III. The Church and the People.§ 115a. Public Worship and the Religious Education of the People.Preaching in the vernacular was carried on mainly by the Brothers of the Common Life, the mystics, and several heretical sects,e.g.Waldensians, Wiclifites, Hussites, etc.; and stimulated by their example, others began to follow the same practice. The so calledBiblia pauperumset forth in pictures the New Testament history with its Old Testament types and prophecies;Bible Historiesmade known among the people the Scripture stories in a connected form; and, after the introduction of printing, the GermanPlenarieshelped also to spread the knowledge of God’s word by renderings for private use of the principal parts of the service. For the instruction of the people in faith and morals a whole series ofCatechismswas constructed after a gradually developed type. The “Dance of Death” in its various forms reminded of the vanity of all earthly pleasures. The spirit of the Reformation was shown during this period in the large number of hymns written in the vernacular. Church music too received a powerful impulse.
Preaching in the vernacular was carried on mainly by the Brothers of the Common Life, the mystics, and several heretical sects,e.g.Waldensians, Wiclifites, Hussites, etc.; and stimulated by their example, others began to follow the same practice. The so calledBiblia pauperumset forth in pictures the New Testament history with its Old Testament types and prophecies;Bible Historiesmade known among the people the Scripture stories in a connected form; and, after the introduction of printing, the GermanPlenarieshelped also to spread the knowledge of God’s word by renderings for private use of the principal parts of the service. For the instruction of the people in faith and morals a whole series ofCatechismswas constructed after a gradually developed type. The “Dance of Death” in its various forms reminded of the vanity of all earthly pleasures. The spirit of the Reformation was shown during this period in the large number of hymns written in the vernacular. Church music too received a powerful impulse.
§ 115.1.Fasts and Festivals.—NewMary Festivalswere introduced:F. præsentationis M.on 21st Nov. (Lev. xii. 5-8),F. visitationis M.(Luke i. 39-51), on 2nd July. In the 15th century we meet with the festivals of the Seven Pains of Mary,F. Spasmi M., on Friday or Saturday before Palm Sunday. Dominic instituted a rosary festival,F. rosarii M., on 1st Oct., and its general observance was enjoined by Gregory XIII. inA.D.1571.—TheVeneration of Ann(§ 57, 2) was introduced into Germany in the second half of the 15th century, but soon rose to a height almost equal to that of Mary.—TheFastsof the early Church (§ 56, 7) had, even during the previous period, been greatly relaxed. Now the most special fast days were mere days of abstinence from flesh, while most lavish meals of fish and farinaceous food were indulged in. Papal and episcopal dispensations from fasting were also freely given.§ 115.2.Preaching(§104, 1).—To aid and encourage preaching in the language of the people, unskilled preachers were supplied withVocabularia prædicantium. Surgant, a priest of Basel, wrote, in the end of the 15th century, a treatise on homiletics and catechetics most useful for his age,Manuale Curatorum. In it he showed how Latin sermons might be rendered into the tongue of the people, and urged the duty of hearing sermons. The mendicants were the chief preachers, especially the mystics of the preaching orders, during the 14th century (§114), and the Augustinians, particularly their German Observants, during the 15th (§112, 5), and next to them, the Franciscans.—The most zealous preacher of his age was the Spanish DominicanVincent Ferrér. InA.D.1397 he began his unprecedentedly successful preaching tours through Spain, France, Italy, England, Scotland, and Ireland. He died inA.D.1419. He laboured with special ardour for the conversion of the Jews, of whom he is said to have baptized 35,000. Wherever he went he was venerated as a saint, received with respect by the clergy and prelates, highly honoured by kings and princes, consulted by rich and poor regarding temporal and spiritual things. He was canonized by Calixtus III. inA.D.1455. Certain Flagellants (§116, 3) whom he met in his travels followed him, scourging themselves and singing his penitential songs, but he stopped this when objected to by the Council of Constance. His sermons dealt with the realities of actual life, and called all classes to repent of their sins. Of a similar spirit was the Italian DominicanBarletta, who died inA.D.1480, whose burlesque and scathing satire rendered him the most popular preacher of the day. In his footsteps went the FrenchmenMaillardandMenot, both Franciscans, and the German priest of Strassburg,Geiler of Kaisersberg, quite equal to them in quaint terseness of expression and biting wit.All these were preeminently distinguished for moral earnestness and profound spirituality.339§ 115.3.TheBiblia Pauperum.