Curiosities of Christian History Part 30

THE EMPEROR MONK'S CHOIR.

At the convent of Yuste the Emperor Charles had with him a little organ with a silver case and of exquisite tone, which had long been kept at the Escurial, and which was also the companion of his journeys and the solace of his evenings when encamped before Tunis. The choir at Yuste, in order to gratify the Emperor's love of music, had been reinforced with fifteen friars, chosen from different monasteries for their fine voices and skill in the art. The Emperor took a lively interest in the management of the choir and organ, and from the window of his bedroom his voice might often be heard accompanying the chant of the friars. His ear never failed to detect a false note and the mouth from which it came. A singing-master from Plasencia, being one day in the church, ventured to join in the service, but he had not sung many bars when orders came down from the palace to keep silence. Guerrero, a "chapel-master" of Seville, having composed and presented to the Emperor a book of ma.s.ses and motets, one of the former was selected for performance at Yuste. When it was ended, the imperial critic remarked to his confessor which were the stolen pa.s.sages skilfully appropriated from the best masters and their works and names.

NOT A MONK AT DINNER-TIME.

The Emperor Charles V., though all his life looking forward to being a monk, did not understand a monkish dinner. After a year's sojourn in Yuste, his physician considered His Majesty well enough to leave off his sarsaparilla and liquorice water. Then, as usual, Charles ate voraciously.

His dinner began with a large dish of cherries or strawberries, smothered in cream and sugar; then came a highly-seasoned pasty; and next the princ.i.p.al dish of the repast, which was frequently a ham, or some preparation of rashers--the Emperor being very fond of the bacon products of Estremadura. "His Majesty," said the doctor, "will not hear of changing his diet or mode of living, trusting too much to the force of habit, and forgetting the consequences to bodies like his, full of bad humours." His hands occasionally troubled him, and his fingers were sometimes ulcerated.

But his chief complaint was of the heat and itching in his legs at night, which he endeavoured to relieve by sleeping with them uncovered--a measure whereby temporary ease was purchased at the expense of a chill which crept into the upper part of his body, in spite of blankets and eiderdown quilts. Then came threatenings of gout, attempts to cure by cold bathing, perpetual itching, and other symptoms, which gradually enfeebled him. It was said that His Majesty's cook was driven out of his wits to invent new dishes for table, and that he believed there was nothing left but to serve up a frica.s.see of watches.

THE EMPEROR MONK CELEBRATES HIS OWN FUNERAL.

The Emperor used, when any of his friends died, to do honour to their memory by causing their obsequies to be performed by the friars, and each on a different day. At last he asked his confessor whether he might not now perform his own funeral, and so do for himself what would soon have to be done for him by others. "Would it not be good for my soul?" asked the Emperor. And the monk replied that certainly it would, for pious works done during life were far more efficacious than when they were postponed till after death. Preparations were therefore at once set on foot. A catafalque was erected, and next day the celebrated service was actually performed. The high altar, the catafalque, and the whole church shone with a blaze of wax lights; the friars were all in their places at the altars and in the choir, and the household of the Emperor attended in deep mourning. The pious monarch himself (says his biographer) was there, attired in sable weeds and bearing a taper to see himself interred and to celebrate his own obsequies. While they were singing the solemn ma.s.s for the dead, he came forward and gave his taper into the hands of the officiating priest, in token of his desire to yield his soul into the hands of his Maker. High above, over the kneeling throng, the gorgeous vestments, the flowers, the curling incense, and the glittering altar, the same idea shone forth on that splendid canvas whereon t.i.tian had pictured Charles kneeling on the threshold of the heavenly mansions prepared for the blessed. The funeral rites ended, the Emperor dined, but he ate little; and feeling a violent pain in his head, he lay down, and next day he told his confessor that the funeral of the day before had done him good. He died six weeks later.

FUNERAL SERMON ON THE EMPEROR MONK.

