besides independent ecclesiastical legislation. Composition for crimes gradually abolished by clerical Restraints on bishoprics held in commendam, &c. Charlemagne's questions to archbishops. Decrees of Councils enforced by the Capitulary of Aix-la-Chapelle (strictness about ordination, diocesan independence, and restraint on com- Special relations of Charlemagne with the Church. His reign parenthetical, retarding the dissolution of the Yet he shaped his plans to existing ideas and institutions. His laws often mainly due to clerical influence. Charlemagne not only a warrior and politician, but a Reforms among the clergy. His care of education and learning, partly by the introduction of foreign clergy. Regulations for schools and colleges: The clergy not ignorant, but careless of educating the laity, except in rare instances. Charlemagne's literary coadjutors (the Schola Palatii). His own thirst for knowledge, and theological erudition. Effects of his arms in spreading Christianity. Clerical counsels of gentleness in war. PAGES 198, 199 199-201 202, 203 203 203, 204 205 206, 207 207-209 211, 212 212, 213 215 215, 216 The clergy owed much of their moral influence to their political subordination. The influence of the clergy on Charlemagne represents The Reformed Benedictine Rule degenerated Reform of Benedict of Anianum : confined to France, which needed it more than His share in the decrees of the Council of Aix-la their narrow triviality along with a consolidating Monasteries especially attacked by the Saracens Many were ravaged, but others preserved letters in safety, while all around was laid waste. Vitality of Charlemagne's monastic schools, Gerbert's connexion with the Crusades. In Britain the intellectual distinction of clergy and laity as is shewn by the ecclesiastical use of the Anglo-Saxon Esthetic influence of the clergy. THE CHRISTIAN CLERGY OF THE FIRST TEN CENTURIES-THEIR BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE ON EUROPEAN PROGRESS. Ὑμεῖς ἐστὲ τὸ ἅλας τῆς γῆς.—ΜΑττ. ν. 13. CHAPTER I. THE advantages to be derived from the experience of past ages may be viewed in a twofold light, according as they associate themselves with the relations of man to his fellow men, or with the more mysterious and more elevating ties which connect him with his Maker. To the generality of mankind the former of the above courses of speculation will ever be the more attractive. It obtains the favour of the cursory reader, as being, or seeming to be, the more obvious and tangible of the two, and commends itself to the philosophical student as supplying him with abundant illustrations of those leading maxims of political science, which must, in one form or another, present themselves to every thinking member of a civilized community. It affords weapons alike for literary and political contest, and incites the partial to defend his favourite theory, the impartial to establish his impartiality. But such a mode of historical study, however necessary, or however instructive, can never lead us to as noble or as truly philosophical results, as follow from the latter of the courses we have above specified. The B one, viewing human society in its divisions, arrives at results which may be, and too often are, tainted with all the imperfections whence those divisions have sprung; while the other, considering it in its unity, endeavours calmly to elucidate the mighty schemes by which the ultimate advancement of our race is worked out by a beneficent Ruler. For, assuredly, it is one of the sublimest problems to which the intellect of man can devote itself, to discover, among so many shifting scenes and conflicting tendencies, the constant operation of the Supreme Will. If to examine the dealings of Providence with individuals be a noble task, how far higher an object must it be to trace their effects on the destinies of nations. And in this, as in so many other studies, irregular and unsystematic as the materials may at first sight seem to us, yet a more attentive observation will in every case lay open to our view the regularity and perfection of the designs of Omnipotence, it will discover to us in the apparent evil of the present, the germ of some compensating good for the future, and teaching us to apply to our own times the lessons derived from the past, strengthen that confidence in the protecting care of Providence which is no less necessary in a society than in every one of its members. But if from any portion of history we can learn these the most important of its lessons, assuredly nowhere are they presented to us with more striking distinctness than in the records of the Church of God,-of that Church which, in prosperity and in adversity alike, among dangers |