On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    an emperor and his high chancellor , Frederic II . and Pier delle Vigne , were loudlyaccused by a pope , —not , perhaps , without good reason , —of having denounced those ' three notable impostors ( baratatores ) , Moses , Christ , and Mahomet / who successively managed to 'juggle the world ; ' when the citizens of Florence familiarised themselves with the sight of such men as Farinata degli Uberti , Cavalcanti and his son , musing about their streets with downcast heads ,, busy , if report spoke truth , with the solution of that arduous problem , * If ) peradventure , it could be satisfactorily made out that God was not . '

    " All this , be it observed , in the thirteenth century , at the time , that is , that Dominic of Gusman and Francis of Assisi inundated Europe with their cowled beggars ( 1208—1216 ) ; at the time that the ' Sacro Volto' imprinted on the kerchief of St . Veronica was first exhibited in the West ( 1250 ) , and , by a rare gift of ubiquity , was at the same time to be seen at Eome , at Milan , and at Jaen in Spain ; at the time that the house of the Virgin was wafted by angels from Nazareth to the West , travelling by easy stages from Palestine to Dalmatia , and hence to various parts of the Roman states , till , after four years' wandering ( 1291—1295 ) , it at last reached its ultimate destination at Loretto ; at a time that a fit of flogging

    seized the people of Florence ( 1260 ) , and hence infected Italy and Europe , and the bare backs of flagellants of both sexes , and the sound of their smart lashes , amazed the multitude ; in a century to which we are probably indebted for the ' Rosary and Crown of the Virgin Mary' ( in 12-14 ) , for the Stabat Mater and Salve Regina ; a century which invented the Corpus Domini , paraded , that is , the Sacrament , with all the awful meaning of the Catholic Church attached to it , as a raree-show about streets and market-places ( 1246—1311 ) ; a century in which the zeal for the wars of Palestine reached its climax in the crusade of children , which led so many innocent victims to death by drowning or life-long slavery at Algiers and Tunis ( 1204 ); and the rage for pilgrimages suggested the idea of the grand jubilee of Boniface VIII ., in 1300 , with its two millions of chanting , ranting , barefooted palmers , crowding to Rome , eager to kiss off the marble toe of the apostle .

    " That daring spirit of inquiry , so strangely contrasting with the idolatry of the grovelling multitude , and wliich was fostered especially by the study of what they called Aristotelian philosophy , kept pace with the advance of learning and the revival of classical literature , till it reached its climax at the close of the fifteenth century , when such earnest men as Erasmus or Luther heard hardly anything but blasphemies at the court of Leo X ., when ' it was considered the mark of high breeding in Rome to call the principles of Christianity in question , and hardly a priest came back from saying muss without uttering outrageous words in denial of its reality . '"

    The sect of Apostolic Brethren which was founded by Sagarelli about the year 1260 , and subsequently made formidable by Dolcino , had the pretension of restoring Primitive Christianity to its dominion over private life . All thought of riches was discarded ; the bread sufficed for the hour ; the morrow was left to G-od . Chastity in all things , prayer , fasting , and spiritual communion — these were the ordinances of the sect . Sagarelli was a madman , but what then ? is it not—as Signor Mariotti with sarcastic truth observes—that " mental alienation has ever in superstitious age » been set down as a mark of religious enlightenment ? " —and at any rate Sagarelli practised what the Church only preached , so that among believers he found followers .

    " If it were possible to reduce to intelligible terms every variety of dissent which the Roman or any other church characterised as heresy , nothing would Beem more natural than to distinguish between the opinions of the ' Literal' and those of the ' Rational' Christians . The first guilty of errors of Discipline , the second of ' errors of Dogma . " The former followed a straight , and what scorned ' to be a sufficiently safe , course . They read the Scriptures , and made it the study of their lives to listen to the teachings of Christ and his apostles , and to follow their examples . It ought to have hocu difficult to find fault with such men . But the Church deemed them

