Part 45

[208] Louis left to her the management of all affairs, made her elder brother Rodolph Guelph, governor of Bavaria, and her younger brother, Conrad, governor of Italy, and destined the best part of the kingdoms of Germany and France to Charles _the Bald_, the son which she bore him; to which dominions the sons by the first wife thought they had a prior claim. They, by an unjustifiable breach of their duty, twice took up arms against their father; first in 830, when the empress Judith was banished to a nunnery in Gascony, and the emperor imprisoned; but he was soon released by the Germans, and recalled Judith and her two brothers. In the second rebellion, in 833, Lothaire, the eldest son, banished Judith to Verona in Italy, and shut up her son Charles in the abbey of Pruim, near Triers, and the weak emperor himself in the abbey of St. Medard’s at Soissons, after he had in an assembly of the states at Compeigne, basely confessed himself justly deposed from the empire, and guilty of the crimes which were laid to his charge. He was afterward sent to the abbey of St. Denys near Paris, and there clothed with the habit of a monk; but soon after delivered by his two younger sons, Pepin and Louis, and restored to his throne. Judith after all these disturbances so dexterously managed him that, at his death in 840, he left to her son Charles the monarchy of France.

[209] P. 204.

[210] L. 1, de gestis Pontif. Angl. p. 197.

[211] Hist. Episcop. Ultraj.

[212] Chron.

[213] Ubbo Emmius, Rerum Frisic. l. 3, p. 74.

[214] The works of St. Bruno of Segni, or of Asti, with a preliminary dissertation of Dom. Maur Marchesi were printed at Venice in 1651, in two vols. folio, and in the Bibl. Patr. at Lyons in 1677, t. 20. They consist of comments on several parts of scripture, one hundred and forty-five sermons, several dogmatical treatises, and letters; and a life of St. Leo IX. and another of St. Peter, bishop of Anagnia, whom Paschal II. canonized. This latter the Bollandists have published on the 3d of April.

[215] Collet, t. 1, b. 1, p. 66, 71.

[216] This book of Jansenius was condemned by Urban VIII. in 1641, and in 1653 Innocent X. censured five propositions to which the errors contained in this book were principally reduced. Alexander VII. in 1656 confirmed these decrees, and in 1665 approved the formulary proposed by the French clergy for the manner of receiving and subscribing them. Paschasius Quenel, a French oratorian, published in 1671 his book of Moral Reflections on the Gospels, which he afterward augmented, and added like reflections on the rest of the New Testament, which work he printed complete in 1693 and 1694. In it he craftily insinuated the errors of Jansenius, and a contempt of the censures of the Church. Clement XI. condemned this book, in 1708; and in 1713 by the Constitution Unigenitus, censured one hundred and one propositions extracted out of it. These decrees were all received and promulgated by the clergy of France, and registered in the parliament of that kingdom that they might receive the force of a law of the state; and they are adopted by the whole Catholic Church, as cardinal Bissy, Languet, and other French prelates have clearly demonstrated.

The Jansenian heresy is downright Predestinationism, than which no doctrine can be imagined more monstrous and absurd. The principal errors couched in the doctrine of Jansenists are, that God sometimes refuses, even to the just, sufficient grace to comply with his precepts; that the grace which God affords man since the fall of Adam, is such that if concupiscence be stronger, it cannot produce its effect; but if the grace be more powerful than the opposite concupiscence in the soul, or relatively to it victorious by a _necessitating_ influence, that then it cannot be resisted, rejected, or hindered; and that Christ by his death paid indeed a price sufficient for the redemption of all men, and offered it to purchase some weak insufficient graces for reprobate souls, but not to procure them means truly applicable, and sufficient for their salvation; which is really to confine the death of Christ to the elect, and to deprive the reprobate of sufficient means to attain to salvation. The main-spring or hinge of this system is that the grace which inclines man’s will to supernatural virtue, since the fall of Adam, consists in a moral pleasurable motion or a delectation infused into the soul inclining her to virtue, as concupiscence carries her to vice; and that the power of delectation, whether of virtue or vice, which is stronger, draws the will by an inevitable necessity as it were by its own weight.

The equivocations by which some advocates for these erroneous principles have endeavored to disguise or soften their harshness, only discover their fear of the light. A certain modern philosopher is more daring who, in spite not only of revelation, which he disclaims, but also of reason and experience, openly denies all free-will or election in human actions, pretending to apply this system of a two-fold delectation to every natural operation of the will. (See Hume’s Essay on Free-Will.) Those who obstinately oppose the decrees of the Church in these disputes, without adopting any heretical principle condemned as such by the Church, but found their unjust exceptions in some points of discipline, or any other weak pretences, cannot be charged with heresy: nevertheless, only invincible ignorance can exempt them from the guilt of disobedience though they should not proceed to a schismatical separation in communion.

