In the course of the present study, we propose to notice the doctrine
and action of the church as connected with the subject of slavery; and
to examine what were the tenets and conduct of those men who claimed to
be governed by the immediate teachings of Christ and his apostles.
In this investigation, we must apply to the records of the Catholic
Church, although we are aware that, in the minds of some, strong and
bitter prejudice may exist against these records; that some will say the
canker of corruption had destroyed the very kernel of Christianity in
that church.
Bower, a Protestant author, in the preface to his “History of the
Popes,” 7 vols. quarto, says—
“We must own the popes to have been, generally speaking, men of
extraordinary talents, the ablest politicians we read of in history;
statesmen fit to govern the world, and equal to the vast dominion they
grasped at; a dominion over the minds as well as the bodies and estates
of mankind; a dominion, of all that ever were formed, the most wide and
extensive, as knowing no other bounds but those of the earth.” Page 10,
vol. i. 3d edition, London, 1750.
Mr. Bower was a very learned man, had been educated a Catholic, was
professor of rhetoric, history, and philosophy in the universities of
Rome, Fermo, and Macerata, and counsellor of the Inquisition at Rome. He
commenced a work to prove the pope’s infallibility and supremacy. But he
proved to himself the adverse doctrine. He resigned his professorships
and places, removed to London, abjured the Catholic religion, and wrote
the work quoted. It is a work of great labour and merit, and well worth
the attention of the curious in these matters. But it is proper here to
remark, that Mr. Sale, in his preface to his translation of the Koran,
has made a severe, yet an unexplained attack, on the character of this
writer; but whatever may have been the provocation, we have to view him
through his book. It is not always possible for a just degree of merit
to be awarded those who lived in former times. We cannot always learn
the circumstances influencing them, nor do we often throw our minds back
into their peculiar position, by which alone can we be able to give a
just value to those influences.
History has handed us a few of the acts of him who lived a thousand
years ago; by them we judge, as though he lived to-day, acts which
prejudice may have distorted, or favour presented to the lens of time.
We must look to the condition of things at the time of the act; to the
probable effect under such condition, and to the real effect as
developed by time.
Pope Benedict IX. ascended the throne in A.D. 1033. He is very
unfavourably known to history. During his time there was a very powerful
faction raging against him at Rome, by which, at one time, he was driven
into exile. He is said to have sold the popedom, because his
debaucheries made him an object of contempt, and he wished to be free
from restraint; but in 1041, four years before he abandoned the papal
chair, he established, at a council in Aquitaine, the _Treuga Dei_,
whence it has been said that, during three days in the week, he
permitted any man to commit all sorts of crimes, even murder, free from
church censure, &c. By the _Treuga Dei_, for any wrong done him, no
person was permitted to revenge himself, from Wednesday evening to
Monday morning: construed, as above, by some, that he might do so during
the remaining portion of the week.
The facts were, all Europe was still groping in the ignorance of the
darkest ages; yet Christianity had been firmly established as a system
of faith. The church had always forbidden a revengeful redress of
individual wrongs; and, for such acts, her priests ever threatened
excommunication. But these charges had little or no effect during these
still semi-idolatrous and barbarous ages.
The kings were but heads of tribes, too weak to restrain their nobles,
as the nobles were their vassals: under such a state of things, each one
strove to redress his own wrongs. This led to constant murders, and
every kind of crime. Each state was constantly agitated by civil
commotions and bloodshed. Great moral changes are advanced by short
steps. The church took this evil in hand, and hence the _Treuga Dei_, a
word used in the Latin of that day, a corruption from the Gothic
_triggua_, and now found in the Spanish and Italian “_tregua_,” and from
whence our word _truce_. The curse of God was pronounced against all
offenders, and death followed a discovery of the crime. It was thought
to be a Divine suggestion, and hence the name. All consented to yield to
it as such, and it was found to have a powerful effect. In 1095, it was
warmly sustained in the Council of Clermont, under Urban II., and
extended to all the holy-days, and perpetually to clerks, monks,
pilgrims, merchants, husbandmen, and women, and to the persons and
property of all who would engage in crusades, and against all
devastations by fire. It was re-established in 1102, by Paschal II.; in
1139, by Innocent II.; in 1180, by Alexander III.; nor would it be
difficult to show that the _Treuga Dei_, the _Truce of God_, of Benedict
IX., was one of the most important, during the primary steps towards the
civilization of Europe; such was the state of society in that age of the
world. But we acknowledge that individuals of the Roman church, some of
whom obtruded themselves into the priesthood, have been very corrupt
men. But have not similar obtrusions happened in every other Christian,
Protestant, or worthy association of men? Have we not seen, among the
apostles, a Judas, betraying the Saviour of the world? Ananias and
Sapphira, attempting to swindle even God himself? Of confidence betrayed
among men, need we point to the tragical death of Servetus, which has
for ever placed the bloody mark of murder on the face of Calvin?
