|
|
|
|
The History of St. Norbert
by J.C. Kirkfleet, O. Praem.; 1916, B. Herder, London
Jam Tanchelini per te Norberte nefandam
Conversa ejurat Belgica terra luem.
Vainly Tanchelm strove to sow Seeds of heresy and woe
In the peaceful land of Flanders . . .
If anyone thinks that in Christian Europe during the twelfth century people were but blind followers of a fanatic faith, he must indeed be glaringly ignorant of that period of history. " The disorder and moral relaxation," thus writes the historian Darras [B-8-1] "naturally developed by the War of Investitures, favored the rise, in the Western Churches, of numerous sects more or less closely allied to Manicheism, and tending to raise vice to the dignity of a system. These errors were thus a continuation of the series which had agitated Orleans, Arras and Toulouse, remains of the Eastern Paulicians, and forerunners of all modern systems which, under various names, aim at the overthrow of all authority, of hierarchical subordination, of the family and society. Their doctrinal errors, though agreeing in some points— such as the uselessness of the sacraments, of the invocation and veneration of the saints, and of prayers for the dead—are at variance in others, according to the views of their leaders. But their view of moral obligation is one: denial of all authority and rule—license and scandal. The first of these names which we meet in the twelfth century is that of Peter Bruys, whose followers styled themselves Petrobusians. He traversed Dauphiny, Provence and Languedoc, destroying and burning crosses, rebaptizing children, teaching that churches are useless, as God wishes no other temple than the universe. He was followed by excited crowds who butchered the priests, plundered and burned the churches and gave themselves up to the most shameful excesses.
Antwerp had been thrown into a state of similar disorder by a fanatic named Tankelin or Tanchelm . . . who revived the traditions of the Adamites and pretended to restore the world to its state of primitive nakedness by recalling its lost innocence.
Tanchelm, a talented but haughty layman, had preached his doctrines in the early years of the twelfth century, in the neighborhood of Antwerp. Thence he went to the diocese of Utrecht. He had also propagated his pernicious doctrines along the banks of the Rhine. Elated by his success, for his followers were many, he put on a monastic habit and went to Rome; there he sought by various means to have the Pope attach the seal of Rome to his nefarious work. Needless to say, he was unsuccessful, and returned by way of Cologne. This was in the year 1112. [B-8-2] While in Cologne he was seized by German soldiers and handed over to the Archbishop as a dangerous individual and an impostor, for we must not forget that society was no less interested than religion in the suppression of these sectaries. He was put in prison but escaped, and we read that the following year he was driven out of Bruges by clergy and laity. In 1115 he was driven from Louvain by Godfrey, Duke of Lorraine, and that same year he died a miserable death. [B-8-3]
Tanchelm's followers affected a life of poverty and austerity, opposed the power of the Pope and of all ecclesiastical authorities. They called themselves the poor of Christ, the imitators of the Apostles, and accordingly assumed the title of "Apostolicals." They not only admired their shockingly immoral leader, "but," observes Abelard, quoted by the Bollandists, [B-8-4] "they actually adored him as the son of God." In a letter addressed by the clergy of Utrecht to the Archbishop of Cologne, we find in a few words the synopsis of Tanchelm's errors. "The Pope is nobody; archbishops and bishops are nobody; priests and clerics are nobody; the Church is I and my followers." If we may speak of any heretic excelling in the pernicious doctrines and practices of the Neo-Manicheism of those days, Tanchelm certainly merits that distinction. We read in that same letter, that one day he performed a mock-marriage with a statue of the Blessed Virgin, in a public square, and the people, blinded, came to offer him wedding presents. [B-8-5] He and his followers regarded the Blessed Eucharist especially with peculiar horror, which they constantly manifested by the most shocking profanations. Without staining our pages with repulsive details, let it be sufficient to state that contemporary writers declare that the deeds perpetrated by Tanchelm and his followers are too loathsome and horrible for description. [B-8-6]
And the poor deluded people! How lamentable to see a country, Christian for generations past, going back not only to pagan immorality, but casting off all moral restraint, and encouraging a purely animal life! We here ask ourselves, how was it possible that a sect, whose doctrines tended to the utter destruction even of all social order, could successfully establish itself in a Christian country? As an iconoclast, Tanchelm held out to the rulers the treasurers of the churches, and as a reformer he pleased the ignorant by removing all moral restraint. Here then is the cause of the rapid spread of this as of almost every heresy.
