divine Hope, and ardent Charity, not only in their heroic constancy
under assaults, persecutions, sufferings and torments of all, even the
most exquisite, kinds; but in their renunciation of society and of all
earthly enjoyments, in their contempt and abandonment of a world,
which seemed in truth eternally distracted and irretrievably undone.
In the eremitical life, a simple handicraft was ordinarily coupled
with the duty of spiritual contemplation. These first Christian
Anchorites of Egypt were the original and model of all later monastic
institutes; although, conformably to the living and quite practical
spirit of Christianity, these institutes have generally admitted into
their rules other useful and salutary exercises adapted either to the
general circumstances of the age, or to the wants of individuals--such
as the education of youth--the cultivation of the sciences--the relief
of the poor--the care of the infirm--and the practice of other works
of charity. The Anchorites, who lead a purely contemplative life,
constitute a comparatively small and rare exception in the Christian
church; and they are tolerated only because the ways of human nature
are so infinitely diversified, and often so strange and so singular.
To resist their internal foes, to withstand the assaults of the
fiend--the spirit of discord and corruption, and to preserve inviolate
the purity of morals, as well as of faith, the Primitive Christians as
much needed the divine assistance, as to enable them to endure
outwardly the torments of martyrdom, or to renounce in holy solitude
the pleasures of the world. In this respect three different kinds of
heresy, which were so many trials the Christian religion had to
sustain, are well worthy of our attention. From the very birth of
Christianity, the Gnostics gave loose to the ardour of an Oriental
fancy, indulged in a variety of Theosophistic speculations, and with
their systems of Divine Emanations, Eradiations, Incarnations, and
Persons, formed an almost mythological concatenation of ideas; so that
had it been possible for this sect to become predominant, and for
Christianity to swerve into such a labyrinth of doctrines, our divine
religion would have degenerated into a system of metaphysical
fictions, not unlike the philosophic mythology and poetical creed of
India. Happily these sects of Gnostics were not numerous, nor in
general of long duration; and they were extremely divided among
themselves; for a truly inventive fancy ever strikes out a path of
enquiry for itself. But, when considered in an intellectual point of
view, these sectaries, amid all their strange and whimsical errors,
must ever command the attention of mankind. It would seem from all
appearance, (and indeed the nature of things would sufficiently
warrant the inference) that many of these sects combined with their
own peculiar notions, the opinions of other oriental sects, totally
alien from Christianity. As the march of error is infinitely
progressive, and as, from its very nature, false opinion is sure to
branch out into a variety of ramifications, it is often difficult to
determine with exactness whether some of these Gnostic sects, that
spread through Central Asia, and were lost in a multitude of others,
were or not of a Christian origin. Of all the sects belonging to the
Gnostic family, the Manichæans alone appear to have had a longer
existence; and during the middle ages, they secretly germinated in
Europe.
The second corruption of Christianity was from Arianism, which
corresponds to what in modern times is termed Rationalism; though the
former appeared in another and more Christian form. That the dispute
with Arianism was no mere verbal dispute--that it involved a capital
article of faith--a question of life or death for Christianity--a
question whether the real Foundation--the essential Corner-stone--and
Beginning of our faith were really, truly, and in very deed divine,
and from God, and equal with God, or merely in a certain sense like to
God--(an opinion which the Platonic, or any other system of
philosophy might have included among its tenets)--that the dispute
with Arianism was no mere verbal dispute, must be evident to every
upright, ingenuous, and unprejudiced mind. No sect has ever been so
widely diffused, nor has ever taken such deep root; and, by the arts
and evasions of a prodigious subitlty it maintained its principles
under the mask of apparent submission. It was now that for the first
time, the importance and power of a general council became apparent,
in order to oppose to the many-shaped, subtle, and intangible spirit
of error, a brief, but clear, and definite formulary of that faith
which animated the bosom, and was rooted in the conviction, of every
Christian. This destructive rationalism of the early ages of
Christianity was at last repressed, and became finally extinct; though
the last ramifications of this sect have continued down to our times
among the Eutychians of Armenia, and the Nestorians of Ethiopia.
How much the unhappy disputes of Arianism contributed in this period
of general decline, towards the downfal of the Roman Empire, I have
already had occasion to notice. But that passion for dispute, which,
if not innate in man, has at least become his second nature, and is,
as it were, the original sin of human intellect, displays itself in a
more striking degree in certain sects, that did not question any
article of faith, but merely some subordinate matters of opinion, or
the rights of ecclesiastical authority, and who conducted their
disputes with the most unyielding obstinacy--such a passion, I say,
displays itself more strikingly in these sects than in others, that
called in question points of faith, and who, so far as they were
conscientious in their errors, appear entitled to our respect and
forbearance. Among the former class of disputants, must be ranked some
of the smaller, less diffused, and obscurer sects of the first ages of
the church, like the Montanists and Donatists;--sects, whose influence
was on that account by no means unimportant, and who occupy no
insignificant place in the history of their times; for their errors
constitute the third form of deviation from universal Christianity. In
the same category must we place the great schism of a later period,
which severed the Greek from the Western church; for this unhappy
separation, as is well known, had no relation to any important dogma
of Christianity.
