| . |
68 THE MIDDLE AGES continued
Ripon. The next day, he led them along the valley of the Skell to a narrow glen, in a tangled thicket of thorns and brushwood, overhung by the hill of Herles-how. Here he left them, after giving them his blessing, and confirming their election of Prior Richard as their first abbot.
The new abbot had monkt, but no monastery. He had <( nowhere to lay his head," no hiding-place in which to escape the << stormy wind and tempest" (Ps. lv., verse 8). Beneath an elm, which at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries was still standing, the brethren thatched a shelter to serve as church and home, and betook themselves to their labours, plaiting mats, gathering sticks, cutting stakes, and enclosing a garden. So the winter passed. The new com- munity had had time to consider their future mode of life and form of discipline. They determined to send to Bernard him- self, narrating their simple history, and telling him that they had adopted the Cistercian Rule, had chosen him as their spiritual father and Clairvaux as their nursing mother. When Bernard heard the story of the two brethren, who were sent to him, he exclaimed, " It is the finger of God. Would that I myself could come over, and behold this exalted spectacle, which makes ' glad' the whole ' City of God'" (Ps. xlvi., verse 4). His letter was carried to the monks of Fountains by a monk of Clairvaux, who was charged to instruct them in the Cistercian Rule. Thus was founded the great house of Fountains.
Years passed, and as the Benedictine fervour had cooled from its early glow, so the Cistercian discipline lost its pristine simplicity. Even at their highest, the ideal of both had been the withdrawal from the world. Cloisters were the realisation of the beata solitudo and the sola beafitudo. To timid anxious souls, the inviolable sanctuaries of monastic life seemed the only refuge from the pillage and pestilence which wasted the fields, the only barrier against the stagnant mass of squalor, famine, and disease that festered in the towns. The times were evil. In the tearful passion of the Stabat Mater, as in the austere grandeur of the Dies Irce, were expressed the fears and forebodings of the age. But hope was mingled with terror. Europe seemed to be thrilled by a common movement, and Gioacchino di Fiore, the Cala- brian seer, expressed the popular instinct, that the dawn was whitening with the glory of a day which should usher in the (< age of the spirit," the " age of love," the " age of lilies."
Such were the thoughts with which the air of Italy was charged, when St Francis of Assisi grew to manhood (1182- 1226). Artless, almost infantine, in the simplicity of his nature, he was the gentlest and most blameless of mankind- the saint and the poet of a poetic people. From the moment that he took Poverty for his bride, and consecrated his life
CANTICLE OF THE SUN 69
to Christ, no temptation ever allured him from his inviolate fidelity. Active love. not contemplative piety, was the soul of his religion; practical life, not the seclusion of the cloister, was the sphere of its exercise. The father of the poor, the nurse of the leper, he had the faith to see the Divine image, and the charity to love it, even in its most neglected and repulsive tenements. Though his Brothers Minor developed into an Order, it was as a protest against the monastic spirit that they were originally founded, and it was only so long as the Lady Poverty walked among the sunburned hills of Umbria with a free step by the side of Chastity, and carolled hymns with Obedience, that the institution exemplified the idea of its founder.
The call of Francis came to him in the words of the Gospel. But if, as is recorded of him in Brother Leo's Legend of the Saint, Francis refused to allow a novice the use of a Psalter, the same biographer again and again illustrates his love of the Psalms. Thus he ever walked upon stones "with great trembling and reverence " for the love of Him that is called "the Rock," repeating the words "Thou didst set my feet upon the rock" (Ps. xl., verse 2). On Psalm cxlviii. is modelled his Canticle of the Sun, in which he sums up his love towards all created things, and especially towards those in which he saw a figure of anything pertaining to God or religion.
" Most high, almighty, and excellent Lord, to Thee be praise and glory and honour, and all blessing! To Thee alone, Most High, do they belong, and no man is worthy to name Thy name.
"Praised be Thou, my Lord, with all Thy creatures, and, above all, our Brother the Sun, who brings to us the light and the day. Beautiful is he, and radiant in his glorious splendour; and to us. Most High, he beareth witness of Thee.
"Praised be Thou, my Lord, for our Sister the Moon, and for all the Stars. In the heavens Thou has set them, bright and precious and beautiful.
"Praised be Thou, my Lord, for our Brother the Wind, for the air, the cloud, the calm, and all weather, whereby Thou sustainest life in all Thy creatures.
" Praised be Thou, my Lord, for our Sister the Water, for manifold are her services, and she is humble, precious, and pure.
