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THE    PSALMS 

IN    HUMAN    LIFE 


UXIFORM   WITH   THIS    VOLUME. 


SCRAMBLES  AMOXGST  THE  ALPS.       Edward  Whymper. 
THE    GREAT    BOER    WAR.  Arthur  Conan  Doyle. 

COLLECTIONS  AND  RECOLLECTIONS.   G.  W.  E.  Russell. 
LIFE    OF    JOHN    NICHOLSON.  Captain  Trotter. 

MEMORIES.  Dean  Hole. 

LIFE    OF    GLADSTONE.  Herbert  W.  Paul. 

WILD  LIFE  IN  A  SOUTHERN  COUNTY.    Richard  J efferies. 
THE    GOLDEN    AGE,  Kenneth  Grahaf?ie. 

ADVENTURES  OF  A  MEMSAHIB.  Sara  Jeannette  Duncan. 
REMINISCENCES.  Sir  Henry  Hawkins. 

THE    FOREST-  Stewart  Edward  White. 

GtJie7'S  to  follow. 


THE  PSALMS 

IN 

HUMAN   LIFE 


BY 


ROWLAND  E.  PROTHERO 
M.V.O. 


THOMAS    NELSON    &    SONS 

LONDON,  EDINBURGH,  DUBLIN 
AND   NEW  YORK 


JOHN  MURRAY,  ALBEMARLE  STREET 

LONDON 


3S 
E7 


LIBRARY 

73263;i 

UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO 


PREFACE. 


Some  of  the  notes,  on  which  the  following  pages  are 
founded,  were  discussed  with  Dean  Stanley  in  1878.  A  list 
of  historical  instances  of  the  use  of  the  Psalms,  made  by  the 
Dean  himself,  was  sent  to  me  in  1895  by  the  Right  Rev. 
H.  H.  Montgomery,  then  Bishop  of  Tasmania.  To  it  I  am 
indebted  for  the  reference  (page  320)  to  the  reopening  of 
the  Cathedral  at  Moscow  after  the  French  invasion  of  181 2. 

Since  my  collection  of  notes  was  begun,  the  ground  has 
been  partly  occupied  by  the  Rev.  John  Ker,  D.D.  (1886), 
and  the  Rev,  Charles  L.  Marson  (1895).  But  Dr.  Ker's 
book  was  unfinished,  and  both  he  and  Mr.  Marson  followed 
a  method  of  treatment  different  from  that  which  is  adopted 
in  the  following  pages. 

In  Appendix  A  will  be  found  a  general  list  of  the  principal 
authorities.  Appendix  B  arranges  the  historical  instances, 
which  in  the  text  are  grouped,  more  or  less,  in  order  of  time, 
under  the  particular  Psalms  that  are  quoted.  The  Index 
contains,  in  addition  to  the  ordinary  matter,  references  to  the 
books  from  which  the  historical  instances  are  derived. 

For  assistance  in  the  preparation  of  Appendix  A,  and  for 
the  Index,  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  G.  H.  Holden,  Assistant- 
Librarian  of  All  Souls  College,  Oxford,  and  to  Mr.  C.  Nolan 
Ferrall.     To  Mr.  Holden  I  owe  Appendix  B. 

ROWLAND    E.    PROTHERO. 

6th  Scpiember  igoj. 


CONTENTS. 


I.  General 13 

The  Psalms  as  the  mirror  of  the  human 
soul ;  their  association  with  national  and 
individual  life  ;  their  universality  ;  not 
limited  to  any  age,  nation,  or  variety  of 
Christian  creed  ;  their  translation  into 
verse  ;  their  influence  in  literature  ;  the 
first  of  religious  autobiographies  ;  power 
over  human  lives  in  all  ages  of  history. 

II.  Early  Ages  of  Christl\nity     .       22 

The  Psalms  in  services,  ceremonies,  and 
the  catacombs ;  use  in  persecution — Cris- 
pin and  Crispinian,  Theodore  the  Martyr, 
the  Saracen  convert,  the  Emperor 
Maurice  ;  in  public  worship ;  in  ordi- 
nary life— Origen,  the  family  of  Gregory 
Nazianzen,  Monica ;  on  deathbeds — 
Basil  the  Great,  Ambrose,  Paulinus  of 
Nola,  Cyril  of  Alexandria  ;  influence  of 
the  Psalms  in  Monasticism— the  Eg>-p- 
tian  Anchorities,  Basil  and  monastic 
communities  of  the  East,  Athanasius  and 
the  West,  Jerome  and  Paula,  Martin  of 
Tours;  the  Psalms  in  action— struggle 
between  Church  and  State— Athanasius 
and  Constantius,  Basil  and  Valens, 
Ambrose  and  Theodosius  ;  the  Psalms 
in  human  thought— "  Confessions"  of 
Auizustine. 


C  ONTE  NTS— Continued. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

III.  The  Formation  of  Nations       .       47 

The  invasions  of  the  barbarians  ;  supre- 
macy of  moral  power  over  brute  force  ; 
Totila  and  Benedict ;  the  Rule  of  Bene- 
dict ;  monastic  missionaries  ;  translation 
of  the  Psalms  into  Sclavonic;  the  Psalms 
in  the  lives  of  Columban,  Gall,  Patrick, 
Columba,  Cuthbert ;  Irish  and  British 
Christianity — Battle  of  Mold,  Kentigern, 
Bangor;  Roman  Christianity — the  island 
of  Death  and  Silence ;  Gregor>'  the 
Great ;  coming  of  Augustine  ;  introduc- 
tion of  Benedictine  Rule  ;  its  foundation 
on  the  Psalms ;  its  establishment  in 
England  —  Benedict  -Biscop,  Wilfrid, 
Neot,  Dunstan ;  universality  of  the  Rule. 

IV.  The  Middle  Ages      .         .         .71 

The  battle  of  Vougle  ;  the  Psalms  in 
ecclesiastical  or  semi-ecclesiastical  his- 
tory: (i)  The  Papacy  and  the  Empire- 
Charlemagne,  Gregor}'  VII.  and  Henry 
IV.,  Anselm  and  William  Rufus,  Henrj- 
II.  and  Thomas  a  Becket,  Alexander  III. 
and  Frederick  Barbarossa ;  (2)  pilgrim- 
ages ;  (3)  crusades :  Archbishop  Bald- 
win, Richard  I.,  Henry  V. — Abbot 
Adelme  at  the  Tagus,  Cardinal  Ximenes, 
Demetrius  of  the  Don  ;  (4)  the  religious 
revival ;  St.  Bernard ;  Stephen  Harding 
and  the  Cistercian  reform — Citeaux  and 
Fountains  Abbey  ;  St.  Francis  of  Assisi 
and  the  Franciscans  ;  the  Psalms  in  secular 
histor)-— William  theConqueror,  Vladimir 
Monomachus,  David  I.  of  Scotland,  Abe- 
lard  and  Heloise,  Louis  IX.  of  France, 
William  Wallace;  in  mediaeval  science; 
in  mediaeval  literature — "De  Imitatione 
Christi,"  "  Di\nna  Commedia,"  "Piers 
Plowman,"  "The  Golden  Legend." 


C  ON  TE  NTS— Continued. 


PAGE 


CHAPTER 

V.  The  Reformation  Era       .         .no 

The  influence  of  the  Psalms  among 
pioneers  of  the  Reformation— Wyclif, 
John  Hus,  Jerome  of  Prague;  among 
medieval  reformers— Savonarola ;  among 
Protestant  leaders— Luther  and  Melanc- 
thon  ;  among  champions  of  the  Papacy 
— the  Emperor  Charles  V. ;  among  dis- 
coverers of  New  Worlds— Christopher 
Columbus ;  among  men  of  the  New 
Learning— Erasmus,  Pico  della  Miran- 
dola,  Sir  Thomas  More,  John  Fisher, 
John  Houghton  ;  among  leaders  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  reaction— Xavier  and 
St.  Teresa ;  among  Protestant  and  Roman 
Catholic  martj-rs — Hooper,  Ridley,  and 
Southwell. 

VL  The  Struggle  between  Protes- 
tant England  and  Ro>l\n 
Catholic  Spain     .  137 

The  Psalms  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  the 
English  Prayer-book  version  ;  metrical 
translations— Germany, France, England, 
Scotland  ;  growth  of  the  influence  of  the 
Psalms  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries;  Lady  Jane  Grey;  the  Duke 
of  Suffolk  :  Counts  Egmont  and  Horn  ; 
accession  of  Queen  Elizabeth ;  the 
murder  of  Darnley  ;  execution  of  Mary 
Queen  of  Scots  :  the  Spanish  Armada  ; 
the  Turkev  merchantmen ;  the  wreck  of 
the  Tobig;  the  Earl  of  Essex ;  Burghley ; 
Lord  Bacon  :  Shakespeare ;  Richard 
Hooker;  Bishop  Jewel :  George  Herbert; 
Hooker  on  the  Psalms. 


C  ON  TEN  TS— Continued. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

VII.  The  Huguenots,  15  24-1 598       .     168 

Marot's  "  Psalms"  at  Court ;  the  distinc- 
tive heritage  of  the  Huguenots;  the  power 
of  the  Psalms  in  the  public  and  private 
lives  of  the  Huguenots  —  Palissy  the 
potter,  Calvin,  Theodore  de  Beza,  Rob- 
ert Estienne,  Casaubon,  Jean  Rousseau  ; 
traces  in  modern  France  of  the  struggle 
between  Roman  Catholics  and  Hugue- 
nots ;  beginning  of  the  persecution  of 
Protestants — ^Jean  Leclerc  (1524),  Wolf- 
gang Schuch  (1525);  indecision  of 
Francis  I. ;  the  Huguenot  martyrs  of 
Meaux — ^Jean  Rabec,  massacre  of  Vassy; 
commencement  of  the  Wars  of  Religion 
(1562);  Coligny  at  Noyers  and  Mon- 
contour  ;  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew 
(1572);  Henry  of  Navarre,  flight  from 
Paris  to  Alen9on,  battles  of  Courtras 
and  Chateau  d' Arques ;  Edict  of  Nantes 
{1598). 

VIII.  The      Huguenots,      1600- 1762 

(continued)       .  .  .  .187 

The  Roman  Catholic  reaction — Vincent 
de  Paul,  Fran9ois  de  Sales ;  changed 
conditions  of  the  Huguenot  cause  ;  their 
effect  on  the  character  of  the  Wars  of 
Religion  (1621-1629) — Henri  de  Rohan, 
sieges  of  Montauban  and  La  Rochelle  ; 
the  Roman  Catholic  triumph  and  main- 
tenance of  the  strictest  orthodoxy — Port 
Royal,  Pascal,  Madame  Guyon  ;  edicts 
against  the  Huguenots  and  the  use  of 
the  Psalter ;  the  Vaudois  and  Henri 
Arnaud  ;  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes  (1685)  ;  persecution  of  the 
French  Huguenots  ;  the  rising  in  the 
Cevennes  —  murder     of    Fran9ois     du 


C  ON  TENTS— Continued. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

Chayla,  Cavalier  and  the  Camisards, 
Ballot,  Martignargues  (1704),  Salindres 
(1709);  the  Pastors  of  the  Desert — 
Rang,  Roger,  Benezet,  Rochette  ;  effect 
of  the  Psalms  on  the  virtues  and  defects 
of  the  Huguenots. 

IX.  The  Puritans,   i 600-1 660  .         .210 

The  Pilgrim  Fathers  and  Benjamin 
Franklin  ;  the  Psalms  among  the 
Royalists — ^Jeremy  Taylor,  Bishop  San- 
derson, Strafford,  and  Laud  ;  the  Civil 
War — Marston  Moor,  John  Hampden, 
Charles  I.  at  Newark  ;  Puritanism  as  a 
poetical,  religious,  and  political  force  in 
Milton,  Bunyan,  and  Cromwell. 

X.  The  Scottish  Covenanters  and 

THE  Revolution  of  1688  .  237 

Progress  of  the  Reformation  in  Scotland 
— George  Wishart,  John  Knox,  James 
Melville ;  the  Solemn  League  and  Cove- 
nant (1638) ;  the  restoration  of  Episco- 
pacy (1661-1664)  ;  popular  discontent 
— the  Pentland  rising,  Hugh  M'Kail, 
Drumclog  and  Bothwell  Bridge,  Richard 
Cameron,  Donald  Cargill,  Baillie  of 
Jerviswood,  Alexander  Peden,  James 
Renwick,  the  Wigtown  Martyrs ;  the 
Revolution  of  1688  ;  siege  of  Derry 
(1689). 

XL   1688-1900 268 

Changed  character  of  the  romance  of 
religion  ;  the  Psalms  in  the  lives  of  re- 
ligious leaders  —  Baxter,  Law,  John 
Wesley,  Charles  Wesley,  William  Wil- 
berforce,  Keble,  Manning,  Newman, 
Thomas  Arnold,  Julius  Hare,  Neander, 


C  ONTENTS— Continued. 


Charles  Kingsley,  Stanley,  Chalmers, 
Irving  ;  the  Psalms  in  the  lives  of  men 
of  science — Locke,  Humboldt,  Maine 
de  Biran,  Sir  W.  Hamilton,  Sir  James 
Simpson,  Romanes ;  the  Psalms  in 
literature — Addison,  Cowper,  Boswell, 
Scott,  Byron,  Hogg,  Wordsworth, 
Tennyson,  Matthew  Arnold,  Robert 
Browning,  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning, 
Fitzgerald,  Ruskin,  Carlyle. 

XII.    1 688-1 900  {continued)  . 

The  Psalms  in  philanthropic  movements 
— Prison  Reform  and  John  Howard;  in 
missionary  enterprises — John  Eliot, 
Da\'id  Brainerd,  VVilliam  Carey,  Henry 
Martyn,  Alexander  Duff,  Allen  Gardiner, 
David  Li\*ingstone,  Bishop  Hanning- 
ton ;  in  ordinary  life — Colonel  Gardiner, 
Thomas  Carlyle,  Jane  Welsh  Carlyle  ; 
in  secular  history  —  Brittany  and  La 
Vendue,  the  execution  of  Madame  de 
Noailles,  the  evacuation  of  Moscow  in 
181 2,  the  Revolution  of  1848,  Bourget 
in  the  Franco-German  War  of  1870- 
187 1,  Captain  Conolly  at  Bokhara  and 
Havelock  at  Jellalabad,  Duff,  Edwards, 
and  "Quaker  W^allace "  in  the  Indian 
Mutiny,  the  Boer  War. 

Appendix  A         .         .         .         . 

Principal  authorities. 

Appendix  B         .         .         .         . 

Index  to  the  use  of  particular  Psalms, 

Index  


296 


331 
347 
357 


THE 
PSALMS    IN    HUMAN    LIFE. 


CHAPTER    I. 

GENERAL. 


The  Psalms  as  the  mirror  of  the  human  soul  :  their  association  with 
national  and  individual  lite  ;  their  universality  ;  not  limited  to 
any  age,  nation,  or  variety  of  Christian  creed  ;  their  translation 
into  verse  ;  their  influence  in  literature  ;  the  first  of  religious 
autobiographies  ;   power  over  human  lives  ia  all  ages  of  history. 

ABOVE  the  couch  of  Da\4d,  according  to  Rabbinical 
^  tradition,  there  hung  a  harp.  The  midnight 
breeze,  as  it  rippled  over  the  strings,  made  such  music 
that  the  poet-king  was  constrained  to  rise  from  his  bed. 
and,  till  the  dawTi  flushed  the  eastern  skies,  he  wedded 
words  to  the  strains.  The  poetry  of  that  tradition  is 
condensed  in  the  saying  that  the  Book  of  Psalms  con- 
tains the  whole  music  of  the  heart  of  man,  swept  by  the 
hand  of  his  Maker.  In  it  are  gathered  the  l}Tical  burst 
of  his  tenderness,  the  moan  of  his  penitence,  the  pathos 
of  his  sorrow,  the  triumph  of  his  \4ctory,  the  despair  of 
his  defeat,  the  firmness  of  his  confidence,  the  rapture  of 
his  assured  hope.  In  it  is  presented  the  anatomy  of  all 
parts  of  the  human  soul ;  in  it,  as  Heine  says,  are  col- 
lected "  sunrise  and  sunset,  birth  and  death,  promise 
and  fulfilment — the  whole  drama  of  humanity." 

In  the  Psalms  is  painted  for  all  time,  in  fresh,  unfading 


Z4  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

colours,  the  picture  of  the  moral  warfare  of  man,  often 
baffled  yet  never  wholly  defeated,  struggling  upwards  to 
all  that  is  best  and  highest  in  his  nature,  always  aware 
how  short  of  the  aim  falls  the  attempt,  how  great  is  the 
gulf  that  severs  the  wish  from  its  fulfilment.  In  them 
we  do  not  find  the  innocent  converse  of  man  with  God 
in  the  Garden  of  Eden  ;  if  we  did,  the  book  would  for 
our  fallen  natures  lose  its  value.  On  the  contrary,  it  is 
the  revelation  of  a  soul  deeply  conscious  of  sin,  seeking, 
in  broken  accents  of  shame  and  penitence  and  hope,  to 
renew  personal  communion  with  God,  heart  to  heart, 
thought  to  thought,  and  face  to  face.  It  is  this  which 
gives  to  the  Psalms  their  eternal  truth.  It  is  this  which 
makes  them  at  once  the  breviary  and  the  viaticum  of 
humanity.  Here  are  gathered  not  only  pregnant  state- 
ments of  the  principles  of  religion,  and  condensed  maxims 
of  spiritual  hfe,  but  a  promptuary  of  effort,  a  summary 
of  devotion,  a  manual  of  prayer  and  praise ;  and  all  this 
is  clothed  in  language  which  is  as  rich  in  poetic  beauty 
as  it  is  universal  and  enduring  in  poetic  truth. 

The  Psalms,  then,  are  a  mirror  in  which  each  man 
sees  the  motions  of  his  own  soul.  They  express  in  ex- 
quisite words  the  kinship  which  every  thoughtful  human 
heart  craves  to  find  with  a  supreme,  unchanging,  loving 
God.  who  will  be  to  him  a  protector,  guardian,  and 
fiiend.  They  utter  the  ordinary  experiences,  the  familiar 
thoughts  of  men  ;  but  they  give  to  these  a  width  of  range, 
an  intensity,  a  depth,  and  an  elevation  which  transcend 
the  capacity  of  the  most  gifted.  They  translate  into 
speech  the  spiritual  passion  of  the  loftiest  genius  ;  they 
also  utter,  with  the  beauty  born  of  truth  and  simplicity, 
and  with  exact  agreement  between  the  feeling  and  the 
expression,  the  inarticulate  and  humble  longings  of  the 
unlettered  peasant.  So  it  is  that,  in  every  country,  the 
language  of  the  Psahns  has  become  part  of  the  daily 
life  of  nations,  passing  into  their  proverbs,  mingling 
with  their  conversation,  and  used  at  every  critical  stage 
of  existence. 


GENERAL.  15 

With  our  national,  as  well  as  with  our  private  lives,  the 
Psalms  are  inextricably  mingled.  On  the  Psalms,  both 
in  spirit  (Ps.  xx.  9)  and  language  (Ps.  Ixviii.  i),  is  based 
our  National  Anthem.  From  the  Hon  and  the  unicorn 
of  Ps.  xxii.  21  are  taken  the  supporters  of  the  royal 
arms.  In  all  the  Coronation  Offices  from  Egbert  to 
Edward  VII.,  not  only  the  services,  but  the  s\'mbolic 
ceremonies  are  based  upon  the  Psalms — the  oil  of  glad- 
ness above  his  fellows,  the  sword  girded  on  the  thigh 
of  the  most  Mighty  One,  the  crowm  of  pure  gold,  the 
sceptre  of  righteousness,  the  throne  of  judgment.  In 
Christian  Art,  as  the  conventional  representation  of  the 
Wise  Men  of  the  East  as  three  kings  is  founded  on  the 
Kings  of  Tharsis,  Saba,  and  Arabia  of  Ps.  Ixxii.  10,  11, 
so  the  use  of  the  Pehcan  as  a  symbol  of  Christ  is  guided 
by  the  comparison  of  the  pelican  in  the  wilderness  of 
Ps.  cii.  6.  A  psahn  (li.  i)  supplied  the  "  neck  verse " 
of  mediaeval  justice,  which  afforded  the  test  of  benefit 
of  clergy.  In  the  Psalms  ancient  families  have  sought 
their  mottoes,  such  as  the  "  Fortuna  mea  in  bello 
campo  "  (Ps.  x\n..  7 — "  The  lot  is  fallen  unto  me  in  a 
fair  ground  ")  of  the  Beauchamps,  the  "  Nisi  Dominus 
frustra  "  (Ps.  cxxvii.  i — "  Except  the  Lord  build  the 
house,  their  labour  is  but  lost  that  build  it  ")  of  the 
Comptons,  or  the  "  Non  dormit  qui  custodit  "  (Ps.  cxxi.  3 
— "  He  that  keepeth  thee  will  not  sleep  ")  of  the  Cog- 
hills.  Ancient  trade  guilds  have  found  in  the  Psalms 
the  legend  of  their  charter  of  incorporation,  hke  the 
"  Omnia  subjecisti  sub  pedibus.  oves  et  boves "  (Ps. 
viii.  6,  7 — "  Thou  hast  put  all  things  in  subjection  under 
his  feet ;  all  sheep  and  oxen  ")  of  the  Butchers'  Com- 
pany. From  the  Psalms  Edinburgh  takes  its  motto 
of  '*  Nisi  Dominus  frustra "  (Ps.  cxxvii.  i).  From 
the  same  source  the  University  of  Oxford  took  its 
"  Dominus  iUuminatio  mea  "  (Ps.  xxvii.  i — "  The  Lord 
is  my  light  "),  and  the  University  of  Durham  its  "  Funda- 
menta  ejus  "  (Ps.  lxxx\^i.  i — "  Her  foundations  are  upon 
the  holy  hills  ").     Under  the  sanction,  as  it  were,  of  a 


i6  THE  PSALMS  IN  HITMAN  T.TFE. 

text  from  the  Psalnis  ("  The  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  all 
that  therein  is  ;  the  compass  of  the  world,  and  they 
that  dwell  therein,"  Ps.  xxiv.  i)  was  held  the  Great 
Exhibition  of  1851.  "  Except  the  Lord  build  the  house, 
they  labour  in  vain  that  build  it "  (Ps.  cxx\ii.  i)  is 
the  verse  chosen  by  Smeaton  for  the  Eddystone  Light- 
house. To  innumerable  almshouses,  hospitals,  public 
buildings,  and  private  houses  the  Psalms  have  supphed 
inscriptions.  To  coins  they  have  furnished  legends,  hke 
the  coins  of  the  Black  Prince  in  Guienne,  "  Dominus 
adjutor  mens  et  protector  meus,"  etc.  (Ps.  xxviii.  8 — 
"  The  Lord  is  my  strength,  and  my  shield  ")  ;  the  florin 
of  Edward  IIL  in  1344,  '*  Domine,  ne  in  furore  arguas 
me  "  (Ps.  vi.  i — ''  O  Lord,  rebuke  me  not  in  thy  dis- 
pleasure ")  ;  or  the  shilling  of  Edward  VL  in  1549, 
''  Inimicos  ejus  induam  confusione  "  (Ps.  cxxxii.  19 — • 
"  As  for  his  enemies,  I  shall  clothe  them  with  shame  "). 
On  sword-blades,  trenchers,  and  rings,  verses  from  the 
Psalms  are  inscribed.  By  texts  from  the  Psalms,  sun- 
dials all  over  the  world  enforce  the  solemn  lesson  of  the 
passage  of  time.  Here  are  the  "  Dies  mei  sicut  umbra 
decUnaverunt  "  (Ps.  cii.  11 — "  My  days  are  gone  like  a 
shadow  ")  of  San  Michele  at  Venice,  or  Langen  Schwal- 
bach  ;  the  English  version  "  My  days  are  gone  like  a 
shadow,"  at  Arbroath  and  St.  "'Hilda's.  Whitby ;  and 
the  same  idea,  **  L'homme  est  semblable  a  la  vanite  ; 
ses  jours  sont  comme  une  ombre  qui  passe  "  (Ps.  cxliv.  4 
— "  Man  is  like  a  thing  of  nought ;  his  time  passeth 
away  hke  a  shadow  ")  at  St.  Brelade's,  in  Jersey. 

With  a  psalm  we  are  baptized,  and  married,  and 
buried  ;  with  a  psalm  we  begin,  and  reahze  to  the  full, 
and  end,  our  earthly  existence.  With  what  strange 
power  do  the  familiar  words  of  the  Book  come  home  to 
us  as  we  grow  older  !  Here  are  verses,  over  which  have 
stumbled,  forty  years  ago,  the  childish  lips  of  brothers, 
severed  from  us  by  years  of  change  and  absence,  yet 
now,  by  force  of  association  with  the  Psalms,  seated 
once  again  by  our  side  in  the  broken  circle  of  home. 


GENERAL.  17 

Here  again  is  a  passage,  which,  with  trembling  voice 
and  beating  heart,  we  read  aloud  by  the  deathbed  of 
one,  with  whose  passing  the  light  faded  and  our  own 
lives  grew  gray,  and  void,  and  lampless.  Yet  still  it  is 
to  the  Psalms,  even  when  they  wound  us  most,  that  we 
turn  for  help  and  comfort.  As  life's  evening  closes  round 
us,  and  as  the  winged  thoughts,  that  we  have  made  our 
own,  sweep  in  from  the  horizon  of  our  memories,  no 
words  come  home  to  us  with  swifter,  surer  flight  than 
those  of  the  Psalms. 

To  weary  travellers  of  every  condition  and  at  every 
period  of  history,  the  Psalms  have  been  riveis  of  refresh- 
ment and  wells  of  consolation.  They  alone  have  known 
no  hmitations  to  a  particular  age,  country,  or  form  of 
faith.  In  them  the  spirit  of  controversy  and  the  war  oi 
creeds  are  forgotten  :  love  of  the  Psalter  has  united  the 
Anglican  and  Roman  Catholic.  Presbyterian  and  Non- 
conformist. Over  the  parched  fields  of  theological  strife 
the  breath  of  the  Psalms  sweeps,  fresh  and  balmy.  For 
centuries  the  supplications  of  Christians,  clothed  in  the 
language  of  the  Psalter,  have  risen  like  incense  to  the 
altar-throne  of  God  ;  in  them  have  been  expressed,  from 
age  to  age,  the  devotion  and  the  theology  of  religious 
communions  that  in  all  else  were  at  deadly  feud.  Sur- 
viving all  the  changes  in  Church  and  State,  in  modes  of 
thought,  in  habits  of  life,  in  forms  of  expression,  the 
Psalms,  as  devotional  exercises,  have  sunk  into  our 
hearts  ;  as  sublime  poetry,  have  fired  our  imaginations  ; 
as  illustrations  of  human  life,  have  arrested  our  minds 
and  stored  our  memories. 

In  the  Psalms  the  vast  hosts  of  suffering  humanity 
have  found,  from  the  time  of  Jonah  to  the  present  day, 
the  deepest  expression  of  their  hopes  and  fears.  As  our 
Lord  Himself  died  with  the  words  of  a  psalm  upon  His 
lips,  so  the  first  martyr,  Stephen,  had  used  the  words 
thus  hallowed.  So  also,  in  prison  at  Philippi,  Paul  and 
Silas  encouraged  themselves  by  singing  psalms  through- 
out the  night.     It  was  by  the' Psalms  that  the  anguish, 


i8  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

wrung  from  tortured  lips  on  the  cross,  at  the  stake,  on 
the  scaffold,  and  in  the  dungeon  has  been  healed  and 
solaced.  Strong  in  the  strength  that  they  impart,  young 
boys  and  timid  girls  have  risen  from  their  knees  in  the 
breathless  amphitheatre,  thronged  with  its  quivering 
multitudes,  and  boldly  faced  the  lions.  Neither  the  rude- 
ness of  mosaic  art,  nor  the  lapse  of  sixteen  centuries, 
has  obliterated  the  radiant  smile  of  triumph  with  which 
St.  Agnes  and  her  companions,  on  the  walls  of  S.  Apolli- 
nare  Nuovo  at  Ravenna,  press  forward  to  greet  Him, 
for  whose  sake  they  gave  their  young  and  tender  bodies 
to  be  tortured.  With  the  Psalms  upon  their  tongues, 
myriads  have  died — now  in  quiet  sick-rooms,  surrounded 
by  ail  who  have  loved  them  best  in  life — now  alone,  and 
far  fi"om  home  and  kindred — now  hemmed  in  by  fierce 
enemies  howling  for  their  blood.  Thus  in  the  Psalms 
there  are  pages  which  are  stained  with  the  Hfe-blood  of 
martjTS,  and  wet  with  the  tears  of  saints  ;  others,  which 
are  illuminated  by  the  victories  of  weak  humanity  over 
suSering  and  fear  and  temptation  ;  others,  which  glow 
with  the  brightness  of  heroic  constancy  and  almost  super- 
human courage.  Over  the  familiar  words  are  wTitten, 
as  it  were  in  a  palimpsest,  the  heart-stirring  romances  of 
spiritual  chivalry,  the  most  mo\'ing  tragedies  of  human 
life  and  action. 

How  much,  or  how  httle,  of  our  religion  is  a  matter 
of  habit,  or  a  personal  acquisition,  this  is  no  place  to 
inquire.  But  assuredly  the  Psalms  gain  in  interest  and 
power  from  their  associations  with  human  history,  and 
from  their  use  by  our  fellow-men  in  every  form  of  trial 
which  can  confront  humanity.  They  have  inspired  some 
of  the  noblest  hymns  in  our  language.  Their  rendering 
into  verse  has  occupied  many  of  the  most  gifted  men  in 
the  history  of  our  nation — knights  of  chivalry,  like  Sir 
Phihp  Sidney,  aided  by  his  sister,  Margaret,  Countess 
of  Pembroke  ;  men  of  science  like  Lord  Bacon,  in  whose 
version  the  philosopher  overmasters  the  poet  ;  classical 
scholars,  Uke  George  Sandys,  one  of  the  most  successful 


GENERAL.  19 

of  early  versifiers  ;  courtiers,  like  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt ; 
ambassadors,  like  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  Sir  Henry  Wotton, 
or  Hookham  Frere ;  distinguished  prelates,  such  as 
Archbishop  Parker,  or  Bishop  Ken,  or  Bishop  Hall,  or 
Bishop  King ;  queens  and  kings,  hke  Elizabeth,  or 
James  I.  ;  sturdy  Puritans,  such  as  Francis  Rous  ;  Crom- 
weUian  captains,  like  Thomas,  Lord  Fairfax,  or  George 
Wither,  whose  sweet  vein  of  early  poetry  was  soured  by 
the  vinegar  of  politics  and  polemics  ;  poets  like  Crashaw, 
Phinehas  Fletcher,  Henry  Vaughan,  Burns,  Cowper,  or 
Milton,  whose  versions,  with  one  exception,  fall  below 
the  standard  which  we  should  have  expected  his  lyric 
genius  and  devotional  fervour  to  attain  ;  parish  priests, 
like  George  Herbert  and  John  Keble  ;  heroes  of  the  "  Dun- 
ciad,"  like  Sir  Richard  Blackmore  and  Luke  Milbourne  ; 
masters  of  prose,  like  Addison  ;  Methodists,  like  Charles 
Wesley ;  Nonconformists,  such  as  Isaac  Watts,  whose 
version  of  Ps.  xc,  "  0  God.  our  help  in  ages  past,"  is 
perhaps  the  finest  hymn  in  the  English  language. 

Poets  and  men  of  letters,  hke  Dante  and  Camoens, 
Shakespeare  and  Cervantes,  Wordsworth.  Walter  Scott, 
Carlyle  and  Ruskin,  Heine  and  Herder,  Pascal  and  La- 
martine,  have  acknowledged  the  unrivalled  charm  of  the 
Psalter.  From  the  Psalms  hymn-writers  have  drawn 
their  most  striking  inspirations  ;  to  turn  them  into  verse 
has  been  the  occupation  of  men  of  all  nationahties,  pro- 
fessions, and  pursuits  at  every  period  of  history  ;  their 
language,  imagery,  and  ideas  have  fascinated  men  of  the 
highest  poetic  genius.  But  besides  the  indirect  influence 
which  they  have  thus  exercised  on  literature,  the  Psalms 
may  be  said  to  have  created  a  literature  of  their  own. 
Of  all  that  mass  of  writings  in  which  is  recorded  the 
inner  Hfe  of  Christians,  they  are  the  precursors  and  the 
pattern.  They  are  the  parents  of  those  rehgious  auto- 
biographies which,  even  in  literary  and  psychological 
interest,  rival,  if  they  do  not  surpass,  the  "  Confessions  " 
of  Rousseau,  or  the  ''  Truth  and  Fiction  "  of  Goethe. 
From  the  Psalms  are  descended  books  like  the  "  Con- 


20  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

fessions  "  of  St.  Augustine,  the  "  Imitation  of  Christ  " 
of  Thomas  a  Kempis,  the  "  Grace  Abounding  "  of.  John 
Bunyan,  the  "  Devotions "  of  Bishop  Andrewes,  the 
"  Thoughts  "  of  Blaise  Pascal. 

In  the  pages  of  such  works  the  tone  and  spirit  of  the 
Psalms  are  faithfully  represented  ;  whether  in  devotional 
exercises,  in  guides  to  the  spiritual  hfe,  in  meditations 
and  counsels  on  hoi}-  living  and  holy  dying,  or  in  the 
unconscious  records  of  the  personal  history  of  rehgious 
minds,  their  influence  is  everywhere  present.  They  are 
the  inspiration  of  that  soliloquy  at  the  throne  of  God 
in  which  Augustine  revealed  his  soul  before  a  world 
which  is  yet  listening,  as  for  fifteen  centuries  it  has 
hstened,  to  the  absolute  truthfulness  of  his  "  Confessions." 
They  are  the  \vings  which  lifted  Thomas  a  Kempis  out 
of  his  white-washed  cell,  bore  him  above  the  fiat  meadows 
of  St.  Agnes,  and  floated  heavenwards  those  mystic 
musings  of  the  "  Imitation  "  which  thrilled  with  mingled 
awe  and  hope  the  heart  of  Maggie  Tulliver.  They  lent 
their  height  and  depth  to  the  religion  of  Bishop  Andrewes, 
whose  private  prayers,  in  their  elevation  above  doctrinal 
controversies,  in  their  manhness  and  reaUty,  and  in  the 
comprehensiveness  of  their  horizon,  seem  to  translate, 
for  individual  use  in  the  closet,  the  public  worship  of 
the  Anghcan  Church.  They  were  the  hve  coal  which 
touched  the  Hps  of  John  Bunyan,  and  transformed  the 
unlettered  tinker  into  a  genius  and  a  poet,  as,  with  a  pen 
of  iron  and  in  letters  of  fire,  he  wrote  the  record  of  his 
passage  from  death  to  hfe.  They  sharpened  the  keen 
sight  with  which  Pascal  pierced  to  the  heart  of  truth, 
and  nerved  the  courage  wdth  which  he  confronted  the 
mysteries  of  the  vision  that  his  lucid  intellect  conjured 
up  before  his  eyes.  Thus  the  Psalms,  apart  from  their 
own  transcendent  beauty  and  universal  truth,  have 
enriched  the  world  by  the  creation  of  a  literature  which, 
century  after  century,  has  not  only  commanded  the 
admiration  of  sceptics,  but  elevated  the  characters  of 
innumerable  believers,  encouraged  their  weariness,  con- 


CxENERAL.  21 

soled  their  sorrows,  lifted  their  doubts,  and  guided  their 
wavering  footsteps. 

So  far  I  have  spoken  mainly  of  the  influence  of  the 
Psalms  on  human  thought.  But  their  workings  in  the 
sphere  of  human  action  have  been  equall}^  striking  and 
equally  imiversal.  No  fragment  of  the  glorious  temples 
at  Jerusalem  has  survived  the  lapse  of  time  ;  but  the 
imperishable  hymns  of  the  Jewish  worship  rule  the  hearts 
of  men  ^vith  more  than  their  pristine  power,  and  still 
continue  to  inspire  and  elevate  the  conduct  and  devo- 
tions of  successive  generations  of  mankind.  Fathers  of 
the  early  Church,  like  Origen,  Athanasius,  and  Jerome, 
Basil,  Ambrose,  and  Augustine — apostles  of  British 
Cluistianity,  such  as  Columba,  Cuthbert,  Wilfrid,  Dun- 
stan,  and  Bede — mediaeval  saints,  Hke  Bernard,  Francis 
of  Assisi,  or  Thomas  of  Villanova  —  statesmen,  like 
Ximenes,  Burghley,  and  Gladstone — have  testified  to  the 
universal  truth  and  beauty  of  the  Psalms.  With  a  psalm 
upon  their  Hps  died  W3'clif,  Hus,  and  Jerome  of  Prague, 
Luther  and  Melancthon.  Philosophers,  such  as  Bacon 
and  Locke  and  Hamilton  ;  men  of  science,  like  Hum- 
boldt and  Romanes ;  among  missionaries,  Xa\^er, 
Martyn,  Duff,  Livingstone,  Mackay,  and  Hannington  ; 
explorers,  hke  Columbus  ;  scholars,  hke  Casaubon  and 
Salmasius  ;  earthly  potentates,  like  Charlemagne.  Vladi- 
mir Monomachus,  Hildebrand,  Louis  IX.,  Henry  V., 
Catherine  de  Medicis,  Charles  V.,  Henry  of  Navarre,  and 
Mary  Queen  of  Scots — have  found  in  the  Psalms  their 
inspiration  in  life,  their  strength  in  peril,  or  their  support 
in  death. 

To  collect  together  some  of  the  countless  instances  in 
which  the  PsaJms  have  thus  guided,  controlled,  and 
sustained  the  lives  of  men  and  women  in  all  ages  of 
human  history,  and  at  all  crises  of  their  fate,  is  the  pur- 
pose of  this  book. 


CHAPTER    II. 

EARLY   AGES   OF   CHRISTIANITY. 

The  Psalms  in  services,  ceremonies,  and  the  catacombs  ;  use  in  perse- 
cution— Crispin  and  Crispinian,  Theodore  the  Mart>T,  the  Saracen 
convert,  the  Emperor  Maurice  ;  in  public  worship  ;  in  ordinary 
life — Origen,  the  family  of  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Monica  ;  on  death- 
beds— Basil  the  Great,  Ambrose,  Paulinus  of  Nola,  C\Til  of  Alex- 
andria ;  influence  of  the  Psalms  in  Monasticism — the  Egyptian 
Anchorites,  Basil  and  monastic  communities  of  the  East,  Athanasius 
and  the  West,  Jerome  and  Paula,  Martin  of  Tours  ;  the  Psalms  in 
action — struggle  between  Church  and  State — Athanasius  and  Con- 
stantius,  Basil  and  Valens,  Ambrose  and  Theodosius  ;  the  Psalms 
in  human  thought — "  Confessions  "  of  Augustine. 

THOUGH  the  influence  of  the  Psalms  has  been  confined 
to  no  age,  no  nation,  no  class,  and  no  creed,  there 
have  been  special  periods  when  they  have  spoken  with 
peculiar  force.  This  has  been  particularly  the  case  in 
times  of  persecution,  when  circumstances  gave  to  the 
words  an  immediate  personal  application.  Such  a 
period  was  the  infancy  of  Christianity.  Secretly,  under 
cover  of  night,  or  at  early  dawn,  children  cast  out  by 
their  parents,  slaves  oppressed  by  their  masters,  citizens 
suspected  by  their  neighbours,  subjects  proscribed  by 
their  rulers,  gathered  for  prayer  and  praise  in  the  cata- 
combs of  great  cities,  in  workshops,  or  in  the  upper 
rooms  of  retired  houses  on  the  outskirts  of  towns.  Of 
their  religious  services  the  Psalms  formed  a  conspicuous 
part,  and  special  Psalms  were  soon  appropriated  to  par- 
ticular occasions,  such  as  the  73rd  for  the  morning,  and 
the  141st  for  the  evening  worship.  These  little  com- 
panies of  wool-workers,  cobblers^  fullers,  craftsmen,  and 


EARLY  AGES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  23 

slaves — "  the  most  vulgar  and  illiterate  of  mankind  " — 
with  whom  assembled  a  handful  of  persons  of  higher 
rank,  centurions,  government  officials,  and  ladies  of 
noble  birth,  met  together  in  danger  of  their  lives.  The 
ceremony  which  admitted  them  into  this  proscribed 
and  perilous  company  found  its  symbol  in  a  psalm. 
The  hart  (Ps.  xlii.  i)  was  the  emblem  of  those 
thirsting  souls,  who,  in  the  cooling  streams  of  the  bap- 
tismal font,  drank  freely  of  the  fountain  of  eternal  life. 
Once  admitted,  they  were  as  "  sheep  appointed  to  be 
slain  ;  "  but  the  Lord  was  their  Shepherd,  and  their 
trust  in  Him,  conquering  their  fears,  still  speaks  in  the 
rude  pictures  on  the  walls  of  subterranean  Rome. 

The  language  of  the  Psalms  was  ever  on  the  lips  of 
those  who,  in  the  early  history  of  Christianity,  suffered 
violent  deaths  for  or  in  the  faith.  A  Psalm  (xxiii.)  was 
fitly  chosen  by  Augustine  as  the  hymn  of  mart^TS. 
It  was  in  the  words  of  Ps.  cxv.  4,  5,  "  Their  idols 
are  silver  and  gold,"  etc.,  that  Christians  defied  the 
imperial  order  to  sacrifice  to  Caesar,  and  it  was  with  a 
psalm  that  they  met  the  torturer  or  the  executioner.  At 
Soissons,  for  instance,  in  the  Diocletian  persecution  of 
288,  two  brothers,  Crispin  and  Crispinian,  afterwards 
the  patrons  of  shoemakers,  suffered  torture  and  death. 
For  love  of  Christianity  they  had  renounced  the  honours 
of  their  birth,  and  made  shoes  for  the  poor.  In  their 
prolonged  torments  tney  were  sustained  by  the  words 
of  Ps.  Ixxix.  9,  10,  "  Help  us,  0  God  of  our  sal- 
vation, for  the  glory  of  Thy  Name.  . . .  Wherefore  do 
the  heathen  say,  Where  is  now  their  God  ?  "  Their 
bodies,  thrown  into  the  river,  were  carried  to  the  sea. 
The  waves,  so  runs  the  legend,  for  love  of  the  Blessed 
Feet  which  once  had  walked  upon  them,  wafted  the 
mangled  bodies  of  His  martyrs  to  the  shores  of  Romney 
Marsh,  where  the  inhabitants  received  them  in  joy,  and 
built  in  their  honour  the  church  of  Lydd.  Theodore  tlie 
Martyr,  the  young  soldier  who  rashly  burned  to  the 
ground  the  temple  of  the  Mother  of  the  Gods  at  Amasea 


24  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

in  306,  found  strength  to  endure  the  torture  by  chanting 
Ps.  xxxiv.  I,  "I  will  always  give  thanks  unto  the 
Lord  ;  His  praise  shall  ever  be  in  my  mouth."  An- 
other illustration  is  the  story  told  by  Oregon.'  of  De- 
capolis.  A  noble  Saracen,  converted  by  a  vision  of  the 
Lamb  of  God,  sought  a  Christian  teacher,  learnt  the 
Psalter  by  heart,  and  returned  to  his  native  land  to 
preach  the  faith  of  Christ.  But  his  countrymen  refused 
his  message,  and  stoned  him  to  death.  In  his  agony 
he  repeated  Ps.  xiii.  3,  "  Lighten  my  eyes,  that  I 
sleep  not  in  death."  It  was,  again,  a  psalm  that  en- 
couraged the  Emperor  Maurice  to  bow  to  the  will  of 
God.  During  the  twenty  3^ears  in  which  he  had  ruled 
the  Roman  Empire,  he  had  showm  many  of  the  virtues 
which,  in  582,  marked  him  out  to  succeed  Tiberius  IL 
But  the  army  turned  against  him,  and  in  602  he  fled, 
with  his  wife  and  children,  to  Chalcedon,  to  escape  the 
fury  of  the  deformed  and  disfigured  Phocas.  He  did 
not  long  remain  in  safety.  By  order  of  Phocas,  he  and 
his  five  sons  were  seized  and  executed.  He  was  the  last 
to  die.  As,  one  by  one,  the  boys  were  murdered  before 
his  eyes,  the  father  cried  aloud,  with  each  stroke  of  the 
sword,  "  Righteous  art  Thou,  O  Lord,  and  true  is  Thy 
judgment  "  (Ps=  cxix.  137).  Firm  in  his  adherence 
to  truth,  he  rejected  the  kindly  fraud  of  the  nurse, 
who  gave  her  own  child  to  save  one  of  the  roj^al  princes, 
and  thus  supplied  to  Corneille  the  plot  of  "  Heraclius." 

As  Christianity  spread  and  became  a  power,  the 
Psalms  occupy  a  larger  and  still  larger  space.  Their 
use  in  public  worship  varied  in  different  Churches.  Cus- 
tom prescribed  the  portions  that  should  be  read,  or 
sung,  or  expounded  ;  but  they  formed  the  substance 
of  most  of  the  daily  services  =  "  When  other  passages 
of  Scripture,"  writes  Ambrose,  "  are  used  in  church, 
the  words  are  drowned  in  the  noise  of  talking.  But 
when  the  Psalter  is  read,  all  are  dumb."  Still  more 
striking  was  their  use  in  daily  life,  as  an  expression  of 
the  feeling  that  God  was  everywhere  present.     Clement 


EARLY  AGES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  25 

of  Alexandria,  in  his  "  Stromata  "  (vii.,  sect.  7),  says, 
*'  We  praise  God  as  we  till  our  lands  ;  we  sing  to  Him 
hymns  as  we  are  saihng."  Sidonius  ApoUinaris  de- 
scribes how  the  boatmen,  toiling  with  bent  backs  to 
urge  their  laden  barges  against  the  stream,  sang  psalms 
till  the  river-banks  echoed  their  hallelujahs.  "  Any  one 
possessed  of  his  hve  wits,"  writes  Ambrose,  "  should 
blush  with  shame  if  he  did  not  begin  the  day  with  a 
psalm,  since  even  the  tiniest  birds  open  and  close  the 
day  with  sweet  songs  of  holy  devotion."  "  Of  other 
Scriptures,"  says  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  "  most  men 
know  nothing.  But  the  Psalms  are  repeated  in  private 
houses,  in  streets,  and  market-places,  by  those  who  have 
learned  them  by  heart,  and  feel  the  soothing  power  of 
their  divine  melodies."  When  Paula  and  Eustochium 
wrote  from  Bethlehem  their  famous  letter  to  Marcella, 
they  exhort  her  to  flee  from  the  tumults  and  distrac- 
tions of  Rome  to  the  solitude  of  Christ's  village.  Here, 
they  say,  is  the  quiet  of  country  life,  imbroken  save  by 
the  chanting  of  the  Psalms.  The  ploughman,  leaning  on 
his  plough-handle,  sings  in  them  his  praises  to  God  ;  the 
sweating  reaper  lightens  his  labours  with  the  chanting 
of  the  Psalms  ;  the  vine-dresser,  as  he  prunes  his  vines, 
raises  one  of  the  songs  of  David.  *'  The  Psalms  are  our 
poetry,  our  love-songs,  our  pastorals,  our  implements 
of  husbandry."  * 

If  any  records  were  preserved,  it  would  probably  be 
found  that  the  Psalms  profoundly  influenced  Christian 
homes  in  the  early  ages  of  the  Church.  But  glimpses  of 
the  inner  life  of  families  are  as  rare  as  the}'  would  be 
precious.  In  the  boyhood  of  Origen,  one  significant 
fact  is  recorded  which  proves  that  the  Psalms  had  their 
part  in  the  education  of  children.  Jerome  says  that 
the  boy  learnt  Hebrew  so  well  that  he  vied  with  his 
mother,  who  was  possibly  of  Jewish  origin,  in  the  sing- 

*  Haec  sunt  in  hac  provincia  carmina,  hae,  ut  vulgo  dicitur,  amatoriae 
cantationes,  hie  pastorum  sibilus,  haec  arma  culturae. — "  Letter  to 
Marp.  Jla,"  PaUitine  PiJnrim!^'  Text  Society  frs]. 


26  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

ing  of  psalms.  Better  known,  perhaps,  than  that  of 
any  other  Christian  household  is  the  domestic  life  of 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  the  poet  of  Eastern  Christendom, 
and  one  of  the  greatest  of  its  orators  and  theologians. 
Gregory's  mother,  Xonna,  a  woman  of  ardent  piety, 
born  of  a  Christian  family,  and  carefully  trained  in  the 
faith,  was  "  a  housewife  after  Solomon's  own  heart  " 
— so  her  son  describes  her — "  submissive  to  her  husband, 
yet  not  ashamed  to  be  his  guide  and  teacher."  It  was 
Nonna's  constant  prayer  that  her  husband,  Gregor^^ 
should  become  a  convert,  for,  though  a  man  of  high 
character  and  exemplar}^  life,  he  was  a  pagan.  A  dream 
inspired  by  a  psalm  helped  her  to  gain  her  heart's  desire. 
Pagan  though  he  was,  her  husband  seems  to  have  known 
the  Psalms,  for  he  dreamed  that  he  was  singing  the 
words,  "  1  was  glad  when  they  said  unto  me.  We  will 
go  into  the  House  of  the  Lord  "  (Ps.  cxxii.).  The  im- 
pression was  too  deep  to  pass  away  when  he  awoke. 
After  a  short  preparation,  he  was  baptized,  and  eventu- 
ally became,  and  for  forty-five  years  remained,  Bishop 
of  Nazianzus  (329-374).  Gorgonia,  the  daughter  of  Greg- 
ory and  Nonna,  though  not  baptized  till  a  short  time 
before  her  death,  had  lived  a  Christian  life.  She  had 
long  felt,  says  her  brother,  a  desire  to  "  depart  and  be 
with  Jesus."  So  great  was  the  longing  that  it  pro- 
duced a  presentiment  of  the  approach  of  her  death, 
and  an  anticipation  of  the  time  when  it  would  take 
place.  The  looked-for  day  found  her  aged  parents,  her 
husband,  and  her  daughter  gathered  round  her  bedside. 
When  she  had  taken  her  leave  of  each  in  turn,  the  by- 
standers thought  she  was  already  dead.  But  once  more 
her  lips  were  seen  to  move,  and  the  watchers,  stooping 
over  the  bed,  heard  the  words,  familiar  b}^  their  use  as 
an  evening  psalm,  and  fitted  to  the  close  of  her  earthly 
day,  "  I  will  lay  me  down  in  peace,  and  take  my  rest  " 
(Ps.  iv.  9).  So  died  Gorgonia.  The  verse,  it  may  be 
added,  was  loved  by  Luther.  Writing  from  Coburg  to 
Ludwig  Seuffel,   he   asked  him   to   compose  for  hirn   a 


EARLY  AGES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  27 

requiem.  From  his  3'outh,  he  said,  he  had  ahva3's  loved 
the  concluding  verses  of  the  4th  Psalm.  But  as  he 
learned  to  understand  its  full  meaning,  and  as  he  hourly 
prepared  for  death,  the  last  verse  became  more  and  more 
dear  to  him,  and  he  would  gladly  sing,  and  hear  sung, 
those  soothing  words,  "  Ich  lieg  und  schlafe  ganz  mit 
Frieden." 

Yet  another  instance  is  afforded  by  the  death  of  Monica, 
the  mother  of  St.  Augustine,  whose  patient  perseverance 
in  prayer,  and  reward  in  the  life  of  her  son,  have  com- 
forted thousands  of  mothers  in  all  ages  of  the  world's 
history-.  On  Easter  Sunday,  387,  Augustine  had  been 
baptized  by  Ambrose  at  Milan.  In  the  summer  he  set 
out  to  return  to  Africa  with  ^Monica.  At  Ostia  they 
paused  to  recruit  from  the  fatigues  of  their  long  journey, 
and  prepare  for  the  coming  voyage.  Mother  and  son 
were  leaning  on  the  ledge  of  a  window  which  looked 
upon  the  garden  where  they  lodged.  Alone  together, 
away  from  the  crowd,  God  in  His  secret  wa^^s  having 
so  ordered  it,  they  talked  of  the  eternal  hfe  of  the  saints, 
and  of  what  sort  it  should  be,  "  panting  with  the  lips  of 
our  souls  for  those  heavenly  streams  of  Thy  fountain, 
the  fountain  of  life  which  is  with  Thee."  It  is  the 
moment  chosen  by  Ary  Scheffer  for  his  famous  picture  : — 

'*  The  dear  consenting  hands  are  knit. 
And  either  face,  as  there  they  sit. 
Is  lifted  as  to  something  seen 
Beyond  the  blue  serene." 

To  the  mother  it  seemed  that  the  purpose  of  her  life 
was  achieved,  now  that  she  had  seen  her  one  longing 
gratified  and  her  son  baptized  a  Christian.  Five  or  six 
days  later,  while  they  were  still  waiting  to  embark, 
Monica  was  struck  down  by  fever,  and  died  in  the  fifty- 
sixth  3^ear  of  her  age.  It  was  in  the  Psalms  that  Augus- 
tine found  comfort  in  his  sorrow.  When  the  first  gush 
of  weeping  was  over,  his  friend,  Euodius,  took  up  the 
Psalter,  and  began  to  sing,  the  whole  household  joining 


28  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

with  him,  Psaim  ci.,  *'  My  song  shall  be  of  mercy  and 
judgment :   unto  Thee,  O  Lord,  will  I  sing,"  etc. 

Fcrty-three  years  later,  in  his  own  city  of  Hippo, 
closely  besieged  by  the  Vandals,  Augustine  himself  died. 
"  It  was,"  says  his  biographer,  Possidius,  "  a  plain  and 
barely  furnished  room  in  which  he  lay.  The  seven 
Penitential  Psalms  were,  by  his  orders,  wTitten  out,  and 
placed  where  he  could  see  them  from  his  bed.  These  he 
looked  at  and  read  in  his  days  of  sickness,  weeping  often 
and  sore."  So,  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  Psalms,  Augus- 
tine passed  to  his  rest,  August  28,  430.  It  was  with 
the  words  of  a  Psalm  upon  his  lips,  "  Into  Thy  hands  I 
commend  my  spirit "  (Ps.  xxxi.  6),  that  Basil  the 
Great  breathed  his  last  at  Cesarea,  January  i,  379,  his 
deathbed  surrounded  by  citizens  who  were  ready  to 
shorten  their  own  lives,  if  so  they  might  lengthen  the 
days  of  their  Bishop.  In  397,  Ambrose  lay  dying  at 
Milan.  He  had,  as  is  well  knowTi,  introduced  into  the 
Western  Church  the  antiphonal  method  of  chanting 
the  Psalms  which  was  practised  in  the  East.  Almost 
his  last  labour  was  a  Commentary  on  Ps.  xliv.  :  "  It  is 
painful  to  wait  so  long  for  the  da}^  when  mortality  shall 
be  swallowed  up  of  Life  ;  but  happily  the  torch  of  the 
Word  of  God  does  not  quit  mine  eyes."  He  died  as  he 
reached  verse  23  :  "  Up,  Lord,  why  sleepest  thou : 
awake  and  be  not  absent  from  us  for  ever."  Paulinus, 
Bishop  of  Nola  (353-431),  as  the  hour  for  Vespers  ap- 
proached, and  the  lamps  were  being  lighted  in  the  church 
which  he  had  built,  stretched  forth  his  hands  and  passed 
away,  repeating  the  words,  ''  I  have  ordained  a  lantern 
for  mine  Anointed  "  (Ps.  cxxxii.  18).  With  the  same 
words  on  his  lips,  in  June  444,  died  Cyril,  Archbishop 
of  Alexandria,  whose  life-long  struggle  for  the  purity 
of  the  Christian  faith  has  been  overshadowed  by  his 
alleged  complicity  in  the  hideous  crime  of  the  murder 
of  Hypatia. 

But  if  we  pass  from  domestic  or  deathbed  scenes  to 
episodes  of  a  more  public  character,  the  recorded  in- 


EARLY  AGES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  29 

stances  of  the  influence  of  the  Psalms  are  mukipHed. 
No  figure  in  the  early  histor}^  of  the  Church  is  more 
attractive  than  that  oi"  Origen  (185-253).  The  son  of  a 
martyr,  the  master  of  disciples  who  braved  martyrdom, 
himself  a  confessor  who  endured  imprisonment  and  the 
torture  of  the  chain,  the  collar,  and  the  rack,  he  dominated 
the  century  as  much  by  his  character  as  by  his  genius. 
In  his  childhood,  as  is  told  above,  he  vied  with  his  mother 
in  singing  the  Psalms,  and  his  commentary  upon  them, 
his  notes,  and  his  homilies,  bore  witness  to  their  abiding 
influence  on  his  mind.  During  the  persecution  of  Sev- 
erus,  his  father,  Leonides,  was  beheaded,  encouraged 
by  Origen,  then  a  lad  of  seventeen,  to  die  without  thought 
of  those  he  left  behind.  The  lad  himself  was  only  pre- 
vented from  sharing  his  father's  fate  by  being  imprisoned 
in  his  o\\Ti  home.  In  after  years,  the  persecutions  which 
he  endured  from  the  State  as  a  Christian  scarcely  ex- 
ceeded those  which,  as  a  heretic,  he  suffered  from  the 
Church.  Yet  friends  were  as  enthusiastic  as  enemies 
were  bitter.  Even  those  who  compared  him  to  Satan 
paid  homage  to  his  gifts  by  admitting  that,  if  he  had 
fallen  from  heaven,  his  fall  was  like  the  lightning  flash. 
Driven  from  Alexandria,  he  travelled  from  place  to 
place,  fascinating  some  by  the  splendour  of  his  teaching, 
terrifying  others  by  the  boldness  of  his  speculations. 
So  joume^dng,  as  the  story  is  told,  he  came  to  Jerusa- 
lem. Somewhere  in  his  wanderings  even  his  intrepid 
spirit  had  recoiled  from  dread  of  torture.  He  had  con- 
sented to  sacrifice  to  Caesar  ;  incense  had  been  thrust 
into  his  hand,  which  was  forced  over  the  altar.  Re- 
morse overwhelmed  him,  when,  at  Jerusalem,  he  was 
entreated  to  preach.  Taking  the  Psalter  in  his  hand, 
he  prayed,  and  opening  the  book,  read  the  words  of 
Ps.  1.  16,  "  But  unto  the  ungodly  said  God,  Why 
dost  thou  preach  My  laws,  and  takest  My  covenant  in 
thy  mouth  ?  "  He  shut  the  book,  sat  do\\*n  speechless, 
and  burst  into  tears.  "  The  prophet  David  himself  shut 
the  door  of  my  lips,"  was  his  bitter  lament,  as  he  applied 


30  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

to  his  apostasy  the  verse  (Ps.  Ixxx.  13),  "  The  wild  boar 

out  of  the  wood  doth  root  it  up  ;  and  the  wild  beasts 
of  the  field  devour  it." 

As  the  fourth  century  dawns,  the  long  struggle  between 
Paganism  and  Christianity  entered  its  final  stage.  On 
the  death-agony  of  the  ancient  faith,  still  enshrii^ed 
among  us  by  lingering  superstitions  and  a  thousand 
graceful  fictions  in  art  and  literature,  history  is  com- 
paratively silent.  But  its  downfall  was  marked  by  a 
period  of  moral  relaxation  and  social  corruption,  which 
fostered  the  belief  that  it  was  the  highest  duty  of  a 
Christian  to  shun  a  polluted  world.  The  longing  to  flee 
away  and  be  at  rest  from  the  fury  of  persecution,  and 
from  the  contamination  of  the  heathen,  encouraged  the 
growing  feeling.  Solitude  tempted  some  men  as  a  refuge 
from  spiritual  danger  ;  to  others  it  appealed  as  a  bolder 
challenge  to  the  powers  of  evil ;  to  yet  another  class  it 
seemed  to  offer  at  once  a  shelter  from  the  world,  and  the 
supreme  test  of  self-denial.  Of  the  ascetic  principle,  the 
most  famous  example  was  Antony  (251-356),  bom  in  the 
lifetime  of  Origen,  known  throughout  civilization  by  the 
pictures  of  Caracci,  Guido,  and  Salvator,  and  by  the 
quaint  legends  that  have  gathered  round  his  name.  The 
influence  which  he  and  his  followers  exercised  upon 
Christendom,  and  the  impulse  which  they  gave  to  the 
monastic  life,  are  almost  incalculable.  A  psalm  was  at 
once  the  weapon,  the  paean,  and  the  rule  of  two  of  the 
earliest  leaders  in  the  new  movement. 

Rich,  young,  and  an  orphan,  Antony  gave  all  his  pos- 
sessions to  the  poor,  and  devoted  himself  to  the  ascetic 
life.  Unlike  the  anchorites  who  had  preceded  him,  he 
retired  to  a  distance  from  his  fellow-men.  To  combine 
in  himself  the  special  virtues  to  which  other  ascetics 
had  respectively  attained  was  his  constant  effort.  To  be 
as  prayerful  as  one,  as  courteous  as  another,  as  patient 
of  vigii  and  fast  as  a  third — this  was  the  rivalry  on  which 
his  ambitions  were  centred.  There  were  times,  for  he 
was  still  young,  when  his  enthusiasm  failed,  his  courage 


EARLY  AGES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  31 

flagged,  and  the  temptations  of  the  world  and  the  flesh 
swept  over  him  with  all  their  storms.  Yet  still  his  faith 
triumphed  over  every  assault.  The  Psalms  were  the 
weapons  with  which  he  met  the  evil  tendencies  that,  to 
his  overwrought  vision,  presented  themselves  in  material 
and  often  grotesque  forms.  It  was,  for  example,  with 
the  words,  "  Some  put  their  trust  in  chariots,  and  some 
in  horses  :  but  we  will  remember  the  Name  of  the  Lord 
our  God "  (Ps.  XX.  7),  that  he  put  Satan  to  flight. 
It  was  with  a  psalm  that  he  sang  his  paean  of  victory. 
So  sorely  beset  was  he  within  the  ruined  tower  where 
he  lived,  so  vehement  were  the  sounds  of  the  strife,  that 
the  multitude,  which  had  gathered  to  see  and  hear  him, 
believed  that  the  saint  was  attacked  by  the  people  of 
the  country.  Suddenly  the  clamour  ceased.  High  and 
clear  rose  the  voice  of  Antony  alone,  as  he  chanted  Ps. 
Ixviii.  in  triumph  at  his  victory  over  his  spiritual  foes. 

Is  Browning's  use  of  the  same  words  an  echo  of  St. 
Antony  ?  As  Giuseppe  Caponsacchi  watches  by  the  side 
of  Pompilia,  hears  her  moaning  in  her  restless,  fevered 
dreams,  and  sees  her  wave  away  some  evil  spirit  that 
threatens  her,  he  cries, — 

"  Oh,  if  the  God  that  only  can  would  help  ! 
Am  I  his  priest  with  power  to  cast  out  fiends  ? 
Let  God  arise  and  all  His  enemies 
Be  scattered  ! '     By  mom  there  was  peace,  no  sigh 
Out  of  the  deep  sleep."  * 

Among  Antony's  most  distinguished  disciples  was 
Pambo.  Eminent  for  his  austerities,  he  had  taken  for 
his  special  rule  of  life  the  words  of  Ps.  xxxix.  i,  "I 
said,  I  will  take  heed  of  my  ways,  that  I  offend  not 
in  my  tongue,"  and,  in  his  constant  effort  to  keep  the 
door  of  his  lips,  he  is  said  to  have  excelled  even  Antony 
himself.  Half  in  banter,  half  in  earnest,  Browning  de- 
scribes  Pambo,!  "  arms   crossed,   brow   bent,   thought- 

*  "  The  Ring  and  the  Book,"  Giuseppe  Caponsacchi,  1300-1304. 
t  "  Jocoseria,"  Pambo. 


3a  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

immersed,"  from  youth  to  age  pondering  over  the  verse, 
and  finding  in  the  seeming  simplicity  of  the  command 
enough  to  absorb  every  faculty  of  mind  and  body,  so 
long  as  hfe  endured. 

The  influence  of  Antony  and  other  hermits  spread  from 
Africa  to  Asia.  Monastic  communities  multiplied  rap- 
idly, and  in  their  religious  services  the  Psalms  held  the 
chief  place.  Of  such  communities  in  Eastern  Christen- 
dom Basil  (329-379)  was  the  chief  organizer.  The  secluded 
place  in  which  he  himself  fixed  his  oun  temporary  re- 
treat lay  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Iris,  near  Neo-Cesarea 
in  Pontus — a  spot  as  beautiful  in  his  eyes  as  "  Calypso's 
Island."  He  describes  the  devotional  exercises  which  hi^ 
communities  of  monks  practised.  While  it  was  yet  night 
the  brethren  rose,  as  in  the  days  of  persecution  Christians 
had  risen  for  concealment,  entered  the  house  of  prayer, 
and,  after  confession  to  God,  turned  to  the  singing  of 
psalms.  Now,  divided  two  by  two,  they  answered  each 
other  ;  now,  one  led  the  chant,  the  rest  following.  Thus 
passed  the  night  till  the  day  began  to  dawn.  As  morn- 
ing broke,  they  all  in  common,  with  one  mouth  and  from 
one  heart,  lifted  to  the  Lord  the  Psalm  of  Confession 
(Ps.  cxviii.).     As  the  day  began,  so  it  ended. 

Nor  was  the  fame  of  the  Egj-ptian  anchorites  confined 
to  the  East.  It  crossed  the  sea  to  Europe.  In  Roman 
society,  as  the  fourth  century  advanced,  two  opposite 
tendencies  were  equally  marked.  A  startling  contrast 
was  presented  between  the  unbridled  luxury  of  the  Im- 
perial City  and  its  inclination  to  the  solitude  and  severity 
of  monastic  life.  From  340  to  343  Athanasius,  an  exile 
and  a  fugitive,  had  found  a  refuge  at  Rome.  The  spell 
of  his  master-mind,  his  enthusiasm  for  the  monks  of  the 
desert,  the  life  of  Antony,  and  the  presence  of  twc 
Egyrptian  anchorites,  seized  the  imagination  of  Roman 
patricians.  Slumbering  fire  leaped  into  flame  as  Atha- 
nasius revealed  the  grandeur  of  human  self-abnegation 
and  he  thus  became,  through  Antony,  the  spiritual  an- 
cestor of  Western  monasticism. 


I  EARLY  AGES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  33 

A  few  years  later,  Marcella,  a  young  and  wealthy 
Oman  widow,  who  had  as  a  child  heard  from  the  lips 
Athanasius  descriptions  of  the  Thebaid  and  of  An- 
>ny,  bade  adieu  to  the  world,  and  made  of  her  palace 
1  the  Aventine  Mount  her  cell,  and  of  its  garden  her 
isert.  Round  her  gathered  a  Uttle  knot  of  women, 
ce-minded  with  herself,  who  devoted  their  lives  to  the 
udy  of  the  Scriptures,  psalmody,  prayer,  and  good 
orks.  That  they  might  sing  the  Psalms  in  the  native 
ingue,  they  learned  Hebrew ;  that  they  might  study 
le  Gospels,  they  learned  Greek. 

Among  the  most  illustrious  of  these  women  was  the 
gh-born  Paula,  whose  ancestors  were  the  Scipios  and 
le  Gracchi,  and  in  whose  veins  ran  the  blood  of  the 
ilf-fabulous  rulers  of  Sparta  and  Mycene.  She  and  her 
Lughters,  Blesilla,  Paulina,  and  Eustochium,  and  her 
anddaughter  Paula,  breathe  and  speak  and  move  in 
.e  glov/ing  pages  of  Jerome.  To  Paula's  daughter, 
Listochium,  is  addressed  the  first  code  of  Christian  vir- 
nity ;  to  her  stepdaughter,  Laeta,  is  penned  the  first 
eatise  on  the  Christian  education  of  women. 
Of  the  family  of  Paula,  Jerome  was  at  once  the  spiritual 
lide  and  historian.  Bom  in  346,  at  Stridon  in  Dalmatia, 
L  the  southern  slopes  of  the  Illyrian  Alps,  Jerome  had 
adied  at  Rome.  After  his  baptism  he  had  settled  at 
quileia,  the  Venice  of  the  fourth  century,  the  great 
aport  of  the  Adriatic,  a  city  situated,  as  the  Bordeaux 
inerary  shows,  on  the  highway  by  which  pilgrims 
avelled  from  the  West  to  the  Holy  Land.  There  his 
ithusiasm  for  study  and  his  inclination  towards  asceti- 
sm  grew  stronger  and  stronger.  His  two  favourite 
xts  were,  "  But  his  delight  is  in  the  law  of  the  Lord  ; 
id  in  His  law  will  he  exercise  himself  day  and  night  " 
*s.  i.  2)  ;  and,  ''  O  that  I  had  wings  like  a  dove  !  for 
.en  would  I  flee  away,  and  be  at  rest  "  (Ps.  Iv.  6). 
'here,  except  in  solitude,  could  he  gratify  his  long- 
g  or  follow  the  law  of  the  Lord  night  and  day  ?  At 
5t,  as  the  Egyptian  anchorites  had  fled  from  the  lusts 

2 


34  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

and  anarchy  of  the  world  to  find  rest  in  the  silence  and 
discipline  of  the  desert,  so  Jerome  fled  to  the  depths 
of  the  desert  of  Chalcis.  In  382  he  came  to  Rome, 
emaciated  and  weakened  by  the  austerities  of  his  life, 
but  with  his  fiery,  impetuous  spirit  yet  untamed.  At 
Rome,  he  revised  from  the  Septuagint  the  Latin  version 
of  the  Psalms.  There,  too,  he  became  the  teacher  of 
the  devout  ladies  who  assembled  on  the  Aventine  Mount 
at  the  house  of  Marcella. 

In  385  he  left  Rome,  where  he  had  made  many  friends 
and  not  a  few  enemies.  Convinced,  as  he  says,  that 
he  had  tried  in  vain  to  "  sing  the  Lord's  song  in  a 
strange  land  "  (Ps.  cxxxvii.  4),  he  embarked  for  Pales- 
tine. After  him  sailed  Paula,  heartbroken  at  the  death 
of  Blesilla,  and  with  Paula  went  her  surviving  unmar- 
ried daughter,  Eustochium.  They  met  Jerome  at  An- 
tioch,  wandered  through  Palestine,  visited  the  Solitaries 
in  the  Nitrian  desert,  and  finally  settled  at  Bethlehem. 
There  were  built  a  monastery,  of  which  Jerome  became 
the  head  ;  a  convent,  presided  over  by  Paula  ;  a  church, 
and  a  hospice  for  pilgrims.  At  Bethlehem,  in  his  grotto 
— ^his  paradise,  as  he  calls  it — close  to  the  traditional 
site  of  the  Nativity,  Jerome  laboured  with  persistent, 
strenuous  energy  till  his  death  in  420. 

At  Bethlehem,  in  this  realized  "  City  of  the  Saints," 
Paula  and  Eustochium  Hved  and  died.  Their  efforts 
to  induce  Marcella  to  leave  Rome  and  join  them  in  the 
Holy  Land  had  failed.  In  vain  Jerome  had  supported 
their  appeal  with  a  letter,  which  closes  with  the  words 
of  Psalm  Ixxiii.  24,  "  For  ourselves,  who  are  here,'* 
he  says,  "  we  think  it  good  to  trust  to  God  for  all,  to 
rest  every  hope  on  Him ;  that  when  we  exchange  the 
poverty  of  this  world  for  '  the  riches  of  heaven,*  we 
may  be  able  to  cry  with  David,  *  Whom  have  I  in 
heaven  but  Thee  ?  and  there  is  none  upon  earth  that  I 
desire  in  comparison  of  Thee.'  "  But  though  Marcella 
stiU  remained  on  the  Aventine  Mount,  there  gathered  at 
Bethlehem  a  community  of  women,  who  sang  the  Psalter 


EARLY  AGES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  35 

through  in  their  daily  sendees,  and  were  pledged,  among 
other  rules,  to  learn  it  by  heart.  Gradually  the  strength 
of  Paula  failed.  In  403  she  lay  on  her  deathbed.  Her 
daughter,  Eustochium,  watched  over  her  with  the  ten- 
derest  care,  praying,  while  Paula  slept,  that  she  might 
depart  from  life  before  her  mother.  As  her  last  moments 
approached,  the  watchers  heard  Paula  murmur  the  words 
of  those  psalms  which  were  seldom  far  from  her  Hps : 
'*  Oh,  how  amiable  are  Thy  dwelhngs.  Thou  Lord  of 
Hosts  !  "  (Ps.  Ixxxiv.  i)  ;  "  Lord,  I  have  loved  the 
habitation  of  Thy  house  and  the  place  where  Thine 
honour  dwelleth  "  (Ps.  xxvi.  8)  ;  "  I  had  rather  be  a 
doorkeeper  in  the  house  of  my  God,  than  to  dwell  in 
the  tents  of  ungodliness "  (Ps.  Ixxxiv.  ii).  When 
the  last  of  the  verses  was  ended,  she  began  again  \vith 
the  first.  To  the  end,  with  closed  eyes  and  faintly 
moving  hps,  she  continued  to  repeat  them,  and  so  passed 
away  on  the  26th  of  January  404.  Round  the  body 
gathered  Christian  Palestine.  Monks  and  nuns  from 
monasteries  or  convents,  hermits  from  their  sohtary 
cells,  bishops  from  the  surrounding  dioceses,  the  poor, 
the  widowed,  and  the  orphans,  flocked  to  pay  to  the 
dead  their  last  tribute  of  affection.  Night  and  day, 
continuously  for  three  days,  the  Psalms  were  chanted 
round  the  bier  in  Greek  and  Hebrew,  Latin  and  Syriac. 
On  the  fourth  day,  Paula  was  buried  in  a  rock-he wti 
grave,  close  to  the  birthplace  of  our  Lord  and  the  grotto 
where  Jerome  laboured. 

Sixteen  years  later  (420)  died  Jerome  himself.  In  the 
interval  Eustochium  had  died,  but  her  place  was  taken 
by  her  niece,  Paula,  the  granddaughter  of  the  elder 
Paula.  Legend  has  fastened  on  the  strange  spiritual 
romance,  which  Unked  with  Jerome  three  generations 
of  a  noble  Roman  family  as  the  guardians  of  his  hfe.  In 
the  fancy  of  mediaeval  art,  the  place  of  the  three  women 
is  taken  by  the  hon,  whose  wounded  paw  was  cured  by 
Jerome  in  the  deserts  of  Chalcis,  and  who  in  gratitude 
became  the  healer's  protector  and  faithful  servant. 


36  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Years  before  the  death  of  Jerome,  Martin  of  Tours 
(316-396),  whose  influence  on  French  history  has  been 
accepted  by  the  most  secular  historians,  whose  fame 
not  only  spread  to  the  most  distant  lands,  but  is  com- 
memorated in  scores  of  quaint  legends  in  provincial 
France,  had  founded  a  monastery  in  Gaul.  The  young 
soldier,  who  at  Amiens  had  divided  his  cloak  with  a 
naked  shivering  beggar,  saw  in  a  dream  Christ  Himself 
clad  in  the  halved  garment.  Accepting  the  dream  as 
a  call  to  religion,  he  was  baptized,  left  the  army,  and 
enhsted  under  St.  Hilary,  Bishop  of  Poitiers,  as  a  soldier 
of  the  Cross  of  Christ.  During  his  friend's  exile,  he  him- 
self settled  near  Milan  ;  but  on  Hilary's  return  to  Gaul, 
Martin  followed.  In  order  to  be  near  the  bishop,  and 
also  in  order  to  preach  on  the  great  Roman  road  from 
Poitiers  to  Saintes,  he  built  the  wooden  hut  at  Liguge, 
on  the  river  Clain,  five  miles  from  Hilary's  see,  which  is 
regarded  as  the  earliest  of  French  monastic  institutions. 
By  a  strange  coincidence,  Rabelais,  twelve  centuries 
later,  found  refuge  close  to  the  Abbey  Church  of  Liguge, 
the  cradle  of  that  system  which,  in  its  decadence,  he  keenly 
satirized.  From  Liguge  the  fame  of  Martin  spread  to 
Tours,  whose  inhabitants  were  eager  to  have  him  for 
their  bishop.  Enticed  from  his  monastery  by  a  trick, 
Martin  visited  the  city.  Crowds  had  collected  for  the 
election.  The  vast  majority  favoured  Martin  ;  a  few 
led  by  a  bishop,  named  Defensor,  objected  to  the 
meanness  of  his  personal  appearance,  his  unkempt  hair, 
his  squahd  garments.  It  was  by  a  verse  from  the  Psalms 
that  the  election  was  decided.  A  bystander,  opening 
the  Psalter  at  hazard,  read  the  verse,  "  Out  of  the 
mouth  of  very  babes  and  sucldings  hast  Thou  ordained 
strength,  because  of  Thine  enemies ;  that  Thou  mightest 
still  the  enemy  and  the  avenger''  (Ps.  viii.  2).  In  the  ver- 
sion then  in  use,  the  words  are,  "  Ut  destruas  inimicum 
et  defensorem."  The  words  were  hailed  as  an  omen. 
Defensor  and  his  supporters  were  confounded,  and  Martin 
was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Tours  (372) .     Two  miles  from 


EARLY  AGES  OF  CHRISTIAXITY.  37 

the  city  he  founded  his  majus  monasterium,  now  Mar- 
moutier,  which  eclipsed  the  fame  of  Liguge,  and  became 
the  most  celebrated  of  French  monasteries. 

Thus  in  Africa,  Asia,  and  Europe  a  great  movement 
had  begun  which  ever>'  year  assumed  larger  propor- 
tions. In  the  fourth  century,  multitudes  of  men  and 
women,  in  sohtary  cells  or  monastic  communities,  sought 
a  retreat  from  a  world  of  conflict,  change,  and  perse- 
cution. That  this  should  have  been  the  case  is  not 
surprising.  The  time  was  one  when  the  Te  Deum 
of  \dctory  alternated  with  the  Miserere  of  defeat,  when 
the  secular  power  first  accepted  religion  as  its  ally,  then 
endeavoured  to  employ  it  as  a  servant,  and  finally 
acknowledged  it  as  a  master.  Among  the  great  ecclesi- 
astics of  the  century  no  names  stand  higher  than  those 
of  Athanasius,  the  impersonation  of  purity  of  faith  ;  or 
of  Basil,  the  upholder  of  order  and  discipline  in  the 
Church  ;  or  of  Ambrose,  the  champion  of  ecclesiastical 
authority.  With  striking  scenes  in  the  Hves  of  each  the 
Psalms  are  inseparably  connected. 

In  October  346,  Athanasius  returned  to  Alexandria 
from  his  second  exile.  The  people  streamed  forth  to 
meet  him.  "  hke  another  Nile."  Every  point  of  vantage 
w^as  crowded  with  eager  spectators.  The  air,  fragrant 
with  the  smoke  of  incense,  and  bright  with  the  blaze  of 
bonfires,  rang  with  cheers  and  the  clapping  of  hands. 
Nearly  nine  years  of  peace  followed  in  the  troubled  life 
of  Athanasius,  But  the  interlude  was  only  the  lull 
which  preceded  the  storm.  The  Emperor  Constantius 
was  in  the  hands  of  his  Arian  courtiers  ;  a  great  majority 
of  the  Council  of  Milan  (355)  had  condemned  Athanasius  ; 
and  it  became  evident  that  some  \iolence  would  be 
attempted  against  the  archbishop  in  his  own  city  of 
Alexandria.  The  Psalms  had  been  his  constant  study. 
His  "  Exposition  of  the  Psalms,"  his  "  Titles  of  the 
Psalms,"  as  well  as  his  frequent  allusions  to  them  in  his 
writings,  prove  how  deep  was  their  hold  upon  his  mind. 
His  favourite  psalm  was  the  72nd.     "Against  all  assaults 


38  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

upon  thy  body,"  he  says,  "  thine  estate,  thy  soul,  thy 
reputation,  against  all  temptations,  tribulations,  plots, 
and  slanderous  reports,  say  this  psalm."  So  now,  in 
the  hour  of  his  own  and  his  people's  danger,  he  turned 
to  a  psalm  for  help. 

At  midnight,  on  Thursday,  February  8,  356,  Atha- 
nasius  was  holding  a  vigil  in  the  Church  of  St.  Theonas. 
The  building  was  thronged  with  worshippers  preparing 
for  the  service  of  the  morrow.  Suddenly  the  church  was 
beset  by  soldiers,  and  the  clash  of  arms  resounded  in  the 
precincts.  ''  I  thought  it  not  right,"  says  Athanasius, 
"  at  a  time  of  such  disorder,  to  leave  my  people.  Rather 
I  preferred  to  be  the  first  to  meet  the  danger."  At  the 
extreme  east  end  of  the  church  was  the  archbishop's 
throne.  Sitting  do^vn  upon  it,  Athanasius  ordered  the 
deacon  to  read  Psalm  cxxxvi.,  and  all  the  people  to 
respond  with  "  For  His  mercy  endiireth  for  ever,"  and 
then  to  withdraw  to  their  homes.  The  act  of  faith  was 
hardly  finished  when  the  doors  were  forced,  and  the 
soldiers  rushed  in,  discharging  their  arrows,  brandishing 
their  swords  and  spears  in  the  dim  light  of  the  building, 
as  they  crowded  up  the  nave.  "  The  clergy  and  the 
people,"  continues  Athanasius,  "  prayed  me  to  escape. 
I  refused  to  move  till  all  were  in  safety.  So  I  stood  up, 
called  for  prayer,  and  bade  the  people  leave.  Many  had 
gone ;  others  were  trying  to  follow,  when  some  of  the 
monks  and  of  the  clergy  came  to  my  throne  and  carried 
me  away.  So  then  I  passed  through  the  crowd  of  soldiers 
unseen,  and  escaped,  gi^'ing  thanks  to  God  that  I  had 
not  betrayed  my  people,  but  had  secured  their  safety 
before  I  thought  of  my  own."  But  Athanasius  only 
describes  that  part  of  the  scene  which  had  passed  before 
his  eyes.  In  the  buildings  that  surrounded  the  church 
there  were  fighting  and  slaughter.  The  dawn  of  da}^ 
revealed  lifeless  bodies,  and  blood-stained  steps  and 
passages ;  and  Alexandria  mourned  not  only  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  beloved  archbishop,  but  the  murder 
of  many  of  her  citizens. 


EARLY  AGES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  39 

Imperial  tyranny  failed  to  subdue  the  spirit  of  Atha- 
nasius,  who  confronted  the  worid  in  order  to  assert  the 
principle  of  the  eternal  Sonship  of  his  Redeemer.  Equally 
powerless  was  it  against  Basil,  whose  character  inspired 
the  genius  of  Hooker,  and  extorted  the  admiration  of 
Gibbon.  How  great  a  share  the  singing  of  psalms  held 
in  the  life  of  his  monastic  communities  has  been  already 
shown,  and  it  was  in  part  the  awe  that  the  sound  of 
chanting  inspired  which  saved  him  from  the  violence  of 
Valens.  On  the  feast  of  the  Epiphany,  372,  the  em- 
peror, surrounded  by  his  guards,  entered  the  chief  church 
of  Cesarea.  At  the  eastern  end  of  the  nave,  behind  the 
altar,  stood  Basil,  supported  by  his  clerg}'.  Tall,  erect, 
his  clear-cut  features  sharpened  by  his  austerities,  his 
bright  eyes  gleaming  under  his  arched  eyebrows,  he 
faced  the  intruders  with  silent  dignity.  The  emperor's 
presence  was  ignored.  The  service  proceeded  with  the 
order  and  reverence  which  Basil  had  introduced.  As 
the  crowd  of  worshippers,  who  filled  the  building  "  with 
a  sea  of  people,"  continued  to  chant  the  Psalms  with  an 
imposing  volume  of  sound,  the  weak,  excitable  Valens 
alrnost  fainted  before  the  impression  which  the  scene 
and  sound  created.  The  mind  of  the  Arian  despot  was 
overawed,  his  eyes  were  dimmed,  his  ner\'es  shaken,  by 
the  manifestation  of  a  Divine  Kingdom  which  was  entirely 
regardless  of  his  power.  He  abandoned  the  thought  of 
violence,  returned  in  peace,  and  for  a  time  Basil  reasserted 
over  him  the  influence  of  his  character. 

Before  the  intrepidity  of  an  Athanasius  and  a  Basil 
Constantius  and  Valens  had  recoiled.  But  though  emprors 
had  failed  to  subdue  the  spirit  which  great  ecclesiastics 
represented,  they  had  not  acknowledged  the  supremacy  of 
religion  in  the  domain  of  conscience.  That  acknowledg- 
ment was  made  by  Theodosius  in  the  Cathedral  of  Milan, 
and  in  the  words  of  a  psalm  his  confession  was  clothed. 

In  390,  a  well-known  and  popular  charioteer  had  been 
imprisoned  by  the  Gothic  governor  of  Thessalonica.  The 
populace,  careless  whether  the  sentence  was  just  or  un- 


40  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

just,  clamoured  for  the  release  of  their  favourite.  Their 
demand  was  refused,  and  a  tumult  arose,  in  which  the 
governor  and  several  of  the  magistrates  were  killed. 
Theodosius  was  determined  that  the  punishment  of  the 
Thessalonians  should  be  signal.  The  secret  was  well 
kept.  The  officials  of  the  city  summoned  the  inhabitants 
to  the  circus,  as  though  they  were  to  witness  an  ordinary 
spectacle  ;  but  as  soon  as  they  were  assembled  in  the 
arena  armed  soldiers  surrounded  the  place,  and  put  to 
the  sword  every  living  being — man,  woman,  or  child — 
who  fell  into  their  hands.  In  the  massacre  seven  thou- 
sand persons  are  said  to  have  perished. 

Horrified  at  the  news,  Ambrose,  Bishop  of  Milan,  wrote 
to  the  Emperor  Theodosius,  urging  him  to  throw  himself 
as  a  penitent  on  the  mercy  of  God.  "  Sin,"  he  pleaded, 
"  is  effaced  neither  by  tears  nor  by  penitence  :  neither 
angel  nor  archangel  can  remove  its  stain  ;  God,  and  God 
only,  can  take  away  sin.  You  have  imitated  David  in 
your  crime  ;  imitate  him  also  in  your  repentance."  For 
eight  months  Theodosius  refused,  and  for  eight  months 
he  was  interdicted  from  the  consolations  of  rehgion.  At 
last  he  yielded.  Conscience  conquered  pride,  and  he 
submitted  to  receive  his  sentence  and  his  pardon  from 
the  Church.  Prostrate  on  the  floor  of  the  Cathedral 
of  ^lilan,  with  tears  and  lamentations,  the  emperor 
prayed  in  the  words  of  the  psalm  (Ps.  cxix.  25),  "  My 
soul  cleaveth  to  the  dust ;  O  quicken  Thou  me,  ac- 
cording to  Thy  word."  The  spiritual  victory  was  com- 
plete, and  its  effect  on  the  popular  mind  was  deep  and 
lasting.  The  new  relations  between  the  Church  and 
the  Empire  were  summed  up  by  Ambrose  in  the  tren- 
chant phrase,  "  The  Church  is  not  in  the  Empire,  but  the 
Emperor  is  in  the  Church."  The  words  were  used  of  the 
religious  sphere ;  but  they  might  have  been  the  text 
on  which  the  poHtical  and  spiritual  despots  of  the  Middle 
Ages  were  the  bold  commentators,  and  to  which  the 
actions  of  a  Gregory  VII.  or  an  Innocent  III.  form  only 
the  exaggerated  conclusions. 


EARLY  AGES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  41 

In  the  sphere  of  human  action  the  power  of  the 
Psahns  was  great ;  but  in  the  domain  of  thought,  it 
would  be  probably  found,  if  evidence  could  be  traced, 
that  their  sway  was  equally  universal.  Take,  for  ex- 
ample, such  a  rehgious  autobiography  as  the  *'  Confes- 
sions of  St.  Augustine,"  and  through  the  first  nine  books, 
which  end  with  the  death  of  Monica,  follow  the  influence 
of  the  Psalms.  From  the  beginning  of  the  "  Confessions," 
opening,  as  they  do,  with  the  quotations,  "  Great  is  the 
Lord,  and  marvellous  ;  worthy  to  be  praised."  "  Great 
is  our  Lord,  and  great  is  His  power  ;  yea,  and  His 
wisdom  is  infinite"  (Ps.  cxlv.  3,  and  cxlvii.  5),  down 
to  the  "  Prayer  for  his  dead  mother,"  with  which  the 
ninth  book  closes,  there  is  scarcely  a  page  without  a 
reference  to  the  same  source. 

"  With  my  mother's  milk,"  so  says  Augustine  of  him- 
self, "  I  sucked  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ."  Through 
all  the  wild  excesses  of  his  youth,  the  ambitions  and 
intellectual  wanderings  of  after  hfe,  the  religious  im- 
pressions of  infancy  remain  distinct.  His  soul  "  longed 
after  God  ;  "  it  was  "  athirst  "  for  Him.  He  never 
lost  that  passionate  desire  to  know  the  h\dng  God  which 
bursts  from  his  Hps  in  the  opening  passage  of  the  *'  Con- 
fessions," "  Thou  madest  man  for  Thyself,  and  the  heart 
knows  no  repose  till  it  rests  in  Thee." 

Ever  craving  for  something  ideal  and  enduring,  haunted 
by  the  soHtude  of  his  owti  mind,  he  obeyed  the  wild  im- 
pulses of  youth,  pursued  delights  that  appealed  to  his 
artistic  or  sensuous  nature,  sought  distractions  in  objects 
pleasing  to  the  eye,  in  games,  theatres,  or  music,  or.  in 
the  indulgence  of  animal  passion.  Yet,  tortured  by  re- 
proaches of  conscience,  he  reaped  no  harvest  of  repose  ; 
he  only  gleaned  self-loathing.  Ambitious  of  worldly 
fame,  he  pursued  wdth  eagerness  his  studies  of  literature, 
of  rhetoric,  of  the  sciences.  Still  restless,  he  turned  to 
higher  and  better  things.  The  "  Hortensius  "  of  Cicero 
inflamed  him  with  a  passion  for  wisdom,  "  for  Wisdom 
alone,  as  she  might  reveal  herself."     Yet,  even  under 


42  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

the  mastery  of  this  longing,  he  "  turned  to  flee  back 
from  the  things  of  earth  to  God." 

In  his  eager  quest  for  wdsdom  and  truth,  he  sought 
them  among  the  ^lanichees,  who  claimed  the  possession 
of  rational  knowledge,  and  derided  the  Christians  for 
their  blind  belief.  For  nine  years  Augustine  wandered 
in  the  mazes  of  their  speculations,  his  intellect  subdued 
by  their  subtleties,  his  imagination  charmed  by  their 
symbohcal  interpretations  of  nature.  Here,  too,  he 
found  no  abiding  happiness ;  his  faith  in  their  system 
was  gradually  undermined.  When,  in  384  a.d.,  he  came 
to  Milan  as  a  teacher  of  rhetoric,  he  came  embittered  by  a 
sense  of  deception,  inclined  to  general  scepticism,  yet  still 
asking  of  his  soul  the  reason  of  its  sadness  and  disquietude. 

At  Milan,  Augustine  fell  under  the  influence  of  Am- 
brose. He  loved  the  man,  was  charmed  by  his  eloquence, 
and  through  his  preaching  learned  to  study  the  Old 
Testament.  He  was  standing  at  the  gate  of  the  sanc- 
tuary ;  but  a  hard  struggle  was  to  be  faced  bsfore  he 
crossed  the  threshold.  His  mother  Monica  was  now  at 
his  side.  She  had  crossed  the  sea  from  Carthage  to  be 
with  her  beloved  son,  and  her  prayerful  confidence  in 
his  ultimate  triumph  over  doubt  could  not  fail  to  influ- 
ence his  mind.  Slowly  the  conviction  came  to  him  that 
the  peace  of  God  was  not  to  be  won  by  the  mind  alone. 
The  lofty  ideaUsm  of  Plato  turned  his  thoughts  upward 
and  inward  ;  but  it  brought  him  no  moral  strength  to 
raise  himself  from  the  earth.  Then  he  gave  himself  to 
the  study  of  the  Bible,  and  especially  to  the  study  of 
St.  Paul's  Epistles.  Here  he  learned  the  source  of  that 
power  which  enables  men  to  embody  high  ideals  in  daily 
practice.  In  the  pages  of  the  Platonic  writers  he  finds, 
as  he  says,  no  trace  of  the  "  humble  and  contrite  heart," 
no  "  sacrifice  of  the  broken  spirit  "  (Ps.  li.  17).  No  one 
sings  there,  ''  Truly  my  soul  waiteth  upon  God ;  from 
Him  Cometh  my  salvation  :  He  only  is  my  rock  and 
my  salvation  ;  He  is  my  strong  tower ;  I  shall  not  be 
greatly  moved"  (Ps.  Ixii.  i,  2).     "  It  is  one  thing,"  he 


EARLY  AGES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  43 

continues,  "  to  see  afar  off,  from  some  tree-clad  height, 
the  fatherland  of  peace,  5^et  to  find  no  path  thither,  and, 
stnigghng  vainly  towards  it,  to  wander  this  way  and 
that  among  wilds  beset  by  the  ambushments  of  lurking 
runagates,  with  their  prince,  the  Hon  and  the  dragon 
(Ps.  xci.  13).  It  is  another  thing  to  tread  securely 
on  a  highroad  that  leads  directly  thither,  built  by  the 
hand  of  the  Heavenly  Emperor,  whereon  no  deserters 
from  the  celestial  host  lie  in  wait  to  rob  the  traveller, 
for  they  shun  it  as  a  torment." 

His  struggle  grew  in  intensity  till  it  became  an  agony. 
The  flesh  lusted  against  the  spirit ;  the  law  in  his  mem- 
bers warred  against  the  law  of  his  mind,  and  held  him 
captive.  But  the  supreme  crisis  was  not  far  distant. 
It  came  in  September  386,  in  the  thirty-third  3-ear  of  his 
age.  He  had  thro\\Ti  himself  down  in  a  retired  comer 
of  his  garden  at  Milan,  and  there,  under  the  shade  of 
a  fig-tree,  poured  out  a  flood  of  tears.  "  How  long,  0 
Lord,  how  long  ?  "  he  cried,  "  How  long  wilt  Thou  be 
angry  ?  0  remember  not  our  old  sins !  "  (Ps.  Ixxix. 
5,  8).  As  he  prayed  he  seemed  to  hear  the  voice  of  some 
boy  or  girl,  which  he  knew  not,  repeating  in  a  kind 
of  chant  the  words,  Tolle,  lege  I  Tolle,  lege  I — "Take 
and  read  !  take  and  read  !  "  "I  checked,"  he  says, 
"  the  torrent  of  my  tears,  and  raised  myself  to  my  feet ; 
for  I  received  the  words  as  nothing  less  than  a  Divine 
command  to  open  the  Bible,  and  read  the  first  passage 
on  which  my  eyes  lighted."  Was  not  Antony,  of  whose 
life  he  had  recently  heard,  converted  by  a  similar  oracle 
of  God  ?  Running  to  the  spot  where  he  had  left  his 
Bible,  he  snatched  it  up,  opened  its  pages,  and  read 
the  words  :  "  Not  in  rioting  and  drunkenness,  not  in 
chambering  and  wantonness,  not  in  strife  and  en\^'ing. 
But  put  ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  make  not  pro- 
vision for  the  flesh,  to  fulfil  the  lusts  thereof."  The 
shadows  of  doubt  were  dispersed  ;  the  light  of  peace 
irradiated  his  heart ;  as  he  finished  the  sentence,  he  had 
neither  desire  nor  need  to  read  further. 


44  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

The  passage,  as  he  read  it  in  the  ascetic  spirit  of  the 
age,  told  him  not  only  to  renounce  his  wild  life,  but  to 
forego  his  marriage,  abandon  the  pursuits  and  honours 
of  the  world,  and  dedicate  himself  wholly  to  the  ser\dce 
of  Christ.  The  vintage  holidays  were  at  hand.  As  soon 
as  they  began,  he  resigned  his  office  as  a  teacher  of 
rhetoric,  and  withdrew  to  the  hills  above  Milan  to  pre- 
pare for  baptism.  There  he  read  and  reread  the  PsahrxS, 
spending  half  the  night  in  their  study,  and  finding  in 
their  words  the  expression  of  his  own  deepest  feelings — 
the  sad  lament  of  penitence  rising  into  the  triumphant 
song  of  praise  for  the  infinite  mercy  of  God.  "How,  O 
God,"  he  says,  "  did  I  cry  unto  Thee,  as  I  read  the 
Psalms  of  David,  those  hymns  of  faith  and  songs  of 
devotion  which  fill  the  heart  against  all  swellings  of 
pride !  I  was  still  but  a  novice  in  Thy  true  love,  a  be- 
ginner, keeping  holiday  in  a  country  place  with  Alypius, 
Eke  myself  a  catechumen,  and  with  my  mother — ^in  garb 
indeed  a  woman,  but  in  faith  a  man,  in  the  tranquillity 
of  age,  full  of  a  mother's  love  and  Christian  devotion  ! 
How  did  I  cry  unto  Thee  in  these  Psalms !  How  did 
they  kindle  my  heart  towards  Thee  !  How  did  I  bum 
to  rehearse  them  all  over  the  world,  if  so  I  might  abate 
the  pride  of  man  !  " 

It  was  especially  the  4th  Psalm  that  worked  upon  his 
mind  :  "  When  I  called  upon  Thee,  Thou  didst  hear  me, 
O  God  of  my  righteousness  :  Thou  hast  set  me  at  Hberty 
when  I  was  in  trouble ;  have  mercy  upon  me,  and 
hearken  unto  my  prayer  "  (verse  i).  As  he  read  it,  he 
mourned  over  the  Manichees,  pitying  their  bhnd  rejec- 
tion of  the  antidote  which  might  have  cured  their 
madness :  "  Would  they  could  have  heard,  without  my 
knowing  that  they  heard,  lest  they  should  have  thought 
it  was  on  their  account  I  spoke,  what  I  cried  as  I  read 
these  words  1  In  truth  I  could  not  so  have  cried  had  I 
felt  that  they  were  watching.  Nor,  indeed,  if  I  had 
used  the  very  same  words,  could  they  have  meant  to 
them  what  they  have  meant  to  me,  as  they  poured  from 


EARLY  AGES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  45 

ni\^  heart  in  that  soliloquy  which  fell  on  Thine  ears  alone. 
For  I  trembled  with  fear,  and  I  glowed  with  hope  and 
great  joy  in  Thy  mercy,  O  my  Father.  Yea,  joy  and 
hope  and  fear  shone  in  my  eyes  and  thrilled  in  my  voice, 
while  Thy  good  Spirit  turned  to  us  and  said,  '  O  ye 
sons  of  men,  how  long  will  ye  blaspheme  Mine  honour  ; 
and  have  such  pleasure  in  vanity,  and  seek  after  leas- 
ing ?' "  (Ps.  iv.  2). 

On  Easter  Sunday,  April  24,  387,  Augustine  was 
baptized  by  x\mbrose  at  Milan,  and  at  his  baptism  the 
43rd  Psalm  was  sung.  Throughout  his  subsequent  career 
his  Hfelong  stud}^  of  the  Psalms  may  be  traced.  It  is 
proved  by  his  two  commentaries  on  the  book  ;  by  his 
vision  of  Ps.  cxix.,  rising  hke  a  Tree  of  Life  in  Paradise  ; 
by  the  inscription  of  Ps.  xxxii.  above  his  bed,  that  his 
eyes  might  rest  upon  the  words  at  the  moment  of  waking  ; 
by  the  closing  scene  of  his  hfe  in  the  bare  room  within 
the  walls  of  beleaguered  Hippo.  As  Gregory  Xazianzen 
began  his  "  Apologia  "  against  the  Emperor  JuHan  with 
a  quotation  from  Ps.  xhx.  ;  as  Ambrose  was  moved  to 
write  his  treatise  on  the  Duties  of  the  Clergy  by  the 
patience,  simpHcity,  and  contempt  for  riches  w'hich 
marked  Ps.  xxxix. ;  so  Augustine  chose  for  the  motto 
of  his  work  on  "The  City  of  God"  the  words,  "Vers- 
excellent  things  are  spoken  of  Thee,  thou  City  of 
God  "  (Ps.  lxxx\'ii.  2).  That  noble  treatise  (413-426), 
written,  as  it  were,  in  the  glare  of  burning  Rome,  ex- 
presses with  glowing  eloquence  his  sense  of  the  eternal 
destinies  of  the  city  of  God.  The  same  intense  con\ic- 
tion  of  everlasting  endurance  amid  decay  speaks  in  the 
inscription — "  Thy  kingdom  is  an  everlasting  kingdom  " 
(Ps,  cxlv.  13) — which  is  wiitten  in  Greek  characters, 
unobhterated  by  time  or  enemies,  above  the  portal 
of  the  church  at  Damascus,  once  a  Christian  cathedral, 
but  now,  for  twelve  centuries,  a  Mohammedan  mosque. 
It  is  again  the  same  conviction,  that  God's  City,  in  the 
midst  of  an  ephemeral  world,  stands  firm  for  ever,  which 
dictates  the  inscription  in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Sophia 


46  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

at  Kieff,  the  oldest  church  in  Russia.,  built  by  Yaroslal 
in  1037.  On  the  mosaics  behind  the  altar  is  a  colossal 
figure  of  the  Virgin,  bearing  the  inscription,  "  God  is 
in  the  midst  of  her,  therefore  shall  she  not  be  removed  " 
(Ps.  xlW.  5). 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE   FORMATION   OF  NATIONS. 

The  invasions  of  the  barbarians ;  supremacy  of  moral  power  over 
brute  force  ;  Totila  and  Benedict :  the  Rule  of  Benedict ;  monastic 
missionaries  :  translation  of  the  Psalms  into  Sclavonic  ;  the  Psalms 
in  the  lives  of  Columban,  Gall,  Patrick,  Columba,  Cuthbert ;  Irish 
and  British  Christianity  —  Battle  of  Mold,  Kentigem,  Bangor; 
Roman  Christianity — the  island  of  Death  and  Silence  ;  Gregory 
the  Great  ;  coming  of  Augustine  ;  introduction  of  Benedictine 
Rule  ;  its  foundation  on  the  Psalms  ;  its  establishment  in  England 
— Benedict  Biscop,  Wilfrid,  Neot,  Dunstan ;  universality  of  the 
Rule. 

MEN  needed  all  their  faith  in  the  eternity  of  ''the  city 
of  God  "  during  the  successive  invasions  which, 
in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  swept  over  Europe.  The 
siege  and  capture  of  Rome  (410)  by  Alaric  and  his  Arian 
Visigoths  thrilled  the  civilized  world  with  consternation. 
The  news,  as  has  been  noted,  stirred  Augustine  to  write 
his  "  De  Civitate  Dei,"  with  a  psalm  for  his  motto. 
Jerome,  in  his  cave  at  Bethlehem,  wrestling  with  the 
difficulties  of  the  prophet  Ezekiel,  found  in  a  psalm  the 
best  expression  for  a  horror  which,  as  he  said,  made  him 
forget  his  own  name  :  "  O  God,  the  heathen  are  come 
into  Thy  inheritance  ;  Thy  holy  temple  have  they  defiled, 
and  made  Jerusalem  an  heap  of  stones  "  (Ps.  Ixxix.). 
In  rude  contrast  to  the  solemnity  of  this  imiversal 
lamentation  was  the  sensation  of  relief  which,  according 
to  the  popular  story,  the  event  produced  upon  the 
Emperor  Honorius.  "  Rome  has  perished  !  "  cried  the 
panic-stricken   messenger,   as  he  hurried   into   the  em- 


48  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

peror's  presence.  "  Rome  perished  !  "  replied  the  im- 
perial poultry-fancier,  who  had  a  favourite  hen  called 
"  Rome  ;  "  "  impossible  !  an  hour  ago  she  was  feeding 
from  my  hand."  It  was  explained  that  it  was  the  city 
of  Rome  which  had  been  destroyed.  "  But  I  thought,'' 
said  the  reheved  emperor,  "  you  meant  that  it  was  my 
bird  Rome,  which  I  had  lost." 

Alaric  and  his  Arian  followers  spared  Christian  churches 
and  those  who  had  found  refuge  within  their  walls.  But 
what  shelter  was  there  from  the  savage  glance  of  Attila's 
small  bead-hke  eyes,  as  his  squalid  Pannonian  hordes 
swept  over  Europe  (441-451),  leaving  in  their  track  a 
blackened  and  desolated  waste  ?  A  panic-stricken  world 
saw  that  the  weapons  of  the  Christian  faith  alone  availed 
against  the  hosts  of  e\al.  Priests  were  not  indeed  always 
spared.  Nicasius,  eleventh  Bishop  of  Rheims,  was  cut 
down  by  a  Vandal  in  407,  as  he  stood  on  the  threshold 
of  the  church,  chanting  the  words,  "  Quicken  Thou  me 
according  to  Thy  word  "  (Ps.  cxix.  25).  Paris  may 
have  owed  security  to  insignificance  rather  than  to 
the  prayers  of  St.  Genevieve.  But  there  is  better  evi- 
dence to  prove  that  Orleans  was  saved  by  St.  Aignan, 
Troyes  by  St.  Loup,  and  Rome  by  St.  Leo.  Di\dne 
interpositions  on  behalf  of  the  Church  and  her  saints 
were  magnified  by  the  legends  which  clustered  round  the 
name  of  Attila,  the  Flagellum  Dei  ("  scourge  of  God  ") 
of  theologians,  the  "  Etzel "  of  the  Niehelungenlied. 
The  inroads  of  the  Huns  stimulated  the  spread  of 
Christianity,  for  the  barbarian  was  awed  by  the  priest 
alone,  and  the  instruments  of  God's  wrath  trembled 
only  before  the  agents  of  His  mercy.  It  was  then  that 
paganism  lost  its  hold  on  the  Imperial  City,  when  Pope 
Leo  refuted  the  plea  that  Rome  owed  her  dowmfall  to 
desertion  of  her  ancient  gods.  It  was  then  also  that 
the  foundations  of  the  Papal  Empire  were  firmly  laid, 
when  the  successor  of  Peter  triumphed  where  the  suc- 
cessor of  Caesar  had  ignominiously  failed. 

But  among  the  barbarians  and  the  native  races  the 


THE  FORMATION  OF  NATIONS.  49 

sense  of  awe  in  the  presence  of  the  supernatural  was 
thus  deepened  by  the  events  of  the  invasion.  Living 
examples  of  Christian  charity,  like  Deo  Gratias,  Bishop 
of  Carthage,  or  Cesarius,  Bishop  of  Aries,  who  spent  their 
substance  in  the  redemption  of  captives,  passed  the 
comprehension,  yet  commanded  the  respect,  of  the 
invaders.  Trusted  mediators,  like  Epiphanius,  Bishop 
of  Pavia,  won  their  confidence.  An  Odoacer  bowed 
before  the  spiritual  insight  of  Severinus  of  Noricum,  the 
mysterious  prophet  and  apostle  of  Austria.  A  Totila — 
as  the  story  is  told  in  Spinello's  frescoes  in  San  Miniato 
at  Florence — paid  homage  to  the  saintly  character  of 
Benedict  of  Nursia  ;  and  the  spell  which  the  Patriarch 
of  Western  monasticism  cast  over  the  all-conquering 
king  testifies,  with  silent  eloquence,  to  the  supremacy 
of  moral  power  over  brute  force,  and  strikes  the  prelude 
to  the  illustrious  life  of  the  Benedictine  Order. 

Driven  from  the  wild  gorges  of  Subiaco  by  the  evil 
devices  of  his  enemies,  Benedict  found  a  retreat  at 
Monte  Cassino.  There  he  established  among  a  pagan 
people  the  capital  of  the  monastic  order.  The  temple 
of  Apollo  was  overthrown  ;  the  sacred  wood  was  felled, 
and  the  faith  of  Christ  preached  to  a  people  who,  two 
centuries  after  Constantine,  and  in  the  heart  of  Christen- 
dom, still  worshipped  the  gods  of  ancient  Rome.  Dante 
has  told  the  story  ("  Paradiso,"  canto  xxii.)  : — 

"  In  old  days 
That  mountain,  at  whose  side  Cassino  rests. 
Was,  on  its  height,  frequented  by  a  race 
Deceived  and  ill-disposed  ;   and  I  it  was 
Who  thither  carried  first  the  name  of  Him 
Who  brought  the  soul-subliming  truth  to  man. 
And  such  a  speeding  grace  shone  over  me 
That  from  their  impious  worship  I  reclaimed 
The  dwellers  round  about,  who  with  the  world 
Were  in  delusion  lost." 

"  From  the  heart  of  the  Benedict,  as  from  a  fountain- 
head  of  Paradise,"  flowed  the  monastic  life  of  the  West. 
Monte  Cassino  was,  as  it  were,  its  Sinai.     From  it  issued 


50  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

the  famous  Rule  of  St.  Benedict  (528),  the  code  under 
which  hved  the  vast  majority  of  those  who  embraced 
the  monastic  discipUne  of  labour  and  obedience. 

Shortly  before  his  death  the  great  monastic  lawgiver 
saw  in  a  vision,  as  Pope  Gregory  relates,  the  whole  world 
gathered  together  under  one  beam  of  the  sun.  Five 
centuries  later  it  would  be  true  to  say  that  the  vision 
was  realized  in  the  obedience  of  the  monastic  world  to 
the  Rule  of  Benedict.  But  for  the  moment  no  uni- 
formity existed.  Here,  as  in  Southern  Italy,  prevailed 
the  Eastern  Rule  of  Basil ;  here,  as  at  Lerins,  the  Egyp- 
tian Rule  of  Antony  or  of  Macarius  ;  here,  as  in  Spain, 
the  Rule  of  Isidore.  Gradually  the  continent  was  cov- 
ered with  monastic  missionaries,  who  carried  Christianity 
among  the  pagan  provincials  or  heathen  barbarians, 
bridged  the  gap  between  the  old  civilization  and  the 
new,  and  in  countries  devastated  by  wars  and  rapine 
practised  the  arts  of  peace  under  the  sanction  of  re- 
ligion. In  such  missionary  enterprises  the  Celtic  saints 
were  nobly  distinguished.  Now,  in  the  spirit  of  Antony 
and  the  anchorites  of  the  Egyptian  deserts,  the  storm- 
beaten  islands  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  were  tenanted  by 
eager  solitaries,  who,  by  day  and  night,  from  year's  end 
to  year's  end,  amid  the  roar  of  the  waves  and  the  wild 
screams  of  seabirds,  sang  the  Psalms  to  God.  Now,  in 
another  aspect  of  the  same  religious  fervour,  men  left 
their  wattled  chapels,  their  stone  oratories,  and  wooden 
shrines  in  Ireland  and  Scotland,  to  carry  the  gospel 
message  to  the  heathen.  Columban  at  Luxeuil  and 
Bobbio,  Gall  in  Switzerland,  Cataldus  at  Tarentum, 
Virgilius  at  Salzburg,  Donatus  at  Fiesole,  were  among 
the  Celtic  saints  who  made  their  influence  felt  in  West- 
em  Europe  from  Iceland  to  Southern  Italy. 

It  was  by  a  text  from  the  Psalms  that  the  first  trans- 
lation of  the  Scriptures  into  a  language  "  understanded 
of  the  people  "  was  sanctioned  by  orthodox  Christianity. 
Methodius  and  Cyril  desired  to  construct  an  alphabet, 
and  to  translate  portions  of  the  Bible  into  the  Scla- 


THE  FORMATION  OF  NATIONS.  51 

vonic  tongue.  Their  request  was  referred  to  Pope  John 
Vni.  in  879,  and  it  was  justified  in  his  eyes  by  the 
words,  "  Let  everything  that  hath  breath  praise  the 
Lord  "  (Ps.  cl.  6).  In  the  Sclavonic  language,  and  in 
the  rude  alphabet  which  still  witnesses  to  the  Byzan- 
tine origin  of  the  Russian  religion  and  literature,  the 
whole  of  the  New  Testament  was  translated.  From 
the  Old  Testament  the  Book  of  Psalms  alone  was  se- 
lected. No  one  can  doubt  the  meaning  of  the  choice, 
or  that  it  was  wisely  made.  For  missions,  especially 
to  pagan  peoples,  no  book  is  better  adapted.  In  the 
first  place,  Nature  is  treated  in  its  unity  rather  than 
in  its  detail ;  it  is  contemplated  in  great  masses  :  it  is 
painted  not  as  self-subsisting  or  glorious  in  its  o\mi 
beauty,  but  as  the  living  expression  of  the  one  God, 
the  embodiment  of  one  overruling  spiritual  power.  No 
book,  again,  appeals  so  strongly  to  the  simple  elemental 
feelings,  the  universal  eternal  emotions  of  mankind ; 
no  book  relies  less  upon  the  special  forms  of  human 
opinion  to  which  different  ages  and  varying  circum- 
stances have  given  their  transitory  mould.  No  book, 
again,  is  so  calculated  to  encourage  that  sense  of  awe 
before  the  Divine  invisible  omnipresence  which  gives  its 
sanction  to  the  voice  of  conscience.  In  the  poetry  of 
Homer,  the  deities  of  Ol^nnpus  in  three  paces  traverse 
the  uttermost  bounds  of  the  earth  ;  and  to  this  material 
omnipresence  Plato  added  moral  grandeur  by  his  con- 
ception of  the  ubiquitous  supervision  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence. But  the  splendour  of  the  thought,  as  imagined 
by  the  Greek  poet  or  philosopher,  is  only  a  pale  reflec- 
tion of  the  sublimity  of  the  idea  as  it  is  represented 
by  the  Hebrew  Psalmist.  In  Ps.  cxxxix.  the  beautiful 
blossom  bursts  into  the  full  glory  of  the  flower.  On  its 
language  is  modelled  one  of  the  earliest  fragments  of 
missionary  teaching  :  "  O  Lord,  my  thoughts,"  it  runs, 
"  cannot  elude  Thy  thoughts ;  Thou  knowest  all  the  ways 
by  which  I  would  escape.  If  I  climb  up  into  heaven, 
Thou  dwellest  there  ;    if  I  go  down  to  hell,  there  also  I 


52  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

find  Thy  presence.  If  I  bury  myself  in  the  darkness, 
Thou  findest  me  there.  I  know  that  Thy  night  can  be 
made  clear  as  my  day.  In  the  morning  I  take  flight ; 
I  flee  to  the  ends  of  the  sea  ;  but  there  is  no  place  in 
which  Thy  hand  reaches  me  not,"  etc.  The  sentiment 
is  that  which  prompted  Linnaeus,  the  Swedish  natural- 
ist, to  inscribe  over  the  door  of  his  lecture-room,  "  In- 
nocui  vivitc  Numen  adest  "  ("  Live  innocently  :  God 
is  here ").  It  is  the  same  also  which,  in  a  utili- 
tarian, prosaic  age,  is  coldly  paraphrased  in  Thomson's 
"Hymn:"— 

"  Should  fate  command  me  to  the  farthest  verge 
Of  the  green  earth,  to  distant  barbarous  climes. 
Rivers  unknown  to  song  ....  'tis  naught  to  me  ; 
Since  God  is  ever  present,  ever  felt, 
In  the  void  waste  as  in  the  city  full." 

To  learn  the  Psalter  by  heart  was,  in  monastic  life, 
the  first  duty  of  a  novice.  Among  the  secular  clergy 
knowledge  of  the  Psalter  was  the  threshold  to  prefer- 
ment. A  council  of  the  Church  and  the  capitularies  of 
an  emperor  provided  that  no  one  should  be  raised  to 
any  ecclesiastical  dignity  who  could  not  recite  the  whole 
book.  By  the  Psalms  were  sustained  the  lives  and 
deaths  of  the  men  whose  spiritual  daring  converted 
Europe  to  Christianity.  Above  the  mists  of  legend, 
through  the  pictured  veil  of  romance,  one  fact  shines 
out  with  penetrating,  steadfaist  light.  It  is  the  strength 
that  in  solitude  or  danger,  missionary  and  monk,  secular 
priest  and  anchorite,  derived  from  the  Psalms  of  David. 
The  words  lived  in  his  mind  ;  they  were  ever  on  his 
lip  ;  in  them  his  thoughts  were  unconsciously  clothed  ; 
in  them  his  cry  for  help  was  naturally  expressed.  Take, 
for  example,  the  stories,  legend  or  truth,  of  two  great 
Continental  missionaries,  the  Celtic  saints  Columban 
and  Gall. 

Like  Francis  of  Assisi,  Columban  wielded  a  magnetic 
power  over  wild  creatures.  At  his  call  squirrels  leaped 
from  the  trees  to  nestle  in  his  bosom,  or  chase  each 


THE  FORMATION  OF  NATIONS.  53 

other  in  the  folds  of  his  white  scapular  ;  birds,  as  he 
knelt  in  prayer,  fluttered  round  him  and  perched  on 
his  uplifted  hands,  or  on  his  Bible  as  it  hung  by  a  strap 
from  his  shoulder  ;  to  him  a  bear  gave  up  its  cave  for 
a  retreat  ;  a  raven  confessed  its  crime,  and  restored 
his  stolen  gloves.  With  a  psalm  he  and  his  colleague, 
Gall  the  apostle  of  Switzerland,  exorcised  the  demons 
of  Bregenz,  There  the  two  Irish  missionaries  had  estab- 
lished (circa  610)  a  little  colony  of  Christians,  living  by 
the  labours  of  their  hands.  The  Lake  of  Constance 
swarmed  with  fish,  and  Columban  made  the  nets,  which 
Gall  cast  into  the  waters  for  a  draught.  One  night,  as 
Gall  watched  silentjy  in  his  boat  among  his  nets,  he 
heard  the  demon  of  the  mountains  calling  aloud  to  the 
demon  of  the  waters. 

"  Arise  !  "  he  cried  ;  *'  help  to  chase  away  the  strangers 
who  have  driven  me  from  my  temples.  It  will  need  our 
united  strength  to  thrust  them  forth." 

"  What  can  we  do  ?  "  asked  the  demon  of  the  waters. 
"  Here  is  one  upon  the  water-side,  whose  nets  I  have 
tried  to  break  ;  yet  have  I  never  succeeded.  He  praj'S 
always,  and  never  sleeps.  Our  labour  wdll  be  but  lost. 
We  shall  avail  nothing  against  him." 

Then  Gall  made  the  sign  of  the  Cross,  and,  hurrying 
to  land,  roused  Coltmiban,  who  straightway  tolled  the 
bell  for  midnight  prayers.  Before  the  first  psalm  was 
sung  through,  the  yells  of  the  baffled  demons  echoed 
in  fury  from  the  surrounding  hills,  grew  faint  in  the 
distance,  and  died  away  among  the  mountains  like  the 
confused  sotmds  of  a  routed  host. 

Another  incident  in  the  life  of  Gall  serves  to  connect 
with  the  Psalms  the  choice  of  the  site  of  one  of  the 
most  famous  monasteries.  Columban  had  left  Bre- 
genz (612),  and  Gal]  determined  to  seek  another  home 
from  which  to  preach  the  gospel.  As  he  wandered 
through  a  forest,  he  came  to  a  spot  where  the  little  river 
steinach,  falling  from  the  mountain,  hollows  itself  a 
bed  in  the  rock.     Here  Gall,  stumbling  over  a  bramble, 


54  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

fell.  His  comrades  strove  to  raise  him ;  but  he  bade 
them  leave  him,  for  "  This,"  he  cried,  "  shall  be  my 
rest :  here  will  I  dwell,  for  I  have  a  delight  therein  " 
(Ps.  cxxxii.  15).  So  was  founded  the  great  monastery 
of  St.  Gall,  renowned  for  its  library,  its  learning,  and  its 
cultivation  of  the  arts. 

Coming  nearer  home,  we  find  in  the  legendary  history 
of  St.  Patrick  a  noble  use  of  the  verse,  "  Some  put  their 
trust  in  chariots,  and  some  in  horses  ;  but  we  ^^ill  re- 
member the  Name  of  the  Lord  our  God  "  (Ps.  xx. 
7).  Every  third  year,  at  the  spring  equinox,  which 
closed  the  Celtic  year,  the  festival  of  Tara  was  held  on 
the  great  plain  of  Breg.  Here  were  gathered  the  five 
kings  of  Ireland,  the  twenty-five  tutelary  kings,  their 
attendants,  their  warriors,  and  their  chariots.  In  nine 
triple  circles,  as  night  fell,  they  took  their  places  round 
the  huge  flower-strewn  pyre,  which  rose  on  the  terrace 
of  the  palace  of  Tara.  Throughout  all  Ireland  every 
hearth  was  cold.  The  people  waited  to  rekindle  their 
fires  from  the  sacred  flame  which  descended  from  heaven 
upon  the  pyre. 

Suddenly,  as  the  vast  throng  was  hushed  in  anxious 
expectation,  a  bright  light  shone  out  on  the  extreme 
verge  of  the  plain.  "  Who,"  cried  King  Laeghaire,  in 
his  rage,  "  has  dared  to  commit  this  sacrilege  ?  "  And 
all  the  counsellors,  the  bards,  the  judges,  and  the  nobles 
answered,  "  We  know  not."  But  the  chief  of  the  Druids 
cried  aloud  to  Laeghaire,  "  O  King,  if  that  distant  flame 
be  not  now  extinguished,  it  will  never  be  put  out.  Be- 
fore it  our  sacred  flame  will  pale,  and  the  man  who  has 
lighted  it  will  destroy  thy  kingdom.  Over  thee  and 
over  us  he  will  bear  rule,  and  he  and  his  successors  will 
reign  for  ever  in  Ireland."  Then  the  king  ordered  the 
Druids  to  seize  the  sacrilegious  wretch  and  bring  him 
to  Tara.  So  the  Druids,  with  their  chariots,  their 
horses,  and  their  spearmen,  set  forth  on  their  mission. 
They  found  that  the  light  was  shining  upon  a  little 
altar  set  ud  in  a  rude,  hyt    and  before  the  shrine  knelt 


THE  FORMATICJN  OF  NATIONS.  55 

white-robed  men  in  prayer.  They  were  St.  Patrick, 
his  twelve  priests,  and  the  boy  Benignus,  who  were 
celebrating  their  midnight  service  to  welcome  the  dawn 
of  Easter  morning. 

The  Druids  dared  not  enter.  Standing  without,  they 
bade  the  men  come  forth.  Patrick  obeyed  the  sum- 
mons, and  followed  the  Druids  to  the  palace  of  Tara, 
chanting  as  he  went,  "  Some  put  their  trust  in  chariots, 
and  some  in  horses  ;  but  we  will  remember  the  Name 
of  the  Lord  our  God."  Before  the  assembled  hosts  he 
spoke  of  the  kingdom  founded  by  the  King  of  kings, 
and  of  Him  who  reigns  from  the  Cross.  With  words  of 
such  power  did  he  speak  that  nature  was  hushed  in 
stillness  ;  the  ebbing  tide  ceased  to  sink  ;  the  branches 
stirred  not  in  the  woods  ;  the  eagle  checked  his  flight ; 
the  white  stag  of  Mulla,  bending  over  the  stream,  for- 
bore to  drink.  The  power  of  the  Druids  was  broken. 
As  day  dawned,  the  magic  circles  were  dispersed,  the 
sacred  pyre  was  cold,  and  the  only  flame  that  shone 
through  the  twilight  was  the  altar-fire  which  the  Chris- 
tians had  kindled  to  hail  the  resurrection  of  their  Lord. 

In  the  career,  both  legendary  and  historical,  of  Co- 
lumba,  to  whom,  and  to  whose  spiritual  posterity. 
Northern  Britain  owed  its  Christianity,  may  be  traced 
the  power  of  the  Psalms.  Bom  in  521,  at  Gartan  in 
Donegal,  Columba  died  in  597.  His  life  thus  spans  the 
century  which  preceded  the  landing  of  Augustine  in 
England. 

On  the  stone  of  Lacknacor,  in  Donegal,  Columba  was 
bom.  As  the  great  missionary  gave  up  his  native  land 
for  the  love  of  God  and  of  human  souls,  so  those  who 
sleep  a  night  upon  this  stone  are  cured  from  that  home- 
sickness which  is  the  anguish  of  emigrants.  When 
Columba  knew  only  how  to  read  the  alphabet,  he  was 
able,  as  an  old  life  of  the  saint  records,  to  say  the  Psalms 
by  heart.  The  priest  Cmithnechan,  who  had  baptized 
him,  was  called  upon  at  an  ecclesiastical  festival  to  re- 
cite the  psalm  (ci.),  "  My  song  shall  be  of  mercy  and 


56  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

judgment."  Memory  and  voice  failed  him  ;  but  in  the 
place  of  his  guardian  the  child  repeated  the  psalm,  and 
thus  "  the  names  of  God  and  of  Columba  were  magnified 
by  the  miracle." 

On  the  shores  of  Strangford  Lough  Columba  became 
a  pupil  of  St.  Finnian.  There,  so  legend  tells  us,  he 
copied  his  host's  Psalter  by  stealth,  shutting  himself 
up  by  night  in  the  church  where  the  book  was  treasured, 
and  writing  by  the  light  which  streamed  from  his  own 
hand.  Finnian  claimed  the  copy ;  Columba  resisted 
the  claim.  The  dispute  was  referred  to  the  king  at 
Tara,  who,  in  homely  phrase,  gave  his  decision  against 
Columba  :  "To  every  cow  her  calf  " — to  the  book  its 
copy.  In  defence  of  his  treasure  Columba  armed  the 
clans,  and  Diarmid  was  defeated  at  the  bloody  "  Battle 
of  the  Psalter."  Under  the  name  of  Cathac,  or  "  The 
Battler,"  the  O'DonneUs  for  centuries  carried  to  their 
battles  the  silver  case  containing  Columba's  reputed 
copy  of  the  Psalter  as  a  pledge  of  victory. 

In  563,  Columba  left  his  beloved  oak  groves  of  Derry, 
and  with  twelve  companions  drove  his  hidebound 
coracle  on  the  shores  of  lona,  at  the  spot  still  known  as 
"  the  bay  of  the  osier  bark."  From  lona  the  "  island 
soldier "  pushed  his  missionary  enterprises,  for  more 
than  thirty  years,  among  the  Picts  and  Scots,  and  ruled 
the  numerous  churches  which  were  founded  in  Ireland, 
Scotland,  and  Northumbria.  In  June  597,  Columba  had 
reached  his  seventy-seventh  year.  Worn  with  age  and 
labour,  he  knew  that  his  end  was  at  hand.  He  had  gone 
to  bless  a  distant  barn  belonging  to  the  monaster}^  of  lona. 
As  he  rested  on  his  road  home  by  a  wayside  cross,  on  a 
little  hill,  there  came  to  him  a  white  pack-horse,  which 
carried  the  milking  vessels  from  the  cow-sheds  to  the 
monastery.  Laying  its  head  upon  his  shoulder  with 
many  plaintive  moans,  it  gazed  into  his  face  with  eyes 
fiUed  with  tears.  The  attendant  would  have  driven 
away  the  faithful  mourner,  but  Columba  forbade  him, 
saying,  "  Let  be  ;    it  so  loveth   me  that  it  poureth  its 


THE  FORMATION  OF  NATIONS.  57 

bitter  grief  into  my  bosom.  Thou,  being  a  man,  and 
having  a  rational  soul,  canst  know  nothing  of  my  de- 
parture hence,  save  that  which  I  myself  have  told  thee. 
But  to  this  .brute  beast,  being  devoid  of  human  reason, 
the  Creator  hath  revealed  that  I,  its  master,  am  about 
to  leave  it."  So  saying,  he  blessed  the  pack-horse, 
which  went  sorrowfully  away. 

