Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum Part 31

They slept so little that it was a new penance to tear themselves from the mats on which they lay. But the blessing of G.o.d was upon them; they grew in numbers, and in holiness, and in happiness, not the happiness of men who love this world, but the happiness of those who truly serve G.o.d.

But now a sore trial was nigh. G.o.d wished to purify his servants by suffering, and to extend to other lands the sphere of their usefulness.

The first trial came from the secular clergy. Those Irish monks were men of virtue and austerity, but they were also in many respects very peculiar. They had a liturgy of their own somewhat different from that in use around them; they had a queer tonsure, like Simon Magus, it was said, in front from ear to ear, instead of the orthodox and customary crown.

Worst of all, it sometimes happened that they celebrated Easter on Palm Sunday, so that they were singing their alleluias when all the churches of the Franks were in the mourning of Pa.s.sion time. Remonstrance was useless; they adhered tenaciously to their country's usages. Nothing could convince them that what St. Patrick and the saints of Ireland had handed down to them could by any possibility be wrong. They only wanted to be let alone.

They did not desire to impose their usages on others. Why should others impose their usages on them? They had a right to be allowed to live in peace in their wilderness, for they injured no man, and they prayed for all. Thus it was that Columba.n.u.s reasoned, or rather remonstrated, with a synod of French bishops that objected to his practices. His letters to them and to Pope Gregory the Great on the subject of this Paschal question are still extant, but he cannot be justified in some of the expressions which he uses. He tells the bishops in effect in one place that they would be better employed in enforcing canonical discipline amongst their own clergy, than in discussing the Paschal question with him and his monks.

Yet here and there he speaks not only with force and freedom, but also with true humility and genuine eloquence. He implores the prelates in the most solemn language to let him and his brethren live in peace and charity in the heart of their silent woods, beside the bones of their seventeen brothers who were dead, "Surely it is better for you," he says, "to comfort than to disturb us, poor old men, strangers, too, in your midst.

Let us rather love one another in the charity of Christ, striving to fulfil his precepts, and thereby secure a place in the a.s.sembly of the just made perfect in heaven."

Language of this character, used, too, in justification of practices harmless in themselves, but not in accordance with the prevalent discipline of the Church at the time, was by no means well calculated to beget affection towards the strangers in the minds of the Frankish clergy.

Other troubles, too, soon arose. The young king of Austrasia, Thierry, encouraged by Brunehaut, his infamous grand-mother, repudiated his lawful wife and gave himself up to the most scandalous debauchery. Columba.n.u.s admonished, remonstrated, rebuked in vain. Finding his efforts fruitless, he denied the guilty pair admission to his monastery, and thereupon they resolved to expel him and his monks from the kingdom.

For the time, however, he was only made a prisoner, and conducted to Besancon, where he was kept under surveillance, until one day, looking with longing to his beloved Luxeuil, and seeing no one at hand to prevent him, he descended the steep cliff which overhangs the river Doubs, and returned to his monastery. When the king heard of his return, he sent imperative orders to have him and all his companions from Ireland and Britain forcibly removed from the monastery, and conveyed home to their own country. The soldiers presented themselves at Luxeuil when the holy man was in the choir with his monks. They told him their orders, and begged him to come voluntarily with them--they were unwilling to resort to force. At first he refused; but lest the soldiers might be punished for not resorting to that violence which they were unwilling to make use of, he finally yielded. He called his Irish brethren around them: "Let us go," he said, "my brothers, in the name of G.o.d." It was hard to leave the scene of their labours, their sorrows, and their joys; hard to leave behind them the graves of the seventeen brethren with whom they had hoped to rest in peace. But go they must; the soldiers would not for a moment leave them. It was a brief and sad leave-taking. Wails of sorrow were heard everywhere for the loss of their beloved father; brother was torn from brother, friend from friend, never to meet again in this world. Thus it was that Columba.n.u.s and his Irish companions left that dear monastery of Luxeuil, and were conducted by the soldiers to Nevers. There, still guarded by the soldiers, they embarked in a boat that conveyed them down the Loire to its mouth, where they would find a s.h.i.+p to convey them back again to Ireland.

