  "And  they  who  believe  not  shall  have  garments 
of  fire  fitted  unto  them,  boiling  water  shall  be  poured  upon  their  heads, 
their  bowels  shall  be  dissolved  thereby,  and  also  their  skins,  and  the)'  shall 
be  beaten  with  maces  of  iron.  So  often  as  they  shall  endeavor  to  get  out 
jf  hell  because  of  the  anguish  of  their  torments,  they  shall  be  dragged 
into  the  same,  and  their  tonnentors  shall  say  unto  them, '  Taste  ye  the  pains 
&f  burning.'  "  —  ch  xxii.  v.  ii.  p.  169 


118  LA'ITN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

desert,   pcrermial   rivers  of   cool   pure    water ;   and  It 
added  a  harem  to  the  joys  of  the  blessed.^ 

In  the  rites  and  ceremonial  of  Islam  there  was  noth- 
ing which  required  any  violent  disruption  of  religious 
habits :  its  four  great  precepts  only  gave  a  new  impulse 
and  a  new  direction  to  established  relio-ious  observ- 
ances.  I.  Prayer^  is  the  universal  language  of  all  reli- 
gions ;  and  the  sense  of  the  perpetual  presence,  the 
direct  and  immediate  agency  of  God  in  all  human 
things,  enforced  by  the  whole  Mohammedan  creed,  as 
well  as  the  concentration  of  all  earthly  worship  on  one 
single,  indivisible  God,  has  maintained  a  strict  and 
earnest  spirit  of  adoration  throughout  the  Moham- 
medan world.  II.  The  natural  sympathies  of  man  ; 
the  narrower,  yet  impressive,  humanity  of  the  Old 
Testament,  which  had  bound  the  Jew  to  relieve  the 
distressed  of  his  brethren  with  a  generosity  which, 
contrasting  with  his  apparent  hostility  to  the  rest  of 
mankind,  had  moved  the  wonder  of  the  heathen  ;  the 
more  beautiful,  the  prodigal,  the  universal  charity  of 
the  Christian  ;  perhaps  the  hospitable  habits  of  the 
Arabs,  had  already  consecrated  Almsgiving  as  among 
the  highest  of  religious  virtues  ;  and  Mohammedanism 
did  not  degenerate  in  this  respect  from  what  may  be 
called  her  religious  parents.  III.  As  to  Fasting^  the 
Ramadan  was  but  Lent  under  another  name.  IV. 
The  Christianity  of  the  Gospel  had  in  vain  abrogated 
the  peculiar  sanctity  of  places.  The  nature  of  man, 
yet  imperfectly  spiritualized,  had  sunk  back  to  the  old 
excitements  of  devotion  ;   the  grave  of  the  Redeemer 

1  For  Paradise,  ch.  xTviii.  ii.  p.  377.  "  The  rivers  of  incorruptible  water, 
of  milk,  of  wine,  of  clarified  hone}',  and  all  kinds  of  fruits."  Still  more 
fully,  Iv.  ii.  411. 


CnAP.  I.  THE  CREED  OF  ISLAM.  119 

had  become  to  the  Christian  what  tlie  site  of  the  Tem- 
ple was  to  the  Jew;  and  the  Koran,  by  turning  the 
hearts  of  all  its  votaries  to  the  Holy  Cities,  to  Medina 
and  Mecca,  availed  itself  of  the  universal  passion  for 
pilgrimages.^ 

The  six  great  articles  in  the  faith  of  Islam  were  in 
like  manner  the  elemental  truths  of  all  religions : 
though  peculiarly  expressed,  they  were  neither  re- 
pugnant to  human  reason  nor  to  prevalent  habits  of 
thought.  Most  men,  in  some  form,  believed  —  I.  In 
God.  II.  In  his  Angels.  III.  In  his  Scriptures  (in 
divine  revelation).  IV.  In  his  Prophets.  V.  In  the 
Resurrection  and  Day  of  Judgment.  VI.  In  God's 
absolute  decree  and  predetermination  of  good  and  evil, 
though  this  was  softened  in  most  creeds  into  a  vague 
acknowledgment  of  God's  providential  government. 

The  one  new  and  startling  article  in  the  creed  of 
Islam  was  the  divine  mission  of  the  prophet  Moham- 
med, the  apostle  of  God.  Yet  Mohammed  was  but 
the  successor  of  other  prophets  ;  the  last  of  the  long 
and  unfailinor  line  of  divine  messeno;ers  to  man.  Man- 
kind  in  general  might  demand  miraculous  and  super- 
natural proofs  of  a  prophetic  mission.  The  Jew  might 
sullenly  disclaim  a  prophet  sprung  from  the  bastard 
ra(?e  of  Ishmael ;  the  Christian  might  assume  the  gos- 
pel to  be  the  final  and  conclusive  message  to  man  ;  but 
Mohammed  averred  that  his  mission  was  vouched  by 
the  one  great  miracle,  the  Koran ;  that  he  was  fore- 
sho\^Ti  both  in  the  Law  and  in  the  Gospel,  though 
these  prophecies  had  been  obscured  or  falsified  by  the 
jealousy  of  the  dominant  party  among  the  Jews  and 

1  Gregory  the  Great  mentions  pilgrimages  to  M:  i  nt  Sinai  as  still   ler- 
'brmed  in  his  day,  and  by  women.  —  Epist.  iii.  44. 


120  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Bors  IV 

Christians.  Mohammed  himself  remains,  and  must  re- 
Mohammed,  main,  an  historic  problem  :  liis  character,  his 
motives,  his  designs  are  all  eqnally  obscure.  Was  the 
Prophet  possessed  with  ..  lofty  indignation  at  the  grovel- 
ling idolatry  of  his  countrymen  ?  Had  he  contrasted 
the  sublime  simplicity  of  the  Mosaic  unity  of  God  with 
the  polytheism  of  the  Arabs  ;  or,  that  which  aj)peared 
to  him  only  the  more  subtle  and  disputatious  poly- 
theism of  the  Christians?  Had  he  the  lofty  political 
ambition  of  uniting  the  fierce  and  hostile  tribes  into 
one  confederacy,  of  forming  Arabia  into  a  nation,  and 
so  of  becoming  the  founder  of  a  dynasty  and  an  em- 
pire ;  and  did  he  imagine  his  simple  religion  as  the 
bond  of  the  confederacy?  Did  he  contemplate  fi-om 
the  first  foreign  conquest  or  foreign  proselytism  ?  or 
did  his  more  pliant  ambition  grow  out  of  and  accom- 
modate itself  to  the  circumstances  of  the  time,  submit 
to  change  and  modification,  and  only  fully  develop 
itself  according  to  existing  exigencies  ?  At  this  dis- 
tance of  time,  and  through  the  haze  of  adoring  and  of 
hostile  tradition,  it  is  difficult  to  trace  clearly  the  out- 
ward actions  of  the  Prophet,  how  much  more  the 
inward  impulses,  the  thoughts  and  aspirations  of  his 
secret  spirit.  To  the  question  whether  Mohammed 
was  hero,  sage,  impostor,  or  fanatic,  or  blended,  and 
blended  in  what  proportions,  these  conflicting  elements 
in  his  character  ?  the  best  reply  is  the  favorite  rever- 
ential phrase  of  Islam,  ''  God  knows."  ^ 

1  IMaracci  wrote  of  Mohammed  with  the  learning,  but  in  the  spirit,  of  a 
mnnk.  With  Prideaux  he  is  a  vulvar  impostor.  Spanlieim  bepm  to  take 
a  higher  view  of  his  character.  Sale  and  Gaj?nier,  while  vindicating  him 
from  the  coarse  invectives  of  former  writers,  kindled  into  admiration,  which 
was  accused  of  approaching  to  belief.  With  lioulanvilliers,  he  rose  into 
a  benefactor  of  the  human  race;  with  White  and  his  coadjutors  he  became 


Chai-.  I.  TIIE  KOKAN.  121 

The  Koran  itself  is  not  above  suspicion,  at  least  as 
far  as  its  absolute  integrity  and  authenticity.  The  Koran. 
It  was  put  together  some  time  after  the  death  of  Mo- 
hammed,^ avowedly  not  in  the-  exact  order  of  its  deliv- 
ery.    It  is  not  certain  whether  it  contains  all  that  the 

the  subject  of  some  fine  pulpit  declamation.  Gibbon  is  brilliant,  full,  on 
the  whole  fair;  but  his  brilliancy  on  the  propagation  of  Mohammedanism 
Bingularl}'  contrasts  with  his  cold,  critical  view  of  that  of  Christianity. 
I'assing  over  Savary,  Volney,  in  our  own  times  we  have  the  elaborate  biog- 
raphy of  Dr.  Weil,  whom  scarcely  anything  has  escaped,  and  Caussin  de 
Perceval's  Histoire  des  Arabes  (Paris,  1848),  a  work  of  admirable  industry 
and  learning,  which,  Avitli  the  history  and  genealogy  of  the  early  tribes, 
embraces  the  time  of  Mohammed  and  his  two  successors.  Major  Price, 
whose  contributions  to  the  history  of  Mohammedanism,  from  the  Shiite 
(the  Persian)  traditions  (all  which  we  had  before  were  Sunnite  and  Arabic), 
are  invaluable,  of  Mohammed  himself  gives  us  nothing  new.  But  Col. 
Vans  Kennedy  furnishes  some  extracts  ft-om  Tabari,  a  writer  some  centu- 
ries earlier  than  any  of  the  known  biographers  of  the  Prophet,  Elmaciu, 
and  Abulfeda.  Tabari  wrote  within  three  centm-ies  of  the  Hejira,  and  his  ac- 
count is  at  once  the  most  striking  and  most  credible  which  has  appeared  in 
Europe.  Col.  Vans  Kennedy's  own  appreciation  of  the  Prophet  (which 
may  be  overlooked  in  a  criticism  on  Voltaire's  Mahomet)  is  the  most 
just  with  Avhich  I  am  acquainted.  —  See  Bombay  Transactions,  vol.  iii. 
This  passage  appears  to  have  escaped  the  notice  of  Dr.  Weil,  whose  recent 
*'  Mohammed  der  Prophet"  is  not  only  laborious,  but  also  candid  and  com- 
prehensive. Now,  however  (1855),  the  life  of  Mohammed  (part  I.),  by  Dr. 
Sprenger  (Allahabad,  1851)  has  gi'eatly  enlarged  our  knowledge  of,  and 
enabled  us  to  appreciate  the  earlier  traditions  of  Islam.  Still  while  duly 
grateful  for  these  valuable  accessions  to  our  knowledge,  and  with  all  respect 
for  the  great  learning  and  industry  of  Dr.  Sprenger,  I  must  demur  to  some 
of  his  conclusions.  Islam,  he  asserts,  was  long  anterior  to  Mohammed,  be- 
lieved by  many  before  he  preached  it,  "  It  was  begotten  by  the  spirit  of  the 
time;  it  was  the  inevitable  birth  of  the  age  and  people,  the  voice  of  the 
Arabic  nation  (pp.  44,  165,  175).  True,  as  far  as  the  first  article  of  the 
faith,  there  is  but  one  God:"  but  it  was  the  second,  Mohammed  is  hia 
Prophet ;  it  was  this,  forced  as  a  divine  revelation  into  the  belief  of  so  large 
a  pait  of  mankind,  which  was  the  power,  the  influence,  the  all-subduing 
energy  of  Islam;  the  principle  of  its  unity,  of  its  irresistible  fanaticism,  ita 
propagation,  its  victories,  its  empire,  its  duration. 

1  In  the  reign  of  Abubeker,  who  employed  Mohammed's  secretary,  Zeid 
Abu  Thabit,  Zeid  collected  every  extant  fragment  which  was  in  different 
hands,  written  on  parchment,  on  leather,  on  palm  leaves,  on  bones,  or 
stones.  —  Weil,  Mohammed  der  Prophet,  d.  349 ;  Caussin  de  Perceval,  His- 
ioin;  des  Arabes. 


122  LATW    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

Prophet  revealed,  Oi*  c'liose  revelations  in  their  original 
and  nnalterea  lonn.^ 

Moliammed''^  was  an  orphan  of  a  noble  family  ;  after 
the  death  of  his  parents  he  was  maintained,  first  by  his 
grandfatner,  afterwards  by  his  father's  brother.  The 
first  twenty-five  years  of  his  life  passed  in  obscurity, 
which  the  earlier  and  more  authoritative  tradition  has 
not  ventured  to  embellish  with  wonders  ominous  of  his 
future  greatness.^ 

Chadijah,  a  wealthy  wido>Y  of  his  kindred,  chose 
Mohammed  the  faithful  (his  character  had  gained  him 
that  honorable  appellation)  to  conduct  her  commercial 
afiairs.  He  travelled  with  this  charge  to  Syria,*  and 
his  success  was  so  great  in  comparison  with  that  of  the 
former  agents  of  Chadijah,  that  on  his  return  the  grate- 
ful widow,  moved,  according  to  the  simpler  account,  by 

1  My  own  judgment  is  in  favor  of  the  authenticity  of  the  Koran  (but 
I  know  it  only  from  translations).  The  evident  suggestion  of  the  different 
chapters  by  the  exigencies  of  different  events,  and  the  manifest  contradic- 
tions, are  proofs  of  its  antiquity.  The  convenient  doctrine  of  abrogation, 
by  which  a  later  sentence  annuls  a  former,  and  which  seems  to  have  been 
admitted  from  the  first,  implies  the  general  integrity  of  the  book.*  Dr. 
Weil  believes  that  though  the  Koran  must  not  be  con?idered  without 
omission  or  interpolation,  there  is  no  imjjortant  change,  addition,  or  omis- 
sion. But  see  on  Othman's  revision  —  Weil,  die  Chalifen,  note,  i.  p.  168. 
Dr.  Sprenger  says,  "  Though  not  free  from  interpolation,  yet  there  seems 
no  reason  to  doubt  its  authenticity,"  p.  63. 

-^  Mohammed,  born  April,  570;  April,  13,  571,  or  May  13,  569.  Sprenger, 
p.  75. 

s  For  the  later  traditions,  wild  and  fantastic  enough,  sec  Dr.  Weil,  p.  23, 
note  6,  and  26,  note  1. 

4  Bosra  is  named  as  the  mart  to  which  Mohammed  conducted  the  cara- 
van of  Chadijah.  The  admiration  of  ships  (as  one  of  the  most  wonderful 
gifts  of  God),  which  peipetually  occurs  in  the  Koran,  leads  me  to  suspect 
that  the  writer  had  seen  more  of  maritime  scenes,  in  one  of  the  ports  of 
Syria  perhaps,  than  what  he  may  have  gathered  from  accidental  glimpses 
of  the  navigation  of  the  Red  Sea. 

*  There  are  225  verses  which  coiituiu  doctrines  or  laws  nscalled  by  later  revela- 
tions. —  Weil,  p.  355 


Chap.  I.  MARRIAGE  OF  MOHAMMED.  123 

the  prosperity  of  her  trade  in  his  hands,  according  to 
the  more  marvellous,  by  wonders  which  took  place  on 
his  journey,  bestowed  herself  and  her  w^ealth  on  the 
young  and  handsome  merchant.^ 

Twelve  more  years,  from  his  marriage  at  the  a<Te  of 
twenty-eight,  passed  away.  In  his  fortieth  year,  that 
eventful  period  in  oriental  life,^  the  Prophet  began  to 
listen  to  the  first  intimations  of  his  divine  mission. 

The  caves  of  mount  Hira,  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
borhood of  Mecca,  were  already  hallowed,  it  is  said, 
by  Arabian  superstition.  During  one  of  the  holy 
months  ^  men  were  accustomed  to  retire  to  a  kind  of 
hermitage,  built  or  scooped  out  of  the  rocks,  for  devout 
meditation :  that  meditation  which,  in  an  imaginative 
people,  is  so  apt  to  kindle  into  communion  with  the 
unearthly  and  invisible.  It  was  in  one  of  these  caves 
that  Mohammed  received  his  first  communication  from 
heaven.*  But  the  form  assumed  by  the  vision,  the  illu- 
sion, or  the  daring  conception  of  Mohammed,  showed 
plainly  in  what  school  he  had  received  his  religious  im- 
pressions. It  was  none  of  the  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
six  deities  of  the  old  Arabian  religion,  or  the  astral 
influences  of  the  dominant  Tsabaism,  it  was  Gabriel, 
the  divine  messenger,  hallowed  in  the  Jewish  and  the 
Christian  scriptures,  who   appeared  as   a  mighty  and 

^  For  the  description  of  Mohammed's  person,  See  Dr.  "Weil,  p.  340; 
Caussin  de  Perceval,  iii.  332,  and  on  his  habits  at  great  length,  Sprenger, 
84,  94. 

2  Some  intended  analogy  with  the  life  of  Moses  might  be  suspected; 
but  40,  it  is  well  known,  is  the  indefinite  number  in  the  East,  and  no  douit 
in  many  cases  it  has  been  assumed  to  cover  ignorance  of  a  real  date. 

3  The  four  holy  months,  when  peace  reigned  through  Arabia,  were  the 
first,  the  seventh,  the  eleventh,  the  twelfth.  Islam  afterwards  annulled  the 
holy  months  as  far  as  war  xc'iiii  unbelievers. 

4  Each  family  had  its  hermitage ;  that  of  Hashem,  to  which  Mohammed 
belonged,  was  peculiarly  disposed  to  this  kind  of  devotion. 


124  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

majestic  figure,  with  his  feet  upon  the  earth  and  his 
head  in  the  heavens.^  After  this  solemn  interview,  as 
Mohammed  walked  along  (so  fully  was  his  mind  wrapt 
in  its  vision),  the  stones  and  clods  seemed  to  exclaim, 
"  Prophet  of  God."  ^  By  day  the  inanimate  works 
of  God  thus  summoned  him  to  his  office,  by  night  the 
angel  of  God  perpetually  haunted  his  slumbers,  and 
renewed  his  call.  The  incredulous  Mohammed  sus- 
pected that  these  were  but  the  awful  workings  of  in 
sanity.  His  faithful  wife  consoled  him  with  the  praise 
of  his  virtues,  which  could  not  be  so  cruelly  tried  by 
God.  Chadijah  at  length  put  these  revelations  to  a 
suigular  and  characteristic  test.  They  were  alone  in 
their  chamber  when  the  figure  appeared.  Chadijah 
was  sitting,  as  became  a  chaste  matron,  shrouded  in 
her  veil.^  She  took  the  Prophet  in  her  arms  and  said, 
''  Dost  thou  now  see  it  ?  "  The  Prophet  said,  "  I  do." 
She  cast  off  her  veil,  her  head  and  face  were  uncov- 
ered :  "  Dost  thou  now  see  it  ?  "  "I  do  not."  "  Glad 
tidings  to  thee,  O  Mohammed,"  exclaimed  Chadijah, 
''  it  is  not  a  divi,  but  an  angel  ;  for  had  it  been  a  divi 
it  would  not  have  disappeared  and  respected  my  un- 
veiled face."     The  visions  became  more  frequent  and 

1  Chadijah  is  represented  as  altogether  ignorant  of  Gabriel;  and  it  was 
only  from  the  information  she  obtained  from  a  relative  (Warkeh  o«n 
Nussal),  a  learned  Christian,  that  she  leai'ned  the  name  and  rank  of  the 
aiigcl.  Yet  she  is  afterwards  said  to  have  been  well  acquainted  with  tlie 
J*entateucli  and  the  Evangelists. 

■■2  Tabari,  as  quoted  by  Vans  Kennedy.  —  Bombay  Transactions,  iii.  p. 
421. 

3  There  is  a  curious  passage  in  Tertullian  contrasting  the  modesty  of  the 
Arabian  women  of  his  day  with  the  Christian  virgins,  who  sluLmelessly 
showed  their  faces.  "  Judicabunt  nos  Arabiie  fa-miuf?  ethnica',  quiu  non 
caput  sed  faciem  quoque  ita  totam  tegnnt,  ut  uno  oculo  liberato  conteutaj 
Bint  dimidiam  trui  lucem,  quam  totam  faciem  prostituere."  Dc  Virg.  Vel. 
c.  17. 


chap.l  mission  of  mohasimed.  125 

distinct.  At  length,  on  tlie  mountain  of  Hira,  the 
angel  stood  before  Mohammed  in  defined  and  almost 
human  form.  Mohammed,  still  suspecting  his  own  in- 
sanity, fled  to  the  summit  of  the  mountain  to  cast  him- 
self headlono;  from  it.  The  ano-el  caught  him  under 
his  wing,  and  as  he  reposed  on  his  bosom  commanded 
him  to  read.  "  I  cannot  read,"  ^  replied  Mohammed. 
"  Repeat  then  !  "  And  the  angel  communicated  to 
the  Prophet  the  revelation  of  Islam.  Mohammed  on 
his  return  to  his  house  related  to  his  wife  the  personal 
appearance  of  the  angel,  and  spoke  of  his  mysterious 
communication.  A  short  time  after  he  lay  down,^  cold 
and  weary,  to  repose.  His  wife  had  covered  him. 
The  angel  again  appeared.  "  Arise,  thou  wrapped 
up."     "  Why  should  I  arise  ?  "     "  Arise  and  Mohammed's 

•T/^i'i  1  1  diviue  mis- 

preach,  said  Gabriel  ;  "  cleanse  thy  gar-  sion. 
ments,  and  flee  every  abomination."  Mohammed 
imparted  to  his  wife  his  divine  mission.  "  I,"  said 
Chadijah,  "  will  be  the  first  believer."  They  knelt  in 
the  appointed  attitude  of  prayer  ;  by  the  command  of 
Gabriel  they  performed  their  ablutions.  The  child 
Ali,  but  seven  years  old,  beheld  them,  and  inquired  the 
reason  of  this  strange  conduct.  Mohammed  replied 
that  he  was  the  chosen  prophet  of  God  ;  that  belief  in 
Islam  secured  salvation  in  earth  and  heaven.     Ali  be- 

1  On  the  translation  of  these  words  depends  the  question  whether  Mo- 
bammed  was  absolutely  illiterate.  Those  Avho  deny  it  explain  the  plirase 
as  contined  to  that  which  the  angel  then  ordered  him  to  read.  Sprenger, 
p.  95,  gives  a  different  version :  "  but  it  is  certain  that  no  Mussulmau  will 
admit  the  sense  which  I  give  to  these  verses  of  the  Koran."  —  Sprenger, 
77,  111. 

2  On  the  subject  of  Mohammed's  epilepsy,  consult  the  long  note  of  Dr. 
Weil,  p.  42.  It  is  difficult  to  resist  the  evidence  which  he  adduces.  l)r. 
Weil  concludes:  "I  do  not  think,  with  Theophanes,  that  he  alleged  the 
apparition  of  Gabriel  to  conceal  his  malady,  but  that  the  malady  itself  waa 
the  cause  of  his  belief  in  these  apparitions." 


126  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

lieved,  and  became  the  second  of  the  faithful.  Thus 
was  Mohammed  the  prophet  of  his  household.^  Slow- 
ly, however,  did  he  win  proselytes,  even  among  his 
own  kindred.^  Three  years  elapsed  before  the  faith 
received  the  accession  of  Abubeker  and  of  Othman, 
the  future  caliphs.  Mohammed  at  length  is  accepted 
as  the  prophet  of  his  family,  of  the  noble  and  priestly 
house  of  Hashem.  Abu  Talib,  his  uncle,  remains 
almost  alone  an  unbeliever.  And  now  Mohammed 
aspires  to  be  the  prophet  of  his  Tribe.^  That  tribe,  the 
Koreishite,  was  a  kind  of  hierarchy,  exercising  relig- 
ious supremacy,  and  the  acknowledged  guardians  of 
the  Caaba,  the  sacred  stone  of  Mecca,  with  its  temple. 
The  temple  of  the  Caaba  was  at  once,  as  is  usual 
among  Oriental  nations,  the  centre  of  the  commerce 
and  of  the  religion  of  Arabia.  Tradition,  even  in  the 
days  of  Mohammed  thought  immemorial,  had  asso- 
ciated this  holy  place  with  the  names  of  Adam,  of 
Seth,  and  of  Abraham ;  and  worshippers  from  all  quar- 
ters, idolaters  who  found  each  his  peculiar  idol,  the  Jew 
and  the  Christian,  looked  with  awful  reverence  on  this 
mysterious  spot.  The  pilgrim  of  every  creed,  the  mer- 
chant from  every  part  of  the  peninsula,  met  at  Mecca : 
almost  all  joined  in  the  cei«jmonial  of  visiting  the  sacred 
mountain,  kissing  the  black  stone,  approaching  the  holy 
well  of  Zemzem,  each  seven  times,  the  mystic  number 
with  Arab  as  with  Jew  ;  and  sacrifices  were  offered 
with  devout  prodigality.  Arabian  poetry  hung  up  its 
most  popular  songs  in  the  temple  of  the  Caaba.     It  is 

1  Compare  throughout  Sprenger  who  arranges  these  events  differently. 

2  See  on  the  slave  converts,  specially  Zaid,  Sprenger,  159. 

8  It  was  not  till  the  fourth  or  fifth  year  after  his  own  conversion  that  he 
came  forth  as  a  public  preacher.  —  Sura  xv.  v.  94-99 ;  Sale,  ii.  p.  75.  Com- 
pare xxvi.  p.  218.    He  preached  on  the  hill  Safa. 


Uhap.  1.  PERSECUTION  OF  MOHASOIED.  127 

not,  clear  to  what  peculiar  form  of  idolatry  the  Ko- 
reishite  adhered,  whether  to  the  primitive  and  Arabian 
worship,  which  had  enshrined  in  the  temple  of  Caaba 
her  three  hundred  and  sixty  deities  ;  or  to  the  later 
Tsabaism,  a  more  refined  worship  of  the  planetary 
bodies.^  But  the  intractable  Koreish  met  him  with 
contemptuous  unbehef.  They  resisted  the  new  prophet 
with  all  the  animosity  of  an  established  priesthood 
trembling  for  their  dignity,  their  power,  and  their 
wealth  ;  they  dreaded  the  superiority  which  wonld  be 
assumed  by  the  family  of  Hasliem.  In  that  family 
Abu  Talib,  though  he  resisted  the  doctrines,  protected 
the  person  of  Mohammed,  as  did  all  his  kindred,  ex- 
cept the  implacable  Abu  Lahab.  Like  other  hierarch- 
ies the  Koreish  had  been  tolerant  only  so  long  as  the}- 
were  strong.  The  eloquence,  the  virtue,  the  charit}' 
of  Mohammed  only  made  him  more  dangerous  ;  his 
proselytes  increased ;  the  conversion  of  Hamza,  an 
other  of  his  uncles,  one  of  the  most  obstinate  of  unbe- 
lievers, drove  them  to  madness.  A  price  was  set  upon 
his  secret  assassination,  a  hundred  camels  and  Persecution 
a  thousand  ounces  of  silver.  Omar,  now  med. 
twenty-six  years  old,  undertook  the  deed.^  He  was 
accosted  on  his  way  by  the  convert  Nueim.  "  Ere 
thou  doest  the  deed,"  said  Nueim,  "  look  to  thine  own 
near  kindred."  Omar  rushed  to  the  house  of  his  sister 
Fatima,  to  punish  her  apostacy :  he  found  some  sen- 
tences of  the  Koran,  he  read  them,  and  believed.  Yet 
the  Koreishites  abated  not  in  their  hostility.     The  life 

1  The  uncle  of  Mohammed,  Abu  Talib,  was  strenuous  for  the  worship  of 
two  female  deities,  and  the  adoration  of  the  "daughters  of  God"  is  repro- 
bated in  the  Koran  as  one  of  the  worst,  probably  therefore  one  of  the  most 
prevalent,  forms  of  idolatry :  compare  Sprenger,  170. 

2  Weil,  p.  59 ;  Sprenger,  188. 


128  LATIN    CHRISTTANITY.  i>ook  IV. 

of  Mohammed  was  a  strufjirle  to  enforce  his  creed  on 
an  obstinate  and  superstitious  people  ;  of  threatened 
martyrdom  for  tlie  unity  of  God  and  for  his  own  pro- 
phetic mission.  He  was  at  length  placed  under  a  sol- 
emn interdict  by  the  two  ruling  families  of  the  Koreish- 
ites.  Some  of  his  humbler  followers  fled  to  Abyssinia, 
where  they  were  protected  by  the  sovereign  of  that 
land.^  Mohammed  submitted  to  personal  insult.  He 
allowed  himself  to  be  abused,  to  be  spit  upon,  to  have 
dust  thrown  upon  him,  and  to  be  dragged  out  of  the 
temple  by  his  own  turban  fastened  to  his  neck  :  he  be- 
held his  followers  treated  with  the  same  ignominy.  At 
times  his  mind  was  so  depressed  as  to  need  the  consola- 
tions of  the  angel  Gabriel.  He  constantly  changed  his 
bed  to  elude  the  midnight  assassin.  For  three  years 
Mohammed  was  under  this  interdict,^  dw^elling  in  a 
castle  of  his  uncle  Abu  Talib's,  situated  in  a  deep  and 
unassailable  ravine,  and  came  to  Mecca  only  during 
the  holy  months.  The  death  of  Chadijah  broke  one 
of  the  prophet's  ties  to  Mecca :  that  of  Abu  Talib,  who 
died  an  unbeliever,  left  him  only  the  valor  and  vigi- 
lance of  his  disciples  to  shield  him  against  the  impla- 
cable and  deepening  hatred  of  the  Koreishites.  The 
Prophet  must  fly  from  his  native  city  ;  and  the  hopes 
of  making  Mecca  the  national  religious  metropolis,  the 
centre  of  his  new  spiritual  empire,  seemed  to  have  failed 
utterly  and  forever.  Miracle  or  craft  alone  saved  him 
from  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  who  surprised  him, 
nearly  alone,  in  the  house  of  Abubeker.  During  his 
flight  he  only  escaped  assassination  by  the  faithful  Ali 

1  Sprenger,  p.  189. 

2  The  interdict  was  suspended  in  the  temple,  according  to  Dr.  Weil,  in 
the  seventh  year  of  Mohammed's  mission. 


Chap.  I.  HEGIRA.  129 

taking  his  place  in  the  tent ;  and,  so  ran  the  legend, 
when   he    slumbered   in  a  cave,   the   spider  wove   its 
web  over  the  entrance,   and  a  pigeon  laid  two  eggs 
to  show  that   its   solitude   had   been   undis-  Flight. 
turbecl.1  "'^'" 

Medina  (Yathrib^)  at  once  accepted  the  dignity 
which  had  been  spurned  by  Mecca.  Six  of  her  most 
distinguished  citizens  had  already  embraced  at  Mecca 
the  cause  of  the  Prophet.  The  idolatry  of  Medina 
had  not  the  local  strength  of  that  of  Mecca  ;  it  had 
not  the  same  strongly  organized  hierarchy.  Some  ri- 
valry with  the  commercial  importance  of  Mecca,  so 
closely  connected  with  her  religious  supremacy,  en- 
tered, no  doubt,  into  the  minds  of  the  Medinese  when 
they  thus  allied  themselves  with  the  chief  of  the  new 
religion.  The  proselytes  to  Islam  had  prepared  the 
whole  city,  and  Mohammed  did  not  leave  Mecca  till  a 
deputation  from  Medina  had  sworn  fealty  to  their  new 
sovereign.^  The  form  of  the  oath  showed  the  Prophet 
under  a  new  character.  "If,'  said  these  Ansarii  (the 
assistants),  "  we  are  slain  in  your  cause,  what  is  our 
reward  ?  "     "  Paradise,"  replied  the  Prophet.* 

In  Medina  appear  manifest  indications  of  more  direct 
advances   to   the   Jews.     The  Arabian    Jews   in    the 

1  Era  of  the  Hegira  or  flight,  April  19,  622.  According  to  Caussin  de 
Perceval,  the  true  date  of  Mohammed's  flight  from  Mecca  was  the  18th  or 
I9th  June,  622.  —  iii.  17.  Weil  makes  it  20th  September.  The  question 
is,  whether  the  intercalated  year  was  in  use  at  this  time. 

2  Yathrib  now  took  the  name  of  Medina  (the  city).  —  C  de  P.  iii.  21. 

3  This  was  the  second  or  great  oath  of  Acaba. —  Caussin  de  Perceval^ 
iu.  8. 

4  In  the  2d  Sura,  Mohammed  appears  to  forbid  all  but  defensive  war 
fare:  "And  fight  for  the  religion  of  God,  against  those  who  fight  against 
you;  but  transgress  not  by  attacking  them  first,  for  God  loveth  not  the 
transgressors."  He  was  as  yet  too  weak  for  aggressive  war.  —  Sur.  ii. 
p.  34. 

VOT..    II.  9 


130  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

neighborhood  of  the  two  great  cities  were  numerous 
and  powerful,  formed  whole  tribes,  occupied  strong 
fortresses,  and  evidently,  from  the  Talmudic  charac- 
ter of  the  Koran,  exercised  a  most  extensive  religious 
influence  over  the  central  part  of  Arabia.  The  wide- 
spread expectation  of  the  Messiah  among  the  Jews 
was  mingled,  no  doubt,  with  the  suggestive  move- 
ments in  the  mind  of  Mohammed  ;  and  this  fanati- 
cism enlisted  in  his  cause  would  have  placed  him  at 
once  at  the  head  of  a  most  formidable  confederacy.^ 
Jerusalem  suddenly  becomes  the  centre  of  the  Islamite 
system  instead  of  Mecca;  it  is  the  Kiblah  of  all 
prayer.  The  Prophet  is  transported  to  its  walls.  His 
journey,  to  the  more  refined  and  spiritual  minds, 
might  appear  to  have  taken  place  in  a  heaven-sent 
vision  ;  to  the  ruder  he  was  described  as  riding  bodily 
on  the  mysterious  horse  El  Borak,  and  lighting  from 
his  aerial  voyage  on  the  site  of  the  temple  of  Jerusa 


1  Tabari,  according  to  Col.  Vans  Kennedy,  ascribes  the  ready  acquies- 
cence of  the  Medinese  in  the  views  of  the  Prophet  to  their  fear  lest  they 
Bhould  be  anticipated  by  their  neighbors  the  Jews.  On  their  return  these 
men  first  recited  the  passages  of  the  Koran  which  they  had  learned  from 
Mohammed,  and  then  said,  "  This  is  that  Prophet  whose  name  the  Jews 
daily  invoke,  and  whose  coming  they  so  anxiously  expect:  should  they 
therefore  receive  him,  and  be  obedient  to  him,  you  will  be  reduced  to  the 
greatest  difficulties ;  it  is  therefore  expedient  that  you  should  hasten  to  an- 
ticipate the  Jews,  and  receive  Mohammed  before  they  can  unite  with  him." 
Compare  Caussin  de  Perceval,  iii.  8.     Bombay  Trans,  p.  430. 

2  On  the  Kiblah,  see  Koran,  Sur.  ii.  p.  26,  27,  with  Sale's  note;  Abulfe- 
da,  ch.  xxvi. ;  Geiger,  p.  19.  A  certain  Imam  says,  that  whilst  Mohammed 
was  in  Mecca,  he  used  the  Caaba  as  his  Kiblah,  but  whilst  in  Medina  he 
used  the  holy  house  as  his  Kiblah,  and  there  also  made  a  general  change; 
to  that  one  period  was  abrogated  by  another.  In  a  certain  exposition  it  is 
laid  that  he  first  prayed  in  Mecca  towards  the  Caaba,  and  then  changed  to 
the  Baitu  i  Mahaddos,  which  also  his  followers  did  at  Medina  for  their 
pilgrimages,  or  even  sacred  processions:  but  that  afterwards  the  Kiblah 
was  transferred  to  the  Caaba.    Hist,  of  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem,  by  Jelal 


Chap.  I.  PROGRESS  OF  ISLAM.  131 

But  the  Jews  repelled  the  overtures  of  the  Prophet 
sprung  from  the  race  of  Ismael.  They  scoffed  at  his 
pretensions,  they  provoked  his  terrible  vengeance.^ 
Tribe  after  tribe  was  defeated  ;  their  castle-fastnesses 
could  not  sustain  the  assaults  of  the  impetuous  war- 
riors who  now  went  forth  under  the  banner  of  Islam. 
First  the  Jews  of  Kainoka,  then  those  of  Al  Nadher, 
then  those  of  Koraidha  and  of  Khaibar  were  forced  to 
submission.  The  remorseless  massacre  of  the  Kora- 
idha after  the  great  battle  of  the  Ditch,  in  which 
Mohammed  watched  the  slaughter  of  seven  hundred 
and  ninety  Jews  in  cold  blood,  whom  the  Koran  pur- 
sues to  the  fires  of  hell,  shows  the  implacable  resent- 
ment of  the  Prophet.2  On  other  occasions  the 
Prophet  was  not  wanting  in  clemency ;  here  his  de- 
liberate recklessness  may  be  traced  to  the  disappoint- 
ment of  high- wrought  hopes. 

At  length,  after  a  war  of  some  years  between  the 
rival  cities  and  the  followers  of  the  rival  re-  progress  of 
ligions,  after  two  bloody  battles,  that  of  Be-  ^^^''™- 
der,  in  which  the  Mussulmans  were  victorious,^  that 

Addin  al  Jebal,  translated  by  F.  Reynolds.  —  Orient.  Fund  Translat.  p. 
109.  Jelal  Addin  is  disposed  to  glorify  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  but  there 
is  no  reason  to  question  his  citations  from  early  Mohammedan  writers.  See 
also  Weil,  p.  90.  Sprenger,  p.  123 ;  he  places  it  a  year  before  the  flight. 
Sprenger  gives  at  some  length  the  wild  legend  by  the  Borak,  or  when  he 
rode  not  to  Jerusalem,  but  to  the  Seven  Heavens.  The  voyage  was  called 
theNuraj,  p.  126. 

1  At  different  periods  many  Jews  of  note  embraced  Islamism :  "Waraka, 
the  cousin  of  Chadijah,  Halib  ben  Maleh,  a  Jewish  prince,  and  Abdallah 
ibn  Sallaam.  —  Geiger,  page  24. 

2  See  in  "  History  of  the  Jews,"  the  successive  wars  with  these  Jewish 
tribes,  v.  iii.  p.  249  et  seq.  For  their  dates  (some  years  intervened),  com- 
pare Caussin  de  Perceval,  vol.  iii. 

8  See  the  vivid  description  of  the  battle  of  Beder  in  Caussin  de  Perceval, 
tii.  49-65;  of  Ohud,  89-104:  in  this  battle  Mohammed  was  wounded  in  (lie 
'ace,  and  in  great  danger. 


132  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

of  Olmd,  won  by  the  Koreishltes,  after  Medina  had 
been  twice  besieged  by  the  warriors  of  Mecca,  and 
after  a  short  truce,  violated  by  the  Koreishites,  a  sud- 
den awe  of  Islam  seized  the  obstinate  unbelievers.  In 
a  few  years  an  expedition,  which  at  first  bore  the 
appearance  of  a  peaceful  pilgrimage  and  encountered 
but  feeble  resistance,  made  the  Prophet  master  of 
Mecca.^  The  Caaba  opened  its  unresisting  gates ; 
the  three  hundred  and  sixty  idols  fell  without  resist- 
ance on  the  part  of  their  worshippers.  "  The  truth 
hath  come,  let  lies  disappear."  They  were  dashed  to 
pieces.  The  Mouedhim  proclaimed  from  the  roof, 
"  There  is  one  God,  and  Mohammed  is  his  prophet." 
No  contumacious  voice  is  heard  in  denial.  The  con- 
iijan. 630.  qucst  was  almost  without  bloodshed,  except 
that  of  a  few  from  old  hereditary  hostility.  The  most 
powerful  of  the  Prophet's  adversaries  became  prose- 
lytes to  the  faith  ;  the  whole  population  swore  allegi 
ance.  From  that  time  Mecca  becomes  again  the  capital 
city  of  Islam ;  the  divine  edict  in  favor  of  Jerusalem  is 
abrogated  ;  the  Prophet  is  sternly  and  exclusively  Ara- 
bian ;  pilgrimages  to  the  Caaba,  now  purified  of  its 
idols,  become  an  essential  part  of  the  religion  ;  the 
whole  energy  of  Mohammedanism  flows  fi^om  and 
circulates  back  to  the  centre  of  the  system. 

Lord  of  Mecca,  Mohammed  stands  supreme  and 
alone  ;  the  Arabian  mind  and  heart  are  his  ;  the  old 
idolatry  has  sunk  at  once  before  the  fear  of  his  irms 
and  the  sublimity  of  his  new  creed.  He  can  disdain  the 
alliance  of  those  whom  before  he  might  stoop  to  con- 
ciliate; he  can  express  hatred  and  contempt  for  the 
Jew  and  for  the  Christian,  at  least  within  the  Arabian 

1  VIII.  of  the  Hegira.  —  Caussin  de  Perceval,  iii.  p.  21,  &c. 


Chap.  I.  PROGRESS  OF  ISLAM.  133 

peninsula  ;  ne  may  pursue  tliem  with  fierce  and  iin- 
placable  hostility.  But  more  than  this,  and  herein  is 
the  great  debt  of  gratitude  which  Arabia  owes  to 
Mohammed,  the  old  hereditary  feuds  of  the  tribes  and 
races  are  hushed  in  awe  or  turned  into  one  impetuous 
current  against  the  infidels.  What  on  the  whole  was  • 
the  influence  of  Mohammedanism  on  the  world,  we 
])ause  not  now  to  mquire,  or  whether  human  happi- 
ness paid  dear  for  the  aggrandizement  of  the  Arab 
race.  But  Arabia  is  now  a  nation ;  it  takes  its  place 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth ;  it  threatens  to  become 
the  ruling  nation  of  the  world.^ 

It  was  the  policy  of  Mohammed  first  to  secm'e  the 
absolute  religious  unity  of  Arabia.  In  Arabia  Islam 
at  once  declares  irreconcilable  war  with  all  forms  of 
unbelief:  they  are  swept  away  or  retire  into  ignomin- 
ious obscurity.  The  only  dangerous  antagonists  of 
Mohammedanism  after  the  death  of  Mohammed  are 
rival  prophets.  Moseilama  for  a  time  seems  to  arrest 
or  to  divert  the  current  of  religious  conquest.  But 
even  the  relimous  unitv  of  Arabia,  much  less  that  of 
the  conquered  world,  dawns  but  by  degrees  upon  the 
mind  of  Mohammed ;  his  religious   ambition   expands 

1  See  in  Tabari,  ii.  276-8;  Ibn  Khaldun,  194,  the  remarkable  conversa- 
tion attributed  to  Yezdegerd  and  the  ambassadors  of  Omar:  "Who  are 
you  to  attack  an  empire?  Of  all  the  nations  of  the  world,  the  poorest, 
most  disunited,  most  ignorant,  most  stranger  to  the  arts  which  are  the 
Bource  of  power  and  wealth."  "  What  you  have  said  of  our  p<jverty,  our 
divisions,  or  barbarism,  was  true  indeed."  .  .  .  The  ambassador  describes 
their  misery,  their  superstition,  their  idolatry.  "  Such  were  we.  Now 
we  are  a  new  people.  God  has  raised  up  among  us  a  man  ...  his  envoy 
and  true  prophet.  Islamism,  his  religion,  has  enlightened  our  minds,  ex- 
tinguished our  hatreds,  made  us  a  society  of  brothers  under  laAvs  dictated 
ty  divine  wisdom.  He  has  said.  Consummate  my  work ;  spread  the  empire 
of  Islam  over  the  whole  world;  the  earth  is  the  Lord's,  he  has  bestowed  it 
on  vou." 


134  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

with  his  success ;  his  power  is  the  measure  of  his  in- 
tolerance ;  hence  the  strong  contradictions  in  the  Koran, 
the  alternating  tone  of  hatred  and  of  tolerance,  of 
contempt  and  of  respect,  with  which  are  treated  the 
authors  and  the  votaries  of  other  religions.  He  is  a 
gentle  preacher  until  he  has  unsheathed  the  sword :  ^ 
the  sword  once  unsheathed  is  the  one  remorseless  argu- 
ment. The  convenient  principle  of  abrogation  annuls 
all  those  sentences  of  the  Koran  which  speak  in  a 
milder  tone  to  unbelievers.^  At  one  time  we  find  the 
broad  principle  of  Eastern  toleration  explicitly  avowed ; 
the  diversity  of  religion  is  ascribed  to  the  direct  ordi- 
nance, and  all  share  in  the  equal  favor  of  God.^ 

But  the  Koran  gradually  recants  all  these  gentler 
sentences,  and  assumes  the  language  of  insulting  supe- 
riority or  undisguised  aversion.  Even  in  the  Sura 
which  contains  the  loftiest  and  most  tolerant  sentences, 

1  There  is  a  passage  in  the  29th  Sura  (revealed  at  Mecca)  commanding 
Islamites  "to  dispute  mildly  with  those  who  receive  the  Scriptures."  But 
this  verse  is  thought  to  be  abrogated  by  the  chapter  of  the  Sword.  —  Com- 
pare Sale  in  loco. 

2  This  principle  was  early  asserted  in  the  Koran.  "  Whatever  verse  we 
shall  abrogate  or  cause  thee  to  forget,  we  will  bring  a  better  than  it,  or  one 
like  unto  it."  —  ch.  ii.  p.  21. 

8  "  Surely  those  who  believe,  and  those  who  Judaize,  and  Christians  and 
Sabeans,  whoever  believeth  in  God  and  the  last  day,  and  doth  that  which 
is  right,  they  shall  have  their  reward  with  their.Lord;  there  shall  come  no 
fear  on  them,  neither  shall  they  be  grieved."  —  ch.  ii.  p.  12.  This  and  the 
parallel  passage  in  the  5th  chapter  are  said  to  be  abrogated,  or  are  explained 
by  commentators  whom  Kelaud  follows,  as  meaning  that  they  will  pre- 
viously embrace  Mohammeilanism.  But  n(>thing  less  than  abrogation  can 
remove  another  passage:  "Unto  everyone  of  you  were  given  a  law  and 
an  open  path,  and  if  God  had  pleased  he  had  surely  made  you  one  people: 
but  he  hath  thought  fit  to  give  you  different  laws,  that  he  might  try  you 
in  that  which  he  hath  given  you  respectively.  Therefore  strive  to  eq"  al 
each  other  in  good  works.  Unto  God  shall  ye  all  return,  and  then  will  ne 
declare  unto  you  that  concerning  which  ye  have  disagreed." — ch.  v.  lu 
another  place  is  the  broad  axiom,  "  Let  there  be  no  violence  in  religion." 
i— ch.  ii.  p.  48. 


Chap.  I.  JEWS  AND  CHRISTIANS.  135 

tlieir  spirit  is  abrogated  by  the  repeated  assertion  that 
Jew  and  Christian  have  been  ahke  unfaithful  to  their 
own  law,  and  that  the  same  disobedience  which  insti- 
irates  them  to   rebel   against  their  own  religion  is  the 

o  o  o 

cause  of  their  unbelief  in  Islam. ^     The  Jews  from  the 
earliest  ages  had  been  the  murderers  of  the  prophets.^ 
The  murder  of  the  prophet  Jesus  is  among  their  dark 
est  crimes.       What   wonder  that  they    now  The  Koran 
turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  prophet  Mohammed  ?  intolerant. 
They  had  falsified  their  scriptures  ;  they  had  To  Jews. 
erased  or  perverted  the  predictions  concerning  Moham 
med  ;  they  were  enemies,  therefore,  to  all   true  relig- 
ion, and,  as  enemies,  to   be  pursued  w^ith  unmitigated 
enmity.     They  are  guilty  of  a  worse  impiety  (strange, 
no  doubt,  was  the  charge  to  their  own  ears),  an  in- 
fringement of  the  unity  of  God,  which  would  demand 
the  vengeance  of  all  true  believers.     "  They  hold  Ezra 
to  be  the  Son  of  God."  3 

Towards  the  Christians  these  early  tolerant  maxims 
of  religious  freedom  were  still  further  neutral-  To  christians, 
ized  by  the  collision  of  the  first  principle  of  Moham- 
medanism with  that  of  the  dominant  Christianity.  In 
one  milder  passage  the  Koran  intimates  that  the  Chris- 
tians were  less  irreconcilable  enemies  to  the  Prophet 
than  the  Jew  and  the  idolater,  and  this  is  attributed 
to  the  influence   of  the  priests  and  the  monks.*     The 

1  "  Thou  shalt  surely  find  the  most  violent  of  all  men  in  enmity  against 
tha  true  believers,  to  be  the  Jews  and  the  idolaters."  —  ch.  v.  p.  147. 

2  "  They  dislocate  the  words  of  the  Pentateuch  from  their  places,  and 
have  forgotten  part  of  that  which  they  were  admonished."  — ch.  v.  p.  131. 

3  Ch.  ix.  p.  243.  Sale  quotes  one  of  the  commentators  (Al  Biedawi), 
vvho  says  that  this  imputation  must  be  true,  because  it  Avas  read  to  the 
lews  and  they  did  not  contradict  it. 

•«  "Thou  shalt  surely  find  those  among  them  to  be  the  most  inclinable 
<o  entertain  friendship  for  the  true  believers  who  say,  '  We  aie  Christians.' 


136  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

sense  and  the  occasion  of  this  sentence  are  manifest. 
The  idolaters  and  Jews  were  in  arms  against  the 
Prophet,  and  defending  their  religion  w^ith  desperate 
valor.  The  only  Christians  with  whom  he  had  then 
come  in  contact  were  a  peaceful  people,  probably  mo- 
nastic communities.  But  as  its  views  and  its  con- 
quests expand,  in  the  Koran  the  worship  of  Christ 
becomes  the  worst  impiety  :  the  assertion  of  his  divin- 
ity involves  the  guilt  of  infidelity.^  The  worshipper 
of  the  Christian  Trinity  denied  the  Unity  of  God,  and 
however  the  contemptuous  toleration  of  a  mighty 
Mohammedan  empire  might  give  indulgence  to  such 
<».rrors  among  the  lower  orders  of  its  subjects,  the  vital 
principles  of  the  two  religions  stood  opposed  in  stub- 
born antagonism.  The  Christian  would  not  be  soothed 
by  the  almost  reverential  admission  of  Jesus  into  the 
line  of  heaven-commissioned  prophets,  or  even  the  re- 
spectful language  concerning  the  Virgin  Mary.  The 
Mohannnedan  would  not  endure  vs^Ith  patience  the 
slightest  imagined  impeachment  on  the  divine  Unity. 
The  rude  and  simple  Arab  had  as  yet  no  turn  to  or 
comprehension  of  metaphysical  subtlety:  he  could 
not,  or  would  not,  conceive  the  Trinity  but  as  three 
Gods. 

It  was  indeed  but  a  popular  and  traditionary  Juda- 

This  Cometh  to  pass  because  there  are  priests  and  monks  among  them;  and 
because  they  are  not  elated  with  pride."  — ch.  v.  vol.  i.  p.  147. 

1  "  Verily  Christ  Jesus,  the  son  of  Mary,  is  the  apostle  of  God,  and  his 
word  which  he  conveyed  unto  Mary,  and  a  spirit  proceeding  from  him. 
Believe,  therefore,  in  God  and  his  apostles,  and  say  not  there  are  three 
(iods:  forbear  this,  it  will  be  better  for  you.  God  is  but  one  God.  Far  be 
it  from  him  that  he  should  have  a  son.  .  .  .  Christ  doth  not  proudly  disdain 
lo  be  a  servant  unto  God:  neither  the  angels  who  approach  near  to  hig 
Mescnce."  —  ch.  iv.  p.  126.  Passages  might  be  multiplied  from  almost 
every  Sura. 


CiiAP.  I.  JEWS  AND  CHKISTIANS.  ~  137 

isin,^  a  popular  and  traditionary  Christianity  —  neither 
tlie  Judaism  of  the  Law,  nor  the  Clu'istianity  of  the 
Gospel  —  which  Mohammed  encountered  in  Arabia. 
The  Prophet  may  have  exaggerated  his  own  igno- 
rance in  order  to  heighten  the  great  standing  miracle 
of  the  faith,  the  composition  of  the  exquisite  and  un- 
I'ivalled  Koran  by  an  unlettered  man.^  But  through- 
out he  betrays  that  he  has  no  real  knowledge  either 
of  the  Old  or  New  Testament :  the  fables  blended  up 
with  the  genuine  Jewish  history,  though  Talmudic, 
are  not  drawn  from  that  great  storehouse  of  Jewish 
learning,  but  directly  from  the  vulgar  belief.^  The 
Jews  of  Arabia  had  ever  been  held  in  contempt,  and 
not  without  justice,  by  their  more  polished  brethren 
of  Babylon  or  Tiberias,  as  a  rude  and  barbarous  peo- 
ple ;  they  had  revolted  back  to  old  Arabian  habits  ; 
they  are  said  not  even  to  be  noticed  in  the  Talmud. 
The  Prophet's  notions  of  Christianity  were  from 
equally  impure  sources,  if,  as  no  doubt  they  were, 
drawn  from  the  vulgar  creed  of  the  Arabian  Chris- 
tians. They  also  must  have  dwelt  apart,  as  well  from 
the  more  rigid  orthodoxy,  as  from  the  intellectual  con- 
dition of  the  Church  in  the  more  civilized  part  of  the 
world.  They  were  Trinitarians,  indeed,  and  at  least 
almost  worshippers  of  the  Virgin  Mary.  They  are 
distinctly  charged  with  her  deification.^     But  the  spu- 

1  Geiger,  p.  29. 

2  "  Thou  couldst  not  read  any  book  before  this,  neither  couldst  thou 
write  it  with  thy  right  hand;  then  had  the  gainsayers  justly  doubted  of 
^he  divine  original  thereof."  —  Sur.  29,  ii.  p.  250. 

3  See  the  whole  account  of  Moses  in  the  2d  Chapter. 

4  "  And  when  God  shall  say  unto  Jesus  at  the  last  day,  0  Jesus,  son  cf 
Mary !  hast  thou  said  unto  men,  Take  me  and  my  mother  for  two  Gods 
Veside  God?  he  shall  answer,  Praise  be  unto  thee!  it  is  not  for  me  to  say 
that  which  I  ought  not."  — ch.  v.  i.  p.  156. 


138  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

rious  gospels  of  the  Infancy^  and  of  Barnabas^  con- 
tribute far  more  to  the  Christianity  shown  in  the 
Koran  than  the  writino;s  of  the  Evangelists.  Their 
Gnostic  tendencies  are  shown  by  the  Docetism  ^  or 
unreality  of  the  Saviour's  crucifixion,  supposed  by 
Mohammed  to  be  the  common  belief  of  all  Christians.* 
To  monastic  Christianity  Islam  stood  even  in  more 
direct  opposition.  Marriage  in  the  Koran  appears  to 
be  the  natural  state  of  man.^  Chastity,  beyond  a 
prudent  temperance  in  connubial  enjoyments  and  the 
abstinence  from  unlawful  indulgences,  is  a  virtue  un- 
known in  the  Koran  ;  it  belongs  neither  to  saints  in 
earth  nor  in  heaven.  Even  in  the  respect  shown  to 
the  Virgin  Mary  she  is  spoken  of,  not  under  the  ap- 
pellation which  sanctified  her  to  Christian  ears,  but  as 
the  mother  of  Jesus.  The  Koran  admits  none  of  the 
first  principles  of  monasticism,  or,  rather,  directly  re- 
pudiates them.  It  disdains  the  Pantheistic  system  in 
all  its  forms  ;  the  Emanation  theory  of  India,  the  Du- 
alism of  Persia,  the  Mysticism  of  monkery.  God 
stands  alone  in  his  nature,  remote,  unapproachable  ; 
in  his  power  dominant  throughout  all  space,  and  in 
all  time,  but  divided  by  a  deep  and  impassable  gulf 
from  created   things.      The  absorption  into,   or   even 

1  See  in  ch.  xxx.  the  account  of  the  birth  of  Christ.  It  is  difficult  to 
acquit  Mohammed  of  confounding  the  Virgin  Mary  with  Miriam  the 
Prophetess,  the  sister  of  Moses.  —  vol.  ii.  p.  133. 

2  These  works  exist  in  Arabic  in  more  than  one  form.  Compare  Thilo, 
(>odex  Apoc.  N.  T. 

3  This  Docetic  notion  was  formed  to  favor  the  Gnostic  (not  the  Catholic) 
riew  of  the  divinity  of  Christ.  — Hist,  of  Ciiristianity. 

4  See  the  very  curious  extract  fi-om  Tabari  (Weil,  die  Chalifen,  i.  103), 
on  the  substitution  of  a  Jewish  youth  for  Jesus  on  the  cross,  and  the  as- 
cension of  Jesus  to  heaven. 

5  Mohammed  was  aware  that  the  monastic  system  was  later  than  Chris- 
tianity.    It  was  not  ordained  by  God.  —  ch.  Ivii.  p  421. 


Chap.  I.  DOCTRINES  OF  TIIE  KORAN.  139 

the  approximation  towards  the  Deity  by  contemplation 
in  this  life  or  perfection  in  the  life  to  come,  are  equally 
foreign  to  the  Koran.  The  later  Sufism,  which  min- 
gled this  Orientalism  with  the  religion  of  the  Prophet, 
is  more  absolutely  at  variance  with  its  original  spirit, 
even  than  with  that  of  the  Gospel.  Mohammed 
raised  no  speculative  or  metaphysical  questions  about 
the  origin  of  evil :  he  took  the  world  as  it  was,  and 
denounced  the  vengeance  of  God  against  sin.  To 
sin,  angels,  genii,  ard  man  were  alike  liable :  they 
were  to  be  judged  at  the  final  resurrection,  and  either 
condemned  to  one  of  the  seven  hells,  or  received  into 
one  of  the  seven  heavens.  And  these  seven  hells  and 
seven  heavens  are  eternal,  immutable.  There  is  no 
reabsorption  of  the  universe  into  the  Deity.  The  ex- 
ternal world  and  God  will  maintain  throughout  eternity 
the  same  separate,  unmingling,  unapproximating  exist- 
ence. 

Such  then  was  the  new  religion  which  demanded 
the  submission  of  the  world.  As  a  sublime  creed  of 
Monotheism  entitled  to  disdain  the  vulgar  ^®^^°^' 
Polytheism  of  Arabia,  of  the  remoter  East,  perhaps 
the  Fire-worship  of  Persia,  or  even  the  depraved 
forms  of  Judaism  and  Christianity  —  yet  at  the  high- 
est it  was  but  the  republication  of  a  more  comprehen- 
sive Judaism ;  in  all  other  respects  its  movement  was 
retrograde.  The  habits  of  the  religion,  if  it  may  be  so 
said,  were  those  of  the  Old  Testament,  not  of  the 
New;  the  Arabs  had  hardly  attained  the  point  in  civ- 
ilization at  which  the  Jews  stood  in  the  time  of  the 
Mosaic    dispensation.^      Mohammedanism    triumphant 

1  There  were  some  distinctive  usages,  which  are  said  to  have  been  stu- 
diously introduced  in  order  to  show  aversion  and  contemj  t  for  the  Jews.  — 


140  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

over  the  world  would  have  established  the  Asiatic 
form  of  society  :  slavery  and  polygamy  would  have 
become  the  established  usages   of  mankind. 

Islamism  recognizes  slavery  to  its  fullest  extent  ;  it 
Slavery.  treats  it  as  one  of  the  ordinary  conditions  of 
society  ;  none  of  the  general  principles  tend  even  re- 
motely to  its  extinction,  or,  except  in  the  general  ad- 
monitions to  clemency  and  kindness,  towards  its  miti- 
gation. The  Koran,  as  the  universal  revelation,  would 
have  been  a  perpetual  edict  of  servitude. 

Polygamy  was  the  established  usage  of  Arabia,  and 
Mohammed  limited,  perhaps,  rather  than  enlarged  its 
privilege.  The  number  of  lawful  wives  is  fixed,  and 
Polygamy,  witli  the  pcrmissiou  of  polygamy^  are  min- 
gled some  wise  and  humane  provisions  against  its 
evils.^  But  as  concubinage  with  female  captives  was 
recognized  hardly  with  any  limit,  unbounded  license 
became  the  reward  of  brilliant  valor,  and  the  violation 
of  women  or  the  appropriation  of  all  female  captives 
to  the  harem    became   one   of   the    ordinary  laws    of 


Pocock,  Not.  Miscel.  c.  9,  p.  369;  Geigcr,  p.  198.  Of  these  the  most  ini. 
portaut  is  the  total  abolition  of  the  distinction  of  meats,  with  the  exceptiou 
of  those  prohibited  to  the  Jewish  converts  to  Christianity  —  that  which  died 
a  natural  death,  blood,  swine's  flesh,  and  meat  sanctified  to  idols.  —  Koran, 
c.  ii.  p.  30,  V.  p.  128,  vi.  181. 

1  All  other  license  was  forbidden.  True  believers  keep  themselves  from 
c&nial  knowledge  of  any  women  except  their  wives,  or  the  cai)tives  which 
tbeir  right  hands  possess  (for  as  to  them  they  shall  be  blameless) ;  but  who- 
ever coveteth  any  woman  beyond  these,  they  are  transgressors. 

■^  The  laws  of  divorce  and  of  prohibited  degrees,  &c.,  are  chiefly  from 
tlu  Old  Testament.  —  ch.  ii.  and  iv. 

3  The  heaven-sanctioned  indulgence  of  Mohammed  in  the  violation  of 
his  own  laws,  by  which  he  assumed  and  exercised  a  right  to  flfteen  ot 
more  wives  (the  number  is  not  quite  certain),  is  perhaps  not  unjustly 
cluirged  to  the  unbridled  lust  of  the  J^rophet.  Yet  another  at  least  con- 
tuiTcnt  caube  may  be  suggested  —  tlie  unxiety  for  luuile  issue.    Mohammed 


Chap.  I.  ISLAM  WAR  AGAIXST  MANKIND.  141 

The  Koran  was  a  declaration  of  war  against  man- 
kind.    The  world  must  prepare  at  once  for  a  Koran  war 

,        ,         .  .  .  1    i?         -^       r.      ^  .   against  nian- 

new  barbarian  invasion  ana  tor  its  iirst  great  kind. 
nniversal  religions  war.  This  barbarian  invasion  was 
not,  like  that  of  the  Teutons,  the  Huns,  or  even  the 
later  Monguls  of  the  North  and  East,  wave  after  wave 
of  mutuall}^  liostile  tribes  driving  each  other  upon  the 
established  kingdoms  of  the  civilized  world,  all  loose 
and  undisciplined  ;  it  was  that  of  an  aggregation  of 
kindred  tribes,  bound  tooether  bv  the  two  stron<x 
principles  of  organization,  nationality  and  religious 
unity.  The  Arab  had  been  trained  in  a  terrible 
school.  His  whole  life  was  a  life  of  war  and  adven- 
ture. The  Arabians  were  a  nation  of  marauders, 
only  tempered  by  some  commercial  habits  ;  the  Arab 
was  disciplined  in  the  severest  abstemiousness  and  en- 
durance ;  bred  in  utter  recklessness  of  human  life. 
The  old  romance  of  Antar  may  show  that  the  Arabs 
had  already  some  of  the  ruder  elements  of  chivalry  — 
valor  which  broke  out  in  the  most  extraordinary  par- 
oxysms of  daring,  the  fervid  and  poetic  temperament, 
the  passion  for  the  marvellous  :  their  old  ])oetry  dis- 
plays their  congeniality  both  with  the  martial  life  and 
the  amatory  paradise  opened  by  the  Koran  to  true 
believers.^     For   to  all    this  was  now  superadded  the 

bitterly  felt  the  death  of  his  four  sons  by  Chadijah,  who  died  in  their  iu- 
fancy;  and  tliat  of  one  by  Maria  the  Egyptian.  This  was  not  only  &  fatal 
blow  to  his  ambition,  which  doubtless  would  have  led  to  the  fount^ation  of 
an  hereditary  religious  dynasty,  but  was  a  reproach  among  his  ';yeople,  and 
threw  some  suspicion  on  his  preeminent  favor  with  God.  Al-a'  Ebn  Wayel 
who  was  so  cruel  and  so  daring  as  to  insult  him  on  the  loss  of  his  fa^'orite 
boy  as  "  cauda  mutilus,"  was  accursed  of  heaven,  and  a  special  Sura  (the 
108th)  was  revealed  to  console  the  Prophet.  —  Abulfcda,  c.  Ixvii.,  witlr 
Gagnier's  note. 
1  Antar,  translated  by  Terrick  Hamilton,  Esq.,  passim 


142  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  R. 

religious  impulse,  the  religious  object,  the  pride  of 
religious  as  of  civil  conquest.  Religious  war  is  the 
duty,  the  glory,  assures  the  beatitude  of  the  true  be- 
liever. The  last  revealed  chapter,  the  ninth,  of  the 
Koran,  the  legacy  of  implacable  animosity  bequeathed 
to  mankini,  has  deepened  to  an  unmitigated  intense- 
ness  of  ferocity.  It  directs  the  extermination  of  the 
idolaters  of  Arabia;  it  allows  them  four  months  for 
submission  to  the  belief  and  to  the  rites  of  Islam  ;  after 
that  it  commands  them  to  be  massacred  without  mercy, 
and  proceeds  after  death  to  inflict  on  them  an  eternity 
of  hell-fire.^  If  the  same  remorseless  extermination  is 
not  denounced  against  the  Jew  and  tlie  Christian,  the 
true  Islamite  is  commanded  to  fight  against  them  till 
they  are  reduced  to  subjection  and  to  the  payment  of 
tribute  ;  while,  to  inflame  the  animosity  of  his  follow- 
ers, he  repeats  in  the  strongest  terms  what  to  their 
ears  sounded  not  less  odious  than  the  charge  of  idola- 
try :  against  the  Jew  the  worship  of  Ezra  as  the  Son 
of  God  ;  against  the  Christian,  not  only  that  of  Christ, 
but,  in  allusion  no  doubt  to  the  worship  of  saints  and 
martyrs,  of  their  priests  and  monks.^  The  wealth  of 
the  priests  and  monks  is  temptingly  suggested,  and 
their  employment  of  it  against  true  religion  sentenced 
with  a  particularity  which  might  warrant  the  most 
unscrupulous    seizure  of  such   ill-bestowed  treasures.^ 

1  "And  when  the  months  wherein  ye  are  not  allowed  to  attack  them  are 
passed,  kill  the  idolaters  wherever  ye  shall  find  them,  and  take  them  pris- 
oners, and  besiege  them,  and  lay  wait  for  them  in  every  convenient  place." 
—  ch.  ix.  p.  238.  The  works  of  these  men  are  vain,  and  they  sliall 
remain. 

2  They  take  their  priests  and  their  monks  for  their  lords,  besides  God 
and  Christ  the  son  of  Mary,  although  they  are  commanded  to  worship  one 
God  only. 

3  Dante  might  have  boiTowed  some  of  these  phrases.     "In  the  day  of 


Chap.  1.  WAR  AGAINST  UNBELIEVERS.  143 

The  Islamites  who  stood  aloof,  either  from  indolence, 
love  of  ease,  or  cowardice,  from  the  holy  warfare, 
were  denounced  as  traitors  to  God :  the  souls  of  more 
faithful  believers  were  purchased  by  God :  paradise 
was  the  covenanted  price  if  they  fought  for  the  cause 
of  God  :  whether  they  slay  or  be  slain  the  promise  is 
assuredly  due.  The  ties  of  kindred  were  to  be  burnt  i 
the  true  believer  was  to  war  upon  the  infidel,  wIkh 
ever  he  mioht  be ;  the  idolater  was  even  excliulL-rl 
fi'om  the  prayers  of  the  faithful.^  The  sacred  montlrj 
were  not  to  suspend  the  warfare  against  unbelievers. 
Victory  and  martyrdom  are  the  two  excellent  things 
set  before  the  believer.  What  may  be  considered  the 
dying  words,  the  solemn  bequest  of  Mohammed  to 
mankind,  were  nearly  the  last  words  of  the  last-re- 
vealed Sura :  "  O  true  believers  !  wage  war  against 
such  of  the  infidels  as  are  near  you,  and  let  them  find 
severity  in  you,  and  know  that  God  is  with  them  that 
fear  him."^ 

Nevertheless,  the  Mohammedan  invasions  (and  this 
was  still  more  appalling  to  mankind)  were  by  no  means 
the  inroads  of  absolute  savages ;  not  the  outbursts  of 
spoilers  who  wasted  the  neighboring  kingdoms  and 
retired  to  their  deserts,  but  those  of  conquerors  gov- 
erned by  a  determined  policy  of  permanent  subjuga- 
tion. Not  merely  was  the  alternative  of  Islam  ism 
or  tribute  to  be  offered,  and  unbelievers  beyond  tlie 

judgment  their  treasures  shall  be  intensely  heated  in  the  fire  of  hell,  and 
their  foreheads  and  their  sides  and  their  backs  shall  be  stigmatized  there- 
with: and  their  tormentors  sluill  say,  This  is  what  ye  have  treasured  up  for 
your  souls ;  take  therefore  that  which  ye  have  treasured  up." —  ch.  ix.  p.  244. 

1  "  It  is  not  allowed  unto  the  Prophet,  nor  those  who  are  true  believers, 
that  the}"^  pray  for  idolaters,  although  they  be  of  them,  after  it  is  becomfl 
known  unto  them  that  they  are  inhabitants  of  hell."  —  ch.  ix-  p.  252. 

2  Ch.  ix.  p.  263. 


144  LATIN    CITETSTIAOTTY.  Book  IV. 

bounds  of  Arabia  allowed  to  capitulate  on  these  milder 
terms,  but  even  their  war-law  contained  provisions 
which,  while  they  recognized  the  first  principles  of  hu- 
manity, showed  that  they  intended  to  settle  as  masters 
in  the  conquered  territories.  After  victory  they  were 
to  abstain  from  indiscriminate  carnage,^  from  that  of 
children,  of  the  old,  and  of  women ;  they  were  to 
commit  no  useless  or  vindictive  ravage ;  to  destroy  no 
fruit  or  palm  trees ;  to  respect  the  corn  fields  and  the 
cattle.  They  were  to  adhere  religiously  to  the  faith 
of  treaties.  Their  conduct  to  the  priests  or  minis- 
ters of  an  opposite  religion  was  more  questionable  anct 
contradictory.  The  monks  who  remained  peacefully 
in  their  convents  were  to  be  respected  and  their  build- 
ings secured  from  plunder.  But,  as  if  conscious  of 
the  power  of  fanaticism  in  themselves,  they  wisely 
dreaded  its  reaction  through  the  despair,  and  it  might 
be,  heroic  faith  of  the  priesthood.  Towards  them  the 
war-law  speaks  in  a  sterner  tone,  though  even  they 
are  not  excluded  from  the  usual  terms  of  capitulation. 
"  Another  sort  of  people  that  belong  to  the  synagogue 
of  Satan,  that  have  shaven  crowns,  be  sure  you  cleave 
their  skulls  and  give  them  no  quarter  till  they  either 
turn  Mohammedan  or  pay  tribute."  ^ 

Mohammed  himself,  if  we  are  to  ti-ust  the  tradition 
preserved  by  the  best  Arabian  historians,  had  not  only 
vaguely  denounced  war  against  mankind  in  the  Koran, 
but  contemplated,  at  least  remotely,  vast  and  unlimited 
conquests.     The  vision  of  the  great  Arabian   emi)ire 

1  "  When  ye  encounter  the  unbelievers,  strike  off  their  heads,  until  ye 
have  made  a  great  slaughter  among  them ;  and  bind  them  in  bonds ;  and 
either  give  them  a  free  dismission  afterwards,  or  exact  a  ransom  until  the 
wax  shall  have  laid  down  its  arms."  —  ch.  xlvii.  ii.  376. 

2  The  instructions  of  Abubeker  tothe  Syrian  army,  in  Ockley,  vol.  i.  p.  2'2, 


Chat.  I.  MOHAiNBTED'S  VIEWS  OF  ESIPIRE.  145 

had  dawned  upon  his  mind.^  Already,  even  before 
the  conquest  of  Mecca,  he  had  summoned,  not  only 
the  petty  potentates  of  the  neighboring  kingdoms,  but 
the  two  great  powers  of  the  more  civilized  world,  the 
king  of  Persia  and  the  emperor  of  the  East,  to  submit 
to  his  religious  supremacy.  His  language,  indeed,  was 
courteous,  and  only  invited  them  to  receive  the  creed 
of  Islam.  If  there  be  any  foundation  for  this  fact, 
which  was  subsequently  embellished  with  mythic  fic- 
tion, it  might  seem  that  the  Prophet,  either  despair- 
ing of  the  subjugation  of  his  intractable  countrymen, 
had  turned  his  mind  to  foreign  conquest ;  or  that  he 
hoped  to  dazzle  the  yet  hostile  Arabs  into  his  great 
national  and  religious  confederacy  by  these  magnifi- 
cent pretensions  to  universal  sovereignty.  The  neigh- 
boring princes  replied  in  very  different  language. 
The  gove/nor  of  Egypt,  Mokawkas,  treated  the  mis- 
sion with  great  respect,  and  sent,  among  many  valua- 
ble presents,  two  beautiful  girls,  one  of  whom,  Mary, 
became  a  special  favorite.  The  king  of  Bahrein, 
Mondar  Ebn  Sawa,  embraced  Islam  with  almost  all 
his  people.  The  king  of  Ghassan,  Al  Harith  Ebn 
Ali  Shawer,  answered,  that  he  would  go  himself  to 
Mohammed.  For  this  supposed  menace  the  Prophet 
imprecated  a  curse  on  that  kingdom.  A  more  fearful 
malediction  was  uttered  against  Hawdka  Ebn  Ali, 
king  of  Yemen,  who  had  apostatized  back  from  Islam- 
ism  to  Christianity,  and  returned  a  contemptuous  an- 
swer. The  Prophet's  curse  was  fulfilled  in  the  sjieedy 
death  of  the  king.  The  king  of  Persia  received  with 
indimiant  astonishment  this  invitation  from  an  obscure 
Arabian  adventurer  to  yield  up  the  faith  of  his   an- 

1  In  the  7th  year  of  the  Hegira. 
VOL..  n.  10 


146  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

cestors.  He  tore  the  letter  and  scattered  tlie  frao;- 
ments.  "  So,"  said  the  Prophet,  *'  shall  his  empire  be 
torn  to  pieces."^  The  Mohammedan  tradition  of  Persia 
still  points  out  the  scene  of  this  impious  rejection  of 
the  Prophet's  advances.^  The  account  of  the  recep- 
tion of  the  Prophet's  letter  by  the  emperor  Heraclius 
bears  still  stronger  marks  of  Arabian  fancy.  He  is 
said  to  have  treated  it  with  the  utmost  reverence, 
placed  it  on  his  pillow,  and  nothing  but  the  dread  of 
losing  his  crown  prevented  the  Roman  from  embra- 
cing the  faith  of  Islam.  A  strange  but  wide-spread 
Jewish  tradition  contrasts  strongly  with  this  view  of 
the  character  of  Heraclius.  A  vision  had  warned 
the  emperor  that  the  throne  of  Byzantium  would  be 
overthrown  by  a  circumcised  people.^  So  ignorant 
was  Heraclius  of  any  people  so  distinguished,  but  the 
Jews,  that  he  commenced  a  violent  persecution  of  the 
race,  and  persuaded  the  kings  of  France  and  Spain  to 
join  in  his  merciless  hostility  to  the  Israelites. 

The  Koran  itself,  the  only  trustworthy  authority  as 

1  Later  Arabian  poetry  is  full  of  the  omens  and  prophecies  which  at  the 
birth  of  Mohammed  foreshowed  the  fall  of  the  Persian  empire.  The  palace 
of  the  sovereign  fell,  the  holy  fires  went  out,  and  a  seer  uttered  a  long 
poetic  prediction  concerning  the  tinal  ruin  of  the  race  and  empire  of  Chus- 
roes.  —  Abulfeda,  Vit.  Moham.  c.  i.  p.  3,  &c. 

2  Khoosroo  Purveez  was  encamped  on  the  banks  of  the  Karasoo  river 
when  he  received  the  letter  of  Mohammed.  He  tore  the  letter,  and  threw 
it  into  the  Karasoo.  For  this  action  the  moderate  author  of  the  Zeemit 
ul-Tuarikh  calls  him  a  wretch,  and  rejoices  in  all  his  subsequent  misfor- 
tmies.  These  impressions  still  exist.  "  I  remarked  to  a  Persian,  when  en 
camped  near  the  Karasoo,  in  1800,  that  the  banks  were  very  high,  whicli 
must  make  it  ditlicult  to  apply  its  waters  to  irrigation."  "  It  once  feitil- 
ized  the  whole  country,"  said  the  zealous  Mohammedan,  "  bnt  its  channel 
shrunk  with  horror  fi-om  its  banks,  when  that  madman,  Khoosroo,  thn^w 
our  holy  Prophet's  letter  into  the  stream;  which  has  ever  since  been  ac- 
cursed and  useless."  —  Malcolm's  Persia,  vol.  i.  p.  126. 

*  See  Hist,  of  Jews,  iii.:  compare  Basuajje  and  Jost. 


JnAi>.  1.  BATTLE  OF  MUTA.  147 

to  the  views  of  Mohammed,  sliows  that  he  watched 
not  without  anxiety  the  strife  which,  during  his  own 
rise,  w^as  raging  between  the  Roman  and  the  Persian 
empires.  He  rejoiced  in  tlie  unexpected  discomfiture 
of  the  Persians,  who  under  Klioosroo  Purveez  seemed 
rising  to  a  height  of  power  formidable  to  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  East,  and  fatal  to  the  extension  of  lils 
own  meditated  empire.  The  Greeks  like  the  ]\Io- 
hammedans,  people  of  the  Book,  were  less  irrecon- 
cilably opposed  to  Islam  than  the  Persians,  whom 
they  held  to  be  rank  idolaters.^  Persia,  when  Mo- 
hammed was  assuming  the  state  of  an  independent 
prince  in  Medina,  was  the  threatening  and  aggressive 
power.  Syria,  Jerusalem  itself,  had  been  wrested 
from  the  Roman  empire  ;  and  Syria  and  Jerusalem 
were  the  first  conquests  which  must  pave  the  \\'ay 
for  an  Arabian  empire.  Before  the  death  of  Moliani- 
med  they  had  been  reconquered  by  Heraclius,  wlio 
seemed  suddenly  to  have  revived  the  valor  and  en- 
terprise of  the  Roman  armies.  The  Roman  em])ii'e, 
therefore,  was  the  first  and  only  great  foreign  antago- 
nist encountered  by  the  Islamites  during  the  life  of 
the  Prophet.  The  event  was  not  promising:  in  the 
battle  of  Muta  some  of  the  bravest  of  the  followers 
of  the  Prophet  had  fallen ;  ^  the  desperate  valor  and 
artifice  of  Khaled,  the  Sword  of  God,  and  the  panic 
of  the  Roman  army,  had  wnth  difficulty  retrieved  the 
day.  The  war  of  Tabuc,  for  which  Mohammed  made 
such  threatening  preparations,  ended    in    failure   and 


1  Ch.  XXX.  p.  253.  Entitled  the  Greeks,  or  al  Rum.  It  announces  tne 
defeat  of  the  Greeks  by  the  Persians,  and  prophesies  tl  e  final  victor)-  of 
the  Greeks. 

2  Abulfeda,  ch.  xliv. 


148  LATm  CIIRTSTTANITY.  Book  TV. 

c! I sapj. ointment.  The  desert  seemed  to  protect  the 
Roman  empire  on  this  first  invasion  from  the  sons  of 
the  desert.^ 

1  Abulfeda,  ch.  Ivii. ;  Gagnier,  1.  vi.  ch.  xi.  Gibbon  describes  this  wav 
with  spirited  brevity.  Koran,  9.  The  Moslems  were  discouraged  by  the 
heat.  "  Hell  is  much  hotter,"  said  the  indignant  Prophet.  "  Les  Musul- 
mans  s'avancent  vers  la  Syrie;  tout  a  coup  le  Prophete  re^oit  du  ciel  I'or- 
dre  de  faire  halte.  II  revient  a  Medinah,  et  la  raison  de  ce  raouvement  r(5- 
tiograde  n'a  jamais  ^t^  bieu  expliqude." — Oelsner,  Des  Effets  de  la 
EJ^ligion  de  Mohammed,  p.  43-  Oelsner  supposes  the  progress  of  the  riv^al 
Prophet  Moseilama  to  have  been  the  cause. 


Chap  U.  SUCCESSORS  OF  MOHAaiMED.  149 


CHAPTER    II. 

SUCCESSORS  OF  MOHAIVIMED. 

The  death  of  Mohammed^  appeared  at  first  the 
signal  for  the  dissolution  of  the  great  Arabian  con- 
federacy. The  political  and  religious  empire  might 
seem  to  have  been  built  on  no  solid  foundation.  The 
death  of  the  Prophet  could  not  but  be  a  terrible  blow 
to  the  faith  of  the  believers.  He  had  never,  indeed, 
pretended  to  any  exemption  from  the  common  lot  of 
mortality.  He  had  betrayed  his  suspicions  that  he 
had  been  poisoned  by  a  Jewish  woman.  His  death 
liad  nothing  majestic  or  imposing.  It  Avas  caused  by 
a  fever,  and  at  times  his  mind  wandered.  The  ac- 
counts as  to  his  firmness  or  feebleness  in  his  last  hour 
are  very  discrepant.  He  was  said,  on  one  hand,  to 
have  edified  his  followers  by  an  appeal  to  his  own  se- 
vere justice  and  virtue.  He  was  prepared  to  redress 
wrong  :  to  make  restitution  for  any  injustice  commit- 
ted during  his  life.  He  actually  did  make  restitution 
of  three  drachms   of  silver   claimed   by  some  humble 


1  June  7  or  8,  632.  Compare,  however,  Weil,  Leben  Mohammed,  151, 
and  Geschichte  der  Chaliphen,  i.  p.  2;  also  p.  16,  and  note  p.  15.  He 
ascribes  to  Abubeker  the  publication  or  forgery  of  the  verses  which  de- 
clared the  Prophet  mortal.  This  work  of  Dr.  Weil  as  summing  up,  with 
the  same  careful  industry  as  in  his  Life  of  Mohammed,  the  labors  of  all  hia 
predecessors,  will  be  among  my  chief  authorities  in  the  few  followiug 


150  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  TV. 

person  from  whom  he  had  withheld  it  wrongfully. 
But  his  impatience  under  suiFering  moved  the  wonder, 
almost  the  contempt,  of  his  wife  Ayesha.  Such  weak- 
ness he  had  rebuked  in  a  woman.  The  Prophet  ex- 
cused himself  by  declaring  that  God  afflicted  him  with 
anguish  poignant  in  the  proportion  with  which  he  had 
distinguished  him  by  glory  above  all  mankind.^  At 
tlie  death  of  Mohammed  it  might  seem  that,  the  mas- 
ter-hand withdrawn,  all  would  return  to  the  former 
anarchy  of  tribal  independence  and  of  religious  be- 
lief.2 

His  death,  on  the  contrary,  after  but  a  short  time, 
was  the  signal  of  the  most  absolute  unity ;  of  a  con- 
centrated force,  which  first  controlling  all  the  antago- 
nistic elements  of  disunion  in  Arabia,  poured  forth  in 
one  unbroken  torrent  on  the  world.  The  great  inter- 
nal schism  as  to  the  succession  to  the  caliphate,  the 
proud  inheritance  of  the  Prophet,  Avas  avoided  until 
Mohammedanism  was  strong  enough  to  bear  the  di- 
vision, which  might  have  been  fatal  at  an  earlier 
period.  The  rightful  heir,  the  heir  whose  succession 
was  doubtless  intended  by  the  Prophet,  and  more  or 
less  distinctly  declared,  was  set  aside  ;  and  yet  no  dis- 
sension, at  least  none  fatal  to  the  progress  of  their 
arms,  paralyzed  the  counsel  or  divided  the  hearts  of 
the  Islamites.  Three  caliphs,  Abubeker,  Omar,  Otli- 
man,  ascended,  in  due  order,  the  sacred  throne,  and 
organized  the  first  foreign  conquests  of  Islam.  Those 
first  foreign  conquests,  Syria,  Persia,  Egypt,  part  of 
Africa,  were  achieved  before    the  fierce    conflict   for 

1  Price,  History  of  Mohammedanism,  i.  p.  13. 

2  See  on  the  vain  attempt  of  the  Medinese  to  wrest  the  succession  fiotn 
the  Koreishites,  Weil,  i.  3. 


Chap.  II.  RIVAL  PROPHETS.  151 

the  caliphate  between  AH  and  Moawija.  It  is  impos- 
sible not  to  admire  the  singular  beauty  of  the  charac- 
ter of  Ali.  Three  times  on  the  point  of  ascending 
the  throne,  each  time  supported  by  a  formidable  host 
of  followers,  each  time  he  was  supplanted  through  the 
boldness  or  the  intrigues  of  the  more  turbulent  chief- 
tains, each  time  he  submitted  with  grace  and  dignity 
to  the  exclusion,^  remained  strenuously  faithful  to  the 
cause,  repressed  the  ambition  in  whicli  he  was  by  no 
means  wanting,  condescended  to  the  condition  and 
zealously  discharged  the  duties  of  a  loyal  subject. 
This  he  did  thouo;h  the  nearest  male  relation  of  the 
Prophet,  the  son  of  his  uncle,  and  the  husband  of  a 
violent  woman,  the  Prophet's  daughter,  and  the  father 
of  sons  who  might  have  looked  forward  to  the  great 
inheritance.^  The  tragedy  of  the  death  of  these  sons 
casts  back  even  a  more  powerful  interest  on  the  gen- 
tle but  valiant  Ali.^ 

Never  was  disunion  so  perilous  to  the  cause  of  Mo- 
hammedanism ;  never  would  a  contested  succession 
have  produced  such  disastrous  consequences.  The 
dangerous  swarm  of  rival  prophets  were  multiplying 
in  different  parts  of  Arabia ;  it  required  the  collective 
force  of  Islam  to  crush  them ;  but  they  fell  before 
the    arms  and  the  authority  of  the  caliphs.     Moseila- 

1  Dr.  Weil  seems  to  think  not  so  willingly,  on  the  first  submission,  i.  p. 
fi;  on  the  last,  p.  153-155.  Ali,  by  general  tradition,  is  exculpated  from 
nil  share  in  the  murder  of  Othman.  Dr.  Weil  is  throughout  very  imfavor- 
able  to  Ali. 

■2  Ali,  during  the  lifetime  of  Fatima  the  Prophetess,  took  no  second 
wife :  he  had  altogether  fifteen  sons  and  eighteen  daughters.  —  Weil,  p. 
253. 

3  Hasau  and  Hussein.  Dr.  Weil,  pitilessly  critical,  is  dead  to  all  the 
oathetic  circumstances  of  the  death  of  Hussein.  Even  Tabari's  strikinjj 
account  he  throws  into  a  note.  — p.  317. 


152  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IY. 

ma,  tlie  most  formidable  of  all,  whose  extraordinary 
influence,  subtlety,  and  valor,  seemed  at  one  time  to 
balance  the  rising  fortunes  of  Mohammedanism,  to 
render  it  doubtful  under  the  banner  of  which  religion, 
that  of  Moseilama  or  of  Mohammed,  would  go  forth 
the  great  Arab  invasion  of  the  civilized  world,  lost 
at  length  his  power  and  his  life  before  the  Sword  of 
God,  the  intrepid  Khaled.^  The  effect  of  this,  no 
doubt,  was  not  merely  to  suppress  these  hostile  sects, 
but  to  centre  the  enthusiasm,  which  was  now  burning 
in  diverging  lines,  into  one  fiery  torrent ;  to  crowd 
the  ranks  of  Islam  with  new  warriors,  who  had  joined 
it  rather  from  the  restless  love  of  enterprise  than  from 
any  strong  conviction  as  to  the  relative  truth  of  either 
creed,  and  were  ready  to  transfer  their  allegiance,  as 
success  and  glory  were  the  only  true  tests  of  the  di- 
vine favor,  to  the  triumphant  cause.  They  became 
at  once  earnest  and  zealous  proselytes  to  a  religion 
which  actually  bestowed  such  higher  successes  upon 
earth,  and  promised  rewards,  guaranteed  by  such  suc- 
cesses, in  the  life  to  come.  Soldiers,  marauders  by 
birth  and  habit,  they  had  become  followers  of  either 
])ro})het  by  the  accidents  of  local  or  tribal  connection, 
by  the  excitement  of  the  imagination  and  the  pas- 
sion of  sect.  Their  religion  was  a  war-cry,  and  so 
tliat  it  led  to  conquest  they  cared  little  what  name  it 
might  sound.^ 

That  war-cry  was  now  raised  against  all  wlio  refused 
faith  or  tribute  to  the  creed  and  to  the  armies  of  the 

1  Dr.  Weil  treats  the  intrigue  of  Moseilama  with  the  Prophetess  Lacljah 
and  the  obscene  verses  (juoted  with  such  coarse  zest  by  Gibbon,  as  fictions, 
of  the  Mussulman.  Moseilama  was  then  100,  if  not  150,  years  old.  I  con- 
fess the  latter  sounds  to  me  most  like  fiction.  —  On  Moseilama,  p.  21-26. 

'■^  For  the  wars  of  Khaled  in  Persia  under  Abuboker,  see  Weil,  31  ei  -■  ^ 


Chap.  II.  CONQUEST  OF  SYRIA.  158 

Caliph.  The  first  complete  foreign  conquest  of  Mo- 
liammedanism  was  Syria,  the  birthplace  of  Christian- 
ity. Palestine,  the  hallowed  scene  of  the  Saviour's 
life  and  death,  was  wrested  by  two  great  battles,^  and 
by  the  sieges  of  a  few  great  cities,  Bosra,  Damascus, 
and  Jerusalem,  from  the  domain  of  Christendom.  It 
was  an  easy  conquest,  fearfully  dispiriting  to  the  ene- 
mies of  Islam,  to  the  believers  the  more  intoxicating, 
as  revealing  their  irresistible  might :  the  more  it  baffled 
calculation  the  more  it  appalled  the  defeated,  and  made 
those  who  found  themselves  invincible,  invincible  in- 
deed. On  the  one  side  had  at  first  appeared  numbers, 
discipline,  generalship,  tactics,  arms,  military  engines, 
the  fortifications  of  cities  ;  on  the  other,  only  the  first 
burst  of  valor,  which  from  its  very  ignorance  despised 
those  advantages.  The  effete  courage  of  the  Roman 
legionaries  had  been  strengthened  by  the  admission  of 
barbarians  into  their  ranks  ;  and  the  adventurous  cam- 
paigns of  Heraclius  against  the  Persians  had  shown 
that  the  old  intrepidity  of  the  Roman  armies  was  not 
quite  worn  out,  and  under  a  daring  and  skilful  general 
might  still  be  ass^essive  as  well  as  defensive.  But 
now  the  Emperor  and  the  armies  seem  alike  paralyzed 
by  the  suddenness  and  impetuosity  of  the  Arab  move- 
ments. The  Emperor  stands  aloof  and  does  not  head 
his  armies.  The  armies  melt  away  before  the  uncon 
trollable  onset  of  the  new  enemies.  At  Adjnadein  and 
at  Jarmuk  the  slaughter  of  the  Roman  armies  was 
counted  by  tens  of  thousands,  that  of  the  Moham- 
medans hardly  by  hundreds.     But  it  was  the  religious 

1  Adjnadein,  July  30,  634.  —  Weil,  p  40,  note.  Jarmuk,  after  the  death 
of  Abubeker,  August  22,  634.  —  Weil,  46,  probably  the  following  day 
Aug.  23. 


154  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

impulse  which  made  the  inequahty  of  the  contest.  Re- 
ligious warfare  had  not  yet  become  a  Christian  duty  ; 
it  atoned  for  no  former  criminality  of  life  ;  it  had  no 
promise  of  immediate  reward  ;  it  opened  not  instan- 
taneously the  gate  of  heaven.  The  religious  feeling 
might  blend  itself  with  patriotism  and  domestic  love. 
The  Christian  might  ardently  desire  to  defend  the  altar 
of  his  God,  as  well  as  the  freedom  of  his  country  and 
the  sanctity  of  his  household  hearth.  But,  even  if  the 
days  of  heroic  martyrdom  were  not  gone  by,  the  mar- 
tyrs whose  memory  he  worshipped  had  been  distin- 
guished by  passive  endurance  rather  than  active  valor. 
The  human  sublimity  of  the  Saviour's  character  con- 
sisted in  his  sufferino;.  Accordino;  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  bet- 
ter to  be  estranged  ?  They  were  more  highly  purified 
by  suffering  persecution  than  by  triumphing  over  their 
adversaries.  It  is  singular,  indeed,  that  while  we  have 
seen  the  Eastern  monks  turned  into  fierce  undisci- 
plined 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  fiirtlier  prostrated  by  the 
common  notion  that  the  invasion  of  the  Arabs  was 
a  just   and   heaven -commissioned    visitation  for   their 


UHAP.  II.  EFFECTS   OF  RELIGIOUS  IMPULSE.  lt)5 

sins.  Submission  was  humble  acquiescence  in  the  will 
of  God  ;  resistance  a  vain,  almost  an  impious,  strug- 
gle to  avert  inevitable  punishment.  God  was  against 
them  ;  hereafter  he  might  be  propitiated  by  their  suf- 
ferings, but  now  (such  was  their  gloomy  predes- 
tiuarianism)  they  were  doomed  to  drink  the  lees  of 
humiliation. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  young  fanaticism  of  the 
Mussulman  was  constantly  fed  by  immediate  promises 
and  immediate  terrors.  He  saw  hell  with  its  fires 
blazing  behind  him  if  he  fled,  paradise  opening  before 
him  if  he  fell.^  The  predestined  was  but  fulfilling 
his  fate,  accomplishing  the  unalterable  will  of  God, 
whether  in  death  or  victory.  God's  immutable  decree 
was  the  guardian  of  his  unassailable  life,  or  had  already 
appointed  his  inevitable  death.  The  battle-cry  of  Kha- 
led,  the  Sword  of  God,  was  "  Fight,  fight  !  Paradise  I 
Paradise  !  "  "  Methinks  "  (cried  the  youthful  cousin 
of  Khaled  in  the  heat  of  battle)  "  I  see  the  black-eyed 
girls  looking  upon  me,  one  of  whom,  if  she  should  ap- 
pear in  this  world,  all  mankind  would  die  for  the  love 
of  her.  And  I  see  in  the  hand  of  one  of  them  a  hand- 
kerchief of  green  silk,  and  a  cap  made  of  precious 
st(mes,  and  she  beckons  me,  and  calls  out.  Come  hither 
quickly,  I  love  thee  !  "  ^  Contrast  this  as  a  motive  to 
the  heart  of  a  ruder,  a  grosser  race,  with  the  Chris- 
tian's calm,  vague,  trembling  anticipations  of  a  beati- 
tude, of  which  that  which  was  most  definite  was 
exemption  from  the  sorrows  and  sins  of  life,  the  com- 


1  The  exhortation  of  the  genei'als  was  brief  and  forcible  (at  the  battle  of 
Jannuk) :  "  Paradise  is  before  you;  the  devil  and  hell-fire  in  your  rear."  — 
Gibbon,  c.  xli.  ix.  405. 

2  Ockley,  i.  p.  267. 


156  LATIN   CHRISTIAN ITl.  Book  IV. 

panionship  of  saints  and  martyrs,  or  even  of  the  Re- 
deemer himself;  or  perhaps  some  indistinct  vision  of 
angelic  presence,  sweet  and  solemn  but  unimpassioned 
music,  a  wilderness  of  dazzUng  light. 

But  Christianity  did  not  even  offer  a  stubborn  pas- 
sive resistance.^  The  great  cities,  which,  in  the  utter 
inexperience  of  the  Arabs  in  the  art  of  siege,  might 
have  been  expected  to  be  inexpugnable,  except  by  fam- 
Fcebie  me,  fell  one  after  another :  Bosra,  Damascus, 

Christianity.  Jerusalem  became  Mohammedan.  The  first 
great  conquest,  before  either  of  the  decisive  battles 
which  lost  Syria,  showed  that  the  religion  as  well  as 
the  arms  of  Islam  was  formidable  to  Christendom 
The  strong  city  of  Bosra  fell  not  merely  by  an  act  of 
treachery,  but  of  apostasy,  and  that  in  no  less  a  person 
than  the  governor,  the  base  Romanus.  In  the  face  of 
the  people,  thus  reduced  to  the  yoke  of  the  Saracens, 
the  unblushing  renegade  owned  his  treason.  He  re- 
})i-oached  the  Christians  as  enemies  of  God,  because 
enemies  of  his  apostle  ;  he  disclaimed  all  connection 
witli  his  Christian  brethren  in  this  world  or  the  next^ 
and  he  pronounced  his  new  creed  with  ostentatious 
distinctness.  "  I  choose  God  for  my  Loixl,  Moham- 
medanism for  my  religion,  the  temple  of  Mecca  for  the 
]>hice  of  my  worship,  the  Mussulmans  for  my  brethren, 
and  Mohammed  for  my  prophet  and  apostle.'* 

At  Damascus  the  valiant  Thomas,  who  had  assumed 

1  The  complete  conquest  of  Syria  occupied  about  five  years.  —  Weil,  i. 
82.  Abubeker's  instructions  to  the  first  army  which  invaded  Christian 
Syria  were  in  these  terms:  "  Fight  valiantly.  .  .  .  Mutilate  not  the  van- 
quished;  slay  not  old  men,  women,  or  children;  destroy  not  palm-trees; 
burn  not  fruit-trees;  kill  not  cattle,  but  for  food.  You  will  find  men  in 
solitude  and  meditation,  devoted  to  God;  do  them  no  harm.  You  will  find 
otherH  with  their  heads  tonsured,  and  a  lock  of  hair  upon  their  shaven 
crowns;  them  smite  with  your  sabres,  and  give  tliem  no  (juarter."  —  Caus- 
fiiu  de  Perceval,  iii.  343. 


Chap.  U.  FALL  OF  DAMASCUS.  157 

the  command  of  the  city,  attempted  to  en-  ^a.]]  of 
counter  the  fanaticism  of  the  Mussulmans  by  »'^^^««"«- 
awakening  as  strong  fanaticism  on  his  own  side.  The 
crucifix  was  erected  at  the  gate  from  which  Thomas 
issued  forth  to  charge  the  enemy.  The  bishop  with 
his  clergy  stood  around,  the  New  Testament  was 
placed  near  the  crucifix.  Thomas  placed  his  hand  on 
the  book  of  peace  and  love,  and  solemnly  appealed  to 
Heaven  to  decide  the  truth  of  the  conflicting  religions. 
"  O  God,  if  our  rehgion  be  true,  deliver  us  not  into  the 
hands  of  our  enemies,  but  overthrow  the  oppressor. ^ 
O  God,  succor  those  which  profess  the  truth  and  are' 
in  the  right  w^ay."^  The  prayer  was  interpreted  by 
the  apostate  Romanus  to  Serjabil,  the  Mohammedan 
general.  "  Thou  liest,  thou  enemy  of  God  ;  for  Jesus 
is  of  no  more  account  with  God  than  Adam.  He 
created  him  out  of  the  dust,  and  made  him  a  living 
man,  walking  upon  the  earth,  and  afterwards  raised 
him  to  heaven.'*  But  Christianity  in  the  East  was  not 
yet  a  rival  Mohammedanism  ;  it  required  that  admix- 
ture of  the  Teutonic  character  which  formed  chivalry, 
to  combat  on  equal  terms  with  the  warriors  of  the  Ko- 
ran. Latin  Christianity  alone  could  be  the  antagonist 
of  the  new  faith.  The  romantic  adventure  of  Jonas 
the  Damascene,  who  to  save  his  life  abandoned  his 
religion,  in  his  blind  passion  led  the  conquering  Mos- 
lemins  in  pursuit  of  the  fugitives  from  Damascus,  and 
was  astonished  that  his  beloved  Eudocia  spurned  with 
contempt  the  hand  of  a  renegade,  may  suggest  that 
Christianity  had  no  very  strong  hold  on  many  of  the 
bravest  of  the  Roman  soldiers.^ 

1  Ockley,  i.  87. 

2  This  story,  the  subject  of  Hughes's  Siege  of  Damascus,  is  told  at  length 
by  Ockley  and  Gibbon :  Dr.  Weil  treats  it  as  fiction. 


153  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

The  capitulation  of  Jerusalem  shows  the  terms  im- 
Of  Jerusalem,  possd  by  the  couqueror  on  his  subjects  who 
A.D.  686.  refused  to  embrace  Islamism,  and  the  de- 
graded state  to  which  the  Christians  sank  at  once 
under  the  Mohammedan  empire.  The  characteristic 
summons  of  the  city  was  addressed  to  the  chief  com- 
manders and  inhabitants  of  ^lia.  If  they  admitted 
at  once  the  unity  of  God,  that  Mohammed  was  tlie 
Prophet  of  God,  and  the  resurrection  and  the  last 
judgment,  then  it  would  be  unlawful  for  the  Moham- 
medans to  shed  their  blood  or  violate  their  property. 
The  alternative  was  tribute  or  submission  ;  "  otherwise 
I  shall  bring  men  against  you  who  love  death  better 
than  you  do  the  drinking  of  wine  or  eating  hog's- 
flesh.i "  He  declared  that  he  would  not  leave  the 
walls  till  he  had  slain  the  garrison  and  made  slaves 
of  the  people.  During  four  months  Jerusalem  held 
out  in  gallant  resistance ;  even  then  it  refused  to  sur- 
render but  to  the  Caliph  in  person.  The  sternly  fru 
gal  Omar  arrived  before  the  walls.  On  the  part  of  the 
Romans  the  negotiation  was  conducted  by  the  Bishop 
Sophronius  ;  and  Sophronius  was  constrained  to  sub- 
mit to  the  humiliating  function  of  showing  the  H0I3 
Places  of  the  city  to  the  new  Lord  of  Jerusalem ;  ^^ 
to  point  out  the  site  of  the  temple  in  order  that  the 
Caliph  might  erect  there  his  stately  mosque  for  the 
worship   of   Islam.      In    the   secret   bitterness   of  his 

1  Ockley,  from  the  author  of  the  History  of  the  Holy  Land. 

2  The  Arabian  traditions  mention  various  artifices  of  Sophronius  to  di- 
rert  Omar  from  the  real  holy  place,  but  its  true  site  had  been  described  by 
the  Prophet  to  Omar.  Tlie  Prophet  had  seen  it,  as  will  be  remembered,  in 
his  mysterious  journey.  One  curious  account  states  that  Omar  crept  on 
his  hands  and  knees  till  he  came  to  the  great  sewer.  He  then  stood  up- 
right, and  proclaimed  it  to  be  the  place  described  by  the  Prophet.  —  Hist 
of  Temple  of  Jerusalem,  p.  176. 


Chap.  II.  CAPITULATION  OF  JERUSALEM.  159 

heart  the   bishop   said,  "  Now  indeed  is  the  abomina- 
tion of  desolation  in  the  holy  of  holies." 

By  the  terms  of  the  treaty  the  Christians  sank  at 
once  to  an  inferior  and  subject  people,^  Chris-  treaty  of 
tianity  to  a  religion  permitted  to  exist  by  the  capitulation, 
haughty  disdain  of  the  conqueror ;  it  submitted  to  the 
ignominy  of  toleration.  Christianity  was  to  withdraw 
from  the  public  gaze,  to  conceal  itself  in  its  own  mod- 
est sanctuary,  no  longer  to  dazzle  the  general  mind  by 
the  pomp  of  its  processions  or  the  solemnity  of  its  ser- 
vices.^ The  sight  of  the  devout  Mussulman  was  not 
to  be  offended  by  the  symbols  of  the  faith  ;  the  cross 
was  no  longer  to  be  exhibited  on  the  outside  of  the 
cliurches.  The  bells  were  to  be  silent ;  the  torches 
no  longer  to  glitter  along  the  streets.  The  Christians 
were  to  wail  their  dead  in  secrecy  ;  they  were,  at  the 
same  time,  though  their  ceremonies  were  not  to  be  in- 
sulted by  profane  interruption,  not  to  enjoy  the  full 
privilege  of  privacy.  Their  churches  were  at  all 
times  to  be  open,  if  the  Mussulman  should  choose  to 
enter  ;  but  to  attempt  to  convert  the  Mussulman  was 
a  crime.  They  were  interdicted  from  teaching  their 
children  the  Koran,  lest,  no  doubt,  it  should  be  pro- 
faned by  their  irreverent  mockery;  even  the  holy 
language  (the  Arabic)  was  prohibited :  they  were 
not  to  write  or  engrave  their  signet-rings  with  Ara- 
bic letters. 

The  monasteries  were  allowed  to  remain,  and  the 

1  The  capitulation  is  in  the  History  of  the  Temple,  above  cited.  It  is 
quoted  from  the  work  of  Abderrahman  Ibn  Tamin.  It  pretends  that  these 
were  terms  submitted  of  their  own  accord  by  the  Christians,  but  the  lan- 
guage of  the  conquering  Mussulman  is  too  manifest. 

2  They  were  not  publicly  to  exhibit  the  associating  religion,  that  isi 
which  associated  other  gods  with  the  one  God. 


160  LATIN    CHRISTUNTTY.  Book  IV 

Mussulman  exacted  the  same  hospitality  within  those 
hallowed  walls  which  was  wont  to  be  offered  to  the 
Christian.  The  monks  were  to  lodge  the  wayfaring 
Mussulman,  as  other  pilgrims,  for  three  nights  and 
give  him  food.  No  spy  was  to  be  concealed  in  church 
or  monastery. 

The  whole  people  was  degraded  into  a  marked  and 
abject  caste.  Everywhere  they  were  to  honor  th5 
Mussulmans,  and  give  place  before  them.  They  wore 
to  wear  a  different  dress ;  not  to  presume  to  the  tur- 
ban, the  slipper,  or  girdle,  or  the  parting  of  the  hair. 
They  were  to  ride  on  lowly  beasts,  with  saddles  not 
of  the  military  shape.  The  weapons  of  war  were 
proscribed,  the  sword,  the  bow,  and  the  club.  If  at 
any  time  they  carried  a  sword,  it  was  not  to  be  sus- 
pended from  the  girdle.  Their  foreheads  were  to  be 
shaved,  their  dress  girt  up,  but  not  with  a  broad 
girdle.  They  were  not  to  call  themselves  by  Mus- 
sulman names ;  nor  were  they  to  corrupt  the  ab- 
stemious Islamite  by  selling  wine ;  nor  possess  any 
slave  who  had  been  honored  by  the  familiarity  of  a 
Mussulman.  Omar  added  a  clause  to  protect  the 
sanctity  of  the  Mussulman's  person,  it  was  a  ciima 
in  a  Christian  to  strike  a  Mussulman. 

Such  was  the  condition  to  which  the  Christian  in^ 
habitants  of  Jerusalem  fell  at  once ;  nearly  the  same 
terms,  no  doubt,  were  enforced  on  all  the  Christiana 
of  Syria.  For  neither  Antioch  nor  Aleppo,  nor  any 
of  the  other  great  towns,  made  any  vigorous  or  last- 
ing resistance.  The  Emperor  Heraclius  withdrew 
his  troops,  and  abandoned  the  hopeless  contest. 
Syria,  from  a  province  of  the  Roman  empire,  be- 
came  a  province    of    Islamism,  undisturbed    by    any 


Chap.  U.         CONQUEST  OF  PERSIA  AND  EGYPT.  16 1 

serious  aggression   of  the  Christians  till  the  time  of 
the  Crusades. 

The   Christian   historian  is  not  called  upon   to  de- 
scribe the  Mohammedan  conquest  of  Persia,  conquest  of 
The    religion    of    the   fire-worshippers,    and  ^^^^^*- 
the   throne   of    the   Sassanian   dynasty,   occupied   the 
arms  of  the  Mohammedans  less  than  twenty  -p^^^  ggg 
years.     Yezdegird,  the  last  of  the  Sassanians,  *°  ^^^• 
perished  in  his  flight  by  an  ignoble  hand.     The  Caliph 
was  master  of  all  tJie  wealth,  the  territory,  and  the 
power  of  that  Persian  kingdom  which  had  so  long  con- 
tested the  East  with  the  Byzantine  empire. 

At  the  same  time  the  tide  of  conquest  was  flowing 
w^estward  with  slower  but  as  irresistible  force.^  Of  Egypt. 
In  less  than  three  years  the  Saracens  were  masters  of 
Egypt.  Egypt  fell  an  easy  prey,  betrayed  by  the  in^ 
ternal  hostility  of  the  conflicting  Christian  sects.  The 
Monophysite  religious  controversy  had  become  a  dis- 
tinction not  of  sect  only  but  of  race.  The  native 
Egyptian  population,  the  Copts,  were  stern  Monophy- 
sites ;  the  Greeks,  especially  those  of  Alexandria,  ad- 
hered to  the  Council  of  Chalcedon.  Mokawkas,  by 
his  name  a  native  Egyptian,  had  attained  to  great 
power  and  influence  ;  he  is  called  Governor  of  Egypt 
under  Heraclius.  Mokawkas,  according  to  the  tradi- 
tion, had  been  among  the  potentates  summoned  by 
Mohammed  himself  to  receive  the  doctrine  of  Islam. 
He  had  returned  a  courteous  refusal,  accompanied  with 
honorable  gifts.  Now,  on  the  principle  that  religious 
hatred  is  more  intense  against  those  who  differ  the  least 
in   opinion,  Mokawkas  and  the  whole   Coptic  popula- 

1  The  invasion  of  Ararou  is  dated  June,  638 ;  the  capture  of  Alexandria 
December  22,  a.d.  640  (641,  Weil). 

VOL.    II.  11 


162  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

tion,  perhaps  groaning  under  some  immediate  tyranny, 
preferred  to  the  rule  of  those  who  asserted  two  natures 
in  Christ,  that  of  those  who  altogether  denied  his 
divinity.  They  acquiesced  at  once  in  the  dominion  of 
Amrou  ;  they  rejoiced  when  the  proud  Greek  city  of 
Alexandria,  the  seat  of  the  tyrannical  patriarch,  who 
would  enforce  upon  them  the  creed  of  Chalcedon,  fell 
before  his  arms  ;  they  were  only  indignant  that  the 
contemptuous  toleration  of  the  Mohammedans  was 
extended  as  well  to  those  who  believed  in  the  two 
natures,  as  to  those  who  adhered  to  the  Monophysitic 
creed.^  ('|m    i; 

The  complete  subjugation  of  Africa  was  less  rapid ; 
Of  Africa.  it  was  half  a  century  before  the  fall  of  Car- 
64<  to  698.  tliage.  The  commencement  of  the  eighth 
century  saw  the  Mohammedans  masters  of  the  largest 
and  most  fertile  part  of  Spain.  Latin  Christianity  has 
lost  the  country  of  Cyprian  and  Augustine ;  the  num- 
ber of  extinguished  bishoprics  is  almost  countless. 

The  splendor  of  these  triumphs  of  the  Mohammedan 
arms  has  obscured  the  progress  of  the  Mohammedan 
religion.  In  far  less  than  a  century,  not  only  has  the 
Caliph  become  the  sovereign,  but  Islamism  the  domi- 
nant faith  in  Persia,  Syria,  Egypt,  Africa,  and  part  of 
Spain.2  But  how  did  the  religion,  though  that  of  the 
ruling  power,  become  that  of  the  subject  people  ?  In 
Arabia  alone  the  Koran  had  demanded  the  absolute 
extirpation  of  all  rival  modes  of  belief,  of  Judaism  and 
Christianity,  as  well  as  of  the  older  idolatries.  Though 
vestiges  both  of  Judaism  and  Christianity  might  re- 
main, to  Omar  is  attributed  the  glory  of  having  ful- 
filled the  Prophet's  injunctions.     But  the  earlier  con 

1  Compare  Weil,  p.  105-114.  2  Qckley,  vol.  i.  p.  318. 


Chap.  IL  TPwEDOMINANCE  OF  ISLAMISM.  1G3 

quests  do  not  seem,  like  those  of  a  later  Progress  of 
period,  that  of  the  Ghaznevides  in  India,  danism. 
and  of  the  Turks  in  Europe,  the  superinduction  of  an 
armed  aristocracy  in  numbers  comparatively  small ; 
of  a  new  and  dominant  caste  into  an  old  society,  which 
in  the  one  case  remained  Brahminical  or  Buddhist,  in 
the  other  Christian.  Mohammedanism  in  most  of  tlie 
conquered  countries  becomes  the  religion  of  the  people. 
In  Persia  the  triumph  of  the  religion  was  as  complete 
fts  that  of  the  arms.  The  faithful  worshippers  of  fire, 
the  hierarchy  of  Zoroaster,  dwindled  away,  and  retired 
either  into  the  bordering  and  more  inaccessible  districts, 
or  into  India.  On  the  south  of  the  Caspian,  on  Mount 
Elbourz,  the  sacred  fire  continued  to  burn  in  solitary 
splendor,  after  it  had  been  extinguished  or  had  expired 
on  the  countless  temples,  which,  under  the  Sassanian 
dynasty,  had  arisen  from  the  Tigris  nearly  to  the  In- 
dus. The  sacred  books  of  Zoroaster,  or  at  least  those 
of  the  re\aved  Zoroastrianism  under  Ardeschir  Babhe- 
gan,  were  preserved  by  the  faithful  communities,  who 
found  an  hospitable  reception  in  India.  Soon  after  the 
conquest  the  followers  of  Magianism  seem  to  have  be- 
come so  little  dangerous,  that  the  Caliphs  gave  to  them 
the  privilege  of  the  same  toleration  as  to  the  Christians 
and  Jews  ;  they  became  what  the  Koran  denied  them 
to  be,  a  third  people  of  the  Book.  The  formation  of 
a  new  national  language,  the  modem  Persian,  fi^oni 
the  admixture  of  the  old  native  tongue  with  the  Ara- 
bic, shows  the  complete  incorporation  of  the  two  races, 
who  have  ever  since  remained  Mohammedan.  But  in 
the  countries  wrested  from  Christianity  the  case  was 
different.  With  the  remarkable  exception  of  North- 
ern Africa,  perhaps  of  Southern  Spain,  Christianity, 


164  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

thougli  in  degradation  and  subjection,  never  ceased  to 
exist.  There  was  no  complete  change  wrought  Hke 
the  slow  yet  total  extinction  of  Paganism  in  the 
Roman  world  by  Christianity.  In  all  the  Christian 
countries,  in  Syria,  and  other  parts  of  Asia,  and  in 
Egypt,  of  the  three  fearful  alternatives  offered  by  tha 
Arabian  invader  —  Islam,  the  sword,  or  tribute  —  the 
Christians,  after  a  vain  appeal  to  the  sword,  had  qui- 
etly acquiesced  in  the  humiliating  tribute.  They  had 
capitulated  on  the  payment  of  a  regular  poll-tax,  and: 
that  not  a  very  heavy  one,  imposed  on  the  believers  in 
every  religion  but  that  of  the  Koran.  So  the  Nesto- 
rian  and  Jacobite  Christians  in  Persia  and  Syria,  the> 
Copts  in  Egypt,  and  a  few  waning  communities  for  a 
certain  time  even  in  Africa,  maintained  their  worship. 
Still  the  relative  numbers  of  the  Mohammedans  in-> 
creased  with  great  rapidity.  But  as,  for  the  achieve- 
ment of  these  immense  conquests,  spread  over  so  vast^ 
a  surface,  the  Arabian  armies  must  have  been  very  in- 
considerable (little  confidence  can  be  placed  in  the 
statement  of  numbers  in  Oriental  writers),  so  also 
looking,  in  a  general  way,  to  the  population  of  Arabia, 
and  supposing  that  the  enthusiasm  of  conquest  and  re- 
ligion swept  forth  a  very  large  part  of  it  in  these  armed 
migrations  to  foreign  lands,  they  must  stiU  have  borne 
but  a  small  proportion  to  the  conquered  races.  In 
most  countries  the  Arabic  language  became  not  merely 
that  of  the  state  but  of  the  people. 

Our  information  is  singularly  deficient  as  to  this 
silent  revolution  in  the  Christian  part  of  the  Moham- 
medan conquests.  We  have  seen,  though  not  so  dis- 
tinctly, perhaps,  as  we  might  wish,  primitive  Christian- 
ity gradually  impregnating  the  mind  and  heart  of  the 


Chap.  II.  CAUSES  OF  TRIUMPH  OBSCURE.  165 

Roman  world  ;  the  infant  communities  are  found  set- 
tling in  all  the  great  cities,  and  gradually  absorbing 
into  themselves  a  large  portion  of  the  people ;  minds 
of  all  orders,  orators,  philosophers,  statesmen,  at  length 
emperors,  surrender  to  the  steady  aggression  of  the 
Gospel.  In  some  cases  may  be  traced  the  struggles 
of  old  religious  belief,  the  pangs  and  throes  of  the 
spiritual  regeneration.  We  know  the  arguments 
which  persuaded,  the  impulses  which  moved,  the 
hopes  and  fears  which  achieved,  the  religious  victoiy. 
But  the  moral  causes,  and  moral  causes  there  must 
have  been,  for  the  triumph  of  Islamism,  are  causes 
altogether  obscure  and  conjectural.  Egypt  °^^"^- 
has  shown  how  the  mutual  hostility  of  the  Christians 
■advanced  the  progress  of  the  Mohammedan  arms ;  it 
is  too  probable  that  it  advanced  hkewise  the  progress 
of  the  Mohammedan  faith.  What  was  the  state  of 
the  Christian  world  in  the  provinces  exposed  to  the 
first  invasion  of  Mohammedanism?  Sect  opposed  to 
sect,  clergy  wrangling  with  clergy,  upon  the  most 
abstruse  and  metaphysical  points  of  doctrine.  The 
orthodox,  the  Nestorians,  the  Eutychians,  the  Jaco- 
bites, were  persecuting  each  other  with  unexhausted 
animosity ;  and  it  is  not  judging  too  severely  the  evils 
of  religious  controversy  to  suppose  that  many  would 
rejoice  in  the  degradation  of  their  adversaries  under 
the  yoke  of  the  unbeliever,  rather  than  make  common 
cav^e  with  them  in  defence  of  their  common  Christian- 
ity. Ill  how  many  must  this  incessant  disputation 
have  shaken  the  foundations  of  their  faith  !  It  had 
been  wonderful  if  thousands  had  not,  in  their  weari- 
ness and  perplexity,  sought  refuge  from  these  inter- 
minable  and  implacable  controversies  in  the   simple, 


166  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

intelligible  truth  of  the  Divine  Unity,  though  pur- 
chased by  the  acknowledgment  of  the  prophetic  mis- 
sion of  Mohammed. 

Mohammed,  when  he  sanctioned  one  of  the  old 
jjg^gtg^,f  Arabian  usages.  Polygamy,  foresaw  not  how 
polygamy,  powerful  au  instrument  this  would  be  for  the 
dissemination  of  his  religion.  This  usage  he  limited, 
indeed,  in  the  KorRn,  but  claimed  a  privilege  in 
himself  of  extending  to  the  utmost.  His  successors, 
and  most  of  the  more  wealthy  and  powerful  Moham- 
medans, assumed  the  privilege  and  followed  the  exam- 
ple of  the  Prophet,  if  not  in  direct  violation,  by  a 
convenient  interpretation  of  the  Law, 

Polygamy,  on  the  whole,  is  justly  considered  as 
unfavorable  to  population,  but  while  it  diminishes  in 
one  class,  it  may  proportionately  tend  to  rapid  and 
continual  increase  in  another.  The  crowdino;  together 
of  numerous  females  in  one  harem,  unless  they  are 
imported  from  foreign  countries,  since  the  number  of 
male  and  female  births  are  nearly  equal,  must  with^ 
draw  them  from  the  lower  and  poorer  classes.  While 
then  the  wealthy  and  the  powerful  would  have  very 
large  families,  the  poor  would  be  condemned  to  sterile 
celibacy,  to  promiscuous  concubinage,  or  worse.  In 
this  relation  stood  the  Christian  to  the  Mohamme- 
dan population.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
Christian  females  were  drawn  off  in  great  numbers 
by  violence,  by  seduction,  by  all  the  means  at  the 
command  of  the  conqueror,  of  the  master,  of  the  pur- 
chaser, into  the  harems  of  the  Islamites.  Among  the 
earliest  questions  suggested  to  tlie  Caliph  by  the  chiefs 
of  the  Syrian  army,  was  the  lawfulness  of  intermar- 
riag(3  with  Grecian  women,  which  bad  been  prohibited 


Chap.  II.  THE  HAREM  —  ITS  RESULTS.  167 

by  the  severe  Abu  Obeidah.  The  more  indulgent 
Caliph  Omar,  though  himself  the  most  abstemious 
of  men,  admitted  the  full  right  of  the  brave  Moham- 
medans to  those  enjoyments  which  they  had  won  by 
their  valor.  Those  who  had  no  famihes  in  Arabia,  mio-ht 
marry  in  Syria  ;  and  might  purchase  female  slaves  to 
the  utmost  of  their  desires  and  of  their  abilities.^  The 
Christian,  on  the  other  hand,  confined  by  his  religion 
to  one  wife,  often  too  degraded  or  too  poor  to  desire 
or  to  maintain  one ;  with  a  strong  and  melancholy 
sense  of  the  insecurity  of  his  household  ;  perhaps  with 
the  monastic  feeling,  already  so  deeply  impressed  on 
many  minds,  now  strengthened  by  such  dismal  calami- 
ties, might,  if  of  a  better  class,  shrink  from  being  the 
parent  of  a  race  of  slaves ;  or  impose  upon  himself  as 
a  virtue  that  continence  which  was  almost  a  necessity. 

But  all  the  children  of  Christian  women  by  Moham- 
medans, even  if  the  mothers  should  have  remained 
faithful  to  the  Gospel,  would,  of  course,  be  brought 
up  as  Mohammedans  ;  and  thus,  in  the  fi'esh  and  vig- 
orous days  of  the  early  Arabian  conquerors,  before 
the  harem  had  produced  its  inevitable  eventual  effects, 
effeminacy,  feebleness,  premature  exhaustion,  and  do- 
mestic jealousies,  polygamy  would  be  constantly  swelling 
the  number  of  the  Mohammedan  aristocracy,  while 
the  Christians  were  wasting  away  in  numbers,  as  in 
wealth  and  position.  Nor  would  it  be  the  higher 
ranks  of  the  conquerors  alone  which  would  be  thus 
intercepting,  as  it  were,  the  natural  growth  of  the 
Christian  population,  and  turning  it  into  Mohamme- 
dan. The  Arab  invasions  were  not,  like  the  Teutonic, 
the  migrations  of  tribes  and  nations,  but  the  inroad  of 

1  Ockley,  i.  275. 


168  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

armies.  Some  might  return  to  their  famihes  in  Ara- 
bia ;  a  few,  when  settled  in  foreign  lands,  might  be 
joined  by  their  household ;  but  by  far  the  larger  num- 
ber of  the  warriors,  whether  married  or  unmarried, 
would  assert  the  privilege  of  conquest  sanctioned  by  the 
Koran,  and  by  the  Caliph,  the  expounder  of  the  Ko- 
ran. As  long  as  there  were  women,  the  hot  Arab  would 
!iot  repress  his  authorized  passions  ;  he  would  not  wait 
lor  Paradise  to  reward  his  toils.  The  females  would 
be  the  possession  of  the  strongest ;  and  he  would  not 
permit  his  offspring,  even  if  the  mother  should  be  a 
fervent  Christian,  and  retain  influence  over  her  child 
(in  most  cases  she  would  probably  be  indifferent,  if  not 
a  convert),  to  inherit  the  degradation  of  an  inferior 
caste,  but  would  assert  for  him  all  the  rights  of  Islam- 
itish  descent.  It  would  be  difficult  to  calculate  the 
effect  of  this  constant  propagation  of  one  race,  and 
diminution  of  the  other,  even  in  a  few  generations. 

So  grew  the  Mohammedan  empire  into  a  multitude 
Extent  of  ^^  Moliammedau  nations,  owning,  notwith- 
wedaS'con-  Standing  contested  successions,  at  least  a  re- 
quests, mote  allegiance  to  the  Caliph,  the  heir  and 
representative  of  the  Prophet,  but  with  their  religious 
far  more  formidable  to  Christendom  than  their  political 
unity.  Christendom  was  not  only  assailed  in  front 
and  on  its  more  immediate  borders;  not  only  reduced 
to  but  a  precarious  and  narrow  footing  in  Asia  ;  en- 
dangered, so  soon  as  the  Arabs  became  a  naval  as  well 
as  a  military  power,  along  the  whole  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, in  all  its  islands  and  on  all  its  coasts  :  but  it 
was  flanked,  as  it  were,  by  the  Mohammedans  of 
Spain,  who  crossed  the  Pyrenees,  and  penetrated  into 
the  very  liea.t  of  the  Frankish  empire. 


(7*1  AP.  n.  RELIGIOUS  CONSEQUENCES.  169 

But  the  most  important  consequence  of  the  outburst 
of  Mohammedanism  in  the  history  of  the  ReUgious 
world  and  of  Christianity  was  its  inevitablf^  consequences 
transmutation  of  Christianity  into  a  reHgion  of  war, 
at  first  defensive,  afterwards,  during  the  Crusades,  ag- 
gressive. Religious  wars,  strictly  speaking,  were  as  yet 
unknown.  Christian  nations  had  mingled  in  strife,  re- 
ligious animosities  had  imbittered,  or  even  been  a  pretext 
for  wars  between  the  Arian  Goths  or  Vandals,  and  the 
Trinitarian  Romans  or  Franks.  Local  persecutions, 
as  among  the  Donatists  of  Africa,  had  been  enforced 
and  repelled  by  arms ;  perhaps  in  some  instances 
bishops,  in  defence  of  their  native  country,  had  at 
least  directed  military  operations.  In  ancient  history 
the  gods  of  conflicting  nations  had  joined  in  the  contest. 
But  the  world  had  not  yet  witnessed  wars  of  which 
religion  was  the  avowed  and  ostensible  motive,  the 
object  of  conquest  the  propagation  of  an  adverse  faith, 
the  penalty  of  defeat  the  oppression,  if  not  the  extir- 
pation, of  a  national  creed.  The  appearance  of  the 
Crescent  or  of  the  Cross,  not  so  much  over  the  for- 
tresses or  citadels,  as  over  the  temples  of  God,  the 
churches,  or  the  mosques,  was  the  conclusive  sign  of 
the  victory  of  Christian  or  Islamite.  Hence  sprung 
the  religious  element  in  Christian  chivalry ;  and  hap- 
pily, or  leather  mercifully  for  the  destinies  of  mankind 
in  which  Christianity  and  Christian  civilization  were 
hereafter  to  resume,  or,  more  properly,  to  attain  their 
slow  preponderance  (it  may  be  hoped,  their  complete 
and  final  triumph),  was  it  ordained  that  the  ruder 
barbarian  virtues,  strength,  energy,  courage,  endur- 
ance, enterprise,  had  been  infused  into  the  worn-out 
and  decrepit   Roman  empire;  that  kings  of  Teutoni* 


170  LATI^   <JHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

descent,  Franks,  Germans,  Normans,  had  inherited 
the  dominions  of  the  Western  empire,  and  made,  in 
some  respects,  until  the  late  conquest  of  Constanti- 
nople by  the  Turks,  common  cause  with  the  Christian 
East.  Christendom  thus  assailed  along  its  whole  fron- 
tier, and  threatened  in  its  very  centre,  in  Rome  itself, 
and  even  in  Gaul,  was  compelled  to  emblazon  the 
(^ross  on  its  banner,  and  to  heighten  all  the  impulses 
of  freedom  and  patriotism  by  the  still  stronger  passion 
of  religious  enthusiasm.  Christianity  had  subdued 
the  world  by  peace,  she  could  only  defend  it  by  war. 
However  foreign  then  and  adverse  to  her  genuine 
spirit;  however  it  might  tend  to  promote  the  worst 
and  most  anti-Christian  vices,  cruelty,  licentiousness, 
pride,  hatred,  and  to  establish  brute  force  as  the  rule 
and  law  of  society  ;  however  the  very  virtues  of  such 
a  period  might  harmonize  but  doubtfully  with  the 
Gospel ;  it  was  an  ordeal  through  which  it  must  pass. 
The  Church  must  become  militant  in  its  popular  and 
secular  sense  ;  it  must  protect  its  altars,  its  temples,  its 
Gospel  itself  by  other  arms  than  those  of  patient  en- 
durance, mild  persuasion,  resigned  and  submissive 
martyrdom. 