Returning  to  his  cell,  he  sat  there  transcribing  the 
Psalter.  When  he  came  to  the  loth  verse  of  Ps.  xxxi\-. 
— "  The  lions  do  lack,  and  suffer  hunger  ;  but  they  who 
seek  the  Lord  shall  want  no  manner  of  thing  that  is 
good  " — he  laid  down  his  pen.  '*  Here,"  he  said,  "  I 
make  an  end  ;  what  follows,  Baithen  will  write."  As 
Adamnanus  comments,  the  last  verse  was  fit  for  Columba, 
who  should  lack  none  of  the  treasures  of  eternity  ;  and 
for  Baithen,  who  succeeded  him  both  as  a  teacher  and 
as  a  wxiter,  it  was  fitting  that  he  should  write  the  words 
that  followed:  "Come,  ye  children,  and  hearken  unto 
me  ;  I  will  teach  you  the  fear  of  the  Lord  "  (Ps.  xxxiv. 
11).  After  vespers,  as  was  his  wont,  with  the  bare 
flag  for  his  couch  and  for  his  pillow  a  stone,  Columba 
passed  the  early  hours  of  the  night.  As  the  bell  tolled 
for  the  nocturnal  office  of  the  morning  of  Sunday, 
June  9,  he  rose,  and  entered  the  church  before  the  breth- 
ren. Diarmid,  his  faithful  attendant,  drawing  near  to 
the  door,  saw  that  the  building  was  flooded  with  a 
heavenly  light,  which  disappeared  as  his  foot  touched 
the  threshold.  Greatly  wondering,  he  asked,  "  Where 
art  thou,  my  father  ?  "  Then  groping  his  way  through 
the  darkness,  he  found  Columba  lying  before  the  altar. 
He  raised  the  saint's  head,  and  sitting  beside  him,  laid 
it  on  his  bosom.  Thus  they  were  found  by  the  brethren, 
and  then,  as  Diarmid  raised  his  master's  right  hand, 
Columba  moved  it  in  sign  of  blessing,  and  so  passed 
away. 

lona  became  for  the  Celtic  races  the  cradle  of  sacred 
knowledge,  the  nursery  of  bishops,  the  religious  capital 
of   Northern    Britain,    the   burying-place   of   its   kin^^. 


58  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

"  Where  is  Duncan  ?  "  asks  Ross  of  Macduff,  and  Mac- 
duff replies, — • 

"  Carried  to  Colme-kiU, 

The  sacred  storehouse  of  his  predecessors 

And  guardian  of  their  bones.     * 

On  certain  evenings  every  year  St.  Columba  is  seen 
counting  the  surrounding  islands,  lest  any  should  have 
been  sunk  by  the  power  of  witchcraft. 

"  As  lona's  saint,  a  giant  form, 
Throned  on  his  towers,  conversing  with  the  storm. 
Counts  every  wave-worn  isle  and  mountain  hoar 
From  Kilda  to  the  green  lerne's  shore." 

Among  the  spiritual  descendants  of  Columba  none  is 
more  famous  than  Cuthbert.  As  a  shepherd  lad,  tend- 
ing his  flock  by  night  on  the  hills  of  Lammermoor,  he 
saw  the  vision  which  determined  his  vocation.  Sud- 
denly the  dark  sky  shone  with  a  broad  tract  of  light, 
down  which  descended  a  host  of  angels,  who  presently 
mounted  heavenwards,  bearing  with  them  the  soul  they 
had  sought  on  earth.  Aidan,  Bishop  of  Lindisfame,  had 
died  that  night  (651).  Thirteen  years  later  Cuthbert 
was  drawTi  from  Melrose,  and  appointed  prior  of  the 
monastery  of  Lindisfame,  that  he  might  reform  the 
abuses  of  the  house.  After  twelve  years  he  withdrew 
to  the  barren  island  of  Fame,  where  he  built  an  anchor- 
ite's cell. 

Legend  lingers  lovingly  round  his  name.  The  sea- 
fowl,  whom  he  made  his  companions,  are  called  the 
Birds  of  St.  Cuthbert.  The  little  shells  that  are  found 
on  the  coast  are  kno\Mi  as  the  Beads  of  St.  Cuthbert ; 
and  by  night  he  may  still  be  seen,  so  tradition  tells  us, 
fashioning  them,  with  a  stone  for  his  hammer,  and  a 
rock  for  his  anvil. 

"  But  fain  St.  Hilda's  nuns  would  learn 
If  on  a  rock,  by  Lindisfame, 
St.  Cuthbert  sits  and  toils  to  frame 
The  seaborn  beads  that  bear  his  name." 

•  Macbeth,  Act  II.,  Scene  4. 


THE  FORMATION  OF  NATIONS.  59 

From  his  dear  solitude  he  was  taken,  against  his  will, 
to  be  made  Bishop  of  Lindisfame  (685).  Two  years 
afterwards  he  returned  to  his  cell  a  dying  man.  He  died 
March  20,  687,  having  received  the  Sacrament  at  the 
hands  of  Herefrith,  Abbot  of  Lindisfame,  who  tells  the 
story  of  his  death.  Near  the  landing-place  of  the  island 
was  a  rude  shelter,  in  which  some  of  the  brethren  had 
passed  the  night  in  prayer  and  chanting.  When  Here- 
frith brought  the  news  of  Cuthbert's  death,  the  monks 
were  singing  the  6oth  Psalm.  By  an  agreed  signal,  the 
light  of  two  torches  held  aloft  proclaimed  to  the  watcher 
on  the  mainland  that  the  soul  of  Cuthbert  had  departed 
to  the  Lord.  Hurrying  from  the  tower  to  bear  the  news 
to  those  who  worshipped  in  the  church,  the  watchman 
found  the  assembled  brethren  singing  the  same  psalm. 

The  influence  of  Columba  and  his  followers  overran 
Scotland  ;  it  crossed  the  borders  into  England  ;  it  ex- 
tended to  the  midland  Counties.  Along  the  west,  its 
Irish  type  came  into  contact  with  British  Christianity. 
Kentigem,  of  whom  the  story  runs  that  he  began  the 
day  by  reciting  the  Psalter  standing  breast-high  in  a 
running  stream,  was  at  once  the  beloved  St.  Mungo  of 
Glasgow  and  the  founder  of  the  monastery  of  Elwy  in 
North  Wales. 

Unlike  the  Continental  invasions  which  overwhelmed 
and  submerged  the  native  populations,  the  invaders  of 
Britain  fought  their  way,  step  by  step,  in  face  of  stub- 
bom  resistance.  Gradually  the  British  were  forced 
back  into  their  mountain  fastnesses,  carrying  with  them 
the  national  forms  of  their  Christian  worship,  which 
they  jealously  guarded  as  symbols  of  their  independence. 
With  fire  and  sword,  heathen  invaders  swept  away 
priests  and  people,  and  the  wooden  reed-thatched 
churches  in  which  they  worshipped.  So  ruthless  was 
the  destmction,  that  in  it  Bede,  like  Jerome,  or  like 
the  historian  of  the  Vandals  in  Africa,  saw  the  words 
of  the  psalm  verified :  "0  God,  the  heathen  are 
come    into  Thine    inheritance,"   etc.    (Ps.   Ixxix.    x-4). 


6o  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

It  is  a  period  of  darkness,  with  few  and  uncertain  glim- 
merings of  light.  But  among  the  legendary  or  his- 
torical records  of  the  persecuted  Church  the  Psalms  are 
associated  \\dth  one  signal  triumph  of  the  native  Chris- 
tians over  their  heathen  invaders.  In  429,  Germanus, 
Bishop  of  Auxerre,  and  Lupus,  Bishop  of  Troyes,  were 
implored  by  the  Britons  to  aid  them  against  the  Picts 
and  Saxons.  At  Easter-tide,  so  runs  the  story,  the  little 
army  of  newly-made  Christians,  "  with  the  dew  of  bap- 
tism fresh  upon  them,"  was  posted  by  Germanus  in  a 
defile,  near  Mold,  in  Flintshire,  close  to  a  spot  still  known 
as  Maes-Garmon,  "  the  field  of  Germanus."  As  the 
heathen  host  approached,  the  Britons,  at  a  signal  from 
the  bishop,  shouted  three  times  the  Paschal  Alleluia.* 
Caught  up  and  re-echoed  among  the  hills,  the  sound 
struck  terror  into  the  Picts  and  Saxons.  Throwing 
down  their  arms,  they  fied  ;  and  faith,  unarmed,  won  a 
bloodless  victory. 

Among  the  national  institutions  of  British  Christianity 
were  their  colleges,  partly  religious,  partly  educational, 
in  which  the  members  were  numbered  by  their  thousands. 
The  exact  Rule  which  governed  the^e  establishments  is 
uncertain.  But  as  in  Columba's  institutions  the  ob- 
ject of  study  was  the  Scripture,  and  especially  the 
Psalms,  so  the  names  of  the  Welsh  colleges  Cor  (choir)  and 
Bangor  (high  choir)  may  show  that  choral  services  were 
an  essential  part  of  their  arrangements.  At  Bangor 
Iltyd,  100  of  the  members  were  engaged  every  hour  in 
chanting,  so  that  without  intermission  psalms  were 
rendered  night  and  day.  At  Elwy,  in  North  Wales, 
365  of  the  brethren  were  devoted,  day  and  night,  to 
the  singing  of  psalms  and  the  divine  offices,  so  that  the 
praise  of  God  from  year's  end  to  year's  end  never  ceased. 
Another  famous  monastic  institution  in  Wales  was  Llan- 
carv'an,  of  which  Cadoc  the  Wise  was  the  first  abbot  or 
principal.  It  was  with  a  psalm  that  Gwynlliu  the  War- 
rior, father  of  Cadoc,  turned  from  a  life  of  violence  to 

*The  Hallel  of  Ps.  cxiii.-cxviii.,  or  of  cxxxiv.-cxxxvii. 


THE  FORMATION  OF  NATIONS.  6i 

the  austerities  of  an  anchorite.  Won  to  rehgion  by  the 
example  of  his  son,  the  robber  chieftain  did  penance 
for  his  sins,  chanted  Ps.  xx. — "  The  Lord  hear  thee 
in  the  day  of  trouble" — retired  from  the  world,  and 
lived  in  such  sanctity  that  he  is  commemorated  as 
St.  Woolos,  the  patron  saint  of  Newport  in  Monmouth- 
shire. 

In  the  year  of  Columba's  death  {597),  Augustine  and 
his  companions  landed  in  Kent,  to  attempt  the  con- 
version of  Saxon  England.  That  event  brought  Roman 
Christianity  into  collision  and  conflict  with  the  Irish 
and  British  t}'pes  :  it  introduced  the  Benedictine  Rule 
as  a  rival  to  the  existing  discipline  of  Celtic  monasteries ; 
it  carried  England  once  again  into  the  circle  of  Euro- 
pean life.  How  complete  was  the  darkness  which  in 
the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  hung  over  England  may 
be  gathered  from  the  account  given  by  Procopius  (500- 
565)  of  the  island  of  Brittia.*  The  island,  he  says,  is 
the  Island  of  Silence  and  the  Dead.  On  the  opposite 
coast  of  the  mainland  live  subjects  of  the  Prankish 
kings,  fishermen  and  husbandmen,  who  hold  their  land 
free,  except  for  one  service.  That  service  is  to  trans- 
port the  souls  of  the  dead  from  the  mainland  to  the  island 
coast.  At  midnight  an  unseen  hand  knocks  at  their 
doors,  and  the  voice  of  an  unseen  being  summons  them 
to  their  labour.  How  or  why  they  are  constrained  to 
obey  they  know  not  ;  they  only  know  that  they  are 
so  constrained.  Rising  from  their  beds,  and  hurrying 
to  the  shore,  they  there  find  boats  that  are  not  their 
own,  loaded  to  a  finger's  breadth  between  the  gunwale 
and  the  water  ;  yet  no  forms  are  seen,  no  freight  is 
\dsible.  They  push  off  ;  they  bend  to  their  oars  ;  and 
in  one  short'  hour  they  drive  the  strange  barks  upon 
the  shore  of  the  island,  which,  in  their  own  boats,  with 
oars  and  sail,  they  can  scarcely  reach  in  a  night  and  a 
day.  None  are  seen  to  land,  or  to  leave  the  boat.  But 
a  voice   calls   each   shadow   by   name,   proclaiming  its 

•  "  De  Bello  Gotthico,"  Iv.  20. 


62  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

earthly  dignities  and  parentage.  WTien  the  voice  is 
silent,  the  boat  is  now  so  lightly  laden  that  only  the 
keel  is  covered.  Thus  the  rowers  perform  their  ser\'ice, 
and  return  to  the  shore  of  the  h\ing. 

To  restore  the  Island  of  Death  and  Silence  to  Christian 
life  had  been  the  cherished  dream  of  Pope  Gregor^^  the 
Great,  when  he  was  stiU  a  humble  monk  in  the  Bene- 
dictine monaster}'  of  St.  Andrew,  which  he  had  founded 
in  his  father's  palace  on  the  Ccehan  HiU.  In  the  familiar 
storv'  of  his  conception  of  the  dream  the  Psalms  have 
their  place.  The  countr\TQen  of  the  three  angel-faced 
Angles,  in  their  remote  Yorkshire  home,  were  to  be 
plucked  from  the  ire  of  God,  and  taught  to  sing  their 
Alleluias  in  the  realm  of  King  ^Ella.  Gregor3''s  love  of 
the  Psalms  is  illustrated  by  the  picture  of  his  mother 
SLl\ia,  \-isible  for  centuries  after  his  death,  which  he 
caused  to  be  painted  on  the  walls  of  what  is  now  the 
Church  of  St.  Gregory-  at  Rome.  In  her  left  hand  she 
held  the  Psalter  open  at  the  words,  "  0  let  m}^  soul  hve, 
and  it  shall  praise  Thee ;  and  Thy  judgments  shall 
help  me  "  (Ps.  cxix.  175).  It  was  \\ith  the  words  of  a 
psalm  that  Gregory  expressed  his  love  of  the  monastic 
seclusion  from  which  he  was  torn,  to  be  made  Pope  (590). 
He  lamented  a  change  which  seemed  to  thrust  him  far 
from  the  face  of  God  and  back  into  the  world.  "  I 
panted,"  he  writes,  "  for  the  face  of  God,  not  in  words 
only,  but  from  the  inmost  marrow  of  my  heart,  crying, 
'  My  heart  hath  talked  of  Thee,  Seek  ye  my  face : 
Thy  face,  Lord,  will  I  seek  '  "  (Ps.  xx\tL  q).  But  when 
the  choice  fell  upon  him.  he  seized  the  opportunity 
to  carry  out  the  dream  which,  in  his  own  person,  he  was 
not  permitted  to  fulfil.  As  the  Roman  Senate,  with 
Hannibal  at  the  gates,  sent  forth  its  legions  to  Spain  and 
to  Africa,  so  Gregor}',  when  Italy  was  ravaged  by  in- 
vaders, dispatched  his  missionaries  to  Britain.  It  was 
over  a  country-  blackened  by  Lombard  fires  that  Augus- 
tine passed  as  he  started  on  his  mission.  In  597  he 
landed  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet,  preceded  by  the  Cross  and 


THE  FORMATION  OF  NATIONS.  63 

painted  banner,  and  followed  by  his  companions,  chant- 
ing ])salms  and  litanies. 

\\'ith  the  landing  of  Augustine,  the  Benedictine  Rule 
was  introduced  into  England,  and  the  religious  history 
of  Saxon  England  is  to  a  great  extent  bound  up  in  the 
progress  of  the  Order. 

*'  Hearken,  my  son  !  "  are  the  words  with  which  begins 
the  Rule  of  "Holy  Benet,"  and  "  Ausculta,  0  fih  !  " 
are  the  words  which  in  Christian  iconography  are  in- 
scribed on  the  book  placed  in  the  hands  of  St.  Benedict. 
The  34th  Psalm  (verses  12-15)  strikes  the  keynote  of  the 
Rule.  "  The  Lord,"  says  Benedict,  "  who  seeketh  His 
servant  in  the  midst  of  the  people,  still  saith  to  him, 
*  What  man  is  he  that  lusteth  to  hve,  and  would  fain 
see  good  days  ?  '  If  at  that  word  thou  answer  est,  '  It 
is  I,'  then  wiU  the  Lord  say  to  thee,  '  If  thou  wouldst 
have  hfe,  keep  thy  tongue  from  evil,  and  thy  Hps  that 
they  speak  no  guile.  Eschew  evil,  and  do  good  ;  seek 
peace,  and  ensue  it.'  And  that  being  done,  '  Then  shall 
My  eyes  be  upon  you,  and  My  ears  shall  be  open  to  your 
cry.  And  even  before  thou  callest  Me,  I  shall  say  to 
thee,  Here  am  I.'  " 

On  the  Psalms  are  based  many  of  the  chapters  of  the 
Benedictine  Rule,  and  in  them  the  book  is  profusely 
quoted.  With  a  psalm,  novices  were  admitted  into  the 
Order.  The  child  whose  hands  had  been  wrapped  in 
the  white  folds  of  the  altar-cloth  grew  up  in  the  monastic 
school.  To  him  at  length  came  the  desire  to  give  him- 
self to  God :  "  Here  will  I  dwell  for  ever  "  (Ps.  xxiii. 
6).  He  became  a  novice ;  and  the  year  of  his  novi- 
tiate ended,  he  took  the  vows  to  remain  attached  to 
the  monastery ;  to  labour,  while  strength  lasted ;  to 
perfect  himself  in  the  state  to  which  he  was  called ; 
and,  lastly,  to  obey  the  abbot.  Then,  with  outstretched 
arms,  he  sang  three  times  the  verse  which  was  the 
"  Open  Sesame  "  of  the  monastic  life  (Ps.  cxix.  116), 
**  O  stablish  me  according  to  Thy  word,  that  I  may 
live;  and  let  me  not  be   disappointed  of  my  hope," 


64  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

62         Three  times  the  community  repeated  the  words,  anctt 
added  the  ''  Gloria  Patri."     Then,  dressed  in  monastil 
^^  habit,  the  new  brother  knelt  at  the  feet  of  each  of  th<| 

^^  brethren,  asked  for  their  prayers,  received  the  fratemj 

^^         kiss,  and  so  became  a  monk,  bound  by  the  threefok 
^"         cord  of  Obedience,   Labour,   and  HumiUty.     With  th^ 
same  verse  from  the  Psalms,  girls  were  received  into  the. 
^^  reUgious  communities,  which,  Hke  the  company  of  Bene 

^.         diet's  sister,  Scholastica,  followed  the  Benedictine  Rule. 
.  Once  admitted  to  the  Order,  the  lives  of  monks  anc 

^^         nuns  were  to  a  great  extent  regulated  by  the  spirit,  i: 
^}_         not  by  the  letter,  of  the  Psalms.      On  the  words,  "  1 
^         said,  I  will   take  heed  to  my  ways,  that  I  offend  not 
in  my  tongue  "   (Ps.  xxxix.  i),  was  based  the  rule  oi 
?         silence.     One  of  the  first  labours  of  the  brethren  was  tc 
^         learn  the  Psalter  by  heart.     In  such  duties  of  monastic 
^         life,  whether  homely  or  sacred — as  making  bread  for  th€ 
altar,  setting  out  the  relics,  attending  the  death-agon^ 
^         of  a  brother,  taking  places  at  the  refectory,  the  weekl} 
,  washing  of  feet,  the  beginning  and  end  of  readings  during 

meals — psalms  were  sung  or  recited.     In  adorning  copies 
?         of  the  Psalter  with  all  the  quaint  and  beautiful  fancies  o: 
devotional  imagination  monks  spent  prayerful  years  o: 
\        soUtude  and  silence.     As  shrines  for  the  Psalter,  theii 
^         abbeys  and  churches  were  built,  and  to  the  chanting  o: 
r         a  psalm  (Ixxxiv.)  their  chosen  sites  were  sprinkled  witt 
holy  water.      A  psalm,  ''  Praise  the  Lord  with  harp 
■]        sing  praises  unto  Him  \nth  the  lute,  and  instrument  o: 
ten  strings,"  sanctioned  the  use  of  the  organ  in  divim 
service.     By  verses  of  the  Psalms  {"  In  the  evening,  anc 
morning,  and   at   noonday,  will   I   pray,  and  that   in- 
stantly," Ps.  Iv.  18  :  "  Seven  times  a  day  do  I  praise 
Thee   because  of  Thy  righteous  judgments,"  Ps.  cxix 
164 ;   and  "  At  midnight  I  will  rise  to  give  thanks  untc 
Thee,"   Ps.   cxix.   62)   the  canonical   hours  were  regu- 
lated, and  on  the  Psalms  the  services  themselves  were 
mainly  based,  so  that  the  Psalter  was  sung  througt 
every  week.     To  the  singing  of  a  psalm  (cl.)  their  bells 


THE  FORMATION  OF  NATIONS.  65 

•e  cast,  as  the  brethren  waited  at  the  furnace  for  the 
tal  to  be  poured  into  the  mould.  With  the  chanting 
[he  Psalms,  monks  traversed  wild  forests  and  moun- 
1  soUtudes  ;  or,  like  Stephen  Harding,  second  founder 
the  Cistercians,  as  he  journeyed  to  Rome,  met  the 
ils  of  the  way  by  a  daily  recitation  of  the  Psalter, 
the  words  of  a  psahn  the  monastic  vocation  came  to 
n  Hke  Thomas  Aquinas  (Ps.  Ixxxiv.  11,  "I  had  rather 
a  doorkeeper  in  the  house  of  my  God,  than  to  dwell 
the  tents  of  ungodhness  "),  and  he  obeyed  the  call  to 
ome  a  Dominican.  With  a  psalm  (Ps.  cxiv.,  "  WTien 
lel  came  out  of  Egypt  ")  men  hke  Francis  Borgia, 
ke  of  Gandia  (1510-72),  turned  their  backs  on  wealth 
I  worldly  honours  to  enter  reUgious  societies.  With 
psalm,  hke  Gall,  or  Vincentius  of  Lerins  (Ps.  xlvi. 
,  monks  chose  the  sites  of  monasteries,  and,  as  they 
red  the  walls,  exorcised  the  demons  of  mountain,  lake, 
wood.  In  the  spirit  of  the  Psalms  monastic  builders 
ished  their  genius  and  devotion  on  arch  and  capital, 
ir-shrine  and  tower,  portal  and  window,  that  they 
^ht  beautify  the  habitation  of  God,  and  prepare  a 
elHng-place  meet  for  His  honour.  Thus  it  was  with 
.gh  of  Cluni,  who,  according  to  his  biographer,  said 
:liin  himself,  with  the  Psalmist,  "  I  have  loved  the 
jitation  of  Thy  house,  and  the  place  where  Thine 
lour  dwelleth "  (Ps.  xxvi.  8)  ;  and  whatsoever  the 
motion  of  the  faithful  gave,  he  entirely  consecrated  to 
!  decoration  of  his  church  or  to  the  good  of  the  poor, 
fo  the  mediaeval  monk  the  choir  was  the  garden  of 
;  Lord,  in  which  he  laboured  day  and  night  ;  it  was  his 
■adise,  where,  in  the  cool  shadow  cast  by  his  Redeemer, 
might  rest  from  the  burning  heat  of  the  world.  One 
the  contemporaries  of  Thomas  a  Kempis  describes  him 
en  he  took  part  in  the  offices  of  the  Church :  "  Whilst 
was  singing,  he  was  to  be  observed  with  his  face  always 
Bed  towards  heaven,  as  if  inspired  with  a  sacred 
ihusiasm,  carried  and  borne  beyond  himself  by  the 
nderful  sweetness  of  the  Psalms."     This  was  the  spirit 


66  THE  P:dALMS  IX  HUMAX  LIFE. 

of  mediaeval  psalmody.  As  its  tide  rolled  forth,  night 
and  da}',  from  the  convent  or  monaster}^  and  swelled 
over  hill  and  fen,  midnight  wayfarers,  travelling  in  fear 
of  their  Hves,  felt  that  they  were  in  the  hands  of  God ; 
and  labourers,  rising  to  their  work  at  dawTi,  or  resting 
at  noon,  or  returning  \\ith  night,  knew,  though  they 
understood  not  the  words,  that  their  toil  was  consecrated 
in  the  sight  of  their  heavenly  Father. 

As  the  Psalms  presided  over  every  part  of  a  monk's 
life,  so  they  were  present  \\ith  him  in  his  death.  WTien 
a  brother  lay  dying,  the  haircloth  was  spread,  the  ashes 
were  scattered,  and  in  them  a  cross  was  traced.  Here 
the  sick  man  was  laid.  By  blows  on  a  board  the  brethren 
were  summoned,  and  wherever  they  were,  or  whatever 
their  occupations,  they  ran  to  his  side,  and  remained 
\\ith  him  in  his  anguish,  chanting  the  penitential  psalms 
and  litanies.  Thus,  in  the  presence  of  the  fraternit}^ 
in  sackcloth  and  ashes,  supported  by  the  supplications  of 
their  brethren,  \dth  the  words  of  the  Psalms  beating  on 
their  ears,  as  they  had  sounded  throughout  their  lives, 
died  thousands  of  "  Knights  of  God  " — members  of  the 
most  powerful,  and,  wdth  all  their  shortcomings,  the  most 
useful,  of  mediaeval  institutions. 

With  words  of  the  Psalms  in  their  ears  or  on  their 
Ups  died  three  of  the  men  who  were  most  conspicuous 
in  the  estabhshment  of  the  Benedictine  Rule  in  England 
— Benedict  Biscop  (623-690),  Wilfrid  (634-709),  and 
Dunstan  (924-988). 

To  Benedict  England  owes  a  vast  debt.  On  his  work 
rested  much  of  the  learning  and  culture  of  the  eighth 
century.  Studjdng  the  Benedictine  Rule  at  Canterbury, 
at  Lerins,  and  other  Continental  monasteries,  he  estab- 
lished it  in  his  monasteries  of  J  arrow  and  Wearmouth. 
Six  times  he  visited  Rome — now  seeking  architects, 
masons,  and  materials  to  beautify  his  churches ;  now 
bringing  with  him  musicians  or  instructors  in  ritual ; 
now  gathering  relics,  pictures,  images,  and  vestments ; 
now  collecting  the  manuscripts  which  made  his  libraries 


THE  FORMATION  OF  NATIONS.  67 

famous.  Worn  out  by  labours,  and  paralyzed  in  his 
limbs,  he  hstened,  through  sleepless  nights,  to  the  repeti- 
tion of  psalms,  in  which  he  was  himself  too  weak  to  join. 
He  died  January  12,  690,  when  those  who  watched  by 
him  were  repeating  Ps.  Ixxxiii.,  "  Hold  not  Thy  tongue, 
O  God ;  keep  not  still  silence."  Within  the  walls  of 
J  arrow  the  Venerable  Bede,  the  father  of  EngUsh  historj^ 
the  flower  of  the  monastic  schools,  the  true  tj^pe  of  a 
Benedictine,  was  already  harvesting  the  stores  of  learn- 
ing which  Benedict  had  collected,  giving  his  whole 
energies,  as  he  says  of  himself,  to  meditation  on  the 
Scriptures ;  deHghting,  amid  the  observance  of  the 
monastic  rule  and  the  daily  ministry  of  singing  in  the 
church,  either  to  learn,  or  to  teach,  or  to  write. 

Widely  different  from  the  methods  of  Benedict  Biscop 
were  the  means  by  which  Wilfrid  sustained  the  cause, 
of  which  both  were  zealous  champions.  Yet  in  their 
love  of  art  they  were  at  one,  and  the  magnificence  of 
Ripon  rivalled  that  of  Wearmouth  or  J  arrow.  In  the 
monastery  of  Lindisfame,  Wilfrid  studied  the  Scottish 
usages,  acquired  fame  for  learning,  and  committed  the 
Psalter  to  memory  in  the  version  of  Jerome.  But  Rome 
exercised  over  him  an  irresistible  fascination.  His  mind 
was  set  towards  the  Papal  city,  even  during  his  stay  at 
Canterbury,  where  once  more  he  learnt  the  Psalter  by 
heart — this  time  in  the  old  ItaHc  version,  which  was 
adopted  there  and  at  Rome.  The  years  652-658  were 
spent  at  Lyons  and  at  Rome  in  stud^dng  the  usages, 
ritual,  and  discipHne  which  he  laboured  all  his  stormy 
life  to  estabhsh  in  Northern  England.  In  his  long  con- 
flict against  Celtic  Christianity  he  suffered  deposition, 
exile,  imprisonment.  But  his  purpose  never  wavered. 
Thrown  into  prison  at  Dunbar  {circa  681),  the  bishop 
was  deserted  by  his  spiritual  chief,  separated  from  friends 
and  adherents,  deprived  of  all  that  he  possessed  except 
his  clothing,  robbed  even  of  his  precious  reliquary,  which 
was  the  companion  of  his  many  journeys.  Yet  his 
guards  heard  the  fallen  prelate  chanting  the  Psalms  as 


68  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

cheerfully  as  if  he  were  in  his  owti  monastery  of  Ripon 
or  Hexham.  His  banishments  were  fruitful  in  labour. 
During  one  he  became  the  apostle  of  the  Frisians ;  in 
another,  the  missionary  of  Sussex  and  the  Isle  of  Wight. 
The  last  effort  of  his  old  age  was  the  visitation  of  the 
monasteries  which  he  had  founded.  Setting  out  from 
Hexham,  now  the  centre  of  his  see,  and  visiting  Ripon 
on  his  way,  he  rode  to  the  Mercian  houses  in  turn.  In 
October  709  he  came  to  Oundle,  in  Northamptonshire, 
There  he  was  seized  with  a  fatal  illness.  Round  the 
dying  man  gathered  the  whole  community,  chanting 
the  Psalms  which  he  had  loved  so  well.  As  they  reached 
the  30th  verse  of  Ps.  civ.,  "  WTien  thou  lettest  Thy  breath 
go  forth,  they  shall  be  made,"  his  breathing  ceased,  and 
his  stormy  life  was  ended. 

Up  and  down  the  country,  in  England  as  on  the  Con- 
tinent, were  scattered  monastic  institutions — links  in 
the  national  unity,  sanctuaries  of  rehgious  life,  centres  of 
education  and  civilization,  nurseries  of  arts  and  industries, 
agricultural  colonies  which  drained  fens  or  reclaimed 
forests,  treasuries  in  which  were  preserved  the  riches  of 
ancient  learning.  Gradually  the  stern  severity  of  the 
Celtic  discipline  yielded  before  the  more  human  spirit  of 
its  Itahan  rival,  which  hallowed  not  only  manual  but 
intellectual  labour.  With  the  Danish  invasions  there 
came  a  check  and  a  recoil.  In  the  north,  east,  and 
centre  of  England,  the  invaders  fell  with  special  fury  on 
the  reUgious  communities.  They  devoured  the  land  like 
locusts.  Fire  and  sword  swept  away  in  a  few  hours 
the  fruits  of  the  patient  toil  of  a  century.  In  the  south 
and  west  the  defenders,  though  hard  pressed,  held  their 
own.  W^ith  one  signal  triumph  over  the  Danes,  Saxon 
legend  inseparably  associated  the  Psalms  in  the  person 
of  St.  Neot,  who  every  morning  said  the  Psalter  through, 
and  every  midnight  chanted  a  hundred  psalms.  The 
saint  died,  full  of  years  and  honour,  among  his  country- 
men. No  man  of  equal  sanctity  had  risen  to  take  his 
place  when,  in  878,  King  Alfred  lay  in  bis  tent  at  Iley, 


THE  FORMATION  OF  NATIONS.  69 

on  the  eve  of  the  battle  of  Ethendun.  To  the  king 
appeared  St.  Neot,  "  Hke  an  angel  of  God  ;  his  hair 
white  as  snow,  his  raiment  white,  ghstering,  and  fra- 
grant with  the  scents  of  heaven."  He  promised  Alfred 
victory.  "  The  Lord,"  he  said,  "  shall  be  with  voii ; 
even  the  Lord  strong  and  mighty,  the  Lord  mighty  in 
battle,  who  giveth  victory  unto  kings  "  (Ps.  xxiv.  8). 
As  morning  broke,  the  little  band  of  Saxons  fell  on 
Guthrun  and  the  sleeping  Danes.  So  sudden  was  their 
onset  that  at  first  they  carried  ail  before  them.  But 
gradually  the  tide  of  battle  began  to  sway.  It  was 
turned  again  in  favour  of  King  Alfred  when  a  majestic 
figure,  whom  the  Saxons  recognized  as  St.  Xeot  himself, 
seizing  the  royal  banner,  marshalled  his  country-men  to 
renewed  effort,  victory,  and  pursuit.  So,  for  a  time, 
peace  came  to  the  land,  and  Guthrun  and  his  followers 
became  Christians. 

During  this  hfe-and-death  struggle  it  was  not  strange 
that  morals  relaxed,  monastic  fervour  cooled,  and  heathen 
practices  re\'ived.  With  Dunstan,  the  statesman  who 
laboured  to  unite  England  under  King  Edgar,  the  eccle- 
siastic who,  as  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  strove  to 
revive  monastic  life,  a  new  spirit  was  breathed  into 
Church  and  State.  As  Abbot  of  Glastonbury,  Dunstan- 
had  reformed  the  community  which  he  governed.  But 
the  Benedictine  Rule  was  then  imperfectly  known  to 
him,  and  it  was  only  after  his  exile  in  Flanders  and  his 
sojourn  in  the  monastery  of  St.  Peter  at  Ghent  (956-957) 
that  he  realized  its  strength.  A  man  of  learning,  he 
was  attracted  by  its  opportunities  for  education.  To 
his  kindly  character  it  commended  itself  by  its  humanity. 
Himself  skilled  in  music,  painting,  iron  work  and  em- 
broidery, it  appealed  to  his  artistic  temperament.  Keenly 
sensitive  to  the  immorality  of  the  times,  he  valued  its 
example  of  the  separation  from  all  sexual  relations.  In 
its  uniform  adoption  he  saw  a  powerful  instrument  for 
the  moral  reform  of  Church  and  State,  for  the  unification 
and    intellectual    progress    of    the    nation.     Before    his 


70  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

death  the  Rule  was  practically  universal  in  England. 
Almost  his  last  public  act  was  the  coronation  of  Ethelred, 
in  978,  at  Kingston.  Retiring  from  affairs  of  state,  he 
passed  his  remaining  years  at  Canterbury,  occupied  in 
business,  in  teaching,  or  the  practice  of  handicrafts,  con- 
stant in  prayer  by  night  and  day,  deUghting  in  the 
services  of  the  Church  and  in  psalinody.  In  May  988 
his  strength  failed  him.  He  had  received  the  "  Viati- 
cum," and  died  as  he  was  giving  thanks  in  the  words, 
"  The  merciful  and  gracious  Lord  hath  so  done  His 
marvellous  works  that  they  ought  to  be  had  in  remem- 
brance. He  hath  given  meat  unto  them  that  fear  Him  " 
(Ps.  cxi.  4,  5). 

At  the  close  of  the  tenth  century  the  Benedictine  Rule 
had  conquered  France  ;  it  had  won  Germany  and  Spain  ; 
it  was  estabhshed  in  England.  The  vision  of  Benedict 
was  realized,  and  the  monastic  world  gathered  together 
under  one  beam  of  the  sun. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    MIDDLE    AGES. 

The  Battle  of  Vougl6 ;  the  Psalms  in  ecclesiastical  or  semi-ecclesiastical 
history  :  (i)  The  Papacy  and  the  Empire — Charlemagne,  Gregory 
VII.  and  Henry  IV.,  Anselm  and  William  Rufus,  Henry  IL 
and  Thomas  k  Becket,  Alexander  III.  and  Frederick  Barbarossa  ; 
(2)  pilgrimages  ;  (3)  crusades  :  Archbishop  Baldwin,  Richard  I., 
Henry  V. — Abbot  Adelme  at  the  Tagus,  Cardinal  Ximenes,  Deme- 
trius of  the  Don  ;  (4)  the  religious  revival ;  St.  Bernard  ;  Stephen 
Harding  and  the  Cistercian  reform — Citeaux  and  Fountains  Abbey  ; 
St.  Francis  of  Assisi  and  the  Franciscans  ;  the  Psalms  in  secular 
history — William  the  Conqueror,  Vladimir  Monomachus,  David  I. 
of  Scotland,  Abelard  and  Heloise,  St.  Louis  of  France,  William 
Wallace  ;  in  mediaeval  science  ;  in  mediaeval  literature — "  De 
Imitatione  Christi,"  "  Divina  Commedia,"  "  Piers  Plowman," 
"  The  Goldea  Legend.*' 

AS  the  centuiies  advance,  the  Psalms  touch  human  Hfe 
-^  at  points  which  grow  more  and  more  numerous,  till 
the  whole  circle  of  thought  and  action  seems  to  be  em- 
braced. Mediaeval  Hterature  and  science,  as  well  as 
secular  and  ecclesiastical  history,  are  permeated  by  their 
influence. 

The  strongest  of  the  monarchies  which  rose  on  the 
ruins  of  the  Western  Empire  was  the  Frankish  Kingdom. 
Hitherto  the  youthful  nations,  whose  vigour  had  scourged 
the  effeminacy  of  the  older  world,  if  Christians  at  all,  had 
been  Arians.  But  the  baptism  of  Clovis  had  for  the 
first  time  arrayed  force  on  the  side  of  orthodox  Chris- 
tianity ;  alike  against  heretics,  heathen,  and  Saracens, 
the  Franks  were  its  zealous  champions.  It  was  this  fact 
that  gave  significance  to  the  victory  which  Clovis  won 
at  Vougle  (507)  over  Alaric  II.  and  his  Arian  Visigoths. 


72  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Blessed  by  Remy  at  Rheims,  Clovis  had  marched 
towards  the  Loire.  Encamping  close  to  Tours,  he  sent 
to  the  church,  in  which  rested  the  bones  of  St.  Martin, 
to  inquire  whether  any  presage  of  victory  would  be 
vouchsafed  to  him.  As  his  messengers  entered  the 
church,  the  choir  were  chanting  the  words,  "  Thou  hast 
girded  me  with  strength  unto  the  battle  ;  Thou  shalt 
throw  down  mine  enemies  under  me.  Thou  hast  made 
mine  enemies  also  to  turn  their  backs  upon  me ;  and  I 
shall  destroy  them  that  hate  me  "  (Ps.  xviii.  39,  40). 
Encouraged  by  the  omen,  Clo\'is  pressed  on.  A  ford 
over  the  Vienne  was  revealed  by  a  deer,  and  as  he  ad- 
vanced towards  Poitiers,  a  bright  gleam,  shining  from 
the  church  of  St.  Hilary  as  from  a  lighthouse,  guided  the 
movements  of  his  troops.  In  the  battle  of  Vougle,  Alaric 
was  killed  by  the  hand  of  Clovis ;  the  Visigoths  fled, 
and  Southern  Gaul,  from  the  Loire  to  the  Garonne,  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  Franks. 

From  the  time  of  Clovis  onwards  the  growing  power 
of  the  Prankish  Kingdom  had  attracted  the  eyes  of  suc- 
cessive Popes,  who  saw  in  its  rulers  the  destined  heirs 
of  the  Roman  Emperors  of  the  West.  The  idea  of  a 
universal  church,  whose  centre  was  Rome,  rapidly  ap- 
proached its  realization.  With  it  grew  up  the  conception 
of  its  necessar}'  counterpart — a  conception  which  was 
bred  partly  of  memory,  partly  of  hope.  The  estabhsh- 
ment  of  a  universal  monarchy  in  close  aUiance  with 
the  world-wide  dominion  of  the  Church,  was  the  vision 
which  fascinated  the  imagination  of  the  noblest  minds. 
At  the  head  of  this  Christian  commonwealth  of  nations, 
in  its  temporal  character,  was  to  stand  the  Emperor; 
at  its  head,  in  its  spiritual  character,  was  to  stand  the 
Pope. 

For  the  realization  of  such  a  \dsion  the  ground  was 
already  prepared.  The  spell  of  the  old  Empire  lay  upon 
the  barbarians  themselves.  Not  only  were  they  awe- 
struck by  the  stately  ceremonial  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion ;    they  were  also  impressed  with  a  sense  of  the 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  73 

sanctity  of  the  Emperor,  eager  to  preserve  imperial  in- 
stitutions, anxious  to  perpetuate  imperial  methods  of 
administration.  Decrepit  though  the  Eastern  Empire 
might  be,  the  West  was  famiHarized  with  the  idea  of 
universal  monarchy  by  the  shadowy  claims,  waning 
powers,  and  insecure  ascendency  of  the  Byzantine  em- 
perors. 

In  the  eighth  century  the  policy  of  the  Papacy  rapidly 
assumed  a  definite  shape,  and  the  first  steps  were  taken 
to  break  the  hnk  which  still  bound  the  popes  to  Byzan- 
tium. Already  the  aid  of  Pepin  had  been  invoked  against 
invaders  ;  already  the  Papacy  had  lent  a  special  sanctity 
to  the  coronation  of  the  King  of  the  Franks  ;  already  it 
had  received  its  reward  in  the  gift  of  the  Papal  States. 
Once  more,  at  Pepin's  death,  the  Lombards  invaded 
the  possessions  of  the  Church.  At  the  call  of  Pope 
Hadrian,  Charlemagne  swept  away  the  invaders,  and 
added  Northern  Italy  to  the  dominions  of  the  Franks. 

With  the  penultimate  stage  of  a  vast  change  a  psalm 
is  inseparably  connected.  Lea\ang  his  army  at  Pa\da, 
Charlemagne  journeyed  to  Rome.  Outside  the  city  he 
was  welcomed  by  the  Cross,  which  hitherto  had  only 
been  carried  beyond  the  walls  to  greet  the  approach  of 
the  Exarch  or  the  Patrician.  At  the  sight  of  the  sacred 
symbol  Charlemagne  dismounted  from  his  horse,  and, 
entering  Rome  on  foot,  reached  the  portal  of  St.  Peter 
(April  2,  774).  There  Pope  Hadrian  received  him 
and  took  him  in  his  arms.  Together  they  entered  the 
basiUca,  which  Constantine  had  erected  on  the  spot 
traditionally  hallowed  as  the  scene  of  St.  Peter's  martyr- 
dom. Hand  in  hand  they  advanced  towards  the  semi- 
circular apse,  passed  under  the  arch  of  victory,  ascended 
the  long  flight  of  steps,  and  prostrated  themselves  before 
the  high  altar ;  while  the  multitude,  who  thronged  the 
building,  chanted,  "  Blessed  be  he  that  cometh  in  the 
Name  of  the  Lord  "  (Ps.  cxviii.  26). 

On  the  next  day,  Charlemagne,  hailed  by  the  Pope  as 
his  champion  and  by  the  people  as  their  deliverer,  was 


74  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

confirmed  in  the  title  of  Patrician  and  Consul  of  the 
Romans,  promised  to  protect  the  City  and  defend  the 
Church,  and  in  the  tunic  and  sandals  of  the  Patrician 
took  his  seat  at  the  tribunal  of  justice.  For  six-and-twenty 
years  the  final  stage  was  postponed,  while  the  Byzantine 
Emperor  remained  the  titular  sovereign  of  Rome.  On 
Christmas  day,  800,  the  long  revolt  was  consummated. 
Western  Europe  disavowed  the  rule  of  the  Eastern 
Empire,  when,  in  the  basilica  of  St.  Peter,  Pope  Leo  III. 
placed  on  the  head  of  Charlemagne  "  the  diadem  of 
the  Caesars,"  while  the  people  prayed  for  long  hfe  and 
\dctory  to  "  Charles,  the  most  pious  Augustus,  crowned 
by  God,  the  p€ace-gi\*ing  Emperor." 

Fourteen  years  later  (January  28,  814)  Charlemagne, 
whose  favourite  psalm  was  Ps.  lx\iii.  ("  Let  God 
arise  "),  died  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  repeating  with  his  last 
breath  the  words,  "  Into  thy  hands  I  commend  my 
spirit"  (Ps.  xxxi.  6).  He  had  loved  to  be  called  among 
his  friends  by  the  name  of  David.  Church  music 
and  psalmody  were  the  deUght  of  a  man  who,  in  his 
terrible  vengeance  on  his  enemies,  his  political  and 
ecclesiastical  work,  and  the  moral  aberrations  of  his 
passionate  nature,  presents  curious  points  of  resem- 
blance to  the  founder  of  the  Jewish  monarchy. 

As  time  went  on,  the  relations  between  the  Papacy 
and  the  Empire  took  a  different  shape,  and  became  a 
contest  for  supremacy  between  the  temporal  and  spiritual 
powers.  At  Salerno,  in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Matthew 
the  Apostle,  surrounded  by  the  narrow,  irregular  streets, 
which  still  bear  witness  through  their  varied  architecture 
to  the  Lombard  occupation,  the  Saracen  conquests,  the 
Norman  rule  of  Guiscard,  and  the  ascendency  of  the 
Hohenstaufen,  is  the  tomb  of  Hildebrand,  the  son  of  a 
carpenter  at  Soana,  and,  as  Gregory  VII.,  the  vehement 
champion  of  the  papal  supremacy.  It  was  Hildebrand 
who  freed  the  Church  from  vassalage  to  the  temporal 
power,  and  stemmed  the  flowing  tide  of  priestly  corrup- 
tion.     If  on  one  side  of   his  career  he  seemed  the  in- 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  fs 

carnation  of  spiritual  pride,  it  should  not  be  forgotten 
that  as  a  mora,!  reformer  he  roused  the  conscience  of 
Europe.  From  the  austere  heights  of  his  own  self- 
discipHne  he  rebuked  the  vices  of  emperors  and  kings, 
and  to  his  example  men  appealed,  in  after  ages,  when  sin 
was  once  more  rampant  in  high  places  : — 

"  We  need  another  Hildebrand  to  shake 
And  purify  us."  * 

For  a  quarter  of  a  century,  during  five  successive 
pontificates,  Hildebrand  had  guided  the  policy  of  the 
Papacy  with  strong  hand  and  watchful  eye.  Tier  by 
tier  he  had  raised  the  fabric  of  theocracy,  which  in  its 
moral  grandeur  was  the  inspiration  of  his  hfe.  If  kings 
refused  to  recognize  the  eternal  laws  of  divine  justice, 
their  rule  was  tyranny ;  if  the  people  yielded  no  obedi- 
ence to  civil  rulers,  the  result  was  anarchy.  It  was 
Hildebrand's  aim  to  make  the  Church,  purified  and 
independent,  the  arbitrator  between  the  two,  and  the 
spiritual  ruler  of  both.  Elected  Pope  in  1073,  under  the 
title  of  Gregory  VII.,  he  entered  on  the  struggle  which  lay 
before  him  with  the  serene  con\dction  that,  as  the  Vicar 
of  Christ,  he  was  the  Divine  instrument.  His  ambition 
was  for  the  Papacy  rather  than  for  himself.  His  pride 
was  not  a  peasant's  vanity  in  his  exalted  station,  but 
an  assertion  of  his  dignity  as  the  earthly  representative 
of  God. 

The  history  of  his  Papacy  is  full  of  dramatic  episodes. 
It  had  its  triumph  when  the  Emperor  Henry  IV.,  in 
penitential  garb,  ascended  the  rocky  path,  and  for  three 
days,  in  hunger,  cold,  and  shame,  waited  at  the  gate  of 
the  Castle  of  Canossa  (1077).  It  met  its  fatal  reverse 
(1084)  when  the  Pope,  a  prisoner  in  St.  Angelo,  was 
rescued  by  Robert  Guiscard.  Such  a  downfall  broke  the 
heart  of  Gregory.  In  the  Castle  of  Salerno,  under  the 
protection  of  the  Normans,  he  died  on  25th  May  1085. 

•  tsongfellow,  '•  The  Golden  Legend,"  iv. 


fo  THE  PSALMS  L\  HUMAN  LIFE. 

His  last  words,  taken  from  Ps.  xlv.  8,  breathe  the  tragic 
fullness  of  his  bitter  disappointment:  "'I  have  loved 
righteousness,  and  hated  iniquity  ;  and  therefore  I  die 
in  exile." 

The  great  struggle  between  the  Popes  and  the  tem- 
poral rulers  of  Europe  extended  to  England,  though 
during  the  reign  of  William  the  Conqueror  it  was  averted 
by  the  personal  concert  between  himself  and  Archbishop 
Lanfranc.  But  when  to  William's  wise  yet  severe  tyrann}' 
succeeded  the  savage  licence  of  William  Rufus,  that 
struggle  between  Church  and  State  at  once  began  which 
lasted  to  the  Reformation.  In  Archbishop  Anselm  were 
worthily  embodied  the  spiritual  claims  of  the  Church. 
Tender-hearted  and  affectionate,  he  loved  both  man  and 
beast.  The  well-knowm  story  of  the  hunted  hare  illus- 
trates his  feeling  for  dumb  animals,  and  his  habit  of 
reading  moral  lessons  into  the  ordinary  events  of  life. 
As  the  archbishop  rode  from  Windsor  to  Hayes,  a  hare 
was  started  and  pursued  by  his  retainers  and  their  dogs. 
It  took  refuge  under  his  horse,  and  Anselm  bade  the 
men  call  off  their  dogs  and  let  the  trembling  creature 
go.  The  hunters  laughed.  "  Do  ye  laugh  ?  "  he  said  ; 
"  this  poor  beast  is  far  from  laughter.  She  is  like  a 
Christian  soul  ceaselessly  pursued  by  demons,  that  would 
^drag  it  down  to  eternal  death.  Poor  soul  in  torture, 
'looking  round  in  sore  distress,  seeking  with  longing  un- 
speakable for  a  hand  to  save  !  "  Every  instinct  of  his 
nature  impelled  him  towards  the  ideal  rather  than  the 
practical  aspects  of  life,  or  inclined  him  to  study  its 
spiritual  rather  than  its  temporal  needs.  Thought,  not 
action,  was  the  true  sphere  of  the  man  whom  Dante 
places  among  the  doctors  of  the  Church  in  the  Heaven 
of  the  Sun.  Transferred  from  the  retirement  of  the 
Abbey  of  Bee  to  the  pubHcity  of  the  See  of  Canterbury 
(1093-1109),  he  likens  himself  to  an  owl,  who,  ''when 
he  is  in  his  hole  with  his  young  ones,  is  happy ;  but 
when  he  goes  out  among  crows  and  other  birds,  they 
hunt  him  and  strike  him  with  their  beak*,  and  he  ii  ill 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  77 

at  ease."  His  office  compelled  him  to  be  not  only  a 
great  ecclesiastic,  but  a  great  feudal  noble.  It  forced 
him,  also,  to  choose  between  the  Pope  and  the  king. 
To  his  pure  soul  the  solution  of  the  difficulty  would 
probably  have  been  the  surrender  of  worldly  greatness, 
in  order  to  increase  his  moral  influence.  But  to  a 
guardian  of  the  gifts  bestowed  upon  the  Church  of  God 
such  a  way  of  escape  was  impossible.  When  therefore 
the  conflict  began  his  choice  was  inevitable  ;  he  made 
it  with  quiet  courage,  and  adhered  to  it  with  invincible 
resolution.  As  the  struggle  dragged  its  slow  length 
along,  he  stood  alone  in  England,  siding  more  and  more 
with  the  Pope,  who  was  to  him  the  embodiment  of  law 
and  right  in  a  world  of  tyranny  and  wrong. 

In  1098  Anselm  was  at  Rome,  waiting  the  results  of 
his  appeal  to  Pope  Urban  II.  against  William  Rufus. 
But  the  air  of  Rome  was  unwholesome  to  one  who, 
though  Piedmont ese  by  birth,  was  accustomed  to  a 
northern  climate.  He  therefore  visited  Abbot  John  of 
St.  Salvator,  a  former  monk  of  Bee,  now  the  ruler  of 
a  monastery  at  Telesia,  between  Benevento  and  Capua. 
Chi  the  higher  slopes  of  the  neighbouring  mountains  was 
a  village  called  Schla\da,  to  which  the  monks  resorted 
in  the  summer  months.  To  this  beautiful  spot  Anselm 
was  taken.  On  the  hilltop,  in  the  crisp  mountain  air, 
respited  from  his  cares,  surrounded  by  the  simplicities 
of  Ufe  and  the  charms  of  nature,  the  old  man's  heart 
leaped  within  him.  "  This,"  he  broke  forth,  hke  Gall, 
in  the  words  of  a  psalm  (cxxxii.  15),  "  shall  be  my 
rest  for  ever;  here  will  I  dwell,  for  I  have  a  delight 
therein."  It  was  at  Schlavia  that  he  thought  out  and 
composed  his  famous  treatise,  "Cur  Deus  Homo?"  in 
which  he  discussed  the  rational  ground  of  the  Atonement, 
and  expounded  his  profound  and  original  view  of  the 
Incarnation. 

■  In  the  protracted  struggle  between  Henry  II.  and 
Thomas  a  Becket  the  same  issue  was  involved.  But 
tJbe  sacrilege  of  Becket's  murder  at  Canterbury   (Tues- 


78  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

day,  December  29,  1170)  gave  the  temporary  victory 
to  the  Church  over  the  State. 

At  five  o'clock  on  a  winter's  evening  the  monks  were 
singing  vespers  in  the  dimly-hghted  cathedral.  Sud- 
denly came  the  news  that  soldiers  were  forcing  their 
way  into  the  cloisters  on  the  north  side  of  the  building. 
Becket  had  mounted  the  fourth  step  of  the  staircase 
which  led  from  the  Chapel  of  St.  Benedict  to  the  choir 
of  the  church,  when  the  four  knights,  in  full  armour, 
their  mail  hiding  their  faces,  burst  into  the  building. 
At  the  summons  of  Fitzurse  he  descended  into  the 
transept,  and  in  his  white  rochet,  a  cloak  and  hood 
thrown  over  his  shoulders,  faced  the  murderers,  A 
blow  on  the  head  from  Tracy  drew  blood.  As  the  arch- 
bishop wiped  the  stain  from  his  face,  he  said  the  famihar 
words,  "  Into  Thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit "  (Ps. 
xxxi.  6).  The  deed  was  soon  accomplished.  But  mis- 
fortunes crowded  on  the  king.  At  Avranches,  in  May 
1 172,  Henry  had  done  penance  for  the  crime  of  his 
adherents.  Yet  troubles  seemed  only  to  increase,  and 
at  Canterbury  he  made  a  further  and  final  expiation. 
On  July  12,  1 174,  he  entered  the  streets  of  the  city, 
walking  barefoot — naked,  except  for  a  shirt  and  cloak. 
In  the  cathedral  he  kissed  the  stone  where  Becket  had 
fallen,  recited  the  penitential  psalm  against  wrath  (Ps. 
vi,),  prostrated  himself  before  the  tomb  of  the  arch- 
bishop, and  then,  placing  his  head  and  shoulders  upon 
it,  was  scourged  by  the  bishops,  abbots,  and  each  of 
the  eighty  monks  who  were  present.  His  humiliation 
was  so  profound  that  the  chroniclers  appeal  to  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Psalms  to  describe  the  impression  it  pro- 
duced— "  The  mountains  trembled  at  the  presence  of 
the  Lord;"  "The  mountain  of  Canterbury  smoked  be- 
fore Him  who  touches  the  hills  and  they  smoke." 

Yet  another  scene  in  the  struggle  between  Church  and 
State  is  illustrated  by  the  Psalms.  In  July  1177  the 
long  conflict  between  Pope  Alexander  III.  and  the 
Emperor  Frederick  Barbarossa  drew  to  its  gIqs^.     The 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  75 

hand  of  God,  so  it  seemed  to  pious  minds,  struck  down 
the  German  Emperor  in  his  hour  of  triimiph.  Master 
of  Rome,  he  had  forced  his  creature  into  the  chair  of 
St.  Peter.  But  pestilence  destroyed  his  army.  Dis- 
guised, and  ahnost  alone,  Barbarossa  made  his  way  by 
an  unfrequented  pass  to  Germany.  The  Lombard 
League  supported  Alexander  IIL  against  his  rival  and 
the  Emperor  ;  the  battle  of  Legnano  (May  29,  1176) 
broke  Barbarossa's  power,  and  compelled  him  to  make 
terms  with  the  Pope.  At  Venice,  in  the  summer  of 
1177,  Pope  and  Emperor  were  reconciled.  Himself  a 
Sienese,  it  was  at  Siena  that  Alexander  commemorated 
his  triumph  in  the  frescoes  \\ith  which  Spinello  has 
adorned  the  Sala  di  BaHa.  But  in  the  porch  of  St. 
Mark's  at  Venice  is  another  record  of  the  scene.  Three 
marble  slabs  mark  the  spot  where  Barbarossa  humbled 
himself  before  his  enemy.  Legend  is  at  least  true  to 
the  spirit  of  the  conflict,  when  it  represents  the  Pope  as 
placing  his  foot  on  the  neck  of  the  kneeling  Emperor, 
and  quoting  the  words  of  Ps.  xci.  13,  "  Thou  shalt 
go  upon  the  lion  and  adder  ;  the  young  lion  and  the 
dragon  shalt  thou  tread  under  thy  feet."  In  this  case 
the  Sienese  frescoes  may  have  bred  the  legend  which 
Rogers  uses  in  his  "  Italy  "  ("  St.  Mark's  Place  "), — 

"  In  that  temple  porch 
(The  brass  is  gone,  the  porphyry  remains) 
Did  Barbarossa  fling  his  mantle  off. 
And,  kneeling,  on  his  neck  receive  the  foot 
Of  the  proud  PontiS — thus  at  length  consoled 
For  flight,  disguise,  and  many  an  aguish  shake 
On  his  stone  pillow." 

It  is  to  the  same  legend  that  Wordsworth  refers  in 
his  "  Ecclesiastical  Sonnets  "  (No.  xxxviii.), — 

"  Black  demons  hovering  o'er  his  mitred  head. 

To  Caesar's  successor  the  Pontiff  spake  : 
'  Ere  I  absolve  thee,  stoop,  that  on  thy  neck 

Levelled  with  earth  this  foot  of  mine  may  tread.' 

Then  he  who  to  the  altar  had  been  led, 


8o  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

He  whose  strong  arm  the  Orient  could  not  check. 
He  who  had  held  the  Soldan  at  his  beck. 
Stooped,  of  all  glory  disinherited, 
And  even  the  common  dignity  of  man  !  " 

Among  mediaeval  agencies  which,  Hke  the  unity  of  the 
Church,  fostered  the  intercourse  of  nations,  bridged  the 
distances  between  class  and  class,  and  promoted  the 
growth  of  the  idea  of  a  universal  empire,  pilgrimages 
and  the  crusades  were  powerful  instruments.  In  both, 
European  Christendom,  rich  and  poor,  united  for  common 
objects ;  in  both,  the  Psalms  were  at  work. 

Pilgrimages  to  Palestine  practically  began  with  the 
journey  of  the  Empress  Helena,  mother  of  Constantine 
the  Great,  and  her  "  invention  "  of  the  true  Cross  at 
Jerusalem  (326).  A  few  years  later  the  Bordeaux  Pil- 
grim wrote  the  first  Christian  guide-book  to  the  Holy 
Land  ;  and  during  the  lifetime  of  Jerome,  pilgrims,  fired 
by  his  example  or  attracted  by  his  fame,  greatly  in- 
creased in  number.  Between  385  and  388,  Silvia  of 
Aquitaine  visited  the  Holy  Land,  and  even  passed  be- 
yond the  bounds  of  the  Roman  Empire.  As  they  jour- 
neyed towards  their  goal,  pilgrims  sang  together  three 
psalms  at  the  canonical  hours,  and  on  reaching  Jerusa- 
lem their  first  act  was  to  ascend  the  tower  of  Dav^d 
and  recite  the  whole  Psalter.  Saturated  as  they  were 
with  the  language  of  the  Psalms,  the  early  pUgrims 
brought  back  strange  reports  of  the  miracles  which  were 
worked  in  Palestine,  even  as  the  Psalmist  had  foretold. 
After  the  sun  was  up  a  cloud  rose  from  the  Hill  of  Her- 
mon  and  stood  over  the  church  at  Jerusalem,  as  David 
had  sung  of  the  dew  of  Hermon  which  fell  upon  the 
Hill  of  Sion.  So  says  Antoninus  of  Placentia,  sumamed 
the  Martyr,  who  visited  Palestine  in  the  days  of  Justinian. 
He  also  relates  how,  during  the  Epiphany  festival,  at 
the  baptism  of  catechumens  on  the  banks  of  the  Jordan, 
when  the  waters  were  blessed,  the  river  returned  upon 
itself  with  a  roar  ;  the  upper  part  stood  stiU  imtil  the 
ceremony  was  completed,  the  lower  part  running  away 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  8i 

to  the  sea.  Thus,  as  David  had  said,  "  Jordan  was 
driven  back."  His  contemporary  Theodosius,  in  his  work 
"  De  Situ  Terrae  Sanctae,"  tells  how  "  a  vine  which  the 
Lord  had  planted,"  close  to  the  field  where  He  had  Him- 
self ploughed  a  furrow,  regularly  provided  the  wine  for 
the  Pentecostal  communion  ;  how  the  ''  little  hills  "  had 
walked  exulting  before  the  Lord,  when  He  descended  to 
Baptism,  even  as  David  had  said,  "  The  mountains 
skipped  like  rams,  and  the  little  hills  like  young  sheep ;  " 
and  how,  to  the  pious  eye  of  the  traveller,  "  even  to 
this  day  they  seemed  in  the  act  of  jumping."  With  the 
lapse  of  years  religious  fervour  cooled.  Mixed  motives 
influenced  the  motley  crowds,  who,  wdth  knobbed  iron- 
shod  staves  in  their  hands,  a  scrip  for  provisions  slung 
at  their  sides,  their  hats  and  clothes  studded  with  leaden 
medals  and  pewter  brooches,  journeyed  to  Walsingham 
or  Canterbury,  to  Rocamadour  or  Compostella,  and  even 
to  Rome  or  Jerusalem.  Some  travelled  barefoot,  or 
naked  but  for  their  shirts,  to  expiate  their  sins  ;  others 
toiled  wearily  in  the  hope  of  miraculous  healing  ;  others 
fulfilled  a  vow  made  in  sickness  ;  some  protested  against 
the  govenmient  by  visiting  the  shrine  of  a  canonized 
rebel ;  others  became  pilgrims  by  profession,  from  lazi- 
ness, for  the  pleasures  of  the  journey,  from  love  of 
adventure.  But  however  great  may  have  been  the 
abuses  which  were  satirized  by  Langland  and  Wyclif, 
by  the  author  of  ''Reynard  the  Fox,"  and  Erasmus, 
there  never  failed  to  be  numbers  of  simple,  devout 
pilgrims,  who,  as  they  travelled  singly  or  in  com- 
panies, chanted  the  Psalms  on  the  way  in  the  spirit 
of  an  earlier  faith,  and  returned  strengthened  and 
consoled  by  beholding  the  mysterious  object  of  their 
pious  veneration. 

The  Crusades,  like  the  struggle  between  the  temporal 
and  spiritual  powers,  and  Hke  mediaeval  pilgrimages, 
were  necessarily  permeated  by  religious  influences.  If 
they  do  not  exclusively  belong  to  the  domain  of  Church 
Hif^ory,  they  move  in  that  broad  belt  of  twilight  where 


82  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

things  secular   and   things   ecclesiastical   are   as  closely 
associated  as  the  beginnings  of  night  or  day. 

There  were  but  few  of  the  battlefields  against  the 
Saracens  which  had  not  resounded  with  the  Venite  (Ps. 
xcv.),  the  battle-cry  of  the  Templars,  as,  in  after  ages, 
the  Psalms  suppHed  the  war-shout  of  John  Sobieski, 
the  motto  of  the  Great  Armada,  the  watchwords  of 
Gusta\-us  Adolphus  and  of  Cromwell,  the  ''  Marseillaise" 
of  the  Huguenots  and  the  Cevenols,  From  the  Psalms 
the  Crusade  was  preached  by  St.  Bernard,  who  made 
special  use  of  Ps.  cxHv.  ("  Blessed  be  the  Lord  my 
strength,"  etc.)  and  Ps.  cxvi.  13  ("Right  dear  in  the  sight 
of  the  Lord  is  the  death  of  His  saints  ").  When,  on 
October  3,  1187,  Jerusalem  was  again  taken  by  Saladin, 
it  was  once  more  from  the  Psalms  that  Pope  Clement 
III.  urged  the  bishops  to  preach  another  Holy  War  (Ps. 
cxxvii.,  "  Except  the  Lord  build  the  house,"  etc.).  Bald- 
win, Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  responded  to  the  appeal, 
donned  the  Wliite  Cross  of  England,  raised  the  banner 
of  St.  Thomas,  and  preached  the  Crusade  in  Wales, 
chanting  the  Psalms  as  the  war-song  of  his  recruits.  At 
the  head  of  his  troop  he  left  England,  March  6,  1190, 
eager  to  win  back  "  the  sepulchre  of  Christ,"  and 

"  To  chase  these  pagans  in  those  holy  fields 
Over  whose  acres  walked  those  blessed  feet 
\Miich,  fourteen  hundred  years  ago,  were  nailed 
For  our  advantage  on  the  bitter  cross."  * 

From  the  first  he  was  doomed  to  disappointment.  In 
the  language  of  the  Psalms,  his  chaplain  sums  up 
the  archbishop's  horror  at  the  hcentiousness  of  the 
Crusaders'  host.  '*'  God,"  he  says,  "  is  not  in  the 
camp.  There  is  none  that  doeth  good,  no  not  one  " 
(Ps.  xiv.  2).  In  his  despair  the  archbishop  prayed  for 
death,  in  words  that  plainly  allude  to  another  psalm 
(cxviii.  18),  "  O  Lord,  my  God,  such  need  is  there 
for  chastening  and  correcting  with  Thy  holy  grace,  that, 
*  Henry  IV.,  Part  I.,  Act  i.,  Scene  i. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  83 

if  it  please  Thy  mercy,  I  pray  to  be  removed  from 
the  turmoil  of  this  life.  I  have  tarried  long  enough 
with  this  army."  Fifteen  days  later  (November  19, 
1 190)  he  died  at  Acre.  In  the  words  of  a  psalm  Richard 
I.  poured  out  his  indignation,  when  he  found  himself 
deserted  by  his  followers,  and  knew  that  the  crusade 
had  failed,  "  My  God,  why  hast  Thou  forsaken  me  ?  " 
(Ps.  xxii.  i).  After  the  battle  of  Agincourt  (1415) 
the  English  army,  fresh  from  victory,  sang  on  bended 
knees  the  first  verse  of  Ps.  cxv.  ("  Not  unto  us,  O 
Lord,  not  unto  us,  but  unto  Thy  name  give  the  praise  "), 
which  Henry  IV.  had  given  to  his  son  as  a  motto  when 
he  called  him  to  a  share  in  the  government  of  his  king- 
dom. It  was  a  psalm  that  reminded  the  victor  of  his 
life-long  ambition.  As  Psalm  li.  was  read  to  Henry  V. 
on  his  deathbed,  verse  18,  "0  be  favourable  and  gra- 
cious unto  Sion  ;  build  Thou  the  walls  of  Jerusalem," 
reminded  the  dying  king  of  his  cherished  hope  of  rescu- 
ing the  Holy  City  from  the  hands  of  the  Mussulman. 

More  strongly  poHtical  than  the  Holy  War  in  Pales- 
tine were  the  struggles  by  which  Spain  was  wrested 
from  the  Moors,  or  Russia  from  its  Mongol  oppressors, 
and  from  each  may  be  quoted  instances  of  the  use  of 
the  Psalms. 

Adelme,  Abbot  of  the  Benedictine  House  of  Chaise- 
Dieu,  accompanied  the  army  of  Alphonso  the  Valiant, 
first  King  of  Castile,  who  in  1085  had  driven  the  ]\Ioors 
from  Toledo.  At  the  passage  of  the  Tagus  the  Chris- 
tian soldiers  recoiled  from  entering  the  swollen  flood. 
But  Adelme,  mounted  on  his  ass,  rode  into  the  stream, 
singing  the  7th  verse  of  Ps.  xx.,  "  Some  put  their  trust 
in  chariots,  and  some  in  horses ;  but  we  will  remember 
the  Name  of  the  Lord  our  God."  His  courage  shamed 
the  hesitating  soldiers :  they  plunged  into  the  stream, 
and  the  whole  Christian  army  crossed  the  river.  The 
final  stage  of  the  struggle  was  reached  in  15 10,  when 
Cardinal  Ximenes  in  full  pontificals  led  the  Spanish 
troQps  against  the  Mgore  at  Qran.     The  town  was  cap- 


84  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

tured,  and  the  victorious  cardinal  rode  through  the 
streets,  chanting  Ps.  cxv.,  "  Not  unto  us,  O  Lord,  not 
unto  us,  but  unto  Thy  name,  give  the  praise." 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  fourteenth  century,  the  young 
Demetrius,  as  a  child  of  twelve,  became  Grand  Prince 
of  Russia,  w-ith  Moscow  for  his  capital  (1363).  Two  cen- 
turies were  yet  to  elapse  before  Ivan  the  Terrible  was 
crowned  and  anointed  first  Czar  of  Muscovy.  But  it 
was  under  the  youthful  Demetrius,  known  from  his  vic- 
tory by  the  title  of  "  the  Don,"  that  Russia  made  her 
first  great  step  towards  national  independence  and 
national  unity.  In  1380  the  Tartar  hordes,  leaving 
blackened  soUtudes  in  their  rear,  were  advancing  upon 
Moscow.  For  Russia,  enervated  by  Mongol  domination, 
torn  by  ci\T.l  discord,  hard  pressed  on  her  western  borders, 
and  menaced  by  invasion  from  the  east,  the  crisis  was 
supreme.  The  issue  seemed  inevitable.  But  it  was  as 
a  Holy  War  that  resistance  was  preached.  Blessed  by 
Sergius,  the  hermit  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  Demetrius  ad- 
vanced to  meet  Mamai  and  the  Mongol  invaders  on  the 
banks  of  the  Don  (September  8,  1380).  If  his  heart 
quailed  at  the  numbers  of  the  enemy,  it  was  with  a 
psalm  that  he  renewed  his  courage.  After  reading  aloud 
Ps.  xlvi.,  "  God  is  our  refuge  and  strength,"  he  plunged 
into  the  fight,  which  ended  in  the  total  defeat  of  the 
Tartars  at  Koulikoff.  The  memory  of  the  \'ictory  lives 
in  contemporary^  literature,  in  pictures  and  sculptures, 
in  the  Donskoi  and  Simonoff  monasteries,  and  in  the 
legends  with  which  national  gratitude  has  surrounded 
the  names  of  Sergius  and  of  Demetrius  of  the  Don. 

In  their  devotional  aspect  the  Crusades,  like  pilgrim- 
ages, had  developed  a  reverential  love  for  the  scenes 
of  our  Lord's  hfe  on  earth.  In  theory,  at  least,  the 
Pope  represented  the  moral  grandeur  of  mankind,  and 
in  the  struggle  between  the  Papacy  and  the  Empire 
was  asserted  the  claim  of  the  spirit  to  supremacy  over 
the  flesh.  Meanwhile  the  millennium  had  come  and 
gone,  and  with  its  passing,  hopes  of  the  future  of  human- 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.    ;.:  85 

ity  were  revived.  On  these  and  other  sides  men's  minds 
were  disposed  to  reUgious  revivals  and  rehgious  reforms, 
like  those  associated  with  the  Cistercian  or  Franciscan 
Orders.  With  the  need  came  the  men.  St.  Bernard, 
by  his  character  and  genius,  exempHfied  in  practice  the 
principles  which  he  maintained,  and  embodied  them  in 
a  personality  at  once  winning  and  commanding.  Free, 
in  its  simplicity  and  purity,  from  religious  or  secular 
politics,  the  Cistercian  reform  was  in  its  early  stages 
the  spiritual  movement  which  the  Christian  world  was 
demanding.  In  the  establishment  of  the  Cistercians  in 
England  may  be  traced,  broadly  and  strongly,  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Psalms. 

The  Foimder  of  the  Order  was  Stephen  Harding  (1066- 
I134),  a  monk  of  the  Benedictine  house  of  Sherborne. 
It  is  significant  that,  as  he  made  his  pilgrim's  journey 
to  Rome  through  city,  forest,  or  mountain  pass,  he 
daily  recited  the  whole  Psalter.  On  his  return,  as  he 
passed  through  the  diocese  of  Langres  in  Burgundy,  he 
came  on  a  cluster  of  huts  surrounding  a  wooden  oratory 
on  the  slope  of  a  hill  above  the  river  Leignes.  It  was 
the  newly  -  founded  (1075)  Benedictine  monastery  of 
Molesme.  Fascinated  by  the  solitude  of  the  spot,  at- 
tracted by  the  poverty  and  strictness  of  the  brethren, 
he  entered  the  community.  Time  passed.  The  monas- 
tery grew  wealthy,  and  relaxed  its  discipline.  In  vain 
Abbot  Robert,  Prior  Alberic,  and  Stephen  Harding 
struggled  to  revive  the  ancient  spirit.  At  last  they 
determined  to  leave  Molesme,  and  with  twenty-one 
brethren  the  three  leaders  settled  (1098)  at  Citeaux, 
in  the  marshy  glade  of  a  wild  forest.  Here,  on  the  death 
of  Alberic  (1109),  Stephen  was  chosen  the  third  Abbot 
of  Citeaux,  and  here  he  framed  the  Rule  of  the  Cistercian 
Order. 

Poverty,  solitude,  and  simphcity  were  the  essence  of 
the  reform  which  the  Order  initiated.  The  brethren 
were  thus  members  of  a  militant  community,  in  warfare 
\nth  w<.>rldliness,  luxury,  and  insincerity,  both  in  Church 


86  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

and  State.  Unlike  the  Benedictines,  they  were  com- 
pactly organized.  They  were  not  isolated  monastic 
homes,  which  might  relapse  mmoticed  from  their  high 
ideals.  Careful  provision  was  made  for  the  periodical 
visitation  and  inspection  of  all  the  dependencies  of  Ci- 
teaux,  as  well  as  of  Citeaux  itself.  The  dress  was  of 
the  simplest ;  but  as  the  black  scapular  fell  over  the 
white  tunic,  it  seemed  to  the  brethren  that  they  bore 
in  daily  life  the  cross  of  Christ.  Their  Hfe  was  to  be 
passed  in  sequestered  villages,  in  hard  manual  toil 
among  vineyards  or  cornfields,  or  in  that  meditation 
which  "  gathers  itself  from  earthly  things  to  contem- 
plate God."  Their  scanty  food — a  daily  portion  of 
bread  and  two  messes  of  vegetables — was  earned  by  the 
sweat  of  the  brow.  They  possessed  no  property  which 
had  ever  belonged  to  the  parochial  clergy.  Their 
churches  were  severely  simple,  but  filled  with  the  aus- 
tere perfection  of  form  and  outline.  Their  music  was 
the  Gregorian  chant,  sung  in  unison  by  grave  masculine 
voices.  Instead  of  crucifixes  of  gold  or  silver,  a  crucifix 
of  painted  wood  was  alone  allowed.  Sculptures,  pic- 
tures, gorgeous  vestments  were  banished.  As  in  the 
church,  so  in  the  scriptorium.  Illuminated  figures, 
elaborate  capitals,  marginal  arabesques,  were  alike  for- 
bidden. 

In  the  bareness,  severity,  and  simplicity  of  their  re- 
ligious life  the  Cistercians  made  no  appeal  to  imagina- 
tion. For  fifteen  years  no  novices  were  attracted  to 
the  marshy  solitude  of  Citeaux.  It  seemed  as  though 
the  new  community  would  perish  with  the  deaths  of  its 
first  founders.  But  Stephen  Harding  persevered  in  his 
resolution.  If  any  novices  came,  they  would  be  men 
of  the  right  stamp.  At  last  his  confidence  was  rewarded. 
In  1113,  thirt\^  men,  headed  by  Bernard,  and  belonging 
to  the  noblest  families  of  Burgundy,  entered  Citeaux  as 
novices.  The  ''  barren  woman  "  was  made  "  to  keep 
house,  and  to  be  a  joyful  mother  of  children."  In  11 15 
had  been  established  the  daughter  houses  of  La  Fert6, 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.     - .  Sy 

Pontigny,  Morimond,  and  Clairvaux,  with  Bernard  as 
its  first  abbot.  From  each  there  sprang  a  whole  line  of 
monasteries. 

In  the  Cistercian  cloisters  was  thus  planted  a  vine, 
which  spread  its  branches  far  and  wide,  and  bore  fruit 
in  many  lands.  A  new  life  was  breathed  into  the  mon- 
asteries of  Europe.  In  1128  the  first  Cistercians  settled 
in  England,  at  Waverley,  in  Surrey.  A  little  later  an- 
other body  of  monks,  sent  by  Bernard  himself,  found  a 
home  on  the  banks  of  the  Rye  in  Yorkshire,  where  now 
stand  the  ruins  of  the  Abbey  of  Rievaulx.  A  third 
was  established  at  Fountains  ;  and  the  story  of  the 
foundation,  as  told  by  the  Monk  Serb  and  Hugh  of 
Kirkstall,  is  almost  clothed  in  the  language  of  the  Psalms. 

The  fame  of  the  Cistercians  spread  abroad  through  the 
cloisters  of  Northern  England.  It  penetrated  within  the 
precincts  of  the  Benedictine  Abbey  of  St.  Mary  at  York, 
where  lived  many  men  who  walked  honestly  in  the  tradi- 
tion of  their  predecessors,  but  fell  short  of  the  Cistercian 
discipline.  The  piety  of  the  newcomers  woke  the  Bene- 
dictines from  their  lethargy  ;  it  stirred  their  dormant 
energies.  They  chafed  at  their  sojourning  "  in  the  tents 
of  Kedar,"  sickened  of  the  flesh-pots  of  Egypt,  wearied 
of  the  fret  and  fever  of  men  and  cities,  sighed  for  "  the 
wings  of  the  dove,"  that  they  "  might  flee  away,  and  be 
at  rest ;  "  they  longed  to  wander  "  far  off,  and  remain 
in  the  wilderness"  (Ps.  Iv.  6,  7). 

Chief  of  the  men  who  were  thus  moved  by  the  example 
of  the  Cistercians  was  Richard,  the  sacrist  of  the  house. 
He  and  six  of  his  brethren,  like-minded  with  himself, 
entered  into  a  bond  that  they  would  seek  a  stricter  life, 
and  atone  for  past  remissness  by  a  severer  discipline. 
But  they  dared  not  reveal  their  purpose  to  the  prior, 
lest  he  should  bring  their  design  to  nothing.  Their  fears 
were  without  cause.  Prior  Richard  had  felt  the  same 
stirring,  and  formed  the  same  purpose.  He  gladly  asso- 
ciated himself  with  the  others,  whose  numbers  presently 
rose  to  thirteen  men  of  but  "one  heart  and  one  soul." 


8S  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

They  longed  to  depart  from  the  convent,  and  to  be 
grafted  on  the  fruitful  vine  of  the  Cistercian  Order. 

But  their  design  became  known  to  other  members  of 
the  house,  and  reached  the  ears  of  the  aged  Abbot  God- 
frey. He  charged  them  to  give  up  an  undertaking  that 
cast  a  slur  upon  their  Order.  He  even  threatened  pun- 
ishment if  they  persisted.  Within  the  convent  they 
were  treated  as  traitors  and  as  rebels,  and  it  was  only 
by  taking  refuge  within  the  church  and  by  appealing 
to  Turstin,  Archbishop  of  York,  that  they  escaped  vio- 
lence. In  1 132  the  thirteen  associates  passed  through 
the  gates  of  the  abbey  in  the  train  of  Turstin,  who 
begged  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  to  protect  them, 
as  Legate  of  the  Apostolic  See.  Their  only  desire,  he 
urged,  was  to  follow,  in  their  fullest  meaning,  the  vows 
of  their  profession.  The  Spirit  of  God,  he  says,  speaks 
by  the  mouth  of  the  Psalmist.  "  Promise  unto  the 
Lord  your  God,  and  keep  it ;  pay  thy  vows  unto  the 
most  Highest ;  I  will  pay  thee  my  vows  which  I  prom- 
ised with  my  lips."  The  luxury  of  their  surroundings 
had  choked  their  spiritual  aspirations.  They  longed  to 
flee  from  the  fate  of  the  Israelites  in  the  desert,  who 
''did  eat  and  were  filled,  for  He  gave  them  their  own 
desire  ;  they  were  not  disappointed  of  their  lust."  If 
these  men  felt  that  they  could  not  live  uprightly  so  long 
as  they  stayed  where  they  were,  it  was  wrong  to  compel 
them  to  remain.  "  God,"  he  continues,  "  who  is  our 
hope  and  strength,  a  very  present  help  in  trouble,"  was 
making  them  a  way  to  escape.  Was  not  their  longing 
to  withdraw  from  the  world  Hke  that  of  David,  when 
he  yearned  to  escape  from  the  clash  of  arms  and  the 
tumult  of  the  people  :  *'  Lo,  then  would  I  get  me  away 
far  ofi,  and  remain  in  the  wilderness  "  ?  (Ps.  Iv.  7,).      .  . 

WTiether  the  legate  intervened  or  not  is  uncertain. 
But  in  December  1132  Turstin  himself  took  the  brethren 
with  him  to  celebrate  the  Nativity  on  his  great  manorial 
domains  at  Ripon.  The  next  day  he  led  them  along 
the  valley  of  the  Skell  to  a  narrow  glen,  in  a  tangled 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.      . :  T "  89 

thicket  of  thorns  and  brushwood,  overhung  by  the  hill 
of  Heries-how.  Here  he  left  them,  after  giving  them 
his  blessing,  and  confirming  their  election  of  Prior  Richard 
as  their  first  abbot. 

The  new  abbot  had  monks,  but  no  monaster}'.  He 
had  "  nowhere  to  lay  his  head,"  no  hiding-place  in 
which  to  escape  the  "  stormy  wind  and  tempest " 
(Ps.  Iv.  8).  Beneath  an  elm,  which  at  the  time  of  the 
dissolution  of  the  monasteries  was  still  standing,  the 
brethren  thatched  a  shelter  to  serve  as  church  and  home, 
and  betook  themselves  to  their  labours,  plaiting  mats, 
gathering  sticks,  cutting  stakes,  and  enclosing  a  garden. 
So  the  wdnter  passed.  The  new  community  had  had 
time  to  consider  their  future  mode  of  life  and  form  of 
disciphne.  They  determined  to  send  to  Bernard  him- 
self, narrating  their  simple  history,  and  telling  him  that 
they  had  adopted  the  Cistercian  Rule,  had  chosen  him 
as  their  spiritual  father  and  Clairvaux  as  their  nursing 
mother.  When  Bernard  heard  the  story  of  the  two 
brethren  who  were  sent  to  him,  he  exclaimed,  "It  is 
the  finger  of  God.  Would  that  I  myself  could  come 
over,  and  behold  this  exalted  spectacle,  which  makes 
'glad'  the  whole  *  city  of  God'"  (Ps.  xlvi.  4).  His 
letter  was  carried  to  the  monks  of  Fountains  by  a 
monk  of  Clairv^aux,  who  was  charged  to  instruct  them 
in  the  Cistercian  Rule.  Thus  was  founded  the  great 
house  of  Fountains. 

Years  passed,  and  as  the  Benedictine  fervour  had 
cooled  from  its  early  glow,  so  the  Cistercian  discipline 
lost  its  pristine  simpUcity.  Even  at  their  highest,  the 
ideal  of  both  had  been  the  withdrawal  from  the  world. 
Cloisters  were  the  realization  of  the  heata  solitudo  and  the 
sola  heatitudo.  To  timid,  anxious  souls  the  inviolable 
sanctuaries  of  monastic  life  seemed  the  only  refuge  from 
the  pillage  and  pestilence  which  wasted  the  fields,  the 
only  barrier  against  the  stagnant  mass  of  squalor,  famine, 
and  disease  that  festered  in  the  towns.  The  times  were 
^\i\.     In  the  tearfiil  passion  of  the  Stahat  Mater,  as  in 


90  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

the  austere  grandeur  of  the  Dies  Irce,  were  expressed 
the  fears  and  forebodings  of  the  age.  But  hope  was 
mingled  with  terror.  Europe  seemed  to  be  thrilled  by 
a  common  movement,  and  Gioacchino  di  Fiore,  the 
Calabrian  seer,  expressed  the  popular  instinct,  that  the 
dawTi  was  whitening  ^\ith  the  glory  of  a  day  which  should 
usher  in  the  *'  age  of  the  spirit,"  the  ''  age  of  love,"  the 
"ageofhhes." 

Such  were  the  thoughts  with  which  the  air  of  Italy 
was  charged  when  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  grew  to  man- 
hood (i  182-1226).  Artless,  almost  infantine,  in  the 
simplicity  of  his  nature,  he  was  the  gentlest  and  most 
blameless  of  mankind — the  saint  and  the  poet  of  a  poetic 
people.  From  the  moment  that  he  took  Poverty  for 
his  bride  and  consecrated  his  hfe  to  Christ,  no  temptation 
ever  allured  him  from  his  in\aolate  iideUty.  Active  love, 
not  contemplative  piety,  was  the  soul  of  his  rehgion  ; 
practical  life,  not  the  seclusion  of  the  cloister,  was  the 
sphere  of  its  exercise.  The  father  of  the  poor,  the  nurse 
of  the  leper,  he  had  the  faith  to  see  the  Divine  image, 
and  the  charity  to  love  it,  even  in  its  most  neglected 
and  repulsive  tenements.  Though  his  Brothers  Minor 
developed  into  an  Order,  it  was  as  a  protest  against  the 
monastic  spirit  that  they  were  originally  founded,  and 
it  was  only  so  long  as  the  Lady  Poverty  walked  among 
the  sunburnt  hills  of  Umbria  with  a  free  step  by 
the  side  of  Chastity,  and  carolled  hymns  with  Obedi- 
ence, that  the  institution  exempHfied  the  idea  of  its 
founder. 

The  call  of  Francis  came  to  him  in  the  words  of  the 
gospel.  But  if,  as  is  recorded  of  him  in  Brother  Leo's 
Legend  of  the  Saint,  Francis  refused  to  allow  a  novice 
the  use  of  a  Psalter,  the  same  biographer  again  and  again 
illustrates  his  love  of  the  Psalms.  Thus  he  ever  walked 
upon  stones  "  with  great  trembUng  and  reverence  "  for 
the  love  of  Him  that  is  called  "  the  Rock,"  repeating 
the  words,  "  Thou  didst  set  my  feet  upon  the  rock  " 
(Ps.  xl.  2).     On  Ps.  cxlviii.  is  modelled  his  Canticle  of 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  91 

the  Sun,  in  which  he  sums  up  his  love  towards  all  created 
things,  and  especially  towards  those  in  which  he  saw  a 
figure  of  anything  pertaining  to  God  or  rehgion. 

"  Most  high,  ahnighty,  and  excellent  Lord,  to  Thee 
be  praise  and  glory  and  honour,  and  all  blessing !  To 
Thee  alone.  Most  High,  do  they  belong,  and  no  man  is 
worthy  to  name  Thy  name. 

"  Praised  be  Thou,  my  Lord,  with  all  Thy  creatures, 
and,  above  all,  our  Brother  the  Sun,  who  brings  to  us 
the  light  and  the  day.  Beautiful  is  he,  and  radiant  in 
his  glorious  splendour  ;  and  to  us,  Most  High,  he  beareth 
witness  of  Thee. 

"  Praised  be  Thou,  my  Lord,  for  our  Sister  the  Moon, 
and  for  all  the  Stars.  In  the  heavens  Thou  hast  set  them, 
bright  and  precious  and  beautiful. 

*'  Praised  be  Thou,  my  Lord,  for  our  Brother  the 
Wind,  for  the  air,  the  cloud,  the  calm,  and  aU  weather, 
whereby  Thou  sustainest  hfe  in  all  Thy  creatures. 

"  Praised  be  Thou,  my  Lord,  for  our  Sister  the  Water ; 
for  manifold  are  her  services,  and  she  is  humble,  precious, 
and  pure. 

*'  Praised  be  Thou,  my  Lord,  for  our  Brother  the  Fire. 
By  him  Thou  dost  hghten  our  darkness.  Beautiful  is 
he,  joyful,  very  mighty,  and  strong. 

"  Praised  be  Thou,  my  Lord,  for  our  Sister  mother 
Earth,  who  doth  sustain  and  nourish  us,  and  bringeth 
forth  in  abundance  divers  fruits,  flowers  of  many  colours, 
and  grass. 

"  Praised  be  Thou,  m.y  Lord,  for  those  who  for  love 
of  Thee  forgive  their  enemies,  and  endure  weakness 
and  tribulation.  Yea,  blessed  are  those  who  shall  con- 
tinue in  peace;  for  by  Thee,  Most  High,  shall  they  be 
crowned. 

"  Praised  be  Thou,  my  Lord,  for  our  Sister  the  Death 
of  the  body,  from  whom  no  living  man  can  escape.  Woe 
to  those  who  die  in  mortal  sin  !  Blessed  are  they  who 
are  conformed  to  Thy  most  holy  \^ill,  for  the  second  death 
shall  have  no  power  to  hurt  them. 


92  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

"  Praise  and  bless  my  Lord  !  give  thanks  to  Him  and 
serve  Him  with  all  humbleness  of  heart."  * 

This  was  the  song  that  the  brethren  chanted  to  the 
dying  man,  while  above  the  house  where  he  lay  multi- 
tudes of  crested  larks,  circHng  round  the  thatch,  "  by 
their  sweet  singing  did  seem  to  be  praising  the  Lord 
along  wdth  him."  As  he  had  Hved,  so  he  died — in  the 
arms  of  his  Lady  Poverty,  stripped  of  his  clothing,  and 
laid  on  the  bare  ground.  Psalms  were  sung  to  him,  and 
from  time  to  time  he  added  his  voice  to  the  voices  of  his 
brethren,  returning  with  special  fondness  to  Psalm  cxlii.  : 
"  I  cried  unto  the  Lord  with  my  voice ;  yea,  even  unto 
the  Lord  did  I  make  my  supphcation,"  etc.  At  night- 
fall, on  October  3,  1226,  he  passed  away. 

Hitherto  the  influence  of  the  Psalms  has  been  illus- 
trated from  religious  or  semi-ecclesiastical  history ;  but 
examples  are  not  wanting  in  the  more  purely  secular 
history  of  the  Middle  Ages.  They  moulded  public 
opinion,  and  created  a  standard  of  civil  government. 
With  them  are  associated  scenes  in  the  Uves  or  deaths  of 
WiUiam  the  Conqueror,  Vladimir  ]\Ionomachus,  David  I. 
of  Scotland,  Abelard  and  Heloise,  St.  Louis  of  France, 
and  WiUiam  Wallace. 

William  the  Conqueror  died  in  September  1087,  in 
circumstances  which  moved  the  historian,  Ordericus 
Vitalis,  to  moraUze  in  the  language  of  the  Psalms.  The 
aggressions  of  Philip  of  France,  and,  as  the  story  runs, 
the  jest  which  he  had  aimed  at  the  unwieldy  size  of  the 
English  king,  aroused  the  latter's  wrath.  Claiming  as 
his  own  the  borderland  of  France  and  Normandy,  William 
swore  by  the  resurrection  and  splendour  of  God  that  he 
would  light  a  hundred  thousand  candles  at  the  expense 

*  The  text  will  be  found  in  Sabatier's  "  Life  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  " 
(tr.  L.  S.  Houghton,  1896,  adopting  M.  Arnold's  version),  pp.  304,  305  : — 

"  Altissimu,  omnipotente,  bon  signore, 
tue  so  le  laude  la  gloria  e  I'onore,"  etc. 

An  English  verse  translation  is  given  in  "A  Vision  of  Saints,"  by  Lewis 
Morris,  "  Saint  Francis  of  Assisi." 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.     '  93 

of  Philip,  He  kept  liis  word.  Cornfields,  vineyards, 
and  orchards  blazed  up  to  the  gates  of  Mantes,  and  the 
border  fortress  itself  lay  a  heap  of  burning  ashes.  In  his 
hour  of  triumph  William  received  his  death-wound.  His 
horse,  stumbling  among  the  embers,  threw  the  king  upon 
the  iron  pommel  of  his  saddle  with  such  force  that  he 
received  a  fatal  injur}'.  Carried  to  Rouen  to  die,  he 
caused  himself  to  be  conveyed  from  the  noise  of  the  city 
to  the  Abbey  of  St.  Gervais.  In  the  early  morning 
of  September  9,  the  great  bell  of  the  cathedral  went  for 
prime.  The  king  asked  what  it  meant.  When  he  re- 
ceived the  answer,  he  stretched  forth  his  arms,  raised 
his  eyes  to  heaven,  commended  himself  to  his  Lady 
Mary,  the  Holy  Mother  of  God,  that  by  her  intercession 
she  would  reconcile  him  to  her  dear  Son,  Jesus  Christ, 
and  so  breathed  his  last.  His  attendants  hastily  moimted 
their  horses,  and  rode  at  speed  to  secure  their  houses  and 
lands.  His  servants,  after  stripping  the  body  of  the 
dead  king,  made  off,  "  like  kites  with  their  prey."  "  In 
a  house  not  his  own,  foully  stripped  by  his  servants, 
there  lay  on  the  bare  floor,  from  the  first  to  the  third 
hour  of  the  day,  the  body  of  the  mighty  king,  whom 
but  now  a  hundred  thousand  warriors  had  eagerly  served, 
and  before  whom  many  nations  had  trembled  in  fear." 
"  Put  not  your  trust  in  princes,"  moralizes  the  chronicler, 
Ordericus  Vitalis,  whose  pages  teem  with  passages  from 
the  Psalms,  "  which  are  naught,  O  ye  sons  of  men  ;  but 
in  God,  the  Living  and  the  True,  who  is  the  Maker  of 
aU.  If  riches  increase,  set  not  your  heart  upon  them. 
For  all  flesh  is  grass,  and  all  the  glory  of  it  as  the  flower 
of  grass.  The  grass  withereth,  and  the  flower  thereof 
fadeth  away  ;  but  the  word  of  the  Lord  endureth  for 
ever." 

With  the  baptism  of  St.  Vladimir  at  Cherson,  and  that 
of  his  whole  people,  in  the  waters  of  the  Dnieper  at 
Kieff,  in  988,  had  begun  the  history  of  Russia.  A  cen- 
tury later,  in  Madimir  Monomachus,  who  is  said  to  have 
married  as  his  first  wife  Gj'tha,  the  daughter  of  Harold 


94  THE  PSALMS  IX  HU.MAN  LIFE. 

of  England,  Russia  came  into  contact  with  the  remotest 
power  of  Western  Europe.  When,  in  I113,  Vladimir 
became  the  Great  Prince  at  Kieff,  he  was  instructed  by 
the  Patriarch  Nicephorus  in  his  duties  as  a  ruler.  The 
lesson  was  a  comment  on  Ps.  ci.,  with  an  exhortation 
to  get  it  by  heart,  to  recite  it  often,  to  meditate  upon 
it,  and  by  it  to  fashion  his  government.  "  My  song,"  so 
begins  the  letter,  "  shall  be  of  the  duties  of  my  station  ; 
of  mercy  and  judgment :  first,  of  mercy — that  is,  of 
tender,  fatherly  care  for  the  welfare,  spiritual,  moral,  and 
temporal,  of  all  my  subjects ;  and  then,  also,  of  judg- 
ment— that  is,  of  doing  true  justice  between  man  and 
man,  of  the  restraint  of  wickedness  and  vice,  and  of  the 
punishment  of  wrongdoers,  both  for  their  own  chastise- 
ment and  for  the  good  of  their  fellows.  Unto  Thee,  O 
Lord,  will  I  sing.  Unto  Th^e  will  I  hft  up  my  heart  in 
meditation.  I  wlQ  not  follow  any  other  guide  in  my 
rule.  I  will  not  look  to  the  tempter,  though  he  offer  me 
all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world ;  nor  to  the  idols  of  ambi- 
tion, glory,  praise  of  men,  love  of  country,  civilization, 
knowledge,  progress ;  nor  yet  to  any  selfish  motives  of 
pleasure,  passion,  ease.  But  with  fear  and  love  will  I 
offer  my  thoughts,  my  motives,  my  designs,  my  deeds, 
my  meditations,  my  prayers,  unto  Thee,  O  Lord ;  for 
Thou  art  my  King  and  my  God,  and  I  am  Thy  servant. 
For  Thy  sake  only,  and  because  it  is  Thy  will,  I  will 
strive,  with  Thy  help,  to  rule  my  fellow-men,  my  brethren, 
whom  otherwise  I  would  choose  to  serve.  So  shall  I 
have  understanding  in  the  way  of  godhness." 

In  the  spirit  of  the  psalm  Vladimir  ruled  his  subjects. 
With  all  his  faults,  there  burned  within  him  a  spark  of 
manly  goodness,  which  hghts  up  his  dying  injunctions 
to  his  son,  and  draws  its  heat  from  the  Psalter.  After 
describing  the  wonders  of  creation  and  the  goodness  of 
the  Creator  in  the  words  of  David,  Vladimir  thus  pro- 
ceeds :  "  Praise  God  and  love  men.  Neither  fasting, 
nor  solitude,  nor  monastic  Hfe  will  bring  you  Hfe  eternal ; 
but  doing  good  alone.     Forget  not  the  poor  ;  feed  them. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.    .  95 

Remember  that  all  riches  come  from  God,  and  are  given 
you  but  for  a  while.  ...  Be  fathers  to  the  fatherless  ; 
judge  the  cause  of  widows  ;  suffer  not  the  strong  to 
oppress  the  weak.  .  .  .  My  brethren  said  to  me,  *  Help 
us  to  drive  out  the  sons  of  Rostislaf,  or  else  give  up  our 
alHance.'  But  I  said,  '  I  cannot  forget  that  I  have  kissed 
the  Cross.'  Then  I  opened  the  Book  of  Psalms,  and 
read  there  with  deep  stirring  of  the  heart, '  Why  art  thou 
so  vexed,  O  my  soul,  and  why  art  thou  so  disquieted 
within  me  ?  Put  thy  trust  in  God.  I  will  confess  my 
faults,  and  He  is  gracious.'  " 

Peter  Abelard,  in  11 14,  was  the  most  famous  teacher  in 
Paris,  then  the  most  renowned  school  in  Europe.  The 
idol  of  the  city,  he  had  reached  the  pinnacle  of  worldly 
success.  Then  began  his  fatal  passion  for  Heloise.  The 
lovers  were  separated  ;  on  Abelard  a  barbarous  venge- 
ance was  taken,  and  Heloise  was  immured  in  a  convent. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  they  ever  met  again. 

On  the  banks  of  the  x\rdusson,  in  a  quiet  side-valley, 
twelve  miles  from  Troyes,  Abelard  built  the  oratory  of 
the  Paraclete.  There  he  passed  several  years,  till,  in 
1 1 25,  he  was  in\dted  to  be  abbot  of  the  ancient  Abbey  of 
St.  Gildas  de  Rhuys,  near  Vannes.  He  accepted  the  offer, 
moved,  perhaps,  by  memories  of  his  boyish  studies  at 
the  dependent  monastery  of  Locmenach.  Meanwhile 
Heloise  and  her  nuns  had  been  driven  from  Argenteuil. 
When  Abelard  heard  that  she  was  a  wanderer  once  more, 
he  made  over  to  her  and  her  nuns  his  deserted  hermitage 
of  Paraclete.  There,  by  "  Paraclete's  white  walls  and 
silver  springs,"  the  love  of  Heloise  for  Abelard  once  more 
broke  silence.  Pope  was  right  in  thinking  that  her  life 
could  never  have  been 

"  The  blameless  vestal's  lot. 
The  world  forgetting,  by  the  world  forgot ;  " 

that  Abelard's  image  may  have  often  stolen  between  her 
and  her  God  ;  that  she  may  have  heard  his  voice  in 
every  psalm,  or  dropped  with  every  bead  too  "  soft  a 


96  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

tear."  But  be  this  as  it  may,  Abelard's  mournful  auto- 
biography, the  "  Historia  Calami tatum,"  fell  into  her 
hands.  The  grave  of  her  past  was  reopened  by  the  story 
of  his  sufferings,  and  Heloise  WTote  to  "  her  lord,  yea, 
her  father  ;  to  her  husband,  yea,  her  brother  ;  from  his 
handmaid,  yea,  daughter  ;  from  his  wife,  yea,  his  sister  ; 
to  Abelard  from  Heloise."  Abelard  answers  her  tender 
words,  if  the  letters  are  genuine,  in  the  language  of  a 
man  to  whom  all  earthly  things  had  grown  cold  and 
colourless.  To  her  second  letter  he  repUes  by  sending, 
at  her  request,  rules  for  her  convent.  At  the  close  of  his 
answer  he  exhorts  her  to  patience  and  resignation,  con- 
cluding \\ith  a  prayer,  in  which  he  betrays  the  depth  of 
his  own  feehng,  and  definitely  quotes  from  the  Psalter : — 

"  Forgive,  O  most  Merciful  !  forgive,  O  Mercy  itself ! 
our  sins,  great  as  they  are  ;  and  may  the  multitude  of 
our  offences  know  the  height  and  breadth  of  Thy  un- 
speakable clemency.  Chastise  the  guilty  here,  that  Thou 
mayest  spare  them  hereafter.  Punish  them  for  a  time, 
that  Thou  mayest  spare  them  for  eternity.  Use  against 
Thy  servants  the  rod  of  correction,  not  the  sword  of  WTath. 
Afflict  the  body,  that  Thou  mayest  save  the  soul.  Cleanse, 
avenge  not ;  be  gentle  rather  than  just  ;  a  merciful 
Father  rather  than  an  austere  Lord.  '  Examine  us,  O 
Lord,  and  prove  us,'  as  the  prophet  asked  for  himself 
(Ps.  xx\i..  2).  It  is  as  if  he  said,  '  Examine  the  strength 
there  is,  and  suit  the  burden  of  temptation  to  it.'  .  .  . 
Thou  hast  joined  us,  O  Lord,  and  hast  set  us  apart,  when 
it  pleased  Thee,  and  as  it  pleased  Thee.  Now,  O  Lord, 
that  which  Thou  hast  begun  in  mercy,  do  Thou  in  mercy 
perfect,  and  those  whom  Thou  hast  severed  in  the  world, 
join  for  ever  imto  Thyself  in  heaven.  O  Lord,  our  hope, 
our  portion,  our  expectation,  our  consolation,  who  art 
blessed  for  ever.     Amen. 

"  Farewell  in  Christ,  thou  Spouse  of  Light,  in  Christ 
farewell,  in  Christ  Uve.     Amen." 

Contemporarv'  with  \nadimir  Monomachus  and  wrth 
Abelard  was    David    I.,   the  just   and  merciful  ruler  of 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  97 

Scotland,  who  died  May  24.  11 53.  As  .Elred  of  Rie- 
vaulx  tells  the  story  of  his  death,  the  king  received  the 
viaticum,  venerated  the  famous  black  cross,  and  spent 
his  last  hours  of  conscious  existence  in  repeating  verses 
from  the  Psalms  :  "I  deal  with  the  thing  that  is  lawful 
and  right  :  0  give  me  not  over  unto  mine  oppressors  " 
(Ps.  cxix.  121),  and  "  In  the  time  of  my  trouble  I  will 
caU  upon  Thee,  for  Thou  hearest  me  "  (Ps.  lxxx\'i.  7). 

By  a  psalm  St.  Louis  of  France  regulated  his  Hfe. 
Before  taking  the  seat  of  judgment  he  was  wont  to 
repeat  the  words  :  "  Blessed  are  they  that  always  keep 
judgment,  and  do  righteousness  "  (Ps.  c\i.  3).  The  Mass 
for  the  first  Sunday  in  Advent  began  with  the  words, 
"  Unto  Thee,  0  Lord,  will  I  hft  up  my  soul.  My  God, 
I  have  put  my  trust  in  Thee  "  (Ps.  xxv.  i).  On  that  day 
Louis  was  crowned  (1226).  Join\ille,  who  notes  the 
fact,  observes  that  even  in  his  death  the  king  had  per- 
fect trust  in  God.  It  was  with  a  psalm  on  his  hps  that 
Louis  died.  In  July  1270  he  had  taken  the  Cross,  and 
embarked  at  Aigues  Mortes  for  Africa.  Before  the  walls 
of  Tunis  the  chmate  and  the  plague  did  their  deadlv 
work.  At  last  Louis  IX.  himself  was  struck  down  by 
sickness.  Three  weeks  he  hngered.  On  August  25, 
1270,  laid  on  a  bed  of  ashes,  he  died,  murmuring  the 
words  of  Ps.  V.  7,  ''  But  as  for  me,  I  wiU  come  into  thine 
house,  even  upon  the  multitude  of  Thy  mercy  ;  and  in 
Thy  fear  will  I  w^orship  toward  Thy  holy  temple." 

At  the  execution  of  William  Wallace/the  d\ing  patriot 
found  comfort  in  the  Psalter,  which  had  been  the  com- 
panion of  his  adventurous  wanderings.  Betrayed  to  the 
EngHsh  by  the  ''  fause  Menteith,"  tried  for  treason  in 
Westminster  Hall,  he  was  executed  at  West  Smithfield 
(August  23,  1305)  with  all  the  barbarities  of  the  age. 
As  he  stood  on  the  scaffold,  in  the  midst  of  the  instru- 
ments for  his  torture,  he  begged  Lord  Clifford  to  restore 
to  him  the  Psalter,  w^hich  had  been  taken  from  him  at  his 
capture.  The  prayer  was  granted.  Unable  to  hold  the 
book  in  his  chained  hands,  he  asked  a  priest  to  keep  it 

4 


98  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

open  for  him,  and  as  he  hung  from  the  gallows  he  con- 
tinued to  look  on  it  with  love  and  devotion.  After  he 
was  taken  down  and,  still  alive  and  sensible,  disem- 
bowelled, his  eyes  remained  fixed  upon  the  Psalter  until 
they  closed  in  death. 

Nor  was  it  only  in  mediaeval  action  that  the  influence 
of  the  Psalms  may  be  traced.  ^lediaeval  thought  also 
fell  under  their  spell.  The  science  and  the  literature  as 
well  as  the  history  of  the  Middle  Ages  felt  their  sway. 

By  the  Psalms  the  science  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  to 
a  great  extent  governed.  The  earth,  argued  mediaeval 
cosmogonists,  cannot  be  in  motion,  or  suspended  in 
mid-air  ;  rather,  it  is  firmly  fixed,  for  "  He  hath  made 
the  round  world  so  fast  that  it  cannot  be  moved  "  (Ps. 
xciii.  2),  and  "  He  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth 
that  it  never  should  move  at  any  time  "  (Ps.  civ.  5). 
And  its  centre  is  Jerusalem.  The  column  in  the  Holy 
City  at  midday  casts  no  shadow,  and  "  God  is  in  the 
midst  of  her,  therefore  shall  she  not  be  removed  "  (Ps. 
xlvi.  5).  On  the  text,  "  Praise  him,  all  ye  heavens  ; 
and  ye  waters  that  are  above  the  heavens  "  (Ps.  cxlviii.  4), 
were  built  strange  theories.  Heaven  was  divided  into 
two  by  the  firmament  which  day  between  our  atmosphere 
and  the  Paradise  of  God.  Below  the  firmament  lived  the 
angels ;  above  it  were  the  waters.  Jerome  held  that 
the  waters  were  frozen  ;  Ambrose  believed  that  the 
outside  firmament  was  a  hard  shell,  on  the  outer  edge 
of  which  were  stored  the  waters  ;  some  thought  that 
the  terrestrial  universe  was  surrounded  by  huge  walls, 
on  which  were  supported  the  firmament  and  the  waters 
they  contained.  The  purpose  for  which  the  waters  were 
collected  was  disputed.  It  was  believed  that  they  were 
gathered  for  another  deluge,  or  to  moderate  the  fervent 
heat  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  or  to  lubricate  the  axis  on 
which  the  heavens  moved  round  the  earth.  In  the  air 
exhaled  from  the  earth  were  lightning  and  hail,  snow 
and  vapours,  wind  and  storm  (Ps.  cxlviii.  8).  Earth- 
quakes were  explained  from  Ps.  cxxxv.  7,  by  the  winds 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  99 

being  drawn  from  God's  secret  treasuries,  or  by  the 
motions  of  Leviathan  (Ps.  civ.  26),  who,  when  his  tail 
is  scorched  by  the  sun,  seeks  to  seize  it,  and  labours  so 
powerfully  that  the  earth  is  shaken  by  liis  efforts.  The 
rise  and  fall  of  tides  was  explained  by  his  drinking  in 
and  spewing  out  vast  volumes  of  water.  With  a  strange 
mixture  of  Pagan  with  Christian  thought,  it  was  sup- 
posed that  the  powers  of  the  air  could  produce  thunder, 
lightning,  and  rain,  and  against  their  baneful  influences 
the  favourite  exorcism  was  Ps.  civ. 

Of  the  monastic  spirit  in  hterature  the  "  De  Imitatione 
Christi  "  is  the  finest  product.  The  writer,  according  to 
some  of  the  best  authorities,  was  Thomas  Hsemmerlein, 
called,  as  was  the  custom  of  the  day,  a  Kempis,  from  the 
small  town  of  Kempen,  near  Dusseldorf.  A  httle,  fresh- 
coloured  man,  simple  in  worldly  affairs,  shy  and  retiring 
in  his  habits,  too  absent-mirtded  to  be  long  entrusted 
with  any  practical  part  of  the  government  of  the  Con- 
vent of  Mount  St.  Agnes,  Thomas  a  Kempis  was  given, 
as  a  biographer  says  of  him,  ''  to  the  interior  Hfe  and 
devotion."  In  sohtude,  silence,  and  humihty  he  bowed 
himself  before  his  Sa\iour,  that  so  he  might  catch  the 
faintest  whisper  of  His  voice,  and  conform  himself,  with- 
out hindrance  of  earthly  barriers,  to  its  sHghtest  com- 
mand. The  fruit  of  that  close  personal  communion  is 
the  wonderful  book  in  which  throbs  the  spiritual  heart 
of  mediaeval  Christianity.  From  the  nature  of  its  sub- 
ject, the  ''  Imitation  "  might  be  expected  to  rely  mainly 
on  the  New  Testament.  But  in  thought,  feehng,  and 
language  it  is  largely  based  on  the  Psalter.  "  I  will 
hearken  what  the  Lord  God  will  say  concerning  me ; 
for  He  shall  speak  unto  His  people,  and  to  His  saints, 
that  they  turn  not  again  "  (Ps.  Ixxxv.  8)  supphes  the 
kejmote  to  the  third  book,  which  treats  of  internal  con- 
solation ;  and  throughout  the  whole  work  the  Psalms  are 
more  largely  cited  than  the  Gospels,  and  the  illustrations 
from  the  Psalter  outnumber  all  the  passages  which  are 
quoted  from  the  four  records  of  our  Lord's  life  upon  earth. 


lOO  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

The  religious  calm,  which,  together  \\'ith  the  most 
ardent  love,  characterizes  the  "  Imitation,"  was  not 
lightly  won.  In  his  "  Soliloquy  of  the  Soul "  Thomas 
a  Kempis  gives  the  history  of  his  inner  hfe,  and  chronicles 
the  perplexities  through  which  his  soul  gained  its  abso- 
lute peace.  The  book  is  in  great  part  an  impassioned 
expansion  of  texts  drawn  from  the  Psalms,  such  as  : 
"  Blessed  be  the  name  of  His  Majesty  for  ever  "  (Ps. 
Ixxii.  19) ;  "  All  my  bones  shall  say.  Lord,  who  is  like 
imto  Thee  ?  "  (Ps.  xxxv.  10)  ;  "  Say  unto  my  soul,  I  am 
thy  salvation"  (Ps.  xxxv.  3)  ;  "My  soul  hangeth  upon 
Thee  "  (Ps.  Ixiii.  9)  ;  "  Praised  be  God,  who  hath  not 
....  turned  His  mercy  from  me  "  (Ps.  Ixvi.  18). 

Yet  another  illustration  of  the  influence  of  the  Psalms 
upon  devotional  literature  may  be  taken  from  Thomas's 
"  Little  Alphabet  of  the  Monks  in  the  School  of  Christ," 
a  series  of  short  precepts,  drawn  up  for  those  who  wished 
to  adopt  the  Rule  of  the  brotherhood  of  the  Canons 
Regular.  In  form  it  is  modelled  on  the  119th  Psalm, 
the  initial  letters  of  the  precepts  running  consecutively 
through  the  alphabet. 

"  Aspire  to  be  unkno-wn,  and  to  be  accounted  nothing :    for  this  is 

more  healthful  and  profitable  for  thee  than  the  praise  of  men. 
"  Be  benevolent  to  all  thy  fellows,  alike  to  the  good  and  to  the  evil ; 

and  be  burdensome  to  none. 
"  Care  for  it  that  thy  heart  be  kept  from  wandering  thoughts,  thy 

mouth  from  vain  speech,  thy  senses  imder  discipline. 
"  Dwell  in  solitude  and  silence,  and  therein  shalt  thou  find  great 

peace  and  a  good  conscience  ;   for  in  a  mviltitude  are  much  noise 

and  many  distractions  of  the  heart. 
"  Elect  poverty  and  simplicity,  and  be  content  with  a  few  things, 

and  thou  wilt  not  be  quick  to  complain. 
"  Flee  the  conversation  of  worldly  men  ;  for  with  both  God  and  man, 

with   things   both    transitory   and   eternal,    thou   canst   not  be 

satisfied." 

The  last  precept  runs  thus  : — 

"  Zaccheus,  my  brother,  come  down  from  the  tree-tops  of  knowledge. 
Come  thou  and  learn  in  the  school  of  God  the  way  of  humility, 
of  meekness,  and  of  patience  ;  so,  by  the  teaching  of  Christ,  wilt 
thou  at  length  be  able  to  attain  to  the  glory  of  eternal  blessed- 
ness." 

In  the  sphere  of  devotional  literature  the  "  De  Imita- 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  loi 

tione  "  is,  as  has  been  said,  theiinest  fruit  of  monasticism. 
Compared  with  the  "  Divina  Commedia  "  of  Dante,  it 
marks  the  vivid  contrast  between  rehgious  Hfe  in  the 
world  and  in  the  cloister.  Both  books  are,  as  it  were, 
studies  of  the  human  soul  in  its  passage  from  darkness 
to  Hght.  In  both,  Christian  theolog^^  strikes  the  kej'note. 
But  the  one  is  as  harmonious  in  its  whole  as  the  other 
is  incongruous  in  its  details.  With  his  vision  Dante  has 
interwoven  elements  which  the  "  De  Imitatione  "  seeks 
to  exclude,  or  feehngs  that  it  hopes  to  crush.  In  the 
"  Di\dna  Commedia,"  passionate  scorn  and  holy  mysteries 
of  faith,  coarse  satire  and  hymns  of  the  blessed,  con- 
temporary^ scandal  and  lofty  idealism,  the  most  ardent 
faith  in  the  Divine  government  of  the  world  and  the 
pontics  of  the  day,  the  personal  bitterness  of  private 
wrongs  and  the  keenest  perception  of  the  issues  of  good 
and  ill  doing,  are  inextricably  mingled. 

Dante's  admiration  of  the  Psalms  is  not  only  shown 
by  the  version  of  the  Seven  Penitential  Psalms,  which 
is  attributed  to  him.  It  is  also  again  and  again  illus- 
trated from  his  great  Christian  poem,  which  ushers  in 
the  literature  of  Europe.  In  some  passages  he  refers  to 
Da\dd  himself  ;  in  others  he  quotes  from  the  Book  of 
Psalms.  Thus,  after  he  had  passed  the  threshold  of  the 
gate  of  Purgatorv^  ("  Purgatorio,"  canto  x.,  line  i,  and 
following),  Dante  and  his  guide  climb  upwards  by  a 
rocky  ascent  to  the  lowest  circle,  where  those  are  puri- 
fied who  have  sinned  through  pride.  On  one  side  of 
the  path  rises  a  precipitous  cliff  of  white  marble,  curiously 
adorned  with  sculptures  commemorating  humility.  There 
in  the  marble  were  carved  the  car  and  oxen  drawing  the 
sacred  ark,  and  (lines  64-66) 

"  Preceding  the  blest  vessel,  onward  came 
With  light  dance  leaping,  girt  in  humble  guise. 
Sweet  Israel's  harper  ;  in  that  hap  he  seemed 
Less,  and  yet  more,  than  kingly." 

Ruth,  on  her  throne  in  Paradise  {"  Paradiso,"  canto 
xxxii.,  lines  10-12),  is  described  as 


102  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE 

0  "  The  glecLner-maid, 
Meek  ancestress  of  him  who  sang  the  songs 
Of  sore  repentance  in  his  sorrowful  mood." 

In  the  planet  Jupiter,  which  is  the  sixth  heaven,  the 
souls  of  those  who  have  rightly  administered  justice  on 
the  earth  are  disposed  in  the  figure  of  an  eagle.  Those 
that  glitter  in  the  eagle's  eye  are  the  chief  and  greatest 
("Paradiso,"  canto  xx.,  lines  37-42),  and  here  David  is 
placed. 

"  This  that  shines 
Midmost  for  pupil  was  the  same  who  sang 
The  Holy  Spirit's  song,  and  bare  about 
The  ark  from  town  to  town  ;   now  doth  he  know 
The  merit  of  his  soul-impassioned  strains 
By  their  well-fitted  guerdon." 

In  other  passages  the  Psalms  are  quoted.  Cheered  by 
St.  James,  Dante  lifts  his  eyes,  heretofore  bent  on  the 
ground  with  their  over-heavy  burden,  "  To  the  hills  from 
whence  cometh  my  help  "  ("  Paradiso,"  canto  xxv.,  lines 
37-39,  and  Ps.  cxxi.  i).  Hope  had  first  come  to  him, 
as  he  tells  St.  James  {ibid.,  lines  71-75,  and  Ps.  ix.  10),— 

"  From  him  who  sang 
The  songs  of  the  Supreme,  himself  supreme 
Among  his  tuneful  brethren.     '  Let  all  hope 
In  Thee,'  so  spake  the  anthem,  '  who  have  known 
Thy  name.'  " 

At  an  earlier  stage  in  his  journey,  as  he  lingered  by 
the  shores  of  the  Island  of  Purgatory  ("  Purgatorio,"  canto 
ii.,  lines  40-48),  Dante  sees  at  early  dawn  a  light  bark, 
without  oars  or  sails,  driven  swiftly  to  land  by  the  wings 
of  the  angel  who  stands  on  the  poop.  Within  are  a 
hundred  spirits  and  more,  who  sing  with  one  voice  to- 
gether Ps.  cxiv.,  "  When  Israel  came  out  of  Egypt." 
So  also  in  the  fifth  circle  ("  Purgatorio,"  canto  xix.,  lines 
70-75,  and  Ps.  cxix.  25),  those  who  had  sinned  from 
avarice  and  prodigality  lay  with  their  faces  downwards, 
prone  upon  the  ground,  weeping  sore, — 

"  '  My  soul  hath  cleaved  to  the  dust,'  I  heard, 

With  sighs  *p  deep  they  well -nigh  choked  the  words." 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  103 

Such  illustrations  might  be  multiplied  ;  but  as  an 
example  of  the  use  which  Dante  makes  of  the  Psalms, 
directly  or  symbolically,  those  stanzas  of  the  "  Purgatorio  " 
may  be  taken  in  which  Beatrice  appears.  Dante  has 
passed  through  the  fire,  climbed  the  mountain,  and, 
followed  by  \'irgil  and  Statius,  traverses  a  wood,  bright 
with  the  fresh  flowers  of  May.  Through  it  floats  a  light 
breeze,  ruffling  the  leaves  as  it  passes,  scented  with 
sweet  odours,  and  mingling  with  the  songs  of  birds. 
He  is  stopped  by  a  stream,  three  paces  across.  In  a 
meadow  on  the  opposite  side  walks  Matilda,  singing 
as  she  gathers  the  flowers  that  paint  her  way.  Dante 
wonders  at  the  brightness  of  her  smile,,  till  she  tells  him 
that  she  is  gladdened  by  the  verse  of  Ps.  xcii.  beginning 
"  Delectasti  "  (Ps.  xcii.  4),  "  Thou,  Lord,  hast  made  me 
glad  through  Thy  works,"  etc.  (''  Quia  delectasti  me, 
Domine,  in  factura  tua,  et  in  operibus  manuum  Tuarum 
exsultabo").  It  is  this  delight  in  God's  work  and 
labour  in  His  service  that  make  the  perfect  happiness 
of  active  life  on  earth.  All  other  bliss  is  but  a  dream 
that  closes  with  death.  This  alone  is  the  waking  vision, 
for  it  is  the  pathway  and  vestibule  of  heaven.  She 
further  explains  to  him  that  the  spot  is  the  earthly  Para- 
dise, and  that  the  stream  by  which  he  stands  is  called 
Lethe  and  Eunoe,  because  its  twofold  properties  are  to 
take  away  the  memory  of  sin,  and  to  restore  the  recol- 
lection of  every  good  deed.  Then  she  returns,  like  an 
enamoured  dame,  to  her  song  ("  Purgatorio,"  canto  xxix., 
lines  1-3,  and  Ps.  xxxii.  i),  "  Blessed  is  he  whose  un- 
righteousness is  forgiven,  and  whose  sin  is  covered."  As 
Matilda,  alone  on  the  one  bank,  and  the  three  poets  on 
the  other,  move  upwards  against  the  stream,  a  great 
brightness  flushes,  and  then  suddenly  floods,  the  forest  ; 
sweet  melody  floats  through  the  luminous  air  ;  a  pro- 
cession of  figures  comes  into  view  ;  and  a  triumphal 
car,  drawn  by  a  gryphon,  halts  over  against  the  spot 
where  Dante  stood.  The  poet  has  seen  the  vision  of 
the  perfect  active  hfe,   which  delights,   not  in  its  own 


104  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

labour,  but  in  God's  work.  Xow  he  beholds  the  perfect 
contemplative  life,  which  may  be  lived  on  earth  if  only 
it  has  for  its  object,  not  its  owtl  beauty,  but  God's 
person  and  love  in  Christ.  On  the  car  appears  Beatrice, 
white-veiled,  olive-cro\\TLed,  stre\\Ti  with  flowers,  and 
clad  in  the  mystic  colours  of  Love,  Faith,  and  Hope 
("  Purgatorio,"  canto  xxx.,  lines  82-85,  and  Ps.  xxxi.  1-9). 
In  her  e3'es  are  reflected  the  twofold  nature  of  Christ, 
and  she  bids  him  mark  her  well ;  but  his  gaze  shrinks 
from  her  stern  pity. 

"  And  suddenly  the  angels  sang, 
'  In  Thee,  O  gracious  Lord,  my  hope  hath  been ; ' 
But  went  no  further  than  '  Thou,  Lord,  hast  set 
My  feet  in  ample  room.'  " 

Chaucer  quotes  but  little  from  the  Psalms.  It  may 
be  taken  as  a  slight  proof  of  his  dramatic  insight  that 
he  is  careful  to  make  "  Dame  Abstinence  Streamed  " 
{"  Romaunt  of  the  Rose,"  hne  7,366)  remember  "  hir 
Sawter  "  as  part  of  her  disguise  of  a  Beguine  ;  and 
when  he  cites  the  Psalms,  he  places  his  quotations  in 
the  mouths  of  persons  like  the  Prioress,  who  begins  the 
prologue  of  her  tale  with  Ps.  viii.  i,  2, — 

"  •  O  Lord,  our  Lord,  Thy  name  how  marveillous 
Is  in  this  large  world  y-sprad,'  quod  she," 

or  Uke  the  Parson,  the  Summoner,  and  the  "  Frere." 
But  in  William  Langland  fourteenth-century  England 
had  her  people's  Dante.  Clad  in  hermit's  garb,  and 
sleeping  heavily  from  weariness  of  wandering,  Lang- 
land  saw  on  the  Malvern  Hills  the  "  Vision  of  Piers 
PlowTQan."  Far  inferior  to  the  great  Italian  in  grandeur 
of  conception  and  nobility  of  execution,  the  English  poet 
was  Dante's  rival  in  realistic  power.  He  paints  with  a 
wire  brush,  and  a  force  that  is  almost  fierce  ;  but  his 
tender  s}Tnpathy  \nth  human  suffering  redeems  the 
harshness  of  his  rugged  lines,  and  gives  to  his  racy  vigour 
and  homely  language  something  of  spiritual  intensity. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  '     105 

That  Langland  should  clothe  much  of  his  "  Vision ''  in 
the  language  of  the  Psalms  is  not  surprising.  Bred  in 
a  monastery,  he  lived  by  singing.  "  The  tools,"  he  says, 
"  wherewith  I  labour  and  earn  my  bread  are  Pater- 
noster, and  my  primer  Placebo  and  Dirige,  and  some- 
times my  Psalter  and  my  Seveyi  Psalms.''  As  the 
whole  world  of  men,  busy  with  their  varied  occupations, 
pass  before  the  dreamer's  vision,  he  sees  that  Bribery  is 
all-powerful,  in  spite  of  what  David  had  said  of  those 
who  take  bribes :  "  Lord,  who  shall  dwell  in  Thy 
tabernacle  ?  He  that  hath  not  taken  reward  against 
the  innocent"  (Ps.  xv.  i,  6).  He  sees  also  that  Justice 
and  Favour  are  bestowed  on  men  "  in  whose  hands  is 
wickedness,"  provided  that  "  their  right  hand  is  full  of 
gifts  "  (Ps.  xxvi.  10).  Yet,  evil  though  the  world  is, 
Scripture  bids  men  not  despair  ;  no  offence  is  beyond 
God's  pardon,  for  "  His  mercy  is  over  all  His  works  " 
(Ps.  cxlv.  9). 

In  sect.  v.  the  dreamer  sees  again  the  "  field  full  of 
folk,"  where  the  sinners  are  induced  to  confess  and  re- 
pent. The  Deadly  Sins  make  their  penitential  confes- 
sion. Repentance  prays  for  the  penitents,  and  Hope, 
seizing  a  horn,  blows  upon  it  (Ps.  xxxii.  i),  "  Blessed  is 
he  whose  unrighteousness  is  forgiven,  and  whose  sin  is 
covered."  Then  all  together,  saints  in  glory  and  men 
on  earth,  cry  upward,  "  to  Crist  and  to  His  moder  "  with 
the  Psalmist  David,  "  Thou,  Lord,  shalt  save  both  man 
and  beast ;  how  excellent  is  Thy  mercy,  0  God  "  (Ps. 
xxxvi.  7). 