As the general councils of that period prove the self-preserving and
self-sustaining power of Christianity, so the energy of Christian
faith and Christian intellect displays its life, activity and
scientific progress in the numberless and manifold productions of
those first doctors of the church, so highly revered by all succeeding
ages. The style and language of these works must be estimated by the
standard of their age; and it would be absurd to expect them to
possess, in a like degree, the attic simplicity of a Xenophon, or the
full and elaborate periods of a Livy. But with this single exception,
these writings display the most varied talents for oratory and
philosophy, united with extensive learning, the purest feelings of
religious love, and the most correct views in religion. And, to cite
but one or two examples out of the multitude of ecclesiastical
writers, St. Augustine, by the extent of his historical information,
by a philosophy zealous in its enquiries after truth, but still
irresolute, presents the image of a Christian Cicero, in a language
somewhat altered indeed, but distinguished for a similar employment of
rhetoric. Nor was this great man destitute of political discernment
and penetration; and he certainly possessed a much more decided talent
for speculative enquiry, than the old Roman who flourished in the last
age of the Republic. There was next that learned and holy recluse, St.
Jerome, who was as well versed in classical literature as in the
oriental languages, and who was gifted with a depth of critical
discernment, and an original power of thought and expression, equalled
by very few orators and thinkers in any age.
The dread of a false Gnosis was at that period, as often in subsequent
ages, an obstacle to the progress of a profound Christian philosophy.
The leaning of the great ecclesiastical writer, Origen, particularly
in his youth, to some opinions of the Gnostics, excited long after his
death many doubts and controversies respecting some points of his
belief, and tended at least to impair the reverence with which his
philosophical genius was otherwise regarded. This was particularly the
case when the Arians made use of some doubtful opinions of this great
man for the support of their system; as indeed it often happens that
an elevated system of philosophy if not completed in its parts, or at
least that the individual errors it may contain are seized upon by the
dull, innovating spirit of a superficial, and half-doubting faith, and
debased to a quite alien and inferior sphere of speculation.
There is also another error, or rather illusion, which deserves to be
noticed, as it is a characteristic incident in the history of those
early ages of the church; for it was no regular system of error, nor
did its partisans constitute a sect; but it was merely the exaggerated
opinion of some individuals in the bosom of the church, who were
animated by no intentions hostile to Christianity. I allude to the (so
called) Millenarian doctrine, which, as it refers to the future
historical destiny of Christianity, possesses a high historical
interest. Though the Prophet of the New Testament marked out the
period of a thousand years for the duration of the triumph of the
church, he expressly intimated thereby that that period could not be
discovered nor determined by human penetration, for, as the scripture
saith, "a thousand years are as one day with the Lord, and one day as
a thousand years;" and though the inspired writer expressly added,
that as the great combat, which man is doomed to on the earth and in
earthly life, can never be completely terminated, a last combat
awaited humanity at the close of those thousand years; many virtuous
and praiseworthy men were still found, who depicted this kingdom of a
thousand years in the most sensual colours of earthly felicity, and
thus destroyed all faith in that prophetic warning, so necessary for
man and for all ages--all belief in the ideal conception of the
kingdom of divine truth: or, with reckless precipitancy equally
misapplied the words of the prophet, and (as has often been the case
in succeeding times) very unseasonably alarmed themselves and others;
though that long series of ages marked out by the Apostle for the
progress of Christianity might have opened their eyes, and taught them
differently. But the principal cause which opposed, and must ever
oppose an insurmountable difficulty to the Millenarian system of that
and of all succeeding ages, is the limit assigned to the judgment of
Christians in all that relates to the inscrutable decrees of Divine
Providence; whether those decrees regard individuals or mankind in
general. Surely nothing could be conceived more disquieting, more
fatal to human life, than for every individual to know beforehand with
the utmost certainty from his birth the day and hour of his death; and
no greater calamity could happen to any man than a revelation of such
a kind. The same remark is equally applicable to the world in general,
where such fore-knowledge would only produce the utmost disorder and
confusion. As in the case of a sick man reduced to imminent danger
from the increasing symptoms of dissolution; though no man, not even
the physician, can positively know and determine with certainty the
course of events, which is known to God alone, still every friend
would wish that the patient should examine his interior, unite his
thoughts to God, and set his house in order; so cases may be imagined,
when this comparison would apply to mankind at large.
