The Crusades

The Crusades

THE Crusades were the first great enterprise which enlisted the common zeal of the Christian nations of Europe. History records scarcely another instance in which an equal enthusiasm has wrought in men of so many different countries and ranks. All classes of society, from the king down to the peasant, sent forth the armed pilgrims who were to reclaim the holy places of the East. Hundreds of thousands, possibly several millions, of men were sacrificed in these expeditions.

At first glance we are astonished at the enormous expenditure of treasure and men upon a project seemingly so utopian. But further scrutiny speedily reveals that substantial causes lay back of the crusades. They were, in fact, a genuine expression of mediaeval institutions, thought, and feeling. The principal factors of mediaeval civilization are clearly visible in their origination.

In the first place, papal ambition urged on the crusades. They were distinctly a means for extending papal dominion. The vanquishing of the infidel and establishing of a Latin power in the East were to be utilized for the union of East and West. The Roman pontiff hoped to find therein means for bringing an undivided Church beneath his scepter. Gregory VII., who was the first to plan a crusade upon a large scale, gave prominence, as we have seen, to this design. Moreover the zeal of the Popes in these movements was stimulated by their bearing upon the papal supremacy in the West. To engage powerful sovereigns in a crusade was an easy way to be relieved from dangerous rivals. Of. course it is not to be supposed that the Popes from first to last were influenced solely by such motives as these. It is but just to credit them with a share in the religious sentiment by which the heart of Europe was so deeply touched. 1 It may be noticed that Gerbert (known afterwards as Pope Sylvester II.), three quarters of a century before the time of Gregory VII., spoke in a vein of deep feeling about the obligations of Christendom to despoiled and mourning Jerusalem. The following words, which he represents her as addressing to the Church Universal, seem very much like a call to a crusade: "Cüm propheta dixerit: erit sepulchrum ejus gloriosum, paganis loca sancta subvertentibus, tentat diabolus reddere inglorium. Enitere ergo, miles Christi, esto signifer et compugnator, et quod armis nequis, consilii et opum auxilio subveni." (Epist. xxviii.) At the same time, it lies on the fact of the history that their zeal was sustained by the desire and the expectation of official advantage.

In the second place, military policy urged on the crusades. Mohammedanism was still a threatening power. The access of a new host of converts, the hardy and sanguinary Turks, had infused into it a new energy. The degenerate Greeks were ill prepared to withstand their onsets. Conscious of their own weakness, they appealed to the Latins for aid, representing that Constantinople with all its heirlooms of Christian antiquity was likely to pass under the profaning hands of the infidels. To be sure, they soon learned to dread the Latins as much as the Turks, and made them the victims in more than one instance of their treacherous arts. But at the outset they were urgent enough in calling them to the rescue. It seemed, therefore, to be the dictate of a wise military discretion to take the offensive, and to beat back the foe before he had captured any more of the strongholds of Christendom.

Again, the crusading enthusiasm was sustained by the prevalent love of romantic adventure and warlike exploits. It was the period of youth in the history of Europe. The age of manly reflection had not yet arrived. Fantasy usurped largely the place of reason. Impelled by its elating and disquieting visions, multitudes from all classes were ready to rush eagerly toward a field of strange adventure. As for the knights, the continual feuds of the age had taught them to regard the practice of arms as their profession. The code of chivalry which was coming into vogue made daring exploits the price of honor. Naturally, therefore, the knight welcomed the crusade as at once gratifying his love of adventure and affording a theatre for the display of his valor.

Once more, the value assigned to pilgrimages as a means of penance and religious edification powerfully assisted in swelling the expeditions to the Holy Land. The crusades might aptly be described as armed pilgrimages. They carried out on a larger scale the custom which long had been fostered by the materialistic piety of the times, -- a piety which depended largely for its inspiration upon material objects and associations. To such a type of religion nothing could seem more desirable, nothing more fruitful to the soul, than to stand amid the scenes which had been sanctified by the Savior's life and sufferings. Heaven, it was fondly pictured, stooped low above the Holy Sepulcher. Jerusalem, accordingly, from the days when the true cross was believed to have been discovered, was a favorite resort. The subjection of the city to Mohammedan rule did not stop the influx except in a season of unusual persecution. A continuous stream of pilgrims sought her gates, to satisfy their religious sentiment, or to gain a respite from the tortures of an accusing conscience. We read of a French count who three times made the journey to Jerusalem, in his penitence for his crimes, and his endeavor to escape the pursuing spectres of those whom his cruelty had destroyed. Many similar examples are on record. Often no greater boon was desired than the privilege of dying on the consecrated soil. When the pilgrims presented themselves before the Holy Sepulcher, they were accustomed, it is said, to offer up this prayer: "Thou who didst die for us and wast buried in this holy spot, take pity of our misery, and withdraw us at once from this valley of tears." 1 J. F. Michaud, History of the Crusades, book i. In some instances quite a large number of pilgrims undertook the journey together. Thus, in the year 1054 the Bishop of Cambray set out with a company of three thousand, and ten years later seven thousand started under the Archbishop of Mayence and the neighboring prelates. This was carrying pilgrimage far toward the proportions of a crusade. Now, as the crusade answered the same ends as a pilgrimage, and was regarded as a work of even greater merit, it was but natural that any cause of special excitement should inflame a numerous host with the ambition to march to Jerusalem and to drive out the infidel.

Such a cause was supplied by the contagious zeal of Peter the Hermit. This man, who was a Frenchman by birth, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in atonement for the sins of his early life. Both on his journey and after his arrival he had experienced the barbarities of the Turks, and witnessed the indignities which others suffered at the hands of these rude Mohammedans, who had not the self-restraint to treat Christians with respect and kindness, though they allowed them to visit the Holy City for the sake of the revenue which they brought. At Jerusalem he met the Patriarch Simeon. As he listened to his plaints over the sad condition of affairs and the hopelessness of relief through the Eastern Emperors, he was prompted to reply that Western Europe, if once thoroughly aroused, could be relied upon to bring effectual aid. The Patriarch caught at this suggestion, and, entering readily into the plan of his visitor, gave under his seal such a statement of the facts as might enlist the sympathies of Western Christians. Armed with this document, Peter the Hermit returned to Europe. Abundant success at once attended his efforts. Pope Urban II. entered zealously into the project of a crusade, and the people made a generous response. At the Council of Placentia, in March, 1095, interest in the enterprise was manifested by an attendance of upwards of thirty thousand, and at the Council of Clermont in the ensuing November the enthusiasm of the vast throng broke through all restraint, and interrupted the eloquent address of the Pope with the mighty and confident cry, "God wills it !" -- "God wills it !" The Pope took up the words, declared that they should be the battle cry of Christ's soldiers in the holy war, and commanded that all recruits should attach to their garments the form of the Cross.

The time fixed upon for the departure of the crusading army was August, 1096. But the impatience of the people led them to anticipate this date. Before the military leaders had accomplished their preparations there were already on the march no less than four detachments, namely, some 20,000 under Walter the Penniless, 40,000 under Peter the Hermit, 15,000 under a German priest by the name of Gottschalk, and an ill-assorted rabble of the baser elements of society estimated by some as high as 200,000. A large proportion of these undisciplined and ungovernable troops fell by the hands of the Hungarians and Bulgarians, whose fear or wrath they excited by their lawless conduct. Walter the Penniless and Peter the Hermit succeeded in bringing a remnant of their forces to Constantinople. These had an opportunity to fight with the infidels, but only to be well-nigh exterminated in a rash venture which they made in the neighborhood of Nicæa.

While thus an unguided enthusiasm was vainly sacrificing the lives of tens of thousands, a well officered and well equipped army was being gathered. This came to Constantinople in different divisions, under such leaders as Godfrey of Bouillon, Hugh, Count of Vermandois, Raymond of Toulouse, and Bohemond of Tarentum, with his nephew Tancred. "According to the lowest computation the army must have numbered more than six hundred thousand soldiers and pilgrims. There were upwards of one hundred thousand mailed horsemen, the flower of the chivalry of Europe. They were clothed for the most part in scale armor; their heads were covered with glittering helmets." 1 W. E. Dutton, History of the Crusades. A truly formidable array! The Mohammedans now found that they had to deal with foemen worthy of their steel. In hard contested battles the Christian soldiers proved their superiority. Having taken Nicæa, Edessa, and Antioch on their way, they came at length with depleted ranks to the Holy City. A brief siege and a desperate assault gave them possession, and their swords were dyed with the blood of the infidel inhabitants (1099). Godfrey of Bouillon was chosen King of Jerusalem; and a worthier choice could not have been made. While he accepted the office, he declined the insignia and the title, refusing to wear a crown of gold in the city in which the Savior had worn a crown of thorns, and styling himself simply the "Defender of the Holy Sepulchre." Thus ended the first and most successful of the crusades. After defeating an army sent by the Egyptian Sultan to recapture Jerusalem most of the leaders returned to Europe.

The second crusade (1147-1149) was commanded by Conrad III. of Germany and Louis VII. of France. It was a sad failure. Only a remnant of the great armies which took the march ever passed the limits of Asia Minor, where they were made the prey of treachery, famine, and the sword.

Before the inauguration of the third crusade (1189-1193) the Mohammedans had found a competent leader in the celebrated Saladin, and Europe had been shocked by the news that Jerusalem had again fallen under the rule of the infidel (1187). In response to the cry of grief and dismay the greatest sovereigns took the cross, Frederic I. of Germany, Philip Augustus of France, and Richard of England. Frederic perished on the march. A remnant of his army, together with the forces of Philip and Richard, assisted in the capture of Acre. Further success was hindered by the jealousies of the two kings. Richard, it is true, achieved some remarkable exploits. His valor won him the admiration of the foe, as well as of his Christian adherents. So great, it is said, became the terror of his name, that Saracen mothers were wont to use it sixty years later as a means of frightening their children. But his deeds of bravery and personal force brought little gain to the Christian cause.

An introduction to the fourth crusade (1202-1204) has already been given in the account of the ponficate of Innocent III. Its history shows how the baser motives of worldly ambition had usurped the place of the religious enthusiasm which first started the hosts of Europe toward the coasts of Asia. Instead of regaining Jerusalem from the infidel, it gave the seat of Christian empire in the East into the possession of the Latins.

The fifth crusade (1217-1221), under the King of Hungary, Hugh of Lusignan, and John de Brienne, 1 Hugh was King of Cyprus, John de Brienne nominal King of Jerusalem. gained a temporary success in Egypt. Several years before this expedition, one of the wildest pieces of folly known to European history had been perpetrated, -- the Children's Crusade (1212). In this senseless movement, some thirty or forty thousand children either met their death through exposure and hunger, or, falling into the hands of pitiless and designing men, were sold into slavery.

