of them left the world and took the monastic habit, in different orders. * tuis est consilium. In general, upon the minds of youth the force could not be lost of the observation, that these professors came to lecture, not from the perusal of the trivial and injurious books of the common society of the world, but from what Menedemus used to call the desert of the wise-erudition: from secret converse with the solemn volumes of the school. Over their private collections might be placed the inscription, “Quando omnes passim loquuntur et deliberant, optimum à mutis et morHomines quoque si taceant, vocem invenient libri; et quæ nemo dicit, prudens suggerit antiquitas."+ We read of Father Thomas Pencketh Waryngtoniensis, the Augustinian, whose learning all England celebrated with praise, that the schoolmen were his dearest companions; and at Padua it was said of him that "he so perfectly knew by heart the works of Scotus, that if all copies were lost, by means of his prodigious memory the whole could be restored." These teachers were known to maintain that double commerce which Muratori styles sweet and useful— with the wise living and the wise dead-Dulce est eruditionis sectatoribus quotidie cum mortuis versari; dulcius profecto futurum, cum vivis, à quibus brevi facilique compendio eruditior in dies discedas. The guides of the Catholic school, as the learned men of the Church from primitive times, are still what they once were-clear but mystical-devoted to serve men with an intense affection, but separate from the crowd. Remote from all egotism, it is clear to their disciples that they only obey a high influence, and that their awful task is imposed. This character of retirement and solemnity adds a great interest to their lessons, as to their books. Youth will not turn from them to hear a teacher, who, like the generality of writers now, is one of the public-a man of noise, a man of news, a man of money-like Marino, as described by Philarète Chasles, "a man of business, speculating in poesy," or, as many now, making a fortune, in philosophy, in literature inspired only by the spirit that rules men on the Exchange. Such are the teachers who merit the reproof that Gerson thus administers-"Woe to those who scandalize the little ones. Some do this obliquely; for they malign their true guides and instructors; they defame, ridicule, and calumniate them; pretending that they do not impart solid learning, with sound religious sentiments, to boys, but only things of curiosity, or hypocrisy, or fiction. Hæc est vulpina, * L'Histoire de l'Ordre de la Mercy, 323. † Dom Legipontius de Adornandâ Bibliotheca. Crusenius, Monast. August. Pars. iii. c. 30. imo diabolica calliditas, quæ ex obliquo insidiat, et mordens ut coluber, non sinit parvulos venire ad Christum."* How should many now who hear these words tremble! Nevertheless, the Catholic instruction is not without testimonies in its favour from without. Hear how even an academician speaks of one who adhered to the traditionary manners of the school. "The true and profound love of art, purified by religion, had rendered him as a stranger in the world. He lived only in that atmosphere of disinterested ideas, in which our souls escape from their evil inclinations. Titles of honour were offered, and he refused them. He had too great a belief in the nobility of learning to feel the want of any other. Happy exaltation, which not only gave him the first of goods, independence, but also a life without tempests-as simple as on the form of a school, as calm as in the depth of a cloister. It is sad to see such men pass away-the last born of those generations which had a real love for learning! Is it true that we are condemned to see break within our hands the chain of these generous traditions? That the pure love of study, the patient cultivation of art, must yield to profit?"+ "Libri potius ad alterius quam ad auctoris utilitatem conscribi solent," says Cardinal Palæotus, who proves no prophet by the words. It is the same with regard to the lessons of the master who is inspired by faith. There is no shameless avowal of indifference as to every object but that of selfenrichment. That pure love of learning and science too, is found here: "Scire potestates herbarum usumque medendi Herman, surnamed Contractus, who was of the noble family of the Counts of Suabia, having the choice given him by the blessed Virgin, in a miraculous vision, of being cured from his malady and continuing in ignorance, or remaining a cripple all his life and acquiring excellent learning, preferred the latter, and became the most profound scholar of his age in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.]] Dom Claude Estiennot chose for device "Immorior studiis, et amore senesco sciendi." Le Nain de Tillemont found such joy in study that he used sometimes to feel scruples on account of it. James of Toulouse, surnamed Magnus, in the time of Charles VII., refused *De Parvulis trahendis ad Christum. || D'Averoult, Catéchisme Historial. + Vitet. § En. xii. 396. the archiepiscopal see of Bordeaux-" Maluitque inter libros suos et scholasticos pulveres Parisiis mori ibidemque sepeliri, quam alibi in specula periclitari.” * Ægidius Romanus, dying at Avignon in the 69th year of his age, ordered that his body and his library should be removed to Paris, “Ut ibi quiesceret ubi studiorum labore quietem promeruerat."+ Such was the pure love of these great professors for the schools of Paris, "in qua fons est totius scientiæ," says Cæsar of Heisterbach, "et puteus divinarum scripturarum." If they loved books, (the greatest grief that Trithemius suffered in all his life, was when he found himself torn from his library in the monastery of Spanheim,) if they collected them with pain, and Dom Legipontius says, 66 that in consequence of the multitude of bad works, the task is difficult,-via molestissima est et vorticibus plena,"§_their love and labour were not characterized by egotism. Baluze inserted a clause in his will, prescribing that his immense library of rare books should be sold in detail, in order that learned men might more easily obtain what they might want out of it. Their love of books may be estimated from a charming passage in the letter of Antonio de Guevara, who writes in these terms to the Bishop of Badajos"Your secretary says, you tell me, that he saw in my study a great table full of old books, of which some were Gothic, others Latin, some Greek, others Chaldaic, some Hebrew, others Arabic, and that he resolved to steal