"

VOL. XLI.

No. 6.

CONTENTS.

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For Friends' Intelligencer.

ENGLAND'S FIRST HERETICS." The "Constitutions of Clarendon" mark an important epoch in English History. An English King (Henry II) who was a wise and accomplished statesman, strong in the possession of nearly despotic power, and a most fearless and proud ecclesiastic (Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury) mighty in intellectual strength, and fortified by the papal support, come in conflict in regard to the proper administration of government in the realm. The assertion has been made that nearly one hundred homicides had in these times been perpetrated by priests then living, and these murderers were shielded from due punishment by the fact of their being ecclesiastics, notwithstanding any degree of atrocity in their

crimes.

The king called an assembly of the highest clergy at Westminster, and earnestly asserted the public necessity of putting an end to the abuses of the Church power. The demands of the monarch were met by the resistance of the Archbishop who refused to surrender any of the privileges of the Clergy. But Becket, at the instance of the Pope, ultimately gave his assent to the king's righteous demand.

King Henry then called a great council at Clarendon, near Salisbury, and here gathered the eminent men of the realm, both lay and ecclesiastic, and this early parliament passed a series of resolutions, which eventually had the force of a law, providing for the effectual

restraint of the clergy from serious crimes, by ordaining their trial in the civil courts for matters cognizable there, and then requiring their transfer to the ecclesiastical court concerning that which was cognizable there. Questions of the tenure of property between ecclesiastics and laymen were also to be decided in civil courts, and the king's sent was made requisite for confirming the filling of vacant bishoprics and abbacies.

Sacerdotal fury-the maledictions of the Church-were the weapons of the archbishop, and the energetic and earnest king kept as steadily to his purpose of curbing arbitrary clerical power in the interests of justice and good government. For five years the contention continued, until in 1170 Becket, who had fled to France, returned to England, still opposing his ecclesiastical to the civil authority, till he was at length slain at the altar of his cathedral, and became a canonized saint of the church.

During this later part of the 12th century when great movements were in progress, it is interesting to note how far the England of that day was from any assertion of religious liberty. Both ecclesiastical and secular authorities were prompt to punish and extirpate heresies.

*"In 1166 A. D., a synod was convened by Henry, at Oxford, to inquire into the proceedings of some families who had come over from

Knight's England.

Germany, in all about thirty men and women, and had settled at Oxford, having a sort of leader in temporal and spiritual affairs of the name of Gerard. Their lives were perfectly blameless; and their opinions, whatever they might be, were not very attractive, for they had obtained only one English proselyte, a woman of humble station. These inoffensive people were brought before the synod and were required to make a solemn profession of their faith. They replied, by their leader, that they were Christians, and venerated the doctrines of the apostles. But, upon minute questions as to the articles of their belief, they answered perversely and erroneously concerning the sacraments! In these poor foreigners we recognize the precursors of the Albigenses, the Waldenses, and other sects, who gradually spread through Europe, and were persecuted by imprisonment and death, under inquisitions, and by terrible massacres by bigoted princes. The Germans of Oxford were condemned as obstinate heretics, and were delivered over to the king for punishment. They appear to have had one advocate in John of Oxford, whom Becket excommunicated on that account. This was the first ebullition of heresy since the differences of the days of Augustin. An example was to be made, and the wretched exiles were branded, scourged, and turned out naked and bleeding into the fields in the depth of winter. None dared to succor them, none to pity, and they all miserably perished."

Hume says, of these humble seekers after truth, that while they could give no satisfactory account of their religious profession, they declared themselves ready to suffer for the tenets that they conceived to embody the Divine Wisdom. It seems strange that so acute and powerful an ecclesiastic as Thomas a'Becket, should have deemed it needful to proceed to their condemnation for heresy; or that a king so correct in many of his ideas of government, should have destined these innocent confessors to torture and death.

