409 Milman, _Hist. of Latin Christianity_, vol. i. pp. 314-318. Dean

Milman thus sums up the history: “Monks in Alexandria, monks in

Antioch, monks in Jerusalem, monks in Constantinople, decide

peremptorily on orthodoxy and heterodoxy. The bishops themselves

cower before them. Macedonius in Constantinople, Flavianus in

Antioch, Elias in Jerusalem, condemn themselves and abdicate, or are

driven from their sees. Persecution is universal—persecution by

every means of violence and cruelty; the only question is, in whose

hands is the power to persecute.... Bloodshed, murder, treachery,

assassination, even during the public worship of God—these are the

frightful means by which each party strives to maintain its opinions

and to defeat its adversary.”

410 See a striking passage from Julianus of Eclana, cited by Milman,

_Hist. of Latin Christianity_, vol. i. p. 164.

411 “Nowhere is Christianity less attractive than in the Councils of the

Church.... Intrigue, injustice, violence, decisions on authority

alone, and that the authority of a turbulent majority, ... detract

from the reverence and impugn the judgments of at least the later

Councils. The close is almost invariably a terrible anathema, in

which it is impossible not to discern the tones of human hatred, of

arrogant triumph, of rejoicing at the damnation imprecated against

the humiliated adversary.”—Ibid. vol. i. p. 202.

412 See the account of this scene in Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_, ch.

xlvii.; Milman, _Hist. of Latin Christianity_, vol. i. p. 263. There

is a conflict of authorities as to whether the Bishop of Alexandria

himself kicked his adversary, or, to speak more correctly, the act

which is charged against him by some contemporary writers is not

charged against him by others. The violence was certainly done by

his followers and in his presence.

413 Ammianus Marcellinus, xxvii. 3.

414 Cyprian, _Ep._ lxi.

415 Milman, _Hist. of Christianity_, vol. ii. p. 306.

416 Ibid. iii. 10.

417 “By this time the Old Testament language and sentiment with regard

to idolatry were completely incorporated with the Christian feeling;

and when Ambrose enforced on a Christian Emperor the sacred duty of

intolerance against opinions and practices which scarcely a century

before had been the established religion of the Empire, his zeal was

supported by almost the unanimous applause of the Christian

world.”—Milman’s _Hist. of Christianity_, vol. iii. p. 159.

418 See the Theodosian laws of Paganism.

419 This appears from the whole history of the controversy; but the

prevailing feeling is, I think, expressed with peculiar vividness in

the following passage:—“Eadmer says (following the words of Bede) in

Colman’s times there was a sharp controversy about the observing of

Easter, and other rules of life for churchmen; therefore, this

question deservedly excited the minds and feeling of many people,

fearing lest, perhaps, after having received the name of Christians,

they should run, or had run in vain.”—King’s _Hist. of the Church of

Ireland_, book ii. ch. vi.

420 Gibbon, chap. lxiii.

421 An interesting sketch of this very interesting prelate has lately

been written by M. Druon, _Étude sur la Vie et les Œuvres de

Synésius_ (Paris, 1859).

422 Tradition has pronounced Gregory the Great to have been the

destroyer of the Palatine library, and to have been especially

zealous in burning the writings of Livy, because they described the

achievements of the Pagan gods. For these charges, however (which I

am sorry to find repeated by so eminent a writer as Dr. Draper),

there is no real evidence, for they are not found in any writer

earlier than the twelfth century. (See Bayle, _Dict._ art. “Greg.”)

The extreme contempt of Gregory for Pagan literature is, however,

sufficiently manifested in his famous and very curious letter to

Desiderius, Bishop of Vienne, rebuking him for having taught certain

persons Pagan literature, and thus mingled “the praises of Jupiter

with the praises of Christ;” doing what would be impious even for a

religious layman, “polluting the mind with the blasphemous praises

of the wicked.” Some curious evidence of the feelings of the

Christians of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, about Pagan

literature, is given in Guinguené, _Hist. littéraire de l’Italie_,

tome i. p. 29-31, and some legends of a later period are candidly

related by one of the most enthusiastic English advocates of the

Middle Ages. (Maitland, _Dark Ages_.)

423 Probably the best account of the intellectual history of these times

is still to be found in the admirable introductory chapters with

which the Benedictines prefaced each century of their _Hist.

littéraire de la France_. The Benedictines think (with Hallam) that

the eighth century was, on the whole, the darkest on the continent,

though England attained its lowest point somewhat later. Of the

great protectors of learning Theodoric was unable to write (see

Guinguené, tome i. p. 31), and Charlemagne (Eginhard) only began to

learn when advanced in life, and was never quite able to master the

accomplishment. Alfred, however, was distinguished in literature.

424 The belief that the world was just about to end was, as is well

known, very general among the early Christians, and greatly affected

their lives. It appears in the New Testament, and very clearly in

the epistle ascribed to Barnabas in the first century. The

persecutions of the second and third centuries revived it, and both

Tertullian and Cyprian (_in Demetrianum_) strongly assert it. With

the triumph of Christianity the apprehension for a time subsided;

but it reappeared with great force when the dissolution of the

Empire was manifestly impending, when it was accomplished, and in

the prolonged anarchy and suffering that ensued. Gregory of Tours,

writing in the latter part of the sixth century, speaks of it as

very prevalent (_Prologue to the First Book_); and St. Gregory the

Great, about the same time, constantly expresses it. The panic that

filled Europe at the end of the tenth century has been often

described.

425 Maitland’s _Dark Ages_, p. 403.

426 This passion for scraping MSS. became common, according to

Montfaucon, after the twelfth century. (Maitland, p. 40.) According

to Hallam, however (_Middle Ages_, ch. ix. part i.), it must have

begun earlier, being chiefly caused by the cessation or great

diminution of the supply of Egyptian papyrus, in consequence of the

capture of Alexandria by the Saracens, early in the seventh century.

427 Bede, _H. E._ iv. 24.

428 Mariana, _De Rebus Hispaniæ_, vi. 7. Mariana says the stone was in

his time preserved as a relic.

429 Odericus Vitalis, quoted by Maitland (_Dark Ages_, pp. 268-269). The

monk was restored to life that he might have an opportunity of

reformation. The escape was a narrow one, for there was only one

letter against which no sin could be adduced—a remarkable instance

of the advantages of a diffuse style.

430 Digby, _Mores Catholici_, book x. p. 246. Matthew of Westminster

tells of a certain king who was very charitable, and whose right

hand (which had assuaged many sorrows) remained undecayed after

death (A.D. 644).

431 See Hauréau, _Hist. de la Philosophie scolastique_, tome i. pp.

24-25.

432 On the progress of Roman civilisation in Britain, see Tacitus,

_Agricola_, xxi.

433 See the Benedictine _Hist. littér. de la France_, tome i. part ii.

p. 9.

434 A biographer of St. Thomas Aquinas modestly observes:—“L’opinion

généralement répandue parmi les théologiens c’est que la _Somme de

Théologie_ de St. Thomas est non-seulement son chef-d’œuvre mais

aussi celui de l’esprit humain.” (!!)—Carle, _Hist. de St.-Thomas

d’Aquin_, p. 140.

435 See Viardot, _Hist. des Arabes en Espagne_, ii. 142-166. Prescott’s

_Ferdinand and Isabella_, ch. viii. Viardot contends that the

compass—which appears to have been long known in China—was first

introduced into Europe by the Mohammedans; but the evidence of this

appears inconclusive.

436 Herder.

437 “Impius ne audeto placare donis iram Deorum.”—Cicero, _De Leg._ ii.

9. See, too, Philost. _Apoll. Tyan._ i. 11.

438 There are three or four instances of this related by Porphyry, _De

Abstin. Carnis_, lib. ii.

439 Muratori, _Antich. Italiane_, diss. lxvii.

440 See, on the causes of the wealth of the monasteries, two admirable

dissertations by Muratori, _Antich. Italiane_, lxvii., lxviii.;

Hallam’s _Middle Ages_, ch. vii. part i.

441 “Lors de l’établissement du christianisme la religion avoit

essentiellement consisté dans l’enseignement moral; elle avoit

exercé les cœurs et les âmes par la recherche de ce qui étoit

vraiment beau, vraiment honnête. Au cinquième siècle on l’avoit

surtout attachée à l’orthodoxie, au septième on l’avoit réduite à la

bienfaisance envers les couvens.”—Sismondi, _Hist. des Français_,

tome ii. p. 50.

442 Mr. Hallam, speaking of the legends of the miracles of saints, says:

“It must not be supposed that these absurdities were produced as

well as nourished by ignorance. In most cases they were the work of

deliberate imposture. Every cathedral or monastery had its tutelar

saint, and every saint his legend, fabricated in order to enrich the

churches under his protection, by exaggerating his virtues, his

miracles, and consequently his power of serving those who paid

liberally for his patronage.”—_Middle Ages_, ch. ix. part i. I do

not think this passage makes sufficient allowance for the

unconscious formation of many saintly myths, but no impartial person

can doubt its substantial truth.

443 Sismondi, _Hist. des Français_, tome ii. pp. 54, 62-63.

444 Milman’s _Hist. of Latin Christianity_, vol. ii. p. 257.

445 Durandus, a French bishop of the thirteenth century, tells how,

“when a certain bishop was consecrating a church built out of the

fruits of usury and pillage, he saw behind the altar the devil in a

pontifical vestment, standing at the bishop’s throne, who said unto

the bishop, ‘Cease from consecrating the church; for it pertaineth

to my jurisdiction, since it is built from the fruits of usuries and

robberies.’ Then the bishop and the clergy having fled thence in

fear, immediately the devil destroyed that church with a great

noise.”—_Rationale Divinorum_, i. 6 (translated for the Camden

Society).

A certain St. Launomar is said to have refused a gift for his

monastery from a rapacious noble, because he was sure it was derived

from pillage. (Montalembert’s _Moines d’Occident_, tome ii. pp.

350-351.) When prostitutes were converted in the early Church, it

was the rule that the money of which they had become possessed

should never be applied to ecclesiastical purposes, but should be

distributed among the poor.

_ 446 Verba Seniorum_, Prol. § 172.

447 This vision is not related by St. Gregory himself, and some

Catholics are perplexed about it, on account of the vision of

another saint, who afterwards asked whether Trajan was saved, and

received for answer, “I wish men to rest in ignorance of this

subject, that the Catholics may become stronger. For this emperor,

though he had great virtues, was an unbaptised infidel.” The whole

subject of the vision of St. Gregory is discussed by Champagny, _Les

Antonins_, tome i. pp. 372-373. This devout writer says, “Cette

légende fut acceptée par tout le moyen-âge, _indulgent pour les

païens illustres_ et tout disposé à les supposer chrétiens et

sauvés.”