The  change  was  as  complete  as  inevitable.  Chris- 
christianity  tiauity  in  its  turn  began  to  make  reprisals 
warlike.  ^^  ^j^^  Moliammcdan  apostleship  of  fire  and 
sword.  The  noblest  and  most  earnest  believers  might 
seem  to  have  read  the  Koran  rather  than  the  Gospel. 
The  faith  of  Christ  or  the  sword  is  the  battle-word  of 
Charlemagne  against  the  Saxons ;  the  Pope  preaches 
the  Crusades ;  and  St.  Louis  devoutly  believes  that 
ne  is  hewing  his  way  to  heaven  through  the  bleeding 
ranks  of  the  Saracens. 


Chap.  n.  MOIlAmiEDAN  CIVILIZATION.  171 

Nor  indeed,  in  some  other  respects,  was  Mohamme- 
danism ahogether  an  unworthy  antagonist  j^^i^^^^^^^„ 
of  Christianity.  Not  less  rapid  and  wonder-  «i^iii^«o°- 
fid  than  the  expansion  of  the  Mohammedan  empire, 
and  the  religion  of  Islam,  was  the  growth  of  Moham- 
medan civilization  —  that  civilization  the  highest,  it 
should  seem,  attainable  by  the  Asiatic  type  of  man- 
kind. Starting  above  six  centuries  later,  it  has  nearly 
reached  its  height  long  before  Christianity.  The  bar- 
barous Bedouins  are  become  magnificent  monarchs  ;  in 
Damascus,  in  Bagdad,  in  Samarcand,  in  Cairo,  in 
Cairoan,  in  Fez,  in  Seville,  and  in  Cordova,  the  arts 
of  peace  are  cultivated  with  splendor  and  success. 
The  East  had  probably  never  beheld  courts  more  pol- 
ished than  that  of  Haroun  al  Raschid.  Cairo,  in 
some  points  at  least,  rivalled  Alexandria,  Africa  had 
not  yet  become  a  coast  of  pirates.  In  Spain  cultiva- 
tion had  never  been  carried  to  such  perfection ;  Anda- 
lusia has  never  recovered  the  expulsion  of  the  Moors 
In  most  of  the  Mohammedan  cities  the  mosques  were 
probably,  in  grandeur  and  decoration  (so  far  as  severe 
Islamism  would  allow),  as  rich  as  the  Christian  cathe- 
drals of  those  times.  Letters,  especially  poetry,  were 
objects  of  proud  patronage  by  the  more  enlightened 
caliphs ;  the  sciences  began  to  be  introduced  from 
Greece,  perhaps  from  India.  Europe  recovered  the 
astronomy  of  Alexandria,  even  much  of  the  science 
of  Aristotle,  from  Arabic  sources.  Commerce  led  her 
caravans  throuo-h  the  whole  rano;e  of  the  Mohamme- 
dan  dominions  ;  the  products  of  India  found  their  way 
to  the  court  of  Cordova.  Mohammedanism  might 
seem  in  danger  of  decay,  from  the  progress  of  its  own 
unwarlike  magnificence  and  luxurv.     But  it  was  con- 


172  LATIN  CHRISTIAxQTY.  iiooK  IV. 

Btaiitly  finding  on  its  borders,  or  within  its  territories, 
new  fierce  and  often  wandering  tribes.  New  Arabs, 
as  it  were,  who  revived  all  its  old  adventurous  spirit, 
embraced  Islamism  with  all  the  fervor  of  proselytes, 
and  either  filled  its  thrones  with  young  dynasties  of 
valiant  and  ambitious  kings,  or  propagated  its  empire 
into  new  regions.  The  Afighans  overran  India,  and 
established  the  great  empire  of  the  Ghaznevides.  The 
Turks,  race  after  race,  Seljukians  and  Osmanlies, 
seized  the  falling  crescent,  and,  rivalling  in  fanati- 
cism the  earliest  believers,  perpetuated  the  propagation 
of  the  faith. 

The  expansion  of  Islamism  itself,  the  enlargement 
of  her  stern  and  narrow  creed,  is  even  more  extraor- 
dinary. The  human  mind,  urged  into  active  and 
vigorous  movement,  cannot  be  restrained  within  close 
and  jealous  limits.  The  Koran  submits  to  a  trans- 
mutation more  complete  than  the  Gospel  under  the 
influences  of  Asiatic  Gnosticism  and  Greek  philoso- 
phy. Metaphysical  theology,  if  it  does  not  tamper 
with  the  unity  of  God,  discusses  his  being  and  attri- 
butes. The  rigid  predestinarianism  is  softened  away, 
if  not  among  the  soldiery,  in  the  speculative  schools. 
The  sublime,  unapproachable  Deity  is  approached, 
embraced,  mingled  with,  by  the  Divine  Love  of  Sufi. 
Monachism  enslaves  the  Mohammedan,  as  it  had  the 
(Christian  mind.  The  dervish  rivals  the  Christian 
anchorite,  as  the  Christian  anchorite  the  Jewish  Essene 
or  the  Indian  Fakir. 


Cha     UL  CONVERSIOIJT  OF  ENGLAND.  IV 3 


CHAPTER    III. 

CONVERSION  OF  ENGLAND. 

Christianity  liad  thus  lost  the  greater  part  of  her 
dominion  in  two  continents.  Ahnost  the  whole  of 
Asia  had  settled  down  under  what  mioht  seem  a  more 
congenial  form  of  civil  and  religious  despotism ;  it  be- 
came again  Asiatic  in  all  its  public  and  social  system. 
Northern  Africa  was  doomed  to  exchange  her  Roman 
and  Christian  civilization  for  Arabic  religion,  manners, 
and  language,  which  by  degrees,  after  some  centuries, 
partly  from  the  fanatic  and  more  rude  Mohamme- 
danism of  the  savage  native  races,  the  Berbers  and 
others,  sunk  back  into  utter  barbarism.  In  Europe 
Europe,  in  the  meantime,  Christianity  was  ^^"^^i^a- 
still  making  large  acquisitions,  laying  the  foundations 
of  that  great  federation  of  Christian  kingdoms,  which 
by  their  hostility,  as  well  as  their  intercourse,  were  to 
act  upon  each  other :  until  at  length  that  political  and 
balanced  system  should  arise,  out  of  which  and  by 
means  of  which,  our  smaller  continent  was  to  take 
the  lead  in  the  fuller  development  of  humanity ;  and 
Christian  Europe  rise  to  a  height  of  intellectual  and 
social  culture,  unexampled  in  the  history  of  mankind, 
and  not  yet,  perhaps,  at  its  full  and  perfect  gi-owth. 
For  it  was  Christianity  alone  which  maintained  some 
kind  of  combination  among  the  crumbling  fragments 


174  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

of  tlie  Roman  empire.  If  the  Barbaric  kingdoms  liad 
two  associating  elements,  their  common  Teutonic  de- 
scent and  their  common  rehgion,  far  the  weaker  was 
tlie  kindred  and  affinity  of  race.  Their  native  inde- 
pendence war,  constantly  breaking  np  that  affinity  into 
sei)arate,  and,  erelong,  hostile  tribes.  No  established 
right  of  primogeniture  controlled  the  perpetual  sever- 
ance of  every  realm,  at  each  succession,  into  new^  lines 
of  kings.  Thus  Christianity  alone  was  a  bond  of 
union,  strong  and  enduring.  The  Teutonic  kingdoms 
acknowledo-ed  their  allegiance  to  the  ecclesiastical  su- 
premacy  of  Rome;  Rome  was  the  centre  and  capital 
of  Western  Christendom. 

Western  Christendom  was  still  aggressive.  Its  first 
Conquests  of  effort  was  to  rcclaim  Britain,  which  had  been 
Christianity,  almost  entirely  lost  to  pagan  barbarism :  and 
next  advancing  beyond  the  uncertain  boundary  of  the 
old  Roman  empire,  to  plant  all  along  the  Rhine,  and 
far  beyond,  among  the  yet  unfelled  forests  and  untilled 
morasses  of  Germany,  settlements  which  gradually 
grew  up  into  great  and  wealthy  cities.  Slowly,  in- 
deed, but  constantly  in  advance,  after  the  repulse  of 
the  Saracenic  invasion  by  Charles  Martel,  Christianity 
remained,  if  not  undisputed,  yet  the  actual  sovereign 
of  all  Europe,  with  the  exception  of  the  Mauro-Span- 
isli  kingdom  and  some  of  the  Mediterranean  islands ; 
and  so  compensated  by  its  conquests  in  the  North  for 
its  losses  in  the  East  and  South.  Till  many  centuries 
later,  a  new  Asiatic  race,  the  Seljukian  Turks,  a  new 
outburst,  as  it  were,  with  much  of  the  original  relig- 
ious fanaticism,  precipitated  itself  upon  Europe,  and 
added  the  narrow  remnant  of  the  Greek  empire  to 
Islamism  ani  Asiatic  influence. 


Chap.  III.  CHEISTIANITY  IN  BRITAIN.  175 

Britain  was  the  only  country  in  which  the  conquest 
by  the  Northern  barbarians  had  been  fol-  Christianity 
lowed  by  the  extinction  of  Christianity.  ^"^  ^"^ain. 
Nothing  certain  is  known  concerning  the  first  pro- 
mulgation of  the  Gospel  in  Roman  Britain.  The 
apostolic  establishment  by  St.  Paul  has  not  the  slight- 
est historical  ground;  and  considering  the  state  of  the* 
island,  a  state  of  fierce  and  perpetual  war  between  tlie 
advancing  Roman  conquerors  and  the  savage  natives, 
may  be  dismissed  as  nearly  impossible.  The  Roman 
legionary  on  active  service,  the  painted  Briton,  in  stern 
resistance  to  the  Roman  and  under  his  Druidical  hie- 
rarchy, would  offer  few  proselytes,  even  to  an  apostle. 
The  conversion  of  King  Lucius  is  a  legend.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  conquered  and  half-civilized  Brit- 
ain, like  the  rest  of  the  Roman  empire,  gradually 
received,  during  the  second  and  third  centuries,  the 
faith  of  Christ.  The  depth  of  her  Christian  cultivation 
appears  from  her  fertility  in  saints  and  in  heretics. 
St.  Helena,  the  mother  of  Constantine,  probably  im- 
bibed the  first  fervor  of  those  Christian  feelings,  which 
wrought  so  powerfully  on  the  Christianity  of  the  age, 
in  her  native  Britain.  St.  Alban,  fi'om  his  name  and 
from  his  martyrdom,  which  there  seems  no  reason  to 
doubt,  was  probably- a  Roman  soldier.^  Our  legendaiy 
annals  are  full  of  other  holy  names ;  while  Pelagius, 
and  probably  his  companion  Celestine,  have  given  a 
less  favorable  celebrity  to  the  British  Church.^ 

1  This  will  account  for  St.  Alban's  death  in  the  persecution  of  Dioclesian, 
which  did  not  extend,  in  its  extreme  violence  at  least,  to  the  part  of  Ihe 
empire  governed  by  Constantius.  Yet  the  doubtful  protection  of  that  em- 
peror may  neither  have  been  able  nor  willing  to  prevent  zealous  officers 
from  putting  the  military'  test  to  their  soldiers.  The  persecution  began 
with  the  army.  —  See  Hist,  of  Christianity,  vol.  ii.  p.  270. 

2  St.  Germain,  Bishop  of  Auxcne.  is  said  to  have  been  sent  into  Britain  to 


176  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

But  all  were  swept  away,  the  worshippers  of  the 
Christianity  saints  aiid  the  followers  of  the  heretics,  hy 
the  Saxons,  the  Teutoiiic  conquest.  The  German  races 
which  overran  the  island  came  from  a  remote  quarter 
yet  unpen etrated  by  the  missionaries  of  the  Gospel. 
The  Goths,  who  formed  three  kingdoms  in  Italy,  Spain, 
and  Southern  France,  were  already  Christians  ;  the 
Lombards  partially  converted ;  even  among  the  Franks, 
Christianity  was  known,  and  perhaps  had  some  prose- 
lytes before  the  victories  of  Clovis.  But  the  Saxons 
and  the  Anglians  were  far  more  rude  and  savage  in 
their  manners ;  in  their  religion  unreclaimed  idolaters. 
They  knew  nothing  of  Christianity,  but  as  the  religion 
of  that  abject  people  whom  they  were  driving  before 
them  into  their  mountains  and  fastnesses.  Their  con- 
quest was  not  the  settlement  of  armed  conquerors 
amidst  a  subject  people,  but  the  gradual  expulsion  — 
it  might  almost  seem,  at  length,  the  total  extirpation  — 
of  the  British  and  Roman  British  inhabitants.  Chris- 
tianity receded  with  the  conquered  Britons  into  the 
mountains  of  Wales,  or  towards  the  borders  of  Scot- 
land, or  took  refuge  among  the  peaceful  and  flourishing 
monasteries  of  Ireland.  On  the  one  hand,  the  ejection, 
more  or  less  complete,  of  the  native  race,  shows  that 
the  contest  was  fierce  and  long ;  the  reoccupation  of 
the  island  by  paganism  is  a  strong  confirmation  of  the 
complete  expulsion  of  the  Britons.  The  implacable 
liostiHty  engendered  by  this  continuous  war,  prevented 
that  salutary  reaction  of  the  Christianity  of  the  con- 
quered races  on  the  barbarian  conquerors,  which  took 


extirpate  Pelagianism,  which  had  spread  to  a  great  extent.  But  this,  con- 
Bidering  how  early  the  monk  left  his  native  land,  must  be  very  doubtful  — 
The  authority  is  Prosper. 


CniAP.  HI.     EFFECTS   OF  THE  TEUTONIC   INVASION.  177 

place  in  other  countries.  Tlie  clergy  fled,  perhaps 
fought,  with  their  flocks,  and  neither  sought  nor  found 
opportunities  of  amicable  intercourse,  which  might 
have  led  to  the  propagation  of  their  faith  ;  while  the 
savage  pagans  demolished  the  churches  and  monasteries 
(which  must  have  existed  in  considerable  numbers) 
with  the  other  vestiges  of  Roman  civilization.^  They 
were  little  disposed  to  worship  the  God  of  a  conquered 
people  or  to  adopt  the  religion  of  a  race  whom  they 
either  despised  as  weak  and  unwarlike,  or  hated  as 
stubborn  and  implacable  enemies. 

A  century  —  a  century  of  continued  warfare  '^  - 
would  hardly  allay  the  jealousy  with  which  the  An- 
glo-Saxons would  have  received  any  attempt  at  con- 
version from  the  British  churches.  Nor  was  there 
suflicient  charity  in  the  British  Christians  to  enlighten 
the  paganism  of  their  conquerors.  They  consoled 
themselves  (they  are  taunted  with  this  sacrifice  of 
Christian  zeal  to  national  hatred)  for  the  loss  of  their 
territory,  by  the  damnation  of  their  conquerors,  which 
they  were  not  generous  enough  to  attempt  to  avert ; 
they  would  at  least  have  heaven  to  themselves,  un- 
disturbed by  the  intrusion  of  the  Saxon .^  Happily 
Christianity  appeared  in  an  opposite  quarter.  Its  mis- 
sionaries from  Rome  were  unaccompanied  by  any  of 

1  The  fine  legend  of  the  Halleluiah  Victory,  in  which  St.  Germanus,  at 
the  head  of  an  army  of  newly  baptized  Christians  (at  Easter),  marched 
against  the  Saxons,  chanting  Alleluia,  and  overwhelming  them  with  rocks 
and  trees  in  a  difficult  pass  of  the  Welsh  mountains,  is  one  of  the  brightest 
episodes  in  the  war. 

2  The  first  Saxon  invasion  was  a.d.  476.  Augustine  came  to  England, 
A.D.  597. 

3  "  Qui  mter  alia  inerrabilium  scelerum  facta,  quae  historicus  eorum  Gil- 
das  flebili  seniione  describit,  et  hoc  addebant,  ut  nunquam  genti  Saxonuni 
Kive  Anglorum,  secum  Britanniam  incolenti,  verbum  fidei  praedicando  coni- 
mitterent."  —  Bede,  H.  E.  i.  c.  22. 

VOL.  II.  12 


178  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

these  causes  of  mistrust  or  dislike.  It  came  into  that 
part  of  tlie  kingdom  the  farthest  removed  from  the 
hostile  Britons.  It  was  the  religion  of  the  powerful 
kingdom  of  the  Franks  ;  tlie  influence  of  Bertha,  the 
Frankish  princess,  the  wife  of  King  Ethelbert,  wrought 
no  doubt  more  powerfully  for  the  reception  of  the  faith 
than  the  zeal  and  eloquence  of  Augustine. 

Gregory  the  Great,  it  has  been  said,  before  his  ac- 
Gregory  the  ccssiou  to  the  Papacy,  had  set  out  on  the 
Great.  sublimc  tliough  despcratc  mission  of  the  re- 

conquest  of  Britain  from  idolatry.  It  was  Gregory 
who  commissioned  the  monk  Augustine  to  venture  on 
this  glorious  service.  Yet  so  fierce  and  savage,  accord- 
ing to  the  common  rumor,  were  the  Anglo-Saxon  in- 
habitants of  Britain,  that  Augustine  shrunk  from  the 
wild  and  desperate  enterprise ;  he  hesitated  before  he 
would  throw  himself  into  the  midst  of  a  race  of  barbar- 
ous unbelievers,  of  whose  lano-uage  he  was  ionorant. 
Gregory  would  allow  no  retreat  from  a  mission  whicli 
he  had  himself  been  prepared  to  undertake,  and  which 
would  not  have  appalled,  even  under  less  favorable 
circumstances,  his  firmer  courage. 

The  fears  of  Augustine  as  to  this  wild  and  unknown 
Augustine,  land  proved  exaggerated.  The  monk  and  his 
forty  followers  landed  without  opposition  on  the  shores 
of  Britain.  They  sent  to  announce  themselves  as  a 
solemn  embassage  from  Rome,  to  offer  to  the  King  of 
Kent  the  everlasting  bliss  of  heaven,  an  eternal  king- 
dom in  the  presence  of  the  true  and  living  God.  To 
Ethelbert,  though  not  unacquainted  with  Christianiry 
(by  the  terms  of  his  marriage.  Bertha,  the  Frankish 
princess,  had  stipulated  for  the  fr'ee  exercise  of  her 
religion),    there   must   have   been    something   strange 


Chap.  HI.  AUGUSTINE.  179 

and  imposing  in  the  landing  of  those  peaceful  mis- 
sionaries on  a  shore  still  constantly  swarming  with 
tierce  pirates,  who  came  to  plunder  or  to  settle  among 
their  German  kindred.  The  name  of  Rome  must 
have  sounded,  though  vague,  yet  awful  to  the  ear 
of  the  barbarian.  Any  dim  knowledge  of  Christianity 
which  he  had  acquired  from  his  Frankish  wife  would 
be  blended  with  mysterious  veneration  for  the  Pope, 
the  great  high-priest,  the  vicar  of  Christ  and  of  God 
upon  earth.  With  the  cunning  suspicion  which  mingles 
with  the  dread  of  the  barbarian,  the  king  insisted  that 
the  first  meeting  should  be  in  the  open  air,  as  giving 
less  scope  for  magic  arts,  and  not  under  the  roof  of  a 
house.  Augustine  and  his  followers  met  the  kino;  with 
all  the  pomp  which  they  could  command,  with  a  cruci- 
fix of  silver  in  the  van  of  their  procession,  a  picture 
of  the  Redeemer  borne  aloft,  and  chanting  their  litanies 
for  the  salvation  of  the  king  and  of  his  people.  "  Your 
words  and  offers,"  replied  the  king,  "  are  fair ;  but 
they  are  new  to  me,  and  as  yet  unproved,  I  cainiot 
abandon  at  once  the  faith  of  my  Anglian  ancestors."  ^ 
But  the  missionaries  were  entertained  with  courteous 
hospitality.  Their  severely  monastic  lives,  their  con- 
stant prayers,  fastings,  and  vigils,  with  their  confident 
demeanor,  impressed  more  and  more  favorably  the  bar- 
baric mind.  Rumor  attributed  to  them  many  miracles. 
Before  long  the  King  of  Kent  was  an  avowed  con- 
vert ;  his  example  was  followed  by  many  of  his  noblest 
subjects.  No  compulsion  was  used,  but  it  was  mani- 
fest that  the  royal  favor  inclined  to  those  who  received 
the  royal  faith. 

1  All  this  must  have  gone  on  through  the  cold  process  of  interpretation, 
probably  by  some  attendants  of  the  queen.  Augustine  knew  no  T(.niioin> 
lang  age.    Latin  to  the  Anglo-Saxons  was  as  unknown. 


180  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

Augustine,  as  the  reward  of  his  triumph,  aud  as  the 
encouragement  of  his  future  labors,  was  nominated  to 
preside  over  the  infant  Church.  He  received  a  Met- 
ropoHtan  palhum,  which  made  him  independent  of  the 
bishops  of  GauL  The  choice  of  the  see  wavered  for 
a  short  time  between  Canterbury  and  London,  but  it 
was  eventually  placed  at  Canterbury.  The  Pope 
already  contemplated  the  complete  spiritual  conquest 
of  the  island,  and  anticipated  a  second  metropohtan 
see  at  York.  Each  metropolitan  was  to  preside  in 
his  province  over  twelve  bishops.  So  deliberately  did 
The  con-        tlic  ardcut  GresTorv  partition  this  realm,  which 

nection  with  t     •!   %     •  n*      •  i  • 

Rome.  was  still  divided  into  conilictmg  pagan  king- 

doms. Augustine  was  in  constant  correspondence 
with  Rome ;  he  requested  and  received  instructions 
upon  some  dubious  points  of  discipline.  The  ques- 
tions and  the  replies  are  deeply  tinged  with  the  mo- 
nastic spirit  of  the  times.^  It  might  seem  astonishing 
that  minds  capable  of  achieving  such  great  undertak- 
ings, should  be  fettered  by  such  petty  scruples  ;  but 
unless  he  had  been  a  monk,  Augustine  would  hardly 
have  attempted,  or  have  succeeded  in  the  conversion 

1  Some  of  the  strange  questions  submitted  to  the  Papal  judgment  have 
been  the  subject  of  sarcastic  animadversion.*  But  the  age  and  system 
were  in  fault,  not  the  men.  There  are  functions  of  our  animal  nature  on 
which  the  less  the  mind  dwells  the  better.  It  was  the  vital  evil  of  the 
monastic  system,  that  it  compelled  the  whole  thoughts  to  dwell  upon  th"m. 
The  awfulness  of  the  religious  rites,  which  it  was  the  object  of  this  system 
to  guard  by  the  most  minute  provisions  as  to  personal  punty,  was  in  all 
probability  much  more  endangered.  But  on  the  whole  it  is  impossible  not 
to  admire  the  gentleness,  moderation,  and  good  sense  of  Gregory's  decis- 
ions. It  is  remarkable  to  find  him  shaking  off  the  fetters  of  a  rigid  uni- 
fonnity  of  ceremonial.  "  Ex  singulis  ergo  quibusque  ecclesiis,  qua;  pia, 
quae  religiosa,  quai  recta  sunt,  elige,  et  haic  quasi  in  fasciculum  collecta, 
»pud  asylum  mentis  in  consuetudinem  depone."  —  Bede,  i.  c.  27. 

•  Hume,  Hist.  th.  i. 


Chap.  III.         POLICY  OF  GREGORY.  181 

of  Britain.  With  this  monkish  narrowness  singularly 
contrasts  the  language  of  Gregory.  On  the  more 
delicate  question  as  to  the  course  to  be  pursued  in  the 
conversion  of  the  pagans,  whether  that  of  rigid,  un- 
compromising condemnation  of  idolatry  with  all  its 
feelings  and  usages,  or  the  gentler  though  somewhat 
temporizing  plan  of  imbuing  such  of  the  heathen 
usages,  as  might  be  allowed  to  remain,  with  a  Chris- 
tian spirit ;  whether  to  appropriate  the  heathen  temples 
to  Christian  worship,  and  to  substitute  the  saints  of 
the  Church  for  the  deities  of  the  heathen  —  was  it 
settled  policy,  or  more  mature  reflection  which  led 
the  Pope  to  devolve  the  more  odious  duty,  the  total 
abolition  of  idolatry  with  all  its  practices,  upon  the 
temporal  power,  the  barbarian  king;  while  it  per- 
mitted the  milder  and  more  winning  course  to  the 
clergy,  the  protection  of  the  hallowed  places  and 
usages  of  the  heathen  from  insult  by  consecrating 
them  to  holier  uses  ?  To  Ethelbert  the  Pope  writes, 
enjoining  him,  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  poucy  of 
to  use  every  means  of  force  as  well  as  per-  ^'"^^ory. 
suasion  to  convert  his  subjects ;  utterly  to  destroy  their 
temples,  to  show  no  toleration  to  those  who  adhere  to 
their  idolatrous  rites.  This  he  urges  by  the  manifest 
terrors  of  the  Last  Day,  already  darkening  around  ; 
and  by  which,  believing  no  doubt  his  own  words,  he 
labors  to  work  on  the  timid  faith  of  the  barbarian. 
To  Mellitus,  now  bishop  of  London,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  enjoins  great  respect  for  the  sacred  places 
of  the  heathen,  and  forbids  their  demolition.  He  only 
commands  them  to  be  cleared  of  their  idols,  to  be  puri- 
fied by  holy- water  for  the  services  of  Christianity. 
New  altars  are  to  be  set  up,  and  relics  enshrined  in 


182  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  IY 

the  precincts.  Even  the  sacrifices  were  to  be  con- 
tinued under  anotlier  name.^  The  oxen  which  the 
heathen  used  to  immolate  to  their  gods  were  to  be 
brought  in  procession  on  holy  days.  The  huts  or  tents 
of  boughs,  which  used  to  be  built  for  the  assembling 
worshippers,  were  still  to  be  set  up,  the  oxen  slain  and 
eaten  in  honor  of  the  Christian  festival:  and  thus 
these  outward  rejoicings  were  to  train  an  ignorant 
people  to  the  perception  of  true  Christian  joj^s. 

The  British  Church,  secluded  in  the  fastnesses  of 
British  Wales,  could  not  but  hear  of  the  arrival  of 

Church.  ^|-^g  Roman  missionaries,  and  of  their  success 
in  the  conversion  of  the  Saxons.  Augustine  and  his 
followers  could  not  but  inquire  with  deep  interest  con- 
cerning their  Christian  brethren  in  the  remote  parts 
of  the  island.  It  was  natural  that  they  should  enter 
into  communication :  unhappily  they  met  to  dispute 
on  points  of  difference,  not  to  join  in  harmonious  fel- 
lowship on  the  broad  grounds  of  their  common  Chris- 
tianity. The  British  Church  followed  the  Greek  usage 
in  the  celebration  of  Easter ;  they  had  some  other 
points  of  ceremonial,  which,  with  their  descent,  they 
traced  to  the  East:  and  the  zealous  missionaries  of 
Gregory  could  not  comprehend  the  uncharitable  inac- 
tivity of  the  British  Christians,  which  had  withheld 
the  blessings  of  the  Gospel  from  their  pagan  con- 
Meetin  of  ^uerors.  The  Roman  and  the  British  clergy 
ilrifish*""*^  met,  it  is  said,  in  solemn  synod.  The  Ro- 
riergy.  maus    demanded   submission   to    their   dijci- 

1  "  Quia  si  fana  eadem  bene  constructa  sunt,  necesse  est,  ut  a  cultu  dse- 
nionum  in  obsequio  veri  Dei  debeant  commutari;  ut  duni  gens  ipsa  eadem 
fana  sua  non  videt  destrui,  de  corde  errorem  deponat,  et  Deura  verum  cog- 
nopcens  ao  adoraiis  ad  loca,  quic  consuevit,  faniiiiarius  concurrat."  —  Greg 
M.  Epist.  ad  Mellit. :  quoted  also  in  Bede,  i.  30. 


Chap.  TIL      ROIVIAN  AND  BRITISH  CLERGY  MEET.  183 

pline,  and  the  implicit  adoption  of  the  Western  cere- 
monial on  the  contested  points.  The  British  bishops 
demurred ;  Augustine  proposed  to  place  the  issue  of  the 
dispute  on  the  decision  of  a  miracle.  The  miracle 
was  duly  performed,  —  a  blind  man  brought  forward 
and  restored  to  sight.  But  the  miracle  made  not  the 
sllglitest  impression  on  the  obdurate  Britons.  They 
denTinded  a  second  meeting,  and  resolved  to  put  the 
Christianity  of  the  strangers  to  a  singular  test,  a  moral 
proof  with  them  more  convincing  than  an  apparent 
miracle.  True  Christianity,  they  said,  "  is  meek  and 
lowly  of  heart.  Such  will  be  this  man  (Augustine),  if 
he  be  a  man  of  God.  If  he  be  haughty  and  ungentle, 
he  is  not  of  God,  and  we  may  disregard  his  words. 
Let  the  Romans  arrive  first  at  the  synod.  If  on  our 
approach  he  rises  from  his  seat  to  receive  us  with 
meekness  and  humility,  he  is  the  servant  of  Christ, 
and  we  will  obey  him.  If  he  despises  us,  and  remains 
seated,  let  us  despise  him."  Augustine  sat,  as  they 
drew  near,  in  unbending  dignity.  The  Britons  at 
once  refused  obedience  to  his  commands,  and  disclaim- 
ed him  as  their  Metropolitan.  The  indignant  Augus- 
tine (to  prove  his  more  genuine  Christianity)  burst 
out  into  stern  denunciations  of  their  guilt,  in  not 
having  preached  the  Gospel  to  their  enemies.  He 
prophesied  (a  prophecy  which  could  hardly  fail  to 
hapten  its  own  fulfilment)  the  divine  vengeance  by 
the  arms  of  the  Saxons.  So  complete  was  the  aliena- 
tion, so  entirely  did  the  Anglo-Saxon  clergy  espouse 
the  fierce  animosities  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  and  even 
imbitter  them  by  their  theologic  hatred,  that  the  gen- 
tle Bede  relates  with  triumph,  as  a  manifest  proof 
of   the    divine  wrath    against    the  refractory   Britons, 


184  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

a  gi'eat  victory  over  that  wicked  race,  preceded  by  a 
massacre  of  twelve  hundred  British  clergy  (chiefly 
monks  of  Bangor),  who  stood  aloof  on  an  eminence 
praying  for  the  success  of  their  countrymen.^ 

During  the  lifetime  of  Augustine  Christianity  ap- 
{leiapse  intc  P^arcd  to  have  gained  a  firm  footing  in  the 
teuthenism  kingdom  of  Kcut.  A  church  arose  in  Can- 
terbury,  with  dwellings  for  the  bishop  and  his  clergy  ; 
and  a  monastery  without  the  walls,  for  the  coenobites 
who  accompanied  him.  Augustine  handed  down  his 
see  in  this  promising  state  to  his  successor,  Lauren- 
tius.  The  king  of  the  East  Saxons  (Essex)  had  fol- 
lowed the  example  of  the  King  of  Kent.  Two  other 
bishoprics,  at  London  and  at  Rochester,  had  been 
founded,  and  intrusted  to  Mellitus  and  Justus.  But 
Ethelbert,  the  Christian  King  of  Kent,  died,  and  was 
buried  by  the  side  of  his  wife,  Bertha.  About  the 
same  time  died  also  Sebert,  the  King  of  Essex.  The 
successors  to  both  kingdoms  fell  back  to  paganism. 
Both  nations,  at  least  the  leading  men,  joined  as  read- 
ily in  the  rejection,  as  they  had  in  the  acceptance  of 
Christianity.  The  new  King  of  Kent  was  pagan  in 
morals  as  in  creed.  He  was  inflamed  with  an  unlaw- 
ful passion  for  his  father's  widow.  The  rudeness  and 
simplicity  of  the  men  of  Essex  show  how  little  real 
luiowledge  of  the  religion  had  been  disseminated ; 
they  insisted  on  partaking  of  the  fine  wliite  bread 
which  the  bishops  were  distributing  to  the  faithful  in 
tlie  Eucharist :  and  when  the  clergy  refused,  unless 
they  submitted  to  be  baptized,  they  cast  tliem  out  of 
the  land. 

1  "  Itaque  in  hos  primum  arma  verti  jubet,  et  sic  ca^teras  nefamlx  mili- 
tiuj  copias  .  .  .  delevit."  —  H.  E.  ii.  2. 


CuAi'.  HI.      CHRISTLiNITY  IN  NORTHUMBERLAND.  185 

It  was  a  sad  meeting  of  the  tliree  Christian  bishops, 
who  saw  all  their  pious  labors  frustrated ;  and  Laureatius. 
so  desperate  seemed  the  state  of  things,  that  the  bishops 
of  London  and  of  Rochester  fled  into  France.  Lau- 
rentius  determined  on  one  last  effort ;  it  was  prompted, 
as  he  declared,  by  a  heavenly  vision.  He  appeared 
one  morning  before  the  king,  and,  casting  off  his  robe, 
showed  his  back  scarred  and  bleeding  from  a  recent 
and  severe  flagellation.  The  king  inquired  who  had 
dared  to  treat  with  such  indignity  a  man  of  his  rank 
and  character.  The  bishop  averred  that  St.  Peter  had 
appeared  to  him  by  night,  and  had  inflicted  that  pitiless 
but  merited  punishment  for  his  cowardice  in  abandon- 
ing his  heaven-appointed  mission.  The  king  was 
struck  with  amazement,  bowed  at  once  before  the 
awful  message,  commanded  the  reinstatement  of  Chris- 
tianity in  all  its  honors,  and  gave  the  best  proof  of 
his  sincerity  in  breaking  off  his  incestuous  connection. 
The  fugitive  bishops  were  recalled ;  Justus  resumed 
the  see  of  Rochester,  but  the  obstinate  idolaters  of 
London  refused  to  receive  Mellitus.  That  prelate, 
on  the  death  of  Laurentius,  succeeded  to  the  Metro- 
politan see  of  Canterbury. 

The  powerful  kingdom  of  Northumberland  was  open- 
ed to  the  first  teachers  of  Christianity  by  the  Christianity 
same  influence  which  had  prepared  the  sue-  beriand. 
cess  of  Augustine  in  Kent,  Edwin  the  king  married 
a  daughter  of  Ethelbert,  the  Christian  sovereign  of 
Kent.  The  same  stipulation  was  made  as  in  the  case 
i)i'  Bertha,  for  the  free  exercise  of  her  religion.  The 
sanctity  attributed  to  their  females  by  the  whole  Ger- 
man race,  the  vague  notion  that  they  were  often  gifted 
with  prophetic  powers,  or  favored  with  divine  revela- 


186  LATIN  CHRISTIAOTTY.  Boon  IV. 

tions  ;  with  something,  perhaps,  of  a  higher  cultiva- 
tion and  commanding  gentleness,  derived  from  a  purer 
religion,  increased  the  natural  ascendency  of  birth  and 
rank.  Ethelberga  was  accompanied  into  Northumber- 
land by  the  saintly  Paulinus.  Already,  in  the  well- 
organized  scheme  of  Gregory  for  the  spiritual  aifairs 
of  this  island,  York  had  been  designated  as  the  seat  of 
a  northern  Metropolitan.  Paulinus  was  consecrated 
before  his  departure  bishop  of  that  see.  But  Pau- 
linus labored  long  in  vain ;  his  influence  reached  no 
further  than  to  prevent  the  family  of  the  queen  from 
relapsing  into  paganism. 

Personal  danger,  the  desire  of  revenge,  and  paternal 
feeling,  opened  at  length  the  hard  heart  of  Edwin.  An 
assassin,  in  the  pay  of  his  enemy  the  King  of  Wessex, 
attempted  his  life:  the  blow  was  intercepted  by  the 
body  of  a  faithful  servant.  At  that  very  time  his 
queen  was  brought  to  bed  of  her  first  child,  a  daugh- 
ter. Paulinus,  who  was  present,  in  sincerity  no  doubt 
of  heart,  assured  the  king  that  he  owed  the  safety  of 
his  life,  and  the  blessing  of  his  child,  to  the  prayers 
which  the  bishop  had  been  offering  up  to  the  God  of 
the  Christians.  "  If  your  God  will  likewise  grant  me 
victory  over  my  enemies,  and  revenge  upon  the  King 
of  Wessex,  I  will  renounce  my  idols,  and  worship 
him."  As  a  pledge  that  he  was  in  earnest,  he  allowed 
the  baptism  of  the  infant. 

Edwin  was  victorious  in  his  wars  against  Wessex. 
Conversion  of  ^^^^  either  doubtiug  whether  after  all  the 
King  Edwin.  Q^^^  ^f  ^^^^  Christians  was  the  best  object 
of  worship  for  a  warlike  race,  or  mistrusting  his  own 
authority  over  his  subjects,  he  still  hesitated,  notwith- 
standing  the    urgent    remonstrances   of   Paulinus,    to 


Chap.  HI.  EDWIN  AND  ETHELBERGA.  187 

fulfil  his  promise.  He  ceased  to  worship  his  iJols, 
but  did  not  accept  Christianity.  Even  letters  from 
the  Pope  to  Edwin  and  his  queen  had  but  little  effect. 
Paulinus  now  perhaps  first  obtained  knowledge  of 
Edwin's  wild  and  romantic  adventures  in  his  youth, 
and  of  a  remarkable  dream,  which  had  great  influence 
on  his  future  destiny.  An  exile  from  the  throne  of 
his  fathers,  Edwin  had  at  length  found  precarious  pro- 
tection in  the  court  of  Redwald,  king  of  the  East  Ang- 
lians.  Warned  that  his  host  meditated  his  surrender 
to  his  enemies,  he  was  abandoning  himself  to  his  des- 
perate fate,  when  an  unknown  person  appeared  to  him 
in  a  vision,  not  only  promised  to  fix  the  wavering 
fidelity  of  Redwald,  but  his  restoration  likewise  to  the 
throne  of  his  ancestors,  in  greater  power  and  glory  than 
had  ever  been  obtained  by  any  of  the  kings  of  the  island. 
Paulinus,  however  he  obtained  his  knowledge,  seized 
on  this  vision  to  promote  his  holy  object.  He  of  the  North. 
boldly  ascribed  it  to  the  Lord,  who  had  al-  ^t,rian8. 
ready  invested  Edwin  in  his  kingdom,  given  him  vic- 
tory over  his  enemies,  and,  if  he  received  the  faith, 
would  likewise  deliver  him  from  the  eternal  torments 
of  hell.  Edwin  summoned  a  conference  of  his  pagan 
priesthood ;  this  meeting  gives  a  striking  picture  of  the 
people  and  the  times.  To  the  solemn  question,  as  to 
which  relio;ion  was  the  true  one,  the  Hif^h  Priest  thus 
replied :  —  "  No  one  has  applied  to  the  worship  of  our 
gods  with  greater  zeal  and  fidelity  than  myself,  but  I 
do  not  see  that  I  am  the  better  for  it ;  I  am  not  more 
prosperous,  nor  do  I  enjoy  a  greater  share  of  the  royal 
favor.  I  am  ready  to  give  up  those  ungrateful  gods ; 
let  us  try  whether  these  new  ones  will  reward  us  bet- 
ter."    But  there  were  others  of  more  reflective  minds. 


188  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  iV. 

A  tliane  came  forward  and  said,  "  To  what,  O  King, 
shall  I  liken  the  life  of  man?  When  jou  are  feasting 
with  your  thanes  in  the  depth  of  winter,  and  the  hall 
is  warm  with  the  blazing  fire,  and  all  around  the  wind 
is  raging  and  the  snow  falling,  a  little  bird  flies  through 
the  hall,  enters  at  one  door  and  escapes  at  the  other. 
For  a  moment,  while  within,  it  is  visible  to  the  eyes, 
but  it  came  out  of  the  darkness  of  the  storm,  and 
glides  again  into  the  same  darkness.  So  is  human 
life ;  we  behold  it  for  an  instant,  but  of  what  has  gone 
before,  or  what  is  to  follow  after,  we  are  utterly  igno- 
rant. If  the  new  religion  can  teach  this  wonderful 
secret,  let  us  give  it  our  serious  attention."  Paulinus 
was  called  in  to  explain  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel. 
To  complete  the  character  of  this  dramatic  scene,  it 
is '  not  the  reflective  thane,  but  the  high  priest  wdio 
yields  at  once  to  the  eloquence  of  the  preacher.  He 
proposed  instantly  to  destroy  the  idols  and  the  altars 
of  his  vain  gods.  With  Edwin's  leave,  he  put  on 
arms  and  mounted  a  horse  (the  Anglian  priests  were 
forbidden  the  use  of  arms  and  rode  on  mares),  and, 
while  the  multitude  stood  aghast  at  his  seeming  fi-enzy, 
he  spurred  hastily  to  the  neighboring  temple  of  God- 
miuidingham,  defied  the  gods  by  striking  his  lance 
into  the  wall,  and  encouraged  and  assisted  his  follow^ers 
in  throwing  down  and  settino;  fire  to  the  edifice.  The 
temple  and  its  gods  were  in  an  instant  a  heap  of 
ashes.^ 

Edwin,  with  his  family  and  his  principal  thanes, 
yielded  their  allegiance  to  Christianity.  York  was 
chosen  as  the  seat  of  Paulinus  the  Metropolitan.  In 
botli   divisions  of  the   great  Northumbrian    kingdom, 

1  Bede,  ii.  c.  xiii. 


Chap.  HI.  PENDA.  189 

the  arclibishop  continued  for  six  years,  till  the  dentl\ 
of  Edwin,  to  propagate  the  Gospel  with  unexampled 
rapidity.  For  thirty-six  consecutive  days  he  was  em- 
ployed, in  the  royal  palace  of  Glendale,  in  catechizing 
and  baptizing  in  the  neighboring  stream ;  and  in  Deira 
the  number  of  converts  was  equal  to  those  in  Bernicia. 
The  Deiran  proselytes  were  baptized  in  the  river 
Swale,  near  Catterick. 

The  blessings  of  peace  followed  in  the  train  of  Chris- 
tianity* The  savage  and  warlike  people  seemed  tamed 
into  a  gentle  and  unoffending  race.  So  great  are 
said  to  have  been  the  power  and  influence  of  Ed- 
win as  Bretwalda,^  or  Sovereign  of  all  the  kings  of 
Britain,  that  a  woman  might  pass,  with  her  new-born 
babe,  iininjured  from  sea  to  sea.  All  along  the  roads 
the  kmg  had  caused  tanks  of  water  to  be  placed,  with 
cups  of  brass,  to'  refresh  the  traveller.  Yet  Edwin 
maintained  the  awfrilness  of  military  state;  wherever 
he  went  he  w^as  preceded  by  banners ;  his  rigorous 
execution  of  justice  was  enforced  by  the  display  of 
kingly  strength. 

But  the  times  were  neither  ripe  for  such  a  govern- 
ment nor  such  a  religion.  A  fierce  pagan  obtained, 
not  at  first  the  crown,  but  a  complete  ascen-  Penda. 
dency  in  yet  un-Christianized  Mercia.  The  savage 
Penda  entered  into  a  dangerous  confederacy  with 
Ceadwalla  the  Briton,  King  of  Gwyneth,  or  North 
Wales.  Ceadwalla  was  a  Christian,  but  the  animosity 
of  race  was  stronger  than  the  community  of  religion. 


1  I  leave  the  question  as  to  the  real  existence  of  a  Bretwalda  to  Mr. 
Kemble,  and  those,  if  there  still  are  those,  who  resist  his  arguments.  If 
no  Bretwalda,  as  is  most  probable,  he  had  great  power.  Much  of  this  his* 
lory,  so  striking  in  many  scenes,  trembles  on  the  verge  of  legend. 


190  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

The  ravaires  of  the  Briton  were  more  cruel  and  rutli- 
less  than  those  of  Penda  himself,  who  was  thought 
ferocious  even  among  a  ferocious  and  pagan  people. 
A.D.  633.  Edwin  fell  in  the  great  battle  of  Hatfielci 
Chase,  near  Doncaster  ;  and  with  Edwin  seemed  to 
fall  the  whole  noble  but  unstable  edifice  of  Christianity 
in  the  north  of  the  island.  The  queen  of  Edwin  fled 
with  Paulinus  to  the  court  of  her  brother,  the  King 
of  Kent.i 

The  successors  to  tbe  Northumbrian  kingdom,  which 
Fau  of  Edwin  was  uow  again  divided,  Osric  and  Eanfrid, 
tianity.  the  SOUS  01  tlic  lormcr  usurper,  and  enennes 
of  Edwin,  made  haste  to  disclaim  all  connection  with 
the  fallen  king  by  their  renunciation  of  Christianity. 
Both,  however,  were  cut  off,  one  in  war,  the  other  by 
treachery.  Oswald  was  now  the  eldest  surviving 
prince  of  the  royal  house  of  Edelfrid ;  and  Oswald  set 
up  the  Cross  as  his  standard,  appealed,  and  not  in  vain, 
to  the  Christian's  God,  and  to  the  zeal  of  his  Christian 
followers.  After  ages  reverenced  the  Cross,  to  which 
was  ascribed  the  victory  of  Oswald  over  the  barbarous 
Ceadwalla,  and  the  reestablishment  of  the  kingdom ; 
portions  of  the  wood  were  said  to  be  endowed  with 
miraculous  powers.  The  Roman  clergy  had  fled  with 
Paulinus  after  the  fall  of  Edwin;  and  the  gratified 
Oswald,  eager  to  lose  no  time  in  the  restoration  of 
Christianity,  looked  to  his  nearest  neighbors  in  Scot- 
Monasteries    land  for  missiouaries  to  accomplish  the  holy 

of  Scotland  ^  m^r  n    1  •  l   T    1 

and  Ireland,  work.  Tlic  peacciul  uiouastic  establishments 
of  Ireland  had  spread  into  Scotland,  and  made  settle- 

1  Paulimis,  who  had  received  the  pall  of  the  archbishopric  of  York,  as 
Honorius  that  of  Canterbury,  from  the  Pope  Honoriua,  undertook  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  vacant  bishopric  of  Rochester.  —  Bede,  ii.  18. 


Chap.  m.  AIDAN.  191 

ments  in  the  Western  Isles.  Of  these  was  Hii,  or 
lona,  the  retreat  of  the  holy  Columba;  and  in  this 
wild  island  had  grown  up  a  monastery  far  renowned 
for  its  sanctity.  From  this  quarter  Oswald  sought  a 
bishop  for  the  Northumbrian  Church.  The  first  who 
was  sent  was  Gorman,  a  man  of  austere  and  inflexible 
character,  who,  finding  more  resistance  than  he  ex- 
pected to  his  doctrines,  in  a  full  assembly  of  the  nation, 
sternly  reproached  the  Northumbrians  for  their  obsti- 
nacy, and  declared  that  he  would  no  longer  waste  his 
labors  on  so  irreclaimable  a  race.  A  gentle  voice  was 
heard :  "  Brother,  have  you  not  been  too  harsh  with 
your  unlearned  hearers?  Should  you  not,  like  the 
apostles,  have  fed  them  with  the  milk  of  Christian  doc- 
trine, till  they  could  receive  the  full  feast  of  our  sub- 
limer  truths  ?  "  All  eyes  were  turned  on  Aidan,  an 
humble  but  devout  monk ;  by  general  accla-  Aidan. 
mation  that  discreet  and  gentle  teacher  was  saluted  as 
bishop.  The  Episcopal  seat  was  placed  at  Lindisfarne, 
which  received  from  a  monastery,  already  established 
and  endowed,  the  name  of  Holy  Island.  In  this  seclu- 
sion, protected  by  the  sea  from  sudden  attacks  of  pagan 
enemies,  lay  the  quiet  bishopric;  and  on  the  wild 
shores  of  the  island  the  bishop  was  wont  to  sit  and 
preach  to  the  thanes  and  to  the  people  who  crowded  to 
hear  liim.  Aidan  was  yet  imperfectly  acquainted  with 
the  Saxon  language,  and  the  king,  who  as  an  exile  in 
Scotland  had  learned  the  Celtic  tongue,  sat  at  the 
bishop's  feet,  interpreting  his  words  to  the  wondering 
hearers.  From  the  Holy  Island,  Aidan  and  his  breth- 
ren, now  familiar  with  the  Saxon  speech,  preached  the 
Gospel  in  every   part  of  the   kingdom  ;  ^  they  would 

1  Compare  the  high  character  of  Aidan  in  the  Saxon,  and  as  to  ritual 


192  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

receive  no  reward  from  the  wealthy,  only  that  hospi- 
tality required  by  austere  and  self-denying  men  ;  all 
gifts  which  they  did  receive  were  immediately  distrib- 
uted among  the  poor,  or  applied  to  the  redemption  of 
captives.  Churches  arose  in  all  quarters,  and  Chris- 
tianity seemed  to  have  gained  a  permanent  predomi- 
nance throughout  Northumbria. 

Oswald  might  enjoy  the  pious  satisfaction  of  assist- 
Ohristianity  ii^g  ^^  the  couversiou  of  the  most  pagan  of 
inwessex.  ^^iQ  Saxou  kingdoms,  that  of  Wessex.i  The 
Bishop  Birinus  had  been  delegated  by  the  Pope  (Ho- 
norius)  on  this  difficult  enterprise.  His  success,  if  not 
altogether,  was  in  great  part  due  to  the  visit  of  Oswald, 
to  demand  in  marriage  the  daughter  of  Cynegils,  the 
king.  The  king,  his  whole  family,  and  his  principal 
thanes,  received  baptism  at  the  hands  of  Birinus,  for 
whose  residence  was  assigned  the  city  of  Dorchester, 
near  Oxford. 

But  paganism  was  still  unbroken  in  Mercia,  and  at 
the  head  of  the  pagan  power  stood  the  aged  but  still 
ferocious  and  able  Penda,  who  had  already  once  over- 
thrown the  kingdom  of  Northumbria  and  killed  in  bat- 
tle the  Christian  Edwin.  A  second  invasion  by  Penda 
Death  of  t^6  Mercian  was  fatal  to  Oswald ;  he,  too, 
Oswald.  £g^  j^  ^Yie  field.  His  memory  lived  long 
in  the  gratefiil  reverence  of  his  people.  His  dying 
thoughts  were  said  to  have  been  of  their  eternal  wel- 
fare ;  his  dying  words  "  The  Lord  have  mercy  on  their 
souls."  A  miraculous  power  was  attributed  to  the  dust 
of  the  field  where  his  blood  had  flowed.     The  places, 

observance,  Roman,  Bede,  iii.  5.     Bede  even  excuses  Aidan's  error  as  to 
the  time  of  keeping  Easter.  —  iii.  17. 
1  "  Paganissimos."  —  Bede. 


Chap.  IH.  OSWIO  AND  OSWIN.  103 

where  liis  head  and  anns  had  been  exposed  on  high 
fJbles  by  the  insulting  conqueror  till  they  were  laid  to 
rest  by  the  piety  of  his  successor,  were  equally  fertile 
in  wonders. 

That  successor,  his  brother  Oswio,  followed  the  ex- 
ample of  Oswald's  Christian  devotion  with  q^^^  ^^^ 
better  fortune.  But  the  commencement  of  ^^^"^ 
his  reign  was  sullied  by  a  most  unchristian  crime. 
While  Oswio  was  placed  on  the  throne  of  Bernicia, 
Oswin,  of  the  race  of  Edwin,  was  raised  to  that  of 
Deira.  Oswin  was  beautiful  in  countenance  and  noble 
in  person,  affable,  generous,  devout.  The  attachment 
of  the  good  Bishop  Aidan  to  Oswin  was  scarcely 
stronger  than  that  of  his  ruder  subjects.  Jealous- 
ies soon  arose  between  the  two  kingdoms  which  di- 
vided Northumbria.  The  guileless  Oswin  was  betrayed 
and  murdered  by  the  more  politic  Oswio.  On  the 
spot  where  the  murder  was  committed,  Gelling  near 
Richmond,  a  monastery  was  founded,  at  once  in  respect 
for  the  memory  of  the  murdered  and  as  an  atonement 
for  the  guilt  of  the  murderer. 

The  ability  of  Penda  and  the  unmitigated  ferocity 
of  the  old  Saxon  spirit  gave  him  an  advantage  over  his 
more  gentle  and  civilized  neighbors.  This  aged  chief 
now  aspired  to  the  nominal,  as  he  had  long  possessed 
the  actual,  sovereignty  over  the  island.  He  had  de- 
throned the  King  of  Wessex ;  East  Anglia  was  sub- 
servient to  his  authority  ;  his  influence  named  the  King 
of  Deira,  and  when  he  laid  waste  Bernicia  as  far  as 
Bamborough,  Oswio  had  neither  the  courage  nor  tlie 
power  to  resist  the  conqueror  of  Edwin  and  of  Oswald. 
The  influence  of  the  gentler  sex  at  length  brought  Mer- 
cia  within  the  pale  of  Christianity.     Alchfrid,  the  son 

VOL..    II.  13 


194  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

of  Oswio,  had  married  the  daughter  of  Peiida.  The 
son  of  Po^'>da,  Peada,  visited  his  sister.  Alchfrid, 
partly  by  his  own  influence,  partly  by  the  beauty  of 
his  sister  Alclifleda,  of  whom  Peada  became  enam- 
oured, succeeded  in  winning  Peada  to  the  faith  of 
Christ.  Peada  returned  to  the  court  of  his  father  a 
baptized  Christian,  accompanied  by  four  priests.  With 
that  indifference  which  belongs  to  all  the  pagan  sys- 
tems, especially  in  their  decline,  even  Penda,  though 
he  adhered  to  his  war-god  Woden,  did  not  oppose  the 
free  promulgation  of  Christianity ;  but  with  much 
shrewdness  he  enforced  upon  those  who  professed  to 
believe  the  creed  of  the  Gospel  the  rigorous  practice 
of  its  virtues.  They  were  bound  to  obey  the  God  in 
whom  they  chose  to  believe.^ 

Penda  himself  maintained  to  the  end  his  old  Saxon 
and  pagan  privilege  of  ravaging  his  neighbors'  territo- 
ries and  of  enforcing  the  payment  of  an  onerous  tribute. 
His  plunder  and  his  exactions  drove  Oswio  at  length  to 
despair.  He  promised  a  richer  offering  to  God  than 
he  had  ever  paid  to  the  Mercian  Bretwalda,  if  he 
might  obtain  deliverance  fi*om  the  enemy  of  his  family, 
his  country,  and  his  religion.  The  terrible  battle 
which  decided  the  fate  of  Northumbria,  and  led  to  the 
almost  immediate  reception  of  Christianity  throughout 
the  great  kingdom  of  Mercia,  was  fought  on  the  banks 
of  the  Aire  ^  near  Leeds.  Penda  fell,  and  with  Penda 
fell  paganism.  According  to  the  Saxon  proverb,  the 
death  of  five  kino-s  was  aveno;ed  in  the  waters  of  Win- 
A.D.  655.  wed  —  the  death  of  Anna,  of  Sigebert,  and 
of  Egene,  East  Anghans,  of  Edwin  and  of  Oswald. 

Oswio,  by  this  victory,  became  the  most  powerful 
1  Bede,  iii.  21.  2  At  Winw^d  field. 


CiiAP.  III.  EAST  ANGLU.  195 

king  in  the  island.  Immediately  after  the  p^^gj  ^f 
death  of  Penda  he  overran  Mercia  and  East  ^^^°' 
Anglia ;  his  authority  was  more  complete  than  had 
ever  been  exercised  by  any  Bretwalda  or  supreme  sov- 
ereign. The  Christianity  of  the  island  was  almost  co- 
extensive with  the  sovereignty  of  Oswio.  In  all  the 
kingdoms,  except  by  some  singular  chance,  that  of  Sus- 
sex, it  had  been  preached  with  more  or  less  success. 
Everywhere  episcopal  sees  had  been  founded  and  moc 
asteries  had  arisen.  In  Kent,  perhaps,  alone,  the  last 
vestiges  of  idolatry  had  been  destroyed  by  the  zeal  of 
Ercombert.  Essex,  almost  the  first  to  entertain,  was 
one  of  the  last  to  settle  down  into  a  Christian  king- 
dom. Redwald,  who  had  first  embraced  the  faith, 
had  wanted  power  or  courage  to  establish  it  through- 
out his  kingdom.  He  attempted  a  strange  compro- 
mise. A  temple  subsisted  for  some  time,  in  which  the 
king  had  raised  an  altar  to  Christ,  by  the  side  ^^^  Angua. 
of  another  which  reeked  with  bloody  sacri-  *•"•  ^^'■ 
fices  to  the  god  of  his  fathers.  But  the  zeal  of  his 
successors  made  up  for  the  weakness  of  Redwald. 
Sigebert,  the  brother  of  Erpwald,  Redwald's  successor, 
abandoned  the  throne  for  the  peaceful  seclusion  of  a 
monastery.  From  this  retreat  he  was  forced  in  order 
to  join  in  battle  against  the  terrible  Penda.  He  re- 
fused to  bear  arms,  but  not  the  less  perished  by  the 
sword  of  the  pitiless  Mercian.  But  from  that  time 
Christianity  prevailed  in  Essex,  as  well  as  throughout 
East  Anglia,  though  perhaps  less  deeply  rooted  than  in 
other  parts  of  the  island :  for  in  the  fatal  a.d.  665. 
pestilence  which  not  long  after  ravaged  both  England 
and  Ireland,  many  of  the  East  Angliaiis,  ascribing  it  to 
the  wrath  of  their  deserted  deities,  returned  to  their 


196  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

former  idolatry.  The  episcopal  seat  of  Essex  was  in 
London ;  that  of  East  Anglia,  first  at  Dunwich,  after- 
wards at  Thetford. 

But  triumphant  Christianity  was  threatened  with 
Division  in  the  an  internal  schism;  one  half  of  the  island 
ehSrch'^"'^  had  been  converted  by  the  monks  from 
Scotland,  the  other  by  those  of  Rome.  They  were 
opposed  on  certain  points  of  discipline,  held  hardly 
of  less  importance  than  vital  truths  of  the  Gospel.* 
The  different  period  at  which  each,  according  to  the 
Eastern  or  the  Roman  usage,  celebrated  Easter,  be- 
came not  merely  a  speculative  question,  in  which 
separate  kingdoms  or  separate  Churches  might  pursue 
each  its  independent  course,  but  a  practical  evil,  which 
brought  dispute  and  discord  even  into  the  family  of 
the  king.  The  queen  of  Oswio,  Eanfled,  followed 
the  Roman  usage,  which  prevailed  in  Kent ;  Oswio, 
the  king,  cherished  the  memory  of  the  holy  Scottish 
prelate  Aidan,  and  would  not  depart  from  his  rule. 
So  that  while  the  queen  was  fasting  with  the  utmost 
rigor  on  what  in  her  calendar  was  Palm  Sunday,  the 
commencement  of  Passion  week,  the  kins'  was  holding 
his  Easter  festival  with  conscientious  rejoicings. 

A  synod  was  assembled  at  Whitby,  the  convent  of 
the  famous  Abbess  Hilda,  at  which  appeared,  on  the 
Scottish  side,  Colman,  the  Bishop  of  Lindisfame  ;  on 
the  other,  Wilfrid,  afterwards  Archbishop  of  York, 
who  had  visited  Rome,  was  firmly  convinced  of  the 
Roman  supremacy,  and  exercised  great  influence  ever 
Alchfrid,  the  heir  to  the  throne.  With  Wilfiid  was 
Agilbert,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Paris,  and  other  dis- 

1  It  is  curious  to  find  Greek  Christianity  thus  at  the  verge  of  the  RoniaD 
•flrorld  maintaining  some  of  its  usages  and  coequality. 


Chap.  in.   DIVISION  IN  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHURCH.     19T 

tinguislied  men.  Colman  urged  the  uninterrupted 
descent  of  their  tradition  from  St.  John  ;  the  authority 
of  AnatoHus,  tlie  ecclesiastical  historian  ;  and  that  of 
the  saintly  Columha,  the  founder  of  lona.  Wilfrid  al- 
leged the  supreme  authority  of  St.  Peter  and  his  succes- 
sors, and  the  consent  of  the  rest  of  the  Catholic  world. 
"  Will  he,"  concluded  Wilfrid,  "  set  the  authority  of 
Columba  in  opposition  to  that  of  St.  Peter,  to  whom 
were  given  the  keys  of  heaven?"  The  king  broke  in, 
and,  addressing  the  Scottish  prelates,  said,  "  Do  you 
acknowledge  that  St.  Peter  has  the  keys  of  heaven  ?  " 
"  Unquestionably  !  "  replied  Colman.  ^'  Then,  for  my 
part,"  said  Oswio,  "  I  will  hold  to  St.  Peter,  lest, 
when  I  offer  myself  at  the  gates  of  heaven,  he  should 
shut  them  agamst  me."     To  this  there  was  no  answer. 

A  second  question,  that  of  the  tonsure,  was  agitated, 
if  with  less  vehemence,  not  without  strong  altercation. 
The  Roman  usage  was  to  shave  the  crown  of  the  head, 
and  to  leave  a  circle  of  hair,  which  represented  the 
Saviour's  crown  of  thorns ;  the  Scottish  shaved  the 
front  of  the  head  in  the  form  of  a  crescent,  and  al- 
lowed the  hair  to  grow  behind.  Here  likewise  the 
Roman  party  asserted  the  authority  of  St.  Peter,  and 
taunted  their  adversaries  with  following  the  example 
of  Simon  Magus  and  his  followers !  Gradually  the 
Roman  custom  prevailed  on  both  these  points :  the 
Scottish  clergy  and  monks  in  England  by  degrees 
confoi-med  to  the  general  usage ;  those  who  were  less 
})liant  retired  to  their  remote  monasteries  in  lona  or 
in  Ireland. 

In  no  countiy  was  Christianity  so  manifestly  the 
parent  of  civilization  as  among  our  Anglo-Saxon  an- 
■testors.     The  Saxons  were  the  fi  jrcest  of  the  Teutonic 


198  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

race.  Roman  culture  had  not,  more  than  the  Gospel, 
approached  the  sandy  plains  or  dense  forests  which 
they  inhabited  in  the  north  of  Germany.  On  the 
rude  manners  of  the  barbarian  had  been  engrafted 
the  sanguinary  and  brutalizing  habits  of  the  pirate. 
Every  vestige  of  the  Roman  civilization  of  the  island 
had  vanished  before  their  desolating  inroad,  and  the 
Britons,  during  their  long  and  stubborn  resistance, 
had  become  as  savage  as  their  conquerors.  The  re- 
ligion of  the  Anglo-Saxons  was  as  cruel  as  their  man- 
ners ;  they  are  said  to  have  sacrificed  a  tenth  of  their 
principal  captives  on  the  altars  of  their  gods.^  A 
more  settled  residence  in  a  country  already  brought  into 
cultivation  may  in  some  degree  have  mitigated  their 
ferocity,  at  all  events  weaned  them  from  piratical  ad- 
venture ;  but  the  century  and  a  half  which  had  elapsed 
before  the  descent  of  Augustine  on  their  coasts  had 
been  passed  in  constant  warfare,  either  against  the 
Britons  or  of  one  kino;dom  against  another. 

Anglo-Saxon  Britain  had  become  again  a  world  by 
itself,  occupied  by  hostile  races,  which  had  no  inter^ 
course  but  that  of  war,  and  utterly  severed  from  the 
rest  of  Europe.  The  effect  of  Christianity  on  Anglo- 
Saxon  England  was  at  once  to  reestablish  a  connection 
both  between  the  remoter  parts  of  the  island  with  each 
other,  and  of  England  with  the  rest  of  the  Christian 
world.  They  ceased  to  dwell  apart,  a  race  of  war- 
like, unapproachable  barbarians,  in  constant  warfare 
with  the  bordering  tribes,  or  occupied  in  their  own 
petty  feuds  or  inroads ;  rarely,  as  in  the  case  of  Ethel- 

1  Sidon.  Apoll.  vii.  6.  Compare  Anim.  Marc,  xxviii.  p.  526;  Procop. 
Hist.  Goth,  iv.;  Julian,  orat.  i.  in  laud.  Constant,  p.  34;  Zosimus,  iii. ;  Oro- 
fiius,  vii.  p.  549.    See  Lingard,  Hist,  of  England,  ch.  ii.  p.  62-3. 


Chap.  III.  INTERCOURSE  WITH  ROME.  199 

bert,  connected  by  Intermarriage  with  some  neighbor- 
ino*  Teutonic  state.  Tliouo;li  the  Britons  were  still 
secluded  in  their  mountains,  or  at  extremities  of  the 
land,  by  animosities  which  even  Christianity  could 
not  allay,  yet  the  Picts  and  Scots,  and  the  parts  of 
Ireland  which  were  occupied  by  Christian  monaster  | 
ies,  were  now  brought  into  peaceful  com-  intercourse 
munication,  first  ^vith  the  kingdom  of  North- ^''^  ^''"''• 
umbria,  and,  through  Northumbria,  w4th  the  rest  of 
England.  The  intercourse  with  Europe  was  of  far 
higher  importance,  and  tended  much  more  rapidly  to 
introduce  the  arts  and  habits  of  civilization  into  the 
land.  There  was  a  constant  flow  of  missionaries 
across  the  British  Channel,  who  possessed  all  the 
knowledge  which  still  remained  in  Europe.  All  the 
earlier  metropolitans  of  Canterbury  and  the  bishops 
of  most  of  the  southern  sees  were  foreigners ;  they 
were  commissioned  at  least  by  Rome,  if  not  conse- 
crated there ;  they  travelled  backwards  and  forwards 
in  person,  or  were  in  constant  communication  Avith 
that  great  city,  in  which  were  found  all  the  culture, 
the  letters,  the  arts,  and  sciences  which  had  survived 
the    creneral   wreck.      But   the   nobler   An^lo-Saxons 

O  CD 

began  soon  to  be  ambitious  of  the  dignity,  the  influ- 
ence, or  the  higher  qualifications  of  the  Christian 
priesthood.  Nor  were  the  Roman  clergy  or  monks 
so  numerous  as  to  be  jealous  of  those  native  laborers 
in  their  holy  work  ;  if  there  was  any  jealousy,  it  was 
of  the  independent  Scottish  missionaries,  their  rivals 
in  the  north,  and  the  opponents  of  their  discipline. 
A  native  clergy  seems  to  have  grown  up  more  rapidly 
in  Britain  than  in  any  other  of  the  Teutonic  king- 
doms.    But  they  were  in  general  the  admiring  pupils 


200  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  17. 

of  the  Roman  clergy.  To  them  Rome  was  the  centre 
and  source  of  the  faith  :  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  to 
an  aspirant  after  the  dignity  or  the  usefulness  of  the 
Christian  priesthood,  became  the  great  object  and  priv- 
ilege of  life.  Every  motive  which  could  stir  the  de- 
vout heart  or  the  expanding  mind  sent  them  forth  on 
tliis  holy  journey  :  piety,  which  would  actually  tread 
a  city  honored  by  the  residence,  and  hallowed  by  the 
relics  of  apostles;  awful  curiosity,  which  would  be- 
hold and  kneel  before  the  vicar  of  Christ  on  earth, 
the  successor  of  that  Pope  who  had  brought  them 
within  the  pale  of  salvation ;  perhaps  the  desire  of 
knowledge,  and  the  wish  to  qualify  themselves  for  the 
duties  of  their  sacred  station.  Nor  was  this  confined 
to  the  clergy.  Little  more  than  half  a  century  after 
the  landing  of  Augustine,  Alchfrid,  the  son  of  the 
Kins:  of  Northumbria,  had  determined  to  visit  the 
eternal  city.  He  was  only  prevented  by  the  exigencies 
of  the  times,  and  the  authority  of  his  father.  He  was 
no  doubt  excited  to  this  design  by  the  accounts  of  the 
secular  and  religious  wonders  of  the  city,  which  al- 
ready filled  the  mind  of  the  famous  Wilfrid,  to  whom 
his  father,  Oswio,  had  intrusted  his  education.  Wil- 
frid had  already,  once  at  least,  visited  Rome ;  his  friend 
Benedict  Biscop  several  times. 

The  life  of  Wilfrid,  the  first  highly  distingTiished  of 
the  native  clergy,  is  at  once  the  history  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  Christianity  in  Britain  to  its  complete  establish- 
ment, and  a  singular  illustration  of  the  effects  of  this 
intercourse  with  the  centre  of  civiHzation  in  Italy  on 
liimself  and  on  his  countrymen.^ 

1  Eddii,  Vit.  S.  Wilfridi  apiid  Gale  X.  Scriptores  compared  with  the 
Ecclesiastical  History  of  Bede. 


Chap.  IH.  WILFRID.  201 

Wilfrid  was  tlic  son  of  a  Northumbrian  tliane.  The 
sanctity  of  his  Liter  hfe,  as  usual,  reflected  wnfrid. 
back  a  halo  of  wonder  around  his  infancy.  The  house 
in  which  his  mother  gave  him  birth  shone  with  lire, 
like  the  burning  bush  in  the  Old  Testament.  In  his 
youth  he  was  gentle,  firm,  averse  to  childish  pursuits, 
devoted  to  study.  A  jealous  step-mother  seconded  his 
desire  to  quit  his  father's  house  ;  she  bestowed  on  him 
arms,  a  horse,  and  accoutrements,  such  as  might  be- 
seem the  son  of  a  nobleman,  when  he  should  present 
himself  at  the  court  of  his  king.  The  beauty  and 
quickness  of  the  youth  won  the  favor  of  the  queen, 
Eanfled,  who,  discerning  no  doubt  his  serious  turn 
of  mind,  intrusted  him  to  the  care  of  a  coenobite,  with 
whom  he  retired  to  the  monastery  of  Lindisfarne. 
After  a  few  years  he  was  seized  with  an  a.d.  654. 
earnest  longing  to  visit  the  seat  of  the  great  apostle, 
St.  Peter.  Eanfled  listened  favorably  to  his  design, 
gave  him  letters  to  her  kinsman  Ercombert,  King  of 
Kent  ;  and,  accompanied  by  another  youth,  Bene- 
dict Biscop,  he  crossed,  in  a  ship  provided  and  manned 
by  King  Ercombert,  into  France,  and  found  his  way 
to  Lyons.  In  that  city  he  was  hospitably  in  Lyons. 
received  by  Delfinus,  the  rich  and  powerful  prelate 
of  the  see.  Delfinus  was  so  captivated  by  his  manners 
and  character  that  he  made  him  an  oflfer  of  splendid 
secular  employment,  proposed  to  adopt  him  as  his  son, 
to  marry  him  to  his  niece,  and  put  him  at  the  head  of 
the  government  over  great  part  of  Gaul.^     But  Wil- 


1  Eddius,  the  biographer,  and  Bede  agree  in  this  statement.  But  there 
are  great  difficulties  in  the  story.  Smith,  in  his  notes  on  Bede,  observes 
that  there  is  no  Delfinus  in  the  list  of  bishops  of  Lyons.  (Could  he  be  a 
prelate  so  called  from  being  a  native  of  Dauphiny  ?)  And  in  those  troubled 


202  LATIN  CHKISTIA-NITY.  Book  IV. 

frid  was  too  profomidlj  devoted  to  his  reJgioas  views, 
too  fully  possessed  with  the  desire  of  accomplishing 
his  pilgrimage  to  Rome ;  he  declined  the  dazzling 
offer  of  the  noble  virgin  bride  and  her  dowry  of 
worldly  power.  He  arrived  at  Rome ;  and  if  his 
mind,  accustomed  to  nothing  more  imposing  than  the 
I'ude  dwelling  of  a  Northumbrian  thane,  or  the  church 
of  wood  and  wattels,  expanded  at  the  sight  of  the 
cities,  which  probably,  like  Lyons,  still  maintained 
some  of  the  old  yjrovincial  magnificence,  with  what 
feelings  must  the  stranger  have  trod  the  streets  of 
Rome,  with  all  its  historical  and  religious  marvels ! 
In  Rome  tlie  Archdeacon  Boniface,  one  of  the  council 
In  Rome.  of  the  Popc,  kiiidly  undertook  the  care  of 
the  young  Saxon.  He  instructed  him  in  the  four 
Gospels,  in  the  Roman  rule  of  keeping  Easter,  and 
other  points  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  unknown  or 
unpractised  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church.  He  was  at 
length  presented  to  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  and 
received  his  blessing.  Under  the  protection  of  certain 
relics,  one  of  the  inestimable  advantages  which  often 
rewarded  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  Wilfrid  returned  to 
his  friend  the  Bishop  of  Lyons.  There  he  resided 
three  years  ;  and  now,  tempted  no  more  by  secular 
offers,  or  acknowledged  to  be  superior  to  them,  he 
received,  at  his  earnest  request,  the  tonsure  accord- 
ing to  the  Roman  form.  But  Delfinus  (so  runs  the 
legend)  had  incurred  the  animosity  of  the  Queen 
Bathildis.  With  eight  other  bishops  he  was  put  to 
death.  Wilfrid  stood  prepared  to  share  tlie  glorious 
martyrdom   of   his   friend.      His  beauty  arrested  the 

ftnd  lawless  times  in  France,  how  could  a  bishop  dispose  of  a  civil  govem- 
Uienl  of  such  extent  ? 


Chap.  III.  WILFRID.  203 

ai-m  of  the  executioner ;  and  wlien  it  was  found  tliat 
he  was  a  stranger  he  was  permitted  to  depart  hi  peace.^ 
The  young  Saxon  noble,  who  had  seen  so  many 
distant  lands  —  had  been  admitted  to  the  familiarity 
of  sucn  powerful  prelates  —  had  visited  Rome,  receiv- 
ed the  blessing  of  the  Pope,  and  travelled  under  the 
safeguard  of  holy  relics  —  was  welcomed  by  j^  Northum- 
his  former  friend  Alchfrid,  now  the  pious  ^"'*' 
king  of  Northumbria,  with  wondering  respect.  He 
obtained  first  a  grant  of  land  at  a  place  called  ^Stan- 
ford ;  afterwards  a  monastery  was  founded  at  Ripon, 
and  endowed  with  xxx  manses  of  land,  of  which  Wil- 
frid was  appointed  abbot.  He  was  then  admitted  into 
the  priesthood  by  Agllbert,  the  Bishop  of  Wessex. 
Colman,  the  Scottish  bishop  of  Lindisfame,  after  his 
discomfiture  in  the  dispute  concerning  Easter,  retired 
in  disgust  and  disappointment  to  his  native  lona. 
Tuta,  another  Scot,  was  carried  off  by  the  fatal 
plague,  which  at  this  time  ravaged  Britain.  Upon 
his  decease,  the  Saxon  Wilfrid  was  named  by  com- 
mon consent  to  the  Northumbrian  bishopric.  But 
t)ie  plague  had  swept  away  the  greater  part  of  the 
southern  prelates.  Wina  alone,  the  West-Saxon  bish- 
op, was  considered  by  Wilfi.'id  as  canonically  conse- 
crated ;  the  rest  were  Scots,  who  rejected  the  Roman 
disci])line  concerning  Easter  and  the  tonsure.  Wil- 
frid went  over  to  France;  the  firm  champion  of  the 
Catholic    discipline    was   received    with    the    highest 

1  Here  is  a  greater  difficulty.  The  Queen  Bathildis  is  represented  by  the 
French  historians,  not  as  a  Jezebel  who  slays  the  prophets  of  the  Lord  (as 
she  is  called  by  Eddius),  but  as  a  princess  of  exemplary  piety,  a  devout 
servant  of  the  church,  and  the  foundress  of  monasteries.  Ebroin  too,  the 
Mayor  of  the  Palace,  in  this  legend  is  drawn  in  very  \ark  colors.  But  on 
Bathildis  and  Ebroin  more  hereafter 


204  LATIN    CimiSTIANITr.  Book  IV. 

consecrat-sd  l^onors.  No  Icss  tliaii  twelve  bishops  as- 
iit  compiegne.  gpj^^y^^  foi' liis  consecratioii  at  Compiegne  : 
he  was  borne  aloft  on  a  gilded  chair,  supported  only 
by  bishops  —  no  one  else  was  allowed  to  touch  it.  He 
remained  some  time  (it  is  said  three  years)  among  his 
fiiends  in  Gaul.^  On  his  return  to  England  a  wild 
adventure  on  the  shores  of  his  native  land  showed  how 
strangely  the  fiercest  barbarism  still  encountered  the 
progress  of  civilization  —  paganism  that  of  Christian- 
ity. The  kmgdom  of  Sussex  was  yet  entirely  heathen. 
Sussex.  Wilfrid  was  driven  by  a  storm  on  its  coast. 

The  Saxon  pirates  had  become  merciless  wreckers ; 
they  thought  everything  cast  by  the  winds  and  the 
sea  on  their  coasts  their  undoubted  property,  the  crew 
and  passengers  of  vessels  driven  on  shore  their  lawful 
slaves.  They  attacked  the  stranded  bark  with  the  ut- 
most ferocity :  the  crew  of  Wilfrid  made  a  gallant 
resistance.  It  was  a  strange  scene.  On  one  side 
the  Christian  prelate  and  his  clergy  were  kneeling 
aloof  in  prayer ;  on  the  other  a  pagan  priest  was  en- 
couraging the  attack,  by  what  both  parties  supposed 
powerful  enchantments.  A  fortunate  stone  from  a 
sling  struck  the  priest  on  the  forehead,  and  put  an 
end  to  his  life  and  to  his  magic.  But  his  fall  only 
exasperated  the  barbarians.  Thrice  they  renewed  the 
attack,  and  thrice  were  beaten  oflP.  The  prayers  of 
Wilfrid  became  more  urgent,  more  needed,  more  suc- 
cessful.2  The  tide  came  in,  the  wind  shifted ;  the 
vessel  got  to  sea,  and  reached  Sandwich.     At  a  later 


1  There  may  be  some  confusion  in  his  two  periods  of  residence  in  Gaul. 

2  Eddius  compares  the  pagan  priest  to  Balaam,  the  s-Iayer  to  David,  the 
resistance  of  this  handful  of  men  to  that  of  Gideon,  the  prayers  of  Wilfrid 
;0  those  of  Moses  and  Aaron  wlieu  Joshua  fouirht  with  Amalek. 


UHAP.  m.  WILFRID.  205 

period  of  his  life  Wilfrid  nobly  revenged  himself  on 
this  inhospitable  people  by  laboring,  and  with  success, 
ill  their  conversion  to  Christianity. 

On  Wilfrid's  return  to  Northumbria,  after  his  long 
unexplained  absence,  he  found  his  see  preoccupied  ))y 
Ceadda,  a  pious  Scottish  monk,  a  disciple  of  the  vener* 
ated  Aidan.^  Wilfrid  peaceably  retired  to  his  mon- 
astery at  Ripon.  He  was  soon  summoned  to  more 
active  duties  :  he  obeyed  the  invitation  of  Wulfliere, 
King  of  Mercia,  to  extend  Christianity  in  his  king- 
dom. In  the  south  he  must  have  obtained  high  rej^u- 
tatlon.  On  the  death  of  Deus-dedit,  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  Wilfrid  was  intrusted  with  the  care 
of  the  vacant  diocese.  On  the  arrival  of  Theodorus, 
who  had  been  invested  in  the  metropolitan  dignity  at 
Rome,  almost  his  first  act  Avas  to  annul  the  election 
of  Ceadda,  and  to  place  Wilfiid  in  the  Northumbrian 
see  at  York.  Ceadda  made  no  resistance  ;  and  as  a 
reward  for  his  piety  and  his  submission,  was  appointed 
to  the  Mercian  see  of  Lichfield. 

The  Christianity  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  kingdoms, 
whether  from  Rome  or  lona,  was  alike  monastic. 
That  form  of  the  religion  already  prevailed  in  Britain, 
when  invaded  by  the  Saxons,  with  them  retreated 
into  Wales,  or  found  refiige  in  Ireland.  It  landed 
with  Augustine  on  the  shores  of  Kent ;  and  came 
back  again,  on  the  invitation  of  the  Northumbrian 
king,  from  the  Scottish  isles.  And  no  form  of  Chris- 
tianity could  be  so  well  suited  for  its  high  purposea 
at  that  time,  or  tend  so  powerfully  to  promote  civiliza- 
tion as  well  as  religion. 

1  Perhaps  after  all  Wilfrid  was  only  nc^minated  by  tli3  Roman  party, 
who,  diminished  by  the  plague,  may  not  have  been  able  to  support  their 
choice. 


206  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV: 

The  calm  example  of  the  domestic  virtues  in  a  more 
Monasticism    polislicd,  but  ofteii,  as  re^iards  sexual  iuter- 

ofthe  ^  r>  1         •  P 

ciiurch.  course,  more  corrupt  state  oi  morals,  is  ot 
inestimable  value,  as  spreading  around  the  parsonage 
an  atmosphere  of  peace  and  happiness,  and  oifering  a 
living  lesson  on  the  blessings  of  conjugal  fidelity.  But 
such  Christianity  v^^ould  have  made  no  impression,  even 
if  it  could  have  existed,  on  a  people  who  still  retained 
something  of  their  Teutonic  severity  of  manners,  and 
required  therefore  something  more  imposing — a  stern- 
er and  more  manifest  self-denial  —  to  keep  up  their 
religious  veneration.  The  detachment  of  the  clergy 
from  all  earthly  ties  left  them  at  once  more  unremit- 
tingly devoted  to  their  unsettled  life  as  missionaries, 
more  ready  to  encounter  the  perils  of  this  wild  age  ; 
while  (at  the  same  time)  the  rude  minds  of  the  people 
were  more  struck  by  their  unusual  habits,  by  the 
strength  of  character  shown  in  their  labors,  their 
mortifications,  their  fastings,  and  perpetual  religious 
services.  All  these  being,  in  a  certain  sense,  monks, 
the  bishop  and  his  clergy  coenobites,  or  if  they  lived 
separate  only  less  secluded  and  less  stationary  than 
other  ascetics,  wherever  Christianity  spread,  monaster- 
ies, or  religious  foundations  with  a  monastic  character, 
arose.  These  foundations,  as  the  religion  aspired  to 
soften  the  habits,  might  seem  to  pacify  the  face  of  the 
land.  They  were  commonly  placed,  by  some  intuitive 
yearning  after  repose  and  security,  in  spots  either 
themselves  beautiful  by  nature,  by  the  bank  of  the 
river,  in  the  depth  of  the  romantic  wood,  under  the 
shelter  of  the  protecting  hill ;  or  in  such  as  became 
beautiful  from  the  superior  care  and  culture  of  the 
monks,  —  tlie  draining  of  the  meadows,  the  planting 


Chap.  III.    EXTENSION  OF  RELIGIOUS  FOUNDATIONS.      207 

of  trees,  the  home  circle  of  garden  or  orchard,  which 
employed  or  delighted  the  brotherhood.  These  estab- 
lishments gradually  acquired  a  certain  sanctity :  if 
exposed  like  other  lands  to  the  ravages  of  war,  no 
doubt  at  times  the  fear  of  some  tutelary  saint,  or 
the  influence  of  some  holy  man,  arrested  the  marcli 
of  the  spoiler.  If  the  growth  of  the  English  mon- 
asteries was  of  necessity  gradual,  the  culture  around 
them  but  of  slow  development  (agricultural  labor 
does  not  seem  to  have  become  a  rule  of  monastic 
discipline),  it  was  not  from  the  w^ant  of  plentiful  en- 
dowments, or  of  ardent  votaries.  Grants  of  land  and 
of  movables  were  poured  with  lavish  munificence  on 
these  foundations  ;  ^  sometimes  tracts  of  land,  far  larger 
than  they  could  cultivate,  and  which  were  thus  con- 
demned to  sterility.  The  Scottish  monks  are  honor- 
ably distinguished  as  repressing,  rather  than  encour- 
aging, this  prodigality.^  The  Roman  clergy,  if  less 
scrupulous,  might  receive  these  tributes  not  merely 
as  offerings  of  religious  zeal  to  God,  but  under  a  con- 
viction that  they  were  employed  fpr  the  improvement 
as  well  as  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  people.  Nor 
was  it  only  the  sacred  mysterious  office  of  ministering 
at  the  altar  of  the  new  God,  it  was  the  austere  seclu- 
sion of  the  monks,  which  seized  on  the  religious  affec- 
tions of  the  Anglo-Saxon  convert.  When  Christianity 
first  broke  upon  their  rude  but  earnest  minds,  it  was 
embraced  with  the  utmost  fervor,  and  under  its  sever- 
est forms.     Men  were  eager  to  escape  the  awful  pun- 

1  Bede  calls  some  of  these  donations,  "  stultissimos.'* 

2  "  Aidanus,  Finan  et  Colmannus,  mine  sanctitatis  fuerunt  et  parsimo- 
niae.  Adeo  euini  sacerdotes  erant  illius  temporis  ab  avaritia  immunes  ut 
nee  territoria,  nisi  coacti,  accepermit."  —  Henric.  Hunting,  apud  (iale,  lib. 
iii.  p.  333. 


208  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

ishments,  and  to  secure  the  wonderful  promises  of  the 
new  rehgion  by  some  strong  effort,  which  would 
wrench  them  altogether  from  their  former  life.  As 
the  gentler  spirit  of  the  Gospel  found  its  way  into 
softer  hearts,  it  made  them  loathe  the  fierce  and 
rudely  warlike  occupations  of  their  forefathers.  To 
the  one  class  the  monastery  offered  its  rigid  course  of 
ceremonial  duty  and  its  ruthless  austerities,  to  the 
other  its  repose.  Nobles  left  their  halls,  queens  their 
palaces,  kings  their  thrones,  to  win  everlasting  life  by 
the  abandonment  of  the  pomp  and  the  duties  of  t]ieir 
secular  state,  and,  by  becoming  churchmen  or  monks, 
still  to  exercise  rule,  or  to  atone  for  years  of  blind  and 
siiifiil  heathenism. 


CnAP.  rV.  WILFRID'S  BUILDINGS.  20i< 


CHAPTER    IV. 

WILFRID  — BEDE. 

Wilfrid,  the  type  of  his  time,  blended  the  rigor  of 
the  monk  with  something  of  prelatic  magnifi-  wiiMd's 
cence.  The  effect  of  his  visit  to  more  pol-  ^"ii^>"g«- 
ished  countries  —  to  Ganl  and  Italy  —  soon  appeared 
in  his  diocese.  He  who  had  seen  the  churches  of 
Rome  and  other  Italian  cities,  would  not  endure  the 
rude  timber  buildings,^  thatched  with  reeds  —  the  only 
architecture  of  the  Saxons  —  and  above  which  the 
Scottish  monks  had  not  aspired.^  The  church  of 
Paulinus  at  York  had  been  built  of  stone,  but  it  was 
in  ruins  ;  it  was  open  to  the  wind  and  rain,  and  the 
birds  flew  about  and  built  their  nests  in  the  roof  and 
walls.  Wilfrid  repaired  the  building,  roofed  it  with 
lead,  and  filled  the  windows  with  glass.  The  trans- 
parency of  this  unknown  material  excited  great  aston- 
ishment. At  Ripon  he  built  the  church  from  the 
ground  of  smoothed  stones  ;  it  was  of  great  height,  and 
supported  by  columns  and  aisles.^  All  the  chieftains 
and  thanes  of  the  kingdom  were  invited  to  the  conse- 
cration of  this  church.     Wilfrid  read   from    the  altar 

1  Lappenberg  observes  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  have  no  other  word  for 
buildhig  but  getirabrian,  to  work  in  wood.  —  Geschichte  Engl.,  i.  170. 

2  Eddius,  c.  xvi. 

3  "  Polito  lapide  a  terra  usque  ad  sumraum,  sedificatam  variis  columnis 
et  porticibus  suftultam  in  cultum  erexit  et  consummavit."  —  Eddius,  xviii. 

VOL.   IT.  U 


210  LATIN    CHRISTIANITT.  liooK  IT 

tlie  list  of  the  lands  which  had  been  bestowed  by 
former  kings,  for  the  salvation  of  their  souls,  upon 
the  church,  and  those  which  were  offered  that  day, 
and  also  of  the  places  once  dedicated  to  God  by  thb 
Britons,  and  abandoned  on  their  expulsion  by  the  Sax- 
ons. This  act  was  meant  for  the  solemn  recognition  of 
all  existing  rights,  the  encouragement  of  fixture  gifts, 
and,  it  seems,  the  assertion  of  vague  and  latent  claims.^ 
After  this  Christian  or  sacerdotal  commemoration, 
there  was  something  of  a  return  to  heathen  usage,  dur* 
ing  three  days  and  three  nights  uninterrupted  feasting. 
But  the  architectural  wonder  of  the  age  was  the 
church  at  Hexham,  which  was  said  to  surpass  in  splen- 
dor every  building  on  this  side  of  the  Alps.  The 
depth  to  which  the  foundations  were  sunk,  the  height 
and  leno;th  of  the  walls,  the  richness  of  the  columns 
and  aisles,  the  ingenious  multiplicity  of  the  parts, 
as  it  struck  the  biographer  of  Wilfrid,  give  the  notion 
of  a  building  of  the  later  Roman,  or,  as  it  is  called, 
Byzantine  style,  aspiring  into  something  like  the 
Gothic.2 

The  friend  and  companion  of  Wilfrid  at  Rome,  Bene- 
Benedict  ^'^^^  Biscop,  (a  mouk  of  Holy  Island),  was  in- 
Biscop.  troducing,  in  a  more  peaceM  and  less  ostenta- 

tious way,  the  arts  and  elegancies  of  life.  When  about  to 
build  his  monastery  at  Wearmouth,  he  crossed  into  Gaid 
to  collect  masons  skilled  in  working  stone  after  the  Red- 
man manner;  when  the  walls  were  finished, he  sent  for 

1  Eddius,  c.  xvii. 

2  "  Cujus  profunditatem  in  teiTa  cnin  domibus  mirifice  politis  lapidihiir 
fuiidatam,  et  super  terrain  niultipliceni  doniinn,  coluninis  variis  et  multia 
porficihus  sufrullani,  iniral)ili(Hi(i  ultitiidine  et  longitudine  nuiroruni  orna- 
tain,  et  variis  lineanim  anfractibiis  viaruni  alirjuando  sursiim,  aliquando 
deorsum  per  eochlcas  circuniductam."  —  Eddius,  c.  xxii. 


Chap.  IV.  BENEDICT   BISCOP.  21a 

glaziers,  whose  art  till  this  time  was  unknown  *•'»•  676. 
in  Britain.^  Nor  was  architecture  the  only  art  intro- 
duced by  the  pilgrims  to  Rome.  Benedict  brought  from 
a])road  vessels  for  the  altar,  vestments  which  could  noi 
be  made  in  England,  and  especially  two  palls,  entirely 
of  silk,  of  incomparable  workmanship.^  Books,  emb(jl- 
lished  if  not  illuminated  manuscripts,  and  paintings, 
came  from  the  same  quarter.  Wilfrid's  offering  to  the 
church  of  Ripon  was  a  copy  of  the  Gospels,  written  in 
letters  of  gold,  on  a  purple  ground.^  Other  manu- 
scripts were  adorned  with  gold  and  precious  stones. 
On  each  of  his  visits  to  Rome  Benedict  brought  less 
ornamented  books ;  on  one  occasion  a  large  number : 
and  he  solemnly  charged  his  brethren,  among  his  last  in- 
structions, to  take  every  precaution  for  the  security  and 
preservation  of  their  library.  The  pictures,  which  he 
brought  from  Rome,  were  to  adorn  two  churches,  one  at 
Wearmouth,  dedicated  to  St.  Peter  ;  one  at  Yarrow,  to 
St.  Paul.  These  were  no  doubt  the  earliest  specimens 
of  Christian  painting  in  the  country.  In  the  ceil- 
ing of  the  nave  at  Wearmouth  were  the  Virgin  and 
the  twelve  apostles  ;  on  the  south  wall  subjects  from 
the  Gospel  history ;  on  the  north  from  the  Revelations. 
Those  in  St.  Paul's  illustrated  the  agreement  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testament.     In  one  compartment  was 

1  Painted  glass  seems  to  have  been  known  at  an  early  period  in  Gaul,  — 

*'  Sub  versicoloribus  figuris  vernans  herbida  crusta, 
Sapphiratos  flectit  per  prasinuin  vitrum  capiJlos." 

Sidon.  Apollin. 

This,  however,  seems  a  kind  of  mosaic. 

5J  "  Vasa  sancta,  et  vestimenta  quia  domi   invenire   non   poterat  .  . 
oloserica." 

8  "Auro  purissimo  in  roembranis  depurpuratis,  coloratis."  —  Eddiiis,  c 
xvii. 


212  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

Isaac  Loaring  the  wood  for  sacrifice,  and   below  tlis 
Saviour  bearing  his  cross. ^ 

So  far  Wilfrid  rises  to  his  lofty  eminence  an  object 
of  universal  respect,  veneration,  and  love.  On  a  sud- 
den he  is  involved  in  interminable  disputes,  persecuted 
with  bitter  animosity,  degraded  from  his  see,  an  exile 
from  his  country,  and  dies  at  length,  though  at  mature 
age,  yet  worn  out  with  trouble  and  anxiety.  The 
causes  of  this  reverse  are  lost  in  obscurity.  It  was  not 
the  old  feud  between  the  Roman  and  the  Scottish  clerg}', 
for  Theodorus,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  head 
of  the  Roman  party,  joins  the  confederacy  against  him. 
As  yet  the  jealousies  between  the  secular  and  the  regu- 
lar clergy,  the  priests  and  monks,  which  at  a  later  pe- 
riod, in  the  days  of  Odo  and  Dunstan,  distracted  tlie 
Ando-Saxon  Church,  had  not  beOTn.  The  roval 
jealousy  of  the  pomp  and  wealth  of  the  bishop,  which 
might  seem  to  obscure  that  of  the  throne,  though  no 
doubt  already  in  some  strength,  belongs  in  its  intensity 
to  other  times.  Egfrid,  now  King  of  Northumbria,  had 
been  alienated  from  Wilfrid,  through  his  severe  advice 
to  the  Queen  Ethelreda  to  persist  in  her  vow  of  chas- 
tity. The  first  husband  of  Ethelreda  had  respected  the 
virginity  which  she  had  dedicated  to  God.  When 
compelled  to  marry  Egfrid,  she  maintained  her  holy 
obstinacy,  and  took  refuge,  by  Wilfrid's  connivance,  in 
a  convent,  to  escape  her  conjugal  duties.  A  new 
Queen,  Ercemburga,  instead  of  this  docile  obedience  to 

1  Bede,  after  describing  the  pictures,  proceeds :  "  Quateniis  intrantes  ec- 
clesiam  omnes  etiam  literarum  ignari,  quaquaversiim  intenderent,  vel 
semper  aniabileni  Chvisti,  sanctorumque  ejus,  quamvis  in  iinap:inc  contem- 
plarcnturaspectum:  vel  Doniiiiic;^?  Incarnationis  gratiam  vigilantiore  mente 
recolerent,  vel  extremi  discrimen  examinis  quasi  coram  oculis  habentes,  dis- 
tricti'is  se  ipsi  examinare  meminerint."  —  Smith's  Bede,  p.  295. 


Chap.  IV.  rHEODOIlUS.  213 

Wilfrid,  became  liis  bitterest  enemy.^  She  it  was  who 
inflamed  her  husband  with  jealousy  of  the  state,  the 
riches,  and  the  pride  of  the  bishop,  his  wealthy  founda- 
tions, his  splendid  buildings,  his  hosts  of  followers. 
Theodorus,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  eagerly  ac- 
cepted the  invitation  of  the  King  of  Northumbria,  to 
assist  in  the  overthrow  of  Wilfrid. 

Theodorus  was  a  foreigner,  a  Greek  of  Tarsus,  and 
might  perhaps    despise    this    aspiring   Saxon.  Theodorus 
After  the  death  of  Archbishop    Deus-dedit,  o/canSi^^ 
the  see  of  Canterbuiy  had  remained  vacant  ^^^^' 
four  years.     The  kings  of  Kent  and   North-  a.d.  664. 
umbria   determined    to    send    a    Saxon,    Wighard,    to 
Rome,    to   receive   consecration.         Wighard   died   at 
Rome;  the  Pope  Vitalian    was    urged  to    supply    the 
loss.     His  choice  fell  upon  Theodorus,  a  de-  a.d.  668. 
vout  and  learned  monk.     Vitalian's  nomination  awoke 
no  jealousy,    but  rather   profound  gratitude.^     It   was 
not  the  appointment  of  a  splendid  and  powerful  primate 
to  a  great  and  wealthy  church,  but  a  successor  to  the 
missionary  Augustine.     But  Theodorus,  if  he  brought 
not  ambition,  brought  the  Roman  love  of  order  and  o^ 
organization,  to  the  yet  wild  and  divided  island;  and 
the  profound  peace  which  prevailed  might  tempt  him 
to   reduce    the    more  than    octarchy    of    independent 

1  The  language  ascribed  to  Ercemburga  might  apply  to  a  later  arch- 
bishop of  York,  the  object  of  royal  envy  and  rapacity,  "  Enumeraus  ei 
.  .  .  omnem  gloriam  ejus  secularem,  et  divitias,  nee  non  Coenobioruui 
multitudinem,  et  sedificiorum  magnitudiuem,  innumerumque  sodalium  ex- 
ercitum,  regaUbus  vestimentis  et  aniiis  omatum."  This  is  not  Wolsey,  but 
Wilfrid. 

^  "  Episcopmn  quern  petierant  a  Romano  Pontifice."  There  is  a  violent 
dispute  (compare  Lingard,  Anglo-Sax.  Antiq.,  and  note  in  Kemble's  Anglo- 
Saxons,  ii,  355)  upon  the  nature  of  this  appointment;  all  parties,  except 
Mr.  Kemble,  appear  to  me  to  overlook  the  state  of  Christianity  in  England 
»t  the  time. 


214  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

bishops  into  one  harmonious  community.  As  yet  there 
were  churches  in  England,  not  one  Church.  Theodorus 
appears  to  have  formed  a  great  sclieme  for  tlie  submission 
of  the  whole  island  to  his  metropolitan  jurisdiction.  He 
summoned  a  council  at  Hertford,  which  enacted  many 
laws  for  the  regulation  of  the  power  of  the  bishops,  tho 
rights  of  monasteries,  on  keeping  of  Easter,  on  di- 
vorces, and  unlawful  marriages.  Archbishop  Theodorus 
began  by  dividing  the  great  bishoprics  in  East  Anglia 
and  in  Mercia,  and  deposed  two  refractory  prelates. 
He  proceeded  on  his  sole  spiritual  authority,  w4th  the 
temporal  aid  of  the  king,  to  divide  the  bishopric  of 
York  into  three  sees ;  so,  by  the  appointment  of  three 
Wilfrid  bishops,  Wilfrid   was    entirely  superseded  in 

rS.  °  his  diocese.^  Wilfrid  appealed  to  Rome,  and 
set  out  to  lay  his  case  before  the  Pope.^  So  deep  waa 
the  animosity,  that  his  enemies  in  England  are  said  to 
have  persuaded  Theodoric,  King  of  the  Franks,  and 
Ebroin,  mayor  of  the  palace,  to  seize  the  prelate  on  his 
journey,  and  to  put  his  com])anions  to  the  sword. 
Winfred,  the  ejected  Bishop  of  Mercia,  was  apprehended 
in  his  stead,  and  thrown  into  prison. 

The  wind  was  fortunately  adverse  to  Wilfrid,  and 
drove  him  on  the  coast  of  Friesland.  The  barbarous 
and  pagan  people  received  the  holy  man  with  hospital- 
lu  Friesland.  ity ;  their  fisheries  that  year  being  remarka- 
bly successful,  this  was  attributed  to  his  presence ;  and 
the  king,  the  nobles,  and  the  people,  were  alike  more 
disposed  to  listen  to  the  Gospel,  first  preached  among 


1  Eddiua  compares  Egfrid  and  Theodorus  to  Balak  and  Balaam.  — Wil- 
kins,  Concil. 

'-i  Eddius  says  that  he  left  England  amid  the  tears  of  many  thousands  of 
kii  monks. 


Chap.  IV.  WILFRID  APPEALS  TO  ROME  215 

tliem  with  Wilfrid's  power  and  zeal.  Tlie  way  was 
thus  prepared  for  his  disciple,  Willibrod,  and  for  that 
remarkable  succession  of  missionaries  from  England, 
who,  kindred  in  speech,  converted  so  large  a  part  of 
Germany  to  Christianity. 

After  nearly  a  year  passed  in  this  pious  occupation 
in  Friesland,  Wilfrid  ventured  into  Gaul,  and  was  fa- 
vorably received  by  Dagobert  II.  Two  years  elapsed 
before  he  found  his  way  to  Rome.  The  Pope  (Agatho) 
received  his  appeal,  submitted  it  to  a  synod,  a. p.  679. 
who  decided  in  his  favor.  Agatho  issued  his  ^^*^°^*^'^- 
mandate  for  the  reinstatement  of  Wilfi'id  in  his  see. 

Though  the  Papal  decree  denounced  excommunica- 
tion against  the  layman,  degradation  and  dep-  j^  Northum- 
rivation  against  the  ecclesiastic,  who  should  ^"*- 
dare  to  disobey  it,  it  was  received  by  the  King  of 
Northumbria  with  contempt,  and  even  by  Archbishop 
Theodorus  with  indifference.  Wilfrid,  on  his  return, 
though  armed  with  the  papal  authority,  which  he  was 
accused  of  having  obtained  by  bribery,^  was  ignomin- 
iously  cast  into  prison,  and  kept  in  solitary  confine- 
ment. The  queen,  with  the  strange  mixture  of  super- 
stition and  injustice  belonging  to  the  age,  plundered 
him  of  his  reliquary,  a  talisman  which  she  kept  con- 
stantly with  her,  in  her  own  chamber  and  abroad. 
Wilfrid's  faithful  biographer  relates  many  miracles, 
wrought  during  his  imprisonment.  The  chains  of  iron, 
\\ith  which  they  endeavored  to  bind  him,  shrunk  or 
stretched,  so  as  either  not  to  admit  his  lim,bs,  or  to  drop 
Prom  them.    The  queen  fell  ill,  and  attributed  her  sick- 

1  See  Ecldius  for  this  early  instance  of  the  suspected  venality  of  the 
Roman  curia.  "  Insuper  (quod  execrabilius  erat),  defamaverant  in  ani- 
marum  suarum  perniciein,  lit  irretio  dicereut  redempta  esse  scripta,  quaa  ad 
vilutem  observantium  ab  apostolica  sede  destinata  sunt."  — ''.  xxxiii. 


216  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

ness  to  the  stolen  reliquary.  She  obtained  his  freedom, 
and  was  glad  when  the  dangerous  prelate,  with  his 
relics,  was  safe  out  of  her  kingdom. 

He  fled  to  Mercia,  but  the  Queen  of  Mercia  was  the 
sister  of  Egfrid  ;  to  Wessex,  but  there  the  queen  was 
the  sister  of  Ercemburga;  he  found  no  safety.  At 
Flight  of  length  he  took  refuge  among  the  more  hos- 
wiifrid.  pitable  pagans  of  Sussex  —  the  only  one  of 
the  Saxon  kingdoms  not  yet  Christian.  The  king  and 
the  queen,  indeed,  had  both  been  baptized ;  the  king, 
Ethelwach,  at  the  persuasion  of  Wulfhere,  King  of 
Mercia,  who  rewarded  his  Christianity  with  the  prodi- 
gal grant  of  the  Isle  of  Wight ;  Eabba,  the  queen,  had 
been  admitted  to  the  sacred  rite  in  Worcestershire. 
Yet,  till  the  arrival  of  Wilfrid,  they  had  not  attempted 
to  make  proselytes  among  their  subjects.  They  had 
rested  content  with  their  own  advantages.  A  few  poor 
Irish  monks  at  Bosliam  (near  Chichester)  had  alone 
penetrated  the  wild  forests  and  jungles  which  cut  off 
this  barbarous  tribe  from  the  rest  of  England.  But 
their  rude  hearts  opened  at  once  to  the  eloquence  of 
Wilfrid.  He  tauo-ht  them  the  arts  of  life  as  well  as 
the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel.  For  three  years  this  part 
of  the  island  had  suffered  by  drought,  followed  by 
famine  so  severe,  that  an  epidemic  desperation  seized 
the  people.  They  linked  themselves  by  forties  or  fif- 
ties hand  in  hand,  leaped  from  the  rocks,  were  dashed 
in  pieces,  or  drowned.^      Though  a  maritime  people, 

1  The  South  Saxons  are  thus  described: 

"  Gena  igitur  quasdam  scopulosis  iudita  terris 
Saltibus  iiicultis,  et  densia  horrida  dumis 
Non  faoilfiu  i)ropriis  adituui  pracbebat  in  arvis, 
Q«us  i^inara  Doi,  siuiulacris  dcdita  vauis." 

Fredegara,  p.  191 


Chap.  IV.  CONVERSION  OF  CEADWALLA.  217 

on  a  long  line  of  sea-coast,  tliey  were  ignorant  of  the 
art  of  fishing.  Wilfrid  collected  a  number  of  nets,  led 
them  out  to  sea,  and  so  provided  them  with  a  regular 
supply  of  food.  The  wise  and  pious  benefactor  of  the 
nation  was  rewarded  by  a  grant  of  the  peninsula  of 
Selsey  (the  isle  of  seals).  There  he  built  a  monas- 
tery, and  for  five  years  exercised  undisturbed  his  epis- 
copal functions. 

A  revolution  in  the  west  and  south  of  the  island  in- 
creased rather  than  diminished  the  influ-  conquest  of 
ence  of  Wilfrid.  Ceadwalla,  a  youth  of  the  ceadwaiia. 
royal  house  of  Wessex,  had  lived  as  an  outlaw  in  the 
forests  of  Chiltern  and  Anderida.  He  appeared  sud- 
denly in  arms,  seized  the  kingdom  of  the  West  Saxons, 
conquered  Sussex,  and  ravaged  or  subdued  parts  of 
Kent.  Some  obscure  relation  had  subsisted  between 
Ceadwalla  (when  an  exile)  and  the  Bishop  Wilfrid.^ 
Wilfrid's  protector,  Adelwalch,  fell  in  battle  during 
the  invasion  of  the  stranger.  Afler  Ceadwalla  had 
completed  his  conquests  by  the  subjugation  of  the  Isle 
of  Wight,  Wilfrid  became  his  chief  counsellor,  and  was 
permitted  by  the  king,  still  himself  a  doubtful  Chris- 
tian, if  not  a  heathen,  to  convert  the  inhabitants  ;  and 
Ceadwalla  granted  to  the  Church  one  third  of  the  Isle 
of  Wight.  The  conversion  of  Ceadwalla  is  conversion  of 
too  remarkable  to  be  passed  over.  It  has  ceadwaua. 
been  attributed  to  his  horror  of  mind  at  the  barbarous 
murder  of  his  brother  in  Kent.^     It  was  no  Hght  and 

Eddius  admits  that  the  South  Saxons  were  compelled  by  the  king  to  aban- 
don their  idolatry.  According  to  Bede,  they  understood  catching  eels  in 
Lhe  rivers.  —  H.  E.  iv.  13. 

1  "  Sanctus  antistes  Christi  in  nonnullis  auxiliis  et  adjumentis  ssepe 
anxiatum  exulem  adjuvavit  et  confirmavit."  — Eddius,  c.  41. 

2  According  to  Henrv  of  Huntingdon,  Ceadwalla  was  not  a  Christian 


^^ 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IT. 


politic  conviction,  but  the  deep  and  intense  passion  of 
a  vehement  spirit.  The  wild  outlaw,  the  bloody  con- 
queror, threw  off  his  arms,  gave  up  the  throne  whicl^ 
he  had  won  by  such  dauntless  enterprise  and  so  much 
carnage.  He  went  to  Rome  to  seek  that  absolution 
^or  his  sins,  from  which  no  one  could  so  effectually  re- 
lieve him  as  the  successor  of  St.  Peter.  At  Rome  he 
was  christened  by  the  xiame  of  Peter.  At  Rome  he 
died,  and  an  epitaph,  of  no  ordinary  merit  for  the  time, 
celebrated  the  first  barbarian  king,  who  had  left  his 
height  of  gloiy  and  of  wealth,  his  family,  his  mighty 
kingdom,  his  triumphs  and  his  spoils,  his  thanes,  his  cas^ 
ties,  and  his  palaces,  for  the  perilous  journey  and  bap- 
tism at  the  hands  of  St.  Peter's  successor.  His  reward 
had  been  an  heavenly  for  an  earthly  crown.^ 

when  he  invaded  Kent.    Wolf  (his  brother),  a  savage  marauder,  was  sm- 
prised  and  burned  in  a  house,  in  which  he  had  taken  refuge,  by  the  Chris- 
tians of  tlie  country.     "  Post  haec  Ceadwalla  Rex  West  Saxoniie,  de  his  el 
alils  sibi  commissis  pcenitens,  Romam  perrexit."  —  Apud  X.  Script,  p.  744- 
1  "  Culmen,  opes,  sobolem,  pollentia  regna,  triiuuphos. 
Exuvias,  proceres,  raoenia,  castra,  Lares, 
Quseque  patrum  virtus  et  quae  congesserat  ipse 

Csedwal  armipotens  liquit  amore  Dei. 
Ut  Petrum  sedemque  Petri  rex  cerneret  hospes, 

Cujus  fonte  meras  sumeret  ahnus  aquas, 
Splendificumque  jubar  radianti  sumeret  haustu, 

Ex  quo  vivificus  fulgor  ubiquc  fluit. 
Percipiensque  alacer  rediviva?  praemia  vitse 
Barbaricam  rabiem,  nomen  et  inde  suum 
Conversus,  convertit  ovans,  Petrumque  vocari, 

Sergius  Antistes  jussit,  ut  ipse  Pater 
Fonte  renasccntis,  quern  Christi  gratia  purgans 

Protinus  abhxtum  vexit  in  arce  poli. 
Mira  fides  regis!  dementia  maxima  Christi, 

Cujus  consilium  nullus  adire  potest! 
Sospes  enim  veniens  supremo  ex  orbe  Britanni, 

Per  varias  gentes,  per  freta,  pcrque  vias, 
Urbem  Romulcam  vidit,  templumque  verendum 
Aspexit  Petri,  mystica  dona  gerens. 


Chap.  IV.  WILFRID  REINSTATED  IN  YORK.  219 

Arclibishop  Theodoras  was  now  grown  old,  and  felt 
the  approach  of  death ;  he  was  seized  with  remorse  for 
his  injustice  to  the  exiled  bishop  of  York.  Wilfrid 
met  his  advances  to  reconciliation  in  a  Christian  spirit. 
In  London  Theodoras  declared  pviblicly  that  Wilfrid 
had  been  deposed  witliout  just  cause ;  at  his  decease 
intrusted  his  own  diocese  to  his  charge,  and  recom- 
mended him  as  his  own  successor.  Wilfrid  either  de- 
clined the  advancement,  or,  more  probably,  was  unac- 
ceptable to  the  clergy  of  the  South.  After  a  vacancy 
of  two  years,  the  Abbot  of  Reculver,  whose  name, 
Berchtwald,  indicates  his  Saxon  descent,  was  chosen. 
He  was  the  first  native  who  had  filled  the  see.^ 

Wilfrid  was  again  invested  in  his  full  rights  as 
Bishop    of    York.      The   king,    Egfrid,   had  wiifnd  re- 

f.  n  •        1         1  •  1         -Tk-  7T«  instated  in 

lallen  m  battle  agamst  the  ricts.  His  sue-  York, 
cessor  was  Aldfrid,  who  had  been  educated  in  piety  and 
learning  by  certain  Irish  monks.  This,  though  an 
excellent  school  for  some  Christian  virtues,  had  not 
taught  him  humble  submission  to  the  lofty  Roman  pre- 
tensions of  Wilfrid.  The  feud  between  the  king  and 
the  bishop  broke  out  anew.  Wilfrid  pressed  some  an- 
ti(juated  claims  on  certain  alienated  possessions  of  the 
Church ;  the  king  proposed  to  erect  Ripon  into  a  bish- 
opric independent  of  York.  Wilfrid  retired  to  the 
court  of  Mercia. 

A  general  synod  of  the  clergy  of  the  island  was  held 

Candidas  inter  oves  Christi  sociabilis  ivit, 

Corpore  nam  tumulum,  mente  superna  tenet; 
Commutasse  magis  sceptrorum  insignia  credas, 
Quern  regnum  Christi  praemeruisse  v'des." 

Bede,  E.  E.  v.  7. 
^  According  to  tlie  Saxon  chronicle  and  others.    Bede  calls  him  a  native 
•f  Wessex 


220  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  17. 

at  a  place  called  Eastanfeld.  The  synod  demanded 
the  unqualified  submission  of  Wilfrid  to  certain  consti- 
tutions of  Archbishop  Theodorus.  Wilfrid  reproached 
them  with  their  contumacious  resistance,  during  twenty- 
two  years,  to  the  decrees  of  Rome,  and  tauntingly  in- 
quired -whether  they  would  dare  to  compare  their  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  (then  a  manifest  schismatic)  with 
the  successors  of  St.  Peter.^  However  the  clergy 
) night  reverence  the  spiritual  dignity  of  Rome,  the 
name  of  Rome  was  probably  less  imposing  to  the  de- 
scendants of  the  Saxons  than  to  most  of  the  Teutonic 
tribes.  The  Saxons  had  only  known  the  Romans  in 
their  decay,  as  a  people  whom  they  had  driven  from 
the  island.  The  name  was  perhaps  associated  with 
feelings  of  contempt  rather  than  of  reverence.  The 
king  and  the  archbishop  demanded  Wilfrid's  signature 
to  an  act  of  unconditional  submission.  Warned  by  a 
friendly  priest  that  the  design  of  his  enemies  was  to 
make  him  surrender  all  his  rights  and  pronounce  his 
own  degradation,  Wilfrid  replied  with  a  reservation  of 
his  obedience  to  the  canons  of  the  fathers.  They  then 
required  him  to  retire  to  his  monastery  at  Ripon,  and 
not  to  leave  it  without  the  king's  permission ;  to  give 
Expulsion  of  "P  ^^^  *^^  papal  edicts  in  his  favor;  to  ab- 
wiifrid.  g^^jj^  from  every  ecclesiastical  office,  and  to 
acknowledge  the  justice  of  his  own  deposition.  The 
old  man  broke  out  with  a  clear  and  intrepid  voice  into 
a  protest  against  the  iniquity  of  depriving  him  of  an 
office  held  for  forty  years.     He  recounted  his  services 

-  "  InteiTogavlt  eos  qua  fronte  auderent  statutis  apostolicis  ab  Agathone 
Bancto  et  Benedicto  electo,  et  beato  Sergio  sanctissiinis  papis  ad  Britanniam 
pro  salute  animarum  directis  pr;\!ponere,  aut  eligere  decreta  Theodori  epis- 
«opi  (put  in  discordia,  conotituit."  So  writes  Eddius,  no  doubt  present  at 
the  syuod. 


On.AP.  IV.  EXPULSION  OF  WILFRID.  221 

to  the  Church.  The  topics  were  singularly  ill-chosen 
for  the  ear  of  the  king.  He  had  extirpated  the  poison- 
ous plants  of  Scottish  growth,  had  introduced  the  true 
time  of  keeping  Easter,  and  the  orthodox  tonsure  ;  he 
liad  brought  in  the  antiphonal  harmony  :  and  "  having 
done  all  this  "  (of  his  noble  apostolic  labors,  his  con- 
version of  the  heathen,  his  cultivation  of  arts  and  let- 
ters, his  stately  buildings,  his  monasteries,  he  said  noth- 
ing), "  am  I  to  pronounce  my  own  condemnation  ?  I 
ippeal  in  fall  confidence  to  the  apostolic  tribunal."  He 
was  allowed  to  retire  again  to  the  court  of  Mercia. 
But  his  enemies  proceeded  to  condemn  him  as  contu- 
macious. The  sentence  was  followed  by  his  excom- 
munication, with  circumstances  of  more  than  usual  in- 
dignity and  detestation.  Food  which  had  been  blessed 
by  any  of  Wilfrid's  party  was  to  be  thrown  away  as 
an  idol  offering ;  the  sacred  vessels  which  he  had  used 
were  to  be  cleansed  from  the  pollution. 

But  the  dauntless  spirit  of  Wilfrid  was  unbroken, 
^is  confidence  in  the  rightful  power  of  the  pope  un- 
shaken. At  seventy  years  of  age  he  again  undertook 
the  dangerous  journey  to  Italy,  again  presented  him- 
self before  the  pope,  John  V.  A  second  decree  was 
pronounced  in  his  favor.  On  his  return,  the  arch- 
bishop, overawed,  or  less  under  the  influence  of  the 
Northumbrian  king,  received  him  with  respect.  But 
the  king,  Aldfrid,  refused  all  concession.  "  I  will  not 
alter  one  word  of  a  sentence  issued  by  myself,  the 
archbishop,  and  all  the  dignitaries  of  the  land,  for  a 
writing  coming,  as  ye  say,  from  the  apostolic  chair." 
The  death  of  Aldfrid  followed  ;  it  was  attributed  to 
the  divine  vengeance ;  and  it  was  also  given  out  that, 
on  bi«  deathbed,  he  had  expressed  deep  contrition  for 


222  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

the  wrongs  of  Wilfrid.  On  the  accession  of  Osred  a 
new  synod  was  held  on  the  banks  of  the  Nid.  The 
A.D  705.  archbishop  Berchtwald  appeared  with  Wil- 
frid, and  produced  the  apostolic  decree,  confirmed  by 
the  papal  excommunication  of  all  who  should  disobey 
it.  The  prelates  and  thanes  seemed  disposed  to  resist ; 
they  declared  their  reluctance  to  annul  the  solemn  de- 
cision of  the  synod  at  Eastanfeld.  Tlie  abbess  Alfre- 
da*  the  sister  of  the  late  king,  rose,  and  declared  the 
deathbed  penitence  of  Aldfrid  for  his  injustice.  She 
was  followed  by  the  ealdorman,  Berchfrid,  the  protector 
of  the  realm  during  the  king's  minority,  who  declared 
that,  when  hard  pressed  in  battle  by  his  enemies,  he 
had  vowed,  if  God  should  vouchsafe  his  deliverance, 
to  espouse  Wilfrid's  cause.  That  deliverance  was  a 
manifest  declaration  of  God  in  favor  of  Wilfrid.  Ami- 
ty was  restored,  the  bishops  interchanged  the  kiss  of 
peace ;  Wilfrid  reassumed  the  monasteries  of  Ripon 
Death  of        and    Hexham.     The   few   last   vears  of  his 

Wilfrid.  .  '' 

A.D.  709.  life  (he  lived  to  the  age  of  76)  soon  glided 
away.  He  died  in  another  monastery,  which  he  had 
founded  at  Oundle  ;  his  remains  were  conveyed  witb 
great  pomp  to  Ripon. 

So  closes  the  life  of  Wilfrid,  and  the  first  period 
of  Christian  history  in  England.  The  sad  scenes  of 
sacerdotal  jealousy  and  strife,  which  made  his  course 
almost  a  constant  feud  and  himself  an  object  of  un- 
popularity, even  of  persecution,  are  lost  in  the  specta- 
cle of  the  blessings  conferred  by  Christianity  on  our 
Saxon  ancestors.  Even  the  wild  cast  of  religious 
adventure  in  this  life  was  more  widely  beneficial 
than  had  been  a  more  tranquil  course.  As  the  great 
Prelate   of  the   North,    as  <i  missionaiy,   his   success 


Chap.  IV.  DEATH  OF  WILFRID.  223 

showed  liis  unrivalled  qualifications  As  a  bishop, 
he  provoked  hostility  by  an  ecclesiastical  pomp  which 
contrasted  too  strongly  with  the  general  poverty,  and 
his  determination  to  enforce  strict  conformity  to  the 
authority  of  Rome  offended  the  converts  of  the  Scot- 
tish monks.  His  banishment  into  wild  pagan  countries 
and  his  frequent  journeys  to  Rome,  were  advantageous, 
though  in  a  very  different  manner,  the  former  among 
the  rude  tribes  to  whom  he  preached  the  Gospel,  the 
latter  to  his  native  land.  He  never  returned  to  Eno;- 
land  without  bringing  something  more  valuable  than 
Papal  edicts  in  his  own  favor.^ 

The  hatred  of  the  churchmen  of  this  time  might 
seem  reserved  for  each  other ;  to  all  besides  their  in- 
fluence was  that  of  pure  Christian  humanity.  Their 
quarrels  died  with  them ;  the  civilization  which  they 
introduced,  the  milder  manners,  the  letters,  the  arts, 
the  sciences  survived.  On  the  estates  w^hich  the  prod- 
igal generosity  of  the  kings,  especially  when  they 
gained  them  from  their  heathen  neighbors,  bestowed 
on  the  Church,  with  the  immediate  manumission  of 
the  slaves,  could  not  but  tend  to  mitigate  the  general 
co^dition  of  that  class.  Some  of  these  were  probably 
of  British  descent,  and  so  Christianity  might  allay 
even  that  inveterate  national  hostility.  Nor  were  their 
own  predial  slaves  alone  directly  benefited  by  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Churchmen.  The  redemption  of  slaves 
was  one  of  the  objects  for  which  the  canons  allowe<l 
the  alienation  of  their  lands.  Among  the  pious  acts 
by  which  a  wealthy  penitent  might  buy  off  the  Cor- 
poral  austerities   demanded   by  the   discipline  of   the 

1  Compare  Kemble's  Anglo-Saxons,  ii.  432  et  seq.    I  was  glad  to  find 
that  I  had  anticipated  the  high  authority  of  Mr.  Kemble. 


224  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

Church,  was  the  enfranchisement  of  his  slaves.  The 
wealth  which  flowed  into  the  Church  at  that  time  in 
BO  full  a  stream  was  poured  forth  again  in  various 
channels  for  the  public  improvement  and  welfare.^ 
The  adversaries  of  Wilfrid,  as  "well  as  his  friends, 
like  Benedict  Biscop,  were  his  rivals  in  this  generous 
strife  for  the  advancement  of  knowledge  and  civility, 
Theodorus,  the  archbishop,  was  a  Greek  by  birth  3 
perhaps   his    Greek    descent   made   him   less   servilely 

■»bedient  to  Rome.  While  the  other  ecclesiastics  were 
introducing  the  Roman  literature  with  the  Roman 
service,  Theodorus  founded  a  school  in  Canterbury 
for  the  study  of  Greek.  He  bestowed  on  this  founda- 
tion a  number  of  books  in  his  native  language,  among 
them  a  fine  copy  of  Homer. 

The  rapid  progress  of  Christianity  and  her  attendant 
Bedeborn  civilizatiou,  appears  from  the  life  and  occupa- 
673,  died  735.  ^j(jjjg  of  Bede.  Not  much  more  than  seventy 
years  after  the  landing  of  Augustine  on  the  savage, 
turbulent,  and  heathen  island,  in  a  remote  part  of  one 
of  the  northern  kingdoms  of  the  Octarchy,  visited 
many  years  later  by  its  first  Christian  teacher,  a  native 
Saxon  is  devoting  a  long  and  peaceful  life  to  the  cul- 
tivation of  letters,  makes  himself  master  of  the  whole 
range  of  existing  knowledge  in  science  and  history  as 
vvell  as  in  theology ;  and  ^writes  Latin  both  in  prose  and 

^erse,  in  a  style  equal  to  that  of  most  of  his  contem- 
poraries. Nor  did  Bede  stand  alone  ;  the  study  of  let- 
ters was  promoted  with  equal  activity  by  Archbishop 
Theodorus,  and  by  Adrian,  who  having  declined  the 

1  Burke  observes,  "  They  extracted  the  fruits  of  virtue  even  fi-om  crimes, 
and  whenever  a  great  man  expiated  his  private  oftences,  he  provided  in  tho 
same  act  for  tlie  public  happiness."  —  Abridgment  of  Eng.  Hist.  Works, 
X.  p.  268. 


Chap.  IV.  BEDE.  225 

archbishopric,  accompanied  Theodorus  into  tlie  island. 
Aldhehn^  of  Malmesbury  was  only  inferior  in  the 
extent  of  his  acquirements,  as  a  writer  of  Latin  poetry 
far  superior  to  Bede. 

The  uneventful  life  of  Bede  was  passed  in  the  mon- 
astery under  the  instructor  of  his  earliest  youth,  Bene- 
dict Biscop.  Its  obscurity,  as  well  as  the  extent  of  his 
labors,  bears  witness  to  its  repose.*^  Bede  stood  aloof 
from  all  active  ecclesiastical  duties,  and  mingled  in  none 
of  the  ecclesiastical  disputes.  It  was  his  office  to  mas- 
ter, and  to  disseminate  through  his  writings,  the  intellec- 
tual treasures  brought  from  the  continent  by  Benedict. 

Even  if  Bede  had  been  gifted  with  original  genius, 
he  was  too  busy  in  the  acquisition  of  learning  to  allow 
it  free  scope.  He  had  the  whole  world  of  letters  to 
unfold  to  his  countrymen.  He  was  the  interpreter  of 
the  thoughts  of  ages  to  a  race  utterly  unacquainted 
even  with  the  names  of  the  great  men  of  pagan  or 
of  Christian  antiquity. 

The  Christianity  of  the  first  converts  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  kingdoms  was  entirely  ritual.  The  whole  the- 
ology of  some  of  the  native  teachers  was  contained  in 
the  Creed  and  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Some  of  them 
were  entirely  ignorant  of  Latin,  and  for  them  Bede 
himself  translated  these  all-sufficient  manuals  of  Chris- 


1  Aldhelm  was  born  about  656,  died  709. 

2  The  Pope  Sergius  is  said  to  have  invited  Bede  to  Rome  in  order  to 
avail  himself  of  the  erudition  of  so  great  a  scholar.  This  invitation  is 
doubted.  —  See  Stevenson's  Bede,  on  anotlier  reading  in  the  letter  ad- 
duced by  William  of  Malmesbury.  I  agree  with  Mr.  Wright  (Biograph. 
Lit.  p.  265),  that  it  is  more  probable  the  Pope  should  send  for  Bede  than 
for  a  nameless  monk  from  tlie  monastery  at  Wearmouth.  It  is  nearly  cer- 
tain that  Bede  did  not  go  to  Rome.  The  death  of  Pope  Sergius  accounts 
very  naturally  for  Bede's  disobedience  to  the  papal  mandate,  or  courteous 
invitation. 

