The Signs of the Times, vol. 12

February 4, 1886

“The Ostrogoths and the Visigoths. (Continued.)” The Signs of the Times 12, 5, p. 68.

(Continued.)

“THE progress of the Goths had been checked by the doubtful event of that bloody day; and the Imperial generals, whose army would have been consumed by the repetition of such a contest, embraced the more rational plan of destroying the barbarians by the wants and pressure of their own multitudes. They prepared to confine the Visigoths in the narrow angle of land between the Danube, the desert of Scythia, and the mountains of Hemus, till their strength and spirit should be insensibly wasted by the inevitable operation of famine. The design was prosecuted with some conduct and success; the barbarians had almost exhausted their own magazines, and the harvests of the country; and the diligence of Saturninus, the master-general of the cavalry, was mployed to improve the strength, and to contract the extent, of the Roman fortifications. His labors were interrupted by the alarming intelligence, that new swarms of Barbarians had passed the unguarded Danube, either to support the cause, or to imitate the example, of Fritigern. SITI February 4, 1886, page 68.1

“The just apprehension, that he himself might be surrounded, and overwhelmed, by the arms of hostile and unknown nations, compelled Saturninus to relinquish the siege of the Gothic camp; and the indignant Visigoths, breaking from their confinement, satiated their hunger and revenge by the repeated devastation of the fruitful country, which extends above three hundred miles from the banks of the Danube to the straits of the Hellespont. The sagacious Fritigern had successfully appealed to the passions, as well as to the interest, of his Barbarian allies; and the love of rapine, and the hatred of Rome, seconded, or even prevented, the eloquence of his ambassadors. He cemented a strict and useful alliance with the great body of his countrymen, who obeyed Alatheus and Saphrax as the guardians of their infant king; the long animosity of rival tribes was suspended by the sense of their common interest; the independent part of the nation was ssociated under one standard; and the chiefs of the Ostrogoths ppear to have yielded to the superior genius of the general of the Visigoths. He obtained the formidable aid of the Taifale, whose military renown was disgraced and polluted by the public infamy of their domestic manners.... SITI February 4, 1886, page 68.2

“But the most powerful auxiliaries of the Goths were drawn from the camp of those enemies who had expelled them from their native seats. The loose subordination, and extensive possessions, of the Huns and the Alani, delayed the conquests, and distracted the councils, of that victorious people. Several of the hordes were allured by the liberal promises of Fritigern; and the rapid cavalry of Scythia added weight and energy to the steady and strenuous efforts of the Gothic infantry. The Sarmatians, who could never forgive the successor of Valentinian, enjoyed and increased the general confusion; and a seasonable irruption of the Alemanni, into the provinces of Gaul, engaged the attention, and diverted the forces, of the emperor of the West.” SITI February 4, 1886, page 68.3

“While Gratian deserved and enjoyed the applause of his subjects, the Emperor Valens, who, at length, had removed his court and army from Antioch, was received by the people of Constantinople as the author of the public calamity. Before he had reposed himself ten days [A.D. 378, May 30-June 11] in the capital, he was urged by the licentious clamors of the Hippodrome to march against the barbarians, whom he had invited into his dominions; and the citizens, who are always brave at a distance from any real danger, declared, with confidence, that, if they were supplied with arms, they alone would undertake to deliver the province from the ravages of an insulting foe. The vain reproaches of an ignorant multitude hastened the downfall of the Roman empire; they provoked the desperate rashness of Valens; who did not find, either in his reputation or in his mind, any motives to support with firmness the public contempt. He was soon persuaded, by the successful achievements of his lieutenants, to despise the power of the Goths, who, by the diligence of Fritigern, were now collected in the neighborhood of Hadrianople. SITI February 4, 1886, page 68.4

“The march of the Taifale had been intercepted by the valiant Frigerid; the king of those licentious Barbarians was slain in battle; and the suppliant captives were sent into distant exile to cultivate the lands of Italy, which were assigned for their settlement in the vacant territories of Modena and Parma. The exploits of Sebastian, who was recently engaged in the service of Valens, and promoted to the rank of master-general of the infantry, were still more honorable to himself, and useful to the republic. He obtained the permission of selecting three hundred soldiers from each of the legions; and this separate detachment soon acquired the spirit of discipline, and the exercise of arms, which were almost forgotten under the reign of Valens. By the vigor and conduct of Sebastian, a large body of the Goths were surprised in their camp; and the immense spoil, which was recovered from their hands, filled the city of Hadrianople, and the adjacent plain. The splendid narratives, which the general transmitted of his own exploits, alarmed the Imperial court by the appearance of superior merit; and though he cautiously insisted on the difficulties of the Gothic war, his valor was praised, his advice was rejected; and Valens, who listened with pride and pleasure to the flattering suggestions of the eunuchs of the palace, was impatient to seize the glory of an easy and assured conquest. SITI February 4, 1886, page 68.5