Doubtless their patient protest against all the pretenses of artificial or ecclesiastical Christianity was foreseen to have a mighty power at its root, destined eventually to overthrow the man-made systems of divinity which intruded themselves between mankind and the universal fountain of Wisdom and Light. The destruction of these witnesses for the indwelling Deity did not really prevent the steady advance of the cause of that simple and spiritual cult which alone is in accord with the Divine Wisdom. Says Hume: "We are ignorant of the particular tenets of these people, for it would be imprudent to rely on the representations of them by the clergy, who affirmed that they denied the

efficacy of the sacraments and the unity of the church. It is probable that their depar ture from the standard of orthodoxy was still more subtle and minute. They seem to have been the first that ever suffered for heresy in England.'

At the same date, while these German Christians were being harried to death on English soil, a seed was being sown in France, from which has grown a body of noble Christiau disciples who have for seven centuries kept up a continual protest against priestly domination and ecclesiastical cruelty-the Vaudois or Waldenses of France and of the Alpine valleys of North Italy. Cruelest persecution could not finally crush this faithful church-this Israel of the Alps.

Peter Waldo, a citizen of Lyons in France, (A. D. 1160), is by some writers considered the originator of the Waldensian body. They brought back their people to the purity and faithfulness of the apostolic times, made holy living and Christian love the badge of disci pleship, and by their non-conformity to what they deemned false and even blasphemous, brought upon themselves condemnation and most bitter persecution by the Romish Church.

In France too, in these stormy mediaval times were contests between King and Church, and the same pontiff (Alexander III) who contended with Henry II of England against the Constitutions of Clarendon, vexes the soul of the Seventh Louis of France, sends forth the Second Crusade and contends bitterly for power with the great Frederic Barbarossa of Germany. It was the age of Guelph and Ghibelene. The powers of State and Church were contending angrily for supremacy, and amid the stern tumults of the dark and troublous times the Eleventh General Council of the Church is summoned (1178) to pronounce condemnation and doom upon the Waldenses of the mountain valleys; for it is all important in the eyes of the pow ers of the earth, that no unorthodox teaching must be tolerated in the land, even though a sovereign pontiff proceed to replenish his war-wasted coffers, by a sale of indulgences. Gather in the gold and hire every idle sword in Europe for the service of Holy Church, for the Vaudois mountaineers have turned to the records of their faith and are detecting the emptiness, the pride, the cruelty of the hierarchy of Rome. While bishops are yet discussing doctrines, and admonishing the heretics, an army with banners descends upon the hamlets and sanctuaries of the Vaudois, and a harvest of death is reaped by the Crusaders of the Alps (1204). It has been estimated that upwards of 200,000 of these innocent Christian people were ruthlessly slain by the champions of priestly domination.

Irrepressible heretics are these. No suffering, no reproaches, no devastations can suffice to convince them of the divine authority of the Roman hierarchs of whom venality, tyranny and avarice are the leading characteristics. They look forward to a better day with prophetic hope, and we may well believe that in all their sore trials and tribulations they could realize the blessed faith "There remaineth a rest for the people of God!"

Councils decree monstrous doctrines, the chains of superstitious observance are redoubled, and wars deluge christendom with blood. The reign of righteousness seems ended on earth, but gradually and insensibly the principles of human right and of the Divine beneficence get standing room in the world. The mills of the Gods are grinding evermore, and a nobler day dawns. The blood of the martyrs is the fruitful seed of the true church. Even the wrath and cruelty of dissolute and spiritually blinded kings become the levers of a nation's elevation, and of the overthrow of terrible and time dishonored wrong.

The morning dawns, and the light comes gradually with liberty and righteous law as its hand maidens. The day advances and a host gathers for a vast onward progress, and then it is seen that time not only has its revenges, but its glorious compensations. The noon-tide comes and we mount in hope to Pisgah heights, and look forward to the still brighter day advancing, and backward in wonder toward that grim past:

"Where mighty clamors, wars and world noised deeds Are silent now in dust,

Gone like a tremble of the huddling reeds
Beneath some sudden gust;

Old forms and creeds have vanished,
Tossed out to wither like unsightly weeds
From the world's garden banished."

S. R.

WHAT means this vast upheaval of religious belief now going on? Why have tongues that have long been silent now broken into utterances that startle the world? It means that human souls could no longer bear the burden of false doctrines; that the light of

For Friends' Intelligencer.

THE GREAT ETERNAL I AM.

