secret associations of the middle ages,” says Freudenfeld, “which gave rise to the inquisition. It was both a secret institution to discover more easily the conspiracies of impiety and rebellion, and a legal institution invested with public authority to repress them. It was not alone a tribunal; it was above all a countermine, and it is this point of view which perfectly explains the hatred vowed against it by the secret societies which conspire against religion and the state *." Catholicism has never dictated, never sanctioned, never refrained from denouncing cruelty in legislation and government; but many sovereigns, for desiring to protect it by using established laws, have been represented as cruel, who were on the contrary most full of the pity which angels feel for men. Modern sophists may calumniate them, but the judgment of wise and just contemporaries was not wanting to declare their innocence. Perhaps the most sublime eulogium ever pronounced upon a sovereign was that delivered by Cardinal Pole with his last breath, when he heard of the death of Queen Mary; for, with a groan_raising his hands to heaven, he exclaimed, "Domine, serva Ecclesiam tuam,” and then turning on his right side expired †. During many centuries Catholicism obtained, for the institutions with which the interests of learning and piety and of the poor are inseparably associated, that protection from the civil power without which, in no age, can they ever be secure. "In the year 636," says an old historian, "the monastery of St. Gall was enriched with many gifts-etsi ex Ethnicis non deessent, qui ipsos eversos cuperent et conarentur nisi metus religiosissimi Regis prohiberet ‡." Without that fear the Gentile race is never wanting to create danger for the sanctuary; but Catholicism has words which can excite the powerful to defend it, as those of Hincmar, saying," Hujus gloriosæ domus Dei decorem et locum habitationis gloriæ ejus fidelissime diligere et zelari debent, non solum Episcopi et sacerdotes in sedibus, sed etiam Reges in regnis et palatiis suis, et Regum comites in civitatibus suis, et Comitum vicarii in plebibus suis, et quicunque patresfamilias in domibus suis, in unum dives ac pauper, in mente et actibus suis §." So, writing to a governor, St. Augustin says, "You have uttered many things in your edict, ut te appareat in terreni judicis cingulo, non parva ex parte cœlestem rempublicam cogitare ." "The more studiously the audacity of the perverse endeavours to undermine the state of rectitude, the more vehemently," says Ives de Chartres, "is their wicked * Hist. Universelle, 500. +Richebourcq, Ultima Verba, &c. Gabriel. Bucelinus, Chronolog. Constantiensis. § Hincmari Rhem. Epist. lib. i. c. 3. Epist. lii. ness to be resisted, in order to consult for the interest of the Christian religion *." Such maxims have been neglected, and even stigmatized, in later times; but the world's experience has verified the saying of a great French author, who observes, that "whoever has received force ought to consecrate it to the service of his fellow-creatures; that, if he leaves it idle, he is at first punished by a secret misery, and sooner or later that Heaven visits him with a fearful chastisement." Manners too were protected by the example frequently, and always by the laws, of the ancient Catholic governments, for it was the general opinion, as Hincmar of Rheims reminded the emperor, that "nothing would so excite the anger of Almighty God, and disturb the peace of the kingdom, as a contempt for the divine law and a violation of the paternal authority, and a profanation of ecclesiastical holiness,-ut contemptus divinæ legis et conculcatio paternæ auctoritatis, et profanatio ecclesiasticæ munditiei et sanctitatis †.” When a new edition of the works of Calderon was published in 1751, a priest, Don Ramire Cayorcy Fonseca, printed a treatise against the actual state of theatrical exhibitions, which sufficed to induce the magistrates of Burgos to demolish the theatre of their city, which had cost twenty thousand ducats. Catholicism laid great stress also upon the protection of morals by the example of rulers, its maxims being in accordance with the saying of the philosopher, Οὐδὲν δεῖ πόνων οὐδέ τινος παμπόλλου χρόνου, τῷ τυράννῳ, μεταβαλεῖν βουληθέντι πόλεως On. He has only to show by his own example the road that he wishes his subjects to follow, whether it be to virtue or to vice; he has only to praise one and blame the other, and inflict dishonour on those who refuse to obey him. There