When the Emperor Charles V. died, a monk at Yuste, his chamberlain said of him that he was the greatest man that ever lived, or ever would live, in the world. In his last moments he said, "The time is come; bring me the candle and the crucifix." These cherished relics he had long kept for this supreme hour, and he died with his eyes fixed on the crucifix. His body was embalmed and laid in a coffin in front of the high altar. The eloquent preacher Villalva preached a funeral sermon so impa.s.sioned, that the hearers declared that it made their flesh creep and their hair stand on end. Sixteen years later messengers went to remove the body to the mausoleum at the Escurial. The monks bewailed the loss of so precious a deposit, and one of them took occasion to preach an affecting sermon, in which he thus apostrophised the dead monarch: "Although you are but a lifeless corpse, the garment of the spirit which has long enjoyed, as we believe, the glory of G.o.d, we thank your Caesarean majesty for the grace which you have bestowed on Yuste and on our order. In a year and eight months pa.s.sed in this solitude we are well a.s.sured that you have gained more renown than in the whole of your long reign. History, indeed, will never forget your great achievements, but in the end of your life you surpa.s.sed them all. Grief for losing you, who so loved us, chokes my utterance; for I know that when you are gone, although we who are now alive are your devoted servants and chaplains, a time will come when even in this place your memory will be regarded no more than if you had never dwelt within our walls." This last allusion was prophetic; for in 1849, when Mr. Stirling visited Yuste, he found it in ruins, and all save the great walnut tree told only of mouldering decay. O'Campo, the chronicler of the Emperor Charles V., had undertaken to write his history; but having begun at Noah's flood was, after forty years' labour, surprised by death while narrating the exploits of the Scipios, B.C. 183.

CHAPTER XI.

_SOME BISHOPS, KINGS, POPES, AND INQUISITORS._

THEORY OF THE UNITY OF THE CLERGY.

The clergy, including the monks and friars, were one throughout Latin Christendom. Whatever antagonism, feud, hatred, and estrangement might rise between rival prelates, rival priests, rival orders, whatever irreconcilable jealousy there might be between the seculars and regulars, yet the caste seldom betrayed the interest of the caste. The clergy in general were first the subjects of the Pope, then the subjects of their temporal sovereign. The Pope came to be acknowledged over the whole of Christendom as the guardian, and in some respects the suzerain, of Church property all over the world. He was at least a more impartial judge than their rival or antagonist--the civil ruler. The universal fraternity of the monastic orders and of the friars was even more intimate than the bond between the clergy. The wandering friars found everywhere a home. Their all-comprehending fraternisation had the power and some of the mystery, without the suspicion and hatred, which attaches to secret societies. It was a perpetual campaign, set in motion and still moving on with simultaneous impulse from one or from several centres, but with a single aim and object--the aggrandis.e.m.e.nt of the society, with all the results for evil or for good.

THE SUPREMACY OF THE POPE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

Milman says: "The essential inherent supremacy of the spiritual over the temporal power was in the time of Innocent III. (1198-1216) an integral part of Christianity. Splendid indeed it was, as harmonising with man's natural sentiment of order. The unity of the vast Christian republic was an imposing conception, which, even now that history has shown its hopeless impossibility, still infatuates lofty minds: its impossibility, since it demands for its head not merely that infallibility in doctrine so boldly claimed in later times, but absolute impeccability in every one of its possessors; more than impeccability--an all-commanding, indefeasible, unquestionable majesty of virtue, holiness, and wisdom.

