History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne Volume II Part 46

493 Fredigarius, xlii. The historian describes Clotaire as a perfect paragon of Christian graces.

494 "Au sixieme siecle on compte 214 etabliss.e.m.e.nts religieux des Pyrenees a la Loire et des bouches du Rhone aux Vosges."-Ozanam, _etudes germaniques_, tome ii. p. 93. In the two following centuries the ecclesiastical wealth was enormously increased.

495 Matthew of Westminster (A.D. 757) speaks of no less than eight Saxon kings having done this.

496 "Le septieme siecle est celui peut-etre qui a donne le plus de saints au calendrier."-Sismondi, _Hist. de France_, tome ii. p. 50.

"Le plus beau t.i.tre du septieme siecle a une rehabilitation c'est le nombre considerable de saints qu'il a produits.... Aucun siecle n'a ete ainsi glorifie sauf l'age des martyrs dont Dieu s'est reserve de compter le nombre. Chaque annee fournit sa moisson, chaque jour a sa gerbe.... Si donc il plait a Dieu et au Christ de repandre a pleines mains sur un siecle les splendeurs des saints, qu'importe que l'histoire et la gloire humaine en tiennent peu compte?"-Pitra, _Vie de St. Leger_, Introd. p. x.-xi. This learned and very credulous writer (who is now a cardinal) afterwards says that we have the record of more than eight hundred saints of the seventh century.

(Introd. p. lx.x.x.)

497 See, e.g., the very touching pa.s.sage about the death of his children, v. 35.

498 Lib. ii. Prologue.

499 Greg. Tur. ii. 27-43.

500 He observes how impossible it was that he could be guilty of shedding the blood of a relation: "Sed in his ego nequaquam conscius sum. Nec enim possum sanguinem parentum meorum effundere."-Greg.

Tur. ii. 40.

501 "Prosternebat enim quotidie Deus hostes ejus sub manu ipsius, et augebat regnum ejus eo quod ambularet recto corde coram eo, et faceret quae placita erant in oculis ejus."-Greg. Tur. ii. 40.

502 Lib. iii. Prologue. St. Avitus enumerates in glowing terms the Christian virtues of Clovis (_Ep._ xli.), but, as this was in a letter addressed to the king himself, the eulogy may easily be explained.

503 Thus Hallam says: "There are continual proofs of immorality in the monkish historians. In the history of Rumsey Abbey, one of our best doc.u.ments for Anglo-Saxon times, we have an anecdote of a bishop who made a Danish n.o.bleman drunk, that he might cheat him out of an estate, which is told with much approbation. Walter de Hemingford records, with excessive delight, the well-known story of the Jews who were persuaded by the captain of their vessel to walk on the sands at low water till the rising tide drowned them."-Hallam's _Middle Ages_ (12th ed.), iii. p. 306.

504 Canciani, _Leges Barbarorum_, vol. iii. p. 64. Canciani notices, that among the Poles the teeth of the offending persons were pulled out. The following pa.s.sage, from Bodin, is, I think, very remarkable: "Les loix et canons veulent qu'on pardonne aux heretiques repentis (combien que les magistrats en quelques lieux par cy-devant, y ont eu tel esgard, que celui qui avoit mange de la chair au Vendredy estoit brusle tout vif, comme il fut faict en la ville d'Angers l'an mil cinq cens trente-neuf, s'il ne s'en repentoit: et jacoit qu'il se repentist si estoit-il pendu par compa.s.sion)."-_Demonomanie des Sorciers_, p. 216.

505 A long list of examples of extreme maceration, from lives of the saints of the seventh and eighth centuries is given by Pitra, _Vie de St. Leger_, Introd. pp. cv.-cvii.

506 This was related of St. Equitius.-Greg. _Dialog._ i. 4.

507 Ibid. i. 5. This saint was named Constantius.

508 A vast number of miracles of this kind are recorded. See, e.g., Greg. Tur. _De Miraculis_, i. 61-66; _Hist._ iv. 49. Perhaps the most singular instance of the violation of the sanct.i.ty of the church was that by the nuns of a convent founded by St. Radegunda.

They, having broken into rebellion, four bishops, with their attendant clergy, went to compose the dispute, and having failed, excommunicated the rebels, whereupon the nuns almost beat them to death in the church.-Greg. Tur. ix. 41.

509 See Canciani, _Leges Barbarorum_, vol. iii. pp. 19, 151.

510 Much information about these measures is given by Dr. Hessey, in his _Bampton Lectures on Sunday_. See especially, lect. 3. See, too, Moehler, _Le Christianisme et l'Esclavage_, pp. 186-187.

511 Gregory of Tours enumerates some instances of this in his extravagant book _De Miraculis_, ii. 11; iv. 57; v. 7. One of these cases, however, was for having worked on the day of St. John the Baptist. Some other miracles of the same nature, taken, I believe, from English sources, are given in Hessey's _Sunday_ (3rd edition), p. 321.

512 Compare Pitra, _Vie de St.-Leger_, p. 137. Sismondi, _Hist. des Francais_, tome ii. pp. 62-63.

513 See a remarkable pa.s.sage from his life, cited by Guizot, _Hist. de la Civilisation en France_, xviime lecon. The English historians contain several instances of the activity of charity in the darkest period. Alfred and Edward the Confessor were conspicuous for it.

Ethelwolf is said to have provided, "for the good of his soul,"

that, till the day of judgment, one poor man in ten should be provided with meat, drink, and clothing. (a.s.ser's _Life of Alfred_.) There was a popular legend that a poor man having in vain asked alms of some sailors, all the bread in their vessel was turned into stone. (Roger of Wendover, A.D. 606.) See, too, another legend of charity in Matthew of Westminster, A.D. 611.

