APPLICATION OF THE SIXTH NOTE OF A TRUE DEVELOPMENT.
CONSERVATIVE ACTION ON ITS PAST.
It is the general pretext of heretics that they are but serving and
protecting Christianity by their innovations; and it is their charge
against what by this time we may surely call the Catholic Church, that
her successive definitions of doctrine have but overlaid and obscured
it. That is, they assume, what we have no wish to deny, that a true
development is that which is conservative of its original, and a
corruption is that which tends to its destruction. This has already been
set down as a Sixth Test, discriminative of a development from a
corruption, and must now be applied to the Catholic doctrines; though
this Essay has so far exceeded its proposed limits, that both reader and
writer may well be weary, and may content themselves with a brief
consideration of the portions of the subject which remain.
It has been observed already that a strict correspondence between the
various members of a development, and those of the doctrine from which
it is derived, is more than we have any right to expect. The bodily
structure of a grown man is not merely that of a magnified boy; he
differs from what he was in his make and proportions; still manhood is
the perfection of boyhood, adding something of its own, yet keeping
what it finds. "Ut nihil novum," says Vincentius, "proferatur in
senibus, quod non in pueris jam antea latitaverit." This character of
addition,--that is, of a change which is in one sense real and
perceptible, yet without loss or reversal of what was before, but, on
the contrary, protective and confirmative of it,--in many respects and
in a special way belongs to Christianity.
SECTION I.
VARIOUS INSTANCES.
If we take the simplest and most general view of its history, as
existing in an individual mind, or in the Church at large, we shall see
in it an instance of this peculiarity. It is the birth of something
virtually new, because latent in what was before. Thus we know that no
temper of mind is acceptable in the Divine Presence without love; it is
love which makes Christian fear differ from servile dread, and true
faith differ from the faith of devils; yet in the beginning of the
religious life, fear is the prominent evangelical grace, and love is but
latent in fear, and has in course of time to be developed out of what
seems its contradictory. Then, when it is developed, it takes that
prominent place which fear held before, yet protecting not superseding
it. Love is added, not fear removed, and the mind is but perfected in
grace by what seems a revolution. "They that sow in tears, reap in joy;"
yet afterwards still they are "sorrowful," though "alway rejoicing."
And so was it with the Church at large. She started with suffering,
which turned to victory; but when she was set free from the house of her
prison, she did not quit it so much as turn it into a cell. Meekness
inherited the earth; strength came forth from weakness; the poor made
many rich; yet meekness and poverty remained. The rulers of the world
were Monks, when they could not be Martyrs.
2.
Immediately on the overthrow of the heathen power, two movements
simultaneously ran through the world from East to West, as quickly as
the lightning in the prophecy, a development of worship and of
asceticism. Hence, while the world's first reproach in heathen times had
been that Christianity was a dark malevolent magic, its second has been
that it is a joyous carnal paganism;--according to that saying, "We have
piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye
have not lamented. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they
say, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they
say, Behold a man gluttonous and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and
sinners." Yet our Lord too was "a man of sorrows" all the while, but
softened His austerity by His gracious gentleness.
3.
The like characteristic attends also on the mystery of His Incarnation.
He was first God and He became man; but Eutyches and heretics of his
school refused to admit that He was man, lest they should deny that He
was God. In consequence the Catholic Fathers are frequent and unanimous
in their asseverations, that "the Word" had become flesh, not to His
loss, but by an addition. Each Nature is distinct, but the created
Nature lives in and by the Eternal. "Non amittendo quod erat, sed
sumendo quod non erat," is the Church's principle. And hence, though the
course of development, as was observed in a former Chapter, has been to
bring into prominence the divine aspect of our Lord's mediation, this
has been attended by even a more open manifestation of the doctrine of
His atoning sufferings. The passion of our Lord is one of the most
imperative and engrossing subjects of Catholic teaching. It is the great
topic of meditations and prayers; it is brought into continual
remembrance by the sign of the Cross; it is preached to the world in the
Crucifix; it is variously honoured by the many houses of prayer, and
associations of religious men, and pious institutions and undertakings,
which in some way or other are placed under the name and the shadow of
Jesus, or the Saviour, or the Redeemer, or His Cross, or His Passion, or
His sacred Heart.
4.
Here a singular development may be mentioned of the doctrine of the
Cross, which some have thought so contrary to its original
meaning,[422:1] as to be a manifest corruption; I mean the introduction
of the Sign of the meek Jesus into the armies of men, and the use of an
emblem of peace as a protection in battle. If light has no communion
with darkness, or Christ with Belial, what has He to do with Moloch, who
would not call down fire on His enemies, and came not to destroy but to
save? Yet this seeming anomaly is but one instance of a great law which
is seen in developments generally, that changes which appear at first
sight to contradict that out of which they grew, are really its
protection or illustration. Our Lord Himself is represented in the
Prophets as a combatant inflicting wounds while He received them, as
coming from Bozrah with dyed garments, sprinkled and red in His apparel
with the blood of His enemies; and, whereas no war is lawful but what is
just, it surely beseems that they who are engaged in so dreadful a
commission as that of taking away life at the price of their own,
should at least have the support of His Presence, and fight under the
mystical influence of His Name, who redeemed His elect as a combatant by
the Blood of Atonement, with the slaughter of His foes, the sudden
overthrow of the Jews, and the slow and awful fall of the Pagan Empire.
