§ 105. National Customs and the National Literature.It was an age full of the most wonderful contradictions and anomalies in the life of the people, but every phenomenon bore the character of unquestionable power, and the church applied the artificer’s chisel to the unhewn marble block. In club law the most brutal violence prevailed, but bowed itself willingly or unwillingly before the might of an idea. The basest sensuality existed alongside of the most simple self-denial and renunciation of the world, the most wonderful displays of self-forgetting love. The most sacred solemnities were parodied, and then men turned in awful earnest to manifest the profoundest anxiety for their soul’s salvation. Alongside of unmeasured superstition we meet with the boldest freethinking, and out of the midst of widespread ignorance and want of culture there radiated forth great thoughts, profound conceptions, and suggestive anticipations.
It was an age full of the most wonderful contradictions and anomalies in the life of the people, but every phenomenon bore the character of unquestionable power, and the church applied the artificer’s chisel to the unhewn marble block. In club law the most brutal violence prevailed, but bowed itself willingly or unwillingly before the might of an idea. The basest sensuality existed alongside of the most simple self-denial and renunciation of the world, the most wonderful displays of self-forgetting love. The most sacred solemnities were parodied, and then men turned in awful earnest to manifest the profoundest anxiety for their soul’s salvation. Alongside of unmeasured superstition we meet with the boldest freethinking, and out of the midst of widespread ignorance and want of culture there radiated forth great thoughts, profound conceptions, and suggestive anticipations.
§ 105.1.Knighthood and the Peace of God.—Notwithstanding its rude violence there was a deep religious undertone in knighthood, which came out in Spain in the war with the Saracens, and throughout Europe in the crusades. What princes could not do to check savagery was to some extent accomplished by the church by means of the injunction of the Peace of God. InA.D.1034 the severity of famine in France led to acts of cannibalism and murder, which the bishops and synods severely punished. InA.D.1041 the bishops of Southern France enjoined the Peace of God, according to which under threat of anathema all feuds were to be suspended from Wednesday evening to Monday morning, as the days of the ascension, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. At a later council at Narbonne inA.D.1054, Advent to Epiphany, Lent to eight days after Easter, from the Sunday before Ascension to the end of the week of Pentecost, as well as the ember days and the festivals of Mary and the Apostles, were added. Even on other days, churches, cloisters, hospitals, and churchyards, as well as priests, monks, pilgrims, merchants, and agriculturists, in short, all unarmed men, and, by the Council of Clermont,A.D.1095, even all crusaders, were included in the peace of God. Its healthful influence was felt even outside of France, and at the 3rd Lateran Council inA.D.1179 Alexander III. raised it to the rank of a universally applicable law of the church.§ 105.2.Popular Customs.—Superstition resting on old paganism introduced a Christian mythology. In almost all the popular legends the devil bore a leading part, and he was generally represented as a dupe who was cheated out of his bargain in the end. The most sacred things were made the subjects of blasphemous parodies. OnFool’s Festivalon New Year’s day in France, mock popes, bishops, and abbots were introduced and all the holy actions mimicked in a blasphemous manner. Of a similar nature was theFestum innocentum(§ 57, 1) enacted by schoolboys at Christmas. Also at Christmas time the so-calledFeast of Asseswas celebrated. At Rouen dramatic representation of the prophecies of Christ’s birth were given; at Beauvais, the flight into Egypt. This relic of pagan license was opposed by the bishops, but encouraged by the lower clergy. After bishops and councils succeeded in banishing these fooleries from consecrated places they soon ceased to be celebrated. Under the name ofCalends, because their gatherings were on the Calends of each month, brotherhoods composed of clerical and lay members sprang up in the beginning of the 13th century throughout Germany and France, devoting themselves to prayer and saying masses for living and deceased members and relatives. This pious purpose was indeed soon forgotten, and the meetings degenerated into riotous carousings.§ 105.3.Two Royal Saints.—St. Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew II. of Hungary, married in her 14th year to St. Louis IV., Landgrave of Thuringia, was made a widow in her 20th year by the death of her husband in the crusade of Frederick II. inA.D.1227, and thereafter suffered many privations at the hand of her brother-in-law. Her father confessor inspired her with a fanatical spirit of self denial. She assumed in Marburg the garb of the Franciscan nuns, took the three vows, and retired into a house of mercy, where she submitted to be scourged by her confessor. There she died in her 24th year inA.D.1231. Her remains are credited with the performance of many miracles.She was canonized by Gregory IX., inA.D.1235, and in the 14th century the order of Elizabethan nuns was instituted for ministering to the poor and sick.316—St. Hedwig, aunt of Elizabeth, married Henry duke of Silesia, in her 12th year. After discharging her duties of wife, mother, and princess faithfully, she took along with her husband the vow of chastity, and out of the sale of her bridal ornaments built a nunnery at Trebnitz, where she died inA.D.1243 in her 69th year. Canonized inA.D.1268, her remains were deposited in the convent church, which became on that account a favourite resort of pilgrims.