by religion, notreligion by men.' `Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His justice,' saidthe Mater, `and all these things shall be added unto you.' The most surprising feature of this interior movement, of thiseffort to obey the Gospel precepts of repentance and self-renewal, is thefact that it was not limited to the domain of conscience, where every mancan, of he so wills, be sovereign. In the troubled years of the fifteenthcentury, mysticism retired within itself, isolating itself from the worldof men; the "Imitation," for example, proposed the monastic enclosure orthe more secret region of the heart as the proper field of spiritualendeavor. But the mystical leaders of the sixteenth century practicedafrom of spirituality directed to the science of God and to the demands ofcharity -- a momentous change of outlook , the causes of which defyanalysis. While fashioning a body of religious men dedicated to prayerand renunciation, they were almost unconsciously training an army ofseasoned troops for the greater battles in which the Church would findherself engaged. They became the most successful opponents of thoseheretics whom they had at first ignored; and the reform which they beganby accomplishing within themselves overflowed and radiated its vigour inthe larger realm of institutions. It is this movement of renascent fervour, this tremor of awakeningfaith, that allows us to consider the sixteenth century, for all itsblasphemy and bloodshed, as one of the fairest in Christian history. At amoment when the mind of man was everywhere scintillating with highintelligence and even genius, the human soul burgeoned also with sublimeexaltation, in acts of faith, hope and charity. It was indeed thepressure exerted by this distinctively religious phenomenon upon theChurch's rulers that determined the reform of morals, institutions andtheological education, just as, by altering the climate of the period, itenabled the greatest of a...
