The Signs of the Times, vol. 12

December 30, 1886

“The Ten Kingdoms in the Dark Ages. The Burgundians. (Continued.)” The Signs of the Times 12, 50, p. 788.

THE BURGUNDIANS

(Continued.)

THERE remains yet one more to be noticed,—the Burgundians. It will be remembered that when the Burgundians, with the Vandals and Suevi, ravaged Gaul in 407, they took for their possessions the country that lay on the Saone and the Rhone. Their kingdom occupied “the whole valley of the Saone and Lower Rhone from Dijon to the Mediterranean, and included also the western half of Switzerland.”—Hallam’s Middles Ages, chapter 1, part 1, sec. 9, note 8. In A.D. 493 it included all of Switzerland that lies west of that part of the Rhine that flows from the south into the lake of Constance.”—Labberton’s New Historical Atlas, map 22. SITI December 30, 1886, page 788.1

It will also be remembered that the conquest of this kingdom was begun by Clovis, and was completed by his sons in 532; and that in the quadruple division of the Frankish dominion in 561 Burgundy with some additional counties in the north fell to Gontran, who fixed his capital there. When the Frankish dominions, having been united under Charles Martel, were again divided between Pepin the Short and Carloman, Burgundy fell to the share of Pepin. And when Carloman became a monk, and Pepin became king by the grace of Pope Zachary, of course Burgundy was but a province of his kingdom, as it was also of the empire of Charlemagne, the son of Pepin. In the division of the empire of Charlemagne, by the treaty of Verdun, 813, Burgundy was included in the portion of the Emperor Lothair, which, it will be remembered, reached from the Mediterranean to the North Sea, and included the Italian territory. SITI December 30, 1886, page 788.2

In the time of Charles the Fat, 877, Burgundy became again independent, under Boso, or Boson, husband of Ermangarde, the daughter of Emperor Louis II. This kingdom was called Provence as well as Burgundy, and sometimes Cir Jurane Burgundy, or as the real title ran, regnum Provincie sea Burgundie. It “included Provence, Dauphine, the southern part of Savoy, and the country between the Saone and the Jura” Mountains. There was formed another kingdom of Burgundy on the other side of the Jura Mountains. This was called the kingdom of trans Jurane Burgundy, or by title, regnum Iurense, Burgundia Trans-inrensis, and was founded by Count Rudolph in A.D. 888, and was recognized by the Emperor Arnulf the same year. It included the northern part of Savoy and all Switzerland between the Jura Mountains and the River Reuss. In 937, Rudolph’s son, Rudolph, traded his rights to the Italian crown for the Cir-Jurane Burgundy, and thus the two Burgundies—the Trans-Jurane and the Cis-Jurane—were united in the one kingdom of Burgundy or Arles, by title, regnum Burgundia, regnum Arelatense. This kingdom continued independent till A.D. 1032, when, in accordance with a treaty which had been made between the Emperor Henry II. and Rudolph III., its last king, the kingdom of Burgundy was received into the empire by the Emperor Conrad II.; Rudolph III. confirming it by will, as his niece Gisela was Conrad’s wife. The emperor thus assumed the Burgundian crown, and this “beautiful kingdom,” “full of prosperous cities,” became a part of the empire. SITI December 30, 1886, page 788.3

Of this kingdom and country, at this time, Hallam says:— SITI December 30, 1886, page 788.4

“The kingdom of Burgundy, or Arles, comprehended the whole mountainous region which we now call Switzerland. It was accordingly reunited to the Germanic Empire by the bequest of Rudolph along with the rest of his dominions. A numerous and ancient nobility, vassals one to another, or to the empire, divided the possession with ecclesiastical lords hardly less powerful than themselves. Of the former we find the counts of Zahringen, Kyburg, Hapsburg, and Topkenburg, most conspicuous; of the latter the Bishop of Coire, the Abbot of St. Fall, and Abbess of Seekingen. Every variety of feudal rights was early found and long preserved in Helvetia; nor is there any country whose history better illustrates that ambiguous relation—half property and half dominion—in which the territorial aristocracy under the feudal system stood with respect to their dependents. In the twelfth century the Swiss towns rise into some degree of importance. Zurich was eminent for commercial activity, and seems to have had no lord but the emperor. Basel, though subject to its bishop, possessed the usual privileges of municipal government. Berne and Friburg, founded only in that century, made a rapid progress, and the latter was raised, along with Zurich, by Frederick II., in 1218, to the rank of a free imperial city.”—Middle Ages, chap. 5, sec. 20. SITI December 30, 1886, page 788.5