is no shorter or easier way to change the manners of a state than by the example of those who are in authority ‡. "Qualis est rector civitatis," says the sacred text, "tales et inhabitantes in eo §." What an influence on the nobility of Spain was produced by the personal character of Isabella! In royal courts Catholicism often caused to reign the greatest frugality. Stop and dine with us," King Ferdinand was known to say to his uncle, the grand Admiral Henriquez, we are to have a fowl for dinner to-day." Catholic political measures were often characterized by that gratitude, generosity, and honour which subjects were not slow to admire and imitate, and which are, after all, the best policy, as when Cæsar, in restoring Pompey's statues, was said by Cicero to have by that generous act consolidated his own. Men were to know that it is not their profit that does lead the Ivon. Carnot, epist. xxiv. 66 66 + Hincmari Rhem. epist. i. c. 2. § Eccl. x. 66 honour of kings; but that it was their honour that leads it. Henry III., being advised to put to death Hubert de Bourg, replied," Hubert served faithfully my uncle Richard and my father John; and I would rather be set down as a weak king than a cruel man of blood; which I should be if his crimes, which are not proved, were to make me forget his services *." France, being at war with England, sent to Alphonso, king of Aragon, to pray that he would not seize Narbonne; and the king replied, "What my fathers did not seek from King Charles in his prosperity, I have no intention of demanding in his misfortunes." If rulers were not always under the Catholic influence in regard to their own personal conduct, they were often constrained by the force of opinion in Catholic ages, to avoid opposing the Catholic theory of government; and the moral results were unquestionably great. The people, subject to all just authority, and often finding in it examples of the true Christian life, were not so unhappy as in more recent times. Every thing respectable was respected, from the king to the lowest officer of government. "This city of London," says Fitzwilliam, even as Rome, is divided into wards; it hath yearly sheriffs instead of consuls; it hath the dignity of senators in aldermen. It hath under officers, according to the quality of causes; it hath general courts and assemblies upon appointed days. I do not think that there is any city wherein are better customs, in frequenting the churches, in serving God, in keeping holy days, in giving alms, in entertaining strangers, in solemnizing marriages, in furnishing banquets, celebrating funerals, and burying dead bodies." Marinus Siculus describes Spain with the same view to this assimilation of views and examples between governors and the governed. "All the citizens of Barcelona," he says, "followed the most virtuous manners. Nothing was ever done by them too much; but all things, both public and private, were according to reason and moderation. Their riches, therefore, never caused litigations, or strifes, or seditions for they preferred being governed rather by reason and virtue than by laws. The nobles and military men studied to defend their country by arms; the merchants exercised their commerce with integrity, and in this respect sought not gain, but desired only to be esteemed true, faithful, and liberal men. The priests lived piously and holily, and attended with the utmost veneration to the divine worship; the other citizens applied either to the liberal or to the mechanical arts, abhorring idleness and dissipation, and loving honest industry. Therefore there was no poor man amongst them, no evil one, but all were good and rich. And hence the fame of this city was *Mat. Paris, ad ann. 1232. spread not alone through all Spain, but throughout Europe and Africa *." But, confining our observations to one instance of the good example set by rulers, though we may not boast of them, like Plutarch of Alexander, saying that they favoured all kinds of virtue in others, yet certainly great moral and social advantages were formerly obtained by that respect with which kings and governments of every form treated the holy men who held up before the people, in their lives and order, a model of Christian perfection. Pompey, after his victory over Mithridates, coming in great state to Athens, and visiting the philosopher Possidonius on his sick bed, would not suffer the standards and imperial insignia to be borne within his gate, to intimate, as Don Pedro Messie of Seville says, that all kingdoms