“His army was strengthened by a numerous reinforcement of veterans; and his march from Constantinople to Hadrianople was conducted with so much military skill, that he prevented the activity of the barbarians, who designed to occupy the intermediate defiles, and to intercept either the troops themselves, or their convoys of provisions. The camp of Valens, which he pitched under the walls of Hadrianople, was fortified, according to the practice of the Romans, with a ditch and rampart; and a most important council was summoned, to decide the fate of the emperor and of the empire. The party of reason and of delay was strenuously maintained by Victor, who had corrected, by the lessons of experience, the native fierceness of the Sarmatian character; while Sebastian, with the flexible and obsequious eloquence of a courtier, represented every precaution, and every measure, that implied a doubt of immediate victory, as unworthy of the courage and majesty of their invincible monarch. SITI February 4, 1886, page 68.6

“The ruin of Valens was precipitated by the deceitful arts of Fritigern, and the prudent admonitions of the emperor of the West. The advantages of negotiating in the midst of war were perfectly understood by the general of the barbarians; and a Christian ecclesiastic was dispatched, as the holy minister of peace, to penetrate, and to perplex, the councils of the enemy. The misfortunes, as well as the provocations, of the Gothic nation, were forcibly and truly described by their ambassador; who protested, in the name of Fritigern, that he was still disposed to lay down his arms, or to employ them only in the defense of the empire; if he could secure for his wandering countrymen a tranquil settlement on the waste lands of Thrace, and a sufficient allowance of corn and cattle. But he added, in a whisper of confidential friendship, that the exasperated barbarians were averse to these reasonable conditions; and that Fritigern was doubtful whether he could accomplish the conclusion of the treaty, unless he found himself supported by the presence and terrors of an Imperial army. SITI February 4, 1886, page 68.7

“About the same time, Count Richomer returned from the West to announce the defeat and submission of the Alemanni, to inform Valens that his nephew advanced by rapid marches at the head of the veteran and victorious legions of Gaul, and to request, in the name of Gratian and of the republic, that every dangerous and decisive measure might be suspended, till the junction of the two emperors should insure the success of the Gothic war. But the feeble sovereign of the East was actuated only by the fatal illusions of pride and jealousy. He disdained the importunate advice; he rejected the humiliating aid; he secretly compared the ignominious, at least the inglorious, period of his own reign, with the fame of a beardless youth; and Valens rushed into the field, to erect his imaginary trophy, before the diligence of his colleague could usurp any share of the triumphs of the day.—Dec. and Fall, chap. 26, par. 18, 20. SITI February 4, 1886, page 68.8

A. T. J.

“‘The Abiding Sabbath.’ Sabbath of the Law” The Signs of the Times 12, 5, pp. 72, 73.

SABBATH OF THE LAW

IN further notice of “The Abiding Sabbath,” we shall here give some extracts from the author’s discussion of the fourth commandment, showing the universal and everlasting obligation of the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Lord. He says:— SITI February 4, 1886, page 72.1

“The giving of the law at Sinai is the loftiest landmark in the history of Israel. It is the beginning of their civil and religious polity. From that moment Israel became the nation of Jehovah, the nation of the law, the leader among the nations of the earth in the search after a positive righteousness. That the Sabbath is a part of that code, has therefore a meaning not for the Hebrew alone, but for the whole race of mankind. SITI February 4, 1886, page 72.2

“Everywhere in the sacred writings of the Hebrews they are reminded that they are the people peculiarly guided by Providence. Historian, psalmist, and prophet never tire in recounting the marvelous interpositions of Jehovah in behalf of his chosen people. And this thought is the key-note to the decalogue, ‘I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage’ (Exodus 20:2), is the introduction to the law. When therefore the Sabbath is introduced into the decalogue, while its old significance as a testimony of creation is not lost, but especially recalled, it becomes, beside, a monument of the divine Providence whose particular manifestations Israel, among the nations, has most largely experienced. The Sabbath of the law is the Sabbath of Providence. SITI February 4, 1886, page 72.3

