the Church.

moment we extend our view to later times and to circumstances beyond the strict compass of this book, Analysis of endeavouring thus to ascertain the condition the career of of the Church, especially as to many devout persons it may doubtless appear that she has lost none of her power.

Italian

On four occasions there have been revolts against the Italian Church system: 1st, in the thirteenth century, the Albigensian; 2nd, in the fourteenth, the Four revolts Wiclifite; 3rd, in the sixteenth, the Reforma- against the tion; 4th, in the eighteenth, at the French system. Revolution. On each of these occasions ecclesiastical authority has exerted whatever offensive or defensive power it possessed. Its action is a true indication of its condition at the time. Astronomers can determine the orbit of a comet or other celestial meteor by three observations of its position as seen from the earth, and taken at intervals apart.

1st. Of the Albigensian revolt. We have ascertained that the origin of this is distinctly traceable The Albigento the Mohammedan influence of Spain, through sian revolt. the schools of Cordova and Granada, pervading Languedoc and Provence. Had these agencies produced only the gay scenes of chivalry and courtesy as their material results, and, as their intellectual, war-ballads, satires, and amorous songs, they had been excused; but, along with such elegant frivolities, there was something of a more serious kind. A popular proverb will often betray national belief, and there was a proverb in Provence, "Viler than a priest." The offensive sectaries also quoted, for the edification of the monks, certain texts, to the effect that, "if a man will not work neither let him eat." The event, in the hands of Simon de Montfort, taught them that there is such a thing as wresting Scripture to one's own destruction.

How did the Church deal with this Albigensian heresy? As those do who have an absolutely overwhelming power. She did not crush it-that would have been too indulgent; she absolutely annihilated it. Awake to what must necessarily ensue from the imperceptible spread of such opinions, she remorselessly consumed its birth-place with fire and sword; and, fearful that some fugitives might have escaped

her vigilant eye, or that heresy might go wherever a bale of goods might be conveyed, she organized the Inquisition with its troops of familiars and spies. Six hundred years have elapsed since these events, and the south of France has never recovered from the blow.

That was a persecution worthy of a sovereign-a persecution conducted on sound Italian principles of policy-to consider clearly the end to be attained, and adopt the proper means without any kind of concern as to their nature. But it was a persecution that implied the possession of unlimited and irresponsible power.

Wiclif.

2nd. Of the revolt of Wiclif. We have also considered the The revolt of state of affairs which aroused the resistance of Wiclif. It is manifested by legal enactments early in the fourteenth century, such as that ecclesiastics shall not go armed, nor join themselves with thieves, nor frequent taverns, nor chambers of strumpets, nor visit nuns, nor play at dice, nor keep concubines-by the Parliamentary bill of 1376, setting forth that the tax paid in England to the pope for ecclesiastical dignities is fourfold as much as that coming to the king from the whole realm; that alien clergy, who have never seen nor care to see their flocks, convey away the treasure of the country-by the homely preaching of John Ball, that all men are equal in the sight of God. Wiclif's opposition was not only directed against corruptions of discipline in the Church, but equally against doctrinal errors. His dogma that "God bindeth not men to believe any thing they cannot understand" is a distinct embodiment of the rights of reason, and the noble purpose he carried into execution of translating the Bible from the Vulgate shows in what direction he intended the application of that doctrine to be made. Through the influence of the queen of Richard the Secord, who was a native of that country, his doctrines found an echo in Bohemia - Huss not only earnestly adopting his theological views, but also joining in his resistance to the despotism of the court of Rome and his exposures of the corruptions of the clergy. The political point of this revolt in England occurs in the refusal of Edward III., at the instigation of Wiclif, to do homage to the pope; the religious, in the translation of the Bible.

Though a bull was sent to London requiring the archheretic to be seized and put in irons, Wiclif died in his bed, and his bones rested quietly in the grave for forty-four years. Ecclesiastical vengeance burned them at last, and scattered them to the winds.

There was no remissness in the ecclesiastical authority, but there were victories won by the blind hero, John Zisca. After the death of that great soldier-whose body was left by the road-side to the wolves and crows, and his skin dried and made into a drum-in vain was all that perfidy could suggest and all that brutality could execute resorted to-in vain the sword and fire were passed over Bohemia, and the last effort of impotent vengeance tried in England-the heretics could not be exterminated nor the detested translation of the Bible destroyed.