But it was not the will of Providence that Columba.n.u.s and his companions, when driven from Luxeuil, should return to Ireland: other work was before them to do. Accordingly, when they came to the mouth of the Loire, their baggage, such as it was, was put on board, and most of the monks embarked.

But the sea rose mountains high, and the s.h.i.+p[299] which Columba.n.u.s intended to rejoin when under weigh, was forced to return to port. A three days' calm succeeded, and the captain, apprehensive of a new storm, caused the monks and their baggage to be put on sh.o.r.e, for he feared to take them with him. Thus left to themselves, Columba.n.u.s and his companions went to Soissons to Clotaire, King of Neustria, by whom they were received with every kindness and hospitality. The king cordially hated Brunehaut and her grandson--his mother, Fredegonda, had murdered Brunehaut's sister--and he was anxious to keep Columba.n.u.s in his own kingdom, but the latter would not stay. He pushed on, with his companions, to Metz, the capital of Austrasia, where Theodebert, the brother of Thierry, then reigned. Here he was joined by several of his old monks from Luxeuil, who preferred to follow their father in his wanderings, to remaining behind in the kingdom of his persecutor.

Columba.n.u.s now resolved to preach the Gospel to the pagan populations on the right bank of the Rhine and its tributary streams. So embarking at Mayence, after many toils and dangers, they came as far as Lake Zurich in Switzerland, and finally established themselves at Bregenz, on the Lake of Constance, where they fixed their headquarters. The tribes inhabiting these wild and beautiful regions--the Suevi and Alemanni--were idolaters, though nominal subjects of the Austrasian kingdom. Woden was their G.o.d, and they wors.h.i.+pped him with dark mysterious rites, under the shadow of sacred oaks, far in the depths of the forest. Discretion was not a gift of Columba.n.u.s, so he not only preached the Gospel amongst them, but axe in hand, he had the courage to cut down their sacred trees; he burned their rude temples, and cast their fantastic idols into the lake. It was not wise; the people became enraged, and the missionaries were forced to fly.

After struggling for three years to convert this savage people, Columba.n.u.s, perceiving that the work was not destined to be accomplished by him, crossed the snow-covered Alps by the pa.s.s of St. Gothard, though now more than seventy years of age,[300] and after incredible toil, succeeded, with a few of his old companions, in making his way to the Court of the Lombard King, Agilulph, whose Queen was Theodelinda, famous for beauty, for genius, and for virtue.

At this time the Lombards were Arians, and Agilulph himself was an Arian, although Queen Theodelinda was a devout Catholic. Mainly, we may a.s.sume, through her influence the Arian monarch received the broken down old man and his companions with the utmost kindness, and Columba.n.u.s had an ample field for the exercise of his missionary zeal amongst the rude half-Christian population. But first of all it was necessary to have a permanent home--and nowhere could he find rest except in solitude. Just at this time[301] a certain Jucundus reminded the King that there was at a place called Bobbio a ruined church once dedicated to St. Peter; that the place round about was fertile and well watered with streams, abounding in every kind of fish. It was near the Trebbia, almost at the very spot where Hannibal first felt the rigours of that fierce winter in the snows of the Appenines, so graphically described by Livy. The king gladly gave the place to Columba.n.u.s, and the energetic old man set about repairing the ruined church and building his monastery with all that unquenchable ardour that cleared the forests of Luxeuil, and crossed the snows of the Alps.

His labours were regarded by his followers as miraculous. The fir trees, cut down in the valleys of the Appenines, which his monks were unable to carry down the steep and rugged ways, when the old man himself came and took a share of the burden, were found to be no weight. So, speedily and joyfully, with the visible aid of heaven, they completed the task, and built in the valley of the Appenines a monastery, whose name will never be forgotten by saints or scholars.

The holy old man lived but one year after he had founded Bobbio. His merits were full; the work of his life was complete; he had given his Rule to the new house; he left behind him some of his old companions to complete his work, and now he was ready to die. To the great grief of the brotherhood, Columba.n.u.s pa.s.sed away to his reward on the eleventh day before the Kalends of December, in the year A.D. 615, probably in the seventy-third year of his age. He was buried beneath the high altar, and long afterwards the holy remains were enclosed in a stone coffin, and are still preserved in the crypt of the old monastic Church of Bobbio.

