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ON CHRISTIANITY, AS AN ORGAN OF POLITICAL MOVEMENT.

[JUNE,

monument, indeed, there cannot be than Against this principle, there could have this, of the infinity by which man may been no room for demur, were it not descend below his own capacities of grand- through that inveterate prejudice besieging eur; the gods, in some systems of religion, the modern mind, as though all religion, have been such and so monstrous by excess- however false, implied some scheme of es of wickedness, as to ensure, if annual- morals connected with it. However imly one hour of periodical eclipse should perfectly discharged, one function even of have left them at the mercy of man, a gen- the pagan priest (it is supposed) must have eral rush from their own worshippers for been-to guide, to counsel, to exhort, as a strangling them as mad dogs. Hypocrisy, teacher of morals. And had that been so, the the cringing of sycophants, and the cre- practical precepts, and the moral commendulities of fear, united to conceal this tary coming after even the grossest forms of misotheism; but we may be sure that it worship, or the most revolting mythological was widely diffused through the sincerities legends, might have operated to neutralize of the human heart. An intense desire their horrors, or even to allegorize them for kicking Jupiter, or for hanging him, if into better meanings. Lord Bacon, as a found convenient, must have lurked in the trial of skill, has attempted something of honorable Roman heart, before the sinceri- that sort in his "Wisdom of the Ancients." ty of human nature could have extorted But all this is modern refinement, either in upon the Roman stage a public declaration, the spirit of playful ingenuity or of ignothat their supreme gods were capable of rance. I have said sufficiently that there was enormities which a poor, unpretending hu- no doctrinal part in the religion of the paman creature [homuncio] would have dis- gans. There was a cultus, or ceremonial wordained. Many times the ideal of the di- ship: that constituted the sum-total of relivine nature, as adopted by pagan races, gion, in the idea of a pagan. There was a nefell under the contempt, not only of men cessity, for the sake of guarding its traditionsuperior to the national superstition, but al usages, and upholding and supporting its of men partaking in that superstition. Yet, pomp, that official persons should preside in with all those drawbacks, an ideal was an this cultus: that constituted the duty of the ideal. The being set up for adoration as priest. Beyond this ritual of public worgod, was such upon the whole to the wor- ship, there was nothing at all; nothing to shipper; since, if there had been any high- believe, nothing to understand. A set of er mode of excellence conceivable for him, legendary tales undoubtedly there was conthat higher mode would have virtually be- nected with the mythologic history of each come his deity. It cannot be doubted, separate deity. But in what sense you untherefore, that the nature of the national derstood these, or whether you were at all divinities indicated the qualities which acquainted with them, was a matter of inranked highest in the national estimation; difference to the priests; since many of these and that being contemplated continually in legends were variously related, and some the spirit of veneration, these qualities had apparently been propagated in ridicule must have worked an extensive conformity of the gods, rather than in their honor. to their own standard. The mythology sanctioned by the ritual of public worship, the features of moral nature in the gods distributed through that mythology, and sometimes commemorated by gleams in that ritual, domineered over the popular heart, even in those cases where the religion had been a derivative religion, and not originally moulded by impulses breathing from the native disposition. So that, upon the whole, such as were the gods of a nation, such was the nation: given the particular idolatry, it became possible to decipher the character of the idolaters. Where Moloch was worshipped, the people would naturally be found cruel; where the Paphian Venus, it could not be expected that they should escape the taint of a voluptuous effeminacy.

With Christianity a new scene was opened. In this religion the cultus, or form of worship, was not even the primary business, far less was it the exclusive business. The worship flowed as a direct consequence from the new idea exposed of the divine nature, and from the new idea of man's relations to this nature. Here was suddenly unmasked great doctrines, truths positive and directly avowed: whereas, in Pagan forms of religion, any notices which then were, or seemed to be, of circumstances surrounding the gods, related only to matters of fact or accident, such as that a particular god was the son or the nephew of some other god; a truth, if it were a truth, wholly impertinent to any interest of man. (To be continued.)

