The Press. — London, England, 1856-01-26 00:00:00

JANUARY 26, 1856. N:ittraturt. The History of Latin Christianity. By Henry Hart Milman, Dean of St. Paul's. Vols. IV. V. and VI. London : Murray. IT is obvious that no branch of literary criticism is now so called upon for its resources as that which treats of the art of writing history. Moral philosophy is not a favorite pursuit of the 'English intellect ; the preference for the practical, as opposed to the specula tive, influences our intellectual as much as our social aspirations. We think it very likely that a considerable quantity of the best intel lect of our time, escaping from the dull rou tine of common life and conventional politics, may seek to influence the age through the moral power of the narrator's pen. Revolu tionary events have forced some of the best French minds into becoming historians. What political disasters and civil contentions did for Tacitus, Machiavelli, Thiers, and Guizot, may yet find a parallel amongst some of the profoundest spirits in England. Dean Milmau is certainly entitled to be ranked in the first class of living historians. Upon a former occasion (Paws, vol. ii , p. 327) we criticised at length his characteristics, and we may now say that the sequel cf his " History of Latin Christianity " corroborates our estimate of his powers. What we then said we need not here repeat. His style of writing history differs widely from that fol lowed by some of his contemporaries. Mr. Macaulay and Sir Archibald Alison, for stance, have both aspired to the laurels gained by recording the events of an " age." They are therefore minute, anecdotical, and pictorially diffuse. There is a gallery of cha racters in their works, and the incidental public questions are debated first by the per sonages of the drama, and afterwards dis sented upon by the historians. It is a rule as old as the days of Aristotle, and confirmed by Quinctilian, that in relating the events of an era the facts should be grouped around a character, or a theory, that they should culmi nate to an apex. Mr. Macaulay has followed the rule, and chosen King William ; Sir A. Alison has selected an ethical principle, and has classified his details by constant reference to the corruption of human nature opposing barriers to revolutionary dreams of perfecti bility. His valuable work is certainly open to the witty sarcasm, that he wants to show " that Providence was on the side of the " Tories." Thiers, upon the other hand, having to traverse nearly the same period, groups all his facts of " The Consulate and the Empire " around the career of Napoleon le Grand ; and in a similar style Lamartine selects " Robespierre " as the principle in carnate of the terrible moral drama of the French Revolution. The Dean of St. Paul's has made a gal lant and successful strug_fle against the monotony incident to a narrator traversing several centuries. He relieves the dryness of dissertation by his vivid style ; and his flowing narrative has spirit, elegance, and strength. The present division of his great work in cludes from the times of Innocent 111. (A D. 1160) to those of Nicholas V. (A D 1454.) It is an excellent portraiture of mediaeval reli gionism. A vast quantity of important matter is compressed within its pages; and too much praise cannot be given to the notes, which are copious, and variously erudite, besides being regulated by good sense. In some places we observe that the Dean's pen is apt to run into wordiness, as if the extent of his subject was at last wearying him, but these instances are comparatively rare. With the exception of Mr. Macaulay's volumes, the whole style of this im portant work is more highly wrought, and exhi. bits more finish, than any other English his torical performance of our time. If Dean Mil man is occasionally colloquial, he is never slipshod, like Alison ; if, like Mr. Hallam, he occasionally leans too much in the direction of what Dryden calls " a sin of latitude," the Dean of St. Paul's does not exhibit the rugged ness of that eminent writer. In fairness to both sides, and in dignified calmness, a high THE PRESS. model for imitation is offered to Mr. Macaulay, by which we wish that he would profit. Nearly half of the fourth volume is occupied with the history of Innocent 111. Much has been written in modern times on that cele brated Pope, and no lack of materials was wanted to Dean Milman. The tendency of the Papacy to Autocracy, the delusion result ing from the splendid fidlacy of " unity," and the grand effects of the Crusades upon Chris tendom, are all closely and consecutively portrayed by the author. The chivalry of Richard 1., the tyranny of John, and the inde pendence of Stephen Langton, diversify the period. We shall take some extracts, which will prove how successfully the author has contrived to vivify his extended narrative. In describing the effects of the interdict passed by the tyrant John, Dean Milman writes : Thus throughout England, as throughout France, without exception, without any privilege to church or monastery, ceased the divine offices of the Church. From Berwick to the British Channel, from the