448 See the solemn asseveration of the care which he took in going only

to the most credible and authorised sources for his materials, in

the Preface to the First Book of _Dialogues_.

_ 449 Dial._ iv. 36.

450 Ibid. iv. 30.

451 Ibid. iv. 35.

452 The fullest collection of these visions with which I am acquainted

is that made for the Philobiblion Society (vol. ix.), by M.

Delepierre, called _L’Enfer décrit par ceux qui l’ont vu_, of which

I have largely availed myself. See, too, Rusca _De Inferno_,

Wright’s _Purgatory of St. Patrick_, and an interesting collection

of visions given by Mr. Longfellow, in his translation of Dante. The

Irish saints were, I am sorry to say, prominent in producing this

branch of literature. St. Fursey, whose vision is one of the

earliest, and Tondale, or Tundale, whose vision is one of the most

detailed, were both Irish. The English historians contain several of

these visions. Bede relates two or three—William of Malmesbury that

of Charles the Fat; Matthew Paris three visions of purgatory.

453 The narrow bridge over hell (in some visions covered with spikes),

which is a conspicuous feature in the Mohammedan pictures of the

future world, appears very often in Catholic visions. See Greg. Tur.

iv. 33; St. Greg. _Dial._ iv. 36; and the vision of Tundale, in

Delepierre.

454 Few Englishmen, I imagine, are aware of the infamous publications

written with this object, that are circulated by the Catholic

priests among the poor. I have before me a tract “for children and

young persons,” called _The Sight of Hell_, by the Rev. J. Furniss,

C.S.S.R., published “permissu superiorum,” by Duffy (Dublin and

London). It is a detailed description of the dungeons of hell, and a

few sentences may serve as a sample. “See! on the middle of that

red-hot floor stands a girl; she looks about sixteen years old. Her

feet are bare. She has neither shoes nor stockings.... Listen! she

speaks. She says, I have been standing on this red-hot floor for

years. Day and night my only standing-place has been this red-hot

floor.... Look at my burnt and bleeding feet. Let me go off this

burning floor for one moment, only for one single short moment....

The fourth dungeon is the boiling kettle ... in the middle of it

there is a boy.... His eyes are burning like two burning coals. Two

long flames come out of his ears.... Sometimes he opens his mouth,

and blazing fire rolls out. But listen! there is a sound like a

kettle boiling.... The blood is boiling in the scalded veins of that

boy. The brain is boiling and bubbling in his head. The marrow is

boiling in his bones.... The fifth dungeon is the red-hot oven....

The little child is in this red-hot oven. Hear how it screams to

come out. See how it turns and twists itself about in the fire. It

beats its head against the roof of the oven. It stamps its little

feet on the floor.... God was very good to this child. Very likely

God saw it would get worse and worse, and would never repent, and so

it would have to be punished much more in hell. So God in His mercy

called it out of the world in its early childhood.” If the reader

desires to follow this subject further, he may glance over a

companion tract by the same reverend gentleman, called _A Terrible

Judgment on a Little Child_; and also a book on _Hell_, translated

from the Italian of Pinamonti, and with illustrations depicting the

various tortures.

455 St. Greg. _Dial._ iv. 38.

456 Ibid. iv. 18.

457 Alger’s _History of the Doctrine of a Future Life_ (New York, 1866),

p. 414. The ignis fatuus was sometimes supposed to be the soul of an

unbaptised child. There is, I believe, another Catholic legend about

the redbreast, of a very different kind—that its breast was stained

with blood when it was trying to pull out the thorns from the crown

of Christ.

458 Wright’s _Purgatory of St. Patrick_, p. 26. M. Delepierre quotes a

curious theory of Father Hardouin (who is chiefly known for his

suggestion that the classics were composed by the mediæval monks)

that the rotation of the earth is caused by the lost souls trying to

escape from the fire that is at the centre of the globe, climbing,

in consequence, on the inner crust of the earth, which is the wall

of hell, and thus making the whole revolve, as the squirrel by

climbing turns its cage! (_L’Enfer décrit par ceux qui l’ont vu_, p.

151.)

459 Delepierre, p. 70.

460 Thus, in a book which was attributed (it is said erroneously) to

Jeremy Taylor, we find two singularly unrhetorical and unimpassioned

chapters, deliberately enumerating the most atrocious acts of

cruelty in human history, and maintaining that they are surpassed by

the tortures inflicted by the Deity. A few instances will suffice.

Certain persons “put rings of iron, stuck full of sharp points of

needles, about their arms and feet, in such a manner as the

prisoners could not move without wounding themselves; then they

compassed them about with fire, to the end that, standing still,

they might be burnt alive, and if they stirred the sharp points

pierced their flesh.... What, then, shall be the torment of the

damned where they shall burn eternally without dying, and without

possibility of removing?... Alexander, the son of Hyrcanus, caused

eight hundred to be crucified, and whilst they were yet alive caused

their wives and children to be murdered before their eyes, that so

they might not die once, but many deaths. This rigour shall not be

wanting in hell.... Mezentius tied a living body to a dead until the

putrefied exhalations of the dead had killed the living.... What is

this in respect of hell, when each body of the damned is more

loathsome and unsavoury than a million of dead dogs?... Bonaventure

says, if one of the damned were brought into this world it were

sufficient to infect the whole earth.... We are amazed to think of

the inhumanity of Phalaris, who roasted men alive in his brazen

bull. That was a joy in respect of that fire of hell.... This

torment ... comprises as many torments as the body of man has

joints, sinews, arteries, &c., being caused by that penetrating and

real fire, of which this temporal fire is but a painted fire....

What comparison will there be between burning for a hundred years’

space, and to be burning without interruption as long as God is

God?”—_Contemplations on the State of Man_, book ii. ch. 6-7, in

Heber’s Edition of the works of Taylor.

461 Perrone, _Historiæ Theologiæ cum Philosophia comparata Synopsis_, p.

29. Peter Lombard’s work was published in A.D. 1160.

462 “Postremo quæritur, An pœna reproborum visa decoloret gloriam

beatorum? an eorum beatitudini proficiat? De hoc ita Gregorius ait,

Apud animum justorum non obfuscat beatitudinem aspecta pœna

reproborum; quia ubi jam compassio miseriæ non erit, minuere

beatorum lætitiam non valebit. Et licet justis sua gaudia

sufficiant, ad majorem gloriam vident pœnas malorum quas per gratiam

evaserunt.... Egredientur ergo electi, non loco, sed intelligentia

vel visione manifesta ad videndum impiorum cruciatus; quos videntes

non dolore afficientur sed lætitia satiabuntur, agentes gratias de

sua liberatione visa impiorum ineffabili calamitate. Unde Esaias

impiorum tormenta describens et ex eorum visione lætitiam bonorum

exprimens, ait, Egredientur electi scilicet et videbunt cadavera

virorum qui prævaricati sunt in me. Vermis eorum non morietur et

ignis non extinguetur, et erunt usque ad satietatem visionis omni

carni, id est electis. Lætabitur justus cum viderit

vindictam.”—Peter Lombard, _Senten._ lib. iv. finis. These amiable

views have often been expressed both by Catholic and by Puritan

divines. See Alger’s _Doctrine of a Future Life_, p. 541.

_ 463 Legenda Aurea._ There is a curious fresco representing this

transaction, on the portal of the church of St. Lorenzo, near Rome.

464 Aimoni, _De Gestis Francorum Hist._ iv. 34.

465 Turpin’s _Chronicle_, ch. 32. In the vision of Watlin, however (A.D.

824), Charlemagne was seen tortured in purgatory on account of his

excessive love of women. (Delepierre, _L’Enfer décrit par ceux qui

l’ont vu_, pp. 27-28.)

466 As the Abbé Mably observes: “On croyoit en quelque sorte dans ces

siècles grossiers que l’avarice étoit le premier attribut de Dieu,

et que les saints faisoient un commerce de leur crédit et de leur

protection. De-là les richesses immenses données aux églises par des

hommes dont les mœurs déshonoroient la religion.”—_Observations sur

l’Hist. de France_, i. 4.

467 Many curious examples of the way in which the Troubadours burlesqued

the monkish visions of hell are given by Delepierre, p.

144.—Wright’s _Purgatory of St. Patrick_, pp. 47-52.

468 Comte, _Philosophie positive_, tome v. p. 269.

469 “Saint-Bernard, dans son sermon _De obitu Humberti_, affirme que

tous les tourments de cette vie sont joies si on les compare à une

seconde des peines du purgatoire. ‘Imaginez-vous donc, délicates

dames,’ dit le père Valladier (1613) dans son sermon du 3me dimanche

de l’Avent, ‘d’estre au travers de vos chenets, sur vostre petit feu

pour une centaine d’ans: ce n’est rien au respect d’un moment de

purgatoire. Mais si vous vistes jamais tirer quelqu’un à quatre

chevaux, quelqu’un brusler à petit feu, enrager de faim ou de soif,

une heure de purgatoire est pire que tout cela.’ ”—Meray, _Les

Libres Prêcheurs_ (Paris, 1860), pp. 130-131 (an extremely curious

and suggestive book). I now take up the first contemporary book of

popular Catholic devotion on this subject which is at hand, and

read: “Compared with the pains of purgatory, then, all those wounds

and dark prisons, all those wild beasts, hooks of iron, red-hot

plates, &c., which the holy martyrs suffered, are nothing.” “They

(souls in purgatory) are in a real, though miraculous manner,

tortured by fire, which is of the same kind (says Bellarmine) as our

element fire.” “The Angelic Doctor affirms ‘that the fire which

torments the damned is like the fire which purges the elect.’ ”

“What agony will not those holy souls suffer when tied and bound

with the most tormenting chains of a living fire like to that of

hell! and we, while able to make them free and happy, shall we stand

like uninterested spectators?” “St. Austin is of opinion that the

pains of a soul in purgatory during the time required to open and

shut one’s eye is more severe than what St. Lawrence suffered on the

gridiron;” and much more to the same effect. (_Purgatory opened to

the Piety of the Faithful._ Richardson, London.)

470 See Delepierre, Wright, and Alger.

471 This appears from the vision of Thurcill. (Wright’s _Purgatory of

St. Patrick_, p. 42.) Brompton (_Chronicon_) tells of an English

landlord who had refused to pay tithes. St. Augustine, having vainly

reasoned with him, at last convinced him by a miracle. Before

celebrating mass he ordered all excommunicated persons to leave the

church, whereupon a corpse got out of a grave and walked away. The

corpse, on being questioned, said it was the body of an ancient

Briton who refused to pay tithes, and had in consequence been

excommunicated and damned.

