diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:17:17 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:17:17 -0700 |
| commit | c8286398037f43167a8b6b2cd5b44d539805ab92 (patch) | |
| tree | 67ef00eda38d2bd0d4a8bd88ed108edd8f6a3750 | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1499.txt | 10556 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1499.zip | bin | 0 -> 234934 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
5 files changed, 10572 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1499.txt b/1499.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..152c3b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/1499.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10556 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Beacon Lights of History, Volume 3, Part 2 +by John Lord + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Beacon Lights of History, Volume 3, Part 2 + +Author: John Lord + +Release Date: October, 1998 [EBook #1499] +[Most recently updated: December 24, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY, VOLUME 3, PART 2 *** + + + + +This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, charlie@idirect.com. + + + +Editorial note: Project Gutenberg has a later version of this work, + which is titled Beacon Lights of History, Volume VI: + Renaissance and Reformation. See E-Book#10532, + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/5/3/10532/10532.txt, + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/5/3/10532/10532.zip + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/5/3/10532/10532-8.txt + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/5/3/10532/10532-8.zip + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/5/3/10532/10532/10532-h.htm + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/5/3/10532/10532-h.zip + The numbering of volumes in the earlier set reflected + the order in which the lectures were given. In the + later version, volumes were numbered to put the subjects + in historical sequence. + + + + +Beacon Lights of History + +by John Lord, LL.D. + + +Volume III. + +Part II--Renaissance and Reformation. + + + +CONTENTS. + + +DANTE. + +RISE OF MODERN POETRY. + + +The antiquity of Poetry +The greatness of Poets +Their influence on Civilization +The true poet one of the rarest of men +The pre-eminence of Homer, Dante, Shakspeare, and Goethe +Characteristics of Dante +His precocity +His moral wisdom and great attainments +His terrible scorn and his isolation +State of society when Dante was born +His banishment +Guelphs and Ghibellines +Dante stimulated to his great task by an absorbing sentiment + Beatrice +Dante's passion for Beatrice analyzed +The worship of ideal qualities the foundation of lofty love +The mystery of love +Its exalted realism +Dedication of Dante's life-labors to the departed Beatrice +The Divine Comedy; a study +The Inferno; its graphic pictures +Its connection with the ideas of the Middle Ages +The physical hell of Dante in its connection with the Mediaeval + doctrine of Retribution +The Purgatorio; its moral wisdom +Origin of the doctrine of Purgatory +Its consolation amid the speculations of despair +The Paradiso +Its discussion of grand themes +The Divina Commedia makes an epoch in civilization +Dante's life an epic +His exalted character +His posthumous influence + + + +GEOFFREY CHAUCER. + +ENGLISH LIFE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. + + +The characteristics of the fourteenth century +Its great events and characters +State of society in England when Chaucer arose +His early life +His intimacy with John of Gaunt, the great Duke of Lancaster +His prosperity +His poetry +The Canterbury Tales +Their fidelity to Nature and to English life +Connection of his poetry with the formation of the English Language +The Pilgrims of the Canterbury Tales +Chaucer's views of women and of love +His description of popular sports and amusements +The preponderance of country life in the fourteenth century +Chaucer's description of popular superstitions +Of ecclesiastical abuses +His emancipation from the ideas of the Middle Ages +Peculiarities of his poetry +Chaucer's private life +The respect in which he was held +Influence of his poetry + + + +CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. + +MARITIME DISCOVERIES. + + +Marco Polo +His travels +The geographical problems of the fourteenth century +Sought to be solved by Christopher Columbus +The difficulties he had to encounter +Regarded as a visionary man +His persistence +Influence of women in great enterprises +Columbus introduced to Queen Isabella +Excuses for his opponents +The Queen favors his projects +The first voyage of Columbus +Its dangers +Discovery of the Bahama Islands +Discovery of Cuba and Hispaniola +Columbus returns to Spain +The excitement and enthusiasm produced by his discoveries +His second voyage +Extravagant expectations of Columbus +Disasters of the colonists +Decline of the popularity of Columbus +His third voyage +His arrest and disgrace +His fourth voyage +His death +Greatness of his services +Results of his discoveries +Colonization +The mines of Peru and Mexico +The effects on Europe of the rapid increase of the precious metals +True sources of national wealth +The destinies of America +Its true mission + + + +SAVONAROLA. + +UNSUCCESSFUL REFORMS. + + +The age of Savonarola +Revival of Classic Literature +Ecclesiastical corruptions +Religious apathy; awakened intelligence; infidel spirit +Youth of Savonarola +His piety +Begins to preach +His success at Florence +Peculiarities of his eloquence +Death of Lorenzo de Medici +Savonarola as a political leader +Denunciation of tyranny +His influence in giving a constitution to the Florentines +Difficulties of Constitution-making +His method of teaching political science +Peculiarities of the new Rule +Its great wisdom +Savonarola as reformer +As moralist +Terrible denunciation of sin in high places +A prophet of woe +Contrast between Savonarola and Luther +The sermons of Savonarola +His marvellous eloquence +Its peculiarities +The enemies of Savonarola +Savonarola persecuted +His appeal to Europe +The people desert him +Months of torment +His martyrdom +His character +His posthumous influence + + + +MICHAEL ANGELO. + +THE REVIVAL OF ART. + + +Michael Angelo as representative of reviving Art +Ennobling effects of Art when inspired by lofty sentiments +Brilliancy of Art in the sixteenth century +Early life of Michael Angelo +His aptitude for Art +Patronized by Lorenzo de Medici +Sculpture later in its development than Architecture +The chief works of Michael Angelo as sculptor +The peculiarity of his sculptures +Michael Angelo as painter +History of painting in the Middle Ages +Da Vinci +The frescos of the Sistine Chapel +The Last Judgment +The cartoon of the battle of Pisa +The variety as well as moral grandeur of Michael Angelo's paintings +Ennobling influence of his works +His works as architect +St. Peter's Church +Revival of Roman and Grecian Architecture +Contrasted with Gothic Architecture +Michael Angelo rescues the beauties of Paganism +Not responsible for absurdities of the Renaissance +Greatness of Michael Angelo as a man +His industry, temperance, dignity of character, love of Art for + Art's sake +His indifference to rewards and praises +His transcendent fame + + + +MARTIN LUTHER. + +THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION. + + +Luther's predecessors +Corruptions of the Church +Luther the man for the work of reform +His peculiarities +His early piety +Enters a Monastery +His religious experience +Made Professor of Divinity at Wittenberg +The Pope in great need of money to complete St. Peter's +Indulgences; principles on which they were based +Luther, indignant, preaches Justification by Faith +His immense popularity +Grace the cardinal principle of the Reformation +The Reformation began as a religious movement +How the defence of Luther's doctrine led to the recognition of the + supreme authority of the Scriptures +Public disputation at Leipsic between Luther and Eck +Connection between the advocacy of the Bible as a supreme authority + and the right of private judgment +Religious liberty a sequence of private judgment +Connection between religious and civil liberty +Contrast between Leo I. and Luther +Luther as reformer +His boldness and popularity +He alarms Rome +His translation of the Bible, his hymns, and other works +Summoned by imperial authority to the Diet of Worms +His memorable defence +His immortal legacies +His death and character + + + +THOMAS CRANMER. + +THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. + + +Importance of the English Reformation +Cranmer its best exponent +What was effected during the reign of Henry VIII. +Thomas Cromwell +Suppression of Monasteries +Their opposition to the revival of Learning +Their exceeding corruption +Their great wealth and its confiscation +Ecclesiastical courts +Sir Thomas More; his execution +Main feature of Henry VIII.'s anti-clerical measures. +Fall of Cromwell +Rise of Cranmer +His characteristics +His wise moderation +His fortunate suggestions to Henry VIII. +Made Archbishop of Canterbury +Difficulties of his position +Reforms made by the government, not by the people. +Accession of Edward VI +Cranmer's Church reforms: open communion; abolition of the Mass; +new English liturgy +Marriage among the clergy; the Forty-two Articles +Accession of Mary +Persecution of the Reformers +Reactionary measures +Arrest, weakness, and recantation of Cranmer +His noble death; his character +Death of Mary +Accession of Elizabeth, and return of exiles to England +The Elizabethan Age +Conservative reforms and conciliatory measures +The Thirty-nine Articles +Nonconformists +Their doctrines and discipline +The great Puritan controversy +The Puritans represent the popular side of the Reformation +Their theology +Their moral discipline +Their connection with civil liberty +Summary of the English Reformation + + + +IGNATIUS LOYOLA. + +RISE AND INFLUENCE OF THE JESUITS. + +The counter-reformation effected by the Jesuits +Picture of the times; theological doctrines +The Monastic Orders no longer available +Ignatius Loyola +His early life +Founds a new order of Monks +Wonderful spread of the Society of Jesus +Their efficient organization +Causes of success in general +Virtues and abilities of the early Jesuits +Their devotion and bravery +Jesuit Missions +Veneration for Loyola; his "Spiritual Exercises" +Lainez +Singular obedience exacted of the members of the Society +Absolute power of the General of the Order +Voluntary submission of Jesuits to complete despotism +The Jesuits adapt themselves to the circumstances of society +Causes of the decline of their influence +Corruption of most human institutions +The Jesuits become rich and then corrupt +Esprit de corps of the Jesuits +Their doctrine of expediency +Their political intrigues +Persecution of the Protestants +The enemies they made +Madame de Pompadour +Suppression of the Order +Their return to power +Reasons why Protestants fear and dislike them + + +JOHN CALVIN. + +PROTESTANT THEOLOGY. + +John Calvin's position +His early life and precocity +Becomes a leader of Protestants +Removes to Geneva +His habits and character +Temporary exile +Convention at Frankfort +Melancthon, Luther, Calvin, and Catholic doctrines +Return to Geneva, and marriage +Calvin compared with Luther +Calvin as a legislator +His reform +His views of the Eucharist +Excommunication, etc +His dislike of ceremonies and festivals +The simplicity of the worship of God +His ideas of church government +Absence of toleration +Church and State +Exaltation of preaching +Calvin as a theologian; his Institutes +His doctrine of Predestination +His general doctrines in harmony with Mediaeval theology +His views of sin and forgiveness; Calvinism +He exacts the same authority to logical deduction from admitted +truths as to direct declarations of Scripture +Puritans led away by Calvin's intellectuality +His whole theology radiates from the doctrine of the majesty of God +and the littleness of man +To him a personal God is everything +Defects of his system +Calvin an aristocrat +His intellectual qualities +His prodigious labors +His severe characteristics +His vast influence +His immortal fame + + +LORD BACON. + +THE NEW PHILOSOPHY. + +Lord Bacon as portrayed by Macaulay +His great defects of character +Contrast made between the man and the philosopher +Bacon's youth and accomplishments +Enters Parliament +Seeks office +At the height of fortune and fame +His misfortunes +Consideration of charges against him +His counterbalancing merits +The exaltation by Macaulay of material life +Bacon made its exponent +But the aims of Bacon were higher +The true spirit of his philosophy +Deductive philosophies +His new method +Bacon's Works +Relations of his philosophy +Material science and knowledge +Comparison of knowledge with wisdom + + +GALILEO. + +ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. + +A brilliant portent +The greatness of the sixteenth century +Artists, scholars, reformers, religious defenders +Maritime discoveries +Literary, ecclesiastical, political achievements +Youth of Galileo +His early discoveries +Genius for mathematics +Professor at Pisa +Ridicules the old philosophers; invents the thermometer +Compared with Kepler +Galileo teaches the doctrines of Copernicus. +Gives offence by his railleries and mockeries. +Theology and science +Astronomical knowledge of the Ancients +Utilization of science +Construction of the first telescope +Galileo's reward +His successive discoveries +His enemies +High scientific rank in Europe +Hostility of the Church +Galileo summoned before the Inquisition; his condemnation and +admonition +His new offences +Summoned before a council of Cardinals +His humiliation +His recantations +Consideration of his position +Greatness of mind rather than character +His confinement at Arceti +Opposition to science +His melancholy old age and blindness +Visited by John Milton; comparison of the two, when blind +Consequence of Galileo's discoveries +Later results +Vastness of the universe +Grandeur of astronomical science + + + +BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY. + + +DANTE. + +A.D. 1265-1321. + +RISE OF MODERN POETRY. + + +The first great genius who aroused his country from the torpor of +the Middle Ages was a poet. Poetry, then, was the first influence +which elevated the human mind amid the miseries of a gloomy period, +if we may except the schools of philosophy which flourished in the +rising universities. But poetry probably preceded all other forms +of culture in Europe, even as it preceded philosophy and art in +Greece. The gay Provencal singers were harbingers of Dante, even +as unknown poets prepared the way for Homer. And as Homer was the +creator of Grecian literature, so Dante, by his immortal comedy, +gave the first great impulse to Italian thought. Hence poets are +great benefactors, and we will not let them die in our memories or +hearts. We crown them, when alive, with laurels and praises; and +when they die, we erect monuments to their honor. They are dear to +us, since their writings give perpetual pleasure, and appeal to our +loftiest sentiments. They appeal not merely to consecrated ideas +and feelings, but they strive to conform to the principles of +immortal art. Every great poet is as much an artist as the +sculptor or the painter: and art survives learning itself. Varro, +the most learned of the Romans, is forgotten, when Virgil is +familiar to every school-boy. Cicero himself would not have been +immortal, if his essays and orations had not conformed to the +principles of art. Even an historian who would live must be an +artist, like Voltaire or Macaulay. A cumbrous, or heavy, or +pedantic historian will never be read, even if his learning be +praised by all the critics of Germany. + +Poets are the great artists of language. They even create +languages, like Homer and Shakspeare. They are the ornaments of +literature. But they are more than ornaments. They are the sages +whose sayings are treasured up and valued and quoted from age to +age, because of the inspiration which is given to them,--an insight +into the mysteries of the soul and the secrets of life. A good +song is never lost; a good poem is never buried, like a system of +philosophy, but has an inherent vitality, like the melodies of the +son of Jesse. Real poetry is something, too, beyond elaborate +versification, which is one of the literary fashions, and passes +away like other fashions unless, redeemed by something that arouses +the soul, and elevates it, and appeals to the consciousness of +universal humanity. It is the poets who make revelations, like +prophets and sages of old; it is they who invest history with +interest; like Shakspeare and Racine, and preserve what is most +vital and valuable in it. They even adorn philosophy, like +Lucretius, when he speculated on the systems of the Ionian +philosophers. They certainly impress powerfully on the mind the +truths of theology, as Watts and Cowper and Wesley did in their +noble lyrics. So that the most rapt and imaginative of men, if +artists, utilize the whole realm of knowledge, and diffuse it, and +perpetuate it in artistic forms. But real poets are rare, even if +there are many who glory in the jingle of language and the +structure of rhyme. Poetry, to live, must have a soul, and it must +combine rare things,--art, music, genius, original thought, wisdom +made still richer by learning, and, above all, a power of appealing +to inner sentiments, which all feel, yet are reluctant to express. +So choice are the gifts, so grand are the qualities, so varied the +attainments of truly great poets, that very few are born in a whole +generation and in nations that number twenty or forty millions of +people. They are the rarest of gifted men. Every nation can boast +of its illustrious lawyers, statesmen, physicians, and orators; but +they can point only to a few of their poets with pride. We can +count on the fingers of one of our hands all those worthy of poetic +fame who now live in this great country of intellectual and +civilized men, one for every ten millions. How great the pre- +eminence even of ordinary poets! How very great the pre-eminence +of those few whom all ages and nations admire! + +The critics assign to Dante a pre-eminence over most of those we +call immortal. Only two or three other poets in the whole realm of +literature, ancient or modern, dispute his throne. We compare him +with Homer and Shakspeare, and perhaps Goethe, alone. Civilization +glories in Virgil, Milton, Tasso, Racine, Pope, and Byron,--all +immortal artists; but it points to only four men concerning whose +transcendent creative power there is unanimity of judgment,-- +prodigies of genius, to whose influence and fame we can assign no +limits; stars of such surpassing brilliancy that we can only gaze +and wonder,--growing brighter and brighter, too, with the progress +of ages; so remarkable that no barbarism will ever obscure their +brightness, so original that all imitation of them becomes +impossible and absurd. So great is original genius, directed by +art and consecrated to lofty sentiments. + +I have assumed the difficult task of presenting one of these great +lights. But I do not presume to analyze his great poem, or to +point out critically its excellencies. This would be beyond my +powers, even if I were an Italian. It takes a poet to reveal a +poet. Nor is criticism interesting to ordinary minds, even in the +hands of masters. I should make critics laugh if I were to attempt +to dissect the Divine Comedy. Although, in an English dress, it is +known to most people who pretend to be cultivated, yet it is not +more read than the "Paradise Lost" or the "Faerie Queene," being +too deep and learned for some, and understood by nobody without a +tolerable acquaintance with the Middle Ages, which it interprets,-- +the superstitions, the loves, the hatreds, the ideas of ages which +can never more return. All I can do--all that is safe for me to +attempt--is to show the circumstances and conditions in which it +was written, the sentiments which prompted it, its historical +results, its general scope and end, and whatever makes its author +stand out to us as a living man, bearing the sorrows and revelling +in the joys of that high life which gave to him extraordinary moral +wisdom, and made him a prophet and teacher to all generations. He +was a man of sorrows, of resentments, fierce and implacable, but +whose "love was as transcendent as his scorn,"--a man of vast +experiences and intense convictions and superhuman earnestness, +despising the world which he sought to elevate, living isolated in +the midst of society, a wanderer and a sage, meditating constantly +on the grandest themes, lost in ecstatic reveries, familiar with +abstruse theories, versed in all the wisdom of his day and in the +history of the past, a believer in God and immortality, in rewards +and punishments, and perpetually soaring to comprehend the +mysteries of existence, and those ennobling truths which constitute +the joy and the hope of renovated and emancipated and glorified +spirits in the realms of eternal bliss. All this is history, and +it is history alone which I seek to teach,--the outward life of a +great man, with glimpses, if I can, of those visions of beauty and +truth in which his soul lived, and which visions and experiences +constitute his peculiar greatness. Dante was not so close an +observer of human nature as Shakspeare, nor so great a painter of +human actions as Homer, nor so learned a scholar as Milton; but his +soul was more serious than either,--he was deeper, more intense +than they; while in pathos, in earnestness, and in fiery emphasis +he has been surpassed only by Hebrew poets and prophets. + +It would seem from his numerous biographies that he was remarkable +from a boy; that he was a youthful prodigy; that he was precocious, +like Cicero and Pascal; that he early made great attainments, +giving utterance to living thoughts and feelings, like Bacon, among +boyish companions; lisping in numbers, like Pope, before he could +write prose; different from all other boys, since no time can be +fixed when he did not think and feel like a person of maturer +years. Born in Florence, of the noble family of the Alighieri, in +the year 1265, his early education devolved upon his mother, his +father having died while the boy was very young. His mother's +friend, Brunetto Latini, famous as statesman and scholarly poet, +was of great assistance in directing his tastes and studies. As a +mere youth he wrote sonnets, such as Sordello the Troubadour would +not disdain to own. He delights, as a boy, in those inquiries +which gave fame to Bonaventura. He has an intuitive contempt for +all quacks and pretenders. At Paris he maintains fourteen +different theses, propounded by learned men, on different subjects, +and gains universal admiration. He is early selected by his native +city for important offices, which he fills with honor. In wit he +encounters no superiors. He scorches courts by sarcasms which he +can not restrain. He offends the great by a superiority which he +does not attempt to veil. He affects no humility, for his nature +is doubtless proud; he is even offensively conscious and arrogant. +When Florence is deliberating about the choice of an ambassador to +Rome, he playfully, yet still arrogantly, exclaims: "If I remain +behind, who goes? and if I go, who remains behind?" His +countenance, so austere and thoughtful, impresses all beholders +with a sort of inborn greatness; his lip, in Giotto's portrait, is +curled disdainfully, as if he lived among fools or knaves. He is +given to no youthful excesses; he lives simply and frugally. He +rarely speaks unless spoken to; he is absorbed apparently in +thought. Without a commanding physical person, he is a marked man +to everybody, even when he deems himself a stranger. Women gaze at +him with wonder and admiration, though he disdains their praises +and avoids their flatteries. Men make way for him as he passes +them, unconsciously. "Behold," said a group of ladies, as he +walked slowly by them, "there is a man who has visited hell!" To +the close of his life he was a great devourer of books, and +digested their contents. His studies were as various as they were +profound. He was familiar with the ancient poets and historians +and philosophers; he was still better acquainted with the abstruse +speculations of the schoolmen. He delighted in universities and +scholastic retreats; from the cares and duties of public life he +would retire to solitary labors, and dignify his retirement by +improving studies. He did not live in a cell, like Jerome, or a +cave, like Mohammed; but no man was ever more indebted to solitude +and meditation than he for that insight and inspiration which +communion with God and great ideas alone can give. + +And yet, though recluse and student, he had great experiences with +life. He was born among the higher ranks of society. He inherited +an ample patrimony. He did not shrink from public affairs. He was +intensely patriotic, like Michael Angelo; he gave himself up to the +good of his country, like Savonarola. Florence was small, but it +was important; it was already a capital, and a centre of industry. +He represented its interests in various courts. He lived with +princes and nobles. He took an active part in all public matters +and disputations; he was even familiar with the intrigues of +parties; he was a politician as well as scholar. He entered into +the contests between Popes and Emperors respecting the independence +of Italy. He was not conversant with art, for the great sculptors +and painters had not then arisen. The age was still dark; the +mariner's compass had not been invented, chimneys had not been +introduced, the comforts of life were few. Dames of highest rank +still spent their days over the distaff or in combing flax. There +were no grand structures but cathedral churches. Life was +laborious, dismal, and turbulent. Law and order did not reign in +cities or villages. The poor were oppressed by nobles. Commerce +was small and manufactures scarce. Men lived in dreary houses, +without luxuries, on coarse bread and fruit and vegetables. The +crusades had not come to an end. It was the age of quarrelsome +popes and cruel nobles, and lazy monks and haughty bishops, and +ignorant people, steeped in gloomy superstitions, two hundred years +before America was discovered, and two hundred and fifty years +before Michael Angelo erected the dome of St. Peter's. + +But there was faith in the world, and rough virtues, sincerity, and +earnestness of character, though life was dismal. Men believed in +immortality and in expiation for sin. The rising universities had +gifted scholars whose abstruse speculations have never been +rivalled for acuteness and severity of logic. There were bards and +minstrels, and chivalric knights and tournaments and tilts, and +village fetes and hospitable convents and gentle ladies,--gentle +and lovely even in all states of civilization, winning by their +graces and inspiring men to deeds of heroism and gallantry. + +In one of those domestic revolutions which were so common in Italy +Dante was banished, and his property was confiscated; and he at the +age of thirty-five, about the year 1300, when Giotto was painting +portraits, was sent forth a wanderer and an exile, now poor and +unimportant, to eat the bread of strangers and climb other people's +stairs; and so obnoxious was he to the dominant party in his native +city for his bitter spirit, that he was destined never to return to +his home and friends. His ancestors, boasting of Roman descent, +belonged to the patriotic party,--the Guelphs, who had the +ascendency in his early years,--that party which defended the +claims of the Popes against the Emperors of Germany. But this +party had its divisions and rival families,--those that sided with +the old feudal nobles who had once ruled the city, and the new +mercantile families that surpassed them in wealth and popular +favor. So, expelled by a fraction of his own party that had gained +power, Dante went over to the Ghibellines, and became an adherent +of imperial authority until he died. + +It was in his wanderings from court to court and castle to castle +and convent to convent and university to university, that he +acquired that profound experience with men and the world which +fitted him for his great task. "Not as victorious knight on the +field of Campaldino, not as leader of the Guelph aristocracy at +Florence, not as prior, not as ambassador," but as a wanderer did +he acquire his moral wisdom. He was a striking example of the +severe experiences to which nearly all great benefactors have been +subjected,--Abraham the exile, in the wilderness, in Egypt, among +Philistines, among robbers and barbaric chieftains; the Prince +Siddartha, who founded Buddhism, in his wanderings among the +various Indian nations who bowed down to Brahma; and, still +greater, the Apostle Paul, in his protracted martyrdom among Pagan +idolaters and boastful philosophers, in Asia and in Europe. These +and others may be cited, who led a life of self-denial and reproach +in order to spread the truths which save mankind. We naturally +call their lot hard, even though they chose it; but it is the +school of greatness. It was sad to see the wisest and best man of +his day,--a man of family, of culture, of wealth, of learning, +loving leisure, attached to his home and country, accustomed to +honor and independence,--doomed to exile, poverty, neglect, and +hatred, without those compensations which men of genius in our time +secure. But I would not attempt to excite pity for an outward +condition which developed the higher virtues,--for a thorny path +which led to the regions of eternal light. Dante may have walked +in bitter tears to Paradise, but after the fashion of saints and +martyrs in all ages of our world. He need but cast his eyes on +that emblem which was erected on every pinnacle of Mediaeval +churches to symbolize passing suffering with salvation infinite,-- +the great and august creed of the age in which he lived, though now +buried amid the triumphs of an imposing material civilization whose +end is the adoration of the majesty of man rather than the majesty +of God, the wonders of creation rather than the greatness of the +Creator. + +But something more was required in order to write an immortal poem +than even native genius, great learning, and profound experience. +The soul must be stimulated to the work by an absorbing and +ennobling passion. This passion Dante had; and it is as memorable +as the mortal loves of Abelard and Heloise, and infinitely more +exalting, since it was spiritual and immortal,--even the adoration +of his lamented and departed Beatrice. + +I wish to dwell for a moment, perhaps longer than to some may seem +dignified, on this ideal or sentimental love. It may seem trivial +and unimportant to the eye of youth, or a man of the world, or a +woman of sensual nature, or to unthinking fools and butterflies; +but it is invested with dignity to one who meditates on the +mysteries of the soul, the wonders of our higher nature,--one of +the things which arrest the attention of philosophers. + +It is recorded and attested, even by Dante himself, that at the +early age of nine he fell in love with Beatrice,--a little girl of +one of his neighbors,--and that he wrote to her sonnets as the +mistress of his devotion. How could he have written sonnets +without an inspiration, unless he felt sentiments higher than we +associate with either boys or girls? The boy was father of the +man. "She appeared to me," says the poet, "at a festival, dressed +in that most noble and honorable color, scarlet,--girded and +ornamented in a manner suitable to her age; and from that moment +love ruled my soul. And after many days had passed, it happened +that, passing through the street, she turned her eyes to the spot +where I stood, and with ineffable courtesy she greeted me; and this +had such an effect on me that it seemed I had reached the furthest +limit of blessedness. I took refuge in the solitude of my chamber; +and, thinking over what had happened to me, I proposed to write a +sonnet, since I had already acquired the art of putting words into +rhyme." This, from his "Vita Nuova," his first work, relating to +the "new life" which this love awoke in his young soul. + +Thus, according to Dante's own statement, was the seed of a never- +ending passion planted in his soul,--the small beginning, so +insignificant to cynical eyes, that it would almost seem +preposterous to allude to it; as if this fancy for a little girl in +scarlet, and in a boy but nine years of age, could ripen into +anything worthy to be soberly mentioned by a grave and earnest +poet, in the full maturity of his genius,--worthy to give direction +to his lofty intellect, worthy to be the occasion of the greatest +poem the world has seen from Homer to modern times. Absurd! +ridiculous! Great rivers cannot rise from such a spring; tall +trees cannot grow from such a little acorn. Thus reasons the man +who does not take cognizance of the mighty mysteries of human life. +If anything tempted the boy to write sonnets to a little girl, it +must have been the chivalric element in society at that period, +when even boys were required to choose objects of devotion, and to +whom they were to be loyal, and whose honor they were bound to +defend. But the grave poet, in the decline of his life, makes this +simple confession, as the beginning of that sentiment which never +afterwards departed from him, and which inspired him to his +grandest efforts. + +But this youthful attachment was unfortunate. Beatrice did not +return his passion, and had no conception of its force, and perhaps +was not even worthy to call it forth. She may have been beautiful; +she may have been gifted; she may have been commonplace. It +matters little whether she was intellectual or not, beautiful or +not. It was not the flesh and blood he saw, but the image of +beauty and loveliness which his own mind created. He idealized the +girl; she was to him all that he fancied. But she never encouraged +him; she denied his greetings, and even avoided his society. At +last she died, when he was twenty-seven, and left him--to use his +own expression--"to ruminate on death, and envy whomsoever dies." +To console himself, he read Boethius, and religious philosophy was +ever afterwards his favorite study. Nor did serenity come, so deep +were his sentiments, so powerful was his imagination, until he had +formed an exalted purpose to write a poem in her honor, and worthy +of his love. "If it please Him through whom all things come," said +Dante, "that my life be spared, I hope to tell such things of her +as never before have been seen by any one." + +Now what inspired so strange a purpose? Was it a Platonic +sentiment, like the love of Petrarch for Laura, or something that +we cannot explain, and yet real,--a mystery of the soul in its +deepest cravings and aspirations? And is love, among mortals +generally, based on such a foundation? Is it flesh and blood we +love; is it the intellect; is it the character; is it the soul; is +it what is inherently interesting in woman, and which everybody can +see,--the real virtues of the heart and charms of physical beauty? +Or is it what we fancy in the object of our adoration, what exists +already in our own minds,--the archetypes of eternal ideas of +beauty and grace? And do all men worship these forms of beauty +which the imagination creates? Can any woman, or any man, seen +exactly as they are, incite a love which is kindred to worship? +And is any love worthy to be called love, if it does not inspire +emotions which prompt to self-sacrifice, labor, and lofty ends? +Can a woman's smiles incite to Herculean energies, and drive the +willing worshipper to Aonian heights, unless under these smiles are +seen the light of life and the blessedness of supernatural fervor? +Is there, and can there be, a perpetuity in mortal charms without +the recognition or the supposition of a moral beauty connected with +them, which alone is pure and imperishable, and which alone creates +the sacred ecstasy that revels in the enjoyment of what is divine, +or what is supposed to be divine, not in man, but in the +conceptions of man,--the ever-blazing glories of goodness or of +truth which the excited soul doth see in the eyes and expression of +the adored image? It is these archetypes of divinity, real or +fancied, which give to love all that is enduring. Destroy these, +take away the real or fancied glories of the soul and mind, and the +holy flame soon burns out. No mortal love can last, no mortal love +is beautiful, unless the visions which the mind creates are not +more or less realized in the object of it, or when a person, either +man or woman, is not capable of seeing ideal perfections. The +loves of savages are the loves of brutes. The more exalted the +character and the soul, the greater is the capacity of love, and +the deeper its fervor. It is not the object of love which creates +this fervor, but the mind which is capable of investing it with +glories. There could not have been such intensity in Dante's love +had he not been gifted with the power of creating so lofty and +beautiful an ideal; and it was this he worshipped,--not the real +Beatrice, but the angelic beauty he thought he saw in her. Why +could he not see the perfections he adored shining in other women, +who perhaps had a higher claim to them? Ah, that is the mystery! +And you cannot solve it any easier than you can tell why a flower +blooms or a seed germinates. And why was it that Dante, with his +great experience, could in later life see the qualities he adored +in no other woman than in the cold and unappreciative girl who +avoided him? Suppose she had become his wife, might he not have +been disenchanted, and his veneration been succeeded by a bitter +disappointment? Yet, while the delusion lasted, no other woman +could have filled her place; in no other woman could he have seen +such charms; no other love could have inspired his soul to make +such labors. + +I would not be understood as declaring that married love must be +necessarily a disenchantment. I would not thus libel humanity, and +insult plain reason and experience. Many loves ARE happy, and burn +brighter and brighter to the end; but it is because there are many +who are worthy of them, both men and women,--because the ideal, +which the mind created, IS realized to a greater or less degree, +although the loftier the archetype, the less seldom is it found. +Nor is it necessary that perfection should be found. A person may +have faults which alienate and disenchant, but with these there may +be virtues so radiant that the worship, though imperfect, remains,-- +a respect, on the whole, so great that the soul is lifted to +admiration. Who can love this perishable form, unless one sees in +it some traits which belong to superior and immortal natures? And +hence the sentiment, when pure, creates a sort of companionship of +beings robed in celestial light and exorcises those degrading +passions which belong to earth. But Dante saw no imperfections in +Beatrice: perhaps he had no opportunity to see them. His own soul +was so filled with love, his mind soared to such exalted regions of +adoration, that when she passed away he saw her only in the +beatified state, in company with saints and angels; and he was +wrapped in ecstasies which knew no end,--the unbroken adoration of +beauty, grace, and truth, even of those eternal ideas on which +Plato based all that is certain, and all that is worth living for; +that sublime realism without which life is a failure, and this +world is "a mockery, a delusion, and a snare." + +This is the history and exposition of that love for Beatrice with +which the whole spiritual life of Dante is identified, and without +which the "Divine Comedy" might not have been written. I may have +given to it disproportionate attention; and it is true I might have +allegorized it, and for love of a woman I might have substituted +love for an art,--even the art of poetry, in which his soul +doubtless lived, even as Michael Angelo, his greatest fellow- +countryman, lived in the adoration of beauty, grace, and majesty. +Oh, happy and favored is the person who lives in the enjoyment of +an art! It may be humble; it may be grand. It may be music; it +may be painting, or sculpture, or architecture, or poetry, or +oratory, or landscape gardening, yea, even farming, or needle-work, +or house decoration,--anything which employs the higher faculties +of the mind, and brings order out of confusion, and takes one from +himself, from the drudgery of mechanical labors, even if it be no +higher than carving a mantelpiece or making a savory dish; for all +these things imply creation, alike the test and the reward of +genius itself, which almost every human being possesses, in some +form or other, to a greater or less degree,--one of the kindest +gifts of Deity to man. + +The great artist, kindled by his visions of imperishable loveliness +in the person of his departed Beatrice, now resolves to dedicate to +her honor his great life-labor,--even his immortal poem, which +should be a transcript of his thoughts, a mirror of his life, a +record of his sorrows, a painting of his experiences, a description +of what he saw, a digest of his great meditations, a thesaurus of +the treasures of the Mediaeval age, an exposition of its great and +leading ideas in philosophy and in religion. Every great man +wishes to leave behind some monument of his labors, to bless or +instruct mankind. Any man without some form of this noble ambition +lives in vain, even if his monument be no more than a cultivated +farm rescued from wildness and sterility. + +Now Dante's monument is "the marvellous, mystic, unfathomable +song," in which he sang his sorrows and his joys, revealed his +visions, and recorded the passions and sentiments of his age. It +never can be popular, because it is so difficult to be understood, +and because its leading ideas are not in harmony with those which +are now received. I doubt if anybody can delight in that poem, +unless he sympathizes with the ideas of the Middle Ages; or, at +least, unless he is familiar with them, and with the historical +characters who lived in those turbulent and gloomy times. There is +more talk and pretension about that book than any one that I know +of. Like the "Faerie Queene" or the "Paradise Lost," it is a study +rather than a recreation; one of those productions which an +educated person ought to read in the course of his life, and which +if he can read in the original, and has read, is apt to boast of,-- +like climbing a lofty mountain, enjoyable to some with youth and +vigor and enthusiasm and love of nature, but a very toilsome thing +to most people, especially if old and short-winded and gouty. + +In the year 1309 the first part of the "Divine Comedy," the +Inferno, was finished by Dante, at the age of forty-four, in the +tenth year of his pilgrimage, under the roof of the Marquis of +Lunigiana; and it was intrusted to the care of Fra Ilario, a monk +living on the beautiful Ligurian shores. As everybody knows, it is +a vivid, graphic picture of what was supposed to be the infernal +regions, where great sinners are punished with various torments +forever and ever. It is interesting for the excellence of the +poetry, the brilliant analyses of characters, the allusion to +historical events, the bitter invectives, the intense sarcasms, and +the serious, earnest spirit which underlies the descriptions. But +there is very little of gentleness or compassion, in view of the +protracted torments of the sufferers. We stand aghast in view of +the miseries and monsters, furies and gorgons, snakes and fires, +demons, filth, lakes of pitch, pools of blood, plains of scorching +sands, circles, and chimeras dire,--a physical hell of utter and +unspeakable dreariness and despair, awfully and powerfully +described, but still repulsive. In each of the dismal abodes, far +down in the bowels of the earth, which Dante is supposed to have +visited with Virgil as a guide, in which some infernal deity +presides, all sorts of physical tortures are accumulated, inflicted +on traitors, murderers, robbers,--men who have committed great +crimes, unpunished in their lifetime; such men as Cain, Judas, +Ugolino,--men consigned to an infamous immortality. On the great +culprits of history, and of Italy especially, Dante virtually sits +in judgment; and he consigns them equally to various torments which +we shudder to think of. + +And here let me say, as a general criticism, that in the Inferno +are brought out in tremendous language the opinions of the Middle +Ages in reference to retribution. Dante does not rise above them, +with all his genius; he is not emancipated from them. It is the +rarest thing in this world for any man, however profound his +intellect and bold his spirit, to be emancipated from the great and +leading ideas of his age. Abraham was, and Moses, and the founder +of Buddhism, and Socrates, and Mohammed, and Luther; but they were +reformers, more or less divinely commissioned, with supernatural +aid in many instances to give them wisdom. But Homer was not, nor +Euripides, nor the great scholastics of the Middle Ages, nor even +popes. The venerated doctors and philosophers, prelates, scholars, +nobles, kings, to say nothing of the people, thought as Dante did +in reference to future punishment,--that it was physical, awful, +accumulative, infinite, endless; the wrath of avenging deity +displayed in pains and agonies inflicted on the body, like the +tortures of inquisitors, thus appealing to the fears of men, on +which chiefly the power of the clergy was based. Nor in these +views of endless physical sufferings, as if the body itself were +eternal and indestructible, is there the refinement of Milton, who +placed misery in the upbraidings of conscience, in mental torture +rather than bodily, in the everlasting pride and rebellion of the +followers of Satan and his fallen angels. It was these awful views +of protracted and eternal physical torments,--not the hell of the +Bible, but the hell of ingenious human invention,--which gives to +the Middle Ages a sorrowful and repulsive light, thus nursing +superstition and working on the fears of mankind, rather than on +the conscience and the sense of moral accountability. But how +could Dante have represented the ideas of the Middle Ages, if he +had not painted his Inferno in the darkest colors that the +imagination could conceive, unless he had soared beyond what is +revealed into the unfathomable and mysterious and unrevealed +regions of the second death? + +After various wanderings in France and Italy, and after an interval +of three years, Dante produced the second part of the poem,--the +Purgatorio,--in which he assumes another style, and sings another +song. In this we are introduced to an illustrious company,--many +beloved friends, poets, musicians, philosophers, generals, even +prelates and popes, whose deeds and thoughts were on the whole +beneficent. These illustrious men temporarily expiate the sins of +anger, of envy, avarice, gluttony, pride, ambition,--the great +defects which were blended with virtues, and which are to be purged +out of them by suffering. Their torments are milder, and amid them +they discourse on the principles of moral wisdom. They utter noble +sentiments; they discuss great themes; they show how vain is wealth +and power and fame; they preach sermons. In these discourses, +Dante shows his familiarity with history and philosophy; he unfolds +that moral wisdom for which he is most distinguished. His scorn is +now tempered with tenderness. He shows a true humanity; he is more +forgiving, more generous, more sympathetic. He is more lofty, if +he is not more intense. He sees the end of expiations: the +sufferers will be restored to peace and joy. + +But even in his purgatory, as in his hell, he paints the ideas of +his age. He makes no new or extraordinary revelations. He arrives +at no new philosophy. He is the Christian poet, after the pattern +of his age. + +It is plain that the Middle Ages must have accepted or invented +some relief from punishment, or every Christian country would have +been overwhelmed with the blackness of despair. Men could not +live, if they felt they could not expiate their sins. Who could +smile or joke or eat or sleep or have any pleasure, if he thought +seriously there would be no cessation or release from endless +pains? Who could discharge his ordinary duties or perform his +daily occupations, if his father or his mother or his sister or his +brother or his wife or his son or his daughter might not be finally +forgiven for the frailties of an imperfect nature which he had +inherited? The Catholic Church, in its benignity,--at what time I +do not know,--opened the future of hope amid the speculations of +despair. She saved the Middle Ages from universal gloom. If +speculation or logic or tradition or scripture pointed to a hell of +reprobation, there must be also a purgatory as the field of +expiation, for expiation there must be for sin, somewhere, somehow, +according to immutable laws, unless a mantle of universal +forgiveness were spread over sinners who in this life had given no +sufficient proofs of repentance and faith. Expiation was the great +element of Mediaeval theology. It may have been borrowed from +India, but it was engrafted on the Christian system. Sometimes it +was made to take place in this life; when the sinner, having +pleased God, entered at once upon heavenly beatitudes. Hence +fastings, scourgings, self-laceration, ascetic rigors in dress and +food, pilgrimages,--all to purchase forgiveness; which idea of +forgiveness was scattered to the winds by Luther, and replaced by +grace,--faith in Christ attested by a righteous life. I allude to +this notion of purgatory, which early entered into the creeds of +theologians, and which was adopted by the Catholic Church, to show +how powerful it was when human consciousness sought a relief from +the pains of endless physical torments. + +After Dante had written his Purgatorio, he retired to the +picturesque mountains which separate Tuscany from Modena and +Bologna; and in the hospitium of an ancient monastery, "on the +woody summit of a rock from which he might gaze on his ungrateful +country, he renewed his studies in philosophy and theology." +There, too, in that calm retreat, he commenced his Paradiso, the +subject of profound meditations on what was held in highest value +in the Middle Ages. The themes are theological and metaphysical. +They are such as interested Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventura, Anselm +and Bernard. They are such as do not interest this age,--even the +most gifted minds,--for our times are comparatively indifferent to +metaphysical subtleties and speculations. Beatrice and Peter and +Benedict alike discourse on the recondite subjects of the Bible in +the style of Mediaeval doctors. The themes are great,--the +incarnation, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the +body, salvation by faith, the triumph of Christ, the glory of +Paradise, the mysteries of the divine and human natures; and with +these disquisitions are reproofs of bad popes, and even of some of +the bad customs of the Church, like indulgences, and the +corruptions of the monastic system. The Paradiso is a thesaurus of +Mediaeval theology,--obscure, but lofty, mixed up with all the +learning of the age, even of the lives of saints and heroes and +kings and prophets. Saint Peter examines Dante upon faith, James +upon hope, and John upon charity. Virgil here has ceased to be his +guide; but Beatrice, robed in celestial loveliness, conducts him +from circle to circle, and explains the sublimest doctrines and +resolves his mortal doubts,--the object still of his adoration, and +inferior only to the mother of our Lord, regina angelorum, mater +carissima, whom the Church even then devoutly worshipped, and to +whom the greatest sages prayed. + + + "Thou virgin mother, daughter of thy Son, + Humble and high beyond all other creatures, + The limit fixed of the eternal counsel,-- + Thou art the one who such nobility + To human nature gave, that its Creator + Did not disdain to make himself its creature. + Not only thy benignity gives succor + To him who asketh it, but oftentimes + Forerunneth of its own accord the asking. + In thee compassion is; in thee is pity + In thee magnificence; in thee unites + Whate'er of goodness is in any creature." + + +In the glorious meditation of those grand subjects which had such a +charm for Benedict and Bernard, and which almost offset the +barbarism and misery of the Middle Ages,--to many still regarded as +"ages of faith,"--Dante seemingly forgets his wrongs; and in the +company of her whom he adores he seems to revel in the solemn +ecstasy of a soul transported to the realms of eternal light. He +lives now with the angels and the mysteries,-- + + + "Like to the fire + That in a cloud imprisoned doth break out expansive. + . . . . . . . . . . . . . + "Thus, in that heavenly banqueting his soul + Outgrew himself, and, in the transport lost, + Holds no remembrance now of what she was." + + +The Paradise of Dante is not gloomy, although it be obscure and +indefinite. It is the unexplored world of thought and knowledge, +the explanation of dogmas which his age accepted. It is a +revelation of glories such as only a lofty soul could conceive, but +could not paint,--a supernal happiness given only to favored +mortals, to saints and martyrs who have triumphed over the +seductions of sense and the temptations of life,--a beatified state +of blended ecstasy and love. + + +"Had I a tongue in eloquence as rich as is the coloring in fancy's loom, +'Twere all too poor to utter the least part of that enchantment." + + +Such is this great poem; in all its parts and exposition of the +ideas of the age,--sometimes fierce and sometimes tender, profound +and infantine, lofty and degraded, like the Church itself, which +conserved these sentiments. It is an intensely religious poem, and +yet more theological than Christian, and full of classical +allusions to pagan heroes and sages,--a most remarkable production +considering the age, and, when we remember that it is without a +prototype in any language, a glorious monument of reviving +literature, both original and powerful. + +Its appearance was of course an epoch, calling out the admiration +of Italians, and of all who could understand it,--of all who +appreciated its moral wisdom in every other country of Europe. And +its fame has been steadily increasing, although I fear much of the +popular enthusiasm is exaggerated and unfelt. One who can read +Italian well may see its "fiery emphasis and depth," its condensed +thought and language, its supernal scorn and supernal love, its +bitterness and its forgiveness; but few modern readers accept its +theology or its philosophy, or care at all for the men whose crimes +he punishes, and whose virtues he rewards. + +But there is great interest in the man, as well as in the poem +which he made the mirror of his life, and the register of his +sorrows and of those speculations in which he sought to banish the +remembrance of his misfortunes. His life, like his poem, is an +epic. We sympathize with his resentments, "which exile and poverty +made perpetually fresh." "The sincerity of his early passion for +Beatrice," says Hallam, "pierces through the veil of allegory which +surrounds her, while the memory of his injuries pursues him into +the immensity of eternal light; and even in the company of saints +and angels his unforgiving spirit darkens at the name of Florence. . . . +He combines the profoundest feelings of religion with those +patriotic recollections which were suggested by the reappearance of +the illustrious dead." + +Next to Michael Angelo he was the best of all famous Italians, +stained by no marked defects but bitterness, pride, and scorn; +while his piety, his patriotism, and elevation of soul stand out in +marked contrast with the selfishness and venality and hypocrisy and +cruelty of the leading men in the history of his times. "He wrote +with his heart's blood;" he wrote in poverty, exile, grief, and +neglect; he wrote like an inspired prophet of old. He seems to +have been specially raised up to exalt virtue, and vindicate the +ways of God to man, and prepare the way for a new civilization. He +breathes angry defiance to all tyrants; he consigns even popes to +the torments he created. He ridicules fools; he exposes knaves. +He detests oppression; he is a prophet of liberty. He sees into +all shams and all hypocrisies, and denounces lies. He is temperate +in eating and drinking; he has no vices. He believes in +friendship, in love, in truth. He labors for the good of his +countrymen. He is affectionate to those who comprehend him. He +accepts hospitalities, but will not stoop to meanness or injustice. +He will not return to his native city, which he loves so well, even +when permitted, if obliged to submit to humiliating ceremonies. He +even refuses a laurel crown from any city but from the one in which +he was born. No honors could tempt him to be untrue unto himself; +no tasks are too humble to perform, if he can make himself useful. +At Ravenna he gives lectures to the people in their own language, +regarding the restoration of the Latin impossible, and wishing to +bring into estimation the richness of the vernacular tongue. And +when his work is done he dies, before he becomes old (1321), having +fulfilled his vow. His last retreat was at Ravenna, and his last +days were soothed with gentle attentions from Guido da Polenta, +that kind duke who revived his fainting hopes. It was in his +service, as ambassador to Venice, that Dante sickened and died. A +funeral sermon was pronounced upon him by his friend the duke, and +beautiful monuments were erected to his memory. Too late the +Florentines begged for his remains, and did justice to the man and +the poet; as well they might, since his is the proudest name +connected with their annals. He is indeed one of the great +benefactors of the world itself, for the richness of his immortal +legacy. + +Could the proscribed and exiled poet, as he wandered, isolated and +alone, over the vine-clad hills of Italy, and as he stopped here +and there at some friendly monastery, wearied and hungry, have cast +his prophetic eye down the vistas of the ages; could he have seen +what honors would be bestowed upon his name, and how his poem, +written in sorrow, would be scattered in joy among all nations, +giving a new direction to human thought, shining as a fixed star in +the realms of genius, and kindling into shining brightness what is +only a reflection of its rays; yea, how it would be committed to +memory in the rising universities, and be commented on by the most +learned expositors in all the schools of Europe, lauded to the +skies by his countrymen, received by the whole world as a unique, +original, unapproachable production, suggesting grand thoughts to +Milton, reappearing even in the creations of Michael Angelo, +coloring art itself whenever art seeks the sublime and beautiful, +inspiring all subsequent literature, dignifying the life of +letters, and gilding philosophy as well as poetry with new +glories,--could he have seen all this, how his exultant soul would +have rejoiced, even as did Abraham, when, amid the ashes of the +funeral pyre he had prepared for Isaac, he saw the future glories +of his descendants; or as Bacon, when, amid calumnies, he foresaw +that his name and memory would be held in honor by posterity, and +that his method would be received by all future philosophers as one +of the priceless boons of genius to mankind! + + +AUTHORITIES. + +Vita Nuova; Divina Commedia,--Translations by Carey and Longfellow; +Boccaccio's Life of Dante; Wright's St. Patrick's Purgatory; Dante +et la Philosophie Catholique du Treizieme Siecle, par Ozinan; +Labitte, La Divine Comedie avant Dante; Balbo's Life and Times of +Dante; Hallam's Middle Ages; Napier's Florentine History; Villani; +Leigh Hunt's Stories from the Italian Poets; Botta's Life of Dante; +J. R. Lowell's article on Dante in American Cyclopaedia; Milman's +Latin Christianity; Carlyle's Heroes and Hero-worship; Macaulay's +Essays; The Divina Commedia from the German of Schelling; +Voltaire's Dictionnaire Philosophique; La Divine Comedie, by +Lamennais; Dante, by Labitte. + + + +GEOFFREY CHAUCER + +A.D. 1340-1400. + +ENGLISH LIFE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. + + +The age which produced Chaucer was a transition period from the +Middle Ages to modern times, midway between Dante and Michael +Angelo. Chaucer was the contemporary of Wyclif, with whom the +Middle Ages may appropriately be said to close, or modern history +to begin. + +The fourteenth century is interesting for the awakening, especially +in Italy, of literature and art; for the wars between the French +and English, and the English and the Scots; for the rivalry between +the Italian republics; for the efforts of Rienzi to establish +popular freedom at Rome; for the insurrection of the Flemish +weavers, under the Van Arteveldes, against their feudal oppressors; +for the terrible "Jacquerie" in Paris; for the insurrection of Wat +Tyler in England; for the Swiss confederation; for a schism in the +Church when the popes retired to Avignon; for the aggrandizement of +the Visconti at Milan and the Medici at Florence; for incipient +religious reforms under Wyclif in England and John Huss in Bohemia; +for the foundation of new colleges at Oxford and Cambridge; for the +establishment of guilds in London; for the exploration of distant +countries; for the dreadful pestilence which swept over Europe, +known in England as the Black Death; for the development of modern +languages by the poets; and for the rise of the English House of +Commons as a great constitutional power. + +In most of these movements we see especially a simultaneous rising +among the people, in the more civilized countries of Europe, to +obtain charters of freedom and municipal and political privileges, +extorted from monarchs in their necessities. The fourteenth +century was marked by protests and warfare equally against feudal +institutions and royal tyranny. The way was prepared by the wars +of kings, which crippled their resources, as the Crusades had done +a century before. The supreme miseries of the people led them to +political revolts and insurrections,--blind but fierce movements, +not inspired by ideas of liberty, but by a sense of oppression and +degradation. Accompanying these popular insurrections were +religions protests against the corrupted institutions of the +Church. + + +In the midst of these popular agitations, aggressive and needless +wars, public miseries and calamities, baronial aggrandizement, +religious inquiries, parliamentary encroachment, and reviving taste +for literature and art, Chaucer arose. + +His remarkable career extended over the last half of the fourteenth +century, when public events were of considerable historical +importance. It was then that parliamentary history became +interesting. Until then the barons, clergy, knights of the shire, +and burgesses of the town, summoned to assist the royal councils, +deliberated in separate chambers or halls; but in the reign of +Edward III. the representatives of the knights of the shires and +the burgesses united their interests and formed a body strong +enough to check royal encroachments, and became known henceforth as +the House of Commons. In thirty years this body had wrested from +the Crown the power of arbitrary taxation, had forced upon it new +ministers, and had established the principle that the redress of +grievances preceded grants of supply. Edward III. was compelled to +grant twenty parliamentary confirmations of Magna Charta. At the +close of his reign, it was conceded that taxes could be raised only +by consent of the Commons; and they had sufficient power, also, to +prevent the collection of the tax which the Pope had levied on the +country since the time of John, called Peter's Pence. The latter +part of the fourteenth century must not be regarded as an era of +the triumph of popular rights, but as the period when these rights +began to be asserted. Long and dreary was the march of the people +to complete political enfranchisement from the rebellion under Wat +Tyler to the passage of the Reform Bill in our times. But the +Commons made a memorable stand against Edward III. when he was the +most powerful sovereign of western Europe, one which would have +been impossible had not this able and ambitious sovereign been +embroiled in desperate war both with the Scotch and French. + +With the assertion of political rights we notice the beginning of +commercial enterprise and manufacturing industry. A colony of +Flemish weavers was established in England by the enlightened king, +although wool continued to be exported. It was not until the time +of Elizabeth that the raw material was consumed at home. + +Still, the condition of the common people was dreary enough at this +time, when compared with what it is in our age. They perhaps were +better fed on the necessities of life than they are now. All meats +were comparatively cheaper; but they had no luxuries, not even +wheaten bread. Their houses were small and dingy, and a single +chamber sufficed for a whole family, both male and female. Neither +glass windows nor chimneys were then in use, nor knives nor forks, +nor tea nor coffee; not even potatoes, still less tropical fruits. +The people had neither bed-clothes, nor carpets, nor glass nor +crockery ware, nor cotton dresses, nor books, nor schools. They +were robbed by feudal masters, and cheated and imposed upon by +friars and pedlers; but a grim cheerfulness shone above their +discomforts and miseries, and crime was uncommon and severely +punished. They amused themselves with rough sports, and cherished +religious sentiments. They were brave and patriotic. + +It was to describe the habits and customs of these people, as well +as those of the classes above them, to give dignity to consecrated +sentiments and to shape the English language, that Chaucer was +raised up. + +He was born, it is generally supposed, in the year 1340; but +nothing is definitely known of him till 1357, when Edward III. had +been reigning about thirty years. It is surmised that his father +was a respectable citizen of London; that he was educated at +Cambridge and Oxford; that he went to Paris to complete his +education in the most famous university in the world; that he then +extensively travelled in France, Holland, and Flanders, after which +he became a student of law in the Inner Temple. Even then he was +known as a poet, and his learning and accomplishments attracted the +attention of Edward III., who was a patron of genius, and who gave +him a house in Woodstock, near the royal palace. At this time +Chaucer was a handsome, witty, modest, dignified man of letters, in +easy circumstances, moving in the higher ranks of society, and +already known for his "Troilus and Cresseide," which was then +doubtless the best poem in the language. + +It was then that the intimacy began between him and John of Gaunt, +a youth of eighteen, then Earl of Richmond, fourth son of Edward +III., afterwards known as the great Duke of Lancaster,--the most +powerful nobleman that ever lived in England, also the richest, +possessing large estates in eighteen counties, as well as six +earldoms. This friendship between the poet and the first prince of +the blood, after the Prince of Wales, seems to have arisen from the +admiration of John of Gaunt for the genius and accomplishments of +Chaucer, who was about ten years the elder. It was not until the +prince became the Duke of Lancaster that he was the friend and +protector of Wyclif,--and from different reasons, seeing that the +Oxford scholar and theologian could be of use to him in his warfare +against the clergy, who were hostile to his ambitious designs. +Chaucer he loved as a bright and witty companion; Wyclif he honored +as the most learned churchman of the age. + +The next authentic event in Chaucer's life occurred in 1359, when +he accompanied the king to France in that fruitless expedition +which was soon followed by the peace of Bretigny. In this +unfortunate campaign Chaucer was taken prisoner, but was ransomed +by his sovereign for 16 pounds,--about equal to 300 pounds in these +times. He had probably before this been installed at court as a +gentleman of the bedchamber, on a stipend which would now be equal +to 250 pounds a year. He seems to have been a favorite with the +court, after he had written his first great poem. It is singular +that in a rude and ignorant age poets should have received much +greater honor than in our enlightened times. Gower was patronized +by the Duke of Gloucester, as Chaucer was by the Duke of Lancaster, +and Petrarch and Boccaccio were in Italy by princes and nobles. +Even learning was held in more reverence in the fourteenth century +than it is in the nineteenth. The scholastic doctor was one of the +great dignitaries of the age, as well as of the schools, and ranked +with bishops and abbots. Wyclif at one time was the most +influential man in the English Church, sitting in Parliament, and +sent by the king on important diplomatic missions. So Chaucer, +with less claim, received valuable offices and land-grants, which +made him a wealthy man; and he was also sent on important missions +in the company of nobles. He lived at the court. His son Thomas +married one of the richest heiresses in the kingdom, and became +speaker of the House of Commons; while his daughter Alice married +the Duke of Suffolk, whose grandson was declared by Richard III. to +be his heir, and came near becoming King of England. Chaucer's +wife's sister married the Duke of Lancaster himself; so he was +allied with the royal family, if not by blood, at least by +ambitious marriage connections. + +I know of no poet in the history of England who occupied so high a +social position as did Chaucer, or who received so many honors. +The poet of the people was the companion of kings and princes. At +one time he had a reverse of fortune, when his friend and patron, +the Duke of Lancaster, was in disgrace and in voluntary banishment +during the minority of Richard II., against whom he had intrigued, +and who afterwards was dethroned by Henry IV., a son of the Duke of +Lancaster. While the Duke of Gloucester was in power, Chaucer was +deprived of his offices and revenues for two or three years, and +was even imprisoned in the Tower; but when Lancaster returned from +the Continent, his offices and revenues were restored. His latter +days were luxurious and honored. At fifty-one he gave up his +public duties as a collector of customs, chiefly on wool, and +retired to Woodstock and spent the remainder of his fortunate life +in dignified leisure and literary labors. In addition to his +revenues, the Duke of Lancaster, who was virtually the ruler of the +land during the reign of Richard II., gave him the castle of +Donnington, with its park and gardens; so that he became a man of +territorial influence. At the age of fifty-eight he removed to +London, and took a house in the precincts of Westminster Abbey, +where the chapel of Henry VII. now stands. He died the following +year, and was buried in the Abbey church,--that sepulchre of +princes and bishops and abbots. His body was deposited in the +place now known as the Poets' Corner, and a fitting monument to his +genius was erected over his remains, as the first great poet that +had appeared in England, probably only surpassed in genius by +Shakspeare, until the language assumed its present form. He was +regarded as a moral phenomenon, whom kings and princes delighted to +honor. As Leonardo da Vinci died in the arms of Francis I., so +Chaucer rested in his grave near the bodies of those sovereigns and +princes with whom he lived in intimacy and friendship. It was the +rarity of his gifts, his great attainments, elegant manners, and +refined tastes which made him the companion of the great, since at +that time only princes and nobles and ecclesiastical dignitaries +could appreciate his genius or enjoy his writings. + +Although Chaucer had written several poems which were admired in +his day, and made translations from the French, among which was the +"Roman de la Rose," the most popular poem of the Middle Ages,--a +poem which represented the difficulties attendant on the passion of +love, under the emblem of a rose which had to be plucked amid +thorns,--yet his best works were written in the leisure of +declining years. + +The occupation of the poet during the last twelve years of his life +was in writing his "Canterbury Tales," on which his fame chiefly +rests; written not for money, but because he was impelled to write +it, as all true poets write and all great artists paint,--ex +animo,--because they cannot help writing and painting, as the +solace and enjoyment of life. For his day these tales were a great +work of art, evidently written with great care. They are also +stamped with the inspiration of genius, although the stories +themselves were copied in the main from the French and Italian, +even as the French and Italians copied from Oriental writers, whose +works were translated into the languages of Europe so that the +romances of the Middle Ages were originally produced in India, +Persia, and Arabia. Absolute creation is very rare. Even +Shakspeare, the most original of poets, was indebted to French and +Italian writers for the plots of many of his best dramas. Who can +tell the remote sources of human invention; who knows the then +popular songs which Homer probably incorporated in his epics; who +can trace the fountains of those streams which have fertilized the +literary world?