VALDÉS AND OCHINO.
Evening was closing on Naples and Pausilippo--bright, serene,
odoriferous. The sea spread its azure surface as smooth as glass--many a
lateen sail was extended to the grateful breeze. The universal hum of a
talkative city was continually broken by whoop and halloo, scream and
laughter, snatch of song or the sound of some stringed or wind
instrument. Now and then a church bell fell musically and mournfully on
the ear.
A grave signor sat pensively at a table, with an open book before him.
He was the true type of a Castilian hidalgo; tall, spare, with long,
narrow face, classically cut features, the eyes almond-shaped and very
dark, lighted as if from within: the face oval, the beard pointed, the
skin clear olive, the brow high and pale.
His habit was of black velvet, slashed with satin and with buttons of
jet: a small starched cambric ruff, edged with lace, was closed at the
throat with white silken cords and tassels. A rapier at his side; a
diamond of the purest water on his long, thin white hand.
"It must needs be so"--such was the tenor of his meditation. "The very
image of God must be stamped on our souls like the cameo in soft wax, if
we are to be His. Oh, my God, mould me with thine own impress! stamp me
with thine own seal! keep my thoughts--I cannot keep them!--efface even
the memories of sin. Make me a weapon for thine own armoury, whether to
be used in actual service or to hang on the wall ready for use!"
He covered his face with his hand, and remained lost in thought, till
some one tapped at the door. It was Fra Bernardino Ochino, the
Capuchin.
I know not why Ochino should have had so white a beard; for his age, at
most, was scarcely fifty: but so it was.
"Brother," said Valdés gladly, "you come at the right moment; for I am
in a singular frame of mind."
"Strange!" cried Ochino; "I, too, found myself in a singular mood, and
it was on that account that I sought you. There are times when I am
oppressed by vain questionings; and nobody quiets them better than you
do."
"I wonder whether your questionings relate to the same subject as my
own," said Valdés, with his peculiarly sweet smile. "Come! let us talk
it out. It wants half-an-hour yet to the time when Donna Isabella
expects me."
"You know," said Ochino, "I am not book-learned--"
"My chief book is my mind," rejoined Valdés. "Therein I read a nature
totally corrupt, and find an unutterable want of God. My other book is
His word. Herein I find a solution to every question, a remedy for every
want, in the blood of Christ. And that is my peace."
"Such is the substance of all my preaching. I aim not so much at pulling
down rotten opinions as sowing good seed."
"You are right, you are right: that will carry us through. The rotten
walls will fall of themselves. They already totter and crumble."
"But oh, what a God is ours!" cried Ochino, stretching his two arms
straight upward. "His judgments are past finding out. How easy it would
be to Him to make all straight!--I find myself ready to pray there may
be no hell: that it may be a depopulated country--a burnt-out volcano:
that all, _all_ may be saved."
"Surely you may do that," said Valdés. "The Lord's hand is not
shortened, that He cannot save. He stands at the door of our hard hearts
and knocks. He cries 'turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?' Could a
_man_ say more? Excuse the bathos of the expression. It is man who says
'I will not.'"
"But what vindictive expressions--"
"Hush, hush, my brother. David's vindictive expressions were those of a
Jew, not a Christian: and, after all, what a loving heart he had! If he
stormed at his enemies one instant, he forgave them the next. Otherwise,
he could never have been the man after God's own heart. His inner being
is subjected to a test that none of us could stand--the Psalms are
literally his heart-sighings--the thoughts and feelings that chased one
another like cloud-shadows over waving corn. Oh! believe me, the fault
is not in God, but in ourselves. Since we admit that He is not only
round about us but within us, how is it that we have so little
perception of Him? Because His grace does not operate in us. And why
does not His grace operate in us? Because, in reality, we do not humbly,
devoutly, and earnestly desire it.[13] Why do not we both desire it and
seek it? Because we do not love God with the whole heart and with all
the senses. Why not? Because we do not know Him. Why do not we know Him?
Because we do not even know ourselves."
[13] Valdés. "Chain of Virtues and Vices." _Vide_ Wiffen's
"Alfabeto Christiano."
"All this is true and logical enough," said Ochino; "and brings us back
to your starting-point, that your first book was your own mind. But that
book cannot be read _in the dark_. Nor without the light of the Holy
Spirit."
"Unquestionably not," said Valdés. "That light enables me to read my own
book. It makes plain and full of interest what was arid, forbidding,
and deeply disappointing. You know that the Scriptures have helped me to
understand my own book. David and St. Paul are nothing to us, in
comparison with God and Christ. In the Old Testament we read of a God of
vengeance, and a Lord of hosts; for to the Jews he exhibited himself but
through a glass darkly. But _we_ know him through Christ, and, in seeing
one, we see the other. Oh, then, how is it we are insensible to such
love? A man would give the whole world, if he had it, to save the life
of an only son: God gave His own Son to save an ungrateful world."
"That is a strong figure," said Ochino, with emotion.
"And since He and His Son are one, in a mystical manner which we cannot
comprehend," pursued Valdés, "what is His giving His Son for us, but, in
other words, giving himself? His _alter ego_. 'Greater love than this
hath no man, that he lay down his life for his friends.' 'For scarcely
for a _righteous_ man (even) will one _die_:--but God commendeth His
love towards us, in that, while we were yet _sinners_, Christ died for
us.' Can you conceive a nobler antithesis?"