The sixth crusade (1228-1229) was led by Frederic II. As already observed, he acted under the weight of the papal ban, but was able, nevertheless, to effect a treaty for the surrender of Jerusalem, certain privileges being guaranteed to the Mohammedan residents. It has been supposed that still more favorable terms might have been obtained had it not been for the virulent opposition of the Pope.

In the seventh and eighth crusades, undertaken in 1248 and 1270, the leading figure was St. Louis of France. Both were fruitless. The first came to disaster in Egypt, after a brief season of success, during which Damietta was taken. The second was arrested by the ravages of a plague upon the coast of Africa, where Louis himself was among the victims. Prior to these expeditions, whose best result seems to have been the illustration which they gave of the piety and fortitude of the French King, Jerusalem had been finally lost to the Christians. Other strongholds in Palestine and Syria erelong shared the same fate. With the fall of Acre, in 1291, the last remnant of Christian dominion in the East which had been won by the crusades was relinquished. No serious effort was again put forth to wrest the Holy Land from Mohammedan rule. The voice of a Pope was indeed occasionally raised in favor of a crusade. But zeal for the enterprise had perished, and could not be revived. Europe had not the requisite ambition to guard her own borders against the Turk, to say nothing about routing him from more distant fields.

Among the memorials which survived the crusades the military orders were one of the most interesting. There were three, -- the Hospitallers or Knights of St. John, the Templars, and the Teutonic Knights. The germ of the first was a hospital, which was founded in the eleventh century for the care of sick and wounded pilgrims. The brothers of the hospital lived under monastic rule. In the first half of the twelfth century the association took on a military cast. As now organized, the order consisted of serving brothers, who were occupied with the care of the sick, priests, who discharged the rites of religion, and knights, whose duty it was to fight against the infidel and to guard the pilgrim. On the evacuation of Palestine, the Hospitallers retired to the island of Rhodes. In the time of Charles V. the island of Malta was assigned to them. The organization of the Templars was like that of the Hospitallers. By the end of the crusades the order was extended over a large part of Europe, and was extensively endowed. An object at once of jealousy and avarice, they were assailed by the most damaging reports as respects their morals and their faith, and, at the instigation of the despotic Philip the Fair, the order was dissolved in 1312, after having been subjected to a tragic ordeal. The Teutonic Knights were instituted, after the model of the other orders, in connection with the third crusade, and were specially devoted to the care and protection of German pilgrims. Service was also rendered by this order in the protection of Christianity in the district bordering on the Prussians, who still in the thirteenth century were stubbornly attached to their paganism.

However fruitless the crusades may have been as respects their immediate object, they were far from being destitute of substantial results. If they did not transform Asia according to their intent, they transformed Europe far beyond their design. They brought isolated sections into contact with each other, and led the nations to a wider outlook. They gave a new stimulus to thought and enterprise. The mind of Europe was made by their means more active, more inquisitive, and more confident. Hence, while they enlarged the power of the papacy in the beginning, they abridged it in the end. The Popes came to find in the people a less passive instrument to deal with, so that the assertion of their more extreme pretensions was likely to incur the ignominy of defeat.

At the same time, the crusades effected a great transformation in the constitution of society. They hastened the disintegration of the feudal system. Union in a common enterprise tended to lessen somewhat the distance between lord and vassal, between noble and peasant. Moreover, many a noble found himself embarrassed by the pecuniary demands of these great expeditions. To gain the necessary funds, he might be obliged to release a city from feudal obligations, or to make over a part of his domain to the king or other purchaser. Thus it came to pass that the feudal nobility were depressed, and a relative ascendancy was given to the king and the commercial classes. A centralizing movement, a movement toward the modern type of states, dates from the era of the crusades.

The Barbarian Tribes

THE BARBARIAN TRIBES.

As if called of God to hasten toward the risen light of Christianity, the nations of the North and the East began to press toward the Roman Empire. Even before the Christian era, there were premonitions of the coming inundation. A fearful one was that which occurred a little more than a century before the birth of Christ, when the Cimbrians and Teutons appalled the veterans of Rome with their wild battle-cries and gigantic forms, annihilated army after army, and first met with a aback upon the soil of Italy and at the hands of such a general as Marcus. Half a century later, Julius Caesar found it an arduous task to drive the German invaders from Gaul. In the time of Marcus Aurelius, aggressive movements on a large scale were again inaugurated. From that time the threatening cloud was never off the horizon of the Roman world, and oft times sent forth tokens of its destructive energy.

The bulk of the invading tribes was of the same general stock, the Germanic. A glance at their native characteristics will be appropriate before giving an account of their inroads upon Christian territory. The description of a contemporary is provided in the writings of Tacitus. A wish to rebuke the corruptions of Roman civilization by contrast with the customs of barbarians may have given color to some items in his account, but in general it may be regarded as trustworthy. He says of the bodily characteristics of the Germans: "A family likeness pervades the whole, though their numbers are so great: eyes stern and blue; ruddy hair; large bodies, powerful in sudden exertions, but impatient of toil and labor, least of all capable of sustaining thirst and heat. Cold and hunger they are accustomed by their climate and soil to endure."

Their government concedes a large range to personal liberty. "In the election of kings they have regard to birth; in that of generals, to valor. Their kings have not an absolute or unlimited power; and their generals commandless through the force of authority than of example. If they are daring, adventurous, and conspicuous in action, they procure obedience from the admiration they inspire." In affairs of importance, the whole community of warriors is consulted. They come armed to the assembly. "Then the king, or chief, and such others as are conspicuous for age, birth, military renown, or eloquence, are heard, and gain attention rather from their ability to persuade than their authority to command. If a proposal displease, the assembly reject it by an inarticulate murmur; if it prove agreeable, they clash their javelins, for the most honorable expression of assent among them is the sound of arms. Before this council, it is likewise allowed to exhibit accusations, and to prosecute capital offenses. Punishments are varied according to the nature of the crime. Traitors and deserters are hung upon trees; cowards, dastards, and those guilty of unnatural practices, are suffocated in mud under a hurdle." To add a divine sanction to the administration of justice, the visiting of penalties is entrusted to the priests.

War is the principal occupation of those having the strength to bear arms. "Nay, they even think it base and spiritless to earn by sweat what they might purchase by blood. During the intervals of war they pass their time less in hunting than in sluggish repose, divided between sleep and the table. All the bravest of the warriors, committing the care of the house, the family affairs, and the lands to the women, old men, and weaker part of the domestics, stupefy themselves in inaction." Their military equipment is simple, consisting of spears, missile weapons, and shields." Their line of battle is disposed in wedges. To give ground, provided they rally again, is considered rather as a prudent stratagem, than cowardice. The greatest disgrace that can befall them is to have abandoned their shields. A person branded with this ignominy is not permitted to join in their religious rites, or enter their assemblies; so that many, after escaping from battle, have put an end to their infamy by the halter."

The women vie with the men in courage, accompany them to the battle-field, meet the fugitives with reproaches, and endeavor to drive them back to the conflict. The men, on their part, entertain a high respect for their women. "They even suppose somewhat of sanctity and prescience to be inherent in the female sex; and therefore neither despise their counsels, nor disregard their responses." In their mutual relations, both are honorably distinguished by the virtue of chastity. Polygamy is practiced only by a few, whose alliance is solicited on account of their rank. "The matrimonial bond is strict and severe among them. Men and women alike are unacquainted with clandestine correspondence Adultery is extremely rare among so numerous a people."

The most glaring vices of the barbarians are drunkenness and gambling. They consider it no disgrace to pass days and nights, without intermission, in drinking, and frequently pay the penalty of intoxication with bloodshed. "They play at dice, when sober, as a serious business; and that with such a desperate venture of gain or loss, that, when everything else is gone, they set their liberties and persons on the last throw."

Tacitus gives us also some account of the religion of the barbarians; but his information, evidently, was but partial upon this topic. In completing the picture of the early religion of Germany, we need to have recourse to that later elaboration of the Germanic mythology which appears in the Scandinavian Eddas. The system contained in the latter, if not identical at all points with the former, is at least closely akin, and so affords much aid in filling up the gaps in the older accounts.

The religion of the Germans appears to have been a polytheism, in which the gods stood in close relation with the powers of nature. Cæsar calls attention to this feature in his remark that the Germans acknowledge only such gods as are visible, and whose might renders a perceptible aid, such as manifest themselves through the orbs of heaven and the element of fire. 1 Bella Gallorum, vi. 21. In their worship of the gods, they were accustomed to discard for the most part both temples and images. Sacred groves took the place of the former, and symbols of the latter. This absence of images, as Wilhelm Müller judges, betokens not so much an approach to high spiritual conceptions, as the stage of indefiniteness in the growth of polytheism. The Scandinavians in later times used images, and their employment seems to have been on the increase among the German tribes when Christianity came across the natural development of their polytheism. 2 Geschichte und System der Altdeutschen Religion. The good will of the gods was solicited by sacrifices, though the Germans were not specially lavish in this kind of tribute. Sometimes human victims were sent to the altar: this was not an unusual fate for prisoners of war. Where the sacrificial rites concerned only a family, they were performed by the father of the household; where they represented the state or tribe, the priest alone was qualified to act. The priests formed no separate caste; but as special servants of the gods, and bearers of judicial functions, they commanded no small degree of reverence.

Among their deities were Wuotan, Donar, Zio, Fro, Frouwa, and Paltar, corresponding to the Scandinavian Odin, Thor, Tyr, Freyr, Freyja, and Baldur. A conspicuous place was also occupied by Loki, the fire god; but his honor by no means equaled his prominence, and he is represented as causing unbounded mischief through his unprincipled wiles. 1 Loki holds a place in a measure analogous to that of the Devil. 6till he does not appear such an embodiment of unmixed evil as is denoted by this term. As Grimm contends, the proper notion of devil had no place in Germanic paganism. (Teutonic Mythology, p. 984 in Eng. trans. ) Much account was made, in their mythology, of giants, pygmies, spirits of forests, mountains, and streams.