VOL.    II.  15 


226  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

tian  faith  into  Anglo-Saxon.^  Bede  was  tlie  parent 
of  theology  in  England.  Whatever  their  knowledge, 
the  earlier  foreign  bishops  were  missionaries,  not  writ- 
ers ;  and  the  native  prelates  were  in  general  fully  oc- 
cupied with  the  practical  duties  of  their  station.  The 
theology  of  Bede  flowed  directly  from  the  fountain  of 
Christian  doctrine,  the  sacred  writings.  It  consists  in 
commentari-es  on  the  whole  Bible.  But  his  interpreta- 
tion is  that  which  now  prevailed  universally  in  the 
Church.  By  this  the  whole  volume  is  represented  as 
a  great  allegory.  Bede  probably  did  little  more  than 
select  from  the  more  popular  Fathers,  what  appeared  to 
him  the  most  subtle  and  ingenious,  and  therefore  most 
true  and  edifying  exposition.  Even  the  New  Testa- 
ment, the  Gospels,  and  Acts,  have  their  hidden  and 
mysterious,  as  well  as  their  historical,  signification. 
No  word  but  enshrines  a  religious  and  typical  sense.^ 
The  science  as  the  theology  of  Bede  was  that  of  his 
age  —  the  science  of  the  ancients  (Pliny  was  the  au- 
thor chiefly  followed),  narrowed  rather  than  expanded 
by  the  natural  philosophy,  supposed  to  be  authoiized 
and  established  by  the  language  of  the  Bible.^     Bede 

1  See  the  letter  of  Bede  to  Bishop  Egbert,  in  which  he  enjoins  him  to 
enforce  the  learning  these  two  forms  by  heart:  "  Quod  non  solum  de  laicis, 
id  est,  in  populari  vita  constitutis,  verum  etiam  de  clericis  sive  monachis, 
qui  Latinse  sunt  linguae  expertes,  fieri  oportet."  He  urges  their  efficacy 
against  the  assaults  of  unclean  spirits.  —  Smitli's  Bede,  p.  306. 

2  "  De  rerura  natura,"  in  Giles,  vol.  vi. 

8  It  is  this  Christian  part  of  Bede's  natural  philosophy  which  alone  ha« 
much  interest,  as  showing  the  interworking  of  the  biblical  records  of  the  crea- 
tion, now  the  popular  belief,  into  the  old  traditionary  astronomy  derived  by 
the  Romans  from  the  Greeks;  and  so  becoming  the  science  of  Latin  Chris- 
tendom. The  creation  by  God,  the  creation  in  six  days,  is  of  course  the 
groundwork  of  Bede's  astronomical  science.  The  earth  is  the  centre  and 
primary  object  of  creation.  The  heaven  is  of  a  fiery  and  subtile  nature, 
round,  equidistant  in  every  part,  as  a  canopy,  from  the  centre  of  the  earth. 
It  turns  round  rver}'  day,  with  ineffable  rapidity,  only  moderated  by  the 


Chap.  IV.  LEARNING  AND  THEOLOGY  OF  BEDE.      227 

had  road  some  of  the  great  writers,  especially  the  poets 
of  antiquity.  He  had  some  familiarity  with  Virgil, 
Ovid,  Lucan,  Statius,  and  even  Lucretius.  This  is 
shown  in  his  treatises  on  Grammar  and  Metre.  His 
own  poetry  is  the  feeble  echo  of  humbler  masters,  the 
Christian  poets,  Prudentius,  Sedulius,  Arator,  Juven- 
cus,  which  were  chiefly  read  in  the  schools  of  that  time. 
It  may  l)e  questioned,  however,  whether  many  of  the 
citations  from  ancient  authors,  often  adduced  from  me- 
diseval  writers,  as  indicating  their  knowledge  of  such 
authors,  are  more  than  traditionary,  almost  proverbial, 
insulated  passages,  brilliant  fragments,  broken  off  from 
antiquity,  and  reset  again  and  again  by  writers  borrow- 
ing them  from  each  other,  but  who  had  never  read 
another  word  of  the  lost  poet,  orator,  or  philosopher. 

resistance  of  the  seven  planets,  —  three  above  the  sun:  Saturn,  Jupiter, 
Mars,  then  the  Sun;  three  below:  Venus,  Mercury,  the  Moon.  The  stars 
go  round  in  their  fixed  courses;  the  northern  perform  the  shortest  circle. 
The  highest  heaven  has  its  proper  limit;  it  contains  the  angelic  virtues, 
who  descend  upon  earth,  assume  ethereal  bodies,  perform  human  functions, 
and  return.  The  heaven  is  tempered  with  glacial  waters,  lest  it  should  be 
Bet  on  fire:  the  inferior  heaven  is  called  the  firmament,  because  it  separates 
these  superincumbent  waters  from  the  waters  below.'  These  firma- 
mental  waters  are  lower  than  the  spiritual  heavens,  higher  than  all  corpo- 
real beings,  reserved,  some  say,  for  a  second  deluge,  others  more  truly,  to 
temper  the  fire  of  the  stars.  The  rest  of  Bede's  system  on  the  motions  of 
the  planets  and  stars,  on  winds,  thunder,  light,  the  rainbow,  the  tides,  be- 
longs to  the  history  of  philosophy.  His  work  on  the  Nature  of  Things  is 
curious  as  showing  a  monk,  on  the  wild  shores  of  Northumberland,  so  socm 
after  the  Christianization  of  the  island,  busying  himself  with  such  pro- 
found questions,  if  not  observing,  recording  the  observations  of  others  on 
the  causes  of  natural  phenomena;  learning  all  that  he  could  learn,  teach- 
ing all  he  had  learned,  in  the  Latin  of  his  time;  promoting  at  least,  and 
pointing  the  way  to  these  important  studies.  Bede's  chronological  labors 
(he  was  a  strenuous  advocate  for  the  shorter  Hebrew  chronology  of  the 
Old  Testament,  in  order  to  establish  his  favorite  theory,  so  long  dominant 
in  theolog}%  of  the  six  ages  of  the  world)  implied  and  displayed  powers  of 
calculation  rare  at  that  time  in  Latin  Christianity,  in  England  probably 
unrivalled,  if  not  standing  absolutely  alone.  —  Epist.  ad  Pleguiu.,  Giles,  i. 
p.  145 


228  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV, 

Tlio  works  of  BeJe  were  written  for  a  veiy  small 
intellectual  aristocracy.  To  all  but  a  few  among  the 
monks  and  clergy,  Latin  was  a  foreign  language,  in 
which  they  recited,  with  no  clear  apprehension  of  its 
meaning,  the  ordinary  ritual,^ 

But  even  at  this  earlier  period,  Christianity  seized 
and  pressed  into  her  service  the  more  effective  vehiclo 
of  popular  instruction,  the  vernacular  poetry.  No 
doubt  from  the  first  there  must  have  been  some  rude 
preaching  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  but  the  extant  Anglo- 
Saxon  homilies  are  of  a  later  date.  Caedmon,  however, 
the  greatest  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  poets,  flourished  dur- 
ing the  youth  of  Bede.  So  marvellous  did  the  songs 
of  Caedmon  (pouring  forth  as  they  did  the  treasures  of 
biblical  poetry,  the  sublime  mysteries  of  the  Creation, 
the  Fall,  the  wonders  of  the  Hebrew  history,  the 
gentler  miracles  of  the  New  Testament,  the  terrors  of 
the  judgment,  the  torments  of  hell,  the  bliss  of  heaven) 
sound  to  the  popular  ear,  that  they  could  be  attributed 
to  nothing  less  than  divine  inspiration.  The  youth  and 
early  aspirations  of  Csedmon  were  invested  at  once  in 
a  mythic  character  like  the  old  poets  of  India  and  of 
Greece,  but  in  the  form  of  Christian  miracle. 

The  Saxons,  no  doubt,  brought  their  poetry  from 
their  native  forests.  Their  bards  were  a  recognized 
order :  in  all  likelihood  in  the  halls  of  the  kings  of  the 
Octarchy,  the  bard  had  his  seat  of  honor,  and  while 
he  quaffed  the  mead,  sang  the  victories  of  the  thanes 

1  See  above,  quotation  from  Epist.  to  Egbert.  Bede  adds,  that  for  this 
purpose  he  had  himself  translated  the  Creed  and  Lord's  Prayer  into  the 
vernacular  Anglo-Saxon.  "  Propter  quod  et  ipse  multis  siepe  sacerdotibus 
idiotis,  ha'c  quoque  utraque,  et  synibolum  videlicet,  et  Dominicam  oratio- 
uein,  in  linguam  Angloruin  translata  obtuli." — Epist.  ad  Egbert.  Hi« 
birth  is  uncertain:  he  died  about  C80. 


Chap.  IV.  ANGLO-SAXON  POETRY.  229 

and  kincTS  over  the  deo;enerate  Roman  and  fuo-ltlve 
Briton.  Of  these  lays  some  fragments  remain,  earlier 
probably  than  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  but 
tinged  with  Christian  allusion  in  their  later  tradition 
from  bard  to  bard:  such  are  the  Battle  of  Conis- 
borough,  the  Traveller's  Song,  and  the  Romance  of 
Be::)wulf.^  The  profoundly  religious  mind  of  Csedmon 
could  not  endure  to  learn  these  profane  songs  of  ad- 
venture and  battle,  or  the  lighter  and  more  mirthful 
strains.  When  his  turn  came  to  sing  in  the  hall,  and 
the  harp  was  handed  to  him,  he  was  wont  to  withdraw 
in  silence  and  in  shame.^  One  evening  he  had  retired 
from  the  hall ;  it  was  that  night  his  duty  to  tend  the 
cattle ;  he  fell  asleep.  A  form  appeared  to  him  in  a 
vision  and  said,  "  Sing,  O  Caedmon ! "  Csedmon  re- 
plied, "  that  he  knew  not  how  to  sing,  he  knew  no 
subject  for  a  song."  "  Sing,"  said  the  visitant,  "  the 
Creation."  The  thoughts  and  the  words  flashed  upon 
the  mind  of  Csedmon,  and  the  next  morning  his  mem- 
ory retained  the  verses,  which  Bede  thought  so  sublime 
in  the  native  language  as  to  be  but  feebly  rendered  in 
the  Latin. 

The  wonder  reached  the  ears  of  the  famous  Hilda, 
the  abbess  of  Whitby :  it  was  at  once  ascribed  to  the 
grace  of  God.  Casdmon  was  treated  as  one  inspired. 
He  could  not  read,  he  did  not  understand  Latin.  But 
when  any  passage  of  the  Bible  was  interpreted  to  him, 
or  any  of  the  sublime  truths  of  religion  unfolded,  he 
Fat  for  some  time  in  quiet  rumination,  and  poured  it 

i  Kemble's  Beowulf,  with  preface. 

2  "  Unde  nonnunquain  in  conviviis,  cum  esset  loetitias  causa,  et  omnes 
ver  ordinem  cantare  deberent,  ille  ubi  appropinquare  sibi  citharam  ceniebat, 
surgebat  a  media  ccEna,  et  egressus  ad  suam  domum  repedabat." — Bede, 
U.  E.  iv.  c.  24. 


280  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

all  fortli  in  that  brief  alliterative  verse,  which  kindled 
and  enchanted  his  hearers.  Thus  was  the  whole  his- 
tory of  the  Bible,  and  the  whole  creed  of  Christianity, 
in  the  imaginative  form  which  it  then  wore,  made  at 
once  accessible  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  people.  Caidmon's 
poetry  was  their  bible,  no  doubt  far  more  effective  in 
awakening  and  changing  the  popular  mind  than  a  lit- 
eral translation  of  the  Scriptures  could  have  been.  He 
chose,  by  the  natural  test  of  his  own  kindred  sympa- 
thies, all  which  would  most  powerfully  work  on  the 
imagination,  or  strike  to  the  heart,  of  a  rude  yet  poetic 
race. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  was  the  earliest  vernacular  Chris- 
tian poetry,  a  dim  prophecy  of  what  that  poetry  might 
become  in  Dante  and  Milton.  While  all  the  Greek 
and  Latin  poetry  labored  with  the  difficulties  of  an  un- 
congenial diction  and  form  of  verse  ;  and  at  last  was 
but  a  cold  dull  paraphrase  of  that  which  was  already, 
in  the  Greek  and  in  the  Vulgate  Bible,  far  nobler  poe- 
try, though  without  the  technical  form  of  verse ;  the 
Anglo-Saxon  had  some  of  the  freedom  and  freshness 
of  original  poetry.  Its  brief,  sententious,  and  allitera- 
tive cast  seemed  not  unsuited  to  the  parallelism  of  the 
Hebrew  verse ;  and  perhaps  the  ignorance  of  Ca)dmon 
kept  him  above  the  servility  of  mere  translation.^ 

Aldhelm  of  Malmesbury  was  likewise  skilled  in  the 
vernacular  poetry ;  but  though  he  used  it  for  the  pur- 
pose of  religious  instruction,  it  does  not  seem  to  have 

1  The  poetry  of  Ca?(lmon  may  be  judi^ed  by  the  admirable  translations 
in  the  volume  on  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  by  J.  J.  Coney beare.  The  whole 
has  been  edited,  with  his  fulness  of  Anglo-Saxon  learning,  bj  Mr.  Thorpe; 
London,  1832.  Mr.  Coneybeare  may  to  a  certain  degree  have  Miltonized 
.he  simple  Anglo-Saxon;  but  he  has  not  done  more  than  justice  to  hii 
vigor  and  rude  boUluess. 


Chap.  IV.  CHURCH  MUSIC  231 

been  written  verse,  though  one  of  his  songs  survived 
in  the  popular  voice  for  some  time.^  What  he  no 
doubt  considered  the  superior  majesty  or  sanctity  of  the 
J/atin  was  alone  suited  for  such  mysterious  subjects. 
Of  Aldhelm  it  is  recorded  that  he  saw  with  sorrow  the 
b'ttle  effect  which  the  services  of  religion  had  on  the 
peasantry,  who  either  listened  with  indifference  to  the  ad- 
monitions of  the  preacher,  or  returned  home  utterly  for- 
oetful  of  his  words.  He  stationed  himself  therefore  on  a 
bridge  over  which  they  must  pass,  in  the  garb  of  a  min- 
strel, and  when  he  had  arrested  the  crowd  and  fully  in- 
thralled  their  attention  by  the  sweetness  of  his  song,  he 
gradually  introduced  into  his  profane  and  popular  lay 
some  of  the  solemn  truths  of  religion.  Thus  he  suc- 
ceeded in  awakening  a  deeper  devotion  and  won  many 
hearts  to  the  faith,  which  he  would  have  attempted  in 
vain  to  move  by  severer  language,  or  even  by  the  awful 
excommunication  of  the  church.  What  he  himself  no 
doubt  despised,  his  vernacular  verse,  in  comparison  with 
the  lame  stateliness  of  his  poor  hexameters,  ought  to 
have  been  his  pride. 

Among  a  people  accustomed  to   the  association  of 
music,  however  rude,  with  their  poetry,  the  choral  ser- 

1  "  Nativge  quippe  linguae  non  negligebat  carmina,  adeo  ut  teste  libro 
Elfredi,  de  quo  superius  dixi,  nulla  unquam  ajtate  par  ei  fuerat  uspiam  poe- 
sin  Anglicani  posse  facere,  tantum  componere,  eadem  apposite  vel  canere 
vel  dicere.  Denique  commemorat  Elfredus  carmen  triviale  Adhelmum  fe- 
cisse;  adjiciens  causam  qua  probet  rationaliter  tantum  virum  his  qua?  vi- 
dentur  frivola  institisse.  Populum  eo  tempore  semibarbarum,  parum  divi- 
nis  sermonibus  intentum,  statim  cantatis  missis  domos  cursitare  solitum : 
ideoque  sanctum  virum,  super  pontem  qui  rura  et  urbem  continuat,  abeun- 
tibus  se  opposuisse  obicem,  quasi  artem  cantandi  professum.  Eo  plus  quam 
semel  facto,  plebis  favorem  et  concursum  emeritum  hoc  commento,  sensim 
inter  ludicra  verbis  scripturarum  insertis,  elves  ad  sanitatem  reduxisse,  qui 
Bi  severe  et  cum  excommunicailone  agendum  putasset,  profecto  protVcisset 
aihil."  — W.  Malmesb.  Vit.  Adhelm.;  Wharton,  Anglia  Sacra,  p.  4. 


232  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

vice  of  the  clmrcli  must  have  been  peculiarly  impres- 
sive. The  solemn  Gregorian  system  of  chanting  was 
now  established  in  Rome,  and  was  introduced  into  Eng- 
land by  the  Roman  clergy  and  by  those  who  visited 
Rome,  with  zealous  activity.  Here,  thougli  opposed  on 
some  points,  Archbishop  Theodorus  and  Wilfrid  acted 
in  perfect  amity. ^  In  Kent  the  music  of  the  church 
had  almost  from  the  first  formed  a  part  of  the  divine 
worship,  and  James  the  Deacon,  the  companion  of  Pau- 
linus,  had  taught  it  in  Northumbria.  It  is  recorded  to 
the  praise  of  Theodorus  that  on  his  visitation  through- 
out the  island  he  introduced  eveiywhere  that  system 
of  chanting  which  had  hitherto  been  practised  in  Kent 
alone ;  and  among  the  important  services  to  the  church, 
of  which  Wilfrid  boasted  before  the  synod  of  Eastre- 
field,  is  the  introduction  of  antiphonal  chanting.^  So 
much  importance  was  attached  to  this  part  of  the  ser- 
vice, that  Pope  Agatho  permitted  John,  the  chief  of 
the  Roman  choir,  to  accompany  Benedict  Biscop  to 
England  ^  in  order  to  instruct  the  monks  of  Wearmouth 
in  sinoino; :  John  f^ave  lessons  throuo-hout  Northumbria. 
Even  at  this  early  period  the  Anglo-Saxon  laws  are 
strongly  impregnated  with  the  dominant  Christianity : 
they  are  the  laws  of  kings,  whose  counsellors,  if  not 
their  co-legislators,  are  prelates.  In  those  of  King  Ina 
of  Wessex,  either  the  parent  or  the  priest  is  bound  to 
bring,  or  force  to  be  brought,  the  infant  to  holy  baj^)- 


1  Bede,  H.  E.  iv.  2. 

2  "  Aut  quomodo  juxta  ritum  primitiv£E  ecclesise  consono  vocis  modula- 
mine  binis  astaiitibus  choris  persultare,  responsoriis  antiphonisque  reciprocis 
instruerem."  — Eddius,  c.  45. 

8  Bede,  H.  E.  iv.  18.  On  this  and  on  the  pictures  brought  from  Rome 
on  more  than  one  occasion,  compare  Wright,  Biographia  Literaria,  Life  of 
B.  Bidcop. 


Chap.  IV.  CHURCH  LAWS.  233 

tism  within  thirty  dajs  under  a  penalty  of  thirty  shil- 
hngs ;  1  if  he  should  die  unbaptized,  the  wehrgeld  of 
til  is  spiritual  death  is  the  whole  possessions  of  the  guilty 
])erson.  Spiritual  relationship  was  placed  in  the  same 
rank  with  natural  affinity.  The  godfather  claimed  the 
wehrgeld  for  the  death  of  his  godson,  the  godson  for 
that  of  the  godfather.  Sunday  was  hallowed  by  law. 
T'he  slave  who  worked  by  his  lord's  command  was  free, 
and  the  lord  paid  a  fine ;  if  by  his  own  will,  without 
his  lord's  knowledge,  he  suffered  corporal  chastisement. 
If  the  free  man  worked  on  the  holy  day  without  his 
lord's  command,  he  lost  his  freedom  or  paid  a  compen- 
sation of  sixty  shillings. 

Already  the  awful  church  had  acquired  a  recognized 
right  of  sanctuary.  The  nature  of  kirk  shot,  a  pay- 
ment of  certain  corn  and  seed  as  first  fruits,  is  some- 
what obscure,  whether  paid  to  the  church  as  the 
church,  or  to  the  church  only  from  lands  held  of  the 
church.  The  laws  of  Kent,  during  the  archiepiscopate 
of  Berchtwald,  protect  the  Sabbath,  punish  certain  im- 
moralities, and  guarantee  all  grants  of  lands  to  the 
church  :  there  are  even  exemptions  from  secular  im- 
posts. 

Thus,  then,  in  less  than  a  century  and  a  half  from 
the  landing  of  Augustine  to  the  death  of  a.d.  597-735. 
Bede,  above  half  a  century  before  the  conflicting  king- 
doms were  consolidated  into  one  monarchy,  every  one 
of  these  kingdoms  had  become  Christian.  Each  liad 
its  bishop  or  bishops.  Kent  had  its  metropolitan  see 
of  Canterbury  and  the  bishopric  of  Rochester ;  Essex, 
London ;  East  Anglia,  Dunwich,  afterwards  unde; 
Archbishop  Theodorus  Elmham,  removed  later  to  No? 

1  Thorpe,  vol.  i.  p.  103 ;  Kemble,  ii.  490  et  seq.  et  append.  D. 


234  LATES    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  17 

wich :  late-converted  Sussex  had  Selsey ;  Wessex» 
Winchester,  afterwards  also  Sherburn.  The  great 
kingdom  of  Mercia  at  first  was  subject  to  the  single 
Bishop  of  Lichfield;  Leicester,  Worcester,  Hereford, 
and  Sidmanchester  in  Lindesay  were  severed  from  tliat 
vast  diocese.  The  province  of  York,  according  to 
Archbishop  Theodorus's  scheme,  was  to  com})rehend 
York,  Hexham,  and  Lindisfarne.  Hexham  fell  in  the 
Danish  invasions ;  Lindisfarne  was  removed  to  Dur- 
ham ;  a  see  at  Ripon  saw  but  one  bishop  ;  the  modern 
bishopric  of  Carlisle  may  be  considered  the  successor 
of  the  bishopric  of  Whitherne  in  Galloway.  Above 
these  rose  the  Metropolitan  of  Canterbury ;  after  some 
A.D.  785.  struggle  for  its  independence  that  of  York. 
As  in  all  the  Teutonic  kingdoms  the  hierarchy  became 
a  coordinate  aristocracy,  taking  their  seats  as  represen- 
tatives of  the  nation  in  the  witenagemote,^  counsellors 
of  the  king  as  great  territorial  lords,  sitting  later  as  no- 
bles with  the  earls,  as  magistrates  with  the  ealdermen. 
Besides  their  share  in  the  national  councils,  as  a  sepa- 
rate body  they  hold  their  own  synods,  in  which  they 
enact  laws  for  all  their  Christian  subjects  —  at  Hert- 
ford, at  Hatfield,  at  Cloveshoo  probably  near  Tewkes 
bury  (Cloveshoo  was  appointed  as  the  place  of  meeting 
for  an  annual  synod),  later  at  Calcuith  supposed  to  be 
in  Kent.  Peaceful  monasteries  arise  in  all  quarters ; 
monasteries  in  the  strict  sense,  and  also  conventual  es- 
tablishments, in  which  the  clergy  dwell  together,  and 
from  their  relicrious  centres  radiate  around  and  dissem- 

1  As  in  all  the  Teutonic  kingdoms,  the  province  of  the  Witan,  or  parlia- 
ment, and  the  synod,  were  by  no  means  distinctly  comprehended  or  defined. 
The  great  national  council,  the  Witan,  in  its  sovereign  capacity,  passed  laws 
on  ecclesiastical  subjects;  the  synods  at  least  occasionally  trenched  on  the 
livil  laws. 


Chap.  IV.  CHRISTIANITY  ESTABLISHED.  235 

inate  Christianity  through  the  land.  Each  great 
church,  certainly  each  cathedral,  had  its  monastery, 
the  priests  of  which  were  not  merely  the  officiating 
clergy  of  the  church,  but  the  missionaries  in  all  the 
surrounding  districts.  Christianity  became  the  law  of 
the  land,  the  law  underwent  the  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  native  Teutonic  religion,  except  in  a  few 
usages  and  superstitions,  has  absolutely  disappeared. 
The  heathen  Danes,  when  they  arrive,  find  no  vestige 
of  their  old  kindred  faith  in  tribes  sprung  not  many 
centuries  before  from  the  same  Teutonic  races.  The 
Roman  arts,  which  the  fierce  and  savage  Jutes  and 
Angles  had  obliterated  from  the  land,  revive  in  another 
form.  Besides  the  ecclesiastical  Latin,  a  Teutonic 
literature  has  begun ;  the  German  bards  have  become 
Christian  poets.  No  sooner  has  Anglo-Saxon  Britain 
become  one  (no  doubt  her  religious  unity  must  have 
contributed,  if  imperceptibly,  yet  in  a  great  degree  to 
her  national  unity)  than  she  takes  her  place  among  the 
confederation  of  Eui'opean  kingdoms. 


^M  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 


CHAPTER  V. 

CONVERSION  OF  THE  TEUTONIC  RACES  BEIOND  THE 
ROMAN  EMPIRE. 

While  the  early  Christianity  of  these  islands  re- 
tired before  the  Saxon  conquerors  to  Wales,  to  the 
Scottish  Hebrides,  and  to  Ireland,  and  looked  on  the 
heathen  invaders  as  hopeless  and  irreclaimable  Pagans, 
beyond  the  pale  of  Christian  charity,  and  from  whom 
it  was  a  duty,  the  duty  of  irreconcilable  hatred,  to 
withhold  the  Gospel,  that  faith  was  flowing  back  upon 
the  continent  of  Europe  in  a  gentle  but  almost  contin- 
uous tide.  In  Anglo-Saxon  England  it  was  only  after 
a  century,  that,  on  the  invitation  of  the  Northumbrian 
king  already  converted  by  Roman  missionaries,  the 
monks  from  lona,  and  from  some,  perhaps,  of  the  Irish 
monasteries,  left  their  solitudes,  and  commenced  their 
mission  of  love. 

But  already,  even  before  the  landing  of  Augustine 
Conversion  of  ^^^  England,  au  Irish  monk  has  found  his  way 
Cfiuians.  ^^  ^Yi^  continent,  and  is  commencing  the  con- 
version of  German  tribes  in  a  region,  if  within  the 
older  frontier  of  the  Roman  territory,  reduced  again 
{()  the  possession  of  heathen  Teutonic  tribes:  and  from 
llial  time  out  of  these  islands  go  forth  the  chief  apostles 
of  Germany.  Columban  is  the  forerunner,  by  at  least 
a  century,  of  the  holy  Boniface.^ 

1  Coluiubau  lived  at  the  eud  of  the  sixth  aud  the  begiuning  of  th« 
seventh  century 


Chap.  V.  ST.  COLUMBAN.  237 

It  is  (llfBcult  to  conceive  the  motives  wliicli  led  forth 
these  first  pious  wanderers  from  their  native  st.  coiumbau 
land.  Columban,  at  his  outset,  was  no  missionary, 
urged  by  a  passionate  or  determined  zeal  to  convert 
Pagan  nations  to  the  Cross  of  Christ ;  nor  was  he  a 
pilgrim,  lured  forth  from  his  retreat  by  the  uncon- 
querable desire  of  visiting  the  scenes  of  apostolic 
labors,  the  spiritual  wonders  of  Rome,  or  to  do  hem- 
age  to  the  relics  of  Saints  or  Apostles.  He  and  his, 
followers  seemed  only  to  seek  a  safe  retreat  in  which 
he  might  shroud  his  solitary  devotion  ;  or,  if  his  as- 
cetic fame  should  gather  around  him  an  increasing 
number  of  disciples,  form  a  coenobitic  establishment. 
They  might  have  found,  it  might  be  supposed,  retire- 
ment not  less  secure  against  secular  intinision,  as  wild, 
as  silent,  as  holy,  in  the  yet  peaceful  Ireland,  or  in  the 
Scottish  islands,  as  in  the  mountains  of  the  Vosges  or 
the  valleys  of  the  Alps.^ 

But  the  influence  of  Columban,  as  the  parent  of  so 
many  important  monasteries  on  the  borders  and  within 
the  frontier  of  Teutonic  Paganism,  as  well  as  the  rev- 
erence with  which  his  holy  character  was  invested,  and 
which  enabled  him  to  assert  the  moral  dignity  of  Chris- 
tianity with  such  intrepidity,  are  events  which  strong- 
ly mai'k  the  religious  history  of  this  age.  The  stranger 
monk  issues  from  his  retreat  to  rebuke  the  vices  of 
kings,  confronts  the  cruel  Brunehaut,  and  such  is  the 
fearful  sanctity  which  environs  the  man  of  God,  that 
even  her  deadly  hostility  can  venture  nothing  beycmd 
his  banishment. 

Columban  was  born  in  Leinster,  at  the  period  when 
Ireland  is  described  as  a  kind  of  Hesperian  elysium  of 
1  Mabillon,  Ann.  Benedict.,  vol.  i.  p.  191. 


238  LATIN  CIIRISTIAKITT.  Book  IM 

His  birth.  peace  and  piety.  His  early  aspirations  after 
monastic  holiness  were  fostered  in  the  convent  of  Ban- 
chor,  on  the  coast  of  Ulster.  He  became  a  proficient 
in  the  mystic  piety  of  the  day.  But  he  was  suddenly 
seized  with  the  desire  of  foreign  travel ;  he  wrung  an 
unwilling  consent  to  his  departure  from  his  spiritual 
father,  Comgal,  abbot  of  Banchor.  He  just  touched 
on,  but  shrunk  from,  the  contaminated  shores  of  Pa- 
ganized Britain,  and  landed  in  Gaul.  The  fame  of  his 
piety  reached  the  ears  of  one  of  the  kings  of  the  land  : 
all  that  Columban  requested  was  permission  to  retire 
into  some  unapproachable  wilderness. 

The  woody  mountains  of  the  Vosges  rose  on  the 
frontiers  of  the  kingdoms  of  Austrasia  and  of  Bur- 
in Alsace,  guudy.  Tribcs  of  Pagan  Suevians  then  occu 
A.D.690.  pied  that  part  of  Switzerland  which  bordered 
on  those  kino-doms.  War  and  devastation  had  restored 
as  solitudes  to  nature  districts  which  had  been  reclaimed 
to  culture  and  fertility  by  the  industry  of  Roman  col- 
onists. It  was  on  the  site  of  ancient  towns  that  her- 
mits now  found  their  wildernesses.  Columban,  with 
his  twelve  followers,  first  settled  among  the  ruins  of  a 
small  town  called  Anegratis.  The  woods  yielded 
herbs  and  roots  and  the  bark  of  trees  for  food,  the 
streams  water  and  probably  fish.  But  the  offerings  of 
piety  were  not  wanting ;  provisions  were  sent  by  those 
who  were  desirous  of  profiting  by  the  pi'ayers  of  these 
holy  men.  But  the  heart  of  Columban  yearned  for 
still  more  profound  solitude.  In  the  depths  of  the  wild 
woods,  about  seven  miles  off,  as  he  wandered  with  his 
book,  he  found  a  cave,  of  which  the  former  inhabitant, 
a  bear,  gave  up  quiet  possession  to  the  saint  —  for  the 
wild  beasts,  wolves   as   well  as  bears  and   the  Paffan 


Chap.V.       monastery  OF  LUXEUIL.  239 

Suevians,  respected  the  man  of  God.  Miiacle  as  usual 
arose  around  the  founder  of  a  monastery.  The  fame  of 
the  piety  and  wonder-working  powers  of  Columban 
gathered  a  still  increasing  number  of  votaries ;  the 
ruins  of  An egratis  could  no  longer  contain  the  candi- 
dates for  the  monastic  life. 

About  eight  miles  distant  lay  the  more  exten- 
sive ruins  of  a  fortified  Roman  town,  Luxovium,^  now 
overgrown  with  the  wild  forest  jungle,  but  formerly 
celebrated  for  its  warm  spnngs.  Amid  the  remains  of 
splendid  baths  and  other  stately  buildings,  Columban 
determined  to  establish  a  more  regular  monastery.  The 
forest  around  is  said  to  have  been  strewn  with  marble 
statues,  and  magnificent  vestiges  of  the  old  Pagan 
worship.  On  this  wreck  of  heathenism  rose  tlie  mon- 
astery of  Luxeuil.  Neophytes  crowded  from  all  parts  ; 
the  nobles  of  the  court  threw  off  their  arms,  or  fled 
from  the  burdensome  duties  of  civil  life  to  this  holy  re- 
treat. A  second  establishment  became  necessary,  and 
in  a  beautiful  spot,  watered  by  several  streams,  rose  the 
succursal  abbey  of  Fontaines.  Columban  presided  as 
abbot  over  all  these  institutions.  His  delight  was  ever 
to  wander  alone  in  the  woods,  or  to  dwell  for  days  in 
his  lonely  cave.  But  -  he  still  exercised  strict  superin- 
tendence over  all  the  monasteries  of  the  Rule  which  he 
had  formed ;  he  mingled  in  and  encouraged  their  us&- 
ftil  labors  in  husbandry,  it  was  thought,  with  more 
than  human  wisdom  and  sagacity. 

1  "  Invenitque  castrum  firmissimo  munimine  olim  fuisse  cultum,  a  su- 
pradicto  loco  distans  plus  minus  octo  millibus  quern  prisca  tempora  Luxo- 
vium  appellabant:  ibique  aquse  calid:\)  cultu  eximio  extructse  habebantur. 
n>i  imaginum  lapidearum  densitas  vicinos  saltus  densabat,  quas  cultu 
miserabili  rituque  profane  vetusta  paganorum  templa  honorabant." 
Jonas,  Vit  Columb.  c-  9. 


240  LATIN"  CHRTSTTANITY.  Book  IV. 

But  peace  was  not  to  be  found  even  in  the  lonely 
Dispute  with  forests  of  the  Vosges.  After  twelve  years  of 
bishops.  undisturbed  repose,  religious  disputes  invaded 
the  quiet  shades  of  Luxeuil.  Colmnban  was  arraigned 
before  a  synod  of  Gaulish  bishops  for  his  heterodox 
usage  about  keeping  Easter,  in  which  he  adhered  to 
the  old  British  discipline.  Columban  answered  with  a 
kind  of  pathetic  dignity,  "  I  am  not  the  author  of  this 
difference.  I  came  as  a  stranger  to  this  land  for  the 
sake  of  our  common  Lord  and  Saviour  Christ.  I  be- 
seech you  by  that  common  Lord  who  shall  judge  us  all, 
to  allow  me  to  live  in  silence,  in  peace,  and  in  charity, 
as  I  have  lived  for  twelve  years,  beside  the  bones  of  my 
seventeen  departed  brethren.  Let  Gaul  receive  into 
her  bosom  all  those  who,  if  they  deserve  it,  will  be  re- 
ceived into  the  kino;dom  of  heaven." 
i^'  Columban  had  to  wao-e  a  nobler  strife  aojainst  the  vices 
Queen  of  the  neighboring  court.  The  famous  Bnine- 

fnd  K?ng '  "  ^aut  had  fled  from  the  kingdom  of  the  elder 
Thiem.  ^£  j^^^  royal  grandchildren,  Theodebert  of 
Austrasia,  and  taken  refuge  with  the  younger,  Thierri, 
King  of  Burgundy.  She  ruled  the  realm  by  the  ascen- 
dency of  that  strong  and  unscrupulous  mind  which  for 
^^oiit  above  forty  years  had  raised  her  into  a  rival  of 

A.D.  606.  ^Y^^^  more  famous  Fredegonde,  her  rival  in  the 
number  of  her  paramours,  and  in  the  number  of  mur- 
ders which  she  had  perpetrated.^  She  ruled  the  king 
through  his  vices.     Thierri  had  degenerated,  like  the 

1  It  was  not  till  613  that  she  met  with  a  death  horrible  as  her  own 
crimes.  Exposed  on  a  camel  to  the  derision  of  the  camp  of  her  enemy, 
King  Chlotaire,  she  was  tied  to  the  tail  of  a  Avild  horse,  and  literally  torn 
to  shreds.  —  II.  Martin,  p.  169.  What  wonder  that  in  such  days  men 
sought  refuge  in  the  wilderness,  and  almost  adored  hermits  like  Co- 
lumban I 


Chap.  V.  BRUNEIIAUT  —  THIERRi.  241 

rest  of  the  race  of  Clovis,  from  tlie  old  Teutonic  inrtues, 
and  plunged  headlong  into  Koinan  license.  In  vain 
his  subjects  had  attempted  to  wean  him  from  his  count- 
less mistresses  by  a  marriage  with  the  daughter  of  the 
Visigothic  king.  Neglected,  mortified,  persecuted  by 
the  arts  of  Brunch aut,  the  unhappy  princess  returned 
to  her  home.  Already  Brunehaut  had  resisted  the  re- 
monstrances of  Didier,  Bishop  of  Vienne,  who  had  re- 
buked the  incontinence  of  Thierri  and  his  ill-usage  of 
his  wife.  Didier  was  murdered  on  his  road  from 
Lyons  to  Vienne.  The  fame  of  Columban  induced 
Thiem  to  visit  his  saintly  retirement.  Columban 
seized  the  opportunity  to  reproach  him  for  his  adulte- 
ries, and  to  persuade  him  that  the  safety  of  his  realm 
depended  on  his  having  a  legitimate  heir.  Thierri 
listened  with  awe  to  the  man  of  God  ;  he  promised  to 
act  accorchng  to  his  wise  counsels.  Even  Brunehaut, 
the  murderer  of  bishops,  dared  not  lay  her  hand  on  him. 
Brunehaut  saw  her  power  in  danger.  Whether  she 
sought  the  interview  in  the  vain  hope  of  softening  him 
by  her  blandishments,  or  whether  he  came  of  his  own 
accord,  Columban  visited  the  queen  in  her  palace. 
The  stern  virtue  of  the  saint  was  not  to  be  moved. 
Brunehaut  approached  him,  and  entreated  his  blessing 
on  two  illegitimate  sons  of  Thierri.  (The  benediction 
of  the  saint  seems  to  have  had  some  connection  with  their 
hopes  of  succession  to  the  throne  ;  to  which,  according 
to  Frankish  usage,  legitimacy  was  not  indispensable.) 
"  These  bastards,  born  in  sin,"  replied  Columban, 
"  shall  never  inherit  the  kingdom."  He  passed  away 
unmolested  through  the  awe-struck  court.  Brunehaut 
began  a  petty  and  vexatious  warfare,  by  cutting  off  the 
supplies  from  the  monasteries,  and  stirring  up  jealousies 
voT..  n.  16  • 


242  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

with  other  neio-hborins  convents.  Either  to  remon- 
strate,  or  to  avert  the  royal  anger,  Columban  again  ap- 
proached the  court,  then  held  at  the  village  of  Epais- 
ses,^  but  he  refused  to  enter  under  the  roof.  Thierri 
ordered  a  royal  banquet  to  be  prepared  and  sent  out  to 
the  saint  at  the  door.  "  It  is  written,"  said  Columban, 
"  that  God  abhors  the  oiFerings  of  the  wicked  ;  his  ser- 
vants must  not  be  polluted  with  food  given  by  those  who 
persecute  his  saints."  He  dashed  the  wine  on  the  earth 
and  scattered  about  the  other  viands.  The  affriorhted 
king  again  promised  amendment,  but  abstained  not 
from  his  notorious  adulteries.  Columban  then  address- 
ed to  him  a  letter,  in  which  he  lashed  his  vices  with 
unsparing  severity,  and  threatened  him  with  excommu- 
nication.2  The  king  could  bear  no  more  ;  he  appealed 
to  his  nobles,  he  appealed  to  his  bishops,  knowing  no 
doubt  their  jealousy  of  the  stranger  monk  and  their  dis- 
like of  some  of  his  usao-es.  He  demanded  free  ino;ress 
and  egress  for  his  servants  into  the  monastery.  Colum- 
ban haughtily  replied,  "  that  if  he  dared  thus  to  infringe 
the  monastic  rule,  his  kingdom  would  fall,  and  hi.s 
whole  race  be  cut  off."  When  Thierri  himself  attempted 
to  enter  the  refectory,  he  shrunk  before  the  intrepid  de- 
meanor and  terrible  language  of  the  abbot.  Yet  with 
some  shrewdness  he  observed,  "  Do  not  think  that  I  will 
gratify  your  pride  by  making  you  a  martyr."  To  a 
sentence  of  banishment  the  stranger  monk  replied,  that 
he  would  not  be  driven  from  his  monastery  but  by 
force.  At  length  a  man  was  found  who  did  not  quail 
before  the  saint.     Columban  was  arrested,  and  carried 

1  The  villa  Brocarica,  Bourcheresse,  between  Chalons  and  Autun.  —  H 
Martin,  Histoire  de  la  France,  ii.  160. 

2  Jonas  describes  the  letter  as  "  verberibus  plenas." 


Chap.  V.  COLUMBAN   BANISHED.  243 

to  Besan^on  ;  but  even  there  his  guards,  from  coiumban 
awe,  [)ertbrmed  their  duty  so  neghgently  ^^°»^"^«^- 
that  he  escaped  and  returned  to  Luxeuil.  Again  lie 
was  seized,  not  without  difficulty,  and  carried  oif  ainid 
the  lamentations  of  his  faithful  followers.  Two  or  three 
Irish  monks  alone  were  pei'mitted  to  accompany  him. 
He  was  hurried  in  rude  haste  toward  Nantes  ;  at  Or- 
leans he  was  not  allowed  to  enter  the  church,  hardly 
permitted  to  visit  the  shrine  of  St.  Martin  at  Tours  ; 
and  embarked  on  board  a  vessel  bound  to  Ireland. 

During  all  this  journey  the  harsh  usage  of  the 
royal  officers  was  mitia^ated  by  the  wondering  Journey 
reverence  oi  the  people :  it  is  describea  as  a  France. 
continued  scene  of  miracle.  The  language  attributed 
to  Columban  by  his  admiring  biographer  shows  not 
only  the  privilege  assumed  by  the  monastic  saints  of 
that  day,  of  dispensing  with  the  humble  tone  of  meek- 
ness and  charity,  but  also  the  fearless  equality,  or  rather 
superiority,  with  which  a  foreign  monk  thus  addrc«fl06 
the  kings  of  the  land.  "  Why  are  you  retiring  hither- 
ward  ?  "  said  the  Bishop  of  Tours.  '' Because  that 
dog  Thierri  has  driven  me  away  from  my  brethren.'* 
To  another  he  said,  "  Tell  thy  fi-iend  Thierri  that 
within  three  years  he  and  his  children  shall  perish,  and 
God  will  root  up  his  whole  race."  In  those  days  sucli 
prophecies  concerning  one  of  the  royal  families  of  the 
Franks  was  almost  sure  of  its  fulfilment. 

Columban  was  justified  in  the  estimation  of  men, 
even  of  kings,  in  taking  this  lofty  tone.     The  vessel  in 
which  he  was  embarked  was  cast  back  on  the  coast  of 
Neustria.     The   King  Clothaire    II.   humbly  r^^,,^^  ^o 
solicited  the  saint  to  hallow  his  kingdom  by  ^'■''''^® 
making  it  his  residence.     Columban  declined  the  offer, 


'^i4  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

and  passed  into  Austrasia,  where  King  Theodebert 
received  him  with  the  same  respectful  deference. 

The  monks  from  Luxeuil  flocked  around  their  be- 
loved master ;  but  Columban  dechned  likewise  tlie 
urgent  entreaties  of  Theodebert  to  bless  his  kingdom 
by  the  establishment  of  a  monastery.  He  yearned  for 
wilder  solitudes.  With  his  followers  he  went  to  Mo- 
gun  tiacum  (Mentz),  and  embarked  upon  the  Rhine. 
They  worked  their  way  up  the  stream  till  they  reached 
the  mouth  of  the  Limmat,  and  followed  that  river  into 
the  lake  of  Zurich.  From  the  shores  of  the  lake  they 
zug.  went  by  land  to  Tugium  (the  modern  Zug). 

Around  them  were  the  barbarous  heathen  Suevians. 
Columban  and  his  disciples  had  little  of  the  gentle 
and  winning  perseverance  of  missionaries ;  they  had 
been  accustomed  to  dictate  to  trembling  sovereigns. 
Their  haughty  and  violent  demeanor,  which  overawed 
those  who  had  been  brought  up  in  Christianity,  pro- 
voked the  Pagans,  instead  of  weaning  them  from  their 
idolatries.  A  strano-e  tale  is  told  of  a  huo;e  vat  of  beer, 
offered  to  the  god  Woden,  which  burst  at  the  mere 
breath  of  Columban.  St.  Gall,  his  companion,^  set 
their  temples  on  fire,  and  threw  their  idols  into  the 
lake.  The  monks  were  compelled  to  fly ;  and  Colum- 
ban left  the  Pagans  of  that  district  with  a  most  un- 
apostolic  malediction,  devoting  their  whole  race  to 
temporal  misery  and  eternal  perdition.^  They  retreat- 
ed to  Arbon,  on   the  lake  of  Constance ;  there,  from 

1  The  history  of  St.  Gall  is  related  in  more  than  one  form  in  Pertz,  tom. 
ii.  p.  1-34. 

2  "  Fiant  niti  eorum  in  interitum;  ergo  ad  mediam  .Ttatem  cum  per* 
venerint  stupor  ac  dementia  eos  apprehendant,  ita  ut  alieno  fere  oppressi, 
ignominiam  suam  aguoscant  conversi."  —  Vita  S.  Galli,  apud  Pertz,  ii, 
p.7. 


Chap.V.  ST.  GALL.  245 

a  Christian  priest,  named  Willimar,  tliey  heard  of  a 
ruined  Roman  city  at  the  end  of  the  lake,  Bregeaz. 
named  Brigetium  (Bregenz).  At  Brigetium  Colum- 
ban  found  a  ruined  church  dedicated  to  St.  AureHa, 
which  he  rebuilt.  But  the  chief  objects  of  worship 
in  the  re-Paganized  land  were  three  statues  of  gilded 
brass.  St.  Gall  preached  to  the  people  in  their  own 
language.  He  then  broke  their  idols  in  pieces,  and 
threw  them  into  the  water :  part  of  his  hearers  ap- 
plauded, but  some  departed  in  undisguised  anger. 
^  In  this  remote  spot  they  built  their  monastery.  St. 
Gall  was  a  skilful  fisherman,  and  supplied  the  st.  Oau. 
brethren  with  fresh  fish  from  the  lake.  One  silent 
night,  when  he  was  fishing,  he  heard  (it  is  said),  from 
the  highest  peak,  the  voice  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Moun- 
tains calling  on  the  Spirit  of  the  Waters  in  the  depth 
of  the  lake.  "  I  am  here,"  was  the  reply.  "  Arise, 
then,  to  mine  aid  against  these  strangers  who  have  cast 
me  irom  my  temple ;  let  us  expel  them  from  the  land." 
"  One  of  them  is  even  now  busied  in  my  waters,  but  I 
cannot  break  his  nets,  for  I  am  rebuked  by  the  prevail- 
ing name,  in  which  he  is  perpetually  praying."  ^ 

The  human  followers  of  the  Pagan  deities  were  not 
so  easily  controlled.  After  two  or  three  years  the 
monks  found  a  confederacy  formed  against  them,  at 
the  head  of  which  was  a  neighboring  chieftain,  the 
savage  Cunzo.^     Columban  determined  to  retire.     He 

1  This  story  is  too  picturesque  and  striking  to  be  omitted.  It  is  char- 
acteristic, too,  to  find  the  divinities  to  which  the  Greeks  would  have  at- 
tributed such  sights  and  sounds,  turned  into  malignant  spirits.  Two  naked 
^Mvls  were  bathing  in  a  stream  in  which  St.  Gall  was  fishing.  Of  old  they 
would  have  passed  for  nymphs;  with  him  they  were  devils  in  that  enticing 
(shape.  Sounds  which  they  hear  on  the  mountains,  when  catching  hawks, 
tr"  voices  of  devils. 

'^  Cuuzo's  daughter  is  said  to  have  been  betrothed  to  King  Thierri. 


246  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

had  some  thoughts  of  attempting  the  conversion  of  the 
Slav!  and  the  Venetl ;  but  an  angel,  perhaps  tlie  ap- 
proach of  age,  admonished  him  to  seek  a  quiet  retreat 
in  Italy.  He  was  honorably  received  by  Agilulf,  King 
of  Lombardy.  After  some  time  spent  in  literary 
labors,  in  confutation  of  the  Arianism  which  still  lin- 
gered in  that  part  of  Italy,  he  founded  the  fiimous 
monastery  of  Bobbio.-^ 

St.  Gall,  from  real  or  simulated  illness,  remamed 
behind.  He  withdrew  with  his  boat  and  fishing  nets 
to  Arbon  ;  he  was  accompanied  by  some  of  the  Irish 
monks,  and  in  that  neighborhood  founded  the  monas-* 
tery,  not  less  celebrated,  which  bore  his  name. 

Thus  these  Irish  monks  were  not  merely  reinvigor- 
Foundersof  ^tlng  the  dccaylng  monastic  spirit,  which 
monasteries,  perhaps  was  languishing  from  the  extreme 
severity  of  the  rule  of  Casslanus  chiefly  followed  in 
the  monasteries  of  Gaul,  but  they  were  winning  back 
districts  which  had  been  won  from  Roman  civilization 
by  advancing  barbarism.  Monasteries  replaced  ruined 
Kouian  cities.  From  them  issued  almost  a  race  of 
sahits,  the  founders  of  some  of  the  most  important 
establishments  within  or  on  the  borders  of  the  old  Ro- 
man territory  :  Magnus  and  Theodoras,  the  first  abbots 

1  I  follow  the  early  life  of  St.  Gall  in  Pertz,  from  which  was  derived  that 
of  Walafrid  Strabo.  Jonas,  the  biographer  of  Columban,  represents 
him  as  still  persecuted  by  Brunehaut  and  Thierri,  who  may  indeed  have 
excited  the  confederacy  against  him.  Jonas  also  carries  Columban  back 
to  the  court  of  Theodebert,  King  of  Austrasia,  whom,  when  in  the  height 
of  his  power,  he  endeavors  to  persuade  to  take  the  clerical  habit.  "  When 
was  it  heard,"  was  the  indignant  reply,  "  that  a  Merovingian  on  the  throne 
•stooped  to  become  a  clerk?  "  "  If  you  become  not  one  voluntarily,"  said 
tht,  prophetic  monk,  '*  you  will  so  by  compulsion ! "  Theodebert  after- 
wards, defeated  by  Brunehaut  and  the  King  of  Burgundy,  was  forced  to 
Uike  orders,  and  then  put  to  death.  The  history  probabij  produced  the 
pDphecy.  — Jonas,  c.  27.    Columban  died  about  a.d.  615. 


Chap.  V.  ENGLISH  MISSIONARIES.  247 

of  Kempten  and  of  Fussen  ;  Attalus  of  Bobbio ;  St. 
Romaric  of  Remiremont ;  St.  Omer,  St.  Bertin,  St. 
Amancl,  the  apostles  of  Flanders ;  St.  Wandrille,  the 
founder  of  Fontenelle,  in  Normandy.^  Gradually  the 
great  establishments,  founded  on  the  rule  of  Columban, 
dropped  the  few  peculiarities  of  discipline  which  dis 
tinguished  them  from  the  Roman  Church ;  they  re- 
tained those  of  their  rule  which  differed  from  that  of 
St.  Benedict  which  was  now  beginning  to  prevail 
throughout  western  Christendom.  Yet  there  was  noth- 
ing of  great  importance  to  distinguish  them  from  the 
Benedictine  foundations;  their  rule,  habits,  studies 
(all,  perhaps,  but  their  dress)  were  those  of  western 
monasticism.2 

Columban  and  his  immediate  followers  had  hardly 
extended  the  influence  of  Christianity  be-  English 
yond  the  borders  of  the  old  Roman  empire. 
But,  important  as  outposts  on  the  verge  of  Christen- 
dom, or  even  in  districts  v/hich  had  reverted  to  bar- 
barism, gradually  encirchng  themselves  with  an  en- 
larging belt  of  cultivation  and  of  Christianity,  they 
were  only  thus  gradually  and  indirectly  aggressive. 
Another  century  had  nearly  elapsed  when  the  Apostle 
of  Germany  came  forth  from  a  different  part  of  the 
British  Isles.  Those  Saxon  conquerors  whom  Colum- 
l)an,  when  he  touched  the  shores  of  Britain,  left  behind 
as  irreclaimable  heathens,  had  now  become  Christians 
from  one  end  of  the  land  to  the  other.  In  their  turn 
they  were  to  send  out  their  saintly  and  more  adven- 
turous missionaries  into  their  native  German  forests. 
Wilfrid  of  York  had  already  made  some  progress  in 

1  Michelet,  Hist,  de  France,  i.  275. 

2  MabJllon,  Hist.  Ordin.  Benedict.,  i.  p.  195. 


mia- 

sionaries. 


248  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

the  conversion  of  the  Frisians  on  the  lower  part  of 
the  Rhine  ;  but  ahnost  all  beyond  the  Rhine,  when 
Boniface  undertook  the  conversion  of  Germany,  was 
the  undisputed  domain  of  the  old  Teutonic  idolatry. 

Boniface  (his  proper  Saxon  name  was  Winfrid)  was 
St.  Boniface,  bom  near  Crediton,  in  Devonshire.  From 
his  infancy  he  is  said  to  have  displayed  a  disposition  to 
singular  piety ;  and  in  his  youth  the  influence  of  his 
x^i^-'-  father  could  not  repress  his  inclination  to 
A.D.  700.  ^Ijq  monastic  life.  The  father,  alarmed  by  a 
dangerous  illness,  yielded  to  the  wishes  of  the  boy, 
who  was  received  into  a  monastery  at  Exeter;  af- 
terwards he  moved  to  Netley.  Having  completed  his 
studies,  he  was  ordained  priest  at  thirty  ;  and  a  confi- 
dential mission  on  which  he  was  employed  between  a 
synod  of  the  clergy  and  the  Archbishop  Berchtwald 
shows  the  estimation  in  which  he  was  already  held. 
But  Boniface  was  eager  for  the  more  adventurous 
life  of  a  missionarj^.  His  first  enterprise  was  discour- 
a£i;ing,  and  might  have  repressed  less  earnest  zeal. 
With  the  permission  of  his  superiors  he  embarked  at 
London,  landed  on  the  coast  of  Friesland,  and  made 
his  way  to  Utrecht.  But  Radbold,  King  of  Frisia,  at 
In  Friosiand.  War  witli  oue  of  tlic  Fraukisli  kings,  had 
A.D.  716.  commenced  a  fierce  persecution  of  the  Chris- 
tians ;  everywhere  he  had  destroyed  the  churches, 
and  rebuilt  the  temples.  Bonifice  found  his  eloquence 
wasted  on  the  stubborn  heart  of  the  pagan,  and  re- 
turned to  England. 

But  his  spirit  was  im]iatient  of  repose.    He  determin- 
About  ^^  ^^  ^'^^^  Romey  perhaps  to  obtain  the  sanc- 

Ao.  718.        ^Jqj^  (^f  ^]j^3  ]j(,j^j  (^)f  Western  Christendom  for 

new  attempts  to  propagate  the  Gospel  in  Germany.     He 


Chap.  V.  ST.  BONIFACE.  249 

crossed  the  sea  to  Normandy,  and  with  a  multitude  of 
other  pilgrims  journeyed  through  France,  paying  his 
adorations  in  all  the  more  famous  churches ;  escaped 
the  dangers  of  the  snowy  Alps,  the  Lombards,  who 
treated  him  with  unexpected  humanity,  and  the  preda- 
tory soldiery,  which  were  prowling  about  in  j^  Rome, 
all  directions.  He  found  himself,  at  length,  ^'^'  '^'"^ 
on  his  knees  in  the  Church  of  St.  Peter.  He  was  re- 
ceived, on  the  presentation  of  recommendatory  lettf^rs 
from  his  bishop,  with  condescending  welcome. 

The  Pope,  Gregory  H.  (our  history  will  revert  to 
the  intermediate  succession  of  popes  ;  we  are  Gregory  n. 
now  in  the  eighth  century),  entered  into  all  ^•^*  "^^^^^ 
the  views  of  Boniface,  and  sanctioned  his  passionate 
wish  to  ascertain  how  far  the  most  savage  tribes  of 
Germany  would  receive  the  Gospel.  Greg-  a.d.  719. 
cry  bestowed  upon  him  ample  powers,  but  exacted  an 
oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Roman  see.  He  recommended 
him  to  all  the  bishops  and  to  all  orders  of  Christians, 
above  all  to  Charles  Martel,^  who,  as  mayor  of  the 
palace  exercised  royal  authority  in  that  part  of  France. 
He  urged  Charles  to  assist  the  missionary  by  all  means  in 
his  power  in  the  pious  work  of  reclaiming  the  heathen 
from  the  state  of  brute-beasts.^  And  Charles  Martel 
faithfully  fulfilled  the  wishes  of  the  Pope.  "  Without 
the  protection  of  the  prince  of  the  Franks,"  writes  the 
grateful  Boniface,  "  I  could  neither  rule  the  people, 
nor  defend  the  priests,  the  monks,  and  the  handmaids 
of  God,  nor  prevent  pagan  and  idolatrous  rites  in  Ger- 
many." ^    The  Pope  attributes  the  spiritual  subjugation 

1  See  the  letter  in  which  Charles  takes  him  under  his  mundebund  or  d«« 
fence. — Apud  Giles,  i.  37. 

2  Gregor.  II.,  Epist.  iv.  v.  vi. 

*  Bonifac,  Epist.  xii.,  apud  Giles,  to  Daniel,  Bishop  of  Winchester 


250  LATIN    CHKISriANITY.  Book  IV 

of  a  liundred  thousand  barbarians  by  tlie  holy  Boniface 
to  the  aid  of  Charles.^ 

Armed  with  these  powers,  and  with  a  large  stock  of 
Id  Thuringia.  rellcs,  Boniface  crossed  the  Alps  and  entered 
into  Thuringia.  This  province  was  already  in  part 
Christian ;  but  their  Christianity  required  much  cor- 
rection (they  were  probably  Arians),  and  the  clergy 
were  in  no  way  disposed  to  that  rigid  celibacy  now 
required  of  their  order.  Boniface  did  all  in  his  power, 
but,  notwithstanding  the  urgent  addresses  of  the  Pope 
himself  to  the  Thuringians,  by  no  means  with  complete 
success ;  they  still  resisted  the  monastic  discipline. 
When  he  left  Thurino;ia  he  heard  of  the  death  of  Bad- 
bold  ?  the  pagan  king  of  Friesland.  He  immediately 
embarked  on  the  Rhine,  in  the  hope  of  renewing,  under 
better  auspices,  his  attempts  on  that  country.  For 
In  Friesland.  three  ycars  he  labored  there  with  great  suc- 
A.D.  719.  cess,  as  the  humble  assistant  of  the  Bishop 
Willibrod.  Again  the  temples  fell,  and  the  churches 
rose.  Willibrod  felt  the  approach  of  age,  and  desired 
to  secure  as  his  coadjutor,  as  the  future  successor  to  liis 
bishopric,  a  youthful  teacher  of  so  much  zeal  and  wis- 
dom. The  humility  of  Boniface  struggled  against  the 
offers,  the  arguments,  the  earnest  entreaties  of  the  Prel- 
ate. He  pleaded  that  he  was  not  yet  fifty,  the  canoni- 
cal age  of  a  bishop.  At  length  he  declared  that  he  had 
been  employed  on  a  special  service  by  the  Pope  to 
propagate  the  Gospel  in  Germany ;  he  had  already 
delayed  too  long  in  Friesland ;  he  dared  not  decline, 
without  the  direct  mandate  of  the  Pope,  his  more  im- 
perative and  arduous  duties  as  a  missionary. 

Our  curiosity,  and  higher  feelings,    are   vividly  ex- 

1  Sirinond.  Concil.  ii.  j).  r»27. 


Chap.v.  silence  about  paganism.  251 

cited  by  the  tliouglit  of  the  earliest  preachers  of  Chris' 
tiaiiity  plunging  into  the  unknown  depths  of  gnence  of 
the  German  forests,  addressing  tlie  Gospel  of  writeSTbout 
peace  to  fierce  and  warlike  tribes,  encounter-  I'agauism. 
ing  the  strange  and  perhaps  appalling  superstitions  of 
ages,  penetrating  into  hallowed  groves,  and  standing  be- 
fore altars  reeking  with  human  blood. ^  We  expect  the 
kindling  adventure  of  romance  to  mingle  with  the  quiet 
and  steady  course  of  Christian  benevolence  and  self- 
sacrifice  ;  at  least  perpetually  to  meet  with  incidents 
which  may  throw  light  on  the  old  Teutonic  character, 
the  habits,  manners,  institutions  of  the  various  tribes. 
The  biographers  of  the  saints  are  in  general  barren  of 
this  kind  of  information  ;  they  rarely  enter  into  details 
on  the  nature  or  the  rites  of  the  old  rehgions ;  they 
si)eak  of  them  in  one  sweeping  tone  of  abhorrence ; 
they  condemn  the  gods  under  the  vague  term  of  idols, 
or  adopt  the  Roman  usage  of  naming  them  after  the 
deities  of  Greece  and  Rome.  On  the  miracles  of  their 
own  saints  they  are  diffuse  and  particular ;  but  on  the 
power,  attributes,  and  worship  of  the  heathen  gods, 
except  on  a  few  occasions,  they  are  almost  silent.  Bon* 
iface,  it  is  said,  on  his  first  expedition  among  the 
Saxons  and  Hessians,  baptized  thousands,  destroyed  the 
heathen  temples,  and  set  up  Christian  church-  Boniface  in- 
es.  As  a  faithful  servant  he  communicated  722.  iuRome| 
his  wonderful  successes  to  Rome ;  he  was  sum-  bishop,  723. 


1  Read  (it  is  however  on  this  subject  quite  vague)  the  counsel  given  to 
his  countrymen,  as  to  the  mode  of  arguing  with  the  heathen,  by  Daniel, 
Bishop  of  Winchester,  as  seen  fi-om  his  letters,  in  which  he  advises  Boniface 
to  ko.ep  on  good  terms  even  with  the  wicked  clergy  of  France.  It  is  curi- 
ous, that  he  was  to  contrast  the  fertile  lands  of  the  Christians,  flowing  with 
oil  and  wine,  and  abounding  in  wealth,  with  the  cold  and  dreary  deserts 
left  to  the  pagans  and  their  gods.  —  Eplst.  xiv.  i.  48. 


252  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

moned  to  tlie  metropolis  of  Christianity,  and,  after  a 
profession  of  fiiith  in  the  Trinity,  which  would  bear  th(3 
searching  inquisition  of  Rome,^  he  was  raised  to  the 
dignity  of  a  bishop.  On  his  return  to  Germany,  Boni- 
face found  but  few  of  his  Hessian  proselytes  adhering 
to  pure  Christianity.  They  had  made  a  wild  mixture 
of  the  two  creeds  ;  they  still  worshipped  their  sacred 
groves  and  fountains ;  some  yet  offered  sacrifices  on 
their  old  altars.  The  wizards  and  soothsayers  still 
maintained  their  influence  ;  the  trembling  worshippers 
still  acknowledged  the  might  of  their  charms  and  the 
triith   of  their   omens. 

Boniface  determined  to  strike  a  blow  at  the  heart  of 
The  oak  of  *^®  obstinatc  Paganism.  There  was  an  old  and 
Geismar.  venerable  oak,^  of  immense  size,  in  the  grove 
of  Geismar,  hallowed  for  ages  to  the  Thunderer.  At- 
tended by  all  his  clergy,  Boniface  went  publicly  forth  to 
fell  this  tree.  The  pagans  assembled  in  multitudes  to  be- 
hold this  trial  of  strength  between  their  ancient  gods 
and  the  God  of  the  stranger.  They  awaited  the  issue  in 
profound  silence.  Some,  no  doubt,  expected  the  axe  to 
recoil  on  the  sacrilegious  heads  of  the  Christians.  But 
only  a  few  blows  had  been  struck,  when  a  sudden  wind 
was  heard  in  the  groaning  branches  of  the  tree,  and 
down  it  came  toppling  with  its  own  weight,  and  split 
into  four  huge  pieces.  The  shuddering  pagans  at 
once  bowed  before  the  superior  might  of  Christianity. 
Boniface  built  out  of  the  wood  a  chapel  to  St.  Peter. 
After  this  churches  everywhere  arose ;  and  here  and 
there  a  monastery  was  settled.    But  the  want  of  laborers 

1  This  was  usual,  or  we  might  suppose  that  they  dreaded  another  Ulphilaa 
amo)jg  these  new  German  converts. 

2  Near  Fritzlar.     The  oali  is  called  robiir  Jovis. 


Chap.  V.      BONIFACE  METROPOLITAN  OF  MENTZ.  253 

was  great ;  and  Boniface  sent  to  his  native  land  for  a 
supply  of  missionaries.  A  number  of  active  and  pious 
men  flocked  from  England  to  his  spiritual  standard  ; 
and  many  devout  women  obeyed  the  impulse,  and 
either  founded  or  filled  convents,  which  began  to  rise 
in  the  districts  beyond  the  Rhine.  The  similarity  of 
language  no  doubt  qualified  the  English  missionaries 
for  their  labors  among  the  Teutonic  races  ;  Italians  had 
been  of  no  use. 

Boniface  had  won  a  new  empire  to  Christianity  ;  and 
was  placed  over  it  as  spiritual  sovereign  by  the  respect- 
ful gratitude  of  the  Pope.  He  received  the  pall  of  a 
Metropolitan,  and  was  empowered  as  primate  to  erect 
bishoprics  throughout  Germany.  Again  he  visited 
Rome,  and  was  invested  by  Gregory  III.,  the  new  Pope, 
with  full  powers  as  representative  of  the  Apostolic  see. 

The  Metropolitan  throne  was  fixed  on  the  Rhine,  at 
Mentz.  This  city  had  formerly  been  a  bish-  Bomfece  Met- 
op's  see.  In  the  wars  of  Carloman,  the  ST,"*'"'' ''^ 
Frank,  against  the  Saxons,  the  Bishop  Ger-  ^'^'  '*^^' 
old  w^ent  out  to  battle  with  his  sovereign  and  was  slain. 
He  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Gewelib,  a  man  of  strict 
morals,  but  addicted  to  hawks  and  hounds.  Gewelib 
cherished  the  sacred  hereditary  duty  of  revenging  his 
father's  death.^  He  discovered  the  man  by  whose 
hand  Gerold  had  fallen,  lured  him  to  an  amicable  in- 
terview in  an  island  on  the  river,  and  stabbed  him  to 
the  heart.  Neither  king  nor  nobles  thought  this  just 
exaction  of  blood  for  blood  the  least  disqualification  for  a 

1  From  the  Life  of  Boniface  by  a  presbyter  of  Mentz.  —  Pertz,  p.  354 
Episcopus  autem  a  csede  regressus,  rudi  populo,  rudis  adhuc  praesul,  licet 
setate  maturus,  tamen  fide  .  .  .  praeficitur;  non  computautibus  nee  rege,  nee 
cseteris  optimatibus,  vindictam  patris  crimen  esse,  dicentibusque  "  Vicera 
reddidit  patris  morti." 


254  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

Christian  bishop.  But  the  Christianity  of  Boniface  was 
superior  to  the  dominant  barbarism.  The  blood-stained 
bishop  was  deposed  by  the  act  of  a  council,  and  on  the 
vacancy  the  Metropolitan  see  erected  at  Mentz.  From 
his  Metropolitan  see  of  Mentz,  Boniface  ruled  Christian 
Germany  with  a  parental  hand.  He  exercised  his 
power  of  establishing  bishoprics  by  laying  the  founda- 
tions of  so"me  of  those  wealthy  and  powerful  set's, 
which  long  possessed  so  commanding  an  influence  in 
Germany.  On  his  return  from  his  third  visit  to  Rome  he 
passed  through  Bavaria;  there  he  found  but  one  solitary 
bishopric,  at  Passau.  He  founded  those  of  Salzburg, 
of  Freisingen,  and  of  Ratisbon.  In  Thuringia  the  episco- 
pal see  was  fixed  at  Erfurt ;  in  Hesse,  at  Buraberg, 
which  was  afterwards  removed  to  Paderbom :  for 
Franconia  he  founded  that  of  Wurtzburg.  Besides 
these  churches,  those  of  Utrecht,  Cologne,  Eichstadt, 
Tongres,  Worms,  Spires,  Augsburg,  Constance,  and 
Coire  owned  their  allegiance  to  the  supremacy  with 
which  the  Metropolitan  of  Mentz  had  been  invested  by 
the  successor  of  St.  Peter.^ 

Boniface  ruled  the  minds  of  the  clergy,  the  people, 
Condemns  ^^^  *^®  kiugs.  He  held  councils,  and  con- 
heretics.  dcmucd  hcrctics  :  one,  an  impostor  named 
Adalbert,  who  pretended  to  work  miracles ;  the  other, 
Clement,  a  Scot,  who  held  some  unintelligible  doc- 
trines on  Christ's  descent  into  hell,  and  on  predestina- 
tion.2     The  obsequious  Frankish  Sovereign  of  Neus- 

1  The  acts  of  Boniface  in  the  reformation  of  the  clergy  of  France  will  be 
related  in  a  subsequent  chapter. 

2  I  cannot  in  these  veiy  obscure  persons  discern  with  some  Protestant 
writers  of  Germany,  even  my  fi-iend  M.  Bunsen,  sagacious  prophets  and 
resolute  opponents  of  Papal  domination  which  was  artfully  and  deliberately 
established  by  Boniface;  a  premature  Luther  and  Calvin.     Neither  the 


Ohap.  V.  BONIFACE  RESISTS  THE  POPE.  255 

tria,  who  claimed  dominion  over  the  whole  of  Christian 
Germany,  punished  the  delinquents  with  imprisonment. 
Carloman,  himself,  who  had  risen  from  the  post  of 
Mayor  of  the  Palace  to  that  of  Sovereign,  was  so 
wrought  on  by  the  pious  eloquence  of  Boniface,  that 
he  abandoned  his  throne,  bequeathed  his  son  to  the 
perilous  guardianship  of  his  brother  Pepin,  went  to 
Rome,  and  retired  into  a  monastery. 

Boniface  even  resisted  within  his  own  diocese,  the 
author  of  his  greatness.  The  Pope  Stephen,  on  his 
visit  to  Pepin,  presumed  to  ordain  a  Bishop  of  Mentz. 
Boniface  resisted  this  encroachment,  and  it  Rgaists  the 
was  only  at  the  earnest  representation  of  ^°p®- 
Pepin,  who  urged  the  unreasonableness  of  such  a 
quarrel  between  the  heads  of  the  Church,  that  the 
feud  was  allayed.^ 

But  power  and  dignity  were  not  the  ruling  passions 
of  Boniface.  He  threw  off  all  the  pomp  and  authority 
of  the  Primate  of  Germany  to  become  again  the  hum- 
ble apostle.     He  surrendered  his  see  to  Lul-  a.d.  753. 

jealousies  nor  the  politic  schemes  belong  to  the  time.  The  respect  of 
Boniface  for  Rome  was  filial  not  sei-vile.  The  tenets  of  Adalbert  and 
Clement  were  doubtless  misunderstood  or  misrepresented,  but  they  are  to 
me  altogether  indistinct  and  uncertain. 

1  There  is  something  remarkable  in  the  simplicity  with  which  Boniface 
remonstrates  against  certain  unchristian  practices  at  Rome.  He  asks  Pope 
Zacharias  if  it  can  be  true  that  heathen  usages,  such  as  feasts  at  the  kalenda 
of  January,  phylacteries  worn  by  the  women,  enchantments  and  divinations, 
are  allowed  at  Rome.  He  even  ventures  on  one  occasion  to  make  more 
delicate  inquii'ies  as  to  simouiacal  practices,  especially  that  of  selling  motro- 
politan  palls.  "  Quod  talia  a  te  nobis  referautur,  quasi  nos  corruptores 
sumus  canonum,  et  patrum  rescindere  traditiones  quseramus,  ac  per  hoc , 
quod  absit,  cimi  nostris  clericis  in  simoniacam  haeresim  incidamus,  acci- 
pientes  et  compellentes,  ut  hi  quibus  pallia  tribuimus,  nobis  prsemia  largi- 
antur."  —  Zachariae  Epist.  ad  Bonifac.  Labbe,  Cone.  "  Non  oportet  ut  qui 
caput  ecclesise  estis,  caeteris  membris  exempla  contentionis  priebeatis." 
Vit.  Bonifac.  apud  Pertz,  vol.  ii.  p.  336. 


2r56  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

lus,  one  of  the  Englishmen  whom  he  liad  invited  to 
Germany,  and  set  forth,  if  not  to  seek,  not  to  shrink 
from  martyrdom  among  the  savage  pagans.  He  o]> 
tained  that  last  glorious  crown  of  his  devoted  life.  In 
Friesland  he  had  made  numerous  converts ;  the  day 
was  appointed  on  which  he  was  to  administer  the  rite 
of  confirmation  to  a  multitude  of  these  neophytes. 
The  morn  had  begun  to  dawn  on  the  open  country 
where  the  tents  had  been  pitched,  when  they  were 
suddenly  attacked  by  a  band  of  armed  heathens.  The 
Death  of  couvcrts  of  Bouiface  rose  up  in  self-defence, 
A.D.  754.'  but  the  saint  discouraged  their  vain  efforts, 
and  exhorted  them  to  submit  in  peace  and  joy  to  their 
heaven-appointed  martyrdom.  All  met  their  doom ; 
but  their  assailants  quarrelled  about  the  spoil ;  made 
themselves  drunk  with  the  wine,  and  so  fell  upon  each 
other,  and  revenged  the  Christian  martyrs.  The  body 
of  St.  Boniface  was  conveyed  to  the  monastery  of 
Fulda. 

This  renowned  monastery  had  owed  its  foundation 
Monasteries,  to  Bouifacc.  Thcsc  great  conventual  estab- 
Fuida.  lishments  were  of  no  less  importance  in  Ger- 

man history  than  the  bishoprics.  The  history  of  Ful- 
da, illustrates  the  manner  in  which  these  advanced 
posts  of  Christianity  and  civilization  were  settled  in 
the  midst  of  the  deep  Teutonic  forests. 

Sturmi  was  the  son  of  noble  Christian  parents  in 
sturmi.  Noricum  ;  the  enthusiasm  of  youthful  piety 
led  him  to  follow  Boniface  into  Germany.  He  was 
ordained  priest,  and  labored  successfully  under  the 
guidance  of  his  master.  He  was  seized  with  the  domi- 
nant passion  for  the  monastic  state ;  and  Boniface  en- 
couraged  rather   than   repressed   his  ardor.      With  a 


Chap.  V.  STURMI.  257 

few  companions  lie  entered  into  the  forest  solitude, 
and  fixed  at  first  at  Hertzfeld.  But  this  retirement 
'^as  at  once  too  near  the  fi-ontier  and  exposed  to  danger 
from  the  pagan  Saxons.  Boniface  urged  them  to  strike 
deeper  into  the  wilderness.  Though  their  impulse 
was  so  different,  their  adventures  resembled  those  of 
the  backwoodsmen  in  America,  exploring  the  unknown 
forests.  They  tracked  in  their  boats  along  some  of 
the  rivers  ;  but  their  fastidious  piety,  and,  not  perhaps 
altogether  unworldly  sagacity,  could  find  no  place 
which  united  all  the  requisites  for  a  flourishing  mon- 
astery ;  profound  seclusion,  salubrious  and  even  beau- 
tiful situation,  fertile  soil,  abundant  water.^  With  the 
tone,  and,  in  their  belief,  with  the  authority  of  a  proph- 
et, Boniface  declared,  on  their  report,  that  the  chosen 
site  would  be  revealed  at  length.  Sturmi  set  out  alone 
upon  an  ass,  and  with  a  small  stock  of  food  plunged 
fearlessly  into  the  wilderness.  He  beguiled  the  way 
with  psalms,  at  the  same  time  he  surveyed  the  country 
with  a  keen  and  curious  observation.  At  night  he 
lit  a  circular  fire,  to  scare  away  the  wild  beasts,  and 
lay  down  in  the  midst  of  it.  His  ass  was  one  day 
startled  by  a  number  of  wild  Sclavonians  bathing  in  a 
stream,  and  the  saint  perceived  the  offensive  smell 
which  proceeded  firom  them.^  They  mocked  him, 
probably  by  their  gestures,  but  did  him  no  harm.     At 

1  "  Tunc  avidus  loconim  explorator  ubique  sagaci  obtutu  raontuosa  atqno 
plana  perlustrans  loca,  moutes  quoque  et  colles  vallesque  adspiciens,  fontes 
et  torrentes  atque  fluvios  perlustrans,  pergebat."  — Vita  S.  Sturmii,  Pertz, 
ii.  368. 

2  "  Et  ipse  vir  Dei  eorum  foetorera  exhorruit."  This  seems  to  be  meant 
literally,  though  the  words  which  follow,  "  qui  more  Gentilium  sermm  Dei 
subsannabant,"  might  perhaps  lead  to  another  sense.  If  I  am  right  in  my 
translation,  it  is  a  curious  illustration  of  the  antipathy  of  races.  —  Apud 
Pertz,  ibid. 

VOL..    II.  17 


258  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Boor  FV 

length  he  arrived  at  a  spot  on  the  banks  of  the  Fulda, 
where  he  was  so  delighted  with  the  situation,  the  soil, 
the  water,  that  having  passed  the  whole  day  in  ex- 
ploring it,  he  determined  that  this  must  be  the  site 
predicted  by  Boniface.  He  returned  to  his  compan- 
ions. Boniface  not  merely  approved  of  the  choice, 
but  also  obtained  a  grant  of  the  site,  with  a  demesne 
extending  four  miles  each  way,  from  the  pious  Carlo- 
man,  who,  whatever  his  own  title,  gave  it  to  God  with 
as  much  facility  as  lands  are  now  granted  in  Canada 
oi  Australia.  Boniface  himself  went  to  visit  the  place, 
and  watched  the  clearing  of  the  forest  and  the  prepara- 
tions for  building  with  unfailing  interest.  The  monks 
of  Fulda  adopted  the  rule  of  St.  Benedict ;  the  mul- 
titude of  candidates  for  admission  was  so  great,  that 
accommodation  could  not  be  found  fast  enough.  Of 
all  the  gifts  of  Boniface,  the  most  valuable  was  that 
of  his  body,  which  refused  to  repose  anywhere  but  in 
the  abbey  of  Fulda. 

The  abbots  of  Fulda  were  not  perpetually  employed 
in  the  peaceful  and  legitimate  Christian  Apostleship 
of  Boniface  for  the  conversion  of  Germany.  At  a 
later  period  they  were  summoned  to  attend  Charle- 
magne on  his  Mohammedan  mission  for  the  conversion 
of  the  heathen  Saxons  by  the  sword.  On  his  first 
campaign,  the  aged  Sturmi  was  one  of  the  flock  of 
bishops,  and  abbots,  and  clergy  who  followed  in  the 
train  of  war. 

England,  meantime,  had  been  still  supplying  the 
more  peaceful  warriors  of  the  Cross,  who  endeavored 
in  vain  by  preaching  the  Gospel  to  subdue  the  fierce 
and  exasperated  Saxons.  Willibald,  the  Apostle  of 
Friesland,  was  a  Northumbrian.     Adalbert,  Bishop  of 


Chap.  V.  ENGLISH  MISSIONARIES.  259 

,  -  ■^ 

Utrecht,  and  Leofwin,  who  was  martyred  by  the 
Saxons,  with  many  others,  came  fi'om  our  island.  St. 
Ludger,  though  a  Frisian  by  descent,  had  ct-'idied 
under  Alcuin  at  York.^  In  this  singular  manner  tiu 
Anglo-Saxon  invasion  of  England  flowed  back  upon 
the  continent ;  and  Gregory  the  Great,  by  his  conver- 
sion of  England,  gave  the  remote  impulse  to  the  con- 
version of  large  parts  of  Germany. 

1  Vita  S.  Ludgeri,  printed  in  Bede's  works. 


260 


LATIN    CHRISTIANITY. 


Book  IV 


CHAPTER    VI. 


THE  PAPACY  FROM  THE  TBIE  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT 
TO  GREGORY  H. 


A.D.  j  A.D 

Gregory  the  Great,  died  . .     . .     604    Adeodatus 672 

Sabinianus        604, 606  I  Domnus      677 

Boniface  III 607  i  Agatho       679 


Boniface  IV 608 

Deus-dedit 615,618 

Boniface  V 618,625 

Honorius  1 625,  638 

Severinus  (2  months  and  4  days)  639 

John  IV 640 

Theodorusl. 642 

Martin  1 649, 655 

Eugenius  1 654 

Vitaiianus 657 


Leo  II 682 

Benedict 684 

JohnV 685 

Conon         686 

Sergius       687,701 

John  VI 702 

John  VII 705,707 

Sisinnus      708 

Constantino       708 

Gregory  II 716 


All  these  conquests  of  Christianity  were,  in  a  cer- 
tain sense,  the  conquests  of  the  Roman  See.  Augus- 
tine had  been  a  Roman  missionary,  and  though  the 
ancient  British  Church  had  raised  up  something  of  an 
intractable  spirit  in  some  of  the  Enghsh  kingdoms,  and 
passing  to  the  continent  with  Columban  and  his  follow- 
The  Teutons  ^^s,  had  asscrtcd  some  independence,  and  foi 
Sfn  chr£  a  time  had  maintained  usages  wliich  refused 
^""'^y-  to  conform  to  the  Roman  disciphne ;  yet  rev- 
erence for  Rome  penetrated  with  the  Gospel  to  the 
remotest   parts.       Gei-many    was   converted    to   Latin 


Chap.  VI.  SUBORDINATION  OF  POPES.  261 

Christianity.  Rome  was  the  source,  the  centre,  the 
regulating  authority  recognized  by  the  EngUsh  apostles 
of  the  Teutons.  The  clergy  were  constantly  visiting 
Rome  as  the  religious  capital  of  the  world,  to  do  hom- 
age to  the  head  of  Western  Christendom,  to  visit  the 
shrines  of  the  apostles,  the  more  devout  to  obtain  rel- 
ics, the  more  intellectual,  knowledge,  letters,  arts. 
The  Pontificate  of  Gregory  the  Great  had  been  tho 
epoch  at  which  had  commenced  at  least  both  this  great 
extension  of  Latin  Christianity,  and  the  independence 
of  the  Roman  See.  But  the  impulse  had  popes  subor- 
been  much  stronger  towards  the  subjugation  SSn'^  '^^ 
of  these  new  dominions,  than  towards  eman-  ^"^p*^"^"^^- 
cipation  from  the  secular  power  of  the  Eastern  emper- 
ors. While  the  Papal  influence  was  thus  spreading  in 
the  West,  and  bishops  from  the  remotest  parts  of  the 
empire,  and  of  regions  never  penetrated  by  the  Roman 
arms,  looked  to  Rome  as  the  parent  of  their  faith, — 
if  not  to  an  infallible,  at  least  to  the  highest  authority 
in  Christendom  —  the  Pope,  in  his  relation  to  the  East- 
ern empire,  has  sunk  again  into  a  subject.  He  is  the 
pontiff  of  a  city  within  a  conquered  province,  that 
province  arbitrarily  governed  by  an  officer  of  the  sov- 
ereign. He  is  consecrated  only  after  the  permission  of 
the  Emperor,  is  expected  to  obey  the  imperial  mandate 
even  on  religious  matters,  exposed  to  penalties  for  con- 
tumacy, in  one  case  arrested,  exiled,  and  with  difficulty 
saved  from  capital  punishment. 

In   the  century,  or  but  few  years   more,  after  the 
death  of  Gregory  the  Great,  down  to  the  ac-  successors  of 
cession  of  Gregory  11.,^  a  rapid  succession  of  ^^'^s'^^'yi- 
twenty-four  popes   filled  the  Apostolic  See.     Few  of 

i  Greg'x-v  the  Givat  dii-d  604.     Clregory  II.  Pope  716. 


262  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

them  stand  forth  out  of  the  obscurity  of  the  times. 
The  growth  or  rather  the  maintenance  of  the  papal 
power  is  to  be  ascribed  more  to  the  circumstances  of 
the  age  than  to  the  character  or  abihty  of  the  popes. 
Many  of  them  were  of  Roman,  most  of  Italian  birth ; 
few,  even  if  they  had  been  greater  men,  ruled  long 
enough  to  achieve  any  great  acts.  Two  of  those, 
whose  reign  was  most  protracted,  were  distinguished, 
the  one,  Honorius  I.,  only  for  his  eiTors  ;  the  other, 
Martin,  for  his  misfortune. 

Sabinianus,  the  successor  of  Gregory,  has  the  char- 
Sabinianus.  actcr  of  a  hard  and  avaricious  man.  He  was 
Sept.  13.  a  native  of  Volterra,  and  had  been  employed 
as  the  envoy  and  representative  of  Gregory  at  Con- 
stantinople.^ The  admirers  of  Gregory  describe  Sabin- 
ianus as  a  bitter  enemy  to  the  fame  of  his  holy  prede- 
cessor. Gregory's  unbounded  liberality  to  the  poor, 
Sabinianus  reproached  as  a  prodigal  waste  of  the  treas- 
ures of  the  Church,  a  vain  ostentation,  a  low  art  to 
obtain  popularity.  A  dreadful  famine  followed  the  ac- 
cession of  the  new  pontiff:  he  sold  the  corn,  which 
Gregory  was  wont  to  distribute  freely,  at  exorbitant 
prices  ;*^  and  laid  the  fault  of  the  parsimony,  to  which 
he  said  that  he  was  compelled,  on  the  prodigality  of 
Gregory.  But  the  people,  some  of  whom  are  said  to 
have  perished  with  hunger  before  the  eyes  of  the  un- 
l)itying  pope,  could  not  comprehend  what  might  have 
been  necessary,  or  even  wise,  economy. 

Sabinianus  seems  to  have  struck  on  a  chord  of  popu- 
lar Roman  feeling,  which  answered  more  readily  to  his 

1  The  Apocrisiarius  was  the  title  of  the  papal  envoy  at  the  Byzantine 
court. 

2  30  solidJ  a  bushel. 


Chap.  VI.  SABINIANUS.  *J6^ 

touch.  The  populace  listened  greedily  to  the  charge, 
first  said  to  have  been  made  by  Sabinianus,  of  the  wan- 
ton destruction  made  by  the  late  pope  of  the  public 
buildings  and  other  monuments  of  the  city.  Gregory 
was  accused  as  having  defaced  with  systematic  Chris- 
tian iconoclasm,  and  demolished  the  ancient  temples, 
and  of  having  thrown  down  and  broken  to  pieces  the 
statues  which  still  adorned  the  city.^  The  revenge 
suggested  by  the  malice  of  Sabinianus  was  the  public 
destruction  of  the  works  of  Gregory.  The  pious  men- 
dacity of  Peter  the  Deacon,  as  it  had  saved  the  mortal 
remains  of  his  master  from  insult,  now  protected  his 
works.  He  assured  the  populace  that  himself  had  seen 
the  Holy  Ghost,  in  the  shape  of  a  dove,  whispering 
into  the  ear  of  Gregory.  AVhatever  be  the  truth  of 
these  old  traditions,  they  betray  the  existence  of  two 
unscmpulous  hostile  factions,  one  adoring,  the  other 
bitterly  persecuting  the  fame  of  Gregoiy ;  and  exhibit 
a  singular,  yet  not  unnatural,  state  of  feeling  in  the 


1  Platina  (de  Vit.  Pontif.)  connects  these  two  rumors.  The  iconoclasm 
of  which  Gregoiy  is  accused  has  given  rise  to  a  long  controversy.  Platina 
indignantly  rejects  the  charge  of  wantonly  destroying  the  public  edifices, 
and  assigns  very  probable  reasons  for  their  decay.  "  Absit  hajc  calunmia 
a  tanto  Pontifice  Romano,  praisertim  cui  certe  post  Deum  patria  quam  vita 
charior  fuit.  Multa  profecto  ex  collapsis  sedificiis  exedit  vetustas.  Multa 
prajterea  demoliuutur  homines  sediticandi  gratia,  ut  quotidie  ccrniiaus. 
Impacta  ilia  foramina,  quae  turn  in  concavo  fornicum,  turn  in  conjuncturis 
niarmorum,  quadratorumve  lapidum  videntur,  non  minus  a  Romanis  quam 
a  barbaris  avellendi  an-is  causa  crediderim.  In  fornicibus  enim,  quo  levior 
esset  moles,  ollas  cum  numismatibus  coUocabant.  Lapides  vero  quadratoa 
a-neis  clavis  tirmabant."  The  statues,  he  proceeds,  fell  of  themselves, 
their  marble  or  bronze  pedestals  being  objects  of  plmider.  The  heads,  the 
necks  being  the  slenderest  part,  were  knocked  off  in  the  fall.  This  is  in 
answer  to  the  accusation  that  Gregory  caused  the  statues  to  be  beheaded. 
I  am  not  sure  that  Gregory's  more  religious  contemporaries  would  have 
thought  these  charges  calumnious:  the  period  was  not  passed  when  the 
hatred  of  idolatry  would  v)redomiuate  over  the  love  of  art. 


264  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

Roman  populace.  The  old  Roman  attachment  to  theh' 
majestic  edifices,  and  even  to  the  stately  images  of  their 
ancient  gods,  is  struggling  successfully  against  their 
Christian  reverence  for  their  pontiff,  but  yielding  to  the 
most  credulous  Christian  superstition.  Superstition 
triumphed  the  more  easily  over  a  hard  and  avaricious 
prelate  ;  and,  on  the  Pope's  refusal  to  allow  the  sainted 
Gregory  the  quiet  enjoyment  of  Christian  peace  in 
heaven,  brought  him  down  to  punish  his  guilty  succes- 
sor, and  avenge  his  own  wrongs.  Thrice  Gregory  ap- 
peared to  rebuke  Sabinianus  —  thrice  he  appeared  in 
vain ;  the  fourth  time  the  spirit  struck  the  pontiff  a 
violent  blow  on  the  head,  of  ^vhich  he  died.  So  exas- 
perated were  the  people  against  Sabinianus,  that  his 
A.D.  606.  funeral  procession  was  conducted  by  a  long 
a!J*.*607.*°  circuit  without  the  city,  from  the  Lateran 
Feb.  19.1  palace  to  St.  Peter's,  to  escape  the  insults 
of  the  Romans.  A  vacancy  of  nearly  a  year  ensued 
after  the  death  of  Sabinianus.  The  brief  pontificate 
Boniface  III.  of  Bouifacc  III.  is  marked  by  the  assumption 
of  that  awful  title  before  which  Christendom  bowed 
for  so  many  centuries,  that  of  Universal  Bishop.  The 
pious  humility  of  Gregory  had  shuddered  at  the  usur- 
pation of  this  title  by  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople. 
No  language  could  express  the  devout  abhorrence  of 
this  impioys,  heretical,  diabolic,  anti-Christian  asser- 
tion of  superiority.  Boniface  then  represented  the  pope 
at  the  Imperial  Court,  and  succeeded  not  merely  in 
wresting  this  title  from  the  rival  prelate  of  Constanti- 
nople, but  in  obtaining  an  acknowledgment  of  the  su- 

1  I  would  observe  that  in  many  of  these  dates,  it  is  that  of  the  conse- 
cration and  burial  which  are  recorded,  not  the  accession  and  death  of  the 
Tope. 


Chap.  VI.  BONIFACE  IH.  265 

premacy  of  St.  Peter's  successor.^  Neither  the  motive 
of  the  donor  of  this  magnificent  privilege,  nor  the  donor 
himself,  commend  the  gift.  It  was  the  tyrant  Phocas, 
who  hated  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  for  his  hu- 
manity, in  protecting,  as  far  as  he  had  power,  the 
widow  and  the  three  helpless  daughters  of  the  mur- 
dered emj)eror  Maurice  from  his  vengeance ;  and  this 
hatred  of  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  rather  than 
the  higher  respect  for  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  still  less 
any  mature  deliberation  on  the  justice  of  their  respec- 
tive claims,  awarded  the  superiority  to  the  old  Rome. 
On  the  death  of  Phocas  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople 
resumed,  if  he  had  ever  abandoned,  the  contested  title. 
Even  greater  obscurity  hangs  over  the  decision  of  a 
synod  held  by  Boniface  at  Rome,  which  is  thought  to 
have  invested  the  papal  see  in  more  substantial  and  im- 
mediate power.  Seventy-two  bishops,  thirty-three 
presbyters,  and  the  whole  assembled  clergy,  passed  a 
canon  that,  under  the  penalty  of  anathema,  no  one 
should  form  a  party  for  the  succession  to  a  bishopric  ; 
three  days  were  to  elapse  before  the  election,  and  all 
bribery  and  simoniacal  bargaining  were  strictly  forbid- 
den. No  election  was  to  be  good  unless  made  by  the 
clergy  and  people,  and  ratified  by  the  prince.  A  later 
and  more  doubtful  authority  subjoins,  not  till  approved 
^)V  the  pope,  under  the  solemn  form,  "  We  will  and  we 
ordain."  2 

1  The  early  authorities  for  this  fact  are  Anastasius  Bibliothecarius  in  Vit. 
Bonifac.  IV  ,and  Paulas  Diaconus,  Hist.  Longobard.  Schroeck  (Chr.  Kirch. 
Gesch.,  xvii.  73,  and  xix.  488)  is  disposed  to  question  the  whole,  to  which 
perhaps  too  much  importance  has  been  given  by  modern  controversialists. 
Baronius  and  Pagi  have  added,  without  any  authority,  that  Phocas  forbade 
the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  to  call  himself  Universal  Bishop. 

2  This  sentence  rests  only  on  the  late  and  doubtful  authority'  of  Platina, 
Ji  Vit.  Pontif. 


266  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

Boniface  IV.,  a  Marsian,  is  celebrated  for  the  con- 
version of  the  Pantheon  into  a  Christian  Churcli.  With 
Boniface  IV.  the  sanction  of  the  emperor,  this  famous  tem- 
A.D.  608.  P^®»  ^^  which  were  assembled  all  the  gods  of 
Sept.  lo.        ^1^^  Roman  world,  was  purified  and  dedicated 

died  A.D.  615.  ,  '  ,    .^  .  ,.  ,.11 

May  25.  to  the  ucw  tutelar  deities  or  manknid,  the 
Virgin,  and  all  the  martyrs. 

Deus-dedit.  Dcus-dcdit  and  Boniface  V.  occupied  the 

Oct"  19.'  papal  throne  for  ten  years  of  peace,  unbroken 
m^2&.'  ^^^'  ^7  any  hostile  collision,  either  with  the  Ex- 
BoQifacev.     arcli  or  the  Lombard  kincrs,  and  even  undis- 

A.D.  618-625.  ,      1  T  .  ® 

Oct.  25.         turbed  by  any  important  controversy. 

But  the  fatal  connection  with  the  Eastern 
empire  drove  the  succeeding  popes  into  the  intricacies 
and  feuds  of  a  new  theological  strife.  While  Mo- 
hammedanism was  gathering  in  her  might  on  its  bor- 
ders, and  the  stern  assertors  of  the  Divine  Unity  had 
already  begun  to  wrest  provinces  from  the  Koman 
empire,  the  bishops  in  all  the  great  sees  of  the  East, 
the  emperors  themselves,  were  distracting  their  own 
minds,  persecuting  their  subjects,  and  even  spreading 
strife  and  bloodshed  through  their  cities  on  the  question 
of  the  single  or  the  double  AVill  in  Christ.  Honorius  I. 
Honoriusi.  iiicurrcd  a  condemnation  for  heresy,  his  more 
orthodox  successors  suffered  persecution,  and  one  of 
them  exile  and  death. 

It  might  have  been  supposed  that  Nestorianism, 
Controversy  "^^i^^  its  natural  offspring,  Eutychianism,  had 
tw'o^NtiiS^in  exhausted  or  worn  out  the  contest  concern- 
^'*"^'*  ing  the  union  of  the  Godhead  and  the  man- 

hood In  the  Saviour.  The  Church  had  asserted  the 
coexistence  of  the  two  natures  —  man  with  all  his 
perfect   properties  —  God   with    all  His   perfect  attri- 


<Jhap.  VI.     CONTROVERSY  ABOUT  THE  TWO   WILLS.       2G7 

butes  :  it  had  reflisetl  to  keep  tliem  in  almost  antagonis- 
tic separation  with  the  Nestorian  —  to  blend  them  into 
one  with  Eutjches.  The  Nestorian  and  the  Mono- 
physite  had  been  alike  driven  away  from  the  high 
places  of  the  Church ;  though  still  formidable  sects, 
they  were  but  sects. 

But  the  Godhead  and  the  manhood,  thus  each  dis- 
tinct and  complete  in  itself,  yet  so  intimately  conjoined 
—  where  began  the  divergence  ?  where  closed  the  har- 
mony ?  Did  the  will,  not  merely  the  consentient,  but 
absolutely  identical  will,  and  one  unconflicting  opera- 
tion of  that  will,  having  become  an  active  energy, 
perform  all  the  works  of  the  Redeemer,  submit  to  and 
undergo  his  passion  ?  or  did  each  nature  preserve  its 
separate  independence  of  will,  and  only  by  the  con- 
cordance of  these  two  at  least  theoretically  conflicting 
wills,  produce  the  harmonious  action  of  the  two  na- 
tures ?  At  what  point  did  the  duality  terminate  — 
the  unity  begin? 

Sergius,  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  first,  it 
might  seem  almost  inadvertently,  stirred  this  perplexing 
question.  He  discovered  a  writing  of  his  holy  predeces- 
sor, Mennas,  which  distinctly  asserted  that  the  Christ 
was  actuated  by  but  one  will.  He  communicated  it  to 
some  of  the  Eastern  bishops,  to  Theodorus  of  Pharan, 
who  had  a  high  name  as  a  theologian,  and  to  Cyrus, 
then  Bishop  of  Phasis  ;  both  bowed  before  the  authori- 
ty, and  accepted  the  doctrine  of  Mennas. 

The  Emperor  Heraclius,  though  he  did  not  aspire 
to  the  character  of  a  distinguished  theologian,  like  his 
predecessor  Justinian,  could  not,  even  occupied  as  he 
was  with  his  adventurous  and  successful  campaigns  in 
the  East,  keep  himself  aloof  from  religious  a.d.  626. 


268  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

controversy.^  In  a  suspension  of  arms  during  liis  war 
of  invasion  against  the  Lazians  he  encountered  at 
Phasis  the  Bishop  Cyrus  whom  he  consulted  on  the 
A.D.  622.  important  question  of  the  single  or  double 
will,  the  single  or  double  operation  in  Christ.  Cyrus 
appealed  to  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  who  on 
his  own  authority,  and  that  of  his  predecessor,  Men- 
nas,  decided  in  favor  of  the  Monothelitic  view.  This 
doctrine  had  already  offered  itself  under  the  captivating 
aspect  of  an  intermediate  term,  which  might  conciliate 
the  Monophysites  with  the  Church.  In  Armenia,  four 
years  before,  Heraclius  had  an  interview  with  Paul,  a 
follower  of  Severus,  who,  taken  with  the  notion  of  one 
operation  in  Christ,  was  disposed  to  accede  (with  this 
explanation)  to  the  Council  of  Chalcedon.  At  a  latei 
period,  a  more  important  personage,  the  Jacobite  Patri- 
arch, Anastasius,  consented  to  remain,  on  these  terms, 
with  the  Catholic  Church.  He  was  to  be  rewarded 
with  the  patriarchate  of  Antioch.  Anastasius,  it  is  said 
A.D.628.  by  his  enemies,  a  man  of  consummate  craft, 
had  overreached  the  unsuspecting  emperor ;  the  Jaco- 
bites mocked  the  simplicity  of  the  Catholics,  who,  by  this 
concession,  instead  of  winning  converts,  had  gone  over 
to  the  doctrines  of  their  adversaries.  Monothelitism 
was  but  another  form  of  Monophysitism. 

Sergius  of  Constantinople  addressed  a  letter  to  Ho- 
norius  I.  Honorius,  in  distinct  words,  declared  himself 
a  Monothelite.  Yet  Honorius,  it  is  manifest,  entirely 
misapprehended  the  question,  and  seemed  not  in  the 
least  to  understand  its  subtle  bearings  on  the  contro- 

1  Walch  has  assigned  the  dates  adopted  iu  the  text,  for  the  various  inci- 
dents in  the  history  of  the  Monothelitic  controversy.  —  Ketzer-Geschichte, 
Lix. 


Chap.  VL  SERGIUS  —  HONORIUS.  269 

versles  of  the  East.  The  unity  wliich  lie  asserted 
was  not  an  identity,  but  a  harmony.  His  main  argu- 
ment was,  that  the  sinless  human  nature  of  Christ, 
being  ignorant  of  that  other  law  in  the  members, 
warrfnor  against  the  law  of  the  mind,  there  could  bo' 
no  conflicting  or  adverse  will  in  the  God-Man.-^  But 
this  plainer  and  more  practical  conception  of  the  ques- 
tion betrayed  the  unsuspecting  Pope  into  words,  \o 
which  the  Monothelites,  proud  of  their  important  par- 
tisan, as  w^ell  as  the  stern  polemic  resentment  of  his 
adversaries,  bound  him  down,  with  inexo-  a.d.  633, 634. 
rable  rigor.  Notwithstanding  the  charitable  attempt 
of  one  of  his  successors,  John  IV.,  to  interpret  his 
words  in  this  wider  meaning,  Honorius  I.  was  branded 
by  the  Council  of  Constantinople  with  the  name  of 
heretic. 

The  whole  church  might  seem  in  danger  of  falling 
into  the  same  condemnation.  All  the  prelates  of  the 
great  sees  of  Rome,  of  Constantinople,  of  Alexandria 
(now  occupied  by  Cyrus,  formerly  Bishop  of  Phasis) 
and  of  Antioch,  had  asserted  the  one  indivisible  will 
in  Christ.  In  Egypt  this  reconciling  tenet  had  wrought 
wonders.  On  this  basis  had  been  framed  certain  chap- 
ters, which  the  followers  of  Dioscorus  and  of  Severus, 
all  the  Jacobite  sects,  received  with  eager  promptitude. 
For  once  the  whole  people  of  Alexandria  became  one 
flock ;  almost  all  Egypt,  Libya,  and  the  adjacent  prov- 
inces, with  one  voice  and  one  spirit,  obeyed  the  ortho- 

1  "Odev  Kot  ev  ^eXrjfia  dfioloyovfiev  rov  nvplov  'Irjaov  XpcoTov-  kTveiSif 
rrpodr/Xug  V7rd  r^g  deorqrog  7tpoae'Xr/(pdv]  rj  i/fisrepa  ^vmc,  ovk  afiaprla  Iv 
iKeivy,  6r}%a6f]  y  dvatg  irpd  rrjg  dfcapTtag  KTicddaa;  ovk  TjTtg  fj,£Tu  rrjv  Trapa 
Saaiv  ^(p&apr}.  —  Honor.  Epist.,  Labbe,  930.  The  metaphysical  and  prac- 
tical character  of  the  two  letters  contrast  singularly.  Honorius  reproves 
the  mtroduction  of  terms  not  recognized  by  the  Scriptures. 


270  LATIN  CimiSTIANTTY.  Book  IV 

dox  Patriarch  of  Alexandria.^  Sopliroiiius  alone,  who 
during  the  controversy  became  Bishop  of  Jerusalem, 
the  same  Sophronius  who  afterwards  signed  the  humili- 
ating capitulation  of  Jerusalem  to  the  Mohammedans, 
boldly  asserted  and  elaborately  defended  the  doctrine 
of  the  two  wills.  So  deeply  impressed  was  Sophronius 
with  the  vital  importance  of  this  question,  that  long 
after,  when  the  Saracens  were  masters  of  the  Holy 
City,  he  took  Stephen,  Bishop  of  Dora,  to  the  spot 
which  was  supposed  to  be  the  Golgotha,  the  place  of 
the  Lord's  crucifixion.  ''To  that  God,"  he  said,  "who 
on  this  very  place  was  crucified  for  thee,  at  his  secoud 
coming  to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead,  thou  shalt 
render  thine  account,  if  thou  delayest  or  art  remiss  in 
the  defence  of  his  imperilled  faith  ;  go  thou  forth  in 
my  place.  As  thou  knowest,  on  account  of  this  Sara- 
cen invasion,  now  fallen  upon  us  for  our  sins,  I  cannot 
bodily  strive  for  the  truth,  and  before  the  world  pro- 
claim, to  the  end  of  the  earth,  to  the  apostolic  throne  at 
Rome,  the  tenets  of  orthodoxy."  Sophronius  protested, 
appealed,  wrote  large  volumes ;  and  the  religious  peace 
which  seemed  descending  on  the  afflicted  East,  gave 
place  again  to  strife,  and  feud,  and  mutual  anathema. 

But  in  the  Byzantine  empire,  the  creed  to  its  nicest 
shades  and  variations  was  an  affair  of  state :  it  ^^  as 
fixed,  or  at  least  defined,  by  imperial  authority.  He- 
raclius,  while  he  looked  with  miscalculating  or  awo- 
struck  apathy  on  the  progress  of  the  Mohammedan 
arms,  could  not  refrain  from  interference  with  this 
question  of  metaphysic  theology.  In  his  name  ap- 
peared  the   famous    Ecthesis,^   or    Exposition    of   the 

1  Sergii  ad  Honor.  Epist.  apud  Concil.  Const.  III.,  Labbe,  p.  921. 

2  Ecthesis  Heraclii  apud  Labbe,  p.  200. 


Chap.  VI.  THE  ECTHESIS.  271 

Faith,  drawn   in  all  probability  by  the  Patriarch  Ser 
gius,  but  which,  as  professed  by  the  emperor,  his  sub- 
jects were  bound    to  receive  in  humble  and   unques- 
tionino;    obedience.      The    Ecthesis   declared    the   two 
wills  in  Christ  to  be  a  heresy,  which  even  the  impious 
Nestorius  had  not  dared  to  promulgate.     It  was  affixed, 
as  the  proclamation  of  the  imperial  creed,  on  the  gates 
of  the  great  church  at  Constantinople.     The  ^  j>  gsg. 
publication  of  the  Ecthesis  was  followed,  or  ^'^**  ^^" 
immediately  preceded,  by  the  death  of  Sergius  of  Con- 
stantinople and  that  of  Honorius  of  Rome. 

The  Popes  who  succeeded  Honorius  amply  retrieved 
by  their  resolute  opposition  to  Monothelitism  severinus 
what  was  considered  the  delinquency  of  that  638(?),  not 

1  i^  1  1         1  r»    TT  •  o  confirmed 

prelate.  (Jn  the  death  ot  Hononus,  oeve-  tin  640. 
rinus  was  elected  to  the  papal  throne ;  but  the  confir- 
mation of  his  election  was  long  delayed  at  Constanti- 
nople, and  only  conceded  on  the  promise  of  his  envoys 
that  he  would  accede  to  the  creed  of  Heraclius.  Sev- 
erinus, however,  repudiated  the  Monothelitic  doctrine. 
In  the  interval  between  the  election  and  confirmation 
of  Severinus,  the  plunder  of  the  treasures  of  the  Roman 
Church  by  the  Exarch  of  Ravenna  showed  the  unscru- 
pulous and  irreverent  character  of  the  Byzantine  gov- 
ernment. Maurice,  the  Chartulary,  harangued  the 
soldiers.  While  they  were  defrauded  of  their  pay,  the 
Church  was  revelling  in  wealth.  The  Exarch's  officer 
occupied  the  Lateran  palace,  and  sealed  up  all  the 
accumulated  riches  which  Cliristian  emperors,  patri- 
cians, consuls  had  bestowed  for  their  souls'  health,  for 
the  use  of  the  poor,  and  the  redemption  of  captives. 
The  rapacious  Exarch  Isaac  hastened  to  Rome.  The 
plunder  was  divided,  the  Emperor  propitiated   by   his 


272  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

share,  which  was  transmitted  to  Constantinople.  The 
more  refractory  of  the  clergy,  who  presumed  to  remon- 
strate, were  sent  into  banishment. 

Severinus  died  after  a  pontificate  of  two  months  and 
A.B.  640.  four  days.  He  was  succeeded  by  John  IV., 
John  IV.  a  Dalmatian  by  birth.^  John  not  only  con- 
Dec.  25.  demned  the  Monothelite  doctrine,  but  piously 
endeavored  to  vindicate  the  memory  of  his  prede- 
cessor Honorius  from  the  imputation  of  heresy.  Ho- 
norius  had  denied  only  the  two  human  wills,  the  con- 
flicting sinful  will  of  fallen  man,  and  the  impeccable 
will,  in  the  person  of  Christ.^  But  the  apology  of 
John  neither  absolved  the  memory  of  Honorius  before 
the  Council  of  Constantinople,  nor  did  the  religious 
reverence  of  his  successors,  whose  envoys  were  present 
at  that  Council,  interpose  in  his  behalf.  The  apology 
of  John  was  addressed  to  the  Emperor  Constantino, 
Death  of  whom  it  did  not  reach.  For  the  death  of 
Revolution  Heraclius  was  followed  by  a  rapid  succession 
tinopie.  of  revolutions  at  Constantinople.  The  later 
years  of  that  Emperor  had  contrasted  unfavorably 
with  the  glorious  activity  of  his  earlier  adminisitration. 
The  conqueror  of  Persia  seemed  to  look  on  the  progress 
of  Mohammedanism  with  the  apathy  of  despair.  He  had 
deeply  wounded  the  religious  feelings  of  his  subjects  by 
an  incestuous  marriage  with  his  niece  Martina.  It  was 
the  object  of  his  dying  wishes,  of  his  last  testament, 
that  his  son  by  Martina,  Heracleonas,  should  share  the 

1  Anastasius  in  vita. 

2  "  Decessor  mens,  docens  de  mysteriis  incarnationis  Christi,  (vl,  ebat  non 
fuisse  in  eo,  sicut  in  nobis  peccatoribus,  mentis  et  carnis  contra-  js  volun- 
tates;  quod  quidani  ad  proprium  sensum  convertentes,  divinita^is  ejus  et 
hunianitatis  unani  eum  vohintatem  docuisse  suspicati  sunt."  —  h,  -st.  .T«JUv. 
Labbe  or  Mansi,  sub  ann.  G41. 


Chap.  VI.        REVOLUTION  IN  CONSTANTINOPLE.  273 

empire  witli  his  elder  brother,  Constantine.  The  two 
sons  of  HeracHus  were  proclaimed  coequal  a.d.  64i. 
Ciesars,  under  the  sovereignty  of  the  Empress  Martina. 
But  even  Constantinople  would  not  submit  to  the 
sway  of  an  incestuous  female.  Martina  was  compelled 
to  descend  from  the  throne,  and  was  succeeded  by  the 
feeble  Constantine,  whose  decaying  health  broke  down 
after  a  reign  of  but  a  hundred  days.  The  enemies  of  Mar- 
tina ascribed  his  death  to  poison  administered  by  his 
stepmother  and  by  Pyrrhus  the  Patriarch.  Martina  in- 
deed again  assumed  the  empire  ;  but  Constantine  on  his 
death-bed  had  taken  measures  to  secure  the  protec- 
tion of  the  armv  for  his  children,  the  leo-itimate  de- 
seen  dan  ts  of  Heraclius.  He  had  been  assured  that 
Heraclius  had  placed  vast  sums  of  money  in  the  hands 
of  the  Patriarch  to  maintain  the  interests  of  Martina 
and  her  son.  He,  therefore,  before  he  expired,  sent  a 
large  donative  to  Valentinus,  who  commanded  the 
army  in  the  suburb  of  Chalcedon.  Valentinus  impe- 
riously demanded  the  punishment  of  the  guilty  usurp- 
ers, of  the  assassins  of  Constantine.  The  citizens  of 
Constantinople  mingled  with  the  ferocious  soldiery. 
In  the  church  of  St.  Sophia,  Heracleonas  was  compelled 
to  mount  the  pulpit,  holding  by  the  hand  Constans, 
the  elder  of  the  sons  of  Constantine.  With  one  voice 
the  people,  the  soldiers,  saluted  Constans  sole  Emperor. 
A  wild  scene  of  pillage  ensued ;  the  barbarian  soldiers, 
the  Jews,  and  other  lawless  partisans  desecrated  the 
holy  edifice  by  every  kind  of  outrage.  The  Patriarch 
Pyrrhus,  after  depositing  a  protest  on  the  high  altar, 
fled.  The  Senate  condemned  Martina  to  the  loss  of 
her  tongue,  Heracleonas  to  the  mutilation  of  his  nose  ; 
these    wretched    victims    were    sent   to    die   in    exile. 

VOL.   II.  18 


274  LATIN  CHRISTIANITr.  Uook  IV. 

Constans  was  sole  Emperor,  and  would  brook  no  rival. 
His  own  brother  Theodosius  was  compelled  to  incapac- 
itate himself  for  sovereignty  by  holy  orders.  Yet  evei> 
so  the  jealousy  of  Constans  felt  no  security.  Nothing 
was  indelible  to  the  imperial  will  at  Constantinople ; 
a  successful  usurper  would  have  shaken  off  even  that 
disqualification.  Nearly  twenty  years  after,  Theodo- 
sius, the  deacon,  was  assassinated  by  the  command  of 
his  brother,  whom  the  indignant  people  drove  from  his 
throne. 

In  the  meantime  religious  war  continued  without 
abatement  between  Rome  and  Constantinople.  The 
Monothelite  Paul  succeeded  the  Monothelite  Pyi-rhus. 
The  Ecthesis  kept  its  place  on  the  doors  of  the  great 
church.  But  in  the  West,  and  in  the  whole  of  the  Afri 
can  churches  yet  unsubdued  by  the  Mohammedans,  all 
Latin  Christianity  adhered  to  tlie  doctrine  of  the  two 
Wills.  The  monk  Maximus,  the  indefatigable  adver- 
sary of  Monothelitism,  travelled  through  the  East  and 
through  Africa,  denouncing  the  heresy  of  Sergius,  and 
exciting  to  the  rejection  of  the  imperial  Ecthesis.  In 
A.D.  645.  Afi'ica  he  held  a  long  disputation,  still  extant, 
with  the  exile  Pyrrhus.  Theodorus  I.  had  succeeded 
PopeTheo-  after  the  short  popedom  of  John  IV.  to  the 
642,  Nov.  24.  poutifical  throuc  of  Rome.  Theodorus  reject- 
ed Monothelitism  with  the  utmost  zeal.  During  his 
pontificate,  Pyrrhus  of  Constantino])le  came  to  Rome. 
Whether  or  not  he  acknowleged  himself  confuted  by 
the  unanswerable  metaphysics  of  Maximus,  he  pre- 
sented a  memorial  recanting  all  his  errors  on  the  single 
Will    in  Christ.^     The  Pope  Theodorus  had  received 

1  *'  Pra^sente  cuncto  clcro  et  populo,  condemnavit  omnia,  qua;  a  se  vel  a 
decepsoribus  suis  scripta  vel  acta  sunt  adversus  immaculatam  tidem."  — 
Vit.  Thedor. 


CifAP   VI.  RELIGIOUS  WAR  —  PYRRPIUS.  275 

with  courtesy  from  Paul,  the  successor  of  Pyrrhus,  tlio 
communication  of  his  advancement  to  the  see  of  Con- 
stantinople ;  he  had  expressed  some  cautious  doubts 
as  to  the  regularity  of  the  deposition  of  Pyrrhus,  yet  ho 
had  given  his  full  approbation,  he  had  expressed  his 
joy  on  the  elevation  of  Paul.^  But  Paul  was  a  Mon- 
othelito,  Pyrrhus  at  his  feet  a  penitent  convert  to 
orthodoxy.  Pyrrhus  was  received  with  all  a.d.  g46. 
the  honors  which  belonged  to  the  actual  patriarch  of 
Constantinople. 

But  Pyrrhus,  from  what  motive  appears  not,  retired 
to  Ravenna,  recanted  his  recantation,  and  declared 
himself  a  conscientious  Monothelite.^  The  indignant 
Pontiff  was  not  content  with  the  ordinary  ter-  a.d.  g48. 
rors  of  excommunication  against  this  double  renegade. 
In  a  full  assembly  of  the  clergy  of  Rome,  and  of  the 
neighboring  bishops,  he  heaped  the  most  vehement 
anathemas  on  the  head  of  the  new  Judas,  and  calling 
for  the  consecrated  wine  on  the  altar,  poured  some 
drops  into  the  ink,  and  so  signed  the  excommunication 
with  the  blood  of  Christ.  Is  it  to  be  supposed  that 
the  blood  of  the  Redeemer  was  reverenced  in  a  less 
appalling  sense  than  in  later  ages,  or  that  the  passion 
of  the  Pope  triumphed  not  only  over  Christian  modera- 
tion, but  over  the  strongest  religious  aw^e  ?  ^  Theo- 
dorus  was  not  satisfied  with  the  excommunication  of 
Pyrrhus,  he  excommunicated  Paul  also.  Paul  revenged 

1  "  Et  quidem  gavisi  super  hujus  sumus  ordinatione."  —  Epist.  Theodori 
ad  Episcop.  Constantin,  apiid  Labbe,  sub  ann. 

2  He  may  have  hoped  for  his  reinstatement  in  the  patriarchate  by  the 
recommendation  of  the  Exarch,  and  have  found  that  his  reconciliation  with 
Rome  stood  in  his  way. 

3  Theophanes,  p.  509,  ed.  Bonn.;  Anastas.,  p.  163,  ibid.;  Vit.  Maximi; 
Epist.  Synodal 


276  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  iV 

himself  by  suppressing  the  religious  worship  of  the 
Papal  envoys  at  the  Court,  maltreating,  and  even 
causing  to  be  scourged  some  of  their  attendants. 

Martin  I.,  the  successor  of  Theodorus,  plunged  more 
Martini.  ^^^^ply,  and  with  more  fatal  consequences, 
June,  649.  ^^^^  ^j^jg  religious  Strife,  or  rather  this  revolt 
of  the  Western  Province  against  the  religious  suprem- 
acy of  the  Emperor.  Constans  had  withdrawn  the 
obnoxious  Ecthesis ;  Paul  the  Patriarch  had  himself 
ordered  it  to  be  removed  from  the  gates  of  the  great 
Church.  The  Ecthesis  of  Heraclius  was  replaced  by 
the  Type  of  Constans.  The  Type  spoke  altogether  a 
different  language  ;  it  aspired  to  silence  by  authority 
this  interminable  dispute.  It  presumed  not  to  define 
the  Creed,  further  than  all  parties  were  agreed,  or 
beyond  the  decisions  of  the  former  councils.  It  stated 
the  question  with  perspicuity  and  fairness,  and  positive- 
ly prohibited  the  use  of  the  phrase  either  of  the  single 
or  the  double  Will  and  Energy.^  The  penalties  for  the 
infringement  of  the  Imperial  decree  were  severe : 
against  the  ecclesiastic,  deposition  and  deprivation ; 
ao-ainst  the  monk  seclusion  and  banishment  from  his 
monastery ;  against  the  public  officer,  civil  or  military, 
degradation  ;  against  the  private  man  of  rank,  confisca- 
tion of  goods  ;  against  the  common  people,  scourging 
and  banishment. 

Martin  summoned  a  council  in  the  Lateran,  whicli 
A.D.649.  "^'^s  attended  by  105  bishops,  chiefly  from 
Oct.  5.  i^g^iy.  r^^^  ^Y^Q  adjacent  islands.     Afler    five 

sessions,  in  which  the  whole  West  repudiated  Mono- 
thelitism  with  perfect  unanimity,  twenty  canons  were 
framed  condemning  that  heresy  with  all  its   authors, 

I  The  Type  in  Labbe  or  Mansi,  sub  aim. 


Chap.  VI.  THE  TYPE.  —  POPE  MARTIN.  277 

But  Pope  Martin  was  not  content  with  anathematizing 
tlie  erroneous  doctrine  of  the  Single  Will,  with  hum- 
bling the  rival  prelate  of  Constantinople  by  excommu- 
nication in  full  council,  with  declaring  the  edict  of  the 
deceased  Emperor  Heraclius,  the  Ecthesis,  absolutely 
impious  ;  he  denounced  as  of  equal  impiety  the  Type 
of  the  reigning  Emperor.  Its  exhortation  to  peace  he 
scorned  as  a  persuasive  to  unholy  acquiescence  in  her- 
esy; silence  on  such  doctrines  was  a  wicked  suppres- 
sion of  divine  truth. 

Nor  was  Martin  wanting  in  activity  to  maintain  his 
bold  position.  He  published  the  decrees  of  the  Late- 
ran  Council  throughout  the  West ;  he  addressed  let- 
ters to  the  Frankish  kings,  entreating  them  to  send 
representatives  of  their  churches  to  join  a  solemn  spir- 
itual embassy  to  Constantinople.  He  despatched  other 
missives  to  Britain,  to  Spain,  and  to  Africa.  He  even 
appointed  a  Legate  in  the  East  to  supersede  the  Mono- 
thelite  patriarchs  of  Antioch  and  Jerusalem.  His  let- 
ter to  Paul  of  Thessalonica  is  in  a  tone  of  condemna- 
tory haughtiness  which  had  hardly  yet  been  assumed 
by  a  successor  of  St.  Peter. ^ 

But  to  the  Emperor  of  the  East  the  Pope  was  a  re- 
fractory subject  and  no  more.  In  Constantinople  the 
person  of  the  bishop  had  never  been  invested  in  that 

1  See  a  curious  specimen  of  the  logic  of  anathema.  The  Bishop  of 
Thessalonica,  because  he  refuses  to  join  Martin  in  anathematizing  the 
Mono  thelites,  is  confirming  all  the  errors  of  Pagans,  Jews,  and  heretics:  — 
*'  Ut  per  hoc  non  solum  eos  etiam  quos  anathematisamus,  nempe  ipsas 
haereticorum  personas,  anathematisare  recuses  ....  sed  ut  etiam  omnem 
omninm  errorem  Paganorum,  Judfeorum,  hfereticorum  in  te  confirmes.  Si 
enim  omnia  omnium  horum  dogmata  condemnamus,  ut  contraria  et  inimica 
veritati,  tu  vero  omnia  una  nobiscum  voce  non  anathematisas  quae  anathe- 
jDa<^isamus,  consequens  est,  te  horum  omnium  errorem  confirmasse,  qui  a 
nobis  sive  ab  ecclesia,  catholica  anathematisatur."  —  Ad  Paul.  Epist.  Thessal. 
dpud  l.abbe,  sub  ann.  649. 


278  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

sanctity  wliich  shielded  it  from  law,  or  that  which  was 
law  in  the  East,  the  imperial  will.  Even  the  natural 
reverence  for  the  holy  office  had  been  disturbed  by  the 
perpetual  feuds,  the  mutual  anathemas  and  excommu- 
nications, the  depositions,  the  degradations,  the  expul- 
sions, fatal  to  that  unhappy  see :  and  as  old  Rome  was 
now  a  provincial  city,  her  bishop  would  not  command 
greater  respect  than  the  prelate  of  the  Imperial  Capi- 
tal. 

The  Exarch  Olympius  received  orders  to  seize  the 
Pope  if  he  persisted  in  his  contumacy  to  the  imperial 
edict,  and  to  send  him  prisoner  to  Constantinople.  But 
Olympius  found  the  people  of  Rome  prepared  to  take 
up  arms  in  defence  of  their  bishop.  He  attempted  to 
obtain  his  end  by  more  peaceful  means.  Later  writers 
have  protected  the  Pope  by  miracle  from  an  attempted 
assassination,^  and  bowed  the  awestruck  Exarch  before 
the  feet  of  Martin.  But  Olympius  was  hastily  sum- 
moned from  Rome  to  repel  an  invasion  of  Sicily  by  the 
Saracens,  and  died  of  fatigue  in  that  island. 

The  new  Exarch  Theodorus,  named  Calliopas,  was 
more  resolute  in  the  execution  of  his  orders.  He 
marched  to  Rome,  and  summoned  the  Pope  to  surren- 
der to  the  Imperial  authority.  Some  delay  took  place 
from  the  apprehensions  of  the  Exarch,  that  soldiers, 
and  means  of  defence,  stones,  and  other  weapons,  were 
concealed  in  the  Church.  But  Martin  shrunk  from 
bloodshed,  and  refused  the  offers  of  his  partisans, 
A.D.  653.  headed  by  many  of  the  clergy,  to  resist  the 
June  16.        Exarch.     Martin  had  ordered  his  bed  to  be 

1  The  swordsman  of  Olympius  was  employed  to  stab  the  Pope  while  ad- 
ministcriiij;  thu  coinmuuiou  to  the  Exarch;  ho  was  struck  with  hlinduess 
—  Aiiastas.  in  Vit. 