Without this it is a baseless tyranny, a senseless usurpation. In those days it struck in with the whole feudal system, which was of strict gradation and subordination; to the hierarchy of Church and State was equally wanting the crown, the sovereign Liege Lord. The Crusades had made the Pope not merely the spiritual but in some sort the military suzerain of Europe. He had the power of summoning all Christendom to his banner; the raising of the cross, the standard of the Pope, was throughout Europe a general and compulsory levy. The vast subventions raised for the Holy Land were to a certain extent at the disposal of the Pope. An immense financial system grew up. Papal collectors were in every land; Papal bankers in every capital to transmit these subsidies. He claimed to be supreme judge of all the ecclesiastical courts in every country, and to approve and degrade bishops, to grant dispensations, and to found new orders and direct canonisations. This claim of supremacy made lawless kings tremble, and in this way did some good. Nothing could be more sublime than the notion of a great supreme religious power, the representative of G.o.d's eternal and immutable justice upon earth, absolutely above all pa.s.sion or interest, interposing with the commanding voice of authority in the quarrels of kings and nations, persuading peace by the unimpeachable impartiality of its judgments, and even invested with power to enforce its unerring decrees. But the sublimity of the notion depends on the arbiter's absolute exemption from the unextinguishable weaknesses of human nature. If the tribunal commands not unquestioning respect, if there be the slightest just suspicion of partiality, if it goes beyond its lawful province, if it has no power of compelling obedience, it adds but another element to the general confusion; it is a partisan enlisted on one side or the other, not a mediator conciliating conflicting interests or overawing the collision of factions. Yet such was the Papal power in these times: often, no doubt, on the side of justice and humanity--too often on the other; looking to the interests of the Church alone, a.s.sumed, but a.s.sumed without ground, to be the same as those of Christendom and mankind, the representative of fallible man rather than of the infallible G.o.d. Ten years of strife and civil war in Germany were traced, if not to the direct instigation, to the inflexible obstinacy of Pope Innocent III."

THE ELECTION OF POPES.

Under the first Christian princes the chair of St. Peter, like the throne of other bishops, was submitted to a popular election, and constant tumults attended these, owing to the vague and unsettled views of the voters. The voters were the clergy, the n.o.bility, the heads of monasteries, and the common people, who all voted indiscriminately by the show of hands or counting of heads. In 1179 Pope Alexander III. abolished the popular mode of election, and a.s.signed the sole right of election to the College of Cardinals, or two-thirds of their number. The number of cardinals seldom exceeded twenty-five, till the reign of Leo X. (1513). By this mode of election a double choice had only occurred once in six hundred years after Alexander III. In 1274 Gregory X., by his bull, fixed a short interval for filling up the vacancy. Nine days were allowed for the obsequies of the deceased Pope and the arrival of the absent cardinals. On the tenth day these are each sequestered with one domestic in a common apartment, or conclave, without any separation of walls or curtains. A small window is reserved for the introduction of necessaries; but the door is locked on both sides and guarded by the magistrates of the city, so as to exclude all correspondence with the world. If the election is not accomplished in three days, the tables are restricted to a single dish at dinner and supper. After the eighth day the food is reduced to a scanty allowance of bread, water, and wine. During the vacancy the cardinals are prohibited from touching the revenues or government of the Church, and all agreements between the electors are null and void. It is said that the cardinals have three modes of election: (1) by scrutiny; (2) by compromise; (3) by inspiration. By the first mode three of a committee take the vote of each elector in secret, and two-thirds carry the election. By the second mode each on oath pledges himself to agree to whatever candidate three others selected from the whole may select. By the third method, when all agree without a dissentient on one name, this is deemed to be by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Or if two-thirds unanimously salute one candidate as Pope, this is called an election by adoration.

ORIGIN AND DRESS OF CARDINALS.

The name of cardinal was merely a synonym for presbyter and deacon, and came to be given specially to those rectors or presbyters whom the Pope made use of in the government of the Churches in Rome. Till the end of the tenth century these cardinals were of lower rank than the bishops who met in Church councils. The rectors of the seven Churches which were situated nearest to Rome and helped the Pope in celebrations of the liturgy began at first to be called Roman bishops, and in the eleventh century cardinal bishops of the Lateran Church, as being a.s.sistants in Divine service in the Lateran Church. By degrees these began to obtain precedence over other bishops. In 1059 they were allowed to have the chief voice in electing the Pope, and their authority was continually increasing, and in the twelfth century the election of a Pope was taken away from the people and clergy of Rome and vested in the cardinals exclusively. After that the cardinals used to be called the "Pope's holy senate," "princes of the world," and "judges of the earth," taking precedence of all other bishops. In the fourteenth century the number of cardinals was fixed by Urban VI. and directed not to exceed twenty; in another century they became twenty-four; in 1514 they reached thirty-nine, and in 1535 reached to forty, and then to seventy. They began in the thirteenth century to wear a purple dress and a red hat, which in shape was like a very small cap, with scarcely any brim. A silk mitre of damascene work and a red hood followed.

PAUL OF SAMOSATA, THE DEGRADED BISHOP (A.D. 260).