" Praised be Thou, my Lord, for our Brother the Fire. By him Thou dost lighten our darkness. Beautiful is he, joyful, very mighty, and strong.
" Praised be Thou, my Lord, for our Sister, mother Earth, who doth sustain and nourish us, and bringeth forth in abun- dance divers fruits, flowers of many colours, and grass.
"Praised be Thou, my Lord, for those who for love of Thee, forgive their
enemies, and endure weakness and tribu-
f70 THE MIDDLE AGES
lation. Yea, blessed are those who shall continue in peace, for by Thee, Most High, shall they be crowned.
"Praised be Thou, my Lord, for our Sister, the Death of the body, from whom no living man can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin! Blessed are they who are conformed to Thy most holy will, for the second death shall have no power to hurt them.
" Praise and bless my Lord! give thanks to Him and serve Him with all humbleness of heart." *
This was the song that the brethren chanted to the dying man, while, above the house where he lay, multitudes of crested larks, circling round the thatch, " by their sweet singing did seem to be praising the Lord along with him." As he had lived, so he died-in the arms of his Lady Poverty, stripped of his clothing, and laid on the bare ground. Psalms were sung to him, and from time to time he added his voice to the voices of his brethren, returning with special fondness to Psalm cxlii.: " I cried unto the Lord with my voice; yea, even unto the Lord did I make my supplication," etc. At nightfall, on October 3rd, 1226, he passed away.
Hitherto the influence of the Psalms has been illustrated from religious or semi-ecclesiastical history ; but examples are not wanting in the more purely secular history of the Middle Ages. They moulded public opinion, and created a standard of civil government. With them are associated scenes in the lives or deaths of William the Conqueror, Vladimir Mono- machus, David I. of Scotland, Abelard and Heloise, St Louis of France, and William Wallace.
William the Conqueror died in September 1087, in circum- stances which moved the historian, Ordericus Vitalis, to moralise in the language of the Psalms. The aggressions of Philip of France, and, as the story runs, the jest which he had aimed at the unwieldy size of the English king, aroused the latter's wrath. Claiming as his own the borderland of France and Normandy, William swore by the resurrection and splendour of God, that he would light a hundred thousand candles at the expense of Philip. He kept his word. Corn- fields, vineyards, and orchards blazed up to the gates of Mantes, and the border fortress itself lay a heap of burning ashes. In his hour of triumph, William received his death- wound. His horse, stumbling among the embers, threw the
1 The text will be found in Sabatier's Life of St Francis of Assist (tr. L. S. Houghton, X8Q6, adopting M. Arnold's version), pp.304-5:
" Altissimu, omnipotente, bon signore, tue so Ie laude la gloria e 1'onore," etc.
An English verse translation is given in A Vision of Saints, by Lewis Morris,<( Saint Francis of Assisi."
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR 71
king upon the iron pommel of his saddle with such force that he received a fatal injury. Carried to Rouen to die, he caused himself to be conveyed from the noise of the city to the Abbey of St Gervais. In the early morning of Septem- ber gth, the great bell of the cathedral went for prime. The king asked what it meant. When he received the answer, he stretched forth his arms, raised his eyes to heaven, commended himself to his Lady Mary, the Holy Mother of God, that, by her intercession, she would reconcile him to her dear Son, Jesus Christ, and so breathed his last. His attendants hastily mounted their horses, and rode at speed to secure their houses and lands. His servants, after stripping the body of the dead king, made off, "like kites with their prey." "In a house not his own, foully stripped by his servants, there lay on the bare floor, from the first to the third hour of the day, the body of the mighty king, whom, but now, a hundred thousand warriors had eagerly served, and before whom many nations had trembled in fear." " Put not your trust in princes," moralises the chronicler, Ordericus Vitalis, whose pages teem with passages from the Psalms, "which are nought, 0 ye sons of men; but in God, the Living and the True, who is the Maker of all. If riches in- crease, set not your heart upon them. For all flesh is grass, and all the glory of it as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever."
