A Source Book of Mediaeval History Part 10

Those who are at variance, and those who are at peace.

Lovers of strife and peacemakers.

Those who understand not aright the words of sacred law; and those who understand them indeed aright, but speak them without humility.

Those who, though able to preach worthily, are afraid through excessive humility; and those whom imperfection or age debars from preaching, and yet rashness impels to it.

[Sidenote: How the wise and the dull are to be admonished]

(Admonition 7)[100]. Differently to be admonished are the wise of this world and the dull. For the wise are to be admonished that they leave off knowing what they know[101]; the dull also are to be admonished that they seek to know what they know not. In the former this thing first, that they think themselves wise, is to be overcome; in the latter, whatsoever is already known of heavenly wisdom is to be built up; since, being in no wise proud, they have, as it were, prepared their hearts for supporting a building. With those we should labor that they become more wisely foolish[102], leave foolish wisdom, and learn the wise foolishness of G.o.d: to these we should preach that from what is accounted foolishness they should pa.s.s, as from a nearer neighborhood, to true wisdom.

[Sidenote: Emphasis on the importance of setting a right example]

But in the midst of these things we are brought back by the earnest desire of charity to what we have already said above; that every preacher should give forth a sound more by his deeds than by his words, and rather by good living imprint footsteps for men to follow than by speaking show them the way to walk in. For that c.o.c.k, too, whom the Lord in his manner of speech takes to represent a good preacher, when he is now preparing to crow, first shakes his wings, and by smiting himself makes himself more awake; since it is surely necessary that those who give utterance to words of holy preaching should first be well awake in earnestness of good living, lest they arouse others with their voice while themselves torpid in performance; that they should first shake themselves up by lofty deeds, and then make others solicitous for good living; that they should first smite themselves with the wings of their thoughts; that whatsoever in themselves is unprofitably torpid they should discover by anxious investigation, and correct by strict self-discipline, and then at length set in order the life of others by speaking; that they should take heed to punish their own faults by bewailings, and then denounce what calls for punishment in others; and that, before they give voice to words of exhortation, they should proclaim in their deeds all that they are about to speak.

FOOTNOTES:

[88] John Alzog. _Manual of Universal Church History_ (trans, by F. J.

Pabisch and T. S. Byrne), Cincinnati, 1899, Vol. I., p. 668.

[89] That is, the pa.s.sage of Scripture read just before the sermon.

[90] "See" is a term employed to designate a bishop's jurisdiction.

According to common belief Peter had been bishop of Rome; his see was therefore that which Leo now held.

[91] The anniversary of Leo's elevation to the papal office.

[92] That is, the body of monks residing in the monastery.

[93] The vow of poverty which must be taken by every Benedictine monk meant only that he must not acquire property individually. By gifts of land and by their own labor the monks became in many cases immensely rich, but their wealth was required to be held in common. No one man could rightfully call any part of it his own.

[94] The converse of this principle was often affirmed by Benedictines in the saying, "To work is to pray."

[95] The Bible and the writings of such Church fathers as Lactantius, Tertullian, Origen, St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, Eusebius, and St.

Jerome.

[96] The first day of the month.

[97] Thus the ordinary daily programme during the spring and summer months would be: from six o'clock until ten, manual labor; from ten until twelve, reading; at twelve, the midday meal; after this meal until the second one about half past two, rest and reading; and from the second meal until evening, labor. Manual labor was princ.i.p.ally agricultural.

[98] Gregory's remarks and instructions in the _Pastoral Rule_ were intended to apply primarily to the local priests--the humble pastors of whom we hear little, but upon whose piety and diligence ultimately depended the whole influence of the Church upon the ma.s.ses of the people. The general principles laid down, however, were applicable to all the clergy, of whatever rank.

[99] Gregory, bishop of n.a.z.ianzus (in Cappadocia), was a noted churchman of the fourth century.

[100] After enumerating quite a number of other contrasted groups in the foregoing fashion Gregory proceeds in a series of "admonitions" to take up each pair and tell how persons belonging to it should be dealt with by the pastor. One of these admonitions is here given as a specimen.

[101] Gregory's att.i.tude toward the "learning of the world,"

especially the cla.s.sical languages and literatures, was that of the typical Christian ascetic. He had no use for it personally and regarded its influence as positively harmful. It must be said that there was little such learning in his day, for the old Latin and Greek culture had now reached a very low stage. Gregory took the ground that the churches should have learned bishops, but their learning was to consist exclusively in a knowledge of the Scriptures, the writings of the Church fathers, and the stories of the martyrs. As a matter of fact not only were the people generally quite unable to understand the Latin services of the Church, but great numbers of the clergy themselves stumbled blindly through the ritual without knowing what they were saying; and this condition of things prevailed for centuries after Gregory's day. [See Charlemagne's letter _De Litteris Colendis_, p. 146.]

[102] That is, more simple and less self-satisfied in their own knowledge.

CHAPTER VII.

