the union. No Babel can ever confound that language. St. Bernard strikes the key-note for the whole choir when he sings: "O Jesus! Thy sweet memory Can fill the heart with ecstasy; Never was sung a sweeter word, Nor deeper aught the heart hath stirr'd, What hope, O Jesus, thou canst render When thou dost in our hearts appear, We dare not conclude, that of the multitude of worshippers successively entering the portals of mediæval churches, each giving a passionate glance at the crucifix, and kneeling before the altar of the patron saint, there were absolutely none who found their way to the Saviour. We do trace in the dim records unmistakable proofs that there were a few, at least, who regarded with faith "The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world;" we will not give up the hope that there are many jewels yet to be recovered from the dust of the * "Jesu dulcis." Translated in "Voice of Christian Life in Song," p. 163. crowded sepulchres, around the ancient fanes throughout our beloved country. "As evening's pale and solitary star But brightens while the darkness gathers round, Is fairest seen in darkness most profound." The Roman Breviary displays a symbolical connexion between the appointed order of daily service and the facts of our Lord's life on earth. Each service is associated with one of those mysterious acts and sufferings which constitute the historical groundwork of our faith in the atonement. This arrangement, which must have appeared to some persons to be utterly without significance because purely artificial, yet has to others been a source of grateful sympathy and a means of spiritual refreshment. So thousands of minds have been excited to lofty thought or fervent devotion by the utterance of the grand invitatory services at Matins, the urgent ejaculatory prayers at Prime, the Scripture lessons and collect at Vespers, and the hymn at Compline. But biography shows that in the great majority of instances these services have been an unprofitable weariness, whilst to the mass of the people they have been mere dumb show. The Crusades, which for two hundred years occasioned so much excitement and action, and which have left so many traces of their influence in arts and arms, appear to have had no effect whatever on spiritual life. Beyond the fact that some of the few warrior pilgrims who returned, founded chantries or larger ecclesiastical establishments, we have no record whereby to connect them with the religious history of our country. The originals of the crossed and mailed figures on altar-tombs, girt with sword, were, we fear, animated by feelings altogether different from the spirit of the true champions of the Cross. It is not until after this page of history is closed that we perceive the dawn of free religious thought in England. Defective alike in object and method, we look in vain through the annals of the Holy Wars for any trace of personal spiritual life. We may imagine it to have existed and been nourished by the higher associations of the enterprise, but we have no record which opens to us this aspect of the strange phenomenon then exhibited in Christendom. The eleventh century was throughout Europe a period of great ecclesiastical and religious excitement. The power of the Papacy had no sooner become consolidated and fully organized, than it was rebelled against by individuals and communities all over the so-called Christian world. The doctrines of the Church had no sooner been thoroughly eclipsed by the inventions of men, than the seekers for the hidden forbidden truth appeared in all countries. The early doctrinal reformers are said to have sprung from the East under the name of Paulicians, and to have travelled through Bulgaria and Hungary into Lombardy, and thence into Italy, the South of France, Germany, and even England. It was rather the desire for better things, the yearning for purer Divine light, that characterized this movement, than any single feature common to all the manifold varieties into which it spread. We learn its purport only by the lurid light of the fires which flamed in its wake from land to land. A very cursory glance at the history of medieval controversies will serve to convince us of the vast seething and surging of opinion on religious subjects during the dark ages. Many persons amidst the turbulence of these disputes found their way to the peace which Christ ever gives to his true followers; and most of them served to exemplify the truth of the Master's saying, "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." Indeed, there were never wanting men who in the bosom of the Church protested against its misdeeds. The records of heresy must here furnish us with testimonies for the proof. The events suggested by the following enumeration extending through about two centuries, show that there was a continuous agitation for more or less of evangelical conformity, for the sacred right of private judg ment, and for the honour of Scripture. A.D. 1000. Wilgard of Ravenna and his followers put to death. The first capital punishment for heresy in Italy. Leutard of Chalons imprisoned. 1017. A dozen persons burnt at Orleans for heresy. 1030. Gandolfo, a missionary heretic, at Arras. 1034. Heretics burnt at Milan 1046. Hangings and burnings in Germany and France 1079. Berenger, bishop of Angers. 1130. Peter de Bruys burnt at St. Gilles. 1135. Arnold of Brescia. A.D. 1147. Henry the monk died in prison. 1160. Peter Waldo of Lyons. 1183. Waldenses excommunicated. Whitehorsts and other sects of reforming friars. 1209. Disciples of Amaury of Chalons burnt. 1229. War of extermination against Albigenses ended. 1234. Heretics persecuted at Oldenburg and throughout northern Germany. Paterini burnt at Rome. 1260. Sect of "Apostles" begun at Parma. 1270. Dolcino burnt at Vercelli. The proud boast of the great Romanist writer, that the doctrine of the Papal Church could stand the test of universal consentaneousness in time and space, is dissipated by the most cursory glance into ecclesiastical history.* Such instances serve to show us how much more has occurred in the transactions of time than our historical records reveal. The picture-gallery of the past is so scantily and irregularly lighted, that we see but the shadowy outlines of things; only here and there is a subject disclosed to us with all its figures and accessories complete. In the Chronicles of the Mayors and Sheriffs of London, in the possession of the Corporation, we read about this time of a transaction which just serves to make darkness visible :-"A.D. 1247. In this year, on the Translation of Saint Edward the King and Con * Vincent de Lerins, "Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus." |