“The declaration on Sinai is perhaps the strongest attestation which the Sabbath ordinance has received. It is henceforth based upon an express command of God himself, is given in circumstances of the most impressive solemnity, and has received the awful sanction of embodiment in the moral law, against which ‘the soul that sinneth, it shall die.’ Ezekiel 18:4. God has spoken, and his creatures must obey or perish. SITI February 4, 1886, page 72.4

“We commonly speak of the decalogue as the ‘ten commandments.’ A more precise rendering of the Hebrew terms would be the ‘ten words’ (Exodus 34:28, margin; Deuteronomy 4:13; 10:2, 4, margin), an exact equivalent of which we have taken from the Greek, in the word ‘decalogue.’ These statutes are therefore not simply commands or precepts of God, for God may give commandments which have only a transient and local effect; they are in a distinctive sense the word of God, an essential part of that word which ‘abideth.’ In the decalogue we get a glimpse of that inner movement of the divine will which is the permanent foundation for all temporary ordinances. It is not contended that this use of language is rigidly uniform, but only that by the phrase, ‘the ten words,’ as well as in the general scope of Hebrew legislation, the moral law is fully distinguished from the civil and ceremonial law. The first is an abiding statement of the divine will; the last consists of transient ordinances having but a temporary and local meaning and force. The decalogue is also called the ‘testimony’ (Exodus 25:16 and in many other places), that is, the witness of the divine will; also the words of the ‘covenant’ (34:28), and ‘his (i.e., Jehovah’s) covenant’ (Deuteronomy 4:13), upon obedience to which his favor was in a special manner conditioned. The names given to this code declare its unchanging moral authority. SITI February 4, 1886, page 72.5

“The manner in which this law was given attests its special sanctity and high authority. Before its announcement, the people of Israel, by solemn rites, sanctified themselves, while the holy mountain was girded with the death-line which no mortal could pass and live. When the appointed day came, to the sublime accompaniment of pealing thunders and flashing lightnings, the loud shrilling of angel-blown trumpets, the smoking mountain, and the quaking earth, from the lips of Jehovah himself sounded forth ‘with a great voice’ the awful sentences of this divine law, to which in the same way ‘he added no more.’ Deuteronomy 5:22. Not by the mouth of an angel or prophet came this sublimest code of morals, but the words were formed in air by the power of the Eternal himself. And when it was to be recorded, no human scribe took down the sacred utterances; they were engraved by no angel hand; but with his own finger he inscribed on tables of stone, whose preparation, in the first instance, was ‘the work of God,’ the words of his will. Exodus 31:18; 32:16; 34:1, 4, 28. SITI February 4, 1886, page 73.1

“The law declared by his own mouth and indited by his own hand was finally placed in the ark of the covenant, underneath the mercy-seat, where sprinkled blood might atone for its violation; .. and beneath the flaming manifestation of the very presence of the Almighty, the glory of the shekinah; circumstances signifying forever the divine source of this law and the divine solicitude that it should be obeyed. This superior solemnity and majesty of announcement and conservation distinguish the decalogue above all other laws given to man, and separate it widely from the civil polity and ritual afterwards given by the hand of Moses. These latter are written by no almighty finger and spoken to the people by no divine voice; for these it is sufficient that Moses hear and record them. SITI February 4, 1886, page 73.2

“Of the law thus impressively given, the fourth commandment forms a part. Amid the same cloud of glory, the same thunders and lightnings, uttered by the same dread voice of the Infinite One, and graven by his finger, came forth these words as well: ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ It is impossible, in view of these facts, to class the Sabbath with the ceremonial institutions of Israel. By the sacred seal of the divine lip and finger, it has been raised far above those perishing rites. In other words, it belongs to that moral law which Paul calls ‘holy, and just, and good’ (Romans 7:12), and not that ritual law of which Peter declares, ‘Neither our fathers nor we were able to bear’ it. Acts 15:10. SITI February 4, 1886, page 73.3

“Nothing can be found in the form of words in which the fourth commandment is expressed which indicates that it is less universal in its obligation or less absolute in its authority than the other nine with which it is associated.... But it is sometimes claimed that this is simply a Mosaic institute, and therefore of transient force; that this has not, like the others, an inward reason which appeals to the conscience; that it is, in short, not a moral but a positive precept.... SITI February 4, 1886, page 73.4