In  sect.  XV.  Langland  describes  Charity.  Riches,  as 
the  dreamer  reflects,  hinder  men  in  their  way  towards 
heaven  ;  but  Poverty  is  the  gift  of  God,  and  sweet  to 
the  human  soul.  The  dreamer  has  not  found  Charity 
in  London,  for  there  all  are  covetous.  Wliere  then 
is  he  to  be  found  ?  and  the  answer  of  the  Soul  is 
given,  that  Charity  seldom  comes  to  Court.  He  wears 
russet  and  fur,  sometimes  ragged  clothes,  and  once — 
long  ago — the  frock  of  a  friar.     Proud  of  a  penny  as 


io6  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

of  a  pound  of  gold,  he  is  full  of  gladness,  trusts  his 
fellows,  finds  in  sickness  a  solace,  fears  neither  death 
nor  dearth.  Who  provides  for  him  ?  asks  the  dreamer. 
He  cares  nothing  for  rent  or  riches.  He  neither  craves 
nor  covets.  In  the  Lord  he  lays  him  down,  and  takes 
his  rest  (Ps.  iv.  9) .  He  has  a  friend,  who  never  fails : 
"  When  Thou  openest  Thy  hand,  they  are  filled  with 
good  "  (Ps.  civ.  28).  He  visits  the  poor  and  the  prisoner ; 
he  feeds,  clothes,  and  comforts  them,  telling  them  of 
Christ's  sufferings.  He  purgeth  men  of  pride,  cleansing 
them  in  the  Laundry,  with  groans  and  tears  (Ps.  vi.  6). 
With  the  warm  water  from  his  eyes,  he  washes  them 
whiter  than  snow  (Ps.  li.  7),  singing  with  his  work,  and 
sometimes  weeping,  for  he  knows  that  ''  a  broken  and 
contrite  heart,  O  God,  shalt  Thou  not  despise  "  (Ps.  li.  17). 
In  sect,  xviii.  is  told  in  part  the  Resurrection  Legend, 
based  on  Ps.  xxiv.  (7-10),  "Lift  up  your  heads,  0  ye 
gates,"  etc.  Christ  had  died  on  the  cross,  and  in  hell 
the  devils  saw  a  soul  "  hitherward  sailing,  with  glor^^ 
and  with  great  light,"  and  knew  the  coming  of  the  King 
of  Glory.  Then  the  "  Dukes  "  of  that  "  dymme  place  " 
are  bidden  to  undo  the  gates, 

"  That  Crist  may  come  in, 
The  Kynges  sone  of  hevene." 

With  the  breath  of  that  command  hell  breaks.  The 
hundreds  of  angels  strike  their  harps,  and  Peace  pipes, — 

"  After  sharpe  showTes 
Most  shene  is  the  sonne  ; 
Is  no  weder  warmer 
Than  after  watn.'  cloudes." 

Truth  makes  her  covenant  with  Peace,  and  Righteous- 
ness kisses  her  reverently  (Ps.  Ixxxv.  10).  Finalh'  Truth 
takes  the  lute,  and  to  it  sings,  "Behold,  how  good  and 
joyful  a  thing  it  is,  brethren,  to  dwell  together  in  unity  " 
(cxxxiii.  i). 

All  over  South-Westem  France  has  spread  the  popular 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  107 

legend  that  on  Easter  da}-,  when  the  words  "  Lift  up 
your  heads,  O  ye  gates  "  (Ps.  xxiv.)  are  being  sung  in 
church,  the  treasure-houses  marked  by  dolmens,  crom- 
lechs, and  menhirs,  or  concealed,  as  at  Boussac,  in  the 
walls  of  castles,  spring  open,  and  men  may,  for  a  brief 
space,  enter  and  enrich  themselves  unharmed  by  their 
infernal  guardians.  It  is  the  recurring  moment  of  which 
Drummond  of  Ha\\i;hornden  sings, — 

"  Bright  portals  of  the  sky. 

Embossed  with  sparkling  stars  ; 
Doors  of  Eternity, 

With  diamantine  bars 
Your  arras  rich  uphold, 

Loose  all  your  bolts  and  springs. 
Ope  wide  your  leaves  of  gold, 

That  in  your  roofs  may  come  the  King  of  Kings." 

But  the  prevalence  of  the  legend  in  France  and  else- 
where is  probably  due  to  the  popularity  of  the  "  Golden 
Legend  "  in  devotional  hterature.  In  that  book  is  en- 
shrined the  rehgious  heart  of  the  Middle  Ages,  with  its 
fears  and  fancies,  its  longings,  its  childlike  yet  soaring 
faith.  In  it  is  revealed  the  soul  of  those  cathedrals 
which  stiU  stand  in  our  midst,  like  beings  of  another 
world.  In  it,  too,  are  unlocked  the  secrets  of  the  in- 
tuitive glories  and  imaginati\'e  mysteries  of  mediaeval 
painting  and  architecture.  As  Caxton  says  of  it :  "  In 
like  wise  as  gold  is  most  noble  above  all  other  metals,  in 
like  wise  is  this  Legend  holden  most  noble  above  ail 
other  works."  The  following  is  the  story  of  Our  Lord's 
visit  to  hell,  condensed  from  the  version  of  the  "  Golden 
Legend  " : — 

The  news  of  the  Resurrection  struck  Jerusalem  with 
consternation.  While  the  priests  and  princes  of  the 
people  were  holding  counsel,  there  were  brought  into 
the  assembly  two  sons  of  the  aged  Simeon,  Leucius  and 
Carinus,  who  had  risen  with  Jesus  and  returned  from 
death  to  life.  Each  asked  that  tablets  should  be  given 
them,    and   each   wrote    thereon    his    tale.      We  were. 


io8  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

they  wrote,  in  the  dim  place  of  Shadow  \Wth  our  fathers 
the  Patriarchs,  when  suddenly  a  great  light  of  gold  and 
crimson,  as  it  had  been  the  sun  in  his  glo^>^  shone  round 
about  us.  Then  straightway  Adam,  the  father  of  the 
human  race,  rejoiced  and  said,  "  This  light  is  that  of 
the  Author  of  all  light,  who  has  promised  to  send  us 
His  eternal  day."  And  Isaiah  cried  aloud,  "  This  light 
is  that  of  God,  of  whom  I  foretold  that  the  people  which 
walked  in  darkness  should  see  a  great  light."  Then 
came  to  us  the  aged  Simeon,  and  with  him  John  the 
Baptist,  and  they  both  bore  witness  to  the  Saviour — 
the  one,  that  he  had  carried  Him  in  his  arms  ;  the  other, 
that  he  had  baptized  Him,  and  that  His  coming  was 
nigh.  And  aU  the  Patriarchs  were  filled  with  joy  un- 
speakable. 

Then  Satan,  the  prince  of  Death,  said  unto  Hell,  "  Make 
ready  to  receive  Jesus,  who  boasted  Himself  to  be  the 
Son  of  God,  but  who  is  only  a  man  in  fear  of  death, 
for  He  hath  said,  '  My  soul  is  exceeding  sorrowful  even 
unto  death.'  Behold  how  I  have  tempted  Him  !  I 
have  stirred  up  the  people  against  Him.  I  have  sharp- 
ened the  lance  ;  I  have  mingled  the  gall  and  vinegar  ; 
I  have  made  ready  the  tree  of  the  cross.  The  time  is 
at  hand  when  I  shall  bring  Him  hither  a  captive." 

Then  Hell  asked,  "  Is  it  this  same  Jesus  who  raised  up 
Lazarus  ?  "  And  Satan  made  answer,  ''  It  is  He."  Then 
Hell  cried,  "  I  adjure  thee,  by  thy  power  and  by  mine, 
that  thou  bring  Him  not  hither  ;  for  when  I  heard  the 
command  of  His  word,  I  trembled,  and  I  could  not 
hold  Lazarus,  but  he,  wresting  himself  from  me,  took 
flight  like  an  angel  and  escaped  out  of  my  hands." 

Now,  while  Hell  was  thus  speaking,  there  came  a 
voice,  like  the  crash  of  thunder,  which  said,  "  Open 
your  gates,  ye  Princes ;  lift  up  your  everlasting  doors, 
and  the  King  of  Glory  shall  come  in."  At  the  sound 
of  this  mighty  voice  the  devils  hastened  to  close  the 
brazen  gates  with  bars  of  iron.  But  when  He  saw  what 
they  did,  the  prophet  Da\dd  said,  "  Have  I  not  prophe- 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  109 

sied  that  He  would  break  the  gates  of  brass,  and  smite 
in  sunder  the  bars  of  iron  ?  "  Again  the  voice  sounded, 
"  Open  ye  your  gates,  and  the  King  of  Glory  shall  come 
in."  Then  Hell,  hearing  that  the  voice  had  thus  twice 
spoken,  asked,  "  Who  then  is  this  King  of  Glory  ?  " 
And  the  prophet  David  made  answer,  "  It  is  the  Lord 
Strong  and  Mighty,  even  the  Lord  mighty  in  battle  ; 
He  is  the  King  of  Glory." 

Even  as  David  spake,  the  King  of  Glory  appeared. 
His  splendour  shining  through  all  the  halls  of  shadows, 
and  He  stretched  forth  His  right  hand  and  took  the 
right  hand  of  Adam,  saying,  "  Peace  be  with  thee,  and 
with  all  thy  sons  that  have  been  just."  And  so  the 
Lord  passed  forth  from  the  gates  of  hell,  and  in  His 
train  followed  all  the  just. 

Leucius  and  Carinus  ceased  to  write,  and  becoming 
white  as  snow,  disappeared. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE    REFORMATION    ERA. 

The  influence  of  the  Psalms  among  pioneers  of  the  Reformation — Wyclif , 
John  Hus,  Jerome  of  Prague ;  among  mediaeval  reformers — Savona- 
rola ;  among  Protestant  leaders — Luther  and  Melancthon ;  among 
champions  of  the  Papacy — the  Emperor  Charles  V.  ;  among  dis- 
coverers of  new  worlds — Christopher  Columbus  ;  among  men  of 
the  New  Learning — Erasmus,  Pico  della  Mirandola,  Sir  Thomas 
More,  John  Fisher,  John  Houghton ;  among  leaders  of  the 
Catholic  reaction — Xavier  and  St.  Teresa  ;  among  Protestant  and 
Catholic  martyrs — Hooper,  Ridley,  and  Southwell. 

ON  St.  Sylvester's  day,  1384.  John  Wyclif  lay  dying 
at  Luttenvorth.  The  friars,  so  runs  the  stor}^ 
crowded  round  him,  urging  him  to  confess  the  wrongs 
that  he  had  done  to  their  Order.  But  the  indomitable 
old  man  caused  his  servant  to  raise  him  from  the  pillow, 
and,  gathering  all  his  remaining  strength,  exclaimed 
with  a  loud  voice,  "  I  shall  not  die,  but  live  ;  and  de- 
clare— the  evil  deeds  of  the  Friars."  (Ps.  cxviii.  17). 

Before  Wyclif 's  day  devout  men  had  assailed  the  corrup- 
tion of  the  Church,  or  disputed  her  doctrines  of  the  Sacra- 
ments. Some  had  protested  against  the  claims  of  the 
Papacy,  or  upheld  the  rights  of  national  churches.  Others 
had  demanded  the  preaching  of  the  true  gospel.  Others 
had  deplored  the  worldliness  of  the  clergy,  denounced 
the  wealth  of  the  ^lonastic  Orders,  or  preached  the 
blessings  of  poverty.  But  all  had  remained  103'al  to  the 
Pope  ;  none  had  looked  beyond  existing  agencies  for 
the  reform  of  the  Church  and  of  society.  Wyclif's  atti- 
tude marks  an  advance  so  distinct  as  to  proclaim  a  new 


;  THE  REFORMATION  ERA.  iii 

epoch.  He  not  onl}'  attacked  practical  abuses,  but 
aimed  at  erecting  an  ecclesiastical  fabric  which  should 
differ  from  the  old  in  doctrine  as  well  as  in  organization. 
[n  the  last  years  of  his  life  he  urged  complete  separation 
:rom  the  Papacy  as  Antichrist,  established  his  "  Poor 
Priests/*  aspired  to  reform  England,  by  the  translation 
of  the  Bible  into  the  \nilgar  tongue,  and,  in  religion, 
poUtics,  and  society,  insisted  on  the  freedom  of  the 
human  conscience  from  every  restraint  except  Christ's 
written  law.  His  importance  as  the  centre  of  all  pre- 
ReformatiQn  history  was  instinctively  recognized.  When 
the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  ordered  his  body  to  be  exhumed 
and  burned,  and  its  ashes  thrown  into  the  river  Swift — 
or  when  Walsingham,  the  Chronicler,  calls  him,  "  that 
weapon  of  the  Devil,  that  enemy  of  the  Church,  that 
sower  of  confusion  among  unlearned  people,  that  idol 
of  heresy,  that  mirror  of  hypocrisy,  that  father  of  schism, 
that  son  of  hatred,  that  father  of  Hes  " — the  one  by  his 
action,  the  other  by  his  language,  expresses  his  sense  of 
the  fact  that  Wychf  was  not  a  reformer  of  the  mediaeval 
monastic  type,  but  had  introduced  a  new  era. 

Wyclif's  attitude  was,  in  part,  produced  by  changed 
circumstances.  Traditions  of  universal  empire  were 
obscured  by  the  rise  of  separate  nations,  one  in  race, 
language,  and  religion  ;  the  temporal  claims  of  the  Pope 
had  increased  as  his  spiritual  hold  on  the  world  relaxed, 
and  both  became  intolerable  when  claimants  of  the  papal 
throne  excommunicated  their  opponents  or  doomed  their 
rivals  to  eternal  damnation.  In  part,  it  expressed  pro- 
found discontent  with  the  corruptions  of  religious  life, 
intensified  by  the  horrors  of  the  plague.  Even  the 
most  vicious  were  terrified  into  paying  that  vicarious 
homage  to  virtue  which  demands  from  the  clergy  an 
elevated  moral  standard.  In  part,  it  resulted  from  po- 
litical or  social  conditions.  The  English  nation  was  at 
war  with  France  ;  the  Pope  was  the  puppet  of  the  French 
king,  and  papal  tributes  fed  the  French  treasury  with 
English  money.     The  nobles  desired  to  oust  the  clergy 


112  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

from  public  affairs,  the  commons  to  lighten  their  own 
burdens  by  taxing  ecclesiastical  property,  the  people 
to  relieve  their  poverty  by  appropriating  the  wealth  oi 
the  Church.  But  the  peculiar  position  which  Wyclii 
adopted  was  even  more  the  effect  of  his  own  tempera- 
ment. To  his  austere  piety,  logical  intellect,  unim- 
aginative nature,  the  faith  of  the  Middle  Ages  made  but 
weak  appeal.  Blind  to  its  beauties,  he  saw  with  ex- 
aggerated clearness  only  its  deformities.  He  chafed 
against  the  fetters  it  imposed  on  his  mental  independ- 
ence, and  failed  to  appreciate  its  spiritual  insight,  mys- 
tical ardour,  religious  rapture,  intense  realization  of  the 
mysteries  of  the  unseen.  When  once  a  man  of  this 
temperament  was  startled  into  opposition  by  intellectual 
difficulties  or  moral  shortcomings,  he  could  not  stop 
short  at  reform,  but  was  irresistibly  impelled  towards 
revolution.  He  was  the  precursor,  not  of  the  Anglican 
reformer,  but  of  the  Puritan  iconoclast. 

Without  Wyclif,  there  would  have  been  no  Hus  and 
no  Jerome  of  Prague.  Both  men  were  accused  of  sym- 
pathy with  the  English  Reformer.  At  Prague  a  portion 
of  Wyclif's  tomb  was  worshipped  as  a  relic  ;  numerous 
manuscripts  of  his  writings  exist  in  foreign  libraries, 
especially  at  Vienna  ;  and  Hus's  work  on  the  Church, 
*'De  Ecclesia,"  is  derived,  sometimes  verbally,  from  the 
English  Reformer,  Like  Wyclif,  both  Hus  and  Jerome 
died  repeating  the  words  of  a  psalm. 

On  July  6,  1415,  the  Council  of  Constance  held  its 
fifteenth  general  session  in  the  cathedral.  Sigismund, 
King  of  the  Romans,  presided  ;  before  his  throne  nobles 
and  princes  of  the  empire  bore  the  insignia  of  the  im- 
perial dignity  ;  the  cardinals  and  prelates  were  assem- 
bled in  their  nations.  After  Mass  had  been  said,  John 
Hus,  a  pale,  thin  man,  in  mean  attire,  was  brought  into 
the  presence  of  his  judges,  and  placed  on  a  small  raised 
platform.  In  vain  he  protested  that  he  had  come  to 
Constance  under  a  safe  conduct  from  Sigismund  himself. 
He  was  condemned  as  a  heretic,  and  handed  over  to 


THE  REFORMATION  ERA.  I13 

the  secular  arm  for  execution.  The  sentence  was  carried 
out  without  delay.  On  the  road  from  Constance  to  Gott- 
lieben  the  stake  was  prepared.  When  Hus  reached  the 
spot,  wearing  a  paper  cap  of  blasphemy,  adorned  with 
"  three  devils  of  wonderfully  ugly  shape,"  and  inscribed 
with  the  word  "  Heresiarcha,"  he  fell  on  his  knees,  and 
prayed,  chanting  Psalm  xxxi.  He  died,  choked  by  the 
Sanies,  but  repeating  with  "  a  merry  and  cheerful  coim- 
:enance  "  the  words,  "  Into  Thy  hands  I  commend  my 
spirit  "  (Ps.  xxxi.  6). 

On  the  same  spot,  on  May  30,  1416,  died  Jerome  of 
Prague.  Tall,  powerfully  built,  graceful  of  speech,  one 
of  the  most  brilliant  laymen  of  the  day,  he  had  come 
to  the  Council  to  plead  the  cause  of  Hus.  Panic-stricken 
at  his  friend's  fate,  he  fled,  only  to  be  captured  and 
brought  back  to  Constance.  His  courage  revived  when 
escape  was  hopeless.  An  imprisonment  of  six  months 
did  not  induce  him  to  acknowledge  the  justice  of  the 
sentence  passed  upon  Hus.  Like  his  friend,  he  perished 
at  the  stake,  dwelling  with  his  latest  breath  on  the  same 
words,  "  Into  Thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit." 

The  Council  of  Constance  healed  the  papal  schism. 
But  it  accomplished  little  more.  With  its  dissolution, 
and  that  of  the  Council  of  Basle,  faded  the  hope  of  any 
complete  or  universal  reform  of  the  Church  from  with- 
in. It  was  a  time,  not  of  transition  only,  but  also  of 
sifting.  Men  like  Luther,  Erasmus,  or  Fisher,  who 
were  of  one  mind  in  condemning  abuses,  passed  into 
opposite  camps,  impelled  b}'  the  differences  in  their 
own  temperaments.  Vast  efforts  were  indeed  made  for 
internal  reform  ;  but  they  were  too  narrow,  too  local, 
or  too  late.  The  pent-up  stream  of  intellectual  life  and 
classic  culture  had  burst  its  barriers,  shattering  the  old 
channels  of  thinking,  believing,  and  acting,  which  cen- 
turies of  habit  had  grooved.  Fed  from  innumerable 
sources,  the  Protestant  Reformation  had  swelled  into 
a  headlong  torrent.  In  the  sea  of  human  faith  and 
thought    both    currents    met    the    flowing    tide    of    the 


114  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Catholic  reaction.  It  was  a  time  of  fierce  shock  and 
colhsion.  But  among  the  "  green  pastures "  of  the 
Psalms,  and  beside  their  ''  waters  of  comfort,"  men, 
who  in  all  else  were  at  bitter  strife,  refresh  their  weari- 
ness, renew  their  aspirations,  recover  their  strength  and 
courage.  From  the  same  pages,  side  by  side,  read  medi- 
aeval reformers  like  Savonarola,  heroes  of  the  Protestant 
Reformation  like  Luther  and  Melancthon,  imperial 
champions  of  the  Papacy  like  Charles  V.,  discoverers  of 
new  worlds  like  Christopher  Columbus,  lights  of  the  New 
Learning  like  Sir  Thomas  More,  leaders  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  reaction  like  St.  Teresa  or  St.  Francis  Xavier. 

Savonarola  (1452-98),  the  great  Dominican  preacher, 
who  for  five  years  held  within  the  hollow  of  his  hand 
the  destinies  of  Florence,  is  one  of  the  most  fascinating 
figures  in  history.  His  worn  face,  as  it  is  presented  to 
us  in  the  best  known  of  his  portraits,  is  harsh  and  even 
ugly,  yet  full  of  concentrated  force,  both  intellectual  and 
moral.  His  blue-gray  eyes  burn  like  live  coals  under 
thick  black  eyebrows,  and  light  up  the  yellow,  wax-like 
complexion  ;  his  nose  is  long,  and  highly  arched ;  his 
large  mouth  is  quick  to  compress  into  resolve  or  to  relax 
into  a  smile  ;  the  projecting  lower  lip  gives  an  air  of 
pugnacity  to  the  whole  face  ;  his  cheeks  are  hollowed 
by  anxieties  and  abstinence  ;  his  low  yet  massive  fore- 
head is  furrowed  by  the  deep  wrinkles  of  thought.  His 
delicate,  transparent  hands,  with  their  long  tapering 
fingers,  tell  the  story  of  his  enthusiastic,  imaginative 
temperament. 

Long  had  the  hard-featured  stripling  pondered  over  the 
sin  and  misery  of  the  world,  praying,  as  he  tells  his 
father,  in  the  words  of  the  psalm  (cxliii.  8),  "  Shew  Thou 
me  the  way  that  I  should  walk  in,  for  I  lift  up  my  soul 
unto  Thee."  To  escape  the  stifling  atmosphere  of 
wickedness  with  which  he  was  surrounded,  he  fled  to  the 
cloister.  Seven  years  later  (1482)  he  was  transferred 
from  the  Dominican  convent  of  Bologna  to  that  of  San 
Marco  at  Florence,  and  began  his  career  as  preacher, 


THE  REFORMATIOX  ERA.  115 

reformer,  and  prophet.  His  indignation  burned  into 
flame  as  he  watched  the  Church  plundered  by  false 
friends,  ajid  saw  spiritual  death  stealing  over  her  pulse- 
less form,  like  some  quiet-flowing  tide.  But  his  ideals 
were  not  those  of  a  Wyclif  or  a  Luther.  He  looked  to 
a  General  Council  to  purify  the  vices  of  the  Church.  A 
rebel  against  an  individual  Pope,  he  was  loyal  to  the 
Papacy  ;  a  stern  reprover  of  practice,  he  advocated  no 
change  in  doctrine.  Throughout  the  struggle  that  fol- 
lowed, the  contrast  between  the  personal  characters  of 
the  opponents  heightens  the  tragic  interest.  On  one  side 
stands  Roderigo  Borgia,  Pope  Alexander  VL,  whose  name 
has  passed  into  a  byword  as  a  monster  of  iniquity  ;  on 
the  other,  Savonarola,  whose  pure  enthusiasm,  unsullied 
morality,  and  religious  zeal  can  neither  be  denied  nor 
disputed. 

On  April  7,  1498,  occurred  a  crisis  in  Savonarola's 
fate.  It  was  the  Friday  before  Palm  Sunday.  A  Fran- 
ciscan friar  had  challenged  him  to  prove  the  truth  of  his 
preaching  by  the  ordeal  of  fire.  The  challenge  was 
accepted  by  one  of  his  devoted  adherents,  Fra  Domenico. 
Through  the  crowded  streets  of  Florence  passed  the  long 
procession  of  the  Dominicans  from  San  Marco  to  the 
great  square  in  front  of  the  Palazzo  Vecchio,  where  the 
ordeal  was  prepared.  Their  enthusiastic  supporters 
heard  the  very  buildings  take  up  their  chant  when  the 
friars  thundered  forth  the  words  of  Psalm  Ixviii.,  "  Let 
God  arise,  and  let  His  enemies  be  scattered."  All  day  the 
populace  waited  ;  but  the  challenger  did  not  appear. 
The  blind  adoration  of  the  fickle  Florentines  turned  to 
fury.  Savonarola's  power  was  at  an  end.  He  was  at 
the  mercy  of  his  enemies.  On  Palm  Sunday-,  the  9th 
of  the  month,  he  was  dragged  from  San  Marco  and 
thrown  into  prison.  There  he  suffered  repeated  tortures, 
inflicted  in  the  hope  of  wringing  from  him  the  confession 
that  his  revelations  of  the  future  were  impostures.  To 
a  man  of  his  high-stnmg  sensitive  temperament  the 
physical  agony  was  intense,  and  to  it  were  added  the 


Il6  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

mental  pain  of  desertion,  the  pang  of  lost  confidence, 
the  bodily  weakness  of  frequent  fasts.  With  subtle 
refinement  of  cruelty,  his  torturers,  who  had  broken  his 
left  arm  and  crunched  the  shoulder-bone  out  of  its 
socket,  had  left  his  right  arm  whole  in  order  that  he 
might  sign  his  so-called  confessions.  He  used  it  to  write 
his  meditations  on  the  51st  and  the  31st  Psalms.  The 
last  was  unfinished.  Whether  ink  and  paper  were  taken 
from  the  prisoner,  or  whether  the  arrival  of  the  Papal 
Commissioners  on  May  19,  and  his  execution  on  the 
22nd,  cut  short  his  task,  is  imcertain.  Only  three 
verses  were  completed. 

"  Sorrow,"  he  begins,  "  hath  pitched  her  camp  against 
me.  She  hath  hemmed  me  in  on  everv^  side.  Her  men 
of  war  are  strong  and  many.  She^hath  filled  my  heart 
with  the  shout  of  battle  and  the  din  of  arms.  Day  and 
night  she  ceaseth  not  to  strive  with  me.  My  friends 
have  become  my  foes,  and  fight  under  her  standard. 

"  Unhappy  being  that  I  am  !  who  will  free  me  from 
the  hands  of  the  ungodly  ?  Who  will  shield  me  ?  Who 
wdll  come  to  my  succour  ?  WTiither  shall  I  flee  ?  How 
can  I  escape  ?  I  know  what  I  will  do.  I  will  turn  to 
heavenly  things,  and  they  shall  do  battle  with  the  things 
of  the  earth.  Hope  shall  lead  the  forces  of  Heaven  ; 
Hope  shall  march  against  Sorrow,  and  overcome  her. 
Hear  what  the  prophet  hath  said  :  '  For  Thou,  Lord, 
art  my  hope  ;  Thou  hast  set  thine  house  of  defence 
very  high  '  (Ps.  :?^i.  9).  I  wiU  call  unto  the  Lord,  and 
He  win  hasten  to  come  to  me,  and  will  not  suffer  me  to 
be  put  to  confusion.  Lo  !  He  hath  come  already.  '  Cry 
aloud,'  He  saith,  '  cry  aloud  always.'  And  what.  Lord, 
shall  I  cry  ?  *  Crv  in  full  assurance,  and  with  all  thy 
heart.'  In  Thee,  O  Lord,  have  I  put  my  trust ;  let  me 
never  be  put  to  confusion  ;  deliver  me  in  Thy  righteous- 
ness ! 

"  Bowed  at  the  feet  of  the  Lord,  my  eyes  bathed  ^^^th 
tears,  I  cried,  '  The  Lord  is  m^'  light  and  my  salvation  ; 
whom  then  shall  I  fear  ?  the  Lord  is  the  strength  of  my 


THE  REFORMATION  ERA.  117 

life  ;  of  whom  then  shall  I  be  afraid  ?  Though  a  host 
of  men  were  set  against  me,  yet  shall  not  my  heart  be 
afraid ;  and  though  there  rose  up  war  against  me,  yet 
will  I  put  my  trust  in  Him. ' " 

Here  the  Commentary,  of  which  only  the  beginning 
and  the  end  are  given,  closes  abruptly.  But  in  the 
peace  which  the  Psalms  brought  him  Savonarola  slept 
soundly  on  the  night  before  his  execution  ;  and,  as  the 
morning  light  struggled  through  the  bars  of  the  prison, 
a  Penitent  of  the  Temple,  watching  at  his  side,  saw  a 
smile  play  over  his  face  while  he  slept,  as  soft  and  gentle 
as  the  smile  of  a  little  child.  With  the  strength  which  the 
psalm  gave  him  he  met  his  death,  in  silence  and  with 
unflinching  courage,  on  the  open  space  before  the  Palazzo 
Vecchio.  It  is  from  the  Psalms  (Ps.  li.  13),  "  Then  shall 
I  teach  Thy  ways  unto  the  wicked  ;  and  sinners  shall  be 
converted  unto  Thee,"  that  the  motto  is  taken  for  Michel 
Angelo's  picture  of  Savonarola. 

Savonarola  was  in  no  sense  of  the  word  a  Protestant. 
But  his  commentaries  on  Psalms  xxxi.  and  li.  were  pub- 
lished by  Luther,  with  a  preface,  in  1523.  With  WycHf 
and  his  immediate  followers  neither  Luther  nor  Melanc- 
thon  was  in  full  sympathy.  The  first  censured  the 
English  Reformer  for  his  sacramental  ^^ews,  the  second 
thought  him  mad  on  the  subject  of  Church  property. 
Yet  the  same  text  from  the  Psalms  which  Wyclif  adapted 
on  his  deathbed  was  inscribed  on  the  walls  of  Luther's 
study,  "  I  shall  not  die,  but  live,  and  declare  the  works 
of  the  Lord  "  (Ps.  cxviii.  17),  and  both  the  German  Re- 
formers died  (Luther,  February  18,  1546  ;  Melancthon, 
April  19,  1560)  committing  their  souls  to  God  in  the 
same  words  of  the  psalm  which  Hus  and  Jerome  of 
Prague  had  repeated  with  their  latest  breath,  "  Into 
Thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit  "  (Ps.  xxxi.  6). 

Luther's  love  of  the  Psalms  might  be  ftiUy  illustrated 
by  the  lectures  on  them  with  which  he  began  his  public 
career  as  a  teacher  at  Wittenberg  (15 12),  by  his  Com- 
mentaries on  the  Seven  Penitential  Psalms  (1517),  by 


U8  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

his  hymns,  b}-  his  life  and  conversation.  He  clung  to  his 
"  old  and  ragged  "  Psalter  as  a  tried  and  trusty  friend. 
With  an  exposition  of  Ps.  cxviii.  he  busied  himself  in  his 
solitude  at  Coburg.  "  This,"  he  says  in  the  dedication 
of  his  translation,  "  is  my  psalm,  my  chosen  psalm.  I 
love  them  all ;  I  love  all  Holy  Scripture,  which  is  my 
consolation  and  my  life.  But  this  psalm  is  nearest  my 
heart,  and  I  have  a  familiar  right  to  call  it  mine.  It 
has  saved  me  from  many  a  pressing  danger  from  which 
nor  emperor,  nor  kings,  nor  sages,  nor  saints  could  have 
saved  me.  It  is  my  friend,  dearer  to  me  than  all  the 
honours  and  power  of  the  earth." 

Mention  has  been  already  made  of  Luther's  love  for 
Ps.  iv.,  and  his  wish  to  hear  sung  in  his  last  moments 
the  soothing  words,  "  I  wiU  lay  me  down  in  peace,  and 
take  my  rest  "  (Ps.  iv.  9).  Another  of  his  favourites 
was  Ps.  ex.  "  The  iioth,"  he  says,  "  is  very^  fine.  It 
describes  the  kingdom  and  priesthood  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  declares  Him  to  be  the  King  of  all  things  and  the 
intercessor  for  all  men  ;  to  whom  aU  things  have  been 
remitted  by  His  Father,  and  who  has  compassion  on  us 
aU.  'Tis  a  noble  psalm  ;  if  I  were  well,  I  would  en- 
deavour to  make  a  commentary  upon  it."  Another 
favourite  was  Ps  ii.,  and  his  remarks  upon  it  bring 
out  salient  features  in  the  character  of  a  man  whose 
very  words  were  "  half -battles  "  —  *' The  2nd  Psalm  is 
one  of  the  best  psalms.  I  love  that  psalm  with  all  m\' 
heart.  It  strikes  and  flashes  valiantly  among  kings, 
princes,  counsellors,  judges,  etc.  If  what  this  psalm 
says  be  true,  then  are  the  allegations  and  aims  of  the 
Papists  stark  lies  and  ioUy.  If  I  were  our  Lord  God, 
and  had  committed  the  government  to  my  son,  as  He 
to  His  Son,  and  these  vile  people  were  as  disobedient 
as  now  they  be,  I  would  knock  the  world  in  pieces." 

But  if  his  comment  on  Ps.  ii.  illustrates  the  violence 
of  Luther's  character,  his  use  of  Ps.  xlvi.  exemplifies 
his  magnificent  courage,  and  suggests  the  source  from 
which  it  sprang.     There  were  moments  when  even  he 


THE  REFORiMATION  ERA.  119 

felt  something  akin  to  despair,  and  he  asked  with  the 
Psalmist,  "  Why  art  thou  cast  down,  O  my  soul  ?  "  In 
such  hours  he  would  say  to  Melancthon,  "  Come,  Philip, 
let  us  sing  the  46th  Psalm ;  "  and  the  two  friends  sang  it 
in  Luther's  version,  "  Ein'  feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott." 
The  version  is  characteristic  of  the  man.  It  has  his 
heartiness,  his  sincere  piety,  his  joyful  confidence,  his 
simplicity  and  strength,  his  impetuosity  and  ruggedness. 
Harmony,  delicacy,  spiritual  tenderness,  are  not  there  ; 
but  the  words  of  his  hymn  breathe  the  same  undaunted 
spirit  which  flamed  out  in  answer  to  the  warning  of  his 
friends,  "  Were  there  as  many  devils  in  Worms  as  there 
are  roof -tiles,  I  would  on."  They  also  reveal  the  secret 
of  the  confidence  which  inspired  his  memorable  words 
before  the  Council :  "I  cannot  and  will  not  retract  any- 
thing. It  is  neither  wise  nor  right  to  do  aught  against 
conscience.  Here  stand  I  ;  I  cannot  otherwise.  God 
help  me.     Amen." 

From  Carlyle's  rugged  translation  of  "  Ein'  feste  Burg 
ist  unser  Gott  "  the  first  and  the  last  of  the  four  stanzas 
of  Luther's  version  of  Ps.  xlvi.  are  quoted  : — 

"  A  safe  stronghold  our  God  is  still, 

A  trusty  shield  and  weapon  ; 
He'll  help  us  clear  from  all  the  ill 

That  hath  us  now  o'ertaken. 
The  ancient  Prince  of  Hell 
Hath  risen  with  purpose  fell ; 
Strong  mail  of  Craft  and  Power 
He  weareth  in  this  hour — 
On  earth  is  not  his  fellow. 

*  *  «  ♦ 

"  God's  Word,  for  all  their  craft  and  force, 

One  moment  will  not  linger. 
But,  spite  of  Hell,  shall  have  its  course — 

'Tis  ^v^itten  by  his  finger. 
And  though  they  take  our  life, 
Goods,  honour,  children,  wife. 
Yet  is  their  profit  small ; 
These  things  shall  vanish  all : 
The  City  of  God  remaineth." 

The  Diet  of  Worms  (January  1521),  by  which  Luther 


I2d  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

was  condemned  and  placed  under  the  ban  of  the  empire, 
was  opened  by  Charles  V.,  the  champion  of  the  Pope 
against  the  Protestants.  Yet  in  love  of  the  Psalms 
emperor  and  reformer  were  not  divided.  Charles  pre- 
sented Marot  with  200  gold  doubloons  for  his  metrical 
version  of  thirty  psalms,  and  asked  him  to  translate  his 
own  special  favourite,  Ps.  cxviii.*  His  delight  in  the 
Psalter  increased  in  later  life,  especially  in  the  period 
of  ill-health  which  ended  his  long  rule  (1520-1558),  when 
he  sang  them  with  his  friend,  William  von  Male.  During 
those  years  his  cherished  plan  of  abdication  took  definite 
shape. 

In  November  1556,  Charles  crossed  the  pass  of  Puerto- 
nuevo  and  descended  into  the  valley  of  the  Vera  in  Estra- 
madura,  where  he  intended  to  pass  the  closing  years  of 
his  life.  The  beetling  crags  at  the  topmost  crest  of  the 
Sierra  closed,  as  it  were,  the  gates  of  the  world  behind 
him.  "  Tis  the  last  pass,"  he  said,  "  that  I  shall  ever 
go  through."  The  Jeromite  Convent  of  Yuste  was  the 
scene  of  the  emperor's  retirement.  He  entered  it  on 
February  3,  1557,  bringing  with  him  two  illuminated 
Psalters,  and  the  commentary  of  Tomas  de  Puerto- 
carrero  on  the  psalm,  "  In  te,  Domine,  speravi "  ("  In 
Thee,  O  Lord,  have  I  put  my  trust  " — Ps.  xxxi.  i). 
From  the  windows  of  his  cabinet  he  looked  over  a  cluster 
of  rounded  knolls,  clad  in  walnut  and  chestnut,  varied 
with  the  massive  foliage  of  the  iig  and  the  feathery  sprays 
of  the  almond.  Here  he  lived  transacting  business  of  the 
State,  punctilious  in  his  devotions,  delighting  in  the 
music  of  the  choir,  giving  to  his  garden  or  his  pets  much 
of  the  leisure  which  he  enjoyed.  In  September  1558  he 
lay  on  his  deathbed.  Portents  heralded  his  approach- 
ing end.  The  bell  of  ViliUa  in  Arragon,  w^hich,  ringing 
of  itself,  had  foretold  the  death  of  Ferdinand  the  Catholic 
and  the  sack  of  Rome  by  the  army  of  Bourbon,  sent  out  its 
mysterious  warnings  over  the  plains  of  the  Ebro.    A  comet 

*  Bovet  ("  Histoire  du  Psautier,"  p.  6,  note  3)  thinks  the  psalm  was 
cxviii.     It  might,  however,  have  been  Ps.  cvii. 


THE  REFORMATION  ERA.  121 

blazed  in  the  sky  during  his  ilkiess,  and  disappeared  on 
the  day  of  his  death.  A  lily  bud,  which  had  remained 
a  bud  all  the  summer,  burst  into  bloom  on  September  20, 
as  a  token,  it  was  believed,  of  the  whiteness  of  the  de- 
parting spirit,  and  as  a  pledge  of  its  reception  into  the 
mansions"  of  bliss.  On  Monday,  the  19th,  he  had  re- 
ceived the  longer  or  ecclesiastical  form  of  extreme 
unction,  which  consisted  in  the  recitation  of  the  Seven 
Penitential  Psalms,  and  litany,  and  several  portions  of 
Scripture.  Throughout  the  20th  of  September  passages 
were  read  aloud  to  him  by  his  confessor,  from  the  Bible, 
but  especially  from  the  Psalms,  his  favourite  being 
Ps.  xc,  *'  Lord,  Thou  hast  been  our  refuge."  On  the 
same  evening  he  received  the  Sacrament,  at  his  urgent 
request.  "  It  may  not,''  he  said,  "  be  necessary,  but  it 
is  good  company  on  so  long  a  journe3^"  In  spite  of 
extreme  weakness,  he  followed  all  the  responses,  and 
repeated  with  the  utmost  fervour  the  whole  verse,  "  Into 
Thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit  :  for  Thou  hast  re- 
deemed me,  O  Lord,  Thou  God  of  Truth  "  (Ps.  xxxi.  6). 
On  St.  Matthew's  day  (September  21),  at  two  o'clock 
the  next  morning,  the  Emperor  Charles  ^^  was  dead. 

To  men  of  Luther's  temper,  leaders  of  the  New  Learn- 
ing were  cowardly  palterers  with  tiTith.  He  denounced 
Erasmus  as  "  a  very  Caiaphas,"  and  whenever  he  pra3'ed, 
prayed  '*  for  a  curse  upon  Erasmus."  To  him  also  Sir 
Thomas  More  (1478-1535)  appeared-**  a  cruel  tyrant." 
Yet  here  again  the  Psalms  were  common  ground. 

Many  of  the  Renaissance  scholars,  in  their  eagerness  to 
conquer  the  new  worlds  of  thought  and  knowledge  which 
opened  out  before  them,  doubtless  relaxed,  lost,  or  aban- 
doned their  earlier  faith.  It  was  not  so  with  Christopher 
Columbus,  the  man  of  action.  The  young  Genoese  wool- 
comber,  who  discovered  the  New  World  of  America,  was 
essentially  a  man  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  died  clad  in 
the  habit  of  St.  Francis.  His  imaginative,  enthusiastic 
mind  was  imbued  \\-ith  the  firm  conviction  that,  in  devot- 
ing all  his  energies  to  his  great  idea,  he  was  the  chosen 


122  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

instrument  for  the  fulfilment  of  a  Divine  design.  The 
impulse  to  the  work  of  the  greatest  maritime  genius  of 
the  century  was  essentially  religious.  His  habitual  sig- 
nature was  an  invocation  to  Jesus,  Mary,  and  Joseph, 
placed  above  his  own  name  of  Christopher,  or  the  Christ- 
bearer.  In  the  constancy  of  his  faith,  at  least,  if  in  no 
other  respect,  his  death  was  worthy  of  his  life  and  work. 
In  a  wretched  hired  lodging  at  Valladolid,  dressed  in  the 
Franciscan  habit,  fortified  by  the  rites  of  the  Church,  he 
died  on  the  eve  of  Ascension  Day,  May  20,  1506,  re- 
peating, like  John  Hus,  or  Luther,  or  More,  or  like  Tasso, 
who  sang  the  swan-song  of  Italian  chivalry,  the  famihar 
words,  "  Into  Thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit." 

Nor  were  the  men  of  the  New  Learning,  who  explored 
new  worlds  of  knowledge  or  rediscovered  lost  continents 
of  thought  and  literature,  necessarily  hqstile  to  the  older 
faith.  Erasmus,  himself  a  commentator  on  the  Psalms, 
wTiting  from  Louvain  (May  30,  1519),  praises  Luther's 
commentaries  on  the  Psalms,  which  pleased  him  "  pro- 
digiously," and  should  be  "  widely  read."  Pico  della 
Mirandola,  one  of  the  most  brilliant  scholars  of  the  Italian 
Renaissance,  was  the  friend  and  apologist  of  Savonarola, 
without  whom  he  could  not  live,  and  in  whose  church  of 
San  Marco  he  lies  buried.  His  life  and  works  were 
translated  by  More.  "  Let  no  day  pass,"  writes  Pico, 
"  but  thou  once,  at  the  least-wise,  present  thyself  to 
God  by  pra3^er,  and  falling  down  before  Him  flat  to  the 
ground  ....  not  from  the  extremity  of  thy  lips,  but 
from  the  inwardness  of  thine  heart,  cry  these  words  of 
the  prophet,  '  O  remember  not  the  sins  and  offences  of 
my  youth  ;  but  according  to  Thy  mercy  think  upon  me, 
O  Lord,  for  Thy  goodness  '  "  (Ps.  xxv.  6).  The  advice  was 
daily  practised  by  More  himself,  even  when  he  was  sur- 
rounded by  the  splendours  of  the  court  of  Henry  VIIL, 
and  in  the  midst  of  the  active  life  of  a  diplomatist  and 
statesman,  man  of  letters.  Chancellor,  and  Treasurer. 
The  Psalms  formed  part  of  his  morning  and  evening 
prayers,  and  he  had  made  a  small  collection  of  special 


THE  REFORMATION  ERA.  123 

psalms  for  frequent  use.  In  the  daj's  of  his  disgrace, 
a  prisoner  in  the  upper  ward  of  the  Beauchamp  Tower 
because  he  would  not  swear  an  oath  against  his  con- 
science, he  composed  many  works,  chiefly  meditations 
on  the  Christian  faith,  by  the  dim  Hght  that  flickered 
through  the  bars  of  his  prison. 

WHiatever  view  may  be  taken  of  the  course  of  the 
Protestant  Reformation  in  England  at  the  different 
stages  of  its  progress,  it  is  difficult  to  justify  the  public 
farce  of  Queen  Catherine's  divorce  and  Anne  Bole^Ti's 
coronation.  With  or  without  the  Pope's  sanction, 
Henry  VUI.  was  resolved  to  go  all  lengths  in  order  to 
obtain  his  will.  "  He  was,"  says  Bishop  Stubbs,  "  the 
King,  the  whole  King,  and  nothing  but  the  King  :  he 
wished  to  be  ...  .  the  Pope,  the  whole  Pope,  and  some- 
thing more  than  Pope."  The  question  of  the  marriage 
was  still  before  the  Pope  when  Anne  was  cro\\TLed  (June 
I'  1533)'  ^^^  when  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  in  the 
following  September,  was  bom.  In  March  1534  an  Act 
of  Parliament  (25  Henry  VIII.,  c.  22)  declared  Catherine's 
marriage  iUegal,  the  divorce  pronounced  by  Cranmer 
valid,  the  marriage  of  Anne  Boleyn  la\\'ful,  and  her  chil- 
dren rightful  heirs  to  the  throne.  On  March  23,  1534, 
Pope  Clement  pronounced  the  marriage  of  ftenry  and 
Catherine  to  be  valid.  A  plain  issue  was  thus  raised. 
Armed  rebellion,  aided  by  foreign  inter^-ention,  was  in 
the  air.  An  oath  of  allegiance  was  framed,  the  actual 
terms  of  which  seem  to  be  doubtful ;  a  commission  sat 
at  Lambeth  to  tender  it,  and  foremost  among  those  who 
refused  to  accept  the  oath,  in  whole  or  in  part,  stood  Sir 
Thomas  More,  and  John  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Rochester, 
bell-wethers  of  the  flock  which  adhered  to  the  older 
faith.  Both  were  committed  to  the  Tower  of  London 
in  April  1534.  Both  found  in  the  Psalms  their  strength 
and  solace. 

Twelve  years  before  his  imprisonment  began,  More  was 
writing  an  English  treatise  on  the  words  of  Ecclesiasticus  : 
"In   all  thy  works  remember  thy  last   end,   and  thou 


124  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

shall  never  sin."  In  the  fragment  on  Death  he  says  : 
"  Mark  this  well,  for  of  this  thing  we  be  very  sure,  that 
old  and  young,  man  and  woman,  rich  and  poor,  prince 
and  page,  all  the  while  we  live  in  this  world  we  be  but 
prisoners,  and  be  within  a  sure  prison,  out  of  which 
there  can  no  man  escape.  The  prison  is  large,  and  many 
prisoners  in  it  ;  but  the  Jailer  can  lose  none — He  is  so 
present  in  every  place  that  we  can  creep  into  no  corner 
out  of  His  sight.  For  as  holy  David  saith  to  this  Jailer, 
'  Whither  shall  I  go  from  Thy  Spirit,  and  whither  shall  I 
flee  from  Thy  face  ?  '  (Ps.  cxxxix.  6),  as  who  saith — no 
whither."  To  such  thoughts  his  mind  now  naturally 
reverted.  Scantily  fed,  and  "  besides  his  old  disease  of 
the  breast,  grieved  in  the  reins  by  reason  of  gravel  and 
stone,  and  with  the  cramp  that  divers  nights  seized  him," 
he  yet  maintained  his  cheerful  temper.  By  her  own 
earnest  suit  Margaret  Roper  was  allowed  to  visit  him  in 
his  cell.  On  one  occasion,  "  after  the  Seven  Psalms  and 
Litany  said  (which  whensoever  she  came  unto  him,  ere 
he  feU  into  talk  of  any  worldly  matter,  he  used  accustom- 
ably  to  say  with  herj,"  he  even  made  light  of  the  rigour 
of  his  confinement.  "  I  find,"  he  says,  "  no  cause,  I 
thank  God,  Meg,  to  reckon  myself  in  w^orse  case  here 
than  at  home  :  for  methinketh  God  maketh  me  a  wanton  " 
— that  is,  a  spoiled  child — "  and  setteth  me  on  His  lap  and 
dandleth  me." 

But  fifteen  months'  confinement  in  "a  close,  filth}^ 
prison,  shut  up  among  mice  and  rats,"  told  upon  More's 
strength.  When,  on  July  i,  1535,  he  was  sentenced  to 
death,  he  was  aged  by  suffering,  his  head  white,  his  "  weak 
and  broken  body  leaning  on  a  staff,  and  even  so,  scarcely 
able  to  stand."  Five  days  later  (July  6)  he  was  executed 
on  Tower  Hill.  The  scaffold  was  unsteady,  and  as  he 
put  his  foot  on  the  ladder  he  said  to  the  lieutenant,  "  I 
pray  thee  see  me  safe  up,  and  for  my  coming  down  let 
me  shift  for  myself."  After  kneeling  down  on  the 
scaffold,  and  repeating  the  Psalm,  "  Have  mercy  upon 
me,  O  God  "  (Ps.  li.),  which  had  always  been  his  favourite 


THE  REFORMATION  ERA.  125 

'  ayer,  he  placed  his  head  on  the  low  log  that  serv^ed 

-  a  block,  and  received  the  fatal  stroke. 
-Another  victim,  scarcely  less  illustrious  than  the  Chan- 
cellor, was  John  Fisher,  Cardinal  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Church  and  Bishop  of  Rochester  (1459-1535),  whose  worn 
lace,  with  its  "  anxiously  conscientious  expression,"  lives 
lor  us  in  the  powerful  sketch  of  Holbein.  His  public 
:-ervices,  his  reputation  at  home  and  abroad,  his  pure 

iid  simple  life,  his  charities,  his  great  but  unostentatious 

arning,  made  his  refusal  to  take  the  oaths  of  succession 
and  supremacy  a  matter  of  extreme  importance.  A 
collector  of  books,  the  owner  of  the  best  private  library 
in  England,  an  early  master  of  English  prose,  he  was  a 
iriend  of  Erasmus,  who  ^^Tote  of  him  in  15 10  :  *'  Either 
I  am  much  mistaken,  or  Fisher  is  a  man  ^^'ith  whom  none 
of  our  contemporaries  can  be  compared  for  holiness  of 
life  or  greatness  of  soul."  In  his  sermons  on  the  Peni- 
tential Psalms,  preached  in  English,  early  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  at  the  "  ster\-nge  "  of  the  Lady  Margaret, 
Countess  of  Richmond,  occurs  a  passage  which  uncon- 
sciously foreshadows  the  part  that,  thirty  years  later,  he 
was  himself  to  plav.  He  is  commenting  on  Ps.  cii.  13. 
**  Thou  shalt  arise,  and  have  mercy  upon  Sion  :  for  it  is 
time  that  Thou  have  mercy  upon  her,  yea,  the  time  is 
come."  He  shows  that  when  the  Church  was  first  built 
the  soft  slipper  earth  in  which  the  foundation  was  set 
was  hardened  into  stone  by  the  fire  of  Love.  Peter,  who 
denied  his  Master,  became  a  rock.  So  now  he  prays  that 
God  may  "  chaunge  and  make  the  softe  and  slypper  erth 
into  l^rde  stones,"  and  ''  set  in  Thy  chirche  stronge  and 
myghty  pyUers  that  mav  suffre  and  endure  grete  labours, 
watch^mge,  pouerte,  thurst,  hungre,  colde,  and  hete, 
whiche  also  shall  not  fere  the  thretnynges  of  prynces, 
persecucyon,  neyther  deth  ....  for  the  glory  and  laude 
of  Thy  holy  name."  For  the  glory  of  God,  as  he  in  his 
conscience  believed,  Fisher  braved  threats,  persecution, 
and  death. 

Fourteen  months  of  imprisonment  in  the  Bell  Tower  of 


126  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

the  Tower  of  London  were  passed  by  Fisher,  partly  in 
writing  two  devotional  treatises  for  the  use  of  his  sister. 
Possibly  the  action  of  Paul  HI.,  who,  May  20,  1535, 
created  the  bishop  a  cardinal,  hastened  his  execution. 
On  'fhursday,  June  17,  he  was  sentenced ;  on  the  fol- 
lowing Tuesday,  June  22,  he  was  beheaded  on  Tower 
Hill,  so  weak  and  emaciated  that  he  could  scarcely 
stand.  At  the  foot  of  the  scaffold  to  w^hich  he  had  been 
carried  his  strength  seemed  to  revive.  As  he  mounted 
the  steps  alone,  the  south-east  sun  shone  full  in  his 
face.  Lifting  his  hands,  he  murmured  the  words  of 
xxxiv.  5,  "They  had  an  eye  unto  Him,  and  were  light- 
ened ;  and  their  faces  were  not  ashamed."  On  the 
scaffold,  after  a  few  words  to  the  spectators,  he  knelt 
down  upon  his  knees  in  prayer,  repeating  Ps.  xxxi., 
"  In  Thee,  O  Lord,  have  I  put  my  trust."  Then,  with 
the  joyful  mien  of  a  man  who  receives  the  boon  for  which 
he  craves,  he  received  the  blow  of  the  axe  upon  his 
slender  and  feeble  neck,  and  so  passed  to  his  rest. 

Many  monastic  houses,  as  well  as  individuals,  refused 
the  oath  of  supremacy,  and  suffered  the  penalty  in  loss 
of  life  or  of  home  and  possessions.  Comparatively  few 
yielded  to  the  temptation  of  accepting  it.  Conspicuous 
among  the  sufferers  were  the  Franciscans  of  the  Regular 
Observance  at  Greenwich,  headed  by  their  warden,  John 
Forest,  confessor  to  Queen  Catherine,  who  was  herself  a 
tertiary  of  the  Franciscan  Order.  The  story  of  their 
sufferings  strikingly  illustrates  the  power  of  the  Psalms. 
But  as  Forest's  Ufe,  for  some  unknown  reason,  w^as 
spared  till  1538,  an  earlier  victim  may  be  chosei^  from 
another  Order — John  Haughton,  prior  of  the  London 
Charterhouse,  a  zealous  servant  of  God,  governing  his 
community  by  example  rather  than  by  precept.  He 
had  been  twenty  years  a  monk  before  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII.  disturbed  the  peace  of  his  cloistered  life.  Neither 
he  nor  his  monks  had  meddled  in  the  question  of  the 
king's  marriage  ;  but  when,  in  1533,  the  Commissioners 
asked  his  opinion  on  the  divorce  of  Catherine  of  Arragon, 


THE  REFORMATION  ERA.  127 

he  boldly  said  that  he  could  not  understand  how  a  mar- 
riage, ratified  by  the  Church  and  so  long  unquestioned, 
could  now  be  undone.  In  1535  Henry  assumed  the  title 
of  Supreme  Head,  and  the  prior  prepared  for  the  end 
which  he  saw  approaching.  From  the  text,  "  O  God, 
Thou  hast  cast  us  out,  and  scattered  us  abroad  "  (Ps.  Ix. 
i),  he  preached  a  sermon  in  the  chapel,  ending  with  the 
words,  "It  is  better  that  we  should  suffer  here  a  short 
penance  for  our  faults,  than  be  reserved  for  the  eternal 
pains  of  hell  hereafter."  Then  he  and  the  brethren,  each 
from  each,  implored  pardon  for  any  offence  they  might 
have  committed  by  thought,  word,  or  deed  against  one 
another ;  and  thus  prepared,  awaited  their  fate.  Haugh- 
ton  and  the  priors  of  two  daughter  houses  refused  to 
acknowledge  the  new  title,  were  tried  for  treason,  con- 
demned, and,  on  May  4,  1535,  executed  at  T3'burn, 
with  aU  the  horrible  barbarities  of  the  time.  Haughton 
suffered  first.  "  Pray  for  me,"  he  said,  "  and  have 
mercy  on  my  brethren,  of  whom  I  have  been  the  un- 
worthy prior."  Then  kneeling  dowm,  and  reciting  a 
few  verses  of  Ps.  xxxi.,  he  calmly  resigned  himself 
into  the  hands  of  the  executioner.  All  died  with  the 
same  calm,  unflinching  courage. 

In  the  case  of  England,  whatever  might  have  been  the 
personal  wishes  of  Henry  VIII. ,  there  could  be  no  turn- 
ing back.  Directly  attacked  by  the  Protestant  Re- 
formers, threatened  from  various  directions  by  the  New 
Learning,  the  Roman  CathoUc  Church  roused  herself 
from  her  torpor.  The  assault  was  not  only  checked, 
but  for  the  time  driven  back  ;  lost  ground  was  recovered  ; 
new  spheres  of  work  were  conquered.  Among  all  the 
adherents  who  rallied  to  the  defence  of  the  Church,  none 
were  more  zealous,  none  more  self-devoted,  none,  in  two 
different  senses  of  the  word,  more  successful  than  St, 
Francis  Xavier  or  St.  Teresa. 

On  December  2,  1552,  Francis  Xavier  lay  dying  on 
the  island  of  San  Chan,  half  a  day's  sail  from  Canton, 
Winged  by  pity,  armed  by  faith,  and  fired  by  love,  he 


128  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

had  travelled  seas  and  explored  lands  that  were  only 
knowTL  to  Europe  by  vague  report.  He  had  braved 
dangers  and  endured  privations  which  might  well  be 
thought  superhuman,  and  hterally  compassed  sea  and 
land  to  ^^in  a  single  human  soul  to  Christianity.  The 
spirit  of  love  which  is  breathed  in  the  well-known  h\min 
attributed  to  his  pen  ("  O  Deus,  ego  amo  Te  ")  *  was 
the  consimiing  passion  of  his  life  : — 

"  Mv  Gk)d,  I  love  Thee,  not  to  gain 
The  bliss  of  Thy  Eternal  Reign, 
Nor  to  escape  the  fiery  Lot 
Reser\-ed  for  those  that  love  Thee  not. 
Thou,  Thou,  my  Jesu,  on  the  Tree 
Didst  in  Thine  Arms  encompass  me. 

"  Thou  didst  endure  the  Nails,  the  Lance, 
Disgraces  manifold,  the  Trance 
Of  Bloody  Sweat,  and  boundless  Seas 
Of  Bitterness  and  Anguishes, 
Nay,  even  Death's  last  Agony, 
And  this  for  me — for  sinful  me  ! 

Most  loving  Jesu,  shall  this  move 

No  like  return  of  Love  for  Love  ? 

"  Above  all  things  I  love  Thee  best, 

Yet  not  with  Thought  of  Interest : 

Not  thus  to  win  Thy  promised  Land, 

Not  thus  to  ward  Thy  threat'ning  Hand, 

But  as  Thou  lov'st  me,  so  do  I 

Love,  and  shall  ever  love ;  and  why  ? 

Because  Thou  art  my  God  and  King, 
The  Source  and  End  of  Everything." 

It  had  been  Xa\'ier's  ambition  to  C3.rry  the  gospel 
message  to  China.  But  for  weeks  he  could  find  no  one 
who  dared  to  brave  the  penal  laws  of  that  country. 
It  was  death  for  foreigners  to  enter  the  empire  ;  it  was 
death  to  any  one  who  conveyed  them  within  its  borders. 
At  last  he  bribed  a  merchant  to  land  him  on  the  coast. 
Fever  struck  him  down  while  awaiting  the  arrival  of  his 

*  The  version  given  above  enters  into  no  vain  competition  \\'ith 
Caswall's  beautiful  rendering  of  the  h^Tnn,  but  it  may  be  thought  to 
preserve  more  faithfully  the  mediaeval  quaintness  of  the  original. 


THE  REFORMATION  ERA.  129 

igent,  tendentemque  manus  ripcB  uUerioris  amore  ("  and 
stretching  forth  his  hands  in  longing  for  the  farther 
ihore  ").  For  a  fortnight  he  lay  in  his  cabin  ;  then  he 
,vas  put  on  shore,  and  a  shelter  was  hastily  erected  of 
Drushwood  and  coarse  grass.  Feeling  that  his  end  was 
lear,  he  desired  that  his  attendants  should  leave  the 
lut.  Far  from  his  native  land,  without  a  friend  at  his 
;ide,  racked  with  pain,  his  death  is  enviable  even  by 
:he  happiest  of  mankind.  To  mortal  eyes  he  was  alone. 
But  to  his  unclouded  vision  there  floated  round  him  bright 
orms  ready  to  bear  him  to  his  heavenly  home,  and  as 
:he  wings  of  the  approaching  angel  of  death  winnowed 
;he  mists  from  before  his  eyes,  he  saw  the  blessed  figure 
)f  his  Master  standing  with  outstretched  arms  to  wel- 
come His  faithful  servant.  As  he  entered  the  dark 
/alley,  the  glow  upon  his  face  was  of  sunrise,  not  of 
;unset ;  and  it  was  a  ray  from  the  Divine  Presence  itself 
vhich  ht  up  his  face  as  with  an  expiring  effort  he  fixed 
lis  eyes  upon  his  crucifix,  and  gathering  all  his  strength 
:o  utter  the  words,  "  In  Thee,  O  Lord,  have  I  put  my 
:rust :  let  me  never  be  put  to  confusion  "  (Ps.  xxxi.  i), 
Dreathed  his  last. 

Xavier  has  been  called  the  canonized  saint  of  Europe. 
[t  is  not,  on  the  other  hand,  every  one  who  s\TQpathizes 
^ith  the  mysticism  of  Teresa  or  gives  credence  to  her 
/isions.  Yet  few  can  withhold  their  admiration  from 
:he  solitary^  sickly  woman,  who  restored  the  austerities 
)f  Spanish  conventual  life,  and  replanted  in  Spain  the 
^eat  monastic  ideals  of  poverty,  humility,  and  self- 
jacrifice. 

Born  in  1515,  at  Avila,  she  began  in  early  childhood 
:o  show  the  bent  of  her  mind.  The  hves  of  saints  were 
ler  nursery  tales  ;  her  doll's  house  was  a  nunner}-  ;  at 
;he  age  of  seven  she  set  out  with  her  little  brother  to 
.valk  to  Africa,  and  win  from  the  ]\Ioor3  the  crown  of 
Tiartyrdom.  Such  a  childhood  prepares  us  for  a  life  of 
iscetic  zeal :  it  gives  no  hint  of  the  calm,  self-rehant, 
:ranquil  nature,  which,  combined  with  ready  wit,  charm 

5 


130  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

of  manner,  and  an  eloquent  tongue,  enthralled  the  greatest 
of  Spanish  grandees.  Her  enthusiasm,  her  patience,  her' 
adroitness  triumphed  over  difficulties  which  others  would 
have  found  insuperable.  Though  continuaUy  harassed 
by  intrigues  and  opposition,  she  estabhshed  sixteen  nun- 
neries of  the  Reformed  Carmelites  and  fourteen  founda- 
tions of  friars  belonging  to  the  same  Rule.  In  worldly 
matters  shrewd,  energetic,  and  a  keen  judge  of  character, 
Teresa  seemed  a  different  being  from  the  enraptured 
mystic  who  in  her  autobiography — a  favourite  book  of 
the  Duke  of  Alva — sets  dowTi  her  \asions  and  illumina- 
tions. Nowhere,  and  by  no  man  or  woman,  was  a 
stronger  resistance  offered  to  the  new  ideas  that  warred 
against  mediaeval  opinions  than  was  made  in  Spain  by 
Teresa.  At  her  voice  the  d\dng  aspirations  of  a  previous 
age  revived,  as  she  travelled  through  the  country,  attract- 
ing to  her  austere,  ascetic  Rule  many  of  the  best  and 
most  conscientious  men  and  women  of  the  day.  The 
little  inns  where  she  stopped  in  her  ceaseless  wanderings 
are  still,  after  the  lapse  of  three  centuries,  hallowed  spots 
to  the  inhabitants  of  rural  Spain. 

About  Teresa  hangs  the  pathos  of  a  lost  cause,  though 
she  herself  was  spared  the  pain  of  disillusion.  She  did 
not  hve  to  see  the  edifice  on  which  she  had  la\dshed  the 
labours  of  a  lifetime  crumbHng  to  decay.  Death  came 
to  the  worn-out  woman  at  Alba,  October  4,  1582.  On 
her  hps  were  the  words  (Ps.  H.  10,  11,  17),  "  Make  me 
a  clean  heart,  O  God,  and  renew  a  right  spirit  within 
me.  Cast  me  not  away  from  Thy  presence,  and  take 
not  Thy  holy  Spirit  from  me.  The  sacrifice  of  God  is  a 
troubled  spirit  ;  a  broken  and  contrite  heart,  O  God, 
shalt  Thou  not  despise." 

First  from  one  side,  then  from  the  other,  as  the  fierce 
struggle  between  Roman  CathoUc  and  Protestant  swayed 
backwards  and  forwards,  the  note  of  encouragement, 
comfort,  or  deUverance  sounds  clear  and  high  for  com- 
batants on  either  side,  in  the  verses  of  the  Psalms.  As 
More,  Fisher,  and  Haughton,  or  as  Xa\-ier  and  Teresa, 


THE  REFORMATION  ERA.  131 

lad  drawn  strength  from  the  Psalter,  so,  in  their  day 
if  trial,  Protestants  Hke  Bishop  Hooper  or  Bishop 
lidley,  and  at  a  later  stage  in  the  struggle  Jesuits  hke 
Robert  Southwell,  faced  the  terrors  of  the  stake  and  the 
orment  of  the  rack  with  words  from  the  same  book  upon 
heir  lips,  and,  as  they  spoke  them,  seemed  possessed  by 
L  heavenly  ecstasy. 

John  Hooper,  at  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VHT., 
lad  fled  for  his  life  to  Strasburg  ;  had  married,  and, 
►larch  1547,  had  settled  in  Zurich.  Two  years  later  he 
letermined  to  return  to  England,  in  order  to  help  those 
vho  were  contending  for  the  rehgious  principles  which 
le  himself  zealously  advocated.  He  knew  his  danger, 
faking  leave  of  his  friend  BuUinger  in  March  1549,  he 
ised  words  prophetic  of  his  fate.  He  promised  to  \\Tite 
0  those  who  had  shown  him  so  much  kindness  ;  "  but," 
le  added,  "  the  last  news  of  all  I  shall  not  be  able  to 
vrite :  for  there,  where  I  shall  take  most  pains — there 
;hall  you  hear  of  me  to  be  burnt  to  ashes."  In  1551 
le  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Gloucester.  No  man  ever 
mtered  upon  his  work  with  a  stricter  sense  of  duty.  If 
\Q  erred,  it  was  the  severity  of  the  disciphne  which  he 
exacted  from  himself  as  well  as  from  others.  On  the 
iccession  of  Queen  Mary  he  was  a  marked  man.  He 
night  have  escaped,  but  he  refused.  "  I  am,"  he  said, 
'  thoroughly  persuaded  to  tarry,  and  to  live  and  die 
,\ith  my  sheep."  In  September  1553  he  was  committed 
;o  the  Fleet  prison,  to  a  "  vile  and  stinking  chamber," 
,\ith  nothing  for  his  bed  but  a  ''  httle  pad  of  straw  " 
md  "  a  rotten  covering."  In  his  prison  he  wrote  an 
'  Exposition  "  of  Psalms  xxiii.,  Ixii.,  Ixxiii.,  Ixxvii.  *'  AU 
nen  and  women,"  he  says,  "  have  this  hfe  and  this 
vorld  appointed  unto  them  for  their  ^^dnter  and  season 
)f  storms.  The  summer  draweth  near,  and  then  shall 
ye  be  fresh,  orient,  sweet,  amiable,  pleasant,  acceptable, 
mmortal,  and  blessed,  for  ever  and  ever  ;  and  no  man 
)hall  take  us  from  it.  We  must  therefore,  in  the  mean- 
time, learn  out  of  this  verse  to  say  unto  God,  whether 


132  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

it  be  winter  or  summer,  pleasure  or  pain,  Liberty  or  im- 
prisonment, life  or  death,  *  Truly  God  is  lo\lng  unto 
Israel,  even  unto  such  as  be  of  a  clean  heart '  "  (Ps. 
Ixxiii.  i).  To  his  wife,  Anne  Hooper,  who  had  escaped 
to  the  Continent,  he  wrote  a  letter  (October  13,  1553), 
bidding  her  read  Ps.  Ixxvii.  ("  I  wiH  cry  unto  God 
with  my  voice,"  etc.),  because  of  the  "  great  consola- 
tion "  which  it  contains  for  those  who  are  in  "  anguish 
of  mind ;  "  and  Ps.  lxxx\Ti.,  "  wherein  is  contained 
the  prayer  of  a  man  that  was  brought  into  extreme 
anguish  and  misery,  and,  being  vexed  with  adversaries 
and  persecutions,  saw  nothing  but  death  and  heU." 
Also  he  recommends  Psalms  vi.,  xxii.,  xxx.,  xxxi., 
xxxviii.,  Ixix.,  for  their  lessons  of  "  patience  and  con- 
solation "  at  times  "  when  the  mind  can  take  no  under- 
standing, nor  the  heart  an}^  joy  of  God's  promises." 

It  was  not  tiU  Februar}'  9,  1555,  that  by  his  death 
Hooper  passed  from  the  winter  of  imprisonment  into  the 
summer  of  eternal  hfe.  The  bishop  had  been  sent  to 
Gloucester  for  execution.  If  his  enemies  hoped  that  his 
demeanour  at  the  stake  \\ould  weaken  his  hold  upon  his 
people,  they  were  disappointed.  With  unflinching  cour- 
age he  met  the  tortures  of  the  fire — needlessly  protracted 
for  three-quarters  of  an  hour  by  the  greenness  and  in- 
sufficiency of  the  materials,  resigning  himself  to  his  fate 
with  the  words,  which  More,  Fisher,  and,  it  may  be 
added,  Thomas  Cromwell  had  used,  "  Into  Thy  handes 
I  commend  my  spirite  ;  Thou  haste  redeemed  me,  O 
God  of  truthe  "  (Ps.  xxxi.  6). 

Psahn  ci.  was  the  favourite  psalm  of  Nicholas  Ridley 
(1500-55),  Bishop  of  London.  He  often,  as  Fox  relates, 
read  and  expounded  it  to  his  household  at  Fulham, 
"  being  marvellous  careful  over  his  family,  that  they 
might  be  a  spectacle  of  ah  \drtue  and  honesty  to 
others."  On  the  night  preceding  his  execution  his 
brother  offered  to  pass  his  last  hours  in  his  company. 
But  the  bishop  refused,  sapng  that  he  meant  to  go  to 
bed  and  sleep  as  quietly  as  he  ever  did  in  his  life  :    "I 


THE  REFORMATION  ERA.  133 

i^ll  lay  me  down  in  peace,  and  take  my  rest ;  for  it  is 
Ihou,  Lord,  only  that  m.akest  me  dwell  in  safety " 
(Ps.  iv.  9).  The  next  morning  he  was  chained  to  the 
stake  in  the  town  ditch,  opposite  the  south  front  of 
Balliol  College,  Oxford.  As  the  flames  rose  round  him, 
tie  exclaimed,  "  with  a  wonderful  loud  voice,  '  In  manus 
luas,  Domine,  commendo  spiritum  meum  '  (Ps.  xxxi  6 — 
'  Into  Thy  hands,  O  Lord,  I  commend  my  spirit ')  ; 
'Domine,  recipe  spiritum  meum,'  "  and  then  in  Enghsh, 
"  Lord,  Lord,  receive  my  spirit." 

Equally  courageous,  equally  firm  in  their  religious  con- 
dctions,  were  those  who,  as  the  tide  of  victory  ebbed 
and  flowed,  suffered  a  violent  death  on  the  other  side. 
The  dungeons  in  the  Tower  still  record  the  power  of  the 
Psalms  to  soothe  the  "  sorrowful  sighing  "  of  Roman 
Cathohcs  who  suffered  for  their  faith.  Here,  for  ex- 
ample, are  the  words  of  Ps.  cxi.  10  ("  The  fear  of  the 
Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom  "),  inscribed  by  Charles 
Baihy  on  the  waUs  of  his  cell  in  the  Beauchamp  or 
Cobham  Tower :  "  Principium  sapientie  timor  Domini, 
I.H.S.X.P.S.  Be  frend  to  one.  Be  ennemye  to  none. 
Anno  D.  1571,  10  Sept."  Here,  again,  is  the  inscription 
carved  by  Phihp  Howard,  Earl  of  Arundel,  in  1587  : 
"  Gloria  et  honore  eum  coronasti  Domine "  ("  Thou 
madest  Him  lower  than  the  angels  ;  to  crown  Him  with 
glory  and  worship  " — Ps.  viii.  5).  Here,  lastly,  is  another, 
hidden  for  three  centuries  under  the  whitewash  in  St. 
Martin's  Tower,  and  only  brought  to  light  in  1902. 
Beneath  an  emblem  of  the  Trinity  appear  the  sacred 
letters  "  I.H.S.,"  and  then  the  name,  "  George  Beisley, 
Priest."  On  the  left  is  a  shield  containing  the  fleur-de- 
lis,  the  word  "  Maria,"  and  the  date  "  1590."  A  muti- 
lated Latin  inscription  follows,  in  which  words  are 
illegible  or  wanting ;  but  it  seems  to  be  from  Ps.  xHi.  i, 
*'  Like  as  the  hart  desireth  the  water  brooks  ;  so  longeth 
my  soul  after  Thee,  O  God."  But  in  the  history  of 
Robert  Southwell,  a  Jesuit  and  an  EHzabethan  poet, 
the  power  of  the  Psalms  is  illustrated  in  fullest  detail. 


134  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Bom  in  1560,  he  came  to  England  twenty-six  years 
later,  knowing  well  the  peril  that  he  ran.  To  be  a 
Roman  Catholic  was  a  crime ;  to  be  a  priest,  high 
treason  ;  to  be  a  Jesuit  was  to  be  a  wild  beast  and 
hunted  dovm  as  vermin.  In  a  letter,  written  in  January 
1590,  he  describes  the  fate  of  two  priests  and  other 
brethren  in  Bridewell — a  fate  which  at  any  moment 
might  be  his  own.  "  Some,"  he  says,  "  are  there  hung 
up,  for  whole  days,  by  the  hands,  in  such  manner  that 
they  can  but  just  touch  the  ground  with  the  tips  of 
their  toes.  In  fine,  they  that  are  kept  in  that  prison 
truly  live  in  the  horrible  pit,  in  the  mire  and  clay  (Ps. 
xl.  2).  This  purgatory  we  hourly  look  for,  in  which 
Topcliffe  and  Young  ....  exercise  all  manners  of  tor- 
ments. Hut  come  what  pleaseth  God,  we  hope  that 
we  shall  be  able  to  bear  all  in  Him  that  strengthens  us. 
In  the  meantime  we  pray  that  they  may  be  put  to 
confusion  that  work  iniquity ;  and  that  the  Lord 
may  speak  peace  to  His  people,  that,  as  the  royal 
prophet  says,  '  His  glory  may  dwell  in  our  land ' "  (Ps. 
Ixxxv.  9). 

In  a  later  letter  he  alludes  to  the  martyrdoms  of  Bayles 
and  Homer,  and  the  effect  which  their  holy  ends  had 
produced  upon  the  people :  "  With  such  dews  as  these 
the  Church  is  watered,  id  in  stillicidiis  hujusmodi  Icetetur 
germinans  (Ps.  Ixv.  11).  We  also  look  for  the  time  (if 
we  are  not  unworthy  of  so  great  a  glory)  when  our  day 
(like  that  of  the  hired  servant)  shall  come." 

He  had  not  long  to  wait.  In  1592  he  was  betrayed 
by  a  woman,  Anne  Bellamy,  into  the  hands  of  Topcliffe, 
who  boasted  that  "  he  never  did  take  so  weighty  a  man, 
if  he  be  rightly  considered."  Thirteen  times  tortured, 
no  word  was  wrung  from  him.  Not  even  would  he 
confess  the  colour  of  the  horse  on  which  he  had  ridden, 
lest  his  enemies  should  gain  a  clue  to  his  companion. 
Thus,  to  quote  his  owti  words,  with  "  murd'red  Hfe  '* 
he  couched  in  "  Death's  abode,"  sighing  for  the  kindly 
touch  of  death  to  end  his  misery  : — 


THE  REFORMATION  ERA.  135 

O  Life  !  what  letts  thee  from  a  qiiicke  decease  ? 
O  Death  !   what  drawes  thee  from  a  present  praye  ? 
My  feast  is  done,  my  soule  would  be  at  ease, 
My  grace  is  said  ;   6  death  !   come  take  away. 


"  I  live,  but  such  a  life  as  ever  dyes  ; 
I  dye,  but  such  a  death  as  never  endes  ; 
My  death  to  end  my  dying  life  denyes. 
And  life  my  living  death  no  whirt  amends.' 

In  his  lonely  misery  he  compares  himself,  like  David, 
to  the  sparrow  and  the  pelican  (Ps.  cii.  6,  7)  : — 

"  In  eaves  sole  sparrowe  sitts  not  more  alone, 
Nor  mourning  pelican  in  desert  wilde. 
Than  sely  I,  that  solitary  mone, 
From  highest  hopes  to  hardest  happ  exiled : 
Somet>-me,  O  blisfull  tyme  !  was  Vertue's  meede 
A\Tne  to  my  thoughtes,  guide  to  my  word  and  deede. 
But  feares  are  now  my  pheares,*  greife  my  delight, 
My  teares  ray  drinke,  my  famisht  thoughtes  my  bredd  ; 
Day  full  of  dumpes,  nurse  of  unrest  the  nighte. 
My  garmentes  gives, •)•  a  bloody  feilde  my  bedd  ; 
My  sleape  is  rather  death  than  deathe's  alive. 
Yet  killed  with  murd'ring  pangues  I  cannot  dye." 

Three  years  he  hngered  in  prison,  first  in  a  filthy 
dungeon  in  the  Tower,  and  then  in  a  better  cell,  where  he 
was  allowed  the  books  for  which  he  asked — the  Bible 
and  the  works  of  St.  Bernard.  At  last  his  end  came. 
On  February  21,  1595,  he  was  drawn  on  a  sledge  from 
Newgate  through  the  streets  to  Tyburn.  Rising  up  in 
the  cart,  with  pinioned  hands,  and"  with  the  rope  round 
his  neck,  he  made  a  short  address  to  the  people  who  had 
flocked  to  see  his  execution.  Then  looking  for  the  cart 
to  be  drawn  away,  he  blessed  himself  as  well  as  his  bonds 
allowed,  and  "  with  his  eyes  raised  up  to  heaven,  re- 
peated, with  great  calmness  of  mind  and  countenance, 
these  words  of  the  Psalmist,  '  Into  Thy  hands,  0  Lord, 
I  commend  my  spirit  '  "  (Ps.  xxxi.  6).     Such  was  the 

♦That  is,  companions  or  bedfellows. 
tThat  is,  fetters. 


136  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

effect  produced  by  his  courage,  that  the  bystanders  in- 
terfered to  prevent  the  executioner  from  cutting  the  rope 
till  he  was  dead,  in  order  that  the  ghastly  formahties 
of  disembowelling  and  quartering  might  not  be  carried 
out  on  his  hving  body. 


CHAPTER   VL 

THE  STRUGGLE   BETWEEN   PROTESTANT   ENGLAND   AND 
ROMAN    CATHOLIC    SPAIN. 

The  Psalms  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  the  English  Prayer  Book  version ; 
metrical  translations — Germany,  France,  England,  Scotland ; 
growth  of  the  influence  of  the  Psalms  in  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries  ;  Lady  Jane  Grey  ;  the  Duke  of  Suffolk  ;  Counts 
Egmont  and  Horn  ;  accession  of  Queen  Elizabeth  ;  the  murder  of 
Damley  ;  execution  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  ;  the  Spanish  Armada  ; 
the  Turkey  merchantmen  ;  the  wreck  of  the  Tobie  ;  the  Earl  of 
Essex  ;  Burghley  ;  Lord  Bacon  ;  Shakespeare  ;  Richard  Hooker  ; 
Bishop  Jewel ;    George  Herbert  ;   Hooker  on  the  Psalms. 

T^HROUGHOUT  the  Middle  Ages  the  Bible  as  a 
-L  whole  was,  except  to  the  clerg}',  a  sealed  book. 
But  the  Psalms  were  permitted  to  be  in  the  hands  of 
laymen  ;  the  Council  of  Toulouse  (1220)  excepted  them 
from  the  general  prohibition  which  forbade  the  use  of 
the  Old  Testament  to  the  laity.  Versions  in  Anglo- 
Norman,  or  Old  English,  are  among  the  earhest  speci- 
mens of  our  vernacular  Uterature.  The  translation  and 
commentary  of  Richard  Rolle  of  Hampole  {circ.  1325) 
illustrate,  on  its  spiritual  side,  one  of  the  movements 
which  led  up  to  the  Reformation.  Mediaeval  Primers 
contained  a  selection  of  the  Psalms,  sundry^  prayers,  and 
a  Kalendar  in  which  were  sometimes  entered  the  births 
and  deaths  of  families,  or  the  dates  of  events  Hke  the 
battles  in  the  Wars  of  the  Roses.  Our  Prayer  Book  ver- 
sion of  the  Psalter  in  prose,  originally  made  by  Tyndall 
and  Coverdal.e,  subsequently  corrected  by  Cranmer  and 
his  colleagues,  was  put  forth  in  the  Bishops'  Bible  of 


138  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

1541.  Its  rhythmic  movement  preserves  something  of 
the  cadenced  and  sonorous  roll  of  the  Latin  version ; 
and  thus,  by  wedding  Enghsh  words  to  mediaeval  har- 
monies, it  links  together  old  and  new  forms  of  di\dne 
worship.  Translated  into  the  vulgar  tongue,  the  Psalms 
seemed  to  gather  fresh  youth  and  vigour.  They  gained 
their  full  power,  answering  every  need,  adapting  them- 
selves to  all  spiritual  conditions.  Now  the  stream  of 
historical  association,  already  broad  and  deep,  becomes 
a  flood,  whose  force  and  volume  are  swollen  by  metrical 
translations  set  to  music,  and  sung  by  congregations  at 
pubhc  worship. 

The  Psalms  in  Latin,  as  well  as  h>Tnns  and  sequences 
in  the  same  tongue,  had  been  consecrated  by  centuries 
of  use  in  pubhc  worship.  But  they  were  chanted  by 
priests  or  choristers,  and  to  the  people  they  were  for  the 
most  part  unintelligible.  Church  h3'mns  to  be  sung  by 
the  whole  congregation  in  the  vulgar  tongue  were  the 
special  creation  of  the  Lutherans.  To  Luther  the  Ger- 
man people  owed  not  only  the  Catechism,  and  the  Bible, 
translated  into  forcible,  racy,  idiomatic  language,  but 
also  a  hymm-book.  Three  of  his  best  known  hymns, 
"  Ach  Gott  vom  Himmel,  sieh  darein  "  (Ps.  xii. — "  Ah 
God,  from  heav'n  look  down,  and  see  "),  "  Ein'  feste 
Burg  "  (Ps.  xlvi.),  "  Aus  tiefer  Noth  schrei  ich  zu  dir  '* 
(Ps.  cxxx. — "  Out  of  the  depths  I  cry  to  Thee  "),  are 
founded  on  psalms.  Burkhard  Waldis  of  Hesse  (1485- 
1557)  versified  the  whole  Psalter,  and  other  Lutherans 
like  Justus  Jonas  ("  Wo  Gott  der  Herr  nicht  bei  uns 
halt,"  Ps.  cxxiv. — "  If  God  were  not  upon  our  side  "), 
or  Phihp  Nicolai  {"  Wie  schon  leuchtet  der  Morgenstern," 
Ps.  xlv. — "  O  Fleming  Star  !  how  fair  and  bright  "), 
or  Paul  Gerhardt  ("  Ich,  der  ich  oft  in  tiefes  Leid," 
Ps.  cxlv. — "  I  who  so  oft  in  deep  distress  "),  folio v/ed 
Luther  in  basing  their  hymns  on  psalms.  But  their 
special  contributions  to  di\dne  worship  were  rather 
original  hymns  than  metrical  versions  of  the  Psalter. 
The  French  Lutheran  Church  held  the  same  views  as 


ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN.  139 

their  German  brethren.  But  with  other  Reformed 
bodies,  and  especially  with  the  followers  of  Calvin  or 
Zwingli,  it  was  different.  Separating  more  entirely  from 
the  past,  revolting  from  the  human  intervention  of  the 
priesthood  in  prayer  or  praise,  worshipping  the  Bible  as 
a  new-found  book,  venerating  its  text  with  almost  super- 
stitious reverence,  they  rejected  original  hjTnns,  treated 
the  Hebrew  Psalter  as  the  only  inspired  manual  of  devo- 
tional praise,  and  concentrated  their  efforts  on  adapting 
its  language  to  congregational  singing.  The  Psalms,  in 
metrical  versions,  thus  gained  new  dignity,  authority, 
and  popularity,  by  their  exclusive  use  in  the  public 
worship  of  the  Reformed  Churches.  The  more  com- 
pletely the  Reformers  severed  themselves  from  the  Middle 
Ages,  the  more  absolutely  they  swept  away  the  venerable 
hturgies  and  beautiful  h}Tnns  of  the  Fathers  and  Doctors 
of  the  Church,  the  gi*eater  was  their  re\'erence  for  the 
Psalms,  which  were  the  daily  bread  of  the  Roman 
Cathohc  clergy. 

Early  in  the  sixteenth  century  (1533),  Clement  Marot,* 
the  favourite  of  Marguerite  de  Valois,  and  valet  de  chamhre 
to  Francis  I.,  began  to  translate  the  Psalms  into  French 
verse,  and  his  translations  were  circulated  in  manuscript 
throughout  the  king's  court.  His  sanctes  chansonnettes^ 
set  to  simple  ballad  tunes,  drove  from  the  field  the  love- 
songs  of  gallants,  and  Marot's  verses  were  sung  by  the 
princes  and  princesses,  the  royal  mistresses,  and  the  lords 
and  ladies  of  the  luxurious  courts  of  Francis  I.  and 
Henry  IT  The  translation,  completed  partly  by  Marot, 
partly  by  Beza  and  others,  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
people.  In  1558,  in  the  Pre  aux  Clercs  at  Paris,  thousands 
of  persons  assembled  every  evening  to  chant  the  Psalms 
to  the  music  of  Louis  Bourgeois,  Guillaume  Franc,  and 

*  Marot's  version  of  Ps.  vi,  appeared  in  1533,  at  the  end  of  the  first 
part  of  "  Le  Miroir  de  treschrestienne  Princesse  Marguerite  de  France, 
Royne  de  Navarre  .  .  .  auquel  elle  voit  et  son  neant  et  son  tout." 
Paris,  1533,  i8mo.  He  did  not  continue  the  work  till  I537.  and  it  was 
not  till  1542  that  his  "Trente  Pseaulmes  de  David,  mis  en  francoys  par 
Clement  Marot,  valet  de  chambre  du  Roy,"  were  published. 


140  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Claude  Goudimel,  and  among  the  singers  might  be 
heard  the  King  of  Navarre  and  the  greatest  nobles  of 
France. 

In  England,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  Thomas 
Stemhold,  ''  groome  of  ye  Kynges  Majesties  roobes," 
began  to  translate  the  Psalms  "  for  his  own  godly  solace." 
As  a  boy  of  twelve,  so  the  story  runs,  Edward  VI.  heard 
the  "  groome  "  singing  the  Psalms  to  the  organ,  and 
expressed  his  delight  at  the  words  and  the  music.  The 
first  edition  of  Stemhold's  Psalms,  perhaps  pubUshed  in 
1548,  included  nineteen  translations.  The  third  edition 
(155 1)  contained  forty-four  psalms,  thirty-seven  by  Stem- 
hold  and  seven  by  Hopkins.  In  dedicating  the  book  to 
Edward  VL,  Stemhold  says  :  **  Seeing  that  your  tender 
and  godhe  zeale  doth  more  dehght  in  the  holie  songs 
of  veritie  than  in  any  faymed  rymes  of  vanytie,  I  am 
encouraged  to  travayle  further  in  the  said  booke  of 
Psalms."  To  the  versions  of  Stemhold  and  Hopkins, 
seven  psalms,  translated  by  Whittingham,  making  fifty- 
one  in  all,  were  added  in  the  Genevan  edition  of  1556. 
But  the  first  complete  version  of  the  Psalter  was  pub- 
lished by  Daye  in  1562,  and  the  renderings  were  the 
work  of  many  hands.  Another  complete  translation 
into  verse  was  made  by  Matthew  Parker,  afterwards 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  During  the  Marian  persecu- 
tions, close  search  was  made  for  him,  and  he  only  saved 
himself  by  flight.  In  one  of  his  escapes  a  faU  from  his 
horse  probably  laid  the  seeds  of  the  disease  from  which 
he  subsequently  died.  Yet  he  seems  to  have  passed  his 
time  in  contentment,  cheered  by  the  work  on  which  he 
was  engaged.  On  his  birthday,  August  6,  1557,  he 
wrote  in  his  Diary  :  "I  persist  in  the  same  constancy, 
upholden  by  the  grace  and  goodness  of  my  Lord  and 
Saviour,  Jesus  Christ,  by  whose  inspiration  I  have 
finished  the  Book  of  Psalms  turned  into  vulgar  verse." 
It  was,  however,  the  composite  work  of  Stemhold, 
Hopkins,  Whittingham,  Wisedome,  Wilham  Kethe,  John 
Craie:.  and  others,  which  remained  in  general  use  from 


ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN.  141 

•'^3  till  1698,  when  the  old  version  was  superseded  in 
the  Established  Church  by  that  of  Tate  and  Brady. 

To  scholars  and  to  critics  the  metrical  translation 
often  seems  to  be  sheer  doggerel ;  yet  its  popularity  and 
its  influence  in  extending  a  knowledge  of  the  Psalms  can 
hardlv  be  exaggerated.  Fuller  speaks  of  the  versifiers 
as  having  drunk  more  of  Jordan  than  of  Hehcon,  and 
adds  that  two  hammerers  on  a  smith's  anvil  would  have 
made  better  music.  Queen  Ehzabeth  condemned  the 
new  "  Geneva  jigs."  Edward  Phillips,  the  Cavalier  poet, 
describes  some  one  singing  "  with  woful  noise," 

"  Like  a  crack'd  saints'  bell  jarring  in  the  steeple, 
Tom  Stemhold's  ^\Tetched  prick-song  for  the  people." 

The  sound  of  psalm-singing,  as  he  heard  it  issuing 
from  a  church,  moved  the  Earl  of  Rochester  to  \\Tite 
the  lines, — 

"  Stemhold  and  Hopkins  had  great  qualms, 
When  thev  translated  David's  Psalms, 

To  make  the  heart  right  glad  : 
But  had  it  been  King  David's  fate 
To  hear  thee  sing  and  them  translate. 

By  God  !   'twould  set  him  mad  !  " 

Yet,  in  spite  of  the  judgment  of  fastidious  taste,  the 
version  was  so  popular  that,  after  the  regular  services, 
as  Bishop  Jewel  notes,  six  thousand  persons,  old  and 
young  of  both  sexes,  might  be  heard  chanting  the  Psalms 
in  metre  at  Paul's  Cross.  Mrs.  Ford  *  imagined  that 
the  looth  Psalm  would  not  agree  with  the  tune  of  "  Green 
sleeves."  But  the  "  grand  old  Puritan  anthem,"  f  ".All 
people  that  on  earth  do  dwell,"  composed  by  WilHam 
Kethe,  a  friend  of  John  Knox,  and  set  to  the  music  of 
Louis  Bourgeois,  sur\dves  all  the  changes  of  thought 
or  fashion  that  the  progress  of  four  centuries  has  wit- 
nessed. 

In  Scotland  it  had  been  the  ambition  of  James  I.  to 

*  Merrv  Wives  of  Windsor.  Act  II..  Scene  i. 

i"  Longfellow,  •'  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish,"  Canto  iii.,  line  40. 


142  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

reunite  once  more  the  offices  of  king  and  psalmist.  But 
though  his  version,  to  which  he  is  said  to  have  contributed 
thirty  psalms,  was  sanctioned  by  Charles  I.  in  1634,  it 
was  never  accepted  by  the  Scottish  people.  They  clung 
to  the  book  introduced  by  Knox  from  Geneva,  in  which 
renderings  by  Kethe,  Craig,  and  others  were  substituted 
for  some  of  those  contained  in  Sternhold's  Psalter. 
Printed  in  1564,  it  had  been  the  psalm-book  of  the  Scot- 
tish Reformers.  But  in  1650  the  General  Assembly 
adopted,  with  many  variations,  the  version  of  Francis 
Rous,  an  English  Puritan,  M.P.  for  Truro,  ultimately 
Speaker  of  the  Barebones  Parliament,  and  Provost  of 
Eton  College.  In  no  other  country  except  France  have 
metrical  paraphrases  of  the  Psalms  exercised  a  greater 
influence  than  in  Scotland.  The  Lutherans  and  the 
Anglicans  had  their  hymns  ;  but  it  was  many  years 
before  any  religious  music  was  sung  by  Calvinist  or 
Presbyterian  except  the  Psalms  of  David. 

From  the  treasure-house  of  the  Psalter,  whether  in 
the  ancient  Latin  version,  or  in  vernacular  prose,  or  in 
rough  rhyme  wedded  to  simple  music,  Roman  Catholics 
and  Protestants  alike  drew  inspiration.  The  Psalms 
clave  to  the  memories,  and  rooted  themselves  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people.  But  the  application  of  their  lan- 
guage to  the  conduct  and  actions  of  individuals  of  every 
shade  of  religious  opinion  does  not  exhaust  the  value  of 
the  Psalter.  There  remains  its  collective  influence  when 
employed  in  common  worship.  Whatever  changes  were 
made  in  forms  of  ser\dces,  the  Psalms  retained  their 
place.  The  general  use  of  the  same  book  united  men 
who,  in  character  and  feeling,  time  and  place,  race  and 
language,  were  widely  separated.  It  is  to  this  aspect 
of  the  subject  that  Hooker  refers,  in  commenting  upon 
the  words,  *'  We  took  sweet  counsel  together ;  and 
walked  in  the  house  of  God  as  friends  "  (Ps.  Iv.  15) .  If,  he 
argues,  community  of  worship  forges  the  chains  of  human 
love,  then  assuredly  true  religious  feeling  is  fostered 
and  strengthened  in   all   those  between  whom,   in  the 


ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN.  143 

hearing  of  God  Himself,  and  in  the  presence  of  His  holy 
angels,  are  interchanged  "  songs  of  comfort,  psalms  of 
praise  and  thanksgiving." 

Apart  from  the  extension  of  printing,  or  vernacular 
versions,  or  congregational  use,  there  were  circumstances 
in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  which  spe- 
cially favoured  the  growth  of  the  influence  of  the  Psalms. 
The  proscribed  Protestant  Reformer,  the  tortured  Roman 
Catholic,  the  hunted  Huguenot  or  Covenanter,  the  perse- 
cuted Cevenol,  beheld  himself  in  David  fleeing  to  the 
mountains  as  a  bird  to  the  hills,  betrayed  by  his  own 
familiar  friend,  or  plunged  in  the  mire  and  clay  of  a 
i  prison  from  which  death  was  his  release.  In  the  strength 
'  of  the  Psalms  martyrs  went  to  the  stake,  mounted  the 
scaffold,  or  endured  the  rack.  Men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, dragged  to  jail,  sang  psalms  along  the  road,  and, 
as  in  the  days  of  Paul  and  Silas,  dungeons  resounded 
with  earnest  praise  of  God,  clothed  in  the  sublime  yet 
familiar  language  of  the  Psalmist.  Or,  again,  for  the 
evil  was  ever  blended  ^^dth  the  good,  it  was  with  the 
words  of  the  Psalmist  that  fanatics  denounced  their 
foes,  cursed  them  with  the  awful  imprecations  pronounced 
on  the  divine  enemies,  excused  theii"  owii  barbarities, 
and  appropriated  to  themselves,  in  the  presumption 
of  personal  election,  the  promises  made,  and  the  mission 
given,  to  the  chosen  people  of  God.  It  was,  for  example, 
wdth  Ps.  cxlix.  that  Thomas  Miintzer  stirred  up  the 
German  peasants  to  revolt,  and  that  Caspar  Schopp, 
whose  "  Classicum  Belli  Sacri "  is  wTitten  in  blood, 
incited  the  Roman  Cathohc  princes  to  embark  in  the 
war  that  for  thirty  years  con\'ulsed  Europe.  In  the 
struggle  between  Catholics  and  Protestants  were  linked 
the  destinies  of  nations,  the  fate  of  dynasties,  the  for- 
tunes of  illustrious  statesmen  and  famous  captains.  When 
men  of  obscure  birth  and  humble  station  gave  up  their 
lives  for  conscience'  sake,  their  sacrifice  derives  pathos 
and  effectiveness  from  their  weakness  in  the  presence 
of  temporal  power.    But,  on  the  other  hand,  in  dramatic 


144  THE  PSALMS  IX  HU:\IAX  LIFE. 

impressiveness  the  historical  grandeur  of  such  a  spec- 
tacle is  often  enhanced  by  the  fame  of  the  actors,  the 
importance  of  the  issue,  or  the  magnificence  of  the  stage. 

The  long  struggle  between  Protestant  England  and 
Catholic  Spain  practically  opened  with  Monday,  July 
io»  1553-  O^  that  day,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon, Lady  Jane  Dudley  was  brought  in  state  from 
Richmond  to  the  Tower.  In  the  midst  of  a  "  shot  of 
gunnes  and  chamburs,"  such  as  was  rarely  heard  before, 
she  landed  at  the  broad  stairs,  a  great  company  of  nobles 
and  gentry  with  her,  and  her  mother,  the  Duchess  of 
Suffolk,  bearing  her  train.  The  same  evening,  between 
six  and  seven  o'clock,  from  the  "  Crosse  in  Chepe  "  to 
"  Fletstreet,"  three  heralds  and  a  trumpeter  proclaimed 
the  Lady  Jane  Queen  of  England. 

But  the  friends  of  the  House  of  Grey  were  few,  and 
the  loyal  supporters  of  the  legitimate  heir  were  many. 
Even  at  Jane's  proclamation  "  few  or  none  sayd  God 
save  hare."  Nine  days  later,  for  she  was  barely  even 
a  "  twelfth-day  queen,"  her  father  entered  her  room  at 
the  Tower,  and  with  his  owtl  hands  tore  down  the  canopy 
under  which  she  sat.  Her  brief  reign  was  over.  Suffolk 
himself  had  that  day  proclaimed  Mary  Queen  of  Eng- 
land at  the  gates  of  the  Tower.  Lady  Jane  received  with 
simple  pleasure  the  news  that  the  crown  was  no  longer 
hers,  only  asking,  in  the  innocence  of  her  heart,  if  she 
might  not  now  go  home.  Her  palace  had  become  her 
prison. 

Prisoner  though  she  was,  and  in  November  formally 
arraigned  for  treason  and  condemned  to  death,  her  life 
was  saved  for  a  time.  All  the  arguments  of  Renard, 
the  ambassador  of  Charles  V.,  failed  to  shake  Mary's 
resolution  to  spare  her  fallen  rival  and  cousin.  The 
dangerous  insurrection  of  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt,  in  which 
the  Duke  of  Suffolk  had  joined,  sealed  Jane's  fate.  On 
Ash- Wednesday,  February  7,  1554,  the  rebellion  was 
quelled.  On  Thursday,  while  the  Te  Deum  for  the  Queen's 
victorv^  was  sung  in  every  church,  and  the  bells  rang  from 


ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN.  145 

every  steeple  in  London,  Feckenham,  a  gentle,  pious 
old  man,  afterwards  the  last  Abbot  of  ^^>stminster,  was 
sent  to  tell  Lady  Jane  that  she  must  die  the  following 
day.  and  to  prepare  her  for  her  end  by  bringing  her,  if 
possible,  to  the  Roman  faith.  A  brief  reprieve  was 
afterwards  granted,  in  order  that  Feckenham  might 
have  more  time  to  effect  her  conversion.  On  Monday, 
February  12,  1554,  she  was  to  go  to  the  scaffold. 

Lady  Jane's  time  on  earth  was  too  short  for  theological 
discussion.  Out^of  courtesy  to  Feckenham,  she  defended 
her  Protestant  opinions.  But  her  few  remaining  hours 
were  chiefly  spent  in  writing  to  her  father,  bidding  him 
not  to  reproach  himself  for  her  death,  and  exhorting 
him  to  remain  firm  in  his  religion.  To  "  Master  Hard- 
ing," formerly  chaplain  to  the  Duke  of  Suffolk,  "  but 
now  fallen  from  the  truth  of  God's  most  Holy  Word," 
she  wrote  an  appeal,  couched  in  vehement  language  of 
reproach  for  his  apostasy.  She  urged  him  to  lay  to 
heart  *'  the  saying  of  David,  in  his  hundred  and  fourth 
Psalm  (Ps.  civ.  29,  30),  where  he  said  thus  :  *  When 
Thou  takest  away  Thy  Spirit,  O  Lord,  from  men, 
they  die,  and  are  turned  again  to  their  dust  ;  but  when 
Thou  lettest  Thy  breath  go  forth,  they  shall  be  made, 
and  Thou  shalt  renew  the  face  of  the  earth.'  '  Viriliter 
age,'  she  adds,  *  confortetur  cor  tuum,  sustine  Dominum  ' 
(Ps.  xxvii.  16).  Fight  manfully,  come  life,  come  death  : 
the  quarrel  is  God's,  and  undoubtedly  the  victory  is  ours." 
To  her  sister.  Lad}-  Katharine,  she  sent  her  New  Testa- 
ment, urging  her  to  "  desire  with  David  to  understand 
the  law  of  the  Lord  God." 

Her  husband  was  condemned  to  die  on  the  same  day. 
He  begged  for  a  last  interview  and  a  last  embrace.  Jane 
refused.  The  meeting  could  only  increase  their  trial, 
and  disturb  their  preparation  for  death.  In  the  other 
world  they  would  meet  soon  enough.  Yet  she  saw  her 
husband  twice.  Her  place  of  imprisonment  was  in 
''  Partrige's  house,"  traditionally  the  Brick  Tower,  on 
the    north-east    side    of   the    fortress.     Lord    Guildford 


146  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUxMAX  LIFE. 

Dudley  was  taken  out  of  the  Tower,  "  about  ten  of  the 
clocke,  to  the  scaffolde  on  Tower  Hill."  The  procession 
passed  under  her  window,  from  which  she"  thus  once 
more  saw  him  alive.  She  saw  him  yet  again.  His  body 
was  throwTi  into  a  cart,  the  head  being  wrapped  in  a 
cloth,  and  carried  back  to  "  the  chappell  within  the 
Tower,  wher  the  Lady  Jane  dyd  see  his  dead  carcase 
taken  out  of  the  cart,  as  well  as  she  dyd  see  him  before 
on  l>^e  going  to  his  deathe — a  sight  to  hir  no  lesse  than 
death." 

But  the  sight  did  not  shake  her  own  firm  resolution. 
The  scaffold  on  which  she  was  to  die  was  prepared  "  upon 
the  grene  over  against  the  White  Tower."  She  was  led 
forth  from  the  prison  by  the  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower, 
Sir  John  Brydges,  wearing  the  same  dress  in  which  she 
had  been,  in  the  previous  November,  conducted  on  foot, 
the  axe  borne  before  her,  to  be  arraigned  for  treason  at 
the  Guildhall.  In  her  hand  she  carried  a  book,  from 
which  she  prayed  until  she  came  to  the  foot  of  the 
scaffold.  Her  countenance  was  steadfast,  her  eyes  not 
even  "  moistened  with  teares,  although  her  ij  gentle- 
women. Mistress  Elizabeth  Tylney  and  Mistress  Eleyn, 
wonderfully  wept."  At  the  foot  of  the  scaffold  she  dis- 
missed Feckenham  with  kindly  words.  ^lounting  the 
steps,  she  spoke  to  the  people,  acknowledging  that  her 
acts  had  been  unlawful  ;  *'  but  touching  the  procure- 
ment and  desyre  thereof  by  me  or  on  my  behalfe,  I  doo 
'  wash  my  handes  thereof  in  innocencie/  before  God, 
and  the  face  of  j^ou,  good  Christian  people,  this  day  ;  " 
and  therewith  "  she  wrong  her  handes,  in  which  she  had 
hir  boke." 

Then  kneeling  down,  she  turned  to  Feckenham,  who 
had  followed  her  to  the  scaffold,  saying,  "  Shall  I  say 
this  psalm?"  He  answered,  ''Yea."  So  she  said  the 
Miserere  (Ps.  li.)  in  English  to  the  end.  The  psalm 
ended,  she  stood  up,  and  gave  her  gloves  and  handker- 
chief to  her  maiden,  Mistress  T3'lney,  and  her  book  to 
Master  Brydges,  brother  to  the  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower. 


ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN.  I47 

The  book  is  the  small  manual  of  prayers  on  vellum  which 
is  preserved  in  the  British  ]^Iuseum. 

With  the  help  of  her  two  gentlewomen,  she  untied  and 
put  off  her  gown,  laid  aside  her  head-dress  and  necker- 
chief, and  took  from  them  "  a  fayre  handkercher  to 
knytte  about  her  eyes.  Then  the  hangman  kneeled 
downe,  and  asked  her  forgivenesse,  whome  she  forgave 
most  \nllinglv.  Then  he  willed  her  to  stand  upon  the 
strawe  ;  which  doing,  she  sawe  the  block.  Then  she 
sayd.  ''l  pray  you  dispatch  me  quickly.'  Then  she 
kneeled  downe,  sa\4ng,  '  Will  you  take  it  off  before  I  lay 
me  downe  ?  '  and  the  hangman  answered  her,  '  No, 
madame.'  She  tied  the  kercher  about  her  eyes  :  then 
feeling  for  the  blocke,  saide,  '  What  shall  I  do  ?  WTiere 
is  it  ?  '  One  of  the  standers-by  guyding  her  therunto, 
she  layde  her  heade  downe  upon  the  block,  and  stretched 
forth  her  body,  and  said,  '  Lorde,  into  Thy  hands  I 
commende  my'spirite  !  '     And  so  she  ended." 

In  the  short  time  between  her  sentence  and  her  death, 
Lady  Jane  Dudley  had  been  haunted  by  the  fear  that 
her'^father  might  "'fall  from  the  Protestant  faith.  Her 
dread  proved  groundless.  The  Duke  of  Suffolk_  was 
beheaded  at  Tower  Hill  on  February  23,  1554,  resistmg 
all  efforts  to  turn  him  from  his  religion.  That  repara- 
tion, at  least,  he  could  make  to  the  daughter  whom  his 
ambition  had  destroyed.  His  own  remorse,  her  appeal, 
her  constancy,  and  her  example  gave  him  a  courage 
which  scarcely  belonged  to  the  weakness  of  his  char- 
acter. He  died  with  the  same  psalms  upon  his  lips. 
"  Then  the  Duke,"  says  Fox,  "  kneeled  do\s-n  upon  his 
knees,  and  said  the  psalm  'Miserere  mei,  Deus '  unto 
the  end,  holding  up  his  hands  and  looking  up  to  heaven. 
And  when  he  had  ended  the  psalm,  he  said, ^^' In  manus 
tuas,  Domine,  commendo  spiritum  meum,'  "  etc.  His 
head  fell  at  the  first  blow  of  the  axe. 

The  execution  of  Lady  Jane  Dudley  estabhshed  for 
a  time  the  triumph  of  Spain,  and,  with  it,  the  victory 
of   authority   over   freedom.     So   long   as   Queen   Mary 


148  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

lived,  and  Philip  was  at  her  side,  no  effort  should  be 
spared  to  bring  back  England  to  the  Roman  CathoHc 
faith.  At  her  death  the  same  policy  was  to  be  pur- 
sued by  different  means,  but  with  the  same  resolution. 
Another  scene  brings  before  us,  on  another  stage,  the 
working  of  the  same  policy,  directed  by  the  same  hand 
and  will. 

Slow  in  the  execution  of  his  purpose,  but  inflexibly 
tenacious  of  his  end,  Philip  set  himself  to  crush  the 
Netherlands  and  extirpate  the  pestilent  heresy.  The 
Duke  of  Alva  was  his  instrument.  In  1567  the  duke, 
as  governor-general,  entered  on  his  task,  at  the  head 
of  a  Spanish  army.  The  Reign  of  Terror  began.  Within 
the  space  of  three  months  the  Council  of  Troubles,  better 
known  as  the  Council  of  Blood,  had  put  to  death  eighteen 
hundred  human  beings.  Among  its  later  victims  were 
Lamoral,  Count  of  Egmont  and  Prince  of  Gavre,  and 
his  friend,  Count  Horn. 

On  August  22,  1567,  Egmont  rode  out  from  Brussels 
to  meet  the  governor-general.  Passing  his  arm  lovingly 
round  his  neck,  Alva  talked  with  him  in  friendly  fashion 
as  he  was  escorted  to  the  house  of  Madame  de  Jasse, 
where  the  governor  was  lodged.  In  spite  of  friendly 
warnings,  again  and  again  reiterated,  Egmont  beUeved 
in  the  duke's  honour.  His  confidence  inspired  Horn 
with  a  sense  of  the  same  security,  and  he  joined  Egmont 
at  Brussels  to  show  respect  to  the  king's  representative. 
On  September  9  the  blow  fell.  Egmont  and  Horn  were 
arrested,  and  under  a  strong  guard  conveyed  to  Ghent. 
They  scarcely  had  even  the  mockery  of  a  trial.  On 
June  2,  1568,  the  sentence  of  death  was  passed  upon 
the  two  nobles  by  the  Council  of  Blood.  The  same 
day  the  prisoners,  in  separate  carriages,  guarded  by  hun- 
dreds of  soldiers,  were  conveyed  to  the  Brod-huys  in 
the  great  square  at  Brussels. 

Late  on  the  evening  of  the  4th  of  June,  Alva  sent  for 
the  Bishop  of  Ypres,  and  charged  him  to  prepare  the 
prisoners  for  death  on  the  following  day.     The  bishop 


ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN.  149 

implored  for  mercy,  or  at  least  delay.  The  only  answer 
he  received  was  the  rebuke  that  he  had  been  summoned 
to  confess  the  criminals,  not  to  advise  the  governor.  The 
rumour  of  the  sentence  quickly  spread.  The  Countess 
of  Egmont  heard  it,  and  hurried  to  the  presence  of  the 
duke.  On  her  knees  she  begged  for  her  husband's  life. 
"  On  the  morrow,"  was  the  ironical  reply,  '*  your  hus- 
band is  certain  to  be  released." 

It  was  not  till  eleven  o'clock  at  night  that  the  bishop 
reached  the  chamber  on  the  second  story  of  the  Brod- 
huys,  where  Egmont  was  confined.  The  count  heard 
his  sentence  with  surprise  rather  than  with  flinching. 
*•  Since,"  he  said,  "  my  death  is  the  will  of  God  and  his 
Majesty,  I  will  try  to  meet  it  with  patience."  He  had 
but  a  few  hours  to  live.  The  bishop  exhorted  him  to 
withdraw  himself  from  all  earthly  interests,  and  turn 
his  thoughts  only  to  God.  Kneeling  at  his  feet,  Egmont 
confessed,  and  received  the  Sacrament.  Then  nature 
reasserted  itself  as  he  thought  on  his  wife  and  children. 
'*  Alas  !  "  he  exclaimed,  "  how  weak  and  frail  is  our 
human  nature.  When  we  would  think  only  of  God, 
the  images  of  wife  and  children  come  between."  His 
loss  of  self-control  was  but  momentary.  Recovering 
his  calmness,  he  sat  down  and  wrote  to  the  king,  as  the 
day  began  to  dawn  on  which  he  was  to  die.  "  Although," 
he  wrote,  ''  I  have  never  had  a  thought,  and  believe 
myself  never  to  have  done  a  deed  which  could  tend  to  the 
prejudice  of  your  Majesty's  person  or  service,  or  to  the 
detriment  of  our  true,  ancient,  and  Catholic  religion, 
nevertheless  I  take  patience  to  bear  that  which  it  has 
pleased  the  good  God  to  send."  "  I  pray  your  Majesty," 
he  concluded,  "  to  forgive  me,  and  to  have  compassion 
on  my  poor  \vife,  my  children,  and  my  servants,  having 
regard  to  my  past  services.  In  which  hope  I  now  com- 
mend myself  to  the  mercy  of  God. 

"  Ready  to  die,  this  5th  June  1568.  Your  Majesty's 
very  humble  and  loyal  vassal  and  servant, 

"Lat^ioral  D'ECxMOXt." 


150  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Then  with  his  own  hands  he  cut  the  collar  from  his 
doublet  and  his  shirt,  that  the  hangman  might  not 
defile  him  with  his  touch.  The  rest  of  the  twilight  hours 
were  spent  in  prayer  and  meditation. 

The  scaffold  was  raised  in  the  centre  of  the  famous 
Grande  Place  of  Brussels,  the  scene  of  many  a  brUliant 
tournament  and  cruel  execution.  Opposite  to  the  Brod- 
huys  stands  the  magnincent  Town  Hall,  and  on  either 
side  of  the  space  rise  the  picturesque  mediaeval  guild- 
houses  of  the  butchers,  brewers,  archers,  tailors,  and 
carpenters.  On  the  morning  of  the  5th  of  June  1568 
the  bells  tolled  from  the  churches  ;  gloom  hung  over 
the  city,  as  though,  to  use  the  language  of  a  contem- 
porary, "  the  day  of  judgment  were  at  hand."  The 
roofs,  the  balconies,  the  windows  that  looked  upon  the 
square  were  thronged  with  spectators.  Strong  bodies 
of  arquebusiers  guarded  the  avenues  that  led  to  the 
Place.  Three  thousand  Spanish  troops,  some  of  whom 
had  doubtless  followed  Egmont  in  his  brilliant  feats 
of  arms  at  St,  Quentin  and  Gravelines,  were  massed 
round  a  scaffold;  draped  with  black  cloth.  In  its  folds 
was  concealed  the  executioner.  Upon  the  scaffold  itself 
were  placed  two  velvet  cushions,  and  a  smaJl  table  bear- 
ing a  crucifix.  At  the  comers  rose  two  poles,  spiked 
with  steel  points.  Immediately  below  the  scaffold, 
motionless  on  his  horse,  sat  the  Provost  Marshal,  hold- 
ing in  his  hand  his  red  wand  of  office. 

At  eleven  o'clock,  Egmont,  with  the  bishop  at  his  side, 
walked  with  steady  step  along  the  platform  which  led 
from  the  balcony  of  the  Brod-huys  to  the  scaffold.  As 
he  made  his  way  to  the  block  he  repeated  aloud  portions 
of  the  51st  Psalm.  With  one  vain  wish  that  he  had 
been  allowed  to  die  in  the  service  of  king  and  country, 
he  knelt  dowTi  on  one  of  the  cushions  and  prayed  aloud. 
Then,  after  repeatedly  kissing  the  crucifix,  and  receiv- 
ing absolution  at  the  hands  of  the  bishop,  he  rose  to 
his  feet.  Stripping  off  his  mantle  and  robe,  he  again 
knelt  down,  drew  a  silk  cap  over  his  eyes,  and  repeat- 


ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN.  151 

ing  the  words,  "  Lord,  into  Thy  hands  I  commend  my 
spirit  "  (Ps.  xxxi.  6),  awaited  the  stroke  of  the  exe- 
cutioner. His  head,  which  was  severed  from  the  body 
at  a  single  blow,  was  set  on  one  of  the  spikes,  and  a 
cloak  thrown  over  the  mutilated  trunk. 

A  few  minutes  later  Count  Horn  was  led  to  the  scaffold. 
He  died  with  the  same  courage,  and  with  the  same  words 
on  his  lips.  On  the  pole  opposite  that  of  Egmont  his 
head  was  fixed.  With  these  executions  began  the  revolt 
of  the  Netherlands. 

In  England  the  struggle  of  Protestantism  agamst 
Spain  and  Roman  Catholicism  centred  round  the  rivalry 
of  two  women.  On  the  death  of  Queen  Mary,  Queen 
Elizabeth,  relieved  from  constant  dread  of  execution, 
had  expressed  her  gratitude  in  the  words  of  Ps.  cxviii. 
23,  "  This  is  the  Lord's  doing  ;  and  it  is  marvellous  in 
our  eyes."  The  Latin  text  was  the  stamp  of  her  gold,  as 
another  quotation  adapted  from  the  Psalms— "  Posui 
Deum  adjutorem  meum"  ("  Thou  art  my  helper  .  .  .  O 
my  God,"  Ps.  xl.  21)— was  the  stamp  of  her  silver.  Her 
love  of  the  Psalter  is  further  shown  by  her  version  of 
Ps.  xiv.,  beginning, — 

"  Fooles,  that  true  fayth  yet  never  had, 
Sayth  in  their  hartes  there  is  no  God  ! 
Fylthy  they  are  in  their  practyse ; 
Of  them  not  one  is  godly  wyse." 

But  though  she  ruled  as  few  have  ever  done  in  the  hearts 
of  her  people,  her  throne,  and  all  that  was  implied  m 
its  stabiHty,  were  insecure  so  long  as  Mary  Queen  of 
Scots  was  her  heir  and  the  pivot  of  religious  and  po- 
litical intrigues.  On  the  character  of  Mary  Queen  of 
Scots  historians  will  never  cease  to  dispute,  and  her 
share  in  the  murder  of  Damley  is  a  subject  on  which 
they  are  still  divided. 

On  Saturday,  March  9,  1566,  Riccio,  Mary  s  Italian 
secretary,  was  murdered,  almost  before  the  Queen's  eyes, 
in  the  Palace  of  Holvrood.     In  this  brutal  crime  Llenry 


152  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Stuart,  Earl  of  Damley,  had  borne  a  part,  which  might 
well  have  turned  to  hatred  Mar^^'s  love  for  the  handsome 
but  dissolute  husband  on  whom  she  had  conferred  the 
title  of  king.  Even  the  birth  of  their  son,  three  months 
later,  could  scarcely  restore  an  affection  thus  outraged, 
especialty  as  Damley  ostentatiously  absented  himself 
from  the  child's  baptism.  Nor  was  his  subsequent  con- 
duct, sullen  and  wa^^vard  as  it  was,  likely  to  heal  the 
breach.  Yet,  though  the  circumstances  create  sus- 
picion, Mary's  connivance  at  Damley's  assassination  is 
not  absolutely  proved.  His  insolence  and  caprice  had 
made  him  many  enemies  among  the  haughty  nobles 
who  attended  the  Scottish  Court. 

In  the  winter  of  1566-1567,  Damley  lay  sick  at  Glasgow, 
from  some  mysterious  and  apparently  infectious  malady. 
When  he  was  slowly  recovering  Mary  visited  him,  and 
husband  and  wife  were  outwardly  reconciled.  At  the 
end  of  January  1567,  though  still  suffering  from  the 
disease,  he  was  removed  in  a  litter  to  Edinburgh,  and 
lodged,  not  in  the  Palace  of  Holyrood,  but  in  a  house 
which  stood  on  a  space  of  ground  called  Kirk-o'-Field. 

The  Kirk-o'-Field,  situated  where  now  stands  the 
north-eastern  comer  of  the  old  University  buildings,  lay 
close  to  the  towTi  wall,  which  was  built  after  the  battle 
of  Flodden  to  protect  the  Cowgate.  Through  this  wall, 
on  the  south  side  of  the  open  space,  led  a  postem  gate. 
To  the  north  ran  a  row  of  mean  cottages,  called  Thief 
Row.  On  the  east  stood  the  mined,  roofless  Church  of 
Our  Lady-in-the-Field,  wrecked  by  the  English  invaders. 
On  the  west  was  a  quadrangular  building,  also  partially 
in  mins,  which  had  belonged  to  the  Dominican  Friars. 
It  was  in  the  west  em  wing  of  this  convent  that  Damley 
was  lodged. 

The  rooms  in  this  wing  were  not  many,  but  they 
were  occupied  as  a  dwelling-house,  and  were  detached 
from  the  rest  of  the  building,  having  a  separate  stair- 
case and  door  which  gave  access  from  without.  The 
wing   contained  a  hall  and  a  bedroom   on  the  ground 


ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN.  153 

floor  ;  above  these  were  another  bedroom,  a  wardrobe, 
a  cabinet,  and  a  corridor.  There  was  also  a  cellar  below 
the  hall.  These  rooms  had  been  prepared  for  Damley's 
reception,  and  furnished  with  a  touch  of  regal  splendour. 
The  hall  was  hung  with  tapestry,  and  fitted  with  a 
chair  of  state,  and  a  dais  of  black  velvet  fringed  with 
silk.  Darnley's  bedchamber,  on  the  first  floor,  was  hung 
with  tapestry,  and  carpeted  with  the  rare  and  costly 
luxury  of  a  little  Turkey  carpet.  A  chair  of  purple 
velvet,  two  or  three  cushions  of  red  velvet,  a  small  table 
covered  with  a  green  velvet  cover,  a  bed  hung  with 
brown  velvet,  "  pasmented  with  cloth  of  silver  and 
gold,"  and  embroidered  with  cypress  and  flowers,  formed 
the  furniture.  The  bed  had  belonged  to  ]\Iary's  mother. 
The  cabinet  was  of  "  yellow  shot  taffeta,  fringed  with 
red  and  yellow  silk."  The  wardrobe  was  hung  with 
tapestry,  figuring,  by  a  grim  irony,  a  rabbit  hunt.  Never 
was  wild  animal  more  helplessly  trapped  and  at  the 
mercy  of  his  pursuers  than  was  Darnley  in  the  hands 
of  his  enemies.  In  the  bedroom  on  the  ground  floor, 
immediately  beneath  Darnley's  chamber,  was  a  bed 
of  red  and  yellow  damask,  with  a  coverlet  of  marten's 
fur.  Here  the  queen  slept  on  Wednesday,  February  5, 
and  on  Friday,  February  7.  Here  also  she  was  to  have 
slept  the  following  Sunday. 

About  ten  o'clock  on  the  night  of  Sunday,  the  queen 
with  her  attendants  was  seen  passing  along  the  Black- 
friars  W3'nd,  lighted  by  torch-bearers,  on  her  way  from 
Holyrood  to  visit  Darnley  at  Kirk-o' -Field.  Arrived  at 
the  house,  she  went  straight  to  her  husband's  room, 
without  entering  her  own  chamber.  There  she  sat  for 
two  hours,  talking  with  the  sick  man.  At  midnight  she 
rose,  placed  a  ring  on  Darnley's  finger,  kissed  him,  bade 
him  good-night,  and  left  him.  That  afternoon  Sebastian 
Paiges,  one  of  the  Court  musicians,  had  been  married  to 
one  of  Mary's  waiting-women,  and  in  honour  of  the 
event  there  was  given  at  the  Palace  a  masked  ball, 
which  Mary  had  promised  to  attend.     At  the  door  of 


154  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

the  king's  chamber  she  turned,  and  said  to  Darnley, 
"  It  is  eleven  months  to-day  since  Riccio  was  slain." 
So  ^lary  departed,  returning  as  she  came  b}^  the  Hght 
of  torches  to  Holyrood.  On  her  way  she  sent  back 
her  page  to  fetch  the  furred  coverlet  from  her  room. 

Darnley,  still  a  mere  boy,  only  twenty  j^ears  old,  was 
left  alone  with  his  page,  Taylor,  who  slept  in  his  room, 
and  two  servants,  Nelson  and  Symonds,  who  slept  in  a 
corridor  outside  his  chamber.  Two  grooms  also  slept 
somewhere  in  the  house.  When  Mary  had  gone,  Darnley 
turned  to  Nelson,  and  said,  ''  She  was  very  kind  ;  but 
why  did  she  speak  of  Davie's  slaughter  ?  "  Her  parting 
words  sounded  ominously  in  his  ears.  The  place  was  a 
solitary  one,  among  the  ruins  of  churches,  the  graves  of 
dead  men,  and  the  lurking  corners  of  thieves.  "  It  is 
very  lonely,"  he  said.  Restless  and  wakeful,  weak  with 
his  long  illness,  chilled  by  a  sense  of  his  loneliness  and  a 
vague  foreboding  of  e\41,  he  opened  the  Book  of  Psalms. 
Perhaps  the  wayward  bo}^  who,  in  the  days  of  his  short- 
lived power,  had  made  so  many  enemies  by  his  imperious 
insolence,  had  learned  to  turn  to  them  ior  comfort  as 
he  lay  on  his  bed  of  sickness.  He  opened  the  pages  at 
the  55th  Psalm,  which  was  one  of  the  portions  appro- 
priated in  the  Enghsh  Prayer  Book  for  the  day  that  was 
dawning.  They  were  the  last  words  that  he  read  on 
earth.  With  what  force  must  their  words  have  struck 
into  his  heart,  if  he  suspected  his  impending  doom,  and 
his  wife's  complicity-  in  the  crime  ! — 

"  My  heart  is  disquieted  within  me  ;  and  the  fear  of 
death  is  fallen  upon  me. 

"  Fearfulness  and  trembling  are  come  upon  me  ;  and 
an  horrible  dread  hath  overwhelmed  me. 

"  And  I  said,  O  that  I  had  wings  like  a  dove  !  for 
then  would  I  flee  away,  and  be  at  rest. 

"  For  it  is  not  an  open  enemy  that  hath  done  me  this 
dishonour  ;   for  then  I  could  have  borne  it. 

"  But  it  was  even  thou,  my  companion,  my  guide,  and 
mine  own  familiar  friend. 


ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN.  155 

"  The  words  of  his  mouth  were  softer  than  butter, 
having  war  in  his  heart ;  his  words  were  smoother  than 
oil,  and  yet  be  they  very  swords." 

An  hour  later  he  went  to  bed,  with  his  page  at  his 
side.  All  that  follows  is  shrouded  in  mystery.  At  two 
o'clock  on  Monday  morning,  a  terrific  explosion  startled 
the  sleeping  citizens  from  their  beds.  Nelson,  alone  of 
those  who  slept  in  the  house,  escaped  aJive.  The  bodies 
of  Darnley  and  his  page  were  found,  side  by  side,  many 
yards  away,  with  no  sign  of  fire  upon  them.  Near  the 
king,  who  was  in  his  nightgown,  lay  his  fur  pehsse  and 
shppers.  The  probability  is  that  he  and  his  page, 
aroused  by  the  noise  which  the  murderers  made  in 
arranging  the  powder,  escaped  from  the  house  into  the 
garden,  and  were  there  seized  and  strangled.  So  sudden 
and  widespread  was  the  alarm  created  by  the  explosion 
that  the  murderers  had  no  time  to  place  the  bodies  near 
the  ruins,  but  fled  for  their  lives. 

Twenty  years  later,  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  was  herself 
executed  at  Fotheringay.  Even  her  bitterest  enemies 
could  not  deny  that  she  met  her  fate  with  dignity.  At 
daybreak  on  the  morning  of  February  8,  1587,  she 
desired  Jane  Kennedy  to  read  aloud  to  her  from  her 
favourite  book,  "  The  Lives  of  the  Saints."  After  dress- 
ing wdth  unusual  care,  she  retired  to  her  oratory.  There 
she  remained  till  the  appointed  hour,  when,  with  tranquil 
composure,  she  took  her  seat  upon  the  scaffold.  The 
commission  for  her  execution  was  read  by  the  Clerk  to 
the  Council,  to  which  she  briefly  replied,  declaring  her 
innocence.  Throughout  the  long  harangue  of  Dr. 
Fletcher,  the  Protestant  Dean  of  Peterborough,  who  ex- 
horted her  to  abandon  her  rehgion,  she  remained  silent, 
absorbed  in  her  own  thoughts  or  devotions.  It  was  only 
by  the  intervention  of  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury  that  she 
was  relieved  from  the  divine's  ill-timed  pertinacity,  and 
allowed  to  pray  according  to  the  forms  of  her  own  faith. 

