and moderation. And from time to time their superstitions should be compared with our Christian dogmas, and touched upon indirectly, so that the heathen, more out of confusion than exasperation, may blush for their absurd opinions and recognize that their detestable rites and legends do not escape our notice. It would also be natural to infer that, if their gods are omnipotent and beneficent and just, not only do they reward their worshipers but punish those who despise them. But if they do both in the temporal order, why do they spare the Christians, who turn nearly the whole world from their worship and disregard their regulations. And the Christians possess the fertile lands and the provinces fruitful in wine and olives and overflowing with other riches, and have left them, that is, the heathen with their gods, only the frozen lands in which these latter are wrongly thought to hold sway. And that they may not boast of the sway of the gods over these people as legitimate and existing always from the beginning, point out to them that the whole world was given over to the worship of idols until, illuminated by the knowledge of the Omnipotent God, its creator and ruler, it was vivified through the grace of Christ and reconciled to God. For when among Christians the children of the faithful are baptized daily, what do they do but purify themselves singly from the uncleanness and guilt of paganism in which the whole world was once involved? . . . ... 24. St. Boniface Asks for Prayers1 In the following letter St. Boniface requests Eadburga, abbess of Thanet, to pray for him and for the heathen. The letter seems to have been written at a time when he was greatly distressed at the obstacles his mission met among the Germans and also among apostate churchmen. "Everywhere toil, everywhere sorrow." We beseech your loving clemency with heartfelt prayers to deign to intercede for us with the Author of all. That you 1 Boniface, Epistolæ, No. 28. 1 may not be ignorant of the cause of this prayer, know that because of our sins the course of our mission is threatened by many storms. Everywhere toil, everywhere sorrow. "Without, fightings, within, fears." And most serious of all, the snares of false brethren surpass the malice of the heathen. Wherefore, entreat the sacred defender of my life, the one safe refuge of those in trouble, "the lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world," 2 with His protecting hand to keep me unharmed, as I pass through the lairs of such wolves; that where there should be found the fair feet of those who carry the lamp of the gospel of peace, there may not be discovered the footsteps of apostates who wander in darkness. . . . Meantime I pray you of your goodness to intercede for those heathen who have been intrusted to us by the Apostolic See; that the Savior of the world may snatch them from the worship of idols and unite them with the sons of their true mother, the Catholic Church, to the praise and glory of His name, "Who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." 3 25. How St. Boniface Ruled 4 Some passages in a letter from St. Boniface to the archbishop of Canterbury give an excellent idea of his abilities as an administrator and of his devotion to the Roman Church. The letter belongs to the year 747. We decreed and acknowledged in our synod that we wished to preserve to the end of our lives the Catholic faith and unity and submission to the Roman Church; that we bowed to St. Peter and to his vicar; that we should call a synod together every year; that the metropolitans would seek their palls 5 from the Holy See; and that we desired to follow in everything the precepts of St. Peter, so as to be numbered among the sheep intrusted to him. To this profession we all agreed and set our hands. We forwarded it to the church of St. Peter, Prince 1 2 Corinthians, vii, 5. 2 John, i, 29. 31 Timothy, ii, 4. 4 Boniface, Epistolæ, No. 42. 5 The pallium was the distinctive vestment of an archbishop, or metropolitan. of the Apostles, where the Roman clergy and the pope received it with rejoicing. We determined that each year the canonical decrees and the laws of the Church and the rule of the monastic life should be read and reenacted in the synod. We decreed that the metropolitan who has received the dignity of the pall should exhort and admonish the rest and examine who among them is concerned about the welfare of the people, and who is careless. The servants of God we forbade to hunt and wander in the woods with dogs and to keep hawks and falcons. We decreed that each year each priest should give to his bishop at Easter an account of his labors, reporting on the Catholic faith and baptism and on the whole order of his ministry. We decreed that each year each bishop should go carefully through his