In the northern part of what is now Switzerland, between Lake Constance and Lake Luzerne, and along the left bank of the Rhine, the Alemanni had settled when they first took the country from the Romans. The Castle of Hapsburg was possessed by Rudolf, the Alemannian nobleman who was made emperor in 1273. His ambitious descendants, the dukes of Austria, endeavored to enlarge their authority and possessions at the expense of the cantons. SITI December 30, 1886, page 788.6

“Several changes in the principal Helvetian families took place in the thirteenth century, before the end of which the House of Hapsburg, under the politic and enterprising Rudolph and his son Albert, became possessed, through various titles, of a great ascendancy in Switzerland. Of these titles none was more tempting to an ambitious chief than that of advocate to a convent. That specious name conveyed with it a kind of indefinite guardianship, and right of interference, which frequently ended in reversing the conditions of the ecclesiastical sovereign and its vassal.... Among other advocacies, Albert obtained that of some convents which had estates in the valleys of Schweitz and Underwald... The people of Schweitz had made Rudolph their advocate. They distrusted Albert, whose succession to his father’s inheritance spread alarm through Helvetia. It soon appeared that their suspicions were well founded. Besides the local rights which his ecclesiastical advocacies gave him over part of the forest cantons, he pretended, after his election to the empire, to send imperial bailiffs into their valleys as administrators of criminal justice.”—Id. SITI December 30, 1886, page 788.7

Some authorities make Frederick III. the one who sent these bailiffs, but whether it was Frederick or Albert the facts are the same. One of these bailiffs was Gesler, whom William Tell resisted. SITI December 30, 1886, page 788.8

“Their opporession of a people unused to control, whom it was plainly the design of Albert to reduce into servitude, excited those generous emotions of resentment which a brave and simple race have seldom the discretion to repress. Three men, Stauffacher of Schweitz, Furst of Uri, Melchthal of Underwald, each with ten chosen associates, met by night in a sequestered field, and swore to assert the common cause of their liberties, without bloodshed or injury to the rights of others. Their success was answerable to the justice of their undertaking; the three cantons unanimously took up arms, and expelled their oppressors without a contest. Albert’s assassination by his nephew which followed soon afterwards fortunately gave them leisure to consolidate their union (A.D. 1308).... But Leopold, duke of Austria, resolved to humble the peasants who had rebelled against his father, led a considerable force into their country. The Swiss, commending themselves to Heaven, and determined rather to perish than undergo that yoke a second time, though ignorant of regular discipline, and unprovided with defensive armor, utterly discomfited the assailants at Morgarten (A.D. 1315). SITI December 30, 1886, page 788.9

“This great victory, the Marathon of Switzerland, confirmed the independence of the three original cantons. After some years, Lucerne, contiguous in situation and alike in interests, was incorporated into their confederacy. It was far more materially enlarged about the middle of the fourteenth century by the accession of Zurich, Glaris, Zug, and Berne, all of which took place within two years. The first and last of these cities had already been engaged in frequent wars with the Helvetia nobility, and their internal polity was altogether republican.... The eight already enumerated are called the ancient cantons, and continued, till the late reformation of the Helvetic system, to possess several distinctive privileges and even rights of sovereignty over subject territories, in which the five cantons of Friburg, Soleure, Basel, Schaffhausen, and Apenzell did not participate. From this time the united cantons, but especially those of Berne and Zurich, began to extend their territories at the expense of the rural nobility.... Many feudal superiorities they obtained from the owners in a more peaceable manner, through purchase or mortgage. Thus the house of Austria, to which the extensive domains of the counts of Kyburg had developed, abandoning, after repeated defeats, its hopes of subduing the forest cantons, alienated a great part of its possessions to Zurich and Berne. And the last remnant of their ancient Helvetic territories in Argovia was wrested, in 1417, from Frederick, count of Tyrol, who, imprudently supporting Pope John XXIII. Against the Council of Constance, had been put to the ban of the empire. These conquests Berne could not be induced to restore, and thus completed the independence of the confederate republics. The other free cities, though not yet incorporated, and the few remaining nobles, whether lay or spiritual, of whom the Abbot of St. Fall was the principal, entered into separate leagues with different cantons. Switzerland became, therefore, in the first part of the fifteenth century, a free country, acknowledged as such by neighboring States, and subject to no external control, though still comprehended within the nominal sovereignty of the empire.... SITI December 30, 1886, page 788.10