It is not too much to say that Ireland never sent a greater son than Columba.n.u.s to do the work of G.o.d in foreign lands. He brought forth much fruit and his fruit has remained. For centuries his influence was dominant in France and in Northern Italy, and even in our own days, his spirit speaketh from his urn. His deeds have been described by many eloquent tongues and pens, and his writings have been carefully studied to ascertain the secret of his extraordinary influence over his own and subsequent ages. His character was not indeed faultless, but he was consumed with a restless untiring zeal in the service of his Master, which was at once the secret of his power and the source of his mistakes. He was too ardent in character, and almost too zealous in the cause of G.o.d. In this respect he is not unlike St. Jerome, but we forget their faults in our admiration for their virtues and their labours. A man more holy, more chaste, more self-denying, a man with loftier aims and purer heart than Columba.n.u.s, was never born in the Island of Saints.

The writings of Columba.n.u.s still extant are--a Monastic Rule, a Penitential Treatise, sixteen short Sermons or Instructions, six Letters, and a few Latin Poems.[302]

The _Regula Coen.o.bialis_ or Monastic Rule is divided into ten short chapters which treat of the fundamental virtues of the monastic life. It is especially valuable in so far as it affords points of comparison and contact with the more complete and systematic Rule of St. Benedict. In some things it is exceedingly rigorous and very minute in the penances which it imposes, even on the most venial and semi-deliberate faults. The first six chapters are devoted to the essential virtues of the monastic state--obedience, silence, self-denial in the use of meat and drink, poverty and chast.i.ty. The maxim--_cibus monachorum sit vilis et vespertinus_--seems to allow the poor monks only one plain meal in the day, and that after vespers. He inculcates also a daily fast, daily prayer, daily labour, and daily reading[303]--thus including in one sentence the whole routine of monastic life. The _Liber de Paenitentiarum Mensura Taxanda_ is equally rigorous and minute in prescribing penances proportionate to the guilt of the sinner. In those days when there were no elaborate scientific treatises on moral theology, it was very useful to have a work of this kind which apportioned its own penance to almost every cla.s.s of sin. The confessor, or soul's friend, was thus enabled to form an estimate sufficient for most practical purposes of the magnitude of the crimes from the amount of the penance. To fast for a number of days, weeks, or even years, on bread and water was the stern penance imposed on the sinner, according to the measure of his guilt, by the rigid directors of the early Irish Church. Drunkenness was punished with a comparatively light penance--only a week on bread and water. That same would be even now of great service if it were rigorously enforced.

The _Sermons_ have nothing specially characteristic to recommend them.

They are, however, brief and to the point, which is more than can be said of many volumes of more modern discourses.

The _Six Letters_ are perhaps the most valuable of the literary remains of Columba.n.u.s, because they reflect most clearly the character of the man and the genius of the Celt. We have already spoken of his letters to Pope Gregory the Great, and to Pope Boniface. Whilst full of respect for the Holy See they exhibit an uncompromising spirit of resolute independence and conscious integrity. The letter on the Paschal question to a certain synod of French Bishops is written in the same spirit, and reminds the Gallican prelates of some unpleasant truths, which they must have regarded as a very great impertinence coming from a mere Irish monk, who had uninvited taken up his quarters in the hospitable land of France.

The Latin poems show considerable acquaintance with the language, and are especially valuable as exhibiting the cla.s.sical culture of our Irish schools in the sixth century. Most of them are in hexameter verse, but contain few cla.s.sical allusions. The prosody is sometimes faulty; but on the whole it is perhaps better than the pupils or even the professors of our colleges would produce at present if called upon at short notice.

The shorter Adonic verses are simply marvels of ingenuity, and it shows great familiarity with the Latin language to be able to write an entire letter of about 150 lines in this metre.

The two most celebrated literary monuments of St. Columba.n.u.s and the School of Bangor that have come down to our time are the _Bobbio Missal_, and the _Antiphonary of Bangor_, both of which are at present preserved in the Ambrosian Library at Milan.

