for they would then become robbers of the people *." Accordingly, "neither under the first, nor under the second, nor for a very long time, under the third line of our kings, had we in France," says Pasquier, "these taxes, aids, and subsidies, which we now see. Under the third race, kings lived on their own domain, or treasure; but for extraordinary expences, they had privileges, as in travelling, they would lodge for a night at a bishop's palace, or an abbey, which right was exchanged for a sum of money, called, droit de giste.' The common people, in like manner, were bound to furnish horses or carts, from town to town, which was exchanged also for money, 'droit de chevauchée.' On knighting a prince of France, there would be a tax; but besides these extraordinary levies, none were ever made. Subsequently, Philip-le-Bel, by an invention of his own, invited the nobles, clergy, and third estate, to meet in assembly, and bring an offering for the public expences; and as the commons liked such assemblies, as doing them honour, they were more disposed to give money with a good grace. And never was there a general assembly of the three estates of France, without increasing the finances of our kings, to the diminution of those of the people. But when the said king, in defiance of his preceptor, Giles of Colonna, sought to levy taxes by force, the people would not obey; and at Paris, Rome, and Orleans, openly revolted. By degrees, however, the tax was imposed permanently, though the king was obliged to swear that he would employ it only for necessary war, and the defence of the state +. Similarly to the present times, the imposts which the Biscayans pay to the king of Spain, have the name and character of a gratuitous gift ‡." But it is not alone from these general views, that we arrive at the desired conclusion, respecting the thirst of the middle ages, and its effects of justice. Our conclusions are not drawn merely from theories and general views. With the iron-clasped, and iron-bound books of those times in our hands, we can point out, and name the men whom we can conceive, and whom, without the Catholic Church, we can only conceive. Of all the great * De Regim. Princip. I. Lib. I. c. 9. and good, who flourished from their commencement to their close, it would indeed, as we have already observed, be impossible to speak; for truly, the prophetic view was verified in the friends of God! "I will number them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand." It would be as hard for a mortal tongue to tell of these as, according to Hesiod, it would be to name the sons of Ocean, who are known to the immortal race. "It was the desire, however, of the monastic historians," as William of Jumiège says of himself, "that the excellent merit of the just, in regard both to the things of this world, and to those of heaven, subsisting happily before the eyes of God, should also subsist usefully in the memory of men." To tell of deeds above heroic, though in secret done and unrecorded, left through many an age, worthy to have not remained so long unsung, would truly impart the rapture of a celestial music; though vain would be the attempt, unless we had drunk of that pure stream of Eunce, gifted with power, to bring remembrance back of every good deed done, whose taste exceedeth all flavours else; but God, who doth ever establish new examples of virtue in his Church *, leaveth us not in need of such complete and universal retrospects; and it is enough to tell of some who faithfully represented the ages to which they fell, though, as our limits warn us to speed, I must still prefer general impressions to multiplicity of detail, inviting the reader to contemplate, as it were, the soft illumination diffused over the whole sky of those ages, which are said to have been buried in the shades of night, without suffering his eyes to rest fixedly upon any one particular star. There is a kind of praise bestowed on individuals, in ancient books, from which, undoubtedly, a judicious reader can infer nothing; but there are, on the other hand, eulogies of a different description, which can be admitted as historic evidence; for when Hugo Falcand observes that the virtue and incorruptible faith of Robert, Count of Lorotelli, Symon, Count of Polycastro, and Ebrard, Count of Squillace, were so well known to Maja of Bari, that when conspiring against William, king of Sicily, he felt assured that his own projects could not Prayer Fest. of St. Andrew Corsini. ; or prosper, unless these noblemen were first removed * when the monk of Crowland, speaking of king Henry's death, says of his enemy, "May God spare him, and give him space for penitence, who thus dared to lay sacrilegious hands upon the anointed of the Lord; a man of such innocence of life, of such patience in adversity, and of such love for God and for the Church †;" the mind of the most cautious reader acquiesces at once, and experiences an intimate sense of conviction as to the truth of the incidental panegyrics. There is also a mode of praise which, however we may feel inclined to doubt the justice of its application, in a particular instance, proves, at least, what was the mark at which desires ought to have been aimed, according to the general opinion and spirit of the age. Such is the testimony of the old chronicle of Du Guesclin, where speaking of king Charles of France, it adds, who "loved justice and chivalry with such sincerity, that he was a true man, and of holy life, as long as he lived." And such, that of the ancient historian of Bayard, who says, on the death of king Charles VIII. "I believe that God took him to be amongst the blessed, for the good prince