HARMONY BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 231 of all." But such language merely expresses, though in an original and forcible manner, the chosen position of mysticism which gives special prominence to the work of the Holy Spirit in men's hearts; and such passages can by no means furnish any foundation for the charge, that he would speak disparagingly of historical Christianity. Yet we must allow, that at the bottom of the whole mode of intuition set forth in his works, lies the thought, that the entire revelation of the Old and New Testaments contains, indeed, immutable truth, and that Christianity is in itself a complete and immutable thing; but yet, at the same time, this does not hold good of the different forms of its manifestation. The overthrow of the particular ecclesiastical form then existing, and a new, more complete development of Christianity in the consciousness of mankind, in which the inner revelation of the Holy Spirit will take the place of outward authority, is predicted by him. This is in fact already implied in what he says, in his own way, concerning the transition of the Petrine position into that of John, the dissolution of the clerical governance of the church and its rehabilitation in the community of the contemplative life. Doubtless he supposes, as the peculiarity of those last times, a direct and unmediated reference of the religious consciousness of all men, to God manifested in Christ, so that there would be no more need of an order of teachers. Then the prophecy of Jeremiah, that God himself would be the teacher of men, and would write his law in the hearts of all, would meet with its fulfilment; but as all earthly greatness must come to shame, when the sublimity of things heavenly revealed itself, so it was only by humbling himself that man could become capable of beholding such divine glory.3 Especially deserving of notice are the following words in the book written by abbot Joachim, on "The Harmony between the Old and New Testaments," (Concordiae Veteris ac Novi Testamenti ;) in which, speaking of the relation of changeable forms to the unchangeable essence in the revelation of divine things, he thus expresses himself.4 "The Holy Spirit is the fire which consumes all this. Why? Because there is nothing durable on earth; for so long as we see through a glass darkly, it is necessary for us to cling to those symbols, and so long are we unable to come to the knowledge of that truth which is 1 Qui erat invisibilis pro suae simplicitate naturae, per humanae assumtionem substantiae visibilis fieri dignatus est, voluit per visibiles homines vocis mysteria personari, ut hi qui arcana divinitatis penetrare contemplando non poterant, visibilibus ad sublimia raperentur exemplis. Non sic autem spiritales, non sic, sed quo illorum corda mundiora sunt, eo per invisibilia Dei opera, quae sibi viciniora sunt, in ipsum, qui creator est omnium, spiritalium oculorum aciem intellectualiter figunt. In Apocalyps. p. 49. Quasi per alios pascuntur oves, cum ad docendas subditorum ecclesias pastores in populis eliguntur, cum autem veritatem evangelicam clarificat per spiritum suum ad complendam prophetiam Jerem. 31: 33, 34; quasi jam non per alios Dominus, sed ipse per semetipsum requiret oves suas, sicut visitat pastor gregem suum in die, quando fuerit in medio ovium suarum dissipatarum. 3 Et quia mirabilis est Deus in sanctis suis et longe mirabilior in majestate sua, necesse est, ut semetipsum dejiciat, qui videre tantam gloriam existimatur dignus, quia nimirum terrena altitudo confunditur, cum celsitudo coelestium aperitur. In Apocalyps. p. 45. L. c. p. 103. 232 RELATION OF FORM AND ESSENCE. represented in symbols. But when the Spirit of truth shall come and teach us all truth, what further need shall we then have of symbols ? 1 For as with the communion of the body of Christ the partaking of the paschal lamb was done away, so when the Holy Ghost shall reveal himself in his glory, the observation of symbols will cease; men will no longer follow figures but the truth, which is the simplest, and which is symbolized by fire, -as the Lord says, " God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Dust and water, such is the historical letter of the two Testaments, which letter was given by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of pointing thereby to something else, rather than for the sake of the literal historical sense itself; that is, that thereby the spiritual understanding, which is the divine fire, by virtue of which the spiritual man judges all men and is judged by none, might be presented to us; for neither the partaking of bread and meat, nor the drinking of wine and water, nor the anointing with oil, is anything eternal, but that is eternal which is signified by these acts. If, then, the things themselves and their use are perishable, but that which is represented by them, the thing which endures forevermore; then, with good right, is the former consumed by the fire, while the fire itself lives alone, without depending on anything sensible, in the hearts of the faithful, and abides forever. And, although there are many visible things, which will eternally remain, as they are revealed to us in the letter of the two Testaments, yet they will not remain forever in the same form, but rather in the form appointed for the future. For amongst the rest, that which according to the Catholic faith shall remain forever, the body of Christ, which shall ever remain as it is taken up into unity with