And if the wars of Christian nations have often been unjust, this is a
reason against much more than the use of religious symbols by the
parties who engage in them, though the pretence of religion may increase
the sin.
5.
The same rule of development has been observed in respect of the
doctrine of the Blessed Trinity. It is the objection of the School of
Socinus, that belief in the Trinity is destructive of any true
maintenance of the Divine Unity, however strongly the latter may be
professed; but Petavius, as we have seen,[423:1] sets it down as one
especial recommendation of the Catholic doctrine, that it subserves that
original truth which at first sight it does but obscure and compromise.
6.
This representation of the consistency of the Catholic system will be
found to be true, even in respect of those peculiarities of it, which
have been considered by Protestants most open to the charge of
corruption and innovation. It is maintained, for instance, that the
veneration paid to Images in the Catholic Church directly contradicts
the command of Scripture, and the usage of the primitive ages. As to
primitive usage, that part of the subject has been incidentally observed
upon already; here I will make one remark on the argument from
Scripture.
It may be reasonably questioned, then, whether the Commandment which
stands second in the Protestant Decalogue, on which the prohibition of
Images is grounded, was intended in its letter for more than temporary
observance. So far is certain, that, though none could surpass the later
Jews in its literal observance, nevertheless this did not save them from
the punishments attached to the violation of it. If this be so, the
literal observance is not its true and evangelical import.
7.
"When the generation to come of your children shall rise up after you,"
says their inspired lawgiver, "and the stranger that shall come from a
far land shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and its
sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it; and that the whole land
thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor
beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, . . . even all nations shall
say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? What meaneth the
heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken
the covenants of the Lord God of their fathers, which He made with them
when He brought them forth out of the land of Egypt; for they went and
served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and
whom He had not given them." Now the Jews of our Lord's day did not keep
this covenant, for they incurred the penalty; yet they kept the letter
of the Commandment rigidly, and were known among the heathen far and
wide for their devotion to the "Lord God of their fathers who brought
them out of the land of Egypt," and for their abhorrence of the "gods
whom He had not given them." If then adherence to the letter was no
protection to the Jews, departure from the letter may be no guilt in
Christians.
It should be observed, moreover, that there certainly is a difference
between the two covenants in their respective view of symbols of the
Almighty. In the Old, it was blasphemy to represent Him under "the
similitude of a calf that eateth hay;" in the New, the Third Person of
the Holy Trinity has signified His Presence by the appearance of a Dove,
and the Second Person has presented His sacred Humanity for worship
under the name of the Lamb.
8.
It follows that, if the letter of the Decalogue is but partially binding
on Christians, it is as justifiable, in setting it before persons under
instruction, to omit such parts as do not apply to them, as, when we
quote passages from the Pentateuch in Sermons or Lectures generally, to
pass over verses which refer simply to the temporal promises or the
ceremonial law, a practice which we allow without any intention or
appearance of dealing irreverently with the sacred text.
SECTION II.
DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN.
It has been anxiously asked, whether the honours paid to St. Mary, which
have grown out of devotion to her Almighty Lord and Son, do not, in
fact, tend to weaken that devotion; and whether, from the nature of the
case, it is possible so to exalt a creature without withdrawing the
heart from the Creator.
In addition to what has been said on this subject in foregoing Chapters,
I would here observe that the question is one of fact, not of
presumption or conjecture. The abstract lawfulness of the honours paid
to St. Mary, and their distinction in theory from the incommunicable
worship paid to God, are points which have already been dwelt upon; but
here the question turns upon their practicability or expedience, which
must be determined by the fact whether they are practicable, and whether
they have been found to be expedient.
1.
Here I observe, first, that, to those who admit the authority of the
Fathers of Ephesus, the question is in no slight degree answered by
their sanction of the +theotokos+, or "Mother of God," as a title of St.
Mary, and as given in order to protect the doctrine of the Incarnation,
and to preserve the faith of Catholics from a specious Humanitarianism.
And if we take a survey at least of Europe, we shall find that it is not
those religious communions which are characterized by devotion towards
the Blessed Virgin that have ceased to adore her Eternal Son, but those
very bodies, (when allowed by the law,) which have renounced devotion to
her. The regard for His glory, which was professed in that keen jealousy
of her exaltation, has not been supported by the event. They who were
accused of worshipping a creature in His stead, still worship Him; their
accusers, who hoped to worship Him so purely, they, wherever obstacles
to the development of their principles have been removed, have ceased to
worship Him altogether.
2.