Her  prayers  ended,  she  put  off  her  black  satin  robe 
and  long  white  veil  of  lawTi,  and  appeared  in  a  bodice 


156  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

axid  petticoat  of  crimson  velvet.  The  executioner,  on 
his  knees,  begged  her  forgiveness.  "  I  forgive  all,"  she 
replied.  Then,  with  a  handkerchief  tied  over  her  eyes, 
she  "  kneeled  downe  upon  the  cushion  resolutely,  and, 
\nthout  any  token  of  feare  of  deathe,  sayde  allowde  in 
Lattin  the  psalme,  '  In  te  Domine,  conhdo  '  ('  In  the 
Lord  put  I  my  trust,'  Ps.  xi.).  Then  groaping  for  the 
block,  shee  layde  downe  hir  heade."  Another  authority 
states  thai  she  said  aloud  several  times,  "  Into  Thy  hands 
I  commend  my  spirit."  The  Latin  lines  which  she  is 
supposed  to  have  wTitten  before  her  execution  seem  to 
be  based  on  the  Psalms,  and  especially  on  Ps.  Ixxi.^ — 

"  O  Domine  Deus,  speravi  in  te  : 
O  care  mi  Jesu,  nunc  libera  me  : 
In  dura  catena,  in  miseri  poenA 
Desidero  te  ! 

Languendo,  gemendo,  et  genuflectendo, 
Adoro,  imploro,  ut  liberes  me  !  " 

Meanwhile  Spain  was  preparing  the  expedition  which 
was  designed  to  crush  Protestant  England.  The  In- 
vincible Armada  lay  off  Lisbon  ready  to  sail.  One  hun- 
dred and  thirty  galleons,  carrying  30,000  men,  covered 
the  broad  waters  of  the  Tagus.  5s'o  crusade  against  the 
Saracens  had  ever  created  greater  enthusiasm  than  did 
this  Holy  War  against  the  heretic,  this  final  effort  of 
authority  against  freedom.  Treasure  had  been  lavished 
like  water  ;  high  and  low  had  given  their  money,  accord- 
ing to  their  means.  For  three  years  prayers  had  been 
said  daily  for  success.  Each  noble  family  in  Spain  sent 
a  son  to  fight  for  Christ  and  Our  Lady.  The  ships  were 
named  after  apostles  and  saints  ;  the  crews  were  to 
abstain  from  vice  and  evil-speaking ;  at  sunrise  the 
Buenos  Bias,  at  sunset  the  Ave  Maria  were  to  be  sung 
on  board.  The  standard,  which  flew  from  the  flag-ship 
as  the  San  Martin  led  the  way  to  sea  in  May  1588, 
unrolled  the  motto,  "  Exsurge,  Deus,  et  vindica  causam 
tuam  "  ("  Awake,  and  stand  up  to  judge  my  quarrel : 
avenge  Thou  my  cause,  my  God,  and  my  Lord,"  Ps. 
xxxv.  23). 


ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN.  157 

In  the  space  of  a  few  weeks  the  great  fleet  was  scat- 
tered and  destroyed.  Victor  Hugo,  in  his  "  Legende  des 
Siccles,"  imagines  the  httle  Infanta  of  Spain  standing 
b\^  a  fountain  in  the  gardens  of  the  Escurial.  In  her 
tiny  hand  the  child  holds  a  rose  in  which  her  laughing 
face  is  buried,  tiU  the  damask  of  cheek  and  flower  can 
scarcely  be  distinguished.  Suddenly  an  evening  breeze 
sweeps  the  petals  into  the  basin  of  the  fountain,  and 
dashes  the  smooth  waters  into  miniature  waves,  on 
which  the  scattered  leaves  toss  like  disabled  hulks. 
''  What  does  it  mean  ? "  asks  the  wondering,  half- 
frightened  child,  in  whose  hand  only  the  bare  stalk  is 
left.  "  Madame,"  replies  the  Duenna,  "  to  princes  belong 
all  that  is  on  earth,  save  only  the  wind." 

It  was  in  a  psalm  (Ps.  iii.,  **  Lord,  how  are  they  in- 
creased that  trouble  me  ")  that  the  Enghsh  nation  ex- 
pressed their  fears  of  impending  invasion,  as,  five  cen- 
turies before,  they  had,  with  the  same  words,  invoked 
divine  aid  against  the  Norsemen.  In  a  psalm  (Ps.  Ixxvi., 
"  In  Jewry  is  God  known  ")  they  gave  voice  to  their 
gratitude  ;  with  the  same  words  the  citizens,  led  by  the 
great  preacher,  Robert  Bruce,  celebrated  the  triumph 
at  the  Market  Cross  of  Edinburgh  ;  and  from  a  third 
psalm  (Ps.  cxlvii.  18,  "  He  bloweth  with  His  wind  ") 
is  taken  the  motto  which  was  engraved  upon  the  coins 
struck  to  commemorate  the  victory,  Afflavit  Deus. 

The  defeat  of  the  Invincible  Armada  saved  England 
from  the  horrors  of  invasion  ;  but  it  did  not  end  the 
war.  The  victory  was  only  an  episode  in  that  religious 
struggle  which  gave  to  Great  Britain  the  sceptre  of  the 
sea,  and  laid  the  foundations  of  her  colonial  empire. 
In  those  "  spacious  times,"  when  men  were  endowed 
with  a  variety  of  gifts  and  qualities  any  one  of  which 
in  later  days  would  distinguish  its  possessor.  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  and  Sir  Philip  Sidney  were  conspicuous  figures 
as  gallant  knights,  courtiers,  and  scholars.  On  Raleigh, 
in  the  midst  of  his  adventurous  career  by  sea  and  land, 
the  Psalms  had  laid  their  spell.     From  Jerome's  cave  at 


158  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Bethlehem  to  Raleigh's  dungeon  in  the  Tower  their 
influence  passes  without  breach  of  continuit}',  although, 
in  the  lapse  of  twelve  centuries,  scarcely  any  aspect  of 
human  hfe  remained  unchanged — except  that  human 
nature  to  which  they  remain  eternall\"  true.  In  his 
"  History  of  the  World,"  the  bold  explorer  and  learned 
student  writes  : — 

'*  For  his  internal  gifts  and  graces,  David  so  far  exceeded 
all  other  men,  and,  putting  his  human  frailty  apart,  he 
was  said  by  God  Himself  to  be  a  man  according  to  His 
own  heart.  The  Psalms  which  he  wrote  instance  his 
piety  and  excellent  learning,  of  whom  Jerome  to  Paulina  : 
'  Da\dd,'  saith  he,  '  our  Simonides,  Pindarus,  and  Alcaeus, 
Horatius,  Catullus,  and  Serenus,  playeth  Christ  on  his 
harp,  and  on  a  ten-stringed  lute  raiseth  Him  up  rising 
from  the  dead.  And  being  both  king  and  prophet,  he 
foretelleth  Christ  more  hghtsomely  and  lively  than  all 
the  rest.'  " 

Spenser's  version  of  the  Penitential  Psalms  has  per- 
ished. But  the  metrical  translation  of  the  "  Psalmes  of 
David,"  "  begun  b}^  that  noble  and  learned  gentleman 
Sir  Philip  Sidney,  Knight,  and  finished  by  the  Right 
Honourable  the  Countess  of  Pembroke,"  has  been  pre- 
served. It  was  printed  in  1823,  and  a  portion  was 
edited  by  Ruskin  in  his  "  Bibhotheca  Pastorum  "  (1877). 
The  fact  that  Sidney  should  have  set  himself  the  task 
is  itself  significant ;  but  his  version  is  specially  note- 
worthy in  its  mingled  famiUarity  and  dignity.  It  has 
the  energy  of  the  times,  the  fixed  effort  to  reach  the 
heart  of  the  meaning  and  make  it  unmistakably  clear. 
As  Ruskin  says,  '*  Sir  Phihp  Sidney  will  use  any  cow- 
boy's or  tinker's  w'ords,  if  only  they  help  him  to  say 
precisely  in  Enghsh  what  David  said  in  Hebrew  ;  im- 
pressed the  while  himself  so  vi\ddly  by  the  majesty  of 
the  thought  itself,  that  no  tinker's  language  can  lower 
it  or  \ailgarize  it  in  his  mind." 

Nor  was  it  only  to  courtiers  and  learned  scholars  that 
the  Psalms  appealed.      To  them  also  even  simple  mar- 


ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN.  159 

iners  turned  for  strength  in  peril  from  enemies  or  ship- 
wreck. 

In  1586  five  Turkey  merchantmen,  equipped  for 
trade  and  not  for  war,  encountered  on  the  high  seas 
eleven  Spanish  galleys  and  two  frigates.  The  English 
ships  were  summoned  by  the  Spaniards  to  surrender. 
On  their  refusal  a  fight  began,  which  is  thus  described 
by  Philip  Jones.  "  Although,"  he  says,  "  our  men  per- 
formed their  parts  with  singular  valure  according  to  their 
strength,  insomuch  that  the  enemie  as  amased  therewith 
would  oftentimes  pause  and  stay,  and  consult  what  was 
best  to  be  done,  yet  they  ceased  not  in  the  midst  of  their 
businesse  to  make  prayer  to  Almighty  God,  the  revenger 
of  al  evils,  and  the  giver  of  victories,  that  it  would  please 
Him  to  assist  in  that  good  quarell  of  theirs,  in  defending 
themselves  against  so  proud  a  tyrant,  to  teache  their 
hands  to  warre  and  their  fingers  to  fight  (Ps.  cxliv.  i), 
that  the  glory  of  the  victory  might  redound  to  His  Name, 
and  to  the  honor  of  true  Rehgion,  which  the  insolent 
enemie  sought  so  much  to  overthrowe."  At  the  end 
of  four  hours  the  Spaniards  drew  off,  and  the  English 
merchantmen  pursued  their  voj^age  unmolested. 

On  the  i6th  day  of  August  1593,  "  the  Tohie  of  London, 
a  ship  of  250  tunnes,  manned  with  fiftie  men,  set  sayle 
from  Blackwall."  She  was  cast  ashore  on  the  Barbary 
coast,  and  broke  up  so  fast  that  there  was  no  time  to 
make  a  raft.  CHmbing  up  into  the  shrouds,  the  crew 
hung  there  for  a  time.  "  But  seeing  nothing  but  present 
death  approch,  we  committed  our  selves  unto  the  Lord, 
and  beganne  with  doleful  tune  and  heavy  hearts  to  sing 
the  12  Psalme  :  *  Helpe,  Lord,  for  good  and  godly  men,' 
&c.  Howbeit,  before  we  had  finished  foure  verses,  the 
waves  of  the  sea  had  stopped  the  breathes  of  most  of 
our  men  .  .  .  and  only  twelve,  by  God's  providence, 
partly  by  swimming  and  other  meanes  of  chests,  gote  on 
shcare,  which  was  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the 
wracke  of  the  ship." 

Yet  another  incident  connects  the  Psalms  with  the 


i6o  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

progress  of  the  same  war.  In  1598  the  question  of  peace 
wdth  Spain  was  hotly  debated  in  Ehzabeth's  Council. 
The  Earl  of  Essex,  supported  by  the  envoys  from  the 
States-General  of  Holland,  warrnly  urged  the  continu- 
ance of  the  war.  Burghley  as  strongly  pleaded  for 
peace.  In  the  midst  of  the  debate,  he  drew  from  his 
pocket  a  Prayer  Book,  and  read  to  Essex  the  verse,  "  The 
bloodthirsty  and  deceitful  men  shall  not  live  out  half 
their  days  "  (Ps.  Iv.  25).  Three  years  later,  on  Wednes- 
day, February  25,  1601,  Essex  was  led  to  the  high 
court  above  Caesar's  Tower,  in  the  precincts  of  the  Tower 
of  London,  and  there  beheaded. 

Like  the  queen  herself,  and  like  her  first  archbishop, 
her  greatest  statesman  was  a  lover  of  the  Psalter.  AU 
his  fife  Burghley  had  been  a  diligent  student  of  the 
Psalms.  In  his  dechning  days,  as  a  friend  and  con- 
temporary writes  of  the  great  minister,  "  there  was  no 
earthly  thing  wherein  he  took  comfort  but  in  .  .  .  read- 
ing, or  hearing  the  Scriptures,  Psalmes,  and  Praieres." 
His  will,  dated  October  20,  1579,  disposes  of  his  lands 
and  goods  in  a  manner  that  he  hopes  "  shall  not  offend 
God,  the  giver  of  them  all  to  me  ;  considering,  as  it  is 
in  the  psalm,  '  Coelum  coeh  Domino,  terram  dedit  filiis 
hominum  '  "  ("All  the  whole  heavens  are  the  Lord's ;  the 
earth  hath  He  given  to  the  children  of  men,"  Ps. 
cxv.  16). 

The  genius  of  Bacon  is  one  of  the  glories  of  the  EHza- 
bethan  age.  He  also  studied  and  quoted  the  Psalms. 
In  his  essay  "  On  Atheism,"  he  comments  on  the  ist  verse 
of  Ps.  xiv.,  that  the  fool  who  said  in  his  heart,  "There 
is  no  God,"  "  saith  it  rather  by  rote  to  himself,  as  that 
he  would  have  then  that  he  can  throughly  beheve  it  or 
be  persuaded  of  it."  Another  verse  quoted  in  Bacon's 
"  Essays  "  {"  Nature  in  Men  ")  is  Ps.  cxx.  5,  "  My  soul 
hath  long  dwelt  among  them  that  are  enemies  unto 
peace."  Like  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt,  Surrey,  Spenser,  Sir 
Philip  Sidney,  Queen  EHzabeth,  James  I.,  and  Phineas 
Fletcher,  Bacon  was  himself  a  versifier  of  the  Psalms. 


ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN.  i6i 

His  ''  Certaine  Psalmes  written  in  Sickness,"  published 
in  1624,  and  dedicated  to  George  Herbert,  are  so  un- 
melodious  that  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  he  could 
ever  have  been  a  poet.  It  was  on  a  psalm  (Ps.  ci.) 
known  as  the  "  ^lirror  for  Magistrates  "  that  he  founded 
his  advice  to  George  Villiers,  Duke  of  Buckingham.  He 
bade  him  take  that  psalm  for  his  guide  in  promoting 
courtiers.  "  In  these  the  choice  had  need  be  of  honest 
faithful  servants,  as  well  as  of  comely  outsides  who  can 
bow  the  knee  and  kiss  the  hand.  .  .  .  King  David  (Ps. 
ci.  6,  7)  propounded  a  rule  to  himself  for  the  choice  of 
his  courtiers.  He  was  a  wise  and  good  king,  and  a  wise 
and  good  king  shall  do  well  to  follow  such  a  good  ex- 
ample ;  and  if  he  find  any  to  be  faulty,  which  perhaps 
cannot  suddenly  be  discovered,  let  him  take  on  him 
this  resolution  as  King  David  did,  '  There  shall  no  deceit- 
ful person  dwell  in  my  house  '  "  (Ps.  ci.  10). 

In  stormy  scenes  of  violence  or  peril,  in  dramatic 
incidents  on  which  great  events  have  turned,  in  episodes 
in  the  lives  of  rulers  01  the  earth,  the  power  of  the  Psalms 
has  been  noted  bj-  historians.  On  masterpieces  of  Eliza- 
bethan literature  the  same  power  may  be  traced.  Wliether 
Shakespeare,  for  example,  was  indeed  "  untutored  in  the 
lore  of  Greece  and  Rome,"  may  be  open  to  dispute  ; 
but  none  can  doubt  his  famiharity  with  the  Psalms. 
"  Death,  as  the  Psalmist  saith,  is  certain  to  all :  all 
shall  die."  So  says  Justice  Shallow  to  Silence,  alluding 
to  Ps.  Ixxxix.  47,  "  WTiat  man  is  he  that  liveth  and 
shaU  not  see  death  ?  "  When  Queen  Margaret  asks,  in 
the  Second  Part  of  Henry  the  Sixth, 

"  \Miat  !    art  thou,  like  the  adder,  waxen  deaf  ? 
Be  poisonous  too,  and  kill  their  forlorn  Queen  j  " 

or  when  Hector  tells  Paris,  in  Troilus  and  Cressida, 

"  Pleasure  and  revenge 
Have  ears  more  deaf  than  adders  to  the  voice 
Of  any  true  decision," 

the  allusion  is  to  Ps.  Iviii.  4. 

6 


i62  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Buckingham's  words  in  King  Henry  the  Eighth  refer 
to  Ps.  c^.  2,  "  Let  the  lifting  up  of  my  hands  be  an 
evening  sacrifice  :  " — 

"  And,  as  the  long  divorce  of  steel  falls  on  me. 
Make  of  your  prayers  one  sweet  sacrifice. 
And  lift  my  soul  to  heaven." 

Antony's  prayer  in  Antony  and  Cleopatra — 

"  Oh  that  I  were 
Upon  the  hill  of  Basan,  to  outroar 
The  homed  herd  !   for  I  have  savage  cause  " — 

plainly  refers  to  the  Psalmist's  ''  hill  of  Basan  "  (Ps. 
Ixviii.  15)  and  the  "  fat  buUs  of  Basan  "  (Ps.  xxii.  12). 
The  prayer  of  Adam  in  As  You  Like  it — 

"  He  that  doth  the  ravens  feed. 
Yea,  providently  caters  for  the  sparrow. 
Be  comfort  to  my  age  !  " — 

is  partly  founded  on  Ps.  cxlvii.  9,  "  He  feedeth  the  young 
ravens  that  call  upon  Him."  In  King  Henry  the  Fifth, 
where  the  king  sings  his  "  Non  nobis,  Domine  !  "  in 
thanksgi\-ing  for  his  victory  at  Agincourt — 

"  O  God,  Thy  arm  was  here  ; 
And  not  to  us  but  to  Thy  arm  alone 
Ascribe  we  all  " — 

he  only  paraphrases  the  "  Not  unto  us,  O  Lord,  not  unto 
us,  but  unto  thy  Name,  give  the  praise  "  of  Ps.  ex  v.  i. 
So  the  description  of  God,  in  Richard  II.,  as  the 
"  widow's  champion  and  defence  "  is  taken  from  the 
Psalmist's  "  Father  of  the  fatherless,  and  defendeth  the 
cause  of  the  widow  "  (Ps.  lx\'iii.  5).  Wlien  the  king  in 
Hamlet  asks — 

"  \Miat  if  this  cursed  hand 
Were  thicker  than  itself  with  brother's  blood, 
Ts  there  not  rain  enough  in  the  sweet  heavens 
To  wash  it  white  as  snow  ?  " — 


ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN.  163 

he  refers  to  Ps.  li.  7,  "  Thou  shall  wash  me,  and  I  shall 
be  whiter  than  snow."  The  description  of  the  approach 
of  Alcibiades  in  Tinion  of  Athens — ■ 

"  Who,  like  a  boar  too  savage,  doth  root  up 
His  country's  peace  " — • 

suggests  Ps.  Ixxx.  13,  "  The  wild  boar  out  of  the  wood 
doth  root  it  up."  The  address  of  Romeo  to  Juhet,  where 
he  compares  her  to  "a  winged  messenger  of  Heaven  " — 

"  When,  he  bestrides  the  lazy-pacing  clouds 
And  sails  upon  the  bosom  of  the  air  " — 

recalls  such  sentences  in  the  Psalms  as  "  Magnify  Him 
that  rideth  upon  the  heavens,  as  it  were  upon  an  horse  " 
(Ps.  Ixviii.  4),  or,  ''  Who  maketh  the  clouds  His  chariot, 
and  walketh  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind  "  (Ps.  civ.  3), 
or,  *'  He  came  flying  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind  "  (Ps. 
xviii.  10). 

"  See  how  the  morning  opes  her  golden  gates, 
And  takes  her  farewell  of  the  glorious  sun  ! 
How  well  resembles  it  the  pride  of  youth. 
Trimmed  like  a  younker,  prancing  to  his  love," 

Is  a  reminiscence  of  Ps.  xix.  5,  where  the  sun  rejoices 
*'  as  a  giant  to  run  his  course."  Finally,  in  the  speech 
from  the  Second  Part  of  King  Henry  the  Sixth,  ad- 
dressed by  the  king  to  Humphrey,  Duke  of  Gloster — 

"  Stay,  Humphrey,  Duke  of  Gloster  ;   ere  thou  go 
Give  up  thy  staff  ;   Henry  \vill  to  himself 
Protector  be  :   and  God  shall  be  my  hope. 
My  stay,  my  guide,  and  lantern  to  my  feet  ; 
And  go  in  peace,  Humphrey  " — 

Shakespeare  makes  use  of  such  passages  as,  ''  Truly  my 
hope  is  even  in  Thee  "  (Ps.  xxxix.  8)  ;  "  but  the  Lord 
was  my  stay  "  (Ps.  xviii.  18)  ;  "  our  guide  unto  death  " 
(Ps.  xlviii.  13)  ;  and,  "  a  lantern  unto  my  feet,  and  a 
light  unto  my  paths  "  (Ps.  cxix.  105). 


l64  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

On  the  quieter  influence  of  the  Psahns  over  daily  con- 
duct or  by  peaceful  deathbeds  history  is  comparatively 
silent.  Yet  three  instances  may  be  quoted  to  illustrate 
this  aspect  of  the  subject.  In  his  dying  moments  the 
thoughts  of  Richard  Hooker,  the  pride  of  EngHsh  theo- 
logians, dwelt  on  Ps.  cxxx.,  the  De  Profiindis  on  which 
Luther  has  founded  one  of  his  best  known  hymns,  and 
Phinehas  Fletcher  has  meditated  in  the  lines, — 

"As  a  watchman  waits  for  day. 

And  looks  for  light  and  looks  again. 

When  the  night  grows  old  and  gray. 
To  be  relieved  he  calls  amain  ; 

So  look,  so  wait,  so  long  my  eyes 
To  see  my  Lord,  my  Sun,  arise." 

Hooker's  "  Ecclesiastical  Pohty  "  by  its  miassive  dignity 
still  retains  its  place  in  theologicaJ  hterature.  But  Bishop 
Jewel's  **  Apology  for  the  Church  of  England  "  (1562), 
as  a  vindication  of  the  doctrine  and  disciphne  of  the 
Reformed  Church,  was  in  its  day  equally  famous,  and 
circulated  throughout  Europe  when  the  Council  of  Trent 
was  still  sitting.  Jewel  himself  died  a  peaceful  death, 
at  Monkton  Farleigh  in  Wiltshire,  on  September  23, 
1571.  On  his  deathbed  he  desired  that  the  71st  Psalm 
might  be  sung.  At  the  words,  "Thou,  O  Lord,  art  my 
hope  and  my  trust  from  my  j'outh  up,"  he  cried  out, 
"  Thou,  O  Lord,  hast  been  my  07ily  hope."  \\lien  they 
reached  the  passage,  "  Cast  me  not  off  in  time  of  age," 
etc.,  he  exclaimed,  ''  Ever}*  one  who  is  d^ang  is,  in  truth, 
old  and  gray-headed,  and  failing  in  strength."  The 
psalm  ended,  he  broke  forth  into  frequent  ejaculations  : 
"  Lord,  now  lettest  Thou  Thy  servant  depart  in  peace  " 
— "  Lord,  suffer  Th\^  servant  to  come  to  Thee  " — "  Lord, 
receive  my  spirit  " — and  so  died. 

Great  though  Hooker  and  Jewel  were  as  theologians 
and  apologists,  George  Herbert  (1593-1632)  was,  in  tem- 
perament and  character,  more  typical  of  the  Elizabethan 
age  in  which  he  was  bom.     A  man  of  saintly  piet}^  at 


ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN.  165 

once  an  ascetic  and  a  mystic,  he  had  also  the  courtly 
grace  and  refined  instincts  of  the  high-bred  gentleman. 
Men  of  his  type,  who  both  venerated  the  Church  of  the 
Fathers  and  inherited  the  culture  of  the  Renaissance, 
were  uninteIHgible  to  the  Puritans. 

Retiring  from  court,  and  taking  holy  orders,  Herbert 
spent  his  closing  years  as  a  parish  priest  among  the 
green  meadows  of  Bemerton,  in  view  of  the  tapering 
spire  of  Salisbur}^  Cathedral.  It  was  in  something  of 
the  Psalmist's  spirit  that  he  poured  out  his  soul  in  verse, 
adorning  his  poetry  with  the  quaint  conceits  and  fancies 
of  the  Elizabethan  age.  To  him,  as  has  been  alread}^ 
mentioned.  Bacon  dedicated  his  "  Certaine  Psalmes." 
His  hymn,  "  The  God  of  Love  my  Shepherd  is,"  is  one 
of  the  most  popular  versions  of  Ps.  xxiii.  The  motto 
of  his  "  Sacred  Poems  and  Private  Ejaculations,"  pub- 
lished at  Cambridge  in  1633,  is,  "  In  His  temple  doth 
every  man  speak  of  His  honour  "  (Ps.  xxix.  8),  and  the 
sam.e  verse  suggested  for  his  book  the  title  of  "  The 
Temple."  "  Thou  shalt  answer  for  me,  O  Lord  my 
God  "  (Ps.  xxxviii.  15)  is  the  burden  of  his  admirable 
poem,  "The  Quip."  The  poet,  flouted  by  all  that  this 
world  holds  dear — Beauty,  Money,  brave  Glory,  quick 
Wit  and  Conversation — takes  refuge  in  the  comfort 
ministered  by  the  words  of  the  Psalm, — 

"  Yet  when  the  houre  of  Thy  design. 

To  answer  these  fine  things  shall  come. 
Speak  not  at  large  ;   say,  I  am  Thine, 

And  then  they  have  their  answer  home." 

In  1632  he  died  at  Bemerton,  dwelling,  like  Jewel, 
with  his  latest  breath,  on  the  text,  "  Forsake  me  not 
when  my  strength  faileth  "  (Ps.  Ixxi.  8).  and  committing 
his  soul  to  God  in  the  familiar  words,  "  Into  Thy  hands 
I  commend  my  spirit  "  (Ps.  xxxi.  6). 

Instances  of  the  influence  of  the  Psalter  on  uneventful 
lives  or  on  everyday  actions  are,  perhaps,  uninteresting 
to  note.     But  the  point  needs  no  labouring.     The  power 


i66  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

of  the  Psalms  has  been  instinctively  felt  in  the  conduct 
of  countless  men  and  women  whose  careers  were  obscure, 
unpicturesque,  unknowTi.  It  is  here,  though  unrecorded, 
that  their  teaching,  their  encouragement,  their  warning, 
their  consolation  have  been  most  widely  felt.  Here  their 
sway  has  been  so  general  as  to  be  almost  universal  ; 
here,  also,  it  has  been  so  enduring  as  to  be  practically 
everlasting.  From  age  to  age,  from  hand  to  hand,  across 
the  centuries,  has  passed  their  torch  of  truth,  the  flame 
burning  bright  and  steady,  ever  pointing  the  way  through 
the  darkness,  ever  exploring  the  mysteries  of  the  Divine 
dealings  \\ith  mankind,  always  Ughting  up  the  recesses 
of  the  human  heart.  It  was  the  sense  of  this  continuous 
influence  of  the  Psalms  that  roused  Richard  Hooker 
from  his  absorbing  studies  to  a  noble  outburst  of  feeling. 
Yet  here  again,  not  only  by  his  eloquence  but  by  its 
source,  the  universality  of  the  Psalms,  and  their  superi- 
ority to  rehgious  differences,  are  strikingly  illustrated. 
Hooker's  words  are  httle  more  than  a  paraphrase  from 
the  exposition  of  Torquemada,  the  Dominican  Inquisitor. 
The  passage  is  familiar  enough  :  "  What  is  there  necessary 
for  man  to  know  which  the  Psalms  are  not  able  to  teach  ? 
They  are  to  beginners  an  easy  and  familiar  introduction  ; 
a  mighty  augmentation  of  aU  virtue  and  knowledge  in 
such  as  are  entered  before,  a  strong  confirmation  to  the 
most  perfect  amongst  others.  Heroical  magnanimity, 
exquisite  justice,  grave  moderation,  exact  \\-isdom,  re- 
pentance unfeigned,  unwearied  patience,  the  mysteries 
of  God,  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  the  terrors  of  wrath,  the 
comforts  of  grace,  the  works  of  Providence  over  this 
world,  and  the  promised  joys  of  that  world  which  is  to 
come,  all  good  necessarily  to  be  either  known  or  done  or 
had,  this  one  celestial  fountain  yieldeth.  Let  there  be 
any  grief  or  disease  incident  into  the  soul  of  man,  any 
wound  or  sickness  named,  for  which  there  is  not  in  this 
trear.ure-house  a  present  comfortable  remedy  at  all  times 
ready  to  be  found.  Hereof  it  is  that  we  covet  to  make 
the  Psalms  especially  familiar  unto  us  all.     This  is  the 


ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN.  167 

\ory  cause  why  we  iterate  the  Psalms  oftener  than  any 
nlher  part  of  Scripture  besides;  the  cause  wherefore  we 
inure  the  people  together  with  their  minister,  and  not 
the  minister  alone,  to  read  them  as  other  parts  of  Scrip- 
ture he  doth." 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE    HUGUENOTS,  I524-1598. 

Marot's  "  Psalms  "  at  Court  ;  the  distinctive  heritage  of  the  Huguenots  ; 
the  power  of  the  Psalms  in  the  public  and  private  lives  of  the 
Huguenots — Palissy  the  potter,  Calvin,  Theodore  de  Beza,  Robert 
Estienne,  Casaubon,  Jean  Rousseau  ;  traces  in  modem  France  of 
the  struggle  between  Roman  Catholics  and  Huguenots ;  beginning 
of  the  persecution  of  Protestants — Jean  Leclerc  (1524),  Wolfgang 
Schuch  (1525)  ;  indecision  of  Francis  I.  ;  the  Huguenot  mart>TS  of 
Meaux — Jean  Rabec,  massacre  of  Vassy  ;  commencement  of  the 
Wars  of  Religion  (1562);  Coligny  at  Xoycrs  and  Moncontour  ; 
Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  (1572);  Henry  of  Navarre,  flight 
from  Paris  to  Alen^on,  battle"^  of  Courtras  and  Chateau  d'Arques  ; 
Edict  of  Nantes  (1598). 

WHEN  Marot's  *'  Psalms  first  appeared,  they  were 
sung  to  popular  airs  alike  by  Roman  Catholics 
and  Calvinists.  No  one  delighted  in  the  sandes  chan- 
sonnettes  more  passionately  than  the  Dauphin,  after- 
wards Henr}'  II.  He  sang  them  himself,  set  them  to 
music,  and  surrounded  himself  with  musicians  who  ac- 
companied his  voice  on  the  viol  or  the  lute.  To  win  his 
favour,  the  gentlemen  of  the  court  begged  him  to  choose 
for  each  a  psalm.  Courtiers  adopted  their  special  psalms, 
just  as  they  adopted  their  particular  arms,  mottoes,  or 
liveries.  Henrv^  as  yet  without  an  heir,  sang  to  his  own 
music  Ps.  cxxviii.,  which  promises  to  the  God-fearing 
man  a  wife  "  as  the  fruitful  vine,"  and  children  "  like 
the  olive  branches."  Catherine  de  Medicis,  then  a  child- 
less wife,  repeated  Ps.  vi.  ("  O  Lord,  rebuke  me  not  in 
Thine  indignation")  and  Ps.  cxlii.  ("I  cried  unto  the 
Lord   with   my  voice").      Anthony,    King   of  Navarre, 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1524-1598.  169 

chose  Ps.  xliii.  ("  Give  sentence  with  me,  O  God "). 
Diane  de  Poitiers  sang  the  De  Profundis  (Ps.  cxxx.)  to 
the  tune  of  a  dance.  In  after  j^ears,  when  Catherine  had 
borne  her  husband  ten  children,  Henry  carolled  Ps.  xlii. 
("  Like  as  the  hart  desire th  the  water  brooks  ")  as  he 
hunted  the  stag  in  the  Forest  of  Fontainebleau,  riding 
by  the  side  of  Diane,  for  the  motto  of  whose  portrait  as 
a  huntress  he  chose  the  first  verse  of  his  favourite  psalm. 

But  with  the  Huguenot  love  of  the  Psalms  was  more 
than  a  passing  fashion.  They  became  in  a  peculiar 
sense  his  special  inheritance.  "  When  the  Catholics," 
says  Florimond  de  Remond,  "  saw  simple  women  seek 
torments  in  order  to  manifest  their  faith,  and  meet 
death  crying  only  on  Christ  their  Saviour,  or  singing 
a  psalm  ;  when  they  saw  young  virgins  go  to  the  scaffold 
as  gaily  as  they  would  go  to  the  bridal  couch  ;  when 
they  saw  the  men  rejoice  at  the  sight  of  the  horrible 
preparations  and  instruments  of  death,  and,  half  burned 
and  roasted,  contemplate  from  the  stake  their  impend- 
ing tortures,  standing  firm  as  rocks  among  the  billows 
of  grief — in  a  word,  dying  with  a  smile — their  hearts 
wept  as  well  as  their  eyes." 

With  the  Psalms  is  bound  up  the  history  of  French 
Protestantism.  Their  translation  into  verse  and  their 
setting  to  music  were,  says  Strada,  among  the  chief 
causes  of  the  Reformation  in  the  Low  Countries.  So  in 
France  the  metrical  version  of  the  Psalter,  in  the  vulgar 
tongue,  set  to  popular  music,  was  one  of  the  principal 
instruments  in  the  success  of  the  Reformed  Church. 
The  Psalms  were  identified  with  the  everyday  life  of 
the  Huguenots.  Children  were  taught  to  learn  them  by 
heart ;  they  were  sung  at  every  meal  in  households 
like  that  of  Coligny  ;  to  chant  psalms  meant,  in  popular 
language,  to  turn  Protestant.  On  the  battlefield,  and  in 
the  discipline  of  the  camp,  the  Psalms  held  their  place. 
A  psalm,  as  has  been  already  mentioned,  was  the  war- 
cry  of  the  Britons  at  Mold,  of  the  Knights  Templars,  of 
Demetrius  of  the  Don  :    a  verse  from  the  Psalms  had 


170  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

floated  on  the  banner  of  the  Spanish  Armada ;  the 
battle-song  of  John  Sobieski  at  Choczin  in  1663,  when 
the  tide  of  ^lohammedan  invasion  was  finally  checked, 
was  Ps.  cxv.  So  now,  in  the  French  Wars  of  Religion, 
the  Psalms  became  the  Huguenot  "Marseillaise."  With 
a  psalm  they  repelled  the  charge  or  delivered  the  assault. 
In  Conde's  army,  so  La  Noue  has  recorded,  the  sentries 
were  posted  and  relieved  to  the  chant  of  psalms.  Ps. 
iii.  ("  Lord,  how  are  they  increased  that  trouble  me  ") 
gave  the  signal  of  danger.  Day  after  day  the  hymn  of 
thanksgiving  for  victory  was  raised  in  Ps.  cxxii.  {"  I 
was  glad  when  they  said  unto  me,"  etc.)  from  the  walls  of 
Huguenot  strongholds,  like  Montauban  or  La  Rochelle, 
as  the  soldiers  of  the  League  drew  off  their  beaten  forces. 
Nor  was  it  only  in  the  shock  of  battle  or  the  glow  of 
victory  that  the  power  of  the  Psalms  was  exercised. 
Other  songs,  from  the  days  of  Tyrtseus  to  those  of  Kor- 
ner,  have  warmed  the  blood  and  fired  enthusiasm.  But 
the  Psalms  alone  have  been  equally  powerful  in  defeat, 
disaster,  or  humiliation.  In  vain  was  the  chanting  of 
the  Psalms  proscribed.  Equally  in  vain  was  it  to  burn 
the  books  by  the  hands  of  executioners,  or  to  thrust  the 
pages  into  the  gaping  wounds  of  the  dying.  Colpor- 
teurs risked  their  lives  in  carrying  to  the  remotest  comers 
of  Protestant  France  copies  of  Marot's  version  of  the 
Psalms,  printed  so  small  that  they  could  be  readily  con- 
cealed in  the  clothes  of  refugees.  Thus  it  was  that  the 
Psalms  sustained  the  courage  of  the  martyrs  in  the  midst 
of  torture,  and  of  the  Formats  de  la  Foi  who  were  con- 
demned to  the  living  death  of  the  galleys.  The  meetings 
of  the  proscribed  and  persecuted  Huguenots  were  sum- 
moned by  the  singing  of  a  psalm  ;  in  woods  and  caverns, 
in  dungeons,  in  exile  in  America,  the  Psalms  still  sounded 
from  the  lips  of  the  sturdy  Protestants.  In  the  language 
of  psalms  was  commemorated  the  escape  of  those  who 
fled  from  the  country  ;  and  an  old  seal  is  in  existence, 
once  the  property  of  a  Huguenot  refugee,  which  bears 
as  its  device  a  net  below  ;    and  above,  a  bird  soaring 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1524-1598.  171 

upwards  ;  and,  as  its  motto,  the  words,  ''  My  soul  is 
escaped  even  as  a  bird  out  of  the  snare  of  the  fowler  " 
(Ps.  cxxiv.  6).  To  sing  the  Psalms  of  David  men  left 
their  native  land  and  sought  remote  recesses  of  the  earth. 
Francois  Leguat  and  sLx  companions  made  their  home 
on  the  Island  of  Rodrigues  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  in  order 
that  there,  without  hindrance,  they  might  indulge  in 
the  consolation  of  singing  praise  to  God.  The  spec- 
tacle of  these  seven  fugitives  gathered  together  to  chant 
the  Psalms  of  David,  in  an  otherwise  uninhabited  island, 
is  at  once  a  strange  scene  to  conjure  up  with  the  unag- 
ination,  and  a  striking  commentary  on  the  enduring 
power  of  the  Hebrew  hymns. 

Scarcely  less  impressive,  perhaps,  are  the  more  peace- 
ful associations  which  made  the  Psalms  not  only  the 
banner  and  the  symbol,  but  also  the  synonym  of  the 
Reformed  Churches,  and  connect  them  with  "the  indus- 
tries, the  private  lives,  the  learning,  or  the  arts  of  the 
Huguenots. 

"  Palissy  ware,"  with  its  lustrous  glaze  and  Ufelike 
reproductions  of  natural  objects,  was  the  invention  of 
Bernard  Palissy,  the  Huguenot  potter,  "  ouvrier  en  terre 
et  inventeur  de  rustiques  figures."  In  his  indomitable 
efforts  to_  solve  the  mystery  of  enamel  he  had  stripped 
his  dwelling  bare  of  furniture,  and  had  beggared  hnn- 
self,  his  wife,  and  his  children.  W^orn  out  with  watch- 
mg  his  furnace,  shrunk  to  a  skeleton,  mocked  bv  his 
neighbours,  bitterly  reproached  by  his  family,  he  found 
consolation  in  the  Psalms.  As  he  wandered  through 
the  fields  round  Saintes,  observing  the  beauty  and 
variety  of  that  nature  which  he  learned  to  imitate  with 
such  marvellous  skill,  he  compared  the  infmite  power 
and  wisdom  and  goodness  of  God  with  his  owti  petty 
cares  and  trials.  "  I  have  fallen  on  mv  face,"  he  says, 
"  and  adoring  God,  cried  unto  Him  in"' spirit,  '  What  is 
man  that  Thou  art  mindful  of  him '  (Ps.  viii.  4)  ;  and, 
'  Not  unto  us,  O  Lord,  not  unto  us,  but  to  Thy  Name 
give  the  praise  '  "  (Ps.  cxv.  i). 


172  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  FIFE. 

To  John  Calvin,  the  theologian  of  the  French  Protes- 
tants, belongs  the  honour  of  editing  the  first  printed 
edition  of  metrical  psalms  for  church  worship.  Marot's 
translation  of  thirty  psalms  had  received  the  royal 
licence  on  November  30,  1541.  Three  years  before, 
Calvin  had  become  the  pastor  of  the  French  Protestant 
Church  at  Strasburg.  There,  in  1539,  he  had  caused 
to  be  printed  one  psalm  in  prose  (cxiii.),  and  seventeen 
in  verse,  set  to  music.  Of  these  metrical  translations 
twelve  were  by  Marot  ;  the  remaining  five  were  by 
Calvin  himself,  in  whom  the  genius  of  philosophy  had 
not  destroyed  the  natural  taste  for  poetry.  At  Geneva 
it  was  one  of  Calvin's  first  acts  to  introduce  the  chanting 
of  psalms  into  the  public  worship  of  the  Reformed  Church 
(November  1541).  In  his  preface  to  the  Genevan  edi- 
tion of  Marot's  Fifty  Psalms,  together  with  a  liturgy 
and  a  catechism,  June  10,  1543,  he  says  that,  for  the 
worship  of  God,  "  Nous  ne  trouverons  meilleures  chan- 
sons ne  plus  propres  pour  ce  faire,  que  les  pseaumes  de 
David,  lesqueis  le  sainct  Esprit  luy  a  dictez  et  faits." 
It  was  to  the  Psahns  that  he  himself  turned  in  mental 
troubles,  as  well  as  in  the  throes  of  pain  and  death.  In 
any  anxiety  of  mind  he  repeated  the  words  of  Ps.  vi.  3, 
"  My  soul  is  sore  troubled  :  but,  Lord,  how  long  wilt 
Thou  punish  me  ?  "  In  the  agony  of  mortal  pain  he 
gi'oaned  out,  "  I  became  dumb,  and  opened  not  my 
mouth  ;  for  it  was  Thy  doing  "  (Ps.  xxxix.  10).  It  was 
fully  enough  for  him,  he  said,  to  know  that  it  was  God's 
hand.  Almost  his  last  words  were  a  fragment  from  the 
psalm,  "  How  long,  O  Lord  ?  "  (Ps.  xiii.  i)  ;  but  even 
the  cry  of  weariness  rather  expressed  his  lament  for  the 
calamities  of  the  Huguenots  than  his  own  impatience  of 
spirit. 

In  his  later  years  Calvin's  colleague  at  Geneva  was 
Theodore  de  Beza  (15 19-1605),  the  writer  of  the  metrical 
version  of  Ps.  Ixviii.,  which  was  the  battle -song  of 
the  Huguenots.  Taste  for  the  culture  of  the  Renais- 
sance, passion  for  poetr}',  worldly  success  and  fame,  had 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1524-1598.  173 

weakened  the  impression  of  the  religious  training  of  his 
youth.  A  dangerous  illness  revived  his  former  feelings. 
Escaping  from  the  bondage  of  Egypt,  as  he  called  his 
previous  life,  he  took  refuge  with  Calvin  at  Geneva.  In 
1548,  when  he,  for  the  hrst  time,  attended  the  service 
of  the  Reformed  x\ssembly,  the  congregation  was  sing- 
ing Ps.  xci.,  "  Whoso  dwelleth  under  the  defence  of 
the  Most  High  shall  abide  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Almighty.'"'  He  never  forgot  the  effect  of  the  words. 
They  supported  him  in  all  the  difficulties  of  his  subse- 
quent life  ;  they  conquered  his  fears,  and  gave  him 
courage  to  meet  every  danger.  To  the  work  of  trans- 
lating the  Psalms  into  French  verse,  and  into  Latin  prose 
and  Latin  verse,  Beza  devoted  the  best  3'ears  of  his  life. 
His  translation  into  French  verse,  completing  that  of 
Marot,  was  published  at  Lyons  in  1562.  During  sleep- 
less nights  Beza  used  to  repeat  to  himself  the  morning 
hymn  of  Eastern  Christians,  the  favourite  psalm  of  St. 
Chrysostom,  "  O  God,  thou  art  my  God  ;  early  will  I 
seek  Thee,"  etc.  (Ps.  Ixiii.).  When  this  veteran  of  the 
Reformation  died  (October  13,  1605),  it  was  with  a 
text  from  the  Psalms  upon  his  lips,  "  If  Thou,  Lord, 
wilt  be  extreme  to  mark  what  is  done  amiss,  O  Lord, 
who  may  abide  it  ?  "  (Ps.  cxxx.  3). 

By  a  text  from  the  Psalms,  Robert  Estienne,  the 
famous  printer,  v.^as  sustained  throughout  his  long 
struggle  Vvith  the  theologians  of  the  Sorbonne,  who  pros- 
cribed his  editions  of  the  Bible  in  the  vulgar  tongue. 
"  W^henever,"  he  said,  "  I  recall  to  mind  the  war  that 
I  have  waged  with  the  Sorbonne  these  twenty  years 
and  more,  I  have  been  astonished  that  so  small  and  frail 
a  person  as  myself  could  have  had  strength  to  continue 
the  struggle.  Yet  every  time  that  memory  reminds 
me  of  my  deliverance,  that  voice  which  in  Ps.  cxxvi. 
celebrates  the  redemption  of  the  Church  strikes  an  echo 
in  my  heart :  "  When  the  Lord  turned  again  the  cap- 
ti\dty  of  Sion,  then  were  we  Hke  unto  them  that  dream  '  " 
(verse  i). 


174  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

On  August  20,  1608,  the  great  scholar  Casaubon  was 
going  with  his  wife  to  the  Huguenot  worship  at  Cha- 
renton  in  an  open  boat  on  the  Seine,  singing  psalms 
as  they  went.  They  had  finished  Ps.  xci.,  and  had 
reached  verse  7  of  Ps.  xcii.,  when  a  heavy  barge 
struck  the  stern  of  his  boat  and  threw  his  wife  into  the 
river.  Casaubon  saved  her,  after  almost  losing  his  own 
life  in  the  effort.  But  in  doing  so  he  dropped  into  the 
river  his  Book  of  Psalms,  given  to  him  by  his  wife  as  a 
wedding  present,  and  for  twenty-two  years  the  constant 
companion  of  his  travels.  They  reached  the  temple, 
and  were  present  at  the  services.  When  the  chant  of 
the  Psalms  began,  Casaubon  put  his  hand  into  his  pocket 
for  his  book,  and  for  the  iirst  time  discovered  his  loss. 
He  did  not  recover  himself  till  the  congregation  had 
finished  more  than  half  the  86th  Psalm.  The  verse  at 
which  he  was  able  to  join  in  the  singing  was  the  end 
of  the  13th:  "and  thou  hast  delivered  my  soul  from 
the  nethermost  hell."  "  I  could  not  but  remember," 
says  Casaubon  in  his  journal,  "  that  place  of  Ambrose 
where  he  says,  '  This  is  the  peculiarity  of  the  Psalter, 
that  every  one  can  use  its  words  as  if  they  were  com- 
pletely and  individually  his  own.'  " 

A  story  which  illustrates  his  love  of  the  Psalms  is  told 
of  Jean  Rousseau,  the  Huguenot  painter  (1630-1693),  who 
for  his  religious  opinions  was  shut  out  from  the  Royal 
Academy  of  painting,  and  died  an  exile  in  London.  The 
Duchess  of  Orleans,  who  had  been  compelled  to  leave 
her  home  in  the  Palatinate,  to  abjure  the  Protestant 
faith,  and  to  marry  the  brother  of  Louis  XIV.,  wTote  to 
her  sister  :  "  You  must  not  think  that  I  never  sing 
the  Psalms  or  Lutheran  hymns.  I  sing  them  constantly, 
and  find  in  them  the  greatest  comfort.  I  must  tell  you 
what  happened  to  me  in  connection  with  them.  I  did 
not  know  that  M.  Rousseau,  who  has  painted  the  Orangery 
at  Versailles,  belonged  to  the  Reformed  religion  ;  he 
was  at  work  on  a  scaffolding,  and  I,  thinking  myself 
alone  in  the  gallery,  began  to  sing  the  i6th  Psalm.     I 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1524-1598.  175 

had  hardly  finished  the  first  verse,  when  I  saw  some  one 
come  huri-iedly  down  from  the  scaffolding  and  fall  at 
my  feet.  It  was  Rousseau.  I  thought  he  had  gone 
mad.  '  Good  God !  Rousseau,'  said  I,  '  what  is  the 
matter  ?  '  '  Is  it  possible,  Madame,'  he  answered,  *  that 
you  still  remember  your  Psalms  and  sing  them  ?  May 
God  bless  you,  and  confirm  you  in  these  good  feelings  !  ' 
His  eyes  were  full  of  tears." 

Upon  France  of  to-day  the  history  of  the  Reformed 
Churches  has  left  its  lasting  mark.  Memories  of  this 
struggle  for  existence  linger  round  the  ruins  of  castles, 
churches,  and  towns.  They  are  preserved  in  caves,  like 
those  of  Lozere,  which  were  the  refuges  and  the  store- 
houses of  the  Huguenots.  New  cathedrals,  like  those  of 
Orleans  or  Uzes,  are  monuments  of  the  religious  bigotry 
which  destroyed  the  older  edifices  ;  new  towns,  such  as 
Privas,  record  the  atrocities  of  a  religious  war  which  did 
not  hesitate  to  turn  cities  into  deserts.  Places  like  the 
Place  du  Murier  at  Angouleme,  or  the  bridge  of  Orthez, 
are  traditionally  associated  with  deeds  of  atrocity,  when 
the  Huguenots,  goaded  to  desperation  by  persecution 
and  massacre,  turned,  with  the  Psalms  on  their  lips, 
to  destroy  their  oppressors.  The  poetry  of  the  Hugue- 
nots, partly  religious,  partly  polemical,  partly  warlike, 
is  still  sung  in  country  districts,  where  it  enshrines  the 
hopes  of  the  Protestants,  long  since  dispelled,  as  in  the 
stanza, — 

"  Nostre  Dieu  reaversera 
Vous  et  vostre  loy  romaine, 
Et  du  tout  se  moquera 
De  vostre  entreprise  vaine. 

Han,  Han,  Papegots  ! 

Faites  place  aux  Huguenots." 

In  the  Angoumois,  to  this  day,  covered  utensils  of 
earthenware  are  called  Huguenotes,  because  they  were 
used  by  the  Protestants  to  cook  meat  on  joicrs  maigres. 
Inscriptions  over  the  doors  of  houses  still  indicate  the 
homes  of  the  Huguenots  ;  at  Xainton  (Dept.  des  Deux 
Sevres),  for  example,  is  the  motto  from  Ps.  cxxvii.  i. — 


176  1  HE  PSALMS  IX  HU:\IAX  LIFE. 

"  Oa  a  beau  sa  maison  batir. 
Si  le  Seigneur  n'y  met  la  main, 
Cela  n'est  que  batir  en  vain." 

The  Rue  du  Renard,  no  uncommon  name  in  street 
nomenclature,  commemorates  the  times  when  Protes- 
tants hunted  Cathohc  priests  ^vith  cries  of  "  Renard." 
*'  Le  Roi  Hugon,"  with  whose  midnight  depredations 
children  are  frightened  at  Tours,  is  wrongly  supposed  to 
have  given  his  name  to  the  Huguenots,  who  glided 
through  the  cit}^  in  the  shelter  of  the  darkness  to  attend 
their  places  of  worship.  In  Bas-Poitou  wolves  were 
popularly  called  Soubises,  in  memory  of  the  terrible 
leader  of  the  Protestants  ;  and  many  of  the  Druidic 
stones  which  are  scattered  over  the  country  are  indiffer- 
ently known  as  Pierres  du  Diable  and  Pierres  de  Soubise. 
Even  the  nicknames  of  the  Huguenots  suggest  the  des- 
perate character  of  the  strife.  Soubise  was  called  "le 
roi  des  Parpaillaux  "  (the  patois  for  papillons),  because  he 
and  his  followers  fluttered  round  the  fire  and  the  stake. 
The  word  moiichard  is  supposed  to  be  derived  from 
x\ntoine  de  Mouchy,  the  most  zealous  ferreter-out  of 
heretics.  Proverbs  like  riche  comme  un  Huguenot,  or 
hoiinete  cmnme  un  Huguenot,  recall  the  envy  which  was 
roused  by  the  \drtues  and  wealth  of  the  Protestants. 
Deepest  of  aU  is  the  mark  which  the  suppression  of 
French  Protestantism  has  left  on  the  political,  industrial, 
and  intellectual  life  of  the  nation.  It  paved  the  way 
for  the  absolute  despotism  of  the  Crown  and  the  conse- 
quent reaction  of  the  Revolution.  It  robbed  France 
of  the  hands  and  brains,  arts  and  industries,  of  the  best 
educated,  the  most  laborious,  frugal,  and  conscientious 
of  her  sons.  It  encouraged,  by  its  repression  of  liberty 
of  thought,  the  scepticism  of  the  eighteenth  century  and 
the  anti-clerical  feeling  of  the  late  Republic. 

From  the  m.artyrology  of  Crespin  and  other  writers 
migh:  be  cited  almost  innumerable  instances  in  which 
the  Psalms  sustained  the  courage  of  French  Protestants 
in  the  midst  of  mortal  agony.     In  1524,  when  the  Psalter 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1524-1598.  177 

had  not  been  versified,  and  was  hardly  known  in  the 
prose  translation  of  Lefevre  d'Etaples,  Jean  Leclerc,  the 
wool-comber  of  Meaux,  was  burned  alive  at  Metz.  Be- 
fore the  fires  were  lighted  he  was  subjected  to  horrible 
tortures  ;  but  his  constancy  never  wavered  as  he  re- 
peated the  same  words  which  had  encouraged  the  mar- 
tyrs of  the  early  Christian  era  :  "  Their  idols  are  silver 
and  gold,  even  the  work  of  men's  hands.  .  .  .  They 
that  make  them  are  like  unto  them  ;  and  so  are  all  such 
as  put  their  trust  in  them  "  (Ps.  cxv.  4-8).  A  year  later, 
in  the  same  year  (1525)  in  which  the  Inquisition  was 
established  in  France,  Wolfgang  Schuch,  the  Lutheran 
preacher  in  Lorraine,  was  burned  alive  at  Nancy,  re- 
peating at  the  stake  the  words  of  Ps.  li. 

The  persecution  of  the  Protestants  had  begun  while 
Francis  I.  was  engaged  in  war  with  Charles  V.,  or  de- 
tained a  prisoner  in  Spain,  and  while  Louise  of  Savoy 
was  Regent  of  France.  Taken  captive  at  the  battle 
of  Pavia  (1525),  Francis  had  been  brought  under  a  guard 
to  the  Church  of  the  Certosa.  When  he  entered  the 
building  the  monks  were  singing  Ps.  cxix.  65-70.  At 
verse  71  the  king  recovered  himself  sufficiently  to  join 
in  the  words,  "It  is  good  for  me  that  I  have  been  in 
trouble,  that  I  may  learn  Thy  statutes."  Strong  hopes 
were  entertained  that  Francis,  for  love  of  his  sister 
Marguerite,  from  political  rivalry,  or  from  personal  sym- 
pathy, might  place  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Reformed 
movement.  The  policy  of  the  Crown  was  indeed,  for  a 
time,  more  tolerant.  Francis  had  delayed  to  execute 
the  decree  of  the  Sorbonne  against  Marot's  versions. 
Though  he  ultimatel}^  forbade  their  publication,  he  was 
often  heard  humming  the  airs,  and  on  his  deathbed  he 
ordered  the  book  to  be  read  aloud  for  his  consolation. 
"  Knowing  that  his  last  hour  was  come,  he  set  the  affairs 
of  his  house  in  order,  commanded  that  the  Psalms  of 
Clement  Marot  should  be  brought  to  him,  caused  some 
to  be  read  aloud  to  him,  and  commending  his  people 
and  his  servants  to  the  Dauphin,"  died  March  31,  I547- 


178        the:  psalms  in  human  life. 

But  the  general  policy  was  not  reversed,  and  Leclerc 
and  Schuch  head  the  long  list  of  Protestant  martyrs 
who,  from  1542  onwards,  chanted  the  Psalms  in  Marot's 
version  as  they  were  led  to  the  scaffold  or  the  stake. 
Their  song  was  taken  up  by  the  bystanders  in  the  street. 
It  was  thus  that  at  Meaux,  in  1546,  the  fifty-seven  pris- 
oners and  their  friends  in  the  crowd  joined  in  Ps.  Ixxix. 
as  they  were  led  to  prison  ;  and  it  was  the  same  psalm 
which  the  fourteen  who  were  condemned  to  death  sang 
on  their  way  to  the  scaffold, — 

"  Les  gens  entrez  sont  en  ton  heritage, 
lis  ont  pollu,  seigneur,  par  leur  outrage. 
Ton  temple  sainct,  Jerusalem  destruite. 
Si  qu'en  monceaux  de  pierres  I'ont  reduite. 

lis  ont  bailie  les  corps 

De  tes  seruiteurs  morts 

Aux  corbeaux  pour  les  paistre 

Le  chair  des  bien-viuans 

Aux  animaux  suyuans 

Bois  et  pleine  champestre." 

This  is  the  psalm  which  was  used  by  the  Jews  every 
Friday,  in  lamentation  over  the  ruins  of  Jerusalem.  The 
same  psalm  was  applied  alike  to  the  zealous  excesses 
of  the  Huguenots  or  the  Puritans,  and  to  the  profane 
outrages  of  the  French  Revolution.  It  was  used  by 
the  Carthusians  of  Woburn  Abbey  at  the  time  of  the 
dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  when  Abbot  Hobbs  called 
the  brethren  together,  and  bade  them,  "  for  the  reverence 
of  God,"  to  pray  devoutly,  and  recite  the  Psalm  "Deus 
venerunt  gentes  "  ("  O  God,  the  heathen  are  come  into 
thine  heritage  ").  Verse  2  of  the  same  Psalm  was  the 
motto  chosen  by  the  Jesuit  Parsons  for  his  book,  "De 
Persecutione  Anglic  an  a  "  (1581).  The  same  words  were 
suggested  to  Luisa  de  Carvajal  by  the  sight  of  those 
Roman  Catholics  who  were  executed  in  London  in  1608. 
"  We  can  hardly  go  out  to  walk  without  seeing  the  heads 
and  hmbs  of  our  dear  and  holy  ones  stuck  up  on  the 
gates  that  divide  the  streets,  and  the  birds  of  the  air 
perching  on  them ;    which  makes  me  think  of  the  verse 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1524-1598.  179 

in  the  Psalms,  '  The  dead  bodies  of  thy  servants  have 
they  given  to  be  meat  unto  the  fowls  of  the  air  '  "  (Ps. 
Ixxix.  2). 

In  vain  the  Catholic  priests  attending  at  the  execu- 
tions of  the  Huguenots  tried  to  drown  the  thunder  of 
Marot's  Psalms  with  their  Latin  chants.  The  words 
lacked  the  savage  energy  of  the  vernacular  French  ; 
the  unknown  tongue  awakened  no  response  from  the 
crowd.  Many  victims  were  gagged  before  being  burned  ; 
but  the  fire  severed  the  cords  which  held  the  instruments 
in  their  place,  and  with  charred  lips  the  sufferers  raised 
the  Psalms.  Others,  whose  tongues  had  been  cut  out, 
uttered  sounds  in  which,  though  barely  articulate,  by- 
standers recognized  the  familiar  words.  So  it  was  at 
Angers,  in  1556,  that  Jean  Rabec  at  the  stake,  while  he 
was  being  alternately  raised  and  lowered  into  the  flames, 
continued  to  sing  Ps.  Ixxix.,  half  choked  with  blood, 
till  his  end  arrived.  It  was  while  a  Protestant  congre- 
gation was  singing  psalms  in  the  grange  at  Vassy,  in 
1562,  that  Guise  gave  the  signal  for  the  massacres  of 
the  Huguenots  which  finally  provoked  the  Wars  of  Re- 
ligion. When  once  the  sword  was  drawn,  the  Psalms 
became  the  war-songs  of  the  Huguenots.  On  the  battle- 
fields of  Coligny  or  Henry  of  Navarre  were  heard  such 
chants  as  Ps.  Ixxvi.  or  cxviii.,  or,  above  all,  Beza's 
version  of  Ps.  Ixviii. : — 

"  Que  Dieu  se  monstre  seulement, 
Et  on  verra  soudainement 

Abandonner  la  place 
Le  camp  des  ennemis  espars, 
Et  ses  haineux,  de  toutes  pars, 

Fuir  deuant  sa  face." 

In  the  earlv  periods  of  the  civil  wars  of  the  sixteenth 
century  the  Huguenots  moved  as  one  man  ;  their  union 
was  their  strength.  The  central  figure  is  Gaspard  de 
Coligny.  as  Henry  IV.  is  the  leader  of  their  later  stages. 
Throughout  the  struggle  the  royal  family  gave  chief- 
tains to  Roman  Catholics  and  Protestants  alike  ;    both 


iSo  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LITE. 

sides  fought  under  princes  of  the  blood.  On  both  sides 
were  arrayed  the  heads  of  powerful  families,  who  led 
their  feudal  le\'ies  to  the  field.  Politics  and  religion 
were  mingled :  the  Roman  Catholics  represented  the 
influence  of  Spain  ;  the  Protestants  raised  the  cry  of 
"  France  for  the  French."  Though  the  Roman  Catholics 
showed  but  little  religious  enthusiasm,  and  all  the  zeal 
was  to  be  found  among  the  Huguenots,  yet  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  toleration  was  effected  by  the  triumph  of  a 
political  part3^  which  placed  its  chief  upon  the  throne 
in  the  person  of  Henry  of  Navarre. 

In  March  1568  the  Treat}'  of  Longjumeau  gave  the 
Huguenots  a  breathing  space.  Their  leaders  retired 
to  their  homes  in  the  country  ;  their  followers  were 
disbanded,  their  mercenaries  dismissed.  Gaspard  de 
Coligny,  Admiral  of  France,  returned  to  his  gardens  on 
the  terraced  slopes  of  Chatillon-sur-Loing,  and,  clad  in 
farmer's  dress,  pruned  his  fruit  trees.  But  the  treach- 
erous calm  only  half  concealed  the  coming  storm.  Cather- 
ine de  Medicis  merely  sought  to  gain  time.  The  peace 
was  unreal.  No  effort  was  made  to  restrain  the  violence 
of  the  Roman  Catholics.  Coligny's  treasures  had  been 
seized,  and  he  could  obtain  no  redress.  Shots  were  fired 
at  him  ;  he  was  ordered  to  reduce  his  retinue  ;  one  of 
his  gentlemen  was  murdered.  He  retired  to  the  castle 
of  his  brother  Andelot,  at  Tanla}',  near  Tonnerre,  so 
that  he  might  be  close  to  Conde  at  Noyers.  There  the 
stem,  reserved  Coligny,  whose  thoughtful,  serious  face, 
with  its  square,  high  forehead,  firm  mouth  and  melan- 
choly gray  eyes,  looks  down  from  among  the  portraits 
of  the  Grands  Amiraux  of  France,  held  frequent  counsel 
with  his  colleague.  No  two  men  could  be  more  different 
from  each  other  than  the  two  leaders  of  the  Huguenot 
cause.  The  one  was  the  Washington,  the  other  the 
Rupert,  of  the  Huguenots.  Coligny,  cold  in  manner, 
severe  in  demeanour,  slow  in  the  expression  of  his  opin- 
ions, pitiless  tovv-ards  himself,  inflexible  in  his  judgment 
towards   others,    was   most    formidable    in    defeat,    and 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1524-1598.  181 

wo  11  his  greatest  successes  in  retrieving  disasters.  Upon 
ihis  distinctive  feature  in  the  Admiral's  greatness  Voltaire 
has  seized,  in  the  "  Henriade  " — 

'■  Savant  dans  les  combats,  savant  dans  les  retraites. 
Plus  grand,  plus  glorieux,  plus  craint  dans  des  defaites. 
Que  iSunois  ni  Gaston  ne  I'ont  jamais  ete 
Dans  le  cours  triomphant  de  leur  prosperite." 

Conde  was  a  dashing  cavalry  officer,  whose  charge  v»-as 
irresistible.  Chivalrously  courageous,  fond  of  pleasure, 
with  nothing  of  the  Puritan  in  his  nature  ;  loving  other 
people's  wives,  so  Brantome  says,  as  much  as  his  own  ; 
excelling,  in  spite  of  his  shght  figure  and  round  shoulders, 
in  all  manly  exercises — he  was  the  darling  of  the  people 
of  Paris,  and  disputed  their  favour  with  the  Due  de 
Guise.  On  these  two  men,  each  so  different,  depended 
the  fortune  of  the  Huguenot  cause.  To  destroy  them 
was  the  aim  of  Catherine.  Had  not  the  Duke  of  Alva 
said  that  the  head  of  one  salmon  was  worth  a  thousand 
frogs  ? 

In  the  siunmer  months  of  1568  the  royal  troops  were 
collected  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Tanlay  and  Noyers. 
Royal  guards  held  the  gatehouses,  fords,  and  bridges. 
A  warning  reached  Conde  and  CoUgny.  A  horseman 
galloped  past  Noyers,  sounding  his  horn,  and  crpng  out, 
*'  The  stag  is  in  the  snare  !  The  hunt  is  up  !  "  Instant 
flight  was  necessary.  At  midnight,  on  August  25, 
1568,  the  Huguenot  leaders,  with  their  families  and 
fifty  followers,  left  Noyers  to  run  the  gauntlet  of  their 
enemies  and  traverse  the  many  hundred  miles  which 
lay  between  them  and  their  refuge  at  Rochelle.  The 
pursuit  was  hot.  Led  by  a  huntsman  who  knew  the 
fords  and  forest  paths,  they  reached  the  Loire  at  a  spot 
above  Cosne,  near  Sancerre.  They  crossed  the  river, 
their  horses  wading  only  to  their  girths.  As  da}'  broke 
the  river  rose  in  flood.  The  fugitives  were  saved.  They 
had  placed  a  barrier  between  themselves  and  their  pur- 
suers.    Rochelle  could  vet  be  reached  in  safetv.     Thev 


i82  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

fell  on  their  knees  on  the  farther  bank  and  gave  thanks, 
singing  the  114th  Psalm,  "  What  ailed  thee,  O  thou 
sea,"  etc. 

The  war  was  renewed.  At  Jarnac  (1569)  the  Roman 
Cathohcs  gained  a  victory,  in  which  Conde  was  killed. 
At  Moncontour,  in  the  same  year,  Coligny  himself  was 
disastrously  defeated.  Wounded  in  three  places,  he  was 
carried  from  the  field  in  a  htter.  As  Lestrange,  one  of  his 
old  companions  in  arms,  also  severely  wounded,  was 
being  carried  past  him,  he  thrust  his  head  into  the 
Admiral's  litter,  and  without  strength  for  more,  whis- 
pered, "  Si,  est-ce  que  Dieu  est  tres  doux "  ("  Truly 
God  is  loving  unto  Israel,  even  unto  such  as  are  of  a 
clean  heart,"  Ps.  Ixxiii.  i).  The  words,  as  CoHgny  told 
a  friend,  revived  his  failing  courage.  His  firmness  re- 
turned, and  he  set  himself  to  restore  the  fortunes  of  his 
cause.  From  all  the  mountain  districts  of  the  Vivarais, 
the  Cevennes,  and  the  Forez,  the  Huguenots  flocked  to 
his  standard.  A  new  spirit  animated  his  followers. 
They  sang,  as  they  passed  through  a  hostile  country 
and  deserted  villages, — 

"  Le  prince  de  Conde 
II  a  este  tue, 
Mais  monsieur  rAmiral 
Est  encore  a  cheval 
Pour  chasser  les  papaux,  papaux. 

Coligny 's  name  overshadowed  that  of  the  king.  "  De 
I'Amiral  de  France,"  says  Brantome,  "  il  etait  plus  parle 
que  du  roi  de  France."  At  the  head  of  his  army  he  had, 
within  a  year,  extorted  from  Catherine  de  Medicis  and 
the  unhappy  red-haired  youth  who  bears  the  sinister 
title  of  Charles  IX.  the  Treaty  of  St.  Germain-en-Laye 
(1570). 

CoHgny  was  the  chief  victim  of  the  Massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  August  24,  1572.  The  same  event  in- 
troduces the  hero  of  the  second  period  of  the  Civil  Wars. 
A  prisoner  at  the  court  of  Charles  IX.,  surrounded  in 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1524-159S.  183 

Paris  by  the  murderers  of  his  friends,  tempted  by  all 
the  sensual  allurements  which  Catherine  de  Medicis  had 
thrown  in  his  way,  Henry  of  Navarre  seemed  to  have 
forgotten  ambition,  and  to  welcome  inaction.     Only  two 
of  his  former  attendants  remained  faithful  to  the  young 
king — his  squire,  D'Aubigne,  and  his  valet,  Armagnac. 
Even  they  were  weary  of  the  task,  and  on  the  eve  of 
quitting  so  unworthy  a  master.     But  one  evening,  when 
Henrv  was  in  bed,  ill,  feverish  and  depressed,  they  heard 
him  singing  softly  to  himself  the  words  of  Ps.  Ixxxviii. 
7-10,  18,  "  Thou  hast  put  mine  acquaintance  far  from 
me,  and  made  me  to  be  abhorred  of  them.     I  am  so 
fast  in  prison  that  I  cannot  get  forth.  .  .  .  Dost  Thou 
shew  wonders  among  the  dead ;    or  shall  the  dead  rise 
up  again  and  praise  Thee  ?  .  .  .  .  i\Iy  lovers  and  friends 
hast  Thou  put  away  from  me,  and  hid  mine  acquaintance 
out  of  mv  sight."     The  squire  felt  that  the  young  king's 
chivalrous  spirit  was  not  wholly  extinct.     He  urged  him 
to  throw  in  his  lot  with  the  faithful  adherents  who  were 
fighting  that  enemy  whom  Henry  himself  was  serving. 
A  few  months  later  the  king  escaped  from  Paris,  crossed 
the  Seine  at  Poissy,  traversed  a  country  held  by  the 
forces  of  the  Guises,  and  at  Alengon  placed  himself  at 
the  head  of  the  Huguenots.     The  next  morning  when  he 
attended  ser\dce,  the  psalm  which  was  appointed  to  be 
sung  was  Ps.  xxi.,  "  The  king  shall  rejoice  in  thy  strength, 
O   Lord,"   etc.     The   omen   seemed  so   propitious  that 
Henry  asked  whether  the  psalm  had  been  selected  to 
welcome  him  to   the  camp.     But  it  had  come  in  its 
natural  course.     Henry  remembered,  so  D'Aubigne  tells 
the  story-,  that  this  was  the  same  psalm  which  the  com- 
panion of  his  passage  across  the  Seine  at  Poissy  had  sung, 
as,  with  their  bridles  on  their  arms,  they  walked  their 
horses  to  and  fro  by  the  side  of  the  river,  waiting  for  the 
rest  of  the  party. 

Alreadv  Rochelle  had  repulsed  the  triumphant  Roman 
Cathohcs.  The  town  had  preserved  its  municipal  in- 
dependence since  it  was  surrendered  by  the  EngHsh  at 


i84  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE 

the  Peace  of  Bretigny.  Taxing  itself,  electing  its  own 
magistrates,  protected  on  the  land  by  impregnable  walls, 
opening  or  closing  its  port  at  its  own  pleasure,  sweeping 
the  seas  with  its  own  powerful  navies,  Rochelle  was  the 
Venice  or  Amsterdam  of  France.  It  was  also  its  Geneva, 
the  city  of  refuge  to  which  fled  Protestants  from  all  parts 
of  the  countrv'.  But  for  the  moment  its  fate  trembled 
in  the  balance.  Outside  the  walls  of  the  Huguenot 
stronghold  were  encamped  the  royal  armies,  in  which 
Brantome  held  a  command.  Within  the  city  were 
crowded  the  citizens  and  refugees.  After  five  weeks  of 
battering  and  skirmishes,  a  general  assault  was  deHvered. 
Four  times  the  besiegers  were  driven  back,  and  as  they 
recoiled,  the  battle-song  of  the  Huguenots,  "  Que  Dieu  se 
monstre  seulement  "  (Ps.  Ixviii. — "  Let  God  arise,  and  let 
His  enemies  be  scattered  "),  rose  in  triumph  from  the 
ramparts.  The  siege  was  raised  (1573),  and  thus  the 
claim  of  the  citizens  was  \dndicated  that  Rochelle  was 
foimded  on  an  impregnable  rock. 

In  the  years  that  followed,  the  interest  of  the  Wars 
of  Religion  centres  round  Henry  of  Navarre.  With  two 
at  least  of  his  victories  the  Psalms  are  strikingly  asso- 
ciated. At  the  battle  of  Courtras,  October  20,  1587, 
before  the  fight  began,  the  Huguenots  knelt  in  prayer, 
and  chanted  Ps.  cx\dii.  24,  25  : — 

"  La  voici  I'heureuse  iournee 
Que  Dieu  a  faite  a  plein  desir. 
Par  nous  soit  ioye  demenee 
Et  prenons  en  elle  plaisir. 
O  Dieu  etemel,  ie  te  prie, 
le  te  prie,  ton  Roy  mainticn  : 
O  Dieu,  ie  te  prie  et  reprie, 
Sauue  ton  Rov  et  I'entretien." 


tc   )< 


'Sdeath,"  cried  a  young  courtier  to  the  Due  de 
Joyeuse,  who  commanded  the  Roman  Catholics,  "  the 
cowards  are  afraid ;  they  are  confessing  themselves." 
"  Sire,"  said  a  scarred  veteran,  "  when  the  Huguenots 
behave  thus,  they  are  ready  to  fight  to  the  death."     The 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1524-1598.  185 

battle  ended  in  the  triumph  of  Henry.  The  Due  de 
Joyeuse  was  killed,  and  his  army  utterly  routed.  More 
than  forty  years  afterwards  (1630),  D'Aubigne  lay  on 
his  deathbed.  Perhaps  the  memory  of  the  victory  re- 
turned at  his  last  moments  to  the  dying  man.  "  Two  hours 
before  his  death,"  so  wrote  his  widow,  "  with  a  glad 
countenance,  and  with  a  peaceful,  contented  mind,"  he 
repeated  the  psalm,  "  La  voici  I'heureuse  iournee,"  etc., 
and  so  passed  to  his  rest. 

In  1589,  Henry  gained  another  victory  under  the  walls 
of  the  Chateau  d'Arques,  the  picturesque  ruins  of  which 
are  still  standing  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Dieppe.  There 
the  king  and  his  Huguenot  followers  were  threatened  with 
destruction  by  the  Due  de  ]\Iayenne  and  the  army  of 
the  League.  His  forces  were  but  few  compared  with 
the  number  of  those  arrayed  against  them  ;  his  rein- 
forcements had  failed  him  ;  the  courage  of  his  men  was 
crushed  by  the  weight  of  superior  numbers.  "  Come, 
M.  le  Ministre,"  cried  the  king  to  Pastor  Damour,  "  lift 
the  psalm.  It  is  full  time."  Then  above  the  din  of 
the  marching  armies  rose  the  austere  melody  of  the 
68th  Psalm,  set  to  the  words  of  Beza,  and  swinging  with 
the  march  of  the  Huguenot  companies.  Pressing  on- 
wards, the  men  of  Dieppe  forced  themselves  like  an  iron 
wedge  through  the  hnes  of  the  League,  and  spHt  them 
asunder.  The  sea  fog  cleared  away  ;  Henry's  artillery- 
men in  the  castle  could  see  to  take  aim  ;  the  roll  of 
cannon  m.arked  the  time  of  the  psalm  ;  and  the  Leaguers 
were  scattered. 

The  triumph  of  Henry  IV.  in  1598  restored  the  Psalter 
to  the  Court  of  France.  Once  more  the  Psalms,  which 
Francis  I.  had  hummed  so  gaily,  were  sung  at  the  Louvre. 
By  the  Edict  of  X antes  peace  was  for  a  time  imposed 
upon  France.  It  was  the  Magna  Charta  of  the  Reformed 
churches,  guaranteeing  to  the  Huguenots  freedom  of 
worship  in  specified  places,  admitting  them  to  civil  rights, 
offices,  and  dignities,  providing  for  the  trial  of  Prot- 
estant caiL^cs  by  mixed  benches  of  judges,  and  securing 


i86  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

enjoyment  of  these  privileges  bj^  the  possession  of  fortified 
towns.  During  the  hfe  of  Henrj-  IV.,  the  son  of  Jeanne 
d'Albret,  pupil  of  Coligny  and  hero  of  a  hundred  fights 
against  the  Catholic  League,  the  king's  personal  influence 
maintained  the  compact.  Yet  at  the  best  the  Edict 
of  Nantes  proclaimed  a  truce  rather  than  a  lasting  peace. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 
THE   HUGUENOTS,    1600-1762   [continued). 

The  Roman  Catholic  reaction — Vincent  de  Paul,  Francois  de  Sales  ; 
changed  conditions  of  the  Huguenot  cause  ;  their  effect  on  the 
character  of  the  Wars  of  Religion  (i 621-1629) — Henri  de  Rohan, 
sieges  of  Montauban  and  La  Rochelle  ;  the  Roman  Catholic  tri- 
imaph  and  maintenance  of  the  strictest  orthodoxy — Port  Royal, 
Pascal,  Madame  Guyon  ;  edicts  against  the  Huguenots  and  the 
use  of  the  Psalter  ;  the  Vaudois  and  Henri  Amaud  ;  Revocation 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  (1685) ;  persecution  of  the  French  Hugue- 
nots ;  the  rising  in  the  Ce vermes — mmrder  of  Francois  du  Chayla, 
Cavalier  and  the  Camisards,  Bellot,  Martignargues  (1704).  Salindres 
(1709) ;  the  Pastors  of  the  Desert — Rang,  Roger,  Benezet,  Rochette  ; 
effect  of  the  Psalms  on  the  virtues  and  defects  of  the  Huguenots. 

THE  French  Wars  of  Religion  waged  in  the  seven- 
teenth century-  by  the  Due  de  Rohan  and  Cardinal 
RicheHeu  differed  materially  from  those  led  by  the 
Guises  on  the  one  side,  and  by  Coligny  or  Henry  of 
Navarre  on  the  other.  The  Huguenots  were  now  con- 
fronted by  a  Roman  CathoHc  reaction.  The  austerities 
of  monastic  life  were  re\ived,  and  to  these  was  added 
the  cultivation  of  learning.  Benedictines,  Dominicans, 
Franciscans,  set  their  houses  in  order  ;  Clairvaux,  Citeaux, 
and  Cluny  underwent  a  reformation.  Jesuits  laboured 
in  the  world  for  the  advancement  of  the  Roman  faith, 
and  multiplied  their  schools  and  seminaries.  New  re- 
ligious orders  supphed  preachers  and  made  proselytes. 
Missions  were  conducted  among  country  people  by  the 
new  congregation  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul.  Women 
shared  the  same  movements.  Montmartre,  Val  de  Grace, 
Port  Royal,  became  models  of  conventual  piety.     The 


i88  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

FeuiUantines  and  Jesuitines  rivalled  the  zeal  of  the 
Jesuits  and  the  Feuillants.  The  work  of  educating 
young  girls  was  taken  up  by  the  Port-Royalists.  Sisters 
of  Charity  found  cells  in  the  sick-room,  and  lived  in  the 
world  unscathed,  with  the  fear  of  God  for  their  grilles, 
and  pure  modesty  for  their  veils.  Rehgious  communities 
breathed  the  new  life  which  the  spirit  of  St.  Francois 
de  Sales,  St.  A'incent  de  Paul,  or  Madame  de  Chantal 
inspired.  The  ranks  of  the  secular  clergy  were  recruited 
by  men  of  ardent  faith  and  irreproachable  conduct. 
Bishops,  for  the  most  part  men  of  unstained  reputation, 
reformed  their  dioceses,  rebuilt  churches,  reorganized 
parishes,  re\'ived  ecclesiastical  discipline,  or  headed  phil- 
anthropic movements,  such  as  those  for  the  erection  of 
charitable  hospitals.  Lay  society  felt  the  influence  of 
the  movement.  Missioners  rekindled  the  Roman  faith 
a.mong  the  poorer  classes.  Provincial  magistrates,  who 
had  been  attracted  to  the  Reformed  doctrines  by  their 
logical  consistency  or  by  jealousy  of  the  Papacy,  returned 
to  the  older  faith.  Even  at  court,  men  and  women, 
for  whom  Fenelon  wTOte  his  Counsels,  found  it  possible 
to  live  pure  lives  without  renouncing  the  business  or 
pleasures  of  the  world. 

The  power  of  the  Roman  Catholics  was  growing,  that 
of  the  Protestants  was  deca\-ing.  As  their  hold  on 
France  relaxed,  the  Reformed  churches  grew  more 
tenacious  of  their  pri\Tleges,  while  the  Galilean  clergy 
demanded  changes  in  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  The  balance 
of  parties,  on  which  the  Edict  was  founded,  was  dis- 
turbed, by  gains  on  the  one  side  and  losses  on  the  other. 
Was  the  Edict  to  remain  untouched  ? 

In  this  rehgious  reaction  the  Psalms  played  their  part. 
They  were  not  the  exclusive  possession  of  the  Huguenots. 
Men  of  the  t^^pe  of  Montaigne  might  condemn  "  the 
promiscuous,  rash,  and  indiscreet  use  of  the  holy  and 
divine  songs  which  the  Holy  Spirit  inspired  in  David," 
or  deprecate  placing  them  in  the  hands  of  "  shop-boys." 
But  their  power  was  recognized.     The  Abbe  Desportes, 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1600-1762.  189 

the  effeminate  Petrarch  of  the  Court  of  Henry  III, 
translated  the  whole  Psalter  into  French  verse.  Courtiers 
and  state  officials,  like  Jean  Metezeau,  or  Michel  de 
Marillac,  versified  the  Psalter  in  the  hope  of  rivalling  the 
work  of  ]\Iarot  and  of  Eeza.  The  preface  to  the  version  of 
Metezeau,  which  is  dedicated  to  Henry  IV.,  is  a  strange 
production.  "  David,"  he  sa\^s,  "  was  somewhat  prone 
to  love  women,  and  that  love  of  women  is  the  only 
charge  which  your  enemies  can  make  against  your 
Majesty  ;  but  your  Majesty  has  one  advantage  over  the 
wise  King,  that  you  have  not  on  this  account  drawn 
down  the  wrath  of  God  neither  upon  yourself  nor  upon 
your  people."  Corneille  and  Racine  translated  portions 
of  the  Psalter.  But  of  the  numerous  translations  that 
were  made  as  pious  or  hterary  exercises,  the  only  suc- 
cessful version  was  that  of  Godeau,  Bishop  of  Grasse 
and  Vence.  His  paraphrases  were  set  to  music,  and 
four  of  the  airs  were  composed  by  Louis  XHI.  himself. 
In  his  preface  Godeau  explains  the  object  of  his  v/ork. 
"  To  know  the  Psalms  by  heart,"  he  says,  "  is  among 
Protestants  a  sign  of  their  communion.  To  our  shame 
it  must  be  said  that  in  towns  or  districts  where  Prot- 
estants are  numerous  the  Psalms  are  ever  on  the  hps 
of  artisans  and  labourers,  while  Cathohcs  are  either 
dumb  or  sing  obscene  songs."  Godeau's  success  was 
greatest  in  a  direction  which  he  scarcely  anticipated  or 
desired.  Forbidden  by  edicts  to  sing  psalms  at  home, 
in  the  version  of  Marot  and  Beza,  the  Huguenots  sang 
them  in  that  of  the  Roman  Cathohc  bishop.  So  \vide- 
spread  became  the  practice  that  fresh  edicts  were  issued 
in  general  terms  altogether  prohibiting  the  singing  of 
psalms  in  French. 

But  apart  from  the  multiplication  of  versions  of  the 
Psalms,  their  universal  influence  may  be  illustrated  from 
the  lives  of  leaders  of  the  Roman  CathoHc  reaction. 
Such  men  as  St,  Vincent  de  Paul  or  St.  Fran9ois  de  Sales 
may  be  taken  as  examples. 

From  Cadiz  to  Patras  the  ^lediterranean  and  its  coasts 


190  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

were  scoured  by  the  corsairs  of  Baxbary.  Their  light 
galliots  and  brigantines  swept  down  on  their  prey  with 
the  swiftness  and  precision  of  the  osprey,  overbearing 
resistance  and  baffling  pursuit.  Nor  was  it  only  the 
seaman,  the  merchant,  or  the  traveller  who  ran  the 
risk  of  slavery.  Landing  on  the  shore,  the  corsairs  swept 
off  whole  villages  into  captivity.  The  peasant  of  Pro- 
vence, returning  home  at  nightfall  from  pruning  his 
\dnes  or  his  ohves,  might  find  himself  in  the  morning 
chained  to  the  oar.  The  friar,  who  told  his  beads  on 
the  outskirts  of  Valencia,  might,  before  the  week  was 
out,  be  hoeing  the  rice-fields  of  Tripoh.  In  1605,  Vincent 
de  Paul  was  making  his  way  from  Toulouse  by  Narbonne 
to  Marseilles.  The  ship  in  which  he  was  crossing  the 
Gulf  of  Lyons  was  seized  by  Barbary  pirates,  and  both 
passengers  and  crew  carried  to  Tunis.  Sold  as  a  slave 
to  a  fisherman,  he  passed  after  a  time  into  the  hands  of 
an  apostate  Christian  from  Nice,  who  carried  him  away 
to  labour  on  an  inland  farm.  As  he  dug  in  the  fields 
under  a  burning  sun,  he  excited  the  interest  of  one  of 
the  Turkish  wives  of  his  master.  '*  One  day,"  as  Vincent 
writes  in  his  letter  to  M.  de  Commet,  "  she  asked  me  to 
sing  to  her  some  of  the  praises  of  my  God."  The  re- 
membrance of  the  captive  Israelites,  "  How  shall  we  sing 
the  Lord's  song  in  a  strange  land  ?  "  filled  his  heart, 
and  he  sang,  "  By  the  waters  of  Babylon  "  (Ps.  cxxxvii.). 
The  woman  told  her  husband  that  he  had  done  wrong 
to  change  his  faith,  and  she  warmly  praised  the  rehgion 
that  Vincent  had  expounded  to  her.  Her  words  sank 
into  the  renegade's  heart,  and  woke  his  slumbering  con- 
science. He  determined  to  escape  and  take  Vincent 
with  him.  In  1607  they  landed  together  at  Aigues 
Mortes,  and  the  captive  was  once  more  free. 

The  same  words  have  often  expressed  the  sorrows  of 
prisoners  or  exiles.  They  rose  to  the  hps  of  John  II., 
King  of  France,  a  prisoner  in  England  after  the  Battle 
of  Poictiers,  and  a  guest  at  a  tournament.  He  looked 
on  the  brilliant  scene  with  sorrowful  eyes,  and  when  urged 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1600-1762.  191 

to  enjoy  the  splendour  of  the  pageant,  answered  mourn- 
fully, "  How  shall  we  sing  the  Lord's  song  in  a  strange 
land  ?  "  (Ps.  cxxxvii.  4).  So  also  the  same  psalm  had 
appealed  with  peculiar  force  to  Luiz  de  Camoens,  the  epic 
poet  of  Portugal.  In  March  1553,  he  had  been  released 
from  prison  on  condition  that  he  sailed  for  India.  As  in 
the  twilight  the  ship  dropped  down  the  "  golden-sanded  " 
Tagus,  he  exclaimed,  hke  Scipio  Africanus,  "  Ungrateful 
country!  thou  shalt  not  possess  my  bones."  Even  at 
Goa  he  found  no  rest.  His  satires  on  the  vices  of  the 
inhabitants  caused,  it  is  said,  his  banishment  to  Macao. 
There  much  of  the  "  Lusiad  "  was  written  ;  there  also 
he  made  a  modest  fortune.  Embarking  on  board  ship, 
he  set  sail  for  Goa.  But  on  the  voyage  he  was  wrecked 
off  the  Mekong  river,  on  the  coast  of  Cochin  China.  All 
that  he  had  was  lost ;  he  had  only  preserved  the  manu- 
script of  his  poem,  when,  friendless,  ruined,  and  alone, 
he  landed  on  the  "  gentle  Mecon's  friendly  shore." 

"  Now  blest  with  all  the  wealth  fond  hope  could  crave. 
Soon  I  beheld  that  wealth  beneath  the  wave 
For  ever  lost ;   myself  escaped  alone, 
On  the  wild  shore,  all  friendless,  hopeless,  thrown  ; 
My  life,  like  Judah's  heaven-doomed  king  of  yore. 
By  miracle  prolonged."  * 

As  he  sat  by  the  banks  of  the  Mekong,  waiting  for 
means  of  returning  to  Goa,  his  heart  by  the  Tagus,  his 
eyes  searching  the  ocean  for  a  sail,  he  w-rote  the  para- 
phrase of  Ps.  cxxxvii.,  which  is  the  finest  metrical 
version  of  the  poem.  By  the  same  words  Heine  was 
inspired  to  begin  a  metrical  version  of  a  psalm,  which,  in 
another  mood,  he  parodied.  How  often,  and  with  what 
pathetic  force,  must  the  words  of  the  exiles'  lament  have 
appealed  to  the  Puritans  in  New  England,  or  to  the  Hu- 
guenots in  Canada !  \Vhat  memories  of  silent  tragedies 
must  they  have  stirred  in  the  hearts  of  the  Covenanters, 
toiling  among  the  slaves  in  the  sugar  plantations  or  the 
rice-fields  of  the  West  Indies  and  America  ! 

*  "  Lusiad,"  Book  vii. 


192  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

This  digression  on  the  use  of  a  particular  psalm  may 
be  allowed,  in  view  of  its  peculiar  appropriateness  to  the 
lot  of  the  exiled  Huguenots.  But  here  Ps.  cxxxvii.  was 
referred  to  as  an  illustration  of  the  influence  of  the 
Psalter  on  the  Uves  of  leaders  in  the  Roman  reaction. 
A  psalm  had  freed  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  to  labour  for  the 
Cathohc  faith  in  his  native  land.  B\^  the  Psalms  was 
inspired  the  life  of  St.  Francois  de  Sales,  Bishop  of 
Geneva  (1567-1622). 

Few  men  have  been  more  widely  revered  for  the 
sanctity  of  their  characters  and  the  active  beauty  of 
their  careers.  To  some  he  is  most  widely  known  as  the 
friend  of  Madame  de  Chantal,  whom  he  placed  over  his 
Order  of  the  Visitation  ;  others  know  him  best  from 
the  reminiscences  which  Bishop  Camus  gathered  in  his 
"  Esprit  de  St.  Francois  de  Sales  ;  "  others  revere  his 
name  for  the  charm  which  he  gave  to  personal  holiness. 
Nobly  bom,  brilliant  in  intellect,  he  added  to  his  mental 
and  spiritual  gifts  the  fascination  of  a  singularly  attrac- 
tive appearance.  From  his  birth,  near  Annecy,  among 
the  beautiful  mountain  scenery  of  Savoy,  his  mother, 
whose  first  child  he  was,  looked  upon  him  as  "  lent  to 
the  Lord,"  and  at  an  early  age  the  bent  of  his  char- 
acter was  clearly  shown.  His  mind  was  so  steeped  in 
the  Psalter  that  his  thoughts  naturally  clothed  them- 
selves in  the  words  of  the  Psalms.  The  rule  of  life  which 
he  laid  down  for  himself  in  his  twentieth  year  is  founded 
on  their  language.  He  promises  to  hear  Mass  with  all 
the  earnestness  of  his  soul,  crying  out,  "  O  come  hither 
and  behold  the  works  of  the  Lord."  If  in  the  night  he 
wakes,  he  will  pray  the  Lord  to  "  lighten  his  darkness  ;  " 
he  "  will  water  his  couch  with  tears  "  for  his  indifference 
to  sin.  If  midnight  terrors  beset  him,  he  will  remember 
that  "  He  that  keepeth  Israel  shall  neither  slumber  nor 
sleep  "  (Ps.  cxxi.  4),  and  that  he  will  be  safe  "  under  His 
feathers  "  (Ps.  xci.  4).  "  The  Lord  is  my  light  and  my 
salvation.  ...  of  whom,  then,  shall  I  be  afraid  ?  " 
(Ps.  xxvii.  i). 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1600-1762.  193 

While  studying  law  at  Padua  in  15  91,  he  was  seized 
with  rheumatic  fever.  His  life  was  despaired  of.  Ready 
for  death,  he  received  the  last  Sacrament,  and  awaited 
his  end  with  resignation,  repeating  such  verses  as,  "  O 
how  amiable  are  Thy  dwellings,  Thou  Lord  of  Hosts  : 
my  soul  hath  a  desire  and  longing  to  enter  into  the  courts 
of  the  Lord  "  (Ps.  Ixxxiv.  i,  2)  ;  and  again,  "  The  Lord 
is  my  hght  and  my  salvation  ;  ....  of  whom,  then,  shall 
I  be  afraid  ?  "  or  again,  '*  Blessed  is  he  whose  hope  is 
in  the  Lord  his  God."  But  he  recovered,  and,  two  years 
later,  was  ordained,  sorely  against  the  will  of  his  father, 
who  desired  him,  as  his  eldest  son  and  heir,  to  take  his 
place  in  the  world.  His  life  at  Chablais,  as  a  mission- 
ary among  the  Cahdnists  (1593-1603),  or  at  Geneva,  as 
the  administrator  of  a  diocese  (1603-1622),  was  a  psalm  in 
action.  It  was  to  the  Psalms  that  in  death  he  turned 
for  the  expression  of  his  confidence  and  hope. 

On  the  feast  of  St.  John,  1622,  he  was  struck  down 
by  a  paral^-tic  seizure,  which  left  his  mind  unclouded. 
A  friendly  visitor  expressed  regret  at  his  condition. 
**  Father,"  he  rephed,  "  I  am  waiting  on  God's  mercy : 
Expectans,  expecta\'i  Dominum  et  intendit  mihi  "  {"  I 
waited  patiently  for  the  Lord,  and  He  inclined  unto  me, 
and  heard  my  calling,"  Ps.  xl.  i).  ''If  it  were  God's  will, 
ye  would  gladly  depart  now  ?  "  continued  his  friend. 
"If  God  wills  it,  I  will  it  too,"  answered  the  bishop; 
*'  now,  or  a  Httle  while  hence — what  matters  it  ?  "  As 
other  friends  came  to  see  the  d3dng  man,  the  words  of 
the  Psalms  seemed  ever  on  his  hps.  Often  he  was  heard 
to  murmur  :  "  My  soul  hath  a  desire  and  longing  to 
enter  into  the  courts  of  the  Lord  :  my  heart  and  my 
flesh  rejoice  in  the  h\dng  God  "  (Ps.  Ixxxiv.  2).  *'  My 
song  shall  be  alway  of  the  lo\'ing-kindness  of  the  Lord  " 
(Ps.  Ixxxix.  i).  "  \\Tien  I  am  in  hea\dness  I  will  think 
upon  God  "  (Ps.  lxx\di.  3).  "  WTien  shall  I  come  to  ap- 
pear before  the  presence  of  God  ?  "  (Ps.  xlii.  2).  ''Did 
he,"  asked  one  of  the  watchers  by  his  bedside,  "'  fear 
the  last  struggle  ?  "     "  Mine  eyes  are  ever  looking  unto 

7 


194  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

the  Lord,  for  He  shall  pluck  my  feet  out  of  the  net " 
(Ps.  XXV.  14),  was  the  reply.  He  died  in  the  evening 
of  the  Holy  Innocents'  Day,  1622. 

Men  hke  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  or  St.  Francois  de  Sales 
had  turned  the  tide  of  religious  enthusiasm.  It  was 
now  on  the  side  of  Roman  CathoHcs.  The  change  brought 
into  clear  reUef  the  position  occupied  by  the  Huguenots, 
who  formed  a  state  within  a  state,  a  smaller  France 
within  the  arms  of  the  larger,  a  separate  people  protected 
by  fortified  cities,  organized  by  distinct  pohtical  institu- 
tions, defended,  if  need  be,  by  its  own  armies,  maintain- 
ing its  own  ambassadors,  supported  by  foreign  alliances. 
The  strangeness  of  the  position  was  further  illustrated 
by  the  political  position  of  France  during  the  years 
which  intervened  between  the  death  of  Henry  IV.  and 
the  ascendency  of  Richelieu.  The  queen,  the  ministers, 
the  princes  of  the  blood,  the  nobility,  each  fought  for 
their  own  hand.  No  leader  and  no  party  espoused  any 
great  cause  ;  personal  ambitions  overrode  public  policy  ; 
individual  interests  supplanted  patriotism.  The  Crown 
had  been  respected  ;  it  was  now  despised.  State  affairs 
had  been  guided  towards  definite  ends  ;  now  they  drifted 
to  and  fro  in  confusion.  Favourites  without  services, 
ministers  \vithout  ideas,  marshals  without  armies,  suc- 
cessively wdelded  an  authority  of  which  they  knew  not 
the  use.  Before  many  years  had  passed,  absolute  power 
proved  the  only  cure  for  anarchy ;  from  a  want  of 
government  France  passed  to  its  excess.  For  the  next 
few  years,  however,  two  forces — the  nobility  and  the 
Reformed  churches — now  allied,  now  divided,  opposed 
the  Crown  and  convulsed  the  country.  Internal  peace 
and  external  strength  seemed  to  be  lost  to  France,  till 
Richelieu  had  restored  and  aggrandized  the  power  of  the 
monarchy.  Thus  the  Reformed  churches  were  fighting 
against  the  needs  and  spirit  of  the  age.  In  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  struggle  for  rehgious  and  pohtical  independ- 
ence was  not  in  conflict  with  the  general  tendencies  of  a 
period  which  had  barely   emerged  from  feudal  chaos. 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1600-1762.  195 

But  in  the  seventeenth  century  they  were  contending 
against  the  new  force  of  centrahzation.  They  fought  for 
existence  as  a  state  within  a  state,  when  the  State  itself 
was  to  be  merged  in  the  Crown  ;  for  Hberty,  when  hberty 
itself  was  on  the  eve  of  extinction  ;  for  walled  cities  of 
security,  when  feudal  castles  were  razed  to  the  ground 
on  every  side  ;  for  municipal  independence,  when  all 
but  the  shadow  of  civic  freedom  was  approaching  annihi- 
lation ;  for  representative  assemblies,  when  the  voice  of 
the  States-General  was  to  be  silenced  for  a  century  and 
a  half. 

In  the  character  of  the  religious  wars  of  the  seventeenth 
century  the  changed  conditions,  within  and  without, 
were  clearly  marked.  The  Psalms  had  not  indeed  lost 
their  power.  Henri  de  Rohan,  the  soul  of  the  Protestant 
cause  in  France,  still  relied  on  their  support.  Threatened 
with  assassination,  he  had  no  fear,  for,  as  he  wrote  to 
his  mother,  April  30,  1628,  "  Whoso  dwelleth  under  the 
defence  of  the  Most  High  shall  abide  under  the  shadow 
of  the  Ahnighty"  (Ps.  xci.  i).  But  the  Huguenots  no 
longer  counted  allies  in  the  royal  family  ;  the  nobility, 
with  the  exception  of  Rohan  and  Soubise,  sided  with 
the  Crown.  The  Reformed  churches  had  ceased  to  move 
as  one  man  :  their  faith  was  chilled  ;  their  religious 
differences  were  revealed ;  they  disputed  the  policy 
of  armed  resistance.  North  of  the  Loire  no  Protestant 
stirred  hand  or  foot.  The  struggle  was  confined  to  the 
Cevennes,  the  burghers  of  Rochelle,  and  the  cities  of 
the  south.  Even  in  the  latter  there  was  division,  for 
the  civic  aristocracy  dreaded  the  republican  teaching 
of  Huguenot  pastors.  The  three  short  wars  of  1621-1622, 
1625-1626,  and  1627-1629,  were  wars  of  sieges,  within  a 
contracted  area  ;  pitched  battles  were  not,  as  in  the 
pre\dous  century,  fought  in  every  part  of  the  country. 
With  two  of  these  sieges — that  of  Montauban  in  162 1, 
and  of  Rochelle  in  1627 — the  Psalms  are  associated. 

On  August  21,  1621,  the  royal  army,  consisting  of 
20,000  men,  began  the  siege  of" Montauban,  on  the  de- 


196  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

fence  of  which  Rohan  had  concentrated  all  his  energies. 
The  king  himself  was  in  the  camp  ;  the  Due  de  May- 
enne,  Luetics,  live  Marshals  of  France,  and  a  crowd 
of  the  most  distinguished  of  the  French  nobility  were 
among  the  officers.  By  day,  on  the  ramparts  of  the 
Huguenot  stronghold,  men  and  women  fought  side  by 
side ;  by  night,  they  repaired  together  the  breaches 
made  by  the  cannonade  of  the  preceding  day.  Six 
weeks  passed.  Winter  was  approaching.  The  royalists 
made  no  progress;  the  Due  de  ]\Ia3-enne  was  killed, 
losses  in  officers  and  men  were  hea\y,  and  at  the  end 
of  September  Rohan  threw  700  men  and  a  convoy  of 
provisions  into  the  to\\Ti.  At  nightfall,  on  October  17, 
a  Protestant  soldier,  ser\'ing  in  the  king's  army,  played 
under  the  battlements  of  the  town  the  familiar  tune  of 
Psalm  Ixviii.,  "  Let  God  arise,  and  let  His  enemies  be 
scattered."  It  was  a  signal  that  the  siege  was  raised. 
The  next  day  the  camp  was  struck,  and  the  royalists 
retired. 

The  siege  of  Rochelle,  in  1627-1628,  was  the  central 
point  of  interest  in  the  third  and  last  of  the  civil  wars.  On 
November  6,  1627,  the  French  drove  Buckingham  from 
the  island  of  Rhe.  The  English  fleet  sailed  away,  and 
Richelieu  drew  round  the  doomed  city  his  iron  girdle  of 
famine.  Within  the  walls  provisions  ran  short.  Every 
unclean  animal  was  eaten.  Bones,  parchment,  plaster, 
leather  gloves,  shoulder  belts,  and  saddles  were  de- 
voured. Then  the  starving  people  fed  on  the  corpses 
of  the  dead.  One  woman  died  gnawing  her  o\\ti  arms. 
As  the  siege  progressed,  it  is  said  that  the  daily  death- 
roll  was  400.  On  October  27,  1628,  the  towTi  surrendered, 
and  with  its  fall  ended  both  the  war  and  the  independ- 
ence of  the  Reformed  churches. 

During  the  blockade,  when  her  neighbours  were  starv- 
ing, a  widow  named  Prosni  generously  supported  many 
of  the  poor  from  her  present  surplus.  Her  sister-in- 
law,  Madame  de  la  Goute,  remonstrated  with  her,  ask- 
ing what  she  would  do  when  her  store  was  expended. 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1600-1762.  197 

"  The  Lord  will  provide,"  was  her  reply.  "  Behold," 
she  said,  "  the  eye  of  the  Lord  is  upon  them  that  fear 
Him,  and  upon  them  that  trust  in  His  mercy  ;  to  de- 
li\'er  their  soul  from  death,  and  to  feed  them  in  the  time 
of  dearth  "  (Ps.  xxxiii.  17,  18).  The  siege  continued, 
and  Madam.e  Prosni,  with  her  four  children,  was  in  sore 
straits.  Her  sister-in-law  taunted  her  with  her  faith 
and  its  fruits,  and  refused  all  help.  In  her  dejection 
she  returned  home,  resolving  that  she  would  at  least 
meet  death  with  patience.  At  the  door  she  was  welcomed 
by  her  children,  dancing  with  joy.  A  stranger,  during 
her  absence,  had  knocked  at  the  door,  and  on  its  being 
opened  had  thrown  in  a  sack  of  wheat  and  departed. 
She  never  discovered  the  name  of  her  benefactor,  whose 
timely  aid  enabled  her  to  support  herself  and  her  family 
till  the  siege  was  ended. 

The  Peace  of  Alais  (June  1629)  guaranteed  to  the 
Huguenots  a  full  measure  of  civil  equality,  cls  well  as 
freedom  of  religious  exercises.  Had  the  spirit  of  the 
compact  been  observed  it  might  have  healed  the  breach. 
But  the  triumph  of  the  Roman  Catholic  reaction  was  too 
complete.  The  extreme  men,  who  assumed  the  lead, 
demanded  uniformity  of  faith  ;  heresy,  both  within  and 
without  the  Church,  was  to  be  extinguished  ;  and  the 
strife  was  renewed. 

In  the  general  reform  of  conventual  and  monastic  life 
the  Abbey  of  Port  Royal  had  set  a  striking  example. 
Behind  its  cloistered  walls,  almost  within  sight  and 
hearing  of  Versailles  and  Paris,  yet  in  a  valley  so  seques- 
tered as  to  terrify  Madame  de  Sevigne  by  its  solitude, 
were  gathered  some  of  the  purest  and  most  devoted 
women  of  France,  under  the  strict  rule  of  Mere  Ange- 
lique  Amauld.  The  spiritual  directions  of  St.  Francois 
de  Sales,  who  loved  the  Port-Royalists,  had  tempered 
firmness  with  gentleness,  and  given  a  charm  to  the  pur- 
suit of  personal  holiness  ;  the  petites  ecoles  of  the  abbey 
rivalled  the  educational  establishments  of  the  Jesuits. 
But   St.    Cyran,    who   succeeded    Francois   de   Sales   as 


igS  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

spiritual  director,  was  suspected  of  heresy,  and  Port 
Royal  was  involved  in  the  charge.  Persecution  fell 
upon  the  community.  It  was  to  a  psalm  that  they 
appealed.  "  The  sisters  of  Port  Royal/'  says  Blaise 
Pascal  (and  his  own  sister  was  one  of  the  first  victims 
of  the  persecution),  "  astonished  to  hear  it  said  that 
they  were  in  the  way  of  perdition ;  that  their  con- 
fessors were  leading  them  to  Geneva,  by  teaching  them 
that  Jesus  Christ  was  neither  in  the  Eucharist  nor  at 
the  right  hand  of  God ;  and  knowing  that  the  charge 
was  false,  committed  themselves  to  God,  saying  with 
the  Psalmist,  '  Look  well  if  there  be  any  way  of  wicked- 
ness in  me  '  "  (Ps.  cxxxix.  24).  Mere  Angelique  died 
August  6,  1661,  with  the  same  words  of  the  Psalms 
upon  her  lips  which  Xavier  had  used  at  the  end  of  his 
toilsome  career,  "  In  Thee,  O  Lord,  have  I  put  my  trust ; 
let  me  never  be  put  to  confusion  "  (Ps.  xxxi.  i).  Her 
brother  Antoine,  an  exile,  or  in  hiding  for  fear  of  the 
Bastille,  had  learned  the  Psalms  by  heart  lest  his  eye- 
sight should  grow  too  dim  to  read  them  daily.  It  is  a 
psalm  that  strikes  the  ke3note  of  the  "  Pensees  "  of  Pascal, 
the  glory  and  the  champion  of  the  Port  Royal  com- 
munity. His  "  Thoughts,"  in  which  the  Psalms  are 
repeatedly  quoted,  are  jotted  down,  with  a  failing  hand, 
on  loose  fragments  of  paper,  in  his  brief  respites  from 
the  agony  of  mortal  sickness.  They  show  us  his  pas- 
sionate heart  in  the  midst  of  strife  and  perplexity.  They 
reveal,  with  the  unsparing  severity  of  scientific  detach- 
ment, the  depths  of  mystery  that  surround  the  narrow 
ledge  on  which  men  stand.  Yet  through  all  the  gloom 
and  shadow  there  ever  burns  the  sacred  flame  of  per- 
sonal conviction,  that  in  God,  and  in  God  alone,  is  light. 
Reason  had,  he  thought,  attained  its  highest  point  when 
it  realized  that  an  infinite  number  of  things  lie  beyond 
its  reach.  ]Men  ought  to  know  when  to  doubt,  when  to 
be  certain,  when  to  submit.  "  Feel  no  surprise,"  he  says, 
"  that  plain,  unlettered  men  believe  the  Christian  faith 
without  exercising  their  reason.     They  are  inspired  by 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1600-1762.  199 

God  with  a  love  of  holiness  and  a  hatred  of  themselves. 
God  inclines  their  hearts  to  faith.  If  God  does  not  so 
incline  the  heart,  no  man  will  believe  with  a  true,  effec- 
tual faith.  But  if  the  heart  be  so  inclined  by  God, 
none  can  refuse  belief.  Of  tnis  truth  David  was  well 
aware  when  he  \vrote,  '  Incline  my  heart  unto  Thy  tes- 
timonies '  "  (Ps.  cxix.  36). 

Like  the  Port-Royalists,  Madame  Guyon  suffered  per- 
secution from  the  leaders  of  the  Catholic  reaction.  In 
her  prison  at  Vincennes  she  WTote  those  spiritual  songs 
many  of  which  were  translated  into  English  verse  by 
William  Cowper.  Yet  into  whatever  mazes  of  specula- 
tion she  was  tempted,  her  o\mi  words,  expressed  in  the 
language  of  the  Psalms,  reveal  the  starting-point  of 
her  spiritual  fancies,  disclose  the  object  of  her  quietism, 
and  justify  the  defence  of  Fenelon.  She  learnt,  by  fre- 
quent yieldings  to  temptation,  her  entire  dependence 
on  the^  Divine  aid.  "  I  became,"  she  says,  "  deeply 
assured  of  what  the  prophet  hath  said,  *  Except  the 
Lord  keep  the  city,  the  watchman  waketh  but  in  vain  ' 
(Ps.  cxxvii.  2).  When  I  looked  to  Thee,  O  my  Lord, 
Thou  wast  my  faithful  keeper  ;  Thou  didst  continually 
defend  my  heart  against  all  kinds  of  enemies.  But, 
alas  !  when  left  to  myself  I  was  all  weakness.  How 
easily  did  my  enemies  prevail  over  me  !  " 

When  slight  deviations  from  strict  orthodoxy  were 
punished  with  exile  or  imprisonment,  it  was  not  likely 
that  open  revolt  would  be  spared.  The  treaty  of  Alais 
was  torn  up  ;  the  Edict  of  Nantes  revoked  (1685).  Under 
Louis  XIII.  and  Louis  XIV.  successive  edicts  were 
directed  against  the  Huguenots,  and  especially  against 
their  use  of  the  Psalter.  The  singing  of  psalms  was 
prohibited  in  streets  or  shop»,  forbidden  in  private 
houses,  restricted  even  in  Protestant  temples.  As  the 
seventeenth  century  closed,  legislation  grew  more  severe 
under  the  austere  piety  of  Madame  de  Maintenon  and 
the  religious  zeal  of  Pere  la  Chaise.  Penal  laws  banished 
Protestant  pastors.      Death  was  the  penalty  for  those 


200  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

who  returned,  or  for  any  who  sheltered  them  ;  posses- 
sion of  the  heretic's  property  rewarded  those  who  be- 
trayed them.  Protestant  meetings  were  proscribed ; 
possessors  of  a  Protestant  Bible  or  Psalter  were  liable 
to  imprisonment  and  confiscation.  The  dragonnades 
inflicted  untold  horrors.  A  brutal  soldiery,  quartered 
in  the  houses  of  the  Huguenots,  was  encouraged  to 
pillage,  torture,  and  outrage.  Nor  were  the  victims 
suffered  to  escape.  Guards  were  doubled  on  the  fron- 
tiers, and  the  peasants  were  armed  to  assist  in  arresting 
fugitives.  But  the  Huguenot  buried  his  books  under 
a  tree,  hoped  for  better  times,  and  continued  his 
psalmody  in  cave  or  forest,  careless  that  the  sound 
might  betray  him  to  his  persecutors  or  consign  him  to 
the  galleys. 

Even  among  the  Alps  liberty  of  singing  psalms  was 
denied.  The  Protestants  of  the  Vaud  were  driven 
from  their  homes  and  dispossessed  of  their  property. 
The  exiles,  diminished  in  number  by  the  hardships  of 
a  winter  journey  across  the  Alps,  with  voices  choked 
by  exhaustion  and  misery,  sang  Psalm  Ixxiv.  ("  O  God, 
wherefore  art  Thou  absent  from  us  so  long  ?  why  is 
Thy  wrath  so  hot  against  the  sheep  of  Thy  pasture  ?  ") 
as  they  streamed  into  Geneva,  and  the  words  were  re- 
echoed by  the  crowds  who  thronged  the  streets  of  the 
City  of  Refuge.  Three  years  later  (1689)  it  was  the 
same  psalm  which  was  chanted  in  triumph  by  seven 
hundred  of  the  exiles,  who,  led  by  their  pastor,  Henri 
Amaud,  had  fought  their  way  back  to  their  homes. 
'*  The  gallant  patriots  took  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  each 
other,  and  celebrated  Divine  service  in  one  of  their  own 
churches  for  the  first  time  since  their  banishment.  The 
enthusiasm  of  the  moment  was  inexpressible :  they 
chanted  the  74th  Psalm  to  the  clash  of  arms,  and  Henri 
Amaud,  mounting  the  pulpit,  with  a  sword  in  one  hand 
and  a  Bible  in  the  other,  preached  from  the  129th  Psalm, 
and  once  more  declared  in  the  face  of  heaven  that  he 
would  never  resume  his  pastoral  office  in  patience  and 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1600-1762.  201 

]^eace  until  he  should  witness  the  restoration  of  his 
brethren  to  their  ancient  and  rightful  settlements." 

On  October  22,  1685,  Michel  le  TeUier,  as  Chancellor 
of  France,  set  the  seal  almost  with  his  dying  hand  to  the 
Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  The  towns  and 
villages  and  houses  of  the  Protestants  were  pillaged  and 
set  on  fire  ;  their  fields  and  vineyards  were  laid  waste  ; 
they  were  burned  alive,  broken  on  the  wheel,  hung  from 
the  gibbet,  or  cut  to  pieces  by  the  dragoons.  Their 
midnight  assemblies  were  again  and  again  surprised,  and 
the  most  venerated  of  their  pastors  were  executed.  The 
victims  who  died  by  sudden  death  were  to  be  envied. 
More  terrible  still  was  the  fate  of  the  men  who  were 
chained  to  the  oar  at  the  galleys  under  the  lash  of  bar- 
barous officers,  or  of  the  women  who  were  doomed  to 
perpetual  imprisonment  in  the  loathsome  dens  of  medi- 
aeval cruelty,  such  as  the  Tour  Constance  in  the  Castle 
of  Aigues  Mortes,  where  the  prisoners,  herded  together 
in  dark  and  stifling  dungeons,  were  left  a  prey  to  the 
melancholy  thoughts  that  harmonized  with  the  monot- 
onous cadence  of  the  waves,  or  the  wind  moaning  over 
the  marshes. 

Among  the  rocky  savage  fastnesses  of  the  Cevennes 
the  simple  religion  of  the  Protestant  mountaineers  as- 
sumed a  stem  and  gloomy  cast.  Ferv^our  easily  passed 
into  fanaticism,  and  ecstasies  of  faith  readily  lent  them- 
selves to  self-deception.  The  enfanis  de  Dieu,  possessed 
by  hysterical  hallucinations,  claimed  for  their  wild  words 
a  prophetic  inspiration.  Goaded  to  desperation  by  their 
sufferings,  seeing  at  every  cross-road  the  corpses  of 
friends  swinging  in  the  air,  the  peasants  w-ere  carried 
away  by  the  fiery  appeals  of  prophets  and  prophetesses, 
who  urged  them  to  arm  against  the  enemies  of  God,  and 
fight  to  the  death  for  the  true  Church.  Upon  their 
excited  minds  the  Psalms  exercised  an  almost  super- 
natural power.  "  As  soon,"  says  Durand  Fage,  "  as  we 
began  to  sing  the  chant  of  the  Divine  Canticles,  we  felt 
within  us  a  consuming  fire,  an  ecstatic  desire  which  no 


202  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

words  can  express.  However  great  our  fatigue,  we 
thought  of  it  no  more.  The  moment  the  chant  of  the 
Psalms  struck  our  ears  we  grew  Hght  as  air." 

With  such  temperaments  it  needed  but  a  spark  to 
kindle  the  smouldering  fury  of  the  people  into  a  flame 
which  should  spread  through  the  mountains  with  the 
devastating  rapidity  of  lightning.  That  spark  was 
lighted  by  Francois  du  Chayla,  Prior  of  Laval,  and  In- 
spector of  Protestant  Missions  in  the  district  of  Gevaudan. 

This  man  was  the  chief  agent  in  the  persecution  of  the 
Protestants  of  the  Cevennes.  His  house  at  Pont  de 
Mont  vert,  close  to  the  bridge  over  the  Tarn,  was  at  once 
a  prison  and  a  torture-chamber,  in  which  neither  sex 
nor  age  was  spared,  and  where  children  and  young  girls 
received  no  mercy.  In  1702  the  Abbe  du  Chayla  held 
as  prisoners  a  number  of  Protestants  who  had  been  cap- 
tured in  an  attempted  escape  to  Geneva.  On  the  even- 
ing of  July  23,  1702,  a  party  of  resolute  men,  numbering 
fifty  in  all,  goaded  by  the  appeals  of  their  prophets, 
determined  to  rescue  the  prisoners.  As  night  fell,  they 
met  under  three  gigantic  beeches  on  the  slope  of  the 
mountain  of  Bougcs,  called  in  the  patois  of  the  country 
"  Alte  fage."  Some  were  armed  with  swords,  some  with 
scythes,  some  with  halberds  of  ancient  make  ;  only  a 
few  carried  guns  or  pistols.  Before  they  set  out  on 
their  enterprise  they  prayed  together,  and  then,  chant- 
ing the  Psalms  of  Marot  as  they  went,  marched  on  Pont 
de  Mont  vert.  They  reached  the  village  about  nine  in 
the  evening,  and,  still  singing  the  Psalms,  surrounded 
the  house  of  the  abbe. 

The  abbe  was  dining  in  company  with  his  fellow- 
labourers,  when  the  rude  chant  of  the  Psalms  reached 
his  ears.  Supposing  that  the  Protestants  had  ventured 
to  hold  a  conventicle  within  earshot  of  his  house,  he 
ordered  his  guard  to  seize  the  rash  worshippers.  But 
the  house  was  surrounded  so  that  none  could  pass  out. 
On  all  sides  the  cry  was  heard,  "  Bring  out  the  prisoners." 
The  abbe,   a  determined  man,   showed  that  he  would 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1600-1762.  203 

yield  only  to  force.  At  his  command  the  soldiers  fired 
upon  his  assailants,  and  one  of  the  prophets  was  killed 
and  others  of  the  party  wounded.  The  infuriated 
Protestants,  seizing-  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  beat  dowTi  the 
door,  swarmed  into  the  house,  and  rushed  to  the  dun- 
geons. A  second  discharge  proved  fatal  to  another  of 
the  rescuing  party.  Exasperated  by  the  sight  of  their 
tortured  brethren,  and  provoked  by  resistance,  the 
Cevenols  piled  together  the  furniture  of  the  house,  raked 
up  the  straw  on  which  the  soldiers  slept,  threw  on  the 
heap  the  seats  from  the  chapel,  and  set  the  building  on 
fire.  Then  the  abbe  and  his  friends  endeavoured  to 
escape  from  the  windows  at  the  back  of  the  house.  Tying 
the  sheets  of  their  bedding  together,  they  attempted  to 
reach  the  garden.  The  abbe  fell  and  broke  his  thigh, 
but,  crawling  into  the  bushes,  hid  himself.  Others, 
more  fortunate,  came  to  the  ground  safely,  and  plung- 
ing into  the  Tarn,  escaped. 

As  the  fire  gathered  fierceness  and  caught  hold  of  the 
timber  of  the  house,  the  glare  of  the  flames  revealed  the 
lurking-place  of  the  abbe.  His  cry  for  mercy  was  mocked. 
Dragged  into  the  open,  he  was  killed.  Each  successive 
assailant,  as  he  delivered  his  blow,  cried  out  that  it  was 
in  vengeance.  "  Take  that,"  cried  one,  "  for  my  father's 
sake,  whom  you  broke  on  the  wheel."  "  Take  that," 
cried  another,  "  for  my  brother,  whom  you  sent  to  the 
galleys."  "  And  that,"  shouted  a  third,  "  for  my  mother, 
whom  you  killed  with  grief."  Fifty-two  wounds  were 
found  on  his  body,  of  which  twenty-five  were  mortal. 
Only  two  persons  discovered  in  the  house  were  spared. 
All  the  livelong  night,  amid  the  crash  of  falling  timbers 
and  the  roar  and  hiss  of  flames,  which  drowned  the  mur- 
mur of  the  Tarn,  the  deliverers  chanted  their  Psalms 
in  wild  ecstasy  of  vengeance,  and  as  the  da}^  dawned 
it  was  with  a  psalm  of  triumph  that  they  withdrew  with 
their  rescued  brethren  to  their  mountain  fastnesses. 

With  this  ferocious  act  of  vengeance  began  the  war 
of  the  Cevennes,  in  which,  with  the  Psalms  for  their 


204  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

battle-cry,  a  handful  of  peasants  defied  the  armies  of 
Louis  XIV.,  defeated  his  most  skilful  marshals,  and 
negotiated  on  equal  terms  with  the  Grand  Monarque 
himself. 

On  Sunday,  December  24,  1702,  Jean  Cavalier  had 
assembled  eighty  of  his  followers  for  worship  on  Christ- 
mas Eve.  The  service  had  barely  begun,  when  his 
sentinels,  posted  on  the  hills,  gave  the  alarm.  The 
commandant  of  Alais,  with  six  hundred  foot -soldiers 
and  fifty  mounted  gentry,  was  upon  them.  It  was  with 
a  psalm  that  the  Camisards  attacked  their  assailants, 
routed  them,  and  pursued  the  fugitives  up  to  the  gates 
of  Alais. 

Four  months  later,  April  1703,  Cavalier  and  his  band 
bivouacked  in  a  deserted  farmhouse  called  Bellot,  near 
Alais.  Built  on  the  ruins  of  a  feudal  castle,  the  house 
was  surmounted  by  a  tower,  and  surrounded  by  a  waU 
and  deep  ditch.  At  midnight  a  traitor  led  the  soldiers 
to  the  spot.  Four  thousand  royalists  surprised  four 
hundred  sleeping  Camisards.  Cavalier  escaped  along  the 
moat,  and,  after  a  vain  attempt  to  rescue  those  who 
were  hemmed  in  within  the  enclosure,  drew  off  a  por- 
tion of  his  men  under  the  cover  of  darkness.  From 
midnight  till  eight  the  next  morning  the  defenders  of 
Bellot  held  their  own.  Their  ammunition  was  spent  ; 
but  refusing  to  yield,  they  perished  to  a  man  in  the 
blazing  ruins,  still  raising  with  their  latest  breath  the 
words  of  their  beloved  psalms. 

The  Psalms  were  again  the  battle-cry  of  the  Huguenots 
at  Les  Devois  de  Martignargues,  where,  in  March  1704, 
Cavalier  won  a  brilliant  victory.  The  royalist  general, 
La  Jonquiere,  with  a  considerable  number  of  foot-soldiers, 
dragoons,  and  grenadiers,  had  pursued  the  Camisards 
from  Moussac  to  Brignon,  and  thence  higher  up  the 
mountains  to  the  bleak  uninhabited  spot  which  was 
the  final  scene  of  the  conflict.  There  Cavalier  determined 
to  make  his  stand.  After  praying  with  his  men,  he 
took  up  a  strong  position,  posting  an  ambuscade  to  his 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1600-1762.  205 

Icf I  and  right.  La  Jonquiere  led  his  men  to  the  attack. 
The  Camisards  lay  down  till  the  royalists  had  discharged 
their  pieces.  Then,  springing  to  their  feet  and  thun- 
dering out  the  Psalms,  they  charged  the  enemy,  while 
at  the  same  moment  the  men  in  ambush  attacked  on 
l^oth  flanks.  The  royalists  broke  and  fled,  the  victori- 
ous Camisards  in  hot  and  merciless  pursuit. 

It  was  with  the  Psalms  that  Roland,  another  of  the 
Camisard  leaders,  routed  the  royalists  at  the  bridge  of 
Salindres,  in  the  spring  of  1709.  In  pursuit  of  Cavalier, 
the  Marquis  de  Lalande,  one  of  the  greatest  coxcombs 
of  the  day,  but  an  experienced  soldier,  had  reached 
Anduze.  There  two  peasants  were  introduced  into  his 
presence,  to  tell  him  that  Roland  was  about  to  seize  the 
Bridge  of  Salindres,  over  the  river  Gardon.  The  men 
were  in  truth  emissaries  of  the  Camisard  chief.  Lalande 
fell  into  the  trap.  Acting  on  their  information,  he 
determined  to  seize  the  bridge.  To  reach  it,  he  had 
to  penetrate  a  narrow,  ^^'inding  pass.  On  one  side 
rose  bare  precipitous  cliffs  ;  on  the  other  ran  a  deep 
ravine,  at  the  bottom  of  which  seethed  the  moun- 
tain torrent  of  the  Gardon.  At  the  entrance  of  the 
gorge  Roland  had  concealed  a  body  of  his  troops ; 
on  the  rocks  above  he  had  stationed  another  band; 
he  himself,  with  a  third  company,  held  the  Bridge  of 
Salindres.  Lalande,  suspecting  nothing,  entered  the 
ravine.  When  he  had  entangled  himself  in  its  narrow 
windings,  a  signal  was  given,  and  he  found  himself  at- 
tacked in  front  and  rear,  while  enormous  rocks,  hurled 
from  the  cliffs  above,  swept  his  men  by  files  at  a  time 
into  the  river.  Above  the  rattle  of  the  musketry,  the 
crash  of  the  falling  rocks,  and  the  confused  cries  of 
the  soldiers,  was  heard  the  triumphant  psalm  of  the 
Camisards.  The  whole  army  seemed  doomed  to  perish. 
One  path  alone  had  not  been  occupied  by  the  moun- 
taineers ;  it  descended  the  side  of  the  ravine,  and  crossed 
the  Gardon  by  a  miU-dam.  Dovv-n  this  path  of  safety 
rushed  Lalande  with  a  few  of  his  followers,   so  hotly 


2o6  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

pursued  that  he  left  his  plumed  hat  behind  him,  and 
escaped  with  his  wig  in  flames.  As  evening  fell  the 
din  of  battle  ceased.  In  the  quiet  valley,  whose  silence 
was  only  broken  by  the  roar  of  the  Gardon,  rose  the 
48th  Psalm,— 

"  Dieu  aux  palais  d'elle  est  cognu 
Et  pour  sa  defense  teau,"  etc. 

As  the  unequal  war  dragged  on — as,  time  after  time, 
at  unequal  odds,  the  king's  troops  were  defeated — as 
the  mountaineers  held  their  own  against  trained  soldiers 
and  experienced  generals,  they  grew  strong  in  the  con- 
viction that  God  was  on  their  side.  "  Our  enemy," 
says  Mazel,  one  of  the  Camisard  historians,  "  were  as 
the  sand  on  the  seashore  in  number,  and  we  were  but  a 
little  company.  They  had  horses,  and  chariots,  and 
gold,  and  weapons,  and  castles.  We  had  no  such  aid, 
but  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts  was  our  strength." 

