^^XXS****?*9*^? 9ttxax\ ■\ PRINOETON.N. J- Part of the ,pYi\OFR LIBRA RT \ ] Messrs. K. 1- _ BlTlIl .W3 1843 Waddington, George, 1793 A^ioryof th.furShfto from the earliest, ay oxf ^J4i^^w^t^ /Tyi^. C^E^-*^ Jloi^^ /Jr. /£f1L. Harper's Stereotype Edition. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, THE EARLIEST AGES THE REFORMATION. BY THE REV. GEORGE WADDINGTON, M.A. FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND PREBENDARY OF FERRING, IN THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF CHICHESTER. NE W-YORK: PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, „*0. 82 CLIFF -ST RFFT 18 43. ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. Page The Author's reasons for abandoning in this work the usual method of division by centuries 25 This history is divided into five parts or periods, ending respectively at the establishment of the Church by Constantino ; at the death of Charle- magne ; at the death of Gregory VII.; at the seces- sion of the Popes to Avignon ; at the beginning of the Reformation 26 The study of ecclesiastical history teaches religious moderation 27 PART I. Chapter I. — The Propagation of Christianity. A.D. 60 The Church of Jerusalem. James the Just itg first President or Bishop 29 65 Secession of the Christian Church to Pella 30 No tabularies or public acts preserved by the primitive Christians 30 134 Foundation of JE\m Capitolina by Adrian 30 40 Church of Antioch, founded by St. Paul and Barnabas 31 There the converts first assumed the name of Christian 31 107 Ignatius, the second Bishop, suffered martyr- dom in the persecution of Trajan 31 The pretended correspondence between Jesus Christ and Abgarus, Prince of Edessa, in Mesopotamia, proves the early introduction of the faith into that country 31 The Church of Ephesus, founded by St. Paul, and governed by St. John 31 166 The Church of Smyrna governed by Polycarp, till his martyrdom under Marcus Antoni- nus 32 The Churches of Sardis and Hierapolis. Meli- toand Papias. Conversion of Bithynia 32 .307 The testimony of Pliny the Younger, contained in his Epistle to Trajan 33 The difficulty of establishing the Church at Athens may be ascribed to the speculative character of the people 34 95 Greater facility in the conversion of the Corin- thians. The dissensions of the converts were censured by St. Clement, Bishop of Rome 34 165 The seven Catholic Epistles of the Bishop Dio- nysius 35 64 The persecution at Rome by Nero is related by Tacitus, with little humanity. St. Peter and St. Paul are believed to have suffered on that occasion. Testimony to the numerical im- portance of the Converts 35 196 Victor, Bishop of Rome, addressed an order to the Asiatic Bishops respecting the celebra- tion of Easter, which they refused to obey. A Schism was the consequence 36 177 A persecution in Gaul by Marcus Antoninus 37 Irenasus was subsequently Bishop of Lyons 37 Some reasons why the Church of Alexandria was probably numerous at an early period 37 St. Mark, the first Bishop 37 134 Testimony of the Emperor Adrian, respecting the religious character of the Alexandrians 37 Establishment there of the Catechetical School, and subsequent labors of Pantaenus, Cle- mens, and Origen 38 Chapter IT. — On the Numbers, Discipline, Doctrine, and Morality of the Primitive Church. 200 The great extent over which Christianity was spread before the end of the second century 38 The earliest converts were chiefly of the mid- dle or lower classes; the cause of their ob- scurity 30 The great facility of intercourse throughout tne Roman Empire, the zeal of the missionaries, &c. 39 On the miraculous powers claimed by the i.D. Pags Church, and the period to which they were most probably confined 4ft They appear to have ceased with the immedi- ate successors of the Apostles 40 The episcopal government generally establish- ed after the death of the Apostles ... A perpetual succession of Bishops traced up to that time in mos' of the Eastern Churches and in Rome 41,42 On the temporary ministry of the prophets 42 On the subordinate office of deacon, and the extent of the spiritual duties assigned to it 42 Very early origin of the distinction between clergy and laity, established by the Act of Ordination 43 The Bishop co-operated with the Council of Presbyters in the government of his Church, and was elected by the whole body of the clergy and people 43 \5Qetseq. Origin and composition of the first pro- vincial assemblies or synods ; they rose in Greece 43 From these synods proceeded the title and dig- nity of the Metropolitan, and the general ag- grandizement of the episcopal order 44 Excommunication the oldest weapon of the Church 44 Community of property had not universal prev- alence 45 The primitive institution of the Lord's day 45 The two most ancient festivals were those of the resurrection and of the descent of the Holy Spirit 45 The only public fast on the day of the cruci- fixion 45 The variety of early creeds, and primitive use of the Apostles' creed. The sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist 45 — Nature and use of the Agapae, or feasts of Charity 46 Exemplary morality of the early Christians, proved from the writings of St. Clement, Origen, the younger Pliny, Bardesanes, Lu- cian, and Justin Martyr 47-49 Charity the corner stone of the moral edifice 47-49 Chapter III. — Progress of Christianity from 200 till Constantine's Accession. The first appearances of corruption in the Church necessarily proceeded from the in- creased numbers and more varied character of the converts 49 313 Before the time of Constantine, Christianity was deeply rooted in all the eastern provin- ces of the Roman empire it had also spread among the northern and western nations 50 Some vague pretensions of Rome advanced and resisted 50 251 The Roman Synod against Novatian was at- tended by sixty Bishops 50 203 Origen was made President of the Catechetical School, and remained so for nearly tlrrty years. His great diligence and erroneous principles in the interpretation of Scripture. He was successful in converting some Arabi- an Heretics 51 192 Tertullian was made Presbyter of the Church of Carthage. He fell into Montanism about seven years afterwards. He was of a vio- lent, inconsistent, and powerful character 52 250 Cyprian was raised to the See of Carthage 5?. The dignity of the Metropolitans was exalted, and the general distinction between Bishops and Presbyters widened during the third century. Cyprian instrumental in this 52,53 Some inferior classes in the ministry were in- stituted ; the distinction between the faithful and the Catechumens became prevalent in this age; and some mistaken notions were encouraged respecting the nature of baptism, as well as of the Eucharist 53,54 The sign of the Cross was employed in the office of exorcism 53,54 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. The connexion of religion with philosophy oc- casioned the origin of pious frauds and for- geries 54 The sect of the Eclectics, founded by Ammo- nius Saccas, tended to the injury and corrup- tion of Christianity. His successor, Plotinus, made a compromise with his religion 55 The Millennarian opinions prevalent in the early Church should probably be ascribed to the error of Papias 56 Chapter IV. — Persecutions of several Roman Emperors. The theory of pure Polytheism permits an un- limited reception of divinities, and, as such, is tolerant ; but the Polytheism of Rome was a political engine ; the laws were rigid in ex- cluding foreign Gods ; and the practice of the Republic was continued in the empire 57,58 The number of Ten Persecutions became pop- ular after the fifth century. The name of persecution should be confined to four or five 58 64 Whether the persecution of Nero was general or confined to Rome, and whether his laws against the Christians were more than an ap- plication to them of the standing statutes of the empire 59,60 94 or 95 The grandsons of St. Jude were brought before Domitian, and dismissed in security 60 The Rescript of Trajan enjoined death as the punishment of a convicted Christian; forbid- ding, however, inquisition 60 138 — 161 The Christians suffered, during the reign of Antoninus Pius, through popular violence, rather than legal oppression 61 162 — 181 The first systematic persecution was that of Marcus Antoninus, and it lasted during his whole reign. He encouraged inquiry af- ter the suspected and inflicted every punish- ment. He censured the enthusiasm of the martyrs, yet not himself free from the charge of superstition, though adorned by many vir- tues 61,62 202—211 The Edict of Severus against the Chris- tians remained in force ; it was most de- structive in Egypt 62 250 Decius pretended to constrain all his subjects to return to the religion of their ancestors ; many perished ; and many fell away from the faith 63 258 Cyprian suffered martyrdom in the reign of Valerian, on his refusal to sacrifice 64 303 The teachers of philosophy were instrumental in bringing Diocletian to begin his persecu- tion. It was continued for ten years, with a severity comprehending every form of oppres- sion ; and ceased not till the accession of Constantine 64 313 The early unpopularity of the Christians is ac- counted for by ancestral prejudices, the fame of peculiar sanctity, converting zeal, Jewish hostility, and various calumnies ; the exclu- sive character of the religion, aversion for idolatry, &c. 65,66 The Church learned from her sufferings the lesson of persecution, which she practised in after ages 67 Contumacy the pretext for these Pagan inflic- tions 68 Various false notions respecting the characters and ends of the emperors who persecuted and who tolerated 68 These persecutions were not, upon the whole, unfavorable to the progress of religion 69 Chapter V. — On the Heresies of the First Three Centuries. The original meaning of the word heresy ia choice ; it passed from philosophy into relig- ion ; and various senses, no longer indiffer- ent, were then attached to it 69 The earliest fathers strongly opposed erroneous opinions ; yet permitted no personal severi- ties 70 The names of dissent were in no age more nu- merous than the earliest — proving the num- bers of the early converts 71 Some errors probably older than the apostolic preaching 71 The Church suffered from the absurd opinions of some of the heretics who were confounded with it 71 Mosheim distinguishes the early heretics into three classes 72 A different view is taken by Dr. Burton, who &■• D- Page traces all the most ancient heresies to the Gnostic philosophy 73 The division of heresies here given is rather in reference to their subject than their supposed origin 72 The vain inquiry respecting the origin of evil ; it is ascribed to matter: hence the eternity of matter, and supposition of an evil principle 73 The association of this philosophy with Chris- tianity occasioned many gross errors, as the rejection of the Old Testament as the work of the evil spirit, and the denial of the hu- manity of Christ ; these were held by the Gnostics 73 Simon Magus was classed among these ; and his disciples are thought to have been very numerous at Rome 74 120-1 Saturninus introduced the opinions into the Asiatic, Rasilides into the Egyptian, School; and Carpocrales and Valentinus further ex- tended or refined them. Cerdo and Marcion introduced them into Rome 74 172 Tatian, disciple of Justin Martyr, founded on them the heresy of the Encratites, who pro- fessed meditation and bodily austerities 74 The Docets (Phantastics) were of very early origin ; they had a system of emanations from the Divinity, called jEons, of which Christ was one ; while Jesus was the mere man, into whom the^Eon descended. They disbe- lieved, in consequence, the atonement 75 72 The Ebionites, who denied the divinity of Christ, were of very early origin ; they were chiefly confined to the Jewish converts, and were disclaimed by the Church 75,76 200 Theodotus was expelled from the Church of Rome, while Victor was bishop, for asserting the mere humanity of Christ 76 269 Paul of Samosata was deposed, and removed by Aurelian 76 The creed of Tertullian in his answer to Praxeas 76 250 Sabellius denied the distinct personality of the second and third persons, considering them as energies, or portions of the first : hence his followers were called Patripassians 77 170 Montanus began to prophesy in Phrygia, in company with Maximilla and Priscilla. Ter- tullian became a convert and advocate 78 257 A controversy arose about the baptism of here- tics, in which Stephen, Bishop of Rome, dis- played some violence 78 — The Novatians, the earliest ecclesiastical re- formers, were condemned by the Church ; they subsisted till the fifth century 79 Observations on the character of the early her- esies, and the manner in which they were opposed by churchmen 79 The degree of respect due to the early Fathers 79 On the epistle of Barnabas, the Shepherd of Hernias, the epistles of Ignatius, and that of Polycarp 80 140 The two Apologies of Justin Martyr and his dialogue with the Jew Trypho 81 178 Irenaeus was made Bishop of Lyons. He wrote five hooks "Against Heresies " 81,82 PART II. Chapter VI. — Constantine the Great. 312 An inquiry into the miracle of the luminous cross ; it rests on very insufficient evidence 82,53 313 Publication of the edict' of Milan — an edict of universal toleration 83 The suspicions of Constantine's sincerity are founded on the inadequacy of his morality to his profession ; and are counteracted by ma- ny particulars of his conduct and character 83 Before Constantine, neither the authority of synods or bishops, nor the property of the Church, was recognised by law. Here is the earliest vestige of distinction between spirit- ual and temporal power 85 In what the strength of the Antenicene Church consisted. That strength, as well as the peculiar qualities of Christians, influenced Constantine to legalize Christianity 86 — He received the Church into strict alliance with the State ; investing the Crown with the highest ecclesiastical authority, with great mutual advantage 86 321 The internal administration of the Church re- mained in the hands of the Prelates. Per- mission was granted to bequeath property to the Church ; also exemption from civil offi- ces, and independent jurisdiction 87 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. The Emperor assumed the control of the ex- ternal administration ; the right of calling general councils, &c. 88 This right was the creation of a new power, not an usurpation on the Church 88 Constantine,in the ecclesiastical, followed the civil, divisions of the empire. To the three leading prelates of Rome, Antioch,and Alex- andria, he added the Patriarch of Constan- tinople 89 A thousand Bishops administered the Eastern, and eight hundred the Western, Church 89 The establishment of the Church was, upon the whole, favorable to the concord of Christians. The persecutions which have followed it were not its necessary conse- quence 89 Various sources of the Romish corruptions 90 Note. On the historical respectability of Euse- bius ; to what his professions are confined, and how far he fulfils them 90-91 Chapter VII. — On the Arian Controversy. Those metaphysical controversies, which ex- ercised only the wit of philosophers, engaged the passions of Christians. They were pro- longed by the neglect of Scripture, and in- flamed by the national characteristics of the disputants 92 Constantine presently published laws against various heretics 93 319 Arius promulgated his opinions at Alexandria, and had many followers in Asia and Egypt. He was excommunicated by Alexander, Bish- op of Alexandria 93 325 Constantine reluctantly convoked the Council of Nice 94 The variety of motives by which its members were probably influenced. The dissensions of the Bishops, who finally pronounced the Son consubstantial with the Father 94 Gibbon's account examined (note) 95 Temporal penalties were inflicted on the contu- macious, but revoked, as soon as their ineffi- cacy was discovered 96 The character of Arius, according to Epiphanius 96 336 Constantius encouraged Arianism in the East 96 326 Athanasius succeeded Alexander in the See of Alexandria. He was degraded; restored; and again degraded ; and passed his exile at ,. Rome 97 349 He was again restored to his throne; and, in seven years, deposed for the third time 98 The difficulty with which Constantius accom- plished his deposition, proves the diminution of the imperial despotism, through the rise of the Church 98 362 Athanasius was again restored, on the death of Constantius, and, after eleven years, died in his See 98 Difference among the Arians as to the likeness between the two persons ; leading to divis- ions 98 The Semiarians, Homoiousians, Anomoians, or Eunomians 98 358-9 Synods of Ancyra and Seleucia 98 360 The Council of Rimini established Arianism (or rather Semiarianism) in the West 99 370 Valens persecuted the Catholics throughout the East 99 383 Theodosius the Great generally restored the Catholic belief 100 381 The Council General of Constantinople estab- lished the divinity of the Third Person 100 Damasus, at Rome, and Ambrose, at Milan, zealously defended the Consubstantialist doc- trine 100 370 Ulphilas converted the Goths to Arianism ; other barbarians subsequently adopted the same opinion ; and in the fifth century it again became general in the West 101 527 et seq. Justinian sustained the Catholics 102 589 The Council of Toledo extirpated Arianism from Spain ; and the Lombards soon after- wards embraced the Catholic doctrine 102 The Arians may have been free from some of the superstitious corruptions of the Catho- lics ; but the merit of tolerance cannot be ascribed to either party 102 JVote on Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and other ecclesiastical writers 103-4 Chapter VIII. — The Decline and Fall of Paganism. The overthrow of Paganism contemporary with the Arian dissensions 104 A. D. Page 321 Constantine published an edict in favor of divination 105 333 He began to attack the temples and idols, and generally condemned the rights of Paganism. Constantius, the Arian, followed his example 105 The supposed motives of Julian, and his char- acter^as compared to that of Marcus Anto- ninus 106 The policy of Constantine contrasted with that of Julian 106 The successive penalties and disabilities by which Julian attacked the Christians, and the great knowledge which he showed of the theory of persecution 107 Hisendeavors to reform Paganism were direct- ed to three points ; in a great measure bor- rowed from the ecclesiastical system of the Christians 107 363 He made his celebrated attempt to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. The historical facts of this attempt are founded on the combined evidence of four contemporary authors, one of whom, Ammianus Marcellinus, was a Pagan 108 The question whether the phamomenon which interrupted the work was natural or miracu- lous 108 A recent explanation of it is attended with some difficulties, and still leaves room for uncertainty 109 Valentinian f. practised universal toleration 110 392 Theodosius published his famous edict against polytheism. It was effectual in diminishing the numbers of the Pagans, and confining them chiefly to the villages ; whence the name 110 The religion maybe considered as extinct from this time 111 Some heathen superstitions were communicat- ed to Christianity. The veneration for mar- tyrs encouraged by the Fathers, and carried to excess by the people 111 404 Honorius abolished the gladiatorial games 112 388 Christianity was established by the Roman Senate 113 JVute on the writings of Julian, Ammianus Mar- cellinus, and Zosimus. Julian's hatred of Christianity was not the contemptof a philos- opher, but the passion of a rival ; a passage in the Misopogon proves his own superstitious- nessor hypocrisy ; his charitable edicts were derived from the Christian practices 113-14-15 Chapter IX. — From the Fall of Paganism to the Death vf Justinian. 370 — 600 The various barbarian tribes were con- verted, some before, some after, their inva- sion of the empire 115 496 The probable account and consequences of the conversion of Clovis- The first connexion between France and Rome 116 The natural causes which facilitated the con- version of the barbarians ; their respect for the grandeur of the empire, for the sacerdotal character, for the imposing ceremonies of the Church 116-17 The opinion of Mosheim as to the probability of supernatural interposition in aid of this work 118 The internal condition of the Church was still further corrupted by the admixture of anoth- er superstition 118 427 Symeon the Stylite, a Syrian monk, commenc- ed his method of penitential devotion, and obtained the admiration of the people and the respect of the Emperors 118-19 440 Leo the Great was raised to the See of Rome ; zealous in the repression of error both in the East and West 119 And in the aggrandizement of the Roman See 120 Leo encourased, or instituted, the practice of private confession, — so useful to sacerdotal power 120 451 The substance of the 29th canon of the Council of Chalcedon respecting the relative rank of the Sees of Rome and Constantinople 120-1 527 Justinian ascended the throne, and held it for nearly forty years. He assailed various he- retics, Arians, Nestorians, Eutychians ; re- ceived from the fifth General Council the title of' Most Christian,' and died in the heresy of the Incorruptibles, or Phantastics 121 On the system of persecution adopted by the Christian Emperors. Theodosius II. embodi- ed the various barbarous edicts in the The- odnsian Code, and instituted inquisitions for the detection of heresy 121-2 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. A. D. Page The decline of the Roman literature was previ- ous to any influence of the Christian religion, and chiefly caused by despotism 122-3 350 — 430 Many eminent Christian writers flourish- ed, and were the best of that age 122-3 393 The Council of Carthage prohibited the study of secular books by Bishops ; great ignorance followed, though not in consequence of this decree 124 The ' Seven Liberal Arts,' ' Books of Martyrs,' ' Lives of Saints,' &c. 124 529 Justinian published the edict which closed the School of Athens 125 Religion in its purity had been connected with philosophy in its corruption and abuse 125 The effect of Justinian's edict has probably been much exaggerated 125 The moral delinquences of the clergy were not so great as some have represented them 126 The miseries of the age were ascribed by many to the overthrow of the idols ; and Augustine combats this notion in his ' City of God' 12B-7 Note on certain ecclesiastical writers 127 310,&c. The ' Divine Institutions,' and ' Deaths of the Persecutors,' the works of Lactantius 127 362,&x. Gregory Nazianzen wrote some Discourses against the Emperor Julian ; he exalts in lofty language the authority of the Church 128 374 Ambrose raised by the people to the See of Mi- lan ; he was not then baptized. In 390 he imposed an act of humiliation on Theodosius the Great 128 Chrysostom combined great eloquence, zeal, and piety, with some extravagance ; he died in exile on Mount Taurus. His opinions on the Eucharist, on Grace and Original Sin, and on Confession, have been the occasion of much controversy 130-31 390 Jerome, in his convent at Bethlehem, exalted monastic excellence, and attacked the re- formers and heretics, Jovinian, Vigilantius, Pelagius, &c. His Latin translation of the Old Testament less favorably received at the time than his polemical philippics 131-2 Chapter X. — From the Death of Justinian, to that of Charlemagne, 567 — 814. 596 St. Austin, with forty Benedictines, introduc- ed Christianity into Britain. His miraculous claims may be rejected ; but the work was accomplished without violence. Gregory the Great was Bishop of Rome 133-4 Some of the oiiginal Christians remaining in Wales retained the Eastern error as to the celebration of Easter 133-4 715—723 Winfred (Boniface), an Englishman, call- ed the Apostle of Germany. He was raised to the see of Mayence, and (755) murdered by the Frieselanders 134-5 622 — 732 The Mahometans conquered Persia, Sy- ria, Egypt, (through the co-operation of the Jacobites) the northern parts of Africa, and Spain. They invaded France, and were de- feated by Charles Martel 135-6 772 Charlemaune converted the Saxons by the sword ; and had reason to complain of their contumacy 137 590—604 Gregory the Great was raised to the Ro- man See ; he possessed some good and great qualities, and applied himself to reform some abuses. He was charitable, zealous for the propagation of Christianity, and the unity of the Church 138-9 The charge acainst him of having burned the Palatine Library is probably unfounded 139 — He encouraged the use, and prohibited the worship, of images 139 He inculcated purgatory, and pilgrimage to holy places 140 His extravagant letter to the Empress Constan- tina on the bodies of the Saints and the sanc- tity of their relics 140-1 — Worship was still celebrated by every nation in its own language 141 Gregory instiluted the canon of the Mass, and added splendor to the ceremonies of the Church 14] 588 The title of CEcumenic was conferred bv the Emperor Maurice upon the Patriarch of Con- stantinople. Gregory vehemently disputed the propriety of the title, without claiming it for himself 142 Gregory first claimed the power of the Keys for the successor of St. Peter, rather than the body of the Bishops 142 The use of papal envoys and advocates, and the practice of appeal to Rome, became more common during the pontificate of Gregory 143 — Of his claim to the title of Great, and the mis- chief occasioned by the superstitions encour- aged by him 143 604 — 770 No character of ecclesiastical eminence from Gregory to Charlemagne. But many changes were silently introduced into the Western Church, through the barbarian con- quests. The East remained unaltered 144 The lower orders of the clergy were greatly debased in the West. The office of priest- hood was commonly conferred on the serfs of the Church 145 A number of laymen were connected with the Church by the giving of the tonsure 145 The principle of the Unity of the Church, now useful in associating the barbarians, prepared the way for the papal despotism. On some Councils held in Spain 145 The process by which the Popes usurped the authority of the Metropolitans 146 Princes usurped the appointment to vacant Sees, with great detriment to the Church, in those ages 147 The power and corruption of the episcopal or- der. The military character commonly as- sumed 147 635 Pope Martin was carried away to Constantino- ple, and died in exile in the Chersonesus 148 754-5 Pope Zachary, having contributed to raise Pepin to the throne of France, was rewarded by the donation of the Exarchate of Ravenna 148-9 800 Charlemagne was proclaimed Emperor of the West. He exerted great munificence towards the Church ; still, however, retaining Rome as a part of the empire. His object was to civilize his subjects by means of the clergy 149 789 The Councils of Aix-la-Chapelle and (794) Frankfort assembled for the reformation of the clergy 150 Chapter XL — On the Dissensions of the Church from Constantine to Charlemagne. 311 The principal cause of the schism of the Dona- tists was a disrespect shown to the Numidian Bishops. The principle which it pleaded was the invalidity of the ministry of the Traditors 152 Constantine interfered, by synods, first at Rome, then at Aries ; lastly, by personal in- vestigation. He decided against the Dona- tists, and used the secular power 152 But he presently repealed the laws against them. They were persecuted by Constans ; restored by Julian ; they then flourished, and quarrelled. Presently Augustin assailed them ; and they were condemned by the Council of Carthage, and persecuted. Great ravages were committed by the Circumcel- lions 153 354 — 430 Augustin, a Numidian, embraced the Manichean opinions. He returned to the Church ; was made Bishop of Hippo ; re- formed the abuse of the Agapa? ; and became celebrated by his Catholic zeal, and his writings 154-5 Erasmus had drawn a parallel between Augus- tin and Jerome 155 Some particulars relating to his private life 156 380 Priscillian was condemned on the charge of Manicheism by the Council of Saragossa, and executed at Treves, by Maximus, four years afterwards. He is generally considered as the first martyr to religious dissent. It is disputed what his opinions were 156-7 390 Jovinian was condemned by a Council held by Ambrose, at Milan, and banished by the em- peror. He wrote against celibacy, and relig- ious seclusion 158 405 Vigilantius wrote against the temples of mar- tyrs, prodigies, vigils, prayers to saints, fast- ing, &c. 159 412 The opinions of Celestials were condemned by a Council at Carthage. Augustin then accused Pelagius before two Councils, in Sy- ria ; but he was acquitted in both. Zosimns, Bishop of Rome, at first declared in his favor. But an imperial edict was obtained against the heresv, &c. 159-60-61 What is the substance of the Pelagian opinions ; and what seem to have been the real senti- ments of Augustin 161 428 The Semipelagian doctrines began to spread in France, and seem to have had earlier prevalence in the East ; but they were equal ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. ly condemned by the Church of Rome 1U2 The doctrine of the ' One Incarnate Nature ' was first avowed in Egypt by Apollinaris, Bishop of Laodicea, the friend of Athanasi- us; but condemned in Asia and Syria 162 428 Nestorius was raised to the See of Constanti- nople. He maintained that the Virgin Mary should be called the ' Mother of Christ,' or even ' Mother of Man ;' not ' Mother of God.' Cyril of Alexandria opposed him 163-4 431 He was condemned by the General Council of Ephesus, and died in the deserts of Upper Egypt. But his opinions spread throughout Asia 164 The doctrine of the Nestorians, according to the Councils of Seleucia 164 449 The Monophysite opinions of Eutyches were confirmed in a Council held at Ephesus ; but rejected by that of Chalcedon (451), which established the doctrine of Christ in one per- son and two natures 165 432 Zeno published his Henoticon, or edict of Union 166 629 Heraclius proposed the question of the single or double will of Christ ; and the latter was established by the sixth General Council at Constantinople, held in 680 Some remarks favorable to the parties engaged in these controversies 726 Leo the Isaurian attacked the worship of ima- ges, established in the East before 600 And was resisted both in the East, and in Ita- ly, and by Gregory II. 754 An assembly near Constantinople decreed the destruction of images (hence the name Ico- noclasts) ; but Irene restored them by the General Council of Nice, in 787 ; the seventh, and last, of the Greek Church. Some re- marks on those Councils 168-69 The Iconoclast heresy was renewed by some following emperors ; but finally repressed (842) by the Empress Theodora 170 754 John Damascenus, the last of the Greek. Fa- thers 171 — The miracles in this contest were chiefly claimed by the friends of the idols, who, in the East, were for the most part the monks and lower people. In the West, the Papal Chair zealously supported the same cause 794 Bufthe Council of Francfort, under Charle- magne, was much more moderate 171-2 166 166 1G7 16S 171 Chapter XII. — On the Schism between the Greek and Latin Churches. Some political causes which accelerated the division between the Churches 172-3 320 — 451 The extent and authority of the See of Constantinople increased widely, and its ju- risdiction was confirmed by the Council of Chalcedon, in spite of the Legates of Leo the Great 0 172-3 588 After continued disputes, John the Faster as- sumed the title of Universal Patriarch, which led to fresh quarrels. The internal dissen- sions of the Greek Church always gave Rome an influence in its affairs 173-4 767 The doctrine of the double procession, having been previously agitated in Spain, was re- ceived by the French clergy at the Council of Gentiili, and advocated by Charlemagne at Aix-la Chapelle, in 809 853 Photius was raised to the See of Constantino- ple, and then he and Nicholas I. excommu- nicated each other 175 Photius charged the Roman Church with five errors 175 There were, besides, differences about the lim- its of their respective jurisdiction. Photius was deposed, and the act confirmed by a Council held at Constantinople, in 869 ; but this had no effect in healing the schism 175 1054 Another dispute between Michael Cerularius and Leo IX. completed the division ; and the Latin Act of Excommunication was placed on the grand altar of St. Sophia 176 Chapter XIII. — The condition of the Church at the Death of Charlemagne. The subjects of this chapter are chiefly retro- spective 176 I — 313 The nature of the primitive ecclesiastical government. The elements of three forms of government may be discovered in it — the Episcopal, the Presbyterian, and the In- dependent; but they immediately resolved themselves into a limited episcopacy 177 A. D. Page 177 The rise of synods ; their co-operation for the union of the various churcnes The principal bond of union was the catalogue of the Sacred Books; and perhaps the salva- tion of the Church may be ascribed to that union 178 An opinion of Semler considered, Note 178 The writings of the Antenicene Fathers con- tain the most important doctrines, but no theological system 178 Miraculous powers falsely attributed to the early Church, at least after the middle of the second age 179 The nature of those which it asserted 179 On exorcists and Daemoniacs. The words of Cyprian 180 Several literary forgeries disgraced the Anteni- cene Church 181 The distinction of the converts into Catechu- mens and Faithful, was as early as Tertul- lian. Its motive two-fold 181 There were two original sacraments or myste- ries ; but the ceremonies of penitential abso- lution, ordination, &c, were concealed from the uninitiated ; and even baptism and the eucharist were surrounded with some super- stitious reverence 181 The birthdays of the martyrs were of early in- stitution ; and honors were offered at their tombs 182 The use of prayers and offerings for the dead, and the practice of occasional fasting, was very early 182 Some of the forms of the external economy of the Church are to be sought in Jewish, some in Pagan practices. On the distinction be- tween clergy and laity, the power of the presbytery, liturgies, the sacrifice, votive do- nations, &x. 183 Two conclusions may be drawn. (1.) That the Antenicene Church was not a perfect model of a Christian society. (2.) That the fundamental doctrines of Christianity are steadily perceptible from the beginning. The corruptions, which were even then in exist- ence, might have been easily corrected on the establishment of the Church 183-4-5 320 — 604 A great progress in abuse during this period 185 The Monastic system took root in the 4th and 5th ages 185 The celibacy of the clergy was treated in the Councils of Ancyra and Nice, and in that of Constantinople m Trnllo 185 The exertions of Pope Siricius and Gregory the Great 185 > The penitential system was maintained in full vigor, till the institution of private confession by Leo the Great 186 The doctrine of purgatory was first expressly laid down to the Church by Gregory the Great 186 A great number of Pagan ceremonies found their way into the Church in the 5th and 6th centuries ; and, among other evils, the use and abuse of images 187 The origin of the spiritual power of the Chris- tian clergy ; a power unknown to the Pagan priesthood. To what objects it was directed before Constantine. The popular influence which it conferred 187 Other motives afterwards combined to raise the authority and influence of the hierarchy 188 The great number (1800) of the Bishops increas- ed their weight in the commonwealth ; but this was diminished by their intestine dis- sensions 189 The ill and wicked policy, which led the Church to appeal to the temporal sword 189 The influence of the Presbytery in tiie govern- ment of the diocese gradually decayed ; and the authority of the Bishop rose far above the inferior clergv 190 The Bishop of Rome was exalted as the Bishop of the Imperial city, as the only Patriarch of the West, by the absence of the Imperial Government, by the especial claim of St. Pe- ter's protection, and of the Keys ; hence he derived respect, which he converted into au- thority 190-1 600 — 800 A vast field for ecclesiastical exertion, for good as well as for evil, was opened by the barbarian conquests ; the inordinate growth of episcopal power was another characteris- tic of this period ; another was the establish- ment of the Pope's temporal monarchy by the donation of Pepin 191-2 The Athanasian Creed, originally written in ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. A.D Latin, is commonly attributed to Vigiliua Tapsensis, who lived at the end of the fifth century ; the principle of this creed is the exclusive salvation of those within the Church. The truths which it contains are not expressed in the words of Scripture ; it was composed many ages after the apostoli- cal times, when evangelical purity was in no prevalence 192-3 Constantine instructed the magistrates to exe- cute the episcopal sentence, but he restrain- ed their power within narrow limits. Some decrees of subsequent emperors on the same subject and with the same view 193-4 Justinian enlarged the jurisdiction of the Bish- ops, and entirely exempted them from the lay courts, and there the matter rested in the Eastern Church ; in the West, Charlemagne increased their privileges to an inordinate extent, which their territorial possessions stretched still farther 195 The foundations of the Papal omnipotence were laid by the forgeries of the donation of Constantine, and the false Decretals ; how far Charlemagne may have been influenced by the former ig5 1—325 The Antenicene clergy were supported by voluntary oblations. Constantine opened a variety of new sources 196 What exemptions the clergy soon afterwards enjoyed 197 The ancient manner of dispensing the Church funds 197 470 (about.) A law for the quadripartite division of the funds was enacted in the West 198 Changes introduced by the system of feudali- ties 198 Foundation of benefices and right of patronage 198 The territorial and other possessions of the clergy were very considerable, even before Charlemagne, and not always acquired by worthy means 199 Much on the other hand was derived from fair and honorable sources ; and all was liable to plunder 199 No tithes were paid to the Antenicene Church ; but both Ambrose and Augustin inculcated the payment vehemently, and pressed the divine obligation. Chrysostom and Jerome were more moderate 200 Some special endowments may have been made before the end of the seventh century : but the first legislative act which conferred 778 the right was that of Charlemagne. Other constitutions followed, but the payment does not seem to have been commanded ' as a 1215 duty of common right,' till the fourth Later- an Council, under Innocent III. (Canon 54 *) 201-2 The power and influence of the Church, at the period of the barbarian conquests, were the instruments by which the religion was pre- served 203 It afterwards conferred great benefits on soci- ety by the general exercise of charity, by the severity of its penitential discipline, by its more civilized principles of legislation, by attempts to abolish slavery, and to diminish civil outrage and international warfare, by preserving the ancient writings, and dissem- inating the imperfect education of the age 203-4 PART III. Chapter XIV. — The Government and Projects of the Church during the Ninth and Tenth Cen- turies. The contents of this chapter are divided under three separate heads : — 205 I. The original law of Papal election continued to the time of Charlemagne, and was not dis- turbed by him. It became, in two respects, offensive to the Popes ; they began to dis- pense with the Imperial confirmation under the Carlovingian princes, and Charles the Bald (875) resigned his right 205 960 Otho the Great, after a long prevalence of dis- order in the pontifical elections, resumed the privilege of the empire, and extended it so far as to appoint Popes by his own authority 206 t047— 59 The liberty of the See was gradually recov- ered, and the appointment vested in the Col- lege of Cardinals by Nicholas II. 206 ' Quod Decimae ante TVibuta solvantur.' A- D- Page Remarks on the fluctuations of the contest, and the causes which produced them 206 II. The encroachments of ecclesiastical on civil authority were of various descriptions 207 Evils proceeding from the indistinct limits of spiritual and secular jurisdiction ; yet these were not very perceptible till after the death of Charlemagne 207 On the increase of power and privilege confer- red on the higher clergy, by the establish- ment of the feudal system. They became an Order in the State, &c. 208 They gradually assumed the military character 209 The superstitious method of trials was useful to priestly authority, yet, on many occasions, it was opposed by the clergy 209 The intellectual superiority of the clergy natu- rally and necessarily enlarged their influence and power 209 The pit perty of the church was liable to per- petual spoliation 210 Wetseq. On the deposition, penance, and tempo- rary humiliation of Lewis the Meek, by the episcopal authority. This act had a prece- dent in the deposition of Vamba, King of the Visigoths, in Spain, at the twelfth Council of Toledo (682) 211 These were episcopal, not papa), usurpations 211 842 — 859 Other instances of the power of the Bish- ops and the weakness and dependence of the Crown, in the reign of Charles the Bald 211-12 Pope Nicholas I. interfered respecting the mar- riage (870) of Lothaire, King of Lorraine, and Adrian II. in the succession to that throne 212 880 Hincmar, of Bheims, employed strong expres- sions and a fortunate prophecy against Lew- is III. 213 Charles the Bald accepted the vacant empire as the donation of John VIII. This prece- dent was of great value to the Popes in after ages 213-14 Further progress of ecclesiastical usurpation 214 978 Robert of France put away his wife and per- formed penance in obedience to the interdict of Gregory V 214 III. The progress of papal authority was not rapid until the forgery of the False Decretals ; and even these were not brought into full op- eration before the time of Gregory VII. 215 Some French Prelates retorted the threat of ex- communication against Pope Gregory IV. 215-16 862,&.c. Pope Nicholas I. restored to his see, by his own authority, a Bishop who had been de- posed by Hincmar of Rheims, and had ap- pealed to Rome 216 Five years afterwards the Pope gained another triumph over the Archbishop 216 845 — 882 Hincmar occupied the See of Rheims — the great churchman of the ninth century 217 A vague notion of the Pope's omnipotence was gairung ground among the laity in this age 217 876 John VIII. appointed the Archbishop of Sens his permanent vicar and legate in France, in spite of Hincmar and the clergy. The pon- tifical power was further advanced by ex- emptions of monasteries, by the principle I hat Bishops derived their power from the Pope, by the exclusive convocation of councils 218-19 Chapter XV. — On the Opinions, Literature, Dis- cipline, and external Fortunes of the Church. The vicissitudes of religion, during these ages, in the different countries of the West, gen- erally corresponded with their literary revo- lutions 219 A half-enlightened age is more fertile in contro- versies than one of perfect darkness 219 It is a question whether the bodily presence was universally received in the beginning of the ninth age 219 831 — 846 PaschalraffTladbertus originated the con- troversy concerning the body and blood of Christ 220 His doctrine is expressed in two propositions. Ratramn and John Scotus were ordered by Charles the Bald to write on the same sub- ject. The controversy died away before the end of this century, without any result, and • reposed during the tenth 220 848 Godeschalcus advanced predestinarian opin- ions, which were condemned by the council of Mayence, convoked by Rabanus Maurus. Next year he was again condemned by Hinc- mar, deposed, flagellated, imprisoned for life, and deprived of Christian sepulture 221-2-3 960—1000 Bernard, a Thuringian hermit, preached ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. A. D- Paee the approaching end of the world ; the opin- ion generally spread and produced great com- motion and mischief to society 223 800 — 999 Letters, somewhat revived by Charle- magne, partially flourished during the ninth century ; they then expired. In the mean- time, the Arabians diffused them in Spain ; thence they passed into France, and ascend- ed, with Sylvester II., into the Papal Chair 224-5 The prostrate discipline of the Church, raised by Charlemagne, was supported by numerous councils during the ninth age, especially in France, and through Hincmar. In the mean- time, the False Decretals were making silent progress 225-6 817 Benedict of Aniane reformed the monastic order 226-7 The election of bishops was nominally restor- ed to the chapters, and their translations vain- ly prohibited 227 896 A posthumous insult was offered to Pope For- mosus, who had been promoted from the See of Porto to that of Rome 227 956 John XII. introduced the custom of assuming a new name on elevation to the Papal Chair 228 830 Claudius, Bishop of Turin, the Protestant of the ninth century, opposed the use of relics and other corruptions 228 Christianity was generally introduced into the north of Europe before the middle of the eleventh age 229 830 — 854 Ansgarlus attempted the conversion of Sweden ; that of Russia may be assigned to the end of the tenth century ; that of Poland was somewhat earlier; that of Hungary somewhat later 229-30 On the contemporaneous progress of the Nor- mans and the Turks 231 Chapter XVI.— The Life of Gregory VII. Section I. 1049 Leo IX., appointed to the see by the Emperor, is recorded to have taken Hildebrand with him to Rome, from his monastery at Cluni 231 1054 Victor II. succeeded, on the recommendation of Hildebrand 232 1059 Papal election was confided to the Cardinals by Nicholas II. Of whom that body then consisted 232 The consent of the rest of the clergy and people was required ; but Alexander III. afterwards removed that restraint 233 The original method of popular election had gradually fallen every where into disuse 233 The necessity of imperial confirmation was vir- tually abolished by Nicholas II. at the same time 233 The Norman Duke of Apulia received his ter- ritories as a fief of the Roman See 234 1061 Hildebrand succeeded in placing Alexander II. in the Chair, ruled the Church under his name, and developed, during this Pontificate, the leading schemes of his own ambition 234-5 1073 Himself was raised to the See, and took the name of Gregory VII. 234-5 Section II. — Pontificate of Gregory. 