Rationalism in E Ip E

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RATIONALISM IN E I P E

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A SURYEY of ENGLISH ETHICS: being the '.History of European Morals ﺀ First Chap.ter of the ١v . A . H irst ith Introduction and Notes, by'١١ ,E dited Principal of Gujarat College, Ahmedabad, sometime .yd) ئ٠ Scliolar of Worcester College, Oxford. Crown Svo. 3

LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. .London, and Bombay ١v٠ Paternoster R o 39 HISTOEY

THE RISE AND INFLUENCE

OF THE SPIRIT OF

RATIONALISM IN EUROPE

WILLIAM EDWARD HARTPOLE 'LECKY

NEW IMPRESSION

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I.

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON AND BOMBAY 1904 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ^OTE

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INTRODUCTION.

D u r i n g the fieiee theological controversies tliat accompanied and followed the Reformation, while a judicial spil.it was as yet unknown, while each party imagined itself tlie representative of akso- lute andnecessai.y truth in opposition to absolute and fa.tal error, and while tlie fluctuations of -١vere usually attributed to direct miracu belief lous agency, it was natural that all tlie causes of theological changes sliould liave been souglit exclusively within tlie circle of theology. Eacli theologian imagined tliat tlie existence of tlie opinions Ire denounced was fully accounted for by the exertions of certain evil-minded men, who had triumphed by means of sopliistical arguments, rided by a judicial blindness that had been cast؛ upon the deluded. His own opinions, on tire other liand, liad lieen sustained or revived by apostles raised for the purpose, illuminated by special inspiration, and triumphing by the foi.ce of theological arguments. As long as this point of view continued, the positions of the theologian

80-1 ١ .vi PRODUCTION

٦vere nearly the and of the ecclesiastical historian same. Eacli was confined to a single province, and each l.ecognising a primitive faith as his ideal, had to indicate the successive innovations upon its purity. But wlien towards the close of tire eighteenth century the dee.line of tlieological passions enabled men t.o discuss these mattere ١vhen increased knowledge in a calmer spirit, and produced more comprehensive views, the his. .١vas materially altered torieal standing-point It was observed that every great change of belief had been preceded by a great change in the intellectual condition of Europe, that the success of any opinion depended mucli less upon the force of its ai.guments, or upon the abilit.y of its advocates, than upon the predisposition of society to receive it, and that that predisposition resulted from the intellectual type of the age. As men advance from an imperfect t,0 a higher civilisation, they gradually sublimate and refine tlieir creed. Their imaginations insensibly detach themselves from those grosser conceptions and ١vere formerly most powerful, and doctrines that later l.educe all their opinions into they sooner 01١ -٦vith the moi.al and intellectual stan conformity dards which the new civilisation produces. Thus, long before the Reformation, the tendencies of tlie Reformat.ion were manifest. The revival of Grecian learning, the developement of art, the reaction against tlie schoolmen, liad raised INTRODUCTION.

١vhich a more refined society to an elevation in ١vas absolutely essential and less oppressive creed to its well-being. Lutber and Calvin only represented tlie prevailing wants, and embodied them in a definite form. The pressure of tlie general intellectual influences of the time de.ter- ٠ -mines the predispositions which ultimately regu late the details of belief; and thougli all men do ؛not yield to tliat pressure with the same facility all large bodies are at last controlled. A change of speculative opinions does not imply an increase of the data upon which those opinions rest, but a change of the habits of thouglit and mind which they reflect. Definite arguments are the symp- toms and pretexts, but seldom tlie causes, of the change. Their cliief merit is to accelerate the inevit-able crisis. Tliey derive their force, and efficacy from their conformity with the mental habits of those to whom they are addressed. ‘ Reasoning which in one age would make no im- إ, pression whatever, in the next age is received with entliusiastic applause. It is one thing to understand its natui.e, but quite anotlier to appreciate its force. And this standard of belief, t.liis tone and habit of thought, whicl'i is the supi.eme arbiter of tlie opinions of successive periods, is created, not by the influences ai.ising out of any one depai't- ment of intellect, but by tlie combination of all the intellectual and even social tendencies of the VIII INTRODUCTION.

١vho contribute most largely to its age. Those formation are* I believe* the philosophers. Men like Bacon* Descartes* and Locke have probably done more t.han any others to set tlie current of their age. Tliey have formed a certain cast and tone of mind. They have introduced pe. culiar habits of thought* new modes of rea-soning, new tendencies of enquiry.- The impulse tliey have given to the higher literature* lias lieen by that literature communicated to the more popular writers ; and the impress of tliese master-minds is clearly visilile in tlie writings of mult'itudes ivho are totally unacquainted nvith tlieir works. But philosophical metliods* great and unquestionable as is theii. power* foi.111 but one of tlie many influences that contribute to the mental lialiits of society. Thus tlie discoveries of physical science* enti.enching upon the domain of the anomalous and the incomprehensible* enlarging OUI. conceptions of the range of law* and revealing tlie connection of phenomena that liad foi.- merly appeared altogether isolated* form a habit of mind which is carried fai. lieyond the limits of physics. Tlius tlie asti.onomical discovery* tlia.t our world is not tlie centre and axis of tlie material universe* but is an inconsiderable planet occupying to all appearance an altogether insig- nificant and subordinate position* and revolving with ma.ny others around a sun ivhich is itself but an infinitesimal point in creation* in as far as INTRODUCTI.. it is realised by the imagination has a vast and palpable influence upon our theological conceptions. Thus the commercial or municipal spirit exhibits certain habits of thought, certain modes of reasoning, certain repugnances and attractions, which make it invariably tend to one class of opinions. To encourage the occupations that produce this spirit, is to encoui.age the opinions that are most congenial to it. It is impossible to lay down a railway without creating an intellectual influence. It is pi.obable that Watt and Stephenson will event'ually modify .the opinions of mankind almost as pi.ofoundly as Luther or Voltaire. I f these vie١vs be correct, they establisli at once a broad distinction between the pi.ovince of the theologian and that of the historian of opinions. The first confines his attention to the question of the truth or falsehood of particular doctrines, which he ascertains by examining the arguments -the second should en ذ upon which they rest deavour to trace the causes of the rise and fall of those doctrines which are to be found in the general intellectual condition of the age. Tlie first is restricted to a single department of mental phenomena, and to those logical connec- tions which determine the opinions of the severe reasoner; the second is obliged to take a wide survey of the intellectual influences of the period he is describing, and to trace that connection of INTRODUCTION. congruity which has a much greater iuflueuce upon the sequence of' opinions than logical arguments. .١ve are con Although in tlie present work cerned only with the last of these t١vo points of view, it, will be necessary to consider briefly tlie for this question ؤ possibility oftlieii. coexistence involves one of the most important problems in Iristory— the posit'ion reserved for the individual will and the individual judgment in the great current of general causes. It was a saying of Locke, that we should not ask whether our will is free, but whether "WE are free ; for our conception of freedom is the power of acting accoi.ding to our w ill or, in other woi.ds, the consciousness, when pursuing a certain course of action, tliat we miglit, if we had cliosen, have pursued a different one. If, however, pushing ١ve ask what it is that ,our analysis still further detei.mines our volition, I conceive that tlie ١ve are capable of highest principles of liberty attaining are to be found in the two facts, that our will is a faculty distinct from our desil.es, and tliat it is not a mei.e passive thing, the direction and intensity ofwhicli are necessarily determined by the attraction and l.epulsion of pleasure ١ve are ca.pable and pain. W e are conscious that -١vhich is extremely djstast.e ofpui.suing a. course ful, ratlier than anothei. course which would be that in doing so we are ذ extremely agi.eeable INTRODUCTION. making a continual and painful effort; that every relaxation of tliat effort produces the most lively pleasure; and that it is at least possible that tlie ١vhich induces US to pursue tlie patli of motive self-abnegation may be a sense of right altogether uninfluenced by prospects offut.ure rewa.rd. We are also conscious that if our desires act powerfully upon our w ill our will can in its turn act upon our desires. We can strengthen tlie natural powers of our will by steadily exerting it,. We can diminish tlie intensity of OUI. desires by ١ve can alter, by a ;habitually repi.essing them the whole symmetry وpi.ocess of mental discipline of our passions, deliberately selecting one cla.ss for gratification and for developement, and crushing and subduing the others. These considera. ١vhich tions do not, of coui.se, dispel the mystery perhaps necessarily rests upon the subject of free-will. They do not solve the questions, whetlier the will can ever act witliout a mot-ive, or what are its l.elations to its motives, or whether the desires may not sometimes be too strong for its most developed po١vers ; but tliey form a theory of liuman liberty wliich I believe to be tlie highest we can attain. He who lias realised, on the one hand, his power of acting according to his will, and, on the other hand, the power of liis will to emancipate itself from the empire of pain and pleasure, and to modify and control tlie Current of. the emotions, has probably touched the limits of his freedom. Vl INTRODUCTION.

Tlie struggle of tlie will for a right motive agaiust the pressure of tlie desires, is oue of the and the relative position of ؤ chief forms of virtue these two influences, one of the chief measures of the moral standing of each Individual. Some times, in tlie conflict between tlie will and a par- tlcular desire, the foi.mei.5 either tlirough its own -١veak natural strength, or through the nat.ural ness of its opponent, or t.lirough t.he process of mental discipline I liave desci’ibed, lias obtained a supreme ascendency which is seldom 01. never seriously disturbed. Sometimes, thi.ough causes that are innate, and perhaps more frequently ١ve are responsible, the through causes foi. which two powers exhibit almost an equipoise, and eacli often succumbs to the otliei.. Betiveen these two positions there are numerous gi.adations 5 so that every cause that in any degree intensifies the desires, gives tliem 111 some cases a triumph over the will. Tlie application of these principles to those -١vhich moral statis constantly-recurring figures tics present is not. difficult. The st.atlstician, for example, shoivs tliat a certain condition of tern- perature increases tlie force of a passion-or, in otlier words, the temptation to a particular vice; and lie then proceeds to argue, that t.he whole history of that vice is strictly regulated by at. mospheric changes. The vice rises into promi- it is sustained أ ١vith the rising temperature nence INTRODUCTION. Xlll

.١vith Its de during its it declines cline. Year after year the same figures and the same variations are neai.ly reproduced. Invest! gations in the most dissimilar nations only strengthen the proof; and the evidence is so ample, that it enables US, within cei.tain limits, even to predict the fut'Ure. The l.ivers that rise and fall with the winter torrents or the summer the insect life that is called into being ذ.drought by the genial spring and destroyed by the return- ingftost; the aspect of vegetation, which pur. sues its appointed changes through the recurring seasons: these do not reflect more faithfully or obey more implicitly external influences, thau do some great departments oftlie acts of man. This is the fact which statistical tables prove, but what is the inference to be deduced from them ? Not, surely, that there is no such thing as ftee-will, but, what we should have regarded as antecedently probable, that the degree of energy with which it is exerted is in different periods nearly the same. As long as the resis.- unaltered, the fluctuations of our desires ئ tance determine the fluctuations of our actions. In this there is nothing extraordinary. It would be strange indeed if it were otherwise-strange if, the average of virtue remaining the same, or nearly the same, an equal amount of solicitation did not at different periods produce tlie same, or nearly the same, amount of compliance. The XIV IN T R O D U q U . fact, therefore, that there is an order and sequence in the history of vice, and that influences altogether independent of human control con. tribute largely to its course, in no degi.ee destroys the freedom of will, and the conclusion of tlie -th tlie pi.in؛ ١١٣ historian is perfectly reconcilable ciples of the moralist. From this spectacle of ١ve simply infer that the changes in ,regularity ؛ the moral condition of mankind are very slow that tliei.e are periods when, cei.tain desires being strengthened by natui.al causes, tlie task of th£ ١vill in opposing tliem is peculiarly aiduous; and t.hat any attempt to wi.ite a Jiistory of vice without taking into consideration external influences, .'١vould be miserably deficient .٦ve tui.n to a different class of phe Again, if nomena, notliing can be moi.e cei’tain to an at. tentive observer tlian tliat tlie great majority even of tliose who reason much about their opinions liave arrived at tlreii. conclusions by a process quite distinct from reasoning. They may be perfectly unconscious of tlie fact, but the ,and ؤ ascendency of old iissociations 'is upon them in tlie overrvhelming majority of cases, men of ,؛,the most various creeds conclude their invest gations by simply acquiescing in the opinions tliey have been taught. They insensibly judge all questions by a mental standard derived from they proportion their attention and ؤ education sympathy to the degree in which the fact.s or INTRODUCTION. XV arguments presented to them support their for^ .and they thus speedily con ؛ gone conclusions vince themselves that the arguments in behalf' of their hereditary opinions are irresistibly cogent and the arguments against them exceedingly absurd. Nor are those who have diverged from the opinions they have been tauglit necessarily more independent of illegitimate influences. Tlic love of singularity5 the ambition to be thought intellectually superior to others, tlie bias of taste, the attraction of vice, the influence of friendship, the magnetism of genius,— these, and countless othei. influences into which it is needless to enter, all determine conclusions. The number of persons ,who have a rational basis for their belief is for illegitimate influences ؤ probably infinitesimal ١vho not only determine the convictions of those do not examine, but usually give a dominating bias to the reasonings of those who do. But it would be manifestly absurd to conclude from this, that l.eason has no part or function in the formation of opinions. No mind, it is true, was ذ ever altogether free from distorting influences but in the struggle between the reason and tlie affections which leads to truth, as in the struggle between the will and the desires which leads to virtue, every effort is crowned witli a measure of success, and innumerable gradations of progress are manifested. A ll that we can rightly infer is, tliat the process of XVI INTRODUCTION. reasoning is much more difficult than is commonly -١vould investi ١vho supposed; and that to those the study of وgate the causes of existing opinions predispositions is much more important tlian the study of arguments. The doctrine* that the opinions of a given period are mainly determined by the intellectual condition of society* and tliat every great change of opinion is the consequence of general causes, simply implies that t'here exists a strong bias which acts upon all lai.ge masses of men* and eventually ti.iumphs over every obsta.cle. The inequalities of civilisat.ion* the distorting influ. ences arising out of special circumstances* the force of conservatism* and the effort.s of individual genius* produce innumerable diversities; but a careful examination shows that these are but the eddies of an advancing stream* that the various systems are being all gradually modified in a given direction* and tliat a certain class of ten. ١vith more and more prominence dencies appeal's in all departments of intellect. Individuals may resist the stream; and this po١ver supplies a firm and legitimate standing.point to the theologian: but these efforts are too rare and feeble to have much influence upon the general course. To this la.st pi.oposition there is* ho١vever, an important exception t.o be made in thvour of men د of genius, who are commonly at INTRODUCTION. XVI] tive and creative. They embody and reflect the tendencies of their time, but t.hey also frequently materially modify them, and their ideas become the subject or the basis of the succeeding de- velopemcnts. To trace in evei.y great movement tlie part which belongs to- tlie individual and the part which belongs to general causes, without exaggerating either side, is one of the most delicate tasks of the historian. What I have written ivill, I ti.ust, be sufficient t,0 show the distinction between the sphere of the historian and the sphere of tlie theologian. It must, however, be acknowledged tliat they have for it is impossible to ذ some points of contact reveal the causes that called an opinion into being without throwing some liglit upon its intrinsic value. It must be acknowledged, also, tliat there is a theory or method of reseai’ch which would amalgamate the two spheres, or, to speak more con.ectly, would entirely subordinate the theologian to the historian. Those who have a.ppre- ciated the extremely small influence of definite arguments in determining tlie opinions eitlier of an individual or of a nation— who have perceived how invariably an increase of civilisation implies a modification of belief, and how completely the controversialists of successive ages ai.e the pup- pets and the unconscious exponents of' the deep under-current of their time, will feel an intense distrust of their unassisted reason, and will natu- VOL. I. a XVlll INTKODUCTl. rally look for some guide to dil.ect their judg. ment. I think it must be admitted that the general and increasing tendency, in the present day, is to seek such a guide in the collective -١visdom of mankind as it is displayed in the de velopements of history. In other words, the way in which OUI. leading thinkei.s, consciously or unconsciously, form their opinions, is by endeavour- ١vhat are the laws that govern ing to ascei.tain the successive modifications of belief; in what directions, towards what conceptions, the intellect of man advances with tlie advance of civilisation; what are the leading characteristics that mark the belief of civilised ages and nations as compared with barbarous ones, and of the most edu. cated as compared with the most illitei.ate cla.sses. This mode of reasoning may be said to resolve itself into three problems. It is necessary, in the first place, to ascertain wliat are the genei.al intellectual tendencies of civilisation. It is tlien necessary to ascertain how far t-hose tendencies ٦vords, how far the are connected, or, in other existence of one depends upon and implies the exist.ence of the others, and it is necessary, in the last place, to ascertain whether they have been accompa.nied by an increase or diminution of happiness, of vil.tue, and of humanity. My object in the pi.esent work has been, to trace the history of the spirit of Rationalism : by ١vhich I understand, not any class of definite INTRODUCTION. Ill doctrines or criticisms, but ratber a certain cast of thought or bias of reasoning, wliich lias during ١ -the last three centui.ies gained a marked ascen dency in Europe. The nature of this bias will be exhibited in detail in the ensuing pages, when we examine its influence upon the various forms of moral and intellectual developement. A t present it will be sufficient to say, that it leads men on all occasions to subordinate dogmatic tlieology to the dictates of reason and of cop- science, and, as a necessary consequence, greatly to restrict its influence upon life. It predisposes men, in histoi.y, to attribute all kinds of phenomena to natural rather than miraculous causes; in theology, to esteem succeeding systems the expressions of the wants and aspirations of that religious sentiment which is pla.nted in all men; and, in ethics, to regard as duties only those Avhich conscience !.eveals to be such. It is manifest that, in attempting to write the liistory of a mental tendency, some difficulties have to be encountered quite distinct from those which attend a simple l.elation of facts. No one can be truly said to understand any great system of belief, if.he has not in some degree l.ealised the point of view from which its ai.guments assume an appeai.ance of plausibility and of CO- gency, the liabit of thouglit which makes its various doctrines appear pi.obable, liarmonious, and consistent. Yet, even in the great contro- a 2 INTRODUCTION.

versies of the present day— even in the disputes between the Catholic and the Protestant, it is -evident that very fe١v controversialists ever sue ceed in arriving at this appreciation of the opinions they are combating. But the difficulty becomes fai. greater when our research extends over forms of belief of which there are no living ١ve have not merely to representatives, and when estimate the diffei.ent measui.es of probability subsisting in different societies, but have also to -indicate their causes and tlieii' changes. To I٠e construct the modes of thought which produced superstitions that have long since vanished from to trace through the obscurity of tlie ؤ a.mong US distant past that hidden bias of tlie imagination which— deeper than any strife of arguments, deeper tlian any change of creed— determines in each succeeding age the realised belief 5 to grasp the principle of analogy or congruity according to which tlie conceptions of a given period were grouped and harmonised, and then to show how the discoveries of science, or the revolutions in philosophy, or tlie developenients of industrial 01. political life, introduced new centres of attrac. tion, and made the force of analogy act in new direct.ions 5 to follow out tlie process till tlie period when conclusions the reason liad once naturally and almost instinctively adopted ♦ seem incongruous and grotesque, and till the whole current of intellectual tendencies is changed :— this is tlie PRODUCTION. XXI

١vhich devolves upon every one who, not task content with relating the fluctuations of opinions, seeks to throw some light upon the la٦vs that govern them. Probably, the greatest difficulty of sucli a pro- -١vide diffe cess of investigation arises from the rence between professed and realised beliet: When an opinion t,.hat is opposed to the age is incapable of modification and is an obstacle to ؛١vil.l at. last be openly repudiated progress, it and if it is identified with any existing interests, or associated with some eternal truth, its rejection will be accompanied by paroxysms of painful agitation. But much more frequently civilisation makes opinions that are opposed to it simply obsolete. They perish by indifference, not by controversy. They are relegated to the dim twilight ,t.he land ؛ land that surrounds every living fait.h tlie ؛not of death, but of the shadow of death land of tlie unrealised and the inoperative. Sometimes, too, we find the phraseology, the ceremonies, the formulai'ies, the external aspect of some phase of belief that has long since ١vith a system that has been perished, connected created by the wants and is thrilling with tlie life of modern civilisation. They resemble tliose ,١vhich, it is said ,images of departed ancestors the ancient Ethiopians were accustomed to paint upon their bodies, as if to preserve the pleasing illusion that those could not be really dead whose xxu INTRODUCTION. lineaments were still visible among them, anti were still associated with life. In order to appre. eiate the change, we must translate these opinions into action, must examine what would be their effects if fully realised, and ascertain how far those effects are actually produced. It is necessary, therefore, not merely to examine sue. cessive creeds, but also to study the types of cliaracter of successive ages. It only remains for me, before drawing this introduction to a close, to describe the method I have employed in ti.acing the influence of the rationalistic spirit upon opinions. In the first place, I have examined tlie liistory and the causes of that decline of the sense of the miraculous, which is so manifest a fruit of civilisation. But it soon becomes evident tliat this movement cannot be considered by itself; for tlie predisposition in favour of miracles grows out of, and can only be adequately explained by, certain conceptions of the nature of the Supreme Being, and of the habitual government of the universe, which invariably accompany the earlier, as it may be termed, tlie anthropomorphic ,01٠ stage of intellectual developement. O f tlie nature of this stage we have some import.ant evidence in the history of art, which is then probably the most accurate expression of religious realisations, while the history of the encroachments of physical science, upon our first notions INTRODUCTION. XXlll of the system of the world, goes far to explain its decay. Together with the intellectual move, ment, we have to consider a moral movement tliat lias accompanied it., which has had tlie effect of diminishing tlie influence of fear as the motive of duty, of destroying the overivhelming import, ance of dogmatic teaching, and of establishing the supremacy of conscience. This progress in- but the ؛voltes many important consequences most remarkable of all is tlie decay of persecu. tion, which, I have endeavoured to show, is in- dissolubly connected with a profound change in theological realisat'ions. I liave, in the last place, sought to gather fresh evidence of the operations of the rationalistic spirit in the gi.eat fields of politics and of industry. In the first, I have shown how the movement of secularisation lias passed through evei.y department of political life, how the progress of democi’acy has influence(! and been influenced by theological tendencies, and how political pursuits contribute to the formation of habits of thought, which affect the whole circle of our judgments. In t.he second, I have traced the rise of the industrial spirit in -the pro ؛its collisions with the Chui.cli ؛Europe ؛found moral and intellectual changes it effected and the tendency of the great science of political economy, which is its expression. I am deeply conscious that the present work can furnish at best but a meagre sketcli of these XXIV INTRODUCTION. subjects, and that to treat them as they deserve would require an amount both of learning and of ability to which I can make no pretension. I shall be content if I have succeeded in delect" ing some forgotten link in the great chain of causes, 01. in casting a ray ot' light on some of the obscurer pa.ges of the history of opinions. CONTENTS

TH E FIRST VOLUME

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I.

THE DECLINING SENSE OF THE MIRCULOFS.

ON MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. The Belief in Satanic MiracleSjhaving been universal among Protestants and Roman Catholics, passed away by a silent and unreasoning process under tlio influence of Civilisa. tion-W itchcraft arose from a vivid Realisation of Satanic Presence acting on tlie Imagination-and afterwards on the R eason-Its Existence and Importance among Savages --The Christians attributed to Magic the Pagan Miracles - Constantine, and Constantius attempted to subvert Pa- giinism by persecuting Magic-Magical Cliaracter soon attributed to Chi.istian Rites—Miracle of St. Hilarion— Persecution suspended under Julian and Jovian, but afterwards renewed—Not entirely due to Ecclesiastical Influence - - Compromise between Christianity and Pa. ganism—Prohibited Pagan Rites continue to be practised as Magic—Prom the Sixth to the Twelfth Centuiy, extreme Superstition witli little Terrorism, and, consequently, little Sorcei^—Effect# of Ellipses, Comets, and XXVI CONTENTS OF

PAGE Pestilence, on the Superstition—The Cabalists— Psellus —The Revival of Literature in the Twelfth Century produced a Spirit of Rebellion which was encountered by Terrorism—which acting on the popular Creed, produced a bias towards Witchcraft—The Black Death—influence of tlie Reformation in stimulating Witchcraft-Luther— - The Inquisitors—The Theology of Witchcraft — First Evidence of a Rationalistic Spirit in Europe-W ier— Answered by Bodin—Rationalistic Spirit iully manifested in Montaigne—Charron—Rapid and silent Decadence of the Belief in Witches—Opinions and Influence of La BruyCre, Bayle, Descartes, Malebranche, and Voltaire— Gradual Cessation of the Persecution in France—In Eng. land, the First La١v against Witclicraft was made under Henry VIII.—Repealed in the following Reign, but renewed under Elizabeth—Ci'anmer and Jewel—Reginald Scott pronounced Witchcraft a Delusion—The Law of James I._Opinions of Coke, Bacon, Shakespeare, Brown, and Selden—English Witchcraft reached its climax in tlie Commonwealth—Declined immediately after tlie Restora- tion—Tlie Three Causes were, the Reaction against Puritanism, t.he Influence of Hobbes, and the Baconia.n Philosophy as represented by the Royal Society—Cliarge of Sir Matthew Hale—Gianvil undertakes the Defence of tbe Belief — Supported by Henry More, Cudworth, -Opposed by Webster and W agstaafe—Casaubon, &c٠ Baxter vainly tries to revive the Belief by Accounts of Witch Trials in America—RapidProgress of theScepticism —Trial of Jane Wenliam—Repeal of the Laws against ٦١٣esley’s Summary of the History of the—Witchcraft Movement—Great Moderation of tlie English Church as compared witli Puritanism — Ext.reme Atrocity of the Witch Persecution in Gotland, and its Causcs-Slow Decline of the Belief in Scotland- Conclusion . . 1 THE FIRST VOLUME. XXVll

CHAPTER II.

THE DECLINING SENSE OF THE MIRACULOUS.

THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. PAGE Miracles related by the Fathers and Medieval Writers as ordinary and undoubted Occurrences-Rapid Growth of Scepticism on the Subject since tlie Reformation—The Sceptical Habit of Mind acts more powerfully on Contem- porary tlian on Historical Narrations-Among tlie early Frotestants, the Cessation of Miracles supposed to have taken place when the Fiithers passed away—Persecution regarded by some Englisli Divines as a Substitute for Miracles-Opinions of Locke and Newton on the Subject —Tendencies of the Eighteenth Century adverse to the Miraculous—Middleton—Discussion of liis Principles by Church, Dodwell, Gibbon, Hume, Farmer, Warburton, and Douglas—General Abandonment of the Patristic M iracles-Rise of Tractarianism—Small place Catholic Aliracles occupied in the Discussion it evoked-Weakness of the common Arguments against the continuance of ٠/ A'liracles --Developement of Continental Protestantism into Rationalism— Rationalistic Tendencies in Roman Catholic Countries-Crigin and Decline of the Evidential School in England—Modification of the Conception of Miracles—Reasonableness of the Doctrine of Interference —Summary of the Stages of Rationalism in its relation -١on Cliris to the Miraculous—Its Causes—Its Influence tianity ...... 139

CHAPTER III.

ESTHETIC, SCIENTIFIC, AND MORAL DETOLOFEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. The Expectation of Miraoles grows out of the Rebgious Conceptions of an early Stage of Civilisation, and its Decline implies a general Modification of Religious Opinions—Fetishism probably the First Stage of Re- XXVlll CONTENTS OF

ligious Belief--Examples of Fetish Notions in the Early Church—Patristic Opinions concerning the Cross and the Water of Baptism— Anthropomorphism the next Stage-M en then ascribe the Government of the Universe -but, being nnable to concen ؛ to Beings like themselves trate their Attention on the Invisible, they fall into Idolatry—Idolatry a Sign sometimes of Progress, and sometimes of Betrogression—During its continuance. Art is the most faithful Expression of Religious Realisation -Influence of the National Religions on the Art of Persia, Egypt., India, and Greece—The Art of the Cata. combs altogetlier removed from Idolatry—Its Freedom from Teri’orism—Its Symbolism-Progress of Anthropo- morphism—Position of the First Person of the Trinity ١Vorship of tlio Virgin—Strengtliened in Art—Gro١ving by Gnosticism—by Dogmatic Definitions—by Painting, Celibacy, and the Crusades—Its Moral Consequences -th of Idolatrous Conceptions—St.ages of tlio Vene'Gro١١— ration of Relics—Tendency towards the Miraculous invests Images with peculiar Sanctity-The Portrait of Edessa —The Image at Paneas—Conversion of the Barbarians makes Idolatry genei'iil—Decree of Illiberis—The Icono. clasts — Tlie Second Council of Nice — St. Agobard- Mahometanism the sole Example of a great Religion re- straining Semi-barbarians from Idolatry—Three Causes of its Success—Lo١v Condition of Art during tlie Period of Mediaeval Idolatry—Difference between the Religious anti Esthetic Sentiment—Aversion to Innovation—Con- ti.ast between tlie Pagan and Christian Estimate of tlie Body—Greek Idolatry faded into Art—Its Four Stages— A corresponding Transition takes place in Cliristentlom. Greek Influence on Art—Iconoclasm—Tradition of tlie Deformity of Christ—The Byzantine Style—Broken by a Study of Ancient Sculpture renewed by Nicolas of Pisa— Cliristian School ofGiotto antlFra Angelico—Cori*esponded with the Intellectual Character of the Time—Influence of Dante—Apocalyptic Subjects—Progress of Terrorism in Art-Increase of Scepticism — Religious Paintings re. garded simply as Studies of tlie Beautiful—Influence of Venetian Sensuality-Sensuality favourable to Art—Pa- rallel of Titian and Praxiteles—Influence of the Pagan TOE FIRST VOLUME. XXIX

Sculpture-History of Greek Statues after tlieriseof Chris, tianity—Reaction in favour of Spiritualism led by Savo. na.rola—Complete Secularisation of Art by Michael Angelo —Cycle of Painting completed—A corresponding Transi ' tion took place in Architecture—Fluctuations in tlie. Esti- mate in which it has been held represent Fluctuations of Religious Sentiments—Decline of Gothic Architecture— r Brunelleschi—St. Peter’s—Intellectual Importance of the History of A rt-T h e Eutlianasia of Opinions—Con- tinued Revolt against Anthropomorphism—Results from the Totality of the Influences of Civilisation, but fcs- pecially from tlie Encroachments of Physical Science on the old Conceptions of tlie Government of the Univei.se— In the Early Church, Science was subordinated to Systems of Scriptural Interpretation—Allegorical School of Crigen —St. Augustine (le Genesi-Literal School—Controversy about the Antipodes—Cosmas—Virgilius—Rise of tlie Copernican System—Condemnation of Foscai.ini and of Galileo—Influence of Theology on tlie Progress of Science —Opinion of Bacon-Astronomy displaces tlie Ancient Notion of Man’s Position in tlie Universe—Philosophical Importance of Astrology—Refutation by Geology of tlie Doctrine of the Penal Nature of Death—Increasing Sense of Law—R.easons why apparently Capricious Plienomena were especiallyassociatedwithReligiousIdcas—OnLots — Irreligious Cliaracter attributed to Scientific Explanations —Difference between tlie Conception of tlie Divinity in a —Scientific and Unscientific Age—Gro١vth of Astronomy Comets—Influence of Pjiracelsus, Bayle, and Ilalley— Rise of Scientific Academies—Ascendency of tlie Belief in Law-Harsher Features ofTlieology thereby corrected —Tlie Morphological Theory of the Universe—Its In. fluence on History—Illegitimate Effects of Science—In. fluence on Biblical Interpretation—La PeyrCre—Spinoza —K anbL essing—Moral Developement accompanies the Intellectual Movement — Illustrations of its Nature— Moral Genius—Relat.ions o.f Tlieology to Morals—Com- plete Separation in Antiquity—Originality of the Moral Type of Christianity—Conceptions of the D ivinity-Evan. escence of Duties unconnected witli our Moral Nature— History of Religious Terrorism-Patristic Conception of XXX CONTENTS OF

PAGE Hell—Origen and Gregory of Nyssa—Faint Notions of the Jews and Heathens on the Subject—Doctrine of Purgatory—Scotus Erigena—-Extreme Terrorism of the Fourteenth Century-Destruction of Natural Religion by the conception of Hell—Its Effect in habituating Men to contemplate tire Sufferings of others with complacency— Illustration oftliis fi.om Tertullian—and from theH isto^ of Persecution—and from that of Torture—Abolition of Torture in France, Spain, Prussia, Italy, and Russia— Relations between the prevailing Sense of the Enormity of Sin and the Severity of the Penal Code—Decline of the Medimval Notions of Hell due partly to t.lie Progress of Moral Philosophy, and partly to that of Psychology— Apparitions and the Relief in Hell the Corner-stones of tlie Psychology of the Fathers-Repudiation of Platonism —Two Scliools of Materialism — Materialism of the Middle Ages—Impulse given to Psychology by Averroes —and by the Mystics of the Fourteentli Century—Des. ١Vhiston, Horberry— Change in the ,cartes—Swinden Ecclesiastical Type of Character—Part taken by Theo- logians in ameliorating the Englisli Penal Code—First Impulse due to Voltaire and Recciilia—Rentham—Elimi. nation of the Doctrine of future Torture from Religious Realisations...... 188

CHAPTER IY.

ON PERSECUTION.

PART I.

THE antecedents o f persecution . Persecution is tlie result,, not of the personal Cliaracter of the Persecutors, but of tlie Principles they profess— Foundations of all Religious Systems are the Sense of Virtue and the Sense of Sin—Political and Intellectual Circumstances determine in each System their relative Importance—Tliese Sentiments gradually converted into Dogmas, under tlie Names of Justification by Works and Justification by Faitli—Dogmas unfaithful Expressions THE FIRST VOLUME. XXXI

PAGE of Moral Sentiments-The Conception of Hereditary Guilt-Theories to account for it—The Progress of He- i mocratic Hahits destroys it—Its dogmatic Expression the Hoctrine that all Men are by Nature doomed to Ham- nation—Unanimity of tlie Fathers concerning tile Non- salvability of unbaptised Infants—Hi٣ergence concerning their F a te.T h e Greek Fathers believed in a Limbo— The Latin Filthers denied this—Augustine, Fulgentius— Origen associates the Hoctrine with thatof Pre-existence— Pseudo-baptisms of the Middle Ages—The Reformation produced conflicting Tendencies on the subject, climinisli- ing the Sense of the Efficacy of Ceremonies, increasing that of imputed Guilt—The Lutherans and Calvinists lield a Hoctrine tliat was less superstitious but more revolting tlian tliat of Catholicism—Jonathan Edwards— Dogmatic Character of early Protestantism—Rationalism appeared with Socinus—Antecedents of Italian Rational. ism-Socinus rejects Original Sin—as also does Zuin- glius—Rationalistic Tendencies of this Reformer-Rapid Progress of his View of Baptism—Tile Scope of the Hoctrine of tlie Condemnation of all Men extends to Adults-Sentiments of tlie Fathers on tlie Damnation of the Heathen—Great Use of tliis Hoctrine of Exclusive Salvation in consolidating tlie Power of the Cliui'cli—and in abbreviating tlie Paroxysms of the Reformation -T h e — Protestants almost all accepted it—Pi٠otest ofZuingliu3 Opposition lietween Dogmatic and Natural Religion re- suiting from tlie Hoctrine—Influence on Predestinarian- ism -Augustine-Luther, de Servo Arbitrio—Calvin and Beza—Injurious Influence of the Hoctrine of Exclusive Salvation on Morals—and on tlie Sense of Truth-Pious Frauds-Total Destruction in tlie Middle Ages of the Sense of Truth resulting from the Influence of Theology —The Classes who were most addicted to Falsehood proclaimed Credulity a Virtue—Hoctrine of Probabilities of Pascal and Craig-Revival of tlie Sense of Truth due to Secular Pliilosopliers of tlie Seventeenth Century— Causes of tlie Influence of Bacon, Descartes, and Locke— Tlie Decline of Theological Belief a necessary Antecedent ﻗﺔof their S u c c e s s ...... 3 إ إ أ RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

CHAPTER I. OR THE RECLINING SENSE OE THE HIRACHLOHS.

MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT.

T here is certainly no change in the history of the last 300 years more striking, or suggestive of more curious enquiries, than that which has taken place in the estimate of the miraculous. At present nearly all educated m.en receive an account of a miracle taking place in their own day, with an absolute and even derisive incredulity which dispenses with all examination of the evidence. Although they may be entirely unable to give a satisfactory explanation of some phenomena that have taken place, they never on that account dream of ascribing them to supernatural agency, such an hypothesis being, as tliey believe, altogether beyond the range of reasonable discussion. Yet, a few centuries ago, there was no solution to whicli the mind of man turned more readily in every perplexity. A miraculous account was then universally accepted as perfectly credible, probable, and ordinary. There was scarcely a village or a churcli that had not, at some t.ime, been the scene of supernatural interposition. The powers of

V O L . I . B ,RATIONALISM IN EUROPE ٥ light and the powers of darkness were regarded as visibly struggling for the mastery. Saintly miracles, supernatural cures, startling judgments, visions, prophecies, and prodigies of every order, attested the activity of the one j while witchcraft and magic, with all their attendant horrors, were the visible manifestations of the other. I propose in the present chapter to examine that vast department of miracles, which is comprised under tlie several names ot' witchcraft, ma^c, and sorce^. ft is a subject which has, I think, scarcely obtained the position it deserves in tlie history of opinions, having been too generally treated in the spirit of the antiquarian, as if it belonged entirely to the past, and could have no voice or bearing upon the controversies of tlie present. Yet, for more than fifteen hundred years, it was universally believed that the Bible es. tablished, in tlie clearest manner, the reality of the crime, and that an amount of evidence, so varied and so ample as to preclude tlie very possibility of doubt, attested its continuance and its prevalence. The clergy denounced it with all the emphasis ofautliority. The legislators of almost every land enacted laws for its punishment. Acute judges, whose lives were spent in sifting evidence, investigated the question on countless occasions, and condemned the accused. Tens ot' thousands of victims perished by the most agonising and protracted torments, without exciting ١vere foi. tlie the faintest compassion 5 and, as tliey most part extremely ignorant and extremely poor, sectarianism and avarice liad but little influence on tlie subject.* Nations tliat were completely separated

,The general truth of this be questioned, though there are ا statement can scarcely, I thiuk, undoubtedly, a few remarkable MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 3 by position, by interests, and by character, on this one question were united. In almost every province of Germany, but especially in those where clerical influence predominated, the persecution raged with a fearful intensity. Seven thousand victims are said to have been burned at TrCves, six hn'ndred by a single bishop in Bamberg, and nine hundred in a single year in the bishopric of Wurtzburg.i In France, decrees were passed on the subject by the Parliaments of Paris. Toulouse. Bordeaux. Rheims. Rouen, Dijon, and Rennes, and they were all followed exceptions. Thus,theTemplars heretics were then burnt with- were 'accused of sorceiy, when out difficulty for their opinions, Philip the Beautiful wished to there was little temptation to confiscate their property; and accuse them of witchcraft, and the' heretical opinions of the besides all parties joined cor- Vaudois may possibly have had dially in tlie persecution. Gril- something to say to the tria.ls landus, an Italian inquisitor of at Arras, in 1459 ; and, indeed, the fifteenth century, says-- -Isti sortilegi, magici, necro ﺀ the name Vauderie was at one time given to sorcery. There mantici, et similes sunt Cffiteris were, moreover, a few cases of Christi fidelibus pauperiores, obnoxious politicians andnoble- sordidiores, viliores, et con- men being destroyed on the ac- temptibiliores, in hoc mundo cusation ; and during the Com- Deo permittente calamitosam monwealth there were one or vitam communiter peragunt, two professional witch-finders Deum verum infelici morte m England. We have also to ^rdunt et seterni ignis incen- take into account some cases of dio cruciantur.’ (Be Sortilegiis٠١٠ Convent scandals, such as those cap. iii.) We shall see here- of Gauffiddi, Grandier, and La after that witchcraft and heresy CadiOre; but, when all these represent t.he working of the deductions have been made, the same spirit on different classes, prosecutions for witchcraft wifl and therefore usually accom- represent the action of undi- panied each other. See tlie original letter ا -luted superst.ition moro faitli folly than probably any others published at Bamberg in 1657, that could be named. The over- quoted in Cannaert, Proces des whelming majority of witches Sorcieres, p. 115; see, too, were extremelypoor—they were Wright’s Sorcery, vol. i. p. condemned by tile highest and 186 ; Michelet, La SorcierC) .purest tribunals (ecclesiastical p. 1٧ and lay) of the tim e; and as RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

by a harvest of blood. At Toulouse, the seat of the Inquisition, foul, hundred persons perished for sorcery at a single execution, and fifty at Douay iir a single year. Remy, a judge of Nancy, boasted that he had put to death eight hundred witches in sixteen years. Tire executions tliat took place at Paris in a few rnontlis, were, in the emphatic words of an old writer, The fugitives who escaped to ا ’:almost infinite‘ On French Witchcraft, see Bedouret. They believed that ا Traite des Superstitions, she was a w ith, and declared ١s١\Tn\e Madden’s that tlie priest had t.ld tliem ٠, tom. i. pp. 13،-136 that she was the cause of an ٠\٠ .\٢o ,Pliantasmata ل٠ History 0 Garinet, Histoire illness under which tlie woman و pp. 306-310 de ta Magic en France (passim), Soubervie was suffering. They but especially theRemonstrance accordingly drewBedouret into of the Parliament of Rouen, in a private room, held her down 1670, against tlie pardon of upon some burning straw, and witches, p. 337. Bodin’s De- placed a 1’ed-hot iron across her m onianie des Sorclers. H e mouth. Tlie unhappy woman persecution raged with extreme soon died in extreme agony. violence all through the south The Soubervies confessed, and of France.. It was a brilliant indeed exulted in their act. suggestion of Be Lancre, tliat At tlieir trials they obtained .the١vitclicraft about Bordeaux the highest possilile characters might be connected witli tlie It was shown that they had number of orchards—the Bevil been actuated solely by super- ١vas urged that ١١٠ell known to have an stition, and it being especial po١ver over apples. they only followed the highest (See the passage quoted in ecclesiastical precedents. The Garinet, p. 176.) We liave a juiy recommended them to and they were only ل fearful illustration of the tena- mercy city of the belief in tlie fact sentenced to pay twenty-five tluitthe superstition still con- francs a year to the husband tinues, and t.liat blood has in of the victim, and to be im- cons^uence been slied during prisoned for four months. (Cor- -Leg i s des H auls Pyre ١!ة\ة -tlie present ceutury in tlie pro vinces tliat border on the Pyre- nees. Lourdes, 1855, pp. 79- ,In tie Rituel Auscitaiu ٠١١،؟>؟ nees. In 1867, a beggar was seized, torlured, and burne-d now use.d in the diocese of alive for sorcery by the inhabi- Tarbes, it is s a id - ‘ On doit tants of Mayenne. In 1850, reconnaitre que non-seulement t.he Civil Tribunal of Tarbes il peut y avoir mais qu’il y a ti.icd a man and woman named meme quelquefois des personnOs foubervie, for having caused qui sontveritablementpossMees tlie deatli of a woman named des esprits malins.’ (Ib. p. 90.) ٥ .MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT

Spain were there seized and burned by the Inquisi- tion. In that county the persecntion spread to the smallest towns, and the belief was so deeply rooted in the popular mind, that a sorcerer was bnrnt as late as 1780. Torqnemada devoted himself to the extirpation of witchcraft as zealously as to the extirpation of heresy, and he wrote a book npon the In Flanders the persecntion ؛.enormity of the crime of witches raged tlirough the whole of the sixteenth and the greater part of the seventeenth centuries, and every variety of torture was employed in detecting the criminals.2 In Italy a thousand persons were ؤ executed in a single year in the province of Como and in other parts of the country, the severity of the inquisitors at last created an absolute rebellion.3 The same scenes were enacted in the wild valleys of Svdtzerland and of Savoy. In Geneva, which was then ruled by a bishop, five hundred alleged witches were executed in tliree months j forty-eight were

Uoule، , History of the Apologiepour lesG rciiidsH dia ١ ,i e 2 de Magie (Pans ؟Inquisition (English Transla- S0up0 tion), pp. 129-142. Amongst 1625), pp. SI, 82. See also other cases, more than thirty B w tW s History of Civilisation, women were burnt at Calha. voli.p. 334, note) and Simancas, horra, in 1507. A Spanish De Catlolicis InstiUitiouitms, monk, named Castanaga, seems pp. 463-468. to have ventured to question 2 See a curious collection of tlie justice of the executions as documents on the subject by early as 1529 (p. 131). See Cannaert, pvoces des Sorciem .(Madden, en Belgique (Gand, 1847 ؛also Garinet, p. 176 vol. i. pp. 311-315. Toledo 8 Spina, Be Strigibus (1522), ل was supposed to be the head- cap. x ii.; Tiliers, vol. i. p. 138 quarters cf the magicians— Madden, vol. i. 305. Peter the probably because, in the twelfth Martyr, whom Titian has im- and thirteenth centuries, n٦atlie- mortalised, seems to have been matics, which were constantly one of the most strenuous of .persecutors. Spina, Avol ؟confounded ^ th magic, flou- th risbed there more than in any c. IX. other part in Europe. Naud6٠ 6 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

burnt at Constance or Ravensburg, and eighty in the ؛In 1670, seven ؛.little town of Valery, in Savoy and a large ؟,persons were condemned in Sweden proportion of them were burnt. And these are only a few of the more salient events in that long series of persecutions which extended over almost eve^ country, and continued for centuries with unabated fury. The Church of Rome proclaimed in every way ٦vas in her power the reality and the continued that existence of the crime. She strained every nerve to stimulate the persecution. She taught by all her organs that to spare a witch was a direct insult to tlie Almighty, and to her ceaseless exertions is to be attributed by far tlie greater proportion of the blood tliat was shed. In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII. issued . a bull, which gave a fearftil impetus to tlie persecu- ho commissioned tlie Inquisitor’٦١ i o n , and he it was ^ Sprenger, vliose book was long the recognised manual on the subject, and who is said to liave condemned hundreds to death every year. Similar bulls were issued by Julius II. in 1504, and by Adrian VI. in 152-3. A long series of Provincial Councils asserted the eristence of sorcery, and anathematised those

Madden, vol. i. pp. 303,304. a little village called Morzines ا ll be found in tlie Relation؛٦v .Miciielet, La S orcik, p. 200 Sprenger ascrilies Tell’s shot sur une ].)pidemie dHystero. to the assistance of the devil. Demonopathie en 1801, par le Mall. Mai. (Pars ii. c. xvi.) Docteur A. Constans (Paris, Savoy has always been espe- 1803). Two French writers, cialiy subject to those epi- Allan Kardec and Mirville, demies of madness wliicli were liave maintiiined this epidemic once ascrilied to witches, and to lie supernatural. lOguet noticed that the prin- 2 Compare Plancey, Diet, ذ cipal wizards lie hatl burnt infernal, article BlokuJa were from tliat country. An Hutchinson on Witchcraft, p. extremely curious account of a 55; Madden, vol. i. p. 354. recent e,pidemic of this kind in MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. who resorted to it. ‘The .universal practice of the Church was to place magic and sorcery among the reserved cases, and at Prones, to declare magicians -and a form ofexor ٤ ’ ؟and sorcerers excommunicated cism was solemnly inserted in the ritual. Almost all the ^ eat works that were written in favour of the executions were wi١itten by ecclesiastics. Almost all the lay works on the same side were dedicated to and sanctioned by ecclesiastical dignitaries. Ecclesias- tical tribunals condemned thousands to deatli, and countless bishops exerted all their influence to multiply the victims. In a word, for many centuries it was universally believed, that the continued existence of witchcraft formed an integral part of the teaching of the Church, and that the persecution that raged trou gh Europe was supported by the whole stress of her infallibility.2 Such was the attitude of the Church of Rome with Thiers, Superst. vol. i. signification) sans contredire ا p. 142. visiblement les saintes lettres. 2 For ample evidence of the la tradition sacr^o et profane, teaching of Catholicism on the les lois canoniqnes et civiles et subject, see Madden’s History !experience de tons les sieies, et sans rejeter avec impudence و of Thant, vol. i. pp. 234248 Des I o v m i x , Pratiques des 1 autorite irrefragable et infail, demons (Paris, 1804), p. 174- lible de l’Eglise qui lance si .Tiliers’ Superst. tom. i. souvent les foudres de l'excom ؛ 177 pp. 138-163. The two last- munication contr’ eux dans ses mentioned writers were ardent TrOnes » (p. 132). So also ,Tous les conciles ٠—Catholics. Thiers, who wrote Garinet in 1678 (I have used tlie Paris tous les synodes, qui se tinrent edition of 1741), was a very danS'les seize premiers siedes ٣ent contre les£learned and m'oderate theo- de l’Eglise s’ei logian, and wrote under the sorciers 5 tous les ecrivains ec- approbation of ‘the doctors in ciesiastiques les condamnent the faculty of Paris:’ lie says avec plus ou moins de seerite' auroit nier qu’il y (p. 2G). The bull of Innocent؟On ne s ٠ - ait des magiciens ou des sorciers VIII. is prefixed to i\[Q Malleus (car ces deux mots se prennent M aiyican ,. ordinairement. dans la merae RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. reference to this subject, but on this ground the Reformers had no conflict with their opponents. The credulity which Luther manifested on all matters coi'inected with diabolical intervention, was amazing, ,and, when speaking of ^tchcraft ؛ even for Ill's age I ﺀ .his language was emphatic and unhesitating would have no compassion on tliese witclies,’ lie ex. In England tlie ا ’ I would burn them all I ٤ ,claimed establishment of the Reformation was the signal for an immediate outburst of the superstition 5 and there, ١vas represented by the clergy as else١vliere, its decline as the direct consequence and the exact measure of the progress of religious scepticism. In Scotland, where the Reformed ministers exercised greater influence than in any other country, and where tlie witcli trials fell almost entirely into their hands, the persecution was pi'oportionately atrocious. Probably ,١vas Glanvil, a clergy the ablest defender of the belief and one of the ؛man of the English Establishment most influential was Baxter, tine greatest of the Puri- ؛ tans. It spread, with Puritanism, into the New World and the executions in Massachusetts form one of the darkest pages in the histoi^ of America. The greatest reli^ous leader of the last century, was among the latest of its supporters. If we ask why it is that the world bas rejected what was once so universally and so intensely believed, why a narrative of an old woman who had been seen riding on a broomstick, or wlio was proved te have transformed herself into a wolf, and to have

Colloquia de fascinationi- 126, 127. Calvin, als., when ا ؛bus. For the notions of Me- remodelling the laws of Geneva lancthon on these subjects, see left those on witchcraft intact. .Wesley ٥ .Spirits, pp ٠ﺗﻢ Laxter’s World MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT.

devoured the flocks of her neighbours, is deemed so entirety incredible, most persons would probabty be unable to give a very definite answer to the question. It is not because we have examined the e٦ddence and found it ilisufficient, for the disbelief always precedes, when it does not prevent, examination. It is rather because the idea of absurdity is so strongly attached to such narratives, that it is difficult even to consider them witli gravity. Yet at one time no such improbability was felt, and hundreds of persons have been burnt simply on the two grounds I have mentioned. When so complete a change takes place in public /

١ \ ofonoopim on and ئ:ئ٠ ى .argument ;;J r t I ^

Th.us, if any one in a company of ordinarily educated persons were to deny the motion of the earth, or the circulation of the blood, his statement would be received with derision, though it is probable that some of his audience would be unable to demonstrate tlie first truth, and that very few of them could give sufficient reasons for the second. They may not but they ؛themselves be able to defend their position are aware that, at certain known periods of history, controversies on those subjects took place, and that known writers t^ n brnught forward : : : definite \\ ؛ arguments or' experiments, which were ultimately accepted by the whole learned world a s rigid and 10 !NATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

conclusive demonstrations. It is possible, also, for as complete a change to be effected by what is called .tbo spirit of tlie age. The general intellectual ten ج- dencies pervading the literature of a century profoundly modify the character of the public mind. They form a new tone and habit of thought. They alter the measure of probability. They create new attractions and new antipathies, and they eventually cause as absolute a rejection of certain old opinions as coultl be produced by the most cogent and .definite arguments إ That the disbelief in witchcraft is t.o be att.ributed to this second class of influences j that it is the result, not of any series of definite arguments, or of new discoveries, but of a gradual, insensible, yet profound modification of the habits of thought prevailing in Europe 5 that it is, thus, a direct conse- .quence of the progress of civilisation, and of its must bo evident to any one أ influence upon opinions ١ve wlio impartially investigates the question. If ask what new arguments were discovered during the decadence of the belief, we must admit that they .wei١0 quite inadequate to account for tlie change ١ve can say of the unsatisfactoiy nature of All that confessions under toi'ture, of the instances of impos. ture that were occasionally discovered, of the ma. licious motives that may liave actuated some of tlie accusers, might liave been said during the darkest periods of tlie middle ages. The multiplication of books and the increase of knowledge can have added notiling to tliese obvious arguments. Tliose who lived when the evidences of witchcraft existed in profusion, and attracted the attention of all classes, and of all grades of intellec.t, must surely havo been MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 11

| أ the question was و,as competent judges as ourselves merely a question of e^dence. The gradual cessation of the accusations was the consequence, and not the cause, of the scepticism. The progress of medical knowledge may have had considerable influence on the private opinions of some lit e r s on the sub- but it was never influential upon the public ؛ject mind, or made the battle ground of the controversy. Indeed, the philosophy of madness is mainly due to Pinel, wlio wrote long after the superstition had vanished ; and even if witclicraft had been treated as a disease, this would not have destroyed the belief that it was Satanic, in an age when all the more startling diseases wei.e deemed supernatural, and when theologians maintained that Satan frequently acted by the employment ot. natural laws. One dis- cove^, it is true, was made during the discussion, which attracted great attention, and was much insisted on by the opponents of the laws against 'witch ؛ sorcery. It was, that the word translated in the Levitical condemnation may be translated -‘poisoner.’! This discovery in itself is, however, obviously insufficient to account for the change. It does not affect the enormous mass of e^dence of the workings of witchcraft, which was once supposed to have placed the belief above the possibility of doubt. It does not affect sucli passages as. the history of the ^ tch of Endor, or -of the demoniacs in the New Testament, to which the believers in witchcraft triumphantly appealed. Assuming the existence of witches-assuming that there were really certain as'١١ This was first, I believe, other side of the question ا asserted by Wier. In England supported on the Continent by it.was muCh maintained dUring Bodin. and in England by .٠& .The Glanvil. More, Casaubon ﻟﻤﻞ the reign of Charles 12 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

persons who were constantly engaged in inflicting, by diabolical agency, every form of evil on theii. neighbours, and whose machinations destroyed countless lives—tliere can be no doubt that these persons should be punished with death, altogether irrespec- lively of any distinct command. The truth is, that the existence of witchcraft was disbelieved before -١vas questioned. A dis the scriptural evidence of it belief in gliosts and itc h e s was one of the most prominent characteristics of scepticism in tlie seventeenth century. At first it was neai.ly confined to .,-men who were avowedly freethinkers, but gradually it spread over a wider circle, and included almost all the educated, with tlie exception of a large propor. tion of the clergy. This progress, however, was not effected by any active propagandism. It is not ١vith any famous identified with any great book or writer. It was not the triumph of one series of arguments over another. On tlie contrary, no facts are more clearly established in tlie literature of witchcraft tlian tliat the movement was mainly silent, unargumentative, and insensible j that men came gradually to disbelieve in witchcraft, because they came gradually to look upon it as absurd; and tliat this new tone of thought appeared, first- of all, in those who were least subject to tlieological influences, and soon Spread through tlie educat-ed lait-y, and last, of all took possession of the clergy. It may be stated, I believe, as an invariable trutli, that, whenever a religion which rests in a great mea^ sure on a system of terrorism, and wliich paints in dark and forcible colours the misery of men and the power of e^l spirits, is intensely realised, it will en- gender the belief in ^tchcraft or ma^c. The pan.ic MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 13 which its teachings will create, will overbalance the faculties of multitudes. The awful images of evil spirits ofsuperiiuman power, and of untiring malignity, will continually haunt the imagination. They will blend with the illusions of age or sorrow or sickness, and will appear with an especial vividness in the more alarming and unexplained phenomena of nature. This consideration will account for the origin of tlie أ magic in those ages when Relief is ؛ conception 0 ر almost exclusivelytheWork of the imagination; At a much later period, tlie same vivid realisation of diabolical presence will operate powerfillly on the conclusions of the reason. We have now passed so completely out of the modes of thought which pre. dominated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and we are so firmly convinced of the unreality of witchcraft, that it is only by a strong effort of the imagination that we can realise the position of the defenders of the belief. Yet it is, I think, difficult to examine the subject with impartiality, without coming to the conclusion that the historical evidence establishing the reality of witchcraft is so vast and so varied, that nothing but our overwhelming sense of its antecedent improbability and our modern ex. perience of the manner in which it has^/ded away // f civilisation can٠j ۶stify US in ؟ ؟under the influenc despising it. The defenders of the belief, who we.re often men of great and distinguished talent, maintained that there- was no fact in all history more fillly attes'ted, and that to reject it would be to strike at tlie root of all historical evidence of the miraculous. The belief implied the continual occurrence of acts of the most extraordinary and -impressive charactei., and of such a nature as to fall strictly within human cog- 14 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

nisance. The subject, as we have seen, was examined in tens of thousands of cases, in almost every countiy in Europe, by tribunals which included the acutest lawyers and ecclesiastics of the age, on the scene and at tlie time when tlie alleged acts had taken place, and with -the assistance of innumerable sworn ^ t- nesses. The judges had no mot'ive whatever to desire the condemnation of the accused 5 and, as conviction would be followed by a fearful death, they had the strongest motives to exercise their power with caution and deliberation. Tlie whole force of public opinion was directed constantly and earnestly and, although ؛ to the question for many centuries there was some controversy concerning the details of witchcraft, the fact of its existence was long considered undoubted. The evidence is essentially cumu- lative. Some cases may be explained by monomania, others by imposture, others by chance coincidences, and others by optical delusions; but, when we considei. the multitudes of strange statements that were sworn and registered in legal documents, it is v e^ difficult to ft٠ame a general rationalistic explanation ١vhick will not involve an extreme improbability. In our own day, it may be said with confidence, that it ١١٠ould be altogethei. impossible foi. sucli an amount of evidence to accumulate round a conception wliicli had no substantial basis in fact. The ages in which witchcraft flourislied were, it is true, grossly .ci.edu- and to tliis fact we attribute the belief, yet we ؛ lous do not reject their testimony on all matters of secular ١ve considered witchcraft probable, a liistoi.y. If hundredth part of the evidence we possess would liave placed it beyond the region of doubt. If it -١vere a liatui.al but a very improbable fact., our reluct ﻫﺎ .MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT ance to believe it would have been completely stifled by tbe multiplicity of the proofs. Now, it is evident tbat the degree ot' improbability we attacli to histories of witches, will depend, in a great measure, upon our doctrine concerning evil spirits, and upon the degree in which that doctrine is realised. If men believe tbat invisible beings, of supei.human power, restless activity, and intense malignity, are perpetually haunting the woi.ld, and directing all their energies to the temptation and the if they believe that, in past أ persecution of mankind ages, these spirits have actually governed the bodily fimctions of men, worked miracles, and foretold fii- ture events,—if all this is believed, not with tlie dull and languid assent of custom, but witli an intensely realised, living, and operative assurance j if it presents itself to the mind and imagination as a vivid trutli, exercising that influence ovei. tbe l.eason, and occupying that prominence in the thoughts of men, which its importance would demand, tlie antecedent improbability of witchcraft would appear far less than iftliis doctrine was rejected or was unrealised. When, thei.efore, we find a growing disposition to reject every history which involves diabolical intervention as intrinsically absurd, independently of any examination of the evidence on which it rests, we may infer from this fact the declining realisation of tlie doctrine of evil spil’its. These two considerations will serve, I think, to explain the history of witchcraft, and also to show its great sigidficance and importance as an index of the course of civilisation. To follow out the subject into details would require a far greater space than I can assign to it-, but I liope to be able to sliow. sufli- 16 RATIONALISM IN Eu r o p e .

ciently, what have been the leading phases through which tlie belief has passed. ١ve find the belief ,In the ruder forms of savage life and accompanied, in most ٤ ؟in witchcraft universal instances, by features of peculiai. atrocity. The rea. son of this is obvious. Terror is everywhere the be. ginning of religion. The plienomena wliich impi.ess themselves most forcibly on the mind of the savage are not those which enter manifestly into the sequence of natural laws and which are productive of most beneficial effects, but those which are disastrous ٦dvid than and apparently abnormal. Gratitude is less fear, and the smallest apparent infraction of a natural law produces a deeper impression than the most sublime of its ordinary operations. When, therefore, the more startling and terrible aspects of natui.e are pre- when the more deadly forms of ؛ sented to his mind disease or natural convulsion desolate his land, the sa.vage derives from these tilings an intensely realised perception of diabolical presence. In the darkness of the night 5 amid tlie yawning cha.sms and the wild undei. tlie bliize of ؟ eclioes of the mountain gorge when ؟ tlie comet., or tlie solemn gloom of the eclipse when tbe earthquake ؟ famine lias blasted the land ؟ and tlie pestilence have slaughtered tlieir tliousands efract.s and distorts ؟ in every form of disease which the reason ; in all that is strange, portentous, and .deadly, lie feels aud co١١٣ers before the supernatural Completely exposed to all tlie influences of nature, and completely ignorant of the cliain of sequence that unites its vai'ious parts, he lives in continual dread of what he deems tlie direct and isolated acts

,Maury و fii. c. 2-١ .(Oil til. universality of til© of History, 1 ل IcA er, Tldlosopliy Histoirc dc 1(1 McujU. passim ة١اث ١؟ k \\e MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 17 of evil spirits. Feeling tliem continually noai. him, be will naturally endeavour to enter into communion ١vitb witb them. He will strive to propitiate tliem gifts.' If some great calamity lias fallen upon Ilim, 01. if some vengeful passion lias mastered liis reason, lie will attempt to invest bimself with tlieii. authority 5 and his excited imagination will soon persuade Ilim that he has succeeded in liis desil.e. If liis abilities and his ambition place him above tlie common level, he will find in this beliet' tlie most ready patli to power. By pi.ofessing to liold communion with and to control supernatural beings, lie can exercise an almost boundless influence ovei. those about Ilim ; anti, among men who are intensely predisposed to lielieve in the supernatural, a very littie dexterity or ac- qnaintance with natural laws will support liis pretensions. By converting the terror which -some great calamity has produced into angei. against an alleged sorcerer, he can at the same time take a signal veil- geance upon those wliO have offended Ilim, and increase the sense of liis own importance. Those ivhose habit.s. or appearance, 01. knoivledge, separate them from the multitude, will be naturally suspected of communicating witli evil spirits ; and this suspicion will soon become a certainty, if any mental disease s٠hould aggravate their peculiarities. In this manner the influences of ignorance, imagination, and impos.. ture will blend and co-operate in creating a belief in witchcraft, and in exciting a hatred against those who are suspected of its practice, commensurate with the terror they inspire. In a more advanced stage of civilisation, the fear of witches will naturally fade, as the liabits of artl ficial life remove men from those influences wliicli act VOL. I. IS RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

upon the imagination, and as increasing knowledge explains some of the more alarming phenomena of nature. The belief, liowevei., that it is possible, by supernatural agency, to inflict evil upon mankind, was general in ancient Greece and Rome j and St. Augustine assures US that all the sects of pliilosopliers admitted it, with the exception of the Epicureans, who denied tlie existence of evil spirits. The Decern- virs passed a law condemning magicians to death. A similar laiv was early enacted in Greece j and, in the days of Demosthenes, a sorceress named Lamia The philosopliy of Plato, by ؛.was actually executed greatly aggrandising tlie sphere of the spiritual, did -١ve find that when much to foster the belief 5 and ever, either before or after the Chi.istian era, that philosophy lias been in tlie ascendant', it lias been accompanied by a tendency to magic. Besides this, tlie ancient civilisations wei.e never direc-ted earnestly to the investigation of natural phenomena; and tlie progress made in tliis respect was, in consequence, vei.y small. On tlie whole, however, tine persecution seems to liave been, in tliosc counti.ies, almost entirely fi.ee ft.om l.eligious fanaticism. The magician was punislied because lie injured man, and not because lie offended God. In one l'espect, during tlie latei. pei'iod of Pagan Rome, the laws against magic seem to have revived, and to have taken a somewhat different form, without, however, representing any phase of a religious movement, but simply a poli,tical requirement. Glider tlie liead of nra.gic were comprised some asti١0- ؛ logical and other methods of foretelling tlie future ١vas found that these practices had a sti.ong ,and it .؛؛Pausuiiia ١ MAGIC AND IVITCHCRAFT. 19

tendency to foster conspiracies against the emperors. The soothsayer often assured persons that they were destined to assume the purple, and in tliat way stimulated them to rebellion. By casting the horoscope of the reigning emperor, he had ascertained, according to the popular belie، the period in which the government might be assailed with most prospect of success ; and liad thus proved a constant cause of agitation. Some of the forms of magic had also been lately hnported into the empire from Greece, and were therefore repugnant to the conservative spirit that was dominant. Several of the emperors, in consequence, passed edicts against the magicians, whicli were executed with considerable though some- But altliough magicians ؛.what spasmodic energy were occasionally persecuted, it is not to be inferred from this that everything that was comprised under the name of magic was considei.ed morally wrong. On the contrary, many of the systems of divination formed an integral pai.t of religion. Some of the more'public modes of foretelling the future, such as the oracles of the gods, were still l.etained and honoured 5 and a law, which made divination concerning the future of tlie emperor high treason, shows clearly the spirit in whicli the others were suppressed. The emperors desired to monopolise tlie knowledge of the foture, and consequently drew many 'astrologers to tlieir courts, while tliey banished them from other parts of the kingdom.2 They were so far from attaching the idea of sacrilege to prac-

from This very obscure branch learned and able w٥rk٠ ي of the subjeCt has been most which I have derived great admirably treated by Maury, assistance. .\\ ة٠ ﺀا٠\ ﻟ ﻪ ٠ .١ه ؟١آل؛ ل 1 ٠ئ I to x r e de la Magie An extremely .؟ T860),pp. 7 85- 20 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

fciees which enabled them to foretell coming events, that Marcus Aurelius and Julian, who were both passionately attached to their religion, and who were ١vho liave ever sat upon a among the best men ١١٣ere among the most ardent of the pa.trons ,t.hrone of the ma^cians. Such was the somewhat anomalous position of the magicians in the last days of Pagan Rome, and it acquires a great interest from its bearing on the policy of the Christian emperors. When tlie Christians were first scattered through the Roman empire, they natiirally looked upon this question with a very different spirit from that of the lieathen. Inspired by an intense religious enthusiasm, which they were nobly sealing with their bbod, they thouglit mucli less of the ciril than of the religious consequences of magic, and sacrilege seemed much more terrible in their eyes than anarchy. Their position, acting upon some of their dis. tinctive doctrines, had filled tliem with a sense of Satanic presence, which must have shadowed every portion of their belief, and have predisposed them to discover diabolic.al influence in every movement of the pagan. The fearfiil conception of eternal punishment, adopted in its most material form, had flashed with its full intensity upon their minds. They believed that this was the destiny of all who were beyond the narrow circle of their Church, and that their persecutors were doomed to agonies of especial poignancy. The whole world was divided between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. The persecuted Chui.ch represented the first, the persecuting world the second. In eve^ scoff that, was directed against their creed, in every edict that MAGIC AND WITCHCRAOT. 21

menaced their persons, in every interest that opposed their progress, they perceived the direct, and immediate action of the de^l. They found a great and ancient religion subsisting ai.ound them. Its gorgeous rites, its traditions, its priests, and its miracles, had pre-occupied the public mind, and presented what seemed at first an insuperable barrier to their mission. In this religion they saw the especial workmanship of the devil, and their strong predisposition to interpret every event by a miraculous standard persuaded them that all its boasted prodigies wei.e real. Nor did tlrey finfl any difficulty in explaining them. The w.oi.ld tliey believed to be full of malignant demons, who had in all ages persecuted and deluded mankind. From the magicians of Egypt to the demoniacs of the New Testament, their power had been continually manifested. In the chosen land they could only persecute and afflict 5 but, among the heathen, they possessed supreme power, and were universally worshipped as divine. This doctrine, wliich was the natural consequence of the intellectual condition of the age, acting upon the belief in evil spirits, and upon the scriptural accounts of diabolical interventioii, had been still farther strengthened by tliose Platonic theories which, in their. Alexandrian form, had so profoundly influ- According ؛.enced the early teachings of the Church to these theories, the immediate objects of the devotions of the pagan world were subsidiary spirits of finite power and imperfect morality-angels, or, as On the doctrine of the oil the Platonic theory which ا demons, in its relation to occupies the greater pUrt of the heathen worship, .see the chap- eighth book of tlie De Cimtate ter on Neo-Platonism in Maury, Dei. and the curious argument based 22 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

they were then called, demons_who acted the part of mediators j and who, by the permission of the supreme and inaccessible Deity, regulated the religious government of mankind. In this manner a compro- misewas effected betweenmonotheism and pol^heism The religion of the state was true and lawfill, but it was not irreconcilable witli pure tlieism. The Chris- ؛ tians had adopted this conception of subsidiary spirits bu.t they maintained them to be not the willing agents, but, the adversaries, of the Deity j and tlie word demon, which, among the pagans, signified only a spirit below the level of a Divinity, among the Christians signified a devil. This notion seems to have existed in the very eai.liest peri-od of Christianity; and, in the second century, we find it elaborated with most minute and detailed care. Tertullian., who wrote in that century, assures US tliat the world was full of tliese evil spirits, whose influence miglit be descried in every portion of the pagan creed. Some of them belonged to that ١vith Satan band of rebels who had been precijfitated into the abyss. Others were the angels who, in the antediluvian world, had become attached to the daughters of men j and who, having tauglit them t.o dye wool, and to commit the still more fearful offence of painting their faces, had been justly doomed to eternal suffering.! These were now seeking in every

were attached to the antedilu١ .\ ٠. h\\١ Dc Cultu Fdiucrriim ١ c. 2. This curious notion is vians were possibly devils— —ere called'١١ given on the authority of tlie incubi, as they ١vas and that the word angel in the prophecy of Enocli, which thought by some—and Tertul- writings attributed to Enocli, lian seems to have inclined to and in all parts of Scripture, tiieir opinion—to be authorita- signifying only messenger, may five Script.ure. St. Augustine be applied to any spirit, gootl suggests that the ‘ angels’ who or bad (fie Civ. Dei, lib. XV. MAGIC AND WITCHCRAOT. 23 way to thwart the purposes of the -Almighty, and tlieir especial delight was to attract to themselves the worship which was due to Him alone. Hot only the more immoral deities of heathenism, not only such divinities as Venus, or Mars, or Mercury, or Pluto, hut also those who appeared the most pure, were litera.lly and undoubtedly diabolical. Minerva, the personification of wisdom, was a devil, and so was Hiana, the type of cliastity, and so was Jupiter, the heathen conception of the Most High. The spirits who were worshipped under the names of departed hei’oes, and who were supposed to liave achieved so many acts of splendid and philanthropic heroism, wei.e all devils ١vl١o had assumed the names of the dead. Tlie same condemnation was passed upon those bright creations of a poetic fancy, the progenitors of the medieval fairies, the nymplis and dryads who peopled evo^ grove and liallowed every stream.! The ail. was filled with unlioly legions,2 and the traditions of every land ,١vere replete with t-heir exploits. The immortal lamp -١vliich burnt with an unfading splendour in the tern -tlie household gods that were trans ؛pie of Venus tlie miracles ؛ poi'ted by invisible liands through the air which clustered so thickly around tlie vestal virgins, .tlie 01'acular shrines, and the centres of Roman po١ver cap. 23). Tliis rule of inter- Poissy, for tlie preservation ١ve shall see, of the nuns from their power pretation had, as ؛؛Pratiques dc ,ئ \\5 ةﻫﺔةل 1\ ةةآلخ an important influence on tlie later tlieology of witchcraft. Demons, p. 81). Much tlie same notions 2 One sect of heretics of tlie ا were long after lield aliout. fourth century-tile Messalians the fairies. A modern French -w e n t so far as to make spit- writei. states, that till near the ting a religious exercise, in middle of tlie eighteentli cen. ho^es of thus casting out tlie tury, a mass was annually devils they inlialed. (Maury, celehrate.d in the Ahhey of p. 317.) 24 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

their presence. Under the ؛ were all attestations 0 names of Sylvans and Fauns, and Dusii, they had not only frequently appeared among mankind, hut had made innumerable women the objects of tlieir passion. This fact was so amply attested, that it appears im. Persons possessed with dentils ١. pudence to deny it

Hoc liegai.e impudentiffi ill which he exhorts women‘ ا videatur’ (St. Aug. J)e Civ. Dei) to cover tlieir heads berause lib. XV. cap. 23). Tlie Saint,, of the ‘ angels ’ (Sprenger, و however, proceeds to s.ay, ‘Noil Mall. Mai. Pars i. Oujest. 4 hie aliquid audeo temcre defi. and Pars ii. Qiuest. 2). The nire.’ See also Justin Martyr, incubigenerally had nochildren, Ap. c. V. Tlie same notion was lint there were some excep- perpetuatefl through tlie sue- tions to this rule, for Nider ceeding ages, and marriage tlic inquisitor assures US that with devils was long one of the island of Cyprus was en- tlie most ordina.ry accusations tirely peopled liy their sons in the witch trials. Tlie devils {Mall. Malifi. p. 522), and a wlio appeared in t.lie female similar parentage was ascrilied form were generally called to tile Huns. The ordinary succubi; those who appeared phenomenon of niglitmare, as like men, incubi (though tliis the name imports, was asso- distinction was not always pre- ciated with t'liis lielief (see a served). The former were com- curious passage in Rodin, p. paratively ra.re, but Rodin 109). Tlie Rusii, whose ex. mentions a pl.iest wlio had ploits St. Augustine mentions, commei'ce with one for more were Celtic spirits, and are the than forty years, and anotliei. origin of our ‘Reuce’ (Mauiy, priest wlio found a faithful p. 189). Por tlie mucli more ,؟.mistress in a detil for lialf a cheerful views of tlie Cabalist century : tliey were both burnt and otlier secret societies of alive {Demonomanic des Sor- the middle ages, concerning cierS) p. 197). Luther was a tlie intercourse of pliilosopliers firm believer in this intercourse with sylphs, salamanders, &C.J {Ibid). The incubi were much see that very curious iind Lc Comte de iook١\ ﻫﺎ٢ﺀ ٠ه \ ةأ ,and liundreds ز more common perhaps t.liousands, of women Gaballs, oil Eiitretidis sur les \\أﺀة \ ٠،؟\١ have been burnt on account Sciences secretes (PaT of tlie belief in tliem. It Lilith, tlie first wife of Adiim. was observed tliat tliey liad a concerning whom tlie Rabbini- peculiar attjicliment to women cal traditions are so full, who witli beautiful liairj and it was was said to suck the lilood of an old Catliolic belief that infant'S, and fi’om whose nam. St. Paul alluded to tliis in the word lullaby (Lili Abil is .hat curious pa.ssage. supposed by some to liave bee'tliat 80me١١ MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 25 were constantly liberated by tbe Christians, and tombs of the exorcists have been discovered in the catacombs. If a Christian in any respect debated from the path of duty, a ^risible manifestation of the devil sometimes appeared to terrify him. A Christian lady, in a fit of thoughtless dissipation, went to the theatre, and at the theatre she became possessed with a devil. The exorcist remonstrated with the evil spirit on the presumption of its act. The devil replied apologetically, that it had found the woman in its house.i The rites of paganism liad in some degi.ee pervaded all departments of life, and all were therefore tainted with diabolical infiuence. In tlie theatre, in the circus, in the market-place, in all the public festivals, there was something which manifested their presence. A Christian soldie?., on one occasion, ١vear a tbstal crown, because laurels refrsed even to إ had been originally dedicated t-0 Bacchus and Venus and endured severe punislnnent rather than comply with tlie cust'Oin. Much discussion was elicited by the transaction, but Tertullian wrote a t r e a t i s e 2 maintaining that the martyr liad only complied witli Iiis strict duty. derived, was long regarded, as ears. To pass to a much latex the queen of tlie succubi (Plan- period, St. Gregojy the Great, axt. L iiy in the sixtli centuiy, mentions ١.Diet. mf ١لآعث١ ١١٠alking in a The Greeks lielieved thatniglit- a nun who, when mare resulted from the presence garden, began to eat without of a demon named Epilialtes. making the sign of the cross. Tertullian, Be Spectaculis, She liad bitter cause to repent ا cap. xxvi. Anotlier woman, of her indecent haste, for she tliis writer assures US, hating immediately swallo١١٠e(l a dev.il gono to see an actoi’, dreamed in a lettuce {Dialogic lib. i. c. 4). all tlie following liiglit of a Tlie -whole passage, wliicli ia windilig.slieet, and heard tlie ratlier long for quotation, is ex. actor’s name ringing, witli. tremely curious. .I١e Corona ا frightful reproaches, in her 26 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

The terror which such a doctrine must have spread among the early Christians may be easily conceived. Tliey seemed to breathe an atmosphere of miracles. Wherever they turned they were surrounded and be- leaguered by malicious spirits, who were pe^etually manifesting their presence by supernatural acts. -tliey min ل Watchful fiends stood beside every altar gled with every avocation of life, and tile Christians were the special objects of their hatred. All this was and it was realised with an ؛ universally believed intensity which, in this secular age, wc can scarcely ١vas l'ealised as men realise religious conceive. It doctrines, when they have devoted to them the un- hen their faitli’١١ divided energies of their lives, and lias been intensified in the furaace of persecution. The bearing ot. this view upon the conception of magic is very obvious. Among the more civilised pagans, as wc have seen, magic was mainly a civil, and in the last days oftlie empire, mainly apolitical, crime. In periods of great !')olitical insecurity it assumed considerable importance ; at other periods it fell completely into the background. Its relation to ,١vas exceedingly indeterminate tlie pi’evailing religion knd it comprised many rites that were not regai.ded as in any degree immoral. In the early Church, on tlie other hand, it was esteemed the most horrible form of saci'ilege effected by tlie direct agency of evil spirits. It included tbe whole system of paganism, explained all its prodigies, and gave a fearful signifi- eance to all its legends. It assumed, in consequence, an extraordinary importance in the patristic teacliingj and acted strongly and continually on tlie imaginations oftlie people. When the Church obtained tlie direction of the MAGIC AND WITCHCRA^. 27 civil power, she soon modified or abandoned tlie and, in ؛ tolerant maxims slieliad formerly inculcated the course of a few years, restrictive laws were en. acted, both against the Jews and against the heretics. It appeal’s, however, that tlie multitude of pagans, in tlie time of Constantine, was still so great, and tlie zeal of tlie emperor so languid, tliat lie at first shrank from directing liis laws openly and avo١vedly against the old faitli, and an ingenious expedient was devised for sapping it at its base, under the semlilanco of tlie ancient legislation. Magic, as I have said, among the Romans, included, not only t.liose appeals to evil spirits, and those modes of inflicting evil on others, which liad always been donounced as sacrilegious, but also certain methods of foretelling tl'ie future, which were not regai’ded as morally wrong, but only as politically dangei’Ous. Tliis latter department formed an offshoot of the established religion, and liad never been separated from it with precision. Tlie laws liad taen devised for tlie purpose of preventing rebellions or imposition, and tliey liad lieen executed in tl'iat spirit. The Christian emperoi.s l’evived tliese la١vs٠ and enforced them with extreme severity, liut directed ؛,At first ١ tliera against tihe reli^on of the pagans that secret ma.gic wliicli the decemvirs had prohibited but wliich liad afterwards come into general use, was alone condemned j liut, in t.he course of a few reigns, the circle oflegisla.tion expanded, till it included tlie whole system of paganism. Almost immediately a.fter his conversion, Consta.n- tine enacted an extremely severe law against, secret

The history of this move- Sur la Magic, and also by ا cient has been traced with Beugnot, destruction du Pagan• masterly ability by Maury, ism dans VOccident! 28 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

magic. He decreed that any aruspex who entered into the house of a citizen, for tlie purpose of celebrating his rites, should be burnt alive, the property of his employers confiscated, and the accu'ser re- Two years later, however, a proclamation ٤.١varded was issued which considerably attenuated the force of this enactment, for it declared that it was not tlie intent-ion of the Emperor to prollibit ma-gical rites, wJlich were designed to discover remedies for diseases, or to protect the harvests from hail, snow, or tempests.2 Tliis pai.tial tolei.ance continued till the deatli ot (Constantine, but completely passed away under his successor. Constantius appears to have been governed by far stronger con^ctions than liis father. He liad embraced the Arian heresy, and is said to have been much influenced by the Arian priests 5 and he directed his laws with a stern and almost passionate ea.gerness forms of magic which verged most closely againstth٩ upon the pagan worship. At the beginning of one of these la١vs, he complained that many liad teen producing tompests, and destrojdng the lives of their enemies by tlie assistance of the demons, and he proceeded to prohibit in the sternest manner, and under pain of the 'severest penalties, every kind of magic. All who attempted to foretell tlie future—the augurs, as well as the more ireegular diviners-were emphatically condemned. Magicians who were cap- tured in Home were to be tln.own t-0 the lvild beasts 5

,٠١x. tempt oil tlie art ot foretelling.Codcoc Tlieodosianus, Y\b ١ and Eusebius و(c. 1, 2.. The pagan liis- (fill. ii. c. 29 tit.x٢i٠ torian Zosimus oliserves, tliJit classifies his prohibition of when Constantine had alian- prophecy with tlie measures doned his country’s gods, ‘ lie directed openly against pagan- made this beginning of im- ism ( Vita Const, lil). i. c. 16). .i. 1. 3-١ piety, that he looked with con- 2 Cod. Th. lib. ix L. x MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 29 find those who were seized in the provinces to he put to excruciating torments, and at last crucified. If they-persisted in denying their crime, their flesh was to be torn from their bones with hooks of iron.. Tliese fearful penalties were directed against those wlio practised rites which had long been universal 5 and which, if tliey were not regarded as among the obligations, were, at least, among the highest pri^. leges of paganism. Ithasbeen observed as a significant enemies of the ﺀ fact, tliat in this reign the title liuman race,’ which the old pagan laws had applied to the Christians, and whicli proved so effectual in exasperating the popular mind, wa.s transferred to the magicians.* The task of the Christian emperors in combating magic was, in truth-, one of the most difficult that and all the penalties that Roman ؛ can he conceived

Cod. Til. lib. ix. t. xvi. 1. 4, the nature of the punishments ا 5, 6. Tlie language is curious that were employed, compare and very peremptory—thus, we the Commentary on the law, in read in law 4: ‘Nemo hams, Ritter’s edition (Leipsic, 1738). picem cosnulat, aut nuithemati- and Beugnot, tom. i. p. 143. cum.nemohariolum. Augurum 2 Beugnot, tom. i. p. 148. etvatum prava confessio conti- On tliese laws, M. Maury well cescat.' Chaldffii ac magi et says: ‘Delasorte setrouvaient ceteri quos maleficos ob facino- atteints les ministres du poly- rum magnitudinem vulgus ap- thrisme les plus en credit, les pellat., n ^ ad lianc partem pratiques qui inspiraient a la aiiquid moliantur. Sileat om- superstition le plus deconfiance nibus perpetuo divinandi curio- . . . . Bien des gens ne s e sitas: etenim supplicium.capitis souciaient plus de rendre aux ل feret gladio ultore prostratus dieux le culte Rgal et consacri quicunque jussis obsequium mais les oracles, les augures, denegaverit.’ Another law (6) les prCsages, presque tous les concludes: ‘ Si conrictus ad palens y recouraient avec con- projrium facinus detegentibus fiance, et leur en enlever la repugnaverit- pernegando. sit possibility c’Ctait les dy^uil- eculeo deditus, ungulisque sul- ler de ce qui faisait leur TOD. eantibus latera perferat pmnas solution et leur jo ie’ (pp. 117, proprio dignas facinore.’ On 118). RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.30 barbarity could devise, were unable to destroy prao. -١vhich were tbe natural consequence of tbe pre fcices vailing credulity. As long as men believed tlia.t tbey could easily ascertain tbe future, it was quite certain ١vould at lengtli overpower fear. As that. cui.iosity long as tbey believed tbat a few simple rites could ballle tbeir enemies, and enable tliem to achieve tbeir most cherished desires, tliey would most unquestion, ably continue to practise them. Priests might ftilminate their anathemas, and emperors multiply ,but scepticism, and not terrorism ؛ their penalties was the one cor.rective for the evil. This scepticism was nowhere to be found. The populace never questioned for a moment the efficacy of magic. Tire pagan plrilosoplrers were all infatuated by the dreams ١vere writing long boohs on the of Neo-Platonism, and mysteries of Egypt, the hierarchy of spirits, and tlieir intercourse with men. Tire Fathers, it is true, velre- mently denounced magic, but they never seem t'O bave had the fabrtest suspicion that it was a delusion. If Christianity had irotliing to oppose to the fascine tion of tlrese forbidden rites, it would have Ireen im. possible to prevent the immense majority of the people from reverting to tlrenr ; but, by a very natural process, a sei.ies of conceptions were rapidly intro, duced into theology, which foi.med what may be termed a rival syst.eirr of magic, in which the talis- manic virtues of holy water, and of Christian ceremonies, became a hind of counterpoise t'O the virtue of unlawful charms. It is very remarkable, however, that, while these sacred talismans were ffidefinitely multiplied, the otlier great fascination of magic, tile power of predicting the futui.e, was never claimed by the Christian clergy. II' the theoi.y of tlie writers of MAGIC A N . WITCHCRAFT. 31

if the ؛the eighteenth century had been correct superstitions that culminated in medievalism had ؛been simply the result of the knavery of the clergy t.his would most certainly not liave been the case. The Christian priests, like all other priest'S, would have pandered to the curiosity whicli was universal, and something analogous to the ancient oracles or auguries would have been incorporated into tlie Church. Nothing of this kind took place, because the change which passed over theology was the result, not of impostui.e, but of a normal development. No part of Christianity liad a tendency to develope into an oracular system: and had such a system arisen, it would have been the result of deliberate fra.ud. Cn tlie other liand, there were many conceptions connected with the faith, especially concerning tlie efli- cacy of baptismal watei., vhich, under the pressure of a materialising age, passed, by an easy and natural, if not legitimate transition, into a kind of fetishism, ١vere so assimilating witli the magical notions that universally diffused. St. Jerome, in his life of St. Hilarion, relates a miracle of that saint wliich refers to a period a few years after the death ot. Constantius, and which shows clearly tlie position that Christian ceremonies began to occupy witli reference to magic. It appears that a Christian, named Italicus, was accustomed to race horses against the pagan duumvir of Caza, and that this latter personage invariably gained the vie- tory, by means of magical rites, which stimulated Ins own horses, and paralysed those of his opponent. The Cliristian, in despair, had recourse to St. Hdarion. Tlie saint appears to have been, at first, somewhat startled at the application, aud rather shrank from 32 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

bnt Italicusat إ participating actively in horse-racing last persuaded him that the cause was worthy of his intervention, and obtained a bowl of water which ١vliich was Hilarion himself liad consecrated, and tlierefore endowed with a peculiar virtue. At length fclie day of the races arrived. The chariots were placed side by side, and the spectators tlironged the circus. A.s the signal for the start was given, Italicus sprinkled his horses with the holy water. Imme- diately tlie chariot ot' t'he Christian flew with a while t'he horses ؛ supernatural rapidity to the goal of his adversai^ faltered and staggered, as if they had been struck by an invisible hand. The circus rang with wild cries of wonder, of joy, or of anger. Some called for tlie death of the Christian ma^cian, but many others abandoned paganism in consequence of the miracle.. The persecution which Constantius directed against the magicians was of course suspended under Julian, whose spirit of toleration, when we consider the age he lived in, the provocations he endured, and the in. tense religious zeal he manifested, is one of the most remarkable facts ill history. He was passionately devoted to t.hose forms of magic which the pagan ٦vas always thronged religion admitted, and his pala.ce with magicians. The consultation of the entrails, which Constantius had forbidden, was renewed at the and it was reported among the أ coronation of Julian Christians, that they presented, on that occasion, the

little more ه Fita S a iti H ttanns. This hunched persons in ١ miracle is related by Beugnot.. than a month, driving away we find the saint ,The whole life of St. Hilarion serpents, &c٠ is crowded with prodigies that producing rain with the same illustrate the view takc.n in tlie facility as tlie later witches. text. Besides curing about two MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 33 form of a cross, surmounted by a crown.. During tbe short reign of Jovian, tlie same tolerance seems -but Valentinian renewed the per ؛ to have continued impious ﺀ secution, and made another la١v against ١vere still prayers and midnight sacrifices,’ which offered.* This law excited so mucli discontent in -٦vas directly opposed to the esta ,Greece, where it alentinian consented to its ؟ blished religion, that but, in other ؛ l.emaining inoperative in that province portions of the Empire, fearful scenes of suffering and persecution were everywhere witnessed.3 In the East, Valens was persecuting, with impartial zeal, all who did not adopt the tenets of the Arian heresy. ‘The very name of philosopher,’ as it lias and the ’؛a title of proscription ﺀ been said, became most trivial offences were visited with death. One philosopher was executed, because, in a private letter, he had exliorted liis wife not to forget tc crown the portal of the dooi.. An old woman perished, because she endeavoured to allay tlie paroxysms of a fever by magical songs. A young man, wlio imagined that he could cure an attack of diarrhrea liy toucliing alter- nately a marlile pillar and liis liody, wliile lie repeated the vowels, expiated tliis not very alarming superstition liy torture and liy death .4 In reriewing these persecutors, wliicli were directed by tlie orthodox ،and liy tlie Arians against ١ve must carefully guard against some ,magicians natural exaggerations. It would be very unfair to attribute directly to tlie leaders of tlie Church the

.Maury, pp. 118, 119 ٥ St. Gregoi^ Nazianzen (3rd ا Orati.n against Julian). 4 Ammianus Marcellinus, lib .xxix. c. 1, 2 Cod. Th. lib. ix. t. xri. 1. 7٠ ٥ &c. VOL. I. I) 54 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. edicts that produced then). It would be still more unfair to attribute to them the spirit in which those edicts were executed. Much allowance must be made for the personal barbarity of certain emperors aud prefects 5 for the rapacity that made them seek for pretexts by which tliey might confiscate tlie pro. perty of the wealthy; and for the alarm that was created by e v e r y attempt to discover the successor to tire throne. We have positive evidence that one or other of tliese three causes was connected with most ,and we know ؛ of the worst outbursts of persecution from earlier history, that persecutions foi. ma.gic had taken place on political as rvell as on religious grounds, long before Christianity liad triumphed. We must not, again, measure tlic severity oft.he pel.- ١ve secution by the precise language of tlie laws. If looked simply at the written enactments, we should conclude tliat a considerable port'ion of tlie pagan worship was, at an early period, absolutely and universally suppressed. In practice, liowever, tlie law wa.s constantly broken. A genei.a.1 laxity of adminis- tration had pervaded all pai'ts of the empire, to an extent whicli the weakest modern governments 'have seldom exhibited. Popular prejudice ran counter to many of tlie enactments ; and the rulers frequently connived at their infraction. We find, therefore, that tlie application of tlie penalties that were decreed was iiregular, fitful, and uncertain. Sometimes they were enforced with extreme severity. Sometimes .١vithout disguise ١١٣ere practised tlie forliidden l.ites -ery fretpiently, in one part of tlie empil.e, pei.se ۴ cution raged fiercely, while in anotlier part it was unknow n. When, however, all these qualifying cir- d ista n ces have been admitted, it l.eniains cleai. tliat MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 35 a series of laws were directed against rites which were entirely innocuous, and which had been long universally practised, as parts of the pagan worship, for the purpose of sapping t-he religion from which they sprang. It is also clear that the ecclesiastical leaders all believed in the reality of magic ; and tliat they had vastly increased the populai. sense of its enormity, by attributing to all the pagan rites a magical character. Under Theodosius, tliis phase of the history of magic terminated. In the beginning of his reign, that emperor contented himself with re- iterating the proclamations of his predecessors j but he soon cast off all disguise, and prohibited, undei. the severest penalties, every portion of the pagan woi.ship. Such was the policy pursued by tlie early Church towards the magicians. It exercised in some respects a very important influence upon later history. In the first place, a mass of tradition was formed which, in later ages, placed the reality of the crime above the possibflity of doubt. In the second place, the nucleus of fact, around which the fables of the inquisitors were accumulated, was considerably enlarged. By a curious, but' very natural transition, a great poriion of the old pagan worship passed from the sphere of religion into that of magic. The country people continued, in secrecy and danger, to practise the rites of their forefathers. They were told that, by those rites, they were appealing to powerful and ,and, after several generations ؛ malicious spirits they came to believe what they were told 5 without, however, abandoning the practices that were condemned. It is easier for superstitious men, in a superstitious age, to change all the notions that are 0 2 36 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

associated with their rites, than to free their minds from their influence. Religions never truly perish, except by a natural decay. In tlie towns, paganism liad arrived at the last stage of decrepitude, wlien and, tlierefore, in the towns, - the أ Christianity arose ,but ؛ ١vas prompt and decisive ricto^ of Christianity in the country, paganism still ret.ained Its vigour, and defied all the efforts of priests and magistrates to eradicate it. The invasion of tlie barbarians still further strengthened tbe pagan element, and at last a kind of compromise was effected. Paganism, as a (listinct system, was annihilated, but its different ,lements continued to exist in a transfigured form؛) and under new names. Many portions of tlie system were absorbed by the new faith. Tliey coalesced with the doctrines to which they bore most resem. lilance, gave those doctrines an extraordinary prominence in tlie Christian system, and rendered them peculiarly acceptable and influential. Antiquarians )lave long since shown that, in almost every part of the Roman Catliolic faitli, the traces of this amalgamation may be detected. Another portion of paganism became a ki.nd of excrescence upon recognised Christianity. It assumed tire form of innumerable superstitious rites, which occupied an. equivocal position, sometimes countenanced, and sometimes condemned, hovering upon tlie verge of the faitl), associated and intertivined witlr autliorised religious practices, occasionally censui.edby councils, and habitually encouraged by the more ignorant ecclesiastics, and frequently attracting a more intense devotion tlia.11 tlie regular ceremonies with wliich they were allied..