The  same  serene  confidence  which  had  nerved  the  arms 
of  the  Camisards  inspired  the  quiet  heroism  of  the 
Protestant  "  Pastors  of  the  Desert,"  who,  in  the  first 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  braved  danger  and  death 
to  carry  on  their  proscribed  ministrations.  In  the  long 
list  of  executions  there  are  but  few  victims  who  were 
not  sustained  in  their  last  hours  by  the  words  of  the 
Psalms. 

In  1745,  Louis  Rang,  the  brother  of  a  minister  who 
only  saved  himself  from  the  scaffold  by  flight,  a  young 
man  of  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  himself  a  minister 
of  the  Protestant  rehgion,  was  arrested  at  Livron.  He 
was  thrown  into  prison  at  Valence,  and  condemned  to 
die  at  Grenoble,  March  2,  1745.  In  vain  the  president 
of  the  court  had  offered  him  his  life  if  he  would  abjure 
his  faith.  He  rejected  all  offers.  His  sentence  was  that 
he  should  be  hung  in  the  market  place  at  Die,  and  that 
his  head  should  be  severed  from  his  body  and  exposed 
on  a  gibbet  opposite  the  little  inn  at  Livron,  where  he 
had  been  arrested.  On  his  way  to  the  scaffold  he  sang 
verse  24  of  Psalm  cxviii., — 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1600-1762.  207 

"  La  void  I'heureuse  joumee 
Qui  repond  a  notre  desir  ; 
Louons  Dieu,  qui  nous  I'a  donnee  ; 
Faisons  en  tout  notre  plaisir." 

His  voice  was  drowned  by  the  roll  of  drums.  With 
his  eyes  raised  to  heaven  he  reached  the  foot  of  the 
scaffold,  fell  on  his  knees  in  prayer,  then  mounted  the 
ladder  and  met  his  death. 

A  few  weeks  later,  Jacques  Roger,  a  venerable  man  of 
seventy  years  of  ag>e,  forty  of  which  he  had  spent  as  a 
Protestant  pastor,  was  betrayed  to  the  government  and 
arrested.  Ordained  at  Wiirtemburg,  and  therefore  one  of 
the  few  regularly  ordained  ministers,  he  had  braved  the 
law  which  made  it  a  capital  offence  to  return  to  France. 
For  forty  years  he  had  escaped,  often  by  a  hair's  breadth, 
the  pursuit  of  the  soldiers,  who  had  tracked  him  like  a 
wild  beast.  The  officer  in  command  asked  him  who  he 
was.  ''  I  am  he,"  he  rephed,  "  whom  you  have  sought 
for  thirty-nine  years  ;  it  was  time  that  you  should  find 
me."  Condemned  to  death  at  Grenoble,  he  spent  his  last 
hours  in  encouraging  some  Protestant  prisoners  to  be 
true  to  their  faith.  \\'hen  the  executioner  and  his  as- 
sistants arrived  to  take  him  to  the  place  of  execution, 
he  received  the  summons  cheerfully,  quoting  the  same 
verse  which  Louis  Rang  had  sung  on  the  scaffold  (Ps. 
cxviii.  24).  From  prison  he  went  to  his  death  chanting 
Psalm  li. 

The  same  Psalm  (h.)  was  sung,  on  his  way  to  execu- 
tion, by  Francois  Benezet,  a  young  man  who  was  study- 
ing for*^Holy  Orders.  He  was  executed  in  January  1752, 
on  the  esplanade  at  Montpellier.  His  youth,  his  courage, 
and  the  fact  that  he  left  a  widow  and  child,  created  a 
profound  impression  among  his  co-religionists.  His  fate 
is  commemorated  in  one  of  the  rude  songs  which,^  through 
their  uncouth  stanzas,  breathe  the  fervent  piety  and 
indomitable  resolution  of  the  Protestants. 

The  last  of  the  martyred  pastors  of  the  desert  was 
Fran9ois  Rochette,  who'  in  1760  had  been  consecrated 


2o8  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

pastor  at  the  provincial  s3^nod  of  Haut  Languedoc.  In 
the  district  of  Quercy  he  spent  some  laborious  months, 
preaching,  administering  the  Communion,  visiting  the 
sick,  teaching  the  young,  celebrating  marriages,  bapiism, 
and  funerals,  for  the  twenty-five  Reformed  churches 
which  fell  to  his  charge.  His  health  being  injured  by 
his  incessant  labours,  he  left  Montauban  in  September 
1761  to  drink  the  waters  at  St.  Antonin.  On  his  way 
through  Caussade  he  was  asked  to  baptize  a  child.  It 
was  midnight,  and,  not  knowing  his  way,  he  sent  his 
guides  into  the  town  to  find  a  native  of  the  place  who 
would  take  him  to  the  house  where  his  services  were 
required.  As  the  guides  were  returning  to  the  pastor, 
they  endeavoured  to  evade  observation  by  leaving  the 
main  road.  Some  passers-by,  catching  sight  of  them, 
mistook  them  for  robbers  who  infested  the  neighbour- 
hood, and  sent  the  town-guard  in  pursuit  of  them. 
They  were  seized  by  the  patrol,  and  with  them  Rochette. 
Taken  before  the  magistrates,  Rochette  boldly  avowed 
his  calling,  and  was  committed  to  prison. 

The  excitable  populace  of  the  south  were  aroused. 
Believing  that  a  plot  was  on  foot  among  the  Protestants 
to  pillage  the  town,  they  rang  the  tocsin,  donned  the 
white  cockades  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day,  and  attacked 
the  heretics.  The  Protestants  on  their  side  armed  them- 
selves, and  a  bloody  conflict  seemed  imminent.  Though 
the  outbreak  was  prevented,  the  affair  sealed  the  fate 
of  Rochette  and  his  companions.  Petitions  were  pre- 
sented to  the  Due  de  Richelieu  and  to  Marie  Adelaide, 
Princess  of  France,  the  daughter  of  Louis  XV.,  who  had 
shown  herself  inclined  to  mercy.  All  was  in  vain. 
Rochette  was  tried  at  Toulouse  in  November  1761  ;  in 
the  following  February  the  sentence  of  death  was  pro- 
nounced. He  was  offered  his  life  if  he  would  abjure 
his  faith.  He  refused,  and  on  February  20,  1762,  the 
sentence  was  executed.  To  the  last  Rochette  encour- 
aged his  companions.  Through  the  crowded  streets, 
thronged  with   spectators,   the   car  was   drawTi   to   the 


THE  HUGUENOTS,  1600-1762.  209 

place  of  execution  in  the  Place  du  Salin.  Rochette 
mounted  the  scaffold  with  a  firm  step,  chanting  as  he 
went,  *' La  voici  I'heureuse  journee,"  etc.  ("This  is  the 
day  which  the  Lord  hath  made,"  etc.,  Ps.  cxviii.  24). 

It  was  fitting  that  the  last  words  of  the  last  Protest- 
ant martyr  should  be  taken  from  that  Book  of  Psalms 
which,  through  two  centuries  of  conflict  and  persecution, 
had  meant  so  much  to  the  Huguenots.  "  It  was,"  said 
Florimond  de  Remond,  *'  the  Book  of  Psalms  which 
fostered  the  austere  morals  of  the  Huguenots,  and  cul- 
tivated those  masculine  virtues  that  made  them  the 
pick  of  the  nation.  It  was  that  book  which  supported 
fainting  courage,  upHfted  downcast  souls,  inspired 
heroic  devotion.  Their  affirmations  were  certes  or  en 
verite  ;  they  were  enemies  of  luxury  and  worldly  follies  ; 
they  loved  the  Bible  or  the  singing  of  spiritual  songs 
and  psalms  better  than  dances  and  hautboys.  Their 
women  wore  sober  colours,  and  in  public  appeared  as 
mourning  Eves  or  penitent  Magdalenes  ;  their  men, 
habitually  denying  themselves,  seemed  struck  by  the 
Holy  Spirit."  Nor  was  it  only  their  virtues  which  the 
Psalms  had  fostered.  From  the  same  book  they  justi- 
fied their  ferocity.  To  them  Rome  w^as  Babylon,  and 
the  Reformed  Church  was  Sion.  Their  enemies  were 
God's  enemies.  They  were  His  appointed  instruments 
of  vengeance,  and  they  made  war  in  the  spirit  of  Calvin's 
commentary  on  Ps.  cxxxvii.  8,  9,  and  of  his  defence  of 
its  imprecations  on  the  women  and  children  of  their  foes. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE   PURITANS,    160O-1660. 

The  Pilgrim  Fathers  and  Benjamin  Franklin  ;  the  Psalms  among  the 
royalists — Jeremy  Taylor,  Bishop  Sanderson,  Strafford,  and  Laud; 
the  Civil  War — Marston  Moor,  John  Hampden,  Charles  I.  at  Newark; 
Puritanism  as  a  poetical,  religious,  and  political  force  in  Milton, 
Bunyan,  and  Cromwell. 

TO  the  Puritans  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Psalter 
was  the  book  of  books.  Psalms  were  sung  at  Lord 
Mayors'  feasts,  at  City  banquets.  If  the  clown  in  the 
Winter's  Tale  (Act  iv.  Scene  2)  be  accepted  as  a  witness, 
they  were  sung  to  "  hornpipes "  at  rustic  festivals. 
Soldiers  sang  them  on  the  march,  by  the  camp  fire,  on 
parade,  in  the  storm  of  battle.  The  ploughman  carolled 
them  over  his  furrow  ;  the  carter  hummed  them  by  the 
side  of  his  wagon.  They  were  the  song-book  of  ladies 
and  their  lovers,  and  under  the  Commonwealth  the 
strains  of  the  Psalms  floated  from  windows  in  every 
street  of  Puritan  strongholds. 

To  gain  liberty  of  worship  and  of  psalm-singing  men 
and  women  crossed  the  seas,  seeking  in  the  New  World 
the  freedom  that  was  denied  them  in  the  Old.  With 
this  object  the  little  congregation  of  Separatists  which 
gathered  at  Scrooby  in  Nottinghamshire  made  their  way 
in  1608  to  the  east  coast,  and  thence  to  the  Low  Coun- 
tries. For  twelve  years  they  made  the  "  goodly  and 
pleasant  city  "  of  Leyden  their  "  resting-place."  But 
in  July  1620  the  Speedwell,  a  vessel  of  sixty  tons  burden, 
lay  at  Delft  Haven  equipped  for  their  transport  to  the 


THE  PURITAXS,  1600-1660.  211 

New  World.  "  WTien,"  says  Winslow,  "  the  ship  was 
ready  to  carry  us  away,  the  brethren  that  stayed  having 
again  solemnly  sought  the  Lord  with  us  and  for  us, 
they  that  stayed  at  Leyden  feasted  us  that  were  to  go, 
at  our  pastor's  house,  being  large,  where  we  refreshed 
ourselves,  after  tears,  with  singing  of  psalms,  making 
joyful  melody  in  our  hearts  as  well  as  with  the  voice, 
there  being  many  of  the  congregation  very  expert  in 
music.  And  indeed  it  was  the  sweetest  melody  that 
ever  mine  ears  heard." 

To  the  singing  of  psalms  the  sails  of  the  Mayfloic'er 
were  set  to  catch  the  winds  that  wafted  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  to  the  white  sandbanks  of  Cape  Cod  ;  to  their 
music  were  laid  the  foundations  of  the  United  States  of 
America.  "  At  Salem  is  His  tabernacle  "  (Ps.  Ixxvi.  2), 
were  the  words  which  suggested  to  John  Endicott's 
company  the  name  of  their  first  settlement.  The  denial 
of  the  liberty  of  "  singing  psalms  and  prajing  without 
a  book  "  drove  Francis  Higginson,  the  first  appointed 
teacher  at  Salem,  to  exchange  the  Old  World  for  the 
New.  At  the  Sabbath  services,  both  in  Salem  and  in 
Plymouth,  the  Psalms  were  sung  without  music,  from 
the  version  of  Henry  Ainsworth  of  Amsterdam.  But  it 
was  not  long  before  the  Puritan  divines  had  prepared 
their  own  version,  and  the  third  book  printed  in  America 
was  the  Bay  Psalm  Book  (1639-1640).  Till  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century  the  Psalms  were  exclusively  sung 
in  the  churches  and  chapels  of  America.  In  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Psalms  the  early  progress  of  the  first  colony 
is  recorded.  "  The  Lord,"  says  Johnson  in  his  "  Wonder- 
^Vorking  Providence,"  ''whose  promises  are  large  to  His 
Sion,  hath  blest  His  people's  provision,  and  satisfied  her 
poor  with  bread,  in  a  very  httle  space."  The  Psahns 
were  the  chief  instrument  of  EHot  in  his  missionary  enter- 
prises among  the  Red  Indians.  From  the  Psalms  Eliot's 
successor,  Da\dd  Brainerd,  drew  the  language  in  which 
he  clothed  his  daily  thoughts.  In  versif^'ing  the  Psalms 
the  early  poets  of  the  young  Repubhc,  such  as  Barlow, 


212  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Dwight,  or  Bryant,  exercised  their  powers.  In  the  same 
task  Cotton  Mather  had  previously  found  respite  from 
his  dark  musings  on  the  mysteries  of  the  unseen  world. 
In  the  Psalms  was  laid  the  coping-stone  of  American 
independence.  In  1787  it  was  to  Ps.  cxx\di.  i  that 
Benjamin  Franklin  appealed  when  speaking  before  the 
Convention  assembled  to  frame  a  Constitution  for  the 
United  States  of  America  : — 

"  In  the  beginning  of  the  contest  with  Britain,  when 
we  were  sensible  of  danger,  we  had  daily  pra\-ers  in  this 
room  for  the  Divine  protection.  Our  prayers,  Sir,  were 
heard,  and  they  were  graciously  answered.  All  of  us 
who  were  engaged  in  the  struggle  must  have  observed 
frequent  instances  of  a  superintending  ProWdence.  To 
that  kind  Providence  we  owe  this  opportunity  of  con- 
sulting in  peace  on  the  means  of  estabhshing  our  future 
national  fehcity.  And  have  we  now  forgotten  this 
powerful  Friend  ?  or  do  we  imagine  that  we  no  longer 
need  His  assistance  ?  I  have  lived  for  a  long  time 
(eighty-one  years),  and  the  longer  I  live  the  more  con- 
vincing proof  I  see  of  this  truth  that  God  governs  in  the 
affairs  of  men.  And  if  a  sparrow  cannot  fall  to  the 
ground  without  His  notice,  is  it  probable  that  an  empire 
can  rise  without  His  aid  ?  We  have  been  assured,  Sir, 
in  the  sacred  writings,  that  '  Except  the  Lord  build  the 
house,  they  labour  in  vain  that  build  it.'  I  firmly  be- 
lieve this,  and  I  also  believe  that  without  His  concurring 
aid  we  shall  proceed  in  this  political  building  no  better 
than  the  builders  of  Babel.  I  therefore  beg  leave  to 
move  that  henceforth  prayers  imploring  the  assistance  of 
Heaven  and  its  blessing  on  our  deliberations  be  held 
in  this  assembly  every  morning  before  we  proceed  to 
business,  and  that  one  or  more  of  the  clergy  of  this 
city  be  requested  to  officiate  in  that  service." 

In  the  spirit  of  the  Psalms,  as  they  interpreted  them, 
the  brethren  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  the  Puritans  who 
remained  behind  in  England,  fought  out  their  quarrel 
with  Charles  I.     But  the  Psalter  was  not  the  peculiar 


THE  PURITANS,  1600-1660.  213 

property  of  the  Parliamentary  party.  Charles  I.  himself 
'  aused  his  father's  version  of  the  Psalms  to  be  printed, 
i-rom  Ps.  Ixxxii.  i  ("  God  standeth  in  the  congregation 
of  princes  ;  He  is  a  Judge  among  gods  ")  Bishop  An- 
drewes  had  silently  protested  against  intrusion  of  church- 
men into  secular  affairs.  From  another  psalm  (Ps.  Ix.  2 — • 
**  Thou  hast  moved  the  land,  and  divided  it  :  heal  the 
sores  thereof,  for  it  shaketh  ")  Bishop  Hall  appealed  for 
peace  in  the  Lent  sermon  which  he  preached  in  1641 
before  Charles  I.  at  \Miitehall.  To  Anghcan  divines, 
as  well  as  to  Puritan  preachers,  the  Psalter  vras  as  "  the 
bahn  of  Gilead."  Jeremy  Taylor  (1613-1667),  who  acted 
as  chaplain  in  the  army  of  Charles  I.,  suffered  both  in 
person  and  in  purse  for  his  loyalty  to  Church  and  King. 
Of  "  liberty  of  prophesying  "  he  was  an  assailant,  of  the 
Church's  Liturgy  a  champion.  But  in  the  midst  of  his 
persecution  and  troubles  it  is  in  the  Psalms  that  he  finds 
consolation.  "  WTien  I  came,"  he  \mtes,  '*  to  look  upon 
the  Psalter  \\dth  a  nearer  obser\'ation  ...  I  found  so 
many  admirable  promises,  so  rare  variety  of  the  expres- 
sions of  the  mercy  of  God.  so  many  consolatory  hymns. 
the  commemoration  of  so  many  deliverances  from  dangers 
and  deaths  and  enemies,  so  many  miracles  of  mercy  and 
salvation,  that  I  began  to  be  so  confident  as  to  believe 
there  would  come  no  afiiiction  great  enough  to  spend  so 
great  a  stock  of  comfort  as  was  laid  up  in  the  treasury 
of  the  Psalter."  In  the  "  Rule  and  Exercises  of  Holy 
Living  "  and  "  of  Holy  Dying  "  he  teaches  from  experi- 
ence. His  gorgeous,  richly-tinted  prose  differs  absolutely 
from  the  homelv  English  of  Bunyan.  It  winds  its  devious 
way  along  like  some  Roman  triumph,  laden  with  the  cap- 
tives and  the  spoils  of  other  languages  and  literatures. 
Yet,  when  Taylor  comes  to  the  practical  aids  of  holy  life 
or  death,  it  is  on  the  Psalms  that  he  almost  exclusively 
relies.  From  the  Psalter  are  d^a^^Tl  his  prayers,  ejacula- 
tions, and  devotional  forms  of  preparation,  alike  in 
health  or  old  age,  by  day  or  at  night,  in  sickness  or  at 
the  moment  of  death. 


214  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Another  peaceful  yet  shining  light  of  the  Church  during 
the  Ci\'il  Wars  was  Robert  Sanderson  (1587-1662),  who 
at  the  Restoration  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
and  has  left  his  mark  on  the  history  of  the  Common 
Prayer  Book.  By  the  Parliamentarians  he  was  ejected 
from  his  professorship  at  Oxford,  and  imprisoned.  But 
his  sorrows  deepened  and  enlarged  his  love  of  the  Psalter 
— "  the  treasury,"  as  he  told  Izaak  Walton,  "  of  Chris- 
tian comfort,  fitted  for  all  persons  and  all  necessities  ; 
able  to  raise  the  soul  from  dejection  by  the  frequent 
mention  of  God's  mercies  to  repentant  sinners  ;  to  stir 
up  holy  desires  ;  to  increase  joy  ;  to  moderate  sorrow  ; 
to  nourish  hope,  and  teach  us  patience,  by  waiting  God's 
leisure  ;  to  beget  a  trust  in  the  mercy,  power,  and  provi- 
dence of  our  Creator,  and  to  cause  a  resignation  of  our- 
selves to  His  will  .  and  then,  and  not  till  then,  to  believe 
ourselves  happy."  He  added  that,  by  the  frequent  use 
of  the  Psalms,  "  they  would  not  only  prove  to  be  our 
souls'  comfort,  but  would  become  so  habitual  as  to 
transform  them  into  the  image  of  his  soul  that  composed 
them."  He  himself  used  them  constantly.  "  As  the 
holy  Psalmist  said,"  writes  Walton,  "  that  his  eyes  should 
prevent  both  the  dawning  of  the  day  and  the  night  watches, 
by  meditating  on  God's  Word  (Ps.  cxix.  148),  so  it  was 
Dr.  Sanderson's  constant  practice  every  morning  to  enter- 
tain his  first  waking  thoughts  with  a  repetition  of  those 
very  psalms  that  the  Church  hath  appointed  to  be  con- 
stantly read  in  the  daily  morning  service  ;  and  having 
at  night  laid  him  in  his  bed,  he  as  constantly  closed  his 
eyes  with  a  repetition  of  those  appointed  for  the  service 
of  the  evening,  remembering  and  repeating  the  very 
psalms  appointed  for  ever\'  day."  On  the  day  before 
his  death  he  desired  his  chap.'^ain  to  give  him  absolution. 
"  After  this  desire  of  his  was  satisfied,  his  body  seemed 
to  be  more  at  ease  and  his  mind  more  cheerful ;  and  he 
said.  Lord,  forsake  me  not  now  my  strength  faileth  me 
(Ps.  Ixxi.  8)  ;  but  continue  Thy  mercy,  and  let  my  mouth 
be  filled  with  Thy  praise.     He  continued  the  remaining 


THE  PURITANS,  1600-1660.  215 

night  and  day  very  patient,  and  to  himself  during  that 
time  did  often  say  the  103rd  Psalm,  and  very  often  these 
words,  My  heart  is  fixed,  0  God  ;  my  heart  is  fixed  where 
true  joy  is  to  be  found "  (Ps.  Ivii.  8).  "  Thus,"  con- 
tinues Walton,  in  the  conclusion  of  one  of  the  most 
charming  of  his  biographies,  "  this  pattern  of  meekness 
and  primitive  innocence  changed  this  for  a  better  life. 
It  is  now  too  late  to  wish  that  my  life  may  be  like  his, 
for  I  am  in  the  eighty-fifth  year  of  my  age,  but  I  humbly 
beseech  Almighty  God  that  my  death  may ;  and  do  as 
earnestly  beg  .  .  .  any  reader  ...  to  say  Amen. 
Blessed  is  the  man  in  whose  spirit  there  is  no  guile  " 
(Ps.  xxxii.  2). 

In  love  of  the  Psalter,  AngHcan  and  Independent, 
Cavalier  and  Roundhead,  might  be  united.  In  all  else 
they  were  bitterly  opposed.  Even  before  the  execution 
of  the  Earl  of  Strafford  and  of  Laud,  men  recognized  that 
an  appeal  to  arms  was  almost  inevitable.  Yet  it  was  to 
the  Psalms  that  those  two  ministers,  whom  the  people 
held  directly  responsible  for  the  king's  most  oppressive 
acts,  appealed  in  the  moment  of  their  death. 

In  November  1640,  Thomas  Wentworth,  Earl  of  Straf- 
ford, had  been  committed  to  the  Tower.  It  was  not  till 
five  months  later  that  his  trial  began.  During  that 
interval  the  feeling  against  him  grew  every  day  more 
bitter.  ''  Black  Tom  T^Tant  "  was  hated  by  his  former 
colleagues  in  the  House  of  Commons  as  an  apostate 
from  the  popular  cause.  Stronger  than  desire  for  venge- 
ance or  personal  dislike  was  the  fear  with  which  his 
commanding  ability  and  indomitable  will  inspired  his 
opponents.  Vague  forebodings  of  violence,  rumours  of 
popish  plots,  suspicion  of  the  king's  purpose,  were  whis- 
pered in  the  House  of  Commons.  Nothing  is  more  cruel 
than  a  panic  ;  as  long  as  Strafford  lived,  men  felt  their 
own  lives  and  liberties  to  be  in  peril.  ''  Stone  dead  hath 
no  fellow,"  and  his  punishment  was  demanded  as  a  pro- 
tection against  a  public  enemy.  Strafford  knew  his 
danger  when  he  obeyed  Charles's  summons  and  came 


2i6  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

from  Yorkshire  to  London.  But  he  had  the  king's 
assurance  that  he  should  suffer  neither  in  his  person, 
nor  in  his  honour,  nor  in  his  estate.  On  this  exphcit 
promise  he  rehed.  Even  after  his  committal  to  the  Tower 
he  had  written  to  his  wife,  bidding  her  keep  up  her  heart. 
"  I  am,"  he  said,  "  in  great  inward  quietness  and  a 
strong  belief  that  God  will  deliver  me  out  of  all  these 
troubles." 

On  March  22,  1641,  the  trial  had  begun.  In  the  centre 
of  Westminster  Hall  was  raised  a  stage,  taking  up  the 
whole  breadth  of  the  building  from  wall  to  wall,  and 
about  a  third  part  of  the  length.  At  the  north  end  was 
set  a  throne  of  state  for  the  king,  and  a  chair  for  the 
prince.  These  stood  empty ;  but  on  either  side  of  the 
throne  was  a  gallery,  on  one  side  of  which  sat  the  king 
and  queen,  Princess  Mary,  the  Prince  Elector,  and  some 
ladies  of  the  court,  and  on  the  other  side  various  French 
nobles.  In  front  of  the  throne  sat  the  Earl  of  Arundel, 
who  acted  as  Speaker.  Below  him  were  seats  for  the 
judges,  and  a  little  table  at  which  were  the  black-gowTied 
clerks  of  the  House.  On  forms  covered  with  red  cloth 
sat  the  Peers,  in  their  red  and  ermine  robes.  On  either 
side  of  the  hall,  along  its  east  and  west  walls,  and  at  its 
southern  end,  were  ranged  stages  of  forms,  on  which 
sat  the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  and  spec- 
tators. Above  the  highest  stage  of  forms  were  boxes 
crowded  with  ladies. 

At  eight  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  March  22  the  Earl 
of  Strafford,  dressed  in  a  black  habit  and  wearing  his 
George,  was  brought  in,  in  custody  of  the  Lieutenant  of 
the  Tower.  His  crisp  dark  hair  was  turning  gray,  and 
liis  figure  stooped  slightly  from  recent  illness.  He  took 
his  place  at  the  bar,  with  his  secretaries  behind  him,  and 
on  a  level  with  him  were  the  eight  managers  who  con- 
ducted the  case  for  the  House  of  Commons.  Hour  after 
hour  he  stood  at  bay.  Every  morning  those  who  wished 
for  seats  were  in  the  hall  by  five  ;  the  king  arrived  at 
half-past  seven  ;    the  Lords  took  their  seats,  with  heads 


THE  PURITANS,  1600-1660.  217 

covered,  at  eight,  and  continued  sitting  till  four  in  the 
afternoon.  When  Strafford  was  preparing  his  repUes  to 
special  points  in  the  indictment,  the  Lords  rose  from 
their  seats,  talked,  and  clattered  about ;  the  members 
of  the  House  of  Commons  discussed  the  progress  of  the 
trial ;  '*  bread  and  flesh  "  were  eaten,  "  bottles  of  beer 
and  wine  going  thick  from  mouth  to  mouth  without 
cups."  Sometimes  the  speeches  were  hissed  ;  at  other 
times  a  deep  hum  marked  the  approval  of  the  audience  ; 
and  Strafford,  as  Bailhe,  his  enemy,  remarked,  daily 
gained  the  affections  of  the  ladies  by  his  eloquence  and 
address. 

On  April  13  he  made  his  defence  against  the  whole 
charge  of  treason.  It  was  evident  that  he  was  hkely 
to  escape.  The  Commons  therefore  determined  to  pro- 
ceed by  a  Bill  of  Attainder,  and  to  vote  him  a  traitor. 
The  Bill  was  read  a  third  time  in  the  Lower  House  on 
April  21,  and  in  the  Upper  House  on  May  8.  Would  the 
kmg  accept  or  reject  it  ?  Four  days  before  the  third 
readmg  Strafford  wrote  a  letter  to  Charles,  "to  set" 
the  king's  ''  conscience  at  liberty."  ''  My  consent,"  he 
says,  '*  shall  more  acquit  you  herein  to  God  than  all  the 
world  can  do  besides.  To  a  willing  man  there  is  no 
mjury  done  ;  and  as,  by  God's  grace,  I  forgive  all  the 
world,  with  calmness  and  meekness  of  infinite  content- 
ment to^  my  dislodging  soul,  so,  Sir,  I  can  give  to  you 
the  life  of  this  world  with  all  the  cheerfulness  imaginable, 
in  the  just  acknowledgment  of  your  exceeding  favours." 

The  king  delayed  his  assent  to  the  attainder.  All 
Sunday,  May  9,  an  armed  mob  paraded  the  streets  and 
threatened  an  attack  on  Whitehall.  At  length,  late  in 
the  evening,  Charles  yielded.  "  My  lord  of  Strafford's 
condition,"  he  said,  as  he  signed  his  name  to  a  com- 
mission charged  to  give  his  assent,  "  is  more  happy  than 
mine."  On  Tuesday  morning  he  made  a  final  appeal  to 
the  Lords  to  commute  Strafford's  sentence  to  one  of 
imprisonment.  ''  But  if,"  he  adds,  "  no  less  than  his 
life  can  satisfy  my  people,   I  must  say  Fiat  justitia." 


2i8  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Then  follows  the  postscript,  "  If  he  must  die,  it  were  a 
charity  to  reprieve  him  to  Saturday." 

His  weak  appeal  was  made  in  vain.  The  next  day, 
May  12,  1641,  Strafford  met  his  death  courageously  on 
Tower  HlU.  The  news  that  Charles  had  deserted  him 
had  come  to  him  with  the  shock  of  surprise.  Perhaps 
he  may  have  relied  to  the  last  on  the  king's  promise. 
It  is  thus  that  a  poet  has  represented  him  turning  to 
the  messenger  of  his  fate, — 

"  See  this  paper,  warm — feel — warm 
With  lying  next  my  heart  !  Whose  hand  is  there  ? 
Whose  promise  ?     Read,  and  loud  for  God  to  hear  I 

*  Strafford  shall  take  no  hurt ' — ^read  it,  I  say  ! — 

'  In  person,  honour,  nor  estate.'  " 

But  if  such  thoughts  were  in  his  mind,  it  was  to  the 
Psalms  that,  in  bitterness  of  spirit,  he  turned  for  their 
expression  :  "  O  put  not  your  trust  in  princes,  nor  in 
any  child  of  man  ;  for  there  is  no  help  in  them  "  (Ps. 
cxlvi.  2).  Strafford's  quotation  recalls  the  words  which 
Shakespeare  places  in  the  mouth  of  the  fallen  Wolsey, — 

"Oh,  how  wTetched 
Is  that  poor  man  that  hangs  on  princes'  favours  ! 
There  is,  betwixt  that  smile  we  would  aspire.to. 
That  sweet  aspect  of  princes,  and  their  ruin. 
More  pangs  or  fears  than  wars  or  women  have  ; 
And  when  he  falls,  he  falls  like  Lucifer, 
Never  to  hope  again." 

With  Strafford,  in  all  the  high-handed  acts  of  Charles's 
Government,  was  associated  Laud.  Against  the  arch- 
bishop were,  in  addition,  arrayed  the  bitterness  of 
religious  feehng  and  the  desire  for  vengeance  on  a  per- 
secutor. It  was  partly  the  error  of  his  time,  partly  the 
bias  of  his  legal  mind,  which  led  him  to  depreciate  the 
value  of  diversities  and  to  exaggerate  that  of  uniformity 
in  matters  of  behef  and  opinion.  But  adversity  revealed 
in  him  virtues  which  official  severity  had  too  often  con- 
cealed.    "  Prejudged  by  foes  determined  not  to  spare," 


THE  PURITANS,  1600-1660.  219 

imprisoned  in  the  Tower,  old  and  failing  in  health, 
stricken  with  ague,  subjected  to  unworthy  insults,  threat- 
ened with  violent  death,  he  never  lost  his  courage,  his 
patience,  or  his  dignity.  Libels  against  him  flowed  from 
the  pens  of  his  opponents  ;  slanders  ran  from  mouth  to 
mouth  ;  abusive  ballads  were  sung  in  streets  and  taverns. 
Laud  comforted  himself  with  the  thought  that  he  was 
**  in  the  same  case  as  the  Prophet  David."  "  They  that 
sit  in  the  gate  speak  against  me  ;  and  the  drunkards 
make  songs  upon  me"  (Ps.  Ixix.  12).  Placed  in  confine- 
ment in  December  1640,  committed  to  the  Tower  in  the 
following  March,  he  waited  for  his  trial  till  the  spring  of 
1644.  The  proceedings  against  him  were  conducted  with 
as  little  respect  to  law  as  the  most  arbitrary  act  with 
which  he  himself  was  charged.  On  January  10,  1645,  he 
suffered  death  on  Tower  Hill  in  the  seventy-second  year 
of  his  age,  his  face  showing  so  little  fear  of  death  that 
his  disappointed  enemies  accused  him  of  having  painted 
his  ruddy  cheeks.  In  his  speech  from  the  scaffold  he 
quoted  Ps.  ix.  12,  "  For,  when  he  maketh  inquisition  for 
blood,  he  remembereth  them  ;  and  forgetteth  not  the 
complaint  of  the  poor."  It  was  the  Psalms  that  had 
sustained  his  courage  during  his  long  imprisonment.  His 
prayers,  of  which  the  following  may  be  quoted,  are  cast  in 
the  mould  of  their  thoughts,  and  echo  their  language : — 

"  O  Lord,  blessed  is  the  man  that  hath  Thee  for  his 
help,  and  whose  hope  is  in  Thee.  O  Lord,  help  me  and 
all  them  to  right  that  suffer  wrong.  Thou  art  the  Lord, 
which  looseth  men  out  of  prison,  which  helpest  them 
that  are  fallen.  O  Lord,  help  and  deliver  me,  when  and 
as  it  shall  seem  best  to  Thee  ;  even  for  Jesus  Christ  His 
sake.     Amen." 

"  O  Lord,  Thine  indignation  lies  hard  upon  me  ;  and 
though  Thou  hast  not  (for  Thy  mercy  is  great)  vexed  me 
with  all  Thy  storms,  yet  Thou  hast  put  my  acquaintance 
far  from  me,  and  I  am  so  fast  in  prison  that  I  cannot  get 
forth.  Lord,  I  call  daily  upon  Thee ;  hear  and  have 
mercy  ;    for  Jesus  Christ  His' sake.     Amen." 


220  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

"  Lord,  turn  Thee  unto  me,  and  have  mercy  upon  me, 
for  I  am  desolate  and  in  misery.  The  sorrows  of  my 
heart  are  enlarged  ;  O  bring  Thou  me  out  of  my  troubles. 
Look  upon  mine  adversity  and  misery,  and  forgive  me 
all  my  sins  ;   through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen." 

"  Hear  my  cr\'ing,  O  God ;  give  ear  unto  my  prayer  ; 
from  the  ends  of  the  earth,  whithersoever  Thou  shalt 
cast  me,  I  will  call  upon  Thee  when  my  heart  is  in 
heaviness.  O  set  me  upon  the  rock  that  is  higher  than 
I,  to  be  my  hope  and  a  strong  tower  against  my  op- 
pressors.    Amen." 

"  Save  me,  O  God,  for  the  waters  are  entered  into  my 
soul.  I  stick  fast  in  the  deep  mire,  where  no  stay  is; 
I  am  come  into  deep  waters,  and  the  streams  nm  over 
me.  They  that  hate  me  without  a  cause  are  more  than 
the  hairs  of  my  head,  and  they  which  would  destroy  me 
causeless  are  mighty.  O  let  not  these  water-floods  drown 
me,  neither  let  the  deep  swallow  me  up,  and  let  not  the 
pit  shut  her  mouth  upon  me.  Hear  me,  O  Lord,  for 
Thy  loving-kindness  is  great  ;  turn  unto  me  according 
to  the  multitude  of  Thy  tender  mercies.  Hide  not  Thy 
face  from  Thy  servant,  for  I  am  in  trouble,  but  draw  near 
unto  my  soul,  and  redeem  it  ;  for  Jesus  Christ  His  sake. 
Amen." 

When  once  the  Civil  \\'ar  had  begun,  it  was  with  the 
Psalms  that  the  shock  of  battle  was  often  heralded.  So 
was  it  at  the  battle  of  Marston  Moor.  About  two  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  of  July  2,  1644,  the  armies  of  the  king 
and  Parliament  faced  each  other.  The  great  ordnance 
began  to  play.  "  The  first  shot  killed  a  son  of  Sir  Gilbert 
Haughton  that  was  a  captain  in  the  prince's  army  ; 
but  this  was  only  a  showing  their  teeth  ;  for  after  a  few- 
shots  made  they  gave  over,  and  in  Marston  cornfields 
fell  to  singing  psalms."  With  a  psalm  also  is  associated 
the  death  of  distinguished  leaders  like  John  Hampden. 
On  Saturday,  June  17,  1643,  about  four  in  the  afternoon, 
Prince  Rupert  rode  out  from  Oxford  at  the  head  of  his 
men,  clattering  over  Magdalen  Bridge,  and  crossing  the 


THE  PURITANS,  1600-1660.  221 

Thame  at  Chislehampton.  They  encountered  Hampden 
and  his  troop  at  Chalgrove  Field.  Early  on  Sunday 
morning,  June  18,  Hampden  was  seen  riding  out  of  the 
iight  before  it  was  ended,  his  head  bent,  his  hands  resting 
on  his  horse's  neck.  It  was  a  thing,  says  Lord  Clarendon, 
"  he  never  used  to  do,  and  from  which  it  was  concluded 
he  was  hurt."  He  was  indeed  mortally  \vounded.  It 
is  supposed  that  he  first  tried  to  reach  Pyrton,  where  he 
had  wooed  and  won  his  first  wife,  and  where  he  would 
fain  have  died.  But  he  was  cut  off  by  Rupert's  horsemen, 
and  forced  to  turn  back  and  ride  to  Thame.  There,  in 
the  house  of  Ezekiel  Browne,  after  six  days'  agony,  he 
died.  His  troopers,  as  they  bore  his  body  to  the  grave 
through  the  beech  woods  of  Buckinghamshire,  chanted 
Ps.  xc,  which  since  1662  has  had  its  place  in  the  burial 
service  of  our  Prayer  Book. 

His  power  broken  at  Marston  Moor,  Charles  I.  was  a 
hostage  or  a  prisoner  in  the  Scottish  camp  at  Newark. 
The  triumphant  ministers  insulted  their  captive  by 
ordering  Ps.  lii.  to  be  sung  :  ''  WTiy  boastest  thou  thy- 
self, thou  tyrant,  that  thou  canst  do  mischief  ;  whereas 
the  goodness  of  God  endureth  yet  daily  ?  "  It  was  by 
an  appeal  to  the  Psalms  that  Charles  robbed  the  insult 
of  its  sting.  His  only  reply  was  to  ask  for  Ps.  Ivi.  : 
"  Be  merciful  unto  me,  O  God,  for  man  goeth  about  to 
devour  me ;  he  is  daily  fighting,  and  troubling  me. 
Mine  enemies  are  daily  in  hand  to  swallow  me  up  ;  for 
they  be  many  that  fight  against  me,  O  Thou  ]\Iost 
Highest." 

Instances  of  the  use  of  the  Psalms  by  one  side  or  other 
might  be  multipHed.  But  their  influence  upon  a  move- 
ment which  is  still  a  Uving  force  in  our  midst  may  be 
best  illustrated  in  the  lives  or  writings  of  Milton,  Bunyan, 
and  Cromwell — the  finest  products  of  Puritanism  as  a 
literary,  spiritual,  or  political  force. 

Over  Milton  the  Psalms  threw  their  spell  in  early  life. 
At  the  age  of  fifteen,  already  an  undergraduate  at  Christ's 
College,  Cambridge,  he  translated  into  verse  Ps.   cxiv. 


222  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

and   cxxxvi.      Of   the   latter,   his   version  is  the  well- 
known — 

•'  Let  us  with  a  gladsome  mind 
Praise  tiie  Lord,  for  He  is  kind  ; 
For  His  mercies  aye  endure. 
Ever  faithful,  ever  sure." 

In  1648  he  translated  from  the  original  "  into  meter  " 
nine  psailms  (Ixxx.-lxxxviii.),  and  in  1653  eight  more 
psalms  (i.-viii.)  were  "  done  into  verse."  Throughout 
his  poems  are  scattered  allusions,  more  or  less  direct, 
to  the  Psalms.  There  is  an  echo  of  Ps.  xxiv.  7-10  in 
his  lines  in  "  Paradise  Lost  "  (Book  vii.,  lines  205-209,  and 
lines  565-569),— 

"  Heaven  opened  wide 
Her  ever-during  gates,  harmonious  sound. 
On  golden  hinges  moving,  to  let  forth 
The  King  of  Glory,  in  His  powerful  Word 
And  Spirit,  coming  to  create  new  worlds ; " 

and,   as   God   returns   heavenward,  His   creative   word 
accomplished, — 

"  '  Open,  ye  everlasting  gates,'  they  sung, 
'  Open,  ye  heavens,  your  living  doors  ;  let  in 
The  great  Creator,  from  His  work  returned 
Magnificent,  His  six  days'  work,  a  world.' " 

In  the  same  Book  (lines  370-374),  the  picture  of  the 
sun  rejoicing  "  as  a  giant  to  run  his  course  "  (Ps.  xix.  5) 
is  in  his  mind,  when  he  writes, — 

First  in  his  East  the  glorious  lamp  was  seen. 
Regent  of  day,  and  all  the  horizon  round 
Invested  with  bright  rays,  jocund  to  run 
His  longitude  through  Heaven's  high  road."' 

Portions  of  the  speech  of  Adam  {"  Paradise  Lost," 
Book  xii.,  lines  561-566)  seem  a  paraphrase  of  Ps.  cxlv. — 

"  Henceforth  I  learn  that  to  obey  is  best. 
And  love  with  fear  the  only  God,  to  walk 
As  in  His  presence,  ever  to  observe 
His  providence,  and  ou  liiia  sole  depend, 


THE  PURITANS,  1600-1660.  223 

Merciful  over  all  His  works,  with  good 

Still  overcoming  evil,  and  by  small 

Accomplishing  great  things — by  things  deemed  weak 

Subverting  worldly  strong,  and  worldly  wise 

By  simply  meek." 

So  also  in  "  Samson  Agonistes  "  (lines  932-937),  when 
the  blind  Samson  rejects  the  appeal  of  Delilah,  he  refers 
to  the  "  deaf  adder  "  of  Ps.  Iviii.  4, — 

"  I  know  thy  trains — 
Though  dearly  to  my  cost — thy  gins  and  toils ; 
Thy  fair  enchanted  cup  and  warbling  charms 
No  more  on  me  have  power  ;  their  force  is  nulled 
So  much  of  adder's  wisdom  I  have  learned. 
To  fence  my  ear  against  thy  sorceries." 

Finally,  when,  in  "  Paradise  Regained,"  Satan  tempts 
Christ  with  the  wisdom  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  it  is  with 
praise  of  the  Psalms,  couched  in  the  true  spint  of  the 
Puritan,  that  the  Sa\dour  repels  the  temptation — 

"  All  our  law  and  story  strewed 
With  hymns,  our  psalms  with  artful  terms  inscribed, 
Our  Hebrew  songs  and  harps,  in  Babylon 
That  pleased  so  well  our  victor's  ear,  declare 
That  rather  Greece  from  us  these  arts  derived — 
111  imitated,  while  they  loudest  sing 
The  -vices  of  their  deities  .... 
Remove  their  swelling  epithets  thick  laid 
As  varnish  on  a  harlot's  cheek,  the  rest, 
Thin  so\vn  with  aught  of  profit  or  delight. 
Will  far  be  found  unworthy  to  compare 
With  Sion's  songs — to  all  true  tastes  excelling — 
Where  God  is  praised  aright  and  godlike  men, 
The  Holiest  of  Holies,  and  his  saints,"  etc. 

(Book  iv.,  lines  334-349-) 

*'  Paradise  Lost  "  enshrines  in  stately  verse  the  general 
scheme  of  Puritan  theolog\^ ;  ''  The  Pilgrim's  Progress  " 
appHes  that  system  in  allegorical  form  to  the  sphere  of 
individual  life.  Milton's  sonorous  grandeur  suits  the 
theme  of  God's  dealing  with  the  world  and  with  man- 
kind ;  equally  w^ell  is  Bunyan's  language,  homely  yet 
never  \nilgar,  simple  but  always  adequate,  racy  without 


224  THE  PSALMS  IX  HmiAN  LIFE. 

irreverence,  adapted  to  his  dramatic  presentation  of  the 
moral  warfare  waged  by  a  human  soul  against  the  powers 
of  evil. 

One  secret  of  the  undying  charm  of  the  great  Puritan 
allegory  is  its  truth  to  Bunyan's  own  nature.  He 
describes  his  own  experience  ;  he  paints,  with  \d\'id 
realism,  the  picture  of  his  own  inner  self  ;  the  struggle 
of  Christian  is  a  transcript  of  his  own  spiritual  conflict. 
He  has  himself  been  plunged  into  the  Slough  of  Despond, 
himself  fought  hand-to-hand  with  Apollyon,  hunself 
passed  through  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Death,  him- 
self reached  the  heavenly  landing-place.  In  his  "  Grace 
Abounding  to  the  Chief  of  Sinners,"  which  bears  the 
motto,  "  Come  and  hear,  all  ye  that  fear  God,  and  I  will 
declare  what  He  hath  done  for  my  soul "  (Ps.  Ixvi.  14), 
he  has  recorded,  with  a  pen  of  iron  and  in  letters  of  fire, 
his  own  pcLssage  from  death  to  Ufe.  His  religious  auto- 
biography traces  his  steps  towards  the  attainment  of 
that  inward  peace  which  passes  all  human  understanding 
because  it  is  the  peace  of  God.  It  chronicles  every 
fluctuation  of  hope  and  despair  ;  it  arrests  and  examines, 
with  strange  ingenuity  of  self-torture,  every  secret 
thought,  every  passing  doubt,  every  momentary  fear. 
His  vivid  imagination  makes  his  feehngs  actors  in  a  real 
drama.  As  a  boy  he  had  felt  the  devil's  claws  strike  into 
his  flesh,  till  he  all  but  screamed  with  pain.  As  a  man, 
he  holds  soundless  colloquies  with  Satan,  whose  words 
seem  to  be  spoken  so  loudly  in  his  ear  that  he  almost 
turns  round,  expecting  to  find  the  tempter  in  bodily 
shape  at  his  elbow. 

The  "  loose,  ungodly  wretch  "  had  become  a  "  brisk 
talker  "  about  rehgious  matters,  well  spoken  of  by  his 
neighbours  before  his  face  and  even  behind  his  back. 
The  struggle  began  when  he  reaUzed  that  he  was  but  a 
"poor,  painted  hj'pocrite,"  ignorant  of  the  meaning  of 
true  personal  rehgion.  Had  he  faith  ?  he  asked  him- 
self, and  he  was  tempted  to  put  his  possession  of  the 
gift  to  the  test  by  bidding  "  the  puddles  in  the  horse- 


THE  PURITANS,  1600-1660.  225 

pads  be  dry."  In  a  vision  he  saw  himself  shivering 
on  the  dark,  frozen,  snow-clad  side  of  a  high  mountain, 
while  on  the  other  side  all  was  bright  and  bathed  in 
sunshine.  At  first  he  could  find  no  passage  in  the  wall 
which  divided  the  two  sides  of  the  mountain  ;  but  at 
length  he  found  a  gap,  through  which,  with  much  ''  side- 
ling striving,*'  he  squeezed  first  liis  head,  then  his  shoulders, 
then  his  whole  body.  The  mountain  was  God's  Church ; 
the  sunshine,  His  merciful  face ;  the  wall,  the  world ; 
the  gap,  Jesus  Christ.  In  his  vehement  desire  to  be  of 
the  number  of  those  w^ho  sat  in  the  sun  he  would  often 
sing  Ps.  U.  But  new  fears  disquieted  him.  Was  he 
elected  ?  Was  the  day  of  grace  past  and  gone  ?  Would 
Christ  call  him  ?  His  heart  aflame  to  be  converted, 
he  yet  found  that  his  unbelief  set  its  shoulder  to  the 
door  to  keep  out  his  Lord.  Then,  with  many  a  bitter 
sigh,  he  would  cry,  "  Good  Lord,  break  it  open  ;  Lord, 
break  these  gates  of  brass,  and  cut  these  bars  of  iron 
asunder  "  (Ps.  cvii.  16).  So  convinced  was  he  of  his 
own  inward  pollution,  that  he  was,  in  his  own  sight, 
loathsome  as  a  toad.  Sin  and  corruption  seemed  to  bubble 
from  his  heart  as  from  a  fountain.  Yet  at  times  the 
sense  of  God's  love  cheered  him.  The  words,  "  Thou 
art  my  love,  thou  art  my  love,"  burned  within  his  heart 
till  they  kindled  a  cheerful  blaze.  In  his  joy  he  could 
hardly  refrain  from  telling  his  gladness  to  the  crows  that 
fed  on  the  freshly  turned  plough-lands. 

Once  again  the  comfort  was  dashed  from  his  lips  by 
the  thoughts :  Are  the  words  true  ?  had  he  committed 
the  unpardonable  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  was  he 
beyond  the  pale  of  God's  mercy  ?  He  would  gladly  have 
changed  his  condition  for  that  of  any  other  living  creature. 
A  horse  or  a  dog  were  happier.  He  prayed.  But  in  his 
prayers  Satan  was  ever  at  his  side,  chiUing  the  warmth 
of  his  aspirations,  or  distracting  his  thoughts  with  wan- 
dering fancies.  Though  his  "  soul  was  much  in  prayer," 
he  failed  to  pray  to  be  kept  from  the  temptations  and 
the  evil  that  were  to  come.      Of  his  error  he  was,  he 

8 


226  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

says,  "  made  deeply  sensible  by  the  prayer  of  hoty  Da\-id, 
who,  when  he  was  under  present  mercy,  yet  prayed  that 
God  would  hold  him  back  from  sin  and  temptation  to 
come  :    '  So  shall  I  be  undefiled,  and  innocent  from  the 
great  offence  '  "  (Ps.  xix.  13).     Even  when  he  was  con- 
soled by  the  conviction  of  God's  continued  love  towards 
him,  and  by  the  sense  of  his  own  earnest  love  for  Christ, 
the  struggle  was  renewed.     He  was  assailed  by  a  "  yet 
more  grievous  and  dreadful  temptation  than  before," 
which  never  left  him  for  a  day.     The  tempter  bade  him 
exchange  Christ  for  the  things  of  this  world.     ''  Sell  Him 
for  this,"  whispered  Satan,  as  he  put  a  morsel  of  food  in 
his  mouth.     "  Sell  Him  for  this,"  as  he  chopped  a  stick 
or  stooped  to  pick  up  a  pin.     At  last  he  thought  that  he 
had  yielded  to  the  temptation,  and  had  committed  the 
"  great  offence  "  of  Ps.  xix.  13.     He  compared  himself 
to  Esau,  who  could  not  ransom  his  bartered  birthright 
by  an  eternity  of  repentance.     Like  Judas,  he  felt  his 
breastbone  splitting  asunder.      At  moments  the  words 
of  Ps.  lx\dii.  18  ("  Thou  hast  received  gifts  for  men,  yea, 
even  for  Thine  enemies  ")  consoled  him.      If  God  had 
gifts  for  His  enemies,  why  not  for  him  ?     Yet  so  despond- 
ent was  he   that  he  thought  the  sun  grudged  him  his 
Hght,   and  the  very  roof-tiles   and   paving-stones  were 
banded  together  against  him.     Again  happiness  returned 
to  him  as  he  pondered  over  the  words,  "  If  Thou,  Lord, 
\Wlt  be  extreme  to  mark  what  is  done  amiss  ;    O  Lord, 
who  may  abide  it  ?     For  there  is  mercy  with  Thee  ; 
therefore  shalt  Thou  be  feared"  (Ps.  cxxx.  3,  4).    But  once 
more  he  felt  that  his  own  transgressions  had  left  him 
neither  foothold  nor  handhold  "  among  all  the  stays  and 
props  in  the  precious  word  of  Hfe."     For  two  years  and 
a  half  the  discouragement  continued.     As  he  was  vehe- 
mently desiring  to  know  whether  there  was  indeed  hope 
for  him,  these  words  came  rolhng  into  his  mind :    "  Will 
the  Lord  absent  Himself  for  ever  ;    and  will  He  be  no 
more  intreated  ?     Is  His  mercy  clean  gone  for  ever  ; 
and  is  His  promise  come  utterly  to  an  end  for  ever- 


THE  PURITANS,  1600-1660.  227 

more  ?  Hath  God  forgotten  to  be  gracious,  and  will  He 
shut  up  His  loving-kindness  in  displeasure  ?  "  (Ps.  Ixxvii. 
7-9).  He  was  not  far  from  the  end  of  his  struggle. 
"  One  day/'  he  says,  "  as  I  was  passing  into  the  field, 
and  that  too  with  some  dashes  on  my  conscience,  fearing 
lest  yet  all  was  not  right,  suddenly  this  sentence  fell 
upon  my  soul,  'Thy  righteousness  is  in  heaven.'  And 
me  thought  withal  I  saw  with  the  eyes  of  my  soul  Jesus 
Christ  at  God's  right  hand.  There,  I  say,  was  my  right- 
eousness ;  so  that  wherever  I  was,  or  whatever  I  was 
doing,  God  could  not  say  of  me,  '  He  wants  My  right- 
eousness,' for  that  was  just  before  Him.  I  also  saw, 
moreover,  that  it  was  not  my  good  frame  of  heart  that 
made  my  righteousness  better,  nor  yet  my  bad  frame 
that  made  my  righteousness  worse ;  for  my  righteous- 
ness was  Jesus  Christ  Himself,  *  the  same  yesterday, 
to-day,  and  for  ever  '  (Heb.  xiii.  8)."  He  returned  home 
rejoicing ;  his  temptations  fled  away ;  the  "  dreadful 
Scriptures  of  God  "  ceased  to  trouble  him  ;  he  "  Hved 
very  sweetly  at  peace  with  God  through  Christ."  He 
penetrated  "  the  mystery  of  union  with  the  Son  of  God  ;  " 
realized  that  he  was  joined  to  Him,  flesh  of  His  flesh, 
bone  of  His  bone. 

A  man  who  had  gained  his  peace  at  such  a  cost  was 
not  Hkely  to  surrender  his  convictions  lightly.  Yet  the 
thought  of  the  misery  that  might  befall  his  family,  and 
especially  his  bUnd  child,  made  him  shrink  from  im- 
prisonment. The  irresolution  was  momentary'.  "If  I 
should,"  he  says,  "  venture  all  for  God,  I  engaged  God 
to  take  care  of  my  concernments  ;  but  if  I  forsook  Him 
and  His  ways,  for  fear  of  any  trouble  that  should  come 
to  me  or  mine,  then  I  should  not  only  falsify  m}^  pro- 
fession,  but  should  count  also  that  my  concernments 
were  not  so  sure,  if  left  at  God's  feet  while  I  stood  to 
and  for  His  name,  as  they  would  be  if  they  were  under 
my  own  tuition,  though  ^\'ith  the  denial  of  the  way  of 
God.  This  was  a  smarting  consideration,  and  was  as 
spurs  into  my  flesh.     That  scripture  (Ps.  cix.  6-20)  also 


228  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

greatly  helped  it  to  fasten  the  more  upon  me,  where 
Christ  prays  against  Judas  that  God  woiild  disappoint 
him  in  his  selfish  thoughts,  which  moved  him  to  sell  his 
Master  ;  pray  read  it  soberly,  Ps.  cix.  6,  7,  8,"  etc. 

The  personal  grip  with  which  Bunyan  had  laid  hold  of 
his  religion  gave  him  powers  as  a  preacher  which  were 
envied  by  the  most  learned  of  his  contemporaries.  "  In 
my  preaching,"  he  writes,  **  I  have  really  been  in  pain, 
and  have,  as  it  were,  travailed  to  bring  forth  children 
to  God  ;  neither  could  I  be  satisfied  unless  some  fruits 
did  appear  in  my  work  :  if  I  were  fruitless,  it  mattered  not 
who  commended  me  ;  but  if  I  were  fruitful,  I  cared  not 
who  did  condemn.  I  have  thought  of  that,  *  Lo,  children 
and  the  fruit  of  the  womb  are  an  heritage  and  gift  that 
Cometh  of  the  Lord.  Like  as  the  arrows  in  the  hand 
of  the  giant,  even  so  are  the  young  children.  Happy  is 
the  man  that  hath  his  quiver  full  of  them  ;  they  shall 
not  be  ashamed  when  they  speak  with  their  enemies  in 
the  gate  '  "  (Ps.  cxxvii.  4-6). 

In  the  poetry  of  Milton,  in  the  mental  history  of 
Bunyan,  the  power  of  the  Psalms  is  strongly  marked. 
Their  influence  is  still  more  clearly  seen  in  the  career  of 
Oliver  Cromwell,  the  foremost  figure  in  the  stirring  times 
of  the  Puritan  revolution,  the  strongest  type  of  the 
stern  religion  which  raised  him  to  the  summit  of  fame 
and  fortune.  The  spirit  that  he  read  into  the  Psalms 
governed  his  actions  at  each  supreme  crisis  of  his  stormy 
hfe  ;  the  most  striking  stages  in  his  career  are  marked 
by  quotations  from  the  Psalms  ;  in  his  private  letters, 
his  pubhc  dispatches,  his  addresses  to  Parliament,  the 
imagery,  metaphors,  and  language  of  the  Psalms  drop 
from  his  Hps,  or  from  his  pen,  as  if  by  constant  medita- 
tion he  had  made  their  phraseology  a  part  of  his  very  life. 

In  January  1636  Cromwell  had  moved  his  home  to 
Ely  from  St.  Ives,  where,  as  a  farmer,  a  grazier,  and  a 
notable  man  in  parochial  business,  he  had  left  his  mark. 
At  Ely,  as  the  heir  of  his  uncle.  Sir  Thomas  Stewart, 
Knight,  he  Mved  close  to  St.  Mary's  Churchyard,  at  the 


THE  PURITANS,  1600-1660.  229 

comer  of  the  great  Tithe  Barn.  From  that  house  he 
wrote  one  of  his  first  extant  letters,  addressed  to  his 
cousin,  Mrs.  St.  John,  the  wife  of  the  celebrated  ship- 
money  lawyer.  In  it  he  speaks  of  himself  and  his  lot 
in  life. 

"  Truly,  then,"  he  says,  *'  this  I  find,  that  He  giveth 
springs  in  a  dry,  barren  wilderness  where  no  water  is. 
I  live,  you  know  where — in  Meshec,  which  they  say 
signifies  prolonging  ;  in  Kedar,  which  signifies  blackness  ; 
yet  the  Lord  forsaketh  me  not.  Though  He  do  prolong, 
yet  He  will,  I  trust,  bring  me  to  His  tabernacle,  to  His 
resting-place  "  (Ps.  cxx.). 

Twenty  years  later,  after  prolonged  and  bitter  strife, 
Oliver  Cromwell  had  become  Lord  Protector.  On  the 
i6th  of  September  1656,  as  he  sat  in  his  Palace  of  White- 
hall, he  was  reading  and  pondering  the  85th  Psalm.  The 
following  day  he  rode  in  state  from  Whitehall  to  the 
Abbey  Church  of  Westminster,  to  open  the  second  Parlia- 
ment of  the  Protectorate.  Before  his  coach  went  *'  hun» 
dreds  of  gentlemen  and  officers,  bareheaded,  the  Life 
Guards,  and  his  pages  and  lackeys  richly  clothed." 
The  service  ended,  he  returned  to  \\Tiitehall  with  the 
same  pomp  and  ceremony,  and  entering  the  Painted 
Chamber,  delivered  a  speech  to  the  newly  assembled 
members,  which  in  part  is  an  exposition  of  the  85  th 
and  46th  Psalms. 

Within  those  twenty  years  had  passed  some  of  the 
most  stirring  scenes  of  Enghsh  history.  In  all  of  them 
Cromwell  was  a  principal  actor,  and  in  all  the  Book  of 
Psalms — sometimes  misread,  sometimes  grimly  travestied, 
rarely  if  ever  interpreted  by  the  tender  Hght  of  the  New 
Testament — was  his  constant  companion  and  guide. 

Throughout  the  war  he  never  ceases  to  speak  the 
language  of  the  Psalms.  He  relies  not  on  men  and  visible 
helps,  though  no  practical  detail  which  can  give  success 
to  his  arms  escapes  his  keen  eye.  It  is  God's  cause  in 
which  he  fights.  In  God  is  his  strength.  It  is  God 
who  says,  "  Up  and  be  doing,  and  I  will  stand  by  you 


230  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

and  help  you."  It  is  God  who  makes  the  royalists  as 
"  stubble  "  before  the  swords  of  the  Puritans.  In  him 
and  in  his  troopers  bums  the  spirit  of  young  Walton,  who 
died  at  Maiston  Moor  wdth  one  thing  only  lying  heavy 
on  his  soul — that  "  God  had  not  suffered  him  to  be  any 
more  the  executioner  of  His  enemies." 

At  Naseby  fight  Cromwell  had  seen  "  the  enemj^ 
draw  up  and  march  in  gallant  order  towards  us,  and  we, 
a  company  of  poor,  ignorant  men,  at  pains  to  order  our 
battle."  Yet  "  he  smiled  out  to  God  in  praises,  in  assur- 
ance of  victory,  because  God  would,  by  things  that  are 
not,  bring  to  naught  things  that  are.  Of  which  I  had 
great  assurance ;  and  God  did  it.  Oh  that  men  would 
therefore  praise  the  Lord,  and  declare  the  wonders  that 
He  doeth  for  the  children  of  men  1  "  (Ps.  cvii.  8). 

As  the  victory  at  Naseby  is  the  **  hand  of  God,"  and 
"  to  Him  alone  belongs  the  glory,"  so  in  the  storming  of 
Bristol  he  "  must  be  a  very  atheist  who  doth  not  acknow- 
ledge God's  work."  The  same  spirit  is  manifested  at 
Basing  House.  Old  and  New  Basing,  each  fitted  to 
make  "  an  emperor's  court,"  stood,  as  Hugh  Peters 
described  it,  "in  its  full  pride,  and  the  enemy  was  per- 
suaded that  it  would  be  the  last  piece  of  ground  that 
would  be  taken  by  the  Parhament."  It  had  stood  siege 
after  siege,  till  the  royahsts  called  it  Basting  House  ; 
and  truly,  so  long  as  it  was  held  for  the  king,  no  Parha- 
ment man  could  travel  the  western  roads  in  safety. 
The  Marquis  of  Winchester,  to  whom  it  belonged,  was  a 
zealous  Roman  Catholic  ;  and  to  Cromwell  it  was  a 
nest,  not  only  of  Mahgnants,  but  of  Papists,  a  stronghold 
of  darkness,  a  place  of  idols. 

On  the  8th  of  October  1645,  Cromwell  arrived  before 
Basing  \\ath  a  train  of  heavy  artillery.  On  the  nth  his 
batteries  were  in  position,  and  the  garrison  was  sum- 
moned to  surrender.  If  they  refused  quarter  now,  on 
their  heads  be  it.  No  mercy  would  be  shown.  The 
summons  was  lightly  set  aside.  Lord  Winchester  would 
hold  "  Loyalty  House  "  to  the  uttermost. 


THE  PURITANS,  1600-1660.  231 

At  midnight  on  the  13th  two  wide  breaches  were 
effected,  and  it  was  resolved  to  storm  the  place  before 
sunrise  on  the  morning  of  the  14th.  The  assault  was 
delivered.  The  defenders  were  too  few  to  resist  the 
storming-parties.  No  quarter  was  asked,  and  none 
given.  '*  Our  muskets  and  swords,"  says  a  contemporary 
newspaper,  "  showed  little  compassion."  Great  was  the 
plunder  of  plate  and  jewels,  of  gold  and  silver,  tapestry 
and  rich  attire.  WTien  Cromwell's  army  moved  away, 
the  defenders  had  been  put  to  the  sword,  the  altars 
thrown  to  the  ground,  the  priests  killed  or  reserved  for 
the  knife  and  the  gallows,  and  Basing  House  was  a  heap 
of  blackened  ashes.  A  grim  comment  on  the  power  of 
the  Psalms  follows.  Lieutenant-General  Cromwell,  Hugh 
Peters  tells  us,  "  had  spent  much  time  \\'ith  God  in  prayer 
the  night  before  the  storm  ;  and  seldom  fights  \\dthout 
some  text  of  Scripture  to  support  him.  This  time  he 
rested  upon  that  blessed  word  of  God,  wTitten  in  the 
115th  Psalm,  verse  8,  They  that  make  them  are  like  tmfo 
them  ;  so  is  every  one  that  trusteth  in  them.  \Miich,  \nth 
some  verses  going  before,  was  now  accomphshed." 

WTien  the  war  was  ended,  it  is  still  in  the  same  strain 
that  Cromwell  speaks.  Thus,  in  November  1648,  he 
writes  to  Colonel  Robert  Hanmiond  : — 

"  We  have  not  been  \Wthout  our  share  of  beholding 
some  remarkable  providences  and  appearances  of  the 
Lord.  His  presence  hath  been  amongst  us,  and  by  the 
Hght  of  His  countenance  we  have  prevailed." 

It  was,  again,  in  the  spirit  of  the  sternest  of  the  Psalms 
that  Cromwell  entered  on  the  Irish  War.  He  is  an 
armed  soldier  of  God,  executing  His  judgments  upon 
His  enemies,  terrible  as  death,  relentless  as  doom.  With 
the  sword  in  one  hand  and  his  Acts  of  ParHament  in 
the  other,  he  offers  the  choice  of  disobedience  and  death, 
or  obedience  and  Hfe.  And,  as  Drogheda  and  Wexford 
testified,  his  words  represented  deeds. 

In  July  1650  the  war  with  Scotland  began.  Charles 
II.  accepted  the  Covenant,  and  \nth  Burkingham  and 


232  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Wilmot  at  his  side — strange  instruments  for  such  a  task 
— had  crossed  the  seas  from  Breda  to  be  the  earthly 
representative  of  that  theocracy  which  the  Scottish  Kirk 
desired  to  see  estabhshed.  Cromwell,  returning  from 
Ireland,  was  made  Commander-in-Chief,  and  sent  to  the 
front  to  check  the  threatened  Scottish  invasion.  It  was 
wdth  a  psalm  in  his  mind  that  he  set  out  on  his  mission. 
A  few  days  before  his  departure  he  had  a  strange  inter- 
view with  Colonel  Edmund  Ludlow,  one  of  the  sternest 
of  Repubhcans,  Calling  Ludlow  aside  into  a  private 
room  at  Whitehall,  he  charged  him  wdth  a  changed 
countenance  towards  him,  and  with  suspicions  of  his 
objects.  He  professed  his  readiness  to  sacrifice  his  life 
in  the  service  of  the  people  ;  he  declared  that  he  desired 
nothing  better  than  a  ''  free  and  equal  Commonwealth  ;  " 
he  spoke  at  length  of  the  "  great  providences  of  God  now 
abroad  upon  the  earth."  Then  he  "  spent  at  least  an 
hour  in  the  exposition  of  the  iioth  Psahn,"  sapng  that 
he  looked  upon  the  design  of  the  Lord  in  that  day  to  be 
the  freeing  of  His  people  from  every  burden,  and  that 
he  himself  was  the  chosen  instrument  for  the  accompHsh- 
ment  of  the  events  foretold  in  that  psalm. 

So  Cromwell  set  out,  assured  that  the  Lord  would 
make  His  enemies  His  footstool,  that  "  in  the  day  of 
His  wrath  He  would  wound  even  kings,"  and  that  He 
would  "  judge  among  the  heathen,"  and  "  fill  the  places 
with  the  dead  bodies."  At  the  end  of  July  he  had 
crossed  the  Border,  and  reached  Musselburgh.  Between 
him  and  Edinburgh  lay  General  Da\dd  Leslie,  entrenched 
behind  strong  hnes,  and  protected  by  the  guns  of  Edin- 
burgh and  Leith.  It  was  a  crisis  on  which  were  centred 
mighty  interests.  Two  hosts,  each  claiming  to  be  the 
Lord's  chosen  people,  were  about  to  put  their  claims  to 
the  test.  To  which  should  victory  be  given  ?  All  Crom- 
well's efforts  to  induce  the  Scots  to  risk  a  battle  were 
vain.  Affairs  of  outposts  and  skirmishes  took  place : 
but  day  after  day  Leslie  lay  steady  within  his  lines, 
while  Cromwell's  provisions  were  failing,  and  his  numbers 


THE  PURITANS,  1600-1660.  233 

dwindling  through  sickness.  Equally  futile  were  Crom- 
well's attempts  to  persuade  the  Kirk  Commissioners  that 
their  cause  was  imrighteous,  and  that  Charles  Stewart 
was  unfit  to  rule  over  a  godly  people.  He  received  but 
a  curt  answer  to  his  appeal,  backed  though  it  was  by 
the  confident  assertion  that  "  before  it  be  long  the  Lord 
will  manifest  His  good  pleasure  so  that  all  shall  see  Him, 
and  His  people  shall  say,  *  This  is  the  Lord's  work,  and 
it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes ;  this  is  the  day  that  the 
Lord  hath  made  ;  we  will  rejoice  and  be  glad  in  it.'  " 

Days  passed ;  Cromwell's  provisions  ran  short ;  the 
weather  was  wet  and  stormy,  so  that  his  stores  could  not 
be  landed,  and  at  the  end  of  August  he  fired  his  huts 
and  marched  towards  Dunbar,  LesHe  hanging  on  his  rear 
and  keeping  on  the  higher  ground.  Taking  full  advantage 
of  his  superior  knowledge  of  the  country,  the  Scottish 
commander  occupied  the  Doon  Hill,  a  spur  of  the  Lam- 
mermuir  Hills,  standing  forward  from  the  range  hke  a 
watch-tower,  and  seizing  the  Cockbumspath,  the  wild 
river  chasm  eastward  of  Dunbar,  which  forms  the  ap- 
proach to  Berv.ick,  thrust  in  his  army  between  Cromwell 
and  the  English  Border.  Here,  then,  was  Cromwell,  with 
a  force  of  11,000  opposed  to  23,000,  hemmed  in  between 
the  hiUs  and  the  sea,  with  Scotland  in  his  rear  and 
Leslie's  army  in  his  front. 

Cromwell  knew  that  he  was  in  desperate  case.  "  Our 
condition,"  he  says,  "  was  made  very  sad."  On  the 
2nd  of  September  he  wrote  a  letter,  hastily  folded  before 
the  ink  was  dry,  to  Sir  Arthur  Haslerigg,  the  Governor 
of  Newcastle,  asking  for  aid,  and  bidding  him  prepare 
for  the  worst.  On  the  same  day  on  which  this  letter 
was  written  Leslie  began  to  move  his  army  down  from 
the  Doon  Hill  to  lower  ground,  from  which  he  proposed 
the  next  morning  to  attack  the  EngHsh  army. 

The  moment  that  Cromwell  saw  this  movement  he 
recognized  the  advantage  which  it  gave  him.  "  The 
Lord  hath  delivered  them  into  our  hands  "  is  the  tradi- 
tional exclamation  that  burst  from  his  lips  as  he  saw 


234  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

his  antagonist  "  shogging  "  do\vn  the  hill.  He  deter- 
mined that  he  would  himself  be  the  assailant  at  sunrise 
on  the  next  morning.  Throughout  the  wet  and  cold 
night  of  Monday  the  2nd,  in  the  storms  of  rain  and  sleet, 
he  made  his  dispositions.  \\'lien,  at  four  o'clock,  the 
moon  shone  out  through  the  hail-clouds,  all  was  not 
yet  ready.  An  hour  later  the  trumpets  pealed,  the  cannon 
roared  along  the  line,  and  Cromwell's  horse  and  foot, 
shouting  their  watchword,  "  The  Lord  of  Hosts,"  burst 
upon  the  Scottish  troops,  who,  stiffened  by  the  cold 
and  with  unhghted  matches,  were  beginning  to  stir  them- 
selves as  the  twihght  crept  among  the  shocks  of  com 
where  they  had  bivouacked.  Here  and  there  the  fight 
was  stubborn  ;  Leshe's  horse  boldly  answered  back  the 
Enghsh  challenge  with  their  shout  of  "  The  Covenant." 
But  the  position  was  such  that  the  Scottish  general  could 
make  no  use  of  his  superior  numbers,  and  when,  over 
St.  Abb's  Head  and  the  German  Ocean,  burst  the  rising 
sun,  the  gleam  drew  from  Cromwell's  Hps  the  triimiphant 
cry,  "  Let  God  arise,  and  let  His  enemies  be  scattered." 
The  horse  broke  and  fled,  trampling  down  the  undisci- 
pHned  masses  behind  them  ;  the  rout  was  complete. 
The  "  chase  and  execution  "  of  the  fugitives  lasted  for 
eight  miles,  till  the  Lord  General  made  a  halt  in  his 
pursuit,  and  sang  the  117th  Psalm.  It  was  but  a  brief 
respite.  Practical  in  his  rehgion  as  in  aU  else,  Cromwell 
chose  the  shortest  Psalm  in  the  book. 

A  year  later,  on  the  same  day  of  the  month,  September 
3,  1651,  came  the  **  crowning  mercy  "  of  the  battle  of 
Worcester.  On  the  enemy,  writes  Cromwell  to  Mr. 
Cotton  of  Boston,  New  England,  the  Lord  "  rained 
snares,"  so  that  *'  of  the  w^hole  army  of  the  Scottish 
king  and  the  Malignant  party  not  five  men  were  re- 
turned. Surely,"  he  adds,  "  the  Lord  is  greatly  to  be 
feared,  and  to  be  praised." 

In  1653  the  Rump  had  been  expelled,  and  in  their 
place  were  assembled  "  divers  persons,  fearing  God, 
and  of  approved  fidelity  and  honesty,"  who  constituted 


THE  PURITANS,  160Q-1660.  235 

the  "  Baxebones  "  Parliament.  On  July  4,  CromweU, 
standing  by  the  window  opposite  the  middle  of  the 
table  in  the  centre  of  the  Council  Chamber  of  Whitehall, 
the  officers  of  the  army  ranged  on  his  right  and  left, 
addressed  that  strange  assembly,  every  member  of 
which  was  a  man  in  whom  Cromwell  hoped  to  find 
"  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  love  to  all  people  and  saints." 
His  speech  is  loaded  with  references  to  the  Psalms, 
especially  Ps.  ex.  and  Ps.  Ixviii.  He  hints  that  their 
meeting  may  be  "  the  door  to  usher  in  the  things  that 
God  has  promised,  which  He  has  set  the  hearts  of  His 
people  to  wait  for  and  expect."  They  are  ''  at  the  edge 
of  the  promises  and  prophecies  ;  "  and  then  he  expounds 
Ps.  Ixviii.  God  is  bringing  His  people  out  of  deep 
waters  ;  He  is  setting  up  the  glory  of  His  Gospel  Church. 
Kings  of  armies  had  fled,  and  the  spoU  had  been  divided. 

**  And  indeed  the  triumph  of  that  psalm  is  exceeding 
high  and  great ;  and  God  is  accomplishing  it.  And  the 
close  of  it — that  closeth  with  my  heart,  and  I  do  not 
doubt  with  yours — '  The  Lord  shaketh  the  hills  and 
mountains,  and  they  reel.'  And  God  hath  a  hill  too, 
an  high  hill  as  the  hill  of  Bashan  ;  and  the  chariots  of 
God  are  twenty  thousand,  even  thousands  of  angels  ; 
and  God  will  dwell  upon  this  hill  for  ever  !  " 

On  Monday,  September  4,  in  the  following  year 
(1654),  the  Lord  Protector  had  returned  in  state  to 
Whitehall  from  Westminster  Abbey.  Entering  the 
Painted  Chamber  in  all  the  plenitude  of  his  power,  he 
delivered  a  speech  to  the  assembly.  In  it  he  enlarged 
on  the  stupendous  providences  of  God. 

"  As  David,"  he  continues,  "  said  in  the  like  case 
(Ps.  xl.  6),  *  Many,  O  Lord  my  God,  are  Thy  wonderful 
works  which  Thou  hast  done,  and  Thy  thoughts  which 
are  to  usward ;  they  cannot  be  reckoned  up  in  order 
unto  Thee  ;  if  I  would  declare  and  speak  of  them,  they 
are  more  than  can  be  numbered.'  *' 

Once  more.  On  Tuesday,  September  16,  1656, 
CromweU  was  reading  the  85th  Psalm  in  WTiitehall.     It 


236  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUM.\X  LIFE. 

was  the  day  before  the  meeting  of  the  second  Parliament 
of  the  Protectorate.  The  next  day,  \nth  the  usual 
ceremonies,  Parliament  was  opened,  and  the  Lord  Pro- 
tector addressed  a  speech  to  the  members.  *'  Yester- 
day," he  said,  **  I  did  read  a  psalm  which  truly  may  not 
rmbecome  both  me  to  tell  you  of,  and  you  to  obser^'e. 
It  is  the  85th  Psalm  ;  it  is  very  instructive  and  signifi- 
cant ;  though  I  do  but  a  little  touch  upon  it,  I  desire 
your  perusal  and  pleasure."  Then  he  expounded  to 
them  his  vision  of  hope — God's  \vi\l  done  on  earth,  and 
England  an  emblem  of  heaven,  where  God's  \\'ill  reigns 
supreme.  To  this  work  he  exhorted  his  Parhament  to 
set  their  hearts. 

"And,"  he  says,  "  if  you  set  your  hearts  to  it,  then 
you  \vill  sing  Luther's  psalm  (xlvi.).  That  is  a  rare  psalm 
for  a  Christian  !  and  if  he  set  his  heart  open,  and  can 
approve  it  to  God,  we  shall  hear  him  say,  '  God  is  our 
refuge  and  strength,  a  very  present  help  in  trouble.*  .  .  . 
If  Pope  and  Spaniard,  and  devil  and  all,  set  themselves 
against  us,  yet  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  we  should 
destroy  them  !  '  The  Lord  of  Hosts  is  with  us  ;  the  God 
of  Jacob  is  our  refuge.'  " 

Two  years  later,  on  Thursday,  September  2,  1658, 
Cromwell  lay  dying.  "  He  was  very  restless  most  part 
of  the  night,  speaking  often  to  himself,"  using  *'  towards 
morning  divers  holy  expressions,  imphlng  much  inward 
consolation  and  peace."  WTien  the  morrow's  sun  rose 
he  was  speechless.  By  three  or  four  in  the  afternoon  he 
lay  dead.  Did  he  strengthen  himself  \nth  the  Psalms 
for  the  last  battle  of  his  miUtant  life  ?  Were  the  words 
which  he  spoke  to  himself  such  as  these  :  "  Though  I 
walk  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  I  wiU 
fear  no  evil :  for  Thou  art  \\ith  me ;  Thy  rod  and  Thy 
staff  they  comfort  me  "  ? 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  SCOTTISH  COVENANTERS  AND  THE  REVOLUTION 
OF  1688. 

Progress  of  the  Reformation  in  Scotland — George  Wisiiart,  John  Knox, 
James  Mehdlle  ;  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  (163S)  ;  the 
restoration  of  Episcopacy  (1661-1664);  popular  discontent — the  Pent  - 
land  rising,  Hugh  M'Kail,  Drumclog  and  Bothwell  Bridge,  Richard 
Cameron,  Donald  Cargill,  Baillie  of  Jerviswood,  Alexander  Peden, 
James  Ren  wick,  the  Wigto%\-n  Martyrs  ;  the  Revolution  of  1688  ; 
siege  of  Derry  (i68g). 

IN  words  of  vehement  hatred  Patrick  Walker  described 
prelacy  as  "  That  old  strumpet  mother  and  eldest 
beautiful  daughter  of  Antichrist,  with  which  the  blinded 
nations  have  been  and  are  sadly  bewitched ;  but  vile, 
vile,  loathsome  and  hateful  in  the  eyes  of  all  zealous 
serious  godly  in  Scotland,  ever  since  the  Lord  made  light 
to  arise  to  see  her  abominations."  The  passage  expressed, 
with  little  exaggeration  of  language,  the  feelings  of  the 
majority  of  the  Scottish  people  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. The  hatred  of  prelac}^  was  not  indeed  shared  by 
the  aristocracy,  nor  had  it  extended  to  the  north  of 
Scotland.  But  in  the  Lowlands,  and  among  the  middle 
and  lower  classes,  it  was  as  bitter  as  the  love  of  Pres- 
byterian forms  was  deep  and  strong. 

'*  In  the  year  of  God  1544  .  .  .  came  to  Scotland  that 
Blessed  Martyr  of  God,  Master  George  Wishart."  So 
John  Knox  began  his  story  of  the  beloved  master,  of 
whom  he  speaks  with  a  reverent  tenderness  that  rarely 
comes    to    the   surface    of   his   independent,    self-reliant 


238  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE,  I 

character.  Not  a  few  martyrs  had  ahready  suffered  in 
Scotland  for  conscience'  sake.  Even  so  illustrious  a 
scholar  as  George  Buchanan  had  narrowly  escaped  the 
clutch  of  Cardinal  Beaton,  though  the  archbishop's 
wrath  was  less  stirred  by  Buchanan's  Latin  version  of 
the  Psalms  than  by  his  satires  on  clerical  vices.  What 
Buchanan  did  in  the  language  of  scholars,  Sir  David 
Lindsay  did  in  homely  Scotch.  But  the  true  vernacular 
poetry  of  the  day  was  enshrined  in  the  collections  of 
"  Spiritual  Sangis,"  including  "  the  Psalmes  of  David, 
with  uther  new  plesand  Ballatis."  No  edition  of  the 
collected  verses,  which  are  mainly  the  work  of  three 
brothers — James,  John,  and  Robert  Wedderburn — is 
known  till  1568.  But  the  Songs  and  Psalms,  printed  on 
separate  sheets,  or  sung  by  wandering  minstrels,  had 
already  circulated  among  the  people  and  filtered  into 
common  knowledge. 

The  way  was  paved  for  the  Reformed  doctrines  before 
Wishart's  arrival  in  Scotland.  But  there  was  about  him 
that  personal  fascination  which  made  him  the  leader  of 
the  movement,  and  won  him  the  devotion  of  his  dis- 
ciple, John  Knox.  His  tall  figure  and  bearded  face, 
with  his  round  French  hat,  long  frieze  mantle,  black 
doublet  and  hose,  white  falling  bands  and  cuffs,  soon 
became  familiar,  as  he  preached  by  market  crosses,  at 
the  dike-side  of  Mauchline,  in  private  houses,  or,  more 
rarely,  in  parish  kirks.  He  was  preaching  in  Kyle  when 
"  word  was  brought  that  the  plague  of  pestilence  was 
risen  in  Dundee  .  .  .  and  the  pest  was  so  vehement 
that  it  almost  passed  credibility  to  hear  what  number 
departed  every  four-and-twenty  hours."  Hastening  to 
the  plague-stricken  city,  Wishart  took  his  station  at  the 
East  Port ;  those  that  were  "  whole  sat  or  stood  within, 
and  the  sick  and  suspected  without  the  Port."  Standing, 
as  it  were,  between  life  and  death,  he  preached  to  the 
people  from  Ps.  cvii.  20,  "  He  sent  His  word,  and  healed 
them,"  and  by  his  words  **  so  raised  up  the  hearts  of  all 
that   heard  him,   that   they   regarded   not    death,    but 


THE  SCOTTISH  COVENANTERS.  239 

jidged  them  more  happy  that  should  depart  thar.  such 
as  should  remain  behind." 

Wishart,  already  inhibited  from  preaching,  knew  that 
he  would  not  long  remain  unmolested.  In  December 
1545  he  had  left  Haddington,  bidding  Knox  return  to 
his  pupils,  and  causing  the  two-handed  sword  which 
he  carried  to  be  taken  from  him.  "  One  is  sufficient  for 
one  sacrifice,"  he  said.  He  spent  the  night  at  Ormiston 
with  the  laird  and  other  friends.  Supper  ended,  the 
company  sang  together  Ps.  li.  in  Wedderburn's  version, — 

"  Have  mercy  on  me  now,  good  Lord, 
After  Thy  great  mercie  ; 
My  sinful  life  does  me  remord. 
Which  sore  has  grieved  me." 

Then  he  passed  to  his  bedchamber,  with  the  words, 
**  God  grant  quiet  rest."  That  night  he  was  seized  by 
Earl  Bothwell,  and  eventually  carried  to  the  *'  Sea- 
Tower  of  St.  Andrews."  Convicted  of  heresy,  he  was 
burned,  March  i,  1546,  at  the  foot  of  the  Castle  WjTid, 
opposite  the  castle  gate.  Almost  his  last  words  were 
taken  from  a  psakn.  ''  Wlien  he  came  to  the  hre," 
says  Knox,  "  he  sat  dowTi  upon  his  knees,  and  rose  up 
again,  and  thrice  he  said  these  words  :  *  O  Thou  Sa\aour 
of  the  world,  have  mercy  upon  me  !  Father  of  heaven, 
I  commend  my  spirit  into  Thy  holy  hands  '  "  (Ps.  xxxi. 
6).  As  a  sign  of  forgiveness  he  kissed  the  executioner 
on  the  cheek,  saying,  "  Lo,  here  is  a  token  that  I  forgive 
thee.  My  harte,  do  thy  office."  So  died  George 
Wishart. 

But  for  Wishart's  personal  influence  and  tragic  death, 
it  seems  possible  that  John  Knox,  already  forty  years  of 
age,  and  stiH  unknown,  might  never  have  takeft  part  in 
pubUc  affairs.  A  quarter  of  a  century  later,  in  Novem- 
ber 1572,  the  reformer  of  a  kingdom  was  dying  in  his 
house  at  the  Netherbow  Port  of  Edinburgh.  "As  he  lay, 
to  all  appearance  asleep,  he  was  often  heard  repeating 
to  himself  the  words,  "  Come,  Lord  Jesus  ;   sweet  Jesus, 


240  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

into  Thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit."  The  text  from 
the  Psahns  was  that  used  by  Wishart.  But  in  ali 
external  circumstances  the  deaths  of  the  two  men  were 
widely  different.  The  cause  for  which  Wishart  suffered 
had  triumphed.  Knox's  iron  will,  passionate  eloquence, 
and  grim  self-reliance  had  swept  aside  the  leadership 
of  the  sovereign  and  the  nobility.  He  had  carried  the 
people  with  him,  and  Scotland  had  for  ever  broken  with 
Rome. 

One  side  of  Knox's  work  remained  incomplete.  Epis- 
copacy was  not  abolished ;  for  political  reasons  it  was 
revived.  The  complete  organization  of  the  Scottish 
Church  was  perfected  on  the  Presbyterian  model  by 
Andrew  Melville  ("SecondBook  of  Discipline,  "1581-1592). 
At  Knox's  death,  indeed,  the  final  triumph  of  the  Pres- 
byterian cause  still  seemed  distant  and  uncertain.  It 
was  the  year  of  St.  Bartholomew,  and  it  was  to  the 
Psalms  that  men  turned  for  the  expression  of  their 
sorrow.  James  Melville,  a  nephew  of  the  Presbyterian 
leader,  and  at  that  time  passing  through  his  course  of 
philosophy  at  the  University  of  St.  Andrews,  notes  in 
his  Diary  that  "  The  primarius  (James  Wilkie),  a  guid, 
peaceable,  sweit  auld  man,  wha  luiffed  me  weill  .  .  . 
causit  sing,  commownlie  the  44  and  79  Psalmes,  quhilk 
I  lernit  par  co^ur,  for  that  was  the  yeir  of  the  bludie 
massacres  in  France,  and  grait  troubles  in  this  coun- 
trey."  Already  the  singing  of  psalms,  the  only  part  of 
ordinary  worship  in  which  the  people  directly  joined, 
was  becoming  popular.  Melville  has  recorded  their 
introduction  in  1570  at  Montrose.  "  The  Lard  of  Done,'* 
he  says,  "  of  his  charitie  interteined  a  blind  man,  wha 
haid  a  singular  guid  voice  ;  him  he  causit  the  doctor  of 
our  schoU  teatche  the  wholl  Psalmes  in  miter,  with  the 
tones  thairof,  and  sing  tham  in  the  Kirk  ;  be  heiring  of 
whome  I  was  sa  delyted,  that  I  lernit  manie  of  the 
Psalmes  and  tones  thairof  in  miter,  quhilk  I  haiff  thought 
ever  sen  syne  a  grait  blessing  and  comfort." 

In  many  of  the  vicissitudes  of  the  struggle,  in  which 


11 


THE  SCOTTISH  COVENANTERS.  241 

James  Melville  took  a  leading  part,  he  found  in  the 
Psalms  the  best  expression  of  his  emotions.  The  eight 
texts  with  which  his  Diary  begms  are  all  taken  from  the 
Psalms,  and  in  his  pages  are  recorded  two  notable  in- 
stances of  their  use.  Among  the  staunchest  champions 
of  the  Presbyterian  cause  was  John  Durie,  minister  first 
at  Leith,  then  in  Edinburgh.  He  had  been  suspended 
for  his  plain  speaking  against  the  Duke  of  Lennox. 
But  in  1582  he  returned  to  his  "  awin  flok  of  Edin- 
bruche."  The  whole  town  gathered  to  meet  him  at  the 
Netherbow  Port,  and  "  goeing  upe  the  streit,  with  bear 
heads  and  laud  voices,  sang  to  the  praise  of  God,  and 
testifeing  of  graft  joy  and  consolation,  the  124th  Psalm, 
'  Now  Israel  may  say,  and  that  trewlie,'  etc.,  till  heavin 
and  erthe  resonndit."  So  determined  was  the  attitude 
of  the  vast  concourse  of  people  that  the  duke,  when  he 
heard  the  noise  and  saw  the  crowd,  tore  his  beard  for 
anger,  and  hastened  out  of  the  city.  Two  years  later 
Melville  himself  was  a  fugitive,  flying  for  his  life.  By 
yet  another  change  in  the  struggle,  he  was,  in  1585, 
enabled  to  return  to  Scotland.  As  he  and  his  fellow- 
exiles  reached  Alnwick  on  their  homeward  journey,  re- 
joicing that  the  '*  bountifull  and  gratius  hand  of  our 
God  was  with  us,"  they  were  many  times  constrained 
to  sing  Ps.  cxxvi.,  "  When  the  Lord  turned  again 
the  captivity  of  Sion,"  and  other  psalms  of  the  same 
character. 

Neither  of  the  Melvilles  died  in  Scotland.  Andrew 
Melville  died  at  Sedan,  James  at  Ber\vick.  But  as 
during  his  troubled  life  James  Melville  had  found  in  the 
Psalms  the  expression  of  his  sorrow,  his  gratitude,  or  his 
triumph,  so  at  the  moment  of  death  they  brought  him 
their  message  of  strength  and  courage.  The  pain  of  his 
disease  was  "  wonderfull  vehement ;  "  yet  he  was 
content,  thinking  "  of  the  sight  of  the  face  of  God  in 
glorie  ;  rehearsing  that  verse  of  the  i6th  Psalm  (verse 
12),  *  Thow  wilt  schaw  me  the  pathe  of  l}^"e  ;  in  thy 
sicht  are  fulness  of  all  joyes,  at  thy  right  hand  is  the 


242  THE  PSAOIS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

plentie  of  pleasures  for  evir.'  "  As  the  pain  and  weak- 
ness increased,  he  "  comforteth  himselff  with  sundrie 
speeches  out  of  the  Psalmes,  quhilk  he  rehearsit  m 
Hebrew ;  as,  nameli  ane  speich  out  of  Ps.  iv.  7,  *  Lord, 
lift  up  the  lyght  of  th}^  countenance  upon  me  ; '  Ps.  xxvii. 
I,  *  The  Lord  is  my  light  and  my  salvatione,  quhat  can  I 
fear  ?  '  Ps.  xxiii.  4,  *  Albeit  I  walkit  through  the  valley 
of  the  shadow  of  death,  yet  will  I  fear  none  evill,  because 
God  is  with  me.'  The  candell  being  behind  his  bakj 
he  desyred  that  it  should  be  brought  before  him,  that 
he  might  sie  to  die.  Be  occasionne  quhairof  that  pairt 
of  the  Scripture  wes  rememberit,  'Light  ary^ses  to  the 
righteous  in  the  middes  of  darknes '  (Ps.  cxii.  4) ;  and 
Ps.  xviii.  28,  *  The  Lord  vv'ill  lighten  my  candell ;  He 
will  inlighten  my  darkness.'  " 

In  spite  and  partty  in  consequence  of  the  effort  oi 
James  I.  to  re-establish  episcopacy,  and  to  assimilate 
the  Church  in  Scotland  with  that  in  England,  the  Pres- 
byterian Kirk,  wath  its  General  Assembly,  had  become 
the  organ  of  the  Scottish  people,  its  Parliament,  its 
press,  its  platform,  and  something  more.  It  was  their 
"  Mount  Zion  in  Jerusalem,"  the  "joy  of  the  whole 
earth,"  the  **  city  of  the  great  King."  When,  there- 
fore, in  1637,  Charles  I.  attempted  to  introduce  a  book 
of  Canons  and  a  Liturgy  framed  on  the  English  model, 
he  outraged  some  of  the  deepest  feelings  of  the  nation. 
A  wave  of  excitement  swept  over  Scotland.  ThriUed 
with  solemn  enthusiasm,  the  people  had  witnessed  the 
signature  of  the  National  Covenant  on  the  last  day  of 
February  1638,  in  the  Greyfriars  Church  of  Edinburgh. 
Rallying  to  the  cry  of  "  Christ's  Crown  and  Covenant," 
disciplined  by  the  genius  of  Alexander  LesHe,  and 
obeying  the  **  old  little  crooked  soldier  "  as  if  he  were 
"the  Great  Soleyman"  himself,  the  Covenanters  easily 
wrung  from  Charles  I.  the  concession  of  all  their  demands.. 
The  "  blue  banner "  had  triumphed.  But  Scottish 
liberties  were  still  in  peril  if  the  king  prevailed  against 
the  English  Parliament.     In   1643  the  Solemn  League 


THE  SCOTTISH  COVENANTERS,  243 

and  Covenant  bound  the  Presbyterians  of  the  north 
and  the  Puritans  of  the  south  in  a  firm  alUance  to  root 
out  popery  and  prelacy  from  the  three  kingdoms. 

The  House  of  Stuart  was  slow  to  take  warning  from 
experience.  On  May  29,  1660,  Charles  II.  was  re- 
stored to  the  throne,  and  the  dark  times  swept  over 
Scotland  with  one  giant  stride.  While  the  guns  roared 
from  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh,  to  celebrate  the  national 
thanksgiving,  Donald  CargiU  foretold  Charles's  future 
from  the  pulpit.  *'  Whoever  of  the  Lord's  people,"  he 
said,  ''  are  this  day  rejoicing,  their  joy  wall  be  like  the 
crackling  of  thorns  under  a  pot ;  he  will  be  the  woefuUest 
sight  that  ever  the  poor  Church  of  Scotland  saw.  Wo, 
wo,  wo  to  him  !  his  name  shall  stink  while  the  world 
stands  for  treachery,  tyranny,  and  leachery."  Thus 
began,  in  mingled  joy  and  foreboding,  "that  never-to- 
be-forgotten  unheard-of  twenty-eight  years  of  reigning 
tyrants,  and  raging  tyranny  of  Prelatical  Protestants 
upon  Presbyterian  Protestants." 

Cargill's  predictions  w^ere  soon  verified.  The  ''  Drunken 
ParUament  "  of  166 1  imposed  a  new  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  sovereign  as  supreme  over  all  persons  and  in  all 
causes,  exacted  it  from  all  ministers  presented  to  bene- 
fices, pronounced  assemblies  to  be  unlawful,  prohibited 
the  renewal  of  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  and, 
by  an  "  Act  Recissory,"  repealed  the  whole  legislation 
of  Scotland  for  the  past  tv/enty  years.  In  the  following 
year  episcopacy  was  established  in  Scotland,  and  James 
Sharp,  who  was  acting  in  London  as  agent  for  the  Pres- 
byterian ministers,  was  ordained,  and  consecrated  Arch- 
bishop of  St.  Andrews.  The  ballad-mongers  of  the  day 
expressed  the  popular  detestation  of  the  new  primate's 
treachery  : — 

"  Most  viper -like,  T  in  the  Kirk 
My  mother's  bowels  rent ; 
And  did  cast  out  those  zealous  men 
Whose  money  I  had  spent." 

Nor  were  Sharp's  colleagues  men  of  high  reputation — 


244  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

with  the  single  exception  of  Leighton,  who  was  wont 
to  say  that  the  Psalter  should  lie  like  m^-rrh  in  the 
human  heart.  From  these  bishops  all  ministers  who 
had  entered  on  their  livings  since  1649  were  to  receive 
collation  ;  those  who  refused  to  do  so  were  to  be  ejected. 
Rather  than  submit  to  episcopal  rule  and  the  revival  of 
patronage,  nearly  four  hundred  ministers  gave  up  their 
churches  and  houses.  Their  places  were  filled  by 
curates,  "  mostly  young  men  from  the  northern  parts, 
raw,  and  without  any  stock  of  reading  or  gifts."  Most 
of  the  "  outed  "  ministers  had  endeared  themselves  to 
their  flocks  by  years  of  faithful  ser\-ice.  The  parting  of 
Welsh,  for  instance,  from  the  people  of  Irongray,  de- 
scribed by  Blackader,  himself  an  eye-witness  of  the 
scene,  shows  the  hold  which  men  of  his  character  had 
gained  on  the  hearts  of  their  congregations.  "  There 
was,"  he  says,  "  great  sorrowing  and  outcrying  of  the 
poor  multitude  beside  the  water  of  Cluden,  when  he 
(Welsh)  was  to  take  horse.  It  was  wnth  great  difficulty 
he  got  from  among  them,  who  were  almost  distracted, 
and  cried  most  ruefully,  \s'ith  tears.  But  he,  being 
resolute,  would  not  be  detained ;  and  after  two  or  three 
of  the  ministers  had  knelt  down  and  prayed,  he  got  to 
horse,  the  people  still  holding  him.  The  ministers  and 
he  rode  quickly  through  the  water,  to  win  from  among 
them — many,  both  men  and  women,  brak  in  on  foot 
after  him,  and  followed  on  the  road  a  good  space,  \^dth 
bitter  weeping  and  lamentation." 

The  example  quoted  does  not  stand  alone.  Congrega- 
tions, as  a  rule,  remained  faithful  to  their  former  pastors. 
Dispossessed  ministers,  though  banished  from  their 
parishes,  held  their  services  in  the  neighbourhood  ;  the 
field-meetings  were  thronged,  the  churches  deserted. 
Determined  to  effect  their  object,  the  Government 
framed  another  Act  (1663),  familiarly  kno\\TL  as  the 
"  Bishops'  Drag  Net."  Ministers  who  preached  without 
episcopal  sanction,  parishioners  who  were  absent  from 
"  the    ordinary    meetings   of    divine  worship,    in    their 


THE  SCOTTISH  COVENANTERS.  245 

own  parish  church  on  the  Lord's  Day,"  were  guilty  of 
seditious  acts,  punishable  by  fines  and  imprisonment.- 
Soldiers,  drafted  into  the  south  and  west  of  Scotland 
to  compel  attendance  at  public  worship  according  to 
Episcopalian  forms,  quartered  themselves  upon  the 
recusants,  and  were  encouraged  in  every  violence  and 
licence.  To  enforce  the  legislation  ''  for  the  peace  and 
order  of  the  Church,  and  in  behalf  of  the  government 
thereof  by  archbishops  and  bishops,"  a  Court  of  High 
Commission  was  appointed  (1664).  Before  this  tribunal 
were  summoned  hundreds  of  persons,  scarcely  one  of 
whom  escaped  punishment,  whether  by  fines,  branding, 
scourging,  imprisonment,  or  exile.  The  Court  called 
before  it  whom  it  chose,  heard  no  arguments,  asked  few 
questions,  and  almost  always  condemned.  It  was  com- 
pared to  the  lion's  den,  into  which  led  many  tracks, 
but  from  which  none  returned. 

Throughout  the  Lowlands  discontent  deepened  and 
widened,  till,  goaded  to  desperation,  the  people  rose  in 
arms.  Their  open  resistance  in  the  field  was  short - 
Uved.  But  for  twenty-five  years  they  maintained  an 
unequal  struggle  against  overwhelming  odds,  defending 
their  convictions  with  a  constancy  which  has  been 
rarely  equalled  in  history.  Whatever  were  the  faults 
of  the  "  Hill  Folk,"  the  "  Wild  Whigs,"  the  "  Remnant," 
or  the  "  Cameronians,"  their  tenacity  of  purpose  in  suffer- 
ing, danger,  and  death  commands  the  admiration  of  those 
who  most  strongly  condemn  them  as  narrow  and  ex- 
clusive.    The  Lowland  peasant  is  justly  proud  of 

"  The  tales 
Of  ^?rsecution  and  the  Covenant 
Whose  echo  rings  through  Scotland  to  this  hour." 

As  with  the  Cevenols,  so  with  the  Covenanters.  The 
Psalms  were  the  inspiration  of  a  popular  movement.  To 
the  strained  senses  of  the  peasantry  were  manifested 
signs  of  the  future.  Mysterious  apparitions  disturbed 
the  solitude  of  the  moors,  unearthly  chantings  of  the 


246  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Psalms  broke  their  silence.  On  "  Ch'de  side,  east  of 
Glasgow,"  a  shadowy  throng  of  men  and  women  seemed 
to  gather  round  a  tent,  and  Ps.  xciii.  was  chanted  with 
such  celestial  sweetness  that  aU  who  heard  the  strains 
stood  motionless  till  they  were  ended.  Thus  were  re- 
vealed the  future  triumphs  of  field  conventicles.  "  At 
Craigmad,  between  FalkhiU  and  Moranside,"  the  hiUs 
were  crowded  with  ghostly  worshippers,  who  were  sing- 
ing Ps.  cxxi.,  and  among  them  appeared  a  milk-white 
horse,  with  a  blood-red  saddle  on  its  back.  Thus  were 
portended  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  and  the  persecu- 
tion that  was  to  follow.  When  the  crisis  came,  it  was  \\dth 
a  psalm  that  the  Covenanters  faced  General  DalzeU  at 
RuLlion  Green.  With  a  psalm  they  routed  Claverhouse 
at  Drumclog.  Supported  by  a  psalm,  Hugh  M'Kail, 
Donald  Cargill,  James  Renwick,  Isabel  Alison,  Marion 
Harv^ie,  Margaret  Wilson,  and  a  host  of  other  heroes  and 
heroines  of  the  Covenant,  met  torture  or  a  violent  death. 
The  Psalms  were  the  daily  support  of  the  charmed  life 
of  Alexander  Peden.  They  cheered  the  captives  on  the 
Bass  Rock  or  in  the  dungeons  of  Dunottar,  and  solaced 
their  weary  imprisonment.  It  was  the  Psalms,  again, 
that  encouraged  others  to  endure  a  stiU  harder  fate,  as 
they  toiled  in  exile  and  slavery  among  the  rice  fields  and 
sugar  plantations  of  the  New  World.  True  to  the 
spirit  of  the  Covenanters,  Scott  has  embodied  in  his 
novels  the  influence  of  the  Psalms.  It  w^as  a  psalm 
that  nerv'ed  Mause  Headrigg  to  leap  her  horse  over  the 
waU  (Ps.  xviii.  29)  ;  it  was  a  psalm  (xxxvii.  16,  25)  that 
the  daughter  of  a  Covenanter,  Jeanie  Deans,  marked 
with  her  "  kylevine  pen  "  for  her  lover,  Reuben  Butler, 
on  the  eve  of  her  adventurous  journey  to  plead  for  her 
sister's  life  ;  it  was  a  psalm  (xlii.  14,  15  ;  and  xliii.  5,  6) 
that  she  repeated  in  her  hour  of  peril  when  she  was  at 
the  mercy  of  desperate  rufhans  on  Gunnerby  Hill. 

Armed  resistance  began  \\dth  the  Pentland  Rising  in 
November  1666.  The  "honest,  zealous  handful,"  as 
Patrick  Walker  calls  them,   involved  in   an  accidental 


THE  SCOTTISH  COVENANTERS.  247 

scuffle  with  the  soldiers  at  Dairy,  near  Dumfries,  drifted, 
without  plan  or  leaders,  into  insurrection.  At  Lanark, 
as  they  marched  towards  Edinburgh,  they  were  1,500 
strong.  But  only  a  few  weie  armed  with  swords,  pis- 
tols, or  muskets  ;  scythes,  forks,  staves,  were  the 
weapons  of  the  rest.  Closely  followed  by  Dalzell  at  the 
head  of  3,000  well-appointed  troops,  struggling  through 
snow-drifts,  spent  wdth  hunger  and  fatigue,  disappointed 
of  help  from  the  Lothians,  they  staggered  back  from 
Edinburgh  into  the  Pentland  Hills.  Their  numbers  had 
dwindled  to  900  men.  At  Rullion  Green  they  were 
attacked  by  Dalzell's  troops.  Hopelessly  overmatched, 
they  yet  made  a  gallant  fight.  Chanting  their  despairing 
appeal  to  God  in  the  words  of  Ps.  Ixxiv. — 

"  O  God,  why  hast  Thou  cast  us  off  ? 
Is  it  for  evermore  ? 
Against  Thy  pasture-sheep  why  doth 
Thine  anger  smoke  so  sore  ?  " — 

they  met  and  defeated  a  charge  of  the  enemy's  horse. 
It  was  not  till  dusk  that  they  were  finally  dispersed. 
Of  the  prisoners,  some  were  executed,  some  imprisoned, 
some  shipped  to  the  plantations.  The  grave  of  those 
who  were  killed  in  the  fight  is  marked  by  a  .*^tone,  in- 
scribed with  rugged  lines  beginning  thus,— 

"  A  cloud  of  witnesses  lie  here 
Who  for  Christ's  interest  did  appear,"  etc. 

Among  the  victims  of  the  vengeance  which  the  Gov- 
ernment executed  upon  the  insurgents  was  Hugh  M'Kail, 
a  young  ma.x  of  twenty-six,  the  prototype  of  Scott's 
MacBriar.  Well  connected  and  well  educated,  he  is 
supposed  to  have  incurred  the  personal  hatred  of  the 
primate,  to  whom  he  had  given  the  name  of  Judas. 
Appeals  to  save  his  life  were  made  in  vain.  Tortured  in 
the  boot — yet  forgetting  his  shattered  leg,  as  he  jestingly 
said,  in  fear  for  his  neck — he  solaced  his  imprisonment 


248  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

by  writing  Latin  elegiacs.  Under  sentence  of  death, 
it  was  in  the  Psalm?  that  he  found  strength.  On  the 
evening  before  his  execution  in  the  Grassmarket,  he 
read  Ps.  xvi.,  ''  Preserve  me,  O  God  ;  for  in  Thee  have  I 
put  my  trust."  The  next  day,  December  22,  1666,  at 
two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  he  was  carried  to  the 
scaffold.  There  he  sang  part  of  Ps.  xxxi.,  including  the 
sixth  verse,  using  the  old  metrical  rendering, — 

"  Into  Thy  hands  I  do  commit 
My  spirit  ;   for  Thou  art  He, 
O  Thou,  Jehovah,  God  of  truth, 
WTio  hast  redeemed  me." 

Inspired  by  the  same  words  which  in  the  moment  of 
death  had  sustained  generations  of  the  hated  "  Pa;pists 
and  Prelatists,"  he  broke  into  the  impassioned  anthem 
of  triumph,  often  repeated  or  imitated  by  his  fellow- 
sufferers — "  Now  I  leave  off  to  speak  any  more  to  crea- 
tures, and  turn  my  speech  to  Thee,  O  Lord  !  Now  I 
begin  my  intercourse  with  God,  which  shall  never  be 
broken  off.  Farewell,  father  and  mother,  friends  and 
relations !  farewell,  the  world  and  all  delights !  fare- 
well, meat  and  drink  !  farewell,  sun,  and  moon,  and 
stars !  Welcome,  God  and  Father !  Welcome,  sweet 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Mediator  of  the  New  Covenant ! 
Welcome,  blessed  Spirit  of  grace,  God  of  all  consolation  ! 
Welcome,  glory !  Welcome,  eternal  Hfe  !  Welcome, 
death  !  " 

With  the  execution  of  Hugh  M'Kail,  the  Government 
seemed  satisfied.  For  some  months  after  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  rising,  moderate  counsels  prevailed.  But 
gradually,  as  the  necessity  of  crushing  field  conventicles 
seemed  more  urgent,  the  persecution  grew  hotter.  The 
country  was  devastated.  **  It  was  better,"  said  Lauder- 
dale, "  that  the  west  bore  nothing  but  windle-straws 
and  laverocks  than  that  it  should  bear  rebels  to  the 
king."  Preachers  and  hearers  alike  were  dogged  by 
spies.      Death   was   the   penalty   for   preaching ;     fines, 


THE  SCOTTISH  COVEXAXTERS.  249 

imprisonment,  transportation,  slavery,  were  the  punish- 
ments inflicted  upon  hearers.  The  remotest  caves  and 
dens  of  the  upland  districts  of  Galloway,  Xithsdale,  A}T, 
and  Clydesdale  were  tenanted  by  hunted  ministers. 
There  lurked  gaunt  **  Wanderers,"  in  whose  eyes  gleamed 
the  gray  light  which  flickers  on  the  borders  of  enthu- 
siasm and  madness — with  one  hand  gripping  the  hilts 
of  their  shabbies,  with  the  other  clasping  their  Bibles 
to  their  bosoms.  Their  surrender  of  their  souls  into 
God's  keeping  was  absolute,  their  realization  of  His 
presence  vivid  and  intense,  their  con\iction  of  the 
justice  of  their  cause  so  absorbing  as  to  foster,  not  the 
serenity,  but  the  fatahsm  of  rehgion.  As  they  pored 
over  the  Scriptures,  alone  in  the  wild  soHtudes  of  nature, 
stung  by  memories  of  \\Tong,  in  daily  expectation  of 
torture  and  death,  confronted  by  dispensations  of 
Heaven  which  hourly  seemed  more  frowning  and  mys- 
terious, their  faith  gi'ew  savage  in  its  earnestness,  vin- 
dictive in  its  zeal,  dark  with  gloomy  superstition.  Their 
preaching  soared  into  ecstatic  utterance,  and  all  the 
surroundings  of  field-worship  heightened  its  effect.  By 
day  the  gathering  mist,  by  night  the  fall  of  darkness  or 
the  solemn  starry  skies,  the  monotonous  solitude  of  the 
moors  running  up  into  lab^Tinths  of  rolling  hills,  the 
silence  broken  only  by  the  melancholy  cry  of  the  plover, 
the  armed  sentries  posted  on  the  hills,  the  imminence  of 
ever-present  danger,  attuned  the  minds  of  their  hearers 
to  rhapsodies  of  faith,  calls  to  penitence,  experiences 
of  Satanic  agency,  bursts  of  prophecy,  fierce  denuncia- 
tions of  vengeance. 

In  his  "  Night  Hymn  of  the  Cameronians,"  Moir  lays 
stress  on  the  characteristic  confidence  in  God's  protection 
which  field-conventicles  held  under  such  conditions 
naturally  encouraged  : — 

'•  Ho  I   plaided  watcher  of  the  hill, 
\Miat  of  the  night  ?   what  of  the  night  ? 

The  winds  are  lown,  the  woods  are  still. 
The  countless  stars  are  sparkling  bright  ; 


250  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

From  out  this  heathery  moorland  glen. 

By  the  shy  wild-fowl  only  trod. 
We  raise  our  h}-mn,  unheard  of  men. 

To  Thee,  an  omnipresent  God. 

"  Jehovah  !   though  no  sign  appear, 
Through  earth  an  aimless  path  to  lead. 

We  know,  we  feel  Thee  ever  near, 
A  present  help  in  time  of  need — 

Near,  as  when,  pointing  out  the  way. 

For  ever  in  the  people's  sight, 
A  pillared  \vreath  of  smoke  by  day. 

Which  turned  to  fiery  flame  at  night,"  eta 

The  murder  of  Archbishop  Sharp  on  Magus  Moor  (May 
3,  1679)  gave  the  signal  for  a  renewal  of  the  open  struggle 
between  the  Covenanters  and  the  Government.  Fresh 
enactments  were  directed  against  Conventicles.  But 
"  the  Whigs,"  says  Wandering  Willie,  "  were  as  dotire 
as  the  Cavaliers  were  fierce."  At  Drumclog,  on  June 
I,  1679,  ^  field-conventicle  was  surprised  by  the  ap- 
proach of  Claverhouse  himself.  The  sentry  gave  the 
alarm  by  the  discharge  of  his  musket  ;  the  armed  men 
drew  out  from  the  congregation  of  hearers,  and,  as  they 
moved  dowTi  the  hill  to  meet  the  dragoons,  raised  their 
challenge  to  the  foe  in  the  words  of  Ps.  Lxxvi.  : — 

**  In  Judah's  land  God  is  well  known. 
His  name's  in  Israel  great  ; 
In  Salem  is  His  tabernacle. 
In  Zion  is  His  seat. 

"  There  arrows  of  the  bow  He  brake. 
The  shield,  the  sword,  the  war. 
More  glorious  Thou  than  hills  of  prey. 
More  excellent  art  far." 

The  struggle  was  soon  over.  The  dragoons  broke  and 
fled.  Claverhouse  himself,  *'  proof  against  lead,"  was 
saved  by  his  gallant  roan,  which  carried  him  off  the 
field,  though  its  "  guts  hung  out  half  an  eU  "  from  a 
pitchfork  thrust  in  its  belly.  The  Covenanters  spared 
the  lives  of  their  prisoners.     But  this  mercy  was  con- 


THE  SCOTTISH  COVENANTERS.  251 

demned  by  Sir  Robert  Hamilton,  who  urged  them  to 
give  no  quarter  to  Babel's  brats,  and  supported  his 
advice,  hke  Calvin,  by  quoting  Ps.  cxxxvii.  8,  9.  In 
this  same  leniency  Patrick  Walker  finds  a  reason  for  the 
ultimate  failure  of  the  Covenanting  cause. 

"  After  the  Lord,"  so  he  writes,  "  gave  us  the  victory 
over  Clavers  and  his  party  at  Drumclog,  anno  1679,  we 
behaved  not  as  persons  that  were  fighting  the  Lord's 
battles ;  but  instead  of  pursuing  the  victory  that  God 
wonderfully  put  in  our  hands,  and  sanctifying  the  Lord 
of  Hosts  in  our  hearts  and  before  the  people  by  giving 
Him  the  praise,  did  greedily  run  upon  the  spoil,  and 
took  some  of  the  enemy  prisoners,  and  gave  them  quarter, 
tho'  guilty  of  death,  and  so  brought  ourselves  under  the 
curse  of  doing  the  work  of  the  Lord  deceitfully,  by 
withholding  our  sword  from  shedding  of  their  blood  ; 
and  yet  we  refused  to  be  convinced  that  our  sparing  of 
the  lives  of  these,  whom  God  has  appointed  to  utter 
destruction,  is  one  of  the  causes  w^hv  our  lives  eo  for 
theirs."  ^  ^ 

The  insurrection  which  had  flamed  up  so  suddenly 
was  extinguished  at  Bothwell  Bridge,  June  22,  1679. 
The  battle  was  fought  on  Sunday,  and,  forty  miles 
distant,  Peden's  hearers  w^aited  for  a  sermon.  '*  Let 
the  people,"  he  said,  "  go  to  their  prayers  ;  for  me,  I 
neither  can  nor  will  preach  any  this  day,  for  our  friends 
are  fallen  and  fled  before  the  enemy  at  Hamiltown  ;  and 
they  are  bagging  and  hashing  them  down,  and  their 
blood  IS  running  like  water."  No  effort  was  again 
made  by  the  Covenanters  to  put  an  armed  force  into 
the  field.  But  their  spirit  remained  unbroken.  Their 
resistance,  indeed,  assumed  a  more  determined  form. 
A  year  to  the  day  after  Bothwell  Bridge,  twenty  armed 
horsemen  rode  into  Sanquhar,  formed  a  circle  round 
the  market  cross,  and  two  of  their  number,  Richard  and 
Michael  Cameron,  dismounted.  A  psalm  was  sung,  a 
prayer  offered,  and  a  "  Declaration  "  read  disowning 
Charles  II.  as  a  tyrant  and  usurper,  and,  "under  the 


252  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

standard  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  Captain  of  our  salva- 
tion, declaring  war  upon  the  king."  Hencefon,vard 
there  could  be  no  turning  back,  either  for  the  Govern- 
ment or  for  the  "  Remnant  "  who  approved  the  Declara- 
tion, which  renounced  allegiance  to  the  king,  defied  his 
laws,  and  proclaimed  the  forfeiture  of  his  throne. 

Richard  Cameron  did  not  long  survive  his  audacious 
act.  On  July  i8,  1680,  he  preached  his  last  sermon 
"upon  the  Kype-ridge  in  Clidsdale,"  choosing  for  his 
text  Ps.  xlvi.  10,  "  Be  still,  then,  and  know  that  I  am 
God."  Four  days  later — Thursday,  July  22 — he  and 
his  companions  were  hiding  "  in  the  east  end  of  Airs- 
moss,  a  very  desert  place,"  when  the}^  were  surprised  by 
Bruce  of  Earlshall,  with  120  men,  well  armed  and  mounted. 
The  Covenanters  resisted  stoutly.  Richard  Cameron 
was  killed.  His  head  and  hands,  "  hagged  off  with  a 
dirk  "  and  thrown  into  a  sack,  were  carried  to  Edinburgh 
to  be  fixed  upon  the  City  Port.  They  were  first  shown 
to  Cameron's  father,  then  a  prisoner  at  the  Tolbooth, 
and  he  was  asked  if  he  knew  to  whom  they  belonged. 
The  old  man,  kissing  the  brow  of  his  fair-haired  son, 
said,  "  I  know  them,  I  know  them  :  they  are  my  son's, 
my  dear  son's."  Then,  w4th  the  same  submission  to 
God's  judgment  which,  nine  centuries  earlier,  was  showTi 
by  the  Emperor  Maurice,  and  in  words  which  recall 
Ps.  xxiii.  6,  he  added,  "  It  is  the  Lord  ;  good  is  the  will 
of  the  Lord,  who  cannot  \vrong  me  nor  mine,  but  has 
made  goodness  and  mercy  to  foUow  us  all  our  days." 

Cameron's  successor  in  the  leadership  of  the  stricter 
Covenanters,  or  Cameronians,  was  Donald  Cargill,  ac- 
cording to  Wodrow  the  only  remaining  preacher  at  field- 
conventicles.  He  had  taken  part  in  the  Sanquhar 
Declaration.  Now,  in  September  1680,  at  Torwood,  he 
had  publicly  excommunicated  the  king,  the  Duke  of 
York,  the  Duke  of  Monmouth,  and  others.  He  was  a 
marked  man.  A  reward  of  5,000  marks  was  set  on  his 
head  as  "  a  most  seditious  preacher  "  and  a  "  villainous 
and  fanatical  conspirator."     His  escapes  were  narrow. 


THE  SCOTTISH  COVENANTERS.  253 

both  on  foot  and  on  horseback.  But  one  of  his  hearers 
remarked  to  him  that  when  his  danger  was  sorest  then 
he  preached  and  prayed  his  best.  He  rephed  by  saying, 
half  to  himself,  as  was  his  habit,  "  The  Lord  is  my 
strength  and  song,  and  is  become  my  salvation  "  (Ps. 
cxviii.  14).  At  last — July  11,  1681 — he  was  captured, 
and  hurried,  his  legs  tied  hard  under  his  horse's  belly,  to 
Glasgow,  and  thence  to  Edinburgh.  While  in  prison  he 
wTote  a  letter  to  James  Skene,  the  closing  sentence  of 
which  contains  a  metaphor  now  familiar  to  the  world 
through  Tennyson's  lines.  "  The  God  of  mercies,"  he 
writes,  "  grant  you  a  full  gale  and  a  fair  entry  into  His 
kingdom,  which  may  carry  sweetly  and  swiftly  over  the 
bar,  that  you  find  not  the  rub  of  death."  He  was  exe- 
cuted at  the  Cross  of  Edinburgh,  July  27,  1681.  On  the 
scaffold  he  sang  his  favourite  psalm,  Ps.  cxviii.,  from  the 
i6th  verse  to  the  end  ;  and  his  last  words  were,  "  Wel- 
come, Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  !  Into  Thy  hands 
I  commend  my  spirit." 

As  one  by  one  his  companions  were  killed  or  captured, 
Alexander  Peden  (1626-1686)  alone  seemed  to  bear  a 
charmed  life.  He  is  the  Prophet  of  the  Covenant,  and 
in  some  respects  its  most  romantic  figure.  Ejected  in 
1663  from  his  Galloway  parish,  outlawed  for  his  com- 
plicity in  the  Pentland  Rising,  imprisoned  on  the  Bass 
Rock  (1673-1677),  banished  to  Virginia,  and  conveyed  on 
the  outward  voyage  to  London,  where  he  was  for  some 
unknow^n  reason  liberated,  he  spent  his  remaining  years 
in  Ireland  or  Scotland,  "  going,"  as  he  says,  "  from  the 
one  bloody  land  to  the  other  bloody  land."  Dogged  by 
spies  and  hunted  by  dragoons,  he  yet  died  in  his  bed. 
A  man  of  great  personal  strength  and  activity,  his  escapes 
were  so  hairbreadth  as  to  seem  miraculous.  Peden  him- 
self would  have  been  at  no  loss  for  an  explanation.  So 
long  as  God  had  work  for  him  no  harm  could  befall  him. 
Dogs  snuffed  at  the  entrance  of  the  cave  in  which  he 
was  hiding,  and  still  he  was  not  discovered.  Soldiers 
stabbed   the  beds  or  heaps  of  unthreshed   corn   under 


254  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

which  he  lay  concealed,  yet  they  touched  him  not. 
Through  bogs  in  which  his  pursuers  were  drowned  he 
knew  and  found  the  path  of  safety.  Once,  as  he  lay 
under  a  bank,  a  dragoon's  horse  grazed  his  head  with 
his  hoof,  pinning  his  bonnet  deep  into  the  clay,  and 
leaving  him  uninjured.  In  his  mind  the  words,  "  Snow 
and  vapours,  wind  and  storm,  fulfilling  His  Word  '* 
(Ps.  cxlviii.  8),  were  ever  present ;  and  again  and  again 
the  Lord  heard  his  prayer,  and  answered  him  in  the  day 
of  his  distress.  Escaping  to  Scotland  from  Carrickfergus 
with  a  number  of  fellow-sufferers,  his  boat  was  becalmed 
and  in  danger  of  capture.  ''  Waving  his  hand  to  the 
west,  from  whence  he  desired  the  wind,  he  said,  *  Lord, 
give  us  a  loof-fuU  of  wind  ;  fill  the  sails,  Lord,  and  give 
us  a  fresh  gale,  and  let  us  have  a  swift  and  safe  passage 
over  to  the  bloody  land,  come  of  us  what  will.'  "  Before 
he  ended  his  prayer  the  flapping  sails  filled  like  blown 
bladders,  and  he  and  his  comi-ades  were  saved.  More 
than  once  a  mist,  gathering  at  his  prayer,  hid  him  from 
pursuit.  On  one  occasion  horse  and  foot  chased  him 
so  closely  that  escape  seemed  hopeless.  If  God  saved 
them  not,  he  and  his  companions  were  dead  men.  "  Then 
he  began  and  said,  *  Lora,  it  is  Thy  enemies'  day,  hour, 
and  power  ;  twine  them  about  the  hill,  Lord,  and  cast 
the  lap  of  Thy  cloak  o'er  old  Sandy  and  thir  (these) 
poor  things,  and  save  us  this  one  time  ;  and  we'll  keep 
it  in  remembrance,  and  tell  it  to  the  commendation  of 
Thy  goodness,  pity,  and  compassion,  what  Thou  didst 
for  us  at  such  a  time.'  "  And  as  he  prayed  the  mist 
covered  the  hills  and  the  fugitives. 

In  all  his  wanderings  and  escapes  the  Psalms  were  to 
him  a  perennial  source  of  strength.  Patrick  Walker 
relates  that  he  had  "  preached  in  a  shield  or  sheep- 
house  in  a  desert  place  "  upon  a  Sabbath  night.  **  When 
ended,  he  and  those  that  were  with  him  lay  down  in  the 
sheep-house,  and  got  some  sleep.  He  rose  early,  and 
went  up  to  the  burn-side  and  stayed  long.  When  he 
came  in  to  them  he  did  sing  the  32nd  Psalm,  from  the 


THE  SCOTTISH  COVENANTERS.  255 

yth  verse  to  the  end  ;    when  ended,  he  repeated  the  8th 
verse — 

Thou  art  my  hiding-place,  Thou  shalt 

From  trouble  keep  me  free  ; 
Thou  with  songs  of  deliverance 

About  shalt  compass  me ' — 

saying,  '  These  and  the  following  are  sweet  lines,  which 
I  got  at  the  bum-side  this  morning,  and  we'll  get  mo 
to-morrow,  and  so  we'll  get  daily  provision.  He  was 
never  behind  wdth  any  that  put  their  trust  in  Him,  and 
He  will  not  be  in  our  common,  nor  none  who  needily 
depends  on  Him  ;  and  so  we  will  go  on  in  His  strength, 
makmg  mention  of  His  righteousness  and  of  His  only.'  " 
^A  deep  vein  of  melancholy  traversed  Peden's  m^ind. 
^et  his  sjmipathy,  tenderness,  and  racv  humour  light 
up,  hke  glmts  of  sunshine,  the  gloom  of"' his  forebodings 
of  judgment.  His  pithy  sayings  bear  his  own  hall- 
mark ;  his  keen  insight  into  human  nature  made  his 
nicknames  stick  Hke  burrs.  His  intense  reaHzation  of 
God's  abiding  presence  and  fatherly  care  bred  in  him 
a  mial  famiHarity  ;  yet  never,  in  its  simplest  or  homeliest 
expressions,  does  his  language  lose  a  natural  dignity. 
Men  so  constituted  by  nature,  so  moulded  by  the  cir- 
cumstances of  their  times,  so  fashioned  bv  their  own 
manner  of  life,  have  not  only  the  temperament  but 
the  training  of  the  seer.  The  visions  of  Peden's  fer\'ent 
faith,  painted  with  all  the  force  of  his  picture-making 
miagmation,  were  received  with  awe  by  his  hearers,  who 
trembled  at  the  strange  verification  of  his  predictions. 