--and hence, how shallow the criticism which would +detract from literary genius because it is indebted, more or less, +to the men who have lived ages ago. It is the way of putting +things which constitutes the merit of men of genius. What has +Voltaire or Hume or Froude told the world, essentially, that it did +not know before? Read, for instance, half-a-dozen historians on +Joan of Arc: they all relate substantially the same facts. Genius +and originality are seen in the reflections and deductions and +grand sentiments prompted by the narrative. Let half-a-dozen +distinguished and learned theologians write sermons on Abraham or +Moses or David: they will all be different, yet the main facts will +be common to all. + +The "Canterbury Tales" are great creations, from the humor, the +wit, the naturalness, the vividness of description, and the beauty +of the sentiments displayed in them, although sullied by occasional +vulgarities and impurities, which, however, in all their coarseness +do not corrupt the mind. Byron complained of their coarseness, but +Byron's poetry is far more demoralizing. The age was coarse, not +the mind of the author. And after five hundred years, with all the +obscurity of language and obsolete modes of spelling, they still +give pleasure to the true lovers of poetry when they have once +mastered the language, which is not, after all, very difficult. It +is true that most people prefer to read the great masters of +poetry, in later times; but the "Canterbury Tales" are interesting +and instructive to those who study the history of language and +literature. They are links in the civilization of England. They +paint the age more vividly and accurately than any known history. +The men and women of the fourteenth century, of all ranks, stand +out to us in fresh and living colors. We see them in their dress, +their feasts, their dwellings, their language, their habits, and +their manners. Amid all the changes in human thought and in social +institutions the characters appeal to our common humanity, +essentially the same under all human conditions. The men and women +of the fourteenth century love and hate, eat and drink, laugh and +talk, as they do in the nineteenth. They delight, as we do, in the +varieties of dress, of parade, and luxurious feasts. Although the +form of these has changed, they are alive to the same sentiments +which move us. They like fun and jokes and amusement as much as +we. They abhor the same class of defects which disgust us,-- +hypocrisies, shams, lies. The inner circle of their friendship is +the same as ours to-day, based on sincerity and admiration. There +is the same infinite variety in character, and yet the same +uniformity. The human heart beats to the same sentiments that it +does under all civilizations and conditions of life. No people can +live without friendship and sympathy and love; and these are +ultimate sentiments of the soul, which are as eternal as the ideas +of Plato. Why do the Psalms of David. written for an Oriental +people four thousand years ago, excite the same emotions in the +minds of the people of England or France or America that they did +among the Jews? It is because they appeal to our common humanity, +which never changes,--the same to-day as it was in the beginning, +and will be to the end. It is only form and fashion which change; +men remain the same. The men and women of the Bible talked nearly +the same as we do, and seem to have had as great light on the +primal principles of wisdom and truth and virtue. Who can improve +on the sagacity and worldly wisdom of the Proverbs of Solomon? +They have a perennial freshness, and appeal to universal +experience. It is this fidelity to nature which is one of the +great charms of Shakspeare. We quote his brief sayings as +expressive of what we feel and know of the certitudes of our moral +and intellectual life. They will last forever, under every variety +of government, of social institutions, of races, and of languages. +And they will last because these every-day sentiments are put in +such pithy, compressed, unique, and novel form, like the Proverbs +of Solomon or the sayings of Epictetus. All nations and ages alike +recognize the moral wisdom in the sayings of those immortal sages +whose writings have delighted and enlightened the world, because +they appeal to consciousness or experience. + +Now it must be confessed that the Poetry of Chaucer does not abound +in the moral wisdom and spiritual insight and profound reflections +on the great mysteries of human life which stand out so +conspicuously in the writings of Dante, Shakspeare, Milton, Goethe, +and other first-class poets. He does not describe the inner life, +but the outward habits and condition of the people of his times. +He is not serious enough, nor learned enough, to enter upon the +discussion of those high themes which agitated the schools and +universities, as Dante did one hundred years before. He tells us +how monks and friars lived, not how they dreamed and speculated. +Nor are his sarcasms scorching and bitter, but rather humorous and +laughable. He shows himself to be a genial and loving companion, +not an austere teacher of disagreeable truths. He is not solemn +and intense, like Dante; he does not give wings to his fancy, like +Spenser; he has not the divine insight of Shakspeare; he is not +learned, like Milton; he is not sarcastic, like Pope; he does not +rouse the passions, like Byron; he is not meditative, like +Wordsworth,--but he paints nature with great accuracy and delicacy, +as also the men and women of his age, as they appeared in their +outward life. He describes the passion of love with great +tenderness and simplicity. In all his poems, love is his greatest +theme,--which he bases, not on physical charms, but the moral +beauty of the soul. In his earlier life he does not seem to have +done full justice to women, whom he ridicules, but does not +despise; in whom he indeed sees the graces of chivalry, but not the +intellectual attraction of cultivated life. But later in life, +when his experiences are broader and more profound, he makes amends +for his former mistakes. In his "Legend of Good Women," which he +wrote at the command of Anne of Bohemia, wife of Richard II., he +eulogizes the sex and paints the most exalted sentiments of the +heart. He not only had great vividness in the description of his +characters, but doubtless great dramatic talent, which his age did +not call out. His descriptions of nature are very fresh and +beautiful, indicating a great love of nature,--flowers, trees, +birds, lawns, gardens, waterfalls, falcons, dogs, horses, with whom +he almost talked. He had a great sense of the ridiculous; hence +his humor and fun and droll descriptions, which will ever interest +because they are so fresh and vivid. And as a poet he continually +improved as he advanced in life. His last works are his best, +showing the care and labor he bestowed, as well as his fidelity to +nature. I am amazed, considering his time, that he was so great an +artist without having a knowledge of the principles of art as +taught by the great masters of composition. + +But, as has been already said, his distinguishing excellence is +vivid and natural description of the life and habits, not the +opinions, of the people of the fourteenth century, described +without exaggeration or effort for effect. He paints his age as +Moliere paints the times of Louis XIV., and Homer the heroic +periods of Grecian history. This fidelity to nature and +inexhaustible humor and living freshness and perpetual variety are +the eternal charms of the "Canterbury Tales." They bring before +the eye the varied professions and trades and habits and customs of +the fourteenth century. We see how our ancestors dressed and +talked and ate; what pleasures delighted them, what animosities +moved them, what sentiments elevated them, and what follies made +them ridiculous. The same naturalness and humor which marked "Don +Quixote" and the "Decameron" also are seen in the "Canterbury +Tales." Chaucer freed himself from all the affectations and +extravagances and artificiality which characterized the poetry of +the Middle Ages. With him began a new style in writing. He and +Wyclif are the creators of English literature. They did not create +a language, but they formed and polished it. + +The various persons who figure in the "Canterbury Tales" are too +well known for me to enlarge upon. Who can add anything to the +Prologue in which Chaucer himself describes the varied characters +and habits and appearance of the pilgrims to the shrine of Thomas +Becket at Canterbury? There are thirty of these pilgrims including +the poet himself, embracing nearly all the professions and trades +then known, except the higher dignitaries of Church and State, who +are not supposed to mix freely in ordinary intercourse, and whom it +would be unwise to paint in their marked peculiarities. The most +prominent person, as to social standing, is probably the knight. +He is not a nobleman, but he has fought in many battles, and has +travelled extensively. His cassock is soiled, and his horse is +strong but not gay,--a very respectable man, courteous and gallant, +a soldier corresponding to a modern colonel or captain. His son, +the esquire, is a youth of twenty, with curled locks and +embroidered dress, shining in various colors like the flowers of +May, gay as a bird, active as a deer, and gentle as a maiden. The +yeoman who attends them both is clad in green like a forester, with +arrows and feathers, bearing the heavy sword and buckler of his +master. The prioress is another respectable person, coy and +simple, with dainty fingers, small mouth, and clean attire,--a +refined sort of a woman for that age, ornamented with corals and +brooch, so stately as to be held in reverence, yet so sentimental +as to weep for a mouse caught in a trap: all characteristic of a +respectable, kind-hearted lady who has lived in seclusion. A monk, +of course, in the fourteenth century was everywhere to be seen; and +a monk we have among the pilgrims, riding a "dainty" horse, +accompanied with greyhounds, loving fur trimmings on his +Benedictine habit and a fat swan to roast. The friar, too, we +see,--a mendicant, yet merry and full of dalliances, beloved by the +common women, to whom he gave easy absolution; a jolly vagabond, +who knew all the taverns, and who carried on his portly person pins +and songs and relics to sell or to give away. And there was the +merchant, with forked beard and Flemish beaver hat and neatly +clasped boots, bragging of his gains and selling French crowns, but +on the whole a worthy man. The Oxford clerk or scholar is one of +the company, silent and sententious, as lean as the horse on which +he rode, with threadbare coat, and books of Aristotle and his +philosophy which he valued more than gold, of which indeed he could +boast but little,--a man anxious to learn, and still more to teach. +The sergeant of the law is another prominent figure, wary and wise, +discreet and dignified, bustling and busy, yet not so busy as he +seemed to be, wearing a coat of divers colors, and riding very +badly. A franklin, or country gentleman, mixes with the company, +with a white beard and red complexion; one of Epicurus's own sons, +who held that ale and wheaten bread and fish and dainty flesh, +partridge fat, were pure felicity; evidently a man given to +hospitality,-- + + + "His table dormant in his hall alway + Stood ready covered all the longe day." + + +He was a sheriff, also, to enforce the law, and to be present at +all the county sessions. The doctor, of course, could not be left +out of the company,--a man who knew the cause of every malady, +versed in magic as well as physic, and grounded also in astronomy; +who held that gold is the best of cordials, and knew how to keep +what he gained; not luxurious in his diet, but careful what he ate +and drank. The village miller is not forgotten in this motley +crowd,--rough, brutal, drunken, big and brawn, with a red beard and +a wart on his nose, and a mouth as wide as a furnace, a reveller +and a jangler, accustomed to take toll thrice, and given to all the +sins that then abounded. He is the most repulsive figure in the +crowd, both vulgar and wicked. In contrast with him is the reve, +or steward, of a lordly house,--a slender, choleric man, feared by +servants and gamekeepers, yet in favor with his lord, since he +always had money to lend, although it belonged to his master; an +adroit agent and manager, who so complicated his accounts that no +auditor could unravel them or any person bring him in arrears. He +rode a fine dappled-gray stallion, wore a long blue overcoat, and +carried a rusty sword,--evidently a proud and prosperous man. With +a monk and friar, the picture would be incomplete without a +pardoner, or seller of indulgences, with yellow hair and smooth +face, loaded with a pillow-case of relics and pieces of the true +cross, of which there were probably cartloads in every country in +Europe, and of which there was an inexhaustible supply. This sleek +and gentle pedler of indulgences rode side by side with a repulsive +officer of the Church, with a fiery red face, of whom children were +afraid, fond of garlic and onions and strong wine, and speaking +only Latin law-terms when he was drunk, but withal a good fellow, +abating his lewdness and drunkenness. In contrast with the +pardoner and "sompnour" we see the poor parson, full of goodness, +charity, and love,--a true shepherd and no mercenary, who waited +upon no pomp and sought no worldly gains, happy only in the virtues +which he both taught and lived. Some think that Chaucer had in +view the learned Wyclif when he described the most interesting +character of the whole group. With him was a ploughman, his +brother, as good and pious as he, living in peace with all the +world, paying tithes cheerfully, laborious and conscientious, the +forerunner of the Puritan yeoman. + +Of this motley company of pilgrims, I have already spoken of the +prioress,--a woman of high position. In contrast with her is the +wife of Bath, who has travelled extensively, even to Jerusalem and +Rome; charitable, kind-hearted, jolly, and talkative, but bold and +masculine and coarse, with a red face and red stockings, and a hat +as big as a shield, and sharp spurs on her feet, indicating that +she sat on her ambler like a man. + +There are other characters which I cannot stop to mention,--the +sailor, browned by the seas and sun, and full of stolen Bordeaux +wine; the haberdasher; the carpenter; the weaver; the dyer; the +tapestry-worker; the cook, to boil the chickens and the marrow- +bones, and bake the pies and tarts,--mostly people from the middle +and lower ranks of society, whose clothes are gaudy, manners rough, +and language coarse. But all classes and trades and professions +seem to be represented, except nobles, bishops, and abbots,-- +dignitaries whom, perhaps, Chaucer is reluctant to describe and +caricature. + +To beguile the time on the journey to Canterbury, all these various +pilgrims are required to tell some story peculiar to their separate +walks of life; and it is these stories which afford the best +description we have of the manners and customs of the fourteenth +century, as well as of its leading sentiments and ideas. + +The knight was required to tell his story first, and it naturally +was one of love and adventure. Although the scene of it was laid +in ancient Greece, it delineates the institution of chivalry and +the manners and sentiments it produced. No writer of that age, +except perhaps Froissart, paints the connection of chivalry with +the graces of the soul and the moral beauty which poetry associates +with the female sex as Chaucer does. The aristocratic woman of +chivalry, while delighting in martial sports, and hence masculine +and haughty, is also condescending, tender, and gracious. The +heroic and dignified self-respect with which chivalry invested +woman exalted the passion of love. Allied with reverence for woman +was loyalty to the prince. The rough warrior again becomes a +gentleman, and has access to the best society. Whatever may have +been the degrees of rank, the haughtiest nobleman associated with +the penniless knight, if only he were a gentleman and well born, on +terms of social equality, since chivalry, while it created +distinctions, also levelled those which wealth and power naturally +created among the higher class. Yet chivalry did not exalt woman +outside of noble ranks. The plebeian woman neither has the graces +of the high-born lady, nor does she excite that reverence for the +sex which marked her condition in the feudal castle. "Tournaments +and courts of love were not framed for village churls, but for +high-born dames and mighty earls." + +Chaucer in his description of women in ordinary life does not seem +to have a very high regard for them. They are weak or coarse or +sensual, though attentive to their domestic duties, and generally +virtuous. An exception is made of Virginia, in the doctor's tale, +who is represented as beautiful and modest, radiant in simplicity, +discreet and true. But the wife of Bath is disgusting from her +coarse talk and coarser manners. Her tale is to show what a woman +likes best, which, according to her, is to bear rule over her +husband and household. The prioress is conventional and weak, +aping courtly manners. The wife of the host of the Tabard inn is a +vixen and shrew, who calls her husband a milk-sop, and is so +formidable with both her tongue and her hands that he is glad to +make his escape from her whenever he can. The pretty wife of the +carpenter, gentle and slender, with her white apron and open dress, +is anything but intellectual,--a mere sensual beauty. Most of +these women are innocent of toothbrushes, and give and receive +thrashings, and sing songs without a fastidious taste, and beat +their servants and nag their husbands. But they are good cooks, +and understand the arts of brewing and baking and roasting and +preserving and pickling, as well as of spinning and knitting and +embroidering. They are supreme in their households; they keep the +keys and lock up the wine. They are gossiping, and love to receive +their female visitors. They do not do much shopping, for shops +were very primitive, with but few things to sell. Their knowledge +is very limited, and confined to domestic matters. They are on the +whole modest, but are the victims of friars and pedlers. They have +more liberty than we should naturally suppose, but have not yet +learned to discriminate between duties and rights. There are few +disputed questions between them and their husbands, but the duty of +obedience seems to have been recognized. But if oppressed, they +always are free with their tongues; they give good advice, and do +not spare reproaches in language which in our times we should not +call particularly choice. They are all fond of dress, and wear gay +colors, without much regard to artistic effect. + +In regard to the sports and amusements of the people, we learn much +from Chaucer. In one sense the England of his day was merry; that +is, the people were noisy and rough in their enjoyments. There was +frequent ringing of the bells; there were the horn of the huntsman +and the excitements of the chase; there was boisterous mirth in the +village ale-house; there were frequent holidays, and dances around +May-poles covered with ribbons and flowers and flags; there were +wandering minstrels and jesters and jugglers, and cock-fightings +and foot-ball and games at archery; there were wrestling matches +and morris-dancing and bear-baiting. But the exhilaration of the +people was abnormal, like the merriment of negroes on a Southern +plantation,--a sort of rebound from misery and burdens, which found +a vent in noise and practical jokes when the ordinary restraint was +removed. The uproarious joy was a sort of defiance of the semi- +slavery to which workmen were doomed; for when they could be +impressed by the king's architect and paid whatever he chose to +give them, there could not have been much real contentment, which +is generally placid and calm. There is one thing in which all +classes delighted in the fourteenth century, and that was a garden, +in which flowers bloomed,--things of beauty which were as highly +valued as the useful. Moreover, there was a zest in rural sports +now seldom seen, especially among the upper classes who could +afford to hunt and fish. There was no excitement more delightful +to gentlemen and ladies than that of hawking, and it infinitely +surpassed in interest any rural sport whatever in our day, under +any circumstances. Hawks trained to do the work of fowling-pieces +were therefore greater pets than any dogs that now are the company +of sportsmen. A lady without a falcon on her wrist, when mounted +on her richly caparisoned steed for a morning's sport, was very +rare indeed. + +An instructive feature of the "Canterbury Tales" is the view which +Chaucer gives us of the food and houses and dresses of the people. +"In the Nonne's Prestes' Tale we see the cottage and manner of life +of a poor widow." She has three daughters, three pigs, three oxen, +and a sheep. Her house had only two rooms,--an eating-room, which +also served for a kitchen and sitting-room, and a bower or +bedchamber,--both without a chimney, with holes pierced to let in +the light. The table was a board put upon trestles, to be removed +when the meal of black bread and milk, and perchance an egg with +bacon, was over. The three slept without sheets or blankets on a +rude bed, covered only with their ordinary day-clothes. Their +kitchen utensils were a brass pot or two for boiling, a few wooden +platters, an iron candlestick, and a knife or two; while the +furniture was composed of two or three chairs and stools, with a +frame in the wall, with shelves, for clothes and utensils. The +manciple and the cook of the company seem to indicate that living +among the well-to-do classes was a very generous and a very serious +part of life, on which a high estimate was placed, since food in +any variety, though plentiful at times, was not always to be had, +and therefore precarious. "Guests at table were paired, and ate, +every pair, out of the same plate or off the same trencher." But +the bill of fare at a franklin's feast would be deemed anything but +poor, even in our times,--"bacon and pea-soup, oysters, fish, +stewed beef, chickens, capons, roast goose, pig, veal, lamb, kid, +pigeon, with custard, apples and pears, cheese and spiced cakes." +All these with abundance of wine and ale. + +The "Canterbury Tales" remind us of the vast preponderance of the +country over town and city life. Chaucer, like Shakspeare, revels +in the simple glories of nature, which he describes like a man +feeling it to be a joy to be near to "Mother Earth," with her rich +bounties. The birds that usher in the day, the flowers which +beautify the lawn, the green hills and vales, with ever-changing +hues like the clouds and the skies, yet fruitful in wheat and +grass; the domestic animals, so mute and patient, the bracing air +of approaching winter, the genial breezes of the spring,--of all +these does the poet sing with charming simplicity and grace, yea, +in melodious numbers; for nothing is more marvellous than the music +and rhythm of his lines, although they are not enriched with +learned allusions or much moral wisdom, and do not march in the +stately and majestic measure of Shakspeare or of Milton. + +But the most interesting and instructive of the "Canterbury Tales" +are those which relate to the religious life, the morals, the +superstitions, and ecclesiastical abuses of the times. In these we +see the need of the reformation of which Wyclif was the morning +light. In these we see the hypocrisies and sensualities of both +monks and friars, relieved somewhat by the virtues of the simple +parish priest or poor parson, in contrast with the wealth and +luxury of the regular clergy, as monks were called, in their +princely monasteries, where the lordly abbot vied with both baron +and bishop in the magnificence of his ordinary life. We see before +us the Mediaeval clergy in all their privileges, and yet in all +their ignorance and superstition, shielded from the punishment of +crime and the operation of all ordinary laws (a sturdy defiance of +the temporal powers), the agents and ministers of a foreign power, +armed with the terrors of hell and the grave. Besides the prioress +and the nuns' priest, we see in living light the habits and +pretensions of the lazy monk, the venal friar and pardoner, and the +noisy summoner for ecclesiastical offences: hunters and gluttons +are they, with greyhounds and furs,, greasy and fat, and full of +dalliances; at home in taverns, unprincipled but agreeable +vagabonds, who cheat and rob the people, and make a mockery of what +is most sacred on the earth. These privileged mendicants, with +their relics and indulgences, their arts and their lies, and the +scandals they create, are treated by Chaucer with blended humor and +severity, showing a mind as enlightened as that of the great +scholar at Oxford, who heads the movement against Rome and the +abuses at which she connived if she did not encourage. And there +is something intensely English in his disgust and scorn,--brave for +his day, yet shielded by the great duke who was at once his +protector and friend, as he was of Wyclif himself,--in his severer +denunciation, and advocacy of doctrines which neither Chaucer nor +Duke of Lancaster understood, and which, if they had, they would +not have sympathized with nor encouraged. In these attacks on +ecclesiastics and ecclesiastical abuses, Chaucer should be studied +with Wyclif and the early reformers, although he would not have +gone so far as they, and led, unlike them, a worldly life. Thus by +these poems he has rendered a service to his country, outside his +literary legacy, which has always been held in value. The father +of English poetry belonged to the school of progress and of +inquiry, like his great contemporaries on the Continent. But while +he paints the manners, customs, and characters of the fourteenth +century, he does not throw light on the great ideas which agitated +or enslaved the age. He is too real and practical for that. He +describes the outward, not the inner life. He was not serious +enough--I doubt if he was learned enough--to enter into the +disquisitions of schoolmen, or the mazes of the scholastic +philosophy, or the meditations of almost inspired sages. It is not +the joys of heaven or the terrors of hell on which he discourses, +but of men and women as they lived around him, in their daily +habits and occupations. We must go to Wyclif if we would know the +theological or philosophical doctrines which interested the +learned. Chaucer only tells how monks and friars lived, not how +they speculated or preached. We see enough, however, to feel that +he was emancipated from the ideas of the Middle Ages, and had cast +off their gloom, their superstition, and their despair. The only +things he liked of those dreary times were their courts of love and +their chivalric glories. + +I do not propose to analyze the poetry of Chaucer, or enter upon a +critical inquiry as to his relative merits in comparison with the +other great poets. It is sufficient for me to know that critics +place him very high as an original poet, although it is admitted +that he drew much of his material from French and Italian authors. +He was, for his day, a great linguist. He had travelled +extensively, and could speak Latin, French, and Italian with +fluency. He knew Petrarch and other eminent Italians. One is +amazed that in such an age he could have written so well, for he +had no great models to help him in his own language. If +occasionally indecent, he is not corrupting. He never deliberately +disseminates moral poison; and when he speaks of love, he treats +almost solely of the simple and genuine emotions of the heart. + +The best criticism that I have read of Chaucer's poetry is that of +Adolphus William Ward; although as a biography it is not so full or +so interesting as that of Godwin or even Morley. In no life that I +have read are the mental characteristics of our poet so ably +drawn,--"his practical good sense," his love of books, his still +deeper love of nature, his naivete, the readiness of his +description, the brightness of his imagery, the easy flow of his +diction, the vividness with which he describes character; his +inventiveness, his readiness of illustration, his musical rhythm, +his gaiety and cheerfulness, his vivacity and joyousness, his +pathos and tenderness, his keen sense of the ridiculous and power +of satire, without being bitter, so that his wit and fun are +harmless, and perpetually pleasing. + +He doubtless had great dramatic talent, but he did not live in a +dramatic age. His especial excellence, never surpassed, was his +power of observing and drawing character, united with boundless +humor and cheerful fun. And his descriptions of nature are as true +and unstinted as his descriptions of men and women, so that he is +as fresh as the month of May. In his poetry is life; and hence his +immortal fame. He is not so great as Spenser or Shakspeare or +Milton; but he has the same vitality as they, and is as wonderful +as they considering his age and opportunities,--a poet who +constantly improved as he advanced in life, and whose greatest work +was written in his old age. + +Unfortunately, we know but little of Chaucer's habits and +experiences, his trials and disappointments, his friendships or his +hatreds. What we do know of him raises our esteem. Though +convivial, he was temperate; though genial, he was a silent +observer, quiet in his manners, modest in his intercourse with the +world, walking with downcast eye, but letting nothing escape his +notice. He believed in friendship, and kept his friends to the +end, and was stained neither by envy nor by pride,--as frank as he +was affectionate, as gentle as he was witty. Living with princes +and nobles, he never descended to gross adulation, and never wrote +a line of approval of the usurpation of Henry IV., although his +bread depended on Henry's favor, and he was also the son of the +king's earliest and best friend. He was not a religious man, nor +was he an immoral man, judged by the standard of his age. He +probably was worldly, as he lived in courts. We do not see in him +the stern virtues of Dante or Milton; nothing of that moral +earnestness which marked the only other great man with whom he was +contemporary,--he who is called the "morning star" of the +Reformation. But then we know nothing about him which calls out +severe reprobation. He was patriotic, and had the confidence of +his sovereign, else he would not have been employed on important +missions. And the sweetness of his character may be inferred from +his long and tender friendship with Gower, whom some in that age +considered the greater poet. He was probably luxurious in his +habits, but intemperate use of wine he detested and avoided. He +was portly in his person, but refinement marked his features. He +was a gentleman, according to the severest code of chivalric +excellence; always a favorite with ladies, and equally admired by +the knights and barons of a brilliant court. No poet was ever more +honored in his life or lamented in his death, as his beautiful +monument in Westminster Abbey would seem to attest. That monument +is the earliest that was erected to the memory of a poet in that +Pantheon of English men of rank and genius; and it will probably be +as long preserved as any of those sculptured urns and animated +busts which seek to keep alive the memory of the illustrious dead,-- +of those who, though dead, yet speak to all future generations. + + +AUTHORITIES. + + +Chaucer's own works, especially the Canterbury Tales; publications +of the Chaucer Society; Pauli's History of England; ordinary +Histories of England which relate to the reigns of Edward III. and +Richard II., especially Green's History of the English People; Life +of Chaucer, by William Godwin (4 volumes, London, 1804); Tyrwhitt's +edition of Canterbury Tales; Speglet's edition of Chaucer; Warton's +History of English Poetry; St. Palaye's History of Chivalry; +Chaucer's England, by Matthew Browne (London, 1869); Sir Harris +Nicholas's Life of Chaucer; The Riches of Chaucer, by Charles +Cowden Clarke; Morley's Life of Chaucer. The latest work is a Life +and Criticism of Chaucer, by Adolphus William Ward. There is also +a Guide to Chaucer, by H. G. Fleary. See also Skeat's collected +edition of Chaucer's Works, brought out under the auspices of the +Early English Text Society. + + + +CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. + +A.D. 1446-1506. + +MARITIME DISCOVERIES. + + +About thirteen hundred years ago, when Attila the Hun, called "the +scourge of God," was overrunning the falling empire of the Romans, +some of the noblest citizens of the small cities of the Adriatic +fled, with their families and effects, to the inaccessible marshes +and islands at the extremity of that sea, and formed a permanent +settlement. They became fishermen and small traders. In process +of time they united their islands together by bridges, and laid the +foundation of a mercantile state. Thither resorted the merchants +of Mediaeval Europe to make exchanges. Thus Venice became rich and +powerful, and in the twelfth century it was one of the prosperous +states of Europe, ruled by an oligarchy of the leading merchants. + +Contemporaneous with Dante, one of the most distinguished citizens +of this mercantile mart, Marco Polo, impelled by the curiosity +which reviving commerce excited and the restless adventure of a +crusading age, visited the court of the Great Khan of Tartary, +whose empire was the largest in the world. After a residence of +seventeen years, during which he was loaded with honors, he +returned to his native country, not by the ordinary route, but by +coasting the eastern shores of Asia, through the Indian Ocean, up +the Persian Gulf, and thence through Bagdad and Constantinople, +bringing with him immense wealth in precious stones and other +Eastern commodities. The report of his wonderful adventures +interested all Europe, for he was supposed to have found the +Tarshish of the Scriptures, that land of gold and spices which had +enriched the Tyrian merchants in the time of Solomon,--men supposed +by some to have sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in their three +years' voyages. Among the wonderful things which Polo had seen was +a city on an island off the coast of China, which was represented +to contain six hundred thousand families, so rich that the palaces +of its nobles were covered with plates of gold, so inviting that +odoriferous plants and flowers diffused the most grateful perfumes, +so strong that even the Tartar conquerors of China could not subdue +it. This island, known now as Japan, was called Cipango, and was +supposed to be inexhaustible in riches, especially when the reports +of Polo were confirmed by Sir John Mandeville, an English traveller +in the time of Edward III.,--and with even greater exaggerations, +since he represented the royal palace to be more than six miles in +circumference, occupied by three hundred thousand men. + +In an awakening age of enterprise, when chivalry had not passed +away, nor the credulity of the Middle Ages, the reports of this +Cipango inflamed the imagination of Europe, and to reach it became +at once the desire and the problem of adventurers and merchants. +But how could this El Dorado be reached? Not by sailing round +Africa; for to sail South, in popular estimation, was to encounter +torrid suns with ever increasing heat, and suffocating vapors, and +unknown dangers. The scientific world had lost the knowledge of +what even the ancients knew. Nobody surmised that there was a Cape +of Good Hope which could be doubled, and would open the way to the +Indian Ocean and its islands of spices and gold. Nor could this +Cipango be reached by crossing the Eastern Continent, for the +journey was full of perils, dangers, and insurmountable obstacles. + +Among those who meditated on this geographical mystery was a +young sea captain of Genoa, who had studied in the University of +Pavia, but spent his early life upon the waves,--intelligent, +enterprising, visionary, yet practical, with boundless ambition, +not to conquer kingdoms, but to discover new realms. Born probably +in 1446, in the year 1470 he married the daughter of an Italian +navigator living in Lisbon; and, inheriting with her some valuable +Portuguese charts and maritime journals, he settled in Lisbon and +took up chart-making as a means of livelihood. Being thus trained +in both the art and the science of navigation, his active mind +seized upon the most interesting theme of the day. His studies and +experience convinced him that the Cipango of Marco Polo could be +reached by sailing directly west. He knew that the earth was +round, and he inferred from the plants and carved wood and even +human bodies that had occasionally floated from the West, that +there must be unknown islands on the western coasts of the +Atlantic, and that this ocean, never yet crossed, was the common +boundary of both Europe and Asia; in short, that the Cipango could +be reached by sailing west. And he believed the thing to be +practicable, for the magnetic needle had been discovered, or +brought from the East by Polo, which always pointed to the North +Star, so that mariners could sail in the darkest nights; and also +another instrument had been made, essentially the modern quadrant, +by which latitude could be measured. He supposed that after +sailing west, about eight hundred leagues, by the aid of compass +and quadrant, and such charts as he had collected and collated, he +should find the land of gold and spices by which he would become +rich and famous. + +This was not an absurd speculation to a man of the intellect and +knowledge of Columbus. To his mind there were but few physical +difficulties if he only had the ships, and the men bold enough to +embark with him, and the patronage which was necessary for so novel +and daring an enterprise. The difficulties to be surmounted were +not so much physical as moral. It was the surmounting of moral +difficulties which gives to Columbus his true greatness as a man of +genius and resources. These moral obstacles were so vast as to be +all but insurmountable, since he had to contend with all the +established ideas of his age,--the superstitions of sailors, the +prejudices of learned men, and general geographical ignorance. He +himself had neither money, nor ships, nor powerful friends. Nobody +believed in him; all ridiculed him; some insulted him. Who would +furnish money to a man who was supposed to be half crazy,-- +certainly visionary and wild; a rash adventurer who would not only +absorb money but imperil life? Learned men would not listen to +him, and powerful people derided him, and princes were too absorbed +in wars and pleasure to give him a helping hand. Aid could come +only from some great state or wealthy prince; but both states and +princes were deaf and dumb to him. It was a most extraordinary +inspiration of genius in the fifteenth century which created, not +an opinion, but a conviction that Asia could be reached by sailing +west; and how were common minds to comprehend such a novel idea? +If a century later, with all the blaze of reviving art and science +and learning, the most learned people ridiculed the idea that the +earth revolved around the sun, even when it was proved by all the +certitudes of mathematical demonstration and unerring observations, +how could the prejudiced and narrow-minded priests of the time of +Columbus, who controlled the most important affairs of state, be +made to comprehend that an unknown ocean, full of terrors, could be +crossed by frail ships, and that even a successful voyage would +open marts of inexhaustible wealth? All was clear enough to this +scientific and enterprising mariner; and the inward assurance that +he was right in his calculation gave to his character a blended +boldness, arrogance, and dignity which was offensive to men of +exalted station, and ill became a stranger and adventurer with a +thread-bare coat, and everything which indicated poverty, neglect, +and hardship, and without any visible means of living but by the +making and selling of charts. + +Hence we cannot wonder at the seventeen years of poverty, neglect, +ridicule, disappointment, and deferred hopes, such as make the +heart sick, which elapsed after Columbus was persuaded of the truth +of his theory, before he could find anybody enlightened enough to +believe in him, or powerful enough to assist him. + +Wrapped up in those glorious visions which come only to a man of +superlative genius, and which make him insensible to heat and cold +and scanty fare, even to reproach and scorn, this intrepid soul, +inspired by a great and original idea, wandered from city to city, +and country to country, and court to court, to present the certain +greatness and wealth of any state that would embark in his +enterprise. But all were alike cynical, cold, unbelieving, and +even insulting. He opposes overwhelming, universal, and +overpowering ideas. To have surmounted these amid such protracted +opposition and discouragement constitutes his greatness; and +finally to prove his position by absolute experiment and hazardous +enterprise makes him one of the greatest of human benefactors, +whose fame will last through all the generations of men. And as I +survey that lonely, abstracted, disappointed, and derided man,-- +poor and unimportant, so harassed by debt that his creditors seized +even his maps and charts, obliged to fly from one country to +another to escape imprisonment, without even listeners and still +less friends, and yet with ever-increasing faith in his cause, +utterly unconquerable, alone in opposition to all the world,--I +think I see the most persistent man of enterprise that I have read +of in history. Critics ambitious to say something new may rake out +slanders from the archives of enemies, and discover faults which +derogate from the character we have been taught to admire and +venerate; they may even point out spots, which we cannot disprove, +in that sun of glorious brightness, which shed its beneficent rays +over a century of darkness,--but this we know, that, whatever may +be the force of detraction, his fame has been steadily increasing, +even on the admission of his slanderers, for three centuries, and +that he now shines as a fixed star in the constellation of the +great lights of modern times, not alone because he succeeded in +crossing the ocean, when once embarked on it, but for surmounting +the moral difficulties which lay in his way before he could embark +upon it, and for being finally instrumental in conferring the +greatest boon that our world has received from any mortal man, +since Noah entered into the ark. + +I think it is Lamartine who has said that truly immortal +benefactors have seldom been able to accomplish their mission +without the encouragement of either saints or women. This is +emphatically true in the case of Columbus. The door to success was +at last opened to him by a friendly and sympathetic friar of a +Franciscan convent near the little port of Palos, in Andalusia. +The sun-burned and disappointed adventurer (for that is what he +was), wearied and hungry, and nearly discouraged, stopped at the +convent-door to get a morsel of bread for his famished son, who +attended him in his pilgrimage. The prior of that obscure convent +was the first who comprehended the man of genius, not so much +because he was an enlightened scholar, but because his pious soul +was full of kindly sympathy, showing that the instincts of love are +kindred to the inspirations of genius. It was the voice of Ali and +Cadijeh that strengthened Mohammed. It was Catherine von Bora who +sustained Luther in his gigantic task. The worthy friar, struck by +the noble bearing of a man so poor and wearied, became delighted +with the conversation of his guest, who opened to him both his +heart and his schemes. He forwarded his plans by a letter to a +powerful ecclesiastic, who introduced him to the Spanish Court, +then one of the most powerful, and certainly the proudest and most +punctilious, in Europe. Ferdinand of Aragon was polite, yet wary +and incredulous; but Isabella of Castile listened more kindly to +the stranger, whom the greatness of his mission inspired with +eloquence. Like the saint of the convent, she and she alone of +her splendid court, divined that there was something to be +heeded in the words of Columbus, and gave her womanly and royal +encouragement, although too much engrossed with the conquest of +Grenada and the cares of her kingdom to pay that immediate +attention which Columbus entreated. + +I may not dwell on the vexatious delays and the protracted +discouragements of Columbus after the Queen had given her ear to +his enthusiastic prophecies of the future glories of the kingdom. +To the court and to the universities and to the great ecclesiastics +he was still a visionary and a needy adventurer; and they quoted, +in refutation of his theory, those Scripture texts which were +hurled in greater wrath against Galileo when he announced his +brilliant discoveries. There are, from some unfathomed reason, +always texts found in the sacred writings which seem to conflict +with both science and a profound theology; and the pedants, as well +as the hypocrites and usurpers, have always shielded themselves +behind these in their opposition to new opinions. I will not be +hard upon them, for often they are good men, simply unable to throw +off the shackles of ages of ignorance and tyranny. People should +not be subjected to lasting reproach because they cannot emancipate +themselves from prevailing ideas. If those prejudiced courtiers +and scholastics who ridiculed Columbus could only have seen with +his clearer insight, they might have loaded him with favors. But +they were blinded and selfish and envious. Nor was it until +Columbus convinced his sovereigns that the risk was small for so +great a promised gain, that he was finally commissioned to +undertake his voyage. The promised boon was the riches of Oriental +countries, boundless and magnificent,--countries not to be +discovered, but already known, only hard and perhaps impossible to +reach. And Columbus himself was so firmly persuaded of the +existence of these riches, and of his ability to secure them, and +they were so exaggerated by his imagination, that his own demands +were extravagant and preposterous, as must have seemed to an +incredulous court,--that he, a stranger, an adventurer, almost a +beggar even, should in case of success be made viceroy and admiral +over the unexplored realm, and with a tenth of all the riches he +should collect or seize; and that these high offices--almost regal-- +should also be continued not only through his own life, but +through the lives of his heirs from generation to generation, thus +raising him to a possible rank higher than that of any of the dukes +and grandees of Spain. + +Ferdinand and Isabella, however, readily promised all that the +persistent and enthusiastic adventurer demanded, doubtless with the +feeling that there was not more than one chance in a hundred that +he would ever be heard from again, but that this one chance was +well worth all and more than they expended,--a possibility of +indefinite aggrandizement. To the eyes of Ferdinand there was a +prospect--remote, indeed--of adding to the power of the Spanish +monarchy; and it is probable that the pious Isabella contemplated +also the conversion of the heathen to Christianity. It is possible +that some motives may have also influenced Columbus kindred to +this,--a renewed crusade against Saracen infidels, which he might +undertake from the wealth he was so confident of securing. But the +probabilities are that Columbus was urged on to his career by +ambitious and worldly motives also, or else he would not have been +so greedy to secure honors and wealth, nor would have been so +jealous of his dignity when he had attained power. To me Columbus +was no more a saint than Sir Francis Drake was when he so +unscrupulously robbed every ship he could lay his hands upon, +although both of them observed the outward forms of religious +worship peculiar to their respective creeds and education. There +were no unbelievers in that age. Both Catholics and Protestants, +like the ancient Pharisees, were scrupulous in what were supposed +to be religious duties,--though these too often were divorced from +morality. It is Columbus only as an intrepid, enthusiastic, +enlightened navigator, in pursuit of a new world of boundless +wealth, that I can see him; and it was for his ultimate success in +discovering this world, amid so many difficulties, that he is to be +regarded as a great benefactor, of the glory of which no ingenuity +or malice can rob him. + +At last he sets sail, August 3, 1492, and, singularly enough, from +Palos, within sight of the little convent where he had received his +first encouragement. He embarked in three small vessels, the +largest of which was less thou one hundred tons, and two without +decks, but having high poops and sterns inclosed. What an +insignificant flotilla for such a voyage! But it would seem that +the Admiral, with great sagacity, deemed small vessels best adapted +to his purpose, in order to enter safely shallow harbors and sail +near the coast. + +He sails in the most propitious season of the year, and is aided by +steady trade-winds which waft his ships gently through the unknown +ocean. He meets with no obstacles of any account. The skies are +serene, the sea is as smooth as the waters of an inland lake; and +he is comforted, as he advances to the west, by the appearance of +strange birds and weeds and plants that indicate nearness to the +land. He has only two objects of solicitude,--the variations of +the magnetic needle, and the superstitious fears of his men; the +last he succeeds in allaying by inventing plausible theories, and +by concealing the real distance he has traversed. He encourages +them by inflaming their cupidity. He is nearly baffled by their +mutinous spirit. He is in danger, not from coral reefs and +whirlpools and sunken rocks and tempests, as at first was feared, +but from his men themselves, who clamor to return. It is his faith +and moral courage and fertility of resources which we most admire. +Days pass in alternate hope and disappointment, amid angry clamors, +in great anxiety, for no land appears after he has sailed far +beyond the points where he expected to find it. The world is +larger than even he has supposed. He promises great rewards to the +one who shall first see the unknown shores. It is said that he +himself was the first to discover land by observing a flickering +light, which is exceedingly improbable, as he was several leagues +from shore; but certain it is, that the very night the land was +seen from the Admiral's vessel, it was also discovered by one of +the seamen on board another ship. The problem of the age was at +last solved. A new continent was given to Ferdinand and Isabella. + +On the 12th of October Columbus lands--not, however, on the +continent, as he supposed, but on an island--in great pomp, as +admiral of the seas and viceroy of the king, in a purple doublet, +and with a drawn sword in one hand and the standard of Spain in the +other, followed by officers in appropriate costume, and a friar +bearing the emblem of our redemption, which is solemnly planted on +the shore, and the land called San Salvador. This little island, +one of the Bahamas, is not, however, gilded with the anticipated +splendors of Oriental countries. He finds neither gold, nor +jewels, nor silks, nor spices, nor any signs of civilization; only +naked men and women, without any indication of wealth or culture or +power. But he finds a soft and genial climate, and a soil of +unparalleled fertility, and trees and shrubs as green as Andalusia +in spring and birds with every variety of plumage, and insects +glistening with every color of the rainbow; while the natives are +gentle and unsuspecting and full of worship. Columbus is +disappointed, but not discouraged. He sets sail to find the real +Cipango of which he is in search. He cruises among the Bahama +islands, discovers Cuba and Hispaniola (now called Hayti), explores +their coasts, holds peaceful intercourse with the natives, and is +transported with enthusiasm in view of the beauty of the country +and its great capacities; but he sees no gold, only a few ornaments +to show that there is gold somewhere near, if it only could be +found. Nor has he reached the Cipango of his dreams, but new +countries, of which there was no record or suspicion of existence, +yet of vast extent, and fertile beyond knowledge. He is puzzled, +but filled with intoxicating joy. He has performed a great feat. +He has doubtless added indefinitely to the dominion of Spain. + +Columbus leaves a small colony on the island of Hispaniola, and +with the trophies of his discoveries returns to Spain, without +serious obstacles, except a short detention in Portugal, whither he +was driven by a storm. His stories fill the whole civilized world +with wonder. He is welcomed with the most cordial and enthusiastic +reception; the people gaze at him with admiration. His sovereigns +rise at his approach, and seat him beside themselves on their +gilded and canopied throne; he has made them a present worthy of a +god. What honors could be too great for such a man! Even envy +pales before the universal exhilaration. He enters into the most +august circles as an equal; his dignities and honors are confirmed; +he is loaded with presents and favors; he is the most marked +personage in Europe; he is almost stifled with the incense of royal +and popular idolatry. Never was a subject more honored and +caressed. The imagination of a chivalrous and lively people is +inflamed with the wildest expectations, for although he returned +with but little of the expected wealth, he has pointed out a land +rich in unfathomed mines. + +A second and larger expedition is soon projected. Everybody wishes +to join it. All press to join the fortunate admiral who has added +a continent to civilization. The proudest nobles, with the armor +and horses of chivalry, embark with artisans and miners for another +voyage, now without solicitude or fear, but with unbounded hopes of +wealth,--especially hardy adventurers and broken-down families of +rank anxious to retrieve their fortunes. The pendulum of a +nation's thought swings from the extreme of doubt and cynicism to +the opposite extreme of faith and exhilaration. Spain was ripe for +the harvest. Eight hundred years' desperate contest with the Moors +had made the nation bold, heroic, adventurous. There were no such +warriors in all Europe. Nowhere were there such chivalric virtues. +No people were then animated with such martial enthusiasm, such +unfettered imagination, such heroic daring, as were the subjects of +Ferdinand and Isabella. They were a people to conquer a world; not +merely heroic and enterprising, but fresh with religious +enthusiasm. They had expelled the infidels from Spain; they would +fight for the honor of the Cross in any clime or land. + +The hopes held out by Columbus were extravagant; and these +extravagant expectations were the occasion of his fall and +subsequent sorrows and humiliation. Doubtless he was sincere, but +he was infatuated. He could only see the gold of Cipango. He was +as confident of enriching his followers as he had been of +discovering new realms. He was as enthusiastic as Sir Walter +Raleigh a century later, and made promises as rash as he, and +created the same exalted hopes, to be followed by bitter +disappointments; and consequently he incurred the same hostilities +and met the same downfall. + +This second expedition was undertaken in seventeen vessels, +carrying fifteen hundred people, all full of animation and hope, +and some of them with intentions to settle in the newly discovered +country until they had made their fortunes. They arrived at +Hispaniola in March, of the year 1493, only to discover that the +men left behind on the first voyage to secure their settlement were +all despoiled or murdered; that the natives had proved treacherous, +or that the Spaniards had abused their confidence and forfeited +their friendship. They were exposed to new hostilities: they found +the climate unhealthy; their numbers rapidly dwindled away from +disease or poor food; starvation stared them in the face, in spite +of the fertility of the soil; dissensions and jealousies arose; +they were governed with great difficulty, for the haughty hidalgoes +were unused to menial labor, and labor of the most irksome kind was +necessary; law and order were relaxed. The blame of disaster was +laid upon the Admiral, who was accused of deceiving them; evil +reports were sent to Spain, accusing him of incapacity, cruelty, +and oppression; gold was found only in small quantities; some of +the leading men mutinied; general discontent arose; the greater +part of the colonists were disabled from sickness and debility; no +gold of any amount was sent back to Spain, only five hundred Indian +slaves to be sold instead, which led to renewed hostilities with +the natives, and the necessity for their subjugation. All of these +evils created bitter disappointment in Spain and discontent with +the measures and government of Columbus himself, so that a +commission of inquiry was sent to Hispaniola, headed by Aguado, who +assumed arrogant authority, and made it necessary for Columbus to +return to Spain without adding essentially to his discoveries. He +sailed around Cuba and Jamaica and other islands, but as yet had +not seen the mainland or found mines of gold or silver. + +He landed in Spain, in 1496, to find that his popularity had +declined and the old enthusiasm had grown cold. With him landed a +feeble train of emaciated men, who had nothing to relate but +sickness, hardship, and disappointment. The sovereigns, however, +received him kindly; but he was depressed and sad, and clothed +himself with the habit of a Franciscan friar, to denote his +humility and dejection. He displayed a few golden collars and +bracelets as trophies, with some Indians; but these no longer +dazzled the crowd. + +It was not until 1498 that Columbus was enabled to make his third +voyage, having experienced great delay from the general +disappointment. Instead of seventeen vessels, he could collect but +six. In this voyage he reached the mainland,--that part called +Paria, near the mouth of the Orinoco, in South America, but he +supposed it to be an island. It was fruitful and populous, and the +air was sweetened with the perfumes of flowers. Yet he did not +explore the coast to any extent, but made his way to Hispaniola, +where he had left the discontented colony himself broken in health, +a victim of gout, haggard from anxiety, and emaciated by pain. His +splendid constitution was now undermined from his various hardships +and cares. + +He found the colony in a worse state than when he left it under the +care of his brother Bartholomew. The Indians had proved hostile; +the colonists were lazy and turbulent; mutiny had broken out; +factions prevailed, as well as general misery and discontent. The +horrors of famine had succeeded wars with the natives. There was a +general desire to leave the settlement. Columbus tried to restore +order and confidence; but the difficulty of governing such a +disorderly set of adventurers was too great even for him. He was +obliged to resort to severities that made him more and more +unpopular. The complaints of his enemies reached Spain. He was +most cruelly misrepresented and slandered; and in the general +disappointment, and the constant drain upon the mother country to +support the colony, his enemies gained the ear of his sovereigns, +and strong doubts arose in their minds about his capacity for +government. So a royal commission was sent out,--an officer named +Bovadilla, with absolute power to examine into the state of the +colony, and supplant, if necessary, the authority of Columbus. The +result was the arrest of Columbus and his brothers, who were sent +to Spain in chains. What a change of fortune! I will not detail +the accusations against him, just, or unjust. It is mournful +enough to see the old man brought home in irons from the world he +had discovered and given to Spain. The injustice and cruelty which +he received produced a reaction, and he was once more kindly +received at court, with the promise that his grievances should be +redressed and his property and dignities restored. + +Columbus was allowed to make one more voyage of discovery, but +nothing came of it except renewed troubles, hardships, dangers, and +difficulties; wars with the natives, perils of the sea, +discontents, disappointments; and when at last he returned to +Spain, in 1504,--broken with age and infirmities, after twelve +years of harassing cares, labors, and dangers (a checkered career +of glory and suffering),--nothing remained but to prepare for his +final rest. He had not made a fortune; he had not enriched his +patrons,--but he had discovered a continent. His last days were +spent in disquieting and fruitless negotiations to perpetuate his +honors among his descendants. He was ever jealous and tenacious of +his dignities. Ferdinand was polite, but selfish and cold; nor can +this calculating prince ever be vindicated from the stain of gross +ingratitude. Columbus died in the year 1506, at the age of sixty, +a disappointed man. But honors were ultimately bestowed upon his +heirs, who became grandees and dukes, and intermarried with the +proudest families of Spain; and it is also said that Ferdinand +himself, after the death of the great navigator, caused a monument +to be erected to his memory with this inscription: "To Castile and +Leon Columbus gave a new world." But no man of that century needed +less than Columbus a monument to perpetuate his immortal fame. + +I think that historians belittle Columbus when they would excite +our pity for his misfortunes. They insult the dignity of all +struggling souls, and make utilitarians of all benefactors, and +give false views of success. Few benefactors, on the whole, were +ever more richly rewarded than he. He died Admiral of the Seas, a +grandee of Spain,--having bishops for his eulogists and princes for +his mourners,--the founder of an illustrious house, whose name and +memory gave glory even to the Spanish throne. And even if he had +not been rewarded with material gains, it was enough to feel that +he had conferred a benefit on the world which could scarcely be +appreciated in his lifetime,--a benefit so transcendent that its +results could be seen only by future generations. Who could +adequately pay him for his services; who could estimate the value +of his gift? What though they load him to-day with honors, or cast +him tomorrow into chains?--that is the fate of all immortal +benefactors since our world began. His great soul should have +soared beyond vulgar rewards. In the loftiness of his self- +consciousness he should have accepted, without a murmur, whatever +fortune awaited him. Had he merely given to civilization a new +style of buttons, or an improved envelope, or a punch for a railway +conductor, or a spring for a carriage, or a mining tool, or a +screw, or revolver, or reaper, the inventors of which have "seen +millions in them," and been cheated out of his gains, he might have +whimpered over his wrongs. How few benefactors have received even +as much as he; for he won dignities, admiration, and undying fame. +We scarcely know the names of many who have made grand bequests. +Who invented the mariner's compass? Who gave the lyre to primeval +ages, or the blacksmith's forge, or the letters of the alphabet, or +the arch in architecture, or glass for windows? Who solved the +first problem of geometry? Who first sang the odes which Homer +incorporated with the Iliad? Who first turned up the earth with a +plough? Who first used the weaver's shuttle? Who devised the +cathedrals of the Middle Ages? Who gave the keel to ships? Who +was the first that raised bread by yeast? Who invented chimneys? +But all ages will know that Columbus discovered America; and his +monuments are in every land, and his greatness is painted by the +ablest historians. + +But I will not enlarge on the rewards Columbus received, or the +ingratitude which succeeded them, by force of envy or from the +disappointment of worldly men in not realizing all the gold that he +promised. Let me allude to the results of his discovery. + +The first we notice was the marvellous stimulus to maritime +adventures. Europe was inflamed with a desire to extend +geographical knowledge, or add new countries to the realms of +European sovereigns. + +Within four years of the discovery of the West India Islands by +Columbus, Cabot had sailed past Newfoundland, and Vasco da Gama had +doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and laid the foundation of the +Portuguese empire in the East Indies. In 1499 Ojeda, one of the +companions of Columbus, and Amerigo Vespucci discovered Brazil. In +1500 Cortereal, a Portuguese, explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence. +In 1505 Francesco de Almeira established factories along the coast +of Malabar. In 1510 the Spaniards formed settlements on the +mainland at Panama. In 1511 the Portuguese established themselves +at Malacca. In 1513 Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Darien and +reached the Pacific Ocean. The year after that, Ponce de Leon had +visited Florida. In 1515 the Rio de la Plata was navigated; and +in 1517 the Portuguese had begun to trade with China and Bengal. +As early as 1520 Cortes had taken Mexico, and completed the +conquest of that rich country the following year. In 1522 Cano +circumnavigated the globe. In 1524 Pizarro discovered Peru, which +in less than twelve years was completely subjugated,--the year when +California was discovered by Cortes. In 1542 the Portuguese were +admitted to trade with Japan. In 1576 Frobisher sought a North- +western passage to India; and the following year Sir Francis Drake +commenced his more famous voyages under the auspices of Elizabeth. +In 1578 Sir Humphrey Gilbert colonized Virginia, followed rapidly +by other English settlements, until before the century closed the +whole continent was colonized either by Spaniards, or Portuguese, +or English, or French, or Dutch. All countries came in to share +the prizes held out by the discovery of the New World. + +Colonization followed the voyages of discovery. It was animated by +the hope of finding gold and precious stones. It was carried on +under great discouragements and hardships and unforeseen +difficulties. As a general thing, the colonists were not +accustomed to manual labor; they were adventurers and broken-down +dependents on great families, who found restraint irksome and the +drudgeries of their new life almost unendurable. Nor did they +intend, at the outset, permanent settlements; they expected to +accumulate gold and silver, and then return to their country. They +had sought to improve their condition, and their condition became +forlorn. They were exposed to sickness from malaria, poor food, +and hardship; they were molested by the natives whom they +constantly provoked; they were subject to cruel treatment on the +part of royal governors. They melted away wherever they settled, +by famine, disease, and war, whether in South or North America. +They were discontented and disappointed, and not easily governed; +the chieftains quarrelled with each other, and were disgraced by +rapacity and cruelty. They did not find what they expected. They +were lonely and desolate, and longed to return to the homes they +had left, but were frequently without means to return,--doomed to +remain where they were, and die. Colonization had no dignity until +men went to the New World for religious liberty, or to work upon +the soil. The conquest of Mexico and Peru, however, opened up the +mining of gold and silver, which were finally found in great +abundance. And when the richness of these countries in the +precious metals was finally established, then a regular stream of +emigrants flocked to the American shores. Gold was at last found, +but not until thousands had miserably perished. + +The mines of Mexico and Peru undoubtedly enriched Spain, and filled +Europe with envy and emulation. A stream of gold flowed to the +mother country, and the caravels which transported the treasures of +the new world became objects of plunder to all nations hostile to +Spain. The seas were full of pirates. Sir Francis Drake was an +undoubted pirate, and returned, after his long voyage around the +world, with immense treasure, which he had stolen. Then followed, +with the eager search after gold and silver, a rapid demoralization +in all maritime countries. + +It would be interesting to show how the sudden accumulation of +wealth by Spain led to luxury, arrogance, and idleness, followed by +degeneracy and decay, since those virtues on which the strength of +man is based are weakened by sudden wealth. Industry declined in +proportion as Spain became enriched by the precious metals. But +this inquiry is foreign to my object. + +A still more interesting inquiry arises, how far the nations of +Europe were really enriched by the rapid accumulation of gold and +silver. The search for the precious metals may have stimulated +commercial enterprise, but it is not so clear that it added to the +substantial wealth of Europe, except so far as it promoted +industry. Gold is not wealth; it is simply the exponent of wealth. +Real wealth is in farms and shops and ships,--in the various +channels of industry, in the results of human labor. So far as the +precious metals enter into useful manufactures, or into articles of +beauty and taste, they are indeed inherently valuable. Mirrors, +plate, jewelry, watches, gilded furniture, the adornments of the +person, in an important sense, constitute wealth, since all nations +value them, and will pay for them as they do for corn or oil. So +far as they are connected with art, they are valuable in the same +sense as statues and pictures, on which labor has been expended. +There is something useful, and even necessary, besides food and +raiment and houses. The gold which ornamented Solomon's temple, or +the Minerva of Phidias, or the garments of Leo X., had a value. +The ring which is a present to brides is a part of a marriage +ceremony. The golden watch, which never tarnishes, is more +valuable inherently than a pewter one, because it remains +beautiful. Thus when gold enters into ornaments deemed +indispensable, or into manufactures which are needed, it has an +inherent value,--it is wealth. + +But when gold is a mere medium of exchange,--its chief use,--then +it has only a conventional value; I mean, it does not make a nation +rich or poor, since the rarer it is the more it will purchase of +the necessaries of life. A pound's weight of gold, in ancient +Greece, or in Mediaeval Europe, would purchase as much wheat as +twenty pounds' weight will purchase to-day. If the mines of Mexico +or Peru or California had never been worked, the gold in the +civilized world three hundred years ago would have been as valuable +for banking purposes, or as an exchange for agricultural products, +as twenty times its present quantity, since it would have bought as +much as twenty times the quantity will buy to-day. Make diamonds +as plenty as crystals, they would be worth no more than crystals, +if they were not harder and more beautiful. Make gold as plenty as +silver, it would be worth no more than silver, except for +manufacturing purposes; it would be worth no more to bankers and +merchants. The vast increase in the production of the precious +metals simply increased the value of the commodities for which they +were exchanged. A laborer can purchase no more bread with a dollar +to-day than he could with five cents three hundred years ago. Five +cents were really as much wealth three hundred years ago as a +dollar is to-day. Wherein, then, has the increase in the precious +metals added to the wealth of the world, if a twentieth part of the +gold and silver now in circulation would buy as much land, or +furniture, or wheat, or oil three hundred years ago as the whole +amount now used as money will buy to-day? Had no gold or silver +mines been discovered in America, the gold and silver would have +appreciated in value in proportion to the wear of them. In other +words, the scarcer the gold and silver the more the same will +purchase of the fruits of human industry. So industry is the +wealth, not the gold. It is the cultivated farms and the +manufactures and the buildings and the internal improvements of a +country which constitute its real wealth, since these represent its +industry,--the labor of men. Mines, indeed, employ the labor of +men, but they do not furnish food for the body, or raiment to wear, +or houses to live in, or fuel for cooking, or any purpose whatever +of human comfort or necessity,--only a material for ornament; which +I grant is wealth, so far as ornament is for the welfare of man. +The marbles of ancient Greece were very valuable for the labor +expended on them, either for architecture or for ornament. + +Gold and silver were early selected as useful and convenient +articles for exchange, like bank-notes, and so far have inherent +value as they supply that necessity; but if a fourth part of the +gold and silver in existence would supply that necessity, the +remaining three-fourths are as inherently valueless as the paper of +which bank-notes are printed. Their value consists in what they +represent of the labors and industries of men. + +Now Spain ultimately became poor, in spite of the influx of gold +and silver from the American mines, because industries of all kinds +declined. People were diverted from useful callings by the mighty +delusion which gold discoveries created. These discoveries had the +same effect on industry, which is the wealth of nations, as the +support of standing armies has in our day. They diverted men from +legitimate callings. The miners had to be supported like soldiers; +and, worse, the sudden influx of gold and silver intoxicated men +and stimulated speculation. An army of speculators do not enrich a +nation, since they rob each other. They cause money to change +hands; they do not stimulate industry. They do not create wealth; +they simply make it flow from one person to another. + +But speculations sometimes create activity in enterprise; they +inflame desires for wealth, and cause people to make greater +exertions. In that sense the discovery of American mines gave a +stimulus to commerce and travel and energy. People rushed to +America for gold: these people had to be fed and clothed. Then +farmers and manufacturers followed the gold-hunters; they tilled +the soil to feed the miners. The new farms which dotted the region +of the gold-diggers added to the wealth of the country in which the +mines were located. Colonization followed gold-digging. But it +was America that became enriched, not the old countries from which +the miners came, except so far as the old countries furnished tools +and ships and fabrics, for doubtless commerce and manufacturing +were stimulated. So far, the wealth of the world increased; but +the men who returned to riot in luxury and idleness did not +stimulate enterprise. They made others idle also. The necessity +of labor was lost sight of. + +And yet if one country became idle, another country may have become +industrious. There can be but little question that the discovery +of the American mines gave commerce and manufactures and +agriculture, on the whole, a stimulus. This was particularly seen +in England. England grew rich from industry and enterprise, as +Spain became poor from idleness and luxury. The silver and gold, +diffused throughout Europe, ultimately found their way into the +pockets of Englishmen, who made a market for their manufactures. +It was not alone the precious metals which enriched England, but +the will and power to produce those articles of industry for which +the rest of the world parted with their gold and silver. What has +made France rich since the Revolution? Those innumerable articles +of taste and elegance--fabrics and wines--for which all Europe +parted with their specie; not war, not conquest, not mines. Why +till recently was Germany so poor? Because it had so little to +sell to other nations; because industry was cramped by standing +armies and despotic governments. + +One thing is certain, that the discovery of America opened a new +field for industry and enterprise to all the discontented and +impoverished and oppressed Europeans who emigrated. At first they +emigrated to dig silver and gold. The opening of mines required +labor, and miners were obliged to part with their gold for the +necessaries of life. Thus California in our day has become peopled +with farmers and merchants and manufacturers, as well as miners. +Many came to America expecting to find gold, and were disappointed, +and were obliged to turn agriculturists, as in Virginia. Many came +to New England from political and religious motives. But all came +to better their fortunes. Gradually the United States and Canada +became populated from east to west and from north to south. The +surplus population of Europe poured itself into the wilds of +America. Generally the emigrants were farmers. With the growth of +agricultural industry were developed commerce and manufactures. +Thus, materially, the world was immensely benefited. A new +continent was opened for industry. No matter what the form of +government may be,--I might almost say no matter what the morals +and religion of the people may be,--so long as there is land to +occupy, and to be sold cheap, the continent will fill up, and will +be as densely populated as Europe or Asia, because the natural +advantages are good. The rivers and the lakes will be navigated; +the products of the country will be exchanged for European and +Asiatic products; wealth will certainly increase, and increase +indefinitely. There is no calculating the future resources and +wealth of the New World, especially in the United States. There +are no conceivable bounds to their future commerce, manufactures, +and agricultural products. We can predict with certainty the rise +of new cities, villas, palaces, material splendor, limited only to +the increasing resources and population of the country. Who can +tell the number of miles of new railroads yet to be made; the new +inventions to abridge human labor; what great empires are destined +to rise; what unknown forms of luxury will be found out; what new +and magnificent trophies of art and science will gradually be seen; +what mechanism, what material glories, are sure to come? This is +not speculation. Nothing can retard the growth of America in +material wealth and glory. The splendid external will call forth +more panegyrics than the old Roman world which fancied itself +eternal. The tower of the new Babel will rise to the clouds, and +be seen in all its glory throughout the earth and sea. No Fourth +of July orator ever exaggerated the future destinies of America in +a material point of view. No "spread-eagle" politician even +conceived what will be sure to come. + +And what then? Grant the most indefinite expansion,--the growth of +empires whose splendor and wealth and power shall utterly eclipse +the glories of the Old World. All this is probable. But when we +have dwelt on the future material expansion; when we have given +wings to imagination, and feel that even imagination cannot reach +the probable realities in a material aspect,--then our predictions +and calculations stop. Beyond material glories we cannot count +with certainty. The world has witnessed many powerful empires +which have passed away, and left "not a rack behind." What remains +of the antediluvian world?