fanatical who merely repeat one after another, though, indeed, with all the sincerity of their hearts, what they have been told by founders and propagators of sects who sought to justify their schism, by publishing abuse and scandal, or else it is by men of higher capacities, but who still to lowliness have been willing strangers, persons evidently under the domination of the world, and of the philosophy which soars not above its brief contingencies; or else, what ought not to be forgotten, or spoken of in palliative terms, it is by men bound together in secret league against whatever is holy, whatever is divine, speaking in the language of that city which has so thriven in the warfare which the tongue dreads to designate, that we might almost apply to it the fearful words of the great poet, and say, that its name spreads over hell; men of undisguised impiety, guilty souls, that, if they change not, in the fire, must vanish. These are the teachers, who, from different motives, all agree in affirming that ages of faith were ages of folly, that piety was superstition, that contemplation was idleness, that humility was the extreme of degradation, that the world was in darkness, until the rise of modern philosophy, or as one who has written on the life of Philip Augustus says, "that heresy must be considered as the first cause of the march of the human mind.”* And are humble Christians to be deceived by such clamors as these? Are the bold assertions of such men to prevent the memory of the just from being in eternal remembrance? When this cry of darkness is not too artless to merit reflection, ought it not rather, on any point, to lead the faithful to suspect the existence of spiritual light? And where it may so easily be confronted, as in this instance, with the unquestionable evidence of ancient writers, whom we can behold teaching and acting without any regard to what judgment posterity would form of them, ought it not to be received as the unsuspicious testimony of enemies of the consoling truth of the existence, during that long period, of a race of men eminently Christian, eminently deserving of the scorn and hatred of the enemies of the cross and grace of Christ; who, as true pilgrims and strangers on the earth, took no thought for leaving on it trophies of glory behind them, but only passed humbly on, as if in a solemn and continued procession, supporting and encouraging each other to persevere in following the royal road of the holy cross through a world which was not their home, through a world which they looked upon as a vale of tears, through a world which always stood aloof when it did not persecute, only scowling upon them in disdain and hatred, in the hopes of being able to reach in safety the portals of the celestial city, those gates through which had passed the King of Glory, and which were again to open, only to admit the humble and the poor? It will be time enough to prepare for joining in the accusations against them, when we shall find these supported by persons who unite in themselves the learning requisite to conduct an historical enquiry with the spirit and the sentiment, which are no less requisite to enable them to estimate *Tom. II. p. 278. rightly the result, and to know what they have really found-for it is not assuredly men who have relapsed to a heathen philosophy, who can respect or even comprehend, amidst the various institutions and manners of past ages, the humility of those who followed Christ. Meanwhile we are fully warranted in concluding from the whole, that these ages were, in an eminent degree, endowed with that poverty of spirit, which is so completely opposed to every form of the development of human pride. That they were ages of glory, in the heathen or revolutionary sense of the term, though they were ages of most singular heroism, may, indeed, be denied ; that they were ages of any predominance of political dignity, in particular nations, according to the theories which have grown out of the extremely complicated relations of modern civilization, though the grandeur of their state is often admirable from its simplicity, may admit of question; that their philosophy did not admit of being clothed in that pompous and seductive language, with which sophists persuade society that it has advanced in general intelligence-though, as we shall have occasion to see hereafter, it was not on that account to be noted as deficient; finally, that their moral instructions were not recommended with eloquence, though they were endued with a power greater than all eloquence; that their system of education was not calculated to make great men, in the worldly sense of the term, though it was eminently caculated to make the young gentle and engaging, and to bring back a primal age beautiful as gold; all this may indeed be argued with more or less plausibility. That they were ages of humility, or of what the divine sentence terms poverty of spirit, in public and in private life, in the institutions of states, in philosophy, and in education, no one can deny who has regard to the facts of history and to the whole tone and tendency of the contemporaneous writings; it was, in reality, the spirit of the times, the spirit which governed the lives of individuals, and which from thence extended its influence even over the affairs of nations: it was a spirit which on several occasions broke forth amidst the pomp and circumstance of royal courts; it was seen in many instances on the thrones of the world, and repeatedly in the triumph no less apparently calculated to involve it in danger, of unrivalled genius, and of an acknowledged intellectual sovereignty. END OF THE FIRST BOOK, MORES CATHOLICI; OR, AGES OF FAITH. THE SECOND BOOK. CHAPTER I. ISING to that second period of the heavenly strain, which said the" meek are blessed," a view at once so lovely and extensive in range of gracious objects presents itself, when we turn to mark how far this can be illustrated and verified in the annals of Christian history, that we seem then only beginning to enjoy the sweet consequence of meditating on the spirit and ways of faithful times. Still as we continue to ascend this delicious mountain, at every stage we shall find the air which gently smites our temples embalmed with some new fragrance, and at our feet we shall mark some new odoriferous and exquisitely painted flower which adorns the path of innocence; we shall be saluted with some new ravishing prospect which for a moment will make us forget the past, though it seem only to feed and strengthen that infinite desire which prompts us to press forward to enjoy other, and perhaps higher splendors, the splendors of the saints, which are reserved to bless even those eyes that are unworthy to behold the height of heaven. The first direction which our thoughts naturally take is towards the mild courtesy which characterized the manners of the middle ages so eminently, that even the least instructed are accustomed to consider them as synony mous with gracious manners, to which meekness gave the captivating charm. All works which represent the days of chivalry have occasion to be often conversant with this theme; but it was from the schools of holy men that the spirit of grace and harmony descended to shed a soft lustre on the ways of secular life; for as St. Augustin says, it is piety which leads to the second beatitude, "Beati mites."* A great poet of antiquity well distinguished between urbanity and the virtue which alone makes it precious; "I would labor in dressing the garden of the *De Serm. Dom. in Monte. |