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years, we have seen a Roman pontiff making this fable into a dogma, and its acceptance a condition of eternal salvation.

9. THE PATRISTIC PERIOD.

But now a most important point, of which St. Bernard is the index. He is known to Latin theologians as the "last of the Fathers." He deserves this name, not because a doctor of the twelfth age can possibly be reckoned a "Father," but because he closes the long line of Western worthies who maintained the patristic principle theoretically, and, as far as their times would permit, practically also. I should note Alcuin as the last of the Fathers, for that would be a parallel to the Greek idea: they make Alcuin's contemporary, John Damascene, the last. Anselm is rather a forerunner of the Schoolmen. St. Bernard was the last of those Latin theologians who professed to be guided by "the Scriptures and ancient authors," by the rule of Vincent, in short. "What I have received from the Church, that in all confidence I hold, and that I teach; what is otherwise, I confess, I am very scrupulous about admitting." He puts his finger on the very essence of the new theology, of which Abelard was forerunner, when in memorable words he accuses him of doing in the domain of Holy Scripture what men had been taught by dialectics: thus becoming a "censor of the faith, not a disciple, -an emendator, not an imitator." We reach the epoch when, by the introduction of syllogistic manipulations, truths professed in the Creeds because

contained in Holy Scripture were made the base of indefinite exaggerations. The Fathers were hostile to codes of belief; the Nicene creed bears witness to their tender regard for what is written, while framing liturgic formulas in childlike response to apostles and evangelists. Beyond these simple formulas they would not presume: they felt afraid of applying logic to mysterious realities, and venturing into conclusions which subjected the mysteries of God to the infirmities of human reason not only, but of human speech as well. Hence the Council of Constantinople forbade the framing of any new creed, or the dictation of any other to converts from heresy or schism. What Bernard foresaw was a disposition to break through all

this.1

IO. THE SCHOLASTICS.

Not content with "the faith once delivered to the saints," men were about to erect upon it a fabric of trestle-work, employing Aristotle's syllogisms to build their tower of Babel and scale the heavens. Expounders of Scripture and stewards of the grand deposit of truth were no longer to be accounted theologians. The new plan was this: Human wit must exert itself to find a major and a minor premise in admitted truths. Draw the conclusion, and discover a novel truth. Try it again, and you find another novelty. Make premises of these, and draw a new inference. You have progressive theology, and the process can be extended ad infinitum. Such is Scholasticism.

1 See Note J".

Peter Lombard was Bernard's protegé, but he seems to have been fascinated by Abelard, whose pupil he had been. The genius of Augustine had pointed in this direction, and Anselm had followed his indications. Abelard himself was only sparingly acquainted with Aristotle, whose works were imperfectly known in Europe till the Saracens, who had obtained them from the Nestorians, handed them back to the Latins, many of them in very bad retranslations. Lombard became Archbishop of Paris, and is known as the "Master of the Sentences." The "Schoolmen " properly so called became commentators upon these Sentences, and, by logical methods, enlarged their import and their domain. In the middle of the thirteenth century St. Thomas Aquinas became the great Scholastic, but before the end of that age Duns Scotus, the "Subtle Doctor," had founded an antagonist system; and now these rival authorities divided the schools between them. The interminable disputes of the Thomists and Scotists, Nominalists and Realists, became embittered beyond all conception, owing largely to the partisan feelings of the Dominicans and Franciscans, these rival orders each following its own doctor, perhaps very naturally.

II. RELATIONS WITH MODERN THOUGHT.

You will not ask me to go into an elucidation of these disputes; and I am very glad of it, because I confess my inability to appreciate refinements and distinctions

"which divide

A hair 'twixt south and southwest side,"

and the more I have looked into them the less I feel that I know about them. Pius IX. has forbidden men to look into modern discoveries. Men may think, but not for themselves. Leo XIII., with solemn irony, professing himself a friend of scientific thought, commends the study of St. Thomas Aquinas to inquiring minds of the Roman Obedience. He thus accomplishes two important objects: (1) he shows just where Science ought to stop, in his judgment; and (2) he reminds his people that the natural philosophy of Aristotle has been identified with Trent dogmas, as well as with its moral and intellectual sequels, the new decrees; so that there is an end of all controversy. So far he permits his schools to go in America, but no farther. The fact comes in here as a landmark.

12. THE CRUSADES.

And the Crusades, which lie on the highest table-land of Papal development, between the epochs of Gregory VIII. and Innocent III., must be noted here for a like purpose. Like the Scholasticism to which the Crusades lent new arms from the schools of the Saracens, these are landmarks not merely, but mighty elements as well, in overturning and new-creating, - in evolving out of chaos a new world of thought and action for humanity. What sublime folly! what superlative crime! what tokens of God's way among nations,"From seeming evil still educing good"!

Here a word about the ennobling theory and the painful practical history of chivalry. It appears best in allegory like Spenser's, or in epic song like Tasso's. Alas! in history, the Crusaders, whose lives were vowed to the service of Christian womanhood, the defence of maiden modesty and of conjugal chastity, gave themselves over to unbridled excesses of debauchery, under banners on which was portrayed the symbol of the Lamb; and the hosts, who knelt on the holy ground and kissed it when they came in sight of Jerusalem, made its streets run with blood when they took it from the Infidels. The moderation of the Paynim when Omar captured it, presents a contrast which must ever crimson Christian cheeks with shame. Yet if the age of chivalry is extinct, the glorious ideas which it degraded must live forever in the new sentiment of Christian nations. Born of the Gospel, the Gospel is their sure support; and woman, if no longer the inspirer of quixotic lists and tournaments, finds true knighthood in the hearts and the homage of the father, the brother, and the husband, in every Christian home.

When we come to the convulsions of which Wiclif and John Huss were the pioneers, we shall be forced to recognize that nations had been massed and unified by the Crusades to necessitate great transformations; and that the Scholastics were the intellectual gymnasts, who, better than they knew, were preparing minds and consciences for nobler conflicts, and for the emancipation of Europe from the bondage of theory into the free

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