Chapter 30
Share
END OF THE SIXTH CENTURY (PART I)
CHAPTER XXX: END OF THE SIXTH CENTURY (PART I)
We must not suppose that the conversion of the western barbarians
was of any very perfect kind. They mixed up a great deal of their
own barbarism with their Christianity, and, besides this, they took
up many of the vices of the old and worn-out nations, whose
countries they had conquered and occupied. Much heathen superstition
lingered among them: it was even a common saying in Spain, that "if
a man has to pass between heathen altars and God's Church, it is no
harm if he pay his respects to both." The clergy were very wealthy
and prosperous, but did not venture to interfere with the vices of
the great and powerful; or, if they did, it was at their peril. For
instance, when a bishop of Rouen had offended the Frankish queen
Fredegund, she caused him to be murdered in his own cathedral, at
the most solemn service of Easter-day.
Religion became a protection to crime; murderers were allowed to
take refuge in churches, and might not be dragged out until after an
oath had been made that their lives should be safe. It had been the
ancient custom of the Germans to let all crimes be atoned for by the
payment of money: if, for example, a person had killed another, he
had no more to do than to pay a certain sum to the dead man's
relations. And this way of making up for misdeeds was now brought
into the Church: it was thought that men might make satisfaction for
their sins by paying money, and that the effect would be the same if
others paid for them after their death. We may understand how this
worked from another story of queen Fredegund, who seems to have been
a perfect monster of wickedness. She set two of her pages to murder
a king, named Sigebert; and, by way of encouraging them, she said
that she would honour them highly, if they came off with their
lives; but that, if they were slain, she would lay out a great deal
of money in alms for the good of their souls!
As might naturally have been expected among such people, it came to
be very commonly thought that the observance of outward worship and
ceremonies was all that religion required. Pretended miracles were
wrought in great numbers, for the purpose of imposing on the
ignorant; and all, from the king downwards, were then ignorant
enough to be deceived by them. The superstitions which had begun in
the fourth century (p 90) continued to grow on the Church; such as
the reverence paid to saints, and especially to the Blessed Virgin,
so that people allowed them a part of the honour which ought to have
been kept for God alone. Among other such corruptions were the
reverence for the "relics" of saints (that is, for parts of their
bodies, or for things which had belonged to them), and the religious
honour paid to images and pictures. These and other evils increased
more and more, until, at length, they could be borne no longer, and,
in many countries, they caused the great religious change which is
called the "Reformation".
But nearly a thousand years had to pass before the time of the
Reformation; and, in the meanwhile, although much was amiss in the
Christianity which prevailed, it yet was the means of blessing and
of salvation. And there were never wanting good men who, although
there were many defects and errors in their opinions, firmly held
and clearly taught the necessity of a real living faith in Christ,
and of a thoroughly earnest endeavour to obey God's holy will.
PART II
The state of Italy towards the end of the sixth century was very
wretched. Vast numbers of its people had perished in the course of
the wars by which Justinian's generals had wrested the country from
the Goths, and had again united it to the empire; multitudes of
others had been destroyed by famine and pestilence. The Lombards,
who had crossed the Alps in the year 568, had obliged the emperors
to yield the North, and part of the middle, of Italy to them; and
they continually threatened the portions which still remained to the
empire. No help against them was to be got from Constantinople; and
the governors whom the emperors sent to manage their Italian
dominions, instead of directing and leading the people to resist the
Lombards, only hindered them from taking their defence into their
own hands.
The land was left uncultivated, partly through the loss of
inhabitants, and partly because those who remained were disheartened
by the miseries of the time. They had not the spirit to bestow their
labour on it, when there was almost a certainty that their crops
would be destroyed or carried off by the Lombard invaders; and the
soil, when left to itself, had in many places become so unwholesome,
that it was not fit to live on. Italy had in former times been so
thickly peopled, that it had been necessary to get supplies of corn
from Sicily and from Africa. But now such foreign supplies were
wanted for a very different reason--that the inhabitants of Italy
could not, or did not, grow corn for themselves. The city of Rome
had suffered from storms, and from repeated floods of the river
Tiber, which did a great deal of damage to its buildings, and
sometimes washed away or spoiled the stores of corn which were laid
up in the granaries. The people were kept in terror by the Lombards,
who often advanced to their very walls, so that it was unsafe to
venture beyond the gates.
The condition of the Church too was very deplorable. The troubles of
the times had produced a general decay of morals and order both
among the clergy and among the people. The Lombards were Arians, and
religious enmity was added to the other causes of dislike between
them and the Romans. In Istria, there was a division which had begun
after the fifth general council (p 145), and which kept the Church
of that country separate from the communion of Rome for a hundred
and fifty years. The sunken condition of Christianity in Gaul (or
France) has been described in the beginning of this chapter. Spain
was just recovered from Arianism (p 134), but there was much to be
done before the Catholic faith could be considered as firmly
established there. In Africa, the old sect of the Donatists began
again to lift up its head, and took courage from the confusions of
the time to vex the Church. The Churches of the East were torn by
quarrels as to Eutychianism and Nestorianism. And the patriarchs at
Constantinople seemed likely, with the help of the emperor's favour,
to be dangerous rivals to the popes of Rome.
