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ambition, and greed of those who sat in St. Peter's Analogy, of appeals seat, fulfilled, out of the very arrogance of its pre- to the tensions, a function of undoubted spiritual benefit in those rude and turbulent ages. It was a tribunal of appeal for the helpless, a refuge from overwhelming tyranny, as the impersonation of the power of the Gospel, before which the crowned monarch and the lawless baron trembled and gave way.1 'Speaking God's testimonies even before kings it was not ashamed." And the same reflection is suggested when there is taken into account of the the vast system of spiritual authority exercised penitenin the practice of confession, absolution, excommu- communinication, and interdict, in the recognition of the duty of penance, in the existence and usage of Penitentials as a part of Christian law. However rude, humiliating, harsh the discipline enjoined, however tending to corrupt itself through pecuniary substi

interests, plunge Europe in desolating wars, perpetuate strife in states, set sons in arms against their fathers, fathers against sons: it was still proclaiming a higher ultimate end. It was something that there was a tribunal of appeal, before which the lawless aristocracy trembled. There was a perpetual provocation, as it were, to the Gospel," &c.— Milman, L. Chr., III. 441.

1 "The medieval popes almost always belonged to a far higher grade of civilization than their opponents. Whatever may have been their faults, they represented the cause of moral restraint, of intelligence, and of humanity, in an age of physical force, ignorance, and barbarity."Lecky, H. Rat., II. 155. Christianity, it must be remembered, must be judged by the evils it has prevented as well as by its positive benefits.

2 On the change from public to private confession and penance, with its consequences, see Gieseler, II. pp. 68-70, and p. 318. In the Western Church this important difference was introduced by Leo the Great. Compare Hooker, E. P., VI. iv.

system of

tials, ex

cation, &c.

exercised

tution; it yet exhibited the power and quality of a Religion which would not be defied or evaded, to restrain, out of no worldly considerations, the licentiousness, inhumanity, and lawlessness of men. What no human law could effect, it secured by spiritual constraint and the "terrors of the Lord." Restraint Though unsafely lodged in the hands of a fallible by spiritual priesthood, in a low condition of culture, and destined later to corruption from their corporate and individual covetousness, it still performed its part; rescuing society from moral anarchy, and bringing home to the ignorant and wanton the direct administration of God. Where conscience, as a restraint, would have been powerless, its authority in the person of the priest was obeyed. The particutemporal lar influences of medieval Christianity hitherto tual power adduced are instances of its general tendency to

influence.

Distinc

tion of

and spiri

detach the spiritual from the temporal power, one of its greatest benefits to mankind; and to operate within the just limits of Religion, the hopes and fears of a future life. In this manner the authority of conscience, freedom of thought, individual independence and accountability, were preserved in ways unsuspected, it is true, by the champions themselves of ecclesiastical privileges. Thus the

1 "Les sociétés," says M. Littré very profoundly, "ne sont pas comme un individu qui en une extrémité peut se dire, que faire ? et qui dirige des efforts déterminés vers un but déterminé; mais elles ont des impulsions et des instincts produits par les forces intrinsèques qu'elles se sentent."

through

val Catho

Inquisition itself, amid all its iniquities, by holding observable the civil power to be incapable of pronouncing on out mediereligious belief, actually became the advocate of licism. toleration. The importance of this element in medieval Catholicism has been honourably admitted by some who in other respects are no partial judges of the working of Christian institutions." I shall cite (though not in the present Lecture) but two other examples of the true character and intensity of the influence of Christianity during this stage of European progress, which will conclude this portion of our subject. Thus far we have Actual seen the services, the triumphs, the potency of our of Chrisholy Religion in establishing itself upon the ruins the reconof Paganism, in laying the foundations of our of society. modern civilization. We have seen also that it was destined in the wisdom of an overruling Providence to survive persecution from without, internal heresy and division, the revivals of heathenism, and the flood of barbaric invasion. But not only did it survive it proved itself indispensable to the advance of mankind, socially, politically, intellectually. Under its shadow learning revived; sen- No reason timent softened and became refined; the arts sidering its expanded, knowledge and thought progressed.2 qualities

2

1 M. Comte and Mr. J. S. Mill, both indeed after M. Guizot, who has irrefragably established this fact. See Phil. Pos., V. 229; Mill's Dissert., II. 243.

"But still, it will be asked, would not all this result of Christianity have been just the same without the peculiar doctrines?"-Mozley,

services

tianity in

struction

for con

to have become changed.

The question then remains, is there reason to hold its quality to be changed-has it lost its virtue? Have its principles proved hollow and unsound? Has it wrought its work, has it impressed its influence through a falsehood? Such as we have seen it to be, it overcame the world in its fairest and most highly civilized regions. And none but this, we know and are assured, "is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."

B. L., p. 190; who replies that besides the matter-of-fact coincidence between the results and the doctrine, there is the conviction of the agents to the same effect. Would a moral Deism have produced the same consequences? Would Christianity deprived of its revealed ideas exhibit the same fruits?

LECTURE VII.

THE PERMANENCE OF CHRISTIANITY INFERRED FROM THE CHARACTER OF ITS INFLUENCE.

"If we are to calculate the probable extension or extinction of Christian opinions, we must consult the evidence of facts on a large scale; and especially must observe what manifestations of intrinsic power they have given on certain peculiar and critical occasions. This is the only course that can be deemed satisfactory, or that is conformed to the procedures of modern science."-I. TAYLOR, Nat. Hist. of Enthus., p. 264.

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