From the Athenæum.

The Life and Letters of Thomas à Becket,
now first gathered from the Contemporary
Historians. By the Rev. J. A. Giles,
D. C. L. 2 vols. Whittaker & Co.

eminent he was, independently of his social LIFE AND TIMES OF THOMAS A BECKET. position. If accident brought him into connection with men who introduced him to the king, accident assuredly did not give him his habits of business, his knowledge of canon and civil law, his general learning, his acute penetration, or his comTHERE is scarcely a personage in Eng- titious aids or lucky chances, would have manding genius. These, without advenlish history whose character has been more rendered him remarkable in any walk of disputed than that of Thomas à Becket. life. Nor must we forget that the personal It seems, indeed, as if the extreme opin- history of Becket is of high interest. It is ions of his age, whether favorable or hos- scarcely less extraordinary than any rotile to him, were to be for ever perpetu-mance of the period. Hence so many pens ated. Yet surely nothing is easier than attempted to describe it. Without includto arrive at a tolerably just estimate of ing the general historians who lived in or both the man and his actions. For such immediately after his time, a full score of an estimate there is no lack of materials on writers devoted themselves to his biography either side of the question. We have not alone. only an abundance of letters from his ene- perished, or hitherto eluded discovery, the Though some of them have either mies and his friends, but we have the tes- greater number subsist, but for the most timony of eye-witnesses in reference to the part either mutilated, or printed in fragmore important transactions of his life. Of ments only. his biographers, too (who are numerous), The merit of first collecting the scattered most not only lived in his own time, but authorities, whether fragmentary or entire, were personally acquainted with him, and whether biographical or epistolary, for the were often actors in the eventful scenes life of this celebrated chancellor and churchwhich followed his elevation to the primacy man, must be awarded to Dr. Giles. In of the English church. Nothing, therefore, this respect he has shown great industry, is wanted but a dispassionate mind to form no less than a laudable desire to vindicate a right notion of the man. As to a few of his subject from the angry aspersions of his actions, indeed, there may be more most English historians. Those authorities ground for difference of opinion. Before are partly printed, and partly MS.,-the they can be rightly understood, it is abso- former nearly as scarce as the latter. From lutely necessary to have contemplated the these various ever-disputed limits of the civil and eccle- abridgements only of which have yet been sources (fragments and siastical jurisdictions during many ages published, with two or three exceptions) prior to the 12th century. This knowledge the leading facts of Becket's life have been is not very readily or very easily obtained. derived; and they are here to be found It lies scattered through ponderous tomes with greater attention to the chronological of canons, through numerous imperial order than has before been attempted. We edicts, and through the decrees of assem- have, therefore, a considerable quantity of blies partaking of both a civil and ecclesi- original matter, and (what is of more astical character; and untiring must be the consequence) such matter as throws inpatience which perseveres in the intermina- creased light on the moral and mental ble search. Hence we need not wonder constitution of the subject. Such works at the contradictory judgments of historians on the policy the archbishop adopted towards the head of the state. Not that the truth is less attainable in this case than in the other; but blindly to censure or to praise was easier than to examine; and either was adopted according to the predilections of the writer. To such predilections, even more, perhaps, than to the indisposition for research into the nature and extent of the antagonistic jurisdictions, must be ascribed the widely divergent opinions respecting this eminent man-for

are indeed a contribution to literature; and much have we to regret, that, in an age of literary leisure, when collections of MSS. are so easily accessible, they so seldom come before us.

