"in my inner perception the integrity of my perceptions; and in the trifling thoughts which are suggested by trifling things, I was delighted in the truth." 1 There are very few persons who can say honestly what is said here, and yet only such persons have any right to sit in judgment upon Newman and Dale.

The progress of the soul in these three directions which we have considered, is also effective in realising the divine nature. By love the soul regards God as a Person; through the efforts which are involved in moral discipline it learns to see in Him the Master of souls; through the scientific apprehension it finds in Him, on the one hand, the immanent ground of things, and on the other, their compelling ideal. We have seen how God is related to the soul as a Person; in the next chapter we shall consider the conduct of the moral life through which His nature as a moral guide is revealed; while in the last chapter we shall try to sum up under the head of mystical theology such other conclusions about His nature as seem to be accessible upon the lines of the investigation which we have pursued.

1 Conf. i. 20.

CHAPTER XII

DIRECTION, CONFESSION, CASUISTRY

The freedom and dependence of the soul-The latter emphasised in medieval system-Relation to obedience, humility, and docility -Character of clericalism—Quietism—Direction—Secrecy— Veracity—Its limits-Casuistry-Its limits-Direction in the spiritual life-Qualities of a director.

THE

ness.

HERE are two related aspects of the soul of which account must be taken in any view of the religious life which aims at completeOn the one hand, the soul is capable of a certain amount of initiative, and from the feeling of this power there arises the sense of spiritual freedom. Hence it is that where Church organisation represses the individual, or refuses him adequate expression, there is a reaction and a tendency to form new religious bodies. This tendency is often most vigorous where the religious spirit is most alive. It is in England, America, and Russia, that there is at the same time the greatest intensity and the widest differences of religious opinion.

On the other hand, even the most self-reliant feel at times the need of an object upon which to lean. Those who have carried themselves the

most bravely before the world have sought now and then, in private it may be, some person to support them against that terrible sense of weakness and isolation which rebukes even the strongest heart at times. This sense of weakness is, therefore, an intrinsic character of the soul. It is also the spring of many excellences.

There is a special reason why we should dwell upon this topic. The fundamental difference between the two chief parties at the Reformation was not so much one of doctrine as of practice. The medieval Church with its compact organisation had encroached gradually upon the freedom of the individual until he was as clay in the hands of an ecclesiastical caste. Even as early as St Chrysostom the claims of the priesthood reached a pitch beyond which nothing further remained. "Men who had their abode and occupation in the world were entrusted with the control of celestial things, and received a power which God gave neither to angels nor to archangels. For it has not been said to them,' whatsoever ye bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever things ye loose shall be loosed.' For the rulers of the earth have power to bind upon earth, but only over the body, but this bond lays hold upon the soul and passes through the heavens; whatever the priests do below is confirmed by God in heaven, and the Master affirms the intention of His servants." And again, "the interval between the pastor and those over whom he exercises pastoral care

is as great as that which holds between man as a rational being and the irrational creatures."1 In a similar spirit St Bernard speaks with concern of "those who dare to tread the ways of life without a guide and preceptor, being at once disciples and masters in the spiritual life.” 2

The Reformers had not to deal with an ideal system in which, as Father John of Cronstadt says, the priest is an angel and not a man, but with one in which the defenders of the priesthood were content if they could prove that priests were no worse than other people. A class which undertakes the direction of the conscience and does not rise above the average character, is on the way to giving occasion of scandal. But there is no need to rake up the faults of the ecclesiastics of the sixteenth century, in order that we may find objections to the direction of the consciences of all mankind by any class whatever. The qualities required in a director are of such a kind that they can only be found now and then.

At the same time, the gain which has come from increased religious freedom has not been unmixed with loss. There are some virtues which can only flourish when the relation of dependence -which is not less real than the freedom of the soul is expressed in the positive organisation of life. Obedience, docility, and humility are often enjoined upon others by persons who would turn them to account; but for all that they have their 1 Chrys., de sacerd., 94, 183. 2 Sermon, 77.

place. And although in exaggeration these virtues issue in superstition and servility, the absence of them results in restlessness, in discourtesy, and in the ignorant self-assertion which is fatal to the finer graces of mind and spirit.

We have already seen how humility is connected with a genuine self-knowledge; it has also a bearing upon practice. In the form of a readiness to repress oneself it passes into obedience. "There is no obedience," says St Teresa, "where there is no resolution to suffer."1 The Jesuits have carried to its furthest pitch the cultivation of an obedience which does not, as in the case of a soldier, stop with the external act, but reaches the very depths of the soul. And in this way they have carried out a great psychological experiment. The uniform character of mind which is thus produced issues, of necessity, in that mediocrity to which reference has been made. But we must not make this stereotyped character into an insuperable objection against the spiritual exercises of Loyola. The mediocrity in question is the form which is taken by that sacrifice of self, to which the rules of Ignatius lead. But, in a less degree, a similar self-limitation is involved in all human organisation; and it will be found that this is a tax that must be paid universally. The unconscious compulsion of social life keeps each man more or less to his calling and office in the community, and refuses him the free exercise of 1 Life, xxvi. 4.