and hospitals, is only known by those to whom her presence is a blessing, by the name of Alice, or Elizabeth, or Jane. There is nothing in such names to alarm the poor. They love the recollection of Saint Elizabeth and of the other holy women who knew and accompanied Mary; their children can easily repeat such names, and bless them; but when the lady returns under her own roof, when the dwarf sounds his horn, and the serjeants snatch up their halberds to fall into lines for her passage, the sénéchal and knights of honour come to receive, amidst the flourish of trumpets, Alice of Auxerre, Elizabeth de Blois, or Jeanne de Béthune. I shall not presume, with unhallowed steps, to approach those holy asylums, where beings of angel purity were devoted to the worship of God, to the education of female youth, and to works of the most exalted charity. There are sublime notions, and high mysteries, that must be uttered to unfold the principle of their existence, to apprehend which many in the present age have neither ear nor soul. In the sixth century, it was common for nuns, without going into a monastic community, to live in their family house, where they were secluded, unless on the festivals when they went to the churches. St. Radegonde founded at Poitiers the convent of the Holy Cross, which was the first abbey of women that was seen in France. Who has ever stood on Mount Valerien and not thought upon Geneviève, that simple shepherdess, who used to watch her flock on the meadows below; where, on the banks of that winding river, she learned to love God in contemplating his works, and to catch that heavenly inspiration which was reflected in her eyes of azure; whence, while the daughters of Lutecia, with brows encircled with. roses, were dancing in the wood, she, though young like them, would visit the dark prison, or the infected hospice, to console or to cure? Who can read Froissart and not feel an interest in the character of those princesses and ladies of quality who retired to spend their remaining years in devotion and works of charity? Such as Madame Jehanne, who, he relates, "s'en vint demourer à Fonténelles sur l'escaut, et usa vie la comme bonne et devote en • La Gaule Poètique, I. ladite abbaye: et y fit moult de biens," or Isabella sister of Louis IX., abbess of Lonchamp, whose life was written by a sister of the convent, and the simple account of whose death, at midnight, and the feelings which it excited in the mind of the nun who records it, may be compared with the most sublime passages of antiquity. At the same time it was with tears, and a mournful reverence, that knights and temporal men beheld these sublime examples of devotion. Philippe of Gueldres, queen of Sicily, widow of the magnanimous René II. of Lorraine, after devoting herself to the education of her children, spent the remainder of her life in the convent of St. Claire at Pontà-Mousson. When her last illness was announced, her children ran to the convent, and found her stretched on a poor bed, with her eyes half closed. "My mother," they cried weeping, "my mother, do you recognise us?" "Yes, my dear children," replied the holy princess, 66 yes, I do recognise you all-but why come thus to see a poor sinner die, a poor nun of St. Claire?" Raising herself with difficulty, she blessed them, and rendered up her spirit a few hours after the exertion, on the day which she had foretold would be her last. She was in her 84th year, but having preserved the majesty of her person, it was easy to discover in her the traces of the most beautiful, as well as the most accomplished princess of her age. XVI.—In the preceding pages I have endeavoured to represent the religion of the Christian chivalry in action, as it was practised by the knightly and exalted class of mankind. But the actions and lives of men do not always furnish a sufficient explanation of the opinions which they hold, or of the system of belief which governs them. There are besides a multitude of minor details relative to prevailing sentiments of great importance in forming an estimate of the character of men, but which historians are oblig. ed to pass over in silence. A further examination is therefore requisite to enable us to accomplish fully the object which has directed us in the preceding inquiry. The first reflection which the preceding examples will suggest, must be respecting the happiness of that unity of religion which prevailed in these ages of Christian chivalry. There were causes sufficient in the world to separate and set men at variance it would have been truly deplorable if religion : had been added to the number. This unity was the unavoidable result of religion being identified with the spirit of love and charity, of which we have seen so many instances: for, as St. Clement says in his first epistle, ̓Αγαπὴ σχίσμα οὐκ ἔχει. The Christian church had nothing to do with any but those who loved peace, who sought to bear each other's burdens, to bear patiently what was repulsive to pride, who were lovers and makers of peace, and the sons of God. This Christian peace, which Christ left and gave to his disciples, was offered, as St. Bernard says*, by holy preachers to the whole human race; but some rejected it, while others received it. "Nos vero," he continues, "excutientes pulverem pedum nostrorum super odientes pacem, ad dilectorem ejusdem pacis. nos conferamus.' In patience these men possess their souls; they not only preserve their own peace, but they impart peace to others. Those who are weak, are troubled at scandals, and they lose the peace which they had received, and they found or follow sects; but the patient retain peace, nor can any