Thus then on the Roman soil, and amid that world once so brilliant,
Christianity had grown up, like a tender, luminous plant, whose seed
had come down from Heaven. For the further expansion of that heavenly
seed, for the formation of the Christian state, and the political
organization of Christian nations, we must allow that the all-wise and
powerful Hand, which guides the destinies of men and of nations, the
march of ages, and the course of events, found it necessary to employ
at first very violent, and (if we may borrow a term of the medical
art) almost heroic remedies. The cause of this undoubtedly must be
sought for in the fact, that although many great and holy men are to
be found in the first ages of the church, mankind on the whole had
very imperfectly corresponded to that mighty and divine impulse which
Christianity had imparted to the world; and had very soon and very
quickly fallen into the most fearful disputes. Scarce had that
inundation of the Northern nations burst in upon the blooming garden
of the Christian West, (and beneficial to mankind as have been the
remote consequences and final results of that revolution, and
defensible therefore as it may be in a historical Theodicea, still we
cannot deny that its immediate effects were most terrible and
destructive;)--scarce, we say, had this inundation of the Northern
nations occurred, when, in the opposite quarter of the East, there
broke out among the nations of Asia, that mighty Arabian
conflagration, whose flames were scattered over the terrified globe,
by the sons of the desert, guided by their new prophet of unbelief,
and animated themselves with all the enthusiasm of destruction.
I am at a loss to conceive how some could have regarded it as a
peculiar merit of this religion of empty arrogance and senseless
pride, that it maintains and inculcates with purity a belief in one
Almighty Deity. This, as the Scripture says, the demons themselves, in
their realms of eternal darkness, believe, without being on that
account at all the better; and it is only a profound ignorance of the
world and himself that could ever make man forget and obliterate from
his bosom that first foundation of all faith. All the elements of
salvation, reconciliation, mercy, love, and happiness for mankind, to
be found in eternal truth, and a belief in that truth, all these are
wanting in the religion of Mahomet. There is not a more decided
contrast than that presented by the silent progress of the new and
divine light of truth in the primitive church, amid oppression and
persecution, in meek submission to every existing law, and, except in
matters of faith, in a patient, unwearied, and cheerful submission to
the hostile, but still legitimate, powers of the earth; and, on the
other hand, that fanatic thirst of conquest inspired by Mahomet--that
express precept to propagate by fire and sword throughout the four
quarters of the globe the new _Unitarian_ faith of Arabia. If
some writers instead of studying the history of modern Europe, in
order to deduce from their researches new matter and occasion for
reviving the old contests about the respective rights and limits of
the secular and ecclesiastical powers, would only examine with
attention the history of the ancient Caliphate, they would soon
satisfy themselves of the fearful character of that Institution, of
the infernal spirit that produced that anti-Christian combination of
spiritual and temporal authority, and of the horrible state of moral
degradation to which it has reduced mankind in every country where it
has prevailed.
It was with the rapidity of a destructive fire that this mighty
mischief spread over the countries of Asia, and a large portion of
Africa, till it soon menaced the Southern extremities of Europe. When
Mahomet died, he was master of Arabia, a country that from the
earliest antiquity had remained in a state of absolute seclusion from
the rest of the world; and consequently if this great revolution had
remained confined within the limits of this region, the religion of
Mahomet would never have exerted so mighty an historical influence on
other nations and kingdoms. But only a few score years from his
decease, and under his immediate successors, the whole Western Asia
between the Tigris and Euphrates, as far as the Mediterranean, Syria,
and Palestine, down to Mount Taurus and the frontiers of Asia Minor,
and soon again the whole Northern coast of Africa, down to the
opposite shores of Spain, were subdued by the disciples of the Koran;
while at the same moment the Roman West and the Empire of Persia were
menaced by the arms of these formidable invaders. It was a general
principle with the Mahometan conquerors to extirpate all recollection
of antiquity in the countries which they subdued, to give them an
entirely new form and aspect--or, in other words, to destroy and
obliterate every vestige of the higher and better civilization that
had adorned those once flourishing regions.
[4] Schlegel alludes to the murder of Amalasontha,
daughter of Theodoric, and to the usurpation of
Theodatus.--_Trans._
END OF LECTURE XI.
LECTURE XII.
Sketch of Mahomet and his religion.--Establishment of the
Saracenic Empire.--New organization of the European West, and
Restoration of the Christian Empire.
From the earliest period, the pastoral tribes of Arabia have lived
under their Emirs, in all the wild independence of Nomade nations;
they were not however without cities, as these were created and
rendered necessary by the trade of the caravan, which in its journies
through the wilderness, and in its passage from one inhabited province
to another, required these points of rest. A few of the
frontier-districts and maritime coasts were indeed possessed by some
of the more ancient Egyptian Pharaohs; but the entire country was
never subdued or conquered either by the Assyrians, the Persians, or
the Macedonian conquerors. Nor were the Romans more successful; and it
was only in the reign of Trajan, the last of Roman emperors, who
meditated schemes of conquest, that a small frontier tract of Arabia
Petræa was taken possession of, and annexed to, the Roman Empire.
