so as to rest in them (for that is undoubtedly his meaning), he cannot be said to have escaped from the motions and limits of his bestial nature, or of that part of him which he has in common with beasts; because these know and are affected by phantasms, and by such sensitive or sensible species, and not otherwise, from not having a higher force of soul. "But it is different," he adds, "with man, created according to intelligence and affection, and free-will, in the image and similitude of God; in each of which faculties he ought to be immediately impressed and united with him " "The soul," says Louis of Blois, "disengaged from all affection contrary to order, tends naturally towards its principle, which is God; for God is the natural place of the soul, and it is only there that it can find rest. Let us seek for purity, let us seek for light, let us remember our greatness! Let us consider that the image of God is imprinted on our souls; let us unite ourselves to him by a true charity, as were united to him the holy apostles, the holy martyrs, and the confessors, and the innumerable virgins who now contemplate him face to face in heaven, in the company of his holy mother, the first in sanctity, the first in all perfections after her divine Son +." These hallowed teachers proceed, however, to define the grace of this beatitude in more specific terms. "With two wings," says Thomas à Kempis, "is man raised above the earth, namely, simplicity and purity-simplicity in the intention, purity in the affection-simplicity intending God, purity apprehending and tasting him." St. Bernard says, that "this purity of heart consists in two things-in seeking the glory of God, and the utility of our neighbour. For the rational power to be clean, it should abstain," he remarks, "from three things-from duplicity of intention, falsity of opinion, and depravity of thought; for the concupiscible power to be clean, it should be pure from three things-from terrene affection, obscene delight, and hurtful operation; and for the irascible power to be pure, it should be clean from the fear that causes an evil humiliation, which leads fallen man to idolatry, astrology, sortilege, and other superstitions which horribly stain the human heart t." Finally, St. * Albert. Mag. de Adhærendo Deo, cap. 3, 4. S. Bern. Serm. x. 1 Thomas supplies a definition in few comprehensive words, saying, "Every human work is right and virtuous when it agrees with the rule of divine love; but when it disagrees with this rule, it is neither good nor right*." While listening thus, we can conceive how each term of these definitions might be illustrated by what history exhibits; for, recurring to what St. Bernard says, and remarking at the same time with Richard of St. Victor, that the spirit of man is sometimes borne to something good, to which is annexed something carnal, which delights humanity and secretly betrays the mind, and it knoweth it not †, we might show from history how pure and undivided was become the human heart. Rodriguez furnishes a most remarkable example, where he says that St. Ignatius once examined himself to inquire how long his affliction would last if the society which he had instituted were to be dissolved; and it seemed to him, provided it was not his fault, that he should want only a quarter of an hour's recollection and prayer to free himself from all the trouble that this would give him. Such was the qualification indicated by St. Bernard; and how unearthly pure must have been the heart that thus possessed it! how detached from all finite things, and dissolved in the love and vision of eternal God! Ö how bitter, to men who are only cleansed without, is the thought that any work of their creation should have an end! See with what intense passion, with what earnest affection of personal interest misunderstood, the authors of systems opposed to Catholic faith have in every age pursued their favourite schemes of innovation: they want only a quarter of an hour to recover serenity ?-Say, rather, the eternal years. Such is the contrast between men who see themselves and those who see God. In the sixth book we remarked the delicate sense of justice which existed in the hearts of men in ages of faith; but where shall we now find words to describe their purity? Let us hear Richard of St. Victor: "The Spirit of the Lord," saith he, "daily in his elect tempers insensibly the multitudinous and multiform affections of the human heart, and resolves them into one harmony, and, like a skilful harper who extends and tightens the chords of his instrument, so doth it reduce them to a certain concord, until Op. iv. c. 1. In Cantica Canticor. a mellifluous and ineffably sweet melody resounds in the ears of the Lord like the sound of many harpers harping on their harps." And then he proceeds, making use of daily experience, arguing from what he finds on earth, to suggest an idea of heaven. "For," he continues, “if such a wondrous harmony and multitudinous concert can rise from one heart out of such a plurality of affections, what will be the concordant consonance of the celestial spirits in such a multitude of angels, and of holy souls exulting and praising him who liveth for ever and ever*." St. Clement of Alexandria had described this disposition of soul as belonging to his gnostic or true Christian, "who, whether eating or drinking, or whatsoever doing, even when dreaming, does and thinks what is holy, that at all times he may be pure for prayer; who with angels prays as he is himself angelic, and never without a holy guardian; for if he prays alone, he has a chorus of