--not even a spike of Noah's ark, larger +and stronger than any modern ship. What remains of Nineveh, of +Babylon, of Thebes, of Tyre, of Carthage,--those great centres of +wealth and power? What remains of Roman greatness even, except in +laws and literature and renovated statues? Remember there is an +undeviating uniformity in the past history of nations. What is the +simple story of all the ages?--industry, wealth, corruption, decay, +and ruin. What conservative power has been strong enough to arrest +the ruin of the nations of antiquity? Have not material forces and +glories been developed and exhibited, whatever the religion and +morals of the fallen nations? Cannot a country grow materially to +a certain point, under the most adverse influences, in a religious +and moral point of view? Yet for lack of religion and morals the +nations perished, and their Babel-towers were buried in the dust. +They perished for lack of true conservative forces; at least that +is the judgment of historians. Nobody doubts the splendor of the +material glories of the ancient nations. The ruins of Baalbec, of +Palmyra, of Athens, prove this, to say nothing of history. The +material glories of the ancient nations may be surpassed by our +modern wonders; but yet all the material glories of the ancient +nations passed away. + +Now if this is to be the destiny of America,--an unbounded material +growth, followed by corruption and ruin,--then Columbus has simply +extended the realm for men to try material experiments. Make New +York a second Carthage, and Boston a second Athens, and +Philadelphia a second Antioch, and Washington a second Rome, and we +simply repeat the old experiments. Did not the Romans have nearly +all we have, materially, except our modern scientific inventions? + +But has America no higher destiny than to repeat the old +experiments, and improve upon them, and become rich and powerful? +Has she no higher and nobler mission? Can she lay hold of forces +that the Old World never had, such as will prevent the uniform doom +of nations? I maintain that there is no reason that can be urged, +based on history and experience, why she should escape the fate of +the nations of antiquity, unless new forces arise on this continent +different from what the world has known, and which have a +conservative influence. If America has a great mission to declare +and to fulfil, she must put forth altogether new forces, and these +not material. And these alone will save her and save the world. +It is mournful to contemplate even the future magnificent material +glories of America if these are not to be preserved, if these are +to share the fate of ancient wonders. It is obvious that the real +glory of America is to be something entirely different from that of +which the ancients boasted. And this is to be moral and +spiritual,--that which the ancients lacked. + +This leads me to speak of the moral consequences of the discovery +of America,--infinitely grander than any material wonders, of which +the world has been full, of which every form of paganism has +boasted, which nearly everywhere has perished, and which must +necessarily perish everywhere, without new forces to preserve them. + +In a moral point of view scarcely anything good immediately +resulted, at least to Europe, by the discovery of America. It +excited the wildest spirit of adventure, the most unscrupulous +cupidity, the most demoralizing speculation. It created jealousies +and wars. The cruelties and injustices inflicted on the Indians +were revolting. Nothing in the annals of the world exceeds the +wickedness of the Spaniards in the conquest of Peru and Mexico. +That conquest is the most dismal and least glorious in human +history. We see in it no poetry, or heroism, or necessity; we read +of nothing but its crimes. The Jesuits, in their missionary zeal, +partly redeemed the cruelties; but they soon imposed a despotic +yoke, and confirmed their sway. Monopolies scandalously increased, +and the New World was regarded only as spoil. The tone of moral +feeling was lowered everywhere, for the nations were crazed with +the hope of sudden accumulations. Spain became enervated and +demoralized. + +On America itself the demoralization was even more marked. There +never was such a state of moral degradation in any Christian +country as in South America. Three centuries have passed, and the +low state of morals continues. Contrast Mexico and Peru with the +United States, morally and intellectually. What seeds of vice did +not the Spaniards plant! How the old natives melted away! + +And then, to add to the moral evils attending colonization, was the +introduction of African slaves, especially in the West Indies and +the Southern States of North America. Christendom seems to have +lost the sense of morality. Slavery more than counterbalances all +other advantages together. It was the stain of the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries. Not merely slaves, but the slave-trade, +increase the horrors of the frightful picture. America became +associated, in the minds of Europeans, with gold-hunting, slavery, +and cruelty to Indians. Better that the country had remained +undiscovered than that such vices and miseries should be introduced +into the most fertile parts of the New World. + +I cannot see that civilization gained anything, morally, by the +discovery of America, until the new settlers were animated by other +motives than a desire for sudden wealth. When the country became +colonized by men who sought liberty to worship God,--men of lofty +purposes, willing to undergo sufferings and danger in order to +plant the seeds of a higher civilization,--then there arose new +forms of social and political life. Such men were those who +colonized New England. And, say what you will, in spite of all the +disagreeable sides of the Puritan character, it was the Puritans +who gave a new impulse to civilization in the New World. They +founded schools and colleges and churches. They introduced a new +form of political life by their town-meetings, in which liberty was +nurtured, and all local improvements were regulated. It was the +autonomy of towns on which the political structure of new England +rested. In them was born that true representative government which +has gradually spread towards the West. The colonies were embryo +States,--States afterwards to be bound together by a stronger tie +than that of a league. The New England States, after the war of +independence, were the defenders and advocates of a federal and +central power. An entirely new political organization was +gradually formed, resting equally on such pillars as independent +townships and independent States, and these represented by +delegates in a national centre. + +So we believe America was discovered, not so much to furnish a +field for indefinite material expansion, with European arts and +fashions,--which would simply assimilate America to the Old World, +with all its dangers and vices and follies,--but to introduce new +forms of government, new social institutions, new customs and +manners, new experiments in liberty, new religious organizations, +new modes to ameliorate the necessary evils of life. It was +discovered that men might labor and enjoy the fruits of industry in +a new mode, unfettered by the restraints which the institutions of +Europe imposed. America is a new field in which to try experiments +in government and social life, which cannot be tried in the older +nations without sweeping and dangerous revolutions; and new +institutions have arisen which are our pride and boast, and which +are the wonder and admiration of Europe. America is the only +country under the sun in which there is self-government,--a +government which purely represents the wishes of the people, where +universal suffrage is not a mockery. And if America has a destiny +to fulfil for other nations, she must give them something more +valuable than reaping machines, palace cars, and horse railroads. +She must give, not only machinery to abridge labor, but +institutions and ideas to expand the mind and elevate the soul,-- +something by which the poor can rise and assert their rights. +Unless something is developed here which cannot be developed in +other countries, in the way of new spiritual and intellectual +forces, which have a conservative influence, then I cannot see how +America can long continue to be the home and refuge of the poor and +miserable of other lands. A new and better spirit must vivify +schools and colleges and philanthropic enterprises than that which +has prevailed in older nations. Unless something new is born here +which has a peculiar power to save, wherein will America ultimately +differ from other parts of Christendom? We must have schools in +which the heart as well as the brain is educated, and newspapers +which aspire to something higher than to fan prejudices and appeal +to perverted tastes. Our hope is not in books which teach +infidelity under the name of science, nor in pulpits which cannot +be sustained without sensational oratory, nor in journals which +trade on the religious sentiments of the people, nor in Sabbath- +school books which are an insult to the human understanding, nor in +colleges which fit youth merely for making money, nor in schools of +technology to give an impulse to material interests, nor in +legislatures controlled by monopolists, nor in judges elected by +demagogues, nor in philanthropic societies to ventilate unpractical +theories. These will neither renovate nor conserve what is most +precious in life. Unless a nation grows morally as well as +materially, there is something wrong at the core of society. As I +have said, no material expansion will avail, if society becomes +rotten at the core. America is a glorious boon to civilization, +but only as she fulfils a new mission in history,--not to become +more potent in material forces, but in those spiritual agencies +which prevent corruption and decay. An infidel professor, calling +himself a savant, may tell you that there is nothing certain or +great but in the direction of science to utilities, even as he may +glory in a philosophy which ignores a creator and takes cognizance +only of a creation. + +As I survey the growing and enormous moral evils which degrade +society, here as everywhere, in spite of Bunker Hills and Plymouth +Rocks, and all the windy declamations of politicians and +philanthropists, and all the advance in useful mechanisms, I am +sometimes tempted to propound inquiries which suggest the old, +mournful story of the decline and ruin of States and Empires. I +ask myself, Why should America be an exception to the uniform fate +of nations, as history has demonstrated? Why should not good +institutions be perverted here, as in all other countries and ages +of the world? Where has civilization shown any striking triumphs, +except in inventions to abridge the labors of mankind and make men +comfortable and rich? Is there nothing before us, then, but the +triumphs of material life, to end as mournfully as the materialism +of antiquity? If so, then Christianity is a most dismal failure, +is a defeated power, like all other forms of religion which failed +to save. But is it a failure? Are we really swinging back to +Paganism? Is the time to be hailed when all religions will be +considered by the philosopher as equally false and equally useful? +Is there nothing more cheerful for us to contemplate than what the +old Pagan philosophy holds out,--man destined to live like brutes +or butterflies, and pass away into the infinity of time and space, +like inert matter, decomposed, absorbed, and entering into new and +everlasting combinations? Is America to become like Europe and +Asia in all essential elements of life? Has she no other mission +than to add to perishable glories? Is she to teach the world +nothing new in education and philanthropy and government? Are all +her struggles in behalf of liberty in vain? + +We all know that Christianity is the only hope of the world. The +question is, whether America is or is not more favorable for its +healthy developments and applications than the other countries of +Christendom are. We believe that it is. If it is not, then +America is only a new field for the spread and triumph of material +forces. If it is, we may look forward to such improvements in +education, in political institutions, in social life, in religious +organizations, in philanthropical enterprise, that the country will +be sought by the poor and enslaved classes of Europe more for its +moral and intellectual advantages than for its mines or farms; the +objects of the Puritan settlers will be gained, and the grandeur of +the discovery of a New World will be established. + + + "What sought they thus afar? + Bright jewels of the mine? + The wealth of seas,--the spoils of war? + They sought for Faith's pure shrine. + Ay, call it holy ground, + The soil where first they trod; + They've left unstained what there they found,-- + Freedom to worship God." + + +AUTHORITIES. + + +Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella; Washington Irving; Cabot's +Voyages, and other early navigators; Columbus, by De Costa; Life of +Columbus, by Bossi and Spatono; Relations de Quatre voyage par +Christopher Colomb; Drake's World Encompassed; Murray's Historical +Account of Discoveries; Hernando, Historia del Amirante; History of +Commerce; Lives of Pizarro and Cortes; Frobisher's Voyages; +Histories of Herrera, Las Casas, Gomera, and Peter Martyr; +Navarrete's Collections; Memoir of Cabot, by Richard Biddle; +Hakluyt's Voyages; Dr. Lardner's Cyclopaedia,--History of Maritime +and Inland Discovery; Anderson's History of Commerce; Oviedo's +General History of the West Indies; History of the New World, by +Geronimo Benzoni; Goodrich's Life of Christopher Columbus. + + + +SAVONAROLA. + +A. D. 1452-1498. + +UNSUCCESSFUL REFORMS. + + +This lecture is intended to set forth a memorable movement in the +Roman Catholic Church,--a reformation of morals, preceding the +greater movement of Luther to produce a reformation of both morals +and doctrines. As the representative of this movement I take +Savonarola, concerning whom much has of late been written; more, I +think, because he was a Florentine in a remarkable age,--the age of +artists and of reviving literature,--than because he was a martyr, +battling with evils which no one man was capable of removing. His +life was more a protest than a victory. He was an unsuccessful +reformer, and yet he prepared the way for that religious revival +which afterward took place in the Catholic Church itself. His +spirit was not revolutionary, like that of the Saxon monk, and yet +it was progressive. His soul was in active sympathy with every +emancipating idea of his age. He was the incarnation of a fervid, +living, active piety amid forms and formulas, a fearless exposer of +all shams, an uncompromising enemy to the blended atheism and +idolatry of his ungodly age. He was the contemporary of political, +worldly, warlike, unscrupulous popes, disgraced by nepotism and +personal vices,--men who aimed to extend not a spiritual but +temporal dominion, and who scandalized the highest position in the +Christian world, as attested by all reliable historians, whether +Catholic or Protestant. However infallible the Catholic Church +claims to be, it has never been denied that some of her highest +dignitaries have been subject to grave reproaches, both in their +character and their influence. Such men were Sixtus IV., Julius +II., and Alexander VI.,--able, probably, for it is very seldom that +the popes have not been distinguished for something, but men, +nevertheless, who were a disgrace to the superb position they had +succeeded in reaching. + +The great feature of that age was the revival of classical learning +and artistic triumphs in sculpture, painting, and architecture, +blended with infidel levity and social corruptions, so that it is +both interesting and hideous. It is interesting for its triumphs +of genius, its dispersion of the shadows of the Middle Ages, the +commencement of great enterprises and of a marked refinement of +manners and tastes; it is hideous for its venalities, its murders, +its debaucheries, its unblushing wickedness, and its disgraceful +levities, when God and duty and self-restraint were alike ignored. +Cruel tyrants reigned in cities, and rapacious priests fattened on +the credulity of the people. Think of monks itinerating to sell +perverted "indulgences"; of monasteries and convents filled, not +with sublime enthusiasts as in earlier times, but with gluttons and +sensualists, living in concubinage and greedy of the very things +which primitive monasticism denounced and abhorred! Think of boys +elevated to episcopal thrones, and the sons of popes made cardinals +and princes! Think of churches desecrated by spectacles which were +demoralizing, and a worship of saints and images which had become +idolatrous,--a degrading superstition among the people, an infidel +apathy among the higher classes: not infidel speculations, for +these were reserved for more enlightened times, but an indifference +to what is ennobling, to all vital religion, worthy of the Sophists +in the time of Socrates! + +It was in this age of religious apathy and scandalous vices, yet of +awakening intelligence and artistic glories, when the greatest +enthusiasm was manifested for the revived literature and sculptured +marbles of classic Greece and Rome, that Savonarola appeared in +Florence as a reformer and preacher and statesman, near the close +of the fifteenth century, when Columbus was seeking a western +passage to India; when Michael Angelo was moulding the "Battle of +Hercules with the Centaurs;" when Ficino was teaching the +philosophy of Plato; when Alexander VI. was making princes of his +natural children; when Bramante was making plans for a new St. +Peter's; when Cardinal Bembo was writing Latin essays; when Lorenzo +de' Medici was the flattered patron of both scholars and artists, +and the city over which he ruled with so much magnificence was the +most attractive place in Europe, next to that other city on the +banks of the Tiber, whose wonders and glories have never been +exhausted, and will probably survive the revolutions of unknown +empires. + +But Savonarola was not a native of Florence. He was born in the +year 1452 at Ferrara, belonged to a good family, and received an +expensive education, being destined to the profession of medicine. +He was a sad, solitary, pensive, but precocious young man, whose +youth was marked by an unfortunate attachment to a haughty +Florentine girl. He did not cherish her memory and dedicate to her +a life-labor, like Dante, but became very dejected and very pious. +His piety assumed, of course, the ascetic type, for there was +scarcely any other in that age, and he entered a Dominican convent, +as Luther, a few years later, entered an Augustinian. But he was +not an original genius, or a bold and independent thinker like +Luther, so he was not emancipated from the ideas of his age. How +few men can go counter to prevailing ideas! It takes a prodigious +genius, and a fearless, inquiring mind, to break away from their +bondage. Abraham could renounce the idolatries which surrounded +him, when called by a supernatural voice; Paul could give up the +Phariseeism which reigned in the Jewish schools and synagogues, +when stricken blind by the hand of God; Luther could break away +from monastic rules and papal denunciation, when taught by the +Bible the true ground of justification,--but Savonarola could not. +He pursued the path to heaven in the beaten track, after the +fashion of Jerome and Bernard and Thomas Aquinas, after the style +of the Middle Ages, and was sincere, devout, and lofty, like the +saints of the fifth century, and read his Bible as they did, and +essayed a high religious life; but he was stern, gloomy, and +austere, emaciated by fasts and self-denial. He had, however, +those passive virtues which Mediaeval piety ever enjoined,--yea, +which Christ himself preached upon the Mount, and which +Protestantism, in the arrogance of reason, is in danger of losing +sight of,--humility, submission, and contempt of material gains. +He won the admiration of his superiors for his attainments and his +piety, being equally versed in Aristotle and the Holy Scriptures. +He delighted most in the Old Testament heroes and prophets, and +caught their sternness and invective. + +He was not so much interested in dogmas as he was in morals. He +had not, indeed, a turn of mind for theology, like Anselm and +Calvin; but he took a practical view of the evils of society. At +thirty years of age he began to preach in Ferrara and Florence, but +was not very successful. His sermons at first created but little +interest, and he sometimes preached to as few as twenty-five +people. Probably he was too rough and vehement to suit the +fastidious ears of the most refined city in Italy. People will not +ordinarily bear uncouthness from preachers, however gifted, until +they have earned a reputation; they prefer pretty and polished +young men with nothing but platitudes or extravagances to utter. +Savonarola seems to have been discouraged and humiliated at his +failure, and was sent to preach to the rustic villagers, amid the +mountains near Sienna. Among these people he probably felt more at +home; and he gave vent to the fire within him and electrified all +who heard him, winning even the admiration of the celebrated Prince +of Mirandola. From this time his fame spread rapidly, he was +recalled to Florence, 1490, and his great career commenced. In the +following year such crowds pressed to hear him that the church of +St. Mark, connected with the Dominican convent to which he was +attached, could not contain the people, and he repaired to the +cathedral. And even that spacious church was filled with eager +listeners,--more moved than delighted. So great was his +popularity, that his influence correspondingly increased and he was +chosen prior of his famous convent. + +He now wielded power as well as influence, and became the most +marked man of the city. He was not only the most eloquent preacher +in Italy, probably in the world, but his eloquence was marked by +boldness, earnestness, almost fierceness. Like an ancient prophet, +he was terrible in his denunciation of vices. He spared no one, +and he feared no one. He resembled Chrysostom at Constantinople, +when he denounced the vanity of Eudoxia and the venality of +Eutropius. Lorenzo de' Medici, the absolute lord of Florence, sent +for him, and expostulated and remonstrated with the unsparing +preacher,--all to no effect. And when the usurper of his country's +liberties was dying, the preacher was again sent for, this time to +grant an absolution. But Savonarola would grant no absolution +unless Lorenzo would restore the liberties which he and his family +had taken away. The dying tyrant was not prepared to accede to so +haughty a demand, and, collecting his strength, rolled over on his +bed without saying a word, and the austere monk wended his way back +to his convent, unmolested and determined. + +The premature death of this magnificent prince made a great +sensation throughout Italy, and produced a change in the politics +of Florence, for the people began to see their political +degradation. The popular discontents were increased when his +successor, Pietro, proved himself incapable and tyrannical, +abandoned himself to orgies, and insulted the leading citizens by +an overwhelming pride. Savonarola took the side of the people, and +fanned the discontents. He became the recognized leader of +opposition to the Medici, and virtually ruled the city. + +The Prior of St. Mark now appeared in a double light,--as a +political leader and as a popular preacher. Let us first consider +him in his secular aspect, as a revolutionist and statesman,--for +the admirable constitution he had a principal hand in framing +entitles him to the dignity of statesman rather than politician. +If his cause had not been good, and if he had not appealed to both +enlightened and patriotic sentiments, he would have been a +demagogue; for a demagogue and a mere politician are synonymous, +and a clerical demagogue is hideous. + +Savonarola began his political career with terrible denunciations, +from his cathedral pulpit, of the political evils of his day, not +merely in Florence but throughout Italy. He detested tyrants and +usurpers, and sought to conserve such liberties as the Florentines +had once enjoyed. He was not only the preacher, he was also the +patriot. Things temporal were mixed up with things spiritual in +his discourses. In his detestation of the tyranny of the Medici, +and his zeal to recover for the Florentines their lost liberties, +he even hailed the French armies of Charles VIII. as deliverers, +although they had crossed the Alps to invade and conquer Italy. If +the gates of Florence were open to them, they would expel the +Medici. So he stimulated the people to league with foreign enemies +in order to recover their liberties. This would have been high +treason in Richelieu's time,--as when the Huguenots encouraged the +invasion of the English on the soil of France. Savonarola was a +zealot, and carried the same spirit into politics that he did into +religion,--such as when he made a bonfire of what he called +vanities. He had an end to carry: he would use any means. There +is apt to be a spirit of expediency in men consumed with zeal, +determined on success. To the eye of the Florentine reformer, the +expulsion of the Medici seemed the supremest necessity; and if it +could be done in no other way than by opening the gates of his city +to the French invaders, he would open the gates. Whatever he +commanded from the pulpit was done by the people, for he seemed to +have supreme control over them, gained by his eloquence as a +preacher. But he did not abuse his power. When the Medici were +expelled, he prevented violence; blood did not flow in the streets; +order and law were preserved. The people looked up to him as their +leader, temporal as well as spiritual. So he assembled them in the +great hall of the city, where they formally held a parlemento, and +reinstated the ancient magistrates. But these were men without +experience. They had no capacity to govern, and they were selected +without wisdom on the part of the people. The people, in fact, had +not the ability to select their best and wisest men for rulers. +That is an evil inherent in all popular governments. Does San +Francisco or New York send its greatest men to Congress? Do not +our cities elect such rulers as the demagogues point out? Do not +the few rule, even in a Congregational church? If some commanding +genius, unscrupulous or wise or eloquent or full of tricks, +controls elections with us, much more easily could such a man as +Savonarola rule in Florence, where there were no political +organizations, no caucuses, no wirepullers, no other man of +commanding ability. The only opinion-maker was this preacher, who +indicated the general policy to be pursued. He left elections to +the people; and when these proved a failure, a new constitution +became a necessity. But where were the men capable of framing a +constitution for the republic? Two generations of political +slavery had destroyed political experience. The citizens were as +incapable of framing a new constitution as the legislators of +France after they had decimated the nobility, confiscated the +Church lands, and cut off the head of the king. The lawyers +disputed in the town hall, but accomplished nothing. + +Their science amounted only to an analysis of human passion. All +wanted a government entirely free from tyranny; all expected +impossibilities. Some were in favor of a Venetian aristocracy, and +others of a pure democracy; yet none would yield to compromise, +without which no permanent political institution can ever be +framed. How could the inexperienced citizens of Florence +comprehend the complicated relations of governments? To make a +constitution that the world respects requires the highest maturity +of human wisdom. It is the supremest labor of great men. It took +the ablest man ever born among the Jews to give to them a national +polity. The Roman constitution was the fruit of five hundred +years' experience. Our constitution was made by the wisest, most +dignified, most enlightened body of statesmen that this country has +yet seen, and even they could not have made it without great mutual +concessions. No ONE man could have made a constitution, however +great his talents and experience,--not even a Jefferson or a +Hamilton,--which the nation would have accepted. It would have +been as full of defects as the legislation of Solon or Lycurgus or +the Abbe Sieyes. But one man gave a constitution to the +Florentines, which they not only accepted, but which has been +generally admired for its wisdom; and that man was our Dominican +monk. The hand he had in shaping that constitution not only proved +him to have been a man of great wisdom, but entitled him to the +gratitude of his countrymen as a benefactor. He saw the vanity of +political science as it then existed, the incapacity of popular +leaders, and the sadness of a people drifting into anarchy and +confusion; and, strong in his own will and his sense of right, he +rose superior to himself, and directed the stormy elements of +passion and fear. And this he did by his sermons from the pulpit,-- +for he did not descend, in person, into the stormy arena of +contending passions and interests. He did not himself attend the +deliberations in the town hall; he was too wise and dignified a man +for that. But he preached those principles and measures which he +wished to see adopted; and so great was the reverence for him that +the people listened to his instructions, and afterward deliberated +and acted among themselves. He did not write out a code, but he +told the people what they should put into it. He was the animating +genius of the city; his voice was obeyed. He unfolded the theory +that the government of one man, in their circumstances, would +become tyrannical; and he taught the doctrine, then new, that the +people were the only source of power,--that they alone had the +right to elect their magistrates. He therefore recommended a +general government, which should include all citizens who had +intelligence, experience, and position,--not all the people, but +such as had been magistrates, or their fathers before them. +Accordingly, a grand council was formed of three thousand citizens, +out of a population of ninety thousand who had reached the age of +twenty-nine. These three thousand citizens were divided into three +equal bodies, each of which should constitute a council for six +months and no meeting was legal unless two-thirds of the members +were present. This grand council appointed the magistrates. But +another council was also recommended and adopted, of only eighty +citizens not under forty years of age,--picked men, to be changed +every six months, whom the magistrates were bound to consult +weekly, and to whom was confided the appointment of some of the +higher officers of the State, like ambassadors to neighboring +States. All laws proposed by the magistrates, or seigniory, had to +be ratified by this higher and selecter council. The higher +council was a sort of Senate, the lower council were more like +Representatives. But there was no universal suffrage. The +clerical legislator knew well enough that only the better and more +intelligent part of the people were fit to vote, even in the +election of magistrates. He seems to have foreseen the fatal rock +on which all popular institutions are in danger of being wrecked,-- +that no government is safe and respected when the people who make +it are ignorant and lawless. So the constitution which Savonarola +gave was neither aristocratic nor democratic. It resembled that of +Venice more than that of Athens, that of England more than that of +the United States. Strictly universal suffrage is a Utopian dream +wherever a majority of the people are wicked and degraded. Sooner +or later it threatens to plunge any nation, as nations now are, +into a whirlpool of dangers, even if Divine Providence may not +permit a nation to be stranded and wrecked altogether. In the +politics of Savonarola we see great wisdom, and yet great sympathy +for freedom. He would give the people all that they were fit for. +He would make all offices elective, but only by the suffrages of +the better part of the people. + +But the Prior of St. Mark did not confine himself to constitutional +questions and issues alone. He would remove all political abuses; +he would tax property, and put an end to forced loans and arbitrary +imposts; he would bring about a general pacification, and grant a +general amnesty for political offences; he would guard against the +extortions of the rich, and the usury of the Jews, who lent money +at thirty-three per cent, with compound interest; he secured the +establishment of a bank for charitable loans; he sought to make the +people good citizens, and to advance their temporal as well as +spiritual interests. All his reforms, political or social, were +advocated, however, from the pulpit; so that he was doubtless a +political priest. We, in this country and in these times, have no +very great liking to this union of spiritual and temporal +authority: we would separate and divide this authority. +Protestants would make the functions of the ruler and the priest +forever distinct. But at that time the popes themselves were +secular rulers, as well as spiritual dignitaries. All bishops and +abbots had the charge of political interests. Courts of law were +presided over by priests. Priests were ambassadors to foreign +powers; they were ministers of kings; they had the control of +innumerable secular affairs, now intrusted to laymen. So their +interference with politics did not shock the people of Florence, or +the opinions of the age. It was indeed imperatively called for, +since the clergy were the most learned and influential men of those +times, even in affairs of state. I doubt if the Catholic Church +has ever abrogated or ignored her old right to meddle in the +politics of a state or nation. I do not know, nor do I believe, +that the Catholic clergy in this our country take it upon +themselves to instruct the people in their political duties. No +enlightened Protestant congregation would endure such interference. +No Protestant minister dares ever to discuss direct political +issues from the pulpit, except perhaps on Thanksgiving Day, or in +some rare exigency in public morality. Still less would he venture +to tell his parishioners how they should vote in town-meetings. In +imitation of ancient saints and apostles, he is wisely constrained +from interference in secular and political affairs. But in the +Middle Ages, and the Catholic Church, the priest could be political +in his preaching, since many of his duties were secular. +Savonarola usurped no prerogatives. He refrained from meeting men +in secular vocations. Even in his politics he confined himself to +his sphere in the pulpit. He did not attend the public debates; he +simply preached. He ruled by wisdom, eloquence, and sanctity; and +as he was an oracle, his utterances became a law. + +But while he instructed the people in political duties, he paid far +more attention to public morals. He would break up luxury, +extravagance, ostentatious living, unseemly dresses in the house of +God. He was the foe of all levities, all frivolities, all +insidious pleasures. Bad men found no favor in his eyes, and he +exposed their hypocrisies and crimes. He denounced sin, in high +places and low. He did not confine himself to the sins of his own +people alone, but censured those of princes and of other cities. +He embraced all Italy in his glance. He invoked the Lord to take +the Church out of the hands of the Devil, to pour out his wrath on +guilty cities. He throws down a gauntlet of defiance to all +corrupt potentates; he predicts the near approach of calamities; he +foretells the certainty of divine judgment upon all sin; he clothes +himself with the thunders of the Jewish prophets; he seems to +invoke woe, desolation, and destruction. He ascribes the very +invasion of the French to the justice of retribution. "Thy crimes, +O Florence! thy crimes, O Rome! thy crimes, O Italy! are the causes +of these chastisements." And so terrible are his denunciations +that the whole city quakes with fear. Mirandola relates that as +Savonarola's voice sounded like a clap of thunder in the cathedral, +packed to its utmost capacity with the trembling people, a cold +shiver ran through all his bones and the hairs of his head stood on +end. "O Rome!" exclaimed the preacher, "thou shalt be put to the +sword, since thou wilt not be converted. O Italy! confusion upon +confusion shall overtake thee; the confusion of war shall follow +thy sins, and famine and pestilence shall follow after war." Then +he denounces Rome: "O harlot Church! thou hast made thy deformity +apparent to all the world; thou hast multiplied thy fornications in +Italy, in France, in Spain, in every country. Behold, saith the +Lord, I will stretch forth my hand upon thee; I will deliver thee +into the hands of those that hate thee." The burden of his soul is +sin,--sin everywhere, even in the bosom of the Church,--and the +necessity of repentance, of turning to the Lord. He is more than +an Elijah,--he is a John the Baptist. His sermons are chiefly +drawn from the Old Testament, especially from the prophets in their +denunciation of woes; like them, he is stern, awful, sublime. He +does not attack the polity or the constitution of the Church, but +its corruptions. He does not call the Pope a usurper, a fraud, an +impostor; he does not attack the office; but if the Pope is a bad +man he denounces his crimes. He is still the Dominican monk, +owning his allegiance, but demanding the reformation of the head of +the Church, to whom God has given the keys of Saint Peter. Neither +does he meddle with the doctrines of the Church; he does not take +much interest in dogmas. He is not a theologian, but he would +change the habits and manners of the people of Florence. He would +urge throughout Italy a reformation of morals. He sees only the +degeneracy in life; he threatens eternal penalties if sin be +persisted in. He alarms the fears of the people, so that women +part with their ornaments, dress with more simplicity, and walk +more demurely; licentious young men become modest and devout; +instead of the songs of the carnival, religious hymns are sung; +tradesmen forsake their shops for the churches; alms are more +freely given; great scholars become monks; even children bring +their offerings to the Church; a pyramid of "vanities" is burned on +the public square. + +And no wonder. A man had appeared at a great crisis in wickedness, +and yet while the people were still susceptible of grand +sentiments; and this man--venerated, austere, impassioned, like an +ancient prophet, like one risen from the dead--denounces woes with +such awful tones, such majestic fervor, such terrible emphasis, as +to break through all apathy, all delusions, and fill the people +with remorse, astonish them by his revelations, and make them +really feel that the supernal powers, armed with the terrors of +Omnipotence, would hurl them into hell unless they repented. + +No man in Europe at the time had a more lively and impressive sense +of the necessity of a general reformation than the monk of St. +Mark; but it was a reform in morals, not of doctrine. He saw the +evils of the day--yea, of the Church itself--with perfect +clearness, and demanded redress. He is as sad in view of these +acknowledged evils as Jeremiah was in view of the apostasy of the +Jews; he is as austere in his own life as Elijah or John the +Baptist was. He would not abolish monastic institutions, but he +would reform the lives of the monks,--cure them of gluttony and +sensuality, not shut up their monasteries. He would not rebel +against the authority of the Pope, for even Savonarola believed +that prelate to be the successor of Saint Peter; but he would +prevent the Pope's nepotism and luxury and worldly spirit,--make +him once more a true "servant of the servants of God," even when +clothed with the insignia of universal authority. He would not +give up auricular confession, or masses for the dead, or prayers to +the Virgin Mary, for these were indorsed by venerated ages; but he +would rebuke a priest if found in unseemly places. Whatever was a +sin, when measured by the laws of immutable morality, he would +denounce, whoever was guilty of it; whatever would elevate the +public morals he would advocate, whoever opposed. His morality was +measured by the declaration of Christ and the Apostles, not by the +standard of a corrupt age. He revered the Scriptures, and +incessantly pondered them, and exalted their authority, holding +them to be the ultimate rule of holy living, the everlasting +handbook of travellers to the heavenly Jerusalem. In all respects +he was a good man,--a beautiful type of Christian piety, with fewer +faults than Luther or Calvin had, and as great an enemy as they to +corruptions in State and Church, which he denounced even more +fiercely and passionately. Not even Erasmus pointed out the vices +of the day with more freedom or earnestness. He covered up +nothing; he shut his eyes to nothing. + +The difference between Savonarola and Luther was that the Saxon +reformer attacked the root of the corruption; not merely outward +and tangible and patent sins which everybody knew, but also and +more earnestly the special principles of theology and morals which +sustained them, and which logically pushed out would necessarily +have produced them. For instance, he not merely attacked +indulgences, then a crying evil, as peddled by Tetzel and others +like him, for collecting money to support the temporal power of the +popes or build St. Peter's church; but he would show that penance, +on which indulgences are based, is antagonistic to the doctrine +which Paul so forcibly expounded respecting the forgiveness of sins +and the grounds of justification. And Luther saw that all the +evils which good men lamented would continue so long as the false +principles from which they logically sprung were the creed of the +Church. So he directed his giant energies to reform doctrines +rather than morals. His great idea of justification could be +defended only by an appeal to the Scriptures, not to the authority +of councils and learned men. So he made the Scriptures the sole +source of theological doctrine. Savonarola also accepted the +Scriptures, but Luther would put them in the hands of everybody, of +peasants even,--and thus instituted private judgment, which is the +basal pillar of Protestantism. The Catholic theologians never +recognized this right in the sense that Luther understood it, and +to which he was pushed by inexorable logic. The Church was to +remain the interpreter of the doctrinal and disputed points of the +Scriptures. + +Savonarola was a churchman. He was not a fearless theological +doctor, going wherever logic and the Bible carried him. Hence, he +did not stimulate thought and inquiry as Luther did, nor inaugurate +a great revolutionary movement, which would gradually undermine +papal authority and many institutions which the Catholic Church +indorsed. Had he been a great genius, with his progressive +proclivities, he might have headed a rebellion against papal +authority, which upheld doctrines that logically supported the very +evils he denounced. But he was contented to lop off branches; he +did not dig up the roots. Luther went to the roots, as Calvin did; +as Saint Augustine would have done had there been a necessity in +his day, for the theology of Saint Augustine and Calvin is +essentially the same. It was from Saint Augustine that Calvin drew +his inspiration next after Saint Paul. But Savonarola cared very +little for the discussion of doctrines; he probably hated all +theological speculations, all metaphysical divinity. Yet there is +a closer resemblance between doctrines and morals than most people +are aware of. As a man thinketh, so is he. Hence, the reforms of +Savonarola were temporary, and were not widely extended; for he did +not kindle the intelligence of the age, as did Luther and those +associated with him. There can be no great and listing reform +without an appeal to reason, without the assistance of logic, +without conviction. The house that had been swept and garnished +was re-entered by devils, and the last state was worse than the +first. To have effected a radical and lasting reform, Savonarola +should have gone deeper. He should have exposed the foundations on +which the superstructure of sin was built; he should have +undermined them, and appealed to the reason of the world. He did +no such thing. He simply rebuked the evils, which must needs be, +so long as the root of them is left untouched. And so long as his +influence remained, so long as his voice was listened to, he was +mighty in the reforms at which he aimed,--a reformation of the +morals of those to whom he preached. But when his voice was +hushed, the evils he detested returned, since he had not created +those convictions which bind men together in association; +he had not fanned that spirit of inquiry which is hostile to +ecclesiastical despotism, and which, logically projected, would +subvert the papal throne. The reformation of Luther was a grand +protest against spiritual tyranny. It not only aimed at a purer +life, but it opposed the bondage of the Middle Ages, and all the +superstitious and puerilities and fables which were born and +nurtured in that dark and gloomy period and to which the clergy +clung as a means of power or wealth. Luther called out the +intellect of Germany, exalted liberty of conscience, and appealed +to the dignity of reason. He showed the necessity of learning, in +order to unravel and explain the truths of revelation. He made +piety more exalted by giving it an intelligent stimulus. He looked +to the future rather than the past. He would make use, in his +interpretation of the Bible, of all that literature, science, and +art could contribute. Hence his writings had a wider influence +than could be produced by the fascination of personal eloquence, on +which Savonarola relied, but which Luther made only accessory. + +Again, the sermons of the Florentine reformer do not impress us as +they did those to whom they were addressed. They are not logical, +nor doctrinal, nor learned,--not rich in thought, like the sermons +of those divines whom the Reformation produced. They are vehement +denunciations of sin; are eloquent appeals to the heart, to +religious fears and hopes. He would indeed create faith in the +world, not by the dissertations of Paul, but by the agonies of the +dying Christ. He does not instruct; he does not reason. He is +dogmatic and practical. He is too earnest to be metaphysical, or +even theological. He takes it for granted that his hearers know +all the truths necessary for salvation. He enforces the truths +with which they are familiar, not those to be developed by reason +and learning. He appeals, he urges, he threatens; he even +prophesies; he dwells on divine wrath and judgment. He is an +Isaiah foretelling what will happen, rather than a Peter at the Day +of Pentecost. + +Savonarola was transcendent in his oratorical gifts, the like of +which has never before nor since been witnessed in Italy. He was a +born orator; as vehement as Demosthenes, as passionate as +Chrysostom, as electrical as Bernard. Nothing could withstand him; +he was a torrent that bore everything before him. His voice was +musical, his attitude commanding, his gestures superb. He was all +alive with his subject. He was terribly in earnest, as if he +believed everything he said, and that what he said were most +momentous truths. He fastened his burning eyes upon his hearers, +who listened with breathless attention, and inspired them with his +sentiments; he made them feel that they were in the very jaws of +destruction, and that there was no hope but in immediate +repentance. His whole frame quivered with emotion, and he sat down +utterly exhausted. His language was intense, not clothing new +thoughts, but riveting old ideas,--the ideas of the Middle Ages; +the fear of hell, the judgments of Almighty God. Who could resist +such fiery earnestness, such a convulsed frame, such quivering +tones, such burning eyes, such dreadful threatenings, such awful +appeals? He was not artistic in the use of words and phrases like +Bourdaloue, but he reached the conscience and the heart like +Whitefield. He never sought to amuse; he would not stoop to any +trifling. He told no stories; he made no witticisms; he used no +tricks. He fell back on truths, no matter whether his hearers +relished them or not; no matter whether they were amused or not. +He was the messenger of God urging men to flee as for their lives, +like Lot when he escaped from Sodom. + +Savonarola's manner was as effective as his matter. He was a kind +of Peter the Hermit, preaching a crusade, arousing emotions and +passions, and making everybody feel as he felt. It was life more +than thought which marked his eloquence,--his voice as well as his +ideas, his wonderful electricity, which every preacher must have, +or he preaches to stones. It was himself, even more than his +truths, which made people listen, admire, and quake. All real +orators impress themselves--their own individuality--on their +auditors. They are not actors, who represent other people, and +whom we admire in proportion to their artistic skill in producing +deception. These artists excite admiration, make us forget where +we are and what we are, but kindle no permanent emotions, and teach +no abiding lessons. The eloquent preacher of momentous truths and +interests makes us realize them, in proportion as he feels them +himself. They would fall dead upon us, if ever so grand, unless +intensified by passion, fervor, sincerity, earnestness. Even a +voice has power, when electrical, musical, impassioned, although it +may utter platitudes. But when the impassioned voice rings with +trumpet notes through a vast audience, appealing to what is dearest +to the human soul, lifting the mind to the contemplation of the +sublimest truths and most momentous interests, then there is REAL +eloquence, such as is never heard in the theatre, interested as +spectators may be in the triumphs of dramatic art. + +But I have dwelt too long on the characteristics of that eloquence +which produced such a great effect on the people of Florence in the +latter part of the fifteenth century. That ardent, intense, and +lofty monk, world-deep like Dante, not world-wide like Shakspeare, +who filled the cathedral church with eager listeners, was not +destined to uninterrupted triumphs. His career was short; he could +not even retain his influence. As the English people wearied of +the yoke of a Puritan Protector, and hankered for their old +pleasures, so the Florentines remembered the sports and spectacles +and fetes of the old Medicean rule. Savonarola had arrayed against +himself the enemies of popular liberty, the patrons of demoralizing +excitements, the partisans of the banished Medici, and even the +friends and counsellors of the Pope. The dreadful denunciation of +sin in high places was as offensive to the Pope as the exposure of +a tyrannical usurpation was to the family of the old lords of +Florence; and his enemies took counsel together, and schemed for +his overthrow. If the irritating questions and mockeries of +Socrates could not be endured at Athens, how could the bitter +invectives and denunciations of Savonarola find favor at Florence? +The fate of prophets is to be stoned. Martyrdom and persecution, +in some form or other, are as inevitable to the man who sails +against the stream, as a broken constitution and a diseased body +are to a sensualist, a glutton, or a drunkard. Impatience under +rebuke is as certain as the operation of natural law. + +The bitterest and most powerful enemy of the Prior of St. Mark was +the Pope himself,--Alexander VI., of the infamous family of the +Borgias,--since his private vices were exposed, and by one whose +order had been especially devoted to the papal empire. In the eyes +of the wicked Pope, the Florentine reformer was a traitor and +conspirator, disloyal and dangerous. At first he wished to silence +him by soft and deceitful letters and tempting bribes, offering to +him a cardinal's hat, and inviting him to Rome. But Savonarola +refused alike the bribe and the invitation. His Lenten sermons +became more violent and daring. "If I have preached and written +anything heretical," said this intrepid monk, "I am willing to make +a public recantation. I have always shown obedience to my church; +but it is my duty to obey God rather than man." This sounds like +Luther at the Diet of Worms; but he was more defenceless than +Luther, since the Saxon reformer was protected by powerful princes, +and was backed by the enthusiasm of Northern Germans. Yet the +Florentine preacher boldly continued his attacks on all +hypocritical religion, and on the vices of Rome, not as incidental +to the system, but extraneous,--the faults of a man or age. The +Pope became furious, to be thus balked by a Dominican monk, and in +one of the cities of Italy,--a city that had not rebelled against +his authority. He complained bitterly to the Florentine +ambassador, of the haughty friar who rebuked and defied him. He +summoned a consistory of fourteen eminent Dominican theologians, to +inquire into his conduct and opinions, and issued a brief +forbidding him to preach, under penalty of excommunication. Yet +Savonarola continued to preach, and more violently than ever. He +renewed his charges against Rome. He even called her a harlot +Church, against whom heaven and earth, angels and devils, equally +brought charges. The Pope then seized the old thunderbolts of the +Gregories and the Clements, and excommunicated the daring monk and +preacher, and threatened the like punishment on all who should +befriend him. And yet Savonarola continued to preach. All Rome +and Italy talked of the audacity of the man. And it was not until +Florence itself was threatened with an interdict for shielding such +a man, that the magistrates of the city were compelled to forbid +his preaching. + +The great orator mounted his pulpit March 18, 1498, now four +hundred years ago, and took an affectionate farewell of the people +whom he had led, and appealed to Christ himself as the head of the +Church. It was not till the preacher was silenced by the +magistrates of his own city, that he seems to have rebelled against +the papal authority; and then not so much against the authority of +Rome as against the wicked shepherd himself, who had usurped the +fold. He now writes letters to all the prominent kings and princes +of Europe, to assemble a general council; for the general council +of Constance had passed a resolution that the Pope must call a +general council every ten years, and that, should he neglect to +assemble it, the sovereign powers of the various states and empires +were themselves empowered to collect the scattered members of the +universal Church, to deliberate on its affairs. In his letters to +the kings of France, England, Spain, and Hungary, and the Emperor +of Germany, he denounced the Pope as simoniacal, as guilty of all +the vices, as a disgrace to the station which he held. These +letters seem to have been directed against the man, not against the +system. He aimed at the Pope's ejectment from office, rather than +at the subversion of the office itself,--another mark of the +difference between Savonarola and Luther, since the latter waged an +uncompromising war against Rome herself, against the whole regime +and government and institutions and dogmas of the Catholic Church; +and that is the reason why Catholics hate Luther so bitterly, and +deny to him either virtues or graces, and represent even his +deathbed, as a scene of torment and despair,--an instance of that +pursuing hatred which goes beyond the grave; like that of the +zealots of the Revolution in France, who dug up the bones of the +ancient kings from those vaults where they had reposed for +centuries, and scattered their ashes to the winds. + +Savonarola hoped the Christian world would come to his rescue; but +his letters were intercepted, and reached the eye of Alexander VI., +who now bent the whole force of the papal empire to destroy that +bold reformer who had assailed his throne. And it seems that a +change took place in Florence itself in popular sentiment. The +Medicean party obtained the ascendency in the government. The +people--the fickle people--began to desert Savonarola; and +especially when he refused to undergo the ordeal of fire,--one of +the relics of Mediaeval superstition,--the people felt that they +had been cheated out of their amusement, for they had waited +impatiently the whole day in the public square to see the +spectacle. He finally consented to undergo the ordeal, provided he +might carry the crucifix. To this his enemies would not consent. +He then laid aside the crucifix, but insisted on entering the fire +with the sacrament in his hand. His persecutors would not allow +this either, and the ordeal did not take place. + +At last his martyrdom approaches: he is led to prison. The +magistrates of the city send to Rome for absolution for having +allowed the Prior to preach. His enemies busy themselves in +collecting evidence against him,--for what I know not, except that +he had denounced corruption and sin, and had predicted woe. His +two friends are imprisoned and interrogated with him, Fra Domenico +da Pescia and Fra Silvestro Maruffi, who are willing to die for +him. He and they are now subjected to most cruel tortures. As the +result of bodily agony his mind begins to waver. His answers are +incoherent; he implores his tormentors to end his agonies; he cries +out, with a voice enough to melt a heart of stone, "Take, oh, take +my life!" Yet he confessed nothing to criminate himself. What +they wished him especially to confess was that he had pretended to +be a prophet, since he had predicted calamities. But all men are +prophets, in one sense, when they declare the certain penalties of +sin, from which no one can escape, though he take the wings of the +morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea. + +Savonarola thus far had remained firm, but renewed examinations and +fresh tortures took place. For a whole month his torments were +continuous. In one day he was drawn up by a rope fourteen times, +and then suddenly dropped, until all his muscles quivered with +anguish. Had he been surrounded by loving disciples, like Latimer +at the burning pile, he might have summoned more strength; but +alone, in a dark inquisitorial prison, subjected to increasing +torture among bitter foes, he did not fully defend his visions and +prophecies; and then his extorted confessions were diabolically +altered. But that was all they could get out of him,--that he had +prophesied. In all matters of faith he was sound. The inquisitors +were obliged to bring their examination to an end. They could find +no fault with him, and yet they were determined on his death. The +Government of Florence consented to it and hastened it, for a +Medici again held the highest office of the State. + +Nothing remained to the imprisoned and tortured friar but to +prepare for his execution. In his supreme trial he turned to the +God in whom he believed. In the words of the dying Xavier, on the +Island of Sancian, he exclaimed, In te domine speravi, non +confundar in eternum. "O Lord," he prays, "a thousand times hast +thou wiped out my iniquity. I do not rely on my own justification, +but on thy mercy." His few remaining days in prison were passed in +holy meditation. + +At last the officers of the papal commission arrive. The tortures +are renewed, and also the examinations, with the same result. No +fault could be found with his doctrines. "But a dead enemy," said +they, "fights no more." He is condemned to execution. The +messengers of death arrive at his cell, and find him on his knees. +He is overpowered by his sufferings and vigils, and can with +difficulty be kept from sleep. But he arouses himself, and passes +the night in prayer, and administers the elements of redemption to +his doomed companions, and closes with this prayer: "Lord, I know +thou art that perfect Trinity,--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; I know +that thou art the eternal Word; that thou didst descend from heaven +into the bosom of Mary; that thou didst ascend upon the cross to +shed thy blood for our sins. I pray thee that by that blood I may +have remission for my sins." The simple faith of Paul, of +Augustine, of Pascal! He then partook of the communion, and +descended to the public square, while the crowd gazed silently and +with trepidation, and was led with his companions to the first +tribunal, where he was disrobed of his ecclesiastical dress. Then +they were led to another tribunal, and delivered to the secular +arm; then to another, where sentence of death was read; and then to +the place of execution,--not a burning funeral pyre, but a +scaffold, which mounting, composed, calm, absorbed, Savonarola +submitted his neck to the hangman, in the forty-fifth year of his +life: a martyr to the cause of Christ, not for an attack on the +Church, or its doctrines, or its institutions, but for having +denounced the corruption and vices of those who ruled it,--for +having preached against sin. + + +Thus died one of the greatest and best men of his age, one of the +truest and purest whom the Catholic Church has produced in any age. +He was stern, uncompromising, austere, but a reformer and a saint; +a man who was merciful and generous in the possession of power; an +enlightened statesman, a sound theologian, and a fearless preacher +of that righteousness which exalteth a nation. He had no vices, no +striking defects. He lived according to the rules of the convent +he governed with the same wisdom that he governed a city, and he +died in the faith of the primitive apostles. His piety was +monastic, but his spirit was progressive, sympathizing with +liberty, advocating public morality. He was unselfish, +disinterested, and true to his Church, his conscience, and his +cause,--a noble specimen both of a man and Christian, whose deeds +and example form part of the inheritance of an admiring posterity. +We pity his closing days, after such a career of power and +influence; but we may as well compassionate Socrates or Paul. The +greatest lights of the world have gone out in martyrdom, to be +extinguished, however, only for a time, and then to loom up again +in another age, and burn with inextinguishable brightness to +remotest generations; as examples of the power of faith and truth +in this wicked and rebellious world,--a world to be finally +redeemed by the labors and religion of just such men, whose days +are days of sadness, protest, and suffering, and whose hours of +triumph and exaltation are not like those of conquerors, nor like +those whose eyes stand out with fatness, but few and far between. +"I have loved righteousness, I have hated iniquity," said the great +champion of the Mediaeval Church, "and therefore I die in exile." + +In ten years after this ignominious execution, Raphael painted the +martyr among the sainted doctors of the Church in the halls of the +Vatican, and future popes did justice to his memory, for he +inaugurated that reform movement in the Catholic Church itself +which took place within fifty years after his death. In one sense +he was the precursor of Loyola, of Xavier, and of Aquaviva,--those +illustrious men who headed the counter-reformation; Jesuits indeed, +but ardent in piety, and enlightened by the spirit of a progressive +age. "He was the first," says Villari, "in the fifteenth century, +to make men feel that a new light had awakened the human race; and +thus he was a prophet of a new civilization,--the forerunner of +Luther, of Bacon, of Descartes. Hence the drama of his life +became, after his death, the drama of Europe. In the course of a +single generation after Luther had declared his mission, the spirit +of the Church of Rome underwent a change. From the halls of the +Vatican to the secluded hermitages of the Apennines this revival +was felt. Instead of a Borgia there reigned a Caraffa." And it is +remarkable that from the day that the counter-reformation in the +Catholic Church was headed by the early Jesuits, Protestantism +gained no new victories, and in two centuries so far declined in +piety and zeal that the cities which witnessed the noblest triumphs +of Luther and Calvin were disgraced by a boasting rationalism, to +be succeeded again in our times by an arrogance of scepticism which +has had no parallel since the days of Democritus and Lucretius. +"It was the desire of Savonarola that reason, religion, and liberty +might meet in harmonious union, but he did not think a new system +of religious doctrines was necessary." + +The influence of such a man cannot pass away, and has not passed +away, for it cannot be doubted that his views have been embraced by +enlightened Catholics from his day to ours,--by such men as Pascal, +Fenelon, and Lacordaire, and thousands like them, who prefer +ritualism and auricular confession, and penance, monasticism, and +an ecclesiastical monarch, and all the machinery of a complicated +hierarchy, with all the evils growing out of papal domination, to +rationalism, sectarian dissensions, irreverence, license, want of +unity, want of government, and even dispensation from the marriage +vow. Which is worse, the physical arm of the beast, or the maniac +soul of a lying prophet? Which is worse, the superstition and +narrowness which darken the mind and the spirit, or that unbounded +toleration which smiles on those audacious infidels who cloak their +cruel attacks on the faith of Christians with the name of a +progressive civilization?