In the oracles of the North, some interesting glimpses are given of barbarian beliefs respecting the beginning and the end of things. First (so their thought ran) there was a wide-reaching, empty chasm. At a later stage, toward the northern end of the abyss was formed a world of darkness and cold; at the southern end appeared a world of light and fire. Out of the intermingling of ingredients from these two worlds came life in the shape of the huge being, Ymir, the progenitor of the giants; and also in the form of the cow, which by licking the ice-blocks disengaged the progenitor of the gods. The body of the slain Ymir supplied the gods with materials for the formation of the earth. From his blood came the sea and all waters; from his flesh, the soil; from his bones and teeth, mountains and rocks; from his skull, the dome of the sky; from his brain, the clouds. 2 Simrock, Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie. In the general cast of their cosmogony, we may discern tokens of a vivid impression of the clash and struggle of opposing forces in nature.

As, in the first picture of the gods, they are represented as confronted by the race of the giants, so in the closing scene of the present dispensation they appear in conflict with mighty and raging foes. The victory now turns against them. All are overpowered, and the earth sinks down in fire and blood. However, the desolation continues only for a space. There rises out of the wreck a purified world, upon which are discerned Baldur, the beloved son of Odin, a few other descendants of the fallen gods, and an innocent human pair. A new dispensation is begun, over which presides an unspeakable being standing above the old generation of gods. The account reads almost as if the Northmen entertained a premonition that the curtain would descend upon their ancient mythology, and faith in a God of supreme and unrivaled dominion take its place.

In their conception of the future life awaiting men, these warlike tribes naturally glorified the warrior's virtues. Heaven, as they pictured it, is the abode of the brave and the true, where heroes revel in the alternate joys of the battle and the feast; hell, with its dark, cavernous depths, and chilling mists, the prison-house of the cowardly and the false.

Among the barbarian tribes of the third and fourth centuries we find several confederacies occupying a conspicuous place, such as the Alemanni, the Franks, the Saxons, and the Goths.

The Alemanni inhabited the territory between the Rhine and the Danube, in the southwest corner of the Germanic domain. Not content with their bounds, they began in the last half of the third century to make in-roads into Gaul, and contested the held with various of the Roman Emperors in the next century. A memorial of the alarm and distress which they caused to the people of Gaul is seen in the fact that they supplied the name Allemands, by which the French to this day speak of the Germans in general. The conversion of this people to Christianity is placed in the sixth century.

The Franks, as they came upon the stage of history, were a confederation of several tribes, dwelling along the Lower Rhine. It was in the reign of Gordian (238-244) that they made their first incursion into Roman territory. "Clothed in the spoils of the bear, the urus, the boar, and the wolf, they looked at a distance like a herd of wild beasts. Each man bore in his right hand a long lance, in the left a buckler; in his girdle, a two-edged axe, which was their peculiar weapon, and which they either used in hand to hand encounters, or hurled from a distance with unerring precision. In migrating to new homes, they carried their wives and children and rude household goods in rough wagons with great wheels of solid wood, drawn by Oxen. The wagons, ranged in a circle, formed a protection to their camp when needful. Again and again, during two centuries, attracted by the rich prey which the towns and villas of the wealthy provincials offered, they repeated their raids; and again and again the imperial legions defeated them with great slaughter, and chased the survivors out of the empire." But continued pressure overcame the barriers. By the beginning of the fifth century, a considerable body of the Franks had settled upon the left bank of the Rhine. A century later they were found in possession of a large part of Gaul, and no longer subsisting as a loose confederation, but united (at least for an interval) under a single rule. The agent of this unification was the powerful and grasping Salian prince, Clovis. Under Clovis, the Franks in large part embraced Christianity. They embraced it as might be expected of uncivilized warriors. Clovis himself, while he may have been influenced to some extent by the persuasions of his Christian wife, the Burgundian princess Clotilda, found the decisive argument for the new religion upon the battle-field. Being hard pressed by the Alemanni, he appealed to the God of the Christians, and vowed that he would submit to baptism if victory were granted him. His arms were completely successful; and soon after, with several thousand of his warriors, he received the Christian rites. 1 Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, lib. ii. §§ 31, 32. But the baptismal water seems to have been accompanied by no effectual inward cleansing. Treachery and bloody violence marked the course of the new convert. While he is praised in the annals of the time as a champion of the orthodox faith against the Arianism of contiguous tribes, these very annals have offset their own laudations, and drawn the marks of an ineffaceable infamy across his name. Many of the successors of Clovis were as remote as he from being examples of Christian living. The court of the Merovingian princes continued to present the spectacle of polygamous excess, unrestrained license, intrigue, and assassination. Some of the characters nurtured in this hotbed of corruption cannot easily be paralleled for viciousness. If one half is trite in the apparently unvarnished story of Gregory of Tours, then Fredegonda will stand in the front rank of the evil women who have combined the cunning of the serpent with the malice of the fury.

The Saxons, like the Franks upon their first appearance, were a confederation of tribes. Their original seat was beyond the Franks, on the Weser and the North Sea. At an early date they began to engage in predatory excursions. Near the middle of the fifth century, together with the Jutes and the Angles (or Engles), they commenced their descent upon England. The conquest advanced slowly, but with great thoroughness. "Field by field, town by town, forest by forest, the land was won. And as each bit of ground was torn away by the stranger, the Briton sullenly withdrew from it only to turn doggedly and fight for the next. . . . How slow the work of English conquest was may be seen from the fact that it took nearly thirty years to win Kent alone, and sixty to complete the conquest of Southern Britain, and that the conquest of the bulk of the island was only wrought out after two centuries of bitter warfare." 1 Green, History of the English People The subject of the introduction of Christianity among the Saxons may conveniently find place in a succeeding chapter.

The Goths appeared at the end of the second century, on the Black Sea and the Lower Danube. They were already a very numerous people. Two principal branches were distinguished, the Eastern and the Western. By the early part of the third century, they had become such an object of dread that Roman Emperors were found willing to purchase peace with them at the expense of tribute. In the third quarter of the same century, they extended their desolating marches into Greece, Macedonia, Asia Minor, and Italy, plundering on their way many famous cities. Again, in the latter part of the fourth century, they began a series of far-reaching invasions. In this instance the primary impulse came from the Huns, a wild race from the uplands of Asia, ugly in countenance and short in stature,but broad-shouldered, and skilled in horsemanship as men who had spent their lives upon the backs of their steeds. The East Goths were put to rout. The West Goths also were hard pressed, and craved the privilege of crossing the Danube, to find refuge within Roman territory. Ulfilas, the apostle of Christianity among them, carried their request before the Emperor Valens, and obtained a favorable answer. The way, having been once opened, was not easily closed up again. The Goths, finding themselves ungenerously treated and short of supplies, felt no longer obliged to keep the peace, and precipitated a war which overwhelmed Valens. The skill and energy of the great Theodosius availed indeed to confine them within bounds, but not to crush their power. The peace, too, which he was instrumental in establishing, lasted but a short space. Incited by a disappointed councilor at Constantinople, the West Gothic king, Alaric, started upon a plundering expedition (395-396). Greece was ravaged, and its fairest shrines were laid waste. A first incursion of Alaric into Italy was repulsed; but during the second invasion, the capital of the West fell before his assaults (410). Alaric died soon after; and the Goths, retiring into Gaul, founded a kingdom covering the southwestern part of that province, and extending into Spain.

Nearly contemporary with the invasions of Alaric, inroads were made by several tribes akin to the Goths; namely, Vandals, Suevi, Alani, and Burgundians. The first three of these tribes settled in the Spanish peninsula; the last, in the territory bordering the Alps and the Upper Rhine. Like the Goths, they embraced Christianity in the form of Arianism. The Burgundians, it is true, may have been instructed for an interval in the Catholic faith; but as a body they came to espouse Arianism, and adhered to the same till the sixth century. In 429 the Vandals, under their leader, Genseric, crossed into North Africa, and conquered the country. To sever more effectually the bond of connection between Africa and the Roman Empire, they sought to make Arianism completely dominant, and so assailed the Catholics, who refused to be converted, with a severe persecution. In the fourth decade of the sixth century, Belisarius, the renowned general of Justinian, put an end to the Arian rule; and by the close of the next century, Catholic and Arian alike, throughout the whole region of North Africa, had been overpowered by the Mohammedans.

Near the middle of the fifth century, the Huns were again the cause of a great commotion. In an overwhelming mass they poured through the region of the Rhine, leaving death and desolation in their track. At the terrible battle of Chalons on the Marne 1 Thomas Hodgkin remarks on the place of the encounter: "Posterity has chosen to call it the battle of Chalons, but there is good reason to think that it was fought fifty miles distant from Chalons-sur-Marne, and that it would be more correctly named the battle of Troyes, or, to speak with complete accuracy, the battle of Mery-sur-Seine." (Italy and her Invaders, vol, ii. p. 138.) (451), they received at the hands of Goths, Franks, and Gauls a severe chastisement, but were not prevented from continuing their devastating march. Many cities of Italy shared the fate of those upon the banks of the Rhine. Rome itself seemed exposed to inevitable ruin. But the ruthless chief, who feared no instrument of war, was turned back by a religious dread reinforced by the intercessions of the Pope. "He was admonished," says Gibbon, "by his friends as well as by his enemies, that Alaric had not long survived the conquest of the Eternal City. His mind, superior to real danger, was assaulted by imaginary terrors. The pressing eloquence of Lee, his majestic aspect and sacerdotal robes, excited the veneration of Attila for the spiritual father of the Christians. The apparition of the two apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, who menaced the barbarian with instant death if he rejected the prayer of their successor, is one of the noblest legends of ecclesiastical tradition. The safety of Rome might deserve the interposition of celestial beings; and some indulgence is due to a fable which has been represented by the pencil of Raphael and the chisel of Algardi."1 Chapter xxxv. See Jordanes, Historia de Getarum sive Gothorum Origine et Rebus Gestis,cap. xlii. (apud Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, tom, i). Attila retired, and died beyond the Danube soon after. His retreat, however, did not save the Italian capital from the hand of the spoiler. Immediately after his departure, the Arian Vandals from North Africa, bearing hearts less placable than that of the heathen warrior, glutted themselves with the pillage of Rome (455); sparing indeed the buildings, but carrying off such treasures as they could gather together in the space of fourteen days.

By these repeated strokes of barbarian fury the Roman Empire in the West was reduced to a feeble and tottering power. It only needed another blow to complete the downfall. In 476 that blow was given. Odoacer, leader of the German troops in the Roman service, and himself a German, put aside the shadow of the Cæsars, which was then holding the imperial scepter. There was no one now in the West bearing the imperial name, for Odoacer styled himself simply King of Italy.