Next, it must be observed, that the tone of the devotion paid to the
Blessed Mary is altogether distinct from that which is paid to her
Eternal Son, and to the Holy Trinity, as we must certainly allow on
inspection of the Catholic services. The supreme and true worship paid
to the Almighty is severe, profound, awful, as well as tender,
confiding, and dutiful. Christ is addressed as true God, while He is
true Man; as our Creator and Judge, while He is most loving, gentle, and
gracious. On the other hand, towards St. Mary the language employed is
affectionate and ardent, as towards a mere child of Adam; though
subdued, as coming from her sinful kindred. How different, for instance,
is the tone of the _Dies Iræ_ from that of the _Stabat Mater_. In the
"Tristis et afflicta Mater Unigeniti," in the "Virgo virginum præclara
Mihi jam non sis amara, Poenas mecum divide," in the "Fac me vere
tecum flere," we have an expression of the feelings with which we regard
one who is a creature and a mere human being; but in the "Rex tremendæ
majestatis qui salvandos salvas gratis, salva me Fons pietatis," the "Ne
me perdas illâ die," the "Juste judex ultionis, donum fac remissionis,"
the "Oro supplex et acclinis, cor contritum quasi cinis," the "Pie Jesu
Domine, dona eis requiem," we hear the voice of the creature raised in
hope and love, yet in deep awe to his Creator, Infinite Benefactor, and
Judge.
Or again, how distinct is the language of the Breviary Services on the
Festival of Pentecost, or of the Holy Trinity, from the language of the
Services for the Assumption! How indescribably majestic, solemn, and
soothing is the "Veni Creator Spiritus," the "Altissimi donum Dei, Fons
vivus, ignis, charitas," or the "Vera et una Trinitas, una et summa
Deitas, sancta et una Unitas," the "Spes nostra, salus nostra, honor
noster, O beata Trinitas," the "Charitas Pater, gratia Filius,
communicatio Spiritus Sanctus, O beata Trinitas;" "Libera nos, salva
nos, vivifica nos, O beata Trinitas!" How fond, on the contrary, how
full of sympathy and affection, how stirring and animating, in the
Office for the Assumption, is the "Virgo prudentissima, quo progrederis,
quasi aurora valde rutilans? filia Sion, tota formosa et suavis es,
pulcra ut luna, electa ut sol;" the "Sicut dies verni circumdabant eam
flores rosarum, et lilia convallium;" the "Maria Virgo assumpta est ad
æthereum thalamum in quo Rex regum stellato sedet solio;" and the
"Gaudent Angeli, laudantes benedicunt Dominum." And so again, the
Antiphon, the "Ad te clamamus exules filii Hevæ, ad te suspiramus
gementes et flentes in hac lacrymarum valle," and "Eia ergo, advocata
nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte," and "O clemens,
O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria." Or the Hymn, "Ave Maris stella, Dei Mater
alma," and "Virgo singularis, inter omnes mitis, nos culpis solutos,
mites fac et castos."
3.
Nor does it avail to object that, in this contrast of devotional
exercises, the human will supplant the Divine, from the infirmity of our
nature; for, I repeat, the question is one of fact, whether it has done
so. And next it must be asked, whether the character of much of the
Protestant devotion towards our Lord has been that of adoration at all;
and not rather such as we pay to an excellent human being, that is, no
higher devotion than that which Catholics pay to St. Mary, differing
from it, however, in often being familiar, rude, and earthly. Carnal
minds will ever create a carnal worship for themselves; and to forbid
them the service of the Saints will have no tendency to teach them the
worship of God.
Moreover, it must be observed, what is very important, that great and
constant as is the devotion which the Catholic pays to the Blessed Mary,
it has a special province, and has far more connexion with the public
services and the festive aspect of Christianity, and with certain
extraordinary offices which she holds, than with what is strictly
personal and primary in religion.
Two instances will serve in illustration of this, and they are but
samples of many others.[428:1]
4.
(1.) For example, St. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises are among the most
approved methods of devotion in the modern Catholic Church; they proceed
from one of the most celebrated of her Saints, and have the praise of
Popes, and of the most eminent masters of the spiritual life. A Bull of
Paul the Third's "approves, praises, and sanctions all and everything
contained in them;" indulgences are granted to the performance of them
by the same Pope, by Alexander the Seventh, and by Benedict the
Fourteenth. St. Carlo Borromeo declared that he learned more from them
than from all other books together; St. Francis de Sales calls them "a
holy method of reformation," and they are the model on which all the
extraordinary devotions of religious men or bodies, and the course of
missions, are conducted. If there is a document which is the
authoritative exponent of the inward communion of the members of the
modern Catholic Church with their God and Saviour, it is this work.
The Exercises are directed to the removal of obstacles in the way of the
soul's receiving and profiting by the gifts of God. They undertake to
effect this in three ways; by removing all objects of this world, and,
as it were, bringing the soul "into the solitude where God may speak to
its heart;" next, by setting before it the ultimate end of man, and its
own deviations from it, the beauty of holiness, and the pattern of
Christ; and, lastly, by giving rules for its correction. They consist of
a course of prayers, meditations, self-examinations, and the like, which
in its complete extent lasts thirty days; and these are divided into
three stages,--the _Via Purgativa_, in which sin is the main subject of
consideration; the _Via Illuminativa_, which is devoted to the
contemplation of our Lord's passion, involving the process of the
determination of our calling; and the _Via Unitiva_, in which we proceed
to the contemplation of our Lord's resurrection and ascension.
5.
No more need be added in order to introduce the remark for which I have
referred to these Exercises; viz. that in a work so highly sanctioned,
so widely received, so intimately bearing upon the most sacred points of
personal religion, very slight mention occurs of devotion to the Blessed
Virgin, Mother of God. There is one mention of her in the rule given for
the first Prelude or preparation, in which the person meditating is
directed to consider as before him a church, or other place with Christ
in it, St. Mary, and whatever else is suitable to the subject of
meditation. Another is in the third Exercise, in which one of the three
addresses is made to our Lady, Christ's Mother, requesting earnestly
"her intercession with her Son;" to which is to be added the Ave Mary.