472 Greg. _Dial._ iv. 40.

473 As Sismondi says: “Pendant quatre-vingts ans, tout au moins, il n’y

eut pas un Franc qui songeât à transmettre à la postérité la mémoire

des événements contemporains, et pendant le même espace de temps il

n’y eut pas un personnage puissant qui ne bâtit des temples pour la

postérité la plus reculée.”—_Hist. des Français_, tome ii. p. 46.

474 Gibbon says of the period during which the Merovingian dynasty

reigned, that “it would be difficult to find anywhere more vice or

less virtue.” Hallam reproduces this observation, and adds: “The

facts of these times are of little other importance than as they

impress on the mind a thorough notion of the extreme wickedness of

almost every person concerned in them, and consequently of the state

to which society was reduced.”—_Hist. of the Middle Ages_, ch. i.

Dean Milman is equally unfavourable and emphatic in his judgment.

“It is difficult to conceive a more dark and odious state of society

than that of France under her Merovingian kings, the descendants of

Clovis, as described by Gregory of Tours. In the conflict of

barbarism with Roman Christianity, barbarism has introduced into

Christianity all its ferocity with none of its generosity and

magnanimity; its energy shows itself in atrocity of cruelty, and

even of sensuality. Christianity has given to barbarism hardly more

than its superstition and its hatred of heretics and unbelievers.

Throughout, assassinations, parricides, and fratricides intermingle

with adulteries and rapes.”—_History of Latin Christianity_, vol. i.

p. 365.

475 Greg. Tur. iv. 12. Gregory mentions (v. 41) another bishop who used

to become so intoxicated as to be unable to stand; and St. Boniface,

after describing the extreme sensuality of the clergy of his time,

adds that there are some bishops “qui licet dicant se fornicarios

vel adulteros non esse, sed sunt ebriosi et injuriosi,” &c.—_Ep._

xlix.

476 Greg. Tur. iv. 12.

477 Ibid. viii. 29. She gave them knives with hollow grooves, filled

with poison, in the blades.

478 Ibid. vii. 20.

479 Ibid. viii. 31-41.

480 Ibid. v. 19.

481 See his very curious correspondence with her.—_Ep._ vi. 5, 50, 59;

ix. 11, 117; xi. 62-63.

482 Avitus, _Ep._ v. He adds: “Minuebat regni felicitas numerum regalium

personarum.”

483 See the emphatic testimony of St. Boniface in the eighth century.

“Modo autem maxima ex parte per civitates episcopales sedes traditæ

sunt laicis cupidis ad possidendum, vel adulteratis clericis,

scortatoribus et publicanis sæculariter ad perfruendum.”—_Epist._

xlix. “ad Zachariam.” The whole epistle contains an appalling

picture of the clerical vices of the times.

484 More than one Council made decrees about this. See the _Vie de St.

Léger_, by Dom Pitra, pp. 172-177.

485 Greg. Tur. iv. 43. St. Boniface, at a much later period (A.D. 742),

talks of bishops “Qui pugnant in exercitu armati et effundunt

propria manu sanguinem hominum.”—_Ep._ xlix.

486 Greg. Tur. iv. 26.

487 Ibid. iv. 20.

488 Ibid. iii. 26.

489 Ibid. ix. 34.

490 Ibid. viii. 19. Gregory says this story should warn clergymen not to

meddle with the wives of other people, but “content themselves with

those that they may possess without crime.” The abbot had previously

tried to seduce the husband within the precincts of the monastery,

that he might murder him.

491 Ibid. v. 3.

492 Ibid. viii. 39. She was guilty of many other crimes, which the

historian says “it is better to pass in silence.” The bishop himself

had been guilty of outrageous and violent tyranny. The marriage of

ecclesiastics appears at this time to have been common in Gaul,

though the best men commonly deserted their wives when they were

ordained. Another bishop’s wife (iv. 36) was notorious for her

tyranny.

493 Fredigarius, xlii. The historian describes Clotaire as a perfect

paragon of Christian graces.

494 “Au sixième siècle on compte 214 établissements religieux des

Pyrénées à la Loire et des bouches du Rhône aux Vosges.”—Ozanam,

_Études germaniques_, tome ii. p. 93. In the two following centuries

the ecclesiastical wealth was enormously increased.

495 Matthew of Westminster (A.D. 757) speaks of no less than eight Saxon

kings having done this.

496 “Le septième siècle est celui peut-être qui a donné le plus de

saints au calendrier.”—Sismondi, _Hist. de France_, tome ii. p. 50.

“Le plus beau titre du septième siècle à une réhabilitation c’est le

nombre considérable de saints qu’il a produits.... Aucun siècle n’a

été ainsi glorifié sauf l’âge des martyrs dont Dieu s’est réservé de

compter le nombre. Chaque année fournit sa moisson, chaque jour a sa

gerbe.... Si donc il plaît à Dieu et au Christ de répandre à pleines

mains sur un siècle les splendeurs des saints, qu’importe que

l’histoire et la gloire humaine en tiennent peu compte?”—Pitra, _Vie

de St. Léger_, Introd. p. x.-xi. This learned and very credulous

writer (who is now a cardinal) afterwards says that we have the

record of more than eight hundred saints of the seventh century.

(Introd. p. lxxx.)

497 See, e.g., the very touching passage about the death of his

children, v. 35.

498 Lib. ii. Prologue.

499 Greg. Tur. ii. 27-43.

500 He observes how impossible it was that he could be guilty of

shedding the blood of a relation: “Sed in his ego nequaquam conscius

sum. Nec enim possum sanguinem parentum meorum effundere.”—Greg.

Tur. ii. 40.

501 “Prosternebat enim quotidie Deus hostes ejus sub manu ipsius, et

augebat regnum ejus eo quod ambularet recto corde coram eo, et

faceret quæ placita erant in oculis ejus.”—Greg. Tur. ii. 40.

502 Lib. iii. Prologue. St. Avitus enumerates in glowing terms the

Christian virtues of Clovis (_Ep._ xli.), but, as this was in a

letter addressed to the king himself, the eulogy may easily be

explained.

503 Thus Hallam says: “There are continual proofs of immorality in the

monkish historians. In the history of Rumsey Abbey, one of our best

documents for Anglo-Saxon times, we have an anecdote of a bishop who

made a Danish nobleman drunk, that he might cheat him out of an

estate, which is told with much approbation. Walter de Hemingford

records, with excessive delight, the well-known story of the Jews

who were persuaded by the captain of their vessel to walk on the

sands at low water till the rising tide drowned them.”—Hallam’s

_Middle Ages_ (12th ed.), iii. p. 306.

504 Canciani, _Leges Barbarorum_, vol. iii. p. 64. Canciani notices,

that among the Poles the teeth of the offending persons were pulled

out. The following passage, from Bodin, is, I think, very

remarkable: “Les loix et canons veulent qu’on pardonne aux

hérétiques repentis (combien que les magistrats en quelques lieux

par cy-devant, y ont eu tel esgard, que celui qui avoit mangé de la

chair au Vendredy estoit bruslé tout vif, comme il fut faict en la

ville d’Angers l’an mil cinq cens trente-neuf, s’il ne s’en

repentoit: et jaçoit qu’il se repentist si estoit-il pendu par

compassion).”—_Démonomanie des Sorciers_, p. 216.

505 A long list of examples of extreme maceration, from lives of the

saints of the seventh and eighth centuries is given by Pitra, _Vie

de St. Léger_, Introd. pp. cv.-cvii.

506 This was related of St. Equitius.—Greg. _Dialog._ i. 4.

507 Ibid. i. 5. This saint was named Constantius.

508 A vast number of miracles of this kind are recorded. See, e.g.,

Greg. Tur. _De Miraculis_, i. 61-66; _Hist._ iv. 49. Perhaps the

most singular instance of the violation of the sanctity of the

church was that by the nuns of a convent founded by St. Radegunda.

They, having broken into rebellion, four bishops, with their

attendant clergy, went to compose the dispute, and having failed,

excommunicated the rebels, whereupon the nuns almost beat them to

death in the church.—Greg. Tur. ix. 41.

509 See Canciani, _Leges Barbarorum_, vol. iii. pp. 19, 151.

510 Much information about these measures is given by Dr. Hessey, in his

_Bampton Lectures on Sunday_. See especially, lect. 3. See, too,

Moehler, _Le Christianisme et l’Esclavage_, pp. 186-187.

511 Gregory of Tours enumerates some instances of this in his

extravagant book _De Miraculis_, ii. 11; iv. 57; v. 7. One of these

cases, however, was for having worked on the day of St. John the

Baptist. Some other miracles of the same nature, taken, I believe,

from English sources, are given in Hessey’s _Sunday_ (3rd edition),

p. 321.

512 Compare Pitra, _Vie de St.-Léger_, p. 137. Sismondi, _Hist. des

Français_, tome ii. pp. 62-63.

513 See a remarkable passage from his life, cited by Guizot, _Hist. de

la Civilisation en France_, xviime leçon. The English historians

contain several instances of the activity of charity in the darkest

period. Alfred and Edward the Confessor were conspicuous for it.

Ethelwolf is said to have provided, “for the good of his soul,”

that, till the day of judgment, one poor man in ten should be

provided with meat, drink, and clothing. (Asser’s _Life of Alfred_.)

There was a popular legend that a poor man having in vain asked alms

of some sailors, all the bread in their vessel was turned into

stone. (Roger of Wendover, A.D. 606.) See, too, another legend of

charity in Matthew of Westminster, A.D. 611.

514 Greg. Tur. _Hist._ v. 8.

515 M. Guizot has given several specimens of this (_Hist. de la

Civilis._ xviime leçon).

516 This portion of mediæval history has lately been well traced by Mr.

Maclear, in his _History of Christian Missions in the Middle Ages_

(1863). See, too, Montalembert’s _Moines d’Occident_; Ozanam’s

_Études germaniques_. The original materials are to be found in

Bede, and in the _Lives of the Saints_—especially that of St.

Columba, by Adamnan. On the French missionaries, see the Benedictine

_Hist. lit. de la France_, tome iv. p. 5; and on the English

missionaries, Sharon Turner’s _Hist. of England_, book x. ch. ii.

517 Dion Chrysostom, _Or._ ii. (_De Regno_).

518 Gibbon, ch. xvi.

519 Origen, _Cels._ lib. viii.

520 “Navigamus et nos vobiscum et militamus.”—Tert. _Apol._ xlii. See,

too, Grotius _De Jure_, i. cap. ii.

521 See an admirable dissertation on the opinions of the early

Christians about military service, in Le Blant, _Inscriptions

chrétiennes de la Gaule_, tome i. pp. 81-87. The subject is

frequently referred to by Barbeyrac, _Morale des Pères_, and

Grotius, _De Jure_, lib. i. cap. ii.

