VIII. EXTRACTS FROM A SERMON BY LATIMER. Sermon on "The Agony in the Garden,” preached before King Edward VI, Good Friday, April 19th, 1549. Seven Sermons before Edward VI, Arber Reprint, pp. 182-208. Quaecunque scripta sunt ad nostram doctrinam scripta sunt. All things that be written, they be written to be our doctrine. By occasion of this text, most honorable audience, I have walked this Lent in the broad fields of scripture and used my liberty and intreated of such matters as I thought meet for this auditory. I have had a do with many estates, even with the highest of all. I have intreated of the duty of kings, of the duty of magistrates and judges, of the duty of prelates, allowing that that is good, and disallowing the contrary. I have taught that we are all sinners. I think there is none of us all, neither preacher nor hearer, but we may be amended, and redress our lives. We may all say, yea all the pack of us, peccavimus cum patribus nostris. We have offended and sinned, with our forefathers. In multis offendimus There is none of us all, but we have in sundry things grievously offended almighty God. I here intreated of many faults and rebuked many kinds of sins. I intend to-day by God's grace, to show you the remedy of sin. omnes. * * * * * * Let us follow Christ which in his agony resorted to his father with his prayer. This must be our pattern to work by. Here I might dilate the matter as touching praying to saints, here we may learn not to pray to saints. Christ bids us, ora patrem qui est in cœlis. Pray to thy Father that is in heaven, to the creator, and not to any creature. Faith is a noble duchess, she hath ever her gentleman usher going before her, the confession of sins; she hath a train after her, the fruits of good works, the walking in the commandments of God. He that believeth will not be idle, he will walk, he will do his business. Have ever the gentleman usher with you. So if you will try faith, remember this rule, consider whether the train be waiting upon her. * * If you will believe and acknowledge your sins, you shall come to the blessed communion of the bitter passion of Christ worthily, and so attain to everlasting life, to the which the Father of heaven bring you and me. Amen. I. First Canon of the Council of Clermont 4. Privileges granted by Fourth Lateran Council, 1215. I. SPEECH OF URBAN II. AT THE COUNCIL OF clermont. November 26, 1095. (For other Four contemporaries, who were probably present at the Council of Clermont, give in their histories accounts of Urban's speech. No one pretends to reproduce his exact words. Each gives an outline of what was said, and dwells on the part which especially interested him. Guibert of Nogent was most affected by the mysticism of the Pope, and the need of contending against Anti-Christ, when he should arise. Baldric of Dol's account is the least full, and adds little to the other accounts. The versions given by Fulcher of Chartres and Robert the Monk are reproduced here. versions, see Röhricht: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Kreuzzüge, II, 45.) The version of Urban's speech given by William of Tyre, though the one generally quoted, is wholly untrustworthy. The learned bishop colors and reworks the accounts of the contemporaries, and adds some statements of his own. He speaks of Peter the Hermit, who is not mentioned by any one of the first four and who certainly was not mentioned by Urban. His whole account reflects the ideas of a later age. Of Urban's speech Wilken says: "Many orations have been delivered with as much eloquence, and in as fiery words as the Pope used, but no other oration has ever been able to boast of as wonderful results." I. Version given by Fulcher of Chartres. Recueil, III, 322 ff. Bongars, I, 382–383. Latin. Most beloved brethren, moved by the exigencies of the times, I, Urban, wearing by the permission of God the papal tiara, and spiritual ruler of the whole world, have come here to you, the servants of God, as a messenger to disclose the divine admonition. I desire that those whom I have believed to be the faithful servants of God shall show themselves such, and that there shall be no shameful dissimulation. But if there is in you, contrary to God's law, any deformity or crookedness, because you have lost the moderation of reason and justice, I will earnestly strive to root out the fault. For the Lord has placed you over His family as stewards in order that you may feed its members with .pleasant tasting food suited to the time. You will be happy indeed, if when He requires of you an account, He shall find that you have been faithful in your stewardships. You are also called shepherds; be not hirelings. Be true shepherds and have your crooks always in your hands. Fall not asleep, but watch in all places over the flock committed to your charge. For if, through your carelessness or negligence, any wolf snatches away a sheep, you will not only lose the reward prepared for you in the presence of your Lord, but also, having been first bitterly tortured by remorse for your crimes, you will be savagely hurled' into the deadly