The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-03-09


i its fairer side we must place be-
side the monks the nuns. Probably
the world has never seen an organ
ization more unselfshly devoted to
human kindness than the various
orders which gathered the holy
women of Christianity together dur
ing the Middle Ages.
The converts were not only the
natural home of saints, like Hide
Carde and Theresa; they were an
admirable refuge for women be-
reaved or deceived. or left unmar-
ried as a result Of the numerical ex-
cess Of women over men in an age
afflicted with violence and a thou
sand petty wars.
In the hands of the nuns and the
secular ii. c. non-monoStic clergy ,.
the church placed the administra-
ton of its charities; and many Of
the great hospitals that survive to-
day we're founded in an epoch in
which charity was personal and
complete.
Mingled with this good was con-
siderable evil The writer's of the
time are never through denouncing
the immortality of the clergy Peter
Damian aims his Book of Gomor-
rah" against the sins of the priest
hood, accuses them of simony and
concubinage, and eXhorts them to
abandon their lives of frivolity and
vice. St Bernard breaches still
more violently:
To-day foul rottenness crawls
through the whole body of the
church If a hereto foe should
arise openly, he would be cast out
and Withered; or if the enemy
ragged madly the church might hide
herself from him. But now whom
shall she cast out, or from whom
hide herself
"All are friends and all are foes;
all necessary and all adverse; all
Of her own household and none
pacific; all are her neighbors and
all seek their own interest. Min
listers of Christ, they serve anti
Christ. They go clothed in the
good things of the Lord and rem
der Him no honor. Hence that
eclat of the courtesan which you
daily see, that theatric garb, that
regal state.
Hence the gold-trapped reins
and saddles and spurs-for the
spurs shine brighter than the al
tars. Hence the splendid tables
laden with food and goblets:
hence the feasting and drunken
ness, the guitars. the Tyres and
the flutes; hence the swollen
wine presses and the storehouses
heaped and running over from
this one into that, and the Jars of
perfumes, and the stuffed purses.
It's for such matters that they
wish to be and are the oVer-seers
Of churches, deacons, archdea-
cons, bishops and archbishops.
For neither do these offices come
by merit, but through that sort
CT business that walketh in dark
ness !"
DOUBTLESS the institutions OF
~ celbacy, which had been es-
tablished after considerable resist
ance in the eleventh century, in
order to prevent the transmission of
ecclesiastical property to private
individuals, and to concentrate the
loyalty of the priest upon his church
had something to do with the
growth of sacerdotal lechery.
For a time the sins of the clergy
were so extreme that it was a com
mon medieval question whether it
was possible for a clergyman to be
saved. Nevertheless the picture of
the village priest, visiting the sick.
consoling the bereaved, and com
forting the poor, is one of the
brightest corners of the medieval
scene.
Under the rule of the church the
people lived an Intellectually narrow
and motionally happy, life. Their
ignorance, their relic-worship. their
m1racle-mongering, their uncritical
acceptance of such pious legends as
made the Lives of the Saints"
their belief in spirits that filed the
air and dominated human lives and
made pious women strangely preg-
nant, may seem to our contempor-
sry taste abominable and unre-
| deemed.
But when we consider how small
a part science and philosophy play
in our lives, we may be inclined to
admit that the people of the Middle
Ages could live as vigorously and