THE DAWN OF MODERN INTELLIGENCE.
THE MORNING DAWNS--RISE OF KNIGHTHOOD--PRINCIPLES OF
KNIGHTS--APOSTATE PRIESTS HELD IN CONTEMPT--WALDENSES--PERSECUTIONS
IN SOUTHERN FRANCE--RISE OF THE INQUISITION--LIBERAL POLICY OF
FREDERICK--"EVERLASTING GOSPEL"--ITS REMARKABLE TEACHINGS--BACON'S
DISCOVERIES--GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE--AZORES AND CANARY ISLANDS--TRAVELS
OF MARCO POLO--CONDITION OF EUROPEAN STATES--MODERN STATES.
Those who have waited for the dawning of the morning in the latter part
of a clear summer night, can understand the delight experienced at the
first tokens of approaching day. At first the rays of light are very
faint and only perceptible to a keen and experienced eye. As time wears
on the timid approach of twilight becomes more perceptible. The intense
blue of the sky begins to soften. The rays that first darted up {65}
in the far north-east, though occasionally intercepted by mountains or
banks of clouds, gradually swing around to the east. The darkness of
the night dissolves into the glories of the dawn. The great watch-stars
fade away, one by one. The whole firmament is filled with the inflowing
tides of morning light. At length a stream of golden sunlight flashes
out from above the hills and turns the dewy tear-drops of flower and
leaf into rubies and diamonds. Thus the king of day begins his course
arrayed in glories too severe for the gaze of man.
In like manner we may in imagination gaze at the dawning of "the
dispensation of the fullness of times," and watch the increasing rays
of moral, intellectual and spiritual light, feeble indeed at first, yet
constantly growing stronger, though sometimes intercepted by mountains
of bigotry and mists of error, until at length the gospel's glorious
sunshine again lights a benighted world, and the divine authority
and Priesthood are restored to the children of men. But let us not
anticipate. Let us rather patiently decipher on history's scroll the
characters written there by the finger of God. Let us carefully watch
the development of His purposes amid the strife and commotion of those
perilous times.
With the close of the Crusades the midnight darkness of human history
ended. Human misery had reached its climax. Superstition and ignorance
had done their most terrible work. Thousands, aye even millions had had
an opportunity of comparing the teachings and pretenses of Rome with
other civilizations. It is almost needless to say that Catholicism had
seriously suffered by the comparison. Rome was weighed in the balance
and found wanting.
Those of the Crusaders who remained in Palestine were soon blended
with the Mahometan population, and in a few years scarce a vestige of
them remained. Many of the leaders who returned were, like Richard
the Lion-Hearted, full of praise of the treatment they had received
from their enemies, and spent much of their time in founding various
orders of chivalry and knighthood. At first those orders received the
benediction of the popes. Some of them were even organized before
they returned from the Holy Land. Of such were the famous {66}
knights of St. John and Knights Hospitaller. But it was soon found
that those brave men loved liberty more than priestcraft, so after a
time, notwithstanding their eminent services, they were weakened and
divided by stratagem, charges were preferred against them and they were
cruelly put to death. The story of their fate will ever, remain one
of the darkest pages in the annals of our race. But their death only
accelerated the progress of their ideas. The spirit and institutions
of chivalry spread rapidly.
Treachery and hypocrisy were held by them in detestation. "To speak the
truth, to succor the helpless and never turn back from an enemy," was
the first vow of the youth who sought the honors of chivalry.
In an age of darkness and degradation, chivalry developed the character
of woman. It caused her virtues to be appreciated and honored, made
her the equal and companion of man, and the object of his love and
devotion. The love of God and the protection of women were enjoined as
a single duty (see Halem's Middle Ages, page 512). He who was faithful
to his vow and true to his wife was sure of salvation in the opinion of
the knights, though he failed to perform the penance prescribed by the
Romish clergy.
Chivalry was the religion of the heart, in a rude and untutored age.
It had the effect of infusing more of humanity and generous principle
into the operations of war than the ancient nations had any conception
of. Hence we seldom or never hear in modern times of such scenes
of unmingled atrocity, such deadly treachery, such extensive and
cold-blooded massacres as we so frequently read of in ancient pagan or
papal history.