One of the MS. authorities adduced by Dr. Giles asserts that both the father and mother of Becket were from Normandy. The name is certainly foreign; but as Gilbert is uniformly represented as a respectable citizen of London (according to one account he had filled the office of Sheriff), it is more rational to infer that,

though of Norman descent (paternally, at rather deficient in erudition; and he had least), he was born in London. Who was the wisdom to pass in study the vacant his mother? "A Norman," replies one hours which other young men spent in writer;"A Saxon," says another; while amusement. A rigorous application, fola third stoutly maintains that she was lowed by a year's subsequent study of canon daughter of Amurath, a Pagan chief of the and civil law at Bologna, not only reHoly Land,-meaning, we suppose, a Mo-moved his deficiencies, but placed him on hammedan emir. It is a pity that so beau- higher ground than the rest of the clerks tiful a legend will not stand the test of crit- who lived in the palace of the primate. icism. For more than a century after the Though merely sub-deacon, he was preyouth of Gilbert, the name of Amurath was sented with two rural livings, and two unknown in that region. If not confined to stalls in the Cathedrals of London and the princes of the dynasty of Othman, it Lincoln; and the duties of all, therefore, was certainly so to the people subject to he must have performed by deputy,-so that house; and of neither rulers nor gov-early had abuses crept into the Anglo-Norerned does history make mention prior to man Church. Even when promoted to the 13th century. Besides, the legend is the archdeaconry of Canterbury, it was not sufficiently exposed by its internal improba- thought necessary that he should take any bility; and we are surprised that either Dr. Giles or Mr. Turner should have thought it worth a moment's serious consideration. Probably the mother was of the Saxon race we know but of one MS. that distinctly declares her to have been Norman; and as it mistakes her name, calling her Rose instead of Matilda, its authority is of no great weight. A Mohammedan she could not have been, from the grateful manner in which Becket himself alludes to the Christian instruction which he had received from her in his childhood, and, indeed, to the twenty-first year of his age.

Of the future Saint we may readily suppose that his natural parts were great, and his behaviour serious beyond his years, without admitting such stories as the following, which the author would have done well to pass over without comment:

"One day the father came to see his son, and when the boy was introduced into the presence of his father and the prior, the father prostrated himself at his feet. At seeing this, the prior said in anger, 'What are you about, you foolish old man? your son ought to fall down at your feet, not you at his!' But the father afterwards said to the prior in private, I was quite aware, my lord, of the nature of what I was doing: for that boy of mine will one day or other be great in the sight of the Lord."

higher orders than those of deacon. But his spiritual career (if such it may be called) was soon suspended; for by the influence of his patron the Archbishop, and of Henry, bishop of Winchester (a prince of the royal family), he was raised to the high post of Chancellor, at the early age of thirtyeight, viz. in 1155. This was not a solitary instance," observes Dr. Giles, "of high offices of state being placed in the hands of churchmen." We should think not: from the foundation of the Saxon kingdoms every chancellor had probably been an ecclesiastic; at least, we do not remember an exception. There is some inaccuracy, too, in another assertion, that Chancellor Becket ranked next to the king, and was the second person in authority. As chief minister, and still more as royal favorite, he might be second only to Henry; but it is certain that, as Chancellor Chief Justiciary. His office, however, was merely, his rank was inferior to that of the more wealthy than the other. He had charge of all vacant dignities, whether in Church or State; and as they were often conferred (or, we should rather say, sold, and that, too, after a considerable vacancy,

the proceeds all the while passing through his hands into the royal exchequer), according to his recommendation, it is not unreasonable to conclude that he was no Having studied under the canons of stranger, either to bribes offered for his Merton, next at Paris, and subsequently good word, or to some share of the profits entered into minor orders, Thomas ex- arising from the sale. On no other hyhibited talents so conspicuous and manners pothesis can we account for the receipt of so pleasing, that by some friends he was the enormous sums necessary to support introduced to Archbishop Theobald, who his more than royal state. Probably he presided over the see of Canterbury during took nothing for inferior church livings, the extraordinary period of twenty-two and this disinterested conduct is doubtless years. He soon found himself, however, one cause of his great popularity as Chan

cellor. But he was by no means blind to his own advantage: as his secretary, FitzStephen, observes,

"His great mind rather aimed at great objects, such as the Priorship of Beverley, and the presentation to the prebends of Hastings, which he got from the Earl of Augy, the Tower of London, with the service of the soldiers belonging to it, the Chatelainship of Eye, with its honor of two hundred and forty sol diers, and the castle of Berchamstead."

