'istory of civilization; we have as yet only arrived at the neatre of this history, and named its actors.

You will not be surprised that in entering upon a new era we should first encounter the religious society: it was, as you are aware, the most advanced and the strongest; whether in the Roman municipality, in the palace of the barbarous kings, or in the hierarchy of the conquerors now become proprietors, we have everywhere recognised the presence and influence of the heads of the church. From the fourth to the thirteenth century, it was the church that took the lead in the career of civilization. It is natural, then, that, during this period, every time that we have made a halt, and again moved forward, it should be with her that we recommence.

We shall study her history from the sixth to the eighth century, under the two points of view already indicated; 1st, in her relations with the state; 2ndly, in her peculiar and internal constitution.

But before approaching either of these questions, and the facts which are attached thereto, I must call your attention to a fact which dominates over all, which characterises the Christian church in general, and has, as it were, decided her destiny.

This fact is the unity of the church, the unity of the Christian society, despite all the diversities of time, place, domination, language, or origin.

Poli

Singular phenomenon! It was at the very time that the Roman empire fell to pieces and disappeared, that the Christian church rallied, and definitively formed herself. tical unity perished, religious unity arose. I know not how many nations, of various origins, manners, language, and destiny, are thrown upon the scene; all becomes partial and local; every extended idea, every general institution, every great social combination vanishes; and at this very moment the Christian church proclaims the unity of her doctrine, the universality of her right.

This is a glorious and powerful fact, and one which, from the fifth to the thirteenth century, has rendered immense services to humanity. The mere fact of the unity of the church, maintained some tie between countries and nations that everything else tended to separate; under its influence, some general notions, some sentiments of a vast sympathy

continued to be developed; and from the very heart of the most frightful political confusion that the world has ever known, arose perhaps the most extensive and the purest idea that has ever rallied mankind, the idea of spiritual society; for that is the philosophical name of the church, the type which she wished to realize.

What sense did men, at this period, attach to these words, and what progress had they already made in this path? What was actually, in minds and in facts, this spiritual society, the object of their ambition and respect? How was it conceived and practised? These questions must be answered in order to know what is meant when we speak of the unity of the church, and what ought to be thought of its principles and results.

A common conviction, that is to say, an identical idea, acknowledged and received as true, is the fundamental basis, the secret tie of human society. One may stop at the most confined and the most simple association, or elevate oneself to the most complicated and extensive; we may examine what passes between three or four barbarians united for a hunting expedition, or in the midst of an assembly convoked to treat of the affairs of a great nation; everywhere, and under all circumstances, it is in the adhesion of individuals to the same thought, that the fact of association essentially consists: so long as they do not comprehend one another, they are mere isolated beings, placed by the side of one another, but not holding together. A similar sentiment and doctrine, whatever may be its nature or object, is the first condition of the social state; it is in the midst of truth only, or in what they take for truth, that men become united, and that society takes birth. And in this sense, a modern philosopher1 was right in saying that there is no society except between intellects; that society only subsists upon points and within limits, where the union of intellects is accomplished; that where intellects have nothing in common, there is no society; in other words, that intellectual society is the only society, the necessary element, and, as it were, the foundation of all external and visible associations.

Now, the essential element of truth, and precisely what is, in fact, the social tie, par excellence, is unity. Truth is one,

'M. l'Abbé de Lamennais.

therefore the men who have acknowledged and accepted it are united; a union which has in it nothing accidental nor arbitrary, for truth neither depends upon the accidents of things, nor upon the uncertainties of men; nothing transitory, for truth is eternal; nothing confined, for truth is complete and infinite. As of truth, unity then will be the essential characteristic of the society which shall have truth alone for its object, that is to say, of the purely religious society. There is not, there cannot be, two spiritual societies; it is, from its nature, sole and universal.

Thus did the church take birth: hence that unity which she proclaims as her principle, that universality which has always been her ambition. In degrees more or less evident, and more or less strict, it is the idea which rests at the bottom of all her doctrines, which hovers over all her works. Long before the sixth century, from the very cradle of Christianity, it appears in the writings and acts of its most illustrious interpreters.