Scott’s discovery ؟n i؟ I Many hundreds of these are _gi٣ superstitions are examined by of Witchcraft. Thiers. A great number also MAGIC AND WTCHCRAOT. 37

A third portion continued in the form of magical rites, which were practised in defiance of persecution and anathemas, and which continued, after the noml- nal suppression of Paganism, for nearly eight cen-. ,Tliese rites, ot' coui'se, only form one element ؛.turies and perhaps not a very prominen.t one, in the system but any analysis which omitted to ؛of witchcraft ؛)notice them would be imperfect. All those grotesqu ceremonies which Shakspeare portrayed in M acbeth ١vere taken from the old paganism. In numbers of the description of the witches’ sabbath, Diana and HerOdias are mentioned together, as tl'ie two most -and among the articles of accu ؛ prominent figures sation brought against witches, we find enumerated many of the old practices of the augurs. In the sixth century, tlie victory of Christianity ovei. paganism, considered as an external system, and the corruption of Christianity itself, were both com- and what are justly termed the dark ages may ؛ plete ال ,be said to have be^m. -It seems, at first sight somwliat strange and anomalous fact that, during the period which elapsed between the sixth and the thirteentli centuries, when superstitions were most numerous, and credulity most universal, tlie executions for sorcei^r sliould have been comparatively ra.re. There never had been a time in which the minds of men were more completely imbued and moulded by supernatural conceptions, or in whicli the sense of Satanic power and Satanic presence was more profound and univei.sal. Many thousands of cases of possession, exorcisms, miracles, and appari- fcions of the Evil One were recorded. They were

Michelet {La SorcierC) p. 30. note). See also Maurv. 38 RATIONALISM IN .EUROPE. accepted without the faintest doubt, and had become the habitual held upon which the imagination expatiated. There was scarcely a great saint who had not, on some occasion, encountered a visible manifestation of an evil spirit. Sometimes the deril appeared as a grotesque and liideous animal, sometimes as a black man, sometimes as a beautiful woman, sometimes as a priest haranguing in the pulpit, sometimes as an angel of liglit, and sometimes in a still holier form.1 Yet, strange as it may now appear, these conceptions, though intensely believed and intensely realised, did not create any great degree of terrorism. The very multiplication of super- stit-ions had proved their cori.ective. It was firmly believed that the arcli-fiend was for ever hovering about the Christian ; but it was also believed, that the sign of the cross, or a few drops of holy water, or the name of Mai^, could put him to an immediate and ignominious flight. The lives of the saints were crowded with his devices, but they represented him as uniformly vanquished, humbled, and contemned. Satan himself, attlie command of Cyprian, had again and again assailed an unarmed and ignorant maiden, who had devoted herself to religion. He had exliausted all the powers of sophistry, in obscuring the virtue of -and all the l.esources of archangelic elo ؛ virginity quence, in favour of a young and noble pagan who aspil.ed to the maiden’s handj but the simple sign of the cross exposed every sophism, quenched ever.y emotion oftei.restrial love, and drove back tlie fiend,

the appearances of the and also Ignatius Lupus, in ٥ ا 0 devil in the form of Christ, see Edict. 8. Inquisitionis (1603), .the tract by Gersou in the p. 18٥ ذ(Malleus MaXef. (vol. ii. p. 77 MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 39 baffled and dismayed, to the magician who had sent ,Legions of de^ls, drawn up in ghastly array ؛.him surrounded tlie church t.owards which St. Maui, was moving, and obstructed, with menacing gestures, the progress of tlie saint 5 but a few words of exorcism scattered them in a moment through the ail.. A ponderous stone was long shown, in the church of St. Sabina at Rome, which the devil, in a moment of despairing passion, had flung at St. Dominick, vainly hoping to crush a head that was slieltered by tlie guardian angel. Tlie Gospel of St. John suspended around tlie neck, a rosary, a I.elic of Christ or of a saint, any one of tlie thousand talismans tliat were distributed among the faithful, sufficed to baffle the utmost efforts of diabolical malice. The consequence oftliis teaching was a condition of thought, which is so fai. removed from that which exists in the present day, that it is only by a strong exertion of the imagi. nation that we can conceive it. What may be called the intellectual .basis of witchcraft, existed to the fullest extent. All those conceptions of diabolical presence : all. that predisposition towards the miraculous, wliich acted so fearfully upon the imaginations but ؛of the fifteentli and sixteentli centuries, existed the implicit faitli, tbe boundless and triumphant ere- dulity with which tlie virtue of ecclesiastical rites was accepted, rendered them comparatively innocuous. If men had been a little less superstitious, the effects of tlieir superstition would have been much more terrible. It was firmly believed tliat any one

.See this story very amus. (Treves, 1591), pp. 465-467 ا ingly told, on tlie authority St. Gregory Nazianzen men- .St ؛on xviii.) tha؛at؛ ice^horns, in Binsfeldius t.ions (0 ؟ of De Confessionibus Maleficorum Cyprian had been a magician. RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

who deviated from the strict line of orthodoxy must bui ؛ soon succumb beneath the power of Satan as there was no spirit of rebellion or of doubt, this persuasion did not produce any extraordina^ terrorism. Amid all this strange teaching, there ran, however, one vein of a darker character. The more terrible phenomena ot'natijre were entirely unmoved by exorcisms and sprinklings, and they were invariably attributed to supernatural interposition. In every nation it has been believed, at an early period, that pestilences, famines, comets, rainbows, eclipses, and ,١vere effected ,other rare and startling phenomena not by the ordinary sequence of natural laws, but by the direct interveiition of spirits. In this manner, the predisposition towards tlie mil.aculous, which is the characteristic of all semi-civilised nations, has been perpetuated, and the clergy have also frequently identified these plienomena with acts of rebellion against themselves. The old Catliolic priests were consummate masters of these arts, and every rare natural event was, in the middle ages, an occasion for the most intense terrorism. Thus, in the eight'h century, a fearful famine afflicted France, and was generally represented as a consequence of the repug. nance which the French people manifested t'O the p a r e n t of tithes.! In the ninth centuiy a total eclipse oftlie sun struck terror through Europe, and is said to have been one of the causes of tlie death of a Frencli king.2 In the tenth century a similar phe- uomenon put to fliglit an entire army.3 More than

( Garinet, p. 38. notC) where an immense amount Ibid. p. 12. of evidence on tlie subject is ﺀ .buckle’s Hist. vol. i. p. 345, given ئ MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. cnce, tlie apparition of a comet filled Europe, with an and, whenever a noted ؟almost maddening terror pei١son was struck down by sudden illness, the death was attributed to sorcery. The natural result, I think, of sucli modes of thought would be, that tlie notion of sorcery should be very common, but that the feai. of It should not pass into an absolute mania. Credulity was habitual and univei’sal, but l.eligious terrorism was fitful and transient. We neeCl not, therefore, be surprised that sorcery, though very familiar to the minds of men, did not, at tlie period I am referring to, occupy that prominent position which it afterwards assumed. The idea of a formal compact with tlie devil liad not yet been formed j but nrost of the crimes of witchcraft were recognised, anathematised, and punished. Tlius, towards the end of tlie sixth centuiy, a son of ErOdCgonde died after a short, illness j and numbers of women were put to the most prolonged and excruciating torments, and at la.st burnt or broken on tlie wheel, foi. liaving caused, by incantations, the death of the prince.. In Germany, the C odex de MatJiematicis et M aleficiis 2 long continued in force, as did the old Salic law on tbe same subject in France. Charlemagne enacted new and very stringent laws, condemning sorcerers to death, and great numbers seem to have perished in liis reign.3 Hail and thunder storms were almost universally attributed to their devices, thougli one great ecclesiastic of the

Garinet, pp. 14, 15. geometrise disci atque exerceri ا 2 This was the title of the publice interest. Ars autem Roman code I have reviewed, mathematica damnahilis est. et Mathematicus was the name interdicta omnino.' gften to astrologers: as a law i Garinet, p. 39. of Diocletian put it, ‘ artem 42 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. ninth century—Agobard, Archbishop of Lyons-had the rare merit of opposing the populai. belief.. there existed, too, all through the middle ages, and even as late as the seventeenth century, the sect of the Cabalists, who were especially persecuted as magicians. It is not easy to obtain any very clear notion of their mystic doctrines, which long exercised an extraordinary fascination ovei. many minds, and whicl'i captivated the powerful and daring intellects of Cai.dan, Agrippa, and* Paracelsus. They seem to liave comprised many traditions that had been long current among tlie Jews, mixed with much of the old Platonic doctrine of demons, and with a large measure of pure naturalism. With a degree of credulity, which, in OUI. age, would be deemed barely compatible with sanity, but which was then perfectly natural, was combined some singularly bold ٠as\١ scepticism; and, probably, a greater amount veiled undei. tlie tbrm of allegories than was actually avowed. The Cabalists believed in the existence of representatives of spirits of nature, embodiments 01١ the four elements, sylplis, salamanders, gnomes, and ondines, beings of far more than human excellence, but mortal, and not untinctured by liuman frailty. To rise to intercourse with these elemental spirits ot' natui.e was tlie highest aim of tlie philosopher, lde who would do so, must sever himself from tlie common course of life. He must purify his soul by fasting and celibacy, by patient and unwearied study, by deep communion with nature and with nature’s laws. He must leai.11, above all, to look do١vn with ؛ contempt upon the angry quarrels ol. opposing ci.eeds to see in each l.eligion an aspect of a continuous law. .Garinet, p. 45. He also saved the lives of some Cabalists ا MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 43 a new phase and manifestation of the action of the spirits of nature upon mankind. It is not difficult to detect the conception whicli underlies tliis teaching. As, however, no religious doctrine can resist the conditions of the age, these simple notions were soon encrusted and defaced by so many of those grotesque and material details, which invariably l.esulted from medieval habits of thought, that it is only by a careful examination that their outlines can be traced. It was believed that it was possible for philosophers to obtain tliese spirits ١vas the in literal marriage j and that such a union most passionate desire of the spirit-world. It was not only highly gratifying for both parties in this world, but greatly improved their prospects for the next. The sylph, thougli she lived for many centuries, was mortal, and had in herself no hope of a frture life, but her human husband imparted to her his own immortality, unless he was one of the reprobate, in which case he was saved from the pangs of hell by participating in the mortality of his bride.. This general conception was elaborated in ^ eat detail, and was applied t.0 the history of the Fall,' and to the mytliology of paganism, on both of which subjects the orihodox tenets were indignantly spurned. Scarcely any one seems to have doubted the reality of these spirits, or that they were accustomed to reveal themselves to mankind; and the coruscations of tlie Aurora are said to have been attributed to the flashings of their wings.! The only question was, concerning tlieir nature. According to

Garinet, p. 35. This, how- believe the Aurora to he formed ا ever, is doubtful. Herder men- by spirits dancing and playing tions that the Greenlanders bail. 44 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. the Cabalists, they were pure aud virtuous. Accord, ing to the orthodox, they were the iucuhi who were spoken of by St. Augustine 5 and ail who had commerce with them wei.e deservedly burnt.! The history of the Cabalists furnishes, I think, a striking instance of the aberrations of a spirit of free-thinlring in an age which wa.s not yet ripe for its reception. When the very opponents of the Cliurch were so completely carried away by tlie tide, and were engrossed witli a mytliological system as it is أ absurd as the E ldest legends of the hagiology not at all surprising tliat the philosophers who arose in the ranks of orthodoxy should have been extremely credulous, and that their conceptions should liave been characterised by the coarsest materialism. Among the very few men who, in some slight degi.ee, cultivated profane literatui.e during tlie pei.iod I am referring to, a prominent place must be assigned to Michael Psellus. Tliis voluminous autlior, though lie is now, I imagine, very little read, still retains a certain position in literary history, as almost the only Byzantine writer of reputation who appeared for some centuries. Towards the close of the The ٠ eleventh centui.y he wrote his dialogue on

On the Hebrew Cabala, the sylph for his wife, and the ا see the learned work of M. stoiy of tlie apple was allegori- Franck, and on the notions in cal, k . This last notion ap- the middle ages, and in the pears to have heen a relic of sixteenth and seventeenth cen- Manichadsm, and was very Lc Comte de Grdbatis. common among the heretics of ,؛؛.twcie -Diet, infernal, art. the tenth and eleventh cen , ال ﺛ ﺪ ا آل Cahale. All tlie lieatlien gods turies (Matter, Hint, du Gnos- were supposed to be sylphs or ticisme, tom. iii. pp. 259, 260). otlicr aerial spirits. Vesta was Paracelsus was one of the prin- the wife of Noah-Zoroaster, cipal asserters of the existence her son, otherwise called Japhet.. oftlic sylphs, &c. Tlie sin of Adam was deserting MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 45

Operation of Demons; ’ which is, in a great measure, an exposition of the old Neo-Platonic doctrine of the hierarchy of spirits, but which also throws considerable light on the modes of thought prevailing in ١vorld was full 01 his', time. He assures US that the demons, who were very frequently appearing among his countrymen, and who manifested their presence ١vays. He had liimself never seen in many different one, but he was well acquainted with persons who had actual intercourse with them. His principa.l authority was a Grecian, named Marcus, who had at one time disbelieved in apparitions; but who, liaving adopted a perfectly solitary life, had been surrounded by spirits whose habit-s and appearance he most minutely described. Haring thus amassed considerable information on the subject, Psellus proceeded to digest it into a philosopliical system, connecting it rith the teachings of the past, and unfolding tlic laws and operations of the spirit world. He lays it down as a fundamental position that all demons have bodies. This, he says, is the necessary inference from tlie orthodox doctrine tliat they endure tlie ,Their bodies, however, are not ؛.toment of fire. like those of men and animals, cast int'0 an un- changeable mould. They are rather like tlie clouds, refined and subtle matter, capable of assuming any form, and penetrating into any orifice. The horcible toriures they endure in their place of punishment have rendered tliem extremely sensitive to suffering; and they continually seek a temperate and somewhat moist warmtli in order to allay their pangs, ft is

.This was a very old notion, worth's Inti System,) vol. ii ا St. Basil seems to have main- p. 648. taind it very strongly. Cud- RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.46 for this reason that they so frequently enter into men and animals. Possession appears to have been quite frequent, and madness was generally regarded as one of its results. Psellus, however, mentions that some physicians formed an exception to the prevailing opinions, attributi.ng to physical what was genera.lly attributed to spiritual causes, an aberration which he could only account for by the materialism wliich was so general in their profession. He mentions incidentally tlie exploits of incubi as not un- Jmown, and enters into a loug disquisition about a devil who was said t-0 be acquainted with Armenian. We find then, that, all through the middle ages, most of the crimes that were afterwards collected by the inquisitors in the treatises on witchcraft were known j and that many of them were not unfrequently punished. At the same time t.iie executions, during six centuries, were probably not as numerous as those which often took place during a single de- cade of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In the twelfth century, however, the subject passed info an entirely new phase. Tlie conception of a witch, as we now conceive it-th a t is to say, of a woman who had entered info a deliberate compact with Satan, who was endowed with the power of working miracles whenever she pleased, and wlio was continually transported through the air to the Sabbath, where she paid her homage to the Evil O ne-first ap- pearedJ The panic created by the belief advanced at first slowly, but after a time with a fearfolly accelerated rapidity. Thousands of victims were sometimes burnt alive in a few years. Every country in Europe was stricken witli the wildest panic. .Maury, p. 18٥ ا MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 47

١vere selected for the Hundreds of the ablest judges extirpation of the crime. A vast literature was created on the subject, and it was not until a considerable portion of the eigliteenth century had ؛.passed away, that the executions finally ceased I sliall now endeavour to trace the general causes wliicli produced this outburst of superstition. We shall find, I think, that in this, as in its earliei. phases, sorcery was closely connected with the pre. vailing modes of thought on religious subjects j and tliat its history is one of the most faithful indications of the laws of reli^ous belief in their relation to the progress of ci^lisation. The more carefully the history of the centuries prior to the Reformation is studied, the more evident it becomes that tlie twelfth century forms the great turning point of the European intellect. Owing to many complicated causes, which it would betedious and difficult to trace, a general revival of Latin literature had then taken place, which profou-ndly modified the intellectual condition of Europe, and which, therefore, implied and necessitated a modification of the popular belief. For the first time for many centuries, we find a feeble spirit of doubt a curiosity for إ combating the spirit of credulity purely secular knowledge replacing, in some small degree, the passion for theology; and, as a consequence of these things, a diminution of the contemptuous hatred with which all wlio were external to Chris, tianity had been l.egarded. In every department of thought and of knowledge, there was manifested a The last judicial execution Sorciere, p. 415), the last law on ا in Europe was. I believe, in the subject, the Irish Statute. Switzerland, in 1782 (Micheiet.s which was notrepealed till 1821. 48 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. vague disquietude, a spirit of restless aud feverish anxiety, that contrasted strangely with tlie preceding torpor. The long slumber of untroubled orthodoxy was broken by many heresies, which, though often repi.essed, seemed in each succeeding century to acquire new force and consistency. Manichmism, ivliich had for some time been smouldering in the church, ،burst into a fierce flame among tlie Albigenses, and was only quenched by tliat fearful massacre in which tens of thousands were murdered at the instigation of the priests. Then it was that the standard of an impartial philosophy was first planted by Abelard in Europe, and the minds of the learned were distracted by subtle and perplexing doubts concei.ning the leading doctrines of the faith. Then, too, tlie teacliings of a stern and uncompromising infidelity flashed forth from Seville and from Cordova 5 and the form of Averroes began to assume those gigantic proportions, which, at a later period, overshadowed tlie whole intellect of Europe, and almost persuaded some of tlie ablest men tliat the reign of Anticlirist had At tlie same time, tlie passion for astrology ١.l.iegun ١vith the and for tlie fidalism it implied revived revival of pagan learning, and penetrated into the ,For the history of this very and, for two or throe centuries ا remarkable movement, see tlie juost of the great works in able essay of Renan on Averroes. Christendom hore some marks Among the Mahomedans, tlie of Averroes. M. Renan has panic was so great, that tlie collected some curious evidence theologians pronounced logic from tile Italian painters of the -and philosophy to be the t١vo fourteenth century, of tlie pro great enemies of tlieir profes- minence A١٠ei'i٠oes liad assumed sion, and ordered all books on in the popular mind. Tlie three those dangerous subjects to be principal figures in Orgagna's burnt. Among the Christians. pict.ure of Hell, in the Campo St. Thomas Aquinas devoted Santo, at Fisa, are Alahomet. .Antichrist, and Averroes ل his genius to the controversy 49 . ؟MAGIC AND WITCHCttAl

halls of nobles and tlie palaces of kings. Every donbt, eveiy impulse of rebellion against ecclesiastical authority, above all, every heretical opinion, was regarded as tlie direct instigation of Satan, and tlieir increase as the measure of his triumpli. Yet tliese things were now gathering darkly all around. Europe was beginning to enter into that inexpressibly painful period in which men have learned to doubt, but have not yet learned to regard doubt as innocent; in wliich the new mental activity produces a variety of opinions, while the old credulity persuades them that all but one class of opinions are the suggestions of the devil. The spirit of rationalism was yet unborn j or if some faint traces of it may be discovered in the teachings of Abelard, it was at least far too weak to allay the panic. There was no independent enquiry j no confidence in an honest research j no disposition to rise above dogmatic systems 01. tra^ no capacity for enduring the ؛ ditional teaching sufferings of a suspended judgment. The Church had cursed the human intellect bycui.singthe doubts that are the necessai.y consequence of its exercise. She had cursed even tlie moral faculty by asserting the guilt of lionest error. It is easy to perceive that, in such a state of thought, tlie conception of Satanic presence must have assumed a peculiar prominence, and have created a peculiar terroi.. Multitudes were distracted by doubts, which they sought in vain to repress, and which they firaily believed to be tlie suggestions ot' tlie deviJ. Their horror of pagans and Mahomedans diminished more and more as tliey acquired a reljsh for the philosopliy of whicli tlie first, 01. the physical sciences of wliich tlie second, were the repositories. Eveiy VOL f. 50 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

knowledge increased their repugnance to the ا ال step coarse materialism which was prevalent, and every generation rendered the genei.al intellectual tendencies more manifestly hostile to the Chnrch. On the other hand, that Church presented an aspect of the sternest ,١vere, in her eyes inflexibility. Rebellion and doubt the greatest of all crimes: and her docti.ine of evil spirit'S and of the future world supplied hei. with -١vas prepared to ern engines of terrorism which she ١ve find tliat ploy to the uttermost. Accordingly about the twelfth century t'he populai. teaching began and the و to assume a sterner and more solemn cast devotions of the people to be more deeply tinctured by fanaticism. Tlie old confidence which had almost toyed with Sata.n, and in the very exuberance of an unfaltering faitli liad mocked at liis devices, was exchanged foi. a harsh and gloomy asceticism. The aspect of Satan became more formidable, and the aspect of Christ became less enga.ging. Till the close of tlie tenth century, tlie central figui.e of Christian art had been usually represented as a very young ١rith an expression of untroubled gentleness and ,man calm resting on his countenance, and engaged in miracles ofmei’cy. Tlie parable of t-lie Good Shepherd, which adorns almost, every chapel in the Catacombs, was still the favourite subject of the painter; and the sterner representations of Christianity were comparatively rare. In tlie eleventh century all t.liis began te change. Tlie Good Shepherd entirely disappeared, the miracles of mercy liecame less frequent, and were replaced' by the details of the Passion and the terrors of the Last Judgment. The countenance of Christ became sterner, older, and moi.e mournfill. About the twelfth century, tliis change liecame almost uni. MAGIC A N . WITCHCRAFT. 51.

versal. From this period, writes one of the most Christ appears more ٤ ,learned of modem archeologists and more melancholy, and often truly terrible. It is, indeed, the rex tremende majestatis of onr Dies ire. It is almost the Cod of the Jews making feai. the beginning of ^ sd .m .’i In the same age we find the minntio monachi ’- t h e pi.actice ٤ scourgings and the of constant bleedings-rising into general nse hi the ,and, soon after, the Flagellants arose ؛ monasteries 2 whose stei.11 discipline and passionate laments over prevailing iniquity directed the thoughts of multitudes to subjects that were well calculated to inflame tlieii. imaginations. Almost at the same time, religious persecution, which had been foi. many centuries nearly unknown, amid the calm of orthodoxy, was revived and stimulated. In the beginning of the thirteentli century, Innocent III. instituted the Inquisition, and issued tlie first appeal to princes to employ tlieir powei. for the suppi.ession of heresy; and, in the course oftlie following century, the new ti.ibunal was inti٠0- ducedj or, at least, executions for heresy had taken place in several great countries in Europe. The terrorism whicli was tlius create.d by the con-

"Didron, IconograpJlie chre- it becomes that} before the ill ا t l e n , Histoire de Bleu vention of printing, painting, 1843), p. 202. See, however, was the most faithful mirror of and that ذ for the whole history of this the popular .mind very remarkable transition, pp. there was scarcely an intel- 255-273. To this I may add, lectual movement that it did tliat about, the thirteenth cen- not reflect. Gn the general tury, the representations of terrorism of this period, see ,Hisloire de France ه\؛؟ه١ل١ Satan underwent a correspond- 1 ing change, and became both tom. vii. pp. 140, 141. more terrible and more gro- 2 Madden, vol. i. pp. 359- -Rapports pliyو ,Cabanis ل Usqus^hw^Legilesmeitses, 395 p. 136): The more the subject siques et m rau x, tom. ii. pp. ٠أل ٦٦-٦ ifi examined, tlie more evident

e 2 .RATIONALISM IN EUROPE ٥2 flict between an immutable Church and an age in which there was some slight progress, and a real, though faint spirit of rebellion, gradually filtered dowm to those who were far too ignorant to become lieretics. the ؛ th e priest in the pulpit or in the confessional monk in his intei.course with tlie peasant 5 tlie Flagel. lant, by his mournful hymns, and by the spectacle of bis macei.ations j above all, the inquisitor, by his Judgments, communicated to the lower classes a sense hich they naturally’١١ ,of Satanic presence and ti.iumph ١vitli which they were applied to the order of ideas most conversant. In an age which was still grossly ignorant and credulous, tlie popular faith was necessarily full ofgi’otesque superstitions, which faithfully reflected the general tone and colouring of religious teaching, though they often went far beyond its limits. These superstitions liad once consisted, for the most part, in wild legends offaii.ies, mermaids, giants, and dragons : of miracles of sa.ints, conflicts in whicli the devil took a pi’ominent part, but was invariably de- feated, or illustrations of the boundless efficacy of some cliarm or relic. About the twelfth century they began to assume a darker hue, and theima^na^ t'ions of the people revelled in the details of the witclies’ Sabbath, and in the awful power of the ministers of Satan. The inquisitors traversed Eui.ope, proclaiming that the devil was operating actively on all, sides j and among theii. very first victims, were pei'sons who were accused of sorcery, and who were Sucli condemnations could ؛.of course condemned not make the belief in tlie reality of the crime more unhesitating than it had been, but they liad a direct tendency to multiply the accusations. The imagine

.Gariih't, p. 75 ا وه .MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT tions of the people were riveted upon the subject. ١vas engendered. Some, whose A contagious terror minds were thoroughly diseased, persuaded themselves that they were in communion with Satan ; all had an increasing predisposition to see Satanic agency around them. To these things should be added a long series of social and political events, into which it is needless ith'١١ to enter, for they have very lately been painted matchless vi^dness by an illustrious living writer. 1 A sense of insecurity and wretchedness, often rising to absolute despair, liad been diffused among the people, and had engendered the dark imaginations, and tlie wild and rebellious passions, which, in a superstitious age, are their necessary concomitants. It has always been observed by the inquisitors that a large proportion of those who were condemned to the flames were women, whose lives had been clouded by some great sorrow j and that music, which soothes the passions, and allays the bitterness of regret, had an extraordinary power over the possessed.2 Under the influences which I have attempted to trace, the notion of witchcraft was reduced to a more definite form, and acquired an increasing prominence in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Most of the causes that produced it, advanced by their very nature with an accelerating force, and the popular imagination became more and more fascinated by the subject. In the fourteenth century, an event occurred which was well calculated to give a fearful and which may, indeed, be ؛ impulse to the terrorism jnstly regarded as one of the most appalling in the history of humanity. I allude, of course, to the .Michelet, La SorcUre. 2 Binsfeldius, p. 1٥٥ ا 54 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

black death. A great German physician has lately investigated, with mucli skill and learning, the his- and he lias recorded liis opinion ؛ tory of tliat time that, putting aside all exaggerated accounts, tile numfor of those who died of tlie pestilence during the six years of its continuance may he estimated, by a very moderate computation, at twenty-five millions, or a fourtli part of the inliabitants of Europe.* ivlany great tewns lost far more than lialf their population; many country districts were almost de- populated. It would be scarcely possi'ble to conceive an event fitted to act with a more terrific force upon tlie ima^ ginations of men. Even in our own day, we know how great a degree of religious terror is inspired by a pestilence; but, in an age when the supernatural character of disease was universally lielieved, an affliction of such unexampled magnitude produced a consternation, wliicli almost amounted to madness. One of its first effects was an enormous increase of the wealth of the cler^ b y the legacies of the terror- stricken ^ctims. The sect of tlie Flagellants, whicli had lieen for a centu^ unknown, reappeared in tenfold numbers, and almost every part of Europe resounded witli their hymns. Tlien, too, arose the dancing mania of Flanders and Germany, when thousands assemliled with strange cries and gestures, overawing by tlieir multitudes all authority, and proclaiming, amid their wild dances and with shrieks of terror, tlie power and the triumph of Satan.2 It Hecker’s Epidemics of the often imagined themselves to ا Middle Ages, p. 29. Bocaccio be immersed in a stream of witnessed and described this blood. They were habitually pestilence. exorcised. Hecker,P.82. The dancers ؟ MAGIC AND WITCIICKAFT. 55 has been observed that this form of madness raged with -an especial violence in the dioceses of Cologne ١١٠as afterwards most and TrCves, in whicb witchcraft prevalent.* In Switzerland and in some parts of Germany the plagne was ascribed to tbe poison of the Jews j and though tlie Pope made a noble effoi.t to dispel the illusion, immense numbers of that unhappy race were put to death. Some thousands are said to have perislied in Mayence alone, ^tore gene- ١vas regarde(:! as a divine chastisement, or as rally, it -an-evidence of Satanic po١ver; and the most gro tes٩ue explanations were hazarded. Poots with pointed toes had been lately introduced, and were supposed by many to have been peculiai'ly offensive to the Almighty.2 What, howevei., we liave especially to observe is, that the trials for witchcraft multiplied ,with a, fearfol rapidity.5 In the fifteenth and sixteentli centuries they may be said to have reached their climax. The aspect which Europe then presented was that of universal anarchy and universal terrorism. Tlie intellectual influences which had been long corroding the pillars of the Church had done their work, and a fearfol moral retrogression, aggravated by the newly-ac-

-There is still an annual which represented an imagJna ا ٠f snch a wild and festival near Treves in com- tive bias memoration of the epidemic. morbid power, began in the Madden, vol. i. p. 420. fourteenth century (Peignot,$w۶٠ - ٠ةأل .آلآل ,Pecker, p. 82. les Dauses des Morts 2 3 Ennemoser, Hist. ofMagic, 31). The second is, t.hat in vol. ii. p. 150. this same century the bas- I may here notice, by way of reliefs on cathedrals frequently illustration, two facts" in the represent men kneeling- down history of art. The first is, before the devil, and devoting that those ghastly pictures of themselves to him as his Martonne, Piets du)the dance of death, which were ser٣ants٨ afterwards so popular, and Moyen Age, p . 137). 56 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

-١vealth, accompanied tie intellec quired ecclesiastical tual advance. Yet, over all tliis chaos, tlere was one great conception dominating unchanged. It was the sense of sin and Satan j of tlie absolute necessity of a correct dogmatic system to save men from the agonies of hell. Tlie Church, which had long been all in all to Christendom, was heaving in what seemed the last throes of dissolution. The boundaries of religious thought were all obscured. Conflicting tendencies and passions were ragingwith a tempestuous violence, among men who were absolutely incapable of enduring an intellectiial suspense, and each of the opposing sects proclaimed its distinctive doctrines essential to salvation. Doubt was almost universally regarded as Cl'iminal and error as damnable ; yet the first was the necessa^ condition, and the second the probable consequence, of enquiry. Totally unaccus- tomed to independent reasoning, bewildered by the vast and undefined fields of thought, from which tlie opposing arguments were drawn j with a profound sense of tlie absolute necessity of a correct creed, and of tlie constant action of Satan upon the fluctuations of the will and of tlie .judgment 5 distractefl and convulsed by opposing sentiments, which an unenlightened psychology attributed to spil’itual inspiration, and, above all, pai’ched with a burning longing for certainty j the minds of men drifted to and fro under the influence of the wildest terror. None could escape the movement. It filled all Europe with alarm, permeated witli its influence all forms of thouglit and action, absorbed every element .٦videning vortex-of national life into its ever There Certainly never has been a movement which, in its ultimate results, lias contributed so largely to MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 57

the emancipation of the human mind from all superstitious terrors as the Reformation. It formed a multitude of churches, in which the spirit of qualified and partial scepticism that had long been a source of anarchy, might• expatiate with freedom, and be allied with the spirit of order. It rejected an immense proportion of the dogmatic and ritualistic conceptions that had almost covered the whole field of religion, and rendered possible that steady movement by which theology lias since tlien been gravitating towards the moral faculty. It, above ali, diminished the prominence of clergy j and' thus prepared the way for that general secularisation of tlie European intellect, which is sucli a marked characteristic of modern cirilisation. Yet, inappreciably great as are these blessings, it would be idle to deny that, for a time, the Reformation aggravated the v e^ evils it was intended to correct. It was, for a time, merely an excliange of masters. The Protestant asserted the necessity and the certainty ofhis distinctive doctrines, as dogmatically and authoritatively as the Catliolic. He lielieved in liis own infallibility quite as firmly as his opponent lielieved in t-lie infalliliility of the Pope. It is only by a very slow process that the liuman mind can emerge from a system of error j and the virtue of dogmas had been so ingrained in all religious thought, by the teaching of more than twelve 'cent.nries, that it required a long and painful discipline to weaken what is not yet destroyed. The nature of troth, the limits of human faculties, the laws of probabilities, and the condit'ions that are essential for an impartial research, were subjects with which even tlie most advanced minds were then entirely unfamiliar. There was, indeed, mucli culti- 58 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

؛ vation of logic, considered in i٤s most narrow sense but there was no such thing’ as a comprehensive view of the whole field of menta.l science, of tlie laws and limits of the reason. There was also no conviction that the reason shonld be applied to every department of theology, with the same ’unflinching severity as to any other form of speculation. Faith at ways presented to the mind the idea of an abnormal intel. lectnal condition, of the subversion or suspension of the critical faculties. It sometimes comprised more ١١as the than this, but it always included this. It opposite of doubt aud of the spirit of doubt. What irreverent men called credulity, revei’ent men called faith; and althougli one word was more respectfol than the other, yet the two words were with most men strictly synonymous. Some of the Protestants ١vord, but they added other and moral ideas to the fil.mly retained the intellectual idea,. As long as such a conception existed, a period of religious convulsion was necessarily a period of extreme suffering and tercor ; and there can be little doubt that the Reformation was, in consequence, the most painfol of all the transitions through which the human intellect has passed. If the reader has seized the spirit of the foregoing remarks, he will already have perceived theii’ appli. cation to the history of witchcraft. In order that men should believe in witches, their intellects must have been familiarised with the conceptions of Satanic power and Satanic presence, and they must regard t'hese things with an unfaltering belief. In order that witchcraft should be prominent, the imaginations of men must have been so forcibly directed to these articles of belief, as to tinge and govern the MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 59 habitual curlent of their thoughts, and to produce a strong disposition to see Satanic agency around them. A long train of circumstances, which culminated in tlie Reformation, liad diffused through Cliristendom a religious terror which gradually overcast the horizon of thought, creating a general uneasiness as to the future of the Church, and an intense and vivid sense of Satanic presence. These influences were, it is true, primarily connected with abstruse points of speculative belief, but they acted in a t'Wofold manner upon tlie grosser superstitions of the people. Al- though the illiterate cannot follow the more intricate speculations of their teachers, they can, as I have said, catch the general tone and character of thought which these speculations produce, and they readily apply them to tlieir own sphere of thought. Besides tliis, the upper classes, being filled with a sense of Satanic presence, ^ 1 1 be disposed to believe in the reality of any history of witchcraft. They will, therefore, prosecute the witches, and, as a necessary con. sequence, stimulate the delusion. When the belief is confined to tlie lower class, its existence will be languishing and unprogressive. But when legislators denounce it in their laws, and popes in their bulls j when priests inveigh against it in their pulpits, and inquisitors burn thousands at the stake, the im agh^ tions of men will be inflamed, the terror wili prove contagious, and the consequent delusions be multiplied. Now, popes and legislators, priests and inqitisitors, will do these things just in proportion to the firmness of t'heir belief in the conceptions I have noticed, and to the intensity with which their imaginations have been directed to those conceptions by religious terrorism. We have,a striking illustration of the influence RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.60 upon witchcraft, of the modes of thought which the Reformation for a time sustained in the life of Luther. No single feature was more clearly marked in his character than an intense and passionate sense of sin. He himself often described, in the most graphic language, how, in the sec.lusion of his monastery at Wittenberg, he liad passed under the very shadow of death, how the gates of hell seemed te open beneath his feet-, and the sense of hopeless ^etchedness, to make life itself a burden. While oppressed by the -١vas dis keenest sense of moral un١vorthiness, he tracted by intellectual doubt. He only arrived at the ,doctrines of Protestantism after a long and difficult enquiry, struggling slowly through successive phases of belief, uncheered for ma.ny years by one word of sympathy, and oscillating painfully between opposing conclusions. Like all men of vivid imagination wlio are so circumstanced, a theological atmosphere was formed about his mind, and became the medium through which every event was contemplated. He was subject to numerous strange hal- ١dbrations of judgment, which he lucinations and invariably attributed to the direct action of Satan. Satan became, in consequence, the dominating conception of his life. In every crit-ical event, in every mental perturbation, he recognised Satenic powei*. In tlie monastery of Wittenberg, he constantly heard -and be ؛the De^l malring a noise in the cloisters came a.t last so accustomed to the fact, that he related that, on one occasion, having been awakened by the sound, he perceived that it was o n ly the Devil, and accordingly went to sleep again. The black stain in the castle of Wartburg still marks the place wliere he flung an ink-bottle at the He^l. In the midst, of MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 61 his long and painful hesitation on the subject of transubstantiation, tlie Devil appeared to him, and suggested a new argument. In such a state of mind he naturally accepted, with implicit faith, eve^ anecdote of Satanic miracles. He told how an aged minister liad been interrupted, in the midst of his devotions, by a devil who was gmnting behind Ilim like a pig. At Torgau, the Devil broke pots and basins, and flung them at the minister’s head, and at last drove tlie minister’s wife and servants lialf crazy out of the house. Dn another occasion, the Devil appeared in the law courts, in the charactei’ of a leading barrister, whose place he is said to have filled with the utmost propriety. Pools, deformed persons, the blind and the dumb, were possessed by devfls. Physicians, indeed, attempted to explain these infirmities by natural causes j but those physicians were ignorant men j they did not know all the power of Satan. Every form of disease miglit ؛be produced by Satan, 01. by liis agents, tlie witches and none of the infirmities to which Luther was liable were natural, but his ear-aclie was peculiarly diabolical. Hail, thunder, and plagues are all the direct consequences of the intervention of spirits. Hany of those persons who were supposed to have committed suicide, had in reality been seized by the D e^l and strangled by hhn, as tlie traveller is strangled by tlie robber. The Devil could transport men at his will through the air. He could beget children, and Luther had himself come in contact with one of them. An intense love of children was oneoftliem ost amiable characteristics of the great but, on this occasion, lie most earnestly ؛ Reformer recommended the l.eputed relatives to throw the child .2 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

into a river, ill order to free tlieir house from the presence of a devil. As a natural consequence of these modes of thought; witchcraft did not present the slightest improbability to his mind. In strict accordance with the spirit of liis age, he continually asserted the existence and the fi.equency of the ci.ime, and emphatically proclaimed the duty of ؛.burning the witches I know, indeed, few stranger, and at the same time more terrible pictures, tlian are furnished by the liistory of witchcraft during* tlie century that preceded and the centui.y that I'ollowed tlie Reforma- t.ion. Wherever the conflict of opinions was raging among tlie educated, witchcraft, like an attendant and إ shadow, pursued its course among* the ignorant 2 Irotestants and Catliolics vied witli each other in the zeal with which they prosecuted it. Never was the powei* of imagination-that strange faculty which casts the shadow of its images over the whole creation, and comliines all tlie phenomena of life accord- .ing to its 0١vn archetypes,—more strikingly evinced Superstitious and terror-stricken, tlie minds of men ١vere hnpelled irresistibly towards the miraculous and tlie Satanic, and they found tliem upon every side. The elements of imposture blended so curiously with the elements of delusion, that it is now impossible t.o separate them. Somet'imes an ambitious woman, braving the dangers of hei. act, boldly claimed supernatural poiver, and the liaughtiest and the most

1 Colloquia Mensalia. Eras- Naude cApologie, pp. 110. I l l ) muswas anequallyfirm believer observes, that nearly all tlie ill witchcraft (Stewart’s ])is- heresies previous t.o the Refor- sertation, p. 57). uiation liad been also acconi- .This co-existence lias been panied by an outburst (if sor ا .ters; and eery؛*١vi noticed by many ٠3 .MAGI. AND WITCHCRAFT courageous coived humbly ill her presence. Some- times a husband attempted, in the witch courts, to cut the tie which his church had pi.onounced indis. soluble ; and numbers of wives have, in consequence, perished at.the stake. Sometimes a dexterous cri- and, directing a إ minal availed himself of tlie panic charge of witchcraft against his accuser, escaped Jiimself with impunity. Sometimes, too, a personal grudge was avenged by tlie accusation, 01. a real crime was attributed to sorcery 5 or a hail-storm, or a strange disease, suggested the presence of a witch. But, foi. the most part, the trials repi.esent pure and unmingled delusions. The defendei.s of the belief we.i.e able to maintain that multitudes liad voluntarily confessed themselves guilty of commerce witli the Evil One, and had persisted in their confessions till death. Madness is always peculiarly frequent during a.nd, in the ا؛ great l.eligious or political revolutions sixteenth century, all its forms were absorbed in the system of witchcraft, and caught the coloui. of tlie ١ve find ,prevailing predisposition.2 Occasionally, too old and half-doting women, at first convinced oftlieir innocence, but soon faltering before tlie majesty of justi'ce,-asking timidly, whetliei. i.t is possible to be in connection with tlie Devil without being conscious of the fact, and at last almost persuading tliemselves that they had done wliat was alleged. Very often, the terror of the trial, the prospect of. the most agonising of deaths, and the friglitful tortures that were applied to tlie wea-k frame of an old and feeble W0man,3 overpowered hei. understanding 5 hei. brain

For a frightful catalogue of ا ,i. p. 424 . ة٠ﺛﻢﺀ ., Buckle's 7.1 ا note. the tortures that were employed 2 Calmeil. in these cases, see Scott’s DU’ 64 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. reeled beneath the accumulated suffering, the cun- sciousness of innocence disappeared, and the wretched victim wont raving to the flames, convinced that she ١vas about to sink for ever into perdition. The zeal ot' the ecclesiastics in stimulating the persecution was unflagging. It was displayed alike in Germany, Irance, Spain, Italy, Flanders, Sweden, Fngland, and Scotland. An old writer who coi’dially approved ot' tbe I.igoui. tells US that, in the province of Como alone, eiglit OI. ten inquisitors were con- and lie adds that, in one yeai., the ؛ stantly employed numbei. of persons they condemned amounted to a and that during several of the succeeding أ thousand years, the victims seldom fell below one hundred.* It was natural that a body of learned men like the inquisitors, whose habits of thought were eminently retrospective, should liave formed some general theories connecting tlie phenomena of sorcery witli past events, and reduchig tliem to a systematic foi.m. We accordingly find that, in tlie course of about three centuries, a vast literature was formed upon the ٦ritchcraft were all subject. The diflbrent forms of carefully ciassified and associated with particular doctrines 5 the whole philosophy of the Satanic was minutely investigated, and the prevailing mode of thought embodied in countless treatises, which were once regarded as masterpieces of orthodox theology. It is very difficult for US in the pi.esent d a y to d o covery of Witchcraft (Loudon, enter quaestionatus * (Pare iii. 1665), pp. 11, 12. All tlie old Qusest. 14, 15). The tortures treatises are lull of tlie subject. were all the more liorrible, Sprenger recommends tlie tor- because it was generally be- tures to lie continued two or lieved tliat the witches had three' days, till tlie prisoner chiirms to deaden their effect. .Spina, cap. xii ا -١١٠as, as he expresses it, ‘de MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. cf.

Justice to these works, or 'to realise the points of view from which they were written. A profound scepticism on all subjects connected with the Devil underlies the opinions of almost every educated man, and renders it difficult even to conceive a condition of thought, in which that spirit was tlie object ot. an intense and realised belief. An anecdote wliich involves the personal intervention of Satan is now re- gardedas quite as intrinsically absurd, and unworthy of serious attention, as an anecdote of a fairy or of a sylph, When, tlierefore, a modern leader turns over the pages of an old treatise on witchcraft, and finds liundreds of such anecdotes related with the gravest assurance, he is often inclined to depreciate very unduly the intellect- of an author who represents a condition of thought so unlike his own. Tlie cold indifference to human sufferil'ig which tliese writers while ؛ display gives an additional bias to liis l.eason their extraordinary pedantry, their execrable Latin, and their gross scientific blunders, furnish ample inaterials for his ridicule. Besides this, Sprenger, who is at once tfie most celebrated, and, perliaps, the most credulous member of his class, unfortunately for his reputation, made some ambitious excursions into another field, and immortalised himself by a series of blunders, which have been the delight of all succeeding scholars.)

F ilin a ,’ he assures US, is quia duo occidit, scilicet corpus ٠ ا derived from Fe aud minus, et animam. Et secundum ety- because women have less faith mologjam, licet Grace, intei.- .Maleficiendo pretetur diaholus clausus er ﺀ)ةthan men (p. 6 is from male de fide sentiendo. gastulo : et hoc sibi convenit have a choice cum non permittitur sibi nocere ©١١٠ For diabolus of most instructive derivations, quantum vellet. Vel diabolus efluxit, id ؛ It comes ‘a dia quod est duo, ،uasi defluens, quia ل0ا et bolus quod est morsellus, Cst corruit, et specialiter et VOL. I. V 66 NATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

But when ail these qualifications have heen made — and, with the exception of the last, they would all apply to a.ny other writings of the same period—it is, I think, impossible to deny that the books in defence of the belief are not only far more numerous tlian the later works against it, but that they also represent far more learning, dialectic skill, and even general ability. For many centuries the ablest men were not merely unwilling to repudiate the superstition j tliey often pressed foi^ard eai'nestly, and with ,tense conviction, to defend it. Indeed ئ the most during the period when witchcraft was most preva. lent, there were few writers of real eminence who did not, on some occasion', take especial pa-ins to throw the weight of tlieir authority into the scale. Thomas Aquinas was probably the ablest writer of the thirteenth century, and he assures US that diseases and tempests are often the direct acts of the Devil 5 tliat the Deril can transport me.n at his pleasure and tliat he can transform them ؛ through the air into auy sliape. Gerson, tlie Chancellor of the Uni- versity of Paris, and, as many think, the author of Tlie Imitation,’ is justly regarded as one of the ٤ and he, too, ^ o te in ؛ master-intellects of his age defence of the belief. Bodin was unquestionably the most original political philosopher who had arisen since Machiavelli, and he devoted all liis learning and acuteness to ci.ushing the l’ising scepticism on the subject of witches. The truth is, that, in those ages, ability was no guarantee against en.or j because the single employment of the reason was to develope and caliter’ (p.41). If the leader instance of verbal criticism, is curious in these matters, he which I do not venture to .ell find another astounding quote, in Bodin, demon, p. 40 ١١ MAGIC AND WITCHCKAFT. 67 expand premises tliat were fiirnished by the Church. There was no sncb thing as an uncompromising and unreserved criticism of the first principles of teach, ingj there was no such thing as a revolt of the reason against conclusions that were strictly drawn from the premises of authority. In our age, and in every other age of half belief, principles are often adopted without being fillly developed. If a conclusion is drawn from them, men enquire, not merely whether the deduction is correct, but also whether its result seems intrinsically probable 5 and if it does not appear so, they will reject the conclusion, without absolutely rejecting the premise. In the ages of ^tchcraft an inexorable logic prevailed. Men were so firmly convinced of the truth of the doctrines tliey were taught, that those doctrines became to them the measure of probability, and no event that seemed to harmonise with them presented the slightest difficulty to the mind. They governed the imagination, while they subdued the reason, and secular considerations never intervened to damp their assurance. The ablest men were not unfrequently the most credulous j because tlieir ability was chiefly employed in discovering analogies between every startling naira, tive and the principles of their faitli, and their success was a measure of their ingenuity. It is these considerations that give the writings of the period I am referring to so great an importance in the history of opinions, and wliich also make it so difficult for us to appreciate their force. I shall e i i . deavour to lay before the reader, in as concise a form as I am able, some of the leading principles tliey embodied 5 whicli, acting, on the imagination, contributed to produce the phenomena of witchcraft 5 and, action

f 2 68 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

0 . the reason, persuaded men that the narratives ot' ؛.etch es were antecedently probable It was universally taught that innumerable evil spirits were ranging over tlie world, seeking the present unhappiness and tlie future ruin of ma.n٠ kindj tliat these spirits were fallen angels, who. had and ؛ retained many, if not all, the augelic capacities that they, at all events, possessed a power and wisdom far transcending the limits of liuman faculties. From these conceptions many important consequences were evolved. If these spirits are for ever hovering ١١as said, it is surely not improbable around U S, it that we should meet some signs of their presence. If they delight in the smallest misfortune tliat can befall mankind, and possess fai. more than human capacities foi. iuflicting suffering, it is not surprising that they sliould direct against men the ener. gies of superhuman malice. If their hig’liest object is to secure the ultimate ruin of man, we need not wondei' that they should offei. their services to tliose who would bribe them by the surrender of their hopes. That such a compact can be made—that it is possible for men to direct the energies of evil spirits—was establislied by the clearest authority. .Thou shalt not suffer a ^ tc h to live,’ was the so ٤ lemn injunction whicli had been more than once repeated in tlie Levitical code ; and the histoi^ of

.The principal authority on Sprenger, Nider, Basin, Mo ا these matters is a la.rge collec- litor, Gerson, Murner, Spina, tion of Latin works (in great Laurentius, Bernanlns, Vigni- part written by inquisitors), tus, Grillandus, &c. I have extending over about two cen- noticed a great many other turies, and published under the works in their places, and the oi Malleus Malejicarum reader may find reviews of ،؟U\X (the title of Sprenger’s book). many others in Madden and It comprises the works of Plancey. MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 69 the witch of Endor furnishes a detailed description of the circumstances of the crime. The Fathers had denounced magic with a unanimous and unvarying ؛voice, and the writings of every nation hear traces 0 the universality of the belief. In an age which was essentially retrospective, it was impossible to name a tenet which could seem more probable, for there was none which was more closely connected with antiquity, both ecclesiastical and profane. The popular belief, however, not only asserted the possibility and continued existence of witchcraft, it also entered into many of what we should now deem the most extravagant and grotesque details. In the first place, one of the most ordinary operations of the or of the Devil acting at her comm'and, was to ,. ؛witc cause tem۴ sts, which it was said frequently desolated the fields of a single person, leaving the rest of the country entirely untouched. If any one ventured to deny that Satan possessed, or was likely to exercise this power, he was speedily silenced by a scriptural precedent. We read in the Old Testament that tlie Devil, by the Dirine permission, afflicted Job; and that among the means which he employed was a tempest whicli destroyed the house in which the sons of the patriarch were eating. Tlie description, in the book of Revelation, of the four angels wlio held the four winds, and to whom it was given to afflict the earth, was also generally associated with this for, as St. Augustine tells U S, the word angel ؛ oelief' is equally applicable to good or bad spirits. Besides tliis, the Devil was always spoken of as the prince of the air. His immense knowledge and his immense power would place the immediate causes of atino- and the sudden و spheric disturbances at his disposal 70 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. tempest would, therefore, he no violation of natural laws, but simply an instance of tlieir application by superhuman power. Tliese considerations were, it was thought, sufficient to remove all sense of tlie antecedent improbability of the facts whicli were but every uncertainty was dispelled by tlie ؛ alleged uniform teaching of tlie Church. At all times, the leathers and tlie medieval saints liad taught, like the teacliers of every other religion in tlie same early stage of civilisation, that all the more remarkable atmosplieric changes resulted from the direct inter- -Rain seems to have been com ؛.vention of spirits monly associated, as it still is in tlie Cliurch of England, W'ith tlie intervention of the Deity 5 but wind and liail wei.e peculiarly identified with the Devil. If tlie De٦dl could originate a t.empest, it followed, as a necessary consequence, tliat witclies who had entered into compact with him had the same power. Tlie same pi'inciples of argument applied to disease. The Devil had afflicted Job with liorrible diseases, and miglit therefore afflict otliers. Great pestilences were constantly described in tlie Old Testament as tlie acts of the angels; and the Devil, by the permission of the Deity ai'id liy virtue of liis angelic capacities, might therefore easily produce them. Tlie bistory of the demoniacs proves that devils could master and derange tlie liodily frnctions 5 and, therefore, to deny tliat tlicy could produce disease, would be to impug.11 tlie veracity of tliese narratives 5 and the later ecclesiastical testimony on tlie subject, if not unanimous, was, at least', extremely sti'ong. As,

-On tlie universality of tliis civilisation, see buckle's Bis ٠' .3 46 .٤١ belief, iu an early stage of tori/, vol. i MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 71 therefore, the more striking atmospheric disturbances were ascribed generally to the Devil 5 and, when the injury was spread over a smali area, to witches 5 so, the pestilences which desolated nations were deemed supernatural 5 and all strange and unaccountable diseases that fell upon an individual, a result of tlie malice of a sorcerer. If the witch could produce disease by her incantations, tliere was no difficulty in believing that she could al.so remove it.1 These propositions were unanimously and firmly believed. They were illustrated by anecdotes, tire countless numbers of which can only be appreciated by those who have studied the literature at its source. They were indelibly graven on the minds of men by hundreds of trials and of executions, and they were admitted by almost all the ablest men in Christendom. There were other details, however, whicli excited considerable discussion. One of the most strilting

,Tliere can be little doubt vero provenit febris, tussis ا that a considerable amount of dementia, phthisis, hydropsis, poisoning was mixed up with aut aliqua tumefacti. carnis in the witch cases. In ages when corpore, sive apostema extrinse. medical knowledge was scant.y, ens apparens : quandoque vero and post-mortem examination intrinsece apud intestina ali- unknown, this crime was pecu- qnod apostema sit adeo terribil6 liarly dreaded, aud appeared et incurabile quod nnlla pars peculiarly mysterious. On the medicornm id sanare et remo- other hand, it is equally certain vere potest, nisi aceedat alius tliat tlie witches constantly em- maleficus, sive sortilegus, qui ployed their knowledge of the contrariis medelis et remediis property of herbs for the pur- Jegritudinem ipsam maleficam pose of curing disease, and that tollat, quam facile et brevi they attained, in this respect, a tempore removere potest, cseteri skill which was hardly equalled verc medici qui artem ipsius bythe regular practitioners. To medicine profitentur nihil va- the evidence which Michelet lent et nesciunt afferre reme- has collected on this matter, dium ’ {Mall. Mai. vol. ii. .(،I may add a striking passage pp. 393, 39 from Grillandus: “Quandoque 72 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE, of those was the transportation of witches through the air. That an old woman could be carried some hundreds of miles in a few minutes on a broomstick or a goat, 01. in any other waytlie Devil might select, would, in the present day, be regarded as so essentially and grotesquely absurd, that it is probable that no conceivable amount of testimony would, convince men of its reality. At the period of which I am s itin g , this rationalistic spirit did undoubtedly exist in a few minds j for it is noticed, though with extreme contempt, by some of the writers on the subject, who treated it as a manifest mental aberration? but it had not yet assumed any importance. The measure of probability was still essentially theo- ,and the only question that was asked was أ logical how far the narratives conformed with the theological conception of a spirit. On this point there seemed, at first sight, much difficulty, and considerable ingenuity was applied to elucidating it. Satan, it was remembered, liad borne Christ through the air, and placed him on a pinnacle of the temple j and therefore, said St. Thoma.s Aquinas, if he could, do this to one body he could do it to all. The prophet Habak- kuk had been transported by a spirit from Judea to Babylon, and Philip the Evangelist had been the object of a similar miracle. St. Paul liad like١rise been carried, perliaps in the body, into the third lieaven. but otlier ؛ This evidence was ample and conclusive perplexing difficulties arose. Nothing in the witch ’١vas more minutely described than the witches trials Sabbath, and many hundreds of women had been burnt alive for attending it. Occasionally, however, it happened that, wlien a woman had been condemned MAGIC AND WITCHCRA^’. 73 on tilis charge by her own confession, or by the evidence of other witches, her husband came forward and swore that his wife had not left his side during the niglit in question. The testimony of so near a relative might, perhaps, be explained by perjury j but other evidence was adduced which it was more difficult to evade. It was stated that women were often found l^ng in a state of trance, insensible to pain, and without the smallest sign of life j that, after a time, their consciousness returned 5 and that they then confessed that they ha.d been at the witches’ Sabbath. These statements soon at'tracted the attention of theologians, who were much divided in their judgments. Some were of opinion tliat the witch was labouring under a delusion of the Devil; but they often added that, as the delusion originated in a compact, she should, notwithstanding, be burned. Others suggested a bolder and very startling expla. nation. That the same portion of matter cannot be in two places at once, is a proposition which rests entirely on the laws of nature ; but those laws have no existence for the miraculous; and the miracle of toansubstantiation seems to destroy all the improbability of the pluri-presence of a human body. At ali .events, the D e^l might furnish, for the occasion, a duplicate body; in order to baffle the ministers of justice. This latter opinion became extremely popular among theologians; and two famous Catholic miracles were triumphantly quoted in its support. St. Ambrose was, on one occasion, celebrating mass in a church at Milan, when he suddenly paused in the midst of the ser^ce. His liead sank upon the altar, and he remained motionless, as in a ti.ance, foi. the space of three hours. The congregation waited 74 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. silently for the benediction. At last, the conscions- ness of the safnt returned, and he assured his hearers that lie had been officiating at Tours at the burial of St. Martin, a statement which was, of course, in a few days, verified. A similar miracle was related of St. Clement. This early saint, in the midst of a mass at Rome, was called away to consecrate a church at Pisa. His body, or an angel who had assumed its but tlie safnt was at the إ form, remained at Rome same time present at Pisa, W’here lie left some drops of lilood upon t'he marble for a memorial of ^ e On tlie whole, the most general opinion ؛.miracle seems to have been, that the witches were sometimes transported to the Sabbatli in body, and sometimes in spirit 5 and that de^ls occasionally assumed their forms in order to baffle tlie sagacity of the J'udges.2 Another important and much discussed department, was the connection lietween evil spirits and animals. That the Hevil could assume the form of any animal3 he plea.sed, seems to liave been generally

-Sp ina, Be Strigibus (1 5 2 2 ), supposed to be ill especial con ا cap. XI. nection with spirits. Delrio All tlie plienomena of som- mentions that the ancient Irish ا ١vere mixed uprvith liad such a veneration for liambulism the question. See e.g.. Spina., wolves that they were accus- cap. X. and xi., where it is tomed to pray lor their salva- fully discussed. Many curious tion, and to clioose them as notions were lield about som- godfathers for their children nambulism. One opinion was, (T h ie r s’ Superst. vol. ii. p. 198). that tlie somnambulists had Beelzebub, as is well known, never been liaptised, or liatl was god of flies, ‘par ce qu’il lieen baptised by a drunken n’y avoit pas une mouche en priest. son temple, comme on diet qu’au This belief was probably Palais de Venise il n’y a pas ٥ iined by the gi’eat use une seule mouche et a i Palais'6١ist٠ made of animals in Christian de Toledo qu’il n’y en a qu’une, symbolism as representatives qui n’est pas cliose estrange ou of moral qualities. Indifferent liouvelle, car nous lisons que districts different iinimals were les CyrCuai'ques, aprCs avoir MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 75 admitted 5 and it presented no difficulty to those who remembered that the first appearance of that personage on earth was as a serpent, and that on one occasion a legion of devils had entered into a herd of swine. St. Jerome also assures US that, in the desert, St. Antony had met a centaur and a fa u n -a little man witli horns growing from his forehead—who were ,and at all events, at a later period او possibly devils the lives of the saints represent evil spirits in the form of animals as not unfrequent. Lycanthropy, however, or the transformation of witches into wolves, presented more difficulty. The history of Nebuchadnezzar, and the conversion of Lot’s wife, were, it is true, eagerly alleged in support of its possibility j but it was impossible to forget that St. Augustine appeai.ed to regard lycanthropy as a fable, and that a canon of the council ofAncyra had emphatically condemned tlie belief. On the othei. hand, that belief had been very widely diffused among the ancients. It had been accepted by many of the

١veen sacrifi^ au dieu Acaron, dieu fellowship can there bebet des mouches, et les Grecs a Clirist and B elial' (Wier, Be Jupiter, surnommC Myiodes, Prcest. Bcem. p. 557). The c’e st a dire moucliard, toutes ascription of intelligence to les mouches s’envolaient en animals was general througli une nuCe, coinme nous lisons tlie middle ages, hnt it was en Pausanias In Arcadici/S e t most prominent in the Celtic en Pline au livre xxix. cap. 6 ’ race. See a curious cliapter (B o d in ,Bemon. p. 15). Dancing on mystic animals in Dalyell’s لآلآلآ ,bears and other intelligent ani- Superstitious of Scotland mals seem to have been also also the essay of Renan on .]an d Celtic Poetry. IwxatOTY Ohitic ذ connected with the Devil an old council anathematised Ital. Biss, xxix.) quotes an at once magicians who have amusing passage from a writer ilhandoned tlieir Creator, for- of the eleventh century, con- tune-tellers, and those ‘ qtii cerning a dog which in that, ursas aut similes bestias ad century was ‘ moved hy the ludum et perniciem simplicio- spirit of pytho.’ rum eircum ferunt'-‘for what 1 V ita s. P a u li. 76 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. greatest and most orthodox theologians, by the inquisitors who were commissioned by the popes, and by the law oourts of most countries. The e^dence on whicli it rested was very curious and definite. It thevdtch was wounded in the form of an animal, she retained that wound in her human form, and hun. dreds of such cases were alleged before the tribunals. Sometimes the hunter, ha^ng severed the paw ofhia assailant, retained it as a trophy 5 but when he opened his bag, he discovered in it only a bleeding ١.hand, which he recognised as the liand of his wife

,L'existence des loups - we find, according to Bodin ا gai’ous est attests par Vir- Paracelsus and Pernel, the gile, Solin, Strabon, Pomponius chief physician of H en^ IV., Mela, Dionysius Afer, Varron, holding the belief in lycan- et. par tous les Jurisconsultes tiiropy. There is probably no et d6monomanes des derniers country in Europe-perhaps no ait- country in the w orld-in wliich؟socles. A peine commen en douter sous Louis X IV ' some form of this superstition ا on .Diet, iiifernal, Ly- lias not existed. It raged, how لاهةا١\ ؟) canthropie). Bodin, in his cliap- ever, especially where wolves ter on Lycanthropy, and in our abounded-among the Jura, in day. Madden (vol. i. pp. Norway, Russia, Ii.eland (where 1 ^0١ 334-358), liave collected many the inhabitants of Ossory, ac- additional authorities. St. Au- coi’ding to Camden, were said gustine notices the subject with to become wolves once every considerable liesitation, but on seven years), in the Pyrenees tlie whole inclines, as I have and Greece. Tlie Italian women said, towards incredulity (Civ. usually became cats. In the Dei, lib. xviii. c. 17, 18). He East (as tlie Arabian Nights also tells us tliat in liis time show) many forms were as- tliere were some innkeepers, sumed. A blench judge named who were said to give their Boguet. a.t tlie end of the six- guests drugs in cliecse, and teenth century, devoted himself tlius to turn tlieni into animals especially to tlie subject, burnt {Ibid). In tlie Salic laws of multitudes of lycantbropes, the fifth century there is a wrote a book about them, and curious enactment ‘ that any drew up a code in which he sorceress who has devoured a permitted ordinary witches to man should on conviction be be strangled before they wero fined 200 sous ’ (Garinet, p. 6). burnt, but exceptetl lycan- To come down to a later period. thropes, who were to be burnt MAGIC AND WITCHCKAIT. 77

The last class of anecdotes I shall notice is that which appears to have grown ont of tlie Catbolic conception of celibacy. I mean the accounts of the influence of witchcraft upon the passions. It is not difficult to conceive tlie order of ideas that produced that passionate horror of the fair sex whicli is such a striking characteristic of-old Catholic theology. Celibacy was universally regarded as the highest form of virtue, and in ordei' to make it acceptable, theologians exhausted all the resources of their eloquence in describing the iniquity of those whose charms had rendered it so rare. Hence, the long and fie^ disquisitions on the unparalleled malignity, the inconceivable subtlety, the frivolity, the unfaithfirlness, the unconquerably evil propensities of women, which wei.e the terror of one age, and which became the amusement of the next. It is not vei^ easy to read these diatribes with perfect gravity 5 but they acquire a certain melancholy sig- nificance, from the fact that the teaching they represent had probably a considerable influence in pre- and also in ؛ disposing men to believe in witches producing the extreme callousness with which the suflbrings of the victims were contemplated. The question why the immense majority of those who alive (Garinet, pp. 298-302). instance of the development In the. controversy about the of the miraculous. See also reality of the transformation, Bourquelot, La Lycanthropie. Btflin supported the affirma- Among the many mad notions tive, and Binsfeldiup the nega- of tlie Abyssinians, perhaps the tive side. There is a form of maddest is their belief that monomania under which men blacksmiths and potters can believe themselves to be ani- change themselves intohyanas, mals, which is doubtless tlie and ought therefore to be ex- nucleus around which the sys- eluded from the sacrament tern was form ed-a striking (Hecker, Epicl p. 120) 78 NATIONALISM IN EUROPE. were accused of sorcery should be women, early ,and it was generally answered ؛ attracted attention not by tbe sensibility of tbeir nervous constitution, and by tbeir consequent liability to religious mono, mania and epidemics, but by tbe inherent wicked- ness of tbe sex. Tbere was no subject on wbicb tbe old writers expatiated witli moi.e indignant eloquence, or with more copious illustration.! Cato, if tbe woi.ld were only؛ they said, liad declared that free .from women, men would not be ^ tliout tbe many؛ converse of tbe gods.’ Cicero liad said, that ١vill urge men to one crime, but that one motives passion will impel women to all crimes.’ Solomon, whose means of observation bad in this respect been exceedingly extensive, bad summed up bis experience in a long series of tbe most crushing apophthegms. Chrysostom only interpreted the general sentiment a ؛ of tbe bathers, wlien lie pronounced woman to be necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic peril, a deadly fascination, and a painted ill.’ Doctor after doctor echoed tbe same lugubrious strain, ransacked tbe pages of liisto^ for illustrations of tile enormities of tbe sex, and mar- slialled the ecclesiastical testimonies on tbe subject with the most imperturbable earnestness and solem. nity. Men who bad most sei.iously formed this -who es و estimate of tlie great majority of women teemed celiliacy tbe liigbest of virtues, and eve^ temptation to aliandon it tbe direct consequence of Satanic presence 5 came, by a very natural process, phenomena of love’ as most ؛ to regard all tbe especially under tbe influence of tlie Devil. Hence, See especially the leng strange chapter on the. subject in ا Sprenger. MAGIC AND WITCHCRAOT. 79 those wild gleams of strange and grotesque romance whicli, from time to time, light np the literature ot witchcraft. Incuhi and Snccubi were for ever wandering among mankind, alluring by more than human charms the unwary to their destruction, and laying plots which were but too often successfol against the virtiie of the saints. Sometimes, the witches Itindled in the monastic breast a more ter- ,and men told, with bated breath, how ؛restrial fire under the spell of a Ttindictive woman, four successive abbots in a German monastery had been wasted away by an unholy flame.. Occasionally, with a still more refined malice, the Evil One assumed the appearance of some noted divine, in order to bring and an astonished ؛discredit upon his charact.er maiden saw, prostrate at her feet, the form of one whom she knew to be a bishop, and wliom she JTor was it only among إ believed to be a saint 2 those who were bound to celibacy that the deadly influences wore exercised. The witches were continually disturbing, by their machinations, the joys and none can tell how many hundreds ؛ of wedlock have died in agonies for afflicting with barrenness the marriage bed.3

Sprenger, Pars I. Qu^st. addresses to a lady, but when ا vii. At the request of St. Sere- discovered, crept under a bed, nus and St. Equitiusthe angels suffered himself to be dragged performed on those saints a out, and declared that he was counteracting surgical opera- the veritable bishop. Happily, after a time, a miracle was ١.Formic de Mal ١ i r ؛؟ ﻟﻤﺂ0 ١\د wrought which cleared the 2 See the curious story of St. reputation of the calumniated Sylvanus, Hishop of Nazareth, prelate. As few people realise the ٥ ,in Sprengei. (Pars II. Qusest. 1 cap. xi.). The Devil not only degree in which these supersti. assumed t.he appearance of this tions were encouraged by the holy man, in order to pay liis Church which claims infalli- 80 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

I make no apology for having dwelt so long on a series of doctrines and arguments which the reader will prohahly deem very puerile, because their importance depends, not on their intrinsic value, hut upon tlieir relation to the history of opinions. Tlie follies of the past, when tliey were adopted by the ١١dsest men, are well woi’thy of study j and, in the case before US, they furnisli, I think, an invaluable clue to the laws of intellectual development. It is often and truly said, that past ages were pre-eminent.ly credulous, as compared with our own j yet the difference is not so mucli in the amount of the credulity, as in tlie direction which it takes. Men bility, I may mention tliat tlie what the orthodox ascribed to reality of tliis particular ci.inie the Devil; and this opinion ١vas implied, and its perpetra- seems soon to have become a tors anathematised by the pi٠0- characteristic of free-thinkers ١١٠ho) vincial councils or synods of in France; for Thiers 'Troyes, Lyons, Milan, 'Tours, wrote in 1678) complains tliat Riurges, Narbonne, Ferrara, ‘ Les esprits forts etleslibertins St. Malo, AlontCassin, Orleans, qui donnent tout a la nature, and Grenoble, by tlie Rituals et qui nejugent des chosesque of Autun, Cliartres, P£rigueux, par la raison, ne veulent pas Atun, Evreux, Paris, Angers, se pei’suader que de nouveaux- Arras, GhMons, Bologna, mariCs puissent par !artifice et Troyes, Bourges, Alet, Beau- la malice du d£mon estre em- vais, Meaux, Rlieims, &C..J and peclies de se rendre le devoir a very — (ةby tlie decrees of a long series conjugal* (p. 67 of bisliops (Thiers, Sup. pop., wicked incredulity — ‘ puisque tom. iv. ell. vii.). It was held, TEglise, qui est conduite parle -١vitliout a Saint-Espi.it-, et qui par consC ,as far as I know single exception, by all the quent ne peut errer, reconnoit inquisitoi.s who presided at qu'il se fait par !operation du ١ritch-courts, and Sprenger d^mon’ (p. 573). The same the recount of tlie writer shows tliat the belief؛ gives a long metliods whicli were generally existed in the Cliurch in the employed in convicting those time of 'Theodosius (p. 568). ١vho were accused of tlie crime. The la.st sorcerer who was Montaigne appears to have been burnt in France perished on ا)6ةthe first who openly denied it, tliis charge (Garinet, p. 2 ascribing to tlie imaginjition MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 81

are always prepared to aceepfc, on very slight e١d١ dence, what they believe to be exceedingly probable. Tlieir measure of probability ultimately determines the detaiJs of their creed, and it is itself perpetually changing undei. the influence of civilisation. In the middle ages, and in the sixteenth, and tlie beginning of the seventeenth centuries, the measure of proba. bility was essentially theological. Men seemed to ) breathe an atmosphere that was entirely unsecular. ا imaginative conceptions ^ere ؛ual an؛c ؛eir intell ؛T ا all coloured by theological associations j and tliey إ which ! predisposition to believe in ‘the miraculous was so l great-, that it constructed, out of a few natural facts, this vast and complicated system of witchcraft: accumulated around it an immense mass of tlie most varied and cil.cumstantial evidence 5 persuaded all the ablest men for many centuries that it was in- contestably true j conducted it unshaken through the scrutiny of the law-courts of every European nation j and consigned tens of thousands of victims to a fearful and unlamented death. There was not the smallest desire to explain away or soften down miraculous accounts, in ordei. to make tliem liarmonise with experience, because the minds of men were completely imbued with an order of ideas that had no connection with experience. If we could perceive evil spirits, untrammelled by the laws of matter, actually hovering around US; it' we could observe them watching every action with a deadly malignity, seelring with all the energies of superhuman power the misery of mankind 5 and darkening, ١ve with their awful aspect eve^ sphere in which G .أ.VOL $2 NATIONALISM IN EUNOPE. move; if we could see the angel of destruction brandishing the sword of death over the Assyrian and could أ hosts, or over the streets of Jerusalem behold Satan transporting Christ througli the air, or tlie demoniacs foaming in agony beneatli his grasp, we should probably reason on these matters in much the same spirit- as the theologians of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Our minds would be so pervaded by these awful ima.ges, tliat they would form a measure of probability entirely difi'erent from ١vhicli is formed by tlie ordinary experience of tliat life 5 a nervous consciousness of the continual pre- ؤ .sence of evil spil'its would accompany US for evei and would for ever predispose U S to discover manifestations of their powCr. The foregoing pages will, 1- trust, be sufficient to elucidate the leading causes upon which witchcraft depended. They will show that it resulted, not from accidental circumstances, individual eccentricities, 01. even scientific ignorance, but from a general predis. position to see Satanic agency in life. It grew from, and it reflected, the prevailing modes of religious and it declined only when tliose modes ؟thought were weakened or destroyed. In almost every period of tlie middle ages, there had been a few men who in some degree dissented from the common superstitions; but their opinions were deemed ent-irely incompreliensible, and they exercised no appreciable influence upon their contemporaries. Indeed, their ^doctrines being genei١ally veiled in the mystical forn were so pervei’ted and materialised, tliat tlieynot unfrequently increa-sed the prevailing gloom. As long as the general credulity continued, as long as the minds of men were directed towards tlie miraculous MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 83 and tile Satanic, no efforts could eradicate the superstition. In such a condition of thought, men would always be more inclined to accept than to reject tlie evidence. They would refuse to scrutinise it with and, though they might admit tlie ز jealous suspicion -٦vould never ques existence of some imposture, they tion the substantial justice of the belief. I t u.ntil the predisposition was changed j not until men began to recoil from these narratives, a-s palpably and grossly improbable 5 not until the sense of their improbability so overpowered the reverence for authority, as to make them seek in every way to evade the evidence, and to make them disbelieve it, even when they were unable to disprove it, could this deadiy superstition be rolled away. Its decline marks tlie rise, and its destruction the first triumph, of the spirit of rationalism in Europe. We frequently find, in the writings of the inquisitors, language whicli implies that a certain amount of scepticism was, even in their time, smouldering in some minds. It was not, indeed, sufficient to make any deep impression on public opinion. It is identified with no great name,* and produced no great

-I should, perhaps, make one was a disciple of A verroes ا exception to this statem ent- perhaps the founder of Aver- Peter of Abano, a very famous roism, in Italy-an d seems to physician and pliilosopher of liave formed a school at Padua. Padua, who died in 1305. He When he was ahout eighty, he appears to have entirely denied was accused of magic. It was the existence of demons and of said t.hat he had acquired a miracles; andtohave attempted, knowledge of tlie seven liberal by the assistance of astrology, arts by seven familiar spirits to construct a general philoso- whom he kept confined in a phy of religion, casting the d ista l; but he died liefore the horoscope of each faith, and trial was concluded, so the in- ascribing its rise and destiny to quisitors were obliged to con. the influence of the s*ars. He tent themselves by liurning hia 84 R A 'riA L IS M IN EUROPE.

book; bat it was yet sufficiently evident to elicittbe Tbose men,’ wrote ٤ .anxiety of some theologians ,sbonld be treated witb scorn, and, indeed ٤ ,Gerson sternly corrected, wbo ridicule theologians whenever they speak of demons, or attribute to demons any effects, a.s if these things were entirely fabulous. This error has ai'isen among some learned men, partly through want of faith, and partly through weakness and impei.fection of intellect . . . . for, as Plato says, to refer everything to the senses, and to be incapable of turning away from them, is the greatest impediment to truth.’ 1 Sprenger also, in a long chapter, instructed tiieologians how to meet a spirit n ؛ ؛f vague scepticism which had arisen among cer \ ^who ilad, indeed, no fixed metliod of rea ﺀ ; daymen soning, but were blindly groping in tlie dark, toucliing now on one point., and now on anotliei..’ An assembly of doctors of the University of Cologne,.) which was lield in 1 4 8 7 , lamented, and severely and authoritatively condemned, a still more startling instance of rebellion, arising from a quarter in wliich it. was least to be expected. W ien tlie panic was raging most fiei.cely in tlie diocese of Cologne, some priests liad attempted to allay tlie ala.rm liy question- ing t'lie reality of the Cl’ime. Aliout thirty years later. Spina mentions 3 that, in some places, tlie innumerable executions liad ai.oused a spirit of most acrimonious opposition. Indeed, in the nortli of Italy, a posit.ive l.ebellion had broken out., accompanied by a tone of incredulity which that theologian

image. He was regarded as one 258, 259). of tlie greatest of magicians. 1 Mall. Mai. vol. ii. p. 253. .pp.380- 2 Ibid. vol. i. pp. 460-468).£٠٠,£Compare Naud .Vol. ii. pp. 191. 299, 300 ٥ .R enan, Averrocs (p p و( 1 9 3 MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 85

,Most imprudent, most undevout ٤ .piteously laments and most unfaithful men will not believe tlie tilings -and what is still more la ؛ they ought to believe mentable, tliey exert all.their influence to olistruct those who are destro^dng the enemies of Christ.' Snch a conduct. Spina justly observes, was full of ٦vere guilty of it, as they miglit danger for tliose wlio tfiemselves be justly punished for conniving at tile crime; and it was a distinct reflection upon tlie Church which was represented by the inquisitors 5 and upon the Pope, by whom tlie inquisitoi’s ivere commissioned. We find, too, tlie clergy claiiuing, in a very peremptory tone, the supreme jui'isdiction of these cases j and occasionally alleging tlie mis- conduct of lay judges wlio. liad suffered witclies to -this scepticism, however, ap ل1 د .depart unliarmed and it was ؛ pears to have been latent and undefined not till 1563 that it was thi.own into a systematic De Prrestigiis ٤ ,form by John Wier, in his treatise D^monum.’ Wier was a learned and able Physician of ClOves. He was convinced as a doctor that many of the victims were simply lunatics 5 and, lieing a very humane man, was greatly shocked at tlie sufferings ,and therefore ؛ they endured. He was a Protestant perhaps, not quite as mucli trammelled by tradition as some of his contemporaries 5 though in tlie present day his reverence for authority would lie regarded as an absolute infatuation. He had not tlie sliglitest wish to revolt against any of the first principles of the popular teaching, or even to free himself from tlie prevailing modes of tliought. He was quite con. vinced tliat the world was peopled liy crowds of demons, who were constantly working miracles among 86 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. mankind j and his only object was to reconcile bis sense of tbeir ubiquity with bis persuasion tbat some of the phenomena that were deemed supernatural, arose from disease. He was of opinion that ail the witches were labouring under the delusions of tlie Devil. They did not make an unholy compact, or ride through the air, or arouse tempests, or produce disease, or become the concubines of Satan ; but the Devil had entered into them, and persua,ded them that ١vas they had done tliese things. The idea of possession thus so enlarged as to absorb the idea ofwi-tchcraft. The bewitclied person was truly afflicted by the Devil, but the Devil had done tliis directly, and not by the intervention of a witch, and had theu thrown SU8- picion upon some old woman, in order that tlie great, est possible amount of suffering might be produced. Persons, lie said, were especially liable to diabolical possession, when their faculties were impaired by disease, and their tempers acidulated by suffering. In an eloquent and learned chapter on ‘the credulity and fragility of the female sex,’ be showed, by the authority of the Fathers and the Greek pliilosophers, that women were peculiarly subject to evil influences. He also showed that the witches, in mental and moral infirmities, were pre-eminent among theh. sex. He ai’gned that the word translated witch, in tlie Levi- and tliat the ؛tical law, may be franslated poisoner patristic notion of the intercourse between angels and the antediluvian women, was inadmissible. The 0SS improbabilities of some parts of the popular ۶ belief were clearly exhibited, and illustrated ^ th mucli unnecessary learnhig, and the treatise was prethced by an earnest appeal to the princes of Europe to airast the effiision of innocent blood. MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 87

this work cannot be regarded as The scepticism 0٤ audacious. In fact, Wier stands alone in tlie bistory and differs essentially from all tlio ل of witchcraft later writers on the subject. He forms a link connecting two periods ; be was as fully pervaded by the sense of the miraculous as bis opponents, and lie never dreamed of restricting the sphere of the super- ١١۴as natural. Such as it was, however, this book the first attack of any importance on the receivetl opinions, and excited among, learned men considerable attention. Three editions were published, in a few years, at Basle and Amsterdam, which were then the centres of independent thought. It was translated into French in 1 5 6 9 . It was followed by a treatise, ‘De Lamiis,’ and by a very curious catalogue of the leaders, and description of the organisa- Shortly after the publication of these ؛.tion, of hell last .works, a book appeared in reply, from the pen of Republic,’ and one ٤ Bodin, the famous autlior of the of the most distinguished philosophers in Europe. Bodin was esteemed, by many of his contemporaries, the ablest man who had then arisen in France; and the verdict has been but little qualified by later Amid all the distractions of a dissipated ؟.writers