    —some of them , at least—reprehensible nevertheless . For the Church , in her wisdom , had found that some of the precepts of Christ and bis disciples were incompatible with the frailty and imperfection of human nature , and would , if taken to the letter , prove inapplicable to social purposes . She , therefore , made allowance for the hyperbolical strain of Oriental language , nnd used her own discretion in interpreting the spirit of the Gospel , so as to accommodate it to the exigencies of all circumstances she had to pass through . " Not but that hIio admitted and tolerated , even if sho did not actually encourage , asceticism ; though the observance of strict Christian virtues must always , by contrast , have conveyed a reproach to the power , splendour , and luxury with which she too early encompassed herself . IJut her forbearance-was only evinced in favour of those who wen ; contented to follow holiness in their own lives . Swarms of monks and anchorites worn at liberty to starve , scourge , and otherwise make fooln of themselves . Their penances were intended for tho glorification not only of God , but of his Church . The latter profited by their austerities . She shone by their reflected light . Theso ascetics performed , as it wore , tho ' dirty work' of

    tho Church . " Hut there were other more earnest and severe , bigoted men , who did not think asceticism should bo optional merely and exceptional . They wished to make tho letter of tho Gospel im inexorable iron law , binding not on themselves alono , but , if not on tho whole Christian people , at least on all who laid claim to apostolic Kin-cession , on ' nil who assumed to bo tho ' Halt ; of tho world . ' Priesthood without apostolic holiness—and that . synonymous with utter poverty and humility— -was for them a monstrosity . Thoso either boldly professed themselves , or were declared , tho Church's foes -the heretics .

    " . Hut , again , it was not merely a rulo of life that (! Ini . st and bin apostles had prescribed . They had also laid down a form of belief . Every religion , whether natural or revealed , is matter of doubt ami controversy : and it was not certainly tho wish of the founders of Christianity , that all their meaning should bo bared before tho gnzo of mere mortals . The ' Chureh undertook not so much to explain as to mini up that abstruse ami recondite belief : it aimed lens to the satisfaction than to tho subjugation of tho human understanding . It hud down its dogma as ubsoluto as it was lawful , as peremptory as it wan unintelligible . Sho allowed oi co-operation , indeed , but miU ' ered no contradiction . Free to tho divino to divo into those mysteries , to make us fearful a havoc amongst them as his own Huhtloty suggested , ho only as ho reform I tho ultimate ) jud ^ iniint of tho soundnesH of his theories to the Infallible one . liy submitting to authority , tho orthodox theologian became invested with it . He was inscribed with tho titles of' admirable , Buriiuhic , or angelic' auiongub tho doctor * of tho Church : but rolwlliou aguinat tho

    final degree of Pontiff or Council , independence of reason and conscience , was se down as heterodoxy—was branded as heresy . " Dolcino succeeded to the acknowledged chieftainship of the new sect , and by his eloquence , vehemence ,, tact , and boldness , actually raised an army of some six thousand devout followers , ready to fight , ready to starve for him . The story of his career must be read m Mariotti s admirable narrative ; we cannot abridge it without missing the interest From the result of the struggle Mariotti draws a moral for Mazzmi and Young Italy—viz ., that

    " The Alps had no fortress , but only the wall of a fortress . Like the Apennines in all their length , they constitute , not a mou ntain region , but only a crest . As a breast-plate for Italy , or for Northern Italy at least , the Alpine chain will be found an invaluable defence whenever the whole country , united , seit-dependent , looks out at all those defiles ; and the champions on the hills can rely on the inexhaustible resources-oF the plain in their rear . But that the Alps should give the initiative , that a few , however heroic , bands thrown up into Val Sesia , or Valtelhna , or into Abruzzo , or Calabria , may support themselves for even a single season , and so harass and perplex the foreign invader as to shut him up in his citadels , and give the nation a chance for a general rise—that is one of the many illusions of the of her of discretion

    « Young Italy , ' which must needs vanish with coming years . « The experiment was made , under the very best circumstances , in recent times . The hour and the man had come together . At a period in which all Italy was in arms , in 1848 , when vast numbers of youthful adventurers wandered about , houseless hopeless , lavish of their life for their country , Garibaldi appeared to lead them . He was the man , long kept in reserve by Young Italy for the great purpose , and had won a f air name in distant countries for his genius in t hat peculiar mode of warfare that was now in contemplation . The leader could not have been abler nor the men braver . Yet the former looked in vain for a strateg ic point fit for the display of his talents ; the latter found themselves in presence of an enemy they were not prepared to encounter . Garibaldi ' s campaign on the Alps did not last

    quite a fortnight . _ " There are many obvious reasons to account for his failure . . 1 lie hpanisn guerilla bands , whom the Italians would have taken as models , are always recruited among the immediate children of the soil—patient , frugal , unwearied mountaineers , hard as their own rocks . The enemy never knows where to find them . The boor he passes by to-day , a ragged goatherd , or a stupid ploughman , the innkeeper , whose hospitality he repays with ill-usage , will confront him , all cloaked and plumed , a redoubtable guerillero , on the morrow . " The Italian patriots under Garibaldi were strangers in the land of their fathers . of the