With the baptism of St Vladimir at Cherson, and that of his whole people, in the waters of the Dnieper at Kieff, in 988, had begun the history of Russia. A century later, in Vladimir Monomachus, who is said to have married, as his first wife Gytha, the daughter of Harold of England, Russia came into contact with the remotest power of Western Europe. When, in 1113, Vladimir became the Great Prince at Kieff, he was instructed by the Patriarch Nicephorus in his duties as a ruler. The lesson was a comment on Ps. ci., with an exhortation to get it by heart, to recite it often, to meditate upon it, and by it to fashion his government. " My song," so begins the letter, " shall be of the duties of my station; of mercy and judgment; first, of mercy, that is, of tender fatherly care for the welfare, spiritual, moral, and temporal, of all my subjects; and then, also, of judgment, that is, of doing true justice between man and man, of the restraint of wickedness and vice, and of the punishment of wrongdoers, both for their own chastisement and for the good of their fellows. Unto Thee, 0 Lord, will I sing. Unto Thee will I lift up my heart in meditation. I will not follow any other guide in my rule. I will not look to the tempter, though he offer me all the kingdoms of the world; nor to the idols of ambition, glory, praise of men, love of country
73 THE MIDDLE AGES
civilisation, knowledge, progress; nor yet to any selfish motives of pleasure, passion, ease. But, with fear and love, will I offer my thoughts, my motives, my designs, my deeds, my meditations, my prayers unto Thee, 0 Lord; for Thou art my King and my God, and I am Thy servant. For Thy sake only, and because it is Thy will, I will strive, with Thy help, to rule my fellow-men, my brethren, whom otherwise I would choose to serve. So shall I have understanding in the way of godliness."
In the spirit of the psalm Vladimir ruled his subjects. With all his faults, there burned within him a spark of manly goodness, which lights up his dying injunctions to his son, and draws its heat from the Psalter. After describing the wonders of creation and the goodness of the Creator, in the words of David, Vladimir thus proceeds: " Praise God and love men. Neither fasting, nor solitude, nor monastic life will bring you life eternal; but doing good alone. Forget not the poor; feed them. Remember that all riches come from God, and are given you but for a while. ... Be fathers to the fatherless; judge the cause of widows ; suffer not the strong to oppress the weak. . . . My brethren said to me, ' Help us to drive out the sons ofRostislaf, or else give up our alliance.' But, I said *I cannot forget that I have kissed the Cross.' Then I opened the Book of Psalms, and read there with deep stirring of the heart, ' Why art thou so vexed, 0 my soul, and why art thou so disquieted within me ? Put thy trust in God. I will confess my faults, and He is gracious.'"
Peter Abelard, in 1114, was the most famous teacher in Paris, then the most renowned school in Europe. The idol of the city, he had reached the pinnacle of worldly success. Then began his fatal passion for Heloise. The lovers were separated; on Abelard a barbarous vengeance was taken, and Heloise was immured in a convent. It is doubtful whether they ever met again.
On the banks of the Ardusson, in a quiet side-valley, twelve miles from Troyes, Abelard built the oratory of the Paraclete. There he passed several years, till, in 1125, he was invited to be abbot of the ancient Abbey of St Gildas de Rhuys, near Vannes. He accepted the offer, moved, perhaps, by memories of his boyish studies at the dependent monastery of Locmenach. Meanwhile Heloise and her nuns had been driven from Argenteuil. When Abelard heard that she was a wanderer once more, he made over to her and her nuns his deserted hermitage of Paraclete. There, by " Paraclete's white walls and silver springs," the love of Heloise for Abelard once more broke silence. Pope was right in thinking that her life could never have been
" The blameless vestal's lot, The world forgetting, by the world forgot ";
ABELARD AND HELC^SE 73
that Abelard's image may have often stolen between her and her God; that she may have heard his voice in every psalm, or dropped with every bead too "soft a tear." But be this as it may, Abelard's mournful autobiography, the Historia Calamitatum, fell into her hands. The grave of her past was reopened by the story of his sufferings, and Heloise wrote to " her lord, yea, her father; to her husband, yea, her brother; from his handmaid, yea, daughter; from his wife, yea, his sister; to Abelard from Heloise." Abelard answers her tender words, if the letters are genuine, in the language of a man to whom all earthly things had grown cold and colourless. To her second letter he replies by sending, at her request, rules for her convent. At the close of his answer, he exhorts her to patience and resignation, concluding with a prayer, in which he betrays the depth of his own feeling, and definitely quotes from the Psalter ;
"Forgive, 0 most Merciful! forgive, 0 Mercy itself! our sins, great as they are; and may the multitude of our offences know the height and breadth of Thy unspeakable clemency. Chastise the guilty here, that Thou mayest spare them here- after. Punish them for a time, that Thou mayest spare them for eternity. Use against Thy servants the rod of correction, not the sword of wrath. Afflict the body, that Thou mayest save the soul. Cleanse, avenge not; be gentle rather than just; a merciful Father, rather than an austere Lord. 'Ex- amine us, 0 Lord, and prove us,' as the prophet asked for himself (Ps. xxvi. 2). It is as if he said,' Examine the strength there is, and suit the burden of temptation to it.'.... Thou hast joined us, 0 Lord, and hast set us apart, when it pleased Thee, and as it pleased Thee. Now, 0 Lord, that which Thou hast begun in mercy, do Thou in mercy perfect, and those whom Thou hast severed in the world, join for ever unto Thyself in Heaven. 0 Lord, our hope, our portion, our expectation, our consolation, who art blessed for ever. Amen.