[217] See F. Honoré Addit. sur les Observ. p. 241, &c. Languet ep. Pastor, &c.

[218] Honoré, ibid. p. 245, 253, &c.

[219] See Collet’s life of St. Vincent, l. 3, t. 1, p. 260, and Abelly, l. 2, ch. 12.

[220] L. 9.

[221] This consists in a prolapse both of the gut and the omentum or caul together.

[222] T. 2, p. 546.

[223] “Fuge, tace, quiesce; hæc sunt principia salutis,” Rosweide, Cotelier, et Saint Theod. Stud. Vit. S. Arcen., c. 1, n. 7.

[224] A small Egyptian measure of vegetables made of palm-tree leaves, as the word implies. See Cotelier, Mon. Gr. t. 4, not. p. 748, and Du Cange, Gloss. Græc. v. θάλλιν.

[225] St. Chrys. l. de Virginit. t. 1, p. 321, ed. Ben.

[226] St. Aug. in Ps. 128.

[227] St. John Clim. Grad. 7, p. 427.

[228] Gr. 27, n. 65.

[229] Conc. t. 4, p. 1286.

[230] Ennod. Apol. p. 342, ed. Sirmond. Item, l. 1, ep. 5. Cassidor. in Chron. et Anast. in Pontific.

[231] Conc. t. 4, p. 1287.

[232] Ib. p. 1223.

[233] Dial. l. 4, c. 40. See Baron. ad an. 498, et Benedict XIV. l. de Canoniz. Sanctor.

[234] T. 15, ch. 23, p. 352, Vie de Paschase.

[235] Symmach. Apol. t. 4, Conc. p. 1298.

[236] Ib. p. 1301.

[237] Act. i. 20.

[238] Hom. 3, in Act.

[239] Eus. Hist. l. 3, c. 39.

[240] L. 2, de Prædest.

[241] John Cassian, priest and abbot of the great monastery of St. Victor’s at Marseilles, was a native of Lesser Scythia, then comprised under Thrace. He inured himself from his youth to the exercises of an ascetic life in the monastery of Bethlehem. The great reputation of many holy anchorets in the deserts of Egypt induced him and one Germanus, about the year 390, to pay them a visit. Being much edified with the great examples of virtue they saw in those solitudes, especially in the wilderness of Sceté, they spent there and in Thebais several years. They lived like the monks of that country, went bare-foot, and so meanly clad that their friends would have been ashamed to meet them, and they gained their subsistence by their work, as all the rest did. (Col. 4, c. 10.) Their life was most austere, and they scarce ate two loaves a day each of six ounces. (Col. 19, c. 17.) In 403 they both went to Constantinople, where they listened to the spiritual instructions of St. Chrysostom, who ordained Cassian deacon, and employed him in his church. After the banishment of that holy prelate, Cassian and Germanus travelled to Rome with letters from the clergy of Constantinople to defend their injured pastor as Palladius informs us. Cassian was promoted to the order of priesthood in the West, and retiring to Marseilles, there founded two monasteries, one for men, and another for virgins, and wrote his spiritual Conferences and other works. He died in odor of sanctity soon after the year 433. His very ancient picture is shown in St. Victor’s at Marseilles, where his head and right arm are exposed in shrines on the altar, by the permission of pope Urban V., the remainder of his body lies in a marble tomb which is shown in a subterraneous chapel. That abbey, by a special grant, celebrates an office in his honor on the 23d of July.

His works consist, first of a book On the Incarnation, against Nestorius, written at the request of St. Leo, then archdeacon of Rome. Secondly, Of Institutions of a Monastical Life, in twelve books. In the four first he describes the habit that was worn, and the exercises and way of living that were followed by the monks of Egypt, to serve as a pattern for the monastic state in the West. He says, their habit was mean, merely serving to cover their nakedness; having short sleeves which reached no further than their elbows; they wore a girdle and a cowl upon their heads, but used no shoes, only a kind of sandals which they put off when they approached the altar; and they all used a walking-staff, as an emblem that they were pilgrims on earth. He observes that the monks forsook all things, labored with their hands, and lived in obedience; he describes the canonical hours of the divine office consisting of psalms and lessons. He mentions that whoever desires to be admitted into a monastery, must give proofs of his patience, humility, and contempt of the world, and be tried with denials and affronts; that no postulant was allowed to give his estate to the monastery in which he settled; that the first lesson which is taught a monk is, to subdue his passions, to deny his own will, and to practise blind obedience to his superior. Thus he is to empty himself of all prevalence in his own abilities, learning, or whatever can feed any secret pride or presumption. Cassian observes, that young monks were allowed no other food than boiled herbs, with a little salt; but that the extraordinary austerities of the Oriental monks in eating are not practicable in the west. In the eight last books of this work he treats of eight capital vices, prescribing the remedies and motives against them, and explaining the contrary virtues. He shows (l. 6, Inst. c. 5, 6), that chastity is a virtue which is not to be obtained but by a special grace of God; which must be implored by earnest prayer, seconded by watchfulness and fasting. He everywhere advises moderate fasts, but continual, (l. 5, p. 107, &c.). He observes (l. 11, c. 4), that vain-glory is the last vice that is subdued, and that it takes occasion even from the victory itself to renew its assaults. This seems the best and most useful of Cassian’s writings, though the reading of his Conferences has been strongly recommended to monks by St. Bennet, St. John Climacus, St. Gregory, St. Dominic, St. Thomas, and others.