Two  specimens  of  his  preaching,  both  given  bv  Walker, 
may  be  quoted.  In  both  the  text  is  taken  "from  the 
Psalms.  The  first  illustration  is  from  the  year  1682, 
when  Peden  "  was  in  Kyle,  and  preaching  upon  that 
text,  '  The  plowers  plowed  upon  my  back,  and  drew 
long  their  furrows  '  (Ps.  cxxix.  3),  where  he  said,  '  Would 
you  know  who  first  yoked  this  plough  ?  It  was  cursed 
Cain,  wh^n  he  drew  his  furrows  so  Ions:  and  so  deep  that 
he  let  out  the  heart-blood  of  his  brother  Abel  ....  and 


256  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

that  plough  has  and  will  gang  summer  and  winter,  frost 
and  fresh  weather,  till  the  world's  end  ;  and  at  the  sound 
of  the  last  trumpet,  when  all  are  in  a  flame,  their  theats 
(traces)  will  bum,  and  their  swingle-trees  will  fall  to  the 
ground  ;  the  plowmen  will  lose  their  grips  of  the  plough, 
and  the  gademen  will  throw  away  their  gades  ;  and 
then,  O  the  yelling  and  skreeching  that  will  be  among 
all  his  cursed  seed,  clapping  their  hands,  and  crying  to 
hills  and  mountains  to  cover  them  from  the  face  of  the 
Lamb  and  of  Him  that  sits  upon  the  throne,  for  their 
hatred  of  Him  and  malice  at  His  people  !  '  " 

The  second  illustration  belongs  to  the  year  1685,  when 
he  was  "  preaching  in  the  night-time,  in  a  bam  at  Carrack, 
upon  that  text,  Ps.  Ixviii.  i,  2,  '  Let  God  arise,  and  let 
His  enemies  be  scattered  ;  let  them  also  that  hate  Him 
flee  before  Him.  As  smoke  is  driven,  so  drive  thou 
them ' — so  insisting  how  the  enemies  and  haters  of  God 
and  godliness  were  tossed  and  driven  as  smoke  or 
chaff,  b}^  the  wind  of  God's  vengeance  while  on  earth,  and 
that  wind  would  blow  and  drive  them  all  to  hell  in  the 
end.  Stooping  do\vn,  there  being  chaff  among  his  feet, 
he  took  a  handful  of  it,  and  said,  *  The  Duke  of  York, 
the  Duke  of  York,  and  now  King  of  Britain,  a  known 
enemy  of  God  and  godliness  ;  it  was  by  the  vengeance 
of  God  that  he  ever  got  that  name  ;  but  as  ye  see  me 
throw  away  that  chaff,  so  that  the  wind  of  vengeance 
shall  blow  and  drive  him  off  that  throne  ;  and  he,  nor 
no  other  of  that  name,  shall  ever  come  on  it  again.'  " 

Throughout  the  last  few  years  of  Peden's  life  the 
severity  of  the  Government  towards  the  Cameronians 
increased,  till  it  culminated  in  the  "  Killing  Times  "  of 
1684-1685 .  Their  bold  repudiation  of  the  king's  authority, 
coupled  with  their  declaration  that  his  throne  was  for- 
feited, was  a  political  danger  which  could  not  be  ignored. 
Revolution  was  in  the  air.  A  popular  party  was  forming 
both  in  England  and  Scotland,  and  the  Government, 
making  the  Rye  House  Plot  their  plea,  struck  hard 
against  its  leaders,  as  well  as  against  the  Cameronians. 


THE  SCOTTISH  COVENANTERS.  257 

On  the  purely  political  side,  Baillie  of  Jerviswood,  the 
"  Algernon  Sydney  of  Scotland,"  was  one  of  the  first 
and  most  important  victims.  Condemned  to  death  on 
December  24,  1684,  he  was  hanged  the  same  afternoon 
at  the  Market  Cross  of  Edinburgh,  with  all  the  attendant 
barbarities  of  an  execution  for  high  treason.  His  property 
was  confiscated  and  forfeited  to  the  Cro\\Ti.  Yet  even 
in  his  last  hours,  oppressed  by  mortal  sickness,  hourly 
expecting  his  sentence,  he  felt,  as  he  told  his  son,  that 
God's  promises  were  sure,  and  that  the  *'  testimony  of 
David  "  would,  in  his  case  also,  be  verified,  "  I  have 
been  young,  and  now  am  old,  and  yet  saw  I  never  the 
righteous  forsaken,  nor  his  seed  begging  their  bread  " 
(Ps.  xxxvii.  25). 

The  last  of  the  Cameronians  who  suffered  on  the 
scaffold  was  James  Ren  wick,  though  his  sentence  was 
due  rather  to  his  political  tenets  than  to  his  religious 
opinions. 

Among  the  crowd  who  had  witnessed  Cargill's  execu- 
tion in  the  Grassmarket  of  Edinburgh  was  a  lad  of  nine- 
teen, the  son  of  a  Nithsdale  weaver.  The  lad  was  James 
Renwick.  So  stirred  was  he  by  the  scene  that  he  cast 
in  his  lot  with  the  persecuted  remnant  of  the  Camer- 
onians. Ordained  to  the  ministry  after  six  months' 
study  at  Groningen,  he  returned  to  Scotland,  and  began 
to  preach  in  October  1683.  On-  his  shoulders,  young 
though  he  was,  rested  the  burden  of  the  struggle.  The 
spirit  which  he  threw  into  his  work  is  revealed  by  a 
passage  from  one  of  his  letters  from  Holland.  "  Courage 
yet,"  he  writes,  "  for  all  that  is  come  and  gone.  The 
loss  of  men  is  not  the  loss  of  the  cause.  What  is  the 
matter  though  we  all  fall  ?  the  cause  shall  not  fall." 
Thus  inspired,  Renwick  speedily  became  the  soul  of  the 
movement  among  the  Cameronian  societies,  who  dis- 
owned the  king,  and  declared  war  against  him  as  the 
subverter  of  the  religion  and  liberty  of  the  nation. 

During  the  "  Killing  Times  "  vigorous  search  was  made 
for  Renwick.     But  he  evaded  capture,  and  it  was  not 

9 


258  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

till  January  1688  that  he  was  taken.  On  him  were 
foiind  the  notes  of  his  last  two  sermons,  one  of  which  was 
on  Ps.  xlvi.  10,  "  Be  still,  then,  and  know  that  I  am  God  : 
I  will  be  exalted  among  the  heathen,  and  I  will  be 
exalted  in  the  earth."  He  was  charged  with  denying 
the  authority  of  King  James  VII.,  teaching  the  un- 
lawfulness of  pa^'ing  the  tax  called  "  cess,"  and  exhorting 
the  people  to  carry  arms  at  field-meetings.  The  charges 
were  admitted,  and  he  was  sentenced  to  death.  On 
Februar}^  7,  1688,  he  was  executed  at  the  Grassmarket 
in  Edinburgh.  ^lore  than  once  his  words  were  drownied 
by  drums.  But  he  sang  a  part  of  Ps.  ciii.,  the  psalm 
which  was  always  chanted  by  "  the  saints "  at  the 
celebration  of  the  Sacrament ;  and  as  he  was  turned 
over  the  ladder,  his  last  words  were  :  "  Lord,  into  Thy 
hands  I  commend  my  spirit  ;  for  Thou  hast  redeemed 
me,  O  Lord,  Thou  God  of  truth  "  (Ps.  xxxi.  6).  The 
same  text,  in  whole  or  in  part,  was  quoted  by  more 
than  half  of  the  great  army  of  "  witnesses  "  who  suf- 
fered on  the  scaffold,  between  Hugh  ^LKail  in  1666  and 
James  Renwick  in  1688.  Nearly  all  of  them,  like  John 
Nisbet,  died  "  protesting  against  and  disowning  popery 
in  all  its  superstitions  and  bloody  bigotry,  and  prelacy 
the  mother  of  popery ;  "  and  yet  in  the  moment  of  their 
death  they  committed  their  souls  to  God  in  the  same 
words  which  were  consecrated  by  their  use  on  the  lips 
of  hundreds  of  Roman  Catholic  and  Anglican  martyrs. 

Nor  was  it  only  on  the  scaffold  that  men  died.  There 
were  many  murders  which  were  not  even  judicial.  On 
January  i,  1685,  for  example,  Daniel  ]\I'jIichael  was  led 
out  into  the  fields  to  be  shot,  and  died  singing  part  of 
Ps.  xlii.  In  the  follo^\'ing  February,  ^Alexander  M'Robin 
was  hanged  upon  an  oak  tree  near  the  Kirk  of  Irongray. 
At  the  tree  foot  a  friend  asked  him  if  he  had  any  word 
to  send  to  his  \viie.  "  I  leave  her  and  the  two  babes 
upon  the  Lord,"  answered  M'Robin,  "  and  to  His  promise. 
A  father  to  the  fatherless,  and  a  husband  to  the  widow, 
is  the  Lord  in  His  holy  habitation  "  (Ps.  Ixviii.  5).     And 


THE  SCOTTISH  COVENANTERS.  259 

Z}\^'^'^/^^  ^y^^'^T^'"  '^'^"^^'  "^^  ^^^h  composure 
and  cheerfulness/'  In  the  parish  of  Ingliston  was  a 
cave  which  had  been  a  place  of  safety  to  not  a  few  of 
the  Covenanters.  On  April  29,  1685,  guided  bv  a 
raitor  the  soldiers  were  brought  to  the  S  oFthe 
cave   where  they  seized  five  of  the  wanderers  who  had 

It  ne!?^?£H"t  '''  '""'IZ-     J^^^    ^^b--'    -1^0  alone 
was  pei-mitted  to  pray  before  he  was  shot,   sang  part 

?  ii""!"^'  ^^^^?^  ^'^  ^^^^"^^^  and  sister  that  it  was  the 
pyfullest  day  of  his  life.     The  rest  were  shot  ''  without 
being  allowed  to  pray  separately." 
^^  Nor  were  the  women  spared.      In  January  1681  two 

honest  worthy  lasses,"  as  Peden  calls  them-Isabel 
Alison  and  Manon  Harvie— were  hanged  at  Edinburgh. 
On   the   scaffold   they  sang   together,    to    the   tune   of 

.Martyrs,  '  Ps.  Ixxxiv.  '"'Marion,"  said  Bishop  Pater- 
son,  you  would  never  hear  a  curate  ;  now  you  shall 
hear  one,"  and  he  called  upon  one  of  his  clergy  to  pray. 

Come,  Isabel,"  was  the  girl's  answer— she"  was  but 
twenty  years  of  age—"'  let  us  sing  the  23rd  Psahn ;  "  and 
thus  they  dro\\TLed  the  voice  of  the  curate. 

No  execution  of  the  time  was  more  universally  con- 
demned than  that  of  these  two  women.  A  roughly^ 
drawn  picture  of  the  scene,  with  the  title  "Women 
Hanged,"  is  prefixed  to  the  first  edition  of  the  "Hind 
Let  Loose"  (1687).  By  its  side  is  another  engraving 
which  represents  "The  Wigtown  Martyrs,  drowned  at 
stakes  at  sea." 

In  1684  the  Cameronian  societies  had  answered  the 
renewed  violence  of  the  Government  bv  their  "  Apolo- 
getical  Declaration."  In  this  document,  posted  on  the 
doors  of  parish  churches  and  on  market  crosses,  they 
declared  war  on  the  Government  and  its  supporters, 
dlso^yned  the  authority  of  Charles  Stewart  and  all 
luthority  depending  upon  his,"  and  warned  their  assail- 
mts  that  they  would  meet  force  by  force.  In  reply  the 
mthonties  devised  an  oath  of  abjuration,  which  was 
framed  as  a  test,  and  imposed  on  all  who  were  suspected 


26o  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

of  belonging  to  the  societies  or  of  hostility  to  the  Govern- 
ment. In  April  1685,  ^  commission,  sitting  at  Wig- 
town, condemned  Margaret  Maclachlan  or  ^M'Lauchlison, 
an  elderly  widow  of  sixty,  and  ^largaret  Wilson,  a  girl 
of  eighteen,  who  refused  to  abjure  the  "  Apologetical 
Declaration."  They  were  sentenced  to  be  "  tied  to 
stakes  fixed  within  the  flood-mark  in  the  Water  of  Bled- 
noch,  near  WigtowTi,  where  the  sea  flows  at  high  water, 
there  to  be  drowned."  The  sentence  was  carried  out, 
probably  not  with  the  sanction  of  the  Government,  on 
May  II,  1685. 

Twice  a  da}^  up  the  deep  channel  of  the  sluggish  Bled- 
noch,  fringed  by  steep  and  sloping  mudbanks,  sweeps 
the  yellow  tide  of  the  sea.  Stakes  were  set  in  the  ooze 
of  the  tideway,  to  which  the  two  women  were  bound. 
The  elder  woman,  Margaret  Maclachlan,  was  set  lower 
down  the  river,  that  the  younger  sufferer  might  see  her 
struggles,  and  her  course  finished,  before  she  herself  was 
reached  by  the  rising  sea.  Pitying  her  j^outh,  the  exe- 
cutioners tried  to  save  Margaret  Wilson.  As  the  water 
swirled  about  her  body,  she  was  dra\\Ti  to  the  edge  of 
the  bank  and  offered  her  life  if  she  would  say,  '*  God 
save  the  king,"  and  take  the  test.  She  was  ready  to  say 
"  ^lay  God  save  the  king,  if  He  will,"  for  she  desired, 
she  said,  the  salvation  of  all  men  ;  but  she  would  not 
forswear  her  faith  or  take  the  test.  So  she  was  once 
more  secured  to  the  stake  and  left  to  her  fate.  With 
her  fresh  young  voice,  as  the  salt  waves  curled  above 
her  breast  and  all  but  touched  her  lips,  she  sang  the 
25th  Psalm, — 

■'  My  sins  and  faults  of  youth 
Do  Thou,  O  Lord,  forget  ; 
After  Thy  mercies  think  on  me. 
And  for  Thy  goodness  great ;  " 

and  so  continued  singing  till  her  voice  was  choked  in 
the  rising  tide. 

The  political  principle  on  which  the  Cameronians 
founded  their  resistance  to  the  king  was  that  the  throne 


THE  SCOTTISH  COVENANTERS.  261 

liad  been  forfeited,  and  was  vacant.  It  was  not  long 
before  that  principle  became  a  corner-stone  of  the  Con- 
stitution. On  November  5,  1688,  William  of  Orange 
cast  anchor  at  Torbay,  pledged  to  support  the  Protestant 
faith.  He  landed  exactly  a  century  after  the  Spanish 
.\rmada,  and  on  the  anniversary  of  the  Gunpowder  Plot. 
As  a  sign  of  his  mission  the  debarkation  of  the  troops 
was  treated  as  a  religious  solemnity.  No  sooner  were 
the  soldiers  on  shore  than  divine  service  was  conducted 
by  William  Carstares  ;  and  before  they  encamped,  the 
troops,  standing  along  the  beach,  sang  Ps.  cxviii.,  "  O 
give  thanks  unto  the  Lord,  for  He  is  gracious  ;  because 
His  mercy  endureth  for  ever." 

But  the  success  of  the  Revolution  was  not  assured  so 
long  as  Ireland  was  held  for  King  James.  "Oh,  secure 
Ireland  !  "  cried  Alexander  Peden  in  1685.  "  A  dreadful 
day  is  coming  upon  thee  within  a  few  years,  so  that  they 
shall  ride  many  miles  and  not  see  a  reeking  house  in 
thee.  O  hunger — hunger  in  Derrs' !  ^lany  a  black 
and  pale  face  shall  be  in  thee."  The  defence  of  Derry 
became  one  of  the  turning-points  in  the  struggle.  It 
saved  Ireland  for  King  William,  and  it  was  the  prelude 
to  his  victory  at  the  Bo^ne  (July  i,  1690). 

The  importance  of  the  city  as  a  military  and  naval 
stronghold  was  clearly  recognized.  In  December  1688, 
Antrim's  regiment,  described  by  a  contemporary  as  "  a 
pack  of  rufSans,"  many  of  "  whose  captains  were  well 
knowTL  to  the  citizens,  having  lain  in  their  jails  for  thefts 
and  robberies,"  was  sent  to  garrison  Londonderry  for 
King  James.  On  the  7th  of  the  month  the  soldiers  were 
seen  crossing  the  river  and  approaching  the  Ferry  Gate 
of  Londonderry^  Acting  on  the  impulse  of  the  moment, 
a  number  of  young  men  ran  to  the  main  guard,  sword  in 
hand,  seized  the  keys,  drew  up  the  bridge,  and  locked 
the  gate  in  the  face  of  the  soldiers.  When  news  of  this 
revolt,  as  it  was  called,  reached  Dublin,  Lord  ]\Iountjoy 
was  sent  to  reduce  the  citizens  to  submission.  Without 
arms,  ammunition,  or  provisions,  Londonderry  made  the 


262  THE  PSALMS  TX  HUMAN  LIFE 

best  terms  it  could.  Two  companies  of  Protestant 
soldiers,  commanded  by  Colonel  Lundy,  himself  a 
Protestant,  were  admitted  as  a  garrison  for  King  James. 
So  matters  rested  for  some  three  months.  But  on 
March  20,  i68g,  William  and  Mary  were  proclaimed  king 
and  queen  at  Londonderry  with  great  joy  and  solemnity. 
The  city  had  thrown  in  its  fortunes  with  the  Revolu- 
tion and  the  Protestants  against  James  and  the  Roman 
Catholics. 

Vigorous  efforts  were  at  once  made  by  Lord  TjTConnel, 
the  Lord-Lieutenant,  to  regain  possession  of  the  city  for 
his  master.  As  James's  army  approached,  the  Protes- 
tants of  the  north  of  Ireland  fled  to  Londonderry  for 
refuge.  Within  the  walls  cowardice  and  treachery  were 
at  work.  Lundy  and  his  officers  escaped  to  the  ships  in 
Lough  Foyle,  and  left  the  city  to  its  fate. 

Deserted  by  their  leaders,  the  garrison  chose  the  Rev. 
George  Walker  and  Major  Baker  to  be  their  governors, 
and  prepared  to  hold  the  city  against  the  forces  of  King 
James=  Surrounded  by  a  numerous  army,  with  no 
leaders  experienced  in  war,  imperfectly  armed,  without 
engineers  to  instruct  them  in  their  defence,  without 
trenching  tools,  "  without  Fire  W'orks,  not  so  much  as  a 
Hand  Granado  to  annoy  the  Enemy,"  with  but  few 
guns  well  mounted  in  the  town,  with  30,000  mouths  to 
feed,  and,  as  was  estimated,  with  only  ten  days'  pro- 
vision for  them,  the  position  seemed  desperate.  There 
was  truth  in  the  comparison  which  W^alker  makes  in  his 
Diary,  when  he  Hkens  the  lot  of  the  citizens  of  Derry  to 
that  of  "  the  Israelites  at  the  Red  Sea.''  But  the  first 
care  of  the  defenders  was,  to  quote  again  his  words, 
"  to  recommend  ourselves  and  the  Cause  we  undertook 
to  the  Protection  and  Care  of  the  Almighty  ;  for  we  might 
then  truly  say,  with  the  Church  in  the  Liturgy,  *  There  is 
none  other  that  fighteth  for  us,  but  only  Thou,  0  God.*  " 

The  siege  lasted  from  April  17  to  July  31.  Closely 
pressed  by  the  besiegers,  harassed  by  their  continuous 
fire,  threatened  by  their  mines,  which  were  pushed  close 


THE  SCOTTISH  COVENANTERS.  263 

:o  the  walls,  the  citizens  held  their  ground  with  singular 
:ourage  and  resolution.  Women  played  their  part  in 
:he  defence  by  the  side  of  the  men.  Not  only  did  they 
Dring  up  the  match  and  the  ammunition,  and  serve  out 
Dread  and  drink  to  the  soldiers  on  the  walls,  but  they 
3eat  back  an  attack  of  the  enemy  with  the  stones  which 
lad  been  torn  up  from  the  streets  to  deaden  the  effect 
A  the  bombs.  Treachery  and  mutiny  were  Walker's 
iaily  dread.  His  honesty,  as  matters  grew  more  and 
:nore  desperate,  was  called  in  question.  Deserters  every 
lay  passed  into  the  camp  of  the  enemy,  carr^dng  intelli- 
gence of  the  straits  to  which  the  garrison  was  reduced. 
Provisions  ran  short.  Horses,  dogs,  cats,  rats,  and  mice 
vvere  eaten.  Except  the  men,  women,  and  children, 
tiardly  a  living  thing  was  to  be  found  within  the  walls. 
Ihey  had  no  fuel  left  with  which  to  cook.  Their  food 
vvas  tallow,  meal,  and  salted  hides,  herbs  and  weeds. 
Water  was  their  drink,  and  that  was  scarce,  and  only 
obtained  with  difficulty  and  danger.  A  wet  season 
added  to  the  misery  of  the  citizens,  who  in  their  half- 
starved  condition  fell  easy  victims  to  the  diseases  that 
it  fostered.  As  though  to  mock  their  hopes  with  dis- 
appointment, a  fleet  of  thirty  sail  was  discovered  in  the 
Lough  on  June  14.  It  was  the  force  sent  for  the  relief 
3f  the  garrison.  But  across  the  channel  the  besiegers 
tiad  thrown  a  boom.  Major-General  Kirke  did  not 
attempt  to  force  the  passage,  but  sailed  away,  sending 
a  messenger  to  Walker  in  the  beleaguered  city,  promising 
succour,  and  bidding  the  citizens  "  Be  good  husbands 
oi  your  Victuals." 

Yet  the  resolution  of  Walker,  whose  colleague  was 
dead,  and  of  the  mass  of  the  citizens,  remained  firm. 
When  the  enemy  delivered  an  assault,  the  starving 
soldier,  who  had  fallen  under  the  weight  of  his  musket 
as  he  went  to  the  walls,  stood  gallantly  to  his  post, 
though  his  face  was  blackened  with  hunger,  till  the 
attack  was  repelled.  ''  I  am  sure,"  writes  Hunter  in  his 
Diary,  "  it  was  the  Lord  that  kept  the  city,  and  none 


264  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

else ;  for  there  were  many  of  us  that  could  hardly  stand 
on  our  feet  before  the  enem}^  attacked  the  walls,  who, 
when  they  were  assaulting  the  out-trenches,  ran  out 
against  them  most  nimbly  and  with  great  courage. 
Indeed,  it  was  never  the  poor,  starved  men  that  were 
in  Deny  that  kept  it  out,  but  the  mighty  God  of  Jacob, 
to  whom  be  praise  for  ever  and  ever.     Ainen." 

On  July  28  the  fighting  force  of  the  garrison  had 
dwindled  from  7,361  men  to  4,300,  and  of  these  fully  a 
quarter  were  unfit  for  ser\ice  owing  to  sickness,  famine, 
or  wounds.  Still  Walker  and  his  officers  clung  to  their 
post  with  the  tenacity  of  despair.  "  The  Governor, 
finding  in  himself,"  says  Walker  in  his  Diary,  "  still  that 
confidence  that  God  would  not  (after  so  long  and  mirac- 
ulous a  Preservation)  suffer  them  to  be  a  Prey  to  their 
Enemies,  preaches  in  the  Cathedral,  and  encourages 
their  Constancy,  and  endeavours  to  establish  them  in 
it,  by  reminding  them  of  several  Instances  of  Providence 
given  them  since  they  first  came  into  that  Place,  and  of 
what  consideration  it  was  to  the  Protestant  Religion  at 
this  time  ;  and  that  they  need  not  doubt  but  that  God 
would  at  last  deliver  them  from  the  Difficulties  they 
Vv-ere  under." 

The  sermon  is  still  in  existence.  Never  were  words 
spoken  to  people  in  sorer  need  of  consolation  and  en- 
couragement, and  it  is  from  the  Psalms  that  they  are 
chiefly  drawn.  With  strange  power  must  the  verses 
have  come  home  to  the  crowd  of  star\dng  men  and  women 
who  listened  to  the  preaching  of  their  governor.  "  Let 
but  the  Lord  arise,"  says  holy  David,  "  and  His  enemies 
shall  be  scattered."  And  again,  "  God  is  our  refuge  and 
strength,  a  very  present  help  in  trouble.  Therefore  will 
we  not  fear  though  the  earth  be  moved,  and  though  the 
mountains  be  carried  into  the  midst  of  the  sea  ;  though 
the  waters  thereof  roar  and  be  troubled  "  (Ps.  xlvi.  i,  2, 
3).  .  .  .  "  Considering  the  deliverance  wrought  for  the 
besieged  city  of  Samaria,  as  for  Jerusalem  by  the  de- 
struction  of   Sennacherib's   host,    holy   David   says,    to 


THE  SCOTTISH  COVENANTERS.  265 

omfort  himself  and  his  people — namely,  '  The  Lord  of 
osts  is  with  us  ;  the  God  of  Jacob  is  our  refuge.  Come, 
'ehold  the  works  of  the  Lord,  what  desolation  He  hath 
lade  upon  the  earth.  He  maketh  wars  to  cease  unto 
he  end  of  the  earth  :  He  breaketh  the  bow,  and  knap- 
•eth  the  spear  in  sunder,  and  bumeth  the  chariot  in  the 
re.  Be  still,  and  know  that  I  am  God  :  I  will  be 
xalted  among  the  heathen,  I  will  be  exalted  in  the 
arth.  The  Lord  of  Hosts  is  with  us  ;  the  God  of  Jacob 
5  our  refuge  *  "  (Ps.  xlvi.  7-1 1).  Gideon,  Deborah, 
nd  Barach  were  instruments  in  the  hand  of  God.  "  So 
hat  we  see/'  continues  the  preacher,  "  that  God  con- 
ounds  strength  with  weakness  ;  for  when  men  presume 
00  much  on  the  arm  of  flesh,  they  frequently  deceive 
hemselves,  and  in  the  midst  of  their  security  are  over- 
hrown.  Therefore  let  a  good  Christian  consider  that 
lis  strength  is  in  the  Lord.  And  if  God  hear  his  side, 
le  need  not  be  afraid  though  danger  beset  him  round 
.bout,  but  be  comforted  and  made  valiant  by  the  words 
if  the  kingly  prophet,  '  The  Lord  is  my  light  and  my 
alvation  ;  whom  then  shall  I  fear  ?  The  Lord  is  the 
trength  of  my  life  ;  of  whom  then  shall  I  be  afraid  ? 
Vhen  the  wicked,  even  mine  enemies  and  my  foes, 
:ame  upon  me  to  eat  up  my  flesh,  they  stumbled  and 
ell.  Though  a  host  should  encamp  against  me,  my 
leart  shall  not  fear  ;  thoagh  war  shall  arise  against  me, 
n  this  will  I  be  confident '  "  (Ps.  xxvii.). 

"  It  w^as  always  well,"  he  says,  "  with  the  seed  of 
'acob  when  they  clave  fast  to  the  Rock  of  their  Salva- 
ion.  But  when  they  grew  regardless,  He  gave  them,  up 
o  the  oppressing  nations,  w^ho  grieved  His  chosen  heri- 
age,  for  it  is  said  (Ps.  xviii.),  *  With  the  merciful  Thou 
vilt  show  Thyself  merciful.  And  with  an  upright  man 
rhou  shalt  show  Thyself  upright ;  with  the  pure  Thou 
halt  show  Thyself  pure  ;  with  the  froward  Thou  shalt 
how  Thyself  froward.  For  Thou  wilt  save  the  afflicted 
)eople,  but  wilt  bring  down  high  looks.'  " 

"  There  is  nothing,"  he  concludes,  "  too  hard  for  the 


266  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Lord,  when  He  designs  to  bring  about  His  purposes. 
*  I  called  upon  the  Lord  in  my  distress,'  says  holy  David, 
'  The  Lord  answered  me,  and  set  me  in  a  large  place. 
The  Lord  is  on  my  side.  I  will  not  fear  what  man  can 
do  unto  me.  The  Lord  taketh  mj^  part  with  them  that 
help  me,  therefore  shall  I  see  my  desire  upon  them  that 
hate  me.  It  is  better  to  trust  in  the  Lord  than  to  put 
any  confidence  in  princes.  All  nations  compassed  me 
round  about,  but  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  will  I  destroy 
them  '  (Ps.  cx\'iii.).  .  .  .  Let  us  take  courage,  then,  and 
faint  not,  but  acquit  yourselves  like  men." 

Sunday,  July  28,  1689,  was  a  memorable  day.  "  It 
was,"  says  Ash.,  "  a  day  to  be  remembered  \\'ith  thanks- 
giving by  the  besieged  of  Derry  as  long  as  they  Hve, 
for  on  this  day  we  were  dehvered  from  famine  and 
slavery.  With  the  former  they  were  threatened  if  they 
staid  here,  and  the  latter  if  they  went  away  or  sur- 
rendered the  garrison." 

Ships  were  seen  in  the  lough,  and  were  recognized  as 
the  vessels  which  Kirke  had  prom.ised  to  send  to  their 
relief.  A  favourable  wind  blew  from  the  north-east — 
the  Protestant  wind,  as  the  Dutch  sailors  called  it,  which 
had  wafted  Wilham  to  the  English  coast  and  blew  in  the 
teeth  of  James.  The  flag  on  the  cathedral  tower  was 
twice  struck,  and  eight  guns  were  fired,  in  order  that 
the  ships  might  know  that  the  garrison  were  at  their 
last  gasp,  and  that  "  if  they  came  not  now,  they  might 
stay  away  for  ever."  The  fleet  answered  with  six  guns, 
which  the  besieged  understood  to  mean  that  an  attempt 
would  be  made  that  day. 

About  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  wind  and  tide 
serving,  three  ships  hoisted  sail  and  entered  the  river. 
The  Dartmouth,  a  frigate  commanded  by  Captain  Leake, 
acted  as  convoy  to  the  Mountjoy  of  Derry  (Captain 
Micaiah  Bro\\-ning,  commander)  and  the  Phoenix  of 
Coleraine  (Captain  Andrew  Douglas,  master),  both  laden 
Vv'ith  provisions.  From  each  side  of  the  river  the  be- 
siegers opened  a  brisk  fire  upon  the  advancing  vessels. 


THE  SCOniSH  COVENANTERS.  267 

Off  Culmore  Point,  a  musket-shot  from  the  fort,  the 
Dartmouth  anchored,  and  cannonaded  the  castle,  divert- 
ing its  fire  from  the  merchant  ships.  The  Mountjoy, 
followed  by  the  Phcenix,  sailed  past  the  fort,  and  pro- 
ceeding up  the  river,  reached  the  boom.  She  struck  it 
with  such  force  as  to  break  it ;  but  the  recoil  drove 
her  aground,  for  the  wind  had  dropped,  and  she  had 
not  way  enough  to  carry  her  past  the  obstruction.  The 
smoke  from  the  guns  was  so  thick  that  the  garrison, 
watching  anxiously  from  the  walls  of  Derry,  could  not 
see  what  had  happened.  But  the  triumphant  shouts  of 
the  enemy,  *'  the  most  dreadful  to  the  besieged  that  ever 
we  heard,"  the  increased  firing,  and  the  preparations 
to  board  the  grounded  vessel,  told  to  the  starving  citizens 
the  misfortune  of  the  Mount  joy.  "  Our  trouble  is  not 
to  be  expressed  at  this  dismal  prospect,"  says  Walker. 
It  "  struck,"  writes  Mackenzie,  another  of  the  garrison, 
**  such  a  sudden  terror  into  our  hearts,  as  appeared  in  the 
blackness  of  our  countenances."  Succour  was  at  their 
doors,  yet  could  not  enter. 

But  the  commander  of  the  Mount  joy,  himself  a  native 
of  Derry,  and  carrying  help  to  his  fellow- townsmen,  was 
not  disheartened.  "  He  stood  upon  the  deck  with  his 
sword  drawn,  encouraging  his  men  with  great  cheerful- 
ness." Loading  his  guns  with  "  partridge  shot,"  he  fired 
a  broadside  which  scattered  his  assailants.  It  did  more. 
The  shock  loosened  his  vessel  ;  the  rising  tide  floated 
her,  and  carried  her  past  the  boom.  At  the  very  mo- 
ment of  his  triumph  he  was  shot  through  the  head.  But 
Derry  was  saved.  By  ten  o'clock  both  ships  were  at 
the  quay,  *'  to  the  inexpressible  joy  and  transport  of  our 
distressed  garrison,  for  we  only  reckoned  upon  two  days' 
Hfe,  and  had  only  nine  lean  horses  ieft,  and  among  us 
aU  one  pint  of  meal  to  each  man."  The  siege  was 
practically  over.  On  July  31,  1689,  the  enemy  de- 
camped, and  the  cause  of  the  Revolution  was  saved  in 
Ireland. 


CHAPTER    XL 
1688-1900. 

Changed  character  ol  the  romance  of  religion  ;  the  Psalms  in  the  lives 
of  religious  leaders — Baxter,  Law,  John  Wesley,  Charles  Wesley, 
William  Wilberforce,  .Keble,  Manning,  Newman,  Thomas  Arnold, 
Julius  Hare,  Xeander,  Charles  Kingsley,  Stanley,  Chalmers,  Irving  ; 
the  Psalms  in  the  lives  of  men  of  science — Locke,  Humboldt,  Maine 
de  Biran,  Sir  W.  Hamilton,  Sir  James  Simpson,  Romanes  ;  the 
Psalms  in  literature — Addison,  Co^^•pe^,  Boswell,  Scott,  B^Ton, 
Hogg,  Wordsworth,  Tennyson,  Matthew  Arnold,  Robert  Browning, 
Elizabeth  Barrett  Bro%vning,  Fitzgerald,  Ruskin,  Carlyle. 

The  first  seventy  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  lie  like 
a  plain  between  two  ranges  of  hills.  Behind  it  rise  the 
picturesque  highlands,  in  which  the  theology  of  the 
^Iiddle  Ages  had  fought  every  inch  of  ground  with 
Protestantism,  and  where  the  voluptuous  sensibility  of 
the  Cavalier  had  crossed  swords  with  the  stern  morality 
of  the  Puritan.  Before  it  loom  the  volcanic  heights  of 
the  French  revolutionary  era,  destined  to  be  the  scene 
of  new  confhcts,  where  once  more,  without  thought  of 
compromise  or  acquiescence,  opposing  principles  con- 
tended for  absolute  victory.  Between  the  mountain 
ranges  extends  the  plain  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
rich  and  fertile,  but  deficient  in  many  of  the  virtues 
which  flourish  best  on  more  barren  soils  and  in  more 
bracing  air. 

England  under  the  last  two  Stuarts  ha<i  retained  the 
heat  of  a  Hfe-and-death  struggle,  though  the  fire  was 
already  burning  low.  Men  acted,  thought,  spoke,  and 
wrote  with  something  of  the  romance  and  passion  of 


I68S-I900.  269 

their  ancestors.  At  least  they  presencd  the  grand 
manner,  if  they  had  lost  the  high-toned  sentiment  which 
was  its  impulse.  But  in  the  age  of  Anne,  and  still  more 
under  the  House  of  Hanover,  the  temperature  was 
chilled.  Society  banished  enthusiasm  from  politics, 
philosophy,  literature,  religion,  and  took  its  ease.  In 
pontics,  loyalty  gave  place  to  expediency,  divine  right 
to  constitutional  monarchy.  In  philosophy,  reason  and 
experience  dethroned  faith  and  tradition  ;  the  thought 
of  Locke — clear,  sensible,  and  practical — reigned  supreme. 
In  literature,  passion,  spontaneity,  imagination  were 
succeeded  by  the  finish,  taste,  restraint,  and  intellectual 
fancy  of  an  impulse  which  had  lost  the  fervour  of  youth. 

In  religion  the  change  was  equally  conspicuous. 
Alarmed  at  the  results  of  Catholic  zeal  or  Puritan  fervour, 
society  invoked  the  aid  of  the  established  religion  to 
control  extravagance,  to  restrain  vehemence,  and 
strengthen  order.  Never  was  the  Church,  in  a  sense, 
more  popular.  Never  was  Christianity  more  ably  de- 
fended ;  but  it  was  on  the  ground  of  human  reasonable- 
ness alone.  Its  most  powerful  champions  fought  with 
the  weapons  of  their  assailants,  and  rejected  the  aid  of 
all  that  was  miraculous,  mysterious,  supernatural.  Cold 
and  rational,  they  endeavoured  to  argue  men  into  good- 
ness, appealed  to  a  system  of  rewards  and  punishments, 
ignored  the  power  of  the  heart  or  the  imagination.  The 
result  was  disastrous.  Religion  grew  formal,  full  of  pro- 
priety, drowsy,  prosperous.  Its  authority  was  put  for- 
ward with  cautious  regard  to  the  probability  of  its 
acceptance.  Seeming  to  distrust  itself,  it  was  regarded 
as  something  which  could  be  ignored,  not  as  something 
which  imperatively  demanded  to  be  either  obeyed  or 
condemned.  The  devotional  cast  of  mind,  the  enthusi- 
asm, the  mystery,  the  prophetic  vision,  the  martyr's 
passion,  were  left  behind  in  the  natural  sanctuaries  of 
the  mountains.  Nothing  remained  but  a  religion  of  the 
plains — low-lying,  level,  utilitarian,  prosaic. 

During    the  last  half  of   the  eighteenth  century  the 


270  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

dying  embers  of  religious  fervour  were  fanned  into  flame 
by  the  Methodists  and  the  Evangelicals.  Meanwhile  new 
forces  were  coming  into  play  w^hich  gave  fresh  impulse 
and  direction  to  every  form  of  national  life.  Industrial 
development  was  advancing  with  rapidity.  Science 
shook  off  its  dilettantism,  and  became  a  power.  As  the 
nineteenth  century  advanced,  the  mental  attitude  of  in- 
quirers grew  to  be  scientific.  The  supremacy  of  theology 
was  challenged,  the  claim  of  authority  sifted  or  denied. 
Out  of  the  shock  of  the  collision  emerged  the  religious 
parties  in  the  Church  as  we  know  them  to-day.  Bitterly 
opposed  as  they  were,  and  are,  in  love  of  the  Psalter 
they  were  united.  Under  new  impulses,  the  romance  of 
religion  revived,  though  in  an  altered  form.  It  has  not 
disappeared,  nor  even  diminished  ;  but  it  has  changed 
in  character.  It  has  passed  from  without  to  within, 
from  action  to  thought,  from  deeds  to  emotions.  It  has 
become,  for  that  reason,  less  adapted  for  pictorial  treat- 
ment. The  Psalms,  as  of  old,  still  nerve  men  and  women 
to  suffer,  to  dare,  to  endure.  But  on  the  stage  of  history 
the  opportunity  of  witnessing  for  the  faith  grows  rarer 
as  the  world  becomes  more  tolerant  or  more  indifferent 
to  diversity  of  opinion.  Religious  tragedies  are  still 
played  on  every  side  of  us,  and  in  our  midst.  If  they 
could  be  revealed,  they  would  have  the  special  interest 
of  familiar  conditions  and  contemporary  circumstances. 
They  would  come  closer  to  us  than  scenes  of  martyrdom. 
But  modern  tragedies  of  religion  are,  for  the  most  part, 
withdrawn  from  observation,  enacted  in  the  privacy  of 
home  rather  than  on  the  public  stage.  Their  scene  is  the 
human  heart,  or  the  human  brain.  The  rack,  the  dun- 
geon, the  scaffold,  are  all  there.  But  the  torture  is  the 
chill  agony  of  doubt,  the  iron  grip  of  remorseless  logic, 
the  keen  analysis  of  searching  introspection,  the  des- 
perate effort  to  hold  or  regain  cherished  beliefs,  to  shake 
off  the  gradual  deadening  of  senses  once  susceptible  to 
holy  impressions,  to  resist  the  creeping  numbness  of 
nerves  formerly  responsive  to  sacred  influences.     To  the 


1688-1900.  271 

vanquished  come  the  soUtude,  the  void,  the  darkness  of 
lost  creeds ;  to  the  victors  belong  the  peace  and  triumph 
of  a  faith  that  has  withstood  the  test.  The  scene  is  less 
dramatic,  less  picturesque.  But  the  trial  is  not  less 
fiery  than  the  stake.  Who  can  say  that  the  drawn-out 
agony  of  those  who  have  succumbed  does  not  exceed 
the  pains  of  those  who,  upheld  by  triumphant  confi- 
dence in  their  cause,  have  endured  the  most  exquisite 
tortures  of  the  body  ?  Wlao,  on  the  other  hand,  will 
assert  that  the  peace  and  joy  of  those  whose  faith  with- 
stands the  trial  may  not  equal  the  most  ecstatic  vision 
of  his  risen  Lord  that  ever  gladdened  the  straining  eyes 
of  the  Christian  martjrr  at  the  moment  of  his  supremest 
anguish  ? 

It  is  well  that  the  choice  of  subjects  is  thus,  in  one 
sense,  narrowed  at  the  moment  when  the  multifarious 
activities  of  modern  hfe  widen  the  field  so  indefinitely 
that  selection,  necessarily  arbitrary,  must  now  appear 
capricious.  History  may  illustrate  something  of  the  debt 
which  during  the  last  two  centuries  men  and  women 
have  owed  to  the  Psalms.  The  mystery  of  existence 
forces  itself  upon  our  attention.  The  eternal  questions 
of  whence  ?  and  why  ?  and  whither  ?  have  never  been 
more  insistent,  rolling  in  upon  us  Hke  the  monotonous 
surges  of  the  inarticulate  sea.  With  tense  nerves  and 
strained  senses,  men  and  women  ask  w^hat  is  life,  and 
what  is  death.  No  sound  of  answer  comes,  except  the 
echo  of  their  own  voices  reverberating  through  a  cavern- 
ous void  ;  and  happy  are  they  who,  turning  in  their 
weariness  to  the  Psalter,  find  that  its  words  wrap  them 
round  like  a  folding  sense  which  brings  them  peace. 
Of  all  this  vast  sum  of  human  experience  history  takes 
no  account.  For  every  recorded  incident  there  are 
millions  of  cases,  unkno\vn  beyond  the  secret  chambers 
of  the  heart,  in  which  the  Psalms  have  restored  the 
faith,  lifted  the  despair,  revived  the  hopes,  steeled  the 
courage,  bound  up  the  wounds  of  the  struggling,  suffer- 
ing hosts  of  humanity. 


272  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

On  the  lives  of  leaders  in  the  various  religious  move- 
ments which  mark  the  period  may  be  traced  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Psalms. 

Here  are  the  words,  "  And  call  upon  His  name,  and 
declare  His  works  amxong  the  people"  (Ps.  cv.  i  ,  which 
are  inscribed  upon  the  pulpit  at  Kidderminster,  once 
occupied  by  Richard  Baxter  (1615-1692),  one  of  the  first 
and  greatest  of  Nonconformist  divines,  the  eloquent 
preacher,  the  voluminous  theological  writer,  patient  alike 
under  the  lifelong  pains  of  disease  and  thirty  years  of 
almost  incessant  persecution.  A  man  whose  personal 
holiness  was  never  disputed  by  his  bitterest  opponents, 
and  a  model  parish  priest,  he  so  transformed  Kidder- 
minster that  "  on  the  Lord's  day  there  was  no  disorder 
to  be  seen  in  the  streets  ;  but  you  might  hear  a  hundred 
families  singing  psalms,  and  repeating  sermons  as  you 
passed  through  them."  The  use  of  the  Psalms  by  his 
parishioners  at  Kidderminster  might  well  have  been  the 
fruit  of  Baxter's  special  influence  ;  some  may  even  have 
been  sung  in  his  own  metrical  version.  A  "  Paraphrase 
on  the  Psalms  of  David  "  (1692)  was  among  the  products 
of  his  gigantic  literary  labours,  and  his  own  words  show 
that  he  found  in  the  Psalms  a  daily  support.  In  1662, 
at  the  age  of  forty-seven,  he  had  married  Margaret 
Charlton,  a  girl  of  gentle  birth  and  "  strangely  vivid 
wit,"  the  faithful,  tender  companion  of  whom  he  paints 
a  loving  portrait  in  his  "  Breviate  of  her  Life."  "  It  was 
not,"  he  writes,  "  the  least  comfort  that  I  had  in  the  con- 
verse of  my  late  dear  wife  that  our  first  in  the  morning 
and  our  last  in  bed  at  night  was  a  psalm  of  promise, 
till  the  hearing  of  others  interrupted  it." 

Baxter's  "  Saint's  Everlasting  Rest  "  and  "  Call  to 
the  Unconverted  "  are  masterpieces  of  devotional  liter- 
ature, whose  widespread  popularity  still  endures. 
Scarcely  less  powerful,  though  far  less  popular,  has 
been  the  influence  of  the  "  Serious  Call "  (1729)  of  Wil- 
liam Law  (1686-1761),  "  a  nonjuror,  a  vat,  and  a  saint, 
who  seems  to  have  beheved  all  that  he  professed,  and 


1688-1900.  273 

to  have  practised  all  that  he  enjoyned."  As  literature, 
the  bock  is  read  for  its  masterly  style  and  for  the  keen, 
satire  o:  its  portraits.  As  a  call  to  devotion,  it  was  the 
first  book  which  made  Dr.  Johnson  think  "  in  earnest 
of  rehgioQ."  Lord  Lyttelton  could  not  lay  it  down  till 
he  had  read  it  through,  called  it  "  one  of  the  finest  books 
that  ever  was  written,"  and  only  wondered  that  it  "  had 
been  penned  by  a  crack-brained  enthusiast."  On  the 
two  Wesleys,  on  \\Tiitefield,  on  Evangelicals  like  Venn, 
Newton,  and  Scott,  on  leaders  of  the  Oxford  Movement 
like  Keble  or  Ne^\^Tlan,  its  influence  was  profound.  At 
the  present  day,  when  the  churchmanship  of  Law  is 
again  in  the  ascendant,  the  ascetic  tone  of  the  "  Serious 
CaU  "  finds  readers,  with  whose  principles  it  is  more  in 
harmony  than  with  those  of  Methodist  or  Evangelical. 

At  the  time  when  Law  wrote,  the  bare  externals  of 
religion  were  punctiliously  observed.  But  the  divorce 
between  precept  and  practice  was  absolute.  It  was  on 
this  contrast  that  Law's  logical  intellect  seized,  and  the 
''  Serious  Call "  invites  Christians  to  practise  what  they 
professed,  to  "  live  more  nearly  as  they  prayed."  To 
the  use  of  the  Psalms  as  an  aid  to  that  devotion  which 
dedicates  a  life  to  God,  one  of  Law's  most  eloquent 
chapters  (chapter  xv.)  is  devoted.  "  Do  but  so  five,'" 
he  says,  "  that  your  heart  may  truly  rejoice  in  God, 
that  it  may  feel  itself  affected  with  the  praises  of  God, 
and  then  you  will  find  that  this  state  of  your  heart  will 
neither  want  a  voice  nor  ear  to  find  a  tune  for  a  psalm." 
He  bids  men  imagine  themselves  *'  with  Moses  when  he 
was  led  through  the  Red  Sea."  "  Do  you  think  that 
you  should  then  have  wanted  a  voice  or  an  ear  to  have 
sung  with  Moses,  *  The  Lord  is  my  strength  and  my 
song,  and  He  is  become  my  salvation,'  etc.  ?  "  The 
chapter  closes  with  a  selection  of  the  psalms  which  are 
best  adapted  for  devotional  use.  Psalm  cxlv.,  "  I  will 
magnify  Thee,  O  God,  my  King,  and  I  will  praise  Thy 
Name  for  ever  and  ever,"  is  his  choice  for  a  morning 
h}Tnn.     "  The  34th,  96th,  103rd,  iiith,  146th,  147th," 


274  THE  PSALMS  IN  HmtAN  LIFE. 

are  such  as  wonderfully  set  forth  ''  the  glory  of  God, 
and  therefore  you  may  keep  to  any  one  of  them  at 
any  particular  hour  as  you  hke  ;  or  you  may  take  the 
finest  parts  of  any  psalms,  and  so,  adding  them  to- 
gether, may  make  them  fitter  for  your  own  devotion." 

Here  are  the  words  of  Ps.  cxxx.,  "  Out  of  the  deep 
have  I  called  unto  Thee,  O  Lord  :  Lord  hear  my  voice," 
etc.,  which  John  Wesley  (1703-1791)  heard  sung  on  the 
afternoon  of  Wednesday,  May  24,  1738,  as  an  anthem 
at  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  The  psalm  was  one  of  the 
influences  that  attuned  his  heart  to  receive  that  assur- 
ance of  his  salvation  by  faith  which  the  evening  of  the 
same  day  brought  to  him  in  the  room  at  Aldersgate 
Street.  On  the  foundation  of  that  sure  confidence,  his 
intense  energy,  organizing  genius,  and  administrative 
capacity  built  up,  for  the  most  part  from  neglected 
materials,  the  mighty  movement  that  still  bears  both 
his  name  and  the  impress  of  his  structural  mind.  For 
half  a  century,  as  he  rode  up  and  down  the  country, 
his  voice  sounded  louder  and  louder,  till  it  penetrated 
every  corner  of  the  kingdom,  rousing  once  more  the  sense 
of  the  need  of  personal  religion,  and  stirring  anew  the 
numbed  perception  of  unseen  spiritual  reaHties.  On 
March  2,  1791,  he  died  at  the  Chapel-house  in  the  City 
Road,  London.  It  was  with  the  words  of  the  Psalms 
that  he  met  the  approach  of  death.  Gathering  his 
remaining  strength  into  the  twice-repeated  cry,  "  The 
best  of  all  is,  God  is  with  us  !  "  he  lay  for  some  time 
exhausted.  One  of  the  bystanders  wetted  his  parched 
lips.  **  It  wiU  not  do,"  he  said  ;  ''  we  must  take  the 
consequence  ;  never  mind  the  poor  carcase."  Pausing 
a  little,  he  cried,  **  Thy  clouds  drop  fatness  !  "  (Ps.  Ixv. 
12);  and  soon  after,  ''The  Lord  of  Hosts  is  with  us; 
the  God  of  Jacob  is  our  refuge  "  (Ps.  xlvi.  7).  Through- 
out the  night  he  was  heard  attempting  to  repeat  the 
words.     The  next  morning  he  was  dead. 

With  a  psalm  also  died  Charles  Wesley  (1707-1788). 
The  first  hymn-book  compiled  for  the  use  of  the  Church 


1688-1900.  275 

of  England  was  John  Wesley's  "  Collection  of  Psalms 
and  Hymns/'  printed  at  Charlestown  in  1736-1737. 
Wesley  regarded  hymns  as  a  powerful  means  both  of 
expressing  the  devotional  feelings  and  of  estabhshing  the 
faith  of  his  followers.  He  himself  wrote  or  translated 
many  that  are  still  in  popular  use.  But  the  great  h^-mn- 
writer  of  the  movement,  and  perhaps  the  greatest  h}Tnn- 
writer  the  world  has  ever  known,  was  his  younger  brother. 
Of  Charles  Wesley's  6,500  hymns,  some  are  unsurpassed 
in  beauty,  and  rank  among  the  finest  in  the  English  lan- 
guage. Throughout  his  life  they  were  the  form  in  which 
he  found  the  truest  expression  for  his  deepest  feelings. 
On  his  deathbed,  in  March  1788,  the  train  of  thought 
suggested  by  Ps.  Ixxiii,  25  C  ^^Y  A^sh  and  my  heart 
faileth  ;  but  God  is  the  strength  of  my  heart,  and  my 
portion  for  ever")  took  shape  in  verse.  It  was  the 
last  exercise  of  his  w^onderful  gift.  Calling  his  vdfe  to 
his  side,  he  dictated  to  her  the  ImeSj — 

"  la  age  and  feebleness  extreme. 
What  shall  a  sinful  worm  redeem  ? 
Jesus,  my  only  hope  thou  art. 
Strength  of  my  failing  flesh  and  heart ; 
Oh,  could  I  catch  a  smile  from  thee. 
And  drop  into  eternity  !  " 

As  Luther's  success  had  stirred  the  dormant  energies 
of  the  Roman  Catholics,  so  the  Methodists  roused  the 
Church  of  England  from  her  lethargy.  A  new  spirit  of 
life  was  breathed  into  the  Estabhshment  by  men  like 
Newton,  Scott,  Venn,  and  Simeon.  Of  the  personal 
and  practical  religion  of  the  Evangelicals,  WiUiam  Wil- 
berforce  (1759-1833),  who  moved  and  finally  carried 
the  abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade  (1807),  may  be  taken 
as  a  representative.  The  brilhant  young  man,  whose 
gay  wit  charmed  the  town,  who  played  faro  while  George 
Selwyn  held  the  bank,  gambled  with  Fox,  was  the  bosom 
friend  of  Pitt,  flirted  with  Mrs.  Crevv'e,  bandied  criticisms 
with  Madame  de  Stacl,  or  sang  ballads  to  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  passed  in  1785  through  that  crisis  of  the  mind 


276  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

and  character  which  men  of  his  school  of  religious 
thought  call  "  conversion."  The  change  never  turned 
his  natural  gaiety  into  moroseness.  He  remained  the 
same  charming  companion,  but  his  purpose  in  life  was 
fixed  :  he  would  devote  his  time  and  talents  to  philan- 
thropic efforts,  and  especially  to  the  abolition  of  the 
Slave  Trade. 

Numerous  passages  in  his  Diary  show  how  largely  this 
hidden  life  was  fed  by  the  study  of  the  Psalms.  Gran- 
ville Sharpe  (1735-1813),  his  predecessor  and  colleague 
in  the  work  of  abolishing  the  Slave  Trade,  sang,  night 
and  morning,  "  a  portion  of  the  Hebrew  Psalms  to  his 
harp."  So  Wilberforce  studied  his  Psalter.  In  his 
Diary  for  1803  he  writes  :  "  I  am  reading  the  Psalms 
just  now,  comparing  the  two  versions,  and  reading 
Home's  Commentary.  What  wonderful  compositions  ! 
What  a  decisive  proof  of  the  Divine  origin  of  the  reli- 
gion to  vv'hich  they  belong  !  There  is  in  the  world  noth- 
ing else  like  them."  In  1807  ^^  ^^.d  gained  two  personal 
triumphs.  He  had  carried  his  Bill  for  the  Abohtion  of 
the  Slave  Trade,  and  he  had  kept  his  seat  for  Yorkshire. 
Neither  event  elated  him.  It  is  in  the  language  and 
spirit  of  the  Psalms  that  his  reflections  on  his  political 
successes  are  expressed,  as  he  meditates  on  such  texts 
as,  "  Not  unto  us,  O  Lord,  not  unto  us,  but  unto  Thy 
Name  give  the  praise  "  (Ps.  cxv.  i).  In  1819,  in  the 
midst  of  the  bustle  of  London  life  and  the  disturbances 
which  threatened  the  domestic  peace  of  the  country,  his 
own  mind  was  serene.  "  Walked  from  Hyde  Park  corner 
repeating  the  119th  Psalm,  in  great  comfort,"  is  the  entry 
in  his  Diary.  A  year  later  came  the  king's  coronation, 
and  Queen  Caroline's  claim  to  be  crowned.  For  taking 
the  unpopular  side  against  the  queen,  Wilberforce  was 
violently  attacked,  especially  by  Cobbett.  To  a  man  of 
his  temperament  the  pain  was  bitter.  It  was  to  the 
Psalms  that  he  turned.  "  The  71st  Psahn,  which  I 
learned  by  heart  lately,"  he  tells  his  wife,  "  has  been 
a  real  comfort  to  me." 


1688-1900.  277 

On  the  Psalms  is  based  the  most  popular  of  all  the 
writings  of  John  Keble  (1792-1866),  the  "true  and 
primary  author  "  of  the  Oxford  Movement.  His  own 
metrical  Psalter  (1839)  is  little  used  and  little  knowm. 
But  though  the  Psalms  supply  none  of  the  texts  by 
which  the  hymns  are  suggested  and  prefaced,  it  is  from 
the  Psalter  that  Keble  drew  the  inspiration  of  ''  The 
Christian  Year "  (1827).  In  his  "  Dedication "  he 
avows  his  model, — 

"  O  happiest  who  before  Thine  altar  wait. 

With  pure  hands  ever  holding  up  on  high    • 
The  guiding  Star  of  all  who  seek  Thy  gate. 
The  imdj-ing  lamp  of  heavenly  Poesy. 

*'  Too  weak,  too  wavering  for  such  holy  task 
Is  my  frail  arm,  O  Lord  ;  but  I  would  fain 
Track  to  its  source  the  brightness,  I  would  bask 
In  the  clear  ray  that  makes  Thy  pathway  plain. 

"  I  dare  not  hope  %vith  David's  harp  to  chase 
The  evil  spirit  from  the  troubled  breast ; 
Enough  for  me  if  I  can  find  such  grace 
To  listen  to  the  strain  and  be  at  rest." 

A  text  from  the  Psalms  haunted  the  memory  of  Henry 
Manning  as  an  undergraduate  at  Oxford,  when  his  re- 
ligious opinions  were  yet  unformed,  and  his  ambitions 
still  centred  on  political  life.  As  cardinal  and  arch- 
bishop, the  same  words  bore  to  him  their  daily  message. 
"  The  Psalms  and  the  Lessons,"  he  says  in  an  auto- 
biographical note  on  the  years  1829-1831,  "were  always 
a  delight  to  me.  The  verse  '  Why  art  thou  cast  down, 
0  my  soul/  "  etc.  (Ps.  xlii.  6),  "  always  seemed  a  voice 
to  me.  Every  day  in  the  daily  Mass  it  comes  back  to 
me. 

In  NewTnan's  "  Dream  of  Gerontius "  some  striking 
passages  are  echoes  from  the  Psalms.  Gerontius  dies, 
murmuring  the  familiar  words  of  Ps.  xxxi.  6, — 

"  Novissitna  hora  est  :  and  I  fain  would  sleep. 
The  pain  has  wearied  me  ....  Into  Thy  hands, 
O  Lord,  into  Thy  hands.  ..." 


278         THE  psal:vIS  in  Hu:\IA^i  life. 

His  "  struggling  soul  quitted  its  mortal  case,"  and  is 

borne  by  the  angel  into  the  presence  of  the  just  and  holy 
Judge.  As  the  soul  and  its  guardian  mount  upwards, 
the  angehc  choirs  hyran  their  Maker's  praise  in  lines 
whose  opening  stanza  recalls  Psalms  cxlvui.  and  cl., — 

"  Praise  to  the  Holiest  in  the  height. 

And  in  the  depth  be  praise  ; 

In  all  His  words  most  wonderful, 

Most  sure  in  all  His  ways." 

The  great  Angel  of  the  Agony  pleads  with  Him  whom 
he  had  strengthened  in  the  garden,  and  the  soul  of 
Gerontius  Hes  prone  at  the  "  dear  feet  of  Emmanuel," 
....  happy, 

"  For  it  is  safe. 
Consumed,  yet  quickened,  by  the  glance  of  God.** 

Then,  as  the  Angel  commits  his  charge  to  the  tem- 
porary keeping  of  the  Angels  of  Purgatory,  the  souls 
within  the  golden  prison  break  into  a  solemn  chant, 
which  is  a  paraphrase  of  part  of  Ps.  xc, — 

"  I.  Lord,  Thou  hast  been  our  refuge  in  every  generation  ; 

2.  Before  the  hills  were  bom,  and  the  world  was,  from  age  to  age 

Thou  art  God. 

3.  Bring  us  not.  Lord,  very  low  ;    for  Thou  hast  said.  Come  back 

again,  ye  sons  of  Adam. 

4.  A  thousand  years  before  Thine  eyes  are  but  as  yesterday,  and  as 

a  watch  of  the  night  which  is  come  and  gone,"  etc.,  etc. 

Here  are  the  words — "  O  give  me  the  comfort  of  Thy 
help  again ;  and  stablish  me  with  Thy  free  spirit " 
(Ps.  li.  12) — which  the  great  headmaster  of  Rugby, 
Thomas  Arnold,  repeated,  as,  in  June  1842,  he  lay  on 
his  deathbed  in  the  torture  of  angina  pectoris.  Here  is  the 
text — Ps.  xvii.  16 — in  which  Julius  Hare  specially  de- 
lighted. "  When,"  wrote  Whewell,  his  old  college  friend 
at  Trinity,  Cambridge,  "  the  psalm  was  read  to  him 
before  his  spirit  departed,  he  thanked  those  who  had 
thus  chosen  the  words  of  Scripture  which  he  so  especially 
delighted  in  ;    with  these  sounds  of  ^lory  singing  in  his 


1688-1900.  279 

ears,  '  I  will  behold  Thy  presence  in  righteousness  ;  and 
when  I  awake  up  after  Thy  Hkeness,  I  shall  be  satisfied 
with  it,'  our  dear  friend  fell  into  that  sleep  from  which 
he  was  to  awake  in  the  likeness  of  Christ."  To  Xeander, 
Hare  and  the  Cambridge  Liberals  of  his  circle  looked 
for  the  reconcihation  of  revelation  with  intellect,  and 
here  is  the  Psalm — "  The  Lord  is  my  shepherd;  I  shall 
not  want  "  (Ps.  xxiii.  i) — which  was  sung  by  the  Ger- 
man students  to  celebrate  the  last  *  birthday  of  the 
great  German  theologian  (January  6,  1850).  Here, 
again,  is  the  favourite  psalm  of  Charles  Kuigsley — Ps. 
Ixxvi.  "  How  strange,"  he  \^Tites,  when  voyaging  up 
the  Rhine  in  August  185 1,  and  looking  on  the  hills 
crowned  with  the  ruined  strongholds  of  freebooters, 
"  that  my  favourite  psalm  about  the  hills  of  the  robbers 
(hills  of  prey)  should  have  come  in  course  the  very  day 
I  went  up  the  Rhine ! "  Here,  lastly,  is  the  favourite 
text  of  Dean  Stanley,  a  choice  characteristic  alike  of 
the  man  and  of  his  work :  '*  I  see  that  all  things  come 
to  an  end  ;  but  Thy  commandment  is  exceeding  broad  " 
(Ps.  cxix.  96). 

In  the  religious  history  of  Scotland  no  event  since 
the  Reformation  created  so  profound  an  impression  as 
the  secession  of  the  Free  Church  ministers.  May  18,  1843. 
Here  too  the  Psalms  were  at  work.  Of  that  movement 
Thomas  Chalmers  (1780-1847)  was  the  leading  spirit. 
In  early  life  he  had  hovered  on  the  verge  of  atheism. 
But  in  18 10  he  had  throwTi  off  the  spell,  and  his  original, 
independent  mind  passed  from  misery  into  what  he  him- 
self described  as  "  Elysium."  Hencefor\vard,  though, 
to  quote  his  words,  "  he  could  not  speak  of  the  raptures 
of  Christian  enjo^Tnent,  he  thought  he  could  enter 
into  the  feeling  of  the  Psalmist — '  My  soul  breaketh  out 
for  the  very  fer\'ent  desire  that  it  hath  alway  unto  Thy 
judgments '  "  (Ps.  cxix.  20).  The  depth  of  his  con- 
viction, the  intensity  of  his  enthusiasm,  the  fire  of  his 
natural  eloquence,  triumphed  over  the  rugged  uncouth- 

•  Neauder  died  July  14,  1850. 


28o  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE= 

ness  of  his  manner.  No  preacher  of  his  day  produced 
so  strong  and  irresistible  an  effect. 

To  secure  spiritual  independence  from  civil  control  in 
matters  which  to  him  and  his  followers  seemed  vital, 
he  and  four  hundred  and  seventy  ministers  resigned 
their  livings,  and  formed  the  Free  Church.  With  that 
memorable  "  Disruption  "  the  Psalms  were  twice  asso- 
ciated. It  was  from  the  words,  "  Unto  the  godly  there 
ariseth  up  hght  in  the  darkness "  (Ps.  cxii.  4),  that 
Chalmers  preached  a  sermon  in  Edinburgh  (November 
17,  1842),  which  put  fresh  \dgour  into  those  who  dreaded 
the  unkno\\TL  future.  It  was  from  the  Psalms,  again, 
that  the  seceding  ministers,  on  the  day  of  the  formal 
separation,  drew  courage  and  hope.  On  May  18,  1843, 
Chalmers  presided  as  moderator  over  the  meeting  in 
Tanfield  Hall.  A  heavy  thundercloud  darkened  the 
building.  But  as  Chalmers  gave  out  the  Psalm  (xliii.) 
to  be  sung,  beginning  at  the  3rd  verse,  ''  O  send  out  Thy 
light  and  Thy  truth,  that  the}^  may  lead  me,"  the  cloud 
parted  ;  the  sun  poured  forth  ;  the  sombre  shade  be- 
came dazzling  light. 

During  two  years  of  Chalmers's  ministry  in  Glasgow 
(1S19-1822)  he  had  for  his  curate  Edward  Irvdng,  one  of 
the  strangest  and  most  pathetic  figures  in  the  ecclesi- 
astical history  of  the  last  century — the  lover  of  Jane 
Welsh,  the  friend  of  Thomas  Carlyle,  and  the  founder 
of  a  Church. 

In  1822  Irving  began  to  preach  at  a  Uttle  chapel  in 
Hatton  Garden.  Like  Byron,  he  awoke  to  find  him- 
self famous.  The  most  brilliant  members  of  London 
society  crowded  to  hear  him ;  the  mystic  eloquence 
and  prophetic  outpourings  of  this  impassioned  Camer- 
onian  were  a  new  sensation  ;  his  splendid  figure,  sonor- 
ous voice,  and  noble  features  heightened  the  magnetism 
that  he  exercised  ;  fashion  fell  at  his  feet.  Flattery 
intoxicated  him.  He  could  not  endure  neglect,  and 
singularity-  succeeded  to  singularity.  A  wave  of  reli- 
gious enthusiasm  had  swept  over  the  countiy,  its  tide 


1688-1900.  28l 

setting  strongly  in  one  particular  direction.  In  the 
horrors  of  the  French  Revolution,  in  the  rise  and  fall 
of  Napoleon,  men  saw  the  fulfilment  of  Divine  prophe- 
cies. With  senses  alert  and  strained,  they  watched  for 
signs  of  the  impending  end  of  the  world.  Poets  and 
painters  sought  theh  inspiration  in  x\pocalyptic  visions. 
The  current  swept  Irving  from  his  feet.  Hour  after 
hour  he  expounded  to  listening  crowds  his  theories 
of  the  Second  Advent,  his  prophecies  of  "  the  Coming 
of  the  Messiah  in  Glory  and  Majesty."  In  183 1  the 
"  unknown  tongues  "  were  for  the  first  time  heard  in 
his  church  at  Regent  Square,  and  henceforward  they 
became  frequent,  if  not  habitual,  occurrences. 

In  April  1832  the  trustees  of  the  Regent  Square 
church  removed  him  from  the  pulpit,  though  the  bulk 
of  his  congregation  followed  him  to  Gray's  Inn  Road. 
He  was  still  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  ;  but 
in  March  1833  he  was  deposed  from  his  ministry  by  the 
Presbytery  of  Annan.  The  tribunal  before  which  he 
appeared  consisted  of  homely  old  men — half  ministers, 
half  sheep-farmers — summoned  from  their  rural  manses 
to  determine  delicate  questions  of  theological  ortho- 
doxy. Hours  passed  in  the  speeches  of  the  accusers, 
and  in  the  defence  of  the  most  eloquent  and  brilhant 
preacher  of  the  da3^  The  trial  began  at  noon.  It  was 
dark  when  Irving  was  pronounced  by  the  presbyters 
to  be  guilty  of  heresy.  Before  the  moderator  delivered 
sentence  of  deposition,  in  a  scene  of  strange  excitement, 
Irving  left  the  dimly  lighted  church,  in  which  he  had 
been  baptized  and  ordained,  cr^dng  to  the  crowd  that 
obstructed  his  passage,  **  Stand  forth  !  stand  forth  ! 
\\'hat !  win  ye  not  obey  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ? 
As  many  as  will  obey  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
let  them  depart."  He  was  at  least  spared  the  pain  of 
hearing  himself  cast  out  by  the  Church  which  disowned 
his  service.  **  I  sang  in  my  heart,"  he  says,  **  *  Blessed 
be  the  Lord,  who  hath  not  given  us  as  a  prey  to  their 
teeth  '  "  (Ps.  cxxiv.  5). 


282  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Indng  returned  to  London  to  find  himself  forbidden 
to  administer  the  Sacraments,  for  the  act  of  deposition 
was  a  judicial  act,  depriving  him  of  his  authority  as  a 
minister.  Though  he  was  reordained  by  the  apostles 
of  his  own  Church,  he  never  recovered  from  the  blow. 
He  accepted  it  with  a  humility  which  was  the  more 
touching  from  his  confidence  in  his  extraordinary  powers. 
But  his  heart  was  broken.  Slowly  his  life  ebbed  from 
him.  His  faith  in  his  mission  was  unshaken — he  be- 
lieved in  it  with  all  the  fervour  and  strength  of  his  soul, 
and  toiled  still  to  gain  for  it  the  ear  of  the  world  ;  but 
in  vain.  In  September  1834  he  left  London  a  dying 
man.  Riding  through  Shropshire  and  Wales,  and  visit- 
ing his  scattered  congregations  as  he  went,  he  reached 
Liverpool.  In  his  touching  letters  to  his  wife  are  mes- 
sages to  his  Httle  daughter,  Maggie,  sent  in  the  simply- 
told  stories  that  he  gleaned  on  his  way.  When  other 
comforts  had  failed  and  fame  had  fled,  he  clung  stiU 
to  his  Bible,  and  made  the  Psalms  his  constant  com- 
panions. "  How  in  the  night  seasons,"  he  wTites  on 
October  12,  "  the  Psalms  have  been  my  consolations 
against  the  faintings  of  flesh  and  spirit !  " 

At  Liverpool  he  took  ship  and  sailed  for  Glasgow. 
The  end  was  near.  For  a  few  weeks  he  was  able  to 
preach,  though  at  forty-two  his  gaunt,  gigantic  frame 
bore  all  the  marks  of  age  and  weakness.  His  face  was 
wasted,  his  hair  white,  his  voice  broken,  his  eyes  rest- 
less and  unquiet.  As  November  drew  to  its  close  his 
feebleness  increased,  till  it  was  e\ddent  that  his  hfe  was 
rapidly  passing  away.  His  mind  began  to  wander. 
Those  who  watched  at  his  bedside  could  not  understand 
the  broken  utterances  spoken  in  an  unknown  tongue 
by  his  faltering  voice.  But  at  last  it  was  found  that  he 
was  repeating  to  himself  in  Hebrew  Ps.  xxiii.,  "  The  Lord 
is  my  shepherd."  It  was  with  something  hke  its  old 
power  that  the  djdng  voice  swelled  as  it  uttered  the 
glorious  con\dction,  "  Though  I  walk  through  the  valley 
of  the  shadow  of  death,  I  mil  fear  no  evil"     The  last 


T688-iqoo.  283 

articulate  words  that  fell  from  his  Hps  were,  "If  I  die, 
I  die  unto  the  Lord.  Amen."  And  wdth  these  he  passed 
away  at  midnight  on  December  7,  1834. 

Nor  is  the  love  of  the  Psalter  confined  to  those  who, 
in  their  different  ways,  and  often  in  bitter  opposition, 
have  defended  the  truths  of  Christianity.  It  compre- 
hends, also,  many  of  those  who  have  stood  in  the  fore- 
front of  the  scientific  attack.  A  vast  change  has  passed 
over  the  spirit  of  the  conflict.  The  combatants  no  longer 
fight  for  victory ;  both  sides  respect  the  convictions  of 
the  other  ;  both  contend  for  truth,  and  learn  to  welcome 
it,  from  whatever  source  derived.  Experience  has  proved, 
not  only  that  scientific  enthusiasm  can  raise  men  to 
heights  of  the  purest  morality,  of  the  most  absolute  dis- 
interestedness and  most  austere  self-denial,  but  also  that 
the  scientific  attitude  is  not  incompatible  with  refigious 
aspirations  or  religious  convictions.  To  some  men  faith 
is  far  harder  of  attainment  than  to  others ;  to  some, 
in  their  profound  sincerity  of  mind,  it  may  even  be 
almost  impossible.  Yet  probably  few  champions  of 
science,  driven  to  take  their  stand  on  a  point  of  Nothing 
in  the  agnostic  ab^^ss  of  Nothing,  have  not  longed,  at 
some  moments  of  their  fives,  that  their  feet  were  firmly 
planted  on  the  Rock. 

John  Locke  hved  the  last  fourteen  years  of  his  life  at 
Oates,  in  Essex,  an  inmate  of  the  house  of  Sir  Francis 
Masham.  In  his  seventy-third  3'ear  his  strength  failed 
him  fast,  and  he  knew  that  his  end  was  near.  On 
October  28,  1704,  Lady  Masham  was  reading  the  psalms 
for  the  day,  "low,  while  he  was  dressing."  He  asked 
her  to  read  them  aloud,  and  it  was  while  he  was  listening 
to  the  words  that  the  stroke  of  death  fell  upon  him. 
In  the  Psalms  Alexander  von  Humboldt  (i 769-1859) 
recognized  an  epitome  of  scientific  progress,  a  summary 
of  the  laws  which  govern  the  universe.  "  A  single  psalm, 
the  104th,"  he  writes,  "may  be  said  to  present  a  picture 
of  the  entire  Cosmos  ....  We  are  astonished  to  see,  within 
the  compass  of  a  poem  of  such  small  dimension,   the 


284  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

universe,  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  thus  drawTi  with  a 
few  grand  strokes." 

Similar  is  the  testimony  of  Maine  de  Biran  (1766- 
1824),  whom  Cousin  called  one  of  the  greatest  of  French 
metaphysicians.  He  had  lived  through  all  the  storms 
of  the  French  Revolution,  the  Empire,  and  the  Restora- 
tion. A  soldier,  a  politician,  an  administrator,  he  had 
played  his  part  in  pohtical  life.  Yet  it  was  as  a  solitary 
thinker,  a  keen  observer  of  himself,  a  deep  studeiit  of  the 
facts  of  his  inner  consciousness,  that  his  chief  work  was 
done.  In  his  Journal  he  lays  bare  the  mental  stages  by 
which  he  passed  from  the  guidance  of  CondiUac  to  that 
of  Fenelon,  from  the  self-interest  of  the  one  to  the  self- 
sacrifice  of  the  other.  The  rapid  changes  in  all  around 
him  forced  upon  his  mind  the  need  of  some  fixed,  immu- 
table point  of  support.  He  could  not  hold,  with  his  first 
master,  that  man  receives,  through  the  channels  of  the 
senses  alone,  all  the  elements  of  his  moral  and  intellectual 
nature.  Such  a  theory  brought  him  nothing  permanent, 
and  no  repose.  For  a  time  he  wavered  between  the  creed 
of  the  Stoic  and  that  of  the  Christian  ;  but  gradually 
Marcus  Aurelius  yielded  to  the  teaching  of  the  Bible, 
the  "  Pensees  "  of  Pascal,  the  "  Imitation  of  Christ," 
the  "  (Euvres  Spirituelles  "  of  Fenelon.  Biran  became 
a  believer  in  Christianity.  In  a  philosophical  work  on 
which  he  was  engaged  at  the  time  of  his  death,  "  Nou- 
veaux  Essais  d'Anthropologie,"  a  work  which  gave  a  new 
impulse  to  the  spiritual  school  of  philosophy  in  France, 
he  distinguishes  three  stages  in  the  moral  gro^vth  of 
man.  The  first  stage  is  animal,  governed  by  instincts 
and  passions.  The  second  is  human,  when  the  will  and 
reason  triumph  over  the  merely  animal  nature.  The 
third  is  spiritual,  when  the  will  itself  submits  to,  and  is 
absorbed  in,  the  guidance  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  If  the 
second  stage  is  characterized  by  effort,  the  essence  of 
the  third  is  love.  The  second  is  the  ideal  of  the  Stoic  ; 
the  third  of  the  Christian.  The  great  change  in  his  Hfe 
took  place  about  1818.     In  his  "  Pensees  "  for  March  28 


I688-I900.  285 

to  April  I  in  that  year,  he  comments  on  verse  28  of 
Ps.  cxix. :  "  The  Word  that  can  m.ake  me  hve  wiH  not 
come  from  me  nor  from  my  will,  nor  yet  from  anything 
that  I  hear  or  collect  from  without."  In  this  con\iction 
he  presses  forward  on  his  new  road.  It  is  rehgion  alone 
that  can  help  a  man  to  change  his  nature  ;  it  alone  gives 
him,  as  he  says,  "  the  wings  of  the  dove."  Without  this 
aid  man  would  weary  of  the  struggle  ;  and  he  asks  for 
help,  in  the  words  of  Ps.  vi.  2,  "  Have  mercy  upon  me, 
O  Lord,  for  I  am  weak."  The  last  entry  in  his  Diary, 
May  17,  1824,  made  when  he  alread}^  felt  the  rapid 
approach  of  his  fatal  iUness,  is  a  comment  on  Ps.  xxxviii. 
7  :  "In  my  weakness,  and  in  my  moral  and  physical 
discomfort,  I  cry  aloud  upon  m}^  cross,  *  Have  mercy 
upon  me,  O  Lord,  for  I  am  weak.  My  loins  are  filled 
with  a  sore  disease  ;  and  there  is  no  whole  part  in  my 
body.'  Woe,"  he  says,  "  to  the  man  w^ho  is  alone. 
L'nhappy  too  is  the  man,  however  powerful  his  intellect, 
or  how^ever  great  his  human  wisdom,  who  is  not  sustained 
by  a  strength  and  a  wisdom  higher  than  his  own.  The 
true  wisdom,  the  true  strength,  consists  in  feeUng  the 
support  of  God.  If  he  has  not  this,  woe  to  him,  for  he 
is  alone  !  The  Stoic  stands  alone.  The  Christian  walks 
in  God's  presence  and  with  God,  through  this  world  and 
the  next." 

Here  are  the  w^ords  of  Ps.  xxiii.  4,  "  Thy  rod  and 
thy  staff  comfort  me,"  which  consoled  the  d}ing  hours 
of  Sir  William  Hamilton  (1788-1856),  "  almost  the  only 
earnest  man  "  Carlyle  found  in  Edinburgh  ;  a  student 
of  colossal  learning,  yet  as  original  as  he  was  erudite, 
w^ho  did  more  than  any  man  of  his  time  to  release  the 
reflective  thought  of  this  country  from  its  insularity,  and 
to  bind  it  to  all  that  was  best  in  the  philosophy  of  Greece, 
Germany,  and  France.  The  insuperable  limitations  of 
human  knowledge  were  the  essence  of  his  teaching  ;  yet 
it  was  on  the  mysteries  which  lay  beyond  the  barrier 
of  the  L'nknowable  that  he  reposed  at  the  moment  of 
his  death. 


286  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

Here  are  the  words  which  Sir  James  Simpson  (1811- 
1870),  in  his  childhood  at  Bathgate,  knew  as  his  "Mother's 
Psalm."  In  times  of  anxiety  and  trial,  and  they  were 
not  infrequent  in  the  baker's  shop,  Mrs.  Simpson  used  to 
repeat  Ps.  xx.  in  the  Scottish  paraphrase : — 

"  Jehovah  hear  thee  in  the  day  when  trouble  He  doth  send, 
And  let  the  name  of  J  acob's  God  thee  from  all  ill  defend, 
O  let  Him  help  send  from  above,  out  of  His  sanctuary  ; 
From  Sion,  His  own  holy  hill,  let  Him  give  strength  to  thee,"  etc. 

The  memory  of  her  character  and  example  never  faded 
from  her  son's  mind.  Years  later,  when  he  was  already 
famous  as  the  discoverer  of  chloroform,  and  at  the  head 
of  his  profession,  Simpson  returned  to  the  impressions 
of  his  childhood,  and  it  became  his  highest  ambition  to 
make  known  to  others,  in  pubUc  or  in  private,  the  peace 
which  he  had  found  in  the  Christian  faith. 

Or,  lastly,  may  be  quoted  the  sonnet,  suggested  by 
Ps.  xxvii.,  which  was  wTitten  by  one  of  the  ablest  of 
modem  biologists,  George  John  Romanes  : — 

"  I  ask  not  for  Thy  love,  O  Lord  ;   the  days 

Can  never  come  when  anguish  shall  atone. 

Enough  for  me  were  but  Thy  pity  shown. 
To  me  as  to  the  stricken  sheep  that  strays 
With  ceaseless  cry  for  unforgotten  ways. 

O  lead  me  back  to  pastures  I  have  known. 

Or  find  me  in  the  wilderness  alone. 
And  slay  me,  as  the  hand  of  mercy  slays. 

"  I  ask  not  for  Thy  love,  nor  e'en  as  much 
As  for  a  hope  on  Thy  dear  breast  to  lie  ; 

But  be  Thou  still  my  Shepherd — still  with  such 
Compassion  as  may  melt  and  such  a  cry. 

That  so  I  hear  Thy  feet,  and  feel  Thy  touch. 
And  dimly  see  Thy  face  ere  yet  I  die," 

Literature  has  felt  the  same  spell  as  that  which  fell 
upon  philosophy  and  science.  Men  of  letters  in  their 
hves  or  in  their  writings  have  acknowledged  the  univer- 
sahty  of  the  Psalms, 

To  two  paraphrases  of  the  Psalms  Joseph  Addison 
owes  no  inconsiderable  portion  of  his  fame.     "  David," 


I688-I900.  287 

he  writes  in  the  Spectator,  "  has  very  beautifully  ex- 
pressed this  steady  reliance  on  God  Almighty  i*i  his 
23rd  Psalm,  which  is  a  kind  of  pastoral  hj-mn,  and  filled 
with  those  allusions  which  are  usually  found  in  that  kind 
of  wTiting."  .  .  .  Then  follows  the  well-knowTi  version 
of  Ps.  xxiii.,  "  The  Lord  my  pasture  shall  prepare."  * 
A  month  later  appeared  an  essay  on  the  means  of  con- 
firming human  faith.  It  closes  with  the  equally  famous 
version  of  Ps.  xix.,  "  The  spacious  firmament  on  high."  f 
Throughout  the  EngHsh-speaking  world,  the  two  para- 
phrases of  the  Psalms  are  known  to  millions  who  know 
nothing  of  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  or  of  Cato. 

It  was  with  a  psalm  that  William  Cowper,  a  timid, 
dehcate,  sensitive  child  in  Dr.  Pitman's  School  at  Market 
Street,  Hertfordshire,  nerved  himself  to  endure  the  tor- 
ture inflicted  by  an  elder  boy.  "  I  well  remember,"  he 
saj^s,  ''  being  afraid  to  lift  my  eyes  upon  him  higher  than 
his  knees  ;  and  that  I  knew  him  better  by  his  shoe-buckles 
than  by  any  other  part  of  his  dress."  Yet,  as  he  sat 
on  a  bench  in  the  schoolroom,  fearing  the  immediate 
coming  of  his  tormentor,  he  found  in  the  text,  "  I  will 
not  fear  what  man  doeth  unto  me  "  (Ps.  cx\dii.  6),  "a 
degree  of  trust  and  confidence  in  God  that  would  have 
been  no  disgrace  to  a  much  more  experienced  Christian." 

In  the  language  of  the  Psalms,  again,  he  expressed  the 
despondency  which  ended  in  his  attempted  suicide,  and 
removal  to  a  madhouse.  It  was  a  time  when,  to  quote 
his  own  description  of  his  state  of  mind, 

"  Man  disavows,  and  Deity  disowns  me. 
Hell  might  afford  my  miseries  a  shelter  ; 
Therefore  Hell  keeps  her  ever-himgry  mouths  all 
Bolted  against  me." 

Placed  in  Dr.  Cotton's  asylum  at  St.  Albans,  he  re- 
covered. His  joy,  Hke  his  despair,  is  clothed  in  the 
words  of  the  Psalms  :    "  The  Lord  is  my  strength  and 

*  spectator,  July  26.  1712.     No.  441. 
t  Ibid.,  Augu8;'c3,  1 713.      No.  465. 


288  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

my  song,  and  is  become  my  salvation  "  (Ps.  cxviii.  14). 
"  I  said,  I  shall  not  die,  but  live,  and  declare  the  works 
of  the  Lord.  He  has  chastened  me  sore,  but  not  given 
me  over  unto  death.  0  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord,  for 
His  mercy  endureth  for  ever  "  (Ps.  cxxiii.  17,  18,  29). 
It  became  his  ambition  to  be  the  poet  of  Christianity, 
and  the  fruits  remain  in  such  hjonns  as,  "God  moves 
in  a  mysterious  way,"  or,  "  Hark,  my  soul,  it  is  the 
Lord,"  or,  ''  O  for  a  closer  walk  \vith  God." 

It  is  by  a  reference  to  a  psalm  that  Boswell  defends 
the  minuteness  of  detail  ^dth  which,  throughout  the 
most  famous  biography  in  the  English  language,  he  has 
noted  the  conversations  of  Dr.  Johnson.  He  quotes 
from  Archbishop  Seeker,  in  whose  tenth  sermon  there  is 
the  following  passage  : — "  Rabbi  David  Kimchi,  a  noted 
Jewish  commentator,  who  Hved  about  five  hundred 
years  ago,  explains  that  passage  in  the  ist  Psalm,  His 
leaf  also  shall  not  wither,  from  rabbins  yet  older  than  him- 
self, thus :  That  even  the  idle  talk,  so  he  expresses  it, 
of  a  good  7nan  ought  to  be  regarded  ;  the  most  superfluous 
things  he  saith  are  always  of  value." 

Of  Walter  Scott's  famiharity  with  the  Psalms  his 
novels  give  abundant  evidence,  and  scraps  of  the  Psalms 
were  among  the  last  words  which  his  friends  could  dis- 
tinguish from  his  Hps.  A  tour  on  the  Continent  failed 
to  restore  his  health.  But  from  the  moment  when, 
rounding  the  hill  at  Ladhope,  he  caught  his  first  gUmpse 
of  the  outline  of  the  Eildons  and  of  the  towers  of  Abbots- 
ford,  he  revived.  Surrounded  by  his  dogs,  happy  in  his 
home,  conscious  and  composed,  he  almost  seemed  to 
have  hope  of  recovery.  On  July  17,  1832,  he  insisted 
upon  being  taken  to  the  study  and  placed  at  his  desk. 
His  daughter  put  the  pen  into  his  hand,  and  he  endeav- 
oured to  close  his  fingers  upon  it ;  but  they  refused  their 
office — it  dropped  on  the  paper.  He  sank  back  among 
his  pillows,  silent  tears  roUing  down  his  cheek.  The  gal- 
lant spirit  of  the  worn-out  man  had  made  its  last  effort. 
"Friends,"  said  he,  "don't  let  me  expose  myself;   get 


I688-I900.  289 

me  to  bed — that's  the  only  place."  From  this  time  his 
strength  gradually  decUned.  His  mind  was,  for  the  most 
part,  hopelessly  obscured  ;  yet,  when  there  was  any 
symptom  of  consciousness,  fragments  of  the  "  Stabat 
Mater  "  and  the  "  Dies  Irae  "  could  sometimes  be  dis- 
tinguished, mingled  with  passages  from  the  Bible,  or 
verses  of  the  Psalms  in  the  old  Scottish  metrical  para- 
phrase.    He  died  September  21,  1832. 

''  Half  a  Scot  by  birth,"  BjTon  spent  his  childish  years 
at  Aberdeen.  There,  from  the  teaching  of  his  nurse, 
he  gained  a  love  and  knowledge  of  the  Bible  which  he 
never  lost.  Many  of  the  Psalms,  beginning  with  the 
1st  and  23rd,  he  learned  by  heart.  Still  a  mere  boy,  yet 
already  subject  to  fits  of  melancholy,  he  found  expression 
for  his  mood  in  a  paraphrase  of  Ps.  Iv.  6  : — 

"  Fain  would  I  fly  the  haunts  of  men — 
I  seek  to  shun,  not  hate,  mankind  ; 
My  breast  requires  the  sullen  glen 

Whose  gloom  may  smt  a  darkened  mind. 

"  Oh  that  to  me  the  wings  were  given. 
Which  bear  the  turtle  to  her  nest  ! 
Then  would  I  cleave  the  vault  of  heaven. 
To  flee  away  and  be  at  rest." 

On  the  Psalms,  as  his  mother  repeated  them  to  him  in 
the  metrical  version  of  Scotland,  James  Hogg,  the  Ettrick 
Shepherd,  nursed  his  childish  imagination,  and  mingled 
with  them  her  tales  of  giants,  kelpies,  brownies,  and  other 
aerial  creations  of  the  fairy  world.  Before  he  knew  his 
letters  he  could  say  Ps.  cxxii.,  and,  as  he  grew  older, 
he  learned  by  heart  the  greater  part  of  the  Psalter. 
The  Bible  was,  in  fact,  the  herdboy's  only  book.  Among 
the  pastoral  soHtudes  of  Ettrick,  the  atmosphere  of  which 
was  charged  with  legendary  lore,  and  throbbed  with  the 
metrical  beat  of  Da\id's  Psalms,  he  wove  into  one  ex- 
quisite vision  the  ideal  and  the  actual  scenes  which 
formed  his  mental  and  bodily  world. 

Here — from  the  lips  of  the  simple  dalesmen  whom 
Wordsworth    loved,    rising     out    of     the    Westmorland 


290  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

vaUeys  and  rolling  among  the  hills  whence  he  drew  the 
healing  power  of  his  verse — comes : — 

"  Mournful,  deep,  and  slow 
The  cadence,  as  of  psalms — a  funeral  dirge  ! 
We  listened,  looking  down  upon  the  hut. 
But  seeing  no  one  ;  meanwhile  from  below 
The  strain  continued,  spiritual  as  before  ; 
But  now  distinctl}^  could  I  recognize 
These  words  :    '  Shall  in  the  grave  Thy  love  be  known. 
In  death  Thy  faithfulness  ? '  "  * 

Here,  in  the  mouth,  not  of  one  of  his  mediaeval  figures, 
but  of  a  homely  rustic,  Tennyson  f  places  the  words  of 
Ps.  Ixxxvi.  15  : — 

"  Sin  ?     Oh  yes,  we  are  sinners,  I  know ;  let  all  that  be. 

And  read  me  a  Bible  verse  of  the  Lord's  good  will  towards  men — 
'  Full  of  compassion  and  mercy,  the  Lord,'  let  me  hear  it  again  ; 
'  Full  of  compassion  and  mercy — long-sufiering.'     Yes,  oh  yes  ! 
For  the  law}-er  is  bom  but  to  mmrder,  the  Savioxu:  lives  but  to  bless." 

Here  Matthew  Arnold,  quoting  Ps.  xHx.  7,  expresses 
his  melancholy  sense  of  the  dumbness  of  Christ's  death- 
place,  the  silence  of  the  sacred  land,  the  isolation  of 
man,  and  his  inabihty  to  rise  out  of  philosophic  calm 
into  the  exaltation  of  unquestioning  faith. 

"  From  David's  lips  this  word  did  roll, 
'Tis  true  and  living  yet : 
No  man  can  save  his  brother's  soul. 
Nor  pay  his  brother's  debt. 

"  Alone,  self-poised,  henceforward  man 
Must  labour  ;   must  resign 
His  all  too  hioman  creeds,  and  scan 
Simply  the  way  divine  !  "  j 

Here  aie  the  lines  which  Browning  assigns  to  Pompiha, 
as,  before  her  flight,  she  sat  at  the  Carnival,  with  her 
tjnrant  husband  crouching  behind  in  the  shadow  : — 

*  "The  Excursion:"  The  Solitary.     Ps.  Ixxxviii.  ii. 
t  "  Rizpah,"  stanza  xiii. 

X  "  Oberman  Once  More."  In  the  1888  edition  the  first  of  the  two 
£taii23.s  is  oEQJtted.      Both  are  given  a.it  printed  in  the  edjtipn  of  1867. 


1688-1900.  29^ 

"  There  is  a  psalm  Don  Celestine  recites, 
'  Had  1  a  dove's  wings,  bow  I  fain  would  flee  ! ' 
The  psalm  rmis  not,  '  I  hope,  I  pray  for  wings  ' — 
Not  '  If  wings  fall  from  heaven,  I  fix  them  fast ' — 
Simply,  '  How  good  it  were  to  fly  and  rest, 
Have  hope  now,  and  one  day  expect  content  ! 
How  well  to  do  what  I  shall  never  do  ! ' 
So  I  said,  '  Had  there  been  a  man  like  that. 
To  lift  me  with  his  strength  out  of  all  strife 
Into  the  calm,  how  I  could  fly  and  rest  !  "  * 

Here  is  the  favourite  verse  of  Elizabeth  Barrett  Brown- 
ing, whose  confidence  in  God's  government  of  the  world, 
though  tearful,  was  unshaken  : — 

"  Of  all  the  thoughts  of  God  that  are 
Borne  inward  into  souls  afar. 

Along  the  Psalmist's  music  deep. 
Now  tell  me  if  that  any  is 
For  gift  or  grace  siurpassing  this  : 
•  He  giveth  His  beloved — sleep  ?  '  "  f 

Or  here,  drawn  from  Ps.  Ixxx.  5,  "  Thou  feedest  them 
with  the  bread  of  tears,  and  givest  them  plenteousness 
of  tears  to  drink,"  is  her  lesson  of  patience  : — 

"  Shall  we,  then,  who  have  issued  from  the  dust. 
And  there  return — shall  we,  who  toil  for  dust. 
And  wrap  our  winnings  in  this  dusty  life. 
Say,  '  No  more  tears.  Lord  God  ! 
The  measure  runneth  o'er  '  ?  "  J 

''  It  is  He  that  hath  made  us,  and  not  we  ourselves," 
is  the  text  chosen  by  Edward  Fitzgerald  for  his  tomb. 
The  choice  seems  the  defence  for  a  career  that  to  many, 
and  perhaps  to  the  man  himself  at  some  moments  of 
his  hfe,  seemed  wasted.  Yet  Fitzgerald  had  won  from 
Tennyson  a  generous  tribute  of  praise  for  his 

"  Golden  Eastern  lay, 
Than  which  I  know  no  version  done 
In  English  more  divinely  weU." 

Loving  and  enjoying  leisure,  he  hved  remote  from 

*  "  Ring  and  the  Book."     Pompilia,  lines  991-1000. 
t  "The  Sleep,"  stanza  i.    Psalm  cxxvii. 
1  "  The  Measure,"  stanza  ii. 


292  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

bustle  and  publicity,  admitting  into  his  paradise  oi 
music  and  books  nothing  that  did  not  "  breathe  content 
and  virtue."  Born  with  an  original  mind  and  character, 
and  never  endeavouring  to  rub  them  smooth  by  contact 
with  conventionaUties,  he  remained  what  he  was,  and 
made  his  life  his  owm  peculiar  creation. 

Outside  a  narrow  circle  of  his  contemporaries  Fitz- 
gerald was  barely  known.  But  few  writers  influenced 
their  generation  more  powerfully  than  Ruskin  and  Car- 
lyle.  In  the  purport  of  their  message  they  differed  ;  in 
their  manner  of  delivering  it  they  \\ere  absolutely 
opposed.  Yet,  apart  frorn  the  affection  which  Carlyle 
bore  to  his  "  aethereal  "  Ruskin,  they  had  many  points 
in  common.  Both  urged  the  necessity  of  indi\'iduals 
and  nations  obeying  the  commandments  of  God — Car- 
lyle insisting  on  the  retribution  that  awaits  disobedience, 
Ruskin  emphasizing  the  new  powers  that  glad  obedience 
engenders.  Both  loved  the  Psalms.  "  Da\dd's  hfe  and 
history,"  says  Carlyle,  "  as  written  in  those  Psalms  of 
his,  I  consider  to  be  the  truest  emblem  ever  given  of  a 
man's  moral  progress  and  warfare  here  below.  All  ear- 
nest souls  will  ever  discern  in  it  the  faithful  struggle  of 
an  earnest  human  soul  towards  what  is  good  and  best. 
Struggle  often  baffled,  sore  baffled,  down  as  into  entire 
wreck ;  yet  a  struggle  never  ended  ;  ever,  with  tears, 
repentance,  true,  unconquerable  purpose,  begun  anew." 
As  both  Carlyle  and  Ruskin  felt  the  power  of  the  Psalms, 
so  the  spirit  of  both  was  Hebraic.  Neither  was  content 
to  be  a  mere  intellectual  thinker ;  both  were,  above  all, 
teachers — aesthetic,  moral,  political  teachers.  Both  were 
on  fire  not  only  to  know  the  right,  but  to  have  the  right 
done.  They  had  the  intense  zeal  for  action,  com"bined 
with  the  undoubting  affirmation,  of  the  ancient  prophets. 
Both  recognized  the  effect  of  a  man's  life  on  his  opinions 
and  work ;  both  insisted  on  the  intimate  connection 
between  the  moral  conditions  under  which  a  man  thinks 
and  the  external  form  or  action  in  which  his  thought  is 
clothed.     It  is  this  perception  which  gives  to  Carlyle's 


1688-1900.  293 

historical  \\Titing  its  vivid  liunian  interest ;  it  is  on  this 
perception  that  Ruskin  founds  his  view  that  onl}^  the 
pure  in  heart  can  interpret  Nature  adequately  or  rise 
to  the  highest  expression  of  truth  and  beauty. 

To  compare  the  influence  of  the  two  men  would  be 
scarcely  relevant  to  the  subject.  It  is,  however,  prob- 
ably true  that  Carlyle  taught  the  thinkers,  Ruskin  the 
doers  ;  Carl^'le  stimulated  morals,  Ruskin  action.  Car- 
Ij'le's  gospel  of  work,  force,  and  strength  supplied  no 
additional  impulses  beyond  those  by  which  men  of  prac- 
tical energy  felt  themselves  to  be  already  actuated  ;  but 
theorists  were  roused  by  the  suggestion  of  the  advent  of 
a  leader  who  in  his  strength  should  govern  by  the  pro- 
foundest  principles  that  abstract  thought  could  formu- 
late. Ruskin's  influence,  on  the  other  hand,  has  been 
chiefly  felt  in  actual  life.  In  the  presence  of  nature  he 
gave  to  ordinary  people  eyes.  In  sesthetic  criticism,  he 
opposed  the  spiritual  to  the  sensuous  theory  of  Art.  In 
painting,  he  gave  a  new  creed  to  a  new  school.  In  archi- 
tecture, he  stimulated  the  Gothic  re\'ival.  In  the  politi- 
cal and  social  world,  his  insistence  on  the  moral  dignity 
and  destiny  of  man  created  new  standards  as  the  tests 
of  economic  questions,  and  humanized  the  iron  laws  of 
supply  and  demand. 

Ruskin,  as  soon  as  he  was  able  to  read  with  fluency, 
studied  the  Bible  by  his  mother's  side  as  few  children 
were  ever  taught  to  study  its  pages.  Among  the  passages 
that  he  learned  by  heart  were  Psalms  xxiii.,  xxxii.,  xc, 
xci.,  ciii.,  cxii.,  cxix,,  cxxxix.  Of  Ps.  cxix.  he  says  : 
*'  It  is  strange  that  of  all  the  pieces  of  the  Bible  which 
my  mother  thus  taught  me,  that  which  cost  me  most 
to  learn,  and  which  was,  to  my  child's  mind,  chiefly 
repulsive — the  119th  Psahn — ^has  now  become  of  aU  the 
most  precious  to  me  in  its  overflowing  and  glorious  passion 
of  love  for  the  law  of  God." 

From  the  Psalms  might  be  collected,  so  Ruskin  taught. 
a  complete  system  of  personal,  economical,  and  political 
prudence — a  compendium  of  human  life.     What  Tibul- 


294  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

lus  in  Jonson's  Poetaster  says  of  Virgil,  Ruskin  in  effect 
says  of  the  Psalmist's  work  : —  _ 

"  That  which  he  hath  writ 
Is  with  such  judgment  laboured,  and  distilled 
Through  all  the  needful  uses  of  our  lives. 
That  could  a  man  remember  but  his  lines. 
He  should  not  touch  at  any  serious  point 
But  he  might  breathe  his  spirit  out  of  him."   . 

In  "  Our  Fathers  have  Told  Us,"  Ruskin  urges  that 
the  first  half  of  the  Psalter  sums  up  all  the  wisdom  of 
society  and  of  the  individual.  Psalms  i.,  viii.,  xii.,  xiv.,xv., 
xix.,  xxiii.,  xxiv.,  well  studied  and  beheved,  suffice  for 
all  personal  guidance  ;  Psalms  xlviii.,  Ixxii.,  Ixxv.,  contain 
the  law  and  the  prophecy  of  all  just  government ;  Ps.  civ. 
anticipates  every  triumph  of  natural  science.  On  the 
Psalms  is  also  founded  much  of  Ruskin's  aesthetic  teach- 
ing. The  guiding  principle  of  '*  Modem  Painters "  is 
that  glad  submission  to  the  Divine  law  which  is  the  key- 
note to  Ps.  cxix.  Throughout  those  parts  of  the  Bible 
which,  says  Ruskin,  people  ''  are  intended  to  make  most 
personally  their  own  (the  Psalms),  it  is  always  the  law 
which  is  spoken  of  with  chief  joy.  The  Psalms  respecting 
mercy  are  often  sorrowful,  as  in  thought  of  what  it  cost ; 
but  those  respecting  the  law  are  always  full  of  delight. 
David  cannot  contain  himself  for  joy  thinking  of  it — • 
he  is  never  weary  of  its  praise  :  "  How  love  I  Thy  law  ! 
it  is  my  meditation  all  the  day.  Thy  testimonies  are 
my  delight  and  my  counsellors  ;  sweeter  also  than  honey 
and  the  honeycomb  "  (Ps.  cxix.  24).  By  the  love  that 
inspires  obedience  to  law,  Ruskin  was  separated  from 
the  rising  school  of  science  ;  by  the  fruits  of  that  obedi- 
ence— precision,  exactitude,  fidelity,  reahsm — he  was 
distinguished  from  the  followers  of  the  expiring  romantic 
school  of  art.  His  owm  teaching  was  that,  by  the  two 
qualities  in  combination — in  other  words,  by  docility  and 
faith — men  may  win  back  the  childlike  heart  which  alone 
penetrates  the  mysteries  of  nature,  and  regain  the  power 


i688-i9o<^.  295 

of  expressing  the  beauty  and  truth  with  which  the  ex- 
ternal world  reveals  the  Divine  law. 

Throughout  all  Ruskin's  work  there  runs  this  connect- 
ing Hnk  of  glad  submission  to  the  law  of  God.  His  numer- 
ous volumes,  touching  manifold  sides  of  hfe,  resemble 
those  pious  tomes  of  the  Middle  Ages  into  which  men 
wove  the  totality  of  their  learning  and  the  ardour  of 
their  faith.  Their  design  seems,  and  is,  disordered  by 
endless  digressions ;  but  all  the  hnes  converge  on  the 
Divine  object  of  their  love.  So  Ruskin's  work  is  at  once 
a  Speculum  Mundi  and  a  Speculum  Dei  :  it  is  a  mirror 
of  the  world  and  of  God  in  the  world.  Through  all  his 
books  runs  the  golden  thread  of  cheerful  obedience  to 
the  Divine  law.  Especially  is  this  true  of  **  Modern 
Painters,"  which  is  not  only  a  beautiful  treatise  on  art, 
but  also  the  impassioned  expression  of  an  adoring  faith. 
The  subject  is  handled  as  it  might  have  been  treated 
by  a  mediaeval  mystic  or  a  Franciscan  poet.  Still  more 
is  it  conceived  in  the  spirit  of  the  Psalmist.  As  in  his 
exquisite  prose  Ruskin  interprets  to  the  nineteenth 
century  God's  message  of  creation,  so  David  sang  of 
God's  handiwork  while  he  shepherded  his  sheep  on  the 
lonely  uplands  of  Palestine.  ''  He  who  in  any  way  " — 
the  words  are  Carlyle's — "  shows  us  better  than  we  knew 
before  that  a  lily  of  the  fields  is  beautiful,  does  he  not 
show  it  us  as  an  effluence  of  the  Fountain  of  all  Beauty ; 
as  the  handwriting,  made  visible  there,  of  the  great 
Maker  of  the  Universe  ?  He  has  sung  for  us,  made  us 
sing  with  him,  '  a  Httle  verse  of  a  sacred  psalm.'  " 


CHAPTER    XII. 
168S-1900  (continued) . 

The  Psalms  in  philanthropic  movements — Prison  Reform  and  John 
Howard  ;  in  missionary  enterprises — John  Eliot,  David  Brainerd, 
William  Carey,  Henry'  Martyn,  Alexander  Duff,  Allen  Gardiner, 
David  Livingstone,  Bishop  Hannington  ;  in  ordinary  life — Colonel 
Gardiner,  Thomas  Carl  vie,  Jane  Welsh  Carlyle  ;  in  secular  history — 
Brittany  and  La  Vendee,  the  execution  of  Madame  de  Xoailles,  the 
evacuation  of  Moscow  in  1812,  the  Revolution  of  1848,  Bourget  in 
the  Franco-German  War  of  1 870-1 871,  Captain  Conolly  at  Bokhara 
and  Havelock  at  Jellalabad,  Duff,  Edwards,  and  "Quaker" 
Wallace  in  the  Indian  Mutiny,  the  Boer  War. 

IN  the  preceding  chapter  the  influence  of  the  Psahns 
during  the  last  two  centuries  has  been  illustrated 
from  the  fives  and  writings  of  leaders  of  rehgion,  science, 
and  Hterature.  Within  the  same  period  their  power 
may  be  traced,  not  only  in  philanthropic  movements 
or  missionary  enterprises,  but  also  in  ordinary  life  and 
secular  history. 

The  religious  reawakening  which  revolutionized  Eng- 
land in  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  inspired 
numerous  efforts  towards  social  progress.  The  aboli- 
tion of  the  Slave  Trade,  the  foundation  of  the  Bible 
Society,  the  educational  work  of  Raikes  and  Lancaster, 
were  the  outcome  of  new  and  higher  standards  of  life. 
Among  efforts  to  improve  social  conditions,  an  honour- 
able place  belongs  to  the  struggle  for  Prison  Reform, 
which  is  inseparably^  associated  with  the  name  of  John 
Howard  (1726-1790).  In  all  the  stages  of  its  progress 
the  Psalmf^  were  at  work. 


16R8-1900.  297 

In  1755,  on  Howard's  vo3^age  to  Lisbon,  the  Hanover 
packet,  in  which  he  was  sailing,  was  captured  by  a 
French  privateer.  Herded  together  in  a  filthy  dungeon 
at  Brest,  he  and  his  companions  experienced  the  horrors 
of  imprisonment.  The  memory  of  his  own  sufferings 
may  well  have  Hngered  in  his  mind.  But  it  was  not  till 
1773,  nearly  twenty  years  afterwards,  that  he  began  to 
devote  himself  to  Prison  Reform.  While  serving  as 
High  Sheriff  for  the  County,  Howard  of&cially  inspected 
the  Bedfordshire  jails.  Horror-struck  at  the  sufferings 
of  the  prisoners,  whether  criminals  or  debtors,  he  began 
his  investigations  in  England,  and  gradually  extended 
his  visits  to  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  the  Continent.  In 
the  damp,  unwholesome  cells,  ill-hghted  and  badly 
ventilated,  where  prisoners  were  confined  without  exer- 
cise or  employment,  jail  fever  and  smallpox  raged. 
Howard's  visits  were  paid  in  peril  of  his  Ufe.  But 
"  Hold  Thou  up  my  goings  "  (Ps.  xvii.  5)  was  the  t?xt 
w^hich  encouraged  him  to  persevere.  The  fever  had  no 
terrors  for  him.  "  Trusting,"  he  says,  "  in  Divine  Pro- 
vidence, and  believing  myself  in  the  way  of  my  duty, 
I  visit  the  most  noxious  cells,  and  while  so  doing  '  I 
fear  no  evil '  "  (Ps.  xxiii.  4).  Yet  he  did  not  always 
escape.  At  Lille,  in  May  1783,  he  caught  the  fever. 
It  is  in  the  language  of  the  Psalms  that  he  expresses  his 
gratitude  for  his  recovery :  "  For  many  days  I  have 
been  in  pain  and  sorrow,  the  sentence  of  death  was,  as 
it  w^ere,  upon  me;  but  I  cried  unto  the  Lord,  and  He 
heard  me.  Blessed,  for  ever  blessed,  be  the  name  of  the 
Lord."  A  deeply  religious  man.  he  jots  down  in  his 
memorandum  books  his  pious  ejaculations  and  secret 
aspirations.  Often  his  thoughts  are  couched  in  the 
words  of  the  Psalmist.  As  an  example  may  be  quoted 
two  entries  from  his  Diary,  made  when  he  was  lying  ill 
at  the  Hague  in  1778  :  "  May  13. — In  pain  and  anguish 
aU  Night  .  .  .  help.  Lord,  for  vain  is  the  help  of  ]\Ian. 
In  Thee  do  I  put  my  trust ;  let  me  not  be  confounded. 
May  14. — ^This  Niprht  my  Fever  abaited,  my  Pain  less 


298  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

.  .  .  Righteous  art  Thou  in  all  Thy  ways,  and  holy  in 
all  Thy  works  .  .  .  bring  me  out  of  the  Furnace  as 
Silver  purified  seven  times." 

From  a  psalm  (Ixxix.  12)  is  taken  the  motto  on  the 
title-page  of  his  "  Account  of  Lazarettos,"  "  O  let  the 
sorrowful  sighing  of  the  prisoners  come  before  Thee ; " 
and  he  chose  it  because  he  had  himself  observed  the 
effect  which  the  words  produced  on  the  minds  of  the 
prisoners  in  Lancaster  Jail.  In  1789  he  left  England 
on  the  journey  which  ended  with  his  death  at  Kherson. 
He  had  previously  chosen  the  inscription  for  his  monu- 
ment, left  directions  for  his  funeral,  and  even  selected 
the  text  for  the  Sermon  which  his  friend  and  pastor 
would  preach  on  the  event.  The  text  was  Ps.  xvii.  16. 
"  That  text,"  he  says,  "  is  the  most  appropriate  to  my 
feelings  of  any  I  know ;  for  I  can  indeed  join  with  the 
Psahnist  in  saying,  '  As  for  me,  I  will  behold  Thy  face 
in  righteousness ;  and  when  I  awake  up  after  Thy  Hke- 
ness,  I  shall  be  satisfied  with  it.'  " 

Howard's  work  among  prisoners  was  continued,  on 
different  Hues,  by  women  hke  Elizabeth  Fry  and  Sarah 
Martin.  But  meanwhile  missionary  enterprise  was 
taking  wider  and  more  daring  flight.  In  June  1793 
William  Carey  and  his  colleague  sailed  for  India,  bo 
opposed  to  the  poHcy  of  the  East  India  Company  was 
the  idea  of  a  Christian  mission,  that  they  were  obliged 
to  embark  in  a  Danish  East  Indiaman,  and  to  settle 
in  Danish  territory.  Nearly  a  century  later,  in  April 
1874,  David  Livingstone  was  buried  in  Westminster 
Abbey. 

*'  Open  the  Abbey  doors  and  bear  Mm  in 

To  sleep  with  king  and  statesman,  chief  and  sage. 
The  missionary  come  of  weaver  kin. 

But  great  by  work  that  brooks  no  lower  wage." 

The  contrast  marks  the  revulsion  of  public  opinion,  and 
suggests  the  importance  of  a  movement  which  is  among 
the  marvels  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

For  Protestr..nt  England  the  history  of  missions  to  the 


r6BS-^tgoo.  299 

heathen  begins  with  John  EUot  (1604-1690),  the  son  of  a 
Hertfordshu-e  yeoman,  an  early  settler  in  Xew  England 
for  conscience'  sake,  and  one  of  the  three  authors  of  the 
metrical  version  of  the  Psalms  which  was  knowTi  as  the 
Bay  Psalm  Book  (1640).  Few  names  in  American  his- 
tory are  more  truly  venerable  than  that  of  the  man 
who  gave  the  best  years  of  his  life  to  the  task  of  preach- 
ing the  gospel  to  the  Red  Indians.  Rising  above  the 
special  faults  which  beset  the  rehgion  of  his  contem- 
poraries, he  was  neither  sour,  nor  gloomy,  nor  fanatical 
— a  kindly-natured,  tender-hearted  man — who  always 
stored  the  deep  pockets  of  his  horseman's  cloak  with 
presents  for  the  papooses.  His  metrical  version  of  the 
Psalms  in  the  Indian  dialect  of  Massachusetts  (1658) 
was  the  first  part  of  the  Bible  which  he  published,  and  in 
the  singing  of  the  Psalms  he  found  the  readiest  means 
of  arresting  the  attention  of  his  hearers,  and  the  simplest 
expression  for  the  rehgious  feehngs  of  the  infants  of 
humanity. 

Ehot's''  communities  of  "  Pra^ong  Indians  "  \yere  dead 
or  d}dng  before  his  successor  began  his  mission  work 
among  the  Indians  of  Delaware  and  Pennsylvania.  The 
*'  Journal  "  of  Da\dd  Brainerd  (1718-1747),  as  pubHshed 
in  Jonathan  Edwards's  account  of  his  Hfe  (1765),  is  a 
remarkable  piece  of  spiritual  autobiography.  In  words 
which  are  largely  drawn  from  the  Psahns,  it  traces  the 
inner  Hfe  of  the  thoughtful,  somewhat  melancholy 
youth,  who,  growing  up  in  his  father's  home  in  Con- 
necticut, or  working  on  his  own  farm,  resolved  to  devote 
his  whole  hfe,  first  as  a  minister,  then  as  a  missionary, 
to  the  Indians  of  Delaware  and  Pennsylvania.^  Five 
years  (1742-1747)  of  toil,  anxiety,  exposure,  and  privation 
did  their  work  on  a  sickly,  overwrought  frame.  At  the 
age  of  thirty  Brainerd  died  of  consumption,  with  the 
words  of  Ps.  cii.,  sung  at  his  bedside  by  his  friends, 
still  ringing  in  his  ears. 

The  ''  Journal  "  is  a  forgotten  book.  It  contains  few 
ilhiminatinff  thonsfhts  :   it  breathes  a  theoloer^^  which  to 


300  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

many  men  is  repellent ;  it  speaks  a  technical  language, 
which,  from  less  saintly  and  simple  hps,  might  nauseate 
the  modern  reader.  Yet  the  picture  it  presents  of  utter 
self-surrender,  and  of  concentrated  single-minded  effort, 
is  singularly  impressive.  As  a  record  of  reHgious  con- 
flict and  spiritual  triumph,  it  may  be  contrasted  with 
the  autobiographies  of  Bunyan  and  Henry  Martyn.  It 
shows  little  of  the  dramatic  force  and  picture-making 
imagination  of  the  *'  Grace  Abounding ; "  it  reveals 
scarcely  a  trace  of  the  natural  struggle  with  human 
ties  and  passions  which  gives  to  Martyn's  "  Joiu-nal  " 
so  pathetic,  and  even  romantic,  an  interest.  But  bare, 
simple,  detached  though  it  is,  it  stands  apart  from 
similar  diaries  by  reason  of  its  absorption  in  the  one 
object  of  Brainerd's  Ufe — the  strenuous,  concentrated 
effort  to  attain  nearness  to  God. 

The  early  stages  of  his  progress  are  common  enough. 
His  transient  self-satisfaction  in  doing  duty  passed 
away,  lea\ing  him  so  despondent  that,  like  Bunyan,  he 
"  begrutched  the  birds  and  beasts  their  happiness,"  and 
fancied  that  mountains  obstructed  his  hopes  of  mercy. 
In  alternate  joy  and  despair  he  continued,  tiU,  in  October 
1740,  his  temper  and  habit  of  mind  underwent  a  change. 
New  and  higher  views  of  God  and  His  relation  to  man 
seemed  to  take  possession  of  his  soul.  There  was  no 
special  call,  no  vision,  no  sudden  apphcation  of  some 
special  passage  of  Scripture  to  his  own  particular  case. 
The  change  came  over  him  quietly,  without  violent 
personal  impressions.  But  it  was  absolute  and  per- 
manent. Henceforward  he  had  the  "  full  assurance  of 
hope,"  and  retained  it  ''  unto  the  end."  But  this  con- 
fidence only  made  him  more  humble-minded,  more 
conscious  of  his  own  shortcomings.  Externally,  it  im- 
pelled him  to  greater  activity  in  his  missionary  work  ; 
in  his  inner  life  it  was  the  nourishment  of  his  spiritual 
growth,  the  source  of  his  love  and  longing  for  purity  of 
heart,  the  spring  of  that  passion  for  hoHness  which 
banished  all  motives  of  fear  and  self-interest,  inspired 


I6S8-I900.  30X 

his  eager  pursuit  on  earth  of  things  above,  and  created 
his  ideal  of  the  beauty  of  heaven. 

The  "  Journal  "  is  permeated  with  the  power  of  the 
Psalms.  So  much  have  they  become  part  of  his  habitual 
thoughts  that  his  hopes,  fears,  and  aspirations  flow 
naturally  into  language  which  recalls,  even  when  it  does 
not  reproduce,  the  actual  words.  On  the  Psalms  are 
based  the  "  five  distinguishing  marks  of  a  true  Christian," 
which  Brainerd  gives  from  what  he  had  himself  "  felt  and 
experienced/*  and  the  fifth  may  be  taken  as  some  illus- 
tration of  his  character  and  hfe  : — 

"  The  laws  of  God  are  his  delight,  Ps.  cxix.  97  ('  Lord, 
what  love  have  I  unto  Thy  law  !  all  the  day  long  is 
my  study  in  it').  These  he  obsen^es,  not  out  of  con- 
straint, from  a  servile  fear  of  hell  ;  but  they  are  his 
choice,  Ps.  cxix.  30  ('  I  have  chosen  the  way  of  truth  ; 
and  Thy  judgments  have  I  laid  before  me  ').  The  strict 
observance  of  them  is  not  his  bondage,  but  his  greatest 
liberty,  Ps.  cxix.  45  ('  And  I  will  walk  at  liberty ;  for  I 
seek  Thy  commandments  ').'*  It  is  on  the  same  founda- 
tion that  in  the  "  Journal  "  Brainerd  builds  his  own 
assurance  of  hope.  "  That  holy  confidence,"  he  wTites, 
"  can  only  arise  from  the  testimony  of  a  good  conscience. 
'  Then,'  says  the  holy  Psalmist,  *  shall  I  not  be  ashamed 
when  I  have  respect  unto  all  Thy  commandments  '  " 
(Ps.  cxix.  6). 

Brainerd's  "  Journal  "  is,  as  has  been  said,  a  forgotten 
book.  Yet  it  would  be  difiicult  to  measure  the  magni- 
tude of  the  results  which  it  indirectly  produced.  It 
fired  the  imagination  of  William  Carey ;  it  stirred  the 
zeal  of  Henry  Martyn  ;  it  inspired  the  decision  of  David 
Livingstone  to  become  a  missionary.  In  his  Diar}^  for 
April  19,  1794,  Carey  makes  this  entry :  "  1  was  much 
humbled  to-day  by  reading  Brainerd.  Oh,  what  a  dis- 
parity betwixt  me  and  hun  !  He  always  constant,  I 
as  inconstant  as  the  wind."  Mart\Ti,  who  repeatedly 
refers  to  the  same  book,  made  the  Hfe  of  Brainerd  his 
human  ideal.     Such  references  as  the  following  might 


302  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

be  multiplied  :  "  November  7,  1803. — I  thought  of  David 
Brainerd,  and  ardently  desired  his  devotedness  to  God 
and  hoi}'  breathings  of  soul."  "  September  23,  1803. — 
Read  David  Brainerd  to-day  and  j-esterday,  and  find, 
as  usual,  my  spirit  greatly  benefited  by  it.  I  long  to 
be  like  him :  let  me  forget  the  world,  and  be  swallowed 
in  a  desire  to  glorify  God." 

From  Ehot  and  Brainerd,  WiUiam  Carey  (1761-1834) 
traced  his  spiritual  hneage.  The  son  of  the  parish  clerk 
and  schoolmaster  of  Paulerspury,  in  Northamptonshire, 
he  became  a  Baptist  in  October  1783.  Like  Hans  Sachs, 
the  poet  of  the  German  Reformation,  or  George  Fox, 
the  Quaker,  or  Jacob  Bohme,  the  mystic,  he  was  by  trade 
a  shoemaker.  Working  at  his  business,  preaching, 
teaching,  a  married  man  and  a  father,  burdened  with  a 
debt  which  he  had  undertaken  for  his  wife's  first  hus- 
band, he  found  time  to  teach  himself  French,  Latin, 
Greek,  and  Hebrew.  In  his  daily  prayers  for  slaves 
and  heathen,  he  conceived  the  thought,  which  gradually 
shaped  itself  in  practical  form,  that  he  would  convert 
the  heathen  world  by  giving  them  the  Bible  in  their 
native  tongues.  He  brought  the  subject  before  the 
assembled  ministers  of  his  persuasion,  only  to  be  silenced 
as  a  fanatic.  But  his  enthusiasm  and  pertinacity  were 
at  length  rewarded.  At  Kettering,  in  October  1792,  in 
the  low-roofed  back  parlour  of  Widow  WalHs,  twelve 
Baptist  ministers  formed  the  Particular  Baptist  Society 
for  Propagating  the  Gospel  among  the  Heathen.  A  few 
weeks  later  it  was  decided  that  Carey  should  be  sent 
out  to  Bengal  \\ith  Thomas,  a  surgeon  who  had  already 
worked  as  a  missionary  in  India,  A  verse  from  the 
Psalms,  "  O  come,  let  us  worship  and  fall  dowTi,  and 
kneel  before  the  Lord  our  Maker"  (Ps.  xcv.  6),  was 
already  inscribed  by  Christian  Friedrich  Schwartz 
(1726-1797)  over  the  portal  of  his  Mission  Church  of  Beth- 
lehem at  Tranquebar.  It  was  a  psalm  (x\d.  4),  "They 
that  run  after  another  god  shall  have  great  trouble," 
which  supplied  the  text  of  the  sermon  preached  at  the 


\ 


1688-1900.  303 

service  held  to  dedicate  Carey  to  his  work.  Thus  was 
launched,  to  quote  Sydney  Smith's  sneer,  by  a  few 
"  consecrated  cobblers,"  the  first  English  mission  to  the 
heathen  in  India. 

Carey  left  England,  determined  never  to  return.  The 
resolution  cost  him  something.  Among  the  seeds  which, 
years  later,  he  sowed  in  his  garden  at  Serampore  were 
those  of  the  dais3^  "  I  know  not,"  he  wrote,  ''  that  I  ever 
enjoyed,  since  leaving  Europe,  a  simple  pleasure  so 
exquisite  as  the  sight  which  this  English  daisy  afforded 
me  ;  not  having  seen  one  for  thirty  years,  and  never 
expecting  to  see  one  again."  During  his  long,  laborious 
career,  thirty-four  translations  of  the  Bible  were  made 
or  edited  by  him.  He  himself  completed  the  Bengah, 
Hindi,  Maratti,  and  Sanskrit  versions.  His  paper  fac- 
tories created  a  new  industry.  Not  only  was  he  one 
of  the  first  of  Oriental  scholars,  but  he  was  a  scientific 
botanist,  an  enthusiastic  farmer,  an  ardent  student  of 
natural  history.  Yet  with  him  science  was  always 
subordinated  to  religion.  It  is  a  text  from  the  Psalms, 
''  All  Th}^  works  praise  Thee,  0  Lord  "  (Ps.  cxlv.  10), 
that  he  prefixed  to  his  edition  of  Roxburgh's  "  Flora 
Indica  "  (1920).  It  was  with  the  words  of  a  psalm  in 
his  mind  that  he  desired  to  end  his  life.  In  December 
1823  he  lay,  as  he  thought,  dying.  "  I  had  no  joys," 
he  writes,  "  nor  any  fear  of  death  or  reluctance  to  die ; 
but  never  was  I  so  sensibly  convinced  of  the  value  of 
an  atoning  Sa\dour  as  then.  I  could  only  say,  '  Hangs 
my  helpless  soul  on  Thee,'  and  adopt  the  language  of 
the  first  and  second  verses  of  the  51st  Psalm,  which  I 
desired  might  be  the  text  of  my  funeral  sermon,  '  Have 
mercy  upon  me,  O  God,  after  Thy  great  goodness : 
according  to  the  multitude  of  Thy  mercies  do  away  mine 
offences.  Wash  me  throughly  from  my  wickedness, 
and  cleanse  me  from  my  sin." 

Carey  survived  his  illness  for  nearly  eleven  years.  He 
Hved  to  see  the  tone  of  Anglo-Indian  society  transformed, 
and  the  worst  cruelties  of  the  Hindu  religion  suppressed. 


304  THE  PSAOIS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

He  lived  also  to  see  tsvo  of  his  greatest  successors  among 
Indian  missionaries.  In  the  prime  of  his  manhood  he 
welcomed  Henry  Martyn  to  India ;  at  the  close  of  his 
own  career  he  blessed  Alexander  Duff,  tottering  with 
outstretched  hands  to  meet  the  ruddy  Highlander— 
"  a  little  yellow  old  man  in  a  white  jacket." 

Both  Eliot  and  Carey  had  left  the  Anghcan  Church 
before  they  began  their  missionary  labours  ;  the  work 
of  Bunyan,  Baxter,  Howard,  and  Wesley  was  done 
outside  her  organization.  But  Henry  Martyn  (1781- 
18 12)  hved,  laboured,  and  died  a  faithful  member  of  her 
communion.  It  is  this  contrast  which  marks  the  special 
importance  of  Martyn's  hfe  and  death,  as  the  first  Angh- 
can missionary  to  the  heathen,  the  precursor  of  a  long 
hne  of  heroes,  the  spiritual  ancestor  of  men  of  the  t^^pe 
of  Bishop  Patteson  and  Bishop  Hannington. 

Senior  Wrangler  at  Cambridge  in  1801,  a  brilliant 
classic  as  well  as  a  mathematician,  a  fellow  of  St.  John's 
College  (1802),  Martyn  was  ordained  in  October  1803. 
He  had  already  resolved  to  devote  his  hfe  and  abilities 
to  missionary  work.  To  this  resolution  he  was  drawn 
partly  by  the  example  of  Carey,  partly,  as  has  been 
shown,  by  the  career  of  David  Brainerd.  Appointed  at 
the  close  of  1804  to  an  East  India  Company's  chap- 
laincy, he  sailed  for  Calcutta  in  July  1805.  The  sacri- 
fice was  costly.  On  the  one  side  were  the  consciousness 
of  talents,  achieved  success,  a  growing  reputation,  con- 
genial pursuits,  material  comfort,  affection  for  his 
home,  kindred,  friends,  and,  above  aU,  his  love  for 
Lydia  Grenfell.  On  the  other  side  were  exile,  sohtude, 
obscure  employment  among  ignorant  ahens,  possibihty 
of  failure,  surrender  of  the  comforts  and  refinements  of 
a  scholarly,  hterary  hfe,  separation  from  kindred  and 
acquaintances,  abandonment  of  his  prospects  of  marriage 
wdth  the  being  who  was  dearest  to  him  on  earth.  It  is 
this  human  struggle,  chronicled  with  abundant  wealth 
of  detail,  which  gives  to  his  final  \'ictory  its  pathos,  its 
romance,  and,  for  ordinary  men,  its  vital  interest.     The 


1688-1900.  305 

Diary  depicts,  with  all  the  fluctuations  of  success  and 
Leieat,  the  hard- won  conquest  of  self  by  a  creature  oi 

sh  and  blood,  not  the  easy  triumph  achieved  over  the 

ak  passions  of  earth  by  some  disembodied  spirit. 

in  his  Diary  for  July  29,  1804,  Martyn  speaks  for  the 
lirst  time  of  his  love  for  Lydia  Grenfell  :  ''I  felt  too 
]«lainly  that  I  loved  her  passionately.  The  direct  oppo- 
sition of  this  to  my  devotedness  to  God  in  the  missionary 
way  excited  no  small  tumult  in  my  mind."  Or,  again, 
a  month  later  (August  27)  :  "  Reading  in  the  afternoon 
to  Lydia  alone,  from  Dr.  Watts,  there  happened  to  be, 
among  other  things,  a  prayer  on  entire  preference  of 
<  lod  to  the  creature.  Now,  thought  I,  here  am  I  in  the 
presence  of  God  and  my  idol.  ...  I  continued  conversing 
with  her,  generally  with  my  heart  in  heaven,  but  every 
now  and  then  resting  on  her.  .  .  .  Parted  with  Lydia, 
])erhaps  for  ever  in  this  hfe.  Walked  to  St.  Hilary, 
determining,  in  great  tumult  and  inward  pain,  to  be  the 
servant  of  God."  Martyn  tore  himself  away  from^  the 
living  woman  to  perfect  his  union  with  his  exalted  ideal 
of  conduct.  On  the  last  day  of  the  same  year  (December 
31),  when  he  was  waiting  for  news  of  his  definite  ap- 
pointment to  the  Indian  chaplaincy,  he  makes  the  fol- 
lowing entry,  clothing  his  self-surrender  in  the  faniihar 
words  of  Ps.  xxxi.  6 :  "So  closes  the  easy  part  of  my 
life.  Enriched  by  every  earthly  comfort  and  caressed 
by  friends,  I  may  scarcely  be  said  to  have  experienced 
trouble  ;  but  now,  farewell  ease,  if  I  might  presume  to 
conjecture.  '  O  Lord,  into  Thy  hands  I  commit  my 
spirit !  Thou  hast  redeemed  me,  Thou  God  of  truth  !  ' 
May  I  be  saved  by  Thy  grace,  and  be  sanctified  to  do 
Thy  will,  and  to  all  eternity  ;   through  Jesus  Christ." 