" Farewell in Christ, thou Spouse of Light, in Christ fare- well, in Christ live! Amen."
Contemporary with Vladimir Monomachus and with Abelard, was David I., the just and merciful ruler of Scotland, who died May 24th, 1153. As .Sired of Rievaulx tells the story of his death, the king received the viaticum, venerated the famous black cross, and spent his last hours of conscious existence in repeating verses from the Psalms: " I deal with the thing that is lawful and right; 0 give me not over unto mine oppressors " (Ps. cxix., verse 121), and " In the time of my trouble I will call upon Thee, for Thou hearest me " (Ps. Ixxxvi., verse 7).
By a psalm St Louis of France regulated his life. Before taking the seat of judgment, he was wont to repeat the words:
" Blessed are they that always keep judgment, and do right-
C3
74 THE MIDDLE AGES
eousness" (Ps. cvL, verse 3). The Mass for the first Sunday in Advent began with the words, (t Unto Thee, 0 Lord, will I lift up my soul. My God, I have put my trust in Thee " (Ps. xxv., verse i). On that day Louis was crowned (1226). Joinville, who notes the fact, observes that even in his death the king had perfect trust in God. It was with a psalm on his lips that Louis died. In July 1270, he had taken the Cross, and embarked at Aigues Mortes for Africa. Before the walls of Tunis, the climate and the plague did their deadly work. At last Louis IX. himself was struck down by sick- ness. Three weeks he lingered. On August 25th, 1270, laid on a bed of ashes, he died, murmuring the words of Ps. v., verse 7, "But as for me, I will come into Thine house, even upon the multitude of Thy mercy; and in Thy fear will I worship to- ward Thy Holy temple."
At the execution of William Wallace, the dying patriot found comfort in the Psalter, which had been the companion of his adventurous wanderings. Betrayed to the English by the "fause Menteith," tried for treason in Westminster Hall, he was executed at West Smithfield (August 23rd, 1305) with all the barbarities of the age. As he stood on the scaffold, in the midst of the instruments for his torture, he begged Lord Clifford to restore to him the Psalter, which had been taken from him at his capture. The prayer was granted. Unable to hold the book in his chained hands, he asked a priest to keep it open for him, and as he hung from the gallows, he continued to look on it with love and devotion. After he was taken down and, still alive and sensible, disembowelled, his eyes remained fixed upon the Psalter, until they closed in death.
Nor was it only in mediaeval action that the influence of the Psalms may be traced. Medieeval thought also fell under their spell. The science and the literature as well as the history of the Middle Ages felt their sway.
By the Psalms the science of the Middle Ages was to a great extent governed. The earth, argued mediaeval cos- mogonists, cannot be in motion, or suspended in mid-air;
rather, it is firmly fixed, for " He hath made the round world so fast that it cannot be moved " (Ps. xciii., verse 2), and " He laid the foundations of the earth that it never should move at any time" (Ps. civ., verse 5). And its centre is Jerusalem. The column in the Holy City, at midday, casts no shadow, and " God is in the midst of her, therefore shall she not be removed" (Ps. xlvi., verse 5). On the text, "Praise him, all ye heavens; and ye waters that are above the heavens " (Ps. cxlviii., verse 4), were built strange theories. Heaven was divided into two by the firmament, which lay between our atmosphere and the Paradise of God. Below the firmament lived the angels; above it were the waters. Jerome held that
THOMAS X KEMPIS 75
the waters were frozen; Ambrose believed that the outside firmament was a hard shell, on the outer edge of which were stored the waters; some thought that the terrestrial universe was surrounded by huge walls, on which were supported the firmament and the waters they contained. The purpose for which the waters were collected, was disputed. It was believed that they were gathered for another deluge, or to moderate the fervent heat of the heavenly bodies, or to lubricate the axis on which the heavens moved round the earth. In the air exhaled from the earth were lightning and hail, snow and vapours, wind and storm (Ps. cxlviii., verse 8), Earthquakes were explained from Psalm cxxxv., verse 7, by the winds being drawn from God's secret treasuries, or by the motions of Leviathan, (Ps. civ., verse 26), who, when his tail is scorched by the sun, seeks to seize it, and labours so powerfully that the earth is shaken by his efforts. The rise and fall of tides was explained by his drinking in and spewing out vast volumes of water. With a strange mixture of Pagan with Christian thought, it was supposed that the powers of the air could produce thunder, lightning, and rain, and against their baneful influences the favourite exorcism was Psalm civ;