At the close of the Crusades a great change commenced in society. The
minstrels, who with harps had gone about singing ballads, commemorating
deeds of heroism and adventure, now changed their theme and sang songs
of a very different character. Amid shouts of laughter they went
through the land, wagging their heads, and slyly winking their eyes,
and singing derisive songs about the amours of the priests, who in
turn were not slow to denounce the minstrels as lewd blasphemers and
atheists.
{67} While the young were singing, the old were thinking; while the gay
were carried away with romance and chivalry, the grave and reflecting
were falling into heresy.
About A. D. 1100, Peter Waldo, a wealthy citizen of Lyons, became
convinced of the corruptions of Rome. He, probably aided by others,
translated the scriptures into Provencal French. Thus, to him the
world is indebted for the first translation of the Bible into a modern
tongue. Waldo could not long remain in Lyons. He fled into Germany
and afterwards settled in Bohemia, where he died about A. D. 1179.
He was the instrument of spreading those liberal ideas in Bohemia,
of which John Huss and Jerome of Prague became in after times worthy
representatives. At the time of his death it is said that Waldo had
five hundred thousand followers.
Already, A. D. 1134, Peter de Brueys had been burned at Languedoc for
denying infant baptism. Already the valleys of Piedmont were full of
Waldenses, who denounced the greed of the popes and the intermingling
of bishops in bloodshed and war. At this juncture Innocent III.,
ascended the pontifical throne. Here was a state of things which, as
he considered, demanded immediate attention. The methods to which
he resorted for the suppression and extinction of heretics, as
misbelievers were called, have made his name forever infamous.
Innocent well knew that the greed and the corruptions of the clergy
had made them unpopular with the people. He therefore established
the mendicant orders of priests, more commonly known under the names
of Franciscans and Dominicans. Vowed to poverty and living on alms,
they lived and moved among the masses, and yet were held sacred. The
accusations and dissipation of luxury so forcibly urged against the
regular clergy, were altogether inapplicable to these half-starved
wandering fanatics. Once more for a time the popes had gained
possession of the ear of the masses.
At this time Southern France was the garden of reform. Here the
eloquence of Abelard, the patriotism of Arnold and the statesmanship
of Frederick wielded a mighty influence. Like seeds falling into good
ground, they brought forth much fruit. Already Arnold had been burned
at the stake and his {68} ashes thrown on the waves of the Tiber. He
has thus become the heritage, as it were, of every nation whose shores
are washed by the tides of the sea. Seven centuries have rolled by
since then, yet the memory of Arnold of Brescia is ever green; the
principles for which he lived and died are now incorporated in every
constitutional government on the globe.
In no land were his principles more prevalent than in Southern France,
and on it Innocent determined to vent his rage. In looking around for
a suitable pretext that would rouse the masses and excite them to
religious frenzy, he soon discovered the object for which he sought.
It was Raymond, earl of Toulouse, who had so far turned Mahometan that
he had no less than three wives in emulation of his Saracen neighbors
beyond the Pyrenees. An investigation of the domestic life of Raymond,
would have shown it to have been far more honorable than that of the
popes, themselves. Raymond was therefore arrested on the charge of
heresy, of harboring heretics and placing offices of trust in the hands
of worthy Jews. His subjects were indignant, for Raymond, it would
seem, was a wise and good ruler and much loved by his people.
In the disputes that ensued the pope's ambassador was accidentally
killed. Innocent considered this a sufficient reason for sending into
the earl's dominion an army of nearly five hundred thousand men. There
was no alternative for the earl but to submit. He surrendered up his
strong places, and even acknowledged the justice of his punishment. He
was publicly stripped naked to the waist, and, with a rope around his
neck, led to the altar of the cathedral and there scourged.
But the humiliation and scourging of the earl was not sufficient to
satisfy the soldiery. They had come for blood and plunder, and blood
and plunder they must have. Then followed such a scene of horror as
tongue or pen cannot describe. The army was officered by Roman and
French prelates. Bishops were its generals and an archdeacon its
engineer. The pope's ambassador was the commander-in-chief, who, when
asked by a subordinate officer at the battle of Beziers, how the
Catholics might be distinguished from the misbelievers {69} and saved,
replied: "Kill them all, God will know His own in the resurrection."