The Ever-present, All-creative, All-sustaining Power, In connection with the above, a great poet has said, "Being whom we call God, and know no more." This undoubtedly is true as to the result of creaturely research; but there ever is a channel through which may be obtained an intimate knowledge of the great I Am. Were this not so, surely the command would not have been given, "Be still and know that I am God." This command comes to us through David, the Psalmist of Israel, and accords with his many testimonies to the indwelling of the Divine Spirit.

It calls us to strive after the attainment of that mental condition, in which we can individually realize the great and blessed truth that the heart of man is the temple of the living God. "He dwelleth with you and shall be in you."

The language used by the Psalmist bids us "Be still that we may recognize the workings of this indwelling, ever present Power, and by a submission to its government, know for ourselves that it can lead out of error, and finally establish even finite man in the liberty which this guidance alone can give.

God is known through his intimate relations with his rational creation everywhere; known through the immediate workings of the Divine Spirit; known as an ever-present Power-a power for good; a power of creative energy, through which we live and move and have our being.

There are many passages in the Scripture records in the form of either testimonies or injunctions that clearly show us the spirituality of the "Being whom we call God," and yet how prone we are to place Him on an outward throne-a material being, before whom all the nations of the earth shall be judged. Blessed is the condition of that man who stands divested of this material view, which is as a veil between God and man, and which may prevent a practical acknowledgement of the heavenly Presence and rule in the inner temple.

"Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is he wor

shipped with men's hands, etc.," but acceptable worship is a submission of the whole man to the control of this ever-present, everoffered guidance, which comes to the attentive mind, not perhaps through the voice of words, but through an inward consciousness of the heavenly Presence, leaving the impression "This is the way, walk thou in it." "Acquaint thyself with Him and be at peace." This is another Scripture injunction, which opens wide a door for intimate intercourse between man and his Maker, and in proportion as we avail ourselves of this blessed privilege, we shall realize the great truth that "God is a spirit, and dwelleth not in temples made with hands."

"Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?

"For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been saith the Lord but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word."

Philadelphia, Third mo. 1884.

For Friends' Intelligencer. THE DEPENDENT CLASSES.

J. J.

In every neighborhood or community are to be found some of our fellow-beings who are dependent upon those around them for the supply of their daily wants. If such should not be in our own household, they may not be far distant, and easily discovered in our usual walks. These dependents may be divided into four classes: the young, the old, the sick, and the poor.

The first class is the one most generally, and most cheerfully provided for. All adults having themselves passed through the periods of infancy and childhood, and knowing, as they must from observation, how much care, patience and sacrifice are required in the rearing of every child, cannot fail to recognize the law of compensation in endeavoring to do for others as much as has been done for them. In those who are parents the affection which they feel for their own children awakens a sympathy for the whole class, so that they do not require to be reminded of the necessity of providing for helpless infancy or older orphanage; while those who have never been parents, may have strengthened by the ties of association their natural feeling of tenderness for the young. This sympathy is so nearly universal in the human family that we should be likely to look with sus picion upon a being in human form that could resist the touching appeals of childhood's

want or woe.

And how important it is that we should not merely supply their physical wants, but that we should endeavor to make their childlife as happy and sunny as possible. In order to do this we must enter into sympathy with them in their undertakings, and try, as far as may be, to view things from their standpoint. A simple toy, a colored print, an humble flower, or a little assistance, accompanied by a kind word, may dispel the cloud of sorrow, and set the bow of hope in all its brightness before their moistened eyes.

But if the young with all their activity and animation, are claimants upon our sympathy, how much more the aged; those who on retracing the map of life find many places marked in shaded letters with the word regret, and who think that upon the plane which they now occupy they can almost discern the word obsolete; whose feebleness may be increased, and their pains aggravated by even an apprehension of neglect. These may be so keenly sensitive, and so fearful of mak ing trouble, that they will suffer many incon veniences and discomforts rather than make their wants known. Then, too, comes the contrast of present helplessness with former independence, and the mortification of knowing that their opinions are no longer sought, or their judgment respected. Those who are kind by nature, educated by experience, and refined by grace will omit no opportunity to administer a crumb of comfort to the aged, care-worn heart, at the same time that they are making the necessary provision for the wants of the failing body.