Fseudomonarchia Dsemo- Jean Botlin, qni aprCs avoir par ٠ ا num »-0ne of the principal nne merveilleuse vivacity d’es- sources of information about prifc accompagnCe d’un.i.ugement this subject. He gives the solidetraict^toutes les choses ,na۴es of seventy^two princes, divines, naturelles et civiles and estimates their subjects at se fust pent estre mescogneu 7,405,926 devils. It is not quite pour homme, et eust est6 pris clear how much he believed on Jnfailliblement tie nous pour the subject. quelque intelligence s’il n’eust 2 A very old critic and oppo. laiss£ des marques et vestiges nent of his views on witchcraft de son hUmanite dans cette d6- quaintly speaks of him as ‘ Ce monomanie.’ (Naud^, Apol.) premier homme de la France, 127 (1626). Bayle {diet. Phi) 88 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. and an intriguing court, and all tie labours of a judicial position, be bad amassed an amount of learning so vast and so various, as to place bimin tbeve^ first rank of tlie scholars of liis nation. He bas also tbe far liigber merit of being one of tbe cbief founders of political philosophy and polit.ical bistort; and of .ha٦dng anticipated on these subjects many of tbe con elusions of our own day. In bis judicial capacity he had presided at some trials of witchcraft. He had brought all tlie resources of liis scholarship to bear upon the subject; and he had written a great part of -before tlie appear ٠ liis ‘Demonomanie des Sorciers ance of the last work of Wier. Tlie ‘.emonomanie des Sorciers’ is chiefly an appeal to authority, which the autlior deemed on this subject so unanimous and so conclusive, that it was scarcely possible for any sane man to resist it. He appealed to the popular belief in all countries, in all ages, and in all reli^ons. He cited the opinions of an immense multitude of the greatest writers of J ia g a n antiquity, and of the most illustrious of the lathers. He showed how the laws of all nations recognised the existence of witchcraft; and he collected liundredsof cases wilieh liad been investigated

pronounced Bodin to have been on political philosophy bad been 'one of the chief advocates of either so comprehensive in his liberty of conscienceof his time.’ sclieme, or so copious in his In our own day. Buckle (vol. i. knowledge; none, perhaps,more p. 299) has placod him .as an original, more independent and ١vo.historian above Comines, and tearless in his enquiries—t on a. level with Machiavelli; men alone, indeed, could be and Hallam, speaking of tlie compared with him-Aristotle .Hist. 0٠f Lit) ١.\ H v e ة\\ة -Republic, saysj ‘Bodin pos sessed a highly philosophical vol. ii. p. 68.) Uugald Stewart mind, united witli the most is equally encomiastic (Disser- ample stores of history and tation, pp. 52-54). jurisprudence. No former ^.iter MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 89 before the tribunals of bis own or of otber countries. He relates witb tbe most minute and circumstantial detail, and witb tbe most unfaltering confidence, all tbe proceedings of tbe witcbes’ Sabbath, tbe methods wbicli tbe witcbes employed in transporting tbem- selves tbrougb tbe air, tbeir transformations, tbeir carnal intercourse witb tbe Devil, tbeir various means of injuring tbeir enemies, tbe signs tbat lead to tbeir detection, tbeir co'nfessions when condemned, and tbeir demeanour at tlie stake. As for tlie treatise of Wier, be could scarcely find words to express tbe astonishment and tbe indignation witb wbicli he bad perused it. That a puny doctor should have dared to oppose bimself to the authority of all ages j tbat be.should liave such a boundless confidence in liis own opinions, and such a supreme contempt for tbe wisest of mankind, as to carp and cavil in a sceptical spirit at tbe evidence of one of tbe most notoi'ious of existing facts : this was, in truth, tbe very climax of human arrogance, tbe very acme of human absurdity. But, extreme as was tlie audacity thus displayed, tbe bad armed bimself ﺀ impiety was still greater. Wier borrible ٤ against God.’ His book was a tissue of Ho one who is ever so little touched ٤ ’.blasphemies ^ tb tbe honour of God, could read such blasphemies without a righteous anger.’ Hot only bad be dared إ to impugn tbe sentences of so many upright judges not only had be attempted to save those whom Scrip- ture and tbe voice of tlie Church bad branded as tbe worst of criminals j be bad even ventured to publish to tbe world tlie spells and incantations be bad learned Who could reflect ا .from a notorious sorcerer

,Cornelius Agrippa, who had was Advocate-general at Metz ا been the master of Wier. He and had distinguished himself 90 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. without consternation on the future of Christen dom aftei. sucli fearful disclosures r Who could ques- ١١٢ould tion that the knowledge thus disseminated multiply to an incalculable extent the numher of itc h e s, would vastly increase the power of Satan, and would be productive of countless sufferings to the innocent? Under these circumstances, so far from relaxing the prosecutions for witchcraft and sorcery, it was necessary to continue them with a and surely, no one could he the ذ redoubled energy object of a more just suspicion tlian a man who had written so impious a book, and wlio liad shown such a-cquaintance witli the secrets of so impious a profession. To pardon those whom the law of God condemned to death, was indeed beyond the province of princes. Those who were guilty of such an act had outraged tlie majesty of Heaven. They had virtually repudiated the Uivine law, and pestilence and famine

hy his efforts to prevent prose- prisoned for a year at Brussel? cutions for witchcraft, and by on the charge of magic, and saving the life of a- peasant ceaselessly calumniate after woman whom Savin t.lie inqui- his death. Before Wier, pro. sitor wished to burn. He was, hably no one had done so much cons٩uently, generally thotight to combat the persecution, and to be in league with tlie Devil; liis reputation was sacrificed in and it is related that, on his the cause. (See Plancey's diet. death-bed, lie drew off from his Infern. a r t.Agrippa) andThiers’ (.٣ol. i. pp. 142, 143 .neck a black dog, which was a Superst lo n g ا: demon, exclaiming tliat it was Naude lias also devoted the cause of his perdition (Gari- chapter to Agrippa. Agrippa net., pp. 121, 122). In his early had not the good fortune to days lie liad studied magic, and please any class of theologians. had apparently come to the Among the Catliolics he was و conclusion that it rested either regarde(! with extreme horror on imposture or on a superior and Calvin, in liis work De knowledge of the laws of nature ScandaliS) treats him as one of —a inclusion which he tried the chief contemners of the to enforce in a book on tlie G osp el. vanity of science. He was im- MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 91 would inevitably desolate their dominions.* One fatal example there had been, of a king tampering with hi's duty in this respect. Charles IX. had. spared the life of the famous sorcerer, Trois Echelles, on the condition of his informing against his colleagues j and it is to this grievous sin that the early deatli of For the ٤ :the king is most probably to be ascribed word of Cod is v e ^ certain, that he who suffers a man worthy of deatli to escape, draws the punishment upon himself, as the prophet said to Xing Ahab, that he sliould die foi. haring pardoned a man worthy of death. For no one had ever heard of pardon being accorded to sorcerers.. 2 Such were the opinions which were promulgated, towards the close of the sixteenth century, by one of the most advanced intellects of one of the leading promulgated, too, with a tone of ؛ nations of Europe confidence and of triumph that shows how fully the writer could count upon the sympathies ofhis readers. . appeared in 1 5 8 1 اemonomanie des Sorciers. ﺀ The Only seven years afterwards, Montaigne published the first great sceptical work in the French language 5 and, among the many subjects on which his scepticism wsa turned, witchcraft occupied a prominent place. It would be scarcely possible to conceive a more striking contrast, than his treatment of it presents to the works of Bodin and of Wier. The vast mass of authority which those writers loved to array, and by which they shaped the whole course of their reasoning, is calmly and unhesitatingly discarded. The passion for the miraculous, the absorbing sense of diabolica-l capacities, have all vanished like a dream

ةا٠ 1Pp. 217. 228. 2 P. 2 02 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

The old theological measure of probability bas completely disappeared, aiid is replaced by a shrewd secular common sense. Tbe statements of the witches were pronounced intrinsica.lly incredible. Tlie dreams of a disoi.dered imagination, or the ؛ terrors of the rad, would account for many of them but even when it is impossible to explain away the There ﺀ .evidence, it is quite unnecessary to believe it proof's and arguments that are founded ﺀ ,are,’ he said on experience and facts. I do not pretend to nnravel them. I often cut them, as Alexander did the knot. After all, it is setting, a high value upon our opinions, to roast men alive on account of them.’ We may not be able t'O discover an adequate solution of somo —١vc should consider statements on tlie subject, but and he here anticipated a mode of argument which was destined long, afterwards to assume a most prominent place in tlieological controversy—that it is far more probable that our senses sliould deceive us, tlian that an old woman sliould be carried up a and that it is far less ؛ chimney on a. broomstick astonishing that witnesses sliould lie, tlian that ..١vitckes should perform the acts that were alleged It lias lieen justly l'emarked by Alalebranche, tliat -١vriter who liad no pre Montaigne is an exa.niple of a but who nevertheless ؛ tensions to lie a great reasoner exercised a most profound and general influence upon the opinions of mankind. It is not, I think, difficult to discover tlie explanation of the fact. In an age whicli was still spell-bonnd by tlie fascinat'ions of the past lie applied to every question a judgment entirely unclouded by the imaginations of theologians, and unshackled by tlie dictates of authority. His origi-

.v. iii.c.11؛L ١ وو .MAGI. AND WITCHCRAFT nalifcy consists, not so much in his definite opinions OI. in his arguments, as in the general tone and character of his mind. He was the first French autlior who had entirely emancipated himself from the retrospective habits of thought that had so long been who ventured to judge all questions by a ؛ universal secular standard, by the light of common sense, by the measure of probability wliich is furnished by daily experience. He was, no doubt., perfectly aware that ‘ the laws of Plato, of the twelve tables, of the consuls, of the emperors, and of all nations and legislators-Persian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, Frencli, Italian, Spanish, Englisli—liad decreed capital penalties against so rcerersh e knew prophets, theologians, doctors, judges, and ٤ that magistrates, had elucidated the reality of the crime by many thousand violent presumptions, accusations, testimonies, convictions, repentances, and voluntary confessions, persisted in to deatli; ’ 1 but lie was also sensible oftlie extreme fallibility of the liumanjudg- ment 5 of the facility with which the mind disc.overs, in tlie plienomena of history', a reflection of its pre- conceived notions 5 and' of tlie r a p id , with whicli syst-ems of fiction are formed in a credulous and undiscriminating age. While Catholics, Protestants, and Deist'S were vying with each other in their adoration of the pastj wliile the.amliition of every scholar and of every theologian was to form around liis mind an atmosphere of thought that bore no re- -while know ل lation to tlie world that was about him ledge was made the bond-slave of credulity, and t-liose whose intellects were most shackled by prejudice were regarded as tlie wisest of mankind, it was .Bodiu, p. 252 ا 94 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. the merit of Montaigne to rise? by the force of his masculino genius, into the clear world of reality; to judge the opinions of his age, vdth an intellect that was invigorated but not enslaved by knowledge ; and to contemplate the systems of the past, without being dazzled by the reverenc.e that liad surrounded them. He looked down upon tlie broad field of his. tory, upon its clashing enthusiasms, its discordant systems, the ebb and flow of its ever-chan^ng belief, and he drew from the contemplation a lesson widely different from his contemporaries. He did not., it-is true, fully recognise tlrose moral pnnciples wliicli shine ^ t li an unchanging splendoui. above the flue- tuations of speculative opinions ; lie did not- discover the great laws of eternal development, wilieh preside over and direct the progress of lielief, inflise order into the seeming chaos, and reveal in every apparent aberration a purpose and a meaning ; but he, a,t least', obtained an intense and realised pei١ception of the fallibdity of the human intellect; a keen sense of the absurdity of an absolute deference to tlie past; and of the danger of punishing men with death on account of opinions concerning which we can liave so little assurance. These things led lflm to suspect that witchcraft might lie a delusion. The bent- and character of his mind led him to believe that wit.ch- craft was gi'Ossly -improbable. He was the first great representative of the modei.n secular and rationalistic spirit. By extricating his mind from the trammels of the past, lie had learned to judge the narratives of diabolical intei.vention by a standard' and with a spirit tliat had been long unknown. The predisposition of tlie old theologians had been to believe that the plienoniena of witchcraft were all produced by the ٠٥ .MAGIC AND WITCSCRAOT

Devil; and when some manifest signs of madness or of impostnre were exhibited, they attempted to ae- commodate tbem to their supernatural theory. The strong predisposition of Montaigne was to regard witchcraft as the result of natural causes ; and, therefore, though he did not attempt to explain all the statements which he had heard, lie was convinced that no conceivable improbability could be as great as that which would be involved in tlieir l.eception. This was not tlie happy guess of ignorance. It was the direct l.esult of a mode of thouglit which he applied to all theological questions. Fifty years earlier, a book embodying such conceptions would liave appeared entirely incomprehensible, and its authoi. would perhaps have been burnt. At the close of the sixteentli century, tlie minds of men werepre- pared for its reception, and it flashed like a l'evelation upon France. From the publication of tlie essays of Montaigne, we may date tlie influence of that gifted and evei’ enlarging rationalistic school, which gradually effected the destruction of tlie belief in witchcraft, not by refuting or explaining its e^dence, but simply by making men more and more sensilile of its intrinsic absurdity. Thirteen years after Montaigne, Charron wrote his famous treatise on ‘Wisdom.’ In this work lie systematised many of the opinions of Montaigne; but exhibited far less genius and originality than his predecessor. Like Montaigne he looked with aversion on the miraculous ; but, like Montaigne, his scepticism arose, not from any formal examin.ation of evidence, but from a deep sense of the antecedent improbability. That which Montaigne had thrown into the form of strong doubt, Cliarron almost, threw 96 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. into the form of a denial. All through the seventeenth century, the same modes of thought continued, but,..though ؛slowly but steadily sapping the old belief the industry of modern antiquaries has exhumed two or tliree obscure works that were publislied on the subject,* tliose works never seem to have attracted any serious attention, or to have had any appreciable influence in accelerating the movement. It presents a spectacle, not of argument or of conflict, but of a silent evanescence and decay. The priests cont'inued to exorcise tlie possessed, to prosecute witches, and to anatliematise as infidels all who questioned the crime. Many of. the lawyers, reverting to tlie innumerable enactments in the law-books, and to the countless occasions on which the subject liad been investigated by the tribunals, maintained but outside these ؛ the belief with equal pertinacity retrospective classes, the sense of the improbability ٦vitchcraft became continually stronger, till any of ٦vhich involved the intervention of tlie anecdote ٦vas on tliat account generally ridiculed. This ,Devil ٦vas exhibited specially a.mong those whose spirit ١vere most secular, and whose habits of tliought

-٤;?،Maury, pp. 221, 222. Tlie considerable part. Bayle(P ا ٦١٠as sees Diverses, § ccxli.), calls him principal of those writers Apologie pour les ‘L’homme de France qui avoit ةة0 \\\\ ١ﺛ ﺲﺀ'آل Grands Howmes Soupgormez de le plus de lecture.’ He is said Magie, contains much cui.ious to have reconstructed some of liistorical information in an ex- the dances of the ancients, and tremely tiresome form. Naude to have executefl them in pel.- also wrote an exposure of the son before Queen Cliristina, in ١veden (Magnin, Origines du Rosicrucians, and a political s work on Coups (TEtat, embody- Theatre, tom. i. p. 113). The ١vas ans١vered by a ing the principles of Machia- Aplogie lined B’Autun in a؛velli. He was the first librarian Capucin n -١vork called Ulncre of the Mazarine library, in tlie ponderous foundation of which lie lnid a ctulite S c a n te . MAGIC ANI) WITCHCKAFT. 97

Some ؛.minds were least governed by authority great scholars and writers who were fully sensible of the improbability of the belief, at the same time regarded the evidence as irresistible, and looked npon the subject with a perplexed and timid suspension of judgment. l a Bruykre said that the principles on which magic rests seem vague, uncertain, and vision- ary j but tliat many embarrassing facts have been attested by credible eye-witnesses j that it appeared equally rash to -admit or to deny tliem, and that it was better to take a central position between the credu. lous who admitted all, and the freethinkers who rejected al'1.2 Even Bayle seems to have looked upon it in a similar spirit.3 Descartes, though he did not, as far as I am aware, ever refer directly to tlie subject, probably exercised a considerable influence upon it, for the tendency of his teaching was to emancipate the mind from the power of tradition, to secularise philosophy, and t.o destroy the material notions that had long been associated with spirits. Malebranche mentions tliat in his time some of the parliaments had ceased to burn witches, and that within tlieir jurisdiction the number of witches had declined. He inferred from this, that the contagious power of imagination had created many of' the phenomena. He analysed, with much acuteness, the process of thought

Cefiirent lesesprits lortsdu passer soi-meme pour un affide ‘ ا commencement dudix-septitone du diable, ou ce que ne valait siede qui s’efforcCrent les pre- pas mieux, pour un incredule. miers de combattre le prejuge Leslibrespenseurs, les liberti'ns regnant, de defendre de mal- comme on les appelait alors, henreux fous on d’indJscrets n'avaient que peu de credit.’ cberebenrs contre les tribunaux. (Maury, p. 221.) II fallait pour cela dn courage. 2 See the pass'age in Maury, car on risquait, en cherchant a p . 219. .Ibid. p. 220 ٥ sauver la tete du prevenu. de لآ .1 . 1 0 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

hut, being a priest, he ز which produced lycanthropy found it necessary to add, that real sorcerers should Voltaire treated the ؛.undoubtedly be put to death whole subject with a scornful ridicule ; observed that since there had been philosophers in France, itc h e s had become proportionately rare, and summed up the ecclesiastical authorities for the belief as em- phat.ically as Sprenger or Spina, but with a very different 0 bject.2 In the first half of the seventeentli century, the civil power uniformly exerted its energies for the destruction of 'witches. It was between the publi- ,ation of the works of Montaigne and of Charron؛) that Boguet was presiding at tlie tribunal of St. Claude, where he is said to liave burnt 600 persons, chiefly foi. lycanthropy. A few years later, the fifty executions at Douay, which I have already mentioned, took place 5 and, in 1642, Cardinal Mazarin wrote a letter to the Bishop of Evreux, congratulating him warmly on the successfill zeal lie had manifested on the subject.3 Towards the middle of the century, however, the growing incredulity liad reached those in power 5 the prosecutions for witchcraft became more rare and languid ; and, in 1672, Colbert di- lected the magistrates to receive no accusations of and commuted in many cases the ca.pital ؛ sorcery punishment for the crime into a sentence of banish.

-Recherche de la Verite, liv. des hommes qui etaient re ا ii. p. 3, e. 6. element en commerce avec les 2 He said: ‘ Toua les peres diables.' {Diet. Phil. art. Su de l'Eglise sans exception cru- perstition.) This I believe to rent au pouvoil. de la magie. be quite true, but it was a L'Eglise condamna toujours la striking sign of tlie times, that u- an opponent of ma.gic could say ؟magie.mais elle y crpt t jours. Elle n’excommunia point so, without ruining his cause, les sorciers com.me des fous, qui 3 Garinet., p. 328. etaient trompCs mais comme MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 99 ment. It was when some of these commutations had been made, that the Parliament of Rouen drew up an extremely remarkable address to the king, protesting, in a strain of liigh religious fervour, against the indulgence as directly contrary to the Word of God, to all the precedents of French law, and to all tlie tra- After this time ؛.ditions of the Christian religion but few trials for sorcery took place-—that of the Marshal of Luxembourg, in 1681, was, perhaps, the most remarkable-for the scepticism on the subject had already become very marked, and in the last twenty years of the seventeenth century, only seven sorcerers seem to have been burnt in France. Still later, in 1718, the Parliament of Bordeaux burnt a man upon this charge. After this period there were, iudeed, one'or two trials, but the prisoners were acquitted 5 the star of Voltaire had arisen above the horizon, and the unsparing ridicule which his followers cast upon every anecdote of witches, intimidated those who did not share in the incredulity. The formularies for exorcism still continued as they continue to the present day in Roman Catholic rituals, and they were freq'uently employed all through the but the more educated members إ eigliteenth century of the clergy for the most part allowed the subject to fall into neglect, and discouraged the attempts of some of the order to rerive it. Those who still clung to the traditions of the past must have found much difficulty in accounting for t.he progress of the move, ment. That Satan should occupy such an extremely small place in the minds of men was very lamentable, but tliat the miraculous signs of his presence should have so completely disappeared, was exceedingly

.Garinet, pp. 337, 344 ا 100 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. perplexing. Alt the beginning of the present centory. Fiard published a work designed to explain ﺳ ﻚ tlie the difficulty. He showed that the philosophers and revolutionists of the last century were the represen. tatives of the old sorcerers, that tliey acted under the direct inspiration of Satan, and that their success was entii.ely due to Satanic power. Lest, however, it should be said that this represented rather the moral than the miraculous influence of the E ^ l One, he added tliat many ^ eat and startling miracles had accompanied the philosophic movement, and that these miracles had not even yet ceased. The cures of Mesmer and the prophecies of Cagliostro should both be ascribed to supernatural agency 5 but the most startling of all the signs of diabolical presence was the ever-increasing popularity of ventriloquism. On this last subject, we are happily not left to our own unassisted conjectures, for some learned divines of the fourteentli century had solemnly determined that man was designed to speak by his mouth j and that, whenever he spoke in any other way, lie did so by tlie assistance of tbe Hevil.i Tlie histoi’y of witchcraft in Protestant countries differs so little from its liisto^ in Catholic ones that it is not necessary to dwell upon it at much length. Inbotli cases, a tendency towards the miraculous was and tlie degree of reli^ous ؛tlie cause of the belief terrorism regulated tlie intensity of tlie persecution. In botli cases, too, tlie rise and progress of a rationalistic spirit were the 0 1 ’igin and the measure of its decline. In England, tliere appears,to have been no law against sorcery t.ill 1541, wlien the nation was convulsed by tlie first paroxysms of tbe Reformation. .ر 8( ة . Garinet, p ا MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 101

Til© crime :had indeed been known at an earlier period, and a few executions bad taken place, but they were very rare ; and, in producing them, otliei. motives seem to liave been generally mixed with su. perstition. Joan of Arc, the noblest of all the ^ctims of tlie belief, perished by Englisli hands, though on French soil, and under the sentence of a French Bisliop. Some years after, the Duchess of Gloucester' having been accused by the Cardinal of Beaufort of attempting tlie king’s life by sorcery, was compelled to do penance, while two ot. lier servants were executed. A few otlier cases have come down to US 5 but, altliougli tlie extreme imperfection of tlie old criminal registers renders it very probable that there were others wliicli are forgotten, there can be little doubt tliat the superstition was much less prominent Owing partly ؛.in England than on the Continent to its insular position, and partly to the intense political life that from the earliest period animated tlie people, there was formed in England a fearless aid

Themostcompleteauthority tliose who were sentenced to ا on this subject is tlie chronolo- other than capital punishments. gical table of facts in Hutchin- All the other loiters I have sow’s Essay on Witchcraft seen, place the English exec.u- ,and it seems ل Hutcliinson, who was tions far higher .(1718) a very scrupulous writer, re- I think, certain that some exe- stricted himself for the most cutions escaped the notice of ,to cases ofwhich he had Hutchinson, whose estimate is :أ earnt precise particulars, and however, probably much nearer lie carefully gives his autliori- the truth than those of most ties. Tlie number of executions writers. See also Wright’s he recounts as liaving taken Sorcery; and an article from the A Collection ﺀ place in 250 years, amounts to Foreign Review in many thousands. Of these only of CUrious Tracts on Witch- about 140 were in England. craft,' reprinted in 1838. It is This, of course, excludes those quite impossible to arrive at who were drowned or mobbed anything like precision on this to death during the trial, and subject. 102 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. self-reliant type of character essentially distinrt from that which was common in Europe, eminently free from morbid and superstitious terrors, and averse to the more depressing aspects of Religion. It was natural, however, that amid tlie conflicts of the Reformation, some of the darker superstitions should arise ; and we accordingly find Cranmer, in one of his articles of visitation, directing liis cler^ to seek for ‘any that use charms, sorcery, enchantments, witchcraft, soothsaying, or a.ny like craft invented by the Devil.’ It is remarkable that the law of 1II. against witchcraft was repealed in the ٧ lienry following reign, and there was no fresh legislation about it till after the accession of Elizabeth.! A new law was tlien made, which was executed with severity; and Jewell, when preaching before the queen, advert- ing to the increase of witclies, expressed a hope that tlie penalties miglit be still more rigidly enforced. ‘ May it please your grace,’ he added, ‘to understand that witches and sorcerers within these few years are marvellously increased within your grace’s realm. Your grace’s subjects pine away even unto the death ; their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft. . . . I pray God they never practise forther than upon the subject.’2 On the whole, however, tliese laws were far

.(as probably nals of the Bef. vol. i. p. 11-١١ Tlie repeal ١ owing to tlie- fact tliat witch- The multitude of witches at the craft, and pulling down crosses, lieginning of tlie reign of Eliza- ١vere comliined togetlier; and beth (wljicli Strype notices) was tlie la١v liad, thei.efore, aPopisli the obvious consequence of the appearance. terrorism oftlie preceding reign, i Sermons (Parker Society), and of tlie religious changes p. 1028. Strype ascribes to acting in tlie way I have already this sermon the law which was described. passed tlie following year {An- MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 103 milder than those on the Continent,. For the first conviction, witches who had not destroyed others hy incantations or Invoked evil spirits were only punished hy the pillory and hy imprisonment, while those who were condemned to death perished by the gallows instead of the stake. Besides this, torture, whicli had done so much to multiply the evidence, liad always been illegal, though it has occasionally been made use of, in England, and the witch-finders wei.e compelled to content themselves with pricking their victims all over in hopes of discovering the insensible spot,! with throwing them into the water to ascertain whether they would sink or swim, and with keeping them during several successive nights without sleep, in order to compel them to confess. These three methods were habitually employed with signal success j many women were in consequence condemned, and a considerable propoi.tion of them were liung. But such scenes did not take place without one noble protest. A layman named Reginald Scott ’,Discovery of Witchcraft ٤ published, in 1584, liis in which he unmasked the hnposture and the delusion of the system with a boldness that no previous writer had approached, and with an ability which few subsequent writers have equalled. Keenly, elo- quently, and unflinchingly, he exposed the atrocious torments by wliich con-fessions were extorted, the

It is worthy of not.ice that en fon cer cefcte ep in g le sou s le s ا anestliesiaisarecognised symp- ongles oil de tout© SM longueur tom, of some of the epidemic dans les bras, lesjam bes OUSUJ forms of madness. Speaking of toute autre partie, sans provo- thatofMorzines, Dr. Constans quer l’apparence d’une sensation says: *L’anesthsiene fait jamais douloureuse.’ (Epidemic d'Hys٠ dCfaut. J’ai pu pincer, piquer tero-Demonopathie en 1861, p. avec une epingle les malades. 63.) 1.4 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. laxity and injustice of the manner in which evidence was collected, the egregious absurdities that filled the writings of the inquisitors, the juggling tricks that were ascribed to the devil, and the chddish folly of the magical charms. He also availed himself in a very dexterous manner of the strong Protestant feeling, in order to discredit statements that emanated fi.om the Inquisition. If the question was to be determined by argument, if it depended simply or maiirly upon the -ability or learning of the' controversialists, the treatise of Scott would have had a for it was by far the ablest attack ؛powerful effect on the prevailing superstition that had ever appeared, and it was written in the liiost popular style. As a matter of fact it exei.cised no appreciable influence. Witchcraft depended uj)on general causes, and represented the prevailing modes of religious tliought. It was therefore entirely unaffected by the attempted ,and when James I. mounted the throne ؛ refutation he found the nation perfectly prepared to second him in his zeal against the witches. James, although he hated the Puritans, had cauglit in Scotland mucli of the tone of thought concerning Satanic power wliich the Puritans had always en- ١vas exhibited to the liighest couraged, and which perfection in tire Scottish mind. He wa-s continually liaunted by the subject. He liad lihnself written a l١e had confidently ascribed his ؛ dialogue upon it stormy passa-ge on liis return from Denmark to tlie machinations of the witches,* and he boasted that This storm was the origin wind, and a confession was ا of one of the most horrible of wrung from Ilim by torture, tlie many horrible Scotch trials which, however, he almost im. on record. One Dr. Fian was mediately afterwaifls retracted, suspected of having aroused the Every form of torture was i. MAGIC AND , 105 the devil regarded him as the most formidable of opponents. Soon after his accession to the throne of England, a law was enacted which subjected witches to d.eath on the first con^ction, even thongh they shonld have inflicted no injury upon tlielr neighbours. This law was passed when Coke was Attorney-General, and Bacon a member of Parlia- ment j and twelve bishops sat upon the Commission Th.e prosecutions were ؛.to which It was referred rapidly multiplied throughout the country, but especially in Lancashire j and at the same time the general tone of literature was strongly tinged with the superstition. Sir Thomas Browne declared that those who denied tlie existence of witchcraft were not only infidels, but also, by implication, atheists.2 Shakspeare, like most of the other dramatists of his and we ل time, again and again referred to tlie belief owe to it that melancholy picture of Joan of Arc, so deeply had the devil ٤ ,vain employed to vanquish his this obduracy. The bones of his entered into his heart, that heo legs were broken into small utterly denied all that which he pieces in the boot. All the before avouched,' and he was torments that Scottish law knew burnt unconfessed. (See a rare of were successively applied. black letter tract, reprinted in At last, the king (who person- Y ih irw ’s Criminal Trials of ally presided over tlie tortures) Scotland) vol. i. part ii. pp. 213, suggested a new and more hor- 223.) .Madden’s Thant: vol. i. p ا rible device. The prisoner, wlio liad been removed during the 447. ١vas brought in, 2 ‘ I have ever believed, and ,deliberation and (I quote the contemporary do now know, that tliere are ١vitches; they that doubt them his nailes upon all ﺀ (narrative his fingerswere riven andpulled do not only deny them but off with an instrument., called spil.its, and are obliquely and in Scottisli, a turkas, whicli in tipon conseqttence a sort, notof England wee call a payre of infidels, but of atheists.’ (Beli- pin.cers, and under everie nayle aio Mcdici, p. 24. ed. 1672.) there was thrust in two needels Sir T. Browne did not, however, over, even up to the heads.-’ believe in incubi, or in lycan- However, notwithstanding all thropy. in* RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

؛.which is, perhaps, the darkest blot upou his genius Bacon continually inveighed against the tollies shown yet in ؛ by magicians in tlieir researches into nature one of liis most important works he pronounced the ,heresies ﺀ three ‘declinations from religion ’ to be idolatry, and witchcraft.’2 Selden took up a somewhat peculiar and cliaracteristic position. He main- tuined that the law condemning women to death for witchcraft was perfectly just, but that it was quite ١vas a ١Htchcraft unnecessary to ascertain whether possibility. A woman might not be able to destroy the life of her neighbour by her incantations 5 but if she intended to do so, it was right that slie should be. hung.3 But, great as were the exertions made by James to extirpat.e witchcraft, they completely sink into insignificance before those which were made during tlie Commonwealth. As soon as Puritanism gained an Ascendency in the country, as soon as its ministers succeeded in imparting their gloomy tenets to the

On the extent t,0 wilieh the of liis most, highly educated and ا belief was reflected in the dra- gifted contemporaries, believed matic literature of Elizabetli with an unfaltering faith in the. and James I., see Wright’s reality of witchcraft Shak- Sorcery, vol. i. pp. 286, 296. It speare was, therefore, perfectly ١vas after١vards tlie custom of justified in introducing into his Voltaire, wlien decrying the plays personages who were, of genius of Shakspeare, to dwell all others, mostfitted to enhance constantly on such characters the grandeur and the solemnity as tlie witches in Macbeth. But of tragedy, when they faith- such scenes, though in modei.n fnllv reflectefl the belief of tlie times they may have an unreal audience. ,Advancement of Learning ٠٤ and grotesque appearance, did not present, the slightest im- XXV. 22. It is true tliat this probability at tlie time they book was dedicated to the king, Were written. It is probable' whose writings on the subject that Shakspeare, it is cei.tain were commended. .Table-Talk ٠ tliat the immense majority even MAGIC AND WITCHCRACT. 107 governing classes, the superstition assumed a gigantic magnitude. During the few years of the Commonwealth, there is reason to believe that more alleged witches perished in England than in the whole period before and after. 1 Nor is this to be ascribed entirely to the judges or the legislators, for the judges in former reigns never shrank from condemning witches, and Cromwell was in most respects far superior to his predecessors. It was simply the natural result of Puritanical teaching acting on the mind, predisposing men to see Satanic influence in life, and consequently eliciting the phenomena of witchcraft. A panic on the subject spread through a.nd anecdotes of Satanic power soon ؛ the county crowded in from every side. The county of Suffolk was especially agitated, and the famous ^tch-finder, Matthew Hopkins, pronounced it to be infested witl) itc h e s. A commission was accordingly issued, and two distinguished Presbyterian divines were selected by tlie Parliament to accompany it. It would have been impossible to take any measure more calculated to stimulate the prosecution, and we accordingly find that in Suffolk sixty persons were hung for witch- Among others, an Anglican ال.craft in a single year clergyma.n, named Lowes, who was now verging on eighty, and wlio for fifty years had been an irre- proachable minister of his church, fell under the suspicion. The unhappy old man was kept awake for several successive nights, and persecuted ‘till lie

Hutchinson, p, 68. Fully empowered to treat about ا ? This is alluded to in Finding re١٣olted witches out 2 bms And has not he within a year ‘Hath not this present Farlia- Hanged threescore of them in ment one shire,’ &c. A telger to the devil sent Second part. Canto iii. 108 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. was weary of his life, and was scarce sensible of

did.’ He was then thrown into the ١ what he said 0 1 water, condemned, and hung. According to the ٦١٣hich circulated among the members of the story Established Church, lie maintained liis innocence manfillly to the end. If we believe the Puritanical ٦vay account, it would appear tliat his brain gave under tlie trial, and that his accusers extorted from him a wild romance, which was afterwards, with -for the conver ﺀ many others, reproduced by Baxter sion oftlie Sadducee and the infidel.’ I We have seen that the conception of witchcraft, wliich had existed in England from the earliest period, assumed foi. the first time a certain prominence ؛ amid tlie religious terrorism of the Reformation that its importance gradually increased as the trials and executions directed public attention to the subject; and that it, at last, reached its climax under the gloomy theology of the Puritans. It now only remains for me to trace the history of its decline. In pursuing this task, I must repeat that it is impossible to follow the general intellectual tendencies of a nation witli the degree of precision with which we may review tire events or the arguments they produced. We lrave a.mple evidence that, at a certa.in period of Englislr history, tliere was manifested in some classes a strong disposition to regard witch stories as absurd ; but we cannot say precisely Baxter relates the whole and (being near the sea) as he ا story with etident pleasure. saw a ship under sail, it moved Among the rest, an him to'send him to sink the ﺀ ,He says old readingvarson namedLowis, ship, and he consented, and not far from Eramlingliani, was saw the ship sink before him.’ ل0ﺟﻞ ةة١ل. .؟,١vlio con- (World of Spirits ,١vas hanged one that fessed that he had two imps, and the other view of tlie case, see tliat one of them was always Hutchinson, pp. 88-90. putting him on doing mischief. MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 109 when tlie idea of grotesqueness was first attached to the belief, nor can we map out with exactness tbe stages of its progress. Speaking generally, however, fcbere can be no doubt that it first became prominent in that great sceptical movement which followed tlie Restoration. The reaction against the austere rigidity of the last Government, had produced among the gayer classes a sudden outburst of the most derisive incredulity. From mocking the solemn gait, the nasal twang, and the affected phraseology of tlie Puritans, they naturally proceeded to ridicule tlieir doctrines: and having soon discovered in witchcraft abundant materials for their satire, they made dis.. belief in it one of the tests of fashion. At the same time the higher intellectual influences were tending strongly to produce a similar movement among the learned. Hobbes, who was the most distinguished of living philosophers, had directed all tlie energies of his scepticism against incorporeal substances, had treated witli unsparing ridicule the conceptions of demons and of apparitions, and had created in his disciples a predisposition to regard them as below contempt.) A similar predisposition was formed by the philosophy of Bacon, which had then acquired an immense popularity. Tire Royal Society 2 liad Ireen a passion for natural philosophy,much ؛just established resembling that which preceded tire French Revolu- and the whole force oftlie ؛tion, had become general Fnglish intellect was directed to tire study of natural .snb ؛he Royal Society on th8؛ On the .pinions of Hohhes ا ,is noticed by Hutchinson ؛on this subjet, and on his great jec influence in discrediting these and indeed most of the writers superstitions, see Cudworth’s on witchcraft. See Casaubon Intellectual System, vol. i. p. 1 16. On Credulity, p, 191. 2 The (indirect) influence of 110 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. phenomena, and to the discovery of natural laws. In this manner tliere was formed a general disposition to attribute to every event a natural cause, which was soon followed by a convic.tion of tlie absurdity of explaining phenomena by a supernatural hypothesis, and which rapidly discredited t.he anecdotes of witches. There does not appear to liave been any very careful scrutiny of their details, yet there was a gro^ng indisposition to believe tliem, as tlieywere discordant ^ th the modes of thought wliicli the experimental philosophy bad produced. By the combination of these tliree influences a profound change was soon effected in the manner in which witchcraft was regarded. The sense of its improbability became for the first time general among educated laymen, and the number of the trials speedily diminished. In 1664, however, two women were hung in Suffolk, under a sentence of Sir Matthew Hale, who took the opportunity of declaring that the

,for first ٤ reality of witclicraft was unquestionable 5 the Scriptures had affirmed so much j and secondly, the wisdom of all nations had provided laws against such persons, which is an ai.gument of their confidence of sucli a crime.’ Sir Thoma.s Browne, who was a great physician as well as a great writer, was that he was clearly ٤ ١vitness, and swore called as a ا ’.of opinion that the persons were be^tched Seventeen years later, the defence of the dying belief wa.s taken up by Joseph Hlanvil, a divine, who in his own day was very famous, and who, I venture to think, has been surpassed in genius by few of liis

,The report of this trial is lating to Witchcraft (London ا reprinted in A Collection of 1838). Rare and Curious Traets re- MAGIC AND WITCHCRAOT. 11١ successors. Among bis contemporaries be was especially praised as an able scholar and dialectician, and as a ^ ite r whose style, t'liougb not untinctured by the pedantry of his age, often furnislies the noblest examples of that glorious eloquence, so rich in varied and majestic harmonies, of which Milton, Sir Thomas Browne, and the early Anglican divines were tlie greatest masters. To US, however, who look upon his career from tlie vantage ground of experience, it assumes a still higher interest, for it occupies a most important position in the history of t'hat experimental philosophy which has become the great guiding influence of the English mind. As the works of Glanvil are far less known than they should be, and as his defence of witchcraft was intimately connected with his earlier literary enterprises, I shall make no apology for giving a general outline of his opinions. To those who only know him as the defender of witchcraft, it may appear a somewhat startling paradox to say, that the predominating characteristic of the mind of Glanvil was an intense scepticism. He lias even been termed by a modern critic ‘the first English writer who had thrown scepticism into a definite form ;1 and if we regard this expression as simply' implying a profound distrust of liuman faculties, and not at all the rejection of any distinct dogmatic system, the judgment can liardly be disputed. And certainly, it would be difficult to find a work displaying less of the credulity and superstition t-hat are commonly attributed to the believers in witchcraft tlian the treatise on ‘ The Vanity of Dogmatising or Confidence of Opinions,’ 2 in which

.Biographie TJmverselle—n cyclopedia Britawnaca ١ article which is also in the En• 2 There is a good review of 112 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

,Glanvil expounded Ids philosophical vie١vs. Develop ing a few scattered hints of Bacon, he undertook to make a comprehensive survey of the human faculties, to analyse the distorting influences that corrode or pervert our judgments, to reveal the weakness and fallihility of the most powerful intellect, and to estimate the infinity of darkness that encircles our scanty knowledge. Not only did he trace, with the most vivid and unfaltering pen, the proneness to error that accompanies the human intellect in the moments of its gi.eatest confidence j not only did he paint in the darkest colours the tenacity and the inveteracy of he even accepted to the fullest extent the ؛ prejudice consequence of his doctrine, and, with Descartes, enjoined a total abnegation of the opinions that have been received by educat'ion as the first condition of enquiry. He showed liimself perfectly acquainted witli the diversities of intellectual tone, or as lie very climates of opinion ’ tliat ٤ happily termed tliem, the and lie devoted an entire ئ belong to different ages to the deceptions of the imagination, a ١ chapter faculty which he treated with as much severity as Butlei*. tliis book ill Hallani’s Hist, of having, it is said (I. d . not JAt.) vol. iii. pp. 358-362. It know on what authority), been is, I think, by fir tlie best destroyed in the fire of London. thing Glanvil wrote, and lie It was a.nswered by Thomas evidently took extraordinary ^ i t e , a once famous Roman pains in liringing it to perfec. Catholic controversialist. lean- tion. It first appeared as a not but think that Raley was sliort essay; it was tlien ex- acquainted witli the works of panded into a regular treatise ; Glanvil, for their mode of and still later, recast and pull, treating many subjects is strik. lished anew under the title ot' ingly similar. Raley’s watch ' Scepsis Scieutijica,: TVvvs, simile is fully developed by edition is somewliat rare, the Glanvil, in chap. V. .Chap. xi ا greater part of tlie impression MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 113

the publication of this treatise Glanvil had been ٠٥ elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and became one of tbe most distinguished of the small but able minority of tlie clergy who cordially embraced tlie inductive philosophy. To combat the sti.ong anti- pathywith which this philosophy was regarded in the Church, and to bring theology into harmony with its principles, was the task to whicli he devoted the !.emainder of his life. Spratt, and, in a less degree, one or two other divines, were employed in the same noble cause j but the manner in which Clanvil conducted his enterprise separates him, I think, clearly from his fellow-labourers. For, while his contemporaries seem to have expected as the extreme consequences of the philosophy, on the one hand a period of passing disturbance, arising from the discovery of apparent discrepancies between science and the Bible, and on the other hand increased evidence of the faith, arising from the solution of those difficulties and from the increased perception of superintending wisdom the wheelwork of creation,’ Glanvil ﺀ exhibited in perceived very clearly that a far deeper and more general modification was at hand. He saw that tlie t.heological system existing in a nation is intimately connected with the prevailing modes of thouglit or intellectual condition j that the new philosophy was and that the Church إ about to change that condit'ion must eithei. adapt herself to the altei’ed tone, or lose her influence over the English mind. He saw that a theology which rested ultimately on authority, wliicli branded doubt as criminal, and which discouraged in the strongest mannei. evei.y impartial investigation, could not long co-exist witli a philosopliy tliat encouraged the opposite habits of. thought as the very VOL. I. I RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. beginning of wisdom. He saw that while men main, taiued every stvange phenomenon to be miraculous as long as it was unexplained, each advance of physical science must necessarily be hostile to theology, and that the passionate adoration of Aristotle ; the blind pedantic reverence, which accounted the simplest assertions of dead men decisive authorities 5 the retrospective liabits of thought the universities steadily iabori.ed to encourage j were all incompatible with the new tendencies .which Bacon represented.! In -Anti-fanatical Religion and Free Philo ٤ an essay on sophy,’ which was designed to be a continuation of the Newr Atlantis of Bacon, he drew a noble sketch of an ideal church constructed to meet the wants of an intellectual a.nd a critical age. Its creed was to be framed on the most latitudinarian principles, because the doctrines that could be defended with legitimate assurance were but few and simple. Its ministers were to be mucli less anxious t'O accumulate tlie felicity ﺀ the traditions of the past than to acquire a large compass ﺀ of clear and distinct thinking,’ and in their thoughts.’ They were to regard faith not as the opposite of reason, but as one of its manifestations. Penetrated by the sense of human weakness, tliey

' He compares the leading Oxford in particular, to he al- scholars of his day to tlie mari- most worthless. The indigna- ner who returned laden with tion snch sentiments created at common pebbles from the In- Oxford is very amusingly shown dies, imagining tliat that must in Wood’s Athena, arts. Glanvil necessarily be rare that came and Crosse. Crosse was a Fellow who at first ١(.from afar, and he accused tliem of Oxford (a D.D of asserting, on the authority vehemently assailed Olanvil in of Beza, that, women liave nO prose, but at last changed liis beards, and on that of St. Au- mode of attack, and wrote comic ace is a blessing. ballads, which Wood assures us؟stine, that p^ He pronounced university edu- ‘made Glanvil and his Society Ciltion in general, and that of ridiculous.* MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 115

were to rebuke tbe spirit of dogmatic confidence and assertion, and were to teacb men tbat, so far from donbt being criminai, it was the duty of every man .to suspend his full and resolved assent to the doctrines he had been taught, till he had impartially considered and examined them for himself.. A religious system which is thus divested of the support of authority, may be upheld upon two grounds. It may be defended on the rationalistic ground, as according with conscience, representing and reflecting the light that is in mankind, and being

thus its own justification 5 or it may be defended as a distinct dogmatic system by a train of evidential reasoning. The character of his own mind, an.d tlie v e ^ low ebb to which moral feeling liad sunk in his age, induced Glanvil to prefer the logical to the moral proof, and he believed that the field on wliicli the battle must first be fought, was witchcraft, which furnished an example of miracles that were contem- For things remote or long ؛ .porary and easy to test -are either not believed or forgotten ٤ (he said) ﺀ pa-st -whereas these being fresh and new, and attended with all the circumstances of credibility, it may be expected they should have most success upon the. obstinacy of unbelievers.’ 1 -Sadducismus Triumphatus,’ which is pro ﺀ The bably the ablest book ever published in defence of the superstition, opens with a striking picture of the rapid progress of the scepticism in E n g la n d .2

,Preface to the Sadducismus, there are spirits or witches ا 2 *Atheism is begun in Sad" which sort of infidels, though ducism, and those that dare not they are not ordinary among bluntly say there is no God, tlie mere vulgar, yet are they content themselves (for a fair numerous in a little higher rank step and introduction) to deny ofundei.standings. And tliose 116 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

Everywhere, a disbelief in witchcraft was becoming .but it was a dis ل fashionable in the npper classes ١om a strong sense of its.belief that arose entirely ft antecedent improbability. All who were opposed to the orthodox faith united in discrediting witchcraft. They laughed ،at it, as palpably absurd, as involving tlie most grotesque and ludicrous conceptions, as so essentially incredible tliat it would be a wa-ste of time to examine it. Tliis spirit had arisen since the Re- storation, although the laws were still in force, and altliough little or no direct reasoning had been brought to bear upon the subject. In order to combat it, Glanvil proceeded to examine the general question of the credibility of the miraculous. He ١vhy witchcraft was ridiculed saw that tlie reason was, because it was a pha.se of the miraculous and

tlie work of the devil 5 that tlie scepticism was chiefly due to those who dislielieved in miracles and tlie devil; and tliat the instances of witchcraft or possession in the Billie, were invariably placed on a level witli t'liose tliat were tried i.n t'lie law-courts of Eng- land. That the evidence of the belief was over- and this, indeed, was ا؛ whelming, lie firmly believed .See a striking passage, pp ا that know anything of the- ١٢orld, know tliat most of tlie 3, 4:—‘ I must premise that looser gentry and tlie small this, heing matter of fact, is pretendei's to philosophy and only capable of tlie evidence of ^vit, are generally deriders of authority and of sense, and by tlie belief of witches and ap- both these the being of witches paritions.' I need hardly say and diabolical contracts is most that the word Atheism was, in abundantly confirmed. All his- tile time of Glanvil, used in tories are full of the exploits of the very loosest sense : indeed, those instruments of darkness, Eugald Stewart shows, that at and the testimony of all ages, one time tlie disbelievers in not only of tlie rude and bar. apostolical succession were barous, but oft.he most civilized ١vorld, brings commonly denounced as Athe- and polislned ists. cDissert. p. 373.1 tidings of tlieii. st.range per- MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 117 scarcely disputed j but, until the sense of a p r io r i ini- probability was removed, no possible accumulation of facts would cause men to believe it. To that task lie accordingly addressed himself. Anticipating the idea and almost the words of modern confroversialists, he urged that tliere was such a thing as a credulity of and that those who believed so strange a ؛unbelief concurrence of delusions, as was necessary on tlie supposition of the unreality of witchcraft, were far ؛.more credulous than those who accepted the belief ؛He made his very scepticism his principal weapon formances. We have the at- stances, but tbat it is not need, since tliose that, deny tile ؛ testation of thousands of eye ful and ear witnesses, and those being of witches do it, not out not of the easily deceivable of ignorance of those Jieads of vulgar only, but of wise and argument which, probably, they ؛ grave discerners, and that when have heard a thousand times no interest could oblige them to but from an appreliension tliat such a belief is absurd, and the ؛ ٤٠gree together in a common lie I say we have the light of all tilings impossible.' -I tliink those t.hat can be ﺀ ا these circumstances to confirm us in tlie belief of things done lieve all liistories are romances 5 by persons of despicable power that all tlie wise could have and knowledge, beyond tlie agreed to juggle mankind into reacli of art and ordinary na- a common belief of ungrounded ture. Standing public records fables ; that the sound senses have been kept of tliese well- of multitudes togetlier may de- attested relations, and epochas ceive them, and laws are built made of these unwonted events, upon chimeras; that the gravest baws, in many nations, have and wisest judges have been been enacted against those vile murderers, and the sagest per- -those among the Jews sons fools or designing im ؛ practices I say those that can ؛ and our own are notorious. postors Such cases have been often de- lnelieve this heap of absurdities termined with us, by wise and are either more credulous than reveredjudges, upon clear and those whose credulit.y they re- .and prehend, or else have some ex ؛constructive evidence thousands In our own nat.ion traordinary evidence of their have suffered death for their persuasion, viz., t.hat it is ab- vile compacts with apostate Surd or impossible there should .(p. 4) ٠ witch or apparit.ion ٠٤؛ spirits. All this I might largely be prove in their particular in- 118 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. and, analysing with much acuteness the a ;pr io r i objections, lie showed that they rested upon an unwarrantable confidence in onr knowledge of tlie -that they implied tlie ex ؛ laws of tlie spirit world istence of some strict analogy between the faculties and that, as sucli analogy ؛ of men and of spirits most probably did not exist, no reasoning liased on the supposition could dispense men from examining the e^dence. He concluded with a large collection of cases, the evidence of which was, as he tliought, iucontestilile. ,Sadducismas Triumphatus ’ had an extra ٤ The ordinary success. Numerous editions were issued, and several very alile men came forward to support its views. Henry More, the famous philosopher, wrote a warnr eulogium to Glanvil, a.nd drew up a long ai.gument in tlie same spirit, in which lie related several additional witch cases, and pronounced tlie buffoons, puffed ؛ opponents of the lieliefto lie mere up with nothing liut ignorance, vanity, and stiipid infidelity.’! Casaulion, the learned Hean of Canter- liury, wi.ote to the same effect, liut in more moderate language.'^ Tlie illustrious Boyle, wliile noticing tlie weakness of tlie evidence of many witch stories and ١eat caution in collecting them,vrcote!the necessity of g to Glanvil expressing his firm belief in the story of tlie demon of Mascon.s Cudworth, perhaps the most profound of all t'lie great scholai.s who liave adorned the English Church, pronounced the scepticism on tlie subject of witches to be chiefly a consequence of

1 His letters on the subject of tlie great Greek scholar, are prefixed to the Sadducismus. 3 See his lettei. to Glanvil in Boyle’s (ةOn Credulity and Inert- (Feb. 10, 167 ٠٠ .وج .خ.is son Works, vol. VI؛ ١١٠ dulity. This Casiiubon MAGIC ANU WITCHCRAFT. 119 the influence of Hobbes j and he added, that those who partook of that scepticism might be justly sus. pected of atheism.! Several other diviues pressed ,and they made witchcraft و fo^ard in the same spirit for a time, one of the chief subjects of controversy in England. On the othei. side, the discussion was extremely languid. Ho writer, comparable in ability fore, Cudwortli, or even ؛ ,or influence to Glanvil nor did ؛Casaubon, appeared to challenge the belief any of the writings on that side obtain any success Sadducismus.’ Tlie ٤ at all equal to that of tlie principal writer was a surgeon named Webster, whose work is I.emarkable as one of tlie earliest instances of the systematic application of a rationalistic interpretation to the magical miracles in the Bible. According to him, the magicians in E g ^ t were ordinary jugglers, the witch of Endor had dressed up an accomplice to personate Samuel, the word witch in Leviticus only signified poisoner, tlie demoniacs were chiefly lunatics, -and the Magdalene liatl been ٦dces.2 An u n k n o^ scholar, named freed from seven Wagstaafe, at Oxford, also wrote two short woi.ks on -and one or two others appeared anony ؛ the subject 3 mously. The scepticism steadily increased. .As for wizards and ma- ing towards atheism.' (Int‘ ا gicians, persons who associate Syst., vol. ii. p. 650.) See also and confederate themselves wi til vOl. i. p. 116. tliese evil spirits for the gratifi- 2 Webster, On Witches. The cation of tlieir own revenge, identification of the Scripture lust,-ambition, and other pas- demoniacs ivith lunatics had sionsj besides the Scriptures, been made by Hobbes also. tliere hatli been so full an at- 3Wagstaafe was a deformed testation given to tliem by per- dwarfish scholar at Oxford, and sons unconcerned in all ages, was the special butt of t.he that those our so confident ex- Oxonian wit (which in the plodei١s of tliein in this present seventeenth century does not age can hardly escape the sus- appear to have been extremely picion of having some hanker- brilliant). Poor Wagstaafe 120 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

A few years afterwards, a new and strenuous attempt was made to arrest it by accounts of fresb cases of ^tchcraft in America. The Pilgrim Fathers bad brought to that country the seeds of the super- ,and, at the time when it was rapidly fading ٠١ stition in England, it flourished with fearful vigour in Mas- sachusetts. Two Puritan ministers, named Cotton Mather and Parris, proclaimed the frequency of the crime ; and being warmly supported by t.heir brother divines, they succeeded in creating a panic through the whole country. A commission was issued. A judge named Stoughton, wlio appears t'O have been a perfect creature of the clergy, conducted the trials: scourgings and tortures were added to the terrorism of the pulpit, and many confessions were obtained. Tile few who ventured to oppose the pi١osecutions were denounced as Sadducees and infidels. Multi- tudes were thrown into prison, others fled from the country abandoning their property, and twenty-seven persons were executed. An old man of eiglity was pressed t.o death—a horrible sentence, which was never afterwards executed in America. The ministers of Boston and Cliarleston drew up an address, warmly thanking the commissioners for their zeal, and expressing their hope that it would never be relaxed.! In the first year of this prosecution. Cotton Mather wrote a histoi.y of the earliest of the trials. Tliis history was introduced to the English public by Richard Baxter, who declared in his preface that .that man must be a very obdurate Sadducee who ١vould not believe it.. Not content with having consoled himself by drinking Bancroft, H o i of the .and having United ،States,ch.xix. Hutchin ل whisky-punch drunk, too mucli, lie died, son, pp. 95-119. A tk ie y MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 121 thus given the weight of his great name to the superstition, Baxter in the follo^ng year published his

’ The Certainty of the World of Spirits 5 ٤ treatise on in which he collected, with great Industry, an immense numbei. ofwitcli-cases ; reverted in extremely ؛ laudatory terms to Cotton Mather and his. crusade ٠e'and denounced, in unmeasured language, all who wei sceptical upon the subject. This work appeared in 1691, when the panic in America had not yet reached and, being widely circulated beyond the ؛ its height Atlantic, is said to have contributed much to stimu- In England it produced ؛.late the prosecutions little effect. The scepticism that was already pervading all classes was steadily and silently increasing, under the influence of an intellectual movement that ١vas too general and too powerful foi. any individual genius to arrest. At tlie time of the Restoration tire belief had been common among the most educated. In 1718, when Hutchinson wrote, it scarcely existed, except among the ignorant arid a small section of tire clergy.2 Yet, in the interval, tire vast preponderance of controversial literature had unquestionably been on tire conservative side. Huring that period no less are known to have appear.ed أل than twenty-five works and among their ؟in England in defence of the belief authors we have seen some of tire ablest men in

Hutchinson, pp. 95-119. witchcraft, and in 1688 the ا 2 Mr. Buckle places the seep- majority disbelieved it.' (Vol. i. ticismalittle earlier. He says: p. 333.) By 1718, however, ‘ This important revolutioir in the minority had become insig- our opinion was effected, so far nificant. ,IS the educated classes are con- 3 Some of them, of course؛ cerned, bet ween the Restoration were nrere pamphlets, but a that is to large proportion elaborate ؛ and Revolution say, in 1660 the majority of works. The catalogue is given educated men still believed in by Hutchinson. 122 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

England. The work of Baxter, notwithstanding the weight of his great, name, and the very definite character of his statements, appears to have remained entirely unanswered till it was reviewed by Hutchin- son twenty-six yeai.s after its publication. Yet it could do no more to arrest, tlian the work of Scott had done to produce, the scepticism. Three witches had been executed in 1682 j and others, it is said, endured the same fate in 1712; but these were the last who .judicially perished in England.! Tlie last trial, at least ot' any notoriety, was tliat of Jane Wenham, who was prosecuted in 1712 by some Hertfordshire clergymen. The judge entirely disbelieved in etches, and accordingly charged the jury strongly in favour of the accused, and even treated with great disrespect the rectoi. of the parish, who -that he be ا declared ‘on his faith as a clergyman lieved the woman to be a W'itch. The jury, being ignorant and obstinate, convicted the prisoner: but the judge liad no difficulty in obtaining a remission of her sentence. A long war of pamphlets ensued, and the clergy who had been engaged in the prosecution drew up a document strongly asserting their belief in the guilt of tlie accused, animadverting severely upon the conduct of the judge, and con- ١vith the solemn words, ‘Eiberavimus animas eluding nostras.’ 2 It is probable tliat this was an instance of some- ,and that Hutchinson ؛ what exceptional fanaticism who was himself a clergyman, represented the ‘ Compare Hutchinson, p. 57, mobbed to death in the county .١١٠izard ١٠ol. i. p. 334. I of Essex as a ,and Buckle say judicially} for in the Times 2 Hutchinson, pp. 163-171. of Sept. 24, 1863, there is an Some nobleandliberalremarks. ١١٠as account of an old man who MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 123 opinions of most of the more educated of his profession, when a few years later he described witchcraft as a delusion.) In 1736 the laws on the subject were repealed, without difficulty or agitation 5 and tliere are very few instances ofeducat.ed men regret.ting them. In 1768, however, John Wesley pre- faced an account of an apparition that liad been related by a girl named Elizabeth Hobson, by some It؛ —:extremely remarkable sentences on the subject that the English in ؛ ,is true likewise,’ he wrote general, and indeed most of the men of learning in Europe, have given up all accounts of witches and apparitions as mere old vdves’ fables. I am sorry for it, and I willingly take this opportunity of entering my solemn protest against this violent com- pliment which so many that believe the Bible pay to those wlro do not believe it. I owe them no such service. I take knowledge that these are at the bottom of the outcry which has been raised, and with such insolence spread through the land in direct opposition, not only to the Bible, but to the suffrage of the wisest and best of men in all ages and nations. -An Irish clergyman named gionists are witches and ma ا Maxwell (who was chaplain to gicians, whose existence has Lord Carteret, and a writer of been so well attested by ex- considerable ability), in an es- perience and by persons ofun- say on heathen morality, pre- questionable veracity, so ac- fixed to a translation of Cum- knowledged by heathens, by all berland.s Lawsof Nature, which wise laws and governments, and appeared in 1 7 2 7 , has the fol- by the Holy Scriptures, is of lowing passage on witchcraft: theory so unexceptionably ra- .Almost the whole world of tional, and the objections against mankind were sometime undoi* it so inconsiderable, tliat not- Satan's domination and powei' withstanding the many impos- by way of criminal religious tures and false stories of this ١vould reject them sUbjection as being the reli- kind, he that gionists of his institution. One all must be a superlative be- sort of these diabolical reli- liever' (p. clix.). 124 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

They well know (whether Christians know it 0 1 . not) that ti'he giving up witchcraft is in effect giving np ا ’.the Bible In renewing the history of ^tchcraft in England) it is impossible to avoid obserring the singularly favourable contrast which the Anglican Church presents, both to Continental Catholicism and to Puri- tanism. It is indeed true that her bisliops contributed -١ritch much to tbe enactments of the laws a.gainst craft, that the immense majority of the clergy firmly believed in the reality of the crime, and that they continued to assert and to defend it when the great bulk of educated laymen had abandoned it. It is also true that the scepticism on the subject of witches arose among those who were least governed by the Church, advanced with the decline of the influence ١vas commonly branded as a pliase of the clergy, and and manifestation of infidelity. Yet, on the other liand, it is impossible to deny tliat tlie general mode, ration of the higher clergy was beyond all praise, and tliat even tliose who were most credulous were sin- gnlarly free ftom that tilirst for blood which was elsewhere so common. On the Continent, every attempt to substitute a lighter punishment for death was fiercely denounced as a direct violation of the Divine law. Indeed, some persons went so far as t'O question the lawfiilness of strangling the witch before ١vas burnt. Her crime, they said, was treason slie against the Almighty, and therefore to punish it by any but the most, agonising of deat.hs was an act of tlisrespect to Him. Besides this, the penalty in the

*Journal, 1768. Dr. Johnson reality of witchcraft (Boswell, .(spoke with a characteristic in- August 16, ،773 decision on the subject of the MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 126

^e^tical c.de was stoning, and stoning had been pronounced by -the Jewish theologians to be a still Nothing of tliis ؛.more painful death than the stake kind was found in England. J١here is, as far as I am aware, not a single instance of the English clergy complaining of the leniency of the laws upon the subject, or attempting to introduce torture into the trials. Their zeal in stimulating the persecution, by exorcisms and fanatical preaching, was also com. paratively languid. As early as the reign of James I., the Convocation made a canon prohibiting any clergyman from exorcising a possessed person, without a ١vere license from his bishop, and such licenses scarcely ever granted.2 Er. Morton, a Bishop of Eichfield, in 1620, employed liimself with great, and at last successful, zeal in detecting a case of imposture in a'witch-story which was believed by a Catholic priest,a and he succeeded in saving the life of the accused. At a still earlier period, Er. Harsenet, who was afterwards Archbishop of York, in an attack upon ‘Popish impostures,’ boldly enumerated among them most of the forms of witchcraft,* and appears to have been entirely inci.edulous on the subject. Ho was undoubtedly wrong in ascribing witchcraft to Catholicism, foi. it flourished at least as vigorously under the shadow of Puritanism j yet tlie expression of so bold an opinion is well worthy of notice, and was, I believe, at the time it was written, a unique -Hutchin ؟..phenomenon among the English clergy

أ Bodin, p. 217. able to find any otlier case ا Hutcliinson. Dedication. but Sir Kenelm Digby, in his ٥ .Ibid. annotation to the passage from .Ibid. Sir Thomas Browne, which I I. at least, have not been have before quoted, says of tlie ٥ 126 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

son himself wrote his history before the helief was entirely extinct. But that which shows most strikingly the moderation of the Anglican clergy, is the comparatively small amount of delusion which the history of English ^tchcraft presents. On the Continent there was undoubtedly much imposition j but, for tbe most part, the subject pi.esents rather the aspect of an epidemic or a mania. The religious terrorism acted on diseased ima^nations, coloured every form of madness, and predisposed the minds of men to solve every difficulty by a supernatural hypothesis. In England, on the other hand, imposture appears the general cliaracteristic. The books on the subject are full of cases and, with the exception of the ا of jugglers’ tricks j period when the Puritans were in the ascendant, it never seems to have assumed the appearance of a great and general panic. Indeed, in most of its worst manifestations, the fanaticism of Puritanism ١vas manifested.2 In England that fanaticism was hridled and re. pressed. There was one country, however, in which it obtained an absolute ascendency. There was one country inwli-ich the Pui’itan ministers succeeded in and, in ل helief: ‘ Tliere are divines of on English witchcraft great note, and far from any comparing the different sections suspicion of being irreligious, of the Church, he says : ‘On the that do not oppose it.' The whole, the Calvinists, generally hook of Dr. Harsenet is, I he- speaking, were, of all the con- lieve, rare ; I only know, it by tending sects, the most sus- tlie copiousextractsin Hutchin- picious of soi.cery, the most un- son. There is a notice of its doubting believers in its ex- the istence, and the most eager to ؛Hist, oj \\\٠ ا٠ 0ﺣﻠﺲ ١vith what they Puritans. follow it up -See Scott’s Discovery, Vas- conceived to be tlie due pun ا Sim . ishment of the most fearful ١vell no- of crimes.’ {Demonology and Sir w . Scott lias ﺀ ticed tliis influencecf Puritanism Witchcraft, Letter 8.) MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 127

moulding alike the character and the liablts of the nation, and in disseminating their harsh and gloomy tenets through every section of society. While Eng- land was breaking loose from her most ancient superstitions, and advancing with gigantic strides along the paths of knowledge, Scotland still cowered with a willing submission before her clergy. Never was a mental servitude more complete, and never was ft tyranny maintained with more inexorable barbarity. Supported by public opinion, the Scottish ministei.s succeeded in overawing all opposition, in prohibfting the faintest expression of adverse opinions, in prying to and controlling the most private concerns of ئ

domestic life 5 in compelling everyone to conform absolutely to all the ecclesiastical regulations they and in, at last, directing the whole scope ؛ enjoined and current of legislation. They maintained theii’ ascendency over tlie popular mind by a system of religious terrorism, whicli we can now barely conceive. The misery of man, the anger of the Almighty, the fearful power and continual presence of Satan, the agonies of hell, were the constant subjects of their preaching. All the most ghastly forms of human suffering were accumulated as faint images of tlie eternal doom of the immense majority of mankind. Countless miracles were represented as taking place ٦vere almost all of them within tlie land, but they miracles of terror. Disease, storm, famine, every awfill calamity that fell upon mankind, or blasted the produce of the soil, was attributed to tlie direct -and Satan himself was re أ intervention of spirits presented as constantly appearing in a visible form Such teaching produced its natural ؛.upon the earth 1 I need hardly refer to the Kirk in. Buckle’s History—a noble description of the Scotcli description the substantial jus- 128 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. effects. In a land where credulity was universal, in a land where the intellect was numhed and palsied by these awful contemplations, where almost eve^ form of amusement was suppressed, and where the thouglits of men were concentrated with an undi- vided energy on theological conceptions, such teaching necessarily created tlie superstition of witchcraft. أ Witchcraft was hut one form of the panic it pi.oduced it was but the reflection by a diseased imagination of the popular tlieology. We accordingly find tliat it assumed the most frightfill proportions, and the darkest character. In other lands tlie superstition ,in Scot ؛ was at least mixed with much of imposture It ؛.land it, appeal's to have been entirely undiluted was pi’oduced by tlie teaching of tlie clergy, and it was everywhere fostered by their persecution. Eagerly, passionately, with a thii'st for blood tliat knew no mercy, with a zeal that never tii.ed, did tliey accomplish tlieii' t-ask. Assembled in solemn synod, the College of Aberdeen, in 1603, enjoined every minister a ٤ to take t١vo of the eldei'S of his pai'isli to make subtle and privy inquisition,’ and to question all the parishioners upon oath as to their knowledge of witches.2 Boxes were placed in the churches for tlie express pui'pose of receiving the accusations.3 When a woman liad fallen undei' suspicion, tlie ministei' from the pulpit denounced lier by name, exhorted

١vill be questioned tliat no cases of imposture have tice of which by no one who is acquainted been detected in Scotch witch- with the histo., of Scotcli trials, is noted by Buckle (vol. ivitehcraft. On tlie multitude ii. pp. 189, 190). of mira.cles and apparitions of 2 Dalyell, Darker Supersti٠ Satan tliat were believed, see tions of Scotland, p. 624. .Ibid. p. 623 ٥ .pp. 349-369 .Tlie very remarkable fact ا MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 129 his parishioners to give evidence against her, and prohibited anyone from sheltering her.1 In the same spirit lie exerted the power whicli was given him by a parocliial organisation, elaborated perliaps more skilfully than any other in Europe. Under tliese circumstances, tlie witch-cases seem to iiave fallen almost entirely into tlie hands of the clergy. They were the leading commissioners. Before tliem the confessions were taken. They were the acquiescing witnesses, or the directors of tlie tortures by which those confessions were elicited.2 And when we read the nature of tliese tortures, wh.en و which were worthy of an oriental imagination we remember tliat they were inflicted, for the most part, on old and feeble and half-doting women, it is difficult to repress a feeling of the deepest ablior- rence for those men who caused and who encouraged them. If the witch was obdurate, the first, and it was said the most effectual, method of obtaining con- waking lier.’ An ٤ fession was by what was termed iron bridle or hoop was bound across her face with four prongs, which were tlirust into her mouth. It was fastened behind to the wall by a chain, in such a manner that the victim was unable to lie down j and in this position she was sometimes kept for several days, whde men were constantly with her to prevent her from closing her eyes for a moment in sleep.3

Dalyell, darker Supersti- taken before presbyteries, or ا tions OJ Scotland, p. 624, &c. certain special commissioners, 2 See on fcbis subject Pitcairn’s wbo usually ranked among tbeir Criminal Trials of Scotland, a number tbe leading clergy of vast repository of original do- tbose districts where their hap- cuments on the subject. Pit. less victims resided’ (vol. iii. cairn gives numbers of tliese p. 598). One of the most powerful ٥ The‘ ذ ronfessions. He adds confessions were commonly incentives to confession was VOL. I. K .RATIONALISM IN EUROPE 13٥

Partly in order to effect tilis object, and partly to discover the insensible mark which was the sure sign of a witch, long pins were thrust into lier body.1 At the same time, as it was a saying in Scotland that a witch would never confess while she could drink, excessive thirst wa.s often added to hertortures.2 Some

prisoners have been waked for five nights 5 one, it is said, even for nine.3 The physical and mental suffering of such a process was -sufficient to overcome the resolution of many,

and t-0 distract the understanding of not a few. But other and perliaps worse tortures were in reserve. The three principal that were habitually applied, were the pennywinkis, the boots, and the caschiel- a^ s. The first was a kind of thumb-screw j the systematically to deprive tlie tew days of such discipline, suspected witch of the refresh- maddened hy tlie misery of her ment of her natural sleep. . . . forlorn and helpless state, would Iron collars, or witches’ bl’idles, be rendered fit for confessing are still preserved in various anything, in order to be rid of parts of Scotland which had the dregs of her wretclied life. been used for such iniquitous At intervals fresh examinations purposes. Tliese instruments took place, and these were re- were so consti’ucted that, by peated from time to time until means of a hoop which passed her “ contumacy,” as it was over the head, a piece of iron termed, was subdued. The having four points or prongs clergy and kirk sessions appear was forcibly thrust into the to have been the unwearied in- mouth, two of t.hese being di- struments o f“ purging the land and to them, ill ”؛rected to the tongue and palate, of witchcraft the otliers pointing outwards to tlie first distance, alt the com. eacli cheek. This infernal ma- plaints and informations tr e cliine was secured by a padlock. made.) (Pitcairn, vol. i. part ii. At tlie back of tlie collar was p. 50.) ,Lalyell, P.645. The ‘prick ا fixed a ring by whicli to attacli the witch to a staple in tl'ie wall ers' formed a regular profession of her cell. Tlius equipped, in Scotland. Letters from the ٠ه١أل١ةذ ٠ع and night and ،lay waked and .wo .\٠ .\١o ,watched by some skilful person North of Scotland appointed by her inquisitors, 227-234. .Lalyell, p. 645 و the unhappy creature, after a 131MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 131MAGIC

second was a frame in which the leg was inserted, and in which it was broken by wedges, driven in by a hammer j tlie third was also an fron frame for the leg, which was from time to time heated over a brazier.! Fire-matches were sometimes applied to the body of tlie victim.2 We read in a contemporary legal register, O'f one man who was kept for -vehement tortour ’ in the cas ﺀ forty-eight lionrs in and of another wlio remained in the same و chielawis frightfri machine for eleven days and eleven nights, whose legs were broken daily for fourteen days in the boots, and who was so scourged tliat the whole skin was torn from his body.3 This was, it is true, censured as an extreme case, but it was only an excessive application of the common torture. How many confessions were extorted, and how many victims perished by these means, it is now impossible to say. A vast number of depositions and confessions are preserved, but they were only taken before a single court, and many others took cogni- sance of the crime. We know that in 1662, more t-han 150 persons were accused of witchcraft 5 4 and that in the preceding year no less tlian fourteen commissions had been issued for the trials.. After these facts, it is scarcely necessary to mention, how ١vomen one traveller casually notices having seen nine burning together at freith in 1664, or how, in 1678, nine others were condemned in a single day.. Tlie charges were, indeed, of the most comprehensive order, and the wildest fancies of Sprenger and Nider

Pitcairn. the same trial in 1596. .Dalyell, p. 669 ٠ .Dalyell, p. 657 2 .Pitcairn, vol. ili. p. 597 ٥ .PitCairn, vol. i. part ii. p 3 .Dalyell, pp. 669, 670 ٥ n؛ Tlie tw. caseS were .376 K 2 132 RATIONALISM IN EUROFE.

were defended by tbe Presbyterian divines.1 In most Catbolic countries, it was a grievance of tbe clergy tliat tbe civil power !.efused to execute tliose wlio only employed tbeir po١ver in curing disease. In Scotland sucb persons were unscrupulously put to deatb. 2 Tbe witcbes were commonly strangled before tbey were burnt, but tbis merciful provision was very frequently omitted. An Earl of Mar (wbo appears to bave been tbe only person sensible of tbe inhumanity of tbe proceedings) tells bow, ^ tb a piercing yell, some women once broke balf-burnt from tbe slow fire tbat consumed tbem, struggled for a few moments witli despairing energy among tlie spectators, but soon witb sbrieks of blasphemy ١vild protestations of innocence sank t ith in g in and agony amid tbe fiames.a Tbe contemplation of sucli scenes as tliese is one of tbe most painful duties tbat can devolve upon tbe Eor a curious instance of one man succeeded in cutting ا this, see tliat strange hook, off the leg of a cat who attacked ‘ The Secret CommoieaUh,: him, that the leg immediately published in 1691, hy Robert turned into that of an old wo- Kirk, Minister of Aberfoil. He man, and that four ministers repre.sents evil spirits in liuman signed a certificate attesting the form as habitually living among fact (vol. i. pp. 271-277). One tlie Higlilanders. Succubi, or, ot' the principal Scotch writers as tlie Scotch called them. Lean- on these matters was Sinclair, nain Sith, seem to have been wlio was Professor of Moral especially common; and Mr. Philosophy at Glasgow. -.Wright’s Sorcery, vol. i ٥ Kirk (who identifies them with the * Familiar Spirits ’ of Eeu- pp. 165, 166. Even to consult teronomy) complains very sadly with witches W iis made capital. .Pitcairn, vol. iii. p. 598 ٥ of the affection of many young Scotchmen for tile ‘fair ladies Another Earl of Mar had heen of this aerial orfler ’ (p. 35). himself hied to death for liav- Captain Hurt relates a lon.g ing, as was alleged, consulted discussion lie had witli a mi- witli witches how to sliorten nister on the subject of old the life of James MI. (Scott’s women turning tliemselves into Demonology) let. ix.) cats. Tlie minister said tliat MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 133 historian, h it it is one from which he must not shrink, if he would form a just estimate of tlie past. There are opinions that may be traced from age to age hy footsteps ofhlood j and the intensity of the suffering they caused is a measure of the intensity with which they were realised. Scotch witchcraft was but the result of Scotch Puritanism, and it faithfillly reflected the character of its parent. It is true that, before the Reformation, the people had been grossly ignorant and superstitious j but it is also true, that witchcraft in its darker forms was so rare that no law was made on the subject till 1563 j that the law was not carried to its M l severity till 1590 j that the delusion invariably accompanied the religious teri١orism which the Scotch clergy so zealously maintained., and tliat those clergy, all over Scotland, applauded and stimu- The ascendency they had '؛.lated the persecution obtained was boundless, and in this respect tlieir power was entirely undisputed. One word from them might have arrested tlie tortures, hut that word was never spoken. Their conduct implies not merely a mental aberration, but also a callousness of feeling which lias rarely been attained in a long career of vice. Yet these were men who had often sliown, in the most trying circumstances, the highest and tlie most heroic ^rtues. They were men whose courage Sir Walter Scott seems to had this one bond of union with ا .and, as Sir w إ t.hink that the first great out- the ministers burst of persecution began when s. says, ‘ during the halcyon James VI. went to Denmark to period of Union between kirk t'etch his bride. Before his de- and king, their hearty agree- parture he exhorted the clergy ment on tlie subject o'f wit.ch- to assist the magistrates, whicli cral't failed not to lieat tlie fires they did, and most especially against all persons suspected of ,miqvnty: ^Demonology* ﻋﻞ\\ا؟ in matters of witchcraft. The Idng was himself perfectly in- Tetter ix.) See also Linton's fatuated with the subject, and Witch Stories, &. 134 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

had never flinched when persecution was raging a.round j men who had never pal-tered with their consciences to attain the favours of a kin g; men whose self-devotion and zeal in their sacred calling had. seldom been sui.passed ; men who, in all the private relations of life, were doubtless amiable and affection-

ate. It is not on them that our blame should fall 5 it is on the system tliat made them what they were. They were but illustrations of the great truth, that when men have come to regard a certain class of their fellow-creatures as doomed by the Almighty to eternal and excruciating agonies, and when their theology directs their minds with intense and realising earnestness to the contemplation of such agonies, the result will be an indifference to the suffering of those whom they deem the enemies of their God, as absolute as it is perhaps possible for liuman nature to attain. In Scotland the character of theology was 'even more hard and unpitying than in other countries where Puritanism existed, on account of a special circumstance which in some respects reflect'S great credit on its teachers. The Scotch Kirk was the result of a democratic movement, and for some time, almost alone in Europe, it was the unflinching cham- pion of political liberty. It was a Scotchman, Buchanan, who first brought liberal principles into clear relief. It was the Scotch clergy who upheld them witli a courage that can hardly be overrated. Their circumstances made them liberals, and tliey naturally souglit to clothe their liberalism in a theological garb. They soon discovered precedents for their rebellions in the history of the *Judges and and accordingly the union of ؤ Captains of the Jews MAGIC. AND WITCHCRAFT. 135 an intense theological and an intense liberal feeling made them revert to the scenes of the Old Testa- ment, to the sufferings and also'the conquests of the Jews, with a peculiar affection. Their wliole theology took an Old Testament cast. Their modes of tliought, their very phraseology, were derived and the constant contemplation of ؛ from that source the massacres of Canaan, and of the provisions of the Uevitical code, produced its natural effect upon their ؛.minds It is scarcely possible to write a history of the decline pf witchcraft in Scotland, for the change of opinions was almost entirely unmarked by Incidents on which we can dwell. At one period we find eve^one predisposed to believe in witches. At a later period we find that this predisposition has silently passed away.2 Two things only can, I tliink, be asserted on the subject with confidence—that the sceptical movement advanced much more slowly in Scotland than in England, and that the ministers were among the latest to yield to it. Until the close of the seventeenth century, the trials were sufi ficiently common, but after this time they became rare. It is generally said that the last execution was in 1722 ; but Captain Burt, who visited the country in 173., speaks of a woman who was burnt as late as 1727.3 The same very keen observer was greatly

It is ratherremarkable that racter of the decline of, Scotch ا Rodin had also formed his the- witchcraft has been noticed by ology almost exclusively from DugaldStewart, Dissert, p. 508. t.he Old Testament, his rever- 3 Burt’s Letters from the .vol. i. pp ence for which was so great North of Scotland٠ that some (Grotius and Hallam 227-231 and 2 7 1 - 2 7 7 . I sus. among others) have questioned pectBurt has misdated the exe- ؛whether he believed the New. cution that took place in 1722 2 'The silent unreasoning cha- placing it in 1 7 2 7 -. RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.136

struck by tbe extent to which the belief stili continued in Scotland, at a time when it was quite

abandoned by tlie educated classes in England 5 and he found its most ardent supporters among the Pres- the divines of ﺀ ,byterian ministers. As late as 1736 the Associated Presbytery ’ passed a resolution declaring their belief in witchcraft, and deploring the scepticism tliat was general.! I have now completed my review of the liistory of witclicraft, in its relation to the theologies of Pome, of England, and of Geneva. I have shown that the causes of the changes it presents must be sought, not within any narrow circle of special doctrines, but in the general intellectual and religious condition of the time. I have shown, in other words, that witchcraft resulted, not from isolated circumstances, but from modes of thouglitj that it grew out of a certain intellectua.l temperature acting on cei.tain theological tenets, and reflected with almost sta-rtling vividness each great intellectual change. Al'ising amid the ignorance of an early civilisation, it was quickened into an intenser life by a theological struggle which allied terrorisnr with credulity, and it declined under the influence of that great rationalistic movement which, since the seventeenth century, lias been on all sides encroacliing on tlieology. I have d١velt upon tlie decadence of the superstition at considerable length; for it was at once one of tlie earliest and one of tlie most important conquests of tlie spirit of Rationalism. Tliei.e are very few examples of a cliange of belief tliat was so strictly normal, so little accelerated by sectarian passions or individual genius, and there. .Burton, Hist, of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 331 ا MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 137 fore so well suited to illustrate the laws of intellectual development. Besides this, the fact that tlie belief when realised was always followed by persecution, enables us to trace it.s successive stages witli more than common accuracy, while the period that has elapsed since its destruction lias, in a grea.t measure, removed tlie subject from the turbid atmospliere of controversy. It is impossible to leave the histo^ of witclicraft without reflecting liow vast an amount of suffering lias, in at least this respect, been !.emoved liy tlie process of a rationalistic civilisation. I know that when we remember the frightful calamities tliat liave from tim.e to time flowed from theological divisions j when we consider the countless martyrs who have perished in the dungeon or at tlie stake, tlie millions who have fallen in the religious wars, the elements of almost undying dissension that liave been planted in so many noble nations and liave paralysed so many glorious enterprises, the fate of a few thousand innocent persons who were liurnt alive seems to sink into comparative insignificance. Yet it is probable that no class of victims endured sufferings so unalloyed and so intense. Not for them the wild fanaticism that nerves tlie soul against danger, and almost steels the body against torments. Not for them tlie assurance of a glorious eternl-ty, tliat lias made the m a r t look with exultation oil tlie l’ising flame as on the Elijah’s cliariot that is to liear his soul to heaven. Not for tliem the solace of lament- ing friends, or tlie consciousness that their memories would he cherished and lionoured by posterity. They ١١٣ere deemed died alone, liated and unpitied. They by all mankind the worst of criminals. Their very 138 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. kinsmen shrank from them as tainted and accursed. The superstitions they had imhibed in childhood, blending with tlie illusions of age, and with the horrors of their position, persuaded them in many cases that they were indeed tlie bondslaves of Satan, ٦١٣ere about to exchange their torments upon and earth for an agony that was as excruciating, and was eternal. And, besides all this, we have to consider the terrors which the belief must- liave spread through we have to pictui’e the anguish ؛ the people at large of the mother, as she imagined that it was in the power of one whom she had offended, to blast in a moment every object o.f her affection : we have to conceive, above all, the aivful shadow that the dread of accusation must have thrown on tlie enfeebled faculties of age, and tlie bit-terness it must liave added to desertion and to solit-ude. All tliese sufferings were the result of a single superstition, which the spirit of Rationalism lias destroyed. 139

CHAPTER II.

ON THE DECLINING SENSE OF TIIE MIRACULOUS

THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH.

