vulgar sense of men guided more by consequences than by reason, may have equal hopes of success.

Were it not for our belief in the doctrine of Divine assistance to the human mind, the numbers of men who embrace the Catholic faith would be sufficient to convince many lovers of wisdom that it could not be the truth. It is a remarkable fact respecting these successive seceders from the Church, that the enemies of the Christian name have always favoured them. The Mahometans protected all the heretics of the East, and only persecuted the Catholics. On the other hand, the seceders have in every age been inclined to join the common enemies of Christianity. The Hungarians, who invited the Turks to invade Vienna, were more inhuman to the Catholic army under Sobieski than the Mahometans.1 Men of thought and learning have found no difficulty in reconciling the fact of these deplorable divisions with the truth of religion and the providence of God. "I declare," says Louis of Grenada, "so far am I from being astonished that the just Judge has permitted so great a portion of Christian people to lose their faith, that I return Him thanks for what remains sound, amidst such a general corruption of manners."2 He alludes to the beginning of the 16th century. At this time brother Thomas, of the order of St. Francis, who was called "the holy man," went about preaching penance, and predicting evils from the horrible wickedness of the age. These divisions were foretold by the holy Apostles; and they are, after all, subservient to important ends. "Were these men within the Church," says St. Augustine," they would no less err; and, being without, they serve to stir up many servants of God in the Catholic Church." They furnish arguments for the faith; because a man may ascend, step by step, doctrine after doctrine, to the very crown and perfection of the Catholic religion; and have under his feet, at every step and for every doctrine, the authority of some heretical writer. And Fleury remarks, that the Catholic religion, existing in the North under the wearying and disgusting system of persecution to which it is exposed, and wholly unprotected by the temporal power, affords of itself a proof of its divine nature.

1 See the Letters of John Sobieski.
2 Catechism, part iv. dial. xiii.

3 De Vera Religione.

However, the existence of these divisions gave rise to that great duty which was of such paramount importance in the code of chivalry, and to which I have now to direct your attention. It was a duty obligatory on all, as Christian men obedient to the Church; and it was in an especial degree upon knights, as being essential to the chivalrous character. The Church, in her decrees, was guided by the plain and positive injunctions of holy Scripture. Hence, in the canons which are called Apostolical, the clergy who should join in prayers with seceders were to be suspended from communion :2 and in the council of Carthage, where St. Augustine was present,3 all persons were forbidden to pray or sing psalms with them. Pope Paul IV. urges this duty upon the Catholics of northern countries, where, it must be confessed, the outrage and pride of the lignage of Darnant, as Perceforest would say, have not yet finished. In conformity with the commands of the Church were the precepts of chivalry. Philippe de Valois made a law excluding from tournaments all nobles or knights who should have spoken or done any thing against the holy Catholic faith. “Et s'il présume non obstant ce crime d'y pouvoir entrer pour etre issu d'ancetres grands seigneurs, qu'il soit battu par les autres gentils hommes, et jeté dehors par force."4 "Quant le Roy ouyt celui Sarrazin parler François," says Joinville of Louis IX., when he was accosted by the rich renegade, "il lui demanda, qui le lui avoit aprins. Et il respondit au Roy, qu'il estoit Chrestien regnoyé. Et incontinent le Roy lui dist, qu'il se tirast à part hors de devant lui, et qu'il ne parleroit plus à lui."

This zeal for religion the knights were expected to maintain at every risk, however imminent. Like the early Christians, they were prohibited from acquiescing, even by silence, in the rites of idolatry. In the fine romance of Huon of Bourdeaux, that champion is represented as having failed in duty to God and his faith, because he had professed himself a Saracen for the temporary purpose of obtaining entrance into the palace of the Amial Gaudifer. "And when Sir Huon passed the third gate, he remem

12 St. John 8; 2 Tim. iii. 5; Rom. xvi. 17; St. Matt. vii. 15, xxiv. 4, xi. 23. 3 iv. 72, 73.

2 Can. 44. 63.

4 Hist. de la Chevalerie Françoise, par Gassier, p. 277.

bered him of the lie he had spoken to obtain entrance into the first. 'Alas!' said the knight, what but destruction can betide one who has so foully falsified and denied his faith towards Him who has done so much for me!' Every reader who is conversant with the opinions of the chivalrous age must recollect that the highest glory was to be called "a veray knyghte and servaunt of Jhesu Cryste," as it is related of Sir Ector de Marys; "and thenne he kneled downe, and made his prayer devoutely unto almighty Jhesu; for he was one of the best knyghtes of the world that at that time was, in whom the veray feythe stode moost in." "And soo Syre Percyval comforted hymself in our lord Jhessu, and besought God no temptacyon should brynge hym oute of Godde's servyse, but to endure as his true champyon;" and Sir Bors uses an expression in his prayer still more singular: "Lord Jhesu Cryste, whoos lyege man I am." And the flower of chivalry is accosted by King Mordryans in these words: "Galahad, the servant of Jhesu Cryst." So we read in the Jerusalem Delivered,

Cursed apostate and ungracious wight!