“Though the House of Austria had ceased to menace the liberties of Helvetia, and had even been for many years its ally, the Emperor Maximilian ... endeavored to revive the unextinguished supremacy of the empire. That supremacy had just been restored in Germany by the establishment of the Imperial Chamber, and of a regular pecuniary contribution for its support, as well as for other purposes, in the Diet of Worms [1495]. The Helvetic cantons were summoned to yield obedience to these imperial laws.... Their refusal to comply brought on a war, wherein the Tyrolese subjects of Maximilian, and the Suabian league, a confederacy of cities in that province lately formed under the emperor’s auspices, were principally engaged against the Swiss. But the success of the latter was decisive; and after a terrible devastation of the frontiers of Germany, peace was concluded [1499] upon terms very honorable for Switzerland. The cantons were declared free from the jurisdiction of the Imperial Chamber, and from all contributions imposed by the Diet.... Though, perhaps, in the strictest letter of public law, the Swiss cantons were not absolutely released from their subjection to the empire until the treaty of Westphalia, their real sovereignty must be dated by an historian from the year when every prerogative which a Government can exercise was finally abandoned.”—Id. SITI December 30, 1886, page 788.11

And thus the kingdom of the Burgundians of A.D. 407 is represented in the independent confederacy of Switzerland to-day. J. SITI December 30, 1886, page 788.12

“Bible Answers to Bible Questions.—No. 6” The Signs of the Times 12, 50, pp. 790, 791.

LAST week the Bible question which we noticed was, “How are the dead raised up?” To that question we gave the Bible answer. In immediate connection with that question is this one, “With what body do they come?” The whole verse reads: “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?” 1 Corinthians 15:35. SITI December 30, 1886, page 790.1

This is an important question or the Bible would not ask it. It is one which we have a right to study or it would not be presented thus in the Bible. And the Bible having asked the question, we believe that the Bible answers it, because God does not trifle with men. The Bible is his revelation to man, and in it God has laid before us that which it is important and for our good to know. We have yet found no question asked in the Bible which is not answered by the Bible, unless it be of those questions which carry the answers in themselves. This question is not an exception. The Bible answers the question as to with what body the dead come when they are raised up. And, like all the other questions which we have examined, the Bible is the only place where the correct answer to this question can be found. And what the Bible says on the subject must settle the matter at once, for that is the truth, and nothing contrary to it can be. SITI December 30, 1886, page 790.2

Remember that the subject of the whole chapter in which this question is found is the resurrection of the dead. In verse 20, we read, “Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.” The first-fruits was the sample, and of the best of the great harvest that was to follow. There is to be a harvest of the earth. Of those who shall be gathered from the earth into the everlasting garner of God, Christ is the same. His glorious resurrection body is the sample, the pattern of all that shall be received by him from the earth. For says the Scripture, he “shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like ubnto his glorious body.” Philippians 3:21. And “we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” 1 John 3:2. SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.1