diocese, to confirm the people, to teach them, and to examine into and prohibit pagan practices, divinations, drawing of lots, auguries, incantations, and all unclean customs of the Gentiles. We forbade the servants of God to wear showy dress and military cloaks or to use arms. . . ... For the rest, dear brother, equal toil but greater danger hangs over us than over other priests, because the ancient canons enjoin the metropolitan to undertake the care of a whole province, and, to express my fears in a metaphor, we have undertaken to steer the ship among the waves of a savage sea, though we can neither guide it carefully nor lose it without a sin. . . . Therefore, the Church, which, like a great ship, sails over the sea of the world and is buffeted by the many waves of temptation in this life, must not be abandoned but steered. 26. St. Boniface's Martyrdom 1 After nearly forty years of work in Germany, St. Boniface went to Frisia (modern Holland), his original mission field. There in 754, at the hands of its heathen inhabitants, he suffered martyrdom. How great was the regard in which the saint was held appears from a letter written by the archbishop of Canterbury to some of Boniface's friends and companions in Germany. 1 Boniface, Epistolæ, No. 47. When we are told of any injury done to your Church, or any loss inflicted upon it, grief and sadness distress us; just as we share your joy in Christ, so do we mourn for Christ's sake over your adversities. For never can be obliterated from our memory the diverse and unceasing tribulations and sufferings which we in our hearts, but you with our father beloved of God, the martyr Boniface, long endured among persecuting pagans and leaders of heresy and schism on such a dangerous and barbarous mission. Now, when in the agony of martyrdom he has departed gloriously and happily with his companions to the everlasting rest of his heavenly home, you move with the more danger and difficulty, because you are deprived of such a father and teacher. Though the bitterness of this grief afflicts us, yet a certain new and strong delight comes often to our minds to sweeten and lessen the sorrow. The more frequently we reflect thereon, the more joyously we thank God that the race of the English settled in Britain deserved to send forth from itself openly before the eyes of all to spiritual agonies such a famous investigator of the divine books and such a splendid soldier of Christ, together with well-trained and instructed disciples, to the safety of many souls. . . . What has really been accomplished the outcome of events proclaims more splendidly than words, especially in those places which no teacher before him sought to visit for the purpose of preaching. Wherefore . . . we lovingly place this man among the splendid and glorious champions of the orthodox faith, and praise and venerate him. ... Accordingly, in our general synod — where we also conferred fully upon other things of which we can inform you only briefly we determined to fix the day when he and the band with him suffered martyrdom, and to celebrate it with a solemn yearly feast. We seek him especially as our patron, along with the blessed Gregory1 and Augustine 2; we are indeed assured of having him for such before Christ our Lord, whom he always loved during his life, and whom in death he gloriously exalted. Missionary to the English. 1 Pope Gregory the Great. 2 CHAPTER VI THE TEACHINGS OF MOHAMMED 1 THE chief source of our knowledge concerning the teachings of Mohammed is, of course, the Koran. Many of the revelations composing this work were delivered by the prophet while in a state of trance, and these, together with his public speeches and prayers were gathered, shortly after his death, into the book as it now exists. There can be no doubt that the Koran is practically identical with the prophet's own words. But besides the Koran, there are the private utterances of Mohammed to his intimate friends and carefully treasured in their memories. These traditional sayings, or "Table-talk," are very numerous more than seven thousand in the standard collection - but no one can tell how many represent the genuine words of the prophet. Pious Moslems, however, have accepted them as authentic, and have derived from them many rules for the guidance of Islam. 27. Prayer and Almsgiving 2 It is not righteousness that ye turn your face toward the east or the west, but righteousness is in him who believeth in God and the Last Day, and the angels, and the Scriptures, and the prophets, and who giveth wealth for the love of God to his kinsfolk and to orphans and the needy and the son of 1 The Speeches and Table-talk of the Prophet Mohammad, translated by Stanley Lane-Poole. London, 1882. Macmillan and Company. 2 Lane-Poole, Speeches and Table-talk, pp. 133-135. |