ers after fame, lovers, theologians, warriors for the faith, righteous kings, thinkers, Christ in His triumph, and the angelic hosts. The visible presence of God pervades the Empyrean.

As a narrative the Divine Comedy is simple and intelligible, but DANTE compressed meaning within meaning into the Visions seen by the two travellers beyond the gates of death until his poem became "a mystic unfathomable song." It is capable of four interpretations. Literally it shows the passage of the poet "from sin and death, through penitential suffering to newness of life blessed and eternal." As an allegory it pictures man on his earthly pilgrimage, experiencing all the common fortunes of the race. Morally interpreted it shows man moving from the inferno of vice through all the stages of ethical progress to the paradise of virtue. Spiritually it describes man's soul on the upward way from a state of sin to a state of glory.*

No single formula can describe the involution of DANTE'S mind which turned to account for its high purposes a masterly knowledge of "history, contemporary astrology, surviving classical culture, Aristotelian philosophy, scholastic theology, the economy of Church and State, the Romantic poetry of chivalric love, and mystical experience."

DANTE drew into the deep channel of his genius tributary streams from many Christian sources; from AUGUSTINE, the pseudo-DIONYSIUS, GREGORY THE GREAT, PETER DAMIAN, BERNARD of Clairvaux, and RICHARD OF ST. VICTOR; and through the rich current of these mingled streams ran the pervading influence of THOMAS AQUINAS.

Cp. R. E. Welsh, Classics of the Soul's Quest, p. 81.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE NEW MONASTICISM

A change in the character of monasticism began to take place after the publication of the so-called Augustinian Canon. Although AUGUSTINE did not compose a Rule in the technical sense, some of his writings were used as the basis of three separate Rules. In his Epistle 211 he gave counsel to a group of nuns, and in two of his Sermons, 355 and 356, he described his own life among his clergy at Hippo.

One of the Rules based upon these works is a fairly complete Canon and is commonly known as The Rule of St. Augustine. Under its regulations there arose a new Order of clerical Friars who left very definite impressions on Christian literature.

During the Crusades the military Orders and the Orders of Ransom were established and for centuries they have influenced the songs and romances, the sermons and the hymns of Western Christendom. But it was the mendicant Friars who brought fresh inspiration to literature, and opened practically limitless fields of literary romance.

The Franciscans were founded in 1210, the Dominicans in 1215, the Servites in 1233, the Carmelites in 1245, and the Augustinian Hermits in 1256.

To JOACHIM of Floris, 1132-1202, belongs the honour of having roused the better spirits of the age to a sense of the religious needs of new populations crowding into cities where the old parochial system of the Church had broken down. His three chief works are The Book of Concord of the New and Old Testaments, An Exposition in the Apoc

alypse, and An Instrument of Ten Strings. In these books he attempted to explain various prophecies of the Bible in relation to the history and the prospects of the Church as he knew it.

He is, however, much better known by The Everlasting Gospel (cf. Rev.xiv.6), a work in which he struck at the very roots of the papal system. He divided time into three periods corresponding to the three Persons of the Trinity. The age of the Father was the age of power and fear, and is reflected in the Old Testament. Peter is its Christian representative. The age of the Son, represented by Paul, is the age of the Catholic Church, the age of the divine wisdom. A third age will come, the age of the Spirit; it is represented by John. This third age will be a dispensation of universal love, the letter of the Gospel will be transcended, and the Church will become unnecessary.

Some have so exalted the church in Rome, that a man was held up as a heretic who did not visit the threshold of Peter. Their guilty mistake lay in this, that they bid men visit the holy material temple, when the truth is, that in every place every Christian is a temple of God, if he leads a good life.1

From JOACHIM came the chief influences that shaped the character and purposes of FRANCIS of Assisi, 1181-1226, who soon overshadowed his teacher. Legends of the most touching grace grew around the person of this most lovable of all the saints. He became the hero and the idol of a literature which has almost completely eclipsed his own writings.

FRANCIS is the author of two versions of a Rule, of The Testament, Spiritual Admonitions, The Canticle of the Spirit, The Song of the Creatures, and Letters. These titles are often varied and the works ascribed to FRANCIS are some

1 Neander, Church History (Bohn's Edition), Vol. VII.,

p. 307.

times called A Canticle of the Sun, A Seraphic Keepsake, or a Talisman against Temptation Written for Brother Leo by St. Francis of Assisi, and Words of Counsel and Praise of God Most High.

RENAN pronounces the Song of the Creatures to be "the most perfect expression given by the modern world of its feeling for religion." It has been thus translated by Matthew Arnold.2

O most high, almighty, good Lord God, to thee belong
praise, glory, honour, and all blessing!

Praised be my Lord God with all his creatures, and especially
our brother the sun, who brings us the day and who
brings us the light; fair is he and shines with very

great splendour: O Lord, he signifies to us thee!

Praised be my Lord for our sister the moon, and for the stars. the which he has set clear and lovely in heaven.

Praised be my Lord for our brother the wind, and for air and cloud, calms and all weather by which thou upholdest life in all creatures.

Praised be my Lord for all those who pardon one another for his love's sake, and who endure weakness and tribulation: blessed are they who peaceably shall endure, for thou, O most Highest, shalt give them a crown.

no

Praised be my Lord for our sister, the death of the body, from which man escapeth. Woe to him who dieth in mortal sin! Blessed are they who are found walking by thy most holy will, for the second death shall have no power to do them harm.

Praise ye and bless the Lord, and give them thanks unto him and

serve him with great humility.

THOMAS of Celano one of the earlier disciples of the saint was probably his first biographer. He wrote a first Life of St. Francis, in 1228, and a second Life, supplementary to the first, about 1245. These are not formal biographies, but rather collections of the most characteristic and important incidents in the Saint's career, grouped with great skill in 2 Essays in Criticism, First Series, 1883.

such a way as to illustrate the main features of his character. JOHN FIDANZA, 1221-1274, whom FRANCIS surnamed BONAVENTURA, wrote The Legends, 1260, which ultimately became the official Life. This book is the work of a loving disciple; and, "charmed by it, Dante drew the picture of the Saint in the Paradiso."

Humility, the guardian and glory of all virtues, abounded in rich fulness in the man of God. In his own estimation, he was nought but a sinner, whereas in very truth he was the mirror and brightness of all saintliness. In humility he strove to build himself up, as a wise master-builder laying the foundation that he had learnt of Christ. . .

This too he was wont to say 'A man's worth is what he is in the sight of God and no more' (Part II., chap. 6).

The Mirror of Perfection,

"is a compilation edited by one of the Spirituals of the Porziuncula . . . and completed about 1318." The method adopted to describe the many virtues of the Saint is to take some point of his teaching or some trait of his character, and after stating it to illustrate it by an incident from his life.

The author of the anonymous Little Flowers of the Glorious Messer St. Francis and of his Friars, 1340, has been identified with "a certain UGOLINO BRUNFORTE, 12621348. His book is a "collection of the sayings and doings of the whole Franciscan Brotherhood in its early days as developed and distorted by popular religious tradition." The tales range from the most realistic records to the wildest fairy stories.

To meet the needs of the educated classes, DOMINIC, 11701221, founded the Order that has ever since been known by his name. His successor as master-general was JORDAN of Saxony, d. 1237, who wrote The Life of St. Dominic.