In the beginning of the Second Week there is a form of offering
ourselves to God in the presence of "His infinite goodness," and with
the witness of His "glorious Virgin Mother Mary, and the whole host of
heaven." At the end of the Meditation upon the Angel Gabriel's mission
to St. Mary, there is an address to each Divine Person, to "the Word
Incarnate and to His Mother." In the Meditation upon the Two Standards,
there is an address prescribed to St. Mary to implore grace from her Son
through her, with an Ave Mary after it.
In the beginning of the Third Week one address is prescribed to Christ;
or three, if devotion incites, to Mother, Son, and Father. In the
description given of three different modes of prayer we are told, if we
would imitate the Blessed Mary, we must recommend ourselves to her, as
having power with her Son, and presently the Ave Mary, _Salve Regina_,
and other forms are prescribed, as is usual after all prayers. And this
is pretty much the whole of the devotion, if it may so be called, which
is recommended towards St. Mary in the course of so many apparently as a
hundred and fifty Meditations, and those chiefly on the events in our
Lord's earthly history as recorded in Scripture. It would seem then that
whatever be the influence of the doctrines connected with the Blessed
Virgin and the Saints in the Catholic Church, at least they do not
impede or obscure the freest exercise and the fullest manifestation of
the devotional feelings towards God and Christ.
6.
(2.) The other instance which I give in illustration is of a different
kind, but is suitable to mention. About forty little books have come
into my possession which are in circulation among the laity at Rome, and
answer to the smaller publications of the Christian Knowledge Society
among ourselves. They have been taken almost at hazard from a number of
such works, and are of various lengths; some running to as many as two
or three hundred pages, others consisting of scarce a dozen. They may be
divided into three classes:--a third part consists of books on practical
subjects; another third is upon the Incarnation and Passion; and of the
rest, a portion is upon the Sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist,
with two or three for the use of Missions, but the greater part is about
the Blessed Virgin.
As to the class on practical subjects, they are on such as the
following: "La Consolazione degl' Infermi;" "Pensieri di una donna sul
vestire moderno;" "L'Inferno Aperto;" "Il Purgatorio Aperto;" St.
Alphonso Liguori's "Massime eterne;" other Maxims by St. Francis de
Sales for every day in the year; "Pratica per ben confessarsi e
communicarsi;" and the like.
The titles of the second class on the Incarnation and Passion are such
as "Gesu dalla Croce al cuore del peccatore;" "Novena del Ss. Natale di
G. C.;" "Associazione pel culto perpetuo del divin cuore;" "Compendio
della Passione."
In the third are "Il Mese Eucaristico," "Il divoto di Maria," Feasts of
the Blessed Virgin, &c.
7.
These books in all three divisions are, as even the titles of some of
them show, in great measure made up of Meditations; such are the "Breve
e pie Meditazioni" of P. Crasset; the "Meditazioni per ciascun giorno
del mese sulla Passione;" the "Meditazioni per l'ora Eucaristica." Now
of these it may be said generally, that in the body of the Meditation
St. Mary is hardly mentioned at all. For instance, in the Meditations on
the Passion, a book used for distribution, through two hundred and
seventy-seven pages St. Mary is not once named. In the Prayers for Mass
which are added, she is introduced, at the Confiteor, thus, "I pray the
Virgin, the Angels, the Apostles, and all the Saints of heaven to
intercede," &c.; and in the Preparation for Penance, she is once
addressed, after our Lord, as the Refuge of sinners, with the Saints and
Guardian Angel; and at the end of the Exercise there is a similar prayer
of four lines for the intercession of St. Mary, Angels and Saints of
heaven. In the Exercise for Communion, in a prayer to our Lord, "my only
and infinite good, my treasure, my life, my paradise, my all," the
merits of the Saints are mentioned, "especially of St. Mary." She is
also mentioned with Angels and Saints at the termination.
In a collection of "Spiritual Lauds" for Missions, of thirty-six Hymns,
we find as many as eleven addressed to St. Mary, or relating to her,
among which are translations of the _Ave Maris Stella_, and the _Stabat
Mater_, and the _Salve Regina_; and one is on "the sinner's reliance on
Mary." Five, however, which are upon Repentance, are entirely engaged
upon the subjects of our Lord and sin, with the exception of an address
to St. Mary at the end of two of them. Seven others, upon sin, the
Crucifixion, and the Four Last Things, do not mention the Blessed
Virgin's name.
To the Manual for the Perpetual Adoration of the Divine Heart of Jesus
there is appended one chapter on the Immaculate Conception.
8.
One of the most important of these books is the French _Pensez-y bien_,
which seems a favourite, since there are two translations of it, one of
them being the fifteenth edition; and it is used for distribution in
Missions. In these reflections there is scarcely a word said of St.
Mary. At the end there is a Method of reciting the Crown of the Seven
Dolours of the Virgin Mary, which contains seven prayers to her, and the
_Stabat Mater_.