—The typological interpretation of the Old Testament history received a fixed and permanent form in the illustrations introduced into the service books and pictures printed on the altars, walls, and windows of churches, etc., during the 12th century. A set of seventeen such picture groups was found at Vienna, of which the middle panels represent the New Testament history,sub gracia, above it an Old Testament type from the periodante legem, and under it one from the periodsub lege. This picture series was completed by theBiblia pauperum, so called from the saying of Gregory I., that pictures were the poor man’s Bible. Many of the extant MSS., all depending on a common source, date from the 14th and 15th centuries. The illustrations of the New Testament are in the middle, and round about are pictures of the four prophets, with volumes in their hands, on which the appropriate Old Testament prophecies are written. On right and left are Old Testament types.The multiplication of copies of this work by woodcuts and types was one of the first uses to which printing was put.340§ 115.4.The Bible in the Vernacular.—The need oftranslations of the Bibleinto the language of the people, specially urged by the Waldensians and Albigensians, was now widely insisted upon by those of reformatory tendencies (§119). On the introduction of printing, aboutA.D.1450, an opportunity was afforded of rapidly circulating translations already made in most of the European languages. Before Luther, there were fourteen printed editions of the Bible in High and five in Low German. The translations, made from the Vulgate, were in all practically the same. The translators are unknown. The diction is for the most part clumsy, and the sense often scarcely intelligible. Translations had been made in England by the Wiclifites, and in Bohemia by the Hussites. In France, various renderings of separate books of Scripture were circulated, and a complete French Bible was issued by the confessor of Charles VIII., Jean de Rely, at Paris, inA.D.1487. Two Italian Bibles were published in Venice, inA.D.1471, one by the Camaldulite abbot Malherbi, closely following the Vulgate; the other by the humanist Bruccioli, which often falls back on the original text. The latter was highly valued by Italian exiles of the Reformation age. In Spain a Carthusian, Ferreri, attempted a translation, which was printed at Valencia inA.D.1478. More popular however than these translations were theBible Histories,i.e.free renderings, sometimes contracted, sometimes expanded, of the historical books, especially these of the Old Testament. FromA.D.1470 large and frequent editions were published of the GermanPlenaries, containing at first only the gospels and epistles, afterwards also the Service of the Mass, for all Sundays and festivals and saints’ days, with explanations and directions.§ 115.5.Catechisms and Prayer Books.—Next to preaching, the chief opportunity for imparting religious instruction was confession. Later catechisms drew largely upon the baptismal and confessional services. In the 13th and 14th centuries the decalogue was added, and afterwards the seven deadly sins and the seven principal virtues. Pictures were used to impress the main points on the minds of the people and the youth. The catechetical literature of this period, both in guides for priests and manuals for the people, was written in the vernacular.—During the 15th century there were also numerous so-calledArtes moriendi, showing how to die well, in which often earnest piety appeared side by side with the grossest superstition. There were also many prayer books,Hortuli animæ, published, in which the worship of Mary and the saints often overshadowed that of God and Christ, and an extravagant belief in indulgences led to a mechanical view of prayer that was thoroughly pagan.§ 115.6.The Dance of Death.—The fantastic humour of the Middle Ages found dramatic and spectacular expression in the Dance of Death, in which all classes, from the pope and princes to the beggars, in turn converse with death. It was introduced into Germany and France in the beginning of the 14th century, with the view of raising men out of the pleasures and troubles of life. It was called in France the Dance of the Maccabees, because first introduced at that festival. Pictures and verbal descriptions of the Dance of Death were made on walls and doors of churches, around MSS. and woodcuts, where death was generally represented as a skeleton. Hans Holbein the Younger gave the finishing touch to these representations in hisImagines Mortis, the originals of which are in St. Petersburg.In this masterpiece, the idea of a dancing pair is set aside, and in its place forty pictures, afterwards increased to fifty-eight, full of humour and moral earnestness, pourtray the power of death in the earthly life.341§ 115.7.Hymnology(§104, 10).