Chap.  VI.  PROCEEDINGS  AGAINST  RURTIN.  279 

strewed  before  tlie  h\<A\  altar  in   the  Lateran.     The 

o 

Exarch  and  his  troops  entered  the  Church,  the  Hght 
of  the  candles  flickered  on  the  armor  of  the  soldiery. 
Martin  obeyed  the  summons  of  the  Exarch  to  accom- 
pany him  to  the  Lateran  palace ;  there  he  was  permit- 
ted to  see  some  of  the  clergy.  But  suddenly  he  was 
hurried  into  a  litter,  the  gates  of  Rome  closed  June  19. 
to  prevent  his  partisans  from  following  him,  he  was 
carried  to  the  harbor  of  Portus,  embarked  and  landed 
at  Messina.  Thence  to  Avidos,  on  the  island  July  1. 
of  Naxos,  where  he  was  first  permitted  the  use  of  a 
bath.  The  pious  clergy  crowded  with  their  votive 
presents :  the  presents  were  seized,  and  the  donors 
beaten  back  by  the  soldiery :  "  he  who  is  a  friend  to 
Pope  Martin  is  an  enemy  to  the  State."  From  Avidos 
a  messenger  Afas  sent  to  Constantinople,  to  announce 
the  arrival  of  the  heretic  and  rebel,  the  enemy  and  dis- 
turber of  the  whole  Roman  empire.  On  the  17th  of 
September  he  arrived  at  Constantinople;  he  was  left 
lying  on  a  bed  on  the  deck  of  the  ship  the  whole  day, 
the  gaze  of  curious  or  hostile  spectators.  At  sunset  he 
was  carried  on  a  litter  under  a  strong  guard  Pope  Martin 
to  Prandearia,  the  chief  guard-house.  There  tiaopie. 
he  was  imprisoned,  and  forbidden  to  make  known  who 
he  was.  After  ninety-three  days  of  this  im-  Dec.  20. 
prisonm^nt  he  was  conveyed,  on  account  of  his  weak- 
ness, upon  a  litter  before  the  Senate.  He  was  com- 
manded to  stand,  but  being  unable,  was  supported 
by  two  guards.  "  Wretch,"  said  the  chief  minister, 
"  what  wrong  has  the  Emperor  done  to  thee  ?  has  he 
deprived  thee  of  anything,  or  used  any  violence  against 
thee?"  Martin  was  silent.  Twenty  witnesses  were 
examined  in  order  to  connect  him  with  some  treason 


280  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

against  the  Emperor.^  Troilus  demanded  why  he  had 
not  prevented,  but  rather  consented  to  the  rebelHon  of 
the  Exarch  Olympius.  "How  could  I  oppose  the  re- 
belUon  of  Olympius,  who  had  the  whole  army  of  Italy 
at  his  command?  Did  I  appoint  him  Exarch  ?  "  The 
Pope  was  carried  out  to  be  exposed  in  a  public  place, 
where  the  Emperor  could  see  him  from  a  window.  He 
\>as  then  half  stripped  of  his  clothes,  which  were  rent 
down,  amid  the  anathemas  of  the  people.  The  execu- 
tioner fixed  an  iron  collar  round  his  neck,  and  led  him 
through  the  city  to  the  Praetorium,  with  a  sword  car- 
ried before  him.  He  was  then  cast,  first  into  a  dun- 
geon, where  murderers  were  confined,  then  into  another 
chamber,  where  he  lay  half  naked  and  shivering  with 
cold.  The  order  for  his  execution  was  expected  every 
moment.  The  next  day  the  Patriarch  Paul  was  lying 
A.D.  654.  on  his  death-bed,  and  besought  the  Emperor 
to  show  mercy  to  the  persecuted  Martin.^  Martin, 
who  hoped  for  speedy  martyrdom,  heard  this  with  re- 
gret. On  the  death  of  Paul,  Pyrrhus,  who  had  re- 
turned from  Italy,  resumed  the  throne  of  Constantino- 
ple. A  long  examination  of  Martin  took  place  on  the 
conduct  of  Pyrrhus  at  Rome.  For  eighty-five  day? 
Martin  languished  in  prison ;  he  was  at  length  taken 
away,  and  embarked  for  the  inhospitable  shores  of 
A.D  655.  Cherson.  At  Cherson  he  died.  Such  was 
the  end  of  a  Pope  of  tlie  seventh  century,  who  dared 
to  resist  the  will  of  the  Emperor.     The  monk  Maxi- 

1  He  denied  that  he  had  sent  money  to  the  Saracens;  he  had  only  given 
Bonie  moderate  sums  to  certain  destitute  servants  of  God.  He  repudiated 
the  charge  of  having  disdained  the  worship  of  the  Virgin.  —  Ad  Theodor. 
Epist. ;  Sirmond.  iii.  3'JO;  Mansi  sub  ann. 

2  All  this  curious  detail  is  furnished  by  two  letters  of  Martin  himself,  and 
a  long  account  by  one  of  his  followers.  — Apud  Labbc,  pp.  G3-75. 


Chap.  VI.      EUGEXIUS  —  VITALIANUS  —  CONSTANS.         281 

mus  and  some  of  his  followers  were  treated  even  with 
greater  cruelty.      Maximus  refused  to  deny  the   two 
Wills  in    Cln'ist ;    his   tongue  and  his  right  a.d.  657. 
hand  were  cut  off,  and  so  mutilated  he  was  sent  into 
exile.^ 

While  Martin  was  yet  living,  Eugenius  was  elected 
to  the  see  of  E-ome.     His  short  rule  ^  was  fol-  p^p^  j, 
lowed  hy  the  longer  but  uneventful  Pontifi-  °^^^  ^• 
cate  of  Vitalianus.     The  popes,  warned  by  the  fate  of 
Martin,  if  they  did  not  receive,  did  not  condemn  the 
Type  of  Constans.     They  allowed  the  ques-  ^.jj.  657. 
tion  of  the  two  Wills  in  Christ  to  slumber,  -^""^y^^- 
Eucrenius  received  from  the  new  Patriarch  of  Constan- 
tinople,   Peter,  the  account   of  his   elevation,  with   a 
declaration  of  faith,  silent  on  the  disputed  point.    Dur- 
ing the  pontificate  of  Vitalianus  Rome  was  visited  by 
the  Byzantine  emperor.    Constans  had  withdrawn  fi'om 
the  Eastern   Rome  forever.      He  dared  not  confi-ont 
the  hatred  of  the  people  on  account  of  the  murder  of 
his  brother  the  Deacon   Theodosius,  whom   not  even 
the  tonsure  could  protect  from  his  jealousy.^     He  was 
pursued  by  the  curses  of  mankind  ;  and  by  the  aveng- 
ing spectre  of  his  brother,  which  constantly  offered  to 
his  lips  a  cup  of  blood :   "  Drink,  brother,   drink ! " 
Yet  in  his  restless  wanderings  he  at  times  proclaimed  a 

1  Collatio  S.  Maxim,  cum  Theodoro,  apud  Labbe;  Theophan.  Cedrenus, 
Vit.  Maximi.  —  Libellus  Synod. 

^  If  reckoned  from  the  banishment  of  Martin,  2  years,  8  months,  and  24 
days  (654-657).  If  from  the  death  of  Martin,  only  6  months  and  23  days. 
But  the  chronology  is  doubtful.  —  Binii.  Not.  in  Anastas.  Vit.  apud  Labbe, 
432. 

3  According  to  Cedrenus,  at  the  tonsure  of  Theodosius,  he  had  received 
tlie  sacrament,  it  should  seem,  as  a  pledge  for  his  brother's  future  security. 
V^Kstpe  nporepov  avrov  did  IlavTiov  TraTpiupxov  diuKovov,  og  Kai  fieriduKi 
P  So'yiXd  tQv  uxpui^Tujv  fivaTtjpiidv  kv  dyiui  Trorrjplifi. — P.  343 


282  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

nobler  object,  the  repression  of  the  Saracens,  who  now 
befflin  to  command  the  Mediterranean  and  threaten 
Sicily,  and  of  the  Lombards,  who  seemed  about  to 
swallow  up  the  Byzantine  Exarchate  in  Italy .^  It  is 
even  said  that  in  his  hatred  to  Constantinople,  he  pro- 
posed to  restore  the  empire  to  old  Rome.^  But  he  vis- 
ited Rome  as  a  plunderer,  not  as  the  restorer  of  her 
A.D.  663.  power.  He  was  received  by  the  Pope  Vita- 
^^^^-  lianus   almost   with    relimous   honors.      The 

haughty  conduct  of  Constans  in  Rome,  and  the  timid 
servility  of  Vitalianus,  contrast  with  the  meetings  of 
the  Western  Caesars,  fifty  years  later,  with  the  succes- 
sors of  St.  Peter.  To  the  Emperor,  the  Pope  is 
merely  the  high  priest  of  the  city.  To  the  Pope,  the 
Emperor  is  his  undoubted  lord  and  master.  The  Em- 
peror has  all  the  unquestioning  arrogance  of  the  sover- 
eign, whose  word  is  law,  and  who  commands  without 
scruple  the  plunder  of  the  public  edifices,  sacred  as  well 
as  profane ;  the  Pope  the  subject,  who  dares  not  inter- 
pose to  protect  the  property  of  the  city,  or  even  of  the 
July  17.  Church.  Constans  remained  twelve  days  in 
Rome;  all  the  ornaments  of  brass,  besides  more  pre- 
cious metals,  were  stripped  from  the  churches,  the  iron 
A.D.  068.  roof  torn  from  the  Pantheon,  now  a  church, 
and  the  whole  sent  off  to  Constantinople.  Constans 
retired  amid  the  suppressed  execrations  of  all  orders, 
to  die  a  miserable  death  at  Syracuse. 

The  Byzantine  government  did  not  discourage  en- 
croachments even  on  the  spiritual  supremacy  of  Rome 
in   the  West.     Maurus,   Bishop  of  Ravenna,  embold- 

1  Paulus  Diacon.  lib.  v. 

2  BovTiofievog  koI  li/v  (Saac'^etav  el^  rijv  Trpeaf^vripav  'Tuurjv  uereveyKeuK 
—  Zoiiar.  1.  xiv.  11;  Glycas.  Theophaues. 


CHAr.  VI.  MAURUS  AND  VITALIANUS.  283 

enod  by  his  city  having  become  the  capital  of  the 
Exarchate,  asserted  and  maintained  his  independence 
of  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  The  Archbishop  of  Ravenna 
boasted  of  a  privilege,  issued  by  the  Emperors  Herac- 
lius  and  Constantine,  which  exempted  him  from  all 
superior  episcopal  authority,  from  the  authority  of  the 
Patriarch  of  old  Rome.^  Vitahanus  hurled  his  ex- 
communication ao-ainst  Maurus.  Maurus  threw  back 
his  excommunication  ao;ainst  Vitalianus.  It  was  not 
till  the  pontificate  of  Leo  II.  that  the  pride  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Ravenna  was  humbled  or  self-humil- 
iated, and  Maurus,  who  had  been  an  object  of  super- 
stitious veneration  to  the  people,  deposed  from  his 
sanctity.  Archbishop  Theodorus,  involved  in  a  vio- 
lent contest  with  his  clergy,  sacrificed  the  independent 
dignity  of  his  see  to  his  own  power,  and  submitted  to 
Rome  ;  he  was  rewarded  with  the  title  of  saint.^ 

Adeodatus  and  Domnus,  or  Donus,  the  successors  of 
Vitahanus,   have  left  hardlv  anv  record  of  Adeodatus. 

1      .  .  >-n     •      •  1  •  -r»  1       A.D.  672, 

then' actions   to  Christian  historv*     -But  the  April  ii; 

,  M  /^  •     676,  June  16 

summons  to  a  general  council  at  Oonstanti-  doq^s 
nople  was  issued  by  the  successor  of  Con-  li'Jg.^'^' 
stans,  Constantine  the  Bearded,  during  the  ^'^' ^^"^  ^^• 
pcmtificate  of  Domnus  ;  it  amved  after  the  ac-  Ar©.  678,  Aug. 
cession  of  Agatho,  a  Sicilian,  to  the  Roman  pontificate. 
Constantine  the  Bearded  was  seized  apparently  with 
a  sudden  and  an  unexplained  desire  to  reunite  the  East 
and  the  West  under  one  creed.  Monothehtism  may 
have  been  more  unpopular  in  the  East  tlian  outward 

1  "  Sancimus  amplius  securam  atque  liberam  ab  omni  superiori  Episcopali 
coiiditione  manere,  et  solum  ora'iioni  vacare  pro  nostro  iniperio,  et  non  sub- 
jacere  pro  quolibet  modo  patriarchiv;  auticjuje  urbis  Rom;e,  sed  manere  eam 
uvTOKEOa'Xrjv."  —  Agnelli,  Vit.  Pontif.  Ravenn.  Apud  Muratori,  p.  148. 

«  Agnelli,  p.  151. 


284  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

circumstances  had  shown ;  the  monks  may  have  been 
of  the  opposite  party  ;  Constantine  himself  may  have 
felt  religious  doubts  as  to  the  prevailing  creed.  It 
was  not,  however,  till  fourteen  years  after  his  acces- 
sion that  the  sixth  general  council  actually  assembled 
A.D.  680.  at  Constantinople  to  decide  the  question  of 
Monothelitism.  They  met  in  a  chamber  of  the  impe- 
rial palace.  .  The  Emperor  himself  presided,  by  twelve 
of  his  chief  ministers.  Of  the  great  patriarchs  were 
present  George  of  Constantinople,  and  Macarius  of 
Antioch.  The  designated  envoys  of  Pope  Agatho 
were  the  Bishops  Abundantius  of  Paterneum,  John  of 
Portus,  John  of  Rhegium,  the  sub-deacon  Constan- 
tine, the  presbyters  Theodoras  and  Gregory,  and  the 
deacon  John.  Pope  Agatho  had  entertained  a  hope 
of  the  presence  of  Theodoras,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, "  the  philosopher."  He  makes  something 
like  an  ostentatious  boast  of  the  Lombard,  Slavian, 
Frank,  Gaulish,  Gothic,  and  British  bishops,  subject 
to  his  authority.^  Two  monks,  George  and  Peter, 
represented  the  Patriarchs  of  Jerusalem  and  of  Alex- 
andria. The  proceedings  were  conducted  with  solemn 
regularity.  On  one  side  were  the  legates  of  Pope 
Agatho,  on  the  other  Macarius  of  Antioch,  a  de- 
termined Monothelite.  During  the  seventh  sitting 
George,  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  rose  and 
declared  that,  having  carefully  compared  the  passages 
fi'om  the  fathers,  cited  by  the  Westerns  and  by  Maca- 
rius,   he   had   been   convinced    by    the    unanswerable 

1  '^  Sperabamus  deinde  de  Britania  Theodorum  archiepiscopum  et/;7/i- 
losopl.um  ad  nostram  humilitatein  conjungere;  et  maxim6  quia  in  medio 
peiitiiim,  tarn  Longobardorum,  qiiainqiu'.  Slavonim,  iiecnon  Fraiicorum, 
(iallorum,  et  (lOthorum,  atcpie  Britannoniin,  plurimi  confamiilorum  nos- 
troruni  esse  iioscuiitur."  — Apiul  Mansi,  sub  auu.  OSO. 


Chap.  VI.  SIXTH  ECUMENIC  COUNCIL.  285 

arguments  of  the  Romans ;  "  to  them  I  offer  my  ad- 
hesion, theirs  is  my  confession  and  belief."  The  exam- 
ple of  George  was  followed  by  the  Bishops  of  Ephesus, 
Heraclea,  Cyzicum,  Chalcedon,  the  Phrygian  Hiera- 
polis,  Byzia  in  Thrace,  Mytilene,  Methymna,  Selybria, 
Prusias,  and  Anastasiopolis.  Macarius  and  his  scholar, 
the  monk  Stephen,  stood  alone  in  open  and  contmna- 
cious  resistance  to  the  doctrine  of  the  two  wills.  Ma- 
carius was  degraded  from  his  Patriarchal  dignity ;  the 
monk  Stephen  condemned  as  another  Eutyches  or 
Apollinaris.  The  fifteenth  session  was  enlivened  by  a 
strange  episode.  A  monk,  Polychronius,  denounced  as 
an  obstinate  Monothelite,  challenged  the  council  to  put 
the  doctrine  to  the  test  of  a  miracle.  He  would  lay  his 
creed  on  a  dead  body  ;  if  the  dead  rose  not,  he  surren- 
dered himself  to  the  will  of  the  Emperor.  A  body  was 
brought  into  a  neighboring  bath.  The  Emperor,  the 
ministers,  the  whole  council,  and  a  wondering  multi- 
tude, adjourned  to  this  place.  Polychronius  presented 
a  sealed  paper,  which  was  opened  and  read;  it  de- 
clared his  creed,  and  that  he  had  been  commanded  in 
a  vision  to  hasten  to  Constantinople  to  prevent  the 
Emperor  from  establishing  heresy.  The  paper  was 
laid  on  the  corpse  ;  Polychronius  sat  whispering  into 
its  ear,  and  the  patient  assembly  awaited  the  issue  for 
some  hours.  But  the  obstinate  dead  would  not  come 
to  life.  An  unanimous  anathema  (all  seem  to  have 
been  too  serious  for  ridicule)  condemned  Polychronius 
as  a  heretic  and  a  deceiver.  The  Synod  returned  to 
its  chamber,  and  endeavored  to  argue  with  the  con- 
tumacious Polychronius,  who,  still  inflexible,  was  de- 
graded from  all  his  functions.^ 

1  Concil.  sub  ann. 


286  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

The  council  proceeded  with  its  anathemas.  George 
of  Constantinople  endeavored  to  save  his  predecessors 
from  being  denounced  byname;  the  council  rejected 
his  motion,  and  one  cry  broke  forth  —  Anathema 
ao'ainst  the  heretic  Theodorus  of  Pharan  !  Anathe- 
ma  against  the  heretic  Sergius !  (of  Constantinople). 
Anathema  against  the  heretic  Cvrus !  Anathema 
against  the  heretic  Honorius !  (of  Rome).  Anathe- 
ma against  the  heretic  Pyrrhus ;  against  the  heretic 
Paul ;  against  Peter,  Macarius,  Polychronius,  and  a 
cei-tain  Apergius !  At  the  close  of  the  proceedings 
of  this  sixth  general  council,  a  creed  was  framed, 
distinctly  asserting  the  two  wills  and  the  two  opera- 
tions in  Christ;  and  at  the  close  of  all,  amid  gratula- 
tions  to  the  Ca?sar,  were  again  recited  the  names  of 
the  anathematized  heretics,  commencing  with  Nestor- 
ius,  ending  with  Sergius,  Honorius  of  Rome,  and  all 
the  more  distinguished  Monothelites. 

The  decree  of  the  council  of  Constantinople,  the 
sixth  ecumenic  council,  was  at  once  a  triumph  and 
an  humiliation  to  the  see  of  Rome ;  a  triumph  as  es- 
tablishing the  orthodoxy  of  the  doctrines  maintained 
in  the  West  by  all  tlie  Bishops  of  Rome,  excepting 
Honorius.  The  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  had  been 
constrained  to  recant  the  creed  of  his  predecessors ; 
tlie  whole  line  after  Sergius  had  been  involved  in  one 
anathema.  The  Emperor  himself  had  adopted  the 
creed  of  Rome.  The  one  obstinate  Patriarch,  Ma- 
carius of  Antioch,  had  been  stripped  of  his  pall,  and 
driven,  with  every  mark  of  personal  insult  and  igno- 
miny, from  the  assembly.  Yet  was  it  an  humiliation, 
for  it  condemned  a  Bishop  of  Rome  as  an  anathema"* 
tized  heretic.     But,  while  the  Pope   made  the  most  of 


Chap.  VL     RENEDICT  —  JOHN  —  CONON  —  SERGIUS.  287 

his  triumph,  he  seemed  utterly  to  disregard  the  humili- 
ation. The  impeccability  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  was 
not  as  yet  an  article  of  the  Roman  creed.  The  suc- 
cessor of  Agatho  (who  had  died  during  the  sitting  of 
the  Council)  Pope  Leo  IL,  announced  to  the  churches 
';f  the  West  the  universal  acceptance  of  the  Roman 
doctrine ;  to  the  bishops  and  to  the  King  jf  Spain  he 
recapitulated  the  names  of  the  anathematized  heretics, 
among  the  rest  of  Honorius,  who,  instead  of  quench- 
ing the  flame  of  heresy,  as  became  the  apostolic  au- 
thority, had  fanned  it  by  his  negligence ;  who  had 
permitted  the  immaculate  rule  of  faith,  handed  down 
by  his  predecessors,  to  suffer  defilement.^  The  con- 
demned Alonothelites  of  the  East  Avere  ban-  j^^  ggg. 
ished  to  Rome,  as  the  place  in  which  they  ^^^*' ^'''• 
were  most  likely  to  be  converted  from  their  errors , 
and  where  some  of  them,  weary  of  imprisonment  in 
the  monasteries  to  which  they  were  consigned,  abjured 
their  former  creed.  Macarius  of  Antioch  alone  re- 
sisted alike  all  theological  arguments,  and  all  the  more 
worldly  temptations  of  reinstatement  in  the  dignity 
and  honors  of  his  see. 

The  names  of  the  Popes  Benedict  II.,  of  John  V., 
a  Syrian  by  birth,  of  Conon,  and  of  Sergius,  Popes. 
fill  up  the  rest  of  the  seventh  century.     Dur-  T-d^^ssS' 
ing  this  peiiod  an  attempt  was  made  to  reme-  ^^^"gjg"  ggg 
dy  the  inconvenience  of  awaiting  so  long  the  c«°on. 
imperial  confirmation   of  the  papal  election,  sergius  i., 
Nearly  a  year  elapsed  before  the  consecration 
of   Benedict  II.     An   edict  of  Constantine,  Jan.  26.' 

1  "  Qui  flamraam  lieretici  dogmatis,  nou  ut  decuit  apostolicam  auctoritatera 
incipientem  extinxit,  sed  negligendo  confovit." — Ad  Episcop.  Hispan., 
Labbe,  p.  1246.  "Honorius  Romanus  qui  immaculatam  apostolica;  tradi- 
tionis  regulam  quam  a  prnedecessoribus  suis  accepit  maculari  consensit." 
—  Epist.  ad  Ervig.  Rt.'g.  Hispan.,  p.  1252. 


288  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

who  st  II  cultivated  a  dose  alliance  with  the  Popes,  en- 
acted that,  on  the  unanimous  suffrage  of  the  clergy,  the 
people,  and  the  soldiery  (the  soldiery  are  now  assum- 
ing in  the  election  of  the  Pontiff  the  privilege  of  the 
Praetorian  Guard  in  the  election  of  the  Emperor),  the 
Pope  might  at  once  proceed  to  his  consecration.  This 
regulation,  however,  demanded  that  rare  occmTcnce 
on  the  election  of  a  Bishop  of  Rome,  unanimity.  On 
the  election  of  Conon,  and  afterwards  of  Sergius, 
strife  arose,  and  contending  competitors  divided  the 
suffrages.  The  Exarch  of  Ravenna  resumed  his  right 
of  interference  and  of  final  sanction  before  the  conse- 
Theodorus,  cratiou  of  the  Pope.  On  the  death  of  Conon 
Paschaii'g  three  candidates  were  proposed  by  their  con- 
A.D.  687-692.  flicting  partisans.  The  Archdeacon  Pas- 
chalis,  the  Archpresbyter  Theodorus,  were  supported 
by  two  rival  factions  ;  a  third  proposed  Sergius,  of  a 
Syrian  family,  which  had  settled  at  Palermo  in  Sicily. 
Each  of  the  other  candidates  occupied  a  strong  position 
in  the  city,  when  the  third  party  set  up  Sergius,  and 
carried  him  in  triumph  to  the  Lateran  Palace.  Theo- 
dorus was  compelled  to  surrender  his  claims,  but  Pas- 
chalis  had  sent  large  offers  of  money  to  Ravenna, 
and  depended  on  the  support  of  the  Exarch.  The 
Exarch  caii;  e  to  Rome,  declared  in  favor  of  Sergius, 
but  exacted  from  him  a  donative  at  least  equal  to  that 
offered  by  the  rejected  Paschalis.^  The  churches  were 
laid  under  contribution  to  satisfy  the  rapacious  Exarch. 
Sergius  rejected  certain  canons  of  the  Quinisextan 
Quinisextan  Council,^  wliicli  assembled  at  the  summons  of 
councu.        |.|^g  Emperor  Justinian  II.     This  Council  is 

1  Anastas.  in  Vit.  Sergii. 

2  Called  also  the  Council  in  Trullo,  from  the  chamber  in  the  imperial 
palace  in  which  it  was  held. 


Chap.  VI.  QUINISEXTAN  COUNCIL.  289 

the  great  authority  for  the  discipline  of  the  Greek 
Chui'ch.  Rigid  in  its  enactments  against  marriage 
after  entering  into  holy  orders,  and  severe  against  those* 
who  had  married  two  wives,  or  wives  under  any  taint 
as  of  widowhood,  actresses,  or  any  unlawful  occupation, 
it  nevertheless  deliberately  repudiated  the  Roman  can- 
on^  which  forced  such  priests  to  give  up  all  commerce 
with  their  wives :  it  asserted  the  permission  of  Scripture 
in  favor  of  a  married  clergy,  married,  that  is,  to  virgins 
and  reputable  wives  previous  to  taking  orders.  Sergius 
disdainfully  refused  his  adhesion  to  the  authority  of 
the  Council,  and  annulled  its  decrees.  Justinian,  like 
his  predecessor  Constans,  endeavored  to  treat  the  Pope 
as  a  refractory  subject.  He  sent  orders  for  his  appre- 
hension and  transportation  to  Constantinople.  But 
Sergius  was  strong,  not  only  in  the  affections  of  the 
people,  but  of  the  army  also.  The  protospatharius, 
the  officer  of  the  Emperor,  was  driven  with  insult 
from  the  city ;  the  Pope  was  obliged  to  interfere  in 
order  to  appease  the  tumult  among  the  indignant 
soldiery.  Ere  the  Emperor  could  revenge  his  insulted 
dignity  he  was  himself  deposed.  Before  his  ggj.g.yg  ^^^^ 
restoration  Sergius  had  been  dead  several  jusiiSn 
years.  Even  if  the  successors  of  Sergius '^«^*"^^'^' ^^^• 
pursued  his  contumacious  policy,  nearer  objects  of 
detestation  first  demanded  the  revenge  of  Justinian, 
who  had  no  time  to  waste  on  a  distant  priest  who 
had  only  resisted  his  religious  supremacy.  But  on 
a  later  occasion  Justinian  asserted  to  the  utmost  the 
imperial  authority. 

The  eighth  century  opened  with  the  pontificate  of 
John  VT.,  in  which  the  papal  influence  displayed  it- 

1  Can.  iii.  xiii.  apud  Labbe,  pp.  1141-1148. 
VOL.  n.  19 


290  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

John  VI.        s^^^  i'^  t^^6  becoming  character  of  protector 

the  life  of  the  Exarch  Theophylact,  against  whom 
the  soldiery  had  risen  in  insurrection :  they  were 
calmed  by  the  persuasive  eloquence  of  the  PontiflF. 
Certain  infamous  persons  had  made  charges  against 
some  of  the  more  eminent  citizens  of  Rome,  to  tempt 
the  Exarch  to  plunder  them  of  their  property.  By 
the  Pope's  influence  they  were  themselves  punished 
by  a  hea^y  fine.  He  compelled  or  persuaded  the 
Lombard  Duke  of  Benevento,  who  had  made  a  pred- 
atory incursion  into  Campania,  to  withdraw  into  his 
own  territories.  The  Pope  redeemed  all  the  captives 
which  the  Lombard  had  taken. 

During  the  pontificate  of  John  VIL,  a  Greek,  the 
John  VII.  Emperor  Justinian  11.  resumed  the  throne  of 
705-707.  Constantinople.  The  timid  Pope  trembled  at 
his  commands  to  receive  the  decrees  of  the  Quinisex- 
tan  Council ;  he  endeavored  to  temporize,  but  escaped 
A.D.  707.  by  death  from  the  conflict.  Sisinnius,  a 
Syrian,  was  chosen  his  successor,  but  died  twenty 
days  after  his  election. 

He  was  succeeded  by  Constantine,  another  Syrian. 
constantiue.  At  tlic  Commencement  of  this  pontificate, 
Felix,  the  newly-elected  Archbishop  of  Ravenna,  came 
to  Rome  for  his  consecration.  But  Felix  refused  to 
sign  the  customary  writing  testifying  his  allegiance  to 
the  Roman  see,  and  to  renounce  the  independence  of 
Ravenna.  The  imperial  ministers  at  Rome  took  part 
against  him,  and,  in  fear  of  their  power,  he  tendered 
an  ambiguous  act  of  submission  in  which  he  declared 
his  repugnance  to  his  own  deed.  It  was  said  that  this 
act,  laid  up  in  the  Roman  archives,  was  in  a  few  days 


Chap   VI.  POPE  CONSTANTINE.  291 

found  black  and  slnnvelled  as  by  fire.  But  Felix  bad 
a  more  dangerous  enemy  tban  Pope  Constantine.  Tlie 
Emperor  Justinian  bad  now  glutted  bis  vengeance  on 
his  enemies  in  tbe  East ;  be  sougbt  to  punisb  tbose 
wlio  bad  eitber  assisted  or  at  least  rejoiced  in  bis  fall 
in  tbe  more  distant  provinces.  Tbe  inhabitants  of  Ra- 
venna bad  incurred  bis  wratb.  A  fleet,  witb  Tbeo- 
dorus  tbe  patrician  at  its  bead,  appeared  in  a.d.  708 
tbeir  baven  ;  tbe  city  was  occupied,  tbe  cbief  citizens 
seized,  according  to  one  account  by  treacbeiy,  trans- 
ported to  Constantinople,  and  tbere  by  tbe  sentence 
of  tbe  Emperor  put  to  deatli.  Tbe  Arcbbisbop  was 
deprived  of  bis  eyes  in  tbe  most  cruel  manner  a.d.  709. 
by  tbe  express  orders  of  tbe  Emperor.  He  was  tben 
banished  to  tbe  Crimea.^  Tbe  terrible  Justinian  still 
aimed  at  reducing  tbe  West  to  obedience  to  tbe  Quin- 
isextan  Council.  He  summoned  Constantine  before 
bis  presence  in  Constantinople.  Tbe  Pope  bad  tbe 
courage  and  wisdom  to  obey.  His  obedience  concili- 
ated tbe  Emperor.  Everywhere  be  was  well  a.d.  710, 711. 
entertained,  and  be  was  permitted  to  delay  till  tbe  tem- 
pestuous winter  season  was  passed.  In  tbe  spring  be 
arrived  in  Constantinople,  where  he  was  received  by 
Tiberius,  son  of  the  Emperor.  Justinian  was  himself 
at  Nicea ;  be  advanced  to  Nicomedia  to  meet  the  Bish- 
op of  Rome.  It  is  said  by  tbe  Western  writers  that 
tbe  Emperor  knelt  and  kissed  tbe  feet  of  tbe  Pope  —  an 
act  neither  consonant  to  Greek  usage  nor  to  the  char- 
acter of  Justinian.  But  tbe  Emperor's  pride  was  grat- 
ified by  tbe  submission  of  Constantine.  How  far  tbe 
Pope  consented  to  tbe  canons  of  tbe  Quinisextan  Coun- 
cil, by  what  arts  he  eluded  those  which  were  adverse 

1  Anastas.  iu  Vit. ;  Agnelli,  Vita  Pontif.  Ravennat. 


292  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

to  the  Roman  Discipline,  history  is  silent.  But  Con- 
stantine  returned  to  Italy  in  high  favor  with  the  Em- 
peror, and  bearing  the  imperial  confirmation  of  all  the 
privileges  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  The  wisdom  of 
Constantine's  conduct  became  still  more  manifest. 
During  his  absence  John  Rizocopus,  the  new  Exarch, 
entered  Rome,  seized  and  put  to  death  many  of  the 
principal  clergy.  The  Exarch  proceeded  to  Ravenna, 
where  he  was  slain  in  an  insurrection  of  the  citizens.^ 
This  insurrection  grew  to  an  open  revolt.  Ravenna 
and  the  Pentapolis  threw  off  the  imperial  yoke,  under 
the  command  of  George,  son  of  Giovannicius,  the  Em- 
peror's secretary.  On  the  death  of  Justinian  and  the 
change  of  the  dynasty  they  renewed  their  allegiance ; 
the  blind  Archbishop  Felix  returned  from  his  banish- 
ment, and  resumed  the  flmctions  of  his  see. 

Constantine  was  the  last  Pope  who  was  the  humble 
A.B.  716.  subject  of  the  Eastern  Emperor.  With  Greg- 
ory II.  we  enter  on  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of 
Latin  Christendom. 

1  Anastasius  —  Agnelli,  ut  supra. 


Chap  VII  ICONOCLASM.  293 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ICONOCLASM. 

The  eighth  century  gave  birth  to  a  religious  contest, 
in  its  origin,  i.i  its  nature,  and  in  its  impor- iconociasm. 
tant  political  consequences  entirely  different  from  all 
those  which  had  hitherto  distracted  Christendom.  Icon- 
oclasm  was  an  attempt  of  the  Eastern  Emperor  to 
change  by  his  own  arbitrary  command  the  religion  of 
his  subjects.  No  religious  revolution  has  ever  been 
successful  which  has  commenced  with  the  government. 
Such  revolutions  have  ever  begun  in  the  middle  or 
lower  orders  of  society,  struck  on  some  responsive 
chord  of  sympathy  in  the  general  feeling,  supplied 
some  religious  want,  stirred  some  religious  energy,  and 
shaken  the  inert  strength  of  the  established  faith  by 
some  stronger  counter  emotion.  Whatever  the  mo- 
tives of  the  Emperor  Leo  the  Isaurian  (and  on  this 
subject,  as  in  all  the  religious  controversies  where  the 
writings  of  the  unsuccessful  party  were  carefully  sup- 
pressed or  perished  through  neglect,  authentic  history 
is  almost  silent),  whether  he  was  actuated  by  a  rude 
aversion  to  what  perhaps  can  hardly  yet  be  called  the 
fine  arts  with  which  Christianity  was  associating  itself, 
or  by  a  spiritual  disdain  and  impatience  of  the  degrading 
superstition  into  which  the  religion  of  the  Gospel  had 
BO  long  been  degenerating,  tlie  attempt  was  as  politi- 


294  LATiN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

cally  unwise  and  unseasonable  as  the  means  employed 
were  despotic  and  altogether  unequal  to  the  end.  The 
time  was  passed,  if  it  had  ever  been,  when  an  imperial 
edict  could  change,  or  even  much  affect,  the  actual  pre- 
vailing religion  of  the  empire.  For  this  was  no  specu- 
lative article  of  belief,  no  question  of  high  metaphysical 
theology,  but  a  total  change  in  the  universal  popular 
worship,  in  the  spirit  and  in  the  essence,  if  not  of  the 
daily  ritual,  of  countless  observances  and  habitual  prac- 
tices of  devotion.  It  swept  away  from  almost  all  the 
churches  of  the  Empire  objects  hallowed  by  devotion j 
and  supposed  to  be  endowed  with  miraculous  agency  ; 
objects  of  hope  and  fear,  of  gratitude  and  immemorial 
veneration.  It  not  merely  invaded  the  public  church, 
and  left  its  naked  walls  without  any  of  the  old  remem- 
brancers of  faith  and  piety ;  it  reached  the  private  sanc- 
tuary of  prayer.  No  one  could  escape  the  proscrip- 
tion ;  learned  or  unlearned,  priest  or  peasant,  monk  or 
soldier,  clergyman  or  layman,  man,  woman,  and  even 
child,  were  involved  in  the  strife.  Something  to  which 
their  religious  attachments  clung,  to  which  their  relig- 
ious passions  were  wedded,  might  at  any  time  be  forci- 
bly rent  away,  insulted,  trampled  under  foot ;  that 
which  had  been  their  pride  and  delight  could  only  now 
be  furtively  visited,  and  under  the  fear  of  detection. 

Nor  was  it  possible  for  this  controversy  to  vent  itself 
Nature  of  the  i^  polcuiic  Writings;  to  exhaust  the  mutual 
controversy.  }^r^^j.gj  wliicli  it  eno-eudered  in  fierce  invec- 
tives,  which,  however  they  might  provoke,  were  not 
necessarily  followed  by  acts  of  conflict  and  bloodshed. 
Here  actual,  personal,  furious  collision  of  man  and 
man,  of  faction  and  faction,  of  armed  troops  against 
armed  troops,  was  inevitable.     The  contending  parties 


CiiAP.  VII.  NATURE  OF  THE  CONTEST.  295 

did  not  assail  each  other  with  mutual  anathemas,  which 
they  might  despise,  or  excommunication  and  counter- 
excommunication,  the  validity  of  which  might  be  ques- 
tioned by  either  party.  On  one  side  it  was  a  sacred 
obligation  to  destroy,  to  mutilate,  to  dash  to  pieces,  to 
deface  the  objects  on  which  the  other  had  so  long  gazed 
with  intense  devotion,  and  which  he  might  think  it  an 
equally  sacred  obligation  to  defend  at  the  sacrifice  of 
life.  It  was  not  a  controversy,  it  was  a  feud  ;  not  a 
polemic  strife,  but  actual  war  declared  by  one  part  of 
Christendom  against  the  other.  It  was  well  perhaps 
for  Christendom  that  the  parties  were  not  more  equally 
balanced;  that,  right  or  wrong,  one  party  in  that  di- 
vision of  the  Christian  world,  where  total  change 
would  have  been  almost  extermination,  obtained  a  slow 
but  complete  triumph. 

In  all  the  controversies,  moreover,  in  which  the  Em- 
perors had  been  involved,  whether  they  had  plunged 
into  them  of  their  own  accord,  or  had  been  compelled 
to  take  a  reluctant  part,  —  whether  they  embraced  the 
orthodox  or  the  erroneous  opinions,  —  they  had  found  a 
large  faction,  both  of  the  clergy  and  the  people,  already 
enlisted  in  the  cause.  In  this  case  they  had  to  create 
their  own  faction  ;  and  though  so  many  of  the  clergy, 
from  conviction,  fear,  or  interest,  became  Iconoclasts, 
as  to  form  a  council  respectable  for  its  numbers ; 
though,  among  some  part  of  the  people,  an  Iconoclas- 
tic fanaticism  broke  out,  yet  it  was  no  spontaneous 
movement  on  their  part.  The  impulse,  to  all  appear- 
ance, emanated  directly  from  the  emperor.  It  was 
not  called  forth  by  any  general  expression  of  aversion 
to  the  existing  superstition  by  any  body  of  the  clergy, 
or  by  any  sinole  bold  reformer  ;  it  was  announced,  it 


296  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

was  enacted  in  that  character  of  Supreme  Head  of  the 
Empire,  which  was  still  supposed  to  be  vested  in  the 
Caesar,  and  had  descended  to  him  as  part  of  his  inheri- 
tance from  his  pagan  predecessors.  This  sovereignty 
comprehended  religious  as  well  as  temporal  autocracy ; 
and  of  this  the  clergy,  though  they  had  often  resisted 
it,  and  virtually,  perhaps,  held  it  to  be  abrogated,  had 
never  formally,  publicly,  or  deliberately,  declined  the 
jurisdiction.  It  is  a  proof  of  the  strong  will  and  com- 
manding abilities  of  the  great  Iconoclastic  Emperors, 
that  they  could  effect,  and  so  long  maintain,  such  a 
revolution,  by  their  sole  authority,  throughout  at  least 
their  eastern  dominions. 

And  there  was  this  irremediable  weakness  in  the 
cause  of  Iconoclasm.  It  was  a  mere  negative  doctrine, 
a  proscription  of  those  sentiments  which  had  full  pos- 
session of  the  popular  mind,  without  any  strong  counter- 
vailino;  religious  excitement.  There  was  none  of  that 
appeal  to  principles  like  those  of  the  Reformation,  to  the 
Bible,  to  justification  by  faith,  to  the  individual  sense 
of  responsibility.  The  senses  were  robbed  of  their 
habitual  and  cherished  objects  of  devotion,  but  there 
was  no  awakenino;  of  an  inner  life  of  intense  and 
passionate  piety.  The  cold  naked  walls  from  whence 
the  Scriptural  histories  had  been  effaced,  the  despoiled 
shrines,  the  mutilated  images,  could  not  compel  the 
mind  to  a  more  pure  and  immaterial  conception  of  God 
and  the  Saviour.  It  was  a  premature  Rationalism,  en- 
forced upon  an  unreasoning  age  —  an  attempt  to  spir- 
itualize by  law  and  edict  a  generation  which  had  been 
iinspi ritualized  by  centuries  of  materialistic  devotion. 
Hatred  of  images,  in  the  process  of  the  strife,  might 
become,  as  it  did,  a  fanaticism  —  it  could  never  become 


CirAi\  VII.  ITS   CONSEQUENCES.  297 

a  religion.     Iconoclasm  miglit  proscribe  idolatry,  but  it 
liad  no  power  of  kindling  a  purer  faith. 

The  consequences  of  this  new  religious  dissension 
were  of  the  utmost  political  importance,  both  j^g  ^.Q^g^. 
in  the  East  and  in  the  West.  In  the  East,  '^''''''^'■ 
histead  of  consolidating  the  strength  of  Christendom 
in  one  great  confederacy  against  invading  Moham.ne- 
danism,  it  distracted  the  thoughts  of  men  from  their 
more  pressing  dangers,  weakened  the  military  energy 
which,  under  the  Isaurian  race  of  emperors,  seemed 
likely  to  revive ;  depopularized,  with  at  least  one  half 
of  their  subjects,  sovereigns  of  such  great  ability  as 
Leo  and  Constantine  Copronymus  (whose  high  quali- 
ties for  empire  pierce  through  the  clouds  which  are 
spread  over  their  names  by  hostile  annalists) ;  and 
finally  by  adding  a  new  element  of  animosity  to  the 
domestic  intrigues  within  the  palace,  interrupted  the 
regular  succession,  and  darkened  the  annals  of  the 
empire  with  new  crimes. 

But  its  more  important  results  were  the  total  disrup- 
tion of  the  bond  between  the  East  and  the  West  —  the 
severance  of  the  Italian  province  from  the  Byzantine 
Empire  ;  the  great  accession  of  Power  to  the  Papacy, 
Avhich  took  the  lead  in  this  revolution  ;  the  introduction 
of  the  Frankish  king  into  the  politics  of  Italy  ;  and 
"eventually  the  establishment  of  the  Western  Empire 
under  Charlemagne. 

Yet  this  question,  thus  prematurely  agitated  by  the 
Iconoclastic  emperors,  and  at  this  period  of  Christianity 
so  fatally  mistimed,  is  one  of  the  most  grave,  and  it 
should  seem  inevitable  controversies,  arising  out  of  our 
religion.  It  must  be  judged  by  a  more  calm  and  pro- 
found   philosophy  than    could  be  possible  in  times  o^ 


298  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

actual  strife  between  two  impassioned  and  adverse 
factions.  It  is  a  conflict  of  two  great  principles,  which 
it  is  difficult  to  reconcile.  On  the  one  hand,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  with  ignorant  and  superstitious  minds, 
the  use,  the  reverence,  the  worship  of  images,  whether 
in  pictures  or  statues,  invariably  degenerates  into  idol- 
atry. The  Church  may  draw  fine  and  aerial  distinc- 
tions between  images  as  objects  of  reverence  and  as  ol> 
iects  of  adoration  ;  as  incentives  to  the  worship  of  more 
remote  and  immaterial  beings,  or  as  actual  indwelling 
deities  ;  it  may  nicely  define  the  feeling  which  images 
ought  to  awaken  ;  —  but  the  intense  and  indiscriminat- 
ing  piety  of  the  vulgar  either  understands  not,  or  ut- 
terly disregards  these  subtleties  :  it  may  refuse  to  sanc- 
tion, it  cannot  be  said  not  to  encourage,  that  devotion 
which  cannot  and  will  not  weigh  and  measure  either  its 
emotions  or  its  language.  Image-worship  in  the  mass 
of  the  people,  of  the  whole  monkhood  at  this  time,  was 
undeniably  the  worship  of  the  actual,  material,  present 
image,  rather  than  that  of  the  remote,  formless,  or 
spiritual  power,  of  which  it  was  the  emblem  or  repre- 
sentative. It  has  continued,  and  still  continues,  to  be 
in  many  parts  of  Christendom  this  gross  and  unspiritual 
adoration ;  it  is  a  part  of  the  general  system  of  divine 
worship.  The  whole  tendency  of  popular  belief  was 
to  localize,  to  embody  in  the  material  thing  the  super- 
natural or  divine  power.  The  healing  or  miraculous 
influence  dwelt  in,  and  emanated  from,  the  picture  of 
the  saint  —  the  special,  individual  picture  —  it  was  con- 
tained within  the  relic,  and  flowed  directly  from  it. 
These  outward  thino-s  were  not  mere  occasional  ve- 
hides  of  the  divine  bounty,  indifferent  in  themselves, 
they  po'isessed  an  inherent,  inalienable  sanctity.   Where 


Chap.  VII.  POWER  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS  299 

the  image  was,  there  was  tlie  saint.  He  heard  the 
prayer,  lie  was  carried  in  procession  to  allay  the  pesti- 
lence, to  arrest  the  conflagration,  to  repel  the  enemy. 
He  sometimes  resumed  the  functions  of  life,  smiled,  or 
stretched  his  hand  from  the  wall.  An  image  of  the 
same  saint,  or  of  the  Virgin,  rivalled  another  image 
iti  its  wonder-working  power,  or  its  mild  benignity. 

On  the  other  hand,  is  pure  and  spiritual  Christianity 
— -  the  highest  Christianity  to  which  the  human  mind 
cm  attain — implacably  and  irreconcilably  hostile  to 
tiie  Fine  Arts  ?  Is  that  influence  of  the  majestic  and 
the  beautiful  awakened  through  the  senses  by  form, 
color,  and  expression,  to  be  altogether  abandoned? 
Can  the  exaltation,  the  purification  of  the  human  soul 
by  Art  in  no  way  be  allied  with  true  Christian  devo- 
tion ?  Is  that  aid  to  the  realization  of  the  historic 
truths  of  our  religion,  by  representations,  vivid,  speak- 
ing, almost  living,  to  be  utterly  proscribed?  Is  that 
idealism  which  grows  out  of  and  nourishes  reverential 
feelings,  to  rest  solely  on  the  contemplation  of  pure 
spirit,  without  any  intermediate  human,  yet  superhu- 
manlzed,  form'i^  Because  the  ignorant  or  fraudulent 
monk  has  ascribed  miraculous  power  to  his  Madonna 
or  the  image  of  his  patron  saint,  and  the  populace  have 
knelt  before  it  in  awe  which  it  is  impossible  to  dlstm- 
gulsh  fi'om  adoration,  is  Christianity  to  cast  off"  as  alien 
to  its  highest  development,  the  divine  creations  oi 
Raffaele,  or  of  Corregglo.  Are  we  inexorably  to  de- 
mand the  same  subhme  spiritualism  from  the  more  or 
less  imaginative  races  or  classes  of  mankind  ? 

This  great  question  lies  Indeed  at  the  bottom  of  the 
antagonism  between  those  two  descriptions  of  believers; 
to  a  certain  extent,  between  the  rehmon    of  southern 


800  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

and  tliat  of  nortliem  Europe,  between  that  of  the  races 
of  Roman  and  some  of  those  of  Teutonic  descent ;  be- 
tween that  of  the  inhabitants  of  towns  or  villages  ;  and 
rude  mountaineers  ;  finally,  between  Roman  Catholi- 
cism and  Protestantism. 

But  since,  in  the  progress  of  civilization,  the  fine  arts 
will  no  doubt  obtain,  if  not  greater  influence,  more 
general  admiration,  religion  must  either  break  off 
entirely  all  association  with  these  dangerous  friends, 
and  the  fine  arts  abandon  the  most  fertile  and  noblest 
field  for  their  development ;  or  their  mutual  relations 
must  be  amicably  adjusted.  A  finer  sense  of  their  inhe- 
rent harmony  must  arise ;  the  blended  feelings  which 
they  excite  must  poise  themselves  far  above  the  vul- 
gar superstition  of  idolatry  while  they  retain  the  force 
and  intensity  of  devotional  reverence.  The  causes 
which  may  be  expected  to  work  this  sacred  re-toncil- 
iation  may  be  the  growing  intelligence  of  mankind, 
greater  familiarity  with  the  written  Scrii)turei'  ;  and, 
j)aradoxical  as  it  may  sound,  but  as  may  hr  reaftei 
a})pear,  greater  perfection  in  the  arts  themselve- ,  or  a 
finer  apprehension  of  that  perfection  in  ancien*;  as  in 
modern  art. 

Doubtless,  the  pure,  unmingled,  spiritual  notion  of 
the  Deity  was  the  elementary  principle  of  Christ  \anity. 
It  had  repudiated  all  the  anthropomorphic  ''iiages, 
which  to  the  early  Jews  had  impersonated  ard  em- 
bodied, if  it  had  not  to  grosser  minds  materialized,  the 
Codhead,  and  reduced  him  to  something  like  an  earthly 
sovereign,  only  enthroned  in  heaven  in  more  dazzling 
|)omp  and  magnificence.  Even  the  localization  of  the 
r^eity  in  the  temple  or  the  tabernacle,  a  step  towards 
materialization,    had  been    abrogated    by    the    Saviour 


Chap.YII.         christian  ANTIIROPOMORT'IIISM.  301 

himself.  Neltlier  Samaria  nor  Jernsalom  was  to  be  any 
longer  a  peculiar  dwelling-place  of  the  Universal  Father. 

Throughout  the  earl}^  controversy  on  image-worship, 
there  was  a  steadfast  determination  to  keep  the  Parent 
and  Primal  Deity  aloof  from  external  form.  No  simili- 
tude of  the  unseen,  incomprehensible  Father,  was 
permitted  for  many  centuries ;  ^  even  in  a  symbolic 
form,  as  in  the  vision  of  Ezekiel,  which  RaflPaelle  and 
some  of  the  later  painters  have  ventured  to  represent. 
Il  should  seem,  that  even  if  the  artists  had  been  equal 
to  the  execution,  the  subject  would  have  been  thought 
presumptuous  or  profane.^ 

But  if  Christianity  was  thus  in  its  language  and  in 
its  primal  conception  so  far  superior  in  its  spirituality 
to  the  religion  of  the  Old  Testament,  it  had  itself  its 
peculiar  anthropomorphism  :  it  had  its  visible,  material, 
corporeal  revelation  of  the  Deity.  God  himself,  ac- 
cording to  its  universal  theory,  had  condescended  to 
the  human  form.^  Christ's  whole  agency,  his  birth, 
his  infancy,  his  life,  and  his  death,  had  been  cognizable 
to  the  senses  of  his  human  brethren  in  the  flesh.  If, 
from  the  language  of  the  Scriptures,  descriptive  of 
all  those  wonderful  acts  of  power,  of  mercy,  and  of  suf- 
fering, the  imagination  might  realize  to  itself  his  actual 
form,  motions,  demeanor,  the  patient  majesty  in  death, 

1  "Cur  tandem  patrem  domini  Jesti  Christi  non  oculis  subjicimus,  et 
pingimus,  qunniam  quod  sit  non  novimus,  Deique  natura  spectanda  propoiii 
non  potest  ac  pingi.  Quod  si  eum  intuiti  essemus  ac  novissemus  prout 
tilium  ejus,  ilium  quoque  spectandum  proponere  potuissemus,  ac  pingere, 
lit  et  illius  imaginem  idolum  appellares."  —  Greg.  II.  Epist.  i.,  ad  Leon. 
Imper.  p.  14. 

2  See  the  chapter  in  the  History  of  Christianity  on  the  Fine  Arts,  vol.  iii. 
p.  486  et  seq.,  and  Didron,  Iconographie  Chr^tienne. 

^  Ov  rfiv  uopuTov  UKovO^u  d^eoTTjTa,  dAA'  eIkovi^g)  -deov  rrjv  upaiydaav 
ad  'Ka.  — Joann.  Damasten,  Orat.  de  Imag.  1. 


802  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

the  dignity  after  the  resurrection,  the  incipient  g\ory 
in  the  ascension,  and  worship  that  mental  image  as 
the  actual  incarnate  Godhead,  why  might  not  that 
which  was  thus  first  embodied  in  inspired  language, 
and  thence  endowed  with  life  by  the  creative  faculty 
of  the  mind,  be  fixed  in  color  and  in  stone,  and  so  be 
preserved  from  evanescence,  so  arrayed  in  pemianent 
ideal  being  ?  Form  and  color  were  but  another  lan- 
guage addressed  to  the  eye,  not  to  the  ear.  Whil*^ 
the  Saviour  was  on  earth,  the  divinity  within  his 
human  form  demanded  the  intensest  devotion,  tlie 
highest  worship  which  man  could  offer  to  God.  The 
Saviour  thus  revivified  by  the  phantasy,  even  as  ho 
was  in  the  flesh,  might  justly  demand  the  same  hom- 
ao;e.  When  that  image  became  asrain  actual  form,  did 
the  material  accessories  —  the  vehicle  of  stone  or  color 
—  so  far  prevail  over  the  ideal  conception,  as  to  harden 
into  an  idol  that  which,  as  a  mental  conception,  might 
lawfully  receive  man's  devotions  ?  It  seemed  to  awak- 
en only  the  same  emotions,  which  were  not  merely 
pardonable,  but  in  the  highest  degree  pious,  in  the 
former  case :  why,  then,  forbidden  or  idolatrous  in  the 
latter  ?  ^ 

The  same  argument  which  applied  to  the  Saviour, 
applied  with  still  greater  force  to  those  merely  human 
beings,  the  patriarchs  and  prophets  of  the  Old  Testa- 

1  This  argument  is  urged  by  Gregory'  II.  in  his  epistle  to  German  us  at 
great  length:  "  Enarrent  ilia  et  per  voces,  et  per  literas,  et  per  picturas." 
So  Germanus:  uTvep  6ul  T/jg  a/co^f  aXr]&f]  7ri:TnoTevKa/j.ev  ravra  kol  6ui 
ypo.<f>cKr}g  (unrjaeug  rrpbg  (3e(3aiOTepav  rjficbv  nTiypocpoplav  avviaruvofiFV.  — 
Epist.  ad  Joann.  Episc.  Synad.  They  argued  that  this  was  an  argument 
for  Cin-ist's  real  humanity  against  the  Docetic  sects.  Their  favorite  au- 
thority was  Basil;  a  yap  6  Xoyog  T?jc  laToplag  6id  TTjg  uKorjg  naplarf/at, 
ravra  ypacp^  oiun-cjaa  dia  fii/xTjaeog  decKvvm.  So  also  Joann.  Damasc: 
inep  ry  uKoy  b  Xoyog,  tovto  ry  opuaei  ij  e'lKcJv. 


CiiAP.  VII.  EFFECTS  OF  FORM  AND  COLOR.  303 

ment,  the  apostles,  the  saints,  the  martyrs,  even  to  the 
Virgin  herself.  Why  should  not  their  histories  be 
related  by  forms  and  colors,  as  well  as  by  words  ? 
It  was  but  presenting  the  same  truths  to  the  mind 
through  another  sense.  If  they  were  unduly  wor- 
shipped, the  error  was  in  the  hagiolatry  or  adoration 
of  saints,  not  in  the  adoration  of  the  imao;e.  Pictures 
wore  but  tlie  books  of  the  unlearned ;  preachers  never 
silent  of  the  glory  of  the  saints,  and  instructing  with 
soundless  voice  the  beholders,  and  so  sanctifying  the 
v^ision.  "  I  am  too  poor  to  possess  books,  I  have  no 
leisure  for  reading  :  I  enter  the  church,  choked  with 
the  cares  of  the  world,  the  glowing  colors  attract  my 
sight  and  delight  my  eyes,  like  a  flowery  meadow ; 
and  the  glory  of  God  steals  imperceptibly  into  my 
soul.  I  gaze  on  the  fortitude  of  the  martyr  and  the 
crown  with  whichhe  is  rewarded,  and  the  fire  of  holy 
emulation  kindles  within  me,  and  I  fall  down  and 
worship  God  through  the  martyr,  and  I  receive  sal- 
vation." ^  Thus  argues  the  most  eloquent  defender 
of  images,  betraying  in  his  ingenious  argument  the 
rudeness  of  the  arts,  and  the  uncultivated  taste,  not 
of  tlie  vulgar  alone.  It  is  the  brilHancy  of  the  colors, 
not  the  truth  or  majesty  of  the  design,  which  enthralls 
the  sight.     And,  so  in  general,  the  ruder  the  art  the 

1  "Otc  f3ll3?iOt  Tolg  aypafifiUTOig  elaiv  ai  eiKoveg,  kol  Trjg  ruv  dyLuv  rtfxyc 
aaiyTjTOL  KTipvKeg,  ev  arix^  (f)cjvr)  Tovg  bpuvTag  dlSaoKOvaaL^  nal  rfjv  bpaauv 
&y(t^ovaac.  Ovk  evnopu  (Sl^Xuv,  ov  gxo7\,7]v  ayu  Tvpog  ttjv  avuyvuatv 
dau[iL  elg  to  kolvov  tuv  tpvxi^v  iarptlov,  rrjv  EKKlrjclav,  cjairep  umv&avg 
Tolg  Xoytauolg  avvnvcyo^evog,  iXKet  /xe  Tvpog  ^iav  rfig  ypaipfjg  to  av&or^  nal 
wf  Xeifidi'  repireL  ttjv  bpaaiv,  kol  ^£?<.i]\}6TC)g  evacpirjoi  Ty  'ipvxv  f'ofo  i9eoi) 
Tei^iafiai  ttjv  KupTepiav  tov  fiapTvpog,  Ttov  OTe(j>uvu)v  t7/v  uvTai:o6oaLV.  koI 
tjf  irvpl  rrpog  ^v?iov  e^a7rT0fj.ai  Trj  Trpo6v/ua^  KOt  ttctctuv  irpoGKVVcJ  dsov  did 
rov  uaoTvooCy  Hal  /lanjSavo)  ttjv  a<dT7]p'iav.  —  Joann.  Damascen.  de  Imag. 
Orat.  ii.  d  7i7. 


304  LATIN    CTIPJSTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

more  intense  the  superstition.  The  perfection  of  the 
fine  arts  leads  rather  to  diminish  than  to  promote  such 
superstition.  Not  merely  does  the  cultivation  of  mind 
required  for  their  higher  execution,  as  well  as  the  ad- 
miration of  them,  imply  an  advanced  state  ;  but  the 
idealism,  which  is  their  crowning  excellence,  in  some  de- 
gree unrealizes  them,  and  creates  a  different  and  more 
exalted  feeling.  There  is  more  direct  idolatry  paid 
to  the  rough  and  ill-shapen  image,  or  the  flat,  unre- 
lieved, and  staring  picture, —  the  former  actually  cloth- 
ed in  gaudy  and  tinsel  ornaments,  the  latter  with  the 
crown  of  gold  leaf  on  the  head,  and  real  or  artificial 
flowers  in  the  hand,  —  than  to  the  noblest  ideal  statue, 
or  the  Holy  Family  with  all  the  magic  of  light  and 
shade.  They  are  not  the  fine  paintings  Avhich  work 
miracles,  but  the  coarse  and  smoke-darkened  boards, 
on  which  the  dim  outline  of  form  is  hardly  to  be 
traced.  Thus  it  may  be  said,  that  it  was  the  super- 
stition which^  required  the  images,  rather  than  the 
images  which  formed  the  superstition.  The  Christian 
mind  would  have  found  some  other  fetich,  to  which 
it  would  have  attributed  miraculous  powers.  Relics 
would  have  been  more  fervently  worshipped  and  en- 
dowed with  more  transcendent  powers,  without  the 
adventitious  good,  the  familiarizing  the  mind  with  the 
historic  truths  of  Scripture  or  even  the  legends  of 
Christian  martyrs,  which  at  least  allayed  the  evil  of 
the  actual  idolatry.  Iconoclasm  left  tlie  worship  of 
relics,  and  other  dubious  memorials  of  the  saints,  in 
all  their  vigor ;  while  it  struck  at  that  which,  after  all, 
was  a  higher  kind  of  idolatry.  It  aspired  not  to  elevate 
the  general  mind  above  superstition,  but  proscribeJ 
only  one,  and  that  not  the  most  debasing,  form. 


Chap.  VII.  LEO   THE   ISAORIAN.  305 

Of  the  emperors  Leo  the  Isaurlaii  and  lils  son  Con- 
stantine,  the  great  Iconoclasts,  tlie  only  histo-  Leo  the 
rians  are  their  enemies.  That  the  founder  of  aVd.  tIt.' 
this  dynasty  was  of  obscure  birth,  from  a  district,  or 
rather  the  borders,  of  the  wild  province  of  Isauria, 
enhances  rather  than  detracts  from  the  dignity  of  his 
character.  Among  the  adventurers  who  from  time 
to  time  rose  to  the  throne  of  Byzantium,  none  em- 
ployed less  unworthy  means,  or  were  less  stained  with 
crime,  than  Leo.  Throughout  his  early  career  tho 
inimical  historians  are  overawed  by  involun-  ^j^  ^^^^, 
tary  respect  for  his  great  military  and  admin-  ^^^^^* 
istrative  qualities.  He  had  been  employed  on  various 
dangerous  and  important  services,  and  the  jealousy  of 
the  ruling  emperor,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  shows 
that  he  was  already  designated  by  the  public  voice 
as  one  capable  of  empire.  Justinian  11.  abandoned 
him  w^ith  a  few  troops,  in  an  expedition  against  the 
Alani ;  from  this  difficulty  he  extricated  himself  with 
consummate  courage  and  dexterity.  He  appears  equal- 
ly distinguished  in  valor  and  in  craft.  In  the  most 
trying  situations  his  incomparable  address  is  as  prompt 
as  decisive  ;  against  treacherous  enemies  he  does  not 
scruple  to  employ  treachery. 

The  elevation  of  an  active  and  enterprising  soldier 
to  the  throne  was  imperiously  demanded  by  the  times, 
and  hailed  w^ith  general  applause.  The  first  measures 
of  Leo  were  to  secure  the  tottering  empire  against  her 
most  formidable  enemies  the  Mohammedans,  who  were 
encompassing  Constantinople  on  every  side.  Never 
had  the  Byzantine  Empire  been  exposed  to  such  peril 
as  during  the  siege  of  Constantinople  by  Moslemah. 
Nothing  but  the  indefatigable  courage,  military  skill, 

VOL,.  II.  20 


306  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Boor  IV. 

and  restless  activity  of  Leo,  aided  by  the  new  inven- 
tion of  the  Greek  fire,  saved  the  eastern  capital  from 
falling  five  centuries  before  its  time  into  the  hands  of 
the  Mohammedans.^  There  can  be  no  greater  praise 
to  Leo  than  that  his  superstitious  subjects  saw  nothing 
less  than  the  manifest  interposition  of  the  tutelary  Vir- 
gin throughout  their  unexpected  deliverance. 

Leo  had  reigned  for  ten  years,  before  he  declared 
Leo  perse-       his  hostility  to  imagc-worsliip.      But  his  per- 

cutes  Jews  .  •    •      i       i    i  i    •        i  p   •        i 

and  heretics,  sccutiug  Spirit  liacl  betrayed  itseit  m  tJie  com- 
pulsory baptism  of  the  Jews  and  the  Montanists  (prob- 
ably some  Manichean  sect  called  by  that  ancient  name) 
in  Constantinople.^  The  effect  of  these  persecutions 
was  not  encourac^ino;.  The  Jews  secret! v  washed  off 
the  contamination  of  baptism,  and  instead  of  fasting 
before  the  Holy  Communion,  polluted  its  sanctit}^,  if 
they  did  not  annul  its  blessings  by  eating  common 
food.  The  Montanists  burned  themselves  in  their 
houses.  Li  an  orthodox  emperor,  however,  these  acts 
would  have  passed  without  reprobation,  if  not  with 
praise. 

At  the  close  of  these  ten  years  in  the  reign  of  Leo, 
Edict  a'^ainst  Christcudom  was  astounded  by  the  sudden 
images.  proscriptioii  of  its  common  religious  usages. 
The  edict  came  forth,  interdicting  all  worship  of  im- 
ages. Leo  was  immediately  asserted  and  believed  to 
be  as  hostile  to  the  adoration  of  the  Virgin,  to  the 
worship  of  saints  and  of  relics,  as  to  that  of  images.® 

1  Theoplianes  passim. 

2  II).  p.  336. 

8  Ov  fiovov  yap  irepi  ttjv  cx^tikt/v  tuv  asTTTibv  eIkovcov  6  SvaaejUyg  i:a(t>aX' 
TiETO  TxpoaiivvijGLV^  ak'ku  K(ii  Tvepl  Tuv  7Tp£(7(3eiC)V  Trig  navuytov  ti^t^ro/coy,  Kai 
TzdvTCdv  tC.)V  dy'iuv  koI  tu  ?idij)ava  avTC)v  d  naiifiiapor,  tog  oc  diddtJKahh 
avTov  "ApafS^g,  Iff&^AvTTeTO.  —  Theopli.  p.  625. 


Chap.  VII.  EDICT  AGAINST   IMAGES.  307 

In  tlie  common  ear  tlie  emperor's  language  was  that 
of  a  Jew  or  a  Mohammedan,  and  fables  were  soon 
current  that  the  impulse  came  from  those  odious  quar- 
ters. It  was  rumored  that  while  Leo  was  yet  an 
obscure  Isaurian  youth  named  Con  on,  two  Jews  met 
him  and  promised  him  the  empire  of  the  world  if  he 
would  grant  them  one  request :  this  was,  to  destroy 
the  images  throughout  Christendom.^  They  bound 
him  by  an  oath  in  a  Christian  church !  After  the 
young  Conon  had  ascended  the  throne,  he  was  called 
on  to  fnlfil  his  solemn  vow.  The  prototype  of  the 
Christian  Emperor  in  Iconoclasm  had  been  the  Sultau 
Yezid  of  Damascus.  Yezid  had  been  promised  by  a 
magician  a  reign  of  forty  years  over  the  Mohammedan 
world  on  the  single  condition  of  the  destruction  of 
images.  God  had  cut  off  the  Mohammedan  in  the 
beginning  of  his  impiety,  but  Leo  only  followed  this 
sacrilegious  and  fatal  example.  His  adviser  was  said 
to  be  a  certain  Besor,  a  Syrian  renegade  from  Chris- 
tianity, deeply  imbued  with  Mohammedan  antipathies. 
The  real  motives  of  Leo  it  is  impossible  to  conjecture. 
Had  the  rude  soldier  been  brought  up  in  a  simpler 
Christianity  among  the  mountains  of  his  native  Isau- 
ria  ?  Had  the  perpetual  contrast  between  the  sterner 
creed  and  plainer  worship  of  Mohammedanism  and 
the  paganized  Christianity  of  his  day  led  him  to  in- 
quire whether  this  was  the  genuine  and  primitive  re- 

1  And  this  was  the  emperor  whose  first  religious  act  was  the  persecution 
of  the  Jews.  Neither  Pope  Gregory  nor  any  of  the  Western  writers,  nor 
even  Theophanes,  the  earliest  Byzantine,  knew  anything  of  this  stmy. 
The  first  version  is  in  a  very  douhtful  oration  ascribed  to  John  of  Danias- 
cns,  passes  through  Gh'^cas  and  Constantine  Manasses,  till  the  fable  attains 
its  full  growth  in  Zonaras  and  Cedrenus.  Theophanes  gives  the  story  of 
the  Sultai:  Yezid. 


308  LATm   CnrJSTIANITY.  Book   IV 

llijjioTi  of  the  Gospel?  Had  lie  felt  that  he  could  uoi 
deny  the  justice  of  the  charges  of  idolatry  so  pi'odigal- 
ly  made  against  his  religion  by  the  Jews  and  Moham- 
medans, and  so  become  anxious  to  relieve  it  from  thii 
imputation  ?  Had  he  found  his  subjects,  instead  ot 
trusting,  in  their  imminent  danger  from  the  Mohani 
medan  invasion,  to  their  own  arms,  discipline,  and 
courage,  entirely  reposing  on  the  intercession  of  the 
Virgin  and  the  saints  and  on  the  maofic  influence  of 
crosses  and  pictures  ?  Did  he  act  as  statesman,  general, 
or  zealot,  he  pursued  his  aim  with  inflexible  resolution, 
thouo-h  not  in  the  first  instance  without  some  caution. 

For  the  war  which  the  emperor  declared  against  th»j 
A.D.  726.  images  did  not  at  first  command  their  destruc- 
tion. The  first  edict  prohibited  the  worship,  but  only 
the  worship,  of  all  statues  and  pictures  which  repre- 
sented the  Saviour,  the  Virgin,  and  the  saints.  The 
statues  and  those  pictures  wdiich  hung  upon  the  walls, 
and  were  not  painted  upon  them,  were  to  be  raised  to 
a  greater  height,  so  as  not  to  receive  pious  kisses  or 
other  marks  of  adoration.^ 

About  this  period  an  alarming  volcanic  eruption 
took  place  in  the  iEgean.  The  whole  atmosphere  was 
dark  as  midnight,  the  sea  and  the  adjacent  islands 
strewn  with  showers  of  ashes  and  of  stones.  A  new 
island  suddenly  arose  amid  this  awful  convidsion.  The 
emperor  beheld  in  this  terrific  phenomenon  the  divine 
wrath,  and  attributed  it  to  his  patient  acquiescence  in 
the  idolatry  of  his  subjects.     The  monks,  on  the  other 


1  Unfortunately,  none  of  the  earlier  edicts  of  the  Iconoclastic  eni]>eiors  are 
extant.  It  is  doubtful,  and  of  course  obstinately  disputed,  whether  Lea 
condescended  to  require  the  sanction  of  any  council  or  .synod,  or  of  any 
number  of  bishops.  —  Walch,  p.  229. 


JiiAP.  VII.  TUAIULT3  —  CONSTANTINOPLE.  309 

band,  the  implacable  adversaries  of  the  emperor  and 
the  most  ardent  defenders  of  image-v/orship,  beheld 
God's  fearful  rebuke  against  the  sacrilegious  imperial 
edicts.^ 

The  first  edict  was  followed,  at  what  interval  it  is 
difficult  to  determine,  by  a  second  of  far  greater  sever- 
ity. It  commanded  the  total  destruction  of  all  images,^ 
the  whitewashing  the  walls  of  the  churches.  But  if 
the  first  edict  was  everywhere  received  with  the  most 
determined  aversion,  the  second  maddened  the  image- 
worshippers,  the  mass  of  mankind,  including  most  uf 
the  clergy  and  all  the  monks,  to  absolute  fury.  In  the 
capital  the  presence  of  the  emperor  did  not  in  the  least 
overawe  the  populace.  An  imperial  officer  had  orders 
to  destroy  a  statue  of  the  Saviour  in  a  part  of  Constan- 
tinople called  Chalcopratia.  This  image  was  renowned 
for  its  miracles.  The  thronging  multitude,  chiefly  of 
women,  saw  with  horror  the  officer  mount  the  ladder. 
Thrice  he  struck  with  his  impious  axe  the  holy  counte- 
nance, which  had  so  benignly  looked  down  upon  them. 
Heaven  interfered  not,  as  no  doubt  they  expected  ;  but 
the  women  seized  the  ladder,  threw  down  the  officer, 
and  beat  him  to  death  with  clubs.     The  emperor  sent 

1  The  chronology  of  these  events  is  in  the  highest  degree  obscure. 
Baronius,  Maimbourg,  the  Pagis,  Spanheim,  Basnage,  Walch,  have  en- 
deavored to  arrange  them  in  natural  and  regular  sequence.  The  eom- 
niencement  of  the  actual  strife  in  the  tenth  year  of  Leo's  reign  gives  one 
certain  date,  A.u.  726.  The  death  of  Pope  Gregoiy  11.  another,  A.u.  731. 
The  great  difficulty  is  the  time  at  which  the  second  more  severe  edict  fol- 
lowed the  first.  Some  place  it  as  late  as  731;  but  it  had  manifestly  been 
issued  before  the  first  epistle  of  Gregory.  It  seems  to  me  as  clear  that  it 
preceded  the  tumult  at  Constantinople,  which  arose  from  an  attempt  to  de- 
stroy an  image ;  but  destruction  does  not  seem  to  have  been  commanded  b}' 
••he  earlier  and  milder  edict. 

2  Anastasius  adds  that  they  were  to  be  burned  m  the  most  public  place 
"n  the  difierent  cities.  —  Vit.  Greer.  11. 


310  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

an  armed  guard  to  suppress  the  tumult ;  a  frightful 
massacre  took  place.  But  the  slain  were  looked  upon, 
some  were  afterwards  worshipped,  as  martyrs  in  the 
holy  cause.  In  religious  insurrections  that  which  with 
one  party  is  suppression  of  reBellion,  with  the  other  is 
persecution.  Leo  becomes,  in  the  orthodox  histories, 
little  better  than  a  Saracen  ;  the  pious  were  punished 
with  mutilations,  scourgings,  exile,  confiscation  ;  the 
schools  of  learning  were  closed,  a  magnificent  library 
burned  to  the  ground.  This  last  is  no  doubt  a  fable ; 
and  the  cruelties  of  Leo  w^ere  at  least  told  with  the 
darkest  coloring.  Even  his  successes  in  war  were  in- 
geniously turned  to  his  condemnation.  The  failure  of 
the  Saracens  in  an  attack  on  Nicea  was,  as  usual,  at- 
tributed to  the  intervention  of  the  Virgin,  not  to  the 
valiant  resistance  of  the  garrison.  The  Virgin  was 
content  with  the  death  of  a  soldier  who  had  dared  to 
throw  down  and  trample  on  her  statue.  She  had  ap- 
peared to  him  and  foretold  his  death.  The  next  day 
her  prophecy  was  fulfilled,  his  brains  were  beat  out  by 
a  stone  from  a  mangonel.  But  the  magnanimity  of  the 
Virgin  did  not  therefore  withdraw  her  tutelary  protec- 
tion from  the  city.  Nicea  escaped,  though  Leo,  be- 
sides his  disrespect  for  images,  is  likewise  charged  with 
doubting  the  intercession  of  the  Mother  of  God. 

Nor  did  this  open  resistance  take  place  in  Constanti- 
nople alone.  A  formidable  insurrection  broke  out  in 
Greece  and  in  the  iEgean  islands.  A  fleet  was  armed, 
a  new  emperor,  one  Cosmas,  proclaimed,  and  Constan- 
tinople menaced  by  the  rebels.  The  fleet,  however, 
was  scattered  and  destroyed  by  ships  which  discharged 
the  Greek  fire:  the  insurrection  was  suppressed,  the 
leaders  either  fell   or   were  executed,  along  with  the 


Chap.  Vn.         CONDUCT  OF  POPE  GREGORY  II.  311 

usurper.^  The  monks  here,  and  throughout  the  em- 
pire, the  champions  of  this  as  of  every  other  supersti- 
tion, were  the  instio-ators  to  rebellion.  Few  monas- 
teries  were  without  some  wonder-workino;  image ;  the 
edict  struck  at  once  at  their  influence,  their  interest, 
their  pride,  their  most  profound  religious  feelings. 

But  the  more  eminent  clergy  were  likewise  at  first 
almost  unanimous  in  their  condemnation  of  the  em- 
peror. Constantine,  Bishop  of  Nacolia,  indeed,  is 
branded  as  his  adviser.  Another  bishop,  Theodosius, 
son  of  Apsimarus,  Metropolitan  of  Ephesus,  is  named 
as  enterino;  into  the  war  ao;ainst  ima2;es.  But  almost 
for  the  first  time  the  bishops  of  the  two  Romes,  Ger- 
manus  of  Constantinople,  and  Pope  Gregory  II.,  were 
united  in  one  common  cause.  Leo  attempted  to  win 
Germanus  to  his  views,  but  the  aged  patriarch  (he  was 
now  95  years  old)  calmly  but  resolutely  resisted  the 
arguments,  the  promises,  the  menaces  of  the  emperor. 

But  the  conduct  of  Gregory  II.,  as  leading  to  more 
important  results,  demands  more  rigid  scrutiny.  The 
Byzantine  historians  represent  him  as  proceeding,  at 
the  first  intimation  of  the  hostility  of  the  emperor  to 
image  worship,  to  an  act  of  direct  revolt,  as  prohibit- 
ing the  payment  of  tribute  by  the  Italian  province.^ 
This  was  beyond  the  power,  probably  beyond  the  cour- 
age, of  Gregory.  TJ^^e  great  results  of  the  final  sepa- 
ration of  the  West  from  the  inefficient  and  inglorious 
sovereignty  of  the  East  might  excuse  or  palliate,  if  he 
had  foreseen  them,  the  disloyalty  of  Pope  Gregory  to 
Leo.  But  it  would  be  to  estimate  his  political  and  re- 
'igious  sagacity  too  highly  to  endow  him  with  this  gift 

1  Theoph.  Chronograph,  p.  629. 

2  Tbeophanes,  followed  by  the  later  writers. 


812  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

of  ambitious  prophecy,  to  suppose  him  anticipating  the 
full  development  of  Latin  Christianity  when  it  should 
become  independent  of  the  East.  Like  most  ordinary 
minds,  and,  if  we  are  to  judge  by  his  letters,  Gregory's 
was  a  very  ordinary  mind,  he  was  merely  governed  by 
the  circumstances  and  passions  of  his  time  without  the 
least  foreknowledge  of  the  result  of  his  actions.  The 
Letter  of        letter  of  Pope  Greoory  to  the  em])eror  is  ar- 

Gregoryn.  ^   /  i-        •  •  •  i 

A.D.  729.  rogant  without  dignity,  dogmatic  without 
persuasiveness;  in  the  stronger  part  of  the  argument 
far  inferior,  both  in  skill  and  ingenuity,  to  that  of  the 
aged  Germanus,  or  the  writer  who  guided  his  pen.^ 
The  strange  mistakes  in  the  history  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, the  still  stranger  interpretations  of  the  New,  the 
loose  legends  wdiich  are  advanced  as  history,  give  a 
very  low  opinion  of  the  knowledge  of  the  times.  As 
a  great  public  document,  addressed  to  the  whole  Chris- 
tian world  by  him  who  as})ired  to  be  the  first  ecclesias- 
tic, we  might  be  disposed  to  question  its  autlienticity, 
if  it  were  not  avouched  by  the  full  evidence  in  its  favor 
and  its  agreement  with  all  the  events  of  the  period. 
After  some  praise  of  the  golden  promise  of  orthodoxy, 
in  the  declaration  of  Leo  on  ascenchng  the  throne,  and 
in  his  conduct  up  to  a  certain  period,  the  Pope  pro- 
ceeds, "  For  ten  years  you  have  paid  no  attention  to 
the  images  which  you  now  denounce  as  idols,  and 
whose  total  destruction  and  abolition  you  command. 
Not  tlie  faithful  only  but  hifidels  are  scandalized  at  your 
impiety.  Christ  has  condemned  those  who  offend  one 
of  Ids  little  ones,  you  fear  not  to  offend  the  whole 
world.     You  say  that  God  has  forbidden  the  worship 

1  Compare  the  two  letters  of  Germanus  to  John  of  Syuuada,  and  to 
Thomas  of  Claudiopolis.  —  Cone.  Nic.  ii.  sess.  iv. 


Chap.  VII.  LETTER  OF  POPE  GREGORY  II.  313 

of  things  made  with  hands  ;  who  worships  them  ? 
Why,  as  emperor  and  head  of  Christendom,  have  you 
not  consulted  the  wise  ?  The  Scriptures,  the  fathers, 
the  six  councils,  you  treat  with  equal  contempt.  These 
are  the  coarse  and  rude  arguments  suited  to  a  coarse 
and  rude  mind  like  yours,  but  they  contain  the  truth." 
Gregory  then  enters  at  length  into  the  Mosaic  interdi(!- 
tion  of  idolatry.  "  The  idols  of  the  Gentiles  onlj- 
were  forbidden  in  the  commandment,  not  such  images 
as  the  Cherubim  and  Seraphim,  or  the  ornaments  made 
by  Bezaleel  to  the  glory  of  God."  It  is  impossible 
without  irreverence  to  translate  the  argument  of  the 
Pope,  from  the  partial  vision  of  God  to  Moses  described 
in  the  book  of  Exodus.^  What  follows,  if  on  less 
dangerous  ground,  is  hardly  less  strange.  "  Where  the 
body  is,  says  our  Lord,  there  will  the  eagles  be  gathered 
together.  The  body  is  Christ,  the  eagles  the  religious 
men  who  flew  from  all  quarters  to  behold  him.  When 
they  beheld  him  they  made  a  picture  of  him.  Not  of 
him  alone,  they  made  pictures  of  James  the  brother  of 
the  Lord,  of  Stephen,  and  of  all  the  martyrs ;  and  so 
having  done,  they  disseminated  them  throughout  the 
world  to  receive  not  worship  but  reverence."  Was 
this  ignorance  in  Gregory,  or  effrontery  ?  He  then 
appeals  to  the  likeness  of  Christ  sent  to  Abgarus,  king 
"of  Edessa.  "  God  the  Father  cannot  be  painted,  as  his 
form  is  not  known.  Were  it  known  and  painted, 
would  you  call  that  an  idol  ?  "     The  pope  appeals  to 

1  "Si  videris  me,  morieris ;  sed  ascende  per  foramen  petrjB  et  videbis 
posteriora  mea."  Gregory  no  doubt  understood  this  in  an  awfully  mys- 
terious sense,  but  not  without  a  materializing  tendency.  The  whole  God- 
head was  i-evealed  in  Christ,  "  nostrarum  generationum  setate  in  novissimis 
temporibus  manifestum  seipsum,  et  posteriora  simul  et  anteriora  pc:  fecte 
10  bis  ostendit." 


314  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Bjok  17. 

the  tears  of  devotion  which  he  himself  has  shed  ^vhile 
gazing  on  the  statue  of  St.  Peter.  He  denies  that  the 
Catholics  worship  wood  and  stone,  these  are  memorials 
only  intended  to  awaken  pious  feelings.^  They  adore 
tliem  not  as  gods,  for  in  them  they  have  no  hope,  they 
only  employ  their  intercession.  "  Go,"  he  then  breaks 
out  in  this  contemptuous  tone,  "  Go  into  a  school  where 
children  are  learning  their  letters  and  proclaim  yourself 
a  destroyer  of  images,  they  would  all  throw  their  tab- 
lets at  your  head,  and  you  would  thus  be  taught  by 
these  foolish  ones  what  you  refuse  to  learn  from  the 
wise."  (It  might  be  asked  what  well-instructed  chil- 
dren now  would  say  to  a  pope  who  mistook  Hezekiah 
(called  Uzziah)  for  a  wicked  king,  his  destroying  the 
brazen  serpent  for  an  act  of  impiety,  and  asserted  that 
David  placed  the  brazen  serpent  in  the  Temi^le.)  "  You 
boast  that  as  Hezekiah  after  800  years  cast  out  the 
brazen  serpent  from  the  temple,  so  after  800  years  you 
have  cast  out  the  idols  from  the  churches.  Hezekiah 
truly  was  your  brother,  as  self-willed,  and,  like  thee, 
daring  to  offer  violence  to  the  priests  of  God."  "  With 
the  power  given  me  by  St.  Peter,"  proceeds  Gregory, 
"  I  could  inflict  punishment  upon  thee,  but  since  thou 
hast  heaped  a  curse  on  thyself,  I  leave  thee  to  endure 
it."  The  pope  returns  to  his  own  edification  while  be- 
holding the  pictures  and  images  in  the  churches.  The 
passage  is  of  interest,  as  showing  the  usual  subjects  of 
these  paintings.  "  The  miracles  of  the  Lord ;  the 
Virgin  Mother,  with  the  infimt  Jesus  on  her  breast, 
surrounded  by  choirs  of  angels  ;  the  Last  Supper ;  the 
Raising  of  Lazarus ;  the  miracles  of  giving  sight  to 

1  Ob  "karptVTiKug  aXKu  oxf^riKug,  "  non  latria  sed  babitudine."     This  ii 
the  invariable  distinction. 


Chap.  VII.       LETTER  OF  GREGORY  11.  315 

the  blind  ;  the  curing  the  paralytic  and  th  &  leper  ;  the 
feeding  the  multitudes  in  the  desert ;  the  transfigura- 
tion ;  the  crucifixion,  burial,  resurrection,  ascension  of 
Christ ;  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  the  sacrifice  of 
Isaac,  which  seems  to  have  been  thought,  doubtless  as 
typifying  the  Redeemer's  death,  a  most  pathetic  sub- 
ject." The  pope  then  reproaches  Leo  for  not  consult- 
ing the  aged  and  venerable  Germanus,  and  for  listen^ 
ing  rather  to  that  Ephesian  fool  the  son  of  Apsimarus. 
The  wise  influence  of  Germanus  had  persuaded  Con- 
stantine,  the  son  of  Constans,  to  summon  the  sixth 
council.  There  the  emperor  had  declared  that  he 
would  sit,  a  humble  hearer,  to  execute  the  decrees  of 
the  prelates,  and  to  banish  those  whom  they  con- 
demned. "  If  his  father  had  erred  from  the  faith  he 
would  be  the  first  to  anathematize  him."  So  met  the 
sixth  council.  "  The  doctrines  of  the  Church  are  in 
the  province  of  the  bishops  not  of  the  emperor;  as  the 
prelates  should  abstain  from  affairs  of  state,  so  princes 
from  those  of  the  Church."  ^  "  You  demand  a  coun- 
cil :  —  revoke  your  edicts,  cease  to  destroy  images,  a 
council  will  not  be  needed."  Gregory  then  relates 
the  insult  to  the  image  of  the  Saviour  in  Constantino- 
ple. "  Not  only  those  who  were  present  at  that  sac- 
rilegious scene,  but  even  the  barbarians  had  revenged 
themselves  on  the  statues  of  the  emperor,  which  had 
before  been  received  in  Italy  with  great  honor.  Hence 
the  invasion  of  the  Lombards,  their  occvipation  of  Ra- 
venna, their  menaces  that  they  would   advance   and 


1  "  Scis  sanctge  ecclesiae  dogmata  non  imperatorum  esse,  sed  pontificum : 
idcirco  ecclesiis  pra?positi  sunt  pontifices  a  reipublicte  negotiis  abstinentes, 
et  imperatores  ergo  similiter  ab  ecclesiasticis  abstineant,  et  quje  sibi  com- 
missa  sunt,  capessant."     This  was  new  doctrine  in  the  East. 


816'  LATIN  CimiSTlANlTY.  Book  IV 

seize  Rome.  It  is  your  own  folly  which  has  disa- 
bled you  from  defending  Rome ;  and  you  would  terrify 
us  and  threaten  to  send  to  Rome  and  break  in  pieces 
the  statue  of  St.  Peter,  and  carry  away  Pope  Gregory 
in  chains,  as  Constans  did  his  predecessor  Martin. 
Knowest  thou  not  that  the  popes  have  been  the  bar- 
rier-wall between  the  East  and  the  West  —  the  medi- 
ators of  peace?  I  will  not  enter  into  a  contest.  I 
have  but  to  retire  four-and-twenty  miles  into  Campa- 
nia, and  you  may  as  well  follow  the  winds.  The  offi- 
cer who  persecuted  Pope  Martin  was  cut  off  in  his 
sins  ;  Martin  in  exile  was  a  saint,  and  miracles  are  per- 
formed at  his  tomb  in  the  Chersonese.  Would  that  I 
might  share  the  fate  of  Martin.  But,  for  the  statue 
of  St.  Peter,  which  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  West  es- 
teem as  a  god  on  earthy  the  whole  West  would  take  a 
terrible  revenge.^  I  have  but  to  retire  and  despise 
your  threats ;  but  I  warn  you  that  I  shall  be  guiltless 
of  the  blood  that  will  be  shed ;  on  your  head  it  will 
fall.  May  God  instil  his  fear  into  your  heart !  May  I 
soon  receive  letters  announcing  your  conversion  !  May 
the  Saviour  dwell  in  your  heart,  drive  away  those  who 
ui'ge  you  to  these  scandals,  and  restore  peace  to  the 
world!  "2 

If  Gregory  expected  this  expostulatory  and  defiant 
epistle  to  work  any  change  in  Leo,  he  was  doomed  to 

1  "  Quam  omnia  Occidentis  regna,  velut  Deuni  terrestrein  habent."  This 
looks  something  like  idolatry. 

2  (iregoiy  alludes  with  triumph  to  his  conquest  over  the  northern  kings, 
TV '.10  are  submitting  to  baptism  from  the  hands  of  his  m^sionary,  St.  Boni- 
f.>.:e.  "Nosviam  ingredimur  in  extremas  occidentis  regiones  versus  illos, 
qui  sanctum  baptisma  efflagitant.  Cum  enim  illuc  episcopos  misissem,  et 
sanctaj  ecclesiic  nostra;  clericos,  nondum  adducti  sunt  ut  capita  sua  inclina- 
rent  et  baptizarentur  corum  i)riuripcs,  (piod  exoptent,  ut  eorum  sim  sus- 
ceplor." 


I 


Chap.  Vn.      GREGORY'S  SECOND  LETTER.         317 

disappointment.  In  a  subsequent,  but  shorter  letter, 
he  attempted  to  appall  the  emperor  by  the  Second  letter 
great  names  of  Gregory  the  Wonder-worker,  Gregory 
of  Nyssa,  Gregory  the  Theologian,  of  Basil,  and  of 
Chrysostom,  to  whose  authority  he  appealed  as  sanc- 
tioning the  worship  of  images.  He  held  up  the  pious 
examples  of  those  obedient  sons  of  the  Church,  Con- 
stantine  the  Great,  Theodosius  the  Great,  Valentiniaii 
the  Great,  and  Constantine  who  held  the  sixth  coun- 
cil. "  What  are  our  churches  but  things  made  witli 
hands,  of  stone,  wood,  straw,  clay,  lime  ?  but  they 
are  adorned  with  paintings  of  the  miracles  wrought  by 
the  saints,  the  passion  of  the  Lord,  his  glorious  mother, 
his  apostles.  On  these  pictures  men  spend  their  whole 
fortunes  ;  and  men  and  women,  with  newly  baptized 
children  in  their  arms,  and  grown-up  youths  from  all 
parts  of  the  world  come,  and,  pointing  out  these  histo- 
ries, lift  up  their  minds  and  hearts  to  God."  The  pope 
renews  his  earnest  admonitions  to  the  emperor  to  obey 
the  prelates  of  the  Church  in  all  spiritual  things. 
"  You  persecute  us  and  afflict  us  with  a  worldly  and 
carnal  arm.  We,  unarmed  and  defenceless,  can  but 
send  a  devil  to  humble  you,  to  deliver  you  to  Satan  for 
the  destniction  of  the  flesh,  and  the  salvation  of  tho 
spirit.  Why,  you  ask,  have  not  the  councils  com- 
manded image- worship  ?  Why  have  they  not  com- 
manded us  to  eat  and  drink  ? "  (Images,  Gregory 
seems  to  have  considered  as  necessary  to  the  spiritual 
as  food  to  the  corporeal  life.)  '-'•  Images  have  been 
borne  by  bishops  to  councils  ;  no  religious  man  goes  on 
a  pilgi'image  without  an  image."  "  Write  to  all  tho 
world  that  Gregory,  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  and  Germa- 
nus.  Bishop  of  Constantinople,  are  in  error  concerning 


318  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

images ;  cast  tlie  blame  on  us,  who  have  received  from 
God  the  power  to  bind  and  to  loose." 

When  Gregory  addressed  these  letters  to  the  Em- 
peror Leo,  the  tumult  in  Constantinople,  the  first  pub- 
lic act  of  rebellion  against  Iconoclasm,  had  taken  place ; 
Degraaation  ^ut  the  aged  Bishop  Germ.anus  was  not  yet 
of  Germauus.  degraded  from  his  see.  Germanus,  with  bet- 
ter temper  and  more  skilful  argument,  had  defended 
the  images  of  the  East.^  Before  his  death  he  was  de- 
AD. 731.  posed  or  compelled  to  retire  from  his  see. 
He  died  most  probably  in  peace,  his  extreme  age  may 
well  account  for  his  death.  His  personal  ill-treatment 
by  the  emperor  is  the  legend  of  a  later  age  to  exalt  him 
into  a  martyr.^ 

But  these  two  powerful  prelates  were  not  the  only 
champions  of  their  cause,  whose  writings  made  a  strong 
impression  on  their  age.  It  is  singular  that  the  most 
admired  defender  of  images  in  the  East,  was  a  subject 
not  of  the  emperor  but  of  the  Mohammedan  Sultan. 
John  of  John  of  Damascus  was  famed  as  the  most 
Damascus.  Jeamcd  man  in  the  East,  and  it  may  sliow 
either  the  tolerance,  the  ignorance,  or  the  contempt  of 
the  Mohammedans  for  these  Christian  controversies, 
that  writings  which  became  celebrated  all  over  the  East, 
should  issue  from  one  of  their  capital  cities,  Damascus.^ 

The  ancestors  of  John,  according  to  his  biographer, 
when  Damascus  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Arabs,  had 
almost  alone  remained  faithftil  to  Christianity.  They 
commanded  the  respect  of  the  conquerors,  and  were 
employed  in  judicial  offices  of  trust   and  dignity,  to 

1  Compare  his  letters  in  Mansi,  in  the  report  of  the  Second  Council  ol 
i^icea. 

2  Cedrenus,  iv.  3. 

8  Vit.  Joann.  Damasceni,  prefixed  to  his  works. 


CiiAP.  VII.  JOHN  OF  DAMASCUS.  319 

administer  no  doubt  the-  Christian  law  to  the  Christian 
subjects  of  the  sultan.  His  father,  besides  this  honor- 
able rank,  had  amassed  great  wealth  ;  all  this  he  de- 
voted to  the  redemption  of  Christian  slaves,  on  whom 
he  bestowed  their  freedom.  John  was  the  reward  of 
these  pious  actions.  John  was  made  a  child  of  light 
immediately  on  his  birth.  This,  as  his  biographer 
intimates,  was  an  affair  of  some  difficulty  and  required 
much  courage.  The  father  was  anxious  to  keep  his 
son  aloof  from  the  savage  habits  of  war  and  piracy,  to 
which  the  youth  of  Damascus  were  addicted,  and  to 
devote  him  to  the  pursuit  of  knowledge.  The  Saracen 
pirates  of  the  sea-shore,  neighboring  to  Damascus, 
swept  the  Mediterranean  and  brought  in  Christian 
captives  from  all  quarters.  A  monk  named  Cosmas  had 
the  misfortune  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  these  freeboot- 
ers. He  was  set  apart  for  death,  when  his  execution- 
ers. Christian  slaves  no  doubt,  fell  at  his  feet,  and 
entreated  his  intercession  with  the  Redeemer.  The 
Saracens  inquired  of  Cosmas  who  he  was.  He  replied 
that  he  had  not  the  dignity  of  a  priest,  he  was  a  simple 
monk,  and  burst  into  tears.  The  father  of  John  was 
standing  by,  and  asked,  not  without  wonder,  how  one 
already  dead  to  the  world  could  weep  so  bitterly  for 
the  loss  of  life  ?  The  monk  answered,  that  he  did 
not  weep  for  his  life,  but  for  the  treasures  of  knowl- 
edge which  would  be  buried  with  him  in  the  grave. 
He  then  recounted  all  his  attainments ;  he  was  a  pro- 
ficient in  rhetoric,  logic,  in  the  moral  PhilosopJiy  of 
Aristotle  and  of  Plato,  in  natural  philosophy,  in  arith- 
metic, geometry,  and  music,  and  in  astronomy.  From 
astronomy  he  had  risen  to  the  mysteries  of  theology, 
and  was  versed  in  all  the  divinity  of  the  Greeks.     He 


320  LATIN  CHEISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

could  not  but  lament  tliat  he  was  to  die  without  leav- 
ing an  heir  to  his  vast  patrimony  of  science,  to  die  an 
unprofitable  servant  who  had  wasted  his  talent.  The 
father  of  John  begged  the  life  of  the  monk  from  the 
Saracen  governor,  gave  him  at  once  his  freedom, 
placed  him  in  his  family,  and  confided  to  him  the 
education  of  his  son.  The  pupil  in  time  exhausted  all 
the  acquirements  of  his  teacher.  The  monk  assured 
the  father  of  John  that  his  son  surpassed  himself  in 
every  branch  of  knowledge.  Cosmas  entreated  to  be 
dismissed,  that  he  might  henceforth  dedicate  himself  to 
that  higher  philosophy,  to  which  the  youthful  John  had 
pointed  his  way.  He  retired  to  the  desert,  to  the 
monastery  of  St.  Saba,  where  he  would  have  closed 
his  days  in  peace,  had  he  not  been  compelled  to  take 
on  himself  the  Bishopric  of  Maiuma. 

The  attainments  of  the  young  John  of  Damascus 
commanded  the  veneration  of  the  Saracens  ;  he  was 
compelled  reluctantly  to  accept  an  office  of  still  higher 
trust  and  dignity  than  that  held  by  his  father.  As  the 
Iconoclastic  controversy  became  more  violent,  John 
of  Damascus  entered  the  field  against  the  emperor. 
His  three  orations  in  favor  of  image-worship  were 
disseminated  with  the  utmost  activity  throughout 
Christendom. 

The  biographer  of  John  brings  a  charge  of  base  and 
treacherous  revenge  against  the  emperor.  It  is  one 
of  those  leo-ends  of  which  the  monkish  East  is  so  fer- 
tile,  and  cannot  be  traced,  even  in  allusion,  to  any 
document  earlier  than  the  life  of  John.  Leo  having 
obtained,  through  his  emissaries,  one  of  John's  circular 
epistles  in  his  own  handwriting,  caused  a  letter  to  be 
forged,  containing  a  proposal  from  John  of  Damascus 


Chap.  VII.  ORATIONS   OF  JOHN.  321 

to  betray  his  native  city  to  tlie  Christians.  The  em- 
peror, with  specious  magnanimity,  sent  this  letter  to 
tlie  sultan.  The  Indignant  Mohammedan  ordered  the 
guilty  hand  of  John  to  be  cut  off,  a  mild  punishment 
for  such  a  treason  !  John  entreated  that  the  hand 
might  be  restored  to  him,  knelt  before  the  image  of 
the  Virgin,  prayed,  fell  asleep,  and  woke  with  liis 
hand  as  before.  The  miracle  convinced  the  sultan 
of  his  innocence  :  he  was  reinstated  in  his  place  of 
honor.  But  John  yearned  for  monastic  retirement. 
He  too  withdrew  to  the  monastery  of  St.  Saba.  Thei'e 
a  >evere  abbot  put  his  humility  and  his  obedience  to 
the  sternest  test.  He  was  sent  in  the  meanest  and 
most  beggarly  attire  to  sell  baskets  In  the  market-place 
of  Damascus,  where  he  had  been  accustomed  to  ap- 
pear in  the  dignity  of  office,  and  to  vend  this  poor 
ware  at  exorbitant  prices.  As  a  penance  for  an  act 
of  kindness  to  a  dymg  brother,  he  was  set  to  clean  the 
filth  from  all  the  cells  of  his  brethren.  An  opportune 
vision  rebuked  the  abbot  for  thus  wasting  the  splendid 
talents  of  his  inmate.  John  was  allowed  to  devote  him 
self  to  religious  poetry,  which  was  greatly  admired, 
and  to  his  theologic  arguments  In  defence  of  images. 
The  fame  of  this  wonder  of  his  age  rests  chiefly  on 
these  writings,  of  which  the  extensive  popularity  attests 
their  power  over  the  minds  of  his  readers.  His  courage 
in  opposing  the  emperor,  and  in  asserting  the  superior 
authority  of  the  Church  in  all  ecclesiastic  affairs,  con- 
sidering that  he  was  secure  either  In  Damascus  or  in 
Ms  monastery  and  a  subject  of  the  Saracenic  orations  of 
kingdom,  is  by  no  means  astonishing.  The  *^°^'^" 
three  famous  orations  repeat,  with  but  slight  variations, 
each  after  the  other,    the  same  arguments;  some  the 

VCL.    lU  21 


322  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  I\ 

ordinary  and  better  arguments  for  the  practice,  ex- 
pressed with  greater  ingenuity  and  elegance  than  by 
the  other  writers  of  the  day,  occasionally  with  surpass- 
mg  force  and  beauty,  not  without  a  liberal  admixt  ire 
of  irrelevant  and  puerile  matter  ;  the  same  invectives 
against  his  opponents,  as  if  by  refusing  to  worship  the 
images  of  Christ,  his  mother,  and  the  saints,  they  re- 
fused to  worship  the  venerable  beings  themselves. 
Pictures  are  great  standing  memorials  of  triumph  o\er 
the  devil ;  whoever  destroys  these  memorials  is  a  friend 
of  the  devil ;  to  reprove  material  images  is  Manicheism, 
as  betraying  the  hatred  of  matter,  which  is  the  first 
tenet  of  that  odious  heresy.  It  was  a  kind  of  Docetism, 
too,  asserting  the  unreality  of  the  body  of  the  Saviour. 
At  the  close  of  each  oration  occurs  almost  the  same 
citation  of  authorities,  not  omitting  the  memorable  one 
of  the  Hermit,  who  was  assailed  by  the  demon  of 
un cleanness.  The  demon  offered  to  leave  the  holy 
man  at  rest  if  he  would  cease  to  worship  an  image  of 
the  Virgin.  The  hard-pressed  hermit  made  the  rash 
vow,  but  in  his  distress  of  mind  communicated  his 
secret  to  a  famous  abbot,  his  spiritual  adviser.  "  Bet- 
ter," said  the  abbot,  "  that  you  should  visit  eveiy 
brothel  in  the  town,  than  abstain  from  the  worship  of 
the  holy  image." 

The  third  oration  concludes  with  a  copious  list  of 
miracles  wrought  by  certain  images ;  an  argument 
more  favorable  to  an  incredulous  adversary,  as  showing 
the  wretched  superstition  into  which  the  worship  of 
imai2;es  had  deo-enerated  and  as  tendinp;  to  fix  tlie 
accusation    of  idolatry. 

From  the  death  of  Leo  the  Isaurian  the  history  of 
Iconoclasm  belono-s  exclusivelv  to  the  East,  until  the 


Utt.M'.  VII.     CONSTANTINE  COPRONYMUS.  323 

Council  of  Frankfort  interfered  to  regulate  the  worsliip 
of  imag(3S  in  the  Transalpine  parts  of  Europe.  Gregory 
III.,  the  successor  of  Gregory  II.,  whose  pontificate 
filled  up  the  remaining  years  of  Leo's  reign,  inflexibly 
pursued  the  same  policy  as  his  predecessor.  In  the 
West,  all  power,  almost  all  pretension  to  power, 
excepting  ov^er  Sicily  and  Calabria,  expired  with  Leo  ;  ^ 
and  this  independence  partly  arose  out  of,  and  was 
immeasurably  strengthened  by,  the  faithful  adherence 
of  the  West  to  image-worship ;  but  the  revolt  or 
alienation  of  Italy  from  the  Eastern  empire  will  occupy 
a  later  chapter  in  Christian  history. 

Leo  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Constantine.  The 
name  by  wdiich  this  emperor  was  known  is  constantine 
a  perpetual  testimony  to  the  hatred  of  a  large  copron^mus. 
part  of  his  subjects.  Even  in  his  infancy  he  was 
believed  to  have  shown  a  natural  aversion  to  holy 
things,  and  in  his  baptism  to  have  defiled  the  font. 
Constantine  Copronymus  sounded  to  Greek  ears  as  a 
constant  taunt  against  his  filthy  and  sacrilegious  char- 
acter. 

The  accession  of  Constantine,  although  he  had 
already  been  acknowledged  for  twenty  years,  a.d.  741 
with  his  father,  as  joint-emperor,  met  formidable  resist- 
ance. The  contest  for  the  throne  was  a  strife  between 
the  two  religious  parties  which  divided  the  empire. 
During  the  absence  of  Constantine,  on  an  expedition 
against  the  Saracens,  a  sudden  and  dangerous  insur- 
rection placed  his  brother-in-law,  Artavasdus,  on  the 
throne.  Constantinople  was  gained  to  the  party  of  the 
usurper  by  treachery.  The  city  was  induced  to  sub- 
mit to  Artavasdus  only  by  a  rumor,  industriously  prop- 
1  Leo  died  June,  741.    Gregoiy  III.  in  the  same  year. 


324  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

agated  and  generally  believed,    of  the  death  of  Con- 
stantine.     The  emperor  on  one  occasion  liad  been  in 
danger  of  surprise,  and  escaped  by  the  swiftness  of  his 
horses.     In  the  capital,  as  throughout  Greece  and  the 
European  part  of  the  Empire,  the  triumph  of  Artavas- 
dus   was   followed   by   the  restoration  of  the  images. 
Anastasius,  the  dastard  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  as 
he  had  been  the  slave  of  Leo,  now  became  the  slave  of 
the  usurper,  and  worshipped  images  with  the  same  zeal 
with  which  he  had  destroyed  them.     He  had  been  the 
principal  actor  in  the  deception  of  the  people  by  the 
foro-ed  letters  which  announced  the  death  of  Constan- 
tine.   He  plunged  with  more  desperate  recklessness  into 
the  party  of  Artavasdus.   The  monks,  and  all  over  whom 
they  had  influence,  took  up  the  cause  of  the  usurper  ;  but 
the  mass  of  the  people,  from  loyal  respect  for  the  mem- 
ory of  Leo,   or  from  their  confidence  in  the  vigorous 
character  of  Constantino  and  attachment  to  the  legit- 
imate  succession,     from   indifference    or    aversion    to 
image-worship,    still   wavered,   and   submitted,    rather 
than  clamorousl}'   rejoiced  in  the  coronation  of  Arta- 
vasdus.    The  Patriarch  came  forward,  seized  the  cru- 
cifix from  the  altar,  and  swore  by  the  Crucified   that 
Constantine  had  assured  him  that  it  was  but  folly  to 
worship  Jesus  as  the  Son  of  God  ;  that  he  was  a  mere 
man,  that  the  Virgin  Mother  had  borne  him,  but  as  his 
own  mother  Mary   had   borne   himself.     The  furious 
people  at  once  proclaimed  the  deposition  of  Constan- 
tine, no    doubt   to    the   great  triumph    of  the  image 
worshippers.     Besor,  the  renegade  counsellor   of  Leo, 
to  whom  popular  animosity  attributed  the  chief  })art  in 
the  destruction  of  the  images,  fell  in  the  first  conflict. 
But    Constantine    (^opronymus    with    the    rehgioua 


Chap.  VII.  CONSTANTINE  COPRONYMUS.  325 

0])iiiions  inherited  the  courage,  the  military  abiUties, 
and  the  popularity  with  the  army  which  had  distin- 
guished his  father  Leo.  After  some  vicissitudes,  a 
battle  took  place  near  Ancyra,  fought  with  all  the 
ferocity  of  civil  and  religious  war.  The  historian  ex- 
presses his  horror  that,  among  Christians,  fathers  should 
thus  be  engaged  in  the  slaughter  of  their  children, 
brothers  of  brothers.^  Constantino  followed  up  his 
victory  by  the  siege  of  the  capital.  After  an  obstinate 
resistance,  and  after  having  suffered  all  the  horrors 
of  famine,  Constantinople  was  taken.  Artavasdus 
escaped  for  a  short  time,  but  was  soon  captured,  and 
brought  in  chains  before  the  conqueror.  An  unsuc- 
cessful usurper  risks  his  life  on  the  hazard  of  his 
enterprise.  It  is  difficult  to  decide  whether  the  prac- 
tice of  blinding,  instead  of  putting  to  death  in  such 
cases,  was  a  concession  to  Christian  humanity.  The 
other  common  alternative  of  shutting  up  the  rival  for 
the  throne  in  a  monastery  and  disqualifying  him  for 
empire  by  the  tonsure,  was  not  likely  to  occur  to  Con- 
stantino, nor  would  it  have  been  safe,  considering  the 
general  hatred  of  the  monks  to  the  emperor.  Artavas- 
dus was  punished  by  the  loss  of  his  eyes ;  it  was  wan- 
ton cruelty  afterwards  to  expose  him,  with  his  sons 
and  principal  adherents,  during  the  races  in  the 
Hii)podrome,  to   the    contempt  of  the  people. 

Constantino  was  a  soldier,  doubtless  of  a  fierce  tein- 
p(jr  ;  the  blinding  and  mutilation  of  many,  the  beheading 
a  few  of  his  enemies,  the  abandonment  of  the  houses  of 
the  citizens  to  the  plunder  of  his  troops,  was  the  natu- 
ral course  of  Byzantine  revolution  ;  and  these  cruelties 
have  no  doubt  lost  nothing  in  the  dark  representations 

1  Theophanes  in  lucu. 


826  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

of  the  emperor's  enemies,  the  only  historians  of  the 
times.  But  they  suffered  as  rebels  in  arms  against 
their  sovereign,  not  as  image-worshippers.  The  fate 
of  the  Patriarch  Anastasius  was  the  most  extraordinary. 
His  eyes  were  put  out,  he  was  led  upon  an  ass,  with 
his  face  to  the  tail,  through  the  city ;  and  after  all  this 
mutilation  and  insult,  for  which,  considering  bis  ter- 
giversation and  impudent  mendacity,  it  is  difficult  to 
feel  much  compassion ;  he  was  remstated  in  the  Pa- 
triarchal dignity.  The  clergy  in  the  East  bad  never 
been  arrayed  in  the  personal  sanctity  which,  in  ordi- 
A.D.  743.  nary  occasions,  they  possessed  in  the  West ; 
but  could  Constantine  have  any  other  object  in  this 
act  than  the  degradation  of  the  whole  order  in  public 
estimation  ? 

For  ten  years  Constantine  refrained  from  any 
stronger  measures  against  image-worship.  The  over- 
throw of  Artavasdus  no  doubt  threw  that  large  party 
of  time-servers,  the  worshippers  of  the  will  of  the  em- 
peror, on  his  side.  His  known  severity  of  character 
would  impress  even  his  more  fanatical  opponents  with 
awe  ;  many  images  would  vanish  again,  as  it  were,  of 
their  own  accord ;  even  the  monks  might  observe  some 
prudence  in  their  resistance.  During  these  ter  years 
Constantine  had  secured  the  frontiers  of  the  Empire 
against  the  Saracens  in  the  East,  and  the  Bulgarians 
on  the  North.  His  throne  had  been  strengthened  by 
tlie  birth  of  an  heir.  A  dreadful  pestilence,  which, 
contrary  to  the  usual  course,  travelled  from  west  to 
east,  spread  from  Calabria  to  Sicily,  and  throughout 
great  part  of  the  Empire.  The  popular  mind,  and 
even  the  government,  must  have  been  fully  occupied 
by  its  ravages.     The  living,  it  is  said,  scarcely  sufficed 


Chap.  VII.     THIRD  COUNCIL   OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.  327 

to  bury  the  dead  ;  the  gardens  within  the  city,  and  the 
vineyards  without,  were  turned  into  a  vast  cemetery. 
The  image-worshippers  beheld  in  this  visitation  the 
venoeance  of  God  ao-ainst  the  Iconoclasts.^ 

In  the  tenth  year  of  Constantine  rumors  spread 
abroad  of  secret  councils  held  for  the  total  a.d.  7i6. 
destruction  of  images.  Either  the  emperor  must  have 
prepared  i  le  public  mind  for  this  great  change  with 
consumr  .ate  address,  or  reverence  for  images  must 
have  been  less  deeply  rooted  in  the  East  than  in  the 
West,  otherwise  it  can  scarcely  be  supposed  that  so 
large  a  number  of  the  clergy  as  appeared  at  the  Third 
Council  of  Constantinople  would  have  slavishly  as- 
sented to  the  strong  measures  of  the  emperor. 

Three  hundred  and  forty-eight  bishops  formed  this 
synod,   which   aspired  to  the  dignity   of  the  Third  council 

r^  11^  •         /^  •!  T  1  ^^  Constanti- 

beventn  JLcumemc  Council.  its  adversa-  nopie. 
ries  objected  the  absence  of  all  the  great  Patriarchs, 
especially  that  of  the  Pope,  who  was  present  neither 
in  person  nor  by  his  delegates.  The  Patriarchs  of 
Alexandria,  Antioch,  and  Jerusalem  were  now  cut  off, 
as  it  were,  from  Christendom ;  they  were  the  subjects 
of  an  unbelieving  sovereign,  perhaps  could  not,  if  they 
had  been  so  disposed,  obey  the  summons  of  the  em- 
peror. The  Bishop  of  Rome  was,  if  not  in  actual 
revolt,  in  contumacious  opposition  to  him,  who  still 
claimed  to  be  his  sovereign.  The  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople had  lost  all  weight.  The  Bishop  of  Ephe- 
sus,  occasionally  the  Bishop  of  Perga,  presided  in  the 
{council. 

Part  of  the  proceedings  of  this  assembly  have  been 

1  Aitt  T^v  ua£(3(jg  yeyevTj/j.ivTjv  elg  rag  lepug  e'lKovaq  vtt)  tcjv  Kparovvruv 
tarive^cv.  —  Theophanes  sub  ann.  738,  p.  651. 


328  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

preserved  in  the  records  of  the  rival  council,  the  sec- 
ond held  at  Nicea.  The  passages  are  cited  in  the 
original  words,  followed  by  a  confutation,  sanctioned 
apparently  by  the  Nicene  bishops.  The  confutation 
is  in  the  tone  of  men  assured  of  the  sympathy  of  their 
audience.  It  deals  far  less  in  grave  argument  than  in 
contemptuous  crimination.  The  ordinary  name  for 
the  Iconoclasts  is  the  arraigners  of  Christianity.^  It 
assumes  boldly  that  the  worship  of  images  was  the 
ancient,  immemorial,  unquestionable  usage  of  the 
Church,  recognized  and  practised  by  all  the  fathers, 
and  sanctioned  by  the  six  General  Councils :  that  the 
refusal  to  worship  images  is  a  new  and  rebellious  here- 
sy. Every  quotation  from  the  fathers  which  makes 
against  images  is  rejected  as  a  palpable  forgery,  so 
proved,  as  it  is  asserted,  by  its  discordance  with  the 
universal  tradition  and  practice  of  the  Church. 

But  the  Council  of  Constantinople  had  manifestly 
set  the  example  of  this  peremptory  and  unargument- 
ative  dictation :  it  may  be  reasonably  doubted  whether 
it  attempted  a  dispassionate  and  satisfactory  answer 
to  the  better  reasonings  of  the  image-worshippers.  It 
proscribes  the  lawless  and  blasphemous  art  of  paint- 
ing.^ The  fathers  of  Constantinople  assume,  as  boldly 
as  the  brethren  of  Nicea  their  sanctity,  that  all  images 
are  the  invention  of  the  devil ;  that  they  are  idols  in 
the  same  sense  as  those  of  the  heathen.^  Nor  do  they 
liesitate  to  impute  community  of  sentiment  with  the 
"ivorst  heretics  to  their  opponents.     They  thought   that 


1  XpianavoKaTT/yopot  is  the  term  framed  for  the  occasion. 
52  Trjv  ud^E/MTov  Tuv  ^ioypcKbov  rixvfjv  (S'kaa^i]fiovaav, 
*  Faith  they  asserted  came  by  htariiiy^  aud  hearing  from  the  Word  of  God. 
—  P.  467. 


Chap.  VII.  ANATHEMA.  829 

they  held  tlie  image-worshippers  in  an  inextricable 
dilemma.  If  the  painters  represented  only  the  hu- 
manity of  Christ,  they  were  Nestorians ;  if  they  at- 
tempted to  mingle  it  with  the  Divinity,  they  were 
Eutychians,  circumscribing  the  infinite,  and  confound- 
ing the  two  substances.^  It  was  impiety  to  represent 
Christ  without  his  divinity,  Arianism  to  undeify  him, 
despoil  him  of  liis  godhead. 

The  Council  of  Nicea  admits  the  perfect  unanimity 
of  the  Council  of  Constantinople.  These  348  bishops 
concurred  in  pronouncing  their  anathema  against  all 
who  should  represent  the  Incarnate  Word  by  material 
form  or  colors,  who  should  not  restrict  themselves  to 
the  pure  spiritual  conception  of  the  Christ,  as  he  is 
seated,  superior  in  brightness  to  the  sun,  on  the  right 
hand  of  the  Father ;  against  all  who  should  confound 
the  two  natures  of  Christ  in  one  human  image,  or  who 
should  separate  the  manhood  from  the  godhead  in  the 
Second  Person  of  the  indivisible  Trinity ;  against  all 
who  should  not  implore  the  intercession  of  the  Virgin 
in  pure  faith,  as  above  all  risible  and  invisible 
things ;  ^  against  all  who  should  set  up  the  deaf  and 

1  They  made  him  a&euTov.  The  fathers  of  Nicea  were  indignant  at  the 
barbarism  of  this  word  (p.  443).  Their  opponents  might  have  retorted  the  use 
of  the  whimsical  hybrid  <pa\a6ypa<poi.  The  most  remarkable  passage,  as 
regards  art,  in  this  part  of  the  controversy,  is  a  description  of  a  painting 
of  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Eufemia,  from  the  writings  of  Asterius,  Bishop  of 
Araasia.  This  picture,  or  rather  series  of  pictures,  must  have  been  of  many 
figures,  grouped  with  skill,  and  in  the  judgment  of  the  bishop  with  wonder- 
ful expression ;  the  various  passions  were  blended  with  great  felicity.  As- 
terius compares  it  with  the  famous  picture  of  Medea  killing  her  children, 
which  his  language,  somewhat  vague  indeed,  might  lead  to  the  supposition 
that  he  had  actually  seen.  The  taste  of  Asterius  may  be  somewhat  doubt- 
lil,  since  in  one  picture  he  describes  the  executioner  drawing  the  teeth  of 
the  victim :  the  reality  of  the  blood  which  flowed  from  her  lips  filled  him 
with  horror.  —  Labbe,  p.  489. 

2  ''Xtzeprepav  re  elvai  ndorjq  bparrig  koi  dooarov  KTiaeuc. 


330  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

lifeless  images  of  the  saints,  and  who  do  not  rather 
paint  the  living  likenesses  of  their  virtues  in  their 
own  hearts.  All  images,  whether  statues  or  paint- 
ings, were  to  be  forcibly  removed  from  the  churches  ; 
every  one  who  henceforth  should  set  up  an  image, 
if  a  bishop  or  priest,  was  to  be  degraded ;  if  a  lay- 
man, excommunicated.  The  one  only  image  of  the 
Redeemer,  which  might  be  lawfully  worshipped,  was 
in  the  Holy  Sacrament ;  at  the  same  time,  therefore, 
that  all  images  were  to  be  removed,  all  respect  was 
to  be  paid  to  the  consecrated  vessels  of  the  Church. 

Was  then  all  this  host  of  bishops,  the  concordant 
cry  of  whose  anathema  rose  to  heaven  (according  to 
the  fathers  of  Nicea,  like  that  of  the  guilty  cities  of  the 
Old  Testament)  only  subservient  to  the  Imperial  Will  ?  ^ 
Or  had  a  wide-spread  repugnance  to  images  grown  up 
in  the  East  ?  Were  the  clergy  and  the  monks  in 
hostile  antagonism  on  this  vital  question  ?  It  appears 
evident,  that  the  old  ineradicable  aversion  to  matter, 
the  constant  dread  of  entangling  the  Deity  in  this  de- 
basini>:  bondao;e,  which  has  been  traced  throughout  all 
the  Oriental  controversies,  lay  at  the  bottom  of  much 
of  this  tergiversation.  "  We  all  subscribe,"  they  de- 
clared at  the  close  of  their  sitting,  "we  are  all  of 
one  mind,  all  of  one  orthodoxy,  worshipping  with 
the  spirit  the  pure  spiritual  Godhead."  ^  They  con- 
cluded with  their  prayers  for  the  pious  emperor,  who 
had  given  peace  to  the  Church,  who  had  extirpated 
idolatry,  who  had  triumphed  over  those  who  taught 
that   error,    and    settled    forever    the    true    doctrine. 

1  *H  Kpav^^nj  avTuv  rov  avm^efiaroog  Go(h/j.iKC)g  koI  yofio^lnxcjg  iren^^Tj^vTCu 
—  Labbe,  p.  526. 

2  YluvTti;  votpu(;  r/)  vunpg,  deoTfjri  "karpcvovrtq  npoaKVvavfiev. 


Chap.  VII.  AITATHESIA.  331 

They  proceed  to  curse  by  name  the  principal  as* 
sertors  of  image-worship.  "  Anathema  against  the 
double-minded  Germanus,  the  worshipper  of  wood ! 
Anathema  against  George  (of  Cyprus),  the  falsifier 
of  the  traditions  of  the  fathers  !  Anathema  a2;ainst 
Mansar  (they  called  by  this  unchristian-sounding  name 
Jie  famous  John  of  Damascus),  the  Saracen  in  heart, 
the  traitor  to  the  Empire  ;  Mansar  the  teacher  of  im- 
piety, the  false  interpreter  of  Holy  Scripture  I  " 


•832  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

COUNCIL  OF  NICEA.    CLOSE  OF  ICONOCLASM. 

Thus  was  image-worship  proscribed  by  a  council,  in 
numbers  at  least  of  weight,  in  the  severest  and  most 
comprehensive  terms.  The  work  of  demolition  was 
committed  to  the  imperial  officers  ;  only  with  strict 
injunctions,  not  perhaps  always  obeyed,  to  respect  the 
vessels,  the  priestly  vestments,  and  other  furniture  of 
the  churches,  and  the  cross,  the  naked  cross  without 
any  image.-^ 

But  if  the  emperor  had  overawed,  or  bought,  or 
compelled  the  seemingly  willing  assent  of  so  large  a 
l)ody  of  the  eastern  clergy,  the  formidable  monks  were 
still  in  obstinate  implacable  opposition  to  his  will. 
The  wretched  Anastasius  had  died  just  before  the 
opening  of  the  council ;  and  the  emperor  himself,  it  is 
said,  ascended  the  pulpit,  and  proclaimed  Constantine 
Bishop  of  Sylseum,  ecumenic  Patriarch  and  Bishop  of 
Constantinople.  Constantine  had  been  a  monk,  and 
this  appointment  might  be  intended  to  propitiate  that 
powerful  interest,  but  Constantine,  unlike  his  brethren, 
was  an  ardent  Iconoclast. 

The  emperor  was  a  soldier,  and  fierce  wars  with  the 
Saracens  and   Bulgarians  were  not  likely  to  soften  a 

1  The  crucifix  was  of  a  later  period.  —  See  Hist,  of  Christianity,  iii.  p. 
515. 


CHAP.Vm.    ICONOCLASTIC  CONTROVERSY.         333 

temper  naturally  severe  and  remorseless.  He  had 
committed  his  imperial  authority  in  a  deadly  strife  for 
the  unattainable  object  of  compelling  his  subjects  to  be 
purer  and  more  spiritual  worshippers  of  God  than  they 
were  disposed  to  be  ;  not  suspecting  that  his  own  san- 
guinary persecutions  were  more  unchristian  than  thcnr 
superstitions.  It  was  now  fanaticism  encountering  fa- 
naticism. Everywhere  the  monks  preached  resistance 
to  the  imperial  decree,  and  enough  has  been  seen  of 
their  turbulent  and  intractable  conduct  to  make  us 
conclude  that  their  language  at  least  would  keep  no 
bounds.  Stephen,  the  great  martyr  of  this  contro- 
versy, had  lived  as  a  hermit  in  a  cave  near  Sinope  for 
thirty  years.  The  monks  in  great  numbers  had  taken 
refuge  in  the  desert,  where  they  might  watch  in  secret 
over  their  tutelaiy  images  ;  and  not  monks  alone,  but 
a  vast  multitude  of  the  devout,  crowded  around  the 
cell  of  Stephen  to  hear  his  denunciations  against  the 
breakers  of  images.  The  emperor  ordered  him  to  be 
carried  away  from  his  cell,  the  resort  of  so  many  dan- 
gerous pilgrims,  and  to  be  shut  up  in  a  cloister  at 
Chrysopolis.  The  indignation  of  the  monks  was  at  its 
height.  One  named  Andrew  hastened  from  his  dwell- 
ing in  the  desert,  boldly  confronted  the  emperor  in  the 
church  of  St.  Mammas,  and  sternly  addressed  him  — 
"  If  thou  art  a  Christian,  why  dost  thou  treat  Chris- 
tians with  such  indignity  ? "  The  emperor  so  far 
commanded  his  temper,  as  simply  to  order  his  commit- 
tal to  prison  ,  he  afterwards  summoned  him  again  to 
his  presence.  The  mildest  term  that  the  monk  would 
use  to  address  the  emperor,  was  a  second  Valens, 
another  Julian.  Constantine's  anger  got  the  mastery  ; 
he  commanded  the  monk  to  be  scourged  in  the  Hippo- 


534  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

drome,  and  then  to  be  strangled.  The  sisters  of  An- 
drew hardly  saved  his  remains  from  being  cast  into  the 
sea.^ 

For  several  years  either  the  occupation  of  the  em- 
peror by  foreign  wars,  or  the  greater  prudence  of  the 
monks,  enforced  by  this  terrible  example,  suspended  at 
least  their  more  violent  collisions  with  the  authorities. 
The  monk  Stephen  Still  coutinucd  to  preach  in  his  clois- 
Btephen.  ^^^  against  the  sin  of  the  Iconoclasts.^  The 
emperor  sent  the  Patriarch  to  persuade  him  to  suV 
scribe  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Constantinople. 
The  Patriarch's  eloquence  was  vain.  The  emperor 
either  allowed  or  compelled  the  aged  monk  to  retire  to 
the  wild  rock  of  Proconnesus,  where,  to  consummate 
his  sanctity,  he  took  his  stand  upon  a  pillar.  His  fol- 
lowers assembled  in  crowds  about  him,  and  built  their 
cells  around  the  pillar  of  the  saint.  But  the  zeal  of 
Stephen  would  not  be  confined  within  that  narrow 
sphere.  He  returned  to  the  city,  and  in  bold  defiance 
of  the  imperial  orders  denounced  the  Iconoclasts.  He 
was  seized,  cast  into  prison,  and  there  treated  with 
unusual  harshness.  But  even  there  the  zeal  of  his 
followers  found  access.  Constantine  exclaimed,  in  a 
paroxysm  of  careless  anger,  "  Am  I  or  this  monk  the 
emperor  of  the  world  ?  "  The  word  of  the  emperor 
was  enough  for  some  of  his  obsequious  courtiers  ;  they 
rushed,  broke  open  the  prison,  dragged  out  the  old 
man  along  the  streets,  with  every  wanton  cruelty,  and 
cast  his  body  at  last  into  the  common  grave  of  the 
public  malefactors. 

The  emperor  took  now  a  sterner  and  more  desperate 

1  Theophanes  in  loc. 

2  Acta  S.  Stephani,  in  Analectis  Graicis.  p.  396. 


CnAP.Vm.         TERSECUTION  OF  THE  MONKS.  335 

resolution.  He  determined  to  root  out  monk-  Persecutiou 
ery  itself.  An  old  grievance  was  revived.  °^  *^®  ^onks. 
The  emperor  and  the  people  were  enraged,  or  pre- 
tended to  be  enraged,  that  the  monks  decoyed  the  best 
soldiers  from  the  army,  especially  one  Gec?ge  Syn- 
cletus,  and  persuaded  them  to  turn  recluse?.^  The 
emperor  compelled  the  patriarch  not  only  to  mount  the- 
pulpit  and  swear  by  the  holy  cross  that  he  would  never 
worship  images,  but  immediately  to  break  his  monastic 
vows,  to  join  the  imperial  banquet,  to  wear  a  festal 
garland,  to  eat  meat,  and  to  listen  to  the  profane  music 
of  the  harpers. 

Then  came  a  general  ordinance,  that  the  test  of 
signing  the  articles  of  Constantinople  should  be  en- 
forced on  all  the  clergy,  and  all  the  more  distinguished 
monks.2  Qj-j  their  refusal  the  monks  were  driven  fi'om 
their  cloisters,  which  were  given  up  to  profane  and 
secular  uses.  Consecrated  virgins  were  forced  to  mar- 
ry ;  monks  were  compelled,  each  holding  the  hand  of  a 
woman,  doubtless  not  of  the  purest  character,  to  walk 
round  the  Hippodrome  among  the  jeers  and  insults  of 
the  populace.  Throughout  the  empire  they  were  ex- 
posed to  the  lawless  persecutions  of  the  imperial  offi- 
cers. Their  zeal  or  their  obstinacy  was  chastised  by 
scourgings,  imprisonments,  mutilations,  and  even  death. 
The  monasteries  were  plundered,  and  by  no  scinipulous 
or  reverent  hands  ;  churches  are  said  to  have  beer, 
despoiled  of  all  their  sacred  treasures,  the  holy  books 

1  This,  according  to  the  martyrologist  of  Stephen,  was  a  trick  of  the 
Emperor,  with  whom  George  had  a  secret  understanding,  to  bring  odium 
on  the  monks. 

