...

piety resides in the humility, not of the body, but of the heart. To what purpose are those combats, which are fought with the passions by the servant when these live in peace with the master?.... It does not suffice any more to hear speak of the virtues, or to read of them. Is it by words alone that a man cleanses his house of filth? Is it without labour and without sweat that a daily work can be accomplished? .... Therefore strengthen yourself, and cease not to combat; no one obtains the crown, unless he has courageously fought."

We do not find many passages in the Instructions of Saint Colomban, so simple as this. The transports of imagination are there always mixed with subtlety of mind; still the foundation is often energetic and original.

Compare this sacred eloquence of the sixth century with the eloquence of the modern pulpit, even in its finest period; at the seventeenth century, for example. I said but now that, from the sixth to the eighth century, the characteristic of literature was that of ceasing to be literature, that it had become an action, a power; that in writing, in speaking, men only concerned themselves with positive and immediate results; that they sought neither science nor intellectual pleasures, and that, for this reason, the epoch produced scarcely anything but sermons, or works analogous to them. This fact, which is shown in the general literature, is imprinted on the sermons themselves. Open those of modern times, they have evidently a character more literary than practical; the orator aspires far more to beauty of language, to the intellectual satisfaction of his auditors, than to influence them to the bottom of their souls, to produce real effects, true reformation, efficacious conversion. There is nothing of this kind, nothing literary, in the sermons which I have just spoken of; no anxiety about speaking well, about artistically combining images, ideas; the orator goes to the facts; he desires to act: he turns and returns in the same circle; he fears not repetitions, familiarity, or even vulgarity; he speaks briefly, but he begins again each morning. It is not sacred eloquence, it is religious power.

There was at this epoch a literature which has not been

1 S. Colomban. Inst. 2. Bibl. patr. vol. xii. p. 10.

remarked, a veritable literature, essentially disinterested, which had scarcely any other end in view but that of prccuring intellectual, moral pleasure to the public; I mean the lives of the saints, the legends. They have not been introduced into the literary history of this epoch: they are, however, its true, its only literature, for they are the only works which had the pleasures of the imagination for their object. After the battle of Troy, almost every town in Greece had poets who collected the traditions and adventures of the heroes, and made a diversion of them for the public, a national diversion. At the epoch which occupies us, the lives of the saints played the same part for the Christians. There were men who occupied themselves in collecting them, writing them, and recounting them for the edification, no doubt, but more especially for the intellectual pleasure of the Christians. That is the literature of the time, properly so called. In our next lecture, I shall lay some of those before you, as well as some monuments of profane literature, which we likewise meet there.

SEVENTEENTH LECTURE.

Preface of the Old Mortality of Walter Scott-Robert Patterson-Preface of the Vie de Saint Marcellin, bishop of Embrun, written at the commencement of the sixth century-Saint Ceran, bishop of Paris-Eagerness of the Christians of these times to collect the traditions and monuments of the life of the saints and martyrs-Statistics of this branch of sacred literature-Collection of the Bollandists-Cause of the number and popularity of legends-They almost alone satisfy at this epoch-1. The wants of the moral nature of man-Examples Life of Saint Bavon, of Saint Wandregisilus, of Saint Valery-2. The wants of physical nature— Examples: Life of St. Germain of Paris, of Saint Wandregisilus, of Saint Rusticulus, of Saint Sulpicius of Bourges-3. The wants of the imagination-Examples: Life of Saint Seine, of Saint AustregesilusLiterary defects and merits of legends.

HEADING the Puritans of Walter Scott is a preface which the French translators have omitted, I know not why, and from which I take the following details :

"The tombs of the puritan martyrs, scattered in large numbers, especially in some counties of Scotland, are still objects for the respect and devotion of their partisans. It is sixty years ago that a man living in the county of Dumfries, named Robert Patterson, a descendant, it was supposed, of one of the victims of the persecution, quitted his house and small inheritance, in order to devote himself to the task of keeping these modest tombs in repair. . . He contrived to discover them in the most secret places, in the mountains and rocks where the insurgent puritans had taken refuge, and where, often surprised by troops, they perished sword in hand, or were shot after the combat. He freed the funeral stone from the moss which covered it, he renewed the half effaced inscription where the pious friends of the dead had expressed,

in scriptural style, both the celestial joys which awaited him, and the malediction which should for ever pursue his murderers. Every year he visited all the tombs: no season stopped him; he begged not, nor had he any need so to do; hospitality was always assured him in the families of the martyrs or zealots of the sect. For nearly thirty years he continued this painful pilgrimage; and it is scarcely more than twenty-five years since he was found exhausted with fatigue, and breathing his last sigh upon the high road, near Lockerby; by his side was his old white horse, the companion of his labours. In many parts of Scotland, Robert Patterson is still remembered, and the people, ignorant of his real name, designated him, from the employment to which he devoted his life, by that of Old Mortality, (man of the dead of olden times.)"

I go back from the eighteenth to the sixth century, and I read at the head of the Life of Saint Marcellin, bishop of Embrun, this little prologue:

"By the bounty of Christ, the combats of the illustrious martyrs, and the praises of the blessed confessors, have filled the world to such a degree, that almost every town may boast of having as patrons martyrs born within its bosom. Hence it happens, that the more they write and propagate the inestimable recompence which they received for their virtues, the more will the gratitude of the faithful increase. Accordingly, I find my pleasure in seeking everywhere the palms of these glorious champions; and while travelling with this view, I arrived at the city of Embrun. There I found that a man, long since sleeping with the Lord, still performs signal miracles. I asked, curiously, what had been the kind of life of this holy man from his infancy, what was his country, by what proofs and by what marvels of virtue he had been raised to the sublime charge of pontiff; and all declared with one voice what I have here committed to ; writing. Men even whose age has been prolonged to a very late period, and some of whom have attained ninety, and even a hundred years, have given me unanimous answers concerning the holy pontiff. . . . I wish, therefore, to transmit his memory to future ages, although I feel my weakness succumb under such a burden."1

1 Vie de Saint Marcellin, in the Acta Sanciorum of the Bollandists, -20th April, vol. ii. p. 751.

Behold the Robert Patterson of the sixth century: this un known man performed the same travels, and fulfilled almost the same office for the Christian heroes of this epoch, as Old Mortality did for the martyrs of Scotch puritanism. It was a taste, a general need of the age, that of seeking all the traditions, all the monuments of the martyrs and saints, and transmitting them to posterity. Saint Ceraune, or Ceran, bishop of Paris at the beginning of the seventh century, likewise devoted his life to this task. He wrote to all the priests whom he thought learned in the pious traditions of their country, praying them to collect such for him: we know, among others, that he addressed himself to a priest of the diocese of Langres, called Warnacher, and that this latter sent him the acts of three sainted brothers of one birth, Speusippius, Eleusippius, and Meleusippus, martyrised in that diocese shortly after the middle of the second century; and of Saint Didier, bishop of Langres, who underwent the same fate about one hundred years later. It would be easy to find many analogous facts in the history of Christianity, from the fourth to the tenth century.

Thus were amassed the materials of the collection commenced in 1643 by Bolland, a Jesuit of Belgium, since continued by many other scholars, and known under the name of Recueil des Bollandistes. All monuments relative to the life of the saints are there collected and classed by month and day. The enterprise was interrupted in 1794 by the Belgian revolution; so the work is finished only for the first nine months of the year, and the first fourteen days of the month of October. The end of October, and the months of Novemher and December are wanting; but the materials for them were prepared: they have been found, and it is said that no time will be lost in publishing them.

In its actual state, this collection contains 53 volumes folio, of which the following is the distribution:-