Land's-end to Dover, the churches were closed, the bells silent ; the only clergy who were seen stealing silently about were those who were to baptise new-born infants with a hasty cere mony ; those who were to hear the confession of the dying, and to administer to them, and them alone, the holy Eucharist. The dead (no doubt the most cruel affliction) were cast out of the towns,buried like dogs in some uncon secrated place—in a ditch or a dungheap—without prayer, without the tolling oell, without funeral right. Those only can judge the effect of this fearful maledieion who con sider how completely the whole life of all orders was affected by the ritual and daily ordinances of the Church. Every important act was done under the counsel of the priest or the monk. Even to the less serious, the festivals of the Church were the only holidays, the processions of the Church the only spectacles, the ceremonies of the Church the only amusements. To those of deeper reli gion, to those, the far greater number. of abject supersti tion, what was it to have the child thus almost furtively baptised. marriage unblessed, or hardly blessed; the obse quies denied; to hear neither prayer nor chant ; to sup pose that the world was surrendered to the unrestrained power of the devil and his evil spirits, with no saint to in tercede, no sacrifice to avert the wrath of God; when no single image was exposed to view, not a cross unveiled : the intercourse between man and God utterly broken off; souls left to perish, or but reluctantly permitted absolution in the instant of death! In that passage may be seen a good instance of the art of affecting the reader's mind by a moral, as distinct from a picturesque, descrip tion. The panoramic powers of Mr. Macaulay would have expanded the foregoing descrip tion into a dozen glittering pages. It is obvious that compression, while preserving fulness, is one of the most difficult arts of the historian. It is one of the merits of this " History of Latin Chistianity," that details are not neglected by Dean Milman. His parrative of the proceedings of the Church in reference to Magna Charts is ample in matter. It is curious to observe how instinctively the Pope recoiled from the Great Charter : Pope Innocent saw in this movement only the tur bulence of a few factious barons; he received the re presentations of John's ambassadors with great indigna tion ; he knit his brow (so writes the historian ), and broke out into the language of astonishment " What, have the barons of England presumed to dethrone a King who has taken the Cross, and placed himself under the protection of the Apostolic See? Do they transfer to others the patri mony of the Church of Rome? By St. Peter, we cannot leave such a crime unpunished." If such unseemly lan• gnage was attributed to the Pope, the formal acts of Innocent might almost justify such reports of his conduct. In his Bull he attributes the rebellion of the barons, after John had been reconciled to the Church, to the enemy of mankind. He is astonished that the barons have not humbly brought their grievances before his tribunal, and implored redress. The act describes the conduct of the King as throughout just, conciliatory. " Vassals, they have conspired against their lord—knights, against their king : they have assailed his lands, seized his capital city, which has been surrendered to them by treason. tinder their violence, and under fears which might shake the firmest man, he has entered into a treaty with the barons; a treaty not only base and ignominious, but unlawful and unjust; in flagrant violation and diminution of his rights and honour. Wherefore, as the Lord has said by the month of his prophet—' I have set thee above the nations, and above the kingdoms, to pluck up and to destroy, to build up and to plant;' and by the mouth of another prophet—' break the leagues of ungodliness, and loose the heavy burthens; ' we can no longer pass over in silence such audacious wickedness, committed in contempt of the Apostolic See, in infringement of the rights of the King, to the disgrace of the Kingdom of England. to the great peril of the. Crusade. We, therefore, with the advice of our brethren, altogether reprove and condemn this charter, prohibiting the King, under pain of anathema, from ob. serving it, the barons from exacting its observaa in ; we declare the said charter, with all its obligations and guaran tees, absolutely null and void." The Great Charter of the liberties of England was b lutel,y, peremptorily annulled, by the supreme ant he 87 of the Pope, as Pope and as liege lord of the realm. The King was absolutely released from his oath to the statute ; the King threatened with anathema if he observed, the barons if they exacted the observance. Still the rebukes, promises, threats of spiritual censure, the annulling edict, were received with utter disregard by the sturdy barons. They retorted the language of the Scripture, the phrase of Isaiah is said to have been current among them—" Woe unto him who justifieth the wicked fur reward ! " Yet there were some political excuses for the shortsighted views of the Pope. He did not make