522 Philostorgius, ii. 5.

523 See some excellent remarks on this change, in Milman’s _History of

Christianity_, vol. ii. pp. 287-288.

524 Mably, _Observations sur l’Histoire de France_, i. 6; Hallam’s

_Middle Ages_, ch. ii. part ii.

525 Wakeman’s _Archæologia Hibernica_, p. 21. However, Giraldus

Cambrensis observes that the Irish saints were peculiarly

vindictive, and St. Columba and St. Comgall are said to have been

leaders in a sanguinary conflict about a church near Coleraine. See

Reeve’s edition of Adamnan’s _Life of St. Columba_, pp. lxxvii. 253.

526 Campion’s _Historie of Ireland_ (1571), book i. ch. vi.

527 It seems curious to find in so calm and unfanatical a writer as

Justus Lipsius the following passage: “Jam et invasio quædam

legitima videtur etiam sine injuria, ut in barbaros et moribus aut

_religione_ prorsum a nobis abhorrentes.”—_Politicorum sive Civilis

Doctrinæ libri_ (Paris, 1594), lib. iv. ch. ii. cap. iv.

528 “Con l’occasione di queste cose Plutarco nel _Teseo_ dice che gli

eroi si recavano a grande onore e si reputavano in pregio d’armi con

l’esser chiamati ladroni; siccome a’ tempi barbari ritornati quello

di Corsale era titolo riputato di signoria; d’intorno a’ quali tempi

venuto Solone, si dice aver permesso nelle sue leggi le società per

cagion di prede; tanto Solone ben intese questa nostra compiuta

Umanità, nella quale costoro non godono del diritto natural delle

genti! Ma quel che fa più maraviglia è che Platone ed Aristotile

posero il ladroneccio fralle spezie della caccia e con tali e tanti

filosofi d’una gente umanissima convengono con la loro barbarie i

Germani antichi; appo i quali al referire di Cesare ì ladronecci non

solo non eran infami, ma si tenevano tra gli esercizi della virtù

siccome tra quelli che per costume non applicando ad arte alcuna

così fuggivano l’ozio.”—Vico, _Scienza Nuova_, ii. 6. See, too,

Whewell’s _Elements of Morality_, book vi. ch. ii.

529 The ancient right of war is fully discussed by Grotius, _De Jure_,

lib. iii. See, especially, the horrible catalogue of tragedies in

cap. 4. The military feeling that regards capture as disgraceful,

had probably some, though only a very subordinate, influence in

producing cruelty to the prisoners.

530 “Le jour où Athènes décréta que tous les Mityléniens, sans

distinction de sexe ni d’âge, seraient exterminés, elle ne croyait

pas dépasser son droit; quand le lendemain elle revint sur son

décret et se contenta de mettre à mort mille citoyens et de

confisquer toutes les terres, elle se crut humaine et indulgente.

Après la prise de Platée les hommes furent égorgés, les femmes

vendues, et personne n’accusa les vainqueurs d’avoir violé le

droit.... C’est en vertu de ce droit de la guerre que Rome a étendu

la solitude autour d’elle; du territoire où les Volsques avaient

vingt-trois cités elle a fait les marais pontins; les

cinquante-trois villes du Latium ont disparu; dans le Samnium on put

longtemps reconnaître les lieux où les armées romaines avaient

passé, moins aux vestiges de leurs camps qu’à la solitude qui

règnait aux environs.”—Fustel de Coulanges, _La Cité antique_, pp.

263-264.

531 Plato, _Republic_, lib. v.; Bodin, _République_, liv. i. cap. 5.

532 Grote, _Hist. of Greece_, vol. viii. p. 224. Agesilaus was also very

humane to captives.—Ibid. pp. 365-6.

533 This appears continually in Livy, but most of all, I think, in the

Gaulish historian, Florus.

534 Scipio and Trajan.

535 See some very remarkable passages in Grotius, _De Jure Bell_. lib.

iii. cap. 4, § 19.

536 These mitigations are fully enumerated by Ayala, _De Jure et

Officiis Bellicis_ (Antwerp, 1597), Grotius, _De Jure_. It is

remarkable that both Ayala and Grotius base their attempts to

mitigate the severity of war chiefly upon the writings and examples

of the Pagans. The limits of the right of conquerors and the just

causes of war are discussed by Cicero, _De Offic._ lib. i.

537 In England the change seems to have immediately followed conversion.

“The evangelical precepts of peace and love,” says a very learned

historian, “did not put an end to war, they did not put an end to

aggressive conquests, but they distinctly humanised the way in which

war was carried on. From this time forth the never-ending wars with

the Welsh cease to be wars of extermination. The heathen English had

been satisfied with nothing short of the destruction and expulsion

of their enemies; the Christian English thought it enough to reduce

them to political subjection.... The Christian Welsh could now sit

down as subjects of the Christian Saxon. The Welshman was

acknowledged as a man and a citizen, and was put under the

protection of the law.”—Freeman’s _Hist. of the Norman Conquest_,

vol. i. pp. 33-34. Christians who assisted infidels in wars were

_ipso facto_ excommunicated, and might therefore be enslaved, but

all others were free from slavery. “Et quidem inter Christianos

laudabili et antiqua consuetudine introductum est, ut capti hinc

inde, utcunque justo bello, non fierent servi, sed liberi

servarentur donec solvant precium redemptionis.”—Ayala, lib. i. cap.

5. “This rule, at least,” says Grotius, “(though but a small matter)

the reverence for the Christian law has enforced, which Socrates

vainly sought to have established among the Greeks.” The Mohammedans

also made it a rule not to enslave their co-religionists.—Grotius,

_De Jure_, iii. 7, § 9. Pagan and barbarian prisoners were, however,

sold as slaves (especially by the Spaniards) till very recently.

538 The character of Constantine, and the estimate of it in Eusebius,

are well treated by Dean Stanley, _Lectures on the Eastern Church_

(Lect. vi.).

539 Theodoret, iii. 28.

540 They are collected by Chateaubriand, _Études hist._ 2me disc. 2me

partie.

541 See St. Gregory’s oration on _Cesarius_.

542 Sozomen, vi. 2.

_ 543 Ep._ xiii. 31-39. In the second of these letters (which is

addressed to Leontia), he says: “Rogare forsitan debui ut ecclesiam

beati Petri apostoli quæ nunc usque gravibus insidiis laboravit,

haberet Vestra Tranquillitas specialiter commendatam. Sed qui scio

quia omnipotentem Deum diligitis, non debeo petere quod sponte ex

benignitate vestræ pietatis exhibetis.”

544 See the graphic description in Gibbon, ch. liii.

545 Baronius.

546 Mably, ii. 1; Gibbon, ch. xlix.

547 There are some good remarks upon the way in which, among the free

Franks, the bishops taught the duty of passive obedience, in Mably,

_Obs. sur l’Histoire de France_, livre i. ch. iii. Gregory of Tours,

in his address to Chilperic, had said: “If any of us, O king,

transgress the boundaries of justice, thou art at hand to correct

us; but if thou shouldest exceed them, who is to condemn thee? We

address thee, and if it please thee thou listenest to us; but if it

please thee not, who is to condemn thee save He who has proclaimed

Himself Justice.”—Greg. Tur. v. 19. On the other hand, Hincmar,

Archbishop of Rheims, strongly asserted the obligation of kings to

observe the law, and denounced as diabolical the doctrine that they

are subject to none but God. (Allen, _On the Royal Prerogative_

(1849), pp. 171-172.)

548 The exact degree of the authority of the barbarian kings, and the

different stages by which their power was increased, are matters of

great controversy. The reader may consult Thierry’s _Lettres sur

l’Hist. de France_ (let. 9); Guizot’s _Hist. de la Civilisation_;

Mably, _Observ. sur l’Hist. de France_; Freeman’s _Hist. of the

Norman Conquest_, vol. i.

549 Fauriel, _Hist. de la Poésie provençale_, tome ii. p. 252.

550 Ibid, p. 258.

551 Le Grand D’Aussy, _Fabliaux_, préf. p. xxiv. These romances were

accounts of his expeditions to Spain, to Languedoc, and to

Palestine.

552 The ἕδνα of the Greeks.

553 Legouvé, _Histoire morale des Femmes_, pp. 95-96.

554 Gen. xxix., xxxiv. 12; Deut. xxii. 29; 1 Sam. xviii. 25.

555 The history of dowries is briefly noticed by Grote, _Hist. of

Greece_, vol. ii. pp. 112-113; and more fully by Lord Kames, in the

admirable chapter “On the Progress of the Female Sex,” in his

_Sketches of the History of Man_, a book less read than it deserves

to be. M. Legouvé has also devoted a chapter to it in his _Hist.

morale des Femmes_. See, too, Legendre, _Traité de l’Opinion_, tome

ii. pp. 329-330. We find traces of the dowry, as well as of the

ἕδνα, in Homer. Penelope had received a dowry from Icarus, her

father. M. Michelet, in one of those fanciful books which he has

recently published, maintains a view of the object of the ἕδνα which

I do not remember to have seen elsewhere, and which I do not

believe. He says: “Ce prix n’est point un achat de la femme, mais

une indemnité qui dédommage la famille du père pour les enfants

futurs, qui ne profiteront pas à cette famille mais à celle où la

femme va entrer.”—_La Femme_, p. 166.

556 In Rome, when the separation was due to the misconduct of the wife,

the dowry belonged to her husband.

557 “Dotem non uxor marito sed uxori maritus offert.”—Tac. _Germ._

xviii. On the Morgengab, see Canciani, _Leges Barbarorum_ (Venetiis,

1781), vol. i. pp. 102-104; ii. pp. 230-231. Muratori, _Antich.

Ital._ diss. xx. Luitprand enacted that no Longobard should give

more than one-fourth of his substance as a Morgengab. In Gregory of

Tours (ix. 20) we have an example of the gift of some cities as a

Morgengab.

558 See, on this point, Aul. Gellius, _Noct. Att._ xv. 20. Euripides is

said to have had two wives.

559 Aristotle said that Homer never gives a concubine to Menelaus, in

order to intimate his respect for Helen—though false. (_Athenæus_,

xiii. 3.)

560 Æschylus has put this curious notion into the mouth of Apollo, in a

speech in the _Eumenides_. It has, however, been very widely

diffused, and may be found in Indian, Greek, Roman, and even

Christian writers. M. Legouvé, who has devoted a very curious

chapter to the subject, quotes a passage from St. Thomas Aquinas,

accepting it, and arguing from it, that a father should be more

loved than a mother. M. Legouvé says that when the male of one

animal and the female of another are crossed, the type of the female

usually predominates in the offspring. See Legouvé, _Hist. morale

des Femmes_, pp. 216-228; Fustel de Coulanges, _La Cité antique_,

pp. 39-40; and also a curious note by Boswell, in Croker’s edition

of Boswell’s _Life of Johnson_ (1847), p. 472.