THE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM

13. Selections from the Koran

The Koran comprises all of the recorded speeches and sayings of the prophet Mohammed and it has for nearly fifteen centuries been the absolute law and gospel of the Mohammedan religion. The teachings and revelations which are contained in it are believed by Mohammedans to have proceeded directly from G.o.d. They were delivered orally by Mohammed from time to time in the presence of his followers and until after the prophet's death in 632 no attempt was made to put them in organized written form. Many of the disciples, however, remembered the words their master had uttered, at least until they could inscribe them on palm leaves, bits of wood, bleached bones, or other such articles as happened to be at hand. In the reign of Abu-Bekr (632-634), Mohammed's successor, it became apparent that unless some measure was adopted to bring these scattered sayings together they were in a fair way to be lost for all time to come. Hence the caliph intrusted to a certain young man by the name of Zaid the task of collecting and putting in some sort of system all the teachings that had survived, whether in written form or merely in the minds of men.

Zaid had served Mohammed in a capacity which we should designate perhaps as that of secretary, and so should have been well qualified for the work. In later years (about 660) the Koran, or "the reading,"

as the collection began to be called, was again thoroughly revised.

Thereafter all older copies were destroyed and no farther changes in any respect were ever made.

The Koran is made up of one hundred and fourteen chapters, called _surahs_, arranged loosely in the order of their length, beginning with the longest. This arrangement does not correspond either to the dates at which the various pa.s.sages were uttered by the prophet or to any sequence of thought and meaning, so that when one takes up the book to read it as it is ordinarily printed it seems about as confused as anything can well be. Scholars, however, have recently discovered the chronological order of the various parts and this knowledge has already come to be of no little a.s.sistance in the work of interpretation. Like all sacred books, the Koran abounds in repet.i.tions; yet, taken all in all, it contains not more than two-thirds as many verses as the New Testament, and, as one writer has rather curiously observed, it is not more than one-third as lengthy as the ordinary Sunday edition of the New York _Herald_. The teachings which are most emphasized are (1) the unity and greatness of G.o.d, (2) the sin of worshipping idols, (3) the certainty of the resurrection of the body and the last judgment, (4) the necessity of a belief in the Scriptures as revelations from G.o.d communicated through angels to the line of prophets, (5) the luxuries of heaven and the torments of h.e.l.l, (6) the doctrine of predestination, (7) the authoritativeness of Mohammed's teachings, and (8) the four cardinal obligations of worship (including purification and prayer), fasting, pilgrimages, and alms-giving. Intermingled with these are numerous popular legends and sayings of the Arabs before Mohammed's day, stories from the Old and New Testaments derived from Jewish and Christian settlers in Arabia, and certain definite and practical rules of everyday conduct. The book is not only thus haphazard in subject-matter but it is also very irregular in interest and elegance. Portions of it abound in splendid imagery and lofty conceptions, and represent the literary quality of the Arabian language at its best, though of course this quality is very largely lost in translation. The later surahs--those which appear first in the printed copy--are largely argumentative and legislative in character and naturally fall into a more prosaic and monotonous strain. From an almost inexhaustible maze of precepts, exhortations, and revelations, the following widely separated pa.s.sages have been selected in the hope that they will serve to show something of the character of the Koran itself, as well as the nature of some of the more important Mohammedan beliefs and ideals. It will be found profitable to make a comparison of Christian beliefs on the same points as drawn from the New Testament.

Source--Text in Edward William Lane, _Selections from the Kur-an_, edited by Stanley Lane-Poole (London, 1879), _pa.s.sim_.

In the name of G.o.d, the Compa.s.sionate, the Merciful.

[Sidenote: The opening prayer[103]]

Praise be to G.o.d, the Lord of the Worlds, The Compa.s.sionate, the Merciful, The King of the day of judgment.

Thee do we worship, and of Thee seek we help.

Guide us in the right way, The way of those to whom Thou hast been gracious, Not of those with whom Thou art wroth, nor of the erring.[104]

Say, He is G.o.d, One [G.o.d]; G.o.d, the Eternal.

He begetteth not nor is begotten, And there is none equal unto Him.[105]

[Sidenote: The "throne verse"]

G.o.d! There is no G.o.d but He, the _Ever_-living, the Ever-Subsisting. Slumber seizeth Him not, nor sleep. To Him belongeth whatsoever is in the Heavens and whatsoever is in the Earth. Who is he that shall intercede with Him, unless by His permission? He knoweth what [hath been] before them and what [shall be] after them, and they shall not compa.s.s aught of His knowledge save what He willeth. His Throne comprehendeth the Heavens and the Earth, and the care of them burdeneth Him not. And He is the High, The Great.[106]

[Sidenote: The day of resurrection]

When the earth is shaken with her shaking, And the earth hath cast forth her dead, And man shall say, 'What aileth her?'

On that day shall she tell out her tidings, Because thy Lord hath inspired her, On that day shall men come one by one to behold their works, And whosoever shall have wrought an ant's weight of good shall behold it, And whosoever shall have wrought an ant's weight of ill shall behold it.

[Sidenote: The coming judgment]

When the heaven shall be cloven asunder, And when the stars shall be scattered, And when the seas shall be let loose, And when the graves shall be turned upside-down,[107]

_Every_ soul shall know what it hath done and left undone.

O man! what hath seduced thee from thy generous Lord, Who created thee and fashioned thee and disposed thee aright?

In the form which pleased Him hath He fashioned thee.

Nay, but ye treat the Judgment as a lie.

Verily there are watchers over you, Worthy recorders, Knowing what ye do.