1074 The Pope assembled a council against the con- cubinage of the clergy and simony 235 A great relaxation in the morals of the clergy during the tenth century; the Popes, from Leo IX., had attempted to correct it, but with no effect 236 Gregory endeavored to enforce his decree, and great confusion ensued 236 The princes, long before Charlemagne, had gradually usurped the most valuable Church patronage, and frequently abused it 236 It was Gregory's object to recover it from them ; the question about investitures was only the means to do so 236 From the time of Otho I. the sovereigns had performed the office of investiture with the ring and crosier, symbols of a spiritual office ; this was the point ostensibly disputed 237 Henry IV. resisted Gregory's demands, and the Pope deposed some German prelates, and menaced anathemas 237 Gregory summoned Henry to Rome, to clear himself from certain charges alleged by his subjects 238 Henry assembled a Synod at Worms to depose the Pope 238 The Pope excommunicated and deposed Henry 238 A civil war in Germany followed, and a coun- A. D. Pag* cil was appointed, in which the claims of both parties were to be referred to the decis- ion of the Pope 239 Henry crossed the Alps, and made submission to the Pope at Canossa, and was restored to communion 239 The civil wars were then renewed, and three years afterwards (1080) Gregory bestowed the crown on Rodolphus 239 Gregory extended his claims of temporal su- premacy to the crowns of France, England, Naples, and many inferior dukedoms and principalities 240 He designed to regulate the affairs of Christ- endom by a council of bishops periodically assembled at Rome. Some circumstances which ought to be considered in passing an opinion on that project 240 What were the grounds on which Gregory founded his pretensions to this universaldo- minion 241 The power ' to bind and to loose' extended to the oath of allegiance 241 Matilda,Countess of Tuscany, consented to hold her domains on feudal tenure from the Pope 242 It was the object of Gregory to destroy the in- dependence of the national churches, and lead the whole hierarchy to look to Rome only as its head 242 The objects and some of the contents of the False Decretals 248 1082 Henry ad/anced to Rome, and after two re- pulses, in two successive years, obtained pos- session of the city. Gregory retired to the Castle of St. Angelo, and was relieved by the Normans, under Robert Guiscard 243 1085 Gregory, having retired with the Normans, died at Salerno. An examination of his character as a churchman and as a Christian 244-5 His private morality was marked by the auste- rity of the cloister 246 Section III. 1045 Berenger, Scholastic at Tours, published hi3 opposition to the doctrine afterwards called Transubstantiation ; he was condemned at Rome five years afterwards, and again by some French councils, especially that of Tours; he retracted, and immediately return- ed to his opinion 247 He was summoned to Rome by Nicholas II., when he again retracted, and again abjured his retractation 248 1078 Gregory VII. required his subscription to a pro- fession, admitting the real presence, without mention of the change of substance, and he subscribed. In the year following he sub- scribed to the whole doctrine, without any reservation ; and then, returning to France, taught as before 248 1088 He died in peace, at an advanced age 248 Gregory's moderation has occasioned a suspi- cion that he shared the opinions 249 The use of the Latin Liturgy was imposed gen- erally upon the Church by Gregory VII. In a letter to Vratislaus, Duke of Bohemia, he declared the policy of closing the Scriptures against the people. Both were contrary to the practice of the early Church 249-50 JVote respecting the reputed inscription to Si- mon Magus, discovered at Rome in 1574 250 Misrepresentation by Mosheim of a sermon of Eligius, Bishop of Noyon 251-2 PART IV. From Gregorv VII. to Boniface VIII. Chapter XVII. — From Gregory VII. to Innocent III. 1087 — 99 Urban II. pursued the schemes of Gregory, and in 1095, he held the councils of Placentia and Clermont, and setonfoot the first crusade 252-3 The notion of a crusade was first started by Sylvester II., and taken up by Gregory VII. 253 1099—1118 Pascal II. (like Gregory and Urban, a monk of Cluni), revived the contest with the empire 254 Henry died under the sentence of excommuni- cation, with his son in arms against him, and his body was kept for five years in unhallow- ed ground 254 The contest continued with Henry V. 255 The regalia were grants conferred on the bish- ops by Charlemagne, partaking of the privi- leges of royalty, and the emoerors claimed the right of confirming them 253 10 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. A. D page Pascal n. agreed to cede them, on the Empe- ror's ceding the right of investiture. The 1110 ceremony of coronation was to follow ; but a dispute arose in St. Peter's, and the Pope was carried away prisoner to Viterbo, where he made every concession 255 A Lateran council was assembled, and cancel- led the treaty 256 A disputed succession was still usual at the death of almost every Pope 256 1122 The Investiture question was reasonably ar- ranged in a council or diet held at Worms, under Calixlus II., a relative of the Emperor 256 Some remarks on the arrangement thus adopted 257 1123 The first Lateran (ninth Latin General) was held for the General regulation of ecclesiasti- cal matters 257 1'24 — 1154 Rome was disturbed by uninterrupted discord and convulsion. Arnold of Brescia was distinguished during this period 258 1155 Adrian IV. placed the city under an interdict, and so effected the expulsion of Arnold, who was presently delivered up to him by Fred- eric Barbarossa, and burnt alive. The pro- bable character of Arnold 258 Barbarossa held the stirrup of Adrian 259 Alexander III., after a long conflict, reduced Frederic Barbarossa to terms favorable to the Church. In 1179, he held the third Lateran Council, and enacted the final regulations re- specting Papal election. He was a zealous patron of letters 260-1 Three descriptions of disputes distracted this period : those between the Popedom and the empire; those between rivals for the See; those in various states between the ecclesias- tical and civil authorities 261 The general correspondence between religion and literature, in their progress and decay, admits of many particular exceptions 262 After the first barbarian conquests, the whole office of public instruction fell into the hands of the clergy ; and no subjects were treated, or lessons delivered, except with a view to theology. The invasion of the Lombards was destructive to all learning in Italy 263 The exertions of Charlemagne had much more fruit in France than in Italy during the ninth aSe 263 In the tenth, every thing degenerated in both countries ; literature and morality ; laity and clergy. Yet the literary condition of France was not lower at the accession of Sylvester II., than at that of Charlemagne 264 On the other hand, the ecclesiastical composi- tions of those ages had commonly a practical tendency, and were directed to moral im- provement 265 From the Saracenic conquest of Egypt, papy- rus began to be disused in Europe, and parch- ment was the substitute ; so that MSS. could not multiply or spread with any rapidity. An instance of their scarcity 266 This evil was removed in the eleventh centu- ry by the invention of paper 266 About eighty councils were held in France during that age. On the three characters or ffiras of theological literature ; that of the ec- clesiastical Fathers; that of the collectors and compilers ; that of the Schoolmen 267 On the Trivium and Cluadrivium 268 1091-1153 Note on St. Bernard. He founded Clair- val, and, in the course of his life, about a hun- dred and sixty other monasteries 269 He was very influential in establishing Inno- cent II. in the disputed See ; and through his numerous ecclesiastical merits, he is de- nominated the last of the fathers 269 In his opinion respecting grace, he followed St. Augustin 270 1140 He entered the lists in public disputation against Abelard, at Sens ; but the latter declined the controversy, and appealed to the Pope 271 He was a zealous supporter of papal authority and adversary of heresy. Various expres- sions from his writings on both these subjects 272-3 He likewise denounced, with great indignation, the numerous abuses prevalent in the Church at that period 274-5 On his mingled good and dangerous qualities, and the wide extent of his personal influence 275 Chapter XVIII.— The Pontificate of Innocent III. (1198-1216.) 1083-1198 Considerable improvement had been ef- fected in the Church system between Grego- ■ Paee ry VII. and Innocent. Three Lateran coun- cils assembled in the twelfth century 276 1151 Gratian published his famous collection of ca- non law 276 The possessions of the clergy were greatly increased during the same period ; and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction had made wide encroachments on the secular 277 Various instances of the persons and causes which had been insensibly drawn into the former courts 277 Thus the clergy exercised, at Innocent's acces- sion, a greater control over society than at any former period 278 His designs may be classed under four heads 278 I. The character of the Roman people, accord- ing to the expressions of Luitprand, a Lom- bard of the tenth age 278 According to those of St. Bernard, addressed to Eugenius III. 279 The turbulence of the Romans was excused by the weakness, capriciousness, and uncertain character of their government. Some vicis- situdes in its form, from Charlemagne to In- nocent. The latter at length entirely shook off the imperial claims, and deprived the Prefect of his power. 279-80 Yet other changes and tumults succeeded, and were not appeased till the middle of the fif- teenth century 280 The circumstances of the empire were favora- ble to the project of Innocent. He obtained from Frederic a confirmation of the donation of Matilda 281 II. Innocent exercised his temporal authority in the disposal of the empire. Through what causes that authority ever acquired any strength, or received any obedience 281 Many imagined that the ceremony of corona- tion by the Pope was necessary for the legiti- macy of the emperor 282 In a contest with Philippe Auguste of France, Innocent threw an interdict over the whole country, and the king made his submission 282 He published some general assertions of his power over thrones ; and interfered in Arra- gon, Navarre, Bohemia, Wallachia, Bulgaria, and Armenia 283 The resistance and final humiliation of John of England 283-4 III. It was necessary for the success of Inno- cent, to hold the hierarchy in subservience. He endeavored to usurp all important patron- age 283-4 He imposed a regular tax (the Saladin tax) on ecclesiastical property. The power, which the Bishops, as a collective body, had lost, passed into the possession of the Pope 285 1215 The fourth Lateran Council met for the recov- ery of the Holy Land, and the reformation of the Church 285 The name of transnbstantiation was introduc- ed into the vocabulary of the Church 285 Sacramental confession generally imposed 286 Reformation in the faith of the Church only meant extirpation of heresy. The substance of the third canon of this council on that sub- ject 286 IV. From the controversy about images, till the twelfth century, the Church had not been stained by any rigorous persecution 287 1110 Pierre de Bruys originated the sect of Petro- brussians, who rejected some superstitions, and advanced some errors. He was burnt in a popular tumult 287 1148 Henry, from whom the Henricians were named, was opposed by St. Bernard, and died in prison 287 Both these heresies prevailed chiefly in the South of France, as well as some others of no name, and perhaps of no very definite tenets, but professing an apostolical character and origin 288 The Cathari, or Gazari, &c, may probably have descended from the Paulicians of the East, and may thus have been Semi-Manichffians ; but it would be absurd to charge Ibis error upon all the heretics of the twelfth century 288-89 1160 Peter Waldus commenced his preaching, and caused some part of the Scriptures to be trans- lated into the vulgar tongue : but the Vau- dois, or Waldenses, were of earlier and im- memorial origin, though it is impossible to trace them to the apostolical times. The opinions ascribed to them 289-90 Albigeois, or Albigenses, was the common name for the various heretics of the South of France at the end of the twelfth century 291 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 11 1017 Some persons of good condition, charged with Manicheism, and probably guilty of mysti- cism, were condemned by a synod at Or- leans, and burnt to death 291 1163 Alexander III. published, in a Council at Tours, an edict against the heretics of Tou- louse and Gascony, and afterwards attacked the Cathari in his Lateran Council 292 1198-1207 Innocent III. attempted to reduce the Al- higeois, tirst by legates, and then by missiona ry preachers, under the name of Inquisitors, of whom Dominic was one : but failing, he appealed to the sword of Louis Philippe 293 Simon de Montfort then led the crusade against them, with barbarous success 293 1229 A system of inquisition was permanently estab- lished at Toulouse, by a council there assem- bled. The Scriptures were strictly prohibit- ed to all laymen 294 1216 The circumstances of the death of Innocent are variously recounted. His private char- acter should be distinguished from his eccle- siastical ; the former had many good quali- ties, the latter abounded with crimes 294 His policy was strictly temporal. The taxation of the clergy was the principal change which lie introduced into the economy of the Church 295 A comparison drawn between his public char- acter and that of Gregory VII. is to the ad- vantage of the latter 296 Chapter XIX. — The History of Monachism. For what reasons any general notice of the Mo- nastic Orders has been deferred till this pe- riod of the history 296 Section I. 250 The practice of seclusion was indigenous in the East ; the testimony of Pliny the philo- sopher 297 The original Therapeutfe or Essenes were pro- bably Jews ; but in assuming Christianity they may have retained their eremitical habits 297 The Ascetics were Christians ; they were the most rigid among the converts, but were not recluses. Their origin ascribed by Mosheim to the double doctrine of morals 297 250 et seq. Many flying from the persecutions of De- cius and Diocletian adopted the anachoretical life 298 The first institution of Coenobites is attributed to St. Anthony, the contemporary of Atha- nasius ; and Egypt was the country wherein it rose 298 395 Cassian made his visit to the monks of Egypt. They were divided into Anchorets, Coeno- bites, and Sarabaites. A passage respecting the first of these 299 The numerous establishments and moderate discipline of the Coenobites. The times and manner of their devotion. The four objects comprehended by their profession. A great portion of their time was devoted to manual labor 299 The Sarabaites are probably calumniated both by Cassian and Jerome ; what they seem re- ally to have been 300 360 et seq. Basil, the patriarch of Monachism, is be- lieved to have delivered a Rule, and estab- lished the obligation of a vow ; yet this is not certain 300 All the Fathers of that age eAcouraged the growth of Monachism ; yet their motives were not selfish nor sordid, nor such as are commonly ascribed to them 301 The earliest form of Monachism was subject to many wholesome restraints, which were first weakened by Justinian 302 The original monks were laymen 302 Monastic austerity was not carried to greater excess in the East than in the West, since a variety of motives, derived from Papal prin- ciples, gained influence in the latter, which had no existence in the former 303 The institution of nunneries is also attributed to St. Anthony ; but it never attained such prosperity in the East as in the West 303 Section II. 341 — 430 Monachism, said to have been introduc- ed into Rome by Athanasius, was diffused through the North of Italy and the South of France 304 The love for insular retirement, which prevail- ed among the recluses of the East, was imi- 305 3(15 305 306 A. D. Page tated in the Adriatic, and on the western coasts of Italy 304 The general spreading of Monachism was con- temporaneous with the barbarian conquests; and those establishments were of use in pre- serving religion, and relieving individual misery The Rule of St. Basil was that first professed in the West 529 Benedict of Nursia instituted a new order His object was excellent, and the principle of his establishment beneficial in those ages Some account of the ' Rule of St. Benedict : ' the times of public worship; duty of mental prayer ; of manual labor ; of reading; of rigid temperance, rather than abstinence ; of si- lence, seriousness, and obedience; difficulties offered to the introduction of novices 306-7 The Monastery of Monte Cassino was founded by Benedict, and his Rule spread into France, and elsewhere, though it may not have been universally received in the West before the ninth century 817 Benedict of Aniane reformed the Benedictine Order, and his regulations were confirmed by the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle 900,&c. The order of Cluni, in Burgundy, was es- tablished, and was very celebrated for about two centuries. It then became wealthy and corrupt. Gregory VII., Urban II. and Pascal II. were educated there 1098 The Cistertian Order was founded in its neigh- borhood, and honored and advanced by St. Bernard 1178 The Order of the Chartreuse, which had been founded by St. Bruno in 1084, was sanction- ed by Alexander III. 310-11 The rivalry among these and other orders, all Benedictines, was of advantage to the disci-' pline of them all 1040 The distinction between monks and lay breth- ren was first introduced at Vallombrosa ; and it secured the corruption of the former The Abbot was originally subject to the Bish- op of the Diocese ; the practice of Papal ex- emption occasioned extreme relaxation of discipline The prevalence of monastic corruption was acknowledged by councils held early in the thirteenth century 307 303 309 310 311 311 311 312 Section III. The order of Canons Regular, professing the institution of St. Augustin, is of uncertaiu origin. A general rule was imposed on them by the Councils of Mayence and Aix-la-Cha- pelle, early in the ninth.age 312 1059 They were subsequently reformed by Nicholas II., and were first subjected to a vow by In- nocent II. 313 Section IV. The Monastic Order3 were powerful instru- ments of pontifical ambition, through their wealth, their obedience, and their popular influence 313 The confusion of the military and ecclesiastical characters had preceded the foundation of the Military Orders 313 1050 Four merchants erected a hospital at Jerusa- lem, which was endowed by Godfrey of Bouillon ; and then rose the Knights of the Hospital, afterwards known as the Knights of Rhodes and Malta 314 1118 The Knights Templars were founded. Their Rule was written by St. Bernard ; their office and corruption 314 1192 The Teutonic Order received its Rule from Celestine III. Afterwards (1230), those knights converted Prussia by the sword ; and joined the Reformers in the sixteenth age 315 Section V. 1217,&c. The number and variety of heresies made a new order necessary for their extirpation. St. Dominic instituted that of the Preachers, and it was sanctioned by the bull of Honori- us III. 315 1210 Innocent III. established the order of St. Fran- cis, which was originally founded in poverty only 315 The Testament of St. Francis did not enjoin mendicity 316 These two orders adopted each other's charac- teristics, and presently became both Preach- ers and both Mendicants 316 12 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. A. D. Page The severity of the Rule of St. Francis occasion- ed many dissensions among his disciples, and great insubordination in the Ohurch 317 The Dominicans were more orderly and obe- dient 317 St. Dominic was not the founder of the Inqui- sition 317 122S-1259 The Dominicans became learned scholas- tics, and contested the theological chairs with the University of Paris 318 The good proceeding from this struggle. The prophecy concerning the ' perils of the latter times ' was applied to the Mendicants by a doctor at Paris. A general remark on Mil- lennarians 318 1274 Gregory X. suppressed several Mendicants, and distributed the sect into four societies : Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and Hermits of St. Augustin 318 1209 Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, gave a Rule to the Carmelites, confirmed in 1226 by Hono- rius III., and afterwards interpreted by In- nocent IV. 319 Alexander IV. collected various Hermits into one order, called the'Hermitsof St. Augustin' 319 The earliest Dominicans were distinguished by great talents and merits, and professional zeal 320 Great jealousy was occasioned among the An- cient Orders and Secular Clergy, and violent disputes followed 320 The influence of the Mendicants depended al- most entirely on their merits and activity 320 Yet they soon became liable to many reproaches 321 Section VI. On the ' Holy Virgins ' who existed in the An- tenicene Church 321 350 St. Syncletica is said to have founded the first nunnery 322 In Egyptj Marcella, a Roman lady, introduced the institution into the West, and it spread rapidly 322 The Rule of the Nuns was formed upon those of the Monasteries 322 The necessity of a ' Vow of Chastity ' strongly urged by St. Basil 323 The Canon of Chalcedon was moderate in the penalty denounced against its violation ; but Innocent I. increased its severity, and subse- quent ages still more so 323 The imposition of the Veil was earlier than St. Ambrose 323 The age of taking it varied at different times and places 323 The order of the Nuns of St. Benedict was in- stituted at the same time with his first monas- teries, and rose in importance and pride 323 There were also Canonesses. Nuns of the Hospital, Nuns of St. Dominic, following the various monastic denominations 324 1537 The Ursulines were a truly ascetic and char- itable institution ; indeed the Nuns were generally free from any of the vices charged against their Monastic brethren. The Pro- testants have imitated those virtues 325 The Benedictine, the Military, and the Mendi- cant orders, were all peculiarly adapted to the age and circumstances in which they flourished, and the qualities required for the support of Papacy j as were the Jesuits at a later period 325-6-7 The Monastic system was only perpetuated by a succession of reformations and regenera- tions 325-67 Such was the history of every order, and none could have long subsisted otherwise 327-8 Many advantages were conferred on society by Monachism. Tracts of land were brought into cultivation ; hospitality and refuge af- forded to the wretched ; charity largely dis- tributed ; spiritual consolation commonly administered to the lower orders; and an example set of piety and humanity. Educa- tion was intrusted to the Monks ; and man- uscripts, profane and sacred, were preserved and multiplied by them ; so that, if they were only useful in bad ages, then at least they were seemingly the best members of society 328-32 Yet they were the steady defenders of every superstitious abuse, and the sworn enemies of all general reform. The system of exemp- tion made them firm supporters of the Papal system ; and in recompense, indulgences, private masses, and many of the worst abuses of the Church were sustained, chiefly for their profit, by Pontifical authority 332-34 A. D. P.JB Chapter XX. — From the Death of Innocent to that of Boniface VIII. The interests of the Church of Rome were be- coming at variance with the peace of Chris- tendom 334 Frederic II. long deferred his promised depart- ure to the Holy Land 335 1227 Gregory IX. was elected ; the ceremony of his coronation 335 He excommunicated the Emperor. Frederic wrote to the King of England in reprobation of the Church 336 He proceeded to Palestine ; he made an advan- tageous treaty with the Infidels, in spite of the Pope's persecutions, and returned to re- pel an invasion of his territories 336 1243-1245 Innocent IV. continued the quarrel with Frederic, and assembled the first council of Lyons. It professed three objects. The Em- peror was summoned before it, and on his non-appearance, deprived of his crown 337 Innocent vainly attempted to seduce the Em- peror's son into an alliance against his father 337 1250 Frederic died in adversity, having been virtu- ally deposed by the sentence of Innocent 338 The real merits of this quarrel ; in what re- spects Frederic justly offended the Church ; the fierce edicts against heresy, by which he aimed to support it, and by which he deserv- ed his future misfortunes 339 Some points by which this dispute between the Church and the Empire is distinguished from that commenced by Gregory VII. 340 Taxes were rigidly levied by the Pope upon the clergy, and a crusade was preached against the Emperor 340 Innocent returned to Italy, and after some suc- cesses against the kingdom of Naples, died in 1254 341 His temporal ambition and policy, and trium- phant pontificate 341 Alexander IV. continued the struggle for Na- ples 342 1261-1268 Urban IV. and Clement IV., two French- men, introduced the French into that king- dom 342 1273 Gregory X., a pious enthusiast, was raised to the See ; and labored earnestly, and with promise of success, to excite a grand crusade 343 1274 He convoked the second Council of Lyons for that purpose, and for the reformation of the Church. The canon was then enacted, which imposed severe restraints upon the conclave 344 The Pope died before the expedition set sail, and it immediately dispersed 344 Martin IV., a Frenchman, accepted the office of senator, and held it for life 345 1294 The circumstances of the election of Pietro Mo- rone, Celestine V.; his utter incapacity ; his simplicity, piety, humility, and good inten- tions ; his resignation and the pontificate ; and imprisonment by his successor Boniface VIII. 346-7-8 The lofty and various pretensions of Boniface ; in whose reign the Papal supremacy proba- bly attained its highest elevation. His au- thority recognised by Albert of Austria 348-9 The condition of the Gallican Church at that moment 349 1296 Boniface published the bull Clericis Laicos, against all who should exact contributions from the clergy 350 It was chiefly.levelled against Philip of France. A dispute was the consequence, but it was soon suspended 350 1301 Philip arrested the Bishop of Pamiers. Boni- face published the bull Jlusculta, Fili, de- manding his liberation, &c; and it was pub- licly burnt by the King 351 Philip was supported by his barons. Some of the clergy attended the Pope's summons to assemble at Rome ; and under the name of this Council, he published the bull Unam Sanctam, asserting the unity of the Church, and the use of the double sword 351 1303 William of Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna sur- prised the Pope at Anagni ; but offered him no bodily injury. He returned to Rome and died. The circumstances of his intrepidity, and of his death 353-4 Chapter XXI. Section I. 1215-1270 Lonis IX. of France was one of the few monarchs, who founded his policy on relig- ious considerations, and whose life is thus ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 13 closely connected with ecclesiastical history. The excellence of his private morality 355 In what language he is characterized by Hume 356 His various legislative attempts to extend the civilization of his subjects 356 Much superstition was mixed with his piety; exemplified in his acquisition and reception of the Crown of Thorns. He instituted fes- tivals in its honor, &c. 356 He died before Tunis, and was canonized twenty-seven vears afterwards by Boniface VIII. The Bull of Canonization 357 Section II. St. Louis confirmed the institution of the In- quisition in his dominions 358 What was the extent of the commission of the first Inquisitors ; all trials were still con- ducted in the Episcopal Courts • 358 1229 The council of Toulouse established a sort of committee of Inquisition, the foundation of the court 358 The court was still episcopal ; but Gregory XI. transferred the power to the Dominicans, who acted more immediately under Papal authority 359 1244 The edicts of Frederic II. assisted the progress of the Inquisition. Innocent IV. established it in the north of Italy, and it spread to some other countries 359 Section III. 1263 The general contempt of excommunication then prevalent is instanced in a conference between Louis and his prelates 360 1244 Innocent IV. requested a refuge in France, and Louis eluded his solicitation 361 Before he set off on his last crusade, Louis pub- lished his Pragmatic Sanction. It consisted of six articles, which were chiefly directed against the usurpations of patronage by Rome and its pecuniary exactions 362 A spirit. of opposition to the See was occasion- ally exhibited by the French clergy 362-3 Section IV. The character of the first crusade ; the battle of Doryleum ; the capture of Antioch ; and cruelties committed at the storming of Jeru- salem 363 St. Bernard preached the second crusade with success ; his prophecy ; its falsification ; and the authority which he pleaded in his de- fence 363-4 1189-1291 The third crusade was that of Richard of England » the fifth and sixth were projected by Innocent III.; the disastrous expedition and captivity of Louis in Egypt: his second against Tunis may be considered as conclu- ding the history of the crusades 365-6 Among the causes of the crusades, the earliest was the practice of pilgrimage ; the Saracens tolerated the visits of the Christians to the Holy Sepulchre, and they were multiplied by the fanaticism of the tenth century ; but towards the close of the eleventh, the Turks got possession of Jerusalem, and persecuted the pilgrims 366-7 Warlike spirit and superstitious zeal were char- acteristics of the same ages, and co-operated to the same end. so that the minds of men were prepared for the preaching of Peter the Hermit 367-8 The object of the first crusade was wholly un- connected with reason, ambition, or policy 369 The objects of those which followed became diversified by new circumstances ; the Latin kingdom was then to be defended ; the in- terest of princes became engaged ; and gene- ral views of conquest were formed 369-70 Innocent III. preached a crusade against Here- tics ; Innocent IV. against the Emperor of Germany 370-71 U does not seem that the crusades produced any one general advantage to Europe or to Christendom, either in promoting commerce or advancing the art3 371-2 But they introduced new barbarities Into war, and inflamed the character of religious perse- cution 373 They ruined the discipline of the Church by the introduction of the plenary indulgence, and the subsequent sale of it 373 The possessions of the clergy may have been augmented, but the imposition of a tax more than counterbalanced that gain 374 A. D. Page Note A. On the first Decretals of the Pope 374 1151 The collection of Gratian was published ; di- vided into three parts ; abounding in errors 375 1210 The Roman collection was published under Innocent III.; the Liber Sextus under Bo- niface VIII. ; the Clementines under John XXII. ; and the Extravagants presently fol- lowed 375-6 Note B. The Academy of Paris first took the name of University ; its classes and lectures ; the four faculties 376 The institution of four degrees 376 Paris was chiefly eminent for its theological proficiency, while law and medicine were more successfully cultivated in Italy 376 1250 Robert of Sorbonne founded the college known by his name 376 Note C. On the Character of the Philosophy adopted by the early Theologians ; in the eleventh century Aristotle took possession of the Western Schools, and introduced endless perplexity and absurdity 377 1150 Peter the Lombard was raised to the See of Paris — the object of his Book of the Senten- ces, and the end to which it was turned 378 1224-1274 Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican, carried the system to its utmost perfection 378 Contemporary was Bonaventura, a Franciscan, a man of great piety as well as learning, and more inclined to Mysticism than Scholastic subtlety 379 1320,&c. John Duns Scotus and William of Occam were Franciscans, and headed the faction of the Nominalists or Scotists ; the Realists, the supporters of Aquinas, were called Thomists. Some points on which they differed, the Im- maculate Conception, &x. 380 PART V. Chapter XXII. — Residence at Avignon. Section I. 1305 On what conditions, made with Philip of France, Clement V. is believed to have ac- cepted the pontificate ; how far he fulfilled them 381 The Pope took up his residence in France, and finally at Avignon ; he revoked the decree of Boniface 381 1311 A general council was assembled at Viennev with three professed objects 382 It condemned the Templars, and there is every reason to believe unjustly ; it refused to in- sult the memory of Boniface VIII. 382-3 Many ecclesiastical abuses were exposed to the council, and some insufficient attempts were made to restrain them 383 1315 John XXII. was chiefly characterized by his avarice ; he extended the rule of the Aposto- lical Chancery, and abused the patronage of the Church 384 1323 The contest between Louis of Bavaria and John was not marked by any decisive advan- tage on either side ; Louis profited by the divisions of the Church, and John by those of the Empire 385-6 The Pope was formally accused of heresy by an imperial Council at Milan, though without result ; but afterwards he expressed some erroneous opinions about the Beatific Vision, which produced a great sensation in Church and State ; he retracted, not very satisfacto- rily, and is supposed to have died in error 386-7 Benedict XII. made some attempts to reform the Church abuses, but with no great effect 388 1343 Clement VI. published a bull to institute the Jubilee on the fiftieth year, and laid down the doctrine of supererogation and the treas- ure of the Church 388 Account of the Jubilee from Matteo Villani 389 Clement renewed the disputes with Louis, and bought the city of Avignon of the Queen of Naples 389 1352 The first instance of an obligation undertaken in Conclave by the future Pontiff; it was im- mediately violated by Innocent VI. 390 That Pope's transactions with the German clergy 390 1367 Urban V. removed his residence to Rome, but after three years returned to Avignon and died there 391 1376 Gregory XT. finally restored the papal residence to Rome ; Catharine of Sienna made an em- bassy to the Court of Avignon ; her singular fanaticism 391-9 14 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. A.C. Page Section II. I. On the decline of Papal power ; the Popes wereengaged in continual and fruitless wars in Italy ; their rapacity and the profligacy of the court surpassed all former excesses, and diminished the force of the prejudices which supported them : they forfeited their inde- pendence by residence in a foreign kingdom ; there were some violent dissensions within the Church 393-6 II. The attempts which were made to remove the acknowledged abuses were sometimes insincere, and always feeble 396 III. The principles of the rigid Franciscans scandalized the luxury of the Hierarchy, and some Popes tried to persuade them to relax their Rule ; but no one persecuted them be- fore John XXII. His famous bull Gloriosam Ecclesiam. The Spirituals became more ob- stinate, and sought the protection of Louis of Bavaria ; the Dominicans supported the Pope, and the contest continued until Charles IV. made peace with the Popedom, and the heretics were delivered up to Its mercy ; after much bloodshed the dispute ended by an au- thorized division of the Order into Conven- tual Brethren and Brethren of the Observ- ance 395-399 The Beghards and Lollards ; their mystical opinions were distorted and exaggerated by the Churchmen ; some Church superstitions of this age 400-401 The imputed opinions and savage persecution of Dulcinus 401 1340 The Flagellants re-appeared in Italy ; their dis- cipline, practices, alleged opinions, and per- secution 402-3 Some comparison of the above heresies with those of the earlier ages of Christianity 403 In what light ecclesiastical abuses ought to be regarded by Churchmen 403 Notes (1.) On the Franciscans and other Men- dicants ; the Fratricelli disclaimed any right even to the use of property 403 1210 The Eternal Gospel propounded the doctrine of three dispensations ; it was republished by the Franciscans in 1250, and was probably a Franciscan fabrication 404 1290 Pierre Jean d'Olive, a spiritual reformer 404 (2.) A contest arose between the Mendicants and the parochial clergy respecting the receiv- . ing of confessions, and occasioned a number of contradictory bulls during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 404 Chapter XXIII. — Grand Schism of the Roman Catholic Church. A representation was made by the magistrates to the Cardinals, of the evils suffered by Rome through the absence of the Popes, with a petition to them to elect an Italian for Pope 405 A certain decree of intimidation was unques- tionably exercised by the populace over the Conclave 406 It is not, upon the whole, probable that the Con- clave, uninfluenced, would have chosen an Italian 407 A Neapolitan, the archbishop of Bari, was at last elected, and took the name of Urban VI. 407 A man of exalted reputation and severe temper ; he began his reign by some harsh censures on the disorders of his rourt; the cardinals soon afterwards withdrew to Anagni, and annulled the election of Urban 408 1378 Thence retiring to Fondi, they there chose (Sept. 20) Robert of Geneva, Clement VII. 409 As the cardinals had previously confirmed the election of Urban , a great part of Europe con- tinued in obedience to him ; France declar- ed, on the other hand, for Clement ; the kings of Scotland, Castile, and Arragon, the counts of Savoy and Geneva, the duke of Austria, and others, finally joined the same party 409-10 Clement established his residence at Avignon 410 1386 The cruelly of Urban towards some cardinals suspected of having conspired against him 411 1389 Boniface IX. succeeded Urban ; he appointed a Jubilee at Rome for the year following, and granted the same privilege to certain cities and towns in Germany 412 1394 The University of Paris began to take serious measures for the healing of the Schism 413 And proposed, as most likely to be effectual, the method of Cession 413 Clement was succeeded by Peter of Luna, A. D. Pnge Benedict XIII., who swore in Conclave to make every exertion to restore the union of the Church 414 A solemn embassy was sent from Paris to Avignon, and its demands were refused or eluded by Benedict 414 1398 The French published the Subtraction of Obe- dience, and blockaded Avignon ; in 1403 Be- nedict contrived to escape ; he found many adherents, and the Subtraction was repeal- ed 415-16 The government of Boniface, the Roman rival, was directed by one principle only, — to raise as much money as possible, by any means whatsoever, within the limits of his obedi- ence ; thus he held a second Jubilee in the year 1400 416-17 1406 Election of Angelo Corrario, Gregory XII., and his previously unsullied reputation 418 1407 A conference was agreed upon at Savona, be- tween the two parties for the extinction of the Schism ; Benedict presented himself there, but not Gregory ; their collusion was now obvious to all the world 419 Benedict was then compelled by the French king to take refuge at Perpignan in Spain, and the cardinals convoked the Council of Pisa, (1409) 419 The Council deposed both rivals, and elected Alexander V.; but the former still retained all their claims, and some of their adherents 420 1410 BaltazarCossa (John XXIII.) succeeded to the See, and Sigismond to the empire ; it was agreed that a new Council should be sum- moned, and Constance was selected as the place ; that spot had some general advanta- ges, but was wholly unfavorable to the Pope's interests 421-22 1414 The objects of the Council were the extinction of the Schism and the reformation of the Church 422-23 The different principles on which the Pope and the most distinguished doctors proposed to accomplish the first ; soon after the arrival of Sigismond the Council declared for the meth- od of Cession, and the Pope was compelled to abdicate 423-24 Presently he escaped from the Council, and fled, first to Schaffhausen, afterwards to Brisac ; but was then restored to Sigismond by the treachery of the Duke of Austria 425-26 He was then accused of several enormous crimes, deposed and placed in rigorous con- finement 426-27 Gregory had also resigned : Benedict now re- mained the only obstacle to the unity of the Church, and Sigismond went in person to Perpignan, there to terminate the affair 427-28 Benedict clung to his dignity with extraordi- nary tenacity ; at length he fled to Panisco- la, and was then formally deposed 428-29 1417 Nov. 11, Martin V. was elected Pope, with very general approbation 429 Benedict lived six years longer at Paniscola, and anathematized every day the rival pon- tiffs. John XXIII. was presently released from confinement, and threw, himself at the feet of Alartin, who treated him with gen- erosity and raised him to dignity. John, though stained by many vices, has still been much calumniated by party historians 429-32 Note on the White Penitents, &c. Account of three descriptions of Enthusiasts, who rose in the fourteenth century 432-33 Chapter XXIV. — Attempts of the Church at Self- Reformation. Many Roman Catholic divines were anxious for a partial Reformation of their Church ; in fact, the principle of Reformation had ev- er been acknowledged, and even practised by Churchmen. Very general complaints against ecclesiastical abuses had been in- cessantly repeated in all countries, from the days of St. Bernard to those of Gerson ; but they were directed against the Clergy, rather than against the system, which was still held sacred 434-37 They attacked the scandals even of the Vati- can ; but did not question the inherent pow- er and infallibility of the Church 434-37 The attempts of the Council of Pisa were nu- gatory ; but some Anti-papal principles were broached, if not established there 438 In that of Constance, Papal delinquences were denounced in very strong language 438 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 15 A.D. lJage 1415 June 15. A committee of Reform was appoint- ed for the consideration of all remediable abuses. Some expressions of Gerson — ' De signis Ruinte Ecclesice' 439 1417 On the vacancy of the See, the question rose, whether the election of a new Pope, or the Reformation of the Church, should be first entered upon ; and in this, the whole ques- tion of a real or false Reform was involved. After many disputes, the anti-reform party, in spite of the influence of Sigismond, pre- vailed, and Martin was elected 439-40 The Italian Clergy, as well as the Cardinals, were almost unanimously opposed to reform 442 A project of Reformation was broached, con- taining eighteen articles, regarding respect- ively the Pope, the Court of Rome, and the Secular Clergy. By what limits this Reform- ation was confined 442-4 In what manner it was eluded by Martin ; and what was the substance of the Eight Articles and the separate concordats which he pub- lished in its place 444-5 1417 The bull by which he dissolved the Council 445 Some disputes respecting Annates, particularly between the French and the Pope 446 — A decree for the Decennial Meetings of Gen- eral Councils was promulgated at Constance 446-7 1431 The Council of Basle assembled 447 Circumstances under which Eugenius IV. was elected, and his incapacity 447 After a vain attempt to crush the council, he appointed Julian, Cardinal of St. Angelo, as the president. The three purposes for which it was convoked 448 The first two years of its session were spent in disputes with Eugenius 448 The prophetical warnings respecting the dan- gers of the Church, which were addressed by Cardinal Julian to the Pope, and the dis- regard with which they were received 450 1435 Jan. 23. Some edicts were at length published for the reformation of abuses ; and others were added during the fourteen following months, in spite of the struggles of the Papal party to prevent them. They respected mat- ters of very secondary importance ; and were interrupted by a second and final breach be- tween the Council and the Pope 451-2 1438 Jan. 10. After having been cited oefore the Council, and condemned for contumacy on his non-appearance, Eugenius annulled all its future acts, and opened the Council of Ferrara. He was joined by Cardinal Julian 453 Questions on the legitimacy of the Council of Basle 453 The Council then deposed Eugenius and elect- ed Felix V., and presently dissolved itself. But Eugenius retained almost all his power till his death ; and on the accession of Nich- olas V., Felix abdicated in his favor 454 — On the diet of Mayence assembled for the ar- rangement of the affairs of Germany. On the Council of Bourges, for the establishment of the Pragmatic Sanction in France. The two great principles on which the Sanction rested 455-6 On the question whether the Decennial Meet- ings of Councils, as decreed at Constance, would have conferred any great benefits on the Church 457 On the general principles of the Councils of Constance and Basle. The decree of the former, on the violation of faith with here- tics. Discovery of the art of Printing 457-8 Chapter XXV. — History of the Hussites. 1324-1384 (I.) The early reputation of Wiclif, his advancement, opposition to Papacy, persecu- tion and death 460-1 His opinions at direct variance with some of the innovations of Rome ; not so with others ; his abhorrence of the Court of Anti-Christ; objection to ecclesiastical endowments ; translation and circulation of the Bible 461-2 (II.) The opinions of Wiclif were introduced into Bohemia, and propagated by John Huss ; his character and early preaching at Prague 462-3 Disputes in the University of Prague 462-3 Huss preached against the crusade of John XXItl., and some disorders followed. John cited him to Rome in vain 463-4 The tenets imputed to Huss, and for the most part disclaimed by him ; his opinion on the nature of tithes. The demand for the resto- ration of the Cup to the laity did not origin- A.D. Pago 464 465 466 469 470 ate with Huss, but with another preacher, named Jacobellus of Misnia 1414 The nature of the safe conduct, in faith of which Huss presented himself at Constance His own confidence and enthusiasm He was presently placed under confinement, accused of various heresies, and brought to trial : his appeals to Scripture were disre- garded, his reasonable arguments derided, and he was finally condemned to death 466-7-8 His conduct from the time of his condemnation to that of his execution ; attempt of Sigis- mond to induce him to retract ; interview with his friend, John of Chlum 1415 July 6. The sentence passed on him ; his deg- radation and execution 469-70 What were the two heads under which his real differences with the Church were compre- hended (III. ) Jerome of Prague, after being condemned by the same Council for nearly the same of- fences, retracted (Sept. 11, 1415), but in the course of a few months recalled his retracta- tion, and was likewise consigned to the flames ; testimony of Poggio, the Florentine, and .