T he same habits of mind which induced men at fil.st to recoil from the belief in witchcraft with an instinctive and involuntary repugnance as intrinsically incredible, and afterwards openly to repudiate it, have operated in a very similar manner, and with very similar effects, upon the belief in modern miracles. The triumph, however, has not been in this case s'o complete, for the Church of Rome still maintains the continuance of miraculous powers j nor has the decay been so strictly normal, for the fact that most of the Roman Catholic miracles are associated with distinctively Roman Catholic doctrines has introduced much miscellaneous controversy into the question. Rut, notwithstanding these considerations, the general outlines of the movement are clearly visible, and tliey are well deserving of a brief notice. If we would realise the modes of thought on this subject prior to the Reformation, we must quite dis- miss from our minds the ordinary Protestant notion that miracles were very rare and exceptional phenomena, t'-he primary object of which was always to RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.140 accredit the teacher of some divine truth that couid not otherwise he established. In the c itin g s of the Fathers, and especially of those of the fourth and fifth centuries, we find them not only spoken of as exist, ing in profiision, hut as heing directed to the most various ends. Tliey were a kind of celestial charity, alleviating tlie sorrows, healing the diseases, and supplying the .wants of the faithful. They were frequent incitements to piety, stimulating the devotions of the languid, and rewarding tlie patience of the fervent. They were the signs of great and saintly virtue, securing universal respect for those who had attained a high degree of sanctity, or assist- ing them in the performance of their more austere devotions. Thus, one saint halting retired into the desert to lead a life of mortification, the birds daily brought him a supply of food, which was just sufficient for his wants 5 and when a kindred spitit ^sited him in liis retirement, they doubled the sup. ply j and when lie died, two lions issued from the desert to dig liis ^ave, uttered a long howl of mourning over his body, and knelt down to beg a lilessing from the survivor.! Thus, another saint, wlio was of opinion that a monk should never see himself naked, stood one day in despair, upon the banks of a liridgeless stream, wlien an angel descended to assist Ilim, and transported Ilim in safety across the dreaded element.2 Besides this, the power of magic was, as we liave seen, fully recognised, both liy Christians and Pagans, and each

.Raul til© Hermit. See his the first of tlie liermits ا Life by St. Jerome. Tlie visi- 2 Ammon (Srcrates, lib. iv. c. .(١١as St. Antony, 23 tor of Paul T IIE MIRACLES ov T H E CHURCn. 141 admitted the reality of the miracles of the other, ؛.though ascrihing them to the agency of demons If we pass from tlie Fathers into tlie middle ages, we find ourselves in an atmosphere tliat was dense and charged with the supernatural. The demand for miracles was almost houndless, and tlie supply was equal to the demand. Men of extraordinary sanctity seemed naturally and habitually to obtain the power of performing them, and their lives are crowded witli their achievements, which were attested by tlie highest sanction of the Church. Nothing could be more common than for a holy man to be lifted up from tlie floor in the midst of his devotions, or to be visited by the Virgin or by an angel. There was scarcely a town that could not show some relic that had cured the sick, or some image that had opened and shut its eyes, or bowed its head to an earnest worshipper. It was somewhat more extraordinary, but not in the least incredible, that the fish should have thronged

to the shore to hear St. Antony preach, 0 1 . that it sho'uld be necessa-ry to cut the hair of the crucifix at Burgos once a month, or that the Virgin of the Pillar, at Saragossa, should, at the prayer of one of her worshippers, have restored a leg that had been amputated.2 Men who were afflicted witli apparently hopeless disease, started in a moment into perfect healtli when brought into contact with a relic of See some admirable re- miracle in the cathedral of ا marks on this subject in Maury, Saragossa, opposite the image. It is one about which a vast ل Legendes Pieuses, pp. 240-244 alSo Farmer, On Demoniacs, amount has been written, and Middleton, Free Enquiry, pp. which the Spanish theologians 85-87. Bingham, Antiquities are said to regard as peculiarly of the Christian Church) book well establislied. Hume has iii. c. 4. noticed it in his Essay on 2 There is a picture of tlie Miracles. 142 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

Christ or of the Virgin. The virtue of such relics ra- dialed in blessings all around them. Glorious visions heralded their discovery, and. angels have transported them through the air. If a missionary went abroad among the lieathen, supernatural signs confounded his opponents, and made the powers of darkness fly before liis steps. If a Cliristian prince unsheathed liis sword in an ecclesiastical cause, apostles had been known to combat witli his army, and avenging miracles to scatter his enemies. If an unjust suspicion attaclied to an innocent man, he liad immediately recourse to an ordeal which cleared his charactei. and condemned his accusers. All this was going on habitually in every part of Europe without exciting the smallest astonisliment or scepticism. Those who know liow thoroughly tlie supernat'Ural element per. vades the old lives of the sa.ints, may form some ١vere related notion of the multitude of miracles tliat and generally believed from the fact that M. Guizot has estimated the number oftliese lives, accumulated In the Bollandi'st Collection, at about 25,000.1 Yet tliis was but one department of miracles. It does not include tlie thousands of miraculous images and pictures tliat were operating throughout Christendom, and the countless apparitions and miscellaneous pro- -placed according to tbe cakn ؟ ،. ،!,Hist, de la, Oiuilisatioft \ on XVII. The Bollantlist dar. Fifty-five large folio؟ Collection was begun at Ant- volumes have been published, werp by a Jesuit named Bol- but they ouly extend to the end land, in 1643, was stopped for of October. See a very beauti- a time by the French Revo- fal essay on tlie subject by lution, but renewed under tlie Renan, Etudes Beligieuses. M. patronage of tlie Belgian Cliani- Renan says: ‘ II me semble que bers. It Wiis intendetl to con- pour un vrai philosophe une tain a complete collection of prison cellulilire avec ces cin- all tlie original documents on quante cinq volumes in-folio, the subject. The saints are serait un vrai paradis.’ THE MTRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 143

(ligies that were taking place in every country, and on all occasions. Whenever a saint was canonised, it was necessary to prove that he had worked miracles j but except on those occasions miraculous accounts seem never to have been questioned. The most educated, as well as the most ignorant, habitually re. sorted to the supernatural as the simplest explanation of every difficirlty. All this has now passed away. It has passed away not only in lands where Protestantism is triumpliant, but also in those where the Roman Catholic faith is still acknowledged, and wliere tlie medieval saints are still venerated. St. Januarius, it is true, continues to liquefy at Naples, and the pastorals ot 'French bisliops occasionally relate apparitions of the Virgin among very ignorant and superstitious pea- sants j but the implicit, undiscriminating acquiescence witli which such narratives were once received, has long since been replaced by a derisive incredulity. Those who know tlie. tone that is habitually adopted on these subjects by tlie educated in Roman Catholic countries will admit that, so far from being a subject for triumphant exultation, tlie very few modern miracles which are related are everywhere regarded as a scandal, a stumbling-block, and a difficulty. Most educated persons speak of them with undis- some attempt to evade ؟guised scorn and incredulity a ؟ or explain them away by a natural hypothesis very few faintly and apologetically defend them. Nor can it be said that what is manifested is merely a desire for a more minute and accurate examination of the evidence by whicli they are supported. On the contra^, it will, I think, be admitted that these alleged miracles are commoi'ily rejected with an as- 144 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. surance that is as peremptory and unreasoning a^ .١vhich they would have been once received that with Nothing can be more rare tiian a serious examination, by those who disbelieve them, ot. the testimony on which th.ey rest. They are repudiated, not because they are unsupported, but because tliey are miraculous. Men are prepared to admit almost any conceivable concurrence of natural improbabilities rather than resort t,0 the hypotliesis of supernatural interference. and this spirit is exhibited not merely by open sceptics, but by men who are sincere thougli perhaps not very fervent believers in tlieir Church. It is the prevailing characteristic of that vast body of educated persons, whose lives are chiefly spent in secular pursuits, and who, while they receive with unenquiring faith the great doctrines of Catliolicism, and duly perform its leading duties, derive t'heir mental tone and colouring from the general spirit of their age. If you speak to them on the subject, they will reply with a shrug and with a smile 5 they will tell you tliat it is indeed melancholy that such narratives should be narrated in the middle of the nineteentli century j they wdl treat tliem as palpable anaclironisms, as obviously and intrinsically incredible j but they will add that it is not necessary for all Roman Catholics to believe them, and that it is unfair to judge the enliglitened members of the Church by the measure of the superstitions of tlie ignorant. Tliat this is the general tene adopt-ed by the great majoi١ity of educated Roman Catholics, both in their writings and in their conversation, will scarcely be a matt-er of dispute. It is also very manifest, that it is the direct product, and measure of civilisation. The TOE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 145 districts where an acccnnt of a modern miracle is received with least derision, are precisely those which are most torpid and most isolated. The classes wliose liahits of thought are least shocked by such an account, are those which are least educated and least influenced by the broad current of civilisation. ١ve put aside the clergy and those who are most If immediately under their influence, we find that this habit of mind is the invariable concomitant of educa^ tion, and is the especial characteristic of those persons whose intellectual sympathies are most extended, and who therefore represent most faithfully the various intellectual influences of their time. If you connect a nation wliich has long been insulated and superstitious with the general movement of European civilisation by means of railways, or a free press, or the removal of protecting laws, you will most infallibly inoculate it with this spirit. It is further evident that this habit of thought IS not a merely ephemeral movement, produced by some exceptional event, or by some transient literary fashion peculiar to pur own century. All history shows that, in exact proportion to the intellectual progress of nations, the accounts of miracles taking place among them become rarer and rarer, until at last tliey entirely cease.! In this fact we liave a clear ؛ indication of the decline of the old habits of tliought -This has been noticed in when natural knowledge pre ا ١vas an extremely ingenious fashion vailed: for He knew there by Bishop S p r a t t ‘ God never not so mucli need to make use yet left Hiriself without a wit- of extraordinary signs when and it is ob- men were diligent in the works و hess in the world servable that He has commonly of His hands and at.tentive to chosen tile dark and ignorant the impressions of His footsteps ages wherein to work miracles, in HiS creatures.’ (Hist, of ز.but seldom or never the times Royal Society, p. 350 VOb. I. L 146 RATIONALISM IN RUROPE.

for tliose who regard tliese miracles as real, ascribe their disappearance to the progress of incredulity, while those who disbelieve them maintain that they were the results of a particular direction given to the imagination, and of a particular form of imposition created and suggested by the medieval liabits of thouglit. In other words, the old spirit, according to one class, is tlie condition, and, according to tlie other class, the cause of the miracles 5 and, tlierefore, the cessation of miraculous narratives, when unac. companied by an avowed change of creed, implies the decay of tliat spirit. If these propositions be ti١ue_and I scarcely think that any candid person wlio seriously examines the subject can question them—they lead irresistibly to a Tliey show tliat ١. .very important general conclusion tlie repugnance of men to believe miraculous narratives is in direct proportion to the progress of civili. sation and the diffusion of knowledge. It is not simply that science explains some things which were formerly deemed supernatural, sucli as comets ot. eclipses. We find the same incredulity manifested in Roman Catholic countries towards alleged miracles by saints, or relics, or images, on which science can throw no direct light, and which contain no element of improbability, except tliat they are miraculous. It is not simply that civilisation strengthens Protest- .autism at the expense of tlie Church of Rome. We find tliis spirit displayed by Roman Catholics themselves, tliougli tlie unifoi.m tendency of their theology is to destroy all notion of tlie antecedent improbability of modern miracles; and though the fact that these miracles are only alleged in tlieir own church sliould inveat them with a peculiar attraction. It is not THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 147

even that there is an increasing repugnance to an unscrutinising and blindfold faith. Alleged miracles are rejected with immediate unreasoning incredulity by the members of a church which has done everything in its power to prepare the mind for t h e i^ reception. The plain fact is, that the progress of civilisation produces invariably a certain tone and habit of thought, which makes men recoil from miraculous narratives with an jnstinciiiyft n.nr| i m i . diate repngnRTmqr as though they were essentially incredible, independently of any definite arguments, and in spite of dogmatic teaching. Whether habit of mind is good or evil, I do not now discuss ; that it exists wherever civilisation advances, is, I conceive, incontestable. We may observe, however, that it acts with much greater force against contemporary than against historical miracles. Roman Catholics who will reject with immediate ridicule an account of a miracle taking place in their own day, will speak ^ th considerable respect of a precisely similar miracle that is attributed to a medieval saint. Nor is it at all difficult to discover the reason of this distinction. Events that took place in a distant past are not realised with the same intense vividness as those which take place among ourselves. They do not press upon US with the same keen l.eality, and are not judged by the same measure. They come down to US invested with a legendary garb, obscured by the haze of years, and surrounded by circumstances that are so unlike our own that they refract the imagination, and cloud and distort its pictures. Besides this, many of these narratives are entwined with the earliest associations the belief in them is ؛ of the Roman Catholic child 148 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. infused info his yet undeveloped mind, and they are thus at no period brought in contact with a matured and unbiassed judgment. We find, therefore, that although tliese general habits of thought do, un. doubtedly, exercise a retrospective influence, that is not their first or their most powerful efibct. In Protestant countries there has not been as com., plete a change as tliat which we have been considering, for Protestantism was only called into existence .١vhen the old liabits of thought had greatly declined The Reformation was created and pervaded by the modern spirit j and its leaders were compelled, by the exigencies of their position, to !.epudiate the miraculous accounts of their time. They could not with any consistency admit that the Almighty had selected as the peculiar channels of His grace, and had glorified by countless miracles, devotions which they stigmatised as blasphemous, idolatrous, and superstitious. We find, accordingly, that from the very beginning, Protestantism looked upon modern miracles (except those which were comprised under the head of witchcraft) with an aversion and distrust that contrast remarkably with the unhesitating ere- dulity of its opponents. The history of its sects exhibits, indeed, some alleged miracles, which were,

apparently, the result of ignoi.ance 0 1 . enthusiasm, and a vei.y few which were obvious impositions. Such, for example, was tlie famous voice from tlie wall in the l.eign of Queen Mary, wilieh proclaimed tlie mass to lie idolatrous, just as tlie crucifix in Christ Churcli, at Hublin, shed tears of blood in the following reign, liecause the Protestant service was introduced into Ireland. On the whole, however, tlie now faith proved remarkably free from these THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 149 forms of deception; and its leaders generally con- ٦vhen curred in the belief, that miracles liad ceased Christianity had gained a definite ascendency in the world. The Patristic writings are full of miraculous accounts ; and most of the reformers, and especially those in England, treated Patristic authority with great respect; so tljat tlie line of demarcation between the miraculous and the non-miraculous age, was generally drawn at about the period when the most eminent of the Patliers passed away. As tliis wa.s not very long after Christianity liad obtained a complete command of tlie civil power, many plausible arguments could be urged' in support of the view, which appears, in England at least, to liave been universal. When Locke was writing liis famous Letters on Toleration, he was led to a consideration of the Patristic miracles by an argument which seems then to liave been deemed very forcible, but which, as it climate of opinion ’ ftom our ﺀ belougs to a different own, would now be regarded JAS both futile and irreverent. It was absolutely necessary, it was contended, under ordinary circumstances, for the wellbeing of Christianity, that it should be supported by persecution; tliat is to say, tliat the ciril power should suppress its opponents. When Christianity was still unrecognised by gover'nment, it existed in an abnormal condition; the laws of nature were suspended in its favour, and continual miracles ensured its triumph. When, however, the conversion of Constantine placed the ciril power at its disposal, the era of the supernatural was closed. The power of persecuting was obtained; and, therefore, the power of worlringmira.cles was withdrawn. The alliance between Church and 150 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

State being instituted, Christianity had arrived at its normal and final position, and exceptional assistance Tliis argument, the work ؛.had become unnecessary of the tlieologians of Oxford, was not likely to stagger

Locke 5 but the historical question which it opened was well calculated to arrest that keen and fearless intellect, so little accustomed to bow before unsupported authority, and a.t tlie very time engaged in the defence of toleration against the entire weight of ecclesiastical tradition. He appears to liave con- suited Sir Isaac Newton ; for, in one of Newton’s letters, we find a somewhat hesitating passage upon ٦vrote, ‘of good the subject: ‘Miracles,’ Newton oredit continued in the Church for about two or three hundred years. Gregorius Tliaumaturgus had his name from thence, and was one of the latest who was

eminent for that gift 5 but of tlieir number and frequency I am not able to give you a just account. Tlie history of those ages is very imperfect.’ 2 Locke does not appear to have adopted this view. In reply to the Oxford argument, he wrote a very remarkable passage, wliicli did not, apparently, attract at the time tlie attention it deserved, but which, long afterwards, obtained an extremely conspicuous place in the discussion. ‘ This, I think,’ he said, ‘ is evident, that

This argument, in a modified tise by a translation in tlie fifth ا form, has been reproduced by volume of Henrion. Histoire Muzarelli (a Ronmn theologiah de VEglise. of some note), in his Treatise 2 Brewster’s Life of Newton) on the Inquisition. He cites tlie p. 275. There is another letter ton to Locke on tlie'destruction of Ananias and Sap- from Ne١١ pliira, and of Simon Magus, subject, in King’s Life of Locke) but it is lit t l ؛ Ihis .class of miracles, lie slys, vol. i. p. 415؛ .and tlie Inquisition more thkn a catalogue of autlio إ ceased ؟ha is.in consequence, required. I rit.ies. -tliis vCry remarkable trea ’kno١١ THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 151 he who will build his faith or reasonings npon miracles delivered by Church historians, will find cause to go no further than the Apostles’ time, or else not to stop at- Constantine’s, since tlie writers after that period, whose word we readily take as unquestionable in other things, speak of miracles in tlieir time, with no less assurance than the Fathers before the fourth century j and a great part of the miracles of the second and third centuries stand upon the ci.edit of tlie writers of the fourth.’ 1 After tliis time, the subject of tlie miracles of the Fathers seems to have slept until public attention was called to it by the well-known work of Middleton. Free Inquiry ’ was a book of extraordinary ٤ That the merit—that it displayed great eloquence, great boldness, and great controversial dext.erity, and met with no opposition at all equal to its abilities, will scarcely be denied. But, in order to appreciate its success, ١ve should consider, besides these things, the general character of the age in wliich it appeared. Luring the half cent.ui^ that elapsed between Locke and Middleton, many influen.ces tliat it would be tedious to examine, but to which Locke himself by his pliilosophy most largely contributed, had profoundly modi, fied the tlieology of England. The cliarm and fascination which the early Fathers exercised upon the divines oftlie previous century had quite passed away. Tlie Patristic works fell rapidly into neglect, and the very few who continued to study them were but little imbued with their spirit. Nothing, indeed, could lie more unlike the tone of the Fathers tha.n the cold, passionless, and prudential theology of the eighteenth century, a theology which regarded Christ-ianity as .Third letter on Toleration; p. 269 ا 152 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. an admirable auxiliary to the police force, and a pi.inciple of decornm and of cohesion in society, but which carefnlly banished from it all enthusiasm, veiled or attenuated all its mysteries, and virtually reduced it to an authoritative system of moral philosophy. Tliere never had been a time when dienes had such a keen dread of anything tliat appeared absurd or grotesque. The spirit tliat, in the previous century, had destroyed the belief in witchcraft, passed in its full intensity into their works. Common sense was the dominating characteristic of all they wrote. Generous sentiments, disinterested virtue, reverential faith, sublime speculations, had passed away. Every preacher was employed in showing that Christianity was in all respects perfectly in accordance with human reason, in eliminating or obscuring whatever could shock the feelings or offend the judgment, in representing religion as intended to refine and liarmonise society, to embellisli all the relations of life, to give a higher sanction to the dictates of liuman prudence, and to ext.end the liorizon of that prudence beyond the grave. As a consequence of this state of mind, there was an increasing indisposition to accept miracles like those of the Fathers, wliicli were not included in the e^- dences of Christianity, and a decreasing revei١ence for the writers on whose testimony they rest. It was in the midst of this movement of thought, that Middleton published liis great attack upon the Fatristic miracles, and brought into clear relief both the difficulties and the importance of the subject. The writingsofthe Fathers contain numerous accounts of miracles which they alleged to have taken place in their own day and under their own notice, and which are of sucli a nature, and are related in such a THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 153 manner, that it seems scarcely possible to avoid the conclusion tliat they had really taken place, or else that the Fatliers deliberately palmed them off upon the credulity of their readers. Tlie works of the first centu^ tliat have come down to US are extremely scanty, and consist almost entirely of short epistles written witliout any historical or controversial pur. pose, for the encouragement or edification of be- .but, even in this century, the mart^dom of أ lievers St. Polycarp supplies an account which is clearly miraculous. Justin Martyr, who wrote very early in the second century, and it is said not more than fifty years after the death of St. John, distinctly asserts the continuance of miracles in his time, and from this date tlie evidence is ample and unbroken. The Protestant theory is, that miracles became gradually fewer and fewer, till they at last entirely disappeared. Tlie historical fact is, that generatioii after generation, the miraculous accounts liecame more numerous, more universal, and more extraordinary. As far as the Church historians can illustrate or ﺀ tlirow liglit upon anyfcliing, there is not a single point in all history so constantly, explicitly, and unanimously affirmed by them all, as the continual succession of those powe-rs through all ages, from the earliest Father wlio first mentions them down to the time of tlie Reformation.’ I If, tlien, we gave even a general credence to tlie historical eridence upon the subject, we should be carried down, without pause or chasm, into the depths of the middle ages j and we should be compelled to admit that what Pro- testants regard as the worst superstitions of the Church of Rome, were for centuries the habitual and .to tho Free Enquiry ة٠ه 0أل 00١ 154 RATIONALISM IN EUROPR.

.special channels of supernatural favour. If again, in defiance of all the ordinary rules of historical criticism, we believed the assertions of the writers oftlie fourtli centu^, but refiised to ci.edit the equally positive testhnony of the writers of the ninth cen- ,٦vc should still be met by the same difficulty ,tury though in a modified form. It may be contended, tliat the lathers of tlie fourth century were not Roman Catholics; but it is quite certain that they were not, in tlie ordinary sense of the word. Pro- testants. It is quite certain that there existed among them many practices, forms of devotion, and doctl'inal tendencies, which may not have been actually Roman Catliolic, but which, at least, hung upon the extreme verge of Catliolicism which inevitably gravitated to it, and which were the germs and the embryos of medijeval theology. Row, it is precisely in con- ncction with this department of tlieir theology that the miraculous accounts are most numerous. Such was the great difficulty of the question, regarded from the Protestant point of riew. Middleton met it by an attack upon the veracity of the Fathers, which was so eloquent, so uncompromising, and so admirably directed, that all England soon rang with the controversy. He contended that the religious leaders of tlie fourth century had admitted, eulogised, and habitually acted upon principles tliat wci.e diametrically opposed not simply to tlie aspirations of a transcendent sanctity, but to the dictates of tlie most- common lionesty. He sliowcd that tliey had applauded falsehood, tliat they had practised the most wholesale forgery, that they had haliitually and grossly falsified history, that they liad adopted to the fullest extent tlie system of pious frauds, and that THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 155

they continually employed them to stimulate tlie devotion of tlie people. These were the cliarges which he brought against men, around wliose hrows tile saintly aureole had sparkled for centuries with an unfading splendour j against those great Fathers wlio had formed the tlieological systems of Europe; who had been the arbitrators of so many controversies, and the objects of tlie homage of so many ci.eeds. Tlie evidence he adduced was pointed directly at tlie writers of the fourth century j liut he carried liis argument liack to a still earlier period. ‘When we reflect,’ he says, ‘ on that surprising confidence and security with wliich the principal Fathers of tliis fourth century have affirmed'as true wliat tliey themselves had either forged, or wliat they knew at least t'O be forged, it is natural to suspect tliat so bold a defiance of sacred truth could not lie acquired or become genera.l at once, but must have been carried gradually to that height by custom and the example of former times, and a long experience of what the ere. ٤’.dulityand superstition of the multitude wouldliear It is manifest that an attack of tliis kind opened out questions of the gravest and widest character. It shook the estimate of tlie Fatliers which liad been general, not only in the Church of Rome, but in a great degree among tlie ablest of the Reformers. In the Church of England especially, the Patristic autliority liad been virtually regarded as almost equal in authority to that of tlie inspired writers. Tlie first gi.eat theological work of the English Reformation was ‘ The Apology,’ in which Jewel justified the Reformei'S, by pointing out the deviations of the Cliurch of Rome from the Patristic sentiments. It Introductory Chapter. .RATIONALISM IN EUROPE 1٥6 had ever been the pride of the great divines of the seventeenth centu^ that they were the most profound stndents of the Patristic writings, the most faithful representatives of tlieir spirit, and the most loyal respecters of tlieir authority. The unsupported asser- t'ion of a Pather liad always been regarded as a most weighty, if not a decisive, ai’gument in controversy. Put surely this tone was idle and worse than idle, if tlie estimate of Middleton was correct. If the ١vere in trutli men of tlie most unbounded Pathers

credulity and of tlie laxest veracity 5 if tlie sense of tlie importance of dogmas liad, in tlieir minds, com. pletely superseded tlie sense of rectitude, it was alisurd to invest them ^ tli tliis extraordinary veneration. Tliey miglit still lie reverenced as men of undoulited sincerity, and of tlie nolilest heroism. They miglit still be cited as witnesses to tlie lieliefof tlieir time, and as representing tlie tendencies of its intellect; liut tlieir pre-eminent authority liad passed ,Put lieyond all tliis, there were otlier and a١vay٠ perliaps, graver questions suggested. Under what cil.cumstances was it permitted to reject tlie unanimous and explicit testimony of a'll ecclesiastical ١vas tlie measure of their credulity historians ? What and of tlieii. veracity ? Wliat again was tlie degree of tlie antecedent improbability of miracles, t-he criterion separating tlie true from the false, the amount of testimony required to substantiate tliem ? ١vliich wei٠e evoked ١vere the great questions Tliese in 1748, by tliis Doctor of Divinity, and they were sufficient for maiiy years to attract tlie attention of tlie ablest enquirers in England. Among the laity, the work of Middleton seems to’ liave met with great acceptance. Among tlie clergy, its impetuous. THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 157 uncompromising, and sceptical tone, naturally excited much alarm, and the University of Oxford signalised but it is a remarkable sign ؛ itself in the opposition of the times that the Fathers found no abler defenders than Church and Uodwell. Gibbon, who was then a v e ^ young man, and already entangled in the arguments ofBossuet, lost his remaining faith in Protest- antism during the discussion. He could not, he said, bring himself at that time to adopt the conclusions of Middleton, and he could not resist the evidence that miracles of good credit had continued in the Church after the leading doctrines of Catholicism had been introduced. He accordingly embraced those doctrines, and left the University without taking his degree. Hume investigated the subject from a pliilosophical point of view j he endeavoured to frame a general doctrine, determining the relation between miraculous narratives and historical testimony, the comparative improbability of the reality of miracles and ofthe unveracity of historians j and the result was his Essay Farmer, reproducing an old notion of ؛.on Miracles to believe ٠ ,Hume’s Essay was avow- harder,, he says ا edly an application (right or that God should alter or put wrong) -of Tillotson's famous out of its ordinary course some argument against transubstan- phenomenon of the great world tiation. It is not so generally for once, and make things act known that his method of rea- contrary to their ordinary rule soning had been also antici- purposely, that the mind of pated by Locke, who in a very men might do so always after, remarkable passage in his Com- than that this is some fallacy mon-place Hook, contends tliat or natural effect of whicli he men should not. believe any pro- knows not the cause, let it look position that is contrary to rea- ever so strange' (King, Life of son, on the authority either of L ock, vol. i. pp. 230, 231). See, inspiration or of miracle, for too, the chapter on Reason and -Um l V v e Essay ou the Hu؟" the realit.yof the inspiration or of the miracle can only be cs- ta u Understanding. It is ٠ .tablished by reason 158 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

Lightfoot, Webster, and Semter, and anticipating in this respect tbe current of German rationalism, attempted to explain tlie diabolical possessions of Scripture by tbe ordinary plienomena of epilepsy.. Warburton and Douglas, with probably most of tbe ablest of tbe clergy, abandoning tbe Patristic miracles, proceeded t.o establish tbe peculiar character and evidence of tbe miracles recorded by tlie Evangelists j and tlie general adoption of this tone may be said to have usliered in a new phase in tbe histo^ of miracles. It ba.s been often remarked as a singular fact, that almost every great step which lias lieen made by tbe English intellect, in connection with theology, lias lieen made in spite of the earnest and persistent opposition of tlie University of Oxford. Tlie attitude wliich that University preserved during tlie Middle- tonian conti’oversy was precisely the same as that -wliich it had exhibited towards the two great ques- t.ions of the previous century. The advocates of the theory of civd liberty, in opposition to tlie theory of passive obedience, and the advocates of toleration as opposed to persecution, liad found at Oxford their most nnflinching and their most able adversaries. In our own century, when tbe secularisation of politics was forced upon the public mind by the discussions on the Test Act and on Catliolic Emancipation, and when it liad become evident to all attentive observei'S that tliis question was destined to be the battle-field of the contest between tlie modern spirit and tradition, -Farmer, who was a dissent- both truth and error. He at ا ing minister, desired to destroy tempted to showthat there were the difficulty arising from tlie no such things as diabolical fact that miracles were gene- miracles of any kind, rally represented as attesting THE MIRACLES OF 'THE CHURCH. 159 the University of Oxford showed clearly that its old spirit liad lost none of its intensity, though it liad lost much of its influence. Still later, in 1833, a gi.eat reactionary movement emanated from the same quarter, and was directed avowedly against the liahits of religious thouglit which modern civilisation had everywhere produced. Its supporters denounced these habits as essentially and fundamentally false. They described the history of English theology for a century and a half as a history of uninterrupted decadence. They believed, in the emphatic words of the nation was on its way to؛ their great leader, that give up revealed truth.’. After a time, the movement tended to Catholicism with a force and rapidity that it was impossible t'O mistake. It produced a defection which was quite unparalleled in magnitude since that which liad taken place under tlie Stuarts j and wliich, unlike tlie foi.mer movement, was altogether uninfluenced by sordid considerations. Tlie point which I desire to notice in connection with this defection, as illustrating the tendency I am tracing in the present chapter, is the extremely small place which the subject of Eoman Catholic miracles occupied in the controversy. If we ask, what are the grounds on which tlie cessation of miracles is commonly maintained, they may, I suppose, be summed up much as follows Miracles, it is said, are the Divine- credentials of an inspired messenger announcing doctrines which could not otherwise be established. Tliey prove that he tliat liis. ؛is neither an impostor nor an enthusiast teaching is neither the work of a designing intellect nor of an over-heated imagination. Erom tlie nature .Newman’s Anglican Difficulties, p. 64 ا 160 RATIONALISE! IN EUROPE. of tbe case, this could not be proved in any other ١vay. If the Almighty designed to reveal to mankind a system of religion distinct from tliafc which is re. fleeted in tlie works of nature, and written on the consciences of men. He must do so by the instrumentality of an inspired messenger. If a teacher claims to be tlie special organ of a Hivine communi. cation revealing supernatural truths, he may be justly expected to authenticate liis mission in the 0 .nly way in wliicli it can be autlienticated_by the performance of supernatural acts. Miracles are, tlierefore, no more improbable tlian a revelation; for a revelation would be ineffectual wit'hout miracles. But, while this consideration destroys the common objections to the Gospel miracles, it separates them clearly from tliose of tlie Church of Borne. The former were .they were absolutely neces ؟avowedly exceptional ,they were designed to introduce a new religion ؛ sary and to establisli a supernatural message. The lattei* were simply means of edification j they were directed and ؛to no object that could not otherwise be attained they were represented as taking place in a dispensa- tion that was intended to be not of sight but of faith. Besides tliis, miracles sliould be regarded as tlie most awful and impressive manifestations of Hivine power. To make them liabitual and commonplace would be to degrade if not to destroy their ١vould be still further abased, if we charactei', which admitted those which appeared trivial and puerile. The miracles of the Hew Testament were always they always ؛ characterised by dignity and solemnity conveyed some spiritual lesson, and conferred some actual benefit, besides attesting tlie character o.f the worker. The medieval miracles, on tlie contrary. THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 161 were frequently trivial, purposeless, and unimpres- constantly verging on the grotesque, and not ؛ sive !infrequently passing tlie border. Such is, I tliink, a fair epitome of tbe common arguments in favour of tbe cessation of miracles 5 and they are undoubtedly very plausible and very cogent; but, a^er all, wbat do they prove ? i t tliat miracles ,but that, SUPPOSING them to liave ceased ؛ liave ceased there is nothing surprising or alarming in the fact. A man wlio has convinced himself of the falseness of Ihe ecclesiastical miracles, may very faii’ly .adduce these considerations to prove that his conclusion does not impugn the Biblical narratives, or introduce confrsion or incoherence into the system of Provi- but this is tlie full extent to which they can ؛ dence be legitimately carried. As an a F i e r i proof, they are far too weak to withstand any serious amount of positive testimony. Miracles, it is said, are intended exclusively to accredit an inspired messenger. But, after all, what proof is there of this ? It is simply an hypothesis-plausible and consistent it may be, but entirely unsupported by positive testimony. In- deed, we may go ftirther, and say that it is distinctly opposed to your own facts. You may repudiate the unanimous belief of the early Christians that miracles were ordinary and commonplace events among all nations. You may resist the strong arguments tliat may be drawn from the unsui'prised reception of the Christian miracles, and from the existence of the demoniacs and of the exorcists, but at least you must admit that the Old Testament relates many mirac'les wliicli will not fall under your canon. Tbe creation was a miracle, and so was the deluge, and so was tlie destruction of tlie cities of the plain. ٢0L. I. M 162 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. The Old Testament miracles are, in many respects, unlike those of the I w Testament: is it impossible tliat there slionld be another class different from either ? But the ecclesiastical miracles, it is said, are often grotesque ; they appear prim a facie absurd, and excite an irresistible repugnance. A sufficiently dangerous test in an age in which men find it more and more difficult to believe any miracles whatever 1 A sufficiently dangerous test foi. those who knowtlie tone that has been long adopted, over an immense part of Europe, towards such narratives as the deluge, or tlie exploits of Samson, tlie speaking ass, or tlie possessed -Besides this, a great proportion of the ecclesias ل pigs tica.1 miracles are simply reproductions of those which are recorded in the Bible; and if there are mingled with them some tliat appear mauifest impostures, this may be a very good reason for treating these nar- l.atives with a moi١e jealous scrutiny, but is certainly no reason for maintaining that they are all below contempt. The Bible neitlier asserts nor implies the revocation of supernatural gifts ; and if tlie general promise that these gifts sliould be conferred may have been intended to apply only to tlie Apostles, it is at least as susceptible of a different interpretation. Ift'hese miracles were actually continued, it is surely not diflicult to discover the beneficial purpose that ١vould fulfil. They would stimulate a languid they ١vould prove invaluable auxiliaries to piety ; tliey missionaries labouring among barbarous and un- ١vho, from their circumstances ,reasoning savages and habits of mind, are utterly incapable of forming any just estimate of tlie evidences of tlie religion the.y a.i.e expected to embrace. Even in Europe th.e results of the controversies of t.lie last 300 years have not lieen so entii.ely satisfactory as to leave no THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 163

room for some more decisive proofs than the amhi. guous utterances of a remote antiquity. TO say that these miracles are false because tliey are Roman Catholic is to assume the vei^ question at issue. The controversy between Protestantism and Catho- licism comprises an immense mass of complicated and heterogeneous arguments. Thousands of minds liave traversed these arguments, and have found at each step their faitli in Protestantism confirmed. Thousands of minds have pursued the same course with results that were diametrically opposite. T١he question is, whetlier an examination of the alleged miracles of Catholicism would not furnish a decisive criterion, or at least one of the most powerful argu. ments, for determining the controversy. What evi. dence of tlie trutli of Catholicism could be stronger than that its distinctive doctrines had been crowned by tens of tliousands of miracles, that a supernatural lialo had encircled it wherever it appeared, and had What pi.oof of ٤ ? cast a glory upon all its triumphs E.g., one of tlie questions would he required to reliito them ا In that catalogue t jiutl \اﻟﺤﺄ٠ of disput.e is the veneration of relics. Now St. Augustine, the no less than .flue cases 0.1 resto- life to the dead (J)e رablest and most clear-headed of ration 0 all tlie Fathers, and a man of Civ. Dei, lib. xxii. c. 8). This undoubted piety, solemnly as- statement is well known to serts tliat in liis own diocese of readers of Gibbon and Middle- Hippo, in tlie space, of two ton ; but, as far as I kno١v, the years, no less than seventy mi- only High Churchman who has rjicles had been wrought by the referred to it. is Mr. Ward (Ideal -١H| body of St. Steplien, and that 0٠f a Christian C h u r c h in the neighbouring province of 140), who notices 'it merely t.o 'Calama, where tlie relic had pre- lament the very different tone ١ve now speak of viously been, tlie numlier was with which incomparably greater. He gives the miraculous. This aspect a catalogue of what he deems of the Patristic writings has undoubted miracles, which he been very clearly and honestly says he had selected from a brought out in Isaac Taylor s multitude so great, that volumes Ancient Chmtianit'y. 1G4 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

he falsehood of Catholicism could he more decisive، than that it was unable to establish any of the immense mass of miracles which it had asserted, that all tliese were resolved and dissipated before a searching criticism, tliat saints had been canonised, forms of worship established, countless bulls and pastorals issued, innumerable rejoicings, pageantries, proces- sions, and pilgrimages authoritatively instituted, public opinion all through Christendom violently and continuously agitated on account of alleged events which had either no existence, or wliich were altogether misunderstood ? Mating every allowance for the errors of the most exti.eme fallibility, the history of Catholicism would on this hypothesis represent an amount of imposture probably unequalled in the annals of the human race. If, again, you say that you have formed a definite and unliesi- tating opinion on the subject from other arguments, I reply that, putting aside all otliei. considerations this answer miglit suggest, it does not apply to the Tractarian movement we are considering. The transition from the Church of England to tlie Church of Home, which was made by so many in consequence of that movement, was not abrupt or unwavering. It was, on the contra.ry, slow, painful, hesitating, and dubious. Some of those who made it have described tliemselves a.s trembling for montlis, and even years, between tlie opposing creeds, tlieir minds vibrating and oscillating to and fro : countless difficulties, collidiug principles, modes of l.easoning the most various, blending and neutralising sentiments of every liue, torturing their minds with doubt, and sometimes almost destroying by their conflict the very faculty of judgment. Surely one might liave THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 1.5 imagined that men in such a position would have gladly exchanged those shifting speculations that so constantly elude the grasp and bewilder the mind, and catch tlreir colour from each changing mode of thought, for the comparatively firm and definite ٦vere The men ؛ ground' of historical criticism admirably fitted for such criticism. They were pre-eminently scholars and antiquarians, and in its intellectual aspect the movement was essentially a resuscitation of the past. Nor did the age seem at first sight less suited for the enterprise. At the time of the Reformers the study of evidences, and indeed all searching investigation into the facts of the past, were unknown. When, however, Tracta- rianism arose, tlie laws of historical criticism were developed to great perfection, and tliey were attract, ing an immense proportion of the talent of Europe. In Englisli theology, especially, they had become supreme. Tlie attacks which Woolston and his followers had made upon the scriptural miracles had been repelled by Eardner and Paley with such unexpected vigour, wit'h such undoubted ability, and, a.s it was long thought, with such unanswerable success, that all theological reasoning had been directed to this channel. Yet in the Tractarian movement the subject of modern miracles can scarcely be said to have exercised a perceptible influence. Gibbon, as we have seen, liad gone over to Rome chiefly through a persuasion of their reality. Chillingworth stdl earlier had declared that the same reason liad been one of those which had induced him to take the same step. Pascal had based his defence of Jansenism in a great meisure upon the miracle of but at Oxford these narratives و the Holy Thorn 106 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. hardly excited a serious attention ^ i a t little in. ل flnence they had was chiefly an influence of repulsion what little was written in tljeir favour was wntten for the most part in the tone of an apology, as if to attenuate a difficulty rather than to establish a creed.! This was surely a very remarkable characteristic ١ve remember tlie of the Tractarian movement, when circumstances and attainments of its leaders, and the great prominence which miraculous evidence had -١vas especially remark long occupied in England. It able when we recollect that one of tlie great com- ١vere making plaints which tlie Tractarian party against modern theology was, tliat the conception of the supei.natural had become faint and dim, and tliat its manifestations were eitlier explained away

O i . confined to a distant past. It would seem as if tliose wlio were most conscious of tlie character of their age were unable, in tlie very midst of their opposition, to fi.ee themselves from its tendencies. If we look beyond the Tractarian movement, we find a still more startling illustration of tlie prevailing feeling in tlie extraordinary strides which professed and systematised Rationalism lias made in most Protestant counti.ies. Tlie extent to wliicli Continental Protestantism lias gravitated towards it lias lieen recognised on all sides, and lias excited tlie greatest liopes in some and tlie greatest alarm ill otliers. It is ivorthy, t.oo, of remark, tliat tlie move- meiit lias lieen most manifest in tliose countries ith’١١ where the lea.ding Churches are not connected

Dr. Newman’s very able OS- lish siiuts, about which we ا ,much ؟Ifleury.s Ills- have lately heard s ؛gay (prefixed 0 tory) is essentially an apology never seem to have been re- ,garded as evidential ل for t.lie ecclesiastical miracles and the miracles of tlie Eng- THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 167 very elaborate creeds or with liturgical services, and where the reason, being least shackled by tradition, is most free to follow the natural sequence of its developments. It is true that the word Rationalism is some١vhat vague, and comprises many different modifications of belief. Tliis consideration has constantly been urged by those who are termed orthodox Protestants in a tone of tlie most contemptuous scorn, but with a complete forgetfulness of tlie fact -١vas invari that for 300 years Protestantism it.self ably assailed by the very same objection, and was invariably defended on the twofold ground that variations of belief are the necessary consequence of honest enquiry, and that amid its innumerable diversit.ies of detail there were certain radical conceptions which gave a substant.ial unity to the discordant sects. Much the same ^neral unity may be found among the various modifications of Protestant Rationalism. Its central conception is the elevation of conscience into a position of supreme authority as the religious organ, a verifying faculty discriminating between truth and error. It regards Cliristianity as designed to preside ovei. tlie moral progress of mankind, as a conception which was to become moi.e and more sublimated and spiritualised as tlie human mind passed into new phases, and was able to bear the splendour of a more unclouded light. Religion it believes to be no exception to the general law of progress, but rather the highest fornr of its manifestation, and its earlier systems but tlie necessary steps of an imperfect development. In its eyes the moral element of Christianity is as the sun in heaven, and dogmatic systems are as the clouds that intercept and temper the exceeding brightness of its ray. 168 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

The insect wh.se existence is hut for a lpoment might well imagine that these were indeed eternal, that tlieir majestic columns could never fail, and that their luminous folds were tlie very source and centre of light. And yet they silift and vary with

each changing breeze j they blend and separate 5 they assume new forms and exhibit new dimensions ; as tlie sun that is above them waxes more glorious in its power, tliey are permeated and at last absorbed by its increasing splendour j they recede, and wither, and disappear, and the eye ranges far beyond the sphere they had occupied into the infinity of glory that is above them. This is not the place to enter into a critical exami- ^nation of the faults and mei.its of Rationalism. A system which would unite in one sublime synthesis all the past forms of human belief, wilieh accepts with triumphant alacrity eacli new development of science, liaving no stereotyped standard to defend, and which represents the human mind as pursuing on the highest subjects a path of continual progress towards tlie filllest and most transcendent knowledge h o f tlie Deity, can never fail to exercise a powerftil intellectual attraction. A system which makes the moral faculty pf man, tliemeasure and arbiter of Taith must always act powerfully on those in whom tliat - ذ faculty is most developed. This and Jininterrnpted development is one tliat seems absolutely to override our age. It is scarcely possible to open any really alile liook on any subject without ٠ 'ذ .encounte.ring it in some form science toAts very -depths; it is revolutionising, all ٠i t h e o l o g y i Hprommence,historicalitei١atm:cu٠ so great that tliere is scarcely any school that is ah THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCn. 169 togothor exempt from its jnfluence._ We have see. in our own day tho Church of Rome itself defended An Essay on Development,’ and by a strange ٤ in application of the laws of progress. These elements of attraction do much to explain the extraordinary rapidity with which Rationalism has advanced in the present century, in spite of the vagueness and obscurity it often exbibits, and tho many paradoxes it has engendered. But it is well worthy of notice that the very first direction which these speculations invariably take—the very sign and characteristic of their action—is ^ ^ e m p tto . explain away the miracleslSjcripke. This is s^emphatb. callvlheiistinctiiajm liR ationaliiiiakl the- word ٥٠٥pti٥٥ l t e l ٥ i U § S i i . f e i Wherever it appears, it represents and interprets the prevailing disinclination to accept -١vill resort to every arti miraculous narratives,! and fice of interpretation in order to evade their force. Its prevalence, tlierefore, clearly indicates the extent to which this aversion to the miraculous exists in Protestant countries, and tlie rapidity with which it has of late years increased. Everyone wlio has paid any attention to these subjects has a natural inclination to attribute the conclusions he Iras arrived at to tire efforts of Iris own reason, acting uirder the influence of an unbiassed will, rather than to a general predisposition arising -A large section of German narratives of angels and de ا ١٢ell known, mons, and tlie like, as simply theologians, as is even regard the impossibility, impossible and irreconcilable or at all event'S tho unreality, with the known' and universal of miraculous accounts as axio- laws wliich govern the course matic. Thus Strauss calmly of events.’—Introduction to the .We may summarily Life of Jesus‘ ؛ remarks reject all miracles, prophecies. 170 RATIONALISM IN EUR01.K. out of the character of his age. ft is probable, tlierefore, tliat the members of tlie rationalistic school would very generally deny being influenced by any other considerations than those which they allege in ٦١٣ould point to that system of tlieii. defence, and minute and critical Biblical investigation which Germany lias produced as tlie true source of tlieir opinions, f cannot but think that it is much less the cause than tlie result,, and that we have a clear indicat'ion of tliis in the fact tliat a precisely similar tendency of opinions is shown in another quarter where tliis criticism has never been pursued, f allude to the freethinkers, wlio are scattered in such profusion through Roman Catliolic countries. Any- one wlio lias attentively examined tliat great school, wliicli exercises so vast an influence over the literature and policy of our age, must liave perceived tliat it is in many respects widely removed from the old Voltairian spirit, ft is no longer exclusively negative and destructive, but is, on tlie contrary, intensely positive, and in its moral aspect intensely Christian, ft clusters around a series of essentially Christian conceptions—equality, fraternity, the suppression of war, the elevation of tlie poor, tlie love of ti.uth, and tlie diffusion of libei.ty. ft revolves around tlie idea.1 of Cliristianity, and represents its spil.it without its dogmatic system and its supernatural narratives. ١vhile ,From both of tliese it unhesitatingly recoils deriving all its strengt'li and noui’isliment from Chris- tian ethics. Sucli are, f conceive, tlie general outlines of this movement, which bears an olivious relat-ionsilip to Protestant Rationalism, and wliicli has lieen advancing througli Europe with still more rapid and trium- THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 1 7 1 pliant strides. He mnst indeed be wilfully blind to tbe course of bistory wbo does not perceive tliat during tlie last hundred yearo tliese schools have completely superseded tlie dogmatic forms of Pro- testantism as tbe efficient antagonists of tbe Ch'urcb of Rome, as tbe centres towards wbicli those wbo .are repelled from Catliolicism are natui٠٠ally attracted In tbe sixteenth and to a certain degree in tbe seventeenth century Protestantism, exercised a commanding and controlling influence over tbe affairs of Europe. Almost all tbe great questions that a^tated t.lie minds of men were more or less connected with its progress. It exhibited, indeed, many unseemly dissensions and many grotesque extravagances j but each of it.s sects bad a 1'igid and definite dogmat'ic system, and exercised a powerful influence on tliose ith'١١ who were around it. Whoever was dissatisfied the teacliing of tlie Church of Rome was almost immediately attracted and absorbed by one of these systems, and threw himself into tlie new dogmatism with as mucli zeal as lie liad exhibited in the old one. Huring tlie last century all this has clianged. Cf the many hundreds of great tliinkers and writers, in every department, wlio have separated from tlie teachings and practices of Catholicism, it would lie difficult to name three men of real eminence and un- questionalile sincerity wlio have attached themselves permanently to any of tlie more conservative forms of Protestantism. Amid all those gi’eat semi-religious revolutions wliicli liave unliinged the fait.h of thousands, and have so profoundly altci.ed tlie relations of Catholicism and society, Protestant Churches have made no advance and have exercised no perceptible influence. It lias long been a mere t-ruism to say '2 RATIONALISM IN EUROTE. tliat we are passing through a state of chaos, of anarchy, and of transition. During the past century the elements of dissolution have been multiplying all around US. Scarcely ever before had so large a propoi.tion of the literature of Europe exhibited an open hostility or a contemptuous indifference towards Catholicism. Entire nations have defied its censures, and confiscated its property, and wrested every department of politics from its control. But while Catholicism has been thus convulsed and agitated to it.s very basis ; while the signs of its disintegration .while the lan ؛ are crowding upon US on every side guor and feebleness it exhibits furnish a ready theme for every moralist and a problem for eve^ philosopher, tlie Protestant sects liave gained nothing by the decay of their ancient rival. They have still retained their ecclesiastical organisations and their ancient formula.ries, but the magnetism they once possessed has wholly vanished. Of all the innumerable forms into which tlie spirit of dogmatism crys. talliscd after tlie Reformation, not one seems to have retained tho-power of-attracting-those- beyond its border. Whatever is lost-by Catholicism - is -gained by Itationalism.il wherever the spirit of Rationalism recedes, the spirit of Catliolieism advances. Towards the close of the last century, France threw off her allegiance to Christianity, endeavoured to efface all tlie traditions of lier past', and proclaimed a new era -it.h those of Free-١١ Italy since the late poli- compared ا tical changes, and as a conse- thinking, and it is said that quence of the direction given among Protestants tlie Ply- tp the national sympathies by mouth Brethren, who are among tliose changes, furnishes, per- the least dogmatic, have also haps, a slight exception; hut lieen among the most success- even t.here tlie conquests of Pro- ful. testantism are insignificiint as THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 173

-the religious history of mankind. She soon re ئ pented of lier temerity, and retii.ed from a position which she had found untenable. Half the nation became ultramontane Homan Catholics j the other The great ؛.lialf became indifferent or Rationalist majority of Continental writers have repudiated the doctrines of Catholicism, and pursue tlieir speculations without paying the smallest deference t'O its authority. In the sixteenth century all sucli persons ١vould have attached themselves to some definite form they no١v assume a position which ؛ of Protestantism was then entirely unexampled, and would liave appeared entirely inexplicable. The age of heresiarchs has past.2 Among very ignorant people new dogmatic systems, as Mormonism has shown, may still be successfill, but amoug tlie educated classes tliey seem to liave lost all their attraction and power. Tlie immense missionary organisations of England succeed indeed in occasionally attracting a few isolated individuals in Homan Catliolic countries to ١ve look in vain for the natural Protestantism j but flow and current of thought whicli in former times impelled vast portions of society to its communion, and imparted an influence to all the great questions in Europe. The only movements wliich in tlie faintest

I need ha.rdly remind tile siarch making so little impres ا reader how forcibly and elo- sion by bis defection from the quently this point has been Church, and failing so com- brought out by Macaulay, in pletely to become tlie nucleus ,After all, however .؛of a sec ./؛ . f ir ﺋﺊ’ل : his Essay on f 2 M. deMontalembert, inhis tliis was quite natural. Tlie LifeofLacordaire, has observed C0U1.S0 wliicli Lanicnnais pur- of Lamennais, that tliere is sued stimulated a, great intel- as-٦١ liut it ؛probably no instance in history lectual movement of a man possessing so emi- not, and was never intended to aently the gifts of a great liere- be, in tlie direction of a sect. 174 RATIONALISM IN EUROE.

degi.ee reproduce the fascination of the sects of the sixteenth century ai٠e democratic and philanthropic efforts, like those of St. Simon 0 1 . ^fazzini. All the

٠lse JurojKLare great intellectual problems that C !Y .u ا5؟ع connected .with.the rights .of .nationalities,.the gress pf democracy, or ,-the dignity, of- labour. These -l١ave now taken, the place ,of tliosc.- dogmatic ques ti|jhiijheixi-eenthj3nturyj)rm ed..tlie ^inspringsoftlieiolicyofChristendoiQjandAyhich -in the nineteenth century lia٣e become almost un influential. This is, undoubtedly, an extremely remarkable and an extremely significant contrast. Honest men will hardly deny its existence. Wise men will not sliut their eyes to tlie fact, or refuse to look steadily at its consequences. Coujiled with the rationalistic movement tliat has taken place within Protestantism, it has inclined very many writers to conclude that the earlier forms of Protestantism were merely tran- that their continued existence depends, not ؛ sitional on any life tliat is in tliem, but on the force of liabit

and of tradition 5 that perpetual progress in the domain of belief is the natural destiny and the inevitable law of Protesta.ntism; and that tlie fate of Lot’s wife is reserved for tliose Churches wldch look back ٦vhicli they fled. To on the city of dogmatism from a.ssume, however, tliat l.eligious life lias lieen extir- pated in Protestant Churches, liecause they appear to have lost the poiver of influencing t'liose who are around them, is to look for it in only one form. But ١ve may most certainly and most one conclusion safely draw from the movement we are considering. It is that, tlie general liias of the intellect of the age .١٧ords in other ؛ is in the direction of nationalism THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 175 that t j i i i s i strong: predisposition to value the spirit andinoral element of Christianity, hat to reject dogmatic systems. ..and more especially miraculous nptives. We have seeu that tliis tendency was not uninfluential in Tractarianism itself, although that system was organised as a protest and a bulwark against the tendencies of the age. Among those wlio are usual'ly called orthodox Protestants, it has been cleai١ly shown in the rapid decline of the evidential scl'iool. The pre-eminence that school obtained in England during the last century is certainly not to be attributed to any general tendency towards the miraculous. Lard- ner a.nd Paley. and their followers acted strictly on the defensive, and were therefore compelled to meet, tlieir assailants on the ground whicli those assailants bad selected. The spirit of scepticism, which at the Reformation extended only to the aut.hority of particular Cliurclies 0 1 . to t.he justice of particular interpretations of Scripture, had gradually expanded till it included the wliole domain of theology, and had produced a series of violent attacks upon the miracles. It was to repel these attacks that the evidential scliool arose, and the annals of religious controversy narrate few more complete victories than they achieved. Of all tlie Englisli deisticalwoi.ks of the eigliteentli century, the influence of two and only two sui.vived the controversy. Hume’s Essay on Miracles, though certainly not unquestioned and unassailed, cannot be looked upon as obsolete 0 1 . uninfluential. Gibbon ١vn I.eniains tlie almost undisputed master of liis 0 field, but liis great work does not directly involve though it undoubtedly trenches on tlie subject of Christian evidences. But if we except these two, it 176 rationalism i n E U R O P E .

would be difficult to couceive a more complete eclipse tban tbe English deists have undergone. Woolston andTindal, Collins and Chubb, have long since passed into the region of shadows, a.nd their works have mouldered in tlie obscurity of forgetftilness. Eoling- broke is now little more than a brilliant name, and all the beauties of liis matchless style have been unable to preserve his phdosophy from oblivion. Shaftesbury retains a certain place as one of the few disciples of idealism who resisted tlie influence of but his importance is purely historical. His ؛ Eocke cold and monotonous though exquisitely polished dissertations have fallen into general neglect, and And few readei’s and exercise no influence. The shadow of the tomb rests upon them all j a deep unbroken silence, the chill of deatli surrounds tliem. Tliey have long ceased to wake any interest, or to suggest any enquiries, or to impart any impulse to the intellect of England. Tlris was the result of the Englisli controversies of t.he eighteenth century, wliich on the conservative side consisted mainly of a discussion of miraculous evidence. It is undoubtedly very remarkable in itself, but muclr more so when we contrast it with what was taking place in Homan Catholic countries. Voltaire and Rousseau not only succeeded in liolding their ground, but they met with no opponent whom tlie wildest enthusiasm could place upon their level. Theii. works elicited not a single refutation, I miglit almost say not a single argument or criticism, that lias come down with any autlioi.ity to our own day. Diderot, Raynal, and several other members of tlie party, liave taken a !:)lace in Erencli literature ivkicli is probably permanent, and is certainly fai. liigher t'lian was obtained liy any of their opponents. TOE MIRACLES OF '!’HE CHURCH. 177 One might have supposed from this contrast that ١vhich had heen crowned witli ,the evidential scliool such marked success, would have enjoyed a great and permanent popularity j but this expectation lias not been realised. In Germany, Kant from the beginning pronounced tliis mode of reasoning to be unpliilo- -England, Coleridge succeeded in bring ئ ٤ إ sopliical ing it into complete disrepute; and every year the disinclination to stake the truth of Christianity 0٠n the proof of miracles becomes more manifest. A small body of theologians continue, indeed, to per- ١vill speak of their severe in the old plan, and no one labours with disrespect 5 yet tliey are themselves witnesses to tlie generality of tlie movement, for they complain bitterly that tliey are labouring in a wilderness, and that the old method has been on all sitles abandoned and neglected.2 We find, everywhere, that tlie prevailing feeling is to look upon the defenco of Christianity as a matter not external to but part of religion. Belief is regarded, not as tlie result of an historical puzzle, the solution of an extremely complicated intellectual prolilem wliicli presents fe١vest difficulties and contradictions, but as the recognition by conscience of moral truth. In otlier vords, ieli. gionjn its ,proofs as in its essence is deemed a thing he intellectual.؛ belonging rather tp the moral . than ,portion of human nature. ■Faith, and not, r e a si is iihasiSwLandjhis faith is a species Qf moral-percept t i l Each dogma is the embodiment and inadequate expression of a moral truth, and is worthless except

On Kant’s influence on 2 See, for example, die first ا German Rationalism, see Rose and second Essays in Aids to On Protestantism in Germany, Faith. pp. 183- 190. VOL. I. N 178 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. as it is vivified by that truth. The progress of criti. eism may shift and vary the circumstances of an liistorical faith, the advent of new modes of thougilt may mate ancient creeds lifeless and inoperative, but the spirit tliat underlies them is eternal. The ideal and type of character will require new fascination when detacheit from the material concept.ions of an early civilisat-ion. The idolatry of dogmas will pass a,way 5 Christianity,-being rescued.from the secta- Nanism and. intolerance that-have defaced it,- will .shine by its own moral splendour, and, sublimated above all ike-sphere. of, controversy, will resume, its- rightful position as an ideal and not a system, as & person and not; a cr.eed. We find also, even among the supporters of tlio evidential school, a strong tendency to meet tl'10 Rationalists, as it were, halfway—to maintain tliat miracles are valid proofs, l)ut that they do not necessarily imply the notion of a vi.olation of natural law with which tliey liad been so long associated. Tliey are, it is saitl, performed simply by the application of natural means guidefl by supernatural knowledge. Tire idea of interference (it is argued) can present no difficulty to anyone who admits lruman liberty ; I for tlrose rvho acknowledge that lilrerty must hold tlrat man lias a certain power of guiding and coir- trolliirg the larvs of matter, tlrat he can of his own free will produce effects whicl'i would not have been produced without Iris intervention, and tlrat in proportion as his knowledge of the laws of natui.e ad- vanccs, liis porver of adapting tlrem to his purposes is increased. Tliat mind can influence matter, is it'Self one of tire laws of nature. That a being of supernatural knowledge and power could, by the normal exercise .See Mansefs ‘ Essay oil Aliracles,’ ill the Aids to Faith ا THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 179 of his capacities, produce effects transcending hoth our comprehension and our capabilities, is a proposition that is eminently rational. To adapt and modify general laws to special purposes is the occupation and the characteristic of every intelligence, and to deny this power to divine intelligence seems but little removed from atheism. It is to make the I^eity tlie only torpid mind in tlie universe. Tliere is, therefore, it is said, nothing improbable in the belief tbat Omniscience, by the select.ion of natural laws of whicli ١ve are ignorant, could accomplish .all tliose acts which According to this notion, a ؛.we call miraculous miracle would not differ, generically, from a human 8 extends only, first, to their'For an exposition of tliis la١١ ا view I cannot do better than discovery and ascertainment., . . . .Tlie and then to their use ﺀ refer to an article on Supernatural’ in the Edin- A complete knowledge of all burgh Review for Gctober 1862, natural laws would give, it written by the Huke of Argyle, not complete power, at least and since republished by him degrees of power immensely in his Reign of Law. I select greater than those which we a few sentences, which con- now possess. . . . The retain tlio substance of tlie ar- hition in which God stands to The reign of law those rules of His government ﺀ :gument in nature is indeed, as far which are called laws is, of ل as wo can oliserve, universal. course, an inscrutable mystery But the common idea of tlie but those who believe that His supernatural is that which is will does govern the world must at variance witli natural law, believe that., ordinarily at least. above it or in violation of He does govern it by tlie choice it.. . . . Hence it would and use of means: nor have we appear to follow that, to a, any certain reason to believe man thorouglily possessed ot' that He ever acts otherwise. the idea of natural law as uni- Signs and wontlers may be versal, notliing ever could lie wrought, for aught we know, admitted as supernatural. . . by similar instrumentality-by But then we must understand the selection and use of laws of nature asincluding every agency whichmen knew nothing.' That wliicli we see entering, or can miracles were performed simpl.v conceive from analogy capable by tlie employment of unknown of entering, into the causation natural laws was maintained of the world. . . Tlie power long since by Malebranche, and of men in respect of physical also, I tliink, by Uutler. 180 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. act, tliougli it would still be strictly available for ovideiitial purposes. Miracles would tbus be separated from a conception witb which almos.t all the controversialists of the last century had identified them, and which is peculiai'ly repuguant to the tendencies of our age. We have now taken a sufficiently extensive survey of tlie history of Miracles to enable US to arrive at a general conclusion. We have seen tliat ever since that revival of learning which preceded the Reforma- ١vhich tion, and dispelled the torpor and ignorance in Europe liad been for centui.ies iliimersed, the liuma.n mind lias been pursuing on this subject a uniform and an unvarying course, ffilie degrees in wliicli different nations and cliui.ches liave participated in tlie movement have been very vai.ious, liut tliei.e is no pai.t of .١vhich has lieen uninfluenced by its progress Europe Reactionary parties have themselves reflected its character, and have at la.st lieen swept away by the advancing stream. Ail tlie weight (if tradition and of learning, all tlie energies ot. consei.vatism of every kind, have lieen opposed to its progress, iind all bare lieen opposed i.n vain. Generation after generation Jkproviiice.of tlie miraculous lias contracted,and tlieide...of scepticism has .expanded.. Of the t١vo great divisions of tliese events, one lias completely perislietl. ^tchcraft- tuid diabolical .possessionand pal. disease have long since...passed -into -tlie؛diah٧l region 0 _f fables. rr 0 disbelieve tliem was at first tlie it was tlien ؛ eccentricity of a few isolated thinkers tlie distinction of t.lie educated classes hi the most advanced nations ; it is 110١V the common sentiment of all classes in all countries in Europe. The countless ١vith every holy ١vei١e once associated miracles that THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. )81 relic and with .every village slirine lave rapidly and silently disappeared. Year by year tbe incrednlity became more manifest even where tlie theological profession was nnclianged. Tlieir numbers continu- and ؛ a.lly lessened until they at last almost ceased any attempt to revive them bas been treated witli a general 'and undisguised contempt. The miracles of the Fathers are passed over with an incredulous scorn, or with a significant silence. The rationalistic spirit has even attempted to explain away t.hose which are recorded in Scripture, and it lias materially altered tlieii. position in the systems of tlieology. In all countries, in all churclies, in all parties, among men of every variety of character and opinion, t have found tlie tendency existing. In eacli na.tion its development has been a measure of intellectual activity, and has passed in regular course througli tbe different strata of society. During the last century it lias advanced with a vastly accelerated rapidity; tlie old lines of demarcation liave been everywhere ion۶lism haa become ry؛obscured, and t'lie spirit of Ra ١ ١ tlie great centre to which tlie intellect of Europe is ا.؛ manifestly tending. If we trace tlie progress of the movement from its origin to the present day, we find ا tliat it..has. completely alteredihe whole aspect ,and complexion of religigji. When itbegan, Christianity was regarded as .a., system, enth'elybeyond the ...range and scope of huinan reason: it was impious to question; it was impious to examine; it was impious to discriminate. On the other liand, it was visilily instinct with the supernatural. Miracles of eve^ order and degree of magnitude were flasliing fortli incessantly from all its parts. They excited no scepticism and no surprise. The miraculous element pervaded 182 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. all literature, explained all difficulties, consecrated all doctrines. Every unusual plienomenon was immediately referred to a supernatural a.gency, not because tliere was a passion for tlie improbable, but because sucli an explanation seemed far more simple and easy of belief tban tbe obscure theories of science. In tlie present day Christianity is regarded as a system which courts tlie strictest investigation, and whicli, ١vas designed to vivify ,among many other functions and stimulate all the energies of man. Tlie idea of ٦vhich a superficial observer might ,tlie miraculous liave once deemed its most prominent characteristic, 1'ias been driven from almost all its entrenchments, and now quivers faintly and feebly tlirougli the mists of eighteen liundred years. The oaiseof this great movement are very various. It may lie attributed t.0 the success otphysical ٦vere long science in explaining phenomena that deemed supernatural, and in substituting tlie conccp- !,ion of connected and unbroken law for tliat of capricious and isolated interference. It may be at. tributed, also, in a great measure to the increased severity ofioaidemanded-under,,the,jnfiuencaof- ln d e i.n jir itic a l spirity and to the important investigations that have recently been made into the my thologies of different nations, and into the manner in vdiicli they are generated. But in addition to these, which may be regarded as the legitimate causes V of tlie change, there is one of a somewhat different kind. Theiecline of. tlie influence and realisation of dogmatic tlieologyAvliiicliaracterisesisecular age brings with it an instinctive.', repugnance, to - tlie. \J miraculous, by diverting the mind from the class of subjects with which tlie miraculous is connected. THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 183

؛ ’::directed, theminf take a e f Lg^rl r and will jndge alt secnlar matters by a theological) ؛standard. In a period, therefore, when theology is almost co-extensive with intellectual exertion, when the whole scope of literature, policy, and art is to subserve theological interests, and when the im- ؛aginations of men are habitually inflamed by the ؛subject of tlieir continual meditations, it is not at ا ؛all s?rising that belief in existing piracies sh^ul be universal. Such miracles ‘are perfectly congej nial with tlie mental .tone and atmospliere that is general. The imagination is constantly direct.ed to. wards miraculous events, and readily forces its conceptions upon the reason. When, however, the terrestrial has been aggrandised at tlie expense of the when, jiiik pafessi_.ciY iktionf.art ؛theological a n l literatimand'. govem eiJLt.bna-ijx 3. ,great wlien the mind is withdrawn by ؛ measure، 3 ,eculari|&l ten thousand intellectual٠٠influences from dogmatic considerations, and When the traces of'these considerations become confused and unrealised, apew habit -٠IQlire^ A secular atmo |٠fitoR #.is....gi sphere is formed about the mind. The measure of probability is altered. Men formerly expected in every event of life something analogous to the thco- logical notions on which they were continually meditating: they now judge everything by a secular standard. Formerly tlieir natural impulse was to it is now to ؛ explain all phenomena by miracle إ explain them by science. Tliis is simply the result .the human milid, which is exempli- i ا ١1 of a general law 184 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. fied on countless occasions in the interconi.se of society. The soldier, tlie lawyer, and the scholar will each obtain from his special pursuit a certain cast, and character of thought which he will display on all subjects, even tliose most remote from his immediate province. Just so an age that is immersed in tlieology will judge everything by a t.lieological, that is to say a miraculous standard, and an age that is ,١vill judge everything by a secular essentially secular t.hat is to say a- rationalistic standard. It is thei.e. fore, I conceive, no cliance coincidence that the decline of the sense of the miraculous has everywhere accompanied that movement of thought which has banished dogmatic influence from so many departments of life, and so greatly restricted it in others. In the present day this tendency lias become so poiverful that its influence extends to every earnest thinker, even tliougli lie does not as an individual participate in the indifference to dogma from which it spra.ng. Wlioever succeeds in emancipating him. self from tlie special influences of education and associations by wliicli liis opinions are in tlie first instance determined ivill find the general course and current of contemporary literature tlie most power- fill attraction to his mind. Tliere are, it is ti.ue, a few exceptions to tliis l.ule. Tliere are some intellect-s of such a repellent cliaracter that tlie simple fact that

tendencies is domina.nt in اا one class of opinions 0 tlieir neighbourhood ivill lie sufficient to induce tliem to adopt tlie opposite. Tliese, however, are tlie ex- ٦vho really endeavour ceptions. With most persons to form their ojlinions by independent thought, contemporary literature exercises an attracting and controlling influence V'hicli is extremely poivorful if it is ةTHE MIRACLES 0Y THE CHURCH. 18 not irresistible. Owing to circumstances which I sball not pause to examine, it flashes upon them with a force and directness which is not possessed by the literature of any earlier pei.iod. The general tone of thought pervading it colours all their reasonings, influences and, if they are unconscious of its action, determines all tlieir conclusions. In the present day 1 / tliis influence is essentially rationalistic. '/ There is one otlier subject of great importance which is naturally suggested by the movement we have been considering. We have seen how profoundly it lias altered the character of Christian Churches. It lias changed not only tlie out١vard form and manifestations, but the habits of thought, tlie religious atmosphere wliicli was the medium ١vei٠e contemplated, and by through which all events which all reasonings were refracted. No one can doulit that if the modes of thought now prevailing on tliese subjects, even in Roman Catliolic countries, could have been presented to tlie mind of a Christian of the twelfth century, he would have said that so complete an alteration would involve tlie absolute ,a matter of fact ط .destruction of Christianity most of these modifications were foi.ced upon the re- luctant Church by tlie pressure from without, and were specially resisted and denounced by the bulk of the clei'gy. They were represented as subversive of Christianity. .The doctrine that religion could be destined to pass tlirougli successive phases of de- -٦vas pronounced to lie emphatically un velopment Christian. The ideal church was always in ,the ,p.ast j ٦vas .deemed ,and immutability, if not- retrogression We can now judge tliis resist ا .tliepondition of life ance lly tlie 'clear liglit of experience. Dogmatic 186 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

؛ systems have, it is true, been materially weakened they no longer exercise a controlling influence over the current of affairs. Persecution, religious wars, absorbing controversies, sacred art, and theological literature, which once indicated a passionate interest in dogmat'ic questions, have passed away or become comparatively uninfluential. Ecclesiastical power throughout Europe has been everywhere weakened, and weakened in each nation in proportion to its -٦ve were to judge tlie pre intellectua.l progress. If sent position of Christianity by the tests of ecclesiastical history, if we were to measure it by the orthodox zeal of tlie great doctors of the past, we miglit well look upon its prospects witli tlie deepest despondency and alarm. The spirit of the Eathers has in contest'- ably faded. The days of Athanasius and Augustine have passed away never to return. The wliole course of tliought is flowing in another direction. The controversies of bygone centuries ring with a strange hollowness on the ear. gut-,if, turning from ecclesiastical liistorians, we apply the. e x c lu s iv e ly ^ n i testsjvhich the New Testament so invariablyand so, emphatically enforces,, if we ask whether. Christianity h s ceased to produce the. living .fruits., of love .and charity and zeal for truth, the conclusion we should arrive at would be very different. If it be true

Christianity to dive with a passionate charity int'0 the darkest recesses of misery and of vice, to irrigate every quarter of the earth with the fertilising stream of an almost boundless benevolence, and to include all the sections of humanity in the circle of an intense and efficacious sympatliy ; if it be true Chl'istianity to destroy or weaken the barriers which had separated class from class and nation from nation, t'O free war THE MIRACLES OF THE CHURCH. 187 from its harshest elements, and to make a consciousness of essential equality and of a genuine fraternity dominate over all accidental differences j if it he, ahove all, true Christianity to cultivate a love ot truth for its own sake, a spirit of candour and of tolera.nce towards those ^ th whom we differ—if tliese he the marks of a true and healthy Cliristianity, then never since the days of tlie Apostles has it heen so vigorous as at present, and the dec.line of dogma.tic systems and of clerical influence lias hcen a measure if not a cause of its advance. 188 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

CHAPTER III.

ESTHETIC, SCIENTIFIC, AN. MORAL IEVELOPE- MENTS OF RATIONALISM.

T he preceding chapters will, I trust, liave sufficiently sho١vn that during the last three centuries the sense of the miraculous‘ has heen steadily declining in Europe, that tlie movement has heen so universal

that no church 0 1 . class of miracles lias altogether

escaped its influence, and tliat its causes are to 1 ) 0 sought mucli less ill special arguments, hearing- directly upon, the question than in the general in-. ctual ,condition of society. In tliis, as in. all؟te i other great historical developements, we have two classes of influences to consider. Tliere are c^^ain tendencies or-predispositions .resulting from causes,, that-.are deeply..imhedded.in the civilisation of the ٠,١vhich create tlie movement, direct the stream of e ^ opinions witli irresistible force in a given direction, and, if we consider only great bodies of men and long periods of time, exercise an almost absolute autliority. Tliere is also tlie action of special circumstances and lidividual genius upon tliis general progress, l.etard- ing or accelerating its advance, giving it in diffei.ent countries and in different splieres of society a peculiar character, and for a time associating it with movements witli wliicli it has no na.tural connection. 1 liave endeavoured to sliow tliat wliJle numerous circumstances growing out of the complications of DEVELOPMENTS OE RATIONALISE!. 189 society have more or less influenced the history of the decline of the miraculous, there are t١vo causes Evhich dominate over all others, and are themselves very closely connected. One of these is th e increasing sense, of law, produced by. physical scien.ces, whicli predisposes men more and more to attribute all the phenomena that meet them in actua.l life 0 1 * in history to normal rather than to abnormal agencies 5 tlie other is the dimimition of-the-influence of theology^ partly fronr causes that lie within itself, and partly from the great increase of otlier subjects, Evhicli inclines men to judge all matters .by a secular rather tlian by a theological standard. But, as we have already in some degree perceived, and as we shall hereafter see more clearly, this liistory of tlie miraculous is but a single part or aspect of a mucli widei* movement, which in its modern pliases is usually designated by the name of Rational- ism. The process of tliouglit, that makes men recoil s’from the miraculous, makes tliem modify their vie١١ on many otlier questions. Tlie expectation of miracles grows out of a certain conception of tlie lialiitual -١vorld, of the nature of tlie Su government of tlie preme Being, and of tl'ie manifestations of His power, whicli arc all more or less changed by advancing civilisation. Sometimes this cliange is displayed by an open rejection of old beliefs. Sometimes it appeai.s only in a change of interpretation 0 1 . of reali- that is to say, men generally annex new و sation ideas to old words, or they permit old opinions to

[virtnally obsolete. Each (hfferent phas. of ٠ becom e ١'civilisation has its peculiar and congenial views of the

system and government of the universe t.0 whicli

إ tlie men of that time will gravitate 5 and altliough 190 RATIONALISM IN EUROrE. fa revelation or a great effort of human genius may -for a time emancipate some of them from the con؛'

-surrounding in ؛ e age, the pressure 0 ؛ ؛ of ؛ 0 ﻳ ﺈ إ 3 Ifluences will soon reassert its sway, and the truths that are unsuited to the time will remain inoperative till their appropriate civilisation lias dawned. I sliall endeavoui. in the present cliaptei. to trace the different phases of tliis developemenhto show how the conceptions both of tlie nature of the Deity and of the government of the universe are steadily modified before advancing knowledge, and to analyse the causes upon which those modifications depend. ft lias been conjectui.ed liy a very high authority, that fetishism is the religion which men wlio are and ؛ altogether uncivilised would naturally embrace there certainly appears strong .reason to believe.that ae.genei.al. characteristic, oftlie earlier stages of. teligious belief is to concenti.ate reverence, upon mattei., and to attribute to it an intrinsic efficacy, r.rhis fetishism, which in its rudest form consists of tlie worship of a certain portion of matter as matter, -is sho١vn also, though in a modified and less revolt iag manner, in tlie supposition that cei.tain sacred

talismans 0 1 . signs possess an inherent efficacy al- tog-ether irrespective of the disposit.ions of men. Of ١vas tlie system of pagan magic, which this natui.e atti.ibuted a supei'natural power to particular herbs, or cei-emonies, or words, and also the many rival but corresponding superstitions that were speedily introduced int-0 Christianity. The sign " ١١٠as perhaps tlie earliest of tliese. ft was adopted not simply as a form of recognition or as a lioly recollection, or even as a mark of reverence, but as a and the writings of ؛ veapon of miraculous power DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 191 tlie Fathers are crowded with the prodigies it performed, and also with the many types and images that adumbrated its glory, thus we are reminded by a writer in the beginning of the second century, the sea could not be traversed without a mast, which is in the form of a c.ross. The earth becomes fertile only when it has been dug by a spade, which is a cross. The body of man is itself in the same holy form. So also is his face, for the eyes and nose together form across ; a fact to which Jeremiah pro- The breath of our ٤ ,bably alluded when he said nostrils is the anointed of the Lord.’1 Speculations no less strange and far-fetched were directed to the baptismal water. The efficacy of infant baptism, which had been introduced, if not in the Apostolic age, at least immediately after, was regarded as quite independent of any moral virtues eithei. in the recipient or those about Ilim, and in the opinion of some a spiritual change was effected by nimediate co-operation؛ the water itself, without any of the Deity, by a power that had been conferred upon the element at the period of the creation.2 The Justin Martyr, Apol. i. frequently represented richly ا Augustine thought the wooden ornamented with gems or flow- ark floating on tlie Deluge a ers. As St. Eortunatus writes : type of the cross consecrating *Arbor decora et fulgida tlie ljaptismal waters; and Bede Ornata regis purpura. found a similar type in the rod Electa digno stipite ofMoses stretched over the Red Tam sancta membra tangere.’ Sea. Another wise commenta- The letter Tau, as representing tor suggested tliat Isaac had the cross, was specially rever- been sJCdfrom death, because, enced as opposed to Theta, the when ascending the mountain, unlucky letter-the initial of .wood of sacrifice ’ edvaTOs ﺀ he bore tlie See the curious argument ال ,on his shoulder. The cross however, seldom or never ap- in Tertullian, JDe Bapt. cc. 5) 6, pears in art before the vision of Constantine. At first it was 192 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

its position in tbe universe ؛ incomparable grandeur 0 ١vas a theme of the most rapturous eloquence. When ,١vas still buried in the night of cliaos the earth before the lights of heaven had been called into being or any living creature liad tenanted the eternal solitude, water existed in all the plenitude of its per. fection, veiling the unshapen eartli, and glorified and sanctified for ever as the chosen throne of the Deity. .١vater God separated the heavens from the eartli By ١vith life when the earth w'as Water became instinct still barren and uninhabited. In the creation of man it might appear at first sight as if its position was ignored, but even liere a more mature reflection dispelled the difticulty. For in order that the Almighty should mould the earth into the human form, it was obviously necessary that it should have retained something of its former moisture ; in other words, that it should have been mixed with water.'‘

-mg tlie an؛Non enim ipsius quoque ing a stream. Am ‘ ا lioniinis figurandi opus socian- cienfc philosophers, Tliales had ؛tibus aquis absolutumestj de esteemed water the origin 0 terrji mjiteria convenit, non ta- all things, which moro than men habilis nisi humecta et one Father regarded as a kind suecida, quam scilicet ante of inspiration. Thus Minucius quartum fliem segregatse aqum Felix : .Milesius Thales rerum in stationem suam superstite initium aquam d ix it: Deum humore, limo temperjint.’ (Ter- autem earn mentem quse e.x tullian. Be Ikptismo, c. iii.) aqua cuncta formavei.it. Vides From tliis notion of the sanctity pliilosoplii principalis nohis- of Wjiter grew the custom of cum penitus opinionem conso- swimming witclies—for it was nare.’ (Octavius, c. xix.) Tlie believed that everything unbelief in tlie expiatory po١١٠er holy WJIS repelled by it, and of water was forcibly rebuked unable to sink into its elepths by Ovid nimihm faciles, qui tristia ل Ah ٠ .Einsfeldius, Be Confess. Mai) p. 3 15)— and also probably crimina epedis tlie many legends of trans- FlumineA tolli posse pul Jit i? '!،formed men restored to their aqu natural condition by cross (Fasty lib. ii.) DEVELOPEMENTS OF KATIONALISM. 193 Such was the direction in which the human mind drifted* with an ever-increasing rapidity, as the igno- ranee and intellectual torpor became more general. The same habit of thought was soon displayed in charms..؛every department of theology, and countless and amulets came into use, tlie simple possession of which was supposed to guarantee the owner against ils, both spiritual and temporal. Indeed,, it’all e١ niay be f estigilw-hjether this .-form, of fetishist, ...؟Soever, moraproruineniin paganism than -in me! dijeval Christianity. I n e n pass ;from a state, of-pure fetishism, the ٠ / ، ,hey forin, of the.. Divine..nature -.is؛ next conception anthrpppirphism, which is in some respects very closely connected with the preceding, and vhich, like it, is diffused in a more or less modified form over the belief of almost all uncivilised nations. Those who have ceased to attribute power and virtue to inert matter, regal'd tlie universe as tlic sphere of tlie operations of spiritual beings of a nature sti'ictly analogous to their 0١vn. Tliey consider every unusual phenomenon the direct and isolated act of an unseen agent-, pointed to some isolated object and resulting from some passing emotion. The tliunder, tlie famine, and the pestilence, are the results of an ebullition ot. great and rapid prosperity is the ؛spiritual anger sign of spiritual satisfaction. But at the same time the feebleness of imagination wilieh in tliis stage makes men unable to picture the Deity other than as a.n unseen man, makes it also impossible for them to concentrate tlieir tliouglits and emotions upon that conception without a visible representation. Bor wliile it is a matter of controversy whether or not the innate faculties of tlie civilised man transcend VOL. I. 0 RATlONALiSM iN i o P i 94ا those of the savage, it is at least certain tliat tlie intellectual atmosphere of each period tells so soon and so powerfully upon all men, that long before matured age the two classes are almost as different in their capacities as in their acquirements. The ل civilised man not only knows more tlian the savage he possesses an intellectual strength, a power ofsus- tained and patient tliought, of concentrating his mind steadily upon the unseen, of disengaging liis conceptions from tlie images of the senses, wliicli the other is unahle even to imagine. Present to the savage tlie conception of an unseen Being, to be adored without the assistance of any representation, and he will be unable to grasp it. It will have no force or palpable reality to liis mind, and can therefore exercise no influence over his life. Idolat^ is the common religion of the savage, simply because it is the only one of which liis intellectual condition will admit, and, in one form or another, it must continue until that condition has been changed. Idolatry may be of t١vo kinds. It is sometimes a sign of progress. When men are beginning to emerge from the pure fetisliism wliicli is pi.obably tlieir first stage, tliey carve matter into tlie form of an intelligent being j and it is only lvlien it is endowed with that form, that they attribute to it a Bivine cliaracter. They are still worshipping matter, but tlieir fetishism is fading int.0 anthropomoi’pliism. Sometimes, again, men who have once risen to a conception of a pure and spiritual being, sink, in consequence of some convulsion of society, into a lower level of civilisation. Tliey will then endeavour to assist tlieir imaginations by representations of the objects of their worsilip, and they will very soon DEVELOFEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 1.5 attribute to those representations an intrinsic efficacy. It will appear from the foregoing principles that, in the early anthropomorphic stages of society, visible images form the channels of religions devotions, and, therefore, as long as those stages continue, the true history of theology, or at least of the emotional and realised parts of theology, is to be found in the hist'Ory of art. Even outside the pale of Christianity, there is scarcely any instance in which the national religion has not exercised a great and dominating influence over the national art. Thus, for example, the two, ancient nations in which the *esthetic develope. ment failed most remarkably to keep pace with the general civilisation were the Persians and the Egyp- tians. The fire that was worshipped by the first, formed a fetish, at once so simple and so sublime, that it I.endered useless the productions of the cliisel 5 while the artistic genius of Egypt was paralysed by ft religion which branded all innovation as a crime, made the profession of an artist compulsory and hereditary, rendered the knowledge of anatomy impossible by its prohibition of dissection, and taught men by its elaborate symbolism to look at every natural object, not for its own sake, but as the representative of something else. Thus, again, among tlie nations that were especially distinguished for their keen sense of the beautiful, India and Greece are preeminent; but there is this important difference between them. The Indian religion ever soared to the terrible, the unnatural, and tlie prodigious, and consequently Indian art was so completely turned away from nature, that all faculty of accurately copying it seems to liave vanished, and the simplest 196 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. subject was interwoven with grotesque and fanciful inventions. The Greek religion, on the other hand, was an almost pure naturalism, and therefore Gi.eek art was simply nature idealised, and as sucli has ؛.become tlie universal model But it is with Christian art tliat we are now especially concerned, and it is also Christian-it which most faithfully i.efiects the different stages of religious developement, enabling ns to trace, not merely ١vhat is much more ,successive pliases of belief, but important for my present purpose, successive phases of I.eligious realisation. The constant fall of tlie early Jews into idolatty, in spite of the most repeated commands and tlie most awful punishments, while it sliows clearly how irresistible is tliis tendency in an early sta.ge of society, furnished a warning which was at first not altogether lost upon the Christian Cliurcli. It is indeed true t'hat art had so long been associated with paganism-its subjects, its symbolism, and its very tone of beauty, were so derived from the old mythology-that the Christian artists, who had probably in many cases been formerly pagan artists, introduced a considerable number of the ancient conceptions into their new sphere. But, altliougli tliis fact is perfectly in-

but tliJs was itself a ل See Winckelmann, Hist, of subjects ا "Raoul Roclictte, Cours consequence of tlie small ell ؛ Art d'Arclicologic; and the Lectures couragement religion gave to of Barry anti Fuseli. Tbis art. On the great difference of particular cbai.acteristic of In- tlie ideal of beauty in different dian art luis been forcibly no- nations, wliich has also exer. ticed by Mr. Ruskin in one of cised a great influence on tlie liis Edinburgh lectures. Less- developement of art, SP6 some ing ascribes the imperfections curious e^dence collected by of Persian art to its almost ex- Ch. Comte, Ti'aitc cle Lrqisla- elusive employment foi. military iion, liv. iii. ch. 4. DEVELOPEMENTS OF NATIONALISM. 197 coniesiable, and although the readiness with which pagan imagery was admitted into the symbolism of the Church forms an extremely curious and instructive contrast to the tone which most of the Fathers adopted towards the pagan deities, nearly all these instances of appropriation were singularly judicious, and tlie general desire to avoid anything that might lead to idolatrous worship was very manifest. The most important and the most beneficial effect of pagan traditions upon Christian art was displayed in its general character. It had always been a strict rule among the Creeks and Romans to exclude from sepulchral decorations every image of sadness. The. funerals of the ancients were, indeed, accompanied by great displays of exaggerated and artificial lamenta, tionj but once the ashes were laid in the tomb, it was the business of the artist to employ all his skill in depriving doatli of its terror. Wreaths of flowers, Raccilic dances, hunts, or battles, all the exuberance of tlie nrost buoyant life, a.ll the images of passion 01. of revelry, were sculptured around the tomb, while the genii of the seasons indicated the inevitable march of time, and the masks that adorned the corners sliowed that life was but a player’s part, to be borne foi. a few yeai٠s witli honour, and cast aside without regi.et. The influence of this tradition was shown in ave^ remarkable way in Christianity. At first J- C l i i i .س٠ئ;\ﺣﺌﺞ .es؟.art._l4l.a_!٠ iiittiis ~ s ¥ L k b :a ١vere all decorated were the Catacombs 5 tlie chapels the altar upon whicli the أ surrounded by the dead sacred mysteries were celebrated was the tomb of a martyr.! According to medieval or even to modern This is the origin of the custom in the Catholic Church ﺀ ٠ 198 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. ideas, we should have im aged that an art growing up under such circumstances would have assumed a siu^ilarly somhre and severe tone, and this expec. tation wouid be greatly heightened if we remembered the occasional violence of the persecution. The very altar-tomb around which the Christian painter scattered his ornaments with most profusion was often associated with the memory of sufferings of the most horrible and varied character, and at the same time with displays of heroic constancy that might welJ have in^ted the talents of the artist. Passions, too, were often roused to the highest point, and it would seem but natural that the great and terrible scenes of Christian vengeance sliould be depicted. Yet nothing of this kind appears in the Catacombs. With two doubtful exceptions, one at least being of the very latest period, there are no representations of martyr- domsl Daniel unharmed amid the lions, the uua^ complislied sacrifice of Isaac, the three children unscathed amid the flames, and St. Peter led to prison, are the only images that reveal the horrible persecution that was raging. There was no disposi- of placing relics of tile mar. sitive representation of a martyrs beneath the altars of the tyrdom — that of the Virgin churches. It was also con- Salome, and this is of a very nected witli the passage in the liite period of decadence ( Apocalypse about the souls that dcs Catacombcs, p. 187). The were beneath the altar of God. same writer has collected (pp. In most early cliurches there 191, 192) a few instances from was a subterranean chapel be- tile Fatliers in which represen- low the high altar, as a memo- tations of martyrdoms in the ل rial of the Gatacombs. A de- early basilicas are mentioned cree of the Second Council of but they are very few, and there Nice (A.D. 787) forbade the con- can be no doubt whatever of secrat.ion of any church with- the broad contrast early Cliris- out relics. tian art in this respect bears to M. Raoul Rocliette tliinks that of the tenth and following ا tliilt there is but one direct po- centuries. DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISE. 1.9 tion to perpetrate forms of suffering, no ebullition of bitterness or complaint,'no thirsting for vengeance. Neither tlie Crucifixion, nor any of the scenes of the Passion, were ever represented; nor was the day of judgment, nor were the sufferings of the lost. Tho wreaths of flowers in which paganism delighted, and even some of the most joyous images of the pagan mythology, were still retained, and were mingletl with all the most beautiful emblems of Christian hopes, and with representations of many of the miracles of mercy. ,Tlsystematic. exclusion,of all images of sorro١v ^ r j n g , and vengeance, at a time that seemed beyond all others most calculated to produce them, reveals ر the.. Early Church in an aspect that is singularly touching, and it may, I thnk, be added, singularly The fact is also one of extreme importance in ecclesiastical history. For, as we shall liereafter have occasion to see, there existed among some of the theologians of the Early Church a tendency that was diametrically opposit-e to this; a tendency to dilate upon such subjects as the torments of hell, the ven. geance of the day of judgment, and, in a word, all the sterner portions of Christianity, wliich at last be. came dominant in the Church, and which exercised an extremely injurious influence over the affections of men. But whatever might have been the case with educated theologians, it was quite impossible for this tendency to be very general as long as art, which was then the expression of populai. realisations, took a different direction. The change in, art was not fully shown till late in the tenth century. I liave already' 'had occasion to notice the popularity W'hich representations of the Passion and of the day of 2.0 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. judgment then for the first time assumed j and it may he added that, from this period, one of the main objects ot the artists was the invention of new and horrible tortures, which were presented to the constant contemplation of the faithfill in countless pictures of the sufferings of the martyrs on earth, 01. of the lost in heli.1 Tlie next point whicli especially strikes US in the art of tlie Catacombs is tlie great love,, of -S ym b olism it evinced. There are, it is true, a few isolated pic- but by far tlie و tures of Christ and of tlie Virgin greater number of representations were obviously ١vei١e designed exclusively as. means symbolical, and of instruction. Of these symbols many were taken without hesitation from paganism. Thus, one of tlie most common is the peacock, which in tlie Church, as among tlie lieatlien, was selected as tlie emblem of immort.ality. Partly, perha.ps, on account of its surpassing beauty, and partly from a belief tliat its flesh never decayed,'^ it liad been adopted by the ancient.s as the neai.est realisation of their conception of tlie phrenix, and at the fiineral of an empress the bird was sometimes let loose fi.om among tlie ashes of tlie deceaseds Orplieus drawing all men to him by liis music, symbolised tlie attractive power of