2  T6/Z0V  avvodiKov  avra  Ka}JGag  o  ace^EaraToc,  airijTei  apxiepeic  te  rcav- 
TOQy  Koi  Tcjv  f/ova^vTuv  Tovg  TrepijSoTiTovc  ett'  apETy,  ravra  VTTOai]nai>aa^ai. 
—  Compare  Concil.  Nic.  ii.  p.  510. 


336  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

burned,  feasts  and  revels  profaned  the  most  hallowed 
sanctuaries.  Multitudes  fled  to  the  neighboring  king- 
doms of  the  less  merciless  Barbarians  ;  many  found 
refuge  in  the  West,  especially  in  Rome.  The  Prefect 
of  Thrace  was  the  most  obsequious  agent  of  his  mas- 
ter's tyranny.  Throughout  that  Theme  the  monks 
were  forced  to  abandon  their  vows  of  solitude  and 
celibacy  under  pain  of  being  blinded  and  sent  into 
exile.  Monasteries,  with  all  their  estates  and  property, 
were  confiscated.  Relics  as  well  as  images,  in  some 
cases  no  doubt  books,^  and  the  whole  property  of  the' 
convents,  was  pillaged  or  burned  by  the  ignorant  sol- 
diery. The  personal  cruelties  against  the  monks  will 
not  bear  description  ;  the  prefect  is  said  not  to  have 
left  one  in  the  whole  Theme  who  ventured  to  wear 
the  monastic  habit. 

In  Constantinople  a  real  or  suspected  conspiracy 
against  the  emperor  involved  some  of  the  noblest  pa- 
tricians, and  some  who  filled  the  highest  offices  of 
state,  in  the  same  persecution.  Eight  or  nine  of  the 
more  distinguished  were  dragged,  amid  the  shouts  of 
the  rabble,  round  the  Hippodrome,  and  then  put  to 
death.  The  fate  of  two  brothers,  named  Constan- 
tine,  moved  general  commiseration.  The  prefect  was 
scourged  and  deposed  for  not  having  suppressed  these 
signs  of  public  sympathy.  Others  were  blinded,  cru- 
Dcffradation  of  elly  scourgcd,  aud  sent  into  exile.^  The 
A.D.  759.  "  patriarch  himself  was  accused  of  having  used 
disrespectful  language  toward  the  emperor.     Already 

1  Some  books  were  burned  as  containing  pictures.  One  is  mentioned  in 
A  statement  made  to  the  Council  of  Nicea :  'kpyvpag  nrvxag  ex^t-,  nai  iKO- 
r^pco^ev  Talc  dKoai  navTuv  tuv  dytuv  KEKoanrjraL — Pictures  illuminated 
on  a  silver  ground!  —  Cone.  Nic,  p.  373. 

■^  Theoohanes,  compared  with  statement  before  the  Nicene  Council 


Chap.  VIII.    DEGRADATION  OF  THE  PATRIARCH.  337 

he  had  been  required  to  acquit  himself  of  imputing 
Nestorianism  to  his  master ;  now  his  accusers  swore  on 
the  cross  that  they  had  heard  liim  hold  conference  with 
one  of  the  conspirators.  Constantine  ordered  the  im- 
perial seal  to  be  affixed  on  the  palace  of  the  patriarch, 
and  sent  him  into  banishment. 

But  this  miserable  slave  of  the  imperial  will  was  not 
allowed  to  shroud  himself  in  obscure  retirement.  He 
had  consented  to  the  consecration  of  Nicetas,  an  eunuch 
of  Sclavonian  descent,  in  his  place.  For  some  new 
offence,  real  or  supposed,  the  exiled  patriarch  was 
brought  back  to  the  capital,  scourged  so  cruelly  that 
he  could  not  walk,  and  then  carried  in  a  His  death, 
litter,  and  exposed  in  the  great  church  before  all  the 
people  assembled  to  hear  the  public  recital  of  the 
charges  made  against  him,  and  to  behold  his  degrada- 
tion. At  each  charge  the  secretary  of  his  successor 
smote  him  on  the  face.  He  was  then  set  up  in  the 
pulpit,  and  while  Nicetas  read  the  sentence  of  excom- 
munication, another  bishop  stripped  him  of  his  metro- 
politan pall,  and  calling  him  by  the  opprobrious  name 
Scotiopsis,  face  of  darkness,  led  him  backwards  out  of 
the  church.  The  next  day  his  head,  beard,  eyebrows, 
were  shaved;  in  a  short  and  sleeveless  dress  he  was 
put  upon  an  ass,  and  paraded  through  the  circus  (his 
own  nephew,  a  hideous,  deformed  youth,  leading  the 
ass)  while  the  populace  jeered,  shouted,  spat  upon 
him.  He  was  then  thrown  down,  trodden  on,  and  in 
that  state  lay  till  the  games  were  over.  Some  days 
after  the  emperor  sent  to  demand  a  formal  declaration 
of  the  orthodoxy  of  his  own  faith,  and  of  the  authority 
of  the  council.  The  poor  wretch  acknowledged  both 
m  the  amplest  manner ;  as  a  reward  he  was  beheaded, 

voj..  II.  22 


838  LATIN    CimiSTIANITY.  Book  FV 

wliile  still  in  a  state  of  excommunication,  and  his  re- 
mains treated  with  the  utmost  ignominy.  The  histo- 
rian adds,  as  an  aggravation  of  the  emperor's  ferocity, 
that  the  patriarch  had  baptized  two  of  his  children.^ 

This  odious  scene,  blackened  it  may  be  bj  the  secta- 
rian hatred  of  the  later  annalists,  all  of  whom  abhorred 
Iconoclasm,  has  been  related  at  length,  in  order  to 
contrast  more  fully  the  position  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome. 
This  was  the  second  patriarch  of  Constantinople  who 
had  been  thus  barbarously  treated,  and  seemingly 
without  the  sympathy  of  the  people ;  and  now,  in 
violation  of  all  canonical  discipline,  the  imperial  will 
had  raised  an  eunuch  to  the  patriarchate.  What  won- 
der that  pontiffs  like  Gregory  II.  and  Gregory  III. 
should  think  themselves  justified  in  throwing  off  the 
yoke  of  such  a  government,  and  look  with  hope  to  the 
sovereignty  of  the  less  barbarous  Barbarians  of  the 
North  —  Barbarians  who,  at  least,  had  more  reverence 
for  the  dignity  of  the  sacerdotal  character ! 

If  the  Byzantine  historians,  all  image-worshippers. 
Character  havc  uot  greatly  exaggerated  the  cruelties  of 
constan^tinf  t^^^ir  implacable  enemy  Constantine  Copron- 
copronymus.  yj^^g^  i\^qj  l^ave  assurcdly  not  done  justice 
to  his  nobler  qualities,  his  valor,  incessant  activity, 
military  skill,  and  general  administration  of  the  sinking 
empire,  which  he  maintained  unviolated  by  any  of  its 
formidable  enemies,  and  with  imposing  armies,  during 
a  reign  of  thirty-five  years,  not  including  the  twenty 
preceding  during  which  he  ruled  as  the  colleague  of 
A.D.  775.  his  father  Leo.  Constantine  died,  during  a 
campaign  against  the  Bulgarians,  of  a  fever  which,  in 
the  charitable  judgment  of  his  adversaries,  gave  him  a 

1  Theophanes,  p.  681. 


Chap  VIII.  HELENA  AND  IRENE.  339 

foretaste  of  tlie  pains  of  hell.  His  dying  lips  ordered 
prayers  and  hymns  to  be  offered  to  the  Virgin,  foi 
whom  he  had  always  professed  the  most  profound 
veneration,  utterly  inconsistent,  his  enemies  supposed, 
with  his  hostility  to  her  sacred  images. 

A  female  had  been  the  principal  mover  in  the  great 
change  of  Christianity  from  a  purely  spiritual  worship 
to  that  paganizing  form  of  religion  which  grew  up  with 
such  rapidity  in  the  succeeding  centuries;  a  female 
was  the  restorer  of  images  in  the  East,  which  have 
since,  with  but  slight  interruption,  maintained  their 
sanctity.  The  first,  Helena,  the  mother  of  Helena  aud 
Constantine  the  Great,  was  a  blameless  and  ^'^®°®* 
devout  woman,  who  used  the  legitimate  influence  of 
her  station,  munificence,  and  authority  over  her  impe- 
rial son,  to  give  that  splendor,  which  to  her  piety 
appeared  becoming,  to  the  new  religion ;  to  communi- 
cate to  the  w^orld  all  those  excitements  of  symbols, 
relics,  and  sacred  memorials  which  she  found  so  pow- 
erful in  kindling  her  own  devotion.  The  second,  the 
Empress  Irene,  wife  to  the  son  and  heir  of  Constan- 
tine Copronymus,  an  ambitious,  intriguing,  haughty 
princess,  never  lost  sight  of  political  power  in  the 
height  of  her  religious  zeal,  and  was  at  length  guilty 
of  the  most  atrocious  crime  against  God  and  woman- 
hood.^ 

Irene,  during  the  reign  of  her  husband  Leo,  sur- 
named  the  Chazar,  did  not  openly  betray  her  inclina- 
tion to  the  image-worship  which  she  had  solemnly  for- 
sworn under  her  father-in-law  Constantine.  Leo  was 
a  man  of  feeble  constitution  and  gentle  mind,  Leo  iv. 

1  The  Pope  Hadrian  anticipated  a  new  Constantine  and  a  new  Helena  in 
Irene  and  her  son.  —  Hadrian,  Epist.  apud  Labbe,  p.  102. 


340  LATIN  CHRISTIAiSTITY.  Book  IV. 

controlled  by  the  strongest  influences  of  religion.  He 
endeavored  to  allay  the  heat  of  the  conflicting  parties. 
His  first  acts  gave  some  hopes  to  the  image-worship- 
pers that  he  was  favorably  disposed  to  the  Mother  of 
God  and  to  the  monks  (these  interests  the  monks  rep- 
resented as  inseparable) ;  he  appointed  some  metro- 
politans from  the  abbots  of  monasteries.-^ 

This  short  reign  of  Leo  IV.  is  remarkable  for  the 
A.D.  775-780.  attempt  of  the  emperor  to  reintroduce  a 
more  popular  element  into  the  public  administration 
—  a  kind  of  representative  assembly  ;  —  and  the  gen- 
eral voice,  in  gratitude  to  Leo,  demanded  the  elevation 
of  his  infant  son  to  the  rank  of  Augustus.  The  pro- 
phetic heart  of  the  parent  foresaw  the  danger.  He 
was  conscious  of  his  own  feeble  health ;  to  leave  an 
unprotected  infant  on  the  throne  was  (according  to  all 
late  precedent  in  the  Byzantine  empire)  to  doom  him 
to  death.  Leo  assembled  not  the  senate  and  nobles 
alone,  the  chief  oflicers  of  the  army  and  of  the  court, 
but  likewise  the  people  of  Constantinople.  He  ex- 
plained the  cause  of  his  hesitation,  confessed  his  fears, 
and  demanded  and  received  a  solemn  oath  upon  the 
cross,  that  on  his  death  they  would  acknowledge  no 
other  emperor  but  his  son.  The  next  day  he  pro- 
claimed his  son  Augustus :  the  signatures  of  the  whole 
people  to  their  oath  were  received  and  deposited,  amid 
loud  acclamations  that  they  would  lay  down  their 
lives  for  the  emperor,  on  the  table  of  the  Holy  Com- 
munion. 

A  few  months  matured  a  conspiracy.  Nicephorus, 
the  emperor's   brother,  was  designed    for  the  throne, 

1  'E(h^EV  evoejSijc  elvai  nphg  o2.i-yov  xp^vov,  Kol  ^lTm^  t^c  &£ot6kov  ko} 
rijv  fiovaxuv.  —  Theophan.,  p.  695. 


Chap.  VIII.  LEO  lY.  341 

But  again  tjie  emperor,  instead  of  putting  conspiracy 
fortli  the  strono;  and  revengeful  arm  of  des-  '^^p'^^^^- 
potism,  appealed  to  the  people.  In  a  full  assembly  he 
produced  the  proofs  of  the  conspiracy,  and  left  the 
cause  to  the  popular  judgment.  The  general  voice 
declared  the  conspirators  guilty  of  a  capital  crime,  and 
renewed  their  vows  of  fidelity  to  the  infant  emperor. 
But  the  gentle  Leo  spared  his  brother ;  some  few  of 
the  conspirators  were  put  to  death,  others  incapacitated 
for  future  mischief  by  the  tonsure  ;  —  thus  the  greatest 
honor,  that  of  the  priesthood,  had  become  a  punish- 
ment for  crime !  The  moderation  of  Leo  induced 
him  to  appoint  as  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  Paul, 
a  Cypriot  by  birth,  as  yet  of  no  higher  rank  than  a 
reader ;  a  man  willing  to  shrink  and  keep  aloof  from 
the  controversy  of  the  day.  Leo  was  ill  rewarded. 
The  monkish  party,  watching  no  doubt  his  declining 
health,  and  knowing  the  secret  sentiments  of  the  em 
press,  introduced  some  small  images,  in  direct  violation 
of  the  law,  into  the  palace,  and  even  into  her  private 
chamber.  Some  deeper  real  or  suspected  cause  of 
apprehension  must  have  existed  in  the  mind  of  the 
emperor  to  make  him  depart  from  his  wonted  leniency. 
Many  of  the  principal  officers  were  seized  and  cast 
into  prison,  where  one  of  them  died,  in  the  following 
reign  held  to  be  a  martyr,  the  rest  became  distin- 
guished monks.  But  from  that  time  so  strong  was 
the  hatred  of  the  image-worshippers,  that  Leo  was 
branded  as  a  cruel  persecutor  ;  his  death  was  attributed 
to  an  act  of  sacrileo;e.  He  was  a  great  admirer  of 
precious  stones,  and  took  away  and  wore  a  crown,  the 
offering  of  the  Emperor  Heraclius  to  some  church. 
The  fatal  circle  burned  into  his  head,  which  broke  out 


342  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

DeuthofLeo  ^"^^  carbuHcles,  of  which  he  died.  There 
A.D.  780.  ^y^g  jjQ  j-^ggj  \^Q  invent  this  fable  to  account 
for  the  death  of  one  so  infirm  as  Leo ;  still  less  to  sug- 
gest suspicions,  on  the  other  side,  that  his  death  was 
caused  by  poison. 

Irene  at  once  seized  the  government  in  the  name  of 
Irene  ^^^^  SOU  Coustantine,  who  was  but  ten  years 

Empress.  ^j^^  ^^^  attempt  was  made  on  the  part  of 
Nicephorus,  the  rebel  brother  of  Leo,  to  supplant  the 
empress  in  the  regency  and  in  the  tutelage  of  her  son. 
It  was  suppressed  ;  the  chiefs  of  the  faction  punished 
by  the  scourge  and  exile,  the  brothers  of  the  late  em- 
peror compelled  to  undergo  ordination  and  to  admin- 
ister the  Eucharist  as  a  public  sign  of  their  incapacita- 
tion for  secular  business. 

The  crafty  Irene  dissembled  for  a  time  her  design 
for  the  restoration  of  images.  Her  ambitious  mind  (it 
is  not  uncommon  in  her  sex)  was  deeply  tinged  by 
superstition  ;  no  doubt  she  thought  that  she  secured 
the  divine  blessing,  or  rather  that  of  the  Virgin  and 
tlie  saints,  upon  her  schemes  of  power,  by  the  honor 
which  she  was  preparing  for  their  images.  Fanati- 
cism and  policy  took  counsel  together  within  her  heart. 
But  the  clergy  of  Constantinople  were  too  absolutely 
committed,  as  yet,  on  the  other  side ;  the  army  revered 
the  memory,  perhaps  chiefly  on  that  account  the  opin- 
ions, of  Constantine  Copronymus.  The  Patriarch,  an 
aged  and  peaceful  man,  who  had  sincerely  wished  to 
escape  the  perilous  charge  of  the  episcopate,  was 
neither  disposed  nor  fitted  to  lend  himself  as  an  active 
instrument  in  such  an  enterprise.  He  was  not  abso- 
lutely indisposed  to  the  image-worshippers  ;  and  when 
the  ein])ress  allowed  the  laws  to  fall  into  disuse,  and 


Chap.  Vm.  TARASIUS  PATRIARCH.  843 

connived  at  the  quiet  restoration  of  some  images,  and 
encouraged  the  monks  with  signs  of  favor,  it  was 
bruited  abroad  that  she  acted  in  no  discordance  with 
the  bishop's  secret  opinion.  The  pubHc  mind  was 
duly  prepared  by  prodigies  in  the  remoter  parts  of  the 
Empire  for  the  coming  revolution. 

On  a  sudden  the  Patriarch  Paul  disappeared.  It 
\\a3  proclaimed   that  he  had   renounced  hisA.D.783. 

.  ,     .  ,     .  ,  ,  Tarasiua 

dignity,  retreated  into  a  cloister,  and  taken  Patriarch, 
the  habit  of  a  monk.  It  cannot  be  known  whether  he 
had  any  secret  understanding  with  the  empress,  but  he 
who  had  been  so  solemnly  and  publicly  pledged  to  the 
former  emperor  against  the  images  would  hardly,  an 
old  and  unambitious  man,  take  a  strong  part  in  their 
restoration.  The  empress  visited  his  cloister  and  in- 
quired the  cause  of  his  sudden  retirement.  From  the 
first,  said  the  lowly  patriarch,  his  mind  had  been  ill  at 
ease ;  that  he  had  accepted  a  see  rejected  from  the 
communion  of  great  part  of  Christendom ;  should  he 
die  in  this  state  of  excommunication  he  would  inevi- 
tably go  to  hell.^  The  empress  sent  the  chief  persons 
of  the  court  to  hear  this  confession  from  the  lips  of 
the  repentant  patriarch.  Paul  deplored  with  bitter 
sorrow  that  he  had  concurred  in  the  decrees  ao;ainst 
images ;  his  mind  was  now  awakened  to  truth  ;  and 
he  suggested,  no  doubt  the  suggestions  of  others,  that 
nothing  could  heal  the  wounds  of  the  afflicted  Church 
but  a  general  council  to  decide  on  image-worship. 
Having  made  this  humiliating  declaration  he  expired 
in  peace. 

1  The  Empress  states  this  in  the  imperial  letter  read  at  the  opening  of 
the  Council  of  Nicea:  —  To  avade/xa  i^o)  uiro  Tzaarjg  T^g  Ka^oTiiKTJg  £kk2,7)- 
7iag,  o  aTTuyEi  elg  to  OKOTog  to  i^uTEpov,  to  ■fiToifj.aafiivov  rcj  6caj36?jf)  koi  toI{ 
iyyc?ioig  avTov.  —  P.  52. 


344  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

On  the  succession  to  the  see  of  Constantinople  might 
i.D.  784  depend  the  worship  or  the  rejection  of  images 
throuo;hout  the  East.  Amono;  all  the  clero-y  Irene 
could  find  no  one  of  hifluence,  ability,  and  resolution 
equal  to  cope  with  the  approaching  crisis.  The  appoint- 
ment of  a  monk  would  probably  have  been  the  signal 
for  the  rallying  of  the  adverse  party.  Among  her  privy 
counsellors  ^  was  a  man  who  in  the  world  bore  the 
character  of  profound  religion,  and  of  whose  ability 
and  ambition  Irene  had  formed  a  high,  and,  as  events 
proved,  a  just  estimate.  The  empress  assembled  the 
people;  she  declared  her  respect  for  the  memory  of 
Paul;  she  asserted  that  she  would  not  have  allowed 
him  to  abandon  his  higher  duties  for  monastic  seclu- 
sion, but  God  had  now  withdrawn  him  from  the  scene, 
and  it  was  necessary  to  appoint  a  successor  of  known 
capacity  and  holiness.  The  affair  had  been  well  or- 
ganized ;  a  general  acclamation  demanded  Tarasius ; 
to  the  demand  the  empress  assented  with  undisguised 
satisfaction.  Tarasius  gave  a  good  omen  of  his  future 
conduct  by  the  address  with  which  he  seemed  to  de- 
cline the  arduous  honor,  on  account  of  the  controver- 
sies which  distracted  the  Church.  In  a  well-acted  scene 
the  empress  employed  persuasion,  influence,  authority, 
to  win  the  reluctant  patriarch.  Tarasius  played  ad- 
mirably the  part  of  humble  refusal,  of  concession  of 
capitulation  on  his  own  terms.  The  condition  of  his 
acceptance  was  the  summoning  a  council  to  decide 
the  great  question  of  image-worship,  which  he  de- 
clared to  have  been  decreed  by  the  sole  authority  of 
the  emperor  Leo,  and  to  that  authority  the  Council  of 
Constantinople  had  only  yielded  its  assent.     Most  of 

1  'Aor]KpT]Tig  —  tho  Grecized  Latinism. 


CnAr.  VIII.  SECOND   COUNCIL   OF  NICEA.  345 

the  people  gave,  at  least  seemingly,  their  cordial  con- 
currence in  the  election,  though  even  the  admirers  of 
Tarasius  admit  that  there  was  much  secret  murmuring, 
and  some  open  clamor  among  the  lower  populace. 

Tarasius  immediately  took  measures  to  consolidate 
the  whole  strength  of  the  party.  Messengers  were 
sent  to  Rome  to  obtain  the  presence  of  the  Pope  (Ha- 
drian) in  person  or  by  his  legates.  Hadrian  made 
some  show  of  remonstrance  against  the  sudden  promo- 
tion of  a  layman  to  so  important  a  see,  but  acquiesced 
in  it,  as  demanded  by  the  emergencies  of  the  times. 
The  patriarchs  of  Alexandria  and  of  Antioch  and  of 
Jerusalem  were  summoned,  and  certain  ecclesiastics 
appeared   as  representatives   of  those   prelates. 

The  Council  met  in  Constantinople;  but  with  the 
army  and  a  large  part  of  the  populace  of  Constanti- 
nople image-worship  had  lost  its  power.  The  a.d.  785. 
soldiery,  attached  to  the  memory  and  tenets  of  Con- 
stantine  Copronymus,  broke  into  the  assembly,  and 
dispersed  the  affrighted  monks  and  bishops.  The  em- 
press in  vain  exerted  herself  to  maintain  order.  No 
one  was  hurt ;  but  it  was  manifest  that  no  council  of 
image-worshippers  was  safe  in  the  capital. 

Nicea  was  chosen  for  the  session  of  the  council,  no 
doubt  on  account  of  the  reverence  which  at-  second  coun- 
tached  to  that  city,  hallowed  by  the  sittings  ^^  ^icea. 
of  the  first  great  council  of  Christendom.  Decrees 
issued  from  Nicea  would  possess  peculiar  force  and 
authority  ;  this  smaller  city,  too,  could  be  occupied  by 
troops,  on  whom  the  empress  could  depend,  and  in  the 
mean  time  Irene  managed  to  disband  the  moj'e  unruly 
soldiery.  Thus,  while  the  Bulgarians  menacted  one 
frontier  and  the    Saracens  another,  she  sacrificed  the 


346  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

safety  of  the    Empire,  by  the   dissolution  of  her  best 
army,  to  the  success  of  her  religious  designs. 

The  council  met  at  Nicea.  The  number  of  eccla- 
...JJ.787.  siastics  is  variously  stated  from  330  to  387. 
Among  these  were  at  least  130  monks  or  abbots,  be- 
sides many  bishops,  who  had  been  expelled  as  monks 
from  their  sees,  and  were  now  restored.  Tarasius 
took  the  lead  as  virtual,  if  not  acknowledged,  presi- 
dent of  the  assembly.  The  first  act  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Nicea  showed  the  degree  of  dispassionate  fairness 
with  which  the  inquiry  was  about  to  be  conducted. 
After  the  imperial  letters  of  convocation  had  been  read, 
three  bishops  appeared,  Basihus  of  Ancyra,  Theodosius 
of  Myra  in  Lycia,  Theodosius  of  Amorrium;  they 
humbly  entreated  permission  to  recant  their  errors,  to 
be  reconciled  to  the  CathoHc  Church.  They  recited 
a  creed  framed  with  great  care,  and  no  doubt  of  pre- 
arranged orthodoxy,  in  which  they  repudiated  the  so- 
called  Council  of  Constantinople,  as  a  synod  of  fools 
and  madmen,  who  had  dared  to  violate  the  established 
discipline  of  the  Church,  and  impiously  reviled  the  holy 
images.  They  showered  their  anathemas  on  all  the 
acts,  on  all  the  words,  on  all  the  persons  engaged  in 
that  unhallowed  assembly.^ 

The  council  received  this  humble  confession  of  theii 
sin  and  misery  with  undisguised  joy  ;  and  Tarasius 
pronounced  the  solemn,  absolution.  Certain  other  prel- 
lates  were  then  admitted,  among  them  the  Bishops  of 
Nicea  and  Rhodes.  They  were  received  after  more 
strict  examination,  and  citation  of  ecclesiastical  prece- 

1  They  denounced  the  prelates  who  presided  in  the  aspembly;  among 
he  rest  Basil  of  Pisidia,  on  whom  they  iuHicted  an  ecclesiastical  nickname 
ii,  was  litly  named  {KaK£fj.(j)uTu)<;)  T(nKuiiKajio^,  or  TpLKUKOc:. 


Chap.  Vm.       PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  COUNCIL.  847 

dents,  fi'oin  which  it  appeared  that  bishops  who  recanted 
Arianism  and  Nestorianism,  having  been  readmitted 
into  tlie  Church,  even  Iconoclasts  should  not  be  re- 
jected from  her  bosom  on  the  same  terms. ^  The  se~ 
verer  monks  made  vii»;orous  resistance  to  these  acts  of 
lenity,  but  were  overruled  at  length.  It  was  debated 
to  what  class  of  heretics  the  Iconoclasts  were  to  be 
ascribed.  The  patriarch  proposed  only  to  confound 
them  with  the  most  odious  of  all  the  Manicheans  and 
the  Montanists.  ^  The  inexorable  leader  of  the  monk- 
ish party  asserted  that  it  was  worse  than  the  worst 
heresy,  being  absolute  renegation  of  Christ.  ^  This 
was  among  the  preliminary  acts  of  a  council,  assembled 
to  deliberate,  examine,  discuss,  and  then  decide  this 
profound  theological  question. 

The  whole  proceedings  of  the  council,  though  con- 
ducted with  orderly  gravity,  are  marked  with  the 
same  predeterminate  character,  the  same  haughty  and 
condemnatory  tone  towards  the  adversaries  of  image- 
worship.  The  fathers  of  Nicea  impaired  a  doubtful 
cause  by  the  monstrous  fables  which  they  adduced, 
the  preposterous  arguments  which  they  used,  their  un- 
measured invectives  against  their  antagonists.  The 
Pope  Hadrian,  in  his  public  letter,  related  a  wild  and 
recent  legend  of  a  vision  of  Constantine   the   Great, 

1  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  they  accuse  the  Council  of  Constantinople 
of  asserting  the  sole  authority  of  Scripture,  the  insufficiency  of  Tradition 
without  it:  'i2f  el  /ifj  ek  tt]Q  7ra2,acug  Kal  Katv^g  -Qia^Tjiirig  aacpaXug  6t6axQu)' 
u£v,  ov  ETTOfxe&a  rnlg  dL&aGKakiaiq  tuv  djlcjv  Trarepuv.  They  brand  this 
doctrine  as  that  of  Arius,  Nestorius,  and  other  heretics. 

2  The  usual  difficulty  arose  as  to  ordinations  conferred  or  received  by 
such  heterodox  bishops. 

3  'H  atpeaig  avrrj  x^'^P'^'^  ttuvtuv  tuv  alf)t:ae(x)v  Knaov  oval  rolg  duovouu.' 
Xoig,  Kol  {kukuv  KaKLorTj)  ug  rrjv  otKOvoutdv  tov  I,cjT7/pog  avarpiizovraL.  — 
P.  78. 


'348  LATIN  CimiSTIANITY.  Book  FV. 

in  which  St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter  appeared  to  him, 
and  whom  he  knew  to  be  the  apostles  by  their  resem- 
blance to  pictures  of  them,  exhibited  to  him  by  Pope 
Silvester.^  It  is  the  standino;  arojument  ao-ainst  the 
Iconoclasts :"  the  Jews  and  Samaritans  reject  images, 
therefore,  all  who  reject  them  are  as  Jews  and  Sa- 
maritans." ^  The  ordinary  appellations  of  the  Icono- 
clast comprehend  every  black  shade  of  heresy,  im- 
piety,  atheism. 

The  rapidity  with  which  the  council  executed  its 
work  was  facilitated  by  the  unanimity  of  its  decisions.  ^ 
The  whole  assembly  of  bishops  and  monks  subscribed 
the  creed,  in  which,  after  assenting  to  the  decrees  of 
the  first  six  councils,  and  to  the  anathemas  against  the 
heretics  denounced  therein,  they  passed,  acting,  as 
they  declared,  under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
the  following  canon. 

"  With  the  venerable  and  life-giving  cross  shall  be 
set  up  the  venerable  and  holy  images,  whether  in 
Decree  on  colors,  iu  uiosaic  work,  or  any  other  mate- 
ebip.  rial,  within  the  consecrated  churches  of  God, 

on  the  sacred  vessels  and  vestments,  on  the  walls  and 
on  tablets,  on  houses  and  in  highways.  The  images, 
that  is  to  say,  of  our  God  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ ; 
of  the  immaculate  mother  of  God ;  of  the  honored 
angels ;  of  all  saints  and  holy  men.  These  images 
shall  be  treated  as  holy  memorials,  worshipped,  kissed, 
only  without  that  peculiar  adoration  ^  which  is  reserved 
for  the  Invisible,  Incomprehensible  God."      All   who 

1  liabbe,  Concil.,  p.  111. 
'^  lb.,  p.  358. 

3  There  were  eiglit  sittings  between  the  24th   Sept.  and  23d  Oct.  — 
VValch,  p.  560. 

4  We  have  no  word  to  distinguish  between  npooKvvyjai^  and  yidrpewx. 


Chap  VIII.  DECREE  ON   IMAGE-WORSHIP.  849 

shall  violate  this,  as  is  asserted,  immemorial  tradition 
of  the  Chm'ch,  and  endeavor,  forcibly  or  by  craft  to  re- 
move any  image,  if  ecclesiastics,  are  to  be  deposed  and 
excommunicated,  if  monks  or  laymen,  excommunicated. 

The  council  was  not  content  with  this  formal  and 
solemn  subscription.  With  one  voice  they  broke  out 
into  a  long  acclamation,  "  We  all  believe,  we  all  as- 
sent, we  all  subscribe.  This  is  the  faith  of  the  apos- 
tles, this  is  the  faith  of  the  Church,  this  is  the  faith  of 
the  orthodox,  this  is  the  faith  of  all  the  world.  We, 
who  adore  the  Trinity,  worship  images.  Whoevei 
does  not  the  Hke,  anathema  upon  him !  Anathema 
on  all  who  call  images  idols  !  Anathema  on  all  who 
communicate  with  them  who  do  not  worship  images  ! 
Anathema  upon  Theodoras,  falsely  called  Bishop  of 
Ephesus;  against  Sisinnius  of  Perga,  against  Basilius 
with  the  ill-omened  name !  Anathema  against  the 
new  Arius  Nestorius  and  Dioscorus,  Anastasius  ; 
against  Constantine  and  Nicetas !  (the  Iconoclast  Pa- 
triarchs of  Constantinople).  Everlasting  glory  to  the 
orthodox  Germanus,  to  John  of  Damascus !  To  Greg- 
ory of  Rome  everlasting  glory  !  Everlasting  glory  to 
the  preachers  of  truth  !  " 

Our  history  pauses  to  inquire  what  incidental  notices 
of  the  objects  and  the  state  of  Christian  art  transpire 
during  this  controversy,  more  especially  in  the  proceed- 
ino-s  of  the  Council  of  Nicea.  There  seem  to  have 
been  four  kinds  of  images  against  which  the  hostility 
of  their  adversaries  was  directed,  and  which  were 
defended  by  the  resolute  attachment  of  their  worship- 
pers. I.  Images,  properly  so  called,  which  were 
thrown  from  their  pedestals,  and  broken  in  pieces. 
II.  Mosaic   paintings,  which   were  picked  out.      III. 


350  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

Paintings  on  waxen  tablets  on  the  walls,  which  were 
smoked  and  effaced.  IV.  Paintings  on  wood,  which 
were  burned.  There  were  hkewise  carv^ings  on  the 
sacred  vessels  ;  and  books  were  destroyed  on  account 
of  the  pictures  with  which  they  were  embellished.^ 

In  all  the  images  and  paintings  there  was,  as  formerly 
observed,  a  reverential  repugnance  to  attempt  any  re- 
presentation of  God  the  Father.  The  impiety  of  this 
was  universally  admitted  ;  the  image-worshippers  protest 
against  it  in  apparent  sincerity,  and  not  as  exculpating 
themselves  from  any  such  charge  by  their  adversaries. 

The  first  and  most  sacred  object  of  art  was  the 
Saviour,  and  next  to  the  Saviour  the  "  Mother  of 
God."  The  propriety  of  substituting  the  actual  hu- 
man form  of  the  Saviour  for  the  symbolic  Lamb,'^  or 
the  Good  Shepherd,  was  now  publicly  and  authori- 
tatively asserted.  Among  the  images  of  various  forms 
and  materials  some  are  mentioned  of  silver  and  of  gold. 
A  certain  Philastrius  objected  to  the  Holy  Ghost  being 
figured  in  the  form  of  a  dove.^ 

A  question  of  the  form  under  which  angels  and 
archangels  should  be  represented  could  not  but  arise. 
The  fitness  of  the  human  form  was  unhesitatingly  as- 
serted ;  and  angels  were  declared  to  have  a  certain 
corporeity,  more  thin  and  impalpable  than  the  grosser 
body  of  man,  but  still  not  absolute  spirit.  Severus 
objected  to  angels  in  purple  robes :  they  should  be 
white,  no  doubt  as  representing  light.* 

1  Passim,  especially  address  to  the  Emperor  at  the  close  of  the  Council 
—  I    580. 

2  P ,  123.    See  curious  extract  from  the  Journeying  of  the  Twelve  Apos 
ties ;  a  Docetic  book,  and  so  ruled  to  be  by  the  Council. 

«  P.  370. 
«  P.  373. 


Chap.  VIIL  HOLY  PICTURES.  351 

The  whole  of  the  New  Testament  is  said  to  have 
been  represented ;  meaning,  no  doubt,  all  the  main 
facts  of  the  history.^  Among  the  subjects  in  the  Old 
Testament,  as  early  as  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  a  picture 
is  described  of  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac,  in  which  there 
must  have  been  an  attempt  at  least  at  strong  expres- 
sion.2  Chiysostom  is  cited  for  a  picture  on  the  sub- 
lime but  difficult  subject  of  the  angel  destroying  the 
army  of  Sennacherib.  Images  of  Moses,  of  Elijah, 
of  Isaiah,  and  of  Zechariah,  are  named.  Pope  Ha- 
drian asserts  (but  there  has  been  already  ground  to 
question  his  assertion),  that  Constantino  built  a  church 
in  Rome,  in  which  was  painted  on  one  side  Adam  ex- 
pelled from  paradise,  on  the  other,  the  penitent  thief 
ascending  into  it.  In  Alexandria  there  was  an  early 
painting  of  the  Saviour  between  the  Virgin  and  John 
the  Baptist. 

There  is  nothing,  or  hardly  anything,  to  induce  the 
supposition  that  any  one  image  or  painting  was  dis- 
tinguished as  a  work  of  art ;  as  impressing  the  minds 
of  its  worshippers  with  admiration  of  its  peculiar 
grace,  majesty,  or  resemblance  to  actual  life.  Art, 
as  art,  entered  not  into  the  controversy.  It  was  the 
religious  feeling  which  gave  its  power  to  the  image  or 
painting,  not  the  happy  design,  or  noble  execution, 
which  awakened  or  deepened  the  religious  feeling. 
The  only  exception  to  this  is  the  description  of  the 
picture  representing  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Euphemia, 
by  Asterius  Bishop  of  Amasia.  This  was  painted  on 
linen  .^ 

Among  the  acclamations  and  the  anathemas  which 
closed  the  Second  Council  of  Nicea,  echoed  loud  salu- 

1  P.  358.  2  p.  203.  3  >Ei>  alvdovi. 


352  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

tations  and  prayers  for  the  peace  and  blessedness  of 
the  new  Constantine  and  the  new  Helena.  A  few  years 
passed,  and  that  Constantine  was  blinded,  if  not  put 
to  death,  by  his  unnatural  mother,  whom  religious  fac- 
tion had  raised  into  a  model  of  Christian  virtue  and 
devotion. 

A  long  struggle  took  place,  when  Constantine  reached 
Irene  and       the   age    of   mauhood,  between   the  mother, 

Constantine  .       ,  ,     , 

her  son.  eager  to  retam  her  power,  and  the  son,  to  as- 
sume his  rightful  authority.  All  the  common  arts 
of  intrigue  and  party  manoeuvre  were  exhausted  be- 
fore they  came  to  open  hostilities.  The  principal 
courtiers,  and  part  of  the  army,  ranged  themselves 
in  opposite  factions.  Irene,  anticipating,  it  was  said, 
her  adversaries,  struck  the  first  blow,  seized,  scourged, 
shaved  into  ecclesiastics,  and  imprisoned  the  chief  of 
her  son's  adherents.  A  considerable  part  of  the  troops 
swore  solemnly  that  the  son  should  not  reign  during 
the  lifetime  of  Irene ;  the  son  was  given  over  to  her 
absolute  power,  and  chastised  like  a  refractory  school- 
boy. The  next  year  a  division  of  the  army  revolted, 
and  proclaimed  Constantine  sole  Emperor.  The  usual 
fate  of  the  scourge  and  the  tonsure  befell  the  leaders 
of  Irene's  faction.  The  Empress  was  confined  to 
her  palace.  But  her  inexhaustible  fertility  in  intrigue 
soon  restored  her  power.  Constantine,  having  suffered 
a  shameful  defeat  by  the  Bulgarians,  through  her  ad- 
vice wreaked  his  vengeance  on  his  uncles,  whom  he 
accused  of  aspiring  to  the  throne  ;  they  were  blinded, 
or  mutilated  by  the  loss  of  their  tongues.  Five  years 
afterwards,  on  the  very  same  day  of  the  month  (a  less 
superstitious  age  might  have  beheld  in  this  coincidence 
the  retributive  hand  of  God),  Constantine  was  blinded 
by  his  mother. 


Chap.  VIII.  IRENE  AND   CONSTANTINE.  358 

These  five  years  were  years  of  base  intrigue,  treach- 
ery, outward  courtesy  and  even  the  famihar  intercourse 
of  close  kindred,  of  inward  hatred,  jealousy,  and  at- 
tempts to  mine  and  countermine  each  the  interest  of 
the  other.  It  was  attributed  to  his  mother's  advice, 
vvitli  the  design  of  heightening  his  unpopularity,  that 
Gonstantine  divorced  himself  from  his  wife  Maria, 
ibrced  her  to  retire  into  a  convent,  and  married  a 
woman  of  her  bedchamber,  named  Theodota.  The 
rio;id  monks  were  furious  at  the  weakness  of  the  Pa- 
triarch  Tarasius,  who  had  sanctioned  the  reception  of 
the  divorced  empress  in  a  monastery.  Plato,  the  most 
intolerant,  and  therefore  most  distinguished  of  them, 
withdrew  from  communion  with  the  Patriarch.  The 
indignant  Emperor  imprisoned  some,  and  banishec* 
others  of  the  more  refractory  monks  to  Thessalonica- 
This  at  once  threw  the  whole  powerful  monastic  fac- 
tion into  the  interests  of  the  Empress,  who  openly 
espoused  their  cause.  The  Armenian  guards,  who  had 
now  assumed  something  like  the  power,  insolence,  and 
.versatility  of  the  old  Praetorian  troops,  were  alienated 
by  the  severity  of  Gonstantine.  Irene  wound  her 
toils  with  consummate  skill  around  her  ill-fated  vic- 
tim. There  was  treachery  in  his  army,  in  his  court, 
in  his  palace.  He  was  bitterly  afflicted  by  the  loss 
of  his  eldest  son.  At  length  the  plot  was  ripe ;  he 
kn«w  it,  and  attempted  in  vain  to  make  his  escape  to 
the  East.  Either  fearing,  or  pretending  to  fear,  lest 
he  should  regain  his  liberty,  Irene  sent  to  her  secret 
emissaries  around  his  person,  and  threatened  to  betray 
their  treachery  if  they  did  not  deliver  up  Murder  of 
their  master  to  her  hands.  Gonstantine  ^yas  ^°"®*^'"^^'"= 
seized  on  the  Asiatic  side  of  the  Bosphorus,  conducted 

VOL.  II.  23 


354  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

to  the  porphyry  chamber,  in  which  Irene  had  oorne 
him  —  her  first-born  son.  In  that  very  chamber  the 
crime  was  perpetrated.  His  eyes  were  put  out,  so 
A..D.  797.  cnielly  and  so  incurably,  as  to  threaten  his 
death.^  In  the  East,  the  conduct  of  the  unnatural 
mother  was  seen  with  unmitigated  horror.  An  eclipse 
of  the  sun,  accompanied  with  such  darkness,  that  ships 
wandered  from  their  courses,  was  held  to  be  a  sign 
of  the  sympathy  of  the  heavenly  orbs  with  the  suffer- 
ing Emperor  —  an  expression  of  divine  disapprobation. 
Among  the  few  instances  in  the  annals  of  mankind, 
in  which  ambition  and  the  love  of  sway  have  quenched 
the  maternal  feeling  —  that  strongest  and  purest  im- 
pulse of  human  nature  —  is  the  crime  committed 
against  her  son  by  the  Empress  Irene.  But  it  is 
even  more  awful  and  humiliating  that  (so  inextin- 
guishable are  religious  passions !)  a  churchman  of 
profound  learning,  of  unimpeachable  character,  should, 
many  centuries  after,  be  so  bewildered  by  zeal  for 
the  orthodox  Empress,  as  to  palliate,  extenuate,  as  far 
as  possible  apologize  for  this  appalling  deed,  in  which 
the  sounder  moral  sense  of  the  old  Grecian  tragedy 
would  have  imagined  a  divine  Nemesis  for  the  accumu- 
lated guilt  of  generations  of  impious  ancestors.^ 

1  A«vwf  Kot  avuiTug  itpbg  to  uTtO'&avelv  avrbv.  —  Theophan.,  p.  732. 

2  The  passage  must  be  quoted:  —  "  Scelus  plane  execrandum,  nisi  quod 
multi  excusant,  justitiae  earn  zelus  ad  id  faciendum  excitasset,  quo  nomine 
eadem  post  ha;c  meruit  commendari.  At  non  fuit  matris  jussio,  ut  ista  pa- 
teretur,  sed  ut  teneretur,"  (this  is  directly  contrary  to  Theopbanes  and  the 
best  authorities,)  "  nee  amplius  imperaret,  tanquam  si  e  manu  furiosi  gla~ 
dium  aufen-et.  Docuit  Christus  verbis  suis  summa;  pietatis  genus  esse  in 
hoc  adversus  filium  esse  crudelem,  ipso  dicente."  (The  Cardinal  here  cites 
our  Lord's  words,  Matt.  x.  37,  "He  that  loveth  son  or  daughter  more 
than  me  is  not  worthy  of  me.")  "  Quum  jam  olim.  Dei  priccepto,  justaj 
Bint  armataj  nianus  parentum  in  filios,  abeuntes  post  Deos  alienos,  illisque 
necatis,  qui  hoc  fecerint,  Moysis  ore  laudaU,  ita  dicentis,  Exod.  xxxii.  29. 


Chap.  VIII.  LEO  THE  ARMENIAN.  355 

So  completely  indeed  might  the  Iconoclastic  faction 
appear  to  be  crushed,  that  neither  during  the  strife  be- 
tween the  mother  and  the  son,  though  it  might  have 
some  latent  influence,  did  it  give  any  manifest  or 
threatenino;  sio;n  of  its  existence ;  and  Irene  reio-ned  in 

O         C5  '  to 

peace  for  five  years,  and  was  overthrown  by  a.d.  797-802. 
a  revolution,  in  which  religion  had  no  apparent  con- 
cern. 

The  controversy  slept  during  the  reign  of  Nicepho- 
rus,  and  that  of  Michael,  sumamed  Rhan-  Nicephorus 
gabes.     The   monks   throughout  this  period  a^JTso^sh. 
seem  to  form  an  independent  power  (a  power  Michaei. 
no  doubt  arising  out  of,  and  maintained  by, 
their   championship  of  image-worship),   and  to  dictate 
to  the   Emperor,  and  even  to  the   Churc^h.      On  the 
other  hand,  among  the  soldiery  are  heard  some  deep 
but  suppressed  murmurs  of  attachment  to  the  memory 
of  Constantine  Copronymus. 

Leo  the  Armenian  ascended  the  throne,  for  which 
Michael  Rhan  gabes  felt  and  acknowledged  his  j^eo  the 
incapacity.  The  weak  Michael  had  courted  ^'"^e^**"- 
the  friendship  of  the  monks ;  on  his  invitation,  or  with 
his  acquiescence,  they  settled  in  increasing  swarms 
within  the  city.  The  Armenian  was  another  of  those 
rude  soldiers,  born  in  a  less  civilized  part  of  Christen- 
dom, in  which  image-worship  had  not  taken  profound 
root.      But  he  did  not  betray  his  repugnance  to  the 

Plurimuin  interest  quo  quis  aliquid  animo  agat.  Si  enim  regnandi  cupi- 
dine  Irene  in  filium  molita  esset  insidias,  detestabilior  Agrippina  matre 
Neronis  fuisset  .  .  .  Contra  vero  quod  ista,  religionis  causa,  amore  justitiae 
in  filium  perpetrata  credantur,  ab  Orientalibus  nonnullis,  qui  facto  aderant, 
mris  sanctissimis  !  eadem  posthaec  praeconio  meruit  celebrari."  As  if  any 
motiv'e  coidd  be  assigned  but  the  most  unscrupulous  ambition;  though 
doubtless  she  was  throughout  supported  by  the  image-Avorsliippers.  — 
Baron.  Ann.  sub  ann.  Dccxcvt. 


356  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

popular  religious  feeling  until,  like  liis  predecessor  the 
Isaurian  Leo,  he  had  secured  the  north-western  and 
eastern  frontiers  of  the  empire.  Against  the  Bulga- 
rians, who  were  actually  besieging  Constantinople,  he 
began  the  war  by  a  base  act  of  treachery,  an  attempt 
to  assassinate  Cromnus,  their  victorious  king,  during  a 
peaceful  interview  ;  he  terminated  it  by  a  splendid 
victory,  which  for  a  time  crushed  the  power  of  these 
Barbarians.  He  was  equally  successful  against  the 
Saracens.  The  firm  and  prosperous  administration  of 
Leo  extorted  from  the  exiled  Patriarch  of  Constantino- 
ple, Nicephorus,  an  ample  if  unwilling  acknowledgment. 
"  Lupious  as  he  was,  he  was  a  wise  guardian  of  the 
public  interests.  Firm  in  civil  as  in  military  affairs, 
superior  to  wealth,  he  chose  his  ministers  for  their 
worth,  not  their  riches,  and  aimed  at  least  at  the 
rigid   execution    of   justice."  ^ 

But  all  these  virtues  were  obscured,  in  the  sight  of 
the  image-worshippers,  by  his  attempt  to  suppress  that 
worship.  Even  on  his  accession  there  was  some  mis- 
trust of  his  opinions ;  the  name  Chameleon  can  scarcely 
apply  to  anything  but  his  suspected  religious  versatility. 
The  Patriarch  at  that  time  tendered  him  a  profession 
of  faith,  which  he  adroitly  put  by  till  he  should  have 
despatched  the  more  pressing  duties  of  his  station.  He 
seemed,  however,  as  he  passed  the  brazen  gate,  to  do 
homage  to  an  image  of  the  Saviour  placed  above  it. 

The  enemies  of  Leo  attribute  his  change  to  the  arti- 
fices of  a  monk,  by  some  strange  contradiction  a  hater 
of  images.  The  superstitious  Leo  was  addicted  to  the 
consultation  of  self-asserted  diviners ;  he  had  been 
designated    by  this  monk,  endowed  as   was  supposed 

1  Theophan.  Contin.,  p.  30. 


L.  TAP.  VIII.  IMAGE-WORSHIP.  357 

with  the  prophetic  gift,  for  the  throne.  As  the  witch 
of  Endor  Saul,  so  the  monk  had  recognized  the  future 
monarch,  thouo-h  shrouded  in  diso;uise.  At  the  same 
time,  he  was  threatened  with  immediate  death  if  he  did 
not  follow  the  course  of  Leo  the  Isaurian  ;  if  he  did, 
tlie  empire  was  to  remain  in  his  family  for  generations. 

The  emperor  summoned  the  Patriarch  Nicephonis  to 
his  presence  before  the  senate,  and  proposed  Against 
tlie  insidious    question,   whether    there  were  swp. 
not  those  who  denied  the  lawfulness  of  worship  to  im- 
ages ?     The  Patriarch  was  not  scrupulous  in  his  reply. 

He  appealed  to  the  holy  Veronica,  the  napkin  with 
the  impression  of  the  Saviour's  face,  the  first  sacred 
image  not  made  with  hands.  He  declared  that  there 
were  images  made  by  the  apostles  themselves,  of  the 
Saviour  and  the  Mother  of  God  ;  that  there  was  actually 
in  Rome  a  picture  of  the  transfiguration,  painted  by 
the  order  of  St.  Peter ;  he  did  not  forget  the  statue  at 
Panoas,  in  Palestine.^  Another  bishop  boldly  admon- 
ished the  emperor  to  attend  to  his  proper  business,  the 
army,  and  not  to  venture  to  meddle  with  the  affairs  of 
the  Church,  in  which  he  had  no  concern.  The  indig- 
nant emperor  banished  the  two  intractable  prelates. 
Euthymus,  of  Sardis,  who  had  used  still  more  oppro- 
brious language,  was  corporally  punished  with  blows 
and  stripes.  As  Irene  had  promoted  Tarasius,  so  Leo 
raised  an  officer  of  his  household,  Theodotus  Cassi- 
teras,  to  the  patriarchal  throne.  Image-worship  was 
again  proscribed  by  an  imperial  edict.  The  worship- 
pers are  said  to  have  been  ruthlessly  persecuted ;  and 
Leo,  according  to  the  phraseology  of  the  day,  is  accused 
of  showing  all  the  bloodthirstiness,  without  the  gener 

1  Symeoii  Magister  in  Tlicopli.  Coutin.,  p.  607. 


868  LAXm  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

osity,  of  the  lion.  Yet  no  violent  popular  tumult  took 
place ;  nor  does  the  conspiracy  which  afterwards  cut 
sliort  the  days  of  Leo  the  Armenian  appear  to  have 
been  connected  with  the  strife  of  religious  factions.  He 
might  have  escaped  his  fate  but  for  his  scrupulous  rev- 
erence for  the  institutions  of  the  Church.  Michael  the 
Stammerer  had  risen,  like  Leo,  to  military  distinction. 
He  was  guilty,  or  at  least  suspected,  of  traitorous  de- 
signs against  the  emperor,  thrown  into  prison,  and  con- 
demned to  immediate  death.  But  the  next  day  (the 
day  appointed  for  his  execution)  was  the  feast  of  the 
nativity  of  Christ.  The  wife  of  Leo  urged  him  not  to 
profane  that  sacred  season,  that  season  of  peace  and 
good-will,  by  a  public  execution.  Leo,  with  a  sad  pro- 
phetic spirit,  answered  that  she  and  her  children  would 
bitterly  rue  the  delay ;  but  he  could  not  withstand  her 
scruples  and  his  own.  Yet  his  mind  misgave  him  :  at 
midnight  the  emperor  stole  into  the  dungeon,  to  assure 
himself  that  all  was  safe.  The  prisoner  was  sleeping 
quietly  ;  but  a  slave  who  had  hid  himself  under  the 
bed,  recognized  the  purple  sandals  of  the  emperor. 
Michael  instantly  sent  word  to  the  other  conspirators, 
that  unless  they  struck  the  blow  he  would  denounce 
them  as  his  accomplices.  The  chamberlain  of  Leo 
was  Michael's  kinsman  ;  and  on  the  dawn  of  the  holy 
day,  which  Leo  had  feared  to  violate,  the  conspirators 
mingled  with  the  clergy,  who  assembled  as  usual,  at 
the  third  watch,  to  hail  the  birth  of  Christ.  The  em- 
])eror.  was  famed  for  the  finest  voice  in  the  city  :  he  had 
joined  in  the  beautiful  hymn  of  peace,  when  the  con- 
spirators rushed  to  the  attack.  At  first,  in  the  fog  of 
the  morning,  they  mistook  the  leader  of  the  clergy  for 
the  emperor,  but  fortunately  he  took  off  his  cap  and 


Chap.  VIII.  MICHAEL  THE  STAMMERER.  859 

sliov/ed  his  tonsure.  Leo,  in  the  mean  time,  Murder  of 
liad  taken  refuge  at  the  altar,  seized  the  ^°- 
great  cross,  and  with  this  unseemly  weapon,  grasped  in 
his  despair,  kept  his  enemies  at  bay,  till  at  length  a  gi- 
gantic soldier  lifted  his  sword  to  stiike.  Leo  reminded 
liim  of  his  oath  of  allegiance;  '*  'Tis  no  time  to  speak 
of  oaths,"  replied  the  soldier,  "  but  of  death ; "  and 
swearing  by  the  divine  grace,^  smote  off  the  arm  of  his 
sovereign,  which  fell  with  the  heavy  cross  ;  another 
struck  off  his  head.  Michael  was  crowned  with  the 
fetters  of  his  captivity  still  on  his  legs. 

Whatever  hopes  the  clergy,  at  least  the  image-wor- 
shipj)ers,  or  the  monks,  might  have  conceived  Michael  the 

1  f  pT  1*11  11  Stammerer. 

at  the  murder  or  Leo,  which  they  scrupled  a.d.  82i. 
not  to  allege  as  a  sign  of  the  divine  disfavor  towards 
the  Iconoclasts,  were  disappointed  on  the  accession  of 
Michael  the  Stammerer.  The  new  emperor  was  a  sol- 
dier more  rude  than  the  last ;  he  could  scarcely  read. 
His  birth  was  ascribed  to  a  Phrygian  village,  chiefly  in- 
habited by  Jews ;  and  he  was  said  to  have  been  edu- 
cated in  a  strange  creed,  which  was  neither  Judaism 
nor  Christianity.  He  aflected  a  coarse  humor  ;  he  did 
not  spare  the  archbishop,  who  returned  without  au- 
thority, but  without  rebuke,  from  his  exile,  and  forced 
an  interview  w^ith  the  emperor.  Michael  received  and 
dismissed  him  with  civil  scorn.  Rumors  were  circu- 
lated, that  even  on  more  sacred  subjects  he  did  not  re- 
press his  impious  sarcasms.  His  whole  conduct  seemed 
tinged  with  a  kind  of  Sadducizing  Judaism.  He  favored 
the  Jews  in  the  exaction   of  tribute  (perhaps  he  was 

1  'En  T£  Kara  ttjq  -Qetac  dfioffag  x^P^-toC'    This,  as  a  fact,  or  an  einbel. 
jshnient  of  the  histoi-ian,  is  equally  characteristic.  —  Theoph.  Conthi.,  p 


860  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  [V 

guilty  of  the  sin  of  treating  them  with  justice),  he 
fasted  on  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  he  doubted  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  dead,  and  the  personaHty  of  the  devil,  as 
unauthorized  by  the  religion  of  Moses.^  Image-wor- 
ship he  treated  with  contemptuous  impartiality.  He 
declared  that  he  knew  nothing  of  these  ecclesiastical 
quarrels  ;  that  he  would  maintain  the  laws  and  enforce 
an  equal  toleration.  To  the  petitions  of  the  patriarch 
for  the  formal  restoration  to  his  see,  he  offered  his  con- 
sent if  the  patriarch  would  bury  the  whole  question, 
alike  the  decrees  of  Constantinople  and  Nicea,  in  ob- 
livion ;  and  in  a  great  public  assembly  (assembled  for 
the  purpose),  he  proclaimed  the  worship  of  images  a 
matter  altoo-ether  indifferent.  Yet  Michael  is  charo;ed 
with  departing  from  his  own  lofty  rule  of  toleration. 
The  calamities  of  his  reign,  the  danger  of  the  capital 
and  the  whole  empire  from  the  invasion  of  the  apostate 
Thomas,  the  loss  of  Crete  and  of  other  islands  to  the 
Saracens,  were  ascribed  to  the  just  vengeance  of  God 
for  the  persecutions  of  his  reign. 

But  the  worst  crime  of  which  Michael  was  guilty, 
in  the  sight  of  the  image-worshippers,  was  the  parent- 
age and  education  of  him  whom  the  monkish  writers 
call  the  new  Belshazzar,  Theophilus.  Michael,  in  his 
aversion  to  the  monastic  faction,  intnisted  the  education 
of  his  son  to  a  man  of  high  character,  John  the  Gram- 
marian, whom  Theophilus  in  after  life,  having  employed 
A.D.829.  as  his  chief  counsellor  in  civil  affairs,  as  am- 
bassador in  the  most  difficult  negotiations,  advanced  at 
length  to  the  see  of  Constantinople.  Tlicophilus  was 
iin  Oriental,  his  enemies  no  doubt  said,  a  Mohammedan 
Sultan  on  the  throne  of  the  Roman  Empire.     Even  his 

1  Thuoplian.  Contia.,  p.  -49. 


Chap.  VIII  THE  EMPEROR  THEOPHILUS.  361 

marriage,  tliough  to  one  wife,  had  something  of  the  su- 
percihous  condescension  of  the  lord  of  a  harem.  The 
most  beautiful  maidens  of  the  empire  were  assembled, 
in  order  that  Theophilus  might  behold  and  choose  his 
bride.  Of  these,  Eucasia  was  the  loveliest.  Theophilus 
paused,  and  as  he  gazed  on  her  beauty,  in  a  strange 
moralizing  fit  he  said,  with  an  obvious  allusion  to  the 
fall,  "  Of  how  much  evil  hath  woman  been  the  cause  ?  " 
The  too  ready  or  too  devout  Eucasia  replied,  with  as 
evident  reference  to  the  Mother  of  God,  "  And  of  how 
much  good  ?  "  Startled  by  her  quickness  and  her  the- 
ology, Theophilus  passed  on  to  the  more  gentle  and 
modest  Theodora.  Eucasia  retired  to  shroud  her  dis- 
appointment in  a  convent.  The  justice  of  Theophi- 
lus, somewhat  ostentatiously  displayed,  was  of  that 
severe,  capricious,  but  equitable  character,  which  pre- 
vails where  the  law  being  part  of  the  religion,  the  sov- 
ereign the  hereditary  head  of  the  religion,  his  word  is 
law.  He  was  accessible  to  the  complaints  of  his  mean- 
est subjects  ;  as  he  passed  on  certain  days  to  the  church 
in  the  Blachernae,  any  one  might  personally  present  a 
petition,  or  demand  redress.  As  he  rode  abroad,  he 
would  familiarly  inquire  the  price  of  the  cheapest  com- 
modities, and  express  his  strong  displeasure  at  what  he 
thought  exorbitant  charges.  One  instance  may  show, 
as  no  doubt  it  did  show  to  his  subjects,  the  impartiality 
and  capricious  rigor  of  his  judgments.^  Petronas,  the 
brother  of  the  empress,  had  darkened  by  a  lofty  build- 
ing the  dwelling  of  a  poor  widow.     Once  she  appealed 


1  One  edict,  attributed  to  Theophilus,  may  remind  us  of  the  Emperor 
Paul  of  Russia.  Himself  being  inclined  to  baldness,  he  ordained  that  aU 
his  subjects  should  cut  their  hair  short:  to  let  it  flow  over  the  shoulders 
incurred  a  hea^y  penalty. 


B62  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  l\ 

to  the  emperor,  but  Petronas,  secure  as  "he  supposed  in 
his  interest,  disregarded  the  imperial  command  to  re- 
dress the  grievance.  On  her  second  complaint,  this 
man,  who  had  filled  offices  of  dignity,  was  ignomin- 
iously,  publicly,  and  cruelly  scourged  in  the  market- 
place. The  haughty,  rather  Roman,  contempt  of 
Theophilus  for  commerce,  appears  in  his  commanding 
a  vessel  full  of  precious  Syrian  merchandise  to  bo 
ciiaracter  of  ^umed,  tliough  it  belougcd  to  the  Empress 
Theophilus.  Thcodora,  reproaching  her  with  degrading  the 
imperial  dignity  to  the  paltry  gains  of  commerce.^  The 
revenues,  which  he  had  in  some  degree  restored  by 
economy  or  by  better  administration  and  increased  per- 
haps by  the  despised  commerce  to  Constantinople,  he 
expended  with  Eastern  magnificence.  He  sent  a 
stately  embassy  to  the  caliph  at  Bagdad.  John  the 
Grammarian  represented  his  sovereign,  and  was  fur- 
nished with  instructions  and  with  presents  intended  to 
dazzle  the  Barbarian.  Of  two  vessels  of  enormous 
cost,  which  he  was  to  exhibit  at  a  great  feast,  one  was 
intentionally  lost,  that  the  ambassador  might  astonish 
the  Saracen  w^ith  his  utter  indifference,  and  produce 
with  greater  effect  the  second  and  far  more  splendid 
vase  of  silver,  full  of  gold  coins.  A  scene  of  gorgeous 
emulation  took  place.  The  caliph  poured  out  his  gold, 
which  John  affected  to  treat  as  so  much  dust ;  the 
cali])h  brought  forth  a  hundred  Christian  captives, 
splendidly  attired,  and  offered  them  to  the  ambassa- 
<lors,  who  refused  them  till  they  could  repay  an  equal 

1  Gibbon  (as  Schlosser  has  observed)  has  exagj^erated  the  cruel  punish- 
in  '.nts  of  Theophilus.  With  Schlosser,  I  rind  no  authority  for,  "  The  prin- 
cipal ministers,  for  some  venial  ofliences,  for  some  defect  of  equity  or  vigi- 
lance, a  pntifect,  a  quiestor,  a  captain  of  the  guard,  were  bauislied  or  ruuti- 
iatcd,  or  scalded  with  burning  pitch,  or  burned  in  the  Hippodrome." 


Chap.  VIII.  CIIARACTEK  OF  THEOPHILUS.  863 

number  of  Saracen  captives.  Yet  all  tlils  rivalJiIp 
%vith  the  Hafijarene,  as  he  is  contemptuously  called 
by  contemporary  history,  though  it  soon  gave  place 
to  implacable  hostility  and  uninterrupted  war,  would 
confirm  with  the  image-worshippers  the  close  alliance 
between  Iconoclasm  and  Mohammedanism.  Even  in 
the  other  branch  of  expenditure  in  which  Theophilus 
displayed  his  magnificence,  the  sumptuous  buildings 
with  which  he  adorned  Constantinople  (a  palace  built 
on  the  model  of  a  Saracenic  one,  belonging  to  the 
caliph,  in  the  same  style,  and  same  variety  of  struc- 
ture and  material),  would  display  a  sympathy  in  tastes, 
offensive  to  devout  feeling.^  Though  among  his  splen- 
did edifices  churches  were  not  wanting,  one  especially^ 
dedicated  to  St.  Michael  the  Archangel,  called  Trici- 
iiatus,  from  its  triple  apse. 

A  character  like  that  of  Theophilus,  stern  and  ar- 
bitrary even  in  his  virtues,  determined  in  his  resolu- 
tions, and  void  of  compassion  against  those  who  offend- 
ed against  his  justice,  that  is  his  will,  was  not  likely, 
when  he  declared  himself  an  Iconoclast,  to  conduct  a 
religious  persecution  without  extreme  rigor.  He  was 
a  man  of  far  higher  education  than  the  former  image- 
breaking  emperors,  and  saw  no  doubt  more  clearly 
the  real  grounds  of  the  controversy.  Theophilus 
wrote   poetry,    if    the   miserable   iambics   with  which 

1  John  the  Grammarian,  on  his  return  from  Syria,  persuaded  the  Era- 
I)t'ror  Tu  Tov  Bpiov  uvuKTopa  npog  ttjv  tuv  'EapUKTjvuv  Karaaiievaadfjvcu 
ofzoiuoiv.  kv  re  cxvi^dot  nal  TroiKtTiLg.  /iridev  ekelvoiv  to  gvvoXov  TrapaXXaT- 
Tovra.  —  Theophan.  Contin.,  p.  98.  Sjmieon  Magister  assigns  a  different 
period  to  this  palace,  which  he  embellishes  with  the  Eastern  luxury  of  irap- 
udacoL,  and  tanks  of  water.  This,  however,  shows  that  already  there  waa 
a  peculiar  Saracenic  style  of  building,  new  to  the  Romans,  and  introduced 
into  Constantinople.  The  fact  is  not  unworthy  of  notice  in  the  historv  of 
architecture. 


364  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

he  wished  to  brand  the  faces  of  some  of  his  victims 
may  be  so  called.  He  composed  church  music  ;  some 
of  his  hymns  were  admitted  into  the  church  service, 
in  wliich  the  emperor  himself  led  the  choir.^ 

Theophilus  could  not  but  perceive  the  failure,  and 
disdain  to  imitate  his  father's  temporizing  policy,  who 
endeavored  to  tolerate  the  monks,  while  he  discouraged 
image-worship. 2  He  avowed  his  determination  to  ex- 
tirpate both  at  once.  Leo  the  Armenian  and  Michael 
the  Stammerer  had  attempted  to  restrict  the  honors 
])aid  to  images ;  Theophilus  prohibited  the  making 
Persecutes  ncw  oucs,  and  Ordered  that  in  every  church 
Bbippers.  they  should  be  effaced,  and  the  walls  covered 
with  pictures  of  birds  and  beasts.  The  sacred  vessels, 
adorned  with  figures,  were  profaned  by  unhallowed 
hands,  sold  in  the  public  markets,  and  melted  for  their 
metal.  The  prisons  were  full  of  painters,  of  monks 
and  ecclesiastics  of  all  orders.  The  monks,  driven 
from  their  convents,  fled  to  desert  places ;  some  per- 
ished of  cold  and  hunger,  some  threw  off  the  pro- 
scribed dress,  yet  retained  the  sacred  character  and 
habits ;  otliers  seized  the  opportunity  of  retm'ning  to 
the  pleasures  as  to  the  dress  of  the  world. 

Yet  in  the  mass  of  the  monastic  faction  the  fanati- 
cism of  the  emperor  was  encountered  by  a  fanaticism 
of  resistance,  sometimes  silent,  sullen  and  stubborn, 
sometimes   glorying   in   provoking   the   wrath    of  the 

'  Oi)  TrapijTTjGaTO  rb  x^tpovoftelv,  leading  them  it  should  seem  by  the 
motion  of  his  hand.  The  clergy  appear  to  have  made  the  emperor  pay  for 
llu'  privilege  of  indulging  his  tastes.  Aovc  tcj  Kkripif)  avrfj^  Xlrpag  vnep 
Toi'TDv  xpvtJov  kKarbv.  —  Theophan.  Contin.,  p.  107. 

-  Theophilus  caused  to  be  constructed  two  organs,  entirely  of  gold,  set 
with  precious  stones;  and  a  tree  of  gold,  on  which  sat  birds  which  sang  by 
u  mechanical  contrivance,  the  air  being  conveyed  by  hidden  pipes.  —  Sym 
aon  Magister,  p.  627. 


Chap.  VIII.     PERSECUTES   IMAGE-WORSHIPPERS.  8C5 

persecutor.  One  whole  brotherhood,  tliat  of  the 
Abrahamites,  presented  themselves  before  the  emperor. 
They  asserted  on  the  evidence,  as  they  said,  of  the 
most  ancient  fathers,^  that  image-worsliip  dated  from 
the  times  of  the  apostles;  they  appealed  to  the  pic- 
tures of  the  Saviour  by  St.  Luke,  and  to  the  holy 
Veronica.  Irritated  by  their  obstinacy,  and  not  likely 
to  be  convinced  by  such  arguments,  the  emperor  drove 
them  with  insults  and  severe  chastisements  from  the  city. 
They  took  refuge  in  a  church,  on  an  island  in  the  Eux- 
ine,  dedicated  to  John  the  Baptist  the  aioful?  There 
they  are  said  to  have  suffered  martyrdom.  Anotlier 
stubborn  monk,  the  emperor,  in  a  more  merciful  mood, 
sent  to  his  learned  minister,  John  the  Grammarian. 
The  monk,  according  to  the  historian,  reduced  the 
minister  to  silence :  if  discomfited,  the  Grammarian 
bore  his  defeat  with  equanimity,  the  successful  con- 
troversialist was  allowed  to  retire  and  wait  for  better 
times  in  a  monastery. 

There  was  another  monk,  however,  named  Lazarus, 
a  distinguished  painter,  whom  the  emperor  could  in- 
duce by  no  persuasion  to  abandon  his  idolatrous  art. 
As  milder  measures  failed,  Lazarus  was  cruelly  scourged 
and  imprisoned.  He  still  persisted  in  exercising  his  for 
bidden  skill,  and  hot  iron  plates  were  placed  on  his  guil- 
ty hands.  The  illness  of  the  empress  saved  his  life ;  he 
too  took  refuge  in  the  church  of  the  Baptist,  where, 
having  recovered  the  use  of  his  hands,  he  painted 
"  that  fearftil  harbinger  of  the  Lord,"  and  on  the  res- 
toration of  images,  a  celebrated  picture  of  the  Saviour 
Dver  the  gate  Chalce. 

1  Dionj'sius  (the  pseudo  Dionysius)  Hierotheus,  and  Irenoeus. 

2  Toi)  ^ojSepov. 


866  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

Two  others,  Theopliilus,  and  his  brother  Theodorns, 
for  presuming  to  overpower  the  emperor  in  argument, 
and  to  adduce  a  passage  in  the  Propliet  Isaiah,  not,  as 
the  emperor  declared,  in  his  copy,  suffered  a  more  cruel 
punishment.  Their  faces  were  branded  with  some 
wretched  iambic  verses,  composed  by  the  emperor ; 
they  were  then  banished ;  one  died,  the  other  survived 
to  see  the  triumph  of  image-worship.^ 

This  rehgious  war  seems  to  have  been  waged  by  the 
emperor  on  one  side,  and  the  monks  on  the  other,  with 
no  disturbance  of  the  general  peace  of  the  Empii-e. 
No  popular  tumults  demanded  the  interference  of  the 
government.  The  people,  weaiy  or  indifferent,  sub- 
mitted in  apathy  to  the  alternate  destruction  and  res- 
toration of  images.  But  for  the  fatal  passion  of  The- 
opliilus for  war  against  the  Saracens,  in  which,  with 
great  personal  valor,  but  no  less  military  incapacity,  he 
was  in  general  unsuccessful,  lie  might  have  maintained 
the  Empire  during  all  the  later  years  of  his  reign  in 
wealth  and  prosperity. 

The  history  of  Iconoclasm  has  a  remarkable  uiii- 
Theodora  formity.  Auotlicr  female  in  power,  another 
empress.  restoration  of  images.  After  the  death  of 
Theopliilus  his  widow  Theodora  administered  the  em- 
pire, in  the  name  of  her  youthful  son  Michael,  called 
afterwards,  the  Drunkard.  Theodora,  like  her  own 
mother  Theoctista,  had  always  worshipped  images  in 
private.  Twice  the  dangerous  secret  had  been  be- 
trayed to  the  emperor  that  the  females  of  his  own 
family  practised  this  forbidden  idolatry.     On  one  occa- 

1  All  the  historians  (monks)  relate  this  strange  story,  but  the  passage  in 
Isaiah  favorable  to  image- worship,  and  forged  by  the  monks,  is  rather  sus- 
picioas;  as  well  as  twelve  iainbic  verses  tattooed  on  their  faces- 


Chap.  VIII.  THEODORA  EMPRESS.  3G7 

sion  the  children  prattled  about  the  pretty  toys  vvhi(?h 
their  grandmother  kept  in  a  chest  and  took  out,  kissing 
them  herself  and  ofFerino;  them  to  the  children's  re- 
spectful  kisses.  Another  time  a  dwarf,  kept  as  a 
buffoon  in  the  palace,  surprised  the  empress  taking  the 
images,  which  he  called  by  the  same  undignified  name, 
from  under  her  pillow,  and  paying  them  every  kind 
of  homage.  The  empress  received  a  severe  rebuke  ; 
the  dwarf  was  well  flogged  for  his  impertinent  curi- 
osity. Theodora  learned  caution,  but  brooded  in  secret 
over  her  tutelar  images. 

No  sooner  was  Theophilus  dead  than  the  monks,  no 
doubt  in  the  secret  of  Theodora's  concealed  attachment 
to  images,  poured  into  Constantinople  from  all  quar- 
ters. At  this  juncture  the  brave  Manuel,  the  general 
who  had  more  than  once  retrieved  the  defeats  of  The- 
ophilus, once  had  actually  rescued  him  from  the  hands 
of  the  Saracens,  and  who  had  been  ap])ointed  under 
the  will  of  the  emperor  one  of  the  guardians  of  the 
empire,  fell  dangerously  ill.  The  monks  beset  his  bed- 
side, working  at  once  on  his  hopes  of  recovery  and  his 
fears  of  death.  Manuel  vielded,  and  threw  the  weioht 
of  his  authority  into  the  party  of  the  image-worship- 
pers. Theodora  had  before  feared  to  cope  with  the 
strength  of  the  opposite  faction,  so  long  dominant  and 
in  possession  of  many  of  the  more  important  civil  and 
military  dignities.  She  now  ventured  to  send  an  ofli- 
cer  of  the  pala:9  to  command  the  patriarch,  John 
the  Grammarian,  either  to  recant  his  Iconoclastic 
opinions,  or  to  withdraw  from  Constantinople.  The 
patriarch  is  accused  of  a  paltiy  artifice.  He  opened  a 
vein  in  the  region  of  his  stomach,  and  showed  himself 
wounded    and   bleeding   to   the   people.      The   rumor 


LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

spread  that  the  empress  had  attempted  to  assassinate 
the  patriarch.  But  the  fraud  was  detected,  exposed, 
acknowledged.  The  abashed  patriarch  withdrew,  un- 
A.D.  842.  pitied  and  despised,  into  the  suburbs.  Me- 
thodius was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  the  patriarchate. 
The  worshippers  of  images  were  in  triumph. 

But  Theodora,  still  tenderly  attached  to  the  meniory 
of  her  husband,  demanded  as  the  price  of  her  ines- 
timable services  in  the  restoration  of  images,  absolution 
for  the  sin  of  his  Iconoclasm  and  his  persecution  of  the 
image-worshippers.  Methodius  gravely  replied,  that 
the  power  of  the  clergy  to  grant  absolution  to  the 
living  was  unbounded,  but  of  those  who  had  died  in 
obstinate  sin,  they  had  no  authority  to  cancel  or  to 
mitigate  the  damnation.  Even  her  own  Mends  sus- 
pected the  empress  of  a  pious  lie  when  she  asserted, 
and  even  swore,  that  her  husband,  in  the  agony  of 
death,  had  expressed  his  bitter  repentance,  had  ascribed 
all  the  calamities  of  his  reign  to  his  stubborn  heresy, 
had  actually  entreated  her  to  bring  him  the  images, 
had  passionately  kissed  them,  and  so  rendered  up  his 
spirit  to  the  ministering  angels.  The  clergy,  out  of 
respect  to  the  empress  and  zeal  for  their  own  object, 
did  not  question  too  closely  the  death-bed  penitence  of 
Theophilus ;  with  one  consent  they  pronounced  his 
pardon  before  God,  and  gave  a  written  sentence  of  his 
absolution  to  the  empress. 

All  was  now  easy ;  the  fanaticism  of  Iconoclasm  was 
exhausted  or  rebuked.  A  solemn  festival  was  appoint- 
ed for  the  restoration  of  images.  The  whole  clergy 
of  Constantinople,  and  all  who  could  flock  in  from  the 
neighborhood,  met  in  and  before  the  palace  of  the 
archbishop,  and  marched   in  procession   with   crosses. 


Chap.  Vm.  CLOSE  OF   ICONOCLASM.  369 

torches,  and  incense,  to  the  churcli  of  St.  Sophia. 
There  they  were  met  by  the  empress  and  her  Infixnt 
son  MichaeL  They  made  the  circuit  of  the  Feb.  i9, 842. 
church,  with  their  burning  torches,  paying  homage  to 
every  image  and  picture,  which  had  been  carefully 
restored,  never  again  to  be  effaced  till  the  days  of 
later,  more  terrible  Iconoclasts,  the  Ottoman  Turks. 

The  Greek  Church  from  that  time  has  celebrated 
the  anniversary  of  this  festival  with  loyal  fidelity.^ 
The  successors  of  Methodius,  particularly  the  learned 
Photius,  were  only  zealous  to  consummate  the  work 
of  his  predecessors,  and  images  have  formed  part  of 
the  recognized  religious  worship  of  the  Eastern  world. 

1  Methodius  was  Patriarch  only  four  years. 


B70  LATIN  CEQIISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

SEVERANCE  OF  GREEK  AND  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY. 

Up  to  the  eighth  century  Rome  had  not  been  abso- 
lutely dissevered  from  the  ancient  and  decrepit  civili- 
j;,vijth  zation    of  the   old    Empire.      After   a   short 

ceotury.  period  of  subjection  to  the  Ostrogothic  king- 
dom, by  the  conquest  of  Justinian  she  had  sunk  into  a 
provincial  city  of  the  Eastern  realm.  In  the  eighth 
century  she  suddenly,  as  it  were,  burst  the  bonds  of 
her  connection  with  the  older  state  of  things,  disjoined 
herself  forever  from  the  eifete  and  hopeless  East,  and 
placed  herself  at  the  head  of  the  rude  as  yet,  and 
dimly  descried  and  remote,  but  more  promising  and 
vigorous  civilization  of  the  West.  The  Byzantine 
Empire  became  a  separate  world,  Greek  Christianity 
a  separate  religion.  The  West,  after  some  struggle, 
created  its  own  empire:  its  natives  formed  an  inde- 
pendent system,  either  of  warring  or  of  confederate 
nations.  Latin  Christianity  was  the  life,  the  principle 
of  union,  of  {til  the  West;   its  centre,  papal  Rome. 

Moliammedanism  —  which  was  gradually  encircling 
and  isolating  the  Byzantine  Empire  from  its  outlying 
provinces,  obtaining  the  naval  superiority  in  the  Medi- 
terranean, and  subjecting  the  islands  to  her  sway  ; 
which,  with  the  yet  unconverted  Bulgarians,  fully 
occupied  all  the  Eastern  armies,  and  left  the  Emperor 


CiiAP.  rX.  EXARCHS   OF  RAVENNA.  371 

without  power  to  protect  or  even  keep  in  subjection 
the  Exarchate  and  the  Italian  dependencies  —  was  the 
remoter  cause  of  the  emancipation  of  the  West.  The 
Koran  thus  in  some  degree,  by  breaking  oif  all  corre- 
spondence with  the  East,  contributed  to  deliver  the 
Pope  from  a  distant  and  arbitrary  master,  and  to  re- 
lieve him  from  that  harassing  rivalry  with  which  the 
patriarch  of  Constantinople  constantly  i^enewed  his 
pretensions  to  equality  or  to  superiority ;  and  so 
placed  him  alone  in  undisputed  dignity  at  the  head 
of  Western  Christendom.  But  the  immediate  caus(j 
of  this  disruption  and  final  severance  between  the 
East  and  West  was  the  Iconoclasm  of  the  Eastern 
emperors.  Other  signs  of  estrangement  might  seem 
to  forebode  this  inevitable  revolution.  The  line  of 
Justinian,  the  conqueror  of  Italy,  after  it  had  been 
deposed  and  had  reassumed  the  Empire  in  the  person 
of  the  younger  emperor  of  that  name,  was  now  ex- 
tinct. Adventurer  after  adventurer  had  risen  to  power, 
and  this  continual  revolution  could  not  but  weaken  the 
attachment,  especially  of  foreign  subjects,  who  might 
think,  or  choose  to  think,  succession  and  hereditary 
descent  the  only  strong  titles  to  their  obedience.  Rome 
and  Italy  must  thus  ignominiously  acknowledge  e^-ery 
rude  or  low-born  soldier  whom  the  rabble  of  Constan- 
tinople, the  court,  or  more  powerful  army,  might  ele- 
vate to  the  throne. 

The  exarchal  government  from  the  first  had   only 
been  pow^erful  to  tyrannize  and  feeble  to  ]:)ro-  gxarchf  )f 
tect.     The  Exarch  was  like  the  satrap  of  an  ^^^«°'"^- 
old  Eastern  monarchy ;  and  this  was  more  and  more 
sensibly  felt  throughout   Italy.     Without   abandoning 
anv    of   its   inferior   demands    on    the  obedience,   tliis 


j72  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

rule  was  becoming  less  and  less  able  to  resist  the 
growing  power  and  enterprise  of  the  Lombards,  or 
even  to  preserve  the  peace  of  the  Italian  dependencies. 
The  exarchate  had  still  strength  to  levy  tribute,  and 
to  enforce  heavy  taxation,  the  produce  of  which  was 
sent  to  Constantinople.  It  repaid  these  burdens  but 
scantily  by  any  of  the  defensive  or  conservative  offices 
c»f  government.  During  the  pontificate  of  John  VI., 
the  Exarch  Theo}:)hyIact  had  only  been  protected  from 
the  resentment  of  his  own  soldiery  by  the  interference 
of  the  pope.  The  most  unambitious  pontiff  might 
wish  to  detach  his  country  and  his  people  from  the 
falling  fortunes  of  the  Byzantine  Empire.  If  he 
looked  to  Rome,  its  allegiance  to  the  East  was  but 
of  recent  date,  the  conquest  of  Justinian  ;  if  to  his 
own  position,  he  could  not  but  know  that  the  succes- 
sor of  St.  Peter  held  a  much  higher  place,  both  as  to 
respect  and  authority,  before  he  had  sunk  into  a  sub- 
ject of  Constantinople.  Never  till  this  period  in  the 
papal  annals  had  a  pope  been  summoned,  like  a  meaner 
subject,  to  give  an  account  of  his  spiritual  proceedings 
in  a  foreign  city  ;  nor  had  he  been  seized  and  hurried 
away,  with  insult  and  cruel  ill  usage,  to  Constantino- 
ple, and,  like  the  unhappy  Martin,  left  to  perish  in 
exile. 

Whatever  lingering  loyalty,  under  these  trying  cir- 
cumstances, might  prevail  in  Italy,  or  in  the  mind  of 
the  pontiff,  to  the  old  Roman  government  —  whatever 
repugnance  to  the  yoke  of  Barbarians,  which  might 
seem  the  only  alternative  when  they  should  cease  to 
])e  the  subjects  of  the  Empire  —  these  bonds  of  at- 
tachment were  at  once  rudely  broken  when  the  em- 
neror  became  an  heresiarch  ;  not  a  speculative  heresi- 


Chap.  IX.  IMaGE-WORSHIP  IN  ITALY.  873 

arch  on  some  abstract  and  mysterious  doctrine,  but 
the  head  of  a  heresy  which  struck  at  the  root  of  the 
popular  religion  —  of  the  daily  worship  of  the  people. 
In  general  estimation,  an  Iconoclastic  Emperor  almost 
ceased  to  be  a  Christian  :  his  tenets  were  those  of  a 
Jew  or  a  Mohammedan.  In  the  East  the  emperor, 
from  fear,  from  persuasion,  or  from  conviction,  ob- 
tained, at  one  time  at  least,  a  formidable  party  in  his 
favor,  even  among  the  clergy.  But  for  the  monks, 
images  might  have  disappeared  from  the  East.  In  the 
West,  iconoclasm  was  met  with  universal  aversion  and 
hostility.  The  Italian  mind  had  rivalled  the  i^age-wor- 
Greek  "in  the  fertility  with  which  it  had  fos-  ^^^p"^'^  ^^^y- 
tered  the  growth  of  image-worship:  it  adhered  to  it 
with  stronger  pertinacity.  The  expressive  symbol  of 
the  fourth  century,  and  the  suggestive  picture,  which 
was,  in  the  time  of  Gregory  the  Great,  to  be  the  book 
of  Scripture  to  the  unlearned,  had  expanded  into  the 
fondest  attachment  to  the  images  of  saints  and  mar- 
tyrs, the  Virgin,  and  the  Saviour.  In  this  as  in  all 
the  other  great  controversies,  from  good  fortune,  from 
sagacity,  from  sympathy  with  the  popular  feeling,  its 
adherents  would  say  from  a  higher  guidance,  the 
papacy  took  the  popular  and  eventually  successful 
side.  The  pope  was  again  not  the  dictator,  he  was 
the  representative  of  the  religious  mind  of  the  age. 
One  of  the  more  recent  popes,  the  timid  John  VII., 
a  Greek  by  birth,  might  seem  almost  prophetically  to 
have  committed  the  papal  see  to  the  support  Johu  vii. 
of  image-worship,  and  resistance  to  an  iconoclastic  em- 
peror. In  a  chapel  which  he  dedicated  in  honor  of  the 
Virgin,  in  the  church  of  St.  Feter,  the  walls  were  in 
laid  with  pictures  of  the  holy  fathers ;  and  throughout 


374  LATIN  CHRISTIAl^ITY.  Book  IV 

Rome  lie  lavislily  adorned  the  churches  with  pictures 
and  statues.  Gregory  II.  had  no  doubt  often  worship- 
ped in  pubHc  before  these  works  of  his  holy  predecessor. 

The  character  of  Gregory  II.  does  not  warrant  the 
Gicory  II.  belief  that  he  had  formed  any  deliberate  plan 
A.D.  715-731.  Q^  policy  for  the  alienation  of  Italy  from  the 
Eastern  Empire.  He  was  actuated  not  by  worldly 
but  by  religious  passions  —  by  zeal  for  images,  not  by 
any  splendid  vision  of  the  independence  of  Italy.  For 
w^here  indeed  could  be  found  the  protecting,  the  or- 
ganizing, the  administrative  and  ruling  power  which 
could  replace  the  abrogated  authority  of  the  Empire  ? 
The  papacy  had  not  yet  aspired  to  the  attributes  and 
functions  of  temporal  sovereignty. 

In  Italy  the  Lombard  kingdom  in  the  north,  with  its 
kindred  dukedoms  of  Benevento  and  Spoleto  in  the 
south,  alone  possessed  the  strength  and  vigor  of  settled 
government.^  Under  the  long  and  comparatively 
])eaceful  reign  of  Rotharis,  it  had  enjoyed  what  appears 
ahnost  fabulous  prosperity :  it  had  its  code  of  laws. 
Liutprand  now  filled  the  throne,  a  prince  of  great 
ambition  and  enterprise.  If  the  pa})acy  had  entered 
into  a  confederacy  of  interests  with  the  Lombard  kings, 
and  contenting  itself  with  spiritual  power,  by  which 
it  mio:ht  have  ruled  almost  uncontrolled  over  Barba- 
rian  monarchs,  and  with  large  ecclesiastical  possessions 
without  sovereign  rights,  Italy  might  again  perha})s 
have  been  consolidated  into  a  great  kingdom.  But 
I  his  policy,  which  the  papacy  was  too  Roman  to  pur- 
sue with  the  Gothic  kings,  or  which  was  repudiated 

1  From  635  to  651.  During  all  this  period  Catholic  and  A  rian  bishopa 
presided  over  their  separate  congregations  m  most  of  the  cities  of  Italv  — 
Le  Beau,  Bas  Empire,  Iviii.  •i. 


CiLVP.  IX.  LIUTPRAND.  375 

as  bringing  a  powerful  temporal  monarch  in  too  close 
collision  with  the  supreme  pontiff,  was  even  less  likely 
to  be  adopted  with  the  Lombards.^  Between  the 
papal  see  and  the  Lombard  sovereigns  —  indeed  be- 
tween the  Lombards  and  the  Italian  clergy — -there 
seems  almost  from  first  to  last  to  have  prevailed  an 
implacable  and  inexplicable  antipathy.  Of  all  the  con- 
querors of  Italy,  these  (according  to  more  favorable 
historians)  orderly  and  peaceful  people  are  represented 
as  the  most  irreclaimably  savage.  The  taint  of  their 
orio-inal  Arianism  was  indelible.  No  terms  are  too 
strong  with  the  popes  to  express  their  detestation  of 
the  Lombards. 

According  to  the  course  of  events,  as  far  as  it  can  be 
traced  in  chronological  order,  Gregory  remained  wa- 
vering and  confounded  by  these  simultaneous  but  con- 
flicting passions :  his  determination  to  resist  an  icono- 
clastic emperor,  and  his  dread  of  the  Lombard  suprem- 
acy in  Italy.  Up  to  the  tenth  year  of  his  pontificate 
he  had  been  occupied  by  the  more  peaceful  duties  of 
his  station.  He  had  averted  the  ao;o;ressions  of  the 
Lombard  dukes  on  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter  ;  he 
liad  commissioned  Boniface  to  preach  the  a.d.  tio. 
Gospel  in  Germany ;  he  had  extended  his  paternal 
care  over  the  churches  in  England.  No  doubt,  ever? 
if  his  more  formal  epistles  had  not  yet  been  delivered, 
he  had  expostulated  with  the  emperor  on  the  first  ap  • 
pearances  of  his  hostility  to    images  ^  repeatedly,  fre- 

1  Yet  the  Lombards  had  more  than  once  defended  the  Pope  against  the 
Exarch.  —  Epist.  Olradi.  Episcop.  Mediol.  ad  Carol.  M.  de  Transhit.  S. 
Augustin.  Olrad  says  of  Liutprand,  that  he  was  "  protector  et  defensor 
tidelis  Ecclesiarum  Dei Christianissimus  fuit  ac  religionis  amator." 

^  On  the  first  intelligence  of  the  Emperor's  open  iconoclasm,  the  Popq 
sent  everywhere  letters,  "  cavere  se  Christianos,  quod  orta  fuisset  impie- 
tas."  —  Vit.  Greg.  II. 


376  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

quently,  if  not  by  private  letters,  probably  by  other 
missives. 

But  the  fatal  edict  came  to  Italy  as  to  one  of  the 
Iconoclastic  provinces  subject  to  the  Emperor  Leo.  The 
AD. 728.  Exarch  Scholasticus  commanded  it  to  be  pub- 
lished in  the  city  of  Ravenna.  The  people  broke  out 
in  instant  insurrection,  declared  their  determination 
to  renounce  their  allegiance  rather  than  permit  their 
churches  to  be  despoiled  of  their  holiest  ornaments, 
A.D.  727.  attacked  the  soldiery,  and  maintained  a  des- 
perate conflict  for  the  mastery  of  the  city.  Liutprand, 
the  Lombard  king,  had  been  watching  in  eager  expec- 
tation of  this  strife  to  expel  the  exarch,  and  to  add 
the  whole  Roman  territory  to  his  dominions.  With 
Lombards  a  large  force  he  sat  down  before  Ravenna. 
venna.  Though   the   garHsou    made  a  vigorous  de- 

fence, Liutprand,  by  declaring  himself  a  devout  wor- 
shipper of  images,  won  the  populace  to  his  party , 
Ravenna  surrendered ;  the  troops  of  Liutprand  spread 
without  resistance  over  the  whole  Pentapolis. 

Gregory  was  alarmed,  for  if  he  hated  the  heretical 
emperor,  he  had  no  less  dread  and  dislike  of  the  con- 
quering Lombard.^  The  establishment  of  this  odious 
sovereignty  throughout  Italy,  which  had  been  so  long 
making  its  silent  aggressions  in  the  South,  with  a  king 
of  the  unmeasured  ambition  and  abihty  of  Liutprand, 
was  even  more  formidable  to  the  pope  than  the  effete 
tyranny  of  Constantinople.^ 

Gregory   first    discerned,    among    her    islands   and 

1  "  Quia,  peccato  faventc,  Ravenna  turn  civitas,  qua?  caput  extat  omnium, 
a  7n?n  dicenda  f?cnte  Longobardorum  capta  est."  —  Grej^.  Epist.  x. 

2  The  chronoloj^:}'  is  so  uncertain,  that  I  have  heen  constrained  to  follow 
Bonn'timcs  one  authority,  sometimes  another  —  Baronius,  Pagi,  Muratori - 
and  so  have  endeavored  to  trace  the  historical  secjuence  of  events 


Chap.  IX.  RAVENNA  RETAKEN.  377 

marshes,  tlie  rising  power  of  Venice,  equal-  Venice. 
ly  jealous  with  himself  of  the  extension    of  ^'^'  ^^^* 
the   Lombard  power.       There  the  exarch  had  taken 
refuge.     At  the  instigation  of  Gregory  a  league  was 
formed  of  the   maritime  forces  of  Venice,   already  of 
some   importance,  nominally  with  the   exarch,  really 
with  the  pope,  and  the  whole  Roman  or  By-  Ravenna 
zantine  troops.     Ravenna  was  retaken  while  ''^^''®'^' 
Liutprand  was  at  Pavia,  and  before  he  could  collect 
his  army  to  relieve  it. 

Gregory  was  still  outwardly  a  loyal  subject  of  the 
emperor,  but  the  breach  was  inevitable.  Iconoclasm 
had  now  become  fanaticism  with  Leo  ;  and  Gregory, 
whether  his  celebrated  letters  had  yet  been  dispatched 
or  were  only  in  preparation,  was  as  resolute  in  his 
assertion  of  image-worship.  Rumors  spread,  and 
were  generally  believed,  that  the  Iconoclast  had  sent 
orders  to  seize  or  to  murder  the  pope.  Each  succes- 
sive officer  who  was  sent  to  retrieve  the  imperial  affairs 
was  supposed  to  be  charged  with  this  impious  mission. 
Leo,  no  doubt,  would  have  scrupled  as  little  as  his 
predecessors  to  order  the  apprehension  of  the  refractory 
prelate,  and  his  transportation  to  Constantinople ;  nor 
if  blood  had  been  shed  in  resistance  to  his  commands, 
would  he  have  considered  it  an  inexpiable  crime.^  But 
the  pope  believed  himself,  or  declared  his  belief,  that  he 
was  menaced  with  secret  assassination.  Three  persons 
are  named  —  the  Duke  Basil,  Jordan  the  Chartulary, 
and  John  surnamed  Lurion  —  as  meditating  this  crime, 
under  the  sanction  first  of  Marinus,  Duke  of  the  city 
of  Rome,  afterwards  of  Paul,  who  was  sent  as  Exarch 
to  restore   the   imperial   ascendency.     Two   of    these 

1  Comp.  Muratori  sub  ann.  Dccxxvii. 


378  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  B(:h)k  IY 

murderers  were  killed  by  the  people  ;  the  third,  Basil, 
turned  monk  to  save  his  life.^  Paul  the  Exarch  occu- 
pied Ravenna,  which,  with  the  Pentapolis,  with  Rome 
and  Naples,  were  the  only  parts  of  Italy  still  in  posses- 
sion of  the  emperor,  though  Venice  owned  a  doubtful 
allegiance.  It  was  announced  that  the  Exarch  intend- 
ed to  march  to  Rome  to  depose  the  Pope,  and  at  the 
same  time  measures  were  to  be  taken  to  destroy  the 
images  in  the  churches  throughout  Italy.  The  whole 
territory  —  Venice,  the  Pentapolis,  Rome  —  at  once 
rose  up  in  defence  of  the  Pope.  They  declared  that 
they  would  not  recognize  the  commission  of  Paul ;  his 
generals  began  to  contemplate  their  separate  indepen- 
dence. They  were  only  prevented  by  the  prudence  of 
Gregory  from  proclaiming  a  new  emperor,  and  sending 
him  against  Constantinople.  The  crafty  Lombards 
again  joined  the  popular  cause.  Exhilaratus,  Duke  of 
Naples,  said  to  have  plotted  against  the  pope's  life,  was 
slain  with  his  son.  Ravenna  was  divided  between  the 
papal  and  imperial  factions.  The  Exarch  fell  in  the 
tumult.  The  Lombards  were  the  gainers  in  all  these 
commotions :  they  occupied  all  the  strong  places  in  the 
Exarchate  and  in  the  Pentapolis. 

A  new  Exarch,  the  last  Exarch  of  Ravenna,  Euty- 
chius,  landed  at  Naples.  He  is  likewise  accused  of 
designing  to  send  a  band  of  assassins  to  Rome,  to  mur- 
der, not  only  the  Pope,  but  also  the  chief  nobles  of  the 
city.  But  for  the  intervention  of  the  Pope,  they  would 
have  retaliated  by  sending  assassins  to  kill  the  Exarch. 
A  fearful  state  of   Christian  society  wlien  such  acts,  if 

1  Gregory  is  silent  in  his  letters  about  these  attempts  at  assassination. 
But  the  letters  may  have  been  written,  even  if  not  delivered,  before  this 
date. 


UiiAP.  IX.  LIUTPRAND  IN  ROME.  379 

not  designed,  were  believed  to  be  designed  by  both  par- 
ties ! 

All  Rome  pledged  itself  by  a  solemn  oath  to  live  and 
die  in  defence  of  their  Pontiff^  —  the  protector  of  the 
images  in  their  churches.  The  Lombards  were  equally 
loud  in  their  protestations  of  reverence  for  his  person. 
The  ban  of  excommunication  was  issued  against  the 
Exarch.  t.ie  odious  mutilator  and  destroyer  of  those 
holy  memorials.  Eutychius  at  first  attempted  to  alien- 
ate the  Lombards  from  the  papal  interest,  but  it  now 
suited  the  politic  Liutprand  to  adhere  in  the  closest 
league  to  the  rebellious  Romans.  Eutychius  had  not 
offered  a  tempting  price  for  his  alliance.  Some  time 
after,  coveting  the  independent  dukedoms  of  Spoleto 
and  Benevento,  Liutprand  entered  into  secret  negotia- 
tions with  the  Exarch.  The  dukedoms  by  this  treaty 
were  to  be  the  share  of  the  Lombard  king,  Rome  to  be 
restored  to  its  allegiance  to  the  emperor.  Liutprand 
having  made  himself  master  of  Spoleto,  and  a.d.  729. 
thus  partly  gained  his  own  ends,  advanced  to  Rome, 
and  encamped  in  the  field  of  Nero.^  The  Pope,  like 
his  predecessors,  went  forth  to  overawe  by  his  com- 
manding sanctity  this  new  Barbarian  conqueror,  who 
threatened  the  Holy  City.  It  pleased  Liutprand  to  be 
overawed ;  he  was  not  too  sincere  in  his  design  to  re- 
store the  imperial  authority  in  Rome.  He  played 
admirably  the  part  of  a  pious  son  of  the  Church  ;  his 
conduct,  as  doubtless  he  intended,  contrasted  no  little 
to  his  advantaore  with  that  of  the  sacrilegious  Icono- 
clast  Leo.     He  cast  himself  at  the  feet  of  the  Pope,  he 

1  "  Qui  ex  scriptis  nefandam  viri  (Exarchi)  dolositatem  despicientes  una 
se  (juasi  fratres  Romani  atque  Loiigobardi  catena  tidei  coastrinxerunt  cuncti 
oiurtetu  pro  defoiisione  Poutiticis  sustinere  gloriosam."  —  Olradi,  Epist. 

2  Anastaslus,  Vit. 


6m  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

put  off  his  armor  and  all  his  splendid  dress,  his  girdle, 
Lint  rund  ^^^  sword,  his  gauntlcts,  his  royal  mantel,  his 
in  Rome.  crown  of  gold,  and  a  cross  of  silver,  and 
otTered  them  at  the  tomb  of  the  Apostle.  He  entreated 
the  Pope  (his  arguments  were  not  likely  to  be  ineffect- 
ual) to  make  peace  with  the  Exarch.  So  completely 
did  liarmony  appear  to  be  restored,  that  the  Pope  and 
the  Exarch  united  in  suppressing  an  insurrection  raised 
by  a  certain  Petasius,  who  proclaimed  himself  emperor 
under  the  title  of  Tiberius  III.  The  Exarch,  with  the 
aid  of  the  Romans,  seized  the  usurper,  and  sent  his  head 
A.D.  730.  to  Constantinople.  After  this  the  Exarch 
probably  retired  to  Ravenna,  and  must  at  least  have 
suspended  all  active  measures  for  the  suppression  of 
image-worship. 

Throughout  these  transactions  the  Pope  appears  act- 
ually if  not  openly  an  independent  power,  leaguing 
with  tlie  allies  or  the  enemies  of  the  Empire,  as  might 
suit  the  exigencies  of  the  time  ;  yet  the  share  of  Greg- 
ory II.  in  the  revolt  of  Italy  has  been  exaggerated  by 
those  who  boast  of  this  glorious  precedent  and  example 
for  the  assertion  of  the  ecclesiastical  power,  by  depriv- 
ing an  herectical  subject  of  his  authority  over  part  of 
his  realm,  and  striking  the  Imperial  Head  with  the 
impartial  thunders  of  excommunication  ;  so  also  by 
those  who  charge  him  with  the  sin  of  rebellion  against 
heaven-constituted  monarchy.  If,  as  is  said,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  the  hostile  measure  of  forbidding  the  Italian 
sul)jects  of  Leo  to  pay  their  tribute  ;  if  by  a  direct  ex- 
communication he  either  virtually  or  avowedly  released 
the  subjects  of  the  Emperor  from  their  allegiance  ^  (Ms 

1  Theophanes,  iv.  c.  5  (p.  621);  after  him  by  Glycas,  Zouaras,  Cedrenua 
See  likewise  Aiiu.stasius. 


Chap.  IX.  COUNCIL  AT  ROME.  881 

own  language  in  Ills  letters  by  no  means  takes  this 
haughty  or  unsubmissive  tone),  his  object  was  not  the 
emancipation  of  Italy,  but  the  preservation  of  images, 
in  which  Gregory  was  as  fanatically  sincere  as  the 
humblest  monk  in  his  diocese. 

No  doubt  a  council  was  summoned  and  held  at 
Rome  by  Gregory  II.,  in  which  anathemas  were 
launched   against  the  destroyers   of    imac^es.  Nov.  730. 

_„     ,  »      ,  -^        .  °         CouncUat 

If,  however,  the  emperor  was  by  name  ex-  Rome. 
communicated  by  the  pope,  this  was  not  and  could  not 
be,  as  in  later  times  with  the  kings  and  emperors  of 
Western  Europe,  an  absolute  and  total  exclusion  from 
Christian  privileges  and  Christian  rites.  It  was  a  dis- 
ruption of  all  communion  with  the  Bishop  of  Rome, 
and  his  orthodox  Itahan  subjects.^  No  doubt  there  was 
a  latent  assertion  that  the  Roman  church  was  the  one 
true  church,  and  that  beyond  that  church  there  was  no 
salvation  ;  but  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  recog- 
nized no  such  power  in  the  Roman  pontiff,  unless  him- 
self joined  in  the  anathema ;  and  Anastasius,  the  pres- 
ent Patriarch,  was  now  an  ardent  destroyer  of  images.^ 
Leo  revenged  himself  by  severing  the  Transadriatic 
provinces,  the  Illyrica,  from  the  Roman  patriarchate, 
and  by  confiscating  the  large  estates  of  the  see  of  Rome 
in  Calabria  and  Sicily.  He  appears  too  to  have  chosen 
this  unfortunate  time  for  an  increase  in  the  taxation  of 

1  AValch  makes  two  sensible  observations ;  first,  that  the  revolt  of  Italy 
and  the  extinction  of  the  Exarchate  was  not  complete  till  after  the  death 
of  both  Gregorys;  secondly,  that  the  excommunication  of  the  Emperor  by 
the  Pope  was  not  an  exclusion  from  all  spiritual  privileges,  but  merely  a 
refusal  to  communicate  with  him. 

2  In  the  reference  to  the  council  in  the  letter  of  Pope  Hadrian  to  Charle- 
magne, p.  1460,  he  does  not  mention,  though  he  does  not  exclude  the  no- 
tion of  the  excommunication  of  the  Emperor.  The  council  was  held  in 
Nov.  730;  Gregory  died  Feb.  731. 


382  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

those  pi'ovinces.  A  new  census  was  ordered  with  a 
view  to  a  more  productive  capitation  tax.  The  dis- 
content at  tliese  exactions  would  no  doubt  strenothen 
the  general  resistance  to  the  measures  of  Leo ;  and 
perhaps  Gregory's  prohibition  of  the  payment  to  the 
imperial  revenue  may  have  been  but  resistance  to  these 
unprecedented  burdens. 

Such  was  the  relation  between  the  see  of  Rome  and 
Buried  Feb.  the  Eastern  Empire  at  the  death  of  Gregory 
11,731.  jj^  jjjg  successor,  Gregory  III.,  was  of 
Gregory  iH.  Syrian  birth.  At  the  funeral  of  the  deceased 
pope,  the  clergy  and  the  whole  people  broke  out  into 
a  sudden  acclamation,  and  declared  Gregory  III.  his 
successor.  But  he  was  not  consecrated  till  the  ensuino; 
month.  So  far  was  this  election  from  a  deliberate  re- 
nunciation of  allegiance  to  the  Empire,  or  an  assertion 
of  independence  on  the  part  of  the  Pope  or  the  Roman 
people,  that  the  confirmation  of  the  election  by  the  Ex- 
arch at  Ravenna  was  dutifully  awaited  before  the  Pope 
assumed  his  authority.  Nor  did  Gregory  III.  break  off 
or  suspend  his  direct  intercourse  with  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment. His  first  act  was  a  mission  to  Constantinople 
to  announce  his  adherence  to  the  doctrines  of  his  pred- 
ecessor on  image-worship  ;  and  though  his  inflexible 
language  was  not  likely  to  conciliate  the  Emperor,  this 
mission  and  much  of  the  subsequent  conduct  of  Greg- 
ory show  the  separation  of  Italy  from  the  Empire 
was,  at  least,  even  if  remotely  contemplated,  no  avowed 
object  of  the  papal  policy.  The  first  message  was 
intrusted  to  George  the  Presbyter,  but  its  language 
was  so  sternly  and  haughtily  condemnatory  of  the  em 
peror's  religious  proceedings,  that  the  trembling  ambas- 
fiadoi*  had  hardly  begun  his  journey  when  he  fled  back 


Chap.  IX,  GREGORY  III.  388 

to  Rome  and  acknowledged  that  he  had  not  courage  for 
this  dangerous  mission.  The  Pope  was  so  indignant 
at  this  want  of  sacerdotal  daring,  that  he  threatened  to 
degrade  the  Preshyter,  and  was  hardly  persuaded  to 
impose  a  lighter  penance.  Once  more  George  ad.  7S2. 
was  ordered  to  set  out  for  the  court  of  Leo ;  he  was 
arrested  in  Sicily,  and  not  allowed  to  proceed.  Greg- 
ory, finding  his  remonstrances  vain  or  unheard,  as- 
sumed a  bolder  attitude. 

The  council  held  by  Gregory  III.  was  formed  with 
great  care  and  solemnity.  It  was  intended  Nov.  i,  732. 
to  be  the  declaration  of  defiance  on  the  subject  of  im- 
ages from  all  Italy.  The  archbishops  of  Grado  and 
Ravenna,  with  ninety-three  other  prelates  or  presby- 
ters of  the  apostolic  see,  with  the  deacons  and  the  rest 
of  the  clergy,  the  consuls  and  the  people  of  Rome,  pro- 
nounced their  decree  that,  whoever  should  overthrow, 
mutilate,  profane,  blaspheme  the  venerable  images  of 
Christ  our  God  and  Lord,  of  the  immaculate  and  glo- 
rious Virgin,  of  the  blessed  apostles  and  saints,  was 
banished  from  all  communion  in  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ,  and  from  the  unity  of  the  Church. 

This  solemn  edict  was  sent  to  Constantinople  by 
Constantine,  the  defender  of  the  city.  Constantine 
also  was  arrested  in  Sicily,  his  letters  taken  away,  and 
after  an  imprisonment  of  a  year,  he  was  allowed  to  re- 
turn to  Rome  to  report  the  bad  success  of  his  mission. 
Another  address  was  sent  in  the  name  of  the  people  of 
Italy,  urging  their  attachment  to  the  images,  and  im- 
ploring the  emperor  to  annul  his  fatal  statute.  This, 
with  two  expostulatory  letters  from  the  pope,  got  not 
beyond  Sicily.  The  messengers  were  seized  by  Ser- 
gius,  the   commander  of  the  imperial   troops,  confined 


884  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

for  eight  months,  sent  back  with  every  indignity  to 
Rome,  and  menaced  with  the  punishment  of  traitors  and 
rebels  if  they  should  venture  to  land  again  in  Sicily. 

In  Rome  Gregory  III.  set  the  example  of  image- 
worship  on  the  most  splendid  scale.  He  had  obtained 
six  pillars  of  precious  marble  from  the  Exarch  at  Ra- 
venna, and  arranged  them  in  order  with  six  others  of 
equal  value.  These  he  overlaid  with  tlie  purest  silver, 
on  which,  on  one  side,  were  represented  the  Saviour  and 
the  apostles,  on  the  other  the  Mother  of  God  with  the 
holy  virgins.  In  an  oratory  of  the  same  church  he  en- 
shrined, in  honor  of  the  Saviour  and  the  Virgin,  relics 
of  the  apostles,  the  martyrs,  and  saints  of  all  the  world. 
Among  his  other  costly  offerings  was  an  image  of  the 
Holy  Mother  of  God,  having  a  diadem  of  gold  and  jew- 
els, a  golden  collar  with  pendent  gems,  and  earrings  with 
six  jacinths.  In  the  Church  of  the  Virgin  was  another 
image  of  the  Mother,  with  the  Divine  Infant  in  her  arms, 
adorned  with  pearls  of  great  weight  and  size.  Many 
other  of  the  churches  in  Rome  and  in  the  neighborhood 
were  decorated  with  images  of  proportionate  splendor. 

The  Emperor,  about  this  time,  made  his  last  desper- 
ate effort  to  retrieve  his  fortunes  in  Italy,  to  relieve 
the  Exarch  Eutychius,  who  was  shut  up  in  powerless 
Loss  of  Em-  inactivity  in  Ravenna,  and  to  reduce  the  re- 
peror's  fleet,  f^.^ctory  pope  and  Italy  to  obedience.  A 
formidable  armament  was  embarked  on  board  a  great 
fleet,  under  the  command  of  Manes,  one  of  his  bravest 
and  most  experienced  generals.  The  fleet  encountered 
a  terrible  storm  in  the  Adriatic ;  great  part  of  the  ships 
was  lost ;  and  the  image-worshippers  on  tlie  coast  of 
Calabria  beheld  their  shores  strewn  with  the  wrecks  of 
the  Iconoclastic  navy.    Henceforth  the  Eastern  Empire 


CiiAP.  IX.  CHARLES  MARTEL.  385 

almost  acquiesced  in  the  loss  of  the  exarchate.  Entych- 
ius  maintained  for  a  long  time  his  perilous  position  in 
Ravenna,  temporizing  between  the  pope,  the  pugi^tofthe 
Lombards,  and  the  Franks.     Nearly  twenty  ^^^^'=^- 
years  later  he  abandoned  the  seat  of  government,  and 
took  refuge  in  Naples. 

Now,  however,  that  the  real  power  of  the  empire  in 
Italy  was  extinguished,  it  might  seem  that  nothing 
could  resist  the  Lombards.  Though  King  Liutprand 
and  Gregory  III.,  at  least  for  the  first  eight  years  of 
Gregory's  pontificate,  maintained  their  outward  amity, 
the  Lombards,  though  not  now  Arian,  were  almost 
equally  objects  of  secret  abhorrence  to  the  Catholic  and 
the  Roman.  Italy  must  again  become  a  Barbarian 
kingdom,  the  Pope  the  subject  of  a  sovereign  at  his 
gates  or  within  his  city. 

At  this  juncture  the  attention  of  Europe,  of  all 
Christendom,  is  centred  upon  the  Franks.  The  great 
victory  of  Tours  had  raised  Charles  Martel  to  the  rank 
of  the  protector  of  the  liberties  of  the  religion  of  the 
Western  world,  from  the  all-conquering  Mohammedans. 
It  was  almost  the  first,^  unquestionably  the  greatest  de- 
feat which  that  power  had  suffered,  from  the  charies 
time  that  it  alvanced  beyond  the  borders  of  a.d. 72*9. 
Arabia,  and  having  yet  found  no  limits  to  its  conquests 
in  the  East,  had  swept  westward  over  Africa,  Spain, 
and  Southern  Gaul,  and  seemed  destined  to  envelip 
the  whole  world. 

The  Pope  was  thus  compelled,  invited,  encouraged 
by  every  circumstance  to  look  for  protection,  unless  he 
submitted  to  the  abhorred  Lombard,  beyond  the  Alps.^ 

1  The  bloody  defeat  of  Toulouse  by  Count  Eudes  led  to  no  result. 

2  Liutprand  marched  across  the  Alps  but  the  year  before  in  aid  of  Charles 
VOL.  II.  25 


886  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV, 

The  Franks  alone  of  Barbarian  nations  had  from  the 
first  been  converted  to  orthodoxy,  and  adhered  to  it 
with  unshaken  fidelity.  The  Franks  had  dutifully 
listened  to  the  papal  recommendation  of  Boniface,  the 
Apostle  of  Germany,  had  countenanced  and  assisted 
his  holy  designs  for  the  conversion  of  the  Teutonic 
tribes  beyond  the  Rhine.  Already  had  Gregory  II. 
opened  a  communication  with  the  Franks ;  already, 
before  the  dissolution  of  the  Byzantine  power,  had  se- 
cret negotiations  •  begun  to  secure  their  aid  against  the 
Lombards.^  Eight  or  nine  years  of  doubtful  peace,  at 
least  of  respectful  mutual  understanding,  had  inter- 
vened ;  when,  almost  on  a  sudden,  the  Lombards  and 
the  Pope  are  involved  in  open  war,  and  Gregory  III. 
throws  himself  boldly  on  the  faith  and  loyalty  of  the 
mighty  Frank.  He  sends  the  mystic  keys  of  the  Sep- 
A.D.  739.  ulchre  of  St.  Peter  and  filings  of  his  chains  as 
gifts,  which  no  Christian  could  resist ;  he  offers  the  sig- 
nificant yet  undefined  title  of  Roman  Consul.  The 
Gregory  ap-  letter  of  Gregory  in  the  following  year  ap- 
cSries  peals  in  the  most  piteous  tone  to  the  commis- 
Martei.  eratiou   and  piety  of  the   Barbarian.     "  His 

tears  are  falling  day  and  night  for  the  destitute  state  of 
the  Church.  The  Lombard  king  and  his  son  are  ravag- 
ing by  fire  and  sword   the  last  remains  of  the  property 

Mattel  against  the  Saracens,  who  had  again  appeared  in  formidable  force 
in  the  South  of  France. 

1  The  authority  for  this  important  fact  is  Anastasius  in  his  Life  of 
Stephen  III.,  who,  in  his  dispute  with  King  Astolph,  "  cernens  praesertim, 
ab  iniperiali  potentia  nullum  esse  subveniendi  auxilium,  tunc  quemadmo- 
dum  pradecessores  ejus  beatne  memoria;  dominns  Gregorius  ct  Gregorius 
alter,  et  dominus  Zacharias,  beatissinii  pontifices  Carolo  excel lentissimaa 
memoriaj,  Regi  Francorum  direxenint,  petentes  sibi  subveniri,  propter  im- 
prcsaiones  ac  invasiones  quas  et  ipsi  in  hac  Romanorumprovinciaanefanda 
Longobardorum  gente  perpessi  sunt."     Charles  Martel  was  not  king. 


Chap.  IX.     GREGORY  APPEALS   TO   CHARLES  MARTEL.     387 

of  the  Church,  which  no  longer  suffices  for  the  suste- 
nance of  the  poor,  or  to  provide  Hghts  for  the  a.d.  740. 
dally  service.  They  had  invaded  the  territory  of  Rome 
and  seized  all  his  farms ;  ^  his  only  hope  was  in  the 
timely  succor  of  the  Frankish  king."  Gregory  knew 
that  the  Lombards  were  negotiating  with  the  Frank, 
and  dexterously  appeals  to  his  pride.  "  The  Lombards 
are  perpetually  speaking  of  him  with  contempt,  —  *  Let 
him  come,  this  Charles,  with  his  army  of  Franks ;  if 
he  can,  let  him  rescue  you  out  of  our  hands.'  O  un- 
speakable grief,  that  such  sons  so  insulted  should  make 
no  effort  to  defend  their  holy  mother  the  Church !  ^ 
Not  that  St.  Peter  is  unable  to  protect  his  successors, 
and  to  exact  vengeance  upon  their  oppressors ;  but  the 
apostle  is  putting  the  faith  of  his  followers  to  trial. 
Believe  not  the  Lombard  kings,  that  their  only  object  is 
to  punish  their  refractory  subjects,  the  dukes  of  Spoleto 
and  Benevento,  whose  only  crime  is  that  they  will  not 
join  in  the  invasion  and  the  plunder  of  the  Roman  see. 
Send,  O  my  most  Christian  son !  some  faithfal  officer, 
who  may  report  to  you  truly  the  condition  of  affairs 
here ;  who  may  behold  with  his  own  eyes  the  persecu- 
tions we  are  enduring,  the  humiliation  of  the  Church, 
the  desolation  of  our  property,  the  sorrow  of  the  pil- 
grims who  frequent  our  shrines.  Close  not  your  ears 
against  our  supplications,  lest  St.  Peter  close  against 
you  the  gates  of  heaven.  I  conjure  you  by  the  living 
and  true  God,  and  by  the  keys  of  St.  Peter,  not  to  pre- 
fer the  alliance  of  the  Lombards  to  the  love  of  ihe 
great  apostle,  but  hasten,  hasten  to  our  succor,  that  we 
may  say  with  the  prophet,  '  The  Lord  hath  heard  us  in 

1  In  partibus  Ravennatum. 

2  Fredegar.  Contin.  apud  Bouquet,  ii.  457. 


388  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

the  day  of  tribulation,  the  God  of  Jacob  hath  protect- 
ed us.'" 

The  letter  of  Gregory  III.  seems  rather  like  the  cry 
of  sudden  distress  than  part  of  a  deliberate  scheme  of 
policy.  He  is  in  an  agony  of  terror  at  the  formidable 
invasion  of  the  Lombards,  which  threatens  to  absorb 
Rome  in  the  kingdom  of  Liutprand.  Succor  from  the 
East  is  hopeless  ;  he  turns  to  any  quarter  where  he  may 
find  a  powerful  protector,  and  that  one  protector  is 
Charles  Martel.  From  the  Lombard  king  he  had  not 
much  right  to  expect  forbearance,  for  it  is  clear  that  he 
had  encouraged  the  duke  of  Spoleto,  the  vassal,  as  the 
ambitious  Liutprand  asserted,  of  the  Lombard  king- 
dom, in  rebellion  against  his  master.  Duke  Thrasi- 
mund  had  fled  for  refuge  to  Rome ;  and  from  Rome  he 
had  gone  forth,  not  unaided,  to  reconquer  his  dukedom 
The  troops  of  Liutprand  had  overrun  the  Roman  terri- 
tory ;  they  were  wasting  the  estates  of  the  Church. 
Liutprand  had  severed  four  cities,  Amelia,  Orta,  Poly- 
martia,  and  Blera,  from  the  Roman  territory.^  Some 
expressions  in  Gregory's  second  letter  to  Charles  almost 
A.D.  741.  imply  that  he  had  entered  Rome  and  plun 
dered  the  Church  of  St.  Peter.^  So  nearly  did  Romo 
become  a  Lombard  city. 

1  Ab  eodcm  rege  ablatse  sunt  e  Ducatu  Romano  quatuor  civitates.  — 
Anastasius. 

2  Baronius  drew  this  inference  from  the  words  of  Gregory.  Mnraton 
contests  the  point,  which  is  not  very  probable,  and  is  not  mentioned  by 
Anastasius.  Muratori  explains  the  words  "  omnia  enim  lumina  in  honorem 
ipsius  principis  Apostolorura.  .  .  .  ipsi  abstulerunt.  Unde  et  Ecclesia 
Sancti  Petri  denudata  est,  et  in  nimiam  desolationem  redacta,"  as  relating 
to  the  devastation  of  the  Church  estates;  "che  servivano  alia  Luminaria 
d'  essa  Chiesa,  ed  al  sovvenimento  de'  Poveri."  But  he  has  omitted  the 
intermediate  words,  "  et  quoe  a  vestris  parentibus,  et  a  vobis  oblata  sunt." 
The  lights  or  chandeliers,  the  oblations  of  former  Frunkish  kings  or  of 
Charles,  can  scarcely  be  explained  but  of  the  actual  ornaments  of  tha 


Chap.  IX.  THE  POPE  A   TESIPORAL  POWER.  i589 

These  acts  of  Gregory  III.  mark  the  period  of  tran- 
sition from  the  old  to  the  new  poHtical  system  of 
Em*ope.  They  proclaimed  the  severance  of  all  con- 
nection with  the  East.  The  Pope,  as  an  independent 
potentate,  is  forming  an  alliance  with  a  Transalpine 
sovereign  for  the  liberation  of  Italy,  and  thus  taking 
the  lead  in  that  total  revolution  in  the  great  social  sys- 
tem of  Europe,  the  influence  of  which  still  survives 
in  the  relations  between  the  Transalpine  nations  and 
Italy.  The  step  to  papal  aggrandizement,  though  yet 
unpremeditated,  is  immense.  Latin  Chris- The  Pope  a 
tendom  is  forming  into  a  separate  realm,  of  power, 
which  the  Pope  is  the  head.  Henceforth  the  Pope, 
if  not  yet  a  temporal  sovereign,  is  a  temporal  po- 
tentate. 

Speculation  may  lead  to  no  satisfactory  result,  but 
it  is  difficult  not  to  speculate  on  the  extent  to  which 
the  popes  may  have  had  more  or  less  distinct  concep- 
tions as  to  the  results  of  their  own  measures.  Was 
their  alliance  with  the  Franks  beyond  the  Alps,  even 
if  at  first  the  impulse  of  immediate  necessity,  and 
only  to  gain  the  protection  of  the  nearest  powerful 
rival  to  the  hated  Lombards,  confined  to  that  narrow 
aim?  How  soon  began  to  dawn  the  vision  of  a  spirit- 
ual kingdom  over  the  whole  West  —  the  revival  of 
a  Western  Empire  beyond  the  Alps,  now  that  the 
East  had  abandoned  or  lost  its  authority  —  or  at  least 
of  some  form  of  Roman  government  under  which  the 
title  of  consul  or  patrician  should  be  borne  by  a  Trans- 

Cl.urch.  St.  Peter's  may  have  been  plundered  without  the  fall  of  the 
whole  of  Rome.  The  siege  of  Rome  is  mentioned  a"nong  the  military  ex- 
ploits of  Liutprand  in  his  epitaph.  Compare  Gregor.  Epist.  ii.  ad  Carol. 
Martel.  Baronius  and  Muratori,  sub  ann.  dccxli.  Gretser  published  tha 
two  letters  in  his  volume  of  the  Epistolaj  Poutiiicum. 


390  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

alpine  sovereign  thus  bound  to  protect  Rome,  while 
the  real  authority  should  rest  with  the  pope?  Some 
ambiguous  expressions  in  Gregory's  epistle  sound  like 
an  offer  of  sovereignty  to  Charles  Martel.  He  sends 
him  the  keys  of  the  tomb  of  St.  Peter  as  a  symbol  of 
allegiance,  and  appears  to  acknowledge  his  royal  su 
premacy.  ^  The  account  of  the  solemn  embassy  which 
conveyed  these  supplicatory  letters  asserts  that  the 
Pope  offered  to  the  Prankish  ruler  the  titles  of  Patii- 
cian  and  Consul  of  Rome,  thus  transferring,  if  not  the 
sovereignty,  the  duty  and  honor  of  guarding  the  im- 
perial city,  the  metropolis  of  Christendom,  to  a  foreign 
Charles  rulcr.  Accordiug  to  another  statement,  he 
Martel.  spokc  uot  in  liis  own  name  alone,  but  in  that 

of  the  Roman  people,  who,  having  thrown  off  the  do- 
minion of  the  Eastern  empire,  placed  themselves  under 
the  protection  of  his  clemency.  ^ 

Charles  Martel  had  received  the  first  mission  of 
Gregory  III.  with  magnificence,  yet  not  without  hes- 
itation. The  Lombards  used  every  effort  to  avert  his 
interference  in  the  affairs  of  Italy  ;  and  some  gratitude 
was  due  to  Liutprand,  who  had  rendered  him  power- 
ful service  (according  to  the  Lombard's  epitaph,  he 
had  fought  in  person  for  the  cause  of  Christendom 
against  the  Saracens  in  Aquitaine.^)  But  Charles 
returned  a  courteous   answer,  sent  presents  to   Rome, 

1  "  Per  ipsas  sacratissimas  Claves  Coufessionis  Beati  Petri,  quas  vobis  ad 
regnum  direximus."  —  Greg.  Epist.  ii. 

2  Annales  Metenses. 

3  The  lines  relating  to  the  siege  of  Rome  (which  the  poet  places  first), 
and  to  this  fact,  run  thus:  — 

"  Roma  auas  vires  .jam pridem  milite  multo 
Obsessa  expavit,  deiiule  trcmiiore  ferocea 
Usque  Saraceni,  quos  dispulit  iinpiger,  ipso3 
Cum  premerent  GaDos,  Karolo  posccnte  juvari." 

Nute  to  Paul.  Diacon.  apuU  Muratori^  o  Ivill. 


Chap.  IX.     DISCREPANT  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES.  891 

and  directed  Grimon,  abbot  of  Corbey,  and  Sigebert,  a 
monk  of  St.  Denys,  to  proceed  with  the  ambassadors 
to  the  imperial  city. 

Not  the  least  extraordinary  part  of  this  memorable 
transaction  is  the  strangely  discrepant  character  in 
which  Charles  Martel  appeared  to  the  Pope  and  to 
the  clergy  of  his  own  country.  While  the  Pope  is 
offering  him  the  sovereignty  of  Rome,  and  appealing 
to  his  piety,  as  the  champion  of  the  church  of  St. 
Peter,  he  is  condemned  by  the  ecclesiastics  beyond 
the  Alps  as  the  sacrilegious  spoiler  of  the  property  ©f 
the  Church  ;  as  a  wicked  tyrant  who  bestowed  bishop- 
rics on  his  counts  and  dukes,  expelled  his  own  relative, 
the  rightful  Archbishop  of  Rheims,  and  replaced  him 
by  a  prelate  who  had  only  received  the  tonsure.  A 
saint  of  undoubted  authority  beheld  in  a  vision  the 
ally  of  the  popes,  the  designated  Consul  of  Rome, 
the  sovereign  at  whose  feet  were  laid  the  keys  of  St. 
Peter's  sepulchre,  tormented  in  the  lowest  pit  of  hell. 
So  completely  had  this  view  worked  into  the  Christian 
mind,  that  Dante,  the  faithful  recorder  of  popular 
Catholic  tradition,  adopts  the  condemnatory  legend, 
and   confirms  the  authority  of  the  saint's  vision. 