Of the monastic spirit in literature, the De Imitatione Christi is the finest product. The writer, according to some of the best authorities, was Thomas Hasmmerlein, called, as was the custom of the day, b Kempis, from the small town of Kempen, near Dusseldorf. A little, fresh-coloured man, simple in worldly affairs, shy and retiring in his habits, too absent- minded to be long entrusted with any practical part of the government of the Convent of Mount St Agnes, Thomas a Kempis was given, as a biographer says of him, "to the interior life and devotion." In solitude, silence, and humility, he bowed himself before his Saviour, that so he might catch the faintest whisper of His voice, and conform himself, with- out hindrance of earthly barriers, to its slighest command. The fruit of that close personal communion is the wonderful book, in which throbs the spiritual heart of mediaeval Chris- tianity. From the nature of its subject, the Imitation might be expected to rely mainly on the New Testament. But in thought, feeling, and language, it is largely based on the Psalter. "I will hearken what the Lord God will say con- cerning me; for He shall speak unto His people, and to His saints, that they turn not again" (Psalm Ixxxv., verse 8) supplies the keynote to the third book, which treats of in- ternal consolation; and throughout the whole work, the Psalms are more largely cited than the Gospels, and the illustrations from the Psalter outnumber all the passages which are quoted from the four records of our Lord's life upon earth.
The religious calm, which, together with the most ardent
76 THE MIDDLE AGES
love, characterises the Imitation, was not lightly won. In his Soliloquy of the Soul, Thomas a Kempis gives the history of his inner life, and chronicles the perplexities through which his soul gained its absolute peace. The book is in great part an impassioned expansion of texts drawn from the Psalms, such as: " Blessed be the name of His Majesty for ever" (Ps. Ixxii., verse 19): " All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto Thee ? " (Ps. xxxv., verse 10): " Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation " (Ps. xxxv., verse 3): " My soul hangeth upon Thee " (Ps. Ixiii., verse 9): " Praised be God, who hath not .. . turned His mercy from me " (Ps. Ixvi., verse 18).
Yet another illustration of the influence of the Psalms upon devotional literature may be taken from Thomas's " Little Alphabet of the Monks in the School of Christ," a series of short precepts, drawn up for those who wished to adopt the Rule of the brotherhood of the Canons Regular. In form it is modelled on the ii9th Psalm, the initial letters of the precepts running consecutively through the alphabet;
" Aspire to be unknown, and to be accounted nothing: for this is more healthful and profitable for thee than the praise of men.
" Be benevolent to all thy fellows, alike to the good and to the evil; and be burdensome to none
" Care for it that thy heart be kept from wandering thoughts, thy mouth from vain speech, thy senses under discipline.
" Dwell in solitude and silence, and therein shalt thou find great peace and a good conscience; for in a multitude are much noise and many distractions of the heart.
" Elect poverty and simplicity and be content with a few things, and thou wilt not be quick to complain.
<( Flee the conversation of worldly men; for with both God and man, with things both transitory and eternal, thou canst not be satisfied."
The last precept runs thus:
" Zaccheus, my brother, come down from the tree-tops of knowledge. Come thou and learn in the school of God the way of humility, of meekness, and of patience; so, by the teaching of Christ, wilt thou at length be able to attain to the glory of eternal blessedness."
In the sphere of devotional literature, the De Imitations is, as has been said, the finest fruit of monasticism. Compared with the Divina Commedia of Dante, it marks the vivid contrast between religious life in the world and in the cloister. Both books are, as it were, studies of the human soul in its passage from darkness to light. In both, Christian
THE DIV1NA COMMEDIA 77
theology strikes the keynote. But the one is as harmonious in its whole as the other is incongruous in its details. With his vision, Dante has interwoven elements which the -De Imitatione seeks to exclude, or feelings that it hopes to crush. In the Divina Commedia, passionate scorn and holy mysteries of faith, coarse satire and hymns of the blessed, contemporary scandal and lofty idealism, the most ardent faith in the Divine government of the world and the politics of the day, the personal bittemees of private wrongs and the keenest perception of the issues of good and ill doing, are inextricably mingled.