In the book of his Conferences he has collected the spiritual maxims of the wisest and most experienced monks with whom he had conversed in Egypt. This work consists of three parts; the first contains ten Conferences, and was written in 423; the second comprises seven Conferences, and was compiled two years later; the third was finished in 428, and contains seven other Conferences. Cassian, in this work, teaches that the end to which a monk consecrates all his labors and for which he has renounced the world, is, the more easily to attain the most perfect purity or singleness of heart, without which no one can see God in his glory, or enjoy his presence by his special grace in this life. For this he must forsake the world, or its goods and riches; he must renounce or die to himself, divesting himself of all vices and irregular inclinations; and thirdly, he must withdraw his heart from earthly or visible things to apply it to those that are spiritual and divine. (Collat. 1 and 3.) He says, that the veil of the passions being once removed, the eyes of the mind will begin, as it were naturally to contemplate the mysteries of God, which remain always unintelligible and obscure to those who have only eyes of flesh, or whose hearts are unclean, and their eyes overclouded with sin and the world. (Coll. 5.) This purgation of the heart is made by the exercises of compunction, mortification, and self-denial; and the unshaken foundation of the most profound humility must be laid, which may bear a tower reaching to the heavens; for, upon it is to be raised the superstructure of all spiritual virtues. (Coll. 9.)

To gain a victory over vices he strenuously inculcates the advantages of discovering all temptations to our superior, for when detected, they lose their force; the filthy serpent being by confession drawn out of his dark hole into the light and in a manner exposed, withdraws himself. His suggestions prevail so long as they are concealed in the heart. (Coll. 2, c. 10, 11, and Instit. l, 9, c. 39.) This he confirms by the example of Serapion, cured of an inveterate habit of stealing bread above his allowance in the community, by confessing the fault. (Coll. 2, c. 11.) But he teaches that these exercises are but preparations; for the end and perfection of the monastic state consists in continual and uninterrupted perseverance in prayer, as far as human frailty will permit. This is the conjunction of the heart with God. But this spirit of prayer cannot be obtained without mighty contrition, the purgation of the heart from all earthly corruption and the dregs of passion, and the illumination of the Holy Ghost, whose purest rays cannot enter an unclean heart. He compares the soul to a light feather which by its own levity is raised on high by the help of a gentle breath; but if wet by the accession of moisture, is depressed down to the very earth. The mind can only ascend to God when it is disburdened of the weight of earthly solicitude and corruption. (Coll. 9.)

He inculcates the use of frequent aspirations, recommending that of the Church, “Deus, in adjutorium meum intende,” &c.; and says, the end of the perfection of the monastic state is, that the mind be refined from all carnal dust, and elevated to spiritual things, till by daily progress in this habit all its conversation may be virtually one continual prayer, and all the soul’s love, desire, and study, may be terminated in God. In this her union with him by perpetual and inseparable charity, she possesses an image of future bliss, and a foretaste or earnest of the conversation of the blessed. Inveighing against lukewarmness in devotion he makes this remark (Coll. 4, c. 19): “We have often seen souls converted to perfection from a state of coldness, that is, from among worldlings and heathens; but have never seen any from among tepid Christians. These are moreover so hateful to God, that by the prophet he bids his teachers not to direct any exhortations to them, but to abandon them as a fruitless barren land, and to sow the divine word on new hearts, among sinners and heathens: ‘Break up the new or fallow ground, and sow not upon land that is overrun with thorns.’” (Jer. iv. 3.) He exceedingly extols the unspeakable peace and happiness which souls enjoy in seeking only God, and the great and wonderful works which he performs in the hearts of his saints, which cannot be truly known to any man except to those who have experience of them. (Coll. 12, c. 12, and Coll. 14, c. 14.) Cassian, in the thirteenth Conference, under the name of the abbot Cheremon, favors the principles of the Semipelagians, though that error was not then condemned, it being first proscribed in the second council of Orange in 529. Whence St. Prosper himself, in his book against this discourse, never names him, but styles him a catholic doctor. (l. contra Collatorem, p. 828.) Cassian’s style, though neither pure nor elegant, is plain, affecting, and persuasive. His works were published with comments by Alard Gazæus or Gazet, a Benedictin monk of St. Vaast’s at Arras, first at Douay in 1616; and afterward with more ample notes at Arras in 1618. They have been since reprinted at Lyons, Paris, and Francfort. See Dom. Rivet, Hist. Lit. t. 2, p. 215, and Cuper the Bollandist, ad 23 Julij, t. 5, p. 458, ad 482.