561 Dr. Vintras, in a remarkable pamphlet (London, 1867) _On the

Repression of Prostitution_, shows from the police statistics that

the number of prostitutes _known to the police_ in England and

Wales, in 1864, was 49,370; and this is certainly much below the

entire number. These, it will be observed, comprise only the

habitual, professional prostitutes.

562 Some measures have recently been taken in a few garrison towns. The

moral sentiment of the community, it appears, would be shocked if

Liverpool were treated on the same principles as Portsmouth. This

very painful and revolting, but most important, subject has been

treated with great knowledge, impartiality, and ability, by

Parent-Duchâtelet, in his famous work, _La Prostitution dans la

ville de Paris_. The third edition contains very copious

supplementary accounts, furnished by different doctors in different

countries.

563 Parent-Duchâtelet has given many statistics, showing the very large

extent to which the French system of supervision deters those who

were about to enter into prostitution, and reclaims those who had

entered into it. He and Dr. Vintras concur in representing English

prostitution as about the most degraded, and at the same time the

most irrevocable.

564 Miss Mulock, in her amiable but rather feeble book, called _A

Woman’s Thoughts about Women_, has some good remarks on this point

(pp. 291-293), which are all the more valuable, as the authoress has

not the faintest sympathy with any opinions concerning the character

and position of women which are not strictly conventional. She

notices the experience of Sunday school mistresses, that, of their

pupils who are seduced, an extremely large proportion are “of the

very best, refined, intelligent, truthful, and affectionate.”

565 See the very singular and painful chapter in Parent-Duchâtelet,

called “Mœurs et Habitudes des Prostituées.” He observes that they

are remarkable for their kindness to one another in sickness or in

distress; that they are not unfrequently charitable to poor people

who do not belong to their class; that when one of them has a child,

it becomes the object of very general interest and affection; that

most of them have lovers, to whom they are sincerely attached; that

they rarely fail to show in the hospitals a very real sense of

shame; and that many of them entered into their mode of life for the

purpose of supporting aged parents. One anecdote is worth giving in

the words of the author: “Un médecin n’entrant jamais dans leurs

salles sans ôter légèrement son chapeau, par cette seule politesse

il sut tellement conquérir leur confiance qu’il leur faisait faire

tout ce qu’il voulait.” This writer, I may observe, is not a romance

writer or a theorist of any description. He is simply a physician

who describes the results of a very large official experience.

566 “Parent-Duchâtelet atteste que sur trois mille créatures perdues

trente cinq seulement avaient un état qui pouvait les nourrir, et

que quatorze cents avaient été précipitées dans cette horrible vie

par la misère. Une d’elles, quand elle s’y résolut, n’avait pas

mangé depuis trois jours.”—Legouvé, _Hist. morale des Femmes_, pp.

322-323.

567 Concerning the position and character of Greek women, the reader may

obtain ample information by consulting Becker’s _Charicles_

(translated by Metcalfe, 1845); Rainneville, _La Femme dans

l’Antiquité_ (Paris, 1865); and an article “On Female Society in

Greece,” in the twenty-second volume of the _Quarterly Review_.

568 Plutarch, _Conj. Præc._

569 Xenophon, _Econ._ ii.

570 Plut. _Conj. Præc._ There is also an extremely beautiful picture of

the character of a good wife in Aristotle. (_Economics_, book i.

cap. vii.)

571 See Alexander’s _History of Women_ (London, 1783), vol. i. p. 201.

572 Plutarch, _Phocion_.

573 Our information concerning the Greek courtesans is chiefly derived

from the thirteenth book of the _Deipnosophists_ of Athenæus, from

the _Letters_ of Alciphron, from the _Dialogues_ of Lucian on

courtesans, and from the oration of Demosthenes against Neæra. See,

too, Xenophon, _Memorabilia_, iii. 11; and among modern books,

Becker’s _Charicles_. Athenæus was an Egyptian, whose exact date is

unknown but who appears to have survived Ulpian, who died in A.D.

228. He had access to, and gave extracts from, many works on this

subject, which have now perished. Alciphron is believed to have

lived near the time of Lucian.

574 According to some writers the word “venerari” comes from “Venerem

exercere,” on account of the devotions in the temple of Venus. See

Vossius, _Etymologicon Linguæ Latinæ_, “veneror;” also La Mothe le

Vayer, _Lettre_ xc.

575 On the connection of the courtesans with the artistic enthusiasm,

see Raoul Rochette, _Cours d’Archéologie_, pp. 278-279. See, too,

Athenæus, xiii. 59; Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ xxxv. 40.

576 See the very curious little work of Ménage, _Historia Mulierum

Philosopharum_ (Lugduni, MDXC.); also Rainneville, _La Femme dans

l’Antiquite_, p. 244. At a much later date Lucian described the

beauty, accomplishments, generosity, and even modesty, of Panthea of

Smyrna, the favourite mistress of Lucius Verus.

577 The ζῶμα, which was at first in use, was discarded by the

Lacedæmonians, and afterwards by the other Greeks. There are three

curious memoirs tracing the history of the change, by M. Burette, in

the _Hist. de l’Académie royale des Inscriptions_, tome i.

578 On the causes of paiderastia in Greece, see the remarks of Mr. Grote

in the review of the _Symposium_, in his great work on Plato. The

whole subject is very ably treated by M. Maury, _Hist. des Religions

de la Gréce antique_, tome iii. pp. 35-39. Many facts connected with

it are collected by Döllinger, in his _Jew and Gentile_, and by

Chateaubriand, in his _Études historiques_. The chief original

authority is the thirteenth book of Athenæus, a book of very painful

interest in the history of morals.

579 Plutarch, in his _Life of Agesilaus_, dwells on the intense

self-control manifested by that great man, in refraining from

gratifying a passion he had conceived for a boy named Megabetes, and

Maximus Tyrius says it deserved greater praise than the heroism of

Leonidas. (_Diss._ xxv.) Diogenes Laërtius, in his _Life of Zeno_,

the founder of Stoicism, the most austere of all ancient sects,

praises that philosopher for being but little addicted to this vice.

Sophocles is said to have been much addicted to it.

580 Some examples of the ascription of this vice to the divinities are

given by Clem. Alex. _Admonitio ad Gentes_. Socrates is said to have

maintained that Jupiter loved Ganymede for his wisdom, as his name

is derived from γάνυμαι and μῆδος, to be delighted with prudence.

(Xenophon, _Banquet_.) The disaster of Cannæ was ascribed to the

jealousy of Juno because a beautiful boy was introduced into the

temple of Jupiter. (Lactantius, _Inst. Div._ ii. 17.)

581 Athenæus, xiii. 78. See, too, the very revolting book on different

kinds of love, ascribed (it is said falsely) to Lucian.

582 Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ xxxiv. 9.

583 There is ample evidence of this in Athenæus, and in the Dialogues of

Lucian on the courtesans. See, too, Terence, _The Eunuch_, act v.

scene 4, which is copied from the Greek. The majority of the class

were not called hetæræ, but πόρναι.

584 Plutarch, _De Garrulitate_; Plin. _Hist. Nat._ xxxiv. 19. The feat

of biting out their tongues rather than reveal secrets, or yield to

passion, is ascribed to a suspiciously large number of persons.

Ménage cites five besides Leæna. (_Hist. Mulier. Philos._ pp.

104-108.)

585 See, upon Bacchis, several of the letters of Alciphron, especially

the very touching letter (x.) on her death, describing her kindness

and disinterestedness. Athenæus (xiii. 66) relates a curious

anecdote illustrating these aspects of her character.

586 Xenophon, _Memorab._ iii. 11.

587 On the Flamens, see Aulus Gell. _Noct._ x. 15.

588 Capitolinus, _Maximinus Junior_.

589 Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ vii. 36. There is (as is well known) a similar

legend of a daughter thus feeding her father. Val. Max. Lib. v. cap.

4.

590 This appears from the first act of the _Stichus_ of Plautus. The

power appears to have become quite obsolete during the Empire but

the first legal act (which was rather of the nature of an

exhortation than of a command) against it was issued by Antoninus

Pius, and it was only definitely abolished under Diocletian.

(Laboulaye, _Recherches sur la condition civile et politique des

femmes_, pp. 16-17.)

591 Aul. Gell. _Noct._ x. 23.

592 Val. Maximus, ii. 1, § 4; Aul. Gellius, _Noct._ iv. 3.

593 Ammianus Marcellinus, xxviii. 4.

594 Tacitus, _De Oratoribus_, xxviii.

595 See Aulus Gellius, Noct. ii. 24.

596 “More inter veteres recepto, qui satis pœnarum adversum impudicas in

ipsa professione flagitii credebant.”—Tacitus, _Annal._ ii. 85.

597 Aul. Gell. iv. 3. Juno was the goddess of marriage.

598 Ibid. iv. 14.

599 The well-known superstition about the lion, &c., becoming docile

before a virgin is, I believe, as old as Roman times. St. Isidore

mentions that rhinoceroses were said to be captured by young girls

being put in their way to fascinate them. (Legendre, _Traité de

l’Opinion_, tome ii. p. 35.)

600 Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ xxviii. 23.

601 Ibid. vii. 18.

602 “Quem enim Romanorum pudet uxorem ducere in convivium? aut cujus

materfamilias non primum locum tenet ædium, atque in celebritate

versatur? quod multo fit aliter in Græcia. Nam neque in convivium

adhibetur, nisi propinquorum, neque sedet nisi in interiore parte

ædium quæ _gynæcontis_ appellatur, quo nemo accedit, nisi propinqua

cognatione conjunctus.”—Corn. Nepos. præfat.

603 Val. Max. ii. 1, § 6.

604 Liv. viii. 18.

605 See Val. Max. ii. 1.

606 “Nuptiæ sunt conjunctio maris et feminæ, et consortium omnis vitæ,

divini et humani juris communicatio.”—Modestinus.

607 Livy, xxxiv. 5. There is a fine collection of legends or histories

of heroic women (but chiefly Greek) in Clem. Alexand. _Strom._ iv.

19.

608 Tacitus, _Annal._ ii. 85. This decree was on account of a patrician

lady named Vistilia having so enrolled herself.