“The proof which would exclude this commandment from the throne of moral authority on which the others are seated should amount to demonstration.... The distinction cannot be maintained between this commandment and the remainder of the decalogue. The prohibition of image-worship is not deemed essential by either Roman or Greek Christianity; but the more spiritual mind of Protestantism can see that this law is absolutely necessary to guard a truly spiritual conception of Deity. So, many excellent Christians have failed to discern the moral necessity of the Sabbath. Clearer insight will reveal that all the laws of the first table are guarded by this institution, as all in the second table are enforced by the tenth, ‘Thou shalt not covet.’ SITI February 4, 1886, page 73.5

“The moral authority of the decalogue did not begin with its announcement on Sinai. Its precepts had been known and practiced through all the patriarchal ages. Murder was condemned in Cain, and dishonor of parents in Ham. To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had come the knowledge of one God, and the last had exhorted his children against image-worship. Genesis 35:2. Theft, falsehood, and adultery are all denounced by the record of pre-Mosaic times. As a declaration of the eternal and unchanging moral law its binding force did not begin with its announcement at Horeb, but dated from the beginning of things, and for the same reason will endure until the consummation of all things. Nor was it given to Israel alone. The Gentiles ‘show the work of the law written in their hearts.’ Romans 2:14, 15. SITI February 4, 1886, page 73.6

“Jesus Christ has confirmed its obligation: ‘If thou wilt center into life, keep the commandments.’ Matthew 19:17. His great generalization of the whole into the double duty of love to God and man is a further confirmation of the persistence of its ethical force. James writes: ‘Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.’ James 2:10, 11. It is impossible to suppose that the apostle has not in mind the whole decalogue, and that he does not equally affirm the profaner of the Sabbath to be a violator of the whole law. In a statement of such gravity he must have specified the exception if any existed. It is worthy of our notice that he bases the sanctity of each command on the fact that each was spoken by one God. But the law of the Sabbath was as surely uttered by the voice of Jehovah as any other precept of the ten. If the ‘ten words’ of Sinai live to-day, imposing an unrelaxed obligation upon all mankind, as is testified both by the nature of the legislation and by the authority of Jesus and his apostles, the Sabbath shares their perpetuity, both of existence and obligation. SITI February 4, 1886, page 73.7

“In the law spoken by the mouth of God himself and written by his own finger, the transcript of his will, the reasons assigned for the institution of the Sabbath are such as appeal, not to Israel alone, but to man as man. The Sabbath recalls a fact of universal interest, the creation of the world, and is based on a process in the nature of God, who in some ineffable way ‘rested on the seventh day.’ The ideas connected with the Sabbath in the fourth commandment are thus of the most permanent and universal meaning. The institution, in the light of the reasons assigned, is as wide as the creation and as eternal as the Creator. SITI February 4, 1886, page 73.8

“Instituted at the creation by the example of the Creator, its obligation extends to every creature. It is inconceivable, on any theory of inspiration, that any narrower interpretation is to be given to this command. If language is to have any meaning at all, the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is not simply an Israelitish, but a human institution. As it answers a universal need, so is it enforced by a universal reason, being supported by the only state of facts that could create a perpetual institute,—the law of the beginning. SITI February 4, 1886, page 73.9

“These considerations cannot be treated with too much gravity. Long should pause the erring hand of man before it dares to chip away with the chisel of human reasonings one single word graven on the enduring tables by the hand of the infinite God. What is proposed? To make an erasure in a Heaven-born code; to expunge one article from the recorded will of the Eternal! Is the eternal tablet of his law to be defaced by a creature’s hand? He who proposes such an act should fortify himself by reasons as holy as God and as mighty as his power. None but consecrated hands could touch the ark of God; thrice holy should be the hands which would dare alter the testimony which lay within the ark. SITI February 4, 1886, page 73.10

“By the lasting authority of the whole decalogue, with which the fourth commandment is inseparably connected, which is the embodiment of immutable moral law, and by the very words used in framing the command, the Sabbath is shown to be an institution of absolute, universal, and unchanging obligation. SITI February 4, 1886, page 73.11

“Here may properly be inserted that prayer which the Anglican Church prescribes as a response to the recitation of each of the ten commandments: ‘Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.’” SITI February 4, 1886, page 73.12

Amen! say we. We know that our readers, after reading these quotations, will be most curious to know how in the world their author, in the face of them, is going to get the first day of the week into the fourth commandment, and the law of the beginning, as “The Abiding Sabbath.” Next week, if the Lord will, we shall set forth some of the ways in which he tries to do it. SITI February 4, 1886, page 73.13

A. T. J.

“The Commentary. Notes on the International Lesson. The Handwriting on the Wall. Daniel 5:1-12, 25-28” The Signs of the Times 12, 5, pp. 74, 75.

