History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne Volume II Part 36

Macarius. An innocent man, accused of a murder, fled to him. He brought both the accused and accusers to the tomb of the murdered man, and asked him whether the prisoner was the murderer. The corpse answered in the negative; the bystanders implored St. Macarius to ask it to reveal the real culprit; but St. Macarius refused to do so. (_Vitae Patrum_, lib. ii. cap. xxviii.)

69 "Ut quam clementissime et ultra sanguinis effusionem puniretur."

_ 70 Quaest. Romanae_, xcvi.

71 Tillemont, _Mem. d'Hist. eccles_. tome vi. pp. 88-98. The Donatists after a time, however, are said to have overcome their scruples, and used swords.

72 Under the Christian kings, the barbarians multiplied the number of capital offences, but this has usually been regarded as an improvement. The Abbe Mably says: "Quoiqu'il nous reste peu d'ordonnances faites sous les premiers Merovingiens, nous voyons qu'avant la fin du sixieme siecle, les Francois avoient deja adopte la doctrine salutaire des Romains au sujet de la prescription; et que renoncant a cette humanite cruelle qui les enhardissoit au mal, ils infligerent peine de mort contre l'inceste, le vol et le meurtre qui jusques-la n'avoient ete punis que par l'exil, ou dont on se rachetoit par une composition. Les Francois, en reformant quelques-unes de leurs lois civiles, porterent la severite aussi loin que leurs peres avoient pousse l'indulgence."-Mably, _Observ.

sur l'Hist. des Francois_, liv. i. ch. iii. See, too, Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, ch. x.x.xviii.

73 The whole of the sixth volume of G.o.defroy's edition (folio) of the Theodosian code is taken up with laws of these kinds.

74 Mme. de Stael, _Reflexions sur le Suicide_.

75 The following became the theological doctrine on the subject: "Est vere homicida et reus homicidii qui se interficiendo innocentum hominem interfecerit."-Lisle, _Du Suicide_, p. 400. St. Augustine has much in this strain. Lucretia, he says, either consented to the act of s.e.xtius, or she did not. In the first case she was an adulteress, and should therefore not be admired. In the second case she was a murderess, because in killing herself she killed an innocent and virtuous woman. (_De Civ. Dei_, i. 19.)

76 Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Cyprian are especially ardent in this respect; but their language is, I think, in their circ.u.mstances, extremely excusable. Compare Barbeyrac, _Morale des Peres_, ch. ii.

-- 8; ch. viii. ---- 34-39. Donne's _Biathanatos_ (ed. 1644), pp.

58-67. Cromaziano, _Istoria critica e filosofica del Suicidio ragionato_ (Venezia, 1788), pp. 135-140.

77 Ambrose, _De Virginibus_, iii. 7.

78 Eusebius, _Eccles. Hist._ viii. 12.

79 Eusebius, _Eccles. Hist._ viii. 14. Bayle, in his article upon Sophronia, appears to be greatly scandalised at this act, and it seems that among the Catholics it is not considered right to admire this poor lady as much as her sister suicides. Tillemont remarks: "Comme on ne voit pas que l'eglise romaine l'ait jamais honoree, nous n'avons pas le mesme droit de justifier son action."-_Hist.

eccles._ tome v. pp. 404, 405.

80 Especially Barbeyrac in his _Morale des Peres_. He was answered by Ceillier, Cromaziano, and others. Matthew of Westminster relates of Ebba, the abbess of a Yorkshire convent which was besieged by the Danes, that she and all the other nuns, to save their chast.i.ty, deformed themselves by cutting off their noses and upper lips. (A.D.

870.)

_ 81 De Civ. Dei_, i. 22-7.

82 This had been suggested by St. Augustine. In the case of Pelagia, Tillemont finds a strong argument in support of this view in the astounding, if not miraculous, fact that, having thrown herself from the top of the house, she was actually killed by the fall! "Estant montee tout au haut de sa maison, fortifiee par le mouvement que J.-C. formoit dans son cur et par le courage qu'il luy inspiroit, elle se precipita de la du haut en bas, et echapa ainsi a tous les pieges de ses ennemis. Son corps en tombant a terre frapa, dit S.

Chrysostome, les yeux du demon plus vivement qu'un eclair.... Ce qui marque encore que Dieu agissoit en tout ceci c'est qu'au lieu que ces chutes ne sont pas toujours mortelles, ou que souvent ne brisant que quelques membres, elles n'ostent la vie que longtemps apres, ni l'un ni l'autre n'arriva en cette rencontre; mais Dieu retira aussitost l'ame de la sainte, en sorte que sa mort parut autant l'effet de la volonte divine que de sa chute."-_Hist. eccles._ tome v. pp. 401-402.

83 "Et virginitatis coronam et nuptiarum perdidit voluptatem."-_Ep._ xxii.

84 "Quis enim siccis oculis recordetur viginti annorum adolescentulam tam ardenti fide crucis leva.s.se vexillum ut magis amissam virginitatem quam mariti doleret interitum?"-_Ep._ x.x.xix.

85 For a description of these penances, see _Ep._ x.x.xviii.

_ 86 Ep._ x.x.xix.

87 St. Jerome gave some sensible advice on this point to one of his admirers. (_Ep._ cxxv.)

88 Hase, _St. Francois d'a.s.sise_, pp. 137-138. St. Palaemon is said to have died of his austerities. (_Vit. S. Pachomii._)

89 St. Augustine and St. Optatus have given accounts of these suicides in their works against the Donatists.

90 See Todd's _Life of St. Patrick_, p. 462.

91 The whole history of suicide in the dark ages has been most minutely and carefully examined by M. Bourquelot, in a very interesting series of memoirs in the third and fourth volumes of the _Bibliotheque de l'ecole des Chartes_. I am much indebted to these memoirs in the following pages. See, too, Lisle, _Du Suicide, Statistique, Medecine, Histoire, et Legislation_. (Paris, 1856.) The ferocious laws here recounted contrast remarkably with a law in the Capitularies (lib. vi. lex 70), which provides that though ma.s.s may not be celebrated for a suicide, any private person may, through charity, cause prayers to be offered up for his soul. "Quia incomprehensibilia sunt judicia Dei, et profunditatem consilii ejus nemo potest investigare."

