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Page 31
Thus went forth this awful thunderbolt for the first time against a
crowned head. A dissolute and ambitious monarch had called upon the
successor of St. Peter to yield up the keys, and lay the tiara at the
feet of the lion of Austria, because that successor had declared an
invincible determination to preserve the purity of the Church and its
liberties, at the sacrifice of life itself. The tyrant struck in anger,
and the Pontiff, incapable of yielding, gave the blow at last; for the
_temple_ of religion was insulted and invaded.
It is easy, when calmly seated at a winter's fireside, to charge Gregory
VII with an undue assumption of temporal power. But he who will study
the critical position of Europe during the eleventh century, must bow
down in reverence before the mighty mind of him who seized the moment to
proclaim amid the storm the independence of the Christian Church. Was
not this resistance to Henry expedient? Yes! And to one who knows that
the Church was the lever by which the world was raised from barbarism to
civilization, and will confess, with Guizot, that without a visible
head, Christianity would have perished in the shock that convulsed
Europe to its centre, the truth is revealed, as it was to the master
mind of Gregory, that had he pursued any other course, peace and unity,
as far as human eye extends, would have perished with the compromised
liberty of the Church of Rome. Let us rejoice, then, that this sainted
Pontiff hurled against the Austrian tyrant the anathema on which was
written--"The independence of the Church of God shall be sustained,
though the thrones of princes crumble around her, or though her
ministers are driven to seal their fidelity with death."
CHAPTER V
Fierce he broke forth: "And darest thou then
To beard the lion in his den?
The Douglas in his hall?
And hopest thou hence unscathed to got
No, by Saint Bride of Bothwell, no!
Up drawbridge, grooms!--ho! warder, ho!
Let the portcullis fall!"
MARMION
For three weeks the Lady Margaret had expected the duke and her brother;
for three weeks Gilbert had impatiently awaited his father's return.
Toward the close of September, a group of young children might be seen
clustering around an old man, at the edge of the forest, within a
stone's throw of the Church of the Nativity. They were listening eagerly
and delightedly to the patriarch they had surrounded, in whom we
recognize Father Omehr. The faces of the infant band were bright with
innocence and that happy alchemy which turns the merest toy to a costly
treasure. There was a tender piety on the features of those children
that moved the heart. Devotion lies upon the face of youth with a
peculiar fitness. As we see it dwelling in that unsullied abode, we
remember how the cheek of the Madonna is pressed against the infant in
her arms. Their instructor seemed to have caught a portion of their
light-heartedness. Sad recollections and gloomy anticipations were
forgotten. The throes of the empire and dangers of the Church intruded
not; for a moment, the aged missionary felt the elasticity of childhood,
and, as his heart was as pure, his face became as bright as theirs.
"Perhaps you have thought, my children," the priest was saying, while
his hand rested lightly upon the head of the nearest boy, "perhaps you
have thought at times, that had you been little children at Jerusalem
when our Saviour entered the city in triumph, and the people went forth
to meet Him with palm-branches, you too would have run to welcome Him,
and laid fruits and pretty flowers at His feet. Perhaps you have thought
that you would have offered Him some refreshing drink as He tottered
under His cross up the hill of Calvary; that you would have embraced Him
and wept most piteously when He fainted away in agony. How delightful
would it have been to receive a smile from your suffering Lord! You have
still the very same opportunity, my children, you would have had at
Jerusalem. You can still run to meet your Redeemer! He loves the flowers
of a pure heart better than those which make the green fields as
beautiful as the blue sky with its stars; and He values the tears we
shed for our sins more than the pain we should have felt to see Him
suffer. Still continue to bring the fruits and flowers of piety and
obedience to your parents to Jesus, and you will be permitted to wait
upon Him in heaven for all eternity.
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