Peter and Paul and the other apostles, martyrs, and confessors. A new Olympus speedily appeared*. The courts of heaven were thronged with the beatified saints, who saw in God all that took place on earth, and heard the prayers addressed to them by their votaries below for the exercise of their power or their mediation in their favour. High above all in rank and power stood the Queen of Heaven of the new mythology, the Virgin, born without sin, dead without pain, and translated bodily, like her divine son, to heaven, where she still exercises over him the mild authority of a mother. Such were the Virgin and

the Saints in heaven; on earth churches and festivals were dedicated, and prayers were offered to them; their relics, that is, their bones, their hair, the very parings of their nails and the fragments of their garments, or the implements of their torture, were inclosed in costly shrines, adorned with precious gems and worshipped by the people. Their images, especially those of the Virgin, were also the objects of adoration; pilgrimages were made to them, and rich offerings deposited on their altars. Thus, while the ancient heathens directed their worship to beings whom they regarded as superior to man in nature, the Christians of the middle ages adored their fellow-mortals; their idolatry was as gross as that of the ancient world; the legends of their saints were frequently of a far more immoral tone than the mythes of Greece, and, what these properly understood were not, often highly impious †.

* The Romish saints are always termed Divi; thus Divus Thomas is the style of Thomas à Becket. "Deos," says a heathen (Servius on Æn. xii. 139), “ æternos dicimus, divos vero qui ex hominibus fiunt," In another place (Æn. v, 45,) he adds, "unde divos etiam imperatores vocamus." How closely papal Rome imitated heathen Rome!

Hallam (Middle Ages, iii. 349), after relating some of the impious legends of the Virgin circulated by the monks, thus expresses himself: "Whether the superstition of these dark ages had actually passed that point when it becomes more injurious to public morals and the welfare of society than the entire absence of all religious notions, is a very complex question, upon which I would by no means pronounce an affirmative decision."

This system of polytheism and idolatry was, however, not without its bright spots. The aspect of the court of heaven presented in the Romish books of devotion is very magnificent and attractive. But by far the most seductive portion of the system is the worship of the Virgin, the most beautiful piece of superstition ever devised! The idea of the "pure god," Phoebus Apollo, in the Grecian system was certainly beautiful and, we may add, elevating, but who could think of comparing it with that of the Virgin? The Crishna of Hindoo, the Balder of Scandinavian polytheism, fall still more short of it. A woman lovely, gentle, pure and stainless, whose heart wells forth streams of holy love and benevolence, exalted to supreme power in heaven and earth, must, in the eyes of the pious votary, have been invested with a radiance of mild, tempered divinity not to be conceived by those who are not themselves believers. Unfortunately the beautiful conception was but too often spoiled by the vulgar and impious legend which made the divine object partial, revengeful, vain and venal. Among the attractions of this system must also be enumerated the sensible ones of the splendid habits of the clergy; the well-marshalled processions, bearing crosses and banners; the magnificence of architecture; and the noble strains of music that pealed through the aisles of the stately cathedral, and adorned the service of even the most humble chapel.

The clergy themselves, it is probable, believed implicitly in the popular religion. But their belief stood not in the way of their inventing the most monstrous and atrocious fables of the miracles performed by the Saints or their relics, and thus extorting money or lands from the credulous votaries. By means of these, and of the doctrines of purgatory and merits, the church had gradually contrived to gain possession of one fifth of the lands of the kingdom. The morals of the clergy were in general profligate, though beyond question there were among them in all ages shining

In the year 1449 the

models of goodness and piety. clergy had a petition presented in parliament, stating that many priests, secular as well as religious, had been grievously vexed and troubled wrongfully by divers indictments of felony, and praying that every priest might be pardoned for all manner of felonies of rape done before the 1st of June next coming, and from all forfeitures of taking excessive salaries, provided a noble (68. 8d.) for every priest in the kingdom, were paid to the king*. What, we may ask, must have been the morality of the clergy who could present such a petition?

Ignorance and immorality are usual, though not necessary companions. We may therefore not be surprised to find that the great bulk of the clergy were grossly ignorant. But few of them knew the meaning of the prayers they muttered daily in an unknown tongue; and to read and study the Scriptures even in the Latin version was regarded as needless to those whose religion was almost totally made up of forms and ceremonies. The ignorance of the laity was of course greater if possible than that of their spiritual guides.

We are not, however, to suppose that the mind of Europe was totally enthralled to superstition in these times. It was far otherwise, as the dreadful crusade against the Albigenses, and the persecution of the Lollards and other heretics, as they were styled by the church, too clearly prove. Though the clergy exerted themselves to the utmost, though they filled the prisons with those who dared to think, and kindled the piles for those who refused to recant, the truth still continued to spread, and more and more was sown every day of the seed which was to yield such an abundant harvest of mental liberty. We have now strong grounds for believing that Dante, Petrarca, and their fellows, whose genius sheds such a lustre on the

* Rolls Parl., vol. v. p. 153; Turner, Hist. of England, iii. 140.

middle ages, were but the organs of an extensive sect or party, whose bond of union was hostility to the papacy, its claims, its doctrines, and its practices*. The middle ages thus rise in moral dignity, while we view in them the struggle of man's intellectual nature against superstition, upheld by fraud and cruelty; and we learn to acknowledge our debt of gratitude to the men whose unremitting efforts achieved the victory of which we now enjoy the benefits.

* The writer here alludes to what he regards as the extraordinary discoveries of his most valued friend Professor Gabriele Rossetti, in his "Comento Analitico" on Dante, his "Spirito Antipapale de' Classici Italiani,” and his "Mistero dell' Amor Platonico." He at the same time will not pledge himself for the correctness of all the theories and opinions in those important works, as on some points he differs with the profound and sagacious author.

HOUSE OF TUDOR.

CHAPTER I.

HENRY VII.*

1485-1509.

The sweating sickness.-King's marriage.-Lambert Simnell.-Battle of Stoke.-Coronation of the queen.-Affairs of Brittany.-Perkin Warbeck. Execution of the earl of Warwick.-Marriage and death of prince Arthur.The king's avarice.-His death and character.

THE first act of the new king was to direct that the princess Elizabeth and her cousin, the earl of Warwick, whom the late usurper had placed at Sheriff-Hutton in Yorkshire, should be conveyed to London, the former to be restored to her mother, the latter to be immured in the Tower. He then proceeded by easy journeys to the capital. The lord mayor and aldermen met him without the city (Aug. 28); he passed through the streets in a close litter to St. Paul's, where a Te Deum was chanted, and he then took up his abode at the house of the bishop. While there he solemnly renewed his engagement to marry the princess Elizabeth, but declined espousing her till after he should have been crowned and have held a parliament.

The coronation would have taken place immediately but for the prevalence of the disease named the Sweating Sickness from its nature. It was a rapid fever, carrying people off in four-and-twenty hours, which time if they got

* Authorities :-Bacon, Polydore Virgil, Hall, Fabyan, and the other chroniclers.