saints standing with him †.” The serene angelic purity of the hallowed heart was thought to manifest itself even on the countenance; and hence the care which the profound artists of the middle age evinced to transfer the utmost grace and beauty into all their representations of sacred subjects. "I am indignant," says St. Anselm, "against bad painters, when I see them paint our Lord under a deformed figure ‡." Savonarola, from an observation of the effect of the mysteries of faith upon the human countenance, draws an argument to prove the divinity of the Catholic religion. "This external expression, which so often led to memorable conversions, arises," he says, "from a supernatural beauty of mind which imparts to the body a corresponding grace. The faith and love which produce this exterior beauty cannot be a deception, for it is capable of leading men to a celestial life, and falsehood cannot thus penetrate the heart of man §:"-as creatures approach to the beauty of God the fairer they become; "for," he observes, in one of his sermons cited by Rio, "if you take two women in this assembly equally beautiful as to form, it will be the holiest of the two that will Richardi S. Victoris de Contemplatione, p. 1. lib. iii. c. 24. S. Anselmi cur Deus Homo, cap. 2. § Triumph. Crucis, lib. ii. 12. excite most admiration amongst the spectators, and the palm will not fail to be decreed to her even by carnal men *." "If the body be beautiful," asks Diego de Stella, "doth not this beauty proceed from the soul? Take away the soul, and what is viler than the body? If the body, then, be thus beautiful, how much more oughtest thou to think thy soul beautiful, and to love that which is the cause of the body's beauty +." This beauty of holy souls is compared by the teachers of wisdom to that of a sanctuary: "His mind," saith one, "had all the quiet, purity, and beauty of a temple;" "The soul that hath God within it," saith another, "is a temple of God, in which divine mysteries are celebrated t." Even their chronicles are full of instances to illustrate the justice of their similitude: "In Gervine," says the monastic historian of St. Riquier, was fulfilled that true sentence, ‘Ubi fidelis anima, ibi est templum Dei §." " It is a beauty commemorated even on their solemn tombs, as may be witnessed in the epitaph on Hildegard, queen of Charlemagne, in the church of blessed Arnulf at Metz : 66 "Huic tam data fuit florentis gratia formæ, Attamen hanc speciem superabant lumina cordis, If proof were to be demanded of the predominance of this intellectual beauty in ages of faith, one need not look farther than to the offices of the church; for the love with which they were so generally regarded, as we observed in a former place, most clearly proves that they corresponded with the hearts of men. And here I cannot refrain from proposing that a comparison be instituted between the solemn hallowed light of words, so bright and heavenly, which issued from the choir in those days, when even every rustic village church heard the regular office duly sung, and the new litanies which England at some altars hears repeated more frequent than the *Serm. on Frid. after 3d Sund. of Lent. On the Contempt of the Word, Part I. 73. S. Bernardi de interiori Domo, cap. iv. Chronic. Centulensis sive S. Rich. cap. xxvi. apud Dacher. Spicileg. tom. iv. names of Mary and of the saints. The sheep, we are told, (poor witless ones!) are fed with what their taste approves, while what is canonical must never pass their lips in public, for fear the dark intruder should deride. O patience! that canst endure to put to silence the angelic thoughts and the seraphic aspirations that of yore were uttered within Catholic churches, as they are still wherever faith prevails, in order to comply with the false wise, who say that hunger of new viands tempts their flock, and that the more remote from ancient pastures the stragglers wander, so much the more they come home to the sheepfold: so customs, laws, and offices are changed, and vulgar coarse sentences provided-held in great esteem as pure, forsooth, because every blot of sin mentioned here and there in Scripture is enumerated broadly in continuous strain with prayer to be delivered from it; and so there be no lack of words, detached and loosely strung together from the book of God, the composer has won the meed he sought. But not alone the fathers who sat in council, and the holy hooded men who served the sanctuary, but the unlettered peasants in the middle ages would have rejected offices like these; they would have been judged not only offensive to refined and to scholastic ears, but also to the instinct of the pure. But, for we have wandered, let us seek the forward path again. Sweet hues of saintly lustre were spread over the serene aspect of the clean heart, so multiplied that of each it would be hardly possible to tell. Its deep humility deserves, however, an especial notice. "How can you with a sound conscience call yourself the chief of sinners?" was a question put to the seraphic father by one of his blest fellowship; to whom he said, "If Christ had shown such mercy to the most wicked of men, I think he would have been more grateful to God than I am *." Again, it would be difficult for men who have not been admitted to a participation in its faith to estimate with justice its sincerity, since they of the world are conversant only with such hearts as verify what the Master of the Sentences observes,-that "lying hypocrisy follows the rejection of faith, that in words may be the piety which VOL. VIII. S. Bonavent. Vita S. Franc. C |