\ See Riioul Rocliette, Ta- numenta, pars i. p. 115; and .H yA. On. tlie Catacombs -آلألن .؟آل ,bl.cau des Catacombcs 195; Didroii)Iconographie chre- Raoul Rocliette, however. seems tienne. to regard the peacock ratlier as Which St. Augustine said tlie symbol, first of all, of tlie ,ال he liad ascertained by experi- apotheosis of an empress, and ,١vhicli he then generally of apotheosis ment to lie a fact, and seemed to regard as a miracle. tlie peacock having been tlie (De Civ. Dei, lib. xxi. c. 4). bird of Juno, tlie empress of * See Ciampini, Vetera Mo- hearen DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 201 Cliristianity.i Til© masks of paganism, and especially the masks of the sun and moon, which tlie pagans adopted as emblems of tlie lapse of life, continued to adorn the Christian sarcophagi, the last being probably regarded as emblems of the resurrection. The same tiling may be said of the genii of tlie seasons.2 Nor was this by any means the only tbrm under whicli tlie genii were represented. Tlie ancients regarded tliem as presiding over every department of nature. and many thought that a sepai.ate genius watclied

Orpheus is spoken of by diat Hercules, thougli never, I ا Eusellius as in tliis respect sym- believe, represented in tbe Cata- bolising Chl’ist. The reverence combs, appears more than once that at.tached to him probably in tlie old cliurclies, St. Augus- ١١dth resulted in a great measure tine having identified him from tlie fact that among tlie Samson. (See on tliis repre- many ajwcryphal propliecies of sentation. and generally on tlie Christ that circulated in tlie connection between pagan and Church, some of the most con- Clil’istian art, that very curious spicuous were ascribed to Or- and learned work, Marangoni, plieus. See on ^ is symbol, Delle Cose Gcoitilesclie e Profane Maitland, On the CatacombSf trasportttte ad uso delle Chiese Romm, 17T1), P P . 50, 51.) Tlie) وﺀى ,Raoul Rochette و p. 110 and, for a full ex- sphinx also was believed by ئ Cat. p. 138 amination of the subject, tlie some of tlie early Cliristians great work of Boldetti, Osser• (e.g. Clement of- Alexandria) Sautl to be in some degree connected ua2ionisopraiCimiteride١ Martyri (Romm, 1720), tom. i. with tlieir filitli; for tliey sup. pp. 27-20. M. Rio (Art chre- posed it to be copied from the tien, Introd. p. 36), I think Jewish image of the Cherubim, rather fancifully, connects it but tliey never reproduced it. ^ th the descent of Orpheus to Some later antiquaries have at- hell to save a soul. As other t.ributed this curious combina- examples of the introduction tion of tlie Virgin and the Lion of pffgan gods into Christian to tlie advantages Egypt derives iy mention that there from these signs, through which؛art., I m is an obscure picture in one of the sun passes at tlie period of tlie catacombs, which R. Ro- the inundation of the Nile (Cay. chette supposes to represent lus, Recueil (VAntiquitk) tom. i. Mercury leading the souls of -arangoni. Belle Cose Gen^ ل tlie dead to judgment (Tab. des Ah٠ ٠؛\,.?Cat. pp. 1،8-151); and also t٤lesc!u 202 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. over the destiny of each man. This conception very ؛,naturally coalesced with tliat of guardian angels and the pagan representation of the genii as young winged boys, naked, and with gentle and joyous countenances, became very common in early Chris, tian art, and passed from it into the art of later days. Bven now from the summit, of the baldachino of St. Beter’s, the genii of paganism look down on tlie proudest, ceremonies of Cat-holicism. Once or twice on the Christian sarcophagi Christ is represented in triumph witli the sky, or perhaps, more correctly, ,the waters above the firmament,, beneath his feet ٤ in the form of a man extending a veil above his head, the habitual pagan representation of an aquatic deity.2 In addition to these symbols, which were mani. festly taken from paganism, there were others mainly or exclusively pi.oduced by the Church itself. Til US, the fish was the usual emblem of Clirist, chosen because the Greek word forms the initials of His name and titles,3 and also because Christians are born by baptism in water.* Sometimes, but much more rarely, tlie stag is employed for the same purpose, because it bears the cross on its forehead, and from an old notion that it was the irreconcilable enemy of serpents, which it was supposed to hunt out and destroy.. Several subjects from tlie Bible of a sym-

-All this is fully discussed Tlie dolphin was especially se ١ in Marangoni. lected because of its tenderness 2 Ibid. p. 45 ; Raoul Ro- to its young. Nos pisciculi secundum‘ ٠ .chette, Tab. des Cat IxQ vv nostrum Jesum Cliristum’ ﺀrods XpKTTbs 0€0)[ال .ﺀ5ا 7 0 % ! 3 2 wt■fip. Tlie initial letters in aqu& nascimur.' (Tertullian, of the proplietic verses of the Be Baptismo, c. i.) Maury, Ugendes pieuses٠ ٥ Sibyl of Erytlira (St. Aug. Be Civ Bei, lib. xviii. cap. 20). pp. 173-1.78. See, too.; Rliny, 203DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 203DEVELOPEMENTS bolical character were constantly repeated. Snch were Noah in the attitude of prayer receiving the dove into his hreast, Jonah rescued from the fish’s mouth, Closes striking the rock, St. Peter with the wand of power, the three children, Daniel in the lions’ den, the Good Shepherd, the dove of peace, the anchor of hope, the crown of martyrdom, tlie palm of victory, the ship struggling through the waves to a distant haven, the horse bounding onwards to the of these were manifestly symbolical, and ا ك .goal were in no degree the objects of reverence or worship. أ' When, however, the first purity of the Christian Church was dimmed, and when the decomposition of I the Roman Empire and the invasion of the barbarians / overcast the civilisation of Europe, the character of! ؛ art was speedily changed, and though many of the إ symbolical representations still continued, there was manifested by the artists a constantly increasing ten- or. i; ﻳ ﺪ y the object of؛digect ؛y to repregen؛;de to the image. Of all the forms of anthropomorpliism that are displayed in Catholic art, there is probably none

Josephus, of prophetic power. See also ل Hist. Nat. viii. 50 Antigi. ii. 10. There is a has- Ciampini, Be Sacris JEdificiis relief in the Vatican which (Romm), p. 44; and the very seems to represent a stag in curious, chapter in Arringhi, the act of attacking a serpent. Boma Subterranea, tom. ii. pp. The .passage in the Psalms, 602-606. The stag was sup- the hai’t panting for the posed to dread the thunder so ٠ about watera,’ (which the neophyte much, that through terror it was accustomed to sing as he often brought forth its young descended into the baptismal prematurely, and this was asso- .Th ٠ ,water.) was mixed up with this ciated with the passage symbol. In the middle ages, voice of thy thuhder has made stags were invested wit.h a kind me afraid.' 204 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. whicli a Protestant deems so repulsive as tlie portrait's of tie Pirst Person of tlie Trinity, tliat are now so common. It is, however, a very remarkable fact, wliich las been establislied chiefly by the researches of some French archeologists in the present centnry, that these portraits are all comparatively modern, and that tlie period in which the superstition of Europe was most profound, was precisely that in which they In an age when tlie religious ؛.had no existence realisations of Christendom were habitually expressed by visilile representations-when the nature of a spirit was so inadequately conceived tliat artists never for a' moment shrank from representing purely spiritual lieings-and when that instinctive reverence whicli makes men l.ecoil from certain subjects, as too solemn and sulilime to lie treated, was almost aliso- lutely unknown—we do not find tlie smallest tendency to represent God tlie Fatlier. Scenes indeed in wliicli He acted were frequently depicted, lint the First Person of tlie Trinity was invariably superseded by tlie Second. Clirist, in tlie dress and witli tlie features appropi.iated to Him in tlie representations of scenes from the Hew Testament, and often with tlie mono- gram underneath his figure, is represented creating man, condemning Adam and Eve to labour, speaking with Hoali, arresting the arm of Abraham, 01. giving tlie law to Moses. 2 With tlie exception of a hand sometimes extended from the cloud, and occasionally This subject has been graphic chreticnwe, Hist. de ا briefly noticed by Raoul Ro. Bleu (Paris, 1843), one of the cJiette in his Discours sur VArt most important contributions -ever made to Christian archffi ة%\ا١١ 4 ٠١ ٦ du Christiamsme and by Maury, Legendes p i‘ ology. See, too, Emei.ic David, cuses; but the full examination Hist, de la Peittturc au Moyen of it was reserved for M. Did- Age, pp. 19-21. .Ilidron, pp. 177-182 ال -١١٠ork, leono ron, in liis great DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 205 encircled with a nimbus, we find in this period no traces in art of the Creator. At first we can easily imagine that a purely spiritual conception of the Deity, and also the hatred that was inspired by the type of Jupiter, would have discouraged artists from attempting sucli a, subject, and Gnosticism, which exercised a very great influence over Cliristian art, and which empliatically denied the divinity of the God of the Gld Testament, tended in the same direction j but it is very unlikely that these reasons can have had any weight between the sixth .,and ^ tw elfth - centuries. For the more those centuries are studied, tlie more evident it becomes that, the universal,،.!(! irresistible .tendency was theniOi niaterialiievery spiritual conception, to form a palpable image of everything that was reverenced, to reduce all subjects within th e -domain of the senses. This tendency, unchecked by any sense of grotesqueness or irreverence, was shown witli equal force in sculpture, painting, and legends j and all the old landmarks and distinctions that had been made be. tween the orthodox uses of pictures and idolatry had been virtually swept away by the resistless desire to form an image of eveiything that was worshipped, and to attach to that image something of the sanctity of its object. Yet amid all this no one thought of representing the Supreme Being. In that condition of society men desired a human god, and they consequently concent.rated their attention exclusively upon the Second Person of tlie Tl'inity or upon the Saints, and suffered the great conception of the Father to become practica.lly obsolete. It continued of course in creeds and in theological treatises, but it was a void and sterile abstraction, which had no place among the realisations and no .£RATIONALISM IN E٧ROP 2.6 influence on the emotions of mankind. If men turned away from the Second Person of the Trinity, it was only to bestow their demotions upon saints or martyrs. With the exception, I believe, of one or two representations of the Trinity on early sarcophagi and of a single manuscript of the tliere exists no portrait of the ؛,nintli century Father earlier than the twelfth century j and it was only in the fourteenth century, wlien the. revival of }earning liad become marked, tliat tliese portraits became common.2 From that time to the age of Raphael the steady tendency of Art is to give an ever-increasing preeminence to the Father. At first His position in painting and sculpture had been a subordinate one, and He was only represented in the least attractive occupations,3 and commonly, through a desire to represent the coeternity of the Persons of tlie Trinity, of the same age as His Son. Hradu- ally however, after the fourteenth century, we find the Fatlier represented in every painting as older, more.venerable, and more pi’ominent, until at last He became the central and commanding figure,, exciting

Raoul Rocliette, discours JAsus-Christ perl sa force d’as٠ ا Art chretieu, similation iconographique et ؟ sur les Types de se laisse vaincre par soil pare. -Didron, pp. 227-230. C’est ail tour du Fils a se re٣C 2 ٣ieillir See tliis fact worked out in til. de traits du pare, a 5 detail in Didron. etrider comme lui. . . Enfin, On peut done relativement depuis les premiers siaies du ٠ * a Dieu le PCre partager le moy- Christianisme jusqu.a nos jours en age en deux p^riodes. Dans nous voyons le Pere croitre la premiere, qui est antCrieure en importance. Son portrait, au XIV® siaie, la figure du d'abord interdit par les Guo- PCre se confond avec celle du stiques, se montre timidement c.est le Fils qui est tout- ensuite et comme d^guisa sous و Fils puissant et qui fait son PCre la figure de son Fils. Puis il a son image et ressemhlance. rejette tout accoutrementatran- ^et prend une figure sp ؟Dans la seconde p^riode apr^s ge -puis par Raphael et en ل le XIII. sttcle, 1'usqu’au XVl®, ciale 7 ﻫ ﺔ .t)EVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM the highest degree of reverence, and commonly re. presented in different countries according to their ideal of greatness. In Italy, Spain., and the ultra^ montane monasteries of France, He was usually ؛represented as a Pope 5 in Germany, as an Emperor in England, and, for the most part, in France, as ft King. In a condition of thought in which the Deity was only realised in tlie form of man it was extremely natural that the number of divinities sliould be multiplied. The chasm between the two natures was en. tirely unfelt, and something of the Divine character was naturally reflected upon those wlio were most eminent in the Church. The most remarkable instance of this polytheistic tendency was displayed in the deification of the Virgin. A conception of a divine person or manifestation oftlie female sex had been one of the notions of the and in tlie first centu^ Simon ئ old Je^ sh Cabalists Magus had led about ^ th him a woman named Helena, who, according to the Catholics, was simply liis mistress, but whom he proclaimed to be the incar- This notion, under ؛.nation of tlie Divine Thought a great many different forms, was diffused through almost all tlie sects of the Cnostic.s. The Supreme Being, whom tliey very jealously distinguished

.pp. 35-37 .٠[ .fin par !Anglais Martin, il isme (1734), tom gagne une grave et une admi- Justin Martyr, Tertullian.Ire. rable physionomie qui n’ap- naeus, Epiphnius, and several partient qu’a lui.» (Didron, otlier Fathers, notice the wor- p. 226.) ship of Helena. According to gee on this subject Franck, them, Simon proclaimed that ا Sur la Kabbale; Maury, Croy- the.angels in heaven made, war xnces et Lkgendes de VAntiqultk on account of her beaut.y, and and especially that the Evil One had made ئ p. 338 ,(1863) Beausobre, Hist, du Maniche- b٠r prisoner to prevent her 208 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. from and u s u a l l y opposed to the God of the Jews,1 .The Unknown Father,’ and tliey re ٤ tliey termed garded Him as directly inaccessible to human knowledge, but as revealed in part by certain (Eons or emanations, of whom the two principal were Christ, and a female spirit termed the Divine Sophia or Ennoia, and sometimes known by tlie strange name Prounice.’ 2 According to some sects, tliis Sophia ٤ of return to hearen, from wliicli head was an old Egyptian sym- she lnid strayed. There is some hoi of a good genius. Prounice properly signifies ٥ reason to think that all tliis was an allegory of the soul. lasciviousness. It seems to hare .Most of tlie Gnostics re- been applied to tlie Sophia con ا garded the God of the Jews or sidered in her fallen condition, the Hemiurge as an imperfect as imprisoned in matter,, hut spirit presiding orer an imper- tliere is an extreme obscurity, feet moral system. Many, liow- which lias, I tliink, nerer been erer, regarded t.lio Jenrisli 1’eli- cleared up, hanging upon tlie gion as the work of tlie principle subject. Prounico seems to of Evil—the God of matter; hare been confounded with and tlie. Cainites made eveiyone Beronice, tlie name wliicli a ١٢ho liad ojnposed it tlie object rery early Clil’istian tradition of reverence, wliilo tlie Ophites gare to tlie woman wlio liad actually worsilipped tlieserpcnt. been healed of an issue of We liave, perhaps, a partial ex- blood. This woman formed one pljination of tlie reverence many of tlie principal types among of tlie Gnostics had for the ser- tlie Gnostics. According to the pent in tlie fact tliat this ani- Valentinians, the twelre years mal, wliicli in Christianity re- of her affliction represented tlie presents the principle of Evil, twelre (Eons, while tlie flowing had a vei^ differont position ill blood was tlie force of t-lie So- ancient symliolism. It was the pilia passing to t.lie inferior general emblem of healing (lie- world. See on tliis subject, .Croyances ct Legnides أع١آل cause it clianges its skin), and 1 as sucli appears in tlie s'tatues art. Veronica; and on the So- of Aesculapius and Isis, and it pilia generally. Matter, Histi was also constantly adopted as du Gnosticism, tom. i. pp. 275- a representative animal. Thus 278. M. Franck says {La Kab‘ in the Mitliraic groups, tliat bale, p. 43) that some of the are so common in later Roman Gnostics painted tlie Holy Gliost sculpture, tlie serpent and the as a woman; but tliis, I sup- dog represent all living crea- pose, only refers to tlie Sopliia. k's’tures. A serpent with a ha١١ DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 2٠٥ was simply the human soul, which was originally an emanation or child of the Deity, but which had wan- dered from its parent-source, had become enamoured of and at last imprisoned by matter, and was now struggling, by the assistance of the unfallen CEon Christ, towards its pristine purity. More commonly, however, slie was deemed a personification of a Divine attribute, an individual CEon, the sister or (according to others) the mother of Christ, and entitled to equal or almost equal reverence. In. this way, long before Catholic Mariolatry had acquired its frdl proportions, a very large section of the Christian world had been accustomed to concentrate much attention upon a female ideal as one of tlie two ce.ntral figures of devotion. This fact alone would in some degi.ee prepare the way for the subsequent elevation of the Virgin; and it should be added that Gnosticism exercised a very great and special influence over the modes of thouglit of tlie ortliodox. As its most learned historian has forcibly contended, it should not be regarded as a Christian heresy, but ratber as an independent system of eclectic pliilosophy in which Christian ideas occupied a prominent place. Nearly all lieresies liave aroused among tlie orthodox a spirit of repulsion which lias pi١oduced ^ews tlie extreme opposite of those ot' tlie lieretic. Gnosticism, on the other liand, exercised an absorbing and attractive influence of the strongest kind. Tliat Neoplatonic pliilosophy wliich so deeply tinctured early tlieology passed, for the most part, through a Gnostic medium. No sect, too, appears to have estimated more highly 0 1 . employed more skilfully esthetic aids. The sweet s'ongs of Bar- carried their distinctive ٢٣ desanes and VOL. I. 2)0 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. doetriues into the very heart of Syrian orthodoxy, and cast snch a spell over the minds of the people tliat, in spite of all prohibitions, they continued to be sung in tlie Syrian churches till the Catholic poet St. Ephrem wedded orthodox verses to the Gnostic The apocryplial gospels, whicli were for ؛.metres tlie most part of Gnostic origin, long continued to farnish subjects for painters in orthodox churches.* There is even much reason to believe that the con- ventional cast of features ascribed to Christ, whicli for so many centuries formed tlie real oliject of the worsilip of Christendom, is derived from the Gnostic artists.3 Besides tliis. Gnosticism formed the highest

-H f , Hist, dll Gnosti- ries) rests chiefly oil the follow ١ cisme, tom. i. pp. 360-362. ing positions 1. Tliat in tlie 2 Didron, pp. 197, 198. The earliest stage of Christianity apocryphal gospel, liowever, all painting and sculpture wei٠e which exercised most influence looked upon with great aversion over Art was probably that of in tlie Church, and that as late Nicodenius, wliicli is apparently as tlie time of Constantine por- of ortliodox origin, and was traits of Christ were very rare. probably written (or at least 2. That the Gnostics from the tlie second part of it) against beginning cultivated art-, and ,٦٣e 0١ve to tliat small images of Clirist .the Apollinarians it tlie pictures of tlie Descent were among tlie most common into Limbo tliilt are so common objects of tlieir l.everence. 3. in early Ryzantine art. The Tliat tlie Gnostics were very same subject, derived from tlie numerous at Rome. 4. Tliat ilso prominent Gnosticism exercised a gi.eat؛ ١vas ,same source in tlie medieval sacred plays influence upon the Churcli, and tlie English especially upon her aesthetic ؛History oj 0la\ome١ Stage, p. 19). developement. It may be added -Eor a full discussion of tliat theChristianscarefolly ab ٠ this point-, see Raoul Rochette’s stained from deriving from pa. s ganism the cast of features they ؛ ؛ ؛deFArt, pp. 9-26, an -and Theo ل ascribed to Christ ذTableau des Catacombcs, p. 26 The opinion tliat tlie type of doret relates thatapainterhav- Christ is derived from the ing taken Jupiter as a model in Gnostics (which Raoul Ro- a portrait of- Christ, his hand cliette says has been embraced was withered, but was restored by most of tlie Roman antiqua- miraculously by St. Gennadius, DEVELOEMENTS OF RATIONALISE!. 211 representation of a process of transformation or uni. fication of religions ideas which occupied a very prominent place among the organising influences of the Church. Christianity had become tlie central in tellectual power in the world, but it triumphed not so much by superseding rival faiths as by absorbing and transforming them. Old systems, old rites, old images were grafted into the new belief, retaining mucli of their ancient, chai.acter, but assuming new names and a new complexion. Thus in the symbolism of the Gnostics innumerable conceptions culled from the different beliefr of paganism were clustered around the Divine Sophia, and at least some of them passed tlirougli paintings or traditional allegories to the Vil.gin. Tlie old Egyptian conception of Night the mother of day and of all things, with the diadem of stars, Isis the sister of Osiris or the Saviour, Eatona the mothei. of Apollo, Flora the bright goddess of returning spring, to wliom was once dedicated the month of May, which is now dedicated to the Virgin j Cybele the mother of the gods, wliose feast was celebrated on what is now Lady-Day, ؛.were all more or less connected with the new ideal But while Gnosticism may be regarded as the pio- neei. or precursor of Catholic Mariolatry, the direct Archbishop of Constantinople, noramus . . . . Nam et ipsius .facies carnis innu ®؟At a later period pagan statues Domini were freqUently turned into merabiliumcogitationum diver- saints. St. Au^istine men- sitate variatur et fingitur, quae tions that in his time there tamen una e rt, qumcumque was no autlientic poi’trait of erat.’ {Be Trinitate, lib. viii. Christ, and that tire type of c. 4, 5.) The type, liowever, features was still undeter- was soon after formed, to ؛On the relation of th8 ٤ -mined, so that we have abso lutely no knowledge of His Gnosticism, see Matter, Hist. .Qua fuerit ille du Gnosticisme, tom. i. pp. 88 ٠ (Christus) facie nos penitus ig- 89-98. ?2 212 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

causes are to be found within the circle of the Church. I f i a i r s t two .or three centuries were..-essentially- the ages of moral appreciation,.the fourth and fifth wec^essentially.those of. dogmatia definitions, which were especially applied to the nature of the-divinily. and which naturally and indeed necessarily , ﺳ ﺨ ﺈ ﺋ ﻊ 0 tended to the continued exaltation of one who was soon regarded as, very literally, the Bride of God. Buring the Nestorian controversy the discussions on the subject assumed an almost physiological cha. and the emphasis with which the Church ؛,racter condemned the doctrines of Nestorius, who was supposed to have unduly depreciated the dignity of Mary, impelled tlie orthodox enthusiasm in the opposite direction. The Council of Epliesus, in A.D. 431, defined tlie manner in whicli t.he Virgin should be -and the ever-increasing im ل represented by artists 2 Verbum pafcris peraurem ٠ The st.rong desire natural lary ا to the middle ages to give a benedicts intravit.' St.Agobawl palpable form to the mystery says, ‘Descendite Cffihs missus -١vas shown ab arce Eatris, introivitperau of the Incarnation curiously in the notion of a rem Virginis in regi.nem nos- conception by tlie ear. In a tram.. Similar expressions had hymn, ascribed to St,. Thomas been employed in the Early a Becket, occur the lines— Church by St. Augustine and St. Ephrem. Tliis of course was ,mater Cliristi , ؟Gaude Vi0‘ Quae per aurem concepisti, suggested by the. title Logos. .Maury, Legenclcs pieuses, pp) ' ل Gabriele nuntio ٠٥.) andin anold glass window, now, _2 St. Augustine notices I believe, in one of tlie museums Trinitate) that in liis time there of Earis, the Holy Gliost is rep- was no authentic portrait of resented hovering over the Vir- Mary. The Council of Ephesus gin in the form of a dove, while wished her to be painted with a ray of light passes from liis the Infant Child, and this was beak to her ear, along which the general representation in ray an infant Christ is descend- the Early Church. Some of ing. — Langlois, Peinture sur the Byzantine pictures are said Verre, p. 147. In the breviary to have been influenced by the د the Maronites is the formu- fovourite Egyptian 0٤٠ DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 313 portance of painting and sculpture as the organs of religious realisations brought into clearer and more vivid relief tlie charms of a female ideal, which acquired an irresistible fascination in the monastic life of celibacy and solitary meditation, and in the strange mixture of gallantry and devotion tliat accompanied the Crusades. It was in this last period that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception rose to pro- The lily, as the symbol of purity, was ؛.minence and a ؛ soon associated with pictures of tlie Virgin notion having grown up tliat women by eat.ing it became pregnant without the touch of man, a vase ^eathed with lilies beca.me the emblem of her maternity.

The world is governed by its ideals, and seldom 0 1 . never has there been one which has exercised a more profound and, on tlie wliole, a more salutary influence tlian the m e d if al conception of the Virgin. For tlie first time woman was elevated to lier rightful tions of Isis giving suck to sadeS) pp. 204, 205. However, Horus. It has been observed St. Augustine s a y s : - ‘Excepta that in the case of Mary, as in itaque Sancta Yirgine Maria, the caseofClirist, suffering and de qua, propter lionorem Do- deep melancholy became more mini, nullam prorsus cum de and more the prevailing expres- peccatis agitur liabere volo sion as the dark ages rolled on, qu&stionem: Unde enim sci- which was still furtherincreased mus, quid ei plus gratia coha. by the black tint tlie medieval turn' fuerit ad vincendum omni artist.s frequently gave her, in ex parte peccatum, qua conci- allusion to tlie desci’iption in pere ac parere meruit eum quem tlie Song of Solomon. Tlie first constat nullum liabuisse pecca- ^.Dc Naturd ct Gratia^ ؛notice in writing of tlie resem- V vi lilance of Christ to His mother Gibbon notices tbat tbe notion is, I believe, in Nicephorus.— acquired consistency among the See Raoul Rocliette, Types de Mahommedans some centuries Fas- before it was adopted by the و VArt chretien, pp. 30-39 cal. Institutions de VArt chre• Christians. St. Bernard re- lieu. jected it as a novelty. (Decline (.Injluences ctcs Croi- and Fall, ch. 1. note en١ ؟ k \ ١ .Rationalism in EUROPE ٥٤٠ position, and the sanctity of weakness was recognised a.s well as the sanctity of sorrow. No longer the slave or toy of raan, no longer associated only with ideas of degradation and of sensnality, woman rose, in the person of the Virgin Mother, into a new spliere, and became the object of a reverential liomage of which antiquity had had no conception. Love was ideahsed. The moral charm and beauty of female excellence were fnlly felt. A new type of cliaracter was called into being : a new kind of admiration was fostered. Into a harsh and ignorant and benighted age this ideal t.ype infiised a conception of gentleness and ofpnrity unknown to tlie proudest civilisations of the past. In tlie pages of living tenderness which many a monkisli writer has left in honour of his celestial patron, in the mil'lions who, in many lands and in many ages, have sought with no barren desire to mould their characters into her image, in those lioly maidens who, for the love of Mary, have separated themselves from all tlie glories and pleasures of the world, to seek in fastings and vigils and humble charity to render tliemselves worthy of lier benediction, in tlie new sense of honour, in the cilival- rous respect, in the softening of manners, in the l.efinement of tastes displayed in all tlie walks of society : in these and in many otlier ways we detect its influence. All that was best in Europe clustered around it, and it is tlie origin of many of the purest

v-v r،vv, - - r v،“"PS tlie necessary price, of - - - tliis was tlie exaltation of the Virgin as an omnipre- Bent deity of infinite power as well as infinite con- dcscension. The legends represented her as pel.- forming every kind of prodigy, saving men from the DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 215

lowest abysses of wretchedness or of vice, .and proving at all times tlie most powerful and the most ready refuge of the afflicted. The paint.ers depicted her invested with the divine aureole, judging man on equal terms with her Son, or even retaining her ascendency over Him in heaven. In the devotions of the people slie was addressed in terms identica) A reverence ؛.with those employed to tlie Almighty n degree was soon bestowed!.similar ip kind but less٠ pponthe other saints, who speedily assumed the po- ,tion of the minor, deities of paganism, and who؛s though worshipped, like them, as if ubiquitous, like them had tlieii. special spliei.es of patronage. .٦vas tlius reviving tlie poly While Christendom tieisuTwhick its intellectual conditioi'i required,the. tendency to idolatry that always acco.mpanies tliat condition was no less forcibly displaye.d. In theory, in 3eed ;iages were employed exclusively as aids to ١vith tlie general assent but in practice, and ؛ worship of tlie higliest ecclesiastical authorities, they very soon became the objects. Wlien men employ visible repre.. sentations simply for tlie pui.pose of giving an ill- creased vividness to their sense of tlie presence of tlie

Even at the present day similar examples. An old bishop ا tlie Psalter of St. Bonaventura named Gilbert Massius had liis — an edition of tlie Psalms own portrait painted between adapted to tlie worship of tl'10 theVirgin giving suck to Christ Virgin, ciliefly by tlie substitu- and a Crucifixion. Underneatli tion of tlie word domina for tlie were the lin e s - word dominus — is a popular *Ilinc lactor ab ubere, book of devotion at Rome. In Hinc pascor a vulnere, a famous fi.esco of Orcagna, at Positus in medio. Pisa, tlie Virgin is represented, Quo me vertam nescio. with precisely the same dignity In hoc dulci dubio ..Dulcis est collatio ؛ as Christ, judging mankind and everyone who is acquainted Pascal, Art chrcticn, tom. i. p. with mediaeval art lias met witli 250. 216 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. person who is addressed, and when the only distinc. tion they make between different representations arises from the degi.ee of fidelity or force with which they assist the imagination, these persons ai.e certainly not committing idolatry. Bnt when tliey proceed to attacli tlie idea of intrinsic virtue to a particular image, when one image is said to work miracles and confer spiritual benefits that separate it from every other, when it becomes the object of long pilgrimages, and is supposed by its mere presence to defend a besieged cit-y or to ward ofi' pestilence and famine, the difference between tliis conception and idolatry is inappreciable. Everything is done to cast tlie devotion of the worshipper upon the image itself, to distinguish it from every other, and to attribute to it an intrinsic efficacy. ٦vas In this as in the former case tlie change effected by a general tendency resulting fi.om the intellectual condition of society assisted by the concurrence of special circumstances. At a very early ١vere accustomed to period tlie persecuted Cliristians collect the relics of the martyi's, which they regarded with much affection and not a little reverence, partly perhaps from tlie popular notion tliat tlie souls of tlie dead lingei.ed fondly around tlieir tomlis, and partly from the very natural and praiseworthy feeling which attaches US to the remains of tlie good.1 A similar reverence was speedily transferred to pictui’es, wliicli

Thus the Council of Illi- Contr. Vigilant. 8. To he hurled ا beris in its 34th C iin o n forbade near tlie tomb of a martyr was men to liglit candles by day in one of tlie most, coveted privi. tlie cemeteries, for fear ‘ofdis- leges. See Le Blantj Inscrip. quieting the sonls of the saints.' chrkiennes de Gaule, tom. it See, too, a curious passage of pp. 219-229. Vigilantius cited by St. Jerome. DEVELOPMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 217

as memorials of the dead were closely connected with relics 5 and the tendency to the miraculous that was then so powerful having soon associated some of them with sup’ernatural occurrences, this was regarded as a Divine attestation of their sanctity. Two of these representations were especially prominent in the early controversies. The first was a portrait which, a.c- cording to tradition, Christ had sent to Ahgarus, king of Edessa,! and which, besides several other miracles, had once destroyed all tlie besieging engines of a Persian army that had invested Edessa. Still more famous was a statue of Christ, said to have been erected in a small town in Phrenicia by the woman new د .١vho had been liealed of an issue of blood kind of herb had grown up beneath it, inci.eased till it touched the hem of the garment of the statue, and then acquired the power of healing all disease. Tliis statue, it was added, liad been broken in pieces by Julian, who pla.ced liis own image on the pedestal, from which it was speedily liurled by a thunderbolt.. With a letter, whicli was 239 j a book which, though ا accepted without hesitation by ostensibly simply a liistory ot Eusebius, and wilieh Addison, tlie Aclieropita, or sacred image in his work on Christian Eri- at tlie Lateran, contains a tuller dence.s, quoted as genuine. Of account ot tlie liistory of tlie course it is now generally ad- early miraculous pictures of mitted to be apocryplial. Tliis Christ tlian any other I hare portrait was supposed to be mi- met with. raculously impressed (like that 2 Cn tliese representations, obtained by St. Veronica) on a the miracles tliey wrought, and liandkerchief. It was for a long the great importance they as. time at Constantinople, but was sumed in tlie Iconoclastic con. broughttoRome probably about trorersies, see Maimbourg, His- A.D. 1198, and deposited in the toiredesIeonoclastes -and on other early mi ل Church of St. Sylvester in Ca 44-47 ,t now is^ See racles attributed to images؛ ite, where Slarangoni, Istoria della Cap- Spanheim, Historia Imaginum pelta di Scmcta Sanctorum, di (1686), pp. 417-429. The first R om (Rom®, 1747), pp. 23d- oftliese books is Catholic, and 218 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

In the midst of this hias the irruption and, soon after, the conversion of the harharians were effected. Vast tribes of savages who had always been idolaters, who were perfectly incapable, from their low state of civilisation, of forming any bnt anthropomorphic conceptions of tlie Deity, or of concentrating their attention st.eadily on any invisible object, and who for the most part were converted, not by individual persuasion, bnt by the commands of their chiefs, embraced Christianity in such mult'itndes that, their habits of mind soon became the dominating liabits of the Church. Irom this time tlie tendency to idolatry was irresistible. The old images were worsilipped under new names, and one of the most prominent aspects of tlie Apostolical teaching was in practice ignored. All tliis, however, did not pass without protest. During tlie period of the persecution, wlien the dread of idolatry was still powerful, everything tliat tended in that direction was scrupulously avoided ; and a few years before tlie First Council of Nice, a council held at Illiberis in Spain, in a canon which lias been very frequently cited, condemned altogether tlie introduc- lest that whicli is ﺀ ,tion of pictures into tlie churches The ؛’.worshipped sliould be painted upon tlie walls ٦vliom tlie last faint rays of civilisation Greets, among still flickered, were in tliis respect somewhat superior to t.lie Latins, for they usually discouraged tlie vene. ration of images, tliougli admitting that of pictures٠2 the second tlie Protestant re- Tlie Catholics maintain tliat ply. See,too, Marangoni,&iftz this was a decree elicited by tlie and Arringhi, Bo- persecution, and tliat its object و Sanctorum ma Stibierranea, tom. ii. pp. was to prerent the profanation 452-460. of Christian images by the ,Ne qnod colitur et adora- pagans‘ ا Probably because tliere is ٥ ’.tur in parietibus depingatur DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 219 Early in the eighth century, when image-worship had become general, tlie sect of the Iconoclasts arose, wliose long struggle a.gainst the prevailing evil, though stained with great tyranny and great cruelty, represents the fierce though unavailing attempts to resist tlie anthropomorphism of the age j and when the Second Council of Nice, which tlie Catholics now regard as ecumenical, censured tliis heresy and carried the veneration of hnages considerably further than liad before been autliorised, its authority was denied and its decrees contemptuously stigmatised by Charlemagne and the Gallican Church.* Two or thi.ee illustrious Frenclimen also made isolated efforts in tlie same direction.2 Of these efforts tliere is one upon wliicli I' may delay foi. a moment, because it is at once extremely remarkable and extremely little kno١vn, and also because it brings US in contact witli one of tlie most rationalistic intellects of tlie middle ages. In desci.ib- ing tlie persecution that was endured liy the Cabalists in tlie nintli century, I 1'iad occasion to observe that they found a distinguislied defender in tlie person of an archbishop of Lyons, named St. Agobard. Tlie very name of this prelate lias now sunk into general oblivion,s or if it is at all remembered, it is only in no reason to believe that pic- for terming the sacred images turos had over been employed *dolls;' bnt Maimbourg con. as idols by tlie ancient Greeks tends (Introduction to tlie Hist. or Romans. (Ics Iconocl.) tliat tlie expres- On tlie discussions con- sion is not to be found in any ٤ liected witli tliis Council, see ofthew orksof Hinckniar. Natalis Alexander, Hisloria 3 Tliere is an edition of liis Eccl. Sceculi, viii. works in 0110 volume (l)aris, o The most celebrated being 1605), and another in t١١ * Hinckmar, Archbishop of voluihes (Paris, 1616). I have R-lieims. Baronius inveighed quoted from tlie former, violently against this prelate 220 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

connection with the most discreditable act of his life - t h e part which lie took in the deposition of Lewis the Mild. Yet I question whether in the whole compass of the middle ages-w ith, perliaps, the single exception of Scotns Erigena—.it wonld be possible to find another man within the Christian Cliurch who applied liimself so zealously, so constantly, and so ably to dispelling tlie superstitions that surrounded liim. To tliose who have appreciated tlie cliaracter of the nhitli century, but few words will be required to sliow tlie intellectual eminence of an ecclesiastic ١vho, in that century, devoted one work to displaying the folly of tliose wlio attributed hail and thunder to spiritual agencies, a second to in at least some degree attenuating t.lie popular notions concerning epilepsy and other strange diseases, a third to exposing the alisurdities of ordeals, and a fourth to denouncing the idolatry of image worship. At the lieginning of this last work Agobard. collected a long sei’ies of passages from the Eatliers and early Councils on tlie legitimate use of images. As ١vere employed simply as memorials, they long as tliey were unobjectionable. But the popular devotion liad long since transgressed this limit. Idolatry and anthropomorphism had everywhere revived, and devotion being concentrated on ^sible representations, all faitli in the invisible was declining. Men, with a sacrilegious folly, ventured to apply tlie epitliet holy offei'ing to tlie work of their own ؛,to certain images Multo autem liis deteriora solum sacrilegi ex eo quod ‘ ا esse qu* humaua et carnalis divinum cultum operibus ma- pr^sumptio fingit, etiam stulti nuum suarum exbibent, sed et consentiunt. In quo genere insipientes sanctitatem eis quae istae quoque inveniuntur quas sine anima sunt imaginibus sanctas appellant imagines, non tribuendo.'—p. 233. DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 221 bauds the honour which should be reserved for the Deity, and attributing sanctity to what was destitute even of life. Nor was it any justification of this practice that the worsilippers sometimes disclaimed tlie belief that a divine sanctity resided in tlie imago and asserted that they reverenced in it only ؛,itself the person wlio was represented 5 for if the image was not divine, it should not be venerated. This excuso was only one of the devices of Satan,^ who was ever seeking, under the pretext of honour to the saints, to draw men back to the idols they had left. No image could be entit-led to the reverence of those Who, as the temples of the Holy Ghost, were superior to every image, who were tliemselves the true images of tlie Deity. A picture is helpless and in- animate. It can confer no benefit and inflict no evil. Its only value is as a representation of tliat which is least in m a n -o f Ills body, and not his mind. Its only use is as a memoi.ial to keep alive tlie affection for the deadj if it is regarded as anytliing more, it becomes an idol, and as such sliould lie destroyed. Very rightly then did Hezekiah grind to powder tlie brazen serpent in spite of its sacred associations, because it had liecome an object of worsilip. Very rightly too did tlie Council of Illiberis and tlie Christians of Alexandria 3 forilid the introduction of 1 ‘ Dicit forsitan aliquis non inimicus, ut, sub prsetextu se pufcare imagini quam adorat honoris sanctorum, l'ursus idola aliquid inesse Divinum, sed tan- introducafc, rursus per dlversas tummodo pro honore ejus cujus effigies adoretur.’—p. 252. effigies est, tali earn veneratione 3 Speaking of the conduct of donare. Cui facile respondetur, some Alexandrian Christians, quia si imago quam adorat who only admitted the sign of Deus non est nequaquam vene. the cross into tlieir churclies. he -0 quam sincera re‘ - .randa est.’- p . 237. says٠ 2 ‘Agit lioc nimirum versu- ligio! crucis vexillum ubique tus et cahidus humani generis pingebatur non aliqun vultus 222 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. representations into the churches, for they foresaw that snch representations would at last become the objects of worship, and that a change of faith would only be a change of idols j nor could tlie saints themselves be more duly honoured tlian by destroying ١vhen tliose portraits ignominiously their portraits had become tlie objects of superstitious reverence.! It will, I think, be admitted that tliese sentiments are exceedingly remarkable when we consider the age in which they were expressed, and the position of the person who expressed them. No Protestant fresh from the slirines of Loretto or Saragossa ever denounced the idolati.y practised under tlie shadow of Catholicism with a keener or more incisive eloquence than did this medieval saint. But although it is extremely interesting to detect the isolated efforts of illustrious individuals to rise above the general conditions of tlieir age, such efforts have usually but little result.. Idolatry was so intimately connected with tlie modes of thought of the middle ages, it was humani similitudo. (Leo scili- more idolorum indignantissime cet liffiC niirabiliter etiam ipsis ferunt) omni genere conterendse forsitan nescientibus dispo. et. usque ad pulverem sunt era- prsesertim cum non ؛ nente) si enim sanctorura dendse imagines lii qui dsemonum cul- illas fieri Deus jusserit, sed turn reliquerant venerari julie- humanus sensus excogitaverit.' Nec iteruni ad sua ٠ .rentur, puto quod videretur eis - p . 243 non tarn idola reliquisse quam latibula fraudulent. recurrat mutasso.’—p. 237. astutia,utdicat se non imagines ٠ ل Quia si sei’pentem feneum sanctorum adorjire sed sanctos‘ ا quern Peus fieri pr^cepit, quo- clamat enim Deus. “ Gloriam niam errans populus tiinquam meamalteri non dabo, nec lau- idolum colere crapit, Ezecliias dem niejim sculptilibus.„’_p p . religiosus rex, cum magna pie. 254, 255. See too tlie noble tatis laude.ontrivit: multo re- concluding passage on tlie hgiosius sanctorum imagines exclusive worship of Christ, (ipsis quoquesanctis fa ventibus, breathing a spirit of tlie purest qui ob sui lionoremcum diving Protestantism. religionis contemptu eas adorari DEVELOPMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 223 ao congruous with the prevailing conception of tlie government of the universe, and with the materialis. ihg habits tliat were displayed upon all subjects, that no process of direct reasoning could overthrow it, and it was only by a fundamental change in the int.ellectual condition of society that it was at last subverted. It must, however, be acknowledged that there is one example of a great religion, reigning for tlie most pai.t over men who had not yet emerged from the twilight of an early civilisation, which lias nevertheless succeeded in restrahiing its votai.ies from idolatry. This phenomenon, which is the preeminent glory of Mahometanism, and the most remarkable evidence of tlie genius of its founder, appears so mucli at vai.iance with tlie general laws of historic developement, that it may be well to examine for a moment its causes. In tlie first place, then, it must lie observed that the entliusiasm liy which Mahome- tanism conquered tlie world, ivas mainly a military enthusiasm. Men were drawn to it at once, and without conditions, by tlie splendour of tlie achievements of its disciples, and it declared an absolute war against all tlie religions it encountered. Its histoi.y therefore exilibits notiling of the pi.ocess of gradual alisorption, persuasion, compi.omise, aud assimilation, tliat was exilibited in tlie dealings of Christianity with the barliarians. In tlie next place, one of the great characteristics of tlie Koran is tl'ie ext.reme care and skill with which it laliours to assist men in realising the unseen. Descriptions tlie most minutely detaded, and at the same time tlie most vivid, are mingled with powerful appeals to tliose sensual passions by which the imagination in all countries, liut 224 RATIONALISM IN EUROI.E. especially in those iuwliicb Mahometanism has taken root, is most forcibly influenced. In no otlier religion that prohibits idols is the strain upon the imagination so slight.! In the last place, tlie prohibition of idols was ex. tended to every representation of men and animals, no matter how completely unconnected they might be witlr religion.2 Mahomet perceived very clearly that in order to prevent his disciples from worshipping images, it was absolutely necessary to prevent them and he did this by commands ت from making any which were at once so stringent and so precise, that it was scarcely possible to evade them. In tliis way but he made ؛he preserved his l'eligion from idolatry it tlie deadly enemy of art. How much art has lost by the antagonism it is impossible to say. Certainly the wonderful proficiency attained by the Spanish 1 It is quite true, as Sale there was a, legend that St. contends, tliat Maliomet did not John once found his own por- introduce polygamy, and tliere- trait in the house of a Chris- fore that tlie fact of his permit- tian, that he thought at first it ting it could not have been one was an idol, and, even when of tlie motives urging Asiatics t-old its true character, severely -blamed tlie painter. (Beau ؛ to embrace the new l'eligion Hist, dll MunicheismeN ٠ع١ \ت ةbut it is also true tliat Malio- 0١ met and his disciples, more A passage in the invective of skilfully than any otlier re- Tertullian Jigainst Hermogenes ligionists, blended sensual pas- lias been quot^ as to the same sions witli religion, associated effect: ‘ Eingit illlcite, nubit them with future re١vards, and assidue, legem Dei in libidineni converted them into stimulants defendit, in ai.tem contemnit, of devotion. bis falsarius et cauterio et 2 Some of the early Cliris- Stylo.’ Clemens Alexandrinus tians appear to have ivished to was of opinion that ladies -١١٠hicli would broke the second command ,adopt this coui.se liave been tlie only effectual ment by using looking-glasses, means of repressing idolatry. as t-liey thereby mjide images .١vork, called of themselves.—BarbeyraCjAfo In an apocryphal The youaqes of St. John, wYvacXi rale des Perc8> c. V. § 18. was circulated in tile Cliurcli, DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 225

Moors in architecture, which was thC only form of art that was open to them, and, above all, tlie ornamentation of the Alhambra, and the Alcazar of Seville, in which, while the representations of animal life are carefully excluded, plants and flowei.s and texts from the Koran and geometrical figures are woven together in a tracery of tlie most exquisite beauty,! seem to imply the possession of esthetic powers that liave seldom.been surpassed. Mahometanism sacrificed art, but it cannot be said that Christianity during the middle ages was altogether favourable to it. The very period when representations of Christ, or tlie saints, were regarded as most sacred, was precisely that in which there was no art in the higliest sense of tlie word, or at least none applied to the direct objects of worship. The middle ages occasionally, indeed, pi.oduced churches of great beauty j mosaic work fbr their adornment was cultivated with considerable zeal; and in tlie fifth century, and again, after tlie establishment in the eleventh century of a school of Creek artists at Monte similar skill was ذ Cassino, with considerable success 2 1 See on this subject a strik- earliest specimen of Christian ing passage from Owen Jones, mosaic work is a portrait of quoted in Ford’s Spain, vol. i. Christ, preserved in the Church p. 30*1. It is remarkable that, of St. Praxede of Rome, which wliile the ornamentation de- St. Peter is said to have worn 1‘ived from the vegetable world round liis neck, and to have in the Alhambra is unrivalled given at Rome to Pudens, his in beauty, the lions which sup- host, the father of St. Praxede. F t one. of tlie fountains, and The finest specimens of the which form, I believe, tlie mosaics of the fit'th and sixth solitary instance of a deviation centuries are at Ravenna, es- from tlie command of the Pro- pecially in the church of St. phet, niiglit rank with t.lie worst Vitale, which was huilt by tlie productions of the time of Greeks, who were tile great Nicolas of Pisa. masters of this art. Cianipmif 2 According to tradition, the who is the chief autliority on VOL. I. 226 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

sliown in gold chni.ch ornaments,1 and in the iilnini- bat tlie habitual veneration ؛ nation of manuscripts 2 of images, pictures, and ta-lismans was far from giv. iug a general impulse to art. And tliis fact, which may at first sight appear perplexing, was in truth per- -fectly natural. lo r the esthetic sentiment and a devotional feelhig are so entirely different, that it is impossible for both to be at tlie same moment pre-

tliis subject, thinks (Vetera proportion of them are said to Monumenta, pars i. (Rom*. have been Jews. Prancia, Ver- 1690, p. 81) that the art was roccilio, Perugino, Donatello, wholly forgotten in Rome for Brunelleschi, andGIliberti were the three hundred years pre- all originally goldsmiths. M. ceding the establishment of Didron has published a manual the Monte Cassino scliool in of this art. Tlie goldsmiths but Marangoni assigns of Limoges had the lionour of ؛1066 a few wretched mosaics to tliat producing a saint, St. Eloi, who period (1st. Sanct. pp. 180- liecame tlie patron of the art. 182). A descriptive catalogue Carved ivory diptychs were of those at Rome has lately also very common through tlie been published by Barliet de middle ages, and especially Jouy, and a singularly inter- after the eighth century. esting examination of ,their 2 Much curious information history by M. Vitet (Etudes on tlie history of illumination ٠Y and miniature painting is given\ .s u r T i t o i r e de VArt, lorn ,٠m CVonTYO, Eccmomia Politico -Eor a general view of the de cline of art, see the great his- del Medio Evo, vol. ii. pp. tory of D’Agincourt. 337-316. Peignot says that The art of delicate carving t'l'om the fiftli to the tentli ا on gold and silver was ciliefly century the miniatures in preserved in tlie middle ages manuscripts exhibited an ex- liy tlie reverence for relics, for tremely higli perfection, botli uliich tliemost beautiful works in dl.awing and in coloui.ing, were designed. Rouen was and that from the t.enth to the long famed for its manufacture fourteenth tlie drawing dete- of cliurcli ornaments, liut these riorated, but revived witli tlie ١١٠ere plundered, and for the revival of painting (Essai sur y$ ١.؟٦ most part destroyed, by the IHistoire du Parcliemi'n Protestants, when tliey cap- Glass painting and miniature tured tlie city in 1562. The painting were both common luxui.ious habit.s of the Italian long before Cimabue, and pro- states were favouralile to tlie bably exercised a great influ- goldsmitlis, and tliose of Venice ence over the early artists. were very celebrated. A large DEELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 2 2 7 dominating over the mind, and very unusual for both to he concentrated upon the same object. The sensation produced by a picture gallery is not that of religious reverence, and. the favourite idols have in ١vhich.approve themselves no religion been tliose most folly to the taste.! They have rather been pictures that are venerable from their ext.reme antiquity, or from the legends attached to them, or else representations of the most coarsely realistic character. Painted wooden statues the size of life have usually been the favourite idols, but tliese are so opposed to the genius of true art, th at-w ith the exception of Spain, where religious feeling has dominated over every other consideration, and where three sculptors of very great abilit.y, named Juni, Hernandez, and Montahes, have devoted tliemselves to their formation-they have scarcely ever exhibited any high artistic merit, and never the very highest.

The mere fact-, therefoi.e, of pictures 0 1 . images being destined for worship, is likely to be ratlier prejudicial than otherwise to art. Besides this, in an idolatrous period the popular reverence speedily attaches to a particular type of countenance, and even to particular gestures or dresses 5 and all innovation, and therefore all improvement, is resisted. These reasons apply to tlie art of the middle ages See on this subject., and As Alarangoni says: ‘Anzi ا -cosa degna di osserva ة generally on the influence of ella medieval modes of thought zione che 1’Altissimo per ordi- upon art., Raoul Roch^te, nario opera molto piU prodigi (fours tfArcheologie, one of the nede Imraagini sagre nelle very best books ever written quali non spicca l'eccellenza on art. (It has been translated dell’ arte 0 alcuna cosa supe- by Mr. Westropp.) The his- riore all' um ana.LIstoria della C c tflla d i Sanefct Sanctorum - اأ0 ؛< ال ﺟ آل ذه ة١ ةةل\ﻋﺄ\ﺟﻪ أVOTV 0 firms tile position in the text. p. 77. 228 RATIONALISM IN EUROFE. in common with that of all. other periods of virtual or avowed idolatry. There was, however, another consideration, acting in the same direction, which was peculiar to Christianity. I mean the low estimate of physical heauty that characterised the monastic type of religion. Among the Greeks, heauty of every order 1 was the highest object of worsilip. In art especially no subject was tolerated in which deformity of any kind was manifested. Even suffering was habitually idealised. Tlie tra.ces of mental anguish upon the countenance were exhibited with exquisite skill, but they were never permitted so to contort the features as to disturb the prevailing The glory of the human body ؟.beauty of the whole

-Even animal beauty. It human features always ap ا is one of the most subtle, and, proach as near as human at the same time, most pro- features can to the charac- foundly just, criticisms of teristics of the hrute. As M. Winckelmann, that it was the Raoul Roche.tte has well oh- custom of the Greeks to en- served, this is one of the great hance the perfect.ion of their distinctive marks of Greek ideal faces by transfusing into sculptui.e. The E^ptians often them some of the liigher forms joined tlie head Of an animal ١vas to the hody of a man without of animal beauty. This especially tliecase with Jupiter, making any effort, to soften the the upper part of wliose coun- incongraity; but heauty being tenance is manifestly taken the main object of the Greeks, from tliat of a lion, while the in all their composite stat'Ues— hair is almost always so ar- Ran, Centaurs, hermaphrodites ranged as to increase tlie re- —the two natures that are semblance. There are many conjoined are fused and blended busts of Jupiter, which, if all into one liarmonious whole. but the foreliead and hair were 2 See tlie Laocoon of Les- covered, would bo unliesitat- sing. It is to this that Lessing ingly pronounced to be images ascribes the famous device of of lions. Something of the Timanthes in his sacrifice of bull appears in like manner in Iphigenia-drawing the veil wliile in Pan (though over the face of Agamemnon ؛ Kercules not so mttch with a view to -w h ich Rliny so poetical} beauty as to harmony) tlie explains. DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 229

was tlie central conception of art, and nakedness was associated rather with dignity than with shame. -To re إ.God, it was emphatically said, was naked ١vas deemed the highest ,present an emperor naked form of flattery, hecause it was to represent his apotheosis. The atliletic games which occupied so large a place in ancient life, contributed greatly to foster the admiration of physical strength, and to furnish the liiost admirable models to the sculptors.2 It is easy to perceive how favourable such a state of feeling must have been to the developement of art, and no less easy to see lrow contrary it was to tlie spirit of a religion which for many centuries made the suppression of all bodily passions the central notion of sanctity. In this respect philosophers, ١vere unanimous. Plotinus, one lieretics, and saints of the most eminent of the Neo-Platonic philosophers, ١vas so ashamed of the possession of a body, that he refused to have liis portrait taken on tlie gi'ound tl'iat it would be to perpetuate liis degi.adation. Gnosti- cism and Manicheism, which in their various modifications obtained a deeper and more permanent hold in the Church than any otlier heretical systems, maintained as their cardinal tenet the essential evil ol matter j and some of tlie Cathari, who were among tlie latest Gnostics, are said to have even starved, themselves to death in their efforts to subdue the propensities of the body.3 Of tlie orthodox saints, some made it their especial boast tl'iat for many years tliey liad never seen their own bodies, others mutilated

-Deus liudus est.’—Seiicca, also F ortou l, Etudes cTArchco ‘ ا Ep. x x x i. loyie. ‘2 Raoul Rochette, Cours 3 Matter, Hist, du Gnosti- dTArcheologie, P P .269. 276. See eisme, tom. iii. p. 26-1. 23. RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

themselves in order more completely to restrain tlieir passions, others laboured with the same object by scourgings and fastings, and horrible penances. All regarded the body as an unmingled evil, its passions and its beauty as the most deadly of temptations. Art, wliile governed by such sentiments, could not possibly arrive at perfection,! and the passion for representations of the Crucifixion, or the deaths of the martyrs, or the sufferings of the lost, impelled it still further from the beautiful. It appears, then, tliat, in addition to the generally low intellectual condition of tlie middle ages, the -٦vas then domi special form of religious feeling that nant, exercised a-n exceedinglyunfavourableinfluence upon art. This fact becomes very important when we ١vas taken by the European examine tlie course that mind after tlie revival of learning. Idolatry, as I have said, is the natural form of -١vorship in an early stage of civilisation j and a gra dual emancipation fi.om material conceptions one of the most invariable results of intellectual progress. It appears therefore natural, tliat when nations havo attained a c.ertain point, they sliould disca.rd tlieir images; and this is what lias usually occurred. ,The period in which the ing the art of the middle ages ا 'ascetic ideal of ugliness was besides the works that hare most supreme in art was become d o ^ to as, wo hare a tween tlie sixth and twelfth good deal of eridence in a book centuries. Many of the Roman by a bishop of tlie thirteenth mosaics during that pei.iod ex- century, named Rurandus, hibit a hideousness which the C،\\M Rationale Dieinonim inexpertness of the artists was Officiorum. A great deal of uite insufficient to account for, curious learning on mediffiral ؟ and which was .evidently imi- art is collected by the Abb£ toted from the emaciation of Rascal in his Institutions de ,but, above all ل extreme asceticism.—See Vitet., VArt chreticn IeonograpMc clireticie ١ه\\ﺀ Va Histoirc de l١Ari١؟ tudes SUT، tom. i. pp. 268-279. Concern- of Didron. DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 231

Twice, however, ill the history of the human mind, a different conrse has heen adopted. Twice the weak- ening of١the anthropomorphic conceptions Jias heen accompanied hy an extraordinary progress in tlio ima.ges that were tlieir representatives, a.ndthe resthetic feeling having dominated over the religions feeling, superstition has faded into art. The first, of these movements occurred in ancient Greece. The information we possess concerning tlie esthetic liistory of tliat nation is so ample, that we can ti.ace very clearly the successive phases of its developement.. Putting aside those clianges that are interesting only in an artistic point of view, and confining ourselves to tliose wliicli reflect the clianges of religious realisation, Greek idolatry may he divided into four distinct stages. The first was a period of fetishism, in whiclr sliapeless stones, which were possibly aCrolit.es, and were, at all events, said to liave fallen fi.om lieaven, were worshipped. In the sec.ond, painted wooden idols dressed in real clothes became common.2 After this, a higlier art which was popularly ascribed to Dsedalus arose, but., like tlie Egyptian and later Byzantine art,, it was at first strictly religious, and characterised by an intense aversion to innovation. Then came tlie period in

See ail extremely clerer tlie custom of painting tliose in ا sketch of til. movement in marble and bronze. Ileyne, Raoul Rochette, Cours d'Arche- who has deroted a very learned and Winckelmann, Hist, essay to Greek sculpture, thinks ل dogie the statues of P d a lu s were in .، و ر ه 2 According to Winckel- wood (OpusculaAcademica, tom. mann, wooden statues witli V. p. 339); but this appears ٢ery doubtful. Eausaniassays ا،٨،00ةﻣﻂ marble heads, called lie .saw a statue ascribed to ؛continued as late as the time 0 Pliidias. Erom tlie painted Dredalus which was of stone, wooden statues was derired 232 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. which increasing intellectual culture, and the preva. lence of philosophical speculations, began to tell upon the nation, in which the religious reverence was displaced, and concentrated rather on the philosophi. cal conception of the Deity than upon tlie idols in the temples, and in which the keen sense of beauty, evoked by a matured cihsation, gave a new tone and aspect to all parts of religion.! The ima.ges were not then broken, but they were gradually regarded simply as the embodiments of the beautiful. They began to exhibit little or no religious feeling, no spirit of reverence or self-abasement, but a sense of harmony and gracefolness, a conception of ideal perfection which has perhaps never been equalled in other lands. The statue that had once been the object of ea.rnest prayer was viewed witli the glance of the artist or the critic. The temple was st'ill fall of gods, and those gods had never been so beautiful and so grand j but tliey were beautiful only through the skill of the artist, and the devotion that once ,hallo١ved them had passed away. All was allegory poetry, and imagination. Sensual beauty was typi- fled by naked Venus. Unconscious loveliness, and untried or natural chastity, by Diana. Minerva, ,ith her downcast eyes and somewhat stern features'١١ represented female modesty and self-control. Ceres, ١vas the ,with her flowing robes and her goldeir sheaf type of the genial summer 5 or, occasionally with di- shovelled hail., and a countenance still troubled with the thought of Proserpine, was tlie emblem of mater- nal love. Each cast of beauty-after a brief period of unming’led grandeur, even eacli form of sensual frailty

According to Pliny {Hist. Myron first departed from the ا Nat. xxxiv. 19), til© sculptor ancient types. DKVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 233 --was transported into the nnseen world. Bacchus nurtured by a girl, and with the soft delicate limbs of a woman, was the type of a disgraceful effeminacy. Apollo the god of music, and Adonis the lover of Diana, represented that male beauty softened into something of female loveliness by the sense of music 01. the first chaste love of youtli, which the Christian painters long afterwards represented in St. Sebastian or St. John. Hercules was the cliosen type of the dignity of labour. Sometimes lie appeai.s in tlie midst of liis toils for man, with every nerve strained, and all the signs of intense exertion upon liis countenance. Sometimes he appears as a demigod in the Assembly of Olympus, and then liis muscles are rounded and subdued, and liis colossal frame softened and bar- monised as the emblem at once of strength and of repose. In very few instances do we find any coil- ceptions tliat can be regarded as purely religious, and even tliose are of a somewhat Epicurean character. Thus Jupiter, Pluto, and Alinos are represented with the same cast of countenance, and the difference is chiefly in their expression. Tlie countenance of Pluto is sliadowed by the passions of a demon, the lirow of Minos is bent with tlie inexoralile sternness of a judge. Jupiter alone presents an a.spect of unclouded calm : no care can darken, and no passion ا.ruffle, the serenity of tlie king of heaven It was in this mannei. that tlie Greek mythology passed gradually into the realm of poetry, and that ١vas effected or facilitated by tlie visible tlie transition representations that were in tlie fil.st instance the objects of worship. A somewhat similar cliange was effected in Christian art at the period of the revi.val ] See Winckelmjuni and Ottfried Miiller. .RATIONALISM IN EUROPE ،23 of learning, and as an almost immediate result of the substitution of Italian for Byzantine art. Tliere are few more striking contrasts than are comprised in tlie history of the influence of Grecian intellect upon art. In tlie early period of her histo^ Greece had arrived at tlie liighest point of msthetic perfection to yvhich the human intellect ha.s yet attained. Slie liequeathed to US tliose forms of a.lmost passionate heauty which have been tlie wonder and tbe delight of all succeeding ages, and which the sculptors of every land liave recognised as tlie ideal of tlieir efforts. At last, liovever, tlie fountain of genius liecame dry. I t only creative power, liut even the very perception and love of the beautiful, seem t,0 have died out, and for many centuries the Greek Church, the Greek empire, and tlie Greek artists proved the most formidalile olistacles to mstlie- It was from this quarter that the ؛.tic developement Iconoclasts issued forth to wage their fierce warfare against Christian sculpture. It was in the Greek Church tliat was most fostered the tradition of tlie deformity of Christ, whicli was as fatal to religious art as it was offensive t.o reli^ous feeling.* It was -Tliis influence is well tion, and the commercial rela ١ noticed by M. Rio, in a kook tiong of Venice, Pisa, and The Poetry o٠f the Chris- Genoa, account for tlie constant ؟ع\\ا؛ة tian Art. An exception, liow. action of Greece on Italy ever, should be made in favour through the middle ages. I of Gi’eek architects, to whom have already noticed tlie skill Italy owed its fust great eccle- of tlie Byzantine artists in siastical structure, tlie cliurcli mosaic work. of St. Vitale at Ravenna 2 Of which Justin Martyr, -١١٠liicli Cliarlemagne copied at Tertullian, and Cyril of Alex) Aix-la-Cliapelle), and at a later andria, were t.he principal ad- period St. Mark’s at Venice, and vocates. Tlie last declared that several otlier beautifnl edifices. Cln.ist liad keen .the ugliest of 'Tlie exile of tlie Gi’eek ai’tists tlie sons of men.’ Tliis t.heory during tile Iconoclast persecu- furnislied Celsus with one of DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 235 in Greece too that arose that essentially vicious, con- ventional, and unprogressive style of painting which was universal in Europe for many centuries, winch trammelled even the powerful genius of Cimahue, and which it was reserved for Giotto and Massacio liis arguments against Cliris- open ; his nose anti month are his heard is ل tianity. The opposite view of perfect beauty was taken by Jerome, Am- copious, forked, and of the liis eyes إ brose, Chrysostom, and John colour of Lis liair Damascene. Wit.h a view of are blue and very bright. In supporting tlie latter opinion, reproving and threatening, lie tliere was forged a singularly is terrible; in teacliing and beautiful letter, alleged to liave exhorting, gentle and loving. been b itten to the Roman The grace and majesty of liis Senate by Lentulus, wlio was appearance arc marvellous. No proconsul in Judrna before one liad ever seen Him laugh, -lerod, and in which the fol- but ratlier weeping. His car؟ lowing passage occurs : ‘ At riage is erect; his hands well tliis time tliei.e appeared a formed and straight! his arms man, who is still liv in g -a of passing beauty. Weighty man endowed with wonderful and grave in speech, lie is pow er-liis name is Jesus sparing of words. He is llie Clirist. Men say that He is a most beautiful of the sons of mighty prophet; but liis dis- men.’ Neai.ly all archffiolo- lie ا ciples call Him tlie Son of God. gists liave inferred from H٠e calls the dead to life, and representations of the fourth frees the sick from every form century that this description of disease. He is t.all of was tlien in existence. Hean stature, and his aspect is sweet Milman however, argues from and full of power, so tliat they tlie silence of St. John Lama, who look upon Him may at scene, and of tlie disputants at once love and fear Him. Tlie the Second Council of Nice, hair of liis liead is of tlie tliat it is of a much later date. colour of wine; as far as the See on tliis wliole subject, ears it is straight and without Emeric Havid, Hist, de la Vein- glitter, from tlie ears to tlie ture, pp. 24-26 ; and Hidron .؟ آل ,slioulders it is curled and Iconograpliie clireticpne I may add, that as ة٠ glossy, and from tlie shoulders 2 5 1 -7 6 it descends orer tlie back, dilate as 1649 a curious book <\،vided into two parte after tlie (JDe Forma Climtij m s F manner of the Nazarenes. His lished on this subject at Paris brow is pure and even; his by a Jesuit, named Vavassor, countenance without a spot, which represents the contro- but adorned with a gentle versy as still continuing. glow; his expression bland and 236 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. to overthrow. This was the uniform tendency of modern Greece. It was the extreme opposite of that which had once been dominant, and it is a most remarkahie fact that it was at last corrected mainly by the masterpieces of Greek antiquity. It is now very generally admitted tliat the proximate cause of ٦vas that ever-increasing course of progress wliicli pursued by Italian art from Cimabue to Raphael, is chiefly to be fouud in tlie renewed study of ancient sculpture begun by Nicolas of Pisa towards the close of tlie twelfth century, and afterwards sustained by the discoveries at Rome. The .,.Church of Ro.me, with tlie sagacity thathas usually characterised lier, adopted and fostered -the first efforts of reyived art, and for a time she madeit essentially Christian. It is impossible to look upon the pictures of Giot.to and liis early successors without perceiving tliat a. religious feeling pervades and sane- tifies them. Tliey exhibit, indeed, a keen sense of beauty j but tliis is always subservient to tlie l.eligious -it is always subdued and chastened and ideal ؛ idea ised. Nor does tliis arise simply from tlie character of tlie artists. Christian art had, indeed, in tlie angelic filar of Fiesole, one saint who may be compai’ed with any in tlie liagiology. Tliat gentle monk, who was nevei. known to uttei. a word of anger 01. of bitterness, wlio refused without a, pang tlie rich miti.e of Florence, liad liecn seen with tears streaming from his eyes ا10’١١ ١vho never began as lie painted Ills ci.ucified lord, and a picture without consecrating it by a prayer, 1 forms one of the most attractive pictures in the whole range

.z?Tlie same tiling is related painterJuaiinos.—Ford١s% n٠ ا of tlie Spanish sculptor Her- vol. ii. p. 2 7 1 . nandez, and ot' tlie Spanisli DEVELOREMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 237 of ecclesiastical biography. The limpid parity of his character was reflected in his works, and he trails- mitted to his disciple Gozzoli something of his spirit, with (I venture to think) the full measure ot. liis genius. But in this, as on all other occasions, even the higher forms of genius were ultimately regulated by the law of supply and demand. There was a certaiu religions conception abroad in the world. That conception required a visible representation, and the painter appeared to supply the want. The revival of learning had broken upon Europe. The study of the classics had given an impulse to every department of intellect, but it had not yet so altered the condition of society as to sliake tlie old belief. Tlie profound ignorance that reigned until the twelfth century had been indeed dispelled. Tlie grossness of taste, and the incapacity for appreciating true beauty, which bilt ؛accompanied tliat ignoi.ance, had been corrected the developemeniof the .imagination preceded, a.s it .dogs .precede, file developement .of the reason ؛l٠W f& ٦vith the chaste beauty of Greek Men were entranced literature before they were imbued with tlie spirit of abstraction, of free criticism, and of elevated pliilosopliy, which it breathes. Tliey lea.rned to admire a pure style or a graceful picture before they learned to appreciate a refined creed or an untrammelled pliilosophy. All through Europe, the first effect of the revival of learning was to produce a general efflores- cence O'f tlie beautiful. A general discontent with ١vas not produced till the existing forms of belief mucli latei*. A material, sensuous, and antliropo- morpilic faitli was still adapted to tlie intellectual condition of tlie age, and therefore painting was still 238 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. the special organ of religious emotions. All the painters of that period were strictly religious, that is to say, tliey invariably subordinated considerations of art to considerations of religion. The form of beauty they depicted was always religious beauty, and they never hesitated to disfigure tlieii. works with loatlisome or painful ima.ges if they could in that manner add to their religious effect. To tlrese general considerations we should add the important influence of Dante, who may be regarded as the most faithful represenlative of that brief moment in which the renewed study of the pagan writings served only to ennoble and refine, and not yet to weaken, the conceptions ot. theology. ISTo other European poet realised so fully the sacred character antiquity attributed to tlie bard. In the great poems of Greece . and Rome, human figures occupied tlie foi.eground, and even when supernatural machinery ivas introduced, it served only to enhance the power or evoke the moral grandeur of mortals, ^lilton, indeed, soared far-beyond the range of earth ; but wlien lie wrote, religious conceptions no longer took the form ot palpalile and material imagery, and even tlie grandest representations ot. spiritual beings undei* human aspects appeared incongruous and unrea.l. Blit the poem of Dante was tlie last apocalypse. It exercised a supreme ascendency over tlie as'٦١ imagination at a time when I.eligious imagery not so mucli tlie adjunct as tlie essence of belief, when tlie natural impulse of every mail was to convei.t in- ٦vhen telleotual conceptions into palpalile forms, and painting was bitlie strictest sense the lioi.mal expi.ession of faitli. Scarcely any otliei. single influence contributed so much, by pui.ifying and feeding tlie DEVELOPEMENTS OP RATIONALISE!. 239 imagination, to give Christian art a grandeur and a religions perfection, and at the same time a sombre ,Dipped in the gloom of earth ٤ .,and appalling aspect quake and eclipse,’ the pencil of tlie g’reat poet loved to accumulate images of terror and of suffering, which speedily passed into tlie works of tlie artists, enthralled and fascinated tlie imaginalions of the people, and completed a transformation tliat liad long been in progress. At first, after tlie period of the Catacombs, the painters expatiated for the most pai.t upon scenes drawn from tlie Book of Revelation, but usually selected in sucli a manner as to inspire ,١vhicli ,any sentiment rather than terror. Tlie lamb having been for some centuries tlie fhvourite symbol of Christ, was at last condemned by a council in 6 9 2 , 1 the myst-ic roll with its seven seals, the New Jerusalem with its jewelled liattlements, or Bethlehem transfigui.ed in its image, constantly recurred. But many circumstances, of. wilieh tlie panic produced by the belief that tlie world must end with tlie tenth century, and tlie increased influence of as- ccticism arising from tlie permission accoi.ded to the monks of establisliing their communities in

The object of this council nier ascendency in art: but ا (which was held at Constanti- after Constantine they for nople, and is known under the nearly three centuries had sn- title ‘ In Trullo') was t,0 repress perseded every otlier symbol. tlie love of allegory tliat was (Rio, Art chretien, Intro. P.49.) and a yery learned Ciampini says t.hat the council ؛general historian of art thinks that it which condemned tliem was a first produced pictures of the pseudo-council—not sanctioned Grucihxion. (Emeric David, by the Rope. (Vetera Monu- ,menta) pars i. p. 28. See, too ألة 4\.١ .|Hist, dela Peinture Its decree was afterwards either Marangoni, Istoria della Cap- ٠١ب ,withdrawn or neglected, for pella di Saneta Sanctorum lambs soon reappeared, tliough 159.) they never regained their for- .RATIONALISM IN EUROPE 2،0 were probably the chief, contribute،! to ؛,the cities effect a profound change. The chui.ches, in their ornaments, in their general a.spect, and even in their forms,, became the images of death, and pa.inting was tending rapidly in the same direction, when the In fern o of Dante opened a new abyss of terrors to the imaginations of the artists, and became tlie representa- five, and in a measure the source, of an art that was at once singularly beautiful, purely religious, and deeply imbued with terrorism and witli asceticism. These were the characteristics of the first period of revived art, and they liarmonised well with the intellectual condition of tlie day. After a time, however, tlie renewed energies oftlie European mind began to produce effects that were far more im- portan t. A spil.it of unshackled criticism, a capacity for refined abstractions, a dislike to materialism in faith, and to asceticism in practice, a disposition to treat with unceremonious ridicule imposture and ignorance in liigli places, an impatience of the countless ceremonies and trivial superstitions that were universal, and a growing sense of human dignity, were manifested on all sides, and they adumbrated cleai.ly a coming change. The movement was shown in tlie wliole tone of literature, and in the repeated

-At first tliey were strictly 2 That is, by the introduc ا foi.bidden to remain in tlie tiou of the cross, which was tlie towns. Even the priest-ridden first innovation on the old ba- Theodosius made a law (whicli silica architecture, and in n١any however he afterwards revoked) of the churches by a sliglit in- commanding all who liad em- clination of the extremity fi.oni braced tlie profession of monks tlie straight line, it is said, to to betake tliemselves to ‘ vast represent the verse. ‘ Jesus desert places.' bowed his head and gave up tlie ﺀ solitudes ' and ’.i. tit. 3, ghost'Cod. Theod. lil). x١} ا4ف .D l L O P E M l f S OF RATIONALISM and passionate efforts to attain a more spiritual creed that were made by the precursors of the Reformation. It was shown at least as forcibly in the rapid corruption of e e r y organ of the old religion. They no and as tljeir ؛longer could attract religious fervour life was gone, they degenerated and decayed. Tlie monasteries, once the scenes of the most marvellous displays of ascetic piety, became the seats of revelry, of licentiousness, and of avarice. The saci.ed relics, and the miraculous images that had so long thrilled the hearts of multitudes, were made a source of unholy traffic, or of unblushing imposition. Tlie indulgences, which were intended to a.ssuage the agonies of a despairing conscience, or to lend an additional charm to the devotions of the pious, became a substitute for all real religion. The Papal See itself was stained with the most degrading vice, and the Vatican exhibited the spectacle of a pagan court without the redeeming virtue of pagan sincerity. Wierever the eye was turned, it encountered the signs of disorganisation, of corruption, and of decay. For the long night of media3valism was now drawing to a close, and the chaos that precedes resurrection wa.s supreme. The spirit of ancient Greece liad arisen from the tomb, and the fabric of superstition crumbled and tottered at her touch. The human mind, starting beneatli her influence from the dust of ages, cast aside the bonds that liad enchained it, and, radiant in tlie light of recovered liberty, re- moulded the structure of its faitli. The love of truth, the passion foi* freedom, the sense of human dignity, which tlie great thinkers of antiquity liad inspired, vivified a torpid and down-trodden people, lilended with those sublime moral doctrines a.nd VOL. I. 212 RATIONALISM IN LUROrL. witli those conceptions of enlarged benevolence .vliich are at once the glory and tlie essence of Christianity, introduced a new era of human progress, with new aspirations, hahits of thought, and conditions of vitality, and, withdrawing religious life from tlie shattered edifices of tlie past., created a purer faith, and became the promise of an eternal developement. This was the tendency of the human intellect, and it was faitlifully reflected in the history of art. As tlie old Catliolic modes of thouglit began to fade, the religious idea disappeared from the paintings, and tliey became purely secular, if not sensual, in their tone. Religion, which was once the mistress, was now the servant, of art. Formerly the painter employed liis skill simply in embellisliing and enhancing a religious idea. He now employed a religious subject a.s tlie pretext for the exilibitlon of mere ٦vorldly beauty. He commonly painted his mistress as the Virgin. He arrayed her in t.he richest attire, and surrounded her with all the circumstances of splendour. He crowded his pictures with nude figures, witli countenances of sensual loveliness, with every form and attitude tliat could act upon the passions, and not unfrequently with images drawn from the pagan mythology. The creation of beauty became the single object of his art. His work was .٦vork, to be judged by a sccula-r standard a secular There can be no doubt that this secularisation of art was dup to the genei.al tope of thought that had been producedfn Europe... .The artist seeks to represent the.-Conceptions.of-his time, and his popu- Jarity is the proof of his succes.s. In an age in which strong religious belief was general, and in which it آلDEVELOrEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 24 turned to painting, as to the natural organ of its expression, snch a style would Lave been impossible. The profanity of the painter would have excited universal execration, and all the genius of Titian or Michael Angelo would have been unable to save their works from condemnation. The style became popular, because educated men ceased to look for in other words, because the ١ إI.eligion in pictures 01 habits of thought that made them demand materia.l representations of the objects of their belief, had declined. This was. the ultima.te cause of the entire movement. There were, however, two minor causes of great importance, which contributed largely to tlie altered tone of art(, while they at the same time immeasurably increased its perfection-one of them relating especially to colour, and tlie other to form. Tlie first of these causes is to be found in tbo moral condition of Italian society. Tlie age was that of Bianca di Cappello, and of the Borgias. All ١vere of the Italian literature and all Italian manners laxest cliaracter, and tlie fact was neithei. concealed nor deplored. But tliatwhicli especially distinguished Italian immoral'ity is, tliat growing up in tlie midst of all tlie forms of loveliness, it assumed from the fil.st an esthetic character, united with the most passionate and yet refined sense of the lieautiful, a.nd made art the special veliicle of its expression. Tliis is one of tlie peculiar characteristics of later Italian and it is one of tlie cilief causes of its ؛,painting German pictures are often d er٦Verffis ivory—as painted ا indeeent, but never sensual, by Tit.ian or Correggio, it is ١he difference between life. Spanish art tried much It is all ؛Swift and Don .Tuan. Tlie to be religious and respectable nude figure as painted by Van and, like tlie Vergogno3a at r 2 .RATIONALISM IN EUROPE ،24 artistic perfection. For sensuality lias always been the main object ؛,extremely favourable to painting of the artist being t٠0 exhibit to the highest possible degree the beauty and the attractive power of the liuma.n body. Twice in the history of art national sensuality has thrown itself into national art, and in each case with the same result. The first occasion ١vas in ancient Greece, at the time when Apelles derived a new inspiration from the voluptuous love, liness of Lais, and when the goddess of beauty, glowing with the fresh charms of Phryne 01. Theo.