(Eneas Sylvius, to the constancy of both these martyrs in their last moments 470-1 (IV.) Insurrection of the Bohemians ; the ne- cessity of the Double Communion was the point round which they united ; their milita- ry triumphs under Zisca 472-3 The Adamites, the Orebites, and Orphans 473 The grand division into Thaborites and Calix- tines 473-4 1433 Their fruitless embassy to Basle, and the four points in dispute with the Council ; the latter then sent an embassy to Prague, which led to the renewal of hostilities ; several thou- sand Thaborites and Orphans were destroy- ed by the treachery of the Catholics 1436 The compact of Iglau between Sigismond and the Hussites ; the description of the Thabo- rites by ^Eneas Sylvius Continued disputes between the Popes and the Calixtines ; the attempt of Paul II. to transfer the crown to John Huniades Many of the Hussite opinions were preserved, and published by the Bohemian Brothers in the following century 474 475 476 476 Chapter XXVI. — History of the Greek Church after its separation from the Latin. On the origin, progress, and sufferings of the Paulicians ; on the opinions usually ascribed to them, and those which they seem really to have professed 477-8 How early the use of the Bible was prohibited to the Laity in the East 479 The disposition to Mysticism generally preva- lent in the East was never quenched in any age of that Church ; the Euchites,or Messa- Iians, were an early sect of Mystics : in the fourteenth century arose the Hesychasts or Quietists (Umbilicani), and occasioned an important controversy 480 The Bogomiles combined Paulician with mys- tical tenets 481 The controversy concerning the God of Ma- homet 482 On some of the essential differences between the Greek and Latin Churches. The former always subject to the state ; absence of feu- dal institutions ; education more extensively prevalent in the East ; the Decretals never received there ; greater consistency in the reverence for antiquity 483 The foundation of the Latin kingdom of Jeru- salem and introduction of the Roman Church into those provinces ; the dissensions thus occasioned 484 Latin conquest of Constantinople, and conse- quent establishment and endowment of a Latin Church there ; various disputes and other evils, which seem to have been occa- sioned by it 485-6 1232 Mission from Rome to Nice for the reconcilia- tion of the Churches ; some particulars of the negotiation and its entire failure 487-8 The attempt was repeated by Innocent IV. and other Pontiffs, with the same result, till the second Council (1274) of Lyons, when an in- sincere accommodation was effected and soon afterwards broken oft" 488-9 The same negotiations continued under the Avignon Popes, and were at length renewed by Eugenius IV., who summoned the Coun- 16 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. A. D. page cil of Ferrara for the termination of the schism 489-90 The principal parties there present ; the points chiefly debated ; the nature of those debates; the respective opinions of the Churches on purgatory; conduct of Bessarion of Nice, and Marc of Ephesus 490 1439 The Council was removed to Florence, and after great debates a common confession of faith was agreed upon 491 Treaties of union followed ; according to one of which the Pope was bound to furnish succors against the Infidels 492 Among the controverted points transubstantia- tion was not one ; but it led to an incidental discussion, and Bessarion made an affirma- tion on the subject satisfactory to the Latins ; the Decree of the Union was then finally rati- fied 492-3 The concluding history of the Cardinal of St. Angelo 493 Violent dissensions arose in the East on the re- turn of the Deputies ; the very great major- ity of the clergy and people declared against the Union 494 Fortunate prediction of Nicholas V. 494 The violence of the Greeks continued to in- crease ; they opened negotiations with the Bohemians 494 Closed the Churches against all who were pol- luted with Romanism ; and were thus dis- posed, when Mahomet II. assaulted Constan- tinople and overthrew the empire 495 Note (1) on the Armenians 495 1145 A mission of Armenians, with a view to an union with Rome, seems to have been with- out result 495 1170 Negotiations were opened between the Arme- nian and Greek Churches ; what were the principal points of difference between them 495 1199 Overture of Leo, king of Armenia, for a recon- ciliation with Innocent III., and seeming reconciliation 496 1J41-51 Renewed negotiations and correspondence between Armenia and Rome ; the errors then charged upon the former and the extravagant demands of the latter 497 JVote (2) on the Maronites 498 On their name and origin, and the circumstan- ces of their connexion with the Roman Church P««a 498 Chapter XXVII.— From the Council of Basle to the beginning of the Reformation. During the remainder of the fifteenth century, the Popes invariably eluded the duty of sum- moning a General Council, and ruled as despots 499 Nicholas V. was distinguished by his learning, and several excellent qualities ; but in the great object of his policy, the preservation of the Eastern Empire, he wholly failed : his death was by some attributed to disappoint- ment proceeding from that cause 500-1 1455 Calixtus III. (Alphonso Borgia) succeeded, and may perhaps be considered as the introducer of the system of Nepotism, which thencefor- ward prevailed in the Vatican 502 1458 ^Eneas Sylvius, after having been engaged in the service both of the Emperor and the Holy See, was at length raised to the pontificate ; the recorded circumstances of his elevation ; he took the name of Pius II. 503 1459 June 1st. He opened the Council of Mantua, and exerted himself to raise a confederacy against the Turks, but without any perma- nent success 504 1460 A deputation from the Princes of the East ar- rived at Rome 504 Catharine of Sienna was canonized by Pius II. 505 1463 Pius II., originally the advocate of the Council of Basle, after having gradually adopted all the High-Papal principles, published his cele- brated Bull of Retractation, condemning his former acts and expressions ; his professed and his probable motives 505-6 He then prepared to conduct in person an ex- pedition against the Turks ; proceeded to Ancona, and there died 506 He had some points of resemblance, both with Nicholas V. and Cardinal Julian 507 After confirming on oath the Capitulation drawn up in Conclave, Paul II. was conse- crated to the See, and immediately violated his oath ; remarks on those Capitulations 507 Paul II. turned the arms of Corvinus, son of Huniades, from the Turkish war against the Bohemian Schismatics, and after seven years of warfare, failed in his purpose 508 He persecuted a literary society established at Rome, and tortured several of its members 508 He reduced the intervals between the Jubilees, from thirty-three to twenty-five years 508 1471 Sixtus IV. succeeded. The circumstances of his dispute with Florence, and the obstinacy with which he persisted, till Otrantowas ta- ken by the Turks 509 He surpassed his predecessors in the practice of Nepotism 509 His vigorous, though unprincipled character ; and some works of art which he accomplished 510 1484 Elevation and character of Innocent VIII. 510 1492 Circumstances of the elevation of Alexander VI. 510-11 M Some of the earliest acts of his Pontificate 512 His overtures of alliance against Charles VIII. to the Sultan Bajazet 513 1493 He bestowed the newly- discovered regions on the Crown of Spain. The donation was con- tested by the Portuguese: on what ground 513 1494 He concluded a treaty at Rome with Charles VIII., and received his homage 514 Zizim, brother of Bajazet, who had been the Pope's prisoner, was given up to ChaiUs, and died immediately afterwards 514 The Duke Valentino; his character and pro- jects 514 1503 The circumstances of the death of Alexander VI., as they are variously related, with dif- ferent degrees of authority 515-16 Some expressions of Guicciardini respecting his character 516 Pius III. was elected as his successor, and died in twenty-six days 516 Julius II. was then raised to the See 516 A proof that the spiritual authority of the Pope was not yet by any means disregarded, in the conduct of Louis XII. of France 517 Success of Julius in recovering possession of the States of the Church ; by what methods he accomplished this ; the power and versa- tility of his character 517-18 1511 The Cardinals summoned a Council against Julius, which met at Florence, and adjourn- ed to Milan, and thence to Lyons. It pub- lished no edicts of importance 518-19 1512 But Julius in defence was obliged to convoke the Fifth Lateran Council, and died the year following 519 Leo X. continued to direct the Council. It then issued some decrees to alleviate the least important abuses of the Church, and some general declarations against the immo- rality of the Court of Rome ; it restrained the license of the Press ; it abolished the Prag- matic Sanction ; and renewed the Constitu- tion Unam Sanctarn, of Boniface VIII. 519 1517 It was then dissolved, as having done all that was necessary for the perpetuity of the Church. Luther began his preaching the very same year 521 Gradual depravation of the See during the last fifty years ; the increase of Nepotism ; the scandals of the Conclave and the Palace ; literary Popes ; the great use which the Pon- tiffs made of the terror of the Turks to sup- port Ecclesiastical Abuses, and avoid a Gen- eral Council 521-2-3 They succeeded, and through their success they fell 524 Chapter XXVIII.— Preliminaries of the Reformation. Section 1. — On the Power and Constitution of the Roman Catholic Church. 525 I. The temporal sovereignty of the Pope was never before so extensive and firm, as in the beginning of the jentjt century, to which re- sult Julius II. chieTIy contributed 525-6 The argument, by which the possession of such power by the Spiritual Chief is defended ; yet it led to great and necessary evils, which were reflected back upon the See itself 526 II. The progress of the Spiritual Supremacy of Rome, and the full extent to which it finally advanced. The usurpation of the Church patronage was one of the chief instruments for its support 527-8 On the Pope's pretensions to personal infalli- bility 52s On the command he acquired over the morality of the Faithful ; yet his spiritual power had ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 17 somewhat decayed before the time of Lu- ther, though still strong 529 III. Attempts of the Popes, from Gregory VII., to usurp authority over Civil Governments. How far they were aided by the dissensions and weakness of the Princes themselves 530 Their political interference has been sometimes used for a good purpose, though their princi- ples were frequently worse than the ordinary principles of the age 530-31 IV. On the Constitution of the Church. The origin and gradual growth of the dignity and power of the Cardinals. The attempts made in Conclave to impose obligations upon the future Pontiff", which were invariably violat- ed or eluded 531 The relative situation and mutual influence of the Pope and the College. What were the means by which the Pope maintained his au- thority over the Consistory 533 The place which General Councils held in the economy of the Church 533 The dignities of the Roman Catholic Church were accessible to all ranks : a circumstance of immense advantage, as long as they were obtained through personal merit, and no longer 533-4 Legates a latere ; Mendicants. The extremes permitted in the discipline of the Church ; some maxims of Papal policy 534 A JVot.e on the nature of one branch of spiritual jurisdiction, as exercised in England 535-6 On the vicarious character assumed by the Priesthood of the Greek and Roman Church- es, and the temporary reverence with which it surrounded them 537 On the advantages conferred on the Church by the humble origin and conversation of a branch of the Clergy ; and the close and firm connexion thus established between the Hi- erarchy and the People. The spiritual des- potism of the Pope rested at the bottom on a popular ground 537-8 Section II. — Ontke(\.) Spiritual Character, (2.) Discipline, and Morals of the Church. I. The essential doctrines have been preserved by the Roman, and also by the Greek Church, with some variation in the manner 538 On the original system of Penance 538 680 Penitential of Theodore of Tarsus, and various abuses which grew up soon after its introduc- tion into the West 539 The early origin and gradual perversion of the indulgence 539 The professed doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church respecting purgatory 540 Several changes in the object of the Plenary Indulgence 540 Translation of that which was sold by Tetzel 540 The origin and abuse of Private Masses 541 On the practices flowing from the doctrine of Transubstantiation. The elevation of the Host was introduced by the Latins into the East 541-2 On the retrenchment of the Cup, probably the least politic among all the innovations of Rome 542 The practice of prohibiting the general use of the Bible was of very early origin, both in the East and in the West. False Miracles. Abuse of Images, &c. On various Festivals, and childish Dissensions. The Stigmata of St. Catharine. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Difference respecting the kind of worship due to the blood of Christ. The original inscription on the Cross. The head of the True Lance, &c. 542-5 Reciprocal influence of the superstitions and the power of Rome 545 II. The general demoralization of the Roman Catholic Clergy admitted and deplored by the Catholics themselves, from St. Bernard downwards 545-6 A. D. page A seeming exception in favor of Cardinal Xi- menes, and the Spanish Clergy 540 Yet the Church in different ages has forwarded in various manners the ends of morality 546-7 The original principles of Monachism promised great advantages to society in its early ages, and no doubt produced them. The Mendi- cants have done good service both as Cler- gymen and as Missionaries, especially during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 547-8 Even at the beginning of the reformation, the Church was not wholly destitute of piety (1.) the principles of Mysticism were perpet- uated through all ages of the Church, and this tendency upon the whole was greatly favorable to religious excellence ; (2.) the lower orders of the Clergy, where the great mass of the piety of the Church doubtless re- sided, are necessarily condemned to obscuri- ty, while the more ambitious and less spirit- ual part of the Ministry is that which alone meets the observation of the historian 548-9 Section III. — On various attempts to reform or subvert the Church. I. On those which were made by the Church itself in the Councils of Pisa, Constance, Basle, and the Fifth Lateran. To what a narrow field they were confined — how feebly they touched even that which they designed to heal — how they were arrested and eluded by the Papal party 550-1 That resistance occasioned the Reformation, since which event many great improvements have taken place in the Roman Catholic sys- tem 552 II. Many attempts have been made to trace the continuity of the Protestant principles to the Apostolical times, principally through the Vaudois ; yet the existence of these cannot be ascertained with any historical confidence before the twelfth century 552-3 If any connexion with the earliest times could be made out through the Albigeois, or through the Mystics, still this would not be a connex- ion with the Apostolical Church 554-5 A Note on the Eleventh Book of Bossuet's Va- riations 552 III. On the treatment of Heretics by the Church 555 The third Canon of the fourth Lateran Coun- cil received the sanction of the Civil Author- ities, and thus united them in the same con- spiracy. On the principle of the necessary 'Unity of the Church,' persecution could not be avoided ; the Laity co-operated ; and the spirit was never more decided than in the fifteenth age 555-6. IV. Some individual reformers of the fifteenth century. John of Wesalia was condemned and imprisoned. John Wesselus of Grb'nin- gen is mentioned with very high respect hy Luther. Aninstanceof hisdisinterestedness 557-8 John Laillier published at Paris some opinions which were censured by the Faculty. He was condemned, and subsequently retracted. Jerome Savonarola obtained extraordinary influence as a prophet and a demagogue at Florence. His interview with Charles VIII. of France, and address to that Monarch. The circumstances of his overthrow, con- demnation and execution 559-61 John Reuchlin and his admirer Erasmus 561-2 V. The abuses of the Church were particularly felt and detested in Germany. The political interests of the Empire and Popedom had been almost always at variance. The Con- cordats had been violated or eluded by the Popes. The people of Germany had become more generally enlightened, and thirsted for the Scriptures. The Church reposed in in- dolent security. Leo X. had not the charac- ter which the exigences of bis establishment required ; and the moment for the Reforma- tion was arrived 562-4 INTRODUCTION. An attempt to compress into the following pages the ecclesiastical history of fifteen centu- ries, requires some previous explanation, lest any should imagine that this undertaking ha3 been entered upon rashly, and without due consideration of its difficulty. This is not the case ; I am not blind to the various and even opposite dangers which beset it ; and least of all am I insensible to the peculiar and most solemn importance of the subject. But I approach it with deliberation as well as reverence, willing to consecrate to God's service the fruits of an insufficient, but not careless diligence, and also trusting, by His divine aid, to preserve the straight path which leads through truth unto wisdom. The principles by which I have been guided require no preface ; they will readily develops themselves, as they are the simplest in human nature. But, respecting the general plan which has been followed in the conduct of this work, a few words appear to be necessary. In the first place I have abandoned the method of division by centuries, which has too long perplexed ecclesiastical history, and have endeavoured to regulate the partition by the de- pendence of connected events, and the momentous revolutions which have arisen from it. It is one advantage in this plan, that it has very frequently enabled me to collect under one head, to digest by a single effort, and present, in one uninterrupted view, materials bearing in reality upon the same point, but which, by the more usual method, are separated and dis- tracted. It is impossible to ascertain the proportions or to estimate the real weight of any single subject amidst the events which surround it — it is impossible to draw from it those sober and applicable conclusions which alone distinguish history from romance, unless we bring the corresponding portions into contact, in spite of the interval which time may have thrown between them : for time has scattered his lessons over the records of humanity with a profuse but careless hand, and both the diligence and the judgment of man must be exercised to collect and arrange them, so as to extract from their combined qualities the true odor of wisdom. It is another advantage in the method which I have adopted, that it affords greater facility to bring into relief and illustrate matters which are really important and have had lasting effects ; since it is chiefly by fixing attention and awakening reflection on those great phenom- ena which have not only stamped a character on the age to which they belong, but have influenced the conduct and happiness of after ages, that history asserts her prerogative above a journal or an index, not permitting thought to be dispersed nor memory wasted upon a minute narration of detached incidents and transient and inconsequential details. And, in this matter, I admit that my judgment has been very freely exercised in proportioning the degree of notice to the permanent weight and magnitude of events. As regards the treatment of particular branches of this subject, all readers are aware how zealously the facts of ecclesiastical history have been disputed, and how frequently those differences have been occasioned or widened by the peculiar opinions of the disputants. Re- specting the former, it is sufficient to say that the limits of this work obviously prevent the author from pursuing and unfolding all the intricate perplexities of critical controversy. I have, therefore, generally contented myself, in questions of ordinary moment, with following, sometimes even without comment, what has appeared to me to be the more probable conclu- sion, and of signifying it as probable only. Respecting the latter, I have found it the most difficult, as it is certainly among the weightiest of my duties, to trace the opinions which have divided Christians in every age regarding matters of high import both in doctrine and discipline. But it seems needless to say that I have scarcely, in any case, entered into the arguments by which those opinions have been contested. It is no easy task, through hostile misrepresentation, and the more dangerous distortions of friendly enthusiasm, to penetrate their real character, and delineate their true history. For the demonstration of their reason- ableness or absurdity I must refer to the voluminous writings consecrated to their explanation. This history, extending to the beginning of the Reformation, will be divided into five Parts or Periods. The Jirst will terminate with the accession of Constantine. It will trace the propagation of Christianity ; it will comprehend the persecutions which afflicted, the heresies which disturbed, the abuses which stained the early Church, and describe its final triumph 20 INTRODUCTION. over external hostility. The second will carry us through the age of Charlemagne. We shall watch the fall of the Polytheistic system of Greece and Rome ; we shall examine with painful interest the controversies which distracted the Church, and which were not suspend- ed even while the scourge from Arabia was hanging over it, and that especially by which the East was finally alienated from Rome. In the West, we shall observe the influx of the Northern barbarians, and the gradual conquest accomplished by our religion over a second form of Paganism. We shall notice the influence of feudal institutions on the character of that Church, the commencement of its temporal authority, and its increasing corruption. Our third period will conduct us to the death of Gregory VII. And here I must observe, that from the eighth century downwards, our attention will, for the most part, be occupied by t'he Church ofliome, and follow the fluctuations of its history. About 270 years compose this period — the most curious, though by no means the most celebrated, in the papal annals. From the foundations established by Charlemagne, the amazing pretensions of that See gradually grew up; in despite of the crimes and disasters of the tenth century, they made progress during those gloomy ages, and finally received developement and consistency from the "extraordinary genius of Gregory. Charlemagne left behind him the rudiments of the system, without any foresight of the strauge character which it was destined to assume ; Gre- gory grasped the materials which he found lying before him, and put them together Avith a giant's hand, and bequeathed the mighty spiritual edifice, to be enlarged and defended by his successors. The fourth part will describe the conduct of those successors, as far as the death of Boniface VIII., and the removal of the seat of government to Avignon. This is the era of papal extravagance and exultation. It was during this space (of about 220 years) that all the energies of the system were in full action, and exhibited the extent of good and of evil of which it was capable. It was then especially that the spirit of Monachism burst its ancient boundaries, and threatened to quench the reviving sparks of knowledge, and to repel the advancing tide of reason. The concussion was indeed fearful ; the face of the Church was again darkened bv the blood of her martyrs, and the rage of bigotry was found to be more destructive than "the malice of Paganism. The last division will follow the decline of papal power, and the general decay of "papal principles ; and in this more grateful office, it will be my most diligent, perhaps most profitable, task, to examine the various attempts which were made by the Roman Church to reform and regenerate itself, and to observe the perverse infatuation by which they were thwarted ; until the motives and habits which at- tached men to their ancestral superstitions at length gave way, and the banners of reason were openly unfurled in holy allegiance to the Gospel of Christ. There is a sober disposition to religious moderation and warm but dispassionate piety, with which the book of Ecclesiastical History must ever inspire the minds of those who approach it without prejudice, and meditate on it calmly and thoughtfully. May some portion of that spirit be communicated to the readers of the following pages ! May they learn to distinguish the substance of Christianity from its corruptions— to perceive that the religion is not' contaminated by the errors or crimes of its professors and ministers, and that all the evils which have ever been inflicted upon the world in the name of Christ, have inva- riably proceeded from its abuse ! The vain appendages which man has superadded to the truth of God, as they are human so are they perishable ; some have fallen, and all will grad- ually fall, by their own weight and weakness. This reflection will serve, perhaps, to allay certain apprehensions. From the multitude of others which suggest themselves, I shall select one only. The readers of this work will observe, from the experience of every age of Christianity, that, through the failings and variety of our nature, diversity in religious opin- ion is inseparable from religious belief; they will observe the fruitlessness of every forcible attempt to repress if, and they will also remark, that it has seldom proved dangerous to the happiness of society, unless when civil authority has interfered to restrain it. The moral effect of this great historical lesson can be one only — uncontentious, unlimited moderation — a temperate zeal to soften the diversities which we cannot possibly prevent— a fervent dispo- sition to conciliate the passions where we fail to convince the reason ; to exercise that for- bearance which we surely require ourselves, and constantly to bear in mind that in our common pursuit of the same eternal object, we are alike impeded by the same human and irremediable imperfections. George Waddington. Trinity College, Cambridge. r CONTENTS. PART I. FROM THE TIMES OF THE APOSTLES TO THE ACCESSION OF CONSTANTINE. Chapter I. — The Propagation of Christianity. Method of treating the subject. (1.) Church of Jerusalem — Its earliest members — Death of St. James — Succession of Symeon — Destruction of the city by Titus — S««Bession to Pella — Bishops of the Circumcision — Destruction of the city by Adrian — ./Elia Capitolina — Second succession of Bishops — Conclusion. (2.) Church of Antioch — Its foundation and progress — Ignatius — Theo- philus — Mesopotamia — Pretended correspondence between the Saviour and Abgarus, Prince of Edessa. (3.) Church of Ephesus — The Seven Churches of Asia — The latest years of St. John — Piety and progress of the Church of Ephesus — Polycrates — His opposition to Rome. (4.) Church of Smyrna — Polycarp — His Martyrdom — Sardis — Melito — Hierapolis — Papias — Apollinaris— Bith- ynia Testimony of the younger Pliny. (5.) Church of Athens — Character of the people — Quad- ratus — Aristides — Athenagoras — Their apologies — Other Grecian Churches. (6.) Church of Corinth — Character of the people — Nature of their dissensions— Clemens Romanus — His Epistle Form of Government— Dionysius of Corinth — Seven general Epistles — Remarks. (7.) Church of Rome — The persecution of Nero described by Tacitus — Martyrdom of St. Paul and St. Peter — Probable effect of this persecution — Extent of Romish superiority over other Churches — Contro- versy respecting Easter — Conduct of Victor, Bishop of Rome — Irenseus — France — Church of Lyons. (8.) Church of Alexandria — St. Marc — Its increase and importance — Epistle of Hadrian — Remarks on it — Education of the first Christians — Pantasnus — Clemens Alexandrinus — The Church of Carthage. ... - ... page 2tioiv arthQionov jFVOfiii'OV, &c. &c. See Mosheim, De R. Christ, ante Const. Saec. ill. sect. 35. * This was the first instance of the interference of Ihe secular power in the internal affairs of the Church ; and consequently Baronius is warm in his praise of Aurelian — ' He was the first to point out, that the im- perial authority should be called in to chastise those who did not acquiesce in episcopal decision.' Ad ann. 314. Sect. xxxv. We shall have occasion to recur to this subject hereafter. ■f They are chiefly to be divined from the treatise ^* written against Tertullian. It should be mentioned • ■ ^ I ■■ I fc also, that Praxeas had declared very strongly against Montanism, before Tertullian attacked him. % To us it is the great use of these controversies, that we learn from them the original doctrine of the Church. Thus during that respecting Paul of Sam- osata, the Council declared, (as we learn from Athan- asius.) ' that the Son existed before all tilings, and believe in one God, but under the following dispensation or economy — that there is also a Son of God, his Word, who proceeded from Him ; by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made ; who was sent by him into the Virgin, and was born of her; being both man and God, the son of man and the son of God, and called Jesus Christ ; he suffered, died and was buried, according to the Scriptures ; and was raised up again by the Father ; and was taken up into Heaven, there to sit at the right hand of the Father ; and thence to come to judge the quick and the dead ; who sent from Heaven, from his Father according to his promise, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Sanctifier of the faith of all who believe in the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.' Such, according to this author, was the faith handed down in the Church, from the first preaching of the Gospel ; and we consider this to be historical truth of no small importance.* Sabellius. The heresy of Praxeas was suc- ceeded, (or revived,) in the course of about fifty years, by that of Sabel litis. Both pro- ceeded, in appearance, from the difficulty of reconciling the trinity with the unity of the Godhead — in reality, from our human and necessary incapacity to comprehend the na- ture of the union. But Greek philosophy was too vain to admit any limits to the human comprehension, and too disputatious to quit so fine a field for sophistry as was opened to it by an abstruse and inexplicable question. And certainly that philosophy lost nothing cither in minuteness or pertinacity, when it ascended to the climate, and em- ployed the genius of Africans, f Sabellius was an African, and seemingly either Bishop, or Presbyter at Barce, the capital of the Cy- renaica ; he denied the distinct personality of the second and third persons of the Trin- ity, and maintained that a certain energy only, proceeding from the supreme Parent, that he did not become God from being human, but that being God he took upon him the form of a ser- vant, and being the Logos he became flesh.' * It appears too from the examination of Irenaeus' writings against the Valentinians, that that more an- cient Father maintained, as far as he particularizes them, the same opinions. It has been observed, that Tertullian was the first author who used the words Trinitas and Persona in the theological sense. f See Mosheim, De R. Christ, ante Const. Saec. III. sect. 33. The different opinions, or rather the different shades of the same opinion, which have been ascribed to Sabellius, are there accurately treated. \ 78 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. or a certain portion of the divine nature, was united to the son of God, the man Jesus.* And in the same manner he considered the Holy Ghost to be a portion of the everlasting Father. This error, into which he was led by an excessive fear of Tritheism, (the acknow- ledgment of three Gods.) was liable to the in- ference, that the Being who suffered on the Cross was in fact the Father; hence his fol- lowers were called Patripassians. He was confuted by Dionysius, Bishop of Alexan- dria. III. We shall not dwell upon the varying shapes of mere frenzy. The deliberate er- rors of an informed and serious mind, how- ever in appearance remote from reason, al- ways merit some sort of consideration ; but the dreams of an ignorant fanatic can have no claims on our time or reflection. Perhaps we should place under this head some of the wilder of those heresies usually called Gnos- tic ; and some would refer to the same origin the opinions of the Manichsean sect ; but we shall here confine ourselves to those of the Moutanists. About the year JpO a. d., a vain and superstitious enthusiast, named Montan- us, began to prophesy in Phrygia and other provinces of Asia Minor — he professed to be the Paraclete or Comforter^the same f who had descended upon the Apostles, and whose return on earth before the second coming of Christ, for the purpose of completing the di- vine Revelation, was expected by many of the faithful ; and his trances, and ecstatic raptures, and fanatic ravings, were probably ^ regarded by the credulous and wondering multitude as the surest signsj^t-diyine inspi- ration. Certainly there were many in those regions who followed him ; and his success was promoted by his association with two prophetesses, named Maximilla and Priscilla, who confirmed his mission, and shared his spirit. Another cause of the temporary fame of Montanism was the severity of the morality inculcated by it ; the strictest celiba- cy and the most rigid fasts were exacted from the proselytes, and this circumstance threw an appearance of sanctity round the sect, which seems to have deadened the penetra- * We perceive how nearly this opinion approaches to the old Gnostic heresy, which considered Christ as an JEon or Divine Emanation united for a time to the man Jesus — but for a time only — the Gnostics withdrew the JEon before the Crucifixion, and thus voided the conclusion charged against the Patripas- sians. 1 Set Bishop Kaye on Tertullian, p. 23. et feq. tion of Tertullian, for he presently professed himself its advocate. To that circumstance perhaps this heresy may be indebted for most of its celebrity ; for it was condemned by certain Asiatic councils at the time of its eruption and it appears to have made very little progress after the second century, and at no time to have found general reception be- yond the precincts of its birth-place, though some remains of it subsisted there for two or three ages.* Before we quit the subject of Heresy, we must mention a controversy which divided the Church during the third century, respect- ing the form of receiving a converted here- tic into the number of the orthodox. The Churches of the westf were, for the most part, of opinion, that the baptism of Here- tics was valid, and that the mere imposition of hands, attended by prayer, was form suf- ficient to solemnize their introduction within the pale : whereas the less moderate Chris- tians of Asia decided in council, that their admission must be preceded by repetition of baptism ; and this decision was approved and enforced by Cyprian in the Churches of Af- rica. { Stephen, Bishop of Rome, who was at the head of those who held the contrary opinion, conducted his opposition with in- judicious violence ; he excommunicated all who differed from him, and discovered, even thus early, the germs of papal arrogance. § The mention of this controversy is impor- tant, at least on one account, as it gives us an additional proof of the very serious view in which Heresy was regarded by the Churchmen of those days, and the scrupu- lousness of their care to preserve the purity of the true faith. Novations. We may conclude with some notice of the sect of the Novatians, who were stigmatized at the time, both as schis- * We observe the name of Montanism among die heresies stigmatized in the Theodosian Code. f We may account for this greater moderation of the western Churches, by their having escaped some of the most extravagant and revolting among the early heresies — these, as they chiefly originated in the fa- natic imaginations of the east, were for the most part confined to those regions. % The council of Carthage heldjiy Cyprian, on this question, was in the year 256. Mosh. Gen. H. c. iii. p. ii. chap. iii. § This controversy resembles, in two points, that before mentioned, respecting the celebration of Easter. The Roman was right perhaps in the principle, but overbearing and insolent in the manner. THE EARLY HERESIES. 79 matics and heretics ; * but who may perhaps be more properly considered as the earliest body of ecclesiastical reformers. They arose at Rome about the year 250 a. d. ; and sub- sisted until the fifth century throughout every part of Christendom, f No vatian, a Presby- ter of Rome, | was a man of great talents and learning, and of character so austere, that he was unwilling under any circumstan- ces of contrition, to readmit those who had been once separated from the communion of the Church. And this severity he would have extended not only to those who had fallen by deliberate transgression, but even to such as had made a forced compromise of their faith under the terrors of perse- cution. He considered the Christian Church as a society, where virtue and innocence reigned universally, and refused any longer to acknowledge, as members of it, those who had once degenerated into unrighteousness. § This endeavor to revive the spotless moral purity of the primitive faith was found incon- sistent with the corruptions even of that early age: it was regarded with suspicion by the leading prelates, || as a vain and visionary scheme ; and those rigid principles, which had characterized and sanctified the Church in the first century, were abandoned to the profession of schismatic, sectaries in the third. From a review of what has been written on this subject, some truths may be derived of considerable historical importance ; the following are among them : 1. In the midst of perpetual dissent and occasional contro- versy, a steady and distinguishable line, both * Cornel, ap. Cypr. Ep. 50 (or 48); Cyprian, Ep. 54. As to the latter charge, even their adversa- ries do not advance any point of doctrine on which they deviated from the Church. See Note 4, or p. 33. supr. t (Mosh. Gen. Hist. Cent. iii. end) — Especially, as it would seem, in Phrygia — where their rigid prac- tices brought them into danger of being confounded with the Montanists. Lardner, Cred. Gosp. Hist. p. ii. ch. 47. X Euseb. H. E. L. vi. c. 43. — Jerom. de Vir. Illust. c. 70. He is believed to have been a convert from some sect of philosophy, probably the Stoic. Lard- ner perseveres in calling him Novatus; not, however, intencTTiig to confound him with an unworthy associate, presbyter of Carthage, also named Novatus — and severely censured by Cyprian. — See Tillem. Mem. H. Eccles. vol. iii. p. 433, 435, ad. ann. 251. § His followers called themselves Cathari — Puri- tans. || It should be mentioned that Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, the principal opponent of Novatian's opin- ions, had motives for personal enmity against that Ecclesiastic. in doctrine and practice, was maintained by the early Church, and its efforts against those, whom it called Heretics, were zealous and persevering, and for the most part consistent. Its contests were fought with the 'sword of the Spirit,' with the arms of reason and elo- quence ; and as they were always unattended by personal oppression, so were they most effectually successful — successful, not in es- tablishing a nominal unity, nor silencing the expression of private opinion, but in main- taining the purity of the faith, in preserving the attachment of the great majority of the believers, and in consigning, either to imme- diate disrepute, or early neglect, all the un- scriptural doctrines which were successively arrayed against it. 2. The greater part of the early heresies was derived from the im- pure mixture of profane philosophy with the simple revelation of the Gospel. Hence pro- ceeded those vain and subtle disputations respecting things incomprehensible, which would indeed have been less pernicious, had they only exercised the ingenuity of men, without engaging their passions ; their bitter fruits were not fully gathered until a later age : but they served, even in their origin, to perplex the faith, and disturb the harmony of many devout Christians. 3. No public dispute had hitherto risen respecting the manner of salvation — for the conclusions de- ducible from the Gnostic hallucinations are not worthy of serious consideration ; the great questions respecting predestination and grace had not yet become matter of contro- versy, nor had any of the fundamental doc- trines of Christianity been assailed, excepting the Trinity and the Incarnation. 4. There was yet no dissent on the subject of Church Government. It was universally and undis- putedly Episcopal ; even the reformer Nova- tian, after his expulsion from the Church, assumed the direction of his own rigid sect under the title of Bishop ; and if any dissatis- faction had existed as to the established method of directing the Church, it would certainly have displayed itself on the occa- sion of a schism, which entirely respected matters of practice and discipline. Early Fathers. As we have made frequent mention of the principal writers, commonly called Fathers, of the ancient Church, we shall subjoin to this chapter a very short ac- count of some of the earliest among them. We do not profess any blind veneration for their names, or submission to their opinions ; but we are very far removed from the con- 80 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. tempt of either. For if we are to bend to any human authority (as in such matters some of us must always do, and all of us some- times,) those are assuredly the safest objects of our reverence, who stood nearest to the source of revelation, and received the cup of knowledge from the very hands of the Apos- tles. They were erring and feeble mortals, like ourselves ; much inferior in intellectual discipline, and vitiated by early prejudices necessarily proceeding from the oblique prin- ciples and perverse systems of their day. Nevertheless the}' were earnest and ardent Christians ; in respect at least to their religion they had access to infallible instructors, and the lessons which they have transmitted to us, howsoever imperfectly transmitted, should be received with attention and respect. The Apostolical Fathers are those who were contemporary with the Apostles ; some of whom are known, and all of whom may be reasonably believed, to have shared their conversation, and profited by their instruction. These are St. Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Hennas, Ignatius and Polycarp. They were all (excepting probably Clement) natives of the east, and all originally wrote in the Greek language. The works which have reached us under their names are not numerous ; and though the genuineness of some of them has been justly suspected, there is no reason to doubt the very high antiquity of all. They were composed with various objects, accord- ing to the dispositions or circumstances of their writers. The design of the epistle at- tributed to St. Barnabas was to abate the res- pect for the peculiar rites and institutions of the Jewish laws, and to show that they were not binding upon Christians. The ' Shepherd of Hermas ' consists of three books, in the first of which are four visions, in the second twelve commands, in the third ten similitudes. The first and third parts are of course very fanciful, yet were they not perhaps unsuited to the genius of the countries and the age to which they were addressed ; the second con- tains some excellent moral precepts ; and all abound with paraphrastical allusions to the cooks of the New Testament. The epistles of Ignatius have suffered many obvious in- terpolations and corruptions ; but learned and candid critics, who have distinguished and rejected these, still leave us much behind of undisputed origin. The author was Bish- op of Antioch ; he suffered martyrdom about me year 107 a. d., and the opinion that he invited, rather than shunned this fate, seems to be consistent with the ardor of his charac- i ter. The genuineness of Polycarp's epistle to the Philippians has scarcely been ques- tioned ; * it was written (soon after the death of Ignatius) in the spirit of sincere piety ; it abounds with scriptural expressions and fre- quent quotations of the recorded words of Christ. Polycarp was Bishop of Smyrna on the appointment (as is asserted without any improbability) of the Apostle St. John : and he suffered martyrdom, as we have already described, ia the reign of Marcus Antoninus. But the most important record of the apos- tolical age remaining to us is the 'Epistle of the Church of Rome to the Church of Co- rinth,' written about the year 96 a. d. by Cle- ment Bishop of Rome. Its object was to allay some internal dissensions of the Corin- thians, and it contains many useful and noble truths, flowing from a vigorous mind and purely Christian spirit, in language never feeble, and occasionally eloquent. Those pious persons wrote before any as- sociation had taken place between philosophy and religion, and were better instructed in the knowledge of Scripture than in the les- sons of the Schools ; and their method of reasoning, no less than their style, attests the want of profane education ; still it possesses a persuasive simplicity well suited both to the character of the writers, and the integrity of their faith. The fundamental doctrines of Christianity are clearly and scripturally incul- cated by them ; and these are every where so interwoven with the highest precepts of morality, as to prove to us that the belief of those men was inseparable from their prac- tice, and that it had not ever occurred to them to draw any verbal distinction between these ; they delivered the truths which had been en- trusted to them, and associated their moral and doctrinal instructions as inseparable parts of the same scheme. This perhaps is the most peculiar feature in their compositions, and that in which they most resemble the inspired writings. Another is the utter neg- lect of formal arrangement in the display of their arguments, or the delivery of their rules of conduct ; a neglect which unques- tionably exposed them to the contempt of the philosopher, who sought in vain for a system in their lore, but which well accorded with the plain and unpretending character of truth. But that merit by which they have conferred the most lasting advantage on Christianity, (at least the three last of them,) and which will make them very valuable monuments, in every age, is their frequent reference to al- * Lardner. Cred. of Gosp. Hist. p. ii. cb vi. THE EARLY HERESIES. 81 most all the books of the New Testament, such as we now possess them. Thus they furnish us with decisive evidence of the gen- uineness of those books ; and their testimony is liable to no suspicion, because it was not given with any such view. The principal Greek writers, who imme- diately succeeded the apostolical Fathers, were Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. Justin Martyr was a learued Samaritan, who, after having successively attached himself to the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans, and the Platonists, discovered the insufficien- cy and emptiness of philosophy. His atten- tion was called to Christianity by the suffer- ings inflicted upon its profession, and the firmness with which he had beheld them en- dured. He inferred that men so contemptu- ous of death were far removed from the moral degradation with which they were charged ; and that the faith for which they died so fearlessly must stand on some foun- dation. He examined that foundation, and discovered its stability.