OW we have turned to the seventh circle of beatitude our ascending step,though had we not assurance that still two lines were to be passed, we might suppose that all had been already seen. We are, in truth, so near the sum of blessedness, that separate lights are swallowed up in the universal radiance. Encompassed with a perfumed air of such sweet intensity, we shall not easily be able to distinguish the fragrance of any fresh flowers of the divine garden. As a man, who has travelled over much of the earth, considers how he has been in this place and in that, and ponders many things, so we, having in our memory the children of grace who inherited the first six promises from the mountain, may feel it almost superfluous now to ask where are those to whom were made the seventh, or that which is the complement of all. We have already seem them. If, indeed, we sought to imitate the style of geometricians, we might consent to this suggestion and conclude our history here; for in their lessons they take for granted whatever has been taught before, and proceed to explain only that on which they have not already written. But we would follow rather that of the philosophers, who, as one of their own number says, accept whatever comes to their hand, and heap

all things together, even such as had been discussed in another place. To those who ask now, were the middle ages remarkable for having produced a multitude of pacific men? it would be a sufficient reply if we referred them to the former books, in which they have seen that men in those ages possessed in rich abundance the first six of these graces; for this being proved, it is a necessary consequence that they were, indeed, the sons of peace. Clearly there must have been much peace to the poor in spirit and the meek; for if, as we have shown, the latter verified the promise, "Omnis locus quem calcaverit pes, vester erit," they were, as St. Bernardine of Sienna distinguishes, "pacifically constituted the lords of the world." As clearly there must have been peace to the blessed mourners who found it in their detachment from the world and in their tears; to those also who so loved the divine law as to thirst after its universal reign; to those, again, whom mercy and love necessarily rendered peace-makers; and, finally, to those who had obtained that wisdom from above which St. James describes as being first pacific, and which St. Augustin ascribes to the pacific, in whom all things are ordered, and no motion rebels against reason, but all things obey the spirit of man as he obeys God, whom to see is to see peace.

• Deut. xi.

Nevertheless, we will not content ourselves with such an answer; but to illustrate from history the two sentences which yet remain, we shall devote separate books; and if our wish may be fulfilled, although we have thus seen before that men in ages of faith were eminently the lovers of divine peace, and the blessed sufferers for sake of justice, we shall still adduce historic proof for each of these propositions separately.

Not without a mystery, according to the gloss adduced by St. Bernardine of Sienna, is the beatitude of peace ranked in the seventh degree; for in the sabbath of true rest will be given true peace. And St. Ambrose shows how justly it follows the beatitude of the clean of heart; since it is only when the interior has been purified that men can begin to enjoy that peace which they can then impart to others. The order of history after the sermon of our Lord upon the mount will not be found to exclude direct evidence in proof of the love and possession of divine peace. The wise, the great, the unforgotten,—those who wore mitres, and helms, and crowns, -were all encompassed with it. What others gained who with no less purity walked in the way of God unnoticed, may be learned from him who prophesied of old that such should dwell in peace upon the earth; so that, in fact, it is the historian who has profoundly studied the character of the ages of faith, who is of all men the best qualified to explain the true nature of this divine state, and to appreciate its felicity. He best can tell how sweet to the generations of men is peace; he best can show how to cultivate, preserve, and impart tranquillity; so that when referring men to the thoughts and manners of Catholic ages, his counsel may be expressed in the words of that spirit which cried to Dante and his guide,

-If ye desire to mount,
Here must ye turn: this way he goes,
Who goes in quest of peace."†

To men, however, who are wholly ignorant of that history, and who judge only from the reports that pass current whenever the voice of modern sophists has prevailed, there will seem to interpose an objection of immense difficulty; for they are persuaded that the history of the middle ages contains nothing but the spectacle of social chaos, an uninterrupted course of + Purg xxiv.

* Baruch iii.

wars, and violence, and confusion. The historians, like the poets of our days, sing the misery of man, and, like the fallen angels in Milton's hell, lament the destiny which is to them unknown; but, like them also," their song is partial." Nevertheless, however we may be convinced that their view in this respect is mistaken, we cannot be dispensed from seeking to prove that it is so; and, therefore, from this elevation where we stand, our steps must lead us back awhile to regions of sin and darkness, and to those scenes of horror which modern writers love to unfold.

That wars and violence should have been found in ages of faith is an observation which affords no ground for combating the truth that is to be illustrated in this book respecting the multitude of those who inherited the blessing pronounced upon the pacific by our Divine Saviour. Under the religion of Him who said He came "not to send peace upon earth but a sword," and who never promised to secure the interests of the world and of material prosperity, the reign of temporal order can never be considered as an accurate criterion to estimate the degree of approximation of ages to the true end of man. The peace which He offered was, as we shall see presently, something different from this temporal external order which many enthusiasts, in various ages of the Church, proposed to establish. During the ages of faith all who heard the Church were perfectly aware that in the present condition of men there must be wars and disorders to punish, correct, and try the human race. If in the Church of God, for which Christ died, there must be heresies, what Christian could be scandalized at finding horrors affecting the material order in the world, for which Christ did not pray? St. Theresa was told by a spiritual man that he was not surprised at the evil which is committed by men in the state of mortal sin, but that he could not sufficiently wonder that they Intervals did not cause much greater.* of order, breathings, as it were, would occur, but nothing more. "We shall rest during a certain number of days, but on the next we shall fight again;" and in saying this to Achilles Priam relates the history of the world. What Tacitus says on the death of Vitellius might be its motto: "Rather war ceased than peace began." "Dum paci dat tempus hiems"

Castle of the Soul, chap. i. † Hist. iv.