And may we not find sometimes, among ourselves, lamentable instances of
corruption, which, in the blackness of their character, defy the powers
of the pen? Instances, where, recreant to every honest, noble, and holy
feeling, individuals, hidden, as they think, beneath the robes of
righteousness, have carried poverty and distress to the house of the
widow, trampling on the rights—may be, the life—of the orphan, and even
using the confidence of a brother to betray and rob him?
Nor is it a matter of any exultation to the broken, the wounded mind,
that, in all such instances, unless the stink of insignificance shall
totally exclude such criminal from the page of history, whatever may be
the cloak he may wear, truth will eventually for ever convert it into
the burning shirt of Nessus.
But, if you call a dog a thief, he feels no shame. Generations of
enforced improvement and the grace of God alone can wipe out the stains
of an evil heart. Nor can man alter this his destiny. Therefore, in all
ages, and among all men, the tares and the wheat have been found in the
same field. What presumption, then, if not blasphemy, in opposition to
the word of Jehovah, to say, that the looming light of truth never
dawned upon this night of time until the advent of Luther or Knox!
In presenting the action and records of the church and early fathers, we
have freely adopted the sentiments and facts digested by Bishop England,
to whom, we take occasion here to say, we feel as much indebted, as
though we had merely changed a particle or deleted what was irrelevant
to our subject. Nor do we know of higher honour we can do this great and
good man than to lend our feeble mite to extend the knowledge of his
research, his purity, and great learning; and if, in the continuation of
this his unfinished study, amid the pagan superstitions and bigoted
thousands of Islam in benighted Asia, the conflicts of the Cross and the
Wand of Woden, during the dark ages of continental Europe, we may be
suffered to feel the elevating influence of his life-giving mantle, we
shall also surely feel elevated hopes of a high immortality.
But, it may be well here to remark, that we have no sectarian church to
sustain; that we belong to no religious order; nor have, as yet,
subscribed to any faith formed by man. And while we advocate the cause
of religion and truth, yielding ourselves in all humility to the
influence of Divine power, we feel as certain of his final notice, as
though we had marched through under a thousand banners at the head of
the world. We have all confidence in the word of him who hath said that
even the sparrow falleth not without his notice.
But, it is said, when disease infuses bile into the organs of sight, the
objects of vision have a peculiar tinge: to blend previous, sometimes
numerous, impressions into one perception, is a common action of the
mind. Thus the present idea is often modified by those that have
preceded; and hence we may conclude how often the mind is under the
insensible influence of prejudice. Upon these facts she has enthroned
her power.
But he who has schooled his mind in the doctrines of a tranquil
devotion, who habituates himself to view all things past, present, and
to come, through the medium of cause and effect, as the mere links of
one vast chain, reaching from Omnipotence to the present action, may
well rise superior to the tumult of passion or the empire of prejudice.
And to the utilitarian permit us to say, that prejudice is peculiarly
unsuited to the age of moral and physical improvement in which we live.
Let no one say, the spirit of improvement has a deep root, and its lofty
hopes cannot be subverted; that the most penetrating philosophy cannot
prescribe its limits, the most ardent imagination reach its bounds:
rather let him reflect that all improvement must for ever follow the
footsteps of truth; and that the peculiar province of prejudice is to
set us aside from its path.
With such views, let us for a moment consider the circumstances
attending the early ages of the Roman church; and let us note that,
although her priests were but men, whether her records are not as
reliable as if some of her peculiarities had been different, or she had
been called by a different name. But we shall not quote or pursue these
records down to so late a day as the Protestant Reformation. We hope,
therefore, that the Protestant will say that the records we quote are,
most decidedly, the records of the church.
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