T| Francis of Assisi is pre-eminently the saint of the Middle Ages. Owing nothing to church or school, he was truly theo- didact, and if he perhaps did not perceive the revolutionary bearing of his preaching, he at least always refused to be ordained priest. He divined the superiority of the spiritual priesthood. The charm of his life is that, thanks to reliable documents, we find the man behind the wonder worker. We find in him not merely noble actions, we find in him a life in the true meaning of the word ; I mean, we feel in him both development and struggle. How mistaken are the annals of the Saints in representing him as
1 Dr. Johu Biowu, Horce Subsecivce, ii. 9.
ST. MATTHEW xvi. 19 309
from the very cradle surrounded with aureole and nimbus ! As if the finest and most manly of spectacles were not that of the man who conquers his soul hour after hour, fighting against himself, against the suggestions of egoism, idleness, discouragement, then at the moment when he might believe himself victorious, finding in the champions attracted by his ideal those who are destined if not to bring about its complete ruin, at least to give it its most terrible blows. Poor Francis ! The last years of his life were indeed a via dolorosa as painful as that where his Master sank down under the weight of the cross ; for it is still a joy to die for one's ideal, but what bitter pain to look on in advance at the apotheosis of one's body, while seeing one's soul — I would say his thought — misunderstood and frustrated.1
(3) But there is exhibited yet another fulfilment to the great promise. Peter is also the first to divine the secret of God, to follow the mind of the Spirit. He climbs rapidly to the highest peak, and is the first herald of the dawn. The old is, no doubt, very dear to him ; he clings to all that is devout and venerable with the tenacious loyalty of a true Hebrew churchman. He goes up " into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour." He ascends the house-top "to pray at the sixth hour." The services of the Temple and of the synagogue go on upon a parallel line with the first eucharists. But this Hebraic Christi- anity, or Christian Hebraism, cannot continue indefinitely. There are souls among the Gentiles longing for forgiveness, for rest and purity. They are not to dwell in the shadow, to tarry disappointed in the vestibule for ever. It is for Peter to fling back the doors once again. He receives the vision in the house of Simon, the tanner, by the seaside.
Far o'er the glowing western main His wistful brow was upward raised,
Where, like an angel's burning train, The burnished waters blazed.
And now his part as founder and rock is almost over. The reception of Cornelius is his last great act. The last mention of his name in St. Luke's narrative is in these sentences : " There rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, say- ing, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and elders
1 P. Sabatier, Life of St. Francis of Assist, p. xv.
5io THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM
came together for to consider of this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them" — his last words are characteristic — " But we helieve that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they."
II.
The Power of the Keys.
"Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Although the notion of opening and shutting shades off into that of " binding and loosing," it is obvious that the less familiar expression would not have been substituted for the more familiar without some specific reason, which reason is in this case supplied by the well-known meaning of the words themselves. The figure of " binding and loosing," for " allowing as lawful, or forbidding as unlawful," is so simple and obvious that no language has been wholly without it. Twice besides the expression is used : " Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt, xviii. 18) ; and "Whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them ; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained " (John xx. 23). On these occasions the words are spoken to others besides St. Peter, and on each occasion the sense is substantially the same : " So great shall be the authority of your decisions, that, unlike those of the ordinary schools or Rabbis, whatsoever you shall declare lawful shall be held lawful, what- soever you shall declare unlawful shall be held unlawful, in the highest tribunal in heaven."
1. It is, as it were, the solemn inauguration of the right of the Christian's conscience to judge with a discernment of good and evil, to which up to this time the world had seen no parallel. In that age, when the foundations of all ancient belief were shaken, when acts which up to that time had been regarded as lawful or praiseworthy were now condemned as sinful, or which before had been regarded as sinful were now enjoined as just and holy, it