Don Gutierre de Cardenas that of St. Iago, while Ferdinand and Isabella sunk upon their knees, exclaiming, Non nobis, Domine, sed tibi sit gloria, on which spot a chapel was immediately erected, which stands to the present day, the one motive by which these and a thousand other similar exercises were converted into channels of heavenly grace, was charity, the union of the soul with God, or, in other words, the love of God and the love of man. Separate from this principle, many of these acts may indeed seem trifling and inconsiderable, but as Hugo of St. Victor says, "in parvo opere magna devotio potest esse.”* A pilgrim at least will be little disposed to cavil here, who remembers what fervent devotion was excited in his breast, when at Rome and elsewhere he visited such places, when he kissed the cross upon the gates of St. Paul and of St. Lorenzo-when he ascended upon his knees those mystic steps which recall the passion of the man-God-when he saw lifted over him that rod of discipline at the threshold of the holy Apostles-when he drank from the fountains at the Salvian waters where the chosen One received his crown. There is, one might say, transferring the poet's image to express higher things, a tide in the spiritual affairs of men, which when taken at the flood, leads on to paradise; omitted, all the voyage of their life seems left unprotected by influence divine; we must take the current of justice, as of human felicity, when it serves, or lose our ventures, for, as Cardan saith, nostra omnia momentanea sunt. Moments there are in life, especially in its early years, when from the presence of such objects as recall the mind to a sense of religion, to a memory of all that the divine Jesus suffered, and of all that his saints in successive ages have endured, men, the most cold and thoughtless, feel suddenly inflamed with a seraphic ardour of spirit, to love and serve God with all their heart, and all their mind, and all their strength, and are ready to exclaim with a most generous passion, though we should die with thee, yet will we not betray thee in any wise. Oh heavens! were man but constant, he were perfect; that one error fills him with faults, and makes him run through all sins. Now, the object of these indulgences was to make him, in regard to these impressions, constant; it was to multiply and protract these blessed intervals; to make, as it were, the time of flood in the soul recur at short inter

Hug. S. Vict. De Sacramentis, Pars XIV. 3.

vals, in order that he might have many ventures, many periods of excitement; it was to give him habits of making acts of faith, hope, and charity, so that at length, from many repetitions and returns, becoming constant, he might attain to the perfection and immortal felicity of his nature. The exercises to which indulgences were attached, were generally such as of all others in the moral order that can be conceived, are most worthy of an immortal intelligence. There were indulgences attached to the daily recital of the Trisagion and Gloria Patri,* to making acts of faith, hope, and charity,+ to praying for the exaltation of the church, the peace and concord of Christian princes, and the extirpation of error, to the invocation of the holy name of Jesus, to the examination of conscience, to the conversion of sinners in withdrawing them from immorality, heresy, blasphemy, detraction, or calumny, to the reconcilement of enemies, to the showing reverence to Christ's blessed mother, to meditation on the cross, or visiting the stations, to prayer in memory of our Lord's crucifixion on Fridays, at three o'clock, to spending the three hours of agony on Good Friday in prayer or meditation, to visiting devoutly, with proper dispositions, the seven churches of Rome, to the recitation of the Angelus, or the Regina Cæli three times every day, to the sanctification of the month of May by devoting it to the contemplation of the graces of Mary, to the recitation of the prose stabat mater, to receiving communion on the festival of St. Louis Gonzagua, the patron of youth, to the instruction of others in mental prayer, or in the Christian doctrine, §§ to performing the works of mercy, nourishing three poor persons in honour of the holy family, to the visiting of hospitals, or houses of refuge, to the visitation of prisoners, to the enabling of the poor to marry, to wearing medals, or crucifixes, or chaplets, that had been given to one's self, which had touched the holy places, or the relics of the holy land, to a good preparation for death, to an act of resignation daily renewed.¶¶ Are these exercises trivial and ridiculous? Is the hope of grace, upon condition of performing them with the dis

**

positions implied, unjust or inconsistent with the wisdom of God, that learned men of the modern discipline should place the Apostolic Brief, confining it in their cabinets of curiosities amidst the idols of Egypt, to be displayed before the white, upturned wondering eyes of fools, that fall back as if afraid to gaze upon it? Truly, that indulgences should furnish mirth in the circle of libertines, or in the school of those sophists

who have an exchequer of words, and no other treasure to give their followers, will surprise no one; but, setting aside all theological argument, he that cannot discern the force and facility which they yield to virtue, whatever diplomas he may have taken out, or whatever academic walks he may have haunted, methinks should not be chronicled for wise.