In the church of St. Mary Magdalene, seven thousand persons were
massacred. In the city twenty thousand more were slaughtered. The place
was then fired and left as a monument of priestly vengeance.
[Image: Dungeon of the Inquisition.]
{70} At the massacre of Levaur four hundred persons were piled together
and burned. The embassador, in making up his dispatches to the
pope, said that "they made a wonderful blaze, and then went to burn
everlastingly in hell."
It was hoped that these horrors would so terrify men that they would
never again dare to use the God-given power of reason. The soil had
been steeped with the blood of men and the air polluted by their
burnings; yet all this did not stifle the truth, nor prevent its
growth. Hoping still to effect this, that infernal institution, the
Inquisition, was established. Its projectors intended it not only to
put an end to public teaching, but also to private thought. When once
the Inquisition seized its victim, no person, not even the nearest
relative, could converse with him, write to him or intercede for him.
He was lost to public view until the hour for his torture or execution
had arrived. In Spain alone more than three hundred and forty thousand
passed through its terrible ordeal. But this fearful tribunal did not
fail to draw upon itself the indignation of men. Such outrages against
humanity cannot be perpetrated without bringing retribution in the end.
The great forces which were then at work in society, were well
illustrated in the characters of the two leading actors. On one side
stands Innocent III., his hands red with the blood of his fellow-men,
and hesitating at no atrocity in order to accomplish his purposes.
On the other, was Frederick II., emperor of Germany and Italy.
Frederick's early life had been spent in familiar intercourse with Jews
and Arabs. In a Saracen university he had received his education; and
to his many other accomplishments, he added the speaking of the Arabic
as fluently as a Saracen. Jewish and Saracen philosophers had taught
him to sneer at the pretensions of the church of Rome: as might be
expected he soon came in conflict with her authority.
Between Innocent and Frederick was perpetual enmity; but for a time
the conflict was deferred. During this interval the greatness of
Frederick was manifested in the internal improvements of his kingdom.
He instituted a representative assembly or parliament, which by his
sanction framed a {71} code of wise and useful laws. This code asserted
the principle of equal rights to all, the peasants, the nobles and
the church, and an equal proportion of taxation. It also provided
for the toleration of all religions, Catholic, Jewish and Mahometan.
Frederick emancipated all the serfs and slaves of his dominions,
established cheap courts of justice for the poor, and regulated trade
and commerce. He even laid down some of those commercial and political
maxims recently discussed by Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill, and only
in our own times finally received as true. He also established fairs
and markets, for the exchange of products, and offered prizes for
mechanical improvements and the best breeds of domestic animals. In
Naples he founded a great university with liberal provision for worthy
but indigent youths. Under him sculpture, painting, poetry and music
were liberally patronized, and the Italian tongue first rose to the
dignity of a language.
All this was an abomination in the sight of Rome. Gregory IX.,
succeeded to the pontifical chair in A. D. 1228. Frederick and
his parliaments, his laws and universities, his libraries and his
toleration were all denounced, and Frederick himself was delivered over
to Satan for the good of his soul. For thirty years Frederick combated
the power of the church, but he sank in the conflict at last. But the
fate of men is by no means an indication of the fate of principles.
"Truth crushed to earth will rise again,
The eternal years of God are hers."
Though denounced then, Frederick is now considered one of the
benefactors of his race.
Meanwhile an ominous cloud was gathering in the horizon of Rome.
The Franciscans, weary of poverty, began to denounce the luxury and
corruptions of the regular clergy. At this juncture a strange book made
its appearance, which, under the title of "The Everlasting Gospel,"
struck terror to the hearts of the papal authorities.
It was affirmed that an angel brought it from heaven and gave it to
the priest called Cyril, who it was said delivered it to the Abbot
Joachim, by whom the book was published. Cyril {72} had been dead about
fifty years when the work first made its appearance. According to the
admissions of Catholic historians, "The work displayed an enlarged
and masterly conception of the historical progress of humanity." It
claimed that Romanism had done its work and must now make way for a new
order of ideas. It proceeded to show that there are epochs, or ages in
the divine government of the world. During the Jewish dispensation,
it had been under the immediate influence of God the Father. For the
next twelve hundred years, it had been under the control of God the
Son, but the time has now arrived when the world would be under the
special control of the Holy Spirit. That man need no longer treasure
up the relics of antiquity, search after the sayings of the early
fathers or even solely and implicitly rely on the letter of the ancient
scriptures, for the Holy Spirit would manifest itself in visions,
dreams and revelations to the children of men.