3rd. Of the revolt of Luther. As we shall have, in a subsequent chapter, to consider the causes that The revolt of led to the Reformation, it is not necessary to Luther. anticipate them in any detail here. The necessities of the Roman treasury, which suggested the doctrine of supererogation and the sale of indulgences as a ready means of relief, merely brought on a crisis which otherwise could not have been long postponed, the real point at issue being the right of interpretation of the Scriptures by private judgment.

The Church did not restrict her resistance to the use of ecclesiastical weapons-those of a carnal kind she also employed. Yet we look in vain for the concentrated energy with which she annihilated the Albigenses, or the atrocious policy with which the Hussites were met. The times no longer permitted those things. But the struggle was maintained with unflinching constancy through the disasters and successes of one hundred and thirty years. Then came the peace of Westphalia, and the result of the contest was ascertained. The Church had lost the whole of northern

Europe.

4th. Of the revolt of the philosophers. Besides the actual loss of the nations who openly fell away The revolt of to Protestantism, a serious detriment was soon the philosophers. found to have befallen those still remaining nominally faithful to the Church. The fact of secession

or adherence depending, in a monarchy, on the personal caprice or policy of the sovereign, is by no means a true index of the opinions or relations of the subjects; and thus it happened that in several countries in which there was an outward appearance of agreement with the Church because of the attitude of the government, there was, in reality, a total disruption, so far as the educated and thinking classes were concerned. This was especially the case in France.

When the voyage of circumnavigation of the globe by Magellan had for ever settled all such questions as those of the figure of the earth and the existence of the antipodes, the principles upon which the contest was composed between the conflicting parties are obvious from the most superficial perusal of the history of physics. Free thought was extorted for science, and, as its equivalent, an unmolested state for theology. It was an armed truce.

It was not through either of the parties to that conflict that new troubles arose, but through the action of a class fast rising into importance-literary men. From the beginning to the middle of the last century these philosophers became more and more audacious in their attacks. Unlike the scientific, whose theological action was by implication rather than in a direct way, these boldly assaulted the intellectual basis of faith. The opportune occurrence of the American Revolution, by bringing forward in a prominent manner social evils and political methods for their cure, gave a practical application to the movement in Europe, and the Church was found unable to offer any kind of resistance. From these observations of the state of the Church at four different epochs of her career we are able to determine her movement. There is a time of abounding strength, a time of feebleness, a time of ruinous loss, a time of utter exhaustion. What a difference between the eleventh and the eighteenth centuries! It is the noontide and evening of a day of empire.

Summary of the Italian

system.

CHAPTER V.

APPROACH OF THE AGE OF REASON IN EUROPE.

IT IS PRECEDED BY MARITIME DISCOVERY.

Consideration of the definite Epochs of Social Life.
Experimental Philosophy emerging in the Age of Faith.

The Age of Reason ushered in by Maritime Discovery and the rise of
European Criticism.

MARITIME DISCOVERY.-The three great Voyages.

COLUMBUS discovers America.-DE GAMA doubles the Cape and reaches India.-MAGELLAN circumnavigates the Earth.-The Material and intellectual Results of each of these Voyages.

DIGRESSION ON THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF AMERICA.- -In isolated human Societies the process of Thought and of Civilization is always the same.-Man passes through a determinate succession of Ideas and embodies them in determinate Institutions.-The state of Mexico and Peru proves the influence of Law in the development of Man.

I HAVE arrived at the last division of my work, the period in national life answering to maturity in individual. The objects to be considered differ altogether from those which have hitherto occupied our attention. We have Peculiarities now to find human authority promoting intellec- of the Age of tual advancement, and accepting as its maxim that the lot of man will be ameliorated, and his power and dignity increased, in proportion as he is able to comprehend the mechanism of the world, the action of natural laws, and to apply physical forces to his use.

Reason.

The date at which this transition in European life was made will doubtless be differently given accord- Natural ing as the investigator changes his point of periods merge view. In truth, there is not in national life another. any real epoch, because there is nothing in reality abrupt.

into one