But unity of truth in itself is not sufficient for the rise and subsistence of the religious society; it is necessary that it should be evident to minds, and that it should rally them. Union of minds, that is to say, spiritual society, is the consequence of the unity of truth; but so long as this union is not accomplished, the principle wants its consequence, spiritual society does not exist. Now, upon what condition do minds unite themselves in truth? Upon this condition, that they acknowledge and accept its empire: whoever obeys truth without knowing it, from ignorance and not from light, or whoever, having knowledge of the truth, refuses to obey it, is not part of the spiritual society; none form a part of it if they do not see nor wish it; it excludes, on one side, ignorance, and on the other, constraint; it exacts from all its members an intimate and personal adhesion of intellect and liberty.

Now, at the epoch upon which we are occupied, this second principle, this second characteristic of spiritual society, was wanting to the church. It would be unjust to say that it was absolutely unknown to her, and that she believed that spiritual society could exist between men without the consent of their intellect or liberty. Thus put in its simple and naked form, this idea is offensive and necessarily repulse

besides. the full and vigorous exercise of reason and will was too recent and still too frequent in the church, for her to fall into so entire an oblivion. She did not affirm that truth had right to employ constraint; on the contrary, she incessantly repeated that spiritual arms were the only arms of which she could and ought to avail herself. But this principle, if I may so express myself, was only upon the surface of minds, and evaporated from day to day. The idea that truth, one and universal, had a right to pursue by force the consequences of its unity and universality, became from day to day the dominant, active, and efficacious idea. Of the two conditions of spiritual society, the rational unity of doctrine, and the actual unity of minds, the first almost solely occu pied the church; the second was incessantly forgotten or violated.

Many centuries were necessary in order to give to it its place and power, that is to say, to bring out the true nature of spiritual society, its complete nature, and the harmony of its elements. It was long the general error to believe that the empire of truth-that is, of universal reason-could be established without the free exercise of individual reason, without respect to its right. Thus they misunderstood spiritual society, even in announcing it; they exposed it to the risk of being but a lying illusion. The employment of force does far more than stain it, it kills it; in order that its unity may be, not only pure, but real, it is necessary that it shine forth in he midst of the development of all intellects and all liberties. It will be the honour of our times to have penetrated into the essence of spiritual society much further than the world has ever yet done, to have much more completely known and asserted it. We now know that it has two conditions: 1st, the presence of a general and absolute truth, a rule of doctrines and human action; 2nd, the full development of all intellects, in face of this truth, and the free adhesion of souls to its power. Let not one of these conditions ever allow us to forget the other; let not the idea of the liberty of minds weaken in us that of the unity of spiritual society: because individual convictions should be clear and free, let Es not be tempted to believe that there is no universal truth which has a right to command; in respecting the reason each, do not lose sight of the one and sovereign reason

The history of human society has hitherto passed alternately from one to the other of these dispositions. At certain epochs men have been peculiarly struck with the nature and rights of this universal and absolute truth, the legitimate master to whose reign they aspired: they flattered themselves that at last they had encountered and possessed it, and in their foolish confidence they accorded to it the absolute power which soon and inevitably engendered tyranny. After having long submitted to and respected it, man recognised it; he saw the name and rights of truth usurped by ignorant or perverse force; then he was more irritated with the idols than occupied with God himself; the unity of divine reason, if I may be permitted to use the expression, was no longer the object of his habitual contemplation; he above all thought upon the right of human reason in the relations of men, and often finished by forgetting that, if it is free, the will is not arbitrary; that if there is a right of inquiry for individual reason, it is still subordinate to that general reason which serves for the measure and touchstone of all minds. And even as in the first instance there was tyranny, so in the second there was anarchy, that is to say, the absence of general and powerful belief, the absence of principles in the soul, and of union in society. One may hope that our time is called to avoid each of these sand-banks, for it is, if I may so speak, in possession of the chart which points them both out. The development of civilization must be accomplished hereafter under the simultaneous influence of a two-fold reverence; universal reason will be sought as the supreme law, the final aim; individual reason will be free, and invoked to develop itself as the best means of attaining to universal reason. And if spiritual society be never complete and pure-the imperfection of humanity will not allow it—at least its unity will no longer run the risk of being factitious and fraudulent. You have had a glance at the state of minds concerning this great idea, at the epoch upon which we are occupied: let us pass to the state of facts, and see what practical consequence had already been produced by that unity of the church, of which we have just described the rational characteristics.

It was seen above all in the ecclesiastical legislation, and it was so much the more conspicuous there, from being in contradiction to all that passed elsewhere. We have studied