E have seen the heroic and supernatural character of the Catholic morality, but there are still many remarkable points of difference distinguishing it from the system of human philosophers, and from that of the modern societies in general, of which I have not yet given an historical illustration. To contrast the manners of the Christian republic in its happiest ages, with those of the ancient world, would be a still less subtle exercise than tracing the contrast between the Gospel and the philosophic writings of the Gentiles. To review the heathen manners falls not to our province; and that writer may indeed be an object of compassion who is condemned to approach a subject so horrible and so revolting. Moreover, there can be but few who need being reminded in general of the revolution which had been wrought in the law and practice of manners by the Redeemer. It confers no benefit, methinks, to compose a picture in hard prominent outlines, or abounding in sharp transitions from light to shadow. It may be left to others, therefore, to represent the contrast between classic and sacred Italy-between the times which beheld by luxury more than Roman conquests, and those when Sybaris was an episcopal see, and Capua a nurse of martyrs. But in answer to those who represent the highest justice and perfect morality, as independent of Catholic manners, fain would I something say. The moral teachers of antiquity are painted by each other with such precision, that we can hardly feel at a loss respecting the character which should be ascribed to them. Who of them, asks Cicero, regards his discipline not as an

In

ostentation of science, but as a law of life? Some are addicted to such levity and boasting, that it would be better for them never to have learned aught. Some are greedy of money; others of glory; many are the slaves of lust, so that their discourse differs prodigiously from their life.* the most exquisite of all the Platonic writings we have the same contrast to the severity of Catholic manners in the language of Agatho's philosophic guests, who allude with such effrontery to their yesterday's debauch, desiring now one and all, that there may be a temperate meeting and no drunkenness, particularly as they have not yet recovered from the effects of their last banquet, agreeing that they should now only drink for pleasure, and not to intoxication.+ Nepos, writing to Cicero, says, "So far am I from regarding philosophy as the mistress of life, and the source of happy life, that I think no men have such need of masters to instruct them in living, as the greatest part of those who are occupied in their disputations; for I see that the men who prescribe rules of continence and modesty most artfully in the school, live devoted to all kinds of lust. Seneca was of the same opinion, and Cicero repeatedly shows that the men who had any virtue in Greece and Rome were not formed by the discipline of philosophy, but by following ancient traditions." S. Clemens Alexandrinus presses hard upon the heathen philosophers, reminding them of the manners of their own heroic models. Phoenix," saith he, "was the tutor of Achilles, and Adrastus

• Tuscul. II. 4.

+ Plato, Symposium, cap. 4.

of the sons of Croesus, Leonidas of Alexander, and Nausithous of Philip. Phoenix was abandoned to the love of women; Adrastus was a run-away; Leonidas did not subdue the pride of the Macedonians, nor did Nausithous cure the drunkard of Pella. The Thracian Zopurus was not able to restrain the licentiousness of Alcibiades; and Sikinnus, the tutor of Themistocles' sons, used to be caught dancing the Satyr's dance." Socrates and Glaucus agree with the opinion so eloquently proclaimed by modern statesmen and legislators, that a man will do many things while alone, which he would not dare to do if any eyes were upon him, and which he would not tolerate in any one else; and that he will differ greatly when alone in secret, and when he is exposed to the view of other men.+ "Who ascribed the highest authority to the Roman senate?" asks an orator who carried his love of heathen antiquity to extravagance. "He who stript it of all. Who consulted the Chaldeans and the Magi? The same man who banished them from the city. The same was cruel, and in semblance kind, grasping and able to pass for liberal. He built temples, and he laughed at religion; he rejected aliens, and he despised his country; he did not approve of fraud in an enemy, without which he never approached either friend or foe. But a man, wholly wicked, is never without an appearance of virtue." Varro thought it necessary to deceive the multitude, and leave it in the superstition of the civil theology; and St. Augustin exclaims, "Spectacles of turpitude and license of vanities are instituted at Rome, not by the vices of men, but by the order of your gods."§ What a contrast to the teachers of the Christian ages, who taught the people of God what was between the holy and the corrupt, between the clean and the unclean? It is true there are lofty views of morality and justice in the writings of some of the philosophers; but, as Persius said, men regarded more what Jupiter did than what Plato taught, or Cato judged. And after all what were these philosophers, in regard to morals, if compared to any humble obscure monk of the middle age? "We do not compare Plato," says St. Augustin, "to any holy angel of highest God, nor to any true prophet, nor to any Apostle, nor to any martyr of Christ, nor to any Christian man."||

Clemens Alex. Pæd. Lib. I. c. 7.
Plato, de Repub. Lib. X.
Heinsii Orat. XVII.