Dante's admiration of the Psalms is not only shown by the version of the Seven Penitential Psalms, which is attri- buted to him. It is also again and again illustrated from his great Christian poem, which ushers in the literature of Europe. In some passages he refers to David himself; in others he quotes from the Book of Psalms. Thus, after he had passed the threshold of the gate of Purgatory (Purgatorio, canto x., 1. i. and foils.), Dante and his guide climb upwards by a rocky ascent to the lowest circle, where those are purified who have sinned through pride. On one side of the path rises a precipitous cliff of white marble, curiously adorned with sculptures commemorating humility. There in the marble were carved the car and oxen, drawing the sacred ark, and (11. 64-6)
" Preceding the blest vessel, onward came With light dance leaping, girt in humble guise, Sweet Israel's harper; in that hap he seemed Less, and yet more, than kingly."
Ruth, on her throne in Paradise (Paradiso, canto xxxii., U, 10-12), is described as
" The gleaner-maid, Meek ancestress of him, who sang the songs Of sore repentance in his sorrowful mood."
In the planet Jupiter, which is the sixth heaven, the souls of those who have rightly administered justice on the earth are disposed in the figure of an eagle. Those that glitter in the eagle's eye are the chief and greatest {Paradiso, canto xx., 11. 37-42), and here David is placed :
(( This that shines Midmost for pupil, was the same who sang The Holy Spirit's song, and bare about The ark from town to town; now doth he know The merit of his soul-impassion'd strains By their well-fitted guerdon."
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In other passages the Psalms are quoted. Cheered by St James, Dante lifts his eyes, heretofore bent on the ground with their over-heavy burden, " To the hills from whence cometh my help " (Paradise, canto xxv., 11. 37-39, and Ps. cxxi., verse x). Hope had first come to him, as he tells St James {ibid., 11, 71-5, and Ps. ix., verse 10):
(< From him who sang
The songs of the Supreme, himself supreme Among his tuneful brethren. * Let all hope In Thee,' so spake the anthem, * who have known Thy name.' '
At an earlier stage in his journey, as Ihe lingered by the shores of the Island of Purgatory (Purgatorio, canto ii., 11. 40 8), Dante sees at early dawn a light bark, without oars or sails, .driven swiftly to land by the wings of the angel who stands on the poop. Within are a hundred spirits and more, who sing with one voice together Ps. cxiv., "When Israel came out of Egypt." So also in the fifth circle Purga- torio, canto xix., 11. 70-5, and Ps. cxix., verse 25), those who had sinned from avarice and prodigality, lay with their faces downwards, prone upon the ground, weeping sore:
<( ' My soul hath cleaved to the dust,' I heard, With sighs so deep, they well-nigh choked the words."
Such illustrations might be multiplied; but as an example of the use which Dante makes of the Psalms, directly or symbolically, those stanzas of the Purgatorio may be taken, in which Beatrice appears. Dante has passed though the fire, climbed the mountain, and, followed by Virgil and Statius, traverses a wood, bright with the fresh flowers of May. Through it floats a light breeze, ruffling the leaves as it passes, scented with sweet odours, and mingling with the songs of birds. He is stopped by a stream, three paces across. In a meadow on the opposite side walks Matilda, singing as she gathers the flowers that paint her way. Dante wonders at the brightness of her smile, till she tells him that she is gladdened by the verse of Ps. xcii., beginning " Delectasti" (Ps. xcii., verse 4), " Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy works," etc. (" Quia delectasti me, Domine, in factura, tua, et in operibus manuum Tuarum exsultabo.") It is this delight in God's work, and labour in His service, that make the perfect happiness of active life on earth. All other bliss is but a dream that closes with death. This alone is the waking vision, for it is the pathway and vestibule of Heaven. She further explains to him that the spot is the earthly Paradise, and that the stream by which he stands is called Lethe and Eunoe, because its twofold properties are to take away the memory of sin, and to restore the recollection
VISION OF PIERS PLOWMAN 79
of every good deed. Then she returns, like an enamoured dame, to her song (Purgatorio, canto xxix., 11. 1-3, and Ps. xxxii., verse i), "Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven, and whose sin is covered." As Matilda, alone on the one bank, and the three poets on the other, move up- wards against the stream, a great brightness flushes, and then suddenly floods, the forest; sweet melody floats through the luminous air; a procession of figures comes into view;