* The sincerity of his conversion is attested by his martyrdom. He was executed by the Emperor, whose philosophy he had deserted ; and he perhaps never was so strongly sensible of the superi- ority of that which he had preferred, as at the moment when he died for it.f He wrote two apologies for Christianity, the first proba- bly addressed to Antoninus Pius, the second to Marcus ; — and a (supposed) dialogue with a Jew named Trypho. This last contains many weak arguments, and trifling and even erroneous interpretations of Scripture, mixed up with some useful matter. The two form- er are more valuable compositions ; they were so in those days — because they contained the best defence of religion which had then been published, maintained by arguments very well calculated to persuade those to whom they were addressed ; and they are still so, because we find in them many quotations from the same four Gospels which we now acknowledge ; they relate many interesting facts, respecting the religious customs and ceremonies of the Christians of those times ; and they prove the general acceptance of all the fundamental articles of our belief. As * See Jortin — Remarks, &c. B. ii. p. i. A. D. 150. Also supra pp. 30, 31. | It has been often asserted, and we believe without contradiction, that no man ever died in attestation of the truth of any philosophical tenet. But those who lay much stress on this fact should show, that an op- portunity for martyrdom has ever been afforded to any philosophical sect. 11 Justin flourished only one century after the preaching of Christ, (his conversion is usually placed at the year 133 from the birth of our Saviour,) we are not extending the value of tradition beyond its just limits, when we con- sider his opinions as receiving some addition- al weight from their contiguity to the apos- tolical times ; and if it were possible to mark by any decided limit the extent of tradition- ary authority, we should be disposed to trace the line immediately after his name ; for ad- mitting that Irenaeus, who presently succeed- ed him, by his oriental birth and correspond- ence may have received some uncorrupted communications transmitted through two gen- erations from the divine origin, we shall still find it very difficult to distinguish these from the mere human matter with which they may be associated ; and this difficulty will increase, as we descend lower down the stream ; so that we may safely detach the notion of pe- culiar sanctity or conclusive authority * from the names and writings of the succeeding Fathers, though they contain much that may excite our piety, and animate our morality, and confirm our faith. Irenaeus was Bishop of Lyons, about the year 178 a. d. He is chiefly celebrated for his five books ' Against Heresies ; ' containing confutations of most of the errors which had then appeared in the Church. Though the language which he employs in this contest is not always that best adapted either to per- suade or to conciliate, his sincere aversion from religious dissension is not questioned. It is proved indeed by the epistle which he addressed to Victor, Bishop of Rome, on his insolent demeanor in the controversy respect- ing Easter, and which breathes a generous spirit of Christian moderation. And in good truth the individual exertions of Churchmen against the progress of unscriptural opinions were in those days the more necessary, and their warmth the, more excusable, as there * We might divide the first 313 years of the Christ- ian rera into three periods, in respect to its internal history. The first century was the age of Christ and the Apostles, of miracles and inspiration inherent in the Church ; the next fifty years we may consider as that of the Apostolical Father?, enlightened by some lingering rays of the departed glory, which were suc- cessively and insensibly withdrawn ; the third was the period of severe probation and bitter anxiety, unalleviated by extraordinary aids, and so far removed from human consolation, that the powers of the earth might seem to have conspired with the meanest of its progeny, in order to oppress and desolate the Church of Christ — yet even this was not without the Spirit of God. 82 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. were yet no articles of faith to trace out the limits of orthodoxy, nor any acknowledged head, nor any legally established system of ecclesiastical government. The unity and purity of the Church were chiefly preserved by the independent labors of its most em- inent and influential ministers, divided as they were both by language, and manners, and distance, and entirely unsupported by any temporal authority. So that, if we were PAR still disposed to feel any surprise at finding such numerous forms of heresy, so very near both to the time and place where the Reve- lation was delivered, the above considerations would tend to remove it ; while they certain- ly teach us, that such errors cannot perma- nently or generally prevail against scriptural truth, as long as they are steadily opposed by temperate and reasonable argument, and by no other weapon than argument only. > c X T I I FROM THE ACCESSION OF CONSTANTINE TO THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE. CHAPTER VI. Constantine the Great. Victory over Maxentius — supposed conversion — the miracle of the luminous Cross — evidence for and against it — the latter conclusive — The Edict of Milan — its nature and effects — union of the whole Empire under Constantine — His moral character — sincerity of his conversion — unjustly disputed — Remarks on his policy — power of the Christians — Alterations in- troduced into the constitution of the Church — Its na- ture at Constantine's accession — spiritual and tempo- ral power — union and strength of the early Church — how cemented — View of the Church probably taken by Constantine — he sought its alliance — Three periods of the ecclesiastical life of Constantine — How circum- stanced with regard to the state Conslantine found the Church — He assumes the supremacy — Rights of the Church — Its Internal administration — little altered in theory — permission to bequeath property to the Church — Independent jurisdiction of the Bishops — on what founded — External — subject to the Emperor — what particulars included in it — General observations — Constantine usurped nothing from the Church — Inde- terminate limits of the civil and spiritual authority — Alterations in the titles and gradations of the Hierarchy — preeminence unattended by authority — Conclusion — Note on Eusebius. During the early part of Diocletian's per- secution Constantius Chlorus ruled, with as much humanity as circumstances permitted him to exercise, the provinces of the West. On his death, at York, in the year 306, the army proclaimed Constantine, his son, Em- peror. In the meantime, the provinces eastward of Gaul were distracted by the dissensions of rival emperors which favored the growing strength of Constantine. In 311, Galerius, the fiercest among the assail- ants of Christianity, died, and his dominions were divided between Maximin and Licini- us; Maxentius had already usurped the government of Italy and Africa. Presently Constantine, justified, as most assert, by suf- ficient provocation, marched into Italy and overthrew Maxentius in the immediate neigh- borhood of Rome ; that tyrant (as all admit him to have been) was drowned in the Tiber, and his dominions were added to the posses- sions of the conqueror. This event took place in the year 312 ; and it has been usually assigned as marking the period of Constan- tine's conversion to Christianity. A mirac- ulous story * is connected with this epoch in our history. As the Emperor was marching toward Rome, at the head of his army, he beheld a luminous Cross, suspended about noonday in the air, and inscribed with the fol- lowing words — Tovto) vlxa — 'Uj/ this conquer? The phenomenon confirmed his uncertain faith, and afforded him the surest omen of victory. But this was not all: during the ensuing night the form of Christ himself presented itself with the same Cross, and directed him to frame a standard after that shape. And it is certain that, about that period, and possibly on that occasion, a standard was so framed, and continued for many following years to be displayed, when ever it became necessary to excite the en- thusiasm of the Christian soldiers — but the extraordinary appearances to which its adop tion is ascribed demand the most rigid exam ination. In the first place, the story which we have shortly given is related by no contemporary author, excepting Eusebius ; next, it is relat- * In the relation of this story we have ventured to omit the dream published by the uncertain author of the book De Mortibus Persecutorum, as well as Naz- arius's army of divine warriors. We confine our- selves to that, which appears under the more respec- table authority of Eusebius. See Gibbon, chap. xx. CONSTANTINE. 83 ed in his Life * of Constantine, and not in his Ecclesiastical History ; it is related in the year 338, or six-and-twenty years after the supposed appearance ; it is related on the authority of Constantine alone, though it must have been witnessed by his whole army, and notorious throughout his whole empire; and lastly it was published after the death of Constantine. In an age, wherein pious frauds had already acquired some honor ; by a writer, who, respectable as he undoubtedly is, and faithful in most of his historical records, does not even profess those rigid rules of ve- racity which command universal credit ; f in a book, which rather wears the character of partial panegyric, than of exact and scrupu- lous history — a flattering fable might be pub- lished and believed ; but it can claim no place among the authentic records of history, and by writers, whose only object is 'truth, it may very safely be consigned to contempt and oblivion. J The defeat of Maxentius was followed by a conference between Constantine and Licin- ius, which led to the publication, in the March of 313, of the celebrated Edict of Milan. Edict of Milan. This Edict was a proc- lamation of universal toleration ; but its ad- vantages were of course chiefly or entirely reaped by the Christians, as theirs had been the only religion not already tolerated. It gave back to them the civil and religious rights of which they had been deprived ; it restored without dispute, delay or expense, the places of worship which had been de- * Euseb. Vit. Const. 1. 1., c. 28, 29, 30, 31. ■f Eusebius says, that Constantine related the story to himself on oath. May we not believe Eusebius in this 1 And may we not also suppose, that the Empe- ror deceived him in some moment, when enthusiasm, or indisposition, or mere human weakness had brought him first to deceive himself? He may really have re- collected some uncommon appearance about the Sun, not strongly noticed at the moment, but which the im- agination of memory heated by exciting events, or by passion, or by feverish sickness, may have convert- ed into a miracle. The story of the vision (which stands indeed on rather better authority) might be merely the exaggeration of a dream. At least this supposition has nothing in it unnatural ; and it is the only supposition which can save both the intention of the Emperor and the veracity of the historian. See Note at the end of the chapter. % It is somewhat singular, that on this same occasion, Maxentius is related by the Pagan historian, Zosimus, (who makes no mention of the Christian miracle, lib. ii.,) to have carefully consulted (he Sibylline books, and credulously applied to his own circumstances a orediction which he found there. molished, and the lands which had been confiscated — and free and absolute power was granted to the Christians, and to all oth- ers, of following the religion which every individual might think proper to follow. Immediately afterwards, Licinius, who was no friend to Christianity, overthrew the east- ern Emperor Maximin, who had been its savage adversary, and became master of the empire of the east. A war followed between the conqueror and Constantine, which ter- minated, in 315, to the advantage of the latter, who on that occasion extended his empire to the eastern limits of Europe ; eight years of peace succeeded, which were em- ployed by the Christian Emperor in securing the real interests and legislating for the hap- piness of his subjects. This period of rare tranquillity was succeeded by a second war* with Licinius, which terminated in 324 by his submission and death, and by the conse- quent union of the whole empire under the sceptre of Constantine. The year which followed the final success of Constantine was disgraced by the execu- tion of his eldest son ; and it is not disputed, that the progress of his career was marked by the usual excesses of intemperate and worldly ambition. Some of his laws f were severe even to cruelty, and the general pro- priety of his moral conduct cannot with any justice be maintained. Hence a suspicion has arisen as to the sincerity of his conver- sion— chiefly, as it appears to us, or entirely founded on the inadequacy of his character to his profession. But is there any page in Christian history, or any form of Christian society, which does not mournfully attest the possibility of combining the most immoral conduct with the most unhesitating faith? Or is this a condition of humanity, from which monarchs are more exempt than their subjects ? We should recollect, moreover, that the character of Constantine, notwith- standing its grevious stains, will bear a com- * This is considered by Eusebius (Vit. Constant, lib. ii.) almost in the light of a religious war — the first, if it was so, among the many by which the name of Christ has been profaned. + Nevertheless, the general spirit of his laws was decidedly humane and favorable to the progress of civilisation — for instance, he made decrees tending to the termination of slavery; he abolished some barba- rous forms of punishment, as branding, for instance; he restrained exorbitant usury, and endeavored to prevent the exposure of children, by relieving the poor. See Jortin, Ecc. Hist, book iii. Fleury. Hist. Eccl. L. X. Sect. 21. Baronius, ad ann, 315. Sect. 30. 84 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. parison with some of the best among his pagan predecessors ; while it was free from those monstrous deformities which distin- guished not a few of them, and which have indeed been rarely paralleled in Christian history. But even had his conduct been more reprehensible, than in truth it was, it would have furnished very insufficient evi- dence against the sincerity of his belief. Again, it was usual in those days, in contin- uance of a practice of which we have men- tioned the cause and origin, to defer the sac- rament of Baptism until the approach of death, and then once to administer it, as the means of regeneration and the assurance of pardon and grace. In compliance with this custom* the emperor was not baptized (he did not even become a Catechumen f) until his last illness ; but no argument can hence be drawn against his sincerity, which would not equally apply to a large proportion of the Christians in his empire. In his favor the fol- lowing facts should be observed. For many years he had publicly and consistently pro- fessed his belief in Christianity: in a long discourse, which is still extant, he even expa- tiated on its various proofs ; he began his reign by protecting the believers ; in its pro- gress he favored and honored them ; he inscribed the cross on the banners of the empire ; he celebrated the festivals of the Church ; he associated in the closest intima- cy with Christian writers J and prelates ; he inquired into all the particulars of their faith, and displayed what some have thought an inconsiderate zeal for its purity. By such reasons, according to every fair principle of historical inference, we are precluded from any reasonable doubt on this subject ; nor * Constantius in like manner put off his Baptism till his last illness, (Athanas. lib. de Synodis) so did Theodosius the Great, until the illness which he mis- took for his last. Socrat. 1. v. c. 6. t From Euseb. de Vit. Const, lib. iv. c. 61., it appears that the Emperor, just before his baptism, re- ceived for the first time the imposition of hands, usual in making a Catechumen. But in the same work, (lib. i. c. 32,) it would seem that he was xaT7]/i]delg on his first profession of Christianity, immediately after the vision. We are disposed to attach greater credit to the former account. See Fleury, 1. xi. sect. 60. X Lactantius possessed his confidence, while his command was confined to the West, and Eusebius en- joyed throughout his life great influence at the Court of Constantinople. The respect which he paid to the festivals of the Church, his ' diligence in prayer,' the issuing of medals throughout the Empire, in which he is represented in the attitude of devotion, are facts mentioned by Euseb. Vit. Const. 1. iv. c. 15 & 22. need we hesitate for a moment to acquit a wise and, in many respects, a virtuous Prince of the odious charge of the foulest descrip- tion of hypocrisy.* At the same time, we are willing to ad mit that his conduct to the Christians was strictly in accordance with his interests ; and it is very probable, that the protection with which he distinguished them may in the first instance have originated in his policy. But this is perfectly consistent with his subse- quent conversion. And we may here re- mark, that those who assign policy as his chief or only motive, bear the strongest evi- dence to the power and real importance which the Church of Christ had acquired before his time ; they attest, that its stability had not been shaken by the sword of Diocle- tian ; that by its own unassisted and increas- ing energy it had triumphed over the fury of the most determined of its persecutors, and that its claims on the justice and respect of the Throne, though only urged by perse- verance in suffering, could no longer be over- * A vain dispute has been raised as to the proba- ble moment of his conversion, into wnich we shall not enter, because the truth is not discoverable, and if it were, would still be unprofitable. Gibbon affects to set some value on it, because he would willingly prove that Constantine was no real proselyte. Two facts he mentions in support of his suspicion — that Constantine ' persevered till he was near forty years of age in the practice of the established religion,' especially in the worship of Apollo; and that in the same year (321) he published two Edicts, the first of which enjoined the solemn observance of Sunday, (Euseb. Vit. Const. 1. iv. c. IS,) and the second directed the regular con- sultation of aruspices. Both- are literally true; but the inferences drawn from both are false — Constantine did not profess his religion, perhaps he did not adopt it, until the campaign against Maxentius in 312 — he had previously protected and favored the Christians, but till then he did not proclaim, nor could he perhaps safely have proclaimed, his own belief; but he seized die earliest moment to do so, and during the twenty- five following years, he maintained his profession with ardent and active perseverance. By bringing for- ward the second fact as an argiunent against his belief, the historian has forgotten that the Edict of Milan was an Edict of universal toleration, protecting all Pagan, as well as all Christian, ceremonies; so that the two proclamations, which he is willing to expose as inconsistent, were only the necessary consequence of that generous policy, which had been so little un- derstood by the Pagan Emperors. Before we quit this subject we should mention, that Zosimus (lib. ii.) attributes Constantine's change of faith to the persua- sion, instilled into him by one ^Egyptius, a Spaniard, that the remission of sins attended the act of conver- sion to Christianity. Thus it appears, at least, that the Pagan Historian did not doubt the reality of the conveision, though he may have mistaken its motive. CON STAIN TINE. 86 looked with safety. And this fact is of much greater historical importance, than the mo- tives or sincerity of any individual can possi- bly be. Let us now proceed to ascertain what was the condition and constitution of the Church, as Constantine found it ; what were the prin- cipal alterations introduced by him, and in what form and attitude he left it. Constitution of the Church. We have al- ready described the free and independent constitution of the primitive Church ; the Bishops and teachers were chosen by the clergy and people ; the Bishop managed the ecclesiastical affairs of his diocese, in council with the Presbyters, and ' with a due regard to the suffrages of the whole assembly of the people.' Again, the great ecclesiastical di- visions of the empire appear from the ear- liest period naturally to have followed the political ; and thus for the regulation of mat- ters relating to the interests of a whole Pro- vince, whether they were religious contro- versies, or the forms and rites of divine ser- vice, or other things of like moment, the Bishops of the Province assembled in coun- cil, and deliberated and legislated. We have also remarked, that during the course of the third century this constitution was so far changed, that the episcopal au- thority was somewhat advanced, at the ex- pense of that of the inferior ministers and the people. But in all other respects the government of the Church remained in real- ity the same, and perhaps even in this respect it was apparently so ; for the forms of the les- ser or diocesan councils were still preserved, though the relative influence of the three par- ties composing them had undergone a change. And here it will be proper to examine how far those are correct who consider the Church at that period, as a separate Republic or Bo- dy-politic distinguished from the empire. In the first place — the synods which we have mentioned, local as well as provincial, as- sumed the office and power to arrange ec- clesiastical affairs, and to punish ecclesiastical offences. But neither was their power ac- knowledged by the civil Government, nor were their awards or censures enforced by it. Again, the Bishop, through an authority which professed to be derived from Scripture, and which may certainly be traced to the earliest age, exerted a kind of mcdiative in- terference throughout his diocese, in the civil disputes of the Christians, to which they very frequently appealed, and admitted his decis- ions as conclusive ; but no such jurisdiction was recognised by the Government, nor were any such decisions legally valid. Moreover, some of the Churches had become possessed, as corporate bodies, of considerable property in land or buildings purchased from the com- mon fund, and applied to the purposes of the society ; but the Government never formally acknowledged the legality of those acquisi- tions, and availed itself, as we have already seen, of the first pretext to confiscate them. It is in this condition of ecclesiastical af- fairs, that we may discover perhaps the ear- liest vestige of the distinction, which will hereafter become so familiar to us, between spiritual and temporal power — though in the present indefinite shape and imperfect de- velopement of the former, we can scarcely trace any intimation of its future proportions and magnitude. We perceive also, on how strange and irregular a foundation the secu- rity of the early Church was established — in fact, to a statesman of those days, before the force of religious union and the intensity of religious attachment were generally known and understood, the society or communion which rested not on a political basis, would naturally appear to possess no principle of stability. To the eye of a Pagan its strength was imperceptible, as the elements which composed it were concealed from him ; and it was this circumstance which encouraged Diocletian to an aggression, of which the barbarity indeed shocked him, but of which he never, perhaps, doubted the success, since the power which resisted it was unseen and incomprehensible. In the mean time, the public discipline, which had been made ne- cessary by the neglect of the civil power, was cemented and fortified by its opposition ; and the private sincerity of belief, which could not be understood by a Pagan, because Pa- ganism had nothing to do with Truth, was animated info contumacy by the sense of in- justice and injury. It is even probable, that the union of the scattered Churches was facilitated by the in- crease of the episcopal authority in each ; for they thus acquired that decision and steadi- ness of continuous exertion, which marks individual superintendence, and which would scarcely have been so constant, and uniform, had the government of the dioceses retained, in its utmost strictness, its original popular character. The power of the Bishops made them formidable only to the persecutor ; their interests demanded their union and their union was then the only security for that of the whole Church, and thereby (without the 86 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. direct interposition of Providence) for its ac- tual preservation. To us, indeed, it seems nearly certain, that these powerful but latent principles of eccle- siastical stability, which repelled the assault of Diocletian, would have preserved the Church through a much severer trial, if the genius of Constantine had not discovered its real strength, and courted its friendship and alliance. It is true, that in becoming ac- cpiaiuted with its strength, he also discovered its virtues; in the excellence of the Christian system, he perceived a great omen of its per- petuity— he saw too, that, as a rule for civil- ized society, it was more efficient than any human law, because more powerful in its motives to obedience; and perhaps he re- marked also, that the energy of Christians had hitherto been confined to submission and endurance — to unoffending, unresisting per- severance— and this outward display of loy- alty might lead him to overlook that free spirit, which pervaded both the principles of the religion and the government of the Church, and which in later ages was so com- monly found in opposition to despotism. Constantine admired the morality of the Christians, he loved their submission to arbi- trary power, and he respected that internal and advancing vigor, which had triumphed over so many persecutors. These, we doubt not, were the motives which induced him to seek the alliance of the Church, and to con- fer on it advantages, not more substantial, perhaps, than those which he received from it. We are disposed to divide the ecclesiastical life of Constantine into three periods. In the first of these he confined himself, at least ostensibly, to the impartial toleration of all religions, though he legally established that of the Christians. This extends from the Edict of Milan to the council of Nice in the year 325. His next occupation was to define the doctrines, and thus to preserve the unity of the Church, which he had established. It was not till the third and latest period of his life, that he attacked the superstition of his forefathers, by edicts directly levelled against Paganism. The Arian controversy and the overthrow of Paganism will form the sub- jects of separate chapters — at present we shall endeavor to point out the most important alterations introduced during this reign into the constitution of the Church, and their im- mediate effects upon its ministers and mem- bers. Constantine found the Church an in- dependent body, a kind of self-constituted commonwealth, which might sometimes be at peace, and sometimes at variance with the civil government, but which was never ac- knowledged as any part of the whole body politic ; it had a separate administration, sep- arate laws, and frequently (through the per- versity of its persecutors) separate interests also. The Christian, as a citizen of the em- pire, was subject of course to the universal statutes of the empire — as a member of the Church, he owed a distinct allegiance to the spiritual directors of the Church ; and though this allegiance was never inconsistent with his civil obedience, except when that obedi- ence would have deprived him of his relig- ion, it was founded on more commanding motives, and was one from which no earthly authority was sufficient to absolve him. Thus far, and thus far only, his ecclesiastical divid- ed him from his civil duties ; to this extent they placed him, at all times, in divergency from the State, and, in times of persecution, in actual opposition to it. And so long as the Church which he honored was disclaimed as a part, or associate, of the State ; so long as the space between them was broad and distinguishable, so long the limits of his al- legiance to either were very clearly marked. Constantine comprehended the nature, and perceived the inconveniences and the danger, of this disunion ; and he therefore employed the earliest exertion of his power and policy to acknowledge the existence, to consolidate the elements, to establish the authority, and to diminish the independence of the Church. To accomplish the first of these three objects, he received that body into strict alliance with the state — to effect the last, he so received it, as to constitute himself its director as well as its guardian, and to combine in his own person the highest ecclesiastical with the highest civil authority. His right to this authority (if he condescended to consider that point) he might derive with some plausi- bility from the original institutions of Rome. From the earliest ages of its history, the chief magistrate of the nation had been en- trusted with the superintendence of the na- tional religion; and it seemed fair that he should impose the same, as the condition of the establishment of Christianity. And yet a great distinction is to be observed even in this point. For, according to the principles of Polytheism, the most sacred functions of religion might be performed by the hands of the civil magistrates ; but the consecration of a separate order to those purposes by the Christian system excluded the Emperor from CONSTANTINE. 87 the administration of the rites of religion ; and the Prince and the Priest became hence- forward characters wholly distinct, and inde- pendent. It was perhaps by this restriction, that the first avowed and legal limitation was imposed upon the authority of the former; and it was not a trifling triumph to have ob- tained from a Roman Emperor the acknow- ledgment of any right in a subject, or any restraint upon himself. Notwithstanding this assumption of ec- clesiastical supremacy by the Emperor, the Church retained in many respects its separate existence, or at least the freedom of its au- tonomous constitution — indeed, had not this been so, the term Alliance, which is used to designate the union of Church and State un- der Constantine, as it implies a certain degree of independence in both parties, would be unmeaning and out of place. Some imme- diate advantages were also reaped by the Church ; much that it had formerly held by sufferance, it now possessed by law ; many privileges, which had hitherto existed through the connivance only, or the ignorance, of the Government, were now converted into rights, and as such confirmed and perpetuated. Constantine divided the administration of the Church into 1. Internal, and 2. External. 1. The former continued, as heretofore, in the hands of the Prelates, individually and in Council — little or no alteration was intro- duced into this department ; and it compre- hended nearly every thing which was really tangible and available in the power of the Church before its association with the State, now confirmed to it by that association. The settlement of religious controversies was re- commended to the wisdom of the Hierarchy;* the forms of Divine worship, the regulation of customary rites and ceremonies, or the institution of new ones, the ordination and offices of the priesthood, which included the unrestrained right of public preaching, and the formidable weapon of spiritual censure were left to the exclusive direction of the Church. The freedom of episcopal election was not violated ; and the Bishops retained their power to convoke legislative synods twice a year in every Diocese, uncontrolled by the civil magistrate. We have already mentioned, that, by the Edict of Milan, the possessions of the Church were restored, and * A rescript of Constantine to the Provincial Bish- ops on the disputes between Athanasius and Eusebius of Nicodemia, admits — Vestri est, non mei judicii, de ea re cognoacere. See Baronius ad aim. 329, sect. 8. its legal right to them for the first time ac- knowledged ; and this act of justice was fol- lowed, in the year 321, by another Edict which permitted all subjects to bequeath property to that Body.* Exemption from all civil offices was granted to the whole body of the clergy ;f and, perhaps, a more impor- tant privilege, about the same time conferred on the higher orders, was that of independent jurisdiction, even in capital charges, over their own members : so that the Bishop, alone among the myriads of the subjects of the em- pire, enjoyed the right of being tried by his Peers. This was not granted, however, with an,y intention of securing his impunity ; for, though degradation was the severest punish- ment which could be inflicted by a spiritual court, the penalty was liable to increase, after condemnation, by the interference of the sec- ular authority. While we may consider the free trial of the Bishops, in a political light, as another important inroad into the pure despotism of the imperial system, we are also assured that on the Body, thus exclusively possessing* it, it conferred no inconsiderable advantages. But another privilege, even more valuable than this, and one which will more constantly be present to us in the histo- ry of succeeding ages, is traced with equal certainty to the legislation of Constantine. The arbitration of Bishops in the civil differ- ences referred to them hi their diocese was now ratified by law ; and their decisions, of which the validity had formerly depended on the consent of the parties, were henceforward enforced by the civil magistrate, f On this foundation was imperceptibly established the vast and durable edifice of ecclesiastical ju- risdiction ; from this simple legalization of an ancient custom, in process of time, the most substantial portion of sacerdotal" power proceeded, and the most extravagant preten- sions of spiritual ambition. But those conse- quences convey no reflection on the wisdom of Constantine, since they were produced by circumstances which he could not possi- bly foresee ; and which, besides, never influ- * Constantine's personal generosity to the Church as well as his deference to the Episcopal Order, is mentioned by Eusebius, (Vit. Const., lib. i. c. 42., lib. ii., and Hist. Eccles., 1. x.) and was continued throughout his whole reign. The Pagan Zosimus (lib. ii.) mentions the profusion which he wasted upon ' useless persons.' •f- Baronius, ad ann. 319. sect. 30. J Fleury, Hist. Eccl. 1. x. sect. 27. on authority of Sozomen (1. i. c. 8 and 9) and Const. Apostol. (lib ii. c. 46) Baronius, ad ann. 314. sect. 38, with refer- ence to Cod. Theodos. 88 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. enced, to any great extent, the eastern division of Christendom. In the separate view, which we have taken of the internal constitution of the Church, we perceive a powerful, self-regulated body, armed with very ample and extensive author- ity, and supported, when such support was necessary, by the secular arm. Let us pro- ceed to the second division, or the external administration of the Church. 2. Of this department the Emperor as- sumed the entire control to himself. * It comprehended every thing relating to the outward state and discipline of the Church ; and was understood to include a certain de- gree of superintendence over such contests and debates as might arise among the minis- ters, of whatsoever rank, concerning their possessions, their reputation, their rights and privileges, as well as then* political, or other offences against the laws of the Empire. Even the final decision of religious contro- versies was subjected to the discretion of judges appointed by the Emperor: f the same terminated any differences which might arise between the Bishops and people, fixed the limits of the ecclesiastical provinces, took cognizance of the civil causes subsisting be- tween ministers, and lent his power to the ex- ecution of the punishment due to their crim- inal offences. And though the right of con- voking local and provincial synods remained with the Church, that of assembling a General Council was exercised only by the Prince. When we consider in succession these ar- ticles of imperial supremacy, we perceive, in the first place, that Coustantine did not trans- fer to himself from the Church any power which had before belonged to it: most of the cases, there provided for, must by neces- sity have always fallen under civil cognizance — for whenever it happened, either that the external encroachments of the Church, or the differences among Christians, or their ministers, proceeded to endanger public tran- quillity, such offences fell, of course, under the cognizance of the secular, which was then the only acknowledged, jurisdiction. There appear, indeed, to be two cases m which the Emperor assumed a power not before belonging to the State — interference for the arrangement of religious controver- sies by the appointment of judges, and the convocation of General Councils. Respect- * The authority assumed by the Emperors appeai-s, under various titles, in the 16th book of the TJieodo- sian Code, as also in the Code of Justinian. t Mosheim, Cent. iv. part ii. ch. ii. ing the first of these — which proved indeed the least effectual part of his ecclesiastical authority— it was not probable that the Em- peror would be anxious to exert it, unless called upon to undertake the office by one or both of the parties in controversy. If invited to enforce the sentence of the Church against a condemned Heretic, he might reasonably plead the interference of Aurelian in the affair of Paul of Samosata ; if solicited to decide between two opinions dividing the Body of the Church itself, he would natural- ly have recourse to the second of the methods intrusted to him, the calling of a General Council. But the authority to do so was not the usurpation of a power before possessed by another, but the creation of a new power. For as a General Council of all the leading ministers of the Church neither had been, nor could have been, assembled in times when the Church, if haply not persecuted, was at least unacknowledged, so the new condition of its establishment gave birth to new circumstances, for the regulation of which a new authority was necessary ; and that authority was properly vested in the highest civil magistrate. In the next place, in comparing the privi- leges remaining to the Church with those assumed by the Emperor in his connexion with it, and in tracing the consequences to which either might be extended, we cannot fail to observe, that their limits are often vague and indeterminate ; and that, when they are not so, the points of contact and intersection are very numerous, offering fre- quent means and temptations to mutual inno- vation. We shall see that, in after ages, they led to much aggression and injustice in both parties ; but as matters then stood, with so large a portion of the population still uncon- verted, and even adverse to the Faith, under an Emperor possessed of undivided and seemingly unbounded authority, we should be surprised, perhaps, to find so many privi- leges confirmed to a distinct religious com- munity, if we were not acquainted with the bold and vigorous character of Constantine, and also persuaded of his attachment to Christianity. We should not omit to mention some changes at that time introduced into the titles and gradations of the Hierarchy, in order to associate their administration more intimate- ly with that of the civil officers. To the three Prelates of Rome, Antioch and Alex andria, who enjoyed a certain degree of pre- eminence in the Church, was added the CONSTANTINE 89 Patriarch of Constantinople — these four cor- responded with the four Praetorian Prefects then also created. After those followed the Exarchs, * who had the inspection over several provinces, and answered to the ap- pointment of certain civil officers of the same name. The Metropolitans had the govern- ment of one province only, and under them were the Archbishops, whose inspection was confined to certain districts. The Bishops were the lowest in this gradation, but many of them possessed ample extent of authority and jurisdiction. Their number at this tune was one thousand eight hundred, of whom a thousand administered the Eastern, eight hundred the Western Church. In this whole Body, the Bishop of Rome possessed a cer- tain indeterminate precedence, or preemi- nence, unattended by any authority ; and this precedence is attributed, first, to the Imperial name of Rome, and next to the superiority in wealth, which he seems to have acquired at a very early period ; to the splendor and extent of his religious administration, and the influence naturally rising from these causes. The simple establishment of the Church, such as we have now described it without anticipating the measures of State afterwards applied, or misapplied, to the support of it, was favorable not only to the progress of Christianity, but also to the concord of Chris- tians; the former has never been disputed; as to the latter, we have seen by what a cloud of heresies the religion was overshad- owed before its establishment ; and no one can reasonably doubt, that the additional sanction given to the gospel by imperial adoption, and the greater dignity and influ- ence and actual power thus acquired by its regular ministers in every province of the Empire, would conduce to dissolve and dis- perse them. They did so — but. while the numerous forms of error, of which we have treated, fell for the most part into silence and disrepute, there was one, of which we have yet made no mention, which grew up into such vigor and attained so much consis- tency, that there seemed to be danger lest it should possess itself of the high places, and occupy the sanctuary itself. Its progress, and the means adopted to oppose it, form the subject of the following chapter. We shall conclude the present with one or two obser- vations. It is one favorite opinion of most skep- tical writers, that Christianity is entirely in- debted for its general propagation and stability Mosheioi, loc. cit. 12 to the Imperial patronage of Constantine ; it is another, that the establishment of the Church led to the disunion of its mem- bers, and its prosperity to its corruption. The first of those theories is falsified by the history of the three first centuries — during which we observe the religion to have been gradually but rapidly progressive throughout the whole extent of the Roman Empire, in spite of the persecution of some Emperors, the suspicious jealousy of others, and the indifference of the rest. We need not dwell longer on this fact ; especially as it is virtu- ally admitted by those same writers, when it suits them to attribute Constantinti's pretended conversion to his policy. The second of their assertions has a greater show of truth, but is, in fact, almost equally erroneous. A fairer view of that question, and, if we mis- take not, the correct view, is the following — the establishment of the Church was in itself highly beneficial both to the progress of reli- gion, and to the happiness of society — the mere pacific alliance of that Body with the State was fraught with advantage to the whole Empire, with danger to no member of it. Many evils indeed did follow it, and many vexations were inflicted by Christ- ians upon each other in the perverse zeal of religious controversy. But such controver- sies, as we have sufficiently shown, had ex- isted in very great abundance, very long before Christianity was recognised by law; and the vexations were not at all the neces- sary consequence of that recognition. They originated, not in the system itself, but in the blindness of those who administered it ; they proceeded from the fallacious supposition — that which afterwards animated the Romish Church, and which has misled despots and bigots in every age — that unanimity in reli- gious belief and practice was a thing attain- able ; and they were conducted on a notion equally remote from reason, that such una- nimity, or even the appearance of it, could be attaiued by force. Many ages of bitter experience have been necessary to prove the absurdity of these notions, and the fruitless wickedness of the measures proceeding from them. But a candid inquirer will admit that they were not at all inseparably connected with the establishment of the Church; and that that Body would not only have continued to exist and to flourish, without any interfer- ence of civil authority to crush its adversa- ries, but that it would have subsisted in that condition with more dignity, and more honor and much more security. 90 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. The prosperity of the Church was unques- tionably followed by an increase in the num- ber and rankness of its corruptions. But unhappily we have already had occasion to observe, that several abuses had taken root in all its departments, during at least that century which immediately preceded the reign of Constantine — to the fourth we may undoubtedly assign the extravagant hon- ors paid to Martyrs, and the shameful super- stitions which arose from them. But we should also recollect, that many among the Romish corruptions are of a much later date, and that several may be directly referred to the influence of expiring Paganism, not to the gratuitous invention of a wealthy and degenerate priesthood. Indeed, we should add, that in respect to the moral character of the clergy of the fourth century, they seem rather chargeable with the narrow, conten- tious, sectarian spirit, which was encouraged and inflamed by the capricious interference of the civil power, than with any flagrant de- ficiency in piety and sanctity of life. (Euseb. H. E.lib.vii. c. i.) Note on Eusebius. The name of Eusebi- us has been so frequently referred to in this History, that being now arrived at the age in which he flourished, we are bound to give some account of his life and character. He is believed to have been born at Caesarea in Palestine, about the year 270 ; he was raised to that See about 315, and died in 339, or 340; being thus (within two or three years) con- temporary with his Emperor, and his friend, in the three circumstances of his birth, his dignity, and his death. He was extremely diligent and learned, and the Author of ' in- numerable volumes.'