    Mere city-men , young students for the most part , they knew nothing AJps , except the faint blue outline they could descry from their coffee-house window , in tho city of the plain . The Italian is too exclusively the man of tho city . ^ From the days of ancient Home he has estranged himself from nature . All civilization is with him centred in his artificial habits of town life . The rural population is a mere blank for what concerns tho destinies of the country . Accustomed to all the leisure and luxury of tlicir idle frivolous life , the young patriots had nothing to uphold them but the excitement and devotion of the moment . Tho country people , amongst whom they moved , evinced neither sympathy nor intelligence ; they gazed at them in listless stupor , and the very wonderment of their gaze pointed out their

    course to their pur shots . " Nowhere could tlic heroes meet with either support or sustenance on the mountains . Had their campaign lasted a whole fortnight , necessity would have driven them to plunder . Tho patriot of to-day would have stood forth a bandit and a marauder to-morrow ; when tho Alpine rustics , in mere self-defence , would have been roused from their apathy , only to join tho Austrian in the hue and cry after their brethren . " The case of Fra Dolcino was far different ; hence the importance it may have

    on present matters . Dolcino led mountaineers into the field . He had come unarmed , almost alono into Val Sesia . His earnest eloquence , his simple truths , won him an army- At its head lio repulsed all enemies for two years . Had those valleys offered him an outlet , had ho always been able to shift his ground from an exhausted into a fruitful district , as the Spanish guerilla men have it in their power to do , and as he did himself by incredible efforts , in one instance—had lie , in short , as Danto warned , provided against the gaunt fiend that was to prey upon his entrails , ho might luivo wearied out his adversaries—and who knows ?—even eventually have taken tho offensive . Tho who aban

    " But , no ! Each of these valleys is a cul-de-sac , a trap . man - dons tho plain before his enemy can find but too ready n refutfo amongst them ; but on their entrance ho may read the infernal inscription' . Relinquish hope , all yo who enter here . ' " Tho Apostles made a long stand , unexampled in the annals of Italian , or indeed of any otlflh warfare , because ! faith and despair were strong at their heart ; but their fate , nevertheless , admonishes us that the hopes of Italy must rest on other resources than those which tho mountains alli ; rd . " We cannot close this notice without extracting Iho following : —

    "At Mantua or Leghorn , tho notion that the Israelites are bound to celebrate soino decennial or centennial anniversary by the sacrifice of a Christian virgin , is still deeply-rooted in tlie popular mind ; ami tfnivo personages have assured us at Krankfort , that it is enough to raiHO the formidable cry , ' Hep ! Hep ! Hep ! ' to send tho whole fanatic mob to the . 1 udengasse , ( hen * l > y murder ami plunder to avenge some imaginary deed of bloodshed periodically ( supposed to . stain the floor of tho synagogue . " In a note Mariotti addn —• " The initials JI . K . V . ( Ilirrosolyinn est perdita ) , by which tlio zeal of tho Crusaders was stirred np in the Middle A-ch , and whirl , was oiloii tlie hikiiuI for a slaughter of the Jews . Tim convivial . shout , < Hip ! llin ! Hurrah ! m England is referred to tho name origin . "

    Untitled Article

    Til 10 I'MILOSOPHY OF PROVERBS . On the Lessons in 1 ' roverbs . l ' 'i » o lectures . By Uichurd ^ ' ''''^^^^^' ^^ Tifosiswiio have seen Mr . Trench ' s delightful work oa The Study of Words , will need only i <> l >« informed of the iiict of a companion volume Wine \ mh \\ nhei \ , to pos . srHH it at once . On tho whole wo think Huh on Proverbs more ' witfgoH tivo and acceptable than its precursor . Therein tho same nico ucholarly fooling , tho aaino ingenuity of interpretation ,

    Untitled Article

    March 5 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 233

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 5, 1853, page 233, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1976/page/17/