vidimus." Isaac was a wise man, yet, with the exception of hearing, he was deceived by his senses. Heaven, and earth, and all that is subjected to the eye of man shall pass away, before one jot or one tittle of what God hath spoken shall fail. "Noli me tangere," said our Lord. Escape from the power of the senses; take refuge in faith. Faith cannot err; faith comprehends what is invisible. Ask not the eye concerning what surpasses its reach; and let not the hand seek to explore what is above it. "Noli me tangere, nondum enim ascendi ad Patrem meum." As if, when he shall have ascended, he may be touched; but while in this time of mortality, it is only by faith that we can apprehend him. "Noli me tangere: Why do you wish to touch me in this humble habit, in this servile form, in this abject condition? Touch me when clad with celestial beauty, with glory and honour*."

66

Nor should we overlook the exceeding wisdom with which they drew beautiful and awful lessons from various facts and passages in the holy Scripture. "As evils are cured by their contraries," says St. Augustin, "so God deals with men." Quia ergo per superbiam homo lapsus est, humilitatem adhibuit ad sanandum. Serpentis sapientia decepti sumus, Dei stultitia liberamur:" and because deceived by a woman, so by a man born of a woman are we redeemed. "Requirebant Jesum inter cognatos et notos et non invenerunt." On these words St. Bernard comments, "Quomodo te, bone Jesu, inter cognatos meos inveniam, qui inter tuos minime es inventus?" Hear William of Paris, "Death need not be painful, else would not Jesus have waited for Lazarus, whom he loved, to die. Yet it is awful; for Jesus wept when he heard that he was dead." Lewis of Granada considers our Lord's silence before the Judges as an evidence of his divinity. St. Paul appealed to Cæsar; and he thinks a good man would have been bound to answer. Such an example as that of our Saviour's silence has been never witnessed since the creation of the world. "It was a divine patience; not a human patience +." Remark," says this holy friar, "the immense goodness of God, who compares himself to an unjust judge, who neither feared God nor man, to conquer our doubts as to + Catechism iii. 18.

• In Cantica Serm. 28.

the efficacy of prayer." Again, "All the attributes of God being equal, since such has been his mercy, (he has given an eloquent account of the mystery of redemption), O what will be his justice?" Every line of this Dominican shews that like Socrates, he had learned to analyze carefully the meaning of all the terms and opinions which he admitted, that he was a thinker, and not a mere speaker or writer. Treating on the redemption, he is not content with commonly received phrases and conventional words, but he clearly convinces the reader that it has been the subject of his deep meditation. "It is much to be reflected on," says Eusebius Nieremberg, “ that those who enjoyed not that great supper, were not deprived of it by doing any thing which was a sin in itself; to have bought a farm, to be trying oxen, to have married a wife, none of these were sins; but for the preferring them to the kingdom of heaven." "Ut comprehendamus cum omnibus sanctis. Sancti igitur comprehendunt:" adds St. Bernard, "Quæris quomodo? Si sanctus es, comprehendisti, et nosti; si non, esto, et tuo experimento scies t." So that men who sought after divine wisdom were to pursue their object not by hearing sermons, or reading the holy Scriptures, but by keeping a watch over their own hearts; by visiting the sick, comforting the poor; by being humble, generous, charitable, and condescending to others, fulfilling the commandments of Jesus Christ; so that becoming holy in their works and affections, they might understand what was preached and read. "Quoniam ipsorum est regna cœlorum t." "Magna quædam penna est paupertatis, qua tam cito volatur in regnum cœlorum." This is the remark of St. Bernard upon that verse §. "Of other virtues," he says, "the reward is indicated by a promise in the future time: hereditabunt, consolabuntur; but here it is actually given;" an important application to be remarked by the moderns, who defend the form of the happy life of Epicurus in the words of Zeno. To shew respect to poverty was one of the distinguishing features of the religion which guided chivalry. A poor man was treated with respect; knights and princes would visit him

in his cabin, and would salute him with kindness on his way; learned theologians would conceal their wisdom from him, lest he should be intimidated; bishops would ask his prayers, and emperors would wash his feet.

as

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This must be sufficient to exemplify the manner in which these men interpreted the holy Scriptures: let us now observe the deep sense which they entertained of their value. "The word of God, in his holy Scriptures," says Father Lewis of Grenada, "can accomplish all things. It can raise the dead, regenerate the living, cure the sick, preserve the sound, give sight to the blind, warm the indif ferent, feed the hungry, strengthen the weak, and give resolution to the despairing. This is that heavenly manna which had the taste of all kinds of meat, there being no taste or sweetness that the soul can desire which is not found in the word of God. It is by means of it that the sad are consoled, and the irreligious converted to piety "Let sleep overcome the Priest," says St. Jerom, 66 holds the book, and let the holy page receive his declining face;" meaning to teach the duty of constant study of the holy Scriptures t. St. Ambrose says that "the reading of the Holy Scriptures is the life of the soul." "Hav→ ing exposed the four causes of human ignorance in general," says Roger Bacon, "I wish in this part to shew wisdom to be one and perfect, and that this is contained in the sacred writings, from the roots of which all truth arises, and in which is all wisdom, since from one God all wisdom is given, and to one world, and on account of one end." He then collects various passages out of the Holy Fathers, to express the importance of Holy Scripture §. If St. Cyprian would recommend prayer with fasting and alms, he quotes Holy Scripture and the Count of Stol berg reminds the moderns that the great and holy St. Cy prian in that early age receives as the word of God the books which they have thought proper to strike out of the canon, viz. Tobias as in this place, the books of the Maccabees and the 14th chapter of Daniel, together with the

