CHAPTER IV.

CONCERNING THE RITES AND CEREMONIES USED IN THE CHURCH
DURING THIS CENTURY.

1

CENT. IX.

PART II.

Several writorigin of the

ers explain the

rites and cere

now

used in the

L. THAT religious rites and ceremonies were multiplied from day to day, appears evidently from the labours of those writers who began in this century to explain to the ignorant multitude their origin, their nature, and the purposes they served; monies for the multiplicity alone of these religious rites church. could render the explication of them necessary. Johannes Scotus, Angelome, Remi, or Remigius, bishop of Auxerre, and Walafridus Strabo, were the principal authors who distinguished themselves in this species of sacred literature, to whom we may add Amalarius, many of whose explanations were however refuted by Agobard and Florus. Their works are generally entitled De Officiis Divinis, for in the style of this age religious ceremonies were called by that name. The labours of these pious and learned men in illustrating the ritual were undoubtedly undertaken with good intentions; but their utility may be well called into question; and it would be bold to affirm that they were not as prejudicial to the church in some respects, as they might be advantageous to it in others. Their books afforded, indeed, a certain sort of spiritual nourishment to the minds of christians in their attendance upon public worship; but this nourishment was both coarse and unwholesome. The reasons alleged for the ceremonies in vogue at this time in the church, and the purposes they were supposed to answer, were, for the most part, not

PART II.

CENT. IX. only far fetched, childish, and ridiculous, but also bore the strongest marks of forgery and fiction. It is also farther observable, that these illustrations not only encouraged, but augmented prodigiously, and that to the detriment of real piety, the veneration and zeal of the multitude for external rites and ceremonies. For who would dare to refuse their admiration and reverence to institutions, which they were taught to consider as full of the most mysterious wisdom, and founded upon the most pious and affecting reasons?

count of these rites.

II. It would be endless to enter into an exact A general ac- enumeration of the various rites and ceremonies, which were now introduced, for the first time, and of which some were adopted by the whole body of christians, and others only by certain churches. We shall therefore dismiss this matter with the general account which follows, and point out in the notes the sources from whence the curious reader may derive a more particular knowledge of the absurdities of this superstitious age. The carcasses of the saints transported from foreign countries, or discovered at home by the industry and diligence of pious or designing priests, not only obliged the rulers of the church to augment the number of festivals or holidays already established, but also to diversify the ceremonies in such a manner, that each saint might have his peculiar worship. And as the authority and credit of the clergy depended much upon the high notion which was generally entertained of the virtue and merit of the saints they had canonized, and presented to the multitude as objects of religious veneration, it was necessary to amuse and surprise the people by a variety of pompous and striking ceremonies, by images and such like inventions, in order to keep up and nourish their stupid admiration for the saintly tribe. Hence the splendour and magnificence that were lavished upon the churches in this century, and

PART II.

the prodigious number of costly pictures and im- CENT. IX. ages with which they were adorned; hence the stately altars, which were enriched with the noblest inventions of painting and sculpture, and illuminated with innumerable tapers at noon day; hence the multitude of processions, the gorgeous and splendid garments of the priests, and the masses that were celebrated in honour of the saints. Among other novelties, the feast of all saints was added in this century, by Gregory IV. to the Latin calendar; and the festival of St. Michael, which had been long kept with the greatest marks of devotion and respect by the orientals and Italians, began now to be observed more zealously and universally among the Latin christians.

insinuates it

transactions of

III. Nor was it only in the solemn acts of religious Superstition worship that superstition reigned with an unlimited self into the sway; its influence extended even to the affairs of civil life private life, and was observable in the civil transactions of men, particularly among the Latin christians, who retained with more obstinacy than the Greeks a multitude of customs, which derived their origin from the sacred rites of paganism. The barbarous nations, which were converted to christianity, could not support the thoughts of abandoning altogether the laws and manners of their ancestors, however inconsistent they might be with the indispensable demands of the gospel; nay, they persuaded, on the contrary, the christians among whom they lived, to imitate their extravagant superstition in this respect. And this was the true and original source of those barbarous institutions that prevailed among the Latins, during this and the

See Jo. Fechtii Liber Singularis de Missis in honorem Sanctorum. d See Mabillon, De re Diplomatica, p. 537.

The holidays, or festivals of the saints were as yet but few in number among the Latins, as appears from a poem of Florus, published by Martene in the fifth volume of his Thesaurus Anecdotor. p. 595.

PART II.

