The History of Christianity by John S. C. Abbott (free children's ebooks pdf .TXT) đź“–
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With great docility the king accepted the Christian teachers as his guides, and devoted himself with untiring energy to the work of abolishing idolatry and establishing Christianity throughout his realms. Vigorous and sagacious measures were adopted to throw contempt upon the ancient paganism. The idols were collected, and burned in huge bonfires amidst the derisive shoutings of the people. The statue of PĂ©roune, the most illustrious of the pagan gods, was dragged ignominiously through the streets with a rope round its neck, followed by the hooting multitude pelting it with mud and scourging it with whips; until at last, battered and defaced, it was dragged to the top of a precipice, and tumbled headlong into the river.
Vladimir now issued a decree to all the inhabitants of the capital and of all the adjoining region to repair to the banks of the Dneiper, in the vicinity of Kief, to be baptized. The rich and the poor, the nobles and the serfs, were alike summoned. At the appointed day the multitude assembled by tens of thousands, and crowded the banks of the stream. The emperor himself at length appeared, accompanied by a large number of ecclesiastics from Constantinople. He took his seat upon an elevated throne that he might witness the imposing ceremonies.
At a given signal, the whole multitude waded slowly into the stream. Some boldly advanced up to their necks; others, more timid, ventured only up to their waists. Fathers and mothers led their children by the hand. When all were standing quietly in the stream, the clergy upon the shore offered baptismal prayers, chanted hymns of thanksgiving, and then declared that all were Christians, having been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The multitude then came up from the water nominal Christians.
Vladimir, who was sincere and truthful in all these strange movements, was in a transport of joy. Profoundly excited by the sublimity of the scene, he raised his flooded eyes to heaven, and, with great fervor, offered the following simple and touching prayer:—
“O thou Creator of heaven and earth! extend thy blessing to these thy new children. May they know thee as the true God, and be strengthened by thee in the true religion! Come to my help against the temptations of the Evil Spirit, and I will praise thy name.”
Thus, at a blow, paganism was demolished throughout nearly all Russia, and Christianity was introduced in its place. Imperial energies were expended in rearing artistic churches of stone all over the empire. Christian missionaries, under the patronage of the emperor, traversed the realm, teaching the people the new religion. Nearly all the population gladly received the Christian faith. Some, however, still adhered to paganism. Vladimir respected their rights of conscience, and for a few years the wretched delusions of idolatry lingered in secluded spots; but Russia became nominally a Christian land.
Light dawned rapidly upon the mind of Vladimir, and he became a warm-hearted Christian,—one of the most loving and lovable of men. War had been his passion. In this respect his whole nature seemed to be changed. Nothing but dire necessity could lead him to an appeal to arms. The Princess Anne appears to have been a sincere Christian. She found a happy home in the Palace of Kief. Her virtues and piety won the love and reverence of her husband. Her whole life was devoted to doing good; and, when this Christian sister fell asleep in Jesus, she was soon followed to the tomb by her grief-stricken husband.
The name of Vladimir is still revered throughout all Russia. He was the greatest benefactor Russia ever knew. In his career we see how noble is the life of the Christian: it is the only life which is truly noble. Christianity, as a principle, embraces every virtue which can glow in an angel’s bosom: as an agent of beneficence, it promotes all conceivable good for time and eternity; as an agent of happiness, it fills all homes and all hearts with joy; as a motive to action, it combines all the conceivable joys of an endless life to inspire one with tireless energies to promote God’s glory and man’s welfare.
THE REFORMATION.
Two Aspects of Catholicism.—​Jubilee at Rome.—​Infamy of Philip of France.—​Banditti Bishops.—​Sale of Indulgences.—​Tetzel the Peddler.—​The Rise of Protestantism.—​Luther and the Diet at Worms.—​Intolerance of Charles V.—​Civil War and its Reverses.—​Perfidy of Charles V.—​Coalition against the Protestants.—​Abdication of Charles V.—​His Death.
THE Papal Church presents two aspects quite different from each other. The one is that of a spiritual and practical religion, in which that branch of the Church of Christ has furnished some of the most lovely exhibitions of piety the world has ever seen. FĂ©nelon and Pascal were among the noblest of the disciples of the Redeemer. Through all the darkest ages of the Church there have been a multitude, which no man can number, who have followed their Saviour, even to the cross, in his lowly life of benevolence, and his self-sacrifice for others.
The Catholic Church was, for centuries, almost the only organized representative of the religion of Jesus. It contained within its bosom all the piety there was on earth. These humble Christians, sometimes buried and almost smothered beneath the ceremonies which the Church imposed upon them, manifested through life the true spirit of Jesus, and passed away, in death, triumphant to their crowns.
