§ 88. PUBLIC WORSHIP AND ART.
The German Arians undoubtedly used the language of the people
in their services. The adoption of Catholicism, however, led to the
introduction of the Latin tongue. The last trace of acquaintance with
Ulfilas’ translation of the Bible is found in the 9th century. The
nations converted directly to Catholicism had from the first the Latin
language in public worship. Only the Slavs still retained the use of
their mother tongue (§ 79, 2). The Roman liturgy, as well as the Roman
language, was adopted in all churches with the exception of those of
Milan and Spain. After Pepin had entered into closer relations with
the popes, he endeavoured, in A.D. 754, at their desire, to bring about
a uniformity between the Frankish ritual and the Roman pattern; and
Charlemagne, whom Hadrian I. presented with a Roman Sacramentarium,
carried it out with relentless energy. The slightness of the liturgical
contributions of the Germans is to be accounted for partly by the
fact that the Roman liturgy was already presented to them in a
richly developed and essentially complete form, but also partly
by the exclusion of the national languages and the refusal to give
the people a share in the liturgical services. Under the constraint
of a foreign tongue the Germans could not put the impress of their
national character on a department in which language plays so important
a part.
§ 88.1. =Liturgy and Preaching.=--Alongside of the Roman or
Gregorian =Liturgy= many others also were in use. The people
and clergy of Milan so determinedly adhered to their old
Ambrosian liturgy, that even Charlemagne could not dislodge
it, and down to the present day Milan has preserved this
treasure. No less energetically did the Spaniards hold by
their national liturgy, the so-called Mozarabic (§ 81, 1).
It has a strong resemblance to the oriental liturgies, but
was further elaborated by bishops Leander and Isidore of Seville
(§ 80, 2), and was recognised by the National Synod of Toledo in
A.D. 633 as valid for the whole of Spain. The Gallican liturgies
too of the Carolingian times betrayed a certain dependence upon
the oriental rituals. =Preaching=, in the services of the Western
churches was always subordinate to the liturgy, and the relapse
into savagery occasioned by the migrations of the peoples drove
it almost completely out of the field. The missionary fervour in
the Western church during the 7th century was the first thing to
re-awaken a sense of its importance. But then very few priests
could compose a sermon. Charlemagne, therefore, about A.D. 780,
had a Latin Homiliarium compiled by Paulus Diaconus [Paul
Warnefrid] (§ 90, 3) from the fathers for all the Sundays and
Festivals of the year, as a model for their own composition,
or, where that was too much to be expected, for reading in
the original or in a translation. During the whole Middle
Ages and beyond the Reformation it continued to be one of the
most read and most diligently used books in the Roman Catholic
church. Missionaries naturally preached themselves or through
interpreters in the language of the people; even in constituted
churches preaching was generally conducted in the speech of
the country. Charlemagne and the Synods of his time insisted
at least upon German or Romanic preaching.
§ 88.2. =Church Music= (§ 59, 4, 5).--After Gregory’s ordinance
church music continued to be restricted to the clergy. Charlemagne
indeed insisted, but unsuccessfully, that all the people should
take part in singing the _Gloria_ and the _Sanctus_. In the
7th-9th cent. a number of Latin hymn-writers flourished, of
whom the most distinguished were Bede, Paul Warnefrid, Theodulf
of Orleans, Alcuin, Rabanus Maurus, and Walafrid Strabo. The
beautiful Pentecost hymn _Veni creator Spiritus_ is ascribed
to Charlemagne. The old classical form and colouring were
more and more lost, but all the more the essentially Christian
and Germanic character of simplicity and spirituality became
prominent. Toward the end of our period the composition of Latin
hymns obtained a new and fruitful impetus from the adoption
of the so-called =Sequences= or =Proses= in the Mass. Under
the long series of notes, hitherto without words attached,
which were appended to the Alleluia to express inarticulate
jubilation, hence called _jubilationes_, were now placed
appropriate rhythmical words in Latin prose, which, however,
soon assumed the form of metre, rhyme and strophes. The first
famous writer of Sequences was the monk Notker Balbulus of
St. Gall, who died in A.D. 912. Connected in form with the
Latin Sequences were the more recently introduced Old Frankish
_Lais_ (Celtic=verse, song) and the Old German _Leiche_ (=melody,
song), to simple airs that had been used for popular songs. The
only one which the church allowed to the people, and that only
in services outside of the church, in processions, rogations and
pilgrimages, in going to the church, at translations of relics,
funerals, consecrations of churches, popular religious festivals,
