The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1871-04-23


Tho Dark Ages.
The history of antiquities has nothing
70 compare with this stereotype platat"9s .r ,
It is the desperation Of chronoiog.sI,S, Who
the writer is yet to be discovered VINO
fixed it's beginning and conclusion. to say
nothing of it's gloomy cycles. IL IL mean
the period when In ClOnmacnois anu 10
ard, and Lismore and Renchor, P,aes.e
transcribed the poems OF S ifasd the Great,
and gave education and hospitality as
Bede informs US, to pilgrim students 1rom
distant lapds; ii it mean the day when
priests founded Hy and Bobbi0, ana oAio,1
" Mater Studiorum of Italy" we shoula
prefer it's darkness to the inteiiectual ~.
| hnIa-half luminous and half obscure, IN
which we move. At a period when the
| stigma of biblical illiteracy can be fasteheu
upou the Catholic Church - teacMhg ~
tamohtMevery appeal to the ozark Ages :"
is suicidal. When volume was pm.
nomenop when q manuscripts was ~.
time. when to make book needed me al
nnseeu toll, the Bible was field OF Catno-
r liz industry. Before the art OF Printlns
, was invented, when paper was ysS VA
q known. the Church expounded and aaornea
:. the Rible. The beautiful art of illuminating
9 NAV be said to have arisen from Catn4ne :
il love of the Bible. 1t is among tne stn eas
d riddles of history that this fair art burns
n hrieht s in the midnight of the Dark Ages.
10 Take as an instance the copy OF tne oos'
r. neis erecnted-some say in the sixth cen
70 turv-all are agreed not later inan .Ie
l. eighth, in the Monastery f Es haant;;es ar.
N ;ustiv appreciated by Mr.. Westwood, IN o.!
,e PaIacorraphia Sacra, and We shall al!ov
ne that wTiter to describe them: Inc wrlte
til is not Catholic, but, as est 40 nos.e "
,Igsiana TINS %sy e ws &c Of the Gospels
S;e;nmal,v asserted to belong to St. Colnp,
ss ~ "a Internationally the most elaboTatei
he o1.cnted manuscript of early art now !:
let existence, far exceeding IN cue gsga;n.s
he OF the Gospels, the excessive mir y,
ed ~teness-of tie ornamental details u
ia n"mhe1 of it's decorations, the hncne'
it'll IF the writing, and the endless "
led riety of initial capital iet.ess f Will Co
the nsi ~ f,;ndisfarne in the Cottonian library
nth RThat hook ia seen this day in Trinity 70 70
roe iaae Dublin, together with beautil
400 missal-executed, if my memory serve ..
not rightly a certain sister IT,, Ma fasst ~ RI
The se:n =, a Convent Of Munster, German
an t%a library of the British Museum
;ck. aaan the Mazarine Bible-the first =, 90
.sed aver nublished. Close by it are the D' ::
Pa books-or illustrated mannais o. ~, "e hef
new If the thirteenth century, IN winch, yer
aith the discovery of printing, the mysIei
n of snd miracles of the Bible are MADE aces
ow be to the meanest capacities IN c she
of wsnes is s sef him. me-
the nn;S Earlier still we learn from Bede Z
ts IL sss a M%Pas'
Il in R;shop of Lichfield, of which see he
ope- fonnder, because that he 8. was well yer
here in the holy serpsnresn The - date lat 1 .,
/ say event was 66O. Inc n.sso ni ~ th.t ha
more cal literature was always assigned the :. y
ran most place, and when in Paris "a an he q;
came to liberal studies, we find, among 9th
aith- 81. Bernard-the beacon-lifting an In
T do nant voice, and insisting eagerly upon
cam snnerior excellence Of Scripture
bol;c eli branches of knowledge. When
traiia York journalists speak Of biblical lliiIe
.ra Of n the @Dark Ages" the words OF L.
ce,e- rush forcibly upon US: If ideas an@w
ho ia were distinctly weighed and duly col
,se he cred. they would afford us another SO
, "n of iooic and criticism than we nave
iona. hitherto acquainted with."-father
truth, tern in N. Y. Tablet.