"Ah!" said Ochino, gladly extending his arms. "I see it! I embrace it!"
"Hold it fast, my brother. For on this rock is built the church. He was
delivered (delivered up by _man_) for our sins, but was raised, by God,
for our justification. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Continue to hammer upon
that, as you have done, and are still doing. Did you note an honourable
woman who sate immediately before you, this morning, with Vittoria
Colonna?"
"Yes. She was very attentive."
"She is Giulia, Duchess of Trajetto: one on whom the pure gospel light
has not yet shined. I believe she is much under the influence of
Cardinal Ippolito: as much as the Marchioness of Pescara is under that
of Cardinal Pole. Pernicious directors, both! You must do them all the
good you can, while they are under your ministry. There is much that is
hopeful in the little circle of distinguished women who are now drawn
together here. Isabella Manricha is far advanced in the spiritual life,
and will faithfully guide her younger sisters along the narrow way.
Speak the truth to them boldly: the word of God is not bound. And now
the time is come for our evening reading at Donna Isabella's, and here
comes Giulio Terenziano to join us."
As he spoke, a slender, intellectual-looking young man, with eyes full
of spiritual light, entered, whom he embraced as a younger brother.
This youth was afterwards a sufferer for the truth.
Nothing was more remarkable in the foregoing dialogue than the manner in
which Valdés took the lead, though Ochino was a churchman and he was
not, and he was Ochino's junior by twelve or fourteen years. It is
currently believed that Valdés was at this time secretary to the Spanish
Viceroy of Naples, Don Pedro de Toledo: he was certainly governor of the
Hospital of Incurables. His remarkable personal influence was exercised
both in conversation and by letters on special subjects; by meetings for
the purpose of reading and exposition, either at his friends' houses or
in his own in Naples, or at Pausilippo. Mr. Wiffen tells us that some
interesting allusions in the "Dialogo de la Lengua" give an insight into
his manner of reading and discoursing with his friends.
"He held frequent intercourse with them at his own residence in the
city. His less divided leisure was given to them at his country house,
situated in a garden, on the shore of the Bay of Naples, near Chiaja. At
this country house, Valdés received on the Sunday a select number of his
most intimate friends; and they passed the day together in this manner.
After breakfasting and taking a few turns round the garden, enjoying its
beauty and the pleasant prospect of the shores and purple ripples of the
bay, where the isle of Capri on one side drew the eye to the luxurious
mansion of Tiberius, and Ischia and Procida rose in sight on the other,
they returned into the house, when Valdés read some selected portion of
the Scriptures, and commented upon it, or some divine 'Consideration'
which had occupied his thoughts during the week.... After this, they
discussed the subject together, or discoursed on some other points which
Valdés himself brought forward, until the hour for dinner. After
dinner, in the afternoon, when the servants were dismissed to their own
amusements, his friends and not himself proposed the subjects and led
the conversation, and he had to discuss them agreeably to their desire.
As they had been pleased to consecrate the morning according to his
wishes, in reading 'The Book of the Soul,' or upon subjects like his
'Divine Considerations,' he in return devoted his acquirements to their
gratification on themes of their selection. Such was the origin of the
'Dialogo de la Lengua,' a dialogue on the Spanish language, which
occupied seven or more sittings, and was in all probability much more
copious than the text which has come down to us, and which furnishes us
with these particulars. At nightfall, Valdés and his friends returned to
the city.
"The Sunday meetings may have continued four or five years. These
Sabbaths of studious Christians, this exchange of subjects, this
interchange of thought between the proposers, the day, the pure
elevation of mind they brought as it were with them, the situation, the
beauty of the country, the transparent skies of a southern climate, the
low murmurs of the bay, would all be favourable to the purpose of
Valdés."[14]
[14] Introduction to Wiffen's translation of the "Alfabeto
Christiano."
The extreme beauty of this extract will preclude the need of apology for
its length, especially as the general reader could not otherwise have
access to it; for I believe only a hundred copies for private
circulation have been printed of the work to which Mr. Wiffen has
affixed his delightful introduction.
"O, evenings worthy of the gods!" exclaimed
The Sabine bard. "O, evenings," I reply,
"More to be prized and coveted than yours,
As more illumined, and with nobler truths."
Cowper, "The Task," book iv.
Verini has described the charms of Lorenzo's farm at Poggio Cajano, and
Politian has left us a delightful description of his summer evenings at
Fiesole.
"When you are incommoded," says he, "with the heat of the season in your
retreat at Careggi, you will perhaps think the shelter of Fiesole not
unworthy your notice. Seated between the slopes of the mountain, we have
here water in abundance, and being constantly refreshed with moderate
winds, find little inconvenience from the glare of the sun. As you
approach the house, it seems embosomed in the wood; but when you reach
it, you find it commands a full view of the city. But I shall tempt you
with other allurements. Wandering beyond the limits of his own
plantation, Pico sometimes steals unexpectedly on my retirement, and
draws me from my shades to partake of his supper. What kind of supper
that is, you well know; sparing, indeed, but neat, and rendered
grateful by the charms of his conversation."
Pico and Politian would doubtless be very good company; but not equal to
Valdés and Ochino.