and a triumphal car, drawn by a gryphon, halts over against the spot where Dante stood. The poet has seen the vision of the perfect active life, which delights, not in its own labour, but in God's work. Now he beholds the perfect contemplative life, which may be lived on earth if only it has for its object, not its own beauty, but God's person and love in Christ. On the car appears Beatrice, white-veiled, olive-crowned, strewn with flowers, and clad in the mystic colours of Love, Faith, and Hope {Purgatorio, canto xxx., 11. 8a-5, and Ps. xxxi., verses 1-9). In her eyes are reflected the twofold nature of Christ, and she bids him mark her well; but his gaze shrinks from her stern pity;
" And, suddenly, the angels sang, ' In Thee, 0 gracious Lord! my hope hath been,' But went no further than ' Thou, Lord, hast set My feet in ample room.' "
Chaucer quotes but little from the Psalms. It may be taken as a slight proof of his dramatic insight that he is careful to make " Dame Abstinence Streyned " (Romaunt of the Rose, 1. 7366), remember " hir Sawter " as part of her disguise of a Beguine; and, when he cites the Psalms, he places his quotations in the mouths of persons like the Prioress, who begins the prologue of her tale with Ps. viii., verses i, 2 :
" ( 0 Lord, our Lord, Thy name how marveillous Is in this large world y-sprad,'-quod she,"
or like the Parson, the Summoner, and the " Frere." But in William Langland fourteenth-century England had her peo- ple's Dante. Clad in hermit's garb, and sleeping heavily from weariness of wandering, Langland saw on the Malvern Hills the Vision of Piers Plowman. Far inferior to the great Italian in grandeur of conception and nobility of execution, the English poet was Dante's rival in realistic power. He paints with a wire brush, and a force that is almost fierce; but his tender sympathy with human suffering redeems the harsh- ness of his rugged lines, and gives to his racy vigour and homely language something of spiritual intensity.
That Langland should clothe much of his Vision in the language of the Psalms, is not surprising. Bred in a monas-
8o THE MIDDLE AGES
tery, he lived by singing. " The tools," he says, " wherewith I labour and earn my bread are Paternoster, and my primer Placebo and Dirige, and sometimes my Psalter and my Seven Psalms." As the whole world of men, busy with their varied occupations, pass before the dreamer's vision, he sees that Bribery is all-powerful, in spite of what David had said of those who take bribes: "Lord, who shall dwell in Thy tabernacle? He that hath not taken reward against the innocent" (Ps. xv., verses i and 6). He sees also that Justice and Favour are bestowed on men " in whose hands is wicked- ness," provided that "their right hand is full of gifts" (Ps. xxvi., verse 10). Yet, evil though the world is. Scripture bids men not despair; no offence is beyond God's pardon, for " His mercy is over all His works " (Ps. cxlv., verse 9).
In sect. v., the dreamer sees again the "field full of folk," where the sinners are induced to confess and repent. The Deadly Sins make their penitential confession. Repentance prays for the penitents, and Hope seizing a horn, blows upon it (Ps. xxxii., verse i), " Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven; and whose sin is covered." Then all together, saints in glory and men on earth, cry upward " to Crist and to his moder " with the Psalmist David, �' Thou, Lord, shalt save both man and beast; how excellent is Thy mercy, 0 God" (Ps. xxxvi., verse 7).
In sect. xv., Langland describes Charity. Riches, as the dreamer reflects, hinder men in their way towards heaven;
but Poverty is the gift of God, and sweet to the human soul. The dreamer has not found Charity in London, for there all are covetous. Where then is he to be found ? and the answer of the Soul is given, that Charity seldom comes to Court. He wears russet and fur, sometimes ragged clothes, and once- long ago-the frock of a friar. Proud of a penny as of a pound of gold, he is full of gladness, trusts his fellows, finds in sickness a solace, fears neither death nor dearth. Who provides for him? asks the dreamer. He cares nothing for rent or riches. He neither craves nor covets. In the Lord he lays him down, and takes his rest (Ps. iv., verse 9). He has a friend, who never fails: " When thou openest thy hand, they are filled with good " (Ps. civ., verse 28). He visits the poor and the prisoner; he feeds, clothes, and comforts them, telling them of Christ's sufferings. He purgeth men of pride, cleansing them in the Laundry, with groans and tears (Ps. vi., verse 6). With the warm water from his eyes, he washes them whiter than snow (Ps. li., verse 7), singing with his work, and sometimes weeping, for he knows that "a broken and contrite heart, 0 God, shall Thou not despise" (Ps. li., verse 17).
In sect. xviii. is told in part the Resurrection Legend, based on Psalm xxiv. (verses 7-10), "Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates,'
THE RESURRECTION 81
etc. Christ had died on the Cross, and in Hell the devils saw a soul " hitherward sailing-with glory and with great light," and knew the coming of the King of Glory. Then the " Dukes" of that " dymme place " are bidden to undo the gates,
" That Crist may come in The Kynges sone of hevene."