—TheLatin Church poetryof the 14th and 15th centuries was far beneath that of the 12th and 13th. Only the mystics,e.g.Thomas à Kempis, still composed some beautiful hymns. We have now however the beginnings ofGermanandBohemianhymnology. The German flagellators sang German hymns (§116, 3), and so obtained much popular favour. The Hussite movement of the 15th century gave a great impulse to church song. Huss himself earnestly urged the practice of congregational singing in the language of the people, and himself composed Bohemian hymns. The Bohemian and Moravian Brethren were specially productive in this department (§119, 8). In many churches, at least on high festivals, German hymns were sung, and in some even at the celebration of mass and other parts of public worship. The spiritual songs of this period were of four kinds: some half German, half Latin; others translations of Latin hymns and sequences; others, original German compositions by monks and minstrels; and adaptations of secular songs to spiritual purposes. In the latter case the original melodies were also retained. Popular forms and melodies for sacred songs were now secured, and these were subsequently appropriated by the Reformers of the 16th century.§ 115.8.Church Music(§104, 11).—Great improvements were made in organs by the invention of pedals, etc.Church musicwas also greatly developed by the introduction of harmony and counterpoint. The Dutch were pre-eminent in this department. Ockenheim, founder of the second Dutch school of music, at the end of the 15th century, was the inventor of the canon and the fugue. The greatest composer of this school was Jodocus Pratensis, aboutA.D.1500, and next to him may be named the German, Adam of Fulda.§ 115.9.Legendary Relics.—The legend of angels having transferred the house of Mary from Nazareth, inA.D.1291, to Tersato in Dalmatia, inA.D.1294 to Reccanati, and finally, inA.D.1295, to Loretto in Ancona, arose in the 14th century, in connection with the fall of Acre (§94, 6) and the overthrow of the last remnants of the kingdom of Jerusalem. When and how the legend arose of theScala santaat Rome being the marble steps of Pilate’s prætorium, brought there by St. Helena, is unknown.—Even Frederick the Wise, at an enormous cost, brought together 1,010 sacred relics into his new chapel at Wittenberg, a mere look at which secured indulgence for 100 years. In a catalogue of relics in the churches of St. Maurice and Mary Magdalene at Halle, published inA D.1520, are mentioned a piece of earth, from a field of Damascus, of which God made the first man; a piece from a field at Hebron, where Adam repented; a piece of the body of Isaac; twenty-five fragments of the burning bush of Horeb; specimens of the wilderness manna; six drops of the Virgin’s milk; the finger of the Baptist that pointed to the Lamb of God; the finger of Thomas that touched the wounds of Jesus; a bit of the altar at which John read mass for the Virgin; the stone with which Stephen was killed; a great piece of Paul’s skull; the hose of St. Thomas of Canterbury; the baret of St. Francis, etc. The collection consisted of 8,933 articles, and could afford indulgence for 39,245,100 years and 220 days! Benefit was to be had by contributions to the church, which went into the pocket of the elector-archbishop, Albert of Mainz. The craze forpilgrimageswas also rife among all classes, old and young, high and low. Signs and wonders and newly discovered relics were regarded as consecrating new places of pilgrimage, and the stories of pilgrims raised the fame of these resorts more and more. InA.D.1500 Düren, by the possession of a relic of Ann, stolen from Mainz, rapidly rose to first rank. The people of Mainz sought through the pope to recover this valuable property, but he decided in favour of Düren, because God had meanwhile sanctioned the transfer by working many miracles of healing.
§ 115.1.Fasts and Festivals.—NewMary Festivalswere introduced:F. præsentationis M.on 21st Nov. (Lev. xii. 5-8),F. visitationis M.(Luke i. 39-51), on 2nd July. In the 15th century we meet with the festivals of the Seven Pains of Mary,F. Spasmi M., on Friday or Saturday before Palm Sunday. Dominic instituted a rosary festival,F. rosarii M., on 1st Oct., and its general observance was enjoined by Gregory XIII. inA.D.1571.—TheVeneration of Ann(§ 57, 2) was introduced into Germany in the second half of the 15th century, but soon rose to a height almost equal to that of Mary.—TheFastsof the early Church (§ 56, 7) had, even during the previous period, been greatly relaxed. Now the most special fast days were mere days of abstinence from flesh, while most lavish meals of fish and farinaceous food were indulged in. Papal and episcopal dispensations from fasting were also freely given.
