So, again, it was when he beheld "The turban'd traitor shew his shameless front that Roderick's heart With indignation burnt; and then he longed 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, courteous in receiving strangers, liberal in gifts, magnificent and noble in actions, magnanimous in enterprizes, 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 sufficient 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 quæstionum relinquit," as Thomas a Kempis exclaims: "Fides à te exigitur et sincera vita, non altitudo intellectus, neque profunditas mysteriorum Dei." There was no learning requisite to Catechism II. c. 10. 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 *." Did they appeal to the holy Scriptures? St. Augustin 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 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 66 Roger de Hauteville, King of Sicily, who died in 1054, caused to be carved upon his tomb these words, which he had composed for himelf: " 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. S. Cypriani Epist. lv. † De Moribus Ecclesiæ Catholicæ,I. 72 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 patriæ qui defensione contra barbaros procesşerunt." 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 civilization 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 recorded by Pliny. The knights of the middle age were indeed most scrupulous in their observance of this duty. "Let him of the two who worships Christ, pause and hear what I have to say." Count Rogero, when he saw Bradamant and Rodomont engaged in combat, distinguishing that one was a paynim and the other a Christian, intimated in this address what was his notion of conversing with an infidel. "To consider these wordes," says Froissart," one ought greatly to marveyle that the Lord Galeas, Erle of Vertues, and Duke of Myllayne, (who was reputed to be a Christen man, baptysed and regenerated after the Christen law,) wolde seke or requyre love or alyance with a kynge myscreant out of our law and faythe, or to send him gyftes and presents, as he dyde every yere as dogges, haukes, and fyne lynen clothes, which are right pleasant to the Sarrazens: but in these days the Erle of Vertues, Duke of Myllayne, and Sir Galeas, his father reygned as tyrants, and so held their signoires." The * Hist. de Pierre d'Aubuson, par Bonhours, 20. king, Don Rodrigo, is more delicate, for when he has overthrown the renegado, and mounted his Orelio, Then he drew forth The scymitar, and waving it aloft, Rode towards the troops; its unaccustomed shape But the most interesting example is furnished by the great Turenne after his conversion. Twice it became his wish to retire from the world; but it was represented to him that his duties retained him in active life. Still he was zealous, even in all the circumstances of piety. The morning of the day on which he was killed, he had heard mass, and received the sacrament. Mdme. de Sévigne mentions having heard from the Cardinal de Bouillon, that Turenne would make his confession before receiving the sacrament at Whitsuntide; but "il étoit à mille lieues d'un péché mortel *” "How entire was his conversion, and how different from that of those who change from interested motives," cries Fléschier. "Although his heart had been saved from the disorders which passions usually cause, he took more care than before to regulate them. He believed that the innocence of his life ought to correspond with the purity of his faith: he knew the truth, he loved it, he followed it. With what humble reverence did he assist at the sacred mysteries! With what docility did he hear the salutary instructions of the evangelique preachers. With what submission did he adore the works of God, which the human mind cannot comprehend! True worshipper in spirit and in truth, seeking the Lord, according to the counsel of the wise, in the simplicity of his heart, irreconcilable enemy of impiety, removed from all superstition, and incapable of hypocrisy. Scarcely had he embraced the holy doctrine, when he became its de→ fender; as soon as he had put on the armour of light, he engaged the works of darkness; he viewed in trembling the abyss whence he had escaped, and he stretched out his hands to those whom he had left there. It would seem as if he had been charged to bring back into the bosom of *Lett. cciv. the Church all those whom the schism had separated from it: he invites them by his counsels, he wins them by his benefits, he presses them by his reasons, he convinces them by his experiences; he points out to them the rocks on which human reason has made so often shipwreck, and shews them behind him, according to St. Augustin's expression, the way of the mercy of God, by which he had escaped himself." But to leave the Orator. Lovers of wisdom, as well as heroic men, should study with attention the character of Turenne. They will find in him a rare union of manly firmness, noble disinterestedness, high honour, patience, magnanimity, profound piety, inspiring all the sweetness and graces of the Christian spirit with a clearness of judgment, and an acuteness and soundness of intellect, to which few philosophers can lay claim. 66 "The Spaniards," says Schlegel, in his Dramatic Literature, played a memorable part in the history of the middle ages, which the ungrateful jealousy of modern times has too much forgotten. Like a sentinel exposed to the dangers of an advanced post, they kept watch for Europe, threatened by immense hordes of Arabians; and in their Peninsula, as in a vast camp, they were always ready to fight, and to fight without assistance. The foundations of the Christian kingdoms in Spain, from the moment when the illustrious descendants of the Goths, obliged to take refuge among the rocks of the Asturies, sallied forth in arms from this asylum, down to the period when the Moors were completely driven out of Spain, all this interval, which lasted for centuries, is the poem of history, it is its miracle: for the total deliverance of Christendom, which so terrible a power oppressed in this country, appears to have been a work directed from on high, and which man alone could never have accomplished." Too little is youth reminded of these great events; for the names of Charles Martel, who saved Christendom under the walls of Poitiers, of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, in the 15th century, who had the glory of stopping Mahomet II. in the midst of his conquests, and perhaps of again saving Christendom, and of John Sobieski, King of Poland, who saved the house of Austria, and probably, the whole of Europe, should be associated with all the visions of greatness and glory. The Turks, |