When the severity of persecution relaxed in the first three centuries, the effect was seen in the growing vice of unprincipled persons a.s.suming the Christian religion and using it as a cloak for licentiousness. One Paul of Samosata was made Bishop of Antioch in 260, and contrived to make the service of the Church a lucrative profession. He extorted frequent contributions from the faithful, and appropriated to his own use much of the public revenue. His pride and luxury soon made him odious. Crowds of suppliants and pet.i.tioners frequented his house for evil ends. When he harangued his people from the pulpit, he affected the figurative style and theatrical gestures of an Asiatic sophist, whilst the cathedral resounded with the loudest and most extravagant acclamations in the praise of his Divine eloquence. He was arrogant, rigid, and inexorable to his enemies; but he relaxed the discipline and lavished the treasure of the Church on his dependent clergy, who were, like himself, given up to dissipation.

Some errors of his as to the Trinity excited the indignation of the other bishops. They often met and obtained promises and treaties; but eighty of them of their own authority took on themselves at last to excommunicate him; and as they did so somewhat irregularly, it took four years to turn him out of possession. The Emperor Aurelian was appealed to; and after hearing both sides, he resolved to execute the sentence of the other bishops, and to expel Paul from the possession of his see.

THE DIGNITY OF EMPEROR AND THE FIRST ABDICATION (A.D. 305).

The Emperor Diocletian, who joined in 303 in a persecution of the Christians, and who died in 313, was the first who made the throne of dazzling splendour in the eyes of the people. Up to his time the emperors a.s.sumed no airs and talked familiarly to the citizens. But Diocletian introduced the Persian habits, which approached adoration towards the king. Not content with the robe of purple, like his predecessors, he a.s.sumed the diadem, a broad white fillet set with pearls. His robes were silk and gold, his shoes studded with the most precious gems. The avenues of the palace were guarded by schools of officials and the interior apartments by eunuchs. When an audience was allowed, the subject was obliged to fall prostrate on the ground, as if adoring the great lord and master. The whole ceremony resembled a theatrical performance. All this naturally led to a great increase of taxation. After enjoying supreme power twenty-one years, this emperor had the glory of giving to the world the first example of a voluntary resignation, though he did not, like his successor Charles V., enter a monastery and live like a monk. When Diocletian abdicated, he was of the age of fifty-five, and Charles was fifty-nine. Diocletian had, soon after the ceremony of his triumph, caught a chill during the cold and rainy winter of 304, which brought his body down to a state of emaciation and caused him to seek repose, and it was said that he was averse to enforce his edict against the Christians. The ceremony of his abdication was performed in a s.p.a.cious plain, three miles from Nicomedia. He ascended a lofty throne, and in a speech full of reason and dignity declared his intention. As soon as he divested himself of the purple, he withdrew from the public gaze and in a covered chariot to his favourite retirement of Salona, in Dalmatia, his native country. He spent his leisure hours in building, planting, and gardening. He prided himself on his cabbages; but he covered ten acres of ground with his new palace, and it was said that the stately rooms had neither windows nor chimneys, but were heated with pipes. It was said to be doubtful how he died in 313, some surmising that it was by suicide.

AN EARLY BISHOP BUILDING A WORKHOUSE (A.D. 373).

Though the care of the poor was long viewed as properly falling under the province of the Church, and after the time of Elizabeth it was transferred by English law to the occupiers of lands in each parish, a great outcry was made against St. Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, about 373, for establishing a large workhouse or hospital. The Phocotropheion, or hospital, for the reception and relief of the poor, was erected by Basil in the suburbs of Caesarea. His enemies denounced this project to the governor of the province as a dangerous innovation. It was called sometimes "the new town," and at a later date the Basilead, after its founder. It was a gigantic structure, and included a church, a palace for the bishop, residences for the clergy; hospices for the poor, sick, and wayfarers; workshops for the artisans and labourers connected with the building, and their apprentices. There was also a special department for lepers, with arrangements for their proper medical treatment, and great care was taken of these loathsome patients. By this enormous establishment Basil's enemies said he was aiming at an invasion of the civil power. But he adroitly parried the accusation by pointing out that there were also apartments in his establishment provided for the governor of the province, and that, after all, the chief glory of the structure would redound to the latter. This view pacified the angry critics.