§ 115.2.Preaching(§104, 1).—To aid and encourage preaching in the language of the people, unskilled preachers were supplied withVocabularia prædicantium. Surgant, a priest of Basel, wrote, in the end of the 15th century, a treatise on homiletics and catechetics most useful for his age,Manuale Curatorum. In it he showed how Latin sermons might be rendered into the tongue of the people, and urged the duty of hearing sermons. The mendicants were the chief preachers, especially the mystics of the preaching orders, during the 14th century (§114), and the Augustinians, particularly their German Observants, during the 15th (§112, 5), and next to them, the Franciscans.—The most zealous preacher of his age was the Spanish DominicanVincent Ferrér. InA.D.1397 he began his unprecedentedly successful preaching tours through Spain, France, Italy, England, Scotland, and Ireland. He died inA.D.1419. He laboured with special ardour for the conversion of the Jews, of whom he is said to have baptized 35,000. Wherever he went he was venerated as a saint, received with respect by the clergy and prelates, highly honoured by kings and princes, consulted by rich and poor regarding temporal and spiritual things. He was canonized by Calixtus III. inA.D.1455. Certain Flagellants (§116, 3) whom he met in his travels followed him, scourging themselves and singing his penitential songs, but he stopped this when objected to by the Council of Constance. His sermons dealt with the realities of actual life, and called all classes to repent of their sins. Of a similar spirit was the Italian DominicanBarletta, who died inA.D.1480, whose burlesque and scathing satire rendered him the most popular preacher of the day. In his footsteps went the FrenchmenMaillardandMenot, both Franciscans, and the German priest of Strassburg,Geiler of Kaisersberg, quite equal to them in quaint terseness of expression and biting wit.All these were preeminently distinguished for moral earnestness and profound spirituality.339
§ 115.3.TheBiblia Pauperum.—The typological interpretation of the Old Testament history received a fixed and permanent form in the illustrations introduced into the service books and pictures printed on the altars, walls, and windows of churches, etc., during the 12th century. A set of seventeen such picture groups was found at Vienna, of which the middle panels represent the New Testament history,sub gracia, above it an Old Testament type from the periodante legem, and under it one from the periodsub lege. This picture series was completed by theBiblia pauperum, so called from the saying of Gregory I., that pictures were the poor man’s Bible. Many of the extant MSS., all depending on a common source, date from the 14th and 15th centuries. The illustrations of the New Testament are in the middle, and round about are pictures of the four prophets, with volumes in their hands, on which the appropriate Old Testament prophecies are written. On right and left are Old Testament types.The multiplication of copies of this work by woodcuts and types was one of the first uses to which printing was put.340
§ 115.4.The Bible in the Vernacular.—The need oftranslations of the Bibleinto the language of the people, specially urged by the Waldensians and Albigensians, was now widely insisted upon by those of reformatory tendencies (§119). On the introduction of printing, aboutA.D.1450, an opportunity was afforded of rapidly circulating translations already made in most of the European languages. Before Luther, there were fourteen printed editions of the Bible in High and five in Low German. The translations, made from the Vulgate, were in all practically the same. The translators are unknown. The diction is for the most part clumsy, and the sense often scarcely intelligible. Translations had been made in England by the Wiclifites, and in Bohemia by the Hussites. In France, various renderings of separate books of Scripture were circulated, and a complete French Bible was issued by the confessor of Charles VIII., Jean de Rely, at Paris, inA.D.1487. Two Italian Bibles were published in Venice, inA.D.1471, one by the Camaldulite abbot Malherbi, closely following the Vulgate; the other by the humanist Bruccioli, which often falls back on the original text. The latter was highly valued by Italian exiles of the Reformation age. In Spain a Carthusian, Ferreri, attempted a translation, which was printed at Valencia inA.D.1478. More popular however than these translations were theBible Histories,i.e.free renderings, sometimes contracted, sometimes expanded, of the historical books, especially these of the Old Testament. FromA.D.1470 large and frequent editions were published of the GermanPlenaries, containing at first only the gospels and epistles, afterwards also the Service of the Mass, for all Sundays and festivals and saints’ days, with explanations and directions.
§ 115.5.Catechisms and Prayer Books.—Next to preaching, the chief opportunity for imparting religious instruction was confession. Later catechisms drew largely upon the baptismal and confessional services. In the 13th and 14th centuries the decalogue was added, and afterwards the seven deadly sins and the seven principal virtues. Pictures were used to impress the main points on the minds of the people and the youth. The catechetical literature of this period, both in guides for priests and manuals for the people, was written in the vernacular.—During the 15th century there were also numerous so-calledArtes moriendi, showing how to die well, in which often earnest piety appeared side by side with the grossest superstition. There were also many prayer books,Hortuli animæ, published, in which the worship of Mary and the saints often overshadowed that of God and Christ, and an extravagant belief in indulgences led to a mechanical view of prayer that was thoroughly pagan.
