see the necessity of such a function, and to feel its adaptation to those primary needs of our moral nature, effusion and direction, which, in the first instance, could not be better satisfied than by the voluntary submission of every believer to a spiritual guide, freely chosen from a vast and eminent corporation, all whose members were usually fit to give useful advice, and incapable, from their disinterested position, of abusing a confidence on which their personal authority was founded. If such a consultative influence. over human life were denied to the spiritual power, what social prerogative would remain that might not be more justly contested? The moral effects of this noble institution, which purified men by confession and rectified them by repentance, have been so effectually vindicated by those who understand them best, that we may spare ourselves any elaborate comparison of it with the rough and ineffectual discipline, equally precarious and vexatious, by which the magistrate, under the polytheistic system, strove to regulate morals by arbitrary precepts, in virtue of the confusion of powers which then prevailed. We have to regard it now only as an indispensable condition of spiritual government, furnishing the information and the moral means without which it could not perform its social office. The evils which it produced, even in its best days, are attributable less to the institution itself than to the vague and absolute nature of the theological philosophy on which the spiritual organization was founded. The right of absolution, almost arbitrary under the best securities, arose necessarily out of this position of circumstances; and no remonstrances could avail against the practical need of it; for without it, a single serious fault must have perpetually occasioned despair, the consequence of which, to the individual and to society, must have converted this salutary discipline into a source of incalculable disturbance. From the political estimate of Catholicism, we must next pass Dogmatic on to a brief review of its dogmatic conditions, in conditions. order to see how secondary theological doctrines, which appear to us socially indifferent, were yet necessary to the political efficacy of a system so complex and factitious that when its unity, laboriously maintained, was once infringed by the destruction of any one of its component influences, the disorganization of the whole was, however gradual, absolutely inevitable. The amount of polytheism involved in Catholicism was as small as the needs of the theological spirit would at all admit. But there were accessory dogmas which, derived more or less spontaneously from the characteristic theological conception, have expanded into means more or less necessary to the fulfilment of its destination in regard to social progress. We must notice the most important of these. The vague and variable tendency of theological conceptions impairs their social efficacy by exposing the precepts they supply to CATHOLIC DOGMAS. 229 perpetual modification by human passions: and this difficulty can be met only by an incessant vigilance on the part of the corresponding spiritual authority. Catholicism had no choice, if the unity of its social function was to be preserved, but to repress the irreconcilable outbreaks of the religious spirit in individual minds by setting up absolute faith as the first duty of the Christian, because there was no other basis for moral obligation of other kinds. This was a real advance of the moral interests of society; for the great practical utility of religion in that age was that it permitted the provisional elevation of a noble speculative body, eminently adapted during its ascending period to direct the opinions and morals of mankind. It is from this point of view that the dogmatic, as well as the directly political character of Catholicism ought to be judged; for in no other way can we seize the true character of some doctrines, dangerous no doubt, but imposed by the nature or the needs of the system and in no other way can we understand the importance formerly attributed by so many superior minds to special dogmas which might at first appear useless to the final destination, but which had a real bearing both upon the ecclesiastical unity and social efficacy of Catholicism. Some of these dogmas were the very means of the destruction of the system, by the mental and moral insurrection which they provoked. For instance, the dogma that the reception of the Catholic faith is the sole means of salvation was the only instrument for the control of theological divergence; but this fatal declaration, which involves the damnation of all heretics, involuntary as well as wilful, excited more deep and unanimous indignation than any other, when the day of emancipation arrived; for nothing is more confirmatory of the provisional destination of all religious doctrines than their gradually leading on to the conversion of an old principle of love into a final ground of insurmountable hatred; as we should see more and more henceforth amidst the dissolution of creeds, if their social action did not tend finally towards a total and common extinction. The dogma of the condemnation of man Dogma of exclusive salvation. kind through Adam, which is, morally, more revolting of the Fall. than the other, was also a necessary element of the Catholic philosophy, not only for the theological explanation it supplied of human suffering, but, more specially, because it afforded ground for the scheme of redemption, on the necessity of which the whole economy of the Catholic faith is based. The institution of purgatory was happily introduced into the social practice Of purgatory. of Catholicism, as a necessary corrective of the eter nity of future punishment; for without it, there must have been either fatal relaxation or uncontrollable despair, both alike dangerous to the individual and to society: whereas, by this intermediate issue both were avoided, and the religious procedure could be exactly adapted to each case. This was a case of political Of the Real necessity; and another, yet more special, is that of the assignment Of Christ's of an absolutely divine character to the real or ideal divinity. founder of this great system, through the relation of such a conception to the radical independence of the spiritual power, which is thus at once placed under an inviolable authority of its own, direct though invisible: whereas, under the Arian hypothesis, the temporal power, addressing itself immediately to a general Providence, must be less disposed to respect the intervention of the sacerdotal body, whose mystic head has been much lowered in rank. We cannot imagine, at this day, the immense difficulty of every kind that Catholicism had to encounter in organizing the separation of the two authorities; and therefore we can form no judgment of the various resources required by the struggle; among which resources this apotheosis is conspicuous, tending as it did to raise the Church in the eyes of monarchs; while, on the other hand, a rigorous divine unity would have favoured, in an inverse way, too great a concentration of the social ascendency. We accordingly find in history a varied and decisive manifestation of the obstinate predilection among the kings in general for the heresy of Arius, in which their class instinct confusedly discerned a way to humble the papal independence and to favour the social sway of temporal authority. The same political efficacy attached to the doctrine of the Real Presence, which, intellectually strange