THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLE. NEW SERIES-No. 24. November and December, 1822. THOUGHTS ON THE RELIGION OF THE MIDDLE AGES. FOR THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLE. THAT there is a decline in nations, and a period of semi-barbarous repose following the decline, is a fact of awful interest, whose causes are not fully explained. When Egypt and Arabia, Greece and Italy have exchanged that elevation to which they had been raised by wealth, literature, and the arts, for a state of abject ignorance, I know that adequate causes have been assigned for this final ruin. Perhaps a conqueror supplanted the polished society with barbarous invaders, and actually exterminated the refinement of the country. Perhaps the luxury that waits upon wealth corrupted public virtue, until faction convulsed and ambition enslaved the people. This is accounted a sufficient explanation; but I go up higher, to ask the cause of this submission of a powerful nation to a savage horde, and of mind and virtue to moral and intellectual depravity. There does not appear any natural necessity that civilization should succumb to barbarism. On the contrary, it is a maxim which is true of the ways of Providence, that to him who hath much, much shall be given; it is likewise true that the arts of a refined nation do more than supply the probable deficiency of physical courage; as, in a combat with beasts the advantage always rests on the side of I should rather regard the downfal of a mighty empire before the puny force of wild and disunited savages,as a special interposition of God's power, designed to produce some novel phenomena in human history. Yet, there is a plausible analogy which likens the progress of a nation to the progress of man's life, whose youth is hardily reared in necessity and toil, so that the New Series-vol. IV. man. 51 bands are strengthened by labour and the frame is invigorated by temperance; but successful toil is attended by wealth, wealth induces luxury, and luxury, disease. This analogy is broken by the immortality of the nation, which admits of many revolutions, and may thus boast a variety of character unattainable by the mortality of man. The nation may fluctuate from time to time in its modes of thinking, and one age may hold an opinion which the following age renounces; during one century it may decay, and during the next may rise, by the impulse of a political change, to the vigour of a new people. Men are also accustomed to reason loosely, and to say, that the generations of men, like the leaves of the forest, follow each other with regular order, and an uniform character; that great differences in their comparative history do not exist or are less. than they seem, and depend on accidental causes, which may be easily assigned. I confess I see no just reason to hold such views of a race, which exist to purposes which they themselves cannot comprehend, and fulfil by their being, designs, of which the secret reposes with eternal Wisdom. It seems no wise improper to suppose that God intended to appoint one order of circumstances as the field of character for one generation, and a different order to another. We do not know our relations to the universe, but it is not improbable that the divine administration, and its results upon earth, are opened to the inspection of numberless intelligent beings, and it will consist with these purposes to change the spectacle by causing certain revolutions in the internal affairs of the scene. Not perceiving, ourselves, the connection of events, we are unable to discover how far a sublime uniformity may prevail, or whether the seeming disorder may not be, like the series of a drama,-a harmonious succession of events. Whatever may be the causes, we are sufficiently sure of the fact, that, for a period of eight or ten centuries, in the best part of the world, the human mind endured a melancholy captivity, and blindly pursued certain miserable ends, while the whole mass of society languished under barbarous ignorance, and barbarous institutions. The sum of political freedom enjoyed in different portions of Europe was unequal. In Italy, it was very considerable in those districts where commerce had raised a counterpoise to the privileges of the nobles. In France, Spain and England, it amounted to nothing. Germany seems to have possessed somewhat more than her neighbours by reason of the divisions which gave each individual greater public importance. But over all the countries, which in that disastrous moral twilight pretended to civilization, was diffused the levelling principle of a great religious establishment; all were equalized by a common submission of the freedom of opinion to the ordinances of the councils and court of Rome. In some portions of this ample desert, human absurdity grew to an unnatural extent. God drew around them yet darker the veil which concealed the light of truth. Such were the forms and dogmas of the prevalent system, that somewhat more than a common effort of credulity, even in a dark age, was required to forbear from disgust and abhorrence. The place in ecclesiastical history which this period occupies, is immensely important; and we propose in reference to it, to devote a few pages to some considerations upon the religion of the middle ages. Our task is simplified by the necessity, which reduces it to a discussion of the character and influence of the Roman Catholic religion. This will be best accomplished by an account of its distinguishing features, and their result, as described in history. The operation of the institutions of government and religion upon life and character, is often remote and insignificant. The bond is so loose, or is set aside by other near and engrossing interests, that it enters very little into the education of the mind and heart. But such systems bear no likeness to the institution of which we speak. The policy of Rome, if it approached any thing, would more easily find a parallel in ancient Egypt, or modern India, than elsewhere. Instead of counting the individual, like other governments, as a cipher, as a mere theoretical abstraction, valuable only as adding one to an amount, the ecclesiastical authority entered into a personal and intimate acquaintance with its subject, unclosed the secrets of his heart as none else, but his Maker had done, and thus laid upon his actions, a command of irresistible force. Wherever the practice corresponded to the theory, and each rank of the community was