The Commentary

(February 14. Daniel 5:1-12, 25-28.)

AGAIN the scene of our lesson is laid in Babylon, “the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency.” Still she sits, the “lady of kingdoms,” comforting herself with the thought, “I shall be a lady forever;” “I shall not sit a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children.” But just then it was that she should no more be called the lady of kingdoms, and just then it was that there should come upon her that which had been spoken of her: “These two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.... Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.” Isaiah 47:1-15. SITI February 4, 1886, page 74.1

THE events noted in this lesson occurred about forty-four years after those of the lesson for last week. The great king Nebuchadnezzar had been dead about twenty-three years, and with him had departed the greatness and the real glory of the kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar himself had finally been brought to a full acknowledgment of the true God, and had published a decree to that effect to all the nations of his dominion (see Daniel 4); but it seems to have had no discernible impression on any that followed him in the kingdom, and iniquity culminated in his grandson, Belshazzar, the subject of the present lesson. Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his son, Evil-merodach; but “his lusts, and other wickedness made him so intolerable, that at length even his own relations conspired against him and put him to death,” after his having reigned two years, and Neriglissar, his brother-in-law, reigned in his stead. Neriglissar reigned nearly four years, and was succeeded, by merely in name, by Laborosoarchod, “a mere boy,” who was suffered to remain only a few months when Nabonadius, the father of Belshazzar, took the throne, B.C. 555, and held it till the end of the empire, B.C. 538. SITI February 4, 1886, page 74.2

NABONADIAS sometime, we know not just how long, before the ruin of the kingdom, had associated his son, Belshazzar, with himself in the rule of the kingdom. In the year 539 B.C. Cyrus, at the head of a heavy army of Medes and Persians, left Ecbatana in an expedition against Babylon. In the spring of 538 B.C. he crossed the Tigris, and came within sight of Babylon itself before he met any opposition. Nabonadius had drawn out an army to meet the invader a short distance from the city. The Babylonian forces were defeated, and King Nabonadius took refuge in Borsippa about six miles from Babylon. Cyrus shut him up there, left enough soldiers to hold him, and he with the main army laid siege to the glorious capital. The defeat of Nabonadius, and his flight to Borshippa, left to the young Belshazzar the sole direction of affairs in Babylon. SITI February 4, 1886, page 74.3

CYRUS carried on the siege for some time with no prospect of success against its “mountain-high” walls, and its braze, iron-barred gates, protected by an impassable moat. But midsummer coming on, and with it the grand Babylonian festival in honor of the god Tammuz, Cyrus determined on a stratagem. Knowing of the boundless license in which it was the wont of the Babylonians to indulge in that delebration, Cyrus went up the Euphrates a considerable distance, and dug channels by which to turn its waters from their course. As the Euphrates flowed through the city under the great walls, Cyrus’s plan was to draw the water down so shallow that men could wade without difficulty, and have them march into the city by the river-bed. But even that would have been of no avail, had not the Babylonians given themselves up to utter heedlessness in their wild orgies. For on each bank of the river, within the city, stood walls about a hundred and fifty feet high, with double gates of solid brass; and if only these gates had been shut or even watched, the Persians in the bed of the river would have been certainly caught in a trap. SITI February 4, 1886, page 75.1

HOWEVER, no such precaution was thought of in the proud, wicked city. “Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.” Then he called for the sacred vessels of Jehovah, which his grandfather had brought from the house of God in Jerusalem; “and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.” “In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spake, and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and show me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.” SITI February 4, 1886, page 75.2