Pisa, put her hands before lier perfections, and the success of ١١ill in a great degree eyes in the midst of tlie wicked- the artist ness tliat suiTounded her. Rut depend upon his appreciation I am afraid she sometimes of the peculiar genius oftlie art looked througli her fingers. lie pursues. Now sculpture is This aspect of Italian art has as far superior to painting in been most vitidly oxhibited in its capacity for expressing the writings of Stendlial (II. strength and masculine beauty, Beyle). as painting is superioi. to sculp- It is perhaps true, as mo- ture in expressing warmth and ا dern critics say, tliat tlie transi. passionate beauty. All the tion of Greek art from Bhidias efforts of a Grecian chisel to Praxiteles was a decline. It never equalled the voluptuous ؛is certainly true that that power of the brush of Titian transition was from the repre- and, on the otlier hand, paint- sent-ation of manly strength, ing has tried in vain to rival and the form of beauty that is the majesty and the foi.ce of most allied to it, to the repre- sculpture. If there be an ex- sentation of beauty of a sen- ception to this last proposition, sual cast—from an art of which it is one which proves tlierule, Minerva was tlie central tigure, for it is furnished by Michael to an art of wliich Venus was Angelo, tlie greatest modern the type-or (as tlie German sculptor, in tlie most sculpture- critics say)froni tlie ascendency like frescoes in tlie woi’ld. It of t.he Boric to t.he ascendency should bo added, however, that of the Ionic element,. But tliis landscape painting is in no decadence, if it really took sense the creature of sensuality, place, is not, I think, incon- and Mr. Ruskin has with sorno tent with what I have stated force claimed it as a special؛88 .for sculpture and fruit of Christianity ؛in the text painting have each tlieir special DEVELOFEMENTS OF . 245 dota, kindled a transport of no religions fervour in the Athenian mind. The second occasion was in the Italian art of the sixteenth century. The rapid progress of a sensual tone in most- of the scliools of It-alian art is a fact which is too manifest to be questioned or overlooked j but there is one scliool which maybe regarded especially as its source and representative. This scliool was that of the Venetian painters, .and it reflected very visibly the character of its cradle. Never perhaps was any other city so plainly formed to be the home at once of passion and of art. Sleeping like Venus of old upon her parent wave, Venice, at least in the period of her glory, comprised within herself all the influences that could raise to the highest point the aesthetic sentiment, and all that could lull the moral sentiment to repose. Wherever the eye was turned, it was met by forms of strange and varied and entrancing beauty, while every sound that broke upon the ear was mellowed by the waters that were below. Tlie thousand lJglits that glittered around t-he gilded domes of St. Mark, tlie palaces of matchless .architecture resting on their own soft shadows in the wave, the long paths of murmuring water, where the gondola sways to tlie lover’s song, and where dark eyes lustrous with passion gleam from tlie overhanging balconies, the ha.rmony of blending beaut.ies, and the languid and voluptuous charm that pervades the whole, had all told deeply and faially on tlie cliaracter of the people. At every period of tlieir history, but never more so than in the great period ,of Venetian art, they had been distinguished at once for their intense appreciation of beauty and for their universal, unbridled, and undisguised 216 RATIONALISM IN FUROPE. licentiousness. 1 In the midst of such a society it was very natnral that a great school of sensual art sliould arise, and many circumstances conspired in the same direction. Venice was so far removed fi.om tlie discoveries of the ancient statues, that it was never influenced by what may be termed the lea-rned school of art, which eventually sacrificed all sense of beanty to anatomical studies j at the same time, the simultaneous appearance of a constellation of artists of the very highest 01‘der, the luxurious habits that provided these artists with aljundant patrons, the discovery of oil painting, 2 which attained its higliest perfection undei* tlie shill of the Venetian colourists, perhaps even the rich merchandise of tlie East, accustoming the eye to the most gorgeoushues,3 hadallin different ١١٣ays their favourable influence upon ai.t. The study of the nude figure, which had 'been the mainspring of Grech art, and which Christianity had so long

,On tlie- amazing vice of they began to pour into France ا Venice, and on tlie violent but tlie ornamentation, and es- unsuccessful efforts of the ma- pecially tlie tracery, of the ١vindows of many of the French gistrates to arrest it. see mucli curious evidence in Sabatier, cathedrals are said to have Hist, de la Legislation sur les been copied accurately from Femmespitbliques (Paris, 1828). tliese patterns. See a very cu- 2 It is generally said to have rious essay on painted glass by been invented in the lieginning Thevenot (Paris, 1837). I may of the fifteentli century by Van add tliat, at the time of Augus- ١vho died in 1440; liut tus, tlie importation of Indian ,Fyck tlie cliiim of Van Fyck is not dresses had told powerfully on ١vas introduced Romjin a.i.t, producing tlie undisputed. It ,into Italy about 1452 by a paintings kno١vn as arabesque Siciliiin painter named Anto- and (as Vitruvius complains) tom. divei-ting the artists from the nello. (Rio, Art chreticn٠ i. p. 354.) study of the Greek model. In 3 At an earlier period, orien- t.lie middle ages both Venice tal rolics exercised an influence and Florence were famous far of a different kind upon art. their dyers. In tlie tilirteenth century, wlien DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 247

١vas suppressed, rose again, and a school of painting formed, which for subtle sensuality of colouring had never heen equalled, and, except by Correggio, lias scarcely been approaclied. Titian in this as in other respects was the leader of the scliool, and lie hears to modern much the same relation as Praxiteles bears to ancient art. Both the sculptor and tlie painter precipitated art into sensuality, both of tliem desti.oyed its religious character, both of them raised it to high ®sthetic perfection, but in botli cases that perfection was followed by a speedy decline.i Even in Venice tliere was one great representative of the early religious school, but his influence was unable to stay the stream. The Virgin of Bellini was soon exchanged for the Vil'gin of Titian—tlie ideal of female piety for the ideal of female beauty. A second influence which contributed to the secularisation, and at the same time to tlie perfection, of art, was the discovery of many of the great works of pagan sculpture. Tlie complele disappearance of these during the preceding centuries may be easily explained by tlie religious and intellectual changes that had eitliei' accompanied or speedily followed the triumph of Cliristianity. The priests, and especially tlie mopks, being firmly convinced tliat pagan idols

-Ri.axiteles IS said to hare death, was absolved on ac ا definitively given the character count of her exceeding loveli- of sensuality to Venus, who liad ness—was his mistress. His previously floated between contemporary Eolycles greatly several ideals of beauty, and strengthened tlie sensual move- also to liave been the especial ment by introducing into art iiuthor.of tlie effeminate type tlie hermaphrodite. See Rio. ؛of Apollo. Rliryne, who was A rt ehreticn, Introd. pp. 17-21 then tlie great model of VO- 0. Miiller, Manuel cCAreheo- .lio, logie, tom. i. pp. 156-157’١١ luptuous beauty—slie liaving been condemned to 248 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. were all tenanted by demons, foi. some ti.me made it one of their principal objects to break them in pieces, and cupidity proved scarcely less destructive than fanaticism. Among the ancient Greeks, as is well known, marble had never obtained tlie same ascendency in sculpture as among ourselves. Great numbers of statues were made of bronze, and a large proportion of the master-pieces of the most illustrious artists were of ivory or of gold. No features are more wonderftil in the history of tlie Greek states than the immense sums they consented to withdraw from all other objects, to expend upon tlie cultivation of beauty, and tlie religious care with which t.hese precious objects were preserved unliarmed amid all the vicissitudes of national fortune, amid wai., rebellion, and conquest. This preservation was in pai't due to the intense esthetic feeling tliat was so general in antiquity, but in part also to the catho- licity of spirit t'hat usually accompa-nied polytheism, which made men regard with reverence the objects and ceremonies even of worships that were not theii. own, and which wras especially manifested by tlie Romans, who in all theii. conquests respected tlie temples of tlie vanquished as representing under many forms tlic aspiration of man to liis Creator Roth of tlnese sentiments were blotted out by Chris- tianity. For a.bout 1,500 years the concept.ion tliat tliei'e could lie anything deserving of reverence or

even of tolerance, in tlie religions tliat ١ respect, 0 1 were external to the Church, was absolutely unknown in Christendom, and at tlie same time tlie ascetic theories I liave noticed destroyed all perception of

at least of that type of beauty which ١ beauty, 0 1 sculpture represented. The bronze statues were con- DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 249 verted into coinage, the precious metals were plan- dered,! the marhle was turned into lime, mutilated or forgotten. When Christianity arose, tlie colossal s^tue of Jupiter, in gold and ivory, which was deemed the ma.sterpiece of Phidias, and the greatest of all the achievements of art, still existed at Clympia.. Our last notic.e of it is during the reign of Julian. At Pome, the invasion of the barbarians, the absolute decadence of taste that followed tlieir ascendency, and those great conflagrations whicli more tha.n once re- ducedvast districts to ruin, completed tlie destruction of the old traditions, while most of the statues that liad been transported to Constantinople, and had survived the fury of the monks, were destroyed by the Iconoclasts, the Crusaders, or the Mahometans. ٦ve Towards tlie close of the twelfth century, as have already seen, Nicolas of Pisa for the first lime broke the slumber of medieval art by the skill he had derived from the works of antiquity. There was then, however, no ancient mcdel of* the highest class known, and the principal subject of liis study is said to have been a pagan sarcophagus of third or fourth rate merit, which had been employed foi. the burial of the mother of the famous Countess Matilda, a.nd whicli was then in the Ca. thedral, and is now in the Campo Santo, of Pisa. Giotto, Massacio, and their contemporaries, all pursued their triumphs without the assistance of any great ancient model. Poggio, w٢ho wrote at tile beginning of the fifteenth century, was only able t.o enumerate six statues within the w.alls of Pome. Rienzi and Petrarch gave some slight impulse to

,Constantine lfimsclf set the admiring remarks of EusehilF ا example in this respect. Seetlie Vita Const, lik. iii. caps. 5, 6. 250 RATIONALISM IN EUR01.E. archaeological collections, anti during the latter lialf of the fifteenth century the exertions of the Medici, and of a long series of popes, sustained by the passionate admiration for antiquity tliat followed the revival of learning, produced vast works of excavation, which tvere rewarded by the discovery of numerous statues.* Art immediately rose to an unparalleled perfection, and an unbounded and almost universal enthusiasm was created. Paul II. indeed, in 1468, directed a fierce persecution against the artists at Rome,2 but as a general rule liis successors were warm patrons of art, and Julius II. and Leo X. may even be regarded as the most munificent of tlieir munificent age. All the artists of Rome and Florence made the remains of pagan antiquity their models. Michael Angelo liimself proclaimed tlie Torso Belvedere his ti'-ue master.3 The distinctive type and tone of Christi. ١vas tlius alnrost banished from art, andi.eplaced anity by the types of paganism. ١vas tlie movement which was general in Such Italian art, but it did not pass unchallenged, and it -١vas retarded by one most remarkable reaction. Un der the very palace of tlie Medici, and in the midst of tlie noblest collections of pagan art, a great preacher arose who perceived clearly tlie dangerous tendency. When tliis impulse had gularly unfortunate in catching ا ceased in Italy, it was still in tlie moral expression of Scrip- some degree continued by the ture subjects. Ilis Moses - exploriitions of tlie Frencli in halt prize-fighter, lialf Jupiter Gi.eeco, where a French consn- T onans-is certainly tlie ex- -١١٠as formed about 1030. treme antitliesis to ‘tlie meek late See Vitet, Etudes sur VHistoire est man in all the world.’ His CO- de VArt) tom. i. p. 9،. lossal statue of Eavitl after Ilis See tlie description in victory over Goliath (it would ٥ Plitina. be as rational to make a CO- 3 And was accordingly in lossal stiitue of a Lilliputian) sculpture (ss in painting) sin- would be perfect as an Achilles. 251DEVELOPMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 251DEVELOPMENTS and who employed the filll force of a transcendent genius fco arrest it. The influence of Savonarola upon painting has been so lately and so fully described by an able living historian of art,, that it is notnecessai’y to dwell upon it at length. It is sufficient to say, that during the last few years of tlie fifteentli century a complete religious revival took place in Tuscany, and that Savonarola, who was much more tlian a brilliant orator, perceived very clearly that in order to make it permanent itwa-s necessary to ally it with tho tendencies of the age. He accordingly, like all successful religious revivalists of ancient and modern times, proceeded to identify I.eligion with liberty and with democracy, by his denunciations of the tyranny of the ftledici and by the creation of great lending societies, for the purpose of checking the oppi.essive usury that had become general. He endeavoured to secure the ascendency of his opinions over tlie coming generation by guiding the education of the cliildren, and by making them tlie special objects of his preaching. He attempted above all to purify the very soui.ces of Italian life, by regenerating tlie sacred music, and by restoring painting to its pristine purity. Week after week lie launched from .the pulpit the most scatliing invectives against the artists wlio had painted prostitutes in tlie character of tlie Virgin, who under the pretext of religious art liad pandered to tlie licentiousness oftlieirage, and who had ent.irely forgotten their dignity as the teacliers of mankind. A.S these invectives Avere not inspired by tlie fanaticism of the old Iconoclasts, but pi١oceeded from one -١vho possessed to the highest degree tlie Tuscan per cept'ion of tlie beautiful, tliey produced an impression .Rio—I think the hest part of his book ا 252 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

that was altogether unparalleled. Almost alt the leading painters of Italy were collected at Florence, and almost all, under the influence of Savonarola, attempted to revive the religious character of art. The cliange was immediately exhibited in the painting of Italy, and tlie impression Savonarola made upon the artists was shown by the conduct of many of them when the ^ eat reformer had perished in tlie flames. Botticelli cast aside his pencil for ever. Baecio della Portal retii.ed broken-hearted into a monastery. Perugino (perhaps t.he greatest of all the purely religious painters of Catholicism) glided rapidly into scepticism, and on liis death-bed refused disdainfully the assistance of a confessor. Raphael, who had derived all the religious sentiment of liis early paintings from Perugino, was the first to vindi- cate tlie orthodoxy of Savonarola by inserting liis portrait among tliose of tlie doctors of the Church, in tlie fresco of the Dispute of the Sacrament. After tlie death of Savonarola tlie secularisation of .as portentously rapid. Even Raphael, wlio ex ١١ art liiliits tlie tendency less tlian liis contemporaries, never shrank from desti.oying the religious character O'f liis later works liythe introduction of incongruous images. Michael Angelo, tliat great worshipper of physical force, probably represented tlie influence to tlie liighest degree. Austere, pure, and majestic as lie undoubtedly was, no great artist was ever more destitute of tlie peculiar tenderness of Christian sen- ١vas also reserved for Ilim to destroy t'iment, and it tlie most fearful of all the conceptions liy whicli tlie early painters had thrilled tlie people. By making the last Judgment a study of naked figui.es, liy the introduction of Cliaron and his lioat, and by tlie .Reiter known as Fra Bartolomeo ا DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 253 essentially pagan character of his Christ,, he most effectually destroyed all sense of the reality of the scene, and reduced it to the province of artistic criti- cisin. This fresco may he regarded as the culmina- tion of the movement. There were of course at a later period some great pictures, and even some religious painters, hut painting never again assumed its old position as the normal and habitual expression of the religious sentiments of the educated. In the first period of medievalism it liad been exclusively religious, and esthetic considerations were a.lmost forgotten. In the second period the two elements coexisted. In the last period the religious sentiment disappeared, and the conception of beauty l.eigned alone. Art had then completed its cycle. It never- afterwards assumed a prominent or com. manding influence over the miuds of men. It is. worthy of remark that itx a n sitio iv ery . to that we have traced in painting took^pl.&ce٠ jjjhmit tfhft ! ! t j ! i y rchiteQture. The architect, it is true, does ’not supply-actual objects of worship, and in this respect liis art is less closely connected tlian that of tlie painter with the history of antliropo- morphism j but on the other hand the period in which men require a visible material object of worship, is also that in which their religious tone and sentiment are most dependent upon imposing sensuous displays. Christianity has created three tilings wliicli religious poetry has ever recognised as the special types and expressions of its religious sentiment, rflhese are the church bell, the organ, and tlie Gotilic cathedral. The first is said to have been invented by Paulinus, a ع 00. لbishop of H a in Campania, about the year 4

Anderson, Hist, of Com• a very curious collection of ١ mercCf vol. ii. p. 36. There is passages from the Acts of the 254 RATIONALISM IN LUROIE.

The second appeals to have been first used in tbe ٦Vestern Greek Church, and to have passed into the Empire in tbe seventli or eighth centur^.1 The third arose nnder the revived sense of beanty of the twelfth century, and preceded by a little the resurrection of painting. The new pictures and the new churches were both the occasions of ebullitions of the most passionate devotion. When Cimabue painted one of liis famous Virgins, the people of Florence gathered ai.ound it as to a religious festival, they transported it with prayers and thanksgivings to the Cliurch, and filled the streets with hymns of joy, because a higher realisation of a religious conception had flashed upon them. Just so tliose majestic cathedrals that arose almost simultaneously thi'oughout Europe became at once the channel of the enthusiasm of Chris-

tendom 5 tlie noblest efforts of self-sacrifice were made

1.0 erect them, and they were universally regarded as tlie purest expression of the religious feelii'ig of the age. That this estimate was correct', that lio otlier buildings the woi.ld lias seen are so admirably calculated to produce a sensation of blended awe and

tranquillity, to harmonise 0 1 . assua-ge the qualms ot S((i?its, in which bells are seems to have been almost alluded to (but none of tliem exactly tlie same as a Scotcli apparently ejirlier tlian the be- bagpipe. I am sorry to say ginning of tlie seventh contury) Julian liad the bad taste to in an out-of-the-way quarter. praise it in one ot liis epigrams. (Suarez, I k Fide, lib. ii. c. 16.) (See lurney, Hist, of Music, ،؛ See, too. Colgan's Acta Sancto- vol. ii. pp. 65-67.) There is rum Hibernia, tom. i. p. 1-19. curious sei.ies of papers on tlie Anderson, vol. i. p. 30. niusical instruments in the ا Tliere liad before been known middle ages, by Loussemaker, A n n ie s arclieologiaueB ؛the ٠١ه -a water organ, called an hy dl.aulicon. There was also a (edited by Didron), tom. iv. wind insti.ument wliicli some They have since. I believe, been have placed among the iintece- published separately. dents of the organ, but which DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 255 passion, to lnll to sleep t i e rebellious energies of the intellect, to create around tlie mind an artificial, un- worldly, but most impressive atmosphere, to represent a Churcb which acts upon the imaginat'ion by obscurity and terrorism, and by images of solemn and entrancing beauty, will be admitted by all who have any perception of tlie character, or any knowledge of the liistory ot' art. Whenever tliese modes of feeling liave been very general, Cotilic architecture lias been tlie object of rapturous admira.tion. Whenever tliese modes of feeling were very rare. Gothic architecture has suuk iuto neglect aud disfavour.! We liave a very striking tions. ‘ Education may make ا example of this in both the an inattentive Goth imagine buildings and the criticisms of that liis countrymen have attlie eighteenth century. What Gained the perfection of arclii- (c.g.) should we now say to an tecture,and an aversion to tlieir ١vriter who, speak- enemies the Romans may have imaginative ing of York Minster, assured joined some disagreeable ideas us, as Smollett does, ‘ that tlie to tlieir very buildings and ex. external appearance of an old cited them to their demolition.' cathedral cannot but be dis- (All Enquiry concerning Reality, pleasing to tlie eye of every secs. vi. vii.) Everyone, I man who has any idea of pro- should tiliuk, who was well ١١٠ith tlie literature who acquainted ا;priety and proportion could only describe Durham of tlie eigliteenth centuiy, must Cathedral as ‘ a huge gloomy have been struck with the con- p ile;’ and wlio ackno١vledged tempt for Gotilic arcliitecturo tliat he associated the idea of a pervading it; but tlie extent to cliurch witli a spire especially wliich this was carried was with that of a man impaled (see never fully shown till thepubli- Humphrey Clinker)? Tlius too cation, a few years ago, of an Hutcheson, in one of the ablest. exceedingly errious book by tlie English uorks on the pliiloso- Abbe Corblet, called I;A rclii- pliy of t.lie beautiful, applies tccture du Moyen Agcjugecpar ؟himself elaborately to proving ies tcriuains des dciux dernier that tlie ancient preference of Siecles (Earis, 1809). This Gotilic to Roman architecture learned antiquary lias sbown is not inconsistent witli the uni- tliat, during tile last lialfofthe versalityofthe sense oflieauty, seventeenth century, and du- but is only an aberration ring the whole of tlie eigliteentli caused by liistcrical associa- century, tliere was scarcely a 256 NATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

I do not intend to follow at length the vicissitudes of architecture, or to trace the successive phases of its secularisation. It is suthcient t.o observe, tliat about the time when the dense ignorance that had overspread Europe was dispelled, tbere arose a form of architecture vliich was exclusively and emphatically Christian, vilieh has been universally admitted to be beyond all otliers the most accordant with the spirit of medieval religion, and in which tlie highest ٦١٠as subordinated t'O the religious sense of beauty sentiment. At tlie time when the moral and intellec- t'Ual chaos tliat preceded tlie Reformation was universal, and when painting had been secularised and liad passed entirely into the worship of beauty, architecture exhibited a corresponding decadence, rpiie ١vas everywhere discarded, anditw.as old Gothic style single writer, no matter wliat tation of Greek architecture. may have been liis religious Many of the criticisms were opinions, who did not speak of very curious. Thus, Dupuis Gothic arcliitecture not merely thought tlie zodiacs on tlie witliout apprecia.tioji, but with cathedrals were a remnant of tlie most supreme and unquali- the worship ofMithra. Another fled contempt. The list in- critic found a connection he- eludes, among otliers, Fenelon, tween tile sliape of tlie ogive Dossuet, Molifcrc, Ileury, Rol- and the eggs of Isis. 'A third, lin, Montesquieu, Da BruyCre, named Montluisant, explained Ilelv^tius, Rousseau, Mengs, all the sculptures on the front and Voltaire. Goetlie at one of Not.re Dame de Paris bv the time opposed, but afterwards science of the philosopher’s yielded to, the stream. Milan stone: God tlie Father, holding Cathedral was t.lie specia.l ob- an angel in eacli liand, is tlie ect of ridicule. Gotilic a.rchi- Deity, calling into existence؛ tecture was then almost uni- the incombustible sulpliur and versallv ascribed to tlie Gotlis tlie mercury of life. The flying of the fiftli century, and Bishop dragon biting its tail is the ٦١٣arburt0n suggested that they pliilosopher’s stone, composed liad derived tlie idea from the of the fixed and tile volatile overarching boughs of their substances, the former of which native forests. Some, hoivever, devours the latter, &c. &c. ٠\v\٠ . n \ ٠Foia١.and among others Barry, re- iCEnes de St garded it as an imperfect imi- pp. 245, 246.1 It is to the DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 257 supplanted under the influence of Brunelleschi 1 by a style which some persons may deem more beautiful, but whicli is universally admitted to be entirely devoid of a religious character. The gorgeous, gay, and beautifully proportioned edifices that then rose to fashion were, in fact, avowedly formed from the model of the great temples of antiquity, and tlie beauty to wliich they aspired was pui.ely classic. Cologne Cathedral, the last of the great medieval works, remained unfinished while the whole energies of Europe were concentrated upon the church of St. Peter at Rome. The design of this great work was confided to Michael Angelo, wlio had been the chief agent in the secularisation of painting, and the spii.it in whicli he undertook it was clearly expressed in Ills famous exclamation, that he would suspend the Pan. theon in the air. Of all the edifices that liave been raised by the hand of man, there is perhaps none that presents to the historian of the human mind a deeper interest than St. Peter’s, and there is certainly none that tells a sadder tale of the frustration of human efforts and the futility of human hopes. It owes its greatest splendour to a worldly and ambitious pontiff,2 wlio lias not even obtained an epitaph beneath its dome, It was designed, to be the eternal nronument of tlie Catholic revival of' the present signed by Nicolas of Pisa, is century that we mainly owe the perhaps the best specimen of revival of Gothic architecture. purely Italian origin, for Milan It is true that the Greek Cathedral is aid t-0 be due to ا b u t th is أ traditions had always lingered German architects ٧thic fiict. while It accounts for Italy in.Italy, and that pure G never succeeded in gaining an liaving been tlie great assailant ascendency there as in otlier of the Gothic, did not prevent countries. The exterior of tlie its influence from being cosmo- little church of feta. Maria della p o lita n . .١vas tie- 2 Julius II at Pisa., ivhich ,!؛Spin VOL. I. i 2 5 8 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. glory and the universality of Catholicism, and it .has. become the most impressive memorial of its decay. The most sublime associations that could appeal to the intellect or tlie religious sentiment cluster thickly around it., but an association of which none had dreamed lias consecrated it, and will abide wit.hitfor ever. Tlie most sacred relics of the Catholic faitli ١٢alls. The genius ot' Michael are assemliled witilin its Angelo, Raphael, Bramante, Cellini, Thorwaldsen, and Canova, have adorned it. Mosaics of matchless lieauty repi'oduce tlie greatest triumphs of Cliristian paint.ing, and mingle tlieir varied hues with those gorgeous marbles tha.t miglit liave absorbed the re. venues of a kingdom. Beneatli that majestic dome, whicli stands like the emblem of eternity, and dwarfs tlie proudest monuments below, rest tlie remains of those who were long deemed the greatest of the sons of men. There lie tliose medieval pontiffs wlio had borne aloft the lamp of knowledge in an evd a.nd be- niglited age, who had gnided and controlled the march of nations, and had been almost worshipped as tlie representatives of tlie Almighty. There too the Englisli traveller pauses amid many more splendid objects at the sculptured slab which liears the names of tlie last scions of a royal race, that for good or for ill had (ieeply influenced the destiny of his land. But inexpressibly great as are tliese associations, in the eyes of tlie theologian the recollection of Luther, ١٧ill tower ,and tlie indulgences, and tlie Reformation .while to the philosophic historian St ؛ above them all Peter’s possesses an interest of a still higher order. For it represents the conclusion of that impulse, grow, ing out of the anthropomorphic habits of an early rivilisation, which had led men for so many centuries وDEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 25 to express their religious feelings by sensuous images of grandeur, of obscurity, and of terrorism. It represents the absorption of the l.eligious by tlie resthetic element, which was the sure sign that the religious function of architecture had terminated. The age of the cathedrals had passed. Tlie age ot' the printing press had begun. I have dwelt at considerable length upon tliis aspect of the history of art, both because it is, I think, singularly fascinating in itself, and because it reflects with striking fidelity the religious developements of. the time. When the organs of a belief are entirely changed, it ma.y be assumed that there is some corresponding change in the modes of thought of which they are the expression, and it cannot be too often repeated, that before printing. Was invented,, and. w hle all conceptions were, grossly anthropomorphic, thetrue course of ecclesiastical history is to be souglit much more .in. the .works- of-.the-artists than- of the ؛ theologians. It is now admitted by most competent judges, -that the true causes of the Reformation are to be found in the deep cliange effected in the intellectual habits of Europe by that revival of learning which began about the twelfth century in the renewed study of the Latin classics, and reached its climax after the fall of Constantinople in the diffusion of tlie knowledge of Greek and of the philosophy of Plato by. the Greek exile's. This revival ultimately produced a condition of religious feeling wliicli found its expression in some countries in Protestantism, and in other countries in the prevalence among the educated classes of a diluted and rationalistic Catholicism entirely

forms was adopted in any particular country de.

pended upon many special political or social, 0 1 . even -hut, wherever tlie intel ؛geographical considerations lectual movement was strongly felt, one or otlier appeared. It is surely a remarkable coincidence, that while the literature of antiquity was thus on a large scale modifying the medieval modes of thought, the ancient sculptures sliould on a smaller scale have exercised a corresponding influence upon the art that was their expression. And, although the esthetic movement was necessarily confined to the upper classes and to tlie counti.ies in which civilisation was most prominent, it represented faithfully a tendency that in different forms was still more widely displayed. It represented the âdual destruction of the ascendency which the Church had once exercised over every department of intellect, the growing difference in realised belief between the educated and tlie ignorant, and the gradual disappearance of a.nthropomor- phic or idolatrous conceptions a.mong the former. The aspect, however, of the subject which is peculiarly significant, is, I think, to be found in the nature of the transition which religious art underwent. The sense of beauty gradually encroached upon and absorbed tlie feeling of reverence. This is a form of reliôus decay which is very far from being confined to th.e history of art. The religion of one age is often the poetry of the next. Around every living and operative faith there lies a region of allegory and of imagination into which opinions frequently pass, and in which they long retain a tran sfixed and idealised existence after their natural life has died away. They are, as it were, deflected. They no longer tell directly and forcibly upon human actions. They no DEVELOPMENTS OF NATIONALISM. 261 longer produce terror, inspire topes, awake passions, or mould the. cliaracters ofmeu, yet they still exercise a kind of reflex influence, and form part of the orna- mental culture of the age. Tliey are turned into allegories. They are interpreted in a non-natural sense. They are invested with a fanciful, poetic, hut most attractive garh. Tliey follow instead of controlling the current of thought, and heing transformed byfar-fetcliedand ingenious explanations, they become the embellishments of systems of belief that are wliofly irreconcilable with their original tendencies. The gods of heatlienism were thus translated from tie sphere of religion to the sphere of poetry. Tlie grotesque legends and the liarsh doctrines of a superstitious faitli are so explained away, that they appear graceful myths foreshadowing and illustrating the conceptions of a brighter day. For a time they flicker upon the horizon witli a softly beautiful light that enchants the poet, and lends a charm to the new system ^ t h which tliey are made to blend j but at last this too fades away. Reliôus ideas die like the

sun 5 their last rays, possessing little heat, are expended in creating beauty. There can be no question that the steady tendency of tlie European mind, not merely in th.e period that elapsed between the revival of learning in the twelfth century and the Reformation, but also in that between t-he Reformation and our own day, lias been to disen- gage itself more and more from all the conceptions which are connected either with fetichism or with anthropomorphism. The evidence of tliis meets US on all sides. We find it among the Catholics, in the steady increase in Catholic countries of a purely the vast multiplication ئ ,rationalistic public opinion 262 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. of rationalistic writings, and also in the profound difference in the degree of reverence attached even by fervent Catholics to images and talismans, in cities like Paris, which are in tlie centre of the intellectual movement of the age, and in cities like Senile or Naples, wliich have long been excluded from it. Among the Protestants tlie same tendency is displayed with equal foi.ce in tlie rapid- destruction of what is termed the sacramentarian principle. Phis is manifest in the steady and almost silent evanescence of tliat doctrine of consubstantiation whicli was once asserted with sucli extreme empliasis as the distinctive mark of tlie great Lutheran sect,, but which is now scarcely in the decadence ؛؛licld, or ifheld is scarcely insisted on of tlie Higli Church party, wilieh in the seventeenth century comprised tlie overwlielming majority of tlie Anglican clergy, but which in the nineteenth century, notwitlistanding a concurrence of favourable circumstances and the exertions of a leader of extraordinary in tlie ؛genius, never included more tlian a minority2

Indeed in Prussia, and 2 Tlie principles of parties ا some otlicr parts of Germany, change so mncli more than tlie Calvinists and Lutherans tlieir names, that it is not liave actually coiilesced. Tlie easy to get an accurate not.ion tendoncy to assimilation ap- of tlieir strengtli at different pears to have been strongly periods. Shortly aftei. tlie ac. felt as early as tlie mifldle of cession of William III., the tlie seventeenth century, and Low Cliurcli clergy, according Lisliop bedell exerted liimself to Macaulaf (.History OJ Scarcely آذا strongly to promote it. (See vol. iii. p. 7 some interesting particulars in numbered a tentli part of til. liis Life, liy Uslier.) On tlie priesthood. On tlieir strength recent amalgamation of tlie in the pi.esent controversy, see Lutherans and Calvinists in some curious statistics in Uony. Oerniany. and on its relation beare.s Essay on Church Par٠ to rationalism, tliere are some ties. Tlie failure of the move- -IS very candidly con؟١V remarks worth reading in m e n t Amand Saintes’ Hist, du Pa- fessefl by tlie leader, in his tionalisme cn Allemagne. Anglican D if c u lt.t DEVELOPMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 263 constant alteration of the proportion belween Angli- cans and Dissenters, to the detriment of the former j and in the rapid developement of continental Pro- testantism into rationalism. The dominating cause of this movement is, as .1 have said, to be found mainly in that process of education which is effected by the totality of intellectual influences, and which produces both a capacity and a disposition to rise above material conceptions, and to sublimate all portions of belief. There is, however, one separate branch of knowledge which has exercised such a deep, and at the same time sucii a distinct-, influence upon it, that it requires a separate notice. I mean the progress of physicai science modifying our notions of the government of .the universe. In the early Church the interests of theology were too absorbing to leave any room for purely secular studies. If scientific theories were ever discussed, it was simply with a view to elucidating some theological question, and the controversy was entirely governed by tlie existing notions of inspiration. On this subject two doctrines prevailed, which did not by any means exclude each other, but were both somewliat different from tliose that are now professed-one of them being allegorical, the other intensely literal. The first, which had been extremely popular among the Jewish com- mentators, rested upon the belief, that besides the direct and manifest meaning of a scriptural narrative, which was to be ascertained bytlie ordinary modes of exegesis, there was an occult meaning, which could be discovered only by the eye of faith, or at all events by human ingenuity, guided by the defined doctrines of foe Church. Thus, while the historian was apparently 2 64 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. relating a very simple narrative, or enforcing a very simple truth, his real and prima^ object might bo to unfold some Christian mystery, of which all the natural objects he mentioned were symbols. This notion, which in modem times'has been systematised and developed with great ingenuity by Swedenborg in his ‘Doctrine of Correspondences/ ,١vas the origin of many of those extremely far-fetched and, as they wonld now appear, absurd, interpretations of Scripture that are so numerous in the Fathers, and several of which I liave already liad occasion to notice. Supposing it to be true, a very important question arose concerning the comparative authority of the historical and the spiritual meanings. Origen, as is well known, made the pi'inciple of allegorical interpretation the basis of a system of free, thinking, sometimes of the boldest character. Mani- chjeism having violently assailed the Mosaic Cosmo- as it was gony, lie cordially accepted the assault as fai١ directed against the literal interpretation, turned into absolute ridicule, as palpable fables, the stories of the serpent and the trees of lifo and'of knowledge, and contended that, tliey could only be justified as alle- .Origen, however ؛.goriesrepresenting spiritual truths

See Beausobre, Hist, du Clavis of St. Melito, who was ا ManicMismc, tom. i. pp. 286- bishop of Sardis, it is said, in 288. Barbeyrac, Morale des the beginning of tile second -i., has collected a century, and consists of a cata؛PercSj ell. v number of wonderful extrava- logue of many liundreds of gances of interpretation into birds, beasts, plants, and which the love of allegory led minerals, that were symbolical Crigen. One of the most cu- of Christian virtues, doctrines, rious writings of tile ancient and personages. Church bearing on this subject A modern High Churchman has been lately printed in the ^ ite s: ‘I believe tliat a geo- logist deeply impressed with ٢ة٠ه١ه \\ ؛5ا) Spicilegium Solcsm se Bom. j. B. Pitra). It is the the mystery of baptism— that DEVELOPE iMEjNTS o f rationalise . 2 6 5 verged far too closely upon heresy to he regarded as a representative of the Church; and the prevailing though not very clearly defined opinion among the orthodox seems to have been, that tlie literal and tlie allegorical interpretations should be both retained. Perhaps the clearest illustration of this doctrine is to be found in a short treatise of St. Augustine in defence of Genesis against the Manichjeans, wilieh is v e^ remarkable when we remember tbat its author was, not more distinguished for liis great abilities than for the precision and logical character of liis mind. In this work, St. Augustine reviews and answers at lengtli tlie objections wliicli the Manicliaians liad brought against eacli separate portion of the six days’ work. Having done tliis, he proceeds to lay down tlie principle, tliat besides the literal meaning, tliere was a spiritual meaning whicli was veiled in the form of allegory. Thus tlie record of tlie six days’ creation contained, not merely a description of tlie first forma, tion of the material world, but also a prophetic sketch of the epochs into wilieh the liistory of mankind was to lie divided j the sixth day lieing the Christian dis- pensation, in which tlie man and woman, or Christ and Nor did it ؛.the Church, were to appear upon earth foresliadow less clearly the successive stages of tlie Christian life. Pirst of all the light of faith st.reams mystery by which a new crea- truth lay in the union of both.. ٠آل ,Christian Morals ﺟﺎ١ \ \ا ة — ture is formed by means of water and fire-would never 32 3 . Tlie Churcli being wedded ا have fallen into the absurdities 'of accounting foi. the formation to Christ, .Bone of his bone, of the globe solely by water or and flesh of his flesh,' tliat is to solely by fire. He would not say, participating alike of his have maintained a Vulcanian strength and ofliis purity. [De or a Neptunian theory. He Genesi, contra ManichcBos, lib . would have suspected that the i. c. 2 3 .) 266 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. upon the mind which is still immersed in the waves of sin 5 then the firmament of discipline divides things then the regenerated soul و carnal from tilings spiritual is raised above the tilings of earth, and prepared for the production of virtue; spiritual intelligences rise like the planets in their various orders in the firma- ١vaves ment of discipline, good works spring'from the of trial as tlie fisli fi'om the sea, tl-ie purified min’d itself pi'oduces its 0 ^ 1 graces, till sanctified t'hought being wedded to sanctified action, as Eve to Adam, In tlie ؛.tlie soul is prepared tbr its coming rest same w a y , when the serpent was condemned to creep along tlie earth, tliis meant that temptation comes commonly by pride and sensuality.* When it was condemned to eat earth, this probably signified the vice of curiosity, plunging into the unseen. Wlien it is related tliat tliere was a time when no rain fell upon the eartli, but tliat a mist, rising from the ground, watered its face, we should understand that prophets and apostles were once unnecessary, for every man bore the spring of revelation in liis own breast. Tlie literal narrative was true, and so was the spiritual sig- l'lification; but if in tlie first anything was found which could not be literally interpreted in a mannei. ٦vitli tlie doctrines of the Church, or consonant eitlier ١vith tlie dignity of tlie Creator, tlie passage was to be treated as an enigma, and its true purport was to be souglit in tlie spiritual meaning.3 Some touches of description were inserted solely with a view to that meaning. Thus, when in the summary of the creation

•Lib. V. cap. 25. Tills no- in a book on Conjugal Affec ا tion of marriage representing tion, tbe union of tbe two main ele- 2 The chest signifying pride, ,very beauti- and tlie stomach sensuality ؛ments of life, 8 fully developed by Swtricnborg. * Lib. ii. cap. 2 DEVELOPEMENTS o f RATiONALlS^. 26?

' that is said to have been effected in one day which was really effected in six, and wlien the ‘green herbs’ are specially singled out among created things, these expressions, which, taken literally, would be pointless oriuaccurate, are intended merely to direct t.he mind 'to part.icular portions of the allegory. Together with the method of interpretation laid down in this and in otlier works of tlie eai.ly Church, ,١vas another different, though, as I liave said thei.e not necessarily antagonistic one, of an intensely literal character. Theologians wei.e accustomed to single out any incidental expressions tliat might be applied in any way to scientific theories, even though they -were simply the metaphors of poetry or rhetoric, or the ordinary phrases of common conversation, and to interpret them as authoritative declarations, super, seding all the deductions of mere worldly-science. .The best known example of this is to be found in -those who condemned the opinions of Galileo, because 'it had been said that the ‘sun runneth about from one end of heaven to the other,, and tliat ‘ the foundations of tlie earth are so firmly fixed that they cannot be moved.’ It may be well, however, to ^ve an -illustration of an earliei’ date of tlie extent to which this mode of interpretation was carried. ^mong the very few scientific questions wliich occupied a considerable amount of attention in the early Cliurcli, one of the most remarkalile was tliat concerning the existence of the Antipodes. The Manich^ans had chanced to stumlile on tlie correct doctrine,! and consequently the Fatliers opposed it. Although, however, the leaders of the Churcli were apparently unanimous in denying'the existence of tlie

.Beausobre. Hist, du Manicheisme; tom. i. p. 246 ا 268 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

Antipodes, it appeals that the contrary opinion had spread to a considerable extent among the less noted Cliristians, and some fear was entertained lest it slionld prove a new heresy. About the year A.D. 535, in the reign of Justinian, tliere was living in a monastery of Alexandria an old monk named Cosmas, to wliom the eyes of many were tlien turned. He had been in his youtli a merchant, and in that profession liad travelled much, expecially in the regions of India and of Etiliopia. He was also noticed for his keen and inquisitive mind, and foi. his scientific attainments, and since he liad embraced a religious life he liad devoted himself zealously to the I.clations between Scripture and science. At tlie earnest request of some of tlie theologians of his time, l،e determined, thougli now somewhat broken in a ﺀ health, and suffering especially, as he tells US, fi.om certain dryness both of the eyes and of the stomach,’ to employ tlie remainder of liis life in the composition anile ٤ of a great work, which was not only to refute the fable ’ of tlie Antipodes, but was to form a complete system of tlie universe, based upon the teaching of Revelation. Topograpilia Christiana,’ or ٤ This book is called tlie -Inde ا ’.Cliristian Opinion concerning the World ‘ pendently of its main interest, as probably the most elaborate work on the connection between science and the Bible which tlie early Cliurcli lias bequeathed us, it) is extremely curious on account of its many digres- sions concerning life and manners in tlie different

Tliis work is published in In liis preface, Montfaucon lias ا tlie Benedictine edition of tlie collected a long chain of pas. Greek Fathers (Paris. 1706), sages from the Fathers denying tom. ii. I have quoted tlie tlie existence of tlie * “ Benedictine Latin translation. DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 269 nations Cosmas tact visited. It opens in a t.one of a Christian topography of ٤ great confidence. It is the universe, established by demonstrations from Hi- vine Scripture, c.oncerning which it is not lawful for ٦vriter In a similar st.rain the ا ’.aChristian to doubt proceeds to censure with great severity those weak- minded Christians who had allowed the subtleties of Greek fables, or the deceitful glitter of mere human science, to lead them astray, forgetting that Scripture contained intimations ot'the nature of the universe of far higher value and authority than any to which unassisted man could attain, and seeking to frame their conceptions simply by the deductions of their l.eason. Such, Cosmas assures U S, is not the course ’ To the law and to the testimony ﺀ .he would pursue was his appeal, and he doubted not that he could evolve from their pages a system far more correct than any that pagan wisdom could attain. The system of the universe of which remarks to this effect form the pi’elude may be briefly stated. According to Cosmas, the world is a flat parallelogram. Its length, which should be measui'ed from east to west, is the double of it'S breadth, which should be measured from north to south. In the centre is the earth we inhabit, which is surrounded by the ocean, and this again is encircled by another earth, in whicli men lived before the deluge, and from which Noah was transported in the ark. To the nortli of the woild is a high conical mountain, around which tlie sun a.nd moon continually revolve. When the sun is wlien it is on ؟hid behind the mountain, it is night our side of the mountain, it is day. To the edges of the outer earth the sky is glued. .It consists of four

,Lib. i. prologus 2 ا 2 7 . RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

a great height and then meeting ٤٠ high walls rising in a vast concave roof, thus forming an'immense ٠ edifice of which our world is the floor. This edifice is divided into two stories by the firmament which is,: placed between the earth and .the roof of the sky. A great ocean is inserted in the side of the firmament remote from the earth. Tliis is what is signified by the waters that are above the firmament. The space from these waters to tlie roof of the sky is al. lotted to the blest; that from the firmament to our eartli to the angels, in their character of ministering spirits. The reader will probably not regard these opinions but the point with ؛ as prodigies of scientific wisdom which we are especially concerned-is the manner they were arrived at. In order to show this, it wili be necessa^ to give a few samples of tlie arguments of Cosinas. In the account of the six days’ creation", it will be l.emembered tlie whole work is summed up in a single Tliis is the book of the generation of tlie ٤ ,sentence -eaven and the earth.’ These expressions are eviلl dently intended to comprise everything that is contained in the heaven and the earth. But, as Cosmas contended, if the doctrine of the Antipodes were correct, the sky would surround and consequently contain the ea.rth, and therefore it would only be said, ‘ this is the book of the generation of tlie sky.’i This vei^ simple argument was ca-pable of great extension,

1 ‘ A it, “ H ie est lib e r gen era - Cffilum tantummodo universa tionis cceli et terrse,” quasi contineat, terram cura ccelo non orania iis contineantur, et uni- nominasset, sed dixisset “ Hie ’ ”.cceli ب sunt cum illis est liber ؟versa quse in ei significentur. Nam si secun- (p. 126.) dum fucatos illos Christianos 271DEVELOPEMENTS OP RATIONALISM. 271DEVELOPEMENTS

for there was scarcely any sacred ^ t e r who had not employed tlie phrase ‘the heaven and the earth’ to include t.he whole creation, and who had not tlius implied that one of them did not include the other. Abraham, David, Hosea, Isaiah, Zechariah, and many others, were cited. Even Melchisedec had thus uttered his testimony against the Antipodes. ١ve examine the subject a little furthei., we are told If that tlie earth is fixed firmly upon its foundations, from which we may at least infer that it is not sus.

pended in the air 5 and we are told by St. Paul, that all men are made to live upon the ‘face of the earth,, from which it clearly follows that they do not live upon more faces than one, or upon the back. With such a passage before his eyes, a Christian, we are told, should ’.even speak of tlie Antipodes ﺀ not Such arguments might be considered a conclusive demonstration of the falseness of the Manichsean doctrine. It remained to frame a correct theory to fill its place. The first, ^ eat point of illumiuation that meets US in this task, consists in the fact that St. Paul more than once speaks of the earth as a tabernacle.i From this comparison some theologians, and Cosmas among the number, inferred tliat the tabernacle of Moses was an exact ima.ge of our W0.rld. This being admitted, the paths of science were, greatly simplified. The tabernacle was a parallelogram twice as long from east to west, as from noi'th to south, and covered over as a room. Two remarkable passages, mistranslated in the Septuagint, in one of which Isaiah is made to compare the heavens to a vault, and in the other of wliich Job speaks of the sky as .Cosmas inferred this from fancifill interpretations of Heb ا .ح1٠ .ئ viii. 1, 2 ; 11.12,24 272 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

and د,glued to the earth, completed the argument enabled the writer to state it almost with tlie autho. rity of an article offaith.2 It is easy to perceive how fatal such systems of interpretation must have been to scientific progress. It is indeed true that Cosmas belongs to a period when the inteliectual decadence had already be^m, that he was himself a writer of- no very great abdities, and tliat some of the more eminent Fathers had treated the subject of the Antipodes with considerable good sense, contending that it was not a matter connected with salvation.3 But still, from the very beginning, the principles of which this book forms an extreme ex., ample were floating through the Church. The distinction between theology and science was entirely unfelt. The broad truth which repeated experience has now impressed on almost every unprejudiced student, that it is perfectly idle to quote a passage from the Bible as a refiltation of any discovery of scientific men, or to go to the Bible for information on any scientific subject, was altogether undreamed of,4

These were Isaiah xl. 22, didicerimus terram magis ا and Job xxxviii. 38. The first quoad longitudinem extendi, was translated b (TT^aas rbu id nos quod fatemur gnari. ovpavbv US KCLfidpav. The secon.l, scilicet ^riptura divina ere- ovpavbv Se elsyrjv €K\iv€, KCXVTCU dendum.. (p. 129.) harvep yrj Kovla.) f f d M p 8 This very liberal opinion) ﺀة avrbi/ uenrep \idcp Kvfiov. had been expressed by Basil €ج ,Sic igitur et. nos quemad- and Ambrose* ٥ modum Hesaias figuram primi 4 Tliis doctrine began to dawn Cffili prima die conditi cum upon a few minds during the terra facti, cum terra universum Copernican controversy. Those compleetentis ad foi.nicis figu- who desire to t-race ite history ram adornati statuimus esse, may read witli interest some Ac quemadipodum in Job die- opinions on tlie subject, that turn est cmlum conglutinatum were collected and ans١vered esse terra, ita quoque nos dici- by a contemporary writer on mus. Itemquc cum ex Moyse the question bet١voen Galileo 73؛ .DEVELOrEMENTS OF RATIONALISM

and in exact proportion to the increase of European superstition did the doctrine of inspiration dilate till it crushed every department of tlie human intellect. Thus, when in the middle of the eighth century an Irish saint, named St. Virgilius, who w^s one of the very few men who then cultivated profane sciences, ventured in Bavaria to assert the existence of tlie Anti, podes, tlie whole religious world was tlirown into a paroxysm of indignation, St. Boniface heading the .attach, and Pope Zachary, a.t least for a time, encourag- ing it. At last men sailed to the Antipodes, and they then modified their theological opinions on the subject. But a precisely similar contest recurred when theCopernican system was promulgated. Altliough the discover -of Copernicus was at first uncensured, and his booh-which was published in 1543—dedi- -cated to Pope Paul III., as soon as its vie١vs had ac. quired some weight among the leai١ned, the suspicions of the Roman 'theologian's, were aroused, and tlie .opinion of the motion of tlie earth was authoritatively ,censured, first of all in the person of Copernicus, and and the Church (Libertus Frc- a superstitious man, except on -mundus, Vesta, sive Anti-Aris- the subject of comets, of the tarchi Vindex: Antverpiffi, prophetic character'of which he 1634). As I sliall have occa- was, I believe, a strenuous ad. sion again to quote Fromundus, vocate. He wrote, in conjunc- I may mention that he' was a tion with a theologian named professor and doctor of tlieo- Fieni, a book abo.ut comets, -that he was 'which I have nerer been fortu ؛logy at Louvain -the author of a work on meteor- nate. enough to meet with. He ology, in which he .combated .was one of the principal de. very forcibly tlie-notion that fenders of the immobility of the atmosplieric changes were the earth, and his works are full result-s of spiritual interven- of cui.ious information-on the tion, .whicli Bodin liad 'lately 'theological aspect of tlie sub- .and that'he ject. He died in 1653 ؛ been defending was on the whole'by no means VOL. L T RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.274

and seventeen years latei* by ؛,two of his disciples tbe condemnation and tbe imprisonment of Galileo. It is, indeed, marvellous tbat science sliould ever lave revised amid tbe fearful obstacles theologians ٦vay. Togetlier witli a system of biblical cast in lier interpretation so stringent, and at tlie same time so capricious, tliat it infallibly came into collision with every discovery that was not in accordance witli the unaided ju d ^ en ts of tlie senses, and therefore with the familiar expressions of the Jewish writers, every- tiling was done to cultivate a liabit of thought the direct opposite of the habits of science. The const.ant exaltation of blind faith, tlie countless miracles, tlie childisli legends, all produced a condition of besotted ignorance, of grovelling and trembling credulity that 1 The first condemnation was Fosearini sopra rOpinioncdei .ﻋﺊ١ ,in 1616, and was provoked by p y tk g o rie l e del Copernico the book of a C am lite, named ill quh dictus pater ostendere Fosearini, in defence of tlie conat.ur prsefatam doctrinam Copernican view. Tlie cardi- de immobilitate solis in centro nals of tlie Congregation of tlie mnndi et mobilitate terra con- Index, wliose function it is to sonara esse veritati, et non ad- pronounce authoritatively in versari Sacra Scriptura: ideo, the name of tlie Churcli on tlie ne ulterius hnjusmodi opinio in orthodoxy of new books, tlien perniciem Catholic® veritatis issued a decree, of wliicli the serpat, censnit dictos hie Coper- following is the principal part: m m de Rcvolut. Orbium et Quia ad notit.iam Sanct® Didacum Astunicam in Job ٠— Congregationis pervenit falsam suspendendos esse donee corri- ٣ero p. Paulli illam doctrinam Pytliagoricam, gantur. Librum divin®que Scriptur® omnino ad- Fosearini Carmelit® omnijio versantem, de mobilitate ten® prohibendum, atone omnes alios et immobilitate solis, quam librospariteridemdocentes pro- Nicolaus Copernicus Revolu- hibendos.'-Fromundus, Anti- , t Aristarchus, sire Orbis T e r r؛؟ ,tionibus orbium ccelestium Piclacus Ast.unica in Job, etiam immobilis. In, quo D e e re ilt docent, jam divulgari et multis s. Congregationis s. R. E . Car- -ecipi, sicuti videre est ex quh- dinal. adrersus Pytk؟ dam epistolA impress^ cujus- gorico-Coperuicanos editum de. damP. Carmelit®, cujus titulus fendUur (Antverpi®. 1.31). ?. Letem del, R. p. Maestro Paolo 18. DEVELOPMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 275

can scarcely be paralleled except among tbe most degraded barbarians. Innovation of every kind was

l.egarded as a crime 5 snperior knowledge excited only terror and suspicion. If it was sbown in speculation, it was called heresy. If it was shown in the study of nature, it was called magic. The dignity of tlio Popedom was unable to save Gerbert from the repu- and the magnificent labours of ؛,tation of a magician Roger Paeon were repaid by fourteen years’ imprisonment, and many otliers of less sevei.e but un- l.emitting persecution. Added to all this, the overwlielming importance attaclied to theology diverted to it all those intellects which in another condition of society would have been employed in the investigations of science. When Lord Bacon was drawing his great cliart of tlie field of knowledge, his attention

Sylvester II. He was t.lie upon him while officiating in ا first Frenchman wlio sat on tlie tlie Chapel of Jerusalem, in throne of Beter, tlie reputed the Basilica of St. Croce. Tho autlior of Gallican opinions, legend goes on to say that, and it is said tlie ablest matlie- struck by remorse, lie ordered matician and mechanician of liis liis body to be cut in pieces, to time. He dial in 1993. Among be placed on a car driven by other things, lie invented a oxen., and to be buried wherever kind of clock. He liad also a they stopped of themselves, he statue, like tliat of Roger being unworthy to rest in tlie Bacon, wliicli answered all liis church of Cod. But, to sliow questions. According to the tliat pardon may be extended popular legend, he was in com- even to the most guilty, the ١vho oxen stopped attlie door of tlie ,munion witli the devil raised ilim successively to tlie Lateran. Wlienever, it is said, sees of Rlieims, Ravenna, and a pope is about to die, the tomb and promised that he of Sylvester grows moist, and ذ Rome should never die till lie had tlie bones of the old magicia.n been at Jerusalem, whicli Ger- clatter below. (See Gregoro. Ou the Tombs o f the ل١أل٢\١ bert construed as a promise of immortality. Btit, like tliat Popes; and t.lie original ac- made to Henry IV. of England, count in Matthew of Westmin- it proved to be a cheat, and the ster, anno 998.) Pope felt tlie hand of death 2 276 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. was forcibly drawn to tbe torpor of tbe middle ages. Tbat tbe mind of man sbonld so long have remained tranced and numbed seemed, at first sigbt, an objection to bis theories, a contradiction to bis bigb estimate of liuman faculties. But bis answer was prompt and decisive. A theological system bad lain like an in- cubus upon Christendom, and to its influence, more tlian to any other single cause, tbe universal paralysis ؛.is to be ascribed At last tbe revival of learning came, tbe regenera, tion of pliysical science speedily followed it, and it soon effected a series of most important revolutions in our conceptions. The first of these was to shake tlie old view of tbe position of maii in tbe universe. To an uncivilised man, no proposition appears more self-evident than that our world is tbe great central object of tlie universe. Around it tlie sun and moon appear alike to revolve, and tbe stars seem but inconsiderable lights destined to garnish its firmament. From tlii.s conception tliere naturally followed a crowd of superstitions which occupy a conspicuous place in tlie belief of every early civdisation. Man being tbe centre of all things, eve^ st.artling phenomenon has some bearing upon liis acts. The eclipse, the comet, tlie meteor, and tlie tempest, are all intended forliim. The wliole history of tlie universe centres upon Ilim, and all the dislocations and perturbations it exhibits are connected witli his history.2 The science whicli especially corrects tliese notion's

1 Novum Organon. rum, cap. V.). On the effects of 2 Even the sun and stars man’s sin on the vegetable were supposed to shine with a world, see St. Augustine, De .lib. i. cap. 13 feebler li'glit since the Fall (St. Geneei٠ liy re . be Ordinc Grcatiira- DEVELOEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 277 is' astronomy, blit for a considerable period it ratber aggravated them, for it was at fil.st inseparably blended witli astrology. It is an extremely ingenions and, at least as far as tlie period of the revival of learn, ing is concera'ed, an extremely jnst observation of M. Comte, tliat this last stndy marks the first systematic effort to frame a pliilosopliy of history by re- dncing the apparently capricious phenomena of lmman actions within the domain of law.1 It may, however, perhaps, be also regarded as one of tlie last struggles of hnman. egotism against the depressing sense of insignificance wliich the immensity of the universe must produce. And certainly it would be difficult to conceive any conception more calculated to exalt the dignity of man than one which represents the career of each indiridual as linked with the march of worlds, the focus towards whicli the influences of the most- sublime of created things continually converge.2 But, notwithstanding this temporai.y aberration, there can be no doubt of tlie ultimate tendency of a science which proves that, our world is but an infinitesimal fraction in creation, and whicli, by demonstrating it.s

I have already mentioned Vorryponazzi) ; and Bodin, in ا the bold attempt of Betel. of the very greatest political work Abano, in the beginning of the of thesixteenth century, having fourteenth century, to construct, raised the question whether it by the aid of astrology, a phi- is possible to discover any lOsopliy of religions. Cardan, principle of Older presiding over too, cast the lioroscope of the developement of societies, Christ, and decliired that all tlie maintains that sucli a principle fortunes of Christianity were can. only be revealed by astro- predicted by the stars. Vanini logy, (iEepublique, liv. iv. c. 2.) adopted a somewhat similar view. (Durand, ViedeVanini) 2 As a poet expresses it pp. 93-99.) Bomponazzi at- ‘ Tlie warrior’s fate is blazoned ؛ tempted to explain the plieno- in the skies mena of magic by the influence A world is darkened who. a of the stars (iBiog. univ. art. hero dies.. 278 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. motion, shows that it is as undistinguished by its position a.s by its magnitude. The mentai importa^e. of such a discover can hardly be overrated. Those wlio regard our earth as the centre of the material univei.se will always attribute to it a similar position in tlie moral sclieme, and when tlie falsehood of the first position is demonstrated, tlie second appears ؛.incongruous or a difficulty It has been reserved for the present century and for a new science to add to the discovery of Co. pernicus and Galileo another which has not yet been fully realised, but is no doubt destined to exercise a similar and a commanding influence over all future systems of belief: I mean the discoveries of geology relating to the preadamite history of tlie globe. To those who regard tlie indefinite as the highest conception of tlie infinite, the revelation of eternity is written on the rocks as tlie revelation of immensity upon tlie stars. But to more scientific minds tlie most important effect of geology lias not been that it throws back to an incalculable distance the horizon of creation, nor yet that it has renovated and trans- Whatever may be thought astronomy itself furnishes a ا of its justice, there cannot be striking illustration of the dan- two opinions about the exquisite ger of trusting too implicitly beauty of the suggestion by to our notions of the fitness of which Dr. Cliaimers sought to things. The ancient astrono- meet this difficulty-that the mers unanimously maintained parable of the sliepherd leaving that the motions of thp celestial the ninety-nine sheep to seek hodies must necessarily be that which had gone astray, is circular and uniform, because but a description of the aCt of they regarded that as the most and ؛tlie Deity seeking to reclaim perfect kind of movement ١١٠ith wliich tliis the single world that had re- the persistence volted against Him, as though notion was held, till it was it were of more importance overthrown by Kepler, was one than all that had remained of the chief obstacles to astro, faithful. It may bo added that noraical progress. DEVELOPMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 279 formed all the early Interpretations of the Mosaic blit that it has conclusively disproved ؛cosmogony what was once the universal belief concerning tlie origin of death. That this fearfnl calamity appeared in the universe on account of the transgression of man, that every pang that convnlses tlie frame of any created being, every passion or instinct or necessity that contributes to the infliction of suffering, is but the frait of the disobedience in Paradise, was long believed with unfalt.ering assurance, and is even now held by many who cannot be regarded as altogethei* uneducated. And tliis general proposition became a great archetype, a centre around wliicli count'less .١vei١e formed, a first principle 01 congenial beliefs measure of probability guiding tlie pi'edispositions of men in all their enquiries. If all death and all pain resulted from the sin of Adam, it was natural to give every particular instance of death or pain a special and if tliese tlie greatest of terrestrial ؛ signification imperfections were connected witli the history of man, it was natural to. lielieve that all minor e^ls were no less so. But geology has now proved decisively tliat a profound error lurks in these conclusions. It lias proved that countless ages before man trod this earth death raged and revelled among it.s occupants, tliat it so entered into tlie original constitution of things tliat the agony and the infirmity it implies were known as at present when t.lie mastodon and tlie dinotherium were the rulers of the world. To deny this is now impossilile: to admit it is to aliandon one of the root-doctrines of the past. A second kind of influence which scientific discoveries have exercised upon belief has been the gradual substitution of the conception of law for that 280 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. of supernatural intervention. Tliis substitution I, liave already bad occasion to refer to more tlian once,, but I trust tbe reader will pardon me for reverting to it for a moment, in order to sbow witb more precision than I have hitherto done the extent and nature of the change. It is the especial characteristic of uncivilised men that theii* curiosity and, still more, their religious sentiments, are very rarely excited by those phenomena which fall obviously within the. range of natural laws, while they are keenly affected by all that appear abnormal. It is indeed true that, this expression ‘natural law. has to the uncivilised, man only a very vague and faint signification, that he has no conception of the close connection subsisting between different classes of phenomena, and that he frequently attributes each department even of those which are most regular to the action of special yet still certain phenomena are أ presiding spirits recognised as taking place in re^ilar sequences, while others appear capricious, and the latter are associated especia.lly with Divine intervention. Thus comets, meteors, and atmospheric phenomena were connected with religious ideas long after the sun and the stars. Tims, too, games of chance were from a very early period prohibited, not simply on account of the many evils that result from them, but as a species of bias- phemy, being an appeal on trivial matters to the adjudication of the Deity.! Man being unable to 1 See a clear view of the old by purely natural laws was an opinions on tliis subject in Bar- EnglishRuritan minister named beyrac, De la Nature du Sort Gataker, in a work O n the Nakre and Use cf Different ة\\ة٠ Vfho ١١ kstesk. V1U) tained an ardent controversy on Kinds of Lots (London, 1619) thesubject with a Dutch divine, - a well-reasoned and curious The first writer, I believe, who book, teeming with quaint clearly andsystematically main- learning, tilined that lots were governed DEVELOFEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 281 calculate how the die will fall, it was believed that this is determined by a divine interposition, and accordingly the casting of lots became one of tlie favonrite means of approaching tlie Deity.! From this habit of associating religions feelings ciliefly with the abnormal, two very important consequences ensned, one of them relating to science and. the other to theology. In tlie first place, as long as, almormal and capricious plienomena are deemed the direct acts of the Deity, all attempts to explain them for sucli attempts ؟by science will lie discouraged must appear an irreverent prying into the Divine acts, and, if successful, they diminish tlie sources of religious emotion.2 In the second place, it is evident that the conception of the Deit.y in an early period of civilisation must be materially different from that in a. late.r period. The consciousness of the Divine presence in an unscientific age is identified witli the idea of abnomal and capricious action ; in a scientific age it is consistent witli that of regular and unbroken law. The forms of religious emotion being very different, the conceptions of the Deity around whicli they centre must lie equally so. The one conception

.term tSoirees de St.-Peterskirg . ه 1 was applied to oracles. Hence, ome entretien.) This is the too, snch. words as ‘sortilegi,’ true spirit of superstition. -sorcerers.’ Speaking of earthquakes, Cos ٠ 2 Thus He Maistre, speaking mas says Quod vero terra moveatur id non a vento fieri of the ancients, says:-‘Leui٠ -non enim fahulas com ؛ physique est a peu pr^s ntille. dicimus miniscimur ut illi, sed illud Car non-seulement ils n'at٠ tachaient aucun prix aux expC- jussu Hei fieri pronuntiamus, ,٠perquirimus riences physiques, mais ils les nec curiose rent a per Eavb؟meprisaient, et m k e ils y ۶t- ait quippe Script٠u tachaientjenesais quelle lCg^re dem, “ Qui respicit terram et ideed’impi&£; et ce sentiment facit earn treraere,” & c.'-p . ه٠ \ \ :QOTrfus 'la lt de bien liaut 282 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. consists mainly ofthe ideas of interference, of miracle, of cliange, and of caprice j the other of regularity, of immutability, of prescience, and of moral perfection. The first science that rose to perfection at tlie period I am referring to was astronomy, which early attained a great prominence on account of the revival of astrology that had been produced in the fourteentli century by the renewed study ofthe works of pagan antiquity, and perhaps still more by the profound influence tlie Arabian intellect then exercised on Chris- tendom. The great work of Copernicus, the almost simultaneous appearance of Kepler, Galileo, and Tycho Brahe, and the invention and rapid improvement of the telescope, soon introduced the conception of natural law into what had long been tlie special realm of superstition. The Tlieory of Vortices of Descartes, although it is now known to liave no scientific value, had, as lias been truly said, a mental value of tlie very liighest order, for it was tlie first attempt to form a system of tlie universe by natural law and without Previously .the ؛.the intervention of spiritual agents different motions ofthe heavenly bodies liadbeen for the most part looked upon as isolated, and the popular lielief was that they as well as all atmospheric changes were effected by angels.2 In the Talmud a special angel was assigned to every star and to every element., and similar notions were general throughout the middle ages.3 The belief in the existence of a multi-

-TJlis was originally a re- 17; St. Isidore, De Ordinc Crca ا mark of St. Simon, but it bas tu ra ru m , been adopted and made great 3 Maury, Lkgendcs pkscs, use of by M. Comte and some pp. 17-18. Angels were some- of bis disciples. See that very times represented in old Chris- able book, Littre, Vie dc Comte, tian painting and sculpture Roccamora. De Cometis} p. bearing along the stirs (and ٥ DEVELOPMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 283 fold© of isolated and capricious phenomena naturally suggested the belief in angels to account for them, and on the other hand the association of angels with phenomena that obtruded themselves constantly on the attention produced a vivid sense of angelic presence which was shown in countless legends of angelic manifestations. All this passed away befoi.e the genius of Descartes and of Newton. The reign of law was recognised as supreme, and the conceptions that grew out of the earlier notion of the celestial system waned and vanished. For a long time, however, comets continued to be the refuge of the dying superstition. Their rarity, the eccentricity of their course, the difficulty of ascertaining their nature, and the grandeur and terror of their aspect, had all contributed to impress men with an extraordinary sense of tlieir supernatural character. From the earliest ages they had been regarded as the precursors of calamity, and men being accustomed to regai.d them in that light, a vast mass of evidence was ١va.s soon accumulated in support of the belief. It shown that comets had preceded the d’eath of such rulers as Caesar, or Constantine the Great, or Charles V. Comets were known to have appeared before the invasion of Greece by Xerxes, before the Peloponnesian war, before the civil wars of Cassar and Pompey, before the fall of Jerusalem, before the invasion of Attda, and before a vast number of the greatest fa., mines and pestilences that have afflicted mankind.! especially the Star of Bethle. the evidence of the prophetic hem) in their hands. See, character of comets I liave met e. g., a very curious old has- vdth, is in Raxo, D e C om etis relief round the choir of Notre (1578). The author was a Dame at Paris. Spanish physician. The fflllest statement of ا 284 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. Many hundreds of cases of this kind were collected, and they furnished an amount of evidence which was quite sufficient to convince even somewhat sceptical minds, at a time when tlie supernatural cliaracter of comets harmonising with the prevailing notions of the government of the univei'se appeared antecedently probable. Some theologians indeed, while fully ac- knowledging the ominous character of these apparitions, attempted to explain tliem in a somewhat rat.ionalistic manner. According to their view, comets were masses of noxious vapour exhaied-some said from the earth, and others from the sky, which by ilence. Kingsذtainting tlie atmosphere produced pesl were indeed especially liable to succumb beneath this influence, but. tliis was only because their labours and their luxurious habits rendered them weaker than other men.! Usually, however, comets were simply regarded as supernatural warnings sent to prognostic cate calamity. Two or three great men made vain efforts to shake the belief. Thus, during one of the panics occasioned by a great comet, Paracelsus wrote forcibly against the popular notions,2 which he assailed on theological grounds as forming a species of fatalism, and as being inconsistent with the belief in Providence. In the midst of a similar panic in 1680, Bayle made a similar effort, but, in obedience to the spirit of the age, he adopted not a theological but a pliilosophical He displayed with consummate skill point of vie١v٠ tlie weakness of a process of reasoning which rested on an arbitrary selection of chanc.e coincidences, and he made the subject the text for an admirable book on the gradual consolidation- of superstitions.3 But.

1 R.ccamoa, B e C om etis 2 In a letter to Zuinglius. .And, flying ofl' at a tan ا .Rom®, 1670), pp. 238-239) ه8 ة .biLOllENTS o f RATIONALISE tlieology and philosophy were alike impotent till science appearod to assist them. Halley predicted the revolution of comets, and tliey were at once removed to tlie domain of law, and one of the mosli ancient of Imman superstitions was destroyed. The process which took place in astronomy furnishes hut a single though perliaps an extreme example of that which, in the seventeenth century, took place in ,every field of science. Everywhere the rapid conjp.ts.of the new spirit, ,were substituting the idea .of natural law, for that of supernatural inter- and persuading men that there must he a ference٥ natural solution even where they were unable to discover it. The writings of Bacon, although tlieir influence has, I think, been considerably exaggerated, partly through national pride, and partly because men .have accepted too readily the very unfair judgments Bacon expressed of his contempoi٠aries,. probably. gent from his main subject, On the contrary, when we re- ١vas the age of for an admirable dissertation member tJiat it on the relation between re- 'Copernicus, Galileo, Tycho ligion and morals. With the Brahe, Kepler, and Gilbert, it greatest possible admiration for would be difficult to name one tlie Critical Dictionary, which tliat was more distinguislied. ١vill be always regarded as one A large portion of the s'cientific of the most stupendous monu- revival in Europe may be justly و ments of erudition and of crit.i- ascribed to these great men cal acumen ever bequeathed by and the only apology that can -!؛a single scliolar, I cannot but be offered for the represent think that the original genius tions of Bacon is that, notwitli- of Bayle shines still more standing his great genius, he m t\\e Contraiiis-les was totally unable to grasp ٠ آل١أل٠\ه١ة\ cCEntrer, in some of the PiOisces theii. discoveries. Tlie Copel- &iycrses sur les Cometes, uuA Vn nican system—the greatestdis- two or three of liis Nouvelles coveiy of the age—he rejected Lettres. to the last. The important * The age of BacOn was cer- discoveries of Gilbert about tainly not as benighted and tlie magnet he treated not only ignorant on scientific matters with incredulity but witli the as he always represented it. most arrogant contempt. Iu RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.286

contributed more than a n y 0 tiler single cause to guide the movement, and have, in England at least, become almost supreme. Chemistry disengaged itself from alchemy, as astronomy liad done from astrology. The Academy del Cimento was established in Tuscany in 1657, the Royal Society in London in 1666, and the Academy of Sciences at Paris in 1666. The many different sciences that were simultaneously cultivated not merely rescued many distinct departments of nature from superstition, but also by their continual convergence produced tlie conception of one all- embracing sclieine of law, taught men habitually to associate tlie Divine presence witli order rather than with miracle, and accustomed them to contemplate with admiring reverence tlie evidence of design displayed in tlie minutest animalcule and in tlie most shortlived ephemera, and also tlie evidence of that superintending ca.re which adapts a sphere .٦veahest of ci.eated beings of happiness for tlie A very important consequence of this change was tliat theological systems lost much of their harsh and measuring liis influence, we omnipotent, two of the very ١٣as greatest men stood apart from liave to remember that it certainly not dominant outside his disciples. Tlie whole me- England till that union between tliod and mental cliaracter of the Englisli and Frencli intel- Newton was opposed to that of lects that immediately pre.ceded Bacon, and, as liis biographer. tlie Fi'oncli Revolution. Then, Sir David Brewster, very tbrci- indeed, liis philosophy exercised bly contends, there is not tlie an immense and salutary influ- sliglitest reason to believe t.liat but Newton owed anytliing to his ؛ ence upon tlie Continent wliile Harvey ؛Europe had not been sleeping predecessor till tlien. In Great Britain it- avowedly owed liis great dis- self Bacon produced no per- covery to tliat. doctrine of filial ceptible effe'ct upon tlie great causes which Bacon stigmatised school of literature and science as * barren, like a virgin con- tliat gi’OW up lieyond tlie secrated to' God tliat can bear '.and even in England, no fruit ؛Tweed where lie liad been almost DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 287 gloomy character. As long as men drew tlieir notions of the Deity from what they regarded as the abnormal, theirattentionwas chiefly concentrated upon disasters, for tliese are for the most part exceptional, while tlie principal sources of liappiness are those which are most'common. Besides, it is one of the most un- amiable characteristics of lmman nature tliat it is always more impressed by terror than by gratitude. Accordingly the devotion of our ancestors was chiefly connected with storms and pestilences and famine and death, which were regarded as penal inflictions, and .١vhich consequently created an almost maddening ter ror. All parts of belief assumed a congenial hue till the miserable condition of man and the frightful future that awaited Ilim became the central ideas of theology. But tliis, which in an early phase of civili. sation was perfectly natural, soon passed away when modern science acquired an ascendency over theolo. gical developements: for the attention of men was then directed chiefly to those multitudinous contrivances whicli are designed for tlie wellbeing of all created things, while the terrorism once produced by tlie calamities of life was at least greatly diminished wlien they were shown to be the result of general lavs interwoven with the whole system of the globe, and many of which had been in operation before the creation of man. Another branch of scientific progress which I may notice on account of its influence upon speculative opinions is the rapid growth of a morphological conception of the universe. According to tlie great philosophers of the seventeenth century, our world was a vast and complicated mechanism called into existence and elaborated instant-aneously in all it? .RATIONALISM IN EUROPE ق88

parts by the creative fiat of tbe Deity. In tbe last centnry, however, and still more in tbe present centnry, tbe progress of chemistry, tbe doctrine of tbe interchange and indestructibility of forces, and the discoveries of geology, have greatly altered this conception. Without entering into sucli questions as that of the mutability of species, whicli is still pend- ing, and which the present writer would be altogether incompetent to discuss, it will be admitted that in at least a large proportion of the departments of science, the notion o.f constant transformation, constant progress under the influence of natural law from simple to elaborate forms, lias become dominant. The world itself, there is much reason to believe, was once merely a vapour, whicli was ^adually condensed and consolidated, and its present condition represents the sue- cessive evolutions of countless ages. Tliis conception, which exhibits tlie univei.se rather as an organism tlian a mechanism, and regards tlie complexities 'and adaptations it displays rather as tlie results of gradual developement from within tlian of an interference from without, is so novel, and at first siglit so startling, that many are now shrinking from it with alarm, under tlie impression that it destroys tlie argument from design, and, almost amounts to the negation of a Supreme Intelligence. But there can, I think, lie little doulit tliat sucli fears are, for the most part, ,That matt.er is governed liy mind ١.unfounded that tlie contrivances and elaborations of t'lie universe arc tlie products of intelligence, are propositions ١ve regard these ١vliich are quite unsliaken, whether

See tlie remarks on the of final causes in WhewellS ا consistence of morphological History o f Scientific Ideas. conceptions with the doctrine DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 289 contrivances as the results of a single momenta^ exercise of will, or of a slow, consistent, and regulated evolution. The proofs of a pervading and developing intelligence and the proofs of a co-ordinating and combining intel-ligence, are both untouched, nor can any conceivable progress of science in this direction destroy them. If tlie famous suggestion, that all animal and vegetable life is produced by a natural process of evolution from a single vital germ, were a demonstrated truth, we should still be able to point to the evidences of intelligence displayed in the measured and progressive developement, in those exquisite forms so different from what blind chance could pro. duce, and in the manifest adaptation of surrounding circumstances to the living creature, and of the living creature to surrounding circumstances. Tlie argu- inent from design would indeed be changed; it would require to be stated in a new form, but it would be flilly as 'cogent as before. Indeed it is, perhaps, not too much to say, that the more fully this conception of universal evolution is grasped, the more firmly a scientific doctrine of Pro^dence will be established, and the stronger will be the pi.esumption of a future progress. The effects of this process which physical science is now undergoing are manifested very clearly in the adjacent field of history in wliat may be termed the morphological conception of opinions—that is to say, in th&iuelief. that^ere is a la)v of orderly .and pro- jrressive transformation to which our speculative ٠ect,.--and the..,caus.es of which are^a e ) su,,.- to be so.ught in the general intellectual -Condition of ف society. As the main object of this whole book to illustrate, tlie nature and progress of this conception, VOL. I. u 290 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. it is not necessary to dwell npon it at present, and I advert to it simply for the purpose of silo in g its connection witli the discoveries of science. It will be remarked, tliat in tliis as in most other cases the influence physical sciences have exercised over speculative opinions has not been of tlie nature of a direct logical proof displacing an old belief, but rather the attracting influence of a new analogy. As I have already had occasion to observe, ! impartial examination of great transitions of. opinions- will show that they have -Usually been effected not.by the force ofdiregt arguments, not by such reasons as those wliich are alleged by controversialists and recorded in creeds, but by a sense of the incongruity or dis- coi.dance of the old doctrines. with other parts of 'our knowledge.. Each man assimilates tlie different ordei’s of his ideas. fflhere must always be a certain keeping or congruity or analogy between tliem. The general measure of probability determines belief, ,and it is derived from many departments of knowledge. Hence it is that whenever the progress of enquiry introduces a new series of conceptions into pliysical science which represents one aspect of tlie relations of tlie Heity to man? tliese conceptions, or a.t least sometliing like them, are speedily transferred to theology, wliich represents another. It must, however, lie acknowledged, tliat there are some influences resulting from physical science which are deejily to lie deplored, for they spring neither from logical arguments nor‘from legitimate analogies, liut from misconceptions tliat are profoundly imbedded in OUI. belief, or from fallacies into wliich our minds are too easily betrayed. The increased evidence of natural !.eligion furnished by tlie innumerable marks ،DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 29 of creative and co-ordinating rvisdom wliicli science reveals, can hardly be overestimated,! nor can it be reasonably questioned t l j a t . n i L governed in all Ifs parts by the interactionof -feed.natural laws implies a، higlieidegr.ee of designing skill than a chaos ^-fortuitous influences irradiated from time to time

fui.ther strengthened by the fact, that while physical science acquiesces iir the study of laws as tile limit of its research, even scientific men sometimes forget that the discovery of law is not an adequate solution of the problem of causes. When all the motions of the heavenly bodies have been reduced to the dominion of gravitation, gravitation itself still remains an insoluble problem. Why it is that matter attracts matter, we do not. know—we perhaps never slrall know. Science can throw much light upon tire la١vs tlrat preside over the developement of life j but wlrat life is, aird what is its ultimate cause, we are utter.ly unable to say. The irrind of man, which cair track tire course of tlie comet and measure tire velocity of liglrt, lias lritlierto proved incapalrle of

Des plienomenes aussi ٠ :Laplace, who hay done terms ٤ more tiian anyone else to sys- extraordinaires lie sont point tematise arguments from pro- dus. a des causes * ١١lio will certainly En soumettant au calCul leur liability, and not lie accused of any desire to proliabilite, on trouve qu’il y a su b o rd in a te scien ce to th eo lo g y , Jilu.s de d eu x cen ts m ille m il- states the argument for design liards a parier contre un qu’ils derived from the motions of ne sont point l’effet du hasard.' the planetary l.odies in tlie — Systeme du Monde, liv . v. following almost bewildering c. G. 292 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. explaining the existence of tile minutest insect or the ^ow th of the most humble plant. Jn grouping- phenomena, in ascertaining their sequencesand ,their, ,in ؛analogies, its, achievements have .heen marvellous discovering ultimate causes, it..has,.absolutely .failed. An impenetrable mystery,, lies, at the root of. every existing, thing. The first principle, the dynamic ٦d٦dfying power, the efficient causes of those force, tlie successions which we term natural laws, elude the utmost efforts of our research. The scalpel of the anatomist and tlie analysis of the chemist are here at fault. The microscope, which reveals the traces of all-pervading, all-ordaining intelligence in the minutest globule, and displays a world of organised and living beings in a grain of dust, supplies no solution of the problem. We know nothing or next to nothing of the relations of mind to matter, either in ؛ our own persons or in the world that is around US andto suppose that, the progress, off natural science eliminates, the conception of a first .cause from creation, hy supplyingnatural explanations, is completely-to., ignore the sphere and limits to which itis..confined. It must be acknowledged a.lso, that as t.h.e increasing sens.e of, ,law .appears to many, the. negation of

at all. events of..the. continuity, of ,the ؟ reality 0,ألﺀ, 0

^ ivin e action? so an increased sense of the multiplicity of the effects of mat.ter not unfrequently leads to a negation of the existence of miud. The mathematician so often cited, who maintained th'at the soul must be extension, and the fiddler who was convinced that it must be barmony, are scarcely exaggerated representatives of the tendency manifested, by almost everyone wlio is mucli addicted to a single st.udy to explain by it all the phenomena of existence. 293DEVELOFEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 293DEVELOFEMENTS

Nearly every science when it has first arisen has had to contend with two great ohstacles-with the unreasoning incredulity of those wlio regard novelty as necessarily a synonyme for falsehood, and with the unrestrained enthusiasm of those who. perceiving vaguely and dimly a new series of yet undefined discoveries opening upon mankind, imagine .tliat they will prove a universal solvent. It is said tliat when, after long years of obstinate disbelief, the reality of the great discovery of Harvey davmed upon the medical world, the first result was ?, school of medicine which regarded man simply as an hydraulic machine, and found the principle of every The same ؛.malady in imperfections of circulation history has been continually reproduced. That love of symmetry which makes men impatient to reduce all phenomena to a single cause, has been the parent of some of the noblest discoveries, but it has also, by the imperfect classifications it has produced, been one of the most prolific soui.ces of human error. In the present day, when tlie study of the laws of matter has assumed an extraordinary developement-, and when tlie relations between the mind and the body are chiefly investigated with a primary view to the functions of the latter, it is neitlier surprising nor.alarming that a strong movement towards ma. terialism sliould be the consequence. But putting aside tl'iese illegitimate consequences, it appears that in addition to the general effects of intellectual advancement upon tlieologica.l opinions in enabling men more readily to conceive the invisible, and tlius rescuing them from idolatry, and in enabling them to spirituaiise and elevate their id^l, and tlius .Lemoine, Le Vitalisme de Stahl, p. 6 ا .RATiONALISM iN EUROPE 94ة emancipating them fi.om anthropomorphism, that particular branch of intellectual progress wilieli is comprised under the name of physical science has exercised a distinct and special influence, which has heen partly logical but more generally the assimilating influence of analogy. It has displaced man’s early conception of the position of his world in the universe, and of the relation of the catastrophes it exhibits to liis history. It lias substituted a sense of law for a predisposition to tlie miraculous, and taught men to associate tlie Deity lvith the normal rather than with tlie abnormal. It lias in a great degree divested calamity of its penal character, multiplied to an incalculalile extent tlie evidences of tlie Divine beneficence, and at tlie same time fostered a notion of ordered growth which lias extended from the world of mattei. to the world of mind. Tliese have been its cilief effbets upon belief. It l١as also exercised a considerable influence upon the systems of Biblical interpretation by ivliicli tliat belief is expressed. Tlie first great impulse to Da. tionalistic Biblical criticism was probably given by the antagonism that was manifested between the discovery ٦vas interpreted by tlie of Galileo and Scripture as it liost of tlieologians who argued after tlie fashion of Cosnias. New facts were discovered and therefore a

١١ras required, and mei'1 new system of interpretation liegan to apply their critical po١vers to the sacred writings foi. tlie purpose of bringing tliem into conformity witli opinions that had licen arrived at independently liy tlie reason. Eacli new discovery of science t'liat bore upon any Scriptural question, each new ordei. of tendencies evoked by tlie advance of civilisation, produced a repetition of the same process. Drobably tlie earliest very elalioratc exa.mplc oftliis DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 295 kind of interpretation was furnished by a French Protestant, named La Feyr5re, in a book wliich was published in 1655.1 The author, wlio fully admitted though he endeavoured to restiict the sphere of tlie miraculous, had been struck by some difficulties con. nected with the ordinary doctrine of Original Sin, and by some points in which science seemed to clash and he ؛with the assertions of the Old Testament endeavoured to meet them by altogether isolating tie Biblical history from tlie general current of human affairs. Adam, lie maintained, was not the father of the human race but simply the progenitor of the Jews, and the whole antediluvian liisto^ is only that of a single people. Tlius tlie antiquity which tlie Eastern nations claimed miglit lie admitted, and the principal difficulties attending tlie Deluge were dis- solved. It was altogetlier a mistake to suppose that deatli and sickness and suffering were the consequences of tlie transgression. Adam liad by this act simply incurred spiritual penalties, which descended In the day thou eatest tliou shalt ٤ .upon the Je١vs die ’ could not liave been meant literally, because it nor can the curse upon the ؛ was not literally fulfilled serpent, because tlie motion ot. the serpent along the .groundispi١eciselytliatwhicli its conformation implies The existence of men who were not of the family of Adam is shadowed obscurely in many passages, but appears decisively in tlie history of Lain, who feared to wander fortli lest men should kill Ilim, and who built a city at a time wlien, according to the common The ؟.view, he was almost alone in the world -Systema Theologicum ex 2 Some of La Peyr^re.8 argu ا Vrce-Adamitaruii Hypothesi, ments on this point are cn. pars i. The second part never riously -far-fetched. Thus ho appeared. asks why Abel should have 296 rationalism i n E U R O P E . mingling of the sons of God and the daughters of men means t.he intermarriage between the two races. The Lelugo is an absolute impossibility if regarded as universal, bnt not at all surprising if regarded as a pa-rtial inundation. Proceeding to the history of a later period. La PeF^re in the first place denies the Mosaic author- ship of the Pentateuch. In defence of this position lie urges the account of the death of Moses, and he anticipates several of those minute criticisms which in our own day have acquired so great a These are tlie words ﺀ prominence. The phrase whicli Moses spake beyond Jordan,’ the notice of ’,Jair to the present day ٤ tlie city wliich is called the iron bedstead of Og still shown in Rabb&th, the difficulties about the conquest of the Idumeans, and a few other passages, seem to show that the com- pilation of these books was long posterior to the thne of Moses, while certain signs of chronological confusion which they evince render it probable that tliey are not homogeneous, but are formed by the fiision of several distinct documents. It should be observed, too, tliat they employ a language of metaphor and of hyperbole whicli has occasionally given rise to misapprehensions, special instances of Providential guidance being interpreted as absolute miracles. Thus, for example, tlie wool of the Jewish ١١ere no her of tlie Irish Parliament kept slieep if there robhers to he feared, and where named Dobbs, in a very strange Cain got tlie weapon with book called A Short View o f vliich he killed his brother. Prophecy. It lias also been ad- The existence of a race of men vocated in America, with a view not descended from Adam was to the defence of Negro Sla- very strenuously maintained, very. Mr. Dobbs thought there towards the close of tlie last was a race resulting from an century, by an eccentric mem. intrigue of Eve with the Devil. DEVELOPEMEN'IS OF - 297 fleets was quite suffieient to flirnisli materials for clotfling in tfle desert; and tlie assertion tflat tfle clotfles of the Jews waxed, not old is simply an empflatic expression of tflat extraordinary providence which preserved them from all want for forty years in tfle wilderness. At tlie same time, La PeyrCre does not deny tflat tfle Jewish flistory is bill of miracles, bnt fle maintains very strongly tliat these were only local, and tflat tlie general course of tfle universe was never disturbed to effect them. Tfle prolongation of tfle day at tfle command ofJoslmawas not produced by any alt.eration in tfle course of tfle earth or sun, liut was simply an atmospheric pfle- nomenon suefl as is sometimes exfliliited in the Arctic regions. Tfle darkness at tfle Crucifixion was also -tfle retiogression of tfle shadow on tfle sun أ local dial in tlie reign of Hezekiafl did not result from a disturbance of tlie order of tfle heavenly bodies j tfle liglit tflat stood ovei. tfle cradle of Christ wa.s a meteor, for a star could not possibly mark out witli precision a house. Tfle author oftliis curious book soon after its pub- .lication became a Raman Catholic, and in consequence recanted flis opinions, liut tfle school of Biblical interpretation of wflicfl lie was perhaps tfle first founder continues actively to tfle present day. To trace its flistory in detail does not fall witliintfle plan of tfle -present work. It will be sufficient to say tflat there are two natural tlieories by which men have endeavoured to explain tfle rise of !.eligions, and tflat each of these theories flas in particular ages 0 1 . countries or conditions of t-flougflt exercised a. supreme ascendency.! Tfle first met.flod. wflicfl attributes .Hist, des Idees morales dans rAutiqiiite ، ،؛؟٠؟ \ 298 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. religions to special and isolated canses, fonnd its principal ancient representative in Euhemerus, who maintained that tlie pagan gods were originally illnstrions kings, deified after death either by the spontaneous reverence of tlie -people or by the cunning of tlie rulers,! and whose work, beiug translated by Ennius, is said to have contributed largely to tliat diffusion of scepticism in Rome which preceded tlie rise of Christianity. To this class of criticism belong also all attempts to explain miracles by imposture, or by optical delusions, or liy tbe misconception of some natural phenomenon, or by any other isolated circumstance. Tbe othei. method, which is called mythical, and wliicli was adopted among the ancients by the Pytliagoreans, tlie Neo-Platonists, and the Gnostics, regards different dogmatic systems as embod^ng religious sentiments or great moral conceptions that are generally diffused among .mankind, or as gi^ng a palpalile and (so to speak) material form to the aspirations of tbe societies in which they spring. Tlius, while fully admitting that special circumstances liave an important influence over the rise of opinions, the interpreters of this scliool seek tlie true efficient cause in the general int.ellectual atmospliere t.hat is prevalent. They do not pretend to explain in detail how different miracles came to lie believed, liut they assert t'hat in a certain intellectual condition plienomena which are deemed miraculous will always appear, and tliat the general character of tliose plienomena will lie determined by tbe prevailing predisposition. Tlie first of these scliools of interpretation was general in the .pagan di ٠طQ bis Treatise on the origin of 6؛ ,Loeke ا Government) adopts very fully vinities. the theory of Euhemerus about DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 299 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and has heen especially favoured by nations like the ancient Romans, or like the modern English and Frencli, who are distinguished for a love of precise and definite conclusions; while tlie second has been most prominent in the present century, and in Germany. It must, however, be admitted tliat the energy displayed in framing natural explanations of mira. culous phenomena bears no proportion to that whicli has been exhibited in a criticism that is purely dis- integrating and destructive. Spinoza, wliose profound knowledge not only of the Hebrew language but also of Rabbinical traditions and of Jewish modes of thought and expression made him peculiarly competent for tlie task, set the example in his and Germany soon ؛’,Tractatus Theologico-Politicus ﺀ aftei. plunged with great energy into the same career. But the fact which must, I think, especially strike the impartial observer is that these criticisms, in at least tlie great majority of cases, are carried on witli a scarcely disguised purpose of wresting the Bible into conformity witli notions that have been independently formed. The two writers who have done most t . supply the principles of the movement are Lessing and Kant. The first emphatically asserts tliat no doctrine should be accepted as part of Scripture which

.Spinoza was, as far as I University. Some of .tlie re ١ »١vko marks of Spinoza about th know, tlie first writer tlwelt mucli on the possible or Jewish habit of speaking of probable falsification of some tlie suggestions of their own portions of the Old Testament minds as Inspiration are still by the insertion ofwrongvowel- worth reading, but with tliese points, a subject which was a exceptions tlie value of the few years since investigated in Tractatiis Theologico-Politicu. work on Hebrew Interpola. seems to me to be chiefly his ه lio ilS i by Dr. Wall, of Dublin torical. 300 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

reason,’ an expression which ٤ is not in accordance with in the writings of modern German critics may he not unfairly regarded as equivalent to the general scope and tendency of modern thought.! The doctrine of !(ant is still more explicit. According to him,2 every -eccle ٤ dogmatic system, or, as he expresses it, every siastical belief,’ should he regarded as the veliicle or envelope o f‘pure religion,’ or, in other words, oftiiose modes of feeling which constitute natural religion. The ecclesiastical belief is necessa^, because most men are unable to accept a purely moral belief unless it is as it were materialised and embodied by grosser conceptions. But the ecclesiastical belief being entirely subordinate to pure religion, it followed that ١dew to the it sliould be interpreted simply ^ th a latter—that is to say, all doctrines and all passages of Scripture should be regarded as intended to convey some moral lesson, and no hiterpretation, however natural, should be a.ccepted as correct which collides witli our sense of riglit. The statement of this doctl’ine of Kant may remind the reader that in tracing tlie laws of the religious progress of societies I have hitherto dwelt only on one aspect of the subject. I have examined several important intellectual, agencies, wliich have effected intellectual changes, but have as yet altogether omitted the ,J.aws of ?moral..deyelopement. In en- ١ve are at first ,deavouring to supply this omission See, on Lessing’s views, a lier in which lie there treats ا clear statement in Amand the subject of miracles illus- Sainte’s Hist, critique du trates very clearly the wide use Rationalism en Alleinagne. made of the tei٠m ‘reason' in Strauss, in the Introduction to German criticism, liis Life of Jesus, gives a vivid 2 See his Religion within the sketch of tlie progress of Ger. Limits of the Reason. man Rationalism, and the man- 301DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 301DEVELOPEMENTS met by a school which admits, indeed, that the true essence of all religion is moral, but at the same time denies that there can he in this respect any principle of progress. Nothing, it is said, is so immutable as morals. The difference between right and wrong was always known, and on this subject our conceptions can never be enlarged. But if in the terra moral be included not simply the broad difference between acts which are positively virtuous and those which are positively vicious, but also the prevailing ideal or standard of excellence, it is quite certain that morals exhibit as constant a progress as intellect, and it is probable that this progress has exercised as important an influence upon society. It is one of tlie most familiar facts that there are certain virtues that are higher t'lian others, and that many of these belong exclusively to a liighly developed civilisation.! Thus, that the love of trut'h is a virtue is a proposition which, stated simply, would have been probably accepted with equal alacrity in any age, but if'we examine the extent to whicli it is realised we find a profound difference. We find that in an early period, while all the -virtues of an uncompromising partisan are cordially recognised, the higher ^tue, which binds men through, a love of conscientious enquiiy to endeavour to pursue an eclectic course when party and" sectaria.n passions ra.ge fiercely around tliem, is not only entirely unappreciated but -that it is even now only 1’ecog ؛ is almost impossible nised by a very few who occupy the eminences of and that it must tlierefore be recognised ؛thought by the multitude in proportion as they approacli the