§ 105.4.Evidences of Sainthood.Stigmatization.Soon after St. Francis’ death inA.D.1226, the legend spread that two years before, during a forty days’ fast in the Apennines, a six-winged seraph imprinted on his body the nail prints of the wounded Saviour. The saint’s humility, it was said, prevented him speaking of the miracle except to those in closest terms of intimacy. The papal bull canonizing the saint, however, issued inA.D.1228, knows nothing of this wonderful occurrence. What was then told of the great saint was subsequently ascribed to about 100 other ascetics, male and female. Some sceptical critics attributed the phenomenon to an impressionable temperament, others again accounted for all such stories by assuming that they were purely fabulous, or that the marks had been deceitfully made with human hands. Undoubtedly St. Francis had made those wounds upon his own body. That pain should have been felt on certain occasions in the wounds may be accounted for, especially in the case of females, who constituted the great majority of stigmatized individuals, on pathological grounds.Bilocation.The Catholic Church Lexicon, published inA.D.1882 (II. 840), maintains that it is a fact universally believed that saints often appeared at the same time at places widely removed from one another. Examples are given from the lives of Anthony of Padua, Francis Xavier, Liguori, etc. This is explained by the supposition that either God gives this power to the saint or sends angels to assume his form in different places.§ 105.5.Religious Culture of the People.—Unsuccessful attempts were made by the Hohenstaufens to institute a public school system and compulsory education. Waldensians and such like (§108) obtained favour by spreading instruction through vernacular preaching, reading, and singing. The Dominicans took a hint from this. The Council of Toulouse,A.D.1229 (§109, 2), forbade laymen to read the Scriptures, even the Psalter and Breviary, in the vulgar tongue. Summaries of the Scripture history were allowed. Of this sort was theRhyming Biblein Dutch by Jacob of Maërlant, †A.D.1291, which gives in rhyme the O.T. history, the Life of Jesus, and the history of the Jews to the destruction of Jerusalem. In the 13th centuryRhyming Legendsgave in the vernacular the substance of the Latin Martyrologies. The oldest German example in 3 bks. by an unknown author contains 100,000 rhyming lines, on Christ and Mary, the Apostles and the saints in the order of the church year. Still more effectively was information spread among the people during the 11th and subsequent centuries by the performance ofSacred Plays. From simple responsive songs they were developed into regular dramas adapted to the different festivals. Besides historical plays which were calledMysteries=ministeriaas representations of theMinistri eccl., there were allegorical and moral plays calledMoralities, in which moral truths were personified under the names of the virtues and vices.The numerous pictures, mosaics, and reliefs upon the walls helped greatly to spread instruction among the people.317§ 105.6.The National Literature(§ 89, 3).—Walter v. d. Vogelweide, †A.D.1230, sang the praises of the Lord, the Virgin, and the church, and lashed the clerical vices and hierarchical pretensions of his age. The 12th century editor of the paganNibelungenliedgave it a slightly Christian gloss.Wolfram of Eschenbach, however, a Christian poet in the highest sense, gave to the pagan legend of Parcival a thoroughly Christian character in the story of the Holy Grail and the Knights of the Round Table of King Arthur. His antipodes as a purely secular poet wasGodfrey of Strassburg, whose Tristan and Isolt sets forth a thoroughly sensual picture of carnal love; yet as the sequel of this we have a strongly etherealized rhapsody on Divine love conceived quite in the spirit of St. Francis.—The sprightly songs of theTroubadoursof Southern France were often the vehicle of heretical sentiments and gave expression to bitter hatred of the Romish Babylon.318
§ 105.1.Knighthood and the Peace of God.—Notwithstanding its rude violence there was a deep religious undertone in knighthood, which came out in Spain in the war with the Saracens, and throughout Europe in the crusades. What princes could not do to check savagery was to some extent accomplished by the church by means of the injunction of the Peace of God. InA.D.1034 the severity of famine in France led to acts of cannibalism and murder, which the bishops and synods severely punished. InA.D.1041 the bishops of Southern France enjoined the Peace of God, according to which under threat of anathema all feuds were to be suspended from Wednesday evening to Monday morning, as the days of the ascension, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. At a later council at Narbonne inA.D.1054, Advent to Epiphany, Lent to eight days after Easter, from the Sunday before Ascension to the end of the week of Pentecost, as well as the ember days and the festivals of Mary and the Apostles, were added. Even on other days, churches, cloisters, hospitals, and churchyards, as well as priests, monks, pilgrims, merchants, and agriculturists, in short, all unarmed men, and, by the Council of Clermont,A.D.1095, even all crusaders, were included in the peace of God. Its healthful influence was felt even outside of France, and at the 3rd Lateran Council inA.D.1179 Alexander III. raised it to the rank of a universally applicable law of the church.