After ruling twelve or thirteen years, Odoacer found himself confronted by a powerful rival, as Theodoric with a great multitude of East Goths pressed forward into Italy. The stout walls of Ravenna enabled him indeed to keep the invaders at bay for several years, but at length he was obliged to succumb. Theodoric ruled as a wise and capable prince, and the Ostrogothic kingdom which he founded flourished till the middle of the next century. It was then overthrown by the generals of Justinian, and the exarchate of Ravenna, as a dependency of the Eastern Empire, was established in its place. A speedy rival of the exarchate appeared in a new swarm of invaders, destined to take a conspicuous part in Italian history, the Lombards. Northern Italy fell a prey to them, and the previous occupants of the soil were reduced to a servile rank. The Lombards came as Arians. The presence of such neighbors was one of the difficulties which faced Gregory the Great as he ascended the papal throne.

How different the field of vision here from that which lay before us at the opening era of Christianity ! Instead of a world united under a single rule, and everywhere displaying the tokens of culture and civilized skill, we have an empire broken into fragments, law giving place to disorder, and deepening shadows of ignorance spreading over broad regions. To be sure, some of the invading tribes were not in a state of sheer barbarism. Contact with the Empire bad given them a measure of civilization. Still, on the whole, the newcomers were rude successors to Roman rule. An observer, looking out upon the destruction wrought and the commotions still in progress, could hardly refrain from gloomy reflections over the prospects of the Christian religion.

The prospects, in truth, had their shadowed side. The rudeness and credulity of barbarism might be expected to offer a fine field for the growth of superstition. If contact with classic heathenism had already given to Christianity a certain tinge of polytheism, it might be expected that this phase would not be eliminated, but rather increased, by the tastes of tribes which bad been accustomed to a multitude of gods. On various points it might be expected that fantasy would get the better of criticism, and that extravagant views, especially when reinforced by the interests of prominent parties, would command a ready suffrage. It would not be surprising if, under some of the current beliefs and customs of later times, a close scrutiny should discern the image of the old barbaric faith and practice. And this is undoubtedly the case. For example, in some of the medieval representations we find unmistakable indications of a transference to the devil of features and doings that were formerly connected with the gods. Legends respecting a league with the devil took shape in certain particulars from the old mythology. "That the devil," says Wilhelm Müller, " in such legends frequently took the place of the heathen god appears from this, that an offering, particularly of fowls, must be brought to the same at the cross-ways, these old sacrificial sites, in order to obtain his help." The same writer notes many later customs which reveal a trace of the old heathen practice. For instance, corresponding to the heathen custom of carrying the god or his symbol around a field in order to make it fruitful, we have the practice of the Christian Germans in carrying around the image or symbol of a saint for the same purpose.

But, on the other hand, the outlook may be regarded as containing highly encouraging features. The barbarians were a sturdy race. They brought in a fresh life, and an intense love of personal liberty. Herein was a prophecy of a better ultimate development than could come from a declining civilization, however polished and refined. The bounding life, and zest for personal liberty, may have wrought destructively at first; but they were at the same time a pledge that things should not remain at a stand-still, that erelong a constructive work should be begun, that freedom in action should be followed by freedom in thought, that a vigorous canvassing of the whole field of Christianity should finally be undertaken in spite of any and every barrier which tradition and priestcraft might have interposed. In fine, Christianity encountered in the barbarism of these vigorous tribes a less permanent obstacle than it would have met in the inertia of a worn-out civilization. Under the conditions, the purity of primitive Christianity could probably be reached more speedily through the forests of Germany than along the high-ways of Rome.

Hymns and Liturgies

I.--HYMNS AND LITURGIES.

1. INTRODUCTORY. --Among the outgrowths of the Christian religion the hymn occupies a place of unique interest and significance. Combining in its idea both music and poetry, it is the congenial medium for expressing the emotional and aesthetic elements which enter into all deep religious experience. It at once satisfies and reveals inward piety. While it has the worth which pertains to artistic products in general, it serves at the same time to mirror the mind from which it issued, and is often an index of the age in which it received its birth. Speaking of the hymns of the early Church, Dorner says: "As in the Psalms of the Old Testament we have the moat instructive monuments of ancient Hebrew piety, and thereby ascertain what passed over from the ancient revelation into joy and life, what filled the heart and burst forth from it in song, so may we regard the old Christian hymnology." 1 History of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ.

The interpreter, it is true, must take due account of the truth that the highest piety of one Christian age in its more essential phases is very closely akin to the highest piety of any other Christian age. He may expect, therefore, to find the nobler hymns of different eras exhibiting something of a family likeness. He may properly take it as a sign of great dearth, either in poetic talent or in religious life, where such traits as lowly reverence before the majesty of God, deep repentance in view of sin, intense joy and gratitude over the amazing facts of redemption, have not received illustration in at least a few worthy specimens of sacred song. Nevertheless, taken in a body the hymns of an age bear its seal and superscription. They show the type of Christian civilization from which they emanated. Greek, mediæval Latin, and Protestant hymnology have each distinguishing characteristics. Greater rhetorical luxuriance belongs on the whole to the first than to the second. Both mix with their pure gold the alloy of saint-worship. Both do less justice to the interior life than does the Protestant hymnology, are less rich in hymns which fitly celebrate tile divine indwelling, the transforming power of grace, the agony and unrest of conscious guilt, the rapture of communion with God.

2. GREEK HYMNS. -- it seems probable that such Greek hymns as came into use in the apostolic age, and the time immediately following, were in measured prose. 1 J. M. Neale, Hymns of the Eastern Church Further on there was an attempt to utilize the measures of the classical poets. Gregory Nazianzen, the first of the Greek fathers to win poetical distinction, used these measures. Sophronius, who wrote in the seventh century, selected among classical models Anacreontics, --a somewhat surprising choice for the serious themes of the Christian religion. In general, this borrowing was not successful. The Greek language was no longer the Greek of the classic era. Many new terms had been brought in to meet the new conditions. To follow the classic measures involved too great a bondage. It was necessary, therefore, to strike out a new path, or else to return toward the most primitive model of the Christian hymn. The latter alternative was the one adopted. The expedient of rhyme to which the Latins resorted was not introduced into the Greek hymns. After the beginning of the eighth century, verse proper was for the most part discarded in the Eastern Church, and the hymns were written in measured prose. The troparia, as the stanzas were called, mere divided for chanting by commas disposed irrespective of the sense. The following may serve as an example. "Israel in ancient times passing on foot with, unbedewed steps the Red Gulf, of the sea, turned to flight by, the cross-typefying arms, of Moses the might of Amelek, in the wilderness." The initial stanza which supplied the model was called the hirmos. A number of troparia (from three to upwards of twenty) constituted an ode; and the complete Greek hymn or canon was understood to contain nine odes. In reality, however, eight odes made a canon.

1 Neale says: The reason for the number nine is this: that there are nine Scriptural canticles employed at Lauds, on the model of which those in every canon are formed. The first, that of Moses after the passage of the Red Sea; the second, that of Moses in Deuteronomy (xxxiii.); the third, that of Hannah; the fourth, that of Habakkuk; the fifth, that of Isaiah (xxvi. 9-20); the sixth, that of Jonah: the seventh, that of the Three Children; the eighth, Benedicite; the ninth, Mignificat and Benedictus. From this arrangement two consequences follow. The first, that as the second canticle is never recited except at Lent, the canons never have any second ode. The second, that there is generally some reference, either direct or indirect, in each ode to the canticle of the same number.

According to Nede, who has rendered excellent service in illustrating the characteristics of the eastern hymns and making some of the best of them available in the worship of the west, three eras are distinctly marked in the history of Greek hymnology: (1) "That of formation, while it was gradually throwing off the bondage of classical metres and inventing and perfecting its various styles. This ends about A.D. 726. (2) That of perfection, which nearly coincides with the period of the iconoclastic controversy, A.D. 126-820. (3) That of decadence, A. D. 820-1400, when the effeteness of an effeminate court and the dissolution of a decaying empire reduced ecclesiastical poetry by slow degrees to a stilted bombast, giving to great words little meaning, tricking out commonplaces in diction more and more gorgeous, till sense and simplicity are alike sought in vain."

The marked decline in the third of these eras is manifest in the choice of themes as well as in lack of taste and inspiration in their treatment. While a large proportion of the earlier productions were on themes of universal interest, -- the great topics of the gospel, -- a multitude of the later ones were in commemoration of martyrs from whose utter obscurity scarcely more than their names and the fact of their suffering have been preserved. This dearth in respect of quality, however, was far from being accompanied by an equal dearth in respect of quantity. In the collection of Greek hymns, which is very extensive, -- greatly in excess of the Latin, -- the largest part was contributed by the dullest era.

From this general review of the subject we may fitly proceed to notice some of the details of Greek hymnology. Referring for more extended information to such works as Daniel's "Thesaurus Hymnologicus," we will mention only a few of the more important
facts.

We have clear intimations that the Greek Church produced a number of original hymns within the first three centuries. 1 Euseb., Hist. Eccl. v. 28; Tertul., Ad Uxor. ii. 8; Origen, Cont. Cel. viii. 67. The extent, however, to which these were employed in the public services stands in question. Some of them were ill-suited to the uses of the sanctuary. Moreover, the example of heretics probably caused a measure of doubt with respect to their appropriation and inclined Catholic pastors to a preference for the Biblical hymns.

2 Const. Apost. ii. 57, speaks of chanting the Psalms of David. The Council of Laodicea (can. 59) prohibited the ecclesiastical use of "private hymns." Schaff understands by these terms all extra-biblical hymns. Hefele, on the other hand, seems to favor the conclusion that the prohibition extended only to hymns which had not received the approval of the Church authorities.

Among the very few extant specimens of the early hymnology none is probably older than that which is attributed to Clement of Alexandria. It is little else than a chain of epithets descriptive of the offices of Christ. The following is a literal translation of the first part:--

Bridle of untamed colts,
Wing of unwandering birds,
Sure helm of babes,
Shepherd of royal lambs!
Assemble Thy simple children
To praise holily,
To hymn guilelessly
With innocent mouths
Christ, the guide of children.

O king of saints,
All-subduing Word
Of the most high Father,
Prince of wisdom,
Support of sorrows,
That rejoicest in the ages,
Jesus, Saviour
Of the human race,
Shepherd, Husbandman,
Helm, Bridle,
Heavenly Wing,
Of the all holy flock,
Fisher of men
Who are saved,
Catching the chaste fishes,
With sweet life
From the hateful wave
Of a sea of vices.

Lying much nearer to the requirements of the sanctuary than the hymn of Clement, and destined to a much wider reception, was the morning hymn, the Gloria in Excelsis, in which the advent song of the angels is supplemented by suitable expressions of praise and prayer. Its origin was as early as the third century, perhaps still earlier. The English form of it being so well known, it is most fitly presented here in the original. 1 Found in the Thesaurus of Daniel. Compare Const. Apost vii. 47.