.٦tel.v،١Vh This fact has been well of Archbishop ا noticed in some of tlie writings 302 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. condition of those few. Thns, the pursnit of viltue for its own sake is undoubtedly a higher excellence than tlie pursuit of virtue for the sake of attaining yet the notion.of ؟reward or avoiding punishment d.sinterested virtue belongs almost exclusively to the higher ranks of tlie most civilised ages, and exactly in proportion as we descend the intellectual scale is it necessary to elaborate tlie system of re١vards and punishments. Humanity again, in theory, appears to be an un- changeable virtue, but if we examine its applications we find it constantly changing. Bull-baiting and bear, baiting and cock-figlitiug, and countless amusements of a similar kind, were once the favourite pastimes of Europe, were pursued by all classes even tlie most refined and tlie most liumane, and were universally regarded as perfectly legitimate.! Men of the most dist-inguished excellence are known to have delighted in tliem. Had anyone challenged them as barbarous, liis sentiments would have been regarded not simply as absurd, but as incomprehensible. There was, no doubt, no controversy upon tlie subject.2 Gradually,

1 For a full view of tlie ex- bull-baiting, it was not because tent to wliich tliese amusements it gave pain to tlie bull, but were carried oil and diversified liecause it gave pleasure to tile in England, see Strutt’s Sjyorts spectators.’ Tlie long unsuc- and Pastimes of the English cessful warfare waged by the People. Si 1. Tlionias More was Topes against Spanish bull- accustomed to boast ofliis still figliting forms a very cui’ious -episode in ecclesiastical bis ’؛in throwing tlie ‘cock stele and, to tlie very last, liull-bait- tory: liut its origin is to be ing was defendetl waimily by found in tlie number of men had been tilled. An old ا ١١1 0 Canning, anti with an almost passionate earnestness by t.lieologian mentions that, in W in d liam . the town of Concha, a bull tliat As Macaulay, with cha- had killed seven men became ٥ rjicteristic antitliesis, sa y s:- tlie ob.ject of the liigliest revel." ‘ If tlie Puritans suppressed ence, Jind tlie people were so DEVELOPMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 303 however, by the silent pressure of civilisation, a pro. foand change passed over pnblic opinion. It was effected, not hy any increase of knowledge or by any process of definite reasoning, bnt simply by the gradual elevation of the moral standard. Amuse- ments that were once universal passed from the women to the men, from the uppei.' to the lowei. classes, from tlie virtuous to the vicious, till at last the Legislature interposed to suppress them, and a thri-11 of indignation is felt whenever it is discovered that any of tliem have been practised. The history of gratified that a painting re- monks, only enjoining caution. presenting tlie achievement At present Lull-fights are Was immediately executed for usually performed on festal the public square (Concina, days, and form part of most Be Spectaculis, p. 283). Tho great religious festivals, es- ١vlio denounced Spanish pecially those in honour of the writers bull-figliting contrasted it spe- Virgin ! On this curious sub- cially with that of Italy, in ject full details are given in -De Poems Ecelesias o١؛ ٠i which tlie bull was bound by a T k s 1’ope, and which was therefore ticis (Romje, 1640), and in innocent (Ibid. p. 285). Bull- Coneina, Be Spcctaculis (Roma, fighting was proliiliited under 1752). Among the Spanish pain of excommunication by opponents of bull-fighting was Pius V., in 1567. In 1575, the great Jesuit Mariana. It Gregory XIII. removed tlie is curious enough that perhaps prohibition except as regards the most sanguina^ of all bull- ecclesiastics, wlio were still for- fights was in the Coliseum of bidden to frequent bull-fights, Rome, in 1333, wlien tlie and as l.egards festal ،lays, on Roman nobles descended into wliicli they were not to be cele- tlie arena and eigliteen were brated. Some Spanisli t.lieo- killed (Cibrario, Economia Vo- logians having agitated mucli litica, vol. i. pp. 190 -197); on tliis subject, Sixtu V., in but the Pope was tlien at 1586, confirmed tlie preceding Arignon. Miclielet lias no- bull. At last, in 1596, Clement ticed that wliile bull-figliting VIII., moved by tlie remon- was long extremely popular strance of the Spanish king in Rome, tlie Rom.agna, and and tlie discontent of the Spoleto, it never took root ill Spanish people, removed all Naples, notwithstanding tlie prohibitions (in Spain) except long domination of the those wliich rested on tlie Spaniards. 304 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

the abolition of torture, the history of punishments, the history oftlie freatment of the conquered in war, the history of slavery-ait present US with examples -١vhich in one age were accepted as per of practices fectly right and natural, and which in anotlier age were repudiated as palpably and atrociously inhuman. In each case the change was effected much less by any intellectual process than by a certain quickening of the emotions, and consequently of the moral judgments j and if in any country we find practices at all resembling those which existed in England a century ago, we infer with certainty that that country has not received the full amount of civilisation. The code of honour which fil.st represents and afterwards reacts upon tlie moral standard of each age is profoundly different. The whole type of virtue in a rude warlike people is distinct from that of a refined and peaceful people, and the character whicli the latter would admire the former would despise. So true is this, that ea.ch successive stratum of civilisation brings with it a distinctive variation of the moral type. In -٤if tlie archffio ,١vords of an illustrious historian the logist can determine the date of a monument by the f o il of its capital, witli much gi’eater certainty can tlie psychological historian assign to a specific period a moral fact, a predominating passion, or a mode of thought, and can pronounce it to have been impossible in the ages that preceded or that followed. In the chronology of art the same fornrs have sometimes been reproduced, but in the moral life sucli a recurrence is impossible : its conceptions are fixed in their ٤ ’.etepnal place in the fatality of time striking exception to this here is, however, 0٣ ۴ DEVELOPMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 305 law in the occasional appearance of a phenomenon which may be termed moral genius. Tliere arise from time to time men who bear to the moral condition of tlieir age much the same relations as men of genius heal, to its intellectual condition. They anticipate the moral standard of a later age, cast abroad conceptions of disinterested virtue, ofphilan- thropy, or of self denial tliat seem to bear np relation to the spil.it of tlieir time, inculcate duties and suggest motives of action that appear to most men altogethei. chimerical. Yet the magnetism of their perfections tells powerfully upon tlieii. contemporaries. An enthusiasm is kindled, a group of adherents is formed, and many are emancipated from the moral condition of tlieir age. Yet tlie full effects of sucli a movement are but transient. The first entliusiasm dies away, surrounding cil'cumstances resume their ascendency, the pure faitli is materialised, encrusted witli con- teptions that are alien to its nature, dislocated, and distorted till its fil’st features have almost disappeared. The moral teaching, being unsuited to the time, becomes inoperat-ive until its appropriate civilisation lias dawned, or at most it faintly and imperfectly filters through ::cum ulation of dogmaSj and thusaccek٦ rates in some measure the arrival of tlie conditio^ it requires. From the foregoing considerations it is not difficult to infer the rela tiiL o f dogmatip systems to, moral principles. In a semi-barbarous period, when the moral faculty or the sense of right is far too weak to be a guide of conduct, dogmatic systems interpose and supply men with motives of action that are suited to their condition, and are sufficient to sustain among them a rectitude of conduct that would otherwise be 306 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

unknown. But the formation of a moral philosophy is usually tlie first step of the decadence of religions. V Theology then ceasing to he the groundwork of morals, sinks into a secondary position, and the main source of its power is destroyed. In the religions of Greece and Borne this separation between the two parts of religious systems was carried so far that the inculcat-ion of morality at last devolved avowedly and exclusively upon the philosophers, while tlie priests were wholly occupied with soothsaying and expiations. In the next place, any histoi.ical faith, as it is interpreted by fallible men, wdl contain some legends

0 1 . doctrines that are contrary to our sense of right. Bor our highest conception of the Deity is moral excellence, and consequently men always embody their standard of perfection in tlieh. religious doc- -and as that standard is at first extremely im ؛ trines perfect and confused, the early doctrines will exilibit a corresponding imperfection. These doctrines being stereotyped in received formulai.ies for a time seriously obstruct tlie moral developement of society, but at last the opposition to them becomes so sti'ong tliat ay : tliey are then eitlier violently ٦١ tliey must give

subverted 0 1 . permitted to become gradually obsolete. There is but one example of a religion which is not necessarily subverted by civilisation, and that example is Christianity. In all otlier cases the decay of dogmatic conceptions is tantamount to a complete annihilation of tlie religion, for altliougli there maybe imperishable elements of moral truth mingled with tliose conceptions, they liave nothing distinct.ive

-١vith new sys peculiar. The moral truths coalesce . 1 0 ho littered tliem take tlieii. place with'١١ terns, the men DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 307 many others in the great pantheon of history, and the religion having discharged its fanctions is spent and withered. S t . the great characteristic of Chris-, iian ity^ id . the great moral proof of its divinity, is that it has been the main source of the moral de- v e lfm e n t of Europe, and that it has. discharged this office not so much hy the inculcation of a system of ethics, however pureZ-aa -by the. assimilating .and attractive influence of a perfect ideal. The moral progress of manhind can never cease to be distinc- fcively and intensely Christian as long as it consists of a ۴ adual approximation to the character of the Christian Founder. There is, indeed, nothing more wonderful in the history of the human race, than the way in wliich that ideal has traversed the lapse of ages, acquiring a new strength and beauty with each advance of civilisation, and infusing its beneficent influence into every sphere of thought and action. At first men sought to grasp by minute dogmatic definitions the divinity they felt. The controversies of the Homoousians or Monophysites or Nestorians or Patripassians, and many others whose very names now sound strange and remote, then filled the Church. Then came the period of visible representations. The handkerchief of Veronica, the portrait of Edessa, the crucifix of Nicodemus, the paintings of St. Luke,1 the image traced by an angel’s hand, which is still

As Lami and Lanzi have all by the same hand, or of ا shown, this legend probably exactly the same age, though resulted from a confusion of evidently copied from the same a Florentine monk, type. Others think they are إ names named Luca, of the eleventh Byzantine pictures brought to century, being, there is much Italy during the time of the reason to believe, the chief au- Iconoclasts and of the Cru- .portraits by St. sades ٠ thor of the Luke.’ Tliey are not, however. 308 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. venerated at the Lateran, the countless visions narrated by the saints, show the eagerness with which men songlit to realise as a palpable and living image their ideal. This age was followed by tliat of historical evidences, the age of Se- bonde and his followers. Yet more and more with advancing years, the moral ideal stood ont from all dogmatic conceptions, and it is no exaggeration to say, that at no former period was it so powerful, or so universally acknowledged, as at present. Tliis is a phenomenon altogetlier unique in history 5 and to those who recognise in the liighest type of excellence the liighest revelation of the Deity, its importance is too manifest to be ovei.looked. I trust the reader will pardon tlie tedious length to which this examination, which I would gladly have abridged, has extended. For the history of .rationalism is quite as much a history of moral as of intellectual developement, and any conception of it ,hat ignores the former must necessarily be mutilated؛ and false. Nothing, too, can, as 1 conceive, be more erroneous or superficial tlian the reasonings of those who main'tain that the moral element of Christianity has in it notiling distinctive or peculiar. The method oftliis school, of which Bolingbroke maybe regarded as tlie type, is to collect from the writings of different lieathen writers certain isolated passages embod^ng and و precepts tliat were inculcated by Christianity when the collection had become very large, the task was supposed to be accomplished. But the true originality of a system of moral teaching depends not so much upon the elements of which it is composed, ٥ as upon the manner in which they are fused into DEVELOFEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 309 symmetrical whole, upon the proportionate value that is attached to different qualities, or, to state the same thing hy a single word, upon the type of character tliat is formed. Now it is quite certain that the Christian type differs not only in degree, but in kind, from tlie Pagan one. In applying the foregoing principles to the history of Christian transformations, we should naturally expect three distinct classes of change. The first is tlie gradual evanescence of doctrines that clash with our moral sense. Tlie second is the decline of the influence of tliose ceremonies, or purely speculative doctrines, whicli, witliout being opposed to conscience, are at least wliolly beyond its spliere. The tilird is tlie substitution of the sense of right for the fear of punishment as the main motive to virtue. I reserve the consideration of the first, of these three changes for the ensuing chapt.er, in which I shall examine the causes of religious persecution, and shall endeavour to trace the history of a,.long series o f moral anomalies in speculation which prepared the. The ؟Wa۶ for that great moral anomaly in practice SeeOnd change is so evident, that it is not necessary, to dwell upon it. No candid person who is acquainted with history can fail to perceive the difference between tlie amount of reverence liestowed in tlie present day, by tlie great majority of men, upon mere speculative' doctrines or ritualistic observances, and' tliat which ١ve examine the Church in the was once general. If fourth and fifth centuries, we find it almost exclusively occupied with minute questions conceraing the manner of the co-existence of tlie two natures in Cliris't. If we examine it in the middle ages, we find it absorbed in ritualism and pilgrimages. If We 310 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

list emer^ng؛ examine it at the Refmmati.n, we find it beneath the pressure of civilisation from this condition; yet still the main specnlative test was the doctrine concerning the Sacrament, which had no relation to morals j and the main practical test, on the Continent at least, was the eating of meat on In the present day, with the great body ؛.Fridays of laymen, snch matters appear simply puerile, because they have no relation to morals. The t-hird cliange is one which requires more attention, for it involves the history of religious terrorism - a histo^ of the deepest but most painfill interest to

1 In France especially tlie men using the trade of- fislnng persecution on this ground was in the sea, may thereby the frightful. Thus, Bodin tells rather he set on work.' See a us that, in 1539 the magistrates list of these laws in Hallam’s of Angers burnt alive those Const. Hist. vol. i. A homily who were proved to have eaten also enjoins fasting on the same meat on Friday if they remained complex ground. There are ٢ery good remarks on impenitent, and hung them if some they repented. {Demon, des tlie tendency of theologians to Sorciers, p. 216.) In England condemn more sererely error the subject was regarded in a than immorality, and in con- very peculiar light. Partly be- demning different errors to cause Anglicanism clung closely dwell most severely on those to the Fathers, and partly be- wliicli are purely speculative, cause England was a maritime in Bayle, Pensees diverses, country, fasting was not only cxcix. He says : ‘ Si un docteur encouraged, but strictly en- de Sorbonne avoit la hardiesse joined; and a long series of de chanceler tant soit peu sur laws and proclamations were le m.vst&re de l’Incarnation accordingly issued between . . . il couroit risque du feu -mais s’il se con ل and the Restoration, en- de la Greve 1548 joining abstinence on Wednes- tentoit d’avancer quelques pro- days and Fridays, and througli- positions de morale rel^chCe. out len t; *considering that comme le fameux Escobar, on due and godly abstinence is a se contenteroit de dire que mean to virtue, and to subdue cela n’est pas bien, et peut-Ctre men’s bodies of their souls on verroit la censure de son and spirits; and considering, livre.' also, especially that fishers, and DEELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 311 all who study the intellectual and moral process ot Burope. It would be difficult, and perhaps not altogether desirable, to attain in the present day to any realised conception of the doctrine of future punishment as it was taught by the early Fathers, and elaborated and developed by the medieval priests. Tha.t doctrine has now been thrown so much into the background, it has been so modified and softened and explained away, that it scarcely retains a shadow of its ancient repulsiveness. It -is sufficient to say, tliat it was generally maintained that eternal damnation was the lot which the Almighty had reserved for an immense and that that damnation ؛ proportion of his creatures consisted not simply of the privation of cei.tain extraordinary blessings, but also of the endurance of tlio most excruciating agonies. Perhaps the most acute pain the human body can undergo is that of fire j and this, the early Fathers assure US, is the eternal destiny of the mass of mankind. The doctrine was stated with the utmost literalism and precision. In the two first apologies for the Cliristian faith it was distinctly asserted. Philosophy, it was said, had sometimes enabled men to look with contempt upon torments, as upon a transient evil j but Christianity presented a prospect before which the stoutest heart must quad, for its punishments were as eternal as Origen, it is true, and liis ؛.they were excruciating

-Sic et Epicurus omnem que seternam ab eo pcsnam pro* ا cruciatum doloremque depretiat videmus merit, soli innocently modicum quidem contempti- occurrimus et pro scientiy pleni- bilem pronuntiando magnum tudine et pro magnitudine cru- vero non diuturnum. Enin)- ciatus non diuturni verum vero nos qui sub Deo omnium sempiterni.’ (Tertullian, Apol. speculatore dispungimur, qui- cap. xlv.) 312 RA'riONALISM IN EUROPE. discirde Gregory of Nyss.a, ill a somewhat hesitating manner, diverged from the prevailing opinion, and strongly inclined to a figurative intei.pretation, and hut إ ; to tlie belief in the ultimate salvation of a ll they were alone in their opinion. With these two exceptions, all the lathers proclaimed the eternity of torments, and all defined those torments as tine action of a literal fire upon a sensitive body.2 When the pagans ai.gued that a body could not n.cmain for ever unconsumcd in a material flame, they were answered l)y the analogies of' the salamander, the asbestus, and the volcano 5 and by ajnpeals to tlic Divine Onnnipo- tcnce, which was supposed to Ine continually exerted to pi.olong the tortures of the dead.3 Wo may Ine quite sure that neither in the early Church, not. in ،any other period, was this doctrine univei.sally n.ealised. 'there must liave Ineen t-lnousands who, believing, or at least professing, that tlnere was no salvation except in the Churcli, and tl-iat to be

somewhat ال Iho opinions of tliis last the sumo subjoctin' ا lather on tlio subject, which ferocious passage: ‘Ipso rex ai.0 very littlo known, are clearly Jupiter per torrontes ripas et statod in tlnit learned book, atram voraginem jurat roligi- llalheus, De Poenis et Satisfac- oso : dostinatam onim sihi cam tionibus (Amsterdam, 1649), suis cuhorihus pamam prccscius ١voll- perhorrescit: uec tormentis aut fib. iv. c. 7. Eor Origen’s .nodus ullus aut terminus؛ .known opinions, seo Ibid. lib Ilfic sapiens ignis membra urit 2 A long chain of quotations et reficit: carpit et nuti.it sicut ١vill be found ignes fulminum corpora tangunt establishing tliis nee absumunt: sicut ignes '٠ر in Swindon, 0)1 the Fire Jind in ^tnffi et Vesuvii et ardentium ؛ ( Hell (London, 1 7 2 7 llorborry’s Enquiry concerning ubiquo terrarum flagrant nec Future Punishment (London, erogantur: ita pmnalo illud 1744). incendium non damnis arden. .See tile long Jirgumcnt tium pascitur sed inexesa cor ٥ l.ased on t.lieso grounds in St. porum lacorationo nutritur. Aug. De Civ. D ei, lib. xxi. cc. [Octavius, cap. XXXV.) ١elix treats Alinutius l .1-9 DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. SIS

be precipitated into ٤٠ excluded from salvation meant an abyss of flames, looked back nevertheless to tbe memory of a pagan mother, who had passed away, if not with a feeling of vague hope, at least without the poignancy of despair. There must have been tliousands who, though they would perliapshave admitted witli a father that the noblest actions of tlie heathen splendid vices,’ I١ead nevertheless the pages ﺀ were but of the great liistoriaus of their country with emotions that were very little in conformity with such a tlieory. Nor, it may be added, were these persons those whose moral perceptions had been least developed by con- templating the gentle and tolerant character of the Christian Founder Yet still the doctrine was stamped upon the theology of the age, and tliough it had not yet been introduced into art, it was realised to a degree which we at least can never reproduce j for it was taught in the midst of persecution and conflict, and it flashed upon the mind with all the vividness of novelty. Judaism had liad nothing like it. It seems now to be generally admitted tliat tl'ie doctrine of a future life, which is oft.en spoken of as a central conception of religion, was not included in the Levitical revelation, or at least was so faintly intimated that the people wero unable to perceive it.1 During tlie captivity, indeed.

This fact had been noticed it contained no revelation of ا by several early English divines a future world. Archbishop ('Barrow and Berkeley among Whately, who strongly took up the number); but it was brouglit the view of Warburton concern- into especial relief by Warbur- ing the fact, has, in one of his ton, who, as is well known, in Essays on the Peculiarities of his Bivine Legation, based a the Christian Religion, curious argument in favour of it very skilfully to establishing tho divine origin of the Leviti- tlie divine origin, not indeed of cal religion upon tlie fact that Judaism, but of Christianity, 314 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. the Jews obtained from their masters some notions on the subject, but even these were very vague, and the Sadducees, who rejected the new doctrine as an innovation, were entirely uncondemned. Indeed, it is probable that the chosen people had less clear and correct knowledge of a future world than any other tolerably cirilised nation of antiquity. Among the early popular traditions of the pagans, there were, it is true, some faint traces of a doctrine of hell, which and ؛,are said to have been elaborated by Pythagoras especially by Plato, who did more than a.ny other ancient philosopher to develope the notion of expia- -but these, at the period of the rise of Chris ؛tion 2 tianity, had little or no influence upon the minds of men j nor had they ever presented the same characteristics as the doctrine of tlie Church. Por among tlie pagans filture torture was supposed to bereseiwed exclusively for guilt, and for guilt of the most extreme and exceptional character. It was such culprits as Tantalus, or Sisyphus, or Ixion, that were selected as examples, and, excepting in the mysteries,^ the subject never seems to have been brought very pr^ minently forward. It was the distinctive doctrine of the Chl’istian theologians, that sufferings more excruciating than any the imagination could conceive because Christianity does con- see Mackay’s Religious Deve- tain a revelation of the future lopcment o f the Greeks and world. Both these writers con- Hebrews, vol. ii. pp. 286-297. Histoire des I d tend tliat the well-knoroi pas- 1 T>ems١ sage in Job does not refer to morales dans rA ntiquity \ d . the resurrection. The subject i. pp. 18, 19. .Ibid. pp. 10^196 ٥ has been dwelt on from another -On the place repesenta ٠ .point of view by Chubb, Vol taire, Strauss, and several tions of Tartarus had in the other writers. On the growth mysteries, see Magnin, Origines of the doctrine among the Jews, du Theatre, tom. i. pp. 81-84. DEVETiOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 315 were reserved for millions, and miglit be the lot of the most benevolent and heroic of maultiud. Tbat religions error was itself the worst of crimes, was before the Reformation the universal teaching of the Christian Church. Can we wonder tliat there were some wlio retiised to regard it as an Evangel ? If we pursue this painful subject into the middle ages, we find the conception ofpunisliment by literal fire elaborated with more detail. The doctrine, too, of a purgatory even for the saved had grown up. Without examining at length tlie origin of tliis last' tenet, it maybe sufficient to say that it was a natural continuation of the doctrine of penance j tliat t.he pagan poets had had a somewhat similar conception, which Virgil introduced into his famous description of the regions of the dead 5 that the Manichffians looked forward to a strange process of purification and that some of the Fa.thers appear ا after death j to have hel'd that at the day of judgment all men must pass through a fire, though apparently rather for trial than for purification, as the virtuous and orthodox were to pass unscathed, while bad people and people with erroneous theological opinions were to be burnt.y Besides this, the doctrine perhaps

The Manich٤eans are said of the ancients had a notion ا to have believed that the about fire being the portal of souls of the dead were puri- the unseen world. Herodotus c. 92) tells a curious .٣ .fied in the sun; that they (lib were then borne in the moon story about Reriander, a tyrant and that the of Corinth, who invoked the ل to the angels phases of the moon were caused shade of his wife; but slio re- by the increase or diminution fused to answer liis questions, ل of. the freight. (Beausobre, alleging that she was too cold Hist, critique du Manicheisme, for thougli dresses had been tom. i. pp. 243-244.) placed in her tomb, they wore 2 Dallseus, He ?m is et Satis- of no use to her. as they had factionibus, lib. iv. c. 9. Some not been burnt 316 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. softened a little tlie terrorism of eternal punishment, by diminishing the number of those who were to endure it 5 though, on tlie other liand, it represented extreme suffering as reserved for almost all men after death. It may be added, that its financial advantages are obvious and undeniable. There was in the tenth century one striking example of a theologian folloiving in the traces of Origen, and, as far as I know, alone in tlie middle ages, maintaining tlie figurative interpretation of tlie fire of hell. Tliis was Jolin Scotus Erigena, a very and as ؛,remarkable man, who, as his name imports ١vas an Irishman, and ,liis contemporaries inform ns wlio appears to have led, foi. tlie most part, that life of a wandering scholar for wliicli liis countrymen have always been famous. His keen wit, liis great and vai'ied genius, and his knowledge of Greek, soon gained him an immense reputation. Tliis last ac- quirement was tlien extremely rare, but it liad been kept up in tlie Irish monasteries some time after it liad disappeai.ed from tlie other seminaries of Europe. Scotus threw liimself witli such ardour into botli of tlie great systems of Greek philosophy, tliat some have regarded him principally as tlie last representative of Neoplatonism, and others as tlie founder of Scliolasticism.2 He displayed on all questions a singular disdain for authority, and a spirit of the boldest ١vith whose works ,free thouglit,, wliicli, like Origen .(ﻫآلا. Scoti was at. first the name Westminster 880 ا it was after١vards 2 He is regarded in the first ل of tlie Irish shared and finally monopolised light hy M. Guizot in his His- ؛؟ by the inhabitants of Scotland. t o y Oj Civilisation., i i . Y a i Erigena means, born in E r in - second by M. St.-Rene Taillan- the distinctive name of Ireland. dier, in his able and learnetl There is an amusing notice of treatise on Scotus. Erigena in Mattliew of ؟.Scotu DEELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 317 he was probably much imbued, he defended by a .lavish employment of allegories. Among the doc. .trines-he disbelieved, and therefore treated as alle. gorical, was that of the fire of helld Scotus, however, was not of his age. The material conceptions of medievalism harmonised admir. ably witli the material doctrine: and after the religious terrorism that followed the twelfth centu^, that doctrine attained its full elaboration. The agonies of hell seemed then the central fact of religion, and the perpetual subject of the thoughts of men. The whole intellect of Europe was employed In illustrating them. All literature, all painting, all eloquence, was co'ncentrated upon the same dreadful tlieme. By the pen of Bante and by the pencil of Orgagna, by the pictures that crowded every church, and the sermons that rang from eve^ pulpit, the maddening terror was sustained. The saint was often permitted in visions to behold the agonies of the lost, and to recount the spectacle he had witnessed. He loved to tell how by the lurid glare of the eternal flames he had seen millions writhing in every form of ghastly suffering, their eyeballs rolling with unspeakable angitish, their limbs gashed and mutilated and quivering with pain, tortured by pangs tha.t seemed ever ..keener by the recurrence, and shrieking in vain for mercy to an unpitying heaven. Hideous beings of dreadful aspect and of fantastic forms hovered around, mocking them amid their torments, casting them into cauldrons of boiling

.On the doctrines of Scotus, tom. iii. p. 95 ; Alexandri Hist ا and especially on that abput Eccles. tom. vi. pp. 361-363. hell, see Tailiandter, Scot. E ri- According to thiS last writer. AmpCre, Scotusadmittedliteral torments ل gene, pp. 176-180 Hist, litteraire de la France, for the devil, but not for man. S18 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. brimstone, or inventing new tortures more snbtle and more refined. Amid all tfiis a sulphur stream was ever seething, feeding and intensifying the waves of fire. There was no respite, no alleviation, no hope. The tortures were ever varied in their character, and they never palled for a moment upon the sense. Sometimes, it was said, the fiames while retaining their intensify withheld their light. A shroud of darkness covered tlie scene, but a ceaseless shriek of ؛.anguish attested the agonies that were below It is useless to follow the subject into detail. We may reproduce the gliastly imagery that is accumulated in the sermons and in the legends of the age. We may estimate the untiring assiduity with which the worst acts of human ف the Catholic priests sought tyranny, and in the dark recesses of their own ima. ginations, new forms of torture, to ascribe them to the Creator. We can never conceive the intense vividness with which these conceptions wei.e realised, or the madness and the misery they produced. For ؛ those were ages of implicit and unfaltering credulity they were ages when none of tlie distractions of the present day divided the intellect, and when theolo^ was tlie single focus upon which the imagination was concentrated. Tbey were ages, too, wben tbe modern tendency to soften or avoid repulsive images was altogether unknown, and wlien, in the general para^ lysis of the reason, every influence was exerted to stimulate the imagination. Wlierever the worshipper

-Tbe details of many of has noticed this passion for de ا tliese visions are given in their tailed pictures of hell (which and in seems to dat-e from St. Gregory أ full force in Swinden the Great) with his usual force Plancey, Dictionnaire infernal٠ art. Enfer. Dean Milman, in andjustic'e. \\\& llist. of Latin Christianity. DEVELOFEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 319

turned, lie was met by new forms of torture, elaborated witb sucb miuute detail, aud enforced with sucb a vigour aud distinctness, tliat tbey must have clung for ever to tlie mind, and cliilled every natural iin- pulse towards the Creatoi.. How, indeed, could it be othervdse ? Men were told that the Almighty, by tliefiat of liis uncontrolled power, had called into being countless millions whom He knew to be destined to eternal, excruciating, unspeakable agony j tliat He had placed millions in such a position that such agony was inevitable j that He liad prepared their place of torment, and liad kindled its undying flame j and that, prolonging their lives for ever, in order that they miglit be for ever wretched. He would make the contemplation of their suffericgs oue of the elements of the liappiness of the redeemed.! Ho other religious teachers liad ever proclaimed sucli tenets, and as long as they were realised intensely, tlie benevolent precepts and the mild and gentle ideal of the Hew Testament could not possibly be influential. The two things were liopelessly incongruous. The sense of tlie Divine goodness being destroyed, the wliole faliric of natural religion crumbled in the dust. From tliat time religion was necessarily diverted from the moral to tlie dogmatic, and became an artificial thing of relics and ceremonies, of credulity and persecution, of asceticism and terrorism. It centred entirely upon the priests, wlio supported it mainly by intimidation. I have already, when examining the plienomena of witchcraft, noticed the influence of this doctrine upon the imagination, which it has probably done more to

1 St. Thomas Aquinas says, datur eis ut pcenani impiorum ,Ut beatitudo sanctorum eis perfecte rideant.' {Summa ٠ magis complaceat et de ea Supply qnaest. xeiv. art. 1.) uberioi.es gratias Ueo agjinfc 320 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. disease than almost ail other moral and intellectual agencies combined. I shall hereafter toucli npon its effects, npon tlie intellectual history of Europe, upon the timidity and disingenuousness of enquiry—the distrust, and even hatred, of intellectual honesty it encouraged. There is, however, a still more painful effect to be noticed. That the constant contemplation of suffering, especially when that contemplation is devoid of passion, has a tendency to blunt the affec. tions, and thus destroy the emotional pa.rt ofhumanity, is one of the most familiar facts of common observation. The law holds good even in men, like surgical the benefit operators, who contemplate pain solely foi١ of others. The first repulsion is soon exchanged for indifference, tlie indifference speedily becomes interest, and tlie interest is Occasionally lieiglitened to positive enjoyment. Hence tlie anecdotes related of surgeons who liave derived the most exquisite pleasure from the operations of their profession, and of persons who, being unable to suppress a morbid delight in the con. templation of suffei’ing, have determined to utilise tlieir defect, and have become the most unflinching operators in the hospitals. How it is sufficiently manifest that upon this emotional part of humanity depends by far the greater number of kind acts that are done in the world, and especially the prevailing ideal and sta.ndard of humanity. There are, no doubt, persons who are exceedingly benevolent through a sense of duty, while their temperament remains entirely callous. There are even cases in which the callousness of temperament increases in proportion to tlie active benevolence, for it is acquired in con- templating suffering for the purpose of relieving it, active habits are ﺀ ,and, as Bishop Butler reminds US DEVELOPMENTS OF RATIONALISM. ,321 strengthened, white passive impressions are weakened by repetition.’' But the overwhelming majority are ,in these matters governed by their emotions. Their standard and their acts depend upon the liveliness of their feelings. If this be so, it is easy to conceive what must have been the result of the contemplations of medievalism. T.here is a fresco in the great monastery of Pavia which might be regarded as the ,emblem of the age. It represents a monk'with clasped hands, and an expression of agonising terror upon his countenance, straining over tbe valley of vision where the sufibrings of the lost were displayed, while the inscription above reveals liis one harrowing thought ’ ? Quis sustinebit ne descendam 'moriens ٤ In such a state of thought, we should natural.ly expect that the direct and powerful tendency of tliis doctrine would be to produce a general indifference to human sufferings, or even a bias towards acts of barbarity. Yet tliis only gives an inadequate conception of its effects. For not only were men constantly expatiating on tliese ghastly pictures, tlrey were also constantly associating them with gratitude and with joy. They believed tliat tlie trutlr of Christianity implied the eternal torture of a vast proportion of their fellow-creatures, and they believed that it would be a gross impiety to wish t.hat Chris- tianity was untrue. They liad collected with sucli assiduity, and had interpreted with such a revolting literalism, every rhetorical passage in the Bible that could be associated with their doctrine, that they liad firmly persuaded themselves that a material and eternal fire formed a centra-l truth of their faith, 'and the ٤ ,that, in the words of an Anglican clergyman hell described in the Gospel is not with the same VOL. T. Y 322 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. particularity to be met witb iu any other religion that is.or hath been in the whole world.’ 1 Habitually treating the language of pa.rable as if it was the language of history, they came to regard it as very truly their ideal of happiness, to rest forever on Abraham’s bosom, and to contemplate for ever the torments of their brother in liell. They felt with St. Augustine tlie end of religion is to become like the object ﺀ that of worship,’ and they represented the Deity as confining his affection to a small section of his creatures, and inflicting on all others the most horrible and eternal suffering. How it is undoubtedly true, tliatwhen doctrines of this kind are intensely realised, they will prove most efficacious in dispelling the apathy on religious subjects which is the common condition of mankind. They ^11 produce great earnestness, great selfsacri- fice, great singleness of purpose. Loyola, who had studied with profound sagacity the springs of enthusiasm, assigned in his 'spiritual exercises an entire day to be spent in meditating upon eternal damnation, and in most great religious revivals the doctrine has occupied a prominent place. It is also undoubtedly true, that in a few splendid instances the effect of this realisation has been to raise up missionary teachers of such l)eroic and disinterested zeal, tha.t their lives are among the gra.ndest pages in the whole range of bio- ^aphy. But although this may be its effect upon some singularly noble natures, there can be little question that in tlie vast majority of cases its tendency will be to indurate the character, to diffuse abroad a callousness and insensibility to the suffering of others

1 Swinden, p. 129. DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 323 that will profoundly debase humanity. If yon make the detailed and exquisite tortures of multitudes the habitual object of the thoughts and imaginations of men, you will necessarily produce in most of them a gradual indifference to human suffering, and in some of them a disposition to regard it with positive delight. If you further assure men that these sufferings form an integral part of a revelation which they are bound to regard as a message of good tidings, you will induce them to stifle every feeling of pity, and almost to encourage their insensibility as a rirtue. If you end your teaching by telling them that tlie Being who is the ideal of their lives, confines his a.ffection to the members of a single Church, that He will torture foi. ever all who are not found within its pale, and that his chddren will for ever contemplate those tortures in a state of unalloyed felicity, you will prepare the way for every form of persecution that can be directed against those who are without. He who most fillly realised these doctrines, would be the most unhappy or the most unfeeling of mankind. Ho possible prospect of individual bliss could reconcde a truly humane man wlio followed the impulse of his humanity, to the tliought tbat those who were external to his faith were destined to eternal fire. Ho truly humane man could avoid wishing, that rather than this should be the case, he and all others should sleep th.e sleep of annihilation. When the doctrhie was intensely realised and implicitly believed, it must, therefore, have had one or other of two effects. It must have produced an intensity of compassion that would involve extreme unhappiness and would stimulate to extreme heoism, or it must have produced an absolute callousness and a positive inclination to inflict y 2 •824 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. suffering upon the heretic. It does not require much -knowledge of human nature to perceive that the spirit of Torquemada must be more common than that of Xavier. Tliat this was actually tlie case must be evident t-o anyone who is not wilfillly blind to the histoi^ of Christendom. I have mentioned that writer who in tlie second century dilated most emphatically on the doctrine of eternal punishment by fire as a means of intimidation. In another of his'works'he showed very clearly the influence it exercised upon liis own character. He had written a treatise dissuading the .Christians of his day from frequenting the public spectacles. He had collected on the subject many arguments, some of tiiem very powerful, and others extremely grotesque ; but he perceived that to make liis exhortations forcible to tlie majority of liis readers, he must point them to some counter-attraction. He accordingly proceeded—and his style assumed a ricliei. glow and a more impetuous eloquence as lie rose to tiie congeniat tlieme—to tell them that a spectacle was reserved for them, so fascinating and so attractive tliat tlie most joyous festivals of earth faded into insignificance by the comparison. That spectacle was the agonies of their fellow-countrymen, as they .What,’ he ex؛ .writhe amid the torments of hell ? sliall be the magnitude of that scene؛ ,claimed How shall I wonder ? How shall I laugh ? How shall I rejoice ? How shall I ti.iumph when I behold so many a.i'id sucli illustrious kings, who were said to liave mounted into heaven, groaning with Jupit.er Then shall إ their god in tlie lowest darkness of liell the soldiers who had persecuted the name of Christ burn in more cruel fire than any they had kindled for جDEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 32 the saints. . . . Then shall the tragedians pour forth in their own misfortune more, piteous cries til an those with which they had made the tlieatre to resound, while tlie comedian's powers shall be better seen as lie become's more flexible by tlie heat. Tlien shall tlie driver of the circus stand forth to view all lilusli- ing in his flaming chariot, and the gladia.tors pierced, not by spears, but by darts of fire. . . . Compared with such specta.cles, with such subjects of triumph as these, what can prffitor or consul, quffistor or pontiff, afford ? and even now faitli can bring them near, ٤ ’.imagination, can depict them as present . I have quoted this very painful passage not so

Quae tunc spectaculi lati- tunc xystici coi^emplandi non ‘ ا tudo ? Quid admirer ? Quid in gymnasiis sed in ignejacu- rideam? ubigaudeam? ubi ex- la ti; nisi quod ne tunc quidem ultem, spectans tot et tantos illos velim visos, ut qui malim reges, qui in ccelum recept.i ad eos potius conspectum in- nuntiabantur cum ipso Jove et satiabilem cOnferre qui in do- ipsis suis testibus in imis tene- niinum desffivierunt. Hie est bris congemescentesJ Item ille dicam fabri aut qusestuarise presides persecutores dominici filius, sabbati destructor, Sama- nominis Sffivioribus quam ipsi rites et d^monium habens. flammis SKvieruntinsultantibus Hie est quern a Juda redemistis, contra Cbristianos liquescentes! bic est ille arundineet colapbis quos praterea sapientes illos diverberatus, sputamentis de- philosopbos coram discipulis decoratus, telle et aceto po- suis una conflagrationibus eru- tatus. H ie est quem clam bescentes.quibusnihil ad Heum discentes subripuerunt ut re- pertinere suadebant, quibus surrexisse dicatur, vel liortu- animas aut nullas aut non in lanus detraxit ne lactuc^ su* pristina corpora redituras at- trequentia commeantium hede- firmabant! Etiam poelas non rentur. Ut talia spectes, ut, adRbadamanthi nec ad Minois talibus exultes, quis tibi prsetor, sed ad inopinati Christi tribunal aut consul, aut quffistor, aut palpitantes. Tunc magis tra- sacerdos de SU& liboralitate gmdi audiendi magis scilicet pr^stabit? Ht tamen h«c jam vocales in,, sua .propria calami- quodammodo liabemus per tate. Tunc histHones cogno- fidem, spiritu imaginantft re- جﺀ .scendi solutiore's multo per prjesentata.' (Tertullian ignem.. Tuncspetandus auriga Spectac. cap. XXX.) ؛ in flammea rota totus rubens 326 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. much as an instance of the excesses of a morbid disposition embittered by persecution, as because it furnishes a striking illustration of the influence of a certain class of realisations on the affections. For in tracing what may be called the psychological history of Europe, we are constantly met by a great contradiction, which can only be explained by such considerations. By the confession of all parties, the Christian religion was designed to be a religion of philanthropy, and love was represented as the distinctive test, or characteristic of its true members. As a matter of fact, it lias probably done more to quicken tlie affections of mankind, to promote pity, to create a puro and merciful ideal, than any other influence that has ever acted on the world. But while the marvellous influence of Christianity in this respect lias been acknowledged by all who have mastered the teachings of histoi^, while the religious minds of every land and of every opinion liave recognised in its Founder the highest conceivable ideal and embodiment of compassion as of purity, it is a no less incontestable truth that for many centuries the Christian pi.iesthood pursued a policy, at least towards those who differed from their opinions, implying a callousness and absence of the emotional part of humanity which lias seldom been paralleled, and perhaps never surpassed. From Julian, who observed that no wild beasts were so ferocious asang^ theologians, to Montesquieu, who discussed as a psychological phenomenon the inhumanity of monks, the fact lias been constantly recognised. The monks, the Inquisitors, and in general the medijeval clergy, present a type that is singularly well defined, and is in many !.espects exceedingly noble, but which is DEVELOPMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 327 continually markedly a total absence of mere natural alfection. In zeal, in courage, in perseverance, in self-sacrifice, they towered far above tlie average of mankind j but they were always as ready to inflict as to endure suffering. Tliese were tlie men wlio chanted their Te Deums over the massacre of the Albigenses or of St. Bartholomew, who fanned and stimulated the Crusades and the religious wars, who exulted over the carnage, and strained every nerve to prolong the struggle, and, wlien the zeal of the warrior had begun to flag, mourned over the languor of faith, and contemplated the sufferings they liad th a satisfaction that was as pitiless as it^١ caused was unselfish. These were tlie men who were at once the instigators and the agents of that horrible detailed persecution that stained almost every pro-

,of Europe with the blood of Jews and heretics ج 0 ة and which exhibits an amount of cold, passionless, studied and deliberate -barbarity unrivalled in the ؛.history of mankind How, when a tendency of this kind is habitually exhibited among men who are unquestionably actuated by the strongest sense of duty, it may be a-ssumed that it is connected with some principle

We sliall have ample evi. environ seize ans que je vis ا dence of this in the next cliap- brusler un Jacobin qni fermoit ter. At present it is sufficient la boucbe anxTapistes: on le to say that the use of the slow dCgrada et on le brusla a petit fire in burning heretics was in feu, le liant avec des cordes many districts habitual. In mouillCes par les aisselles pr^s that curious book, the Scalige- la potence, et la on mettoit le rana (a record of the conversa- feu dessous telleraent qu’il tion of Joseph Scaliger, by an estoit demy consume avant qu'il intimate friend who lival in hit mort.' (Art. Beretici. See, his house), we have a horrible too, art. Sorciers, and Cousin’s description of one of these exe- account of tbe execution of (.J’avois Vanini ٠ : cut-ions in Guienne 328 RATIONALISM IN EUROPK. they have adopted, or with the moral atmosphere they hreathe. It mast have an intellectaal or logical antecedent, and it mast have what may be termed an emotional antecedent. By the first I anderstand certain principles or trains of reasoning which hidace men to believe tlia.t it is their daty to persecate. By the second, 1' anderstand a tendency or disposition of feeling that harmonises with persecntion, removes the nataral relactance on the sabject, and predisposes men to accept any reasoning of whicli persecation is the conclasion. The logical antecedent's of perse- cat'ion I shall examine in tlie next chapter. The most important emotional a.ntecedent is, I believe, to be foand in the teaching concerning tlie fntnre world. It was the nataral resalt of tliat teaching, that men whose lives present, ill many respect-s examples of the noblest virtae, were nevertheless conspicaoas for a.ges a.s prodigies of barbarity, and proved absolately indifferent to the safferings ofiall who dissented from ١vas it only to١vards the heretic their doctrines. l r it was reflected و tliat tliis inhnmanity was displayed

.less in tlie whole pena.1 system of the time ١ more 0 1 We liave a striking example of this in tlie history of tortnre. In ancient Greece, tortare was never employed except in cases of treason. In the best days of ancient Rome, notwithstanding the notorioas in- linmanity of tlie people, it was exclnsively confined to tlie slaves. In medieval Christendom it was made ase of to an extent tliat was probably anexampled in any earlier period, and in ca.ses t.liat fell anderthe cognisanco of the clergy it was applied to every class And wliat strikes as most in ؛.of the commanity

In cases of heresy and trea. .lie of tlie old antliorities on ا son, hut the first were of course the subject says : ‘ In crimine by far tlie most common. As lueresis omnes illi torquendi DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 329 considering the medieval tortures, is not so much their diabolical barbarity, which it is indeed impossible to exaggerate, as the extraordinai^ variety, and .١vhat maybe termed the artistic skill, they displayed They represent a condition of thought in which men liad pondered long and carefully on all the forms of suffering, liad compared and combined the different kinds of torture, till they had become the most con. summate masters of their art, had expended on the subject all the 'resources of the utmost ingenuity, and had pursued it with the ardour of a passion. The system was mat-ured under tlie medieval habit of thought, it was adopted by tlie Inquisitors, and it received its finishing touclies from their ingenuity.! sunt qui in crimine lsesse ma- are very numerous, and possess Jestatis humanm torqueri pos- a great but painful interest. ’quia longe gr'avius est Perhaps the fullest is Marsilius ل sunt dirinum quam temporalem (a lawyer of Bologna) T ra c ta tiis ladere majestatem, ac proinde dc Qucsstionibus and nobiles, milites, decuriones, 1537—both editions in black doctores, et omnes qui quant،- letter). Marsilius boasted tliat libet prmrogativ، prmfulgent he was tlie inrentor of the in crimine hmresis et in crimine torture that consisted of de- lsesse majestatis human® tor- priving the prisoner of all sleep queri.possunt . . . quo fit * a torture which was especially quod minores viginti quinque used in tlie States ofthe Church: In Statu Ecclesiastic, hi duo ﺀ annis propter suspicionem hieresis et lsesse majestatis tor- modi magis in usu sunt., ut et' queri possunt, minores etiam torment.um taxillorum, et vigilia quatuordecim annis terreri et. persomni subtractionem, quern -haben، velferul، cmdi.' (Suarez modum invenisse asserit Mar -Prcurls Ecctesiastteaet (Ckrtarla, P u is III ﺟﺔ٠ح٠ةه١ ﻫﺂ١ةال 0 ة \ Sacalaris [1619], p. 158.) terrogandorum Reorum The extraordinary ingenu- 1618], p. 198.) Besitles tliese ٤ ity of t.lie mediaeval tortures, works, tliere are full accounts and the extent to which they of the nature of the tortures .vYvnrs، ' De Catklicis In ٠\\١ ,were elaborated by tlie clergy is well shown in an article on stitutiombus, Di. آل ئ ,ill^ille, in LcucroiX) rcctorium Inquisitorum ؟ torture by leMogen Age et la Renaissance many other works to whicli (Paris, 1818), tom. iii. Tlie they refer. original works on tlie subject 330 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

In every prison tbe crucifix and the rack stood side by side, and in almost every country tlie abolition of torture was at last effected by a movement wbicbtbe Cliurcb opposed, and by men wliom sbe bad cursed. In England, it is true, torture liad always been illegal, tbougb it bad often been employed, especially -but almost every otber coun ا in ecclesiastical cases j t ^ illustrates tlie position I bave stated. In France, probably tbe fil.st illustrious opponent of torture was ^lontaigne, tbe first of tbe French sceptics j tbe cause was soon afterwards taken up by Charron. and by Eayle ; itwastben adopted by Voltaire, Montesquieu, and it fiually triumphed ؛ and tbe Encyclopedists when tbe Church liad been shattered by tbe Revo. lution.2 Iu Spain, torture began to fall into disuse under Charles III., on one of tbe few occasions when tbe Government was in direct opposition to tbe Church.® In Italy tbe great opponent of torture was * On the extent to whicli it was one of the measures of was employed by the Catholics, reform conceded to the revo- under Mary, in the triills of' lutionaiy party. All torture, Protestants, see Strutt’s Man- liowever, was not abolished till ners of the English People, the Revolution was actually vol. iii. p. 46 5 and on the ex- triumpliant, and the abolition tent to which it was employed was one of &e first acts of by Protestants in the trials of the democrats. (See Loise- Catholic priests, see Hallam, leur, Sur les Peines.) Besides Const. Hist. (ed. 1827), vol. i. the essays of Montaigne, tor- -and the evide.nce col- ture was denounced in the Sa ;ة p. 1 9 -gesse of Charron, in the Con ٠ lect-ed in Milner’s Letters to Prebendary. Bishops Orindal trains-lcs cCEntrer of Bayle, and and Coxe suggested the appli- in many parts of the writings cation of torture to the Catliolic of Voltaire (see, e.g., art. priests. Proude, Hist.) vol. vii. Torture, in Phil. Diet.) and liis pp. 418, 419. See, too. Bar- contemporaries. .Buckle’s Hist.) vol. ii. p و ,rington On the Statutes, pp. 89 and 449, 441. 140, note. LuisVives, a ratlier 2 The suppression of one de. famous Spanish philosopiier, partment of torture was effected in his Annotations to St. Au- in France as early as 1789, and gustine, had protested against 331DEVELOEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 331DEVELOEMENTS

Beccaria, the friend of HelvCtius and of Holbacb, and the avowed exponent of the principles of Rons- Translated by Morellet, commented on by ؛.sean Voltaire and Diderot, and supported by the vhole weight of the Drench philosophers, the work of Bee- -caria fle١v triumphantly over Europe, and vastly ac celerated the movement that produced it. Under the influence of that movement, the Empress of Bussia abolished torture in her dominions, and accompanied the. abolition by an edict of toleration. Under the same influence, Frederick of Prussia, whose adherence to the philosophical principles was notorious, took the same step, and his example was speedily followed by Duke Leopold of Tuscany. Nor is tliere, upon reflection, anything surprising in this. The movement that destroyed torture was much less an intellectual than an emotional movement-. It represented much less a discovery of tlie reason than an increased intensity of sympathy. If we asked what positive arguments can be adduced on the subject, it would be difficult to cite any that was not perfectly familiar torture as oarly as the first half very vivid description of dif- of the sixteenth century. His ferent modes of torture the In- opinions on tliis subjeCt were quisitors employed in their vehemently denounced by a dealings witli heretics (pp. 297- .bishop named Simancas, 111 a 399). See also, on this horrible -IYqiguU, Hist, of ill ة٦د٠اث١ very remarkable book called Be Catholicis Institutiombus quisition. Simancas notices ad prcecarendas et eoctiTpan- that, in other countries, cri- ١١٠erein his day tortured das Hcsreses (1569), to whicli I minals shall have occasion hereafter to in public, but in Spain in secret refer. Simancas observes that (p. 395). -On. the influence of Bee ا -Inquisitores Apostolici ssepis ‘ 6ime reos torquere solent ; ’ he caria, see Loiseleur, pp. 335- defends the practice with great 338. Morellet's translation energy, on the authority of passed tlirough seven editions .es a in six months ؛and he gi ؛theologians 332 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE..

*.all classes at every period' of the middle ages .٤٠ That brave criminals sometimes escaped,, and that timid persons sometimes falsely declared themselves, guilty j that the guiltless frequently underwent a horrible punishment, and that the moral influence of -these argu—أ legal decisions was seriously weahened 2 ments, and such as tliese, were as much ti’uisms in the eleventh and twelfth centuries as they are at present. I r was it by such means that the change was. effected. Tortui.e was abolished because in the progress of civilisation tlie sympathies of men became more expansive, their perceptions of the sufferings of ,others more acute, their judgments moi١e indulgent their actions more gentle. To subject even a guilty man to the horrors of the rack,, seemed atrocious and' barbarous, and therefore the rack was destroyed. ١vhich abolished It was part of the great movement barbarous amusements, mitigated the asperities and. refined the manners of all classes. Now it is quite certain that those who seriously regarded eternal suffering as the just punishment of tlie fretfulness of a. .٦vith the cliild, could not possibly look upon torture same degree and kind of repulsiou as their less orthodox neiglibours. It is also celtain, tliat a period in wliicli religion, by dwelling incessantly on the legends of tlie martyrs, or on the agonies of tlie lost, made

There is, perhaps, one ex. clearly the evil of torture, and ا ception to this. Beccaria stated tlie case against it with grounded much ofhis reasoning his usual force and terseness : on the doctrine of tlie social ‘ Cum qu^ritui.utrum sit nocens compact. I cannot, however, cruciatur et innocens luit pro tliink that this argument liad incerto sc.elere certissimas much influence in prodn.cing pmnas.’ {Dc Civ. Dei, lib. xix. but he concluded that ل(the cliange. cap. 6 .١vas necessaiy It is worthy of notice tliat it 2 St. Au^istine perceived very DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. S33 the combination of new and horrible forms of snffer- ing the habitual employment of the imagination, was of all others tliat in which the system of toi.tnre was likely to be most atrocious. It may be added, that -the very frame of mind tliat made men assail the practice of torture, made them also assail the mediffival doctrine of frture punishment. The two things grew out of the same condition of society. They flourished togetlier, and tliey declined together. The truth is, that in eve١ry age the penal code will in a great degree vary with the popular estimate of guilt. Philosophers have writt.en mucli on the purely preventive character of legal punishments j but it requires but little knowledge of history, or even of human nature, to show that a. code constructed altogether on such a principle is impossible. It is indeed true, that all acts morality condemns do not fall within tlie province of tlie legislator, and that this fact is more fully appreciated as civilisation advances.* It is ti.ue, too, t.hat, in an early stage, the severity of .punishments results in a great measure from the prevailing, indifference to tlie infliction of suffering. It is even true that the especial prominence or dangei. of some crime will cause men to visit it foi. a time with penalties that seem to bear no proportion to its moral enormity. Yet it is, I think, impossible to examine penal systems without perceiving that they can only be efficient during a long period of time, ١vith the popular when they accord substantially

٠f all penal is well known-. As a modern The tendency ا systems constructed under the instance of this, Sweden is influence of the clergy to make perhaps tlie most remarkable, the legal code coextensive with See the striking book of i . the moral code, and to make Laing, upon its present con- punishments as much as pos- dition. Sible o f the nature of expiation. 334 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

estimate of the enormity of ^lilt. Every system, h y admitting extennating circnmstances and graduated punishments, implies this, and every judgment that is passed by the public is virtually an appeal to an ideal standard. W ien a punishment is pronounced excessive, it is meant that it is greater than was deserved. When it is pronounced inadequate, it is meant that it is less than was dese^ed. Even re- garding the law simply as a preventive measure, it is necessary that it should thus reflect the prevailing estimate of guilt., for otlierwise it would come into collision with tliat public opinion which is essential to its operation. Tlius, towards the close of the last century, lioth murder and horse-stealing were punislied by death. In the first case, juries readily brought in verdicts, the public sanctioned tliose ver- diets, and the law was efficacious. In tlie second and ؟case tlie criminals were almost usually acquitted when they were executed, public opinion was shocked and scandalised. Tlie reason of this was, that men looked upon deatli as a punishment not incommen. surate with tlie guilt of murder, but exceedingly dis- proportionate to that of theft. In the advance of civilisation, tliere is a constant tendency to mitigate tlie severity of penal codes, for men learn to realise and ؟ more intensely the suffering tliey are inflicting tbey at tlie same time liecome more sensible of tlie palliations of guilt. When, howevei., sucli a doctrine concerning tlie just reward of crime as I have noticed is believed and realised, it must inevitably have the effect of retarding the progress. Sucli, then, were the natural effects of the popular teaching on tlie subject of future punishment wilieh was universal during the middle ages, and during the DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 3 3 5 sixteenth and the greater part of the seventeenth century. How completely that teaching has passed away must be evident to anyone who will take the pains of comparing old theological literature with modem teaching. Tlie hideous pictures of material fire and of endless torture which were once so carefillly elaborated and so constantly enforced, have been replaced by a few vague sentences on the subject perdition,’ or by the general assertion of a future؛ of adjustment of tire inequalities of life j and a doctrine which grows out of tire moral faculty, and is air element in every truly moi.al religion, Iras been thus silently substituted for a doctrine which was the greatest of all moral difficulties. The eternity ot punishment is, indeed, st'ill strenuously defended by many j but the nature of tliat punishment, which had been one of the most prominent points in every previous discussion on the sulrject, has now completely disappeared from controversy. The ablest theologia.ns once regarded their doctrine as one that miglrt .be defended, but could not possibly be so stated as not at first sight to shock the feelings. Leibnitz argued that offences a.gainst an Infinite Being acquired an infinite guilt, and therefore deserved an infinite punishment. Butler argued that the analogy of na-ture gave much reason to suspect that the punishment of crimes may be out of all proportion with our conceptions of tlieir guilt. Both, by their very de- fences, implied that the doctrine was a grievous difficulty. As, however, it is commonly stated at present, the doctrine is so far from being a difficulty, that, any system that was without it would be manifestly imperfect, and it has acco.rdingly long since taken its place as one of the moral evidences of Christianity. 336 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE

This gradual aud silent transformation of the !:)opular conceptions is doubtless chiefly due to tho habit of educing moral and intellectual truths from our own sense of right, rather than from traditional teaching, which has accompanied the decline of dogmatic theology, and wliich first became conspicuous in the seventeenth century. Descartes, who was the chief reviver of moral philosophy, may be regarded as its leading originator j for the method which he applied to metaphysical enquiries was soon applied (consciously or unconsciously) to moral subjects. ,١vrong Men, when seeking for just ideas of right and -began to interrogate their moral sense much more than the books of theologians, and tliey soon proceeded to make that sense or faculty a supi.eme arbiter, and to mould all theology into conformity witli its dictates. At the same time the great ill- crease of secular influences, and tlie rapid succession ot' innovations, made theologians yield with comparative facility to tlie pressui'e of their age. But besides this general rationalistic movement, there was another tendency which exercised, I tliink, a real tliough minoi' influence on tlie movement, and which is also associat.ed witli the name of Descartes. I mean the developement of a purely spiritual con- ,ception of the soul. The different effects which a spiritual or a material pliilosophy lias exercised on all departments of speculation, form one of the most intei.esting pages in history. The ancients—at least the most spiritual schools—seem to have generally regarded tlie essence of tlie soul as an extremely subtle fluid, or substance quite distinct from the and, accoi.ding to their view, and according ل body to the views that were long afterwards prevalent. DEVEL.PEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 337 this excessive subtlety of essence constituted im- materiality. For the soul was supposed to he of a nature totally different from surrounding objects, simple, incapable of disintegration, and emancipated from the conditions of matter. Some of the Flato- nists vei.ged very closely upon, and perhaps attained, the modern idea of a soul, whose essence is purely intellectual, but the general opinion was, I think, that which I have described. The distinct and, as it was called, immaterial nature of the soul was insisted on by the .ancients with great emphasis as the chief proof of its immortality. If mind be but a function a material product of ﺀ of matter, if thought be but the brain,’ it seems natural that the dissolu.tion of the body should be the annihilation of the individual. There is, indeed, an instinct in man pointing to a future sphere, where the injustices of life shall be rectified, and where the chain of love that death has severed shall be linked anew, wliich is so closely connected with our moral nature that it would perhaps survive the rudest shocks of a material philosophy; but to minds in which the logical element is most prominent, the psychological argument will always appear the most satisfactory. That there exists in man an indivisible being connected with, but essentially distinct from, the body, was- the position which Socrates dwelt upon as one of the-chief foundations of his hopes in the last hours of his life, and Cicero in the shadow of age; and the whole moral system of t.he school of Plato was based upon the distinction. Man, in their noble imageiy, is the horizon line where the world of spirit and the world of matter touch. It is in his power to rise by the wings of the soul to communion with the gods, or to sink by the gravitation VOL. I. z 338 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

of the body to.the level of the brute. It is the. destiny

of the soul to pass from state to state 5 all its knowledge Is 'but remembrance, and its future condition must be determined by its present tendency. The soul of tliat man who aspires only to ^rtue, and who despises the luxury and the passions of earth, will be emancipated at last from the tliraldom of matter, and invisible and unshackled will drink in perfect bliss in the full fruition of wisdom. Tlie soul of that man who.seeks liis cilief gratification in the body, will after death be imprisoned in a new body, will be

visible to the liuman ,٠ punished by physical suffering, 0 1 eye, will appear upon- earth in the form of a gliost ؛.to scare the survivors amid their pleasures Sucli were the opinions that, were held by the school o'f Plato, tlie most spiritual of all the philo- gophers of antiquity. When Christianity appeared in the worl.d, its first tendency was very favourable to tliese conceptions, for it is tlie effect of every great moral ei'ithusiasm to raise men above the appetites of ,ideal د the body, to present to tlie mind and to accentuate strongly tlie 'antagonism by wliicli human nature is convulsed. We accordingly find that in it.s earlier and better days tlie Churcli assimi- lated especially ivith the philosopliy of Plato, while in tlie middle ages Aristotle was supreme j and we also find that tlie revival of Platonism accompanied t.he spiritualising movement that preceded the Refor- mation. Yet there were two doctrines that produced an opposite tendency. The pa.gans asserted the im- materiality of tlie soul, because tliey believed that

and consequently a strong , ؛This theory ig developed dea ا in the Phadon. The Greeks predisposition tO see ghosts, had an. extreme fear of the DEVELOPEMENTS OF NATIONALISM. 339 the body must perish for ever j and some of the Christians, in denying this latter position, were inclined to reject the distinction that was based upon it. But above all, the firm belief in punishment by fire, and the great prominence the docti.ine soon obtained, became the foundation of the material view. The Bathers were early divided upon the subject.. One section, comprising the ablest and tlie best, maintained that there existed in man an immaterial soul, but that tliat soul was invariably associated with a thin, flexible, but sensitive body, visible to the eye. Origen added that the Beity alone could exist as a ,2 The other scliool.pure spirit unallied with mattei٠ of which Tertullian may be l.egarded as the chief, utterly denied the existence in man of any incorporeal

,Not one of them (the early subtle body. But tbe others * ا Fathers) entertained the same who keep fur aloof from Plato, opinion as the majority of aud consider his philosophy to Christians do at the present be prejudicial to Christian prin- day, that the soul is perfectly ciples, repudiate this doct.rine simple, and entirely destitute of his as well, and maintain of all body, figure, form, and that the soul altogether is no- extension. On the contrary, thing more than a most subtle they all acknowledge it to con- bod y. . . . T h ey v ery fre- tain something corporeal, al- quently assail tlie Platonists though of a different kind and with bitter invectives, for in- nature from the bodies of this culcating that the soul is of a moi’tal sphere. But yet they nature most simple, and devoid are divided into two opinions. of all concretion.’ — Note by For some contend that there Mosheim to Cudworth's InteU. .iii ا٠ 0'١ ,(. are two things in the sou l- System (H a r r iso n ’s ed spirit, and a veiy thin and p. 325. M r.Hallam says:‘The subtle body in which this spirit Fathers, with tlie exception, is clothed. . . . T h o se w ho perhaps the single one, of Au- follow, Plato and the Pla- gustine, had tanght the corpo- '.٠e. Clement, Origen, reity of the tliinking substance.tonists (i ١.and their disciples), adopt the (Hisl. of I٠it .Cudworth, vol. iii. p. 318 .٠٤ Platonic doctrine respecting the soul also, and pronounce The same Father based his doc- it to be most simple in itself, trine of the soul in agreat mea- ١. but yet always invested with a sureon apparitions.(Ibid.p.330 340 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. element, maintained that the son! was simply a second body, and based tliis doctrine chiefly on tlie conception of future punishment.* Apparitions were at that time regarded as frequent. Tertullian mentions a woman who had seen a soul, which she described a transparent and lucid figure in the perfect ٤ as form of a man.’ 2 St. Antony saw the soul of Ammon carried up to heaven. The soul of a Libyan hermit named Marc was borne to heaven in a napkin. Angels -٦vere not unfrequently seen, and were univer also sally believed to have cohabited with the daughters of tlie antediluvians. Under the influence of medieval habit.s of thought every spiritual conception was mat.erialised, and what at an earlier and a later period was deemed the langua.ge of metaphoi., was generally regarded as the language of fact. The realisations of the people were all derived from painting, sculpture, or ceremonies that appealed to the senses, and all subjects were therefore reduced to palpable images.3 The angel in the Last Judgment was constantly re. presented weighing the souls in a litei.al balance, while devils clinging to the scales endeavoured to disturb the equilibrium. Sometimes the soul was poi.trayed as a sexless child, rising out of the mouth of tlie corpse.4 But above all, the doctrine of purga-

in written after Tertullian had ؛Corporalitas anima ‘ ا ipso evangelio relucebit. Dolet become a Montanist, but there apud inferos anima cujusdam, is no reason to believe that et punitur in flamm& et cru. tliis had anything to say to his ciatur in lingu& et de digito psychology, ,See on this subject Maury ٠ -anima felicioris implo.rat sola tium roris.’ — Tertullian, De Legendes pieuseS) pp. 125-127. Maury, Legendes pieuses٠ ٠ .Anima, cap. vii Ibid. cap. ix. I should p. 124. There is an example of ٥ mention that this book was this in the Triumph of Death, DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 341

fcor.v arrested and enchained tlie imagination. Every church was crowded with pictures representing the souls of those who had just died as literal hodies writhing with horrible contortions in a litera.l fire. The two doctrines were strictly congruous, and each .phy ٤ supported the other. Men who believed in a sical soul,’ readily believed in a physical punishment. Men who materialised their view of the punishment, materialised their view of the sufferers. We find, however, some time before the Refor- mation, evident signs of a desire on the part of a few writers to rise to a purer conception of tlie soul. The pantheistic writings that flowed from the sclrool of Averroes, reviving the old Stoical notion of a soui of nature, directed attention to the great problem of the connection between the worlds of matter and of mind. The conception of an all-pervading spirit, which i sleeps in the stone, dreams in the animal, and the belief that the hidden vital ؛ ’ wakes in the man j principle which produces the varied forms of organisation, is but the thrill of the Divine essence that s present in them a ll-th is belief, which had occupied.؛ so noble a place among the speculations of antiquity, and was, perhaps, strengthened by the ؛ r^ppeared rapid progress of mysticism, which may be regarded as the Christian form of pantheism. Coalescing at first with some lingering traditions of Gnosticism, mysticism appeared in the thirteenth century in the sect of the BCgards, and especially in the teaching of David de Dianant, Ortlieb, and Amaury de Bene; and in the following century, under the g’uidance of by Orgagna, at Pisa. In the in the mighty hand of God. Greek churches the souls of the (Pidron, laograykk) p. 216.1 .Schelling ا -blest were sometimes repre sented as little children clasped 342 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

Eckart, Tauler, Suso, and Ruysbroek, it acquired in Germany an extraordinary popularity, to which the strong religious feeling elicited hy tlie hlack death, and the reaction that had begun against the exces- The ؛.sire aridity of scholasticism, both contributed writings ascribed to Dionysius tlie Areopagite, which liare always been the Bible of mysticism, and which had been in part translated by Scotus Erigena, and ٦vorks of Scotus himself, rose to also some of the sudden favour, and a new tone was given to almost all classes of theological reasoners. As the philo. sophical aspect of this tone of thought, an order of invest.igation was produced, which was shown in curious enquiries about how life is first generated in matter. Tlie theory of spontaneous generation, which Lucretius had made the basis of a great portion of his system, and on which the philosopliers of the eigliteenth century laid so great stress, was strongly asserted,'-) and all the mystei'ies of generation treated with a confidence that elicits a smi!e,3 not unmixed

؛ See Schmidt, Etudes sur bent procreationem, ut mures ا le Musticisi allcmand du nam eorum alii ex s.rdibus XIV* H e, in the Memoircs sine concubitu, alii ex concu- des Sciences morales et politiques bitu proveniunt.’ {De AnimO) tie Unstitut de France, lorn. \\. lib. i.) VanHelmont, asisw ell -The following passage from known, gave a receipt, tor pro ٥ Vives is interesting both as ducing mice. St. Augustine, giving a concise view of tlie atter taking great pains to solve notions prevailing about spon- different objections to tbegood- taneous generation, and on ness of Providence, oddly enough account of the very curious selects the existence of mice as notion in it about mice: ‘ De an impenetrable one which faith viventibus alia generationem alone can grasp: ‘ Ego vero habent spontaneum, ut muse*, fateor me nescire mures et ranss culices, formic*, apes: qu* quare creati sunt,, aut muse*, necsexumullum habent. Alia autvermicul*.. {De Genesicon- ٠.\١ ex commixtione sexuum prod- tra Maniekos, xv eunt, ut liomo, equus, canis, 3 Thus, Melanchthon deals, leo. Sunt qu* ambiguam ha- in a tone of the most absolute DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 343 with melancholy when we think how completely these great questions of the nature and origin of life, which may be almost said to form the basis of all real knowledge, have eluded our investigations, .and how absolutely the fair promise of the last century has in this l.espect been unfulfilled. From enquiries about the genesis of the soul, it was natural to proceed to examine its natui.e. Sucli enquiries were ٦vith the assistance .accordingly earnestly pursued of the pagai'i writers ; and the conclusions arrived at on tliis point by different schools exercised, as is ٦vide influence upon their always the case, a very tlieological conceptions. I ca.nnot doubt, that when at last Descartes maintained that tliouglit is the essence of the soul, and that the thinking substance is therefore so wh'olly and gencrically different from the body, that none of the- forms or properties of matter can afford tlie faintest ima-ge of its nature, lie ١vhich made contributed much to that frame of mind men naturally turn with contempt from ghosts, visible d-emons, and purgatorial fires.! It is true assurance, witli the, great ques- stood. Tliouglit, lie contended, tion of the cause of the dif- is the essence of tlie soul, and ference of sex : ‘ Mares nas- all that is not tliouglit (as life cuntur magis in dextrU parte and sensibility) is of tlie body. niatricis, et a semine quod In denying tliat brutes liatl magis a dextro testiculo oritur. souls, he denied them tlie power Famiellse in sinistra matricis of thought, but left them all parte nascuntur.’ (Melancli- besid.es. Tliis distinction ill thon. Be Anima, p. 420.) This its full rigidity would now be tlieory originated, I believe, maintained by very few 5 and with Aristotle, and was -after- Stalil gave psychology an im- ١vards repeated by liunierous pulse in quite anotliei. direction writers. by liis' doctrine (wliicli was tliat -The sharp line Descartes of Aristotle), tliilt tlie soul in ا tried to draw between the eludes the vital principle-all liody and the soul explains liis that sepai’ates living from deild doctrine of animals, which has bodies. He thus founded th'e often been' grossly misunder- psychology of animals, and in 344 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. that the Cartesian doctrine was-soon in a measure eclipsed, but it at le.ast destroyed for ever the old ا.notion of an Inner body From tlie time of Descartes, tlie doctrine of a material fire may indeed be said to have steadily declined.2 Tlie sceptics of the seventeenth and eigliteentli centui.ies treated it with great contempt', and in England, at least, the last great controversy on the subject in tlie Church, seems to liave taken -place during the first lialf of tlie eighteentli centu^. Swinden, Wliiston, Horberry, Dodwell, and in America Jonathan Edwards, discussed it fi’om different points of view,3 and attested tlie rapid progress us par une fausse idCe؟a great measure fused psyclio- sont de logy and medicine. Tliere que Dieu leur a imprim^e,d’uu is a clear statement on this feu qui les consume, mais point in Maine de Biran, Nou- plutOt qu’ils sontv^ritablement parce que أ veaux Rapports physiques et tourmentespar le feu moranXi T'liere is at prese.nt “ comme l’esprit d’un homme a remarkable revival of the vivant, bien qu’il ne soit pas doctrine of Stahl in France, in corporel, est n^anmoins detenu the writings of Tissot, Roullier, dans le corps, ainsi Dieu par Cliarles, iind Lemoine. sa toute-puissance peufc ais^- Adoctrine, however, some- ment faire qu’il souffre les ا tiling like that of tlie old atteintes du feu corporel aprCs Reponses aux) ٠ ".Fatliers, but applied to the la mort liodies of the blest, has been six Objections.^ ,Tliis was, as far as I know ٥ lately advocated in two very ingenious American lio o k s - the last of the great cont.ro- Iiyion of Geology, versies concerning the locality؟ k١؛؟؛ l k Lectures oil tlie Seasons. of liell—a question wliicli had ة\\ة The Jiutlior has availed himself once excited great attention. of Reichonbach’s tlieories of The common opinion which St. ‘ odic light,’ &c. Thomas had sanctioned was 2 Descartes liimself gives thilt it was in the centre of the us tlie opinion of his contem- ear til. Whiston, liowever, who poraries on the subject: ‘Bien denied the eternity of punish- que la commune opinion des ment, contended that it was thCologiens soit que les damiris the tail of a comet; while sont tourmentes par le feu des Swinden (whose book seems to enfers, neanmoins leur senti- have made a considerable sensa- ment n.est pas pour cela qu'ils tion, and was translated into DEVELOPEMENTS OP KATIOiSTALISM. 345 of the scepticism. Towards the close of the century tte doctrine had passed away 5 for though there was no formal recantation or change of dogmas, it was virtually excluded from the popular teaching, though it even now lingers among the least educated .is - senters, and in the Roman Catholic manuals for the poor. I have dwelt at length upon this very revolting doctrine, because it exercised, I believe, an extremely important influence on the modes of thouglit and types of character of the past. I have endeavoured to show how its necessary effect was to chill and deaden the sympathies, to predispose men to inflict suffering, and seriously to retard the marcli of civilisation. It lias now virtually passed away, and with it tlie type of character that it did so much to form. Instead of the old stern Inquisitor, so unflinching in bis asceticism, 'SO heroic in his enterprises, so remorse- less in his persecution—instead of the men who multiplied and elaborated tlie most liideous tortures, who wrote long cold treatises on their application, wiio stimulated and embittered the most ferocious wars, and who watered evei.y land with tlie lilood of the innocent-instead of this ecclesiastical type of character, we meet with an almost feminine sensibility, and an almost morbid indisposition to inflict punishment. The preeminent characteristic of modern Christianity is the boundless philanthropy it displays. Philanthropy is to our age what asceticism was to the middle ages, and. what polemical discussion was

French) strenuously contended not only held this, but ex- that it Was the sun. According plained the spots in the sun to Plancey (Diet, infernal) art. by the multitude of the souls. Enfer). sOme early theologians 346 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The emo. tional part of humanity, the humanity of impulse, was never so developed, and its developement, in Protest, autism at least, ivhere the movement lias heen most strikingly evinced, lias always keen guided and repre. sented by tlie clergy. Indeed, this fact is recognised quite as much by their opponent's as by their admirers. A certain weak and effeminate sentimentality, both ١vhich e^ery intellectual and moral, is the quality satil’ist of tlie clergy dwells upon as tlie most prominent feature ot. their character. Whether tliis quality, when duly analysed, is as despicable as is sometimes supposed, may be questioned ; at all events, no one would tliink of ascribing it to the ecclesi" astics of tlie scliool of Toi.quemada, of Calvin, or of Knox. Tlie clianges tliat take place from age to age in tlie types of charactei’ in diffei.ent professions, tliougli they are often very evident, and tliougli they form one of tlie most suggestive branches ofliistory, are of course not susceptilile of direct logical proof. A writer can only lay tlie general impressions lie lias derived from tlie study of tlie two periods before tlie judgments of

١vn. It is tliose wliose studies have resenililed liis 0 more, therefore, as an illustration than as a prOof. that I may notice, in conclusion, the striking.contrast ١vo Whicli t'lie liistoi.y of punishments exhibits in the t periods of theological developement. We have seen that tlie popular estimate of tlie adequacy of tlie penalties t'hat are afhxed to different Cl’imes must in itli tlie popular l.ealisations of’١١ gi.eat measure vary ١؛ guilt. We liave seen, too, that the abolition of torture was a movement almost entii’ely due to the Opponents of tlie Cliurcli, and that it was effected mucli less by DEVELOPEMENrrS OF NATIONALISM. 347 any process of reasoning than by the influence of certain modes of feeling which civilisation produced. ١vas Soon, however, we find that the impulse whicli communicated by Voltaire, Beccaria, and tlie Revo, ١vas only lution, passed on to the orthodox, and it then it acquired its full intensity. The doctrine of a literal fire ha^ng almost ceased to be a realised conception, a growing sense of the undue severity of punishments was everywhere manifested j and in most ٦١٣as countries, but more especially in England, there no single subject on whicli more earnestness was shown. The first step was taken by Howard. Nowhere perhaps in the annals of philanthropy do we meet a picture of more unsullied and fruitfill beneficence than is presented by the life of that great Dissenter, who, having travelled over more than 40,000 miles in works of mercy, at last died on a foreign soil a martyr to his cause. Not only in England, but over the whole of Europe, his exertions directed public opinion to the condition of prisons, and effected a revolution the re. suits of which can never be est'imated. Soon after followed the mitigation of the penal code. In England ؛ the severity of that code had long been unexampled and as crimes of violence were especially numerous, tlie number of executions was probably quite unparalleled in Europe. Indeed, Eortescue, who was chief justice under Henry VI., notices tlie fact with cui.ious complacency, as a plain pi.oofof the superiority are ٤ ,More men,’ he tells US ﺀ .of his countrymen lianged in Englonde ili one year than in Eraunce in seven, because the Englisli have bettei. liartes. The Srotchmenne, likewise, never dare rob, but only ,.In the reign of Henry VIII ا ’.commit larcenies .Barrington, On the Statutes (London, 1769), p. 461 ٤ 348 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

wlien an attempt was made to convert the greater and when the ؛,part of England Into pastnre land suppression of the monasteries had destroyed the main source of charity, and had cast multitudes help- lessly upon the world, Holingshed estimates the executions at tlie amazing number of 72,000, or 2,000 a year.2 This estimate is utterly incredible, but even at the end of the reign of Elizabeth, and notwithstanding the poor-law which had been enacted, the annual execut.ions are said to have been about 400.3 In tlie middle of the eighteenth century, however, though the population liad greatly increased, they had fallen to less than one hundred.* A little before this time Bishop Berkeley, follo١ving in the steps that had been Utopia,’ and by Cromwell in ٤ traced by More in his one of his speeches, raised his voice in favour of substituting otlier punisliments for death.. But all through the reign of George III. tlie code wa.s aggravated, and its severity was cari.ied to such a point, that when Bomilly began liis career, the number of ١vas only capital offences was no less than 230.6 It at the close of tlie last and in the beginnteg of the Jiresent century, that tliis state of things was changed. The reform in England, as over the rest of Europe,

.Sir Thomas More, in his was in 1765 ا whether we may ﺀ H e asks ٥ -Utopia (hook. i.)j gives alright fill description of the misery not, as well as other nationS, and the crimes resulting from contrive employment for our -ahd whether servi ؛ the ejectments necessitated by criminals this Change. He speaks Of tude, chai'ns, and hard labolir twenty men hung on one gibbet, for a term of years, would ngton, pp. 461, 462. not be a more discouraging ؛ ؟Ba 2 ed tljat Mr. as well as a more adequate ؛It should be ad Eroude utterly rejects tliis esti- punishment for felons than mate. even death itself.. (Queristj إ (.ibid. No .54 . See R o m illy S A ^ . for many ٥ Barrington says this was ٠ tlie case when he Wrote, wliicli statistics on the subjrct. DEVELOFEMENTS OF RATIONALISM. 349

؛ may be ultimately traced to tbat Voltairian scbool 0 which Beccaria was the representative, for the impulse ’On Crimes and Punishments ٤ created by the treatise was universal, and it was the first great effort to infuse a spirit of philanthropy into the penal code, making it a main object of legislation to inflict the smallest possible amount of suffering. Beccaria is especially identified with the cause t)f the abolition of capital punishment,, wliicli is slowly but steadily advancing towards its inevitable triumph. In England, the philosophical element of tlie move- .ment was nobly represented by Bentham, who in genius was certainly superior to Beccaria, and whose influence, though perhaps not so great, was aiso European. But while conceding tlie fullest merit to these great thinkers, there can bo little doubt that the enthusiasm and the support that enabled Romilly, Mackintosh, Wilberforce, and Brougliam, to carry theii. long series of reforms througli Parliament, was in a very great degree owing to the untiring exertions of the Evangelicals, who with a benevolence that no disappointment could damp, and with an indulgence towards crime that sometimes amounted even to a fault, cast their whole weight into the cause ofphil- anthropy. Tbe contrast between the position of these religionists in the destruction of the worst features of the ancient codes, and the precisely opposite position of the medimval clergy, is very remarkable. Sectarians will only see in it the difference between rival churches, but the candid historian will, I think, be able to detect the changed types of character that while intlie difference that ؛civilisation has produced .does undoubtedly in this respect exi^ between Pro. testantism and Catholicism, he wdl find one of the results of the very different degrees of intensity with .RATIONALISE! IN EUROPE 3٥0 which those religions direct the mind to the dehasing and indnrating conceptions I have reviewed. It has heen said that the tendency of religions -is all in one direction ٤ thonght in the present day towards the identification of the Bible and conscience.’ It is a movement that may he deplored, but can scarcely be overlooked or denied. Generation after generation the power of tlie moral faculty becomes more absolute, the doctrines that oppose it wane and vanish, and the various elements of theology are absorbed and recast by its influence. The indifference of most men to dogmatic theology is now so marked, and the fear of tampering with formularies that are no longer based on general conviction is ^ th some men so intense, that general revisions of creeds have become extremely rare 5 but the change of belief is not the less profound. The old words are indeed retained, but they no longe-r present -the old images to the mind, or exercise the old influence upon life. The modes of tliought and the types of character which tliose modes produce are essent.ially and universally hole intellectual atmosphere, the'١١ transformed. The whole tenoi* of life, the prevailing enthusiasms, the conceptions of the imagination, are all changed. The intellect of man moves onward under tlie influence of regular laws in a given direction, and the opinions that in any age are realised and operative, are those which harmonise with its intellectual condition. I have endeavoured in the -present chapter to exhibit the nature of some of these laws, the direction in which some of these successive modifications are tending. If the prospect of constant c.hange such an enquiry exhibits should appear to some minds to remove all the landmarks of the past, there is one con- DEVELOPEMENTS OF RATIONALIS^I. 351 sideration that may serve in a measure to reassure them. That Christianity was designed to produce benevolence, affection, and sympathy, being a fact of universal admission, is indefinitely more certain than that any particular dogma is essential to it j and in the increase of these moral qualities we have tlierefore the strongest evidence of the triumph of the ٠ conceptions of. its Founder 352 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

CHAPTER IV.

ox persecution.

P art I.

THE ANTECEDENTS OF PERSECUTION.

