"Those thick and gloomy shadows damp Which idea seems to him so little absurd, that it inspired him with that rapture in the well-known lines which follow "How charming is divine philosophy." But whatever philosophy or legendary lore may teach, "Spotless in faith, in bosom bold, "I well remember," says an old man, "the first night I held a vigil. It was in a vast church, built by one of our heroic kings. They who sat round the blazing hearth of castles had different thoughts from mine, when "Nought living met the eye or ear, But well I ween the dead were near. And beneath our feet were the bones of the dead." When each man would try to rouse his spirits, and whis per to himself, be not dismayed "Because the dead are by, They were as we; our little day O'er spent, and we shall be as they." Within these solemn walls no murmur of busy men, no night laugh of pleasure, no sound of human existence met the ear, but while "Full many a scutcheon and banner riven, You would try to think like Sir Folker in the Nibelungen lay, "Cold grows my shirt of mail: I ween this mirky night Will soon be at an end, and the morning sun shine bright." It is not strange that this silence seemed to the ancients somewhat divine; "lucos atque in iis silentia ipsa adorá mus," says Pliny. You would be glad to observe the first streaks of the dawn, though it would only present you with faint images of kneeling knights, and strange uncertain forms of death. As you passed out of the portal again to meet the duties and the perils of life, you might have applied to yourself these lines, which would seem to be uttered from the sanctuary, ̓Αλλ ̓ ἴτον ἐξ ἀδύτοιο, κακοῖς δ ̓ ἐπικίδνατε θυμόν *. Upon the whole, the greatest enemy to romance and ima gination, will be compelled to confess that there was much to admire in this practice of chivalry. It had been handed down from a patriarchal age; it formed part of our Lord's religious exercise; it was sanctioned by the authority of the early church; it harmonized with philosophy, and cer tainly with the spirit of the Christian revelation, for it tended to awaken and confirm piety, to give men a taste of contemplation, to check that habit of sloth and luxury, and comfort, as it is called, which enervates the soul, to keep alive the sentiment of spiritual existence, and the desire of heaven, to nourish the presentiment of a mysterious side of nature, of an invisible world around us; it ac corded with all the lofty raptures of poetic genius, revive ing the recollections of youth, though "When musing on companions gone, We doubly feel ourselves alone," serving in some degree to set before men the beauty of serener climates, the scenes and men of former time, "Filling the soul with sentiments august, The beautiful, the brave, the holy and the just." It inspired courage to face terrors, which it is prophane to ridicule, though proper to overcome; to cherish that ge neral religious and lofty tone of feeling which, while it shuns the epicurean and affected security of the sceptic, will lead us to confide in the protection of that Almighty Being whose we are in this life, and to whose merciful disposal death can do nothing but consign us. Herod. VII. 140. But to return from these dreams of poetry, if they must be so, to the more ordinary realities of life. How changed were the thoughts of Wolsey after his fall, when all he wanted was the hair shirt which Sir Roger Lassels brought him to the abbey of Pomfret? Cavendish relates, that in the beginning of Lent, after his disgrace at court, the cardinal removed into the charter-house at Richmond, and in the evenings he would sit in contemplation with one of the most ancient fathers of that house, in their cells, who converted him, and caused him to despise the vain glory of the world, and it was after his abode there, in goodly contemplation, that he rode northward, and visited his diocese of York, to the edification of the country. It must not be concluded that all penitent knights had been guilty of crimes. St. Bobo was a warrior of Provence, the father of the poor, and the protector of his country against the Saracens, whom he often defeated, when they poured into Provence by sea from Spain and Africa. He afterwards led a penitential contemplative life for many years, and being on a pilgrimage to Rome, he died at Voghera, near Pavia, in 985. Nor is it to be inferred from some examples that men presumed generally upon the efficacy of these late conversions, after a life of crime. The fathers, the scholastic doctors, all the clergy, warned men not to trust to the repentance of old age. Certes, they who had read Lewis Grenadensis were sufficiently instructed on this point. Nieremberg quotes St. Augustin, whose words were continually from time to time pressed upon the attention of men. "Repentance in death is very dangerous; for in the Holy Scriptures there is but one only found, to wit, the good thief, who had true repentance in his end. There is one found that