childish conduct. Never either in you or in her father let her see what she can not imitate without sin. Remember both of you that you are the parents of a consecrated virgin, and that your example will teach her more than your precepts. Flowers are quick to fade, and a baleful wind soon withers the violet, the lily, and the crocus. Let her never appear in public unless accompanied by you. Let her never visit a church or a martyr's shrine unless with her mother. Let no young man greet her with smiles, no dandy with curled hair pay compliments to her. If our little virgin goes to keep solemn eves and all-night vigils, let her not stir a hair's breadth from her mother's side. She must not single out one of her maids to make her a special favorite or a confidante. What she says to one all ought to know. Let her choose for a companion not a handsome well-dressed girl, able to warble a song with liquid notes, but one pale and serious, sombrely attired and with the hue of melancholy. Let her take as her model some aged virgin of approved faith, character, and chastity, apt to instruct her by word and by example. She ought to rise at night to recite prayers and psalms; to sing hymns in the morning; at the third, sixth, and ninth hours to take her place in the line to do battle for Christ; and, lastly, to kindle her lamp and to offer her evening sacrifice. In these occupations let her pass the day, and when night comes let it find her still engaged in them. Let reading follow prayer with her, and prayer again succeed to reading. Time will seem short when employed on tasks so many and so varied. Let her learn, too, how to spin wool, to hold the distaff, to put the basket in her lap, to turn the spinning wheel and to shape the yarn with her thumb. Let her put away with disdain silken fabrics, Chinese fleeces, and gold brocades; the clothing which she makes for herself should keep out the cold and not expose the body which it professes to cover. Let her food be herbs and wheaten bread, with now and then one or two small fishes. And that I may not waste more time in giving precepts for the regulation of her appetite, let her meals always leave her hungry and able on the moment to begin readirg or chanting. I strongly disapprove - especially for those of tender years of long and immoderate fasts in which week is added to week, and even oil and apples are forbidden as food. I have learned by experience that the ass toiling along the highway makes for an inn when it is weary.... Let her treasures be not silks or gems, but manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures; and in these let her think less of gilding, and Babylonian parchment, and arabesque patterns, than of correctness and accurate punctuation. Let her begin by learning the Psalter, and then let her gather rules of life out of the proverbs of Solomon. From the Preacher let her gain the habit of despising the world and its vanities. Let her follow the example set in Job of virtue and patience. Then let her pass on to the Gospels, never to be laid aside when once they have been taken in hand. Let her also drink in with a willing heart the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles. As soon as she has enriched the storehouse of her mind with these treasures, let her commit to memory the prophets, the heptateuch, the books of Kings and of Chronicles, the rolls also of Ezra and Esther. When she has done all these she may safely read the Song of Songs, but not before: for, were she to read it at the beginning, she would fail to perceive that, though it is written in fleshly words, it is a marriage song of a spiritual bridal. And not understanding this she would suffer hurt from it. Cyprian's writings let her have always in her hands. The letters of Athanasius and the treatises of Hilary she may go through without fear of stumbling. Let her take pleasure in the works and wits of all in whose books a due regard for the faith is not neglected. But if she reads the works of others, let it be rather to judge them than to follow them. You will answer, "How shall I, a woman of the world, living at Rome, surrounded by a crowd, be able to observe all these injunctions?" In that case do not undertake a burthen to which you are not equal. When you have weaned Paula as Isaac was weaned, and when you have clothed her as Samuel was clothed, send her to her grandmother and aunt; give up this most precious of gems, to be placed in Mary's chamber and to rest in the cradle where the infant Jesus cried. Let her be brought up in a monastery, let her be one amid companies of virgins, let her learn to avoid swearing, let her regard lying as sacrilege, let her be ignorant of the world, let her live the angelic life, while in the flesh let her be without the flesh, and let her suppose that all human beings are like herself. CHAPTER V NEW PEOPLES IN THE EMPIRE THE Readings in this chapter deal with the period of the breakdown of the Roman authority in the provinces, and the barbarian deluge. From being on the defensive the Empire, after two centuries of resistance, finally fell before the repeated onslaughts of peoples who had gradually come to realize Roman weakness and barbarian strength. It was a period of great tribal movements, and when the movements were over and the different tribes had finally settled down within the boundaries of the old Empire, the old civilization had in large part vanished. To the Christian Church was left the task of preserving what remained and of building up a new civilization in western Europe. This required nearly a thousand years. The task confronting the Church was that of transforming the sixth-century barbarian into the civilized man of the fifteenth century, ready to begin anew the upward march of civilization. This long, weary thousand years covered the period known as the Middle Ages. Up to the eleventh century was a particularly difficult period; after that the tide began to turn. The Readings given here, and in succeeding chapters, serve to illustrate the enormous problem facing the few constructive forces in this ancient society. Cæsar (46) and Tacitus (47) briefly describe the manners and the degree of civilization of