* And among those which still exist, his Ecclesiastical History, and his Life of Constantine, furnish us with the best lights which we possess respecting his own times, and with our only consecutive narrative of the previous fortunes of Christi- anity. Eusebius admits, in the first chapter of his History, that he has ' entered upon a desoLate and unfrequented path;' and in gleaning the scattered records of preceding writers, and presenting them for the most part in their own language and on their own au- thority, he has indeed very frequently dis- covered to us the scantiness of the harvest and the poverty of the soil. Still in that respect he has faithfully discharged his histo- rical duties, and has rescued much valuable matter from certain oblivion. In this indeed consists one peculiar merit of his History, * Jerome de Vir. Illust. c. xxxi. that it unfolds to us a number of earlier memoirs, written immediately after the events which they describe, and on all of which we are at liberty to exercise our critical judg- ment, as to the credit which may be due to them, without also involving that of Eusebi- us in our conclusion. But respecting the historical candor of the Author, when he speaks in his own person, and the fidelity with which he has delivered such circumstances as were well known to him, a few words are necessary, because the question is not usually stated with fairness. In describing the sufferings of the Chris- tians during the last persecution, Eusebius* (H. E. lib. viii. c. ii.) admits ' that it does not agree with our plan to relate their dissensions and wickedness before the persecution, on which account we have determined to relate nothing more concerning them than may serve to justify the Divine Judgment. We have therefore not been induced to make mention, either of those who were tempted in the persecution, or of those who made utter shipwreck of their salvation, and were sunk of their own accord in the depths of the storm ; but shall only add those things to our General History, which may in the first place be profitable to ourselves, and afterwards to posterity.' And in another passage he asserts, that the events most suitable to a ' History of Martyrs ' are those which redound to their honor. From these two passages it appears that Eusebius in his relation of that persecu- tion has suppressed the particulars of the dissensions and scandals which had prevail- ed among the faithful, because he judged such accounts less productive of immediate edification and future profit, than the cele- bration of their virtues and their constancy. We may remark that in this determination, his first error was one of judgment — if indeed he imagined that the great lessons of History were more surely taught by the records of what is splendid and glorious, than by the painful, but impressive story of human im- perfection, and of the calamities which man has gathered from his own folly and wicked- ness. But his second and less pardonable deviation was from principle — there is a di- rect and avowed disregard of the second fun- damental precept of historical composition. However, the crime is less dangerous because it is avowed, and more excusable because less dangerous ; and at any rate, if we shall perceive, in the general course and character * In Vit. Constant, cap. ix., he makes the same sort of profession. CONSTANTLNE. 91 of the work, a disposition to investigate dili- gently, and represent faithfully, we shall be disposed to confine our doubts to those por- tions only, which the writer has not even professed to treat with entire fidelity ; and in the vast multitude of circumstances, in which the honor of the Martyrs is not concerned, we shall approach our only fountain of infor- mation with a confidence not much impaired by a partial dereliction of principle, which is fairly admitted. But that delinquency of Eusebius which we have just mentioned is confined to the suppression of truth — it does not proceed to the direct assertion of falsehood — we shall now notice a still more serious suspicion, to which he has rendered himself liable. The thirty-first chapter of the twelfth book of his Evangelical Preparation bears for its ti- tle this scandalous proposition* — ' How it may be lawful and fitting to use falsehood as a medicine, for the advantage of those who re- quire such a method.' We have already de- plored, with sorrow and indignation, the fatal moment, when fraud and falsehood were * We purposely copy the language of Gibbon (Vindication, p. 137, 2d ed.) Still we should fail in doing perfect justice to Eusebius, if we did not pub- lish, together with the proposition, the very short chapter in which it is treated. It begins with a quo- tation from Plato (De Leg. 2.) 'A legislator of any value — even if the fact were not such as our discourse has just established it — if in any case he might make bold to deceive young persons for their advantage; could he possibly inculcate any falsehood more profit- able than this, or more potent to lead all without force or compulsion to the practice of all justice 1 ' ' Truth, my friend, is honorable and permanent; but not, it would seem, verveasy of persuasion.' To this some- what hypothetical passage of Plato, Eusebius adds — ' You may find a thousand such instances in the Scrip- tures, where God is described as jealous, or sleeping, or angry, or liable to other human affections, so ex- pressed for the advantage of those who require such a method (t7i ojqneAf i'a Tar deofiivdv tov TOiovinu Toonov.y This is all that is said on the subject, and it shows us perhaps to what limits Euse- bius intended to confine the application of his propo- sition. And thus Gibbon's account of the chapter, though it may be literally true, is calculated to mis- lead. ' In this chapter (says he) Eusebius alleges a passage of Plato, which approves the occasional prac- tice of pious and salutary frauds ; nor is he ashamed to justify the sentiments of the Athenian Philosopher by the example of the sacred writers of the Old Testament.' first admitted into the service of religion. Philosophy, in the open array of her avowed hostility, was not so dangerous as when she lent to her undisciplined adversaries her own poisoned weapons, and placed them in unskil- ful hands, as implements of self-destruction. It was disgraceful to the less enlightened fa- thers of the second and third centuries, that, even in the midst of trial and tribulation, they borrowed a momentary succor from the pro- fession of falsehood — but the same expe- dient was still more shameful to Eusebius, who flourished during the prosperity of the Church, whose age and more extensive learn- ing left him no excuse in ignorance or inex- perience, and whose great name and unques- tionable piety gave sanction and authority to all his opinions. There can be no doubt then, that the publication of that detestable principle in any one of his writings, however modified and limited by his explanation, must, to a certain extent, disturb our confi- dence in the rest — the mind which does not profess to be constantly guided by truth pos- sesses no claim to our implicit submission. Nevertheless, the works of Eusebius must at last be judged by the character which seve- rally pervades them, not by any single prin- ciple which the Author has once only laid down ; to which he has not intended (as it would seem) to give general application, and which he has manifestly proposed rather as a philosophical speculation, than as a rule for his own composition. At least we feel con- vinced, that whoever shall calmly peruse his Ecclesiastical History will not discover in it any deliberate intention to deceive — in the relation of miraculous stories, he is more sparing than most of the Church Historians who succeeded him, and seemingly even than those whom he has copied — and upon the whole, we shall not do him more than justice, if we consider him as an avowed, but honest advocate, many of whose state- ments must be examined with suspicion, while the greater part bear direct and incon- testable marks of truth.* * Dr. Jortin (vol. i. p. 209) has corrected a mis- take of Dr. Middleton, who had attributed to Eusebi- us an absurd respect for the Erythrean Sibyl — which seems, in fact, to have been entertained by Constan- tine. 92 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER VII. The Arian Controversy. Controversies among Christians — their origin — how- distinguished from philosophical disputations — their character — accounted for. Constantine's conduct to- wards Heretics and origin of the Arian controversy- Alexander — Arius — his opinions — followers — Inter- ference of the Emperor — Council of Nice — various motives of those assembled — their proceedings and decision — Proposal of Eusebius of Cssarea — Gib- bon's account of this Council — Temporal Penalties — to what extent carried. Conduct of the successors of Conslantine — Constantius. Athanasius — his history — twice exiled — his triumphant restoration — contests with Constantius— methods taken by the latter to se- cure success — remarks on them — third banishment of Athanasius— Council of Rimini — progress of Ari- anism. — Theodosius — Council of Constantinople.— Arianism of the Northern Barbarians — the conquerors of the West — its effects. Justinian — Spain — Council of Toledo. Termination of the controversy. Obser- vations—examination of Arian claims to greater puri- ty of faith — to greater moderation — Progress of Ari- anism in the West to what cause attributable— confu- sion of sectarian and national enmity — conduct of Catholics and Arians under persecution — Note on cer- tain Christian AVriters. When Constantine established Christianity as the religion of the Empire, he probably did not foresee liovv soon he should be called upon to interpose his authority, in order to prescribe and define the precise tenets of that religion, which he had established. Doubtless he was well acquainted with the numerous opinions by which Christians had ever been divided ; but he saw that, in spite of them, the Body had continued to ad- vance in vigor and magnitude, with the show of health and unity. The Church was strong in the midst of heresy, as well as of oppres- sion— and when he gave her his protection against the latter, he imagined, perhaps rea- sonably, that she could have nothing to ap- prehend from the former. But, whether it was, as some suppose, that the evil passions of Christians were inflamed by their present security, or, as we rather believe, that the expression of dissent had been softened by the impunity which attended it during form- er reigns, it is certain that scarcely ten years from the Edict of Milan had elapsed, before the Christian world beheld the beginning of a convulsion, which continued for some years to increase in violence, and which was not finally composed without a long and des- olating struggle. It had been the vice of the Christians of the third century, to involve themselves in 'certain metaphysical questions, which, if considered in one light, are too sublime to become the subject of human wit ; if in an- other, too trifling to gain the attention of rea- sonable men.' * The rage for such disputa- tions had been communicated to religion, by the contagion of philosophy ; but the manner in which it operated on the one and on the other was essentially different. With the philosopher such questions were objects of the understanding only, subjects of com- paratively dispassionate speculation, whereon the versatile ingenuity of a minute mind might employ or waste itself. But with the Christian they were matters of truth or false- hood, of belief or disbelief; and he felt assur- ed that his eternal interests would be influ- enced, if not decided, by his choice. Hence arose an intense anxiety respecting the result, and thus the passions were awakened, and presently broke loose and proceeded to every excess. From the moment that the solution of these questions was attempted by any other method than the fair interpretation of the words of Scripture ; as soon as the copious language of Greece was vaguely applied to the definition of spiritual things, and the ex- planation of heavenly mysteries, the field of contention seemed to be removed from earth to air — where the foot found nothing stable to rest upon ; where arguments were easily eluded, and where the space to fly and to rally was infinite ; so that the contest grew ' more noisy as it was less decisive, and more angry as it became more prolonged and com- plicated. Add to this the nature and genius of the disputants ; for the origin of these disputes may be traced, without any excep- tion, to the restless imaginations of the East. The violent temperament of orientals, as it was highly adapted to the reception of reli- gious impressions, and admitted them with fervor and earnestness, intermingled so close- ly passion with piety, as scarcely to conceive them separable. The natural ardor of their feelings was not abated by the natural subtil- ty of their understanding, which was sharp- ened in the schools of Egypt ; and when this latter began to be occupied by inquiries in which the former were also deeply engaged, and when the nature of those inquiries as- sumed an indeterminate and impalpable form, it was to be expected that many extrav- agances would follow. We must also men- tion the loose and unsettled principles of that age, which had prevailed before the appear- ance of Christianity, and had been to a certain extent adopted by its professors — those, for instance, which justified the means by the * Warburton, Post, to 4th ed. of the Alliance of Church and State. THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. 93 end, and admitted fraud and forgery into the service of religion. From these considera- tions we perceive, that disputations on such subjects, conducted by minds such as have been described, and on the worst principles, could not possibly hope for moderation, and could not speedily terminate ; and it is not useless to have premised them to our ac- count of those controversies, for thus we shall neither attribute them (as some have done) to mistaken causes ; nor be so much scandal- ized by their intemperance, as to take any offence against religion itself, because such evils have been done in its name. Constantine appears to have enlisted him- self very early under the banners of the Church which he had established ; very soon after the Edict of Milan, we find him pub- lishing Laws against Heresy, which went so far, in menace at least, as to transfer the property of heretical bishops or ministers to the orthodox. In the list of the proscribed we find the followers of Paul of Samosata, the Unitarians of those days ; we find the Montanists, who were the Enthusiasts, the Novatians, who were the Reformers, and two denominations of Gnostics ; * but the opin- ions of the Arians were not yet attacked ; perhaps they had not yet assumed a tangible form, or at least were not distinguished and stigmatized by a name. In the freedom exercised by individual opinion on abstruse mysteries under the early Church, it is possible that many may have held the doctrine afterwards called Arian ; but the controversy seems to have been awakened about the year 319, by the zeal of a Bishop of the Church, and the scene of its explosion was that hot-bed of heresy and dissension, Alexandria, f Alexander was the Bishop, Alius a Presbyter, in that city ; and the former, in au assembly of his clergy, felt it * The M arcionites and Valentinians — See Sozomen, lib. ii. c. 32; and the beginning of Gibbon's 21st chapter — we should rather conclude, however, from Eusebius's account (Vit. Const. 1. iii. c. 63 — 66) that Constantine's Edict against those Heretics was posterior to the Council of Nice. Sozomen asserts (not very accurately) that the effect of the Edict was the destruction of all excepting the Novatians, against whom it was not seriously enforced. t Even after the Council of Nice we learn from Eusebius (Vit. Const. 1. iii. c. 23) that' while all the rest of the world was disposed to concord, among the Egyptians alone there prevailed immitigable dissen- sion.'— Some anecdotes respecting the character of this people, which had engrafted Greek principles on African character, are given by Jortin. Eccl. Hist., aook iii. a. d. 364. his duty strongly to impress on them hia sentiments respecting the nature of the God- head ; maintaining, among other things, * that the Son was not only of the same emi- nence and dignity, but also of the same es- sence with the Father. Arius disputed this doctrine, and this dispute led him to the promulgation of his own opinions: they were these, or nearly these f — that the Son had been created by the Father before all things; but that time had existed before his creation, and that he was therefore not coeternal with the Father ; that he was created out of noth- ing ; that he was not coessential with the Father; that, though immeasurably supe- rior in power and in glory to the highest created beings, he was still inferior in both to the Father. These opinions found many and respectable advocates J in Asia as well as Egypt, among the clergy as well as the laity, and even in the highest ranks of the clergy ; and their number was probably increased, when the Bishop, after condemning the tenets of Arius in two Councils held at Alexandria, pronounced against him the sentence of ex communication. The quarrel now became so violent, that it was judged necessary to invite the interfer- ence of the Emperor. Constantine viewed the whole question as trifling and utterly un- important ; § he regretted that the peace of the Church should be so vainly disturbed ; he lamented that the harmony of Christians, * The opinions of Alexander himself have not es- caped the charge of heresy — his notions respecting the distinct persons of the Trinity were so imperfect, that Arius accused him, with seeming justice, of in- clination to the error of Sabellius. And again, some of his expressions respecting the nature of the second person place him upon the very borders of the error subsequently denominated semi-Arianism. So diffi- cult was it in those days even for the most pious pre- late to discover, and preserve undeviatingly, the precise path of orthodoxy. | Mosh. Gen. Hist. c. iv. p. ii. ch. 5. Maimb. Hist. Arian. book i. p. 16. Gibbon, chap. 21. The original materials from which the history of Ari- ani.sm is chiefly composed, are Eusebius's Life of Constantine, the writings of Athanasius (particularly the first volume) and the Ecclesiastical Histories of Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret. We may also mention the 69th (or 49th) Heresy of Epiphanius. | Sozomen i. 15. iii. IS. § Constantine's epistle appears in Euseb. Vit. Const. 1. ii. c. 64 — 72. In c. 69 the Emperor de- scribes the origin of the controversy, and exposes its dangerous tendency; and in c. 71 he rebukes the par- ties for disputing i — exam- ination of a late opinion — His death. Rapid decline of Paganism — Valentinian I. — Gratian. — Theodosius I. his edict against Paganism — extremely effectual. Im- perfect faith of many of the Converts — corruptions in- troduced from Paganism. Synesius. Arcadijs and Honorius — abolition of Gladiatorial Games. Theodo- sius II. — subversion of Paganism — in the East — in the West. Note on certain Pagan writers. From the dissensions of Christians, and the calamities occasioned by them, we turn to a more pleasing subject — the final triumph of the Faith over the superstition Avhich had heretofore prevailed throughout the Roman empire ; and in proceeding to this investiga- tion, that which first strikes us as most re- markable is, that the very period during which the Christian world was most widely and angrily divided by the Arian controversy, the \ DECLINE AND FALL O AGANISM. 10a middle and conclusion of the fourth century, was that precisely during which the Religion, as if invigorated by internal agitation, over- threw her most powerful adversary — a cir- cumstance which is the more to be remark- ed, as strongly indicative of her own heavenly energy, because the spectacle of Christian dis- sension has afforded to infidels in every age, as it does at this moment, the most plausible argument for unbelief. Let us endeavor then to trace the measures by which this ex- traordinary revolution was brought about. At the accession of Constantino, the Chris- tians, though very numerous, formed no doubt the smaller portion of his subjects, since the multitude, who were, in fact, of no religion, were accounted among the votaries of pagan- ism ; and among the lower classes, the pa- rade of a splendid superstition was more attractive than the simplicity of the true wor- ship, to persons both ignorant and incurious about the truth of either; while in many oth- ers, a latent inclination towards the new re- ligion would be repressed by the sight of the worldly afflictions which so frequently pursu- ed it. The conversion of the Emperor was naturally followed by a great increase in the number of nominal* Christians ; the faith of many, who were nearly indifferent, would be decided by that event; and many also, of more serious minds, would thus be led to ex- amine with respect the nature of the religion which in its adversity they had contemptuous- ly neglected. Honor and emoluments were annexed to the dignities of the Church, which were thus made objects of ambition to the no- ble and the learned ; and since many, through the exercise of the religion, would gradually imbibe those sentiments and principles of pi- ety, which they had not perhaps carried into it, we may believe that, while the name of Christianity was rapidly extended over the Roman world, its essential doctrines and moral influence made a considerable, though by no means an equal, progress. Constantine. Constantine's first measure was the famous edict of universal toleration, which established Christianity without mo- lesting any other religion, and as late as the year 321 he published a proclamation favor- able to the maintenance of one of the grossest impostures of paganism, the art of divination. Until this period, and perhaps for some few years longer, he held with tolerably equal hand the balance of the two religions,! and * See a note on Dr. Arnold's seventh Sermon, p. 88. •J In book iii. of Eusebinc's Life of Constantine, 14 in the rivalry thus established between them Christianity was daily gaining some weight at the expense of its opponent. This crisis was, indeed, of short duration, and the atten- tive eye of the Emperor immediately perceiv- ed to which side the victory was inclining. It was then that he threw into the prepon- derating scale the decisive addition of his civil authority. In the year 333 he began * to. overthrow the temples and idols of the Gentiles, and to invade their property; he suppressed some of the writings most hostile to Christianity, and proclaimed his opposition to the sacred rites of paganism. He con- demned them as detrimental to the State ; and whatever may have been the sincerity of his faith, he was at least convinced that forms of worship so contrary to each other in all their principles could not long coexist in the same empire, and he gave his support to that which most conduced to the virtue and hap- piness of his subjects. The sons of Constantine followed their father's footsteps. During the Arian rule of Constantius the severity of the laws against Paganism was rather increased than relaxed, and sacrifice, together with idolatrous wor- ship, was visited by capital punishment. This system lasted until his death ; so that, for a space of about thirty years, the ancient super- stition was restrained by perpetual discour- agement, and afflicted with frequent perse- cution. The number of its followers was thus considerably reduced : but the triumph was not yet complete, and many were there still in every province of the empire, who hailed the accession of Julian. Julian. Julian, who is commonly men- tioned in history by the name of Apostate, was the nephew of the great Constantine ; he abandoned in early youth the faith in which the 44th and 45th chapters mention some prohibitions against sacrifice and idol-worship, addressed first to Pagan Magistrates, and then to the people ; but in his prayer, or doxology, published in the 55th and follow- ing chapters, he accords alike ' both to believers and those in error the enjoyment of peace and tranquillity ; as such friendly communion has most tendency to lead men into the straight path.' * Sender, tab. sec. quarti, on author, of Julian, Orat. 7. Mosheim (cent, iv., p. i., c. i.) dates the exertions of Constantine from the overthrow of Licin- ius. See Euseb. Vit. Const, lib. iv. c. 23, 25, &c. Flenry (lib. xi., sect. 33) assigns the destruction of the Temples of Venus, in Syria, and of ^Escula- pius and Apollo, in Cilicia, to the year which follow- ed the Council of Nice. See Euseb. Vit. Const., lib. iii., chap. 54 ; and Sozomen, Hist. Eccl., lib. ii., c. 5. 106 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. he had been educated, and betook himself with great zeal to the practice of paganism. The motive to which this change is usually attributed, is the hatred which he indulged towards the name and sons of Constantine, owing to the cruelties which they had inflict- ed on his family ; hatred which a young and impetuous disposition might easily extend to their religion. Another reason alleged is, that when he saw the dissensions of the Chris- tians, and their rancor against each other, his faith was perplexed ; he found it hard to distinguish the excellence of the religion from the vices of those who professed it, and was unable to prevent his judgment from being blinded by his indignation. Both of them may be true ; for it is clear from some parts of his subsequent conduct, that his enmity to Christianity was founded on passion more than on reason, and his hatred of the faith is more prominent than his disbelief of it.* Hence it is, that, having renounced one reli- gion, he flew with ardor to the exercise of the other, and sought its aid and alliance against the common adversary. This enthu- siasm for paganism carried him into some ridiculous excesses. It is true that the affec- tion which he professed for processions and ceremony, and the profuse splendor of his sacrifices, may have proceeded from a wish to seduce and allure the vulgar ; but his pri- vate devotion to magical rites and the prac- tice of divination, in which his sincerity is not doubted, has no such excuse, and could only have proceeded from an irregular and superstitious mind. And yet to this weak- ness he united many extraordinary qualities — 'he was eloquent and liberal, artful, insin- uating and indefatigable ; which, joined to a severe temperance, an affected love of jus- tice,f and a courage superior to all trials, first gained him the affections, and soon after the peaceable possession of the whole empire.' A strong attachment to literature distinguish- ed his character, and may have tended to nourish his heathen prejudices ; and the pas- sion for glory which sometimes misled him was probably the strongest among his pas- sions, and his leading motive of action. If we compare the character of Julian with that of the other great enemy of the religion, Marcus Antoninus, we shall find all * See note at the end of the chapter. tThe passage is quoted from Warburton; but we have no reason to question the sincerity of that prin- ciple in Julian, though it was sometimes overpowered by his religious antipathy. the advantages of a thoughtful, consistent, and sober understanding on the side of the latter. His conduct was invariably guided by his principles, and his principles were the best which heathen philosophy could sug- gest to him. His knowledge of Christianity was too partial, and the power of its professors too inconsiderable, to command his belief or respect ; and he was too deeply sensible of the absurdities of paganism to feel any regard for that worship ; so that he was contented rigorously, but not intemperately, to maintain that which happened to be the established religion. But Julian had more of passion than philosophy in his constitution and in his principles; and even his philosophy (that of the new Academy) tended much more to speculation than to practice. Indifference, to which his temperament would never have led him, was precluded by the situation of the empire. Impetuous, and restless, and fearless, he converted into love for the one religion that which at first was only hatred for the other, and he proceeded daringly to accomplish what he ardently projected ; yet his daring was tempered by so much address and knowledge, that it was not far removed from consummate prudence. But if we had space for such disquisitions, a more interesting and perhaps more profita- ble contrast might be drawn between the sit- uation and conduct of Julian and of Con- stantine. Both arrived at the possession of unlimited power, through great difficulties, chiefly by means of their personal talents and popularity; both, on arriving at the throne, found the religion of the state differ- ent from their own, and followed by the ma- jority of their subjects ; and both determined to substitute that which himself professed. The grand difference was this — the religion of Constantine (we may be permitted for one moment to treat the subject merely political- ly) was young and progressive; it stood on principles which proved its excellence, and ensured its durability; the only weakness which it acknowledged was that of immatu- rity. The religion of Julian had long been held in derision by all reasonable men ; its energy had long passed away from it, and its feebleness was the decrepitude of old age. So that the one led on to certain victory an aspiring assailant ; the other endeavored to rally a shattered, undisciplined, dispirited fugitive. Let us next examine the manner in which Julian proceeded to the accomplishment of his hopeless enterprise. His first step was ill DECLINE AND FALL OF PAGANISM. 107 direct imitation of the first act of Constan- tine. He published edicts which established the religion of the Emperor as that of the state, and which tolerated every other. By such decrees he placed Christianity in a very similar situation to that in which, about fifty years before, his uncle had placed paganism ; and he further increased this resemblance by inviting the mos. eminent philosophers to his court, admitting them to his confidence, and raising them to the highest dignities and offi- ces in their religion. His second step was the natural consequence of the first ; he took away the immunities, honors, and revenues, which had been bestowed on the Christian clergy, and transferred them to the service of the established religion — and though great individual injustice was thus perpetrated, no one can reasonably complain of the principle of this transfer, since such advantages are necessarily conferred by the state on those who profess the religion of the state. His first edicts, while they restored to Pagans their civil rights, do not appear to have vio- lated those of the Christians: but by a sub- sequent regulation he disqualified the Chris- tian laity from office in the state. This measure was attended by another, founded on a deeper principle, and of much more dan- gerous consequence — he forbade any Chris- tian to lecture in the public schools of science or literature ; and this prohibition not only obli- ged the Christian youth to have recourse to Pagan instructers, but also deprived them of one of the greatest encouragements to profi- ciency. Julian was sufficiently instructed in the nature of his project, to perceive that it would be of little avail to oppress the dissen- tients by vexatious restraints, unless at the same time he could degrade them by igno- rance.* His last measure (for which we have the authority of the historian Socrates) was the direct imposition of a tax on all who refused to sacrifice to the Gods of the Em- pire. Considering that the reign of Julian lasted not two years, we must admit that, while he developed a perfect knowledge of the theory * A contemporary Christian writer (Gregory Naz- ianzen) tells us of another method adopted by Julian ii order to bring the religion into disrepute, which proves how low his enmity was contented to descend, for the sake of inflicting one additional and ignoble wound. He commanded by edict (i'ohoS.sti/W?,) that Chris- tians should no longer be called Christians, but Gali- leans. There was some art in this attack ; for the value of a name, which is every where of some influ- ence, has especial importance among orientals. of persecution, he made very rapid progress in the practice of it; and had he been suffer- ed by Providence much longer to persist in his aggression, with proportionate increase of severity, it is probable that the final tri- umph of Christianity would not otherwise have been achieved than by the means of a religious war. But the provinces of the civ- ilized world were saved from that severest infliction by the death of the Emperor. Reform of Paganism. As Julian was either too sincere a religionist, or at least too wise a politician, to wish to deprive his subjects of all religion, he accompanied his labors for the subversion of Christianity by some judi- cious attempts to render paganism more dura- ble ; but this scheme could scarcely have hoped for any great success, even had it been undertaken at an earlier period, when the vices of that religion had been less openly ex- posed and acknowledged ; when its shrines were less generally deserted ; and when the mere moral superiority of its rival was less manifestly and notoriously exhibited. He ap- pears to have directed his exertions to three points, — viz. : 1. To conceal or disguise the absurdity of its origin and nature by moral and philosophical allegories ; 2. To establish ecclesiastical discipline and policy on the model of the Christian church ; 3. To correct the morals of the priesthood. For the first of these purposes he found materials already provided by the philosophers of his own sect, the Platonists ; who had been employed, especially since the appearance of Christianity, in refining the theology of pagan- ism. In pursuance of the second, he planned an establishment for readers in that theology ; for the order and parts of the divine office ; for a regular and formal service, with days and hours of worship ; and with respect to the third, he enjoined 'to the priesthood, (whom he seemingly would have established as a separate order,) as well as to their household, great severity of personal behavior, and strictly to withhold themselves from all vul- gar amusements and ignoble professions. While he imitated the discipline of the Church he was willing also to emulate her moral ex- cellences; and therefore he decreed the foundation of hospitals and other charitable institutions, and particularly recommended to the ministers of religion the virtues of charity and benevolence. He did not live to com- plete, or probably to mature, these designs; but the above sketch is sufficient to prove the extent of the beneficial influence which Chris- tianity had already exerted, even over those 108 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. who were not persuaded of its truth ; and to show that the only art by which its formidable adversary could affect to supplant it, was by an ungraceful endeavor to resemble it. Attempt to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. But Julian, with all his authority and address, could scarcely hope to substitute that which was known to be a shadow for that which was believed to be real and substantial. It therefore became necessary for his design to overthrow the foundations on which Chris- tianity rested, or at least to disclose their weakness. One of the most important and influential of these was the accomplishment of so many ancient prophecies, tending, as it were, to a common centre, to the establish- ment of its truth. Among those prophecies, there was no one which excited such general admiration, and so strangely perplexed the unbelieving, as that which related to the de- struction of the Temple of Jerusalem; not only as it had been once and signally fulfilled by the arms of Titus, but as the consequent dispersion of the nation and abolition of the law had already continued for nearly three hundred years to be a subject of appeal and triumphant argument with the defenders of Revelation. Julian doubtless perceived that if he could remove that ground of faith, many would be persuaded that the ancient Books of the Christians had no better title to divine inspiration than the Homeric rhapsodies, or the Orphic hymns ; and that the exclusive claim to truth, which distinguished the re- ligion from every superstition, had in fact no solid foundation. We can scarcely be mis- taken in considering this to have been his leading object, when, in the year 363, he un- dertook to rebuild the Temple. This was indeed to attack Christianity on the only ground on which any lasting ad- vantage could be obtained, or on which its overthrow could possibly have been effected. The persecution of its professors was certain to terminate in a reaction favorable to them ; the reform and adornment of paganism was only a ridiculous and contemptible mockery ; but the falsification of one prophecy would have reduced the worship of Christ, as far as its origin was concerned, to a level with that of Jove: so that we need not wonder at the ardor with which its adversaries engaged in this attempt, at the suspicion with which some wavering Christians beheld it, at the joy of anticipated triumph which it excited in true believers.* * Twice previously, during the reigns of Adrian and Constantine, the Jews had expressed a disposition to The historical facts are simply these : — the work was undertaken with some parade, un- der the superintendence of Alypius, an officer of rank and reputation, a pagan, and a per- sonal friend of the Emperor ; and the work- men were proceeding to clear away the ruins, and lay bare the old foundations, when an earthquake and tempest, accompanied by fire from below, and a strange appearance in the heavens, tore the foundations asunder, de- stroyed or dispersed those engaged in the labor, and consumed the materials; and this, it clearly appears, not once only, but on re- peated attempts. Many of those who surviv- ed bore about with them lasting marks of fire, and the work was immediately suspended, and never afterwards renewed. These facts are the result of the combined evidence of four contemporary authors,* one of whom, Ammianus Marcellinus, was a pagan, a zeal- ous admirer of the Emperor, and resident with his master at Antioch when the event took place. To the circumstances above narrated others of a more extraordinary nature were at different periods f appended, some of which rebuild the Temple with their own hands; but the Imperial permission was withheld from political caus- es in the first instance, and from religious, or from both, in the second. * Amiuian. Marc, lib. xxiii.,c. i. Ambrose, Epist. xi.,t. ii. Chrysostom adv. Jud. et Gentiles. Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. iv. adv. Julian. The passage of Ammianus at least requires insertion; and we should observe, that alone it does not go to the full extent of the account which we have given. ' Diligentiam ubi- que dividens imperiique sui memoriam magnitudine operum gestiens propagare, ambiliosum quoddam apud Hierosolvmam Templuin, quod post multa et interne- civa certamina obsidente Vespasiano posteaque Tito regre est expugnatum, instaurare stimptibus cogitabat immodicis; negotiumque maturanduin Alypio dedit Antiochensi, qui oliin Britannias curaverat pro pne- fectis. Cum ilaqucrei idem fortiter instaret Aly- pius, juvaretque provincic? Rector, metuendi glo- bi flammarum prope fundamenta crebris adsultibus erumpentes fecere locum exustis aliquoties oper- antibus inaccessum; kocque modo elemento desti- natius repellente cessavit inceptum.' The epistle of Ambrose is addressed to the Emperor Theodosius, and Chrysostom was uot far distant from the spot when the event took place. Both these writers speak of it with brevity as notorious, and undisputed. But Gregory enters into more detail; and, besides the cir- cumstances mentioned in the text, relates a miracu- lous closing of the doors of a church in which the workmen would have taken refuge, and the impression of the figure of the Cross on the dress and persons of those present. This "last phenomenon is very inge- niously, and even probably explained by Warburton. t The miracle is related about half a century after- wards, with the addition of various particulars, by Rufinus, Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodorit. DECLINE AND FALL OF PAGANISM. 109 are indeed consistent with physical probabil- ity, but others are manifestly the superstitious exaggerations of later ages. The truth of the outline which we have given cannot reason- ably be contested, nor is it at all affected by some variations in the details, implying diver- sity, but no contradiction. But, though the facts be undisputed, the question has still been moved and argued with much ingenuity, whether the convulsion in question was a phenomenon merely natural, or occasioned by divine interposition ; and as that question is usually proposed, the fairest method of stating it appears to be this. In a very critical period of the history of Chris- tianity, the highest earthly authority, having declared against it, proceeded to apply the severest test, not only to the constancy of its professors, but to the truth of the faith itself; (and in this respect the attempt of Julian dif- fers in character from those of any preceding persecutor.) The trial was made in the most public manner, in the very birth-place of the religion, in the eyes of the whole civilized world ; and as the world was still divided (and perhaps not very unequally divided) between the rival religions, the result would be neces- sarily expected with attentive anxiety by the votaries of both. Under these circumstances Julian undertook to falsify the prophecies of God, and thus most assuredly to overthrow the belief which rested on them. Again, the mountain on which the Temple of Jerusalem had stood was not so constituted, as either from its frame or situation to be probably the scene of a natural eruption ; history speaks but of one other commotion, confined partic- ularly to that hill, which took place at anoth- er critical conjuncture, the moment of the Crucifixion ; and from the days of Julian to this time, the convulsion has not ever been repeated. It remains then for us to consider, whether it be less improbable, that God should have interposed for the confirmation of his religion at the moment when its truth was put to a most public and insulting proof; than, that a mountain hitherto quiescent, and ever since so, should have undergone a natu- ral convulsion, and thrown forth destructive fire from physical causes, at that very crisis (and at that crisis only) when the test was ap- plied, and the insult offered ; that the eruption should have been confined to the particular spot in question ; that it should have continu- ed as long as the attempts were repeated ; and that it should have ceased, when they ceased, when its seeming purpose was effected, for- ever: and thus we might fairly leave it to any unprejudiced mind to decide, whether such a concurrence of fortuitous circumstan- ces at such a conjuncture were more or less credible than a miracle. But the question is not yet exhausted ; a very plausible explanation of the phenomenon has been recently published, and received with an attention, of which, perhaps, it is not undeserving.* The greater part of the city of Jerusalem was undermined by very exten- sive subterranean vaults and passages,f which were used as cisterns, or magazines, or places of refuge, or sepulchres, according to political circumstances, or their own form and situa- tion. We learn that the cisterns alone fur- nished water during the siege to the eleven hundred thousand inhabitants, for whom the fountain of Siloa was insufficient ; and we find, that when resistance became hopeless, the most active among the insurgents form- ed the project of secreting themselves in those recesses until the Romans should have eva- cuated the city. Some remains of such ex- cavations may still be observed both in the city and in the adjacent mountains. Now it may reasonably be supposed, that during the Ions period of desolation which intervened between Titus and Julian, those vast caverns, being obstructed by rubbish and ruins, would remain untenanted, and probably unexplored ; and thus the workmen of Alypius, when they proceeded with torches to examine and pen- etrate the gloomy labyrinths, might be terrifi- ed, and expelled by frequent explosions of inflammable air. On a spot singularly con- genial to superstitious apprehensions, under circumstances peculiarly calculated to awaken and encourage them, such natural detonations might readily be ascribed, even by some of those who witnessed them, to extraordinary interposition ; and certainly the multitude of the Christians who heard the story, being as familiar with miraculous tales as they were ignorant of the mysteries of nature, would re- ceive it unhesitatingly, as an especial proof of divine protection. Such might naturally be the case ; and suspicious as we should always be of any attempt to substitute plausible con- jecture for facts historically proved, how * It appears to have been first proposed by Michae- lis, quoted by Guizot in his translation of Gibbon's History. It is very reasonably treated by the judi- cious writer in the Encyclop. Metiopol. (Life of Julianus,) and still more lately has been adopted, with too little, hesitation or comment, by the author of ' Tho History of the Jews.' f See Tacit, v. 12. Dio, 66. p. 747. Josephua, Bell. Jud. vii. 2., and Antiq. Jud. xv. c. xi. sect. 7 110 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. marvellous soever their character, we are not prepared to reject the above explanation, though by no means impatient to embrace it. At least we should observe, that, if it satisfies the description of Ammianus, it is not appli- cable to some of the circumstances mentioned by the Christian authorities ; so that these must be condemned and sacrificed to it, and our belief entirely confined to the pagan ac- count ; and even then it will remain with many a matter of wonder, that Alypius, a dig- nified and enlightened pagan, assisted by the presence of the Governor of the province, and acting almost under the eyes of the Emperor himself, should have finally abandoned a pro- ject esteemed by his master of immense im- portance, through a fortuitous impediment, of which the cause could scarcely be conceal- ed from him, or the facility of overcoming it. And after all, it will remain at least ques- tionable, whether the gases generated in those caverns were not of a nature more likely to extinguish, thau to produce, com- bustion. A few months after this event Julian was killed in battle ; and the succession of Chris- tian Emperors was then restored, and never afterwards disturbed. Henceforward the ad- vance of religion upon the receding ranks of paganism encountered little resistance, and was conducted with singular rapidity ; still we do not observe in the religious policy of the immediate successors of Julian any violent disposition to direct the pursuit. Valentinian I. placed his pride in the most impartial and universal toleration. We may have observed indeed that some of the pagan Emperors commenced with the same pro- fessions, a reign which ended in persecution ; and we have seen that both Constantine and Julian hastened to deviate from the generous principles which they first proclaimed. But Valentinian is scarcely, if at all, liable to this reproach ; and though in other matters he was guilty of some passionate exertions of unne- cessary severity, and though he neglected to restrain the Arian intolerance of his brother Valens, which afflicted the Catholics in the East, he appears himself to have maintained thoughout the whole Western empire a per- fect civil equality, as well between the reli- gions which divided it, as among the sects of each religion.