The less celebrated evening hymn is as follows:--

The Greek original on which the Te Deum was based is also to be reckoned among early hymns.

The religious poems of Gregory Nazianzen were not well adapted for use in public worship, and seem not to have been employed for that purpose. Those of his contemporary Ephraem were utilized in the Syrian Church as a means of indoctrination in the Catholic faith.

Before the middle era of genuine poetic inspiration, Anatolius, who wrote in the fifth century, was the brightest name in the list of Greek hymnists. A very pleasing simplicity and vivacity characterize his brief productions. One of them, charmingly adapted to the common people, has been much used as an evening hymn in the Greek Isles. The first stanza will serve to indicate its tone:--

1 The following translation preserves very fairly the sense of the original:--

"Hail! cheerful Light, of His pure glory poured,
Who is th' Immortal Father, Heavenly, Blest,
Holiest of Holies, -- Jesus Christ our Lord !
How are we come to the sun's hour of rest,
The lights of evening round us shine,
We sing the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost Divine!
Worthiest art Thou at all times, to be sung
With undefilèd tongue,
Son of our God, Giver of Life, alone!
Therefore, in all the world, Thy glories, Lord, we own."

The day is past and over;
All thanks, O Lord, to Thee!
I pray Thee now that sinless
The hours of dark may be.
O Jesu! keep me in Thy sight,
And save me through the coming night! 1 This and the following selections from the Greek hymns are given in Neale's version.

The following advent hymn of Anatolius will not be found unworthy of quotation :-

A great and mighty wonder,
The festal makes secure;
The Virgin bears the Infant
With Virgin honor pure.

The Word is made incarnate,
And yet remains on high;
And cherubim sing anthems
To shepherds from the sky.

And we with them triumphant
Repeat the hymn again;
" To God on high be glory,
And peace on earth to men! "

While thus they sing your monarch,
Those bright angelic bands,
Rejoice, ye vales and mountains!
Ye oceans, clap your hands!

Since all He comes to ransom,
By all be He adored,
The Infant born in Bethlehem,
The Saviour and the Lord!

Now idol forms shall perish,
All error shall decay
And Christ shall wield His sceptre,
Our Lord and God for aye.

His hymn on the stilling of the wind and the waves gives a graphic reproduction of the gospel scene:--

Fierce was the wild billow,
Dark was the night;
Oars labored heavily,
Foam glimmer'd white;
Mariners trembled,
Peril was nigh;
Then said the God of God,
"Peace! It is I."

Ridge of the mountain-wave,
Lower thy crest !
Wail of Euroclydon,
Be thou at rest !
Peril can none be,
Sorrow must fly,
Where saith the Light of Light,
"Peace! It is I."

Jesu, Deliverer,
Come Thou to me !
Soothe Thou my voyaging
Over life's sea.
Thou, when the storm of death
Roars sweeping by,
Whisper, O Truth of Truth,
"Peace! It is I."

3. LATIN HYMNS. --In the Latin Church the attempt to utilize the classic verse was scarcely more successful than the parallel attempt in the Greek Church. Hence the first development naturally consisted in a gradual breaking away from the old Latin system of versification. The shackles of quantity were in time unloosed, and accent and rhyme were made the grand elements in sacred verse. This period of the decomposition of old forms and of the preparation for new may be regarded as ending with Gregory the Great.

The above development is thus described by Neale:

"Ecclesiastical Latin Poetry has a language of its own no more to be compared with, or judged by, the dialect of Virgil or Horace than Ariosto or Camoens can be. It has rules, -- subtle, elaborate rules of its own; it has a grammar of its own; its ornaments are original; its diction unborrowed. And we may venture fearlessly to say that in strength and freshness it surpasses the Latin poetry of a more classical age, poetry, whose inspiration, form, metre, and ornaments were essentially Greek. But in like manner as the Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian languages, before they attained to their present status, did necessarily pass through a stage of barbarism in their formation from the old Latin, so it was with mediæval poetry.... It could not at once reject the shackles of metre; it could not at once arrange its own accentual laws, and it took centuries in developing the full power of the new element that it introduced, namely rhyme. ... The church threw herself on the original genius of the Latin language, on the universal recognition of accent, in preference to the arbitrary restrictions of quantity. Her hymns were intended to be sung, and this again developed the musical power of sound, and hence principally rhyme ; and thus a new language sprung up under her hands." Ecclesiastical Latin Poetry of the Middle Ages.

In judging of the Latin hymns due account must be taken not only of their content and their form, but also of their musical associations and adaptations. These are very important elements in their effect.

" As a whole," says Milman, "the hymnology of the Latin Church has a singularly solemn and majestic tone. Much of it, no doubt, like the lyric verse of the Greeks, was twin-born with the music; its cadence is musical rather than metrical. It suggests, as it were, the grave full tones of the chant, the sustained grandeur, the glorious burst, the tender fall, the mysterious dying away of the organ. It must be heard, not read. Decompose it into its elements, coldly examine its thoughts, its images, its words, its versification, and its magic is gone. Listen to it, or even read it with the imagination or the memory full of the accompanying chant; it has an indescribable sympathy with the religious emotions even of those of whose daily service it does not constitute a part." 1 Latin Christianity, Book xiv. Chap. iv.

Though not the first to express Christian truths in verse, Hilary of Poitiers may be regarded as the earliest hymnist of the Latin Church. The specimens of sacred poetry which had been given forth by preceding writers were not designed for the church services. Hilary used the Iambic dimeter, which indeed was the prevailing type till the latter part of the sixth century.

2 The principal kinds of verse found in the Latin hymns have been enumerated as follows: (1) Iambic dimetri,(2) Iambic trimetri, (3) Trochaic dimetri, (4) Sapphici cum Adonico in fine, (5) Trochaici, (6) Asclepiadici cum Glyconico in fine.

Some of the hymns ascribed to Hilary are of doubtful authorship. The following is one with which he is generally credited:--

Lucis largitar splendide,
Cujus sereno lumine
Post lapsa noctis tempora
Dies refusus panditur:

Tu verus mundi Lucifer,
Non is, qui parvi sideris
Venturae lucis nuntius
Angusto fulget lumine,

Sed tote sole clarior,
Lux ipse totus at dies,
Interna nostri pectoris
Illuminans praecordia.

Damasus, who became Bishop of Rome near the time of Hilary's death, is credited with a considerable list of poems, two of which, in honor of the Apostle Andrew and the martyr Agatha respectively, are of a lyrical cast. If it be concluded that Damasus was certainly the author of the hymn to Saint Agittha, he has the distinction of having anticipated the adoption of rhyme in the Latin Church poetry.

The double service rendered by Ambrose of Milan, in improving the music of the church and enriching the collection of hymns, has assigned him an illustrious place in the records of Latin hymnology.

O glorious Father of the light,
From whose effulgence calm and bright,
Soon as the hours of night are fled,
The brilliance of the dawn is shed;

Thou art the dark world's truer ray.
No radiance of that lesser day,
That heralds, in the morn begun,
The advent of our darker sun;

But brighter than its noontide gleam,
Thyself full daylight's fullest beam,
The inmost mansions of our breast
Thou by thy grace illuminest.

Augustine in his " Confessions " has given testimony to the deep impression made upon himself by the music of the Milan Church. " How greatly did I weep in Thy hymns and canticles, deeply moved by the voices of Thy sweetly-attuned Church! The voices flowed into mine ears, and the truth was poured into my heart, whence the agitation of my piety overflowed, and my tears ran over, and blessed was I therein." 1 Confess. ix. 6. In the same connection Augustine adds this statement: "At this time it was instituted that after the manner of the Eastern Church hymns and psalms should he sung, lest the people should pine away in the tediousness of sorrow."

A great simplicity, one might almost say plainness and ruggedness, characterizes the effusions of Ambrose. This feature, however, impairs rather the first impression than the final estimate.

"It is some little while," says Trench, "before one returns [from the softer and richer strains of some of the later poets] with a hearty consent and liking to the almost austere simplicity which characterizes the hymns of Ambrose. It is felt as though there were a certain coldness in them, an aloofness of the author from his subject, a refusal to blend and fuse himself with it. The absence too of rhyme-- for which the almost uniform use of a metre very far from the richest among the Latin lyric forms, and with singularly few resources for producing variety of pause or cadence, seems a very insufficient compensation -- adds to this feeling of disappointment. The ear and the heart seem alike to be without their due satisfaction. Only after a while does one learn to feel the grandeur of this unadorned metre, and the profound, though it may have been more instinctive than conscious, wisdom of the poet in choosing it; or to appreciate that confidence in the surpassing interest of his theme, which has rendered him indifferent to any but its simplest setting forth. It is as though building an altar to the living God he would observe the levitical precept and rear it of unhewn stones, upon which no tool had been lifted. The great objects of faith in their simplest expression are felt by him so sufficient to stir all the deepest affections of the heart that any attempt to dress them up, to array them in moving language, were simply superfluous. The passion is there, but it is latent and repressed, a fire burning inwardly, the glow of an austere enthusiasm, which reveals itself indeed, But not to every careless beholder." 1 R. C. Trench, Sacred Latin Poetry.

Neale accounts as genuine ten of the many hymns assigned to Ambrose. The following on the Nativity is one of the most celebrated. We give the opening and the last three stanzas:--

Veni, Redemptor gentium, 2
Ostende partum Virginis;
Miretur omne saeculum:
Talis decet partus Deum.

Egressus ejus a Patre,
Regressus ejus ad Patrem,
Excursus usque ad inferos,
Recursus ad sedem Dei.

2 Come, Then Redeemer of the earth, O equal to the Father, Thou!
Come, testify Thy Virgin Birth: Gird on Thy fleshly trophy now,
All lands admire, all times applaud: The weakness of our mortal state
such is the birth that fits a God. With deathless might invigorate.

 

From God the Father. He proceeds, Thy cradle here shall glitter bright,
To God the Father back He speeds: And darkness breathe a newer light,
Proceeds -- as far as very hell: Where endless faith shall shine serene,
speeds back to light ineffable. And twilight never intervene.

Aequalis aeterno Patri,
Carnis tropaeo accingere,
Infirma nostri corporis
Virtute firmans perpetim.

Praesepe jam fulget tuum
Lumenque nox spirat novum,
Quod nulla nox interpolet
Fideque jugi luceat.