W hen it is remembered tliat tlie Founder of Chris- tianity summed up human duties in the two precepts of love to God and love to man, and illustrated the second precept by a parable representing the sentiment of a common humanity destroying all the animosities of sectarianism, the history of persecution in the Christian Church appears a.s startling as it is painful. In the eighteenth century, wlien the minds of men were for the first time very sensible of the contrast, it- was commonly explained by imputing interested motives to the clergy, and in all the writings of Voltaire and liis school hypocrisy was represented as the usual concomitant of persecution. Tliis notion may now be said to have quite passed away. Wliile it is undoubtedly true that some persecutions, and even some that were v e r atrocious, have sprung from purely selfish motives, it is almost universally admitted tbat these are far from furnishing any adequate explanation of tlie facts. The burn, ings, the tortures, the imprisonments, the confisca- ON PERSECUTION. 3 5 3 tions, the disabilities, tbe long wars and still longer animosities tbat for so many centuries marked tlie conflicts of great theological bodies, are ciliefly due to men whose lives were sp.ent in absolute devotion to wliat they believed to be true, and whose characters have passed unscathed through tlis most liostile and searching criticism. Ith eir ,worst acts tlie persecu. torswerebutthe exponents and representatives of the wlshes.of alargesection of .the community, and tliat. action was commonly the most earnest and the.most unselfish. It has been observed too, since the subject has been investigated witli a passionless judgment, tliat persecution invariably accompanied the realisation of a particular class of doctrines, fluctu. ated with their fluctuations, and may therefore be fairly presumed to represent their action upon life. In the last chapter I liave, I trust, done something towards the solution of the difficulty. I have shown that the normal e^ct^f.a certain class of.realisations upon the.characterjmld.beiiproduce an absolute, ,-١vho were ex ndifference tot^uffiepings of those! ternalia the. Churgh, and consequently, to remove Inflict .,pain .which is one, of the,ﺀ ؛.0. ١ Lhftt reluctance chie/fpreserYatiliisQciety. I liave now to trace ١vhich persuaded men that it was the order of Ideas their duty to persecute*. and to show the process by wliich those ideas passed away. The task is a painful one, for the doctrines I must l.eferto are those which are most repugnant to our moral sense, and in an age in which they are not realised 01. believed the bare statement of tliem is sufficient to shock the feelings of many: at the same time, a clear view of their nature and influence is absolutely essential to an understanding of the past. VOL. I. a a 554 RATIONALISM IN EUROTE. There are two moral sentiments which seem nni- versally diffused through the human race, and which may he regarded as the nuclei around wliicli all re- ؛ligious systems are formed. They are the sense 0 virtue, leading men to attach the idea of merit to certain actions wliicli tliey may perform 5 and the sense of sin, teaching men that their relation to the Deity is not that of claimants hut of suppliants. Al- though in some degree antagonistic, there probably ١vas a religious mind in which tliey did not never coexist, and they may be traced as prominent element-s in the moral developement of evei^ age and creed, but at the sa.me time their relative importance is far from being the same. There are certain ages in wliich the sense of virtue has been the mainspring of religion j there are other ages in which this position is occupied by the sense of sin. This may be partly owing to the differences in the original constitutions of different races, or to those influences of surrounding nature which act so early upon the mind that it is scarcely possible to distinguish tliem from natural tendencies, but it is certainly in a great measure due to tlie political and intellectual circumstances that are dominant. When prosperity and victory and dominion have long continued to elate, and when the virtues that contribute most to political greatness, such as fortitude and self-reliance, are cultivated, the sense of liuman dignity will become the chief moral principle, and every system that opposes it will be distasteful. But when, on the othei. hand, a religious system emanates from a suffering people, or from a, !-)eople tliat is eminently endowed with I.eligious sentiment, ١vill be entirel*v different. It will reflect its character something of the circumstances that gave it birth j it ON PERSECUTION. 355 will be full of pathos, of humility, of emotion j it will lead men to aspire to a lofty ideal, to interrogate tlieir conscience with nervous anxiety, to study witli scrupulous care the motives that actuate tliem, to distrust their own powei's, and to throw themselves upon external help. l w , of all systems the world has ever seen, the philosophies of ancient Greece and Rome appealed most strongly to the sense of^rtue, and Christianity to the sense of sin. The ideal of tlie first was tlie majesty of self-relying humanity j the ideal of the other was the absorption of the manhood into God. Tt is impossible to look upon the awful beauty of a Greek statue, or to read a page of Plutarch, without perceiving how completely the idea of excellence was blended with that of pride. It is equally impossible to examine the life of a Chi.istian saint, or the painting of an early Christian artist, without perceiving that- the dominant conception was self-abnegation and self-distrust. In the earliest and purest days of the Church this was ciliefly manifested in the devotional frame of mind whicli was habitual, and in the higher and more delicate moral perception that accompanied it. Christianity t'hen consisted much more of modes of emotion than of intellectual propositions. It was not till about the third century that the moral sentiments whicli at first constituted it were congealed into an elaborate theology, and were in consequence necessarily perverted. I say necessarily perverted, because a dogma cannot be an adequate or faithful representative of a mode of feeling. Thus while the sense of ,virtue and the sense of sin have al١vays coexisted though in different degrees, in every religious mind, when expressed in a dogmatic form, under the-names

a a 2 356 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. of Justification by Faith and Justification 'by Works, and ؛they became directly opposed to one another while each doctrine grew in the first instance out of the moral faculty, eacli was at last developed to consequences from which that faculty indignantly re- the result of one doctrine, men constructed ط .volts a theory in whicli the whole scheme of religion was tui-ned into a system of elaborate barter, while the attitude of self-distrust and humility produced by the sensitiveness of an awakened conscience was soon transformed into a doctrine accoi'ding to which all the virtues and all the piety of the lieathen contained notiling that was pleasing to tlie Almighty, or that could ward off the sentence of eternal damnation. In considering, however, the attitude wliich mankind occupied towards the Almighty in the early theology of the Church, we have 'another important element to examine : I mean the conception of hereditary guilt. To a civilised man, who regards the question abstractedly, no proposition can appear more selfevident than that a man can only be guilty of acts in the performance of which he has himself had some share. The misfortune of one man may fall upon another, but guilt appears to be entirely personal. Yet, on the other liand, there is nothing more certain than that the conceptions botli of hereditary guilt and of hereditary merit pervade the belief and the institutions of all nations, and have under the most varied circumstances clung to tlie mind ^ th a tenacity which is even now but beginning to relax. We find them in every system of early punishment which involved children in the destruction of a guilty parent., in every account of curses transmitted through particular families or particular ON PERSECUTION. 357 nations, in every hereditary aristocracy, and in every legend of an early fall. All these rest upon tlie idea tliat there is something in the merit or demei.it 'ofone man tliat 'may he reflected upon his successors altogether irrespectively of their own acts. It would perhaps he rash to draw witli much confidence any law concerning the relations of tliis idea to different conditions of society from tlie liistory of Christendom, hut, as far as we may judge, it seems to he strongest in ages wlren civilisation is very low, and on tlie whole to decline, hut not hy any means steadily and con- ٦vith the intellectual advance. There seems ,tinuously to be a period in the history of every nation when punishments involving the innocent child with the guilty parent are acquiesced in as perfectly natural, and anotlier period when they are repudiated as inanifestly unjust. We find, however, that in a portion of the middle ages when the night of barbarism was in part dispelled, avastaristocratical syst.em was organised which lias probably contributed more than any other single cause to consolidate the doctrine of hereditary merit. For the essence of an aristocracy is to fransfer the source of honour from the living to the dead, to make the merits of living men depend not BO mucli upon their own character and actions as upon the actions and position of t.heir ancestors j and as a great aristocracy is never insulated, as its ramifica- tions penetrate into many spliercs, and its social influence modifies all the relations of society, the minds of men become insensibly lialiituated to a standard of judgment from which they would otherwise have recoiled. If in the sphere of religion, the rationalistic doctrine of personal merit and demerit sliould ever completely supersede the theological-doctrine of 358 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. hereditary merit or demerit, the change will, I believe, be largely influenced by the triumph of democratic principles in the sphere of politics. ٦١٣idely diffused habit of judging The origin of this men by the deeds of their ancestors is one of tlie most obscure and contested points in philosopliy. Some have seen in it a dim and distorted tradition of others have attributed it to that confusion of ؛ the Fall misforiune with guilt wliich is so prominent in ancient beliefs. Partly in consequence of the universal conviction tliat guilt deserves punishment, and partly from the notion that the events whicli befall mankind are the results not of general laws but of isolated acts directed to special purposes, men imagined that whenever they saw suffering they might infer guilt. They saw that tlie effects of an unrighteous war will continue long a.fter tliose who provoked it have passed tliat the virtue or rice, the wisdom or folly, of ل away the parent will often determine the fortunes of the children, and that each generation lias probably more power over the destiny of that which succeeds, it than over its own. They saw that there was such, a tiling as transmitted suffering, and tliey tlierefore.' concluded that there must lie such a tiling as transmitted guilt. Besides this, patriotism and Cliurch feeling, and every hifluence tha.t comliines men in a corporate existence, makes them live to a cei.tain degree ill the past, and identify themselves with the actions of the dead. The patriot feels a pride or sliame in tlie deeds of his forefathers very similar to that which springs from liis own. Connected with this, it lias been observed that men liave a constant tendency, in speaking of tlie liuman race, to forget tliat they ,are employing the la.nguage of metaphor,. ON PERSECUTION. 359

and to attribute to it a .real objective existence distinct from the existence of living men. It may be added, too, that that retrospective imagination which is so strong in some nationS, and which is more or less exhibited in all, leads men to invest the past with all the fascination of poetry, to represent it as a golden age incomparably superior to their own, and to imagine tliat some great catastrophe must have, occurred ,to obscure it. Tliese considerations, and sucli as these, have often been urged hy those wlio have written on the genesis of the notion of hereditary guilt. Fortunately, however, tlieir examination is unnecessary for my present purp'ose, which is simply to ascertain tlie expression, of this general conception in dogmatic teaching, ,and trace its influence upon practice. The expression t.o٠ is both manifest, and emphatic. According to the unanimous belief of the Early Church, .all wlio were external to Christianity were doomed to eternal, damnation, not only on account of their own transgression, but also on account of the transmitted guilt of Adam, and therefore even the newborn infant was subject to the condemnation unti'1 baptism had united it to the Chnroh. ' The opinion which was so graphically expressed by the theologian who said ‘he doubted not there were infants not. a span long crawling about the floor of bell, is not one of t'hose 'on which it is pleasing to dilate. It was one, liow'ever, which was held with', great confidence in the Early. Church, and if in times of tranquillity it became in' a measure unrealised, whenevei. any heretic ventured to impugn it it was nost unequivocally enforced. At a period which is so،' early that it is impossible' to define it, infant baptism. 360 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. was introduced into the Church ; it was adopted by all the heretics as well as by the orthodox j it was the remission of sins and ﺀ universally said to be for the whole body of the Fathers, without exception or liesitation, pronounced that all infants who died unbaptised were excluded from heaven. In the case of ؛,١vere admitted unbaptised adults a few exceptions but the sentence on infants was inexorable. Tlie learned English histoi'ian of Infant Eaptism states tliat, with the exception, of a contemporary of St. Augustine named Vincentius, who speedily recanted his opinion as heretical, he lias lieen unable to dis. covei. a single instance of an orthodox member of the Church expressing tlie opposite opinion before Hinck- mar, wlio was Archbishop of Rheims in the nintli century.'^ In tlie time of this prelate, a bishop who had quarrelled with liis clergy and people ventured to prohibit baptism in his diocese ; and Hinckmar, while severely condemning the act, expressed a hope that it would not be ^sited on the infants who died when the in.terdict was in force. With this exception the unanimity seems to liave been unbroken. So-me of tile Greek Fathers, indeed, imagined that there was a special place assigned to infants where there was neither suffering nor enjoyment, while the Latins in- .Martyrdom or, as it was thought hy some to be saved ا termed, the baptism of lilood See Lamet et Fromageau, Diet, .\٠ .being t.he cilief. Some, how- des Cas de Conscience, tom ever, relying on tlie case of the p. 268. bap. 2 Wall’s History of Infant ٠ penitent thief, admitted a tism of perfect love,’ when a Baptism) vol. ii. p. 211. St. baptism by water could not be Thomas Aquinas afterwards obta.ined. Tliis consisted, of suggested the possibility of the course, of extraordinary exer- infant being saved who died cises of fait.h. Catecliumens within tlie womb : ‘ God may also, who died during tine pre- have ways of saving it for paration for baptism. Were aught we know.’ ON PERSECUTION. 361 ferred from the hereditary guilt that they must descend into a place of torment j hut both agreed that they could not be saved. Tlie doctrine was so firmly rooted in the Church, tliat even Pelagius, who was one oftlie most rationalistic intellects of his age, and who entirely denied tlie reality of hereditary guilt, retained infant baptism, acknowledged that it was for the re. mission of sins, and did not venture to deny its neces- ١vas on this point that he was most severely sity. It pressed by his opponents, and St. Augustine says that he was driven to the somewhat desperate resource of maintaining that baptism was necessary to wash away ,Once ل the guilt of the pettislmess of tlie child 1 when severely pressed as to tlie consequences of the doctrine, St. Augustine was compelled to acknow. ledge that he was not prepared to assert dogmatically that it would have been better for these children not to have been born, but at the same time lie denied emphatically that a separate place was assigned t'hem, and in one of liis sermons against the Pelagians he ,ever ٤ distinctly declared that tliey descended into lasting fire.. 2 Origen and many of the Egyptians explained the doctrine by the theory of pre-existence.3 Augustine associated it with that of imputed righteousness, maintaining that guilt and virtue might be alike imputed j 4 and this view seems to liave been generally adopted. Among the writings of the Fathers there are few which long possessed a greater De Fide,’ wilieh is one ﺀ authority than a short treatise .Wall, vol. i. pp. 282, 283. damnation ا It is gratifying tO know that 2 Ibid. vol. ii. pp. 192-206, St. Augustine, in answering - a full view of St. Augustine’s this argument, distinctly de. sentiments on the subject, clared that the crying of a 8 Hieronym. Epist. lib. ii. baby is not sinful, and t.here- ep. 18. .Epist. 28 ٠ fore does not deserve eternal 362 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. of the clearest and most forcible extant- epitomes of -١vhich till the time of Eras the Patristic faith, and ٦٢as generally ascribed to St. Augustine, thougli mns it is now known to have been written, in the begin, ning of the sixth century, by St. Eulgentius.i In this treatise we find the following very distinct state- ٤Ee assured,’ writes the _ : ment of the doctrine and doubt not, that not only men who liave ؛ ,saint obtained the use of their reason, but also little chil. dren who have begun to live in their motliers’ womb ,list bornز and have there died, or who, hjiving been have passed away from tlie world without tlie sacra, ment of holy baptism, administered in the name of the Eatlier, Son, and Holy Ghost, must be punished for a-ltliough ؛ by tlie eternal torture of undying fire t.hey have committed no sin by tlieir own will, tliey ١vitli them the condemnation have nevertlieless drawn of original sin, by their carnal conception and nati٢ vity.’ 2 It will be remembered that these saints, while reatu luunt in inferno nuper ...د H e was bom about. .nati infantuli pcenas, si reno ﺴﺂ١ . ﻟ .tBioq .٦^A 2 ‘ Pirmissime tene, et nulla, vati per laracrum non fuerint.’ tenus dubites, non solum lio- {de Sentent. lib. i. c. 22.) St. mines jam rat.ione utentes, ve- Aritus, being of a poetical turn, mm etiam parrulos, qui, sire of mind, put the doctrine into in uteris mat.rum rirere in- reroe:— cipiunt et ibi moriuntur. sire ٢ero grarius, si jam de matribus nati sine ‘ Omnibus id Sacramento sancti baptismatis fonte lavaci.i quod dat.ur in nomine Patris et Dirini expertem tenerum mors Eilii et Spiritus Sanct.i de hoc inrida natum saculo transeunt, ignis seterni Priecipitat, durA generatum sempiterno supplicio punieu- sorte, gehenme, dos ; quia etsi peccatum pro- Qui mox ut mat.ris cessarit priie actionis nullum habue- filius esse runt, originalis tamen peccati Pewlitionis erit: tristes tunc damnationem carnali concep- edita nolunt tione et natiritate traxerunt.’ (hue flammis tantum genue- — De Fide, § 70. So also St. runt pignora' matres.’ .Ad Fuscinam Sororcm ؛Isidore: ‘Pro soli original ON PERSECUTION. 363 maintaining that infants whose existence was hut for a moment descended Into eternal fire on account of an apple that was eaten four thousand years before they were horn, maintained also that the creation and the deatli of those infants were the direct, per-' sonal, and uncontrolled acts of tlie Deity. All through the middle ages we trace the influence of this doctrine in the innumerable superstitious rites which were devised as substitutes for regular baptism. Nothing indeed can be more cui’ious, nothing can be more deeply pathetic, than tlie record of the many ways bywhicli the terror-stricken mothers attempted to evade the awful sentence of their Church. Some- times the baptismal water was sprinkled upon the ,sometimes the stillborn cliild was baptised ل womb in hopes tliat the Almighty would antedate the ceremony j sometimes the motlier invoked tlie Holy Spirit to purify by His immediate power the infant tliat was somet-imes she received the Host or ؛.to be born obtained absolution, and applied them to tl'ie benefit ا٠f her child. These and many similar practices For several other testimonies two subjects much discussed in of tlie later Fathers to the same the early Church which tended effect, see Natalis Alexander, to produce an order of realisa- Historia Ecclesiastic. tiohs t,0 which we are not a.c- 1699), tom. V. pp. 130-131. customed. Some of the early -For a very full account of writers, and especially the Nes ا these curious superstitions, see torians, had agitated questions the chapter on .Baptism' in concerning the time when tlie Thiers’ Superstitions, and also divinity of Christ was united a striking memoir in the fil’st to tlie fffitus in the womb, that Moyen Age, par had filled the Cliurcli with volume 0f A٥ Lacroix. We can now hardly curious physiological specula- realise a condition of thouglit t.ions. Resides this, one of the in whicli the mind was con- earliest struggles of tlie Church centrated so strongly upon tlie was for the suppression of the -but we should custom of destroying tlie off ؛ unborn fmtus remember tliat, besides the spring in tlie womb, whicli.was doctrine of baptism, tliere were extremely common among tlie .RATIONALISM IN EUROPE ،36 continued nil through the middle ages in spite of every effort to extirpate them, and the severest censures were unable to persuade the people that tliey were entirely ineffectual. For the doctrine of the Church liad wrung the mother’s heart with an agony that was too poignant even for that submissive age to bear. Weak and superstitious women, who never dreamed of rebelling against the teaching of tlieir clergy, could not acquiesce in tlie perdition of their offspring, and tliey vainly attempted to escape from the dilemma by multiplying superstitious practices, or by attributing to them a more than ortliodox effi-

-٦dgilance of the theologians was un cacy. But the

٦vhich these unhappy tiring. All the methods by mothers endeavoured to persuade themselves that, their children miglit have been saved are preserved in the decrees of tlie Councils tliat anathematised- them. At last the Reformation came. In estimating the character of tliat great movement we must carefillly distinguisli its immediate objects from its ultimate effects. The impulse of which it was in part the pagans, and wilieh they do not hut perhaps the most curious seem to have regarded as at all example was in a great epide- a crime. Tertullian (Apol. c. mic attack of St.. Vitus’s dance, 9) and the autlior of tlie Epistle which appeared in the Netlier- ascribed to St. Barnabas appear lands in 1375. The common to have been among the first to people tlien believed that the denounce this pagau practice. disease resulted from unchaste Another illustra.tion ot' the es- priests having baptised the ٦١as children, and tlieir fury was so timate in which baptism lield is fui.nished by the notion great that it was with difficulty -that bodily distempers follo١ved that the lives of the ecclesias irregular baptism. I have al- tics were saved. (Hecker, ready referred to the belief Epidemics o f the M iddle Aucs, (.،tliat somnambulists liad been pp. 153, 15 baptised by a tlrunken priest: ON PERSECUTION. 365 .cause, and in part the consequence, at last issued in a diffusion of a rationalistic spirit which no Church, hov ever retrograde or dogmatic, has been able to ex- elude. The essence of tliat spirit is to interpret the articles of special creeds by the principles of universal religion—by the wants, tlie aspirations, and the moral sentiments which seem inherent in human nature. It .leads men, in other words, to judge wliat is true and what is good-, not by the .teacliings of tradition, but by the light of reason and of conscience, and where it lias not produced an avowed cliange of creed it has at least produced a change of realisations. Doctrines which sliock OUI. sense of right liave been allowed gradually to become obsolete, or if they are brought forward they are stated in languagewhich is so colour- less and ambiguous, and with so many qualifications and exceptions, that their original force is almost lost. Tliis, liowever, was the ultimate not the immediate effect of the Reformation, and most of tlie Reform- ers were far from anticipating it. Tliey designed to construct a religious system which sliould lie as essentially dogmatic, distinct, and exclusive as tliat whicli they assailed, but which sliould represent more faithfully the teachings of the first four centuries. The Anabaptist movement was accompanied liy so many excesses and degenerated so constantly into anarchy tliat it can scarcely be regarded as a school of religious thought, but it had at least, the effect of directing the minds of theologians to the subject of infant baptism. The Council of Trent enunciated very clearly the doctrine' of Rome. It declared the absolute necessity of baptism for salvation j it added, to guard against every ca^l, that baptism must be liy literal water,! A great deal of controversy had been excited in the middle ا 366 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. and it concluded with the usual formulary of a curse. Among tlie Protestants two opposite tendencies were manifest. One of the first objects of the Reformers ١vas to oppose or restrict the doctrine that ceremonies possessed an intrinsic merit independently of the disposition of the worshipper, and it was not difficult to perceive that this doctrine had been thvoured by infant baptism more than by any other single cause. On the other hand, the Protestant taught even more clearly than tlie Catliolic the doctrine of imputed righteousness, and was therefore more disposed to dwell upon the doctrine of imputed guilt. The Lutherans, in the Confession of Augsburg, asserted the absolute necessity of baptism quite as emphati- -and in one re ؛,cally as the Tridentine theologians spect many of the Protestants went beyond the Roman for they taught explicitly that the penalty ئ Catholics eternal fire,’ whereas the ٤ due to original sin was Church of Rome had never formally condemned the notion of a third place which the Greek Fathers had originated, which some of the schoolmen had revived, and which about the time of tlie Reformation was very general among the Catholics.2 Cal^n was in some ages about a Jew, who, being dentine Fathers at one time converted to Christianity in a hesitated whether tliey should desert, where there was no not condemn as heretical tile water, and being as was sup- Lutheran proposition that un- ١vent into posed in a dying state, was baptised infants baptised with sand. Tliere ‘ eternal fire.' We find Pascal, were also some cases of women however, stating the doctrine baptising their children with in a very repulsive form : ‘ Qu’y wine. For full detilils about a-t-il de plus eontraire aux these, see Thiers’ Traite des regies de notre miserable .jus- Superstitions. tice que de damner eternelle- 1 Arts. ii. and ix. ment un enfant incapable de 2 Wall. The notion of a volonte pour un pCche oU il lhnbo had been so widely dif- paroit avoir eu si peu de part fused that Sarpi says the Tri- qu’il est comnfis six mille aus ON PERSECUTION. 367 respects more favourable to unbaptised infants than tlie disciples of Luther, for be taugbt that the children of believers were undoubtedly saved, tliat the inten- tion to baptise was as efficacious as tlie ceremony, and that, although infant baptism should be retained, the passage in the discourse to Nicodemus, which had previously been universally applied to it, was susceptible ofa different interpretation.! But these doctrines arose simply from the reluc-tance of Calvin and his followe'rs to admit the extraordinary efficacy of a ceremony, and not at all from any moral repugnance to the doctrine of transmitted guilt. I school declared more constantly and more empliatically the utter depra^ty of human nature, the sentence of perdition attaching to the mere possession of such a nature, and the eternal damnation of the great -few of the enthusiastic ad- د .majority of infants vocates of the doctrine of reprobation even denied tho universal salvation of baptised infants, maintaining that the Almighty might have predestinated some of tliem to destruction. All of them maintained that avant qu’il fut en etre ? Cer- was the very first theologian tainement rien ne 'nous heurte who denied that tlie passage, plus rudement que cette doc- ‘ Except a man he born of trine, et 'cependant sans ce watei. and of tlie spirit,,’ &c., mystere ie plus incomprChen- applied to baptism. (Vol. ii. sible de tous nous sommes in- P.180.) JeremyTaylor strongly compr&iensibles anous-mCmes.’ supported Calvin’s view: ‘ The (Pensees, cap. iii. § 8.) I liave water and tlie spirit in this l'ittle doubt, liowever, that the place signify the same tiling; 'more revolting aspect of tlie and by water is meant tlie doctrine was nearly obsolete in effect of tlie spil’it cleansing the Church at tlie time of tlie and purifying tlie soul, as ap- Reformation. In tlie twelfth pears in its parallel place Of century St. Bernard had said: Cbi.ist liaptising witli tlie spirit ‘ Nihil ardet in inferno nisi and with fire.' {Liberty of (١. ٠ةل !,propria voluntas.’ Prophesying 1 According to Wall, Calvin 368 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. the infants who were saved were saved on account of their connection ^ th Christianity, and not on account of their own innocence. All of them declared that the infant came into the world steeped in guilt, and under the sentence of eternal condemnation. Jona. than Edwards, who was probably the ablest as lie was one of the most unflinching of the defenders of Cal- vinism, has devoted to this subject all the resources of his great ingenuity. No pre^ous writer developed more clearly the arguments which St. Augustine liad derived from the death of infants, and from the pangs tliat accompany it j liut his chief illustrations of tlie relations of tlie Deity to His creatures are drawn from those scenes of massacre when the streets of Canaan were choked with the multitude of the slain, and when the sword of tile Israelite was for ever ؛.bathed in tlie infant’s blood So far, then, tlie Reformation seems to have made little or no change. The doctrine of Catholicism, harsli and repulsive as it appears, does not contrast at all unfavourably with those of the two great founders of dogmatic and conservative Protestantism. At a period wlien passions ran high, and when there was every disposit.ion to deepen the chasm between Catlio- licity and tlie Reformed Churches—at a period therefore when any tendency to rebel against the Catholic doctrine of transmitted guilt would liave been clearly manifested, tliat doctrine was in all essentials frlly accepted. Questions concerning the nature of the sacraments,- tlie forius of Church government, the meaning of particular passages of Scripture, tlie due

See Jonathan Edwards on proceeded from the pen of ٤ Original . - o n e of the most man. revOlting hooks that have ever 369ON PERSECUTION. 369ON order and subordination of different portions of tlieological systems, were discussed with the most untiring and acrimonious zeal. All Europe was convulsed with controversy, and the most passionate entliusiasm was evoked. But the whole stress and energy of this enthusiasm flowed in a dogmatic channel. It was not the revolt of the reason claiming a supreme authority in the domain of thought j it was not the rehellion of the moi.al faculty against doctrines, that collided witli its teaching : 01. if sucli elements existed they were latent and unavowed, and tlieir position in tlie first ebullitions of Protestantism was entirely subordinate. The germ of Rationalism had indeed been cast abroad, but more tlian a century was required to develope it. Tliere was no subtlety of interpretation connected witli tlie eucliaristic formularies that did not excite incomparably more interest than the broad questions of morality. Conscience was tlie last tribunal to which men would have referred as tlie supreme autliority of tlieir creed. Tliere was much doubt as to what liistoi’ical authorities were most valuable, liut there was no doubt that tlie ultimate basis of theology must be historical. To tliis statement tliere are, ho١vever, two eminent exceptions. Two theologians, who differed widely in -their opinions and in their circumstances, wei١e never theless actuated by tlie same rationalistic spirit, were accustomed to form their notions of truth andgoodness by the decisions of tlieii. own reason and conscience, and, disregarding all the interpretations of tradition, to mould and adapt their creed to their ideal. Tlieso theologians were Socinus and Zuinglius, who maybe regarded as the representatives of Rationalism in the first period of Protestantism. VOL. I. B B 370 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. Til© scliool of thought which Laslius Socinus coil- tributed to plant at Vicenza, and wliich his more illns. trious nephew, in conjunction with other Italians, spread through the greater part of Europe, was tlie natural result of a long train of circumstances that had been acting for centuries in Italy. The great wealth of the Italian repulilics, tlieir commercial relations with men of all nations and of a.ll creeds, tlie innumerable memorials of paganism that are scattered over the land, and the high esthetic developement tliat was general, had all in different ways and degrees contributed to produce in Italy a very unusual love of intellectual pursuits and a very unusual facility for cultivating tliem. Upon the fall of Constanti- nople, when the Greek scholars were dl.iven into exile, bearing witli tliem the seeds of an intellectual renovation, Italy was more than any other country tlie centre to which tliey were attracted. In the Italian princes they found the most munificent and discerning pati.ons, and in the Italian universities the most congenial asylums. Padua and Bologna were tlien the great centres of free-thought. A series of professors, of whom Pomponatius appears to. liave' been the most eminent, liad pursued in these universities speculations as daring as those of tlie eighteenth century, and liad habituated a small but able circle of s-cholars to examine tlieological questions with the most fearless scrutiny. They maintained that there were t١vo spheres of thought, the sphere of reason and tlie spliere of fait'li, and that these spheres were entirely distinct. As philosopliers, and untler the guidance of reason, tliey elaborated theories of the -as Gatho ؛lioldest and most unflincliing scepticism lies, and under the impulse of frith, they acquiesced ON PERSECUTION. 371 The fact of ؛.in all the doctrines of their Church their accepting certain doctrines as a matter of faith did not at all prevent tliemfrom repudiating them on the ground of reason j and the complete separation of the two orders of ideas enabled them to pursue their intellectual speculations by a method which was purely secular, and with a courage that was elsewhere unhnown. Even in Catholicism a dualism of this kind could not long continue, but it was manifestly incompatible with Protestantism, wliich at least professed to make private judgment the foundation of belief. Faith considered as an unreasoning acquiescence disappeared from theology, and the order of ideas which

See, on the career of Pom- reason could establish even the ا Histoirc dcs outlines of morals. Huet, tlie ؛؛١ H Doctrines morales des trots great Bishop of Avranches, (le- derniers Siecles, tom. i. pp. fended the same position in his 51-67. Pomponatius was born posthumous Traite philoso- esprit؟ at Mantua in 1462, and died phique de lafoiblesse de in 1524. His principal work humain. Bayle, in his Re- ١ The Immortality oj tlie ponses au Provincial ﻟﻤﺂ0 ٠١ه ,ct la Raison ٥٤٠^ Soul. He was protected by nitz, in his L a Beo X. (iBiog. univ.) Vanini have collected much informa- said that the soul of Averroes tionaboutthisschoolofthought. had passed into Pomponatitis. See, too. Cousin’s work on Pas- The seventeenth century fur- eal. In our own day, similar nishes some striking exampl'es views have been maintained by of this separation of the philo- Bammenais, in liis Essai sur sophical and tlieological points VIndiferencey and in a less de- of view. Tlius Charron, who gree by Dr. Newman. Euther as a philosopher wrote one of himselt. liad maintained that a in ؟the most sceptical books of his proposition may be tru age, was a priest, and author theOlogy and false in philoso- .on. Christian, E i vi- phy—an opinion which the Sor ٠ه dences. Pascal, too, while de- bonne condemned: ‘ Sorbona voting his life to the defence of pessime definivit idem esse ve- religion, accepted with delight rum in philosophia et theo- the Pyrrhonism of Montaigne, logia, impieque damnavit eos maintained in the most em- qui contrarium docuerint.' phatic language the utter vanity (Amand Saintes, Hist, dll Ra٠ ١١.i؟،2'٠.^,Of pliilosophy, and denied that tiid lism e eu Allemagiie BUZ 372 RATIONALISM INEUR.EE.

-remained alone. As a conse ١١٠١ ' reason had quence of all this, the Reformation in Italy was almost confined to a small goup of scholars, who pnshed its principles to their extreme limits, with an unflinching -a disregard for hoth tradition and conse ﺗ ﻰ ,logic qnences, and ahove all with a secnlar spirit that, was elsewhere unequalled. With the peculiar tenets connected with the name of Socinus we are not now concerned, for the question of theological method is distinct from that of theological doctrines. It is, however, sufficiently manifest that although Socinus laid a far greater stress on the authority of Revelation tlian his followers, the prevailing sentiment which actuated him was a desire to subordinate traditional tenets to the dictates of reason and of conscience, and that his entire system of interpretation was due to this desire. It is also evident that it was this spirit that induced him to discard with unqualified severity the orthodox doctrines of the sinfulness of error and of the transmission of guilt.! It may appear at first sight a strange paradox to represent the career of Zuinglius as in any degee parallel to that of Socinus.. Certainly the bold and simple-minded pastor of Zurich, who bore with such an un-flinching calm the blaze of popularity and the storms of controversy, and perished at last upon the battle-field, forms in most respects a glaring contrast to the timid Italian who spent his life in passing from court to court, and from university to university, shrinking with nervous alarm from all opposition and notoriety, and instilling almost furtively into the minds of a few friends whom his gentle mannei٠s had captivated the g e a t principles of religious toleration. 1 Neander, Hist, o f Dogmas, vol. ii. pp. 657. 658. ON PERSECUTION. 373

Certainly, too, nothing could be further from the mind of Zuinglius than the doctrines which are known as vo,١ Socinianism, nor did the antecedents of the t Reformers, bear any resemblance. Yet there can, I think, be no doubt that the dominant predisposition -١vas to interpret all tenets accord ofZuinglius also -Fieri conceptions of reason and con ق ing to the science. Though a man of much more than common ability he had but slight pretensions to learning, and tliis, in an age when men are endeavouring to break loose from tradition, lias sometimes proved a pos'itivo and a most important advantage. Tlie tendency of his mind was early sliown in t.he position lie assumed on the eucharistic controversy. Tliere was no single subject in which tlie leading Reformers wavered so much, none on which they found so great a difficulty in divesting tliemselves of their old belief. The voice of reason was clearly on one side, the weight of tradition inclined to the otlier, and the language of Scripture was susceptible of either interpretation.

Luther never advanced lieyond consubstantiation 5 Calvin only arrived at liis final views after a long series of oscdlations; the English Reformers can scarcely be said to have ever arrived at any definite conclusions. Zuinglius alone, from the very beginning, maintained with perfect confidence the only doctrine which accords with the evidence of tlie senses, stated it in language of transparent precision, and clung to it witli unwavering tenacity. The same tendency was shown still more clearly in his decisions on lihose points in whicli tradition clashes with conscience. It is surely a most remai.kable fact that in the.age of such men as Luther and Calvin, as Melanch- thon and Erasmus, Zuinglius, wlio in intellectual RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.574 power was far inferior to several of his contemporaries, should almost alone have anticipated the rationalistic doctrine of the seventeenth century concerning the innocence of error, and the tolerance that should be accorded to it. On tlie subject of original sin he separated himself with equal boldness from the other leaders of the Reformation, maintaining that it was nothing more than a malady or evil tendency, and that it did not in any degree involve guilt.! It was thus that two of the leaders of the Refor- mation were induced by the rationalistic character of their minds to abandon the notion of transmitted guilt, and the doctrine concerning unbaptised infants which was connected with it. If the current of

,Neander, Hist, of dogmas, of pagan infants. However ا vol. ii. pp. 658, 659. Hossuet in 1526, he wrote a short trea- made a violent att-ack upon this tise On Original Sin, in wliich notion of Zuinglius, which he he said that his former work regarded with extreme horror, liad been misrepresented; that because, as he plaintively ob- he maintained indeed that tlie sin’ was only applied to ٠ serves, supposing it to be true, word then * le p^ch originel ne onr original malady by a figure damne.pcrsonne, pas m£me les of speecli; that he was quite enfants de.s pa'iens.’ ( F a ria - sure that that malady never in tions fotcstantcs, liv. ii. c. 21.) itself damned Christian chil- The remarks of Bossuet are dren, but that he was not especially worthy of attention equally sure that it never on account of tlie great clear- damned pagan children. He ness ^t.h which lie maint.ains inclined, however, strongly to He ﺀ ;the universality of the belief the belief that it did not in the damnable nature of Christianorum natis certi su- original sin in all sections of mus eos peccato originali non the Christian Church. He has, damnari, de aliorum non iti- however, sliglitly overstated dem ; quamvis, ut ingenue the doctrine of Zuinglius. The fateor, nobis probabilior vide- Reformer distinctly declared tur sententia quam docuimus, original sin to be simply a non temere pronunciandum disease, and not properly a sin. esse de gentiliu'm quoque natis From his language in liis Trea- et eis qui opus legis faciunt ex tise on Baptism, it was inferred lege intus digito Hei scripto.. that he asserted tlie salvation ON PERSECUTION. 375 opinions bas since then been flowing in the same direction, tbis is entirely due to tlie increased diffu. sion of a rationalistic spirit, and not at a.ll to any active propagandism or to any definite arguments. Men bave come instinctively and almost nnconscionsly' to jndge all doctrines by tlieir intnitive sense of rigbt, and to reject or explain away ortbrow into tbeback- ground tbose that will not bear the test, no matter how imposing may be the antliority that authenticates them. This method of judgment, which was once very rare, has now become very general. Eve^r generation it.s trinmpb is more manifest, and entire departments of tlieology have receded or brightened How great a change lias ؛.beneath .its influence been effected in the doctrine concerning nnliaptised children must be manifest to anyone who considers how completely the old doctrine lias disappeared from popular teacliing, and what a general and intense repugnance is excit.ed by its simple statement. It was once deemed a mere truism 5 it would now be viewed with horror and indignation: and if we desired a.ny further proof of the extent of this change we should find it in the position which the Quakers and the Baptists have assumed in Cliristendom. It is scarcely p.ossible to conceive any sects which in the Early Churcli would have been regarded with more unmingled abhorrence, or would have been deemed more unquestionably outside the pale .of salvation. Chillingworth treated the not much regard it.. (.Religion ا (.chap, vii subject with his usual admira- o f Protestants٠ ble good sense: ‘ This is cer- Jeremy Taylor strongly retain, that God will not deal jected hoth original sin, in the unjustly witli unbaptised in- sense of transmitted guilt, and fantsj but how in particular the tlamnation of infants that He will deal with them con- was inferred from it. cerns not US, and so w e need 37. NATIONALISM IN EIINOLE

It' is n . exaggeration to say tljat tte feeling of repug- ١vith which men now look upon the polygamy nance of the Mormons presents hut a very faint image of that which the Fathers would liave manifested to- ٦vards those who systematically withheld from their children tliat baptism which was unanimously pronounced to be essential to their salvation. Yet the Quakers and the Baptists have now obtained a place among the most respected sections of the Church, and in the eyes of very many Protestants the peculiarities of tlie second, at least, are not sufficiently serious to justify any feeling of l.epulsion or to prevent the most coi١dial co-opei٠ation. For a great change lias silently swept over Christendom : without conti.oversy and witliout disturbance an old doctl’ine has passed away from among the realisations of mankind. But the scope of the doctrine we are considering ١vas not confined to unbaptised children ; it extended also to all adults who were external to the Church. If the whole human race existed under a sentence of condemnation which could only be removed by connection with Christianity, and if this sentence was so stringent tliat even tlie infant was not exempt from its effects, it was natural t'hat the adult heatlien who added his personal transgressions to tlie guilt of Adam sliould lie doomed at last to perdition. Nor did the Fathers who constructed tlie early systems O'f theology at all slil'ink from tlie consequence. At a time wlien tlie Christian Church formed but a,n infinitesimal fraction of the community, at a time when almost all tlie members wlio composed it were tliem- pelves converts from paganism, and reckoned among ١vlio were bound to tliem liy tlie tlie pagans tliose closest ties of gratitude and affection, the great ma- ON PERSECUTION. 377

tlie Fathers deliberately taught that the entire ؛ jority 0 pagan world was doomed to that state of punishment which they invariably described as literal and undying fire. In any age and under any circumstances such a doctrine must seem inexpressibly shocking, but it appears most peculiarly so when we consider tliattl'ie convert who accepted it, and wlio with a view to liis own felicity proclaimed the system of which lie believed it to form a part to be a message of good tidings, must have acquiesced in the eternal perdition of the mother who liad borne Ilim, of the father upon whose knees he had played, of the friends who were a-ssociated with the happy years of childliood and early manhood, of the immense mass of his fellow- countrymen, and of all those lieroes and sages who by their lives or precepts liad first kindled a moral enthusiasm withhi liis breast.. All tliesewere doomed by one sweeping sentence. Nor were tliey alone in their condemnation. The heretics, no matter liow t.rivial may liave been their error, were reserved for tlie same fearful fate. Tlie Churcli, according to the favourite image of tlie Fathers, was a solitary ark floating upon a boundless sea of ruin. Within its pale there was salvation j without it salvation was -If anyone out of Noah’s ark could es ٠ .impossible lie who is out ٤ ,cape the deluge,’ wrote St. Cyprian Without this ﺀ ’.of the Church may also escape that is witl'iout tlie Churcli, no ٤ ,liouse,’ said Origen cometh ٤ ,No one,’ said St. Augustine ٤ ’.one is saved to salvation and eternal life except he who hath Christ for his head, but no one can have Christ for Ill's head Hold ٤ except he that is in His body the Church.’ 1 1 I take these references from pp. 11-13, 3rd ed.)» where Palmer On the Church (vol. i. there is much evidence oil the RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.378 most firmly,’ added St. Fulgentius, ‘and doubt not ,tbat not only all pagans bnt also all Je١vs, heretics and schismatics who depart from this present life ontside the Catholic Church are about to go into ٤’.eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels So prominent and so unquestionable was this doctrine deemed, that the Council of Carthage, in tlie fourth century, made it one of tlie test-questions put to every bishop before ordination.2 This doctrine has had a greater influence tlian per. haps any other speculative opinion upon the history of mankind. How different it is from the conceptions to whicli the great teachers of antiquity had arrived must be evident to anyone who knows how fondly they cherished tlie doctrine of the immortality of the soul, how calmly tliey contemplated the ap- subject collected. Mr. Palmer tholic* non tenet nnitatem, contends tliat the Fatliers are neque baptism s neque elee- unanimous on tlie subject, but mosyna quamlibet copiosa, Barbeyrac shows tliat at least neqne mors pro nomine Christi two, and those of tlie earliest suscepta proficere poterit ad (Justin Martyr and Clemens saiutem, quamdiu eo vel lisere- Alexandrinus), admitted tlie tica vel schismatica pravitas possible salvat.ion of tlie pagans perseverat quae ducit ad mor- {Morale dcs Peres, ell. xi. §11), tem.. (§ 22.) and t.hat the first expressly 2 Palmer, On the Church, said that Socrates and Herac- vol. i. p. 13. And again the :lltus in the siglit of God were Synod of Zerta in A.I). 412٠ Christians. See, too, Tenne- ‘ Whosoever is separated from T i m . M a i c l dc fIJistoirc de the Catholic Church, however la Philosophic, tom. i. pp. 314, innocently he may think lie 315. I am afraid, however, lives, for this crime alone that tliere is no doulit that the great lie is separated from the unity majority of tlie Patliers took of Christ will not have life, but tlie other view. Minucius Fe- tlie wrath of God remainethon lix thought tlie d^mon of So- liim.' This statement is said crates was a devil. {Octavius, t.o have been drawn up by St. ch. xxvi.) Augustine. See Hawarden's' .آلآل ,De Fide, § 81 ; and again, Charity and Truth ا still more explicitly: ‘ Omni (.Lublin, 1809). enim liomini qui Ecclesi® Ca- ON PERSECUTION. 379

proacb of death,I and How hopefully they looked forward to the future. Never can men forget that nohle Greek who, struck d o ^ hy an unrighteous sentence, summoned around him his dearest disci-ples, and having reasoned ^ th them on tlie immortality of the soul and the rewards of virtue and the goodness of the gods, took with a gentle smile the cup of death, and passed away thanking the god of healing who had the just man ﺀ cured him of the disease of life. That should take confidence in death,. 2 that he who has earnestly, though no douht imperfectly, tried to do his duty has nothing .to fear beyond the grave, had been the consoling faith of all tlie best minds of antiquity. That the bold, unshackled, and impartial search for truth is among tlie nolilest and, tlierefore, among the most innocent employments of mankind, was the belief whicli inspired all the philosopilies of the past. Nor was it merely or mainly in the .I know nothing in the la society pai'enne, toute com ا world sadder than one of the pos£e du sensualisme et de sayings of Luther on this mat- licence, on se gardait bien de ter. I, quote it from that repr^senter la mort comme .il n ل beautiful old translation of quelque cbose de hideux -٠It parait meme point que le sque :The Table Talk by B ell were a -light and an easy mat- lette ait ete alors le symbole ter for a Christian to suffer de l'impitoyable divinit،. Mais and overcome death if he knew quand le christianisme eut conquis le monde, quand une و not that it were God’s wratli the same title maketh death Cternit^ malheureuse dut etre bitter to US. But an heathen la punition des fautes commises he neither ici-bas, la mort qui avait ل dieth securely away seeth nor feeleth that it is sembte si indifferente aux an- God’s wrath, but meaneth it is ciens devint une cbose dont les the end of nature and is natu- cons6quences furentsi terribles ral. The epicurean says it is pour le chrCtien qu’il fallut les but to endure one evil hour.. lui rapporter a chaque instant A distinguished living anti- en frappant ses yeux des images quarian, comparing the heathen fun^bres.' (Jubinal, Stir les and the medieval representa- Dnnscs des Morts, p. 8.) Bans ﺀ : tions of death, observes 380 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

Athens that this spirit was manifested. It ؛ groves 0 should never he forgotten that the rationalist has always fonnd the highest expression of liis helief in the language of the prophet, wlio declared that the only service the Almighty required was a life of justice, of mercy, and of humility; of the wise man, wlio summed up tlie whole duty of man in the fear of God and the observance of His commandments; of the apostle, who described true religion as consist, ing of charity and of purity j and of that still ^eater Teacher, who proclaimed true worship to be altogetlier spiritual, and who described the final adjudication a.s the separation of mankind accoi'ding to tlieir acts and not according to their opinions. But, liowever this maybe, the doctrine of salvation in the Churcli alone was unaidmously adopted wlien Christianity passed from its moral to its first dogmatic stage, and.on two occasions it conferred an inestimable benefit upon mankind. At a time when Christianity was struggling against tlie most horrible persecutions, and also against the gross conceptions of an age that could obtain but a very partial idea of its elevated purity, the terrorism of this doctrine became an auxiliary little in harmony indeed ^ th the spirit of a philanthropic religion, but admirably suited to the time, and powerful enough to nerve the martyr with an unflinching courage, and to drive the doubter speedily into the Church. Again, when the ascendency of tho new faith had become manifest', it seemed for a time as if its administrative and organising function would have been destroyed by the countless sects tliat divided it. The passion for al- legoryandthe spirit of eclecticism that characterised the Eastern converts, tlie natural subtlety of the ON PERSECUTION. 381

.reek mind, and still more the disputations philo. sophy of Aristotle, which the .reek heretics intro- dnced into the Church, and which Nestorianism had produced ؛,planted in the great school of Edessa so many and sucli virulent controversies that the whole ecclesiastical fabric seemed dislocated, and in. tellectual anarchy was imminent. The conception of an authoritative Church was not yet fully formed, tliougli men were keenly sensible of the importance of dogma. It is computed tliat there were about ninety heresies in three centuries.2 Sucli questions as the double procession of the Holy .h ost, the proper day for celebrating Easter, the nature of the light upon Mount Tabor, or the existence in Christ of two independent but perfectly coincident wills, were discussed with a ferocity that seems almost to countenance the suggestion of Butler, that communities like indi- ^duals may be insane. But here again the doctrine of exclusive salvation exercised a decisive influence. As long as it was held and realised, the diversit-ies of private judgment must have waged a most unequal warfare with the unity of authority. Men could not long rest amid the conflict of opposing arguments 5 they could not endure that measure of doubt which is the necessary accompaniment of controversy. All the fractions of Cliristianity soon gravitated to one

-It is remarkable that Aris- exception, unequivocally de ا totle. whom the schoolmen nounced it. See much curious placed almost on a level with evidence of th is in Aljemand^ the Eathers, Owes his position havigerie, Ecole chretienne cF e a la ^ ؟se pr£se؛s ; Edesse. (Th؟reti ؛entirely to the early h that the introduction of his Faculty des Eettres de Paris, (.t in- ISoO؟philosophy was at fir Variably accompanied by an 2 Middleton’s Free Enquiry, increasO of heresy; and that In trod. p. 8C٠ the Fathers, with scarcely an 382 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

0 1 two great centres, and a spiritual despotism was consolidated which alone could control and temper the turbulent elements of medieval society, could impose amoral yoke upon the most ferocious tyrants, could accomplish the great work of the abolition of slavery in Europe, and C-Ould infuse into Christendom such a measure of pure and spil.itual truth as to prepare men for the better phase tliat was to follow it. All this was done by the doctrine of exclusive sal. vation. At the Reformation, wlien the old Churcli no longer harmonised witli the intellectual condition of Europe, and when the spirit of revolt was manifested on all subjects and in all countries, the doc- andaltliough ؛trine was for the most part unchallenged it undoubtedly produced an inconceivable amount of mental suifering, it had at least the effect of terminat- ing rapidly the anarchy of transition. The tenacity with which it was retained by the Reformers is of. course partly due to th.e difficulty of extricating the but it ؛ mind from old theological modes of tliought was, I think, still more the result of that early tendency to depreciate the nature and the works of man which threw them naturally upon dogmatic systems. There were, indeed, few subjects on whiclr tliey were The doctrine of salvation in the ٤ .so unanimous was held by ﺀ ,Church,, writes a learned living autlior all the Lutherans and Reformed, and by the sects which separated from them, as well as bytheRomisli and other Churches. Luther teaches that remission of sins and sanctification are only obtained in it j and Calvin says, “ Beyond the bosom of the Church, no !.emission of sins is to be hoped for, nor any salvation.” The Saxon Confession, presented to the Synod of Trent A.D. 1551, the Helvetic Confession, the Bel- ON PERSECUTION. 383 gic, tlie Scottish—-all avow tliat salvation is only to bo liad in the Church. The Presbyterian divines as- Hnmble ٤٤ senibled at Westminster, A.D. 1047, in their ١ (Advice concerning a Confession of Paith ” (c. 25 declare that “ the visible Church, which is also Catho. lique and universal under the Cospel (not confined to one nation, as before undei. the Law), consists of all tliose throughout the world tliat profess the true religion . . . out of wliicli there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.’» The Independents admitted tlie Nor was tlie position of the Anglican Church ؛ ’.same at all different. The Atlianasian Creed was given an honoured place among her formularies, and tlie doctrine which that creed distinctly asserts was implied in several, of the services of the Church, and was strongly maintained by a long succession of her divines.2 Among the leading Reformers, Zuinglius, and Zuinglius alone, openly and unequivocally re- ١vrote pudiated it. In a Confession of Faitli which Ire just before his death, and whicli marks an important epocli in the history of the human mind, he described assembly of all ٤ in magnificent language that future tlie saintly, the lieroic, the faithful, and tlie virtuous,’ when Abel and Enoch, Noah and Abraham, Isaac Socrates, Aristides, and ٤ and Jacob, will mingle with Antigonus, with Numa and Camillus, Hercules and Theseus, the Scipios and the Catos,’ and when every upright and holy man who has ever lived will be -٠ur age, wlien the doc present with his God.3 In trine of exclusive salvation seldom excit.es more than Palmer, On the Church, full by Bossuet, Variations ا liv. ii. c. 19. The yol. i. p. 13. fotestantes٠ 8 See a great deal of evi- original confession was pub- dence of thiS in Palmer. lislied by Bullinger, in 1536, .This passage is given in with a very laudatory preface ا .RATIONALISM IN EUROPE ،38 a smile, such language appears but natural, but when ,١vas first written it excited on all sides amaze it ment and indignation. Luther on reading it said he despaired of tlie salvation of Zuinglius: Bossuet quotes the passa.ge as a climax to his charges against tlie Swiss Reformer, and quotes it as if it required no comment, but was in itself sufficient to liand

؛ down its autlior to tlie contempt and indignation 0 posterity. I shall now proceed to examine tlie more remote consequences of the doctrine of exclusive salvation, in order to trace the connection between its decline and some other remarkable features of therationalis- tic movement. In tlie first place, it is ma.nifest that -tlie conceptions I have I١eviewed are so directly op posed to our natural sense of what is riglit and just., to all tlie conclusions at which thoso great teacliers arrived who evolved tlieir doctrines from their own moral nature, that they must establish a permanent opposition between d o ^ a tic tlieology and natural religion. When tlie peace of the Churcli has long lieen undisturbed, and wlien the minds of men are not directed with very strong interest to dogmatic questions, conscience will act insensibly upon the belief, obscuring or effacing its ti'ue character. Men

^11 instinctively endeavour to explain it away, 0 1 . to dilute its force, or td diminish its prominence. But wlien tlie agitation of controversy has lirought the doctrine vividly before tlie mind, and when the enthusiasm of tlie contest has silenced tlie revolt of conscience, tlieology ndlibe developed more and more in the same direction, till the very outlines of natural religion are obliterated. Thus we find that those predestinarian theories which are commonly Iden- 3 8 5 ON ۶ EK^ECUT٤ON٠

tified witli Calvin, though they seem to have heen substantially held by St. Augustine, owe their reception mainly to the previous action of the doctrine of exclusive salvation upon the mind. For the one ob- ection 'to the metaphysical and other arguments tlie؛ Calvinist can urge, which will always appear conclusive to .the great majority of mankind, is the moral objection. It is this objection, and this alone, which enables men to cut through that entangling maze of arguments conceraing freewill, foreknowledge, and .-predetermination, in which the greatest intellects both of antiquity and of modern days have been hopelessly involved, and whicli the ablest meta- physicians have pronounced inexti'icable. Take away -the moral argument: persuade men that when ascribing to the Deity justice and mercy they are speaking of qualities generically distinct from those which exist among mankind-qualities which we are altogether unable to conceive, and which may be com- -patible with-acts tliat men would term grossly unjust and unmercifril: tell them that guilt may be entirely unconnected with a personal act, that millions of -infants may be called'into existence for a moment to be precipitated into a place of torment, that vast nations may live and die, and tlien be raised again to hey did؛ endure a never-ending punishment, because. , .not behove in ,a religion of which they had never heard, 'or because a crime was committed thousands of years .before they were in existence: convince them that all this is part of a transcenden'tly perfect and righteous moral scheme, and there is no imaginable abyss to which such a doctrine will not lead. You will have blotted out those frndamental .notions of.right.and wrong which the Creatoi. has c c ا ..VOI R a t i o n a l i s m i n E U R O P E .

.yon will liave extin ئ engraven upon eve^ lieart guished the lamp of conscience j you ^11 have fought men to stifle the inner voice as a lying witness, and to esteem it virtuous to flisohey it. But even this does not represent the foil extent of tlie evil. The doctrine of exclusive salvation not only destroys the moral objection to that ghastly system of religious fatalism which Augustine and Calvin constructed, it directly leads to it hy teaching that the ultimate destfoy of the immense majority of mankind is de- terenined entii٠ely irrespectively of their will. Millions

die in infancy j millions live and die in heatlienlands 5 millions exist in ranks of society where tliey have no opportunities for engaging in theological research; millions are so encumbered by the prejudices of education that no mental effort can emancipate them from the cliain. We accordingly find that pre- destinarianism was fo tlie first instance little more t.han a developement of the doctrine of exclusive salvation. St. Augustine illustrated it hy the case of a mother who had two infants. Each of these is hut

a lump of perdition 5 ’ neither has ever performed a ، moral act. The mother overlies one, and it perishes unbaptised j the other is baptised, and is saved. But the doctrine of Augustine and Ambrose never seems to have been pushed in the Early Church te the same extremes, or to have been stated with the same precision as it afterwards was by the Reform- Tlie mild and sagacious Erasmus soon perceived ١.ers The doctrine of double pre- spirit of a theologian, and by ا n- Scotus Erigena in the spirit Of؛wever, ma ؟destination was, h t-ained in the ninth century by a freetliinker. Eor an Occount a monk named .oteschalk. of this once-famous oontroversy who was opposed by Hinckmar, see the learned work of M. St.- Archbisliop of Rheims.. in the Ren^ Taillandier, Scot trigene 87ج .ON PERSECUTION in this one of tlie principal evils of the Reformation, and be wrote a treatise in defence of freewill, which elicited from Luther one of tlie most unequivocal, and certainly one of the most revolting declarations The ٤ .of fatalism in the whole compas.s of theology human will,’ said Luther, *is like a beast of.burden. If God mounts.it, it wislies and goes as God wills j if Satan mounts .-it, it wislies and goes as Satan wills. Nor canitclioose the rider it would pi’efer, or betake ,itself to him, but it is the riders who contend for its possession.’’. 4 This is the acme of faith, to believe that He' is merciful who saves so few and who con- that He is just who at His own ل demnS so .many pleasure has made U S necessarily doomed to damnation; so tliat, 'as Erasmus says. He seems to -delight in the .tortures of the wretclied, and .to be more deser^ng of hatred than of love. If by any effort of reason I could conceive how God could be merciful and just who shows so much anger and God ؛'- ا’.iniquity, there would be no need for faith- et la Pkilosopilie sekolastique prisoned, and to bo sconrged. Inquisition٠٠؟ Strasbourg, 1813), pp. 51-58; (Uonte, Hist, de and for a contemporary view tom. i. p. 20.) Sic hnniana voluntas in ٠ ا ,tlie opinions of Gotteschalk ٤٠ 0 see a let.ter by Amulo. Arcli- medio posita estceu jumentum, bisbop of Lyon's (tlie immediate si insederit Heus vult et vadit successor of Agobard), printed quo vult Deus, ut Psalmus with tbe works of Agobiird dicit: “ Tactus sum sicut ju- (Paris, 1666). According to montum et ego sejnper tecum.’' ,Amulo, Hotteschalk not only Si insederit Satan vult et vadit .held the doctrines of reproba- quo vult Satan ; nec est in ejus emption, arbitrio ad utrum sessorem؛tion and particular red. hut even declared that the Al- currere aut eum qu.rere, sed mighty re.joiced and -exulted ipsi sessores cei’tant ob ipsum .over the destruction of tliose obtinendum et possidendum.' who were predestinated to dam- (De Servo Jrbiirio, pars i. sec. nation. Gotteschalk was condemned t.0 .be degraded from tile priesthood, to be im. dus, credere ilium esse-clemcn- cc2 388 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. foreknows nothing subject to contingencies, bnt He foresees, foreordains, and accomplishes all tilings by m unchanging, eternal, and efficacious will. By this؛ ا ’.thunderbolt freewill sinks shattered in tlie dust Such were the opinions of the greatest of the I formers. The doctrine of Calvin and liis scliool was equally explicit. According to tliem, the Fall, with all its consequences, was pred'etermined ages before the Creation, and was the necessary consequence of that predetermination. The Almighty, they taught, frrevocably decided the fate of each individual long before He called Ilim into existence, and lias pre. destinated millions to his liati.ed and to eterna.l damna. tion. With that oliject He gave them being-w ith that object He witliliolds from tliem t.lie assistance that alone can correct the perversity .of the nature with which He created tliem. He will hate them ١١٠ill cast tliem into during life, and after deatli He tern qui tam paucos salvat tam teritur penitus liberum arbir multos damnat., credere jttstum trium.’ (Sec. 10.) I give these qui sua voluntate nos necessario sections according to Vaughan’s diimnabiles facit, ut videatur, translation (1823), for in,the referente Erasmo, delectari original edition (1526) there crticiatibus miserorum, et odio are no divisions, and tlie pages potius quam amore dignus. Si are not numbered. Melanch- igitur possem ulla ratione com- thon, in the first edition of his prehendere quomodo is Heus Commonplaces, expressed ex- inisericors et justus, qui tan- treme predestinarian views, tam iram et iniquitatem osten- 'but omitted them in later edh dit, non esset opus fide.. (Ibid, tions.' Luther, in his old age, sec. 23.) said he could not review with Est itaque et hoc imperfect sat.isfaction ,any o'f his ٠ ا ١vorks except, perliaps,». his primis necessarium et salutare Christian, nosse, qual Eeus Catechism and his De Servo nihil prjescit contingiter, sed Arbitrio (N auru's "Preface, -quod omnia incommutabilia et p. 57). There is a full not.ice ieterna, infallibilique voluntate ot' this book in one' of Sir w . et pravidet et praponite^facit. Hamilton’s essays. Hoc fulmine sternitur et eon- ON PERSECUTION. 389 the excruciating torments of und^ng fire, and will, watch their agonies without compassion through the ؛.couutlessages of eternity It is needless to, comment upon such teaching as this. That it makes the Deity the direct author of sin,2 tha.t it subverts all our notions of justice and of

On Calvin’s views, see es- (in his Freedom of Will) is that ا pecially his JDe M e r n a D e i .there can he no injustice in' -i d . In- punishing voluntary transgrcs ١ PT<£desti٠i t i , ( m e siitut. Christ, lib. iii. c. 21-23. sion, and that the transgressions of the reprohate are !؛؛r clearest ai؛e ؛ ؛ But perhaps men haring heen أ most' emphatC Statement is in voluntary a, work of Beza, De M e r n a since Adam created with wills Dei Prcedestmatione contra so hopelessly corrupt that without Divine assistance they - ﻫ ﺲ Sebastian Castelltoni lished. in the O pu scu la of Beza, must- inevitably he damned, and Genevm, 1658). The pointed God, having in the majority of objections on the score of moral cases resolved to withhold tha.t rectitude of his rationalistic assistance. The fatality, there- bought the enormi- fore, does not consist in man ؛opponen ties of .the Calvinistic doctrine heing compelled to do certain into the fullest relief. There is things whether he wishes it or a. curious old translation of not, but in his being brought this work, under .the title of into the world with such a -Beza's Display 0، f P o p ish P ra c - nature that his wishes neces tices. or Patched Pelagiamsm, sarily tend in a given direc- translated by w . HOpkinson tion. (I^ndon, 1578). Beza especi- 2 Calvinists, indeed, often ل ally insists on t.he unfairness protest against this conclusion of accusing Calvinists of assert- but it is almost self-evident, ing that God so hated some and the ablest writer of th. men that S e predestinated school admits it in a sense' tliem to dest.ruction; the truth which is quite sufficiently large being that God of His free for his opponents: *If by the sovereignty predestinated them author of sin is meant the per- to destruction, a.nd therefore to mitter or not hinderer of sin, . God is and at the same time a disposer ٠ .so that أ His hatred not moved witli the hatred of of the state of events in such a any that. He should, drive him manner for wise, holy, and to destruction,' but He hatli most excellent ends and pur. hated whom He hath predes- poses that sin, if it be per- tinated to destruction.’ Another mitted or not hindered, ^11. point on which Jonathan Ed- most certainly and infallibly Wards especially has insisted follow., I say, if this b e a fi 390 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. mercy, that the simple statement of it is inexpressibly shocking and revolting, can hardly be denied-by it.s٠ warmest supporters. Indeed, when we combine this teaching with the other doctrines I have -considered in the present chapter, the whole m'aybe regarded as unequalled in tlie religious h isto^ -.f mankind. In our age such tenets have retired from the blaze of they are found only in the obscure c itin g s of ؛ day obscure men. Since Jon'athan Edwards' they have had no exponent of undoubted geniUs", and no dis. tinguished writer could venture without a serious loss-, of reputation openly to profess them. Such language as wa-s employed on this subject by men like Luther,' Calvin, and Beza, while in the zenith of their popularity, would not now be tolerated for a moment outside a small and uninfluential circle. The rationalistic spirit has so pervaded all our habits of thought, that every doctrine which is repugnant to our moral sense- and ؛excites an intense' and ever-increasing aversion as the doctrine of exclusive salvation, whicli prepai٠ed the mind for the doctrine of reprobation, is no longer- realised, the latter appears peculiarly revolting. Another very important subject upon which the' doctrine of exclusive salvation has exercised ^ eat ؛.influence, is the relation between dogmas and morals The older theolo^ans invariably atfributed to dogmas an intrinsic efficacy which was entirely independent- of their effect upon life. Thus we have already had occasion to observe, that in the Early Church no con-.' troversies were deemed so important as those which concerned the connection between the two natures, that is meant, I do not deny tination of the fall of Adam., :hor of sin.» whose .will was not hopelessly؛that God is the au (Jonat.han Edwards, Freedom corrupt, has of course Its ow^ o f W ill, p. 369.) The p'r'edes- peculiar difficulties. ON PERSECUTION. 391 in Christ, and that at the Reformation the acceptance or rejection of transubstantiation was made the Jiabitnal test of orthodoxy. On the other hand, tlie politician, in a secnlar age, is inclined to value religious systems solely according to their influence upon the acts of mankind. He sees that religions controversies have often dislocated the social system, have presented an insuperable obstacle to the fnsio'n of the different elements of a nation, have produced long and sangui- nary wars, and liave diverted a large proportion of intellect and energy from enterprises that are con- ducive to the welfare of society. These he considers the evils of theology, which are compensated for by the control that it exercises over the passions of mankind, by the high sense of duty it diffuses, by the consolations it affords in age, in suffering, and in sorrow, and by the intensity of the philanthropy it inspires. His object therefore is to encourage a system in which the moral restraint shall be as great as possible, and the dogmatic elements shall be few and torpid. The rationalist occupies a central position between the two. Like the early theologian, he denies that the measure of theological excellence is entirely utilitarian; like the politician, he denies that dogmas possess an intrinsic efficacy. He believes that they are intended to act upon and develope the affective or emotional side of human nature, that they are the vehicles by whiclr certain principles are conveyed into the mind which would otherwise never be received, and that vhen t.hey have discharged their functions they must lose their importance. In the earlier phases of society men have never succeeded in forming a purely spiritual and moral conception of the Heity, and they therefore make an image 3 . 2 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. which, they worship. By this means the conception of the Beity is falsified and debased, bnt the moral influence of worship is retained: a great evil is the price of an inestimable benefit. As, however, men- obtain with increasing civilisation a capacity for forming purer and more moral concepti.ons, idolatry' becomes an unmingled evil, and is in consequence at last abandoned. Just in the same way a purely moral reli^on, appealing to a disinterested sense of duty and perception of excellence, can never be efficacious in a-n early condition of society. It is consequently mat.erialised, associated with innumerable ceremonies, with elaborate creeds, witli duties that bear no rela- tionto moral sentiments, with an ecclesiastical.frame. and with a copious legendary. Through all ,حworl this extraneous matter tlie moral essence filters down to the people, preparing them for the higher phases of developement. Gradually the ceremonies drop away, the number of doctrines is reduced, tlie ecclesiastical ideal of life and character is exchanged for the moral ideal; dogmatic conceptions manifest an increased flexibility, and the religion is at last transfigured and regenerated, radia,nt in all its parts with the pure spirit that had created it. It is manifest that according to this view there exists a certain antagonism between the dogmatic and the moral elements of a religious system, and that their relative influence will depend mainly on the degree of civilisation 5 an amount of dogmatic pressure which is a great blessing in one age being a great ؛evil in anotlier. Now, one of the most obvious con sequences of the docti.ine of exclusive salvation is that it places the moral in perma-nent subordination to the dogmatic side of religion. I f there be a Catholic ON PERSECUTION. 393.

’,which except a man believe he cannot be saved ﺀ faith before ﺀ it is quite natural that men should, deem it necessary to liold it. If tlie purest moral ٠ a ll things life cannot atone for error, while a true religion has many means of effacing guilt, the mind will naturally turn to'the doctrinal' rather than to the practical side. The extent to which tliis tendency lias .been m'ani- -fested in the Church of Rome is well kno١vn. Pro testant controversialists have often drawn up long and perfectly a'uthentic lists of celebrated characters wlio were stained with every crime, and who have nevertheless been among the favourites of the Church, who have clung to her ordinances with full orthodox tenacity, wlio have assuaged by her absolution every qualm of conscience, and wlio have at last, by endowing a monaste^ or undergoing a penance or directing a persecution against heretics, persuaded themselves that they had effaced all the crimes of tlieir lives. In Protestantism this comliination of devotion and immorality, which is not to be confounded with hypocrisy, appears more rare. Lives like that of Benvenuto Cellini, in which tlie most atrocious crimes alternate witli ecstasies of.the most rapturous and triumphant piety, are scarcely ever to be met ^ th , yet it would be rash to say that the evil is unknown. The tenacity with whicli Pro- testant nations cling to the orthodox tenets of the Reformation can scarcely, I think, be said to bear any fixed proportion to the national morality, and Sweden, which of all Protestant countries has been most conspicuous for its prolonged legislation against het.ero- doxy, is said to be equally conspicuous for tlie scan- dalous amount of illegitimacy among the people.!

See Laing’s Sweden, pp. 108-141, where this question ا 394 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

These are the contradictions that resnlt from the doctrine of exclusive 'salvation among those who do not belong to a high order of sanctity, and who gladly purchase a license for the indulgence of their passions by an assiduous cultivation of what they deem the more important side of their faith. A very much more general tendency, and one which lias exercised a far more pernicious influence upon tlie histo^ of mankind, is displayed by those whose zeal is entirely unselfish. Being convinced that no misfortiine can lie so great as heresy, and tliat the heretic is doomed, to eternal misery, they have habitually supported their creed liy imposture and falsehood. That they should do this is quite natural. Whatever may be the foundation of the moral law, it is certain that in the eyes of the immense majority of mankind there yet at the bottom ل is minutely examined. This and c٠mfort is a mere question of figures. of the scale for religious feel- The following passage from ing, observances, or knowledge, another work of the same writer especially in the Protestant is less susceptible of decisive cantons, in which prosperity, proof, and is, I am inclined to wellbeing, and morality seem think, somewhat overstated, to be, as compared to the but is nevertheless very sug- Catholic cantons, in an inverse gestive: ‘The Swiss people ratio to the influence of religion It is a very ٠ . .. .present to the political philoso- on the peo.ple pher the unexpected and most remarkable social state, similar, remarkable social phenomenon perhaps, to that of the ancient of a people eminently moral in Romahs, in whom morality and conduct yet eminently irre- social virtue were also 6U S- ligious: at the head of the tained ^thout the aid of re- moral state in Europe, not ligious influences.. (Laing’s merely for absence of numerous Notes o.f tt T ie lle r . pp. n or great crimes, or of disregard 147.) Dr. Arnold said, I think of right, but for ready obe- truly, that the popular notion dience to law, for honesty, about the superior prosperity fidelity to their engagements, of the Protestant over the for fair-dejiling, sobriety, in- Catholic cantons is greatly ex- dustry, orderly conduct, for aggerated: it exists in some good government, useful public cases and not in others. institutions, general.wellbeing. ON PERSECUTION. 395 are soDie overwhelming considerations that will justify’ a -breach of its prorisions. If some great misfortune were to befall a man who lay on a sick bed, trembling between life and death j if the physician declared that t.he knowledge of that misfortune would be certain death to the patient, and if concealment were only possible by a falsehood, there are very few moralists who would condemn that falseliood. If the most were to meet ٠ pious frauds ٤ ard'ent denouncer of an assassin in pursuit of an innocent man, and were able by misdirecting the pur.suer to save the fugi-tive, it may be safely predicted that the lie would be unscrupulously uttered. It is not v e^ easy to justify -these' things by argument, or to draw a clear but ؟ line between criminal and innocent falsehood that there are circumstances which justify untruth has always been, admitted by the common sentiment of mankind, and has b.een distinctly laid down by the most eminent moralists.! When therefore a man believes that those who adopt an erroneous opinion will be consigned to perdition, when he not only believes this but realises it as a living and operative truth, and when he perceives that it is possible either by'direct falseh'ood or by the suppression or distortion of truth to strengthen the evidences of his faith, he usually finds the 'temptation irresistible. But there are two very important distinctions between the hypo- thetical-cases I have mentioned and the pious frauds of theologians. The fi’rst are the results of isolated moral judgments, while the latter are systematised and raised to the dignity of a re'gular doctrine. The

lays down Roman tium, lib. iii. c. 2٠ .؛Thus, n.t t . quo ا Catholic authorities, Jeremy several cases of justifiable fals^ Taylor, in the Ductor Vubitan• hood.. - RATIONALISM. IN EUROPE.296

Erst, again, spi.ing from circumstances that are s', extremely rare and exceptional that they can scarcely have any perceptible influence upon tbe general veracity of the person who utters them, while .the second induce a habit of continual, falsehood. The lathers )aid down as a distinct proposition that pious and' if they ؛,frauds were justifiable and even laudable had not laid-this down they would nevertheless have practised them as a necessa^ consequence of their doctrine of exclusive salvation. Immediately all ecclesiastical literature became tainted with a spirit of the most unblushing mendacity. Heathenism wag. to be combated, and therefore prophecies of Christ hy ١vere forged, l^ng wonders Orpheus and tlie Sibyls were multiplied, and cea.seless calumnies poured upon tliose who, like Julian, opposed tire faith. Heretics- were to be convinced, and tlierefore interpolations of old writings or complete forgeries were habitually opposed to the forged Gospels. The veneration of relics

See on this subject the the secrets of that sect. The ٤ evidence collected in Middle- most revolting aspect of this, ,the curious subject is the notion that here ل ton’s Free Enquiry panegyric on the habit of tell- tics are so intensely criminal ing lies in St. Clirysostom O n as to have no moral rights-a the Priesthood; the remarks of favourite doctrine in Catholic' Coleridge in The Friend) and countries where no Protestant' - lCroui.es et Le- or sceptical public opinion ex ؟oi lu i gendcS) p. 268). St. Augustin'e. ists. Thus the Spanish Bishop however, is in. this respect an Sim ancas-‘Ad pmnam quoque exception. In liis t.reatise Con- pertinet et hffireticorum odium, tra Mtndacium lie strongly de- quod fides.illis data servanda -est.. Nam si tyrannis, pi ط -nounced the tendency, an(l es pecially condemns tlie Pris- ratis, et cateris prffidonibus cillianists, among whom it quia corpus occidunt fides ser- appears to have been very com-' vanda non est, longe minus -؛mon, and also certain Catholics h^reticip pertinacibus qui occ ٠ who thought it justifiable to dunt anirias.. (Be Catholicis . p ١٩١ pretend to be Priscillianists I)i8titutiomb'u for the purpose of discovering 397ON PERSECUTION. 397ON

-and ،lie monastic system were introduced, and there fore innumerable miracles were attributed to tlie bones of saints 0 1 . to tbe prayers of hermits, and were solemnly asserted by the most eminent ofthe Fathers.* The tendency was not confined to those Eastern nations which had been always almost destitute of the sense of truth 5 it triumphed wherever the supreme importance of dogmas was held. Generation after generation it became more universal j i't continued till the very sense of truth and the very love of trutli seemed blotted out ftom the minds of men. - That .this is no exaggerated' pictui.e of tlie con. dition at which the middle ages'arrived, is known to ؛all who have any acquaintance with its literature for during that gloomy pei’iod the only scholars in Europe wore priests and monks, who conscientiously beli.eved that no amount of falsehood was reprehen- sible which conduced to the edification of tlie people. Not only did they pui.sue witli the grossest calumny every enemy to their faith, not only did they encirc.le every saint, with a halo of palpable fic'tion, not 'only did tliey invent tens of thousands of miracles for -tlie purpose of stimulating devotion-tbey also very

Since the ,last note was rightly Interpreted 01. not, is ا written, this subject has been the doctor of tlie great and discussed at some lengtli by. common view that all untruths Er. Newman, in liis Apologia - are lies, and that there can be . . . . just cause of untruth ﺀإ٠ -pro Vita sua. I do not, how ever, find anything to alter- in Now, as to the just cause, the what I liave stated. Er. New- Greek Fathers make them such man says (Appendix, p. 77): as these— self-defence, charity, ‘,The Greek Fathers'thought zealfor GocCs honour, and the It-is plain enOugh that. ؛.when there-was a junta like ؛that causa, an untruth need not be this last would include all of a lie. St. Augustine took what are comm.only termed anothCrview.though with g r ea t pious frauds, misgiving, and, whether ho .is ' . .RATIONALISM IN EUROPE 8وة naturally carried into all otter subjects tlie indiffer. their ا ﻟ ﺪ .ence to truth they had acquired in theology writings, and more especially their histories, became tissues of the wildest fables, so grotesque and at the same time so audacious, that they were the wonder ,the very men who scat ﺳ ﺪ .of succeeding ages tered these fictions broadcast over Chi.istendom, taught at the same time that credulity was a virtue long as the doctrhie of دand scepticism a crime. 8 exclusive salvation was believed and realised, it was necessary for the peace of mankind that they should be absolutely certain of the truth of what they be. lieved ; in ordei. to be so certain, it was necessary to suppress adverse arguments; and in order to 'effect this object, it was necessary that there should be no habit of د .critical or sceptical spirit in Europe boundless credulity was tlierefore a natural conse. quence of the doctrine of exclusive salvation j and not only did this habit naturally produce a luxuriant crop of falsehood, it was itself'the negation.-of the spirit of truth. Eor the man who really loves truth cannot possibly subside into a condition of contented credulity. He will pause long before accepting any doubtful assertion, lie will carefully balance opposing arguments, he will prolie every anecdote with scrupulous care, he will endeavour to divest himself of 'every prejudice, he will cautiously abstain from at. tributing to probabilities the authority of certainties. These are the essential characteristics of the spirit of truth, and by their encouragement or suppression we can judge how far a system of doctrine coincides with that spirit. We have see'n that there were three ways in ivhich the indissoluble associationi salvation with a par- ON PERSECUTION. S99 ilculifqrm j f belief produced or promoted the absolute indifference to truth and.-the boundless, i أ .that characterised the agesln-which-theo ر It. multiplied to an enormous ر extent'pious frauds, which we^re^perpetrated without أ cr۶ple because they were supposed to pro^.e ؛ that species of falseliood whicli is termed misrepre- ' V ا -a d wMc^ consis^ main^r of the sugres , ٠ه ؛ آلة ؛ج أ -o^enquiryWhich is at once the essentm^charac دذ إ teristic of the love of truth, and the sole bulwark ر,against the encroachments of error. There was however, yet another way, which, though v e^ closely connected with the foregoing, is sufficiently distinct to claim a separate consideration. A 'love of truth, by tlie very definition of the terms, implies a resol'ution under all circumstances to ap- proach as nearly as possible to its atta.inment, or in other words, when demonstration is impossible, to adopt the belief which seems most probable. In this respect there is an frnportant difference between speculative and practical life. He who is seeking for truth is bound always to follow what appeal’s to his mind to be the stress of probabilities 5 but in action it is sometimes wise to shape our course witli a ^ew to tlie least probable contingency; because we have to consider not merely the comparative pi’oba- bilities of success afforded by different courses, but also the magnitude of the results that would ensue. Thug, a man is justly regarded as prudent wlio in- sures his house against fire, hough an absolute and unrequited loss is the most probable consequence of liis act; because the loss he would suffer in the more 400 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. probable contingency is inconsiderable, and tile .ad. vantage lie wonld derive from the insurance in -the less probable contingency is very great. From this consideration Pascal~wbo with Fermat was the founder of what may be term’ed the scientific treatment of probabilities-derived a v e ^ ingenious argument in defence of his theological opinions, which was afterwards adopted by an English mathematician named Craig. 1 Tiiey contended,' that when' a religious system promises infinite rewards and threa't- ens infinite punishments, it is'the part 0 'fa wise man to sacrifice the present to embrace it, not merely if he believes the probabilities to preponderate in its favour, but even if he regards its truth as extremely improbable, provided the probabilities against it are not infinite. Now, as long as such an argument is urged simply with a view of inducing men to adopt a cert.ain coui.se of action, 'it ,lias no necessary con'- nection -with morals, and should lie judged upon prudential grounds.2 But tlie case becomes-widely -different when to adopt the least proliable coui.se means to acknowledge a Church which demands as tlie first condition of allegiance an alisolute and heartfelt belief in the truth of what it teaches.. When tliis is the case the argument of Pascal means.-, and only can mean, that men should by the force of will compel themselves to believe what they do not: be- that, they should .exert. ؛ lieve by the force of reaSon

In a very curions book Probability It is manifest ا called Theologies Christiancs that, if correct, obedience would Principia Mathematica. (Lon- be due to any impostor who dlni, 1699.) said he dreamCd that he was .a ader may find a re- Divine messenger, provide he؟The r 2 view of it mafle on those put his'promises ad'threaten- grounds in Lnphice, rpheoriedcs ings suficiently high. ON PERSECUTION. 4.1 all their efl'orts, by withdrawing their attention from one side and concentrating it npon the otlier, and by the emplo۴ ent of the distorting inflnences of the affections, to disturb the results of their judgment. Nor is this merely the speculation of some isolated mathematicians; it is a principle that is constantly acted on in eve^ society which is governed by the Mere sophisms or ؛.doctrine we are considering impei’fect reasoning have a comparatively small the intervention ل place in the history of human error of the will has always been the chief cause of delusion. Under the best circumstances we can but imperfectly guard against its influence; but wherever the doctrine of exclusive salvation is lield, it is reduced to a system and regai.ded as a rirtue. Certainly, whatever opinion may be lield concerning the general tenden.ciesofthe last three centuries, it is'impossible to deny the extraordinary diffusion of a truthful spirit, as manifested both in the increased intolerance of what is false and in tlie increased

Thus in the seventeenth was addressed, it may probably ٠ century the following was a be esteemed as thoroughly base popular Catholic argument. and demoralising as any that Protestants admit that Catho- it is even possible fOr the lies may be saved, but Catho- imagination to conceive. Yet ,it was no doubt veiy effective و lies deny that Protestants can therefore it is better to become and was perfectly in harmony -Catholic. Considering that with the doctrine we are con- ه Is ٠ ,this ,argument was designed, sidering. Selden asked by playing on superstitious their Church better than ours, 'tenors, and by obscuring thS because it has less charity?’ sense of the Divine goodness, and Bedell, in a passage wliich to induce men to tamper with Coleridge justly pronounced their sense of truth, and con- one of the most beautiful in sidering -too that it-s success English prose, compared the depended mainly on the ti- two churches in this respect to mi'dity, self-distrust, and mo- the rival mothers before Solo, desty of the person to whom it mon. VOL. I. D 4.2 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

suspicion of what is doubtfrl. This has been on© of the general results of advancing civilisati.on to which all intellectual influences have, converged} hut the improvement may be said to date more especially from the writings of the great secular philosophers of the seventeentli century. These philosophers destroyed the old modes of thought, not by the force of direct polemical discussion, but by introducing a method of enquiry and a standard of excellence incompatible with them. They taught men to esteem credulity discreditable, to wage an unsparing war against their prejudices, to distimst the verdicts of tlie past, and to analyse witli cautious scrutiny the foundat'ion of their belief. They taught them, above all, to cultivate that love of truth for its own sake which ؛ is perhaps the liigliest attribute of liumanity which alone can emancipate the mind from the countless influences that enthral it, and guide the steps through the labyrinth of human systems ; wliich shrinks from the - sacrifice of no cherished doctrine, and of no ancient tie ; and which, recognis- ing in itself the reflex of the Deity, finds in itself its own reward. # The conspicuous place which Bacon, Descartes, and Locke liave obtained in the history of the human mind, depends much less on the originality of their doctrines or their metliods than..on the skill with which they developed and diffiised them. Long before Descartes, St. Augustine had anticipated the cogito ergo sum j ’ but that which St. Au^istine ٤ had thrown out as a mere truism, or, at best, .as a passhig suggestion, Descartes converted into .the basis of a great philosophy. Half a century before Bacon, Leonardo da Vinci had exhibited the superi. ON PERSECUTION. 403 ority o f tlie inductive method, and had clearly stated its principles j bnt even if Leonardo had published his work, it may be safely asserted that tlie magnificent developement of Bacon was necessary to make that method supreme in science. Each of these great men attacked with, vast ability and marvellous success /٦vhich lay at tlie very root of V some intellectual vice the old habits of' thought. Descartes t.aught that the beginning of all knowledge was the rejection of every early prejudice, and a firm resolution to bring every opinion to the test of individual judgment. Locke taught the necessity of mapping out tlie limits of human faculties, and by his doctrine concerning innate ideas, and above all by his masterly analysis of'Enthusiasm, he gave the deathblow to tlie opinions of those who would remove a certain class of mental phenomena altogether from the jurisdiction of the reason.i Bacon) wliose gigantic intellect made excursions into every field, was pre-eminently noted for his' classification of tlie idola or distoi.ting influences that act on the mind, and for his constant injunction 'to correct theory by confronting it with facts. Des. cartes also, in addition to tlie vast intrinsic value of his works, liad the immense merit of doing more than any prerious writer to divorce philosophy from

It has heen observed by a a son distracted between his ا veiy able French critic- (M. duty to his dead father and to but while ل Littri) that the increasing ten- liis living mother dency. as civilisation advances, the Greek found it necessary to -substitute purely psyclio- to bring the Furies upon the logical for miraculous solutions scene to account for the mental is strikingly illustrated by a paroxysms of Orestes, the Eng- comparison of Orestes witli lishman deemed tlie natural Hamlet, The subject of both play and conflict of the emotions pieces is essentially the sa m e - amply sufficient to account for a tourdered king, a guilty wife, the sufferings of Hamlet. 404 RATIONALISM IN LUROTE. erudition, and to mate it an appeal to the reasoning powers of ordinary men. The sclioolmen, though they had carried philosophical definition almost to the highest conceivable point of perfection, had intro, duced a style of disquisition so pedantic and mono, tonous, so full of subtle distinctions and endless repetitions, that all but tlie most patient students were repelled by tlieir works j wliile their constant appeal to authority, and the fact that they wrote Only in Latin, excluded tlrose who were but little learaed from the discussion. Tlie great prominence academic prelections obtained about the time of the Reforma- tion contributed, I imagine, largely to introduce a simpler and more popular style. Ratlier more than ,The Method ’ of Descartes, Ramus ﺀ sixty years before Dialectics,’ had set the example of publishing؛ in his a philosophical work in French, and Bruno had ل thrown some of his dreamy speculations into Italian but neither of these men were sufficiently able to form a new epocli in the history of philosopliy, and their ends were not calculated to encoura.ge imitators . t h e first having been mui.dered by the Catholics on tlie night of St. Bartholomew, and the second burnt alive at Rome liy the Pope. Descai'tes more than anyone else was tlie author of wliat may lie called the democratic character of pliilosophy, and this is not the least of his merits. The influence of Locke and Bacon, a.gain, was especially powerful as a cor- rective oftlie old t.endency to fiction, on account of a certain unimaginative cliaracter that was exhibited by .the philosophies of b o th -a character tliat was perfectly congenial to the intellect of Locke, but very remarkable in the case of Bacon, among whose great facilities imagination occupied an almost dispropor. ؤON m uT ioft. 40 tionate prominence. That this feature of the Baconian philosophy is at present exercising a decidedly prejudicial influence o'n the English intellect, by producing an excessive distaste for the higher generalisations, and for all speculations that do not lead direct'ly to practical results, has been maintained by many Con- tinental writers, and by at least three of the most It is, indeed, quite true that ؛.eminent English ones Bacon never went in this respect so far as some of his disciples. He certainly never made utflity the sole object of science, or at least never restricted utility to material advantages. He asserted in the noblest language the superiority of abstract truth to all the fruits of invention, 2 and would never have called those speculations useless which form tlie intellectual cliaracter of an age. Yet, on the other hand, it must be acknowledged that the general tone of his writings, the extraordina^ emphasis which he laid upon the value of experiments, and above all upon the bearing of his philosophy on material comforts, represents a tendency which was very naturally developed into the narrowest utilitarianism. Those who regarded natural science simply as the minister to the material comforts of mankind were the disciples of Bacon, in much the same sense as Condillac and his followers were the disciples of Locke: they did

Coleridge, Buckle, 'and and beautiful than the manifold ا Mill. uses of itj to, assuredly, the And yet (to speak the very contemplation of things‘ ؛؛ whole truth), just as we are as they are, witliout supersti- deeply indebted to liglit be- tion or imposture, without cause'it enables US to enter on error or confusion, is in itself our way, to exercise 'arts, to more worthy than all the pro. .read, to distinguish one anotlier, duce of discoveries.' (h u m and nevertheless the sight of Organon.) light is itself more excellent 106 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

not accurately represent the doctrines of their master, hut they represented the general tendency of his teaching. 1 < But, whatever may be thought of the influence which the inductive philosophy now exercises on the English mind, there can be no doubt that both that philosopliy and the essay of Eocke were peculiarly fatal to the mediffival modes of thought on account of the somewhat plodding character they displayed. By enlarging the domain of tlie senses, by making experience tlie final test of truth, and by greatly discouraging the excursions of tlieorists, tliey checked the exuberance of the European imagination, imparted an air of grotesqueness to tlie wfld fictions that had so long been received, and tauglit men to apply tests botli to their'traditions and to their emo. tions which divested them of much of their apparent mystery. It was from the writings of Eocke and Bacon that Voltaire and his followers drew t.he prin. ciples that shattered the proudest ecclesiastical fabrics of Europe, and it is against these philosophers that the ablest defenders of medieval theology have ex. bibited the most bitter animosity.i

,Thus LeMaistre, tlie great terms *un charlatan,' and ا apostle of modern Ultramon- speaking of his ..eatest works, Le livre Be la Bignite et ﺀ :tanism, assures us that *dans says 1’^tude de la philosophie, le de E A cc ro isse m t des Sciences m£pris de Locke est le com- est done un ouvrage parfaite- . . . .and ment nul et m^prisable ’ ل mencement de la sagesse Essaisur Hitcudement truant au Novum O r ، : : il؟ / l humain est tres-certainement, est hien plus condamnatle et soit qu’on le nie ou qu’on en encore, puisque, indCpendam. ^mvienne, tout ce que le d£faut ment des erreurs particuhres ahsolu de gCnie et de style peut dont il fourmille, I b u t g6n£ral enfanter de plus assommant.' de Pourage le rend digne d’un .VEccaindelaPhtloso ٠١ ScirSes de St.-Petersbourg, M k m^ Entretien.) Bacon, lie calmly phis de Bacon.) In the same ON PERSECUTION. 407

ciplined the minds of men for impartial enquiry, and! 1/ ؛,b۶und them ؛ha ؟Ion ؟roken the spell that s ؛ ng؛hav ؛produced a passionate love of truth which has revo lutionised all departments of knowledge. It is to th^ impulse wliich was tlien communicated that may be traced the great critical movement which has renovated all history, all science, all tlieology-which h.as penetrated into tlie obscurest recesses, destro^ngold prejudices, dispelling illusions, 'rearranging the various parts of our knowledge, and altering the whole / e a^d character of our sympathies. Bibb allthis ؟ ؛sc ﻟﻢ ould have been impossible but for tlie diffusion of ؟ / c إ -a rationalistic spirit obscuring or destroying the no إ ,For, as w e‘have seen. ؛tion Of the ‘guilt ^of error whenever the doctrine of exclusive salvation is generally believed and realised, habits of thought will be formed around it'that are diametrically opposed to the spirit of enquiry and absolutely incompatible with human progress. An indifference to truth, a spirit of blind and at the same time wilful credulity will be encouraged, which wdl multiply fictions of every kind, will associate enquiry witli the ideas of danger and of guilt, will make men esteem that im. partiality of judgment and study which is the very soul of truth an unholy thing, and will so emascu- late their faculties as to produce a general torpor on every subject. For the different elements of our way, though in v e^ different version), have been ceaselessly language, the Tractarian party, carping at the psycnology Of and especially Dr. Newman Eocke and the inductive phi. (both before and after his con- losophy of Bacon. 408 RATIONALISM IN EUROPE.

knowledge are so closely united that it is impossible to di^de them into separate compartments, and to make a spirit of credulity preside over one compart, ment while a spirit of enquiry is animating the others'. ؟nd th؟, In the middle ages theology was suprem۶ ) spirit of that theology was absolute credulity, and tlie same spirit was speedily diffused through all forms ؛ -of tliouglit. In the seventeenth century the pre إ eminence of theology was no longer decisive, and the great secular writers introduced a love of impartiality and of free research which rapidly passed from natural science and metaphysics into tlieology, and destroyed

0 1 . weakened all those doctrines which were repug. ^ n an t to it. It was between the writings of Bacon and Locke tliat Chillingworth tauglit', for the first or almost for the first time in England, the absolute innocence of honest error. It was between tlie writings of Bacon and Locke that that latitudinarian scliool was formed wilieh was irradiated by the genius of Taylor, Glanril, and Hales, and which became the very centre and seedplot of reli^ous liberty. It was between the same writings that the writ Be Ecerelico com bu ren do was expunged from the Statute Book, and the soil of England foi. the last time stained with the إ misbeliever’s blood

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

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