* * ' Iuclaruit hoc moderamine principatus quod inter religionum diversitates medius stetit, nee qtlenquam inquietavit, neque ut hoc colerelur imperavit, aut ill- ud ; nee interdictis minacibus subjectorum cervicern ad id quod ipse coluit inclinabat, sed intemeratas reli- The short reign of Gratian, which likewise commenced with great professions of mode- ration, was rather remarkable for some laws against heretics, than for any deliberate at- tack on paganism. Nevertheless that wor- ship was unable to survive the political pa- tronage by which alone it had so long sub- sisted ; it seemed to have lost its only prin- ciple of existence as soon as it ceased to form a part of the system of Government ; * left to its own energies it discovered the secret of its decrepitude, and so easy and uninterrupted was the process of its disso- lution, that it seemed patiently to await the final blow from any hand disposed to inflict it. Theodosius the Great. Theodosius I. is the Emperor to whom that achievement is usu- ally, and, if to any individual, justly, attribut- ed. He ascended the throne in the year 379, but he does not appear to have pub- lished his famous law until thirteen years afterwards. It was to this effect — 'that no one, of whatever rank or dignity or fortune, whether hereditary or acquired, high or hum- ble, in what place or city soever he may dwell, shall either slay a victim to senseless images ; or, while he addresses in private expiation the Lar, the Genius and the Pe- nates, with fire, or wine, or odors, light torches, or burn incense, or suspend gar- lands in their honor ; but if any one shall immolate a victim in sacrifice, or consult the panting entrails, that any man may become his informer, until he receive competent pun- ishment, &c. &c.' The execution of this law, and of others to the same effect, was no doubt much facilitated by the zeal of Chris- tian informers ; and there could be few who would suffer martyrdom for a religion,! quit has partes, ut repent.' — Ammianus Marcellinus. Was there any Emperor of those days (if we except the short rule of Jovian) who can share this honor with Valentinian 1 * We may remark that by some of the earliest laws against paganism Divination was permitted, while Magic was forbidden ; because the former was a pub- lic ceremony, instrumental for political purposes, while the latter was the private and individual exer- cise of a similar description of art. The object of both was superstitious deception, but the Government would not permit the people to be deceived except by itself. ■f The bold resistance of an officer of high rank and character, named Gennadius, to a very impolitic edict of Honorius, has been produced as a solitary instance even of the disposition to suffer in the cause of pa- ganism. Honorius had forbidden any except Chris- tians to wear a girdle or sash at court, and Gennadius in consequence declined to present himself there. The DECLINE AND FALL OF PAGANISM. Ill which, as it rested on no evidence, could offer no certainty of recompense ; and, therefore, the consequence of the Edict of Theodosius was a vast diminution in the number of pro- fessed Polytheists. This change was most immediately perceptible in the principal cities of the empire, throughout which the supersti- tion for the most part disappeared ; thencefor- ward it was chiefly confined to the small towns and villages (or pagi) ; and about that time it was that the name Pagan (or Rustic, Villager) was first adopted to designate those who ad- hered to Polytheism. The prohibitions contained in the above edict are impartially levelled against every condition of heathen ; yet their weight and efficacy must clearly have fallen upon the lower classes : for among the higher and bet- ter informed, though there might be many who had not yet embraced Christianity, there could at that time have been extremely few, who either felt or affected any ardent attach- ment to a worship which professed no moral principles, and offered no temporal advan- tages.* The vulgar persevered in it some- what longer, from habit, from prejudice, and from ignorance ; but these motives were not sufficient long to sustain them against the laws of the empire, and the authority of their superiors, and the example of their neigh- bors, all combining to propagate a more ex- cellent and more reasonable faith. But we are not to imagine that the num- ber of real converts to Christianity was at all in proportion to that of the seceders from paganism; for persons who are forced out of any sort of faith will not readily throw themselves iuto the arms of that whence the compulsion has proceeded. However, time and patience might have remedied this dis- inclination, and led those converts (or at least the succeeding generation) to a sincere affec- tion for a pure religion, if the purity of that Emperor then expressed himself willing to make a particular exception in favor of an officer who was at the moment necessary to him, but Gennadius refused that distinction, and persevered in his opposition so resolutely, that the Emperor finally repealed the in- vidious law. See Zosimus, lib. v. * A celebrated pagan, Libanius, published even in this age an apology for his religion. His work was not suppressed, nor himself removed from one of the most important offices in the state, which he then held. While the Emperor was engaged in destroy- ing the practice of paganism, he might easily accord to a favorite subject the innocent indulgence of writ- ing its defence ; for he knew that it was not by reason but by habit that the worship would subsist, if it could possiblv subsist at all. religion had not been already corrupted by the intemperate zeal of its own professors. We have noticed indeed certain abuses which had already shown themselves even in the iron days of Christianity, and there are others yet unnoticed by us, of which the earliest vestiges and indications may proba- bly be discovered in the practice of the ante- Nicene Church, or in the writings of its Fa- thers ; but among these idolatry certainly is not one. The ancient Christians continued to shun with a pious horror, which persecu- tion exasperated, and which time did not mitigate, every approach to that abomina- tion ; and while they truly considered it es- sentially and distinctively pagan, the reluc- tance which they felt to bow before any image was aggravated by the firm belief, that the images of the Pagans represented the implacable adversaries of man and God. So definite and so broad was the space which in this point at least separated the two reli- gions, that it seemed impossible that either of them should overstep it, or that any com- promise could ever be effected between prin ciples so fundamentally hostile. Yet the contrary result took place : and a reconcilia- tion, which in the beginning of the fourth century could not easily have been imagined, was virtually accomplished before its termi- nation. Veneration for Martyrs. Let us trace the progress of this extraordinary revolution. On the first establishment of their religion, it was natural that Christians should look back from a condition of unexpected securi- ty on the sufferings of their immediate pre- decessors, with the most vivid sentiments of sympathy and admiration. They had be- held those sufferings, they had beheld the constancy with which they were endured the same terror had been suspended over themselves, and their own preservation they attributed, under the especial protection of divine Providence, to the perseverance of those who had perished. The gratitude and veneration thus fervently excited were loudly and passionately expressed ; and the honors which were due to the virtues of the depart- ed were profusely bestowed on their names and their memory. Enthusiasm easily pass- ed into superstition, and those who had seal- ed a Christian's faith by a martyr's death were exalted above the condition of men. and enthroned among superior beings. Su- perstition gave birth to credulity, and those who sat among the Powers of heaven migh sustain, by miraculous assistance, their vota 12 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. ries on earth ; and credulity increased the food on which it fed, by encouraging the detested practice of forgeiy and imposture. Under these dangerous circumstances it be- came the duty of the fathers and the leading ministers of the Church to moderate the vio- lence of popular feeling, and to restrain any tendency towards vicious excess. But, un- happily for the integrity of the Catholic faith, the instructers were themselves carried away by the current, or, we should rather say, unit- ed their exertions to swell and corrupt it. The people we may excuse and compassion- ate : but we blush when we discover the most distinguished writers of the fourth cen- tury, Athanasius, Eusebius the historian, Gregory Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustin, engaged in shameful conspi- racy against their religion, while they exag- gerate the merit of the martyrs, assert or insinuate their immediate sanctification, and claim for them a sort of reverence which could not easily be distinguished from wor- ship. In this age, and from this cause, arose the stupid veneration for bones and relics ; it was inculcated and believed that prayer was never so surely efficacious as when offer- ed at the tomb of some saint or holy person ; the number of such tombs was then multi- plied ; at all of them miracles, and prophe- cies, and prodigies, and visions, were ex- hibited or recorded ; and the spirit of the Gospel was forgotten in the practice of for- bidden ceremonies, and the belief of impious fables. Such were the first unworthy advances which were made by Christianity, and en- couraged by her leading ministers, with the view to reconcile at least her external differ- ences with paganism ; * and, no doubt, they were very effectual in alluring those easy Polytheists, whose piety was satisfied with numerous festivals in celebration of the ex- ploits of mortals deified ; for with them the change was only in the name of the deity, not in the principles of the religion. And *In the year 410, Synesius, a Platonic philosopher of Cyrene, was ordained Bishop of Ptolemais by The- ophilus of Alexandria. Synesius remonstrated against this election, declared himself to be a Platonist, and specified several points in which his speculative opin- ions differed from those of the Christians. But as he was an agreeable orator, and had much influence in the province, his objections were overlooked, and after receiving baptism he entered upon his episcopal functions. This is far from being the only instance of the pliancy of the early Church, at a period too *4ien it had no excuse from fear or persecution. by this shameful compromise* the Church was filled by numerous converts, who believ- ed, and who were probably taught to believe, that the worship which they had deserted was by no means essentially dissimilar from that which they had embraced, and who con- tinued, after their admission, to perpetuate and exaggerate those corruptions by which alone the resemblance was created. Here then we discover the root of several of the abuses of Papacy ; they were conces- sions made during this critical period to the genius of paganism, in order to delude ita votaries into more speedy apostasy, and to accelerate the dissolution of the one religion into the other. The immediate object was accomplished — to diminish the numerical dis- play of Polytheism, and prematurely to crowd the churches and processions with nominal Christians ; and this was merely to anticipate the tardy but certain operation of irresistible causes, and to effect that in appearance, which in the next generation would have been surely consummated. But the lasting result has been to darken and disfigure the features of Christianity, not ia one race only, or for one age, but through a period, of which fourteen centuries have already been accom- plished, and of which we cannot yet foresee the termination. Abolition of Gladiatorial Games. Arcadius and Honorius succeeded respectively to the thrones of the East and West, and they fol- lowed the steps of Theodosius in his warfare against heresy as well as paganism. Arca- dius was more distinguished in the former contest, though he proceeded to some ex- tremities against the temples and idols of Phoenicia. Honorius is more honorably cel- ebrated by the law which abolished the Gla- diatorial Games. This institution, the most barbarous that ever disgraced a civilized na- tion, was the genuine offspring of the charac- ter and morals of pagan antiquity ; and it was supported through the extinction of human feeling, and the contempt of human life. It was not suppressed until the year 404, or * It must be observed that the Pagans on their side made the concession of sacrifice, or at least of immo- lation, which was the centre of their whole system. They were indulged with a sort of Polytheism of saints and martyrs ; and even sensible objects of wor- ship were not withheld from thcin. But these Beings and Images were to be appioached only with prayer and supplication ; and if it was presently found expe- dient to permit offerings to be made to them, their shrines were uever contaminated by die blood of victims. PAGAN WRITERS. 113 about ninety years after the first establish- ment of Christianity — so slow is the influ- ence of the most perfect moral system to undermine any practice which time and use have consecrated. But at length it sank be- fore the gradual prevalence of happier and nore natural principles; and while we re- cord its subversion, as marking an important epoch in the history of human civilisation, we readily assign to it a corresponding rank in the annals of Christianity. Theodosius the younger succeeded Arca- dius in the empire of the East ; and we may consider him as having completed, as far as the limits of his authority extended, the task transmitted to him by his father, and his grandfather. And whether from greater moderation of temper, or because extreme rigor was judged no longer necessary against a fallen adversary, he somewhat mitigated the severity of the existing laws ; and was satisfied with inflicting upon the few, who still persisted ' in their accursed sacrifices to d;emons,' the milder punishments of confis- cation and exile, 'though the crime was just- ly capital.' * From the flexible character of Polytheism, and the rare mention of heathen martyrs, we are perhaps justified in drawing the consoling conclusion, that those oppres- sive laws were seldom enforced to the last penalty. Yet we cannot doubt that many less direct, but not less effectual, modes of persecution were diligently exercised ; we are assured that numbers must have suffered in their persons or property for a blind but conscientious adherence to the worship of their fathers ; and we should have celebrated with greater satisfaction the final success of our religion, if it had been brought about by less questionable measures. Extinction of Paganism. In the West, the expiring struggles of paganism continued per- haps a little longer. Though the exhibition of gladiators had been abolished, the games of the Circus, and the contests of wild beasts were still permitted ; and though the essence of the pagan religion was virtually extin- guished, when the act of Immolation, in which in truth it consisted, was finally abolished, yet those spectacles were so closely associat- ed with its exercise, if they were not rather a part of it, that they served at least to keep the minds of the converts suspended, by seeming * The Theodosian code is a Collection of the Con- stitutions of the Emperors from Constantine to Theo- dosius II., published by the latter in 438. 15 to reconcile with the principles of Christian- ity the barbarous relics of the old supersti- tion. And thus, though the number who professed that worship was now exceedingly small, yet its practice in some measure sur- vived its profession, and it continued to lin- ger in the recollections, and usages, and pre- judices, of men for some time after its name was disclaimed and repudiated ; still, from the historical survey of this subject, it is manifest that the mortal wound was inflicted by The- odosius I. ; and whatever fleeting vestiges we may discover in succeeding i-eigns, the super- stition was in fact extinct from the moment that the Emperor called upon the Senate of Rome to make their election between that and Christianity. This celebrated assembly was convened in the year 388 ; Christianity was established by the voice, and probably by the conscience of a very large majority ; and the religion of Julian did not in reality survive its enthusiastic votary and reformer for more than twenty-five years. NOTE ON CERTAIN PAGAN WRITERS 1. — The first whom we propose to men- tion (first in time and personal distinction rather than in literary merit) is Julian. His 'Lives of the Emperors,' his predecessors, in which we find many pointed remarks and illustrations of their several characters, and especially of their defects, though possessing neither the fulness nor impartiality of history, must nevertheless be considered his most important work. That next in celebrity bears the singidar name of the Misopogon or Beard- hater. The imperial satirist seems to have been excited to this composition by the ap- pearance of certain anapaests, published in ridicule of his personal rusticity, among his lively subjects of Antioch or Daphne. He admits the justice of their ridicule, he affects even to exaggerate the cause of it, and con- descends to visit his own shaggy exterior with much humorous severity. But through the levity of his self-condemnation some traces of suppressed asperity are occasionally discernible ; and the wit which had dared to trifle with an Emperor was not recommend- ed to Julian by the general belief that it had proceeded from the pen of a Christian. Be- sides these two works, several epistles and rescripts are extant which are of greater his torical importance. That Julian's feeling towards the Chris tians was not the contempt of a philosopher, 114 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. but the angry malevolence of a pagan and a rival, appears from several passages in his works, and from those especially which are directed against Athanasius. In his epistle to Ecdicius, Eparch of the Egyptians, we find these passionate expressions, — ' I swear by the great Serapis that unless Athanasius, the enemy of the Gods, shall be wholly expelled from Egypt before the calends of December, I will impose a fine of a hundred pounds of gold on the troops under your commaud ; and you know that if I am slow to condemn, I am still more so to relax the sentence ; for it does exceedingly afflict me, that all the Gods should be contemned through his means ; nor is there any thing that I would so willingly behold or hear of as accom- plished by you, as the expulsion of Athana- sius from the regions of Egypt ; the scoun- drel who has dared, and in my reign too, to persecute some distinguished Grecian ladies, till they submitted to baptism.' Again, in a decree addressed to the Alexandrians, the Emperor declares, ' that he had recalled the Galilaeans, who had been banished by Con- stantius,* not to their churches, but only to their countries ; while I understand (he adds) that Athanasius, with the extreme insolence and audacity which is characteristic of him, has taken possession of what they call the episcopal throne.' He then decrees his exile. In a subsequent letter, (Edit. Par. p. 330.) addressed to the same people, he expresses his hatred both of the persons and doctrines of the Galilaeans in the most powerful and passionate language. On the other hand he acknowledges, in more than one passage, the charitable attention which those same Gali- laeans bestowed upon the poor, and ascribes much of their success to that virtue; and the general spirit of his instructions respecting their treatment, while it enjoins a preference to the worshippers of the Gods,f decidedly discourages unprovoked | severities against the persons of 'the Atheists.' * In a very kind epistle to ^Etius, a celebrated Arian Bishop, and formerly his friend, Julian men- tions the same fact. t TIooTifirta&ai uerTol Tovg -deoaifitig y.al tcuvv (ftjfit Siir. Epistle to Astabius. $ He seems however very readily to have availed himself of the offences of the Christians, in order to plunder them, and that too with great religious im- partiality. In an epistle to Ecebolus he complains that the Arians of Edessa, exulting in their opulence, had made an assault upon the Valentinians ; and he adds, • that with a view to assist them in effectuating the instructions of their own admirable law, and that they might more easily travel to the kingdom of Hea- A passage in the Misopogon proves either the abject superstitiousness of the author, or his impudent and prejudiced hypocrisy ; and though we believe the former to be the more probable charge, we are willing to leave the decision to his most devoted admirers. The story is well known of the religious disap- pointment which he experienced at Daphne ; how he entered the Temple with extraordi- nary parade and solemnity, for the purpose of presiding at a public and splendid sacri- fice, and how he was reduced by the univer- sal desertion of the votaries of the Gods to the performance of an imperfect, and almost solitary act of devotion. In his relation of this story, in which his angry embarrassment is almost ludicrously depicted, he unreserv- edly asserts, and invokes the Sun to attest his veracity, that at the moment of his entrance into the Temple the statue of the God indi- cated to him what was to take place. * His celebrated Epistle respecting the refor- mation of Paganism is addressed to Arcadius, the chief priest of Galatia ; it is the most re- markable monument of the religious policy of Julian, and it is also an evidence of the great and general influence which Christian principles had acquired even over the con- duct of unbelievers. The progress of 'impi- ety or Atheism' is ascribed by the Emperor chiefly to three causes ; to the charitable or hospitable philanthropy of its professors ; to their provident care respecting the sepulture of the dead ; to their parade and affectation of a holy life ; and he enjoins the votaries of the ancient worship to imitate the first of these pretensions, and to realize the last. On the priests especially, as well as their families and their servants, he imposes a rigid atten- tion to their religious duties, and he forbids them at the same time the amusement of the theatre, the conviviality of the tavern, and the exercise of every vulgar profession ; the dis- obedient are to be removed from the minis- try. The Emperor then proceeds to order the foundation of numerous establishments (Zerodo/tTu) in every city, for the humane purpose of hospitality and charity : ' for it is shameful to us, that no beggar should be found among the Jews, and that the impious Galilaeans should support not only their oion poor, but ours also ; while these last appear ven, he had ordered all the possessions to be taken away from the Church of Edessa ; distributing the money among the soldiers, and confiscating the fixed property.' * ETtsrfi'fiifvi 1101 tlatl&uvTt .TQinrov to uyuXua p. 112. Ed. Paris. CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS. 115 destitute of all assistance from ourselves ;' and that pagan authority may not be thought wanting to justify his philanthropy, he cites a passage from Homer in praise of hospital- ity. He concludes with some instructions to regulate the intercourse and define the re- spective dignities of the religious and civil authorities. 2. The name of Ammianus Marcellinus de- serves even at the hands of the ecclesiastical historian more elaborate mention than can here be bestowed upon it. A native of An- tioch, of noble family, he devoted his youth to military service, and attended Julian, his pat- ron and friend, in his fatal expedition against the Persians. During the reign of Valentinian and Valens he appears to have withdrawn to studious repose in his native city, and under Theodosius he finally fixed his residence at Rome. It was here that he composed his history in the Latin language, and published it with the general applause of a people among whom the admiration of literary merit had survived its possession. The work con- sisted of thirty-one books, comprising the af- fairs of the empire from the beginning of the reign of Nerva to the end of that of Valens. The thirteen first are lost, and those remain- ing have escaped to us as from a shipwreck, torn and mutilated.* Respecting the religion of the author, there can be no serious doubt that he adhered to paganism; though the im- partiality with which lie commonly treats the deeds and character of Christians has led some writers to suspect his attachment to their faith. The suspicion is at least honorable to the historian, and a more faithful imitation of his example would have removed many stains from the pages of ecclesiastical annal- ists, and spared much perplexity to those who search them for information and truth. 3. The History of Zosimus extends from the time of Augustus to the secoad siege of Rome by Alaric : it consists of five books, and the fragment of a sixth, into the first of which the reigns of the predecessors of Constantine are compressed. Zosimus was a prejudiced, and, as some miraculous descriptions attest, a superstitious pagan ; and he treats with sever- ity, perhaps with injustice, the character of some of the Christian Emperors ;f but as by * See the life of Ammianus Marcellinus by Valesi- us, which we have chiefly followed in this account. f Julian is his great hero, and Constantine the prin- cipal object of his censure. Respecting the latter, it ha3 been observed, that we may safely believe any evil that has escaped from Eusebius, and any good that has been extorted from Zosimus. But these combined far the greatest proportion of his attention is bestowed on the details of military enterprise, it is not often that he crosses the more peace- ful path of the ecclesiastical historian. CHAPTER IX. From the Fall of Paganism to the Death oj Justinian. (388 . . . 567.) Conversion of the Goths — of Clovis and the Franks — of other Barbarians — causes of its facility — Miraculous interpositions — Internal condition of the Church — Sy- meon and the Stylites — Pope Leo the Great — Papal aggrandizement — private confession — Justinian, his or- thodoxy, intolerance, and heresy — Literature — its decay not attributable to Christianity — three periods of its de- cline— Religious corruptions — Barbarian conquests — Seven liberal arts — Justinian closes the Schools of Athens — early connexion of Philosophy with Religion — Morality — of the Clergy — of the People — general misery — Note on certain Fathers of the fourth and fifth Cen- turies. That we may treat with some perspicuity the long period over which the two following chapters are extended, we shall separate in each of them the external progress and revers- es of Christianity from the internal conduct and condition of the Church, and the charac- ter of those who ruled and influenced it. I. Conversion of the Barbarians. Christian- ity had scarcely completed its triumph over an ancient superstition, refined and embellish- ed by the utmost human ingenuity, when it was called upon to dispute the possession of the world with a wild and savage adversary. Almost at the very moment when Julian was laboring for the reestablish ment of paganism, Ulphilas,* who is commonly called the apos- would furnish very scanty materials for the delineation of a great character. We must believe much more than these ; and in this matter the panegyrics of the Christian are not, perhaps, more liable to suspicion than the aspersions of the pagan writer. * Ulphilas is believed to have been the descendant of a Cappadocian family carried into captivity by the Goths, in the reign of Gallienus. His conversion to Arianism is referred to his embassy to the court of Valens in 378, and on his return home he diligently diffused that heresy. It would appear, however, that his method of seduction was to assure the Goths, that the disputes between the Catholics and Allans were merely verbal, not at all affecting the substance of faith — so that his success was gradual, and at first imperfect: thus, for instance, in the time of Theodoret, the Goths avowed their belief, that the Father was greater than the Son ; but they were not yet prepared to aflirm that the Son was created — though they con- tinued to communicate with those who held thai opin- 116 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. tie of the Goths, was diffusing the knowledge of the Gospel with great rapidity among that young and powerful people : so that the first invaders of the empire had previously learnt in their own land to profess, or at least to respect, the religion of the empire. The Goths then were early and easy proselytes to Christianity ; aud the example of their con- version, as well as of their invasion, was fol- lowed by the various hordes of barbarians who presently overran and occupied the West. The Burgundians in Gaul, the Suevi in Spain, the Vandals in Africa, the Ostrogoths in Pan- nonia, and others, as they successively pos- sessed themselves of the Roman provinces, during the fifth and sixth centuries, succes- sively adopted the religion of the conquered ; and if Rome, hi her days of warlike triumph, received from vanquished Greece some taste in arts, and attainment in science, and skill in philosophical disputation, she repaid her pri- vate obligation with more solid and extensive generosity in her days of decline, when she instructed her own conquerors in those les- sons of religious truth and moral knowledge, of which the principles can never change, nor the application ever be limited. It is impossible to trace with any certainty the exact moment and circumstances of the conversion of so many tribes. That of Clovis, King of the Franks, has obtained the greatest historical celebrity, and many of the particu- lars respecting it wear great appearance of probability.* In the year 493 Clovis espoused Clotilda, niece of the King of the Burgun- dians, a Christian and a Catholic. He toler- ated the religion of his bride, and showed re- spect to its professors, especially to St. Remi, Archbishop of Rheims ; but he steadily refus- ed to abandon his hereditary idols on the im- portunity either of the prelate or Queen. At length he found himself in a situation of dan- ger; in the heat of an unsuccessful battle, while his Franks were flying before the Al- emanni, Clovis is related to have raised his weeping eyes to heaven, and exclaimed, ' Je- sus Christ ! thou whom Clotilda asserts to be the Son of the living God, I implore thy suc- cor. If thou wilt give me the victory, I will believe in thee, and be baptized in thy name.' ion. Fleury, H. E. liv. xvii. sect. 36. Tillem. (Sur les Ariens, Art. 132, 133) pronounces an eulogy upon his virtues, in spite of his heresy; and yet he adds, ' Voilk comment un homme entraina dans l'enfer ce nombre infini des Septentrionaux, qui avec lui et apres lui out embrasse l'Arianisme. ' * Those which we select, together witli many others, nre related on the authority of Gregory of Tours, and At that moment the King of the Alemanni was slain ; his soldiers immediately fled, and abandoned the field to Clovis. The victor was not unmindful of the God of his adver- sity. On the conclusion of his expedition he caused himself to be publicly baptized; about three thousand of his soldiers attended him to the holy font with joy and acclamation, and the rest of his subjects followed without any hesitation the faith of then- Prince. The conversion of Clovis took place in 496 ; and though it had not the effect of amending the brutal character of the proselyte, it made a great addition to the physical strength of Christianity;* and it was attended by a pe- culiar circumstance which places it among the important events of ecclesiastical history. The numerous barbarian conquerors who then ruled the Western Empire had embrac- ed without any exception, f the heresy of Arius ; Clovis alone adopted the Catholic faith ; and this accident ;we are taught to attribute it to the orthodoxy of his wife) was probably the earliest cause of that close connexion be- tween the court of Burgundy and the See of Rome, of which some traces may be dis- cerned even thus early, and which, in a later age, was confirmed by Pepin and established by Charlemagne. The success of the Roman arms during the reign of Justinian, which began about thirty years after the baptism of Clovis, does not ap- pear to have disinclined the barbarians to the religion of their enemies; it might even natu- rally produce the contrary effect ; and we do not read of any of their tribes which, after settling in a conquered province, were dispos- ed long to resist the influence of the Gospel. Respecting the natural causes which facil- itated this powerful accession to the body of Christianity from a quarter whence the darkest danger was portended, it is proper to suggest a few brief observations, that we may be en- abled calmly to consider, whether or not they are sufficient to account for the phenomenon Hincm. Vita San. Reinigii. See Fleury, liv. xxx. sect. 46. * Clovis, immediately after his baptism, made some considerable donations of land to St. Remi, who ap- plied them to the use of divers churches, and the foun- dation of the Bishopric of Laon. Fleury, H. E. liv. xxx., sect. 46. f Thrasamond, King of the Vandals, in Africa; Theodoric, of the Ostrogoths, in Italy; Alaric, of the Visigoths, in Spain ; Gondebaud, of the Burgundi- ans, were all Arians; and, as if to complete the he- terodoxy of the princes of Christendom, even Anasta- sius, the Emperor of the East, was involved in the Eutyohian heresy. CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS. 117 without the intervention of miraculous assist- ance. The wild and warlike polytheists of the north, who estimated excellence by pow- er, and power by the extent of military sway, and who ignorantly applied to the gods the rules by which they judged of men, approach- ed with respectful predisposition the Deity of the Roman empire.* And if it be true that their own successes gradually tended to abate this respect, yet is it not possible that they could fail to observe, or observe without some sense of reverence and humiliation, the superiority in arts and sciences, the high in- tellectual preeminence of the people whom their mere sword had overthrown ; nor would they hesitate to infer, from such sensible in- dications, both the wisdom and beneficence of the protecting Divinity! Again — The form of idolatry which they professed was most peculiarly characterized by a superstitious veneration for their priesthood ; — it had no written law, nor any fixed principles, nor any very attractive immemorial solemnities. In a foreign country, in the license of a military expedition, the reverence for their native, and for the most part absent ministers, would grad- ually abate in fervency and fidelity ; and then (such is the nature of superstition) it would change its object, and swell into devout re- spect for the ministers of the unknown reli- gion, by whose more imposing rites they were now surrounded and dazzled. By this pro- cess being insensibly weaned from an ancient worship, chiefly perhaps endeared to them by its association with that home which they had now deserted forever, they would join in the splendid processions, and bend in the stately temples of the Christians. Of such advanta- ges as these the clergy were not slow to avail themselves ; and their own great superiority in penetration and learning, joined with a zeal- ous and interested activity,! enabled them to * The conversion of the Burgundians, early in the fifth century, is thus related, with no improbability. Harassed by the continual incursions of the Huns, and incapable of self defence, they resolved to place themselves under the protection of some God ; and considering that the God of the Romans most power- fairy befriended those who served him, they determin- ed, on public deliberation, to believe in Jesus Christ. They therefore went to a city in Gaul, and entreated the Bishop to baptize them. Immediately after that ceremony they gained a battle against their enemies; and if (as is also asserted) they afterwards lived in peace and innocence, they reaped, in that respect at least, the natural fruits of their conversion. Socrat. vii. , chap. 30. Fleury, H. E. liv. xxiii., sect. 5. f At a Council held at Bragtie, or Braccara, in Portugal, in the year 412, on the irruption of an idol- convert the mass of the invaders ; while the Prince, as illiterate as his subjects, was often influenced by the address, and often by the piety, of the prelates who had access to his court. The same work was still further fa- cilitated by the example of the Goths, who had opened the gates of Christianity to succeeding conquerors. Nor should we by any means pass over the exertions of the missionaries, who had previously introduced into the na- tive forests of the invaders a favorable opin- ion, and even a partial profession, of the reli- gion of the empire which they were destined to subvert. These reasons are probably sufficient to ac- count for the facility with which the various invaders of the western provinces adopted the religion which they found established there, even without any deep examination into its merits or its truth ; but the histories of those times are so abundant in preternatural tales of extraordinary conversions every where wrought by the continual interposition of Providence, that we must not quite overlook this consideration. However, we can here entertain little doubt, or feel any strong hesi- tation to affirm, that the very great proportion of those miraculous stories is wholly and unquestionably fabulous.* But we must be carefid that our indignation at the impiety which fabricated so many wicked impostures, and the diligent mendacity which has retailed them, do not so far prevail as to hurry us into atrous or Arian host of Alani, Suevi and Vandals, the Bishops prepared themselves to resist at every risk the destructive torrent. For this purpose they appear to have adopted two measures, which, in their union at least, are strongly indicative of the state of religion in that age and country. The first was to publish an abbreviation of the Creed of the Catholic church; the second, to conceal in the securest recesses and caverns the invaluable relics of their saints. Fleury, H. E. lib. xxiii., sect. 6. * Unbelievers and heretics were closely associated in the language and opinion of the Catholics of those days, and were consequently subjected to the same mode of cure. In the fourth century even the great St. Ambrose condescended to adopt the miraculous meth- od of argument for the conversion of the Arians. He used, in his disputes with those heretics, to produce men possessed with devils, who, on the approach of certain Catholic relics, were obliged by preternatural compulsion to acknowledge with loud cries that the doctrine of the Council of Nice was true, and that of the Arians both false and of most dangerous conse- quence. This testimony of the Prince of darkness was regarded by St. Ambrose as unquestionable and conclusive (Mosh. c. iv.,p. 2. c, 3.,) nor was it easily answered by adversaries who made less profession o< influence in the other world. 118 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. an entire disbelief of any divine intervention in those ages. To pronounce so sweeping a sentence, in the confusion of contemporary evidence, in our necessary ignorance of the dispositions of Providence, would approach too near to presumption ; and we shall, there- fore, do better to leave this subject where the judicious moderation of Mosheim * has placed it:— 'How far these conversions (he says) were due to real miracles attending the ministry of those early preachers is a matter extremely difficult to be determined. For, though I am persuaded that those pious men who, in the midst of many dangers, and in the face of obstacles seemingly invincible, endeavored to spread the light of Christianity through the barbarous nations, were sometimes ac- companied by the more peculiar favor and succor of the Most High ; yet I am equally coiwinced, that the greatest part of the prodi- gies recorded in the histories of this age are liable to the strongest suspicions of falsehood or imposture. The simplicity and ignorance of the generality in those times furnished the most favorable occasion for the exercise of fraud ; and the impudence of impostors in contriving false miracles was artfully propoiv tioued to the credulity of the vulgar, while the sagacious and the wise, who perceived these cheats, were obliged to silence, by the danger which threatened their lives and their fortunes, if they detected the artifice. Thus does it generally happen in human life, that when the discovery and profession of the truth is attended with danger, the prudent are silent, the multitude believe, and the im- postors triumph.' II. While the profession of Christianity was thus extending itself among so many nations, the changes which were gradually taking place within the Church were by no means favorable to its purity. We have al- ready mentioned the copious transfusion of heathen ceremonies into the Christian wor- ship which had taken place before the end of the fourth century, and, to a certain extent, paganized (if we may so express it) the out- ward form and aspect of religion ; those cer- emonies became more general and more nu- merous, and, so far as the calamities of the times would permit, more splendid in the age which followed. To console the convert for the loss of his favorite festival, others, of a different name, but similar description, were introduced ; and the simple and serious occu- * Cent, v., p. 1. j c. 1. pation of spiritual devotion Avas beginning to degenerate into a worship of parade and de- monstration, or a mere scene of riotous fes- tivity. But, various were the forms assumed, and numerous the excesses occasioned, by re- ligious corruption ; which was by no other circumstance more plainly evidenced, or more effectually promoted, than by the growing prevalence of the monastic spirit. Symeon the Stylite. It is contrary to our general purpose to call much attention to in- stances of the passing fanaticism of the day — those transient eruptions of superstition which have left no deep traces behind them hi history or moral consequences ; neverthe- less, we cannot forbear to record one very extraordinary shape which the frenzy of those times assumed. About the year 427, one Symeon, at first a shepherd, afterwards a monk, of Syria, invented a new method of penitential devotion. Dissatisfied with the insufficient austerities which were practised in his convent, he retired to a mountain in the neighborhood of Antioch, where, by sol- itary self-inflictions and extreme abstinence, he obtained great provincial celebrity ; but his piety or his ambition were not thus easily contented, and accordingly he devised an original and more difficult path to sanctity. He caused a pillar to be erected, of which the height was gradually increased from nine to sixty feet; thereon he established his resi- dence. His ordinary occupation was prayer ; and habit and exercise enabled him to take, without risk or difficulty, the different pos- tures of devotion. Sometimes, especially on great solemnities, he assumed an erect atti- tude, with his arms outstretched ; sometimes he bent forward his body, attenuated by con- tinual fasting, till the forehead touched the feet; and he repeated those inclinations with marvellous flexibility.* He passed the whole night and a part of the morning in worship ; one slender meal in the course of a week suf- *CA curious spectator (says Gibbon), after num- bering 1244 repetitions, at length desisted from the endless account.' Theodorit, who had frequently seen and conversed with him, wrote an account of his life during its continuance. That author himself entertained some doubts as to the credibility of his narration : ' although (says he) I have for my wit- nesses, if I may so express myself, every man in ex- istence, yet I fear that to posterity my account may appear a groundless fable ; for what is passing here is above humanity, and men are wont to proportion their belief to the powers of nature, and all which sur- passes those boundaries appears falsehood to such as are not familiar with things divine.' See Fleurv, liv. xxix., sect. 9. INTERNAL CONDITION OF THE CHURCH. 119 ficed for his sustenance, and a coarse vest- ment of skin, which wrapped his whole body, was his only covering: in this situation he endured the returning inclemencies of thirty seasons, and at length died, without descend- ing from his column. It is no matter of reasonable astonishment that the passionate enthusiasts of the east thronged eagerly round the pillar of Symeon from the most remote provinces, and regard- ed the self-devoted martyr with feelings par- taking of adoration. Nor are we, in any de- gree, surprised to read, that he converted to Christianity the inhabitants of Libanus and Antilibanus, and an entire tribe of Arabs, together with several Jews and heretics, by miraculous aid and operation. Nor, perhaps, have we cause to think it strange that this popular fanaticism was rather encouraged than disclaimed by the Church ; * and that it has descended to posterity without any ec- clesiastical stigma of schism or heresy. But our amazement is reasonably excited, when we learn that Theodosius II. seriously con- sulted Symeon the Stylite on the most im- portant concerns of Church and State ;f and that the Emperor Leo particularly solicited his advice respecting the Council of Chalce- don — whether those princes really shared the popular madness, and considered him as a soothsayer or prophet, to whom bodily mortification, and a loftier residence had dis- closed a nearer prospect of the secrets of futurity ; or whether they were only willing to gain credit with the silliest among their subjects by encouraging their most absurd su- perstition. However this may be, Symeon became the founder of a sect of fanatics call- ed 'Stylites' (or Pillar-men); who, under the names of 'Holy Birds' and 'Aerial Martyrs,' peopled the columns of the east ; and, after imitating (so far as their physical powers per- mitted them) the ascetic gesticulations of their master, have escaped, in more fortunate ob- livion, the sinister celebrity which still attends his name. Leo the Great. We have now traced the * It is true that when Symeon first ascended his pillar some opposition was made to the innovation by some monasteries both of Syria and Egypt; but as their objections were confined to the novelty of the scheme, and did not proceed from its absurdity, they speedily disappeared, and Symeon was restored with unanimity to the bosom of the Catholic church. f Gibbon, chap, xxxvii. Fleury, liv. xxix. sect, 9. The Emperor Marcian is also said to liErve in- dulged his curiosity by a secret visit to the Holy Pil- lar, in the thron'g of his miserable subjects. history of the Roman See to the middle of the fifth century, and our attention has not hitherto been arrested by the genius or the fortune of any individual who has occupied it. We have no cause to lament this circum- stance. The truly episcopal duties of devo- tion and charity are usually performed in silent unobtrusiveness ; and the highest in- terests, and the truest happiness of the human race, have commonly been best promoted by those of whom Fame has made least men- tion. But this long period of comparative obscurity was at length terminated by the., name of Leo, surnamed the Great. That prelate ascended the chair of St. Peter in the year 440, and occupied it for one and twenty years. At his accession, he found the East- ern Church still agitated by the receding tempest of the Nestorian controversy ; and the heresy of Eutyches, which immediately succeeded, introduced fresh disorders, which continued to disturb his long pontificate. In the West, the success of the barbarians in Africa and Gaul presented a new and exten- sive field for ecclesiastical exertion ; while we are taught, at the same time, to believe that the internal lustre of his Church was darkened and endangered by the prevalence of the Manichaean heresy. The zeal of St. Leo was directed to all these points ; and, perhaps, if he had evinced less eagerness in the discovery* and pursuit of his domestic adversaries, the very circumstance of their existence might never have been known to us. But, in justice, we are equally bound to praise his firm cooperation with the East- ern Church for the peaceful repression (had such been possible) of the perverse notions which perplexed and divided it ; nor are there wanting many salutary expositions of *Baronius (chiefly ad aim. 443) gives several proofs, from the Chronicon of Prosper and St. Leo's own writings, of the diligence of that Prelate in tear ing those heretics from their hiding-places, and pub- lishing their infamy. It also appears that until that period it had been usual for all Christians to direct their prayers to the East; but as this form was with the Manichaeans essential, with the orthodox only matter of ceremony, he directed the latter to discon- tinue the practice, in order that the perverse might be distinguished and detected by their perseverance. There is also a passage (in his 95th epistle) in which he advocates the unsheathing of the temporal sword in vindication of the doctrines of the Church. ' Pro- fuit diu into districtio ecclesiastical lenitati, qua?, etsi sacerdotali contents judicio cruentas refugit ultiones, sevens tamen Christianoruin principum constitution- ibus adjuvatur, dum ad spirituale nonnunquam recur- runt remedium, qui timent corporale stippliciiun * 120 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. doctrine and reasonable rules of discipline scattered throughout his numerous writings.