Such was the state of things when Gregory the Great became pope or
bishop of Rome, in the year 590.
We must not suppose that the conversion of the western barbarians
was of any very perfect kind. They mixed up a great deal of their
own barbarism with their Christianity, and, besides this, they took
up many of the vices of the old and worn-out nations, whose
countries they had conquered and occupied. Much heathen superstition
lingered among them: it was even a common saying in Spain, that "if
a man has to pass between heathen altars and God's Church, it is no
harm if he pay his respects to both." The clergy were very wealthy
and prosperous, but did not venture to interfere with the vices of
the great and powerful; or, if they did, it was at their peril. For
instance, when a bishop of Rouen had offended the Frankish queen
Fredegund, she caused him to be murdered in his own cathedral, at
the most solemn service of Easter-day.
Religion became a protection to crime; murderers were allowed to
take refuge in churches, and might not be dragged out until after an
oath had been made that their lives should be safe. It had been the
ancient custom of the Germans to let all crimes be atoned for by the
payment of money: if, for example, a person had killed another, he
had no more to do than to pay a certain sum to the dead man's
relations. And this way of making up for misdeeds was now brought
into the Church: it was thought that men might make satisfaction for
their sins by paying money, and that the effect would be the same if
others paid for them after their death. We may understand how this
worked from another story of queen Fredegund, who seems to have been
a perfect monster of wickedness. She set two of her pages to murder
a king, named Sigebert; and, by way of encouraging them, she said
that she would honour them highly, if they came off with their
lives; but that, if they were slain, she would lay out a great deal
of money in alms for the good of their souls!
As might naturally have been expected among such people, it came to
be very commonly thought that the observance of outward worship and
ceremonies was all that religion required. Pretended miracles were
wrought in great numbers, for the purpose of imposing on the
ignorant; and all, from the king downwards, were then ignorant
enough to be deceived by them. The superstitions which had begun in
the fourth century (p 90) continued to grow on the Church; such as
the reverence paid to saints, and especially to the Blessed Virgin,
so that people allowed them a part of the honour which ought to have
been kept for God alone. Among other such corruptions were the
reverence for the "relics" of saints (that is, for parts of their
bodies, or for things which had belonged to them), and the religious
honour paid to images and pictures. These and other evils increased
more and more, until, at length, they could be borne no longer, and,
in many countries, they caused the great religious change which is
called the "Reformation".
But nearly a thousand years had to pass before the time of the
Reformation; and, in the meanwhile, although much was amiss in the
Christianity which prevailed, it yet was the means of blessing and
of salvation. And there were never wanting good men who, although
there were many defects and errors in their opinions, firmly held
and clearly taught the necessity of a real living faith in Christ,
and of a thoroughly earnest endeavour to obey God's holy will.
PART II
The state of Italy towards the end of the sixth century was very
wretched. Vast numbers of its people had perished in the course of
the wars by which Justinian's generals had wrested the country from
the Goths, and had again united it to the empire; multitudes of
others had been destroyed by famine and pestilence. The Lombards,
who had crossed the Alps in the year 568, had obliged the emperors
to yield the North, and part of the middle, of Italy to them; and
they continually threatened the portions which still remained to the
empire. No help against them was to be got from Constantinople; and
the governors whom the emperors sent to manage their Italian
dominions, instead of directing and leading the people to resist the
Lombards, only hindered them from taking their defence into their
own hands.
The land was left uncultivated, partly through the loss of
inhabitants, and partly because those who remained were disheartened
by the miseries of the time. They had not the spirit to bestow their
labour on it, when there was almost a certainty that their crops
would be destroyed or carried off by the Lombard invaders; and the
soil, when left to itself, had in many places become so unwholesome,
that it was not fit to live on. Italy had in former times been so
thickly peopled, that it had been necessary to get supplies of corn
from Sicily and from Africa. But now such foreign supplies were
wanted for a very different reason--that the inhabitants of Italy
could not, or did not, grow corn for themselves. The city of Rome
had suffered from storms, and from repeated floods of the river
Tiber, which did a great deal of damage to its buildings, and
sometimes washed away or spoiled the stores of corn which were laid
up in the granaries. The people were kept in terror by the Lombards,
who often advanced to their very walls, so that it was unsafe to
venture beyond the gates.
The condition of the Church too was very deplorable. The troubles of
the times had produced a general decay of morals and order both
among the clergy and among the people. The Lombards were Arians, and
religious enmity was added to the other causes of dislike between
them and the Romans. In Istria, there was a division which had begun
after the fifth general council (p 145), and which kept the Church
of that country separate from the communion of Rome for a hundred
and fifty years. The sunken condition of Christianity in Gaul (or
France) has been described in the beginning of this chapter. Spain
was just recovered from Arianism (p 134), but there was much to be
done before the Catholic faith could be considered as firmly
established there. In Africa, the old sect of the Donatists began
again to lift up its head, and took courage from the confusions of
the time to vex the Church. The Churches of the East were torn by
quarrels as to Eutychianism and Nestorianism. And the patriarchs at
Constantinople seemed likely, with the help of the emperor's favour,
to be dangerous rivals to the popes of Rome.
Such was the state of things when Gregory the Great became pope or
bishop of Rome, in the year 590.