Eight years had now passed since the principal author of these monstrous disorders died, and the moral state of the people in Antwerp was most pitiable. Antwerp then belonged to the diocese of Cambray, but at present it is in the archdiocese of Malines. In the year 1119 good Bishop Burchard sent thither twelve of his canons to extirpate the heresy and try to restore order. They were attached to the church of St. Michael, which had been built by Godfrey of Bouillon before he set out for the Holy Land. All were zealous priests who worked hard to restore not only the faith but also virtue to the poor deluded people. Alas! these canons thought the evils too great and too deeply rooted to be eradicated by them. In their distress they returned to Cambray and conferred with Bishop Burchard. The result of this conference was that both the canons and the bishop thought Norbert the very man capable of restoring Christian life in Antwerp.
Norbert was at this time busily engaged in his solitude at Premontre, confirming his brave but inexperienced sons in their fervor and spiritual life. By word and example he was their leader in the strictest observance of the rules, and by his wise counsels he encouraged them in their daily struggles. No one would have thought him at this time a Saint, the reputation of whose sanctity was attracting the eyes of Europe. He was humble and pious—a true servus servorum. But Bishop Burchard, who had known him for years and was well acquainted also with his great success as missionary and convert-maker, valued him at his true worth.
A deputation from the bishop came to Premontre to explain to Norbert the pitiable state of Antwerp. The man of God, whose zeal for the salvation of souls consumed him, was at once ready to comply with the bishop's request. Was not this, thus he reasoned, a great opportunity to do missionary work? To bring back to God not ordinary sinners only, but heretics—people who had given up their faith—what could be more noble, what work more apostolic? Guided by the Holy Spirit, the Saint not for a moment hesitated, but set out at once for his new scene of labor, accompanied by Evermode, Waltman, and other disciples, wholly imbued with his apostolic spirit. They were twelve in all, and once arrived at their destination, those fervent apostles lost no time in opening what we would to-day call a great "Mission."
To the credit of the twelve canons who had left, be it remarked here, that their work had not been entirely unsuccessful, for as a result of their efforts a reaction had already set in, and the good and pious people of Antwerp, however small their number, hailed the coming of Norbert as that of their savior. The historian H. Q. Janssen informs us [B-8-7] that the Saint upon his arrival found the church crowded with people curious to know what the Saint had to say. The same historian describes Norbert ascending the pulpit—his emaciated features, his white habit, his expressive and charming voice, his gestures. But it was not these that gave him that supernatural power of awakening emotion and stirring his hearers to conviction, it was his own personal holiness. In the "Life" of B1. Hugh we find only a few words of the first sermon delivered by Norbert on this occasion, but they are of great significance. He began:
"Brethren, I am aware that the ignorance of truth, rather than the love of error, is the principal cause of your forsaking the true religion. If truth had been announced to you, I know you would have followed it with as great eagerness as you have followed error. You suffered yourselves to be misled too easily, and now I hope that you will suffer yourselves to be saved easily by us. . ." [B-8-8]
In his first address to the people, instead of censure or reproach, Norbert combined the gentleness of persuasion with the force of conclusive argument. No invectives, no personalities, but in everything charity according to the rule of the Apostle. It was this sentiment which our late Holy Father, Pope Pius X, so beautifully expressed when he said: "Non possumus aedificare Ecclesiam super ruinam caritatis." (We can never build up the Church on the ruins of charity.)
Norbert's disciples followed his example, and their sermons produced deep and lasting impressions. Thc most ignorant could not fail to see the immense difference between the preaching of Norbert and of Tanchelm and his disciples. While the latter appealed to violence and vice in a most ostentatious manner, the Saint quietly made an urgent appeal to all that was most noble in man. Moreover, Norbert had come not in the name of Satan but of the Most High, and his conduct and irreproachable life fully justified his mission. Consequently, it was not difficult even for the most illiterate to see on which side was truth.