as it is, is merely a prolongation of the preceding dogma. By it, the humblest priest is invested with a perpetual power of miraculous consecration, which must give him dignity in the eyes of rulers who, whatever might be their material greatness, could never aspire to such sublime operations. Besides the perpetual stimulus thus administered to faith, such a belief made the minister more absolutely indispensable: whereas, amidst simpler conceptions and a less special worship, temporal rulers might then, as since, have found means to dispense with sacerdotal intervention, on condition of an empty orthodoxy. If we proceeded from Worship. the dogma to consider the Catholic worship in the same way, we should find that (apart from the moral instrumentality in regard to individual and social action which it afforded) it had the same political bearing. The sacraments, in their graduated and well-combined succession, roused in each believer, at the most important periods of his life, and through its regular course, the spirit of the universal system, by signs specially adapted to the character of each position. In an intellectual view, the mass offers a most unsatisfactory spectacle, appearing to human reason to be merely a sort of magical operation, terminated by the fulfilment of a pure act of spirit-raising, real though mystical: but in a social view, we see in it a happy invention of the theological spirit, suppressing universally and irrevocably the bloody sacrifices of polytheism, by diverting the instinctive need of sacrifice which is CONTROVERSIES. 231 inherent in every religious régime, and which was in this case daily gratified by the voluntary immolation of the most precious of imaginable victims. What I have said may suggest some conception of the importance of attending to the dogma and worship of the Significance of Catholic church in considering its operation on the controversies. destiny of society. The more closely we study Catholicism in the Middle Ages, the better we shall understand the interest of the controversies amidst which minds of a high order built up the wonderful organization of their church. The indefatigable labours of so many scholars and pontiffs in opposition to Arianism, which would have destroyed their sacerdotal independence; their struggles against Manicheism, which threatened the very basis of their economy, by substituting dualism for unity; and many other wellknown controversies, had as serious and profound a purpose, even of a political kind, as the fiercest contests of our time, which may perhaps appear hereafter quite as strange to philosophers who will overlook the serious social interests involved in the ill-conceived questions that at present abound. The slightest knowledge of ecclesiastical history will confirm the suggestion of philosophy that there must have been some grave meaning in controversies pursued through many centuries by the best minds of the time, amidst the vivid interest of all civilized nations: and there is truth in the remark of Catholic historians, that all heresies of any great importance were accompanied by serious moral or political error,-the logical filiation of which it would generally be easy to establish by considerations analogous to those that I have applied in a few leading cases. This brief sketch is all that my objects allow me to give of the spiritual organism which was gradually wrought out through a course of ten centuries, by methods, various but united in aim, from St Paul, who first conceived the general spirit of it, to Hildebrand, who systematized its social constitution; the intermediate period having been well occupied by the concurrence of all the noblest men of whom their race could then boast,-Augustine, Ambrosius, Jerome, Gregory, etc. etc.,-whose unanimous tendency to the establishment of a general unity, however impeded by the mediocrity of the common order of kings, was usually supported by sovereigns of high political ability,-such as Charlemagne and Alfred. From the spiritual organism we may now pass to the temporal; and having done with the political, we shall then be prepared for an analysis of the moral and mental character of the monotheistic régime. Historical interpreters of the temporal condition of the Middle Ages are apt to assign a far too accidental character to it, by exaggerating the influence of the Germanic invasions. It would be easy to show, first, in answer to this, that the condition of society had so little of Temporal of the régime. the fortuitous invasions. about it that it might have been actually anticipated (if the The Germanic necessary knowledge had been obtainable) from the Roman system, modified by the Catholic; and that the feudal system would have arisen without any invasions: and, again, it may be shown that the invasions themselves were a necessary result of the final extension of the Roman dominion. After our late study of the progressive greatness of that dominion, and of its limitations, we easily perceive that the Roman empire must be bounded on one side by the great Oriental theocracies, which were too remote and too uncongenial for incorporation; and on another side, and especially westwards, by nations, hunters or shepherds, who, not being settled down, could not be effectually conquered so that about the time of Trajan and the Antonines, the system had acquired all the extension it could bear, and might soon expect a reaction. As to the reaction,-it is evident that there can be no real conquest where the agricultural and sedentary mode of life does not exist among the vanquished, as well as the conquerors; for a nomade tribe, driven to seek refuge by removal, will be for ever passing to and fro between its refuge and its old haunts, and the return will be vigorous in proportion to the gradualism of the process of dislodging them from successive territories. In this way, the invasions were no more accidental than the conquests which provoked them; for the gradual driving back, by rendering the conditions of nomade existence more and more irksome, ended by greatly quickening the transition from nomade to agricultural life. The readiest method was to seize on the nearest favourable and prepared territory, whose owners, weakened in proportion to the extension of the empire, became more and more incapable of resistance. The process was as gradual as that of conquest, though we are apt to suppose otherwise from taking into the account none but the successful final invasions: but the truth is, that invasion had begun, on a large scale, several centuries before Rome attained the summit of its greatness; though its success could not be of a permanent nature till the vigour of the empire, at its heart, began to be exhausted. So natural was this progressive result of the situation of the political world, that it occasioned large concessions, long before the fifth century; such as the incorporation of barbarians in the Roman armies, and the abandonment of certain provinces, on condition that new rivals should be kept in check. Pledged as I am to treat only of the advanced rank of humanity, it was yet necessary to say thus much of the reacting power, because from it mainly the military activity of the Middle Ages took its rise. Though the military system was carried on through the Middle Rise of Defen- Ages, it then essentially changed its character, as the civilized world found itself in a new position. Military activity lost its offensive character, and assumed that defensive office which all judicious historians point out as the char sive system. |