etc., was the singing or rather reciting of the _Kyrie eleison_
from the great Litany. The fondness of the Germans for singing
and composing hymns led, in the second half of the 9th century,
to the attaching to these words short rhyming sacred verses in
their mother tongue, and this in such a manner that the _Kyrie
eleison_ always formed the refrain of a strophe, so that they
were called =Leisons=. This was the beginning of German church
music. Of the Leisons only one hymn to St. Peter in the Old
High-German dialect has come down to our day.--=The Gregorian
Music=, _Cantus firmus_ or _choralis_, won a most complete
victory over the Ambrosian (§ 59, 5). In A.D. 754 Pepin at
the request of Stephen II. ordered that in France only the
Roman singing should be allowed, and Charlemagne secured for
it complete and exclusive ascendency in all the West by violently
extirpating the already very degenerate Ambrosian music, by
establishing the celebrated singing schools of Metz, Soissons,
Orleans, Paris, Lyons, etc., at the head of which he placed
teachers brought from Rome, and by introducing instruction in
singing in all the higher and lower schools. The first =Organ=
came to France in A.D. 757 as a present to Pepin the Short from
the Greek emperor Constantinus Copronymus; the second to Aachen
with an embassy from the emperor Michael I. in Charlemagne’s
time. From that time they became more common. They were still
as instruments very imperfect. They had only from 9 to 12 notes,
and the keys were so stiff that they had to be beaten down with
the fist.[246]--Continuation, § 104, 10, 11.
§ 88.3. =The Sacrifice of the Mass.=--As the idea of sacrifice
gained place there sprang up in addition to the masses for the
souls of the departed (§ 58, 3) private masses for various other
purposes, for the success of some undertaking, for the recovery
of a sick person, for good weather and a good harvest, etc.
To some extent the multiplication of masses was limited by the
ordinance that celebration should be made at the same altar
and by the same priest only once in the day. From the wish to
secure that as many masses as possible should be said for their
souls after death, churches and monasteries were formed into
fraternities with a stipulated obligation to celebrate a certain
number of masses for each deceased member of the fraternity in
all the churches and monasteries belonging thereto. Fraternities
of this kind, into which as a special favour princes and nobles
were received, were called =Confederacies for the Dead=.
§ 88.4. =The Worship of Saints= (§ 57).--This practice
found a very ready response from the Germans. It afforded
some compensation for the abandoned worship of their ancestors.
But over all other saints towered the mother of God, the meek
and gentle queen of heaven. In her the old German reverence
for woman found its ideal and full satisfaction. In respect of
=Image Worship= (§ 57, 4) the Germans lagged behind, partly from
the scarcity of images, partly from national aversion to them.
The Frankish church of the Carolingian age protested formally
against them (§ 92, 1). But all the greater was the zeal shown
in the =Worship of Relics= (§ 57, 5) in which the worshipper
had the saint concretely and bodily. The relics of the West were
innumerable. Rome was an inexhaustible storehouse; and from the
successive missionaries, from the deserts and solitudes, from the
monasteries and bishops’ seats, there went forth crowds of new
saints whose bones were venerated with enthusiasm. The gaining
of a new relic for a church or monastery was regarded as a piece
of good fortune for the whole land, and amid thousands assembled
from far and near the translation was carried out, accompanied
with liberal gifts of money. The Frankish monastery of Centula
could show in the 9th century an immensely long list of the
relics which it possessed, from the grave of the Innocents,
the milk of the Holy Virgin, the beard of Peter, his cloak,
the _Oratorium_ of Paul, and even from the wood of the three
tabernacles that Peter wished to build on Tabor. The custom of
making =Pilgrimages= (§ 57, 6) also found great favour among the
travel-loving Germans, especially among the Anglo-Saxons. The
places most frequented by pilgrims were the tomb of the chief
Apostles at Rome, then the tomb of Martin of Tours, and, toward
the end of our period, that of St. James of Compostella, _Jacobus
Apostolus_ the elder, the supposed founder of the Spanish church,
whose bones were discovered there by Alfonso the Chaste. The
immoralities consequent upon pilgrimages, about which even
the ancient church complained, were also only too apparent
in this later age. On account of them Boniface urges that his
countrywomen should be forbidden to go on pilgrimages, since
this only served to supply the cities of Gaul and Italy with
prostitutes. The idea of =Guardian Angels= (§ 57, 3) was eagerly
adopted by the Germans. They were specially drawn to the warlike
Archangel Michael, the conqueror of the great dragon (Dan. xii. 1;
Jude 9; Rev. xii. 7 ff.).--Continuation, § 104, 8.