The  struggle  was  not  over.  It  was  renewed  again  and 
again.  In  a  sense,  it  ceased  only  with  his  life.  Few 
passages  in  the  '*  Journal  "  are  more  pathetic  than  those 
which  record  Martyn's  feelings  during  the  detention  of 
his  ship  at  Falmouth  and  at  Mounts  Bay.  At  Miss 
Grenfell's  house  at  Marazion,  on  August  10,  1805,  came 


3o6  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

the  final  parting.  On  board  ship,  throughout  his  labours 
among  English  soldiers  and  natives  at  Dinapore  and 
Cawnpore,  in  the  midst  of  his  toil  in  translating  the  New 
Testament  into  Hindustani  and  Persian,  in  his  journey 
through  Persia,  in  his  religious  disputes  at  Shiraz,  he 
never  swerved  from  his  purpose;  never  relaxed  his  efforts 
to  conquer  himself — and  never   orgot  his  love. 

On  the  eve  of  his  departure  from  Cawnpore,  when  the 
fatal  signs  of  consumption  had  declared  themselves, 
and  a  sea  voyage  seemed  the  only  chance  of  Ufe,  he 
makes  this  entry  :  "  September  23,  1811. — Was  walking 
with  Lydia  ;  both  much  affected ;  and  speaking  on 
things  dearest  to  us  both.  I  awoke,  and  behold  it  was  a 
dream  !  My  mind  remained  very  solemn  and  pensive  ; 
I  shed  tears.  The  clock  struck  three,  and  the  moon  was 
riding  near  her  highest  noon  ;  all  was  silence  and  solem- 
nity, and  I  thought  with  pain  of  the  sixteen  thousand 
miles  between  us.  But  good  is  the  will  of  the  Lord, 
even  if  I  see  her  no  more."  Side  by  side  with  this  entry, 
there  are  scattered  throughout  the  pages  of  the  "  Jour- 
nal '  almost  innumerable  references  to  the  Psalms,  and 
illustrations  of  their  power  to  soothe  and  encourage. 
In  the  stress  of  his  struggle  in  1804  he  found  that,  by 
learning  portions  of  the  Psalms  by  heart,  he  quickened 
his  devotional  feelings,  and  in  this  way  committed  to 
memory  Ps.  cxix.  It  was  a  psalm  (x.)  that  he  was 
reading  to  Lydia  Grenfell  when  he  was  hastily  summoned 
to  rejoin  his  ship,  and  they  parted  for  ever  on  earth. 
During  his  long  and  tedious  voyage,  surrounded  by 
uncongenial  companions,  it  was  to  the  Psalms  that  he 
turned  for  comfort.  Day  after  day  the  entries  in  his 
'*  Journal  "  of  the  daily  events  of  his  Hfe  began  with  a 
verse  from  the  Psalms,  followed  by  a  short  comment. 
From  the  Psalms  he  drew  encouragement  in  his  mis- 
sionary enterprise.  Thus  (December  10,  1805)  he  quotes 
Ps.  xxii.  27  :  "  All  the  ends  of  the  earth  shall  remember, 
and  be  turned  to  the  Lord ; "  and  thus  continues : 
"  Sooner  or  later,  they  shall  remember  what  is  preached 


1688-1900.  307 

to  them ;  and  though  missionaries  may  not  live  to  see 
the  fruits  of  their  labours,  yet  the  memory  of  their 
words  shall  remain,  and  in  due  time  shall  be  the  means 
of  turning  them  unto  the  Lord."  In  failing  health  and 
sleepless  nights,  assailed  by  temptation,  yet  straining 
after  purity  of  heart,  his  "  hope  and  trust  "  is  in  the  words, 
"  Purge  me  with  hyssop,  and  I  shall  be  clean  ;  wash 
me,  and  I  shall  be  whiter  than  snow  "  (Ps.  H.  7).  At 
Shiraz,  in  the  midst  of  daily  disputes  with  Mohammedan 
doctors,  and  the  laborious  re^nsion  of  his  Persian  trans- 
lation of  the  New  Testament,  he  found  "  a  sweet  employ- 
ment "  in  translating  the  Psalms  into  Persian.  The 
work  "  caused  six  weary  moons,  that  waxed  and  waned 
since  its  commencement,  to  pass  unnoticed."  It  was 
the  Psalms  that  soothed  the  fatigue  of  his  headlong 
ride  from  Tabriz  to  Tokat  on  his  homeward  journey. 
"  September  4,  1812. — I  beguiled  the  hours  of  the  night 
by  thinking  of  the  14th  Psalm."  "  September  10.-- 
All  day  at  the  village,  writing  Aovm  notes  on  the  15th 
and  i6th  Psalms." 

The  closing  wrecks  of  his  life  bring  into  touching  juxta- 
position his  earthly  and  his  heavenly  love.  He  had 
resolved  to  abandon  his  scheme  of  translating  the  Bible 
into  Arabic,  and  to  return  home  from  Tabriz  by  Con- 
stantinople. In  one  of  his  last  letters,  written  three 
months  before  his  death,  he  teUs  Miss  Grenfell  of  his 
plan.  ''  Perhaps,"  he  continues,  "  you  may  be  grati- 
fied by  the  intelligence  ;  but  oh,  my  dear  Lydia,  I  must 
faithfully  tell  j-ou  that  the  probability  of  my  reaching 
England  alive  is  but  small."  The  last  entry  in  the 
*'  Journal  "  (October  6)  begins  with  words  which  sound 
like  reminiscences  of  the  Psalmist,  who  remembered  the 
past,  and  meditated  on  the  works  of  God.  "  I  sat  in  the 
orchard,  and  thought  with  sweet  comfort  and  peace  of 
my  God  ;  in  solitude  my  company,  my  friend,  and  com- 
forter." Ten  days  later,  October  16,  1812,  alone  among 
strangers,  Henry  j\Iart>Ti  passed  to  his  rest. 

His  epitaph  was  written  by  Macaulay : — 


3o8  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

"Here  Martyn  lies.     In  Manhood's  early  bloom 
The  Christian  hero  finds  a  pagan  tomb. 
Religion,  sorrou-ing  o'er  her  favourite  son. 
Points  to  the  glorious  trophies  that  he  won — 
Eternal  trophies  !   not  with  carnage  red. 
Not  stained  with  tears  by  hapless  captives  shed. 
But  trophies  of  the  Cross  !   for  that  dear  name. 
Through  every  form  of  danger,  death,  and  shame, 
Onward  he  journeyed  to  a  happier  shore. 
Where  danger,  death,  and  shame  assault  no  more." 

But  in  missionary  enterprises  there  has  never  been  any 
lack  of  true  spiritual  heroes  to  fill  the  gaps  caused  by 
death.  i\Ian  after  man  has  come  for\vard,  obeying  what, 
in  his  simple  sincerity,  he  believes  to  be  a  call.  In  doing 
that  work,  their  own  characters  have  ripened  in  beauty 
and  nobility.  Many  have  been  inspired  by  the  largest 
views  of  their  country's  opportunities  and  responsi- 
bilities ;  but  every  genuine  missionary  has  done  his  best, 
without  self-seeking,  in  some  community,  however  small, 
and  from  each  a  handful  of  human  beings,  at  the  least, 
have  learned  the  highest  and  purest  impulses  of  their 
lives. 

High  in  the  roll  of  missionaries  stands  the  name  of 
Alexander  Duff,  the  eloquent  speaker,  the  educational 
statesman,  and  the  first  missionary  sent  out  to  India 
by  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland.  An  incident 
on  his  voyage  confirmed,  if  it  did  not  shape,  his  career. 
On  October  14,  1829,  he  and  his  wife  sailed  from  Ryde 
on  board  the  Lady  Hollmtd.  Four  months  later,  in  rough, 
boisterous  weather,  the  ship  approached  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  and  made  for  Table  Bay.  At  midnight, 
February  13,  1830,  she  ran  aground.  Her  back  broke  ; 
her  masts  were  cut  away ;  waves  dashed  over  the 
wreck  ;  the  position  seemed  desperate.  It  was  not  even 
known  whether  the  ship  had  struck  on  a  reef,  the  main- 
land, or  an  island.  AU  around  were  boiling  surf  and 
foam.  With  great  difficulty  one  of  the  boats  was 
laimched,  manned,  and  dispatched  to  find  a  landing- 
place.  Three  hours  passed.  Hope  was  almost  gone, 
when  the  boat  returned,  reporting  a  small  sandy  bay. 


1688-1900.  309 

At  this  haven,  which  pro\'ed  to  be  011  Desseii  Island,  the 
jDassengers  and  crew  were  safely  landed,  but  all  that 
they  possessed  was  lost. 

In  the  search  for  food  and  fuel  a  sailor  found  two 
books  cast  by  the  waves  on  the  shore.  One  was  a  Bible, 
the  other  a  Scottish  Psalm  Book.  In  both  Duff's  name 
was  written.  To  the  shipwrecked  party  the  books 
seemed  a  message  from  God.  Led  by  Duff,  they  knelt 
down  on  the  sand  while  he  read  them  Ps.  cvii.,  "  Whoso 
is  wise  will  ponder  these  things,"  etc.  On  Duff  himself 
the  effect  was  lasting.  All  his  library  was  lost.  With 
it  had  gone  all  his  notes  and  memoranda,  everything 
that  reminded  him  of  his  student  life.  Only  the  Bible 
and  Psalms  were  preserved.  Henceforth,  as  he  read  the 
message,  human  learning  was  to  be  onl}'  a  means  and 
not  an  end.  In  this  spirit  he  founded  his  college,  to 
teach  in  the  EngUsh  language  everything  that  was 
educationally  useful,  and  to  hallow  secular  teaching 
with  the  study  of  the  Christian  faith  and  doctrines. 
Every  morning  he  and  his  household  began  the  day  by 
singing  together  one  of  the  Psalms  in  Rous's  version. 
On  his  journey  the  Psalms  were  ever  on  his  mind. 
Travelling  in  1849  ^^^^  Simla  to  Kotghur,  his  road  lay 
by  a  narrow  bridle-path,  cut  out  of  the  face  of  a  pre- 
cipitous ridge  of  rock.  As  he  rode,  he  watched  a  shep- 
herd, followed  by  his  sheep,  making  his  way  along  the 
mountain  side.  The  man  carried  a  long  rod,  at  one  end 
of  which  was  a  crook,  at  the  other  a  thick  band  of  iron. 
If  the  shepherd  saw  a  sheep  creeping  too  far  up  the 
mountain,  or  feeding  too  near  the  edge  of  the  precipice, 
he  went  back,  caught  one  of  the  hind  legs  of  the  animal 
in  his  crook,  and  gently  pulled  it  back  to  the  flock.  The 
other  end  was  used  to  beat  off  the  dangerous  beasts  that 
prowled  round  the  places  where  the  sheep  lay.  "  This 
brought  to  the  traveller's  remembrance  the  expression 
of  David,  the  shepherd,  in  Ps.  xxiii.  4,  *  Thy  rod  and 
Thy  staff  comfort  me  ' — the  staff  clearly  meaning  God's 
watchful  guiding  and  directing  providence,  and  the  rod 


3IO  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

His  omnipotence  in  defending  His  owtl  from  foes.  It 
is  no  tautology-." 

Carey  and  Duff  passed  away  in  ripe  old  age,  having 
lived  to  see  some  of  the  fruits  of  their  labours.  Henry 
Mart}Ti,  dying  alone  in  a  foreign  land,  had  completed 
two  of  the  great  tasks  on  which  he  had  set  his  mind. 
Very  different  was  the  fate  of  Allen  Gardiner  (1794- 
185 1).  The  leader  of  a  forlorn  hope  of  missionary  enter- 
prise among  the  Tierra  del  Fuegans,  he,  with  his  six 
companions,  was  starved  to  death,  never  wavering  in  the 
patient  courage  or  losing  the  sure  trust  in  God  which  he 
drew  from  the  Book  of  Psalms. 

After  sixteen  years'  service  in  the  Royal  Nav\^  Com- 
mander Gardiner  found  himself,  in  1826,  without  em- 
ployment. He  was  free  to  devote  his  life  to  missionary 
work.  For  years  he  laboured,  without  any  permanent 
success,  among  the  Zulus  in  South  Africa  and  the  Indians 
in  South  America.  On  September  7,  1850,  he  sailed 
with  six  companions  for  Tierra  del  Fuego,  w^here  he 
hoped  to  establish  a  mission.  In  December  the  party 
was  landed  on  Picton  Island,  furnished  with  provisions 
for  six  months.  The  natives  were  hostile  and  thievish  ; 
the  climate  was  rigorous,  the  country  barren  and  wind- 
swept. They  had  only  a  flask  and  a  half  of  powder 
between  them — the  rest  had  been  forgotten  ;  their  nets 
were  broken  ;  their  food  was  exhausted,  and  no  fresh 
supplies  reached  them  from  the  Falkland  Islands.  One 
by  one  the  party  sickened  and  died,  the  last  survivor 
being  Gardiner.     In  his  Diar\^  their  stony^  is  recorded. 

Six  months  had  passed,  in  the  midst  of  snow  and 
ice  and  storm  the  Httle  party  prayed  for  the  coming 
of  the  expected  succour.  On  June  4,  185 1,  Gardiner 
writes  :  *'  Wait  on  the  Lord,  be  of  good  courage,  and  He 
shall  strengthen  thine  heart.  Wait,  I  say,  on  the  Lord  " 
(Ps.  xxvii.  14).  A  lucky  shot,  fired  with  almost  their 
last  grain  of  powder,  killed  five  ducks.  It  is  in  the 
words  of  the  Psalms  that  the  Diary  records  the  gratitude 
of  the  hungry  men  :     "  June  16' — He  will   rpsrarH   the 


1688-1900.  311 

prayer  of  the  destitute,  and  not  despise  their  prayer  " 
(Ps.  cii.  17).  "  They  that  seek  the  Lord  shall  not  want 
any  good  thing"  (Ps.  xxxiv.  10).  Three  of  the  band 
were  in  a  dying  condition,  and  Gardiner  himself  had 
realized  the  prospect  of  starvation.  Still  he  retained 
his  confident  trust.  "  Be  merciful  unto  me,  O  God,  be 
merciful  unto  me,  for  my  soul  trusteth  in  Thee  ;  yea,  in 
the  shadow  of  Thy  wings  will  I  make  my  refuge,  until 
these  calamities  are  overpast  "  (Ps.  Ivii.  i),  is  his  en- 
try for  June  21.  A  week  later  was  his  birthday.  "  I 
know,"  he  writes  in  his  Diary  for  June  28,  "  that  it  is 
written,  '  They  who  seek  the  Lord  shall  want  no  manner 
of  thing  that  is  good'  (Ps.  xxxiv.  10).  And  again, 
'  Cast  thy  burden  upon  the  Lord,  and  He  shall  sustain 
thee '  (Ps.  Iv.  22).  \\^atever  the  Lord  may  in  His 
providence  see  fit  to  take  away,  it  is  that  which  He 
Himself  has  bestowed.  .  .  .  Still  I  pray  that,  if  it  be 
consistent  with  Thy  righteous  will,  O  my  heavenly 
Father,  Thou  wouldest  look  down  with  compassion  upon 
me  and  upon  my  companions,  who  are  straitened  for 
lack  of  food,  and  vouchsafe  to  provide  that  which  is 
needful  .  .  .  but  if  otherwise,  Thy  will  be  done."  One 
of  the  party  had  now  died,  and  all  were  very  weak. 
Still  their  sufferings  were  endured  without  a  murmur.  On 
July  5th  a  hand  was  painted  upon  a  rock  leading  to  the 
Pioneer  Cavern,  in  which  Gardiner  lived,  and,  under- 
neath it,  "  Ps.  Ixii.  5-8."  The  words  referred  to  are  : 
"  Nevertheless,  my  soul,  wait  thou  still  upon  God  ;  for 
my  hope  is  in  Him.  He  truly  is  my  strength  and  my 
salvation ;  He  is  my  defence,  so  that  I  shall  not  fall. 
In  God  is  my  health  and  my  glory,  the  rock  of  my 
might ;  and  in  God  is  my  trust.  O  put  your  trust  in  Him 
alway,  ye  people  ;  pour  out  your  hearts  before  Him,  for 
God  is  our  hope."  At  the  end  of  August  two  more  of 
the  band  had  died,  and  for  the  rest  the  end  was  rapidly 
approaching.  The  last  entry  in  the  Diary  is  dated 
September  5  :  "  Great  and  mar\^ellous  are  the  loving- 
kindnesses  of  my  gracious  God  unto  me.     He  has  pre- 


312  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

served  me  hitherto,  and  for  four  days,  although  without 
bodily  food,  without  any  feeling  of  hunger  or  thirst." 
When  a  relief  ship  arrived,  October  21,  185 1,  the  bodies 
of  Gardiner  and  three  of  his  companions  were  found 
lying  unburied  on  the  shore. 

The  death  of  Gardiner  seemed  to  be  a  useless  sacrifice 
in  a  hopeless  cause.  No  results  were  achieved  by  him 
in  Tierra  del  Fuego.  The  career  of  David  Livingstone 
(1813-1873)  was  in  one  respect  a  striking  contrast.  It 
was  crowded  with  triumphs.  Nor  must  his  successful 
labour  in  the  cause  of  geographical  science  allow  us  to 
invert  the  order  of  the  objects  to  which  his  life  w-as 
devoted.  He  was,  before  all  else,  a  Christian  missionary, 
and,  as  part  of  the  gospel  message,  an  apostle  of  free- 
dom from  the  horrors  of  slavery. 

Through  his  mother  David  Livingstone  seems  to  have 
added  to  the  daring  of  his  Highland  ancestors  the  te- 
nacity of  the  Lowland  Covenanter.  As  a  boy  of  nine 
he  won  a  New  Testament  from  his  Sunday-school  teacher 
for  repeating  by  heart  Ps.  cxix.  A  year  later  he  be- 
came a  "  piecer  "  in  the  cotton  factory  of  Blantyre,  and 
grew  up,  inured  to  toil,  insatiable  for  books,  a  keen 
student  of  natural  histor}^  and  an  occasional  poacher. 
It  was  not  till  he  was  twenty  that  his  mind  took  a  decid- 
edly religious  turn.  But  from  that  time  onward  his 
heart,  fired  by  the  example  of  Brainerd  and  of  Carey, 
was  set  on  a  missionary  life.  He  offered  his  ser\dces 
to  the  London  ^Missionary  Society,  was  accepted,  and 
(November  20,  1840)  ordained.  A  fortnight  later  he 
sailed  for  the  Cape. 

With  a  psalm  Li\dngstone  bade  farewell  to  his  family 
and  home.  "  I  remember  my  father  and  him,"  writes 
his  sister,  "  talking  over  the  prospects  of  Christian  mis- 
sions. They  agreed  that  the  time  would  come  when 
rich  men  and  great  men  would  think  it  an  honour  to 
support  whole  stations  of  missionaries,  instead  of  spend- 
ing their  money  on  hounds  and  horses.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  November  17,   1840-,  we  got  up  at  five  o'clock. 


1688-1900.  3^3 

My  mother  made  coffee.  David  read  the  121st  and 
135th  Psahns,  and  prayed.  My  father  and  he  walked 
to  Glasgow  to  catch  the  Liverpool  steamer."  He  never 
saw  his  father  again.  His  mother  had  told  him  that 
she  *'  would  have  liked  one  of  her  laddies  to  lay  her 
head  in  the  grave."  "  It  so  happened,"  writes  David 
Livingstone  in  1865,  "  that  I  was  there  to  pay  the  last 
tribute  to  a  dear,  good  mother." 

In  Africa  for  thirty  3^ears  Livingstone  toiled  unceasingly 
to  explore  the  continent,  abolish  the  slave  trade,  and 
evangelize  the  native  races.  He  early  learned  the  lesson 
that  the  spiritual  cannot  be  absolutely  divorced  from 
the  secular.  Some  may  think  that  the  explorer  pre- 
dominated over  the  missionary.  Yet  throughout  his 
journeys  he  maintained,  in  all  its  strength  and  purity, 
his  own  inner  Hfe  of  fellowship  with  God.  It  was  with 
a  psalm  that  he  encouraged  himself  to  face  the  unknown 
future  which  each  day  might  bring.  ^Menaced  with  death 
by  savages,  sickened  by  the  atrocities  of  the  slave  trade, 
often  prostrated  by  fever  or  gnawed  by  hunger,  tor- 
mented by  poisonous  insects,  sometimes  moving  in  such 
bodily  pain  that  he  felt  as  if  he  were  dying  on  his  feet, 
he  found  his  daily  strength  in  the  words,  "  Commit  thy 
way  unto  the  Lord,  and  put  thy  trust  in  Him  ;  and 
He  shall  bring  it  to  pass  "  (Ps.  xxxvii.  5).  This  was 
the  text  which  sustained  him,  as  he  says  himself,  at 
every  turn  of  his  "  course  in  life  in  this  country,  and 
even  in  England." 

Livingstone's  last  expedition  started  from  Zanzibar  in 
1866.  He  disappeared  into  the  heart  of  Central  Africa. 
Only  vague  rumours  of  his  life  or  death  reached  the 
civilized  world.  In  October  1871  he  had  arrived  at 
Ujiji  a  living  skeleton  ;  all  the  stores  which  he  expected 
had  disappeared  ;  he  was  in  a  desperate  plight ;  only 
three  of  his  men  remained  faithful  :  the  rest  had  de- 
serted him  ;  starvation  stared  him  in  the  face.  It  was 
then  that  he  was  found  by  Stanley.  At  Unyanyembe 
Livingstone  halted,  while  Stanley  returned  to  the  coast 


314  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 


to  send  him  men  and  stores.  From  March  to  Angus 
1872  he  waited.  At  last  the  men  came,  and  it  is  in  the 
words  of  a  psahn  that  he  records  his  joy.  The  entry 
in  his  Diary  for  August  9,  1872,  is  as  follows :  "  I  do 
most  devoutly  thank  the  Lord  for  His  goodness  in  bring- 
ing my  men  near  to  this.  Three  came  to-day,  and  how 
thankful  I  am  I  cannot  express.  It  is  well — ^the  men 
who  were  with  Mr.  Stanley  came  again  to  me.  *  Bless 
the  Lord,  O  my  soul,  and  all  that  is  within  me  bless  His 
holy  name.     Amen.'  "  (Ps.  ciii.  i). 

With  *'  failing  strength,  but  never-failing  will,"  he 
pressed  on.  Weak,  bloodless,  and  suffering  excruciat- 
ing pain,  he  was,  in  fact,  a  dying  man.  On  the  morning 
of  May  I,  1873  he  was  found  dead,  on  his  knees  in  the 
hut  at  Ilala.  "  Kneeling  at  the  bedside,  with  his  head 
buried  in  his  hands  upon  the  pillow,  his  last  words  on 
earth  were  spoken,  not  to  man,  but  to  God." 

In  the  train  of  Livingstone  followed  James  Hanninu 
ton,  the  first  Bishop  of  Equatorial  Africa.  In  July 
1885  he  had  set  out  from  Frere  Town  to  make  his  way 
through  the  Masai  country  to  Lake  Victoria  Nyanza. 
Every  morning  throughout  his  toilsome,  dangerous 
journey  he  greeted  the  sunrise  by  reading  or  repeat  in 
his  "  Travelling  Psalm,"  "  1  will  lift  up  mine  eyes  unt 
the  hills,"  etc.  (Ps.  cxxi.).  On  October  12  he  left  th 
rest  of  his  party,  and  a  week  later  reached  the  shore, 
of  the  lake.  He  was,  in  fact,  marching  to  almost  cer- 
tain death.  King  Mwanga,  fearing  annexation  of  his 
dominions,  and  believing  the  missionaries  to  be  the 
agents  of  the  design,  had  begun  a  bitter  persecution 
of  the  Christians.  At  a  village  on  the  shores  of  the  lake 
Hannington  was  seized,  and  confined  in  a  miserable 
prison,  surrounded  by  noisy,  drunken  guards.  Con- 
sumed with  fever,  and  at  times  delirious  from  pain, 
devoured  by  vermin,  menaced  every  moment  by  the 
prospect  of  death,  he  found  strength  in  the  Psalms.  On 
Wednesday,  October  28,  he  notes  in  his  Diary,  **  I  am 
quite  broken  down   and   brought   low.      Comforted   by 


ii 


16S8-1900.  3^5 

Ps.  xxvii.  Word  came  that  Mwanga  had  sent  three 
soldiers,  but  what  news  they  bring  they  will  not  yet 
let  me  know.  Much  comforted  by  Ps.  xxviii." 
"  October  29th,  Thursday  (eighth  day  in  prison). — I 
can  hear  no  news,  but  was  held  up  by  Ps.  xxx.,  which 
came  with  great  power.  A  h^^ena  howled  near  me  last 
night,  smelling  a  sick  man,  but  I  hope  it  is  not  to  have 
me  yet."  This  is  his  last  entry.  That  day,  at  the  age 
of  thirty-seven,  he  was  killed. 

On  the  influence  of  the  Psalms  in  the  everyday  lives 
of  ordinary  men  and  women,  it  is  unnecessary  to  dwell. 
The  career  of  Colonel  Gardiner  (168S-1745)  proves  that 
e\'en  the  chilling  atmosphere  of  the  early  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century  did  not  impair  their  power  over  the 
human  heart.  Except  for  his  death  at  Prestonpans, 
described  in  *'  Waverley,"  there  is  little  to  distinguish 
Gardiner  as  in  any  way  remarkable,  "  A  very  weak, 
honest,  and  brave  man,"  is  the  testimony  of  Alexander 
Carlyle.  Philip  Doddridge  relates  that  in  July  1719, 
James  Gardiner,  then  a  notorious  rake,  was  "  con- 
verted "  by  a  vision  which  appeared  to  him  as  he  sat 
in  his  room  at  Paris,  waiting  the  hour  for  an  assigna- 
tion  with  his  mistress,  and  idly  turning  the  pages  of 
"  The  Christian  Soldier "  to  find  amusement.  Alex- 
ander Carlyle  tells  a  less  supernatural  story.  But  what- 
ever were  the  true  circumstances,  it  is  not  disputed  that 
from  that  time  forAvard  Gardiner's  character  was  changed, 
and  that  he  strove  to  reform  not  onl}^  his  own  life,  but 
the  lives  of  those  about  him  and  under  his  command. 
A  psalm  furnished  the  text  (Ps.  cxix.  15S)  from  which 
Doddridge  preached  the  sermon  that  found  for  him  a 
way  to  the  heart  of  Gardiner.  In  his  biography  of  his 
friend,  Doddridge  shows  how  deep  was  the  hold  which 
the  Psalms  possessed  on  the  colonel's  life.  That  he 
might  at  all  times  command  their  comfort  and  encour- 
agement, he  learnt  several  of  the  Psalms  by  heart,  and, 
as  he  rode  alone  and  in  unfrequented  places,  used  to 
repeat  them  to  himself  or  sing  them  aloud.  .   Through- 


3i6  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

out  his  letters  they  are  repeatedly  quoted.  In  1743  he 
had  returned  from  Flanders,  ill,  and  impressed  with  the 
conviction  of  a  speedy  death.  His  intimate  friends, 
and  those  immediately  about  him,  remembered  how 
his  mind  dwelt  with  special  delight  on  the  words,  "  ]\Iy 
soul,  wait  thou  still  upon  God  "  (Ps.  Ixii.  5),  or  upon 
Ps.  cxlv.,  and  the  version  of  it  by  Isaac  Watts.  The 
outbreak  of  the  Rebellion  of  1745  found  him  sufficiently 
recovered  to  command  his  regiment  of  horse  at  the 
battle  of  Prestonpans,  fought  on  the  great  open  field 
into  which  the  arable  land  was  thrown.  Mortally 
wounded,  he  was  carried  past  the  graveyard  of  Tranent 
to  the  minister's  house,  where  he  died.  Five-and-twenty 
years  before,  he  had  dreamed  a  dream  in  which  the  place 
was  depicted.  "  He  imagined  that  he  saw  his  Blessed 
Redeemer  on  Earth,  and  that  he  was  following  Him 
through  a  large  Field,  following  Him  whom  his  Soul 
loved,  but  much  troubled  because  he  thought  his  Blessed 
Lord  did  not  speak  to  him  ;  till  he  came  up  to  the  Gate 
of  Burying  Place,  when,  turning  about,  He  smiled  upon 
him,  in  such  a  Manner  as  filled  his  soul  with  the  most 
ravishing  Joy  ;  and  on  After-Reflection  animated  his 
Faith,  in  believing  that  whatever  Storms  and  Darkness 
he  might  meet  with  in  the  Way,  at  the  Hour  of  Death 
his  glorious  Redeemer  would  lift  upon  him  the  Light  of 
His  Life-giving  Countenance  "  (Ps.  iv.  7). 

So  habitual  a  use  as  Colonel  Gardiner  made  of  the 
Psalms  is  uncommon.  It  belonged,  perhaps,  to  the 
religious  views  and  temperament  of  a  man  who  was 
a  "  noted  enthusiast."  Yet  in  the  lives  of  most  men 
and  women  there  are  moods  which  only  find  their  nat- 
ural expression  ui  the  famihar  language  of  the  Psalms. 
When  Thomas  Carlyle  sets  down  his  half-humorous, 
half-bitter  contempt  for  the  trivialities  of  society,  he 
quotes  the  same  verse  with  which  the  "judicious" 
Hooker  protested  against  his  wife's  shrewish  tongue 
(Ps.  cxx.  5).  Returning  in  1835  ^om  a  London  dinner 
party,  where  he  had  met  Sydney  Smith — "  a  mass  of 


1688-1900.  3^7 

fat  and  muscuiarity  .  .  .  with  shrewdness  and  fun,  not 
liuniour  or  even  wit,  seemingh'  without  soul  altogether," 
he  closes  the  note  with  the  words,  "  The  rest  babble, 
babble.  Woe's  me  that  I  in  Meshech  am  !  To  work." 
Or  again,  in  a  higher  and  wholly  serious  tone,  it  is  with 
a  psalm  that  he  encourages  his  brothers  to  struggle  on. 
"  Courage,  my  brave  brothers,  all  !  Let  us  be  found 
faithful,  and  we  shall  not  fail.  Surely  as  the  blue  dome 
of  heaven  encircles  us  all,  so  does  the  Providence  of 
the  Lord  of  heaven.  He  will  withhold  710  good  thing 
from  those  that  love  him  (Ps.  Ixxxiv.  12).  This,  as  it  is 
the  ancient  Psalmist's  faith,  let  it  likewise  be  ours.  It 
is  the  Alpha  and  Omega,  I  reckon,  of  all  possessions 
that  can  belong  to  man."  Or  yet  again,  in  one  of 
those  moods  of  despondency  which  at  times  sweep  over 
all  of  us,  u  is  in  the  language  of  a  psalm  that  Jane  Welsh 
Carlyle  utters  her  cry  for  help.  On  March  24,  1856, 
she  had  resolved,  in  spite  of  weakness  and  ill-health, 
neither  to  indulge  in  vain  retrospects  of  the  past  nor 
to  gaze  into  vague  distances  of  the  future,  but  to  find 
the  duty  nearest  to  hand,  and  do  it.  Two  days  later 
she  had  learnt  how  much  she  was  the  creature  of  ex- 
ternal conditions.  "  One  cold,  rasping,  savage  March 
da}^"  aided  by  the  too  tender  sympathy  of  a  friend, 
brought  back  all  her  troubles,  and  she  wTites  (March 
26,  1856)  :  "  Have  mercy  upon  me,  O  Lord,  for  I  am 
weak ;  O  Lord,  heal  me,  for  my  bones  are  vexed.  My 
soul  is  also  sore  vexed  ;  but  Thou,  O  Lord,  how  long  ? 
Return,  O  Lord,  deliver  my  soul ;  O  save  me  for  Thy 
mercies'  sake  "  (Ps.  vi.  2-4). 

Few  persons  of  mature  years  have  not,  at  some  time 
of  their  existence,  proved  the  adequacy  of  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Psalms — an  adequacy  belonging  to 
nothing  else  in  literature — to  express,  or  elevate,  or 
soothe,  or  solemnize  their  emotions.  For  that  side  of 
the  subject,  the  everyday,  universal  experiences  of 
humanity  are  enough.  It  only  remains  to  illustrate 
the  eternal  influence  of  the  Psalms  at  some  of  those 


3i8  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

exciting  moments  of  secular  life  when  modem  history 
has  been  made. 

The  French  Revolution  and  the  rise  and  fall  of  the 
Napoleonic  Dynasty  may  be  taken  as  one  example.  In 
Brittany  and  La  Vendee  was  concentrated  all  that  re- 
mained of  Royalist  and  religious  enthusiasm.  There, 
at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  worship  returned 
to  the  simplicit}^  of  its  primitive  conditions.  There 
crowds  of  armed  peasants,  fired  by  the  ardour  of  a  child- 
like faith,  knelt  at  the  feet  of  their  proscribed  and  hunted 
priests,  who  stood,  under  the  sky  and  woods,  by  the 
bare  rocks  which  served  for  the  altars  of  God.  There,; 
as  they  commemorated  friends  or  neighbours  who  had 
died  fighting  the  Blues,  or  as  the  solemn  words  of  Ps. 
cxxx.,  "  Out  of  the  deep  have  I  called  unto  Thee,  O 
Lord,"  etc.,  were  repeated  in  alternate  verses  by  priest 
and  congregation,  the  survivors  renewed  their  vows  to 
fight  on  for  their  king  and  their  faith.  Nor  was  the 
struggle  so  hopeless  as  it  seemed.  High  clay  banks 
topped  by  beeches,  oaks,  and  chestnuts,  intersected  thet 
fields,  and  fenced  each  side  of  the  narrow,  winding^ 
roads.  Among  these  natural  covers  undisciplined  peas- 
ants met  regular  troops  on  equal  terms. 

Elsewhere  in  France  the  Republicans  had  gained  an 
easy  triumph.  During  the  Reign  of  Terror  hundreds 
of  men  and  women  died  on  the  scaffold,  committing 
thek  spirits  into  the  hands  of  God  in  the  language  of 
the  Psalms.  So  died  Madame  de  Noailles,  on  July  22,' 
1794.  With  her  was  executed  her  father-in-law,  the 
Due  de  Noailles-Mouchy,  Marshal  of  France,  who,  at 
the  age  of  eighty,  mounted  the  scaffold  for  his  God, 
as,  at  sixteen,  he  had  mounted  the  breach  for  his  king. 
With  her  perished  also  the  Marechale  de  Noailles-Mouchy, 
who,  fifty-two  years  before,  was  married  at  the  Palais 
de  Luxembourg,  which  had  been  her  birthplace,  and 
was  afterward  to  be  her  prison. 

The  touching  letters  of  Madame  de  Noailles  addressed 
to  M.  Grelet,  the  tutor  of  her  two  sons,  and  the  guardian 


1688-1900.  3^9 

of  her  infant  daughter,  reveal  the  beauty  of  her  char- 
acter and  the  depth  and  purity  of  her  faith.  "  Good-bye, 
Alexis,  Alfred,  Euphemia,"  so,  in  one  of  these  letters, 
she  writes  from  her  prison,  "  Keep  God  ever  in  your 
hearts  all  the  days  of  your  lives.  Bind  yourselves  to 
Him  by  bonds  that  nothing  can  loosen.  Pray  for  your 
father,  and  labour  for  his  true  happiness.  Remember 
your  mother,  and  never  forget  that  her  one  longing  for 
all  of  you  was  that  she  might  bring  you  up  to  the  life 
eternal."  With  quotations  from  the  Psalms  begins  the 
codicil  to  her  will,  which  she  drew  up  in  prison  to  dis- 
pose of  her  personal  effects  :  "In  the  name  of  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost.  Accept,  O  Lord,  the 
sacrifice  of  my  life.  Into  Thy  hands  I  commend  my 
spirit.  My  God,  haste  Thee  to  help  me.  Forsake  me 
not  when  my  strength  faileth  me  "  (Ps.  xxxi.  6  ;  Ixxi. 
10,  8).  Her  prayer  was  heard.  Few  scenes  are  more 
striking,  even  in  the  history  of  that  dramatic  period, 
than  that  which  is  described  in  the  Journal  of  M.  Car- 
richon,  who  gave  the  prisoners  absolution  on  their  way 
to  the  scaffold.  Months  before,  he  had  promised  that 
he  would  do  them  this  last  service,  and  arranged  the 
disguise  of  a  dark-blue  coat  and  red  waistcoat,  which 
he  would  wear.  The  message  came  that  the  ladies  were 
condemned.  On  the  appointed  day  he  followed  the 
cart  in  which  the  prisoners,  their  hands  bound  behind 
them,  sat  on  a  rude  plank  mthout  a  back.  The  crowd 
was  great.  He  hurried  along  by-streets  to  point  after 
point  on  the  road,  followed  by  the  procession.  But  all 
his  efforts  to  make  his  presence  known  were  fruitless  ; 
he  watched  the  eager  hopefulness  fade  into  despair.  At 
last,  as  though  by  a  miracle,  a  pitiless  storm  of  wind 
and  rain  swept  bare  the  crowded  street,  and  left  him 
almost  alone  and  close  to  the  cart  in  which  sat  the 
women.  All  his  irresolution  vanished.  The  prisoners 
bowed  then-  heads  as  the  disguised  priest  raised  his 
hand,  and,  with  his  head  covered,  pronounced  the  whole 
formula   of   absolution.     The   storm   ceased  :     the   cart 


320  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

passed  on  ;  and  the  women  died  with  unflinching  cour- 
age. 

In  September  1812  the  French  army  entered  Moscow. 
A  month  later  they  evacuated  the  smoking  ruins  of  the 
city,  and  began  that  retreat  which  proved  the  turning- 
point  in  the  fortunes  of  Napoleon.  It  was  believed  by 
the  populace  that  powder  magazines  stored  beneath 
the  cathedral  of  the  Kremlin  would  explode  whenever 
the  gates  were  opened  which  separated  the  altar  from 
the  body  of  the  building.  A  sendee  was  held  to  cele- 
brate the  retreat  of  the  French.  In  spite  of  the  prev- 
alence of  this  belief,  a  vast  throng,  drawn  to  the  spot 
by  awe  mingled  with  curiosit}^  packed  the  cathedral 
from  end  to  end.  The  Metropolitan  of  Moscow,  who 
was  to  preach  the  sermon,  approached  the  gates,  opened 
them,  and  passed  through  unharmed.  The  fears  of  the 
Russian  peasants  were  dispelled,  even  as  the  forces  of 
Napoleon  were  dispersed,  and  in  that  supreme  moment 
of  triumph  the  ^letropolitan  gave  out  his  text,  "  Let 
God  arise,  and  let  His  enemies  be  scattered  "  (Ps.  Ixviii.  i). 

The  power  of  the  first  Napoleon  was  shattered  by  the 
disaster  of  the  Russian  campaign.  Yet  once  again  the 
imperial  dynasty  was  restored  on  the  ruins  of  the  mon- 
archy. With  this  second  rise  and  fall  are  associated 
t^'o  psalms.  During  the  Revolution  of  184S,  which  gave 
Napoleon  III.  his  opportunity,  Ps.  xlvi.  ("  God  is  our 
hope  and  strength  ")  was  sung  in  the  streets,  not  only 
of  Berlin,  but  of  Paris.  Twenty-two  years  afterwards, 
the  German  armies  were  marching  on  the  French  capital, 
chanting  Luther's  version  of  Ps.  xlvi.  Bourget,  a 
little  viUage  in  the  Department  of  the  Seine,  was,  on 
three  successive  da^-s  (28th  to  30th  October  1870),  the 
scene  of  desperate  struggles.  When  the  conflict  was 
ended,  there  was  found  on  the  bullet-pierced  altar  of 
the  church  a  Psalter.  It  was  open  at  Ps.  Ivii. :  "Be 
merciful  unto  me,  O  God,  be  merciful  unto  me,  for  m}^ 
soul  trusteth  in  Thee  ;  and  under  the  shadow  of  Thy  wings 
shall  be  my  refuge,  until  this  tyranny  be  overpast." 


1688-1900.  321 

For  Great  Britain  it  is  in  India,  or  on  the  Indian 
frontiers,  that  the  romance  of  nineteenth-century  history 
is  mainly  concentrated. 

In  September  1840,  Captain  Arthur  ConoUy  was  sent 
from  Cabul  to  Bokhara  to  negotiate  the  release  of  Colonel 
Stoddart.  He  reached  Bokhara  in  December  of  the 
following  year,  and  with  Stoddart  was  at  once  thrown 
into  prison.  For  many  months  the  two  prisoners  were 
kept  in  a  filthy,  unwholesome  dungeon,  swarming  with 
vermin,  without  change  of  clothing.  In  June  1842  both 
were  executed.  Several  years  later  a  Httle  book  was 
purchased  by  a  Russian  in  one  of  the  bazaars  at  Bok- 
hara. It  was  Conolly's  Prayer-book.  Along  its  margins, 
and  on  its  blank  leaves,  are  noted  the  chief  occurrences 
of  his  long  imprisonment.  "  Thank  God,"  he  writes  in 
one  place,  "  that  this  book  was  left  to  me.  Stoddart 
and  I  did  not  fully  know  before  our  affliction  what  was 
in  the  Psalms,  or  how  beautiful  are  the  prayers  of  our 
Church." 

It  is  supposed  that  the  news  of  the  destruction  of  the 
Cabul  force  may  have  decided  the  Ameer  of  Bokhara 
to  execute  his  prisoners.  No  disaster  of  such  magnitude 
had  ever  before  befallen  the  British  arms  in  the  East. 
On  January  13,  1842,  from  the  walls  of  Jellalabad  a 
single  horseman  was  seen  riding  towards  the  city.  It 
was  Dr.  Brydon,  the  sole  survivor  of  the  Cabul  force. 
To  the  British  garrison  of  Jellalabad  the  news  meant 
their  own  immediate  and  imminent  peril.  They  knew 
that  within  a  few  days  the  storm  would  burst  upon 
them ;  that,  insufficiently  provided  with  ammunition, 
and  scantily  suppHed  with  food,  fighting  behind  crumbling 
walls  whose  circuit  was  too  vast  to  be  properly  manned, 
they  would  have  to  hold  their  own  for  weeks  against  a 
host  excited  by  pre\dous  victory.  Such  a  position  might 
well  solemnize  the  feelings  of  the  most  careless.  On  the 
next  Sunday  the  whole  garrison  assembled  for  Divine 
service  in  one  of  the  squares  of  the  Bala  Hissar.  There 
was  no  chaplain,  but  the  Chnrt  h  Service  was  read  to  the 

II 


322  THE  PSALMS  IN  HUMAN  LIFE. 

officers  and  men  by  a  gray-haired  captain,  of  slight, 
well-knit  figure,  whose  clear,  strong  voice  made  every 
word  audible.  Instead  of  the  psalms  appointed  for  the 
day,  he  chose  the  46th  Psalm,  "  God  is  our  hope  and 
strength,"  etc.,  which,  as  he  said,  "  Luther  was  wont  to 
use  in  seasons  of  peculiar  difficulty  and  depression." 
The  words,  well  suited  to  the  desperate  circumstances 
of  the  garrison,  expressed  their  determination  to  defend 
the  battlements  to  the  last  extremity.  They  expressed, 
also,  the  subhme  dependence  upon  God  which  was  the 
strength  of  Henry  Havelock,  who  officiated  as  chaplain. 
He  was  then  an  unknown  man,  though  he  had  served 
\^-ith  distinction  in  Burma,  in  Afghanistan,  Gwalior,  and 
the  Sutlej.  Fifteen  years  later,  when  he  died  at  the 
Alumbagh,  after  the  rehef  of  Lucknow,  his  name  was  a 
household  word.  His  death  was  worthy  of  his  Hfe.  "  I 
have  for  forty  years,"  he  said,  "  so  ruled  my  life  that, 
when  death  came,  I  might  face  it  without  fear."  His 
headlong  march,  his  rapid  \ictories — when  the  fate  of 
British  rule  seemed  trembhng  in  the  balance — had  made 
him  the  idol  of  the  nation.  He  had  shown  by  his  career, 
if  such  an  example  be  needed,  that  saints  can  be  soldiers, 
and  that  those  fear  men  least  who  fear  God  most. 

WTien  Havelock  died  (November  24,  1857),  the  worst 
of  the  Indian  Mutin}^  was  over.  But  the  awful  weeks 
which  preceded  his  successes  had  strained  to  the  utmost 
tension  the  confidence  which  men  and  women  reposed  in 
the  mysterious  workings  of  the  Di\ine  purpose.  Yet 
Dr.  Duff,  writing  from  Calcutta  in  May  1857,  relied  on 
the  promises  of  the  Psalms.  In  the  midst  of  panic, 
open  mutin}^  and  secret  disaffection,  he  himself  felt 
"  a  confident  persuasion  that,  though  this  crisis  has  been 
permitted  to  humble  and  warn  us,  our  work  in  India 
has  not  yet  been  accomphshed  ;  and  that  until  it  be 
accompHshed,  our  tenure  of  Empire,  however  brittle,  is 
secure."  ..."  Never  before,"  he  continues,  "  did  I 
reaHze  as  now  the  literahty  and  sweetness  of  the  Psalmist's 
assurance — '  I  laid  me  down  and  slept ;    I  awaked  ;   for 


1688-1900.  323 

the  Lord  sustained  me.  I  will  not  be  afraid  of  ten 
thousands  of  people,  that  have  set  themselves  against  me 
round  about.  Arise,  0  Lord  ;  save  me,  O  my  God  !  '  " 
(Ps.  iii.  5-7). 

Among  records  of  hairbreadth  escapes  during  the 
Indian  Mutiny,  few  are  more  striking  than  the  story  of 
Mr.  William  Edwards,  the  magistrate  and  collector  of 
Budaon,  in  the  Rohilkund  district.  From  June  I,  1857, 
to  August  27,  when  he  joined  Havelock  at  Cawnpore,  he 
was  a  fugitive.  With  him  were  a  brother  collector,  Mr. 
Probyn,  ■Mrs.  Probyn,  and  their  four  children.  Weeks 
of  mental  anguish  were  passed  among  natives  whose 
loyalty  was  doubtful,  and  who  were  under  the  strongest 
temptation  to  treachery.  At  first  they  were  huddled 
together  at  Kussowrah,  in  a  cow-house,  from  which  they 
were  forbidden  to  emerge,  hearing  at  intervals  of  merci- 
less massacres  by  natives,  and  tortured  by  anxiety  for 
the  safety  of  relations  or  friends.  From  Kussowrah 
they  were  moved  to  a  village  called  Runjepoorah  ("  the 
place  of  affliction  "),  a  collection  of  huts  gathered  on  a 
bare  island  a  hundred  yards  square,  which  rose  above 
floods  that  stretched  almost  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach. 
Here,  during  the  day,  they  were  so  closely  packed  that 
the  only  possible  change  of  posture  was  sitting  up  or 
turning  from  one  side  to  the  other.  From  Futteghur 
they  heard  the  bands  of  the  mutineers  playing  EngUsh 
airs,  and  from  Fumickabad  came  the  sound  of  guns, 
which,  they  learned,  were  blowing  away  or  shooting  down 
women  and  children.  One  gleam  of  comfort  came  to 
Mr.  Edwards,  but  even  that  was  darkened  with  a  moment 
of  despain  His  wiie  and  child  were  at  Nynee  Tal, 
ignorant  of  his  fate.  A  native  promised,  if  possible, 
to  convey  to  them  a  note.  Mr.  Edwards  had  only  a 
tiny  scrap  of  paper,  half  the  fly-leaf  of  *'  Bridges  on  the 
119th  Psalm."  On  this  he  wrote  his  message  in  pencil, 
dipped  it  in  milk  to  make  the  writing  indelible,  and 
set  it  out  to  dry.  He  had  hardly  done  so,  when  a  crow 
pounced  on  it  and  carried  it  06.     But  fortunately  his 


324  THE  PSALMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

native  servant  had  seen  what  had  happened,  followed  the 
bird,  and  recovered  the  note. 

On  July  26  they  were  able  to  return  to  the  cow-house 
at  Kussowrah.  Thek  quarters  were  less  cramped.  But 
the  heat  was  terrible ;  tormented  by  m^Tiads  of  flies, 
starting  at  every  unusual  noise,  they  could  only  sleep 
when  they  had  hghted  heaps  of  dried  cow-dung,  which 
poured  out  volumes  of  acrid  smoke  and  kept  the  insects 
at  bay.  One  of  the  Prob\Ti  children  died,  and  then 
another.  The  Psalm.s,  however,  proved  to  them  a  store- 
house of  comfort.  "  There  is  not  a  day,"  writes  Mr. 
Edwards  in  his  Diary  for  August  5,  ''on  which  we  do 
not  find  something  that  appears  as  if  written  especially 
for  persons  in  our  unhappy  circumstances,  to  meet  the 
feehngs  and  wants  of  the  day.  This  morning,  for  in- 
stance, I  derived  unspeakable  comfort  from  the  13th 
and  i6th  verses  of  the  25th  Psalm  (''  The  secret  of  the 
Lord  is  among  them  that  fear  Him ;  and  He  wiU  show 
them  His  covenant,"  and  "  The  sorrows  of  my  heart  are 
enlarged  :  O  bring  Thou  me  out  of  my  troubles  ")  ;  and 
in  the  evening,  from  the  14th,  15th,  and  i6th  verses  of 
the  27th  (verse  16,  "  0  tarrv^  thou  the  Lord's  leisure  ; 
be  strong,  and  He  shall  comfort  thine  heart ;  and  put 
thou  thy  trust  in  the  Lord  *'). 

After  a  sleepless  night,  devoured  by  mosquitoes,  de- 
pressed in  mind  and  body,  he  writes,  August  16  :  "  It 
is  at  such  times  I  feel  the  real  blessing  the  Psalms  are. 
They  never  fail  to  give  peace  and  refreshment,  when  all 
is  dark  and  gloomy  within  and  \^ithout.  The  circum- 
stances under  which  many  of  them  were  written,  seasons 
of  danger  and  almost  despair — Da\dd  fleeing  and  hiding 
from  bloodthirsty  enemies,  as  we  are — render  them  pecu- 
Harly  suitable  to  our  case.  This  morning  I  felt  the 
5th  verse  of  the  68th  Psalm  most  soothing,  in  the  assur- 
ance it  gives  me  that,  if  I  am  cut  off,  my  God  will  be 
with  my  widow  and  fatherless  children."  {"  He  is  a 
Father  of  the  fatherless,  and  defendeth  the  cause  of  the 
widows,  even  God  in  His  holy  habitation.")     Or  again. 


I688-I900.  325 

on  August  24  he  notes,  "  Finished  to-day,  for  the  second 
time,  that  excellent  work,  '  Bridges  on  the  119th  Psalm  ;  ' 
the  sole  book  in  my  hands,  except  the  Bible,  for  the  past 
two  months  ;  and  fortunate  have  I  been  to  have  had 
these  sources  of  consolation."  They  were  now  in  com- 
munication with  Havelock  ;  but  the  difficulty  of  travers- 
ing a  country  infested  with  mutineers  was  great.  "  Noth- 
ing new  settled,"  writes  Edwards  on  August  27,  "  about 
our  plans,  and  we  are  much  harassed.  Heavy  guns 
firing  "kt  Furruckabad  to-day,  we  know  not  from  what 
cause ;  but  they  reminded  us  painfully  of  our  fearful 
proximity  to  that  place  where  are  so  many  thirsting  for 
our  Hves.  Amidst  it  all,  to-day's  Psalms  are  most  con- 
soling, and  wonderfully  suited  to  our  case,  especially 
the  1 2 1st."  ("  I  will  Hft  up  mine  eyes  unto  the  hills, 
from  whence  cometh  my  help.") 

Three  days  later  the  party  started  to  run  the  gauntlet 
for  150  miles  of  river-way,  through  the  midst  of  the 
enemy's  country.  The  journey  was  successfully  made. 
After  three  months  of  hourly  suspense  and  danger,  they 
were  safe  with  the  British  troops. 

From  the  Psalms  the  quiet  confidence  of  Dr.  Duff 
drew  its  serenity ;  from  them  also  the  endurance  of  Mr. 
Edwards  derived  its  patient  fortitude.  The  relief  of 
Lucknow  showed  that  the  active  daring  which  not  only 
braves  death  but  courts  it  may  be  equally  stirred  by 
the  Psalms.  **  Quaker  "  Wallace  of  the  93rd  Regiment 
went  into  the  Secundrabagh,  says  an  eye- witness,  "  xike 
one  of  the  Furies,  if  there  are  any  male  Furies,  plainly 
seeking  death,  but  not  meeting  it,"  and  quoting  the 
ii6th  Psalm,  Scottish  version  in  metre,  beginning  at 
the  first  verse, — 

"  I  love  the  Lord,  because  my  voice 
And  prayers  He  did  hear. 
I,  while  I  live,  will  call  oa  Him, 
Who  bowed  to  me  His  ear." 

^nd  thus  he  plunged  into  the  Secundrabagh,  quoting  a 


326  THE  PSALMS  IX  HU.MAX  LIFE. 

line  at  every  shot  fired  from  his  rifle,  and  at  each  thrust 
given  by  his  bayonet^ — 

"  I'll  of  salvation  take  the  cup. 
On  God's  name  will  I  call ; 
I'll  pay  my  vows  now  to  the  Lord 
Before  His  people  aU." 

The  Indian  Mutiny  does  not  afford  the  latest  example 
of  the  influence  of  the  Psalms  on  our  secular  history. 
Even  in  the  present  century  they  have  shown*  their 
power  on  the  battlefields  of  nations.  It  w^ould  not  be 
wholly  fanciful  to  compare  the  struggle  carried  on  by 
the  Scottish  Covenanters  against  seventeenth-centiuy 
England,  with  the  challenge  thrown  down  by  the  Boers 
to  the  British  Empire  of  the  twentieth  century.  In 
their  pastoral  habits,  their  civilization,  their  education, 
their  deep  yet  narrow  rehgior,  their  sturdy  independ- 
ence, Boers  and  Covenanters  stand  close  together.  To 
us  who  regard  the  conflicts  from  the  vantage-ground  of 
the  past,  it  may  seem  that  the  triumph  of  the  large 
battalions  was  from  the  first  inevitable.  Yet  in  both 
cases  geographical  conditions  favoured  the  smaller  force, 
and  foreign  aid  or  civil  discord  was  not  unreasonably 
anticipated.  Both  Boer  and  Covenanter  arrogated  to 
himself  the  promises  of  the  Psalms.  To  the  dwellers 
on  the  solitary  veldts  of  South  Africa  the  words  appealed 
with  the  same  peculiar  force  which  they  had  possessed 
for  the  inhabitants  of  the  lonely  recesses  of  the  Lowland 
hills,  and  both  Covenanter  and  Boer  fought  in  the  con- 
viction that  the  Lord  of  Hosts  was  on  his  side. 

In  President  Kruger's  frequent  appeals  to  the  Psalms 
it  is  unnecessary  to  discover  hypocrisy.  Treachery,  guile, 
cruelty,  even  if  such  faults  could  fairly  be  laid  to  his 
charge,  are  not  inconsistent  wdth  religious  sincerity,  when 
minds  of  a  peculiar  type  and  training  are  imbued  ^vith  the 
spirit  of  the  Old  Testament,  or  convinced  that  they  are 
fighting  the  Lord's  battle  against  His  enemies.  It  is  as 
a  CromweUian  captain,  or  as  a  Scottish  Covenanter,  that 


I688-I900.  327 

he  addresses  his  burghers  in  language  which  goes  directly 
to  their  hearts.  His  speech  to  the  Volksraads  on  October 
2,  1899,  couched  in  the  language  of  the  Psalms,  inter- 
preted their  promises  in  favour  of  the  Boers.  "  Read," 
he  said,  "  that  psalm  attentively  (Ps.  cviii.,  '  O  God, 
my  heart  is  ready,'  etc.),  and  associate  your  prayers  with 
that  ;  then  will  the  Lord  guide  us  ;  and  when  He  is 
wdth  us,  who  shall  be  against  us  ?  "  Similar  was  his 
speech  on  May  7, 1900,  in  opening  the  Volksraads.  There 
he  applied  the  words  of  Ps.  Ixxxiii.  {"  Hold  not  Thj^ 
tongue,  O  God,"  etc.)  to  the  struggle  with  the  British 
Empire,  and  dwelt  especially  on  verse  4,  where  the 
enemies  of  God  say,  ''  Come,  and  let  us  root  them  out, 
that  they  be  no  more  a  people,  and  that  the  name  of  Israel 
may  be  no  more  in  remembrance."  "  Psalm  Ixxxiii.," 
argued  the  President,  ''  speaks  of  the  attacks  of  xhe  Evil 
One  on  Christ's  kingdom,  which  must  no  longer  exist. 
And  now  the  same  words  come  from  Salisbury,  for  he 
too  says,  *  This  people  must  not  exist ; '  and  God  says, 
'  This  people  shall  exist.*  \Vho  will  win  ?  Surely  the 
Lord."  So  again,  in  his  circular  dispatch  to  his  officers, 
dated  from  Machadodorp,  June  20,  1900,  he  returned 
to  the  same  passage.  "  According  to  Ps.  Ixxxiii.,  the 
enemies  of  old  said  that  the  people  shall  not  exist  in 
Christ's  kingdom.  Salisbury  and  Chamberlain  stand 
convicted  by  their  own  words,  *  They  shall  not  exist ; ' 
but  the  Lord  says,  '  This  people  shall  exist,'  and  Christ 
is  our  Commander-in-Chief,  who  leads  us  with  His 
Word."  Or,  lastly,  it  is  again  to  the  Psalms  that  he 
made  his  appeal  a  month  later,  in  a  final  dispatch  to 
his  officers  from  Machadodorp.  "  See,"  he  wTote,  *'  the 
promise  of  the  Lord  in  Ps.  cviii.,  where  He  says  the}^ 
who  fight  through  God  shall  do  so  valiantly,  and  the 
Lord  wall  deliver  them,  and  tread  down  their  enemies. 
Keep  courage,  therefore,  you  God-fearing  band ;  the 
Lord  will  display  His  strength  to  your  weakness.  ,  .  . 
Each  of  ye  knows  as  I  do  how  unjust  and  godless  the 
war  is,  as  we  were  willing  to  yield  almost  everything,  if  we 


328  THE  PSiVLMS  IX  HUMAN  LIFE. 

could  only  keep  our  liberty  and  our  independence.  Sec 
Ps.  Ixxxiii.,  how  the  evil  spirit  of  the  air  said  that  the 
valiant  fighter  named  Israel  must  not  exist,  and  the 
Lord  says,  '  He  shall  exist.'  .  .  .  Then  the  same  spirit 
answered  that  this  nation  must  not  exist,  or,  to  use  his 
own  words,  '  I  wiU  not  permit  your  nation  to  continue 
to  be  a  nation.'  Dear  brothers,  through  God's  Word  I 
am  sure  of  this,  that  the  \actory  is  ours." 

A  German  mystic  has  said,  "  He  whom  God  deludes  is 
well  deluded."  In  its  entirety  the  saying  is  a  hard 
one  ;  yet  it  contains  a  truth.  Only  the  immediate  issues 
in  the  Boer  War  have  been  at  present  decided.  The 
ultimate  effects  on  the  civilized  progress  of  the  world 
and  the  general  interests  of  mankind  belong  to  the  region 
of  the  future  and  of  hope.  But  as  it  has  been  with  the 
Covenanters,  so  it  may  be  with  the  Boers.  Virtues 
which  lent  dignity  and  pathos  to  the  struggle  for  independ- 
ence may  gain  a  broader  sphere  of  exercise  than  the 
narrow  field  on  which  they  were  previously  concentrated. 
The  record  of  the  Cameronian  Regiment,  raised  among 
the  defeated  Covenanters,  and  first  commanded  by  one 
of  the  leaders  at  Dnmiclog,  may  be  reproduced  on  a 
larger  scale  in  the  future  history  of  the  Boer  people. 

When  the  pages  of  some  ancient  brown  bound  volume 
are  turned,  there  flutters  from  between  the  leaves  the 
withered  petal  of  a  rose.  The  flower  is  faded,  dry, 
scentless  ;  but  it  has  imprinted  something  of  its  shape 
and  colour  on  the  pages  between  which  it  has  been 
pressed.  As  it  floats  to  the  ground,  the  most  unimagina- 
tive of  us  is  conscious  of  the  desire  to  read  its  secret. 
What  moment  of  joy  or  sorrow,  of  despair  or  hope,  did 
it  commemorate  in  the  distant  days,  when  the  page  was 
yet  unstained,  the  petal  fuU  of  fragrance  and  colour,  the 
hand  that  placed  it  there  stiU  throbbing  \^dth  life  ? 

Something  similar  is  the  effect  of  studying  the  Psalms 
through  human  history.  There  is  scarcely  a  leaf  in  the 
Psalter  which  is  not  stained  by  some  withered  flower 
of  the  past.     To  gather  some  of  these  petals  and  read 


1688-1900.  3^9 

their  meaning,  as  they  fall  thick  from  the  pages,  has 
been  the  purpose  of  this  book.  Vain  must  be  the  effort 
to  recall  to  hfe  persons  or  events  di\'ided  from  us  by 
centuries  of  change.  But  as  we  read  the  familiar  verses, 
the  words  bring  before  us,  one  by  one,  the  hundreds  of 
men  and  women  who,  passing  from  tribulation  into  joy, 
have,  in  the  language  of  the  Psalms,  conquered  the 
terrors  of  death,  proclaimed  their  faith,  or  risen  to  new 
effort  and  final  \'ictory. 


APPENDIX   A. 
PRINCIPAL   AUTHORITIES. 


CHAPTER   I.    (pages  13-21). 

Archbishop  Alexander — The  Witness  of  the  Fsahis  to  Christ  ajid 
Christianity.      1S77.     (Bampton  Lectures  for  1 876.) 

C.  L.  M ARSON. — The  Psalms  at  Work.     2nd  ed.      1895. 

John  Ker — The  Psalms  in  History  and  Biography.      1886. 

[See   also   my   Article   on    "The    Psalms    in    History"    in    the 
Quarterly  Review  for  April  1 897,  vol.  clxxxv.,  p.  305.] 

John  SmeatON — A  Narrative  of  the  Building  and  a  Description  of  the 
Construction  of  the  Eddystotte  Lighthouse  with  stone,  etc.     1 791. 

Official  Description  and  Illustrated  Catalogue  of  the  Great  Exhibition 
ofi2>si. 

Mrs.  Alfred  Gatty — The  Book  of  Sundials.  Enlarged  and  re-edited 
by  Horatio  K.  F.  Eden  and  Eleanor  Lloyd.     4th  ed.     1900. 

Charles  Leadbetter — Mechanick  Dialling ;  or,  The  New  Art  of 
Shadows,  etc.     1 737. 

Herbert  A.  Grueber — Handbook  of  the  Coins  of  Great  Britaiji  and 
Ireland.     (Appendix  B.)     1 899. 

Leopold  G.  Wickham  Legg — English  Coronation  Records.     1901. 

Sir  Philip  Sidney— T^^f  Psalmes  of  David,  etc.  .  .  .  Begun  by  the 
noble  and  learned  gent.  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  Kt.,  and  finished  by  the 
Right  Honourable  the  Countess  of  Pefnbroke,  his  sister.  Now  first 
printed  fro?7i  a  copy  of  the  original  7?ianuscript  transcribed  by  Johi 
Davies,  of  Hereford,  in  the  reign  of  James  the  First.      1 823. 

Francis  Bacon — Certaine  Psalmes  ifi  Verse.     1625. 

George  Sandys — A  Paraphrase  tipon  the  First  Booke  of  the  Psalmes  of 
David.      1636. 

Henry  Howard,  Earl  of  Surrey — Poems.     1547. 


332  APPENDIX  A. 

Sir    Thomas   Wyatt — The   Seven   Penitential  Psalvies  drawen   into 

English  Meter.     1 549.     Poems.     (Aldine  edition.) 
Sir  Thomas  Smith — Certaignc  Psalmes  or  Sofigiies  of  David.     1549. 

(MS.  Brit.  Mus.) 
Sir  Henry  Wotton— Psalm  civ.  in  Keliquice  Wotto^iuz. 
John    Hookham    Frere — Selection   of  Psalms.      {Works,    ed.    1872, 

vol.  ii.) 
Archbishop    Matthew    Parker— ZA^    whole    Psalter,    etc.,    n.d. 

[1560.] 
Bishop  Joseph  Hall — Some  few  of  David's  Psahnes  metaphrazed  in 

Metre.      1607.     {Works,  \o\.  \yi.     Ed.  Philip  W}Titer.      1863.) 
Bishop  Henry  King — The  Psalms  of  David  from  the  New  Tra7islatiou 

of  the  Bible,  t timed  into  Meeter.      165 1. 
Bishop  Samuel  Woodford — A  Paraphrase  in  English   Verse,  upon 

the  Books  of  the  Psalms.      1 667. 
Queen   Elizabeth — Psalm   xiv.      (See   A    Godly  Meditaiiofi  of  the 

Christian  Soul.      1548.) 
Ki  NG  J  am  ES  I.  —  The  Psalmes  of  King  David.      1 63 1 . 
Francis  Rous — The  Psahnes  of  David  in  English  Meeter.      1641. 
Thomas,    Lord    Fairfax— (unpublished).      See    Preface    to    Henr>' 

Cotton's  Editions  of  the  Bible  and  parts  thereof  in  English.     2nd 

ed.      1852. 
George  Wither — The  Psalms  trafislated  into  Lyric  Verse,  accordijig 

to  the  Scope  of  the  Origiiial.      1632. 
Phinehas    Fletcher — Six    Psalms   were   published   in   Miscellanies, 

appended  to  his  Purple  Island.      1 633. 

[Sec  Poetical  Works.     Ed.  A.  B.  Grosart.     4  vols.      1869.] 
Richard  Crashaw — Steps  to  the  Temple.     1646. 
Henry  Vaughan — Silex  Scintillans.     (Psalm  cxxxi.)     1650. 
Robert  Burns — Psalms  i.,  xiv.  in  Poetical  Works.     Ed.  1787. 

[See  Robert  Chambers's  Life  and  Works  of  Bums,  vol.  i.,  1856.] 
William  Cowper — Psalm  cxxxvii.  in  Poems. 
John  Milton — Psalms  cxiv.,  cxxxvi.   (1623).     lxxx.-lxxx\'iii.  (164S). 

i.-viii.  (1653). 

[See  Poems  in  English  and  Latin.     2nd  ed.     1673.] 
George   Herbert — 1632.     Seven   versions   first    printed  in   Fullers 

Worthies  Library.     Ed.  A.  B.  Grosart.     1 874. 
John  Keble — The  Psalter,  or  Psalms  of  David  in  English  Verse,  by  a 

jnember  of  the  University  of  Oxford.      1 839. 
Sir  Richard  Blackmore — Version  of  the  Book  of  Psalms.     1721. 
Luke  Milbourne— 77^^  Psalms  of  David  in  English  Metre.      1698. 
Joseph    Addison— Psalm    xxiii.      Spectator,    No.    441.       Psalm    xix. 

Spectator^  Xo.  4615. 


APPExXDIX  A.  333 

Charles  Wesley — The  Poetical  Works  of  John  and  Charles  Wesley  y 

etc.    Collected  and  arranged  by  George  Osborn.     13  vols.    1868-72. 
Isaac  Watts — The  Psalms  of  David  Imitated  in  the  Lan:^i(aj^e  of  the 

New  Testament,  And  apply d  to  the  Christian  State  and  Worships 

by  I,  Watts.      17 19. 
Rousseau — Les  Confessions  de  J.  J.  Rousseau.      1781,  17S8. 
Goethe — Axis  Meinem  Leben — Dichtung  ttnd  Wahrheit .     iSii. 
St.  Augustine — Confessions.     Trans,  and  ed.   Charles  Bigg,   D.D., 

1898. 
De  Imitatiofie  Christi.     Ed.  John  Kells  Ingram.     (Early  English  Text 

Society;  Extra  Series,  No.  Ixiii.      1S93.) 
John  Bunyan — Grace  aboimding  to  the  Chief  of  Sinners :  in  a  Faithfzcl 

Account  of  the  Life  atid  Death  ofjohfi  Bttnyan,  etc.      1666. 
Bishop  Lancelot  Andrewes — Pez'.   Patris   Lane.  Andrews  Episc. 

Winton.     Preces   Py-ivatce    Greece   et   Latine.      (Oxonii   e   Theatre 

Sheldoniano,    mdclxxv),       Ed.    Peter   Goldsmith    Medd.      1S92. 

Trans,  by  John  Henn.'  Newman  ;  "Tracts  for  the  Times,"  No.  88. 
[See  also  Lancelot  Andrewes,  by  Robert  Lawrence  Ottley.     Ap- 
pendix D.      1894.] 
Blaise  Pascal — Pensees  de  M.  Pascal  stir  la  Religion  ct  sur  qnelques 

autres  suJetSy  qui  ont  esti  troiivees  apres  sa  mort  panny  ses  papiers. 

1669.  

CHAPTER   II.    (pages  22-46). 

Gibbon — Decline  and  Fall  of  the   Kovian  Empire.     Ed.  J.   B.    Bury. 

7  vols.      1 896- 1 900. 
Canon  Bright — A  History  of  the  Chtirch,  a.d.    313-451.     2nd  ed. 

1869. 
The  Age  of  the  Fathers.     2  vols.      1903. 
William  Palmer — Dissertations  on  Subjects  relating  to  the  Orthodox 

Communion.     Dissertation  xx.      1853. 
Alban  Butler — Lives  of  the  Saints.     12  vols.     1756,  etc. 
S.    Baring-Gould — Lives  of  the   Saints.      New   Edition.      16   vols. 

1897-98. 
Laurentius  SURIUS — Historia  sett  Vitce  Sanctorum.     6  vols.      1581. 
Smith     and    Wage — Dictionary   of   Christian    Biography.       4    vols. 

Ambrose — In  Psalmum  I  Enarratio.     (Migne,  xiv.  925.) 

He.raemeron.     {Ibid.,  223.) 
Amed^e  S.  D.  Thierry — Saint  JJrome.     2  tomes.     1867. 
Carl    UllMANN — Life   of  Gregory   of  Nazianzum.       Trans.    George 

Valentine  Cox.      1S51. 


334  APPENDIX  A. 

St.  Augustine — Confessions.     Trans,    and  ed.   Charles  Bigg,   D.D.. 

1898. 
L'Abb6  Baunard —  Vie  de  Saint  Amhroise.      187 1. 
J.  H.  Xewmax — Historical  Sketches.     3  vols.      1872-3. 
Athanasius — Apologia  de  Fuga  Stid. 

Dean  Stanley — Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  Eastern  Church.    1861. 
The  Letter  of  Paula  and  Eustochium  to  Marcella  abotit  the  Holy  Places. 

Trans.  Aubrey  Stewart.      1889.     (Palestine  Pilgrims'  Text  Society, 

vol.  i.) 
C.   F.   R.   DE   MONTALEMBERT — Moines  de  TOccident.     Ed.    1860-77. 

(References  throughout   to   English  edition,    with  introduction  by 

Gasquet.     6  vols.      1896.) 

[See    also    my   Article,    "Rabelais    at    home,"    in    Blackwoocfs 
Magazijie  for  April  1894,  vol.  civ.,  p.  504.] 
J.  V.  A.   DE  Broglie — VAglise  et  PEmpire  Romain  au  IV^  Siecle. 

6  tomes.      1856-66. 
Joseph  M'Cabe — Saint  Augiistitie  and  his  Age.     1902. 
Augustus  J.  C.  Hare — Studies  in  Russia.     1885. 


CHAPTER   in.    (pages  47-70). 

Procopius — De  Bello  Vandalico  ;  De  Bella  Gotthico. 

Flodoardi  historia  Reniensis  EcclesicB.     Ed.  John  Heller  et  G.  Wai'tz. 

(Pertz  M.  G.  H.  xiii.  405.) 
John   Pinkerton — Vitce  antiqiuz  Sanctorum   Scoticz.     Ed.    Metcalfe. 

2  vols.     Paisley.      1889. 
J.   H.  Newman — The  Lives  of  the  Ejtglish  Saints,  written  by  various 

hands    at    the    suggestion    of  fohn    Henry    Newmany    afterwards 

Cardinal.     6  vols.      1 900-1. 
John    Lingard — The   History  arui  Antiquities  of  the   Anglo-Saxon 

Church.     3rd  ed.     2  vols.      1845. 
John  O'Hanlon — Lives  of  the  Irish  Saints.     1875,  etc. 
Margaret  Stokes — Six  months  in  the  Apennittes  ;  or,  A  pilgrimage  in 

search  of  vestiges  of  the  Irish  saittts  in  Italy.     1892. 

Three  months  in  the  forests  of  France ;  A  pilgrimage  in 
search  of  vestiges  of  the  Irish  saints  in  Fra7ice.      1895. 
George  Thomas  Stokes — Ireland  and  the  Celtic  Chtirch:  a  history  oj 

Ireland  from  St,  Patrick  to  the  English  conquest  in  1172.     3rd  ed. 

1892. 
Thomas  Hodgkin— 7/a/^  and  her  Invaders.     8  vols.     1880-99. 
A.  H.  Hoffmann  von  Fallersleben — Ftmdgruhen  fiir  Geschichte 

deutscher  Sprache  und  Literafur.     2  Bde.      1830-7. 


APPENDIX  A.  335 

D.    H.    Stoever — Life  of  Sir    C.   Linmeus.     Trans.   Joseph    Trapp. 

1794- 
C.  J.  Kefele — History  of  the  Chttrck  Coujtdls.     Trans.  W.  R.  Clark. 

Vol.  iv.     1 87 1,  etc. 
Stephen  Baluze — Capitularia  Regum  Fratuorum.     Tome  i.      1677. 
Vita  Colu7nbaniy  auctore  Jona  Moncuho.     (Migne,  Ixxxvii.  1014.) 
Tripartite  Life  of  St.  Patrick.     Ed.  Whitley  Stokes.     (Rolls  Series,  89.) 
Adamnan— FzVa  ^.  C<?/z^w3^.     Ed.  William  Reeves.     1857.     (See  also 

trans,  and  ed.  Joseph  Thomas  Fowler,  D.C.L.     1895.) 
Bede—  Vita  S.  Cjithberti. 

S.  Gregorii  Magiii  Vita,  auctore  Joamu  diacono.     (Migne,  Ixxv.,  230.) 
Vita  Hugoiiis    Cluniensis,   auctore  Hildebej-to    Cenotnanensi  Episcoto. 

(Migne,  clix.,  867.) 
Eduard  Woelfflin^ — Benedicti  Regula  MonackoruTn.     1895. 

Abrige  de  la  Vie  de  S.  Fratt^ois  de  Borgia.     1671. 
DoM  Vincent  Scully — Life  of  the    Vetierable    Thomas  h  Kempis. 

1901. 
Vita  S.  Dunstanif  auctore  Adelardo.     Ed.  Stubbs.     (Rolls  Series,  63.) 


CHAPTER   IV.    (pages  71-109)- 

H.  Martin — Histoire  de  France.     4th  ed. 

L.  Sergeant — The  Franks.     (Stories  of  the  Nations. )     1898. 

F.  R.  GUETT^E — Histoire  de  PEglise  de  France.      1856. 

Sir  James  Stephen — Essays  in  Ecclesiastical  Biography.     Ed.  1891. 

M.    Bouquet — Recueil  des  historiens   des    Gaules   et   de    la    Frajice. 

"  Pepin  et  Charlemagne."     Tome  v.     Nouvelle  ed.      1869. 
James  Bryce — The  Holy  Roman  Empire.     New  ed.     Revised.     1866. 
J.  W.  Bowden — Life  of  Gregory  VLI,     2  vols.      1840. 
R.  W.  ZYL^3^QYL—Anselm.     Ed.  1888. 
C.  De  R^MUSAT— 6".  Anselme  de  Cajitorbiry.     2^^  ed. 
Dean  Stanley — Memorials  of  Canterbury.     Ed.  1868. 
Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  Eastern  Church.     1861. 
E.  G.  Gardner — Tlie  Story  of  Siena.     1902. 
H.    F.    Reuter Geschichte  Alexanders  des  dritten,   und  die  Kirche 

seiner  Zeit,      1860-4. 
The  Pilgrimage  of  S.   Silvia  of  Aquitania  to  the  Holy  Places.     Trans. 

John  H.  Bernard,  1 891.     (Palestine  Pilgrims'  Text  Society,  vol.  i.) 
Of  The  Holy  Places  visited  by  Antoninus   Martyr.      Trans.    Aubrey 

Stewart,  1887,     (Palestine  Pilgrims'  Text  Society,  vol.  ii=) 


336  APPENDIX  A. 

Theodosius    on    the    Topography   of  the    Holy    Land.      Trans.    T.    II. 

Bernard,  1S93.     (Palestine  Pilgrims'  Text  Society,  vol.  ii.) 
S.  Silvi<t  Aquitamc  Pcreg7-inatio  ad  loca  Sancta  quae  inedita  ex  codicc 

Aretino  deprompsit  Joh.  Franc.  Gamurrini.      1S87. 
Antonini  Placcntini  Itinerariuni.     (Corp.   Script.   Eccl.   Lat.  xxxiiii., 

173- ) 
Theodosius  De  Situ  Ter res  Sand ce.      {Ibid.,  135.) 
Dean  Hook — Lives  of  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury.     Vol.  ii. 
liinerariian  regis  Angloru7n  Richardi  et  alioruni  in  ten-at/i  Hierosoly- 

morum    auciore    Gaufrido    Vinisauf.     Apud    Historije   Anglicanit 

Scriptores  Quinque.     Ed.  Thos.  Gale.     Vol.  ii.,  p.  245.     1687. 
Karamsin — Histoire  de  Russie.     Tomes  ii.  v. 
J.   H.   Newman — The  Lives  of  the  English  Saints,  written  by  varioia 

hafids,  etc.,  vol.  i. 
Nar7-atio  de  FundatioTte  Fontanis  Monasterii  in  Co?nitatu  Eboracensi. 

Ed.  J.  R.  Walbran.      1863.     Vol.  i.     (Surtees  Society,  42.) 
Epistolce  Canttiarienses.    No.  cccxlvi.    Ed.  Stubbs.    (Rolls  Series,  38b.) 
P.   Sabatier — Life  of  St.  Francis  of  Assist.     Trans.   L.   S.  Houghton. 

1896. 
Specuhtfji   Perfectionis ,  seu  S.   Francisci  Assisiensis  Legenda  Antiquis- 

sima,  auctore  Fratre  Leone.     Trans.  Sebastian  Evans.      1898. 
Matthew  Arnold — Essays  in  Criticis??i.     First  series.     1865. 
C.  J.   VON  Hefele — Life  and  Times  of  Cardinal  Ximenes.      Trans. 

Dalton.      1885. 
Ordericus    Vitalis — Historia  ecclesiastica,    etc.     Apud    Monumenta 

Germanise  Historica.     Ed.  Pertz.     Scriptores  xx.,  50. 
Mouravieff — The  Church  of  Russia.     Trans.  Blackmore.      1842. 
J.  Cotter  Morison — Life  of  St.  Bernard.     1863. 
Joseph  M'Cabe — Peter  Abelard.     1901. 
John   Pinkerton —  VitcB  antiques  Satictorum   Scotii?.     Ed.    Metcalfe. 

1889. 
P.  Eraser  Tytler — Scottish  Worthies.     3  vols.      183 1-3. 
F.  Perry — St.  Louis.     1901. 

S.  Kettlewell — Authorship  of  the  "■  De  Bnitatione   Christi.""     1 87 1. 
Thomas  a  Kempis  and  the  Brothers  of  Co7nmon  Life. 
2  vols.      1882. 
C.  Wolfegruber — Giovanni  Gersen,  sein  Leben  und  sein  IVerk  "  De 

l7nitatioti£  Christi."      1880. 
Dante — Divi7ia  ComTnedia.     Trans.  Car}'. 
W.  Langland — Vision  of  Piers  PlowT7ia7i.     Ed.  Skeat. 

[For  the  legends  of  South-Westem  France,  see  my  Article, 
"French  Stone-Superstitions"  in  the  Anglican  Church 
Magazine  for  October  1 888,  vol.  v.,  p.  19.] 


APPENDIX  A.                              337 

Drummond    of    Hawthorn  den— *'. 4  Hymn    of  the    Ascension."' 

(Muses  Library  Edition,  vol.  ii.) 

Tfu  Gulden  Legend.     Trans.  W.  Caxton.  (Temple  Classics,  ed.  Ellis.) 


CHAPTER   v.-    (pages  1 10-136). 

I^ISHOP  Creighton — History  of  the  Papacy  from  the  Great  Schism  to 
the  Sack  of  Rome.     New  Ed.     6  vols.      1S97. 

John  WycUf  at  Oxford.  Church  Quarterly  Re^'iew  for 
October  1877.  Reprinted  in  "  Historical  Essays  and 
Re\*iews."  1902. 
Influence  of  the  Reformation  upon  England,  with  Special 
Reference  to  the  Works  and  Writings  of  John  Wyclif 
A  Paper  read  at  the  Carlisle  Church  Congress,  1SS4. 
Reprinted  in  "The  Church  and  the  Nation."  1901. 
B.    NiEHUES — Geschichte  des    Verhdltnisses  zwischen  Kaiserthum  und 

Papstthu?n  im  Mittelalter.      1863. 
L'Abb6  J.   B.   Christophe— //^z>/i?z><f  de  la  Papaute  pendant  le  AT"'* 

Steele.     2  tomes.      1863. 
J.  LosERTH — Htis  und  Wiclif      1884. 

[See  also  my  Article  on  "John  Wyclif,"  in  the  Church  Quarterly 
Review   for    October    1891    (vol.    xxxiii.,    p.    115),    and    the 
authorities  there  cited.] 
J.   Wyclif — De  qtiatucr  Sectis  Novellis.     (Wvclif  Societv,  Polemical 

Works,  vol.  i.,  1883.) 
T.   Walsingham — Histaria  Anglicana.     Ed.   H.   T.   Rilev.     Vol.   ii. 

(Rolls  Series,  28.) 
Pasquale  Villari — Life  and  Times  of  Girolamo  Savonarola.     Trans. 

Linda  Villari.     2  vo'ls.     1 888. 
Margaret  Oliphant — Makers  of  Florence  .  .  .  and  their  City.     1S76. 
[See  also  my  Articles  on  "  Savonarola  "  in  the  Edinlnirgh  Revie^u 
for  July  1 889  (vol.  clxxix.,  p.  68),  and  in  the  Church  Quarterly 
Review  for  July  1889  (vol.  xxviii.,  p.  426),  and  the  authorities 
there  cited.] 
Meditatio  pia  et  erudita  Hier.     Savonarolce  a  papa  exusti,  supra  Psalmos 
"Miserere   mei"   et    "In    te,    Domine,   speravi"   cum  prcefatiotie 
Lutheri.      1523. 
J.  C.  L.  Gieseler — Ecclesiastical  History.     Trans.  J.  W.  Hull.     1853. 

Vol.  iv. 
Table  talk  of  Martin  Luther.     Trans,  and  ed.  W.  Hazlitt.      1890. 
Margin  Liither's  erste  und  dlteste  Vorles^tngen  iiber  die  Psalmen.     Ed. 

J.  C.  Seidemann.      1876. 
Julius  Koestlin — Martin  Luther ;  sein   Leben   und  seine  Schriften, 
2nd  ed.      1883. 


338  APPENDIX  A. 

F^LIX  KUHN — Luther^  sa  Vie  et  son  ctuvre.  2  tomes.  1883,  etc. 
T.  Carlyle — Critical  atid  Miscellaneous  Essays.  7  vols.  1889. 
Sir  W.  Stirling-Maxwell— T:^^  Cloister  Life  of  the  Emperor  Charles 

V,     srded.     1853. 
Clements  R.  Markham— Zz/^  of  Christopher  Columbus.     1892. 
Henry  Harrisse — Christophe  Colombe,  son  origitu^  sa  vie,  ses  voyages, 

safamille,  et  ses  descendants.     2  tomes.     1884. 
Justin  Winsor — Christopher  Columbus,  and  how  he  received  and  im- 
parted the  spirit  of  Discovery.      1 893. 
Hakluyt  Society,  vol.  ii.  (1847);  vol.  xliiL  (1870);  voL  Ixxxvi.  (1893). 
Bishop    '^iXi^^s— Seventeen  Lectures  on  the   Study  of  Medieval  and 

Modem  History.     3rd  ed.      1900. 
T.  E.  Bridgett— Zz/^  ayid  Writings  of  Sir  Thomas  More.     1891. 

Life  of  Blessed  John  Fisher.     1888. 
William  Roper— Z^  and  Death  of  Sir  Thomas  More.     Ed.  S.  W. 

Singer.      1822. 
Paul  Friedmann — Atiyie  Boleyn.     2  vols.     1884. 
James  Gairdner — Letters  and  Papers.     Vols,  vii.,  ix. 
J.  M.  N.  D.  ^iSyKM:)— Renaissance  et  Riforme.     3rd  ed.      1877. 
F.  Si'E.-^.-zOYiy,^— The  Oxford  Reformers  of  \^<^%.     1867. 
Gioz'atmi  Pico  della  Miratidola,  his  Life;  by  G.  F.   Pico.     Also  three 

of  his  Letters,  and  his  interpretation  of  Psalm  XVI.     Trans,  by 

Sir  T.  More.     Ed.  J.  M.  Rigg.     1890. 
Erasmi  Epistolce.     Ed.  Leyden. 
Early  English    Text  Society  (Extra   Series,   "^y^NW.)— Treaty se  con- 

cernymge  .  .   .  the   setien    Penytejicyall  Psalmes.       Emprynted    by 

W}Tik>Ti    de  Worde,    12    Iujti,    m.CCCCC.ix.     (English  Works   of 

John  Fisher.     Part  I.     Ed.  J.  E.  B.  Mayor.      1876.) 
Lord  Acton — Wolsey  and  the  Divorce  of  Henry   VI IL     (^Quarterly 

Review  for  January  1877.) 
A.  V^^Q-LTyiA^yi— Holbein  ajid  his  Ti7?ie.    Trans.  F.  E.  Bunnett.     1872. 
J.   M.   Stone — Faithful  zinto  Death.     An  Account  of  the  Sufferings  of 

the  English  Franciscans  during  the  i6ih  ajid  ijth  Centuries.     1892. 
J.  A.  Froude — History  of  England.     Ed.  1856. 
Life  and  Letters  of  St.  Francis  Xavier.     Ed.   Henry  James  Coleridge. 

New  Ed.     2  vols.     1886. 

[See  also  my  Article  on  **St.   Francis  Xavier"  in  the   Church 
Quarterly  Review  for  April  1889  (vol.  xxviii.,  p.  160),  and  the 
authorities  there  cited.] 
Mrs.  G.  Cunninghame  Graham— i'aw/a  Teresa,  etc.     2  vols.     1894. 

Life  and  Letters  of  St.   Teresa.     Ed.  Henry  James  Coleridge.     3  vols. 
18S1. 


APPENDIX  A.  339 

Parker  Society— Za/<?r  Writings  of  Bishop  Hooper.     Ed.  C.  Nevin- 

son.     1852. 
John  Foxe — Acts  and  Monuments.     Vol.  vii.     (Ed.  Peatt  and  Stough- 

ton.     8  vols.)     1877. 
John  Bayley — History  and  Antiquities  of  the  Tower  of  London.     2nd 

ed.      1830. 
Robert  Southwell — Complete  Poems.     Ed.  A.   B.   Grosart.     1872. 

(Fuller's  Worthies  Library.) 


CHAPTER  VI.    (pages  137-167). 

Didiojiary   of  Hymnology.     Ed.    John   Julian.     See    "  Old   Version." 
"  Psalters,  English  ;  "   '*  Psalters,  French  ; "  "  Scottish  Hymnody ;" 
*'  German  Hymnody." 
C.   E.   P.  Wackernagel — Das  deutsche  Kirchenlied  von  der  dltesten 

Zeit^  etc.     Leipzig,  5  Bde.     1 864-7. 
Catharine  Winkvvorth — Chorale  Book  for  England.     1863.     Nos. 

40,  loi,  149. 
Christian  Singers  of  Germany.      1869. 
Lyra  Germanica.     2nd  Series.      1858. 
F6lix  Bovet — Hisioire  du  Psautier  des  Aglises  Reformdes,     1872. 
E.  O.  DoVE.^— Clement  Marot  et  le  Psautier  Huguenot^  etc.     2  tomes. 

1878. 
Histoire  ecclesiastique  des  Eglises   Reformdes  du  royaume  de  Fratice. 

Tome  I.     (Wrongly  attributed  to  Beza.)     3  tomes.     1841-42. 
Thomas  Stern  hold — Certayne  Psalmes,  chose  out  of  the  Psalter  of 
David  and  drawe  into  Englishe  meti'e  by  Thomas  Sternholdy  grome  of 
ye  Kyn^s  Maies tie's  roobes.     n.d. 
Al  such  Psalmes  of  David  as   Tho??ias  Sternkolde,  late  grome  of  the 
Kynge's  Maiestie's  roobes ^  did  in  his  lyfe  tym^  drawe  into  English 
metre.      (1549.) 
Psalmes  of  David  in  Metre,  drawen  into  Englishe  Metre  by  M.  Sterne- 
holde.     Imprinted  in  London  in  Flete  Strete  at  the  signe  of  the 
Sunne  over  against  the  conduit  by  Edward  Whitchurche,  the  xxii 
day  of  June,  anno  dom.  1551. 
One  and  fiftie  Psalmes  of  Dauid  in  Englishe  Metre,  whereof"^*]  were 

made  by  Thomas  Sternholde,  ad  the  rest  by  others,  etc.      1556. 
The  whole  Book  of  Psalmes,  collected  into  English  metre  by  T.  Stern- 
hold,  fohn  Hopkins  and  others;  conferred  with  the  Ebrtie,  with  apt 
notes  to  sing  them  withal,  etc.     John  Daye.     1562. 
A  New  Version  of  the  Psalmes  of  David,  Fitted  to  the  Tunes  tised  in 
Churches,  by  N.   Tate  and  N.  Brady.     1696. 
J.   SlR-^VlS.— The  Life  and  Acts  of  Matthew  Parker  .   .   .   Archbishop  of 
Canter  bu  ry.      lyjl. 


340  APPENDIX  A. 

Ane  Copendious  ouik  of  godlie  Psalmes  attd  S^trituaLl  Sangis.     1578. 

The  Forme  of  Prayers  and  Ministration  of  the  Sacravient,  etc. ,  where- 
unto  are  also  added  sondrie  other  prayers,  with  the  whole  Fsalmes 
of  Dauid  in  English  Meter,  Printed  at  Edinburgh  by  Robert 
Lekprevik,  mdlxiiii. 

The  Psalmes  of  King  David,  translated  by  King  fames.     Oxford,  1631. 

The  Psalmes  of  David  in  Meter.  Newly  translated  and  diligently  com- 
pared with  the  Original  Text  and  former  Translations:  More  plain, 
smooth,  and  agreeable  to  the  Text  than  any  heretofore.  Allowed  by 
the  Authority  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  and 
appointed  to  be  sung  in  Congregations  and  Families.  Edinburgh, 
1650. 

T.  \\ AKTO^  —  History  of  English  Poetry.  Vol.  iv.  Ed.  Hazlitt. 
4  vols.      1 87 1. 

The  Chronicle  of  Queen  fane,  etc.  (Camden  Societ}',  Old  Series. 
No.  48.) 

John  Lothrop  Motley — The  Rise  oj  the  Dutch  Republic.  New 
edition.     3  vols.     Ed.  Moncure  D.  Conway.      1896. 

Accounts  and  Papers  relating  to  Mary  Queen  of  Scots.  (Camden 
Society,  Old  Series.     No.  93.) 

J.  A.  Froude — History  of  England.     Vols.  viii.  and  ix. 

J.  Skelton — Mary  Stuart.      1893. 

J.  HosACK — Mary  Queen  of  Scots  and  her  Accttsers.  2nd  ed.  2  vols, 
1870-74. 

Andrew  Lang — The  Mystery  of  Mary  Stuart.     1901. 

Hon.  M.  M.  Maxwell  Scott — The  Tragedy  of  Fotheringay,  etc. 
1895. 

Lucy  Aikin — Memoirs  of  iJie  Court  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  2  vols. 
Ed.  1818. 

John  Holland — Psalmists  of  Britain.     1843. 

H.  A..  Glass— 7^5  story  of  the  Psalters,  etc.     1888. 

Philip  Jones — A  true  Report  of  a  worthy  fight,  performed  in  the  voyage 
from  Turkie,  by  fizie  ships  of  London,  against  1 1  Gallics  and  two 
Frigats  of  the  King  of  Spaijzes,  at  Pantalarea  within  the  streights. 
Anno  1586. 

[See  p.  285  of  the  second  volume  of  the  Principall  Navigations, 
Voyages,  Traffiques  and  Discoveries  of  the  English  Nation  .  .  . 
by  Richard  Hakluyt.      1599.] 

The  Casting  away  of  the  ' '  Tobie  "  72eere  Cape  Espartel,  corruptly  called 
Cape  Sprat,  without  the  straight  of  Gibraltar  on  the  Coast  of  Bar ' 
barie,  1 593. 

[See  p.  201  of  the  Second  Part  of  the  second  volume  of  Hakluyt's 
Principall  Navigations,  as  above.  ] 

James  Spedding — An  Account  of  the  Life  and  Times  of  Bacon.      1S78. 


APPENDIX  A.  341 

William  Stebbing— i'zV  Walter  Ralegh.     (Re-issue,  1899.) 

John    llusKi-a—Bibliotheca  Pastorum.      Vol.    ii.      (1S77.)      **Rock 

Honeycomb." 
C.  W.  Le  Bas— T:^  Life  of  Bishop  Jewel.      1832. 
I.    Walton — The   Lives  of  .  .   .  Mr.    Richard  Hooker^    Mr.    George 

Herbert^  etc.     Ed.  1S66. 
G.  Herbert — Works.     2  vols.     Ed.  1844. 
Richard  Hooker — Ecclesiastical  Polity. 


CHAPTERS  Vn.    AND  Vni.    (pages  168-209). 

F.  BOVET — Histoire  du  Psautier  des  £glises  Reform Jes.      1872. 

E.  O.  DouEN — CUment  Marot  et  le  Psautier  Hugiietiot,  oXz.     2  tomes. 

1878-9. 
H.  L.  BoRDiER — Le  Chansonnier  Huguenot  du  XVI^  Siecle.      1870. 
A.  CoQUEREL,  Fils — Les  Forcats  pour  la  Foi.     £tude  historique  (16S4- 

1775).      1866. 
A.    Court — Histoire  des  troubles  des  Cevennes,  ou  de  la   Guer7-e  des 

Catnisards,  etc.     Nouvelle  ed.     3  tomes.      1819. 
Florimond  de  R]4mond — Histoire  de  la  naissance,  progrez,  et  decadetjce 

de  Vh^risie  de  ce  Siecle.     Rouen.     1623. 
J.  Crespin — Histoire  des  Martyrs.     1582. 

F.  Strada — De  bello  Belgico. 

N.  A.  F.  Puaux — Histoire  de  la  Refori7iation  fran^aise.      1857. 
A.  Crottet — Petit  Chronique  Protesta^ite  de  France,  etc.      16™^  Siecle. 
1846. 

G.  von    Polenz — Geschichie   des  franzosischen    Calvinistmcs   bis   ziir 
Nationalversamnilung.     5  Bde.      1787. 

E.  Benoist — Histoire  de  Vddii  de  Nayites.      1693-5.     3  tomes. 

F.  de  la  Noue — Discours  politiques  et  militaires.      1587. 

F.  Leguat —  Voyages  et  Avantures.     2  tomes.     1708.     (And  see  Hak- 

luyt  Society.      1891.) 
H.  MORLEY — Life  of  Palissy.     2  vols.      1852. 
Louis  Palaysi — Bernard  Palissy  et  les  dibuts  de  la  Rijorme  en  Saint- 

ogne.      1899. 
Aulcuns  Pseaubnes  et  Cantiqtus  mys  en   Chant.     A  Strasburg.      1539. 
[Calvin's  translations  were  Pss.  xxv.,  xxxN-i.,  xlvi.,  xci.,  cxxxviii,] 
Les  cinqnante  psaumes  de  Afarot,  suivis  de  la  liturgie  et  du  caiechisme  et 
pri^cidis  de  la  preface  de  Calvin,  du  10  fuin,  1543.     Geneve,  1543. 
[See  Bovet,   Hist,   du  Psautier.     Bibliographie,  !*'"«  Partie,  Nos. 
5,6.] 


342  APPENDIX  A. 

Paul  Henry,  D.D.  —  The  Life  and  Times  of  John  Calvin,  the  Great 

Reformer.     Trans.  H.  Stebbing.     2  vols.      1899. 
T.  H.  T>Y^K—The  Life  of  John  Calvin.      1850. 
Beza — Vie  dej.  Calviti,  par  Theodore  de  Beze.     Nouvelle  ed.   publiee 

et  annotee  par  Alfred  Franklin.     1869. 
Les  Censures  des  theologiens  de  Paris  par  lesquelles  ils  aiwyent  faulse- 

ment  condarnne  les  Bibles  imprimees  par  Robert  Estienne  .   .   .   a7/ec 

la  response  dHceluy.     1552. 
Bulletin  de  la  Sociit4  d'histoire  du  Protestatitisme.     Tome  iii. 
Jean  de  Serres — Inventaire  GiniraJ.  de  Thistoire  de  France.    Ed.  1647, 
F.  A.   Gasquet — Henry  VIII.  and  the  English  Monasteries.     2  vols. 

1888. 

Lady  Georgiana  Fullerton — Life  of  Luisa  de  Carvajal.     1873. 

[For  Coligny,  see  my  Article  on  "  Gaspard  de  Coligny"  in  the 
Church  Quarterly  Review  for  January  189 1  (vol.  xxxi.,  p.  361), 
and  the  authorities  there  cited.] 
T.  A.  jy hXi'&iQ^t—Histoire  Uttiverselle.     1616-20. 
Angliviel  de  la  Baumelle — M4moires  pour  servir  h  Vhistoire  de 
Mcuiame  de  Maintenon.     1 755.     (Letter  of  Madame  D'Aubigne.) 
Also  quoted  by  Puaux,  Hist,  de  la  Reformation  Francaise.     Tome 
v.,  and  in  P.  de  Noailles,  Hist,  de  Madame  dx  Mainte7ion.     Tome 
I.,  chap.  ii. 

[For  Henri  de  Rohan,  and  the  Siege  of  La  Rochelle,  see  my 
Article  on  "  Henri  de  Rohan  and  the  Huguenot  Wars"  in  the 
Edinburgh  Review  for  April  1890  (vol.  clxxl,  p.  389),  and  the 
authorities  there  cited.] 
Montaigne — Essais.     Liv.  I.,  ch.  Ivi.  (des  Prieres). 
Phil.  Desportes — Les  CL.  Psaumes  mis  en  vers  fran^ais.     1598. 
Jean  Metezeau — Les  CL.  Pseaumes  mis  en  vers  fran^ais,  etc.     1610. 
Michel  de  Marillac— Z^j  CL.  Pseaumes  de  David,  etc.     Traduits 

en  vers  fran^ais.     1625. 
Ant.  Godeau — Paraphrase  des  Pseaumes  de  David  en  vers  francais. 

1648. 
R.  F.  Wilson— Zz/^f  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul.     1873. 
H.  Heine — Werks.      Ed.   Hoffmann  und  Campe.      Romanzero  ;  He- 

braische  Melodien.     Letter  to  Moser,  23rd  May  1823. 
Bishop  J.  P.  Camus — Esprit  de  St.  Francois  de  Sales.     Nouvelle  ed. 

3  tomes.     1840. 
S.  Francis  de  Sales ^  Bishop  and  Prince  of  Geneva.      1882.     ("  Christian 

Biographies."     Ed.  H.  L.  Sidney  Lear.) 
Mimoire  veritable  du  prix  excessive  des  vivres  de  la  Rochelle  pendant  le 
siige.     1628. 

[See  E.  FnurmVr.  Varifff^t  historifjuf.s.  etc.     i85«;-63.] 


APPENDIX  A.  343 

Mdmoires  pour  servir  h  Phistoire  de  Port  Royal,  et  h  la  trU  de  la  Rivi- 
rettde  m^re  Marie  Angdiqiie  de  Sainte  Magdeleim  Arnauld.  3 
tomes.     Utrecht,  1742. 

Histoire  des  Persecutions  de  Religieuses  de  Port  Royal  dcrites  par  elles 
mimes.     (Relation  de  ce  qui  s'est  passe  a  Port  Royal  en  1661.) 

Chapitre  xxii.     Ville-Franche,  1753. 

Emile  Boutroux — Pascal.     (Les  grands  ecrivains  fran9ais.) 

A.  MONASTIER — Histoire  de  V Eglise  Vaudoise.     2  tomes.      1847. 

B.  MUSTON — V Israel  des  Alpes.     4  tomes.      1851. 

Charles  Coquerel — Histoire  des  Aglises  du  Desert,  etc.     2  tomes, 

1841.     Tome  II. 
N.  Peyrat — Histoire  des  Pasteurs  du  desert.     2  tomes.      1 842. 
Thidtre  Sacr^  des   Civennes  (quoted  by  Douen,   Clement  Marot^   etc 

Tome  I.,  p.  25). 


CHAPTER   IX,    (pages  210-236). 

Edward  Arber — 77ie  Story  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  etc.     1897. 
Edward  Johnson — Wonder-working  Providence  of  Sion^s  Saviour: 

being  a  relation  of  the  First  Planting  of  New  England  in  the  Year 

1628.     Part  III.  of  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorge's  America  Painted  to  the 

Life.     1659. 
The  Works  of  Benjamin  Franklin.    Ed.  Jared  Sparks.     10  vols.     1840. 
The  Works  of  Jeremy  Taylor,  D.D.     Ed.  Heber.     15  vols.     1822. 
IzAAK  Walton— 7:^5  Life  of  Dr.  Robert  Sanderson.     1678. 
The  Letters  and  Journals  of  Robert  Baillie,  A.   M.     Edited   for  the 

Bannatyne  Club  by  David  Laing,  vol.  i.     3  vols.      1 84 1-42. 
Walter  Farquhar  Hook — Lives  of  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury. 

iMud.      (New  Series,  vol.  vi.)     1875. 
j  Sir   Henry  Slingsby — Original  Memoirs  written  during  the   Great 

Civil  War.     Ed.  Sir  W.  Scott.     1806. 
Clarendon,  Earl  oy— History  of  the  Rebellion  and  Civil  Wars  in 

England.     8  vols.      1826. 
John  Milton — Works.     "  Globe  **  Edition.     1877. 
John  Bunyan — Grace  Abounding  to  the  Chief  of  Simiers,  etc.     1666. 
Thomas  Carlyle — Oliver  Cromwell's  Letters  and  Speeches.    CopjTight 

Edition.     5  vols,     1888. 


CHAPTER  X.    (pages  237-267). 

Patrick  Walker — Six  SaitUs  of  the  Coveiuitit.     Ed.  D.  May  Flem- 
ing.    With  a  "Foreword"  bv  S.  R.  Crockett.      1901. 


344  APPENDIX  A. 

John  Knox — The  History  of  the  Reformation  of  Religion  within  the 

Realm  of  Scotland.     Ed.  Charles  John  Guthrie.      1898. 
A    Compendious    Book    of  Godly   and  Spirittial  Songs.      Ed.    A.    F. 

Mitchell,  D.D.      1897. 
John  Howie — Biographia  Scoticana,     Ed.  1796. 
Autobiography  atid  Diary  of  Mr.  Jatyies   Melvill.      Edited    for    the 

Wodrow  Society.      1842. 
Tames  Dodds — The  Fifty   Years'  Struggle  of  the  Scottish  Covefianters. 

i860. 
Robert   Wodrow — The  History  of  the  Sufferings  of  the  Church  of 

Scotland,  etc.     Ed.  Rev.  R.  Burns.     4  vols.      1828-30. 
Andrew  Crichton — Memoirs  oftJie  Rev.  John  Blackader.     1823. 
A  Clmid  of  Witnesses  for  the  Royal  Prerogative  of  /esus  Christ,  etc. 

Ed.  J.  H.  Thomson.     1871. 
Joseph  M'Cormick — Life  of  Mr.  Carstares.     (Prefixed  to  State  Papers 

aful  letters  addressed  to  William  Carstares,  etc.)     Ed.  1774. 
The  Siege  of  Londonderry  in  1689  ;  as  set  forth  in  the  Literary  Remains 

of  Col    The  Rev,  George  Walker,  D.D.     Ed.  Rev.  Philip  Dwyer. 

1893.  

CHAPTER   XI.    (pages  26S-295). 

William  Orme— Zz/^r  of  Richard  Baxter.     (Prefixed  to  his   Works. 
Ed.  1830.) 

[See  also  my  Articles  on  "Alexander  Pope"  and  **Courthope"s 
Life  of  Pope"  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  for  October  1884  (vol. 
clx.,  p.  295),  and  the  Quarterly  RcTjiew  for  October  1889  (vol. 
clxix.,  p.  247).] 
William  Law — A  Serious  Call  to  a  Devout  and  Holy  Life,  etc.,  1729. 
Edward  Gibbon — Autobiographies.  '  Ed.  John  Murray.      1896. 
[John  Wesley]— C^/^^/ww  of  Psalms  and  Hymns.     (Charles  Town. 
Printed  by  Lewis  Timothy,   1737.)     A  facsimile  reprint  was  pub- 
lished, with  a  Preface  by  Dr.  Osbom,  in  London  in  1882. 
Charles  Wesley — The  Poetical  Works  of  John  and  Charles  Wesley, 
etc.      Collected    and    Arranged    by   George    Osbom.      13    vols. 
1868-72. 
John  ^■E-SURY—Jourfial.     4  vols.     1827. 

Luke  Tyerman — Life  of  George  Whitefeld.     2  vols.     1876-7.  I 

Prince  HoARE — Memoirs  of  Granville  Sharp.    2nd  ed.    2  vols.    1828. 
LJfe  of  William  Wilherf or ce.     By  his  Sons.     2nd  ed.      1843. 
John  Keble — The  Christian  Year.      1828. 

The  Psalter,  or  Psalms  of  David,  in  English  Verse ^  by  a  Member 
of  the  University  of  Oxford.     1839. 


i 


APPENDIX  A.  345 

E.  S.  PURCELL — Life  of  Cardinal  Manning.     2  vols.      1896, 

J.     II.     Newman — Verses    on    Various    Occasions:     '■^  The   Dream   of 

GeronJiusJ'''     New  ed.     1893. 
Dean   Stanley — Life  and  Correspondence  of  Thomas  Arnold,  D.D. 

2  vols.      1846. 
Charles  Kings  ley ;  his  Letters  and  Memories  of  his  Life.     Edited  by  his 

Wife.     2  vols.     Ed.  1877. 
Robert  Buchanan — The  Teji  Years'  Conflict,  being  the  History  of  the 

Disruption  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.     2  vols.      1849. 
W.   Hanna — Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  IVritings  of  Thomas  Chalmers, 

D.D.,  LL.D.     4  vols.     1849-53. 
Mrs.  Oliphant — The  Life  of  Edzvard  Irving.     4th  ed.      1865. 
H.  R.  Fox  Bourne — The  Life  of  John  Locke.     2  vols.     1876. 

F.  H.  Alexander  von  Humboldt — Cosmos.    Trans.  Colonel  Sabine. 

2nd  ed.      1846-58. 
John  Veitch — Memoir  of  Sir  William  Ha7?iilton,  Bart.      1869. 
John  Duns — Memoir  of  Sir  fames  Y.  Simpson,  Bart.      1873. 
The  Life  and  Letters  of  George  John  Romanes.     By  his  Wife.      1896. 
Robert  Southey— Zz/^  of  William  Cowper.     (Prefixed  to  his  Works.) 

Ed.  1836. 
John  Gibson  Lockhart — Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  Sir  Walter  Scott, 

Bart.     10  vols.     1839. 
Mrs.  Garden — Memorials  of  James  Hogg.     1887. 
John  Glyde — The  Life  of  Edward  Fitzgerald,  with  an  Introduction  by 

Edward  Clodd.      1900. 
Letters   and  Literary   Remains  of  Edward  Fitzgerald.     Ed.   William 

Aldis  Wright.     3  vols.      1889. 
Thomas    Carlyle — On    Heroes,    Hero-worship,    and    the    Heroic    in 

History.     (See  Lectures  II.  and  V.)     Ed.  1891. 
John  Ruskin — Praterita.     Vol.  i. 

Our  Fathers  have  told  Us.     Chap.  iii. 
Modem  Paititers.     Part  vii.,  Chap.  iv. 


CHAPTER   XII.    (pages  296-329). 

James  Baldwin  Brown — Memoirs  of  the  Public  and  Private  life  of 

John  Howard.      1818. 
John  Howard — An   Account  of  the  Principal  Lazarettos  in  Europe, 

etc.      1789. 
Convers    Francis — Life    of  John    Eliot.       {Library    of   American 

Biography,  ed.  J.  Sparks,  vol.  v.,  1836.) 


346  APPENDIX  A. 

Jonathan  Edwards  the  Elder — An  Accotmt  of  the  Life  of  David 

Brainerd  .  .   .  chiefly  ,   .  .  from  his  o^n  Diary.      174Q. 
George  Smith — The  Life  of  William  Carey ^  D.D.,  Shoemaker  a)id 
Missionary.      1 885. 
The  Life  of  Alexander  Duff.     2  vols.      1 879. 
journals  and  Letters  of  Henry  Martyn.     Ed.  S.  Wilberforce.     2  vols. 

1837. 
Rev.  John  Sargent— ^T/^;/2^z>  of  the  Life  of  Henry  Martyn.     18 19. 
Rev.  J.  W.  Marsh— ^  Memoir  of  A.  F.  Gardiner.     iSs7. 
William  Garden  Blaikie— 77^^  Persmal  Life  of  David  Livingstone. 
1880. 
The  Last  Journals  of  David  Livingstone.     Ed.   H.  Waller.     2  vols. 
1874. 
E.  C.  ViPC^'SO^—Jaines  Hannitigton,frstBisJiop  of  Eastern  Equatorial 
Africa.      1 887. 
Atitobiography  of  Alexander  Carlyle.      i860. 
Philip  Doddridge — So7ne  Remarkable  Passages  in  the  Life  of  .  .  .  . 

Col.  Gardiner.      1 747. 
James  Anthony  Froude — Life  of  Thomas  Carlyle:  a  History  of  his 
Life,  vol.  iL     4  vols.      1884. 
Letters  and  Memorials  of  Jane  Welsh  Carlyle.     3  vols.      1 883. 
Honor6  de  Balzac — Les  Chouans ;  ou  la  Bretagtie  en  1799.     2nd  ed. 

1834. 
Louise  H.  C.  P.  de  Durfort,  Duchesse  de  T)vr.as— Journal  des 

Frisotis  de  tnon  pere,  de  ma  77i^re  et  des  fniennes.      1888. 
Captain  John  Grover — An  Appeal  to  the  British  Nation  in  Behalf  of 
Col.  Stoddart  and  Capt.    Coitolly,  now  in  j 
Captivity  in  Bokhara.      1 843. 
The  Bokhara  Victims.     2nd  ed.      1845. 
'^OU'sXs^i'LLiA.'si^Lk.Y-E.— Lives  of  Indian  Officers.     2  vols.      1867. 
John  Clark  Marshman — MeTnoirs  of  Major- General  Sir  H.  Havelock. 

i860. 
William  Edwards — Personal  Adventures  during  the  Indian  Rebellion^ 

etc.     1858. 
W.  Forbes  Mitchell — Retniniscences  of  the  Great  Mutiny.     1895. 
Paul  Kruger — Memoirs^  told  by  Hiinself.     2  vols.      1902. 


APPENDIX    B. 

INDEX  TO  THE  USE  OF  PARTICULAR  PSALMS. 

In  this  index  the  historical  instances  of  the  use  of  the  Psalter,  which  in 
the  text  are  given  chronologically,  are  arranged  under  the  particular 
Psalms  to  which  they  refer. 


Psalms  i.-viii. — Milton,  222. 
Psalm   i. — B>Tron,   289  ;    Ruskin, 
294. 
V.  2.   Jerome,  33. 
4.   Boswell,  288. 
Psalm  ii. — Luther,  118. 
Psalm  hi. — English  nation,  157  ; 
The  Huguenots,  170. 
V.  5,  6.  Duff  (Indian   Mutiny), 
322-323. 
?5ALM  IV. — Luther,  118. 
V.   I.  Augustine,  44. 
2.  Augustine,  45. 
7.  James       Meh-ille,       242  ; 

James  Gardiner,  316. 
9.  Gorgonia,  26 ;  Luther,  26, 
118;     Langland,     106; 
Ridley,  133. 
PsALM  V. — V.  7.  Louis  IX.,  97. 
Psalm   vi.— Becket,    7S;    Bishop 
Hooper,     132 ;    Marot's 
version,    139   n.  ;   Cath- 
erine de  Medicis,  168. 
V.   I.  Florin  of  Edward  III.,  16. 

2.  Maine  de  Biran,  2S5. 
2-4.  Jane  Welsh  Carlyle,  317. 

3.  Cal\-in,  172. 

6.   Langland,  106. 


■  Psalm  viii.— Ruskin,  294. 
j      V.   I,  2.   Chaucer,  104. 

2.  Martin  of  Tours,  2^. 

4.  Bernard  Palissy,  171. 

5.  Earl  of  Arundel,  133. 

6.  7.   Butchers'  Company,  15. 
Psalm  ix.— z'.  10,  Dante,  102. 

12.  Archbishop  Laud,  219. 
Psalm  x. — Henry  Mart}-n,  306. 
Psalm  xi.— Man'  Queen  of  Scots, 

156. 
Psalm    xii.— Luther,     138;    The 
Todi'e,  159;  Ruskin,  294. 
v.  6.  John  Howard,  29S. 
Psalm  xiii. — z:  i.  Calvin,  172. 

3.  Saracen,  a/ud  Gregorj'  of 

Decapolis,  24. 
Psalm    xiv.  —  Queen    Elizabeth, 
151  ;       Ruskin,       294  ; 
Henry  Mart}"n,  307. 
z:   I.   Bacon,  160. 
2.  Baldwin,  S2, 
Psalm  xv. — Ruskin,  294;  Henry 
MartjTi,  307. 
V.   I.   Langland,  105. 
6.  Langland,  105. 
Psalm  xvl — Jean   Rousseau  and 
Duchess      of      Orleans, 


348 


APPENDIX  B. 


V.    4. 

7. 


12. 

Psalm 


Psalm 

18. 
25- 

28. 
29. 

39, 
Psalm 


V.  5. 

13- 
Psalm 


V.  7. 


9- 
Psalm 

Psalm 
f.  I. 

12. 

21. 

27. 
Psalm 


174 ;  Hugh  M'Kail,  248 ; 

Henry  Martyn,  307. 
William  Carey,  302. 
Beauchamp  family  motto, 

James  Mehnlle,  241. 
xvn.— John  Gibson,  259. 
John  Howard,  297. 
Julius    Hare,    278  ;    John 
Howard,  298. 

XVIII.  —  V.     10.     Shake- 
speare, 163. 

Shakespeare,  1 63. 
•27.    Rev.    George  Walker, 

265. 
James  Mehnlle,  242. 
Mause  Headrigg,  246. 
40.  Clovis,  72. 

XIX.  —  Joseph     Addison, 
287  ;  Ruskin,  294. 

Shakespeare,  163;  Milton, 

222. 
Bunyan,  226. 
XX. — Gw}Tilliu  and  Cadoc, 

61  ;  Sir  James  Simpson, 

286. 
Antony,   31  ;  Patrick,  54  ; 

Adelme,  of  Chaise-Dieu, 

83. 

National  Anthem,  15. 

XXI. — Henr}'   of  Navarre, 

183. 
XXII. — Bp.  Hooper,  132. 

Richard  I.,  83. 

Shakespeare,  162. 

Royal  supporters,  15. 

Henr>'  ^Iartyn,  306. 
XXIII. — Chosen  by  Augus- 
tine as  the  hymn  of  mar- 
tyrs, 23 ;  Bishop  Hooper, 
131  ;  George  Herbert, 
165 ;  Isabel  Alison  and 
Marion  Harvie,  259 ; 
Edward  Irving,  282 ; 
Joseph  Addison,  287  ; 
Byron,  289 ;  Ruskin,  294. 

Neander,  279. 


Psalm  xxiii.— 4.  James  Melville, 
242 ;  Sir  William  Hamil- 
ton, 2S5  ;  John  Howard, 
297;  Alexander  Duff,  309. 
6.  Benedictine  Rule,  63 ;  fa- 
ther of  Richard  Cameron, 
252. 

XXIV. — Legends  of  South- 
west France,  107  ;  Rus 
kin,  294. 

Great  Exhibition  of  185 1, 
16. 
-10.    Langland,     106 ;    The 
Golden  Legend^  108-109  ; 
Milton,  222. 

Alfred,  Neot,  69. 

XXV. — Margaret    Wilson, 
260. 

Louis  IX.,  97. 

Pico  della  Mirandola,  122. 

William  Edwards  (Indian 
Mutiny),  324. 

Eran9ois  de  Sales,  194. 

William    Edwards  (Indian 

Mutiny),  324. 
XXVI. — V.  2.  Abelard,  96. 

Paula,  35 ;  Hugh  of  Cluni, 

65. 
Langland,  105. 
XXVII.  —  Rev.      George 
Walker,     265  ;      G.     J. 
Romanes,    286  ;    James 
Hannington,  315. 
V.   I.   Oxford      University,     15  ; 
Savonarola,     116  -  117  : 
Fran9ois  de  Sales,   192  ; 
James  Melville,  242. 
9.   Gregory  the  Great,  62. 
14-16.   William    Edwards  (In- 
dian Mutiny),  324. 
14.  Allen  Gardiner,  310. 
16.   Lady  Jane  Grey,  145. 
Psalm   xxviii. — ^James   Hanning- 
ton, 315. 
V.  8.  Coins  of  Black  Prince,  16. 
Psalm  xxix. — v.  8.   Geoi^e  Her- 
bert, 165. 


Psalm 

V.     I. 

7- 


8. 
Psalm 

V.     I. 

6. 
13- 

14. 
16. 

Psalm 


10. 

Psalm 


APPENDIX  B. 


349 


PsAT.M    XXX.  —  Bishop     Hooper, 
132  ;    James     Hanning- 
ton,  315. 
Psalm  XXXI.— Savonarola,  1 16, 1 17; 
Charles  V.,  121  ;  Fisher, 
126;  BishopHooper,i32. 
V.   I.  Mere      Angelique,      19S  ; 
Xavier,  129. 
1-8.  Dante,  104. 

6.  Our  Saviour,  17;  Stephen, 

17  ;  Basil,  28  ;  Charle- 
magne, 74  ;  Becket,  78  ; 
Hus,  113,  122  ;  Jerome  of 
Prague,  1 13;  Luther,  117, 
121;  Melancthon,  117; 
Tasso,  122  ;  Columbus, 
121  ;  Charles  V.,  121  ; 
Fisher,  126,  132  ;  John 
Haughton,  127  ;  Thomas 
Cromwell,  132;  Hooper, 
132  ;  Ridley,  133  ; 
Robert  Southwell,  135  ; 
Lady  Jane  Grey,  147 ; 
Duke  of  Suffolk,  147  ; 
Egmontj  151  ;  Horn, 
151  ;  Mary  Queen  of 
Scots,  156  ;  George 
Herbert,  165 ;  Wishart, 
239  ;  John  Knox,  240  ; 
Hugh  M'Kail,  248  ; 
Donald  Cargill,  253  ; 
James  Ren  wick,  2  58  ; 
Newman  —  Gerontuis, 
277  ;  Henry  Martyn, 
305 ;  Madame  de  No- 
ailles,  319. 
Psalm  xxxii. — Augustine,  45; 
Ruskin,  293. 
V.  I.  Dante,  103;  Langland,  105. 
2.   Izaak  Walton,  215. 

7,  8.  Alexander  Peden,  255. 
Psalm  xxxiii. — v.  2.  Benedictine 

Rule,  64. 
17,  18.   Madame  Prosni,  197. 
Psalm    xxxiv.  —  William     Law, 

273- 

V.   I.  Theodore  the  Martyr,  24. 


Psalm 
10. 

II. 

II- 

Psalm 


10. 

23- 
Psalm 


Psalm 

16. 
25- 

Psalm 

v.  7. 

15- 
Psalm 


XXXIV.— 7'.  5.   Fisher,  126. 

Columbii,   57 ;   Allen  Gar- 
diner, 311. 

Baithen,  57. 
-15.   Benedictine  Rule,  63. 

XXXV. — V.    3.    Thomas    a 
Kempis,  100. 

Thomas  a  Kempis,  100. 

The  Armada,  82,  156. 

XXXVI. — V.    7.    Langland, 

105. 
XXXVII. — z'.   5.   David  I>iv- 
ingstone,  313. 

Jeanie  Deans  (Scott),  246, 

Jeanie  Deans,  246  ;  Baillie 

of  Jerviswood,  257. 
XXXVIII. — Bishop  Hooper, 
132. 

Maine  de  Biran,  285. 

George  Herbert,  165. 
XXXIX. — Ambrose,  45. 


10. 
Psalm 


Pambo,     31  ; 

Rule,  64. 
Shakespeare, 
Calvin,  172. 
XL. — V.     I. 

Sales,  193. 
Francis     of 


Benedictme 


163. 
Francois    de 


Assisi,      90 ; 
Robert  Southwell,  134. 

5.  Francois  de  Sales,  193. 

6.  Cromwell,  235. 

21.   Queen  Elizabeth,  151. 
Psalm  xlii. — Daniel   M 'Michael, 
258. 
V.    I.   Early       Christians,       23  ; 
George      Beisley,      133  ; 
Henry  H.,  169. 
2.   Francois  de  Sales,  193. 
6.   Manning,  277. 
14.  Vladimir        Monomachus, 
95  ;  Jeanie  Deans,  246. 
Psalm  xliii. — Baptism  of  Augus- 
tine,   45 ;     Anthony    of 
Navarre,  169. 
V.  3.  Thomas  Chalmers,  280. 
5.   Luther,  119;  Jeanie  Deans, 
246. 


350 


APPENDIX  B. 


Psalm 

kliv. — James  Melville,  240. 

V.  23 

.  Ambrose,  28. 

Psalm 

XLV.  —  Coronation    Serv- 

10, 

ices,  15 ;  Philip  Nicolai, 

12. 

138. 

13- 

V.  8. 

Gregor}'  \  II.,  •](). 

Psalm 

XLVL— Demetrius    of    the 
Don,    84,    169  ;    Luther 

17. 

and    Melancthon,     119; 

18. 

Luther  and  Thomas  Car- 

Psalm 

lyle,  119;    Luther,  138; 

Cromwell,      229,      236 ; 

Psalm 

Napoleon      III.,      320; 

V.  6. 

Havelock,  322. 

V.     I. 

Turstin  of  York,  %%. 

6, 

I- 

3.  Rev.     George    Walker, 

264. 

7. 

4- 

Bernard     and      Fountains 

8. 

Abbey,  89. 

15- 

5- 

Cathedral    at    Kieff,    46  ; 

18. 

Mediaeval     cosmogony — 

22. 

The  Holy  City,  98. 

25- 

7. 

John  Wesley,  274. 

Psalm 

7- 

II.  Rev.    George   Walker, 
265. 

Psalm 

10. 

Vincent    of    Lerins,    65 ; 

Richard   Cameron,   252  ; 

8. 

James  Renwick,  258. 

Psalm 

Psalm 

XLViii.— Ruskin,  294;  The 

Camisards,  206. 

Psalm 

V.  13 

.   Shakespeare,  163. 

V.     I. 

Psalm 

XLix.— z;.    I.  Gregory  Na- 

2. 

zianzen,  45. 

II. 

7. 

Matthew  Arnold,  290. 

Psalm 

Psalm 

L. — V.   16.   Origen,  29. 

V.     I, 

Psalm 

LI. — Savonarola,  116,  117; 

5- 

More,    124  ;    Lady  Jane 

5- 

Grey,     146 ;     Duke     of 

Psalm 

SufiFolk,    147 ;    Egmont, 

150;  Wolfgang  Schuch, 

V.  9. 

177 ;  Jacques  Roger,  207 ; 

Psalm 

Fran9ois   Benezet,    207 ; 

Bunyan,    225  ;   Wishart, 

12. 

239. 

Psalm 

V.     I. 

Neck -verse,  15. 

18. 

I, 

2.  William  Carey,  303. 

Psalm 

7. 