--and so far advanced that one of these +new lights, ignorant, perhaps, of everything except of the fossils +and shells and bugs and gases of the hole he has bored in, assumes +to know more of the mysteries of creation and the laws of the +universe than Moses and David and Paul, and all the Bacons and +Newtons that ever lived? Names are nothing; it is the spirit, the +animus, which is everything. It is the soul which permeates a +system, that I look at. It is the Devil from which I would flee, +whatever be his name, and though he assume the form of an angel of +light, or cunningly try to persuade me, and ingeniously argue, that +there is no God. True and good Catholics and true and good +Protestants have ever been united in one thing,--IN THIS BELIEF, +that there is a God who made the heaven and the earth, and that +there is a Christ who made atonement for the sins of the world. It +is good morals, faith, and love to which both Catholics and +Protestants are exhorted by the Apostles. When either Catholics or +Protestants accept the one faith and the one Lord which +Christianity alone reveals, then they equally belong to the grand +army of spiritual warriors under the banner of the Cross, though +they may march under different generals and in different divisions +and they will receive the same consolations in this world, and the +same rewards in the world to come. + + +AUTHORITIES. + + +Villari's Life of Savonarola; Biographie Universelle; Ranke's +History of the Popes. There is much in "Romola," by George Eliot. +Life of Savonarola, by the Prince of Mirandola. + + + +MICHAEL ANGELO. + +A.D. 1475-1564. + +THE REVIVAL OF ART. + + +Michael Angelo Buonarroti--one of the Great Lights of the new +civilization--may stand as the most fitting representative of +reviving art in Europe; also as an illustrious example of those +virtues which dignify intellectual pre-eminence. He was superior, +in all that is sterling and grand in character, to any man of his +age,--certainly in Italy; exhibiting a rugged, stern greatness +which reminds us of Dante, and of other great benefactors; nurtured +in the school of sorrow and disappointment, leading a checkered +life, doomed to envy, ingratitude, and neglect; rarely understood, +and never fully appreciated even by those who employed and honored +him. He was an isolated man; grave, abstracted, lonely, yet not +unhappy, since his world was that of glorious and exalting ideas, +even those of grace, beauty, majesty, and harmony,--the world which +Plato lived in, and in which all great men live who seek to rise +above the transient, the false, and puerile in common life. He was +also an original genius, remarkable in everything he attempted, +whether as sculptor, painter, or architect, and even as poet. He +saw the archetypes of everything beautiful and grand, which are +invisible except to those who are almost divinely gifted; and he +had the practical skill to embody them in permanent forms, so that +all ages may study those forms, and rise through them to the realms +in which his soul lived. + +Michael Angelo not only created, but he reproduced. He reproduced +the glories of Grecian and Roman art. He restored the old +civilization in his pictures, his statues, and his grand edifices. +He revived a taste for what is imperishable in antiquity. As such +he is justly regarded as an immortal benefactor; for it is art +which gives to nations culture, refinement, and the enjoyment of +the beautiful. Art diverts the mind from low and commonplace +pursuits, exalts the imagination, and makes its votary indifferent +to the evils of life. It raises the soul into regions of peace and +bliss. + +But art is most ennobling when it is inspired by lofty and +consecrated sentiments,--like those of religion, patriotism, and +love. Now ancient art was consecrated to Paganism. Of course +there were noble exceptions; but as a general rule temples were +erected in honor of heathen deities. Statues represented mere +physical strength and beauty and grace. Pictures portrayed the +charms of an unsanctified humanity. Hence ancient art did very +little to arrest human degeneracy; facilitated rather than retarded +the ruin of states and empires, since it did not stimulate the +virtues on which the strength of man is based: it did not check +those depraved tastes and habits which are based on egotism. + +Now the restorers of ancient art cannot be said to have contributed +to the moral elevation of the new races, unless they avoided the +sensualism of Greece and Rome, and appealed purely to those eternal +ideas which the human mind, even under Pagan influences, sometimes +conceived, and which do not conflict with Christianity itself. + +In considering the life and labors of Michael Angelo, then, we are +to examine whether, in the classical glories of antiquity which he +substituted for the Gothic and Mediaeval, he advanced civilization +in the noblest sense; and moreover, whether he carried art to a +higher degree than was ever attained by the Greeks and Romans, and +hence became a benefactor of the world. + +In considering these points I shall not attempt a minute criticism +of his works. I can only seize on the great outlines, the salient +points of those productions which have given him immortality. No +lecture can be exhaustive. If it only prove suggestive, it has +reached its end. + +Michael Angelo stands out in history in the three aspects of +sculptor, painter, and architect; and that too in a country devoted +to art, and in an age when Italy won all her modern glories, +arising from the matchless works which that age produced. Indeed, +those works will probably never be surpassed, since all the +energies of a great nation were concentrated upon their production, +even as our own age confines itself chiefly to mechanical +inventions and scientific research and speculation. What railroads +and telegraphs and spindles and chemical tests and compounds are to +us; what philosophy was to the Greeks; what government and +jurisprudence were to the Romans; what cathedrals and metaphysical +subtilties were to the Middle Ages; what theological inquiries were +to the divines of the seventeenth century; what social urbanities +and refinements were to the French in the eighteenth century,--the +fine arts were to the Italians in the sixteenth century: a fact too +commonplace to dwell upon, and which will be conceded when we bear +in mind that no age has been distinguished for everything, and that +nations can try satisfactorily but one experiment at a time, and +are not likely to repeat it with the same enthusiasm. As the mind +is unbounded in its capacities, and our world affords inexhaustible +fields of enterprise, the progress of the race is to be seen in the +new developments which successively appear, but in which only a +certain limit has thus far been reached. Not in absolute +perfection in any particular sphere is this progress seen, but +rather in the variety of the experiments. It may be doubted +whether any Grecian edifice will ever surpass the Parthenon in +beauty of proportion or fitness of ornament; or any nude statue +show grace of form more impressive than the Venus de Milo or the +Apollo Belvedere; or any system of jurisprudence be more completely +codified than that systematized by Justinian; or any Gothic church +rival the lofty expression of Cologne cathedral; or any painting +surpass the holy serenity and ethereal love depicted in Raphael's +madonnas; or any court witness such a brilliant assemblage of wits +and beauties as met at Versailles to render homage to Louis XIV.; +or any theological discussion excite such a national interest as +when Luther confronted Doctor Eck in the great hall of the +Electoral Palace at Leipsic; or any theatrical excitement such as +was produced on cultivated intellects when Garrick and Siddons +represented the sublime conceptions of the myriad-minded +Shakspeare. These glories may reappear, but never will they shine +as they did before. No more Olympian games, no more Roman +triumphs, no more Dodona oracles, no more Flavian amphitheatres, no +more Mediaeval cathedrals, no more councils of Nice or Trent, no +more spectacles of kings holding the stirrups of popes, no more +Fields of the Cloth of Gold, no more reigns of court mistresses in +such palaces as Versailles and Fontainbleau,--ah! I wish I could +add, no more such battlefields as Marengo and Waterloo,--only +copies and imitations of these, and without the older charm. The +world is moving on and perpetually changing, nor can we tell what +new vanity will next arise,--vanity or glory, according to our +varying notions of the dignity and destiny of man. We may predict +that it will not be any mechanical improvement, for ere long the +limit will be reached,--and it will be reached when the great mass +cannot find work to do, for the everlasting destiny of man is toil +and labor. But it will be some sublime wonders of which we cannot +now conceive, and which in time will pass away for other wonders +and novelties, until the great circle is completed; and all human +experiments shall verify the moral wisdom of the eternal +revelation. Then all that man has done, all that man can do, in +his own boastful thought, will be seen, in the light of the +celestial verities, to be indeed a vanity and a failure, not of +human ingenuity and power, but to realize the happiness which is +only promised as the result of supernatural, not mortal, strength, +yet which the soul in its restless aspirations never ceases its +efforts to secure,--everlasting Babel-building to reach the +unattainable on earth. + +Now the revival of art in Italy was one of the great movements in +the series of human development. It peculiarly characterized the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It was an age of artistic +wonders, of great creations. + +Italy, especially, was glorious when Michael Angelo was born, 1474; +when the rest of Europe was comparatively rude, and when no great +works in art, in poetry, in history, or philosophy had yet +appeared. He was descended from an illustrious family, and was +destined to one of the learned professions; but he could not give +up his mind to anything but drawing,--as annoying to his father as +Galileo's experiments were to his parent; as unmeaning to him as +Gibbon's History was to George III.,--"Scribble, scribble, +scribble; Mr. Gibbon, I perceive, sir, you are always a- +scribbling." No perception of a new power, no sympathy with the +abandonment to a specialty not indorsed by fashions and traditions, +but without which abandonment genius cannot easily be developed. +At last the father yielded, and the son was apprenticed to a +painter--a degradation in the eyes of Mediaeval aristocracy. + +The celebrated Lorenzo de' Medici was then in the height of power +and fame in Florence, adored by Roscoe as the patron of artists and +poets, although he subverted the liberties of his country. This +over-lauded prince, heir of the fortunes of a great family of +merchants, wishing to establish a school for sculpture, filled a +garden with statues, and freely admitted to it young scholars in +art. Michael Angelo was one of the most frequent and enthusiastic +visitors to this garden, where in due time he attracted the +attention of the magnificent Lord of Florence by a head chiselled +so remarkably that he became an inmate of the palace, sat at the +table of Lorenzo, and at last was regularly adopted as one of the +Prince's family, with every facility for prosecuting his studies. +Before he was eighteen the youth had sculptured the battle of +Hercules with the Centaurs, which he would never part with, and +which still remains in his family; so well done that he himself, at +the age of eighty, regretted that he had not given up his whole +life to sculpture. + +It was then as a sculptor that Michael Angelo first appears to the +historical student,--about the year 1492, when Columbus was +crossing the great unknown ocean to realize his belief in a western +passage to India. Thus commercial enterprise began with the +revival of art, and was destined never to be separated in its +alliance with it, since commerce brings wealth, and wealth seeks to +ornament the palaces and gardens which it has created or purchased. +The sculptor's art was not born until piety had already edifices in +which to worship God, or pride the monuments in which it sought the +glories of a name; but it made rapid progress as wealth increased +and taste became refined; as the need was felt for ornaments and +symbols to adorn naked walls and empty spaces, especially statuary, +grouped or single, of men or animals,--a marble history to +interpret or reproduce consecrated associations. Churches might do +without them; the glass stained in every color of the rainbow, the +altar shining with gold and silver and precious stones, the pillars +multiplied and diversified, and rich in foliated circles, mullions, +mouldings, groins, and bosses, and bearing aloft the arched and +ponderous roof,--one scene of dazzling magnificence,--these could +do without them; but the palaces and halls and houses of the rich +required the image of man,--and of man not emaciated and worn and +monstrous, but of man as he appeared to the classical Greeks, in +the perfection of form and physical beauty. So the artists who +arose with the revival of commerce, with the multiplication of +human wants and the study of antiquity, sought to restore the +buried statues with the long-neglected literature and laws. It was +in sculptured marbles that enthusiasm was most marked. These were +found in abundance in various parts of Italy whenever the vast +debris of the ancient magnificence was removed, and were +universally admired and prized by popes, cardinals, and princes, +and formed the nucleus of great museums. + +The works of Michael Angelo as a sculptor were not numerous, but in +sublimity they have never been surpassed,--non multa, sed multum. +His unfinished monument of Julius II., begun at that pontiff's +request as a mausoleum, is perhaps his greatest work; and the +statue of Moses, which formed a part of it, has been admired for +three hundred years. In this, as in his other masterpieces, +grandeur and majesty are his characteristics. It may have been a +reproduction, and yet it is not a copy. He made character and +moral force the first consideration, and form subservient to +expression. And here he differed, it is said by great critics, +from the ancients, who thought more of form than of moral +expression,--as may be seen in the faces of the Venus de Medici and +the Apollo Belvedere, matchless and inimitable as these statues are +in grace and beauty. The Laocoon and the Dying Gladiator are +indeed exceptions, for it is character which constitutes their +chief merit,--the expression of pain, despair, and agony. But +there is almost no intellectual or moral expression in the faces of +other famous and remarkable antique statues, only beauty and +variety of form, such as Powers exhibited in his Greek Slave,--an +inferior excellence, since it is much easier to copy the beautiful +in the nude statues which people Italy, than to express such +intellectual majesty as Michael Angelo conceived--that intellectual +expression which Story has succeeded in giving to his African +Sibyl. Thus while the great artist retained the antique, he +superadded a loftiness such as the ancients rarely produced; and +sculpture became in his hands, not demoralizing and Pagan, +resplendent in sensual charms, but instructive and exalting,-- +instructive for the marvellous display of anatomical knowledge, and +exalting from grand conceptions of dignity and power. His +knowledge of anatomy was so remarkable that he could work without +models. Our artists, in these days, must always have before their +eyes some nude figure to copy. + +The same peculiarities which have given him fame as a sculptor he +carried out into painting, in which he is even more remarkable; for +the artists of Italy at this period often combined a skill for all +the fine arts. In sculpture they were much indebted to the +ancients, but painting seems to have been purely a development. In +the Middle Ages it was comparatively rude. No noted painter arose +until Cimabue in the middle of the thirteenth century. Before him, +painting was a lifeless imitation of models afforded by Greek +workers in mosaics; but Cimabue abandoned this servile copying, and +gave a new expression to heads, and grouped his figures. Under +Giotto, who was contemporary with Dante, drawing became still more +correct, and coloring softer. After him, painting was rapidly +advanced. Pietro della Francesca was the father of perspective; +Domenico painted in oil, discovered by Van Eyck in Flanders, in +1410; Masaccio studied anatomy; gilding disappeared as a background +around pictures. In the fifteenth century the enthusiasm for +painting became intense; even monks became painters, and every +convent and church and palace was deemed incomplete without +pictures. But ideal beauty and harmony in coloring were still +wanting, as well as freedom of the pencil. Then arose Da Vinci and +Michael Angelo, who practised the immutable principles by which art +could be advanced; and rapidly following in their steps, Fra +Bartolommeo, Fra Angelico, Rossi, and Andrea del Sarto made the age +an era in painting, until the art culminated in Raphael and +Corregio and Titian. And divers cities of Italy--Bologna, Milan, +Parma, and Venice--disputed with Rome and Florence for the empire +of art; as also did many other cities which might be mentioned, +each of which has a history, each of which is hallowed by poetic +associations; so that all men who have lived in Italy, or even +visited it, feel a peculiar interest in these cities,--an interest +which they can feel in no others, even if they be such capitals as +London and Paris. I excuse this extravagant admiration for the +wonderful masterpieces produced in that age, making marble and +canvas eloquent with the most inspiring sentiments, because, wrapt +in the joys which they excite, the cultivated and imaginative man +forgets--and rejoices that he can forget--the untidiness of that +World Capital, the many reminders of ages of unthrift, which stare +ordinary tourists in the face, and all the other disgusting +realities which philanthropists deplore so loudly in that +degenerate but classical and ever-to-be-hallowed land. For, come +what will, in spite of past turmoils it has been the scene of the +highest glories of antiquity, calling to our minds saints and +martyrs, as well as conquerors and emperors, and revealing at every +turn their tombs and broken monuments, and all the hoary remnants +of unsurpassed magnificence, as well as preserving in churches and +palaces those wonders which were created when Italy once again +lived in the noble aspiration of making herself the centre and the +pride of the new civilization. + +Da Vinci, the oldest of the great masters who immortalized that +era, died in 1519, in the arms of Francis I. of France, and Michael +Angelo received his mantle. The young sculptor was taken away from +his chisel to paint, for Pope Julius II., the ceiling of the +Sistine Chapel. After the death of his patron Lorenzo, he had +studied and done famous work in marble at Bologna, at Rome, and +again at Florence. He had also painted some, and with such +immediate success that he had been invited to assist Da Vinci in +decorating a hall in the ducal palace at Florence. But sculpture +was his chosen art, and when called to paint the Sistine Chapel, he +implored the Pope that he might be allowed to finish the mausoleum +which he had begun, and that Raphael, then dazzling the whole city +by his unprecedented talents, might be substituted for him in that +great work. But the Pope was inflexible; and the great artist +began his task, assisted by other painters; however, he soon got +disgusted with them and sent them away, and worked alone. For +twenty months he toiled, rarely seen, living abstemiously, absorbed +utterly in his work of creation; and the greater portion of the +compartments in the vast ceiling was finished before any other +voice than his, except the admiring voice of the Pope, pronounced +it good. + +It would be useless to attempt to describe those celebrated +frescos. Their subjects were taken from the Book of Genesis, with +great figures of sibyls and prophets. They are now half-concealed +by the accumulated dust and smoke of three hundred years, and can +be surveyed only by reclining at full length on the back. We see +enough, however, to be impressed with the boldness, the majesty, +and the originality of the figures,--their fidelity to nature, the +knowledge of anatomy displayed, and the disdain of inferior arts; +especially the noble disdain of appealing to false and perverted +taste, as if he painted from an exalted ideal in his own mind, +which ideal is ever associated with creative power. + +It is this creative power which places Michael Angelo at the head +of the artists of his great age; and not merely the power to create +but the power of realizing the most exalted conceptions. Raphael +was doubtless superior to him in grace and beauty, even as Titian +afterwards surpassed him in coloring. He delighted, like Dante, in +the awful and the terrible. This grandeur of conception was +especially seen in his Last Judgment, executed thirty years +afterwards, in completion of the Sistine Chapel, the work on which +had been suspended at the death of Julius. This vast fresco is +nearly seventy feet in height, painted upon the wall at the end of +the chapel, as an altar-piece. No subject could have been better +adapted to his genius than this--the day of supernal terrors (dies +irae, dies illa), when, according to the sentiments of the Middle +Ages, the doomed were subjected to every variety of physical +suffering, and when this agony of pain, rather than agony of +remorse, was expressed in tortured limbs and in faces writhing with +demoniacal despair. Such was the variety of tortures which he +expressed, showing an unexampled richness in imaginative powers, +that people came to see it from the remotest parts of Italy. It +made a great sensation, like the appearance of an immortal poem, +and was magnificently rewarded; for the painter received a pension +of twelve hundred golden crowns a year,--a great sum in that age. + +But Michael Angelo did not paint many pieces; he confined himself +chiefly to cartoons and designs, which, scattered far and wide, +were reproduced by other artists. His most famous cartoon was the +Battle of Pisa, the one executed for the ducal palace of Florence, +as pendant to one by Leonardo da Vinci, then in the height of his +fame. This picture was so remarkable for the accuracy of drawing, +and the variety and form of expression, that Raphael came to +Florence on purpose to study it; and it was the power of giving +boldness and dignity and variety to the human figure, as shown in +this painting, which constitutes his great originality and +transcendent excellence. The great creations of the painters, in +modern times as well as in the ancient, are those which represent +the human figure in its ideal excellence,--which of course implies +what is most perfect, not in any one man or woman, but in men and +women collectively. Hence the greatest of painters rarely have +stooped to landscape painting, since no imaginary landscape can +surpass what everybody has seen in nature. You cannot improve on +the colors of the rainbow, or the gilded clouds of sunset; or the +shadows of the mountain, or the graceful form of trees, or the +varied tints of leaves and flowers; but you can represent the +figure of a man or woman more beautiful than any one man or woman +that has ever appeared. What mortal woman ever expressed the +ethereal beauty depicted in a Madonna of Raphael or Murillo? And +what man ever had such a sublimity of aspect and figure as the +creations of Michael Angelo? Why, "a beggar," says one of his +greatest critics, "arose from his hand the patriarch of poverty; +the hump of his dwarf is impressed with dignity; his infants are +men, and his men are giants." And, says another critic, "he is the +inventor of epic painting, in that sublime circle of the Sistine +Chapel which exhibits the origin, progress, and final dispensation +of the theocracy. He has personified motion in the cartoon of +Pisa, portrayed meditation in the prophets and sibyls of the +Sistine Chapel and in the Last Judgment, traced every attitude +which varies the human body, with every passion which sways the +human soul." His supremacy is in the mighty soaring of his +intellectual conceptions. Marvellous as a creator, like +Shakspeare; profound and solemn, like Dante; representing power +even in repose, and giving to the Cyclopean forms which he has +called into being a charm of moral excellence which secures our +sympathy; a firm believer in a supreme and personal God; +disciplined in worldly trials, and glowing in lofty conceptions of +justice,--he delights in portraying the stern prophets of Israel, +surrounded with an atmosphere of holiness, yet breathing compassion +on those whom they denounce; august in dignity, yet melting with +tenderness; solemn, sad, profound. Thus was his influence pure and +exalted in an art which has too often been prostituted to please +the perverted taste of a sensual age. The most refined and +expressive of all the arts,--as it sometimes is, and always should +be,--is the one which oftenest appeals to that which Christianity +teaches us to shun. You may say, "Evil to him who evil thinks," +especially ye pure and immaculate persons who have walked +uncorrupted amid the galleries of Paris, Dresden, Florence, and +Rome; but I fancy that pictures, like books, are what we choose to +make them, and that the more exquisite the art by which vice is +divested of its grossness, but not of its subtle poisons,--like the +New Heloise of Rousseau or the Wilhelm Meister of Goethe,--the more +fatally will it lead astray by the insidious entrance of an evil +spirit in the guise of an angel of light. Art, like literature, is +neither good nor evil abstractly, but may become a savor of death +unto death, as well as of life unto life. You cannot extinguish it +without destroying one of the noblest developments of civilization; +but you cannot have civilization without multiplying the +temptations of human society, and hence must be guarded from those +destructive cankers which, as in old Rome, eat out the virtues on +which the strength of man is based. The old apostles, and other +great benefactors of the world, attached more value to the truths +which elevate than to the arts which soften. It was the noble +direction which Michael Angelo gave to art which made him a great +benefactor not only of civilization, but also of art, by linking +with it the eternal ideas of majesty and dignity, as well as the +truths which are taught by divine inspiration,--another +illustration of the profound reverence which the great master minds +of the world, like Augustine, Pascal, and Bacon, have ever +expressed for the ideas which were revealed by Christianity and the +old prophets of Jehovah; ideas which many bright but inferior +intellects, in their egotistical arrogance, have sought to subvert. + +Yet it was neither as sculptor nor painter that Michael Angelo left +the most enduring influence, but as architect. Painting and +sculpture are the exclusive ornaments and possession of the rich +and favored. But architecture concerns all men, and most men have +something to do with it in the course of their lives. What boots +it that a man pays two thousand pounds for a picture to be shut up +in his library, and probably more valued for its rarity, or from +the caprices of fashion, than for its real merits? But it is +something when a nation pays a million for a ridiculous building, +without regard to the object for which it is intended,--to be +observed and criticised by everybody and for succeeding +generations. A good picture is the admiration of a few; a +magnificent edifice is the pride of thousands. A picture +necessarily cultivates the taste of a family circle; a public +edifice educates the minds of millions. Even the Moses of Michael +Angelo is a mere object of interest to those who visit the church +of San Pietro in Vincoli; but St. Peter's is a monument to be seen +by large populations from generation to generation. All London +contemplates St. Paul's Church or the Palace of Westminster, but +the National Gallery may be visited by a small fraction of the +people only once a year. Of the thousands who stand before the +Tuileries or the Madeleine not one in a hundred has visited the +gallery of the Louvre. What material works of man so grand as +those hoary monuments of piety or pride erected three thousand +years ago, and still magnificent in their very ruins! How imposing +are the pyramids, the Coliseum, and the Gothic cathedrals of the +Middle Ages! And even when architecture does not rear vaulted +roofs and arches and pinnacles, or tower to dazzling heights, or +inspire reverential awe from the associations which cluster around +it, how interesting are even its minor triumphs! Who does not stop +to admire a beautiful window, or porch, or portico? Who does not +criticise his neighbor's house, its proportions, its general +effect, its adaptation to the uses designed? Architecture appeal +to the common eye, and have reference to the necessities of man, +and sometimes express the consecrated sentiments of an age or a +nation. Nor can it be prostituted, like painting and sculpture; it +never corrupts the mind, and sometimes inspires it; and if it makes +an appeal to the senses or the imagination, it is to kindle +perceptions of the severe beauty of geometrical forms. + +Whoever, then, has done anything in architecture has contributed to +the necessities of man, and stimulated an admiration for what is +venerable and magnificent. Now Michael Angelo was not only the +architect of numerous palaces and churches, but also one of the +principal architects of that great edifice which is, on the whole, +the noblest church in Christendom,--a perpetual marvel and study; +not faultless, but so imposing that it will long remain, like the +old temple of Ephesus, one of the wonders of the world. He +completed the church without great deviation from the plan of the +first architect, Bramante, whom he regarded as the greatest +architect that had lived,--altering Bramante's plans from a Latin +to a Greek cross, the former of which was retained after Michael +Angelo's death. But it is the interior, rather than the exterior +of St. Peter's, which shows its vast superiority over all other +churches for splendor and effect, and surprises all who are even +fresh from Cologne and Milan and Westminster. It impresses us like +a wonder of nature rather than as the work of man,--a great work of +engineering as well as a marvel of majesty and beauty. We are +surprised to see so vast a structure, covering nearly five acres, +so elaborately finished, nothing neglected; the lofty walls covered +with precious marbles, the side chapels filled with statues and +monuments, the altars ornamented with pictures,--and those pictures +not painted in oil, but copied in mosaic, so that they will neither +decay nor fade, but last till destroyed by violence. What feelings +overpower the poetic mind when the glories of that interior first +blaze upon the brain; what a world of brightness, softness, and +richness; what grandeur, solidity, and strength; what unnumbered +treasures around the altars; what grand mosaics relieve the height +of the wondrous dome,--larger than the Pantheon, rising two hundred +feet from the intersection of those lofty and massive piers which +divide transept from choir and nave; what effect of magnitude after +the eye gets accustomed to the vast proportions! Oh, what silence +reigns around! How difficult, even for the sonorous chants of +choristers and priests to disturb that silence,--to be more than +echoes of a distant music which seems to come from the very courts +of heaven itself: to some a holy sanctuary, where one may meditate +among crowds and feel alone; where one breathes an atmosphere which +changes not with heat or cold; and where the ever-burning lamps and +clouds of incense diffusing the fragrance of the East, and the rich +dresses of the mitred priests, and the unnumbered symbols, suggest +the ritualism of that imposing worship when Solomon dedicated to +Jehovah the grandest temple of antiquity! + +Truly was St. Peter's Church the last great achievement of the +popes, the crowning demonstration of their temporal dominion; +suggestive of their wealth and power, a marble history of pride and +pomp, a fitting emblem of that worship which appeals to sense +rather than to God. And singular it was, when the great artist +reared that gigantic pile, even though it symbolized the cross, he +really gave a vital wound to that cause to which he consecrated his +noblest energies; for its lofty dome could not be completed without +the contributions of Christendom, and those contributions could not +be made without an appeal to perversions which grew out of +Mediaeval Catholicism,--even penance and self-expiation, which +stirred the holy indignation of a man who knew and declared on what +different ground justification should be based. Thus was Luther, +in one sense, called into action by the labors of Michael Angelo; +thus was the erection of St. Peter's Church overruled in the +preaching of reformers, who would show that the money obtained by +misinterpreted "indulgences" could never purchase an acceptable +offering to God, even though the monument were filled with +Christian emblems, and consecrated by those prayers and anthems +which had been the life of blessed saints and martyrs for more than +a thousand years. + +St. Peter's is not Gothic, it is a restoration of the Greek; it +belongs to what artists call the Renaissance,--a style of +architecture marked by a return to the classical models of +antiquity. Michael Angelo brought back to civilization the old +ideas of Grecian grace and Roman majesty,--typical of the original +inspirations of the men who lived in the quiet admiration of +eternal beauty and grace; the men who built the Parthenon, and who +shaped pillars and capitals and entablatures in the severest +proportions, and fitted them with ornaments drawn from the living +world,--plants and animals, especially images of God's highest +work, even of man; and of man not worn and macerated and dismal and +monstrous, but of man when most resplendent in the perfections of +the primeval strength and beauty. He returned to a style which +classical antiquity carried to great perfection, but which had been +neglected by the new Teutonic nations. + +Nor is there evidence that Michael Angelo disdained the creations +especially seen in those Gothic monuments which are still the +objects of our admiration. Who does not admire the church +architecture of the Middle Ages? Of its kind it has never been +surpassed. Geometry and art--the true and the beautiful--meet. +Nothing ever erected by the hand of man surpasses the more famous +cathedrals of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, in the richness +and variety of their symbolic decorations. They typify the great +ideas of Christianity; they inspire feelings of awe and reverence; +they are astonishing structures, in their magnitude and in their +effect. Monuments are they of religious zeal and poetical +inspiration,--the creations of great artists, although we scarcely +know their names; adapted to the uses designed; the expression of +consecrated sentiments; the marble history of the ages in which +they were erected,--now heavy and sombre when society was enslaved +and mournful; and then cheerful and lofty when Christianity was +joyful and triumphant. Who ever was satisfied in contemplating the +diversified wonders of those venerable structures? Who would lose +the impression which almost overwhelmed the mind when York minster, +or Cologne, or Milan, or Amiens was first beheld, with their lofty +spires and towers, their sculptured pinnacles, their flying +buttresses, their vaulted roofs, their long arcades, their purple +windows, their holy altars, their symbolic carvings, their majestic +outlines, their grand proportions! + +But beautiful, imposing, poetical, and venerable as are these hoary +piles, they are not the all in all of art. Suppose all the +buildings of Europe the last four hundred years had been modelled +from these churches, how gloomy would be our streets, how dark and +dingy our shops, how dismal our dwellings, how inconvenient our +hotels! A new style was needed, at least as a supplement of the +old,--as lances and shields were giving place to fire-arms, and the +line and the plummet for the mariner's compass; as a new +civilization was creating new wants and developing the material +necessities of man. + +So Michael Angelo arose, and revived the imperishable models of the +classical ages,--to be applied not merely to churches but to +palaces, civic halls, theatres, libraries, museums, banks,--all of +which have mundane purposes. The material world had need of +conveniences, as much as the Mediaeval age had need of shrines. +Humanity was to be developed as well as the Deity to be worshipped. +The artist took the broadest views, looking upon Gothic +architecture as but one division of art,--even as truth is greater +than any system, and Christianity wider than any sect. O, how this +Shakspeare of art would have smiled on the vague and transcendental +panegyrics of Michelet or Ruskin, and other sentimental admirers of +an age which never can return! And how he might have laughed at +some modern enthusiasts, who trace religion to the disposition of +stones and arches, forgetting that religion is an inspiration which +comes from God, and never from the work of man's hands, which can +be only a form of idolatry. + +Michael Angelo found that the ornamentations of the ancient temples +were as rich and varied as those of Mediaeval churches. Mouldings +were discovered of incomparable elegance; the figures on +entablatures were found to be chiselled accurately from nature; the +pillars were of matchless proportions, the capitals of graceful +curvatures. He saw beauty in the horizontal lines of the +Parthenon, as much as in the vertical lines of Cologne. He would +not pull down the venerable monuments of religious zeal, but he +would add to them. "Because the pointed arch was sacred, he would +not despise the humble office of the lintel." And in southern +climates especially there was no need of those steep Gothic roofs +which were intended to prevent a great weight of rain and snow, and +where the graceful portico of the Greeks was more appropriate than +the heavy tower of the Lombards. He would seize on everything that +the genius of past ages had indorsed, even as Christianity itself +appropriates everything human,--science, art, music, poetry, +eloquence, literature,--sanctifies it, and dedicates it to the +Lord; not for the pride of builders, but the improvement of +humanity. Civilization may exist with Paganism, but only performs +its highest uses when tributary to Christianity. And Christianity +accepts the tribute which even Pagan civilization offers for the +adornment of our race,--expelled from Paradise, and doomed to hard +and bitter toils,--without abdicating her more glorious office of +raising the soul to heaven. + +Nor was Michael Angelo responsible for the vile mongrel +architecture which followed the Renaissance, and which disfigures +the modern capitals of Europe, any more than for the perversion of +painting in the hands of Titian. But the indiscriminate adoption +of pillars for humble houses, shops with Roman arches, spires and +towers erected on Grecian porticoes, are no worse than schoolhouses +built like convents, and chapels designed for preaching as much as +for choral chants made dark and gloomy, where the voice of the +preacher is lost and wasted amid vaulted roofs and useless pillars. +Michael Angelo encouraged no incongruities; he himself conceived +the beautiful and the true, and admired it wherever found, even +amid the excavations of ruined cities. He may have overrated the +buried monuments of ancient art, but how was he to escape the +universal enthusiasm of his age for the remains of a glorious and +forgotten civilization? Perhaps his mind was wearied with the +Middle Ages, from which he had nothing more to learn, and sought a +greater fulness and a more perfect unity in the expanding forces of +a new and grander era than was ever seen by Pagan heroes or by +Gothic saints. + + +But I need not expatiate on the new ideas which Michael Angelo +accepted, or the impulse he gave to art in all its forms, and to +the revival of which civilization is so much indebted. Let us turn +and give a parting look at the man,--that great creative genius who +had no superior in his day and generation. Like the greatest of +all Italians, he is interesting for his grave experiences, his +dreary isolations, his vast attainments, his creative imagination, +and his lofty moral sentiments. Like Dante, he stands apart from, +and superior to, all other men of his age. He never could sport +with jesters, or laugh with buffoons, or chat with fools; and +because of this he seemed to be haughty and disdainful. Like +Luther, he had no time for frivolities, and looked upon himself as +commissioned to do important work. He rejoiced in labor, and knew +no rest until he was eighty-nine. He ate that he might live, not +lived that he might eat. For seventeen years after he was seventy- +two he worked on St. Peter's church; worked without pay, that he +might render to God his last earthly tribute without alloy,--as +religious as those unknown artists who erected Rheims and +Westminster. He was modest and patient, yet could not submit to +the insolence of little men in power. He even left the papal +palace in disdain when he found his labors unappreciated. Julius +II. was forced to bend to the stern artist, not the artist to the +Pope. Yet when Leo X. sent him to quarry marbles for nine years, +he submitted without complaint. He had no craving for riches like +Rubens, no love of luxury like Raphael, no envy like Da Vinci. He +never over-tasked his brain, or suffered himself, like Raphael,-- +who died exhausted at thirty-seven,--to crowd three days into one, +knowing that over-work exhausts the nervous energies and shortens +life. He never attempted to open the doors which Providence had +plainly shut against him, but waited patiently for his day, knowing +it would come; yet whether it came or not, it was all the same to +him,--a man with all the holy rapture of a Kepler, and all the +glorious self-reliance of a Newton. He was indeed jealous of his +fame, but he was not greedy of admiration. He worked without the +stimulus of praise,--one of the rarest things,--urged on purely by +love of art. He loved art for its own sake, as good men love +virtue, as Palestrina loved music, as Bacon loved truth, as Kant +loved philosophy,--satisfied with itself as its own reward. He +disliked to be patronized, but always remembered benefits, and +loved the tribute of respect and admiration, even as he scorned the +empty flatterer of fashion. He was the soul of sincerity as well +as of magnanimity; and hence had great capacity for friendship, as +well as great power of self-sacrifice. His friendship with +Vittoria Colonna is as memorable as that of Jerome and Paula, or +that of Hildebrand and The Countess Matilda. He was a great +patriot, and clung to his native Florence with peculiar affection. +Living in habits of intimacy with princes and cardinals, he never +addressed them in adulatory language, but talked and acted like a +nobleman of nature, whose inborn and superior greatness could be +tested only by the ages. He placed art on the highest pinnacle of +the temple of humanity, but dedicated that temple to the God of +heaven in whom he believed. His person was not commanding, but +intelligence radiated from his features, and his earnest nature +commanded respect. In childhood he was feeble, but temperance made +him strong. He believed that no bodily decay was incompatible with +intellectual improvement. He continued his studies until he died, +and felt that he had mastered nothing. He was always dissatisfied +with his own productions. Excelsior was his motto, as Alp on Alp +arose upon his view. His studies were diversified and vast. He +wrote poetry as well as carved stone, his sonnets especially +holding a high rank. He was engineer as well as architect, and +fortified Florence against her enemies. When old he showed all the +fire of youth, and his eye, like that of Moses, never became dim, +since his strength and his beauty were of the soul,--ever +expanding, ever adoring. His temper was stern, but affectionate. +He had no mercy on a fool or a dunce, and turned in disgust from +those who loved trifles and lies. He was guilty of no immoralities +like Raphael and Titian, being universally venerated for his stern +integrity and allegiance to duty,--as one who believes that there +really is a God to whom he is personally responsible. He gave away +his riches, like Ambrose and Gregory, valuing money only as a means +of usefulness. Sickened with the world, he still labored for the +world, and died in 1564, over eighty-nine years of age, in the full +assurance of eternal blessedness in heaven. + +His marbles may crumble down, in spite of all that we can do to +preserve them as models of hopeless imitation; but the exalted +ideas he sought to represent by them, are imperishable and divine, +and will be subjects of contemplation when + + + "Seas shall waste, the skies to smoke decay, + Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away." + + +AUTHORITIES. + +Grimm's Life of Michael Angelo; Vasari's Lives of the Most +Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects; Duppa's Life of +Michael Angelo; Bayle's Histoire de la Peinture en Italie. + + + +MARTIN LUTHER. + +A. D. 1483-1546. + +THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION. + + +Among great benefactors, Martin Luther is one of the most +illustrious. He headed the Protestant Reformation. This movement +is so completely inter-linked with the literature, the religion, +the education, the prosperity--yea, even the political history--of +Europe, that it is the most important and interesting of all modern +historical changes. It is a subject of such amazing magnitude that +no one can claim to be well informed who does not know its leading +issues and developments, as it spread from Germany to Switzerland, +France, Holland, Sweden, England, and Scotland. + +The central and prominent figure in the movement is Luther; but the +way was prepared for him by a host of illustrious men, in different +countries,--by Savonarola in Italy, by Huss and Jerome in Bohemia, +by Erasmus in Holland, by Wyclif in England, and by sundry others, +who detested the corruptions they ridiculed and lamented, but could +not remove. + +How flagrant those evils! Who can deny them? The papal despotism, +and the frauds on which it was based; monastic corruptions; +penance, and indulgences for sin, and the sale of them, more +shameful still; the secular character of the clergy; the pomp, +wealth, and arrogance of bishops; auricular confession; celibacy +of the clergy, their idle and dissolute lives, their ignorance +and superstition; the worship of the images of saints, and +masses for the dead; the gorgeous ritualism of the mass; the +substitution of legends for the Scriptures, which were not +translated, or read by the people; pilgrimages, processions, +idle pomps, and the multiplication of holy days; above all, the +grinding spiritual despotism exercised by priests, with their +inquisitions and excommunications, all centring in the terrible +usurpation of the popes, keeping the human mind in bondage, and +suppressing all intellectual independence,--these evils prevailed +everywhere. I say nothing here of the massacres, the poisonings, the +assassinations, the evil doings of various kinds of which history +accuses many of the pontiff's who sat on papal thrones. Such evils +did not stare the German and English in the face, as they did the +Italians in the fifteenth century. In Germany the vices were +mediaeval and monkish, not the unblushing infidelity and levities +of the Renaissance, which made a radical reformation in Italy +impossible. In Germany and England there was left among the people +the power of conscience, a rough earnestness of character, the +sense of moral accountability, and a fear of divine judgment. + +Luther was just the man for his work. Sprung from the people, +poor, popular, fervent; educated amid privations, religious by +nature, yet with exuberant animal spirits; dogmatic, boisterous, +intrepid, with a great insight into realities; practical, untiring, +learned, generally cheerful and hopeful; emancipated from the +terrors of the Middle Ages through great struggles; progressive in +his spirit, lofty in his character, earnest in his piety, believing +in the future and in God,--such was the great leader of this +emancipating movement. He was not so learned as Erasmus, nor so +logical as Calvin, nor so scholarly as Melancthon, nor so broad as +Cranmer. He was not a polished man; he was often offensively rude +and brusque, and lavish of epithets. Nor was he what we call a +modest and humble man, he was intellectually proud, disdainful, and +sometimes, when irritated, abusive. None of his pictures represent +him as a refined-looking man, scarcely intellectual, but coarse and +sensual rather, as Socrates seemed to the Athenians. But with +these defects and drawbacks he had just such traits and gifts as +fitted him to lead a great popular movement,--bold, audacious, with +deep convictions and rapid intellectual processes; prompt, decided, +kind-hearted, generous, brave; in sympathy with the people, +eloquent, Herculean in energies, with an amazing power of work; +electrical in his smile and in his words, and always ready for +contingencies. Had he been more polished, more of a gentleman, +more fastidious, more scrupulous, more ascetic, more modest, he +would have shrunk from his tasks; he would have lost the elasticity +of his mind, he would have been discouraged. Even Saint Augustine, +a broader and more catholic man than Luther, could not have done +his work. He was a sort of converted Mirabeau. He loved the +storms of battle; he impersonated revolutionary ideas. But he was +a man of thought, as well as of action. + +Luther's origin was of the humblest. Born in Eisleben, Nov. 10, +1483, the son of a poor peasant, his childhood was spent in penury. +He was religious from a boy. He was religious when he sang hymns +for a living, from house to house, before the people of Mansfield +while at school there, and also at the schools of Magdeburg and +Eisenach, where he still earned his bread by his voice. His +devotional character and his music gained for him a friend who +helped him through his studies, till at the age of eighteen he +entered the University at Erfurt, where he distinguished himself in +the classics and the Mediaeval philosophy. And here his religious +meditations led him to enter the Augustinian monastery: he entered +that strict retreat, as others did, to lead a religious life. The +great question of all time pressed upon his mind with peculiar +force, "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" And it +shows that religious life in Germany still burned in many a heart, +in spite of the corruptions of the Church, that a young man like +Luther should seek the shades of monastic seclusion, for meditation +and study. He was a monk, like other monks; but it seems he had +religious doubts and fears more than ordinary monks. At first he +conformed to the customary ways of men seeking salvation. He +walked in the beaten road, like Saint Dominic and Saint Francis; he +accepted the great ideas of the Middle Ages, which he was +afterwards to repudiate,--he was not beyond them, or greater than +they were, at first; he fasted like monks, and tormented his body +with austerities, as they did from the time of Benedict, he sang in +the choir from early morn, and practised the usual severities. But +his doubts and fears remained. He did not, like other monks, find +peace and consolation; he did not become seraphic, like Saint +Francis, or Bonaventura, or Loyola. Perhaps his nature repelled +asceticism; perhaps his inquiring and original mind wanted +something better and surer to rest upon than the dreams and visions +of a traditionary piety. Had he been satisfied with the ordinary +mode of propitiating the Deity, he would never have emerged from +his retreat. + +To a scholar the monastery had great attractions, even in that age. +It was still invested with poetic associations and consecrated +usages; it was indorsed by the venerable Fathers of the Church; it +was favorable to study, and free from the noisy turmoil of the +world. But with all these advantages Luther was miserable. He +felt the agonies of an unforgiven soul in quest of peace with God; +he could not get rid of them, they pursued him into the immensity +of an intolerable night. He was in despair. What could +austerities do for HIM? He hungered and thirsted after the truth, +like Saint Augustine in Milan. He had no taste for philosophy, but +he wanted the repose that philosophers pretended to teach. He was +then too narrow to read Plato or Boethius. He was a self-tormented +monk without relief; he suffered all that Saint Paul suffered at +Tarsus. In some respects this monastic pietism resembled the +pharisaism of Saul, in the schools of Tarsus,--a technical, rigid, +and painful adherence to rules, fastings, stated prayers, and petty +ritualisms, which, originally framed as aids to grace, by +repetition lose their power; based on the enormous error that man +may win heaven by external practices, in which, however, he can +never perfect himself, though he were to live, like Simeon +Stylites, on the top of a pillar for twenty years without once +descending; an eternal unrest, because perfection cannot be +attained; the most terrible slavery to which a man can be +conscientiously doomed, verging into hypocrisy and fanaticism. + +It was then that a kind and enlightened friend visited him, and +recommended him to read the Bible. The Bible never has been a +sealed book to monks; it was ever highly prized; no convent was +without it: but it was read with the spectacles of the Middle Ages. +Repentance meant penance. In Saint Paul's Epistles Luther +discovers the true ground of justification,--not works, but faith; +for Paul had passed through similar experiences. Works are good, +but faith is the gift of God. Works are imperfect with the best of +men, even the highest form of works, to a Mediaeval eye,--self- +expiation and penance; but faith is infinite, radiating from divine +love; faith is a boundless joy,--salvation by the grace of God, his +everlasting and precious boon to people who cannot climb to heaven +on their hands and knees, the highest gift which God ever bestowed +on men,--eternal life. + +Luther is thus emancipated from the ideas of the Middle Ages and of +the old Syriac monks and of the Jewish Pharisees. In his +deliverance he has new hopes and aspirations; he becomes cheerful, +and devotes himself to his studies. Nothing can make a man more +cheerful and joyful than the cordial reception of a gift which is +infinite, a blessing which is too priceless to be bought. The +pharisee, the monk, the ritualist, is gloomy, ascetic, severe, +intolerant; for he is not quite sure of his salvation. A man who +accepts heaven as a gift is full of divine enthusiasm, like Saint +Augustine. Luther now comprehends Augustine, the great doctor of +the Church, embraces his philosophy and sees how much it has been +misunderstood. The rare attainments and interesting character of +Luther are at last recognized; he is made a professor of divinity +in the new university, which the Elector of Saxony has endowed, at +Wittenberg. He becomes a favorite with the students; he enters +into the life of the people. He preaches with wonderful power, for +he is popular, earnest, original, fresh, electrical. He is a monk +still, but the monk is merged in the learned doctor and eloquent +preacher. He does not yet even dream of attacking monastic +institutions, or the Pope; he is a good Catholic in his obedience +to authorities; but he hates the Middle Ages, and all their +ghostly, funereal, burdensome, and technical religious customs. He +is human, almost convivial,--fond of music, of poetry, of society, +of friends, and of the good cheer of the social circle. The people +love Luther, for he has a broad humanity. They never did love +monks, only feared their maledictions. + +About this time the Pope was in great need of money: this was Leo +X. He not only squandered his vast revenues in pleasures and +pomps, like any secular monarch; he not only collected pictures and +statues,--but he wanted to complete St. Peter's Church. It was +the crowning glory of papal magnificence. Where was he to get +money except from the contributions of Christendom? But kings and +princes and bishops and abbots were getting tired of this +everlasting drain of money to Rome, in the shape of annats and +taxes; so Leo revived an old custom of the Dark Ages,--he would +sell "plenary indulgences"; and he sent his agents to market them +in every country. + +The agent in Saxony was a very popular preacher, a shrewd Dominican +prior by the name of Tetzel. Luther abhorred him, not so much +because he was vulgar and noisy, but because his infamous business +derogated from the majesty of God and religion. In wrathful +indignation he preached against Tetzel and his practices,--the +abominable traffic of indulgences. Only God can forgive sins. It +seemed to him to be an insult to the human understanding that any +man, even a pope, should grant an absolution for crime. These +indulgences also provided the release of deceased friends from +purgatory. And it was useless to preach against them so long as +the principles on which they were based were not assailed. +Everybody believed in penance; everybody believed that this, in +some form, would insure salvation. It consisted in a temporal +penalty or punishment inflicted on the sinner after confession +to the priest, as a condition of his receiving absolution +or an authoritative pardon of his sin by the Church as God's +representative. And the indulgence was originally an official +remission of this penalty, to be gained by offerings of money to +the Church for its sacred uses. However ingenious this theory, the +practice inevitably ran into corruption. The people who bought, +the agents who sold, the popes who dispensed, these indulgences +wrested them from their original intention. + +Fortunately, in those times in Germany everybody felt he had a soul +to save. Neither the popes nor the Church ever lost that idea. +The clergy ruled by its force,--by stimulating fears of divine +wrath, whereby the wretched sinner would be physically tormented +forever, unless he escaped by a propitiation of the Deity,--the +common form of which was penance, deeds of supererogation, +donations to the Church, self-expiation, works of fear and +penitence, which commended themselves to the piety of the age; and +this piety Luther now believed to be unenlightened, not the kind +enjoined by Christ or Paul. + +So, to instruct his students and the people as to the true ground +of justification, which he had worked out from the study of the +Bible and Saint Augustine amid the agonies of a tormented +conscience, Luther prepared his theses,--those celebrated ninety- +five propositions, which he affixed to the gates of the church of +Wittenberg, and which excited a great sensation throughout Northern +Germany, reaching even the eyes of the Pope himself, who did not +comprehend their tendency, but was struck with their power. "This +Doctor Luther," said he, "is a man of fine genius." The students +of the university, and the people generally, were kindled as if by +Pentecostal fires. The new invention of printing scattered those +theses everywhere, far and near; they reached the humble hamlet as +well as the palaces of bishops and princes. They excited immediate +and immense enthusiasm: there was freshness in them, originality, +and great ideas. We cannot wonder at the enthusiasm which those +religious ideas excited nearly four hundred years ago when we +reflect that they were not cant words then, not worn-out +platitudes, not dead dogmas, but full of life and exciting +interest,--even as were the watchwords of Rousseau--"Liberty, +Fraternity, Equality"--to Frenchmen, on the outbreak of their +political revolution. And as those watchwords--abstractly true-- +roused the dormant energies of the French to a terrible conflict +against feudalism and royalty, so those theses of Luther kindled +Germany into a living flame. And why? Because they presented more +cheerful and comforting grounds of justification than had been +preached for one thousand years,--faith rather than penance; for +works hinged on penance. The underlying principle of those +propositions was GRACE,--divine grace to save the world,--the +principle of Paul and Saint Augustine; therefore not new, but +forgotten; a mighty comfort to miserable people, mocked and cheated +and robbed by a venal and a gluttonous clergy. Even Taine +admits that this doctrine of grace is the foundation stone of +Protestantism as it spread over Europe in the sixteenth century. +In those places where Protestantism is dead,--where rationalism or +Pelagian speculations have taken its place,--this fact may be +denied; but the history of Northern Europe blazes with it,--a fact +which no historian of any honesty can deny. + +Very likely those who are not in sympathy with this great idea of +Luther, Augustine, and Paul may ignore the fact,--even as Caleb +Cushing once declared to me, that the Reformation sprang from the +desire of Luther to marry Catherine Bora; and that learned and +ingenious sophist overwhelmed me with his citations from infidel +and ribald Catholic writers like Audin. Greater men than he deny +that grace underlies the whole original movement of the reformers, +and they talk of the Reformation as a mere revolt from Rome, as a +war against papal corruption, as a protest against monkery and the +dark ages, brought about by the spirit of a new age, the onward +march of humanity, the necessary progress of society. I admit the +secondary causes of the Reformation, which are very important,--the +awakened spirit of inquiry in the sixteenth century, the revival of +poetry and literature and art, the breaking up of feudalism, +fortunate discoveries, the introduction of Greek literature, the +Renaissance, the disgusts of Christendom, the voice of martyrs +calling aloud from their funeral pyres; yea, the friendly hand of +princes and scholars deploring the evils of a corrupted Church. +But how much had Savonarola, or Erasmus, or John Huss, or the +Lollards aroused the enthusiasm of Europe, great and noble as were +their angry and indignant protests? The genius of the Reformation +in its early stages was a RELIGIOUS movement, not a political or a +moral one, although it became both political and moral. Its +strength and fervor were in the new ideas of salvation,--the same +that, gave power to the early preachers of Christianity,--not +denunciations of imperialism and slavery, and ten thousand evils +which disgraced the empire, but the proclamation of the ideas of +Paul as to the grounds of hope when the soul should leave the body; +the salvation of the Lord, declared to a world in bondage. Luther +kindled the same religious life among the masses that the apostles +did; the same that Wyclif did, and by the same means,--the +declaration of salvation by belief in the incarnate Son of God, +shedding his blood in infinite love. Why, see how this idea spread +through Germany, Switzerland, and France, and took possession of +the minds of the English and Scotch yeomanry, with all their stern +and earnest ruggedness. See how it was elaborately expanded by +Calvin, how it gave birth to a new and strong theology, how it +entered into the very life of the people, especially among the +Puritans,--into the souls of even Cromwell's soldiers. What made +"The Pilgrim's Progress" the most popular book ever published in +England? Because it reflected the theology of the age, the +religion of the people, all based on Luther's theses,--the revival +of those old doctrines which converted the Roman provinces from +Paganism. I do not care if these statements are denied by +Catholics, or rationalists, or progressive savants. What is it to +me that the old views have become unfashionable, or are derided, or +are dead, in the absorbing materialism of this Epicurean yet +brilliant age? I know this, that I am true to history when I +declare that the glorious Reformation in which we all profess to +rejoice, and which is the greatest movement, and the best, of our +modern time,--susceptible of indefinite application, interlinked +with the literature and the progress of England and America,--took +its first great spiritual start from the ideas of Luther as to +justification. This was the voice of heaven's messenger +proclaiming aloud, so that the heavens re-echoed to the glorious +and triumphant annunciation, and the earth heard and rejoiced with +exceeding joy, "Behold, I send tidings of salvation: it is grace, +divine grace, which shall undermine the throne of popes and pagans, +and reconcile a fallen world to God!" + +Yes, it was a Christian philosopher, a theologian,--a doctor of +divinity, working out in his cell and study, through terrible +internal storm and anguish, and against the whole teaching of monks +and bishops and popes and universities, from the time of +Charlemagne, the same truth which Augustine learned in his +wonderful experiences,--who started the Reformation in the right +direction; who became the greatest benefactor of these modern +times, because he based his work on everlasting and positive ideas, +which had life in them, and hope, and the sanction of divine +authority; thus virtually invoking the aid of God Almighty to bring +about and restore the true glory of his Church on earth,--a glory +forever to be identified with the death of his Son. I see no law +of progress here, no natural and necessary development of nations; +I see only the light and power of individual genius, brushing away +the cobwebs and sophistries and frauds of the Middle Ages, and +bringing out to the gaze of Europe the vital truth which, with +supernatural aid, made in old times the day of Pentecost. And I +think I hear the emancipated people of Saxony exclaim, from the +Elector downwards, "If these ideas of Doctor Luther are true, and +we feel them to be, then all our penances have been worse than +wasted,--we have been Pagans. Away with our miserable efforts to +scale the heavens! Let us accept what we cannot buy; let us make +our palaces and our cottages alike vocal with the praises of Him +whom we now accept as our Deliverer, our King, and our Eternal +Lord." + +Thus was born the first great idea of the Reformation, out of +Luther's brain, out of his agonized soul, and sent forth to +conquer, and produce changes most marvellous to behold. + +It is not my object to discuss the truth or error of this +fundamental doctrine. There are many who deny it, even among +Protestants. I am not a controversialist, or a theologian: +I am simply an historian. I wish to show what is historically +true and clear; and I defy all the scholars and critics of the +world to prove that this doctrine is not the basal pillar of +the Reformation of Luther. I wish to make emphatic the statement +that JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH was, as an historical fact, the great +primal idea of Luther; not new, but new to him and to his age. + +I have now to show how this idea led to others; how they became +connected together; how they produced not only a spiritual +movement, but political, moral, and intellectual forces, until all +Europe was in a blaze. + +Thus far the agitation under Luther had been chiefly theological. +It was not a movement against popes or institutions, it was not +even the vehement denunciation against sin in high places, which +inflamed the anger of the Pope against Savonarola. To some it +doubtless seemed like the old controversy between Augustine and +Pelagius, like the contentions between Dominican and Franciscan +monks. But it was too important to escape the attention of even +Leo X., although at first he gave it no thought. It was a +dangerous agitation; it had become popular; there was no telling +where it would end, or what it might not assail. It was deemed +necessary to stop the mouth of this bold and intellectual Saxon +theologian. + +So the voluptuous, infidel, elegant Pope--accomplished in manners +and pagan arts and literature--sent one of the most learned men of +the Church which called him Father, to argue with Doctor Luther, +confute him, conquer him,--deeming this an easy task. But the +doctor could not be silenced. His convictions were grounded on the +rock; not on Peter, but on the rock from which Peter derived his +name. All the papal legates and cardinals in the world could +neither convince nor frighten him. He courted argument; he +challenged the whole Church to refute him. + +Then the schools took up the controversy. All that was imposing in +names, in authority, in traditions, in associations, was arrayed +against him. They came down upon him with the whole array of +scholastic learning. The great Goliath of controversy in that day +was Doctor Eck, who challenged the Saxon monk to a public +disputation at Leipsic. All Germany was interested. The question +at issue stirred the nation to its very depths. + +The disputants met in the great hall of the palace of the Elector. +Never before was seen in Germany such an array of doctors and +theologians and dignitaries. It rivalled in importance and dignity +the Council of Nice, when the great Constantine presided, to settle +the Trinitarian controversy. The combatants were as great as +Athanasius and Arius,--as vehement, as earnest, though not so +fierce. Doctor Eck was superior to Luther in reputation, in +dialectical skill, in scholastic learning. He was the pride of the +universities. Luther, however, had deeper convictions, more +genius, greater eloquence, and at that time he was modest. + +The champion of the schools, of sophistries and authorities, of +dead-letter literature, of quibbles, refinements, and words, soon +overwhelmed the Saxon monk with his citations, decrees of councils, +opinions of eminent ecclesiastics, the literature of the Church, +its mighty authority. He was on the eve of triumph. Had the +question been settled, as Doctor Eck supposed, by authorities, as +lawyers and pedants would settle the question, Luther would have +been beaten. But his genius came to his aid, and the consciousness +of truth. + +He swept away the premises of the argument. He denied the supreme +authority of popes and councils and universities. He appealed to +the Scriptures, as the only ultimate ground of authority. He did +not deny authority, but appealed to it in its highest form. This +was unexpected ground. The Church was not prepared openly to deny +the authority of Saint Paul or Saint Peter; and Luther, if he did +not gain his case, was far from being beaten, and--what was of +vital importance to his success--he had the Elector and the people +with him. + +Thus was born the second great idea of the Reformation,--the +supreme authority of the Scriptures, to which Protestants of every +denomination have since professed to cling. They may differ in the +interpretation of texts,--and thus sects and parties gradually +arose, who quarrelled about their meaning,--but none of them deny +their supreme authority. All the issues of Protestants have been +on the meaning of texts, on the interpretation of the Scriptures,-- +to be settled by learning and reason. It was not until rationalism +arose, and rejected plain and obvious declarations of Scripture, as +inconsistent with reason, as interpolations, as uninspired, that +the authority of the Scriptures was weakened; and these +rationalists--and the land of Luther became full of them--have gone +infinitely beyond the Catholics in undermining the Bible. The +Catholics never have taken such bold ground as the rationalists +respecting the Scriptures. The Catholic Church still accepts the +Bible, but explains away the meaning of many of its doctrines; the +rationalists would sweep away its divine authority, extinguish +faith, and leave the world in night. Satan came into the +theological school of the Protestants, disguised in the robes of +learned doctors searching for truth, and took away the props of +religious faith. This was worse than baptizing repentance with the +name of penance. Better have irrational fears of hell than no +fears at all, for this latter is Paganism. Pagan culture and Pagan +philosophy could not keep society together in the old Roman world; +but Mediaeval appeals to the fears of men did keep them from crimes +and force upon them virtues. + +The triumph of Luther at Leipsic was, however, incomplete. The +Catholics rallied after their stunning blow. They said, in +substance: "We, too, accept the Scriptures; we even put them above +Augustine and Thomas Aquinas and the councils. But who can +interpret them? Can peasants and women, or even merchants and +nobles? The Bible, though inspired, is full of difficulties; there +are contradictory texts. It is a sealed book, except to the +learned; only the Church can reconcile its difficulties. And what +we mean by the Church is the clergy,--the learned clergy, +acknowledging allegiance to their spiritual head, who in matters of +faith is also infallible. We can accept nothing which is not +indorsed by popes and councils. No matter how plain the Scriptures +seem to be, on certain disputed points only the authority of the +Church can enlighten and instruct us. We distrust reason,--that +is, what you call reason,--for reason can twist anything, and +pervert it; but what the Church says, is true,--its collective +intelligence is our supreme law [thus putting papal dogmas above +reason, above the literal and plain declarations of Scripture]. +Moreover, since the Scriptures are to be interpreted only by +priests, it is not a safe book for the people. We, the priests, +will keep it out of their hands. They will get notions from it +fatal to our authority; they will become fanatics: they will, in +their conceit, defy us." + +Then Luther rose, more powerful, more eloquent more majestic than +before; he rose superior to himself. "What," said he, "keep the +light of life from the people; take away their guide to heaven; +keep them in ignorance of what is most precious and most exalting; +deprive them of the blessed consolations which sustain the soul in +trial and in death; deny the most palpable truths, because your +dignitaries put on them a construction to bolster up their power! +What an abomination! what treachery to heaven! what peril to the +souls of men! Besides, your authorities differ. Augustine takes +different ground from Pelagius; Bernard from Abelard; Thomas +Aquinas from Dun Scotus. Have not your grand councils given +contradictory decisions? Whom shall we believe? Yea, the popes +themselves, your infallible guides,--have they not at different +times rendered different decisions? What would Gregory I. say to +the verdicts of Gregory VII.? + +"No, the Scriptures are the legacy of the early Church to universal +humanity; they are the equal and treasured inheritance of all +nations and tribes and kindreds upon the face of the earth, and +will be till the day of judgment. It was intended that they should +be diffused, and that every one should read them, and interpret +them each for himself; for he has a soul to save, and he dare not +intrust such a precious thing as his soul into the keeping of +selfish and ambitious priests. Take away the Bible from a peasant, +or a woman, or any layman, and cannot the priest, armed with the +terrors and the frauds of the Middle Ages, shut up his soul in a +gloomy dungeon, as noisome and funereal as your Mediaeval crypts? +And will you, ye boasted intellectual guides of the people, +extinguish reason in this world in reference to the most momentous +interests? What other guide has a man but his reason? And you +would prevent this very reason from being enlightened by the +Gospel! You would obscure reason itself by your traditions, O ye +blind leaders of the blind! O ye legal and technical men, +obscuring the light of truth! O ye miserable Pharisees, ye bigots, +ye selfish priests, tenacious of your power, your inventions, your +traditions,--will ye withhold the free redemption, God's greatest +boon, salvation by the blood of Christ, offered to all the world? +Yea, will you suffer the people to perish, soul and body, because +you fear that, instructed by God himself, they will rebel against +your accursed despotism? Have you considered what a mighty crime +you thus commit against God, against man? Ye rule by an infernal +appeal to the superstitious fears of men; but how shall ye +yourselves, for such crimes, escape the damnation of that hell into +which you would push your victims unless they obey YOU? + +"No, I say, let the Scriptures be put into the hands of everybody; +let every one interpret them for himself, according to the light he +has; let there be private judgment; let spiritual liberty be +revived, as in Apostolic days. Then only will the people be +emancipated from the Middle Ages, and arise in their power and +majesty, and obey the voice of enlightened conscience, and be true +to their convictions, and practise the virtues which Christianity +commands, and obey God rather than man, and defy all sorts of +persecution and martyrdom, having a serene faith in those blessed +promises which the Gospel unfolds. Then will the people become +great, after the conflicts of generations, and put under their feet +the mockeries and lies and despotisms which grind them to despair." + +Thus was born the third great idea of the Reformation, out of +Luther's brain, a logical sequence from the first idea,--the right +of private judgment, religious liberty, call it what you will; a +great inspiration which in after times was destined to march +triumphantly over battle-fields, and give dignity and power to the +people, and lead to the reception of great truths obscured by +priests for one thousand years; the motive of an irresistible +popular progress, planting England with Puritans, and Scotland with +heroes, and France with martyrs, and North America with colonists; +yea, kindling a fervid religions life; creating such men as Knox +and Latimer and Taylor and Baxter and Howe, who owed their +greatness to the study of the Scriptures,--at last put into every +hand, and scattered far and wide, even to India and China. Can +anybody doubt the marvellous progress of Protestant nations in +consequence of the translation and circulation of the Scriptures? +How these are bound up with their national life, and all their +social habits, and all their religious aspirations; how they have +elevated the people, ten hundred millions of times more than the +boasted Renaissance which sprang from apostate and infidel and +Pagan Italy, when she dug up the buried statues of Greece and Rome, +and revived the literature and arts which soften, but do not save-- +for private judgment and religious liberty mean nothing more and +nothing less than the unrestricted perusal of the Scriptures as the +guide of life. + +This right of private judgment, on which Luther was among the first +to insist, and of which certainly he was the first great champion +in Europe, was in that age a very bold idea, as well as original. +It flattered as well as stimulated the intellect of the people, and +gave them dignity; it gave to the Reformation its popular +character; it appealed to the mind and heart of Christendom. It +gave consolation to the peasantry of Europe; for no family was too +poor to possess a Bible, the greatest possible boon and treasure,-- +read and pondered in the evening, after hard labors and bitter +insults; read aloud to the family circle, with its inexhaustible +store of moral wealth, its beautiful and touching narratives, its +glorious poetry, its awful prophecies, its supernal counsels, its +consoling and emancipating truths,--so tender and yet so exalting, +raising the soul above the grim trials of toil and poverty into the +realms of seraphic peace and boundless joy. The Bible even gave +hope to heretics. All sects and parties could take shelter under +it; all could stand on the broad platform of religion, and survey +from it the wonders and glories of God. At last men might even +differ on important points of doctrine and worship, and yet be +Protestants. Religious liberty became as wide in its application +as the unity of the Church. It might create sects, but those sects +would be all united as to the value of the Scriptures and their +cardinal declarations. On this broad basis John Milton could shake +hands with John Knox, and John Locke with Richard Baxter, and +Oliver Cromwell with Queen Elizabeth, and Lord Bacon with William +Penn; and Bishop Butler with John Wesley, and Jonathan Edwards with +Doctor Channing. + +This idea of private judgment is what separates the Catholics from +the Protestants; not most ostensibly, but most vitally. Many are +the Catholics who would accept Luther's idea of grace, since it is +the idea of Saint Augustine; and of the supreme authority of the +Scriptures, since they were so highly valued by the Fathers: but +few of the Catholic clergy have ever tolerated religious liberty,-- +that is, the interpretation of the Scriptures by the people,--for +it is a vital blow to their supremacy, their hierarchy, and their +institutions. They will no more readily accept it than William the +Conqueror would have accepted the Magna Charta; for the free +circulation and free interpretation of the Scriptures are the +charter of human liberties fought for at Leipsic by Gustavus +Adolphus, at Ivry by Henry IV. This right of worshipping God +according to the dictates of conscience, enlightened by the free +reading of the Scriptures, is just what the "invincible armada" was +sent by Philip II. to crush; just what Alva, dictated by Rome, +sought to crush in Holland; just what Louis XIV., instructed by the +Jesuits, did crush out in France, by the revocation of the Edict of +Nantes. The Satanic hatred of this right was the cause of most of +the martyrdoms and persecutions of the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries. It was the declaration of this right which emancipated +Europe from the dogmas of the Middle Ages, the thraldom of Rome, +and the reign of priests. Why should not Protestants of every +shade cherish and defend this sacred right? This is what made +Luther the idol and oracle of Germany, the admiration of half +Europe, the pride and boast of succeeding ages, the eternal hatred +of Rome; not his religious experiences, not his doctrine of +justification by faith, but the emancipation he gave to the mind of +the world. This is what peculiarly stamps Luther as a man of +genius, and of that surprising audacity and boldness which only +great geniuses evince when they follow out the logical sequence of +their ideas, and penetrate at a blow the hardened steel of vulcanic +armor beneath which the adversary boasts. + +Great was the first Leo, when from his rifled palace on one of the +devastated hills of Rome he looked out upon the Christian world, +pillaged, sacked, overrun with barbarians, full of untold +calamities,--order and law crushed; literature and art prostrate; +justice a byword; murders and assassinations unavenged; central +power destroyed; vice, in all its enormities, vulgarities, and +obscenities, rampant and multiplying itself; false opinions gaining +ground; soldiers turned into banditti, and senators into slaves; +women shrieking in terror; bishops praying in despair; barbarism +everywhere, paganism in danger of being revived; a world +disordered, forlorn, and dismal; Pandemonium let loose, with +howling and shouting and screaming, in view of the desolation +predicted alike by Jeremy the prophet and the Cumaean sybil;--great +was that Leo, when in view of all this he said, with old patrician +heroism, "I will revive government once more upon this earth; not +by bringing back the Caesars, but by declaring a new theocracy, by +making myself the vicegerent of Christ, by virtue of the promise +made to Peter, whose successor I am, in order to restore law, +punish crime, head off heresy, encourage genius, conserve peace, +heal dissensions, protect learning; appealing to love, but ruling +by fear. Who but the Church can do this? A theocracy will create +a new civilization. Not a diadem, but a tiara will I wear, the +symbol of universal sovereignty, before which barbarism shall flee +away, and happiness be restored once more." As he sent out his +legates, he fulminated his bulls and established tribunals of +appeal; he made a net-work of ecclesiastical machinery, and +proclaimed the dangers of eternal fire, and brought kings and +princes before him on their knees. The barbaric world was saved. + +But greater than Leo was Luther, when--outraged by the corruptions +of this spiritual despotism, and all the false and Pagan notions +which had crept into theology, obscuring the light of faith and +creating an intolerable bondage, and opposing the new spirit of +progress which science and art and industry and wealth had invoked +--he courageously yet modestly comes forward as the champion of a +new civilization, and declares, with trumpet tones, "Let there be +private judgment; liberty of conscience; the right to read and +interpret Scripture, in spite of priests! so that men may think for +themselves, not only on the doctrines of eternal salvation but on +all the questions to be deduced from them, or interlinked with the +past or present or future institutions of the world. Then shall +arise a new creation from dreaded destruction, and emancipated +millions shall be filled with an unknown enthusiasm, and advance +with the new weapons of reason and truth from conquering to +conquer, until all the strongholds of sin and Satan shall be +subdued, and laid triumphantly at the foot of His throne whose +right it is to reign." + +Thus far Luther has appeared as a theologian, a philosopher, a man +of ideas, a man of study and reflection, whom the Catholic Church +distrusts and fears, as she always has distrusted genius and manly +independence; but he is henceforth to appear as a reformer, a +warrior, to carry out his ideas and also to defend himself against +the wrath he has provoked; impelled step by step to still bolder +aggressions, until he attacks those venerable institutions which he +once respected,--all the dexterous inventions of Mediaeval +despotism, all the machinery by which Europe had been governed for +one thousand years; yea, the very throne of the Pope himself, whom +he defies, whom he insults, and against whom he urges Christendom +to rebel. As a combatant, a warrior, a reformer, his person and +character somewhat change. He is coarser, he is more sensual- +looking, he drinks more beer, he tells more stories, he uses harder +names; he becomes arrogant, dogmatic; he dictates and commands; he +quarrels with his friends; he is imperious; he fears nobody, and is +scornful of old usages; he marries a nun; he feels that he is a +great leader and general, and wields new powers; he is an executive +and administrative man, for which his courage and insight and will +and Herculean physical strength wonderfully fit him,--the man for +the times, the man to head a new movement, the forces of an age of +protest and rebellion and conquest. + +How can I compress into a few sentences the demolitions and +destructions which this indignant and irritated reformer now makes +in Germany, where he is protected by the Elector from Papal +vengeance? Before the reconstruction, the old rubbish must be +cleared away, and Augean stables must be cleansed. He is now at +issue with the whole Catholic regime, and the whole Catholic world +abuse him. They call him a glutton, a wine-bibber, an adulterer, a +scoffer, an atheist, an imp of Satan; and he calls the Pope the +scarlet mother of abominations, Antichrist, Babylon. That age is +prodigal in offensive epithets; kings and prelates and doctors +alike use hard words. They are like angry children and women and +pugilists; their vocabulary of abuse is amusing and inexhaustible. +See how prodigal Shakspeare and Ben Jonson are in the language of +vituperation. But they were all defiant and fierce, for the age +was rough and earnest. The Pope, in wrath, hurls the old weapons +of the Gregorys and the Clements. But they are impotent as the +darts of Priam; Luther laughs at them, and burns the Papal bull +before a huge concourse of excited students and shopkeepers and +enthusiastic women. He severs himself completely from Rome, and +declares an unextinguishable warfare. He destroys and breaks up +the ceremonies of the Mass; he pulls down the consecrated altars, +with their candles and smoking incense and vessels of silver and +gold, since they are the emblems of Jewish and Pagan worship; he +tears off the vestments of priests, with their embroideries and +their gildings and their millineries and their laces, since these +are made to impose on the imagination and appeal to the sense; he +breaks up monasteries and convents, since they are dens of infamy, +cages of unclean birds, nurseries of idleness and pleasure, abodes +at the best of narrow-minded, ascetic Asiatic recluses, who rejoice +in penance and self-expiation and other modes of propitiating the +Deity, like soofists and fakirs and Braminical devotees. In +defiance of the most sacred of the institutions of the Middle Ages, +he openly marries Catherine Bora and sets up a hilarious household, +and yet a household of prayer and singing. He abolishes the old +Gregorian service; and for Mediaeval chants, monotonous and gloomy, +he prepares hymns and songs,--not for boys and priests to intone in +the distant choir, but for the whole congregation to sing, inspired +by the melodies of David and the exulting praises of a Saviour who +redeems from darkness into light. How grand that hymn of his,-- + + "A mighty fortress is our God, + A bulwark never failing." + + +He makes worship more heartfelt, and revives apostolic usages: +preaching and exhortation and instruction from the pulpit,--a +forgotten power. He appeals to reason rather than sense; denounces +superstitions, while he rebukes sins; and kindles a profound +fervor, based on the recognition of new truths. He is not fully +emancipated from the traditions of the past; for he retains the +doctrine of transubstantiation, and keeps up the holidays of the +Church, and allows recreation on the Sabbath. But what he thinks +the most of is the circulation of the Scriptures among plain +people. So he translates them into German. And this, not the +first but the best translation, is done so well that it becomes the +standard of the German language, as the Bible of Tindale helped to +form the English tongue; and not only so, but it has remained the +common version in use throughout Germany, even as the authorized +King James version, made nearly a century later by the labor of +many scholars and divines, has remained the standard English Bible. +Moreover, he finds time to make liturgies and creeds and hymns, and +to write letters to all parts of Christendom,--a Jerome, a +Chrysostom, and an Augustine united; a kind of Protestant pope, to +whom everybody looks for advice and consolation. What a wonderful +man! No wonder the Germans are so fond of him and so proud of +him,--a Briareus with a hundred arms; a marvel, a wonder, a prodigy +of nature; the most gifted, versatile, hard-working man of his +century or nation! + +At last, this great theologian, this daring innovator, is summoned +by imperial, not papal, authority before the Diet of the empire at +Worms, where the Emperor, the great Charles V., presides, amid +bishops, princes, cardinals, legates, generals, and dignitaries. +Thither Luther must go,--yet under imperial safe conduct,--and +consummate his protests, and perhaps offer up his life. Painters, +poets, historians, have made that scene familiar,--the most +memorable in the life of Luther, as well as one of the grandest +spectacles of the age. I need not dwell on that exciting scene, +where, in the presence of all that was illustrious and powerful in +Germany, this defenceless doctor dares to say to supremest temporal +and spiritual authority, "Unless you confute me by arguments drawn +from Scripture, I cannot and will not recant anything . . . Here I +stand; I cannot otherwise: God help me! Amen." How superior to +Galileo and other scientific martyrs! He is not afraid of those +who can kill only the body; he is afraid only of Him who hath power +to cast both soul and body into hell. So he stands as firm as the +eternal pillars of justice, and his cause is gained. What if he +did not live long enough to accomplish all he designed! What if he +made mistakes, and showed in his career many of the infirmities of +human nature! What if he cared very little for pictures and +statues,--the revived arts of Greece and Rome, the Pagan +Renaissance in which he only sees infidelity, levities, and +luxuries, and other abominations which excited his disgust and +abhorrence when he visited Italy! HE seeks, not to amuse and adorn +the Papal empire, but to reform it; as Paul before him sought to +plant new sentiments and ideas in the Roman world, indifferent to +the arts of Greece, and even the beauties of nature, in his +absorbing desire to convert men to Christ. And who, since Paul, +has rendered greater service to humanity than Luther? The whole +race should be proud that such a man has lived. + + +We will not follow the great reformer to the decline of his years; +we will not dwell on his subsequent struggles and dangers, his +marvellous preservation, his personal habits, his friendships and +his hatreds, his joys and sorrows, his bitter alienations, his +vexatious, his disappointments, his gloomy anticipations of +approaching strife, his sickened yet exultant soul, his last days +of honor and of victory, his final illness, and his triumphant +death in the town where he was born. It is his legacy that we are +concerned in, the inheritance he left to succeeding generations,-- +the perpetuated ideas of the Reformation, which he worked out in +anguish and in study, and which we will not let die, but will +cherish in our memories and our hearts, as among the most precious +of the heirlooms of genius, susceptible of boundless application. +And it is destined to grow brighter and richer, in spite of +counter-reformation and Jesuitism, of Pagan levities and Pagan +lies, of boastful science and Epicurean pleasures, of material +glories, of dissensions and sects and parties, as the might and +majesty of ages coursing round the world regenerates institutions +and nations, and proclaims the sovereignty of intelligence, the +glory and the power of God. + + +AUTHORITIES. + +Ranke's Reformation in Germany; D'Aubigne's History of the +Reformation; Luther's Letters; Mosheim's History of the Church; +Melancthon's Life of Luther: Erasmi Epistolae; Encyclopaedia +Britannica. + + + +THOMAS CRANMER. + +A. D. 1489-1556. + +THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. + + +As the great interest of the Middle Ages, in an historical point of +view, centres around the throne of the popes, so the most prominent +subject of historical interest in our modern times is the revolt +from their almost unlimited domination. The Protestant +reformation, in its various relations, was a movement of +transcendent importance. The history of Christendom, in a moral, a +political, a religious, a literary, and a social point of view, for +the last three hundred years, cannot be studied or comprehended +without primary reference to that memorable revolution. + +We have seen how that great insurrection of human intelligence was +headed in Germany by Luther, and we shall shortly consider it in +Switzerland and France under Calvin. We have now to contemplate +the movement in England. + + +The most striking figure in it was doubtless Thomas Cranmer, +Archbishop of Canterbury, although he does not represent the +English Reformation in all its phases. He was neither so prominent +nor so great a man as Luther or Calvin, or even Knox. But, taking +him all in all, he was the most illustrious of the English +reformers; and he, more than any other man, gave direction to the +spirit of reform, which had been quietly working ever since the +time of Wyclif, especially among the humbler classes. + +The English Reformation--the way to which had been long preparing-- +began in the reign of Henry VIII.; and this unscrupulous and +tyrannical monarch, without being a religious man, gave the first +great impulse to an outbreak the remote consequences of which he +did not anticipate, and with which he had no sympathy. He rebelled +against the authority of the Pope, without abjuring the Roman +Catholic religion, either as to dogmas or forms. In fact, the +first great step towards reform was made, not by Cranmer, but by +Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, as the prime minister of Henry +VIII.,--a man of whom we really know the least of all the very +great statesmen of English history. It was he who demolished the +monasteries, and made war on the whole monastic system, and +undermined the papal power in England, and swept away many of the +most glaring of those abuses which disgraced the Papal Empire. +Armed with the powers which Wolsey had wielded, he directed them +into a totally different channel; so far as the religious welfare +of the nation is considered, although in his principles of +government he was as absolute as Richelieu. Like the great French +statesman, he exalted the throne; but, unlike him, he promoted the +personal reign of the sovereign he served with remarkable ability +and devotion. + +Thomas Cromwell, the prime minister of Henry VIII., after the fall +of Wolsey, was born in humble ranks, and was in early life a common +soldier in the wars of Italy, then a clerk in a mercantile house in +Antwerp, then a wool merchant in Middleborough, then a member of +Parliament, and was employed by Wolsey in suppressing some of the +smaller monasteries. His fidelity to his patron Wolsey, at the +time of that great cardinal's fall, attracted the special notice of +the King, who made him royal secretary in the House of Commons. He +made his fortune by advising Henry to declare himself Head of the +English Church, when he was entangled in the difficulties growing +out of the divorce of Catharine. This advice was given with the +patriotic view of making the royal authority superior to that of +the Pope in Church patronage, and of making England independent of +Rome. + +The great scandal of the times was the immoral lives of the clergy, +especially of the monks, and the immunities they enjoyed. They +were a hindrance to the royal authority, and weakened the resources +of the country by the excessive drain of gold and silver sent to +Rome to replenish the papal treasury. Cromwell would make the +clergy dependent on the King and not on the Pope for their +investitures and promotions; and he abominated the idle and +vagabond lives of the monks, who had degenerated in England, +perhaps more than in any other country in Europe, in consequence of +the great wealth of their monasteries. He was able to render his +master and the kingdom a great service, from the powers lavished +upon him. He presided at convocations as the King's vicegerent; +controlled the House of Commons, and was inquisitor-general of the +monasteries; he was foreign and home secretary, vicar-general and +president of the star-chamber or privy-council. The proud +Nevilles, the powerful Percies, and the noble Courtenays all bowed +before this plebeian son of a mechanic, who had arisen by force of +genius and lucky accidents,--too wise to build a palace like +Hampton Court, but not ecclesiastical enough in his sympathies to +found a college like Christ's Church as Wolsey did. He was a man +simple in his tastes, and hard-working like Colbert,--the great +finance minister of France under Louis XIV., whom he resembled in +his habits and policy. + +His great task, as well as his great public service, was the +visitation and suppression of monasteries. He perceived that they +had fulfilled their mission; that they were no longer needed; that +they had become corrupt, and too corrupt to be reformed; that they +were no longer abodes of piety, or beehives of industry, or +nurseries of art, or retreats of learning; that their wealth was +squandered; that they upheld the arm of a foreign power; that they +shielded offenders against the laws; that they encouraged vagrancy +and extortion; that, in short, they were dangerous to the realm. + +The monks and friars opposed the new learning now extending from +Italy to France, to Germany, and to England. Colet came back from +Italy, not to teach Platonic mysticism, but to unlock the +Scriptures in the original,--the centre of a group of scholars at +Oxford, of whom Erasmus and Thomas More stood in the foremost rank. +Before the close of the fifteenth century, it is said that ten +thousand editions of various books had been printed in different +parts of Europe. All the Latin authors, and some of the Greek, +were accessible to students. Tunstall and Latimer were sent to +Padua to complete their studies. Fox, bishop of Winchester, +established a Greek professorship at Oxford. It was an age of +enthusiasm for reviving literature,--which, however, received in +Germany, through the influence chiefly of Luther, a different +direction from what it received in Italy, and which extended from +Germany to England. But to this awakened spirit the monks +presented obstacles and discouragements. They had no sympathy with +progress; they belonged to the Dark Ages; they were hostile to the +circulation of the Scriptures; they were pedlers of indulgences and +relics; impostors, frauds, vagabonds, gluttons, worldly, sensual, +and avaricious. + +So notoriously corrupt had monasteries become that repeated +attempts had been made to reform them, but without success. As +early as 1489, Innocent VII. had issued a commission for a general +investigation. The monks were accused of dilapidating public +property, of frequenting infamous places, of stealing jewels from +consecrated shrines. In 1511, Archbishop Warham instituted another +visitation. In 1523 Cardinal Wolsey himself undertook the task of +reform. At last the Parliament, in 1535, appointed Cromwell vicar +or visitor-general, issued a commission, and intrusted it to +lawyers, not priests, who found that the worst had not been told, +and reported that two thirds of the monks of England were living in +concubinage; that their lands were wasted and mortgaged, and their +houses falling into ruins. They found the Abbot of Fountains +surrounded with more women than Mohammed allowed his followers, and +the nuns of Litchfield scandalously immoral. + +On this report, the Lords and Commons--deliberately, not rashly-- +decreed the suppression of all monasteries the income of which was +less than two hundred pounds a year, and the sequestration of their +lands to the King. About two hundred of the lesser convents were +thus suppressed, and the monks turned adrift, yet not entirely +without support. This spoliation may have been a violation of the +rights of property, but the monks had betrayed their trusts. The +next Parliament completed the work. In 1539 all the religious +houses were suppressed, both great and small. Such venerable and +princely retreats as St. Albans, Glastonbury, Reading, Bury St. +Edmunds, and Westminster, which had flourished one thousand years,-- +founded long before the Conquest,--shared the common ruin. These +probably would have been spared, had not the first suppression +filled the country with rebels. The great insurrection in +Lincolnshire which shook the foundation of the throne, the +intrigues of Cardinal Pole, the Cornish conspiracy in which the +great house of Neville was implicated, and various other +agitations, were all fomented by the angry monks. + +Rapacity was not the leading motive of Henry or his minister, but +the public welfare. The measure of suppression and sequestration +was violent, but called for. Cromwell put forth no such +sophistical pleas as those revolutionists who robbed the French +clergy,--that their property belonged to the nation. In France the +clergy were despoiled, not because they were infamous, but because +they were rich. In England the monks probably suffered injustice +from the severity of their punishment, but no one now doubts that +punishment was deserved. Nor did Henry retain all the spoils +himself: he gave away the abbey lands with a prodigality equal to +his rapacity. He gave them to those who upheld his throne, as a +reward for service or loyalty. They were given to a new class of +statesmen, who led the popular party,--like the Fitzwilliams, the +Russells, the Dudleys, and the Seymours,--and thus became the +foundation of their great estates. They were also distributed to +many merchants and manufacturers who had been loyal to the +government. From one-third to two-thirds of the landed property of +the kingdom,--as variously estimated,--thus changed hands. It was +an enormous confiscation,--nearly as great as that made by William +the Conqueror in favor of his army of invaders. It must have +produced an immense impression on the mind of Europe. It was +almost as great a calamity to the Catholic Church of England as the +emancipation of slaves was to their Southern masters in our late +war. Such a spoliation of the Church had not before taken place in +any country of Europe. How great an evil the monastic system must +have been regarded by Parliament to warrant such an act! Had it +not been popular, there would have been discontents amounting to a +general hostility to the throne. + +It must also be borne in mind that this dissolution of the +monasteries, this attack on the monastic system, was not a +religious movement fanned by reformers, but an act of Parliament, +at the instance of a royal minister. It was not done under the +direction of a Protestant king,--for Henry was never a Protestant, +but as a public measure in behalf of morality and for reasons of +State. It is true that Henry had, by his marriage with Anne +Boleyn and the divorce of his virtuous queen, defied the Pope +and separated England from Rome, so far as appointments to +ecclesiastical benefices are concerned. But in offending the Pope +he also equally offended Charles V. The results of his separation +from Rome, during his life, were purely political. The King did +not give up the Mass or the Roman communion or Roman dogmas of +faith; he only prepared the way for reform in the next reign. He +only intensified the hatred between the old conservative party and +the party of reform and progress. + +How far Cromwell himself was a Protestant it is difficult to tell. +Doubtless he sympathized with the new religious spirit of the age, +but he did not openly avow the faith of Luther. He was the able +and unscrupulous minister of an absolute monarch, bent on sweeping +away abuses of all kinds, but with the idea of enlarging the royal +authority as much, perhaps, as promoting the prosperity of the +realm. + +He therefore turned his attention to the ecclesiastical courts, +which from the time of Becket had been antagonistic to royal +encroachments. The war between the civil power and these courts +had begun before the fall of Wolsey, and had resulted in the +curtailment of probate duties, legacies, and mortuaries, by which +the clergy had been enriched. A limitation of pluralities and +enforcement of residence had also been effected. But a still +greater blow to the privileges of the clergy was struck by the +Parliament under the influence of Cromwell, who had elevated it in +order to give legality to the despotic measures of the Crown; and +in this way a law was passed that no one under the rank of a +subdeacon, if convicted of felony, should be allowed to plead his +"benefit of clergy," but should be punished like ordinary +criminals,--thus re-establishing the constitutions of Clarendon in +the time of Becket. Another act also was passed, by which no one +could be summoned, as aforetime, to the archbishop's court out of +his own diocese,--a very beneficent act, since the people had been +needlessly subject to great expense and injustice in being obliged +to travel considerable distances. It was moreover enacted that men +could not burden their estates beyond twenty years by providing +priests to sing masses for their souls. The Parliament likewise +abolished annats,--a custom which had long prevailed in Europe, +which required one year's income to be sent to the Pope on any new +preferment; a great burden to the clergy; a sort of tribute to a +foreign power. Within fifty years, one hundred and sixty thousand +pounds had thus been sent from England to Rome, from this one +source of papal revenue alone,--equal to three million pounds at +the present time, or fifteen millions of dollars, from a country of +only three millions of people. It was the passage of that act +which induced Sir Thomas More (a devoted Catholic, but a just and +able and incorruptible judge) to resign the seals which he had so +long and so honorably held,--the most prominent man in England +after Cromwell and Cranmer; and it was the execution of this lofty +character, because he held out against the imperious demands of +Henry, which is the greatest stain upon this monarch's reign. +Parliament also called the clergy to account for excessive acts of +despotism, and subjected them to the penalty of a premunire (the +offence of bringing a foreign authority into England), from which +they were freed only by enormous fines. + +Thus it would seem that many abuses were removed by Cromwell and +the Parliament during the reign of Henry VIII. which may almost be +considered as reforms of the Church itself. The authority of the +Church was not attacked, still less its doctrines, but only abuses +and privileges the restraint of which was of public benefit, and +which tended to reduce the power of the clergy. It was this +reduction of clerical usurpations and privileges which is the main +feature in the legislation of Henry VIII., so far as it pertained +to the Church. It was wresting away the power which the clergy had +enjoyed from the days of Alfred and Ina,--a reform which Henry II. +and Edward I., and other sovereigns, had failed to effect. This +was the great work of Cromwell, and in it he had the support of his +royal master, since it was a transfer of power from the clergy to +the throne; and Henry VIII. was hated and anathematized by Rome as +Henry IV. of Germany was, without ceasing to be a Catholic. He +even retained the title of Defender of the Faith, which had been +conferred upon him by the Pope for his opposition to the +theological doctrines of Luther, which he never accepted, and which +he always detested. + +Cromwell did not long survive the great services he rendered to his +king and the nation. In the height of his power he made a fatal +mistake. He deceived the King in regard to Anne of Cleves, whose +marriage he favored from motives of expediency and a manifest +desire to promote the Protestant cause. He palmed upon the King a +woman who could not speak a word of English,--a woman without +graces or accomplishments, who was absolutely hateful to him. +Henry's disappointment was bitter, and his vengeance was +unrelenting. The enemies of Cromwell soon took advantage of this +mistake. The great Duke of Norfolk, head of the Catholic party, +accused him at the council-board of high treason. Two years +before, such a charge would have received no attention; but Henry +now hated him, and was resolved to punish him for the wreck of his +domestic happiness. + +Cromwell was hurried to that gloomy fortress whose outlet was +generally the scaffold, he was denied even the form of trial. A +bill of attainder was hastily passed by the Parliament he had +ruled. Only one person in the realm had the courage to intercede +for him, and this was Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury; but his +entreaties were futile. The fallen minister had no chance of life, +and no one knew it so well as himself. Even a trial would have +availed nothing; nothing could have availed him,--he was a doomed +man. So he bade his foes make quick work of it; and quick work was +made. In eighteen days from his arrest, Thomas Cromwell, Earl of +Essex, Knight of the Garter, Grand Chamberlain, Lord Privy Seal, +Vicar-General, and Master of the Wards, ascended the scaffold on +which had been shed the blood of a queen,--making no protestation +of innocence, but simply committing his soul to Jesus Christ, in +whom he believed. Like Wolsey, he arose from an humble station to +the most exalted position the King could give; and, like Wolsey, he +saw the vanity of delegated power as soon as he offended the source +of power. + + + "He who ascends the mountain-tops shall find + The loftiest peak most wrapped in clouds and storms. + Though high above the sun of glory shines, + And far beneath the earth and ocean spread, + Round HIM are icy rocks, and loudly blow + Contending tempests on his naked head." + + +On the disappearance of Cromwell from the stage, Cranmer came +forward more prominently, he was a learned doctor in that +university which has ever sent forth the apostles of great +emancipating movements. He was born in 1489, and was therefore +twenty years of age on the accession of Henry VIII. in 1509, and +was twenty-eight when Luther published his theses. He early +sympathized with the reform doctrines, but was too politic to take +an active part in their discussion. He was a moderate, calm, +scholarly man, not a great genius or great preacher. He had none +of those bold and dazzling qualities which attract the gaze of the +world. We behold in him no fearless and impetuous Luther,-- +attacking with passionate earnestness the corruptions of Rome; +bracing himself up to revolutionary assaults, undaunted before +kings and councils, and giving no rest to his hands or slumber to +his eyes until he had consummated his protests,--a man of the +people, yet a dictator to princes. We see no severely logical +Calvin,--pushing out his metaphysical deductions until he had +chained the intellect of his party to a system of incomparable +grandeur and yet of repulsive austerity, exacting all the while the +same allegiance to doctrines which he deduced from the writings of +Paul as he did to the direct declarations of Christ; next to Thomas +Aquinas, the acutest logician the Church has known; a system-maker, +like the great Dominican schoolmen, and their common master and +oracle, Saint Augustine of Hippo. We see in Cranmer no +uncompromising and aggressive reformer like Knox,--controlling by a +stern dogmatism both a turbulent nobility and an uneducated people, +and filling all classes alike with inextinguishable hatred of +everything that even reminded them of Rome. Nor do we find in +Cranmer the outspoken and hearty eloquence of Latimer,--appealing +to the people at St. Paul's Cross to shake off all the trappings of +the "Scarlet Mother," who had so long bewitched the world with her +sorceries. + +Cranmer, if less eloquent, less fearless, less logical, less able +than these, was probably broader, more comprehensive in his views,-- +adapting his reforms to the circumstances of the age and country, +and to the genius of the English mind. Hence his reforms, if less +brilliant, were more permanent. He framed the creed that finally +was known as the Thirty-nine Articles, and was the true founder of +the English Church, as that Church has existed for more than three +centuries, neither Roman nor Puritan, but "half-way between Rome +and Geneva;" a compromise, and yet a Church of great vitality, and +endeared to the hearts of the English people. Northern Germany-- +the scene of the stupendous triumphs of Luther--is and has been, +since the time of Frederick the Great, the hot-bed of rationalistic +inquiries; and the Genevan as well as the French and Swiss churches +which Calvin controlled have become cold, with a dreary and formal +Protestantism, without poetry or life. But the Church of England +has survived two revolutions and all the changes of human thought, +and is still a mighty power, decorous, beautiful, conservative, yet +open to all the liberalizing influences of an age of science and +philosophy. Cranmer, though a scholastic, seems to have perceived +that nothing is more misleading and uncertain and unsatisfactory +than any truth pushed out to its severest logical conclusions +without reference to other truths which have for their support the +same divine authority. It is not logic which has built up the most +enduring institutions, but common-sense and plain truths, and +appeals to human consciousness,--the cogito, ergo sum, without +whose approval most systems have perished. In mediis tutissimus +ibis, is not indeed an agreeable maxim to zealots and partisans and +dialectical logicians, but it seems to be induced from the varied +experiences of human life and the history of different ages and +nations, and applies to all the mixed sciences, like government and +political economy, as well as to church institutions. + +As Cromwell made his fortune by advising the King to assume the +headship of the Church in England, so Cranmer's rise is to be +traced to his advice to Henry to appeal to the decision of +universities whether or not he could be legally divorced from +Catharine, since the Pope--true to the traditions, of the Catholic +Church, or from fear of Charles V.--would not grant a dispensation. +All this business was a miserable quibble, a tissue of scholastic +technicalities. But it answered the ends of Cranmer. The schools +decided for the King, and a great injustice and heartless cruelty +was done to a worthy and loyal woman, and a great insult offered to +the Church and to the Emperor Charles of Germany, who was a nephew +of the Spanish Princess and English Queen. This scandal resulted +in a separation from Rome, as was foreseen both by Cromwell and +Cranmer; and the latter became Archbishop of Canterbury, a prelate +whose power and dignity were greater then than at the present day, +exalted as the post is even now,--the highest in dignity and rank +to which a subject can aspire,--higher even than the Lord High +Chancellorship; both of which however, pale before the position of +a Prime Minister so far as power is concerned. + +The separation from Rome, the suppression of the monasteries, and +the curtailment of the powers of the spiritual courts were the only +reforms of note during the reign of Henry VIII., unless we name +also the new translation of the Bible, authorized through Cranmer's +influence, and the teaching of the creed, the commandments, and the +Lord's prayer in English. The King died in 1547. Cranmer was now +fifty-seven, and was left to prosecute reforms in his own way as +president of the council of regency, Edward VI. being but nine +years old,--"a learned boy," as Macaulay calls him, but still a boy +in the hands of the great noblemen who composed the regency, and +who belonged to the progressive school. + +I do not think the career of Cranmer during the life of Henry +is sufficiently appreciated. He must have shown at least +extraordinary tact and wisdom,--with his reforming tendencies and +enlightened views,--not to come in conflict with his sovereign as +Becket did with Henry II. He had to deal with the most capricious +and jealous of tyrants; cruel and unscrupulous when crossed; a man +who rarely retained a friendship or remembered a service; who never +forgave an injury or forgot an affront; a glutton and a sensualist; +although prodigal with his gifts, social in his temper, enlightened +in his government, and with very respectable abilities and very +considerable theological knowledge. This hard and exacting master +Cranmer had to serve, without exciting his suspicions or coming in +conflict with him; so that he seemed politic and vacillating, for +which he would not be excused were it not for his subsequent +services, and his undoubted sincerity and devotion to the +Protestant cause. During the life of Henry we can scarcely call +Cranmer a reformer. The most noted reformer of the day was old +Hugh Latimer, the King's chaplain, who declaimed against sin with +the zeal and fire of Savonarola, and aimed to create a religious +life among the people, from whom he sprung and whom he loved,--a +rough, hearty, honest, conscientious man, with deep convictions and +lofty soul. + +In the reforms thus far carried on we perceive that, though +popular, they emanated from princes and not from the people. The +people had no hand in the changes made, as at Geneva, only the +ministers of kings and great public functionaries. And in the +reforms subsequently effected, which really constitute the English +Reformation, they were made by the council of regency, under the +leadership of Cranmer and the protectorship of Somerset. + +The first thing which the Government did after the accession of +Edward VI. was to remove images from the churches, as a form of +idolatry,--much to the wrath of Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, the +ablest man of the old conservative and papal party. But Ridley, +afterwards Bishop of Rochester, preached against all forms of papal +superstition with so much ability and zeal that the churches were +soon cleared of these "helps to devotion." + +Cranmer, now unchecked, turned his attention to other reforms, but +proceeded slowly and cautiously, not wishing to hazard much at the +outset. First communion of both kinds, heretofore restricted to +the clergy, was appointed; and, closely connected with it, Masses +were put down. Then a law was passed by Parliament that the +appointment of bishops should vest in the Crown alone, and not, as +formerly, be confirmed by the Pope. The next great thing to which +the reformers directed their attention was the preparation of a new +liturgy in the public worship of God, which gave rise to +considerable discussion. They did not seek to sweep away the old +form, for it was prepared by the sainted doctors of the Church of +all ages; but they would purge it of all superstitions, and retain +what was most beautiful and expressive in the old prayers. The Ten +Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the early creeds of course +were retained, as well as whatever was in harmony with primitive +usages. These changes called out letters from Calvin at Geneva, +who was now recognized as a great oracle among the Protestants: he +encouraged the work, but advised a more complete reformation, and +complained of the coldness of the clergy, as well as of the general +vices of the times. Martin Bucer of Strasburg, at this time +professor at Cambridge, also wrote letters to the same effect; but +the time had not come for more radical reforms. Then Parliament, +controlled by the Government, passed an act allowing the clergy to +marry,--opposed, of course, by many bishops in allegiance to Rome. +This was a great step in reform, and removed many popular scandals; +it struck a heavy blow at the conditions of the Middle Ages, +holding that celibacy sprung from no law of God, but was Oriental +in its origin, encouraged by the Church to cement its power. And +this act concerning the marriage of the clergy was soon followed by +the celebrated Forty-two Articles, framed by Cranmer and Ridley, +which are the bases of the English Church,--a theological creed, +slightly amended afterwards in the reign of Elizabeth; evangelical +but not Calvinistic, affirming the great ideas of Augustine and +Luther as to grace, justification by faith, and original sin, and +repudiating purgatory, pardons, the worship and invocation of +saints and images; a larger creed than the Nicene or Athanasian, +and comprehensive,--such as most Protestants might accept. Both +this and the book of Common Prayer were written with consummate +taste, were the work of great scholars,--moderate, broad, +enlightened, conciliatory. + +The reformers then gave their attention to an alteration of +ecclesiastical laws in reference to matters which had always been +decided in ecclesiastical courts. The commissioners--the ablest +men in England, thirty-two in number--had scarcely completed their +work before the young King died, and Mary ascended the throne. + +We cannot too highly praise the moderation with which the reforms +had been made, especially when we remember the violence of the age. +There were indeed two or three capital executions for heresy. +Gardiner and Bonner, who opposed the reformation with unparalleled +bitterness were only deprived of their sees and sent to the Tower. +The execution of Somerset was the work of politicians, of great +noblemen jealous of his ascendency. It does not belong to the +reformation, nor do the executions of a few other noblemen. + +Cranmer himself was a statesman rather than a preacher. He left +but few sermons, and these commonplace, without learning, or wit, +or zeal,--ordinary exhortations to a virtuous life. The chief +thing, outside of the reforms I have mentioned, was the publication +of a few homilies for the use of the clergy,--too ignorant to write +sermons,--which homilies were practical and orthodox, but +containing nothing to stir up an ardent religious life. The Bible +was also given a greater scope; everybody could read it if he +wished. Public prayer was restored to the people in a language +which they could understand, and a few preachers arose who appealed +to conscience and reason,--like Latimer and Ridley, and Hooper and +Taylor; but most of them were formal and cold. There must have +been great religious apathy, or else these reforms would have +excited more opposition on the part of the clergy, who generally +acquiesced in the changes. But the Reformation thus far was +official; it was not popular. It repressed vice and superstition, +but kindled no great enthusiasm. It was necessary for the English +reformers and sincere Protestants to go through a great trial; to +be persecuted, to submit to martyrdom for the sake of their +opinions. The school of heroes and saints has ever been among +blazing fires and scaffolds. It was martyrdom which first gave +form and power to early Christianity. The first chapter in the +history of the early Church is the torments of the martyrs. The +English Reformation had no great dignity or life until the funeral +pyres were lighted. Men had placidly accepted new opinions, and +had Bibles to instruct them; but it was to be seen how far they +would make sacrifices to maintain them. + +This test was afforded by the accession of Mary, daughter of +Catharine the Spaniard,--an affectionate and kind-hearted woman +enough in ordinary times, but a fiend of bigotry, like Catherine +de' Medicis, when called upon to suppress the Reformation, although +on her accession she declared that she would force no man's +conscience. But the first thing she does is to restore the popish +bishops,--for so they were called then by historians; and the next +thing she does is to restore the Mass, and the third to shut up +Cranmer and Latimer in the Tower, attaint and execute them, with +sundry others like Ridley and Hooper, as well as those great nobles +who favored the claims of the Lady Jane Grey and the religious +reforms of Edward VI. She reconciles herself with Rome, and +accepts its legate at her court; she receives Spanish spies and +Jesuit confessors; she marries the son of Charles V., afterwards +Philip II.; she executes the Lady Jane Grey; she keeps the +strictest watch on the Princess Elizabeth, who learns in her +retirement the art of dissimulation and lying; she forms an +alliance with Spain; she makes Cardinal Pole Archbishop of +Canterbury; she gives almost unlimited power to Gardiner and +Bonner, who begin a series of diabolical persecutions, burning such +people as John Rogers, Sanders, Doctor Taylor of Hadley, William +Hunter, and Stephen Harwood, ferreting out all suspected of heresy, +and confining them in the foulest jails,--burning even little +children. Mary even takes measures to introduce the Inquisition +and restore the monasteries. Everywhere are scaffolds and +burnings. In three years nearly three hundred people were burned +alive, often with green wood,--a small number compared with those +who were executed and assassinated in France, about this time, by +Catherine de' Medicis, the Guises, and Charles IX. + +In those dreadful persecutions which began with the accession of +Mary, it was impossible that Cranmer should escape. In spite of +his dignity, rank, age, and services, he could hope for no favor or +indulgence from that morose woman in whose sapless bosom no +compassion for the Protestants ever found admission, and still less +from those cruel, mercenary, bigoted prelates whom she selected for +her ministers. It was not customary in that age for the Churchmen +to spare heretics, whether high or low. Would it forgive him who +had overturned the consecrated altars, displaced the ritual of a +thousand years, and revolted from the authority of the supreme head +of the Christian world? Would Mary suffer him to pass unpunished +who had displaced her mother from the nuptial bed, and pronounced +her own birth to be stained with an ignominious blot, and who had +exalted a rival to the throne? And Gardiner and Bonner, too, those +bigoted prelates and ministers who would have sent to the flames an +unoffending woman if she denied the authority of the Pope, were not +the men to suffer him to escape who had not only overturned the +papal power in England, but had deprived them of their sees and +sent them to the Tower. No matter how decent the forms of law or +respectful the agents of the crown, Cranmer had not the shadow of a +hope; and hence he was certainly weak to say the least, to trust to +any deceitful promises made to him. What his enemies were bent +upon was his recantation, as preliminary to his execution; and he +should have been firm, both for his cause, and because his +martyrdom was sure. In an evil hour he listened to the voice of +the seducer. Both life and dignities were promised if he would +recant. "Confounded, heart-broken, old," the love of life and the +fear of death were stronger for a time than the power of conscience +or dignity of character. Six several times was he induced to +recant the doctrines he had preached, and profess an allegiance +which could only be a solemn mockery. + +True, Cranmer came to himself; he perceived that he was mocked, and +felt both grief and shame in view of his apostasy. His last hours +were glorious. Never did a good man more splendidly redeem his +memory from shame. Being permitted to address the people before +his execution,--with the hope on the part of his tormentors that he +would publicly confirm his recantation,--he first supplicated the +mercy and forgiveness of Almighty God, and concluded his speech +with these memorable words: "And now I come to the great thing that +troubleth my conscience more than anything I ever did or said, even +the setting forth of writings contrary to the truth, which I now +renounce and refuse,--those things written with my own hand +contrary to the truth I thought in my heart, and writ for fear of +death and to save my life. And forasmuch as my hand offended in +writing contrary to my heart, therefore my hand shall first be +punished; for if I come to the fire, it shall first be burned. As +for the Pope, I denounce him as Christ's enemy and Antichrist, with +all his false doctrines." Then he was carried away, and a great +multitude ran after him, exhorting him, while time was, to remember +himself. "Coming to the stake," says the Catholic eye-witness, +"with a cheerful countenance and willing mind, he took off his +garments in haste and stood upright in his shirt. Fire being +applied, he stretched forth his right hand and thrust it into the +flame, before the fire came to any other part of his body; when his +hand was to be seen sensibly burning, he cried with a loud voice, +'This hand hath offended."' + +Thus died Cranmer, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, after +presiding over the Church of England above twenty years, and having +bequeathed a legacy to his countrymen of which they continue to be +proud. He had not the intrepidity of Latimer; he was supple to +Henry VIII.; he was weak in his recantation; he was not an original +genius,--but he was a man of great breadth of views, conciliating +wise, temperate in reform, and discharged his great trust with +conscientious adherence to the truth as he understood it; the +friend of Calvin, and revered by the Protestant world. + +Queen Mary reigned, fortunately, but five years, and the +persecutions she encouraged and indorsed proved the seed of a +higher morality and a loftier religious life. + + + "For thus spake aged Latimer: + I tarry by the stake, + Not trusting in my own weak heart, + But for the Saviour's sake. + Why speak of life or death to me, + Whose days are but a span? + Our crown is yonder,--Ridley, see! + Be strong and play the man! + God helping, such a torch this day + We'll light on English land, + That Rome, with all her cardinals, + Shall never quench the brand!" + + +The triumphs of Gardiner and Bonner too were short. Mary died with +a bruised heart and a crushed ambition. On her death, and the +accession of her sister Elizabeth, exiles returned from Geneva and +Frankfort to advocate more radical changes in government and +doctrine. Popular enthusiasm was kindled, never afterwards to be +repressed. + +The great ideas of the Reformation began now to agitate the mind of +England,--not so much the logical doctrines of Calvin as the +emancipating ideas of Luther. The Renaissance had begun, and the +two movements were incorporated,--the religious one of Germany and +the Pagan one of Italy, both favoring liberality of mind, a freer +style of literature, restless inquiries, enterprise, the revival of +learning and art, an intense spirit of progress, and disgust for +the Dark Ages and all the dogmas of scholasticism. With this +spirit of progress and moderate Protestantism Elizabeth herself, +the best educated woman in England, warmly sympathized, as did also +the illustrious men she drew to her court, to whom she gave the +great offices of state. I cannot call her age a religious one: it +was a merry one, cheerful, inquiring, untrammelled in thought, bold +in speculation, eloquent, honest, fervid, courageous, hostile to +the Papacy and all the bigots of Europe. It was still rough, +coarse, sensual; when money was scarce and industries in their +infancy, and material civilization not very attractive. But it was +a great age, glorious, intellectual, brilliant; with such statesmen +as Burleigh and Walsingham to head off treason and conspiracy; when +great poets arose, like Jonson and Spenser and Shakspeare; and +philosophers, like Bacon and Sir Thomas Browne, and lawyers, like +Nicholas Bacon and Coke; and elegant courtiers, like Sidney and +Raleigh and Essex; men of wit, men of enterprise, who would explore +distant seas and colonize new countries; yea, great preachers, like +Jeremy Taylor and Hall; and great theologians, like Hooker and +Chillingworth,--giving polish and, dignity to an uncouth language, +and planting religious truth in the minds of men. + +Elizabeth, with such a constellation around her, had no great +difficulty in re-establishing Protestantism and giving it a new +impetus, although she adhered to liturgies and pomps, and loved +processions and fetes and banquets and balls and expensive +dresses,--a worldly woman, but progressive and enlightened. + +In the religious reforms of that age you see the work of princes +and statesmen still, rather than any great insurrection of human +intelligence or any great religious revival, although the germs of +it were springing up through the popular preachers and the +influence of Genevan reformers. Calvin's writings were potent, and +John Knox was on his way to Scotland. + +I pass by rapidly the reforms of Elizabeth's reign, effected by the +Queen and her ministers and the convocation of Protestant bishops +and clergy and learned men in the universities. Oxford and +Cambridge were then in their glory,--crowded with poor students +from all parts of England, who came to study Greek and Latin and +read theology, not to ride horses and row boats, to put on +dandified airs and sneer at lectures, running away to London to +attend theatres and flirt with girls and drink champagne, beggaring +their fathers and ruining their own expectations and their health. +In a very short time after the accession of Elizabeth, which was +hailed generally as a very auspicious event, things were restored +to nearly the state in which they were left by Cranmer in the +preceding reign. This was not done by direct authority of the +Queen, but by acts of Parliament. Even Henry VIII. ruled through +the Parliament, only it was his tool and instrument. Elizabeth +consulted its wishes as the representation of the nation, for she +aimed to rule by the affections of her people. But she recommended +the Parliament to conciliatory measures; to avoid extremes; to drop +offensive epithets, like "papist" and "heretic;" to go as far as +the wants of the nation required, and no farther. Though a zealous +Protestant, she seemed to have no great animosities. Her +particular aversion was Bonner,--the violent, blood-thirsty, +narrow-minded Bishop of London, who was deprived of his see and +shut up in the Tower, put out of harm's way, not cruelly treated,-- +he was not even deprived of his good dinners. She appointed, as +her prerogative allowed, a very gentle, moderate, broad, kind- +hearted man to be Archbishop of Canterbury,--Parker, who had been +chaplain to her mother, and who was highly esteemed by Burleigh and +Nicholas Bacon, her most influential ministers. Parliament +confirmed the old act, passed during the reign of Henry VIII., +making the sovereign the head of the English Church, although the +title of "supreme head" was left out in the oath of allegiance, to +conciliate the Catholic party. To execute this supremacy, the +Court of High Commission was established,--afterwards so abused by +Charles I. The Church Service was modified, and the Act of +Uniformity was passed by Parliament, after considerable debate. +The changes were all made in the spirit of moderation, and few +suffered beyond a deprivation of their sees or livings for refusing +to take the oath of supremacy. + +Then followed the Thirty-nine Articles, setting forth the creed of +the Established Church,--substantially the creed which Cranmer had +made,--and a new translation of the Bible, and the regulation of +ecclesiastical courts. + +But whatever was done was in good taste,--marked by good sense and +moderation,--to preserve decency and decorum, and repress all +extremes of superstition and license. The clergy preached in a +black gown and Genevan bands, using the surplice only in the +liturgy; we see no lace or millinery. The churches were stripped +of images, the pulpits became high and prominent, the altars were +changed to communion-tables without candles and symbols. There was +not much account made of singing, for the lyric version of the +Psalms was execrable. For the first time since Chrysostom and +Gregory Nazianzen, preaching became the chief duty of the +clergyman; and his sermons were long, for the people were greedy of +instruction, and were not critical of artistic merits. Among other +things of note, the exiles were recalled, who brought back with +them the learning of the Continent and the theology of Geneva, and +an intense hatred for all the old forms of superstition,--images, +crucifixes, lighted candles, Catholic vestments,--and a supreme +regard for the authority of the Scriptures, rather than the +authority of the Church. + +These men, mostly learned and pious, were not contented with the +restoration as effected by Elizabeth's reformers,--they wanted +greater simplicity of worship and a more definite and logical +creed; and they made a good deal of trouble, being very +conscientious and somewhat narrow and intolerant. So that, after +the re-establishment of Protestantism, the religious history of the +reign is chiefly concerned with the quarrels and animosities within +the Church, particularly about vestments and modes of worship,-- +things unessential, minute, technical,--which led to great acerbity +on both sides, and to some persecution; for these quarrels provoked +the Queen and her ministers, who wanted peace and uniformity. To +the Government it seemed strange and absurd for these returned +exiles to make such a fuss about a few externals; to these +intensified Protestants it seemed harsh and cruel that Government +should insist on such a rigid uniformity, and punish them for not +doing as they were bidden by the bishops. + +So they separated from the Established Church, and became what were +called Nonconformists,--having not only disgust of the decent +ritualism of the Church, but great wrath for the bishops and +hierarchy and spiritual courts. They also disapproved of the holy +days which the Church retained, and the prayers and the cathedral +style of worship, the use of the cross in baptism, godfathers and +godmothers, the confirmation of children, kneeling at the +sacrament, bowing at the name of Jesus, the ring in marriage, the +surplice, the divine right of bishops, and some other things which +reminded them of Rome, for which they had absolute detestation, +seeing in the old Catholic Church nothing but abominations and +usurpations, no religion at all, only superstition and anti- +Christian government and doctrine,--the reign of the beast, the +mystic Babylon, the scarlet mother revelling in the sorceries of +ancient Paganism. These terrible animosities against even the +shadows and resemblances of what was called Popery were increased +and intensified by the persecution and massacres which the +Catholics about this time were committing on the Protestants in +France and Germany and the Low Countries, and which filled the +people of England,--especially the middle and lower classes, with +fear, alarm, anger, and detestation. + +I will not enter upon the dissensions which so early crept into the +English Church, and led to a separation or a schism, whatever name +it goes by,--to most people in these times not very interesting or +edifying, because they were not based on any great ideas of +universal application, and seeming to such minds as Bacon and +Parker and Jewell rather narrow and frivolous. + +The great Puritan controversy would have no dignity if it were +confined to vestments and robes and forms of worship, and hatred of +ceremonies and holy days, and other matters which seemed to lean to +Romanism. But the grandeur and the permanence of the movement were +in a return to the faith of the primitive Church and a purer +national morality, and to the unrestricted study of the Bible, and +the exaltation of preaching and Christian instruction over forms +and liturgies and antiphonal chants; above all, the exaltation of +reason and learning in the interpretation of revealed truth, and +the education of the people in all matters which concern their +temporal or religious interests, so that a true and rapid progress +was inaugurated in civilization itself, which has peculiarly marked +all Protestant countries having religious liberty. Underneath all +these apparently insignificant squabbles and dissensions there were +two things of immense historical importance: first, a spirit of +intolerance on the part of government and of church dignitaries,-- +the State allied with the Church forcing uniformity with their +decrees, and severely punishing those who did not accept them,--in +matters beyond all worldly authority; and, secondly, a rising +spirit of religious liberty, determined to assert its glorious +rights at any cost or hazard, and especially defended by the most +religious and earnest part of the clergy, who were becoming +Calvinistic in their creed, and were pushing the ideas of the +Reformation to their utmost logical sequence. This spirit was +suppressed during the reign of Elizabeth, out of general respect +and love for her as a Queen, and the external dangers to which the +realm was exposed from Spain and France, which diverted the +national mind. But it burst out fiercely in the next reigns, under +James and Charles, about the beginning of the seventeenth century. +And this is the last development of the Reformation in England to +which I can allude,--the great Puritan contest for liberty of +worship, running, when opposed unjustly and cruelly, into a contest +for civil liberty; that is, the right to change forms and +institutions of civil government, even to the dethronement of +kings, when it was the expressed and declared will of the people, +in whom was vested the ultimate source of sovereignty. + +But here I must be brief. I tread on familiar ground, made +familiar by all our literature, especially by the most brilliant +writer of modern times, though not the greatest philosopher: I mean +that great artist and word-painter Macaulay, whose chief excellence +is in making clear and interesting and vivid, by a world of +illustration and practical good-sense and marvellous erudition, +what was obvious to his own objective mind, and obvious also to +most other enlightened people not much interested in metaphysical +disquisitions. No man more than he does justice to the love of +liberty which absolutely burned in the souls of the Puritans,--that +glorious party which produced Milton and Cromwell, and Hampden and +Bunyan, and Owen and Calamy, and Baxter and Howe. + +The chief peculiarity of those Puritans--once called +Nonconformists, afterwards Presbyterians and Independents--was +their reception of the creed of John Calvin, the clearest and most +logical intellect that the Reformation produced, though not the +broadest; who reigned as a religious dictator at Geneva and in the +Reformed churches of France, and who gave to John Knox the +positivism and sternness and rigidity which he succeeded in +impressing upon the churches of Scotland. And the peculiar +doctrines which marked Calvin and his disciples were those deduced +from the majesty of God and the comparative littleness of man, +leading to and bound up with the impotence of the will, human +dependence, the necessity of Divine grace,--Augustinian in spirit, +but going beyond Augustine in the subtlety of metaphysical +distinctions and dissertations on free-will election, and +predestination,--unfathomable, but exceedingly attractive subjects +to the divines of the seventeenth century, creating a metaphysical +divinity, a theology of the brain rather than of the heart, a +brilliant series of logical and metaphysical deductions from +established truths, demanding to be received with the same +unhesitating obedience as the truths, or Bible declarations, from +which they are deduced. The greatness of human reason was never +more forcibly shown than in these deductions; but they were carried +so far as to insult reason itself and mock the consciousness of +mankind; so that mankind rebelled against the very force of the +highest reasonings of the human intellect, because they pushed +logical sequence into absurdity, or to dreadful conclusions: +Decretum quidem horribile fateor, said the great master himself. + +The Puritans were trained in this theology, which developed the +loftiest virtues and the severest self-constraints; making them +both heroes and visionaries, always conscientious and sometimes +repulsive; fitting them for gigantic tasks and unworthy squabbles; +driving them to the Bible, and then to acrimonious discussions; +creating fears almost mediaeval; leading them to technical +observation of religious duties, and transforming the most genial +and affectionate people under the sun into austere saints, with +whom the most ascetic of monks would have had but little sympathy. + +I will not dwell on those peculiarities which Macaulay ridicules +and Taine repeats,--the hatred of theatres and assemblies and +symbolic festivals and bell-ringings, the rejection of the +beautiful, the elongated features, the cropped hair, the unadorned +garments, the proscription of innocent pleasures, the nasal voice, +the cant phrases, the rigid decorums, the strict discipline,-- +these, doubtless exaggerated, were more than balanced by the +observance of the Sabbath, family prayers, temperate habits, fervor +of religious zeal, strict morality, allegiance to duty, and the +perpetual recognition of God Almighty as the sovereign of this +world, to whom we are responsible for all our acts and even our +thoughts. They formed a noble material on which every emancipating +idea could work; men trained by persecutions to self-sacrifice and +humble duties,--making good soldiers, good farmers, good workmen in +every department, honest and sturdy, patient and self-reliant, +devoted to their families though not demonstrative of affection; +keeping the Sunday as a day of worship rather than rest or +recreation, cherishing as the dearest and most sacred of all +privileges the right to worship God according to the dictates of +conscience enlightened by the Bible, and willing to fight, even +amid the greatest privations and sacrifices, to maintain this +sacred right and transmit it to their children. Such were the men +who fought the battles of civil liberty under Cromwell, and +colonized the most sterile of all American lands, making the dreary +wilderness to blossom with roses, and sending out the shoots of +their civilization to conserve more fruitful and favored sections +of the great continent which God gave them, to try new experiments +in liberty and education. + +I need not enumerate the different sects into which these Puritans +were divided, so soon as they felt they had the right to interpret +Scripture for themselves. Nor would I detail the various and cruel +persecutions to which these sects were subjected by the government +and the ecclesiastical tribunals, until they rose in indignation +and despair, and rebelled against the throne, and made war on the +King, and cut off his head; all of which they did from fear and for +self-defence as well as from vengeance and wrath. + +Nor can I describe the counter reformation, the great reaction +which succeeded to the violence of the revolution. The English +reformation was not consummated until constitutional liberty was +heralded by the reign of William and Mary, when the nation became +almost unanimously Protestant, with perfect toleration of religions +opinions, although the fervor of the Puritans had passed away +forever, leaving a residuum of deep-seated popular antipathy to all +the institutions of Romanism and all the ideas of the Middle Ages. +The English reformation began with princes, and ended with the +agitations of the people. The German reformation began with the +people, and ended in the wars of princes. But both movements were +sublime, since they showed the force of religious ideas. Civil +liberty is only one of the sequences which exalt the character and +dignity of man amid the seductions and impediments of a gilded +material life. + + +AUTHORITIES. + + +Todd's Life of Cranmer; Strype's Life of Cranmer; Wood's Annals of +the Oxford University; Burnet's English Reformation; Doctor +Lingard's History of England; Macaulay's Essays; Fuller's Church +History; Gilpin's Life of Cranmer; Original Letters to Cromwell; +Hook's Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury; Butler's Book of the +Roman Catholic Church; Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical biography; +Turner's Henry VIII.; Froude's History of England; Fox's Life of +Latimer; Turner's Reign of