One of the longest in the whole collection is a tract consisting
principally of Meditations on the Holy Communion; under the title of the
"Eucharistic Month," as already mentioned. In these "Preparations,"
"Aspirations," &c., St. Mary is but once mentioned, and that in a prayer
addressed to our Lord. "O my sweetest Brother," it says with an allusion
to the Canticles, "who, being made Man for my salvation, hast sucked the
milk from the virginal breast of her, who is my Mother by grace," &c. In
a small "Instruction" given to children on their first Communion, there
are the following questions and answers: "Is our Lady in the Host? No.
Are the Angels and the Saints? No. Why not? Because they have no place
there."
9.
Now coming to those in the third class, which directly relate to the
Blessed Mary, such as "Esercizio ad Onore dell' addolorato cuore di
Maria," "Novena di Preparazione alla festa dell' Assunzione," "Li
Quindici Misteri del Santo Rosario," the principal is Father Segneri's
"Il divoto di Maria," which requires a distinct notice. It is far from
the intention of these remarks to deny the high place which the Holy
Virgin holds in the devotion of Catholics; I am but bringing evidence of
its not interfering with that incommunicable and awful relation which
exists between the creature and the Creator; and, if the foregoing
instances show, as far as they go, that that relation is preserved
inviolate in such honours as are paid to St. Mary, so will this treatise
throw light upon the _rationale_ by which the distinction is preserved
between the worship of God and the honour of an exalted creature, and
that in singular accordance with the remarks made in the foregoing
Section.
10.
This work of Segneri is written against persons who continue in sins
under pretence of their devotion to St. Mary, and in consequence he is
led to draw out the idea which good Catholics have of her. The idea is
this, that she is absolutely the first of created beings. Thus the
treatise says, that "God might have easily made a more beautiful
firmament, and a greener earth, but it was not possible to make a higher
Mother than the Virgin Mary; and in her formation there has been
conferred on mere creatures all the glory of which they are capable,
remaining mere creatures," p. 34. And as containing all created
perfection, she has all those attributes, which, as was noticed above,
the Arians and other heretics applied to our Lord, and which the Church
denied of Him as infinitely below His Supreme Majesty. Thus she is "the
created Idea in the making of the world," p. 20; "which, as being a more
exact copy of the Incarnate Idea than was elsewhere to be found, was
used as the original of the rest of the creation," p. 21. To her are
applied the words, "Ego primogenita prodivi ex ore Altissimi," because
she was predestinated in the Eternal Mind coevally with the Incarnation
of her Divine Son. But to Him alone the title of Wisdom Incarnate is
reserved, p. 25. Again, Christ is the First-born by nature; the Virgin
in a less sublime order, viz. that of adoption. Again, if omnipotence is
ascribed to her, it is a participated omnipotence (as she and all Saints
have a participated sonship, divinity, glory, holiness, and worship),
and is explained by the words, "Quod Deus imperio, tu prece, Virgo,
potes."
11.
Again, a special office is assigned to the Blessed Virgin, that is,
special as compared with all other Saints; but it is marked off with the
utmost precision from that assigned to our Lord. Thus she is said to
have been made "the arbitress of every _effect_ coming from God's
mercy." Because she is the Mother of God, the salvation of mankind is
said to be given to her prayers "_de congruo_, but _de condigno_ it is
due only to the blood of the Redeemer," p. 113. Merit is ascribed to
Christ, and prayer to St. Mary, p. 162. The whole may be expressed in
the words, "_Unica_ spes mea Jesus, et post Jesum Virgo Maria. Amen."
Again, a distinct _cultus_ is assigned to Mary, but the reason of it is
said to be the transcendent dignity of her Son. "A particular _cultus_
is due to the Virgin beyond comparison greater than that given to any
other Saint, because her dignity belongs to another order, namely to one
which in some sense belongs to the order of the Hypostatic Union itself,
and is necessarily connected with it," p. 41. And "Her being the Mother
of God is the source of all the extraordinary honours due to Mary," p.
35.
It is remarkable that the "Monstra te esse Matrem" is explained, p. 158,
as "Show thyself to be _our_ Mother;" an interpretation which I think I
have found elsewhere in these Tracts, and also in a book commonly used
in religious houses, called the "Journal of Meditations," and
elsewhere.[436:1]
It must be kept in mind that my object here is not to prove the dogmatic
accuracy of what these popular publications teach concerning the
prerogatives of the Blessed Virgin, but to show that that teaching is
not such as to obscure the divine glory of her Son. We must ask for
clearer evidence before we are able to admit so grave a charge; and so
much may suffice on the Sixth Test of fidelity in the development of an
idea, as applied to the Catholic system.
FOOTNOTES:
[422:1] Supr. p. 173.
[423:1] Supr. p. 174.
[428:1] _E. g._ the "De Imitatione," the "Introduction à la Vie Dévote,"
the "Spiritual Combat," the "Anima Divota," the "Paradisus Animæ," the
"Regula Cleri," the "Garden of the Soul," &c. &c. [Also, the Roman
Catechism, drawn up expressly for Parish instruction, a book in which,
out of nearly 600 pages, scarcely half-a-dozen make mention of the
Blessed Virgin, though without any disparagement thereby, or thought of
disparagement, of her special prerogatives.]
[436:1] [Vid. Via Media, vol. ii. pp. 121-2.]
CHAPTER XII.