and empires should obey virtue and wisdom t. Catholic princes transferred these honours to the man who professed and practised the true virtues and the true wisdom, saying of the monk or bishop, "Nulla quidem sano gravior, mentique potenti When St. Peter of Alcantara was called to the court of Portugal, on his entering the palace the nobles fell on their knees before him, and kissed his habit. As he walked through the royal apartments, they raised the curtains of the different doors. The king prepared some retired chambers for him, to which he used to repair humbly for instruction. Here the man of God lived as in his monastery; and many of the courtiers, as the Dukes of Braganza and of Avere, were converted to a holy life by seeing him say mass in the chapel, while others were so moved by his fervent discourses that they became monks §. So anxious were kings of France to hear monks discoursing within their palaces, that we find, among the privileges conferred on them by Pope Clement V., one dispensing the latter from observing silence there-quod confessor domini regis possit dare religiosis licentiam loquendi libere. The kings of Portugal, to show their hereditary regard for St. Bernard, used to pay annually fifty gold maravedis to the convent of Alcobaze, to be thence transmitted to the abbot of Clairvaux ; and their kingdom was placed under the protection of our Lady of Clairvaux. The same respect is attested by those charters granted to the order of Grandmont by Richard I., king of England, in which he says, that he grants them through the love of God-et pro stabilitate regni nostri-which is the same expression as that used by *De Reb. Hispan. lib. xiii. Trist. ii. Les diverses Leçons, iii. 9. § Marchese, Vie de S. P. d'Alcant. lib. i. 15. St. Louis in conferring gifts on the same order*, the political maxim being then conformable to what Ives of Chartres lays down, saying, "It is perilous to disturb the places of the saints, or to disquiet those who militate in holy places +." The same views are indicated in the charter of Sanctius, beginning, " In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, I, Sanctius, by the grace of God king of the Spaniards, seeing all Spain to be illumined by the virtues of the blessed Æmilian,-placuit animo meo, ut sicut dono supernæ pietatis non meo merito obtinueram apicem regiæ dignitatis, sic ea adjuvante amplificari intra fines regni, mihi à Deo concessi, religionem Christianitatis." king of France, in 1190, decreed that, during his absence in the Holy Land, no one should be appointed to an ecclesiastical benefice without first consulting Brother Bernard, the monk of Grandmont, of the monastery of Vincennes, as the spiritual counsellor of the kingdom. And what were his qualifications? Stephen, bishop of Tournay, speaking of him to the pope, sums them up in few words, saying, "Frater Bernardus, vir simplex, et timens Deum, ac recedens à malo §.” The Catholicism, deeming these to be very great qualities, did not the less supply governments with politically wise and able ministers in monks and bishops, who were willing, without any of the attractions of honours and pensions, to assist them, as when Fulbert wrote to King Robert, saying, "Si de justitia, de pace, de statu regni, de honore ecclesiæ vultis agere, ecce habetis me parvum satellitem pro viribus opitulari paratum ||." When St. Germain, bishop of Paris, died, King Chilperic gave proof of the value he set upon his services as minister by composing his epitaph. Adalard, abbot of Corby, had long been a counsellor of Charlemagne. How many evils obviated, how many benefits secured, when Clotaire was aided by St. Medard, bishop of Soissons; Theodobert, by St. Leger, bishop of Verdun; Chilperic I., by Mandulphe, bishop of Senlis; Dagobert, by St. Arnoul, archbishop of Metz, St. Dadon, and St. Eloy; Sigisbert, by Gombert, archbishop of Cologne; Clovis II., by St. Landry, bishop of Paris and St. Agilulf, bishop of Valence; Clotaire II., by Agilbert, bishop of Paris ¶. "Oh, what a happy time," exclaims an old writer, "to see these just men, fearing God, reigning with kings, and with them justice, faith, truth, modesty, and all good customs of peace and war! august and holy palaces, which produced men who sought not kings, but whom kings * Levesque, Annales Ord. Grandimontis, cent. v. 411. † Iv. Carnot, epist. 196. Ant. de Yepes, Chron. Gen. Ord. S. Ben. i. 513. § Annal. Grandimontis, cent. i. || Fulberti, epist. lxxxiv. Sebast. Roulliard, le Grand Aulmosnier de France. |