392  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 


CHAPTER  X. 

HIERAflCHY  OF  FRANCE. 

The  origin  of  this  hostility  between  Charles  Martel 
and  the  hierarchy  of  France  throws  us  back  nearly  a 
century,  to  the  rise  of  the  mayors  of  the  palace,  who 
had  now  long  ruled  over  the  pageant  Merovingian 
kings,  the  do-nothing  kings  of  that  race ;  and  to  the 
enormous  accumulation  of  wealth,  territory,  and  power 
acquired  by  the  bishops  and  monasteries  of  France. 
The  state  of  this  great  Church,  the  first  partly  Teuton- 
ic Church,  and  its  influence  on  the  coming  revolution 
in  Latin  Christianity  and  on  the  papal  power,  must 
A.D.  637.  justify  the  digression.  The  kingly  power  of 
the  race  of  Clovis  expired  with  Dagobert  I.  In  each 
of  the  kingdoms,  when  the  realm  was  divided — above 
the  throne,  when  it  was  one  kingdom  —  rose  the  May- 
or of  the  Palace,  in  whom  was  vested  the  whole  kingly 
jiower.  But  the  Franks  now  at  least  shared  with  the 
liomans  the  great  hierarchical  dignities :  they  were 
bishops,  abbots.  If  they  brought  into  the  order  secu- 
lar ambition,  ferocity,  violence,  feudal  animosity,  they 
brought  also  a  vigor  and  energy  of  devotion,  a  rigor 
of  asceticism,  a  sternness  of  monastic  virtue.  It  was  an 
age  of  saints :  every  city,  every  great  monastery  boasts, 
about  this  time,  the  tutelar  patron  of  its  church  ;  legend 
is   the   only   history ;  while  at    the    same    time   fierce 


Chap.  X.  TEUTONIC  HIERARCHY.  893 

bishops  surpass  the  fierce  counts  and  barons  In  crime 
and  bloodshed,  and  the  hohest,  most  devout,  most  self- 
denying  saints  are  mingling  in  the  furious  contest  or 
the  most  subtle  intrio;ue.  This  Teutonizinp;  of  the 
hierarchy  was  at  once  the  consequence  and  the  cause 
of  the  vast  territorial  possessions  of  the  Church,  and  of 
the  subsequent  degradation  and  inevitable  plunder  of 
the  Church.  This  was  a  new  aristocracy,  not  as  the 
Roman  hierarchy  had  been,  of  influence  and  superior 
civilization,  but  of  birth,  ability,  ambition,  mingled 
with  ecclesiastical  authority,^  and  transcendent  display 
of  all  which  was  esteemed  in  those  times  perfect  and 
consummate  Christianity.  Nor  were  the  bishops  strong 
in  their  own  strength  alone.  The  peaceful  passion  for 
monachism  had  become  a  madness  which  seized  on  the 
most  vigorous,  sometimes  the  fiercest  souls.  Monaste- 
ries arose  in  all  quarters,  and  gathered  their  tribute  of 
wealth  from  all  hands.  The  translation  of  the  remains 
of  St.  Benedict  to  Fleury  on  the  Loire  was  a  national 
ovation.  All  ages,  ranks,  classes,  races  crowded  to  the 
holy  ceremony.  Of  the  sons  of  Dagobert,  Sigebert, 
who  ruled  in  Austrasia,  passed  his  life  in  peaceful 
works  of  piety.  The  only  royal  acts  which  he  was 
permitted  to  perform  were  lavish  donations  to  bishops 
and  to  monasteries.  ^  On  the  death  of  his  brother, 
Clovis  II.  of  Neustria,^  the  widow  Bathildis  was  raised 
to  the  regency  in  the  name  of  her  infant  son,  Clotaire 
III.     Bathildis  succeeded  to  some  part  of  the  authority, 

1  It  is  not  easy  to  trace  this  slow  and  gradual  Teutonizing  of  the  higher 
clergy.  The  names  are  not  sure  indications  of  hirth :  Romans  sometimes 
barbarized  their  names.  —  Guizot,  Essai  V.  iii.  2;  Hallam,  Supplemental 
note,  p.  75. 

2  Yita  S.  Sigeberti,  apud  Bouquet,  ii.     He  founded  twelve  monasteries 

3  Sigebert  and  Clovis  died  about  the  same  time,  65i,  655 


394  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

to  none  of  the  crimes  or  ambition  of  Brunehaut  or 
Fredegonde.  She  was  a  Saxon  captive  of  exquisite 
beauty.  Erthinwold,  the  Neustrian  mayor  of  the 
palace,  sacrificing  his  own  lionorable  passion  to  his 
ambition,  married  her  to  the  king,  Clovis  II.  Queen 
Bathildis  was  the  holiest  and  most  devout  of  women  ; 
iier  pious  munificence  knew  no  bounds ;  remembering 
her  own  bondage,  she  set  apart  vast  sums  for  the  re- 
demption of  captives.  Not  a  cathedral,  not  a  mon- 
astery, but  records  the  splendid  donations  of  Queen 
Bathildis  :  not  farms  or  manses,  but  forests,  districts, 
almost  provinces.^  The  high-born  Frankish  bishop, 
Leodegar  (the  St.  Leger  of  later  worship),  had  been 
raised  by  the  sole  power  of  Bathildis  to  the  great 
Burgundian  bishopric  of  Autun.  Legend  dwells  with 
fond  pertinacity  on  the  holiness  of  the  saint ;  sterner 
but  more  veracious  history  cannot  but  detect  the  am- 
bitious and  turbulent  head  of  a  great  faction.  There 
was  a  fierce  and  obstinate  strife  for  the  mayoralty ; 

1  "  La  trace  de  ses  bienfiiits  se  retrouve  dans  les  archives  de  toutes  leg 
grandes  abbayes  de  son  temps.  Luxeuil  et  d'autres  monasteres  de  Bour- 
gogne  en  re^urent  de  grandes  sommes  et  des  terres.  Dans  le  voisinage  de 
Troyes,  S.  Frodoard  obtint  nn  vaste  terrain  martVageux  nomm(?  I'Jsle  Ger- 
maniqiie,  d'oii  il  fit  sortir  la  floi'issante  abbaye  de  Moustier-la-belle.  Cur- 
bion  ou  Moutier  S.  Lomer  reput  la  grande  villa  de  Nogaret,  phisieurs  tal- 
ents d'or  et  d'argent  .  .  .  elle  accorde  beauconp  de  pn'sents,  une  grande 
foret,  et  des  paturages  du  domaine  royal  au  fondateur  de  Juniieges,  S.  Fil- 
ibert  .  .  .  Clotaire,  sur  les  conseils  de  Bathilde,  augmente  les  vastes  do- 
niaines  de  Fontenelle  .  .  .  citd  niodele  on  qiiinze  cent  travailleurs  ^talent 
enrol(^s  avec  neuf  cent  moines.  Bathilde  eut  encore  .  .  .  sa  part  dans  la 
inuniticence  de  Clovis  II.  et  de  Clotaire  III.  envers  les  monasteres  de  Saint 
Denys  en  France,  de  Saint  Vincent  de  Paris,  de  Fleury  sur  Loire,  et  de  St. 
Maur  de  Fosses."  St.  Maur  had  the  honor  of  possessing  the  bodies  of  St. 
Benedict  and  of  St.  Maur.  —  D.  Pitra,  Vie  de  St.  Ledger,  p.  141.  *'  Ainsi 
combla-t-elle  de  largesses  les  t^glises  de  S.  Denys,  et  de  S.  Germain  de 
Paris,  de  S.  Medard  de  Soissons,  de  S.  Pierre  de  Chartres,  de  S.  Anian 
d'Orleans,  de  S.  Martin  de  Tours."  —  P.  145.  See,  too,  the  donations  of 
Dagobert  II.,  p.  356. 


Chap.  X.  TEUTONIC  HIERARCHY.  395 

France  must  become  a  theocracy ;  the  Bishop  of 
Autun,  if  not  in  name,  in  power  would  alone  possess 
that  dignity.  His  rival  Ebroin,  the  actual  mayor, 
entered  into  internecine  strife  with  the  aspiring  hie- 
rarchy ;  none  but  that  hierarchy  has  handed  down  the 
short  dark  annals  of  the  time,  and  Ebroin  has  been 
clironicled  as  the  most  monstrously  wicked  of  men. 
Under  the  rule  of  Ebroin,  it  was  said  by  his  authority, 
the  Bishop  of  Paris  was  murdered  for  liis  pride  ;  but 
Eb-oin  fell  before  the  fiercer  aggression  of  Leodegar, 
the  Burgundian  bishop,  who  was  supported  by  all  the 
forces  of  Burgundy.  It  was  held  to  be  a  splendid 
effort  of  Christian  virtue  that  the  saint  spared  the  life 
of  Ebroin.  He  was  banished  to  the  monastery  of 
Luxeuil  (the  foundation  of  St.  Columban),  compelled 
to  give  up  his  wife,  to  submit  to  the  tonsure,  and  to 
take  the  irrevocable  vows.  Leodegar  ruled  supreme, 
and  in  the  highest  episcopal  splendor,  in  his  cathedral 
city  of  Autun.  If  his  poetical  biographer  is  right,  he 
assumed  even  the  title  of  mayor  of  the  palace.^  But 
the  haughty  Neustrian  nobility  became  weary  of  the 
rule  of  a  woman  and  of  bishops ;  Bathildis  surrendered 
her  power,  and  retired  to  her  convent  of  Chelles. 

By  a  sudden  revolution  the  Bishop  of  Autun  found 
liiraself  an  exile  in  the  same  monastery  with  his  fallen 
rival,  that  of  Luxeuil.^  The  bishop  had  sternly  con- 
demned the  marriage  of  the  King  Childeric  (Austrasia 
and  Neustria  had  become  again  one  kingdom)  with 
hih  cousin-german,   Bilihildis.     He  was  accused  of  a 

1  "Quippe  domus  major  penitus,  rectorque  creatus 
Antistes  meritis  suscepit  jura  regenda 
Aulae  post  regem." 

J/5,  printed  by  M.  Pitra,  472. 
*  See  the  pleasing  description  of  Luxeuil  —  Luceus  ovile,  apud  Pitra^ 


396  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

conspiracy  against  the  life  of  the  king.  Affairs  again 
wheeled  round ;  Childeric  was  murdered ;  Ebroin  and 
Leodegar,  reconciled  by  their  common  misfortune,  if 
not  by  their  common  religion,  set  forth  together  from 
their  convent,  erelong  to  strive  with  still  fiercer  ani- 
mosity for  the  prize  of  power.  Ebroin,  the  apostate, 
another  Julian,  cast  off  his  religion,  that  is  his  monas- 
tic vows  ;  his  free  locks  again  flowed ;  he  returned 
to  the  embraces  of  his  wife.^  By  common  consent, 
Thierry  III.,  the  youngest  of  the  sons  of  Clovis  II., 
brother  of  Clotaire  and  of  Chilperic,  who  had  been 
imprisoned  in  the  abbey  of  St.  Denys,  if  not  tonsured, 
to  incapacitate  him  from  the  throne,  was  brought  forth 
to  act  the  part  of  king.  Ebroin  aspired  to  and  suc- 
ceeded in  wresting  the  mayoralty  from  Leudes,  the 
rival  set  up  by  the  Bishop  of  Autun. 

No  long  time  elapsed ;  the  bishop  is  besieged  in  his 
cathedral  city,  and  Autun  boldly  defies,  under  the 
command  of  her  bishop,  the  kingly  power,  Ebroin 
ruling  in  the  name  of  King  Thierry  III.  Leodegar 
found  it  necessary  to  capitulate  :  he  made  his  capitula- 
tion wear  the  appearance  of  lofty  religious  sacrifice  ; 
but  he  escaped  not  the  revenge  of  Ebroin,  who  scru- 
pled not  to  abuse  his  victory  with  the  most  atrocious 
barbarities  against  the  holy  person  of  the  bishop.  His 
eyes  were  pierced,  his  lips  cloven,  his  tongue  cut  out. 
Two  years  after  (he  had  taken  refuge  or  had  been 


1  The  poet  naturally  describes  this  enforced  monachism  as  the  uufor-^ivea 
criiuij,  which  caused  the  insatiable  vindictiveness  of  Ebroin:  — 

"  nium  propter,  compulsua  sum  perdere  crinem, 
Depulsus  regno,  monachalein  sumere  formam, 
Conjugia  amplexus  dulces  et  basia  liqiii, 
Oscula  nee  prolis  colic  suspensa  tenebam." 

Pitray  p.  477. 


Chap.  X.  ST.   LEGER.  897 

consigned  a  prisoner  to  the  abbey  of  Fecamp)  he  was 
cruelly  put  to  death.  He  became  a  martyr  as  well  as 
a  saint  in  tlie  annals  of  the  Church  —  a  martyr  in  the 
calm  and  majestic  patience  with  which  he  submitted 
to  his  sufferings: — but  a  martyr  to  what  Christian 
truth  ?  To  what  but  the  power  of  the  clergy,  or  to 
his  own  power,  it  is  difficult  to  say.^  Erelong  he 
became  the  most  potent  and  popular  saint  of  his  ])ro- 
lific  age  ;  his  relics  were  disputed  by  cities,  submitted 
to  the  ordeal  of  the  divine  judgment;  distant  churches 
boasted  some  limb  of  the  holy  martyr,  his  miracles 
were  numberless,  and  even  in  the  nineteenth  century 
petitions  are  made  for  some  of  the  wonder-working 
bones  of  St.  Leger.^ 

The  policy  by  which  Ebroin,  the  mayor  of  the 
palace,  retained  his  power  —  the  depression  of  the 
higher  nobles,  the  elevation  of  the  lower  —  belongs 
to  the  history  of  France,  not  to  that  of  Christianity. 
What   the   higher  nobility  and   some   of  the  bishops 

1  Compare  (it  is  neither  unamusing  nor  uninstnictive)  the  Vie  de  S. 
Leger,  par  le  R.  P.  Dora.  J.  B.  Pitra,  Paris,  1846.  The  author  has  ingen- 
iously interwoven  into  one  all  the  legends  of  the  period,  with  much  of  the 
patient  industry  and  copious  erudition,  and  with  the  devout  feelings,  the 
prejudices  (we  must  pardon  some  little  of  the  bitterness  of  later  times)  of 
his  spiritual  ancestors  of  St.  Maur.  M.  Pitra  looks  back  with  fond  rever- 
ence to  the  times  when  bishops  ruled  sole  and  supreme  in  their  cities;  when 
grants  of  counties  were  lavished  on  monasteries:  when  monastic  admira- 
tion for  monastic  virtues  created  saints  by  hundreds ;  when  miracle  was 
almost  the  law,  not  the  exception,  in  nature.  M.  Pitra  believes  that  he  be- 
lieves all  the  supernatural  stories  of  those  times,  and  that  with  a  kind  of 
earnestness  differing  much  from  the  bravado  of  belief  avouched  by  some 
other  kindred  writers.     The  life  of  St.  Leger  is  in  truth  an  excellent  relig 

ous  romance ;  but,  even  in  these  days,  will  not  pass  for  history  in  the  liter 
ature  which  still  boasts  the  living  names  of  Guizot,  the  Thierrys,  C.  Remu 
Bat,  Ampt'-re,  and  their  rising  scholars. 

2  See  in  Pitra,  p.  439,  the  letter  from  the  cur^  of  Evreuil  (dated  Oct.  4, 
1833)  to  the  Bishop  of  Autun.  Conceive  such  a  letter  addressed  to  the 
Bishop  of  Autun  of  the  days  of  the  republic! 


398  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Boor  1\ 

called  rebellions  tyranny,  his  partisans  held  to  be  high 
and  rigid  justice ;  yet  Ebroin  had  in  his  party  some 
of  the  most  holy  bishops:  saint  balanced  saint.^  St. 
Genesius  of  Lyons,  St.  Leger,  were  his  enemies ;  one 
his  victim.  In  his  party  were  St.  Pr^ejectus  (St. 
Prie)  of  Auvergne,  St.  Reol  of  Rheims,  St.  Agilbert 
of  Paris,  St.  Ouen  of  Rouen .^  A  council  of  bishops 
sat  in  judgment  on  St.  Leger,  at  Marli,  near  Paris : 
it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  they  were  not  consenting 
to  his  death.^ 

But  Ebroin  bore  no  charmed  life :  less  than  a 
charmed  life  in  those  times  could  not  hope  duration, 
not  even  to  attain  to  good  old  age.  Once  he  baffled  a 
formidable  insurrection  ;  and  with  the  aid  of  two  prel- 
ates (Reol,  metropolitan  of  Rheims,  and  Agilbert  of 
Paris)  cut  off  Martin,  one  of  the  grandsons  of  Pepin 
the  Great,  of  Landon,  who  with  his  brother  Pepin 
aspired  to  the  mayoralty  at  least  of  Austrasia.  The 
bishops  swore  upon  certain  relics  that  Martin's  life 
should  be  secure,  but  they  had  withdrawn  the  holy 
witnesses,  and  swore  on  the  empty  case.*  These  bish- 
ops, afterwards  saints,  at  least  did  not  protest  against 
the  death  of  the  deluded  youth.     Ebroin  himself  pei^ 

1  "Mulciber  in  Trqjam,  pro  Troja  stabat  Apollo, 
^qua  Venus  Teucris,  Pallas  iniqua  fuit." 

2  3n  one  occasion,  it  is  said,  Ebroin  consulted  St.  Ouen.  "  Remember 
Fre  legonde,"  replied  the  bishop.  Ebroin  was  wise,  and  understood  at 
once.     Fredec^onde  the  example  urpjed  by  a  saint !  —  Gesta  Francorum. 

8  "Et  cum  diu  flagitantes,"  the  Synod  with  Ebroin,  "non  valuissent 
elicere  —  ejus  tunicam  consciderunt  a  capite,"  —  a  degradation,  previous  to 
death,  performed  by  ecclesiastics.  —  Apud  Bouquet. 

4  "  Nuntios  dirigit,  ^gilbertum  et  Reolum  Remensis  urbis  Episcopnm, 
ut  fide  promissa  in  incertum  super  vacuas  capsas  sacramenta  falsa  dcderint. 
Qua  in  re  ille  credens  eos  ac  Lugduno-Clavato  cum  sodalibus  ac  sociis  ad 
Erchrecum  veniens,  illic  cum  suis  omnibus  interfectus  est." — Fredegar. 
Contiu.,  apud  Bouquet,  ii.  p.  451. 


Chap  X.  PEPIN  MAYOR  OF  THE  PALACE.  399 

ished  by  the  blow  of  an  assassin  —  perished  not  in  this 
world  only.  A  monk  on  the  shores  of  the  Saone,  who 
had  been  blinded  by  Ebroin,  heard  a  boat  rowed  fu- 
riously down  the  stream.  A  terrible  voice  thundered 
out,  "  It  is  Ebroin,  whom  we  are  bearing  to  the  cal- 
dron of  hell."  1 

Pepin  the  Short,  the  heir  of  Pepin  the  Great  of 
Landon,  (whose  daughter  had  married  the  son  of  the 
famous  Arnulf  of  Metz),  rose  to  the  mayoralty,  first 
in  one  kingdom,  at  length  in  the  whole  of  France. 
Under  his  vio-orous  administration  France  resumed  her 

o 

unity:  it  ceased  to  be  a  theocracy.  The  bishops  re- 
tired, it  is  feared  not  to  their  holier  offices.  Councils, 
which  had  been  as  frequent  as  diets  or  malls,  ceased. 
As  it  ever  has  been,  the  enormous  wealth  and  power 
accumulated  by  saints,  or  reputed  saints,  worked  their 
inevitable  consequences.  They  corrupted  their  mas- 
ters, and  tempted  violent  and  unworthy  men  to  usurp 
the  high  places  of  the  Church.  Those  who  boast  the 
saints,  the  splendid  monasteries,  the  noble  foundations, 
the  virtues,  the  continence,  the  wonders  of  the  former 
generation,  as  bitterly  lament  the  degradation,  the 
worldliness,  the  vices,  the  drunkenness,  licentiousness, 
marriaofe  or  concubinao;e  of  the  succeedino;  race.  It 
was  this  state  of  the  clergy  which  moved  the  indigna- 
tion and  contempt  of  St.  Boniface,  and  which  the 
Pope  himself  hoped  to  constrain  by  the  holy  influence 
of  the  German  missionary  prelate  and  by  the  power 
of  Charles  Martel.^ 


"1  Adonis  Chron.  apud  Bouquet,  ii.  p.  670. 

2  '•  Quidem  affirmant  (quod  pliirimuni  populo  nocet)  homicidas  vel  adul- 
teros  in  ipsis  sceleribus  pemeverantes,  fieri  tamen  posse  sacerdotes."  So 
»^ites  Boniface  at  the  court  of  Cha)-les  Martel.  — Epist.  xii.,  Giles,  i.  p.  36. 


400  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

Such  then  was  the  clergy  of  France,  when  Charles 
Martel,  after  a  furious  conflict,  won  the  inheritance  of 
his  father,  Pepin  the  Short  —  the  mayoralty  of  France. 
Even  from  his  birth  the  clergy  had  been  adverse  to 
Charles.  He  was  the  son  of  Pepin,  by  Alpaide,  whom, 
in  the  freedom  of  royal  polygamy,  Pepin  had  married 
during  the  lifetime  of  his  former  wife,  Plectruda.  The 
clergy,  not  without  ground,  denied  the  legitimacy  of 
Charles.  Already  his  patrimony,  the  royal  revenues, 
being  exhausted  by  his  strife  for  the  Mayoralty,  Charles 
had  not  scrupled  to  lay  his  hands  on  the  vast,  tempt- 
ing, misused  wealth  of  the  hierarchy. 

Erelong,  on  this  kingdom  —  of  which  more  than  one- 
half  of  the  nobility  were  bishops  or  abbots,  of  which  a 
very  large  proportion,  no  doubt  the  best  cultivated  and 
richest  land,  was  in  the  hands  of  the  monks  and  clergy 
— burst  the  invasion  of  the  unbelieving  Saracens.  The 
crescent  waved  over  Narbonne  and  the  cities  of  the 
south  ;  churches  and  monasteries  were  effaced  from  the 
soil.  How  terrible,  how  perilous  was  that  invasion,  one 
fact  may  witness.  Autun,  in  the  centre  of  Burgundy, 
the  city  of  St.  Leger,  with  all  its  Gaulish,  Roman, 
Burgundian,  hierarchical,  monastic  splendor,  was  cap- 
tured and  utterly  laid  waste.  The  hierarchy  fought 
not  themselves,  though  the  Bishop  of  Sens  did  gallant- 
ly, and  in  arms,  defend  his  city.  Charles  would  not 
be  content  with  the  barren  aid  of  their  prayers:  his 
exactions,  his  seizure  of  their  possessions,  which  they 
held  only  through  his  valor,  they  still  branded  as  im- 
pious and  sacrilegious  robberies.^     Hence  the  extraor- 

Compare  letter  to  Pope  Zacharias,  especially  on  the  lives  of  certain  dea- 
cons (Epist.  xliv.),  and  the  answer  of  Zacharias. 

1  Compare  M.  Guizot's  (Essais,  xiv.)  suggestions  as  to  the  mode  in  which 
Charles  Martel  seized  and  redistributad  church  property  to  his  warriors. 


Chap.  X.  CHARLES  MARTEL.  401 

dinary  contradiction  :  —  while  the  Pope  sees  in  Cliarles 
Martel  only  the  conqueror  of  the  Saracens  at  Poictlers, 
only  the  great  transalpine  power  which  may  control  the 
hated  Lombards,  the  hero  of  Christendom,  the  orthodox 
sovereign  ;  with  the  hierarchy  of  France  Charles  is  a 
Belshazzar  who  has  laid  his  unhallowed  hands  on  the 
treasures  of  the  Church,  a  sacrilegious  tyrant  doomed 
to  everlasting  perdition. 


26 


402  LATm  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 


CHAPTER  XL 

PEPIN,   KING  OF  FRANCE. 

But  whatever  might  have  been  the  result  of  the 
negotiations  between  the  pope  and  Charles  Martel,  they 
were  interrupted  by  the  death  of  the  two  contracting 
parties.  Charles  Martel  and  Gregory  III.  died  within 
a  month  of  each  other.^ 

Zacharias,  a  Greek,  succeeded  to  Gregoiy  III.  At 
his  election  even  the  form  of  obtainmg  the  consent  of 
Popezacha-  ^^^^  Exarch,  as  representative  of  the  Eastern 
rias,  Dec.  741.  empcror,  was  discarded  forever.  The  death 
of  Charles  Martel,  which  weakened  his  power  by  di- 
viding it  between  his  sons  Carloman  and  Pepin,  left  the 
Pope  at  the  mercy  of  Liutprand.  The  exarchate,  the 
Roman  territory,  Rome  itself,  was  utterly  defenceless 
against  the  Lombard,  exasperated,  as  he  might  justly 
be,  at  this  attempt  to  mingle  up  a  Transalpine  power 
in,  the  affairs  of  Italy.  At  the  time  of  Gregory's  death 
there  seems  to  have  been  a  suspension  of  hostilities, 
attributed,  though  with  no  historical  authority,  to  the 
remonstrances  or  menaces  of  Charles  Martel.  But 
now  the  terror  even  of  the  name  of  Charles  was  with- 
drawn,   and  the   Pope  had  no   protection   but  in   the 

1  Barouius  inclines  to  the  damnation  of  Cliarles;  at  least,  ascribes  his 
death  to  his  tardiness  in  not  marching  to  the  Pope's  succor.  How  came 
the  Pope  also  to  die  at  this  critical  time?  Charles  Martel  died  a.d.  741, 
Oct  21 ;  Greg:>ry  III.,  Nov.  27. 


I 


Chap.  XI.  POPE   ZACHARIAS.  408 

sanctity  of  his  offic.?.  Tie  sent  an  enibas'<y  to  Lint- 
[)ran(l,  who  received  it  witli  courtesy  and  respect,  grants 
ed  advantageous  terms  of  peace  to  the  dukedom  or 
territory  of  Rome,  and  promised  to  restore  Ameria  and 
tlie  other  cities  which  he  had  seized,  to  the  Roman 
territory.  Liutprand  inexorably  demanded  that  th.e 
Pope  should  abandon  the  cause  of  the  rebellious  Duke 
of  Spoleto.  Thrasimund  was  compelled  to  submit :  he 
was  deposed,  and  retired  into  a  monastery.  Liut}u\and 
appointed  a  more  obedient  vassal,  his  own  nephew,  a 
dangerous  neighbor  to  Rome,  to  the  dukedom.  lU\t 
Liutprand  delayed  the  restoration  of  the  four  cities : 
his  armies  still  occupied  the  midland  regions  of  Italy. 

The  independence  of  Rome  was  on  the  hazard:  Italy 
was  again  on  the  verge  of  becoming  a  Lombard  king- 
dom. The  future  destinies  of  Europe  were  trembling 
in  the  balance.  Had  the  whole  of  Italy,  at  least  to 
the  borders  of  Naples  (Naples,  and  even  Sicily,  could 
easily  have  been  wrested  from  the  Greek  empire),  Ik'ou 
consolidated  under  one  hereditary  rule,  and  had  the 
Pope  sunk  back  to  his  spiritual  functions,  Pepin  and 
his  more  powerful  successor,  Charlemagne,  might  not 
have  been  invited  into  Italy  as  protectors  of  the  liber- 
ties and  religion  of  Rome. 

The  course  of  Lombard  conquest  was  arrested  by 
the  personal  weight  and  sacerdotal  awe  which  envi- 
roned the  Pope.  Since  the  time  of  Leo  the  Great,  no 
pontiff  placed  such  bold  reliance  on  his  priestly  charac- 
ter and  on  himself  as  Zacharias.  Other  Popes  had  not 
mingled  in  the  active  life  of  man  with  man.  Tliev 
had  officiated  in  the  churches,  presided  in  councils  of 
ecclesiastics,  issued  decrees,  administered  their  temporal 
affairs   through   their   officers   or   legates.       Zacharias 


104  LATIN    CimiSTIANITY.  Book  TV 

seemed  to  delioht  in  enconnterino;  liis  most  dano-erous 
enemies  face  to  face :  he  was  liis  own  ambassador. 
Zacharias  no  doubt  knew  the  character  of  the  Lombard 
king.  With  all  his  ambition  and  warlike  activity, 
Liutprand,  if  we  are  to  believe  the  Lombard  historian, 
blended  the  love  of  peace  and  profound  piety.  He  was 
renowned  for  his  chastity,  his  fervency  in  prayer,  his 
liberality  in  alms-giving.  He  was  illiterate,  yet  to  be 
equalled  with  the  sagest  philosophers.^  The  strength 
an  I  the  weakness  of  such  a  character  were  equally 
open  to  impressions  from  the  apostolic  majesty,  per- 
haps the  apostolic  gentleness,  of  the  head  of  Chris- 
tendom. 

The  spiritual  potentate  set  forth  in  his  peaceful  array, 
Interview       surrouudcd  bv  his  court  of    bishoi:>s,  to  the 

with  liut-  n    T  •  1  rr^  •  TT 

prandat  camp  01  Liutprand  near  lerni.  He  was  met 
4.D.  742.  at  Cortona  by  Grimoald,  an  officer  of  Liut 
prand's  court,  conducted  first  to  Narni,  afterwards  with 
great  pomp,  accompanied  by  part  of  the  army  and  by 
the  Lombard  nobility,  to  Terni.^  The  scene  of  the 
interview  was  a  church  —  that  of  St.  Valentine  ;  the 
Pope  thus  availing  himself  of  the  awfulness  by  which 
a  religious  mind  like  that  of  Liutprand  would  in  such  a 
place  be  already  half  prostrated  before  his  holy  antago- 
nist. There  he  would  listen  with  deeper  emotion  to 
the  appalling  admonitions  of  the  pontiff  on  the  vanity 
of  earthly  grandeur.  The  Lombard  was  reminded  of 
the  strict,  it  might  be  speedy,  account  which  he  was  to 
give  tc  God  in  whose  presence  he  stood,  of  all  the  blood 
which  he  had  shed  in  war.     He  was  threatened  with 


1  "  Castas,  pudicus,  orator  pervigil,  eleemosynls  largus,  literaruni  qui« 
dem  ignanis,  sed  philosophis  jequandus."  —  Paul.  Diac. 
3  Anastas.  in  Vit.  Zachariae. 


Chap.  XI.         TREATY  OF  PEACE.  405 

eternal  damnation  if  he  delayed  to  suiTender  the  four 
cities,  according  to  his  stipulations. 

The  issue  of  such  a  contest  could  not  be  doubtful. 
The  appalled  Barbarian  yielded  at  once.  He  Tj.gj,tyof 
declared  that  he  restored  the  four  cities  to  St.  p*"^^®' 
Peter.  His  generous  piety  knew  no  bounds.  He 
gave  back  all  the  estates  of  the  Church  in  the  Sabine 
country,  which  the  Lombards  had  held  for  thirty  years 
—  Narni,  Osimo,  Ancona,  and  towns  in  the  district  of 
Sutri  —  released  unransomed  all  the  Roman  prisoners 
taken  in  the  war,  and  concluded  a  peace  for  twenty 
years  with  the  dukedom  of  Rome.  The  treaty  was 
ratified  by  a  solemn  service,  at  which  the  Pope  (the 
bishopric  of  Terni  being  vacant)  officiated;  the  pious 
king,  the  officers  of  his  court  and  army,  attended  in 
submissive  reverence.  The  Pope  then  entertained 
him  with  a  great  banquet,^  and  returned  to  Rome. 
The  deliverer  of  the  city  from  a  foreign  yoke  was 
received  with  a  religious  ovation,  as  well  deserved  as 
one  of  the  Triumphs  of  older  days.  The  procession 
passed  from  the  ancient  Pantheon,  now  the  church  of 
St.  Mary  ad  Martyres,  to  St.  Peter's. 

Yet  beyond  the  immediate  circle  of  the  pontiff's 
magic  influence,  Liutprand  could  not  resist  the  temp- 
tation offered  by  the  wreck  of  the  defenceless  exar- 
chate. Though,  according  to  his  treaty  with  the 
Pope,  he  respected  the  territory  of  Rome,  he  suddenly 
surprised  Cesena,  and  announced  his  determination  to 
subdue  the  rest  of  the  exarchate.  Ravenna  already 
beheld    the    formidable    conqueror  before    her   walls. 

1  "  Ubi  cum  tanta  suavitate  esum  sumpsit,  et  cum  tanta  hilarilate  cor- 
dis, ut  diceret  rex  tantum  se  nunquam  meminisse  comessatum." — Vit. 
Zacha)'. 


40^  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV- 

The  only  refuge  was  in  the  unarmed  Pope.  Eutych- 
ius  the  Exarcli,  the  archbishop,  the  people  of  the 
city  and  of  the  province  joined  in  an  earnest  petition 
for  the  intervention  of  the  pontiif.  Zacharias  espoused 
their  cause ;  he  sent  an  embassy  to  Pavia  to  dissuade 
Liutprand  from  further  aggression,  and  to  request  the 
restoration  of  Cesena.  The  Lombard  refused  to  re- 
ceive the  ambassadors.  The  unbaffled  Pope  deter- 
Second  inter-  miucd  oucc  morc  to  try  the  effect  of  his  per- 

view  at  Pavia.  ,  i  p       i     •  i 

A.ii.  743.  sonai  presence  :  he  set  forth  m  state  towards 
Pavia.  The  importance  attached  to  this  journey  is 
attested  by  the  miracles  with  which  it  was  invested. 
A  cloud,  by  the  special  interposition  of  St.  Peter, 
hovered  constantly  over  the  sacred  band,  to  shield 
them  from  the  violent  heats,  till  they  pitched  their 
tents  in  the  evenino-.  At  some  distance  from  Ravenna 
he  was  met  by  the  Exarch  ;  and,  still  overshadowed 
by  the  faithful  cloud,  which  poised  itself  at  length  over 
one  of  the  churches,  he  entered  the  city.  He  left  it 
followed  by  the  whole  population,  men  and  women,  in 
tears,  praying  for  the  good  pastor  who  had  left  his  own 
flock  for  their  protection.  A  new  sign,  like  a  fiery 
army  in  the  heavens,  marshalled  him  on  his  way  tow- 
ards Pavia.  But  he  derived  greater  advantage  from 
other  cruidance.  He  had  sent  forward  some  of  his 
attendants  to  Imola,  on  the  Lombard  border,  from 
whom  he  received  intelligence  of  orders  issued  to  stop 
him  on  his  march.  The  Pope  made  a  rapid  journey 
and  reached  the  Po.  On  the  banks  he  was  met  by 
some  of  the  Lombard  nobles,  whom  the  king,  having 
in  vain  attempted  to  elude  the  reception  of  the  em- 
bassy, sent  to  receive  him  with  due  honors.  After 
^.he  arrival  at  Pavia,  a  few  days  were  passed  in  relig- 


Ch.U'.  XL  KINGS  BECOME  MONKS.  407 

ions  ceremonies,  at  which  the  king  attended  with  his 
wonted  devotion.  It  was  St.  Peter's  day  ;  a  day  hap- 
pily chosen  for  the  august  ceremony.  At  length  Liut- 
pi'and  consented  to  admit  the  pontiff  to  an  interview 
in  his  palace.  After  long  and  resolute  re-  June  29. 
sistance  on  the  king's  part,  Zacharias  extorted  the 
abandonment    of  his    ambitious    desio-ns  on    the  exar- 

o 

chate,   the  restoration    of  two-tliirds  of  the   territory 
of  Cesena. 

Thus  for  a  short  time  longer  the  wreck  of  the  im- 
perial dominion  in  Italy  was  preserved  by  the  sole 
influence,  the  religious  eloquence  and  authority,  of  the 
unarmed  Bishop  of  Rome.  But  such  was  the  power 
of  religion  in  those  times,  that  not  merely  did  it  enable 
the  clergy  to  dictate  their  policy  to  armed  and  po^^. 
erful  sovereigns,  to  arrest  Barbarian  invasion,  and  to 
snatch,  as  it  were,  conquests  already  in  their  rapacious 
hands  ;  in  every  quarter  of  Western  Europe  Kings 

,  .  '  ,    ,.         .  1      •  1  become 

kmo;s    were   seen    abdicatino;    their    thrones,  monks. 
placing  themselves  at  the  feet  of  the  Pope  as  humble 
penitents,  casting  off  their  pomp,  and  submitting  to  the 
})rivations  and  the  discipline  of  monks. 

It  has  been  related  that  when  Columban,  some  years 
before,  endeavored  to  persuade  the  Merovingian  The- 
odebert  to  abandon  his  throne  and  become  an  eccle- 
siastic, the  whole  assembly  burst  out  into  scornful 
lautrhter.^  ''  Was  it  ever  heard  that  a  Merovinman 
king  had  degraded  himself  into  a  priest?"  The 
saint  had  replied,  "  He  who  disdains  to  become  an 
ecclesiastic   will   become   so   against   his   will."     The 

1  "  Dicebant  enim  nunqunm  se  audivisse  Merovingum  in  regno  fcblima- 
.um,  voluntarium  clericum  fuisse.  Detestantibiis  ergo  omnibus."''  —  Vit.  Co- 
iumbani. 


408  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

times  had  rapidly  changed.  From  all  parts  of  West- 
ern  Christendom  kings  were  coming,  lowly  penitents, 
to  Rome,  to  lay  aside  the  vain  pomp  of  royalty,  to 
assume  the  coarse  attire,  the  total  seclusion,  and,  as 
they  hoped,  the  undisturbed  and  heaven-winning  peace 
of  the  cloister.  Ceolwulf  is  said  to  have  been  the 
eighth  Anglo-Saxon  prince  who  became  a  monk. 
Now,  within  a  few  years,  from  the  thrones  of  France 
and  of  Lombardy,  the  kings  descended  of  their  own 
accord,  laid  their  temporal  government  down  before 
the  head  of  Christendom,  and  entreated  permission  to 
devote  the  rest  of  their  lives  to  the  spiritual  state. 

Carloman,  the  elder  son  of  Charles  Martel,  had 
commenced  his  reign  with  vigor,  ability,  and  success. 
On  a  sudden  he  cast  off  at  once  the  duties  and  the 
dignity  of  his  station,^  and  surrendered  to  Pepin,  his 
brother,  the  power  and  all  the  ambitious  hopes  of  his 
family.  Carloman  left  his  country,  appeared  in  Italy, 
Carloman.  huuibly  rcqucstcd  to  be  admitted  into  the 
A.D.  747.  monastic  state,  built  a  monastery  on  Mount 
Soracte,  but  finding  that  too  near  to  Rome,  retired  to 
the  more  profound  seclusion  of  Monte  Casino.  In 
that  solitude  the  heir  of  Charles  Martel  hoped  to  pass 
the  rest  of  his  earthly  days.^ 

But  Pope  Zacharias  beheld  even  a  greater  triumph 
of  the  faith.     A   Lombard  king  suddenly  paused  on 


1  Carloman  had  been  preceded  in  this  course  by  Hunald,  Duke  of  Aqui- 
taine,  who  having  treacherously  lured  his  brother  Atto  from  the  strong 
rity  of  Poitiers,  blinded  him,  and  a  few  days  after  shut  himself  up  in  a 
monastery  in  the  isle  of  Rh(^.  — H.  Martin,  Histoire  de  France,  ii.  p.  301. 
Iliinald,  however,  on  the  death  of  his  son,  twenty-five  years  afterwards, 
Bc-andalized  Christendom  by  returning  to  the  world,  and  resuming  not  only 
his  dominions,  but  his  wife  also.  —  Muratori,  ann.  d'  Italia,  sub  anu-  747. 

^  Vit.  Zachariaj.     Chronic.  Moissiac.  apud  Pertz,  i.  292. 


Chap.  XI.  DEATH  OF  LIUTPRAND.  409 

the  fiill  tide  of  ambition  and  success,  and  froni  a 
deadly  and  formidable  enemy  of  the  Pope  and  of  the 
Roman  interest,  became  a  peaceful  monk.^ 

During  the  year   of  his    last  interview  with  Pope 
Zacharias  had  died  Liutprand,  the  ablest  and  Death  of 
mightiest  of  the   Lombard  kings.     Notwith- a!d.  7m°  ' 
standing  his  pious  deference  for  the  Pope,  his  munifi- 
cent ecclesiastical  foundations  in   all  parts  of  his  do- 
minions, the  papal  biographer  attributes  his   death  to 
the  prayers  of  the  Pope  and  the  direct  intervention  of 
St.  Peter.^      The  burden   of  ingratitude  need  not  be 
laid  on  the  Pope  on  account  of  the  mature  death  of  a 
sovereign  who  had  reigned  for  thirty  years.  ^  ^  ^^^ 
During   a   dangerous    illness    of  Liutprand,  ^'^" 
nine  years  before,  his   nephew   Hildebrand  had  been 
associated  with   him   in   the   kingdom.      After   seven 
months  of  his  sole  dominion  Hildebrand  was  deposed 
by  the  unanimous  suflPrage  of  the  nation,  and  Rachis, 
Duke  of  Friuli,  was  raised  to  the  throne.     The  first 
act  of  Rachis  was   to   confirm   the  peace   of  twenty 
years  with  the  Pope.     The  truce  with  the  exarchate 
expired  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign.     But  suddenly, 
incensed  by  some  unknown  cause  of  offence,  or  in  a 
fit   of  ambition,    Rachis   appeared   in   arms,  ^  j,  749 
broke  into  the  exarchate,  and  invested  Pe-  ^'^^'^• 
rugia.     The  indefatigable  Pope  delayed  not  his  inter- 
ference.     Again   he    was   his    own    ambassador,    and 
appeared  in  the  camp   of  the  Lombard  king.^      But 
he  was  not  content  with  compelling   King  Rachis  to 

1  Pauli  i.  Epist.  ad  Pepin.  Regem;  Miiratori,  R.  I.  Scrip,  iii.  11.  116. 

2  Anastasius  in  Zacharia. 

s  Chronic.  Salernit.  i.  1 ;  apud  Muratori,  i.  2.  "  Impensis  eidem  regi  plu- 
rimis  muneribus,  atque  .  .  .  deprecans."  See  also  account  of  conver  lion 
af  King  Rachis. 


410  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

break  up  the  siege;  he  pressed  him  so  strongly  with 
his  saintly  arguments,  perhaps  with  the  holy  example 
of  Carloman,  that  in  a  few  days  the  king  stood  before 
RachiB  a  ^^^^  gatcs  of  Rome  with  his  wife  and  daugh- 
monk.  |.gj.^  having  abdicated  his  throne,  an  humble 

suppliant  for  admission  into  the  cloister.  He  too  le- 
A.D.  749.  tired  to  Monte  Casino,  which  thus  boasted  of 
two  royal  recluses.  His  wife  and  daughter  entered 
the  neighboring  convent  of  Piombaruola.  Carloman 
will  appear  again,  somewhat  unexpectedly,  on  the 
scene  of  political  life. 

The  last  act  in  the  eventful  pontificate  of  Zacharias 
A.D.  751.  was  the  most  pregnant  with  important  results 
to  Latin  Christendom,  the  transference  of  the  crown 
of  France  from  the  Merovingian  line  to  the  father  of 
Pepin,  king  Charlemagne,  with  the  sanction,  it  has  been 
of  France,  asscrtcd,  uudcr  the  direct  authority,  of  the 
Pope.  To  the  Church  and  to  Western  Europe  it  is 
difficult  to  estimate  all  the  consequences  of  the  eleva 
tion  of  the  Carlovingian  dynasty. 

The  Pope  has  been  accused  of  assuming  an  unwar- 
ranted power  in  virtually,  as  it  were,  by  his  sanction  of 
Pepin's  coronation,  absolving  the  subjects  of  Chllperic 
from  their  allegiance ;  of  want  of  stern  principle  in 
countenancing  the  violation  of  the  great  law  of  heredi- 
tary succession,  and  the  rebellious  ambition  of  the  May- 
or of  the  Palace,  who  thus  degraded  his  lawful  sover- 
eign and  usurped  his  throne.  This  is  to  confound  the 
laws  and  usages  of  different  ages.  Hereditary  succes- 
sion among  the  Teutonic  races  had  not  yet  attained 
that  sanctity  in  which,  in  later  times,  it  has  been  invest- 
ed by  supposed  religious  authority,  and  by  the  rational 
persuasion  of  its  inestimable  advantage.     In  theory  it 


Chap.  XI.  KLEVATION  OF  PEPIN.  411 

was  admitted  in  the  Roman  empire ;  but  the  perpetual 
change  of  dynasty  at  Constantinople  was  not  calculated 
to  confirm  the  general  reverence  for  its  inviolability. 
Among  the  Lombards,  as  in  most  of  the  Gothic  king- 
doms, the  nobles  claimed  and  constantly  exercised  the 
privilege  of  throwing  off  the  yoke  of  an  unworthy 
prince,  and  advancing  a  more  warlike  or  able  chieftain, 
usually  of  the  royal  race,  to  the  throne.  The  degra- 
dation of  the  successor  to  Liutprand,  the  accession  of 
Rachis,  were  yet  fresh  in  the  memory  of  man.  The 
Teutonic  sovereign  was  still  in  theory  the  leader  of  an 
army  ;  when  he  ceased  to  exercise  his  primary  func- 
tions he  had  almost  abdicated  his  state.  It  is  difficult 
to  conceive  how  such  a  shadow  of  a  monarch  had  been 
so  long  pennitted  to  rule  over  an  enterprising  and  tur- 
bulent nation  like  the  Franks.  He  was  more  like  the 
Lama  of  an  old,  decrepit,  Asiatic  theocracy  than  the 
head  of  a  young  and  conquering  people.  He  sat  on  a 
throne  with  long  hair  and  a  flowing  beard  (these  were 
the  signs  of  royalty,  worn  indiscriminately  whether  he 
was  young  or  old),  he  received  ambassadors,  and  gave 
the  answers  put  into  his  mouth  :  he  had  no  domain  but 
one  small  city,  whose  revenues  hardly  maintained  his 
scanty  retinue.  In  the  spring  alone,  at  the  opening  of 
the  Champ  de  Mars,  the  idol  was  drawn  forth  from  his 
sanctuary  and  offered  to  the  sight  of  the  people.  He 
was  slowly  conveyed  in  a  car  drawn  by  oxen  through 
the  ranks  of  his  wondering  subjects,  and  was  then  con- 
signed again  to  his  secluded  state.^     For  two  or  three 


1  "  Crine  profuso,  barba  submissa  .  .  ,  quocunque  eunduin  erat,  car- 
pento  ibat,  bubulis  rustico  more  ageiite  trahebatur."  Egiuhard,  c.  1.  Com» 
pare  Michelet,  Hist,  de  France.  Egiuhard  may  perhaps  have  exaggerated 
the  absolute  and  ostentatious  insiguiticance  of  the  dethroned  Merovingian. 


412  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

generations  the  effete  Merovingian  race  liad  acquiesced 
in  this  despicable  inactivity,  and  made  no  effort  to  break 
forth  from  the  ignominious  pomp  in  which  they  slum- 
bered away  their  lives. 

There  are  no  details  of  this  signal  revolution.^  Pe- 
A.n  751.  pin  sent  two  ecclesiastics,  Burchard,  Bishop 
of  Wurtzburg,  and  Fulrad  his  chaplain,  to  consult  the 
Pope,  but  it  appears  not  whether  to  relieve  his  con- 
science or  as  to  a  judge  of  recognized  authority.  A 
less  decided  pontiff  than  Zacharias  might  think  the 
nation  justified  in  its  weariness  of  that  hypocrisy  which 
assigned  to  a  secluded,  imbecile  pageant  the-  name  and 
ensigns  of  royalty,  Avhile  its  power  was  possessed  by 
his  Mayor  of  the  Palace.  It  was  time  to  put  an  end 
to  this  poor  comedy  of  monarchy.  Even  if  he  took  a 
higher  view  of  his  own  power,  there  was  full  precedent 
in  that  which  had  lono;  been  the  code  of  hierarchical 
privilege,  the  Old  Testament,  for  the  interference  of 
the  Priest,  of  God's  representative  on  earth,  in  the 
deposition  of  unworthy  kings,  in  the  elevation  of  new 
dynasties.^  It  was  indeed  to  usurp  authority  over  a 
foreign  kingdom,  but  what  kingdom  was  foreign  to  the 

1  Eginhanl,  Ann.  sub  ann.  750,  751. 

2  "  Et  Zacharias  Papa  mandavit  Pepino,  ut  melius  esset  ilium  regem  vo- 
cari,  qui  potestatem  haberet,  quani  ilium,  qui  sine  regal  i  potestate  manebat, 
ut  non  conturbaretur  ordo."  — Annal.  Franc,  apud  Duchesne.  Compare 
the  Gesta  Francorum,  where  it  is  more  fully  stated  (Bouquet,  p.  38).  This 
passage  is  quoted  in  Lehuerou  (Histoire  des  Institutions  Carolingiens,  p. 
99):  "Gens  Merovingorum,  de  qua  Franci  reges  sibi  creare  soliti  erant, 
usque  m  Hildericuin  regem,  qui  jussu  Stephani,  Roniani  Pontificis,  deposi 
turt  ac  detonsus  atque  in  monasterium  trusus  est,  durasse  putatur.  Quaa 
licet  in  illo  fmita  possit  videri,  tamen  jamdudum  nullius  vigoris  erat,  nee 
qiiicquam  in  se  clarum  prieter  inane  regis  vocabulum  pncferebat,  nam  et 
opes  et  potentia  regni  |)enes  palatii  prajfectos,  qui  majores  domus  diceban- 

tur  et  ad  quos  sumnia  imperii   pertinebat,  tenebantur Qui  honor 

noil  aiiis  a  popuh  cUiri  consueverat,  quam  qui  his  et  claritate  generis  et 
opum  amplitudiue  cajteris  eminebant."  —  Egiuhard,  Vit.  Kar..  ii'.  I. 


Chap.  XL  ANOINTING  OF  PEPIN.  413 

head  of  Cliristendom  ?  Tlie  retirement  of  the  deposed 
Cliilperic  into  a  monastery  made  but  little  change  in  his 
life ;  he  was  spared  the  fatigue  and  mockery  of  a  pub- 
lic exhibition.  The  election  of  Pepin  at  Sois-  ^^^^^^ 
sons  was  conducted  according  to  the  old  usage  *"•  ^^^* 
of  the  Franks,  the  acclamation  and  clash  of  arms  of  the 
nobles  and  of  the  people,  the  elevation  on  the  buckler ; 
but  it  had  now  a  new  religious  character,  which  marked 
the  growing  power  of  the  clergy.  The  bishops  stood 
around  the  throne,  as  of  equal  rank  with  the  armed 
nobles.  The  Jewish  ceremony  of  anointing  was  first 
introduced  to  sanctify  a  king  perhaps  of  still  somewhat 
doubtful  title.  The  holy  oil  was  poured  on  his  head 
by  the  saintly  archbishop  of  Mentz.^  Two  years  after, 
on  the  visit  of  Pope  Stephen,  this  ceremony  was  re- 
newed by  the  august  head  of  Christendom.  King 
Chilperic  was  shaven  and  dismissed  into  a  monastery, 
the  retreat  or  the  prison  of  all  weary  or  troublesome 
princes.^ 

Little  foresaw  Pepin,  little  foresaw  Zacharias,  or  his 
successor  Stephen,  the  eflPects  of  the  precedent  which 
they  were  furnishing  in  the  contemptuous  dismissal  of 
the  poor  foolish  Chilperic  from  the  throne  of  his  an- 
cestors, and  the  sanction  of  the  Pope  to  this  it  might 

1  Clovis  had  also  been  anointed  by  St.  Remi :  "  Elegi  baptizari  .  .  .  et 
per  ejusdem  sacrl  chrisraatis  unctionem  ordinato  in  regem  .  .  .  statuo." 
If  he  fails  in  his  engagements  "  fiant  dies  ejus  pauci,  et  principatum  ejus 
accipiat  alter." — Testament.  S.  Remig.  ap.  Flodoard.  On  the  sacred 
character  conferred  by  the  holy  miction,  see  Adlocutio  duorum  Episcopo- 
rum  in  eccles.  S.  Medard,  a.d.  806.  —  Bouquet.  According  to  the  bishops, 
it  gave  the  same  right  as  that  divinely  bestowed  on  the  kings  of  Israel. 
"  Ainsi,  par  une  r^ciprocite  ordinaire  dans  les  affaires  humaines,  le  sacre, 
en  donnant  un  titre,  a  impost  une  suj^tion;  et  de  cette  Equivoque  naitra 
un  jour  le  plus  grand  problfeme  du  moyen  age,  la  guerre  du  sacerdoce  et 
de  I'empire."  —  Lehuerou,  p.  330. 

2  Eginhard,  be.  cii. 


414  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

seem  almost  insignificant  act :  that  successors  of  Zaclia- 
rias  would  assert  that  the  kings  of  France,  or  rather 
the  emperors,  the  successors  of  Charlemagne,  held  their 
crown  only  by  the  authority  of  the  Pope ;  that  the 
Pope  might  transfer  that  allegiance,  to  which  the  only 
title  was  the  papal  sanction,  to  a  more  loyal  son  of  the 
Church. 

In  every  respect,  whether  he  contemplated  the  re- 
mote or  the  immediate  interests  of  the  Church  or  of 
Christianity,  the  Pope  might  hail  with  unmitigated 
satisfaction  and  hope  the  accession  of  Pepin.  The 
whole  race,  since  the  alliance  with  Charles  Martel,  had 
been  devoted  to  the  Church  and  to  the  see  of  Rome. 
The  prescient  sagacity  of  Zacharias  might  discern  in 
Astolph,  the  new  king  of  the  Lombards,  that  he  in- 
herited all  the  ambition  without  the  strong  religious 
feeling  of  his  predecessors.  Rome  might  speedily  need 
a  powerful  Transalpine  protector. 

Nor  could  the  Pope  be  blind  to  the  pride,  the  ambi- 
tion, the  duty  of  establishing  his  own  jurisdiction  on  a 
firmer  basis  beyond  the  Alps.  In  the  German  part  of 
the  Frankish  kingdom,  and  in  Germany  itself,  had  now 
arisen  a  new  clergy  ;  if  more  devoted  to  the  Pope,  un- 
questionably of  far  higher  Christian  character  than  the 
degenerate  hierarchy  of  France.  They  began  as  the 
humblest  yet  most  enterprising  missionaries,  daily  per- 
illing their  lives  for  the  faith,  and  bringing  gradually 
tribes  of  Barbarians  within  the  pale  of  Christendom  ; 
they  had  become  prelates  of  large  sees,  abbots  of  flour- 
ishing monasteries.  But  all  this  aggression  on  pagan- 
ism, all  these  conquests  of  Christianity  and  civilization 
in  the  forests  and  morasses  of  Germany,  had  been 
made  by  men  commissioned  by  Rome,  and  in  strict  sub- 


I 


CHAP.  XI  TEUTONIC   CLERGY.  415 

serviency  to  lier  discipline.  Not  even  the  jarring  dis- 
crepancy  between  what  Boniface  and  his  followers  saw 
and  heard  of  the  lives  of  Christian  prelates  in  Rome, 
the  venality  of  the  pnblic  proceedings,  and  all  which 
was  strange  to  his  lofty  ideal  of  the  faith,  could  in  the 
least  shake  their  conscientious  devotion  to  the  See  of 
St.  Peter. 

To  judge  from  the  reports  of  these  holy  men,  the 
monarchy  itself  was  not  more  utterly  effete  and  de- 
praved than  the  old  established  clergy  of  France,  which 
had  boasted,  in  the  century  before,  a  hierarchy  of 
saints.  With  due  allowance  for  the  rigidly  monastic 
and  celibate  notions  of  Boniface  and  his  disciples,  which 
would  induce  them  to  condemn  the  marriao:e  of  the 
clergy  as  sternly  as  the  loosest  concubinage,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  Prankish  clergy  were  in  general 
sunk  low  in  character  as  in  estimation.^  Boniface,  well 
informed,  doubtless,  of  what  he  might  expect  to  find, 
demands  authority  of  the  Pope  to  punish  by  summary 
degradation  the  incredible  profligacy,  especially  of  the 
lower  ecclesiastics ;  as  well  as  to  interdict  the  unchris- 
tian occupations  of  the  soldier-bishops,  who  indulged 
all  the  license  of  the  camp  —  drunkenness,  gambling, 
and  quarrelling;  and  all  the  ferocity  of  the  field  of 
battle,  even  bloodshed,  whether  that  of  Pagans  oi 
Christians. 2 

1  Archbishop  Boniface,  it  is  said,  Archbishop  of  Mentz,  by  papal  author- 
ity (missus  S.  Petri),  was  set  by  Charles  Martel  over  a  synod,  of  which  the 
object  was  to  restore  the  law  of  God  and  the  religion  of  the  Church,  which 
had  gone  to  ruin  under  former  kings,  "  qute  in  diebus  prfeteritorum  princi- 
pum  corruit."  —  Epist.  Boniface.  Ellendorf,  die  Karolinger,  i.  p.  83.  Car- 
loman  and  his  brother  Pepin  had  followed  the  example  of  their  father 
Charles  Martel  in  supporting  with  all  their  power  these  better  Christian 
ecclesiastics ;  they  not  only  befriended  them  in  their  conversion  of  the 
Pagans,  but  in  the  correction  of  their  own  clergy. 

2  Bonifac.  Epist.,  with  the  permission  to  hold  the  Synod,  and  the  reply 


416  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

All  the  energy  at  least,  the  high  principle,  the  pure 
morality,  all  the  Christianity  of  the  time,  might  seem 
centred  in  these  missionaries  and  in  their  followers  ; 
and  this  clergy  at  once  so  much  more  papal,  and 
of  so  much  higher  character,  was  that  of  the  new 
Carlovingian  kingdom,  a  kingdom  of  Germany  ^  rather 
than  of  Gaul.  This  clergy,  the  ancestors  of  Pepin, 
and  Pepin  himself,  had  always  treated  with  the  utmost 
respect  and  deference.^  Boniface,  in  truth,  as  Papal 
Legate,  or  under  the  authority  of  Pepin,  had  early 
assumed  the  power  of  a  primate  of  Gaul,  consecrated 
three  archbishops,  of  Rouen,  and  Sens,  and  Rheims. 
The  last  see  was  occupied  by  a  soldier-prelate,  named 
Milo,  archbishop  at  once  of  Rheims  and  of  Treves, 
who  resisted  for  ten  years  all  attempts  to  dispossess 
him ;  at  the  end  of  that  time  he  was  killed  by  a  wild 
boar. 

King  Pepin  was  himself  an  Austrasian,  the  vast 
estates  of  his  family  lay  on  the  Rhine.  The  acces- 
sion of  his  house  Teutonized  more  completely,  till  the 
division  amonor  the  sons  of  Charlemao;ne,  the  whole 
Frankish  monarchy. 

Pope  Zacharias  did  not  live  to  behold  the  fulfilment 
of  his  great  designs.     He  died  in  the  same  year  on 

of  Pope  Zacharias.  —  Labbe,  Concil.,  p.  1495.  He  speaks  of  those  who 
"  in  diaconatu  concubinas  quatuor  vel  quinque  vel  plures  noctu  in  lectulo 
habentes,"  nevertheless  dared  to  perform  their  sacred  offices,  and  were  pro- 
moted to  the  priesthood,  even  to  episcopacy.  He  proceeds :  "  Et  invenian- 
tur  quidam  inter  eos  episcopi,  qui  licet  dicani  se  fornicarios  vel  adulterioa 
non  esse,  smit  tamen  ebriosi,  et  injuriosi,  vel  pugnatores;  et  qui  puguant 
in  exercitu  armati,  et  effundunt  propria  manu  sanguinem  hominum  sive 
infidelium,  sive  Christianorum." 

1  Compare  Guizot,  Essai  iii. 

2  Pope  Zacharias  writes  to  Boniface:  "Quod  (Carlomanus  et  Pepinus) 
tuae  pnvdicationis  socii  etadjutores  esse  niterentur  ex  divina  iuspiratura." 
—  Epist.  Bonifac.  144. 


Chap.  XL  STEPHEN  II.  417 

which  Pepin  became  king  of  France.     The  ^  ^  ^52. 
election  fell  on   a  certain  presbyter,  named  ^^'-^^^^  i*- 
Stephen  ;   but  the  third  day  after,  before  his  consecra 
tion,  he  was  seized  with  a  fit,  and  died   the  following 
day.     He   is   not   reckoned   in    the   line   of  March  26. 
popes.     Another  Stephen,  chosen  immediate-  or  iii. 
]y  on  his  death,  is  usually  called  the  second  of  that 
name. 

The  first  act  of  Stephen's  pontificate  was  to  guard 
against  the  threatened  aggressions  of  the  Lombards. 
Already  had  Astolph,  a  prince  as  daring  but  less  re- 
ligious than  Liutprand,  entered  the  Exarchate,  and 
seized  Ravenna.  The  ambassadors  of  the  June 
Pope  were  received  with  courtesy,  his  gifts  with  avid- 
ity ;  a  hollow  truce  for  forty  years  was  agreed  on ; 
but  in  four  months  (the  terms  of  the  treaty,  and  the 
pretext  alleged  by  Astolph  for  its  violation,  are  equal- 
ly unknown)  the  Lombard  was  again  in  October, 
arms.  In  terms  of  contumely  and  menace  he  de- 
manded the  instant  submission  of  Rome,  and  the 
payment  of  a  heavy  personal  tribute,  a  poll-tax  on 
each  citizen.  Astolph  now  treated  the  ambassadors 
of  the  Pope  with  scorn.^  A  representative  of  the 
empire,  which  still  clung  to  its  barren  rights  in  Italy, 
John  the  Silentiary,  appeared  at  Rome.  He  was  sent 
to  Ravenna,  to  protest  against  the  Lombard  invasion, 
and  to  demand  the  restoration  of  the  Roman  territory 
to  the  republic.  Astolph  dismissed  him  with  a  civil 
but  evasive  answer,  that  he  would  send  an  ambassador 


1  According  to  Anastasius,  he  was  required  to  surrender  to  their  right- 
ful lord  all  that  he  had  usurped  by  his  diabolic  ambition.  This  is  a  flower 
of  ecclesiastical  rhetoric,  yet  showing  the  papal  abhorrence  of  the  Lom- 
bards. 

VOL.  II.  27 


418  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

Octoiier.  to  tliG  Empcror.  Stephen  wrote  to  Constan- 
tinople, that  without  an  army  to  back  the  imperial 
demands,  all  was  lost. 

Astolph,  exasperated,  perhaps,  at  the  demand  of  an 
army  fi'om  the  East,  which  might  reach  his  ears,  in- 
flexibly pursued  his  advantages.  He  approached  the 
Roman  frontier;  he  approached  Rome.  Not  all  the 
iitanies,  not  all  the  solemn  processions  to  the  most 
revered  altars  of  the  city,  in  which  the  Pope  himself, 
with  naked  feet,  bore  the  cross,  and  the  whole  people 
followed  with  ashes  on  their  heads,  and  with  a  wild 
howl  of  agony  implored  the  protection  of  God  against 
the  blaspheming  Lombards,  arrested  for  an  instant  his 
progress.  The  Pope  appealed  to  heaven,  by  tying  a 
copy  of  the  treaty,  violated  by  Astolph,  to  the  holy 
cross.i  Yet,  during  the  siege  of  Rome,  Astolph  was 
digging  up  the  bodies  of  saints,  not  for  insult,  but  as 
the  most  precious  trophies,  and  carried  them  off  as 
tutelar  deities  to  Lombardy.^ 

The  only  succor  was  beyond  the  Alps,  from  Pepin, 
the  king,  by  papal  sanction,  of  the  Catholic  Franks. 
Already  the  Pope  had  written  to  beseech  the  interfer- 
stephen  ^^^^  ^^  *^®  transalpine ;  and  now,  as  the 
leaves  Rome.  ^^j^gQ^  bccame  more  imminent,  he  deter- 
mined to  leave  his  beloved  flock,  though  in  a  feeble 
state  of  health,  to  encounter  the  perils  of  a  journey 
over  the  Alps,  and  so  to  visit  the  Barbarian  monarch  in 
person.  He  set  forth  among  the  tears  and  lamenta- 
tions of  the   people.     He   was   accompanied  by  some 

1  "  Alligans  connectensque  adorandjc  cruci  Dei  nostri,  pactum  illud,  quod 
nefandtis  Rex  Longobardorum  disrupit."  — Anastas.,  in  Vit.  Steph.  II. 

2  "  Ablata  multa  sanctorum  corpora  ex  Romanis  finibus,  in  Papiam  .  .  . 
construxit  eorum  oracula."  He  founded  a  nunnerj',  in  which  he  pla<;ed 
his  own  daughters.  —  Chronic.  Salernit. 


CiiAP.  XI.  STEPHEN   SETS   OUT   FOR   FRANCE.  419 

ecclesiastics,  by  the  Frankish  bishop  Racli-  Oct.  i4. 
gond,  and  the  Duke  Anscharis,  ah-eady  sent  by  Pepin 
to  invite  him  to  tlie  court  of  France.  Miracles,  no-vv 
the  ordinary  signs  of  a  papal  progress,  were  said  to 
mark  his  course.^  Instead  of  endeavoring  to  pass 
without  observation  through  the  Lombard  dominions, 
he  boldly  presented  himself  at  the  gate  of  Pavia.  He 
was  disappointed  if  he  expected  Astolph  to  be  over- 
awed by  his  presence,  as  Liutprand  and  Rachis  had 
been  by  that  of  his  saintly  predecessor ;  but  November. 
he  was  safe  under  the  protection  of  the  ambassador 
of  Pepin.  Astolph  received  him  not  without  courtesy, 
accepted  his  gifts,  but  paid  no  regard  to  his  earnest 
tears  and  supplications ;  coldly  rejected  his  exorbitant 
demands,  —  the  immediate  restoration  of  all  the  Lom- 
bard conquests  —  but  respected  his  person,  and  tried 
only,  by  repeated  persuasion,  to  divert  him  from  his 
journey  into  France.  Stephen,  on  leaving  Pavia, 
anticipated  any  stronger  measures  to  detain  him  by 
a  rapid  march  to  the  foot  of  the  Alps.  In  November 
he  passed  the  French  frontier,  and  reached  Nov.  15. 
the  convent  of  St.  Maurice.  There  he  was  met  by 
another  ecclesiastic,  and  another  noble  of  the  highest 
rank,  with  orders  to  conduct  him  to  the  court.  At  a 
distance  of  a  hundred  miles  from  the  court  appeared 
the  Prince  Charles,  with  some  chosen  nobles.  Jan:  6, 754. 
Charles  was  thus  to  be  early  impressed  with  reverence 


1  Compare,  on  the  other  hand,  the  curious  story  in  Agnelli.  Stephen 
mshed  to  plunder  on  his  way  the  treasures  of  the  church  of  Ravenna.  The 
Eavennese  priests  (among  them  Leo,  afterwards  archbishop)  designed  to 
murder  him.  He  escaped,  taking  only  part  of  the  treasures.  Those  who 
had  plotted  the  death  of  the  Pope  were  sent  to  Rome,  and  remained  til 
most  of  them  died.  Among  them,  says  the  writer,  "  avus  patris  raei  fijit." 
—  Apud  Muratori. 


420  LATIN   CHRTSTIANITY.  Book  IT. 

for  tlie  Papal  dignity.  Three  miles  from  the  palace 
of  Pontyon,^  Pepin  came  forth  with  his  wife,  his  fam- 
ily, and  the  rest  of  his  feudatories.  As  the  Pope  ap« 
proached,  the  king  dismounted  from  his  horse,  and 
prostrated  himself  on  the  ground  before  him.  He 
then  walked  by  the  side  of  the  Pope's  palfrey.  Tho 
Pope  and  the  ecclesiastics  broke  out  at  once  into 
hymns  of  thanksgiving,  and  so  chanting  as  they  wont, 
reached  the  royal  residence.  Stephen  lost  no  time 
in  adverting  to  the  object  of  his  visit.  He  implored 
the  immediate  interposition  of  Pepin  to  enforce  the 
restoration  of  the  domain  of  St.  Peter.  So  relate  the 
Italians.  According  to  the  French  chroniclers,  the 
Pope  and  his  clergy,  with  ashes  on  their  heads,  and 
sackcloth  on  their  bodies,  prostrated  themselves  as 
suppliants  at  the  feet  of  Pepin,  and  would  not  rise 
till  he  had  promised  his  aid  against  the  perfidious  Lom- 
bard. Pepin  swore  at  once  to  fulfil  all  the  requests 
of  the  Pope ;  but  as  the  winter  rendered  military  oper- 
ations impracticable,  invited  him  to  Paris,  where  he 
took  up  his  residence  in  the  abbey  of  St.  Denys.  Pepin 
and  his  two  sons  were  again  anointed  by  the  Pope  him- 
self, their  sovereignty  thus  more  profoundly  sanctified 
in  the  minds  of  their  subjects.  Stephen  would  secure 
the  ])erpetuity  of  the  dynasty  under  pain  of  interdict 
and  excommunication.  The  nation  was  never  to  pre- 
sume to  choose  a  king  in  future  ages,  but  of  the  race 
of  Charhis  Martel.^  From  fatigue  and  the  severity 
of  the  climate,  Stephen  became  dangerously  ill  in  the 
July.  monastery  of  St.    Denys,  but,  after   a    hard 

1  Pontyon  on  the  Perche,  near  Vitry-le  brule. 

2  "  Tali  omnes  interdicto  et  excommunicationis  lege  constrinxit,  ut  nun- 
quam  de  alterius  lumbis  regem  in  aivo  praesumerent  eligere."  —  ClausuL 
•ic  Pippini  Elect. 


Chap.  XL        CARLOMAN  IN  FRANCE.  421 

Struggle,  recovered  his  health.  His  restoration  was 
esteemed  a  miracle,  wrought  through  the  prayers  of 
St.  Denys,  St.  Peter,  and  St.  Paul. 

Astolph,  in  the  mean  time,  did  not  disdain  the  storm 
which  was  brooding  beyond  the  Alps.  He  took  an  ex- 
traordinary measure  to  avert  the  danger.  He  per- 
suaded Carloman,  the  brother  of  Pepin,  who  had 
abdicated  his  throne,  and  turned  monk,  to  leave  his 
monastery,  to  cross  the  Alps,  and  endeavor  to  break 
this  close  alliance  between  Pepin  and  the  Pope.  No 
wonder  that  the  clergy  should  attribute  the  influ- 
ence of  Astolph  over  the  mind  of  Carloman  to  dia- 
bolic arts,  for  Carloman  appeared  at  least,  whether 
seized  by  an  access  of  reviving  ambition,  or  incensed 
at  Pepin's  harsh  treatment  of  his  family,  to  enter 
with  the  utmost  zeal  into  the  cause  of  the  Lombard. 
The  humble  slave  of  the  Pope  Zacharias  presented 
himself  in  France  as  the  resolute  antagonist  of  Pope 
Stephen  and  of  the  Papal  cause.^  But  the  Carloman  in 
throne  of  Pepin  was  too  firmly  fixed ;  he  ^^^°<=^- 
turned  a  deaf  and  contemptuous  ear  to  his  brother's 
arguments.  The  Pope  asserted  his  authority  over  the 
renegade  monk,  who  had  broken  his  vows  ;  and  Car- 
loman was  imprisoned  for  life  in  a  cloister  at  Vienne ; 
that  life  however,  lasted  but  a  few  days. 

Pope  Stephen  was  anxious  to  avert  the  shedding  of 
blood  in  the  impending  war.^     Thrice  before  he  col- 

1  According  to  Anastasius,  "  vehementius  decertabat,  sanctae  Dei  eccle- 
iliae  causam  subvertere."  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  how  Astolph  could 
persuade  him  to  engage  in  this  strange  and  perilous  mission,  and  the  argu- 
ments urged  by  Carloman  on  his  brother  are  still  more  strange.  Eginhard 
asserts  that  he  came  "  jussu  abbatis  sui  quia  nee  ille  ablatis  sui  jussa  con- 
tempnere,  nee  abbas  ille  pra^-eptis  Regis  Longobardorum,  qui  ei  et  hoc  im- 
oeravit,  audcbat  resistere."     Sub  aim.  753. 

2  "  Obtestatur  per  omnia  divina  mysteriu  et   futuri  examinis  diem  ut 


122  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

lected  his  forces,  once  on  his  march  to  Italy,  Pepin  sent 
ambassadors  to  the  Lombard  king,  wlio  were  to  ex- 
hort him  to  surrender  peaceably  the  possessions  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  Roman  Republic.  Pope  Stephen 
tried  the  persuasiveness  of  religious  awe.  Astolph  re- 
jected the  menacing  and  more  quiet  overtures  with 
scorn,  and  fell  on  an  advanced  post  of  the  Franks, 
Pepin  in  which  occupicd  ouc  of  the  passes  of  the 
Italy.  Alps,  about  to  be  entered  by  the  araiy.     He 

was  routed  by  those  few  troops,  and  took  refuge  in 
Pavia.  The  King  of  the  Franks  and  Pope  Stephen 
Sept.— Oct.  advanced  to  the  walls  of  the  city;  and  As- 
tolph was  glad  to  purchase  an  ignominious  peace,  by 
pledging  himself,  on  oath,  to  restore  the  territory  of 
Rome.^ 

Pepin  had  no  sooner  retired  beyond  the  Alps  with 
his  hostages,  than  Astolph  began  to  find  causes  to  delay 
the  covenanted  surrender.  After  a  certain  time  he 
marclied  with  his  whole  forces  upon  Rome,  to  which 
November.  Popc  Stephen  had  then  returned,  wasted  the 
surrounding  country,  encamped  before  the  Salarian 
Gate,  and  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  Pope.^  The 
plunder,  if  the  Papal  historian  is  to  be  believed,  which 
he  chiefly  coveted,  was  the  dead  bodies  of  the  saints. 
December.  Thcsc  lic  dug  up  and  Carried  away.  He  de- 
iiome.  manded  that  the  Romans  should  give  up  the 

Pope  into  his  hands,  and  on  these  terms  only  would  he 


pacifice  sine  ulla  sanguinis  efFusione  propria  sancta  dei  ecclesifs  et  reipub- 
licae  Romanorum  rcddat  jura."  —  Vit.  Steph. 

1  The  Pope  attributed  the  easy  victory  of  the  Franks,  not  to  their  valor 
but  to  St.  FaUiv.  "  Per  manum  beati  Petri  Doniinus  omnipotens  victoriam 
robis  largiri  dignatus  est."  —  Steph.  Epist.  ad  Pepin,  p.  1632. 

'^  Stcjihan.  Kpist.  Gretser,  2(il.  —  "  Aperite  mihi  portara  Salariam  ut 
iiigrediur  civitatcui,  ct  traditc  mihi  poutiiicom  vestruui." 


CiiAP.  XI.  POPE  STEPHEN'S  LETTERS.  423 

spare  the  city.     Astolph  declared  he  woukl  not  leave 
the  Pope  a  foot  of  land.^ 

Stephen  sent  messengers  in  all  haste  by  sea,  for  every 
way  by  land  was  closed  to  his  faithful  ally.  Popeste- 
His  first  letter  reminded  King  Pepin  how  letter. 
stern  an  exactor  of  promises  was  St.  Peter ;  "  that  the 
king  hazarded  eternal  condemnation  if  he  did  not  com- 
plete the  donation  which  he  had  vowed  to  St.  Peter, 
and  St.  Peter  had  promised  to  him  eternal  life.  If  the 
king  was  not  faithful  to  his  word,  the  apostle  had  his 
handwriting  to  the  grant,  which  he  would  produce 
against  him  in  the  day  of  judgment." 

A  second  letter  followed,  more  pathetic,  more  persua- 
sive.    "Astolph  was  at  the  gates  of  Rome;  gg^ond 
he  threatened,  if  they  did  not  yield  up  the  ^^"^'^' 
Pope,  to  put  the  whole  city  to  the  sword.      He  had 
burned  all  the  villas  and  the  suburbs ;  ^    he  had  not 
spared  the  churches  ;    the  very  altars   were  jy^^  754 _ 
plundered  and  defiled;  nuns  violated  ;  infants  ^''^'  '^^' 
torn  from  their  mothers'  breasts  ;  the  mothers  polluted  , 
—  all  the  horrors  of  war  were  ready  to  break  on  the  de- 
voted city,  which  had  endured  a  siege  of  fifty-five  days. 
He  conjured  him,  by  God  and  his   holy   mother,  by 
the  angels  of  heaven,  by  the  apostles  St.  Peter  and  St. 
Paul,  and  by  the  last  day."     This  second  letter   was 
sent  by  the  hands  of  the  Abbot  Warnerius,  who  had 
put  on  his  breast-plate,  and  night  and  day  kept  watch 
for  the  city.     (This  is  the  first  example  of  a  warlike 
abbot.)     With  him  were  George,  a  bishop,  and  Count 

1  "  Nee  unius  palmi  terrae  spatium  B.  Petro  ....  vel  reipublicae  Roman- 
oruin  reddere." — Steph.  Epist.  In  the  utmost  distress,  the  very  stones, 
the  Pope  says,  might  have  wept  at  his  grief  and  peril.  —  Epist.  ad  Pepiru 
Reg. 

2  Epist.  ii.  ad  Pepiu.  Reg. 


424  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Boor  IV. 

Tomaric.  Stephen  summed  up  tlie  certain  reward 
which  Pepin  might  expect  if  he  hastened  to  the  rescue 
—  "  Victory  overall  the  Barbarian  nations,  and  eternal 
life." 

But  the  Franks  were  distant,  or  were  tardy  ;  the  dan- 
ger of  the  Pope  and  the  Roman  people  more  and  more 
imminent.  Stephen  was  wrought  to  an  agony  of  fear, 
and  in  this  state  took  the  daring  —  to  our  calmer  relig- 
TMrdfrom     ious  Sentiment,  impious  step  —  of   writino^  a 

St.  Peter  o       -A  i  •  ip  i  i 

himself.  letter,  as  rrom  ot.  Peter  hmiselr,  to  hasten  tho 
lingering  succor  :  —  "I,  Peter  the  Apostle,  protest,  ad- 
monish, and  conjure  you,  the  Most  Christian  Kings, 
Pepin,  Charles,  and  Carloman,  with  all  the  hierarchy, 
bishops,  abbots,  priests,  and  all  monks ;  all  judges, 
dukes,  counts,  and  the  whole  people  of  the  Franks. 
The  Mother  of  God  likewise  adjures  you,  and  admon- 
ishes and  commands  you,  she  as  well  as  the  thrones  and 
dominions,  and  all  the  host  of  heaven,  to  save  the  be- 
loved city  of  Rome  from  the  detested  Lombards.  If 
ye  hasten,  I,  Peter  the  Apostle,  promise  you  my  protec- 
tion in  this  life  and  in  the  next,  w^ll  prepare  for  you  the 
most  glorious  mansions  in  heaven,  and  will  bestow  on 
you  the  everlasting  joys  of  paradise.  Make  common 
cause  with  my  people  of  Rome,  and  I  will  grant  what- 
ever ye  may  pray  for.  I  conjure  you  not  to  yield  up 
this  city  to  be  lacerated  and  tormented  by  the  Lom- 
bards, lest  your  own  souls  be  lacerated  and  tormented 
in  hell,  with  the  devil  and  his  pestilential  angels.  Of 
all  nations  under  heaven,  the  Franks  are  highest  in  the 
esteem  of  St.  Peter ;  to  me  you  owe  all  your  victories. 
Obey,  and  obey  speedily,  and,  by  my  suffrage,  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  will  give  you  in  this  life  length  of 
days,  security,  victory ;    in  the  life  to  come,  will  mul- 


Chap.  XI.       LETTER  FROM  ST.  PETER.  425 

tiply  his  blessings  Tipon  you,  among  his  saints  and  an- 
gels." ^ 

A  vail,  but  natural  curiosity  would  imagine  the  effect 
of  this  letter  at  the  court  of  Pepin.  Were  there  amono- 
his  clergy  or  among  his  warrior  nobles  those  who  really 
thought  they  heard  the  voice  of  the  apostle,  and  felt 
that  their  eternal  doom  depended  on  their  instant  obedi- 
(iuce  to  this  appeal  ?  How  far  was  Pepin  himself  gov- 
erned by  policy  or  by  religious  awe  ?  How  much  was 
art,  how  much  implicit  faith  wrought  up  to  its  highest 
pitch  by  terror,  in  the  mind  of  the  Pope,  when  the  Pope 
ventured  on  this  awful  assumption  of  the  person  of  the 
apostle?  That  he  should  hazard  such  a  step,  having  had 
personal  intercourse  with  Pepin,  his  clergy,  and  his  no- 
bles, shows  the  measure  which  he  had  taken  of  the  pow- 
er with  which  religion  possessed  their  souls.  He  had 
fathomed  the  depths  of  their  Christianity  ;  and  whether 
he  himself  partook  in  the  same,  to  us  extravagant,  no- 
tions, or  used  them  as  lawful  instruments  to  terrify  the 
Barbarians  into  the  protection  of  the  holy  see  and  the 
advancement  of  her  dominion,  he  might  consider  all 
means  justified  for  such  high  purposes.  If  it  had  been 
likely  to  startle  men,  by  this  overwrought  demand  on 
their  credulity,  into  reasoning  on  such  subjects,  it  would 
have  hindered  rather  than  promoted  his  great  end. 

1  Gretser,  p.  17-23.  Mansi,  sub  ann.  A.  D.  755.  Fleiiry  observes  of 
this  letter:  "  Au  reste,  elle  est  pleine  d'^quivoques,  comme  les  pr^c^dentes. 
L'Eglise  y  signifie  non  I'assemblt^e  des  fideles,  mais  les  biens  temporels 
consacr^s  a  Dieu :  le  tr  )upeau  de  Jesus  Christ  sont  les  corps  et  non  pas  les 
ames:  les  promesses  temporelles  de  I'ancienne  loi  sont  melees  avec  les 
spirituelles  de  I'Evangile,  et  les  motifs  plus  saints  de  la  religion  employt^s 
pour  une  affaire  d'dtat."  — Liv.  xlvii.  c.  17.  After  all,  the  ground  of  qu.ar- 
rel  was  for  the  excharchate,  not  for  the  estates  of  the  Church.  It  the  Pope 
had  allowed  the  Lombards  to  occupy  the  exarchate,  they  would  have  been 
loyal  allies  of  the  Pope. 


426  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Bock  17. 

Not  the  least  remarkable  point  of  all  is,  that  Chris- 
tianity has  now  assumed  the  complete  power,  not  only 
of  the  life  to  come,  but  of  the  present  life,  witli  all  its 
temporal  advantages.  It  now  leagues  itself  with  Bar- 
barians, not  to  soften,  to  civilize,  to  imbue  with  devo- 
tion, to  lead  to  Christian  worship ;  but  to  give  victory 
in  all  their  ruthless  wars,  to  confer  the  blessings  of 
Iieaven  on  their  schemes  of  ambition  and  conquest. 
The  one  title  to  eternal  life  is  obedience  to  the  Church 
—  the  Church  no  longer  the  community  of  pious  and 
holy  Christians,  but  the  see,  almost  the  city,  of  Rome. 
The  supreme  obligation  of  man  is  the  protection  and 
enlargement  of  her  domain.  By  zeal  in  this  cause, 
without  any  other  moral  or  religious  qualification,  the 
most  brutal  and  bloody  soldier  is  a  saint  in  heaven. 
St.  Peter  is  become  almost  God,  the  giver  of  vic- 
tory, the  dispenser  of  eternal  life.  The  time  is  ap- 
proaching when  war  against  infidels  or  enemies  of  the 
Pope  will  be  among  the  riiost  meritorious  acts  of  a 
Christian. 

The  Franks  had  alarmed  the  Pope  by  the  tardiness 
of  their  succor;  but  their  host  once  assembled  and  on 
Pepin  in  ^^^  marcli,  their  rapid  movements  surprised 
Lombards  Astolph.  Scarccly  could  he  return  to  Pavia, 
yield.  when  he  found  himself  besieged  in  his  capital. 

The  Lombard  forces  seem  to  have  been  altoo-ether 
unequal  to  resist  the  Franks.  Astolph  yielded  at  once 
to  the  demands  of  Pepin,  and  actually  abandoned  the 
whole  contested  territory.  Ambassadors  from  the  East 
were  present  at  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty,  and  de- 
manded the  restitution  of  Ravenna  and  its  territory  to 
the  Byzantine  Empire.  Pepin  declared  that  his  sole 
object  in  the  war  was  to  show  his  veneration  for  St. 


Chap.  XL  DESIDERIUS.  427 

Peter ;  and  he  bestowed,  as  it  seems,  by  the  right  of 
conquest,  the  whole  upon  the  Pope. 

The  representatives  of  the  Pope,  who  however  al- 
ways speak  of  the  republic  of  Rome,  passed  through 
the  land,  receiving  the  homage  of  the  authorities  and 
the  keys  of  the  cities.  The  district  comprehended 
Ravenna,  Rimini,  Pesaro,  Fano,  Cesena,  Sinigaglia, 
lesi,  Forlimpopoli,  Forli  with  the  Castle  Sussibio, 
Montefeltro,  Acerra,  Monte  di  Lucano,  Serra,  San 
Marino,  Bobbio,  Urbino,  Cagli,  Luciolo,  Gubbio,  Co- 
machio,  and  Narni  which  was  severed  from  the  duke- 
dom of  Spoleto.^ 

Thus  the  successor,  as  he  was  declared,  of  the  fish- 
erman of  the  Galilean  lake,  the  apostle  of  Him  whose 
kingdom  was  not  of  this  world,  became  a  temporal 
sovereign.  By  the  gift  of  a  foreign  potentate,  tliis 
large  part  of  Italy  became  the  kingdom  of  the  Bishop 
of  Rome. 

King  Astolph  did  not  long  survive  this  humiliation  : 
he    was    accidentally    killed    when    hunting,  a.d.  756. 
The  adherents  of  the  Pope  beheld  the  hand  of  God  in 
his    death ;    they  heap    on    him    every  appellation   of 
scorn  and  hatred;  the  Pope  has  no  doubt  of  Dgsi^j^^us 
his  damnation. 2     The  Lombards  of  Tuscany  LoUfbardy. 
favored  the  pretensions   of  their  Duke  Des-  ^'^'  '^' 

1  It  is  not  quite  clear  how  Stephen  himself  eluded  the  claims  of  the 
Greek  Emperor  —  probably  by  the  Emperor's  heresy.  In  Stephen's  letter  ot 
llianks  for  his  deliverance  to  the  King  of  the  Franks,  he  desires  to  know 
what  answer  had  been  given  to  the  Silentiary,  commissioned  to  assert  the 
rights  of  his  master.  He  reminds  Pepin  that  he  must  protect  the  Catholic 
Church  against  pestilent  wickedness  (malitia),  (no  doubt  the  iconoclastic 
opinions  of  the  Emperor),  and  keep  her  property  secure  (omnia  proprietatia 
Buae). 

2  "Divmo  ictu  percussus  est  et  in  infemi  voraginera  demersus."  —  Epist 
ad  PepoJ.  vi.;  Gretser,  60;  Mansi,  sub  aun. 


428  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

iderlus  to  the  throne.  In  the  north  of  Italy,  Rachls, 
the  brother  of  Astolph,  who  had  retired  to  a  monas- 
tery, appeared  at  the  head  of  a  powerful  faction,  and 
reclaimed  the  throne.  Desiderius  endeavored  to  se- 
cure the  influence  of  the  pope.  Stephen  extorted,  as 
the  price  of  his  interference,  Faenza,  Imola,  with 
some  other  castles,  and  the  whole  duchy  of  Ferrara.^ 
Stephen  no  doubt  felt  a  holy  horror  of  the  return  oi'  a 
monk  to  worldly  cares,  even  those  of  a  crown.  This 
would  be  rank  apostasy  with  him  who  was  thus  secu- 
larizing the  papacy  itself. 

During  the  later  years  of  Stephen's  pontificate,  a 
strong  faction  had  designated  his  brother  Paul  as  suc- 
A.D.  757.  cessor  to  the  see.  Another  party,  opposed 
April  26.  perhaps  to  this  family  transmission  of  the 
papacy,  which  was  thus  assimilating  itself  more  and 
more  to  a  temporal  sovereignty,  set  up  the  claims  of 
the  Archdeacon  Theoi)hylact.  On  the  vacancy  the 
Paul  I.  Pope,  partisans  of  Paul  prevailed.  The  brother  of 
Stephen  was  raised  to  the  throne  of  St.  Peter.  Paul 
has  the  fame  of  a  mild  and  peace-loving  prelate.  He 
loved  to  wander  at  ni^-ht  amono;  the  hovels  of  the 
poor,  and  to  visit  the  prisons,  relieving  misery  and 
occasionally  releasing  the  captives  from  their  bondage. 
Yet  is  Paul  not  less  involved  in  the  ambitious  designs 
of  the  advancing  papacy.  His  first  act  is  to  announce 
liis  election  to  the  King  of  the  Franks,  who  had  now 
the  title,  probably  bestowed  by  Stephen,  of  Patrician 
of  Rome.  His  letter  does  not  allude  to  any  further 
ratification  of  his  election,  made  by  the  free  choice  of 
the  clergy  and  people  of  Rome ;  there  is  no  recognition 
whatever  of  supremacy. 

1  Perhaps  also  Osimo,  Aucoiia,  Humana,  and  he  even  demanded  Bologna 


Chap.  XI.  HELENA  AND  IRENE.  429 

Desiderius,  till  he  had  secured  his  throne  hi  Lorn 
bardy,   remained   on  terms   of  amity  with    the    Poj^e  ; 
but    the    old    irreconcilable    hostility  broke    out   again 
soon  after  the  accession  of  Paul. 

Among  the  causes  of  the  weakness  of  the  Lomba  rrl 
kingdom,  and  the  easy  triumph  of  the  Franks,  was  t!ie 
disunion  of  the  nation.  The  Dukes  of  Spoleto  and 
Benevento  renounced  their  allegiance  to  the  King  of 
Pavia,  and  declared  their  fealty  to  the  King  of  the 
Franks.  The  chastisement  of  their  revolt  gave  Desi- 
derius a  pretext  for  war.  He  marched,  ravaging  as  he 
went  with  fire  and  sword,  through  the  cities  of  the 
exarchate,  surprised  and  imprisoned  the  Duke  of  Spo- 
leto, forced  the  Duke  of  Benevento  to  take  refuo-e  in 

'  CD 

Otranto,  and  set  up  another  duke  in  his  place.  He 
then  proceeded  to  Naples,  still  occupied  by  the  Greeks, 
and  endeavored  to  neo;otiate  a  dano;erous  alliance  with 
the  Eastern  emperor.^  On  his  retin-n  he  passed 
through  Rome ;  and  when  the  Pope  demanded  the 
surrender  of  the  stipulated  cities  —  Imola,  Osimo, 
Ancona,  and  Bologna  —  Desiderius  eluded  the  de- 
mand by  requinng  the  previous  restitution  of  tho 
Lombard  hostages  carried  by  Pepin  into  France ;  but 
dreading  perhaps  a  new  Prankish  invasion,  Desideiius 
gradually  submitted  to  the  fulfilment  of  his  treaty. 
Disputes  arose  concerning  certain  patrimony  of  the 
Church  in  some  of  the  Lombard  cities,  but  even  these 
were  amicably  adjusted.  The  adulation  of  Paul  to 
the  King  of  the  Franks  passes  bounds.  He  is  another 
Moses ;  as  Moses  rescued  Israel  from  the  bondage  of 
Egypt,  so  Pepin  the  Catholic  Church ;  as  Moses  (!on- 
founded  idolatry,  so  Pepin  heresy.  The  rapturous 
1  Gretser,  p.  81 ;  Mansi,  sub  ann.  758. 


430  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Cook  IV 

expressions  of  the  Psalms  about  the  Messiah  are 
scarcely  too  fervent  to  be  applied  to  Pepin.  All  his 
acts  are  under  divine  inspiration.^  The  only  appre- 
hensions of  Paul  seemed  to  be  on  the  side  of  the 
Greeks.  On  one  occasion  he  writes  that  six  Byzan- 
tine ships  menaced  a  descent  on  Rome  ;  on  another  he 
dreads  an  attack  by  sea  on  Ravenna.  He  entreats  the 
King  of  the  Franks  to  urge  Desiderius  to  make  com- 
mon cause  against  the  enemy  ;  but  he  represents  the 
hostihty  of  the  Greeks  as  arising  not  from  their  desire 
to  recover  their  rights  in  Italy,  but  solely  from  the 
The  Greek  impious  dcsigu  of  destroying  the  images,  of 
empire  subverting  the  Catholic  faith  and  the  tradi- 

tions of  the  holy  fathers.  They  are  odious  iconoclastic 
heretics,  not  the  Imperial  armies  warring  to  regain 
their  lost  dominions  in  Italy.  The  Greeks  have  now 
succeeded  to  the  appellation  of  the  "  most  wicked,"  a 
term  hitherto  appropriated  to  the  Lombards  ;  but  here- 
after the  epithet  of  all  those  who  resisted  the  temporal 
or  spiritual  interest  of  the  Papal  See.^ 

Such  was  the  singular  position  of  Rome  and  of  the 
Roman  territory.  In  theory  they  were  still  part  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  of  which  the  Greek  Emperor,  had 
he  been  orthodox,  would  have  been  tlie  acknowledged 

1  Gretser,  Epist.  xvi.  "  Novus  quippe  Moses,  novusque  David  in  omni- 
bus operibus  suis  effectus  est  Christianissimus  et  a  Deo  protectus  filius  et 
Bpiritalis  compater  Dominus  Pepinus."  —  Epist.  xxii.  Thou,  after  God, 
art  our  defender  and  aider;  if  all  the  hairs  of  our  head  were  tongues,  we 
could  not  give  you  thaulfs  equal  to  your  deserts.  —  Epist.  xxxvi.  Through- 
out it  is  St.  Peter  who  has  anointed  Pepin  king;  St.  Peter  who  is  the  giver 
of  all  Pepin's  victories  over  the  Barbarians;  St.  Peter  whom  he  protects; 
St.  Peter  whc.e  gratitude  he  has  a  right  to  command;  and  St.  Peter  is  all 
powerful  in  heaven. 

2  Non  ob  aliud  nefandlssimi  nos  persequuntur  Gneci,  nisi  propter  sanc- 
tam  et  orthodoxam  hdem,  et  venerandorum  patrum  piam  traditionem, 
quani  cupiuut  destruere  et  conculcare."  —  Epist.  ad  Pepin. 


Chap.  XL  ICONOCLASM  OF  THE  I'OPE.  431 

sovere?gn  ;  ^  but  his  iconoclasm  released  the  members 
of  the  true  Church  from  their  alleoiance  :  he  was  vir- 
tually  or  actually  under  excommunication.  In  the 
mean  time  the  right  of  conquest,  and  the  indefinite 
title  of  Patrician,  assigned  by  the  Pope,  acting  in  be- 
half and  with  the  consent  of  the  Roman  republic,  to 
Pepin  —  a  title  which  might  be  merely  honorary,  or 
might  justify  any  authority  which  he  might  have 
power  to  exercise  —  gave  a  kind  of  supremacy  to  the 
King  of  the  Franks  in  Rome  and  her  domain.  The 
Pope,  tacitly  at  least,  admitted  as  the  representative 
of  the  Roman  people,  awarded  this  title,  which  gave 
him  a  right  to  demand  protection,  while  himself,  by 
the  donation  of  Pepin,  possessed  the  actual  property 
and  the  real  power.  In  the  Exarchate  he  ruled  by  the 
direct  grant  of  Pepin,  who  had  conquered  this  territory 
from  the  Lombards,  they  having  previously  dispos- 
sessed the  Greeks.  Popes  of  this  time  kept  up  the 
pious  fiction  that  the  donations  even  of  sovereigns, 
though  extending  to  cities  and  provinces,  were  given 
for  holy  uses,  the  keeping  up  the  lights  in  the  churches, 
and  the  maintenance  of  the  poor.^  But  who  was  to 
demand  account  of  the  uses  to  which  these  revenues 
were  applied  ?  The  Pope  took  possession  as  lord  and 
master ;  he  received  the  homage  of  the  authorities  and 
the  keys  of  the  cities.  The  local  or  municipal  institu- 
tions remained ;  but  the  revenue,  which  had  before 
been  received  by  the   Byzantine   crown,   became   the 


1  The  Greeks  still  retained  Naples  and  the  Sonth  of  Italy. 

2  "  Unde  pro  animse  vestrae  salute  indefessa  luminarium  concinnatio  Dei 
ecclesiis  pennaneat,  et  esuries  pauperiim,  egenorum,  vel  peregrinorum  ni- 
hilominus  reievetur,  et  ad  veram  satiiritatem  perveniant."  —  Steph.  II.  ad 
Pepiu.  Epist. 


432  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

revenue  of  tlie  Church :  of  that  revenue  the  Pope  waa 
the  guardian,  distributor,  possessor. 

The  pontificate  of  Paul,  on  the  whole,  was  a  period 
of  peace.  If  Desiderius,  after  his  first  expedition 
against  the  rebel  Duke  of  Spoleto,  did  not  maintain 
strictly  amicable  relations  with  the  Papal  See,  he  ab- 
stained from  hostility. 

But,  as  heretofore,  the  loftier  the  papal  dignity  and 
Papacy  seized  the  greater  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  Pope, 
byToto.  ^|-^g  more  it  became  an  object  of  unhallowed 
ambition.  On  the  death  of  Paul,  that  which  two  centu- 
ries later  reduced  the  Papacy  to  the  lowest  state  of  deg- 
radation, the  violent  nomination  of  the  Pope  by  the  petty 
barons  and  armed  nobles  of  the  neio;hborino;  districts  was 
prematurely  attempted.  Toto,  the  Duke  of  Nepi,  sud- 
Jan.28, 767.  deuly,  bcforc  Paul  had  actually  expired,  en 
tered  the  city  with  his  three  brothers  and  a  strong 
armed  force.  As  soon  as  Paul  was  dead,  they  seized 
a  bishop  and  compelled  him  to  ordain  Constantine,  one 
of  the  brothers,  yet  a  layman.  They  then  took  ])os- 
session  of  the  Lateran  palace,  and  after  a  hasty  form 
of  election,  forced  the  same  bishop,  George  of  Pales- 
trina,  with  two  others,  Eustratius  of  Alba  and  Cito- 
constantine  ^atus  of  Porto,  to  cousccratc  Coustantiue  as 
Jufye,  767,  Pope.^  The  usurper  retained  possession  of 
toAug.i,  <68.  ^j_^g  see  for  more  than  a  year,  ordained  and 
discharged  all  the  offices  of  a  pontifi",  a  period  reckoned 
a:>  a  vacancy  in  the  papal  annals.  At  the  end  of  that 
time  two  distinguished  Romans,  Christopher  the  Prl- 
micerius  and  Sergius  his  son,  made  their  escape  to  the 
court  of  Pavia,  to  entreat  the  intervention  of  Deside- 
rius.    They  obtained  the  aid  of  some  Lombards,  chiefly 

1  VJt.  Stephan.  III. 


Chap.  XI  STEPHEN  III.  POPE.  488 

from  the  duchy  of  Spoleto,  and  appeared  in  arms  in 
the  city.  Toto  at  first  made  a  vah'ant  de-  July  29. 
fence,  but  was  betrayed  by  his  own  followers  and  slain. 
Constancine,  the  false  Pope,  with  his  brother  and  a 
bishop  named  Theodorus,  endeavored  to  conceal  them- 
selves, but  were  seized  by  their  enemies. 

During  the  tumult  part  of  the  successful  insurgents 
hastily  elected  a  certain  Philip,  and  installed  him  in  the 
Lateran  palace.     The  stronger  party  assem-  j^jy  gj 
bled  a  more  legitimate  body  of  electors,  the  ^^'^'p* 
chief  of  the  clergy,  of  the  army,  and  of  the  people.    Tho 
unanimous  choice  fell  on  Stephen  III.,  who^^  ^gg 
had  been  employed  in  high  offices  by  Paul.i  ^St'es^i?' 
The  scenes  which  followed  in  the  city  of  the  ^^^' 
head  of  Christendom   must  not  be  concealed.^     The 
easy  victory  was  terribly  avenged  on   Constantine  and 
his  adherents.     The  Bishop  Theodorus  was  the  chief 
object  of  animosity.     They  put  out  his  eyes,  cut  off 
his  tongue,  and  shut  him  up  in  the  dungeon  of  a  mon 
astery,  wdiere  he  was  left  to  die  of  hunger  and  of  thirst, 
vainly  imploring  a  drop  of  water  in  his  agony.     They 
put  out  the  eyes  of  Passianus,  the  brother  of  the  usurp- 
ing Pope,  and  shut  him  up  in  a  monastery :  they  plun- 
dered   and    confiscated    all    their    possessions.       The 
usurper  was  led  through  the  city  riding  on  a  horse 
with  a   woman's    saddle,   with    heavy  weights    to    his 
feet ;  then  brought  out,  solemnly  deposed  (for  he  was 
yet  Pope   elect) ,^  and  thrust  into   the  monastery  of 
Centumcellge.      Even   there   he   was   not   allowed   to 
repent  in  peace  of  his  ambition.     A  party  of  his  ene- 

1  He  is  called  Vice  Dominus. 

2  Anastas.  Vit.  Stephan.  III. 

8  "Dum  adhuc  electus  extitisset."  —  Vit.  Steph.  III. 
VOL.  n.  28 


434  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

mies  first  seized  a  tribune  of  his  faction  named  Gracilis, 
Aug.  6.  put  out  his  eyes,  surprised  the  convent,  treat- 
ed the  Pope  in  the  same  inhuman  manner,  and  left 
him  blind  and  bleeding  in  the  street.  These  atrocities 
were  not  confined  to  the  adherents  of  Constantine.  A 
presbyter  named  Waldipert  had  taken  a  great  part  in 
the  revolution,  had  accompanied  Christopher,  the  lead- 
er of  the  deliverers,  to  Rome,  but  he  had  been  guilty 
of  the  hasty  election  of  Philip  to  the  pa])acy.  Hg 
was  accused  of  a  conspiracy  to  betray  the  city  to  the 
Duke  of  Spoleto.  He  fled  to  the  church  of  the  Virgin 
ad  Martyres.  Though  he  clung  to  and  clasped  the 
sacrea  image,  he  was  dragged  out,  and  plunged  into 
one  of  the  most  noisome  dungeons  in  the  city.  After 
a  few  days  he  was  brought  forth,  his  eyes  put  out,  his 
tongue  cut  in  so  barbarous  a  manner  that  he  died. 
Some  of  these  might  be  the  acts  of  a  fierce,  ungovern- 
able, excited  populace;  but  the  clergy,  in  their  col- 
lective and  deliberative  capacity,  cannot  be  acquitted 
of  as  savage  inhumanity. 

The  first  act  of  Stephen  was  to  communicate  his 
election  to  the  Patrician,  the  King  of  the  Franks. 
Aug.  1, 768.  Pepin  had  expired  before  the  arrival  of  the 
ambassadors.  His  son  sent  a  deputation  of  twelve 
bishops  to  Rome.  The  Pope  summoned  the  bishops 
of  Tuscany,  of  Campania,  and  other  parts  of  Italy, 
and  with  the  Prankish  bishops  formed  a  regular  Coun- 
cil in  the  Lateran.  The  usurper  Constantine  was 
brought  in,  blind  and  broken  in  spirit,  to  answer  for 
April  12, 769.  lus  offcuces.  He  cxprcsscd  the  deepest  con- 
trition, he  grovelled  on  the  earth,  he  implored  the 
mercy  of  the  priestly  tribunal.  His  sentence  was  de- 
ferred.    On   his  next  examination  he  was  asked  how. 


iment 
(Joustiin- 


t.'nAP.  XL  PUNISHIVIENT  OF  CONSTANTLNE.  4o5 

being  a  layman,  he  had  dared  to  venture  on  such  an 
impious  innovation  as  to  be  consecrated  at  once  a 
bishop.  It  is  dangerous  at  times  to  embarrass  adver- 
saries with  a  strong  argument.  He  rephed  that  it 
was  no  unprecedented  innovation  ;  be  alleoed  Punisin 

of  Cc" 

the  cases  of  the  Archbishops  of  Ravenna  and  tiue. 
of  Naples,  as  promoted  at  once  from  laymen  to  the 
epis(;opate.  The  indignant  clergy  rose  up,  fell  upon 
him,  beat  him  cruelly  with  their  own  hands,  and 
turned  him  out  of  the  church. 

All  the  instruments  which  related  to  the  usurpation 
of  Constantine  were  then  burned  ;  Stephen  solemnly 
inauo-urated ;  all  who  had  received  the  communion 
from  the  hands  of  Constantine  professed  their  profound 
penitence.  A  decree  was  passed  interdicting,  under 
the  strongest  anathema,  all  who  should  aspire  to  the 
episcopate  without  having  passed  through  the  inferior 
orders.  All  the  ordinations  of  Constantine  April  14, 769. 
were  declared  null  and  void  ;  the  bishops  were  thrown 
back  to  their  inferior  orders,  and  could  onl}^  attain  the 
episcopate  after  a  new  election  and  consecration.  The 
laymen  who  had  dared  to  receive  these  irregular  orders 
fared  worse  ;  they  were  to  wear  the  religious  habit  for 
their  lives,  being  incapable  of  religious  functions. 
This  Lateran  Council  closed  its  proceedings  by  an 
unanimous  decree  in  favor  of  image-worship,  anathe- 
matizing the  godless  Inconoclasts  of  the  East. 

These  tragic  scenes  closed  not  with  the  extinction  of 
the  faction  of  Constantine  :  new  victims  suffered  the 
dreadful  punishment  of  blinding,  some  also  seclusion  in 
a  monastery,  the  ordinary  sentence  of  all  whose  lives 
were  spared  in  civil  conflict.  But  the  causes  of  this 
new  revolutiof!  and  the  conduct  of  the  Pope  are  con 


436  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  TV 

tested  and  obscure.  All  that  is  undoubted  is  that  the 
King  of  the  Lombards  appears  as  the  protector  of  the 
Pope  ;  Carioman  the  Frank,  the  son  of  Pepin,  threat- 
ens his  dethronement.^ 

Desiderius,  the  Lombard  King,  presented  himself 
before  Rome  with  the  avowed  object  of  delivering  the 
Desiderius,      Pope  from   the  tyrsinnj  of  Christopher  the 

Kiug  of  Lorn-         ...  ,   ,  .  o  •  rr^i 

b;u-dy,  A.D.  primicerms,  and  Ins  son  oergius.  iliese  men 
a.d!  769.  '  had  been  the  leaders,  with  Lombard  aid,  in 
the  overthrow  of  the  usurper.  Christopher  and  his 
son  hastily  gathered  some  troops,  and  closed  the  gates 
of  the  city.  They  were  betrayed  by  Paul  (named 
Afiarta),  the  Pope's  chamberlain,  seized,  blinded  :  the 
elder,  Christopher,  died  of  the  operation.  Desiderius 
boasted  of  this  service  as  equivalent  to  and  annulling 
all  the  papal  claims  to  certain  rights  in  the  cities  of 
Lombardy.  Carioman  the  Frank,  on  the  other  hand, 
espoused  the  cause  of  these  oppressors,  as  they  were 
called,  of  the  Pope,  who  had  menaced  his  life,  in  con- 
junction with  Dodo,  Carloman's  ambassador.     Carlo- 

1  The  great  object  of  dispute,  after  the  surrender  of  the  exarchate,  that 
which  the  popes  constantly  demanded,  and  the  Lombard  kings  endeavored 
to  elude,  was  the  full  restitution  of  the  "  justitiai"  claimed  by  the  pope 
within  the  Lombard  kingdom.  — Vit.  Stephan.  III.  This  term,  inteMigible 
in  the  forensic  language  of  the  day,  is  now  unmeaning.  Muratori  defines 
it,  "  Allodiale,  rendite  e  diritte,  che  appartenevano  alia  chiesa  Romana  nel 
regno  Longobardico."  But  what  were  these  allodial  rights,  in  a  kingdom 
of  which  the  full  sovereignty  Avas  in  the  Lombards?  Were  they  estates 
held  by  the  Church,  as  landlords,  like  those  in  Sicily  or  elsewhere?  or  dues 
claimed  at  least  of  all  i?07nart  Christians  in  Italy?  Sismondi's  sugges- 
tion, that  it  means  the  royal  cities,  the  property  of  the  crown,  which  were 
administered  in  France  by  judges,  seems  quite  inapplicable  to  the  Lom- 
bard kingdojn  (Sismondi,  Hist,  des  Fran^ais,  ii.  p.  281).  Manzoni,  in  a 
note  to  his  Adelchi,  supposes  that  it  was  a  vague  term,  intended  to  com- 
prehend all  the  demands  of  the  Church.  Yet  in  the  epistles  of  the  several 
popes,  the  two  Stepliens,  Paul,  and  Hadrian,  it  seems  to  mean  something 
•pccific  and  definite.     To  me  Muratori  appears  nearestio  the  truth. 


CiiAP.XI.         DESIDERIUS  KING  OF  LOMBAIIDY.  437 

man  threatened  to  avenge  tlieir  punishment  by  march- 
ing to  Rome  and  dethroning  the  Pope.  This  strange 
statement  is  confirmed  by  a  letter  of  Steplien  himself, 
addressed  to  Bertha,  the  mother  of  the  Frankish  kings, 
and  to  Charlemagne.^  The  biographer  of  Pope  Ste- 
])hen  gives  an  opposite  version.  The  hostility  of  Dt^i- 
derius  to  Cln'istopher  and  Sergius  arose  from  their  zeal 
in  enforcing  the  papal  demands  on  the  Lombard  k  ngs. 
He  denounces  the  Lombards  as  still  the  enemies  of  the 
Pope,  and  accuses  Paul,  the  Pope's  chamberlain,  their 
ally,  of  the  basest  treachery. 

At  all  events  this  transitory  connection  between  the 
pope  and  the  Lombards  soon  gave  way  to  the  old  im- 
placable animosity.  Whatever  might  be  the  claim  of 
Desiderius  on  the  gratitude  of  Stephen,  the  intelligence 
of  a  proposed  intimate  alliance  between  his  faithful 
protectors  the  Franks,  and  his  irreconcilable  enemies 
the  Lombards,  struck  the  Pope  with  amazement  and 
dismay. 

1  "  Unde  (Cliristophorus  et  Sergius,  cum  Dodone  Carlonianni  regis  mis- 
BO)  iu  basilicam  domni  Theodori  papaj,  ubi  sedebamus,  introierunt,  sicque 
ipsi  maligni  homiues  iusidiabaatur  nos  interficere."  Cenni,  Monument,  i. 
267.  Jaft'e,  p.  201.  This  letter  is  by  some  supposed  to  have  been  written 
under  compulsion,  when  Desiderius  was  master  of  the  Pope  and  of  Rome. 
Muratori  hardly  answers  this  by  showing  that  it  was  written  afttir  the 
•xecution  sf  Christopher  and  Sergius. 


438  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

CHAKLEMAGNE  ON  THE  THRONE. 

The  jealousies  of  Carloman  and  Charles,  the  sons  of 
Carioman  Pepin,  wlio  had  divided  his  monarchy,  were 
and  Charles,  ^^j,  ^  |.jj-^^g  appeased.  Bertha,  tlieir  mother, 
seized  the  opportunity  of  strengthening  and  uniting  her 
divided  house  by  intermarriages  with  the  family  of  the 
Lombard  sovereign.  Desiderius  was  equally  desirous 
of  this  connection  with  the  powerful  Transalpine  kings. 
His  unmarried  son,  Adelchis,  was  affianced  to  Gisela,-^ 
the  sister  of  Charlemagne  ;  his  daughter  Hermingard 
proposed  as  the  wife  of  one  of  the  royal  brothers.  Both 
Carloman  and  Charles  were  already  married  ;  Carlo- 
man  was  attached  to  his  wife  Gisberta,  by  whom  he  had 
children.  The  ambition  of  Charles  was  less  scrupu- 
lous ;  he  at  once  divorced  his  wife  (an  obscure  person, 
whose  name  has  not  been  preserved  by  history),  and 
wedded  the  daughter  of  Desiderius.  In  this  unior  the 
Pope  saw  the  whole  policy  of  his  predecessors  tlireat- 
ened  with  destruction ;  their  mighty  protector  was 
become  the  ally,  the  brother  of  their  deadly  enemy. 
Already  the  splendid  donation  of  Pepin  seemed  wrested 
from  his  unresisting  hands.  Who  should  now  interpose 
to  prevent  the  Lombards  from  becoming  masters  of  the 
Exarchate,  of  Rome,  of  Italy  ?     The  Pope  lost  all  self- 

1  Or  Desiderata.    Gisela  became  a  nun.  — Egiuh.  v.  k.  1.  xviii. 


Chap.  Xn.      LETTER  OF  POPE  STEPHEN.  439 

command  ;  he  gave  vent  to  the  full  bitterness  of  Roman, 
of  papal  hatred  to   the  Lombards  and  to  the  agony  of 
his  terror,  in  a  remonstrance  so  unmeasured  in  Letter  of 
its    language,  so    unpapal,  it  miglit    be  said  piien. 
unchristian,  in  its  spirit,  as  hardly  to  be  equalled  in  the 
pontifical  diplomacy.^ 

"  The  devil  alone  could  have  suggested  such  a  con- 
nection. That  the  noble,  the  generous  race  of  the 
Franks,  the  most  ancient  in  the  world,  should  ally  itself 
with  the  fetid  brood  of  the  Lombards,  a  brood  hardly 
reckoned  human,  and  who  have  introduced  the  leprosy 
into  the  land.^  What  could  be  worse  than  this  abomi- 
nable and  detestable  contagion  ?  Light  could  not  be 
more  opposite  to  darkness,  faith  to  infidelity."  The 
Pope  does  not  take  his  firm  stand  on  the  high  moral 
and  religious  ground  of  the  French  princes'  actual  mar- 
riage. He  reminds  them  of  the  consummate  beauty  of 
the  women  in  their  own  land ;  that  their  father  Pepin 
had  been  prevented  by  the  remonstrances  of  the  Pope 
from  divorcing  their  mother  ;  then  briefly  enjoins  them 
not  to  dare  to  dismiss  their  present  wives.^  Again  he 
urges  the  evil  of  contaminating  their  blood  by  any  for- 
eign admixture  (they  had  already  dechned  an  alh'ance 
\vith  the  Greek  emperor),  and  then  insists  on  the  abso- 
lute impossibility  of  their  maintaining  their  fidelity  to 

1  Muratori  faintly  hints  a  doubt  of  its  authenticity;  a  doubt  which  he 
a  too  honest  to  assert. 

2  Manzoni  has  pointed  out  with  great  sagacity,  that  in  the  170th  law  of 
Kotharis  there  is  a  clause  prescribing  the  course  to  be  pursued  with  lepers; 
tlius  showing  that  the  nation  was  really  subject  to  the  disease.  Stephen 
might  thus  be  expressing  a  common  notion,  that  from  the  Lombards,  at  least 
ii  Italy,  "  came  the  race  of  the  lepers."  Thus  this  expression,  instead  of 
throwing  suspicion,  as  Muratori  supposes,  on  the  letter,  confirms  its  authen- 
ticity. —  Discorso  Storico,  subjoined  to  the  tragedy  "  Adelchi,"  p.  199. 

3  "Necvestras  quodammodo  conjxiges  audeatis  demittere."  But  it  la 
the  guilt  of  the  alliance,  not  of  the  divorce,  on  which  he  dwells 


440  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

tlie  papal  see,  "  that  fidelity  so  solemnly  sworn  by  their 
father,  so  ratified  on  his  death-bed,  so  confirmed  by 
their  own  oaths,"  if  they  should  thus  marry  into  the 
perfidious  house  of  Lombardy.  "  The  enmity  of  the 
Lombards  to  the  papal  see  is  implacable.  Wherefore 
St.  Peter  himself  solemnly  adjures  them,  he,  the  Pope, 
tlie  whole  clergy,  and  ])eople  of  Rome  adjure  them  by 
all  which  is  awful  and  commanding,  by  the  living  and 
true  God,  by  the  tremendous  day  of  judgment,  by  all 
tlie  holy  mysteries,  and  by  the  most  sacred  body  of  St. 
Peter,  that  neither  of  the  brothers  presume  to  wed  the 
daughter  of  Desiderius,  or  to  give  the  lovely  Gisela  in 
wedlock  to  his  son.  But  if  either  (which  he  cannot 
imagine)  should  act  contrary  to  this  adjuration,  by  the 
authority  of  St.  Peter  he  is  under  the  most  terrible 
anathema,  an  alien  from  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  con- 
demned with  the  devil  and  his  most  wicked  ministers 
and  with  all  impious  men,  to  be  burned  in  the  eternal 
fire  ;  but  he  who  shall  obey  shall  be  rewarded  with 
everlasting  glory." 

But  Pope  Stephen  spoke  to  obdurate  ears.  Already 
Charlemagne  began  to  show  that,  however  highly  he 
might  prize  the  alliance  of  the  hierarch}^,  he  was  not  its 
humble  minister.  Lofty  as  were  his  notions  of  religion, 
he  would  rarely  sacrifice  objects  of  worldly  policy. 
Sovereign  as  yet  of  but  one  half  the  dominions  of  his 
father  Pepin,  he  had  not  now  by  the  death  of  his 
brother  and  the  dispossession  of  his  brother's  children 
consolidated  the  kingdom  of  the  Franks  into  one  great 
monarchy.  It  was  to  his  advantage,  in  case  of  hostili- 
ties with  his  brother  (already  they  had  or.ce  broken 
out),  to  connect  himself  with  the  Lombard  kingdom. 
He  married  the  daughter  of  Desiderius ;  and  his  own 


V.HA.'.  XII.       HERMINGARD  DIVORCED.  441 

irregular  passions,  not  the  dread  of  papal   censure,  dis- 
solved, only  a  year  after,  the  inhibited  union. 

The  acts  and  the  formal  documents  of  the  earliei 
Popes  rarely  betray  traces  of  individual  character.  The 
pontificate  of  Stephen  III.  was  short  —  about  a  year 
and  a  half.  Yet  in  him  there  appears  a  peculiar  pas- 
sionate feebleness  in  his  relation  to  the  heads  of  the 
different  Roman  factions  and  to  the  King  of  the  Lom- 
bards, no  less  than  in  his  invective  against  the  marriage 
of  the  French  princes  into  the  race  of  Desiderius. 

His  successors,  Hadrian  I.  and  Leo  III.,  not  only 
occupy  the  papal  throne  at  one  of  the  great  a.d.  76&-772. 
epochs  of  its  aggrandizement,  but  their  pon-  Hadrian  i. 
tificates  were  of  much  longer  duration  than  usual. 
Hadrian  entered  on  the  23d,  Leo  on  the  21st  year  of 
his  papacy,  and  Hadrian  at  least,  a  Roman  by  birth, 
appears  admirably  fitted  to  cope  with  the  exigencies  of 
the  times  ;  —  times  pregnant  with  great  events,  the  total 
and  final  disruption  of  the  last  links  wliich  connected 
the  Byzantine  and  Western  empires,  the  extinction  of 
the  Lombard  Kingdom,  the  creation  of  the  Empire 
of  the  West. 

If  the  progress  of  the  younger  son  of  Pepin,  Charles 
the  Great,  to  almost  universal  empire  now  occupied  the 
attention  of  the  West,  it  was  watched  by  the  Pope 
with  the  profoundest  interest.  If  Stephen  III.  had 
trembled  at  the  matrimonial  alliance  which  he  had 
vainly  attempted  to  prevent,  between  the  King  of  the 
Franks  and  the  daughter  of  Desiderius,  which  threat- 
ened to  strengthen  the  closer  political  relations  of  those 
once  hostile  powers,  his  fears  were  soon  allayed  by  the 
sudden  disruption  of  that  short-lived  connection.  After 
one    year    of    wedlock,    Charles,    apj)arently    without 


442  LATIN    CHKISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

alleging  any  cause,  divorced  Hermingard,  threw  Lack 
upon  her  father  his  repudiated  daughter,  and  embittered 
the  insult  by  an  immediate  marriage  with  Hildegard,  a 
German  lady  of  a  noble  Suabian  house.-^  The  careless 
indifference  with  which  Charlemagne  contracted  and 
dissolved  that  solemn  bond  of  matrimony,  the  sanctity 
if  not  the  indissolubility  of  which  the  Church  had  at 
least  begun  to  assert  with  the  utmost  rigor,  shocked 
some  of  his  more  pious  subjects.  Adalhard,  the  Abbot 
of  Corbey,  could  not  disguise  his  religious  indignation ; 
so  little  was  he  versed  in  courtly  ways,  he  would  hold 
no  intercourse  with  the  unlawful  wife.^  Pope  Hadrian 
maintained  a  prudent  silence.  He  was  not  called  upon 
officially  to  take  cognizance  of  the  case;  and  the 
divorce  from  the  Lombard  Princess,  the  severance  of 
those  unhallowed  ties  with  the  enemy  of  the  Church 
against  which  his  predecessor  had  so  strongly  protested, 
might  reconcile  him  to  a  looser  interpretation  of  the 
law.  A  marriage,  not  merely  unblessed  but  anathe-, 
matized  by  the  Church,  might  be  considered  at  least 
less  binding  than  more  hallowed  nuptials. 

Every  step  which  the  ambition  of  Charles  made 
towards  dominion  and  power,  showed,  it  might  be  hoped, 
a  more  willing  and  reverent,  as  well  as  a  more  formida- 
ble defender  of  the  Church.  At  his  great  national 
assemblies,  as  in  those  of  his  pious  father,  the  bishops 
met  on  equal  terms  with  the  nobles,  the  peaceful  prel- 
ates mino-led  with  the  armed  counts  and  dukes  in 
the  councils  of  Charles  the  Great. 


1  Eginhard.  i.  18. 

2  Paschaa.  Radbert.,  V it.  Adalhard  Abbatis. — "  Nullo  negotio  beatua 
senex  persuader!,  dura  adhuc  esset  th-o  pdlatii,  ut  ei,  quain  vivcnte  ilia,  rex 
acceperat,  ali(]Uo  coinmunicarot  servitutis  obsequio." 


Chap.  XII.  CHARLEMAGNE  SOLE  KDTG.  443 

Charlemagne's  first  Saxon  war  was  a  war  of  religion  ; 
it  was  undertaken  to  avenge  the  destruction  of  a  church, 
the  massacre  of  a  saintly  missionary  and  his  Christian 
congregation. 

Even  his  more  questionable  acts  had  the  merit  of 
estranging    him    more  irrevocably  from    the  chariemagn^ 

,     sole  King 

enemies  of  the  Pope.  On  the  death  of  his  Dec.  771 
brother  Carloman,  Charles  seized  the  opportunity  of 
reconsoHdating  the  kingdom  of  his  father  Pepin.  It  is 
difficult  to  decide  how  far  this  usurpation  offended 
against  the  justice  or  the  usages  of  the  age.  The 
old  Teutonic  custom  gave  to  the  nobles  the  right 
of  choosing  their  chieftain  from  the  royal  race.  ^  A 
large  party  of  the  Austrasian  feudatories,  how  induced 
or  influenced  we  may  conjecture  rather  than  assert, 
deliberately  preferred  a  mature  and  able  sovereign 
to  the  precarious  rule  of  helpless  and  inexperienced 
children.  Some,  however,  of  the  nobles,  more  strongly 
attached  to  the  right  of  hereditary  succession,  more 
jealous  of  the  rising  power  of  Charles,  or  out  of  gen- 
erous compassion,  adhered  to  the  claims  of  Carlo- 
man's  children,  who,  thus  dispossessed,  took  refuge  at 
the  court  of  the  Lombard  Desiderius.  The  opportunity 
of  revenge  was  too  tempting  for  the  rival  king  and 
the  insulted  father ;  he  espoused  their  cause ;  but  the 
alliance  with  Desiderius  put  the  fatherless  children  at 
once  out  of  the  pale  of  the  Papal  sympathy.  Deside- 
rius thought  he  saw  his  advantage ;  he  appealed  to  the 
justice,  to  the  compassion,  to  the  gratitude  of  the  head 


1  Eg'inhard  may  show  that  this  "was  a  right,  claimed  at  least  by  the 
common  sentiment  of  the  day.     Of  the  Merovingians  he  says,  in  the  first 

lentence  of  his  life  of  Charlemagne,  "  Gens de  qua  Franci  regea 

eibi  creare  soliti  erant." 


444  LATm  CHRISTJANITY.  Boor  IV. 

of  Christendom  ;  he  urged  him  to  befriend  the  orphans, 
A.D.  772.  to  anoint  the  heirs  of  the  pious  Carloman, 
and  thus  to  recognize  their  royal  title,  as  their  pa- 
pal predecessors  had  anointed  Pepin,  Carloman  and 
Charles. 

But  Hadrian  had  too  much  sagacity  not  to  discern 
the  rising  power  of  Charles,  and  would  not  be  betrayed 
by  any  rashly  generous  emotions  into  measures  hostile 
to  his  interests.  Desiderius  resented  his  steadfast  re- 
fusal. He  heard  at  the  same  time  of  the  death  of 
liis  faithful  partisan  in  Rome,  Paul  Afiarta,  whom 
the  Pope  had  condemned  to  exile  in  Constantinople. 
Paul,  accused  of  having  blinded  and  killed  the  sec- 
ondary Sergius,  before  the  decease  of  Pope  Stephen, 
had  been  put  to  death,  not,  it  was  declared,  with  the 
connivance  of  the  Pope,  before  he  could  leave  Italy. ^ 

Desiderius  supposed  that  Charles  was  fully  occupied 
KingDesi-  ^^  establishing  his  sovereignty  over  his  broth- 
denus.  gj,»g   kingdom,    and  in  the   war  against   the 

Saxons.  He  collected  his  forces,  fell  on  Sinigaglia, 
Montefeltro,  Urbino,  and  Gubbio,  and  ravaged  the 
whole  country  of  Romagna  with  fire  and  sword.  His 
troops  besieged,  stormed,  and  committed  a  frightful 
massacre  in  Blera,  a  town  of  Tuscany,  and  already 
threatened  the  Pope  in  his  capital.  Desiderius,  at  the 
A  D.  773.  head  of  his  army,  and  accompanied  by  all  his 
family,  alvanced  towards  Rome  to  compel  an  interview 
declined  resolutely  by  the  Pontiff. 

1  The  death  of  Paul  Afiarta  was  attributed  to  the  indiscreet  zeal  of  Leo, 
Archbishop  of  Ravenna  (Leo  owed  his  archiepiscopate  to  Pope  Stephen). 
It  was  disclaimed  by  Hadrian:  "  Aniniani  ejus  cupiens  salvare,  poenitentiiie 
eum  Rubinitti  decreveram  ....  hue  Koniam  eum  deferendum." — Vit. 
Hadrian.  Paul  Afiarta's  crime  was  that  he  had  pledt,'ed  himself  to  bring 
the  Pope,  willing  or  unwilling,  bul'ore  Desiderius. —  Ibid. 