But Christ says, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell, the grave, and of death.” Revelation 1:18. And that same body that died on the cross; that same body that was pierced with the Roman spear; and that was laid in Joseph’s new tomb; that same body came forth from the tomb and lived again. That same body that died came forth from the dead. And so really was it so that he could say to them who had been with him before his death. “Handle me and see that it is I myself.” “Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side.” And when he came forth from the dead, the napkins which had enwrapped his sacred head, and the linen clothes that had been about his holy form, were laid in laces by themselves, while every vestige of the body was gone from the sepulcher. Thus the Saviour rose from the dead with the same body that died. He, says the Scripture, is “the first-fruits,” the sample, of those who shall come from the dead. Therefore, the dead come from the dead with the body that died, only that in the case of those who are Christ’s, the body will be immortal as his glorious body instead of the mortal body that was laid in the grave. SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.2

This is clearly stated by the scripture in Isaiah 26:19: “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” Now, how could it be possible for the “Dead body” of any person to arise unless it be the body that died? Yet bear in mind that when the dead body—the body that died—arises, if it be the body of a righteous person, it arises immortal instead of mortal as it died. For says the Scripture, “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Corinthians 15:51-54. SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.3

Next the Scripture uses a simile to illustrate this. Death and burial are likened to the sowing of grain. And so we read, “That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain; but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.” Verses 36-38. As, therefore, death and burial are likened to the sowing of seed, and as God giveth to every seed his own body, it is plain by this word that when the one who has died is quickened, is made to live again,—to every one is given his own body; not the body of some one else nor some other body, but “his own body.” When Christ was brought again from the dead he came with “his own body.” As he was the sample of all the harvest, so every one who shall be brought from the dead will come as he did, and as the Scripture declares, with “his own body.” SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.4

But the Scripture carries the subject yet farther, “All flesh is not the same flesh; but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.” Verse 39. And as God gives to every seed—every person—his own body, it follows that when men’s flesh is sown, it will be men’s flesh and not beasts’, nor birds’, nor fishes’ flesh, that will be raised at the resurrection of the dead. SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.5

Again says the Scripture: “There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.” Verse 40. Every person will have is own body, but it will be immortalized and glorified so that its nature and capabilities will as far transcend our bodies at present as the glory of Heaven transcends the earth. For “there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” Notice in all this that it is the same thing that is sown that is raised. “It is sown,” “it is raised.” The man who died is raised from the dead. The body that is sown, that body is raised, for God giveth to every seed “his own body.” Yet it is a changed body; changed from mortal to immortal, from corruptible to incorruptible, from weakness to power, from natural to spiritual, from dishonor to glory, for Christ “shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.6

We know that many attempt to apply scientific tests to the resurrection of the dead, as nowadays they do to every phase of revelation, and in the application of these scientific tests they cannot see how the dead can be raised, they cannot see how the body can be brought again from the dust. But it is not a scientific question at all. It is not susceptible of scientific tests. It is solely a question of the power of God, and science cannot touch it. SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.7

Yet it is said that though it be not itself a question of science, it must be according to science, for God cannot violate his own laws. It is not becoming for any one to say that what God says he will do, would be contrary to science. It may be indeed that it would be contrary to what man knows of science; it might be against man’s ideas of philosophy. But does it follow that therefore it must be contrary to the science or the philosophy of the universe as known to God? We think not, for of a truth there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy. We do not believe that God is obliged to raise the dead according to men’s ideas of science or philosophy. Jevons justly says:— SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.8

“We perpetually find ourselves in the position of finite minds attempting infinite problems, and can we be sure that where we see contradiction an Infinite Intelligence might not discover perfect logical harmony?” SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.9

As for the idea that “God cannot violate his own laws,” we put the thing just the other way, that as God is the source of all law, it is impossible that anything which he should do could be a violation of law. SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.10

We know that a piece of lead, or any other metal except gold or silver, can be transformed by heat in contact with air, into a powder or species of ashes or lime. Those ashes can then be taken and heated in a crucible with some grains of wheat, and the metal will be seen rising from its ashes and reassuming its original form and properties. And if chemistry can do this, faith says that though the human body be reduced to ashes or to the dust of earth, the power of God can cause the body to arise from its ashes, and to re-assume its original form; and that this renewed form will be immortal, spiritual, and glorious, according to the working whereby the ChristpGod is able to subdue all things unto himself. The Bible question is, “With what body do they come?” The Bible answer is, God giveth it a body as pleaseth him, and to every seed (every person) “his own body.” SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.11

J.