Mary. + + + +IGNATIUS LOYOLA. + +A.D. 1491-1556 + +RISE AND INFLUENCE OF THE JESUITS. + + +Next to the Protestant Reformation itself, the most memorable moral +movement in the history of modern times was the counter-reformation +in the Roman Catholic Church, finally effected, in no slight +degree, by the Jesuits. But it has not the grandeur or historical +significance of the great insurrection of human intelligence which +was headed by Luther. It was a revival of the pietism of the +Middle Ages, with an external reform of manners. It was not +revolutionary; it did not cast off the authority of the popes, nor +disband the monasteries, nor reform religious worship: it rather +tended to strengthen the power of the popes, to revive monastic +life, and to perpetuate the forms of worship which the Middle Ages +had established. No doubt a new religions life was kindled, and +many of the flagrant abuses of the papal empire were redressed, and +the lives of the clergy made more decent, in accordance with the +revival of intelligence. Nor did it disdain literature or art, or +any form of modern civilization, but sought to combine progress +with old ideas; it was an effort to adapt the Roman theocracy to +changing circumstances, and was marked by expediency rather than +right, by zeal rather than a profound philosophy. + +This movement took place among the Latin races,--the Italians, +French, and Spaniards,--having no hold on the Teutonic races except +in Austria, as much Slavonic as German. It worked on a poor +material, morally considered; among peoples who have not been +distinguished for stamina of character, earnestness, contemplative +habits, and moral elevation,--peoples long enslaved, frivolous in +their pleasures, superstitious, indolent, fond of fetes, +spectacles, pictures, and Pagan reminiscences. + +The doctrine of justification by faith was not unknown, even in +Italy. It was embraced by many distinguished men. Contarini, an +illustrious Venetian, wrote a treatise on it, which Cardinal Pole +admired. Folengo ascribed justification to grace alone; and +Vittoria Colonna, the friend of Michael Angelo, took a deep +interest in these theological inquiries. But the doctrine did not +spread; it was not understood by the people,--it was a speculation +among scholars and doctors, which gave no alarm to the Pope. There +was even an attempt at internal reform under Paul III. of the +illustrious family of the Farnese, successor of Leo X. and Clement +VII., the two renowned Medicean popes. He made cardinals of +Contarini, Caraffa, Sadoleto, Pole, Giberto,--all imbued with +reformative doctrines, and very religious; and these good men +prepared a plan of reform and submitted it to the Pope, which +ended, however, only in new monastic orders. + +It was then that Ignatius Loyola appeared upon the stage, when +Luther was in the midst of his victories, and when new ideas were +shaking the pontifical throne. The desponding successor of the +Gregorys and the Clements knew not where to look for aid in that +crisis of peril and revolution. The monastic orders composed his +regular army, but they had become so corrupted that they had lost +the reverence of the people. The venerable Benedictines had +ceased to be men of prayer and contemplation as in the times of +Bernard and Anselm, and were revelling in their enormous wealth. +The cloisters of Cluniacs and Cistercians--branches of the +Benedictines--were filled with idle and dissolute monks. The +famous Dominicans and Franciscans, who had rallied to the defence +of the Papacy three centuries before,--those missionary orders that +had filled the best pulpits and the highest chairs of philosophy in +the scholastic age,--had become inexhaustible subjects of sarcasm +and mockery, for they were peddling relics and indulgences, and +quarrelling among themselves. They were hated as inquisitors, +despised as scholastics, and deserted as preachers; the roads and +taverns were filled with them. Erasmus laughed at them, Luther +abused them, and the Pope reproached them. No hope from such men +as these, although they had once been renowned for their missions, +their zeal, their learning, and their preaching. + +At this crisis Loyola and his companions volunteered their +services, and offered to go wherever the Pope should send them, as +preachers, or missionaries, or teachers, instantly, without +discussion, conditions, or rewards. So the Pope accepted them, +made them a new religions Order; and they did what the Mendicant +Friars had done three hundred years before,--they fanned a new +spirit, and rapidly spread over Europe, over all the countries to +which Catholic adventurers had penetrated, and became the most +efficient allies that the popes ever had. + +This was in 1540, six years after the foundation of the Society of +Jesus had been laid on the Mount of Martyrs, in the vicinity of +Paris, during the pontificate of Paul III. Don Inigo Lopez de +Recalde Loyola, a Spaniard of noble blood and breeding, at first a +page at the court of King Ferdinand, then a brave and chivalrous +soldier, was wounded at the siege of Pampeluna. During a slow +convalescence, having read all the romances he could find, he took +up the "Lives of the Saints," and became fired with religious zeal. +He immediately forsook the pursuit of arms, and betook himself +barefooted to a pilgrimage. He served the sick in hospitals; he +dwelt alone in a cavern, practising austerities; he went as a +beggar on foot to Rome and to the Holy Land, and returned at the +age of thirty-three to begin a course of study. It was while +completing his studies at Paris that he conceived and formed the +"Society of Jesus." + +From that time we date the counter-reformation. In fifty years +more a wonderful change took place in the Catholic Church, wrought +chiefly by the Jesuits. Yea, in sixteen years from that eventful +night--when far above the star-lit city the enthusiastic Loyola had +bound his six companions with irrevocable vows--he had established +his Society in the confidence and affection of Catholic Europe, +against the voice of universities, the fears of monarchs, and the +jealousy of the other monastic orders. In sixteen years, this +ridiculed and wandering Spanish zealot had risen to a condition of +great influence and dignity, second only in power to the Pope +himself; animating the councils of the Vatican, moving the minds of +kings, controlling the souls of a numerous fraternity, and making +his influence felt in every corner of the world. Before the +remembrance of his passionate eloquence, his eyes of fire, and his +countenance of seraphic piety had passed away from the minds of his +own generation, his disciples "had planted their missionary +stations among Peruvian mines, in the marts of the African slave- +trade, among the islands of the Indian Ocean, on the coasts of +Hindustan, in the cities of Japan and China, in the recesses of +Canadian forests, amid the wilds of the Rocky Mountains." They had +the most important chairs in the universities; they were the +confessors of monarchs and men of rank; they had the control of the +schools of Italy, France, Austria, and Spain; and they had become +the most eloquent, learned, and fashionable preachers in all +Catholic countries. They had grown to be a great institution,--an +organization instinct with life, a mechanism endued with energy and +will; forming a body which could outwatch Argus with his hundred +eyes, and outwork Briareus with his hundred arms; they had twenty +thousand eyes open upon every cabinet, every palace, and every +private family in Catholic Europe, and twenty thousand arms +extended over the necks of every sovereign and all their subjects, +--a mighty moral and spiritual power, irresponsible, irresistible, +omnipresent, connected intimately with the education, the learning, +and the religion of the age; yea, the prime agents in political +affairs, the prop alike of absolute monarchies and of the papal +throne, whose interests they made identical. This association, +instinct with one will and for one purpose, has been beautifully +likened by Doctor Williams to the chariot in the Prophet's vision: +"The spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels; wherever the +living creatures went, the wheels went with them; wherever those +stood, these stood: when the living creatures were lifted up, the +wheels were lifted up over against them; and their wings were full +of eyes round about, and they were so high that they were dreadful. +So of the institution of Ignatius,--one soul swayed the vast mass; +and every pin and every cog in the machinery consented with its +whole power to every movement of the one central conscience." + +Luther moved Europe by ideas which emancipated the millions, and +set in motion a progress which is the glory of our age; Loyola +invented an agency which arrested this progress, and led the +Catholic world back again into the subjections and despotisms of +the Middle Ages, retaining however the fear of God and of Hell, +which are the extremes of human motive. + +What is the secret of such a wonderful success? Two things: first, +the extraordinary virtues, abilities, and zeal of the early +Jesuits; and, secondly, their wonderful machinery in adapting means +to an end. + +The history of society shows that no body of men ever obtained a +wide-spread ascendancy, never secured general respect, unless they +deserved it. Industry produces its fruits; learning and piety have +their natural results. Even in the moral world natural law asserts +its supremacy. Hypocrisy and fraud ultimately will be detected; no +enduring reputation is built upon a lie; sincerity and earnestness +will call out respect, even from foes; learning and virtue are +lights which are not hid under a bushel. Enthusiasm creates +enthusiasm; a lofty life will be seen and honored. Nor do people +intrust their dearest interests except to those whom they +venerate,--and venerate because their virtues shine like the face +of a goddess. We yield to those only whom we esteem wiser than +ourselves. Moses controlled the Israelites because they venerated +his wisdom and courage; Paul had the confidence of the infant +churches because they saw his labors; Bernard swayed his darkened +age by the moral power of learning and sanctity. The mature +judgments of centuries never have reversed the judgments which past +ages gave in reference to their master minds. All the pedants and +sophists of Europe cannot whitewash Frederic II. or Henry VIII. +No man in Athens was more truly venerated than Socrates when +he mocked his judges. Cicero, Augustine, Aquinas, appeared to +contemporaries, as they appear to us. Even Hildebrand did not +juggle himself into his theocratic chair. Washington deserved all +the reverence he enjoyed; and Bonaparte himself was worthy of the +honors he received, so long as he was true to the interests of +France. + +So of the Jesuits,--there is no mystery in their success; the same +causes would produce the same results again. When Catholic Europe +saw men born to wealth and rank voluntarily parting with their +goods and honors; devoting themselves to religious duties, often in +a humble sphere; spending their days in schools and hospitals; +wandering as preachers and missionaries amid privations and in +fatigue; encountering perils and dangers and hardships with fresh +and ever-sustained enthusiasm; and finally yielding up their lives +as martyrs, to proclaim salvation to idolatrous savages,--it knew +them to be heroic, and believed them to be sincere, and honored +them in consequence. When parents saw that the Jesuits entered +heart and soul into the work of education, winning their pupils' +hearts by kindness, watching their moods, directing their minds +into congenial studies, and inspiring them with generous +sentiments, they did not stop to pry into their motives; and +universities, when they discovered the superior culture of educated +Jesuits, outstripping all their associates in learning, and +shedding a light by their genius and erudition, very naturally +appointed them to the highest chairs; and even the people, when +they saw that the Jesuits were not stained by vulgar vices, but +were hard-working; devoted to their labors, earnest, and eloquent, +put themselves under their teachings; and especially when they +added gentlemanly manners, good taste, and agreeable conversation +to their unimpeachable morality and religious fervor, they made +these men their confessors as well as preachers. Their lives stood +out in glorious contrast with those of the old monks and the +regular clergy, in an age of infidel levities, when the Italian +renaissance was bearing its worst fruits, and men were going back +to Pagan antiquity for their pleasures and opinions. + +That the early Jesuits blazed with virtues and learning and piety +has never been denied, although these things have been poetically +exaggerated. The world was astonished at their intrepidity, zeal, +and devotion. They were not at first intriguing, or ambitious, or +covetous. They loved their Society; but they loved still more what +they thought was the glory of God. Ad majoram Dei gloriam was the +motto which was emblazoned on their standard when they went forth +as Christian warriors to overcome the heresies of Christendom and +the superstitions of idolaters. "The Jesuit missionary," says +Stephen, "with his breviary under his arm, his beads at his girdle, +and his crucifix in his hands, went forth without fear, to +encounter the most dreaded dangers. Martyrdom was nothing to him; +he knew that the altar which might stream with his blood, and the +mound which might be raised over his remains, would become a +cherished object of his fame and an expressive emblem of the power +of his religion." "If I die," said Xavier, when about to visit the +cannibal Island of Del Moro, "who knows but what all may receive +the Gospel, since it is most certain it has ever fructified more +abundantly in the field of Paganism by the blood of martyrs than by +the labors of missionaries,"--a sublime truth, revealed to him in +his whole course of protracted martyrdom and active philanthropy, +especially in those last hours when, on the Island of Sanshan, he +expired, exclaiming, as his fading eyes rested on the crucifix, In +te Domine speravi, non confundar in eternum. "In perils, in +fastings, in fatigues, was the life of this remarkable man passed, +in order to convert the heathen world; and in ten years he had +traversed a tract of more than twice the circumference of the +earth, preaching, disputing, and baptizing, until seventy thousand +converts, it is said, were the fruits of his mission."* " My +companion," said the fearless Marquette, when exploring the +prairies of the Western wilderness, "is an envoy of France to +discover new countries, and I am an ambassador of God to enlighten +them with the Gospel." Lalemant, when pierced with the arrows of +the Iroquois, rejoiced that his martyrdom would induce others to +follow his example. The missions of the early Jesuits extorted +praises from Baxter and panegyric from Liebnitz. + + +* I am inclined to think that this statement is exaggerated; or, if +true, that conversion was merely nominal. In any event, his labors +were vast. + + +And not less remarkable than these missionaries were those who +labored in other spheres. Loyola himself, though visionary and +monastic, had no higher wish than to infuse piety into the Catholic +Church, and to strengthen the hands of him whom he regarded as +God's vicegerent. Somehow or other he succeeded in securing the +absolute veneration of his companions, so much so that the sainted +Xavier always wrote to him on his knees. His "Spiritual Exercises" +has ever remained the great text-book of the Jesuits,--a compend of +fasts and penances, of visions and of ecstasies; rivalling Saint +Theresa herself in the rhapsodies of an exalted piety, showing the +chivalric and romantic ardor of a Spanish nobleman directed into +the channel of devotion to an invisible Lord. See this wounded +soldier at the siege of Pampeluna, going through all the +experiences of a Syriac monk in his Manresan cave, and then turning +his steps to Paris to acquire a university education; associating +only with the pious and the learned, drawing to him such gifted men +as Faber and Xavier, Salmeron and Lainez, Borgia and Bobadilla, and +inspiring them with his ideas and his fervor; living afterwards, at +Venice, with Caraffa (the future Paul IV.) in the closest intimacy, +preaching at Vicenza, and forming a new monastic code, as full of +genius and originality as it was of practical wisdom, which became +the foundation of a system of government never surpassed in the +power of its mechanism to bind the minds and wills of men. Loyola +was a most extraordinary man in the practical turn he gave to +religious rhapsodies; creating a legislation for his Society which +made it the most potent religious organization in the world. All +his companions were remarkable likewise for different traits and +excellences, which yet were made to combine in sustaining the unity +of this moral mechanism. Lainez had even a more comprehensive mind +than Loyola. It was he who matured the Jesuit Constitution, and +afterwards controlled the Council of Trent,--a convocation which +settled the creed of the Catholic Church, especially in regard to +justification, and which extolled the merits of Christ, but +attributed justification to good works in a different sense from +that understood and taught by Luther. + +Aside from the personal gifts and qualities of the early Jesuits, +they would not have so marvellously succeeded had it not been for +their remarkable constitution,--that which bound the members of the +Society together, and gave to it a peculiar unity and force. The +most marked thing about it was the unbounded and unhesitating +obedience required of every member to superiors, and of these +superiors to the General of the Order,--so that there was but one +will. This law of obedience is, as every one knows, one of the +fundamental principles of all the monastic orders from the earliest +times, enforced by Benedict as well as Basil. Still there was a +difference in the vow of obedience. The head of a monastery in the +Middle Ages was almost supreme. The Lord Abbot was obedient only +to the Pope, and he sought the interests of his monastery rather +than those of the Pope. But Loyola exacted obedience to the +General of the Order so absolutely that a Jesuit became a slave. +This may seem a harsh epithet; there is nothing gained by using +offensive words, but Protestant writers have almost universally +made these charges. From their interpretation of the constitutions +of Loyola and Lainez and Aquaviva, a member of the Society had no +will of his own; he did not belong to himself, he belonged to his +General,--as in the time of Abraham a child belonged to his father +and a wife to her husband; nay, even still more completely. He +could not write or receive a letter that was not read by his +Superior. When he entered the order, he was obliged to give away +his property, but could not give it to his relatives.* When he +made confession, he was obliged to tell his most intimate and +sacred secrets. He could not aspire to any higher rank than that +he held; he had no right to be ambitious, or seek his own +individual interests; he was merged body and soul into the Society; +he was only a pin in the machinery; he was bound to obey even his +own servant, if required by his Superior; he was less than a +private soldier in an army; he was a piece of wax to be moulded as +the Superior directed,--and the Superior, in his turn, was a piece +of wax in the hands of the Provincial, and he again in the hands of +the General. "There were many gradations in rank, but every rank +was a gradation in slavery." The Jesuit is accused of having no +individual conscience. He was bound to do what he was told, right +or wrong; nothing was right and nothing was wrong except as the +Society pronounced. The General stood in the place of God. That +man was the happiest who was most mechanical. Every novice had a +monitor, and every monitor was a spy.** So strict was the rule of +Loyola, that he kept Francis Borgia, Duke of Gandia, three years +out of the Society, because he refused to renounce all intercourse +with his family.*** + + +* Ranke. + +** Steinmetz, i. p. 252. + +*** Nicolini, p. 35. + + +The Jesuit was obliged to make all natural ties subordinate to the +will of the General. And this General was a king more absolute +than any worldly monarch, because he reigned over the minds of his +subjects. His kingdom was an imperium in imperio; he was chosen +for life and was responsible to no one, although he ruled for the +benefit of the Catholic Church. In one sense a General of the +Jesuits resembled the prime minister of an absolute monarch,--say +such a man as Richelieu, with unfettered power in the cause of +absolutism; and he ruled like Richelieu, through his spies, making +his subordinates tools and instruments. The General appointed the +presidents of colleges and of the religious houses; he admitted or +dismissed, dispensed or punished, at his pleasure. There was no +complaint; all obeyed his orders, and saw in him the representative +of Divine Providence. Complaint was sin; resistance was ruin. It +is hard for us to understand how any man could be brought +voluntarily to submit to such a despotism. But the novice entering +the order had to go through terrible discipline,--to be a servant, +anything; to live according to rigid rules, so that his spirit was +broken by mechanical duties. He had to learn the virtues of +obedience before he could be fully enrolled in the Society. He was +drilled for years by spiritual sergeants more rigorously than a +soldier in Napoleon's army: hence the efficiency of the body; it +was a spiritual army of the highest disciplined troops. Loyola had +been a soldier; he knew what military discipline could do,--how +impotent an army is without it, what an awful power it is with +discipline, and the severer the better. The best soldier of a +modern army is he who has become an unconscious piece of machinery; +and it was this unreflecting, unconditional obedience which made +the Society so efficient, and the General himself, who controlled +it, such an awful power for good or for evil. I am only speaking +of the organization, the machinery, the regime, of the Jesuits, not +of their character, not of their virtues or vices. This +organization is to be spoken of as we speak of the discipline of an +army,--wise or unwise, as it reached its end. The original aim of +the Jesuits was the restoration of the Papal Church to its ancient +power; and for one hundred years, as I think, the restoration of +morals, higher education, greater zeal in preaching: in short, a +reformation within the Church. Jesuitism was, of course, opposed +to Protestantism; it hated the Protestants; it hated their +religions creed and their emancipating and progressive spirit; it +hated religious liberty. + +I need not dwell on other things which made this religious order so +successful,--not merely their virtues and their mechanism, but +their adaptation to the changing spirit of the times. They threw +away the old dresses of monastic life; they quitted the cloister +and places of meditation; they were preachers as well as scholars; +they accommodated themselves to the circumstances of the times; +they wore the ordinary dress of gentlemen; they remained men of the +world, of fine manners and cultivated speech; there was nothing +ascetic or repulsive about them, out in the world; they were all +things to all men, like politicians, in order to accomplish their +ends; they never were lazy, or profligate or luxurious. If their +Order became enriched, they as individuals remained poor. The +inferior members were not even ambitious; like good soldiers, they +thought of nothing but the work assigned to them. Their pride and +glory were the prosperity of their Order,--an intense esprit de +corps, never equalled by any body of men. This, of course, while +it gave them efficiency, made them narrow. They could see the +needle on the barn-door,--they could not see the door itself. +Hence there could be no agreement with them, no argument with them, +except on ordinary matters; they were as zealous as Saul, seeking +to make proselytes. They yielded nothing except in order to win; +they never compromised their Order in their cause. Their fidelity +to their head was marvellous; and so long as they confined +themselves to the work of making people better, I think they +deserved praise. I do not like their military organization, but I +should have no more right to abuse it than the organization of some +Protestant sects. That is a matter of government; all sects and +all parties, Catholic and Protestant, have a right to choose their +own government to carry out their ends, even as military generals +have a right to organize their forces in their own way. The +history of the Jesuits shows this,--that an organization of forces, +or what we call discipline or government, is a great thing. A +church without a government is a poor affair, so far as efficiency +is concerned. All churches have something to learn from the +Jesuits in the way of discipline. John Wesley learned something; +the Independents learned very little. + + +But there is another side to the Jesuits. We have seen why they +succeeded; we have to inquire how they failed. If history speaks +of the virtues of the early members, and the wonderful mechanism of +their Order, and their great success in consequence, it also speaks +of the errors they committed, by which they lost the confidence +they had gained. From being the most popular of all the adherents +of the papal power, and of the ideas of the Dark Ages, they became +the most unpopular; they became so odious that the Pope was +obliged, by the pressure of public opinion and of the Bourbon +courts of Europe, to suppress their Order. The fall of the Jesuits +was as significant as their rise. I need not dwell on that fall, +which is one of the best known facts of history. + +Why did the Jesuits become unpopular and lose their influence? + +They gained the confidence of Catholic countries because they +deserved it, and they lost that confidence because they deserved to +lose it,--in other words, because they degenerated; and this seems +to be the history of all institutions. It is strange, it is +passing strange, that human societies and governments and +institutions should degenerate as soon as they become rich and +powerful; but such, is the fact,--a sad commentary on the doctrine +of a necessary progress of the race, or the natural tendency to +good, which so many cherish, but than which nothing can be more +false, as proved by experience and the Scriptures. Why were the +antediluvians swept away? Why could not those races retain their +primitive revelation? Why did the descendants of Noah become +almost idolaters before he was dead? Why did the great Persian +Empire become as effeminate as the empires it had supplanted? Why +did the Jewish nation steadily retrograde after David? Why did not +civilization and Christianity save the Roman world? Why did +Christianity itself become corrupted in four centuries? Why did +not the Middle Ages preserve the evangelical doctrines of Augustine +and Jerome and Chrysostom and Ambrose? Why did the light of the +glorious Reformation of Luther nearly go out in the German cities +and universities? Why did the fervor of the Puritans burn out in +England in one hundred years? Why have the doctrines of the +Pilgrim Fathers become unfashionable in those parts of New England +where they seemed to have taken the deepest root? Why have so many +of the descendants of the disciples of George Fox become so liberal +and advanced as to be enamoured of silk dresses and laces and +diamonds and the ritualism of Episcopal churches? Is it an +improvement to give up a simple life and lofty religious +enthusiasm for materialistic enjoyments and epicurean display? +Is there a true advance in a university, when it exchanges its +theological teachings and its preparation of poor students for +the Gospel Ministry, for Schools of Technology and boat-clubs and +accommodations for the sons of the rich and worldly? + +Now the Society of Jesus went through just such a transformation as +has taken place, almost within the memory of living men, in the +life and habits and ideas of the people of Boston and Philadelphia +and in the teachings of their universities. Some may boldly say, +"Why not? This change indicates progress." But this progress is +exactly similar to that progress which the Jesuits made in the +magnificence of their churches, in the wealth they had hoarded in +their colleges, in the fashionable character of their professors +and confessors and preachers, in the adaptation of their doctrines +to the taste of the rich and powerful, in the elegance and +arrogance and worldliness of their dignitaries. Father La Chaise +was an elegant and most polished man of the world, and travelled in +a coach with six horses. If he had not been such a man, he would +not have been selected by Louis XIV. for his confidential and +influential confessor. The change which took place among the +Jesuits arose from the same causes as the change which has taken +place among Methodists and Quakers and Puritans. This change I +would not fiercely condemn, for some think it is progress. But is +it progress in that religious life which early marked these people; +or a progress towards worldly and epicurean habits which they arose +to resist and combat? The early Jesuits were perhaps fanatical, +strict, ascetic, religious, and narrow. They sought by self- +denying labors and earnest exhortations, like Savonarola at +Florence, to take the Church out of the hands of the Devil; and the +people reverenced them, as they always have reverenced martyrs and +missionaries. The later Jesuits sought to enjoy their wealth and +power and social position. They became--as rich and prosperous +people generally become--proud, ambitious, avaricious, and worldly. +They were as elegant, as scholarly, and as luxurious as the Fellows +of Oxford University, and the occupants of stalls in the English +cathedrals,--that is all: as worldly as the professors of Yale and +Cambridge may become in half-a-century, if rich widows and brewers +and bankers without children shall some day make those universities +as well endowed as Jesuit colleges were in the eighteenth century. +That is the old story of our fallen humanity. I would no more +abuse the Jesuits because they became confessors to the great, and +went into mercantile speculations, than I would rich and favored +clergymen in Protestant countries, who prefer ten per cent for +their money in California mines to four per cent in national +consols. + +But the prosperity which the Jesuits had earned during their first +century of existence excited only envy, and destroyed the reverence +of the people; it had not made them odious, detestable. It was the +means they adopted to perpetuate their influence, after early +virtues had passed away, which caused enlightened Catholic Europe +to mistrust them, and the Protestants absolutely to hate and vilify +them. + +From the very first, the Society was distinguished for the esprit +de corps of its members. Of all things which they loved best it +was the power and glory of the Society,--just as Oxford Fellows +love the prestige of their university. And this power and +influence the Jesuits determined to preserve at all hazards and by +any means; when virtues fled, they must find something else with +which to bolster themselves up: they must not part with their +power; the question was, how should they keep it? First, they are +accused of having adopted the doctrine of expediency,--that the end +justifies the means. They did not invent this sophistry,--it is as +old as our humanity. Abraham used it when he told lies to the King +of Egypt, to save the honor of his wife; Caesar accepted it, when +he vindicated imperialism as the only way to save the Roman Empire +from anarchy; most politicians resort to it when they wish to gain +their ends. Politicians have ever been as unscrupulous as the +Jesuits, in adopting expediency rather than eternal right. It has +been a primal law of government; it lies at the basis of English +encroachments in India, and of the treatment of the aborigines in +this country by our government. There is nothing new in the +doctrine of expediency. + +But the Jesuits are accused of pushing this doctrine to its +remotest consequences, of being its most unhesitating defenders,-- +so that jesuitism and expediency are popularly convertible terms. +They are accused too of perverting education, of abusing the +confessional, of corrupting moral and political philosophy, of +conforming to the inclinations of the great. They even went so far +as to inculcate mental reservation,--thus attacking truth in its +most sacred citadel, the conscience of mankind,--on which Pascal +was so severe. They made habit and bad example almost a sufficient +exculpation from crime. Perjury was allowable, if the perjured +were inwardly determined not to swear. They invented the notion of +probabilities, according to which a person might follow any opinion +he pleased, although he knew it to be wrong, provided authors of +reputation had defended that opinion. A man might fight a duel, if +by refusing to fight he would be stigmatized as a coward. They did +not openly justify murder, treachery, and falsehood, but they +excused the same, if plausible reasons could be urged. In their +missions they aimed at eclat; and hence merely nominal conversions +were accepted, because these swelled their numbers. They gave the +crucifix, which covered up all sins; they permitted their converts +to retain their ancient habits and customs. In order to be +popular, Robert de Nobili, it is said, traced his lineage to +Brahma; and one of their missionaries among the Indians told the +savages that Christ was a warrior who scalped women and children. +Anything for an outward success. Under their teachings it was seen +what a light affair it was to bear the yoke of Christ. So monarchs +retained in their service confessors who imposed such easy +obligations. So ordinary people resorted to the guidance of such +leaders, who made themselves agreeable. The Jesuit colleges were +filled with casuists. Their whole moral philosophy, if we may +believe Arnauld and Pascal, was a tissue of casuistry; truth was +obscured in order to secure popularity; even the most diabolical +persecution was justified if heretics stood in the way. Father Le +Tellier rejoiced in the slaughter of Saint Bartholomew, and Te +Deums were offered in the churches for the extinction of +Protestantism by any means. If it could be shown to be expedient, +the Jesuits excused the most outrageous crimes ever perpetrated on +this earth. + +Again, the Jesuits are accused of riveting fetters on the human +mind in order to uphold their power, and to sustain the absolutism +of the popes and the absolutism of kings, to which they were +equally devoted. They taught in their schools the doctrine of +passive obedience; they aimed to subdue the will by rigid +discipline; they were hostile to bold and free inquiries; they were +afraid of science; they hated such men as Galileo, Pascal, and +Bacon; they detested the philosophers who prepared the way for the +French Revolution; they abominated the Protestant idea of private +judgment; they opposed the progress of human thought, and were +enemies alike of the Jansenist movement in the seventeenth century +and of the French Revolution in the eighteenth. They upheld the +absolutism of Louis XIV., and combated the English Revolution; they +sent their spies and agents to England to undermine the throne of +Elizabeth and build up the throne of Charles I. Every emancipating +idea, in politics and in religion, they detested. There were many +things in their system of education to be commended; they were good +classical scholars, and taught Greek and Latin admirably; they +cultivated the memory; they made study pleasing, but they did not +develop genius. The order never produced a great philosopher; the +energies of its members were concentrated in imposing a despotic +yoke. + +The Jesuits are accused further of political intrigues: this is a +common and notorious charge. They sought to control the cabinets +of Europe; they had their spies in every country. The intrigues of +Campion and Parsons in England aimed at the restoration of Catholic +monarchs. Mary of Scotland was a tool in their hands, and so was +Madame de Maintenon in France. La Chaise and Le Tellier were mere +politicians. The Jesuits became political priests; the history of +Europe the last three hundred years is full of their cabals. Their +political influence was directed to the persecution of Protestants +as well as infidels. They are accused of securing the revocation +of the Edict of Nantes,--one of the greatest crimes in the history +of modern times, which led to the expulsion of four hundred +thousand Protestants from France, and the execution of four hundred +thousand more. They incited the dragonnades of Louis XIV., who was +under their influence. They are accused of the assassination of +kings, of the fires of Smithfield, of the Gunpowder Plot, of the +cruelties inflicted by Alva, of the Thirty Years' War, of the +ferocities of the Guises, of inquisitions and massacres, of sundry +other political crimes, with what justice I do not know; but +certain it is they became objects of fear, and incurred the +hostilities of Catholic Europe, especially of all liberal thinkers, +and their downfall was demanded by the very courts of Europe. Why +did they lose their popularity? Why were they so distrusted and +hated? The fact that they WERE hated is most undoubted, and there +must have been cause for it. It is a fact that at one time they +were respected and honored, and deserved to be so: must there not +have been grave reasons for the universal change in public opinion +respecting them. The charges against them, to which I have +alluded, must have had foundation. They did not become idle, +gluttonous, ignorant, and sensual like the old monks: they became +greedy of power; and in order to retain it resorted to intrigues, +conspiracies, and persecutions. They corrupted philosophy and +morality, abused the confessional, privilege, adopted SUCCESS as +their watchword, without regard to the means; they are charged with +becoming worldly, ambitious, mercenary, unscrupulous, cruel; above +all, they sought to bind the minds of men with a despotic yoke, and +waged war against all liberalizing influences. They always were, +from first to last, narrow, pedantic, one-sided, legal, technical, +pharisaical. The best thing about them, in the days of their +declining power, was that they always opposed infidel sentiments. +They hated Voltaire and Rousseau and the Encyclopedists as much as +they did Luther and Calvin. They detested the principles of the +French Revolution, partly because those principles were godless, +partly because they were emancipating. + +Of course, in such an infidel and revolutionary age as that of +Louis XV., when Voltaire was the oracle of Europe,--when from his +chateau near Geneva he controlled the mind of Europe, as Calvin did +two centuries earlier,--enemies would rise up, on all sides, +against the Jesuits. Their most powerful and bitter foe was a +woman,--the mistress of Louis XV., the infamous Madame de +Pompadour. She hated the Jesuits as Catharine de Medici hated the +Calvinists in the time of Charles IX.,--not because they were +friends of absolutism, not because they wrote casuistic books, not +because they opposed liberal principles, not because they were +spies and agents of Rome, not because they perverted education, not +because they were boastful and mercenary missionaries or cunning +intriguers in the courts of princes, not because they had marked +their course through Europe in a trail of blood, but because they +were hostile to her ascendency,--a woman who exercised about the +same influence in France as Jezebel did at the court of Ahab. I +respect the Jesuits for the stand they took against this woman: it +is the best thing in their history. But here they did not show +their usual worldly wisdom, and they failed. They were judicially +blinded. The instrument of their humiliation was a wicked woman. +So strange are the ways of Providence! He chose Esther to save the +Jewish nation, and a harlot to punish the Jesuits. She availed +herself of their mistakes. + +It seems that the Superior of the Jesuits at Martinique failed; for +the Jesuits embarked in commercial speculations while officiating +as missionaries. The angry creditors of La Valette, the Jesuit +banker, demanded repayment from the Order. They refused to pay his +debts. The case was carried to the courts, and the highest +tribunal decided against them. That was not the worst. In the +course of the legal proceedings, the mysterious "rule" of the +Jesuits--that which was so carefully concealed from the public--was +demanded. Then all was revealed,--all that Pascal had accused them +of,--and the whole nation was indignant. A great storm was raised. +The Parliament of Paris decreed the constitution of the Society to +be fatal to all government. The King wished to save them, for he +knew that they were the best supporters of the throne of +absolutism. But he could not resist the pressure,--the torrent of +public opinion, the entreaties of his mistress, the arguments of +his ministers. He was compelled to demand from the Pope the +abrogation of their charter. Other monarchs did the same; all the +Bourbon courts in Europe, for the king of Portugal narrowly escaped +assassination from a fanatical Jesuit. Had the Jesuits consented +to a reform, they might not have fallen. But they would make no +concessions. Said Ricci, their General, Sint ut sunt, aut non +sint. The Pope--Clement XIV.--was obliged to part with his best +soldiers. Europe, Catholic Europe, demanded the sacrifice,--the +kings of Spain, of France, of Naples, of Portugal. Compulsus feci, +compulsus feci, exclaimed the broken-hearted Pope,--the feeble and +pious Ganganelli. So that in 1773, by a papal decree, the Order +was suppressed; 669 colleges were closed; 223 missions were +abandoned, and more than 22,000 members were dispersed. I do not +know what became of their property, which amounted to about two +hundred millions of dollars, in the various countries of Europe. + +This seems to me to have been a clear case of religious +persecution, incited by jealous governments and the infidel or the +progressive spirit of the age, on the eve of the French Revolution. +It simply marks the hostilities which, for various reasons, they +had called out. I am inclined to think that their faults were +greatly exaggerated; but it is certain that so severe and high- +handed a measure would not have been taken by the Pope had it not +seemed to him necessary to preserve the peace of the Church. Had +they been innocent, the Pope would have lost his throne sooner than +commit so great a wrong on his most zealous servants. It is +impossible for a Protestant to tell how far they were guilty of the +charges preferred against them. I do not believe that their lives, +as a general thing, were a scandal sufficient to justify so +sweeping a measure; but their institution, their regime, their +organization, their constitution, were deemed hostile to liberty +and the progress of society. And if zealous governments--Catholic +princes themselves--should feel that the Jesuits were opposed to +the true progress of nations, how much more reason had Protestants +to distrust them, and to rejoice in their fall! + +And it was not until the French Revolution and the empire of +Napoleon had passed away, not until the Bourbons had been restored +(in August, 1814), that the Order was re-established and again +protected by the Papal court. They have now regained their ancient +power, and seem to have the confidence of Catholic Europe. Some of +their most flourishing seminaries are in the United States. They +are certainly not a scandal in this country, although their spirit +and organization are still maintained: regarded with some mistrust +by the strong Protestants, as a matter of course, as such a +powerful organization naturally would be; hostile still to the +circulation of the Scriptures among the people and free inquiry and +private judgment,--in short, to all the ideas of the reformation. +But whatever they are, and however askance Protestants regard them, +they have in our country,--this land of unbounded religious +toleration,--the same right to their religion and their +ecclesiastical government that any other sects have; and if +Protestants would nullify their influence so far as disliked, they +must outshine them in virtues, in a religious life, in zeal, and in +devotion to the spiritual interests of the people. If the Jesuits +keep better schools than Protestants they will be patronized, and +if they command the respect of the Catholics for their virtues and +intelligence, whatever may be the machinery of their organization, +they will retain their power; and not until they interfere with +elections and Protestant schools, or teach dangerous doctrines of +public morality, has our Government any right to interfere with +them. They will stand or fall as they win the respect or excite +the wrath of enlightened nations. But the principles they are +supposed to defend,--expediency, casuistry, and hostility to free +inquiry and the circulation of the Scriptures in vernacular +languages,--these are just causes of complaint and of unrelenting +opposition among all those who accept the great ideas of the +Protestant Reformation, since they are antagonistic to what we deem +most precious in our institutions. So long as the contest shall +last between good and evil in this world, we have a right to +declaim against all encroachments on liberty and sound morality and +an evangelical piety from any quarter whatever, and we are recreant +to our duties unless we speak our minds. Hence, from the light I +have, I regard the Society of Jesus as a questionable institution, +unfortunately planted among us, but which we cannot help, and can +attack, if at all, only with the weapons of reason and truth. + +And yet I am free to say that for my part I prefer even the Jesuit +discipline and doctrines, much as I dislike them, to the unblushing +infidelity which has lately been propagated by those who call +themselves savans,--and which seems to have reached and even +permeated many of the schools of science, the newspapers, +periodicals, clubs, and even pulpits of this materialistic though +progressive country. I make war on the slavery of the will and a +religion of formal technicalities; but I prefer these evils to a +godless rationalism and the extinction of the light of faith. + + +AUTHORITIES. + + +Secreta Monita; Steinmetz's History of the Jesuits; Ranke's History +of the Popes; Spiritual Exercises; Encyclopaedia Britannica; +Biographie Universelle; Fall of the Jesuits, by St. Priest; Lives +of Ignatius Loyola, Aquiviva, Lainez, Salmeron, Borgia, Xavier, +Bobadilla; Pascal's Provincial Letters; Bonhours' Cretineau; +Lingard's History of England; Tierney; Lettres Aedificantes; Jesuit +Missions; Memoires Secretes du Cardinal Dubois; Tanner's Societas +Jesu; Dodd's Church History. + + + +JOHN CALVIN. + +A. D. 1509-1564. + +PROTESTANT THEOLOGY. + + +John Calvin was pre-eminently the theologian of the Reformation, +and stamped his genius on the thinking of his age,--equally an +authority with the Swiss, the Dutch, the Huguenots, and the +Puritans. His vast influence extends to our own times. His fame +as a benefactor of mind is immortal, although it cannot be said +that he is as much admired and extolled now as he was fifty years +ago. Nor was he ever a favorite with the English Church. He has +been even grossly misrepresented by theological opponents; but no +critic or historian has ever questioned his genius, his learning, +or his piety. No one denies that he has exerted a great influence +on Protestant countries. As a theologian he ranks with Saint +Augustine and Thomas Aquinas,--maintaining essentially the same +views as those held by these great lights, and being distinguished +for the same logical power; reigning like them as an intellectual +dictator in the schools, but not so interesting as they were as +men. And he was more than a theologian; he was a reformer and +legislator, laying down rules of government, organizing church +discipline, and carrying on reforms in the worship of God,--second +only to Luther. His labors were prodigious as theologian, +commentator, and ecclesiastical legislator; and we are surprised +that a man with so feeble a body could have done so much work. + +Calvin was born in Picardy in 1509,--the year that Henry VIII. +ascended the British throne, and the year that Luther began to +preach at Wittenberg. He was not a peasant's son, like Luther, but +belonged to what the world calls a good family. Intellectually he +was precocious, and received an excellent education at a college in +Paris, being destined for the law by his father, who sent him to +the University of Orleans and then to Bourges, where he studied +under eminent jurists, and made the acquaintance of many +distinguished men. His conversion took place about the year 1529, +when he was twenty; and this gave a new direction to his studies +and his life. He was a pale-faced young man, with sparkling eyes, +sedate and earnest beyond his years. He was twenty-three when he +published the books of Seneca on Clemency, with learned +commentaries. At the age of twenty-three he was in communion with +the reformers of Germany, and was acknowledged to be, even at that +early age, the head of the reform party in France. In 1533 he went +to Paris, then as always the centre of the national life, where the +new ideas were creating great commotion in scholarly and +ecclesiastical circles, and even in the court itself. Giving +offence to the doctors of the Sorbonne for his evangelical views as +to Justification, he was obliged to seek refuge with the Queen of +Navarre, whose castle at Pau was the resort of persecuted +reformers. After leading rather a fugitive life in different parts +of France, he retreated to Switzerland, and at twenty-six published +his celebrated "Institutes," which he dedicated to Francis I., +hoping to convert him to the Protestant faith. After a short +residence in Italy, at the court of the Duchess of Ferrara, he took +up his abode at Geneva, and his great career began. + +Geneva, a city of the Allobroges in the time of Caesar, possessed +at this time about twenty thousand inhabitants, and was a free +state, having a constitution somewhat like that of Florence when it +was under the control of Savonarola. It had rebelled against the +Duke of Savoy, who seems to have been in the fifteenth century its +patron ruler. The government of this little Savoyard state became +substantially like that which existed among the Swiss cantons. The +supreme power resided in the council of Two Hundred, which alone +had the power to make or abolish laws. There was a lesser council +of Sixty, for diplomatic objects only. + +The first person who preached the reformed doctrines in Geneva was +the missionary Farel, a French nobleman, spiritual, romantic, and +zealous. He had great success, although he encountered much +opposition and wrath. But the reformed doctrines were already +established in Zurich, Berne, and Basle, chiefly through the +preaching of Ulrich Zwingli, and OEcolampadius. The apostolic +Farel welcomed with great cordiality the arrival of Calvin, then +already known as an extraordinary man, though only twenty-eight +years of age. He came to Geneva poor, and remained poor all his +life. All his property at his death amounted to only two hundred +dollars. As a minister in one of the churches, he soon began to +exert a marvellous influence. He must have been eloquent, for he +was received with enthusiasm. This was in 1536. But he soon met +with obstacles. He was worried by the Anabaptists; and even his +orthodoxy was impeached by one Coroli, who made much mischief, so +that Calvin was obliged to publish his Genevan Catechism in Latin. +He also offended many by his outspoken rebuke of sin, for he aimed +at a complete reformation of morals, like Latimer in London and +like Savonarola at Florence. He sought to reprove amusements which +were demoralizing, or thought to be so in their influence. The +passions of the people were excited, and the city was torn by +parties; and such was the reluctance to submit to the discipline of +the ministers that they refused to administer the sacraments. This +created such a ferment that the syndics expelled Calvin and Farel +from the city. They went at first to Berne, but the Bernese would +not receive them. They then retired to Basle, wearied, wet, and +hungry, and from Basle they went to Strasburg. It was in this city +that Calvin dwelt three years, spending his time in lecturing on +divinity, in making contributions to exegetical theology, in +perfecting his "Institutes," forming a close alliance with +Melancthon and other leading reformers. So pre-occupied was he +with his labors as a commentator of the Scriptures, that he even +contemplated withdrawing from the public service of religion. + +Calvin was a scholar as well as theologian, and quiet labors in his +library were probably more congenial to his tastes than active +parochial duties. His highest life was amid his books, in serene +repose and lofty contemplation. At this time he had an extensive +correspondence, his advice being much sought for its wisdom and +moderation. His judgment was almost unerring, since he was never +led away by extravagances or enthusiasm: a cold, calm man even +among his friends and admirers. He had no passions; he was all +intellect. It would seem that in his exile he gave lectures on +divinity, being invited by the Council of Strasburg; and also +interested himself in reference to the Sacrament of the Lord's +Supper, which he would withhold from the unworthy. He lived +quietly in his retreat, and was much respected by the people of the +city where he dwelt. + +In 1539 a convention was held at Frankfort, at which Calvin was +present as the envoy of the city of Strasburg. Here, for the first +time, he met Melancthon; but there was no close intimacy between +them until these two great men met in the following year at a Diet +which was summoned at Worms by the Emperor Charles V., in order to +produce concord between the Catholics and Protestants, and which +was afterwards removed to Ratisbon. Melancthon represented one +party, and Doctor Eck the other. Melancthon and Bucer were +inclined to peace; and Cardinal Contarini freely offered his hand, +agreeing with the reformers to adopt the idea of Justification as +his starting point, allowing that it proceeds from faith, without +any merit of our own; but, like Luther and Calvin, he opposed any +attempt at union which might compromise the truth, and had no faith +in the movement. Neither party, as it was to be expected, was +satisfied. The main subject of the dispute was in reference to the +Eucharist. Calvin denied the real presence of Christ in the +Sacrament, regarding it as a symbol,--though one of special divine +influence. But on this point the Catholics have ever been +uncompromising from the times of Berengar. Nor was Luther fully +emancipated from the Catholic doctrine, modifying without +essentially changing it. Calvin maintained that "This is my body" +meant that it signified "my body." In regard to original sin and +free-will, as represented by Augustine, there was no dispute; but +much difficulty attended the interpretation of the doctrine of +Justification. The greatest difficulty was in reference to the +doctrine of Transubstantiation, which was rejected by the reformers +because it had not the sanction of the Scriptures; and when it was +found that this caused insuperable difficulties about the Lord's +Supper, it was thought useless to proceed to other matters, like +confession, masses for the dead, and the withholding the cup from +the laity. There was not so great a difference between the +Catholic and Protestant theologians concerning the main body of +dogmatic divinity as is generally supposed. The fundamental +questions pertaining to God, the Trinity, the mission and divinity +of Christ, original sin, free-will, grace, predestination, had been +formulated by Thomas Aquinas with as much severity as by Calvin. +The great subjects at issue, in a strictly theological view, were +Justification and the Eucharist. Respecting free-will and +predestination, the Catholic theologians have never been agreed +among themselves,--some siding with Augustine, like Aquinas, +Bernard, and Anselm; and some with Pelagius, like Abelard and +Lainez the Jesuit at the Council of Trent (a council assembled by +the Pope, with the concurrence of Charles V. of Germany and Francis +I. of France), the decrees of which, against the authority of +Augustine in this matter, seem to be now the established faith of +the Roman Catholic Church. + +After the Diet of Ratisbon, Calvin returned to Geneva, at the eager +desire of the people. The great Council summoned him to return; +every voice was raised for him. "Calvin, that learned and +righteous man," they said, "it is he whom we would have as the +minister of the Lord." Yet he did not willingly return; he +preferred his quiet life at Strasburg, but obeyed the voice of +conscience. On the 13th of September, 1541, he returned to his +penitent congregation, and was received by the whole city with +every demonstration of respect; and a cloth cloak was given him as +a present, which he seemed to need. + +The same year he was married to a widow, Idelette de Burie, who was +a worthy, well-read, high-minded woman, with whom he lived happily +for nine years, until her death. She was superior to Luther's +wife, Catherine Bora, in culture and dignity, and was a helpmate +who never opposed her husband in the slightest matter, always +considering his interests. Esteem and friendship seem to have been +the basis of this union,--not passionate love, which Calvin did not +think much of. When his wife died it seems he mourned for her with +decent grief, but did not seek a second marriage, perhaps because +he was unable to support a wife on his small stipend as she would +wish and expect. He rather courted poverty, and refused reasonable +gratuities. His body was attenuated by fasting and study, like +that of Saint Bernard. When he was completing his "Institutes," he +passed days without eating and nights without sleeping. And as he +practised poverty he had a right to inculcate it. He kept no +servant, lived in a small tenement, and was always poorly clad. He +derived no profit from any of his books, and the only present he +ever consented to receive was a silver goblet from the Lord of +Varennes. Luther's stipend was four hundred and fifty florins, and +he too refused a yearly gift from the booksellers of four hundred +dollars, not wishing to receive a gratuity for his writings. +Calvin's salary was only fifty dollars a year, with a house, twelve +measures of corn and two pipes of wine; for tea and coffee were +then unknown in Europe, and wine seems to have been the usual +beverage, after water. He was pre-eminently a conscientious man, +not allowing his feelings to sway his judgment. He was sedate and +dignified and cheerful; though Bossuet accuses him of a surly +disposition,--un genre triste, un esprit chagrin. Though formal +and stern, women never shrank from familiar conversation with him +on the subject of religion. Though intolerant of error, he +cherished no personal animosities. Calvin was more refined than +Luther, and never like him gave vent to coarse expressions. He had +not Luther's physical strength, nor his versatility of genius; nor +as a reformer was he so violent. "Luther aroused; Calvin +tranquillized." The one stormed the great citadel of error, the +other furnished the weapons for holding it after it was taken. The +former was more popular; the latter appealed to a higher +intelligence. The Saxon reformer was more eloquent; the Swiss +reformer was more dialectical. The one advocated unity; the other +theocracy. Luther was broader; Calvin engrafted on his reforms the +Old Testament observances. The watchword of the one was Grace; +that of the other was Predestination. Luther cut knots; Calvin +made systems. Luther destroyed; Calvin legislated. His great +principle of government was aristocratic. He wished to see both +Church and State governed by a select few of able men. In all his +writings we see no trace of popular sovereignty. He interested +himself, like Savonarola, in political institutions, but would +separate the functions of the magistracy from those of the clergy; +and he clung to the notion of a theocratic government, like Jewish +legislators and the popes themselves. The idea of a theocracy was +the basis of Calvin's system of legislation, as it was that of Leo +I. He desired that the temporal power should rule, in the name of +God,--should be the arm by which spiritual principles should be +enforced. He did not object to the spiritual domination of the +popes, so far as it was in accordance with the word of God. He +wished to realize the grand idea which the Middle Ages sought for, +but sought for in vain,--that the Church must always remain the +mother of spiritual principles; but he objected to the exercise of +temporal power by churchmen, as well as to the interference of the +temporal power in matters purely spiritual,--virtually the doctrine +of Anselm and Becket. But, unlike Becket, Calvin would not screen +clergymen accused of crime from temporal tribunals; he rather +sought the humiliation of the clergy in temporal matters. He also +would destroy inequalities of rank, and do away with church +dignitaries, like bishops and deans and archdeacons; and he +instituted twice as many laymen as clergymen in ecclesiastical +assemblies. But he gave to the clergy the exclusive right to +excommunicate, and to regulate the administration of the +sacraments. He was himself a high-churchman in his spirit, both in +reference to the divine institution of the presbyterian form of +government and the ascendancy of the Church as a great power in the +world. + +Calvin exercised a great influence on the civil polity of Geneva, +although it was established before he came to the city. He +undertook to frame for the State a code of morals. He limited the +freedom of the citizens, and turned the old democratic constitution +into an oligarchy. The general assembly, which met twice a year, +nominated syndics, or judges; but nothing was proposed in the +general assembly which had not previously been considered in the +council of the Two Hundred; and nothing in the latter which had not +been brought before the council of Sixty; nor even in this, which +had not been approved by the lesser council. The four syndics, +with their council of sixteen, had power of life and death, and the +whole public business of the state was in their hands. The supreme +legislation was in the council of Two Hundred; which was much +influenced by ecclesiastics, or the consistory. If a man not +forbidden to take the Sacrament neglected to receive it, he was +condemned to banishment for a year. One was condemned to do public +penance if he omitted a Sunday service. The military garrison was +summoned to prayers twice a day. The judges punished severely all +profanity, as blasphemy. A mason was put in prison three days for +simply saying, when falling from a building, that it must be the +work of the Devil. A young girl who insulted her mother was +publicly punished and kept on bread-and-water; and a peasant-boy +who called his mother a devil was publicly whipped. A child who +struck his mother was beheaded; adultery was punished with death; a +woman was publicly scourged because she sang common songs to a +psalm-tune; and another because she dressed herself, in a frolic, +in man's attire. Brides were not allowed to wear wreaths in their +bonnets; gamblers were set in the pillory, and card-playing and +nine-pins were denounced as gambling. Heresy was punished with +death; and in sixty years one hundred and fifty people were +burned to death, in Geneva, for witchcraft. Legislation extended +to dress and private habits; many innocent amusements were +altogether suppressed; also holidays and theatrical exhibitions. +Excommunication was as much dreaded as in the Mediaeval church. + +In regard to the worship of God, Calvin was opposed to splendid +churches, and to all ritualism. He retained psalm-singing, but +abolished the organ; he removed the altar, the crucifix, and +muniments from the churches, and closed them during the week-days, +unless the minister was present. He despised what we call art, +especially artistic music; nor did he have much respect for +artificial sermons, or the art of speaking. He himself preached ex +tempore, nor is there evidence that he ever wrote a sermon. + +Respecting the Eucharist, Calvin took a middle course between +Luther and Zwingli,--believing neither in the actual presence of +Christ in the consecrated bread, nor regarding it as a mere symbol, +but a means by which divine grace is imparted; a mirror in which we +may contemplate Christ. Baptism he considered only as an +indication of divine grace, and not essential to salvation; thereby +differing from Luther and the Catholic church. Yet he was as +strenuous in maintaining these sacraments as a Catholic priest, and +made excommunication as fearful a weapon as it was in the Middle +Ages. For admission to the Lord's Supper, and thus to the +membership of the visible Church, it would seem that his +requirements were not rigid, but rather very simple, like those of +the primitive Christians,--namely, faith in God and faith in +Christ, without any subtile and metaphysical creeds, such as one +might expect from his inexorable theological deductions. But he +would resort to excommunication as a discipline, as the only weapon +which the Church could use to bind its members together, and which +had been used from the beginning; yet he would temper severity with +mildness and charity, since only God is able to judge the heart. +And herein he departed from the customs of the Middle Ages, and did +not regard the excommunicated as lost, but to be prayed for by the +faithful. No one, he maintained, should be judged as deserving +eternal death who was still in the hands of God. He made a broad +distinction between excommunication and anathema; the latter, he +maintained, should never, or very rarely, be pronounced, since it +takes away the hope of forgiveness, and consigns one to the wrath +of God and the power of Satan. He regarded the Sacrament of the +Lord's Supper as a means to help manifold infirmities,--as a time +of meditation for beholding Christ the crucified; as confirming +reconciliation with God; as a visible sign of the body of Christ, +recognizing his actual but spiritual presence. Luther recognized +the bodily presence of Christ in the Eucharist, while he rejected +transubstantiation and the idea of worshipping the consecrated +wafer as the real God. This difference in the opinion of the +reformers as to the Eucharist led to bitter quarrels and +controversies, and divided the Protestants. Calvin pursued a +middle and moderate course, and did much to harmonize the +Protestant churches. He always sought peace and moderation; and +his tranquillizing measures were not pleasant to the Catholics, who +wished to see divisions among their enemies. + +Calvin had a great dislike of ceremonies, festivals, holidays, and +the like. For images he had an aversion amounting to horror. +Christmas was the only festival he retained. He was even +slanderously accused of wishing to abolish the Sabbath, the +observance of which he inculcated with the strictness of the +Puritans. He introduced congregational singing, but would not +allow the ear or the eye to be distracted. The music was simple, +dispensing with organs and instruments and all elaborate and +artistic display. It is needless to say that this severe +simplicity of worship has nearly passed away, but it cannot be +doubted that the changes which the reformers made produced the +deepest impression on the people in a fervent and religious age. +The psalms and hymns of the reformers were composed in times of +great religious excitement. Calvin was far behind Luther, who did +not separate the art of music from religion; but Calvin made a +divorce of art from public worship. Indeed, the Reformation was +not favorable to art in any form except in sacred poetry; it +declared those truths which save the soul, rather than sought those +arts which adorn civilization. Hence its churches were barren of +ornaments and symbols, and were cold and repulsive when the people +were not excited by religious truths. Nor did they favor eloquence +in the ordinary meaning of that word. Pulpit eloquence was simple, +direct, and without rhetorical devices; seeking effect not in +gestures and postures and modulated voice, but earnest appeals to +the heart and conscience. The great Catholic preachers of the +eighteenth century--like Bossuet and Bourdaloue and Massillon-- +surpassed the Protestants as rhetoricians. + +The simplicity which marked the worship of God as established by +Calvin was also a feature in his system of church government. He +dispensed with bishops, archdeacons, deans, and the like. In his +eyes every man who preached the word was a presbyter, or elder; and +every presbyter was a bishop. A deacon was an officer to take care +of the poor, not to preach. And it was necessary that a minister +should have a double call,--both an inward call and an outward +one,--or an election by the people in union with the clergy. Paul +and Barnabas set forth elders, but the people indicated their +approval by lifting up their hands. In the Presbyterianism which +Calvin instituted he maintained that the Church is represented by +the laity as well as by the clergy. He therefore gave the right of +excommunication to the congregation in conjunction with the clergy. +In the Lutheran Church, as in the Catholic, the right of +excommunication was vested in the clergy alone. But Calvin gave to +the clergy alone the right to administer the sacraments; nor would +he give to the Church any other power of punishment than exclusion +from the Lord's Supper, and excommunication. His organization of +the Church was aristocratic, placing the power in the hands of a +few men of approved wisdom and piety. He had no sympathy with +democracy, either civil or religious, and he formed a close union +between Church and State,--giving to the council the right to +choose elders and to confirm the election of ministers. As already +stated, he did not attempt to shield the clergy from the civil +tribunals. The consistory, which assembled once a week, was formed +of elders and preachers, and a messenger of the civil court +summoned before it the persons whose presence was required. No +such power as this would be tolerated in these times. But the +consistory could not itself inflict punishment; that was the +province of the civil government. The elders and clergy inflicted +no civil penalties, but simply determined what should be heard +before the spiritual and what before the civil tribunal. A syndic +presided in the spiritual assembly at first, but only as a church +elder. The elders were chosen from the council, and the election +was confirmed by the great council, the people, and preachers; so +that the Church was really in the hands of the State, which +appointed the clergy. It would thus seem that Church and State +were very much mixed up together by Calvin, who legislated in view +of the circumstances which surrounded him, and not for other times +or nations. This subordination of the Church to the State, which +was maintained by all the reformers, was established in opposition +to the custom of the Catholic Church, which sought to make the +State subservient to the Church. And the lay government of the +Church, which entered into the system of Calvin, was owing to the +fear that the clergy, when able to stand alone, might become proud +and ambitious; a fear which was grounded on the whole history of +the Church. + +Although Calvin had an exalted idea of the spiritual dignity of the +Church, he allowed a very dangerous interference of the State in +ecclesiastical affairs, even while he would separate the functions +of the clergy from those of the magistrates. He allowed the State +to pronounce the final sentence on dogmatic questions, and hence +the power of the synod failed in Geneva. Moreover, the payment of +ministers by the State rather than by the people, as in this +country, was against the old Jewish custom, which Calvin so often +borrowed,--for the priests among the Jews were independent of the +kings. But Calvin wished to destroy caste among the clergy, and +consequently spiritual tyranny. In his legislation we see an +intense hostility to the Roman Catholic Church,--one of the +animating principles of the Reformers; and hence the Reformers, in +their hostility to Rome, went from Sylla into Charybdis. Calvin, +like all churchmen, exalted naturally the theocratic idea of the +old Jewish and Mediaeval Church, and yet practically put the Church +into the hands of laymen. In one sense he was a spiritual +dictator, and like Luther a sort of Protestant pope; and yet he +built up a system which was fatal to spiritual power such as had +existed among the Catholic priesthood. For their sacerdotal +spiritual power he would substitute a moral power, the result of +personal bearing and sanctity. It is amusing to hear some people +speak of Calvin as a ghostly spiritual father; but no man ever +fought sacerdotalism more earnestly than he. The logical sequence +of his ecclesiastical reforms was not the aristocratic and Erastian +Church of Scotland, but the Puritans in New England, who were +Independents and not Presbyterians. + +Yet there is an inconsistency even in Calvin's regime; for he had +the zeal of the old Catholic Church in giving over to the civil +power those he wished to punish, as in the case of Servetus. He +even intruded into the circle of social life, and established a +temporal rather than a spiritual theocracy; and while he overthrew +the episcopal element, he