:

* Catechism, II. Preface.
St. Hier. Ep. ad Eust.
Serm. 35. Joan. 6. 64.

§ Opus Majus, II. 1.

De Oratione Dominica.

other Deutero-canonical books* also the Book of Wis-
dom, and that of the son of Sirach †. But it will be said
that knights and temporal men were both unacquainted
with Holy Scriptures, and ignorant of all this divine and
spiritual wisdom. The former examples might have taught
us that this was by no means the case. It must be remem-
bered that monasteries furnished schools for the laity, who
afterwards went into the world. The young French princes
used to be brought up in the abbey of St. Denis. "There,"
says Marchangy, "between the tombs which never flatter,
and the altar where the wretched would come to implore
divine assistance, they learned early to follow the narrow
way of justice. It often happened that they were so struck
with the rapidity of life, with the nothingness and danger
of greatness, and of that sceptre which passes from hand
to hand, and remains with no one, that they grew disgusted
with the throne before mounting it, and were unwilling to
leave their innocent and peaceful joys for those honours
and pleasures to which they felt no attraction. It was in
these sanctuaries that the son of King Philip I. knew the
orphan Suger; and notwithstanding the difference of their
rank, a lively friendship soon united their hearts. The
heroic Louis VI. on becoming king, did not forget the
friend of his childhood. Suger was called to his council,
and made minister. Neither did he forget the religious
lessons of his youth ‡. The knights and barons were sel-
dom able to lose those salutary impressions which they had
acquired in these schools. Once familiar with the holy sa-
crifice, and the evening chaunt, and the lessons of Scrip-
ture, how could they ever forget the words of eternal life?
It is true, in the first age of the Church the holy Scrip-
tures of the New Testament not having been written or ar
ranged, the faithful in general had no such resource; and
it is true also, that in the ages following after their com
position, the Church practised great caution in giving co-
pies of the Holy Scriptures §. St. Cyril, the holy Arch-
bishop of Jerusalem, says, "Since all men cannot read the
Scriptures, but some by ignorance and others by occupa-
* S. Cyprian. Epist. LVI.

Ib. Epist. ad Fortunat. de Exhort. Martyr. et de Mortalitate.
La Gaule Poétique, IV.

Stolberg Geschichte, IX 522.

tion are prevented from becoming acquainted with them, we have a creed in a few verses, which I wish you to recite with all care, not writing it down on charts, but engraving it in your heart; and take heed lest any one teach you contrary to it; for if an angel should preach any other gospel to you but this which you have received, let him be anathema. Watch, therefore, brethren, and hold fast the traditions which you now receive, and write them on the tables of your heart *. Before printing was invented, which was not for above 1300 years after Christ, there were but few able to read, and still fewer able to purchase books. Grecie, Countess of Anjou, had to give 200 sheep for a collection of homilies; so that the bulk of mankind must have perished during that period, if the written Word had been their only rule. But the wisdom and mercy of God had sent Apostles and successors to preach his Word, and to instruct men in all holiness; and so far was the study of the written Word from being a more secure mode of acquiring a knowledge of his will, that we know many who made use of it wrested it to their own destruction. The notorious heretic or heathen, Hieraklos, who lived in the close of the third century, knew the whole Bible by heart. But where there was humility and love, the holy Scriptures in the hands of temporal men were studied by them with diligence and with fruits of holiness. Long before Wickliff's time, there was a complete translation of the Bible in the English language. In the council of Clovesho, in the year 747, the seventh canon enjoined the frequent reading of the Bible in monasteries, where temporal men receive their education. About the reign of our Henry II. a hermit called Richard translated from Latin into English all the Collects, Epistles and Gospels for the whole year, as also the Psalms of David t. Selden also records, that a metrical translation of the Psalms was made into English about the time of King Edward II 1. Pope St. Gregory relates in his dialogues, that there was a poor man at Rome, named Servulus, living under a gate-way, who could not read, but yet he had procured some books of the holy Scripture; and when any monks

* Catechesis, V. de Fide et Symbolo, 12.
+ Weever's Funeral Monuments, 152.
Titles of Honour, c. 3.