§ 115.6.The Dance of Death.—The fantastic humour of the Middle Ages found dramatic and spectacular expression in the Dance of Death, in which all classes, from the pope and princes to the beggars, in turn converse with death. It was introduced into Germany and France in the beginning of the 14th century, with the view of raising men out of the pleasures and troubles of life. It was called in France the Dance of the Maccabees, because first introduced at that festival. Pictures and verbal descriptions of the Dance of Death were made on walls and doors of churches, around MSS. and woodcuts, where death was generally represented as a skeleton. Hans Holbein the Younger gave the finishing touch to these representations in hisImagines Mortis, the originals of which are in St. Petersburg.In this masterpiece, the idea of a dancing pair is set aside, and in its place forty pictures, afterwards increased to fifty-eight, full of humour and moral earnestness, pourtray the power of death in the earthly life.341
§ 115.7.Hymnology(§104, 10).—TheLatin Church poetryof the 14th and 15th centuries was far beneath that of the 12th and 13th. Only the mystics,e.g.Thomas à Kempis, still composed some beautiful hymns. We have now however the beginnings ofGermanandBohemianhymnology. The German flagellators sang German hymns (§116, 3), and so obtained much popular favour. The Hussite movement of the 15th century gave a great impulse to church song. Huss himself earnestly urged the practice of congregational singing in the language of the people, and himself composed Bohemian hymns. The Bohemian and Moravian Brethren were specially productive in this department (§119, 8). In many churches, at least on high festivals, German hymns were sung, and in some even at the celebration of mass and other parts of public worship. The spiritual songs of this period were of four kinds: some half German, half Latin; others translations of Latin hymns and sequences; others, original German compositions by monks and minstrels; and adaptations of secular songs to spiritual purposes. In the latter case the original melodies were also retained. Popular forms and melodies for sacred songs were now secured, and these were subsequently appropriated by the Reformers of the 16th century.
§ 115.8.Church Music(§104, 11).—Great improvements were made in organs by the invention of pedals, etc.Church musicwas also greatly developed by the introduction of harmony and counterpoint. The Dutch were pre-eminent in this department. Ockenheim, founder of the second Dutch school of music, at the end of the 15th century, was the inventor of the canon and the fugue. The greatest composer of this school was Jodocus Pratensis, aboutA.D.1500, and next to him may be named the German, Adam of Fulda.
§ 115.9.Legendary Relics.—The legend of angels having transferred the house of Mary from Nazareth, inA.D.1291, to Tersato in Dalmatia, inA.D.1294 to Reccanati, and finally, inA.D.1295, to Loretto in Ancona, arose in the 14th century, in connection with the fall of Acre (§94, 6) and the overthrow of the last remnants of the kingdom of Jerusalem. When and how the legend arose of theScala santaat Rome being the marble steps of Pilate’s prætorium, brought there by St. Helena, is unknown.—Even Frederick the Wise, at an enormous cost, brought together 1,010 sacred relics into his new chapel at Wittenberg, a mere look at which secured indulgence for 100 years. In a catalogue of relics in the churches of St. Maurice and Mary Magdalene at Halle, published inA D.1520, are mentioned a piece of earth, from a field of Damascus, of which God made the first man; a piece from a field at Hebron, where Adam repented; a piece of the body of Isaac; twenty-five fragments of the burning bush of Horeb; specimens of the wilderness manna; six drops of the Virgin’s milk; the finger of the Baptist that pointed to the Lamb of God; the finger of Thomas that touched the wounds of Jesus; a bit of the altar at which John read mass for the Virgin; the stone with which Stephen was killed; a great piece of Paul’s skull; the hose of St. Thomas of Canterbury; the baret of St. Francis, etc. The collection consisted of 8,933 articles, and could afford indulgence for 39,245,100 years and 220 days! Benefit was to be had by contributions to the church, which went into the pocket of the elector-archbishop, Albert of Mainz. The craze forpilgrimageswas also rife among all classes, old and young, high and low. Signs and wonders and newly discovered relics were regarded as consecrating new places of pilgrimage, and the stories of pilgrims raised the fame of these resorts more and more. InA.D.1500 Düren, by the possession of a relic of Ann, stolen from Mainz, rapidly rose to first rank. The people of Mainz sought through the pope to recover this valuable property, but he decided in favour of Düren, because God had meanwhile sanctioned the transfer by working many miracles of healing.