92 See the very interesting work of the Abbe Bourret, _l'ecole chretienne de Seville sous la monarchie des Visigoths_ (Paris, 1855), p. 196.

93 Roger of Wendover, A.D. 665.

94 Esquirol, _Maladies mentales_, tome i. p. 591.

95 Lea's _History of Sacerdotal Celibacy_ (Philadelphia, 1867), p. 248.

96 "Per lo corso di molti secoli abbiamo questo solo suicidio donnesco, e buona cosa e non averne piu d'uno; perche io non credo che la impudicizia istessa sia peggiore di questa disperata cast.i.ta."-Cromaziano, _Ist. del. Suicidio_, p. 126. Mariana, who, under the frock of a Jesuit, bore the heart of an ancient Roman, treats the case in a very different manner. "Ejus uxor Maria Coronelia c.u.m mariti absentiam non ferret, ne pravis cupiditatibus cederet, vitam posuit, ardentem forte libidinem igne extinguens adacto per muliebria t.i.tione; dignam meliori seculo fminam, insigne studium cast.i.tatis."-_De Rebus Hispan._ xvi. 17.

97 A number of pa.s.sages are cited by Bourquelot.

98 This is noticed by St. Gregory n.a.z.ianzen in a little poem which is given in Migne's edition of _The Greek Fathers_, tome x.x.xvii. p.

1459. St. Nilus and the biographer of St. Pachomius speak of these suicides, and St. Chrysostom wrote a letter of consolation to a young monk, named Stagirius, which is still extant, encouraging him to resist the temptation. See Neander, _Ecclesiastical Hist._ vol.

iii. pp. 319, 320.

99 Bourquelot. Pinel notices (_Traite medico-philosophique sur l'Alienation mentale_ (2nd ed.), pp. 44-46) the numerous cases of insanity still produced by strong religious feeling; and the history of the movements called "revivals," in the present century, supplies much evidence to the same effect. Pinel says, religious insanity tends peculiarly to suicide (p. 265).

100 Orosius notices (_Hist._ v. 14) that of all the Gauls conquered by Q. Marcius, there were none who did not prefer death to slavery. The Spaniards were famous for their suicides, to avoid old age as well as slavery. Odin, who, under different names, was the supreme divinity of most of the Northern tribes, is said to have ended his earthly life by suicide. Boadicea, the grandest figure of early British history, and Cordeilla, or Cordelia, the most pathetic figure of early British romance, were both suicides. (See on the first, Tacitus, _Ann._ xiv. 35-37, and on the second Geoffrey of Monmouth, ii. 15-a version from which Shakspeare has considerably diverged, but which is faithfully followed by Spenser. (_Faery Queen_, book ii. canto 10.))

101 "In our age, when the Spaniards extended that law which was made only against the cannibals, that they who would not accept the Christian religion should incur bondage, the Indians in infinite numbers escaped this by killing themselves, and never ceased till the Spaniards, by some counterfeitings, made them think that they also would kill themselves, and follow them with the same severity into the next life."-Donne's _Biathanatos_, p. 56 (ed. 1644). On the evidence of the early travellers on this point, see the essay on "England's Forgotten Worthies," in Mr. Froude's _Short Studies_.

102 Lisle, pp. 427-434. Sprenger has noticed the same tendency among the witches he tried. See Calmeil, _De la Folie_ (Paris, 1845), tome i.

pp. 161, 303-305.

103 On modern suicides the reader may consult Winslow's _Anatomy of Suicide_; as well as the work of M. Lisle, and also Esquirol, _Maladies mentales_ (Paris, 1838), tome i. pp. 526-676.

104 Hecker's _Epidemics of the Middle Ages_ (London, 1844), p. 121.

Hecker in his very curious essay on this mania, has preserved a verse of their song:-

"Allu mari mi portati Se voleti che mi sanati, Allu mari, alla via, Cos m'ama la donna mia, Allu mari, allu mari, Mentre campo, t'aggio amari."

105 Cromaziano, _Ist. del Suicidio_ caps. viii, ix.

106 Cromaziano, pp. 92-93.

107 Montesquieu, and many Continental writers, have noticed this, and most English writers of the eighteenth century seem to admit the charge. There do not appear, however, to have been any accurate statistics, and the general statements are very untrustworthy.

Suicides were supposed to be especially numerous under the depressing influence of English winter fogs. The statistics made in the present century prove beyond question that they are most numerous in summer.

_ 108 Utopia_, book ii. ch. vi.

109 A sketch of his life, which was rather curious, is given by Cromaziano, pp. 148-151. There is a long note on the early literature in defence of suicide, in Dumas, _Traite du Suicide_ (Amsterdam, 1723), pp. 148-149. Dumas was a Protestant minister who wrote against suicide. Among the English apologists for suicide (which he himself committed) was Blount, the translator of the _Life of Apollonius of Tyana_, and Creech, an editor of Lucretius.

Concerning the former there is a note in Bayle's _Dict._ art.

"Apollonius." The latter is noticed by Voltaire in his _Lettres Philos._ He wrote as a memorandum on the margin of his "Lucretius,"

"N.B. When I have finished my Commentary I must kill myself;" which he accordingly did-Voltaire says to imitate his favourite author.

(Voltaire, _Dict. phil._ art. "Caton.")