As the Te Deum is sometimes accredited to Ambrose we may fitly, in this connection, subjoin a portion of its text:--

Te deum laudamus,
te dominum confitemur,
te aeternum Patrem
omnis terra veneratur.

Tibi omnes angeli, tibi caeli
et universae potestates,
tibi cherubim et seraphim
incessabili voce proclamant:

Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus
Dominus Deus Sabaoth!
pleni sunt caeli et terra
majestate gloriae tuae.

Te gloriosus apostolorum chorus,
te prophetarum laudabilis numerus,
te martyrum candidatus
laudat exercitus.

Te per orbem terrarum
sancta confitetur ecclesia,
Patrem immensae majestatis,
venerandum tuum verum unicum filium
sanctum quoque paracletum spiritum.

In the latter part of the fourth century and the first half of the fifth we have the names of Prudentius and Sedulius,--the former a Spaniard, the latter a native of Scotland or Ireland. Prudentius was a very prodigal versifier. Milman complains that "he is insufferably long, and suffocates all which is noble or touching with his fatal copiousness." He shows, however, a very clever faculty in the management of his verse, and many noble sentiments find an agreeable expression in his poems. As respects ability to command a popular appreciation few of his productions have excelled the burial hymn beginning with these lines:--

Jam moesta quiesce querela,1
Lacrimas suspendite, matres,
Nullus sua pignora plangat,
More haec reparatio vitae est.

Among the productions of Sedulius we have an acrostic hymn, which gives in as many stanzas as there are letters in the alphabet an outline of the whole life of Christ.

A solis ortus cardine
Ad usque terrae limitem
Christum canamus principem,
Natum Maria virgine.

Beatus auctor saeculi
Servile corpus induit,
Ut carne carnem liberans
Ne perderet quod condidit.

1 No more, ah, no more sad complaining;
Resign these fond pledges to earth.
Stay, mothers, the thick-falling tear-drops;
This death is a heavenly birth.

4. LITURGIES. -- In its earlier Christian use the word " Liturgy " () was applied to any sacred service. Ere long the term acquired a restricted sense, and was used pre-eminently to denote the forms which entered into the celebration of the Eucharist.

The liturgical development doubtless proceeded by gradual accretion from simple beginnings. The first three centuries contributed, very likely, a kind of liturgical tradition, or general custom respecting the principal factors and stages in the ceremonial. Some portions of the prayers also may have acquired a currency which caused them to be repeated substantially verbatim in later formularies. As early a writing as Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians contained, in its closing chapters, liturgical phrases which reappeared in the worship of later centuries. But there is little evidence that any considerable number of exact forms were inherited from the first three centuries. Even in the early part of the fifth century, as was learned from the historian Socrates, great liberty was used by individual churches in ordering their worship. Suggestions and general features were the principal contributions which the compilers of liturgies in the fourth and fifth centuries received from the preceding period.

1 See J. M. Neale, "The Liturgies of Saint Mark, Saint James, Saint Clement, Saint Chrysostom, Saint Basil;" H. A. Daniel, " Codex Liturgicus Ecclesiae Universae;" William Palmer, "Origines Liturgicae;" Samuel Cheetham, Article in the Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, by Smith and Cheetham; Philip Schaff, "Church History," Vol. III.; C. W. Bennett, "Christian Archæology;" E. F. K. Fortescue, "The Armenian Church: Its History, Liturgy, Doctrine, and Ceremonies;" A. J. Butler, "The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt;" F.E. Warren, "The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church."

The earliest of the extant liturgies bears the name of Saint Clement, and has been handed down in the eighth book of the Apostolical Constitutions. The probable date of its composition was the early part of the fourth century. Among the marks of its early origin are the absence of all trace of mariolatry, and the commemoration of the saints only in a general way, as opposed to the mention of individuals. In a less degree the strict separation which appears between the catechumens and the general body of believers is also a sign of early origin. An exceptional feature is the omission of the Lord's Prayer. There is no certain indication that this liturgy was ever in actual use.

The liturgy of Saint Clement belongs with the Oriental group. This group is very large, embracing several families with subordinate divisions. Neale gives the families as follows: "(1) That of Saint James, or Jerusalem; (2) That of Saint Mark, or Alexandria; (3) That of Saint Thaddeus, or the East; (4) That of Saint John, or Ephesus."

The most distinguished members of the Jerusalem family are, besides the liturgy of Saint James, which served as the norm, that of Saint Basil, that of Saint Chrysostom, and the Armenian. A special interest pertains to the liturgy of Saint Chrysostom because of its continued and extensive use. It is still read in the orthodox Greek and Russian Churches, except at certain special seasons, when that of Saint Basil is used. The connection with the illustrious bishop whose name it bears is not considered very thoroughly established.

The principal liturgies of the Alexandrine family, affiliating with the liturgy of Saint Mark, are those of Saint Cyril, Saint Gregory, and Saint Basil. The last of these, it should be noticed, is quite distinct from the liturgy of the same name in the preceding family. In the family of Saint Thaddeus are contained several Nestorian liturgies.

The Ephesine family was represented on western soil by the Old Spanish, or Mozarabic, and the Old Gallican. With the latter is associated the Old British liturgy.

The Roman liturgy, which supplanted the three just mentioned, stands (with the long obsolete liturgy of North Africa) for the proper Latin type. It was of gradual formation and cannot be traced satisfactorily beyond the middle of the fifth 'century. With the ascendency of the Roman bishop it was naturally introduced throughout the West. Milan, however, has continued even to the present in the enjoyment of her own liturgy, the Ambrosian, which is distinguished from the Roman by some Oriental features. The province of Acquileia had also, for a long time, a distinct liturgy.

Western custom bore a token of the centralized authority of Rome in that the language of the imperial city was made the one vehicle of the sacred offices. The East, on the other hand, embodied its liturgies in various vernaculars. There is also a tinge of dogmatic difference between the formularies of the two regions. The Eastern pays more attention to the general course of revelation. Moreover somewhat of the Greek predilection for the Christological side of theology, or the doctrine of the incarnation of the Divine Word, is apparent in the Eastern liturgies, whereas in the Roman the main stress is placed upon the sacrificial offering of Christ. A specific distinction as to contents is seen in the omission in the Roman liturgy of that express invocation of the Holy Spirit for the sanctification of the elements, which is contained in the Eastern liturgies. The Roman liturgy has also varying collects and prefaces for different occasions, while in the Eastern generally the collects are wanting and the prefaces are uniform.

The principal subdivisions of the Oriental liturgy are thus indicated by Neale:--

"Every liturgy may be divided into two parts; the Pro-Anaphoral, and the Anaphoral portion. The former extends to the sursum corda the latter from there to the end. The Pro-Anaphoral portion is divided into the Mass of the Catechumens and the Mass of the Faithful. The Anaphoral portion has these four divisions: The great eucharistic prayer; the consecration; the intercession for quick and dead; and the communion."
1 This account, it will be observed, does not include the preparatory prayers. Speaking of the Armenian liturgy, Fortescue says: "Like all Oriental liturgies, it may be divided into three parts: (1) The preparatory prayers, which in this rite are partly said in the vestry and partly in the church by the priest; (2) the introduction; (3) the liturgy itself. In the two latter, which are technically called the Pro-Anaphora and Anaphora, the people join also."

The composition of a worthy liturgy, it is obvious, calls for the highest artistic faculty as well as for the deepest devotion. Only the most thorough religious and literary taste can ascend to that union of simplicity and majesty which makes the crowning excellence in forms of public worship. Various passages in these early liturgies exhibit this needful combination. They must accordingly be ever valued as models, though it is but a blind worship of antiquity which prohibits the hope that taste and devotion may still produce equally fitting and beautiful forms of religious expression.

As illustrating the requisites of liturgical excellence, the prayer of oblation from the liturgy of Saint Chrysostom may be cited:--

"Lord, God Almighty, Only Holy, Who receivest the sacrifice of praise from them that call upon Thee with their whole heart, receive also the supplication of us sinners, and cause it to approach to Thy holy altar, and enable us to present gifts to Thee, and spiritual sacrifices for our sins, and for the errors of the people: and cause us to find grace in Thy sight, that this our sacrifice may be acceptable unto Thee, and that the good Spirit of Thy grace may tabernacle upon us, and upon these gifts presented unto Thee, and upon all Thy people."

The following from the liturgy of Saint Mark is not so near the ideal of simplicity, but is nevertheless very beautiful:--

"God of light, Father of life, Author of grace, Framer of the worlds, Founder of knowledge, Giver of wisdom, Treasure of holiness, Teacher of pure prayers, Benefactor of the soul, Who gives to the weak-hearted who trust in Thee those things into which the angels desire to look: Who best raised us from the abyss to light, best given us life from death, best granted us freedom from slavery, best dissolved in us the darkness of sin by the coming of Thine Only-Begotten Son; now also, O Lord, illuminate the eyes of our understanding by the visitation of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may without condemnation partake of this immortal and heavenly food; and sanctify us wholly, soul, body, and spirit, that with Thy holy disciples and apostles we may say to Thee this prayer, Our Father. ... And make us worthy, O Lord and Lover of men, with boldness, without condemnation, with a pure heart, with an enlightened soul, with a countenance that needeth not to be ashamed, with bellowed lips, to dare to call upon Thee our holy God and Father, Which art in heaven." Neale's translation.

