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, To men, however, who are wholly ignorant of that history, and who judge only from the reports that pass current wherever 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 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 combatting 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 † Purg xxiv. * Baruch iii. 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 did not cause much greater *. Intervals 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" was all that Cæsar promised ; and, in fact it was not a singular epoch when men might reckon summers, like Thucydides, by wars. It is a fond desire, therefore, of the poet to find a lodge in some vast wilderness where rumour of unsuccessful or successful war may never reach him more. Pindar, indeed, had said of the sacred race of the Hyperboreans, that they lived apart from toil and battles, undisturbed by the revengeful Nemesis §. But, however heroes and their feats fatigued the former, he was forced to see that in every heart are sown the sparks that kindle fiery war. "Is it a thing possible that this world should be at peace?" asks the author of the Tree of Battles, and he answers, "Truly, it is not. Nature herself," he continues in his quaint but forcible style, "by difference of complexions causes war. Let there be two seigneurs in a country, one is of one *Castle of the Soul, chap. i. Lucan ii. + Hist. iv. complexion, the other of another. One loves justice, the other simony; one loves merchants, the other men of arms and pillage. One inclines to peace, the other to war; one sides by the King of France, the other by the King of England. Then, supposing them in an hotel together, one likes to eat early, the other late; one to speak too much, the other to listen; one likes white wine, the other red; and thus in consequence of the complexion of human bodies scarcely can there be accordance in this world. God, indeed, can make peace every where; for he can make all men good and wise, and for such men it will not be impossible to remain at peace; for the wise man is lord of his stars, and if by carnal inclinations he should be bent to war, by the virtue of wisdom he can surmount the inclination of the flesh; but the number of the unwise is great, and therefore war must follow*." Nor is overmuch importance attached to trifles in this curious passage. Sparta sent out a great armament against Polycrates of Samos, in order, as Herodotus says, to revenge the plunder of a cauldron and a breast-plate. "Here bread makes peace for you," says St. Augustin. "Take away bread, and see what a war will be within yout." The mere interview between worldly chiefs has produced great disorders. Such was the consequence of that between Don Fernando IV. of Castile, and Denis of Portugal, his father-in-law; and of that between Philip I. and Don Fernando. Between Hector and Achilles there was mortal anger which nothing but death could appease, on account of no other cause, if you can believe the poet, but that the highest virtue was in both t. Strange virtue as it would have been deemed in ages of faith, but perhaps consistent with all that fallen nature yields the most amiable of ancient poets ascribes to youth in happiest times, as a matter of indifference, the occupation of either cultivating the soil or of shaking towns with war §. The schoolmen see the necessity of the evil from estimating the confusion within the human heart. "What a perturbation of internal peace!" exclaims Richard of St. Victor ; thoughts contradict thoughts, and affections resist affections; and contrary emotions meet. Nation rises 66 L'Arbre des Batailles. In Psalm xxxiii. § Æn. ix. 606. 66 دو against nation; the evil are divided against themselves, and the Lord makes the Egyptians contend against Egyptians. Nay, what is still more strange, the good sometimes rise against the good, and a man fights against his brother and against his friend; and each one would devour the flesh of his own arm. From weakness of the head and will, the good often rise against the good, and the kingdom of Israel is divided into two parts, and they contend with each other in many battles and seditions; and never in any state during this life can there be found a firm peace or a perfect rest*. "Yes," exclaims Petrarch, such is the lot of all that are born, to be ever exposed to battle either against foreign or domestic foes. Our first and last hope must be Christ t." "Genoa would be a happy city," says its historian, "if it could be proclaimed to be without conflicts against foreign enemies; but no such state can exist for the reason that no mortal can be supremely happy t," or as Spenser says, "that blisse may not abide in state of mortall men." St. Avitus replies to Aurelien, who had congratulated him on some interval of rest amidst the invasion and domination of the Burgundians, "Yes, doubtless it is a manifest sign of prosperity, however fugitive and weak, to be able to receive news from one's friends; but this diluvian tempest of events and disasters which you describe can never wholly cease from agitating human things so long as we sail on the ocean of the world. If, then, we are allowed a moment for breath in these calamities, we must perceive it is a suspension, but not a termination, of our dangers-a little gleam of light, less to dissipate than to reveal our miseries, in order that our souls may be the more tempered to suffering. Cease, then, to regard these evils as finished; and let not prosperity elevate or adversity depress you, and hope for no port till you arrive at the world where tranquillity will reign for ever §." Even when there is not war either between nations or between kings, between kings and people or monarchies and republics, still to vex man's peaceful state there must be battle between the two forms of the human intelligence, between faith and rebellious * De Statu interioris Hominis, 1. i. c. 17. 19. † Epist. x. 12. Stellæ Annales Genuenses, lib. i. c. 6. § Epist. xxxiv, reason, those two distinct powers having each their chiefs, their assemblies, their pulpits, and mysteries; for with the world began a war which will finish with the world, and not before-that between faith or the catholic power, and negation or the rationalist power serving a rebellious will, the one descending from God through the patriarchs and the Jews to Christ, the other from the demon through all those who have imitated his pride. History is nothing else but the narrative of this interminable struggle. Impiorum omnium caput Diabolus est," says St. Gregory. So the author of the Tree of Battles asks, "Where was the first battle?" and answers, "in heaven, when an angel rebelled against the sovereign Lord God; and truly it is no great marvel that in this lower world there should be many great and marvellous wars and battles, since even above in heaven there were wars and battles *." This great battle was not fought, however, with material arms. "It was," says Bossuet, a conflict of thoughts and of sentiments. The angel of pride said, Let us do our own will like God; and Michael asked on the contrary, Who is like God? whence is his name." The war in heaven was soon finished, but it broke out afresh within the human heart, where the demons hoped to re-establish their former empire. When there were only four persons in the world, one of them slew his brother. The conclusion which the philosopher comes to, had been drawn by St. Augustin, "the first founder of the earthly state was a fratricide, and it is not strange," he adds, "that its history should correspond with that archetype +." But we need not leave the middle ages to find profound views on this subject. Vincent de Beauvais says, "In Cain began the malice of the reprobatein Abel the patience of the saints. Cain built an earthly city, and congregated wealth by rapine and violence, and invited his friends to robbery, and fearing those whom he injured, on account of security, collected them in cities; and Cain is born before just Abel, to show that in Adam the whole human race is corrupted in mass, and that when any one from that mould is made a vessel of honour, this proceeds not from nature, but from the mercy of God, calling the studies of the sons of Cain," he adds, : L'Arbre des Batailles, c. 11. ↑ De Civ. Dei, xv. 5. |