made a distinction, not recognized in the +primitive church, between clergy and laity. As for religious +toleration, it did not exist in any country or in any church; there +was no such thing as true evangelical freedom. All the Reformers +attempted, as well as the Catholics, a compulsory unity of faith; +and this is an impossibility. The Reformers adopted a catechism, +or a theological system, which all communicants were required to +learn and accept. This is substantially the acceptance of what the +Church ordains. Creeds are perhaps a necessity in well-organized +ecclesiastical bodies, and are not unreasonable; but it should not +be forgotten that they are formulated doctrines made by men, on +what is supposed to be the meaning of the Scriptures, and are not +consistent with the right of private judgment when pushed out to +its ultimate logical consequence. When we remember how few men are +capable of interpreting Scripture for themselves, and how few are +disposed to exercise this right, we can see why the formulated +catechism proved useful in securing unity of belief; but when +Protestant divines insisted on the acceptance of the articles of +faith which they deduced from the Scriptures, they did not differ +materially from the Catholic clergy in persisting on the acceptance +of the authority of the Church as to matters of doctrine. Probably +a church organization is impossible without a formulated creed. +Such a creed has existed from the time of the Council of Nice, and +is not likely ever to be abandoned by any Christian Church in any +future age, although it may be modified and softened with the +advance of knowledge. However, it is difficult to conceive of the +unity of the Church as to faith, without a creed made obligatory on +all the members of a communion to accept, and it always has been +regarded as a useful and even necessary form of Christian +instruction for the people. Calvin himself attached great +importance to catechisms, and prepared one even for children. + +He also put a great value on preaching, instead of the complicated +and imposing ritual of the Catholic service; and in most Protestant +churches from his day to ours preaching, or religious instruction, +has occupied the most prominent part of the church service; and it +must be conceded that while the Catholic service has often +degenerated into mere rites and ceremonies to aid a devotional +spirit, so the Protestant service has often become cold and +rationalistic,--and it is not easy to say which extreme is the +worse. + +Thus far we have viewed Calvin in the light of a reformer and +legislator, but his influence as a theologian is more remarkable. +It is for his theology that he stands out as a prominent figure in +the history of the Church. As such he showed greater genius; as +such he is the most eminent of all the reformers; as such he +impressed his mind on the thinking of his own age and of succeeding +ages,--an original and immortal man. His system of divinity +embodied in his "Institutes" is remarkable for the radiation of the +general doctrines of the Church around one central principle, which +he defended with marvellous logical power. He was not a fencer +like Abelard, displaying wonderful dexterity in the use of +sophistries, overwhelming adversaries by wit and sarcasm; arrogant +and self-sufficient, and destroying rather than building up. He +did not deify the reason, like Erigina, nor throw himself on +authority like Bernard. He was not comprehensive like Augustine, +nor mystical like Bonaventura. He had the spiritual insight of +Anselm, and the dialectical acumen of Thomas Aquinas; acknowledging +no master but Christ, and implicitly receiving whatever the +Scriptures declared, he takes his original position neither from +natural reason nor from the authority of the church, but from the +word of God; and from declarations of Scripture, as he interprets +them, he draws sequences and conclusions with irresistible logic. +In an important sense he is one-sided, since he does not take +cognizance of other truths equally important. He is perfectly +fearless in pushing out to its most logical consequences whatever +truth he seizes upon; and hence he appears to many gifted and +learned critics to draw conclusions from accepted premises which +apparently conflict with consciousness or natural reason; and hence +there has ever been repugnance to many of his doctrines, because it +is impossible, it is said, to believe them. + +In general, Calvin does not essentially differ from the received +doctrines of the Church as defended by its greatest lights in all +ages. His peculiarity is not in making a digest of divinity,-- +although he treated all the great subjects which have been +discussed from Athanasius to Aquinas. His "Institutes" may well be +called an exhaustive system of theology. There is no great +doctrine which he has not presented with singular clearness and +logical force. Yet it is not for a general system of divinity that +he is famous, but for making prominent a certain class of subjects, +among which he threw the whole force of his genius. In fact all +the great lights of the Church have been distinguished for the +discussion of particular doctrines to meet the exigencies of their +times. Thus Athanasius is identified with the Trinitarian +controversy, although he was a minister of theological knowledge in +general. Augustine directed his attention more particularly to the +refutation of Pelagian heresies and human Depravity. Luther's +great doctrine was Justification by Faith, although he took the +same ground as Augustine. It was the logical result of the +doctrines of Grace which he defended which led to the overthrow, in +half of Europe, of that extensive system of penance and self- +expiation which marked the Roman Catholic Church, and on which so +many glaring abuses were based. As Athanasius rendered a great +service to the Church by establishing the doctrine of the Trinity, +and Augustine a still greater service by the overthrow of +Pelagianism, so Luther undermined the papal pile of superstition by +showing eloquently,--what indeed had been shown before, the true +ground of justification. When we speak of Calvin, the great +subject of Predestination arises before our minds, although on this +subject he made no pretention to originality. Nor did he differ +materially from Augustine, or Gottschalk, or Thomas Aquinas before +him, or Pascal and Edwards after him. But no man ever presented +this complicated and mysterious subject so ably as be. + +It is not for me to discuss this great topic. I simply wish to +present the subject historically,--to give Calvin's own views, and +the effect of his deductions on the theology of his age; and in +giving Calvin's views I must shelter myself under the wings of his +best biographer, Doctor Henry of Berlin, and quote the substance of +his exposition of the peculiar doctrines of the Swiss, or rather +French, theologian. + +According to Henry, Calvin maintained that God, in his sovereign +will and for his own glory; elected one part of the human race to +everlasting life, and abandoned the other part to everlasting +death; that man, by the original transgression, lost the power +of free-will, except to do evil; that it is only by Divine Grace +that freedom to do good is recovered; but that this grace is +bestowed only on the elect, and elect not in consequence of the +foreknowledge of God, but by his absolute decree before the world +was made. + +This is the substance of those peculiar doctrines which are called +Calvinism, and by many regarded as fundamental principles of +theology, to be received with the same unhesitating faith as the +declarations of Scripture from which those doctrines are deduced. +Augustine and Aquinas accepted substantially the same doctrines, +but they were not made so prominent in their systems, nor were they +so elaborately worked out. + +The opponents of Calvin, including some of the brightest lights +which have shone in the English church,--such men as Jeremy Taylor, +Archbishop Whately, and Professor Mosley,--affirm that these +doctrines are not only opposed to free-will, but represent God as +arbitrarily dooming a large part of the human race to future and +endless punishment, withholding from them his grace, by which alone +they can turn from their sins, creating them only to destroy them: +not as the potter moulds the clay for vessels of honor and +dishonor, but moulding the clay in order to destroy the vessels he +has made, whether good or bad; which doctrine they affirm conflicts +with the views usually held out in the Scriptures of God as a God +of love, and also conflicts with all natural justice, and is +therefore one-sided and narrow. + +The premises from which this doctrine is deduced are those +Scripture texts which have the authority of the Apostle Paul, such +as these: "According as he hath chosen us in him before the +foundation of the world;" "For whom he did foreknow he also did +predestinate;" "Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated;" "He hath +mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth;" +"Hath not the potter power over his clay?" No one denies that from +these texts the Predestination of Calvin as well as Augustine--for +they both had similar views--is logically drawn. It has been +objected that both of these eminent theologians overlooked other +truths which go in parallel lines, and which would modify the +doctrine,--even as Scripture asserts in one place the great fact +that the will is free, and in another place that the will is +shackled. The Pelagian would push out the doctrine of free-will so +as to ignore the necessity of grace; and the Augustinian would push +out the doctrine of the servitude of the will into downright +fatalism. But these great logicians apparently shrink from the +conclusions to which their logic leads them. Both Augustine and +Calvin protest against fatalism, and both assert that the will is +so far free that the sinner acts without constraint; and +consequently the blame of his sins rests upon himself, and not upon +another. The doctrines of Calvin and Augustine logically pursued +would lead to the damnation of infants; yet, as a matter of fact, +neither maintained that to which their logic led. It is not in +human nature to believe such a thing, even if it may be +dogmatically asserted. + +And then, in regard to sin: no one has ever disputed the fact that +sin is rampant in this world, and is deserving of punishment. But +theologians of the school of Augustine and Calvin, in view of the +fact, have assumed the premise--which indeed cannot be disputed-- +that sin is against an infinite God. Hence, that sin against an +infinite God is itself infinite; and hence that, as sin deserves +punishment, an infinite sin deserves infinite punishment,--a +conclusion from which consciousness recoils, and which is nowhere +asserted in the Bible. It is a conclusion arrived at by +metaphysical reasoning, which has very little to do with practical +Christianity, and which, imposed as a dogma of belief, to be +accepted like plain declarations of Scripture, is an insult to the +human understanding. But this conclusion, involving the belief +that inherited sin IS INFINITE, and deserving of infinite +punishment, appals the mind. For relief from this terrible logic, +the theologian adduces the great fact that Christ made an atonement +for sin,--another cardinal declaration of the Scripture,--and that +believers in this atonement shall be saved. This Bible doctrine is +exceedingly comforting, and accounts in a measure for the +marvellous spread of Christianity. The wretched people of the old +Roman world heard the glad tidings that Christ died for them, as an +atonement for the sins of which they were conscious, and which had +chained them to despair. But another class of theologians deduced +from this premise, that, as Christ's death was an infinite +atonement for the sins of the world, so all men, and consequently +all sinners, would be saved. This was the ground of the original +Universalists, deduced from the doctrines which Augustine and +Calvin had formulated. But they overlooked the Scripture +declaration which Calvin never lost sight of, that salvation was +only for those who believed. Now inasmuch as a vast majority of +the human race, including infants, have not believed, it becomes a +logical conclusion that all who have not believed are lost. Logic +and consciousness then come into collision, and there is no relief +but in consigning these discrepancies to the realm of mystery. + +I allude to these theological difficulties simply to show the +tyranny to which the mind and soul are subjected whenever +theological deductions are invested with the same authority as +belongs to original declarations of Scripture; and which, so far +from being systematized, do not even always apparently harmonize. +Almost any system of belief can be logically deduced from Scripture +texts. It should be the work of theologians to harmonize them and +show their general spirit and meaning, rather than to draw +conclusions from any particular class of subjects. Any system of +deductions from texts of Scripture which are offset by texts of +equal authority but apparently different meaning, is necessarily +one-sided and imperfect, and therefore narrow. That is exactly the +difficulty under which Calvin labored. He seems, to a large class +of Christians of great ability and conscientiousness, to be narrow +and one-sided, and is therefore no authority to them; not, be it +understood, in reference to the great fundamental doctrines of +Christianity, but in his views of Predestination and the subjects +interlinked with it. And it was the great error of attaching so +much importance to mere metaphysical divinity that led to such a +revulsion from his peculiar system in after times. It was the +great wisdom of the English reformers, like Cranmer, to leave all +those metaphysical questions open, as matters of comparatively +little consequence, and fall back on unquestioned doctrines of +primitive faith, that have given so great vitality to the English +Church, and made it so broad and catholic. The Puritans as a body, +more intellectual than the mass of the Episcopalians, were led away +by the imposing and entangling dialectics of the scholastic Calvin, +and came unfortunately to attach as much importance to such +subjects as free-will and predestination--questions most +complicated--as they did to "the weightier matters of the law;" and +when pushed by the logic of opponents to the "decretum horribile," +have been compelled to fall back on the Catholic doctrine of +mysteries, as something which could never be explained or +comprehended, but which it is a Christian duty to accept as a +mystery. The Scriptures certainly speak of mysteries, like +regeneration; but it is one thing to marvel how a man can be born +again by the Spirit of God,--a fact we see every day,--and quite +another thing to make a mystery to be accepted as a matter of faith +of that which the Bible has nowhere distinctly affirmed, and which +is against all ideas of natural justice, and arrived at by a subtle +process of dialectical reasoning. + +But it was natural for so great an intellectual giant as Calvin to +make his startling deductions from the great truths he meditated +upon with so much seriousness and earnestness. Only a very lofty +nature would have revelled as he did, and as Augustine did before +him and Pascal after him, in those great subjects which pertain to +God and his dispensations. All his meditations and formulated +doctrines radiate from the great and sublime idea of the majesty of +God and the comparative insignificance of man. And here he was not +so far apart from the great sages of antiquity, before salvation +was revealed by Christ. "Canst thou by searching find out God?" +"What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" + +And here I would remark that theologians and philosophers have ever +been divided into two great schools,--those who have had a tendency +to exalt the dignity of man, and those who would absorb man in the +greatness of the Deity. These two schools have advocated doctrines +which, logically carried out to their ultimate sequences, would +produce a Grecian humanitarianism on the one hand, and a sort of +Bramanism on the other,--the one making man the arbiter of his own +destiny, independently of divine agency, and the other making the +Deity the only power of the universe. With one school, God as the +only controlling agency is a fiction, and man himself is infinite +in faculties; the other holds that God is everything and man is +nothing. The distinction between these two schools, both of which +have had great defenders, is fundamental,--such as that between +Augustine and Pelagius, between Bernard and Abelard, and between +Calvin and Lainez. Among those who have inclined to the doctrine +of the majesty of God and the littleness of man were the primitive +monks and the Indian theosophists, and the orthodox scholastics of +the Middle Ages,--all of whom were comparatively indifferent to +material pleasure and physical progress, and sought the salvation +of the soul and the favor of God beyond all temporal blessings. Of +the other class have been the Greek philosophers and the +rationalizing schoolmen and the modern lights of science. + +Now Calvin was imbued with the lofty spirit of the Fathers of the +Church and the more religious and contemplative of the schoolmen +and the saints of the Middle Ages, when he attached but little +dignity to man unaided by divine grace, and was absorbed with the +idea of the sovereignty of God, in whose hands man is like clay in +the hands of the potter. This view of God pervaded the whole +spirit of his theology, making it both lofty and yet one-sided. To +him the chief end of man was to glorify God, not to develop his own +intellectual faculties, and still less to seek the pleasures and +excitements of the world. Man was a sinner before an infinite God, +and he could rise above the polluting influence of sin only by the +special favor of God and his divinely communicated grace. Man was +so great a sinner that he deserved an eternal punishment, only to +be rescued as a brand plucked from the fire, as one of the elect +before the world was made. The vast majority of men were left to +the uncovenanted mercies of Christ,--the redeemer, not of the race, +but of those who believed. + +To Calvin therefore, as to the Puritans, the belief in a personal +God was everything; not a compulsory belief in the general +existence of a deity who, united with Nature, reveals himself to +our consciousness; not the God of the pantheist, visible in all the +wonders of Nature; not the God of the rationalist, who retires from +the universe which he has made, leaving it to the operation of +certain unchanging and universal laws: but the God whom Abraham and +Moses and the prophets saw and recognized, and who by his special +providence rules the destinies of men. The most intellectual of +the reformers abhorred the deification of the reason, and clung to +that exalted supernaturalism which was the life and hope of blessed +saints and martyrs in bygone ages, and which in "their contests +with mail-clad infidelity was like the pebble which the shepherd of +Israel hurled against the disdainful boaster who defied the power +of Israel's God." And he was thus brought into close sympathy with +the realism of the Fathers, who felt that all that is valuable in +theology must radiate from the recognition of Almighty power in the +renovation of society, and displayed, not according to our human +notions of law and progress and free-will, but supernaturally and +mysteriously, according to his sovereign will, which is above law, +since God is the author of law. He simply erred in enforcing a +certain class of truths which must follow from the majesty of the +one great First Cause, lofty as these truths are, to the exclusion +of another class of truths of great importance; which gives to his +system incompleteness and one-sidedness. Thus he was led to +undervalue the power of truth itself in its contest with error. He +was led into a seeming recognition of two wills in God,--that which +wills the salvation of all men, and that which wills the salvation +of the elect alone. He is accused of a leaning to fatalism, which +he heartily denied, but which seems to follow from his logical +conclusions. He entered into an arena of metaphysical controversy +which can never be settled. The doctrines of free-will and +necessity can never be reconciled by mortal reason. Consciousness +reveals the freedom of the will as well as the slavery to sin. Men +are conscious of both; they waste their time in attempting to +reconcile two apparently opposing facts,--like our pious fathers at +their New England fire-sides, who were compelled to shelter +themselves behind mystery. + +The tendency of Calvin's system, it is maintained by many, is to +ascribe to God attributes which according to natural justice would +be injustice and cruelty, such as no father would exercise on his +own children, however guilty. Even good men will not accept in +their hearts doctrines which tend to make God less compassionate +than man. There are not two kinds of justice. The intellect is +appalled when it is affirmed that one man JUSTLY suffers the +penalty of another man's sin,--although the world is full of +instances of men suffering from the carelessness or wickedness of +others, as in a wicked war or an unnecessary railway disaster. The +Scripture law of retribution, as brought out in the Bible and +sustained by consciousness, is the penalty a man pays for personal +and voluntary transgression. Nor will consciousness accept the +doctrine that the sin of a mortal--especially under strong +temptation and with all the bias of a sinful nature--is infinite. +Nothing which a created mortal can do is infinite; it is only +finite: the infinite belongs to God alone. Hence an infinite +penalty for a finite sin conflicts with consciousness and is +nowhere asserted in the Bible, which is transcendently more +merciful and comforting than many theological systems of belief, +however powerfully sustained by dialectical reasoning and by the +most excellent men. Human judgments or reasonings are fallible on +moral questions which have two sides; and reasonings from texts +which present different meanings when studied by the lights of +learning and science are still more liable to be untrustworthy. It +would seem to be the supremest necessity for theological schools to +unravel the meaning of divine declarations, and present doctrines +in their relation with apparently conflicting texts, rather than +draw out a perfect and consistent system, philosophically +considered, from any one class of texts. Of all things in this +wicked and perplexing world the science of theology should be the +most cheerful and inspiring, for it involves inquiries on the +loftiest subjects which can interest a thoughtful mind. + +But whatever defects the system of doctrines which Calvin +elaborated with such transcendent ability may have, there is no +question as to its vast influence on the thinking of the sixteenth +and seventeenth centuries. The schools of France and Holland and +Scotland and England and America were animated by his genius and +authority. He was a burning and a shining light, if not for all +ages, at least for the unsettled times in which he lived. No +theologian ever had a greater posthumous power than he for nearly +three hundred years, and he is still one of the great authorities +of the church universal. John Knox sought his counsel and was +influenced by his advice in the great reform he made in Scotland. +In France the words Calvinist and Huguenot are synonymous. +Cranmer, too, listened to his counsels, and had great respect for +his learning and sanctity. Among the Puritans he has reigned like +an oracle. Oliver Cromwell embraced his doctrines, as also did Sir +Matthew Hale. Ridicule or abuse of Calvin is as absurd as the +ridicule or abuse with which Protestants so long assailed +Hildebrand or Innocent III. No one abuses Pascal or Augustine, and +yet the theological views of all these are substantially the same. + +In one respect I think that Calvin has received more credit than he +deserves. Some have maintained that he was a sort of father of +republicanism and democratic liberty. In truth he had no popular +sympathies, and leaned towards an aristocracy which was little +short of an oligarchy. He had no hand in establishing the +political system of Geneva; it was established before he went +there. He was not even one of those thinkers who sympathized with +true liberty of conscience. He persecuted heretics like a +mediaeval Catholic divine. He would have burned a Galileo as he +caused the death of Servetus, which need not have happened but for +him. Calvin could have saved Servetus if he had pleased; but he +complained of him to the magistrates, knowing that his condemnation +and death would necessarily follow. He had neither the humanity of +Luther nor the toleration of Saint Augustine. He was the +impersonation of intellect,--like Newton, Leibnitz, Spinoza, and +Kant,--which overbore the impulses of his heart. He had no +passions except zeal for orthodoxy. So pre-eminently did intellect +tower above the passions that he seemed to lack sympathy; and yet, +such was his exalted character, he was capable of friendship. He +was remarkable for every faculty of the mind except wit and +imagination. His memory was almost incredible; he remembered +everything he ever read or heard; he would, after long intervals, +recognize persons whom he had never seen but once or twice. When +employed in dictation, he would resume the thread of his discourse +without being prompted, after the most vexatious interruptions. +His judgment was as sound as his memory was retentive; it was +almost infallible,--no one was ever known to have been misled by +it. He had a remarkable analytical power, and also the power of +generalization. He was a very learned man, and his Commentaries +are among the most useful and valued of his writings, showing both +learning and judgment; his exegetical works have scarcely been +improved. He had no sceptical or rationalistic tendencies, and +therefore his Commentaries may not be admired by men of "advanced +thought;" but his annotations will live when those of Ewald shall +be forgotten; they still hold their place in the libraries of +biblical critics. For his age he was a transcendent critic; his +various writings fill five folio volumes. He was not so voluminous +a writer as Thomas Aquinas, but less diffuse; his style is lucid, +like that of Voltaire. + +Considering the weakness of his body Calvin's labors were +prodigious. There was never a more industrious man, finding time +for everything,--for an amazing correspondence, for pastoral +labors, for treatises and essays, for commentaries and official +duties. No man ever accomplished more in the same space of time. +He preached daily every alternate week; he attended meetings of the +Consistory and of the Court of Morals; he interested himself in the +great affairs of his age; he wrote letters to all parts of +Christendom. + +Reigning as a religious dictator, and with more influence than any +man of his age, next to Luther, Calvin was content to remain poor, +and was disdainful of money and all praises and rewards. This was +not an affectation, not the desire to imitate the great saints of +Christian antiquity to whom poverty was a cardinal virtue; but real +indifference, looking upon money as impedimenta, as camp equipage +is to successful generals. He was not conscious of being poor with +his small salary of fifty dollars a year, feeling that he had +inexhaustible riches within him; and hence he calmly and naturally +took his seat among the great men of the world as their peer and +equal, without envy of the accidents of fortune and birth. He was +as indifferent to money and luxuries as Socrates when he walked +barefooted among the Athenian aristocracy, or Basil when he retired +to the wilderness; he rarely gave vent to extravagant grief or joy, +seldom laughed, and cared little for hilarities; he knew no games +or sports; he rarely played with children or gossiped with women; +he loved without romance, and suffered bereavement without outward +sorrow. He had no toleration for human infirmities, and was +neither social nor genial; he sought a wife, not so much for +communion of feeling as to ease him of his burdens,--not to share +his confidence, but to take care of his house. Nor was he fond, +like Luther, of music and poetry. He had no taste for the fine +arts; he never had a poet or an artist for his friend or companion. +He could not look out of his window without seeing the glaciers of +the Alps, but seemed to be unmoved by their unspeakable grandeur; +he did not revel in the glories of nature or art, but gave his mind +to abstract ideas and stern practical duties. He was sparing of +language, simple, direct, and precise, using neither sarcasm, nor +ridicule, nor exaggeration. He was far from being eloquent +according to popular notions of oratory, and despised the jingle of +words and phrases and tricks of rhetoric; he appealed to reason +rather than the passions, to the conscience rather than the +imagination. + +Though mild, Calvin was also intolerant. Castillo, once his +friend, assailed his doctrine of Decrees, and was obliged to quit +Geneva, and was so persecuted that he died of actual starvation; +Perrin, captain-general of the republic, danced at a wedding, and +was thrown into prison; Bolsec, an eminent physician, opposed the +doctrine of Predestination, and was sentenced to perpetual +imprisonment; Gruet spoke lightly of the ordinances of religion, +and was beheaded; Servetus was a moral and learned and honest man, +but could not escape the flames. Had he been willing to say, as +the flames consumed his body, "Jesus, thou eternal Son of God, have +mercy on me!" instead of, "Jesus, thou son of the eternal God!" he +might have been spared. Calvin was as severe on those who refused +to accept his logical deductions from acknowledged truths as he was +on those who denied the fundamental truths themselves. But +toleration was rare in his age, and he was not beyond it. He was +not even beyond the ideas of the Middle Ages in some important +points, such as those which pertained to divine justice,--the wrath +rather than the love of God. He lived too near the Middle Ages to +be emancipated from the ideas which enslaved such a man as Thomas +Aquinas. He had very little patience with frivolous amusements or +degrading pursuits. He attached great dignity to the ministerial +office, and set a severe example of decorum and propriety in all +his public ministrations. He was a type of the early evangelical +divines, and was the father of the old Puritan strictness and +narrowness and fidelity to trusts. His very faults grew out of +virtues pushed to extremes. In our times such a man would not be +selected as a travelling companion, or a man at whose house we +would wish to keep the Christmas holidays. His unattractive +austerity perhaps has been made too much of by his enemies, and +grew out of his unimpulsive temperament,--call it cold if we must,-- +and also out of his stern theology, which marked the ascetics of +the Middle Ages. Few would now approve of his severity of +discipline any more than they would feel inclined to accept some of +his theological deductions. + +I question whether Calvin lived in the hearts of his countrymen, or +they would have erected some monument to his memory. In our times +a statue has been erected to Rousseau in Geneva; but Calvin was +buried without ceremony and with exceeding simplicity. He was a +warrior who cared nothing for glory or honor, absorbed in devotion +to his Invisible King, not indifferent to the exercise of power, +but only as he felt he was the delegated messenger of Divine +Omnipotence scattering to the winds the dust of all mortal +grandeur. With all his faults, which were on the surface, he was +the accepted idol and oracle of a great party, and stamped his +genius on his own and succeeding ages. Whatever the Presbyterians +have done for civilization, he comes in for a share of the honor. +Whatever foundations the Puritans laid for national greatness in +this country, it must be confessed that they caught inspiration +from his decrees. Such a great master of exegetical learning and +theological inquiry and legislative wisdom will be forever held in +reverence by lofty characters, although he may be no favorite with +the mass of mankind. If many great men and good men have failed to +comprehend either his character or his system, how can a pleasure- +loving and material generation, seeking to combine the glories of +this world with the promises of the next, see much in him to +admire, except as a great intellectual dialectician and system- +maker in an age with which it has no sympathy? How can it +appreciate his deep spiritual life, his profound communion with +God, his burning zeal for the defence of Christian doctrine, his +sublime self-sacrifice, his holy resignation, his entire +consecration to a great cause? Nobody can do justice to Calvin who +does not know the history of his times, the circumstances which +surrounded him, and the enemies he was required to fight. No one +can comprehend his character or mission who does not feel it to be +supremely necessary to have a definite, positive system of +religious belief, based on the authority of the Scriptures as a +divine inspiration, both as an anchor amid the storms and a star of +promise and hope. + +And, after all, what is the head and front of Calvin's offending?-- +that he was cold, unsocial, and ungenial in character; and that, as +a theologian, he fearlessly and inexorably pushed out his +deductions to their remotest logical sequences. But he was no more +austere than Chrysostom, no more ascetic than Basil, not even +sterner in character than Michael Angelo, or more unsocial than +Pascal or Cromwell or William the Silent. We lose sight of his +defects in the greatness of his services and the exalted dignity of +his character. If he was severe to adversaries, he was kind to +friends; and when his feeble body was worn out by his protracted +labors, at the age of fifty-three, and he felt that the hand of +death was upon him, he called together his friends and fellow- +laborers in reform,--the magistrates and ministers of Geneva,-- +imparted his last lessons, and expressed his last wishes, with the +placidity of a Christian sage. Amid tears and sobs and stifled +groans he discoursed calmly on his approaching departure, gave his +affectionate benedictions, and commended them and his cause to +Christ; lingering longer than was expected, but dying in the +highest triumphs of Christian faith, May 27, 1564, in the, arms of +his faithful and admiring Beza, as the rays of the setting-sun +gilded with their glory his humble chamber of toil and spiritual +exaltation. + +No man who knows anything will ever sneer at Calvin. He is not to +be measured by common standards. He was universally regarded as +the greatest light of the theological world. When we remember his +transcendent abilities, his matchless labors, his unrivalled +influence, his unblemished morality, his lofty piety, and soaring +soul, all flippant criticism is contemptible and mean. He ranks +with immortal benefactors, and needs least of all any apologies for +his defects. A man who stamped his opinions on his own age and +succeeding ages can be regarded only as a very extraordinary +genius. A frivolous and pleasure-seeking generation may not be +attracted by such an impersonation of cold intellect, and may rear +no costly monument to his memory; but his work remains as the +leader of the loftiest class of Christian enthusiasts that the +modern world has known, and the founder of a theological system +which still numbers, in spite of all the changes of human thought, +some of the greatest thinkers and ablest expounders of Christian +doctrine in both Europe and America. To have been the spiritual +father of the Puritans for three hundred years is itself a great +evidence of moral and intellectual excellence, and will link his +name with some of the greatest movements that have marked our +modern civilization. From Plymouth Rock to the shores of the +Pacific Ocean we still see the traces of his marvellous genius, and +his still more wonderful influence on the minds of men and on the +schools of Christian theology; so that he will ever be regarded as +the great doctor of the Protestant Church. + + +AUTHORITIES. + + +Henry's Life of Calvin, translated by Stebbings; Dyer's Life of +Calvin; Beza's Life of Calvin; Drelincourt's Defence of Calvin; +Bayle; Maimbourg's Histoire du Calvinisme; Calvin's Works; Ruchat; +D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation; Burnet's Reformation; +Mosheim; Biographie Universelle, article on Servetus; Schlosser's +Leben Bezas; McCrie's Life of Knox; Original Letters (Parker +Society). + + + +FRANCIS BACON. + +A. D. 1561-1626. + +THE NEW PHILOSOPHY. + + +It is not easy to present the life and labors of + + + "The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind." + + +So Pope sums up the character of the great Lord Bacon, as he is +generally but improperly called; and this verdict, in the main, has +been confirmed by Lords Macaulay and Campbell, who seem to delight +in keeping him in that niche of the temple of fame where the poet +has placed him,--contemptible as a man, but venerable as the +philosopher, radiant with all the wisdom of his age and of all +preceding ages, the miner and sapper of ancient falsehoods, the +pioneer of all true knowledge, the author of that inductive and +experimental philosophy on which is based the glory of our age. +Macaulay especially, in that long and brilliant article which +appeared in the "Edinburgh Review" in 1837, has represented him as +a remarkably worldly man, cold, calculating, selfish a sycophant +and a flatterer, bent on self-exaltation; greedy, careless, false; +climbing to power by base subserviency; betraying friends and +courting enemies; with no animosities he does not suppress from +policy, and with no affections which he openly manifests when it +does not suit his interests: so that we read with shame of his +extraordinary shamelessness, from the time he first felt the +cravings of a vulgar ambition to the consummation of a disgraceful +crime; from the base desertion of his greatest benefactor to the +public selling of justice as Lord High Chancellor of the realm; +resorting to all the arts of a courtier to win the favor of his +sovereign and of his minions and favorites; reckless as to honest +debts; torturing on the rack an honest parson for a sermon he never +preached; and, when obliged to confess his corruption, meanly +supplicating mercy from the nation he had outraged, and favors from +the monarch whose cause he had betrayed. The defects and +delinquencies of this great man are bluntly and harshly put by +Macaulay, without any attempt to soften or palliate them: as if he +would consign his name and memory not "to men's charitable +speeches, to foreign nations, and to the next ages," but to an +infamy as lasting and deep as that of Scroggs and of Jeffreys, or +any of those hideous tyrants and monsters that disgraced the reigns +of the Stuart kings. + +And yet while the man is made to appear in such hideous colors, his +philosophy is exalted to the highest pinnacle of praise, as the +greatest boon which any philosopher ever rendered to the world, and +the chief cause of all subsequent progress in scientific discovery. +And thus in brilliant rhetoric we have a painting of a man whose +life was in striking contrast with his teachings,--a Judas +Iscariot, uttering divine philosophy; a Seneca, accumulating +millions as the tool of Nero; a fallen angel, pointing with rapture +to the realms of eternal light. We have the most startling +contradiction in all history,--glory in debasement, and debasement +in glory; the most selfish and worldly man in England, the "meanest +of mankind," conferring on the race one of the greatest blessings +it ever received,--not accidentally, not in repentance and shame, +but in exalted and persistent labors, amid public cares and +physical infirmities, from youth to advanced old age; living in the +highest regions of thought, studious and patient all his days, even +when neglected and unrewarded for the transcendent services he +rendered, not as a philosopher merely, but as a man of affairs and +as a responsible officer of the Crown. Has there ever been, before +or since, such an anomaly in human history,--so infamous in action, +so glorious in thought; such a contradiction between life and +teachings,--so that many are found to utter indignant protests +against such a representation of humanity, justly feeling that such +a portrait, however much it may be admired for its brilliant +colors, and however difficult to be proved false, is nevertheless +an insult to the human understanding? The heart of the world will +not accept the strange and singular belief that so bad a man could +confer so great a boon, especially when he seemed bent on bestowing +it during his whole life, amid the most harassing duties. If it +accepts the boon, it will strive to do justice to the benefactor, +as he himself appealed to future ages; and if it cannot deny the +charges which have been arrayed against him,--especially if it +cannot exculpate him,--it will soar beyond technical proofs to take +into consideration the circumstances of the times, the temptations +of a corrupt age, and the splendid traits which can with equal +authority be adduced to set off against the mistakes and faults +which proceeded from inadvertence and weakness rather than a +debased moral sense,--even as the defects and weaknesses of Cicero +are lost sight of in the acknowledged virtues of his ordinary life, +and the honest and noble services he rendered to his country and +mankind. + + +Bacon was a favored man; he belonged to the upper ranks of society. +His father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, was a great lawyer, and reached the +highest dignities, being Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. His +mother's sister was the wife of William Cecil, the great Lord +Burleigh, the most able and influential of Queen Elizabeth's +ministers. Francis Bacon was the youngest son of the Lord Keeper, +and was born in London, Jan. 22, 1561. He had a sickly and feeble +constitution, but intellectually was a youthful prodigy; and at +nine years of age, by his gravity and knowledge, attracted the +admiring attention of the Queen, who called him her young Lord +Keeper. At the age of ten we find him stealing away from his +companions to discover the cause of a singular echo in the brick +conduit near his father's house in the Strand. At twelve he +entered the University of Cambridge; at fifteen he quitted it, +already disgusted with its pedantries and sophistries; at sixteen +he rebelled against the authority of Aristotle, and took up his +residence at Gray's Inn; the same year, 1576, he was sent to Paris +in the suite of Sir Amias Paulet, ambassador to the court of +France, and delighted the salons of the capital by his wit and +profound inquiries; at nineteen he returned to England, having won +golden opinions from the doctors of the French Sanhedrim, who saw +in him a second Daniel; and in 1582 he was admitted as a barrister +of Gray's Inn, and the following year composed an essay on the +Instauration of Philosophy. Thus, at an age when young men now +leave the university, he had attacked the existing systems of +science and philosophy, proudly taking in all science and knowledge +for his realm. + +About this time his father died, without leaving him, a younger +son, a competence. Nor would his great relatives give him an +office or sinecure by which he might be supported while he sought +truth, and he was forced to plod at the law, which he never liked, +resisting the blandishments and follies by which he was surrounded; +and at intervals, when other young men of his age and rank were +seeking pleasure, he was studying Nature, science, history, +philosophy, poetry,--everything, even the whole domain of truth,-- +and with such success that his varied attainments were rather a +hindrance to an appreciation of his merits as a lawyer and his +preferment in his profession. + +In 1586 he entered parliament, sitting for Taunton, and also became +a bencher at Gray's Inn; so that at twenty-six he was in full +practice in the courts of Westminster, also a politician, speaking +on almost every question of importance which agitated the House of +Commons for twenty years, distinguished for eloquence as well as +learning, and for a manly independence which did not entirely +please the Queen, from whom all honors came. + +In 1591, at the age of thirty-one, he formed the acquaintance of +Essex, about his own age, who, as the favorite of the Queen, was +regarded as the most influential man in the country. The +acquaintance ripened into friendship; and to the solicitation of +this powerful patron, who urged the Queen to give Bacon a high +office, she is said to have replied: "He has indeed great wit and +much learning, but in law, my lord, he is not deeply read," an +opinion perhaps put into her head by his rival Coke, who did indeed +know law but scarcely anything else, or by that class of old- +fashioned functionaries who could not conceive how a man could +master more than one thing. We should however remember that Bacon +had not reached the age when great offices were usually conferred +in the professions, and that his efforts to be made solicitor- +general at the age of thirty-one, and even earlier, would now seem +unreasonable and importunate, whatever might be his attainments. +Disappointed in not receiving high office, he meditated a retreat +to Cambridge; but his friend Essex gave him a villa in Twickenham, +which he soon mortgaged, for he was in debt all his life, although +in receipt of sums which would have supported him in comfort and +dignity were it not for his habits of extravagance,--the greatest +flaw in his character, and which was the indirect cause of his +disgrace and fall. He was even arrested for debt when he enjoyed a +lucrative practice at the courts. But nothing prevented him from +pursuing his literary and scientific studies, amid great +distractions,--for he was both a leader at the bar and a leader of +the House of Commons; and if he did not receive the rewards to +which he felt entitled, he was always consulted by Elizabeth in +great legal difficulties. + +It was not until the Queen died, and Bacon was forty-seven years +old, that he became solicitor-general (1607), in the fourth year of +the reign of James, one year after his marriage with Alice Barnham, +an alderman s daughter, "a handsome maiden," and "to his liking." +Besides this office, which brought him L1000 a year, he about this +time had a windfall as clerk of the Star Chamber, which added L2000 +to his income, at that time from all sources about L4500 a year,--a +very large sum for those times, and making him really a rich man. +Six years afterward he was made attorney-general, and in the year +1617 he was made Lord Keeper, and the following year he was raised +to the highest position in the realm, next to that of Archbishop of +Canterbury, as Lord Chancellor, at the age of fifty-seven, and soon +after was created Lord Verulam. That is his title, but the world +persists in calling him Lord Bacon. In 1620, two years after the +execution of Sir Walter Raleigh, which Bacon advised, he was in the +zenith of his fortunes and fame, having been lately created +Viscount St. Albans, and having published the "Novum Organum," the +first instalment of the "Instauratio Magna," at which he had been +working the best part of his life,--some thirty years,--"A New +Logic, to judge or invent by induction, and thereby to make +philosophy and science both more true and more active." + +Then began to gather the storms which were to wreck his fortunes. +The nation now was clamorous for reform; and Coke, the enemy of +Bacon, who was then the leader of the Reform party in the House of +Commons, stimulated the movement. The House began its scrutiny +with the administration of justice; and Bacon could not stand +before it, for as the highest judge in England he was accused of +taking bribes before rendering decisions, and of many cases of +corruption so glaring that no defence was undertaken; and the House +of Lords had no alternative but to sentence him to the Tower and +fine him, to degrade him from his office, and banish him from the +precincts of the court,--a fall so great, and the impression of it +on the civilized world so tremendous, that the case of a judge +accepting bribes has rarely since been known. + +Bacon was imprisoned but a few days, his ruinous fine of L40,000 +was remitted, and he was even soon after received at court; but he +never again held office. He was hopelessly disgraced; he was a +ruined man; and he bitterly felt the humiliation, and acknowledged +the justice of his punishment. He had now no further object in +life than to pursue his studies, and live comfortably in his +retirement, and do what he could for future ages. + +But before we consider his immortal legacy to the world, let us +take one more view of the man, in order that we may do him justice, +and remove some of the cruel charges against him as "the meanest of +mankind." + +It must be borne in mind that, from the beginning of his career +until his fall, only four or five serious charges have been made +against him,--that he was extravagant in his mode of life; that he +was a sycophant and office-seeker; that he deserted his patron +Essex; that he tortured Peacham, a Puritan clergyman, when tried +for high-treason; that he himself was guilty of corruption as a +judge. + +In regard to the first charge, it is unfortunately too true; he +lived beyond his means, and was in debt most of his life. This +defect, as has been said, was the root of much evil; it destroyed +his independence, detracted from the dignity of his character, +created enemies, and led to a laxity of the moral sense which +prepared the way for corruption,--thereby furnishing another +illustration of that fatal weakness which degrades any man when he +runs races with the rich, and indulges in a luxury and ostentation +which he cannot afford. It was the curse of Cicero, of William +Pitt, and of Daniel Webster. The first lesson which every public +man should learn, especially if honored with important trusts, is +to live within his income. However inconvenient and galling, a +stringent economy is necessary. But this defect is a very common +one, particularly when men are luxurious, or brought into +intercourse with the rich, or inclined to be hospitable and +generous, or have a great imagination and a sanguine temperament. +So that those who are most liable to fall into this folly have many +noble qualities to offset it, and it is not a stain which marks the +"meanest of mankind." Who would call Webster the meanest of +mankind because he had an absurd desire to live like an English +country gentleman? + +In regard to sycophancy, a disgusting trait, I admit,--we should +consider the age, when everybody cringed to sovereigns and their +favorites. Bacon never made such an abject speech as Omer Talon, +the greatest lawyer in France, did to Louis XIII., in the +Parliament of Paris. Three hundred years ago everybody bowed down +to exalted rank: witness the obsequious language which all authors +addressed to patrons in the dedication of their books. How small +the chance of any man rising in the world, who did not court favors +from those who had favors to bestow! Is that the meanest or the +most uncommon thing in this world? If so, how ignominious are all +politicians who flatter the people and solicit their votes? Is it +not natural to be obsequious to those who have offices to bestow? +This trait is not commendable, but is it the meanest thing we see? + +In regard to Essex, nobody can approve of the ingratitude which +Bacon showed to his noble patron. But, on the other hand, remember +the good advice which Bacon ever gave him, and his constant efforts +to keep him out of scrapes. How often did he excuse him to his +royal mistress, at the risk of incurring her displeasure? And +when Essex was guilty of a thousand times worse crime than ever +Bacon committed,--even high-treason, in a time of tumult and +insurrection,--and it became Bacon's task as prosecuting officer of +the Crown to bring this great culprit to justice, was he required +by a former friendship to sacrifice his duty and his allegiance to +his sovereign, to screen a man who had perverted the affection of +the noblest woman who ever wore a crown, and came near involving +his country in a civil war? Grant that Essex had bestowed favors, +and was an accomplished and interesting man,--was Bacon to ignore +his official duties? He may have been too harsh in his procedure; +but in that age all criminal proceedings were harsh and +inexorable,--there was but little mercy shown to culprits, +especially to traitors. If Elizabeth could bring herself, out of +respect to her wounded honor and slighted kindness and the dignity +of the realm and the majesty of the law, to surrender into the +hands of justice one whom she so tenderly loved and magnificently +rewarded, even when the sacrifice cost her both peace and life, +snapped the last cord which bound her to this world,--may we not +forgive Bacon for the part he played? Does this fidelity to an +official and professional duty, even if he were harsh, make him +"the meanest of mankind"? + +In regard to Peacham, it is true he was tortured, according to the +practice of that cruel age; but Bacon had no hand in the issuing of +the warrant against him for high-treason, although in accordance +with custom he, as prosecuting officer of the Crown, examined +Peacham under torture before his trial. The parson was convicted; +but the sentence of death was not executed upon him, and he died in +jail. + +And in regard to corruption,--the sin which cast Bacon from his +high estate, though fortunately he did not fall like Lucifer, never +to rise again,--may not the verdict of the poet and the historian +be rather exaggerated? Nobody has ever attempted to acquit Bacon +for taking bribes. Nobody has ever excused him. He did commit a +crime; but in palliation it might be said that he never decided +against justice, and that it was customary for great public +functionaries to accept presents. Had he taken them after he had +rendered judgment instead of before, he might have been acquitted; +for out of the seven thousand cases which he decided as Lord- +Chancellor, not one of them has been reversed: so that he said of +himself, "I was the justest judge that England has had for fifty +years; and I suffered the justest sentence that had been inflicted +for two hundred years." He did not excuse himself. His +ingenuousness of confession astonished everybody, and moved the +hearts of his judges. It was his misfortune to be in debt; he had +pressing creditors; and in two cases he accepted presents before +the decision was made, but was brave enough to decide against those +who bribed him,--hinc illae lacrymae. A modern corrupt official +generally covers his tracks; and many a modern judge has been +bribed to decide against justice, and has escaped ignominy, even in +a country which claims the greatest purity and the loftiest moral +standard. We admit that Bacon was a sinner; but was he a sinner +above all others who cast stones at Jerusalem? + +In reference to these admitted defects and crimes, I only wish to +show that even these do not make him "the meanest of mankind." +What crimes have sullied many of those benefactors whom all ages +will admire and honor, and whom, in spite of their defects, we call +good men,--not bad men to be forgiven for their services, but +excellent and righteous on the whole! See Abraham telling lies to +the King of Egypt; and Jacob robbing his brother of his birthright; +and David murdering his bravest soldier to screen himself from +adultery; and Solomon selling himself to false idols to please the +wicked women who ensnared him; and Peter denying his Master; and +Marcus Aurelius persecuting the Christians; and Constantine putting +to death his own son; and Theodosius slaughtering the citizens of +Thessalonica; and Isabella establishing the Inquisition; and Sir +Mathew Hale burning witches; and Cromwell stealing a sceptre; and +Calvin murdering Servetus; and Queen Elizabeth lying and cheating +and swearing in the midst of her patriotic labors for her country +and civilization. Even the sun passes through eclipses. Have the +spots upon the career of Bacon hidden the brightness of his general +beneficence? Is he the meanest of men because he had great faults? +When we speak of mean men, it is those whose general character is +contemptible. + +Now, see Bacon pursuing his honorable career amid rebuffs and +enmities and jealousies, toiling in Herculean tasks without +complaint, and waiting his time; always accessible, affable, +gentle, with no vulgar pride, if he aped vulgar ostentation; calm, +beneficent, studious, without envy or bitterness; interesting in +his home, courted as a friend, admired as a philosopher, generous +to the poor, kind to the servants who cheated him, with an +unsubdued love of Nature as well as of books; not negligent of +religious duties, a believer in God and immortality; and though +broken in spirit, like a bruised reed, yet soaring beyond all his +misfortunes to study the highest problems, and bequeathing his +knowledge for the benefit of future ages! Can such a man be +stigmatized as "the meanest of mankind"? Is it candid and just for +a great historian to indorse such a verdict, to gloss over Bacon's +virtues, and make like an advocate at the bar, or an ancient +sophist, a special plea to magnify his defects, and stain his noble +name with an infamy as deep as would be inflicted upon an enemy of +the human race? And all for what?--just to make a rhetorical +point, and show the writer's brilliancy and genius in making a +telling contrast between the man and the philosopher. A man who +habitually dwelt in the highest regions of thought during his whole +life, absorbed in lofty contemplations, all from love of truth +itself and to benefit the world, could not have had a mean or +sordid soul. "As a man thinketh, so is he." We admit that he was +a man of the world, politic, self-seeking, extravagant, careless +about his debts and how he raised money to pay them; but we deny +that he was a bad judge on the whole, or was unpatriotic, or +immoral in his private life, or mean in his ordinary dealings, or +more cruel and harsh in his judicial transactions than most of the +public functionaries of his rough and venal age. We admit it is +difficult to controvert the charges which Macaulay arrays against +him, for so accurate and painstaking an historian is not likely to +be wrong in his facts; but we believe that they are uncandidly +stated, and so ingeniously and sophistically put as to give on the +whole a wrong impression of the man,--making him out worse than he +was, considering his age and circumstances. Bacon's character, +like that of most great men, has two sides; and while we are +compelled painfully to admit that he had many faults, we shrink +from classing him among bad men, as is implied in Pope's +characterization of him as "the meanest of mankind." + + +We now take leave of the man, to consider his legacy to the world. +And here again we are compelled to take issue with Macaulay, not in +regard to the great fact that Bacon's inquiries tended to a new +revelation of Nature, and by means of the method called induction, +by which he sought to establish fixed principles of science that +could not be controverted, but in reference to the ends for which +he labored. "The aim of Bacon," says Macaulay, "was utility,-- +fruit; the multiplication of human enjoyments, . . . the mitigation +of human sufferings, . . . the prolongation of life by new +inventions,"--dotare vitam humanum novis inventis et copiis; "the +conquest of Nature,"--dominion over the beasts of the field and the +fowls of the air; the application of science to the subjection of +the outward world; progress in useful arts,--in those arts which +enable us to become strong, comfortable, and rich in houses, shops, +fabrics, tools, merchandise, new vegetables, fruits, and animals: +in short, a philosophy which will "not raise us above vulgar wants, +but will supply those wants." "And as an acre in Middlesex is +worth more than a principality in Utopia, so the smallest practical +good is better than any magnificent effort to realize an +impossibility;" and "hence the first shoemaker has rendered more +substantial service to mankind than all the sages of Greece. All +they could do was to fill the world with long beards and long +words; whereas Bacon's philosophy has lengthened life, mitigated +pain, extinguished disease, built bridges, guided the thunderbolts, +lightened the night with the splendor of the day, accelerated +motion, annihilated distance, facilitated intercourse; enabled men +to descend to the depths of the earth, to traverse the land in cars +which whirl without horses, and the ocean in ships which sail +against the wind." In other words, it was his aim to stimulate +mankind, not to seek unattainable truth, but useful truth; that is, +the science which produces railroads, canals, cultivated farms, +ships, rich returns for labor, silver and gold from the mines,--all +that purchase the joys of material life and fit us for dominion +over the world in which we live. Hence anything which will curtail +our sufferings and add to our pleasures or our powers, should be +sought as the highest good. Geometry is desirable, not as a noble +intellectual exercise, but as a handmaid to natural philosophy. +Astronomy is not to assist the mind to lofty contemplation, but to +enable mariners to verify degrees of latitude and regulate clocks. +A college is not designed to train and discipline the mind, but to +utilize science, and become a school of technology. Greek and +Latin exercises are comparatively worthless, and even mathematics, +unless they can be converted into practical use. Philosophy, as +ordinarily understood,--that is, metaphysics,--is most idle of all, +since it does not pertain to mundane wants. Hence the old Grecian +philosopher labored in vain; and still more profitless were the +disquisitions of the scholastics of the Middle Ages, since they +were chiefly used to prop up unintelligible creeds. Theology is +not of much account, since it pertains to mysteries we cannot +solve. It is not with heaven or hell, or abstract inquiries, or +divine certitudes, that we have to do, but the things of earth,-- +things that advance our material and outward condition. To be rich +and comfortable is the end of life,--not meditations on abstract +and eternal truth, such as elevate the soul or prepare it for a +future and endless life. The certitudes of faith, of love, of +friendship, are of small value when compared with the blessings of +outward prosperity. Utilitarianism is the true philosophy, for +this confines us to the world where we are born to labor, and +enables us to make acquisitions which promote our comfort and ease. +The chemist and the manufacturer are our greatest benefactors, for +they make for us oils and gases and paints,--things we must have. +The philosophy of Bacon is an immense improvement on all previous +systems, since it heralds the jubilee of trades, the millennium of +merchants, the schools of thrift, the apostles of physical +progress, the pioneers of enterprise,--the Franklins and +Stephensons and Tyndalls and Morses of our glorious era. Its +watchword is progress. All hail, then, to the electric telegraph +and telephones and Thames tunnels and Crystal Palaces and Niagara +bridges and railways over the Rocky Mountains! The day of our +deliverance is come; the nations are saved; the Brunels and the +Fieldses are our victors and leaders! Crown them with Olympic +leaves, as the heroes of our great games of life. And thou, O +England! exalted art thou among the nations,--not for thy Oxfords +and Westminsters; not for thy divines and saints and martyrs and +poets; not for thy Hookers and Leightons and Cranmers and Miltons +and Burkes and Lockes; not for thy Reformation; not for thy +struggles for liberty,--but for thy Manchesters and Birminghams, +thy Portsmouth shipyards, thy London docks, thy Liverpool +warehouses, thy mines of coal and iron, thy countless mechanisms by +which thou bringest the wealth of nations into thy banks, and art +enabled to buy the toil of foreigners and to raise thy standards on +the farthest battlements of India and China. These conquests and +acquisitions are real, are practical; machinery over life, the +triumph of physical forces, dominion over waves and winds,--these +are the great victories which consummate the happiness of man; and +these are they which flow from the philosophy which Bacon taught. + +Now Macaulay does not directly say all these things, but these are +the spirit and gist of the interpretation which he puts upon +Bacon's writings. The philosophy of Bacon leads directly to these +blessings; and these constitute its great peculiarity. And it +cannot be denied that the new era which Bacon heralded was fruitful +in these very things,--that his philosophy encouraged this new +development of material forces; but it may be questioned whether he +had not something else in view than mere utility and physical +progress, and whether his method could not equally be applied to +metaphysical subjects; whether it did not pertain to the whole +domain of truth, and take in the whole realm of human inquiry. I +believe that Bacon was interested, not merely in the world of +matter, but in the world of mind; that he sought to establish +principles from which sound deductions might be made, as well as to +establish reliable inductions. Lord Campbell thinks that a perfect +system of ethics could be made out of his writings, and that his +method is equally well adapted to examine and classify the +phenomena of the mind. He separated the legitimate paths of human +inquiry, giving his attention to poetry and politics and +metaphysics, as well as to physics. Bacon does not sneer as +Macaulay does at the ancient philosophers; he bears testimony to +their genius and their unrivalled dialectical powers, even if he +regards their speculations as frequently barren. He does not +flippantly ridicule the homoousian and the homoiousian as mere +words, but the expression and exponent of profound theological +distinctions, as every theologian knows them to be. He does not +throw dirt on metaphysical science if properly directed, still less +on noble inquiries after God and the mysteries of life. He is +subjective as well as objective. He treats of philosophy in its +broadest meaning, as it takes in the province of the understanding, +the memory, and the will, as well as of man in society. He speaks +of the principles of government and of the fountains of law; of +universal justice, of eternal spiritual truth. So that Playfair +judiciously observes (and he was a scientist) "that it was not by +sagacious anticipations of science, afterwards to be made in +physics, that his writings have had so powerful an influence, +as in his knowledge of the limits and resources of the human +understanding. It would be difficult to find another writer, prior +to Locke, whose works are enriched with so many just observations +on mere intellectual phenomena. What he says of the laws of +memory, or imagination, has never been surpassed in subtlety. No +man ever more carefully studied the operation of his own mind and +the intellectual character of others." Nor did Bacon despise +metaphysical science, only the frivolous questions that the old +scholastics associated with it, and the general barrenness of their +speculations. He surely would not have disdained the subsequent +inquiries of Locke, or Berkeley, or Leibnitz, or Kant. True, he +sought definite knowledge,--something firm to stand upon, and which +could not be controverted. No philosophy can be sound when the +principle from which deductions are made is not itself certain or +very highly probable, or when this principle, pushed to its utmost +logical sequence, would lead to absurdity, or even to a conflict +with human consciousness. To Bacon the old methods were wrong, and +it was his primal aim to reform the scientific methods in order to +arrive at truth; not truth for utilitarian ends chiefly, but truth +for its own sake. He loved truth as Palestrina loved music, or +Raphael loved painting, or Socrates loved virtue. + +Now the method which was almost exclusively employed until Bacon's +time is commonly called the deductive method; that is, some +principle or premise was assumed to be true, and reasoning was made +from this assumption. No especial fault was found with the +reasoning of the great masters of logic like Aristotle and Thomas +Aquinas, for it never has been surpassed in acuteness and severity. +If their premises were admitted, their conclusions would follow as +a certainty. What was wanted was to establish the truth of +premises, or general propositions. This Bacon affirmed could be +arrived at only by induction; that is, the ascending from +ascertained individual facts to general principles, by extending +what is true of particulars to the whole class in which they +belong. Bacon has been called the father of inductive science, +since he would employ the inductive method. Yet he is not truly +the father of induction, since it is as old as the beginnings of +science. Hippocrates, when he ridiculed the quacks of his day, and +collected the facts and phenomena of disease, and inferred from +them the proper treatment of it, was as much the father of +induction as Bacon himself. The error the ancients made was in not +collecting a sufficient number of facts to warrant a sound +induction. And the ancients looked out for facts to support some +preconceived theory, from which they reasoned syllogistically. The +theory could not be substantiated by any syllogistic reasonings, +since conclusions could never go beyond assumptions; if the +assumptions were wrong, no ingenious or elaborate reasoning would +avail anything towards the discovery of truth, but could only +uphold what was assumed. This applied to theology as well as to +science. In the Dark Ages it was well for the teachers of mankind +to uphold the dogmas of the Church, which they did with masterly +dialectical skill. Those were ages of Faith, and not of Inquiry. +It was all-important to ground believers in a firm faith of the +dogmas which were deemed necessary to support the church and the +cause of religion. They were regarded as absolute certainties. +There was no dispute about the premises of the scholastic's +arguments; and hence his dialectics strengthened the mind by the +exercise of logical sports, and at the same time confirmed the +faith. + +The world never saw a more complete system of dogmatic theology +than that elaborated by Thomas Aquinas. When the knowledge of the +Greek and Hebrew was rare and imperfect, and it was impossible to +throw light by means of learning and science on the texts of +Scripture, it was well to follow the interpretation of such a great +light as Augustine, and assume his dogmas as certainties, since +they could not then be controverted; and thus from them construct a +system of belief which would confirm the faith. But Aquinas, with +his Aristotelian method of syllogism and definitions, could not go +beyond Augustine. Augustine was the fountain, and the water that +flowed from it in ten thousand channels could not rise above the +spring; and as everybody appealed to and believed in Saint +Augustine, it was well to construct a system from him to confute +the heretical, and which the heretical would respect. The +scholastic philosophy which some ridicule, in spite of its +puerilities and sophistries and syllogisms, preserved the theology +of the Middle Ages, perhaps of the Fathers. It was a mighty +bulwark of the faith which was then accepted. No honors could be +conferred on its great architects that were deemed extravagant. +The Pope and the clergy saw in Thomas Aquinas the great defender of +the Church,--not of its abuses, but of its doctrines. And if no +new light can be shed on the Scripture text from which assumptions +were made; if these assumptions cannot be assailed, if they are +certitudes,--then we can scarcely have better text-books than those +furnished to the theologians of the Middle Ages, for no modern +dialetician can excel them in severity of logic. The great object +of modern theologians should be to establish the authenticity and +meaning of the Scripture texts on which their assumptions rest; and +this can be done only by the method which Bacon laid down, which is +virtually a collation and collection of facts,--that is, divine +declarations. Establish the meaning of these without question, and +we have principia from which we may deduce creeds and systems, the +usefulness of which cannot be exaggerated, especially in an age of +agnosticism. Having fundamental principles which cannot be +gainsaid, we may philosophically draw deductions. Bacon did not +make war on deduction, when its fundamental truths are established. +Deduction is as much a necessary part of philosophy as induction: +it is the peculiarity of the Scotch metaphysicians, who have ever +deduced truths from those previously established. Deduction even +enters into modern science as well as induction. When Cuvier +deduced from a bone the form and habits of the mastodon; when +Kepler deduced his great laws, all from the primary thought that +there must be some numerical or geographical relation between the +times, distances, and velocities of the revolving bodies of the +solar system; when Newton deduced, as is said, the principle of +gravitation from the fall of an apple; when Leverrier sought for a +new planet from the perturbations of the heavenly bodies in their +orbits,--we feel that deduction is as much a legitimate process as +induction itself. + +But deductive logic is the creation of Aristotle; and it was the +authority of Aristotle that Bacon sought to subvert. The inductive +process is also old, of which Bacon is