the invading Germans. Dill (48) gives an interesting description of how the ancient world was shocked by the news that Rome had been taken and sacked by the barbarian Alaric, in 410 A.D., while the extract from Giry and Réville (49) pictures the passing of Roman towns as the barbarians came into control. Kingsley (50) writes with sympathetic pen of the invaders and what they brought into the ancient world. Reading 51 is a general form, much used in the Middle Ages, by which to grant privileges and immunities to churches, monasteries, and church officers, so that they might pursue their civilizing work unhampered by the barbarian chieftains. Number 52 is a specific grant to a monastery, by Charlemagne, of much the same privileges and immunities 46. The Hunting Germans and their Fighting Ways Caius Julius Cæsar (c. 100-44 B.C.), in his Commentaries on the Gallic Wars, published at Rome in 51 B.C., gives us a good picture of the life and manners of the German tribes east of the Rhine, as he learned them during his period of dealing with them. The Commentaries are noted for their accuracy and excellent literary style. Chap. 21. The Germans differ much from these usages [of the Gauls to the west, previously described], for they have neither Druids to preside over sacred offices, nor do they pay great regard to sacrifices. They rank in the number of gods those alone whom they behold, and by whose instrumentality they are obviously benefited, namely, the sun, fire, and the moon; they have not heard of the other deities even by report. Their whole life is occupied in hunting and in the pursuits of the military art; from childhood they devote themselves to fatigue and hardships. . . . Chap. 22. They do not pay much attention to agriculture, and a large portion of their food consists in milk, cheese, and flesh; nor has any one a fixed quantity of land or his own individual limits; but the magistrates and the leading men each year apportion to the tribes and families, who have united together, as much land as, and in the place in which, they think proper, and the year after compel them to remove elsewhere. For this enactment they advance many reasons — lest, seduced by long-continued custom, they may exchange their ardor in the waging of war for agriculture; lest they may be anxious to acquire extensive estates, and the more powerful drive the weaker from their possessions; lest they construct their houses with too great a desire to avoid heat and cold; lest the desire of wealth spring up, from which cause divisions and discords arise; and that they may keep the common people in a contented state of mind, when each sees his own means placed on an equality with [those of] the most powerful. Chap. 23. It is the greatest glory to the several states to have as wide deserts as possible around them, their frontiers having been laid waste. They consider this the real evidence of their prowess, that their neighbors shall be driven out of their lands and abandon them, and that no one dare settle near them; at the same time they think that they shall be on that account the more secure, because they have removed the apprehension of a sudden incursion. When a state either repels war waged against it, or wages it against another, magistrates are chosen to preside over that war with such authority, that they have the power of life and death. In peace there is no common magistrate, but the chiefs of provinces and cantons administer justice and determine controversies among their own people. Robberies which are commit ted beyond the boundaries of each state bear no infamy, and they avow that these are committed for the purpose of disciplining their youth and of preventing sloth. And when any of their chiefs has said in an assembly "that he will be their leader, let those who are willing to follow, give in their names"; they who approve of both the enterprise and the man arise and promise their assistance and are applauded by the people; such of them as have not followed him are accounted in the number of deserters and traitors, and confidence in all matters is afterward refused them. To injure guests they regard as impious; they defend from wrong those who have come to them for any purpose whatever, and esteem them inviolable; to them the houses of all are open and maintenance is freely supplied. 47. The Germans and their Domestic Habits The Latin historian, Cornelius Tacitus (c. 54-117), about the year 100 wrote and published a book called Germania, describing the character, habits, and political institutions of the Germans. He had never visited Germany and probably obtained his information from Roman traders and soldiers. While regarded as an accurate historical writer, he nevertheless has been suspected of attempting to point a moral for the Romans by his descriptions of the better side of German life. The following extract gives a very favorable picture of their domestic ways. I agree in the opinion that the Germans have never inter-married with other nations; but to be a race pure, unmixed, and stamped with a distinct character. Hence a family likeness pervades the whole, though they are so numerous: eyes stern and blue; ruddy hair; large bodies, powerful in sudden exertions, but impatient of toil and labor, least of all capable of sustaining thirst and heat. Cold and hunger they are accustomed by their climate and soil to endure. The land, though varied to a considerable extent in its aspect, is yet universally shagged with forests, or deformed by marshes; moister on the side of Gaul, more bleak on the side of Noricum and Pannonia. It is productive of grain, but unkindly to fruit trees. It abounds in flocks and herds, but generally of a small breed. . . . They It is well known that the Germans do not inhabit cities. dwell scattered and separate, as a spring, meadow, or grove may chance to invite them. [In their villages] they are not acquainted with the use of mortar and tiles; and for every purpose use rude unshapen timber, fashioned with no view to beauty; but they take great pains to coat parts of their buildings with a kind of earth, so pure and shining that it gives them the appearance of painting. They also dig underground |