APPLICATION OF THE SEVENTH NOTE OF A TRUE DEVELOPMENT.
CHRONIC VIGOUR.
We have arrived at length at the seventh and last test, which was laid
down when we started, for distinguishing the true development of an idea
from its corruptions and perversions: it is this. A corruption, if
vigorous, is of brief duration, runs itself out quickly, and ends in
death; on the other hand, if it lasts, it fails in vigour and passes
into a decay. This general law gives us additional assistance in
determining the character of the developments of Christianity commonly
called Catholic.
2.
When we consider the succession of ages during which the Catholic system
has endured, the severity of the trials it has undergone, the sudden and
wonderful changes without and within which have befallen it, the
incessant mental activity and the intellectual gifts of its maintainers,
the enthusiasm which it has kindled, the fury of the controversies which
have been carried on among its professors, the impetuosity of the
assaults made upon it, the ever-increasing responsibilities to which it
has been committed by the continuous development of its dogmas, it is
quite inconceivable that it should not have been broken up and lost,
were it a corruption of Christianity. Yet it is still living, if there
be a living religion or philosophy in the world; vigorous, energetic,
persuasive, progressive; _vires acquirit eundo_; it grows and is not
overgrown; it spreads out, yet is not enfeebled; it is ever germinating,
yet ever consistent with itself. Corruptions indeed are to be found
which sleep and are suspended; and these, as I have said, are usually
called "decays:" such is not the case with Catholicity; it does not
sleep, it is not stationary even now; and that its long series of
developments should be corruptions would be an instance of sustained
error, so novel, so unaccountable, so preternatural, as to be little
short of a miracle, and to rival those manifestations of Divine Power
which constitute the evidence of Christianity. We sometimes view with
surprise and awe the degree of pain and disarrangement which the human
frame can undergo without succumbing; yet at length there comes an end.
Fevers have their crisis, fatal or favourable; but this corruption of a
thousand years, if corruption it be, has ever been growing nearer death,
yet never reaching it, and has been strengthened, not debilitated, by
its excesses.
3.
For instance: when the Empire was converted, multitudes, as is very
plain, came into the Church on but partially religious motives, and with
habits and opinions infected with the false worships which they had
professedly abandoned. History shows us what anxiety and effort it cost
her rulers to keep Paganism out of her pale. To this tendency must be
added the hazard which attended on the development of the Catholic
ritual, such as the honours publicly assigned to Saints and Martyrs, the
formal veneration of their relics, and the usages and observances which
followed. What was to hinder the rise of a sort of refined Pantheism,
and the overthrow of dogmatism _pari passu_ with the multiplication of
heavenly intercessors and patrons? If what is called in reproach
"Saint-worship" resembled the polytheism which it supplanted, or was a
corruption, how did Dogmatism survive? Dogmatism is a religion's
profession of its own reality as contrasted with other systems; but
polytheists are liberals, and hold that one religion is as good as
another. Yet the theological system was developing and strengthening, as
well as the monastic rule, which is intensely anti-pantheistic, all the
while the ritual was assimilating itself, as Protestants say, to the
Paganism of former ages.
4.
Nor was the development of dogmatic theology, which was then taking
place, a silent and spontaneous process. It was wrought out and carried
through under the fiercest controversies, and amid the most fearful
risks. The Catholic faith was placed in a succession of perils, and
rocked to and fro like a vessel at sea. Large portions of Christendom
were, one after another, in heresy or in schism; the leading Churches
and the most authoritative schools fell from time to time into serious
error; three Popes, Liberius, Vigilius, Honorius, have left to posterity
the burden of their defence: but these disorders were no interruption to
the sustained and steady march of the sacred science from implicit
belief to formal statement. The series of ecclesiastical decisions, in
which its progress was ever and anon signified, alternate between the
one and the other side of the theological dogma especially in question,
as if fashioning it into shape by opposite strokes. The controversy
began in Apollinaris, who confused or denied the Two Natures in Christ,
and was condemned by Pope Damasus. A reaction followed, and Theodore of
Mopsuestia suggested by his teaching the doctrine of Two Persons. After
Nestorius had brought that heresy into public view, and had incurred in
consequence the anathema of the Third Ecumenical Council, the current of
controversy again shifted its direction; for Eutyches appeared,
maintained the One Nature, and was condemned at Chalcedon. Something
however was still wanting to the overthrow of the Nestorian doctrine of
Two Persons, and the Fifth Council was formally directed against the
writings of Theodore and his party. Then followed the Monothelite
heresy, which was a revival of the Eutychian or Monophysite, and was
condemned in the Sixth. Lastly, Nestorianism once more showed itself in
the Adoptionists of Spain, and gave occasion to the great Council of
Frankfort. Any one false step would have thrown the whole theory of the
doctrine into irretrievable confusion; but it was as if some one
individual and perspicacious intellect, to speak humanly, ruled the
theological discussion from first to last. That in the long course of
centuries, and in spite of the failure, in points of detail, of the most
gifted Fathers and Saints, the Church thus wrought out the one and only
consistent theory which can be taken on the great doctrine in dispute,
proves how clear, simple, and exact her vision of that doctrine was. But
it proves more than this. Is it not utterly incredible, that with this
thorough comprehension of so great a mystery, as far as the human mind
can know it, she should be at that very time in the commission of the
grossest errors in religious worship, and should be hiding the God and
Mediator, whose Incarnation she contemplated with so clear an intellect,
behind a crowd of idols?