* The circumstances of the times were fa- vorable to another object, which, with Leo, indeed, may possibly have been secondary, though it occupied the foremost place in the attention of so many of his successors — the aggrandizement of the Roman See. In the East, it happened about that time that the Patriarch of Constantinople, by the assump- tion of some additional poweiyf had alienat- ed the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch, and that these last appealed to Rome for suc- cor and justice. Of course, the authority which such appeal might seem to imply was at no time recognised by the Patriarch — it was even decided, during this very pontifi- cate, by the twenty-ninth Canon of the Coun- cil of Chalcedon, t that the ' See of New Rome should have the same advantages with that of Ancient Rome in the ecclesiastical constitution ; ' but, nevertheless, the influence of the latter was extended, for the moment at least, among the subjects of the former, by the dissensions which severed them from their Head. And, again, the accidents which placed the Bishop of Rome in familiar and almost independent correspondence § with the Emperor, could not fail to exalt his name and elevate his dignity. In the western pro- vinces, the increase of Papal authority was owing to other causes ; the declining power, the indolence and the absence of the Empe- rors, left little civil control over the authority of the Bishop who presided in the imperial * One hundred and forty-one Epistles and ninety- six Sermons still remain to us, though several of both are lost. Upon the whole they indicate great talents, and an improved and exercised mind, Respecting their genuineness, see Dupin, t. iii. p. 2, f Mosh. cent, v., p. ii., c. ii. % Held in 451 . The substance of the enactment is as follows : — ' That the Fathers did reasonably accord [j its privileges to Ancient Rome, because it was the imperial city; and for the same reason the hundred ! and fifty Bishops here assembled have decided that | New Rome, which is honored with the empire and the senate, shall have the same advantages with An- !| cient Rome in the ecclesiastical constitution, and be j the second after it' — meaning, obviously, that the I two Sees were to be independent in power and equal | in privilege ; but that in rank and precedence the su- | periority was due to the more ancient. This Canon has given birth to the most voluminous contentions. Fleury, liv. xxviii. sect. 30. Baron, ann. 451. Sect. 148. § Some Epistles are still extant, addressed by St. Leo to the Emperor Theodosius, on the subject of the Eastern controversies. city ; and the incursions and triumphs of the barbarians rather contributed to advance than to restrain his rising dominion. For the chiefs of the invaders, whose principal solici- tude was to give stability to their government, when they perceived the great deference paid by the multitude to the hierarchy, while they courted the inferior members of that body, naturally offered the most obsequious respect to the highest in rank. From these and sim- ilar causes a variety of advantages spontane- ously flowed, and they were seized and per- petuated by the genius and ambition of Leo. Private Confession. One innovation in the discipline of the Church was introduced by that Pontiff, which deserves more atten- tive notice than is usually directed to it. It had been the custom for the more grievous offenders to make the confession of their sins publicly, in the face of the congregation ; or at least for the ministers occasionally to pro- claim before the whole assembly the nature of the confessions which they had received. Leo strongly discouraged that practice ; and permitted, and even enjoined with some ear- nestness, that confession should rather be pri- vate, and confided to the priest alone. The evil most obviously proceeding from this re- laxation was the general increase, or, at least, the more indecent practice, of the mortal sins, and especially (as Mosheim * has observ- ed) of that of incontinence ; unless, indeed we are to suppose that the original publicity of confession was abandoned, from its being no longer practicable in a numerous body and a corrupt age. But another consequence which certainly flowed from this measure, and which, in the eye of an ambitious Churchmau, might counterbalance its demor- alizing effect, was the vast addition of influ- ence which it gave to the clergy. When he delivered over the conscience of the people into the hands of the priest, — when he con- signed the most secret acts and thoughts of individual imperfection to the torture of pri- vate inquisition and scrutiny, — Leo the Great had indeed the glory of laying the first and corner-stone of the Papal edifice — that on which it rose and rested, and without which the industry of his successors would have been vainly exerted, or (as is more proba- ble) their boldest projects would never have been formed, * Cent. v. p. 2. ch. iv. The epistle containing this ordinance is the 136th, addressed (on March 6, 459) to the Bishop of the March of Ancona and Abruzzo. Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth. torn. iii. par.«ii. INTERNAL CONDITION OF THE CHURCH. 121 Justinian. From the name of St. Leo we may proceed without interruption to that of Justinian ; * who ascended the throne of Con- stantinople in the year 527, and occupied it for nearly forty years. This Emperor is most honorably known by his legislative labors, and the digest of a code of laws, which, in a later age, obtained general and durable recep- tion 'throughout Europe, and which are not in all places obsolete at this moment. A dif- ferent and secondary description of celebrity is reflected on him by the success of his gen- erals, Belisarius and Narses, against the inva- ders of the West ; but, for our own part, we are not disposed to think, that he would have made any addition to the extent, or improve- ment in the nature, in his reputation, had he deserted the pacific duties for which he was well qualified, to place himself at the head of armies f without disposition or experience for command. He deputed to his soldiers the sanguinary task of conquest, and confined his own talents to those offices which he justly considered to be more truly imperial. Among the first and favorite of these he placed the regulation of the religious affairs of his sub- jects. His own faith was distinguished by the most rigid orthodoxy ; and his theological studies had at least conducted him to sound doctrinal conclusions. But he had studied with more success the tenets, than the histo- ry, of his religion ; or he would have learnt from the sad experience of two centuries, that neither the canons of councils, nor the oppres- sion of civil power, are sufficient to restrain the wanderings of human opinion. He de- voted a large portion of his long reign to the extinction of heresy ; he waged war with equal fury I against the remnant of the Arians, * Of the jurisdiction of the clergy, which was the most acknowledged exercise of their power, and the most direct cause of their influence, it will be better to defer all mention until we come to treat of the acts of Charlemagne. ■f The trumpet of Gibbon (upon the whole a humane historian) is too often and too loudly sounded in cele- bration of military prowess, and the pomp of camps, and the virtues of heroes — the favorite themes of vul- gar minds, and the easiest incentives to vulgar enthu- siasm. $ He appears to have taken pains to search for them — a detestable exaggeration of persecution. He assailed with the same ardor both pagans and astrol- ogers; and his severities against the Samaritans, who had obtained a place in the long list of heretic3, excit- ed and justified their rebellion ; and it was not sup- pressed without horrible carnage. On the other hand, he exerted himself with equal vigor against various forms of impiety and immorality (FIsury, liv. xxxii. 16 the Nestorians, and the Eutychians ; he ex- pelled them from their churches, which he transferred, together with their public posses- sions, to the Catholics ; and, finally, he de- scended to individual persecution, and confis- cated the private property of many. What- ever ambiguous excuses may be found for his other proceedings, the guilt of this last robbery is usually attributed to his sordid avarice. In spite of those measures (shall we not rather say, in consequence of them ?), the fifth General Council (assembled at Con- stantinople during his reign) conferred upon him the title of 'The Most Christian Em- peror,' not foreseeing that, by one of those strange dispositions of Providence which seem to mock at human calculation and con- sistency, the very monarch whom they had exalted by that glorious distinction — due, indeed, to the purity of his faith, but for- feited by his intemperance and bigotry, — was destined to die a heretic ! * A foolish dis- pute had been raised at that time, whether the body of Christ on earth was or was not li- able to corruption ; and this divided Oriental Christians into the two sects of Corruptibles and Incorruptibles. The latter were obvi- ously involved in the heresy of the Phantas- tics ; and yet Justinian, in the blindness of old age, adopted that opinion ; and it is even believed, that he was preparing to persecute all who differed from him, when he fell sick and died. Our censures on the religious policy of Jus- tinian, though at variance with the usual lan- guage of ecclesiastical historians, require no justification — but it is proper to clear that Em- peror from the more odious imputation of having created the system, which he so zeal- ously administered. The sentence of ban- ishment pronounced by Constantine against Arius and his followers, however speedily regretted and revoked, was the grand and authoritative precedent to which every Cath- olic persecutor of after times appealed with pride and confidence. That which was an experiment — an injudicious and fruitless ex- periment, with Constantino, became a princi- ple or a habit with most of his successors, each of whom enacted such penalties as seem- ed suited to repress the errors of the day ; but it was reserved to Theodosius II. to corn- sect. 27.) ; and was no less zealous in the conversion of the Heruli and other barbarian tribes to the belief in the Gospel, than in oppressing all who did not in- terpret that Gospel as he did. * The history of Henry VIII. of England furnishes an instance at first sight very similar to this. 122 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. plete the work, and to confirm and embody the scattered edicts of bigotry and despotism. There is no space here to enumerate the se- vere laws against heretics, which may be found in the Tbeodosian Code ; * it may suf- fice to say, that they extended to almost every denomination of dissent, and menaced the contumacious with confiscation, intestation, exile, as the ordinary punishments — while 'the last and inexpiable penalty' was sus- pended over the most formidable innovators. More than this — that Emperor actually ap- pointed Inquisitors for the detection of certain specified offenders, and enjoined the most diligent and penetrating search f for the pur- * The following are extracts: — Quid sensibus excse- catos Judreos, Sainaritas, Paganos, et cretera hoereti- corum genera portentorum audere cognoscimus'? Quod si ad sanitatein mentis egregio legmn edicto revocare conemur, severitatis culpani ipsi preestabunt ; qui du- rse frontis obstinato piaculo locum venire non relin- quunt. Quamobrem, cum sententia veteri desperatis morbis nulla sit abhibenda curatio, tandem, ne ferales sectae in vitam, immemores nostri sreculi velut indis- creta coufusione, licentius evagentur, hac vlctura in omne eevum lege sancimus — Neminem Judaeum, nem- inem Sainaritam, neutra lege constantem, ad honores et dignitates accedere; nulli administrationem patere civilis obsequii, nee defensoris fungi saltern officio. Nefas quippe credimus, ut superna? majestati et Ro- manis legibus inimici, ultoresque etiam nostrarum le- gum surreptivae jurisdictionis habeantur obtentu et acquisitoe dignitatis auctoritate muniti adversum Christianos, et ipsos plerumque sacra?. Religionis Antistites, velut insultantes fidei nostra? judicandi vel pronuntiandi quid velint, habeant potestatem, &c. Again: — Hinc prospicit nostra dementia Paganorum quoque et gentilimn immanitates vigiliam nostram de- bere sortiri, qui naturati vesania et licentia pertinaci religionis tramite dissidentes nefarios saerificiorum ritus occultis exercere quodauimodo solitudinibus designantur — quos non promulgatarum leguin milie terrores, non denuntiati exitii pxna compescant, ut si emendari non possint mole saltern criminum et il- luvie victimarum discerent abstinere. Sed prorsus ea furoris peccatur audacia, &c. &c. Leg. Novell. Div. Theod. A. lib. These enactments of the first, confirmed by the second Theodosius, are in every sense barbarous. •f ' Summa exploratione riinetur, ut, quicunque in unum Paschae diem non obsequenti religione convene- rint, tales indubitanter, quales hac lege damuamus, habeantur.' This seems to liave been levelled against the remains of the Quartadecitnans. The Encratitcs, Saccophori, and Hydroparastata?, are the names which are threatened ' sununo supplicio et inexpi- abili paena.' A law was also enacted to prevent the meetings of the Tascodragita? — a denomination of per- sons ' who made their prayers inwardly and silently, compressing their noses and lips with their hands, lest any sound should transpire.' Basnage, iii. 82. Jor- tin, vol. iv. ad ann. 381. That any danger either to Church or State could for an instant have been ap- pose of unmasking them. It has been ob- served, that Pope Leo the Great adopted this method for the extinction of the Manichae- ans; and it is some excuse for the eagerness of the Bishop that the mighty footsteps of the Emperor lay traced before him. It would not be just to attach to his name very deeply the guilt of intolerance ; nor would we de- fraud even Justinian himself of such ple'a as may be found for him in the penal system previously established, in the spirit of the times, in the practice of his predecessors. Yet should we distinguish — a churchman may be more leniently censured if he enforce the laws already enacted for the protection of his Church, and calculated, as he may ig- norantly imagine, for that purpose. But a legislator should look more deeply into the records of history and the constitution of human nature ; and if, among the venerable statutes of his ancestors he observes one which is founded in manifest injustice, which in its immediate operation occasions confu- sion and misery, and which in its general ef- ficacy has been proved by long experience to miss the end proposed — to reenact and per- petuate that statute is not error, but deep and inexpiable crime. III. We shall conclude this Chapter with a few remarks respecting the literature and morality of the period on which we are em- ployed : for though it may seem impossible to treat so extensive a subject in such contract- ed limits with adequate fulness, or even with profitable precision, there would be still great- er ground of reproach were we to neglect it altogether. Decline of Literature. The decline of Ro- man literature between the age of Augustus and that of the Antonines, in chasteness and delicacy of thought and expression, and even the decay of the language itself, are instantly perceptible to the classical reader ; yet was it still animated by some of the fire of ancient genius : it had availed itself of the progress of science and the increased knowledge of man, and it applied that knowledge with im- mortal success to history as well as philoso- phy ; but from the reign of Antoninus to that of Diocletian the fall was sudden and precip- itate. In the barren records of the third cen- tury Ave find no names of good, few even of prehended from such abject and pitiful enthusiasm might have been pronounced impossible, if the history of persecution in every age, howsoever modified and disguised by time and circumstance, did not inces- santly attest it to be both credible and probable. DECLINE OF LITERATURE. 123 indifferent writers ; and if the works of the ancients were more generally diffused and studied than formerly (which seems uncer- tain,) they were at least much less diligently imitated, and not an effort was made to sur- pass them. It is of importance to remark this fact; because there have been some so unjust in their hostility to revelation, or so perverse in their estimation of history, as to attribute the decay of literature to the preva- lence and influence of the Christian religion. This charge is very far removed from truth — indeed it is easy to show that literature had already fallen into deep and irretrievable ruin, before Christianity began to exercise any control over the refinements of society. At the beginning of the third century, during the parting struggles of learning, the Chris- tians, numerous as they were, and irresistible in strength, were principally confined to the lower and middle ranks ; and even at the be- ginning of the last persecution, though they held some high offices in the court of Justin- ian, it will scarcely be asserted that they form- ed a sufficient proportion of the higher and educated classes to affect in any great degree the literary character of the empire.* A very general moral improvement they had un- doubtedly introduced among the lower or- ders: some influence on the civilisation of the people, and even on the policy of the govern- ment, they may also have exercised ; but complete revolutions in national literature do not originate in those quarters ; and even had it been otherwise, we have seen, that more than a century before that period, the down- fall of taste and learning had been irrevocably decreed. While they speculate on the secondary eauses of singular phenomena, historians are sometimes too prone to neglect such as are plain and obvious. In the present instance these were certainly no other than the pro- longation of unmitigated despotism, and the civil confusion, which, in addition to its cus- tomary attendants, it so commonly introduced regarding the succession to the throne. It is unnecessary to search after remote reasons * The effect which Christianity may have produc- ed on the literature of the Roman Empire in the third century, bears some resemblance in character (though it was far inferior in degree) to that exerted by Pu- ritanism on the literature of our own country. And if it be true, that the immediate influence of both was, to a certain extent, hostile, their ultimate operation was certainly to invigorate and renovate. Some of the Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries u:ite bet- ter than any profane author after Tacitus. for the degradation of any people which has been subjected for three centuries to the abuse of arbitrary ride; and though it be true that Trajan and the Antonines for a moment arrested the torrent of corruption, they were but accidental blessings ; and if their person- al excellence partially remedied the mons- trous depravity of the system, their influence lasted not beyond their life. Presently the tide resumed its downward course, and its natural and necessary progress was scarcely accelerated either by the crimes of Severus or the calamities of Decius. Whether, then, it be reasonable to consider the first period of the decline of literature as closing with the reign of the Antonines, or whether we shall extend it over the barren period which inter- vened between the death of Marcus and the establishment of Christianity, it is clear that it proceeded from causes quite independent of that religion. The second line we may venture perhaps to draw after the fourth Council of Carthage, and the third at the expulsion of the Atheuian philosphers by Justinian. During the second period, Constantine, Ju- lian and Theodosius successively proposed encouragements to learning, and bestowed personal honors on those possessing it. If Julian confined his rewards to Pagan, and Constantine to Christian, literature,the greater effect (owing to the longer duration of his reign) was produced by the latter — the same is true of the exertions of Theodosius ; con- sequently, during the last half of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century, the Church abounded with prelates of splendid talents, and laborious industry, and such learning as was then thought most necessary. The Christian writings of this period, to whatsoever objections they may be liable, constitute the best part of its literature. And in so far as they are censured (and justly cen- sured) for the occasional display of vain spec- ulation about things not determinable, of un- fair representation, of perverse disputatious- ness, of absurd or unworthy arguments, it is a question, whether the lucubrations of the schoolmen and rhetoricians of Rome or Greece give less ground for the same re- proaches : for in a mere literary point of view, it matters little, whether it be the inscrutable in nature or in revelation on which the way- ward imagination wastes itself; and as these latter investigations are more likely to deviate into a moral character, so is there a better prospect of their utility. And in justice to most of the Fathers of this period we should 124 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. add, that there are many splendid illustrations of scripture, and many generous bursts of moral exhortation, which enrich and ennoble their works, and which surpass the ardor, if they do not rival the elegance, of profane philosophy. Fourth Council of Carthage. A canon of the Council held at Carthage * in the year 398 forbade the study of secular books by Bish- ops ; and we have therefore selected this as a crisis in the history of Christian literature. Assuredly a deplorable dearth of learning very soon followed this crisis, and our third period is distinguished by scarcely two or three names respectable for talents or acquire- ments. However we do not at all intend to attribute this rapid defection to the injudi- cious ordinauce in question ; since its author- ity was not universal, and since injunctions of that description are seldom obeyed, except by such as are previously disposed to receive them. It was an index rather than a cause of the altering spirit of the Church, and as such we record it. The real reasons of that sudden defection, and of the darkness which followed it, are two : the first of these, which alone perhaps might gradually have complet- ed the extinction of sound learning, was the internal corruption of Christianity, and the spreading disease of monachism. An age of prodigies and relics and Stylites was not pro- per for the growth of genius or the cultivation of knowledge ; and the little of either which survived in the East may have owed its exis- tence to the dissensions of the Christians, as much as to their virtues. The second reason was the frequent irruption and final settle- ment of the barbarian conquerors. This cause was indeed confined almost entirely to the provinces of the West ; but the wounds * The celebrated Canon in question appears in the midst of several others, generally respecting the epis- copal office and duties: their substance is as follows — ' the Bishop should have a small resilience near the church; his furniture should be of small price, and his table poorly supplied; he should sustain his dignity by his faith and his holy life; he shall read no profane books, nor those of the heretics, unless by necessity. He shall take no concern in the execution of wills, nor any care of his domestic affairs, nor plead for any temporal interests. He shall not himself take charge either of the widows, orphans, or strangers, but com- mit that office to the chief priest — he shall have no other occupation than reading, prayer and preaching. He shall perform no ordinations without the counsel of his clergy, and the consent of the people.' See Fleury, liv. xx., sect, xxxii. We are not to suppose that the above canons were every where received, or perhaps strictly enforced any where. which it inflicted there were deeper and of more extensive influence than might at first have been apprehended. It afforded a fear- ful prospect that those hordes of colonists were wholly uninstructed in literary acquire- ments, and even generally prejudiced against them. Theodoric himself, the wisest, as well as the best, among their Princes, while he re- spected the superior civilisation of the van- quished, despised and disclaimed that art which seemed to be employed for no other end, than to inflame and perpetuate religious controversy. He could never be prevailed upon to learn to read. But the cause which increased and prolonged that mischief, and created many others, was the superstitious disposition which the invaders brought with them. They had learnt, as the rudiments of their own religion, a subservient reverence for their priesthood, and this principle ac- companied them into the Christian church ; the priesthood received without reluctance the unbounded homage which was offered to them ; their authority grew with that obse- quiousness, and their ambition swelled with their authority ; and when they found how easily this could be maintained and extended over a credulous people, and how certainly credulity is the offspring of ignorance, they became interested in perpetuating blindness and prejudice. Some schools indeed still subsisted, and the youth were instructed in what were cal- led the Seven Liberal Arts ; * but these, as we learn from Augustin's account of them, con- sisted only in a number of subtile and useless precepts ; and were consequently more adap- ted to perplex the memory than to strengthen the judgment. The arts in question were grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy ; and those were very rare among the scholars whose studies extended beyond the three first. Moral ex- hortations began now to be commonly con- fined to the public reading of ' Books of Mar- tyrs' and ' Lives of Saints,' by which the pas- sions of the vulgar were excited, and their imaginations prepared for the belief of any imposture which it might be expedient to practice upon them. Such were the mate- rials of Christian literature during the fifth and sixth centuries, and such they continued with very little alteration until the eleventh. Edict of Justinian. Some remnants of the philosophy of ancient Greece still lingered at Athens : and a few degenerate descendants * Mosh., cent, v., p. xi., c. i. MORALITY. 125 of Plato, Aristotle or Zeno, still exhibited in their half deserted schools the shadow of the lore of former ages. Those teachers had been encouraged by M. Antoninus and Ju- lian, and tolerated by the Christian Emperors, ami they may have constituted the wisest, and probably the most virtuous portion of the Pagan population ; but they had gradually dwindled away into obscurity and insignifi- cance. Nevertheless, Justinian considered their existence as inconsistent with the prin- ciples of his government, and consequently issued (in the year 529) that celebrated edict which closed the schools of Athens forever. The historian of the Church of Christ need not fear to celebrate any judicious exertions to enlighten and dignify mankind. And in so far as the genius of philosophy has been employed in the discovery of moral truth, and in effectual exhortations to virtue and mag- nanimity ; in so far as it has taught the sci- ence of government on sound and practical principles ; in so far as its researches have had no other object than truth, and truth which was convertible to the service and im- provement of society — so far we respect its ex- ertions and honor its name, and disdain the narrow policy which completed its extinction. But we are bound to admit, that, long before the period in question, the abuse of reason had so far supplanted its proper exercise, and perverted its noble character and purposes, that it constituted in fact the most active por- tion of the systems then called philosophical — just as the abuses of religion were then be- ginning to form the most conspicuous part of the Catholic system. To the connexion of Christianity with philosophy several of those abuses may be attributed ; for at the first moment of their contact, while religion was yet pure, philosophy was already deeply and vitally corrupted ; and the infection of bad principles, whether of reasoning or mo- rality, was too easily communicated. And i thus religion, which is indeed the friend of that true and useful philosophy whose object is the advancement of society and the hap- piness of man, became stained and degraded by its alliance with controversial sophistry. There is also another reflection which lessens the indignation so naturally excited in every generous mind by the edict of Justinian. The philosophers had declared war against Christianity at an early period ; to their ma- ligniiy the last and severest persecution may be partly attributed, and the more dangerous aggressions of Julian were conducted by their spirit, if not by their counsel ; so that, if we cannot excuse the severe retaliation, which Christianity, in her time of triumph, more effectual ly inflicted, at least our com- passion for the sufferer is diminished by the recollection of its hostility and its vices. The exiled philosophers (seven in number) at first took refuge at the court of Persia ; but find- ing none of the moral advantages which they professed to expect under a different form of government and worship, they were present- ly contented to return, on certain stipulations, and terminate their days under a Christian monarch. We can scarcely believe that the character of Christian literature was so deeply affected by that act of Justinian, as some imagine. Mosheim * appears to consider it as having occasioned particularly the extinction of the New Academy, (the descendant of the Pla- tonic school,) and the substitution of the sys- tem of Aristotle. It is, indeed, well known that about this period the latter philosophy was gradually gaining ground upon the form- er in the Christian schools, probably because it was better suited to the contentious spirit of the age ; and whatever evils had heretofore been occasioned in the Church by too great reverence for the authority of Plato, and by the boldness of his followers, much more ex- tensive and more durable calamities were af- terwards inflicted upon the Christian world by the universal submission of the human mind to the name of Aristotle. But we are not persuaded that this change was brought about violently : or that the edict, which si- lenced a few obscure Pagan philosophers, at all generally influenced the learning of Chris- tians ; or that any act of legislation could sud- denly have effected so general an alteration in the studies and intellectual pursuits of an extensive empire. These mighty changes usually result from the patient operation of general principles upon the morals and habits of a people — the caprice of a monarch has no power to create them ; and, perhaps, it is the commonest mistake of historians to attri- bute too much to the edicts of Sovereigns, aud too little to the unceasing movement and agitation of civilized society. Morality. Respecting the condition of morals during this period it is impossible to speak with equal definiteness; some indeed * Cent, vi., p. ii., c. i. In another place he seems inclined to attribute the same result (and perhaps with rather more probability) to the decision of the fifth General Council, by which some of the opinions of Origcn, who was a New Platonician, were con- demned. 126 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. do not hesitate to describe them as exceeding- ly depraved, and as being in no respect bet- ter upheld by the clergy than by the laity : * and true it is, that certain laws were enacted, with the specific object of securing the mo- rality, and even of punishing the offences, of the priesthood ; indeed when we consider the sort of immunity from civil tribunals which that body in those times enjoyed, we are not surprised that too great general indul- gence led to the imposition of occasional and particular restraints. But these by no means prove its universal corruption. The increased wealth of the Church is mentioned as another and a necessary reason of its increased degradation. But we should not be too indiscriminate in our inference of evil from that cause ; the ill effects of eccle- siastical wealth, which is generally diffused among the clergy with very great inequality, would be chiefly confined to the more elevat- ed and ambitious members of the hierarchy, and would scarcely extend to the lower and more numerous ranks of the ministry ; be- sides which we should recollect that it is at least as common an effect of wealth to en- large and exalt, as to debase, the character of its possessor. Even were this not so, the Church, in the sixth century, had certainly not arrived at any dangerous degree of opu- lence, since the sources, which in after ages so profusely supplied it, were scarcely yet opened. At the same time, the steady pro- gress of religion, the general conversion of the barbarian conquerors, and the devotion of the converts to their priesthood, are scarcely consistent with the gross immorality, and even total contempt of decency, with which Mosheim charges that order. \ And there- fore, without advocating its perfect moral pu- * Mosheim, cent, vi., p. ii., c. ii. f ' V hence so many laws to restrain the vices and preserve the morals of the ecclesiastical orders, if they had fulfilled even the obligations of external decency, or shown, in the general tenor of their conduct, a cer- tain degree of respect for religion or virtue. Be that as it will, the effects of all these laws and edicts were so inconsiderable as to be hardly perceived ; for so high was the veneration paid at this time to the cler- gy, that their most flagitious crimes were corrected by the slightest and gentlest punishments : an unhappy circumstance, which added to their presumption, and rendered them more daring and audacious in iniquity.' These are Mosheim's words ; and some will think that they carry their own confutation with them. At least we may safely believe, that the flagrant of- fences of a few notorious individuals have been dark- ly reflected upon the whole body ; and such has been the misfortune of the Christian priesthood in every age. rity, which again would have been strangely at variance with the superstitious spirit which already vitiated the faith, we need not hesitate to believe, that the great majority of its mem- bers continued with zeal, though in silence, to execute their offices of piety, and that, though stained by individual transgression and scandal, the body was very far removed from general degradation, either in the East- ern or Western empire. Hitherto we have spoken of the clergy on- ly, and the general morality of the age would to a great extent be regulated by the conduct of that body. But the political prostration of the Western provinces, overrun by so many savage tribes — the rapid dissolution of the old governments without any stability in those which succeeded them — the subversion of legal security, the substitution of military and barbarous license — these and other cir- cumstances, aggravating the usual miseries of conquest, occasioned, wheresoever they extended, more absolute wretchedness, both individual and national, than had hitherto been recorded in the history of man ; inso- much, that among those who beheld and shar- ed those inflictions, there were many who regarded them as special demonstrations of divine wrath. And as men are ever prone to attribute such chastisements to the most striking revolution of their own day, and as the subversion of the temples of their ances- tors was still recent in their memory, some there were who ascribed the anger of the Gods to the establishment and prevalence of Christianity. Since the appearance of that impiety (they said) the Roman power has in- cessantly declined. The Gods, the founders and protectors of that empire, have with- drawn their succor, as their service has been neglected ; and now that it has been entirely repressed, now that their sanctuaries are clos- ed, and their sacrifices, auguries and other propitiations rigorously prohibited, they have at length abandoned us wholly, and left the once victorious Rome to be a prey to barbari- ans.* This foolish delusion was immediately and successfully combated by the eloquence of St. Augustin. In his noble composition, ' The City of God,' f he confuted the error * Fleury, H. E., liv. xxiii., sect. vii. fThe work was published in 426, after thirteen years had been employed in its composition. It con- sists of twenty-two books, of which the ten first are devoted to the confutation of the various errors of Paganism, and among others of that which we have now mentioned ; while the twelve last establish the truth of Christianity. ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS. 127 by irrefragable auguments, and conclusive appeals to the evidence of profane history ; and inculcated the more reasonable opinion, that the temporal afflictions which God per- mitted to devastate the empire were chastise- ments* inflicted by a just Providence for the correction, not for the destruction, of his crea- tures. The error was indeed confuted, and presently died away ; but the general disloca- tion of society which occasioned it must have suspended for a time the moral energies of man, and the period of his severest suffering may also have been that of his deepest de- pravity. * Thirteen years afterwards Cartilage was sacked by the Vandals; and Salvian, a presbyter of Mar- seilles, a contemporary author, also considers that event as a signal example of divine justice; and he enlarges with great fervor on the exceeding corrup- tion of that great citv. ' It seemed as if the inhab- itants had entirely taken leave of reason — the streets were filled with drunkards crowned with flowers and perfumes, and infested with every possible snare against chastity ; adulteries, and the most abominable impurities were the commonest of all things, and they were publicly practised with the extreme of impu- dence. The orphans and widows were oppressed, and the poor were tortured to such despair, that they prayed God to deliver the city to the barbarians. Blasphemies, too, and impiety reigned there; many, though professedly Christians, were at heart Pagans, and worshipped the celestial Goddess with entire de- votion. Besides which (he adds), the people had an extreme contempt and aversion for the Monks, how- ever holy they might be.' The description is proba- bly exaggerated — yet ecclesiastical historians almost universally admit the corruption of Christians to have been the cause of their chastisement. Barouius adds another reason — the prevalence of heresy. At the year 412, he asserts — Barbari prevalent ubi. hxreses vigent; and in other places (ann. 410, 428) declares, that the former might easily have been subdued, if the latter could have been expelled ; and ad ann. 406, 407, he more specifically affirms, that Providence sent the invaders into Gaul for the express purpose of de- stroying the heresy of Vigilantius, and that the great- est devastations were committed in the districts where those errors were most deeply rooted. By an opposite, but not less extravagant, error, Theodosius, legislating nearly at the same time, attributed even the unseason- able severities of the skies to the prolonged existence of Paganism. 'An diutius perferimus mutari tempo- rum vices irata caeli temperie; qiue Paganorum ex- acerbata perfidia, nescit naturre libramenta servare. Unde enim ver solitam gratiam abjuravitl Undo a;st- as messe jejuna laboriosum agricolam in spe destituit aristarum 1 Unde intemperata ferocitas ubertatem ter- rarum penetrabili frigore sterilitatis laeeione dumnuvit — nisi quod ad impietatis vindictam transit lege sua naturae decretum'? Quod ne posthac sustinere cogam- ur, pacifica ultione, ut dixiinus, pianda est supremi nuininis veneranda majestas.' NOTE ON CERTAIN ECCLESIASTICAL WRIT- ERS OF THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTU- RIES. 1. It is probable that LactanTius was a native of Africa, since his first lessons were received from Arnobius, whose school was at Sicca, in that country ; but the truth is not undoubtedly known, nor the year of his birth. It is only certain, that he witnessed and sur- vived the persecution of Diocletian, and was selected, in his old age, as preceptor to Cris- pus, the son of Constantine. He was the most learned Christian of his time ; and the record of his necessitous and voluntary pov- erty may at least persuade us, that his habits were influenced by the spirit of Christian philosophy which adorns his writings. The 'Divine Institutions,' his most impor- tant work, contain a powerful confutation of Paganism, in a style not uninspired with the genius of antiquity. ' Lactantius (says St. Jerome)* is as a stream of Ciceronian elo- quence; and I would that he had been as successful in confirming our own doctrine as in overthrowing that of others.' He was li- able indeed to that reproach, and he shared it with all the apologists who had preceded him ; his arguments are often feeble, his as- sumptions sometimes false, and his conclu- sions not always sound : but his style deserves great praise ; and if his diction occasionally rivals the elegant exuberance of Cicero, (and he is commonly compared, and sometimes preferred, to that orator,) the Christian has reached, through the more elevated nature of his subject, a sublimer range of thought and expression, in the field of moral as well as divine philosophy. A nobler conception of the Deity, and a deeper knowledge of his works and dispensations, have occasionally exalted, above the Roman's boldest flights, a genius clearly inferior both in nature and cultivation. There is another work still extant, called 'The Death of the Persecutors,' first print- ed in 1679, and by many attributed (though probably not with truth) to Lactantius. It is of undisputed antiquicy,f and contains some i valuable facts not elsewhere recorded : but it is still more remarkable for an attempt to *Epist. 13, addressed toPauliuus, Bishop of Nola See Dupin, Nouvelle Biblioth. Vie de Lactance. The Institutions were dedicated to Constantine, proba- bly during the conclusion of the last persecution (be- tween 206 and 311), and may possibly have influenced his religious opinions. f Probably published about 315. 128 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. vindicate the temporal retribution of Provi- dence, by asserting the violent ends of the various persecutors. But an endeavor to pervert, with whatsoever promise of tempo- rary profit, the eternal truths of history, can produce no other lasting effect, than to stain the character of the author, and to throw dis- credit on the cause which is advocated by falsehood. 2. Gregory, son of the Bishop of Nazianzus, was born about 320. He was animated by a strong natural love for literary and religious seclusion, and a disinclination to ecclesiastical dignities, of which we are compelled to ac- knowledge the sincerity, though it so happen- ed that he occupied, in succession, the sees of Sas'nni, of Nazianzus,* and Constantinople. His learning, his eloquence, and his religious zeal preserved him from obscurity, and rais- ed him, in his own despite, from indepen- dence and privacy. On a visit to Constanti- nople, about the year 376, he found the Churches, with only one exception, in the possession of the Arians. In the adversity and humiliation of the Church, he raised his voice against the predominant heresy with boldness and success. Several are believed to have been converted by his arguments ; and lie continued to instruct and govern the Catholic party, until the accession of the or- thodox Theodosius. He was then raised by the command of the Emperor and the affec- tion of the people to a dignity which he neith- er coveted, nor long retained. Some discon- tents which followed gave him a pretext for resignation, and he died in 389 in the retire- ment of his native city. There remain to us about fifty of his Dis- courses and Sermons, of which the language and sentiments alike argue a moderate tem- per and a cultivated mind. The most cele- brated among them are the third and fourth, which are directed against the Emperor Ju- lian. In the seventeenth discourse, delivered on the occasion of some seditious disturbances at Nazianzus, in presenting himself as a me- diator between the people and the civil officer, he exalts the authority of the Church in very lofty language. He thus addresses the Gov- ernor of the city : 'the law of Christ subjects you to my power and to my pulpit ; for ours is the authority— an authority greater and more excellent than that which you possess, unless, indeed, spirit is to be subject unto *He was raised to a share of this See, as a kind of Coadjutor to his father, and on his deadi fled from the city, lest the undivided responsibility should then be forced upon him. flesh, and heaven unto earth : * you command with Jesus Christ ; it is He with whom you exercise your authority ; it is He who has giv- en you the sword which you wear, not so much for the chastisement of crime, as for its prevention by terror and by menace.' It is curious to reflect, that these principles were thus publicly promulgated (in the year 372) within sixty years from the establishment of Christianity, and within nine from the death of Julian. Yet the character of Gregory was mild and forbearing ; his twenty-sixth dis- course contains some temperate injunctions respecting the treatment of heretics ; and both in that and in other places, while he laments the distractions of the Church, and while he proclaims his own attachment to the Cath- olic doctrine, he is never so unjust as to as- cribe the whole evil to the opposite party, nor so partial as to conceal or to spare the vices and scandals which disgraced his own.f Gregory is celebrated for his friendship with St. Basil, the founder of oriental mon- achism ; and the brother of St. Basil was another Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, iu Cap- padocia. This last was the author of five orations on the Lord's Prayer, besides various Commentaries on Scripture, and discourses on the mysteries and moral treatises. But the work by which he is most known is his oration on the life of St. Gregory, surnamed Thaumaturgus, or the wonder-worker. That renowned prelate (he was Bishop of Neocse- sarea) flourished about one hundred and twenty years before his namesake of Nyssa ; so that the stupendous miracles which are so diligently recorded of him by his credulous panegyrist can have no claim on our serious consideration. 