Antwerp soon bent its head in shame. Striking their breasts with the deepest sorrow, the people came and knelt at the feet of the missionaries to receive pardon from Almighty God. Blessed Hugh observes in his "Life:"
"Men and women came to them after having purified their consciences by a sincere confession, and in large numbers brought back to the missionaries the Sacred Hosts, which from ten to fifteen years and more, they had kept in their houses and most sacrilegiously dishonored." [B-8-9]
Within a very short time, in fact a few weeks, the whole city seemed entirely transformed, and never before did the faithful assist at the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with more genuine piety. The poor people now felt as if they had been living in a dream, and had at last awakened to the reality of their former Christian and Catholic life. The name of Norbert was on the lips of all, and they were unable to sufficiently express their lively gratitude to our dear Saint. Good Bishop Burchard and his Canons also greatly rejoiced on hearing of the happy result. In fact a most sincere enthusiasm was shared by every one, and from that day forward Norbert was called by the "Vox Populi" the Apostle of Antwerp and of the Blessed Sacrament.
The people, as well as the bishop, entreated Norbert to accept the church at Antwerp, and establish there a house of the Order; and the Canons who had been attached to St. Michael's freely offered to move to another part of the city, which eventually they did, and thus originated the famous cathedral of St. Mary at Antwerp. [B-8-10] Norbert accepted the liberal offer of the bishop and founded at that place the celebrated abbey of St. Michael, which until the time of the French Revolution, had continued the great work inaugurated by the Saint. He installed B1. Waltman as its first abbot. Burning with apostolic zeal and faithful to the Counsels of his spiritual father, Waltman sent out disciples to preach the Gospel in the neighboring towns and villages, and so thoroughly extirpated whatever remained of Tanchelm's heresy in this province. Thus the abbey of Antwerp became a great center of civilization, and within ten years established three other abbeys which have since preserved the faith in these provinces. [B-8-11]
Once order was restored in Antwerp, Norbert made every endeavor to help the people to persevere in their good resolutions. But among all the aids to perseverance, there was one of which he spoke continually, the one on which, in the Saint's opinion, the future religious life of the people depended, and that was a sincere devotion to the Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Since Tanchelm had tried hard to eradicate all respect for the Holy Eucharist, Norbert resolved to revive it and be its apostle. He ordered special services to be held with the greatest solemnity to make reparation to Our Dear Lord for the outrages He had endured, and for the many sacrileges that had been committed. Large crowds assisted at these solemnities, and before long a genuine devotion, more fervent perhaps than ever before, possessed the hearts of the faithful.
Norbert found another means of perseverance in a sincere devotion to our Heavenly Queen, and in the establishment of his Third Order. He placed the new abbey church under the patronage of the B1. Virgin, and at that time implanted in the hearts of the people that filial love for God's Holy Mother, which in due time would manifest itself in the building of a magnificent cathedral in her honor—a church famous for its splendor and exquisite beauty the whole world over. Further, in regard to his Third Order, we find the Bollandists specifying some of its results, so visible at Antwerp about the middle of the twelfth century. There exists a contract of Brotherhood, made in the year 1135, between the Canons of Notre Dame at Antwerp and the Premonstratensian Canons of St. Michael's Abbey, in which it is stated, that those parishioners of Notre Dame who desire aggregation to the Premonstratensians, "can, on taking the Rule and White Habit of the Order, receive the sacraments from them, and be buried by them and in their cemeteries." [B-8-12] That in this contract there is evidently question of the Third Order, is further made plain in the Acta SS. [B-8-13]
When Norbert finally left the city of Antwerp to return to Premontre, his departure was deeply regretted by all. The people realized that a saint, to whom they now owed their faith and virtue, was leaving them. They proclaimed him as the Apostle of their city and of the Blessed Sacrament, and, observes a writer of Antwerp in the seventeenth century, in order to proclaim Norbert's great deeds to posterity, the people from that time gave the name, Norbert, to their children. Further, out of gratitude to the Saint, they placed several beautiful windows in the church of Notre Dame at Antwerp, representing the triumphant procession of the people, after their conversion by Norbert. They also inscribed under a tableau in one of the chapels of this basilica in which Norbert is represented, these beautiful words:
- "Quod Amandus Inchoarat,
- Quod Eligius plantarat,
- Willibrordus irrigarat,
- Tanchelinus devastarat,
- Norbertus restituit." [B-8-14]
Thus did Norbert become an apostle of the B1. Sacrament, and because of this victory at Antwerp, the Saint is usually represented holding in his hand a Monstrance, while the heretic Tanchelm lies prostrate at his feet. The Monstrance is the emblem of his devotion to the Holy Eucharist, and the prostrate heretic symbolizes Norbert's triumph over the Sacramentarian Heresy of this fanatic. Two paintings from the hand of Rubens, representing the Triumph of St. Norbert at Antwerp, were preserved in the abbey of St. Michael until the time of the French Revolution. One of these is to be found today in the Kensington Museum in London. A famous painting of this same scene is preserved at Cologne, and one at Magdeburg, besides a large number in the different abbeys of the Order. Bayerlinck, speaking of the Chronicles of Miraeus in regard to Norbert's Triumph at Antwerp, says:
"The Order of White Canons was instituted by St. Norbert in the most difficult times of the Church, when the Sacramentarian and the Adamite Heresies were raging. The Father of mercies had selected and prepared St. Norbert, like another Alcides, to overthrow this heresy."