Langland,     106 ;      Shake - 

speare,       163  ;       Henr) 

Martyn,  307. 
II.  Teresa,  130. 
Thomas  Arnold,  278. 
Savonarola — Michel     An- 

gelo's  picture,  117. 
Augustine,  42  ;  Langland, 

106;  Teresa,  130. 
Henry  v.,  83. 
Lii. — Charles    I.    and   the 

Scottish  Camp,  221. 
LV. — Damley,  154. 
Jerome,  33  ;    Byron,  289  ; 

Browning,  291. 
7.   Benedictines    at    York, 

87. 
Turstin  of  York,  88. 
Fountains  Abbey,  89. 
Hooker,  142. 
Benedictine  Rule,  64. 
Allen  Gardiner,  311. 
Burghley,  160. 
LVI. — Charles  I.,  221. 
LVii. — V.    I.    Allen    Gar- 
diner,    311  ;     altar     at 
Bourget,  320. 
Robert  Sanderson,  214. 
LVIII. — V.  4.   Shakespeare, 

161  ;  Milton,  223. 
LX. — St.  Cutlibert,  59. 
John  Haughton,  127. 
"Bishop  Hall,  213. 
John  Howard,  297. 
LXii. — Bishop  Hooper,  131. 
2.   Augustine,  42. 
James  Gardiner,  316. 
-8.   Allen  Gardiner,  311. 
LXIII. — Beza,    173  ;    Chry- 

sostom,  173. 
Thomas  a  Kempis,  100. 
LXV. — V.  II.  Robert  South- 
well, 134. 
John  Wesley,  274. 
LXVI. — V.  14.  Bunyan,  224. 
Thomas  a  Kempis,  icx). 
LXVI  1 1.  —  Antony,      31  ; 
Browning,    31  ;    Charle- 


APPENDIX  B. 


351 


magne,  74  ;  Savonarola, 
115;  The  Huguenots,  1 70, 
172,  179,  184,  185,  196; 
Beza,  172,  179;  Crom- 
well, 235 ;  Moscow, 
320. 
V.  I.  National  Anthem,  15  ; 
Cromwell,  234 ;  Alex- 
ander Peden,  256 ;  Rev. 
George  Walker,  264. 

4.  Shakespeare,  163. 

5.  Shakespeare,    162  ;    Alex- 

ander    M 'Robin,     258  ; 
William     Edwards    (In- 
dian Mutiny),  324. 
15.  Shakespeare,  162. 

18.  Bunyan,  226. 

Psalm    lxix.  —  Bishop    Hooper, 
132. 
V.   12.  Archbishop  Laud,  219. 
Psalm     lxxl — Mary     Queen     of 
Scots,       156  ;       Bishop 
Jewel,      164  ;      William 
Wilberforce,  276. 
V.   I.  John  Howard,  297: 

8.   George      Herbert,       165  ; 
Jewel,  165  ;  Robert  San- 
derson,   214 ;     Madame 
de  Noailles,  319. 
10.   Madame  de  Noailles,  319. 
Psalm    lxxil — Athanasius,    i']  ; 
Ruskin,  294. 
V.   10,  II.   Christian  Art,  15. 

19.  Thomas  a  Kempis,  100. 
Psalm  lxxiii.— Early  Christians, 

22;  Bishop  Hooper,  131. 
V.   I.  Bishop  Hooper,  132;  Co- 
ligny,  182. 

24.  Jerome,  34. 

25.  Charles  Wesley,  275. 
Psalm     lxxiv. — Vaudois,     200; 

Covenanters,  247. 
Psalm  lxxv. — Ruskin,  294. 
Psalm     lxxvi. — English     Nation 

(Spanish  Armada),   157; 

Robert       Bruce,       157  ; 

Huguenots,   179  ;   Cove- 


nanters, 250;   Kingsley, 

279-  i 

V,  2.  John  Endicott,  21 1. 

11.  Turstin  of  York,  88. 
Psalm   lxxvii.— Bishop  Hooper, 

131.  132. 
V.  3.   Fran9ois  de  Sales,  193. 
7-9.   Bunyan,  227. 
Psalm    lxxviii. — v.    30.    Turstin 

of  York,  88. 
Psalm  lxxix. — Huguenot  prison- 
ers,    178 ;     The    Jews, 
178;  The  Puritans,  178  ; 
The  French  Revolution, 
178  ;       Carthusians      of 
Woburn,       178  ;      Jean 
Rabec,       179  ;      James 
Melville,  240. 
V.   I.  Jerome,  47. 
1-4.  Bede,  59. 
2.   Parsons,     178 ;    Luisa    de 

Carvajal,  178. 
5,  8.  Augustine,  43. 
9,  10.  Crispin  and  Crispinian, 

23- 

12.  John  Howard,  298. 
Psalms      lxxx.-lxxxviii. — Mil- 
ton, 222. 

Psalm     lxxx. — v.    5.     Elizabeth 
Barrett  Browning,  291. 
8.  Theodosius,  81. 

13.  Origen,  30 ;  Shakespeare, 

163. 
Psalm  lxxxii.— t^.  i.  Bishop  An- 

drewes,  213. 
Psalm    lxxxiii. — Benedict,    67  ; 

President  Kruger,  327, 
V.  4.  President  Kruger,  327. 
Psalm      lxxxiv.  —  Benedictine 

Rule,  64;  Isabel  Alison 

and  Marion  Harvie,  259. 
V.   I.   Paula,  35. 

1,  2.  Fran9ois  de  Sales,  193. 

2.  Francois  de  Sales,  193. 

11.  Paula,  35;  Thomas  Aqui- 

nas, 65. 

12.  Carlyle,  317. 


352 
Psalm 

V.  8. 
9- 

10. 

Psalm 


IS- 
Psalm 

V.     I. 
2. 

Psalm 

II. 

1 8. 

Psalm 


8. 

47- 
Psalm 


Psalm 

V.     I. 

4- 

9- 

13- 

PSAIJM 

V.  4. 
Psalm 

V.    2. 

Psalm 

'.•.  6. 

Psalm 

Psalm 


APPENDIX  B. 


LXXXV. — Cromwell,    229, 

The  Imitatio  Christi^  99. 

Robert  Southwell,  134. 

Langland,  106. 

Lxxxvi. — V.  7.  David  I. 
of  Scotland,  97. 

Casaubon,  174. 

Tennyson,  290. 
Lxxxvii. — Bishop  Hooper, 
132. 

University  of  Durham,  15. 

Augustine,  45. 
Lxxxviii. — V.  7-10.  Henry 
of  Navarre,  183. 

Wordsworth,  290. 

Henry  of  Navarre,  183. 

LXXXIX.— z'.  I.  Francois 
de  Sales,  193. 

Cromwell,  234. 

Shakespeare,  161. 

xc.  —  Isaac  Watts,  19  ; 
Charles  V.,  121  ;  John 
Hampden,  221  ;  New- 
man —  Gerontius,  278  ; 
Ruskin,  293. 

xci. — Beza,  173  ;  Casau- 
bon, 174;  Ruskin,  293. 

Henri  de  Rohan,  195. 

Fran9ois  de  Sales,  192. 

Savonarola,  116. 

Augustine,      43  ;      Barba- 
rossa     and    Pope    Alex- 
ander in.,  79. 
xcii. — Casaubon,  174. 

Dante,  103. 

xcill. — The  Covenanters, 
246. 

Mediaeval  cosmogony,  98. 

xcv. — Battle-cry  of  the 
Templars,  82,  169. 

Christian  Friedrich 

Schwartz,  302. 
xcvi.  — William      Law, 

273- 

c.  —  Shakespeare,  141  : 
Longfellow,  141  ; 


William     Kethe,     141 
Louis  Bourgeois,  141. 

z'.  2.  Edward  Fitzgerald,  291. 
Psalm  ci.  —  Death  of  Monica 
28  ;  Columba,  55  ;  Ni 
cephorus  and  Vladimi 
Monomachus,  94;  Rid 
ley,  132 ;  Bacon,  161. 

V.  6,  7.   Bacon,  161. 

10.  Bacon,  161. 

Psalm  cii.— Da\id  Brainerd,  299 
V.  6.   Christian  Art,  15. 

6,  7.   Robert  Southwell,  135. 

11.  Sundials,  16. 
13.   Fisher,  125. 

17.   Allen  Gardiner,  311. 
Psalm    cm.  —  James     Renwick 
258 ;     Sanderson,    215 
William  Law,  273 ;  Rus 
kin,  293. 
V.   I.  David  Livingstone,  314. 
Psalm    civ.  —  Mediaeval    cosmo 
gony,     99  ;     Humboldt 
283  ;  Ruskin,  294. 
V.  3.  •  Shakespeare,  163. 

5.   Mediaeval  cosmogony,  98. 
26.   Mediaeval  cosmogony,  99. 

28.  Langland,  106. 

29.  30.   Lady  Jane  Grey,  145. 

30.  Wilfrid,  68. 
32.   Becket,  78. 

Psalm  cv. — v.   i.  Baxter's  pulpit, 

272. 
Psalm  cvi. — v.  3.  Louis  IX.,  97. 
Psalm    cvii.  —  Alexander    Duff, 

309- 

V.   8.   Cromwell,  230. 

16.   The    Golden  Legend,   109 

Bunyan,  225. 
20.   Wishart,  238. 
43.  Alexander  Duff,  309. 
Psalm  cviii. — President   Kruger, 

327. 

Psalm  cix. — v.  6-20.  Bunyan, 
228. 

Psalm  ex. — Luther,  118;  Crom- 
well, 232,  235. 


APPENDIX  B. 


353 


lALM  CXI. — William  Law,  2^1. 

V.  4,  5.   Djnstan,  70. 
10.   Charles  Bailly,  133. 

lALM  cxii. — Ruskin,  293. 

V.  4.  James  Melville,  242  ;  Thos. 
Chalmers,  280. 

lALM  cxiii.— Calvin,  172. 

;alm  cxiv.  —  Francis  Borgia, 
Duke  of  Gandia,  65  ; 
Dante,  102  ;  Huguenots 
on  the  Loire,  182 ;  Mil- 
ton, 221. 

V.  3.  Antoninus  the  Martyr,  81. 
4.  Theodosius,  81. 

;alm  cxv.— John  Sobieski,  82, 
170;  Cardinal  Ximenes, 
at  siege  of  Oran,  84. 

v.  I.  Agincourt,  83  ;  Henry  IV., 
83  ;  Shakespeare,  162  ; 
Bernard  Palissy,  171  ; 
William  Wilberforce, 
276. 

V.  4-8.  Jean  Leclerc,  177. 
4,  5.   Early  Christians,  23. 
8.  Cromwell,  231. 

16.  Burghley,  160. 

;alm  cxvi. — "  Quaker  "  Wal- 
lace, 325. 

V.   13.   Bernard,  82. 

5ALM  cx VII.— Cromwell,  234. 

5ALM  cxviii. — Basil  in  Pontus, 
32;  Luther,  118;  Charles 
V. ,  1 20 ;  Huguenots,  1 79 ; 
Landing  of  William  of 
Orange,  261  :  Rev.  Geo. 
Walker,  266. 

V.  6.  Cowper,  287. 

14.   Donald  Cargill,  253  ;  Wil- 
liam Law,  273  ;  Cowper, 
288. 
76  -end.   Donald  Cargill,  253. 

17.  Wyclif,  no;  Luther,  117  ; 

Cowper,  28S. 
iS.   Baldwin,  82  ;  Cowper,  2SS. 
23,     24.     Cromwell     and     the 

Scottish  troops,  233. 
23.   Queen  Elizabeth,  15 1. 


Psalm 


26. 
29. 

PSAI.M 


V.  6. 
20. 
24. 


28. 
30. 

45- 
62. 

^y 

71. 
96. 

97- 
105. 
116. 
121. 

137. 
148. 

158. 

164. 

175. 

Psalm 


CXVIII.— f.  24,  25.  Hugue- 
nots, battle  of  Courtras, 
184;  D'Aubigne,  185; 
Louis  Rang,  207  ; 
Jacques  Roger,  207 ; 
Rochette,  209. 

Charlemagne,  ^t,. 

Cowper,  288. 

cxix.  —  Augustine,  45  ; 
•'  Little  Alphabet  of 
the  Monks,"  etc.,  100; 
,  William  Wilberforce, 
276';  Ruskin,  293  ; 
Henry  Martyn,  306  ; 
David  Livingstone,  312  ; 
William  Edwards  (In- 
dian Mutiny),  323,  325. 

David  Brainerd,  301. 

Thomas  Chalmers,  279. 

Ruskin,  293. 

Theodosius,  40 ;  Nicasius 
of  Rheims,  48 ;  Dante, 
102. 

Maine  de  Biran,  285. 

David  Brainerd,  30 1. 

Pascal,  199. 

David  Brainerd,  301. 

Benedictine  Rule,  64. 
70.   Francois  I.,  177. 

Fran9ois  I.,  177. 

A.  P.  Stanley,  279. 

David  Brainerd,  301. 

Shakespeare,  163. 

Benedictine  Rule,  d^^. 

David  I.  of  Scotland,  97. 

Emperor  Maurice,  24. 

Izaak  Walton,  214. 

Philip  Doddridge  and  Col. 
J;imes  Gardiner,  315. 

Benedictine  Rule,  64. 

Sihaa,  mother  of  Gregory, 
62. 

cxx. — V.  4.  Cromwell, 
229. 

Benedictines  at  York,  87  ; 
Bacon,  160  ;  Hooker, 
316;  Carlyle,  316. 


12 


354 


APPENDIX  B. 


Psalm 

cxxL— The    Covenanters, 
246;  David  Livingstone, 

Psalm 

313;  James  Hannington, 

Psalm 

314 ;    William    Edwards 

(Indian  Mutiny),  325. 

V.  7. 

V.     I. 

Dante,  102. 

Psalm 

3- 

Coghill  family,  15. 

4- 

Francois  de  Sales,  192. 

Psalm 

Psalm 

cxxn.'— The  Ettrick  Shep- 
herd, 289. 

V.     I. 

Gregory  and    Nonna,   26  ; 
The  Huguenots,  170. 

V.   4. 

Psalm  cxxi v.— Justus  Jonas,  138; 

8. 

John  Durie,  241. 

V.  5. 

Edward  Irving,  281. 

Psalm 

6. 

Huguenot  seal,  171. 

Psalm 

CXXVL— James     Melville, 
241. 

V.     I. 

Robert  Estienne,  173. 

Psalm 

cxxvn.  —  Pope    Clement 

V.  6. 

III.,  82. 

24. 

V,    I. 

Compton  family,  15  ;  City 
of  Edinburgh,   15  ;    Ed- 

Psalm 

dystone  Lighthouse,  16 ; 

V.  2. 

Huguenot       house       at 

Psalm 

Xainton,  175;  Benjamin 

Franklin,  212. 

Psalm 

2. 

Madame  Guyon,  199. 

3- 

Elizabeth  Barrett    Brown- 

Psalm 

ing,  291. 

V.     I. 

4-6.   Bunyan,  228. 

4- 

Psalm 

CXXVIII.— Henry  II.,  168. 

Psalm 

Psalm 

cxxix.  —  Henri    Amaud, 
200. 

V.  3. 

Alexander  Peden,  255. 

V.     I. 

Psalm 

cxxx.— Luther,   138,  164  ; 

3* 

Hooker,    164;    P.    Flet- 

9. 

cher,     164 ;     Diane     de 

10. 

Poitiers,       169  ;      John 

13. 

Wesley,     274  ;     French 

17. 

Royalists,  318. 

Psalm 

V.  3. 

Beza,  173  ;  Bunyan,  226. 

V.  2. 

Psalm 

cxxxiL— t^.   15.   Gall,  54; 

3. 

Anselm,  77. 

Psalm 

18. 

Paulinus,  28. 

19- 

Shilling    of    Edward   VI., 

V.   5. 

16. 

9' 

cxxxiiL— z^.  I.  Langland, 
106. 

cxxxv.  —  David    Living- 
stone, 313. 

Mediaeval  cosmogony,  98. 

cxxxvL — Athanasius,  38  ; 
Milton,  222. 

cxxxvn.  —  Vincent  de 
Paul,  190  ;  Camoens, 
191. 

Jerome,     34 ;    John     II., 
190. 

Calvin,   209 ;    Sir   Robert 

Hamilton,  251. 
cxxxix. — O.H.    German 
fragment     of    9th     cen- 
tury, 5 1  ;   Linnaeus,  52  ; 
Thomson,    52 ;    Ruskin, 

293- 
,   More,  124. 
Port-Royalists,  198. 
CXLI. — Early    Christians, 

22. 
Shakespeare,  162. 
CXLIL — Francis  of  Assisi, 

92. 
cxLin. — V.  8.  Savonarola, 

114. 
cxLiv. — Bernard,  82. 
Philip  Jones,  159. 
Sundials,  16. 

CXLV.  —  Paul     Gerhardt, 
138  ;  Milton,  222  ;  James 
Gardiner,  316. 
,   William  Law,  273. 
Augustine,  41. 
Langland,  105. 
William  Carey,  303. 
Mosque  at  Damascus,  45. 
John  Howard,  298. 
CXLVL — William  Law,  273. 
,   Strafford,  218. 
,  Ordericus  Vitalis,  93. 
cxLvn.  —  William    Law, 

273- 
Augustine,  41. 
Shakespeare,  162. 


APPENDIX  B. 


ODD 


Psalm  cxlvii.  v.  iS.  Victory  over 

Spanish  Armada,  157. 
Psalm  cxlvih. — Francis  of  Assisi 
— Canticle   of   the  Sun, 
90-91  ;    Newman — Ger- 
oHtiiis,  27 8. 
V.  4.   Mediaeval  c9smogony,  98. 
S.   Medijeval  cosmogony, 


98 ;     Alexander    Peden, 

254- 

Psalm  cxlix.— Thomas  MUntzer, 
143;  Caspar  Schopp,  143. 

Psalm    CL. — Benedictine     Rule— 
Bell-casting,    64 ;    New- 
man— Gerontuis,  278. 
z'.  6,  John  VIII.,  51. 


INDEX. 


Abelard  and  Heloise,  92 ;  account 
of  [M'Cabe,  chap,  xi.],  95-97; 
the  **  Historia  Calamitatum,"  96: 
letters  quoted,  96,  97. 

Acre,  Baldwin  dies  at,  83. 

Adamnanus,  his  "Life  of  Columba'' 
cited  [Fowler,  134],  57. 

Addison,  Joseph,  19  ;  quoted,  286  ; 
his  paraphrases  of  Psalms  xxiii. 
and  xix.,  287. 

Adeline,  abbot  of  Chaise-Dieu,  at 
the  passage  of  the  Tagus,  83. 

.^lla,  king  of  Northumbria,  62. 

.Elred,  of  Rievaulx,  cited  [Pinker- 
ton,  ii.  281-283],  97. 

Agincourt,  battle  of,  83. 

Agnes,  St.,  mosaics  at  Ravenna,  18. 

Aidan,  bishop  of  Lindisfarne,  death 
of  [Montalembert,    iv.   127,    134 

/z.],  5S,  59- 

Aignan,  St.,  saves  Orleans,  48. 

Aigues  Mortes,  St.  Louis  at  [Mar- 
tin, iv.  326],  97 ;  Vincent  de 
Paul  at  [Wilson,  22],  190;  the 
Tour  Constance  at,  201. 

Ainsworth,  Henr)-,  of  Amsterdam, 
his  version  of  the  Psalms,  211. 

Airs-moss,  252. 

Aix-la-Chapelle,  capitulary'  of  [Ba- 
luze,  i.,  col.  714],  52;  death  of 
Charlemagne  at  [Guettee,  iii. 
238],  74- 

.Vlais,     treaty    ot,     197,     199  ;     the 


Camisards    at    [Peyrat,    i.    350], 

204. 
Alaric,  sack  of  Rome  by  [Gibbon, 

chap,  xxxi.],  47. 
Alaric    IL,    killed    by    Clovis    at 

Vougle  [Martin,  i.  447],  71,  72. 
Alba,  St.  Teresa  dies  at  [Coleridge, 

iii.  369],  130. 
Alberic,  prior  of  Molesme  ['*  Life 

of  Stephen  Harding,"  Newman, 

vol.  i.],  8s. 
d'Albret,  Jeanne,  mother  of  Henry 

of  Navarre,  186. 
Alencon,  Henry  of  Navarre  at,  183. 
Alexander    HL,    Pope,    and    Bar- 

barossa,  78,  79. 
Alexandria,   Cyril,  bishop  of,   28  ; 

return  of  Athanasius  to,  37. 
Alphonso  the  Valiant,  of  Castile, 

83. 

Alfred,  King,  and  St.  Neot  ["Life 
of  St.  Neot,"  Newman,  iii.  133J, 
6S,  69. 

Alison,  Isabel,  246 ;  her  death 
[Wodrow,  book  iii. ,  chap.  5 ; 
vol.  iii.  277  ;  "  Cloud  of  Wit- 
nesses," 117  se^.J,  259. 

Alnwick,  James  Mehnlle  at,  241. 

"  Alphabet  of  the  Monks  "  [Kettle- 
well,  "Brothers,"  ii,  119-124; 
see  Appendix  A,  chap,  iv.],  100. 

"  Alte  fage,"  202. 

Alva,    Duke    of,    and    St.    Teresa 


35S 


INDEX, 


[Cunninghame  Graham,  ii.  259], 
130  ;  and  Egmont,  148  ;  and  the 
Huguenots,  181. 

Amasea,  Theodore  of,  23. 

Ambrose,  St.  ,2 1 ,  45 ;  quoted  OMigne, 
xiv.  925,  223],  24,  25;  quoted 
by  Casaubon,  174 ;  introduces 
antiphonal  chanting  [Baunard, 
324  seg,],  28  ;  death  of  [Bright's 
"History,"  223  ;  Baunard,  594], 
28;  and  Theodosius  [Bright's 
"Fathers,"  i.  519;  Baunard, 
448-456],  40 ;  and  Augustine, 
27,  45 ;  on  the  Duties  of  the 
Clergy,  45. 

American  Constitution,  the,  Benja- 
min Franklin  on,  quoted  [Works, 
ed.  Sparks,  v.  155],  212. 

Amiens,  Martin  of  Tours  at,  36. 

Andrewes,    Lancelot,    bishop,    20, 

213. 

Angers,   Jean    Rabec    burned    at, 

Angouleme,   Place  du    Murier   at, 

175- 
Angoumois,  the  ("  Huguenotes"), 

175- 

Anne  Boleyn,  her  marnage,  123. 

Annecy,  Fran9ois  de  Sales  born  at, 
192. 

Anselm,  Archbishop,  account  of 
[Church';  Montalembert,  vi.],  76, 
77;  his  "Cur  Deus  Homo?" 
[Montalembert,  v.  170],  77. 

Anthem,  the  National,  15. 

Anthony,  king  of  Navarre,  his 
Psalm  [Douen,  i.  709],  168. 

Antiphonal  chanting.  Sae  Am- 
brose. 

Antonius,  of  Placentia,  the  Mar- 
tyr, cited  [see  Appendix  A,  chap, 
iii.],  80. 

Antony,  St.,  account  of  [Newman's 
"  Historical  Sketches,"  ii.  99- 
102  ;  Baring  -  Gould,  January 
17th  ;  Alban  Butler,  January 
17th],  30-32  ;    Life  of,  by  Atha- 


156; 
156, 

of 


nasius  [Migne,  Ixxiii.    126],  33 ; 

and  Augustine,  43. 
Antrim's  regiment  [Walker],  261. 
"  Apologetical  Declaration,  The," 

260. 
Aquileia,  Jerome  at,  33. 
Aquinas,  St.  Thomas,  65. 
Arbroath,  sundial  at,  16. 
Ardusson,  the  river,  95. 
Argenteuil,  Heloise  at,  95. 
Armada,   the,  motto  of,  82, 

account   of  [Froude,   xii.], 

157. 

Armagnac,     valet     to     Henry 
Navarre,  183. 

Arnaud,  Henri  [Monastier,  ii.  126], 
200. 

Amauld,  Antoine,  learns  the  Psalms 
by  heart,  198. 

Amauld,  Mere  Angelique  [see  Ap- 
pendix A,  chap,  viii.,  "  Me- 
moires  pour  servir,"  etc.  ;  "  His- 
toire  des  Persecutions,"  etc.], 
197,  198. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  quoted,  290. 

Arnold,  Thomas,  death  of  [Stanley, 
chap,  x.],  278. 

d'Arques,  Chateau,  battle  at,  185. 

Arundel,  Philip,  Earl  of,  in  the 
Tower  [Bayley,  i.  135],  133. 

Arundel,  Earl  of,  at  Strafford's  trial 
[Baillie],  216. 

Ash,  Thomas,  on  siege  of  London- 
derr}',  quoted  [Walker,  ed. 
Dwyer,  210],  266,  267. 

Assisi.     See  Francis. 

Athanasius,  St.,  21  ;  at  Rome 
[Bright's  "Fathers,"  i.  169,  180; 
Thierrj',  i.  22,  23],  32  ;  returns  to 
Alexandria  [Bright's  "Fathers," 
i.  199  ;  Stanley's  "Eastern 
Church,"  274  ;  Greg.  Naz.  orat., 
xxi.],  37 ;  at  church  of  St.  Theonas 
[Bright's  "Fathers,"  i.  240; 
"History,"  76,  77;  Stanley's 
"  Eastern  Church,"  283],  38. 

Altila,  48. 


INDEX. 


359 


D'Aubigne,  squire  to  Henry  of 
Navarre,  1S3  ;  cited  [Livre  17, 
cap.  XX.],  183;  death  of  [Puaux, 
V.  224  ;  Noailles,  i.  66],  1S5. 

Augustine,  St. ,  of  Canterbur)-[Bede, 
i.  25 ;  Montalembert,  iii.  186 
sef.l  61-63. 

Augustine,  St.,  of  Hippo,  20,  21, 
23  ;  his  baptism  [Conf.  ix.  6],  27, 
45  ;  his  death  [Possidius,  xxi.  ; 
Bright's  "  Fathers,"  ii.  306],  28  : 
account  of  his  conversion,  41-45  ; 
his  "City  of  God,"  45-47. 

A\dla,  St.  Teresa  born  at  [Cole- 
ridge, i.  4],  129. 

AvTanches,  Henry  H.  at,  78. 

I 

Bacon,     Francis,     18,     21  ;     his  | 

"Essays"     quoted,     160;      his  | 

"Certaine  Psalms,"  i6i,  165.       | 
Baillie    of    Jer\-iswood,    death    of 

[Wodrow,  iv.  iiOi-^^.],  257. 
Bailly,  Charles,  inscription  in  the 

Tower  [Bayley,  i.  149],  133. 
Baithen  and  Columba,  ^y. 
Baker,  Major,  at  siege  of  London- 

derr}'  [Walker,  April  19],  262. 
Baldwin,  Archbishop,  at  Crusades 

[Epist.  Cant. ,  cccxh-i.  ;  Vinisauf, 

i.  66 ;  Hook,  ii.  572],  82. 
Bangor    [Montalembert,    ii.    397J. 

60. 
Bangor  Iltyd  [idzd.],  60. 
Barbarcssa  and  Alexander  HI.,  78. 

79. 
"Barebones     Parliament,      The,' 

Cromwell  and  [Carlyle,  iii.  201, 

225,  227],  235. 
Barlow,  Joel,  versifier  of  the  Psalms, 

211. 
Bartholomew,     St.,     massacre    of 

[Crottet,  322],  182,  240. 
Basil,    St.,    21,     39  ;     his    death 

[Bright's     "Fathers,"     i.     393; 

"  History,"  163],  28  ;  in  Pontus 

[tdzd.,  i.   368;    "Histor>-,"  88; 

Basil    Ep.,    19],    32;    and    Em- 


peror Valens  [z'did.,  i.  373  ;  Greg. 

Naz.  orat.,  xx.,  xliii.],  39. 
Basing    House,    siege   of  [Carlyle, 

"Cromwell,"  i.  209-213],  230. 
Basle,  Council  of,  113. 
Bass  Rock,  the  prisoners  on,  246, 

253- 
Baxter,  Richard,  account  of  [Orme], 

272,  304. 
Bay  Psalm  Book,  the,  211,  299. 
Bayles,  the  mart>T:  [Southwell,  ed. 

Grosart,  p.  52],  134. 
Beaton,     Cardinal,     and     George 

Buchanan,  238. 
Beauchamp  family,  the,  motto  of, 

Bee,  Anselm  at,  76. 

Becket,  Thomas  a,  murder  of  [Stan- 
ley, Canterbur}-,  122  se^.'\,  "jj,  78. 

Bede,  the  Venerable,  21,  59;  ac- 
count of  [Montalembert,  iv.  239 
se^.],  67. 

Bedfordshire,  John  Howard  in 
[Memoirs,  124],  297. 

Beisley,  George,  priest  in  the  Tower, 

133' 

Bellamy,  Anne,  betrays  Robert 
Southwell  [Poems,  ed.  Grosart, 
Hii.],  134. 

Bellot,  CavaUer  besieged  at  [Pe}-rat, 
i.  451],  204. 

Bemerton,  George  Herbert  at, 
165. 

Benedict  Biscop,  account  of  [Mon- 
talembert, iv.  172-186],  66. 

Benedict,  St.,  of  Nursia,  founds 
Monte  Cassino  [Montalembert, 
i.  400],  49,  50 ;  rule  of,  see 
Rule. 

Benezet,  Francois,  his  death  [Co- 
querel,  ii.  50 ;  Peyrat,  iL  420], 
207. 

Benignus  and  St.  Patrick,  55. 

Bernard,  St.,  21 ;  preaches  Crusade, 
82 ;  enters  Citeaux  [Newman, 
"Life  of  Stephen  Harding,"], 
86;    abbot  of  Clairvaux  [ibid.\ 


3^0 


INDEX. 


87  ;  and  Fountains  Abbey  [Nar- 

latio,  etc.,  p.  35],  89. 
Berwick,  death  of  James  ^Melville 

at  [Diary,  xxviii,  se^.},  241. 
Beza,  Theodore,  account  of,   172: 

his    translation    of    the    Psahns, 

139  ;  his  translation  of  the  Psalms 

quoted,    179;    his  translation  of 

the  Psalms  prohibited,  189. 
Bible  Society,  the,  founded,  296. 
Biran,  Maine  de.     See  Maine. 
"Bishop's  Bible,  The,"  137,  138. 
"  Bishop's  Drag  Net,  The,"  244. 
Black  Prince,  the,  coins  of,  16. 
"Black  Tom  TjTant"  (Strafford), 

215. 
Blackader,  John,  quoted,  244. 
Blackmore,  Sir  Richard,  his  version 

of  the  Psalms,  19. 
Blantyre,  cotton  factory  at,  Living- 
stone in,  312. 
Blednoch,  the  (Wigtown  martyrs), 

260. 
Blesilla,  daughter  of  Paula  [Thierry, 

i.    32,   159-160],  33  ;   her  death 

[Thierry,  i.  219],  34. 
Boer  War,  the,  326-32S. 
Bohme,  Jacob,  302. 
Bokhara,  Conolly  and  Stoddart  at 

[Grover],  321. 
Bordeaux  Pilgrim,   the  (Itinerar)-), 

[Thierry,  i.  37],  33,  80. 
Borgia,   Francis,   Duke  of  Gandia 

[Abrege  de  sa  vie,  29],  65. 
Borgia,  Roderigo  (Pope  Alexander 

VI.)  and  Savonarola  [Villari,  i. 

152,  a.nd  puTstm],  115. 
Boswell  quotes  Archbishop  Seeker 

[ed.  Hill,  i.  33],  288. 
Bothwell,  Earl,  and  Wishart  [Knox, 

book  i.],  239. 
Bothwell  Bridge,  battle  of  [Wodrow, 

iii.  106,  107],  251. 
Bouges  Mountain,  202, 
Bourgeois,   Louis,  sets  the  Psalms 

to  music,  139,  141. 
Bourget,  Psalter  found  at,  320. 


Boussac,  legendary  treasure  at,  107. 

Boyne,  the,  battle  of,  261. 

Brady,  Nicholas,  and  Nahum  Tate, 

Brainerd,  David  ["  Life,  Remains, 
and  Letters,"  ed.  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards, 1845,  Aberdeen],  211, 
304,  312  ;  his  death  [tbz'd.],  299  ; 
his  journal  ["Diary  of  David 
Brainerd,"  2  vols.,  London, 
1902],  299-302. 

Brantome,  cited,  on  Conde  [Dis- 
cours,  Ixxx.  l],  181  ;  quoted,  on 
Coligny  [Discours,  Ixxix.],  182; 
at  La  Rochelle,  184. 

Breda,  Charles  IL  at,  232. 

Breg,  plain  of,  St.  Patrick  at,  54. 

Bregenz,    Columban    and    Gall    at , 
[Montalembert,  ii.  272],  53. 

Brest,  John  Howard  at  [Memoirs, 
19],  297. 

Bretigny,  the  peace  of,  184. 

Bridges  on  the  119th  Psalm,  323, 

324. 

Britain,  invasion  of  [Bede],  59 ; 
early  colleges  in  [Montalembert, 
iii.  146,  152],  60  ;  described  by 
Procopius,  61  ;  the  Danes  in,  68. 

Brittany  and  La  Vendee,  insurrec- 
tion in  [Les  Chouans,  ii.  135 
se^.],  318. 

Brittia,  island  of,  described  by  Pro- 
copius, 61. 

Browne,  Ezekiel,  Hampden  dies  in 
his  house,  221. 

Browning, Elizabeth  Barrett,  quoted, 
291. 

Browning,  Micaiah,  captain  of  the 
Mou7itjoy  [Walker,  July  27], 
266,  267. 

BroNvning,  Robert,  his  ' '  Ring  and 
the  Book "  quoted,  31,  291  ; 
"Pambo"  quoted,  31;  "Straf- 
ford" quoted,  218. 

Bruce,  of  Earlshall,  and  the  Cove- 
nanters at  Airs-moss  [Knox,  book 
iii.,  chap,  4],  252. 


INDEX. 


361 


Bruce,    Robert,    the    preacher,    at 

Edinburgh,  157. 
I'russels,  Egmont  at,  148. 
Bryant,  Williani  CuUen,  versifier  of 

the  Psalms,  212. 
Brydges,  Sir  John,   Lieutenant  of 

the  Tower,  146. 
Brydon,    Dr.,    surv'ivor    at   Cabul, 

321. 
Buchanan,  George,  his  Latin  ver- 
sion of  the  Psalms,  238, 
Buckingham,  George  Villiers,  first 

Duke  of,  driven  from  Rhe,  196 ; 

Bacon's    advice     to    [Spedding, 

"Life    and    Letters,"    \'i.    24], 

161. 
BuUinger,  Heinrich,  Bishop  Hooper 

and,  131. 
Bunyan,  John,   20,  300,   304;    his 

"Grace    Abounding,"    224-228, 

300. 
Burghley,  William  Cecil,  Lord,  21, 

160. 
Bums,  Robert,  19. 
Butchers'  Company,  the,  motto  of, 

15- 
BjTon,  Lord,  and  the  Psalms,  289. 

Cabul,  destruction  of  British  force 

at,  321. 
Cadoc   the  Wise,   abbot   of   Llan- 

carvan  [Montalembert,  ii.   406], 

60. 
Calvin,  John,  account  of,  172. 
"Calypso's  Island,"  Basil's  retreat 

in  Pontus,  32. 
Cameron,    Michael    [Wodrow,    iii. 

251],  251. 
Cameron,    Richard    [Wodrow,    m. 

212,  220],  251,  252. 
Cameronian  Regiment,  the,  328, 
Cameronians,   the,   245,   252,  256, 

259. 
Cam.isards,  the,  204,  205. 
Camoens,  Luiz  de,    19  ;  his  exile, 

191  ;    "  The    Lusiad  "    quoted, 

191. 


Camus,  Bishop,  his  "  Esprit  de  St. 

Fran9ois  de  Sales,"  192. 
Canossa,   Henr>-  IV.   at  [Bowden, 

ii.   174;  Montalembert,  v.  364], 

Canterbury,  Augustme  of,  see 
Augustine  ;  Benedict  Biscop 
at,  66  ;  Wilfrid  at,  66  ;  Dunstan, 
archbishop  of,  69  ;  Anselm,  arch- 
bishop of,  76  ;  murder  of  Becket, 
78;  penance  of  Henry  II.,  78; 
pilgrimages  to,  81. 

Capitulary  of  Aix  -  la  -  Chapelle. 
See  Aix-la-Chapelle. 

Carey,  William,  304,  310,  312; 
sails  for  India,  298  ;  account  of, 
303,  304  ;  quoted,  303. 

Cargill,  Donald,  246,  257  ;  account 
of  [Wodrow,  book  iii.,  chap.  4; 
"Six  Saints,"  vol.  ii.  ;  "Cloud 
of  Witnesses,"  6  seq.\  252  ; 
quoted  ["  Six  Saints,"  ii.  8],  243. 

Carlyle,  Alexander,  on  Col.  Gar- 
diner   [Autobiography,    p.    16], 

3^5- 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  19,  280  ;  quoted, 

295,  316,    317  ;    on  Sir  William 

Hamilton,  2S5;  andRuskin,  292; 

his   "Luther's   Psalm"  [Critical 

and  Misc.  Essays,  iii.],  1 1 9. 
Carlyle,  Jane  Welsh.     See  Welsh. 
Caroline,  Queen,  276. 
Carrack,  Peden  preaches  at  ["Six 

Saints,"  i.  90],  256. 
Carrichon,    M.,    and    Madame    de 

Noailles,  319. 
Carrickfergus,  Peden's  escape  from, 

254- 

Carstairs,  William,  at  Torbay  [Life, 
p.  34],  261. 

Carvajal,  Luisa  de,  quoted  [Life, 
Lady  G.  Fullerton,  p.  254],  178. 

Casaubon,  Isaac,  21  ;  stor>'  of  [M. 
Pattison,  335],  I74- 

Caswall,  Edward,  1 28. 

Cataldus  of  Tarentum  [Montalem- 
bert, iii.  157],  50- 


362 


INDEX. 


"Cathac,  The,"  Columba's  Psalter 

[Stubbs,  261,  262],  56. 
Catherine  of  Arragon,  the  divorce, 

123,  126  ;   Forest,  her  confessor 

[Lingard,  v.   107  ;z.  ;    "Faithful 

unto  Death"],  126. 
Catherine   de    Medicis   [Douen,   i. 

709],  21,  168,  180,  182. 
Caussade,    Rochette    captured    at, 

208. 
Cavalier,  Jean,  account  of  [Peyrat, 

i.  350,  451  ;  ii.  85],  204. 
Cawnpore,  Henry  Martyn  at,  306. 
Caxton,    "The    Golden    Legend" 

quoted,  107-109. 
Certosa,  the,  Francis  I.  at  the  church 

of,  177. 
Cervantes,  19. 
Cesarea,  death  of  Basil  at  [Bright's 

"Fathers,"  i.  393;    "History," 

163],  28;    Basil  and  Valens  at, 

39. 

Cesarius,  bishop  of  Aries  [Monta- 

lembert,  i.  353],  49. 
Cevenols,  the,  82,  203-206. 
Chablais,  Francois  de  Sales  at,  193. 
Chaise-Dieu,  Benedictine  abbey  of, 

83. 

Chalcedon,  death  of  Emperor 
Maurice  at,  24. 

Chalcis,  desert  of,  Jerome  in,  34. 

Chalgrove  Field,  death  of  John 
Hampden  at,  220,  221. 

Chalmers,  Thomas,  account  of  [see 
Appendix  A,  chap,  xi.],  279; 
preaches  at  Edinburgh  [Hanna, 
iv.  309,  341],  280. 

Chantal,  Madame  de,  188,  192. 

Charenton,  Casaubon  at,  174. 

Charlemagne,  21  ;  at  Rome  [Mar- 
tin, ii.  262,  263,  328],  73,  74; 
death  of  [Martin,  ii.  364 ;  Guettee, 
iii.  238],  74. 

Charles  I.,  sanctions  the  Psalter, 
142,  213 ;  and  Strafford,  215, 
216  ;  at  Newark,  221  ;  and  Scot- 
tish Kirk,  242. 


Charles   II.,    and    Scottish    Kirk, 
232  ;   accession  of,  and  Cai^U, 

243. 
Charles  V.,  of  Spain,  21,  114;  and 

Marot,  120;  abdication  and  death 

[Stirling-Maxwell],  120,  121. 
Charles  IX.  of  France,  182. 
Charlton,  Margaret,  wife  of  Richard 

Baxter  [Orme,  i.  296],  272. 
Charterhouse,  the,  monks  of,  exe- 
cuted [Froude,  ii.  342-362],  127. 
Chaucer  quoted,  104. 
Chayla,    Fran9ois    du,    account   of 

[Peyrat,  i.  287  se^.],  202,  203. 
Cherson.     See  Kherson. 
Choczin,  battle  of,  170. 
"Christian  Year,  The,"  277. 
Chrysostom,  St.  John,  his  favourite 

psalm,  173. 
Cistercians,  the,  founded  by  Stephen 

Harding  [Life,  in  Newman,  vol. 

i.],  85  ;   in   England  [ibid.,  vol. 

V.  108,  167  w.],  86,  87. 
Citeaux,   foundation   of  [Newman, 

vol.  i.],  85. 
Clain  river,  36. 
Clairvaux,  monastery  of  [Newman, 

vol.  i.],  2>7,  89. 
Claverhouse  at  Drumclog  [Wodrow, 

iii.  69],  246,  250. 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  "Stromata" 

quoted,  25. 
Clement  III.,  Pope,  and  Crusades, 

82. 
Clement  VII.,    Pope,   and    Henry 

VIII.    [Lingard,    v.    2,    13,    19, 

20],  123. 
Clifford,  Lord,  97. 
Clovis,  his  baptism,  71  ;  at  battle 

of  Vougle  [Martin,  i.  447],  71. 
Cluni,  Hugh  of  [Vita,  apud  Migne, 

clix.  867],  65. 
Clyde,  the  apparition  on  the  banks 

of  ["Six  Saints,"  i.  33],  246. 
Cobbett,  William,  and  Wilberforce 

E"  Life  of  Wilberforce,"  v.   68], 

276. 


INDEX. 


363 


Coburg,  Luther  at,  26,  118. 

Cod,  Cape,  landing  of  Pilgrim 
Fathers  at,  211. 

Coghill  family,  the,  motto  of,  15. 

Coins,  of  Black  Prince,  of  Edward 
III.,  of  Edward  VI.,  16;  struck 
to  commemorate  defeat  of  Ar- 
mada, 157. 

Coligny,  Andelot  de,  180. 

Coligny,  Gaspard  de.  Admiral  of 
France,  169,  179,  182  ;  account 
of  [Brantome,  iii.O,  179-183. 

Colme-kill,  58. 

Columba,  St.,  21 ;  account  of  [Mon- 
talembert,  iii.  1-133 ;  Life,  by 
Adamnan,  III.  ixxiii.  ;  and 
Reeve's     Introduction,    xxxiii.], 

56-59. 

Columban,  St.,  50;  account  of 
[Montalembert,  ii,  272,  etc.  ; 
Life,apud  Migne,  Ixxxvii.,  1,014], 
52. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  21,  114;  ac- 
count of,  121  ;  his  habitual  sig- 
nature [Markham,  295  ;  Irving, 
iv.  437],  121. 

Commet,  M.  de,  Vincent  de  Paul 
writes  to,  190. 

Compostella,  pilgrimages  to,  81. 

Compton  family,  the  motto  of,  15. 

Conde,  Prince  de,  170,  181,  182. 

Conolly,  Capt.  Arthur,  death  of,  at 
Bokhara  OKaye's  "Indian  Offi- 
cers," 139,  144],  321. 

Constance,  Council  of,  112. 

Constance,  Tour,  at  Aigues  Mortes, 
201. 

Constantius,  Emperor,  and  Atha- 
nasius,  37. 

Corneille,  translates  the  Psalter, 
189  ;  his  '*  Heraclius,"  24. 

Coronation  oflSces,  the,  based  on 
the  Psalms,  15. 

Corsairs,  Barbary,  190. 

Cotton,  Mr.,  of  Boston,  Cromwell 
writes  to  [Carlyle,  iii.  172,  173], 
234- 


Cotton,  Dr.,  his  asylum,  Cowper 
at,  287. 

Council,  of  Basle,  113 ;  of  Constance, 
112;  of  Milan,  37;  of  Toledo 
[Hefele,  471;],  52;  of  Toulouse, 

137. 
Courtras,  battle  of  [Douen,  i.  iii], 

184. 
Cousin,  Victor,  on  Maine  de  Biran, 

284. 
Covenant,  The  National,  signed  at 

Edinburgh  [Wodrow,  i.],  242. 
Covenant,  The  Solemn  League  and, 

242 ;     prohibited     [Wodrow,    i. 

423],  243. 
Covenanters,  the,  and  Boers  com- 
pared, 326,  327. 
Coverdale,  Miles,  his  version  of  the 

Psalter,  137. 
Cowper,    William    [see    Appendix 

A],    19 ;    and    Madame    Guyon, 

199 ;    account   of,    287 ;    quoted 

[Southey's    "Life,"    chap,    vi.il, 

287. 
Craig,  John,  versifier  of  the  Psalms, 

140,  142. 
Craigmad,     apparition     at     0"  Six 

Saints,"  i.  35],  246. 
Cranmer,  Thomas,   123 ;    and    the 

Psalter,  137. 
Crashaw,  Richard,  19. 
Crespin,  his  martyrology,  176. 
Crewe,  Mrs.,  afterwards  Lady,  and 

Wilberforce  [Life,  i.  47,  48,  etc.], 

275- 
Crispin,  and  Crispinian  SS.  [Surius, 

Alban     Butler,     Baring  -  Gould, 

October  25 ;  Hasted's  Kent,  iii. 

514],  23. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  82 ;   account  of 

[Carlyle],  228-236. 
Cromwell,      Thomas,      death     of, 

132. 
Cross,    "Invention"    of  the.     See 

Helena. 
"  Crossing  the  Bar,"  253. 
Cruithnechan,  priest,  and  Columba 


>64 


INDEX. 


[Reeve's    "  Adamnan,"    Introd., 

xxxiii.],  55- 
Crusades,  the,  81-87. 
Cuthbert,    St.,    account    of   [Mon- 

talembert,    iv.    127-155 ;    Bede, 

cap.    xxxvii.-xl.],    21,    58 ;    his 

"beads"  ["Marmion,"  II.,  xvi.], 

58. 
Cyran,    St.,    suspected    of    heresy, 

197,  198. 
Cyril,    of    Alexandria,     death     of 

[Bright's    "Fathers,"    ii.    424; 

"  History,"  370],  28. 
Cyril.     See  Methodius. 

Dalzell,     General,     at     Rullion 

Green,  246,  247. 
Damascus,  mosque   at,   inscription 

on,  45. 
Damour,  Pastor,  at  Chateau  d'Ar- 

ques,  185, 
Dante,    19  ;    on   Anselm   ["  Para- 

diso,"    xii.    137],    76;    "  Divina 

Commedia"  quoted,  49, 101-104; 

on  the  Penitential  Psalms,  102. 
Darnley,  Earl  of,  death  of  [Froude, 

viii.,  ix.],  152-155-  . 
Dartmouth,   the,   at  siege  of  Lon- 
donderry [Walker,  July  30;  ed. 

Dwyer,  211],  267. 
David,  King,  his  harp,  13  ;  Henry 

IV.  compared  with  him,  189. 
David  I.  of  Scotland,  92  ;  his  death 

[Pinkerton,  ii.  281-283],  96,  97. 
Daye,    John,    publishes    complete 

version  of  the  Psalter,  140. 
Deans,   Jeanie    (*'  Heart    of   Mid- 
lothian "),  246. 
**  Declaration,      The      Sanquhar" 

[Wodrow,  iii.  212  n.\  251. 
Defensor,    Bishop    [Baring-Gould, 

Martin,   November  ii,  p.   246], 

36. 
Demetrius    of   the    Don    [Stanley, 

'*  Eastern    Church,"    402    seq.  ; 

Karamsin,  iv.  377  and  v.  78-86], 

84. 


Deo  Gratias,  bishop  of  Carthage 
[Gibbon,  chap,  xxxvi.],  49. 

Derry  (Londonderry),  siege  of 
[VValker,  see  Appendix  A,  chap. 
X.],  261-267  ;  William  and  Mary 
proclaimed  at  [Walker,  March 
20],  262. 

Desportes,  Abbe,  translates  the 
Psalter,  188,  189. 

Dessen  Island,  Alexander  Duff  at, 

309- 
Diane  de  Poitiers  [Douen,  i.  709  ; 

Bordier,  ix.],  169. 
Diarmid,  King,  and  Columba,  56. 
Diarmid,  attendant  of  Columba,  57. 
Die,  Louis  Rang  dies  at,  206. 
Dieppe,  Chateau  d'Arques  at,  185. 
Diocletian,  persecution  of,  a.d  288, 

23- 
Dnieper,  the,  93. 
Doddridge,  Philip,  cited,  on  Col. 

Gardiner,  315. 
Domenico,    Fra,    and    Savonarola, 

117. 
Donatus,  of  Fiesole,  50. 
Donskoi,  monastery,  84. 
Doon  Hill,  at  Dunbar,  233. 
Douglas,    Capt.     Andrew,    of    the 

Phcenix  [Walker,  July  30],  266. 
Dragonnades,  the,  200. 
Druids,  the,  and  St.  Patrick,  55. 
Drumclog,   246,   328 ;    account  of, 

250. 
Drummond  of  Hawthornden,quoted 

[ii.  21],  107. 
"Drunken  Parliament,  The,"  243. 
Dudley,    Lady    Jane,    account   of, 

145-148. 
Dudley,  Lord  Guildford,  death  of, 

147. 
Duff,  Alexander,  21,  304;  account 

of,   309,   310 ;    (Indian   Mutiny), 

325  ;  quoted,  322,  323. 
Dunbar,  Wilfrid  imprisoned  at,  6rj  ; 

battle  of  [Carlyle,   iii.    28  seq.^, 

232-234. 
Dunottar,  prisoners  at,  246. 


INDEX. 


365 


Dunstan,  St.,  21,  66;  account  of 
[Lingard,  "A.S.  Church,"  ii. 
267,  etc.  ;  Vita,  ed.  Stubbs,  61, 

355].  69. 
Durham  University,  motto  of,  15. 
Durie,  John,  account  of  [Melvill's 

Diary,  134],  241,  242. 
Dwight,   Timothy,  versifier  of  the 

Psalms,  212. 

Eddvstone  Lighthouse,  the,  in- 
scription in  IJSmeaton,  p.  183], 
16. 

Edgar,  King,  70. 

Edinburgh,  motto  of,  15 ;  John 
Knox  dies  at,  240;  John  Durie 
at,  241  ;  National  Covenant 
signed  at,  242  ;  Cargill  executed 
at,  257  ;  Renwick  executed  at, 
258. 

Edward  VI.  and  Sternhold,  140. 

Edwards,  William,  his  escape,  323- 
324  ;  his  Diar)'  quoted,  324. 

Egmont,  Count'  of,  his  trial  and 
death  [Motley,  part  iii.,  i.  and 
ii.],  149-152  ;  his  letter  to  Philip 
II.  \ibid.,  chap,  ii.],  150. 

Eleyn,  Mistress,  and  Lady  Jane 
Grey,  146. 

Eliot,  John,  missionar}-,  211,  302, 
304  ;  account  of,  299. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  19  ;  the  "Geneva 
Jigs,"  141  ;  on  death  of  Man,-, 
151  ;  her  version  of  Psalm  xiv. 
quoted,  151. 

Elwy    Monastery    founded    [Mon- 

talembert,  ii.  396],  60. 
Elv,  Cromwell  at  [Carlyle,  i.  81], 

228. 
Endicott,   John,     Pilgrim    Father, 

211. 
*'Enfants     de     Dieu,"      Cevenols 

fPeyrat,  i.  271,  314],  201. 
Epiphanius,  bishop  of  Pavia,  49. 
Episcopacy  in  Scotland,  237  seq. 
Erasmus,     81,     113;      Luther    on 
['*  Tuble-Ulk,"  dclxxj.,  -i^clxxii.], 


121  ;  on  Luther  [Epist.  vi.  4], 
122;  and  Fisher  [Bridgett,  98; 
Erasm.  Ep.,  109],  125. 

Estramadura,  Charles  V.  in,  120. 

Essex,  Earl  of,  his  death,  160. 

Estienne,  Robert,  and  the  Sorbonne 
[Douen,  i.  13],  173. 

Ethendun,  battle  of,  69. 

Ethelred,  coronation  of,  70. 

Ettrick  Shepherd,  the.     See  HoGG. 

Etzel  (Attila),  48. 

Euodius,  friend  of  Augustine,  27. 

Eustochium  [Thierry,  St.  Jerome, 
i.  32,  159,  160],  25,33;  at  Beth- 
lehem \ibid.,  i.  298,  etc.],  34; 
death  oi\ibid.,  ii.  240],  35. 

Exhibition  of  1851,  the,  motto  of, 
16. 

Face,  Durand,  quoted  \see  Douen, 

i.  23],  201. 
Fairfax,  Thomas,  Lord,  19. 
Fame  Island,   Cuthbert  on  [Mon- 
\      talembert,  iv.  137],  58. 
;  Feckenham,  abbot  of  Westminster, 
and  Lady  Jane  Grey,  145,  146- 
Fenelon,    archbishop   of   Cambrai, 

iSS  ;  and  Madame  Guyon,  199. 
Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  his  death 
foretold         [Stirling  -  Maxwell's 
♦'Charles  v.,"  266],  120. 
Feuillants,  the,  188. 
Finnian,  St.,  and  Columba  [Mon- 

talembert,  iii.  20],  56. 
Fisher,  John,  bishop  of  Rochester, 
113  ;    account    of  [Bridgett,    see 
Appendix    A,    chap,     v.],    125, 
126. 
Fitzgerald,  Edward,  291,  292. 
Fitzurse,     murderer      of      Becket, 

78. 
"Flagellum  Dei'*  (Attila),  48. 
Flanders,  Dunstan  in,  69. 
Fletcher,     Dr.,     dean     of     Peter- 
borough,   and    Mary    Queen    of 
Scots,  155. 
Fletcher,     Phinchas,     ig  ;     quoLed 


366 


INDEX. 


[Poet.  Misc.,  Psalm  cxxx.,  stanza  ' 
3l  164. 

Florence,  Spinello's  frescoes  at,  49; 
Savonarola  at,  114-117. 

*'For9ats  de  la  Foi"  [see  Appen- 
dix A,  chaps,  vii.,  viii,],  170. 

Forest,  John,  confessor  to  Catherine 
of  Arragon  [Lingard,  v.  107  n.  ;  ' 
"Faithftil    unto    Death,"   chap., 
iii.i],  126.  i 

Fotheringay,  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  ; 
executed  at,  155.  ' 

Fountains    Abbey,    foundation    of  i 
[Narratio,  etc.,  see  Appendix  A, 
chap,  iv.],  87-89;  deputation  to  , 
Clairvaux  [ibid.,  p.  35],  87.  i 

Fox,   Charles  James,  and  Wilber-  1 
force  ["  Life  of  Wilberforce, "  i. 

17L  275. 

Fox,  George,  the  Quaker,  302. 

Fox,  John,  the  Martyrologist, 
quoted  [1555,  1554],  132,  147. 

Franc,  Guillaume,  sets  the  Psalms 
to  music,  139. 

Francis  I.  of  France,  and  Marot, 
139;  at  the  church  of  the  Certosa, 
177;  his  death,  177. 

Francis  of  Assisi,  St.,  21,  52;  his 
"Canticle  of  the  Sun  "  [Sabatier, 
304-305  ;  M.  Arnold,  "  Essays 
in  Criticism,"  212-213],  90?  9^  5 
account  of  [Sabatier  ;  Spec.  Per- 
fectionis,  chaps,  iv.,  cxiii.,  cxviii.i], 
90-92. 

Franciscans  at  Greenwich,  126. 

Fran9ois  de  Sales,  St.,  188;  ac- 
count of  [Lear,  27-28  ;  259-265, 
etc.],  192-194;  and  the  Port- 
Royalists,  197. 

Fran9ois  Xavier.     See  Xavier. 

Prankish  Kingdom,  the,  71,  72. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  on  the  Ameri- 
can Constitution  [Works,  ed. 
Sparks,  v.  155],  212. 

Free  Church,  the,  founded,  279. 

Frere,  John  Hookham,  19. 

Frisians,  the,  Wilfrid  and,  68, 


Fry,  Elizabeth,  298. 

Fuller,    Thomas,    cited   0"  Church 

Hist.,-"'  book  \ii.,  31,  32],  141. 
Furruckabad,    Edwards     and    the 

Prob>Tis  at,  323,  324. 

Gall,  St.,  50;  at  Bregenz  [Mon- 
talembert,  ii.  272],  53  ;  founds 
monastery'  [ibid.,  ii.  293],  53. 

Gandia,  Duke  of.  See  BoRGIA, 
Francis. 

Gardiner,  Allen  Francis,  Com- 
mander, account  of  [Marsh's 
Memoir],  310-312;  his  Diar}' 
quoted    libid.,    363    seg.^,    310, 

311- 
Gardiner,  James,  Colonel,  acconnt 

of    [Doddridge,     **  Remarkable 

Passages,"    30    seq.^,    315-316; 

his  vision  [ibid.,  84,  85],  315,  316. 
Gardon  river,  Lalande  defeated  at, 

205. 
Geneva,  Calvin  introduces  chanting 

of  Psalms  at,   172;    Francois  de 

Sales  at,  193. 
'*  Geneva  Jigs,  The,"  141. 
Gene\'ieve,  St.,   and  Paris  pAlban 

Butler,  January  3],  48. 
Gerhardt,  Paul,  his  hymn,  138. 
Germanus,   bishop  of  Auxerre,   in 

Britain  ^Bede,  I.  xvii.  and  xx.], 

60. 
Ghent,  monastery  of  St.   Peter  at, 

Dunstan    in,    69 ;    Egmont   and 

Horn  at,  148. 
Gibson,  John,  death  of  [Wodrow, 

iv.  243],  259. 
Gioacchino  di  Fiore,  the  Calabrian 

seer  [Sabatier,  St.    Francis,  46- 

50],  90- 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  21. 

Glasgow,  Edward  Irving  at,  282. 

Glastonbury,  Dunstan,  abbot  of,  69. 

Goa,  Camoens  at, ^191. 

Godeau,  bishop  of  Grasse  and 
Vence,  his  Preface  to  the  Psalms 
quoted  [2nd  ed.,  p.  viii.j],  1 89, 


INDEX. 


367 


Godfrey,    abbot     of    St.     Mary's, 

York,  88. 
Goethe,  19. 
"Golden    Legend,    The,"  quoted 

[ed.  Ellis,  vol.  i.  98],  107. 
Gorgonia,  sister  of  Gregory  Nazi- 

anzen,  her  death  ^UUmann,  136, 

137],  26. 
Goute,  Madame  de  la,  sister  of  the 

widow  Prosni,  196. 
Goudimel,  Claude,  sets  the  Psalms 

to  music,  140. 
Greenwich,  Franciscans  at  |j"  Faith- 
ful unto  Death."     See  Appendix 

A,  chap.  \.\y  126. 
Gregory  of  Decapolis,  cited  [Migne, 

c.     1 2 10;    Galland,    Bibl.    Vet. 

Pat.,  xiii.  513],  24. 
Gregory    the     Great,    account    of 

{iVita,    ap.    Migne,    Ixxv.,    230; 

Greg.  Epist.  I.  v.  ;  ibid.,  Ixxvii. 

448],    62 ;     and     conversion    of 

England  [Montalembert,  iii.  186 

seq.  ;  Bede,  I.  xxv.f],  62. 
Gregory     Nazianzen,     account     of 

[UUmann],    26 ;   against  Julian, 

45. 
Gregory,    father   of  the   preceding 

[jUllmann,  17,  19,  302],  27. 
Gregory   VII.,    Pope.      See    HiL- 

DEBRAND. 

Grelet,  M.,  and  Madame  de  No- 

ailles,  318. 
Grenfell,  Lydia,  and  Henry  Martj-n 

[Sargent's     Memoir ;     Journal], 

304,  307. 

Grenoble,  206. 

Grey,  Lady  Jane.     See  Dudley. 

Grey,  Lady  Katharine,  sister  of 
Lady  Jane,  145. 

Groningen,  James  Renwick  at,  257. 

Guilds,  mottoes  of,  15. 

Guiscard,  Robert,  and  Salerno 
fBowden,  I.  156],  74;  and  Hil- 
debrand  ^Bowden,  II.  312 ;  Mon- 
talembert, V.  365!],  74. 

Guise,  Due  de,  179,  iSi- 


Gustavus  Adolphus,  watchword  of, 
82. 

Guthrun,  the  Dane,  69. 

Guyon,  Madame,  her  imprisonment 
[Upham's  "  Life,"  379],  199. 

Gwynlliu,  the  Warrior  [Montalem- 
bert, iL  409-410],  60, 

Gytha,  wife  of  Vladimir  Mono- 
machus,  93. 

Hadrian   L,   Pope,  and   Charle- 
magne, 73. 
Hague,  the,  John  Howard  at,  297. 
Hcemmerlein,     Thomas.       See 

Kempis. 
Hall,    Bishop,    19 ;     preaches    at 

Whitehall,  213. 
Hamilton,    Sir    Robert,   on   giving 

quarter  at    Drumclog  ^Wodrow, 

iii.  70  w.],  251. 
Hamilton,    Sir    William,    21  ;    his 

death,  285. 
Hammond,  Col.  Robert,  Cromwell 

writes  to,  231. 
Hampden,     John,     death     of,     at 

Chalgrove  Field,  221. 
Hampole,  Richard  Rolle  of,  137. 
Hannington,     Bishop,     21,     304 ; 

death   of    [Dawson,    443],    314; 

his  Diary  quoted  [Dawson,  440, 

441],  314- 
Harding,  Master,  Lady  Jane  Grey 

writes  to,  145. 
Harding,   Stephen,   founder  of  the 

Cistercians,  65  ;  account  of  [Life, 

in  Newman,  vol.  i.],  85,  86. 
Hare,  Julius,  death  of,  278. 
Harold    of     England,     father    of 

Gytha,  93. 
Harvie,  Marion,  death  of  [Wodrow, 

iii.  277  ;  *'  Cloud  of  Witnesses," 

135  seq.\  246,  259. 
Haslerigg,  Sir  Arthur,  governor  of 

Newcastle,    Cromwell   writes   to 

[Carlyle,  iii.  30],  233. 
Hatton  Garden,  Irving's  chapel  in, 

280. 


368 


INDEX. 


Haughton,  Sir  Gilbert,  his  son 
killed  at  Marston  Moor,  220. 

Haughton,  John,  prior  of  the 
Charterhouse,  account  of  [Froude, 
ii.  342-362],  126. 

Havelock,  Henry,  322;  at  Jellala- 
bad,  322  ;  death  of,  322. 

Headrigg,  Mause  ("Old  Mortal- 
ity"), 246. 

Heine,  Heinrich,  19;  quoted,  13; 
and  Ps.  cxxxvii.  [Roman- 
zero,  book  iii.,  Jehuda  Ben 
Halevy,  ii.  ;  Werke,  xviii.  ;  and 
Letter  to  Moser,  Werke,  xix.,  p. 

71],  191- 

Helena,  The  Empress,  her  "in- 
vention "  of  the  True  Cross,  80. 

Henry  H.  of  England,  and  Becket, 

11- 

Henry  H.  of  France,  and  Marot 
[Douen,  i.  709;  Bordier,  viii., 
ix-O,  139,  168. 

Henry  IV.  of  England,  83. 

Henry  IV.  of  France  (Henry  of 
Navarre),  21  ;  and  the  Hugue- 
nots, 179,  183-186;  Metezeau 
dedicates  version  of  the  Psalter 
to,  189. 

Henry  IV.  of  Germany,  at  Canossa 
[Bowden's  "Gregory  VII.,"  ii. 
174  ;  Montalembert,  v.  364],  T^. 

Henry  V.  of  England,  21,  83. 

Herbert,  George,  19  ;  and  Francis 
Bacon  [Walton,  ed.  1866,  269  ; 
Bacon's  W^orks],  161,  165  ;  ac- 
count of  [Walton,  273,  307],  165. 

Herder,  Johann  Gottfried,  19. 

Herefrith,  abbot  of  Lindisfarne, 
cited  [Bede's  "St.  Cuthbert," 
chaps.  xxx\'ii.-xl.],  59. 

Herles-how,  hill  of,  89. 

Hexham,  Wilfi-id  at,  68. 

Higginson,  Francis,  teacher  at 
Salem  ["Wonder- Working  Pro- 
%-idence"],  211. 

Hilary,  St.,  bishop  of  Poitiers,  36  ; 
church  of,  at  Poitiers,  72. 


Hildebrand  (Pope  Gregory  VII.), 
21  ;  account  of  [Bowden  ;  Mon- 
talembert, vol.  v.  J,  74,  75. 

"Hill  Folk,  The,"  245. 

"  Hind  Let  Loose,  The,"  engrav- 
ings of  Covenanter  martyrs  in, 

259- 

Hippo,  death  of  St.  Augustine  at 
[Bright's  "  Fathers,"  ii.  306  ; 
Possidius],  28. 

Hobbs,  abbot  of  Woburn,  178. 

Hoffmann,  Aug.  Heinr.  vonFallers- 
leben,  quoted  ["  Fundgruben," 
pt.  i.,  p.  3],  52. 

Hohenstaufen,  the,  at  Salerno,  74. 

Hogg,  James  (the  Ettrick  Shep- 
herd), his  boyhood,  289. 

Holbein,  Hans,  his  portrait  of  Fisher 
[Woltmann,  p.  313],  125. 

Honorius,  The  Emperor,  and  the 
taking  of  Rome  [Procopius,  Bell. 
Vandal,  i.  2 ;  Gibbon,  chap, 
xxix.],  47. 

Hooker,  Richard,  316  ;  cited  [Eccl. 
Pol.  book  v.,  chap,  xxxix.  i], 
142  ;  his  "  Ecclesiastical  Polity," 
164;  quoted  [book  v.,  chap. 
XXX viii.  2],  166  ;  his  death 
[Walton,  ed.   1866,  p.  213],  164. 

Hooper,  John,  bishop  of  Glouces- 
ter ;  account  of  [Later  Writings, 
Parker  Society,  and  Introduc- 
tion], 1 3 1- 1 32  ;  quoted  \ibid.^ 
xxxii.  176,  2niy  294-295,  583, 
584],  131-132. 

Hooper,  Anne,  wife  of  the  preced- 
ing, 132. 

Hopkins,  John,  translator  of  the 
Psalms,  140. 

Horn,  Count,  friend  of  Egmont, 
account  of  [^^otley,  pt.  iii.,  chap, 
i.,  ii.],  148-151. 

Homer,  the  martyr  [Southwell,  ed. 
Grosart,  p.  52],  134. 

"  Hortensius,"  of  Cicero,  the,  in- 
fluences Augustine  'Conf.,  III., 
iv.i],  41. 


INDEX. 


369 


Howard,  John,  304  ;  acconni  ofrj. 
B.  Brown,  Memoirsj,  296-298  ; 
lis  Diary  quoted  [ibid,  270], 
297  ;  preparations  for  his  la^t 
journey  [ibid.,  592,  593],  298. 

Hugh  of  Cluni  [Vita,  apud  Migne, 
clix.  867J,  65. 

Hugh  of  Kirkstall.  See  Kirk- 
stall. 

Hugo,  Victor,  his  "  Legende  des 
Siecles"  quoted  (xxvi.,  La  Rose 
de  rinfante),  157. 

"  Hugon,  Le  Roi,"  176. 

"  Huguenotes,"  utensils  so  called, 

Huguenots,  the,  169  seq.  ;  houses 
of,  175;  "Marseillaise"  of,  82, 
1 70  ;  persecutions  of,  1 76  seq. , 
199  seq.  ;  poetry  of,  175  ;  prov- 
erbs, etc.,  concerning,  176. 

Huguenot  seal,  device  on,  170. 

Humboldt,  Alexander  von,  21  ; 
quoted,  283. 

Huns,  the,  invasion  of,  47. 

Hunter,  his  Diary  during  siege  of 
Londonderry  quoted  [Walker, 
ed.  Dwyer,  p.  200],  263. 

Hus,  John,  21,  112;  death  of,  113. 

Hypatia,  the  murder  of,  28. 

Iley,  Alfred  at,  68. 

"■Imitatio    Christi,"    the    (and   see 

Thomas  X  Kempis),  99-101. 
Indians,     South    American,    Allen 

Gardiner  and  the,  310. 
Ingliston,    cave    at    [Wodrow,    iv. 

243].  259. 
lona,  Columha  at  [Montalembert, 
iii.  37,  etc.],  56;  importance  of, 

57- 
Ireland,  Cromwell  in,  231. 
Iris  river,  in  Pontus,  32. 
Irongray,  Minister  Welsh  at,  244 ; 

M 'Robin  hanged  at,  258. 
Irving,   Edward,  account  of,   280- 

283  ;  his  death,  283. 
Itala,     death     of     Livingstone     at 


[Last  Journals,  ii.  30&;  Bluikie], 

3»4- 
Ivan  the  Terrible,  84. 

James  I.  of  England,  19 ;  his 
version  of  the  Psalter,  142, 
213 ;  and  the  Scottish  Kirk, 
242. 

Jarnac,  Conde  killed  at  [Puaux,  ii. 
279],  182. 

Jarrow,  monastery  of,  66. 

Jellalabad,  siege  of,  321. 

Jerome,  St.,  21  ;  account  of 
[Thierry],  33-36 ;  revises  Sep- 
tuagint  and  Psalms  [Thierry,  i. 
142],  34  ;  his  letter  to  Marcella 
[Thierry,  i.  350],  34  ;  on  the  boy- 
hood of  Origen,  25  ;  on  the  tak- 
ing of  Rome,  47  ;  quoted  by 
Raleigh,  158. 

Jerome  of  Prague,  21,  112;  his 
death,  113. 

Jerusalem  taken  by  Saladin,  82. 

Jesuits,  the,  187. 

Jewel,  Bishop,  cited  [Works,  ed. 
Jelf,  viii.  141],  141  ;  his  "  Apol- 
og>',"  164  ;  his  death,  164. 

Jews,   the,  lamentation  over  Jeru- 
salem, 178. 
I  John    II.    of  France,    prisoner    in 
England,  190. 

John  VIII.,  Pope,  and  Cyril  and 
\'    Methodius    [Stanlev,     "Eastern 
Church,"  368  j^^.],'5i. 

John,   abbot  of  St.    Salvator,   and 
'      Anselm,  77. 

!  Johnson,    his    "  Wonder- Working 
I      Providence  "  quoted,  21 1. 

Johnson,  Dr.,  on  Law's  "Serious 
Call "  [Boswell,  ed.  Hill,  L  68], 

273- 

Joinville,   Sire  de,  cited  [Hist,  de 

St.  Louis,  2'"«  partie,  xv.],  97. 
j  Jonas,  Justus,  his  hymn,  138. 

Tones,  Philip,  quoted  [see  Appendix 
' '    A,    and    TURKEY    Merchant- 

MSN   ,    159. 


370 


INDEX. 


Jonson,  Ben,  his  "Poetaster"' 
quoted  (Act  v.,  sc.  i),  294, 

Joyeuse,  Due  de,  at  Courtras,  184. 

Julian,  The  Emperor,  and  Gregory' 
Nazianzen,  45. 

Keble,  John,  19,  273  ;  his  metri- 
cal Psalter  [^see  Appendix  A, 
chap,  xi.],  277;  his  "Christian 
Year  "  quoted,  277. 

Kempen,  99. 

Kempis,  Thomas  a,  20 ;  account 
of>  65,  99,  100;  his  "Soliloquy 
of  the  Soul"  [Kettlewell, 
"Brothers,''  i.  l8i  seq.\  100. 

Ken,  Bishop,  19. 

Kennedy,  Jane,  and  Mary  Queen 
of  Scots,  155.  ] 

Kentigem,  venerated  as  St  Mungo  1 
[Montalembert,  iii.  164],  59  ;  re-  j 
cites  the  Psalter  [Life,  by  Joce- 
lyn,  xiv. ;  Pinkerton,  ii.  29],  59  ; 
founder  of  Elwy  (jMontalembert, 

ii-  396],  59. 

Kethe,  William,  versifier  of  the 
Psalms,  140,  141;  his  "All 
people  that  on  earth  do  dwell," 
141. 

Kettering,  the  **  Particular  Bap- 
tists"  founded  at,  302. 

Kherson  (Cherson),  St.  Vladimir 
baptized  at,  93  ;  death  of  John 
Howard  at  [Memoirs,  629],  298. 

Kidderminster,  Richard  Bixter  at 
[Orme,  i.  169  «.],  272. 

Kieff,  baptisms  at,  93 ;  cathedral 
of  St.  Sophia  at,  46. 

"Killing  Times,  The,"  256-260. 

King,  Bishop,  19. 

Kings,  the  Three.  See  Wise  Men 
OF  THE  East. 

Kingsley,  Charles,  quoted  [Letters 
and  Memories,  i.  292,  293],  279. 

Kingston,  Ethelred  crowned  at,  70. 

Kirke,  Major- Gen.,  at  siege  of  Lon- 
donderry ^Walker,  June  15],  263, 
266. 


Kirk-o'-Field,  the,  described,  132 ; 

death  of  Damley  at,  152-155. 
Kirkstall,  Hugh  of,  cited  (History 

of  Fountains).     See  Fountains, 

87  seq. 
Knox,   John,  introduces  Genevan 

Psalter     into     Scotland,      142; 

quoted,    237  -  240 ;      death    of, 

240. 
Koulikofif,  defeat  of  Tartars  at,  84. 
Kremlin,  the,  sermon  of  MetropoU- 

tan  in,  320. 
Kruger,    President,   quoted,    326- 

328. 
Kussowrah,  William  Edwards  and 

the  Prob>Tis  at,  323-325. 
Kyle,    Alexander   Peden   preaches 

in,  255. 

La  Chaise,  Pere,  199. 
Lacknacor,  stone  of,  Columba  bom 

on,  55. 
Lady  Holland,  the,  wreck  of,  308. 
Laeghaire,  King,  and  St.  Patrick, 

54- 
Laeta,  stepdaughter  of  Paula,   St. 

Jerome  addresses  his  treatise  to 

her,  33. 
La  Ferte,  monastery  of,  86. 
La  Jonquiere,  General,  defeated  by 

Camisards,  205. 
Lalande,  Marquis  de,  defeated  by 

Camisards  at  the  Bridge  of  Sal- 

indres,  205. 
Lamartine,  Alphonse  de,  19. 
Lammermoor   hills,    Cuthbert    on, 

58. 
Lancaster,  Joseph,  296. 
Lancaster  Jail,  John  Howard  and 

prisoners  in,  298. 
Lanfranc,  Archbishop,  and  William 

the  Conqueror,  76. 
Langen    Schwalbach,   sundial    at, 

16. 
Langland,  81  ;  "Piers  Plowman" 

quoted,  104-106. 
Langres,  diocese  of,  85. 


INDEX. 


La  Noue  cited,  170. 

Laud,  Archbishop,  trial  and  death, 

219  ;  his  Prayers  quoted,  219. 
Lauderdale  quoted,  248. 
Laval,  du  Chayla,  prior  of,  202. 
Law,  William,  272  :  his  "  Serious 

Call"  quoted  [Works,  iv.    148- 

149,  159],  273,  274. 
Leake,  captain  of  the  Dartmouth, 

266. 
Leclerc,  Jean,  death  of  [Crespin,  p. 

85],  177. 
Lefevre    d'Etaples,    translation    of 

the  Psalter,  177. 
Legnano,  battle  of,  79. 
Leguat,  Francois,  on  the  island  of 

Rodrigues  [^see  Appendix  A,  chap. 

vii.],  171- 
Leighton,       Robert,       archbishop 

[FSVodrow,  i.  237  ;  ii.  1750,  244. 
Leignes  river,  85. 
Lennox,     Duke     of,    and     Durie, 

241. 
Leo,  St.,  and  Rome  [Gibbon,  chap. 

xxxvi.],  48. 
Leo    IIL,    Pope,    crowns    Charle- 
magne, 74. 
Leo,  Brother,  cited  [Speculum  Per- 

fectionis,  chap,  iv.],  90. 
Leonides,  father  of  Origen  [Thierry, 

St.  Jerome,  i.  354],  29. 
Lerins,  50,  65. 
Lerins,  Vincentius  of,  65. 
Les     Devois     de     Martignargues, 

battle  of  [Peyrat,  ii.  85],  204. 
Leslie,  Alexander,  Covenanter,  242. 
Leslie,  General  David,  defeated  by 

Cromwell  at  Dunbar,  232-234. 
Lestrange,  comrade  of  Coligny,  182. 
Leyden,  Separatists  at,  210. 
Liguge,  monastery  at,  36. 
Lille,  John  Howard  at  [Memoirs, 

418],  297. 
Lindisfame,  Cuthbert  at,  58 ;  Wil- 
frid at,  67. 
Lindsay,  Sir  David,  translates  the 

Psalter,  238. 


Linnaeus,  inscription  on  his  lecture- 
room  [Stoever,  269],  52. 

Livingstone,  David,  21,  301 ;  buried 
in  Westminster  Abbey  ["  Per- 
sonal Life,"  452-455],  298  ;  ac- 
count of,  and  death  [Blackie's 
"Personal  Life;"  "  Last  Jour- 
nals," ii.  308],  312-314. 

Llancarvan,  monastery  at  ^Monta- 
lembert,  ii.  406],  60. 

Locke,  John,  21  ;  his  death,  283. 

Locmenach,  monastery  of,  95. 

Londonderry.     See  Derry. 

Longjumeau,  treaty  of  jjCrottet, 
302],  180. 

Lorraine,  Schuch  in,  178. 

Louis  IX.  (St.),  21,  92  ;  account  of, 
and  death  [Martin,  iv.  326-330 ; 
Perry's  "St.  Louis"],  97. 

Louis  XIII.  and  Godeau,  189. 

Louise  of  Savoy,  regent  of  France, 

177. 

Loup,    St.,    saves    Troyes    [Alban 

Butler,  July  24],  48  ;  in  Britain, 

see  Lupus  {infra) ,  60. 
"  Loyalty  House"  (Basing  House) 

[Carlyle,    "Cromwell,"  i.    213], 

230. 
Lozere,  caves  of,  175. 
Lucknow,  relief  of,  322,  325,  326. 
Ludlow,  Col.    Edmund,  his  inter- 
view with  Cromwell  [Carlyle,  iii. 

53.  232. 
Lundy,  Col.,  at  Londonderry,  262. 
Lupus,    of    Troyes    (and    see    St. 

Loup),  in  Britain  [Bede,  I.  xvii. 

and  XX.],  60. 
Luther,  21,  113,  115,  117  ;  writes  to 

Ludwig  Seuffel,  26 ;  account  of, 

117-119;  his  hymns,  138. 
Lutterworth,  death   of  Wyclif  at, 

no. 
Luynes,  at  Montauban,  196. 
Lydd,  Church  of  SS.  Crispin  and 

Crispinian  at  [Hasted's  Kent,  iii. 

514!],  23. 
1  Lyons,  Wilfrid  at,  67, 


373 


INDEX. 


Lyons,   gulf  of,   Vincent   de   Paul 

captured  in,  190. 
Lyttelton,  Lord,  on  Law's  "Serious 

Call,"  273. 

Macao,  Camoens  at,  191. 
Macaulay,    Lord,    his    epitaph    on  ' 

Henry  Martyn  quoted,  308.  i 

MacBriar,  Ephraim  ("Old  Mortal-  ' 

ity"),    Hugh    M'Kail   prototype 

of,  247.  : 

Machadodorp,    President    Kruger  s 

dispatches  from,  327. 
M'Kail,    Hugh,    246,    258 ;    death 

of  I^Vodrow,  ii.   53,  58,  59  w.], 

247,  248. 

Mackay,  Alexander  Murdoch,  21, 
Mackenzie,    quoted    on    siege    of 

Londonderry',  267. 
Maclachlan  (M'Lauchlison),   Mar- 
garet,   death    of    [Wodrow,    iv. 

248,  249],  260. 

M'Michael,  Daniel,  death  of  [Wod- 
row, iv.  239,  240],  258. 

M'Robin,  Alexander,  death  of 
[Wodrow,  iv.  240],  258. 

Maes-Garmon,  battle  of  [Bede,  1. 
xvii.,  XX.],  60. 

Magus  Moor,  murder  of  Archbishop 
Sharp  on,  250. 

Maine  de  Biran,  account  of,  284- 
285. 

]Maintenon.  Madame  de,  199. 

Male,  William  von,  friend  of 
Charles  V.,  120. 

Mamai,  defeated  at  Koulikoff,  84. 

Manichees,  the,  Augustine  and 
[Conf.,  HL  V.  ;  LX.  iv.],  42, 
44. 

Manning,  Cardinal,  quoted  [Pur- 
cell's  "  Life,"  i.  68],  277. 

Mantes,  William  the  Conqueror 
killed  at,  93. 

Marazion,  Henry  Martyn  at,  305. 

Marcella,  letter  of  Paula  and  Eusto- 
chium  to,  25  ;  her  community 
on    the    AvenlJnc    [Thitirry,    St. 


Jerome,    i.     29,    350],    33,    34; 

letter  of  Jerome  to,  34. 
Margaret,   Countess  of  Pembroke. 

See  Pembroke. 
Margaret,   Countess  of  Richmond. 

See  Richmond. 
Marguerite  de  Valois,  and  Marot, 

139- 
Marillac,  Michel  de,  versifier  of  the 
Psalter,  189. 

Marmoutier,  monastery  of,  37. 

Marot,  Clement,  and  Charles  V., 
120;  his  "sancteschansonnettes" 
[Bordier,  viii.,  ix.  ;  Douen,  i. 
709],  139,  168  ;  his  version  of 
the  Psalms  [Douen,  i.  289], 
170-172,  179,  202;  his  version 
of  the  Psalms  prohibited,  177, 
189  ;  Francis  L  and,  177. 

Marston  Moor,  battle  of,  220. 

Martin,  St.,  of  Tours,  church   of, 
'      72  ;      account      of     [Newman's 
"Historical   Sketches,"  ii.    186- 
I      190,    203 ;    Baring-Gould,    Nov- 
ember 11],  36. 

Martin,  Sarah,  298. 

Mart}-n,  Henr)',  21,  300,  310; 
account  of  [Kaye's  "  Indian 
Officers,"  i.  459  set/.  ;  Sargent's 
Memoir],  304-308  ;  his  Journal 
quoted  [Journal,  i.  67,  162,  145, 
152J,  302,  305,  306,  307. 

Martyrs,  hymn  of  (Augustine's) 
[sermo  ccclxvi.],  23. 

Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  21  ;  and 
Damley,  151-155  ;  death  of, 
155  ;  lines  written  before  execu- 
tion, 156. 

Mary  L,  queen  of  England,  151. 

Mary  H.,  queen  of  England,  262. 

Masham,  Sir  Francis  and  Lady, 
283. 

Mather,    Cotton,    versifier    of    the 
Psalms,  212. 
j  Maurice,    the    Emperor,    death    of 
I      [Gibbon,  chap,  xlvi.],  24,  252, 
I  Ma.yenne,  Puc  tie,  XS5,  196. 


IXDEX. 


373 


Mayflower^  the,  21  r. 

Mazel,  Caniisard  historian,  fjuoted, 

20t). 

Mcaux,    Leclerc,   wool-comber   ^){^ 

IT]  ;   the  prisoners  of  [Crespin, 

p.  169],  178. 
Mediseval  art,  Jerome  in  [Tliierry, 

ii.  243],  35. 
Mediaeval  science,  98,  99. 
Mekong  river,  Camoens  at,  191. 
Melancthon,    21.    114;    death    of, 

117;  and  Luther,  119. 
Melrose,  Cuthbert  at,  58. 
Melville,  Andrew,  240 ;  death  of, 

241. 
Melville,    James,    quoted    [Diaiy, 

22,   27 j,  240  ;  death   of  [Diar}', 

xxviii.  seq.\  241. 
Metezeau,   Jean,    versifier    of    the  j 

Psalms,  189. 
Methodists,  the,  270,  275.  I 

Methodius  and  Cyril,  translation  of  ! 

the  Bible  in  Sclavonic  [Stanley's  j 

'\Eastern  Church,"  368  seq.\  50. 
Metz,  Jean  Leclerc  dies  at,  177. 
Michel     Angelo,     his     picture     of 

Savonarola,  117. 
Milan,  death  of  Ambrose  at,  28  ; 

Council  of,  37  ;  Theodosius  and 

Ambrose  at,  40 ;    Augustine  at, 

42,  45- 
Milbourne,      Luke,     versifies     the 

Psalms,  19. 
Milton,    19 ;   versifies  the    Psalms, 

221  ;    the  Psalms  in  his  poetry, 

222,  223. 
"Mirror     for     Magistrates,"    the 

(Psalm  ci.),  161. 
Moir,     David     Macbeth,     quoted 

(Night  Hymn  of  the  Cameroni- 

ans),  249. 
Molesme,  monastery  of,  85. 
Monasticism,  spread  of,  32,  37  ;  in 

Rome,    32 ;    in    Gaul,    36 ;    in 

Western  Europe,  50. 
Monica,  or  Monnica,  27,  death  of 

[Au^;.  Conf.,  i>i.  12],  27. 


Monkton    Farleigh,    Bishop  Jewel 

dies  at,  164. 
Monmouth,  Duke  of,  and  Cargill, 

252. 
Montaigne  quoted  [Essays,  L  Ivi.J, 

188. 
Montauban,    170;    siege   of,    195; 

Rochette  at,  208. 
Montcontour,    battle    of,     Coligny 

wounded     at     [Douen,     i.      13 ; 

D'Aubigne,  L  v.,  xvi.],  182. 
Monte  Cassino,  founded  by  Bene- 
dict, 49. 
Montpellier,   death   of  Benezet  at, 

207. 
Montrose,  psalm-singing  introduced 

at,  240. 
Moors,  the,  in  Spain,  83. 
More,   Sir   Thomas,    114;    Luther 

on  ["  Table-talk,"  dcclxix.],  121  ; 

account  of  [Bridgett],  122-124. 
Morimond,  monastery  of,  87. 
Moscow,  threatened  by  Tartars,  84; 

Napoleon  at,  320 ;  Metropolitan 

of,  his  sermon,  320. 
"Mouchard,"  176. 
Mountjoy,  Lord,  261. 
MotiJiiJoy,  the,  at  siege  of  London- 

dexxy  [Walker,  July  30],  266,  267. 
Mulla,  the  white  stag  of,  55. 
Mungo,    St.,    of  Glasgow    (Kenti- 

gern),  59. 
Miintzer,  Thomas,  143. 
Musselburgh,  Cromwell  at,  232. 
Mutiny,  the  Indian,  322-326, 
Mwanga,  King,  and  Bishop  Han- 

nington  ^Dawson,  440],  314. 

Nancy,  Schuch  burned  at,  177. 

Nantes,  Edict  of,  185,  186,  188;  re- 
voked [Puaux,\-i.  87  i-if^.],  1 99, 201. 

Napoleon,  at  Moscow,  320. 

Napoleon  IIL  and  Revolution  of 
1848,  320. 

Naseby,  battle  of  [Carlyle,  "  Crom- 
well," i.  192],  230. 

Xeander,  279. 


374 


INDEX. 


"Neck  verse,"  the,  15. 

Nelson,  servant  to  Darnley,  154, 155. 

Neot,   St.,   account  of  [Newman's 

"English  Saints,"  iii.   109-187], 

68,  69  ;  recites  the  Psalter  daily 

\ibid.^  109,  no],  68. 
Newman,    Cardinal,    273;    his 

"Dream  of  Gerontius"  quoted 

["  Verses  on  various  occasions," 

323-370],  277,  278. 
Newport  (Monmouth),  St.  Woolos, 

61. 
Newton,  John,  273,  275. 
Nicasius,    bishop    of    Rheims,    his 

death,  48. 
Nicephorus,      Patriarch,     instructs 

Vladimir  [Palmer's  Dissertations, 

92-93],  94; 
Nicolai,  Philip,  his  h>Tiin,  138. 
Niebelungenlied,  the,  48, 
"  Night  Hymn  of  the  Cameronians, 

The,"  quoted,  249,  250. 
Nisbet,  John,  Death  of  [Wodrow, 

iv.  235  ;  "Cloud  of  Witnesses," 

466],  258. 
Noailles,      Madame     de,      quoted 

[Duras,     "Journal,"    etc.,     192, 

203],  319  ;  death  of  libid.,  284- 

297],  318. 
Noailles- Mouchy,  Due  de,  death  of 

{ibid.,  183],  318  ;  Marechale  de 

[ibid.,  223,  224,  225],  318. 
Nola,  Paulinus  dies  at,  28. 
Nonna,  mother  of  Gregory  Nazian- 

zen  [Ullman,  17],  26. 
Noyers  [Puaux,  ii.  273],  180. 

"O  Deus,  ego  amo  Te"  (Xavier's 

hymn),  translated,  128. 
Odoacer    and    Severinus    [Monta- 

lembert,  i.  374;   Gibbon,  chap. 

xxxvi.],  49. 
Oran,  capture  of,  83. 
Ordericus  Vitalis  quoted,  on  death 

of  AVilliam  the  Conqueror  [Hist. 

Eccles.,  VIH.,    xiv.    and   xvi.], 

92,  93- 


Origen,  21  ;  his  boyhood  jiThierry, 
St.  Jerome,  i.  354],  25,  29 ; 
account  of  [Thierry,  354-360], 
25 ;  his  apostasy  and  remorse 
[Epiphanius  Haer.,  Ixiv.  2;  apud 
Migne,  xli.  1072-1073],  29. 

Orleans,  cathedral  of,  175. 

Orleans,  Duchess  of,  and  Jean 
Rousseau,  174,  175. 

Ormiston,  Wishart  at,  239. 

Orthez,  bridge  of,  175. 

Ostia,  Augustine  and  Monica  at,  27. 

Oundle,  Wilfrid  dies  at,  68. 

Oxford  University,  motto  of,  15. 

Padua,  St.  Fran9ois  de  Sales  at, 

193- 

Paiges,  Sebastian,  court  musician 
to  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  153. 

Palissy,  Bernard,  account  of  [Mor- 
ley,    n.    242-246 ;    Palaysi,    36, 

37],  171. 
Pambo    [Socrates,    Eccles.     Hist., 

IV.  xxiii.],  31. 
Paraclete,  the,  oratory  of,  95. 
Parker,  Archbishop,  19  ;  his  Diary 

quoted,  140  ;  falls  from  his  horse 

[Strype,  book  i.,  chap,  vii.],  140; 

his  translation  of  the  Psalms,  140. 
"Particular  Baptist  Society,  The," 

founded  at  Kettering,  302. 
Pascal,    Blaise,     19,    20 ;     quoted 

[Pensees,    XXHI.    viii.  ;    XIV. 

vii. I],  198. 
"Pastors  of  the  Desert,  The"  [see 

Appendix   A,    chap,    viii.],    206 

seg. 
Paterson,      Bishop,     and     Marion 

Harvie  ["Cloud  of  Witnesses ;  " 

Wodrow,  iii.  277],  259. 
Patrick,    St.,    at   Tara    [Tripartite 

Life,     i.      41     seg.  ;     ii.     455  ; 

O'Hanlon,  iii.  554  J<?^.  [J,  55. 
Patteson,  Bishop,  304. 
Paul  and  Silas  at  Philippi,  17. 
Paul   III.,  Pope,  creates  Fisher  a 

cardinal,  126. 


INDEX. 


375 


Paula  (the  elder),  account  of,  and 
death  jjThierry,  St.  Jerome,  i. 
32,  159,160,  225-310,  312,  335; 
ii.  85-88],  33-35;  and  Eusto- 
chium,  35  ;  letter  to  Marcella 
^Thiern,-,  i.  350;  Pal.  Pilgrims' 
Text  Society,  vol.  i.i],  25. 

Paula  (the  younger)  ^Thierry,  ii.  61, 

2413.  33,  35- 

Paulina,  daughter  of  Paula  the 
elder  [Thierry,  i.  159,  160],  33. 

Paulinus,  Bishop  of  Nola,  death  of 
[Bright's  "  History,"  334],  28. 

Pavia,  battle  of,  177. 

Peden,  Alexander,  246  ;  quoted 
[i"Six  Saints,"  i.  70,  etc.],  251, 
253,  259,  261  ;  account  of  ["Six 
Saints,"],  253-256  ;  specimens 
of  his  preaching  ["Six  Saints,'"' 
i.  59 ;  i-  90],  255,  256. 

Pelican,  the,  as  the  symbol  of 
Christ,  15. 

Pembroke,  Margaret,  Countess  of, 
18;  translates  Psalms,  158. 

Penitential  Psalms,  the  (that  is,  vi., 
xxxii.,  xxxviii.,  Ii.,  cii.,  cxxx., 
cxliii. ),  Augustine  [Possidius, 
31],  28  ;  Dante  [Gardner's 
"  Dante,"  40],  loi  ;  Fisher 
[Bridgett,  106],  125 ;  Spenser 
[(Works,  ed.  PayTie  Collier,  i., 
Ixxv.,  ed.  Todd,  i.,  clxxi.  «.],  158. 

Pentland  Rising,  the,  account  of 
[Wodrow ;  Blackadder,  "  Six 
Saints"],  247,  248,  253. 

Pepin,  of  France,  73. 

Persecution,  of  Diocletian,  23  ;  of 
Severus,  29. 

Peters,  Hugh,  quoted  [Carlyle, 
"Cromwell,"  i.  213],  230. 

Philip  I.  of  France,  92. 

PhiUp  n.  of  Spain,  and  the  Nether- 
lands [Motley,  pt.  iii.,  chap,  i., 
etc.],  148. 

Phillips,  Edward,  quoted,  141. 

Phocas,  and  the  Emperor  Maurice, 
24. 


I  Phcenix^  the,  at  the  siege  of  Lon^ 
I      donderry,  267. 

j  Pico  della  Mirandola,  quoted  [See- 
I  bohm,  117],  122;  account  of  [See- 
^  bohm,  9 ;  Villari,  1-77,  %%,  244], 
I      122. 

I  Picton    Island,    Commander    Gar- 
diner at  [Marsh's  Memoir,  348], 
310. 
Piers  Plowman.     See  Langland. 
j  Pilgrim,  the  Bordeaux  [Thierry,  i. 
I      36],  33,  80. 
I  Pilgrim  Fathers,  the,  211. 
:  Pilgrimages,  80-81  ;  satirized,  81. 
Pitman,    Dr.,   his   school,   Cowper 

at,  2S7. 
Pitt,  William,  friend  of  Wilberforce 

l''\li&;'  passim%  275. 
Plymouth,  U.S.A.,  211. 
Poissy,  Henr}-  of  Navarre  at,  1S3. 
Poitiers,  36,  72. 

Poitiers,  Diane  de.     See  Diane. 
Poitou,       Bas-,       wolves       called 

"  Soubises"  in,  176. 
Pont  de  Montvert,  affair  of  [PejTat, 

i.  287  seq.\  202. 
Pontigny,  monastery  of,  87. 
Pope,    his    "Elo'ise   to   Abelard" 

quoted,  95. 
Possidius,  biographer  of  Augustine, 

quoted  ["Vita,"  Aug.  31],  28. 
Port  Royal,  abbey  of,  197,  198. 
Port- Royalists,  the,  188,  199. 
Prague  and  Wyclif,  112. 
Prague,  Jerome  of.     See  Jerome. 
"  Prapng  Indians,"'  Eliot's,  299. 
Pre  aux  Clercs,  the,  139. 
Prelacy,    Scottish   feeling    against, 

231^  258. 
Prestonpans,  death  of  Col.  Gardiner 
at   [Doddridge,    179   seq.\,  315, 
316. 
Primers,  mediaeval,  137. 
Prison  reform,  296-298. 
Privas,  175. 

Prob}^!,   Mr.   and  Mrs.,   and  their 
children,  323. 


3/6 


INDEX. 


Procopius  cited  [Bell,  Gotth.,  iv. 
20],  6i. 

Prosni,  widow,  at  La  Rochelle 
[Puaux,  V.  187  se^.],  196. 

Psalms,  the,  the  early  Christians 
and  [Palmer's  Dissertations,  285 
se^.'\,  22,  23  ;  antiphonal  chant- 
ing of,  introduced  by  Ambrose, 
28  ;  revised  by  Jerome,  34 ; 
Athanasius's  "Exposition"  and 
"Titles,"  37;  Methodius  and 
Cyril  translate,  50 ;  in  monastic 
life,  52,  64 ;  recited  by  Kenti- 
gem,  59 ;  by  St.  Neot,  69 ;  by 
pilgrims,  80 ;  by  Stephen  Hard- 
ing [Newman,  i.  12],  85  ;  Wilfrid 
and,  67;  Savonarola  on,  116; 
Luther  and,  117,  122  ;  Bishop 
Hooper  on,  131;  Council  of  Tou- 
louse and,  137 ;  Prayer  Book 
version  of,  137;  in  public  wor- 
ship, 138,  173,  240;  Huguenots 
and,  169  sg^.  ;  Calvin  introduces 
chanting  at  Geneva,  172;  An- 
toine  Arnauld  and,  198  ;  singing 
of,  in  Scotland,  240 ;  translation 
in  Persian,  307. 

Psalms,  metrical  versions  of,  Ad- 
dison, 286;  Ainsworth,  211; 
Bacon,  160;  Barlow,  211  ;  Bax- 
ter, 272;  Beza,  172,  179,  189; 
Blackmore,  19 ;  Brady,  141  ; 
Bryant,  212 ;  Buchanan,  238  ; 
Calvin,  172;  Carlyle,  119;  Cor- 
neille,  189 ;  Craig,  142 ;  Daye, 
140  ;  Desportes,  188  ;  Dwight, 
212  ;  Eliot,  299  ;  Elizabeth, 
Queen,  151,  160;  Fletcher,  160; 
Godeau,  189;  Heine,  191;  Hop- 
kins, 140;  James  I.,  141,  160; 
Keble,  277 ;  Kethe,  140,  141  ; 
Lindsay,  238 ;  Luther,  120 ; 
Marillac,  189  ;  Marot,  120,  139, 
168  se^.,  189;  Mather,  212; 
Metezeau,  189  ;  Milbourne,  19  ; 
Milton,  221  ;  Parker,  140  ;  Pem- 
broke, Countess  of,  158  ;  Kacine, 


189 ;  Rous,  142,  309 ;  Sandys, 
18  ;  Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  158,  160  ; 
Spenser,  158,  160;  Sternhold, 
140,  142  ;  Surrey,  Earl  of,  160  : 
Tate,  141  ;  Waldis,  138  ;  Wed- 
derburns,  the,  238 ;  WTiitting- 
ham,  140  ;  Wisedome,  140  ; 
Wyatt,  160. 

Psalter,  battle  of  the  [Montalem- 
bert,  iii.  20-26],  56. 

Puertocarrero,  Tomas  de  [Stirlini:- 
Maxwell,  "Charles  V.,"  323], 
120. 

Ql"Ercy,  Francois  Pochette  in, 
208. 

Rabec,  Jean,  death  of  [Crespin,  p. 

374],.  179-     .        , 
Rabelais  at   Liguge  [see  Appendix 

A],  36. 
Racine  translates  the  Psalter,  189. 
Raikes,  Robert,  296. 
Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,   158;  quoted 

[i"Hist.  of  the  World,"  book  ii., 

chap,  xvii.],  158. 
Rang,  Louis,  206  ;  death  of  [Pey- 

rat,  ii.  405],  207. 
Regent  Square,  Edward  Irving  in, 

281. 
"  Reign  of  Terror,  The,"  318. 
Religion  in  the  eighteenth  centur}-, 

268-272. 
"  Remnant,  The,"  245,  252. 
Remond,  Florimond  de,  quoted  [sl\- 

Douen,  i.  3],  169,  209. 
Remy,  St.,  blesses  Clovis,  72. 
Renard,  Spanish  ambassador,  144. 
Renard,  Rue  du,  176. 
Ren  wick,  James,  246 ;   account  of 

[\Vodrow,  iv.  446-454;  "Cloud 

of  Witnesses,"   483    s^i/.j,    2';7, 

258. 
Revolution,  the  French,  and  Irving  s 

preaching,  281. 
"  Reynard  the  Fox,"  81. 
Rhe,  island  of,  1^,6. 


TXDEX 


Riccio,  David,  151,  154. 
Richard  I.  at  the  Crusades,  S^. 
Richard,   prior   and   sacrist  of  St. 

Mary's,  York,  87  set/. ;  lirst  abbot 

of  Fountains,  89. 
Richelieu,  Cardinal  de,  194,  196. 
Richelieu,  Due  de,  208. 
Richmond,  Margaret,  Countess  of, 

and  Bishop  Fisher,  125.  j 

Ridley,    Bishop,    death    of    [Fox,  j 

1555],  132-  .    I 

Rievaulx       founded       [Newman  s  j 

♦'Saints,"  V.  108],  87.  1 

Ripon,  abbey  of,  67,  89.  \ 

Robert,  abbot  of  Molesme,  85.  : 

Rocamadour,  pilgrimages  to,  81.       ' 
Rochelle,   La,    170,    181  ;    siege  of 

[Puaux,    V.    180    set/.  ;    and    see 

Appendix    A,   chap,    viii.],    184, 

195,  196. 
Rochester,  Earl  of,  quoted,  141. 
Rochette,     Francois,     account     of ' 

[Peyrat,  ii.  435J,  207-209.  | 

Rodrigues,     island     of,      Francois  ' 

Leguat  at,  171. 
Roger,  Jacques,  death  of  [Peyrat, 

ii.  406],  207. 
Rogers,     Samuel,      his      "  Italy " 

quoted,  79. 
Rohan,  Henri,  Due  de  [see  Appen- 
dix A,  chap,  viii.],  195. 
Roland,  Camisard  leader  [Peyrat, 

ii.  91  se^.],  205. 
RoUe,  Richard,  of  Hampole,  137. 
Romanes,     G.     J.,     21  ;      quoted, 

286. 
Rome,    monasticism    in,    32   se^.  ; 

taken  by  Alaric  [Gibbon,  chap. 

xxxi.],  48. 
Romney  Marsh,  23. 
Roper,  Margaret,  124. 
Rostislaf,  95. 

Rouen,  death  of  William  the  Con- 
queror at,  93. 
Rous,  'Francis,   his  version  of  the 

Psalter,  19,  142,  309. 
Rousseau,   Jean,    the   pointer,   and 


the  Duchess  of  Orleans  [Douen, 
i.  21],  174,  175. 

Rousseau,  Jean  Jacques,  19. 

Roxburgh's  "  Flora  Indica,  '  303. 

Royal  arms,  the,  supporters  of,  15. 

Rule  of  Antony,  50  ;  of  Basil,  50  ; 
of  Benedict  [Monialembert,  i. 
417  ;  Bened.  Regula],  50,  61, 
63,  64,  67,  69 ;  of  Cistercians 
[Newman,  "Life  of  Harding,"' 
chap,  xvii.],  86,  87;  of  Isidore, 
50 ;  of  Macarius,  50 ;  of  Re- 
formed Carmelites,  130. 

RuUion  Green,  battle  at  [Wodrow, 
ii.  30  set/.],  246,  247;  inscrip- 
tion at,  247. 

Rump,  the,  234. 

Runjepoorah,  William  Edwards  at, 

323- 

Rupert,  Prince,  at  Chalgrove  Field, 
220,  221. 

Ruskin,  19  ;  on  Sir  Philip  Sidney, 
1 58  ;  and  Carlyle,  292-293  ;  ac- 
count of,  293,  295. 

Rye,  the  river,  87. 

Rye  House  Plot,  the,  256. 

Sachs,  Hans,  302. 

St.   Agnes's  Mount,  monastery  of, 

Thomas  a  Kempis  at,  20,  99. 
St.  Andrews,  Wishart  at,  239. 
St.   Angelo,   Gregory  VII.   a  pris- 
oner in,  75. 
St.   Apollinare   Nuovo,   church   of, 

at  Ravenna,  18. 
St.  Brelade's,  sundial  at,  16. 
St.  Gervais,  abbey  of,  William  the 

Conqueror  dies  at,  93. 
St.     Germain-en-Laye,    treaty    of, 

182. 
St.    John,    Mrs.,  cousin  of  Oliver 

Cromwell,  229, 
St.  Gildas  de  Rhuys,  abbey  of,  95. 
St.   Sophia,  cathedral  of,  at  Kieff, 

inscription      Hare's     "  Russia," 

447-450]>  45- 
Saintes.  365  Palissv  at.  171. 


378 


INDEX. 


Saladin,  Jerusalem  taken  by,  82. 
Salem,   U.S.A.,    Pilgrim    Fathers 

at,  211. 
Salerno,  tomb  of  Hildebrand  at, 

74. 
Sales,  St  Fran9ois  de.     See  Fran- 
cois. 
Safindres,  bridge  of,  battle  at  [Pey- 

rat,  ii.  91  seq.1,  205,  206. 
Salmasius,  21. 
San  Chan,  island  of,  death  of  Xavier 

at,  127,  128. 
Sanderson,  Robert,  bishop  of  Lin- 
coln, account  of  JjWaltonl,  214, 

215. 
Sandys,    George,    versifier    of    the 

Psalms,  18. 
San  Michele,  sundial  at,  16. 
Sanquhar,   ' '  Declaration  "  read  at, 

251. 
Saracen,  the  converted  [Gregory  of 

Decapolis,   Serm.    Hist.,  xxix.], 

24. 
Savonarola,    114;    account  of  \see 

Appendix  A,  chap,  v.],  114-116  ; 

portraits  of,  114,  117. 
Scheffer,  Ary,  his  picture  of  Augus- 
tine and  Monica,  27. 
Schlavia,  Anselm  at,  77. 
Scholastica,  St.,  sister  of  Benedict, 

64. 
Schopp,   Caspar,    his    "  Classicum 

Belli  Sacri,"  143. 
Schuch,  Wolfgang,  burned  at  Nancy 

[Crespin,  p.  88],  177. 
Schwartz,  Christian  Friedrich,  his 

mission   church   at   Tranquebar, 

302. 
Science,  mediaeval,  98,  99. 
Scott,  Thomas,  273,  275. 
Scott,    Su:    Walter,     19  ;    quoted 

("Marmion,"     II.      xvi.),     58; 

characters  in  his  novels,  246,  247  ; 

his   death   [Lockhart,   vii.    389], 

288. 
Scottish  Kirk,  the.     See  Charles 

I.  and  Charles  II, 


Scrooby,  Separatists  at,  210. 

Seal,  old  Huguenot,  170. 

Seeker,  Archbishop,  quoted  by  Bos- 
well  [Works,  i.  223!),  288. 

Sedan,  death  of  Andrew  Melville 
at,  241. 

Selwyn,  George,  and  Wilberforce 
t"  Life  of  Wilberforce,"  i.    16], 

275- 
"Separatists,    The,"    at     Scrooby 

[Arber,  p.  329],  210;  at  Leyclen 

\ibidJ\,  210. 
Serampore,  William  Carey  at,  303. 
Sergius,  the  hermit,  84. 
Serlo,  the  monk,  history  of  Foun- 
tains, 87. 
Seuffel,  Ludwig,  correspondent  of 

Luther,  26. 
Severinus,  of  Noricum,  49. 
Severus,  persecution  of,  29. 
Sevigne,   Madame  de  jjLetter  342, 

ed.  1838],  197. 
Shakespeare,   19 ;   quoted,  58,  82, 

141,    210,   218;    the  Psalms  in, 

161-163. 
Sharp,  James,    Archbishop  of  St. 

Andrews    [Wodrow,    iii.],    243 ; 

and    Hugh    M'Kail,    247 ;    his 

murder,  250. 
Sharpe,    Granville,     colleague     of 

Wilberforce,  276. 
Sherborne,    Stephen    Harding   at, 

85. 
Shiraz,  Henry  Martyn  at,  306. 
Shrewsbury,    Earl    of,    and    Mary 

Queen  of  Scots,  155. 
Sidney,   Sir    Philip,    18,    158;    his 

translation  of  the  Psalms,  158. 
Sidonius  Apollinaris  cited,  25. 
Siena,  Spinello's  frescoes  at,  79. 
Sigismund  at  Council  of  Constance, 

112. 
Silvia,  mother  of  Gregory  the  Great 

[Greg.  Vita,  iv.  83  ;  apud  Migne, 

Ixxv.  230],  62. 
Silvia  of  Aquitaine  \see  Appendix  A, 

chap,  iv.5,  80. 


INDEX. 


379 


Simeon,  Charles,  275. 

Simonoff  monastery,  84. 

Simpson,  Sir  James,  his  "  Mother's 

>    Psalm,"  286. 

Skell,  the  river,  88. 

Skene,  James,    Cargill's   letter   to 

[*'  Cloud  of  Witnesses,"'  13],  253. 
Slave-trade,  abolition  of,  275,  296. 
Smith,    Sydney,   on    the   Baptists, 

303  ;  Carlyle  on,  316. 
Smith,  Sir  Thomas,  19. 
Soana,  Gregory  VII.  bom  at,  74. 
Sobieski,  John,  war-cry  of,  82,  170. 
Soissons,  Crispin  and  Crispinian  at, 

23. 

Sorbonne,  the,  and  Robert  Estienne, 

173  ;  and  Clement  Marot,  177. 
Soubise  (Le  roi  des   Parpaillaux), 

176. 
*'  Soubises,"  '*  Pierres  de  Soubise," 

176. 
Southwell,     Robert,     account     of 

[iWorks,    Introd.     ed.     Grosart, 

xlix.  -  lix.],     133  -  136  ;     quoted 

\,ibicL,  62,  84,   103,  ed.  Grosart, 

p.  lii.],  135. 
Spectator^  the,  quoted,  287. 
Speedwell,    the,    at    Delft    [Arber, 

329],  210. 
Spenser,   Edmund,   his   version   of 

the  Penitential  Psalms  [Works, 

ed.  Pa>Tie-Collier,  i.,  lxx\'.],  15S. 
Spinello,   his  frescoes  at  Florence 

[Montalembert,   i.   410],  49 ;   at 

Siena,  79. 
Stael,  Madame  de,  and  Wilberforce 

e"Life  of  Wilberforce,"  iv.  15S, 

167],  275. 
Stanley,  Dean,  his  favourite  Psalm, 

279. 
Stanley,  H.  M.,  finds  Li\-ingstone, 

313. 
Steinach,  the,  Gall  at,  53. 
Stephen,  the  martvT,  17. 
Sternhold,  Thomas,  140-142. 
Stewart,  Sir  Thomas,  uncle  of  Oliver 

CromwsU  {jCurlyk,  i.  Si],  22S. 


Stoddart,  Colonel,  death  of,  at 
Bokhara,  321. 

Stones,  Druidic,  names  for,  in 
France,  176  ;  superstitions  con- 
cerning, in  S.W\  France  {^see 
Appendix  A,  chap,  iv.i],  106,  107. 

Strada  cited  [De  Bello  Belgico, 
Libb.  iii.  and  v.J],  169. 

Strafford,  Earl  of,  his  trial  and 
death,  215-219. 

Strasburg,  Bishop  Hooper  at,  131. 

Stridon,  birthplace  of  Jerome,  33. 

Suffolk,  Duke  of,  144,  147. 

Sundials  [see  Appendix  A],  16. 

Sussex,  Wilfrid  in,  62,. 

Swift,  the,  Wyclif's  ashes  thrown 
into.  III. 

Symonds,  servant  to  Darnley,  154. 

Tagus,  the  passage  of,  2>l. 

Tanfield  Hall,  Chalmers  at  [Hanna, 
iv.  341],  280. 

Tanlay,  Coligny  at,  180. 

Tarn,  the,  203. 

Tartars,  the,  in  Russia,  84= 

Tasso,  death  of,  1 22. 

Tate,  Nahum,  141. 

Taylor,  page  to  Darnley,  154. 

Taylor,  Jeremy,  213  ;  quoted 
[Works,  vol.  XV.,  p.  97],  213. 

Telesia,  monaster}''  at,  77. 

Tellier,  Michel  le,  chancellor 
[Puaux,  vi.  87  seq."],  201. 

Templars,  the  battle-cry  of,  82. 

Tennyson,  his  "  Crossing  the  Bar,'' 
253 ;  quoted  ("  Rizpah'^'),  290 ;  on 
Edward  Fitzgerald,  291. 

Teresa,  St.,  1 14;  account  of  [Cole- 
ridge, i.  4.  8 ;  »•  362,  369-370], 

129,  130. 
Thebaid,  the,  33. 
Theodore     the      Martyr      ["Diet. 

Christian    Biography,"  iv.    956I, 

23- 

Theodore   of  Mopsuestia.    quoted, 

25- 
Theodpsuis,    The     Emperor,    and 


\bo 


INDEX. 


Ambrose  [iBrighrs  "  Fathers,"  i. 

519  ;  Baunard,  448-456],  40. 
Theodosius,  De  Situ  Terrfe  Sanctas 

[see  Appendix  A,  chap,  iv.i],  81. 
Theonas,   St.,   church  of  [^Bright's 

"Fathers,"  i.   240;    "History," 

76,     77;      Stanley's     '*  Eastern 

Church,"  283],  38. 
Thessalonica,  massacre  at,  39,  40. 
Thomas,   "  Little  Alphabet  of  the 

Monks,"  etc  Iseg  Appendix  A, 

chap.    iv.  ;    Kettlewell,    ii.     119 

se^.^,  100. 
Thomas,  Surgeon,  friend  of  William 

Carey,  302. 
Thomas  Aquinas,  St.,  65. 
Thomas,  St.,  of  Villanova,  21. 
Thomson,    his    "Hymn"   quoted, 

52. 

Tiberius  H.,  24. 

Tierra  del   Fuego,  Allen  Gardiner 

at  [iMarsh's  Memoir,  346],  310. 
Tobie,  the,  ^^Teck  of  i^ee  Appendix 

A,  chap,  vi.],  159. 
Toledo,  Council  of,  52, 
Topcliffe,   the  executioner  (South- 
well, ed.  Grosart,  liv.],  134. 
Torquemada,  166. 
Torwood,  Cargill  at,  252. 
Totila  and  Benedict  [Montalembert, 

i.  410],  49. 
Tours,   Martin  at,   36 ;    Clovis  at, 

72  ;  *'  Le  Roi  Hugon,"  176. 
Toulouse,  Council  of,  137 ;  Rochette 

at,  208. 
Tower  of  London,  the,  133. 
Tracy,  murderer  of  Becket,  78. 
Tranent,    Col.  James   Gardiner  at 

[Doddridge,  188J,  316. 
Tranquebar,  church  at,  302. 
Treasure,   hidden,   suf)er5titions  in 

S.W.    France  {see  Appendix  A, 

chap,  iv.5,  107. 
Tulliver,    Maggie    ("  Mill    on    the 

Floss"),  20. 
Tunis,  death  of  St.   Louis  at,  97  : 

Vincent  de  Paul,  slave  at,  192. 


Turkey  merchantmen,  the  iv^'t.  [see 
Appendix  A,  chap,  vi.],  159. 

Turstin,  Archbishop  of  York,  88, 

Tylney,  Elizabeth,  with  Lady  Jane 
Grey,  146,  147. 

T\Tidall,  his  version  of  the  Psalter, 

'137- 
Tyrconnel,  Lord,  at  siege  of  Deny 
[jWalker,  ed.  DwyerJ,  262. 

Ujlji,  Lidngstone  at  [Last  Journals, 

ii-  155],  313-  .  . 
Unyanyembe,  Livingstone  at  \ibid., 

229],  313- 
Urban  XL,  Pope,  and  Anselm,  77. 
Uzes,  cathedral  at,  175. 

Valens,  the  Emperor,  and  Basil 
[Bright's  "  Fathers,"  i.  373 ; 
Greg.  Naz.  orat.,  xx.,  xliii.],  39. 

Valladolid,  death  of  Columbus  at, 
122. 

Vassy,  massacre  at,  179. 

Vaudois,  the  [Monastier,  ii.  91, 
126  ;  Douen,  i.  23  «.],  200. 

Vaughan,  Henr}-,  the  Silurist,  19. 

Venice,  Barbarossa  at,  79. 

Vendee,  La,  insurrection  ["  Les 
Chouans,"  ii.  135  seg.%  318. 

Venn,  Henr}-,  273,  275. 

Victoria  Nyanza,  Lake,  Bishop 
Hannington  at,  314. 

Vienne  river,  Clovis  at,  72. 

Vililla,  bell  of  [Stirling-Maxweirs 
"Charles  v.,"  266],  120. 

Vincennes,  Madame  Guyonat,  199. 

Vincent  de  Paul,  188  ;  account  of 
[Wilson,  18-22],  190,  191. 

Vincentius  of  Lerins,  65. 

Virgilius,  Celtic  saint,  50. 

Vladimir,  St.,  baptism  of  [Stanley's 
"  Eastern  Church,"  359  ;  Moura- 
vieff,  14,  I5]>  93- 

Vladimir  Monomachus,  21,  92 ; 
account  of  [Stanley's  "Eastern 
Church,"  359:  Palmer's  Disser- 
tations,   92-93  ;    Mouravieft",    31, 


INDEX. 


''.St 


363],  93.  94  ;  ^ying  injunctions 
10  his  son  [Karamsin,  ii.  203- 
209;  Stanley,  372  se(/.i\,  95. 


Voltaire, 


llcnriadc 


[Chant.  II.,  121-124],  181. 
Vuagle,  battle  of,  72. 


Waldis,     Burkhard,     of     Hesse, 

versifies  Psalter,  138. 
Walker,  George,  at  siege  of  Derry, 

262,  263  ;  quoted  [ed.  Dwyer,  20, 


Wesley,  Charles,  19,  273  ;  account 
^U  275  ;  death  of,  275  ;  hymns 
of,  275. 
J  noted  t  Wesley,  John,  304 ;  and  Law's 
"Serious  Call"  [Journal,  i.  94], 
273  ;  account  of,  274  ;  death  of, 
275;  his  "Collection  of  Psalms 
and  Hymns "  [see  Appendix  A, 
chap,  xi.],  275. 

Whewell,    William,    quoted   as   to 
Julius  Hare,  278. 


37J,  262,  263,  267  ;  his  sermon    Whitby,  sundial  at,  16. 


[ed.  Dwyer,  105  set/.],  264,  265. 
Walker,  Patrick,  on  Prelacy,  quoted 

["Six    Saints,"  ii.  4],  237;   his 

"Six  Saints"  quoted,  246,  251, 

254,  255. 
Wallace, -"  Quaker,"    at    the    Se- 

cundrabagh     [Forbes  -  Mitchell, 

56],  325,  326. 
Wallace,    William,    92  ;    death    of 

[Tytler  i.  279-280],  97. 
Wallis,     Widow     (the     Particular 

Baptists  at  Kettering),  302. 
Walsingham,    pilgrimages   to,    81  ; 

Thomas    of    [Rolls    Series,    28, 

?h'd.,  p.  119],  III. 


Whitefield,    George    [Tyerman,    i. 

16],  273. 
Whitehall,  Cromwell's  speeches  in 

the   Painted    Chamber   [Carlyle, 

iv.  218,  220],  229,  236, 
Whittingham,      versifier      of     the 

Psalms,  140. 
Wight,  Isle  of,  Wilfrid  in,  68. 
Wigtown    Martyrs,  the    [Wodrow, 

iv.   248,    249;    "Cloud  of  Wit- 
nesses," 440],  260. 
"Wild  Whigs,  The,"  245. 
Wilberforce,    William,    account    of 

[see  Appendix  A,  chap,  xi.],  275, 

276. 


Walton,  Izaak,  his  "Life  of  Sander- 1  Wilfrid,   St.,  21,  67;   and  Psalter 


son     quoted,  214. 

"  Walton,  young,"  killed  at  Mar- 
ston  ^Nloor  (Carlyle,  *'  Crom- 
well," i.-i67],  230. 

"Wanderers,  The,"  account  of, 
249. 

"Wandering  Willie,"  his  saying 
["  Redgauntlet,"  Letter  xi.], 
250. 

Watts,  Isaac,  19. 

Waverley,  Cistercians  at  [New- 
man's "Saints,"  v.  167  «.],  87. 

Wearmouth,  monastery  at,  67. 

V/edderburns,  the,  their  "Spiritual 
Sangis,"  238  ;  quoted,  239. 

Welsh,  Mr.,  "outed"  minister,  at 
Irongray  [Blackader],  244. 

Welsh,  Jane  (Carlyle),  2S0;  quoted, 
317. 


[Montalembert,  iii.  376-378],  67 ; 
account  of  [zdtd.,  iii.  376-381, 
412 ;  iv.  33,  48,  72,  108],  67,  68. 

Wilkie,  James,  primarius  of  St. 
Andrews  [Melville's  Diar}',  27], 
240. 

William  the  Conqueror,  and  Lan- 
franc,  76 ;  death  of  [Ordericus 
Vitalis,  VIII.,  xiv.  and  xvi.],  93. 

William  Rufus  and  Anselm  [Monta- 
lembert, vi.  158  seg.],  76,  77. 

William  of  Orange,  landing  of  in 
England,  261. 

Wilson,  Margaret,  246 ;  death  of 
[Wodrow,  iv.  248,  249],  260. 

Winchester,  Marquis  of,  at  Basing 
House,  230. 

Winslow,  Governor,  quoted  [Arber, 
"Pilgrim  Fnther';/'  32QI,  2ti. 


3S2 


INDEX. 


Wise    men    of   the    East,    the,    in 

Christian  Art,  15. 
Wisedome,  versifier  of  the  Psalms, 

140. 
Wishart,  George,  account  of  [Knox, 

i.  125  se^.],  237-240. 
Wither,    George,    versifier    of    the 

Psalms,  19. 
Woburn    Abbey,    Carthusians    of, 

178. 
Wodrow,      Robert,     cited,      252 ; 

quoted,  259. 
Woolos,  St.,  at  Newport  (Mon.), 

61. 
Worcester,    battle  of  JCarlyle,  iii. 

172-173],  234. 
Wordsworth,  19  ;  quoted  (Ecclesi- 
astical    Sonnets),     79  ;     quoted 

("  Excursion"),  290. 
Worms,  Diet  of,  119. 
Wotton,  Sir  Henry,  19. 
Wurtemburg,   Roger  ordained  at, 

207. 
Wyatt,  Sir  Thomas,  versifier  of  the 

Psalms,  19,  160  ;  insurrection  of, 

144. 
Wyclif,  John,  21,  81,   117;   death 

of,   III. 


Xainton,  inscription  at,  175. 

Xavier,  Francis,  21,  114;  death  oi 
[Coleridge,  ii.  572],  127, 128  ;  his 
"O  Deus,  ego  amo  Te"  trans- 
lated [Latin  text  in  Coleridge,  i. 
315],  128. 

Ximenes,  Cardinal,  21  ;  at  Oran 
[von  Hefele,  transL  Daltonj  p. 
419],  83. 

Yaroslaf,   builds  church   of  St. 

Sophia  at  Kieff,  46. 
York,  Duke  of,  and  Cargill  [Wod 

row,    book    iii.,    chap.   4],   252 

and  Peden  jj"  Six  Saints,"  i.  90] 

256. 
York,  St.  Mary's  Abbey  at,  87. 
Ypres,  Bishop  of,  148. 
Yuste,  Jeromite   convent,    Charle 

V.  at,  120. 

Zanzibar,  Livingstone  at  JLa: 
Journals,  i.  i  seg.],  313. 

Zulus,  the.  Commander  Allan  F 
Gardiner  and  [Marsh's  Memoii 
chap,  iv.],  310. 

Zurich,  Bishop  Hooper  at,  131. 

Zwingli,  139. 


THE   END. 


UNIFORM    WITH    THIS    VOLUAIB, 


iCRAMBLES  AMONGST  THE   ALPS.     Whymper. 

Mr.  Whymper  was  the  first  to  conquer  the  Matter- 
horn  ;  and  the  tale  of  the  years  of  failure  and  the 
many  daring  attempts,  as  well  as  of  the  tragedy  which 
clouded  his  success,  is  little  short  of  a  saga. 

COLLECTIONS   and   RECOLLECTIONS.        Russell. 

Mr.  G.  W.  E.  Russell  has  long  been  known  as  one 
of  the  most  brilliant  of  our  lighter  essayists.  The 
present  volume  is  his  best-known  work,  and  no  such 
miscellany  of  good  stories  and  witty  sayings  is  to  be 
found  in  modern  literature, 

tHE   GREAT   BOER  WAR.  A.  Conan  Doyle. 

This  is  by  far  the  most  popular  and  picturesque 
account  of  the  South  African  War,  and  its  fairness 
and  accuracy  have  never  been  questioned.  It  is  the 
on/y  single-volume  history  of  the  war. 

IFE   OF  JOHN   NICHOLSON.        Captain  Trotter. 

John  Nicholson  was  the  man  of  destiny  of  our 
Indian  Empire,  and  we  have  to  go  back  to  the 
Elizabethans  to  parallel  so  romantic  a  figure.  Captain 
Trotter's  biography  is  the  standard  work  on  the  subject. 

MEMORIES.  Dean  Hole. 

As  ecclesiastic,  rose-grower,  and  sportsman.  Dean 
Hole  had  wide  and  varied  interests,  and  his  famous 
book  abounds  in  shrewd  and  humorous  comments  on 
men  and  things. 

VILD  LIFE  in  a  SOUTHERN  COUNTY.    Jefferies. 

Richard  Jefferies  was  the  founder  of  our  modern 
close  and  sympathetic  study  of  nature.  This  volume 
of  studies  of  wild  life  in  a  southern  county  contains 
some  of  hii  best  work. 


.IFE    OF    GLADSTONE.  Herbert  W.  Paul. 

Mr.  Herbert  Paul's  "Life  of  Gladstone"  appeared 
before  Mr.  Morley's  larger  "  Life,"  and  is  still  by  far 
the  best  short  biography  of  this  statesman.  The 
book  is  an  admirable  piece  of  literary  portraiture. 


THE    FOREST.  Stewart  Edward  White. 

Of  late  years  America  has  produced  a  new  type  of 
travel  literature,  written  by  men  who  live  close  to  the 
heart  of  the  wilds.  "  The  Forest,"  by  Mr.  S.  E.  White, 
is  in  many  ways  the  best  of  all. 

THE   GOLDEN   AGE.  Kenneth  Grahame. 

Mr.  Kenneth  Grahame  has  produced  a  classic  of 
child  life  which  has  had  no  rivals  since  "  Alice  in 
Wonderland."  The  grace  of  style  and  the  delicacy 
of  humour  are  worthy  of  Charles  Lamb. 

SIMPLE    ADVENTURES   OF   A   MEMSAHIB. 

Sara  Jeannette  Duncan. 

The  story  of  the  housekeeping  of  a  young  married 
lady  in  India.  The  book  is  as  readable  as  any 
romance,  and  in  addition  gives  a  genuine  insight  into 
the  conditions  of  English  and  native  life  in  India. 

REMINISCENCES     OF     SIR     HENRY     HAWKINS 
(Lord  Brampton). 

In  popular  estimation  "  Henry  Hawkins  "  enjoyed 
a  fame  which  no  lawyer  has  probably  ever  equalled. 
His  "Remini5cences,"edited  by  a  distinguished  brother 
lawyer,  is  a  fascinating  record  of  a  great  legal  career, 
and  a  mine  of  good  stories  and  good  sayings. 


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