one-which was a base thought for books being my only pastime, to take them is to take out my eyes. By nature I have been always a great friend to old books. The good king Don Alphonso used to say, that it was a great comfort for an old man to have an old horse to ride, and old books to read. In 1523, passing through the town of Cafra, I espied a bookseller in his shop ripping up an old parchment book to cover others with it. I began to examine it, and finding it more worthy to be read than to be employed as a binding for other books, I gave him eight reals for it; and rather than not have it, I would have given him eight ducats. It contained the customs of Badajos, ordained by the king Don Alphonso XI.; and this was the book that your secretary stole from me and gave to you, which you reading and not understanding, have now sent to me to be interpreted, without intending to make me restitution." If the teachers of the Catholic school wrote books, their sole motive was the advancement of their pupils and charity, heed * Crusenius, Monasticon Augustinianum, Pars iii. 23. Id. P. iii. c. 12. § De Adornandâ Bibliothecâ. Lib. v. c. 22. less of their own privations. Lewis, a monk of Wessobrunn in Bavaria, claiming the prayers of the reader, in a note to his copy of St. Jerome's Commentary on Daniel, says of himself "Dum scripsit friguit, et quod cum lumine solis Scribere non potuit, perfecit lumine noctis."* The monk Evagrius gives this counsel: "Exoriens sol videat codicem in manibus tuis."+ Marianus, an Irish monk, whe founded a monastery at Ratisbon, described as surpassing most men in beauty of countenance and simplicity of manners, was so venerated in the school, that every one felt assured he was inspired in all his works by the Holy Ghost. "He was most remarkable for his diligence in writing on parchment, both for his own brethren and for others. Many prolix volumes were the fruit of his holy zeal and hope for an eternal recompense. Repeatedly with his own hand he wrote out the whole of the Bible, with its commentaries. He also wrote many little books and psalters and manuals for poor widows and poor clerks and scholars of the same city, for the remedy of his soul, which he gave them gratis. It is said that one night the guardian forgot to give him sufficient candles when he was writing some divine volume, and that he did not hesitate to continue writing without material light, the three fingers of his left hand, by the Divine mercy, appearing to serve him for lamps. The sacristan, when in bed, recollected his error, and rose up to carry candles to his cell, when through the chinks of the door he beheld him writing with the aid of this celestial light. Aventinus styles him a poet and a theologian, second to no one of his age, who collected certain waters from the profound sea of the holy Fathers Jerome, Augustin, and Gregory, which he comprised within one volume, for the salvation of his soul, in honour of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Nor can students be insensible to the influence of that humility which distinguishes the learned master of the school, which points to the Catholic Church as clearly as if the indication were supplied by words inscribed upon the way. What is it that proves most revolting to the mind of the young during their pursuit of learning? The haughtiness and disdain of teachers. No merit can remove this impression; 66 nam quum omnis arrogantia odiosa est," as Cicero says, "tum illa ingenii atque eloquentiæ multo molestissima."S Yet such is the vexation prepared for youths in every school where faith and the high asceticism of the Catholic Church do not form the character *Pez. Thes. Anec. tom. i. 20. + Evagrii Monachi Sententiæ, ap. Luc. Holstein, Codex Reg. ii. Raderus, Bavaria Sancta, ii. § In Q. Cæcilium. of those who instruct them. The way to the Catholic Church, therefore, is open as soon as they behold the countenance of their professor evincing that self-renouncement which belongs to her college of the perfect. For hear how the most illustrious of Catholic teachers speak-"Et quia infirmum de potentia," says St. Bonaventura, " stultum de sapientia, pravum de bonitate loqui præsumptuosum est; ideo mihi velle subtilia, et quæ supra vires meas sunt investigare non licet."* Guillaume de Saint-Thierry says that every lecture should terminate, like the nine lessons in the office of matins, with the holy and humble cry of "Tu autem, Domine, miserere nobis." So opposed to pedantry are such men, that they are the first to avow their ignorance of many things, saying with Sidonius Apollinaris, "Donec scientiam natura combiberit, non major est gloria dixisse quod noveris quam siluisse quod nescias."+ They seek not praise, but prayers. Writing to Perpetuus, Sidonius says, 66 Igitur quia vobis id fuit cordi, obsecro ut quales nos fide creditis, tales intercessione faciatis, atque dignemini humilitatem nostram orationibus potius in cœlum ferre quam plausibus." When they do confer praise, their eulogy is a solemn admonition to a remembrance of the utter self-renouncement in which the Christian life consists. "You have been pleased to desire," says Odilo to Fulbert," that I, though an unworthy judge, should describe in writing what seems to me irreprehensible in your conversation; but weak eyes cannot gaze fixedly on the splendour of the firmament or of the stars; and I call you a star for the reason alleged in Daniel: Qui docti fuerint fulgebunt sicut splendor firmamenti, et qui ad justitiam erudiunt multos, sicut stellæ.' How should you be judged by us? We are not competent to judge even ourselves, much less the life of the just. We should be overwhelmed at your question, if it were not for our remembering the words, 'Quem dicunt homines esse Filium hominis? et vos autem quem me esse dicitis?' which was to leave an example to prelates and to superiors, who ought to inquire thus from persons subject to them respecting their own reputation. If any one should object to my praise of you the saying that we should praise no man in his life-time, I assent, because I regard you as dead to the mortal life; as the Apostle says, 'Mortui enim estis, et vita vestra abscondita est cum Christo in Deo;' for you say with him, 'If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord." "§ They avow the defects of the learning of their own age. "So great," observes Sidonius, "is the number of the indolent, that unless + Lib. vii. Ep. 9. § Fulberti Carnotensis Epist. * Stim. Div. Amoris, P. 1. 13. ‡ Id. vii. 9. |