It might have been added, that, besides the church dignities before mentioned, (archdeacon of Canterbury, canon of two cathedrals, rector of two parishes, and this stall at Hastings, with the Priorship of Beverley,) he was Dean of Hastings, incumbent of many valuable livings, and a dignitary in several other dioceses. And well might "his great mind" look to some "great objects," since he had to support such amusements, such entertainments as the following:

"He generally amused himself, not in a set manner, but accidentally, and as it might happen, with hawks and falcons, or dogs of the chase, and in the game of chess,

establishment was true. The king sometimes rode on horseback into the hall where the Chancellor was sitting at table, with an arrow in his hand, as on his return from hunting, or on his way to the forest: sometimes he would drink a cup of wine, and, when he had seen the Chancellor, take his departure; at other times he would jump over the table, sit down and eat with him. Never were there two men more friendly, or on better terms with one another since Christianity first began.”

But most expensive of all were his military expeditions, in which he proved himself a sturdy member of the church militant. Thus one that knew him well, Roger of Pontigny, assures us:

"Afterwards, in the war between the French when the armies were assembled in March, at king and his own master, the king of England, the common boundaries of their territories, between Gisors, Trie and Courcelles, the Chancellor, besides the seven hundred knights of his own household, maintained twelve hundred other stipendiary knights, and four thousand serving-men, for the space of forty days. To every knight were assigned three shillings per day of the Chancellor's money towards their horses and esquires, and the knights

themselves all dined at the Chancellor's table. One day, though he was a clerk, he charged Where front to front the mimic warriors close, with lance in rest and horse at full speed To check the progress of their mimic foes. against Engelram at Trie, a valiant French knight, who was advancing towards him, and The house and table of the Chancellor were having unhorsed the rider, carried off his common to all of every rank who came to the horse in triumph. Indeed, the Chancellor's king's court, and needed hospitality: whether knights were every where foremost in the they were honorable men in reality, or at least whole English army, doing more valiant deeds appeared to be such. He never dined without than any of the others, and every where disthe company of earls and barons, whom he tinguishing themselves; for he himself was had invited. He ordered his hall to be strew- always at their head, encouraging them and ed every day with fresh straw and hay in win-pointing out the path to glory: he gave the ter, and with green branches in summer, that the numerous knights for whom the benches were insufficient might find the area clean and neat for their reception, and that their valuable clothes and beautiful shirts might not contract injury from its being dirty. His board shone with vessels of gold and silver, and abounded with rich dishes and precious liquors, so that whatever objects of consumption, either for eating or drinking, were recommended by their rarity, no price was great enough to deter his agents from purchasing them."

Often he had the additional expense of entertaining royalty; and as these occasions were sometimes unexpected, he held himself obliged, no doubt, to display the same pomp at ordinary meals:

signal for his men to advance or retreat, on one of those slender trumpets which were peculiar to his band, but which were well known to all the rest of the army around."

We will not transcribe the account of

his celebrated embassy to the French court, because the substance of it is to be found in our most popular histories. It is, however, less generally known, that during this journey his extravagance was such, that he gave a hundred shillings for a dish of eels, though he had so many hundreds of men to provide for daily :