allowance for the mingled effects of knightly institutions in an insular realm along with a popular tradition in favour of freedom. Bolingbroke is right in affirming that in all periods there was " a spirit of liberty" in England. _ _ S - olue of the sketches of religious characters introduced in these pages are miniatures executed with considerable skill. We think that, if he chose, Dean Milman could give as " interesting " pictures of individuals as Sir James Stephen, the most successful of pic torial ecclesiologists. The sketches of St. Do minic, and St. Francis of Assisi, are very effective, though the artist was able to take but small room. He seizes the spirit of Dominic with keen apprehension : Though Dominic himself was of high birth, and many of his followers 3f noble blood, St. Francis of decent even wealthy parentage, according to the irrepealable constitu tion of both orders, they were still to be the poorest of mankind, instructing or consorting in religious fellowship with the very meanest outcasts of society. Both the new orders differed in the same manner, and greatly to the ad vantage of the hierarchical faith, from the old monkish institutions. Their primary object was not the salvation of the individual monk, but the salvation of others through him. Though, therefore, their rules within their monasteries were strictly and severely monastic, bound by the common vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, seclusion was no part of their discipline. Their business was abroad rather than at home; their dwelling was nc4. like that of the old Benedictines or others, in the unculti vated swamps and forests of the North, on the dreary Apennine, or the exhausted soil of Italy, in order to subdue their bodies, and occupy their dangerously unoccupied time, merely as a secondary consequence to compel the desert into fertile land. Their work was among their fellow men; in the village, in the town, in the city, in the market, even in the camp. In every Dominican convent the superior had the power to dispense even with the or dinary internal discipline, if he thought the brother might be more usefully employed in his special avocation of a preacher. It might seem the ambition of these men, instead of cooping up a chosen few in high-walled and secure monasteries, to subdue the whole world into one vast cloister; monastic Christianity would no longer flee the world, it would subjugate it, or win it by gentle violence. In Dominic Spain began to exercise that remarkable influence over Latin Christianity, to display that peculiar character which culminated as it were in Ignatius Loyola, in Philip 11., and in Torquernada, of which the code of the Inquisition was the statutary law; of which Calderon was the poet. The life of every devout Spaniard was a per petual crusade. By temperament and by position he was in constant adventurous warfare agai.,st the enemies of the Cross : hatred of the Jew, of the Mohammedan, was the herrban under which he served; it was the oath of his chivalry : that hatred, in all its intensity, was soon and easily extended to the heretic. Hereafter it was to com prehend the heathen Mexican, the Peruvian. St. Dominic was, as it were, a Cortez, bound by his sense of duty, urged by an inward voice, to invade older Christendom. And Dominic was a man of as profound sagacity as of ad venturous enthusiasm. In anotuer place we get to " the spiritual interior" of St. Francis of Assisi, upon whom M. de Montalembert has written with such eloquence and sectarian zeal : St. Francis is among the oldest vernacular poets of Italy. His poetry, indeed, is but a long passionate ejacu lation of love to the Redeemer in rude metre : it has not even the order and completeness of a hymn : it is a sort of plaintive variation on one simple melody ; an echo of the same tender words, multiplied again and again, it might be fancied, by the voices in the cloister walls. But his ordinary speech is more poetical than his poetry. In his peculiar language he addresses all animate, even inanimate, creatures as his brothers; not merely the birds and beasts ; he had an especial fondness for lambs and larks, as the images of the Lamb of God and of the cherubim in heaven. I know not if it be among the " Conformities," but the only malediction I find him to have uttered was against a fierce swine which had killed a young lamb. Of his intercourse with these mute animals we are told many pretty particularities, some of them miraculous. But his poetic impersonation went beyond this. When the surgeon was about to cauterise him. he said, " Fire, my brother, be thou discreet and gentle to me." In one of his Italian hymns he speaks of his brother the sun, his sister the moon, his brother the wind, his sister the water. No wonder that in this almost perpetual extatic state, un earthly music played around him, unearthly light shone round his path. When he died, he said, with exquisite simplicity, " Welcome, sister Death." In these portraits there is no phrase-making. There is always matter kept before the reader's mind, and he is not cheated with "a hubbub "of fine words." Again, let us exhibit the