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dread of the world beyond. Such was scarcely the case even 
with the worst criminals in the medimval annals. The most 
guilty seldom failed, if not before, at least when death stared 
them in the face, to admit their guilt, and then they did their 
best to avert the punishments in store by the restitution of their 
ill-gotten plunder, by works of piety and charity. The infamous 
Brunehaut trembled before the rebukes of Columbanus, and 
suffered him to go his way without let or hindi’ance. * * * § Even 
Fredegonde, whose wickedness far surpassed hers, was known, 
under the pressure of sorrow and remorse, to recall some of her 
violent acts, f Agilulf, king of the Lombards, at the instance 
of Gregory the Great restored what he had plundered from the 
churches, replaced the bishops in their sees, and raised them 
from a condition of the deepest degradation to dignity and 
power. J We may complain of the penitential system of the 
medigeval Church, but it at least served, however feebly, to keep 
alive the remembrance of two truths which heathenism could 
not be said to have grasped— the justice and the mercy of God ; 
His justice, in that He must needs punish sinners \ His mercv, 
in that He was willing to forgive them. A moral standard of 
some sort was thus kept up before men's eyes, while at the 
same time they were not allowed altogether to forget that God 
was “ not extreme to mark what is done amiss." § Thus, 
imperfect as was the Christianity of the Middle Ages, far as it 
had declined from the doctrine proclaimed by Christ and His 
Apostles, it was still the salt of the earth. External as religion 
too often was, it produced at least, to use the words of a German 
writer, “ submission to law and the acknowledgment of spiri- 
tual inferiority," it “implied self-subjection, self-conquest, 
self-sacrifice." || In fact, it has been as true since the promul- 
gation of Christianity as it was before, that “ the law is our 
schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.” 
9. Nor must we, in carrying on, however briefly, an inquiry 
such as this, fail to remark on the influence of the Crusades 
upon the mind of Christian Europe. At first sight a war 
carried on professedly for Christ's sake, and it alone, would 
seem to be a dangerous infraction of the spirit of His saying, 
“ My kingdom is not of this world." But on a closer examina- 
tion of the facts, we find that here as elsewhere the rule holds 
good, that whatever is done for conscience' sake, however ill- 
* Milman, Latin Christianity, book iv. c. 5. 
t Guizot, Hist. France, c. 8. The story is told by Gregory of Tours. 
I Milman, Latin Christianity, book iii. c. 7. 
§ See some remarks in Milman, Latin Christianity, book iii. c. 5, 
I] Cited in Milman, Latin Christianity, book iii. c. 5. 
VOL. XI. 2 B 
