Frederic Ozanam - Civilization in the 5th Century

DOUBTLESS FASCINATING TO WATCH the genius of a people burst forth under a burning or an icy sky, on virgin soil, or in historic land, yield to the impress of contemporary events, and put forth its first blossoms in those epic traditions or in those familiar songs, which still retain all the uncultured perfume of nature. But beneath that popular poetry wherein the great nations of Europe have shown all the variety of their respective characters, we perceive a literature which is learned but common to all alike, and a depository of the theological, philosophical, and political doctrines which moulded for eight hundred years the education of Christendom. Let us study that common education, and consider the modern nations, no longer in that isolation to which the special historian of England or of Italy condemns himself, but in the spirit of that fruitful intercourse marked out for them by Providence, tracing the history of literature up to the Middle Age, by reascending to that obscure moment which beheld letters escaping from the collapse of the old order, and thence following it through the schools of the barbarous epoch, till the new settlement of the nations, and its egress from those schools to take modern languages in possession.

This long period extends from the fifth to the thirteenth century. Amidst the tempests of our times, and in face of the brevity of life, a powerful charm draws us to these studies. Wo seek in the history of literature for civilization, and in the story of the latter we mark human progress by the aid of Christianity. Perhaps in a period in which the bravest spirits can only see decay, a profession of the doctrine of progress is out of place; nor can one renew an old and discredited position, useless formerly as a commonplace, dangerous now-a-days as a paradox. This generous belief, or youthful illusion, if the name suits better, seems nothing better than a rash opinion, alike reproved by conscience and denied by history. The dogma of human perfectibility finds little adhesion in a discouraged society, but mayhap that very discouragement is in fault. Though often useful to humble man, it is never prudent to drive him to despair. Souls must not, as Plato says, lose their wings, and, renouncing a perfection pronounced impossible, fling themselves into pleasures of easy achievement. For there are two doctrines of progress: the first, nourished in the schools of sensualism, rehabilitates the passions, and, promising the nations an earthly paradise at the end of a flowery path, gives them only a premature hell at the end of a way of blood; whilst the second, born from and inspired by Christianity, points to progress in the victory of the spirit over the flesh, promises nothing but as prize of warfare, and pronounces the creed which carries war into the individual soul to be the only way of peace for the nations.

We must try and restore the doctrine of progress by Christianity as a comfort in these troubled days; we must justify it in refitting its own religious and philosophical principles, and cleansing it from errors which had placed it at the disposal of the most hateful aims; we must prove it by applying it to those ages which seem chosen to bely it, to an epoch of worse aspect, of misery unrivalled by our ownfor we cannot join with those who accuse Providence itself in the blame they cast on the present time. Traversing rapidly the period between the fall of the Empire and the decline of the barbarian powers, where most historians have found only ruin, we shall see the renewal of the human mind, and sketch the history of light in an age of darkness, of progress in an era of decay.

Paganism had no idea of progress; rather it felt itself to lie under a law of irremediable decay. Mindful of the height whence it had fallen, Humanity knew no way to remount its steeps. The Sacred Book of the Indians declared that in primitive ages, Justice stood firm on four feet, truth was supreme, and mortals owed to iniquity none of their good things; but as time went on, justice lost each foot in succession, and as each fell, rightly earned property diminished one quarter. Hesiod amused the Greeks by his tale of the Four Ages, the first of which saw modesty and justice fly, leaving to mortals only devouring grief and irreparable woe. The Romans, the most sensible of men, placed in their ancestors the ideal of all wisdom; and the senators of the age of Tiberius, seated at the feet of their ancestral images, resigned themselves to deterioration in the words of Horace

tas parentum, pejor avis tulit

Nos nequiores mox daturos

Progeniem vitiosiorem.

And if here or there a wonderful foreboding of the future breaks out, as in the case of Seneca, announcing in grand terms the revelation reserved by science for futurity, they were but the dawn-lights of Christianity just arising upon the earth, and gilding with its rays intellects which seemed most remote from its influence.

It is with the Gospel that the doctrine of progress appeared, not only teaching, but enforcing human perfectibility; the saying Estote perfecti condemns humanity to an endless advancefor its end is in eternity. And what was of precept to the individual, became the law of Society. St. Paul, comparing the Church to a mighty body, desires it to increase to a perfect maturity, and realize in its plenitude the humanity of Christ; and a Father of the Church, St. Vincent of Lerins, confirms this reading of the Sacred Text by inquiring, when he had established the immutability of Catholic dogma, Will, then, there be no progress in the Church of Christ ? Surely there will, and in plenty; for who could be so jealous of the good of mankind, so accursed of God, as to stay that progress ? But it must be advance and not change; of necessity, with the ages and centuries, there must be an increase of intelligence, of wisdom, of knowledge, for each as for all.

The great Bossuet continued this patristic tradition, and though so hostile to innovation, believed in an advance in the faith.

Although constant and perpetual, the Catholic unity is not without her progress; she is known in one place more thoroughly than in another, at one time more clearly, more distinctly, more universally than at another. We cannot wonder at this contrast between the sentiments of antiquity and of Christian times. Progress is an effort whereby man breaks loose from his present imperfection to seek perfection; from the real, to approach the ideal; from self-regard to that which is higher than self ; when he loves and is content with his corruption, there can be no progress. The ancients were, doubtless, aware of the divine spell of perfection; in many points they even came near to it, but perceived only under an obscure and misty figure, though it elevated souls for a time, weighed down by pagan egoism, they fell back upon self; and that mankind might come forth from itself not for a mere moment, but forever, the pure perfection of Gods revelation must shine upon his soul.