§ 88.5. =Times and Places for Public Worship.=--The beginning
of the church year was changed from Easter to Christmas. All
Saints’ Day (§ 57, 1), originally a Roman local festival, was
made a universal ordinance by Gregory IV. who, in A.D. 835, fixed
its date at 1st Nov. The abundance of relics and the multitude
of masses that were said made it necessary to increase the number
of altars in the churches beyond what Charlemagne had enjoined.
Afterwards they were usually limited to three. The high altar
stood out by itself in the middle of the choir recess. The side
altars leant on pillars or on the chief altar. A relic shrine
generally from the 8th century formed the back of the altar. No
trace of a chancel is found, not even of a confessional chair. In
churches which had the right of baptizing (§ 84, 2) there were as
a rule separate baptistries. In place of these, after the right
of baptizing was conferred on all churches, the baptismal font
was introduced, either on the left side of the main entrance or
at the point where the transepts crossed the nave. This change
required the substitution of sprinkling for immersion. Clocks and
towers became always more common. The latter, at first separate
from the buildings, were from Charlemagne’s time attached to the
church edifice. The baptism of bells, their consecration with
water, oil and chrism, with the bestowing on them of some saint’s
name, was forbidden by Charlemagne, but it was nevertheless
continued, and is common to this day in the Roman Catholic church.
§ 88.6. Most attention was paid to ecclesiastical architecture
and painting, south of the Alps during the Ostro-gothic period,
north of the Alps during the Carolingian period. The Anglo-Saxons,
however, in their island home also developed a taste for art.
During the 9th century it received special attention in the
German monasteries of St. Gall and Fulda. The monk Tutilo of
St. Gall, d. A.D. 912, was pre-eminently distinguished both as
a master in architecture, painting and sculpture, and in poetry
and scholarship. The old Roman basilica style still maintained
the front rank in church building. Yet at Ravenna, the Byzantium
of Italy, during the Gothic domination there were several
beautiful churches in the Byzantine cupola style. Einhard
received from Charlemagne the rank of a court architect. Of
all the churches built in Charlemagne’s time the most important
was the cathedral of Aachen. It was built in the cupola style
after the pattern of the cathedral church of Ravenna. Intended
as a royal chapel, it was connected by a pillared passage with
the palace. It was therefore also of only moderate dimensions.
Its being appropriated as the coronation church led subsequently
to its enlargement by the addition to it in A.D. 1355 of a
large choir in the Gothic style. The church afforded abundant
scope for the use of the art of the statuary. Costly shrines
for relics were required, crucifixes, lamps, _ciboria_, incense
vessels, etc., on which might be lavished all the refinements
of artistic skill. The church books had artistically carved
covers. Church doors, episcopal thrones, reading desks,
baptismal fonts, afforded room for practice in _relievo_
work. Among the various kinds of pictorial representations
miniature painting was most diligently practised upon copies
of the church books.--Continuation, § 104, 12, 14.
§ 89. NATIONAL CUSTOMS, SOCIAL LIFE AND CHURCH DISCIPLINE.
The remains of Christian popular poetry of this period afford a
convincing proof of the powerful and profound manner in which the
truths of Christianity (§ 75, 1) had been grasped by the German races.
The great mass of the people indeed had adopted the new faith in a
purely historical fashion. Only gradually did it make its way into
the inner spiritual life, and meanwhile out of the not fully conquered
paganism there grew up a rich crop of superstitions in connection
with the Christian life. It must be confessed that the state of
morality among the Germans had fallen very low as compared with
that which prevailed before Germany’s conversion to Christianity.
A sadder contrast is scarcely conceivable than that presented by a
comparison of the description in Tacitus of the old German customs
and discipline and the account of Gregory of Tours of colossal
criminality and brutish sensuality in the Merovingian Age. But
never more than here does the fallacy: _Post hoc ergo propter hoc_,
require to be guarded against. The moral deterioration of the German
peoples was carried out independently of their contemporaneous, merely
external, Christianization. The cause of it lies only in the overturning
of the foundations of German life by the migration of the peoples.