supplied with its appropriate guardian; it is manifest, that the independence of society was annihilated, and human conduct obeyed, by necessity, the systems prescribed by fallible men. This was chief instrument of papal power, The next striking feature in the character of the church was its strict adherence to sanctimonious forms. There was a sav ing virtue in the sign of the cross, a thousand romantic and fabulous charms in the string of beads, in the golden rose which was set apart for kings, in the relics of a hundred martyrs, and in the Ave Marias which the worshipper did not understand; a genuflexion was an act of merit, and a worthless unction secured the reversion of eternal bliss, In times of crying iniquity, we find an external religious aspect pervading society, and marking the habits of bad men, no less than the good. We find lawless soldiers, and men notorious for their atrocity, prostrated at the altar with peaceful citizens, and pious men; receiving absolution from a priest, and departing to sin again. What was the result of this? It is manifestly a pleasing apology for a bad heart, and abets the universal tendency of human infirmity, which is fain to make a compromise with heaven, and to substitute religious rites, and the sacrifice of hecatombs, for that patient and persevering self-denial, which virtuous princi. ples require. We bear about us, and it is the distinction of intelligent beings, the sting of remorse whenever we do wrong; and to lull this remorse and sense of accountability, in some way or other, is necessary to our peace. A naked and simple system of religion, which is destitute of temples and sacrifices, of painting, sculpture, art and ceremony, must therefore be natural and sublime; because, if it do not conform to the dictates of conscience, and yet has no splendid delusions to dazzle or bear it down, it will speedily go out of date. In judging of the awful glories of the Roman church, the mind sets over against its neglect of inward purity, the really ardent zeal, which was necessary to fulfil so long and painful a round of external duties. Forms float upon the surface of society; principles act at the core; but of this system, the forms were most devotional, and the principles blind and bad. Another prominent peculiarity was the wealth of the estab lishment, from which immediately follows a very pernicious effect, namely, the bad character of the clergy. Boys and babes were ordained to the care of the souls of men, with no other view in those who ordained them, than to secure to themselves the riches of the church. Those distinctions of office in the church, which were necessary to its early organization, were used by ambitious men as the basis of their own aggrandizement. Gregory the great was undoubtedly the victim of names, and by the title of holding the keys of heaven, as vicar of Christ, and successor of St. Peter, was persuaded to add his energetic support to an usurpation of the dearest rights of men. But his aggressions were comparatively trivial, and it is not till we have advanced farther in the history of Rome, that we turn to execrate the steps that Jed to such a flagrant abuse of power, and to the blasphemy of affixing the name of God to deeds of the devil. The severe Hildebrand, whose epoch marks the consolidation of the sacred monarchy, was ambitious, tyrannical and licentious; but his successors descended to lower depths of degradation. At one time there followed a series of worldly, rapacious conquerors; at another, of debauchees; and the care and government of Christendom was entrusted, in the face of the world, to men of deficient intellects, and contemptible vices. Among these, John XXII. is particularly distinguished by the circumstances of his election. Le nouveau pape,' says Sismondi, ne put s'empecher de dire à ses confreres, que leur choix fut tombée sur un âne.' The schism which the Italians ridicule, as the seventy years of the captivity at Babylon,' was not more remarkable for its bitter contentions, than for the voluptuousness which characterized the court of Avignon. This dreadful corruption of the papal character, a character which is so fine in theory, might have been prevented if the election had been committed to proper hands. The right of choosing the pope was early wrested from the people, and lodged in the consistory, the fairest possible theatre of intrigue and corruption. So that Europe received her spiritual fathers, without a power of assent or dissent, from a bribed assembly of men, who bore holy titles indeed, but whose hands were deeper in iniquity, than any cabinet which the world ever saw. The popes of the fifteenth century, to whom we have alluded, were bad men enough, but the character and vices of Alexander VI. are below the decency of criticism. This successor of St. Peter, and the representative of Deity, was a thousand fold more the servant of the devil than any contemporary man of influence out of his own household. With such a prelate for their spiritual head, if their belief in this religious system was not warm and sincere,-is it natural, does it come within the compass of probable events, that the heart and the morals should be very pure? Was there no apology for iniquity, no plea of example, upon which human frailty, ever ready to lean on a reed, could repose? And if these were sincere believers, (as who can doubt ?) is it not still worse? for how could they act upon perfect principles, and with clear notions of moral goodness, who had to reconcile the infallibility of their bishop with his most exceptionable life? The enemies of the church of Rome seem ever to be most scandalized by its assumption of temporal power, and by the interference of the Jesuits in the councils of states. This was the crying sin which offended the laity, for it came in competition with their interests; and this wrought the downfal of the church. If the church of Rome had never abused the trust committed to them, as temporal lords, this accusation might have rested with a barbarous age. To legislate for mankind, and preside in the execution of laws, is that office among men, which demands the largest share of wisdom and genius. The solemnity and responsibility of an assembly of lawgivers, favour rather than oppose the admission of the minister of religion. While the statesman stands there as the contriver of means to produce certain ends, and the scholar to describe the systems which have prevailed; the servant of God should represent the cause of |