BUT none of all these could tell him a word. Then his mother came in, and told him of Daniel’s ability to interpret secrets. Daniel was immediately sent for; and he came, and told the king the writing and the meaning of it. “God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.” “Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.” “Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” The drunkenness and lascivious carousals in the palace were copied to perfection in all parts of the city. Drunkenness was everywhere, and men and women mingled together in the awful obscenity of that heathen revelry which was the most acceptable worship of Venus and Adonis. SITI February 4, 1886, page 75.3

“MEANWHILE, outside the city, in silence and darkness, the Persians watched at the two points where the Euphrates entered and left the walls. Anxiously they noted the gradual sinking of the water in the river-bed; still more anxiously they watched to see if those within the walls would observe the suspicious circumstance, and sound an alarm through the city. Should such an alarm be given, all their labors would be lost.... But as they watched, no sounds of alarm reached them—only a confused noise of revel and riot, which showed that the unhappy townsmen were quite unconscious of the approach of danger. At last shadowy forms began to emerge from the obscurity of the deep river-bed, and on the landing-places opposite the river-gates clusters of men grew into solid columns. The undefended gateways were siezed [sic.]; a war-shout was raised; the alarm was spread; and swift runners started off to show the king of Babylon that his city was taken at one end. In the darkness and confusion of the night a terrible massacre ensued. The drunken revelers could make no resistance. The king, paralyzed with fear at the awful handwriting upon the wall, which too late had warned him of his peril, could do nothing even to check the progress of the assailants, who carried all before them everywhere. Bursting into the palace, a band of Persians made their way to the presence of the monarch, and slew him on the scene of his impious revelry.” SITI February 4, 1886, page 75.4

“In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.” SITI February 4, 1886, page 75.5

With this lesson read Rawlinson’s “Fourth Monarchy,” chap. 8, par. 52-55. Jeremiah 50 and 51; Isaiah 21:1-9; 47:1-15; 45:1-4. SITI February 4, 1886, page 75.6

A. T. J.

“‘Going to Canossa’” The Signs of the Times 12, 5, p. 80.

IN 1075, A. D. Pope Gregory VII. took it upon himself to interfere in the affairs of State of Germany. It was determined that any ecclesiastic who should accept office from the hands of a layman should be deposed, while the secular lord who should presume to bestow investiture, should be excommunicated. Henry IV. resisted the pope’s pretensions, and so was brought on the war of investitures, and the memorable contest between Hildebrand and Henry. Henry first deposed the pope, and then was in turn deposed by the pope; then he went to Canossa, and, in the garb of a supplicant, stood three days and nights in the wintry blast, awaiting the pleasure of Hildebrand to receive his submission. SITI February 4, 1886, page 80.1

In 1872, a similar contest arose between the German Chancellor, Bismarck, and Pope Pius IX. The contention went on quite bitterly; but in 1870 Prince Bismarck declared, “We will not go to Canossa.” SITI February 4, 1886, page 80.2

In 1885, a dispute sprang up, which, for a while, threatened war between Germany and Spain. He got out of the difficulty, Bismarck sought the mediation of the pope, and selected him as arbiter in his controversy. This so tickled the pope that he conferred upon the Chancellor the “Decoration of the Order of Christ.” And that so pleased Prince Bismarck that his gratitude found vent in a remarkable letter to the pope, of which we copy the following report in a London dispatch of January 18, 1886:— SITI February 4, 1886, page 80.3

“A sensation has been created by the publication of a letter from Prince Bismarck to the pope, acknowledging the receipt of the Decoration of the Order of Christ, recently conferred on the German Chancellor by his Holiness. The letter commences by addressing the pope as ‘Sire,’ and says: ‘Your kind letter and Decoration have greatly gratified myself and Emperor William.’ It then goes on to state that the pope’s words, that ‘papacy means to practice works of peace,’ first suggested to Prince Bismarck the idea of seeking the mediation of his Holiness in the Carolines question, and in deference to his faith and unweakened confidence in the pope’s elevated views and impartiality, he selected the pope as arbiter of the dispute. Germany and Spain have no cause to complain of the terms of the protocol, and the effect of the mediation will be lasting. Prince Bismarck says he will not neglect chances to testify his lively gratitude, highest devotion, and deepest respect for his Holiness in the future. The letter is signed, ‘Your very humble servant, Bismarck.’” SITI February 4, 1886, page 80.4

Taking the matter altogether, we think Prince Bismarck is a long way on the road, if he has not actually gone, to Canossa. And so princes and kings are all going to Canossa. SITI February 4, 1886, page 80.5

A. T. J.