TWO BISHOPS STRIVING FOR A CHURCH SITE (A.D. 420).

About 420 two bishops in Libya had set their hearts on securing, as a site for a new church, a place which had been formerly kept as a strong refuge, well fortified against the incursions of the barbarians. Each intended to convert it into a magnificent temple according to a plan of his own. In order to secure the spot one of them resorted to the following stratagem: He pressed his way in by force, caused an altar to be instantly set up, and then and there consecrated upon it the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

According to the superst.i.tion or settled faith of the time, this was deemed equivalent to consecration, after which the place could not be used for any secular purpose of social life. When this incident was reported by Bishop Synesius to Theophilus, Patriarch of Constantinople, he condemned it as sharp practice and a debasing of holy things to unworthy purposes, most unbecoming to any genuine Christian.

HOW BISHOPS WERE MADE IN THE FIFTH CENTURY (A.D. 448).

Germa.n.u.s of Auxerre was born in 380, of high family and rich. He was educated as a lawyer, soon became an advocate, next married a wealthy lady, and was appointed to a high office as Governor-General. His great delight was then in hunting, and he used to hang up all the heads of the beasts he killed on a pear tree. The bishop, St. Amator, used to reprove him for this weakness; and one day, in the absence of Germa.n.u.s, the bishop cut down the pear tree as a remnant of superst.i.tion. Germa.n.u.s, on his return, was furious with rage, and threatened the bishop with death. But the bishop knew by revelation that his own end was near, and that Germa.n.u.s was destined to be his successor. St. Amator went away to the Prefect, and asked leave to perform the tonsure on Germa.n.u.s. Leave being given, St.

Amator a.s.sembled his people, told them of his end, and bade them choose a successor and repair to the church. When they were there, he ordered the doors to be locked; and collecting a crowd of clergy and n.o.bles, they seized Germa.n.u.s by force, cut off his hair, and stripped him of his secular garments, clothed him as a deacon, and told him he was to be next bishop after St. Amator. St. Amator died a few days afterwards, and the clergy and people elected Germa.n.u.s, and he was obliged to act, though very reluctant. When elected, however, he became another man. He embraced a life of poverty; sold off all his goods; gave up wine, oil, vinegar, salt, and even wheaten bread, living entirely on barley meal, which he made by his own labour. He ate his frugal meal only once a day, and sometimes only once a week. He lay on a box bed filled with ashes with his clothes on and in his hair shirt. He carried always a little box suspended on his breast, having in it relics of saints. He distributed all his property among the poor, founded several monasteries, discovered the sepulchres of several martyrs, and worked many miracles. He died in 448.

A FIFTH-CENTURY BISHOP VISITING HIS FRIENDS (A.D. 471).

Sidonius Apollinaris, elected bishop of Auvergne in 471, and the son-in-law of the Emperor Avitus, thus wrote to Donidius: "In visiting this delightful country I have pa.s.sed a time of the greatest enjoyment with my kind and polite friends Ferreolus and Apollinaris, who are near neighbours. On the morning of each day there was an agreeable contention between our hosts whose kitchen should first begin to smoke with the good things to be prepared for us. Thus we hurried from one entertainment to another. Hardly had we pa.s.sed the threshold when, behold, regular matches of tennis-players within the circular enclosures, and the frequent noise and rattling of dice, with the clamours of the players. In another part were placed such an abundance of books ready for use, that you might suppose yourself in the libraries of the grammarians, or among the benches of the Roman Athenaeum. After these studies a messenger from the chief cook reminded us punctually at the third hour that dinner was on the table.

This copious repast was served up in few dishes, although there were both roast and boiled. Little stories were told while we were taking our wine, which conveyed delight and instruction as they happened to be dictated by experience or gaiety. We were decorously, eloquently, and abundantly entertained. Having shaken off our after-dinner nap, we amused ourselves with a short ride to get an appet.i.te for our supper. We then repaired to the hot baths, and pa.s.sed an hour or two in the midst of much wit and merriment, during which we were all thrown into a most salubrious perspiration, being enveloped in the steam as it came hissing from the water. When we had been suffused with this long enough, we were plunged into the hot water; and being well cleansed and refreshed, we were afterwards braced by an abundance of cold water from the river Viardus, a transparent and gentle stream abounding in delicate fish. I might go on and give you a description of our sumptuous suppers did not my paper put a stop to my loquacity."

