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our salvation, life, and resurrection; by whom we have been saved and delivered *." They sung with her "Crux fidelis," and " Dulce lignum," and they were ready to repeat her words, we adore thy cross, O Lord, and we praise and glorify thy holy resurrection: for by the wood of the cross, the whole world is filled with joy." The knights indeed were not deeply learned in the folios of theology, but they knew thus much, "Non est salus animæ, nec spes æternæ vitæ nisi in cruce." They may not have learned any system of moral philosophy; they were not in habits of questioning the ways of Providence ; they were not infected with a secret leaven of infidelity; they knew little of the ethics of the Pagan writers, of the utility of virtue; they had not learned to limit, and to annihilate with their limitations, the doctrine of God their Saviour; but they bore his cross upon their breasts, and they trusted to it in death. Who does not feel the beauty of that description in the Fairy Queen?

"A gentle knight was pricking on the plain
Yclad in mighty arms and silver shield,

And on his breast a bloody cross he bore,
The dear remembrance of his dying Lord,

For whose sweet sake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead (as living) ever him adored:

Upon his shield the like was also scored,

For soveraine hope which in his help he had."

The most precious relique of the Cid Ruydiez which was preserved and venerated in the monastery of St. Pedro de Cardenna, was the cross which he used to wear upon his breast when he went to battle. The infidels were astonished at the joy and confidence of the Christian warriors. "Hoc signum sanctæ crucis," said the crusader, "quo munimur et sanctificamur, procul dubio spirituale nobis scutum est contra jacula inimicorum et in eodem sperantes tutius adversus pericula cuncta stare audemus +." A knight falls in battle, and feeling his breath fail him, with his helmet for a pillow, he kisses the cross of his sword in remembrance of that on which the incarnate Son of God had died for him, and renders up his soul into the hands of his Creator. "This," says the author of the Chronicle of the Cid, "was the death of one of the worthy The Introit for the Tuesday in Holy week. † Gesta Dei per Francos, 286.

knights of the world, Don Rodrigo Frojas. It was Lau rence Celso, Doge of Venice, in 1363, who first ordained that a cross should be placed at the front of the Doge's bonnet. His father, believing that it was not proper for him to uncover his head before his own son, and at the same time, not daring to fail in respect towards the chief of the state, came to a resolution of always going bareheaded. Laurence Celso contrived to have a golden cross at the front of his bonnet, and the stratagem succeeded. His father resumed his hat, and whenever he saw his son he took it off, observing, that he saluted the cross, and not his own son. Any indignity offered to the sign and emblem of this great truth, was regarded as a dreadful injury offered to themselves. This the poet expresses when he makes Harold fling his cross-bearer out of his saddle, and adds,

"Loud was the shriek, and deep the groan,

When the holy sign on the earth was thrown;
The fierce old Count unsheathed his brand,
But the calmer prelate stay'd his hand."

This great doctrine of Catholic faith was to them neither a stumbling-block nor foolishness; it was the wisdom of God, and the power of God: and if they venerated with holy reverence the precious emblem of human salvation; if they did love and adore the very image of the cross; and if, like the first Christians, they did on every occasion sign themselves with its mark, from a conviction that under that sign they should conquer; it will ill become those to censure them who have laid aside both the image and the substance-both the sign, and the truth which it was intended to designate *.

VII. The order is natural, if we pass from the protection of religion by chivalry, to the respect with which the clergy were regarded. Upon no subject of history

I once saw an inscription under a crucifix, which must have disappointed the modern who was prepared to ridicule

"Effigiem Christi qui transis pronus adora

Sed non effigiem sed quem designat adora."

As in the passage in the Saxon Homily," We bow ourselves to the cross; not indeed to the wood, but to the Almighty Lord, who hung on it for us."-Hom. Sax. apud Wilk. 165.

have the sophists of the 18th century so loudly expressed their censure, as upon the veneration with which the clergy were regarded in the middle ages. It is most true, it is most consoling, to reflect that they were the objects of this veneration. The general saying was, "Stant imperià precibus magis piorum quam militum gladiis." "Souvenez vous," said the constable, Du Guesclin, when he was dying, "que partout ou vous ferez la guerre, les ecclésiastiques, le pauvre peuple, les femmes et les enfans, ne sont point vos ennemis; que vous ne portez les armes que pour les defendre et les proteger." These were his last words. In the Tree of Battles we read, “Et de ce les Anglois ont une tres bonne maniere combien quils nous semblent estre bien fiers et cruels en fait de guerre. Car sans faulte ja ne mettront les mains sur homme d'Eglise." Of the Mareschal de Boucicaut we read, "Quand il voyage aulcune part en armes, il faict defendre expressément, sur peine de la hart, que nul ne soit si hardy de grever Eglise, ne monstier, ne prebstre, ne religieux, mesmes en terre d'ennemis. Et ne souffre as saillir Eglise forte, quelque bien ou quelque richesse que le pay eust dedans retirée, quelque famine ou necessité qu'il ait." The old poet, Marot, lays down the law

Car sauver faust quatre choses en guerre

Prestre, Herault, Paige, et feminin genre.

