HERP
293
HERP
united with God, prudence knows nothing but what you the kingdom
it beholds in God; temperance ignores earthly de- gave me to eat
For I was hungry, and you
Amen I say to you, as long as
sires; fortitude knows nothing of passions; justice is you did it to one of these my least brethren," you'did
bound to the Uivme mind by a perpetual compact to •'+ *" •""" 'M"+* —■• '"< ^'^^ i^— -n-.-^ ___•!__ ^l.
do as it does.
„,. , , ., .. , , . it to me" (Matt., XXV, 34-iO). For this reason the
i his degree of perfection belongs to the works of charity in heroic degree have been, from the blessed in heaven or to a few of the mo.st perfect in beginning to this day, a distinctive mark of the Catho-
ic L nurcn, the pledge of sanctity in countless numbers
this life." These few perfeclissimi are the heroes of
virtue, the candidates for the honours of the altar,
the saints on earth.
Together with the four cardinal virtues the Chris- tian saint must be endowed with the three theological virtues, especially with Divine charity, the virtue which informs, baptizes, and consecrates, as it were, all other virtues; which associates and unifies them into one powerful effort to participate in the Divine life. Some remarks on the "proofs of hcroicity" re- quired in the process of beatification will serve to illustrate in detail the general principles exposed above.
As charity stands at the summit of all virtues, so faith stands at their foundation. For by faith God is first apprehended, and the soul lifted up to super- natural life. Faith is the secret of one's conscience; to the world it is made manifest by the good works in which it lives, "Faith without works is dead" (James, ii, 20). Such works are: the external pro- fession of faith, strict observance of the Divine com- mands, prayer, filial devotion to the Church, the fear of God, the horror of sin, penance for sins committed, patience in adversity, etc. All or any of these attain the grade of heroicity when practised with unflagging perseverance, during a long period of time, or under circumstances so trying that by them men of but ordinary perfection would be deterred from acting. Martyrs dying in torments for the Faith, missionaries spending their lives in propagating it, the humble poor who with infinite patience drag out their wretched existence to do the will of God and to reap their re- ward hereafter, these are heroes of the Faith.
Hope is a firm trust that (!od will give us eternal life and all the means neces.sary to obtain it; it attains heroicity when it amounts to unshakeable confidence and security in God's help throughout all the un- toward events of life, when it is ready to forsake and sacrifice all other goods in order to obtain the prom- ised felicity of heaven. Such hope has its roots in a
of her sons and daughters.
Prudence, which enables us to know what to desire or to avoid, attains heroicity when it coincides with the "gift of counsel", i. e. a clear, Divinely aided in- sight into right and wrong conduct. Of St. Pascha- sius Radbert, the BoUandists say: "So great was his prudence that from his mind a bourn of prudence seemed to flow. For he beheld together the past, the present, and the future, and was able to tell, by the counsel of God, what in each case was to be done" (2 January, c. v, n. l(i).
Justice, which gives every one his due, is the pivot on which turn the virtues of religion, piety, obedience, gratitude, truthfulness, friendship, and many more. Jesus sacrificing His life to give God His due, Abra- ham willing to sacrifice his son in obedience to God's will, these are acts of iieroic justice.
Fortitude, which urges us on when difficulty stands in the way of our duty, is itself the heroic element in the practice of virtue; it reaches its apex when it over- comes obstacles which to ordinary virtue are insur- mountable.
Temperance, which restrains us when passions urge us to what is wrong, comprises becoming deport- ment, modesty, abstinence, chastity, sobriety, and others. Instances of heroic temperance: St. Joseph, St. John the Baptist.
In fine it should be remarked that almost every act of virtue proceeding from the Divine principle within us has in it the elements of all the virtues; only mental analysis views the same act under various aspects.
Benedict XIV, De servorum Dei beatificalione et beatorum canonualione, chs. xxxi-xx.wiii. in Opera omnia, III (Prato, 1840): Devine, Maniinl of Mi/stirnl Theology (London. 190:3); Slater, .4 Manual of Moral Thmlor/i/ (London. 1908)' VVil- HELM AND ScANNELL, Manual of Catholic Theology (London, ^^O"). J. WiLHELM.
Herp (or Harp, Lat. Citharcedus, or Erp as in the
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faithful, IS also the model of the hopeful "who against ciscan of the Strict Observance and a distinguished
hope believed in hope . . . and he was not weak in
faith; neither did he consider his own body now
dead . . . nor the dead womb of Sara" (Rom iv
18-22). ' '
Charity inclines man to love God above all things with the love of friendship. The perfect friend of God says with St. Paul: " With Chri.st I am nailed to the cross. .4nd I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me" (Gal., ii, 19-20). For love means union. Its type in heaven is the Divine Trinity in Unity; its highest degree in God's creatures is the beatific vision, 1. e. participation in God's life. On earth it is the fruitful mother of holiness, the one thing necessary, the one all-sufficient possession. It is extolled in" I Cor., xiii, and in St. John's Gospel and Epistles; the beloved disciple and the fiery missionary of the cross are the best interpreters of the mystery of love revealed to them in the Heart of Jesus. With the commandment to love God above all Jesus coupled another: "And the second is like to it: Tlioxt shall love thy neighbour as thi/self. There is no other com- mandment greater than these" (Mark, xii, 31). The likeness, or the linking of the two commandments, lies in this: that in our neighljour we love God's image and likeness. His adopted children and the heirs of His Kingdom. Hence, serving our neighbour is serv- ing God. .\nd the works of spiritual and temporal mercy performed in this world will decide our fate in the next: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess
writer on mysticism, praised by Mabillon, Bona, etc.
Only the last thirty years of his life are known to us.
Born either at Diiren (Marcoduranus), at Erp near
Diiren, or at Erps-Querbs near Louvain, Herp appears
as rector of the Brethren of the Common Life, first in
144.5 at Delft in Holland, then at Gouda, "to the great
good of his subjects". In 14,50, on a pilgrimage to
Rome, he took the habit of St. Francis at the Convent
of Ara Coeli. Twenty years later we find him pro-
vincial of the Province of Cologne (1470-73), then
guardian of the convent of Mechlin in Belgium, where
he died in 147S. The Franciscan Martyrology of
.\rturus of Rouen gives him the title of Blessed. Of
his works, only one was printed during his life-time,
"Speculum aureum decem pra?ceptorum Dei" (Mainz,
1474); it is a collection of 213 sermons on the Com-
mandments for the use of preachers and confessors.
Another collection of 222 sermons (Sermones de tem-
pore, de Sanctis, etc.) was printed in 1484, etc. Both
frequently quote the Doctors of the Middle Ages,
especially St. Thomas, Alexander of Hales, St. Ber-
nard, etc., and were often reprinted.
The other works of Herp, of which some— still unpublished — are to be found in the libraries of Cologne, Brussels, etc., are devoted to mystical subjects. The principal of these is the " Theologica Mystica", written on Mount Alverno and published in "full at Cologne in 1.538 by the Carthusian Th. Loher, with a dedi- cation to George Skotborg, Bishop of Lund. It