514 Greg. Tur. _Hist._ v. 8.

515 M. Guizot has given several specimens of this (_Hist. de la Civilis._ xviime lecon).

516 This portion of mediaeval history has lately been well traced by Mr.

Maclear, in his _History of Christian Missions in the Middle Ages_ (1863). See, too, Montalembert's _Moines d'Occident_; Ozanam's _etudes germaniques_. The original materials are to be found in Bede, and in the _Lives of the Saints_-especially that of St.

Columba, by Ad.a.m.nan. On the French missionaries, see the Benedictine _Hist. lit. de la France_, tome iv. p. 5; and on the English missionaries, Sharon Turner's _Hist. of England_, book x. ch. ii.

517 Dion Chrysostom, _Or._ ii. (_De Regno_).

518 Gibbon, ch. xvi.

519 Origen, _Cels._ lib. viii.

520 "Navigamus et nos vobisc.u.m et militamus."-Tert. _Apol._ xlii. See, too, Grotius _De Jure_, i. cap. ii.

521 See an admirable dissertation on the opinions of the early Christians about military service, in Le Blant, _Inscriptions chretiennes de la Gaule_, tome i. pp. 81-87. The subject is frequently referred to by Barbeyrac, _Morale des Peres_, and Grotius, _De Jure_, lib. i. cap. ii.

522 Philostorgius, ii. 5.

523 See some excellent remarks on this change, in Milman's _History of Christianity_, vol. ii. pp. 287-288.

524 Mably, _Observations sur l'Histoire de France_, i. 6; Hallam's _Middle Ages_, ch. ii. part ii.

525 Wakeman's _Archaeologia Hibernica_, p. 21. However, Giraldus Cambrensis observes that the Irish saints were peculiarly vindictive, and St. Columba and St. Comgall are said to have been leaders in a sanguinary conflict about a church near Coleraine. See Reeve's edition of Ad.a.m.nan's _Life of St. Columba_, pp. lxxvii. 253.

526 Campion's _Historie of Ireland_ (1571), book i. ch. vi.

527 It seems curious to find in so calm and unfanatical a writer as Justus Lipsius the following pa.s.sage: "Jam et invasio quaedam legitima videtur etiam sine injuria, ut in barbaros et moribus aut _religione_ prorsum a n.o.bis abhorrentes."-_Politicorum sive Civilis Doctrinae libri_ (Paris, 1594), lib. iv. ch. ii. cap. iv.

528 "Con l'occasione di queste cose Plutarco nel _Teseo_ dice che gli eroi si recavano a grande onore e si reputavano in pregio d'armi con l'esser chiamati ladroni; siccome a' tempi barbari ritornati quello di Corsale era t.i.tolo riputato di signoria; d'intorno a' quali tempi venuto Solone, si dice aver permesso nelle sue leggi le societa per cagion di prede; tanto Solone ben intese questa nostra compiuta Umanita, nella quale costoro non G.o.dono del diritto natural delle genti! Ma quel che fa piu maraviglia e che Platone ed Aristotile posero il ladroneccio fralle spezie della caccia e con tali e tanti filosofi d'una gente umanissima convengono con la loro barbarie i Germani antichi; appo i quali al referire di Cesare ladronecci non solo non eran infami, ma si tenevano tra gli esercizi della virtu siccome tra quelli che per costume non applicando ad arte alcuna cos fuggivano l'ozio."-Vico, _Scienza Nuova_, ii. 6. See, too, Whewell's _Elements of Morality_, book vi. ch. ii.

529 The ancient right of war is fully discussed by Grotius, _De Jure_, lib. iii. See, especially, the horrible catalogue of tragedies in cap. 4. The military feeling that regards capture as disgraceful, had probably some, though only a very subordinate, influence in producing cruelty to the prisoners.

530 "Le jour ou Athenes decreta que tous les Mityleniens, sans distinction de s.e.xe ni d'age, seraient extermines, elle ne croyait pas depa.s.ser son droit; quand le lendemain elle revint sur son decret et se contenta de mettre a mort mille citoyens et de confisquer toutes les terres, elle se crut humaine et indulgente.

Apres la prise de Platee les hommes furent egorges, les femmes vendues, et personne n'accusa les vainqueurs d'avoir viole le droit.... C'est en vertu de ce droit de la guerre que Rome a etendu la solitude autour d'elle; du territoire ou les Volsques avaient vingt-trois cites elle a fait les marais pontins; les cinquante-trois villes du Latium ont disparu; dans le Samnium on put longtemps reconnaitre les lieux ou les armees romaines avaient pa.s.se, moins aux vestiges de leurs camps qu'a la solitude qui regnait aux environs."-Fustel de Coulanges, _La Cite antique_, pp.

263-264.

531 Plato, _Republic_, lib. v.; Bodin, _Republique_, liv. i. cap. 5.

532 Grote, _Hist. of Greece_, vol. viii. p. 224. Agesilaus was also very humane to captives.-Ibid. pp. 365-6.

533 This appears continually in Livy, but most of all, I think, in the Gaulish historian, Florus.

534 Scipio and Trajan.

535 See some very remarkable pa.s.sages in Grotius, _De Jure Bell_. lib.

iii. cap. 4, -- 19.

536 These mitigations are fully enumerated by Ayala, _De Jure et Officiis Bellicis_ (Antwerp, 1597), Grotius, _De Jure_. It is remarkable that both Ayala and Grotius base their attempts to mitigate the severity of war chiefly upon the writings and examples of the Pagans. The limits of the right of conquerors and the just causes of war are discussed by Cicero, _De Offic._ lib. i.