The Missal which was brought from Bobbio to Milan by Cardinal Frederic Borromeo is undoubtedly of Irish origin, and was probably brought from Bangor by St. Columba.n.u.s himself, or by some one of the Irish monks who accompanied him. We shall not here repeat the critical arguments used by scholars to prove that it was brought from Ireland in the sixth or seventh century. The fact, indeed, is no longer questioned. This Missal is particularly interesting, because it gives us so early a specimen of the liturgy in use in our Irish Church. The _Missa Cotidiana_ of this Bangor Missal has practically the same Canon as that now found in the Roman Missal, and used throughout the entire world. There is greater variety in the prayers, and our Celtic forefathers were fond of inserting a greater number of them in the Ma.s.s after the _Gloria in Excelsis_. They were inclined too to canonize their own local saints, and even sometimes inserted their names in the Litanies and in the Canon of Ma.s.s without any authority but their own devotion. This led not only to variety in the public liturgy but sometimes to other grave abuses, which were not eradicated until the time of St. Malachy and other great reformers of Church discipline in the twelfth century.

Now that we have the Stowe Missal accessible to scholars in the Royal Irish Academy, we may hope for a minute and careful comparison of these two ancient books, in order to trace the beginnings of these discrepancies in the liturgy which were first introduced into Ireland by the Second Order of Saints, and afterwards led to so much inconvenience.

The Stowe Missal, which is so called, we presume, because it was kept so long locked up in the Duke of Buckingham's Stowe Library, is considered to have belonged to the ancient Monastery of Lorrha, in Lower Ormond, Tipperary. Dr McCarthy, a very competent judge, thinks it represents the ancient Patrician liturgy used by the First Order of the Saints of Erin, whilst Bangor may be supposed to have the Ma.s.s in its Missal derived from Wales, or more likely from Candida Casa.[304] The question is a very intricate one, and full of interest, but cannot be discussed at length in these pages.

The _Antiphonarium Bench.o.r.ense_, or Bangor Hymnal, is a collection of ancient hymns in the Latin language, which were in common use in the ancient Church of Ireland. Many of them are contained in the _Book of Hymns_ edited by Todd, to which we have already referred so often. Some of them were in general use throughout the Latin Church, or at least in the early Gallican Church, like the Hymn of St. Hilary. But others seem to have been peculiar to Bangor, and hence have a special interest for us at present. Such was the _Hymnus Sancti Comgilli Abbatis Nostri_; also the _Hymnus Sancti Camelaci_, and another ent.i.tled _Memoria Abbatum Nostrorum_, which has considerable historical interest, inasmuch as it gives a metrical list of the abbots of Bangor down to the time of the writer. These poems, and also the _Missa Cotidiana_ of the Bobbio Missal may be seen in the second volume of Father O'Laverty's excellent _History of the Diocese of Down and Connor_.

There is nothing specially interesting in subsequent history of the School of Bangor down to the time of St. Malachy. It was totally destroyed by the Danes, although a nominal succession of abbots was still kept up, whose names are sometimes mentioned in our annals.

III.--DUNGAL.

Dungal, however, after Columba.n.u.s was, perhaps the greatest glory of the School of Bangor. This distinguished theologian, astronomer, and poet, was one of the Irish exiles of the ninth century who were so highly honoured in the Court of France. His name is not widely known to fame; yet few men of his time held so high a place in the estimation of his contemporaries, or rendered more signal service to the Church. The controversy concerning image wors.h.i.+p was carried on with great warmth in the Frankish Empire during the first quarter of the ninth century, and in this contest Dungal was the foremost champion of orthodoxy. He gave the _coup de grace_ to the Western Iconoclasts; after his vigorous refutation of Claudius of Turin, they troubled the Church no more. It is well, therefore, to know something of his history.

That Dungal was an Irishman is now universally admitted. The name itself is conclusive evidence of his nationality. It was quite a common name in Ireland, and seems to have been peculiarly Irish. We know of no foreigner who was called "Dungal;" but we find from the index volume of the _Four Masters_, that between the years A.D. 744 and 1015 twenty-two distinguished Irishmen bore that name.