Alongside the elaboration of liturgical forms proceeded the enrichment of liturgical vestments. The white garments which constituted the sacerdotal garb for several centuries were gradually supplemented, until place was given to the five ecclesiastical colors. "In every-day life, for the first five or six centuries, the clergy universally wore the ordinary citizens' dress; then gradually, after the precedent of Jewish priests and Christian monks, exchanged it for a suitable official costume, to make manifest their elevation above the laity." 2 Schaff, Church History, Vol. III

Veneration of Saints, Relics and Images

II. --VENERATION OF SAINTS, RELICS, AND IMAGES.

Reverence for the martyrs may be regarded as the starting-point of saint-worship. To the incentive from this source were added the longing after fellowship with the departed, and the bent to polytheism which still clung to the masses that poured into the Church after the conversion of Constantine. Already, at the close of the persecutions, honor to the memory of the martyrs was carried to an excess by a fraction of the Church. Very soon after that date, reverence was exaggerated into a species of idolatry; and prayers were addressed to the martyrs on the ground of their exaltation and their effective intercessions with God. Churches and chapels were built over their graves. Rites bearing the semblance of sacrifices to the glorified confessors were sometimes celebrated upon these hallowed spots. Augustine acknowledges the existence of such a custom, but asserts that it was observed only to a limited extent, and seeks to relieve it from any idolatrous intent. "Whatever honors," says he, "the religious may pay in the places of the martyrs, they are but honors rendered to their memories, not sacred rites or sacrifices offered to dead men as to gods. And even such as bring thither food -- which, indeed, is not done by the better Christians, and in most places of the world is not done at all--do so that it may be sanctified to them through the merits of the martyrs,--first presenting food and offering prayer, and thereafter taking it away to be eaten, or to be in part bestowed upon the needy." [De Civ. Dei, viii. 27.] In an epistle to Maximus he writes: "Let me assure you that by the Christian Catholics no deceased person is worshipped." [Epist., xvii.] And in one of his sermons he declares: "We do not regard the martyrs as gods, or worship them as gods; we do not prepare for them temples or altars or sacrifices." [Serm., cclxxiii.] Augustine in this represents the most sober and conservative temper of his age. A statement more in the line of the popular estimate of the martyrs is found with Theodoret, who wrote some years later in the fifth century. "While time," says he, "is wont to waste all other things, it has nevertheless preserved their glory incorrupt. The noble souls of the victors now traverse heaven and are present-with angelic choirs. No single tomb conceals the body of each; but cities and villages, sharing their remains, name them saviors and physicians of souls and bodies, and honor them as protectors and guardians of cities, and obtain gifts through their intercession with the Lord of the universe.... Shrines of the triumphant martyrs rise to view, shining and conspicuous, excelling in size, distinguished by every kind of ornament, and shedding abroad the gleams of their beauty. We visit these not once or twice or five times a year, but celebrate with frequent assemblies,--often even upon each day sing hymns of praise to their God; and those who are in health ask that this may be preserved; those who are suffering from any disease, that they may be delivered from their sickness. Men destitute of children supplicate for these, and barren women pray that they may become mothers. Those who have obtained a gift beseech that it may be kept secure. Those engaging in travel request of these that they will be companions of the way and guides of the journey; those who return safe render thanks, not addressing them as gods, but entreating them as divine men, and requesting them to be intercessors in their behalf. That those who trustingly seek obtain their wishes, their votive offerings openly testify, indicating the cure. For some suspend images of eyes, others of feet, others of hands made of silver and gold." [Græc. Affect. Curat., Sermo viii] Great diversities, no doubt, existed as respects the degree in which individuals were inclined to appeal to such intercessors; but the propriety of such appeal had become a common tenet at the end of the fourth century.

The honors bestowed upon the martyrs naturally came to be extended to others who were regarded as eminent examples of Christian devotion. From generation to generation, new names were added to the list of saintly intercessors. Among those claiming the foremost homage appeared the Virgin Mary. Prior to the closing pare of the fourth century, she received only the common veneration accorded to the saints. But after this time, owing, in some degree, to the prominence given to her name in the orthodox shibboleth of the Christological controversies, the tide set strongly in the direction of mariolatry. Before the death of Augustine, two dogmatic principles in favor of the special elevation of Mary had been broached; namely, her perpetual virginity, [To challenge this doctrine, at the end of the fourth century, was to incur bitter hostility, as appears from the fate of Helvidius, Bonosus, and some others.] and her freedom from actual (not original) sin, though the latter had not been as yet extensively advocated. The practice of dedicating churches and altars to her became popular. "Justinian I., in a law, implored her intercession with God for the restoration of the Roman Empire; and on the dedication of the costly altar of the Church of St. Sophia, he expected all blessings for Church and Empire from her powerful prayers. His general Narses, like the knights of the Middle Ages, was unwilling to go into battle till he had secured her protection."

Schaff, Church History, iii. § 82. We notice also that in the oath prescribed by Justinian to those undertaking public offices, Mary is placed next to the persons of the Trinity; then follow the four Gospels and the archangels Michael and Gabriel. (Novella ix.)

Parallel with the honors paid to martyrs and other saints, and like them gradually passing from a natural and normal respect to a kind of superstitious worship, were the honors rendered to their relies. The passage cited from Theodoret shows how sacredly such memorials were treasured by different places, and how great benefits were supposed to depend upon their presence. A striking index of the gross form which veneration of relies sometimes assumed is supplied by Evagrius, who lived in the latter part of the sixth century. Speaking of the martyr's remains, which were regarded as the glory of the church of St. Euphemia, he says, "There is an aperture in the left side of the coffin, secured with small doors, through which they introduce a sponge attached to an iron rod, so as to reach the sacred relies; and, after turning it around, they draw it out, covered with stains and clots of blood. On witnessing this, all the people bend in worship, giving glory to God." [Hist. Eccl., ii. 3.] It would appear, however, that relic-worship did not gain the ascendency without being vigorously challenged by at least a few. Vigilantius, a presbyter of Barcelona in Spain, and a contemporary of Jerome, heaped open scorn upon the idolatrous practices of his time, and named those engaged in them "worshipers of ashes, and idolaters."

A conspicuous place among relics was occupied by fragments of the cross. The assumed discovery of this took place as early as the time of Constantine. His mother, Helena, had the honor of bringing to light the sacred memorial. Being in search of the Holy Sepulcher, she caused the idolatrous temple, which cumbered the site, to be removed. "The tomb," writes Theodoret, "which had long been concealed, was discovered; and three crosses, the memorials of the Lord, were perceived near it. All were of opinion that one of these crosses was that of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that the other two were those of the thieves who were crucified with Him. Yet they could not discern upon which one the body of our Lord had been nailed, and upon which His blood had fallen. But the wise and holy Macarius, the bishop of the city, succeeded in resolving this question. After engaging in prayer, he induced a lady of rank, who had long been suffering from disease, to touch each of the crosses; and the efficacious power residing in that of the Saviour manifested its identity. In fact, it had scarcely been brought near the lady, when the inveterate disease left her and she was healed." [Hist. Eccl., i. 18. Compare Rufinus, Hist. Eccl., i. 7, 8; Socrates, i. 17; Sulpicius Severus, Hist. Sacra, ii. 34.] Soon the world was filled with splinters of the true cross; and there was genuine occasion for the theory, broached by some, that the wood of the original was miraculously replenished. Relics of other kinds also became suspiciously plentiful. Even in the verdict of those believing in relies, the trade in this species of merchandise was overdone, and attempts were made in the direction of its limitation.

Relic-worship naturally added greatly to the impulse to visit sacred places. Great multitudes were turned towards Palestine. Chrysostom speaks of the whole world as streaming to the site of Christ's birth, suffering, and burial. Rome was also a favorite pilgrim resort, both on account of the worldly celebrity of the city and the sanctity given it by the graves of the great apostles. The relies of St. Stephen attracted many to Hippo in North Africa. Multitudes in quest of miracles flocked to the tomb of Martin of Tours in Gaul. Meanwhile there were emphatic cautions against an overestimate of the virtue of pilgrimages. Jerome affirmed that the place of the crucifixion profits those only who bear their cross, and that heaven is as accessible in Britain as in Jerusalem. [Epist. lviii., ad Paulinam.] Gregory of Nyssa pointed to the immoralities flourishing in pilgrim resorts as a proof of the little worth of that which is addressed merely to the senses. "Change of place," says he, "brings God no nearer. Where thou art, God will come to thee, if the dwelling of thy soul is so prepared that God can dwell and rule in thee." [Opera, Tom. iii., Epist. ii.]

The development of tendencies to image-worship was not so radical and universal, in this period, as was the growth of saint and relic worship. At the close of the fourth century it had become quite common to adorn churches with pictures, especially with scenes from the history of martyrs. This, however, was obnoxious to some, as appears from the decided reprobation of such a practice by Epiphanius. Near the same time a fraction of the Church began to pay a superstitious homage to the pictured or sculptured representations of venerated persons. "I know," says Augustine, "that there are many worshipers of tombs and pictures." [De Moribus Eccl. Cath., § 75.] At the same time, he intimates that such persons were to be found only among the ignorant, superstitious, and nominal Christians. Augustine's judgment on this subject was largely prevalent in the Latin Church for a considerable interval after his time. "In the Church of the West," says Neander, "this moderate policy, holding to the mean between unconditional repudiation of images and their worship, maintained itself into the next period, as we see from the example of the Roman bishop, Gregory the Great." [Kirchengeschichte, iii. 412.] In the East, on the other hand, even the better class imbibed the superstition of the more ignorant; and in the course of the sixth century it became the dominant custom to honor those who were objects of special veneration by doing obeisance before their images. The theory which lay back of the practice may be seen in the following statement from the apology of Leontius, a bishop of Cyprus, in this century: "The images are not our gods, but they are images of Christ and His saints, for the commemoration and honor of whom, and for the adornment of the churches, they are employed and are venerated. For he who honors the martyr honors God, and he who worships His mother pays homage to Him, and he who honors an apostle honors Him who sent him." Much after the manner of the Emperor Julian's defence of idol-worship, Leontius commends the veneration of images, by reference to the tokens of endearment which affectionate children might bestow on the memorials of an absent parent. He claims, also, gracious effects from images in healing the possessed and in converting the ungodly. [Mansi, xiii. 43-54.]

Sacred Times, Rites and Services

I.--SACRED TIMES, RITES, AND SERVICES.

The law of Constantine, issued in 521, relative to the observance of Sunday, contains the following prescription: "On the venerable day of the sun, let the magistrates and the people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however persons engaged is agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting." [Cod. Justin., III. xii. 3.] Later emperors re-affirmed this law, and added the prohibition of theatricals and other public spectacles on Sunday. [Cod. Theod., VIII. viii. 1; XV. v. 2; XV. v. 5; Cod. Justin. III. xii. 11.] Decrees of similar import were issued by authorities of the Church. The council of Laodicea, for example, discountenanced the practice of resting on the Jewish Sabbath, and prescribed that Christians should honor the Lord's Day, and, when possible, refrain from work on the same.

[Canon 29. This action indicates that in some communities in the East the Jewish day was observed. Very likely it was in places where a large proportion of Christians were of Jewish antecedents. It is not to be presumed that such neglected the Lord's Day, but rather that they observed two days of the week. Somewhat remarkably, the Apostolic Constitutions (ii. 59; v. 20; vii. 23; viii. 33) prescribe this double observance. In this they conform to the general view respecting the independence of the Christian day; but in their marked deference to the Jewish day they cannot be taken as an exponent of the mind of the Church at large. The general verdict agreed with Augustine's words: "Dominus sabbatum solvebat" (Serm., cxxxvi).]