§ 105.2.Popular Customs.—Superstition resting on old paganism introduced a Christian mythology. In almost all the popular legends the devil bore a leading part, and he was generally represented as a dupe who was cheated out of his bargain in the end. The most sacred things were made the subjects of blasphemous parodies. OnFool’s Festivalon New Year’s day in France, mock popes, bishops, and abbots were introduced and all the holy actions mimicked in a blasphemous manner. Of a similar nature was theFestum innocentum(§ 57, 1) enacted by schoolboys at Christmas. Also at Christmas time the so-calledFeast of Asseswas celebrated. At Rouen dramatic representation of the prophecies of Christ’s birth were given; at Beauvais, the flight into Egypt. This relic of pagan license was opposed by the bishops, but encouraged by the lower clergy. After bishops and councils succeeded in banishing these fooleries from consecrated places they soon ceased to be celebrated. Under the name ofCalends, because their gatherings were on the Calends of each month, brotherhoods composed of clerical and lay members sprang up in the beginning of the 13th century throughout Germany and France, devoting themselves to prayer and saying masses for living and deceased members and relatives. This pious purpose was indeed soon forgotten, and the meetings degenerated into riotous carousings.
§ 105.3.Two Royal Saints.—St. Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew II. of Hungary, married in her 14th year to St. Louis IV., Landgrave of Thuringia, was made a widow in her 20th year by the death of her husband in the crusade of Frederick II. inA.D.1227, and thereafter suffered many privations at the hand of her brother-in-law. Her father confessor inspired her with a fanatical spirit of self denial. She assumed in Marburg the garb of the Franciscan nuns, took the three vows, and retired into a house of mercy, where she submitted to be scourged by her confessor. There she died in her 24th year inA.D.1231. Her remains are credited with the performance of many miracles.She was canonized by Gregory IX., inA.D.1235, and in the 14th century the order of Elizabethan nuns was instituted for ministering to the poor and sick.316—St. Hedwig, aunt of Elizabeth, married Henry duke of Silesia, in her 12th year. After discharging her duties of wife, mother, and princess faithfully, she took along with her husband the vow of chastity, and out of the sale of her bridal ornaments built a nunnery at Trebnitz, where she died inA.D.1243 in her 69th year. Canonized inA.D.1268, her remains were deposited in the convent church, which became on that account a favourite resort of pilgrims.
§ 105.4.Evidences of Sainthood.
§ 105.5.Religious Culture of the People.—Unsuccessful attempts were made by the Hohenstaufens to institute a public school system and compulsory education. Waldensians and such like (§108) obtained favour by spreading instruction through vernacular preaching, reading, and singing. The Dominicans took a hint from this. The Council of Toulouse,A.D.1229 (§109, 2), forbade laymen to read the Scriptures, even the Psalter and Breviary, in the vulgar tongue. Summaries of the Scripture history were allowed. Of this sort was theRhyming Biblein Dutch by Jacob of Maërlant, †A.D.1291, which gives in rhyme the O.T. history, the Life of Jesus, and the history of the Jews to the destruction of Jerusalem. In the 13th centuryRhyming Legendsgave in the vernacular the substance of the Latin Martyrologies. The oldest German example in 3 bks. by an unknown author contains 100,000 rhyming lines, on Christ and Mary, the Apostles and the saints in the order of the church year. Still more effectively was information spread among the people during the 11th and subsequent centuries by the performance ofSacred Plays. From simple responsive songs they were developed into regular dramas adapted to the different festivals. Besides historical plays which were calledMysteries=ministeriaas representations of theMinistri eccl., there were allegorical and moral plays calledMoralities, in which moral truths were personified under the names of the virtues and vices.The numerous pictures, mosaics, and reliefs upon the walls helped greatly to spread instruction among the people.317
§ 105.6.The National Literature(§ 89, 3).—Walter v. d. Vogelweide, †A.D.1230, sang the praises of the Lord, the Virgin, and the church, and lashed the clerical vices and hierarchical pretensions of his age. The 12th century editor of the paganNibelungenliedgave it a slightly Christian gloss.Wolfram of Eschenbach, however, a Christian poet in the highest sense, gave to the pagan legend of Parcival a thoroughly Christian character in the story of the Holy Grail and the Knights of the Round Table of King Arthur. His antipodes as a purely secular poet wasGodfrey of Strassburg, whose Tristan and Isolt sets forth a thoroughly sensual picture of carnal love; yet as the sequel of this we have a strongly etherealized rhapsody on Divine love conceived quite in the spirit of St. Francis.—The sprightly songs of theTroubadoursof Southern France were often the vehicle of heretical sentiments and gave expression to bitter hatred of the Romish Babylon.318