none should despair, and but one, that none should presume:" but for those who still had years before them, the Church held out every encouragement. "Penitent tears," said Southwell, “ are sweetened by grace, and rendered more purely beautiful by returning innocence. It is the dew of devotion, which the sun of justice draweth up, and upon what face soever it falleth, it maketh it amiable in the eye of God." What a scene must it have been to see Abelard die in the priory of St. Marcel at Chalons, in his 63d year, and in the disposi tion of a true Christian? But on all occasions there was a depth and a solemnity in the religion of these men which produced most remarkable effects. The King of Arragon was hearing mass in the convent of St. Magdalen at Naples, early in the morning of the 27th of October, during the siege of that city, when a ball passed in and killed the Infant Don Pedro. The king apprized of the tragical event by the cries of horror, notwithstanding his emotion, remained on his knees till the holy sacrifice was finished, and then rising up, he fell on the body of the infant, embraced it in his arms, wept, and cried out, my brother! O my friend! in you we have lost the flower of chivalry, and the most worthy ornament of Spain! May God grant thee eternal rest +." Sir Thomas More being sent for by the king when he was at his prayers in public, returned answer, that he would attend him when he had first performed his service to the King of kings. Of the Mareschal de Boucicaut, we read in the old Memoirs, "Nul n'oseroit parler à luy tandis qu'il est à ses messes, et qu'il dit son service, et moult devotement prie Dieu. Et à brief dire, tant donne bon exemple de devotion a ceulx qui le voyent, que grands et petits s'y mirent. Tant que tous les varlets de son hostel servent Dieu en jeunes et devotions, et se contiennent à l'Eglise aussi devotieusement que feroient religieux. Et de tels y a qui ne souloient sçavoir mot de lettre, qui ont appris leurs heures et soigneusement les disent." Ebroin, mayor of the palace to Theodoric King of France, who succeeded Dagobert II. was murdered by an injured nobleman called Hermenfred, who lay in wait for him on Sunday before it was light, as he came out of his house to matins. Fleury takes occasion from this to remark, that even those princes who were most employed, and who had the least sense of religion, (for Ebroin was a persecutor of the clergy,) did not exempt themselves from attending at divine service even in the night. When the courtiers are withdrawing on the arrival of the confessor, the learned guardian of a convent of St. Francis, whom the dying empress in Tirante the White had sent for, "No," says Petr. Clun. Epist. IV. † Hist. de René de Anjou par le Vict. de Villeneuve, I. 275. the penitent, "let all the world stay here. Your presence will not prevent me from disclosing things which the pre sence of God, whom I adore, did not prevent me from committing." This reverential spirit was continually manifested; at the name of the Saviour of the world, every man gave signs of his love and humility. "Illud no men quandocumque recolitur, flectant genua cordis sui, quod cum capitis inclinatione testentur*." At the remembrance of his cross, the strongest passions were subdued. Richard de l'Aigle found a hundred of his ene mies grouped round a cross on the high way, and he left them at liberty out of respect for the emblem. Vain swearing was among the vices which Juvencel said, "doivent être en horreur au chevalier:" who must re 999 frain in like manner, "de toute parole vilaine ou injurieuse." "I have lived," says Joinville, speaking of St. Louis, " twenty-two years in his company, and never during that time have I heard him swear or blaspheme God, or the virgin, or any saint, whatever might have been his passion or provocation. When he wished to affirm any thing, he used to say truly it is so, or truly it is not so.' The remark which Joinville adds, on this occasion, is curious. "Et est une tres honteuse chose au royaume de France de celui cas, et aux princes de le souffrir ne oyr nommer, car vous verrez que l'un ne dira pas trois motz à l'autre par mal, qu'il ne die; va de par le diable, ou en autres langaiges." Nor was it sufficient if the knights exercised these virtues themselves, without attending to influence their dependants. After Saint Louis had published his ordinance against swearers, Joinville, to whom such characters were odious, made a regulation for the interior management of his house, "que celui de ses gens qui jureroit seulement par le diable seroit puni d'un soufflet ou d'un coup de poing." "En l'hotel de Joinville," says the Joinville MSS. "qui dit telle parole, reçoit la sufle on la paumelle." Bayard reproving two pages who blasphemed in his presence, it was said that he made much of a little matter. Certes," he replied, " ce n'est pas petite chose, mau • Statuta Synod. Eccles. Constantiensis, 58. Martene vet. Scriptor. collect. |