“A Pagan Paradise” The Signs of the Times 12, 50, pp. 791, 792.

IN its notes on the Sunday-school lesson the Advance of November 18 says:— SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.1

“Hades is the place of departed souls, without reference to their character or condition. Paradise and Gehenna, or hell, are both in hades.” SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.2

Can it really be that hell and paradise are both in the same place? If that be so, it either cannot be a very bad thing to be in hell, or else it cannot be a very nice thing after all to be in paradise. Or is hades such a large country that it can contain both paradise and the lake of fire, for gehenna is the lake of fire, and yet they be so far apart that the misery of the one cannot detract from the happiness of the other? The Advance says that “paradise and gehenna, or hell, are both in hades.” But where is hades? The Advance leaves us totally in the dark on this point. True we are told what it is,—“the place of departed souls,“—but we should like to know where it is. SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.3

Does the Advance agree with Josephus that SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.4

“Hades is a place in the world not regularly finished; a subterraneous [under-ground] region, where the light of this world does not shine; from which circumstance, that in this place the light does not shine, it cannot be but there must be in it perpetual darkness”?—Discourse on Hades. SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.5

As Josephus, like the Advance, says that “in this region there is a certain place set apart, as a lake of unquenchable fire,” and that is gehenna or hell; and as Josephus speaks of another part of this under-ground region, this hades, and describes it in such a way as to correspond to the Advance’s suggestion of paradise, we think perhaps the Advance has in view the very place that Josephus describes. If so, will the Advance tell its readers just what place “in the world” it is. SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.6

By the way, the thought just occurs to us that as Mr. Peloubet in his “Select Notes” on the international lessons, gravely informs the Sunday-schools of the land, on the lesson for January 9, 1887, that “A most able argument has been presented by President Warren of Boston University, in his late book, ‘Paradise Found,’ in favor of the north pole as the site of Eden;” and as the Advance oracularly declares that paradise and gehenna or hell are both in hades; it must be that hades is at the north pole. That being the case it would necessarily follow that gehenna is at the north pole, which would hardly correspond with the idea of the temperature that is generally supposed to be the special characteristic of hell. It does, however, exactly correspond to what we were taught in Sunday-school in our youth. For, when a child, the writer of this article was actually taught in an “orthodox” “evangelical” Sunday-school that the gnashing of teeth of the lost was really the chattering of the teeth of the lost was really the chattering of the teeth from shivering in the excessive cold of the place of departed souls. When such stuff as this, and that of the Advance, is seriously taught in the Sunday-schools, then how far removed is the Christian world from downright paganism on the subject of the place and state of the dead? SITI December 30, 1886, page 791.7

The Bible deals in no such nonsense. Neither paradise nor gehenna is in hades. Hades, in the New Testament, as well as sheol in the Old, is the place of the dead. But that place is in the grave, in the dust of the earth. For at the resurrection that is where they are found. “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.” Daniel 12:2. “Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” Isaiah 26:19. “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection.” Matthew 27:52, 53. “All that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth.” John 5:28, 29. According to the word of God, the grave, the dust of the earth, is the place of the dead. SITI December 30, 1886, page 792.1

The tree of life is in the midst of paradise. Revelation 2:7. But the tree of life is on either side of the river of life, and the river of life proceeds “out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Therefore, according to the word of God, paradise is in the presence of the throne of God. SITI December 30, 1886, page 792.2

Gehenna or hell,—the lake of fire,—is not found until the judgment of the great day. “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him.” Matthew 25:31, 41. And when gehenna is kindled, it is when, at the end of the millennium, the devil and the wicked of all the earth go up on the breadth of the earth, and compass the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire comes down from God out of Heaven and devours them. Revelation 20:7-9. There it is, and then it is, and not till then, that gehenna is found. SITI December 30, 1886, page 792.3

It is most devoutly to be wished that the word of God, instead of pagan superstition, could be taught in the Sunday-schools. J. SITI December 30, 1886, page 792.4