With the breath of that command Hell breaks. The hundreds of angels strike their harps, and Peace pipes-
" After sharpe showres Most shene is the sonne;
Is no weder warmer Than after watry cloudes."
Truth makes her covenant with Peace, and Righteousness kisses her reverently (Psalm Ixxxv., verse 10). Finally Truth takes the lute, and to it sings, " Behold how good and joyful a thing it is, brethren, to dwell together in unity" (cxxxiii., verse i).
All over South-Western France has spread the popular legend, that on Easter day, when the words "Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates " (Ps. xxiv.) are being sung in church, the treasure-houses marked by dolmens, cromlechs, and menhirs, or concealed, as at Boussac, in the walls of castles, spring open, and men may, for a brief space, enter and enrich themselves unharmed by their infernal guardians. It is the recurring moment of which Drummond of Hawthomden sings:
" Bright portals of the sky,
Emboss'd with sparkling stars;
Doors of Eternity,
With diamantine bars Your arras rich uphold,
Loose all your bolts and springs, Ope wide your leaves of gold,
That in your roofs may come the King of Kings."
But the prevalence of the legend in France, and elsewhere, is probably due to the popularity of the Golden Legend in devotional literature. In that book is enshrined the religious heart of the Middle Ages, with its fears and fancies, its longings, its child-like yet soaring faith. In it is revealed the soul of those cathedrals which still stand in our midst, like beings of another world. In it, too, are unlocked the secrets of the intuitive glories and imaginative mysteries of mediaeval painting and architecture. As Caxton says of it: "In like wise as gold is most noble above all other metals, in like wise is this Legend holden most noble above all other works."
8a THE MIDDLE AGES
The following is the story of Our Lord's visit to Hell, con- densed from the version of the Golden Legend :-
The news of the Resurrection struck Jerusalem with con- sternation. While the priests and princes of the people were holding counsel, there were brought into the assembly two sons of the aged Simeon, Leucius and Carinus, who had risen with Jesus and returned from death to life. Each asked that tablets should be given them, and each wrote thereon his tale. We were, they wrote, in the dim place of Shadow with our fathers the Patriarchs, when suddenly a great light of gold and crimson, as it had been the sun in his glory, shone round about us. Then, straightway, Adam, the father of the human race, rejoiced and said, "This light is that of the Author of all light, who has promised to send us His eternal day." And Isaiah cried aloud, " This light is that of God, of whom I foretold that the people which walked in darkness should see a great light." Then came to us the aged Simeon, and with him John the Baptist, and they both bore witness to the Saviour-the one, that he had carried Him in his arms;
the other, that he had baptised Him, and that His coming was nigh. And all the Patriarchs were filled with joy un- speakable.
Then Satan, the prince of Death, said unto Hell, "Make ready to receive Jesus, who boasted Himself to be the Son of God, but who is only a man in fear of death, for He hath said, ' My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.' Be- hold how I have tempted Him! I have stirred up the people against Him! I have sharpened the lance; I have mingled the gall and vinegar; I have made ready the tree of the cross. The time is at hand, when I shall bring Him hither a captive."
Then Hell asked, "Is it this same Jesus who raised up Lazarus ?" And Satan made answer, " It is He." Then Hell cried, " I adjure thee, by thy power and by mine, that thou bring Him not hither; for when I heard the command of His word, I trembled, and I could not hold Lazarus, but he, wresting himself from me, took flight like an angel and es- caped out of my hands."
Now, while Hell was thus speaking, there came a voice, like the crash of thunder, which said, " Open your gates, ye Princes, lift up your everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in." At the sound of this mighty voice, the devils hastened to close the brazen gates with bars of iron. But when he saw what they did, the prophet David said, " Have I not prophesied that He would break the gates of brass, and smite in sunder the bars of iron ? " Again the voice sounded, "Open ye your gates, and the King of Glory shall come in." Then Hell, hearing that the voice had thus twice spoken, asked, " Who then is this King of Glory ? " And the prophet
THE GOLDEN LEGEND 83
David made answer; " It is the Lord Strong and Mighty, even the Lord mighty in battle ; He is the King of Glory."
Even as David spake, the King of Glory appeared, His splendour shining through all the halls of shadows, and He stretched forth His right hand and took the right hand of Adam, saying, " Peace be with thee, and with all thy sons that have been just." And so the Lord passed forth from the gates of Hell, and in His train followed all the just.
Leucius and Carinus ceased to write, and becoming white as snow,
disappeared.