scandal or injury cause them to forsake it. They remain in the church, for they love peace and holiness, "sine qua nemo videt Deum." But it pleased divine Providence that there should be an external ministry for the preservation of this religious union. "Inter duodecim unus eligitur, ut, capite constituto, schismatis tollatur occasio." This is what St. Jerom said, and this was the opinion of all Christian antiquity respecting the government of the Church. So when the Pelagian heresy was condemned at Rome, St. Augustin had nothing further to say, but "The answer of Rome is come; the cause is ended t." This was a great mystery: hence St. Cyprian, speaking of it, says, "hoc unitatis sacramentum.' Archbishop Theodore, in the seventh century, ends his canons always thus: "May the divine grace preserve you safe in the unity of his Church." St. Cyprian refutes all objections, and concludes," Episcopatus unus est, cujus a singulis in solidum pars tenetur ‡." St. Augustin speaks the same language: "Clama, disertus sum, doctus sum: et tamen si linguis angelorum loqueris, cari ⚫ Sermo de divers. 98. + Serm. 3. de verb. Apost. De Unitate Ecclesiæ. tatem non habens !-nullo modo autem possunt dicere se habere caritatem qui dividunt unitatem: redeant ad arcam. Sed inquies habeo sacramentum; et ego confiteor, sed quid dicit Apostolus? Si sciero omnia sacramenta, et habuero omnem fidem!-Noli de fide gloriari; veni, cognosce pacem; redi ad arcam. Sed quid ais? Ecce nos multa mala patimur. Vide quomodo patiaris : nam si pro Donato pateris, pro superbo pateris, non pro Christo." This is what St. Augustin said to those who protested against unity in his time *. St. Cyrill of Jerusalem goes further still in his Catecheses, where he says to the Catechumens, "You must hate all conventicles of transgressing heretics, and fortify your minds by fasting, and prayer, and alms, and reading of the divine oracles +." This was the law of the Church, " omnia concilia per Romanæ ecclesiæ auctoritatem et facta sunt et robur acceperunt ." No circumstances of the world, no wars or devastations could affect this principle. The 28th of December, 1797, beheld the pontifical throne overthrown ; not so the holy see. Ubi Papa ibi Roma. To have believed in such a crime as schism, that is, to have received the Scriptures as divine, and not to have admitted this sovereign and infallible authority, would have been impossible; for no power would then have had a right to determine between the opinions of different men and different societies as Cicero says of some such inconsistent system, "it would be better to believe in Cerberus than adopt it." Men would have had to recur to the question in the heathen schools, "Sed ubi est veritas ?" and, according to the differences in men's dispositions, and in the government of princes, and in national characters, would be the reply. The more men observed of the world, the more they were convinced of the evil to which this liberty would have given rise. They saw enough even then to prove that no one could predict where would be the end to the diversity ensuing. These national churches, besides that they would quickly begin λTILεV, would also soon bear marks of the avarice and pride and Sybaritic sloth of one country, of the frivolity and vanity and indifference S. August. Tract. in Johan, vi. 7. + Cat. IV. de Decem Dogm. Concil. xii. 971. of another, of the tendency to mystical speculation which belongs to another, of the barbarism and grossness of another. The Gallican would disfigure Christianity, investing it with a Parisian air, and proving easily from the cocks on church spires, and from Pontius Pilate having been banished to Vienne, that it was a system essen tially French; the English would adulterate it, by connecting it with their civil constitutions, their party feuds, and their commercial and political schemes of dubious mo rality; the Germans would dissolve it in the mist of meta physical abstraction. In one country the poor would suffer, in another the devout, in another the lovers of beauty and order. Notwithstanding the insinuations of Fleury*, this danger might have been inferred even from a review of the decrees made by the legates of the Holy See in various countries, and also from marking the difficulties which national vanity, or indifference, or political jealousy, or barbarism, or infidelity had already offered to an order like that of the Jesuists, which pursued the correction of abuses following from national character, and the upholding of the graces and beauties of religion, when they were endangered by its influence. Johnson, a disciple of the moderns, in his collection of Anglo-Saxon canons, is forced to say on one occasion, "There is a provision in the Pope's bull which deserves to be made a law in every church in the world," but he adds immediately, "by some better authority than that of a Pope +." "Hoc est non considerare, sed quasi sortiri quid loquare ‡." Still this was not designed to interfere with any opinions but the essential articles of faith; Roger Bacon shews how the saints even have erred in some points. "St. Paul resisted St. Peter in a question of discipline. St. Augustin censures St. Jerom, and Catholic doctors of his time changed many things approved of by their predecessors: even in the bosom of the Church, wise and good men in various ages have suffered contradiction §:" but these did not marshal Christians into opposite contending parties; these did not raise armies or impair the moral evidence of religion. Hence such divisions were not inconsistent with the object of the *IVme. Discours sur l'Hist. Eccles. Cicero de Natura Deorum, 35. † Vol. I. |