Pliny says, "Nihil esse miserius vel superbius homine." But when the house was built after the captivity, when the holy church arose after the reign of demons, it might have been truly said, nothing more happy than man in the attainment of the beatitudes, or more humble in the accomplishment of their law. The deeds of heathen virtue cannot stand the test of the Catholic standard. That Lucretia should have chosen death," says St. Augustin, "argued not the charity of modesty, but the infirmity of shame. This was a Roman woman, too greedy of praise. Christian women would not have done this who live after suffering such things, who neither punish others in themselves nor add a crime of their own to the crime of others."* The detestable iniquity of Junius Brutus was useless to the republic, although to perpetrate this crime,

"Vicit amor patriæ laudumque immensa cupido."

St. Augustin, in two lines, reveals the whole difference between the Christian chivalry and the ancient heroic character, but it is a separation as wide as between heaven and earth; "for the latter," he says, "did not love glory on account of justice, but seemed to love justice on account of glory. It is useless, however, to remain here any longer; let us proceed, though we shall have to enter upon a more painful investigation, having to point out the contrast between Catholic manners, the manners of faith, which prevailed during the ages involved in this history, and those of the modern societies, which have abandoned that faith for views and principles which they pronounce to be more worthy of highly civilized and enlightened men. Morality, at present,

is better understood," says the great master of our age, whose fables are recommended by ministers of Germany, as the best sources of religious instruction. If so, our whole course hitherto must have led you, reader, in a false direction; but the facts and observations which I propose to offer, will enable, I conceive, every impartial judge to discover the fallacy of that opinion. When the new religions were first set up publicly in Christendom, it was little thought by those who changed the rule of faith, that the rule of manners was also to be revolutionized. It is true there were some wise heads, which predicted that this would be inevitably the final result; and it is certain, + Id. Lib. V. 22.

De Civ. Lib. I. 19.

that in practice there was already abundant ground to fear that their predictions would be verified.

Even at the first moment,

when it was proposed to introduce into a Christian community the fatal principle of the innovators, there were signs of the future

ruin.

"Instamus tamen immemores, cæcique furore, Et monstrum infelix sacrata sistimus arce."*

As Pindar says, "The credible and incredible are often confounded for a time, but the days which succeed are the most certain witnesses."+ Those witnesses have been heard, and great indeed must be the weakness and obscurity of the mind which still waits for more. The kind of readers who choose such matter as that which I indite, for subject of their thoughts, men bred to gentle studies, and accustomed to the sweet sounds of divine philosophy, are in general but little acquainted with the facts to which we must now briefly allude, and still less inclined to attend to those who speak of them. The detail of such manners, as distinguished the chief agents in the revolution of the sixteenth century, can but seldom arrest the thoughts of men who enjoy the ineffable charms of calm meditation on truths of eternal interest, and of infinite sublimity: philosophy leads men to other walks. What is it to the Christian church whether she be opposed by a Trajan or a Nero? under a senate assembling in the forum, or under a new race of priests teaching a different doctrine, seated in her own ancient temples? She calls upon her children to withdraw themselves from the things that pass with time, and leave the dead to bury their dead. But in order to show what was the justice of the ages of faith, some retrospect of the men who hastened their decline becomes necessary, and with whatever reluctance one may turn from the spectacle of a renovated to that of a fallen and still prostrate world, it is well to form an estimate of that system of morality which was made to supersede the ancient manners of the original universal society of Christians. Hastening then our steps as those who find their path beset with objects of disgust or terror, we find ourselves at first in fearful company, surrounded with the routiers or soldiers, resembling the liberating armies of our time, men without faith or law, impious as the troops that have lately ravaged Portugal and Spain, under the

influence of the modern opinions, for they are the creation of an opinion, and barbarous as the wildest savages. Those men were in the service of the early heretics, who first gave note of coming evils; and what sort of reform think you, reader, could those who employed such instruments have had at heart? Michelet says, that to judge by some facts, their history might be read in that of the mercenaries of antiquity, in their execrable war against Carthage.* It is important to bear in mind, that the present systems which were established on the abolition of the ancient faith, arose at an epoch of horrible fame in the history of mankind. It was during the execrable reign of gold, during the hunger and thirst after riches, when avarice had quenched the love of good, without which is no reform possible, that the religious constitution of so many states gave way. Observe, that the agents of the change were men not who resisted, but who followed the spirit of their age. The history of them all may be summed up by saying, that they were in the van of their generation, and worthy of being so; with justice and freedom ever on their tongue, they only availed themselves of the elements which they found already prepared in a corrupt society, like the Pedros and Christinas of later times.