The central conception of the Lord's Day was the same as heretofore. It was regarded as the weekly festival of the resurrection, -- not a fast day, but a day of joy; and, in conformity to this feature, the standing posture in prayer was alone regarded as suitable to its observance, and, indeed,was formally prescribed. The sanctions of the day were also substantially the same as those which were quoted in the previous centuries. Its independent Christian basis, as opposed to any Jewish origin, was universally acknowledged. "In no clearly genuine passage," says a very thorough investigator of the subject, "that I can discover in any writer of these two centuries [the fourth and fifth], or in any public document, ecclesiastical or civil, is the Fourth Commandment referred to as the ground of the obligation to observe the Lord's Day. In no passage is there any hint of the transfer of the Sabbath to the Lord's Day, or of the planting of the Lord's Day on the ruins of the Sabbath. If the Sabbath appears, it appears as a perfectly distinct day." [J. A Hessey, Sunday, Lect. iii.] The utmost connection predicated in the first five, perhaps we may say six, centuries between the Jewish and the Christian day appears in the idea, very rarely expressed, that the former was in a sense emblematic of the latter. A conspicuous example of this is seen in the decree of the second council of Macon, in 585, "that no one should allow himself on the Lord's Day, under plea of necessity, to put a yoke on the necks of his cattle; but all be occupied with mind and body in the hymns and the praise of God. For this is the day of perpetual rest; this is shadowed out to us by the seventh day in the law and the prophets." This assigning of a typical force to the Jewish Sabbath was quite different from distinctly asserting that the Sabbath law of the Jews was still in force, and was to be regarded as governing the Lord's Day. The emphasis, nevertheless, upon Jewish precedents was a step toward the latter conception.

Among the other days of the week, Wednesday and Friday were very largely distinguished as fast days. At Rome, and in some of the neighboring churches, Saturday was reckoned among fast days, and tended to take the place of Wednesday in this respect. Roman usage naturally became the usage of the Latin Church; still, this result was wrought out but slowly. We learn from Augustine, who decided very emphatically for liberty in this matter, that Western custom was divided in his day. [Epist. xxxvi.] In the East, the practice of fasting on Saturday, even in the lenten season (the Saturday commemorative of Christ's repose in the tomb alone excepted), was steadfastly denounced.

Aside from saints' days, the chief addition in this period to the yearly festivals was Christmas. The first distinct reference to its observance belongs to the pontificate of Liberius (352-366). It appears at this date to have been a well-known festival at Rome. In the East, its introduction was some years later. Chrysostom, in 386, spoke of it as having been known in Antioch for less than ten years, and heartily commended its general observance. In Alexandria, the celebration of Christ's nativity was incorporated with the feast of Epiphany until about 430, when we find indications of the observance of Christmas Day proper.

The reasons which dictated the choice of the 25th of December are involved in obscurity. No general tradition which makes this the time of the nativity can be traced back. In the absence of other data, there is not a little plausibility in the supposition that the location of Christmas was influenced by the fact that heathen Rome was wont to celebrate joyous festivals--such as the Saturnalia, Sigillaria, and Brumalia--in the closing days of the year. To place Christmas at this point, subserved a practical end, since it turned the minds of the people to a new and better occasion of rejoicing. It should be remembered, however, that this is supposition rather than ascertained fact.

Yearly festivals in honor of Mary, the chief apostles, John the Baptist, the martyr Stephen, and of the saints collectively, were quite generally celebrated before the close of the period. Many individual saints received a local commemoration in different quarters. The festivals in honor of the Virgin, which had their beginning within or upon the border of the period, were the following: (1) the Annunciation of Mary, on the 25th of March; (2) the Purification of Mary, or Candlemas, on the 2d of February; (3) the Ascension, or Assumption, of Mary, on the 15th of August. A definite recognition of the first of these is not found till the seventh century; the second was sanctioned by Justinian in 541 or 542; the third, by the Emperor Maurice (582-602). The basis for this last was a legend which began to be circulated at the end of the fourth or the beginning of the fifth century, and which taught, that, after the soul of the Virgin had been carried to heaven by Christ and His angels, her body was carried thither from the presence of the apostles, and was united with the soul.

The tendencies toward sacramentalism, already sufficiently strong in the latter part of the preceding period, show an increased momentum in these centuries. Not content with a rational emphasis upon baptism as a seal of adoption into the family of God, many indulged a decidedly superstitious estimate of its virtue, and depended upon it as an instrument of a kind of magical absolution. The intemperate language of the most eminent theologians encouraged the exaggerated notions. Thus Chrysostom says, "As the element of fire, when it meets with ore from the mine, straightway of earth makes it gold, even so and much more baptism makes those who are washed to be gold instead of clay; the Spirit at that time falling like fire into our souls, burning up the image of the earthy, and producing the image of the heavenly, fresh coined, bright and glittering, as from the furnace mould… To have been born the mystical birth, and to have been cleansed from all our former sins, comes from baptism." [Hom. in Joan., x.] Frequently, that this wholesale remission might be enjoyed late in life, there were long delays in receiving baptism. An earthquake or pestilence was very apt to hurry up the delinquents. Easter was the favorite season for baptism; though, in the East, Epiphany was also chosen. Infant baptism was universally recognized in theory; but in practice, especially in the East, there were many instances in which parents delayed to have it administered. The current mode of baptizing was the threefold immersion. The import attached to this form of the ordinance is expressed by Chrysostom as follows: "When we immerse our heads in the water, the old man is buried as in a tomb below, and wholly sunk forever; then, as we raise them again, the new malt rises in its stead. And this is done thrice, that you may learn that the power of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost fulfilleth all this." [Hom. in Joan., xxv.] Immersion, however, was not strictly identified with the essence of baptism, as is evident from the indulgence granted to the sick. [Council of Neo-Cæsarea, Canon 12; Council of Laodicea, Canon 47.] Besides exorcism and anointing, various practices were connected with baptism in different quarters; such as breathing on the candidate, giving him a taste of consecrated salt, clothing him, after his reception of the rite, in a white garment, and presenting him with a mixture of milk and honey.

Strong language was used in describing the mystery of the eucharist. Nothing less could have been expected of an uncritical, mystery-loving, ritualistic age, considering the terms employed at the institution of the ordinance. The consecrated elements were evidently regarded as something more than mere symbols of the body and blood of Christ. This, however, does not import that transubstantiation was an accepted dogma. On the contrary, there are very weighty evidences in the writings of Athanasius, Augustine, Theodoret, the Roman bishop Gelasius, and others, that the consecrated elements were regarded as the body and blood of Christ only in virtue of their symbolical import, and their being accompanied by Christ's mystical presence. The sacrificial character attributed to the eucharist does not contradict this conclusion; for the fact of a sacrifice might very well have been emphasized long before it was thought that the elements were transformed into the actual body and blood of Christ. The bread and wine constituted the mystical body and blood of the Redeemer by the presence (as was believed) of a divine component, and, made objects of religious awe by this fact, furnished sufficient basis for the idea of sacrifice that was developed. If any writers held a more ultra view, and conceived of an actual transubstantiation of the eucharistic elements, it was only a matter of individual opinion, no part of an accepted creed. The extravagance of rhetorical usage makes interpretation, in several cases, very difficult. Baur concludes that even in these cases an actual transubstantiation was not designed to be taught.

[Kirchengeschichte, ii. 281. Wenn anch den Worten nach in so vielen Stellen der Kirchenlehrer schon jetzt von eigentlichen Verwandlung die Rede su sein scheint, so ist diess doch keineswegs im Sinne einer dogmatischen Behauptung zu nehmen; die Ausdrücke, die daranf hinzudeuten scheinen, lösen sich bei genauerer Betrachtung immerwieder in eine blos bildliche Anschauung auf.]

If this conclusion be accepted, extravagance met a signal retribution; the rhetoric of one age became the dogma of the next. As respects the sacrificial aspect, a very emphatic view was undoubtedly current. The theory was already at hand, that the eucharistic sacrifice is able to benefit the dead. "We pray," says Cyril of Jerusalem, "for holy fathers and bishops, and all who have departed from our midst, believing that it is of the greatest assistance to those souls for whom the prayer is offered, while the holy and awe-inspiring sacrifice lies before us."

[Orat. Catech., xxiii. 9. Augustine speaks on the same subject still more explicitly. His language indicates that already at the beginning of the fifth century the foundation was well laid for the doctrine of purgatory. "It cannot be denied," he says, "that the souls of the dead are benefited by the piety of their living friends, who offer the sacrifice of the Mediator, or give alms in the church on their behalf. But these services are of advantage only to those who during their lives have earned such merit that services of this kind can help them. For there is a manner of life which is neither so good as not to require these services after death, nor so bad that such services are of no avail after death; there is, on the other hand, a kind of life so good as not to require them; and again, one so had that when life is over they render no help … When, then, sacrifices either of the altar or of alms are offered on behalf of all the baptized, they are thank-offerings for the very good, they are propitiatory offerings for the not very bad; and in case of the very bad, even though they do not assist the dead, they are a species of consolation to the living. And where they are profitable, their benefit consists either in obtaining a full remission of sins, or at least in making the condemnation more tolerable." (Enchiridion, chap. cx.)]

Communion in both kinds was the established custom of this age. No one thought, as yet, of depriving the laity of the cup.

The multiplication of costly edifices gave suitable accommodation to the tendencies toward a showy and imposing ritual. A special sanctity was attached to the house of public worship; but eminent teachers took pains to oppose a superstitious veneration of the mere edifice, and emphasized the truth that to the devout Christian every place is holy ground. The same factors entered into the regular Sunday service as in the previous period; namely, the reading of selections from the Scriptures, prayers, the sermon, and the eucharist. The Scripture readings were left quite generally to the choice of the officiating clergy, though a beginning was made toward the prescription of a regular series of lessons. The forms of prayer varied, to a considerable extent, in different churches. Socrates indulges the statement that hardly two churches agreed in their ritual respecting prayers. [Hist. Eccl., v. 22.] Very diverse estimates were passed upon the relative importance of the sermon. In the West, there was a tendency to give it a subordinate place, especially as compared with the eucharistic service. In the East, the more cultured class, in the fourth and fifth centuries, were inclined to regard the sermon as the principal factor in the service; and their love of fine rhetoric not unfrequently found vent in enthusiastic applause. "The sermons were sometimes, though rarely, read or delivered from memory from beginning to end, sometimes given in accordance with a plan previously prepared, sometimes uttered entirely extempore." [Neander, Kirchengeschichte, iii. 443.] Toward the close of the period, the requirement that catechumens and other non-communicants should leave the sanctuary before the celebration of the eucharist was relaxed. The absence of a pagan populace made it appear less necessary to employ precaution against a profanation of the mystery.