Severed from their original home, the most powerful guardian of
ancestral customs, and set down as conquerors in the midst of rich
countries with morally base surroundings, which had a poisonous effect
upon them, with that eagerness and tenacity which characterize children
of nature, they seized upon the seductive treasures and enjoyments,
and their unfettered passion broke through all restraints of discipline
and morality. The clearest proof of this view lies in the fact that the
moral decay appeared in so remarkable a degree only among such peoples
as settled in the corrupt Roman world and became amalgamated with it,
most conspicuously among the Franks in Gaul and the Longobards in Italy,
whereas among the Anglo-Saxons and the inhabitants of Germany the moral
development was more normal.
§ 89.1. =Superstition.=--A powerful impulse was given to
superstition on the one hand by the church, according to the
educational method recommended by Gregory the Great (§ 75, 3),
refusing recklessly to root out every element of paganism and
rather endeavouring to give Christian applications to heathen
institutions and views and to fill pagan forms with Christian
contents, and on the other hand, by the representatives of the
church not regarding belief in the existence of heathen deities
as a delusion but counting the gods and goddesses as demons.
The popular belief therefore saw in them a set of dethroned
deities who in certain realms of nature maintain their ancient
sway, whom therefore they dare not venture altogether to
disoblige. The fanciful poetic view of nature prevailing
among the Germans contributed also to this result, with its
love of the mysterious and supernatural, its fondness for
subtle enquiries and intellectual investigations. Thus, in
the worship of the saints as well as in the church’s belief in
angels and devils, new rich worlds opened themselves up before
the Christianized Germans, which the popular belief soon improved
upon. The pious man is exposed on all sides to the vexations of
demons, but he is also on all sides surrounded by the protecting
care of saints and angels. The popular belief made a great deal
of the devil, but the relation of men to the prince of darkness
and his attendant spirits seemed much too earnest and real to be
as yet the subject of the humour which characterized the devil
legends of the later Middle Ages, in which the cheated, “stupid”
devil is represented as at last possessed only of impotent rage
and sneaking off in disgrace.
§ 89.2. =Popular Education.=--The idea of a general system
of education for the people was already present to the mind
of Charlemagne. Yet as we may suppose only beginnings were made
toward its realization. Bishop Theodulf of Orleans was specially
active in founding schools for the people in all the villages
and country towns of his diocese. The religious instruction of
the youth was restricted as a rule to the teaching of the Lord’s
Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed. Whatever grown up man or woman
did not know these two was at Charles’ command to be subjected
to flogging and fasting and to be made to learn them besides.
As evidence of the extent of a religious consciousness among
the people may be adduced the German forms of adjuration,
belief, confession and prayer, of the 8th and 9th centuries
which are still preserved. Further means of advancing the
religious education of the people were afforded by the attempts
to make the biblical and patristic books accessible to the people
by translations in their own language. Among the Germans the
monastery of St. Gall was famous for its zeal in originating
a national literature. Among the Anglo-Saxons this effort was
made and carried out by Alfred the Great, who died in A.D. 901
(§ 90, 10).
§ 89.3. =Christian Popular Poetry.=--It makes its first
appearance at the end of the 7th century and continued far
down into the 9th century. It flourished chiefly in England
and Germany. Under the name of the Northumbrian =Cædmon=, who
died in A.D. 680, there has been preserved a whole series of
biblical poems of no small poetic merit, which range over the
whole of the Old and New Testament history. The most important
Anglo-Saxon poet after him was his countryman =Cynewulf= living
about a century later. His poems are less homely and simple,
but more elaborate than those of Cædmon, and as full of poetic
enthusiasm as these. He too paints for us in his “Christ” the
picture of the Redeemer as that of a manly victorious prince
among his true “champions and earls” with such clear-cut features
that “whoever once beholds them will never again forget them.”
His poetically wrought up legends bear more of the Romish stamp
with traces of saint worship and the doctrine of merit.[247]
Still higher than these two Anglo-Saxon productions stands
the German-Saxon epic the =Heliand=, of the time of Louis of
France, a song of the Messiah worthy of its august subject,
truly national, perfect in form, simple, lively and majestic
in style, transposing into German blood and life a genuine deep
Christianity. In poetic value scarcely less significant is the
“Krist” of Otfried, a monk of Weissenberg about A.D. 860. Near
to his heart as well as to that of the Anglo-Saxon singers lay
the thought: _thaz wir Kriste sungun in unsere Zungun_. It is,
however, no longer popular but artistic poetry, in which the old
German letter rhyme or alliteration gives place to the softer
and more delicate final rhyme. To this class belongs also the
so-called =Wessobrunner Prayer=, of which the first poetical
half is probably a fragment of a larger hymn of the creation,
and a poem in High German on the end of the world and the last
judgment, known by the name of =Muspilli=, extant only as a
fragment which is, however, almost unsurpassable in dignity
and grandeur of description.