his person,-is to us especially an object of veneration. And yet our Lord himself declared the spirit maketh alive, the flesh profiteth nothing. Hence the apostle Paul also says, The letter killeth, but the spirit maketh alive. But if, in reference to the body of Christ himself, the letter is consumed by the spirit, how much more will this be the case with other things. Far be it from us, then, to say that the things themselves will be consumed as to their whole essence; but we say that they themselves, that is, their symbols, must pass over to represent something spiritual, in order that we may elevate ourselves, through the scripture of visible things, as through a glass, to the intuition of invisible things.' HISTORY OF MONASTICISM. The reaction of this prophetic spirit against the secularization of the church proceeded from monasticism, as did many an appearance of the same kind down to the time of Luther; nor was this an accidental thing, but connected with the essential character of monasticism itself; for we may regard it generally as a reaction, though one-sided, ' Quid nobis ulterius de figuris ? DIFFERENT CAUSES LEADING TO MONASTICISM. 233 of the Christian spirit, against the secularization of the church and of the Christian life. It is true, monasticism was itself seized, and borne along, by the current of secularization; but even then, it ever gave birth to new reactions of reform against the encroaching tide of corruption. This form of the manifestation of Christian life and of Christian society belongs among the most significant and the most influential facts of these periods, in which the very good and the very bad are found so often meeting together. Monasticism stood forth against the wild life of the knights, and the corruption of a degenerate clergy; and many were impelled to fly for refuge from the latter to the former. The Hildebrandian epoch of reform, near the close of the eleventh century, was accompanied with the outpouring of a spirit of compunction and repentance on the Western nations. It was the same spirit, which in different directions, promoted the crusades, monasticism, and the spread of sects that contended against the hierarchy. By the political storms which broke up the interior organization of the nations, by the ruinous contests of this age between church and state, many were impelled to seek in the monasteries a quiet retreat for the cultivation of the Christian life. Thus it happened in Germany, amidst the ferocious contests between the party of Henry the Fourth and that of Gregory the Seventh. An extraordinary multitude of men, of the first rank, retired from the world; and the three monasteries, in which the greater number congregated, St. Blasen in the Black Forest, Hirsau, and the convent of St. Salvator in Schaffhausen, had not room enough to contain them all, so that it was necessary to make great additions to the old structures. Men of the first rank were here to be seen among the monks, selecting from preference and engaging with delight in the most menial employments, and serving as cooks, bakers, or shepherds.' The impulse to community,- the characteristic of energetic, creative times, belongs among the peculiar features of this time, and such communities easily formed themselves around any man that showed an enthusiasm for religion, that spoke and acted in the power of faith, and in love; and then took the form of monasticism. But the causes differed widely in their nature, which led men to choose this mode of life; and for this very reason the directions of life in monasticism would also be different. Oftentimes the deep piety of mothers, patterns of Christian virtue in the family circle, stood out in striking contrast with the mere worldly pursuits of their husbands in the knightly order, or in the life at court. When such mothers looked forward to the birth of their first child, or when they had much to suffer and great peril was before them, they would vow before the altar, to devote the child, in case it should be a male, wholly to the service of God; that is, to destine him for the spiritual or the monas 'Berthold. Constant. Chronicon, at the year 1083, in Monumenta res Alemannorum illustrantia, t. ii, p. 120. Quanto nobiliores erant in saeculo, tanto se contemtibilioribus officiis occupari desiderant, ut qui quondam erant comites vel marchiones in saeculo nunc in coquina vel pistrino fratribus servire vel porcos eorum in campo pascere pro summis deliciis conputent. 234 WORLDLINESS OF THE MONASTERIES. tic order, as we see in the examples of the mother of the abbot Guibert of Nogent sous Coucy, near the beginning of the twelfth century, and of the mother of the abbot Bernard of Clairvaux. The boys were trained up under the influence of these sincerely pious mothers, in the society of devout clergymen and monks; the love for a life consecrate to God was instilled into their youthful minds; and although they might afterwards, in the age of youth, be drawn aside by a different sort of society, by the wild spirit of the times, or by the prevailing enthusiasm for the new paths struck out in science,-from the inclination excited in them in the years of childhood,- still, the deep impression would subsequently be revived again with new force, and so, under peculiar circumstances, recalling the feelings and purposes of former days, the resolution of devoting themselves wholly to monasticism would ripen to maturity in them. Thus were formed the great men of the monastic life. But it so happened