I. 1. Lord Seaton's Regiment at Waterloo. By the Rev. 2. Historical Record of the 52d Regiment. Edited by W. S. Moorsom, late Captain 52d Light Infantry. 3. Memoir of Lord Seaton's Services. By William II-Catalogue of the Second Special Exhibition of National Portraits, commencing with the reign of William and IV. The Early Years of His Royal Highness the Prince V.-1. The Relations of Church and State historically con- sidered. By Montague Burrows, Chichele Professor of 2. The Debates in Convocation, Session of 1867. From the Churchman and Guardian. 3. The Debates in the House of Lords, Session of 1867. From the Churchman and Guardian. VII.-Novum Testamentum Vaticanum post Angeli Maii alio- VIII.-Popol Vuh: le Livre sacré et les Mythes de l'Antiquité américaine, avec les Livres héroïques des Quichés. Par 2. Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique Centrale, durant les Siècles antérieurs à Christophe Colomb, écrite sur les Documents originaux. 3. Mexicos og Central Americas ældre historie, in Anti- quarisk Tiddskrift af der Nordiske Oldskrift-selskab. 4. Du Mexique et de l'Amérique Centrale. Par M. H. IX. First Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Rubrics, Orders, and Directions for regulating the Course and Conduct of Public Worship, &c., according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland; with Minutes of Evidence and Appendices. Presented THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER. JULY, 1867. ART. I. Annales de Margan (Annales Monastici, Vol. I.) Ed. H. R. LUARD, M.A. Longmans, 1864. 2. Annales Monasterii de Waverley (Annales Monastici, Vol. II.) Ed. H. R. LUARD, M.A. Longmans, 1865. THE history of religious reformations and revivals is, for the most part, a sad one. The zeal which stimulates the first movement but too often grows cold. Success brings with it its inevitable dangers and difficulties. The mixture of human motives, not appreciated or calculated on at first, makes itself felt and known. The eager and heroical spirit, which moved the first antagonism to evil, degenerates into a self-asserting or persecuting hardness. The temptations to luxury and sloth become more powerful and are more feebly resisted, and but too often the reaction proves worse than the original disease. And this is peculiarly the case when the revival is one of an essentially artificial and unnatural state of things; when a wild attempt is made to galvanize into life and vigour that against which the great laws of our being are irrevocably fixed; when men would fain be wiser than Heaven has made them, and would attempt to reach conditions to which there is no access here. below. We believe that the various revivals and reformations of the monastic orders, without exception, bear witness to the truth of this. The history of the middle ages is full of records of attempts to reach a state, in which man, completely isolated from worldly cares, and all distracting and lower motives, shall be entirely given up to religious contemplation and perpetual communion with God. But is there any proof of the permanent success of any of these attempts? The history of monasteries is the history of the world in little. The same motives, the same temptations, the same sins are to be found within the walls of the convent as without. Man cannot be isolated from his nature, or regulated out of himself. It is simply a record of failures more or less pretentious, and exhibiting more or less the marks of good or evil in their downfall. The most respect able failure, and, perhaps, at the same time, the most complete, was that of the Friars. Their object was higher than that of the Monks, but their decay was even more rapid and striking, and their debased state more offensive and troublesome. But the various orders of monks have all a similar history. They commence in enthusiasm, they end in luxury, sloth, and obstructiveness. They claim at their first origin the regulation of themselves, as of those wholly given to God; they end by spending their energies and their wealth in battling against bishops, and propping up the enormous pretensions of the court of Rome, to the confusion and injury of Christendom. The rule of S. Benedict, the foundation of all mediæval monasticism, breathes the highest and most intense devotion. By it the heart and body was to be prepared to go forth to the warfare of holy ' obedience to the commandments,' and its votaries were to run 'the way of God's commandments, so that, never departing from 'his governance, remaining under his teaching in the monastery ' until death, they, through patience, are partakers of Christ's 'sufferings, that they may be accounted worthy to be partakers of his kingdom.' Such was the sublime conception of the great monastic saint; but what was the history of those who came in vast numbers, throughout all the lands of Christendom, to bind themselves, by solemn oaths, to keep this rule? We will adduce no unfriendly testimony, but that of a monk of the order in the eleventh century. How shall I begin to speak? for on all sides is the sacred end of monkish life transgressed, ' and hardly aught is left, save that, as our holy father Benedict 'foretold, by our tonsure and habit we lie to God. We seem 'almost all of us prone to pride, to contention, scandal, detraction, lying, evil-speaking, hurtful accusations, contumacy, 'wrath, bitterness, despising of others, murmuring, gluttony, and 'seduced by a love of costly apparel.' 2 The reform of the order which had thus degenerated was naturally an object at the heart of all the holiest of its members. But how was monasticism to be reformed? Was the rule of S. Benedict to be altered and adapted to the lower tone of the age, and to the experience of human weakness, or was a still more stringent asceticism to be striven after, and the qualities of courage, devotion, and endurance to be appealed to, and enlisted in the cause? The former method was the reformation of Clugni, the latter that of Citeaux. The magnificent monastery of Clugni, which ruled over 10,000 monks scattered in various daughter establishments throughout Europe, greatly modified the strictness of the Benedictine rule. The notion of the Abbots of Clugni was, that the monk was called 1 Maitland's 'Dark Ages,' p. 168. 2 Chronicon Vulturnense; quoted in Life of S. Stephen Abbot, p. 52. 6 1 to the life of Mary, not to that of Martha,-that every comfort and convenience was to be provided, that religious men might give themselves wholly to religious services and studies. But what was the effect of this principle, combined with the vast wealth which had been heaped upon Clugni? Not only did 'these monks eat meat every day in the week, except Friday, 'but they ransacked earth and air for highly flavoured dainties; they kept huntsmen who searched the forest through for venison and wild boars; their falconers brought them the choicest 'birds—pheasants, partridges, and wood-pigeons. Wine well spiced, and mixed with honey, and meats highly seasoned with pepper, ginger, and cinnamon were to be found in the refectory 'at Clugni, with all kinds of costly spices brought from beyond 'the sea, and even from the East. Many were the broad lands possessed by the monks of Clugni, with vassals and servants, 'both men and women. Italy, Spain, and England sent the 'produce of their lands to clothe the brethren, one province especially, from the Rhone to the Alps and the sea, was appointed to this duty, and sent its treasures to the camera of Clugni.' But the tolerated luxury of this great religious house, instead of reconciling all men to this amended edition of the rule of S. Benedict, only brought out more strongly the complete monastic degeneracy of the age. Some ardent spirits determined to try a higher and more searching rule than even that of S. Benedict. Robert, Alberic, and Stephen the Englishman, first at Molesme, and then more completely, and with greater success, at Citeaux in Burgundy, inaugurated a new order, in which, while they professed a Benedictine restoration, they took care to make their ordinances and regulations convey a distinct reproof of the luxurious Benedictinism of Clugni. It is acutely remarked by Dr. Maitland, that, had the founders of the Cistercians desired simply a wilderness to build in, they might, whatever their nicety of taste in those matters, have been accommodated with a suitable one, without coming into the immediate neighbourhood of Clugni. That, had they desired simply an ascetic restoration, they might have preserved the ancient black Benedictine garb, without attracting all men's attention by the novelty of a white dress. I do not dispute that Alberic might dream that the Virgin Mary decided that 'his monks should wear white garments; but it leads me to suspect that he might have been thinking on the matter when he was awake, though even then, perhaps, it was not because 'the monks of Clugni wore black ones. Nor do I take upon me to say, that he was thinking of the fine chandelier composed of 'brass, gold, and silver, which hung from the roof of the Church 1 Life of S. Stephen Abbot, pp. 57-62. |