[242] See the most edifying history of the eminent and holy men of this monastery of St. Victor’s at Paris compiled by F. Simon Gourdan, in seven volumes folio, kept in MSS. in the curious public library of that house, t. 1, p. 128, &c.

[243] Among the great men which this abbey produced in its infancy, the most famous are Hugh and Richard of St. Victor. Hugh, a native of the territory of Ypres in Flanders, became a canon regular in this monastery in 1115, was made prior, and taught divinity there from the year 1130 to his death in 1142. His works are printed in three vols. folio. In the first we have his literal and historical notes on the scripture; also mystical and allegorical notes on the same by some later author of this house. In the second tome are contained his spiritual works; the soliloquy of the soul, the praise of charity, a discourse on the method of praying, a discourse on love between the Beloved and the Spouse, four books on the vanity of the world, one hundred sermons, &c. The third tome presents us his theological treatises, of which the principal are his two books on the sacraments. He was called a second Augustin, or the tongue of that great doctor, whose spirit, sentiments, and style he closely follows. His notes on the rule of St. Austin, in the second tome, are excellent: also those on the Decalogue. The book De claustro animæ is very useful for religious persons, and shows the austere abstinence and discipline then observed in monasteries; but is the work of Hugh Foliet, a most pious and learned canon of this order, who was chosen abbot of St. Dionysius’s at Rheims, though he earnestly declined that dignity, in 1149. See Mabillon, Analecta, t. 1, p. 133, and Annal. l, 77, p. 141. Ceillier, t. 22, pp. 200, 224. Martenne, t. 5. Anecdot. p. 887.

Richard of St. Victor, a Scotsman, regular canon of St. Victor’s at Paris, scholar of Hugh, chosen prior of that abbey in 1164, died in 1173. His works have been often reprinted in two vols. folio; the best edition is that given at Rouen in 1650. His comments on the scripture are too diffusive: his theological tracts are accurate, his writings on contemplation and Christian virtues, though the style is plain, are full of the most sublime rules of an interior life. The collection of spiritual maxims of these holy men which F. Gourdan has compiled from their writings and sayings, demonstrates their heavenly wisdom, lights and experience in spiritual things, and in the perfect spirit of all virtues to which they attained by an admirable purity of heart, and spirit of penance, prayer, and divine love.

[244] Luke vii.

[245] Mention is made in the gospels of a woman who was a sinner (Luke vii.), of Mary of Bethania, the sister of Lazarus (John xi. 2, xii. 1, Mark xiv. 3, Mat. xxvi. 6.), and of Mary Magdalen, who followed Jesus from Galilee, and ministered to him. Many grave authors think all this belongs to one and the same person; that she fell into certain disorders in her youth, and in chastisement was delivered over to be possessed by seven devils; that she addressed herself to Jesus in the house of Simon the pharisee, and by her compunction deserved to hear from him that her sins were forgiven her; and in consequence was delivered from the seven devils: that with her brother Lazarus, and her sister Martha, she left Galilee and settled at Bethania, where Jesus frequently honored their house with his presence. (See Pezron, Hist. Evang. t. 2, p. 350.) St. Clement of Alexandria, (l. 2, Pædag. c. 8.) Ammonius, (Harmon. 4, Evang.) St. Gregory the Great, (hom. 25 and 33, in Evang.) and from his time the greater part of the Latins down to the sixteenth century adopt this opinion; though St. Ambrose, (lib. de Virgin. et l. 6, in Luc.) St. Jerom, (in Mat. xxvi. l. 2, contr. Jovin. c. 16, Præf. in Osee et ep. 150.) St. Austin, (tr. 49, in Joan. n. 3.) Albertus Magnus, and St. Thomas Aquinas leave the question undetermined. The two last say the Latins in their time generally presumed that they were the same person, but that the Greeks distinguished them. Baronius, Jansenius of Ghent, Maldonat, Natalis Alexander, (in Hist. Eccl. Sæc. 1, Diss. 17.) Lami, (Harmon. Evang. et epist. Gallicâ.) Mauduit, (Analyse des Evang. t. 2.) Pezron, Trevet, and strenuously Solier the Bollandist, t. 5, Julij, p. 187, and others have written in defence of the opinion of St. Gregory the Great.