5.
The integrity of the Catholic developments is still more evident when
they are viewed in contrast with the history of other doctrinal systems.
Philosophies and religions of the world have each its day, and are parts
of a succession. They supplant and are in turn supplanted. But the
Catholic religion alone has had no limits; it alone has ever been
greater than the emergence, and can do what others cannot do. If it were
a falsehood, or a corruption, like the systems of men, it would be weak
as they are; whereas it is able even to impart to them a strength which
they have not, and it uses them for its own purposes, and locates them
in its own territory. The Church can extract good from evil, or at least
gets no harm from it. She inherits the promise made to the disciples,
that they should take up serpents, and, if they drank any deadly thing,
it should not hurt them. When evil has clung to her, and the barbarian
people have looked on with curiosity or in malice, till she should have
swollen or fallen down suddenly, she has shaken the venomous beast into
the fire, and felt no harm.
6.
Eusebius has set before us this attribute of Catholicism in a passage in
his history. "These attempts," he says, speaking of the acts of the
enemy, "did not long avail him, Truth ever consolidating itself, and, as
time goes on, shining into broader day. For, while the devices of
adversaries were extinguished at once, undone by their very
impetuosity,--one heresy after another presenting its own novelty, the
former specimens ever dissolving and wasting variously in manifold and
multiform shapes,--the brightness of the Catholic and only true Church
went forward increasing and enlarging, yet ever in the same things, and
in the same way, beaming on the whole race of Greeks and barbarians with
the awfulness, and simplicity, and nobleness, and sobriety, and purity
of its divine polity and philosophy. Thus the calumny against our whole
creed died with its day, and there continued alone our Discipline,
sovereign among all, and acknowledged to be pre-eminent in awfulness,
sobriety, and divine and philosophical doctrines; so that no one of this
day dares to cast any base reproach upon our faith, nor any calumny,
such as it was once usual for our enemies to use."[442:1]
7.
The Psalmist says, "We went through fire and water;" nor is it possible
to imagine trials fiercer or more various than those from which
Catholicism has come forth uninjured, as out of the Egyptian sea or the
Babylonian furnace. First of all were the bitter persecutions of the
Pagan Empire in the early centuries; then its sudden conversion, the
liberty of Christian worship, the development of the _cultus sanctorum_,
and the reception of Monachism into the ecclesiastical system. Then came
the irruption of the barbarians, and the occupation by them of the
_orbis terrarum_ from the North, and by the Saracens from the South.
Meanwhile the anxious and protracted controversy concerning the
Incarnation hung like some terrible disease upon the faith of the
Church. Then came the time of thick darkness; and afterwards two great
struggles, one with the material power, the other with the intellect, of
the world, terminating in the ecclesiastical monarchy, and in the
theology of the schools. And lastly came the great changes consequent
upon the controversies of the sixteenth century. Is it conceivable that
any one of those heresies, with which ecclesiastical history abounds,
should have gone through a hundredth part of these trials, yet have come
out of them so nearly what it was before, as Catholicism has done? Could
such a theology as Arianism have lasted through the scholastic contest?
or Montanism have endured to possess the world, without coming to a
crisis, and failing? or could the imbecility of the Manichean system, as
a religion, have escaped exposure, had it been brought into conflict
with the barbarians of the Empire, or the feudal system?
8.
A similar contrast discovers itself in the respective effects and
fortunes of certain influential principles or usages, which have both
been introduced into the Catholic system, and are seen in operation
elsewhere. When a system really is corrupt, powerful agents, when
applied to it, do but develope that corruption, and bring it the more
speedily to an end. They stimulate it preternaturally; it puts forth its
strength, and dies in some memorable act. Very different has been the
history of Catholicism, when it has committed itself to such formidable
influences. It has borne, and can bear, principles or doctrines, which
in other systems of religion quickly degenerate into fanaticism or
infidelity. This might be shown at great length in the history of the
Aristotelic philosophy within and without the Church; or in the history
of Monachism, or of Mysticism;--not that there has not been at first a
conflict between these powerful and unruly elements and the Divine
System into which they were entering, but that it ended in the victory
of Catholicism. The theology of St. Thomas, nay of the Church of his
period, is built on that very Aristotelism, which the early Fathers
denounce as the source of all misbelief, and in particular of the Arian
and Monophysite heresies. The exercises of asceticism, which are so
graceful in St. Antony, so touching in St. Basil, and so awful in St.
Germanus, do but become a melancholy and gloomy superstition even in the
most pious persons who are cut off from Catholic communion. And while
the highest devotion in the Church is the mystical, and contemplation
has been the token of the most singularly favoured Saints, we need not
look deeply into the history of modern sects, for evidence of the
excesses in conduct, or the errors in doctrine, to which mystics have
been commonly led, who have boasted of their possession of reformed
truth, and have rejected what they called the corruptions of
Catholicism.
9.