In a poem which he composed in honour of his friend and patron, Charlemagne, Dungal calls himself an Irish exile--_Hibernicus exul_. There can hardly be a doubt that he was the author of this beautiful poem to which we shall refer further on. At the close of his life he retired to the Irish monastery of Bobbio, in the north of Italy, founded by Columba.n.u.s, to which he left all his books, as we know from Muratori's published list. One of them, according to the opinion of Muratori, was the famous _Antiphonary of Bangor_, which Dungal brought from that great school at home, and fittingly restored to Irish hands at his death.

Yet unfortunately we cannot fix the place or date of his birth in Ireland, although the possession of the _Bangor Antiphonary_ leaves little room to doubt that he was educated in the monastic school of St. Comgall. Not a cross, nor even a stone, now remains to mark the site of the famous monastery whose crowded cloisters for a thousand years overlooked the pleasant islets and broad waters of Inver Becne;[305] but the fame of the great school which nurtured Columba.n.u.s and Gall, and Dungal and Malachy can never die.

In all probability Dungal left his native country in the opening years of the ninth century. Two causes most likely induced him to leave Ireland, the fame of Charlemagne, as a patron of learned men, and the threatened incursion of the Danes, who were just then beginning their long career of pillage and slaughter in Ireland.

However, in A.D. 811, we find Dungal in France. In that year he addressed a remarkable letter to Charlemagne on the two solar eclipses which were said to have taken place in the previous year, A.D. 810. He is described at this time as a _recluse_, that is, one who led a monastic life in solitude; he seems, however, to have had some connection with the community of St. Denis, for he evidently recognised the Abbot Waldo as his superior. From the tone of this letter we can also infer that the Great Charles honoured the Irish monk with his intimacy and confidence, and the monarch seems to have the highest opinion of Dungal's learning. He accordingly requested the Abbot Waldo to ask the Irish monk to write an explanation of the two solar eclipses, which are said to have happened in A.D. 810. It is well known that Charles took a great interest in the advancement of knowledge, and was himself a diligent student. Hence he was anxious to understand that portion of divine philosophy, of which Virgil sang--

"Defectus solis varios lunaeque labores."

Moreover, although there certainly was a solar eclipse on the 30th of November, A.D. 810, visible in Europe, it was alleged by many persons that there had been another eclipse in the same year on the 7th of June, if not visible in Europe, yet certainly visible in other parts of the world. This last point especially seems to have staggered the scientific faith of the royal scholar, and hence he appealed to his friend Dungal for an explanation.

The letter of Dungal in reply is exceedingly interesting. It is addressed to Charles, and is ent.i.tled, "Dungali Reclusi Epistola de duplici solis eclipsi, anno 810 ad Carolum Magnum." We have read it over carefully. It is written in excellent Latin, and shows that the writer was intimately acquainted with many of the cla.s.sical authors, especially with Virgil and Cicero. But we cannot guarantee its scientific accuracy in all points. He starts with an explanation of the celestial sphere according to the Ptolemaic system, and hence some of his statements seem very strange to those acquainted with the Copernican theory only of the heavenly bodies.

In the main, however, his explanation of the eclipses of the sun and moon is accurate enough.[306] "The Zodiac," he says, "or s.p.a.ce through which the planets revolve, is bounded by two lines," which he takes care to explain are imaginary. "A third line drawn between them is called the ecliptic, because when the sun and moon during their revolution happen to be in the same straight line in the plane of this ecliptic, an eclipse of one or the other must of necessity take place; of the sun, if the moon overtake it in its course--_ei succedat_; of the moon, if at the time it should be opposite to the sun. Wherefore," he adds, "the sun is never eclipsed except the moon is in its thirtieth day; and in like manner the moon is never eclipsed except near its fifteenth day. For only then it comes to pa.s.s that the moon, when it is full, being in a straight line with the earth opposite to the sun receives the shadow of the earth; while in the other case, when the moon overtakes the sun (is in conjunction), by its interposition it deprives the earth of the sun's light. Therefore when the sun is eclipsed, the sun itself suffers nothing, only we are robbed of its light; but the moon suffers a real loss by not receiving the sun's light through which it is enabled to dispel our darkness." We think it would require an intermediate exhibitioner to give as lucid an exposition of the cause of the eclipse as was given by this Irish monk of the ninth century, and we are quite certain he would not write it in as good Latin.