66

Surely," says a keen observer, a child of justice who found means in a foreign land to make his voice be heard in justification of wisdom, "surely, if a man should ask Murray and Morton, those two pillars of reformation in Scotland, Orange and Horn in the Netherlands, Conde and the Admiral in France, the dukes of Somerset and Northumberland in England, the princes of Saxony, Sweden, and Denmark, and the rest of the Lutheran chiefs in Germany, whether they had not some by-ends of avarice, ambition, and other sinister and worldly nature, when they seemed to be most hot and zealously transported, it might trouble them all perhaps what to answer."+ What may the self-commissioned messengers say unto the captain of the church when they shall see that volume spread to view, in the which all their dispraise is written? There amidst the actions of that king who first made Alfred's renowned isle apostate, shall be read, of despotism, of unprincipled ministers, of a rapacious aristocracy, of a servile parliament. There shall be read the thirsting pride that made

Hist. de France, II. 432. Jerusalem and Babel, I. 113.

fool alike the English and the Scot, impatient of the winged yoke, there shall be seen the anatomy of that work which was begun by the murderer of his wives, continued by the murderer of his brother, and completed by the murderess of her guest. The new evangelists shall see recorded there their table-talk, their thrice transmitted wives, and all the filthy doings from which they came flushed, to tread down like dogs and swine the holy things. and pearls of the faith. They of Norway too, and the Dane, with the feudal lords of Saxony and those who ruled Zurich and Berne, who would not suffer provisions to be supplied to the Catholic inhabitants of the mountain and forest cantons, shall be exposed with them who counterfeited ill the coin of Henry, and caused groans and wailings in the streets, which once were blest with the feet of holy men that ran dispensing peace. Those whose minds have attained to that high and delicate sense of justice which belongs to the ages of faith, may not only be unwilling but even actually unable to explore this history. The agent at this epoch, whether the mere instrument of others' passions, the ignoble and insane preacher, or the sly potentate who with interested motives encouraged and promoted him, is a character which they can hardly estimate; for according to the sublime idea of the poet, we may say truly that to their eyes he is invisible, such a cloud of crimes envelopes him.

τοῖον ἐπὶ κνέφας ἀνδρὶ μύσος πεπόταται.

It will be sufficient, however, to show that from the time when morality is said to have become better understood, the manners of those who embraced the new opinions were very different from those which had formerly distinguished men who hungered and thirsted after justice. In proposing such a retrospect, I feel no alarm lest I should offend any person; for the vulgar and irascible crowd comes not here to feed. I seek to give pain to no one, much less to those whose genius and disposition to embrace every kind of good, I have always been accustomed to admire, and in whose manly and generous natures I well know may be realized so many bright enchanting hopes of youthful friendship. To contrast the young wanderers on the erring way within these islands,

* Eschyl. Eumenid. 378.

with any class of men at present immediately around them, would not, perhaps, be the part of one who loves heroic and divine antiquity. There are many who suppose themselves Protestants, without knowing on what ground that title rests, whose thoughts and sentiments might be compared to the fresh current of a gentle living stream which it is always delightful to pass near, even though one must not follow its deviations; and on the other hand, there are persons who have never borne the name of protestors against the ancient faith, whose minds resemble either a turbid torrent or a dull pool, stagnant and infectious, that can neither renew the earth nor reflect heaven. This whole discourse is concerning either the past,-and what is there in the dark wretched years which have elapsed since the first apostacy which should render its praise displeasing to a young and unpolluted race,—or that new offspring with which God continually fecundates his church; a class, which must include themselves if they would follow where all that is noble and profound hath fled. These true lovers of wisdom will therefore not be quick to take offence at words which only invite them to proceed on to this peace. They will feel that it would be insane to identify an accusation against historic personages, or against principles, with a stupid attempt to depreciate any of the generous men who in the shade of private life may now, through ignorance and the mysterious order of Providence, be following, externally at least, in the track of the horrid procession which has passed, as it were, through the night of history, spreading terror and desolation around it, and breaking the sweet stillness of a redeemed, or rather new-created world, with the terrific sound of civil and religious wars-spectral-like and ghastly procession, of which at present, only the memory seems to remain, excepting that one beholds the fearful wreck with which it has strewed the earth, and some innocent captives whom that foul crew has left spell-bound and miserably attached to the different objects that lined its way.

Were we to view history with the eyes of modern speculators, there would be no place for the present argument; for the founders and propagators of the new opinions in religion and in morals were, according to them, amongst the salt of the earth. But thus do all such men. If their purgation did consist in words, they are as innocent as grace