CENT. IX. following century, such as the various methods by which it was usual for persons accused to prove their innocence in doubtful cases, either by the trial of cold water, by single combat," by the

All these were presumptuous attempts to force the divine providence to declare itself miraculously in favour of the truth. In the trial of cold water, the person accused had the right foot and the left hand bound together, and was, in this posture, thrown naked into the water. If he sunk, he was acquitted; but if he floated upon the surface, this was considered as an evidence of guilt. The most respectable authors, ancient and modern, attribute the invention of this superstitious trial to pope Eugenius II. and it is somewhat surprising that Mr. Bower has taken no notice of it in his history of that pontiff. Baluzius has inserted in the second volume of his Capitularia, the solemn forms of prayer and protestation, that Eugenius had caused to be drawn up as an introduction to this superstitious practice, and Fleury and Spanheim look upon that pontiff as its first inventor. On the other hand, father Le Brun, a priest of the oratory, maintains, in his Histoire Critique des Pratiques Superstitieuses, tom. ii, p. 140, &c. edit. d'Amsterdam, that this custom was much more ancient than Eugenius, and his reasons are not unworthy of attention. Be that as it may, this custom was condemned and abrogated at the request, or rather by the authority of Lewis the Meek about the year 829. It was however revived afterward, and was practised in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, as we shall see in the progress of this history. For an account of the trial of cold water, Dr. Mosheim refers us in a note, to Mabillon's Analecta veteris ævi, tom. i. p. 47, and Roye's De missis dominicis, p. 152.

8 The trial by duel, or single combat, was introduced toward the conclusion of the fifth century by Gondebaud, king of the Burgundians, after that the abuse of oaths had occasioned the most horrible perjuries, and opened a door to all sorts of injustice. The duel was then added to the oath by Gondebaud; the successful combatant was supposed to be in the right, and this barbarous test of truth and justice was, in spite of humanity and common sense, adopted by the Lombards, French, and Germans, and derived from them to other nations. It was prohibited first in the year 855, in the third council of Valence in Dauphiny.

The fire ordeal was practised in various ways. The accused either held a burning ball of iron in his hand, or was obliged to walk barefoot upon heated ploughshares, whose number was increased in proportion to the number or enormity of the crimes imputed to him; and sometimes a glove of red hot iron was used on this occasion, as we see in the

fire ordeal, and by the cross. It is no longer a CENT. IX. question in our days, from whence these methods PART II. of deciding dubious cases and accusations derived their origin; all agree that they were mere delu

tenth book of the history of Denmark, by Saxon the Grammarian.
If in these trials the person impeached remained unhurt, Jand dis-
covered no signs of pain, he was discharged as innocent; other-
wise he was punished as guilty. The first account we have of christians
appealing to this kind of trial as a proof of their innocence, is that of
Simplicius, bishop of Autun, who lived in the fourth century. This
prelate, as the story goes, before his promotion to the episcopal order,
had married a wife who loved him tenderly, and who, unwilling to quit
him after his advancement, continued to sleep in the same chamber
with her spouse. The sanctity of Simplicius suffered, at least in the
voice of fame, by the constancy of his wife's affection, and it was ru-
moured about that the holy man, though a bishop, persisted in opposition
to the ecclesiastical canons to taste the sweets of matrimony. Upon
which the dame, in presence of a great concourse of people, took up a
considerable quantity of burning coals, which she held in her clothes,
and applied to her breast, without the least hurt to her person or dam-
age to her garments, as the legend says, and her example being followed
by her husband with like success, the silly multitude admired the mira-
ole, and proclaimed the innocence of the loving pair. Bricius, or St.
Brice, whom Mr. Collier, in his Ecclesiastical History of England, vol.
i, p. 231, represents by mistake as the first christian who endeavoured
to clear himself in this way, played a trick of much the same nature in
the fifth century.

The trial by the cross was made by obliging the contending parties to stretch out their arms, and he that continued the longest in this posture gained his cause.

Jo. Loccenii Antiquit. Sueo Gothicæ, lib. ii. cap. vii, viii. p. 144. This barbarous method of deciding controversies by duel was practised even by the clergy. See Just, Hen. Boemeri Jus Eccles. Protestantium, tom, v. p. 88.

h Petr. Lambecius, Rerum Hamburg. lib. ii. p. 39. Usserii Sylloge Epistol. Hibernic. p. 81. Johnson, Leges Eccles. Britanniæ. Michael de la Roche, Memoires Litter. de la Grande Bretagne, tom. viii. p. 391.

i See Agobardus, Contra Judicium Dei, tom. i. opp. et Contra legem Gundobadi, cap. ix. p. 114. Hier. Bignonius, Ad formulas Marculphi, cap. xii. Baluzius, Ad Agobardum, p. 104.