And Guerinus writes in his commentary on the Canticle of Canticles:
"St. Norbert with his Holy Order was raised up by Divine Providence to render conspicuous in his days two great mysteries, viz: The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, and the Immaculate Conception of our Lady."
Norbert bequeathed his special devotion to the Blessed Sacrament as a legacy to his spiritual sons. His statues and pictures seem to say to them: "Love the Holy Eucharist; defend and promote devotion to the Blessed Sacrament." To further commemorate the Saint's Triumph at Antwerp, the Order has kept a special feast, which is yearly celebrated with great solemnity in the different abbeys. The diocese of Malines also celebrates this feast, and in all the churches of Antwerp there is held every year a solemn novena in preparation for the Feast of Norbert's Triumph over Tanchelm. On May 17, 1884, a plenary indulgence was attached to its celebration by Pope Leo XIII.
Of the old St. Michael's Abbey nothing now remains. The place where this great abbey once stood, is today indicated only by a street named Convent Street. (Klooster Straat). A description of this abbey may be found in the "Acta Sanctorum," as an appendix to the Life of St. Norbert.
<<start of footnotes for chapter B-8>>
[B-8-1]
Cfr. Darras. "General History of the Church," Vol. III, p. 201.
[B-8-2]
Pertz. Script. XVI. Annales Veterocelles, 1112.
[B-8-3]
Acc. to Madelaine, p. 271, who quotes Pertz, his skull was crushed by an indiscreetly zealous priest.
[B-8-4]
Cfr. Acta SS. T. XX, p. 832.
[B-8-5]
Ibidem. Epistola Trajectensis Ecclesiae ad Freder. Episcop. de Tanchelmo seductore.
[B-8-6]
Vita B. Ch. XXXVI . . . Balneum ejus bibabant . . . in tantum ut se infelicem diceret quae huic conjunctioni nefariae misceri non meruisset . . .
[B-8-7]
See VandenElsen. p. 130.
[B-8-8]
Cfr. Vita B. Ch. XXXVI. Also Taiee, Premontre, I, p. 26.
[B-8-9]
In the museum of Antwerp (No. 107) we find a painting, from the hand of C. De Vos, representing St. Norbert collecting the Sacred Hosts.
[B-8-10]
Cfr. Cath. Encyclop. Vol. I, p. 689: "The Cathedral of' Antwerp was originally a small Premonstratensian shrine known familiary as "Our Lady of' the Stump."
[B-8-11]
These were: the abbey of Middelburg in Zeeland, and the two abbeys—Tongerloo and Averbode—which exist to this day, both in the province of Antwerp St. Michael's abbey also founded two convents for Norbertine Nuns, one at Zoetendaal and one at Vroenhout. The latter is at present at Oosterhout in Holland, and has a foundation at Neerpelt in Belgium.
[B-8-12]
Hugo Annales T. II, col. CCI.
[B-8-13]
T. XX, p. 922.
[B-8-14]
"St. Amandus prepared the soil for the reception of the faith which St. Eligius planted, St. Willibrord irrigated, Tanchelm devastated, but St. Norbert restored." (Frontispiece.)