Uhap.  Xn.     HADRIAN  SENDS  TO  CHARLEMAGNE.  445 

Hadrian  relied  not  on  the  awe  of  his  personal  pres- 
ence, by  which  Popes  on  former  occasions  Hadrian 
had  subdued  the  hostility  of  Lombard  kings,  chariemagne. 
He  sent  messengers  in  the  utmost  haste  to  solicit,  to 
entreat  immediate  succor  from  Charles,  but  he  him- 
self neglected  no  means  for  the  defence  of  Rome.  Ha- 
drian  (a  new  office  for  a  Pope)  superintended  the 
militaiy  preparations ;  he  gathered  troops  fi'om  Tus- 
cany, Campania,  and  every  district  within  his  power ; 
strengthened  the  fortifications  of  Rome,  transported 
the  sacred  treasures  from  the  less  defensible  churches 
of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  into  the  heart  of  the  city ; 
barricaded  the  gates  of  the  Vatican,  and  having  so 
done,  reverted  to  his  spiritual  arms.  He  sent  three 
Bishops,  of  Alba,  Palestrina,  Tibur,  to  meet  the  King, 
and  to  threaten  him  with  excommunication  if  he  dared 
to  violate  the  territory  of  the  Church.  Desiderius  had 
reached  Viterbo ;  he  was  struck  with  awe,  or  with  the 
inteUigence  of  the  preparations  of  Charles. 

The  ambassadors  of  the  Frank  arrived  in  Rome ;  on 
their  return  they  passed  through  Pavia.  Desiderius 
had  returned  to  his  capital :  they  urged  him  to  reconcil- 
iation with  the  Pope.  New  ambassadors  arrived,  offer- 
ing a  large  sum,  ostensibly  for  his  concessions  to  the  de- 
mands of  the  Pope,  but  no  doubt  for  the  surrender  of 
Carloman's  children,  whom  Charles  was  anxious  to 
get  into  his  power. 

Desiderius,  who  would  not  know  the  disproportion 
of  his  army  to  that  of  Charles,  blindly  re- chariemagtie'a 
sisted  all  accommodation.  With  his  usual  itaiy. 
rapidity  Charles,  wdio  had  already  assembled  his  forces, 
approached  the  passes  of  the  Alps,  one  division  that  ot 
Mont  Cenis,  the  other  that  of  the  Mont  St.  Bernard. 


446  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Rook  IV 

Treachery  betrayed  the  passes,^  in  one  of  which,  liow- 
ever,  the  hosts  of  Charlemagne  suffered  a  signal  de- 
feat by  the  Lombards,  under  Adelchis,  the  king's  son. 
This  was  no  doubt  the  secret  of  the  Lombard  weak- 
ness. The  whole  of  the  Roman  population  of  Lom- 
bardy  looked  to  the  Pope  as  their  head  and  represen- 
tative ;  to  the  Franks  as  their  deliverers.  The  two 
races  had  not  mingled ;  the  Lombards  were  but  an 
armed  aristocracy,  lording  it  over  a  hostile  race.  A 
sudden  famine  dispersed  the  victorious  troops  of  Adel- 
chis, who  still  guarded  the  descent  from  Mont  Cenis. 
Adelchis  shut  himself  up  in  Verona ;  and  Charles, 
encountering  no  enemy  on  the  open  plain,  laid  siege 
to  Pavia.^  That  city  was,  for  those  times,  strongly 
A.D.774.  fortified  ;  it  resisted  for  many  months.  Dur- 
Aprii2.  ij^g  ^YiQ  siege  in  the  Holy  Week  of  the  next 
year,  the  King  of  the  Franks  proceeded  to  Rome  to 
perform  his  devotions  at  the  shrine  of  St.  Peter,  and 
to  knit  more  closely  his  league  with  the  Pope.  Charles 
was  already  the  deliverer,  it  might  be  hoped  he  would 
be  the  faithful  protector  of  the  Church.  Excepting  the 
cities  of  Verona  and  Pavia,  he  was  already  master  of 
all  NortheiTi  Italy.  With  his  father  Pepin,  he  had  been 
honored  with  the  name  of  Patrician  of  Rome  ;  by  this 
vague  adoption,  which  the  lingering  pride  of  Rome 
might  still  esteem  an  honor  to  a  Barbarian,  he  was 
head  of  the  Roman  republic.  He  might  become,  in 
their  hopes,  the  guardian,  the  champion  of  the  old 
Roman  society,  while  at   the   same   time   his   remote 


1  "Asuis  quippe  fideles  callid6  ei  traditus  fuit." — Chronic.  Salernit 
This  chronicle  shows  the  curious  transition  from  the  Latin  inflection  to  the 
nninflecU'd  Italian,  "  et  duni  de  fatus  Karolus  Sermo." 

2  A.r>.  773,  October.    Muratori  sub  ann. 


Chap.  XII.  CHARLEMAGNE  IN  ROME,  447 

residence  beyond    the    Alps    diminished    the  lu  Rome, 
danger  which  was  always  apprehended  from  neighbor- 
ing barbarians. 

Accordingly  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  authorities 
vied  in  the  honors  which  they  paid  to  the  Patrician 
of  Rome  and  the  dutiful  son  of  the  Church,  who  had 
so  speedily  obeyed  the  summons  of  his  spiritual  father, 
and  had  come  to  prostrate  himself  before  the  relics  of 
the  Apostles.  At  Novi,  thirty  miles  distant,  he  was 
met  by  the  Senate  and  the  nobles  of  the  city,  with 
their  banners  spread.  For  a  mile  before  the  gates  the 
way  was  lined  by  the  military  and  the  schools.  At 
the  gates  all  the  crosses  and  the  standards  of  the  city, 
as  was  usual  on  the  entrance  of  the  Exarchs  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  Emperor,  went  out  to  meet  the 
Patrician.  As  soon  as  he  beheld  the  cross,  Charles 
dismounted  from  his  horse,  proceeded  on  foot  with 
all  his  officers  and  nobles  to  the  Vatican,  where  the 
Pope  and  the  clergy,  on  the  steps  of  St.  Peter's,  stood 
ready  to  receive  him  ;  as  he  slowly  ascended  he  rev- 
erently kissed  the  steps  ;  at  the  top  he  was  affection- 
ately embraced  by  the  Pope.  Charles  attended  with 
profound  devotion  during  all  the  ceremonies  of  the 
Holy  Season ;  at  the  close  he  ratified  the  donation 
of  his  father  Pepin.  The  diploma  which  contained 
the  solemn  gift  was  placed  upon  the  altar  of  St.  Peter. 
Yet  there  is  much  obscurity  as  to  the  extent  and  the 
tenure  of  this  most  magnificent  oblation  ever  made  to 
the  Church.  The  original  record  has  long  perished; 
its  terms  are  but  vaguely  known.  It  is  said  to  have 
comprehended  the  whole  of  Italy,  the  exarchate  of 
Ravenna,  from  Istria  to  the  frontiers  of  Naples,  in- 
cluding  the   island  of  Corsica.      The   nature   of  the 


448  lATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

Papal  tenure  and  authority  is  still  more  difficult  to 
define.  Was  it  the  absolute  alienation  of  the  whole 
temporal  power  to  the  Pope?  In  what  consisted  the 
sovereignty  still  claimed  and  exercised  by  Charlemagne 
over  the  whole  of  Italy,  even  over  Rome  itself? 

Charlemagne  made  this  donation  as  lord  by  con- 
Donation  of  q^^est  over  the  Lombard  kingdom,  and  the 
Charlemagne,  territory  of  the  Exarchate.  For  Pavia  at 
length  fell,  and  Desiderius  took  refuge  in  the  usual 
asylum  of  dethroned  kings,  a  monastery.  His  son, 
Adelchis,  abandoned  Verona,  and  fled  to  Constanti- 
nople, Thus  expired  the  kingdom  of  the  Lombards ; 
and  Charles  added  to  his  royal  titles  that  of  Lom- 
bardy.  The  Exarchate,  by  his  grant,  was  vested, 
either  as  a  kind  of  feud,  or  in  absolute  perpetuity,  in 
the  Pope.^ 

But,  notwithstanding  the  grant  of  the  conqueror,  the 
Pope  did  not  enter  into  undisputed  possession  of  this 
territory.  An  ecclesiastic,  Leo,  the  Archbishop  of  Ra- 
venna, set  up  a  rival  claim.  He  withheld  the  cities 
A.D.  775.  of  Faenza,  Forli,  Forlimpopoli,  Cesena,  Bob- 
bio,  Comachio,  Ferrara,  Imola,  the  whole  Pentapolis, 
Bologna,  from  their  allegiance  to  the  see  of  Rome, 
ejected  the  judges  appointed  by  Rome,  appointed 
others  of  his  own  authority  in  the  whole  region,  and 
sent  missives  throughout  the  province  to  prevent  their 
submission  to  the  papal  officers.^     Hadrian  became  the 

1  See  the  passage  quoted  by  Muratori  from  the  anonj'mous  Scriptor 
Salemitanus,  sub  anno  774.  The  Lombard  dukedom  of  Benevento  raised 
itself  into  a  principality,  and  asserted  its  independence. 

■-2  Agnelli,  Vit.  Pontif.  Ravennat.  — "  Troppo  6  credible  che  questo 
sagace  ed  ambizioso  prelato  s'  ingegnasse  di  far  intendere  a  Carlo,  ch6 
avrebbe  egualmente  potuto  servire  a  onor  di  Dio,  e  de'  santi  appostoli,  la 
liberalita,  ch6  fosse  piaciuto  al  re  di  fare  alia  chiesa  di  Ravenna,  come 
a  quella  di  Roma;  ch6  gia  non  mancavano  ai  Romani  pontifici  ubertosi 


Chap.  xn.   HADRIAN  PATRICIAN   OF  THE  EXARCHATE.  449 

scorn  of  his  enemies,  who  inquired  what  advantage  he 
had  gained  by  the  destruction  of  the  Lombards.  He 
wrote  the  most  pressing  letter  to  Charles,  entreating 
him  to  prevent  this  humiliation  of  St.  Peter  and  his 
successors.  The  Archbishop  of  Ravenna  succeeded 
to  the  title  which,  in  the  language  of  the  papal  cor- 
respondence, belongs  to  all  the  adversaries  of  the 
Pope's  temporal  greatness,  the  "  Most  wicked  of 
Men."  ^  The  Pope  asserted  his  right  to  the  judicial 
authority,  not  only  over  the  cities  of  the  Pentapolis, 
but  in  Ravenna  itself. 

But  the  rivalship  of  Ravenna  did  not  long  restrain 
the  ambition  of  a  pontiff,  secure  in  the  protection  of 
Charlemagne. 

After  some  time,  and  some  menaced  interference 
from  the  East,   Hadrian  took  possession  of  Hadrian  in 

.  •11  possession  of 

the  Exarchate,  seemingly  with  the  power  the  Exarchate. 
and  privileges  of  a  temporal  prince.  Throughout  the 
Exarchate  of  Ravenna,  he  had  "  his  men,"  who  were 
judged  by  magistrates  of  his  appointment,  owed  him 
fealty,  and  could  not  leave  the  land  without  his  spe- 
cial permission.  Nor  are  these  only  ecclesiastics  sub 
ordinate  to  his  spiritual  power  (that  spiritual  suprem- 
acy Hadrian  indeed  asserted  to  the  utmost  extent ; 
Rome  had  a  right  of  judicature  over  all  churches.)  *^ 

patrimoni  in  piu  parte  d'  Italia  6  di  Sicilia,"  &c.  &c.  This  ingenious  con- 
jecture of  Denina  (Revoluz.  d'  Italia,  vol.  i.  p.  352)  is  but  conjecture. 

1  Nefandissimus.  Compare  Muratori,  Annal.  d'  Italia,  sub  ann.  777. 
The  epistle  does  not  state  on  what  the  Archbishop  of  Ravenna  rested  his 
claim  to  this  juj-isdiction.  This  dispute  shows  still  further  the  ambiguous 
and  undefined  supremacy  supposed  to  be  conferred,  even  in  his  own  day, 
by  the  donation  of  Charlemagne.  Did  the  Archbishop  claim  in  any  man- 
ner to  be  Patrician  of  the  Exarchate  ?     See  following  note. 

2  "  Quanta  enim  auctoritas  B.  Petro  Apostolorum  principi,  ejusque  sac- 
ratissimae  sedi  concessa  est,  cuiquara  non  ambigimus  ignorari:  utpote  quae 
de  omnibus  ecclesii&  fas  habeat  judicandi,  neque  cuiquam  liceat  de  ejus 

VOL.  II.  29 


450  LATIN  CimiSTIANITT.  Book  IV. 

Ills  lanoruao;e  to  Charlemao;ne  is  that  of  a  feudal  suze- 
rain  also :  "  as  yonr  men  are  not  allowed  to  come  to 
Rome  without  your  permission  and  special  letter,  so 
my  men  must  not  be  allowed  to  appear  at  the  court 
of  France  without  the  same  credentials  from  me." 
The  same  allegiance  which  the  subjects  of  Chark>- 
magne  owed  to  him,  was  to  be  required  from  the 
subjects  of  the  See  of  Rome  to  the  Pope.  "  L(5t 
him  be  thus  admonished,  we  are  to  remain  in  the 
service,  and  under  the  dominion  of  the  blessed  apostle 
St.  Peter,  to  the  end  of  the  world."  The  adminis- 
tration of  justice  was  in  the  Pope's  name  ;  not  only 
the  ecclesiastical  dues,  and  the  rents  of  estates  form- 
ing part  of  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  the  civil  rev- 
enue likewise  came  into  his  treasury.  Hadrian  be- 
stows on  Charlemagne,  as  a  gift,  the  marbles  and 
mosaics  of  the  imperial  palace  in  Ravenna,  that  pal- 
ace apparently  his  own  undisputed  property.^ 

Such  was  the  allegiance  claimed  over  the  Exarchate 
and  the  whole  territory  included  in  the  donation  of 
Pepin  and  of  Charlemagne,  with  all  which  the  ever 
watchful  Pope  was  continually  adding  (parts  of  the 
old  Sabine  territory,  of  Campania  and  of  Capua)  to 
the  immediate  jurisdiction  of  the  Papacy.  Through- 
out these  territories  the  old  Roman  institutions  remained 
under  the  Pope  as  Patrician,  the  Patriciate  seemed 
tantamount  to  imperial  authority .^     The  city  of  Rome 

judicare  judicio.  Quorumlibet  sententias  legati  Pontificum,  Sedes  B. 
Petri  Apostoli  jus  habet  solvendi,  per  quos  ad  unani  Petri  sedem  univer- 
Balis  ecclesiiTc  cura  confluit,  et  nihil  unquam  a  suo  capite  dissidet."  —  Epist. 
Hadrian,  ad  Carol  Magn.  Cod.  Carol.  Ixxxv.,  apud  Bouquet,  p.  579. 

1  "Tarn  marmora,  quanique  mosivum,  ca^teraque  exempla  de  eodem 
palatio  vobis  conccdimus  auferenda."  — Epist.  Ixvii.  apud  Grctser. 

2  The  Prankish  monarch,  afterwards  the  Emperor,  was  the  Patiician  of 
Rome.     On  the  vague  yot  extensive  authority  conveyed  by  this  title  of^ 


CiiAP.  Xn.  CHARLEMAGNE  IN  ROME.  451 

alone  maintained,  with  the  form,  somewhat  of  the  in- 
dependence of  a  republic.  Hadrian,  with  the  power, 
assumed  the  magnificence  of  a  great  potentate  :  his 
expenditure  in  Rome,  more  especially,  as  became  his 
character,  on  the  religious  buildings,  was  profuse. 
Rome,  with  the  increase  of  the  papal  revenues,  be- 
gan to  resume  more  of  her  ancient  splendor. 

Twice  during  the  pontificate  of  Hadrian,  Charle- 
mao-ne  again  visited  Rome.  The  first  time  was  an 
act  of  religious  homage,  connected  with  his  chariemagne 

1-    .       1         1  TT  1        in  Rome. 

future  political  plans.  He  came  to  cele-  a.d.  tso,  tsi. 
brate  the  baptism  of  his  younger  son  Pepin  by  the 
Pope,  a  son  for  whom  he  destined  the  kingdom  of 
Italy.  The  second  time  he  came  as  a  protector,  at 
the  summons  of  the  Pope,  to  deliver  him  from  a  new 
and  formidable  enemy  at  the  gates  of  Rome.  Arigiso 
the  Lombard  Duke  of  Benevento,  who  had  married 
the  daughter  of  Desiderius,  had  grown  in  power,  and 
around  him  had  rallied  all  the  adversaries  of  the  Papal 
and  the  Prankish  interests.  It  was  a  Lombard  league, 
embracing  almost  all  Italy  —  Rotgadis  Duke  of  Friuli, 
his  father-in-law  Stebelhi  Count  of  Treviso,  the  Duke 
of  Spoleto.  Arigiso  had  obtained  the  title  of  Patri- 
cian,  with   all   its   vague   and   indefinite   pretensions, 


Patrician,  Muratori  is  the  most  full  and  satisfactory.  Charlemagne,  as  his 
ancestors  had  been,  was  Patrician  of  Rome.  Was  this  only  an  honorary 
title,  while  the  civil  supremacy  over  the  city  was  vested  in  a  republic  (so 
Pagi  supposes,  but  according  to  others  this  notion  is  purely  imaginary),  or 
did  the  office  invest  him  in  full  imperial  authority  ?  That  he  had  a  theo- 
retic supremacy,  the  surrender  to  the  successive  Prankish  monarchs  of  the 
keys  of  the  city  and  of  the  sepulchre  of  St.  Peter  clearly  shows.  As  im- 
perial representative,  or  substitute,  there  was  a  Patrician  of  Sicily.  The 
Lombard  Dukes  of  Benevento  obtained  a  grant  of  the  Patriciate  from 
Constantinople.  The  Pope  claimed  to  je  Patrician  of  the  Exarchate. 
(See  above.) 


452  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

from  CoiiStantinople;  he  was  in  close  correspondence 
with  Adelchis,  the  son  of  the  fallen  Desiderius.  Ha- 
drian accused  this  dano-erous  neio^hbor  of  hostile  en- 
croachments  on  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter.  He  en- 
treated the  invincible  Charlemagne  to  cross  the  Alp? 
to  his  succor.  Charlemagne  obeyed.  He  passed  the 
Christmas  at  Pavia.  He  appeared  at  Rome :  the 
Lombard  shrunk  from  the  unequal  contest,  and  pur- 
chased peace  by  an  annual  tribute  of  7000  pieces  of 
Rebellion  gold.  Hc  gave  his  two  sons  as  hostages  for 
A.D.  787.  the  fulfilment  of  the  treaty.^  Hadrian,  how- 
ever, did  not  feel  secure;  he  still  suspected  the  de- 
signs and  intrigues  of  the  Lombard.  The  death  of 
Arigiso,  in  the  same  year  in  which  he  swore  allegi- 
ance to  Charlemagne,  did  not  allay  the  jealousies  of 
Hadrian  ;  for  Charlemagne,  in  his  generosity,  placed 
the  son  of  Arigiso,  Grimoald,  in  the  Dukedom  of 
A.D.  788.  Benevento.  Grimoald,  during  the  lifetime 
of  Charlemagne,  repaid  this  generosity  by  a  faithful 
adoption,  not  only  of  the  interests,  but  even  the  usages 
of  the  Franks.  He  shaved  his  beard,  and  clothed 
himself  after  the  Frank  fashion.  In  later  days  he 
became  a  formidable  rival  of  Pepin,  the  son  of  Charle- 
magne, for  the  ascendency  in  Italy. 

While  Charlemagne  was  yet  at  Rome,  a  more  for- 
midable rebellion  began  to  lower.  Adelchis,  the  son 
of  Desiderius,  was  upon  the  seas  with  a  considerable 
Greek  force,  supplied  by  order  of  the  Byzantine  Em- 

1  Eginhard,  Vit.  Karol.,  x.;  Annal.  sub  ann.  786.  Compare  the  very 
Btrange  account  in  the  Chronic.  Salernit.  9,  10,  11,  of  the  interference  of 
the  bishops  at  Benevento  to  save  Arigiso  from  the  wrath  of  Charlemagne, 
and  the  conspiracy  of  Pauhis  Diaconus,  the  historian,  to  murder  Charle- 
magne. "  How,"  says  the  Emperor,  when  urged  to  punish  him,  "  can  I 
cut  off  one  who  writes  so  elegantly?  " 


Chap.  XII.       ADELCIIIS  -   DEATH  OF  HADRIAN.  453 

peror,  Constantine.  The  Huns  broke  into  Bavaria 
and  Friuli.  Tassilo,  Duke  of  Bavaria,  whose  wife 
Liutberga  was  the  sister  of  A.delchis,  meditated  re- 
volt. Charlemagne,  with  his  w^onted  rapidity,  ap- 
peared in  Germany.  Tassilo  was  summoned  before 
a  diet  at  Ingelheim.  He  dared  not  refuse  to  appear 
was  condemned  to  capital  punishment;  in  mercy  shui 
up,  with  his  son,  in  a  monastery.  His  Lombard  wife 
suffered  the  same  fate.  The  Huns  were  driven  back , 
the  Greek  army  deserted  Adelchis ;  the  son  of  Desi- 
derius  fled ;  John,  the  Byzantine  general,  was  stran- 
gled in  prison. 

This  great  pontiff  Hadrian,  who,  during  above 
twenty-four  years,  had  reposed,  not  undisturbed,  but 
safe  under  the  mighty  protection  of  Charle- a.d.  795. 
magne,  died  before  the  close  of  the  eighth  iiadrian. 
century.  The  coronation  of  Charlemagne,  as  Em- 
peror of  the  West,  was  reserved  for  his  successor. 
At  that  coronation  our  history  will  pause  to  take  a 
survey  of  Latin  Christendom,  now  a  separate  Western 
Empire,  under  one  temporal,  and  under  one  spiritual 
sovereign.  Charlemagne  showed  profound  sorrow  for 
the  death  of  Hadrian.  He  wept  for  him,  according 
to  his  biographer,^  as  if  he  had  been  a  brother  or  a 
dear  son.  An  epitaph  declared  to  the  world  the  re- 
spect and  attachment  of  the  Sovereign  of  the  West 
for  his  spiritual  father. 

On  the  death  of  Hadrian,^  an  election  of  unex- 
ampled rapidity,  and,  as  it  seemed,  of  perfect  unanim- 
ity among  the  clergy,  the  nobles,  and  the  people,  raised 

1  Eginhard,  c.  xix. 

2  Hadrian  djed  on  Christmas  day.     Tiie  election  was  on  the  following 
day,  tliat  of  St.  Stephen,   a.d.  795. 


454  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

Leo  III.  Leo  III.  to  the  pontifical  throne.^  The  first 
act  of  Leo  was  to  recognize  the  supremacy  of  Charles, 
by  sending  the  keys,  not  only  of  the  city,  with  the 
standard  of  Kome,  but  those  also  of  the  sepulchre  of 
St.  Peter,  to  the  Patrician.  This  unusual  act  of  def- 
erence seems  as  if  Leo  anticipated  the  necessity  of 
foreign  protection ;  even  the  precipitancy  of  the  elec- 
tion may  lead  to  the  suspicion  that  the  m'kanimity 
was  but  outward.  Secret  causes  of  dissatisfaction 
were  brooding  in  the  minds  of  some  of  the  leading 
men  in  Rome.  The  strong  hand  of  Hadrian  had 
kept  down  the  factions  which  had  disturbed  the  reign 
of  his  predecessor  Stephen  ;  now  it  is  among  the  court, 
the  family  of  Hadrian,  even  those  whom  he  had  raised 
to  the  highest  offices,  that  there  is  at  first  sullen  sub- 
mission, erelong  furious  strife.  Dark  rumors  spread 
abroad  of  serious  charges  against  the  Pope  himself. 
Leo  III.  ruled,  however,  in  seeming  peace  for  three 
years  and  two  months,  at  the  close  of  which  a  fright- 
ful scene  betrayed  the  deep  and  rooted  animosity. 

Hadrian  had  invested  his  two  nephews,  Paschalis 
and  Campulus,  in  two  great  ecclesiastical  offices,  the 
Primicerius  and  Sacellarius.  This  first  example  of 
nepotism  was  a  dismal  omen  of  the  fatal  partiality  of, 
future  Popes  for  their  kindred.  These  two  men,  or  one 
of  them,  may  have  aspired  to  the  Pontificate,  or  they 
hoped  to  place  a  pontiff,  more  under  their  own  influ- 
ence, on  the  throne:  their  dark  crime  implies  dark  mo- 
tives. The  Pope  was  to  ride  in  solemn  pomp,  on  St. 
April  25, 799.  Gcorge's  day,  to  the  church  of  St.  Lawi^ence, 
called  in  Lucina.  These  ecclesiastics  formed  part  of  the 
procession.     One  of  them  excused  himself  for  some  in- 

1  Ann.  Til.  sub  unn.  796;  Eginhard,  Annal.' 


Chap.  XII.  POPli  LEO  ASSAULTED.  455 

formality  in  his  dress.^  On  a  sudden,  a  band  of  armed 
men  sprang  from  their  ambush.  The  Pope  Assault  on 
was  thrown  from  his  horse,  and  an  awkward  ^**p®  ^®°* 
attempt  was  made  to  practice  the  Oriental  punishment 
of  mutilation,  as  yet  rare  in  the  West,  to  put  out  his 
eyes,  and  to  cut  out  his  tongue.  Paschalis  and  Cam- 
pulus,  instead  of  defending  the  Pope,  dragged  him  into 
a  neighboring  church,  and  there,  before  the  high  altar, 
attempted  to  complete  the  imperfect  mutilation,  beat 
him  cruelly,  and  left  him  weltering  in  his  blood. 
From  thence  they  took  him  away  by  night  (no  one 
seems  to  have  interposed  in  his  behalf),  carried  him 
to  the  convent  of  St.  Erasmus,  and  there  threw  him 
into  prison.  Leo  recovered  his  sight  and  his  speech  ; 
and  this  restoration,  of  course,  in  process  of  time  be- 
came a  miracle.^  His  enemies  had  failed  in  their 
object,  the  disqualifying  him  by  mutilation  for  the  Pa- 
pacy. A  faithful  servant  rescued  him,  and  carried 
him  to  the  church  of  St.  Peter.  There,  no  doubt, 
he  found  temporary  protectors,  until  the  Duke  of  Spo- 
leto  (Winegis),  a  Frank,  marched  into  Rome  to  his 
deliverance,  and  removed  him  from  the  guilty  city 
to  Spoleto. 

Urgent  letters  entreated  the  immediate  presence  of 
the  Patrician,  of  Charles  the  protector  of  the  Papacy, 

^  He  va.s  sine  planeta. 

2  "  Carnifices  geminas  traxerunt  fronte  fenestras, 
Et  celerem  abscindunt  lacerato  corpora  lingiiam. 
******* 
Sed  manus  alma  Patvis  oculis  medicamina  ademptis 
Obtulit  atque  novo  reparavit  lumine  vultum ; 
******* 
Explicat  et  celerem  tnmcataque  lingua  loquelam." 
—  See  the  poem  of  Angilbert,  the  poet  of  Charlemagne's  court,  Pertz,  iL 
t  400.    The  papal  biographer  is  modest  as  to  the  miracle. 


456  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV. 

In  Rome.  But  Charles  was  at  a  distance,  about  to  en- 
gage in  quelling  an  insurrection  of  the  Saxons.^  The 
Pope  condescended,  or  rather  was  compelled  by  his 
necessities,  to  accept  the  summons  to  appear  in  person 
before  the  Transalpine  monarch.  Charles  was  holding 
his  court  and  camp  at  Paderborn,  one  of  the  newly- 
erected  German  bishoprics.  The  reception  of  Leo  was 
courteous  and  friendly,  magnificent  as  far  as  circum- 
stances might  permit.  The  poet  describes  the  imperial 
banquet ;  nor  does  he  fear  to  shock  his  more  austere 
readers  by  describing  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor  as 
quaffing  their  rich  wines  with  convivial  glee.^ 

But  at  the  same  time  arrived  accusations  of  some 
unknown  and  mysterious  nature  against  the  Pope  ;  ac- 
cusations, according  to  the  annalists,  made  in  the  name 
of  the  Roman  people.^  Charles  did  not  decline,  but 
postponed  till  his  arrival  in  Rome  the  judicial  investi- 
gation of  these  charges ;  but  he  continued  to  treat  the 
Pope  with  undiminished  respect  and  familiarity. 

The  return  of  Leo  to  Rome  is  said  to  have  been  one 
long  triumph.  Throughout  Italy  he  was  received  with 
the  honors  of  the  apostle.  The  clergy  and  people  of 
Rome  thronged  forth  to  meet  him,  as  well  as  the  mili- 
tary, among  whom  were  bands  (scholars)  of  Franks, 
of  Frisians,  and  of  Saxons,  either  at  Rome  for  purposes 
of  devotion,  or  as  a  foreign  body-guard  of  the  Pope. 

The  journey  of  Charles  to  Rome  was  slow.  He 
Charlemagne  wcut  to  Roucu,  aud  to  Tours,  to  pa}^  his  ado- 

eets  out  for  .  ,  .      .  p   oi        -^  t        •  mi 

Home.  rations  at  the  shrme  oi  ot.  Martin,      ihere 


1  Eginhanl,  Ann  799. 

2  Angilbert,  apud  Pertz,  ii.  401,  describes,  as  an  eye-witness,  the  meef 
fa)g  of  the  Pof)e  and  the  Emperor. 

*     Q,uixi  a  populo  Koniauo  oi  objiciubautur." 


Chap.  XII.  TRIAL  OF  POPE  LEO.  457 

his  wife,  Liutgarda,  died,  and  her  funeral  caused  fur- 
ther delay.  He  then  held  a  oreat  diet  at  Mentz ;  and 
towards  the  close  of  the  following  year  crossed  the 
Alps,  and  halted  at  Ravenna.  At  Nomentana  he  was 
met  by  the  Pope  with  high  honors.  After  ^^^  23  soo. 
he  had  entered  Rome  he  was  received  on  the  ^'^^-  ^^ 
steps  of  St.  Peter's  by  the  Pope,  the  bishops,  and  the 
clergy  ;  he  passed  into  the  church,  the  whole  assembly 
joining  in  the  solemn  chant  of  thanksgiving. 

But  Charles  did  not  appear  at  Rome  as  the  avowed 
protector  and  avenger  of  the  injured  Pope  Dec.  1. 
against  those  who  had  so  barbarously  violated  his 
sacred  person.  He  assumed  the  office  of  judge.^  At 
a  synod  held  some  days  after,  a  long  and  difficult  in- 
vestigation of  the  charges  made  against  Leo  by  his 
enemies  proceeded,  without  protest  fi'om  the  Pope.^ 
Paschalis  and  Campulns  were  summoned  to  prove  their 
charges.  On  their  failure,  they  were  condemned  to 
death. ;  a  sentence  commuted,  by  the  merciful  interpo- 
sition of  the  Pope,  to  imprisonment  in  France.  Their 
other  noble  partisans  were  condemned  to  decapitation. 
Yet  this  exculpation  of  Leo  hardly  satisfied  the  public 
mind.  It  was  thought  necessaiy  that  the  Pope  should 
openly,  in  the  face  of  the  people,  in  the  sight  of  God, 
and  holding  the  holy  Gospels  in  his  hands,  avouch  his 
own  innocence.  There  was  no  complaint  of  Dec.  23. 
the  majesty  of  heaven  insulted  in  his  person,  no  re- 
proof for  the  indignity  offered  to  St.  Peter  in  his  sue- 

1  The  clergy,  according  to  the  biographer,  refused  to  judge  the  Pope, 
declaring  their  incompetency. 

2  "  In  quibus  vel  maximum  vel  difficillimum  erat."  —  Eginhard,  Ann. 
Eginhard  expressly  says,  "  Hujus  factionis  fuere  principes  Paschalis  no- 
♦nenclator  et  Canipulus  Sacellarius  et  multi  alii  Komanse  urbis  habitatorea 
nobiles."  —  Ibid. 


458  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IY 

cesser  ;  it  was  a  kind  of  recognition  of  the  tribunal  of 
public  opinion.  The  humiliation  had  something  of  the 
majesty  of  conscious  blamelessness,  —  "  I,  Leo,  Pontift 
of  the  Holy  Roman  Church,  being  subject  to  no  judg- 
ment, under  no  compulsion,  of  my  own  free  will,  in 
your  presence,  before  God  who  reads  the  conscience, 
and  his  angels,  and  the  blessed  Apostle  Peter  in  whose 
sight  we  stand,  declare  myself  not  guilty  of  the  charges 
made  against  me.  I  have  never  perpetrated,  nor  com- 
manded to  be  perpetrated,^  the  wicked  deeds  of  which 
I  have  been  accused.  This  I  call  God  to  witness, 
whose  judgment  we  must  all  undergo  ;  and  this  I  do, 
bound  by  no  law,  nor  wishing  to  impose  this  custom  on 
my  successors,  or  on  my  brother  bishops,  but  that  1 
may  altogether  relieve  you  from  any  unjust  suspicions 
against  myself."^ 

This  solemn  judgment  had  hardly  passed  when 
Christmas  day  arrived :  the  Christmas  of  the  last  year 
in  the  eighth  century  of  Christ.  Charles  and  all  his 
sumptuous  court,  the  nobles  and  people  of  Rome,  the 
whole  clergy  of  Rome,  were  present  at  the  high  ser- 
vices of  the  Nativity.  The  Pope  himself  chanted  the 
mass,  the  full  assembly  were  wrapt  in  profound  devo- 
tion. At  the  close  the  Pope  arose,  advanced  towards 
Charles,  with  a  splendid  crown  in  his  hands,  placed  it 
upon  his  brow,  and  proclaimed  him  Caesar  Augustus. 
"  God  grant  life  and  victory  to  the  great  and  pacific 
Emperor."     His  words  were  lost  in  the  acclamations 

1  These  words  positively  negative  the  notion  that  the  crime  of  which 
Leo  was  accused  was  adultery  or  unchastity,  which  some  expressions  iu 
Alcuin's  letters  seem  to  intimate.  I  cannot  help  suspecting  that  the  charge 
was  some  simoniacal  proceeding  (spiritual  adultery)  hy  which  he  had  thwart- 
ed the  ambitious  views  of  Hadrian's  relatives. 

■■^  Barouius  i-ives  this  form  as  "  ex  sacris  ritibus  Romanae  Ecclesiae." 


CiiAP.  XII.         CORONATION  OF  CHARLEMAGNE.  459 

of  the  soldiery,  the  people,  and  the  clergy.  Charles, 
with  his  son  Pepin,  humbly  submitted  to  the  ratifica- 
tion of  this  important  act,  and  was  anointed  by  the 
hands  of  the  Pope. 

Was  this  a  sudden  and  unconcerted  act  of  gratitude, 
a  magnificent  adulation  of  the  Pope  to  the  unconscious 
and  hardly  consenting  Emperor  ?  Had  Leo  deliber- 
ately contemplated  the  possible  results  of  this  assump- 
tion of  authority  —  of  this  creation  of  a  successor  to 
the  Cassars  over  Latin  Christendom  ?  In  what  char- 
acter did  the  Pope  perform  this  act  —  as  vicegerent  of 
God  on  earth,  as  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  or  as  the 
representative  of  the  Roman  people  ?  What  rights  did 
it  convey  ?  In  what,  according  to  the  estimation  of  the 
times,  consisted  the  Imperial  supremacy  ?  To  these 
questions  history  returns  but  vague  and  doubtful  an- 
swers. Charlemagne  —  writes  Eginhard  the  secretary 
of  the  Emperor,  the  one  contemporary  authority  —  de- 
clared that  holy  as  was  the  day  (the  Lord's  nativity), 
if  he  had  known  the  intention  of  the  Pope  he  would 
not  have  entered  the  church.^  To  treat  this  speech  as 
mere  hypocrisy  agrees  neither  with  the  character  nor 
the  position  of  Charles  ;  yet  the  Pope  would  hardly, 
even  in  the  lavish  excess  of  his  gratitude,  have  ven- 
tured on  such  a  step,  if  he  had  not  reason,  from  his 
long  conferences  with  the  Emperor  at  Paderborn  and 
his  intercourse  in  Rome,  to  suppose  that  it  was  in 
accordance  at  least  with  the  unavoAved  and  latent  am- 
bition of  Charles.  In  its  own  day  it  was  perhaps  a 
more  daring  and  violent  measure  than  it  appears  in 

1  Eginhard,  in  Vit.  xx. ;  but  Eginhard  adds,  "  Insidiam  tamen  suscepti 
nominis  Romanis  Iniperatoribus  super  hoc  indignantibus,  mac/nd  tulitpa 
tientidf  vicitque  eorum  coutuuiaciam  magnanimitate."  —  Vit.  Kar.,  xxviii 


460  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  IV 

ours.  A  Barbarian  monarch,  a  Teuton,  was  declared 
the  successor  of  the  Caesars.  He  became  the  usurper 
of  the  rights  of  the  Byzantine  emperors,  which,  though 
fallen  into  desuetude,  had  never  been  abandoned  on 
their  part,  or  abrogated  by  any  competent  authority.^ 
The  Eastern  Cassars  had  not  been  without  jealousy  of 
the  progress  of  the  Frankish  dominion.  The  later 
Greek  emperors  sent  repeated  but  vain  remonstrances. 
It  was  alleged  that  the  Greek  Empire  having  fallen 
to  a  woman,  Irene,  and  that  woman  detestable  as  the 
murderess  of  her  son,  in  her  the  Byzantine  Empire 
had  come  to  an  end.  But  the  enmity  of  the  Byzantine 
court  to  Charlemagne  had  betrayed  itself  by  acts  of 
hostility.  Adelchis,  the  heir  of  the  Lombard  king- 
dom, that  kingdom  of  which  Charlemagne  had  assumed 
the  title,  still  held  the  dignity  of  Roman  Patrician  in 
Constantinople.^ 

The  significance  of  this  act,  the  coronation,  the  sub- 
sequent anointing,  the  recognition  by  the  Roman  peo- 

1  "  Imperatores  etiam  Constantinopolitani,  Nicephorus,  Michael  et  Leo 
ultro  amicitiain  et  societatem  ejus  expetentes,  coniplures  ad  eum  misere 
legates;  cum  quibus  tamen  propter  susceptum  a  se  Imperaturis  nomen 
et  ob  hoc  quasi  qui  Imperium  eis  prjeripere  vellet,  valde  suspectum, 
foedus  firmissiraum  statuit,  ut  nulla  inter  partes  cujuslibet  scandali  reman- 
eret  occasio.  Erat  enim  semper  Romanis  et  Gra^cis  suspecta  Francorum 
potentia,  quia  ipsam  Romam  matrem  Imperii  tenebat,  ubi  semper  Ca'sares 
et  Imperatores  soliti  erant  sedere."  — Chron.  Moissiac.  In  the  other  copy 
of  this  Chronicle  (apud  Bouquet,  p.  79),  we  read,  "  Delati  quidem  sunt  ad 
eum  dicentes,  quod  apud  Gracos  nomen  Imperii  cessasset,  et  femina  apud 
eos  nomen  Imperii  teneret,  Hirena  nomine,  qu.-e  filium  suum  Imperatorem 
I'raude  captum  oculos  eruit,  et  nomen  sibi  imperii  usurpavit."  Compare, 
for  a  curious  passage,  Annal.  Laureshcimenses,  sub  eodem  anno.  The 
chronicle  of  Salerno  says:  "  Imperator  quippe  omnimodis  non  dici  possit, 
nisi  qui  regnum  Romanum  prjeest,  hoc  est  Constantinopolitanum.  Reges 
Galliarum  nunc  usurparunt  sibi  talem  nomen,  nam  antiquitus  omnimodis 
eic  non  vocitati  sunt."  —  c  ii. 

^"In  Constantinopoli  itaque  in  patriciatus  ordine  atque  honore  conse- 
ouit."  —  Egiuhard,  774. 


CiiAP.  XII.         CORONATION  OF  CHARLEMAGNE.  461 

pie,  was  not  merely  an  accession  of  vague  and  indefi- 
nite grandeur  (which  it  undoubtedly  was),  but  added 
to  the  substantive  power  of  Charlemagne.  It  was  the 
consolidation  of  all  Western  Christendom  under  one 
monarchy.  By  establishing  this  sovereignty  on  the  ba- 
sis of  the  old  Roman  empire,  it  could  not  but  gain 
something  of  the  stability  of  ancient  right.^  It  was 
the  voluntary  submission  of  the  Barbarians  to  the  title 
at  least  of  Roman  dominion.  In  Rome  Charlemagne 
aifected  to  be  a  Roman  :  he  condescended  to  put  off 
his  native  Prankish  dress,  and  appeared  in  the  long  tu- 
nic and  chlamys,  and  with  Roman  sandals.  While 
the  Barbarians  were  flattered  by  this  their  complete  in- 
corporation with  the  old  disdainfiil  Roman  society,  the 
Latins,  conscious  that  in  the  Franks  resided  the  real 
power,  still  aimed  at  maintaining  their  traditionary  su- 
periority in  intellectual  matters  —  a  superiority  which 
Charlemagne  might  hope  to  emulate,  not  to  surpass. 
The  Pope  (for  Charlemagne  swore  at  the  same  time  to 
maintain  all  the  power  and  privileges  of  the  Roman 
Pontiff)  obtained  the  recognition  of  a  spiritual  domin 
ion  commensurate  with  the  secular  empire  of  Charle- 
magne. The  Emperor  and  the  Pope  were  bound  in 
indissoluble  alliance ;  and  notwithstanding  the  occa- 
sional outbursts  of  independence,  or  even  superiority, 
asserted  by  Charlemagne  himself,  he  still  professed  and 
usually  showed  the  most  profound  veneration  for  the 
Roman  spiritual  supremacy ;  and  left  to  his  successors 

1  Eginhard,  c.  23.  But  compare  Lehuerou,  p.  362,  who  attributes 
Charlemagne's  reluctance  to  assume  the  empire,  and  his  apparent  depie- 
ciation  of  the  importance  of  the  title  of  Caesar,  to  the  dominant  Teuton  ism 
of  his  character.  Lehuerou  espouses  the  theory  that  the  emperor  wa.s  only 
the  advocate  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  But  tliis  was  a  purely  German 
theory  utterly  unknown  to  Pope  Hadrian  or  Pope  Leo,  and  to  the  Roman 
Italiaus. 


462  LATIN  CIIPJSTIANTTY.  Book  IV 

and  to  their  subjects  an  awful  sense  of  subjugation, 
from  which  they  were  not  emancipated  for  ages. 

The  imperial  title  was  understood,  no  doubt,  by  tlie 
senate  and  people  of  Rome,  to  be  conferred  by  them- 
selves, as  representing  the  repubHc,  not  by  the  Pope, 
of  his  sole  religious  authority.  Without  their  assenting 
acclamations,  in  their  estimation  it  would  not  have  been 
valid.  The  Pope,  as  one  of  the  people,  as  his  subject 
therefore,  paid  adoration  to  the  Emperor.^ 

But  it  is  even  more  difficult  to  ascertain  the  rights 
which  the  imperial  title  conveyed  in  Rome  itself,  es- 
pecially in  one  important  particular.  Rome  became,  it 
is  clear,  one  of  the  subject  cities  of  Charlemagne's 
empire.  Even  if  the  Pope  had  ever  possessed  any  act- 
ual or  asserted  magisterial  power,  the  events  of  the 
last  year  had  shown  that  he  did  not  govern  Rome.  He 
had  no  force,  even  for  his  personal  security,  against  con- 
spiracy or  popular  tumult.  But  the  Emperor  of  Rome 
was  bound  to  protect  the  Bishop  of  Rome :  he  was  the 
conservator  of  the  peace  in  this  as  in  all  the  other  cities 
of  his  empire,  though  here,  as  elsewhere,  there  was  no 
abolition  of  the  old  Roman  municipal  institutions.  The 
Senate  still  subsisted,  the  people  called  itself  the  Roman 
people ;  the  shadow  of  a  republic  which  had  been  suf- 
fered to  survive  throughout  the  Empire,  and  had  occa- 
sionally seemed  to  acquire  form,  if  not  substance,  still 
lurked  beneath  the  Teutonic,  as  in  later  times  beneath 
the  Papal,  sovereignty.  The  great  undefined,  unde- 
finable  point  was  the  conflicting  right  of  the  Emperor, 

1  "  Et  summus  eundem 
Praesul  adoravit,  sicut  mos  debitus  olim 
Principibus  fuit  antiquis,  ac  nomine  dempto 
Patricii,  quo  dictus  erat  prius,  inde  vocari 
Augustus  meruit  pius,  Imperii  quoque  princeps." 

Foeta  Saax>y  sub  ann.  801. 


Chap.  XII.  POWER  UNDEFINED.  4t)3 

the  clergy,  and  the  people,  in  the  electi(  n  and  ratifica- 
tion of  the  election  to  the  Popedom ;  as  well  as  that 
which  was  hereafter  to  be  the  source  of  such  long  and 
internecine  strife,  the  boundary  of  the  two  sovereign- 
ties, the  temporal  and  the  spiritual.  This  was  the  fatal 
feud  which  for  centuries  distracted  Latin  Christendoiu. 
It  w^as  perhaps  in  its  vagueness  that  chiefly  dw^elt  its 
majesty  and  power,  both  as  regards  the  Pope  who  be- 
stowed and  the  Frank  who  received  the  Empire.  In 
some  unknown,  undefined  manner,  the  Empire  of  the 
West  flowed  from  the  Pope  ;  the  successor  of  St.  Peter 
named,  or  sanctioned  the  naming  of,  the  successor  of 
Augustus  and  of  Nero.  The  enormous  power  of 
Charlemagne,  as  contrasted  with  that  of  the  Pope,  dis- 
guised or  ennobled  the  bold  fiction,  quelled  at  least  all 
present  inquiry,  silenced  any  insolent  doubt.  If  Charle- 
magne acknowledged  the  right  of  the  Pope  to  bestow 
the  Empire  by  accepting  it  at  his  hands,  who  should 
presume  to  question  the  right  of  the  Pope  to  define  the 
limits  of  the  Imperial  authority  thus  bestowed  and  thus 
received  ?  And  Charlemagne's  elevation  to  the  Em- 
pire invested  his  protection  of  the  Pope  in  the  more 
sacred  character  of  a  duty  belonging  to  his  office,  rati- 
fied all  his  grants,  which  were  now  those  not  only  of  a 
conqueror  ^  but  of  a  successor  to  all  the  rights  of  the 
Caesars.  On  one  side  the  Teuton  became  a  Roman, 
the  King  of  the  Franks  was  merged  in  the  Western 
Emperor  ;  on  the  other,  Rome  created  the  sovereign  of 
the  West,  the  sovereign  of  Latin  Christendom. 

1  All  writers,  even  ecclesiastics,  call  Charlemagne's  de^ceIlt  into  Italy  a 
conquest.  —  See  epitaph  on  his  Queen  Hildegard  at  Metz. 

"  Cumque  vir  armipotens  sceptris  junxisset  avitis 
Cycniferumque  Padum,  Romuleumque  Tibriia.' 

Pauli  Gesta  Episc.  Met.    Pel  tz,  .  266. 


464 


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466  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V. 


BOOK    V, 


CHAPTER  I. 

CHARLEMAGNE. 

The  empire  of  Gharlemagne  was  almost  commensu- 
Empire  of  ^^^^  ^^^^^  Latin  Christendom  ;  ^  England  was 
Charlemagne,  ^j^^  ^^-^jy  i^yge  territory  which  acknowledged 
the  ecclesiastical  supremacy  of  Rome,  not  in  subjection 
to  the  Empire.  Two  powers  held  sway  in  Latin 
Christendom,  the  Emperor  and  the  Pope :  of  these 
incomparably  the  greatest  at  this  time  was  the  Emper- 
or. Charlemagne,  with  the  appellation,  assumed  the 
full  sovereignty  of  the  Caesars,  united  with  the  com- 
manding vigor  of  a  great  Teutonic  conqueror.  Beyond 
the  Alps  he  was  a  German*  sovereign,  assembling  in  his 
Diet  the  whole  nobility  of  the  Romanized  Teutonic  na- 
tions, and  bringing  the  still  barbarous  races  by  force 
under  his  yoke.  In  Italy  he  was  a  Northern  Con- 
queror, though  the  ally  of  the  Pope  and  of  Rome.  But 
he  was  likewise  an  Emperor  attempting  to  organize  his 
vast  dominions  with  the  comprehensive  policy  of  Roman 
administration,  though  not  without  respect  for  Teutonic 
freedom.  He  was  the  sole  leo-islator  in  ecclesiastical 
as  well  as  civil  affairs ;  the  Carolinian  institutions  em- 

1  Compare  limits  of  the  empire   of  Charles — Eginhai-d,  Vit.  Car.  xv. 
He  includes  within  it  the  whole  of  Italy,  from  Aosta  to  Lower  Calabria. 


OnAP.  1.  TEUTONIC  ElVIPIRE.  467 

brace  the  dinrch  as  well  as  the  State  ;  his  Council  at 
Frankfort  dictates  to  the  West,  in  despite  of  Papal  re- 
monstrances, on  the  great  subject  of  image-worship. 
For  centuries  no  monarch  had  stood  so  high,  so  alone, 
so  unapproachable  as  Charlemagne.  He  ruled  —  ruled 
absolutely  —  by  that  strongest  absolutism,  the  over- 
awed or  spontaneously  consentient,  cordially  obedient, 
cooperative  will  of  all  other  powers.  He  ruled  from 
the  Baltic  to  the  Ebro,  from  the  British  Channel  to  the 
duchy  of  Benevento,  even  to  the  Straits  of  Messina. 
In  personal  dignity,  who,  it  must  not  be  said  rivalled, 
approximated  in  the  least  degree,  to  Charlemagne? 
He  had  added,  by  his  personal  prowess  in  war,  and  this 
in  a  warlike  age,  by  his  unwearied  activity,  and  by 
what  success  would  glorify  as  military  skill,  almost  all 
Germany,  Spain  to  the  Ebro,  the  kingdom  of  the  Lom- 
bards, to  the  realm  of  the  Franks,  to  Christendom. 
Huns,  Avars,  Slavians,  tribes  of  unknown  name  and 
descent,  had  been  repelled  or  subdued.  His  one  defeat, 
that  of  Roncesvalles,  is  only  great  in  recent  poetry.^ 
Every  rebel,  the  independent  German  princes,  like 
Tassillo  of  Bavaria,  had  been  crushed ;  the  obstinate 
Saxon,  pursued  to  the  court  of  the  Danish  King,  at  last 
became  a  subject  and  a  Christian.  On  the  Byzantine 
throne  had  sat  an  iconoclastic  heretic,  a  boy,  and  a 
woman  a  murderess.  Hadrian,  during  his  long  pon- 
tificate, had  worn  the  Papal  tiara  with  majesty.  His 
successor,  maimed  and  maltreated,  had  fallen  to  im- 
plore protection  before  the  throne  of  Charlemagne ;  he 


1  See  in  11.  Martin,  Histoire  de  France,  ii.  p.  bio,  the  very  curious  and 
spirited  song  (from  a  French  historic  periodical),  called  the  Chant  d'Alta- 
bi^ar,  said  to  have  been  preserved  from  the  ninth  or  tenth  century  among 
the  Pyrenean  mountaineers. 


468  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V. 

had  been  obliged  to  clear  himself  of  enormous  crimes, 
to  purge  himself  by  oath  before,  what  seemed  to  all, 
the  superior  tribunal  of  the  Emperor.  The  gift  of  the 
Imperial  crown  had  been  the  flattering  homage  of  a 
gi'ateful  subject,  somewhat  loftily  and  disdainfully  re- 
ceived ;  the  donations  of  Charlemagne  to  the  Pope 
were  the  prodigal  but  spontaneous  alms  of  a  religious 
King  to  the  Church  which  he  condescended  to  protect 
—  free  grants,  or  the  recognition  of  grants  from  his 
pious  ancestors. 

Nor  was  it  on  signal  occasions  only  that  Charlemagne 
interfered  in  the  affairs  of  the  Church.  His  all  com- 
prehending, all  pervading,  all  compelling  administra- 
tion was  equally  and  constantly  felt  by  his  ecclesiasti- 
cal as  by  his  civil  subjects.  The  royal  commissioners 
mspected  the  conduct,  reported  on  the  lives,  fixed  and 
defined  the  duties,  settled  the  tenure  of  property  and 
its  obligations,  determined  and  apportioned  the  revenues 
of  the  religious  as  well  as  the  temporal  hierarchy.  The 
formularies  of  the  Empire  are  the  legal  and  authorized 
rules  to  bishops  and  abbots  as  to  nobles  and  knights. 
The  ecclesiastical  unity  is  but  a  subordinate  branch  of 
the  temporal  unity.  The  State,  the  Empire,  not  the 
Church,  is  during  the  reign  of  Charlemagne  a  supreme 
unresisted  autocracy.  Later  romance  has  fallen  below, 
rather  than  heightened,  the  full  reality  of  his  power 
and  authority. 

But  it  was  only  during  his  long  indeed  but  transitory 
His  power  reign.  For  the  power  of  Charlemagne  was 
personal.  altogether  personal,  and  therefore  unendur- 
ing :  it  belonged  to  the  man,  to  the  conqueror,  to  the 
legislator,  to  the  patron  of  letters  and  arts,  to  Charles 
the  Great.     At  his  death  the  Empire  inevitably  fell  to 


Chap.  I.  THE  PAPACY.  469 

pieces,  only  to  be  reunited  occasionally  and  partially 
by  some  one  great  successor  like  Otho  I.,  or  some 
great  house  like  that  of  Swabia.  It  was  the  first  and 
last  successful  attempt  to  consolidate,  under  one  vast 
empire,  the  Teutonic  and  Roman  races,  the  nations 
of  pure  German  origin  and  those  whose  languages 
showed  the  predominance  of  the  Roman  descent.  It 
had  its  inherent  elements  of  anarchy  and  of  weakness 
in  the  first  principles  of  the  Teutonic  character,  the 
independence  of  the  separate  races,  the  vague  notions 
of  succession,  which  fluctuated  between  elective  and 
hereditary  sovereignty  with  the  evils  of  both ;  the 
empire  transmitted  into  feeble  hands  by  inheritance, 
or  elections  contested  by  one  half  of  the  Empire ; 
above  all,  in  the  ages  immediately  following  Charle- 
magne, the  separation  of  the  Empire  into  indepen- 
dent kingdoms,  which  became  the  appanages  of  sev- 
eral sons,  in  general  the  most  deadly  enemies  to  each 
other.  It  was  no  longer,  it  could  not  be,  a  single 
realm  united  by  one  wide-embracing  administration, 
but  a  system  of  hostile  and  conflicting  states,  of  which 
the  boundaries,  the  powers,  the  wealth,  the  resources, 
were  in  incessant  change  and  vicissitude. 

The  Papacy  must  await  its  time,  a  time  almost  cer- 
tain to  arrive.  The  Papacy,  too,  had  its  The  Papa«y. 
own  source  of  weakness,  the  Avant  of  a  settled  and 
authoritative  elective  body.  It  had  its  periods  of  an- 
archy, of  menaced  —  it  might  seem,  at  the  close  of 
the  tenth  century,  inevitable  —  dissolution.  But  it 
depended  not  on  the  sudden  and  accidental  rise  of 
great  men  to  its  throne.  It  knew  no  minorities,  no 
divisions  or  subdivisions  of  its  power  between  heirs 
if  coequal   and   therefore   conflicting  rights.     It  was  a 


470  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V 

succession  of  mature  men  ;  and  the  interests  of  the 
higher  ranks  of  its  subjects,  of  the  hierarchy,  even  of 
the  great  ecclesiastical  potentates  throughout  the  West, 
were  so  bound  up  with  his  own,  that  the  Pope  had 
not  to  strive  against  sovereigns  as  powerful  as  himself 
Till  the  times  of  the  antipopes  the  papal  power, 
though  often  obscured,  especially  in  Rome  itself,  ap- 
peared to  the  world  as  one  and  indivisible.  Its  action 
was  almost  uniform ;  at  least  it  had  all  the  steadiness 
and  inflexibihty  of  a  despotism  —  a  despotism,  if  not 
of  force,  of  influence,  or  of  sympathy,  and  of  cor- 
dial concurrence  among  all  its  multifarious  agencies 
throughout  the  world  to  its  aggrandizement. 

But  the  empire  of  Charlemagne,  as  being  the  great 
epoch  in  the  annals  of  Latin  Christendom,  demands 
more  full  consideration.  Out  of  his  universal  Empire 
in  the  West  and  out  of  his  Institutes  rose,  to  a  great  de- 
gree, the  universal  empire  of  the  Church  and  the  whole 
mediaeval  polity ;  feudalism  itself.  Western  Europe 
became,  as  it  were,  one  through  his  conquests,  which 
gathered  within  its  frontiers  all  the  races  of  Teutonic 
origin  (except  the  formidable  Northmen,  or  Normans, 
who,  after  endangering  its  existence,  or  at  least  mena- 
cing the  rebarbarizing  of  many  of  its  kingdoms,  were 
to  be  the  founders  of  kingdoms  within  its  pale),  and 
those  conquests  even  encroached  on  some  tribes  of 
Slavian  descent.  It  became  a  world  within  the  world; 
on  more  than  one  side  bordered  by  Mohammedanism, 
on  one  by  the  hardly  less  foreign  Byzantine  Empire. 
The  history,  therefore,  of  Latin  Christianity  must  sur- 
vey the  character  of  the  founder  of  this  Emi)ire,  the 
extent  of  his  dominions,  his  civil  as  well  as  his  ecclesi- 
astical institutes.     As  yet  we  have  only  traced  him  in 


Chap.  I.      CHARACTER  OF  CHARLERIAGNE.        471 

his  Italian  conquests,  as  the  ally  and  protector  of  the 
Popes.  He  must  be  seen  as  the  sovereign  and  law- 
giver of  Transalpine  as  well  as  of  Cisalpine  Europe.^ 

Karl,  according  to  his  German  appellation,  was  the 
model  of  a  Teutonic  chieftain,  in  his  gigantic  stature, 
enormous  strenpth,   and  indefatio;able    activ-  The  character 

.  ,.  ,  ^    .  ,       of  Charle- 

ity  ;  temperate  in  diet,  and  superior  to  the  magne. 
barbarous  vice  of  drunkenness.  Hunting  and  war 
were  his  chief  occupations  ;  and  his  wars  were  carried 
on  with  all  the  ferocity  of  encountering  savage  tribes. 
But  he  was  likewise  a  Roman  Emperor,  not  only  in 
his  vast  and  organizing  policy,  he  had  that  one  vice 
of  the  old  Roman  civilization  which  the  Merovingian 
kings  had  indulged,  though  not  perhaps  with  more 
unbounded  lawlessness.  The  religious  Emperor,  in 
one  respect,  troubled  not  himself  with  the  restraints 
of  religion.  The  humble  or  grateful  Church  beheld 
meekly,  and  almost  without  remonstrance,  the  irregu- 
larity of  domestic  life,  which  not  merely  indulged  in 
free  license,  but  treated  the  sacred  rite  of  marriage  as 
a  covenant  dissoluble  at  his  pleasure.  Once  we  have 
heard,  and  but  once,  the  Church  raise  its  authoritative, 
its  comminatory  voice,  and  that  not  to  forbid  the  King 
of  the  Franks  from  wedding  a  second  wife  while  his 
first  was  alive,  but  from  marrying  a  Lombard  prin- 
cess. One  pious  ecclesiastic  alone  in  his  dominions, 
he  a  relative,  ventured  to  protest  aloud.  Charles 
repudiated  his  first  wife  to  maiTy  the  daughter  of 
Desiderius ;  and  after  a  year  repudiated  her  to  marry 
Hildegard,  a  Swabian  lady.  By  Hildegard  he  had 
six  childi'en.  On  her  death  he  married  Fastrada,  who 
bore   him  two ;    a  nameless  concubine  another.     On 

i  Eginhard.  Vit.  Car.  sub  fine. 


472  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V 

Fastrada's  death  he  married  Liutgardis,  a  German, 
who  died  without  issue.  On  her  decease  he  was  con- 
tent with  four  concubines.^  A  darker  suspicion,  aris- 
ing out  of  the  loose  character  of  his  daughters,  none 
of  whom  he  allowed  to  marry,  but  carried  them  about 
with  him  to  the  camp  as  well  as  the  court,  has  been 
insinuated,  but  without  the  least  warrant  from  history. 
Under  the  same  double  character  of  the  Teutonic  and 
the  Roman  Emperor,  Charlemagne  introduced  Roman 
arts  and  civilization  into  the  remoter  parts  of  his  do- 
minions. Aix-la-Chapelle,  his  capital,  became,  in 
buildings  and  in  the  marble  and  mosaic  decorations 
of  his  palace,  a  Roman  city,  in  which  Karl  sat  in  the 
midst  of  his  Teutonic  Diet.  The  patron  of  Latin 
letters,  the  friend  of  Alcuin,  encouraged  the  compila- 
tion of  a  grammar  in  the  language  of  his  Teutonic 
subjects.  The  hero  of  the  Saxon  poet's  Latin  hex- 
ameter panegyric  collected  the  old  Vardic  lays  of  Ger- 
many. Even  Charlemagne's  fierce  wars  bore  Chris- 
tianity and  civilization  in  their  train. 

The  Saxon  wars  of  Charlemagne,  which  added  al- 
saxon  wars,  most  the  wliole  of  Germany  to  his  dominions, 
were  avowedly  religious  wars.  If  Boniface  w^as  the 
Christian,  Charlemagne  was  the  Mohammedan,  Apos- 
tle of  the  Gospel.  The  declared  object  of  his  inva- 
sions, according  to  his  biographer,  was  the  extinction 
of  heathenism ;  ^  subjection  to   the   Christian  faith  or 


1  The  reading  is  doubtful.  Bouquet  has  qtidiuor.  Pertz  has  followed  a 
MS.  which  gives  three. 

2  Some  of  the  heatlien  Frisian  temples  appear  to  have  contained  much 
wealth.  St.  Luidger  was  sent  out  to  destroy  some.  His  followers  brought 
back  a  considerable  treasure,  which  they  found  in  the  temples.  Charle- 
magne took  two  thirds,  and  gave  one  to  the  Church.  —  Vit.  S.  Luidg.  apurf 
I'ertz.  iip.  408. 


CiiAP.  I.  THE  SAXONS.  473 

extermination.^  Baptism  was  the  sign  of  subjugation 
and  fealty  :  the  Saxons  accepted  or  threw  it  oft*  ac- 
cording as  they  were  in  a  state  of  submission  or  of 
levolt.  These  wars  were  inevitable  ,  they  were  but 
the  continuance  of  the  great  strife  waged  for  centuries, 
from  the  barbarous  North  and  East,  against  the  civil- 
ized South  and  West ;  only  that  the  Roman  and  Chris- 
tian population,  now  invigorated  by  the  large  infusion 
of  Teutonic  blood,  instead  of  awaiting  aggression,  had 
become  the  aggressor.  The  tide  of  conquest  was  roll- 
ing back  ;  the  subjects  of  the  Western  kingdoms,  of 
the  Western  Empire,  instead  of  waiting  to  see  their 
homes  overrun  by  hordes  of  fierce  invaders,  now  bold- 
ly marched  into  the  heart  of  their  enemies'  country, 
penetrated  the  forests,  crossed  the  morasses,  and  planted 
their  feudal  courts  of  justice,  their  churches,  and  their 
monasteries  in  the  most  remote  and  savage  regions, 
up  to  the  Elbe  and  the  shores  of  the  Baltic. 

The  Saxon  race  now  occupied  the  whole  North  of 
Germany,  from  the  Baltic  along  the  whole  The  Saxons. 
Eastern  frontier  of  the  Frankish  kingdom.  The  in- 
terior of  the  land  was  yet  an  unknown  world,  both  as 
to  extent  and  population.  Vast  forests,  in  which  it 
was  said  that  squirrels  might  range  for  leagues  without 
dro])ping  to  the  gi'ound,^  broken  only  by  wide  heaths, 
sandy  moors,  and  swamps,  were  peopled  by  swarms 
which  still  were  thought  inexhaustible.  These  count- 
less hosts,  which  seemed  but  the  first  wave  of  a  yet  un- 
diminished flood,  might  still  precipitate  themselves  or  be 
precipitated  by  the  impulse  of  nations  from  the  further 

1  "  Eo  usque  perseveravit,  dum  aut  victi  Christianae  religioni  sabjiceren 
tur  aut  omnino  tollerentur."  —  Eginhard,  sub  ann.  775. 
a  Vit.  S.  Lebuini. 


474  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Bcok  V 

North  or  East,  on  the  old  Roman  empire  and  the  ad- 
vanced settlements  beyond  the  Rhine.  The  Saxons 
were  divided  into  three  leading  tribes,  the  Ostphalians, 
the  Westphalians,  and  the  Angarians  ;  but  each  clan 
or  village  maintained  its  independence,  waged  war,  or 
made  peace.  Each  clan,  according  to  old  Teutonic 
usage,  consisted  of  nobles,  freemen,  and  slaves ;  but  at 
times  the  whole  nation  met  in  a  great  armed  convention. 
A  deadly  hatred  had  grown  up  between  the  Franks  and 
Saxons,  inevitable  between  two  warlike  and  restless 
races  separated  by  a  doubtful  and  unmarked  border,  on 
vast  level  plains,  with  no  natural  boundary,  neither 
dense  forests,  nor  a  chain  of  mountains,  nor  any  large 
river  or  lake.^  The  Saxons  were  not  likely,  when  an  op- 
portunity of  plunder  or  even  of  daring  adventure  might 
offer  itself,  to  respect  the  frontier  of  their  more  civil- 
ized neighbors  ;  or  the  Franks  to  abstain  from  advan- 
cing their  own  limits  wherever  the  land  offered  any 
advantage  for  a  military,  commercial,  or  even  religious 
outpost.  But  it  was  not  merely  this  casual  hostility 
of  two  adventurous  and  unquiet  people,  encountering 
on  a  lono;  and  doubtful  border  —  the  Saxons  scorned 
and  detested  the  Romanized  Franks,  the  Franks  held 
the  Saxons  to  be  barbarians  and  heathens.  The  Sax- 
ons no  doubt  saw  in  the  earlier  and  peaceful  Christian 
missionaries  the  ag-ents  of  Frankish  as  well  as  of  Chris- 
tian  conquest.  Even  where  their  own  religion  hung 
so  loosely  on  their  minds,  they  could  not  but  be  suspi- 
cious of  foreigners  who   began  by  undermining  their 

1  "Suberant  et  causae,  quaj  quotidie  pacem  conturbare  poterant,  termini 
videlicet  nostri  et  illorum  prene  ubiqiie  in  piano  contigui,  praster  pauca 
.oca  in  quibus,  vel  silvic  majores,  vel  montium  juga  interjecta  utrorumque 
agros  certo  limite  distenninant,  et  rapinie  et  incendia  vicissim  fieri  noQ  ces- 
Babant."  —  Egiuhard,  Vit.  Carol,  evil. 


Chap    f  THE  SAXONS.  475 

national  faith,  and  mio-lit  end  in  endano-erin^  the 
national  independence.  They  beheld  with  impatience 
and  jealousy  the  churches  and  monasteries,  which 
gradually  rose  near  to,  upon,  and  within  their  frontier , 
though  probably  the  connection  of  the  missionaries 
witli  the  Romanized  Franks,  rather  than  the  religion 
itself,  which  otherwise  they  might  have  admitted  with 
the  usual  indifference  of  barbarians,  princip  dly  excited 
their  animosity. 

The  first  expedition  of  Charlemagne  against  the 
Saxons  before  his  Lombard  conquest  arose  First  saxon 
out  of  relio;ion.  Amono;  the  Eno;lisli  mis-  A.D.V72' 
sionaries  who,  no  doubt  from  speaking  a  kindred  lan- 
guage, were  so  successful  among  the  Teutonic  tribes, 
was  St.  Lebuin,  a  man  of  the  most  intrepid  zeal. 
Though  the  oratory  which  he  had  built  on  the 
Saxon  bank  of  the  Ysell  had  been  burned  by  the 
Saxons,  he  determined  to  confront  the  whole  as- 
sembled nation  in  their  great  diet  on  the  Weser. 
Charles  was  holding  at  the  same  time  his  Field  of 
May  at  Worms  :  this  Saxon  diet  might,  be  a  great 
national  council  to  watch  or  obtain  intelligence  of 
his  proceedings.^  The  Saxons  were  in  the  act  of 
solemn  worship  and  sacrifice,  when  Lebuin  stood  up 
in  the  midst,  proclaimed  himself  the  messenger  of 
the  one  true  God,  the  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth, 
and  denounced  the  folly  and  impiety  of  their  idola- 
tries.^ He  urged  them  to  repentance,  to  belief,  to 
baptism,  and  promised  as  their  reward  temporal  and 
eternal  peace.  So  far  the  Saxons  seemed  to  have  lis- 
tened with  decent  or  awe-struck  reverence ;   but  when 

1  May,  however,  was  probably  the  usual  mouth  for  the  German  national 
assemblies. 

2  Vit.  S.  Lebuini,  apud  Pertz. 


476  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V. 

Lebuin  ceased  to  speak  in  this  more  peaceful  tone, 
and  declared  that,  if  they  refused  to  obey,  God  would 
send  against  them  a  mighty  and  unconquerable  King 
who  would  punish  their  contumacy,  lay  waste  their 
land  with  fire  and  sword,  and  make  slaves  of  their 
wives  and  children,  the  proud  barbarians  broke  out 
into  the  utmost  fury ;  they  threatened  the  dauntless 
missionary  with  stakes  and  stones :  his  life  was  saved 
only  by  the  intervention  of  an  aged  chieftain.  The 
old  man  insisted  on  the  sanctity  which  belonged  to 
all  ambassadors,  above  all  the  ambassadors  of  a  great 
God, 

The  acts  and  language  of  Charles  showed  that  he 
warred  at  once  against  the  religion  and  the  fi'^edom 
The  irmiasui.  of  aucicut  Germany.  Assembling  his  army 
at  Worms,  he  crossed  the  Rhine,  and  marched  upon 
the  Eresburg,  a  strong  fortress  near  the  Drimel.^ 
Having  taken  this,  he  advanced  to  a  kind  of  relig- 
ious capital,  either  of  the  whole  Saxon  nation  or  at 
least  of  the  more  considerable  tribes.  It  was  situ 
ated  near  the  source  of  the  Lippe,^  and  contained 
the  celebrated  idol,  the  Irmin-Saule.^ 

This  may  have  been  simply  the  gi-eat  pillar,  the 
trunk  of  a  gigantic  tree,  consecrated  by  immemorial 
reverence,  or  the  name  may  imply  the  war-god,  or 
the  parental-god,  or  demigod  of  the  race.     This  no- 

1  Supposed  Stadbergen,  in  the  bishopric  of  Paderborn. 

2  Eckhart  (Pertz,  p.  151)  says  distinctly  that  it  was  some  way  beyond 
the  Eresburg. 

'^  Grimm,  Deutsche  Mythologie,  81  et  seg.,  208  et  seq.,  "Irmansaul,  colos- 
sus, altissima  columna."  He  quotes  Rudolf  of  Fulda:  "  Truncum  quoque 
ligui  non  parvaj  maguitudinis  iii  altum  erectum  sub  divo  colebant,  patriji 
emu  lingua  Irmiiisul  appcllaiites,  quod  Latinc  dicitur  universalis  columna, 
(|iiasi  sustiuens  omnia."  Yet  Irniin  seems  to  have  been  the  name  of  a 
uatioual  god  or  demigod. 


Chap.  I.  THE  IRMIN-SAULE.  477 

tlon  suits  better  with  tlie  simpler  description  ol*  tlifl 
idol  in  the  older  writers.  This  rude  and  perhaps, 
therefore,  not  less  imposing  idol,  has  been  exalted 
into  a  great  symbolic  image,  either  of  the  national 
deity  or  of  the  nation,  arrayed  in  fancifnl  atti-i- 
butes,  which  seem  to  belong  to  a  later  mythology  ;  ^ 
and  German  patriotism  has  delighted  to  recognize  in 
this  image  consecrated  by  the  Teutonic  worship,  that 
of  the  great  Teutonic  hei'o,  Herman,  the  conqueror 
of  Varus.  Throughout  the  neighborhood  the  names 
and  places  are  said  to  bear  frequent  and  manifest 
allusion  to  this  great  victory  over  Rome,  —  the  field 
of  victory,  the  stream  of  blood,  the  stream  of  the 
bones.  Not  far  off  is  the  field  of  Rome,  the  moun- 
tain of  Arminius,  the  forest  of  Varus.^ 

But  whether  rude  and  shapeless  trunk,  or  sym- 
bolic image  of  the  Saxon  god,  or  the  statue  of  the 
Teutonic  hero,  the  Irmin-Saule  fell  by  the  remorse- 
less hands  of  the  Christian  Frank.^ 

The  war  of  the  Franks  and  the  Saxons  lasted  for 
thirty-three  years;*  it  had  all  the  horrors  of  an  inter- 
necine strife  between  two  hordes  of  barbarians.     The 


1  He  was  clothed  in  armor ;  his  feet  rested  on  a  field  of  flowers ;  in  his 
right  hand  he  held  a  banner  with  a  rose  in  the  centre,  in  his  left  a  balance ; 
on  his  buckler  was  a  lion  commanding  other  animals.  —  Spelman,  in  Ir- 
minsul. 

2  The  neighborhood  of  Dethmold  abounds  with  these  sacred  reminis- 
cences. At  the  foot  of  the  Teutberg  is  Wintfield,  the  field  of  victory;  the 
Rodenbach,  the  stream  of  blood:  and  the  Knochenbach,  where  the  bones 
of  the  followers  of  Varus  were  found.  Feldrora,  the  field  of  the  Romans, 
is  at  no  great  distance.  Rather  farther  off,  near  Pynnont,  Hermansberg, 
the  mountain  of  Arminius;  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Weser,  Varenholz, 
the  wood  of  Varus.  —  Stapfer.,  art.  Arminius,  in  Biograph.  Universelle. 

3  Luden  is  indignant  at  the  destruction  of  this  monument  of  German 
treedom  by  the  renegade  Charlemagne.  --1^ 'J^chichte,  iv.  p.  234. 

4  From '772  to  805.  ' 


478  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  ^ 

armies  of  Charles  were  almost  always  mastert^  of  the 
field ;  but  no  sooner  were  they  withdrawn  than  the 
indefatigable  Saxons  rose  again,  burst  through  the 
encroaching  limits  of  the  Empire,  and  often  reached 
its  more  peaceful  settlements.  Hardly  more  than  two 
years  after  the  capture  of  Eresburg,  and  of  their  more 
sacred  place,  the  site  of  the  Irmin-Saule,  they  revenged 
the  destruction  of  their  great  idol  by  burning,  or  at- 
Aug.  1,775.  tempting  to  burn,  the  church  in  Fritzlar, 
founded  by  St.  Boniface.  It  was  said  to  have  been 
saved  by  the  miraculous  appearance  of  two  angels  in 
white  garments  ;  possibly  two  of  the  younger  eccle- 
siastics.^ In  their  inroads  they  respected  neither  age, 
nor  sex,  nor  order,  nor  sacred  edifice ;  all  was  wraj)- 
ped  in  one  blaze  of  fire,  in  one  deluge  of  blood.  But 
their  especial  fury  was  directed  against  the  monas- 
teries and  churches.  Widekind,  the  hero  of  these 
earlier  exploits,  was  no  less  deadly  an  enemy  of 
Christianity  than  of  the  Franks.  He  began  his  ca- 
reer by  destroying  all  the  Christian  settlements  in 
Friesland,  and  restoring  the  whole  land  to  heathen- 
ism .^ 

The  historians  of  Charlemagne  denounce  the  per- 
fidy of  the  Saxons  to  the  most  solemn  engagements  ; 
but  in  fact  there  was  no  supreme  government  which 

1  Ann.  Franc,  a.d.  774.    Bouqxiet,  p.  19. 

2  The  Saxon  Campaigns,  according  to  Boehmer,  Regesta:  1.  Taking  of 
Eresberg,  a.d.  772.  2.  Charlemagne  crosses  the  Weser,  Aug.  776.  3.  To  the 
Lippe,  776.  4.  Diet  of  Paderborn,  777.  5.  Revolt  of  Saxons,  who  waste  as 
far  as  the  Moselle,  778.  6.  Advance  to  the  Weser,  779.  7.  To  the  Ell)e,  780. 
8.  Diet  at  Lippe  Brunnen.  9.  Capitulation  of  the  Saxons,  782.  10.  (ireat 
victory  at  Thietmar,  783.  11.  Readvance  to  the  Elbe.  12.  Further  cam- 
paign, 784.  13.  Widekind  surrenders,  and  is  baptized,  785.  There  were, 
h(»wever,  later  insurrections,  arkl'^Hrter  progresses  of  Charlemagne  through 
the  subjugated  land. 


Chap.  I.  DIET  AT  PADERBORN.  479 

had  the  power  or  could  he  answerable  for  the  fulfil- 
ment of  treaties.  Each  villao;e  had  its  chieftain  and 
its  freemen,  independent  of  the  rest ;  the  tribes  whose 
land  Charles  occupied,  or  whose  forests  he  menaced, 
submitted  to  the  yoke,  but  those  beyond  them  held 
themselves  in  no  way  bound  by  such  treaties.^ 

After  a  few  years,  at  a  great  Diet  at  Paderborn,  the 
whole  nation  seemed  to  obey  the  summons  Diet  at 
of  Charles  to  acknowledge  him  as  their  liege  a.'d.  777. 
lord.  Multitudes  were  baptized  ;  and  all  the  more 
considerable  tribes  gave  hostages  for  their  peaceful 
conduct.  Yet  but  two  years  after,  on  the  news  of 
Charlemagne's  defeat  at  Roncesvalles,  they  appeared 
again  in  arms,  with  the  indefatigable  Wide-  a.d.  778. 
kind  at  their  head ;  he  alone  had  kept  aloof  from  the 
Diet  at  Paderborn,  having  taken  refuge,  it  a.d.  779. 
was  said,  with  the  King  of  Denmark,  no  doubt  be- 
yond the  Elbe.  Notwithstanding  their  baptism  and 
the  hostages,  they  reached  the  Rhine,  ravaging  as 
they  went,  threatened  Cologne  from  Deutz,  and  were 
only  prevented  from  invading  France  by  the  difficulty 
of  crossing  the  river ;  along  its  right  bank  they  burned 
and  slaughtered  fi'om  Cologne  to  Coblentz.  This  sud- 
den outburst  was  followed  by  the  most  formidable  re- 
volt, put  down  by  Charles's  victories  at  Dethmold  and 
near  the  river  Hase.  Throughout  the  war  Charle- 
magne endeavored  to  subdue  the  tribes  as  he  went 
on  by  the  terror  of  his  ai'ms  ;  and  terrible  indeed 
were  those  arms !     On  one  occasion,   at  Verdun-on- 

1  "  Quae  nee  rege  fuit  saUem  sociata  sub  uno 
Ut  se  militia;  pariter  defenderet  usu, 
Sed  variis  divisa  modis  plebs  oiniiis  habebat 
Quot  pagos  tot  pa;ne  duces." 

Poeia  Saxo.  ad  ann.  772,  v.  24. 


480  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V 

the-Allier,  lie  massacred  4000  brave  warriors  who 
had  surrendered,  in  cokl  blood.  Nor  did  he  trust 
to  the  humanizing  influence  of  Christianity  alone, 
but  to  the  diffusion  of  Roman  manners,  and  what 
might  appear  Roman  luxury.  The  more  submissive 
chieftains  he  tried  to  attach  to  his  person  by  honors 
and  by  presents.  The  poor  Saxons  first  became  ac- 
quainted with  the  produce  of  wealthy  Gaul.  To  some 
he  gave  farms,  whence  they  Avere  tempted  and  enabled 
to  purchase  splendid  dresses,  learned  the  use  of  money, 
the  pleasures  of  wine.^ 

His  frontier  gradually  advanced.  In  his  first  expe- 
dition he  had  crossed  the  Drimel  and  the  Lippe,  and 
reached  the  Weser ;  but  twelve  years  of  alternate  vic- 
tory and  revolt  had  passed  before  he  arrived  at  the 
Elbe.  In  four  years  more,  during  which  Widekind 
himself  submitted  to  baptism,  although  the  unquiet 
people  still  renewed  their  revolt,  he  reached  the  sea,  the 
Hmit  of  the  Saxon  territory.^ 

The  policy  of  Charlemagne  in  the  establishment 
of  Christianity  in  the  remote  parts  of  Germany  was 
Establish-  perhaps  wisely  incongruous.  Though  wars 
Christianity,  of  religion,  they  were  waged  entirely  by  the 
secular  arm.  He  encouraged  no  martial  prelate  to 
appear  at  the  head  of  his  vassals,  or  to  join  in  the  work 
of  bloodshed.  On  no  point  are  his  edicts  more  strong, 
more  frequent,  or  more  precise,  than  in  prohibiting  the 
clergy  from  bearing  arms,  or  joining  any  military  ex- 

1  "  Praedia  praestiterat  cum  rex  compluribus  illis 
Ex  quibus  accipcrent  pretiosoe  tegmina  vestis 
Argenti  cumulos,  dulcisque  fluenta  Lyaei." 

Poeta  Saxo.  iv.  130. 
2  "  Usque  ad  oceanum  trans  omnes  paludes  et  invia  loca  transitum  est." 
—  Ann.  Tiliac.  sub  ann. 


Chap.  I.  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  481 

pedltion.^  They  followed  in  the  wake  of  war,  but  did 
not  mingle  in  it.  A  few  priests  only  remained  with  the 
camp  to  perform  divine  service,  and  to  offer  ministra- 
tions to  the  soldiers.  The  religion,  thoagh  forced  upon 
the  conquered,  though  baptism  was  the  only  security 
(a  precarious  security,  as  it  often  proved)  which  the 
conqueror  would  accept  for  the  submission  of  the  van- 
quished, yet  this  was  part  of  the  treaty  of  peace,  and 
as  a  pledge  of  peace  was  fitly  performed  by  the  minis- 
ters of  peace.  The  conquest  was  complete,  the  carnage 
over,  before  the  priests  were  summoned  to  their  office 
to  baptize  the  multitudes,  who  submitted  to  it  as  the 
chance  of  war,  as  they  would  to  the  surrender  of  prop- 
erty or  of  personal  freedom.  For  this  baptism  no 
preparation  was  deemed  necessary ;  the  barbarians 
assented  by  thousands  to  the  creed,  and  were  imme- 
diately immersed  or  sprinkled  with  the  regenerating 
waters.  The  clergy  on  the  other  hand  were  exposed  to 
the  fury  of  the  insurgent  people  on  every  revolt ;  to  hew 
down  the  crosses  was  the  first  sign  that  the  Saxons  re- 
nounced  allegiance,  and  baptism  was,  according  to  their 
notion,  cancelled  by  the  renunciation  of  allegiance. 

The  subjugation  of  the  land  appeared  complete  be- 
fore   Charlemagne   founded    successively   his  Foundations 
great  religious  colonies,  the  eight  bishoprics  andSS-''^ 
of  Minden,  Seligenstadt,  Verden,   Bremen,  ^  *^"®^- 

1  "  Hortatu  omnium  fidelium  nostrorum  et  maxime  episcoporum  et  reli 
quorum  sacerdotum  consultu,  servis  Dei  per  omnia  omnibus  armaturam 
portare  vel  pugnare,  aut  in  exercitum  et  in  hostem  pergere,  omnino  pro- 
hiberaus,  nisi  illi  tantummodo  qui  propter  divinum  ministerium."  —  Carol i 
M.  Capit.  General,  a.d.  769.  Carloman,  a.d.  742,  Pepin,  744,  had  made 
similar  enactments ;  but  it  appears  that  the  restraint  was  unwelcome  to  some 
of  the  more  warlike  of  the  order.  Charlemagne  was  supposed  to  detract 
from  their  dignity  by  prohibiting  them  from  bearing  arms. 

2  Bremen,  founded  July  14,  787. 

VOL.   II.  31 


482  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V, 

Munster,  Hildesheim,  Osnaburg,  and  Paderborn. 
These,  with  many  richly-endowed  monasteries,  like 
Hersfeld,  became  the  separate  centres  from  which 
Christianity  and  civilization  spread  in  expanding  circles. 
But  though  these  were  military  as  well  as  religious  set- 
tlements, the  ecclesiastics  were  the  only  foreigners. 
The  more  faithful  and  trustworthy  Saxon  chieftains, 
who  gave  the  security  of  seemingly  sincere  conversion 
to  Christianity,  were  raised  into  Counts ;  thus  the  pro- 
fession of  Christianity  was  the  sole  test  of  fealty.  The 
Saxon  remained  a  conquered,  but  in  some  respects  an 
independent,  nation ;  it  was  ruled  by  a  feudal  nobility 
and  a  feudal  hierarchy.  The  Saxons  paid  no  tribute 
to  the  Empire  ;  Charlemagne  was  content  with  their 
payment  of  tithes  to  the  clergy, —  a  part  of  his  eccle- 
siastical system,  which  was  extended  throughout  his 
Transalpine  dominions.  Yet  even  after  this  period 
another  great  general  insurrection  broke  out  while 
Charles  was  engaged  in  a  war  with  the  Avars  ;  the 
churches  were  destroyed,  dreadful  ravages  committed. 
The  revolt  arose  partly  from  the  severe  avarice  with 
which  the  clergy  exacted  their  tithes,  and  the  impa- 
tience of  the  rude  Germans  at  this  unusual  taxation. 
It  was  not  till  ten  thousand  men  had  been  transplanted 
from  the  banks  of  the  Elbe  into  France  that  the  con- 
test came  to  an  end.  The  gratitude  of  the  Saxon  poet, 
who  wrote  under  the  Emperor  Arnulf,  for  the  conver- 
sion of  his  ancestors  to  Christianity,  dwells  but  slightly 
on  the  sanguinary  means  used  for  their  conversion,  and 
their  obstinate  resistance  to  his  persuasive  sword.^     On 

1  "  Turn  Caroliiin  gaudens  Saxonum  turba  scquatur, 
Illi  perpetiut;  gloria  lictiti;\j; 
O  utinam  vel  cuiictorum  sequar  ultimus  horum."  —  v.  685. 


CiiAi'.  1.  CHARLEMAGNE'S   LEGISLATION.  483 

the  (lay  of  judgment,  when  the  Apostles  render  an 
account  of  the  nations  which  they  have  converted, 
when  Charlemagne  is  followed  into  heaven  by  the  hosta 
of  his  Saxon  proselytes,  the  poet  expresses  his  humble 
hope  that  he  may  be  admitted  in  the  train. 

Charlemagne,  in  Christian  history,  commands  a  more 
important  station  even  than  for  his  subjuga-  charie- 

n   r-i  ^         r^  ^  magne's 

tion  01  (jrermany  to  the  (jrospel,  on  account  legislation. 
of  his  complete  organization,  if  not  foundation,  of  the 
high  feudal  hierarchy  in  great  part  of  Europe. 
Throughout  the  Western  Empire  was,  it  may  be  said, 
constitutionally  established  this  double  aristocracy,  eccle- 
siastical and  civil.  Everywhere  the  higher  clergy  and 
the  nobles,  and  so  downwards  through  the  different 
gradations  of  society,  were  of  the  same  rank,  liable  to 
many  of  the  same  duties,  of  equal,  in  some  cases  of 
coordinate,  authority.  Each  district  had  its  Bishop 
and  its  Count ;  the  dioceses  and  counties  were  mostly 
of  the  same  extent.  They  held  for  some  purposes 
common  courts,  for  others  had  separate  jurisdiction,  but 
of  coequal  power. 

At  the  summit  of  each  social  pyramid,  which  rose 
by  the  same  steps  from  the  common  base,  the  vast  ser- 
vile class,  which  each  ruled  with  the  rio;ht  of  master 
and  possessor,  or  that  of  serfs  attached  to  the  soil, 
which  were  gradually  succeeding  to  the  baser  and  more 
wretched  slavery  of  the  Roman  Empire,^  stood  the 
So\T?ans,  the  Emperor,  and  the  Pope.  So  at  least  it 
was  in  later  times.  At  present  Charlemagne  stood 
alone  on  his  unapproachable  height.     As  monarch  of 

1  On  the  slow  and  gradual  transition  from  slavery  to  serfdom  and  vil- 
leinage, see  Mr.  Hallam's  supplemental  note  79,  and  the  remarkable  quo- 
tation from  M.  Guerard 


484  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V. 

tlie  Franks,  as  King  of  Italy,  still  more  as  Emperor  of 
the  West,  he  was  supreme,  the  Pope  his  humble,  grate- 
ful subject.  Charlemagne,  with  the  title,  assumed  the 
imperial  power  of  a  Theodosius  or  a  Justinian.  His 
lemslation  embraces  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  civil  affairs. 
In  the  general  assembly,  of  which,  with  the  nobles, 
they  were  constituent  parts,  the  assent  of  the  bishops 
may  be  expressed  or  imphed ;  but  the  laws  which  fix 
the  obligations,  the  revenues,  even  the  duties  of  the 
clergy,  are  issued  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor :  they 
are  monarchical  and  imperial,  not  papal  or  synodical 
canons.  Already,  indeed,  the  principles  on  which  the 
loftier  pretensions  of  the  Church  were  hereafter  to  be 
grounded,  had  crept  imperceptibly  in  under  the  specious 
form  of  religious  ceremonies.  The  very  title  to  the 
Prankish  monarchy,  the  Empire  itself,  had  to  the  popu- 
lar view  something  of  a  papal  gift.  The  anointing  of 
the  Kings  of  France  had  become  almost  necessary  for 
the  full  popular  recognition  of  the  royal  title.^  The 
part  taken  by  the  pope  in  the  offer  of  the  Empire  to 
Charlemagne,  his  coronation  by  the  hands  of  the  Pope 
in  the  same  manner,  gave  a  vague  notion,  a  notion  to 
be  matured  by  time,  that  it  was  a  Papal  grant.  He 
who  could  bestow  could  withhold ;  and,  as  it  was  after- 
wards maintained,  he  who  could  elevate  could  degrade  ; 
he  who  could  crown  could  discrown  the  Emperor. 

But  over  the  Transalpine  clergy,  Charlemagne  had 
Authority  of  "^*  ^^^J  ^^^  general  authority  of  a  Teutonic 
chariemigne.  monarch  and  a  Roman  Emperor,  he  had  like- 

1  The  Old  Testament,  which  had  suggested  and  sanctioned  this  cere- 
mony, had  become  of  equal  authority  with  the  New.  The  head  of  the 
Church  was  not  merely  the  successor  of  the  chief  apostle,  lie  was  the 
high  priest  of  the  old  Law,  Samuel  or  Joas  as  well  as  St.  Peter. 


Chap.  I.  HIERARCHY  UNDER  CHARLEMAGFE.  485 

wise  the  same  feudal  sovereignty,  founded  on  the  same 
principles,  which  he  had  over  the  secular  nobility. 
Their  estates  were  held  on  the  same  tenure ;  they  had 
been  invested  in  them,  especially  in  Germany,  Transalpine 
according  to  the  old  Teutonic  law  of  conquest,  ^i^^^'^^y- 
Every  conquered  territory,  or  a  portion  of  it,  became 
the  possession  of  the  conquerors ;  it  was  a  vast  farm, 
granted  out  in  lots,  on  certain  conditions  ;  the  king 
reserved  certain  portions  as  the  royal  domain,  others 
were  granted  to  the  wan*iors  (the  leudes),  under  the 
title  first  of  allodes,  which  gradually  became  benefices.^ 
But  bishoprics  and  abbacies  were  originally,  or  became, 
in  the  strictest  sense,  benefices.  The  great  ecclesiastics 
took  the  same  oath  with  other  vassals  on  a  change  of 
sovereign.  They  were  bound,  bishops,  abbots  and 
abbesses,  to  appear  at  the  Herr-bann  of  the  sovereign. 
Charlemagne  submits  them  without  distinction  to  the 
visitation  of  his  officers,  who  are  to  make  inquest  as  to 
their  due  performance  of  their  duties  as  beneficiaries, 
the  maintenance  not  merely  of  the  secular  buildings, 
but  also  of  the  churches,  and  the  due  solemnization  of 
the   divine   offices.^     The   men   of    the   church   were 

1  French  learning,  especially  that  of  M.  Guizot,  of  M.  Lehuerou,  and  of 

the  authors  of  the  prefeces  to  the  valuable  volumes  of  the  "  Documents 
In^dits,"  has  exhausted  every  subject  relating  to  the  national  and  social 
institutions  of  the prefeudal  and  feudal  times;  the  ranks  and  orders  of 
men;  the  growth  of  the  cities;  their  guilds  and  privileges;  the  particu- 
lar tenure  and  obligations  of  land.  Mr.  Hallam  has  dihgently  watched 
and  in  his  supplemental  notes  siimmed  up  with  his  characteristic  strong 
English  sense  and  fairness,  the  results  of  all  these  vast  and  voluminous 
inquiries;  not  only  those  of  France,  but  those  of  Belgium,  England,  Italy, 
Germany. 

2  "  Volumus  atque  jubemus  ut  missi  nostri  per  singulos  pagos  prasvidere 
Btudeaut  omnia  beneticia  quae  nostri  et  aliorum  homines  habere  videntur, 
quomodo  restam-ata  sint  post  annuntiationem  nostram  sive  destructa. 
Primum  de  ecclesiis,  quomodo  structge  aut  destructas  sint  in  tectis,  in 
maceriis,  sive  parietibus,  sive  in  pavimentis,  necnou  in  pictura,  etiam  in 


486  XATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V 

bound  to  obey  tha  summons  to  military  service,  as  duly 
as  any  other  liegemen,  only  that  they  marched  under  a 
lay  captain.  The  same  number  were  allowed  to  stay 
at  home  to  cultivate  the  land.  The  great  prelates, 
even  in  the  days  of  Charlemagne,  resisted  the  laws 
which  prohibited  their  appearing  in  war  at''  the  head  of 
their  own  troops,  as  lowering  their  dignity,  and  depriv- 
ing the  Church  of  some  of  its  honors.^  Bishops  and 
abbots,  in  return  for  the  oath  of  protection  fi'om  the 
sovereign,  took  an  oath  of  fealty  as  counsellors  and  as 
aids  to  the  sovereign ;  but  the  great  proof  of  this 
ecclesiastical  vassalage  is  that  they  were  amenable  to 
the  law  of  treason,  Avere  deposed  as  guilty  of  violating 
their  allegiance.^ 

Charlemagne  himself  was  no  less  prodigal  than 
Estates  of  the  Weaker  kings  of  immunities  and  grants  of 
Church.  property  to  churches  and  monasteries.  With 
his  queen  Hildegard  he  endows  the  church  of  St. 
Martin,  in  Tours,  with  lands  in  Italy.  His  grants  to 
St.  Denys,  to  Lorch,  to  Fulda,  to  Prum,  more  partic- 
ularly to  Hersfeld,  and  many  Italian  abbeys,  appear 
amono;  the  acts  of  his  reign.^ 

luminariis,  sive  officiis.  Similiter  et  alia  beneficia,  casas  cum  omnibus 
appendiciis  eorum."  —  K.  Magn.  Cap.  Aquense,  a.d.  807 ;  Lehuerou,  p.  517. 

1  "  Quia  instigante   antique    hoste    audivimus  quosdam   nos  suspectos 

nabere  propterea  quod  concessimus  episcopis  et  sacerdotibus  ac  reliquis  Dei 

servis  ut  in  hostes  .  .  .  non   irent  .  .  .  nee  agitatores  sauguinum  fierent 

.  ,  .  quod  honores  sacerdotum   et  res  ecclesiarum   auferre  vel  minuere 

voluissemus." — Cap.  Incert.  Ann.;  Lehuerou,  520. 

^  "  Promitto  et  perdono  vobis  .  .  .  defensionem,  quantum  potero,  ad- 
juvante  Domino,  exliibebo  .  .  .  ut  vos  mihi  secundum  Deum  et  secundum 
Sivculum  sic  fidules  adjutores  et  consilio  et  auxilio  sitis  sicut  vestri  anteces- 
pores  boni  meis  melioribus  prajdecessoribus  extiteruut." — Promiss.  Dom. 
Karlomanni  regis,  a.d.  882;  Lehuerou,  p.  519.  Ebbo,  Archbishop  of 
Rheims,  was  deposed  as  traitor  to  Louis  the  Del)onnaire;  Tertoldus,  Bishop 
of  Baycux,  was  accused  of  treason  against  Charles  the  Bald.  —  Boutjuet. 

8  See  the  Kegesta  in  Bochmer,  passim.    Leuhuerou  (p.  539)  gives  ac 


Chap.  I.  ESTATES   OF  THE  CHURCH.  487 

Nor  were  these  estates  always  obtained  from  the 
pious  generosity  of  the  king  or  tlie  nobles.  The  stew- 
ards of  the  poor  were  sometimes  the  spoilers  of  the 
poor.  Even  under  Charlemagne  there  are  complaints 
against  the  usurpation  of  property  by  bishops  and  ab- 
bots, as  against  counts  and  laymen.  They  compelled 
the  poor  free  man  to  sell  his  property,  or  forced  him  to 
serve  in  the  army,  and  that  on  permanent  or  continual 
duty,  and  so  to  leave  his  land  either  without  owner, 
with  all  the  chances  that  he  might  not  return,  or  to 
commit  it  to  the  custody  of  those  who  remained  at 
home  in  quiet  and  seized  every  opportunity  of  entering 
into  possession.^  No  Naboth's  vineyard  escaped  their 
watcliful  avarice. 

In  their  fiefs  the  bishop  or  abbot  exercised  all  the 
lights  of  a  feudal  chieftain.  At' first,  like  all  seignorial 
privileges,  their  administration  was  limited,  and  with 
appeal  to  a  higher  court,  or  in  the  last  resort,  to  the 
king.  Gradually,  sometimes  by  silent  usurpation,  some- 
times by  actual  grant,  they  acquired  power  over  all 
causes   and  all  persons.      The   right  of  appeal,    if  it 

instance  of  the  enonnous  possessions  of  some  of  the  monasteries:  they, 
were  larger  in  the  north  than  in  the  south  of  France  (compare  Thierry, 
Temps  Merovingiens).  The  abbey  of  S.  Wandrille,  orFontenelle,  according 
to  its  chartulary,  owned,  less  than  150  years  after  its  foundation  (a.d.  650 
788)  3974  manses  (the  manse  contained  12  jugera,  acres),  besides  mills  and 
otLer  property.  Compare  the  lands  heaped  on  churches  and  monasteries 
by  the  Merovingians,  p.  221. 

1  "Quod  pauperes  se  reclamant  expoliatos  esse  de  eorum  proprietate;  et 
hoc  sequaliter  supra  episcopos  et  abbates  et  eorum  advocatos  et  supra  com- 
ites  et  eorum  centenarios.  .  .  .  Dicunt  etiam  quod  quicuuque  propriura 
suum  episcopo,  abbati,  comiti  aut  judici  .  .  .  dare  noluerit,  occasiones 
quiei'unt  super  ilium  pauperem,  quomodo  eum  condemnare  possint,  et  illura 
semper  in  hostem  faciant  ire,  usque  dum  pauper  factus,  volens  nolens  suum 
proprium  aut  tradat  aut  vendat;  alii  vero  qui  traditum  habent,  absque 
ttllius  iiiquietudiue  douii  rcbideant." — Kar.M.  Capit,  de  Exped.  Exercit.  a.d. 
811.    Compare  Capit.  Longobard.  ap.  Pertz  iii  p.  192,  and  Lehuerou,p.  311 


488  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V 

existed,  was  difficult  to  exercise,  was  curtailed,  or  fell 
into   desuetude.^ 

Thus  the  hierarchy,  now  a  feudal  institution,  paral- 
lel to  and  coordinate  with  tlie  temporal  feudal  aris- 
tocracy, aspired  to  enjoy,  and  actually  before  long 
did  enjoy,  the  dignity,  the  wealth,  the  power  of  suze- 
i^ain  lords.  Bishops  and  abbots  had  the  indepen- 
dence and  privileges  of  inalienable  fiefs  ;  and  at  the 
same  time  began  either  sullenly  to  contest,  or  haugh- 
tily to  refuse,  those  payments  or  acknowledgments  of 
vassalage,  which  sometimes  weighed  heavily  on  other 
lands.  During  the  reign  of  Charlemagne  this  theory 
of  spiritual  immunity  slumbered,  or  rather  had  not 
quickened  into  life.  It  was  boldly  (so  rapid  was  its 
growth)  announced  in  the  strife  with  his  son,  Louis 
the  Pious.  It  was  then  asserted  by  the  hierarchy 
(become  king-makers  and  king-deposers)  tliat  all  prop- 
erty given  to  the  Church,  to  the  poor,  and  to  the  ser- 
vants of  God,  or  rather  to  the  saints,  to  God  himself 
(such  were  the  specious  phrases)  was  given  absolutely., 
irrevocably,  with  no  reserve.  The  king  might  have 
power  over  knight's  fees,  over  those  of  the  Church  he 
had  none  whatever.  Such  claims  were  impious,  sacri- 
legious, and  implied  forfeiture  of  eternal  life.  The 
clergy  and  their  estates  belonged  to  another  realm,  to 
another  commonwealth  ;  they  were  entirely,  absolutely 
independent  of  the  civil  power.  The  clergy  belonged 
to  the  Herr-bann  of  Christ,  and  of  Christ  alone.''^ 

1  Compare  the  luminous  discussion  of  Lehuerou,  p.  243,  et  seq.  The 
riglit  of  basse  justice  was  inseparable  from  property.  The  bishop  or  abbot 
was  head  of  the  family ;  all  were  in  his  mundium.  He  afterwards  acquired 
moyenne,  finally  haute  justice.  In  the  cities  he  became  chief  magistrate 
by  another  process. 

2  "  Quodsemel  legitime  consecratum  est  Deo,  in  suis  militibus,  et  paupeii- 


Chap.  1.  TITHES.  489 

These  estates,  however,  thus  sooner  or  later  held  by 
feudal  tenure,  and  liable  to  feudal  service,  were  the 
aristocratic  possessions  of  the  ecclesiastical  aristocracy ; 
on  the  whole  body  of  the  clergy  Charlemagne  bestowed 
their  even  more  vast  dowry  —  the  legal  claim  to  tithes^ 
Already,  under  the  Merovingians,  the  clergy  had  given 
significant  hints  that  the  law  of  Leviticus  was  the  per- 
petual and  unrepealed  law  of  God.^  Pepin  had  com- 
manded the  payment  of  tithe  for  the  celebration  of 
peculiar  litanies  during  a  period  of  famine.^  Charle- 
magne made  it  a  law  of  the  Empire  :  he  enacted  it  in 
its  most  strict  and  comprehensive'  form,  as  investmg 
the  clergy  in  a  right  to  the  tenth  of  the  substance  and 
of  the  labor  alike  of  freeman  and  of  serf.^  The 
collection  of  tithe  was  regulated  by  compulsory  stat- 
utes ;  the  clergy  took  note  of  all  who  paid  or  refused 
to  pay  ;^  fom-,  or  eight,  or  more  jurymen  were  sum- 
moned from  each  parish,  as  witnesses  for  the  claims 
disputed  ;  ^  the  contumacious  were  three  times  sum- 
moned ;  if  still  obstinate,  excluded  from  the  church  ; 

bus  ad  usus  militias  suae  libere  concedatur.  Habeat  igitur  Rex  rempubli- 
cam  libere  in  usibus  militiae  suae  ad  dispensandura ;  habeat  et  Christus  res 
ecclesiariun  quasi  alteram  rempublicam,  omnium  indigentium  et  sibi  ser- 
vientium  usibus.  .  .  .  Sin  alias  ut  apostolus  ait,  qui  aliena  diripiunt,  reg- 
num  non  possidebunt  eternum.  Quanto  magis  qui  ea  quae  Dei  sunt  et 
eoclesiarum  defraudantur,  in  qiiibus  sacrilegia  copulantur."  —  Vit.  Walae, 
apud  Pertz.  Wala's  doctrines  were  not  unopposed.  Compare  Lehuerou 
p.  538. 

1  On  Tithes,  see  Planck,  ii.  pp.  402  and  411. 

2  Sirmond,  Concil.  Eccles.  Gall.  i.  p.  543 ;  Council  of  Macon,  a.d.  585. 

3  Peppini  Regis  Capitul.  a.d.  764. 

4  "  Similiter  secundum  Dei  mandatum  praecipimus  ut  omnes  deciraun 
partem  suis  ecclesiis  et  sacerdotibus  donent,  tarn  nobiles  quam  ingenui 
Bimiliter  et  liti." — Capit.  Paderborn.  A.D.  785.  See  also  Cap.  a.d.  779 
It  was  confirmed  by  the  Council  of  Frankfort,  Capitul.  Frankfurtense,  a.d 
794. 

5  Capit.  Aquisgran.  a.d.  801. 

6  Capitul.  Longobard.  a.d.  803 


490  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V 

if  they  still  refused  to  pay,  they  were  fined  over  and 
above  the  whole  tithe,  six  solidi ;  if  further  contuma- 
cious, the  recusant's  house  was  shut  up  ;  if  he  attempt- 
ed to  enter  it,  he  was  cast  into  prison,  to  await  the 
judgment  of  the  next  plea  of  the  crown.^  The  tithe 
was  due  on  all  produce,  even  on  animals.^  The  tithe 
w  as  usually  divided  into  three  portions  —  one  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  Church,  the  second  for  the  Poor, 
the  third  for  the  Clergy.  The  bishop  sometimes 
claimed  a  fourth.  The  bishop  was  the  arbiter  of  the 
distribution  :  he  assigned  the  necessary  portion  for  the 
Church,  and  apportioned  that  of  the  clergy.^  This 
tithe  was  by  no  means  a  spontaneous  votive  offering  of 
the  whole  Christian  people  —  it  was  a  tax  imposed 
by  Imperial  authority,  enforced  by  Imperial  power.  It 
had  caused  one,  if  not  more  than  one,  sanguinary  in- 
surrection among;  the  Saxons.  It  was  submitted  to  in 
other  parts  of  the  Empire,  not  without  strong  reluc- 
tance.* 

1  Capital.  Longobard.  a.d.  803,  et  Capital.  Hlotharii,  i.  825,  et  Hludo- 
vici,  ii.  875. 

2  Capital.  Aquisgran.  801. 

8  The  tithe  belonged  to  the  parish  charch ;  that  in  which  alone  baptisms 
were  performed.  But  there  was  a  constant  struggle  to  alienate  them  to 
churches  founded  by  the  great  land-owners  on  their  own  domain,  of  which 
churches  they  retained  the  patronage.  Charlemagne  himself  set  a  bad 
example  in  this  respect,  alienating  the  tithes  to  the  succursal  churches  on 
Lis  own  doiaain.  —  Capitul.  de  Villis.     Compare  Lehuerou,  p.  489. 

4  Even  Alcuin  ventures  to  suggest,  that  if  the  Apostles  of  Christ  had 
demanded  tithes  they  would  not  have  been  so  successful  in  the  propagation 
of  the  Gospel:  —  "  An  Apostoli  quoque  ab  ipso  Christo  edocti,  et  ad  pra'di 
caodum  mundo  missi,  exactiones  decimarum  exegissent  .  .  .  consideran 
dum  est.  Scimus  quia  decimatio  substantive  nostras  valde  bona  est;  sed 
melius  est  illam  amittere  qtiam  fidem  perdere.  Nos  vero  in  fide  catholica 
nati,  nutriti,  edocti,  vix  consentimus  substantiam  nostram  pleniter  deci- 
mare.  Quanto  niagis  tenera  fides  et  infantilis  animus,  et  avara  mens."  — 
Alcuin,  Epist.  apud  Bouquet,  I.  v.  Compare  a  note  of  Wcissenberg  (Die 
grossen  Kirclien  Versannnlungen,  vol.  i.  p.  178),  on  some  curious  conse- 
qiueuces  of  enforcing  the  law  ol'  tithes. 


Chap.  I.  ECCLESIASTICAL  LEGISLATION.  4^1 

But  in  return  for  this  magnificent  donation,  Charle- 
magne assumed  the  power  of  legislating  for  Eccicsiasti- 
the  clergy  with  as  full  despotism  as  for  the  cbariemagne. 
laity  :  in  both  cases  there  was  the  constitutional  con- 
trol of  the  concurrence  of  the  nobles  and  of  the  higher 
ecclesiastics,  strong  against  a  feeble  monarch,  feeble 
against  a  sovereign  of  Charlemagne's  overruling  char- 
acter. His  Institutes  are  in  the  language  of  command 
to  both  branches  of  that  great  ecclesiastical  militia, 
which  he  treated  as  his  vassals,  the  secular  and  the 
monastic  clergy.^  He  seemed  to  have  a  sagacious 
foresight  of  the  dangers  of  his  feudal  hierarchical  sys- 
tem ;  the  tendency  still  further  to  secularize  the  secular 
clergy  ;  the  inclination  to  independence  in  the  regulars, 
which  afterwards  led  to  the  rivalry  and  hostility  be- 
tween the  two  orders.  The  great  church  fiefs  would 
naturally  be  coveted  by  men  of  worldly  views,  seeking 
only  their  wealth  and  power,  without  discharging  their 
high  and  sacred  offices  ;  they  would  become  hereditary 
in  certain  families,  or  at  least  within  a  limited  class  of 
powerful  claimants.  Each  separate  benefice  would  be 
exposed  to  perpetual  dilapidation  by  its  successive  hold- 
ers ;  there  was  no  efficient  security  against  the  illegal 
alienation  of  its  estates  to  the  family,  kindred,  or 
friends  of  the  incumbent ;  ^  it  might  be  squandered  in 
war  by  a  martial,  in  magnificence  by  a  princely,  in 
rude  voluptuousness  by  a  dissolute  prelate.^      Charle- 

1  See,  on  the  kind  of  spiritual  jurisdiction  exercised  by  former  kings  of 
France,  Ellendorf,  1.  231. 

2  "  Si  sacerdotes  plures  uxores  habuerint:"  that  probably  means  married 
more  than  once.  — Caput,  lib.  i. 

3  There  are  many  sumptuary  provisions.  Bishops,  abbots,  abbesses,  are 
not  to  keep  hounds,  falcons,  hawks,  or  jugglers.  Drunkenness  is  forbid- 
den, as  well  as  certain  oat^t 


492  LATIN   CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V, 

niagiie  eiideuvored  to  bring  the  great  monastic  imle  of 
mutual  control  to  hallow  the  lives  and  secure  the  prop- 
erty of  the  clergy.  The  scheme  of  St.  Augustine, 
that  the  clergy  should  live  in  common,  under  canonical 
rule,  and  under  the  immediate  control  and  superin- 
tendence of  the  Bishop,  had  never  been  entirely 
obsolete.  Charlemagne  endeavored  to  marshal  the 
whole  secular  clergy  under  this  severe  discipline  ;  he 
would  have  all  either  under  canonical  or  monastic 
discipline.^  But  the  legislator  passed  his  statutes  in 
vain  ;  rich  chapters  were  founded,  into  which  the  secu- 
lar spirit  entered  in  other  forms.  The  great  mass  of 
the  clergy  continued  to  lead  their  separate  Hves,  under 
no  other  control  than  the  more  or  less  vigilant  rule  of 
the  Bishop. 

Charlemagne  endeavored  with  equal  want  of  success 
Themonas-  ^^  prcvcut  the  mouastlc  establishments  from 
teries.  growlug   up   luto   Separate   and  independent 

republics,  bound  only  by  their  own  rules,  and  without 
the  pale  of  the  episcopal  or  even  metropolitan  jurisdic- 
tion. The  abbots  and  the  monks  were  commanded  to 
obey  in  all  humility  the  mandates  of  their  Bishops.^ 
The  abbot  received  his  power  within  the  walls  of  his 
convent  from  the  hands  of  the  Bishop ;  the  doors  of 


1  "  Qui  ad  clericatum  accedunt,  quod  nos  nominamus  canonicam  vitani 
volumus  ut  episcopus  eorum  rej^at  vitam.  Clerici — ut  vel  veri  monachi 
Bint  vel  veri  canonici."  —  Capit.  a.d.  789,  71  et  75.  "  Canouici  ...  in 
domo  episcopali  vel  etiam  in  monasterio  .  .  .  secundum  canonicam  vitam 
erudiantur."  a.d.  802.  Ut  ovmes  clerici  ununi  de  dmbus  eligant,  aut  pie- 
niter  secundum  canonicam,  aut  secundum  regularem  institutionem  vivere 
debeant."     a.d.  805. 

2  "  Abbates  et  monachos  omnismodis  volumus  et  prascipimus,  utepiscopig 
Buirt  omni  humilitate  et  hobhedientia  sint  subjecti,  sicut  canonica  constitu- 
tione  mandati."  —  Capit.  Gen.  a.d.  769;  Hludovic.  i-:  Imp.  Capit.  Aquis* 
gran.  825. 


Chap.  I.  EXTENT  OF  EMTIRE.  493 

the  monastery  were  to  fly  open  to  the  Risliop  ;  an  ap- 
peal lay  fi'om  the  Bishop  to  the  Metropolitan,  from  the 
Metropolitan  to  the  Emperor.^  The  Bishops  them- 
selves too  often  granted  full  or  partial  immunities, 
which  gradually  grew  into  absolute  exemption  from 
episcopal  authority.^  In  later  times  many  of  the  more 
religious  communities,  to  escape  the  tyranny  and  rapac- 
ity of  a  secular  bishop,  placed  themselves  under  the 
protection  of  the  King,  or  some  powerful  lord,  whose 
tyranny  in  a  certain  time  became  more  grinding  and 
exacting  than  that  of  the  Bishop.^ 

The  extent  of  Charlemagne's  Empire  may  be  esti- 
mated by  the  list  of  his  Metropolitan  Sees  :  Extent  of 
they  were  Rome,  Ravenna,  Milan,  Friuli  ^'^^''^■ 
(Aquileia),  Grade,  Cologne,  Mentz,  Saltzburg,  Treves, 
Sens,  Besan^on,  Lyons,  Rouen,  Rheims,  Aries,  Vienne, 
Moutiers  in  the  Tarantaise,  Ivredun,  Bordeaux,  Tours, 
Bourges.*  To  these  Metropolitans  lay  the  appeal  in 
the  first  instance  fi'om  the  arbitrary  power  of  the 
Bishop.  This  power  it  was  the  policy  of  Charlemagne 
to  elevate  to  the  utmost.^     The  Capitularies  enact  the 

1  "  Statutum  est  a  domino  rege  et  sancto  synodo,  ut  episcopi  justitias 
faciant  in  suas  parrochias.  Si  non  obedierit  aliqua  persona  episcopo  suo 
de  abbntibus,  presbyteris  .  .  .  monachis  et  caeteris  clericis,  veniant  ad  me- 
tropolitanum  suum,  et  ille  dijudicet  causam  cum  suffraganeis  suis  .  .  .  Et 
si  aliquid  est  quod  episcopus  metropolitanus  nou  possit  corrigere  vel  pacifi- 
care,  tunc  tandem  veniant  accusatores  cum  accusatu,  cum  Uteris  metropoli- 
tini,  ut  sciamus  veritatem  rei."  — Capitul.  Frankfurt.  705. 

2  Lehuerou,  p.  493. 

3  Baluzius,  Formula  38. 

4  Eginhard,  c.  xxxiii.  The  omission  of  Narbonne  and  one  or  two  others 
perplexes  ecclesiastical  antiquarians.  To  these  21  archbishoprics  of  his 
realm  Charlemagne  in  his  last  will  bequeathed  a  certain  legacy,  two  thirds 
of  his  personal  property. 

6  Ellendorf  (Die  Karolinger)  asserts  that  the  capitularies  nowhere  recog- 
nize appeals  to  the  Pope.  The  metropolitans  and  metropolitan  synods 
were  the  courts  of  last  resort,  except    t  should  seem,  the  emperors' 


494  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V. 

regular  visitation  of  all  tlie  parishes  within  their  dio- 
cese bj  the  Bishops,  even  those  within  peculiar  juris- 
diction.^ Their  special  mission,  besides  preaching  and 
confirmation  and  the  suppression  of  heathen  ceremo- 
nies, was  to  make  inquisition  into  all  incests,  parricide^, 
fratricides,  adulteries,  heresies,  and  all  other  offences 
against  God.  The  Bishop  on  this  visitation  was  re- 
ceived at  the  expense  of  the  clergy  and  the  people  (he 
was  forbidden  to  oppress  the  people  bj  exacting  more 
than  was  warranted  by  custom.)  ^  The  monasteries 
were  subject  to  the  same  jurisdiction.  The  clergy 
made  certain  fixed  payments,  either  in  kind  or  money, 
as  vassals  to  their  superiors  of  the  hierarchy  ;  ^  the 
Bishops,  notwithstanding  the  prohibition  of  the  canons, 
persisted  in  demanding  fees  for  the  ordination  of 
clerks.  Both  these  are,  as  it  were,  tokens  of  ecclesi- 
astical vassalage,  strikingly  resembling  the  commuted 
services  and  the  payments  for  investiture. 

The  clergy  were  under  the  absolute  dominion  of  the 
Bishop ;  they  could  be  deposed,  expelled  from  com- 
munion, even  punished  by  stripes.  No  priest  could 
officiate  in  a  diocese,  or  leave  the  diocese,  without  per- 
mission of  the  Bishop.* 

The  primitive  form  of  the  election  of  the  Bishop 
Election  of  remained,  but  only  the  form ;  the  popular 
bishops.        election  had,  in  all  higher  offices,  faded  into 

1  "  Similiter  nostras  in  beneficio  datas,  quam  et  aliorum  ubi  reliquiie 
praeesse  videntur."  —  Capitular,  a.d.  813. 

2  Capitular,  a.d.  769  and  813. 

8  "  Ut  uuuni  modium  frumenti,  et  unum  medium  ordei,  atque  unum 
modium  viui ....  episcopi  a  presbyteris  accipiant,  et  fi-ischingam  (a  lamb) 
^ex  valentem  denarios.  Et  si  hjec  non  accipiant,  si  volunt.  pro  his  omnibus 
duos  solidos  in  denariis."  —  Karol.  ii.  Syn.  apud  Tolosam,  a.d.  844. 

*  Capitular,  vi.  163.  "  Clerici,  quos  increpatio  non  emendaverit,  verberi- 
bus  coerceantur."  — vii.  302. 


Chap.  1.  ELECTION  OF  BISHOPS.  495 

a  sliadow.  Tlmt  of  the  clergy  retained  for  a  long 
time  more  substantive  reality.  It  was  this  growing 
feudality  of  the  Church,  which,  if  it  gave  not  to  the 
sovereign  the  absolute  right  of  nomination,  invested 
him  with  a  coordinate  power,  and  made  it  his  interest 
if  not  his  royal  duty  to  assert  that  power.  The  Met- 
ropolitan, the  Bishop,  the  Abbot,  had  now  a  double 
character;  he  was  a  supreme  functionary  in  the 
Church,  a  beneficiary  in  the  realm.  The  Sovereign 
would  not  and  could  not  abandon  to  popular  or  to 
ecclesiastical  election  the  nomination  to  these  important 
fiefs ;  Charlemagne  held  them  in  his  own  hands,  and 
disposed  of  them  according  to  his  absolute  will. 

Charlemagne  himself  usually  promoted  men  worthy 
of  ecclesiastical  dignity ;  but  his  successors,  like  the 
older  Merovingian  kings,  were  not  superior  to  the 
ordinary  motives  of  favor,  force,  passion,  or  interest ; 
they  were  constantly  environed  by  greedy  and  rapa- 
cious candidates  for  Church  preferments ;  helmeted 
warriors  on  a  sudden  became  mitred  prelates,  needy 
adventurers  wealthy  abbots.  Still  was  the  Church 
degraded,  enslaved,  disqualified  for  her  own  office,  by 
her  power  and  wealth.  The  successors  of  Boniface, 
and  liis  missionary  clergy  on  the  shores  of  the  Rhine, 
became  gradually,  as  they  grew  rich  and  secure,  like 
the  Merovingian  hierarchy  who  had  offended  the  aus- 
tere virtue  of  Boniface.  The  pious  and  death-defying 
men  whom  Charlemagne  planted  in  his  new  bishoprics 
and  abbeys  in  the  heart  of  Germany,  with  the  opulence 
assumed  the  splendor,  princely  pride,  secular  habits,  of 
their  rival  nobles.  Even  his  son  witnessed  and  suf- 
fered by  the  rapid,  inevitable,  melancholy  change. 

The  parochial   clergy  were  still   appointed  by  the 


496  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V. 

ParochLai  electlon  of  the  clergy  of  tlie  district,  with  the 
cisrgy.  assent  of  the  people ;  the  Bishop  nominatefi 

only  in  case  a  fit  person  was  not  found  by  those  with 
whom  lay  the  ordinary  election.^  Nor  could  he  be 
removed  unless  legally  convicted  of  some  offence. 
Yet  even  in  France  there  was  probably  not  as  yet  a 
regular,  and  by  no  means  an  universal  division  of 
parishes ;  certainly  not  in  the  newly-conquered  do- 
minions. They  were  either  chapels  endowed,  and 
appointed  to  by  some  wealthy  prince  or  noble  (the 
chaplain  dwelt  within  the  castle-walls,  and  officiated 
to  the  immediate  retainers  or  surrounding  vassals)  :  or 
the  churches  were  served  from  some  cathedral  or  con- 
ventual establishment,  w^here  the  clergy  either  lived 
together  according  to  canonical  rule,  or  were  members 
of  the  conventual  body.  The  Bishop  alone  had  in 
general  the  title  to  the  distribution  of  the  tithes,  one 
third,  usually,  to  himself  and  his  clergy  (of  his  clergy's 
necessities  and  his  own  he  was  the  sole,  not  always 
impartial  or  liberal  judge) ;  one  to  the  Fabric,  the 
whole  buildings  of  the  See ;  one  to  the  Poor.  Each, 
however,  in  his  narrower  sphere,  and  according  to  his 
personal  influence,  the  devotion  or  respect  of  his 
people,  had  his  sources  of  wealth  ;  the  gifts  and  ob- 
lations, the  fees,  which  were  often  prohibited  but 
always  prohibited  in  vain.  The  free  gratuity  became 
an  usage,  usage  custom,  custom  right.  Where 
spiritual  life  and  death  depended  on  priestly  minis- 
tration, that  which  love  and   reverence  might  not  be 

1  "  Et  primum  quitlem  ipsius  loci  presbyteri,  vel  cgeteri  clerici,  idoneum 
Bibi  rectorem  elif^ant;  deinde  populi  qui  ad  eamdem  plebem  aspicit,  sequatur 
assensiis.  Si  autem  in  ipsa  plobe  talis  inveniri  non  poterit,  qui  illud  opua 
corapetenter  peragere  possit,  tunc  episcopus  de  suis  quern  idoneum  judica- 
verit,  inibi  constituat."  —  Hludowici,  ii.  Imp.  Convent.  Ticin.  a.d.  855. 


Chap.  I.  COUNCIL  OF  FRANKFORT.  497 

strono;  enouo;h  to  lure  forth  would  be  wruno;  fr«  in  fear. 
Where  the  holy  image  might  be  veiled,  the  relic  with- 
drawn from  worship,  the  miracle  unperformed,  to  say 
nothing  (f  the  actual  ritual  services,  the  priest  might 
exact  the  oblation.  Whether  from  the  hio-her  or  lower, 
the  purer  or  more  sordid  motive,  neither  the  land  nor 
the  tithes  of  the  Church  were  the  measure  of  the  pop- 
ular tribute.  While,  on  the  other  hand,  the  alms  of 
the  clergy  themselves  out  of  their  own  revenues,  those 
bestowed  at  their  instance  by  the  wealthy,  by  the 
princely  or  the  vulgar  robber  as  an  atonement  or  com- 
mutation for  his  sins,  the  bequests  made  on  the  death- 
bed of  the  most  wicked  as  well  as  the  most  holy, 
redistributed  a  vast  amount  of  that  fund  of  riches  — 
if  not  wisely,  at  least  without  stint,  without  cessation. 

Yet,  no  doubt,  by  the  deference  which  Charlemagne 
paid  to  the  clergy,  by  his  own  somewhat  ostentatious 
religion,  by  his  munificent  grants  and  donations,  above 
all  by  his  elevation  of  their  character  through  his  wise 
legislation,  however  imperfect  or  unenduring  the  st.c- 
cess  of  his  laws,  Charlemagne  raised  the  hierarchical 
power  far  more  than  he  depressed  it  by  submitting  it  to 
his  equal  autocracy.  There  was  no  humiliation  in 
being,  with  the  rest  of  Western  Christendom,  subject 
to  Charlemagne.  Even  if  the  Church  did  feel  some 
temporary  obscuration  of  her  authority,  some  slight 
limitation  of  her  independence,  conscious  of  her  own 
strength,  she  might  be  her  own  silent  prophet  of  her 
future  emancipation  and  more  than  emancipation. 

The  Council  of   Frankfort  displays  most  fully  the 
power  assumed  by  Charlemagne  over  the  hier-  coundi  of 
archy  as  well  as  the  lay  nobility  of  the  realm,  ^^'^^«^*' 
the  mingled  character,  the  all-embracing  comprehen- 

VOL.  II.  32 


498  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Bock  V. 

siveness  of  his  legislation.  The  assembly  at  Frankfort 
was  at  once  a  Diet  or  Parhament  of  the  Realm  and  an 
ecclesiastical  Council.  It  took  cognizance  alternately 
of  matters  purely  ecclesiastical  and  of  matters  as  cle.iily 
secular.  Charlemagne  was  present  and  presided  in  the 
Council  of  Frankfort.^  The  canons  as  well  as  the  other 
statutes  were  issued  chiefly  in  his  name.  The  Council 
was  attended  by  a  great  number  of  bishops  ^"om  every 
part  of  the  Western  Empire,  from  Italy^  Germany, 
A.D.  794.  Gaul,  Aquitaine,  some  (of  whom  Alcuin  was 
the  most  distinguished,  though  Alcuin  was  now  chiefly 
resident  at  the  court  of  Charlemagne)  from  Britain. 
Two  bishops,  named  Theophylact  and  Stephen,  ap- 
peared as  legates  from  Pope  Hadrian.  The  powerful 
Hadrian  was  still  on  the  throne,  in  the  last  year  of  his 
pontificate,  when  Charlemagne  summoned  and  presided 
over  this  Diet-Council. 

