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As the religious brotherhoods of the Pythagoreans rose in spiritual revolt against the lax mythology and careless living of the Sybarites in Sicily; as in the third century of the Christian era Neoplatonism concentrated within itself whatever remains of faith and piety lingered in the creeds and philosophies of paganism; as in the Middle Ages devout men, wearied with forms and controversies, and scholastic reasoners seeking refuge from the logical and metaphysical problems with which they had perplexed theology, sought more direct communion with God in the mystic devotion of Anselm and Bernard, of Hugo and Bonaventura; as Bertholdt and Nicolas, Eckhart and Tauler, organised their new societies throughout Germany to meet great spiritual needs which established systems had wholly ceased to satisfy; as Arndt and Spener and Francke in the seventeenth century breathed new life into the Lutheran Church, and set on foot their 'collegia pietatis, their systematised prayer-meetings, to supplement the deficiencies of the time so in the England of the eighteenth century, when the force of religion was chilled by drowsiness and indifference in some quarters, by stiffness and formality and over-cautious orthodoxy in others, when the aspirations of the soul were being ever bidden rest satisfied with the calculations of sober reason, when proofs and evidences and demonstrations were offered, and still offered, to meet the cry of those who called for light, how else should religion stem the swelling tide of profligacy but by some such inward spiritual revival as those by which it had heretofore renewed its strength?
Nor is it the usurer's acceptance of usury that pleases him, but his lending, which is good. We should mention here the montes pietatis, which occupied a prominent place among the credit-giving agencies of the later Middle Ages, although it is difficult to say whether their methods were examples of or exceptions to the doctrines forbidding usury.
The principal antagonist of the montes pietatis was Thomas da Vio, who wrote a special treatise on the subject, in which he made the point that the montes charged interest from the very beginning of the loan, which was a contradiction of all the previous teaching on interest. The general feeling of the Church, however, was in favour of the montes.
Catholici principes quidem semper apostolicos præsules institutos suis literis prævenerunt, et illam confessionem fidemque præcipuam, tanquam boni filii, quæsierunt debitæ pietatis affectu, cui noscis ipsius Domini Salvatoris ore curam totius Ecclesiæ delegatam. Ubi te, rerum humanarum princeps, qualiscunque Sedis Apostolicæ vicarius contestari mea voce non desino.
Prior to the middle of the fifteenth century, when this experiment was initiated, there had been various attempts by the State to provide credit facilities for the poor, but these need not detain us here, as they did not come to anything. The first of the montes pietatis was founded at Orvieto by the Franciscans in 1462, and after that year they spread rapidly.
Here and there, too, we come upon heriots remitted because the heir was so very poor, and here and there fines and fees are cancelled causa miseriæ propter pestilentiam. Surely it is better to assume that this kind of thing was done, as our friend Bonington puts it, mero motu pietatis suæ than because there was no money to be had.
Comprehension had always related to Dissenters. The term, therefore, could hardly be used in reference to men who claimed to be thorough Churchmen, who attended the services of the Church, loved its Liturgy, and willingly subscribed to all its formularies. The Methodist Societies bore a striking resemblance to the Collegia Pietatis established in Germany by Spener about 1670, which, at all events in their earlier years, simply aimed at the promotion of Christian holiness, while they preserved allegiance to the ecclesiastical order of the day; or we may be reminded of that Moravian community, by which the mind of Wesley was at one time so deeply fascinated, whose ideal, as Matter has observed, was to be 'Calviniste ici, Luthérienne l
Here the emphatic me is preserved, but in neither version is the true meaning of salvandos even hinted at, and in both we miss the tenderness of the fons pietatis, with which the tremenda majestas is balanced and softened.
On the one side of it was a color-process reproduction, very good of its kind Christ in Glory the Rex Tremendoe Majestatis and also the Fons Pietatis of the Dies Ira with tears in His Eyes and thorns on His Brows as He judged just judgment. On the other side were four lines from Browning, faithfully transcribed save for the change of a name.
Rex tremends majestatis! Qui salvandos salvas gratis, Salva me, fons pietatis!
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