too, that children, - either on occasions like those just mentioned, or else to lighten the expense of a numerous family, were delivered over to convents as oblati; and by such persons, who had not chosen this mode of life of their own impulse, or from their own disgust with a world lying in wickedness, it was followed, only because it favored idleness and easy living. The abbot Guibert complains that, towards the close of the eleventh century, worldly living had, through the multitude of such oblati, got the upperhand in the monasteries, whose possessions were wastefully squandered by these monks. When persons who had lived from their childhood in absolute dependence and complete retirement from the world, were sent away by their abbots on foreign business, they were the more inclined to abuse a liberty which they now enjoyed for the first time.3 It was a matter of general remark, that young men who turned monks out of penitence for their sins, became afterwards the most distinguished for zeal in their profession; while others, who had not been impelled to the choice of this life by any such powerful inward impulse, and any such deep-felt need, either failed altogether of possessing the right zeal, or else lost what they once had. Men of the first rank, sruck, by the force of momentary impressions, or by sudden reverses of fortune, reminded of the uncertain nature of earthly goods, the nearness of death, the vanity of all 1 See his Life, c. iii. When death threatened her and her children, initur ex necessitate consilium et ad dominicae matris altare concurritur, et ad eam, quae sola sive etiam virgo semper futura pepererat, hujusmodi vota promuntur, ac oblationis vice arae imponitur, quod videlicet si partus ille cecisset in masculum, Deo et sibi obsecuturus clericatui traderetur. 2 Nostris monasteria vetustissima numero extenuata temporibus, rerum antiquitus datarum exuberante copia, parvis erant contenta conventibus, in quibus perpauci reperiri poterant, qui peccati fastidio saeculum respuissent, sed ab illis potissimum detinebantur ecclesiae, qui in eisdem parentum devotione contraditi, ab ineunte MOTIVES OF THE MONKS. 235 "In worldly glory, retired to solitude as anchorets, or entered a monastery; and a single example of this sort would be followed by multitudes. This effect was produced by the example of a certain count Ebrard (Everard) of Breteul, in Picardy, near the end of the eleventh century. He was a young man of noble parentage, and possessed of an ample fortune, who, struck with a sense of the emptiness of all his pleasures, and seized with the craving after some higher good, forsook all, and joined himself with a number of others, who travelled about as itinerant charcoal-burners, thus earning their daily bread. this poverty," says the writer of the narrative," he believed that he first found the true riches." Somewhat later, he retired, with his companions, to a convent, having become sensible of the dangers which beset the Christian life, in the anchorite condition; one of his contemporaries, Simon, also descended from a very rich and powerful family, was so struck at beholding his father's corpse, -a man who but just before held a high place in the world, as to conceive a disgust of all earthly glory. He at once left his family, and became a monk in some foreign country. When he returned afterwards to his native district, his appearance and words made so strong an impression on men and women, that numbers followed his example. The Cistercian monk, Caesarius of Heisterbach, in the first half of the thirteenth century, sets forth, in a way that deserves to be noticed, the different causes which led people to embrace the monastic life. What he felt constrained, in the case of some, to attribute to an awakening by divine grace, he found reason, in the case of others, to ascribe to the instigation of an evil spirit; while in still others, he traced it to fickleness of temper; as, for example, in the case of those who, following the impulse of a momentary and transient interest, mistook their own nature, and neglected to consider whether it was the fear of hell or the longing after a heavenly home that operated upon their feelings. Countless numbers were driven to this step by circumstances of distress; sickness, poverty, imprisonment, shame, remorse following the commission of crime, and the present fear of death. When attacked by fatal diseases, many put themselves under a vow that, in case they recovered, they would become monks; or they enshrouded themselves at once in monkish robes, persuaded that by so doing they would be more likely to obtain salvation. And such persons, if they recovered, actually became monks.3 Those who had been driven to this step by the fear of death, did not always, however, remain true to a purpose thus conceived; and there were complaints, 'How the monastic life was introduced by him from France, and brought into a flourishing state in these districts, is related by the abbot Guibert, Vita, c. ix: Cum ad eos (the monks) pretii vix ullus accede ret, ad excitandas plurimorum mentes emersit. 2 Distinct. i, c. v. Caesarius of Heisterbach cites individual examples to show how a canonicus became a monk, because he had played away his clothes, i, 9, c. xii. A young man belonging to a wealthy family thought of turning monk, without the knowledge of his parents, because he had gambled away a large sum of money; but he gave up the notion when a friend came forward and paid up his debts, c. xxviii. 3 L. c. c. xxv. |