As for determining the exact dates of the eclipses of the sun, and, therefore, the possibility of having two in the year A.D. 810, Dungal cannot undertake to compute them, not having near him Pliny the Younger, and some other necessary works. However, the thing is quite feasible, and many ancient philosophers knew and foreknew--_scierunt et praescierunt_--all about these eclipses. He concludes his letter with an elegantly written eulogy of Charles the Great, imploring all Christians to join with him in beseeching G.o.d to multiply the triumphs of Charles, to extend his empire, preserve his family, and prolong his life for many circling years. The language in the original is exceedingly well chosen and harmonious.

After this time we lose sight of Dungal for several years. Charlemagne died in A.D. 814, and was succeeded by his son Louis the Pious, and on the 31st of July, A.D. 817, Louis a.s.sociated with himself his son Lothaire in the Imperial Government. Lothaire, young and energetic, was crowned King of Lombardy in A.D. 821, and next year proceeded to put his kingdom in order. The warlike Lombards, though conquered by Charlemagne, and kept in restraint by his strong arm, were a restless and turbulent people.

Lothaire, believing that education and religion would be the most efficacious means to keep them in order, and consolidate his own power, induced Dungal and Claudius of Turin, as well as several other scholars of the Imperial Court, or the famous Palace School, to accompany him to Italy. Claudius, a Spaniard, of whom we shall have more to say again, was made Bishop of Turin; and Dungal opened a school at Pavia. In a short time it became famous; for the master was the first scholar in the Court of the Emperor. Students flocked from every quarter--from Milan, Brescia, Lodi, Bergamo, Novara, Vercelli, Tortona, Acqui, Genoa, Asti, and Como.[307]

This was about A.D. 822, the very year, or as others say, the year after Claudius became Bishop of Turin. About the same time Lothaire himself went on to Rome, where he was crowned emperor by the Pope, Pascal I., with great solemnity in A.D. 823.

Dungal and Claudius were thus immediate neighbours. Both were ripe scholars, both held high and responsible positions; but Claudius, who had long held erroneous doctrines, now thought it safe to throw off the disguise. The wolf showed himself, and at once the Irish wolf dog sprang upon his foe. In order to understand this struggle, which was the last effort of Western Iconoclasm, we must go back a little and trace the chain of events which led up to the crisis.

The Seventh aec.u.menical Council, and Second of Nice, was concluded at that city in A.D. 787. This Council, accepting the teaching propounded by Pope Hadrian I. in his letter to the Empress Irene, and her son Constantine, explained and defined the Catholic doctrine concerning the wors.h.i.+p of images. It was distinctly declared that supreme wors.h.i.+p was due to G.o.d alone; but that an inferior wors.h.i.+p should be rendered to the Blessed Virgin and the saints; and, finally, that a relative wors.h.i.+p was due not only to the sign of the Cross, but also to the pictures and images of the Blessed Virgin, of the angels, and of the saints of G.o.d. This relative wors.h.i.+p was not, however, paid to the images on account of _their own_ supernatural excellence; it was only a token of the love and honour which Christians have for the originals represented by the images.

The acts of this famous Synod were, of course, in Greek, so Pope Hadrian had them translated into Latin, and sent a copy to Charlemagne, apparently in A.D. 789 or 790.

Unfortunately the Latin version was very faulty in many respects.

Anastasius, the Roman Librarian, a most learned scholar and competent authority, declares that the translator knew very little of the genius either of the Greek or Latin language; that he made a word-for-word translation, from which it was frequently impossible to ascertain the real meaning; and hence, in his time, about sixty years later, few persons were found to read or transcribe this faulty copy. So Anastasius himself found it necessary to make a new and correct translation. The French theologians, therefore, at whose head was the keen-eyed Alcuin, found in this translation many things to censure, in which they were right, and many other things they censured in which they were clearly wrong. The result of their labours is known to history as the famous Caroline Books--_Libri Carolini_. They were published under the name of Charles himself, but Alcuin is generally regarded as the real author.[308]