609 Dion Cassius, liv. 16, lvi. 10.

610 “Si sine uxore possemus, Quirites, esse, omnes ea molestia

careremus; sed quoniam ita natura tradidit, ut nec cum illis satis

commode nec sine illis ullo modo vivi possit, saluti perpetuæ potius

quam brevi voluptati consulendum.”—Aulus Gellius, _Noct._ i. 6. Some

of the audience, we are told, thought that, in exhorting to

matrimony, the speaker should have concealed its undoubted evils. It

was decided, however, that it was more honourable to tell the whole

truth. Stobæus (_Sententiæ_) has preserved a number of harsh and

often heartless sayings about wives, that were popular among the

Greeks. It was a saying of a Greek poet, that “marriage brings only

two happy days—the day when the husband first clasps his wife to his

breast, and the day when he lays her in the tomb;” and in Rome it

became a proverbial saying, that a wife was only good “in thalamo

vel in tumulo.”

611 Friedländer, _Hist. des Mœurs romaines_, tome i. pp. 360-364. On the

great influence exercised by Roman ladies on political affairs some

remarkable passages are collected in Denis, _Hist. des Idées

Morales_, tome ii. pp. 98-99. This author is particularly valuable

in all that relates to the history of domestic morals. The

_Asinaria_ of Plautus, and some of the epigrams of Martial, throw

much light upon this subject.

612 See the very remarkable discussion about this repeal in Livy, lib.

xxxiv. cap. 1-8.

613 Legouvé, _Hist. Morale des Femmes_, pp. 23-26. St. Augustine

denounced this law as the most unjust that could be mentioned or

even conceived. “Qua lege quid iniquius dici aut cogitari possit,

ignoro.”—St. Aug. _De Civ. Dei_, iii. 21—a curious illustration of

the difference between the habits of thought of his time and those

of the middle ages, when daughters were habitually sacrificed,

without a protest, by the feudal laws.

614 Plutarch, _Cicero_.

615 Tacit. _Ann._ i. 10.

616 Plutarch, _Cato_; Lucan, _Pharsal_. ii.

617 Senec. _Ep._ cxiv.

618 Val. Max. vi. 3.

619 Plutarch, _Paul. Æmil._ It is not quite clear whether this remark

was made by Paulus himself.

620 Sen. _De Benef._ iii. 16. See, too, _Ep._ xcv. _Ad Helv._ xvi.

_ 621 Apol._ 6.

_ 622 Epig._ vi. 7.

623 Juv. _Sat._ vi. 230.

_ 624 Ep._ 2.

625 Sueton. _Aug._ Charlemagne, in like manner, made his daughters work

in wool. (Eginhardus, _Vit. Car. Mag._ xix.)

626 Friedländer, _Mœurs romaines du règne d’Auguste à la fin des

Antonins_ (trad. franç.), tome i. p. 414.

627 Much evidence of this is collected by Friedländer, tome i. pp.

387-395.

628 Plutarch, _Pompeius_.

629 Martial, xi. 16. Pliny, _Ep._ i. 14.

630 Suet. _Tiberius_, xlv.

631 Plutarch, _Brutus_.

632 Tacit. _Annal._ xv. 63, 64.

633 “Pæte, non dolet.”—Plin. _Ep._ iii. 16; Martial, _Ep._ i. 14.

634 Tacit. _Annal._ xvi. 10-11; _Hist._ i. 3. See, too, Friedländer,

tome i. p. 406.

635 Tacit. _Ann._ xvi. 34.

636 Pliny mentions her return after the death of the tyrant (_Ep._ iii.

11).

637 “Quod paucis datum est, non minus amabilis quam veneranda.”—Plin.

_Ep._ vii. 19.

638 See Plin. _Ep._ vii. 19. Dion Cassius and Tacitus relate the exiles

of Helvidius, who appears to have been rather intemperate and

unreasonable.

639 Friedländer gives many and most touching examples, tome i. pp.

410-414.

640 Suet. _Dom._ viii.

641 Capitolinus, _Macrinus_.

642 Lampridius, _A. Severus_.

643 In the oration against Neæra, which is ascribed to Demosthenes, but

is of doubtful genuineness, the licence accorded to husbands is

spoken of as a matter of course: “We keep mistresses for our

pleasures, concubines for constant attendance, and wives to bear us

legitimate children, and to be our faithful housekeepers.”

644 There is a remarkable passage on the feelings of wives, in different

nations, upon this point, in Athenæus, xiii. 3. See, too, Plutarch,

_Conj. Præc._

645 Euripid. _Andromache_.

646 Valer. Max. vi. 7, § 1. Some very scandalous instances of cynicism

on the part of Roman husbands are recorded. Thus, Augustus had many

mistresses, “Quæ [virgines] sibi undique etiam _ab uxore_

conquirerentur.”—Sueton. _Aug._ lxxi. When the wife of Verus, the

colleague of Marcus Aurelius, complained of the tastes of her

husband, he answered, “Uxor enim dignitatis nomen est, non

voluptatis.”—Spartian. _Verus_.

647 Aristotle, _Econom._ i. 4-8-9.

648 Plutarch enforces the duty at length, in his very beautiful work on

marriage. In case husbands are guilty of infidelity, he recommends

their wives to preserve a prudent blindness, reflecting that it is

out of respect for them that they choose another woman as the

companion of their intemperance. Seneca touches briefly, but

unequivocally, on the subject: “Scis improbum esse qui ab uxore

pudicitiam exigit, ipse alienarum corruptor uxorum. Scis ut illi nil

cum adultero, sic nihil tibi esse debere cum pellice.”—_Ep._ xciv.

“Sciet in uxorem gravissimum esse genus injuriæ, habere

pellicem.”—_Ep._ xcv.

649 “Periniquum enim videtur esse, ut pudicitiam vir ab uxore exigat,

quam ipse non exhibeat.”—_Cod. Just. Dig._ xlviii. 5-13.

650 Quoted by St. Augustine, _De Conj. Adult._ ii. 19. Plautus, long

before, had made one of his characters complain of the injustice of

the laws which punished unchaste wives but not unchaste husbands,

and ask why, since every honest woman is contented with one husband,

every honest man should not be contented with one wife? (_Mercator_,

Act iv. scene 5.)

651 Horace, _Sat._ i. 2.

652 “Verum si quis est qui etiam meretriciis amoribus interdictum

juventuti putet, est ille quidem valde severus; negare non possum;

sed abhorret non modo ab hujus sæculi licentia, verum etiam a

majorum consuetudine atque concessis. Quando enim hoc factum non

est? Quando reprehensum? Quando non permissum? Quando denique fuit

ut quod licet non liceret?”—Cicero, _Pro Cælio_, cap. xx. The whole

speech is well worthy of the attention of those who would understand

Roman feelings on these matters; but it should be remembered that it

is the speech of a lawyer defending a dissolute client.

653 Περί ἀφροδίσια, εἰς δύναμιν πρὸ γάμου καθαρευτέον. ἁπτομένῳ δέ, ὢν

νομιμόν ἐστι, μεταληπτέον, μὴ μέν τοι ἐπαχθὴς γίνου τοῖς χρωμένοις,

μηδὲ ἐλεγκτικός, μηδὲ πολλαχοῦ τό, Ὅτι αὐτὸς οὐ χρῇ,

παράφερε.—_Enchir._ xxxiii.

654 “Et si uxores non haberent, singulas concubinas, quod sine his esse

non possent.”—Lampridius, _A. Severus_. We have an amusing picture

of the common tone of people of the world on this matter, in the

speech Apuleius puts into the mouth of the gods, remonstrating with

Venus for being angry because her son formed a connection with

Psyche. (_Metam._ lib. v.)

655 Preserved by Stobæus. See Denis, _Hist. des Idées morales dans

l’Antiquité_, tome ii. pp. 134-136, 149-150.

656 Philos. _Apol._ i. 13. When a saying of Pythagoras, “that a man

should only have commerce with his own wife,” was quoted, he said

that this concerned others.

657 Trebellius Pollio, _Zenobia_.

658 This is asserted by an anonymous writer quoted by Suidas. See

Ménage, _Hist. Mulierum Philosopharum_, p. 58.

659 See, e.g., Plotinus, 1st Eun. vi. 6.

660 Capitolinus, _M. Aurelius_.

661 Amm. Marcell. xxv. 4.

_ 662 Cod. Theod._ lib. ix. tit. 24.

_ 663 Cod. Theod._ lib. xv. tit. 7.

664 “Fidicinam nulli liceat vel emere vel docere vel vendere, vel

conviviis aut spectaculis adhibere. Nec cuiquam aut delectationis

desiderio erudita feminea aut musicæ artis studio liceat habere

mancipia.”—_Cod. Theod._ xv. 7, 10. This curious law was issued in

A.D. 385. St. Jerome said these musicians were the chorus of the

devil, and quite as dangerous as the sirens. See the comments on the

law.

665 Ruinart, _Act. S. Perpetuæ_. These acts, are, I believe, generally

regarded as authentic. There is nothing more instructive in history

than to trace the same moral feelings through different ages and

religions; and I am able in this case to present the reader with an

illustration of their permanence, which I think somewhat remarkable.

The younger Pliny gives in one of his letters a pathetic account of

the execution of Cornelia, a vestal virgin, by the order of

Domitian. She was buried alive for incest; but her innocence appears

to have been generally believed; and she had been condemned unheard,

and in her absence. As she was being lowered into the subterranean

cell her dress was caught and deranged in the descent. She turned

round and drew it to her, and when the executioner stretched out his

hand to assist her, she started back lest he should touch her, for

this, according to the received opinion, was a pollution; and even

in the supreme moment of her agony her vestal purity shrank from the

unholy contact. (Plin. _Ep._ iv. 11.) If we now pass back several

centuries, we find Euripides attributing to Polyxena a trait

precisely similar to that which was attributed to Perpetua. As she

fell beneath the sword of the executioner, it was observed that her

last care was that she might fall with decency.

ἡ δὲ και θνήσκουσ᾽ ὅμως πολλὴν πρόνοιαν εἶχεν εὐσχήμως πεσεῖν,

κρύπτουσ᾽ ἂ κρύπτειν ὄμματ᾽ ἀρσένων χρεών.

Euripides, _Hec._ 566-68.

_ 666 Vita Pauli._

667 St. Ambrose relates an instance of this, which he says occurred at

Antioch (_De Virginibus_, lib. ii. cap. iv.). When the Christian

youth was being led to execution, the girl whom he had saved

reappeared and died with him. Eusebius tells a very similar story,

but places the scene at Alexandria.

668 See Ceillier, _Hist. des Auteurs ecclés._ tome iii. p. 523.

669 Ibid. tome viii. pp. 204-207.

670 Among the Irish saints St. Colman is said to have had a girdle which

would only meet around the chaste, and which was long preserved in

Ireland as a relic (Colgan, _Acta Sanctorum Hiberniæ_, Louvain,

1645, vol. i. p. 246); and St. Fursæus a girdle that extinguished

lust. (Ibid. p. 292.) The girdle of St. Thomas Aquinas seems to have

had some miraculous properties of this kind. (See his _Life_ in the

Bollandists, Sept. 29.) Among both the Greeks and Romans it was

customary for the bride to be girt with a girdle which the

bridegroom unloosed in the nuptial bed, and hence “zonam solvere”

became a proverbial expression for “pudicitiam mulieris imminuere.”