The third class on our list embraces all those who from disease, mental or physical, are incapacitated from taking the needful care of themselves. Among savage and par tially civilized nations, this class is subject to the cruelty resulting from persecution or willful neglect; as the lower orders of humanity, in common with the brute creation, seem to feel a repugnance toward one of their own species that is not in a normal condition of health. Much higher on the human scale are to be found those who do not intend to be unkind to the sick, but who through igno rance or neglect fail to provide for them the means for alleviating their sufferings or promoting their comfort. It may easily happen that the complaints of an invalid do not extend beyond a limited circle of hearers, all of whom (from lack of knowledge rather than of humanity) may seem as indifferent to his entreaties as they are to those of the bleating sheep or the lowing kine. The care-takers probably are of the class that, never having experienced sickness, regard the numerous requests and wayward fancies of their helpless charge as notions that he had "better get

rid

Last, not least, among the dependents come the poor. Those who on account of their improvidence, their misfortune, or their lack of opportunity have failed to procure for themselves the necessaries of life. "But poverty with most who whimper forth their long complaints is self-inflicted woe;" and being self inflicted gives an added keenness to the pang. He who in his young days was a spendthrift, and in his old ones has become a pauper, may feel the bitterness of regret for his folly, and nurse idle memories of what "might have been." But, on the other hand, there are many whose poverty is not attributable to their errors, though it may be to their mental constitution; and such are entitled to our sympathy as much for their lack of ability to provide means, as for the lack of the means themselves. It may also happen that poverty is a superadded condition to sickness, infancy

or age:

"Then age and want, oh, ill-matched pair!
Show man was made to mourn."

Many who are engaged in beneficent work, on their missions to the humble cottage or the crowded tenement, have no doubt found combinations of age, disease and poverty, with wretchedness that seemed sufficient to make them "shudder and grow sick at heart;" yet these objects of charity are endowed with human sensibilities, and many of them may be as finely organized as are the almoners

who minister to their wants.

It is refreshing to turn to the brighter side of the picture, and observe how much is constantly being done to relieve the distressed and to provide for the wants of all the dependent classes. Infant hospitals, orphan asylums, juvenile literature, excursions and " countryweek are provided for the young by the bounty of those whose sympathy with childlife is so active that they have all the compensation they desire in seeing the little ones made happy.

Among the most worthy of all our charities are the "Homes for the Aged;" establishments in which ample provision is made to satisfy the wants of both mind and body, and in which can be enjoyed society or retirement

Then, too, we have hospitals, diet-kitchens, dispensaries, flower-missions, libraries and other institutions, maintained by the munificence of those who have the humanity to feel that the sick and suffering should be made as comfortable as their cases will admit of, though the means be furnished entirely by strangers.

The poor of all ages and conditions are supplied with food, raiment and fuel, either in their own humble homes, or in establishments arranged for their accommodation.

These provisions may be reckoned among the blessings of civilized life; and the higher the grade of civilization the more ample will they be likely to be. Efficient organized charities are most fully developed in our large cities, where there is most demand for their provision as well as means for their support; and when we deplore the wickedness of cities it might be well for us to reflect upon the vast amount of good which is accomplished within their limits.

In rural districts the works of beneficence must be left more to individuals who, without the advantages of organization, and often with slender means, and various demands upon their time, make many sacrifices in their efforts to relieve suffering and aid the feeble. It is often touching to observe the unselfishness with which the poor will assist each other in seasons of affliction or destitution; and to find that a noble nature may dwell in a hovel, and tender sensibilities be clothed with a rough exterior.

But whether our residence be in city, or in country; whether our condition be that of wealth, competence or poverty; whether our mission be to engage in organized or in individual work; whether it be extended or limited; whether in our own household or in that of a neighbor; we have it in our power to give or to do something that shall keep alive our own sympathies and relieve or aid the Dependent Classes. H. *

Third mo. 15th, 1884.

NEVER complain of your birth, your training, your employment, your hardships; never fancy that you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned you. God understands His own plan; He knows what you want a great deal better than you do.

The very things you most deprecate as fatal limitations or obstructions, are probably what you most want. What you call hindrances,