The emperor was so pleased with his work that he resolved to send this treatise to the Pope himself. Meantime, however, he convened the Synod of Frankfort in A.D. 794, at which some three hundred Bishops of the Frankish Empire are said to have a.s.sembled.[309] Here, again, the great monarch, following the example, but scarcely imitating the modesty of Constantine at Nice in A.D. 325, presided in person, and resolved to prove himself a theologian. The Synod met in the great hall of the Imperial Palace. The emperor was on his throne; the bishops were seated round in a circle; an immense throng of priests, deacons, and clerics filled the hall. Rising up from his seat Charles advanced, and standing on the step of the throne p.r.o.nounced an elaborate harangue, mainly on the heresy of the Adoptionists, but referring also to the errors of the last Greek Synod regarding image wors.h.i.+p, and he called upon the prelates present to judge and decide what was the true faith.

The Council did so, at least in their own opinion, after ten days'

discussion. They very properly condemned the heresy of the Adoptionists, and the condemnation was approved in Rome; but in the Second Canon they very improperly censured the Second Council of Nice, as if it declared that the same wors.h.i.+p and adoration were due to the images of the saints, as are paid to the Holy Trinity. Of course the Council of Nice in their authentic acts had declared exactly the reverse. Moreover, the prelates of Frankfort added that they would give neither _servitus_ nor _adoratio_ to the images of the saints; and, no doubt, they were right in the sense in which they used these terms.

It seems probable that the Caroline Books, written about A.D. 790 or 791, were approved of in this a.s.sembly before they were sent to the Pope. But when Hadrian received them he very promptly and effectively refuted them.

To each censure of the Council of Nice he gave an elaborate answer, in which the Pope convicts the authors of the Caroline Books, from the extracts sent to him, of grave errors in doctrine, as well as of misquotations and misrepresentations of the Fathers. He shows that they did not understand the true meaning of the Sacred Scriptures in those pa.s.sages which they cited, that they attributed to the Nicene Fathers errors which they never taught, and that it was the Pope, not the French bishops, who had received authority to teach the Universal Church.

The authors of the Caroline Books richly deserved this castigation. They went so far as to declare that the Synod of A.D. 754, which ordered images to be broken, as well as the Synod of A.D. 787, which commanded them to be wors.h.i.+pped, were _infamae_ and _ineptissimae_. G.o.d alone is, according to them, to be _adored_ and _wors.h.i.+pped_, and the saints may be _venerated_; but no kind of adoration or veneration may be paid to the images of the saints, because they are lifeless, and made by the hands of men. It is evident the Frankish theologians did not understand what is meant by relative wors.h.i.+p. They admit, however, that the images of the saints may be retained for adorning churches, and also as memorials of the past; but it is not lawful to wors.h.i.+p them even by such veneration as is paid to men, _salutationis causa_. Such is the substance of the doctrine put forward by the authors of the Caroline Books.[310] Pope Hadrian died on Christmas Day A.D. 795, and the controversy concerning image wors.h.i.+p seems to have been lulled for some years in the West. It broke out again, however, with greater warmth in A.D. 824. In the month of November of that year an Emba.s.sy arrived at Rouen, where Lothaire was then holding his court, bearing letters and presents from the Greek emperor, Michael the Stammerer, to his western brother.

Michael was an Iconoclast, but not an extreme one; and wrote a very plausible letter, in which he complains of the superst.i.tious excesses of the image-wors.h.i.+ppers at Constantinople. He represents himself as the friend of peace and harmony, anxious to repress the excesses of both the extreme parties; and he beseeches his brother Lothaire to lend him his aid, especially by his influence with the Pontiff of the old Rome, to whom he sends several presents with a view to gain his good will and co-operation for the same laudable purpose. Lothaire, ignorant of the real facts of the case, and misled by this most deceptive doc.u.ment, promised his a.s.sistance to the Greek amba.s.sadors in Rome, and resolved to aid in the good work of reconciling the extreme parties in the East. He wrote to Pope Eugenius II. to that effect, and asked his permission to appoint a conference of the prelates of his empire, with a view to sift the question thoroughly. The Pope seems to have consented to this course; and the conference met at Paris on the 1st of November, A.D. 825.