abode. But In the words of the Gospel, "Ye are the salt of the earth." if you fail in your duty, how, we ask, can it be salted? Oh, how admirable is that salting! Truly, you must strive by the salt of wisdom to correct these foolish people, hastening open-mouthed after the pleasures of this world, lest putrefied by sins and unsalted, they may be a stench in the nostrils when the Lord wills on some future day to address them. For if, through your neglect of duty, He shall find in them any worms, that is sins, He will in contempt order them to be hurled into the abyss of unclean things. And because you are unable to.make good to Him so great a loss, He will certainly drive you, condemned by His judgment, from the presence of His love. But for this reason the distributor of this salt ought to be wise, prudent, modest, pacific, learned, watchful, pious, just, equitable, pure. For how can the unlearned make others learned, the immodest make others modest, the impure make others pure? If any one hates peace, how can he be a peace-maker? Or if one's own hands are unclean, how can he cleanse the impurities of another? We read also that "if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." Accordingly first correct yourselves, so that without reproach you may be able to correct those under your charge. If you wish to be the friends of God, do willingly the things which you believe to be agreeable to Him. Look to it especially that the rules of the church are vigorously maintained, so that simoniacal heresy in no way takes root among you; take heed lest purchasers and venders alike, struck by the chastisement of the Lord, be miserably driven through narrow ways to confusion and destruction. Keep the church and those in its service entirely free from all secular power, cause the tithes due to God from all the fruits of the field to be faithfully paid; let them not be sold or held back. If any one shall lay hands on a bishop, let him be considered as wholly an outlaw. If any one shall seize or despoil monks, priests, nuns, and their servants, or pilgrims or merchants, let him be anathematized. Let robbers, incendiaries and their accomplices be shut out from the church and stricken with the anathema. Therefore we must, as Gregory says, especially consider how he, who steals the property of another, is to be punished, if he who from his own possessions does not employ a part in alms, incurs the damnation of hell. For so it befel Dives mentioned in the Gospel, who forsooth was punished not for having stolen the property of another, but because he was a bad steward of what had been intrusted to him. By these evils, therefore, as has been said, dearly beloved brethren, you have seen the world troubled for a long time to such an extent that in some places in your provinces, as has been reported to usmayhap through your weakness in administering justice-hardly any one can venture to travel upon the highways, by night or day, without danger of attack by thieves or robbers; and no one is sure that his property at home or abroad will not be taken from him by the violence or craft of the wicked. Therefore, let us re-enact the law made by our holy ancestors long ago and commonly called "the Truce" [of God]. I most earnestly exhort you that each one should strenuously do all in his power to have it observed in his bishopric. But if any one misled by pride or cupidity breaks it voluntarily, let him be anathematized by the authority of God and by the sanction of the decrees of this council. (Here Urban paused and the council enacted the decrees which he desired, and which all who were present took oath to obey faithfully. The Pope then proceeded :) Since, oh sons of God, you have promised the Lord more earnestly than heretofore to maintain peace in your midst and faithfully to sustain the laws of the church, there remains for you, newly fortified by the correction of the Lord, to show the strength of your integrity in a certain other duty, which is not less your concern than the Lord's. For you must carry succor to your brethren dwelling in the East, and needing your aid, which they have so often demanded. For the Turks, a Persian people, have attacked them, as many of you know, and have advanced into the territory of Romania as far as that part of the Mediterranean which is called the Arm of St. George ;* and occupying more and more the lands of those Christians, have already seven times conquered them in battle, have killed and captured many, have destroyed the churches and devastated the kingdom of God. If you permit them to remain for a time unmolested, they will extend their sway more widely over many faithful servants of the Lord. Wherefore, I pray and exhort, nay not I, but the Lord prays and exhorts you, as heralds of Christ, by frequent exhortation, to urge men of all ranks, knights and foot-soldiers, rich and poor, to hasten to exterminate this vile race from the lands of our brethren, and to bear timely aid to the worshippers of Christ. I speak to those who are present, I proclaim it to the absent, but Christ commands. Moreover, the sins *The Hellespont. |