Immediately on the death of Trajan, the Roman government recurred to
the pacific policy of Augustus, who had considered it dangerous to
enlarge the empire by any new conquests: and in consequence, this
province of Arabia was abandoned by the Romans, and left to the
enjoyment of its ancient freedom.
This long-established liberty and total independence on all foreign
conquerors and rulers has not a little contributed to exalt among the
Arabs a strong self-consciousness. Their origin, which is very nearly
akin to that of the Hebrews, they deduce as descendants of Yoktan
from _Heber_, who was an ancestor of Abraham, or from Ishmael, the son
of Abraham, that was born in the desert. Among these free and warlike
pastoral nations, the feelings of clanship, the pride of noble
descent, and the glory of an ancient and renowned race, and again the
mutual hostility of tribes transmitted from one generation to another,
the never-to-be-cancelled debt of blood, form the ruling and animating
principle, nay, the almost exclusive purport of existence. This
_tribe-spirit_ of the Arabians has had a mighty influence on the
origin and first developement of the Mahometan religion, and has
stamped on it a peculiar character. And among the Nomade nations in a
similar stage of social advancement, and who combine the freedom of
the pastoral life with the commerce of caravans, and are not total
strangers to the refinement of cities, the faith of Mahomet has not
only obtained the easiest access, but has struck the deepest roots,
and finds, as it were, its most natural disciples. For the Tartar
nations in the interior parts of Asia, and the tribes of Berbers, who
are the original inhabitants of the North of Africa, lead the same
mode of life, though they cannot boast of the ancient origin and high
descent ascribed to the Arabs. Compared with Roman degeneracy, with
the corruption of the Byzantine court, with Assyrian effeminacy, and
the immorality of the great Asiatic cities, this tribe-character of
the Arabians, as preserved in its purity during their ancient freedom,
appears undoubtedly to be of a less corrupt, more moral and more
generous nature. Doubtless the Arabs possessed in the first ages of
their history, a great moral energy of will and strength of character,
and, even in the period of their decline, these qualities are still
perceptible. On the other hand in this _tribe-character_, and in
those feelings of clanship, which determine all the social relations
among that people; pride, party-animosities, and the spirit of
revenge, are the ruling elements of life, and the passions to which
all things are made subservient, or are sacrificed. The moral
corruption of the human race, the profound disorder of man's whole
being, is proved as well by the constant proneness of civilized
nations towards a soft voluptuousness of morals, or by the innate
disposition of politer classes and ages to a spirit of speculative
contention, as by the rude pride and animosities of tribes, which
considered in a natural point of view, appear to be purer and less
corrupt in their morals, or to possess greater strength and generosity
of character. Those tribe-feelings and passions of pride and hatred,
anger and revenge, so prevalent among the Arabians, are displayed in
their ancient poetry, and even constitute its essential spirit and
purport; for except those parables, riddles, and proverbial sayings in
which the Orientals so much delight, this poetry has no mythological
fictions, like that of the Indians and the Greeks, nor with the
exception of a certain enthusiasm of passion, does it evince any truly
fertile and inventive power of imagination.
The old Arabians never possessed, like the Indians, Egyptians, and
Greeks, a poetical, high-wrought, and scientifically arranged system
of Polytheism. The historical traditions of their different races had
much analogy with those of the Hebrews, and coincided with them in a
variety of points; for as they were of the Semitic race, they deduced
their origin from Abraham and the other holy Patriarchs of the
primitive world. Hence the tradition of a purer faith, and the simple,
patriarchal worship of the Deity, appear to have never been totally
extinguished among the Arabs; though indeed the veracious Herodotus
asserts, that they adored the Assyrian Venus under the name of
Alilath. But such a mixture of religious doctrines and practices is by
no means incredible, when we reflect on those periods in the history
of the Hebrews, when though that people were in possession of the
Mosaic revelation and code of laws, and though their whole arrangment
of life were founded thereon; though mighty and zealous prophets
perpetually arose to warn them of their errors; they still went after
Baal, and still sacrificed their children to Moloch. In the age of
Mahomet, and shortly before his time, various kinds of idolatry had
found their way among the Arabs from the neighbouring nations, who if
not now, had formerly been plunged in the errors of Paganism. At the
same time several Jewish tribes existed in Arabia, and even some
Christian communities, belonging mostly to the Oriental sects, mingled
with the rest of the population. The neighbouring Christian monarch,
or Negus of Æthiopia, also exerted considerable influence on the
different tribes and communities of Arabia.