called the father. How are +these things to be reconciled and explained? Wherein and how did +Bacon adapt his method to the discovery of truth, which was his +principal aim,--that method which is the great cause of modern +progress in science, the way to it being indicated by him pre- +eminently? + +The whole thing consists in this, that Bacon pointed out the right +road to truth,--as a board where two roads meet or diverge +indicates the one which is to be followed. He did not make a +system, like Descartes or Spinoza or Newton: he showed the way to +make it on sound principles. "He laid down a systematic analysis +and arrangement of inductive evidence." The syllogism, the great +instrument used by Aristotle and the Schoolmen, "is, from its very +nature, incompetent to prove the ultimate premises from which it +proceeds; and when the truth of these remains doubtful, we can +place no confidence in the conclusions drawn from them." Hence, +the first step in the reform of science is to review its ultimate +principles; and the first condition of a scientific method is that +it shall be competent to conduct such an inquiry; and this method +is applicable, not to physical science merely, but to the whole +realm of knowledge. This, of course, includes poetry, art, +intellectual philosophy, and theology, as well as geology and +chemistry. + +And it is this breadth of inquiry--directed to subjective as well +as objective knowledge--which made Bacon so great a benefactor. +The defect in Macaulay's criticism is that he makes Bacon +interested in mere outward phenomena, or matters of practical +utility,--a worldly utilitarian of whom Epicureans may be proud. +In reality he soared to the realm of Plato as well as of Aristotle. +Take, for instance, his Idola Mentis Humanae, or "Phantoms of the +Human Mind," which compose the best-known part of the "Novum +Organum." "The Idols of the Tribe" would show the folly of +attempting to penetrate further than the limits of the human +faculties permit, as also "the liability of the intellect to be +warped by the will and affections, and the like." The "Idols of +the Den" have reference to "the tendency to notice differences +rather than resemblances, or resemblances rather than differences, +in the attachment to antiquity or novelty, in the partiality to +minute or comprehensive investigations." "The Idols of the Market- +Place" have reference to the tendency to confound words with +things, which has ever marked controversialists in their learned +disputatious. In what he here says about the necessity for +accurate definitions, he reminds us of Socrates rather than a +modern scientist; this necessity for accuracy applies to +metaphysics as much as it does to physics. "The Idols of the +Theatre" have reference to perverse laws of demonstration which are +the strongholds of error. This school deals in speculations and +experiments confined to a narrow compass, like those of the +alchemists,--too imperfect to elicit the light which should guide. + +Bacon having completed his discussion of the Idola, then proceeds, +to point out the weakness of the old philosophies, which produced +leaves rather than fruit, and were stationary in their character. +Here he would seem to lean towards utilitarianism, were it not that +he is as severe on men of experiment as on men of dogma. "The men +of experiment are," says he, "like ants,--they only collect and +use; the reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their +own substance. But the bee takes a middle course; it gathers the +material from the flowers, but digests it by a power of its own. . . . +So true philosophy neither chiefly relies on the powers of the +mind, nor takes the matter which it gathers and lays it up in the +memory, whole as it finds it, but lays it up in the understanding, +to be transformed and digested." Here he simply points out the +laws by which true knowledge is to be attained. He does not extol +physical science alone, though doubtless he had a preference for it +over metaphysical inquiries. He was an Englishman, and the English +mind is objective rather than subjective, and is prone to over- +value the outward and the seen, above the inward and unseen; and +perhaps for the same reason that the Old Testament seems to make +prosperity the greatest blessing, while adversity seems to be the +blessing of the New Testament. + +One of Bacon's longest works is the "Silva Sylvarum,"--a sort of +natural history, in which he treats of the various forces and +productions of Nature,--the air the sea, the winds, the clouds, +plants and animals, fire and water, sounds and discords, colors and +smells, heat and cold, disease and health; but which varied +subjects he presents to communicate knowledge, with no especial +utilitarian end. + +"The Advancement of Learning" is one of Bacon's most famous +productions, but I fail to see in it an objective purpose to +enable men to become powerful or rich or comfortable; it is +rather an abstract treatise, as dry to most people as legal +disquisitions, and with no more reference to rising in the world +than "Blackstone's Commentaries" or "Coke upon Littleton." It +is a profound dissertation on the excellence of learning; its +great divisions treating of history, poetry, and philosophy,--of +metaphysical as well as physical philosophy; of the province +of understanding, the memory, the will, the reason, and the +imagination; and of man in society,--of government, of universal +justice, of the fountains of law, of revealed religion. + +And if we turn from the new method by which he would advance all +knowledge, and on which his fame as a philosopher chiefly rests,-- +that method which has led to discoveries that even Bacon never +dreamed of, not thinking of the fruit he was to bestow, but only +the way to secure it,--even as a great inventor thinks more of his +invention than of the money he himself may reap from it, as a work +of creation to benefit the world rather than his own family, and in +the work of which his mind revels in a sort of intoxicated delight, +like a true poet when he constructs his lines, or a great artist +when he paints his picture,--a pure subjective joy, not an +anticipated gain;--if we turn from this "method" to most of his +other writings, what do we find? Simply the lucubrations of a man +of letters, the moral wisdom of the moralist, the historian, the +biographer, the essayist. In these writings we discover no more +worldliness than in Macaulay when he wrote his "Milton," or Carlyle +when he penned his "Burns,"--even less, for Bacon did not write to +gain a living, but to please himself and give vent to his burning +thoughts. In these he had no worldly aim to reach, except perhaps +an imperishable fame. He wrote as Michael Angelo sculptured his +Moses; and he wrote not merely amid the cares and duties of a great +public office, with other labors which might be called Herculean, +but even amid pains of disease and the infirmities of age,--when +rest, to most people, is the greatest boon and solace of their +lives. + +Take his Essays,--these are among his best-known works,--so +brilliant and forcible, suggestive and rich, that even Archbishop +Whately's commentaries upon them are scarcely an addition. Surely +these are not on material subjects, and indicate anything but a +worldly or sordid nature. In these famous Essays, so luminous with +the gems of genius, we read not such worldly-wise exhortations as +Lord Chesterfield impressed upon his son, not the gossiping +frivolities of Horace Walpole, not the cynical wit of Montaigne, +but those great certitudes which console in affliction, which +kindle hope, which inspire lofty resolutions,--anchors of the soul, +pillars of faith, sources of immeasurable joy, the glorious ideals +of true objects of desire, the eternal unities of truth and love +and beauty; all of which reveal the varied experiences of life and +the riches of deeply-pondered meditation on God and Christianity, +as well as knowledge of the world and the desirableness of its +valued gifts. How beautiful are his thoughts on death, on +adversity, on glory, on anger, on friendship, on fame, on ambition, +on envy, on riches, on youth and old age, and divers other subjects +of moral import, which show the elevation of his soul, and the +subjective as well as the objective turn of his mind; not dwelling +on what he should eat and what he should drink and wherewithal he +should be clothed, but on the truths which appeal to our higher +nature, and which raise the thoughts of men from earth to heaven, +or at least to the realms of intellectual life and joy. + +And then, it is necessary that we should take in view other labors +which dignified Bacon's retirement, as well as those which marked +his more active career as a lawyer and statesman,--his histories +and biographies, as well as learned treatises to improve the laws +of England; his political discourses, his judicial charges, his +theological tracts, his speeches and letters and prayers; all of +which had relation to benefit others rather than himself. Who has +ever done more to instruct the world,--to enable men to rise not in +fortune merely, but in virtue and patriotism, in those things which +are of themselves the only reward? We should consider these +labors, as well as the new method he taught to arrive at knowledge, +in our estimate of the sage as well as of the man. He was a moral +philosopher, like Socrates. He even soared into the realm of +supposititious truth, like Plato. He observed Nature, like +Aristotle. He took away the syllogism from Thomas Aquinas,--not to +throw contempt on metaphysical inquiry or dialectical reasoning, +but to arrive by a better method at the knowledge of first +principles; which once established, he allowed deductions to be +drawn from them, leading to other truths as certainly as induction +itself. Yea, he was also a Moses on the mount of Pisgah, from +which with prophetic eye he could survey the promised land of +indefinite wealth and boundless material prosperity, which +he was not permitted to enter, but which he had bequeathed to +civilization. This may have been his greatest gift in the view of +scientific men,--this inductive process of reasoning, by which +great discoveries have been made after he was dead. But this was +not his only legacy, for other things which he taught were as +valuable, not merely in his sight, but to the eye of enlightened +reason. There are other truths besides those of physical science; +there is greatness in deduction as well as in induction. Geometry-- +whose successive and progressive revelations are so inspiring, and +which have come down to us from a remote antiquity, which are even +now taught in our modern schools as Euclid demonstrated them, since +they cannot be improved--is a purely deductive science. The +scholastic philosophy, even if it was barren and unfruitful in +leading to new truths, yet confirmed what was valuable in the old +systems, and by the severity of its logic and its dialectical +subtleties trained the European mind for the reception of the +message of Luther and Bacon; and this was based on deductions, +never wrong unless the premises are unsound. Theology is deductive +reasoning from truths assumed to be fundamental, and is inductive +only so far as it collates Scripture declarations, and interprets +their meaning by the aid which learning brings. Is not this +science worthy of some regard? Will it not live when all the +speculations of evolutionists are forgotten, and occupy the +thoughts of the greatest and profoundest minds so long as anything +shall be studied, so long as the Bible shall be the guide of life? +Is it not by deduction that we ascend from Nature herself to the +God of Nature? What is more certain than deduction when the +principles from which it reasons are indisputably established? + +Is induction, great as it is, especially in the explorations of +Nature and science, always certain? Are not most of the sciences +which are based upon it progressive? Have we yet learned the +ultimate principles of political economy, or of geology, or of +government, or even of art? The theory of induction, though +supposed by Dr. Whewell to lead to certain results, is regarded by +Professor Jevons as leading to results only "almost certain." "All +inductive inference is merely probable," says the present professor +of logic, Thomas Fowler, in the University of Oxford. + +And although it is supposed that the inductive method of Bacon has +led to the noblest discoveries of modern times, is this strictly +true? Galileo made his discoveries in the heavens before Bacon +died. Physical improvements must need follow such inventions as +gunpowder and the mariners' compass, and printing and the pictures +of Italy, and the discovery of mines and the revived arts of the +Romans and Greeks, and the glorious emancipation which the +Reformation produced. Why should not the modern races follow in +the track of Carthage and Alexandria and Rome, with the progress of +wealth, and carry out inventions as those cities did, and all other +civilized peoples since Babel towered above the plains of Babylon? +Physical developments arise from the developments of man, whatever +method may be recommended by philosophers. What philosophical +teachings led to the machinery of the mines of California, or to +that of the mills of Lowell? Some think that our modern +improvements would have come whether Bacon had lived or not. But I +would not disparage the labors of Bacon in pointing out the method +which leads to scientific discoveries. Granting that he sought +merely utility, an improvement in the outward condition of society, +which is the view that Macaulay takes, I would not underrate his +legacy. And even supposing that the blessings of material life-- +"the acre of Middlesex"--are as much to be desired as Macaulay, +with the complacency of an eminently practical and prosperous man, +seems to argue, I would not sneer at them. Who does not value +them? Who will not value them so long as our mortal bodies are to +be cared for? It is a pleasant thing to ride in "cars without +horses," to feel in winter the genial warmth of grates and +furnaces, to receive messages from distant friends in a moment of +time, to cross the ocean without discomfort, with the "almost +certainty" of safety, and save our wives and daughters from the +ancient drudgeries of the loom and the knitting-needle. Who ever +tires in gazing at a locomotive as it whirls along with the power +of destiny? Who is not astonished at the triumphs of the engineer, +the wonders of an ocean-steamer, the marvellous tunnels under lofty +mountains? We feel that Titans have been sent to ease us of our +burdens. + +But great and beneficent as are these blessings, they are not the +only certitudes, nor are they the greatest. An outward life of +ease and comfort is not the chief end of man. The interests of the +soul are more important than any comforts of the body. The higher +life is only reached by lofty contemplation on the true, the +beautiful, and the good. Subjective wisdom is worth more than +objective knowledge. What are the great realities,--machinery, new +breeds of horses, carpets, diamonds, mirrors, gas? or are they +affections, friendships, generous impulses, inspiring thoughts? +Look to Socrates: what raised that barefooted, ugly-looking, +impecunious, persecuted, cross-questioning, self-constituted +teacher, without pay, to the loftiest pedestal of Athenian fame? +What was the spirit of the truths HE taught? Was it objective or +subjective truth; the way to become rich and comfortable, or the +search for the indefinite, the infinite, the eternal,--Utopia, not +Middlesex,--that which fed the wants of the immaterial soul, and +enabled it to rise above temptation and vulgar rewards? What +raised Plato to the highest pinnacle of intellectual life? Was it +definite and practical knowledge of outward phenomena; or was it "a +longing after love, in the contemplation of which the mortal soul +sustains itself, and becomes participant in the glories of +immortality"? What were realities to Anselm, Bernard, and +Bonaventura? What gave beauty and placidity to Descartes and +Leibnitz and Kant? It may be very dignified for a modern savant to +sit serenely on his tower of observation, indifferent to all the +lofty speculations of the great men of bygone ages; yet those +profound questions pertaining to the [Greek text omitted] and the +[Greek text omitted], which had such attractions for Augustine and +Pascal and Calvin, did have as real bearing on human life and on +what is best worth knowing, as the scales of a leuciscus cephalus +or the limbs of a magnified animalculus, or any of the facts of +which physical science can boast. The wonders of science are +great, but so also are the secrets of the soul, the mysteries of +the spiritual life, the truths which come from divine revelation. +Whatever most dignifies humanity, and makes our labors sweet, +and causes us to forget our pains, and kindles us to lofty +contemplations, and prompts us to heroic sacrifice, is the most +real and the most useful. Even the leaves of a barren and +neglected philosophy may be in some important respects of more +value than all the boasted fruit of utilitarian science. Is that +which is most useful always the most valuable,--that, I mean, which +gives the highest pleasure? Do we not plant our grounds with the +acacia, the oak, the cedar, the elm, as well as with the apple, the +pear, and the cherry? Are not flowers and shrubs which beautify +the lawn as desirable as beans and turnips and cabbages? Is not +the rose or tulip as great an addition to even a poor man's cottage +as his bed of onions or patch of potatoes? What is the scale to +measure even mortal happiness? What is the marketable value of +friendship or of love? What makes the dinner of herbs sometimes +more refreshing than the stalled ox? What is the material profit +of a first love? What is the value in tangible dollars and cents +of a beautiful landscape, or a speaking picture, or a marble +statue, or a living book, or the voice of eloquence, or the charm +of earliest bird, or the smile of a friend, or the promise of +immortality? In what consisted the real glory of the country we +are never weary of quoting,--the land of Phidias and Pericles and +Demosthenes? Was it not in immaterial ideas, in patriotism, in +heroism, in conceptions of ideal beauty, in speculations on the +infinite and unattainable, in the songs which still inspire the +minds of youth, in the expression which made marble live, in those +conceptions of beauty and harmony which still give shape to the +temples of Christendom? Was Rome more glorious with her fine roads +and tables of thuja-root, and Falernian wines, and oysters from the +Lucrine Lake, and chariots of silver, and robes of purple and rings +of gold,--these useful blessings which are the pride of an +Epicurean civilization? And who gave the last support, who raised +the last barrier, against that inundation of destructive pleasures +in which some see the most valued fruits of human invention, but +which proved a canker that prepared the way to ruin? It was that +pious Emperor who learned his wisdom from a slave, and who set a +haughty defiance to all the grandeur and all the comforts of the +highest position which earth could give, and spent his leisure +hours in the quiet study of those truths which elevate the soul,-- +truths not taught by science or nature, but by communication with +invisible powers. + +Ah, what indeed is reality; what is the higher good; what is that +which perishes never; what is that which assimilates man to Deity? +Is it houses, is it lands, is it gold and silver, is it luxurious +couches, is it the practical utilitarian comforts that pamper this +mortal body in its brief existence? or is it women's loves and +patriots' struggles, and sages' pious thoughts, affections, noble +aspirations, Bethanies, the serenities of virtuous old age, the +harmonies of unpolluted homes, the existence of art, of truth, of +love; the hopes which last when sun and stars decay? Tell us, ye +women, what are realities to you,--your carpets, your plate, your +jewels, your luxurious banquets; or your husbands' love, your +friends' esteem, your children's reverence? And ye, toiling men of +business, what is really your highest joy,--your piles of gold, +your marble palaces; or the pleasures of your homes, the +approbation of your consciences, your hopes of future bliss? Yes, +you are dreamers, like poets and philosophers, when you call +yourselves pack-horses. Even you are only sustained in labor by +intangible rewards that you can neither see nor feel. The most +practical of men and women can really only live in those ideas +which are deemed indefinite and unreal. For what do the busiest of +you run away from money-making, and ride in cold or heat, in +dreariness or discomfort,--dinners, or greetings of love and +sympathy? On what are such festivals as Christmas and Thanksgiving +Day based?--on consecrated sentiments that have more force than any +material gains or ends. These, after all, are realities to you as +much as ideas were to Plato, or music to Beethoven, or patriotism +to Washington. Deny these as the higher certitudes, and you rob +the soul of its dignity, and life of its consolations. + + +AUTHORITIES. + + +Bacon's Works, edited by Basil Montagu; Bacon's Life, by Basil +Montagu; Bacon's Life, by James Spedding; Bacon's Life, by Thomas +Fowler; Dr. Abbott's Introduction to Bacon's Essays, in +Contemporary Review, 1876; Macaulay's famous essay in Edinburgh +Review, 1839; Archbishop Whately's annotations of the Essays of +Bacon; the general Histories of England. + + + +GALILEO. + +A. D. 1564-1642. + +ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. + + +Among the wonders of the sixteenth century was the appearance of a +new star in the northern horizon, which, shining at first with a +feeble light, gradually surpassed the brightness of the planet +Jupiter; and then changing its color from white to yellow and from +yellow to red, after seventeen months, faded away from the sight, +and has not since appeared. This celebrated star, first seen by +Tycho Brahe in the constellation Cassiopeia, never changed its +position, or presented the slightest perceptible parallax. It +could not therefore have been a meteor, nor a planet regularly +revolving round the sun, nor a comet blazing with fiery nebulous +light, nor a satellite of one of the planets, but a fixed star, far +beyond our solar system. Such a phenomenon created an immense +sensation, and has never since been satisfactorily explained by +philosophers. In the infancy of astronomical science it was +regarded by astrologers as a sign to portend the birth of an +extraordinary individual. + +Though the birth of some great political character was supposed to +be heralded by this mysterious star, its prophetic meaning might +with more propriety apply to the extraordinary man who astonished +his contemporaries by discoveries in the heavens, and who forms the +subject of this lecture; or it poetically might apply to the +brilliancy of the century itself in which it appeared. The +sixteenth century cannot be compared with the nineteenth century in +the variety and scope of scientific discoveries; but, compared with +the ages which had preceded it, it was a memorable epoch, marked by +the simultaneous breaking up of the darkness of mediaeval Europe, +and the bursting forth of new energies in all departments of human +thought and action. In that century arose great artists, poets, +philosophers, theologians, reformers, navigators, jurists, +statesmen, whose genius has scarcely since been surpassed. In +Italy it was marked by the triumphs of scholars and artists; in +Germany and France, by reformers and warriors; in England, by that +splendid constellation that shed glory on the reign of Elizabeth. +Close upon the artists who followed Da Vinci, to Salvator Rosa, +were those scholars of whom Emanuel Chrysoloras, Erasmus, and +Scaliger were the representatives,--going back to the classic +fountains of Greece and Rome, reviving a study for antiquity, +breathing a new spirit into universities, enriching vernacular +tongues, collecting and collating manuscripts, translating the +Scriptures, and stimulating the learned to emancipate themselves +from the trammels of the scholastic philosophers. + +Then rose up the reformers, headed by Luther, consigning to +destruction the emblems and ceremonies of mediaeval superstition, +defying popes, burning bulls, ridiculing monks, exposing frauds, +unravelling sophistries, attacking vices and traditions with the +new arms of reason, and asserting before councils and dignitaries +the right of private judgment and the supreme authority of the +Bible in all matters of religious faith. + +And then appeared the defenders of their cause, by force of arms +maintaining the great rights of religious liberty in France, +Germany, Switzerland, Holland, and England, until Protestantism was +established in half of the countries that had for more than a +thousand years servilely bowed down to the authority of the popes. +Genius stimulates and enterprise multiplies all the energies and +aims of emancipated millions. Before the close of the sixteenth +century new continents are colonized, new modes of warfare are +introduced, manuscripts are changed into printed books, the +comforts of life are increased, governments are more firmly +established, and learned men are enriched and honored. Feudalism +has succumbed to central power, and barons revolve around their +sovereign at court rather than compose an independent authority. +Before that century had been numbered with the ages past, the +Portuguese had sailed to the East Indies, Sir Francis Drake had +circumnavigated the globe, Pizarro had conquered Peru, Sir Walter +Raleigh had colonized Virginia, Ricci had penetrated to China, +Lescot had planned the palace of the Louvre, Raphael had painted +the Transfiguration, Michael Angelo had raised the dome of St. +Peter's, Giacomo della Porta had ornamented the Vatican with +mosaics, Copernicus had taught the true centre of planetary motion, +Dumoulin had introduced into French jurisprudence the principles of +the Justinian code, Ariosto had published the "Orlando Furioso," +Cervantes had written "Don Quixote," Spenser had dedicated his +"Fairy Queen," Shakspeare had composed his immortal dramas, Hooker +had devised his "Ecclesiastical Polity," Cranmer had published his +Forty-two Articles, John Calvin had dedicated to Francis I. his +celebrated "Institutes," Luther had translated the Bible, Bacon had +begun the "Instauration of Philosophy," Bellarmine had systematized +the Roman Catholic theology, Henry IV. had signed the Edict of +Nantes, Queen Elizabeth had defeated the Invincible Armada, and +William the Silent had achieved the independence of Holland. + +Such were some of the lights and some of the enterprises of that +great age, when the profoundest questions pertaining to philosophy, +religion, law, and government were discussed with the enthusiasm +and freshness of a revolutionary age; when men felt the inspiration +of a new life, and looked back on the Middle Ages with disgust and +hatred, as a period which enslaved the human soul. But what +peculiarly marked that period was the commencement of those +marvellous discoveries in science which have enriched our times and +added to the material blessings of the new civilization. Tycho +Brahe, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Bacon inaugurated the era +which led to progressive improvements in the physical condition of +society, and to those scientific marvels which have followed in +such quick succession and produced such astonishing changes that we +are fain to boast that we have entered upon the most fortunate and +triumphant epoch in our world's history. + +Many men might be taken as the representatives of this new era of +science and material inventions, but I select Galileo Galilei as +one of the most interesting in his life, opinions, and conflicts. + + +Galileo was born at Pisa, in the year 1564, the year that Calvin +and Michael Angelo died, four years after the birth of Bacon, in +the sixth year of the reign of Elizabeth, and the fourth of Charles +IX., about the time when the Huguenot persecution was at its +height, and the Spanish monarchy was in its most prosperous state, +under Philip II. His parents were of a noble but impoverished +Florentine family; and his father, who was a man of some learning,-- +a writer on the science of music,--gave him the best education he +could afford. Like so many of the most illustrious men, he early +gave promise of rare abilities. It was while he was a student in +the university of his native city that his attention was arrested +by the vibrations of a lamp suspended from the ceiling of the +cathedral; and before he had quitted the church, while the choir +was chanting mediaeval anthems, he had compared those vibrations +with his own pulse, which after repeated experiments, ended in the +construction of the first pendulum,--applied not as it was by +Huygens to the measurement of time, but to medical science, to +enable physicians to ascertain the rate of the pulse. But the +pendulum was soon brought into the service of the clockmakers, and +ultimately to the determination of the form of the earth, by its +minute irregularities in diverse latitudes, and finally to the +measurement of differences of longitude by its connection with +electricity and the recording of astronomical observations. Thus +it was that the swinging of a cathedral lamp, before the eye of a +man of genius, has done nearly as much as the telescope itself to +advance science, to say nothing of its practical uses in common +life. + +Galileo had been destined by his father to the profession of +medicine, and was ignorant of mathematics. He amused his leisure +hours with painting and music, and in order to study the principles +of drawing he found it necessary to acquire some knowledge of +geometry, much to the annoyance of his father, who did not like to +see his mind diverted from the prescriptions of Hippocrates and +Galen. The certain truths of geometry burst upon him like a +revelation, and after mastering Euclid he turned to Archimedes with +equal enthusiasm. Mathematics now absorbed his mind, and the +father was obliged to yield to the bent of his genius, which seemed +to disdain the regular professions by which social position was +most surely effected. He wrote about this time an essay on the +Hydrostatic Balance, which introduced him to Guido Ubaldo, a famous +mathematician, who induced him to investigate the subject of the +centre of gravity in solid bodies. His treatise on this subject +secured an introduction to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who perceived +his merits, and by whom he was appointed a lecturer on mathematics +at Pisa, but on the small salary of sixty crowns a year. + +This was in 1589, when he was twenty-five, an enthusiastic young +man, full of hope and animal spirits, the charm of every circle for +his intelligence, vivacity, and wit; but bold and sarcastic, +contemptuous of ancient dogmas, defiant of authority, and therefore +no favorite with Jesuit priests and Dominican professors. It is +said that he was a handsome man, with bright golden locks, such as +painters in that age loved to perpetuate upon the canvas; hilarious +and cheerful, fond of good cheer, yet a close student, obnoxious +only to learned dunces and narrow pedants and treadmill professors +and zealous priests,--all of whom sought to molest him, yet to whom +he was either indifferent or sarcastic, holding them and their +formulas up to ridicule. He now directed his inquiries to the +mechanical doctrines of Aristotle, to whose authority the schools +had long bowed down, and whom he too regarded as one of the great +intellectual giants of the world, yet not to be credited without +sufficient reasons. Before the "Novum Organum" was written, he +sought, as Bacon himself pointed out, the way to arrive at truth,-- +a foundation to stand upon, a principle tested by experience, +which, when established by experiment, would serve for sure +deductions. + +Now one of the principles assumed by Aristotle, and which had never +been disputed, was, that if different weights of the same material +were let fall from the same height, the heavier would reach the +ground sooner than the lighter, and in proportion to the difference +of weight. This assumption Galileo denied, and asserted that, with +the exception of a small difference owing to the resistance of the +air, both would fall to the ground in the same space of time. To +prove his position by actual experiment, he repaired to the leaning +tower of Pisa, and demonstrated that he was right and Aristotle was +wrong. The Aristotelians would not believe the evidence of their +own senses, and ascribed the effect to some unknown cause. To such +a degree were men enslaved by authority. This provoked Galileo, +and led him to attack authority with still greater vehemence, +adding mockery to sarcasm; which again exasperated his opponents, +and doubtless laid the foundation of that personal hostility which +afterwards pursued him to the prison of the Inquisition. This +blended arrogance and asperity in a young man was offensive to the +whole university, yet natural to one who had overturned one of the +favorite axioms of the greatest master of thought the world had +seen for nearly two thousand years; and the scorn and opposition +with which his discovery was received increased his rancor, so that +he, in his turn, did not render justice to the learned men arrayed +against him, who were not necessarily dull or obstinate because +they would not at once give up the opinions in which they were +educated, and which the learned world still accepted. Nor did they +oppose and hate him for his new opinions, so much as from dislike +of his personal arrogance and bitter sarcasms. + +At last his enemies made it too hot for him at Pisa. He resigned +his chair (1591), but only to accept a higher position at Padua, on +a salary of one hundred and eighty florins,--not, however, adequate +to his support, so that he was obliged to take pupils in +mathematics. To show the comparative estimate of that age of +science, the fact may be mentioned that the professor of scholastic +philosophy in the same university was paid fourteen hundred +florins. This was in 1592; and the next year Galileo invented the +thermometer, still an imperfect instrument, since air was not +perfectly excluded. At this period his reputation seems to have +been established as a brilliant lecturer rather than as a great +discoverer, or even as a great mathematician; for he was +immeasurably behind Kepler, his contemporary, in the power of +making abstruse calculations and numerical combinations. In this +respect Kepler was inferior only to Copernicus, Newton, and Laplace +in our times, or Hipparchus and Ptolemy among the ancients; and it +is to him that we owe the discovery of those great laws of +planetary motion from which there is no appeal, and which have +never been rivalled in importance except those made by Newton +himself,--laws which connect the mean distance of the planets from +the sun with the times of their revolutions; laws which show that +the orbits of planets are elliptical, not circular; and that the +areas described by lines drawn from the moving planet to the sun +are proportionable to the times employed in the motion. What an +infinity of calculation, in the infancy of science--before the +invention of logarithms,--was necessary to arrive at these truths! +What fertility of invention was displayed in all his hypotheses; +what patience in working them out; what magnanimity in discarding +those which were not true! What power of guessing, even to +hit upon theories which could be established by elaborate +calculations,--all from the primary thought, the grand axiom, which +Kepler was the first to propose, that there must be some numerical +or geometrical relations among the times, distances, and velocities +of the revolving bodies of the solar system! It would seem that +although his science was deductive, he invoked the aid of induction +also: a great original genius, yet modest like Newton; a man who +avoided hostilities, yet given to the most boundless enthusiasm on +the subjects to which he devoted his life. How intense his +raptures! "Nothing holds me," he writes, on discovering his great +laws; "I will indulge in my sacred fury. I will boast of the +golden vessels I have stolen from the Egyptians. If you forgive +me, I rejoice. If you are angry, it is all the same to me. The +die is cast; the book is written,--to be read either now, or by +posterity, I care not which. It may well wait a century for a +reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer." + +We do not see this sublime repose in the attitude of Galileo,--this +falling back on his own conscious greatness, willing to let things +take their natural course; but rather, on the other hand, an +impatience under contradiction, a vehement scorn of adversaries, +and an intellectual arrogance that gave offence, and impeded his +career, and injured his fame. No matter how great a man may be, +his intellectual pride is always offensive; and when united with +sarcasm and mockery it will make bitter enemies, who will pull him +down. + +Galileo, on his transfer to Padua, began to teach the doctrines of +Copernicus,--a much greater genius than he, and yet one who +provoked no enmities, although he made the greatest revolution in +astronomical knowledge that any man ever made, since he was in no +haste to reveal his discoveries, and stated them in a calm and +inoffensive way. I doubt if new discoverers in science meet with +serious opposition when men themselves are not attacked, and they +are made to appeal to calm intelligence, and war is not made on +those Scripture texts which seem to controvert them. Even +theologians receive science when science is not made to undermine +theological declarations, and when the divorce of science from +revelation, reason from faith, as two distinct realms, is +vigorously insisted upon. Pascal incurred no hostilities for his +scientific investigations, nor Newton, nor Laplace. It is only +when scientific men sneer at the Bible because its declarations +cannot always be harmonized with science that the hostilities of +theologians are provoked. And it is only when theologians deny +scientific discoveries that seem to conflict with texts of +Scripture, that opposition arises among scientific men. It would +seem that the doctrines of Copernicus were offensive to churchmen +on this narrow ground. It was hard to believe that the earth +revolved around the sun, when the opinions of the learned for two +thousand years were unanimous that the sun revolved around the +earth. Had both theologian and scientist let the Bible alone, +there would not have been a bitter war between them. But +scientists were accused by theologians of undermining the Bible; +and the theologians were accused of stupid obstinacy, and were +mercilessly exposed to ridicule. + +That was the great error of Galileo. He made fun and sport of the +theologians, as Samson did of the Philistines; and the Philistines +of Galileo's day cut off his locks and put out his eyes when the +Pope put him into their power,--those Dominican inquisitors who +made a crusade against human thought. If Galileo had shown more +tact and less arrogance, possibly those Dominican doctors might +have joined the chorus of universal praise; for they were learned +men, although devoted to a bad system, and incapable of seeing +truth when their old authorities were ridiculed and set at nought. +Galileo did not deny the Scriptures, but his spirit was mocking; +and he seemed to prejudiced people to undermine the truths which +were felt to be vital for the preservation of faith in the world. +And as some scientific truths seemed to be adverse to Scripture +declarations, the transition was easy to a denial of the +inspiration which was claimed by nearly all Christian sects, both +Catholic and Protestant. + +The intolerance of the Church in every age has driven many +scientists into infidelity; for it cannot be doubted that the +tendency of scientific investigation has been to make scientific +men incredulous of divine inspiration, and hence to undermine their +faith in dogmas which good men have ever received, and which are +supported by evidence that is not merely probable but almost +certain. And all now that seems wanting to harmonize science with +revelation is, on the one hand, the re-examination of the Scripture +texts on which are based the principia from which deductions are +made, and which we call theology; and, on the other hand, the +rejection of indefensible statements which are at war with both +science and consciousness, except in those matters which claim +special supernatural agency, which we can neither prove nor +disprove by reason; for supernaturalism claims to transcend the +realm of reason altogether in what relates to the government of +God,--ways that no searching will ever enable us to find out with +our limited faculties and obscured understanding. When the two +realms of reason and faith are kept distinct, and neither +encroaches on the other, then the discoveries and claims of science +will meet with but little opposition from theologians, and they +will be left to be sifted by men who alone are capable of the task. + +Thus far science, outside of pure mathematics, is made up of +theories which are greatly modified by advancing knowledge, so that +they cannot claim in all respects to be eternally established, like +the laws of Kepler and the discoveries of Copernicus,--the latter +of which were only true in the main fact that the earth revolves +around the sun. But even he retained epicycles and excentrics, and +could not explain the unequal orbits of planetary motion. In fact +he retained many of the errors of Hipparchus and Ptolemy. Much, +too, as we are inclined to ridicule the astronomy of the ancients +because they made the earth the centre, we should remember that +they also resolved the orbits of the heavenly bodies into circular +motions, discovered the precession of the equinoxes, and knew also +the apparent motions of the planets and their periods. They could +predict eclipses of the sun and moon, and knew that the orbit of +the sun and planets was through a belt in the heavens, of a few +degrees in width, which they called the Zodiac. They did not know, +indeed, the difference between real and apparent motion, nor the +distance of the sun and stars, nor their relative size and weight, +nor the laws of motion, nor the principles of gravitation, nor the +nature of the Milky Way, nor the existence of nebulae, nor any of +the wonders which the telescope reveals; but in the severity of +their mathematical calculations they were quite equal to modern +astronomers. + +If Copernicus revolutionized astronomy by proving the sun to be the +centre of motion to our planetary system, Galileo gave it an +immense impulse by his discoveries with the telescope. These did +not require such marvellous mathematical powers as made Kepler and +Newton immortal,--the equals of Ptolemy and Hipparchus in +mathematical demonstration--but only accuracy and perseverance in +observations. Doubtless he was a great mathematician, but his fame +rests on his observations and the deductions he made from them. +These were more easily comprehended, and had an objective value +which made him popular: and for these discoveries he was indebted +in a great measure to the labors of others,--it was mechanical +invention applied to the advancement of science. The utilization +of science was reserved to our times; and it is this utilization +which makes science such a handmaid to the enrichment of its +votaries, and holds it up to worship in our laboratories and +schools of technology and mines, not merely for itself, but also +for the substantial fruit it yields. + +It was when Galileo was writing treatises on the Structure of the +Universe, on Local Motion, on Sound, on Continuous Quantity, on +Light, on Colors, on the Tides, on Dialing,--subjects that also +interested Lord Bacon at the same period,--and when he was giving +lectures on these subjects with immense eclat, frequently to one +thousand persons (scarcely less than what Abelard enjoyed when he +made fun of the more conservative schoolmen with whom he was +brought in contact), that he heard, while on a visit to Venice, +that a Dutch spectacle-maker had invented an instrument which was +said to represent distant objects nearer than they usually +appeared. This was in 1609, when he, at the age of fifty-five, was +the idol of scientific men, and was in the enjoyment of an ample +revenue, giving only sixty half-hours in the year to lectures, and +allowed time to prosecute his studies in that "sweet solitariness" +which all true scholars prize, and without which few great +attainments are made. The rumor of the invention excited in his +mind the intensest interest. He sought for the explanation of the +fact in the doctrine of refraction. He meditated day and night. +At last he himself constructed an instrument,--a leaden organ pipe +with two spectacle glasses, both plain on one side, while one of +them had its opposite side convex, and the other its second side +concave. + +This crude little instrument, which magnified but three times, he +carries in triumph back to Venice. It is regarded as a scientific +toy, yet everybody wishes to see an instrument by which the human +eye indefinitely multiplies its power. The Doge is delighted, and +the Senate is anxious to secure so great a curiosity. He makes a +present of it to the Senate, after he has spent a month in showing +it round to the principal people of that wealthy city; and he is +rewarded for his ingenuity with an increase of his salary, at +Padua, to one thousand florins, and is made professor for life. + +He now only thinks of making discoveries in the heavens; but his +instrument is too small. He makes another and larger telescope, +which magnifies eight times, and then another which magnifies +thirty times; and points it to the moon. And how indescribable his +satisfaction, for he sees what no mortal had ever before seen,-- +ranges of mountains, deep hollows, and various inequalities! These +discoveries, it would seem, are not favorably received by the +Aristotelians; however, he continues his labors, and points his +telescope to the planets and fixed stars,--but the magnitude of the +latter remain the same, while the planets appear with disks like +the moon. Then he directs his observations to the Pleiades, and +counts forty stars in the cluster, when only six were visible to +the naked eye; in the Milky Way he descries crowds of minute stars. + +Having now reached the limit of discovery with his present +instrument, he makes another of still greater power, and points it +to the planet Jupiter. On the 7th of January, 1610, he observes +three little stars near the body of the planet, all in a straight +line and parallel to the ecliptic, two on the east and one on the +west of Jupiter. On the next observation he finds that they have +changed places, and are all on the west of Jupiter; and the next +time he observes them they have changed again. He also discovers +that there are four of these little stars revolving round the +planet. What is the explanation of this singular phenomenon? They +cannot be fixed stars, or planets; they must then be moons. +Jupiter is attended with satellites like the earth, but has four +instead of one! The importance of this last discovery was of +supreme value, for it confirmed the heliocentric theory. Old +Kepler is filled with agitations of joy; all the friends of Galileo +extol his genius; his fame spreads far and near; he is regarded as +the ablest scientific man in Europe. + +His enemies are now dismayed and perplexed. The principal +professor of philosophy at Padua would not even look through the +wonderful instrument. Sissi of Florence ridicules the discovery. +"As," said he, "there are only seven apertures of the head,--two +eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and one mouth,--and as there are only +seven days in the week and seven metals, how can there be seven +planets?" + +But science, discarded by the schools, fortunately finds a refuge +among princes. Cosimo de' Medici prefers the testimony of his +senses to the voice of authority. He observes the new satellites +with Galileo at Pisa, makes him a present of one thousand florins, +and gives him a mere nominal office,--that of lecturing +occasionally to princes, on a salary of one thousand florins for +life. He is now the chosen companion of the great, and the +admiration of Italy. He has rendered an immense service to +astronomy. "His discovery of the satellites of Jupiter," says +Herschel, "gave the holding turn to the opinion of mankind +respecting the Copernican system, and pointed out a connection +between speculative astronomy and practical utility." + +But this did not complete the catalogue of his discoveries. In +1610 he perceived that Saturn appeared to be triple, and excited +the curiosity of astronomers by the publication of his first +"Enigma," Altissimam planetam tergeminam observavi. He could not +then perceive the rings; the planet seemed through his telescope to +have the form of three concentric O's. Soon after, in examining +Venus, he saw her in the form of a crescent: Cynthiae figuras +aemulatur mater amorum, "Venus rivals the phases of the moon." + +At last he discovers the spots upon the sun's disk, and that they +all revolve with the sun, and therefore that the sun has a +revolution in about twenty-eight days, and may be moving on in a +larger circle, with all its attendant planets, around some distant +centre. + +Galileo has now attained the highest object of his ambition. He is +at the head, confessedly, of all the scientific men of Europe. He +has an ample revenue; he is independent, and has perfect leisure. +Even the Pope is gracious to him when he makes a visit to Rome; +while cardinals, princes, and ambassadors rival one another in +bestowing upon him attention and honors. + +But there is no height of fortune from which a man may not fall; +and it is usually the proud, the ostentatious, and the contemptuous +who do fall, since they create envy, and are apt to make social +mistakes. Galileo continued to exasperate his enemies by his +arrogance and sarcasms. "They refused to be dragged at his +chariot-wheels." "The Aristotelian professors," says Brewster, +"the temporizing Jesuits, the political churchmen, and that timid +but respectable body who at all times dread innovation, whether it +be in legislation or science, entered into an alliance against the +philosophical tyrant who threatened them with the penalties of +knowledge." The church dignitaries were especially hostile, since +they thought the tendency of Galileo's investigations was to +undermine the Bible. Flanked by the logic of the schools and the +popular interpretation of Scripture, and backed by the civil power, +they were eager for war. Galileo wrote a letter to his friend the +Abbe Castelli, the object of which was "to prove that the +Scriptures were not intended to teach science and philosophy," but +to point out the way of salvation. He was indiscreet enough to +write a longer letter of seventy pages, quoting the Fathers in +support of his views, and attempting to show that Nature and +Scripture could not speak a different language. It was this +reasoning which irritated the dignitaries of the Church more than +his discoveries, since it is plain that the literal language of +Scripture upholds the doctrine that the sun revolves around the +earth. He was wrong or foolish in trying to harmonize revelation +and science. He should have advanced his truths of science and +left them to take care of themselves. He should not have meddled +with the dogmas of his enemies: not that he was wrong in doing so, +but it was not politic or wise; and he was not called upon to +harmonize Scripture with science. + +So his enemies busily employed themselves in collecting evidence +against him. They laid their complaints before the Inquisition of +Rome, and on the occasion of paying a visit to that city, he was +summoned before that tribunal which has been the shame and the +reproach of the Catholic Church. It was a tribunal utterly +incompetent to sit upon his case, since it was ignorant of science. +In 1615 it was decreed that Galileo should renounce his obnoxious +doctrines, and pledge himself neither to defend nor publish them in +future. And Galileo accordingly, in dread of prison, appeared +before Cardinal Bellarmine and declared that he would renounce the +doctrines he had defended. This cardinal was not an ignorant man. +He was the greatest theologian of the Catholic Church; but his +bitterness and rancor in reference to the new doctrines were as +marked as his scholastic learning. The Pope, supposing that +Galileo would adhere to his promise, was gracious and kind. + +But the philosopher could not resist the temptation of ridiculing +the advocates of the old system. He called them "paper +philosophers." In private he made a mockery of his persecutors. +One Saisi undertook to prove from Suidas that the Babylonians used +to cook eggs by whirling them swiftly on a sling; to which he +replied: "If Saisi insists on the authority of Suidas, that the +Babylonians cooked eggs by whirling them on a sling, I will believe +it. But I must add that we have eggs and slings, and strong men to +whirl them, yet they will not become cooked; nay, if they were hot +at first, they more quickly became cool; and as there is nothing +wanting to us but to be Babylonians, it follows that being +Babylonians is the true cause why the eggs became hard." Such was +his prevailing mockery and ridicule. "Your Eminence," writes one +of his friends to the Cardinal D'Este, "would be delighted if you +could hear him hold forth in the midst of fifteen or twenty, all +violently attacking him, sometimes in one house, and sometimes in +another; but he is armed after such a fashion that he laughs them +all to scorn." + +Galileo, after his admonition from the Inquisition, and his promise +to hold his tongue, did keep comparatively quiet for a while, +amusing himself with mechanics, and striving to find out a new way +of discovering longitude at sea. But the want of better telescopes +baffled his efforts; and even to-day it is said "that no telescope +has yet been made which is capable of observing at sea the eclipses +of Jupiter's satellites, by which on shore this method of finding +longitude has many advantages." + +On the accession of a new Pope (1623), Urban VIII., who had been +his friend as Cardinal Barberini, Galileo, after eight years of +silence, thought that he might now venture to publish his great +work on the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems, especially as the +papal censor also had been his friend. But the publication of the +book was delayed nearly two years, so great were the obstacles to +be surmounted, and so prejudiced and hostile was the Church to the +new views. At last it appeared in Florence in 1632, with a +dedication to the Grand Duke,--not the Cosimo who had rewarded him, +but his son Ferdinand, who was a mere youth. It was an unfortunate +thing for Galileo to do. He had pledged his word not to advocate +the Copernican theory, which was already sufficiently established +in the opinions of philosophers. The form of the book was even +offensive, in the shape of dialogues, where some of the chief +speakers were his enemies. One of them he ridiculed under the name +of Simplicio. This was supposed to mean the Pope himself,--so they +made the Pope believe, and he was furious. Old Cardinal Bellarmine +roared like a lion. The whole Church, as represented by its +dignitaries, seemed to be against him. The Pope seized the old +weapons of the Clements and the Gregories to hurl upon the daring +innovator; but delayed to hurl them, since he dealt with a giant, +covered not only by the shield of the Medici, but that of Minerva. +So he convened a congregation of cardinals, and submitted to them +the examination of the detested book. The author was summoned to +Rome to appear before the Inquisition, and answer at its judgment- +seat the charges against him as a heretic. The Tuscan ambassador +expostulated with his Holiness against such a cruel thing, +considering Galileo's age, infirmities, and fame,--all to no avail, +he was obliged to obey the summons. At the age of seventy this +venerated philosopher, infirm, in precarious health, appeared +before the Inquisition of cardinals, not one of whom had any +familiarity with abstruse speculations, or even with mathematics. + +Whether out of regard to his age and infirmities, or to his great +fame and illustrious position as the greatest philosopher of his +day, the cardinals treat Galileo with unusual indulgence. Though a +prisoner of the Inquisition, and completely in its hands, with +power of life and death, it would seem that he is allowed every +personal comfort. His table is provided by the Tuscan ambassador; +a servant obeys his slightest nod; he sleeps in the luxurious +apartment of the fiscal of that dreaded body; he is even liberated +on the responsibility of a cardinal; he is permitted to lodge in +the palace of the ambassador; he is allowed time to make his +defence: those holy Inquisitors would not unnecessarily harm a hair +of his head. Nor was it probably their object to inflict bodily +torments: these would call out sympathy and degrade the tribunal. +It was enough to threaten these torments, to which they did not +wish to resort except in case of necessity. There is no evidence +that Galileo was personally tortured. He was indeed a martyr, but +not a sufferer except in humiliated pride. Probably the object of +his enemies was to silence him, to degrade him, to expose his name +to infamy, to arrest the spread of his doctrines, to bow his old +head in shame, to murder his soul, to make him stab himself, and be +his own executioner, by an act which all posterity should regard as +unworthy of his name and cause. + +After a fitting time has elapsed,--four months of dignified +session,--the mind of the Holy Tribunal is made up. Its judgment +is ready. On the 22d of June, 1633, the prisoner appears in +penitential dress at the convent of Minerva, and the presiding +cardinal, in his scarlet robes, delivers the sentence of the +Court,--that Galileo, as a warning to others, and by way of +salutary penance, be condemned to the formal prison of the Holy +Office, and be ordered to recite once a week the seven Penitential +Psalms for the benefit of his soul,--apparently a light sentence, +only to be nominally imprisoned a few days, and to repeat those +Psalms which were the life of blessed saints in mediaeval times. +But this was nothing. He was required to recant, to abjure the +doctrines he had taught; not in private, but publicly before the +world. Will he recant? Will he subscribe himself an imposter? +Will he abjure the doctrines on which his fame rests? Oh, tell it +not in Gath! The timid, infirm, life-loving old patriarch of +science falls. He is not great enough for martyrdom. He chooses +shame. In an evil hour this venerable sage falls down upon his +knees before the assembled cardinals, and reads aloud this +recantation: "I, Galileo Galilei, aged seventy, on my knees before +you most reverend lords, and having my eye on the Holy gospel, +which I do touch with my lips, thus publish and declare, that I +believe, and always have believed, and always will believe every +article which the Holy Catholic Roman Church holds and teaches. +And as I have written a book in which I have maintained that the +sun is the centre, which doctrine is repugnant to the Holy +Scriptures, I, with sincere heart and unfeigned faith, do abjure +and detest, and curse the said error and heresy, and all other +errors contrary to said Holy Church, whose penance I solemnly swear +to observe faithfully, and all other penances which have been or +shall be laid upon me." + +It would appear from this confession that he did not declare his +doctrines false, only that they were in opposition to the +Scriptures; and it is also said that as he arose from his knees he +whispered to a friend, "It does move, nevertheless." As some +excuse for him, he acted with the certainty that he would be +tortured if he did not recant; and at the worst he had only +affirmed that his scientific theory was in opposition to the +Scriptures. He had not denied his master, like Peter; he had not +recanted the faith like Cranmer; he had simply yielded for fear of +bodily torments, and therefore was not sincere in the abjuration +which he made to save his life. Nevertheless, his recantation was +a fall, and in the eyes of the scientific world perhaps greater +than that of Bacon. Galileo was false to philosophy and himself. +Why did he suffer himself to be conquered by priests he despised? +Why did so bold and witty and proud a man betray his cause? Why +did he not accept the penalty of intellectual freedom, and die, if +die he must? What was life to him, diseased, infirm, and old? +What had he more to gain? Was it not a good time to die and +consummate his protests? Only one hundred and fifty years before, +one of his countrymen had accepted torture and death rather than +recant his religions opinions. Why could not Galileo have been as +great in martyrdom as Savonarola? He was a renowned philosopher +and brilliant as a man of genius,--but he was a man of the world; +he loved ease and length of days. He could ridicule and deride +opponents, he could not suffer pain. He had a great intellect, but +not a great soul. There were flaws in his morality; he was +anything but a saint or hero. He was great in mind, and yet he was +far from being great in character. We pity him, while we exalt +him. Nor is the world harsh to him; it forgives him for his +services. The worst that can be said, is that he was not willing +to suffer and die for his opinions: and how many philosophers are +there who are willing to be martyrs? + +Nevertheless, in the eyes of philosophers he has disgraced himself. +Let him then return to Florence, to his own Arceti. He is a +silenced man. But he is silenced, not because he believed with +Copernicus, but because he ridiculed his enemies and confronted the +Church, and in the eyes of blinded partisans had attacked divine +authority. Why did Copernicus escape persecution? The Church must +have known that there was something in his discoveries, and in +those of Galileo, worthy of attention. About this time Pascal +wrote: "It is vain that you have procured the condemnation of +Galileo. That will never prove the earth to be at rest. If +unerring observation proves that it turns round, not all mankind +together can keep it from turning, or themselves from turning with +it." + +But let that persecution pass. It is no worse than other +persecutions, either in Catholic or Protestant ranks. It was no +worse than burning witches. Not only is intolerance in human +nature, but there is a repugnance among the learned to receive new +opinions when these interfere with their ascendancy. The +opposition to Galileo's discoveries was no greater than that of the +Protestant Church, half a century ago, to some of the inductions of +geology. How bitter the hatred, even in our times, to such men as +Huxley and Darwin! True, they have not proved their theories as +Galileo did; but they gave as great a shock as he to the minds of +theologians. All science is progressive, yet there are thousands +who oppose its progress. And if learning and science should +establish a different meaning to certain texts from which +theological deductions are drawn, and these premises be undermined, +there would be the same bitterness among the defenders of the +present system of dogmatic theology. Yet theology will live, and +never lose its dignity and importance; only, some of its present +assumptions may be discarded. God will never be dethroned from the +world he governs; but some of his ways may appear to be different +from what was once supposed. And all science is not only +progressive, but it appears to be bold and scornful and proud,--at +least its advocates are and ever have been contemptuous of all +other departments of knowledge but its own. So narrow and limited +is the human mind in the midst of its triumphs. So full of +prejudices are even the learned and the great. + +Let us turn then to give another glance at the fallen philosopher +in his final retreat at Arceti. He lives under restrictions. But +they allow him leisure and choice wines, of which he is fond, and +gardens and friends; and many come to do him reverence. He amuses +his old age with the studies of his youth and manhood, and writes +dialogues on Motion, and even discovers the phenomena of the moon's +libration; and by means of the pendulum he gives additional +importance to astronomical science. But he is not allowed to leave +his retirement, not even to visit his friends in Florence. The +wrath of the Inquisition still pursues him, even in his villa at +Arceti in the suburbs of Florence. Then renewed afflictions come. +He loses his daughter, who was devoted to him; and her death nearly +plunges him into despair. The bulwarks of his heart break down; a +flood of grief overwhelms his stricken soul. His appetite leaves +him; his health forsakes him; his infirmities increase upon him. +His right eye loses its power,--that eye that had seen more of the +heavens than the eyes of all who had gone before him. He becomes +blind and deaf, and cannot sleep, afflicted with rheumatic pains +and maladies forlorn. No more for him is rest, or peace, or bliss; +still less the glories of his brighter days,--the sight of +glittering fields, the gems of heaven, without which + + + "Neither breath of Morn, when she ascends + With charm of earliest birds, nor rising sun + On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flower + Glistering with dew, nor fragrance after showers, + Nor grateful evening mild, . . . is sweet." + + +No more shall he gaze on features that he loves, or stars, or +trees, or hills. No more to him + + "Returns + Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, + Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, + Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine; + But clouds, instead, and ever-during dark + Surround" [him]. + + +It was in those dreary desolate days at Arceti, + + + "Unseen + In manly beauty Milton stood before him, + Gazing in reverent awe,--Milton, his guest, + Just then come forth, all life and enterprise; + While he in his old age, . . . + . . . exploring with his staff, + His eyes upturned as to the golden sun, + His eyeballs idly rolling." + + +This may have been the punishment of his recantation,--not +Inquisitorial torture, but the consciousness that he had lost his +honor. Poor Galileo! thine illustrious visitor, when his +affliction came, could cast his sightless eyeballs inward, and see +and tell "things attempted yet in prose or rhyme,"--not + + + "Rocks, caves, lakes, bogs, fens, and shades of death, + . . . . . . . . + "Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds + . . . . . . . . + "Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire," + + +but of "eternal Providence," and "Eden with surpassing glory +crowned," and "our first parents," and of "salvation," "goodness +infinite," of "wisdom," which when known we need no higher though +all the stars we know by name,-- + + + "All secrets of the deep, all Nature's works, + Or works of God in heaven, or air, or sea." + + +And yet, thou stricken observer of the heavenly bodies! hadst thou +but known what marvels would be revealed by the power of thy +wondrous instrument after thou should'st be laid lifeless and cold +beneath the marble floor of Sante Croce, at the age of seventy- +eight, without a monument (although blessed on his death-bed by +Pope Urban), having died a prisoner of the Inquisition, yet not +without having rendered to astronomical science services of utmost +value,--even thou might have died rejoicing, as one of the great +benefactors of the world. And thy discoveries shall be forever +held in gratitude; they shall herald others of even greater +importance. Newton shall prove that the different planets are +attracted to the sun in the inverse ratio of the squares of their +distances; that the earth has a force on the moon identical with +the force of gravity, and that all celestial bodies, to the utmost +boundaries of space, mutually attract each other; that all +particles of matter are governed by the same law,--the great law of +gravitation, by which "astronomy," in the language of Whewell, +"passed from boyhood to manhood, and by which law the great +discoverer added more to the realm of science than any man before +or since his day." And after Newton shall pass away, honored and +lamented, and be buried with almost royal pomp in the vaults of +Westminster, Halley and other mathematicians shall construct lunar +tables, by which longitude shall be accurately measured on the +pathless ocean. Lagrange and Laplace shall apply the Newtonian +theory to determine the secular inequalities of celestial motion; +they shall weigh absolutely the amount of matter in the planets; +they shall show how far their orbits deviate from circles; and they +shall enumerate the cycles of changes detected in the circuit of +the moon. Clairaut shall remove the perplexity occasioned by the +seeming discrepancy between the observed and computed motions of +the moon's perigee. Halley shall demonstrate the importance of +observations of the transit of Venus as the only certain way of +obtaining the sun's parallax, and hence the distance of the sun +from the earth; he shall predict the return of that mysterious body +which we call a comet. Herschel shall construct a telescope which +magnifies two thousand times, and add another planet to our system +beyond the mighty orb of Saturn. Romer shall estimate the velocity +of light from the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites. Bessell shall +pass the impassable gulf of space and measure the distance of some +of the fixed stars, although such is the immeasurable space between +the earth and those distant suns that the parallax of only about +thirty has yet been discovered with our finest instruments,--so +boundless is the material universe, so vast are the distances, that +light, travelling one hundred and sixty thousand miles with every +pulsation of the blood, will not reach us from some of those remote +worlds in one hundred thousand years. So marvellous shall be the +victories of science, that the perturbations of the planets in +their courses shall reveal the existence of a new one more distant +than Uranus, and Leverrier shall tell at what part of the heavens +that star shall first be seen. + +So far as we have discovered, the universe which we have observed +with telescopic instruments has no limits that mortals can define, +and in comparison with its magnitude our earth is less than a grain +of sand, and is so old that no genius can calculate and no +imagination can conceive when it had a beginning. All that we know +is, that suns exist at distances we cannot define. But around what +centre do they revolve? Of what are they composed? Are they +inhabited by intelligent and immortal beings? Do we know that they +are not eternal, except from the divine declaration that there WAS +a time when the Almighty fiat went forth for this grand creation? +Creation involves a creator; and can the order and harmony seen in +Nature's laws exist without Supreme intelligence and power? Who, +then, and what, is God? "Canst thou by searching find out Him? +Knowest thou the ordinances of Heaven? Canst thou bind the sweet +influences of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?" What an +atom is this world in the light of science! Yet what dignity has +man by the light of revelation! What majesty and power and glory +has God! What goodness, benevolence, and love, that even a sparrow +cannot fall to the ground without His notice,--that we are the +special objects of His providence and care! Is there an +imagination so lofty that will not be oppressed with the +discoveries that even the telescope has made? + +Ah, to what exalted heights reason may soar when allied with faith! +How truly it should elevate us above the evils of this brief and +busy existence to the conditions of that other life,-- + + + "When the soul, + Advancing ever to the Source of light + And all perfection, lives, adores, and reigns + In cloudless knowledge, purity, and bliss!" + + +AUTHORITIES. + +Delambre, Histoire de l'Astronomie; Arago, Histoire de +l'Astronomie; Life of Galileo, in Cabinet Library; Life of Galileo, +by Brewster; Lives of Galileo, by Italian and Spanish Literary Men; +Whewell's History of Inductive Sciences; Plurality of Worlds; +Humboldt's Cosmos; Nichols' Architecture of the Heavens; Chalmers' +Astronomical Discourses; Life of Kepler, Library of Useful +Knowledge; Brewster's Life of Tycho Brahe, of Kepler, and of Sir +Isaac Newton; Mitchell's Stellar and Planetary Worlds; Bradley's +Correspondence; Airy's Reports; Voiron's History of Astronomy; +Philosophical Transactions; Everett's Oration on Galileo; Life of +Copernicus; Bayly's Astronomy; Encyclopaedia Britannica, Art. +Astronomy; Proctor's Lectures. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY, VOLUME 3, PART 2 *** + +This file should be named 32blh10.txt or 32blh10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 32blh11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 32blh10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +https://gutenberg.org or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext05 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext05 + +Or /etext04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, +91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + + PROJECT GUTENBERG LITERARY ARCHIVE FOUNDATION + 809 North 1500 West + Salt Lake City, UT 84116 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/1499.zip b/1499.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..653ed6a --- /dev/null +++ b/1499.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..43712d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #1499 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1499) |