(Nieupoort, _De Ritibus Romanorum_, p. 479; Alexander’s _History of

Women_, vol. ii. p. 300.)

_ 671 Vit. St. Pachom._ (Rosweyde).

672 See his _Life_, by Gregory of Nyssa.

673 A little book has been written on these legends by M. Charles de

Bussy, called _Les Courtisanes saintes_. There is said to be some

doubt about St. Afra, for, while her acts represent her as a

reformed courtesan, St. Fortunatus, in two lines he has devoted to

her, calls her a virgin. (Ozanam, _Études german._ tome ii. p. 8.)

674 See the _Vit. Sancti Joannis Eleemosynarii_ (Rosweyde).

675 Tillemont, tome x. pp. 61-62. There is also a very picturesque

legend of the manner in which St. Paphnutius converted the courtesan

Thais.

676 See especially, Tertullian, _Ad Uxorem_. It was beautifully said, at

a later period, that woman was not taken from the head of man, for

she was not intended to be his ruler, nor from his feet, for she was

not intended to be his slave, but from his side, for she was to be

his companion and his comfort. (Peter Lombard, _Senten._ lib. ii.

dis. 18.)

677 The reader may find many passages on this subject in Barbeyrac,

_Morale des Pères_, ii. § 7; iii. § 8; iv. § 31-35; vi. § 31; xiii.

§ 2-8.

678 “It is remarkable how rarely, if ever (I cannot call to mind an

instance), in the discussions of the comparative merits of marriage

and celibacy, the social advantages appear to have occurred to the

mind.... It is always argued with relation to the interests and the

perfection of the individual soul; and, even with regard to that,

the writers seem almost unconscious of the softening and humanising

effect of the natural affections, the beauty of parental tenderness

and filial love.”—Milman’s _Hist. of Christianity_, vol. iii. p.

196.

679 “Tempus breve est, et jam securis ad radices arborum posita est, quæ

silvam legis et nuptiarum evangelica castitate succidat.”—_Ep._

cxxiii.

680 “Laudo nuptias, laudo conjugium, sed quia mihi virgines

generant.”—_Ep._ xxii.

681 See Ceillier, _Auteurs ecclés._ xiii. p. 147.

682 Socrates, iv. 23.

683 Palladius, _Hist. Laus._ cxix.

_ 684 Vit. S. Abr._ (Rosweyde), cap. i.

685 I do not know when this legend first appeared. M. Littré mentions

having found it in a French MS. of the eleventh century (Littré,

_Les Barbares_, pp. 123-124); and it also forms the subject of a

very curious fresco, I imagine of a somewhat earlier date, which was

discovered, within the last few years, in the subterranean church of

St. Clement at Rome. An account of it is given by Father Mullooly,

in his interesting little book about that Church.

_ 686 De Virgin._ cap. iii.

687 Greg. Tur. i. 42.

688 The regulations on this point are given at length in Bingham.

689 Muratori, _Antich. Ital._ diss. xx.

690 St. Greg. _Dial._ i. 10.

691 Delepierre, _L’Enfer décrit par ceux qui l’ont vu_, pp. 44-56.

692 Val. Max. ii. 1. § 3.

693 “Ille meos, primus qui me sibi junxit, amores

Abstulit; ille habeat secum, servetque sepulchro.”

_Æn._ iv. 28.

694 E.g., the wives of Lucan, Drusus, and Pompey.

695 Tacit. _German._ xix.

696 Friedländer, tome i. p. 411.

697 Hieron. _Ep._ liv.

698 “Uxorem vivam amare voluptas;

Defunctam religio.”

Statius. _Sylv._ v. in proœmio.

699 By one of the laws of Charondas it was ordained that those who cared

so little for the happiness of their children as to place a

stepmother over them, should be excluded from the councils of the

State. (Diod. Sic. xii. 12.)

700 Tertullian expounded the Montanist view in his treatise, _De

Monogamia_.

701 A full collection of the statements of the Fathers on this subject

is given by Perrone, _De Matrimonio_, lib. iii. Sect. I.; and by

Natalis Alexander, _Hist. Eccles._ Sæc. II. dissert. 18.

702 Thus, to give but a single instance, St. Jerome, who was one of

their strongest opponents, says: “Quid igitur? damnamus secunda

matrimonia? Minime, sed prima laudamus. Abjicimus de ecclesia

digamos? absit; sed monogamos ad continentiam provocamus. In arca

Noe non solum munda sed et immunda fuerunt animalia.”—_Ep._ cxxiii.

_ 703 In Legat._

_ 704 Strom._ lib. iii.

_ 705 Contra Jovin._ i.

706 Ibid. See, too, _Ep._ cxxiii.

707 Hom. xvii. in Luc.

_ 708 Orat._ xxxi.

709 Perrone, _De Matr._ iii. § 1, art. 1; Natalis Alexander, _Hist.

Eccles._ II. dissert. 18. The penances are said not to imply that

the second marriage was a sin, but that the moral condition that

made it necessary was a bad one.

710 See Stephen’s _Hist. of English Criminal Law_, i. p. 461.

711 Conc. Illib. can. xxxviii. Bingham thinks the feeling of the Council

to have been, that if baptism was not administered by a priest, it

should at all events be administered by one who might have been a

priest.

712 Perrone, _De Matrimonio_, tome iii. p. 102.

713 This subject has recently been treated with very great learning and

with admirable impartiality by an American author, Mr. Henry C. Lea,

in his _History of Sacerdotal Celibacy_ (Philadelphia, 1867), which

is certainly one of the most valuable works that America has

produced. Since the great history of Dean Milman, I know no work in

English which has thrown more light on the moral condition of the

middle ages, and none which is more fitted to dispel the gross

illusions concerning that period which High Church writers, and

writers of the positive school, have conspired to sustain.

714 See Lea, p. 36. The command of St. Paul, that a bishop or deacon

should be the husband of _one_ wife (1 Tim. iii. 2-12) was believed

by all ancient and by many modern commentators to be prohibitory of

second marriages; and this view is somewhat confirmed by the widows

who were to be honoured and supported by the Church, being only

those who had been but once married (1 Tim. v. 9). See Pressensé,

_Hist. des trois premiers Siècles_ (1re série), tome ii. p. 233.

Among the Jews it was ordained that the high priest should not marry

a widow. (Levit. xxi. 13-14.)

715 Socrates, _H. E._ i. 11. The Council of Illiberis (can. xxxiii.) had

ordained this, but both the precepts and the practice of divines

varied greatly. A brilliant summary of the chief facts is given in

Milman’s _History of Early Christianity_, vol. iii. pp. 277-282.

716 See, on the state of things in the tenth and eleventh centuries,

Lea, pp. 162-192.

717 Ratherius, quoted by Lea, p. 151.

718 See some curious evidence of the extent to which the practice of the

hereditary transmission of ecclesiastical offices was carried, in

Lea, pp. 149, 150, 266, 299, 339.

719 Lea, pp. 271, 292, 422.

720 Ibid. pp. 186-187.

721 Lea, p. 358.

722 Ibid. p. 296.

723 Ibid. p. 322.

724 Ibid. p. 349.

725 The reader may find the most ample evidence of these positions in

Lea. See especially pp. 138, 141, 153, 155, 260, 344.

726 Synesius, _Ep._ cv.

727 Lea, p. 122. St. Augustine had named _his_ illegitimate son

Adeodatus, or the Gift of God, and had made him a principal

interlocutor in one of his religious dialogues.

_ 728 Dialog._ iv. 11.

729 This is mentioned by Henry of Huntingdon, who was a contemporary.

(Lea, p. 293.)

730 The first notice of this very remarkable precaution is in a canon of

the Council of Palencia (in Spain) held in 1322, which anathematises

laymen who compel their pastors to take concubines. (Lea, p. 324.)

Sleidan mentions that it was customary in some of the Swiss cantons

for the parishioners to oblige the priest to select a concubine as a

necessary precaution for the protection of his female parishioners.

(Ibid. p. 355.) Sarpi, in his _Hist. of the Council of Trent_,

mentions (on the authority of Zuinglius) this Swiss custom. Nicolas

of Clemangis, a leading member of the Council of Constance, declared

that this custom had become very common, that the laity were firmly

persuaded that priests _never_ lived a life of real celibacy, and

that, where no proofs of concubinage were found, they always assumed

the existence of more serious vice. The passage (which is quoted by

Bayle) is too remarkable to be omitted. “Taceo de fornicationibus et

adulteriis a quibus qui alieni sunt probro cæteris ac ludibrio esse

solent, spadonesque aut sodomitæ appellantur; denique laici usque

adeo persuasum habent nullos cælibes esse, ut in plerisque parochiis

non aliter velint presbyterum tolerare nisi concubinam habeat, quo

vel sic suis sit consultum uxoribus, quæ nec sic quidem usquequaque

sunt extra periculum.” Nic. de Clem. _De Præsul. Simoniac._ (Lea, p.

386.)

731 This was energetically noticed by Luther, in his famous sermon “De

Matrimonio,” and some of the Catholic preachers of an earlier period

had made the same complaint. See a curious passage from a

contemporary of Boccaccio, quoted by Meray, _Les Libres prêcheurs_,

p. 155. “Vast numbers of laymen separated from their wives under the

influence of the ascetic enthusiasm which Hildebrand created.”—Lea,

p. 254.

732 “Quando enim servata fide thori causa prolis conjuges conveniunt sic

excusatur coitus ut culpam non habeat. Quando vero deficiente bono

prolis fide tamen servata conveniunt causa incontinentiæ non sic

excusatur ut non habeat culpam, sed venialem.... Item hoc quod

conjugati victi concupiscentia utuntur invicem, ultra necessitatem

liberos procreandi, ponam in his pro quibus quotidie dicimus Dimitte

nobis debita nostra.... Unde in sententiolis Sexti Pythagorici

legitur ‘omnis ardentior amator propriæ uxoris adulter est.’ ”—Peter

Lombard, _Sentent._ lib. iv. dist. 31.

733 Many wives, however, were forbidden. (Deut. xvii. 17.) Polygamy is

said to have ceased among the Jews after the return from the

Babylonish captivity.—Whewell’s _Elements of Morality_, book iv. ch.

v.

734 Levit. xii. 1-5.

735 Ecclesiasticus, xiii. 14. I believe, however, the passage has been

translated “Better the badness of a man than the blandishments of a

woman.”