One of the grand principles which it taught was, "the divine right of
private judgment." It asserted that genius should not be considered
an individual possession, but rather "the gift of God--the visible
manifestation of the secret workings of the Holy Spirit for the
elevation of the race." In short, it taught that "every invention and
discovery was only, in some degree, a revelation of God to man," an
unfolding of the secret laws of nature to man's finite understanding.
It considered, "those heroes as inspired, who, springing from society
at appointed epochs, displayed a mental or moral power beyond the
ordinary limits of humanity, and around whom, as around a superior and
mysterious power, nations and individuals unhesitatingly gather."
It recognized the hand of God in those grand revolutions, those great
men, those mighty nations, which, arising from obscurity, communicate
a fresh impulse, new vigor and advanced ideas to the human race. It
was without doubt the most powerful written work which had appeared
since the days of the apostles. No wonder the pope, Alexander IV., took
immediate measures for its destruction. So far from being suppressed,
its copies were multiplied rapidly, though printing was as yet unknown.
{73} On the far off plains of Bohemia, among the rugged mountains
of the Tyrol, by Alpine torrents and in the valleys of Piedmont, as
well as on the distant shores of England and Scotland, its words were
carefully read and pondered. In size it was nearly equal to the New
Testament, and by many of the humble classes it was revered as its
equal in authority. Many of its truths were conveyed in the form of
fable or parable. Historians generally write in the interest of some
sect or party, and finding in it little to flatter the pride or vanity
of man, have frequently passed it by in silence or have given it merely
a passing notice, but it was evidently an instrument in the hands of
God for awakening human intellect.
Meanwhile the boundaries of human knowledge were greatly enlarged.
Chemistry and medicine had taken their places as established sciences.
Roger Bacon, who was born A. D. 1214, had already astonished the
learned by his experiments and discoveries in optics, mathematics and
chemistry. At the present time it is almost impossible to comprehend
the difficulties and perils which then attended every step in
experimental science. For example, in making some experiments on the
properties of antimony, or stibium, as it was then called, it was
found that when given to the swine in their food it increased their
fatness with surprising rapidity. But when it was administered to some
half-starved monks the poor fellows were every one killed. Hence the
modern name of antimony, from _anti_, against, and _moine_, a monk. It
may also be added that antimony, whether used as a medicine or in the
composition of printer's type for the dissemination of truth is equally
unhealthy for sectarian bigots of every description.
Geographical knowledge had also been greatly extended. Adventurous
merchants had sailed along both the eastern and western shores of
Africa far south of the equator, for they discovered stars and
constellations invisible in northern latitudes. The Azores and Canary
Islands had been rediscovered after a lapse of more than a thousand
years. Portuguese sailors had already made voyages to far off Iceland,
the "Ullima Thule" of the ancients. With the exception of north-eastern
Asia and southern Africa, the entire boundaries of the eastern
continent were known. Marco Polo, in the {74} interests of Venetian
commerce, had explored the vast regions of central Asia, and Moorish
merchants of Tripoli, by means of caravans, had trafficked with the
tribes of central Africa.
The states of Europe had commenced to assume their modern forms;
Portugal had become independent of Spain about A. D. 1139; Switzerland,
under Rudolph of Hapsburg, became a distinct nationality in A. D.
1151; Ireland was subjugated by Henry II., of England, in A. D. 1172,
and British constitutional government commenced by wresting the Magna
Charta from King John, in A. D. 1215.
In fine arts we find that Cimabue, who was born in A. D. 1140, and
his pupil Giotto, who was born in A. D. 1276, established the Italian
school of modern painting.
The foregoing will indicate to some extent the condition of society
at the latter end of the thirteenth century. The darkness of night
had commenced to vanish. The morning star of intelligence had arisen,
heralding the coming of a peaceful day--
"A day not cloudless or devoid of storm,
But sunny for the most and clear and warm."