From the following facts an inference may be drawn of the tendency of
the Western church to a system of externals, applying itself solely to
continual discipline and fasting, instead of the improvement of the
heart. For the perusal of the sacred writings and spiritual lessons of
the ancient fathers of the church, was substituted that of legends and
decretals, and the Book of Canons, by which the whole Western church was
governed. Images and relics of the saints acquired an excessive
adoration; and continual discoveries were being made of the bodies of
miracle-working saints. Impostors were to be found, appearing every day
under new names and with fresh miracles, imposing on the credulity of
the public, and amassing wealth by defrauding the pious multitude. Some
of these impostors, too insolent in their practices, were discovered and
punished, whilst others derived from them their whole fortune and
subsistence. It went to such a pass, that an arm of St. Augustine was
found and sold to William, Duke of Aquitaine, for 100 talents. The head
of St. John the Baptist was dug up, and attracted an immense multitude
of spectators, amongst whom was Robert, King of France.[3]
[3] "One head of St. John the Baptist (for there are many, and
John was at last [Greek: ekaton ta kephalas],) was found at the
monastery of St. John of Angeli, at Saintange."--_Jortin's
Remarks on Eccles. Hist._ ann. 1010.
The principal supporters of this religious mania were the Crusaders;
that is to say, those persons who went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
These persons, on their return to their own country, finding all their
substance exhausted, exerted their utmost cunning to regain it;
pretending that they had found some relics of the ancient martyrs or
apostles, or some object relative to the life or death of our Saviour.
By these means an immense number of persons, excited by religious
curiosity, repaired to the places where these objects were exposed, and
the churches and the provinces of which became enriched by them. With
the same motive, in the year 1008, a portion of the rod of Moses was
discovered in France, which attracted a vast number of visiters, both
from that country and Italy. In 1014, some monks, on their return from a
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, brought with them a part of the napkin with
which our Saviour wiped the feet of the apostles at the Last Supper;
and, in order to prove its authenticity, they passed it uninjured
through the flames. This kind of miracles, which were in such favour
with the ignorant multitude in those days, produces no effect, since
chemical science has enabled us to penetrate into the hidden secrets of
nature; and if history is diligently examined, we shall perceive that
the human mind was occupied in the discovery of that science at this
period. The alchemists perhaps, although persecuted as the followers of
the devil, were not altogether extinct, and still read some books which
laid open the discoveries of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The
commercial cities of Italy, in communication with the East, acquired
extraordinary knowledge, of which they availed themselves
disadvantageously to the morality and piety of the Christian church.
About this time, too (the year 1000), the epoch at which, according to
prediction, the world was to be at an end, men began to make fresh
researches, and to build new churches, to repair the old ones, and to
invent novelties. The prophecy of Daniel, which says, "Tempus, tempora,
dimidium temporis," proving by experience to be inapplicable to the
interpretation which the monks and ecclesiastics had generally given it,
produced a new energy in the human mind: and if at first, the wealth of
the churches were aggrandized by profuse largesses, we shall hereafter
see them struggling to preserve it. A disposition also to study was now
induced: and a certain Guido, a monk of Pomposa, being called to Rome as
a music-master, whilst very young, invented the scale or gamut of C
notes, which was then esteemed miraculous.[4] Happily for him the matter
took this turn; for otherwise he would have suffered death. The
religious superstition was so strong, that any unusual effects of human
nature were attributed to diabolical operations; and, in such instances,
the reputed authors were either beheaded or burnt. Such was the fate of
an unhappy wretch who had discovered the secret of making glass
malleable. This sublime genius made a goblet of this glass; and, being
conducted into the presence of Henry, in 1022, he threw it on the
ground, when, instead of breaking, it bent, and suddenly resumed its
original shape. The ignorant emperor, believing him to be possessed with
the devil, ordered him to be beheaded.--_Life of Gregory VII. By Sir
Roger Greisley, Bart._
[4] Erycius Puteanus (Vander Putten,) added the seventh note to
complete the octave, in the sixteenth century.
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