Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/606

590 INTELLECT AND FAITH. The example of Raymond Lully illustrates the pitfalls which surrounded the footsteps of all who ventured on the dangerous path of theology. That science assumed to know and define all the secrets of the universe, and yet it was constantly growing, as ingenious or daring 1 thinkers would suggest new theories or frame new deductions from data already settled. Hosts of these were condemned ; the annals of an intellectual centre like the Universi- ty of Paris are crowded with sentences pronounced against novel points of faith and their unlucky authors. Occasionally, however, some new dogma would arise, would be vehemently debated, would refuse to be suppressed, and would finally triumph after a more or less prolonged struggle, and would then take its place among the eternal verities which it was heresy to call in question. This curious process of dogmatic evolution in an infallible Church is too instructive not to be illustrated with one or two examples. It might seem a question beyond the grasp of finite intelli- gence to determine whether the souls of the blessed are wafted to heaven and at once enjoy the ineffable bliss of beholding the Divine Essence, or whether they have to await the resurrection and the Day of Judgment. This was not a mere theoretical ques- tion, however, but had a very practical aspect, for in the exist- ing anthropomorphism of belief, it might well be thought that the efficacy of the intercession of saints depended on their admis- sion to the presence of God, and the guardians of every shrine boasting of a relic relied for their revenues on the popular confi- dence that its saint was able to make personal appeals for the fulfilment of his worshippers' prayers. The desired conclusion was only reached by gradual steps. The subject was one which had not escaped the attention of the early Fathers, and St. Augus- tin assumes that the full fruition of the Vision of God can only be enjoyed by the soul after it has been clothed in the resurrected bod v. Among the errors condemned in 124:3 by Guillaume d'Au- x> vergne and the University of Paris Avere two, one of which held that the Divine Essence is not and will not be seen bv either God and was rather to be worshipped as a saint. — Albertini Repetitio nova, Valentia. 1534, col. 406. The publication of a complete critical edition of Lully's works has recently- been commenced at Padua by D. Jeron. Roselld. under the patronage of the Archduke Ludwi<? Salvator of Austria.