But there is another aspect in which the Papal Church presents itself on the pages of history. It is that of a political organization, grasped by ambitions men, and wielded by them as an instrument of personal aggrandizement.
The Bishop of Rome, claiming to stand in God’s stead, with power to admit to heaven or to consign to hell, became, in many cases, a conspirator with kings and princes to inthrall mankind. As an illustration of this infamous perversion of Christianity, it may be mentioned, that, early in the fourteenth century, Pope Boniface designed to get up a magnificent celebration in honor of the popedom.
He appointed a jubilee at Rome. As an inducement to lead an innumerable band to cluster in homage around him, he promised that all who came to Rome to attend the jubilee should not only have their past sins pardoned, but should also receive an indulgence, or, as it was popularly understood, permission to commit any sins they wished for a limited time to come. We easily believe that which we wish to believe. The proud and dissolute barons of Europe were glad to accept a doctrine by which they could so easily escape the penalty of their enormous sins. They were also only too eager to support the pope in all his pretensions, receiving in return his powerful, almost supernatural influence in holding the fanatic peasantry in subjection to their will.
At this magnificent jubilee the pope led the procession, dressed in imperial robes. Two swords, the emblems of temporal and of spiritual power, and the globe, the emblem of universal sovereignty, were carried before him. A herald went in advance, crying,—
“Peter, behold thy successor! Christ, behold thy vicar upon earth!” Such crimes not unfrequently in this life meet with conspicuous punishment. Pope Boniface became insane, broke from his keepers, and foaming at the mouth, and gnashing his teeth, died uttering the most horrid blasphemies.
After the death of Boniface, Philip, King of France, surnamed the Handsome, who was then the most powerful monarch in Christendom, bribed a majority of the cardinals to elect one of his creatures to the pontifical chair. There was a vile, unscrupulous courtier in the palace, who had been promoted to the high ecclesiastical position of Archbishop of Bordeaux. He made as little pretence to piety as did the hounds he followed in the chase. The king summoned the archbishop, whose name was Bernard de Goth, to meet him at one of his hunting-lodges in the forest. There he said to him,—
“Archbishop, I have power to make you pope if I choose. If you will promise me six favors which I shall ask of you as pope, I will confer upon you that dignity.”
The astonished and overjoyed archbishop threw himself at the king’s feet, saying, “My lord, it is for you to command, for me to obey. I shall be always ready to do your will.”
“The six special favors I have to ask are these: first, that you will reconcile me entirely with the Church, that I may be pardoned for my arrest of Pope Boniface VIII.; second, that you will give me and all my supporters the communion; third, that you will grant me tithes of the clergy for five years, to meet the expenses of the war in Flanders; fourth, that you will destroy the memory of Boniface VIII.; fifth, that you will confer the dignity of cardinal upon Messrs. Jacobo, Piero, and others of my friends. The sixth favor I reserve for the proper time and place: it is a great and secret thing.”
The archbishop, having taken the most solemn oaths to grant these requests, ascended, by the intrigues of the king, the papal throne, with the title of Clement V. He became as obsequiously the servant of the King of France as any slave is submissive to his master. The king and his pope joined hands to oppress and rob the world.
“His Holiness Clement V. was, therefore, the thrall and servant of Philip le Bel. No office was too lowly or sacrifice too large for the grateful pontiff: he became, in fact, a citizen of France, and a subject of the crown. He delivered over the clergy to the relentless hands of the king. He gave him tithes of all their livings. As the Count of Flanders owed money to Philip which he had no means of paying, the generosity of the pope came to the rescue; and he gave tithes of the Flemish clergy to the bankrupt count, in order to enable him to pay his debt to the exacting monarch. The pope did not reduce his own demands in consideration of the subsidies given to those powers: he completed, indeed, the ruin the royal tax-gatherers began; for he travelled in more than imperial state from end to end of France, and ate bishop and abbot and prior and prebendary out of house and home.”203
Christendom, then miserably poor, became impoverished by their exactions. These imperial robbers turned to the Jews, and robbed them mercilessly. The unarmed peasantry could present no resistance to the steel-clad warriors mounted on powerful chargers; which steeds were also caparisoned in coats of mail. These knights, in their impenetrable armor, could plunge upon almost any multitude of the peasantry, and disperse them like sheep when wolves rush into the fold. But it is not always that the battle is to the strong. We can often see in history the indications of God’s retributive providence. There were seasons when these proud knights fell before their despised victims.
In the beginning of the fourteenth century an army of these mailed warriors entered Flanders, hacking and hewing in all directions. The manufacturing citizens at the town of Courtrai secretly dug a blind ditch in the path of the invaders. The impetuous knights,
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