A BISHOP PUTTING DOWN SOOTHSAYERS (A.D. 500).

Caesarius, Bishop of Arles, was born in 470, and in course of his career sought to suppress the then growing superst.i.tion of seeking for oracles in pa.s.sages of Scripture. The first trace of the abuse was found by St.

Augustine, who said: "Although it is to be wished that those who seek their fortunes out of the Gospels would rather do this than run to ask their idols, yet this custom displeases me--the wishing to use the Word of G.o.d, which speaks in reference to another life, for worldly concerns and the vain objects of the present life." The clergy joined in this idle superst.i.tion. In doubtful earthly concerns persons would lay down a Bible in a church upon the altar, or especially upon the grave of a saint, would fast and pray, and invoke the saint that he would indicate the future by a pa.s.sage of Scripture, and sought for the answer in the first pa.s.sage which met the eye on opening the Bible. Caesarius promoted a decree against this practice at the Council of Agde in 508, which excluded from Church communion all persons, both of the clergy and laity, who practised divination under the semblance of religion, or promised a disclosure of the future by looking into the Scriptures.

A BISHOP ZEALOUS IN RELEASING PRISONERS (A.D. 500).

In the turbulent age when Bishop Caesarius lived, about A.D. 500, a great number of prisoners were brought into the city of Arles, and the bishop used all his power in providing clothing, food, and money to purchase their freedom. It is related that, after exhausting the church chest and selling the gold and silver vessels, he stripped the walls and pillars of the church in order to raise money. One day the steward suggested that all the funds were gone, and nothing was left except to send out the prisoners into the streets to beg. Before taking this extreme step the bishop went into his cell, and prayed that the Lord would grant supplies for the poor.

He then returned with a cheerful face, and reproved the steward for his want of faith, telling him to bake the last grain of corn into bread, that they might all have one meal together, so that they might be able to fast the following day. This was done, and the next day was looked forward to by all with great anxiety; but in the early morning three vessels hove in sight, laden with corn, which the Burgundian kings Gundobad and Sigismund had sent to Caesarius in aid of his good work, and so all were relieved from a critical situation. Another time a poor man asked the bishop for money to ransom a captive, and the bishop went to fetch his sacerdotal dress, and gave it to be sold for a price to set the captive free.

THE KING OF THE GAULS PERSUADED TO BE CHRISTIAN (A.D. 500).

Clovis I., King of the Gauls, who died in 511, and who by successful battles made a kingdom for himself, had been brought up a Pagan till his thirteenth year. He married Clotilda, niece of the Arian King of Burgundy, and she felt bound to convert her husband. Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, was induced to explain the advantages of the Christian faith, whereupon Clovis and three thousand of his subjects were at once baptised with great solemnity. When he was told of the sufferings and death of Christ, he broke out into a pa.s.sion, and exclaimed, "Had I been present at the head of my valiant Franks, I would have revenged His injuries." The King, however, had many battles still to fight, and lived a turbulent life, but was disposed to confide in future in the protection of the Lord of Hosts.

The sepulchre of St. Martin of Tours was then the centre of pious interest from the mult.i.tude of miracles, and the King made rich offerings to the saint, whom he sometimes described as a rather expensive friend. For he had made a present of his war-horse after a great victory, and on wishing to redeem it by the gift of a hundred pieces of gold, the enchanted horse refused to leave its stable till he had doubled the sum offered. In his pursuit of the expedition against the Goths, and during his march from Paris through Tours, he directed his messengers to remark the words of the psalm which should happen to be chanted at the precise moment when they entered the church. It happened that the words were about Joshua who went forth to battle against the enemies of the Lord. This greatly encouraged the army. A white hart of great size and beauty was also noticed to guide the troops in the right direction, and a flaming meteor appeared in the air above the cathedral of Poitiers. With these good omens Clovis went on conquering till he established on a sure foundation the kingdom of France.