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He forgets to mention labourers and peasants, who were, however, equally to be protected, as I shall have occasion to shew in another place. When the town of Mounte Ferante, in Auvergne, was taken by Perot le Bernoys and his company, this captain had charged on pain of death "that no man should be so hardy as to hurt any Church, or trouble any man of the Church, this manner," says Froissart, 66 ever Perot used whensoever he won any town or fortress;" so that the freebooter treated the clergy with the same respect as did the constable and mareschals of France. Then in time of peace, we all remember what the valiant and accomplished knight of La Mancha says, "Priests, whom I honour and revere, as every good Catholic and faithful Christian ought to do;" and when he recognized the curate of his village in the wilds of the

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Sierra Morena, he would have alighted to pay him his re spects, saying, Reverend Sir, I beseech you let me not be so rude as to sit on horseback while a person of your worth and character is on foot. The greatest and best princes were the most ardent to mark their respect for the clergy; witness that wise and spiritual king, Louis IX. of whom Velly says, never was there a prince who had a more sincere respect for the ministers of Jesus Christ." What can the imagination picture more divine than to behold St. Thomas of Aquinas, and St. Bonaventure at the court of St. Louis? In a worldly point of view, Scipio Ammiratus held that dignities of the Church augmented the honour of a family; and Stephen Gracia was likewise of opinion that Episcopacy brought nobility to a race. At all events, on taking Orders a man lost not his nobility, "Nec item perdit monachus originem."

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At Assher, when the Duke of Norfolk came to visit Wolsey in his retreat, "after dinner," says Cavendish, "the water was brought them to wash, to the which my Lord called my Lord of Norfolk to wash with him; but he refused so to do of courtesy, and said, that it became him no more to presume to wash with him now than it did before. Yes, quoth my Lord, for my legacy is gone, wherein stode all my high honour. A straw, quoth my Lord of Norfolk, for your legacy: I never esteemed your honour the higher for that; but I esteemed your honour for that were Archbishop of York, and a cardinal; therefore content you. I will not presume to wash with you, and therefore I pray you, hold me excused." "We were presented," says a traveller of the fourteenth century, to the Abbot of St. Maixant. This old man was so venerated on account of his evangelical virtues and noble character, that the great barons whom he visited, would in the evening, carry the keys of their castles into his room, to honour him by this great sign of confidence. At Alnwick castle in Northumberland, there is still to be seen "the Abbot's turret," where the Abbot of the adjacent Abbey used to be lodged on his visits to the Lord. The bishop's word, and the king's were valid without an oath by king Withred's dooms ecclesiastical in the year 646. The clergy had only to use these words, "I say the truth in Christ, I lie

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not." Eadmer affirms that there was not a count or countess, or any noble person in England who did not think they would lose the favour of God, if they did not shew favour to the holy Abbot St. Anselm, in whose presence even the stern and formidable conqueror, king William, was mild and affable so as to astonish all beholders *." The gallant John Sobieski furnishes another example. To him the Pope's rose would have been a present of inestimable value + When the Turks were advancing, he writes to his queen in these words:" God be praised our Abbé Kamieniecki is a little better. I have been sorely troubled for him, and this news has given me as much pleasure as if I had just received a reinforcement of some thousand ment." If all persons in minor orders down to acolythes and doorkeepers, were privileged, and their persons sacred §, we must not be surprised at any degree of respect with which the Heads of the Church were treated. Pope Celestin V. being entertained at table, in the city of Perusina, Charles, king of Sicily, and Charles Martellus, king of Hungary, crowned with their royal diadems, waited at his table, and afterwards sat down with the cardinals ||. The Pope entered cities mounted on an ass, but on each side these two kings held the reins. At the court of Charlemagne, Bishops and Abbots had precedence of all royal personages, excepting the wife, sons, and daughters of the king. Possibly it will be asked by some, was not this respect excessive? the answer is obvious and complete. It was evinced by men who believed in Christianity, and their feelings and views are the same ine very age. "I preached the Gospel to you heretofore," said St. Paul, "and you received me as the angel of God, even as Christ Jesus T."

I shall make one observation which recommends itself particularly to the attention of the great. I would demand of such persons whether they have not sometimes a certain vague desire to fancy themselves as if they were not elevated above other men? I demand of them whether they would not derive pleasure in looking up to some persons who would be raised above them? The words of

In Vit. S. Anselmi. § A. Corvini Fur. Can. I. 2.

† Lett. 5.

+ Lett. 7. Thomassin. Vet. et Nov. Discip. I. lib. 2. c. 114; and III. III. 33. Gal. iv. 13.

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