The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-03-20
"The Middle Ages
THEIR DARKNESS AND THEIR LIGHT
LECTURE BY BISHOP KEANE.

| this Diocese, delivered his second lecture
for the benefit of the Catholic Church O
this city, in the Town Hall, last Thursday
night. AS on the night previous, the Hal
was we'll filled, and for an hour and hal
| the closest attention Of the audience was en-
listed. 1t would be difficult for one to lister
to Bishop Keane and not have his admira
ton excited and the faculties of his mine
| thoroughly aroused. OF commanding pres
encc, with voice clear and distinct, peculiar
felicity OF expression and strength and vigel
of thought, his rapid and succinct utterances
fall with force and directness that find
them Judgment; and it matters not whether
grouping the dry details of history, laying
down premise or drawing conclusion,
exhibiting by Illustration the pth of ar ar
gument, or impressing the beauty of the
English language in the symmetrical round
ing Of a sentence, he is the finished and mag
netic orator whose every expression rivets
attention and commands remark
The subject of his lecture on the occasion
OF which we write was ''The Middle Ages
Their Darkness and Their Light 1t is a
theme than which none is more prolific OF
interest, and its handling by Bishop Keane
was mastery. Forever with that dark
thousand-year gulf must be associated the
glamour of romance and chivalry. 1t comes
to us not as the records of the ages that pre-
coded it, nor n the broad light of the civil.
ization which followed and has passed iuto
remote history. Solitary it stands forth as
the great garden where antiquity planted
the seeds which, terminating for ten long
centuries, blossomed in beauty in the reign
of the Renaissance, and yielded its fruitery
In the enlightment of the age in which we
live. Bishop Keane described it as the tran
stion state, when the world was passing
from the ancient to the modern civilization,
and in coming down to its contemplation
said, very properly, that in order to its IN
Outstanding, it is necessary to study the
times as they then were. 1t is during this Pc
Rod, reaching from the fifth to the fifteenth
century, that the enemies Of the Catholic
Church find the weak points Of assault; but
when it is remembered that across that tur-
bulenJ torrent which swept from the face of
the earth every vestige of the old political
life, this venerable institution stretches like
vast cable, it is the age that presents it.
self as the subject for indictment and not
the church. In cutting away from the
1rammels Of the past, the age has loosed its
moorings and was drifting. With it were drift
ing also the institutions and systems that had
witnessed its birth, its pride Of manhood and
declining strength. Spanning from shore to
shore-from infancy to destiny-the church
saw its contemporaries borne down to rise
no more. At times the dark pillows dashed
over and submerged it, and the struggle for
supremacy was a fierce one, but the hand
that held the waters in the hollow of its
palm was the hand whose might stayed and
sustained His representative on earth.
With some minuteness the lecturer de-
scribed the condition of society from the
close Of the fourth century, when Goths
and Vandals, Lombards, Saxons and Scan
dinavians, held sway, and the old feudal sys-
TEN prevailed. Then it was that, in reward
of services rendered in war. chiefs were
granted domain, over which and their vassas
they reigned with royal absolutism. The
church also held large grants, and by virtue
of its tenures was the subject of the EN-
peror, who made no scruple or secret of
selling ecclesiastical livings to the highest
bidder This was the darkest hour of the
church-the Iron Age OF the world. But it
was that darkness which precedes the first
grey streaks of the coming morn. The Iron
Age was to find man equal to the exigen-
cies of the times. An obscure monk of
Cluny, the son of poor Tuscan carpenter,
the church in the thraldom of temporal pow
er. In the last quarter of tn eleventh cen.
fury Hildebrand Was called to the papal
chair and assumed the name of Gregory VII
His election was not of his own seeking, and
he warned Henry w. that if it was not set
aside he, the Emperor, would be called to
account for his RIGHTEOUSNESS and tyranny.
Gregory was enthroned, and the work OF
pu1ging the priesthood OF simony and I'M
chastity, and emancipating the church from
the interference of the crown, was COM
menced. This was the new birth of the
Catholic Church, and its advance from that
day to this has marked the advance of civil
ization.
Rapidly and graphically the lecturer pic
tured the fierce wars that followed the revo-
luton wrought by Gregory. and their culmi-
nation in the glory of the Golden Age-that
age which raised literature and art to the
zenith of their greatness, giving to the world
a Dante, Michael Angelo and Raphael,
and building its monuments in the great uni
versities OF Europe.
1t is impossible for the student of history
to follow the Catholic Church throughout its
long career and fail to discern the all power
full influence it has exercised over the civil
ization of mankind. IT'S true, said the
Bishop, that Mr.. Hallam, in closing his his
tory in 1878. concluded that it would have
been better had there been no church; but
thirty years afterwards, Mr.. Hallam was
persuaded thai it would have been better for
his reputation as an impartial historian had
that conclusion never been reached. He en-
deavored to correct the error by its candid
admission, but the poison of the SANDER had
permeated too thoroughly, and it was i'm
possible toeradicate it. The great difficulty
with Mr. Hallam, as with many others, was
that he did not 90 to the fountain head for
information, but accepted as true the preiu-
diced conclusions of anti Catholics and gar
BILE statements OF churchmen, and upon them
laid the foundation OF his great work.
In concluding his lecture Bishop Keane
dwelt with emphasis upon the necessity of
an utter enforcement of church and state.
The one is the soul, the other the body of
civilization, and willis. they must work to-
gether tremendously, they must ever remain
distinct and apart.
We have not attempted in this notice to
give even a synopsis OF this most interesting
discourse, for no synopsis would do it JUS
tice. 10 be fully apprec a.ed it should be
heard or read in full, and we regret that the
many who were not present at its delivery
L.. =