§ 89.4. =Social Condition.=--From the point of view of German
law the contract of betrothal had the validity of =marriage=
and the subsequent nuptial ceremony or surrender of the bride
to the bridegroom in a public legal manner by her father or legal
guardian was held to be only the carrying out of that contract.
The bridal ceremony with the ecclesiastical benediction of the
marriage bond already legally tied, was frequently celebrated
only on the day following the marriage, therefore after its
consummation. The Capitulary of Charlemagne of A.D. 802 came
to the support of the claims of the church (§ 61, 2), ordaining
that without previous careful enquiry as to the relationship of
the parties by the priest, and the elders of the people, and also
without the priestly benediction, no marriage could be concluded.
The Pseudo-Isidorian decretals ascribed this demand to the popes
of the 4th and 5th centuries. But the right to perform marriages
was not thereby committed to the church; it was only that the
religious consecration of the civil ordinance of marriage was
now made obligatory. It seemed best of all when sooner or later
the spouses voluntarily renounced marital intercourse; but this
was strictly forbidden during Lent (§ 56, 4, 5), on all festivals
and on the station days of the week (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday
and Sunday). Second marriages were branded with the reproach of
incontinence and called forth a lengthened penance. There was on
the other hand as yet no prohibition of divorce, and the marrying
again of those separated was only unconditionally forbidden in
particular cases. The church was not willing to tolerate mixed
marriages with heathens, Jews and Arians. The Germans found it
most difficult to reconcile themselves to the strict requirements
of the church in regard to the prohibited degrees of relationship.
National customs had regarded many such marriages, especially
with a brother’s widow, as even a pious duty.[248]--Continuation,
§ 104, 6.--=Slavery= or Serfdom was an institution so closely
connected among the Germans with their notions of property that
the church could not think of its entire abolition; indeed the
church itself, with its large landed possessions, owned quite
a multitude of slaves. Yet it earnestly maintained the religious
and moral equality of masters and servants, assigned to the
manumission of slaves one of the first places among good works,
and was always ready to give protection to bondmen against cruel
masters.[249]--The church with special energy entered upon the
task of =Caring for the Poor=; even proud and heartless bishops
could not overlook it. Every well appointed church had several
buildings in which the poor, the sick, widows and orphans were
maintained at the church’s cost.[250]
§ 89.5. =Practice of Pubic Law.=--The custom of =Blood Revenge=
was also a thoroughly German institution. It had, however,
been fairly restricted by the custom of =Composition= or the
payment of satisfaction in the form of a pecuniary fine. The
church from its dislike of capital punishment decidedly favoured
this system. As a means of securing judicial evidence oaths
and ordeals were administered. Only the freeman, who was quite
capable of acting in accordance with his own judgment, was
allowed to take an =Oath=; the husband took the oath for his
wife, the father for the children, the master for the slave.
Relatives, friends and equals in rank swore along with him as
sharers of his oath, _Conjuratores_. Although they repeated with
him the oath formula, the meaning of their action simply was
that they were fully satisfied as to the honour and truthfulness
of him who took the oath. Where the oath of purgation was not
allowed, _conjuratores_ were not forthcoming and the other means
of proof awanting, the =Ordeal= (_Ordale_ from _Ordâl_=judgment)
was introduced. Under this may be included:
1. The Duel, derived from the old popular belief: _Deum adesse
bellantitus_. Only a freeman was allowed to enter the lists.
Old men, women, children and priests were allowed to put in
their place another of the same rank by birth.
2. Various fire tests; holding the bare hand a length of time
in the fire; in a simple shirt walking over burning logs of
wood; carrying glowing iron in the bare hand for nine paces;
walking barefoot over nine or twelve glowing ploughshares.
3. Two water tests: the accused was obliged to pick up with
his naked hand a ring or stone out of a kettle filled with
boiling water, or with a cord round his naked body he was
cast into deep water, his sinking was the proof of his
innocence.
4. The cross test: he whose arms first sank with weariness from
the cruciform position, was regarded as defeated.
5. The Eucharist test, applied especially to priests: it was
expected that the criminal should soon die under the stroke
of God’s wrath. As a substitute for this among the laity
we find the test of the consecrated morsel, _Judicium offæ_
which the accused was required to swallow during mass.