The  first  object  of  this  Council  was  the  suppression 
of  a  new  heresy,  and  the  condemnation  of  its  authors, 
certain  Spanish  bishops.  Nestorianism,  which  had  been 
a  purely  Oriental  heresy,  now  appeared  in  a  new  form 
in  the  West.  Two  Spanish  prelates,  Elipand,  Arch- 
bishop of  Toledo,  and  Felix,  Bishop  of  Urgel  (whether 
to  conciliate  their  Mohammedan  masters,^  or  trained 
to  more  than  usual  subtlety   by  communication  with 

1  "  Prsecipiente  et  prcesidente  piissimo  et  gloriosissimo  domino  nostro 
Carolo  rege."  —  Synod,  ad  Episc.  Gall,  et  German.  Labbe,  1032.  Charles 
himself  writes:  "  Congregationi  sacerdotum  auditor  et  arii^er  adsedi."  — 
Car.  Magn.  Epiat.  ad  Episc.  Hisp. 

2  Charlemagne  expresses  his  sympathy  with  the  oppression  of  Elipand 
under  the  Gentiles:  "  Vestram  quam  patimini  inter  gentes  lacrymabili 
gemitu  condoleamus  oppressionem."  But  his  language  almost  implies 
that  he  considers  them  as  subjects  of  his  Empire,  as  well  as  subjects  of 
the  Church.  Urgel,  near  the  Pyrenees,  was  in  the  dominions  of  Charle- 
magne. 


i.HAP.  I.  THE  ADOPTIANS.  49S 


Arabian  writers)/  had  fi'amed  a  new  scheme,  according 
to  which,  while  they  firmly  maintained  the  coequality 
of  the  Son  as  to  his  divine  nature,  they  asserted  that, 
as  to  his  humanity,  Christ  was  but  the  adopted  Son  of 
the  Father.  Hence  the  name  of  the  new  sect,  the 
Adoptians.  It  was  singular  that,  while  the  Greeks  ex- 
hausted the  schools  of  rhetoric  for  distinctive  terms 
applicable  to  the  Godhead,  the  Western  form  of  the 
heresy  chose  its  phraseology  from  the  Roman  law. 
This  strange  theory  had  been  embraced  by  a  great 
number  of  proselytes.^  Felix  of  Urgel,  a  subject  of 
Charlemagne,  had  already  been  summoned  before  a 
synod  at  Ratisbon,  at  which  presided  Charles  a.d.  752. 
himself.  Felix  recanted  his  heresy,  and  swore  never 
to  teach  it  more.  He  was  sent  to  Rome,  imprisoned 
by  order  of  Pope  Hadrian,  and  condemned  to  sign  and 
twice  most  solemnly  to  swear  to  his  abandonment  of 
his  opinions.  He  resumed  his  bishopric,  and  returned 
to  his  errors  ;  he  w^as  again  prosecuted,  and  took  refuge 
among  the  Saracens. 

The  doctrines  of  Elipand  and  Felix  were  condemned 
as  wicked  and  impious  with  the  utmost  unanimity. 
Already  Pope  Hadrian,  in  a  letter  to  the  Bishops  of 
Spain  and  Gallicia,  had  condemned  these  opinions ;  but 
the  Emperor,  not  content  with  communicating  the 
unanimous  decision  of  the  Pope  and  the  Bishops  of 
Italy,   of  those  of   Gaul  and  Germany,   with  certain 


1  According  to  Alcuin,  the  scheme  had  originated  in  certain  writers  at 
Cordova.  — Alruin,  Epist.  v.  11,  5. 

2  St.  Leidrad  is  said  to  have  converted  20,000  bishops,  priests,  monks, 
laymen,  men  and  women.  —  Paullin.  Epist.  ad  Episc.  Arno.  edited  by  Ma- 
billon.  Compare  Walch,  p.  743.  Leo  III.  Epist. ;  Alciiin,  v.  11,  7 ;  other 
authorities  in  Walch,  ix.  p.  752.  Walch  wrote  a  history  of  the  Adop- 
tionists. 


500  LATIN   CnRlSTIANITY.  Book  V. 

wise  and  holy  doctors  whom  he  had  summoned  from 
Britain,  thinks  it  necessary  to  address  the  condemned 
bishops  in  his  own  name.  He  enters  into  the  tlieology 
of  the  question  ;  and  it  must  be  said  that  both  the  di- 
vinity and  the  mild  and  even  affectionate  tone  of  the 
royal  letter  are  much  superior  to  that  of  Pope  Hadrian 
and  of  the  Italian  bishops.^ 

But  the  more  important  act  of  the  Council  of  Frank- 
fort was  the  rejection  of  the  Second  Council  of  Nicea, 
or,  as  it  was  inaccurately  called,  the  Council  of  Con- 
stantinople. To  this  Council  the  East  had  given  its 
assent.  It  had  been  sanctioned  by  Pope  Hadrian,  it 
spoke  the  opinions  of  successive  pontiffs,  it  might  bo 
considered  as  the  established  law  of  Christendom. 
This  law  Charlemagne  and  his  assembly  of  feudal  prel- 
ates scrupled  not  to  annul  and  abrogate.  Image-wor- 
ship in  the  East  had  gained  the  victory,  and  was 
endeared  to  the  Byzantine  Greeks  as  distinguishing 
them  more  decidedly  from  the  iconoclastic  Mohamme- 
dans (the  Image-worshippers  branded  Iconoclasm  as 
Mohammedanism).  It  had  a  strong  hold  on  all  the 
population  of  Southern  Europe,  as  the  land  of  the  yet 
unextinguished  arts,  as  the  birthplace  of  the  new  poly- 
theistic Christianity,  but  it  was  far  less  congenial  to  the 
Teutonic  mind.  The  Franks  were  at  war  with  the 
Saxon  idolaters  ;  and  though  there  was  no  great  simili- 
tude between  the  rude  and  shapeless    deities  of  the 


1  According  to  the  report  of  the  Italian  bishops,  a  letter  arrived  from 
Elipand  of  Toledo  while  Charlemagne  was  seated  in  his  palace  in  the  midst 
of  his  clergy.  It  was  read  aloud.  At  its  close  the  imperial  theologian  im- 
mediately rose  from  his  throne,  and  from  its  steps  addressed  the  meeting  in 
a  long  speech,  reftiting  all  the  doctrines  of  Elipand.  When  he  had  ended, 
he  inquired,  "What  think  ye  of  this  ?  "  —  Epist.  Episcop.  Ital.  apud  Labbe, 
p.  1022. 


Chap.  I.  IMAGE^WORSHIP.  501 

Teutonic  forests  and  the  c«irved  or  painted  saints  and 
angels  of  the  existing  Christian  worship,  yet,  though 
with  the  passion  of  most  savage  nations  for  ornament 
and  splendor  the  Franks  delighted  in  the  brilliant  deco- 
rations of  their  churches  (Charlemagne  laid  Italy  under 
contribution  to  adorn  his  palace)  ;  still  their  more  pro- 
found spirituality  of  conception,  their  inclination  to  the 
vague,  the  mystic,  the  indefinite,  or  their  unhabituated 
deadness  to  the  influence  of  art,  made  them  revolt  from 
that  ardent  devotion  to  images  which  prevailed  tlurough- 
out  the  South.  Such  at  least  was  the  disposition  of 
Charlemagne  himself,  and  the  author  of  the  Carolinian 
Books. 

Constantine  Copronymus,  the  Iconoclast,  had  en- 
deavored to  make  an  alliance  with  Pepin  the  a.d.  767. 
Frank.  Pepin  held  a  council  on  image-worship  at 
Gentilly,  at  which  the  ambassadors  of  Copronymus 
appeared,  it  is  not  known  for  what  ostensible  purpose, 
perhaps  to  negotiate  a  matrimonial  union  between  the 
courts,  but  no  doubt  with  the  view  to  detach  Pepin 
from  the  support  of  the  Italian  rebels  to  the  Eastern 
Empire.  Of  these  the  real  head  was  the  Pope,  whose 
refusal  of  allegiance  to  the  Emperor,  and  alliance  with 
the  Franks,  were  defended  on  the  plea  that  the  Em 
peror  was  an  iconoclast  and  a  heretic.  Pepin  probably 
took  no  great  pains  to  understand  the  religious  ques- 
tion ;  in  that  he  was  content  to  acquiesce  in  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Pope ;  nor  were  the  offers  of  Constantine 
sufficiently  tempting  to  incline  him  to  break  up  his 
Italian  policy.  Image-worship  remained  an  undecided 
question  with  the  Franks. 

But  Charlemagne  and  the  Council  of  Frankfort  pro- 
claimed their  deliberate  judgment  on  a  question  already, 


502  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V. 

it  might  seem,  decided  by  a  Comicil  which  aspired  to 
be  thought  (Ecumenic,  and  by  the  notorious  sanction 
of  more  than  one  Pope.  The  canon  of  the  Council  of 
Frankfort  overstates  the  decrees  of  Nicea.  It  arraigns 
that  synod  as  commanding,  under  the  pain  of  anathe- 
ma, the  same  service  and  adoration  to  be  paid  to  the 
images  as  to  the  Divine  Trinity.  This  adoration  they 
reject  with  contempt,  and  condemn  with  one  voice. 
But  the  brief  decree  of  Frankfort  must  be  considered 
in  connection  with  the  deliberate  and  declared  opinions 
of  Charlemagne,  as  contained  in  the  famous  Caro- 
linian Books.  These  books  speak  in  the  name  of 
the  Emperor ;  Charlemagne  himself  boldly  descends 
into  the  arena  of  controversy.  The  real  author- 
ship of  these  books  can  never  be  known  ;  it  is  diffi- 
cult not  to  attribute  them  to  Alcuin,  the  only  known 
writer  equal  to  the  task.  It  is  probable  indeed  that 
the  Emperor  may  have  called  more  than  one  coun- 
sellor to  his  assistance  in  this  deliberate  examination 
of  an  important  question,  but  to  Christendom  the 
books  spoke  in  the  name  and  with  the  authority  of 
the  Emperor. 

Throughout  the  discussion,  Charlemagne  treads  his 
middle  path  with  firmness  and  dignity.  He  rejects, 
with  uncompromising  disdain,  all  worship  of  images ; 
he  will  not  tamper,  perhaps  he  feels  or  writes  as  if  he 
felt  the  danger  of  tampering,  in  the  less  phant  Latin, 
with  those  subtile  distinctions  of  meaning  which  the 
Western  Church  was  obliged  to  borrow,  and  without 
clear  understanding,  from  the  finer  and  more  copious 
Greek.  He  rejects  alike  adoration,  worship,  reverence, 
veneration.^     He  will  not   admit  the  kneeling  beforo 

1  Lib.  ii.  21,  23;  iii.  18;  ii.  27;  ii.  30. 


Chap.  I.  CONDUCT  OF  POPE  HADRIAN.  603 

them  ;  the  burning  of  hghts  or  the  offering  of  incense  ;  ^ 
or  the  kissing  of  a  hfeless  image,  though  it  represent 
the  Virgin  and  tlie  Child.  Images  are  not  even  to  be 
reverenced,  as  the  saints,  as  hving  men,  as  rehcs,  as 
the  Bible,  as  the  Holy  Sacrament,  as  the  Cross,  as  tlu 
sacred  vessels  of  the  Church,  as  the  Church  itself.^ 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  Charlemagne  is  no  Iconoclast: 
he  admits  images  and  pictures  into  churches  as  orna- 
ments, and,  according  to  the  definition  of  Gregory  the 
Great,  as  keeping  alive  the  memory  of  pious  men  and 
of  pious  deeds.^  The  representatives  of  the  Pope  ven- 
tured no  remonstrance  either  against  the  accuracy  or 
the  conclusion  of  the  Council.  The  Carolinian  Books 
were  sent  to  the  Pope  at  Rome.  Hadrian  still  ruled : 
he  was  too  prudent  not  to  dissemble  the  indignation 
which  he  must  have  felt  at  this  usurpation  of  spiritual 
authority  by  the  temporal  power,  at  least  by  this  asser- 
tion of  independence  in  a  Transalpine  Council,  a  Coun- 
cil chiefly  of  barbarian  prelates ;  or  to  betray  his 
wounded  pride  at  this  quiet  contempt  of  his  theologi- 
cal arguments,  which  could  hardly  be  unknown  as 
forming  part  of  the  proceedings  in  the  Nicene  Council, 
yet  were  not  even  noticed  by  the  Imperial  a.d.  795. 

.    , .  rni  •  Hadrian  died 

controversialist.       inere   is    no    peremptory  Dec.  26, 796. 
declaration  of  his  own  infallibility,  no  anathema  against 
the  contumacious  prelates,  no  protest  against  the  Impe- 
rial interference.     A  feeble  answer,  still  extant,  testi- 

i  "  Quod  ante  imagines  luminaria  concinnentnr,  et  thymiamata  adolean- 
tur."  — iv.  3;  iv.  23. 

2  Lib.  ii.  21,  24;  iii.  25;  ii.  30,  27;  i.  28,  29;  iii.  27;  iv.  3,  12.  Wakh, 
vol.  xi.  pp.  57,  59. 

3  See  the  very  curious  description  of  Chariemagne's  own  splendid  palace 
at  Ingelheim.  —  Ermondus  Nigellus,  iv.  The  whole  Scripture  history  was 
painted  on  the  walls.  There  were  sculptures  representing  all  the  great 
events  in  profane  history.    "  Regia  namque  domus  late  persculpta  nitescit." 


504  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V 

fies  at  once  the  authenticity  of  the  CaroHnian  Books,  the 
embarrassment  of  the  Pope  within  the  grasp  of  a  more 
powerful  reasoner  and  more  learned  theologian,  his  awe 
of  a  superior  power.  Nor  did  this  controversy  lead  to 
any  breach  of  outward  amity,  or  seem  to  deaden  the 
inward  feelings  of  mutual  respect.  Hadrian  writes 
this,  his  last  letter,  with  profound  deference.  Charle- 
magne shed  tears  at  the  death  of  the  Pontiff;  and,  as 
has  been  said,  showed  the  strongest  respect  for  liis 
memory. 

These  theological  questions  settled  before  the  Coun- 
cil of  Frankfort,  a  singular  spectacle  was  exhibited,  as 
though  to  make  an  ostentatious  display  of  the  power 
and  dubious  clemency  of  Charlemagne.  Tassilo,  the 
Duke  of  Bavaria,  cousin  to  the  Emperor,  who  had 
been  subdued,  deposed,  despoiled  of  his  territory,  was 
introduced,  humbly  to  acknowledge  his  offences  against 
the  Prankish  sovereign,  to  entreat  his  forgiveness,  to 
throw  himself  and  all  his  family  on  the  mercy  of 
Charlemagne.  The  Emperor  condescended  to  be  mer- 
ciful, but  he  kept  possession  of  the  territory.  The  un- 
fortunate Tassilo  and  all  his  family  ended  their  days 
in  a  monastery.  The  Council  added  to  its  canons, 
condemnatory  of  the  Spanish  heresy  and  of  image- 
worship,  a  third,  ratifying  this  degradation,  spolia- 
tion, and  life-long  imprisonment  of  the  Duke  of  Ba- 
varia. 

Of  the  two  following  canons,  one  regulated  the  sale 
of  corn,  and  fixed  a  price  beyond  which  it  was  unlawful 
to  sell  it.  The  other  related  to  the  circulation  of  the 
coin,  and  enacted  that  whoever  should  refuse  the  royal 
money,  when  of  real  silver  and  of  full  weight,  if  a 
freeman,  should   pay  a  fine  of  fifteen  shillings  to  the 


Chap.  I.  DECREES  OF  FRANKFORT.  505 

Crown  ;  if  a  slave,  forfeit  what  he  offered  for  sale,  and 
be  publicly  flogged  on  his  naked  person. 

The  ninth  canon  decreed  that  Peter,  a  Bishop, 
should  appear,  with  the  two  or  three  bishops  who  had 
assisted  at  his  consecration,  or  at  least  his  Archbishop, 
as  his  compurgators,  and  should  swear  before  God  and 
the  ans^els  that  he  had  not  taken  counsel  concemino 
the  death  of  the  King,  or  against  his  kingdom,  or  been 
guilty  of  any  act  of  disloyalty.^  But  as  the  Bishop 
could  not  bring  his  compurgators  into  court,  he  pro- 
posed that  his  man  should  undergo  the  ordeal,  the 
judgment  of  God  ;  that  himself  should  swear,  with- 
out touching  either  the  holy  relics  or  the  Gospel,  to 
liis  own  innocence ;  and  that  God  would  deal  with  his 
man  according  to  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  his  oath. 
What  the  ordeal  was  does  not  appear,  but  the  man 
passed  through  it  unhurt ;  and  the  Bishop,  by  the 
clemency  of  the  King,  was  restored  to  his  honors. 

Other  canons,  of  a  more  strictly  ecclesiastical  char- 
acter, were  passed  :  —  i.  To  enforce  discipline  in  mon- 
asteries.2  ii.  On  the  residence  of  the  clergy,  iii.  On 
Ordinations,  which  were  fixed  for  presbyters  to  the  age 
of  thirty.  Virgins  were  not  to  take  the  vows  before 
twenty-two.  No  one  was  to  receive  the  slave  of  an- 
other ;  no  bishop  to  ordain  a  slave  without  permission 
of  his  master,  iv.  The  payment  of  tithe,  v.  For 
the  maintenance  of  churches  by  those  who  held  the 
benefices.^      vi.    Against   the  worship   of  new  saints 

1  This  conspiracy  is  alluded  to  in  Eginhard,  sub  ann.  792.  See  the  note 
of  Sirraond  in  Lahbe,  p.  1066. 

2  No  abbot  was  to  blind  or  mutilate  one  of  his  monks  for  an}'  crime 
whatever.    "  Nisi  regulari  disciplinae  subjaceant." 

8  If  any  one  was  found  "  by  true  men  "  to  have  purloined  timber,  stone 
or  tiles,  from  the  churches,  for  his  own  house,  he  was  compelled  to  restore 
them.  —  xxvi 


50'6  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V 

witliout  authority,  vii.  For  the  destruction  of  trees 
and  groves  sacred  to  pagan  deities,  viii.  Against  the 
belief  that  God  can  be  adored  only  in  three  languages ; 
"  there  is  no  tongue  in  which  prayer  may  not  be  of- 
fered." The  Teutonic  spirit  is  here  again  manifesting 
itself.  The  last  statute  of  the  Council,  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  the  Emperor,  admitted  the  Briton  Alcuin,  on 
account  of  his  ecclesiastical  erudition,  to  all  the  hon- 
ors, aind  to  be  named  in  the  prayers  of  the  Council.^ 
Such  was  the  Council  of  Frankfort,  the  first  example 
of  that  Teutonic  independence  in  which  the  clergy  ap- 
pear as  feudal  beneficiaries  around  the  throne  of  their 
temporal  liege  lord,  with  but  remote  acknowledgment 
of  their  spiritual  sovereign,  passing  acts  not  merely 
without  his  direct  assent,  but  in  contravention  of  his 
declared  opinions.  Charlemagne,  not  yet  Emperor,  is 
manifestly  lord  over  the  whole  mind  of  the  West.  Ex- 
cept that  he  condescends  to  take  counsel  with  the  prel 
ates  instead  of  the  military  nobles,  he  asserts  the  same 
unlimited  authority  over  ecclesiastical  and  civil  affairs. 
He  is  too  powerful  for  the  Pope  not  to  be  his  humble 
and  loyal  subject.  The  Pope  might  take  refuge  in  the 
thought  that  the  assembly  at  Frankfort  was  but  a  local 
synod,  and  aspired  not  to  the  dignity  of  an  Ecumenic 
Council ;  and  to  local  or  national  synods  much  power 
had  always  been  allowed  to  regulate  the  discipline  of 
their  Churches,  provided  they  issued  no  canons  which 
infringed  on  the  Catholic  doctrines  :  yet  these  were 
statutes  for  the  whole  realm  of  Charlemagne,  almost 
commensurate  with  the  Western  Patriarchate  the  ac- 
tual spiritual  dominion  of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  with 
Latin    Christendom.      Yet,    on    the   other    hand,    the 

1  Canon  lii. 


Chap.  I.  AGGRANDIZEMENT  OF  THE  PAPACY.  507 

hierarchy  of  the  Church  is  advancing  far  beyond  tlie 
ancient  boundaries  of  its  power;  it  is  imperceptibly, 
ahnost  unconsciously,  trenching  on  temporal  ground. 
The  Frankfort  assembly  is  a  diet  as  well  as  a  synod. 
The  prelates  appear  as  the  King's  counsellors,  not  only 
in  religious  matters,  or  on  matters  on  the  doubtful 
borders  between  religion  and  policy,  but  likewise  on 
the  affairs  of  the  Empire  —  affairs  belonging  to  the 
internal  government  of  the  State. 

And  though  Charlemagne,  as  liege  lord  of  the  Teu- 
tonic race,  as  conqueror  of  kingdoms  beyond  the 
Teutonic  borders,  as  sovereign  of  almost  the  whole 
Transalpine  West,  and  afterwards  as  Emperor,  stood 
so  absolutely  alone  above  all  other  powers  ;  though 
the  Pope  must  be  content  to  lurk  among  his  vassals ; 
yet  doubtless,  by  his  confederacy  with  the  Pope,  Char- 
lemagne fixed,  even  on  more  solid  foundations,  the 
papal  power.  The  Pope  as  well  as  the  hierarchy  was 
manifestly  aggrandized  by  his  policy.  The  Frankish 
alliance,  the  dissolution  of  the  degrading  connection 
with  the  East,  the  magnificent  donation,  the  accept- 
ance of  the  Imperial  crown  from  the  Pope's  hand,  the 
visits  to  Rome,  whether  to  protect  the  Pope  from  his 
unruly  subjects  or  fbr  devotion ;  everything  tended 
to  throw  a  deepening  mysterious  majesty  around  the 
Pope,  the  more  imposing  according  to  the  greater  dis- 
tance from  which  it  was  contemplated,  the  more  sub- 
lime from  its  indefinite  and  boundless  pretensions.  The 
Papacy  had  yet  indeed  to  encounter  many  fierce  con- 
tentions from  without,  and  still  more  dangerous  foes 
around,  before  it  soared  to  the  plenitude  of  its  power 
and  influence  in  the  period  from  Gregory  VII.  to  In- 
nocent III.     It  was  to  sink  to  its  lowest  point  of  deg- 


508  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Boor  V 

radation  in  the  tenth  century,  before  it  emerged  again 
to  contest  the  dominion  of  the  world  with  the  Empire, 
with  the  successors  of  Charlemagne,  to  commit  the 
spiritual  and  temporal  powers  in  a  long  and  obstinate 
strife,  in  which  for  a  time  it  was  to  gain  the  victory. 
The  brief  epoch  of  renascent  letters,  arts,  education, 
Arts  and  let-  duHug    thc   rcigu   of   Charlemagne,   was  as 

ters  under  •  i  i  •  i 

Charlemagne,  prcmaturc,  as  msulated,  as  transitory,  as  the 
unity  of  his  Empire.  Alcuin,  whom  one  great  writer  ^ 
calls  the  intellectual  prime  minister  of  Charlemagne, 
with  all  his  fame,  his  well-merited  fame,  and  those 
whom  another  great  writer  ^  calls  the  Paladins  of  his 
literary  court,  Clement,  Angilbert,'^  all  but  Eginhard, 
were  no  more  than  the  conservators  and  propagators  of 
the  old  traditionary  learning,  the  Augustinian  theology, 
the  Boethian  science,  the  grammar,  the  dry  logic  and 
meagre  rhetoric,  the  Church  music,  the  astronomy, 
mostly  confined  to  the  calculation  of  Easter,  of  the 
trivium  and  quadrivium.  The  Life  of  Charlemagne 
by  Eginhard  is  unquestionably  the  best  historic  work 
which  had  appeared  in  the  Latin  language  for  cen- 
turies ;  but  Eginhard,  during  his  later  years,  in  his 
monastery  in  the  Odenwald,  stooped  to  be  a  writer  of 
legend.*     Perhaps  the  Carolinian  books  are  the  most 

1  M.  Guizot 

2  Mr.  Hallam. 

8  Agobard,  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  of  a  much  higher  cast  of  mind,  was 
bred  under  Charlemagne. 

4  The  history  of  the  Translation  of  the  relics  of  St.  Marcellinus  and  St, 
Peter  Martyr,*  and  their  miracles,  is  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  works 
of  this  extraordinary  age,  written,  as  it  was,  by  a  statesman  and  comisel- 
I(tr  of  two  emperors.  Two  clerks,  servants  of  Abbot  Eginhard  and  the 
abbot  of  St.  M^dard  in  Soissons,  are  sent  to  Rome  to  steal  relics.     They 

*  An  exorcist  martyred  at  Rome.  The  martyrdom  18  related  in  s  curious  trochaic 
poem,  not  without  spirit  and  vij^or,  ascribed  also  to  Kgiuhard.  —  Esjiuhardi  Op«ira, 
fcy  M.  Teulet.  Soc.  Hist,  de  France. 


Chap.  I.  LITERATURE  OF  CHARLEMAGNE.  509 

remarkable  writiiiixs  of  the  time.  It  miirlit  seem  as  if 
Latin  literature,  as  it  had  almost  expired  in  its  origi- 
nality among  the  great  lawyers,  so  it  revived  in  ju- 
risprudence. Even  the  schools  which  Charlemagne 
established,  if  he  did  not  absolutely  found,  on  a  wide 
and  general  scale,^  had  hardly  a  famous  teacher,  and 
must  await  some  time  before  they  could  have  their 
Erigena,  still  later  their  Anselm,  their  Abelard,  with 
his  antagonists  and  followers.  What  that  Teutonic 
poetry  was  which  Charlemagne  cherished  with  German 
reverence,  it  is  vain  to  inquire :  whether  tribal  Frunk- 
ish  songs,  or  the  groundwork  of  those  national  poems 
which,  having  passed  through  the  Latin  verse  of  the 
monks,2  came  forth  at  length  as  the  Nibelungen  and 
the  Heldenbuch. 

make  a  burglarious  entrj'-  by  night  into  a  tomb  (such  sacrilege  was  a  capi- 
tal crime),  carry  off  the  two  saints,  with  difficulty  convey  the  holy  plunder 
out  of  Rome  and  through  Italy  (some  of  the  party  pilfering  a  limb  or  two 
on  the  way).  Eginhard  is  not  merely  the  shameless  receiver  of  these 
stolen  treasures ;  there  is  no  bound  to  his  pious  and  public  exultation.  The 
saints  are  fully  consentient,  rejoice  in  their  seduction  from  their  inglorious 
repose;  their  restless  activity  reveals  itself  in  perpetual  visions,  till  they 
are  settled  to  their  mind  in  their  chosen  shrines.  A  hundred  and  fifty 
pages  of  miracles  follow;  wrought  in  all  quarters,  even  in  the  imperial 
palace.  It  might  almost  seem  surprising  that  there  should  be  a  blmi 
lame,  paralytic,  or  demoniac  person  left  in  the  land. 

1  See  the  schools  in  Hallam,  ii.  p.  478. 

3  Soe  the  poem  De  Expeditione  Attil» 


610  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V. 


CHAPTER  11. 

LOUIS  THE  PIOUS 

The  unity  of  the  Empire,  so  favorable  to  the  unity 
Tan.  28  ^^  Christendom,  ceased  not  at  the  death  of 
i.D.  814.  Charlemagne,  it  lasted  during  some  years  of 
the  reign  of  his  successor.  But  the  unity  of  the 
Church,  as  it  depended  not  on  the  personal  character 
of  the  sovereign,  remained  un dissevered.  In  the  con- 
tests among  Charlemagne's  descendants  the  Pope  min- 
gles with  his  full  unbroken  authority ;  while  the  strife 
among  the  miUtary  feudatories  of  the  Empire  only 
weakens,  or  exposes  the  weakness  of  the  imperial 
power.  The  influence  of  the  great  Transalpine  prel- 
ates, so  often  on  different  sides  in  the  strife,  aggran- 
dizes that  of  the  Pope,  whom  each  party  was  eager,  at 
any  sacrifice,  to  obtain  as  an  ally.  Already  the  Papal 
Legates,  before  the  pontificate  of  Nicolas  I.,  begin  to 
appear,  and  to  conduct  themselves  with  arrogance 
which  implies  conscious  power.  The  awful  menace 
of  excommunication  is  employed  to  restrain  sovereign 
])rinces.  The  Emperor  for  a  time  still  holds  his  su- 
premacy. Rome  is,  in  a  certain  sense,  an  imperial 
city.  The  Pope  is  not  considered  duly  elected  without 
the  Emperor's  approbation ;  the  successor  of  Leo  IIL 
throws  the  blame  of  his  hasty  consecration  on  the 
clergy  and  people.     But,   first   the  separation  of  the 


Chap.  n.  POPE  LEO  III.  511 

Italian  kingdom  from  the  Empire,  and  afterwards  the 
feebleness,  or  the  distance,  or  the  preoccupation  of  the 
Emperor,  allows  tliis  usage  to  fall  into  desuetude. 

Yet,  during  the  whole  of  this  period,  and  indeed 
much  later,  in  the  highest  days  of  the  Papacy,  the 
limited  and  contested  power  of  the  Pope  in  Rome 
strongly  contrasts  with  his  boundless  pretensions  and 
vast  authority  in  remoter  regions.  The  Pope  and  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  might  appear  distinct  persons.  Al- 
ready that  turbulence  of  the  Roman  people,  which 
afterwards,  either  in  obedience  to,  or  in  fierce  strife 
with,  the  lawless  petty  sovereigns  of  Romagna,  de- 
graded the  Papacy  to  its  lowest  state,  had  broken  out, 
and  was  constantly  breaking  out,  unless  repressed  by 
some  strong  friendly  arm,  or  overawed  by  a  pontiff  of 
extraordinary  vigor  or  sanctity.  The  life  of  the  Pope, 
in  these  tumults,  was  not  secure.  While  mighty  mon- 
archs  in  the  remotest  parts  of  Europe  were  trembling 
at  his  word,  he  was  himself  at  the  mercy  of  a  lawless 
rabble.  The  Romans  still  aspired  to  maintain  their 
nationality.  It  was  rare  at  that  time  for  any  one  but 
a  born  Roman  to  attain  the  Papacy  ;  ^  and  no  doubt 
at  each  promotion  there  would  be  bitter  disappointment 
among  rival  prelates  and  conflicting  interests.  It  was 
at  once  the  strength  and  weakness  of  the  Pope ;  it 
arrayed  sometimes  a  powerful  party  on  his  side,  some- 
times condensed  a  powerful  host  against  him.  Though 
the  Romans  had  been  overawed  by  the  magnificence 
and  grandeur  of  Charlemagne,  and  had  joined,  it 
might  seem,  cordially  in  their  acclamations  at  his  as- 

1  Of  nearly  fifty  Popes,  from  Hadrian  to  Gregory  V.  (a  German  created 
by  Otho  the  Great),  there  appears  one  Tuscan  (Martin  or  Marinas),  and 
three  or  four  of  doubtful  origin ;  everv  one  of  the  rest  is  described  a? 
"  patria  Romauus." 


512  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V. 

sumption  of  the  Empire,  (which  still  implied  dominion 
over  Rome,)  yet  the  Franks,  the  Transalpines,  were 
foreigners  and  barbarians.  The  Pope  was  constantly 
compelled  by  Roman  turbulence  to  recur  to  his  impe- 
rial protector  (among  whose  titles  and  offices  was 
Defender  of  the  Church  of  Rome)  ;  yet  the  presence 
of  the  Emperor,  while  it  flattered,  wounded  the  pride 
of  the  Romans :  if  it  gratified  one  faction,  imbittered 
the  hatred  of  the  others. 

Leo  III.  must  have  been  among  the  most  munificent 
and  splendid  of  the  Roman  Pontiffs.  Charlemagne 
had  made  sumptuous  and  imperial  offerings  on  the 
altar  of  St.  Peter.  His  donation  seems  to  have  en- 
dowed the  Pope  with  enormous  wealth.  Long  pages 
in  Leo's  Life  are  filled  with  his  gifts  to  every  church  in 
Rome  —  to  many  in  the  Papal  territories.  Buildings 
were  lined  with  marble  and  mosaic  ;  there  were  imac^es 
of  gold  and  silver  of  great  weight  and  costly  workman- 
ship (a  silent  but  significant  protest  against  the  Coun- 
cil of  Frankfort),  priestly  robes  of  silk  and  embroidery, 
and  set  with  precious  stones ;  censers  and  vessels  of 
gold,  columns  of  silver.  The  magnificence  of  the 
Roman  churches  must  have  rivalled  or  surpassed  the 
most  splendid  days  of  the  later  republic,  and  the  most 
ostentatious  of  the  Cassars.^ 

Leo,  like  other  prodigal  sovereigns,  may  have  ex 
acted  the  large  revenues,  which  he  spent  with  such 
profiision,  with  hardness,  which  might  be  branded  as 
avarice ;  and  hence  the  Pope,  who  was  thus  gorgeously 

1  Anastasius  in  Vit.  Leo  expended  1320  pounds  of  gold  (pounds 
weight?)  and  24,000  of  silver  on  the  churches  in  Eome.  Thirty-five  pages 
of  this  faithful  chronicler  of  the  wealth  and  expenditure  of  tlie  Roman 
See  are  devoted  to  tlie  details  — Compare  Ellendorf,  Die  Karolinger  und 
die  Hierarchie  ihrer  Zeit,  ii.  p.  65. 


Chap.  n.       DEATH  OF  CHARLEMAGNE.  613 

adorning  the  city  and  all  his  dominions  with  noble 
buildings,  and  decorating  the  churches  with  unex- 
ampled splendor,  was  still  in  perpetual  danger  from 
popular  insurrection.  Even  during  the  reign  of  Charle- 
magne, Leo  was  hardly  safe  in  Rome.  Immediately 
on  the  death  of  the  Emperor,  the  embers  of  Death  of 
the  old  hostility  broke  out  again  into  a  flame  ;  chariema^ne. 
and  the  Pope  held  his  throne  only  through  the  awe  of 
the  imperial  power,  at  the  will  of  Charlemagne's  suc- 
cessor, Louis  the  Pious. 

There  was  a  manifest  conflict,  during  his  later  years, 
in  the  court,  in  the  councils,  in  the  mind  of  Charle- 
magne, between  the  King  of  the  Franks  and  the 
Emperor  of  the  West ;  between  the  dissociating  in- 
dependent Teutonic  principle,  and  the  Roman  prin- 
ciple of  one  code,  one  dominion,  one  sovereign.  The 
Church,  though  Teutonic  in  descent,  was  Roman  in 
the  sentiment  of  unity.  The  great  churchmen  were 
mostly  against  the  division  of  the  Empire.  The  Em- 
pire was  still  one  and  supreme.  The  vigorous  impulse 
given  to  the  monarchical  authority  by  its  founder 
maintained  for  a  few  years  the  majesty  of  his  son's 
throne.  That  unity  had  been  threatened  by  a.d.  806. 
the  proclaimed  division  of  the  realm  between  the  sons 
of  Charlemagne.  The  old  Teutonic  usage  of  equal 
distribution  seemed  doomed  to  prevail  over  the  august 
unity  of  the  Roman  Empire.  What  may  appear  more 
extraordinary,  the  kingdom  of  Italy  was  the  inferior 
appanage :  it  carried  not  with  it  the  Empire,  which 
was  still  to  retain  a  certain  supremacy  ;  that  was  re- 
served for  the  Teutonic  sovereign.  It  might  seem  as 
if  this  were  but  the  continuation  of  the  Lombard  king- 
dom,  which  Charlemagne  still  held  by  the  right  of 


514  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V 

conquest.  It  was  bestowed  on  Pepin ;  after  his  death 
intrusted  to  Bernhard,  Pepin's  illegitimate  but  only- 
son.  Wiser  counsels  prevailed.  The  two  elder  sons 
of  Charlemagne  died  without  issue ;  Louis  the  third 
son  was  -summoned  from  his  kingdom  of  Aquitaine, 
April,  813.  and  solemnly  crowned  at  Aix4a-Chapelle,  as 
successor  to  the  whole  Empire.  rul  yiW. 

Louis,^  —  his  name  of  Pious  bespeaks  the  man,  - 
thus  the  heir  of  Charlemagne,  had  inherited  the  re- 
ligion of  his  father.  But  in  his  gentler  and  less  reso- 
lute character  that  religion  wrought  with  an  abasing 
and  enfeebling  rather  than  ennobling  influence.  As 
King  of  Aquitaine  Louis  had  been  distinguished  for 
some  valor,  activity,  and  conduct  in  war  against  the 
Saracens  of  Spain  ;^  but  far  more  for  his  munificence 
to  the  churches  and  convents  of  his  kingdom.  Thf» 
more  rigid  clergy  had  looked  forward  with  eager  hope 
to  the  sole  dominion  of  the  pious  king ;  the  statesmen 
among  them  had  concurred  in  the  preservation  of  the 
line  of  the  Empire;  yet  Louis  would  himself  have 
chosen  as  his  example  his  ancestor  Carloman,  who 
retired  from  the  world  into  the  monastery  of  Monte 
Casino,  rather  than  that  of  his  father,  the  lord  and 
conqueror  of  so  many  realms.     It  required  the  author- 

1  Ermoldus  gives  the  German  derivation  of  the  name  Louis  (Hludwig): 
"Nempe  sonat  Hluto  prseclarum,  Wigch  quoque  Mars  est."  — Apud  Tertz, 
ii.  p.  468. 

2  The  panegyi-ist  of  Louis,  the  poet  Ermondus  Nigelhis,  asserts  his  vig- 
orous administration  of  Aquitaine.  He  describes  at  full  length  the  siege 
of  Barcelona,  giving  probably  a  much  larger  share  of  glory  than  his  due 
to  Louis.  For  his  general  character  see  Thegan.  c.  xix.  Louis  understood 
Greek ;  spoke  Latin  as  his  vernacular  tongue.  On  the  youth  of  Louis  see 
the  excellent  work  of  Funck,  "  Ludwig  der  Fromme."  Sir  F.  Palgrave 
highly  colors  the  character  and  accomplishments  of  Louis.  Louis  the 
Pious  renounced  the  Pagan  (Teutonic?)  poetry  which  he  was  accustomed 
to  repeat  in  his  youth.  —  Thegan.  p.  19. 


Chap.  n.  LOUIS  THE  PIOUS.  515 

ity  of  Charlemagne,  not  unsupported  even  by  the  most 
austere  of  the  clergy,  the  admirers  of  his  piety,  to 
prevent  him  from  turning  monk.^ 

Yet,  on  his  accession,  the  religion  of  Louis  might 
seem  to  display  itself  in  its  strength  rather  than  in  its 
weakness.  The  license  of  his  father's  court  shrank 
away  from  the  sight  of  the  holy  sovereign.  The  con- 
cubines of  the  late  Emperor,  even  his  daughters  and 
their  paramours,  disappeared  from  the  sacred  precincts 
of  the  palace.  Louis  stood  forward  the  reformer,  not 
the  slave  of  the  clergy.  To  outward  appearance,  like 
Charlemagne,  he  was  the  Pope,  or  rather  the  Calipli 
of  his  realm.  He  condescended  to  sit  in  council  with 
liis  bishops,  but  he  was  the  ostensible  head  of  the  coun- 
cil ;  his  commissioners  were  still  bearers  of  unresisted 
commands  to  ecclesiastical  as  to  temporal  princes.  Yet 
the  discerning  eye  might  detect  the  coming  change. 
The  ascendency  is  passing  from  the  Emperor  to  the 
bishops.  It  is  singular,  too,  that  the  nobles  almost 
disappear ;  in  each  transaction,  temporal  as  well  as 
ecclesiastical,  the  bishops  advance  into  more  distinct 
prominence,  the  nobles  recede  into  obscurity.  The 
great  ecclesiastics,  too,  are  now  almost  all  of  Teutonic 
race.  The  effete  and  dissolute  Roman  hierarchy  has 
died  away.  German  ambition  seizes  the  high  places 
in  the  churcli ;  German  force  animates  their  counsels. 
The  great  prelates,  Ebbo  of  Rheims,  Agobard  of 
Lyons,  Theodolf  of  Orleans,  are  manifestly  of  Teu- 
tonic descent.  Benedict  of  Aniane  is  the  assumed 
name  of  Witiza,  son  of  the  Gothic  Count  of  Mage- 

1  Louis  was  a  serious  man.  When  at  the  banquet  the  jong^lers  and 
mimes  made  the  whole  board  burst  out  into  laughter,  Louis  was  never 
geen  to  smile. 


616  LATIN  CIIRISTTANnT.  Book  V. 

lone;  Benedict,  the  most  rigorous  of  ascetics,  who 
stooped  to  the  name,  but  thought  the  rule  of  the 
elder  Benedict  of  Nursia  far  below  monastic  perfec- 
tion. The  bastard  descendants  of  Charles  Martel  aj)- 
pear,  two  of  them  even  now,  not  as  kings  or  nobles, 
but  as  abbots  or  monks ;  compelled,  perhaps,  to  shroud 
themselves  from  the  jealousy  of  the  legitimate  race  by 
this  disqualification  for  temporal  rule,  only  to  exer- 
cise a  more  powerful  influence  through  their  sacred 
character.^  Adalhard,  Wala,  Bernarius,  were  the  sons 
of  Bernhard,  an  illegitimate  son  of  Charles  Martel. 
Adalhard,  Abbot  of  Corvey,  and  Bernarius,  were  al- 
ready monks ;  the  Count  Wala  was  amongst  the  most 
honored  counsellors  of  Charlemagne.  The  nomina- 
tion of  Louis  to  the  sole  empire  had  not  been  unop- 
posed. Count  Wala,  some  of  the  higher  prelates, 
Theodolf  of  Orleans,  no  doubt  Wala's  own  brothers 
Adalhard  and  Bernarius,  would  have  preferred,  and 
were  known  or  suspected  to  have  pressed  upon  the 
Emperor  the  young  Bernhard,  the  son,  whom  Charle- 
magne had  legitimated,  or  might  have  legitimated,  of 
the  elder  Pepin,  rather  than  the  monk-King  of  Aqui- 
taine.  Wala  indeed  had  hastened,  after  the  death  of 
Cliarlemagne,  to  pay  his  earliest  homage  at  Orleans 
to  Louis.  He  thought  it  more  safe,  however,  to  shave 
his  imperilled  head,  and  become  a  monk.  The  whole 
family  was  proscribed.  Adalhard  was  banished  to  the 
island  of  Noirmoutiers  ;  Bernarius  to  Lerins ;  Theo- 
drada  and  Gundrada  the  sisters,  Gundrada,  who  alone 
Aug.  1.         had  preserved  her  chastity  in  the  licentious 

1  Funck,  p.  42.  He  observes  further:  "Die  lustigen  Gesellen  an  Karla 
Hof,  die  Buhlen  seiner  Tochter,  denem  Ludwig  mit  seiner  Heiligkeit,  llic- 
herlich  war,  konnten  naturlich  den  Bibelleser  und  Psalnisinger  nicht  an  die 
8teHe  Kails  wunschen."    Politics  make  strange  coalitions  I 


Cha.».  n.  DIET  OF  AIX-LA-CHAPELLE.  517 

court  of  Charlemagne,  were  ignominiously  dismissed 
from  the  court.^ 

A  diet  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  was  among  the  earliest 
acts  of  Louis  the  Pious,  From  this  council  commis- 
sioners were  despatched  throughout  the  empire  to  re- 
ceive complaints  and  to  redress  all  acts  of  oppression.^ 
Multitudes  were  found  who  had  been  unrighteously 
despoiled  of  their  property  or  liberty  by  the  counts 
or  other  powerful  nobles.  The  higher  clergy  were 
not  exempted  fi'om  this  inquest,  nor  the  monasteries. 
In  how  many  stern  and  vindictive  hearts  did  this  in- 
quest sow  the  baleful  seed  of  dissatisfaction ! 

The  Emperor  is  not  only  the  supreme  justiciary  in 
his  Gallic  and  German  realm  ;  it  is  his  unquestioned 
right,  it  is  his  duty,  to  decide  between  the  Pope  and 
his  rebellious  subjects  —  on  the  claims  of  Popes  to 
their  throne.  Leo  III.  had  apparently  bestowed  the 
imperial  crown  on  Charlemagne,  had  recreated  the 
Western  Empire  ;  but  he  had  been  obliged  to  submit 
to  the  judicial  award  of  Charlemagne.  He  is  again 
a  suppliant  to  Louis  for  aid  against  the  Romans  and 
must  submit  to  his  haughty  justice.  Whether,  as 
suggested,  the  prodigality  of  Leo  had  led  to  intolera- 
ble exactions  —  whether  he  had  tyrannically  exercised 
his  power,  or  the  turbulent  Romans  would  bear  no 
control  —  (these  animosities  must  have  had  a  deeper 
root  than  the  disappointed  ambition  of  Pope  Hadrian's 
nephews)  —  a  conspiracy  was  formed  to  depose  Pope 

1  "  Quae  inter  venereos  palatii  ardores  et  juvenum  venustates,  etiam 
inter  deliciarum  mulcentia,  et  inter  omnis  libidinis  blandimenta,  sola  meruit 
(ut  credlmus)  reportare  pudicitiae  palmam."  —  Vit.  Adalh,  apud  Pertz,  ii. 
p.  527.  Theodrada  had  been  married;  as  a  widow,  could  only  claim  the 
secondary  praise  of  unblemished  virtue. 

"  See  the  Cuustitutio,  l)uu(iuet,  vi.  p.  410 


518  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V. 

Leo,  and  to  put  him  to  death.  Leo  attempted  to  sup- 
press the  tumults  with  unwonted  rigor :  he  seized  and 
pubHcly  executed  the  heads  of  the  adverse  faction.^ 
The  city  burst  out  in  rebelhon.  Rome  became  a 
scene  of  plunder,  carnage,  and  conflagration.  Intel- 
ligence was  rapidly  conveyed  to  the  court  of  Louis. 
King  Berhhard,  who  had  been  among  the  first  to  ren- 
der his  allegiance  to  his  uncle  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  had 
been  confirmed  in  the  government  of  Italy.  He  was 
commanded  to  interpose,  as  the  delegate  of  the  Em- 
peror. Bernhard  fell  ill  at  Rome,  but  sent  a  report 
by  the  imperial  officer,  the  Count  Gerhard,  to  the 
sovereign.  With  him  went  a  humble  mission  from 
the  Pope,  to  deprecate  the  displeasure  of  that  sover- 
eign, expressed  at  the  haste  and  cruelty  of  hi?  execu- 
tions, and  to  answer  the  charge  made  against  .^lim  by 
the  adverse  faction.  No  sooner  had  King  Bevnhard 
withdrawn  from  Rome  than,  on  the  illness  of  Leo,  a 
new  insurrection  broke  out.  The  Romans  sallied  forth, 
plundered  and  burned  the  farms  on  the  Pope's  estates 
in  the  neighborhood.  They  were  only  compell»'^d  to 
peace  by  the  armed  interference  of  the  Duke  of  Spc  leto. 
The  death  of  Leo,  and,  it  should  seem,  the  unp'-jpu 
June  12, 816.  lar  clcction  of  his  successor,  Stephen  )V., 
exasperated  rather  than  allayed  the  tumults.  Ste- 
phen's first  acts  were  to  make  the  Romans  swear 
fealty  to  the  Emperor  Louis ;  ^  to  despatch  a  mission, 
excusing,  on  account  of  the  popular  tumults,  his  con- 
jutie22.  secration  without  the  approbation  of  the  Em- 
peror, or  the  presence  of  his  legates.^     In   the   third 

1  A.D.  815,  Eginhard,  sub  ann. 

2  Thegan.,  Vit.  Hludovici,  ii.  594. 

8  "  Missis  interim  duobus  legatis,  qui  quasi  pro  sua  consecratioue  impe- 
ratori  suggererent."  —  Eginhard.  ann.  816. 


Chap.  II.  POPE  PASCHAL  I.  519 

month  of  his  pontificate  Stephen  was  compelled  to  take 
refuge,  or  seek  protection,  at  the  feet  of  the  Emperor^ 
agaifiSt  his  intractable  subjects.^  He  was  received  in 
Rheims  with  splendid  courtesy,  and  with  his  own  hand 
crowned  the  emperor.  Thus  the  fugitive  from  his  own 
city  aspires  to  ratify  the  will  of  Charlemagne,  the 
choice  of  the  whole  empire,  the  hereditary  right  of 
Louis  to  the  throne  of  the  Western  world.  In  Rome 
the  awe  of  Louis  commanded  at  least  some  temporary 
cessation  of  the  conflict,  and  a  general  amnesty.  Ste- 
phen returned  to  Rome,  accompanied  by  those  who 
had  been  the  most  darinor  and  obstinate  rebels  asainst 
his  predecessor  Leo  and  the  Church.^  Stephen  died 
soon  after  his  return  to  Rome. 

On  his  death  Paschal  I.  was  chosen  by  the  impa- 
tient  clergy  and  people,   and    compelled   to  Jan.  24, 817. 
assume  the  Pontificate  without  the  Imperial  chai  i. 
sanction.     But  Paschal  was  too  prudent  to  make  com- 

1  The  poet  disguises  the  flight  of  Stephen ;  he  comes  to  Rheims  at  the 
invitation  of  Louis :  — 

"Turn  jubefc  acciri  Romana  ab  sede  patronum," 

The  interview  is  described  in  his  most  florid  style.  He  makes  the  Pope 
draw  a  comparison  between  his  visit  and  that  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba  to 
Solomon :  — 

"  Rex  tamen  ante  sagax  flexato  poplite  adorat 
Terque  quaterque,  Dei  sive  in  honore  Petri, 
Suscipit  hunc  supplex  Stephanus,  manibusque  sacratis 

Sublevat  e  terra,  basiat  ora  libens. 
Nunc  oculos,  nunc  ora,  caput,  nunc  pectora,  colla, 
Basiat  alterutri  Rexque  sacerque  pius."  —  ii  221. 

All  accounts  agree  in  the  festivities.    The  poet  says  — 

"  Pocula  densa  volant,  tangitque  volentia  Bacchus  Corda."  —  ii.  227. 

The  pious  king  was  not  averse  to  wine.  Funck  erroneously  ascribes 
Stephen's  journey  in  the  first  instance  to  the  Pope's  desire  of  crowning  the 
Emperor. 

2  "  Qui  illic  captivitate  tenebantur,  propter  scelera  et  niiquitatcs  suas, 
quas  in  sanctam  Ecclesiam  Romanam  et  erga  dommum  Leonem  Papam 
qrcsseraut.'  —  Anastas.  in  Vit. 


520  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.      ^  Book  V 

mon  cause  with  the  Romans  in  this  premature  asser- 
tion of  their  independence ;  he  sent  a  deprecatory 
embassy  across  the  Alps,  throwing  the  bhime  on  the 
disloyal  precipitancy  of  the  people.  The  Romans  re- 
ceived a  grave  admonition  not  again  to  offend  against 
the  majesty  of  the  Empire. 

Louis  the  Pious  held  his  plenary  Court  a  second 
time  at  Aix-la-Chapelle.  The  four  great  acts  of  this 
Diet  at  Aix-ia  Couucil  wcrc  amoug  the  boldest  and  most  com- 
juiy,A.D.8i7.  prehensive  ever  submitted  to  a  great  national 
assembly.  The  Emperor  was  still  in  theory  the  sole 
legislator ;  not  only  were  the  secret  suggestions,  but 
the  initiatory  motions  in  the  Council,  from  the  supreme 
power.  It  might  seem,  that  in  the  three  acts  which 
regarded  the  hierarchy,  the  Emperor  legislated  for  the 
Church ;  but  it  was  in  truth  the  Church  legislating  for 
herself  through  the  Emperor.  It  was  Teutonized 
Latin  Christianity  organizing  the  whole  transalpine 
Church  with  no  regard  to  the  Western  Pontiff.  The 
vast  reforms  comprehended  at  once  the  whole  clergy 
and  the  monasteries.  It  was  the  completion,  ratifica- 
tion, extension  of  Charlemagne's  scheme,  a  scheme  by 
its  want  of  success  or  universality  still  waiting  its  con- 
summation. Chrodogang,  Bishop  of  Metz,  another 
Church  laws.  Tcutou,  had,  under  the  last  Merovingians 
and  Pepin,  aspired  to  bring  the  clergy  to  live  together 
imder  the  canonical  discipline.  Charlemagne  had  giv- 
en the  sanction  of  his  authority  to  this  plan.  Now  the 
Archbishops  and  Bishops  an;  invested  in  autocratic 
power  to  extend,  if  not  absolutely  to  enforce  this  rigor- 
ous mode  of  life  on  all  the  Priesthood.^     The  sumptu- 

1  Wala-  the  exiled  counsellor  of  Charlemagne,  hereafter  to  succeed  to 
Uie  iulluuucc  of  licucdict  of  Aiiiauc,  held  tlie  same  ecclesiastical  notions  m 


UHAP,  n.  CHURCH  LAWS.  521 

aiy  laws  were  universal,  minute ;  the  prohibition  to 
bear  arras ;  the  proscription  of  their  worldly  pomp,  of 
their  belts  studded  with  gold  and  precious  stones ;  their 
brilliant  and  fine  a}>parel ;  their  gilded  spurs.  But  if 
stripped  of  their  pomp,  it  is  only  to  increase  immeasur- 
ably their  power.  If  the  sacerdotal  army  is  to  be 
arrayed  under  more  rigid  order  and  under  more  abso- 
lute command,  it  is  only  that  it  may  be  more  efficient. 
Church  property  is  strictly  inviolable.  II.  The  mon- 
asteries (which  it  might  have  seemed  the  sole  object  of 
Louis,  since  his  accession,  to  endow  with  ampler 
wealth)^  are  submitted  to  the  iron  rule  of  Benedict  of 
Aniane.  III.  This  hierarchy,  so  reformed,  so  reinvig- 
orated,  aspires  to  sever  itself  entirely  from  the  state. 
A  special  Capitular  asserted  their  full  and  independent 
rights.  The  election  of  Bishops  was  to  be  in  the 
clergy  and  the  commonalty  ;  that  of  the  abbots  in  the 
brotherhood  of  monks.  The  Crown,  the  nobles,  sur- 
rendered or  were  excluded  from  all  interposition.  The 
right  of  patronage,  even  in  nobles  who  built  churches 
on  their  own  domain,  w^as  limited  to  the  nomination  ; 
once  instituted,  only  the  Bishop  could  depose  or  expel 
the  priests.  The  whole  pro2:)erty  of  the  Church  was 
under  their  indefeasible,  irresponsible  administration. 
The  Teutonic  aristocracy  of  the  Church  maintained  its 
lofty  tone.  No  unfree  man  could  be  admitted  to  holy 
orders;  if  he  stole  into  orders,  might  be  degraded  and 

to  the  rigorous  subordination  of  monks  and  clergy  to  rule.  He  denounces 
even  the  court  chaplains :  "Quorum  itaque  vita  neque  sub  regula  est  mon- 
achorum,  neque  sub  episcopo  militat  canonice,  praesertim  cum  nulla  alia 
tirocinia  sint  ecclesiarum,  quam  sub  his  duobus  ordinibus,"  et  seq. —  Vita 
Walai,  Pertz,  ii.  560. 

1  In  the  Regesta,  during  the  first  years  of  Louis,  it  is  difficult  to  find  out 
the  public  acts,  among  the  long  succession  of  grants  to  churches  and  mon- 
asteries.—  Boehmer,  Regesta,  Frankfort,  1833. 


522  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V 

restored  to  his  lord.  If  the  Bishop  would  ordain  a 
slave,  he  must  be  first  emancipated  before  the  wliole 
Church  and  the  people.  Yet  were  there  provisions  to 
limit  abuses  as  Avell  as  to  increase  power.  The  three- 
fold division  of  the  church  revenues  is  enacted,  two- 
thirds  to  the  poor,  one  to  the  monks  and  clergy.  The 
cjergy  are  prohibited  from  receiving  donations  or. be- 
quests to  the  wrong  of  near  relations.  None  were  to 
be  received  into  monasteries  in  order  to  obtain  their 
propel  t  %  Church  treasures  might  on  one  account 
only  be  pawned  —  the  redemption  of  captives.  Youths 
of  either  sex  were  not  to  be  persuaded  to  receive  the 
tonsure  or  take  the  veil  without  consent  of  their  par- 
ents. All  these  law^s  are  enacted  by  the  Emperor  in 
council  for  the  whole  empire,  almost  tantamount  to 
Latin  Christendom  ;  of  approbation,  ratification,  con- 
firmation by  the  Pope,  not  one  word ! 

The  Council  Diet  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  having  thus 
Succession  to  legislated  for  the  Church,  contemplated  the 
theeuipire.  dangers  of  the  State.  The  accidental  fall  of 
a  gallery  had  endangered  the  life  of  the  Emperor ;  he 
was  seriously  hurt.  What,  the  wiser  men  bethought 
them,  or  had  long  before  thought,  were  the  Emperor 
thus  suddenly  cut  off*,  had  been  the  fate  of  the  Empire  ? 
They  clearly  foresaw  the  danger  of  the  old  Teutonic 
principle,  which  had  been  threatened  even  under 
Charlemagne  —  eqaal  division  among  the  three  sons 
of  Louis.  The  mother  of  these  three  sons,  as  well  as 
their  closer  adherents,  might  look  with  profound  solici- 
tude at  the  rivalry  of  Bernhard,  son  of  Pepin,  whom 
some  of  the  most  powerful  had  in  their  hearts,  probably 
in  their  counsels,  designated  as  the  successor  of  Charle- 
magne.    The  Council  must  not  separate  without  regu 


CiiAP.  II.  SUCCESSION  TO  THE  EMPIRE.  623 

lating  the  succession  of  the  Empire.  His  counsellors 
urged  this  upon  Louis.  "  I  love  my  sons  with  equal 
affection;  but  I  must  not  sacrifice  the  unity  of  the 
Empire  to  my  love."  He  laid  this  question  before  the 
Council,  — "  Is  it  right  to  delay  a  measure  on  which 
depends  the  welfare  of  the  state  ?"  "  That,"  was  the 
universal  acclamation,  "which  is  necessary  or  profitable 
brooks  no  delay."  But  such  determination  must  be 
made  with  due  solenmity.  A  fast  of  three  days,  prayer 
for  divine  grace,  is  ordered  by  the  pious  Emperor. 
After  these  three  days  the  decree  was  promulgated.  It 
proclaimed  the  great  principle  of  primogeniture.  The 
whole  empire  fell  in  its  undivided  sovereignty,  at  the 
death  of  Louis,  to  his  eldest  son,  Lothair.  Two  royal 
appanages  were  assigned,  with  the  title  of  King,  to 
Pepin  II.,  Aquitaine,  the  Basque  Provinces,  the  March 
of  Toulouse,  four  Countships  in  Septimania  and  Bur- 
gundy: to  Louis,  the  third  son,  Bavaria,  Bohemia, 
Carinthia,  the  Slavian  and  Avarian  provinces  subject 
to  the  Franks.  But  the  younger  sons  were  every  year 
to  pay  homage  and  offer  gifts  to  the  Emperor.  With- 
out his  consent  they  could  not  make  war  or  peace,  send 
envoys  to  foreign  lands,  or  contract  marriage.  If 
either  died  without  heirs,  his  appanage  fell  back  to  the 
Empire.  If  he  should  leave  more  sons  tlian  one,  the 
people  w^ere  to  choose  one  for  their  king,  the  Emperor 
to  confirm  the  election.  If  one  of  the  younger  broth- 
ers should  take  arms  against  the  Emperor,  he  was  to 
be  admonished  ;  if  contumacious,  deposed. 

This  decree  was  fatal  to  Bernhard,  the  son,  by  a  con- 
cubine, of    Pepin,^  who  still  held,  by  the  unrevoked 

1  Funck  observes  that  illegitimate  is  an  unknown  word;  the   term   ig 
isually  ex  ancilla. 


524  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  \, 

Bernhard  g^ant  of  Charlemagne,  the  kingdom  of  Italj. 
king  iu  Italy  pj^  alone  was  not  summoned,  had  no  place, 
in  the  great  council  of  Aix-la-Chapelle.  In  the  decree 
there  was  a  total,  inauspicious,  significant  silence  as  to 
his  name.  And  this  was  the  return  for  the  early  and 
ready  allegiance  which  he  had  sworn  to  Louis,  his 
fidelity  in  the  affairs  of  Rome.  Bernhard  had  nothing 
left  but  the  energy  of  despair.  Italy,  weary  and  indig- 
nant, seemed  ready  to  cast  off  the  transalpine  yoke. 
The  Lombards  may  have  aspired  to  restore  their  ruined 
kingdom.  Two  great  Bishops,  Anselm  of  Milan,  Wulf- 
liold  of  Cremona,  and  many  of  the  nobles,  tendered 
him  their  allegiance,  as  their  independent  sovereign. 
The  cities  and  people  as  far  as  the  Po  were  ready  oi 
were  compelled  to  take  the  oath  of  fealty.  Pope 
Paschal  was  believed  at  least  not  unfriendly  to  the 
ambitious  views  of  Bernhard.  He  was  not  without 
powerful  partisans  beyond  the  Alps.  Theodulf,  Bishop 
of  Orleans,  was  still  faithful  to  his  cause.  Wala  and 
his  brothers  were  at  least  suspected  of  the  same  trea- 
sonable inclinations ;  the  three  were  placed,  each  in  his 
convent,  under  more  rigid  care. 

But  Louis  raised  an  overpowering  force ;  the  Lora- 
Defeat  and  bairds  wcrc  uot  uuitcd.  The  Count  of  Bres- 
Bernhard.  cia,  tlic  Blshop  Rathald  of  Verona,  retired 
across  the  Alps  to  the  Emperor.  The  powerful  dukes 
of  Friuli  and  Spoleto  adhered  to  the  Imperial  cause. 
Bernhard  had  nothing  left  but  submission.  He  passed 
tlie  Alps,  and  threw  himself  at  his  uncle's  feet  at 
(^halons  on  the  Saone.^     The  mild  Louis  interposed  to 

1  Funck  asserts  that  the  Empress  Heriningard  decoyed  him  over  the 
Alps,  with  promise  of  full  pardon.  I  do  not  think  that  his  authorities  bear 
him  out.  — p.  65,  and  note. 


Chap.  II. 

mitigate  the  capital  sentence  pronounced  against  the 
rebel  and  the  leaders  of  his  party  at  Aix-la-Cliapelle. 
His  sterner  counsellors,  it  is  said  the  implacable  Her- 
mingard,  insisted  that  Bernhard  should  be  incapacitated 
for  future  acts  of  ambition  by  the  loss  of  his  ey)s. 
The  punishment  was  so  cruelly  or  unskilftdly  executed, 
that  he  died  of  exhaustion  or  a  broken  heart.  Apru  15, 518. 
Some  of  the  rebellious  leaders  suffered  the  same  penal- 
ty: one  died  like  Bernhard.  The  traitor  Bishops, 
Orleans,  Milan,  Cremona,  were  shut  up  in  monasteries. 
Now,  too,  were  the  three  natural  sons  of  Charlemagne, 
Drogo,  Hugh,  and  Thierry,  compelled  to  submit  to  the 
tonsure.  Louis  had  sworn  to  be  their  guardian ;  the 
pious  Emperor  forced  them  to  perpetual  holy  impris- 
onment. 

Lothair,  the  eldest  son  of  Louis,  now  crowned,  by 
the  sole  authority  of  Louis,  King  of  Italy,  as-  ^otbair  king 
sumed  the  dominion  of  the  Peninsula.  But  ^^  ^^^^' 
the  turbulent  state  of  the  whole  country  compelled  him 
to  return  to  Germany,  and  to  demand  succor  in  men 
and  arms  from  his  father.  Rome  was  not  behind  the 
rest,  as  will  speedily  appear,  in  acts  of  violence  and  in- 
subordination. 

So  far  the  son  of  Charlemagne  had  reigned  in  spk;n- 
dor,  in  justice,  in  firmness,  in  wisdom.  He  Death  of  the 
had  been  the  legislator  of  the  Empire,  both  Hermingard. 
as  to  its  religious  and  temporal  aflPairs.  He  had,  it 
might  seem,  secured  the  succession  in  his  house ;  he 
had  suppressed  all  rebellion  with  a  strong  hand,  had 
only  yielded  to  mercilessness,  which  could  not  injui'e 
him  in  the  estimation  of  his  Teutonic  subjects.  On 
the  death  of  his  wife  Hermingard  his  mind  was  shaken, 
if  not  partially  disturbed ;    his   old   religious   feelinojs 


526  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V 

came  back  in  all  their  rigour ;  it  was  feared  that  the 
pious  Emperor  would  abdicate  the  throne,  and  retire 
into  a  monastery.  His  counsellors,  to  bind  him  to 
the  world,  persuaded  him  to  take  a  second  wife.  His 
choice  was  made  with  a  singular  union  of  the  indiffer- 
ence of  a  monk  and  the  arbitrary  caprice  of  an  Eastern 
Marriage  of  sultan.^  The  faircst  daughters  of  the  nobles 
Fab.  819.  were  assembled  for  his  inspection.^  The  mon- 
arch was  at  once  captivated  by  the  surpassing  beauty 
of  Judith,  daughter  of  the  Bavarian  Count  Wippo.^ 
Judith  was  not  only  the  most  beautiful,  according  to 
the  flattering  testimony  of  bishops  and  abbots,  she  was 
the  most  highly  educated  woman  of  the  time.  She 
played  on  the  organ  ;  she  danced  with  perfect  grace ; 
she  was  eloquent  as  well  as  learned.  The  uxorious 
monarch  yielded  himself  up  to  his  blind  passion. 

From  this  time  a  strange  feebleness  comes   over  the 
Diet  of  character  of    Louis.      The  third  year   after 

Aug.  822.  his  marriage  the  great  diet  of  the  Empire  is 
summoned  to  Attigny-on-the-Aisne,  not  to  take  counsel 
for  the  defence,  extension,  or  consolidation  of  the  Em- 
pire ;  not  to  pass  ecclesiastical  or  civil  laws,  but  to 
witness  the  humiliating  public  penance  of  the  Emperor. 
His  sensitive  conscience  had  long  been  preying  upon 
him ;  it  reproached  him  with  the  barbarous  blinding 
and  death  of  his  nephew  Bernhard ;  the  chastisement 
of  the  insurgent  Bishops  ;  the  presumptuous  restraint 
which  he  had  imposed   on   the  holy  monks  Adalhard, 

^  "Timebatur  a  multis,  ne  regium  vellet  relinquere  gubernaculum, 
randeinque  eorum  voliiiitati  satisfaciens,  et  undique  adductas  procerum 
filias  iiispiciens,  Juditli,  tiliain  Wipponis."  —  Astronomiis,  c.  32. 

2  "Inspeeti.s  pleriscpje  nobilium  filiabus."  — Eginbard,  p.  332. 

8  "The  marriage  was  but  four  months  after  the  death  of  Hermingard." 

Agobard,  Oper.  ii.  p.  65. 


Chap.  II  WEAKNESS  OF  LOUIS.  627 

Wala,  Bernarius ;  the  enforced  tonsure  of  his  father's 
three  sons. 

Even  in  his  own  time,  this  act  of  Louis  was  com- 
pared by  admiring  Churchmen  with  the  memorable 
[)enance  of  Tiieodosius  the  Great.  How  penance  rf 
great  the  difference  between  the  crimes  and  ^°^ 
character  of  the  men  !  Theodosius,  in  a  transport  of 
passion,  had  ordered  the  promiscuous  massacre  o^  all 
the  inhabitants  of  a  flourishing  city.  Bernhard  aiul 
his  partisans  had  forfeited  their  lives  according  to  the 
laws  of  the  Franks;  the  Emperor  had  interposed, 
though  vainly  and  weakly,  only  to  mitigate  the  penalty. 
His  offence  against  Adalhard  and  Wala  was  banish- 
ment from  the  court,  confinement  to  monasteries  of 
men  who  had  aimed  at  excludino;  him  from  the  Em- 
pire,  whose  abilities  and  influence  he  might  still  dread.^ 
And  for  these  delinquencies  the  trembling  son  of 
Charlemagne,  the  lord  of  his  Empire,  stood  weeping 
and  imploring  the  intercession  of  the  clergy,  and  en- 
deavored to  appease  the  wrath  of  Heaven  by  prodigal 
almsgiving  and  the  most  abject  acts  of  penitence.^  He 
supplicated  the  forgiveness  of  Adalhard  and  Wala, 
whom  he  had  already  recalled  to  his  court,  Wala,  now 
that  Benedict  of  Aniane  was  dead,  speedily  to  assume 
absolute  power  over  the  mind  of  Louis.^  Against 
them  it  would  be  difficult  to  show  how  he  had  grievously 
sinned.     He  deplored  his  having  compelled  the  sons  of 

1  "  Timebatur  enim  quam  niaximfe  Wala,  summi  apud  Karolum  Inijie- 
ratorem  habitus  loci,  ne  forte  aliquid  sinistruni  contra  iraperatorem  moli- 
retur."  —  A^trononius,  ii.  p.  618.     Pertz,  ii. 

2  "  Eleemosynarura  etiam  largitione  pliirimarum,  sed  et  servorum  Christi 
orationum  instantia,  necnon  et  propria  Batisfactione,  adeo  divinitatem  sibi 
placare  ciirabat,  quasi  haec  qufe  super  unumqueraqiie  legaliter  decucurre- 

wit,  sua  gesta  fuerant  crudelitate."  — p.  626. 
*  "  Venerabatur  passim  secundus  a  Caesare."  — Vit.  Walse,  p.  535. 


528  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V. 

Charlemagne  to  tlie  tonsure.  If  we  respect  the  consci- 
entious scruples  which  induced  Louis  publicly  to  own 
his  offences,  to  seek  reconciliation  with  his  enemies, 
some  compassion  and  more  contempt  mingle  with  that 
respect  when  we  see  him  thus  prostrating  the  imperial 
dignity  at  the  feet  of  the  hierarchy.  The  penance  of 
Theodosius  was  the  triumph  of  religion  over  the  pride 
and  cruelty  of  man  —  a  noble  remorse  ;  in  Louis  it 
was  the  slavery  of  superstition  :  he  had  lost  all  moral 
discrimination  as  to  the  nature  and  extent  of  his  own 
guilt.  The  slightest  act  of  authority  against  monk  or 
priest  is  become  a  crime,  reconciliation  with  Heaven 
only  to  be  obtained  by  propitiating  their  favor. 

The  hierarchy  failed  not  to  discover  the  hour  of  the 
monarch's  weakness.  At  the  autumnal  Diet  four  great 
ecclesiastical  councils  were  summoned  to  meet  at  Pen- 
tecost in  the  following  year,  to  treat  of  affairs  of 
religion  and  the  abuses  of  the  civil  power.  Among 
the  crimes  which  it  was  determined  to  suppress  was 
the  granting  of  monasteries  to  laymen ;  the  grants  of 
Church  property  at  pleasure  to  the  vassals  of  the 
Crown,  without  consent  of  the  bishops.  Thus  the 
bishops  aspired  to  be  co-legislators  in  the  diets,  sole 
legislators  in  the  councils  of  which  themselves  deter- 
mined the  powers. 

Yet  even  in  his  prostrate  humiliation  before  the 
transalpine  clergy,  Louis,  through  his  son  Lothair,  is 
exercising  full  sovereignty  over  Rome.  Lothair,  accom- 
panied by  Wala,  now  at  once  the  confidential  adviser 
of  Louis  in  the  highest  matters,  had  descended  into 
Italy  to  command  disquieted  Rome  into  peace.  He 
had  received  the  crown  from  the  obsequious  Pope. 
Hardly,  however,  had  Lothair  recrossed  the  Alps  when 


CiiAP.  II.  TUMULTS    IN   ROME.  529 

he  was  overtaken  by  hasty  messengers  with  intelligence 
of  new  tumults. 

Two  men  of  the  highest  rank  (Theodorus,  the 
Primicerlus  of  the  Church,  and  Leo,  the  Nomencla- 
tor,  who  had  held  high  functions  at  the  coronation  of 
Lothair)  had  been  seized,  dragged  to  the  Lateran  pal- 
ace, blinded,  and  afterwards  beheaded.  The  Pope 
was  openly  accused  of  this  inhuman  act.^  Two  im- 
perial commissioners,  Adelung,  Abbot  of  St.  Vedast, 
and  Hunfrid,  Count  of  Coire,  were  despatched  with 
full  powers  to  investigate  the  affair.  At  the  same  time 
came  envoys  from  the  Pope  to  the  court  of  Louis.^ 
The  imperial  commissioners  were  baffled  in  their 
inquiry.  Paschal  refused  to  produce  the  murderers  ;  he 
asserted  that  they  were  guilty  of  no  crime  in  putting 
to  death  men  themselves  guilty  of  treason ;  he  secured 
them  by  throwing  around  them  a  half-sacred  character 
as  servants  of  the  Church  of  St.  Peter.^  Himself  he 
exculpated  by  a  solemn  expurgatorial  oath,  before 
thu'ty  bishops,  from  all  participation  in  the  deed.  The 
Emperor  received  with  respect  the  exculpation  May,  824. 
of*  the  Pope.  But  Paschal  was  summoned  before  a 
higher  judgment :  he  died  immediately  after  the 
arrival  of  the  Emperor's  messengers.  The  Romans, 
though  Paschal  had  vied  with  his  predecessor,  Leo  III., 
in  his  magnificent  donations  to  the  churches  of  Rome, 

1  Both  Leo  and  Theodorus  had  been  sent  as  ambassadors  by  Paschal, 
one  to  the  Emperor,  the  other  to  Lothair.  —  Eginhard.  "  Erant  et  qui 
dicerent,  vel  jussu  vel  consilio  Paschalis  Pontificis  rem  fuisse  perpetra- 
tam." — Eginhard,  Annal.  sub  ann.  823.  "Qua  in  re  foma  Pontificis 
quoque  ludebatur,  dum  ejus  consensui  totum  ascriberetur." — Astronom 
p.  302. 

2  John,  Bishop  of  Si!/a  Candida;  the  librarian  Sergius;  Quirinus  sub- 
deacon,  Leo,  master  of  the  military. 

s  Thegan.,  Vit.  Hludovic.  apud  Pertz,  c.  30.    Eginhard  sub  ann. 
VOL.  II  34 


530  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V. 

would  not  permit  his  burial  in   the  accustomed  place, 
nor  with  the  usual  pomp.^ 

The  contest  for  the  vacant  see  arrayed  against  each 
other  the  two  factions  in  Rome  under  their  undisguised 
colors.  It  was  a  strife  between  a  transalpine  and  a 
juue,  834.  cisalpine,  a  Teutonic  and  a  Roman  inter- 
est. The  patricians,  the  nobles  of  Rome,  many  of 
Lombard  blood,  were  in  the  Imperialist  party  ;  the 
plebeians,  the  commons,  asserted  their  independence, 
and  scorned  the  subservience  of  the  Popes.  They 
were  more  papal  than  the  Popes  themselves.  Wala, 
now  ruling  the  Emperor's  counsels,  had  remained  at 
Rome.  By  his  dexterous  management  Eugenius  pre- 
vailed over  his  rival,  Zinzinnus.  Yet  the  presence  of 
Lothair  was  demanded  to  overawe  the  city,  and  to 
Lothair  again  maintain  the  Imperialist  Pope.^  Lothair  is- 
in  Rome.  ^^^^  j^jg  maudatcs  in  a  high  tone.  He  strong- 
ly remonstrated  Avitli  the  Pope  against  the  violence 
and  insults  suffered  by  all  who  were  faithful  to  the 
Oct.,  Nov.  Emperor  and  friendly  to  the  Franks.  Some 
had  been  put  to  death,  others  made  the  laughing-stock 
of  their  enemies.  There  was  a  general  clamor  against 
the  Roman  pontiffs  and  against  the  administrators  of 
justice.  By  the  ignorance  or  indolence  of  the  popes, 
by  the  insatiable  avarice  of  the  judges,  the  property  of 
many  Romans  liad  been  unjustly  confiscated.  Lothair 
had  determined  to  redress  these  abuses.  By  hi;>  su- 
preme authority  many  judgments  were  reversed  ;  the 
confiscated  estates  restored  to  their  rightful  owners.  In 
other  words,  the  Imperialist  nobles  obtained  redress  of 
all  grievances,  real  or  imaginary.     The  heads   of  the 

1  Thegan. 

2  "Eugenius,  vincente  nobilium  parte,  ordiiuitus  est."  — E^inhard. 


Chap.  II.       QROWING  DIVISION   OF  THE   EMPIRE.  531 

popular  party  were  surrendered  and  sent  to  France. 
A  constitution  was  publicly  affixed  on  the  Vatican^ 
regulating  the  election  of  the  Pope,  for  which  no  one  had 
a  suffrage  but  a  Roman  of  an  approved  title  :  it  Constitution, 
thus  vested  the  election  in  the  nobles.^  Annual  reports 
were  to  be  made,  both  to  the  Pope  and  to  the  Emperor, 
on  the  administration  of  justice.  Each  of  the  senate 
or  people  was  to  declare  whether  he  would  live  accord- 
uig  to  the  Roman,  the  Lombard,  or  the  Frankish  law. 
On  the  Emperor's  arrival  at  Rome,  all  the  great  civil 
authorities  were  to  pay  him  feudal  service.  There  were 
other  provisions  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Papal 
estates,  and  prohibiting  plunder  on  the  vacancy  of  the 
see.  As  a  still  more  peremptory  assertion  of  the  Im- 
perial supremacy,  the  unrepealed  statute  was  confirmed, 
that  no  Pope  should  be  consecrated  till  his  election  had 
been  ratified  by  the  Emperor.  The  Emperor  declared 
his  intention  of  sendino;  commissioners  from  time  to 
time  to  watch  over  the  administration  of  the  laws, 
to  receive  appeals,  and  to  remedy  acts  of  wrong  or 
injustice.^ 

But  while  the  Empire  thus  asserted  its  supremacy 
in  Rome,  beyond  the  Alps  it  was  gradually  Qromng 
sinking  into  decay.     The  vast  dominions  of  ^^U'^jl^jJi^Q 
Charlemagne,  notwithstanding  the  decree  of  °^  ^*''' '"'"'p*'"^ 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  were  severing  into  independent,  soon 
to  become  hostile,   kingdoms.      The   imperial  power, 


1  The  Constitution  in  Sigonius,  Hist.  Italica;  and  in  Holstenius;  Labbe 
cum  Notis  Binii,  p.  15-41,  sub  ann.     Bouquet. 

2  "  Statutum  est  quoque  juxta  antiquorum  morem,  ut  ex  latere  impera- 
toris  mitterentur,  qui  judiciariam  potestatem  exercentes  justitiam  omni 
populo  facerent,  et  tempore  quo  visum  foret  impevatori,  sequa  lance  pende- 
rent."  —  Apud  Bouquet,  vi.  410.  The  Emperor  Henry  II.  afterwards  ap- 
pealed to  this  constitution.  —  Ellendorf,  p.  31. 


532  LAriN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V 

out  of  wliicli  grew  the  unity  of  the  whole,  was  losmg 
its  awful  reverence.  The  Emperor  was  but  one  of 
many  sovereigns,  with  the  title,  but  less  and  less  of  the 
substance,  of  preeminent  power.  The  royal  authority 
itself  was  becoming  more  precarious  by  the  rise  of  the 
great  feudal  aristocracy ;  and  in  the  midst  of,  above 
great  part  of  that  aristocracy,  the  feudal  clergy  of 
France  and  Germany  were  more  and  more  rapidly 
advancing  in  strength,  wealth,  and  influence. 

In  the  miserable  civil  wars  which  distracted  the 
latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Louis  the  Pious,  in  the 
rebellions  of  his  sons,  in  the  degradation  of  the  impe- 
rial authority,  the  bishops  and  abbots  not  merely  take 
a  prominent  part,  but  appear  as  the  great  arbiters,  as 
the  awarders  of  empire,  the  deposers  of  kings. 

The  jealousies  of  the  sons  of  Louis  by  his  Queen 
Hermingard,  which  broke  out  into  open  insurrection, 
into  civil  wars  with  the  father,  began  with  the  birth  of 
his  son  by  the  Empress  Judith  ;  ^  and  became  more 
violent  and  irreconcilable  as  that  son,  afterwards 
Charles  the  Bald,  advanced  towards  adolescence. 
These  jealousies  arose  out  of  the  apprehension,  that 
in  the  partition  of  the  Empire,  according  to  Frankish 
usage  confirmed  by  Charlemagne,  on  the  death  or 
demise  of  Louis,  some  share,  and  that  more  than  a 
just  share,  should  be  extorted  by  the  dominant  influ- 
ence of  the  beautiful  stepmother  from  the  uxorious 
Emperor.  Louis  was  thought  to  be  completely  rukd 
Bernhard  of  ^J  ^^^^  ^^^^  ^^^^  ^er  favorito,  Bemliard,  Duke 
septimania.  q^'  Scptimauia.  Rumors,  of  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  know  the  truth,  accused  Duke  Bernhard 
not  only  of  swaying  the  counsels,  but  of  dishonoring  the 
1  Cliarles,  born  June  13,  823,  at  Frankfort. 


CuAv.U.  BERNHAKD  OF  SEPTI>^^NIA.  538 

bed,  of  his  master.^  The  sons  of  Louis  pro])agate(l 
these  degrading  reports,  and  indignantly  complained 
that  the  bastard  offspring  of  Duke  Bernhard  should 
aspire  to  part  of  their  inheritance.  But  to  Duke 
Bernhard  the  unsus})ecting  Louis,  besides  the  cares 
of  empire,  intrusted  the  education  of  his  son  Charles. 
lie  had  dismissed  all  his  old  counsellors :  Abbot  Elis- 
achar,  the  chancellor ;  the  chief  chaplain,  Hilduin ; 
Jesse,  Bishop  of  Amiens  ;  and  other  lay  officers  and 
ministers  of  the  court.  Ebbo,  Archbishop  of  Rheims, 
must  withdraw  to  his  diocese.^  The  whole  time  of 
Louis  seemed  to  be  indolently  whiled  away  between 
field-sports,  hunting  and  fishing  in  the  forest  of  Ar- 
dennes, and  the  most  rigid  and  punctilious  religious 
practices. 

These  melancholy  scenes  concern  Christian  history 
no  further  than  as  displaying  the  growing  power  of  the 
clergy,  the  religion  of  Louis  gradually  quailing  into 
abject  superstition,  the  strange  fiision  and  incorpora- 
tion of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  affairs.  But  in  this 
consists  the  peculiar  and  distinctive  character  of  these 
times.  The  Church  gives  refuge  to,  or  punishes  and 
incapacitates,  by  Its  disqualifying  vows,  the  victims  of 
political  animosity.  The  dethroned  Empress  is  forced 
into  a  convent.  Civil  incapacity  is  not  complete,  at 
least  is  not  absolutely  binding,  without  ecclesiastical 
censure.     The  Pope  himself  appears  in  person  ;  prin- 

1  "  Thorum  occupavit." — Vit.  Walfe.  Paschasius  Radbert,  the  friend, 
partisan,  and  biographer  of  Wala,  is  the  fierce  accuser  of  the  queen,  the 
furs',  tlie  adulteress ;  and  of  Bernhard,  the  most  factious  monster,  the  de- 
filer  of  matrons,  the  cruel  beast.  —  Vit.  Walie.  "Fit  palatium  prostibu- 
lum,  ubi  nio^chia  dominatur,  adulter  reguat."  Bernhard  is  even  accused 
of  a  design  to  murder  Louis  and  his  sons.  Thegan  declares  that  thesa 
charges  were  all  lies  (p.  3G):  "  Mentientes  omnia." 

2  Compare  Fuuck,  p.  102.     . 


534  LATIN  CHRISTIANTTY.  Book  V. 

cipally  by  liis  influence,  Louis  is  abandoned  by  his 
avmy,  and  left  at  the  mercy  of  his  rebelHous  sons. 
The  degraded  monarch,  recalled  to  his  throne,  will 
not  resume  his  power  without  the  removal  of  the 
ecclesiastical  censure. 

The  first  overt  act  of  rebellion  by  the  elder  sons  of 
I^'^uis,  chiefly  Pepin  (for  Louis  held  a  doubtful  course, 
and  Lothair  was  yet  in  Italy),  was  the  refusal  of  the 
feudal  army  to  engage  in  the  perilous  and  unprofitable 
war  in  Bretagne.^  Already  the  fond  and  uxorious 
latlier  had  awakened  jealousy  by  assigning  to  the  son 
of  Judith  the  title  of  King  of  Alemania.^  Pepin, 
King  of  Aquitaine,  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
mutinous  forces.  The  Emperor,  with  a  few  loyal  fol- 
lowers (who,  though  like  the  rest  they  refused  to 
engage  in  the  Breton  war,  yet  would  not  abandon 
their  sovereign),  lay  at  Compiegne,  wliile  his  sons, 
with  the  mass  of  the  army,  were  encamped  tliree 
leagues  off"  at  Verberie.  Around  Pepin  had  assem- 
bled the  discarded  ecclesiastical  ministers,  Elisachar, 
Wala,  Hilduin,  Jesse ;  with  Godfrey  and  Richard,  and 
the  Counts  Warin,  Lantbert,  Matfrid,  Hugo.  The 
demands  of  the  insurgents  were  stern  and  peremptory : 
the  dismissal  and  punishment  of  Duke  Bernhard,  the 
degradation  of  the  guilty  Judith.  Bernhard  made  his 
escape  to  the  south,  and  took  refuge  in  Barcelona  ; 
Judith,  by  the  Emperor's  advice,  retired  into  the  con- 
vent of  St.  Mary  of  Laon.  There  slie  was  seized  by 
the  adherents  of  her  step-sons,  and  compelled  to  prom- 
ise that  she  would  use  all  her  influence,  if  she  had 
0})i)ortunity,  to  urge  the  Emperor  to  retire  to  a  cloister.^ 

1  The  herrban  was  summoned  to  Keanes,  April  14,  830. 

2  Au^'.  829,  at  Worms. 

•  "Quam  usque  adeo  intuutatam  per  diversi  generis  pa;ua.s  iuvite  adeger«. 


Chap.  II.  FATE  OF  JUDITPI.  535 

Before  herself  was  set  the  dreary  alternative  of  death 
or  of  takmg  the  veil.  She  pronounced  the  fatal  vows  ; 
and,  as  a  nun,  edified  by  her  repentance  and  April,  830. 
piety  tlie  sisters  of  St.  Radegonde  at  Poitiers.  To  the 
people  she  was  held  up  as  a  wicked  enchantress,  who 
by  her  potions  and  by  her  unlawful  bewitchments 
alone  could  have  so  swayed  the  soul  of  the  pious  Em- 
peror. Lothair,  the  King  of  Italy,  now  joined  his 
brothers,  and  approved  of  all  their  acts.  Deliberations 
were  held,  in  which  the  higher  ecclesiastics  Jesse, 
Bishop  of  Amiens ;  Hilduin,  Abbot  of  St.  Denys ; 
Wala  (by  the  death  of  his  brother  Adalhard  now 
Abbot  of  Corbey)  urged  the  stronger  measure,  the 
degradation  of  the  Emperor.  The  sons,  either  from 
fear  or  respect,  hesitated  at  this  extreme  course. 
Some  of  the  Imperial  ministers  were  punished  ;  two 
brothers  of  the  Empress  forced  to  submit  to  the  ton- 
sure ;  and  Heribert,  brother  of  Duke  Bernhard,  blind- 
ed. In  a  general  Diet  of  the  Empire  at  Compiegne, 
Lothair  was  associated  with  his  fatlier  in  the  Empire. 

But  the  unpopularity  of  Louis  with  tlie  Roman 
Gauls  and  with  the  Franks  of  Gaul  was  not  shared  by 
the  German  subjects  of  the  Empire.  Throughout  this 
contest,  the  opposition  between  the  Teutonic  and  the 
Gaulish  Franks  (the  French,  who  now  began  to  form 
a  different  society  and  a  different  language,  witli  a 
stronger  Roman  character  in  their  institutions)  fore- 
showed the  inevitable  disunion  which  awaited  the 
Empire  of  Charlemagne.  In  the  Diet  of  Nimeguen 
the  cause  of  the  Emperor  predominated  so  completely 

ut  promitteret,  se,  si  copia  daretur  cum  imperatore  colloqueudi  persuasu- 
ram  quatenus  Iinperator  abjectis  armis,  comisque  recisis  monasterio  sese 
Eouferret  "'  — Astron.  Vit.  Ludov.  a.d.  829. 


636  LATIN  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V 

that  Lotliair  would  not  listen  to  the  advice  of  his  more 
desperate  followers  to  renew  the  war.^  He  yielded  to 
the  gentle  influence  of  his  father,  and  abandoned,  with 
])ut  little  scruple,  his  own  adherents  and  those  of  his 
brothers.  The  Emperor  and  his  son  appeared  in  pub- 
lic as  entirely  reconciled.  Sentence  of  capital  condem- 
nation was  passed  on  all  who  had  taken  part  in  the 
proceedings  at  Compiegne.  Jesse,  Hilduin,  Wala, 
Matfrid  and  the  rest  were  in  custody  ;  and  it  was  the 
clemency  of  the  Emperor  rather  than  the  interposition 
of  Lothair  in  favor  of  his  partisans  which  prorogued 
their  punishment  till  the  meeting  of  another  Diet  at 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  summoned  for  the  2d  of  February. 
Louis  returned  in  triumph  to  pass  the  winter  in  that 
capital.  His  first  act  was  to  release  his  wife  from  her 
monastic  prison.  She  returned  from  Aquitaine,  but 
the  scrupulous  Emperor  hesitated  to  restore  her  to  her 
conjugal  rights  while  the  impeachment  remained  upon 
her  honor,  perhaps  likewise  on  account  of  the  vows 
which  she  had  been  compelled  to  take.  On  the  solemn 
day  of  the  purification  of  the  Virgin,  Judith  appeared 
(no  one  answering  the  citation  to  accuse  the  Empress 
of  adultery  or  witchery)  to  assert  her  own  purity. 
The  loyal  assembly  at  once  declared  that  no  accuser 
appeared  against  her ;  an  oath  was  tendered,  and  with- 
out further  inquiry  her  own  word  was  held  sufficient  to 
establish  her  spotless  virtue.  The  gentle  Louis  seized 
the  opportunity  of  mercy  to  commute  the  capital  pun- 
ishment of  all  the  conspirators  against  his  authority.^ 

1  Funck,  I  think,  does  not  make  out  his  case  of  the  craft  of  Louis;  he 
seems  to  have  followed  rather  than  guided  events. 

^  Hilduin  had  appeared  with  a  great  armed  retinue  of  the  vassals  of  the 
abbeys  of  St.  Dcnys,  St.  Germain  de  Pros,  and  St.  Modard.  —  Fiinek,  p. 
111.     Jesse  of  Amiens  was  deposed  by  a  touneil  of  bislioits,  headed  by 


Chap.  II.  ARISTOCRATIC  HIERARCHY.  537 

His  monkisli  biographer  rebukes  bis  too  great  lenity.^ 
The  sons  of  Louis,  humiliated,  constrained  to  assent 
to  the  condemnation  of  their  partisans,  withdrew,  each 
to  his  separate  kingdom  —  Pepin  to  Aquitalne,  Louis 
to  Bavaria,  Lothair  to  Italy.  Duke  Bern- a.d.  83i. 
hard  pl-esented  himself  at  the  court  at  Thionville  in 
the  course  of  the  autumn  ;  he  averred  his  innocence ; 
according  to  the  custom,  defied  his  accusers  to  come 
forward  and  prove  their  charge  in  arms.  The  wager 
of  battle  was  not  accepted,  and  Duke  Bernhard  was 
admitted  to  purge  himself  by  oath. 

Hardly  more  than  a  year  elapsed,  and  the  three  sons 
were  again  in  arms  against  their  father.  Louis  seems 
now  to  have  alienated  the  able  Duke  Bernhard,  and 
to  have  surrendered  himself  to  the  undisputed  rule  of 
Gombard,  a  monk  of  St.  Medard  in  Soissons. 

The  whole  Empire  is  now  divided  into  two  hostile 
parties ;  on  each  side  are  dukes  and  counts,  bishops 
and  abbots.  The  Northern  Germans  espouse  the  cause 
of  the  Emperor ;  the  Gaulish  Franks  and  some  of  the 
Southern  Germans  obey  the  Kings  of  Aquitaine  and 
Bavaria.  Among  the  clergy,  another  element  of  jeal- 
ousy and  disunion  was  growing  to  a  great  height. 
Even  under  the  Merovingian  kings,  it  has  been  seen, 
the  nobles  had  endeavored  to  engross  the  great  ecclesi- 
astical dignities.  Under  the  Carlo vingians,  men  of  the 
highest  rank,  of  the  noblest  descent,  even  the  younger 

Ebbo  of  Rheims ;  Hilduin  imprisoned  at  Corbey ;  "Wala  in  a  castle  oa  the 
lake  of  Geneva. 

1  Astronomus,  in  Vit.  xlv.  According  to  Boehmer  (Regesta),  Lothair 
and  Louio  were  present  at  this  diet.  At  this  diet  too  appeared  envoys  from 
the  Danes  to  implore  the  continuance  of  peace ;  from  the  Slavians,  and  the 
Caliph  of  Bagdad,  with  splendid  presents.  The  Empire  appeared  still  in 
its  strength  at  a  distance,. 


538  LATIN    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V. 

or  illegitimate  branches  of  the  royal  family,  had  become 
Churchmen  ;  but  the  higher  these  dignitanes  became, 
and  more  and  more  on  a  level  with  the  military  feuda- 
tories, the  more  the  Nobles  began  to  consider  the  eccle- 
siastical benefices  their  aristocratical  inlieritance  and 
patrimony.  They  were  indignant  when  men  of  lower 
or  of  servile  birth  presumed  to  aspire  to  these  high 
places,  which  raised  them  at  once  to  a  level  with  the 
most  high-born  and  powerful.  They  almost  aimed  at 
making  a  separate  caste,  to  whom  should  belong,  of 
right,  all  the  larger  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  temporal 
fiefs.  But  abilities,  piety,  learning,  in  some  instances 
no  doubt  less  lofty  qualifications,  would  at  times  force 
their  way  to  the  highest  dignities.  Louis,  whether  from 
policy  or  from  a  more  wise  and  Christian  appreciation 
of  the  clerical  function  in  the  Church,  was  considered 
to  favor  this  humbler  class  of  ecclesiastics.  One  of  his 
biographers,  Thegan,  himself  an  ecclesiastical  dignitary 
of  noble  birth,  thus  contemptuously  describes  the  low- 
r     V  born  clero;y :  —  ''It  was  the  preat  weakness 

Low-born  i^'^  o 

clergy.  ^f  Louis  that  lic  did  not  prevent  tliat  worst 

of  usages  by  which  the  basest  slaves  obtained  the  high- 
est di^rnities  of  the  Church.  He  followed  the  fatal 
example  of  Jeroboam,  '  who  made  of  the  lowest  of  the 

people  priests  of  the  high  places And  this  thing 

became  sin  unto  the  house  of  Jeroboam,  even  to  cut  it 
off  and  to  destroy  it  from  the  face  of  the  earth.'  No 
sooner  have  such  men  attained  elevation  than  they 
throw  off  their  meekness  and  humility,  give  loose 
to  their  passions,  become  quarrelsome,  evil-speaking, 
ruling  men's  minds  by  alternate  menaces  and  flatteries. 
Their  first  object  is  to  raise  their  families  from  their 
servile  condition  :  to  some  they  give  a  good  education. 


Chap.  II.  LOW-BORN  CLERGY.  639 

others  they  contrive  to  marry  into  noble  families.  No 
one  can  lead  a  quiet  life  who  resents  their  demands  and 
intrigues.  Their  relatives,  thus  advanced,  treat  the 
older  nobles  with  disdain,  and  behave  with  the  utmost 
pride  and  insolence.  The  apostolic  canon  is  obsolete, 
that,  if  a  bishop  has  poor  relations,  they  should  receive 
alms  like  the  rest  of  the  poor,  and  nothing  more." 
Thegan  devoutly  wishes  that  God  would  put  an  end  to 
this  execrable  usage.^  In  all  this  there  nmy  have  been 
truth,  but  truth  spoken  in  bitterness  by  the  wounded 
pride  of  caste.  These  ecclesiastics  were  probably  the 
best  and  the  worst  of  the  clergy.  There  were  those 
who  rose  by  the  virtues  of  saints,  by  that  austere  and 
gentle  piety,  by  that  winning  evangelic  charity,  united 
with  distinguished  abilities,  which  is  sure  of  sympathy 
and  admiration  in  the  darkest  times  :  and  those  who 
rose  by  the  vices  of  slaves,  selfishness,  cunning,  adula- 
tion, intrigue,  by  the  worldly  abilities  which  in  such 
times  so  easily  assume  the  mask  of  religion.  Now, 
however,  all  the  higher  clergy,  of  gentle  or  low  birth, 
seem  to  have  joined  the  confederates  against  the  Em- 
peror. Ebbo  of  Rheims,  Agobard  of  Lyons,  Barnard 
of  Vienne,  Heribald  of  Auxerre,  Hilduin  of  Beauvais, 
are  united  with  Jesse  of  Amiens  and  the  indefatigable 
Wala.  Afterwards  appear  also,  with  Lothair  at  Com- 
j)iegne,  Bartholomew  of  Narbonne,  Otgar  of  Mentz, 
Ehas  of  Troyes,  Joseph  of  Evreux. 

At  length  —  after  many  vicissitudes,  hostilities,  ne- 
gotiations, in  which  Louis,  under  the  absolute  control 
of  the  ambitious  Judith,  seemed  determined  to  depress 

1  "  Jamdudum  ilia  pessima  consuetude  erat,  ut  ex  vilissimis  servis  tianf 
pummi  Pontitices  .  .  .  et  ideo  omnipotens  Deus  cum  regibus  e.t  principibu? 
banc  pe.ssimam  consuetudiiiem  amodo  et  deinceps  eradicare  et  sullocaw 
lignetur,  ut  amplius  non  fiat  in  popuio  Cliristiauo.     Amen !  " 


540  LATm  CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V. 

his  elder  sons  to  advance  the  young  Charles  (he  had 
now  named  him  King  of  Aquitaine)  —  tlie  armies  of 
the  Emperor  and  of  his  rebellious  sons  (all  three  sons 
were  now  in  arms)  stood  in  array  against  each  other 
on  the  plains  of  Rothfeld  in  Alsace,  at  no  great  dis- 
civiiwar.  taucc  from  Strasburg.  The  Pope  was  an- 
nounced as  in  the  camp  of  the  King  of  Italy. 

Pope  Gregory  ^  l  o  j 

IV-  Tliis    Pope   was    Gregory   IV.,   by   birth   a 

Roman.  Eugenius  had  been  succeeded  by  Valentinus, 
who  died  five  weeks  after  his  accession.  Gregory  IV. 
had  then  ascended  the  papal  throne,  with  the  sanction 
of  the  King  of  Italy,  Lothair.^  The  Pope  may  have 
placed  himself  in  this  unseemly  position,  supporting 
rebellious  sons  against  the  authority  of  their  father, 
either  from  the  desire  of  courting  the  favor  of  Lothair, 
who  was  all-powerful  in  Italy;  or,  it  may  be  hoped, 
with  the  more  becoming  purpose  of  interposing  his  me- 
diation, and  putting  an  end  to  this  unnatural  conflict. 

But  the  Emperor  Louis  and  the  clergy  of  his  party 
Field  of  Lies,  beheld  in  Gregory  an  avowed  enemy.  He 
addressed  a  strong  letter  to  the  Frankish  hierarchy 
assembled  at  Worms.  Gregory's  answer  was  in  the 
haughty  tone  of  later  times  :  it  was  suggested  by 
Wala,^  now  again  in  the  camp  of  the  foes  of  Louis. 

1  "  Non  prius  ordinatus  est,  quam  legatus  Imperatoris  Romani  venit  et 
eloctionem  populi  qualis  esset  examinavit."  — Eginhard,  p.  390. 

2  "  Unde  ei  dedimus  (Wala,  &c.)  nonnullaSS.  Patrum  auctoritate  forma- 
tii  priedecessorumque  suorum  conscripta,  quibus  nullus  contradicere  possit, 
rjuod  ejus  esset  potestas,  imo  Dei  ct  B.  Petri  apostoli,  suaque  auctoritas  ire, 
mittere  ad  omnes  gentes  pro  fide  Christi,  et  pace  ecclesiarum,  pro  prtedica- 
tiono  evangelii  et  assertione  veritatis,  et  in  eo  esset  omnis  auctcritas  B. 
Petri  exceilens  et  potestas  viva,  a  quo  oporteret  universos  judicari  ita  at 
ipse  a  nemine  judicandus  esset."  — Vit.  Walje,  xvi.  It  is  curious  to  find 
the  Pope,  no  humble  Pope,  needing  this  prompting  from  a  Frankish  monk, 
a  higher  High  Churchman  than  the  Pope.  Yet  I  see  nothing  here  of  tha 
false  Decretals. 


Chap.  II  POPE  GREGORY  IV.  541 

But  tlie  enmity  of  the  Pope  was  not  so  dangerous  as 
what  he  called  his  friendly  mediation.  He  appeared 
suddenly  in  the  camp  of  Louis.  The  clergy,  Fulco 
the  chief  chaplain,  and  the  bishops,  had  the  boldness  to 
declare  that,  if  he  came  to  threaten  them  and  their 
Imperial  master  with  excommunication,  they  would  in 
their  turn  excommunicate  him,  and  send  him  back  to 
Italy .^  There  were  even  threats  that  they  would  de- 
pose him.  Even  the  meek  Emperor  received  the  Pope 
with  cold  courtesy,  and  without  the  usual  honors.  He 
had  summoned  him  indeed,  but  rather  as  a  vassal  than 
as  a  mediator.  The  Pope  passed  several  days  in  the 
Imperial  camp.  Other  influences  were  likewise  at 
work.  Unaccountably,  imperceptibly,  the  army  of 
Louis  melted  away  like  a  heap  of  snow.  The  June  29. 
nobles,  the  ecclesiastics,  the  troops,  gradually  fell  oft* 
and  joined  his  sons.  Louis  found  himself  encircled 
only  by  a  few  faithiul  followers.^  "  Go  ye  also  to  my 
sons,"  said  the  gentle  Louis  ;  "  no  one  shall  lose  life  or 
limb  in  my  behalf."  ^  Weeping  they  left  him.  Ever 
after  this  ignominious  place  was  named  Liigenfeld,  the 
field  of  falsehood.*^ 

The  Emperor,  Judith  his  Queen,  and  their  youn^ 
son  Charles,  were  now  the  prisoners  of  Lothair.  The 
Emperor  was  at  first  treated  with  some  marks  of  re- 
spect.    Judith  was  sent  into  Italy,  and  imprisoned  in 

1  *'  Sed  si  excommunicans  advenerit,  excommunicatus  abiret,  cum  aliier 
se  habeat  antiquorum  auctoritas  canonum."  —  Thegan. 

2  Of  these  were  four  bishops,  his  brother  Drogo  of  Metz,  Modoin  of 
Autun,  Wilerich  of  Bremen,  Aldric  of  Mons. 

8  "  Ite  ad  filios  meos,iiolo  ut  uUus  propter  mevitam  aut  membra  dimittat. 
nii  infusi  lacrymis  recedebant  ab  eo."  —  Thegan,  c.  xlii. 

4  "  Qui  ab  eo  quod  ibi  gestum  est  perpetua  est  ignominianotatus  ut  vow*- 
tur  campus  mentitus."  —  Astronom.  Vit.  Thegan  calls  it  "  campus  mcu 
rtacii." 


.'^42  LATIN    CimiSTIANITY.  Boor  V. 

the  fortress  of  Tortona.  The  boy  was  conveyed  to  the 
abbey  of  Priim  :  probably  on  account  of  his  youth  he 
escaped  the  tonsure.  The  sons  divided  the  Empire  ; 
the  Pope,  it  is  said,  in  great  sorrow  returned  to  Rome.^ 
Lothair  was  a  man  of  cruelty,  but  he  either  feared 
or  scrupled  to  take  the  life  of  his  father.  Yet  he  and 
his  noble  and  episcopal  partisans  could  not  but  dread 
another  reaction  in  favor  of  the  gentle  Emperor.  A 
Diet  was  held  at  Compiegne.  They  determined  to 
incapacitate  him  by  civil  and  ecclesiastical  degradation 
for  the  resumption  of  his  royal  office.  They  compelled 
Oct  833.  him  to  perform  public  penance  in  the  church 
of  St.  M^dard,  at  Soissons.  There  the  Emperor,  the 
father  of  three  kings,  before  the  shrine  which  con- 
tained the  relics  of  St.  Medard,  and  of  St.  Sebastian 
the  Martyr,  laid  down  upon  the  altar  his  armor  and 
his  imperial  attire,  put  on  a  dark  mourning  robe,  and 
read  the  long  enforced  confession  of  his  crimes.  Eight 
weary  articles  were  repeated  by  his  own  lips.  I.  He 
confessed  himself  guilty  of  sacrilege  and  homicide,  as 
having  broken  the  solemn  oath  made  on  a  former  occa- 
sion before  the  clergy  and  the  people  ;  guilty  of  the 
blood  of  his  kinsmen,  especially  of  Prince  Bemhard 
(whose  punishment,  extorted  by  the  nobles,  had  been 
mitigated  by  Louis).  II.  He  confessed  himself  guilty 
Penance  of  ^^  P^rjury,  uot  Only  by  the  violation  of  his 
^o"is.  Q^j^  oaths,  but  by  compelling  others  to  for- 

swear themselves  through  his  frequent  changes  in  the 
partition  of  the  Empire.  III.  He  confessed  himself 
guilty  of  a  sin  against  God,  by  having  made  a  military 
expedition  during  Lent,  and  having  held  a  Diet  on  a 
high  festival.      IV.    He   confessed   himself  guilty  of 

1  "Cum  maximo  mocrore."  — Astronom.  Vit. 


Chap.  U.  PENANCE  OF  LOUIS.  548 

severe  judgments  against  the  partisans  of  his  sons  — 
whose  hves  he  had  spared  by  his  merciful  intervention ! 
V.  He  confessed  himself  again  cmilty  of  encourao-ing 
perjury,  by  permitting  especially  the  Empress  Judith 
to  clear  herself  by  an  oath.  VI.  He  confessed  him- 
self guihy  of  all  the  slaughter,  pillage,  and  sacrilege 
committed  during  the  civil  wars.  VH.  He  confessed 
himself  guilty  of  having  excited  those  wars  by  his  arbi- 
trary ])artitions  of  the  Empire.  VIII.  And  lastly,  of 
having,  by  his  general  incapacity,  brought  the  Emj^ire, 
of  which  he  was  the  guardian,  to  a  state  of  total  ruin. 
Having  rehearsed  this  humiliating  lesson,  the  Emperor 
laid  the  parchment  on  the  altar,  was  stripped  of  his 
military  belt,  which  was  likewise  placed  there  ;  and 
having  put  oiF  his  worldly  dress,  and*  assumed  the  garb 
of  a  penitent,  was  esteemed  from  that  time  incapaci- 
tated from  all  civil  acts. 

The  most  memorable  part  of  this  memorable  transac- 
tion is,  that  it  was  arranged,  conducted,  ac-  The  clergy, 
complished  in  the  presence  and  under  the  authority  of 
the  clergy.  The  permission  of  Lothair  is  slightly  inti- 
mated ;  but  the  act  was  avowedly  intended  to  display 
the  strength  of  the  ecclesiastical  power,  the  punish- 
ment justly  incurred  by  those  who  are  disobedient  to 
sacerdotal  admonition.^  Thus  the  hierarchy  assumed 
cognizance  not  over  the  religious  delinquencies  alone, 
but  over  the  civil  misconduct  of  the  sovereign.  T}>ey 
imposed  an  ecclesiastical  penance,  not  solely  for  his  as- 
serted violation  of  his  oaths  before  the  altar,  but  for  the 
ruin  of  the  Empire.     It  is  strange  to  see  the  pious  sov- 

1  "  Manifestare  juxta  injunctum  nobis  ministerium  curavimus,  qualis  sit 
vigor  et  potestas  sive  ministerium  sacerdotale,  et  quali  mereatur  damnari 
Bententia,  qui  monitis  sacerdotalibus  obedii-e  noluerit."  — Acta  Exautora- 
tionis  Ludov.  Pii,  apud  Bouquet,  v.  p.  243. 


544  LATm    CHRISTIANITY.  Book  V. 

ereign,  the  one  devout  and  saintly  of  his  race,  thus 
degraded    by  these    haughty   Churchmen,  now,  both 
high-born  and  low-born,  concurring  against  him.    The 
Pope  had  ostensibly,  perhaps  sincerely,  hoped  to  recon- 
cile the  conflicting  parties.    His  mission  may  have  been 
designed  as  one   of  peace,  but   the  inevitable  conse- 
quence of  his  appearance  in  the  rebellious  camp  could 
not  but  be  to  the  disadvantage  of  Louis.      He  seemed 
at  least  to  befi'iend  the  son  in  his  unnatural  warfare 
against  his  father.     Agobard,  Bishop  of  Lyons,  issued 
A  fierce  apology  for  the  rebellious  sons  of  Louis,  filled 
with  accusations  of  incontinence  against  the  Empress 
Judith.^     Her  beauty  and  the  graces  of  her  manner 
had  even  seduced  the  admiration  of  holy  priests  and 
bishops  towards  this  Delilah,  who  had  dared  to  resume 
her  royal  dignity  and  conjugal  rights  after  having  taken 
the  veil:  to  her  he  attributes   all  the  weaknesses  of 
the  too  easy  monarch.     In  the  words  of  the  aristocratic 
Thegan,  all  the  bishops  were  the  enemies  of  Louis, 
especially  those  whom  he  had  raised  from  a  servile  con- 
dition, or  who  were  sprung  from  barbarous  races.     But 
there  was  one  on  whom  Thegan  pours  out  all  his  in- 
dignation.    One  was  chosen,  an  impure  and  most  inhu- 
man man,  to  execute  their  cruel  decrees,  a  man  of  servile 
origin,  Ebbo,  the  Archbishop  of  Rheims.     "  Unheard- 
of  words  !     Unheard-of  deeds  !     They  took  the  sword 
from  his  thigh  ;  by  the  judgment  of   his  servants  ho 
was  clad  in  sackcloth  ;  the  prophecy  of  Jeremiah  w^as 
fulfilled  — '  Slaves  have  ruled  over  us.'  ^     Oh,  what  a 
return  for  his  goodness  !     He  made  thee  fi-ee,  noble  he 

'  "  Domina  Palatii  .  .  .  ludat  pueriliter,  spectantibus  etiam  aliquibus  de 
ordine  sacerdotali  et  plerisque  conludentibus,  qiii  secundum  formam  quara 
apostolus  scribat  de  eligendis  episcopis  ..." 

3  Lamentat.  v.  8. 


0HA1-.  II.  NEW  REVOLUTION.  045 

could  nor,  for  that  an  enfranchised  slave  cannot  be. 
He  clothed  thee  m  purple  and  in  pall,  thou  clothedst 
him  in  sackcloth  ;  he  raised  thee  to  the  highest  bishop- 
ric, thou  by  unjust  judgment  hast  expelled  him  from 

the  throne  of  his  ancestors O  Lord  Jesus  I 

where  was  thy  destroying  angel  when  these  things 
were  done  ?  "  Thegan  goes  on  to  quote  Virgil,  and 
says  that  the  poet  would  want  the  combined  powers  of 
Homer,  Virgil,  and  Ovid  to  describe  the  guilt  of  these 
deedL'..  The  miseries  of  Louis  were  greater  than  those 
of  Job  liimself.  The  comforters  of  Job  were  kings, 
those  of  Louis  slaves.^ 

It  IS  astonishing  to  find  that  this  was  the  same  Ebbo, 
Archbishop  of  Rheims,  who  undertook  a  perilous  mis- 
sion to  the  heathen  Northmen,  brought  the  Danish 
King  to  the  court  of  Louis  to  receive  baptism,  and  is 
celebrated  by  the  monkish  poet  of  the  day  in  the  most 
glowing  strains  for  his  saintly  virtues.^ 

This  strange  and  sudden  revolution,  which  had  left 
the  Emperor  at  the  mercy  of  his  son,  was  followed  by 
another  no  less  sudden  and  strange.  No  doubt  the 
pride  of  many  warlike  nobles  was  insulted  by  this  dis- 
play of  ecclesiastical  presumption.  The  degradation  of 
the  Emperor  was  the  degradation  of  the  Empire.  The 
character  of  Louis,  however,  could  not  but  command 
the  fond  attachment  of  many.  The  people  felt  the 
profoundest  sympathy  in  his  fate ;  and  even  among  the 
clergy  there  were  those  who  could  not  but  think  these 

1  "  Qui  beato  Job  insultabant  Reges  fuisse  leguntar  in  libro  beati  Tho- 
bise;  qui  ilium  vero  affligebant,  legales  ejus  servi  erant,  et  patrum  suo- 
rum."  —  Thegan.  Vit.  Ludov.  xliv. 

2  Ermoldi  Nigelli,  Carm.  iv.  Ermoldus  makes  Ltrais  deliver  a  charge  to 
Ebbo,  when  setting  <  ut  to  convert  the  Normans.  Munter,  Geschichte  der 
Einf  iihrung  des  Christenthiims  in  Daneraark  und  Norwegen,  has  collected 
the  passages  about  Ebbo's  mission.  —  Page  238  et  seg. 

VOL.  II  35 


646  LATIN    CHRISTIAmTY.  Book  V. 

insults  an  ungracious  and  unchristian  return  for  his 
piety  to  God,  his  tenderness  to  man,  his  respect  for  the 
ecclesiastical  order.^  A  reA^ilsion  took  place  in  the 
whole  nation.  The  other  sons  of  the  Emperor,  Pepin 
and  Louis,  had  taken  no  part  in  this  humiliation  of 
their  father,  and  expressed  their  strong  commiseration 
of  his  sufferings,  their  reprobation  of  the  cruelty  and 
insult  heaped  upon  him.  The  murmurs  of  the  people 
were  too  loud  to  be  mistaken*  Leavino;  his  father  at 
St.  Denys,  Lothair  fled  to  Burgundy.  No  sooner  had 
he  retired  than  the  whole  Empire  seemed  to  assemble, 
in  loyal  emulation,  around  the  injured  Louis. 

But  Louis  would  not  resume  his  power,  and  his  arms, 
the  symbol  of  his  power,  but  with  the  consent  of  the 
Bishops.  His  subjects'  reviving  loyalty  could  not  re- 
move the  ecclesiastical  incapacitation.  But  bishops 
were  not  wanting  among  those  who  thronged  to  renew 
their  allegiance.^  Louis  was  solemnly  regirt  with  his 
A.D.  834.  arms  by  the  hands  of  some  of  these  prelates, 
March  1.  ^^^^  amid  the  universal  joy  of  the  people,  the 
Pious  resumed  the  Empire.  So  great  was  the  burst 
of  feeling,  that,  in  the  language  of  his  biographer,  the 
very  elements  seemed  to  sympathize  in  the  deliverance 
of  the  Emperor  from  his  unnatural  son.  The  weather, 
which  had  been  wet  and  tempestuous,  became  clear  and 
serene.  Once  more  the  Empress  Judith  returned  to 
court ;  ^  and  Louis  might  again  enjoy  his  quiet  hunting 

1  "Nithard  says,  "  Plebs  autem  non  modica,  quos  prjesens  erat,  etiamque 
Lothario  pro  patre  vim  inferre  volebat."  — Apud  Bouquet,  p.  13.  The  As- 
tronomer says  on  one  occasion,  "  Miseratio  tamen  hujusce  rei  et  talis  rerum 
permutationis,  exceptis  authoribus,  omnes  habebat."  —  c.  39. 

2  Among  these,  Otgar  of  Mentz,  who  had  been  present  at  his  penance 
m  Soisfeons. 

8  The  empress  was  brought  from  Tortona  by  officious  nobles,  eagei  to 
merit  the  gratitude  of  the  restored  emperor. 


CnAP.  II.  LOUIS  RESUMES  THE  EMPIRE.  647 

and  fishing,  and  his  ascetic  usages,  in  the  forest  of  Ar- 
dennes. Yet  it  was  not  a  bloodless  revolution.  The 
armies  of  Louis  and  Lothair  encountered  Aug.  834. 
near  Chalons.  That  unfortunate  town  was  burned  by 
the  victorious  Lothair,  whose  savage  ferocity  did  not 
spare  even  females.  Not  content  with  the  massacre  of 
a  son  of  Duke  Bernhard  in  cold  blood,  his  sister  was 
dragged  from  her  convent,  shut  up  in  a  wine-cask,  and 
thrown  into  the  Saone.^ 

But  the  year  after  a  pestilence  made  such  ravages  in 
the  army  of  Lothair,  that  he  was  obliged  to  a.b.  836. 
return  into  Italy.  Before  long  he  had  to  deplore  the 
death  of  almost  all  his  great  Transalpine  partisans, 
Wala,  Count  Hugo,  Matfrid,  Jesse  of  Amiens.  Dur- 
ino;  this  time  a  Diet  at  Thionville  had  annulled  the 
proceedings  of  that  at  Compiegne.  In  a  sol-  Feb.  28. 
emn  assembly  at  Metz,  eight  archbishops  ^  and  thirty- 
five  bishops  condemned  the  acts  of  themselves  and  their 
rebellious  brethren  at  that  assembly.  In  the  cathedral 
of  Metz,  seven  archbishops  chanted  the  seven  prayers 
of  reconciliation,  and  the  Emperor  was  then  held  to 
be  absolutely  reinvested  in  his  civil  and  religious  su- 
premacy. At  a  later  Diet  at  Cremieux,  near  Lyons, 
Ebbo  of  Rheims  (the  chief  chaplain,  Fulco,  the  faith- 
ful adherent  of  Louis,  who  had  defied  the  June,  835. 
Pope  in  his  cause,  aspired  to  the  metropolitan  see)  sub- 
mitted to  deposition.^  He  was'  imprisoned  in  the  abbey 
of  Fulda.  Yet  Rome  must  be  consulted  before  the 
degradation  is  complete,  at  all  events  before  the  succes- 

1  "  More  maleficorum,"  says  Nithard.    No  doubt  the  punishment  of  a 
witch. — Apnd  Bouquet,  p.  13. 

2  Mentz,  Ireves,  Rouen,  Tours,  Sens,  Bourges,  Aries,  even  Ebbo  of 
Bheims. 

«  Funck,  p.  153,  with  authorities. 


648  LATIN  CHRISTIAOTTT.  Book  V, 

sor  is  consecrated.  Agobard  of  Lyons  was  condemr/ed. 
The  Archbishop  of  Vienne  appeared  not ;  he  incurred 
sentence  of  deposition  for  his  contumacy.  The  Arch- 
bishop of  Narbonne,  and  other  bishops,  were  deposed. 
A  new  division  of  the  Empire  took  place  at  a  later  diet 
at  Worms,  in  which  Lothair  received  only  Italy :  the 
Transalpine  dominions  were  divided  between  the  three 
other  sons,  Pepin,  Louis,  and  Charles  ;  the  Empress 
Judith  secured  the  first  step  to  equality  in  favor  of  her 
8on.^ 

The  few  remaining  years  of  the  life  of  Louis  we'e 
still  distracted  by  the  unallayed  feuds  in  his  family.  A 
May,  visit  of  devotion  to  Rome  was  prevented  by  a 

A.D.  837.  descent  of  the  Normans,  who  had  long  rav- 
aged the  coasts  of  France.  A  new  partition  was  made 
at  Nimeguen ;  Charles  was  solemnly  crowned.  The 
June  838.  Emprcss  Judith  contrived  to  bring  about  a 
Sept.  838.  reconciliation  between  Lothair  and  his  father, 
to  the  advantage  of  her  own  son  Charles,^  and  a 
division  of  interests  between  Lothair  and  his  brothers, 
Louis  of  Bavaria  and  Pepin  of  Aquitaine.  Pepin, 
Dec.  13, 838.  King  of  Aquitaiuc,  died,  and  the  claims  of  his 
May  30, 839.  children  to  the  succession  were  disregarded. 
Judith  knit  still  closer  the  alliance  of  the  Emperor 
and  the  elder  son.  Yet  one  more  partition.  With  the 
exception  of  Bavaria,  with  which  Louis  was  obliged 
to  be  content,  the  Empire  was  divided  between  Lothair 
and  the  son  of  Judith. 

The  death  of  Louis  was  in  harmony  with  his  life. 
In  a  state  of  great  weakness  (an  eclipse  of  the  sun  had 
thrown  him  into  serious  alarm,  and  from  that  day  he 

1  Carta  Divisionis,  Bouquet,  vi.  411 ;  compaie  Funck,  1 58,  9. 

2  Astn^nomus,  1.  ii,    Nithard,  p.  14,  lib.  i. 


CiiAP.  II.  DEATH  OF  LOUIS.  549 

began  to  faiP),  he  persisted  in  strictly  observ-  ^^ys 
ing  tlie  forty  days  of  Lent;  tlie  Eucharist  was  ^•»-^- 
his  only  food.     Almost  his  last  words  were  expressive 
of  forgiveness  to  his  son  Louis,  who  was  in  arms  against 
him,2  and  "  bringing  down  his  gray  hairs  in  sorrow  to 
the  gi'ave."     He  continued,  while  he  had  strength,  to 
hold  the   crucifix,  which  contained  a  splinter  of   the 
true  cross,  to  his  breast ;  when  his  strength  failed,  he 
left  that  office  to  Drogo,  Bishop  of  Metz,  his  natural 
brother,   who,  with   the  Archbishops  of   Treves  and 
Mentz,  attended  his  dying  hours.     His  last  words  were 
the  German,  aus,  aus.     His  attendants  supposed  that 
he  was  bidding  an  evil  spirit,  of  whose  pres-  j^^^  20, 
ence  he   was   conscious,   avaunt.     He   then  ^'^'  ^^' 
lifted  up  his  eyes  to  heaven,   and,  with  serenity  ap- 
proaching to  a  smile,  expired.^ 

Christian  history  has  dwelt  at  some  length  on  the 
life  of  this  monarch.  His  appellation,  the  Pious,  shows 
what  the  religion  was  which  was  held  in  especial  honor 
in  his  day,  its  strength  and  its  weakness,  its  virtue,  and 
what  in  a  monarch  can  hardly  escape  the  name  of  vice. 
It  displays  the  firmer  establishment  of  a  powerful  and 
aristocratic  clergy,  not  merely  in  that  part  of  Europe 
which  became  the  French  monarchy,  but  also  in  great 
part  of  trans-Rhenane  Germany  ;  the  manner  in  which 
they  attained  and  began  to  exercise  that  power ;  the 
foundation,  in  short,  of  great  national  Churches,  in 
acknowledged   subordination,  if   not   always  in   rigid 

1  Annales  Francorum,  Fuldenses,  Bertiniani.  &ib  ann. 

2  Louis  of  Bavaria  had  not  rushed  into  war  without  provocation.  The 
Emperor  had  at  leaat  sanctioned  the  last  partition,  which  left  him  a  narrow 
kingdom,  while  Lothair  and  his  younger  brother  shared  the  realm  of 
Charlemagne. 

*  Louis  died  on  an  island  of  the  Rhine,  opposite  to  Ingelheim. 


650  LAllN   CHKlSTIANnT.  Book  V. 

obedience,  to  the  See  of  Rome,  but  also  mingling,  at 
*imes  with  overruling  weight,  in  all  the  temporal  affairs 
of  each  kingdom. 

But  throughout  the  reign  of  Louis  the  Pious,  not 
iDiage-wor-     oulv  did  the  Empire  assert  this  supremacy  in 

ship  in  the  T         .  .         ,  /  1         rv>    .  r^  . 

West.  ecciesiastical  as  ni  temporal  aiian-s  ;    Teutonic 

independence  maintained  its  ground,  more  perhaps  than 
its  ground,  on  the  great  question  of  image-worship. 
A.i».  824.  The  Council  of  Paris  enforced  the  solemn 
decree  of  the  Council  of  Frankfort.  The  Iconoclastic 
Byzantine  Emperor,  Michael  the  Stammerer,  entered 
into  negotiations  with  the  Western  Emperor,  of  which 
the  manifest  object  was  to  compel  the  Pope  at  least 
to  amity,  and  to  recede  from  the  decrees  of  the  sec- 
ond Council  of  Nicea  asserted  by  his  predecessors. 
The  ambassadors  of  Constantinople  appeared  in  Rome, 
accompanied  by  ambassadors  from  Louis.  The  Pope 
Eugenius,  who  owed  his  Popedom  to  the  Franks,  who 
sat  on  his  throne  only  through  their  support,  was  in 
great  embarrassment;  he  was  obliged  to  elude  what  he 
Claudius  of  dared  not  oppose.  At  no  other  time  could  a 
Turm.  bishop  like  Claudius  of  Turin  have  acted  the 

fearless  Iconoclast  in  an  Italian  city,  removed  all  im- 
ages and  pictures,  condemned  even  the  cross,  and  lived 
and  died,  if  not  unassailed  by  angry  controversialists, 
yet  unrebuked  by  any  commanding  authority,  unde- 
graded,  and  in  the  full  honors  of  a  Bishop.  Claudius 
was  a  Spaniard  who  acquired  fame  as  a  commentator 
on  the  scriptures  in  the  court  of  Louis  at  Aquitaine. 
Among  the  first  acts  of  Louis  as  Emperor  was  the  pro- 
mcjtion  of  Claudius  to  the  bishopric  of  Tui'in.  The 
stem  reformer  at  once  began  to  wage  war  on  what  he 
deemed  the  superstitions  of  the  people.     Claudius  went 


Chap.  n.  CLAUDIUS  OF  TURIN.  551 

muGh  farther  than  the  temperate  decrees  of  tlie  Council 
of  Frankfort.  Images  were  to  him  idols  ;  the  worship 
of  tlie  cross  godlessness.  Turin  was  overawed  by  his 
vigorous  authority.  A  strong  party,  not  the  most 
numerous,  espoused  his  cause.  He  was  not  unopposed. 
The  Abbot  Theodemir,  of  a  monastery  near  Nismes ; 
Dungal,  a  Scot,  a  learned  theologian  of  Pavia ;  Jonas, 
Bishop  of  Orleans,  denounced  his  doctrines.  But 
Theodemir  ingenuously  confesses  that  most  of  the 
great  Transalpine  prelates  thought  with  Claudius.^ 
Agobard  of  Lyons  published  a  famous  treatise,  if  not 
in  defence  of  Claudius,  maintaining  in  their  utmost 
strength  the  decrees  of  Frankfort. 

But  it  was  not  on  image-worship  alone  that  Claudius 
nf  Turin  advanced  opinions  premature  and  anticipative 
of  later  times.  The  apostolic  office  of  St.  Peter  ceased 
with  the  life  of  St.  Peter.  The  power  of  the  keys 
passed  to  the  whole  episcopal  order.  The  Bishop  of 
Rome  had  apostolic  power  only  in  so  far  as  he  led  an 
apostolic  life. 

It  is  difficult  to  suppose  but  that  some  tradition  or 
succession  to  the  opinions  of   Claudius  of  Turin  lay 
concealed  in  the  valleys  of  the  Piedmontese  Alps,  ta 
appear  again  after  many  centuries. 
1  Gfroner,  iu.  p.  736. 


END   OP   VOL.   n. 


Date  Due 

, 

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i 

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