Page:Three introductory lectures on the study of ecclesiastical history.djvu/47

II] most instructive, if not the only course, which can be followed in a Chair like this, for any who wish, in the true sense of the word, to be "students" of Ecclesiastical History. We cannot attempt to describe or to study every event in detail, for time and labour would fail; we need not do it compendiously, for this has been done to our hands again and again, and of late years with such candour and research as to render any further work of the kind superfluous. One method remains to us, at once the most obvious and the most interesting. Lay aside the lesser events, or read them only so far as to preserve a continuous knowledge of the general thread of the history: it is for this purpose that the briefer narratives, when clearly and ably written, are of substantial use. But study the greater events, scenes, places, and revolutions, in all the detail in which they can be represented to us.

Take, for example, the General Councils of the Church. They are the pitched battles of Ecclesiastical History. Ask yourselves the same questions as you would about the battles of military history. Ask when, and where, and why they were fought. Put before your minds all the influences of the age which there were confronted and concentrated from different quarters as in one common focus. See why they were summoned to Nicæa, to Constance, to Trent: the locality often contains here, as in actual battles, the key of their position, and easily connects the Ecclesiastical History of the age with its general