"Such housekeeping as this was certainly formed on a gigantic scale; and there was equal magnificence in its minute details; for we are told that a dish of eels was one day "Occasionally the king came to the Chan-purchased for the Chancellor's table at the cellor's house to dinner, sometimes for the pleasure only, at other times from curiosity, to see whether what fame said of his table and

high price of a hundred shillings. From this single fact it may be inferred, without doubt, that the Chancellor's table was equally sump

tuous in other respects, and when this instance been administered by order of some bishop of his prodigality was known at home at Eng- or even the metropolitan; and the revenues land, it became a proverb in the mouths of (of which a strict account was always kept) men for a very long time. We meet with

other intimations in the contemporary biogra-paid over to the successor immediately after phers, which leave no room to doubt that his appointment. Subsequently, when a Becket's table was rich, and even luxurious, clergyman was nominated for the same purnot only whilst he was chancellor, but even pose expressly by the crown, he was regardafter his promotion to the archbishopric of ed, not as the royal servant, but as steward Canterbury; but it is also admitted by all, for the next dignitary. But it was soon that he partook but frugally of what was set found to be as easy as it was profitable to before him, and even if this was not the fact, we should not infer that he was addicted to maintain the clergyman in the post for years the pleasures of the table from the anecdote together. Rufus seems to have been the above mentioned, which merely tends to show first, openly and unblushingly, to effect this that he was anxious to display his magnifi-kind of spoliation; and he is said to have cence and riches in the eyes of the French learned the lesson from Flambard, his unpeople." scrupulous justiciary. It was not difficult.

Did this churchman never once call to to give something like a reason for such an mind that such lavish waste was robbing of outrage. In regard to their temporalities, the poor? that to them belonged the reve-it was alleged, all prelacies were as much nues of his endless preferments, after a bare fiefs of the crown as those held by the secuallowance for necessary wants? Well may lar barons. On the demise of a feudatory, Lingard say, that at this period he had yet to learn the self-denying virtues of the Christian character.

The surprise of all England was unbounded when, in 1162, it was known that Becket was raised. to the primacy. For a time most people refused to believe in the possibility of so astounding a metamorphosis. The Bishop of Hereford exclaimed, Who can now say that miracles have ceased; seeing that a soldier is transferred into a priest, —a layman into an archbishop? But it is easy to perceive that Henry had good reasons for this promotion. As chancellor, Becket had uniformly supported his claims to the revenues of the vacant sees and other dignities, and why should not the same man, when archbishop and chancellor too, persevere in the same line of conduct? To understand the great subject of controversy between the Church and the Crown, it is necessary to advert to some transactions during the preceding reigns,-the more necessary as neither Dr. Giles nor our general historians (with one or two little known exceptions,) have attempted to do justice to the subject. If what follows be grave, it will perhaps be found instructive; certainly it is an indispensable key to Becket's character and position.

Though William the Norman had now and then kept dignities vacant that he might enjoy the revenues, he had seldom done so longer than a year; and his violation of the canons sinks into insignificance when compared with that of Rufus, his successor. In ancient and purer times, the temporalities of a vacant bishopric or abbacy had

the fief had necessarily, and from time immemorial, reverted to the original donor, and was never regranted to the heir without the payment of a heavy sum by way of relief. In countries where the law was not subject to the caprice of a despot, the relief was fixed and permanent-being rated according to the value of the fief; but in England the head of the state soon learned to exact far beyond the amount sanctioned by custom. The same rule was applied by Rufus to the dignities of the church. On every vacancy, the administration of each was placed in the hands of a royal officer; the revenues were paid into the royal exchequer; and to the monks or chapter, a portion was left barely sufficient for their more pressing wants. Nor was this all: sometimes (from the time of Rufus, indeed generally) the lands of the prelacy, with the rights, revenues, and feudal prestations connected with them, were sold to the highest bidder-frequently by auction; and as the purchaser knew not how long he might be permitted to farm the property, his interest was to make the most he could of his bargain before a successor were nominated. This state of things will give us some idea of the exactions to which the sub-tenants (the yeomen, farmers, and tillers of the ground) were subjected. Often they were wholly ruined, and were compelled to beg their bread from the charity of their neighbors.

As a natural consequence, when such vacations were long (and they were mostly from four to ten years), the buildings, whether churches, monasteries, colleges, farm-houses, or cottages, were sure