It is true, there have been seasons when, from the operation of external
or internal causes, the Church has been thrown into what was almost a
state of _deliquium_; but her wonderful revivals, while the world was
triumphing over her, is a further evidence of the absence of corruption
in the system of doctrine and worship into which she has developed. If
corruption be an incipient disorganization, surely an abrupt and
absolute recurrence to the former state of vigour, after an interval, is
even less conceivable than a corruption that is permanent. Now this is
the case with the revivals I speak of. After violent exertion men are
exhausted and fall asleep; they awake the same as before, refreshed by
the temporary cessation of their activity; and such has been the slumber
and such the restoration of the Church. She pauses in her course, and
almost suspends her functions; she rises again, and she is herself once
more; all things are in their place and ready for action. Doctrine is
where it was, and usage, and precedence, and principle, and policy;
there may be changes, but they are consolidations or adaptations; all is
unequivocal and determinate, with an identity which there is no
disputing. Indeed it is one of the most popular charges against the
Catholic Church at this very time, that she is "incorrigible;"--change
she cannot, if we listen to St. Athanasius or St. Leo; change she never
will, if we believe the controversialist or alarmist of the present day.
* * * * *
Such were the thoughts concerning the "Blessed Vision of Peace," of one
whose long-continued petition had been that the Most Merciful would not
despise the work of His own Hands, nor leave him to himself;--while yet
his eyes were dim, and his breast laden, and he could but employ Reason
in the things of Faith. And now, dear Reader, time is short, eternity is
long. Put not from you what you have here found; regard it not as mere
matter of present controversy; set not out resolved to refute it, and
looking about for the best way of doing so; seduce not yourself with the
imagination that it comes of disappointment, or disgust, or
restlessness, or wounded feeling, or undue sensibility, or other
weakness. Wrap not yourself round in the associations of years past; nor
determine that to be truth which you wish to be so, nor make an idol of
cherished anticipations. Time is short, eternity is long.
NUNC DIMITTIS SERVUM TUUM, DOMINE,
SECUNDUM VERBUM TUUM IN PACE:
QUIA VIDERUNT OCULI MEI SALUTARE TUUM.
FOOTNOTES:
[442:1] Euseb. Hist. iv. 7, _ap._ Church of the Fathers [Historical
Sketches, vol. i. p. 408].
THE END.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
The abbreviations i. e. and e. g. have been spaced throughout the text
for consistency.
The following words use an oe ligature in the original:
Beroea Moesia
coelis Moesian
coelistibus Moesogoths
coelum Phoenicia
coena Poenas
Euboea poenitentia
foecundæ
The following corrections have been made to the text:
Page 5: or the vicissitudes[original has vicissisudes] of
human affairs
Page 20: St. Justin was ready to concede to creatures.[period
missing in original]
Page 39: but is modified, or[original has or or] at least
influenced
Page 100: professes to accept,[original has period] and which,
do what he will
Page 102: and more explicit than the text.[period missing in
original]
Page 118: which is unsuitable to the Ante-nicene[original has
Antenicene] period
Page 133: almost universality in the primitive Church.[133:1]
[footnote anchor missing in original--position verified in an
earlier edition]
Page 172: whether fairly or not does not interfere[original
has interefere]
Page 227: a good-humoured superstition[original has
supersition]
Page 288: He explained St. Thomas's[original has extraneous
comma]
Page 306: of Himeria in Osrhoene[original has Orshoëne]
Page 309: During the interval, Dioscorus[original has
Discorus] was tried
Page 320: to contain scarcely[original has scarely] a single
inhabitant
Page 336: derive its efficacy from human faith."[quotation
mark missing in original]
Page 344: orthodoxy will stand or fall together.[period
missing in original]
Page 365: true Unitarianism of St.[period missing in original]
Augustine.
Page 416: as it is said in the Apocalypse,[original has
extraneous quotation mark] "The dragon
[13:2] British Critic, July, 1836, p. 193.[period missing in
original]
[18:3] Basil,[original has period] ed. Ben.[period missing in
original] vol. 3,[comma missing in original] p. xcvi.
[81:2] _Essay on Assent_, ch. vii. sect. 2.[period missing in
original]
[148:1] In Psalm 118, v. 3,[original has period] de Instit.
Virg. 50.
[162:1] Serm.[period missing in original] De Natal. iii. 3.
[213:1] p. 296, t. 5, mem. p. 63, t. 16,[comma missing in
original] mem. p. 267
[216:1] Sueton. Tiber.[period missing in original] 36
[234:3] [footnote number missing in original] Acad. Inscr. ibid.
[235:1] Gibbon, Hist. ch.[period missing in original] 16, note
14.
[237:2] In hon. Rom. 62.[original has comma] In Act. S. Cypr.
4
[259:1] Hær. 42,[original has period] p. 366.
[280:1] De Gub.[period missing in original] D. iv. p. 73.
[288:1] Lengerke, de Ephrem[original has extraneous period]
Syr. pp. 73-75.
[302:2] overthrow of all heresy, _especially_ the
Arian,[original has period]
[331:2] _Vid._ also _supr._[period missing in original] p.
256.
[369:1] Infra,[original has period] pp. 411-415, &c.
[371:1] Epp.[period missing in original] 102, 18.
[371:2] Contr. Faust.[original has comma] 20, 23.
[371:3] August.[letter "s" not printed in original] Ep. 102,
18
[399:1] Rosweyde,[original has period] V. P. p. 618.
[442:1] Euseb.[period missing in original] Hist. iv. 7