I am that Tancred who defend the name

Of Christ, and have been aye his faithful knight.

So again it was when he beheld

The turban'd traitor shew his shameless front
In the open eye of heaven,

that Roderick's heart

With indignation burnt; and then he longed
To be a king again, that so, for Spain
Betrayed, and his Redeemer thus renounced,
He might inflict due punishment, and make
Those wretches feel his wrath.

In the admirable book of chivalrous instruction by Gilles de Rome, entitled The Mirror, it is laid down how the prince, baron, or knight should be grounded in the truth of faith, stedfast in the faith, firm in hope, firm in the love of God, perfect in the fear of God: "he ought to be fervent in prayer for the love of Jesus Christ; to have reverence and devotion towards the Church; to be humble in himself; to have reasonable knowledge; to be stable in perseverance, and constant in execution; honest in conversation, secret in consultation, discreet in speech,

D

courteous in receiving strangers, liberal in gifts, magnificent and noble in actions, magnanimous in enterprises, continent in purity, abstinent in sobriety, amiable in all good qualities, incomparable in clemency, and invincible in patience." "He must be founded in the Catholic faith, which is the source of all graces. That faith is the foundation of justice; it purifies us from our sins; it enlightens our thoughts; it reconciles us to God; and accompanies us amidst all the goods of nature.” A separate chapter is then devoted to explaining more fully the nature and need of these graces. "To derive benefit from the belief in the articles of faith," says F. Louis of Grenada, "it is not sufficent simply to repeat the credo as a parrot; but we must meditate attentively on each of the mysteries contained in it." Thus S. Theresa used to weep when they sung, "Cujus regni non erit finis." This was very compatible with the simplicity of such men: "Beata simplicitas, quæ. difficiles quæstiones relinquit," as Thomas a Kempis exclaims: "fides a te exigitur et sincera vita, non altitudo intellectus, neque profunditas mysteriorum Dei." There was no learning requisite to know who were to be avoided, as opposed to the peace and unity of the Church: for were they styled reverend persons who laid claim to obedience? the rule was as old as St. Cyprian : "Nec habeat ecclesiasticam ordinationem qui Ecclesiæ non tenet unitatem."2 Did they appeal to the holy Scriptures? St. Augustine furnished an easy criterion: "Christiani sunt," says he, non heretici." How does he know this? He tells you in the next line, "Intelligunt Scripturas secundum Apostolicam disciplinam." Lastly, there was that holy sign to distinguish men from Turks, Jews, and all who had departed from the first faith.

66

But it must be confessed, that the sons of Christian chivalry stood very little in need of being exhorted to defend the faith, since their affections were strongly moving them in the same direction. When the city of Santa Fe was besieged, a gigantic Moor had obtained possession of an ecclesiastical ornament whereon the " Ave Maria" was embroidered, and he paraded on the plain of Grenada with it fixed to his horse's tail. This was enough to make boil 1 Catechism, ii. c. 10. 2 S. Cypriani epist. lv.

3 De Moribus Ecclesiæ Catholicæ, i. 72.

66

the blood of Garcilasso, at that time a mere stripling: he challenged the Moor, slew him, and brought the trophy to the Christian camp; in reward for which gallant exploit, the King of Arragon gave him leave to adopt the title de la Vega, and to place the words " Ave Maria" on his paternal shield. Thus Roger de Hauteville, King of Sicily, who died in 1054, caused to be carved upon his tomb these words, which he had composed for himself: "Rogerius in Christo pius, potens rex et Christianorum adjutor." The hero, Galien, Restaurè, is called by the authors of that romance, un veritable enfant de la sainte Eglise, et un genereux defenseur de la réligion Chrétienne." It was during the marriage festivities of Marguerite of Anjou, in Nancy, that Pierre d'Aubuson heard of the horrible cruelties which the infidels inflicted upon Wladislas King of Poland, and Cardinal Césarini the Pope's legate, whom they had roasted alive, after the battle of Varnes. The horror which the young man felt, made him resolve to combat the Mahometans, and to enter the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. The words of Ingulphus are remarkable, where he says of the Anglo-Saxons, on the invasion of the Danes, "Summo diluculo auditis divinis officiis, et sumpto sacro viatico, omnes ad moriendum pro Christi fide patriæque defensione contra barbaros processerunt.' The memory of the early defenders of Christendom has been often greatly misrepresented by infidel writers, who invariably take part against the Christians. It is to be borne in mind, therefore, that when Charlemagne first attacked the Saxon pagans, in the year 772, it was in consequence of their having burnt the church of Daventer, and massacred the Christians whom they found there. Eginhard records, that the frontier plains of his empire, on this side, had been unceasingly harassed by carnage, rapine, and conflagrations caused by these Saxons. Sismondi, indeed, admits that it was in the midst of his Saxon wars, that the north of Germany passed from barbarism to civilisation and the habits of domestic life, in consequence of the Christian preachers, and the influence of Charlemagne's court. To go back to an earlier age, it is a pity that we have no memorial of the many Christians who preferred death to renouncing their faith, as

وو

Hist. de Pierre d'Aubuson, par Bonhours, 20.