6. The bier test, _Judicium feretri_: if when the accused
touched the wound of the murdered man blood flowed from
the wound or forth from the mouth, it was regarded as proof
of his guilt.
The church with its belief in miracles occupied the same
ground as that on which the ordeal practice was rooted. It
could therefore only combat the heathen conception of the
ordeal and not the thing itself. But the church took charge of
the whole procedure, and certainly did much to reduce the danger
to a minimum. It was Agobard of Lyons, who died in A.D. 840, who
first contended against the superstition as worthy of reprobation.
Subsequently the Roman chair, first by Nicholas I., forbade
ordeals of all kinds.--Among the various kinds of privileges
involving the inviolability of person and goods, profession and
business, the privileges of the church were regarded as next
highest to those of the king. Any injury done to ecclesiastical
persons or properties and any crime committed in a sacred place,
required a threefold greater composition than _ceteris paribus_
would have otherwise been required. The bishop ranked with the
duke, the priest with the count.
§ 89.6. =Church Discipline and Penitential Exercises=
(§ 61, 1).--=The German= State allowed the church a share in
the administration of punishments, and regarded an evildoer’s
atonement as complete only when he had submitted to the
ecclesiastical as well as the secular judgment. Out of this grew
the institution of Episcopal =Synodal Judicatures=, _Synodus_,
under Charlemagne. Once a year the bishop accompanied by a royal
_Missus_ was to travel over the whole diocese, and, of every
parish priest assisted by assessors sworn for the purpose, should
inquire minutely into the moral and ecclesiastical condition
of each of the congregations under him and punish the sins and
shortcomings discovered. Directions for the conducting of Synodal
judicatures were written by Regino of Prüm and Hincmar of Rheims
(§ 90, 5). The state also gave authority to =Ecclesiastical
Excommunication= by putting its civil forces at the disposal
of the church. Pepin ordained that no excommunicated person
should enter a church, no Christian should eat or drink with
him, none should even greet him. Directions for the practice of
=Penitential Discipline= are given in the various =Penitentials=
or Confessional-books, which, after the pattern of forensic
productions, settle the amount of penal exactions for all
conceivable sins in proportion to their enormity. The Penitential
erroneously ascribed to Theodore archbishop of Canterbury
(§ 90, 8) is the model upon which most of these are constructed.
The Confessional-books that go under the names of the Venerable
Bede and Egbert of York obtained particularly high favour. All
these books, even in their earliest form extremely perverse and
in their later much altered forms full of contradictions, errors
and arbitrary positions, reduced the whole penitential practice
to the utmost depths of externalization and corruption. How
confused and warped the church idea of penitence had become is
seen by the rendering of the word _pœnitentia_ by penance, _i.e._
satisfaction, atonement. In the Penitentials _pœnitere_ is quite
identical with _jejunare_. The idea of _pœnitentia_ having been
once associated with external performances, there could be no
objection to substitute the customary penitential act of fasting
(§ 56, 7) for other spiritual exercises, or by adoption of
the German legal practice of receiving composition to accept
a money tax for ecclesiastical or benevolent purposes. In this
way the first traces made their appearance of the Indulgences
of the later Roman Catholic church. It therefore followed from
this, that, as satisfaction could be rendered for all sins by
corresponding acts of penance, so these works might also be
performed vicariously by others. Thus in the Penitentials there
grew up a system of =Penitential Redemptions= which formed the
most despicable mockery of all earnest penitence. For example,
a direction is given as to how a rich man may be absolved from
a penance of seven years in three days, without inconveniencing
himself, if he produces the number of men needed to fast for
him. Such deep corruption of the penitential discipline, however,
aroused, in the 8th and 9th centuries, a powerful reaction
against the Confessional-books and their corrupt principles.
It was first brought forward at the English Synod at Clovesho
in A.D. 747; in its footsteps followed the French Synods of
Chalons in A.D. 813, of Paris A.D. 829, of Mainz, A.D. 847.
The Council of Paris ordered that all Confessional-books should
be seized and burnt. They nevertheless still continued to be
used.--There did not as yet exist any universal and unconditional
compulsion to make confession. The custom, however, of a yearly
confession in the Easter forty days’ season was even during the
9th century so prevalent, that the omission of it was followed by
a severe censure by the synodal court. The formulæ of absolution
were only deprecative, not judicative.[251]