was not stained with a single villainous vice ‡." Of direct testimonies, I shall be content with producing but a few; for where should I end, if I were to adopt the manner of modern writers, in collecting all the attestations of grace, as they heap together all the charges of guilt which can be gathered from ancient books? Few words will suffice, to show the injustice of that remark, made by an illustrious writer of our time, where speaking of the men whose history we are recording, he says, "they adored at Calvary; they did not attend at the Sermon on the Mount;" a striking sentence, no doubt, but certainly it was not so that the contemporary observers described the men around them; on the contrary, the words of St. Odilo, in allusion to blessed Maiolus, his predecessor in the abbatial dignity of Cluny, corresponded with the common style of praise, bestowed upon all eminent persons, whether laymen or priests, who attracted their attention. "With the poor in spirit," as Hugo Falcandi Hist. Sicula Rer. Italic. Script. tom. VII. he says, "they wished to be poor, that they might be enriched by the King of Heaven with a celestial kingdom; with the blessed meek, they studied to become meek, that with them they might possess the land of the living; with the blessed mourners, they desired to lament the negligence of their children, and the dangers of the whole world; that with them all, they might come to the eternal consolation; with those that hungered and thirsted after justice, they studied to associate with that justice, hungering and thirsting after it, that with them they might feast at the celestial banquet, and be satiated with spiritual delights; with the merciful, they studied to be merciful, that with the blessed merciful, they might obtain mercy from the Lord. As far as it was possible for men, by incessant desires, merits, and prayers, they deserved to attain to Divine contemplation, that with the blessed clean of heart, they might be admitted to the vision of God; in order that they might be truly called the children of God, they learned to be pacific, not only to possess their own souls in patience, but also to bring back all that were at variance, to concord and peace. For the sake of justice, they learned to bear persecution, and passions, from the ancient enemy, and from evil men; that blessed on account of suffering for justice, with the patient and the poor in spirit, they might become associates to obtain and possess the kingdom of heaven *.” Hear how Angelus Gualdensis, a blessed hermit of the thirteenth century, is described. "This man of God," saith a contemporary, "learned, and acquired, and truly preserved, the beatitudes which our Saviour taught his disciples in the Holy Gospel +." So interwoven was this ideal of justice with all general notions of religion, that, like the cross, it was expressed in material monuments, and symbolically represented in the very edifices of the middle age. Indeed, so early as in the times of St. Ambrose, if we credit Landulph, the old historian of Milan, the doctrine of the beatitudes was expressed in this manner; for on the stone table, entitled the chrismon of St. Ambrose, in that Church by which the catechumens were instructed in the principles of the faith, there was de Vita S. Maioli Abb. Clun. IV. S. Odilone auct. Bibliothec. Cluniacens. 284. Annal. Camaldulens. Lib. XLV. scribed a circle, within which eight lines were drawn, extending from the centre to the circumference, to signify the eight rules of blessed life, which are in God, who has neither beginning nor ending *. In the year 823, Eigil, abbot of Fulda, constructed on a hill, near that monastery, which was a place of burial for the brethren, a mystic work, to denote, as the ancient historian observes, that we are all one body in Christ, by whom we are sustained with the eight beatitudes preached in the Gospel, and to whom, as to our sole and final mark we tend. This was a little Church, under the title of St. Michael, of which the subterraneous part was supported by one column in the centre, from which arches sprang in all directions; the remainder, which was in the form of an octagon, having eight columns, was terminated at the summit with a pyramidical arch, which was closed with a great stone ↑. The whole house, being thus supported by one stone, and closed by one,―typical and subtle work, which Candidus, the monk, describes in solemn verse in his metrical life of Eigil. It should be remembered, besides, that those whom the Church has canonized, cannot be excluded from the rank of historical personages; the princes, warriors, statesmen, philosophers, the rich, the poor, the learned, and the simple men of all classes, during the ages of faith, contributed to augment that vast multitude; and as Lewis of Granada says, "all the saints were poor in spirit, all were mild, all were merciful, all were clean of heart, all were pacific, all hungered and thirsted after justice, all mourned and wept for their own and others' sins; and all suffered persecution for the sake of justice . If we look to the palaces of princes, we find the court of a Charles V. of France, preserved in such purity of manners, that if the king ever heard of any of the courtiers having a dishonourable connection, however he might have loved him, from that moment he deprived him of all favour, drove him from the court, and would see him no more. Christine de Pisan says, that no book of a pernicious tendency to manners, was suffered to be Landulph. Mediolanens. Hist. Liv. I. c. 12. in Muratori Rer. Italic. Scriptor. tom. IV. Schannat. Historia Fuldensis, Pars III. Ludovic. Granatens. de omnibus sanctis concio, I. |