not be wanting to the sacrifice, I seasoned my groaning with tears. The king and the archbishop wrote them tremendous letters. I assured them most positively that the pope would take away their place and nation, and that they should be turned out of house and home. But the more they were threatened the more obstinate they were; the more they were exhorted, the more contemptuous did they grow. They were few in number, but their iniquities made them a multitude; the generations of vipers were multiplied. From the seed of Canaan came forth an evil and provoking race, sons of Belial, wicked children. They wished to possess the sanctuary of God as an inheritance, and therefore, when a canon died, and any respectable man was appointed, the nephew, or son, of the deceased, claimed that which is the Lord's patrimony as his. He then betook himself to the woods, joined the robbers and banditti who plunder by fire and the sword, and fell on the new canon so as to destroy him. When I saw that these insensible men were drawing near to the grave; and that I could produce no impression on them, I desired to be cut off entirely from men whose vices did not end with the end of life.'

In the gross immoralities of the clergy of the middle ages, which form a standing theme of lamentation with so many of the councils and writers of the period, are seen the result

We have adopted the vigorous translation of this letter in the Quarterly Review, vol. lviii. 437.

of forced celibacy. siastical morals maintained that unnatural system, it was vain for them to be ever struggling with its inevitable consequences-it was useless with one hand to apply any medicines for the cure of a disease to which with the other they were continually administering the most feverish stimulants.

While the censors of eccle

The clerical character being too generally what we have now described, the moral condition of the laity may be inferred. While so many of the priests were regardless of justice, truth, and purity, it would be unreasonable to look for much virtue among the people. There was a general regard paid to the forms of religion, but there was shown as general a disregard of its principles and spirit. Hallowed rites were associated with immoral practices; deeds of injustice and cruelty were prefaced by acts of devotion; the vilest characters breathed forth their aspirations to the Deity, and the virgin; and multitudes were punctilious in their observance of the ritual of the church, who were totally ignorant of the truths and duties of Christianity. This forms a state of society the most fearful. It was the condition of the Jews in the time of Isaiah, and the language of God to them, by the mouth of the prophet, applied with equal force to a large number of the religionists of the middle ages: "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts: and

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C

I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them."

We have given the dark side of the picture: we must now, for a moment, glance at sentiments, and traits of character, of another order. Throughout the middle ages, traces of these may be found. Indeed the very strong terms in which the vices of an age are reprobated, by a contemporary author, evince on his part a better state of moral feeling. There are sermons extant, belonging to those times, which, among much that is superstitious and unscriptural, contain some excellent moral and religious maxims. One preacher of the seventh century has not, generally, had justice done him. Maclaine, Robertson, and other authors, have given a few sentences, extracted from different parts of a sermon by Eligius, bishop of Noyes, whence it would appear as if he had taught the people that nothing else was necessary to make a man a Christian than that he should go to church, present offerings to God, and repet the creed and the Lord's prayer. That Eligius did not clearly understand the way of salvation by faith in the Divine Redeemer, is clear enough to any one who will peruse his discourse contained in

D'Achery's Spicelegium; but justice also demands the statement, that this sermon, so often cited, but so little read, certainly inculcates a vast deal more than mere ceremonial religion, and contains many passages which are full of good sense and correct moral feeling. Indeed, in the very paragraph which precedes that from which garbled extracts have been taken, the bishop remarks: "It will not profit you, beloved, to receive the Christian name, if you do not cultivate Christian practice. Christian profession avails à man only when he preserves in his mind, and exemplifies in his conduct, the precepts of Christ; that is, who does not steal, nor bear false witness, nor tell falsehoods, nor commit adultery, nor hate any man, but loves all even as himself; who does not render evil to his enemies, but rather prays for them; who does not excite strife, but on the contrary promotes peace. For these things Christ hath commanded in the gospel, saying, Thou shalt do no murder,' etc., Matt. xix. 18, 19." The sermon is lamentably defective as it regards an exposition of the way in which a sinner is to obtain acceptance with God; no clear view is given of the work of Christ as the medium of our pardon, and of the work of the Spirit as the fountain of holiness; but it certainly is not wanting in moral exhortations, nor in a forcible statement of many important scriptural truths.*

Benevolence, at least so far as it consisted

* D'Achery, Spic. tom. ii. 87.

in almsgiving and kindness to the poor, was the cardinal virtue commended in many of the sermons, and exemplified in some of the lives of the saints of the dark ages. We may fairly conclude that the ecclesiastics were, in this respect, friends to the lower classes of society, and often relieved the wants of the indigent, and soothed the minds of the sorrowing. The value of such influence, during ages of disorder and violence, when a stern and almost savage spirit pervaded the upper classes of society, cannot be too highly appreciated. The spirit of kindness nurtured by many in the bosom of the church, produced an improvement in the condition of domestic slaves, and the gradual, but, at length, total extinction of slavery itself. Slaves who belonged to monasteries, or ecclesiastics, were in far better circumstances than those who were in the possession of laymen. Their sufferings under a stern master, are sometimes bewailed by the writers of the day, who allude to them under the touching appellation of those "whom Christ had redeemed at a rich price." Gregory the Great, in the sixth century, set a noble example of manumission, in granting liberty to a number of his own slaves, whom he described as free by nature, but placed by unjust law, under the yoke of bondage. Manumission was a religious ceremony. The person to be set free held a lighted torch in his hand, and was led round the altar; he then laid hold upon its horns, when the formulary of liberation was solemnly