736 This curious fact is noticed by Le Blant, _Inscriptions chrétiennes

de la Gaule_, pp. xcvii.-xcviii.

737 See the decree of a Council of Auxerre (A.D. 578), can. 36.

738 See the last two chapters of Troplong, _Influences du Christianisme

sur le Droit_ (a work, however, which is written much more in the

spirit of an apologist than in that of an historian), and Legouvé,

pp. 27-29.

739 Even in matters not relating to property, the position of women in

feudalism was a low one. “Tout mari,” says Beaumanoir, “peut battre

sa femme quand elle ne veut pas obéir à son commandement, ou quand

elle le maudit, ou quand elle le dément, pourvu que ce soit

modérément et sans que mort s’ensuive,” quoted by Legouvé, p. 148.

Contrast with this the saying of the elder Cato: “A man who beats

his wife or his children lays impious hands on that which is most

holy and most sacred in the world.”—Plutarch, _Marcus Cato_.

740 See Legouvé, pp. 29-38; Maine’s _Ancient Law_, pp. 154-159.

741 “No society which preserves any tincture of Christian institutions

is likely to restore to married women the personal liberty conferred

on them by the middle Roman law: but the proprietary disabilities of

married females stand on quite a different basis from their personal

incapacities, and it is by keeping alive and consolidating the

former that the expositors of the canon law have deeply injured

civilisation. There are many vestiges of a struggle between the

secular and ecclesiastical principles; but the canon law nearly

everywhere prevailed.”—Maine’s _Ancient Law_, p. 158. I may observe

that the Russian law was early very favourable to the proprietary

rights of married women. See a remarkable letter in the _Memoirs of

the Princess Daschkaw_ (edited by Mrs. Bradford: London, 1840), vol.

ii. p. 404.

_ 742 Germania_, cap. ix. xviii.-xx.

_ 743 De Gubernatione Dei._

744 See, for these legends, Mallet’s _Northern Antiquities_.

745 Tacitus, _Germ._ 9; _Hist._ iv. 18; Xiphilin. lxxi. 3; Amm.

Marcellinus, xv. 12; Vopiscus, _Aurelianus_; Floras, iii. 3.

746 Valer. Max. vi. 1; Hieron. _Ep._ cxxiii.

747 Plutarch, _De Mulier. Virt._

748 Plutarch, _Amatorius_; Xiphilin. lxvi. 16; Tacit. _Hist._ iv. 67.

The name of this heroic wife is given in three different forms.

749 On the polygamy of the first, see Greg. Tur. iv. 26; on the polygamy

of Chilperic, Greg. Tur. iv. 28; v. 14.

750 Greg. Tur. iv. 3.

751 Ibid. iii. 25-27, 36.

752 Fredegarius, xxxvi.

753 Ibid. lx.

754 Eginhardus, _Vit. Kar. Mag._ xviii. Charlemagne had, according to

Eginhard, four wives, but, as far as I can understand, only two at

the same time.

755 Smyth’s _Lectures on Modern History_, vol. i. pp. 61-62.

756 Milman’s _Hist. of Latin Christianity_, vol. i. p. 363; Legouvé,

_Hist. Morale des Femmes_, p. 57.

757 See, on these laws, Lord Kames _On Women_; Legouvé, p. 57.

758 Favorinus had strongly urged it. (Aul. Gell. _Noct._ xii. 1.)

759 These are the reasons given by Malthus, _On Population_, book iii.

ch. ii.

760 St. Augustine (_De Conj. Adult._ ii. 19) maintains that adultery is

even more criminal in the man than in the woman. St. Jerome has an

impressive passage on the subject: “Aliæ sunt leges Cæsarum, aliæ

Christi; aliud Papianus, aliud Paulus nostri præcepit. Apud illos

viris impudicitiæ fræna laxantur et solo stupro atque adulterio

condemnato passim per lupanaria et ancillulas libido permittitur,

quasi culpam dignitas faciat non voluntas. Apud nos quod non licet

feminis æque non licet viris; et eadem servitus pari conditione

censetur.”—_Ep._ lxxvii. St. Chrysostom writes in a similar strain.

761 See Troplong, _Influence du Christianisme sur le Droit_, pp.

239-251.

762 We find, however, traces of a toleration of the Roman type of

concubine in Christianity for some time. Thus, a Council of Toledo

decreed: “Si quis habens uxorem fidelis concubinam habeat non

communicet. Cæterum is qui non habet uxorem et pro uxore concubinam

habet a communione non repellatur, tantum ut unius mulieris, aut

uxoris aut concubinæ ut ei placuerit, sit conjunctione contentus.”—1

_Can._ 17. St. Isidore said: “Christiano non dicam plurimas sed nec

duas simul habere licitum est, nisi unam tantum aut uxorem, aut

certo loco uxoris, si conjux deest, concubinam.”—_Apud Gratianum_,

diss. 4. Quoted by Natalis Alexander, _Hist. Eccles._ Sæc. I. diss.

29. Mr. Lea (_Hist. of Sacerdotal Celibacy_, pp. 203-205) has

devoted an extremely interesting note to tracing the history of the

word concubine through the middle ages. He shows that even up to the

thirteenth century a concubine was not necessarily an abandoned

woman. The term was applied to marriages that were real, but not

officially recognised. Coleridge notices a remarkable instance of

the revival of this custom in German history.—_Notes on English

Divines_ (ed. 1853), vol. i. p. 221.

763 Legouvé, p. 199.

764 See some curious passages in Troplong, pp. 222-223. The Fathers seem

to have thought dissolution of marriage was not lawful on account of

the adultery of the husband, but that it was not absolutely

unlawful, though not commendable, for a husband whose wife had

committed adultery to re-marry.

765 Some of the great charities of Fabiola were performed as penances,

on account of her crime in availing herself of the legislative

permission of divorce.

766 Laboulaye, _Recherches sur la Condition civile et politique des

Femmes_, pp. 152-158.

767 “A discourse concerning the obligation to marry within the true

communion, following from their style (_sic_) of being called a holy

seed.” This rare discourse is appended to a sermon against mixed

marriages by Leslie. (London, 1702.) The reader may find something

about Dodwell in Macaulay’s _Hist. of England_, ch. xiv.; but

Macaulay, who does not appear to have known Dodwell’s

masterpiece—his dissertation _De Paucitate Marturum_, which is one

of the finest specimens of criticism of his time—and who only knew

the discourse on marriages by extracts, has, I think, done him

considerable injustice.

768 Dodwell relies mainly upon this fact, and especially upon Ezra’s

having treated these marriages as essentially null.

769 “Jungere cum infidelibus vinculum matrimonii, prostituere gentilibus

membra Christi.”—Cyprian, _De Lapsis_.

770 “Hæc cum ita sint, fideles Gentilium matrimonia subeuntes stupri

reos esse constat, et arcendos ab omni communicatione

fraternitatis.”—Tert. _Ad Uxor._ ii. 3.

771 See on this law, and on the many councils which condemned the

marriage of orthodox with heretics, Bingham, _Antiq._ xxii. 2, §§

1-2.

772 Many curious statistics illustrating this fact are given by M.

Bonneville de Marsangy—a Portuguese writer who was counsellor of the

Imperial Court at Paris—in his _Étude sur la Moralité comparée de la

Femme et de l’Homme_. (Paris, 1862.) The writer would have done

better if he had not maintained, in lawyer fashion, that the

statistics of crime are absolutely decisive on the question of the

comparative morality of the sexes, and also, if he had not thought

it due to his official position to talk in a rather grotesque strain

about the regeneration and glorification of the sex in the person of

the Empress Eugénie.

773 See Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ xxxiv. 19.

774 “Tantum inter Stoicos, Serene, et ceteros sapientiam professos

interesse, quantum inter fœminas et mares non immerito dixerim.”—_De

Const. Sapientis_, cap. i.

775 This is well illustrated, on the one side, by the most repulsive

representations of Christ, by Michael Angelo, in the great fresco in

the Sistine Chapel (so inferior to the Christ of Orgagna, at Pisa,

from which it was partly imitated), and in marble in the Minerva

Church at Rome; and, on the other side, by the frescoes of Perugino,

at Perugia, representing the great sages of Paganism. The figure of

Cato, in the latter, almost approaches, as well as I remember, the

type of St. John.

776 In that fine description of a virtuous woman which is ascribed to

the mother of King Lemuel, we read: “She stretcheth out her hand to

the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.” (Proverbs

xxxi. 20.) I have already quoted from Xenophon the beautiful

description of the Greek wife tending her sick slaves. So, too,

Euripides represents the slaves of Alcestis gathering with tears

around the bed of their dying mistress, who, even then, found some

kind word for each, and, when she died, lamenting her as their

second mother. (Eurip. _Alcest._) In the servile war which desolated

Sicily at the time of the Punic wars, we find a touching trait of

the same kind. The revolt was provoked by the cruelties of a rich

man, named Damophilus, and his wife, who were massacred with

circumstances of great atrocity; but the slaves preserved their

daughter entirely unharmed, for she had always made it her business

to console them in their sorrow, and she had won the love of all.

(Diodor. Sic. _Frag._ xxxiv.) So, too, Marcia, the wife of Cato,

used to suckle her young slaves from her breast. (Plut. _Marc.

Cato_.) I may add the well-known sentiment which Virgil puts in the

mouth of Dido: “Haud ignara mali miseris succurrere disco.” There

are, doubtless, many other touches of the same kind in ancient

literature, some of which may occur to my readers.

777 Theodoret, v. 19.

778 See the beautiful description of the functions of a Christian woman

in the second book of Tertullian, _Ad Uxorem_.

779 See, upon the deaconesses, Bingham’s _Christian Antiquities_, book

ii. ch. 22, and Ludlow’s _Woman’s Work in the Church_. The latter

author argues elaborately that the “widows” were not the same as the

deaconesses.

780 Phœbe (Rom. xvi. 1) is described as a διάκονος.

781 A very able writer, who takes on the whole an unfavourable view of

the influence of Christianity on legislation, says: “The provision

for the widow was attributable to the exertions of the Church, which

never relaxed its solicitude for the interests of wives surviving

their husbands, winning, perhaps, one of the most arduous of its

triumphs when, after exacting for two or three centuries an express

promise from the husband at marriage to endow his wife, it at last

succeeded in engrafting the principle of dower on the customary law

of all Western Europe.”—Maine’s _Ancient Law_, p. 224.

782 See Troplong, _Influence du Christianisme sur le Droit_, pp.

308-310.

783 The results of this change have been treated by Miss Parkes in her

truly admirable little book called _Essays on Woman’s Work_, better

than by any other writer with whom I am acquainted.