3. St. Ambrose was born in Gaul, about the year 340, of Roman and noble parents; J he was educated in Italy, and his talents and conduct early raised him to a high civil ap- pointment. In 374, on the vacancy of the * Dupin, a liberal Catholic, throws into his trans- lation of this passage the words Church and Princes, neither of which came from the lips of Gregory. f It should be observed, that in his sixth Discourse (delivered before Gregory of Nyssa) he exalts the hon- or of the martyrs, and even attributes to tl>em the of- fice of mediators. t Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth. Vie St. Ambrose. While the infant was one day sleeping in his father's palace, a swarm of bees surrounded his cradle, and after reposing on his lips, suddenly ascended high into the air, and disappeared. Ambrose had been antici- pated by Plato — yet the Roman Church has shown no disinclination to adopt the profane miracle. ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS. 129 See of Milan, a violent dissension arose be- tween the Catholics and the Arians ; the Bish- ops of both parties assembled in great num- bers, and the tumultuous divisions of the people not only violated the unity of the Church, but seriously threatened the repose of the State. Ambrose was then Governor- General of the province, and he proceeded in person to compose the disorders. The peo- ple were assembled in the principal church, and there he addressed them at length on their civil duties — on social order and pub- lic tranquillity- His eloquent harangue pro- duced a very different effect from that which had been (at least professedly) proposed by it, for it was followed by the unanimous ac- clamatory shout — ' We will have Ambrose for our Bishop.' Ambrose was not yet baptized *— what reli- gious instruction he may have received in the schools of the Catechumens is uncertain, and it appears to have been exceedingly slight ; but he had not yet been admitted to the communion of the faithful. Yet no dif- ficulty seems to have arisen from this obstacle. But the consent of the Emperor was necessa- ry for his translation from a civil to an eccle- siastical office. That consent was granted with immediate alacrity. Still there remain- ed one unforeseen impediment to be over- come— the persevering repugnance of Am- brose to the proposed elevation. But the perseverance of the people was not less obsti- nate. It was in vain that the Bishop elect, in order to disqualify himself in their eyes for a sacred office, publicly committed some acts of judicial cruelty and flagrant immorality. The people exclaimed — 'Thy offence be upon our heads.' It was in vain that he es- caped from the city and concealed himself at the residence of a faithful friend ; he was. dis- covered and conducted in triumph to Milan. At length, conceiving that the will of God was thus irresistibly declared against him, he submitted to assume the ungrateful dignity. After having passed through the necessa- ry ecclesiastical gradations he was ordained Bishop on the 8th day after his baptism, at i the age of 34. His first act was to make over the whole of his property to the Church or the poor ; and it should be remarked, that the same charitable disposition continued after- wards to distinguish him. He immediately declared in favor of the Catholic against the Arian doctrine ; and though the fury with which the contest was at that time conducted reached and infected him, we cannot justly *See Fleurv, liv. xvii., sect, xxi., iic. 17 accuse him of having' wantonly inflamed it. The empress Justinia, the widow of Valen- tinian, was an Arian, together with her sol-1 diers and her court ; the great body of the people were on the side of Ambrose ; and in the year 385 some violent disputes arose, in which the Bishop maintained his spiritual privileges with a courage and a confidence which would not have dishonored the bright- est ages of papacy.* From a contest with a passionate woman, he advanced to measure his strength with a wise and powerful Empe- ror. Theodosius the Great had very barba- rously avenged the murder of some Imperial officers at Thessalonica by the massacre of the inhabitants ; and as the Bishop of Milan had previously interfered in their favor, he boldly condemned the sanguinary execution* Theodosius pleaded in his defence the exam- ple of David. ' Since then you have imitated his offence (rejoined the Prelate) imitate also his penitence.' It appears, that for the period of eight months the Emperor was denied all access to the holy offices of the church — 'the consolation which was afforded to the lowest of his subjects was refused (as he complain ed)f to himself. Finally, after some public humiliation, to remind him of the essential dis- tractions between the Priest and the Prince,! and the spiritual inferiority of the latter, he consented to the performance of public pen- ance, as the condition of reconciliation with the Church. This extraordinary event took place in 390 ;§ and if we have already remark- *The great influence which Ambrose is shown to have possessed over the populace, not to excite only but to compose its tumults, attests the vigor of his character more certainly, than it proves either his vir- tues or even his eloquence — though we have no reason to doubt either. t See Fleury, liv. xix., sect. xxi. The power • to bind and to loose,' as delegated by Christ to his min- isters on earth is a favorite theme with St. Ambrose, and asserted by him in a sufficiently extensive sense. J See Theodorit, book v., c. xviii. § Six years earlier (according to Fleury) St. Am- brose addressed to Valentinian a letter, in which he strenuously opposed the restoration of the altar of victory at Rome, so warmly pressed by Symmachus. It contains these bold expressions — ' What answer will you make, then, when a Bishop shall say to you, The Church cannot receive the offerings of him, who has given ornaments to the temples of the Gods ; we cannot present on the altar of Jesus Christ the gifts of him who has made an offering to idols. The edict signed by your hand convicts you of that act. The honour which you offer to Christ, how can it be ac- ceptable to him, since at the same instant you offer adoration to idols'? No — you cannot serve two mas-» ters, &c.' Epistle 17. 130 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. ed upon the boldness with which Gregory Nazianzen proclaimed (about eighteen years earlier) the ghostly supremacy of the Church, we must not here omit to observe, that from the conclusion of Diocletian's persecu- tion fourscore years had not yet elapsed, ere a successor of that unrestrained and lawless despot was compelled by the mere influence of opinion to humble himself before the unarmed minister of that religion which his predecessor had designed to exterminate. Many works of St. Ambrose remain, which exhibit no great indications of literary genius ; but they abound in useful moral lessons, which are plentifully interspersed with ex- nortations to fasting and celibacy, and the other superstitions of the day. It is also re- corded, that he performed many astonishing miracles ; stories that throw disgrace on an elevated character, which really needed not the aid of imposture to secure respect, or even popularity. He died in 397 ; and after enjoying universal celebrity during his life, throughout the whole extent of Christendom, he has deserved from succeeding generations the equivocal praise, that he was the first ef- fectual assertor of those exalted ecclesiastical pretensions, so essential to the existence of the Romish system, and so dear to the ambi- tious ministers of every Church. 4. St. John, surnamed from his eloquence, Chrysostom, (i. e. the Golden Mouthed,) was a native of Antioch, of a noble and opulent family. In the year 374, while he was still young, he had acquired such distinction, that the neighboring Prelates elected him to a va- cant See ; but it is generally affirmed that he refused that dignity, and fled to an adjacent mountain, where he passed four years in the society of an ancient solitary ; thence he changed his residence to a frightful cavern, which witnessed for the two following years his rigid austerities. Having completed this preparatory discipline, he entered upon the offices of the ministry ; and after edifying his native city for eighteen years by the most an- imating instructions, he was at once exalted, without solicitation, and even against his pro- fessed wish, to the See of Constantinople. Chrysostom carried with him to that danger- ous eminence not only the fervor of Christ- ian eloquence, but the severity of monastic virtue ; and he thought it little to move the affections and raise the admiration of his au- dience, unless he could reach their practice and quell their vices. Had he confined his exhortations to the mass of the people, he would have produced less effect perhaps, but he would have excited no odium— but the intrepid and earnest orator rose in his vehement denunciations from the people to the clergy, and from the clergy to the court, without excepting even the Empress herself from his reproaches.* To the keenness of his censures he added the weight of ecclesi- astical jurisdiction, and both were zealously employed against episcopal licentiousness,! no less than against the vices and scandals imputed to the priesthood, and especially to the monastic orders. But in the tedious and delicate office of ecclesiastical reform, that zeal which is not tempered with moderation, and qualified by due regard for existing cir- cumstances, will commonly ruin the advocate, without benefiting the cause. The disposi- tion of Chrysostom was naturally choleric and impatient, and his noblest intentions were frustrated by his passionate imprudence. Two powerful parties united for his overthrow and though their first triumph was instantly reversed by an insurrection of t>e populace, whom his ardent eloquence, the beneficence of his charitable habits and institutions, the austerity of his morals, and the very bitter- ness of his rebukes, had bound and devoted to him, yet a subsequent condemnation was more effectual ; | and after a tumultuous rule of six years, Chrysostom was dismissed into exile to a desolate town named Cucusus, among the ridges of Mount Taurus. In that remote residence he passed three years, the last, perhaps the most glorious, of his life — for his virtues were more eagerly acknow- ledged in his absence, and his genius was endeared, and his errors were obliterated, by his misfortunes. About thirteen years after- wards his relics were removed to Constanti- nople, and his name assumed an eminent place among the saints of the Church ; and it is proper to add, that the justice, which *Eudoxia, after failing in her first attempt to dis- place Chrysostom, renewed her hostilities ; and it was then that the Bishop delivered the sermon (if indeed he did at all deliver it) beginning with the celebrated words — ' Herodias is again furious ; Herodius again dances ; she once again requires the head of St. John.' ' An insolent allusion, (says Gibbon,) which, as a woman and a Sovereign, it was equally impossible for her to forgive.' Chap, xxxii. The whole ac- count of St. Chrysostom is written with learning, elo- quence and fairness. f In his visitation through the Asiatic provinces he deposed thirteen Bishops of Lydia and Phrygia, an& passed a very severe censure upon the whole order. % Still his expulsion was not effected without pop- ular commotions, which led to the conflagration of tha principal church and the adjoining palace. ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS. 131 was so abundantly bestowed on the memory of Chrysostom, should in a great measure be attributed to the perseverance of the Bishop of Rome ; whose sympathy had consoled him in his adversity, and whose influence, had his life been much prolonged, might eventually have restored him to his dig- nity.* The works that remain of St. Chrysostom are for the most part Sermons and Homilies, and are nearly a thousand in number. Their style m not recommended by that emulation of Attic purity which adorns the writings of Basilius, or Gregory Nazianzen ; but it is el- evated and unconstrained, pregnant with nat- ural thoughts and easy expressions, enriched with metaphors and analogies, and dignified by boldness and grandeur. And, what is more important, the matter of his discourses, while it declines the affectation of subtlety, and avoids the barren fields of theological speculation, is directly addressed to the com- mon feelings, and principles, and duties of mankind. The heart is penetrated, the latent vice is discovered, and exposed in the most frightful colors to the detestation of Christians. Such was the character of that eloquence which, by captivating the people and scan- dalizing the great, occasioned such tumultuous disorder in the metropolis of the East. Yet the historian finds much more to admire in the bold and impetuous enthusiasm of the ora- tor, than to censure in his indiscretion. One object alone filled his mind and animated his efforts — and that the noblest object to which the genius of man can be directed — to warm the religion, to purify the morals, and to ad- vance the virtue and happiness of those whom he influenced. At the same time, it is not asserted that St. Chrysostom was exempt from the errors and abuses of his day ; he exalted the merit of celibacy ; he strongly inculcated the duty of fasting, and the sanctity of a solitary and as- cetic life: he encouraged the veneration for saints and martyrs ; but the practical nature of his piety sometimes shone through the mists of his superstitious delusion. If any, for instance, engaged in a pilgrimage to the holy places, he assured them that their principal motive should be the relief of the poor — if any were bent on offering up prayers for * A letter from Chrysostom to Innocent, written in 406, is still extant, in which, with many expressions of gratitude, he exhorts that Pope to continue his ex- ertions to succor him, without being discouraged by the want of success. the dead, he exhorted them to give alms for the dead also.* With respect to his doctrine, the three points which have been most warmly disputed are, his opinions on the Eucharist, on Grace and Original Sin, and on Confession. Re- garding the first of these, his expressions are both vague and contradictory; since some of them would lead us to believe, that he very nearly approached, if he did not actually reach, the belief now held by the Roman Catholic Church ; while in another passage, where he affirms the real presence, he also (and incidentally) asserts that the nature of the bread is not changed. Upon the whole, it s clear that he held very elevated notions res- pecting the Sacrament, and it is probable that his deliberate opinion was in favor of that which we call Consubstantiation. But re- garding the nature of penitence, it is quite plain, in spite of some seeming inconsistencies which Roman Catholic writers have detected, or imagined, that his direct assertions incul- cate the sufficiency of penitential confession to God in prayer, without any necessity for the mediation of his ministers. As to the second point, we shall perhaps refer to the probable opinion of this father, when we shall arrive at the description of the Pelagian con-- troversy. 5. St. Jerome was born at the city of Strigna or Stridona, on the confines of Pannonia and Dalmatia, about the year 345. His family was honorable, his fortune abundant, and his youthful studies, under the celebrated Dona* tus,f had improved and fortified his literary taste. But the deep religious feeling,! which *See Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth. Art. St. Jean Chry- sostom. The latter part of the fourth century, and the beginning of the fifth, from the death of Julian, for in- stance, to the conquest of Africa by the Vandals, is a very important and a deeply interesting period of Christian history; and there is no method per- haps by which its peculiarities could be so distinctl painted, as by detailed accounts of St. Ambrose, St Chrysostom, and St. Augustin — accounts, which should reject all that is fabulous and absurd in the records re- specting those fathers, while they embraced the most characteristic and striking particulars of their pri- vate, as well as public, conversation, their writing's and their doctrine. t The commentator on Virgil and Terence. % In his twenty-second letter, in order to divert hfs correspondent (Eustochium) from the study of profane authors, St. Jerome recounts, that formerly, durirrg the access of a violent fever, he had been dragged in spirit to the tribunal of Jesus Christ, where, after receiving severe chastisement for his attachment to those authors (Cicero and Plautus are specified), he had been forbidden to read them more. Moreover, 132 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. took early possession of his soul, led him to consecrate his labors and his learning to that which he deemed the service of Christ. An excessive admiration of monastic excellence, and ardor for the habits which conferred it, constituted the ruling principle of his life; and whether it was, that the solitudes of Eu- rope were not yet sufficiently sanctified to satisfy his passion for holy seclusion, or that the celebrity attending on ascetic privations was still chiefly confined to the Eastern world, he bade adieu to his native hills, to his hereditary property, to pontifical Rome her- self, and transferred his library, his diligence, and his enthusiasm, to a convent at Bethle- hem. In a retreat so well qualified to nour- ish religious emotion even in the most tor- pid heart, the zeal of Jerome did not slumber, but rather seemed to catch fresh fire from the objects and the recollections which sur- rounded him. From that wild and awful abode he poured forth the torrent of his law- less eloquence, and thundered with indiscri- minate wrath against the enemies and the reformers of his religion. And if in that peaceful, and perhaps sinless solitude, it was excusable that he should exaggerate the mer- its of mortification, and fasting, and celibacy, and pilgrimage, and disparage the substantial virtues, which he could rarely witness, and which he could never practise ; on the other hand it was some aggravation of his intem- perance, that in the birth-place of Christ, at the very fountain of humility and peace, he vented, even against his Christian adversa- ries, a malignant and calumnious rancor. Rufinus, .Tovinian and Vigilantius, successive- ly sustained the fulness of his indignation ; and lastly, towards the close of his life, the opinions of Pelagius again excited that vio- lence, which even old age * had been unable to moderate.f he assures Eustochiuin, that that story is no dream, and invokes the heavenly tribunal before which he had appeared, to attest his veracity. See Duphin, Nouv. Bibl., vie S. Jerome. * St. Jerome died in the year 420. fin the meantime St. Jerome was not himself exempt from error, and such too as called for the reprehension even of St. Augustin. The former somewhere expresses an opinion, that the difference between St. Paul and St. Peter, described in the Acts, was not real, but only feigned — for pious pur- poses; an opinion which the Bishop of Hippo most justly condemns as of very dangerous consequence. But while we censure both the superstitious and contentious spirit of St. Jerome, we must also recollect how great a compensation he made for evils thus occasioned, by his great work, the Latin translation of the Old Testa ment. And we must add, that a considerable knowledge of Hebrew, much general learn- ing, and long application, qualified him, far above any contemporary, for the most impor- tant undertaking hitherto accomplished by any father of the Roman church. And here let us pause, to observe for one moment the immediate effect of his various labors. His theological philippics were hailed by the body of the Church with triumphant acclamation ; his exhortations to seclusion and celibacy peopled the desert places with monks and hermits ; but his translation of the Bible was ill received by the Church ; ' it was considered as a rash and dangerous innovation ; '* even St. Augustin disapproved, and held that it was more prudent to abide by the text of the Septuagint, than to risk the confusion and scandal which a new ver- sion might create. This senseless clamor was sufficient, even in those days, to prevent the immediate diffusion of the work ; and almost two hundred years afterwards, we learn, that it only divided with its rival the diligence of St. Gregory; in later times it spread into wider circulation, and finally obtained very general possession of the Latiu Church, f As the name of Athanasius more properly belongs to the Arian controversy, so that of Augustin is closely connected with the his- tory of the Donatists and Pelagians, and that of Basil with the rise of Monasticism. Those who may desire more extensive information respecting the lives and countless writings of the fathers here mentioned, and of the more numerous and obscure associates whom we have no space to notice, may apply, though with different degrees of confidence, to the compilations of Lardner, Dupin, Cave, and Tillemont. St. Jerome also ventured a prophecy respecting the Millennium — but this indeed was a safer field of speculation, since his prediction was not the object of conclusive reasoning; and thus it continued in hon- or for about six hundred years, until the patience of time at length falsified it. * Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth., loc. cit. t Of all the works of St. Jerome, his ' Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers' i3 that which is now most frequently referred to. EXTERNAL FEATURES OF CHRISTIANITY. 133 CHAPTER X. From the Death of Justinian to that of Charlemagne. 567 to 814. . The External fortunes of Christianity — its Restoration in England by St. Austin — its progress in Germany — among the Tartars — Its reverses — Mahomet and his successors — their conquests in Asia — in Egypt — facili- tated by Christian dissensions — in Africa — Carthage — in Spain — in France — their defeat by Charles Martel — Treatment of Christian subjects by the Saracens — Char- lemagne— forcible conversion of the Saxons and Pan- rionians. — II. The Internal condition of Christianity — method of this History — Pope Gregory the Great— his character and conduct — worship of Images — Purgatory — Relics — Ceremonies — the Gregorian Canon — Gregory the creator of the Papal system— Title of (Ecumenic Bishop — Power of the Keys— Apocrisiarii and Defen- sores — Changes in the seventh and eighth centu- ries—Orders of the Clergy— The Tonsure— Unity of the Church — Councils — Metropolitans — Increase and abuse of Episcopal power — Pope Zachary consulted as to the deposition of Childeric — his conduct how far blamable — the Lombards — the Donation of Pepin — confirmed by Charlemagne — His liberality to the Church, and the motives of it — His endeavors to reform the Church. Christianity had obtained early and per- haps general reception in Britain, when it was suddenly swept away, with the language itself, by the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons in 452, and almost entirely obliterated. To- wards the end of the sixth century some circumstances occurred favorable to its resti- tution. Ethelbert, King of Kent, the most considerable of the Anglo-Saxon princes, married Bertha, daughter of the King of Pa- ris, a Christian. Some clergy appeal- to have followed her to England, and to have softened the pagan prejudices of the King. Gregory the Great, who was then Bishop of Rome, availed himself of this circumstance, and in the year 596, he sent over forty Benedictine monks, under the conduct of Augustin (com- monly called St. Austin), prior of a mon- astery of that order. The King was convert- ed, and most of the inhabitants of Kent fol- lowed his example ; the missionary then re- ceived episcopal ordination from the primate of Aries, and was invested, as Archbishop of Canterbury, with power over the British Church. The religion, thus established, spread with great rapidity ; six other Anglo- Saxon Kings embraced the faith of Augustin and Ethelbert ; and it was very generally propagated throughout the whole island be- fore the conclusion of the seventh century. The miraculous assistance by which this work was accomplished is acknowledged in a letter addressed by the Pope himself to his missionary. ' I know that God has perform- ed through you great miracles among that people ; but let us remember that, when the disciples said with joy to their divine master, " Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name," he answered them — " Rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." While God thus em- ploys your agency without, remember, my dear brother, to judge yourself severely within, and to know well what you are. If you have offended God in word or deed, preserve those offences in your thoughts, to repress the vain glory of your heart, and consider, that the gift of miracles is not granted to you for yourself, but for those whose salvation you are laboring to procure.' An increased acquaintance with the character of Gregory, which we shall presently acquire, will diminish the weight of his testimony on this matter; which many indeed will be strongly predisposed to doubt, from the circumstance, that the apostle of England was never supernaturally gifted with any knowledge of the language of the country, but was obliged, in addressing the people, to avail himself of the imperfect ser- vice of an interpreter. But (little as those stories may be entitled to credit) it is certain, that God vouchsafed one heavenly blessing on the mission of St. Austin, though display- ed in a manner less popular with Roman Catholic historians — the work of conver- sion was accomplished without violence or compulsion ; the sword of the spirit was found sufficient for the holy purpose, and the ruins of our Saxon idolatry were not stained by the blood of one martyr. It is not pretended, that the religion thus hastily introduced was a pure form of Chris- tianity, or even that it differed very widely, in its first appearance or operation, from the superstition which it succeeded. There even exists an Epistle from Gregory in which he permits the ceremonies of the former worship to be associated with the profession of the Gospel ; nor is it possible, even for the most perfect law at once to change the habits and correct the morals of a savage people. But the consent of history assures us, that, during the century following, the nation gradually emerged from the rudest barbarism into a condition of comparative civilisation, and that the principles and mo- tives of Christianity extended their salutary influence over the succeeding generations. Many historians affirm, that St. Austin neglected the lessons of humility which he had received from his master, and proceeded to assert with great insolence the spiritual 134 HISTOKV OF THE CHURCH. supremacy of Rome, not only over his own converts, but also over that faithful portion who still maintained among the Cambrian mountains the doctrine and practice trans- mitted from their forefathers. It appears in- deed that those simple believers having been long severed from the body of Christen- dom, ignorantly preserved the original ori- ental rite in the celebration of Easter, which had been so long proclaimed schismatic ; they were still involved in the error of the (^ijartadecimaps; and they continued to per* severe botli in that, and in the rejection of papal authority, even after they had been enlightened by the exhortations of St. Austin. It is recorded, and is probable, that they were deterred by the imperious conduct of that prelate from uniting with his Church; and thus far we need not hesitate to condemn him ; but some more serious charges which have been brought against him stand on very slight foundation.* It is next our duty to record and cele- brate the labors of Succathus, a Scotsman, to whom is usually given the glory of having converted the Irish, and established among them the Episcopal Church; and also of Columban, an Irish monk and missionary, who diffused the religion among the Gauls and various Teutonic tribes, about the end of the sixth century. It is not easy, at this distance of time, to calculate the precise ef- fect of mere individual exertion in so dif- ficult an enterprise, or to separate what is fabulous in such records from that which may reasonably be received. But the pro- * Jortin (Eccl. Hist., vol. iv., p. 417) says, < The Christianity which this pretended apostle and sancti- fied ruffian taught us, seemed to consist principally in two things, in keeping Easter upon a proper day, and to be slaves to our Sovereign Lord God, the Pope, and to Austin, his deputy and vicegerent. Such were the boasted blessings and benefits which vve received from the mission and ministry of this most audacious and insolent monk.' This is passionate and unjust abuse. St. Austin was indeed the missionary of a Pope— but his conversion of the mass of the inhab* itants of this island was perfectly independent of his endeavors to bring over to the Church of Rome the few and obscure schismatics of Wales ; and let us recollect that his exertions, in both cases, were di- rected only to persuade. The evidence respecting the massacre of the twelve hundred monks of Bangor is very fairly stated by Fuller ; and it seems upon the whole probable, that the event took place after the death of St. Austin. But at any rate the crime was committed in the heat of battle, apparently with- out design or premeditation^-so that it is absurd to charge it upon a person, who, even if he was living, Was certainly not present at the scene. gress of St. Austin is much more intelligible —since he was aided by the immediate sup- port of Pope Gregory, and since one of the earliest among his proselytes was a King. It appears probable, that at the beginning of the eighth century Christianity had made very little progress in Germany; at least its reception had been confined to provinces immediately bordering on the Roman em- pire.* In the year 715, Winfrid,t a noble Englishman, who was afterwards known by the name of Boniface, undertook the labors of a missionary. His first attempt was fruit- less ; but presently returning, under the au- spices and by the authority of Pope Gregory II., he preached among the Frieselanders and Hessians with considerable success. { In 723 he was consecrated a Bishop, and being joined by many pious Christians, from France as well as England, he established numerous churches throughout the country. His immediate recompense was advancement to the archiepiscopal See of Mayence, and to the Primacy of Germany and Belgium. To posterity he is more generally and more glo- riously known as the Jlpnstle of the Germans. And the additional title of Saint was due not only to his zeal, but also to his martyrdom— for, returning in his old age to Frieseland,§ * Fleury (1. xxxviii., sect, lviii.) mentions three monasteries as having been founded at Tournay and Ghent about the middle of the seventh century. t We are not to confound this missionary with St. Wilfrid, another Englishman, who also gained some reputation both in France and at Rome, from about 660 to 710. The vast quantity of relics which he brought home from his first expedition to the Conti- nent is mentioned by Fleury, liv. xxx.,sect. xxxv. $ Mosheim, Cent, viii., p. i.,c. i. Milner takes great pains to exculpate Boniface from the vari- ous charges of violence, arrogance, fraud, &c. , which Mosheim very liberally heaps upon him, aud to prove him, from his own correspondence, to have been a mere pious, unambitious missionary. There is some reason in the defence ; and Mosheim may very probably have been prejudiced against Boniface by that absolute devotion to the Holy See which he professed, and by which he profited. See also Fleu- ry, end of liv, xli., &c. § That country was for some years the scene of the successive exertions of St, Wilfrid, St. Vulfran, St. Villebrod, and lastly St. Boniface. It was the second of those missionaries whose injudicious answer to Radbod, the King of the Frieselanders, retarded the progress of the new religion- That Prince was standing at the baptismal font, prepared for the cere- mony—ronly one point remained, respecting which his curiosity was still unsatisfied — • Tell me,' said he to the holy Bishop, ' where is now the greater num- ber of the Kings and Princes of the nation of the Frieselanders — are they in the Paradise which you EXTERNAL FORTUNES OP CHRISTIANITY. 136 that he might terminate his labors where he had beguD them, he was massacred by the savage inhabitants, together with fifty eccle- siastics who attended him. (a. d. 755.) To the eiglith century we may also refer the introduction of Christianity among the Tartars, the inhabitants of those regions which now constitute the southern Asiatic provinces of the Russian empire. This spiritual con- quest was achieved under the auspices of an heretical Bishop, Timotheus the Nestorian, about the year 790. On the other hand, for the chastisement of a corrupt Church and a sinful people, the extensive tracts of central and southern Asia had been already over- whelmed by the fiercest enemies who have ever been raised against the Christian name, the fanatic followers of Mahomet ; and to their mention we cannot proceed perhaps with a better augury, than after recording that ob- scure fact, which planted the banner of Chris- tianity in a Russian province. Mahometan Conquests. During the fourth century of our history we were occupied in observing the destruction of the ancient pa- ganism of Greece and Rome ; during the fifth and sixth we marked the success of Christian- ity in supplanting the rude superstitions of the Celtic invaders of the empire, and subduing those savage aggressors to the law, or at least to the name, of Christ. But the seventh cen- tury was marked by the birth of a new and resolute adversary, who began his career with the most stupendous triumphs, who has torn from us the possession of half the world, and who retains his conquests even to this mo- ment. Mahomet was born about the year 570 ; we are ignorant of the precise period of the nativity of that man who wrought the most extraordinary revolution in the affairs of this globe, which the agency of any being merely human has ever yet accomplished. His pretended mission did not commence till he was about forty years old, and the date of his celebrated flight from Mecca, the Hedji- promise me, or in the Hell with which you menace me V ' Do not deceive yourself,' replied St. Vulfran; 'the Princes, your predecessors, who have died without baptism, are most assuredly damned ; but whosoever shall believe henceforward, and be baptised, shall be in joy eternal with Christ Jesus.' Upon this Radbod withdrew his foot from the font and said — ' I cannot resolve to relinquish the society of the Kings, my pre- decessors, in order to live with a few poor people in the kingdom of heaven. I cannot believe these nov- elties, and I will rather adhere to the ancient usages of iny nation.' It was not until after the death of this Prince that St. Boniface gained any footing in the country- Fleury, 1. xlix., s. 35 rah, or era of Mahometan nations, is 622, a. d. The remainder of his life was spent iu establishing his religion and his authority in his native land, Arabia ; and the sword with which he finally completed that purpose, he bequeathed, for the universal propagation of both, to his followers. His commission was zealously executed ; and, in less than a cen- tury after his death, his faith was uninterrup- tedly extended by a chain of nations from India to the Atlantic. The fate of Persia was decided by the bat- tle of Cadesia, in 636. In Syria, Damascus had already fallen, and after the sanguinary conflict of Yermuk, where the Saracens for the first time encountered and overthrew a Christian enemy, the conquerors instantly proceeded to the reduction of Jerusalem ; that grand religious triumph they obtained in 637. In the year following Aleppo and Antioch fell into their hands, which com- pleted the conquest of Syria. Thence they proceeded northward as far as the shores oftheEuxine and the neighborhood of Con- stantinople. The invasion of Egypt took place in 638, and within the space of three years, the whole of that populous province was in the posses- sion of the infidels. Alexandria was the last city which fell ; and in somewhat more than a century after the expulsion of philosophy from Europe by a Christian legislator, the schools of Africa were closed in their turn by the arms of an unlettered Mahometan. The success of the Saracens was not incon- siderably promoted by the religious dissensions of their Christian adversaries. A vast number of heretics who had been oppressed and stig- matized by Edicts and Councils were scattered over the surface of Asia ; and these were con- tented to receive a foreign master, of whose principles they were still ignorant, in the place of a tyrant whose injustice they had experi- enced. But in Egypt, especially, the whole mass of the native population was unfortu- nately involved in the Jacobite heresy ; and few at that time were found, except the res- ident Greeks, who adhered to the doctrine of the Church. The followers of Eutyches formed an immediate alliance with the sol- diers of Mahomet against a Catholic Prince ; and they considered that there was nothing unnatural in that act, since they hoped to se- cure for themselves, under a Mahometan, the toleration which had been refused by an or- thodox government. We should remark, however, that this hope, the pretext of their desertion, was with many the suggestion of 136 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. their malice : that besides the recollection of wrongs, and the desire to escape or revenge them, they were inflamed as furiously as their persecutors by that narrow sectarian spirit, which is commonly excited most keenly where the differences are most trifling ; and which, while it exaggerated the lines that separated them from then fellow Christians, blinded them to the broad gulf which divid- ed all alike from the infidel. From Egypt the conquerors rushed along the northern shore of Africa; and though their progress in that direction was interrupt- ed by the domestic dissensions of the Prophet's family, even more than by the occasional vig- or of the Christians, they were in possession of Carthage before the end of the seventh century. Thence they proceeded westward, and after encountering some opposition from the native Moors, little either from the Greek or Vandal masters of the country, they com- pleted their conquest in the year 709. Hitherto the Mahometans had gained no footing in Europe ; and it may seem strange that the most western of its provinces should have been that which was first exposed to their occupation. But the vicinity of Spain to their latest conquests, and the factious dis- sensions of its nobility, gave them an early opportunity to attempt the subjugation of that country. Their success was almost unusual- ly rapid. In 71] they overthrew the Gothic monarchy by the victory of Xeres ; and the two following years were sufficient to secure their dominion over the greatest part of the peninsula. The waters of this torrent were destined to proceed still a little farther. Ten years after the battle of Xeres, the Saracens crossed the Pyrenees and overran with little opposition the southwestern provinces of France — 'the vine- yards of Gascony and the city of Bourdeaux were possessed by the Sovereign of Damas- cus and Samarcand ; and the south of France, from the mouth of the Garonne to that of the Rhone, assumed the manners and religion of Arabia.'* Still dissatisfied with those ample * Gibbon has not composed a more eloquent, or a less philosophical chapter, than his fifty-first. As if lie were blinded by the splendor of the Mahometan con- quests, he overlooks, not only the misery immediately occasioned by them, but their fatal influence on the progressive and permanent improvement of man. History is philosophy teaching by example; and the lessons of history are then, indeed, noble and profit- able, and then only, when philosophy casts away her pride and her pedantry, and condescends to rise into philauthrophy limits, or impatient of any limit, these chil- dren of the desert again marched forward in- to the centre of the kingdom. They were encamped between Tours and Poitiers, when Charles Martel, the Mayor or Duke of the Franks, encountered them. It is too much to assert that the fate of Christianity depended upon the result of the battle which followed ; but if victory had declared for the Saracens, it would probably have secured to them in France the same extent, perhaps the same duration, of authority which they possessed in Spain. Next they would have carried the horrors of war and Islamism into Ger- many or Britain ; but there other fields must have been fought, against nations of warriors as brave as the Franks, by an invader who was becoming less powerful, and even less enthusiastic, as he advanced farther from the head of his resources and his faith. Indeed, if we had space to speculate more deeply on the probabilities of this question, we should rather be led to consider this effort against France as the last wave of the deluge now exhausted, and about to recede within more reasonable boundaries. The final struggle of the Saracens was scarcely worthy of their former triumphs. During six days of desultory combat the horsemen and archers of the East maintained indeed an indecisive advantage ; but in the closer onset of the seventh day, the Germans, more eminently powerful in limb, and strong in heart as well as hand, instantly extinguish- ed the Arabs with iron arm and overbearing chest.* The chief of the Saracens fell in the conflict ; the survivors fled to their encamp- ment, and after a night passed in the dissen- sion usual to the vanquished, they dispersed, and evacuated the country. This battle was fought in the year 732 ; the advantages were slowly but resolutely pursued by the conquer- or, and presently ended in the final expulsion of the invader from the soil of France. In less than one century from the preach- ing of Mahomet, his disciples had obtained military possession of Persia, Syria, and the greater part of central and western Asia, of Egypt, and the long extent of the northern coast of Africa ; and lastly of the kingdom of Spain. The propagation of their religion furnished to all the pretext, and to many the sincere motive, of aggression ; and as the * Gibbon, c. lii, Roderic Toletan. c. xiv., Gens Austria membrorum pre-cminentia valida, et gens Germana corde et corpore prsestantissima, quasi in ictu oculi manu ferrea et pectore arduo Arabes ex- tinxerunt. INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 137 most violent means were not forbidden by their law, and as religious wars are seldom distinguished by mildness and humanity, we may believe that many revolting cruelties were occasionally perpetrated by them. However upon the whole they found it more politic, to tolerate than to exterminate ; with the heretics of the East they formed early and friendly relations through a common enmity ; and in Africa and Spain they gene- rally proffered the alternative of the Koran or tribute;* so that Christianity was not immediately extirpated from any of the con- quered countries, and even at this moment it continues to linger, however degraded by adversity and oppression, in almost all of them. The country in which it suffered the most immediate and perfect prostration was the northern coast of Africa ; and those two fruitful nurseries of religion and religious men, Alexandria and Carthage, which fill so eminent a station in the early Catholic Church — names which are so closely asso- ciated with all the various fortunes of rising Christianity, with its most honorable and holy triumphs, with its afflictions and rever- ses, with the zeal, the genius, and the elo- quence of its professors, with their dissensions and intolerance — those two powerful Church- es were from that time forward oblitera- ted from history. It is true, indeed, that the former still preserved a title, but it was without power ; and a dignity, but it was without independence : she lost her learning and her industry, and all her excellence and energy departed with them. But at Car- thage the actual extinction of Christian ity very speedily followed the success of the Mahometans, and the labors of Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius, Augustin and so many others were spurned and execrated, if indeed their very names were not rather forgotten, by a faithless and blaspheming posterity. The victory of Charles Martel was soon followed by the reestablishment of a more effective government in France ; and pre- cisely forty years after the battle of Tours, we find Charlemagne engaged in a sanguin- ary war against the Saxons, for the purpose of converting them to the Christian religion. It seemed, indeed, as if that zealous Prince was for a season possessed by the spirit of the * The Mahometans drew a broad distinction be- tween those infidel? who had a Book of faith, and those who had none. Among the former they placed the disciples of Zoroaster, atid therefore showed them great mercy — but they had no compassion on the Pagan. 18 Arabian, and that he imitated the fury of his armed apostles ; and, as if Christianity had not already sufficiently suffered by adopting the vices of other systems, he dragged into its service the most savage principle of Islamism. After eight years of resistance and misfortune the Saxons were compelled to take refuge in the profession of the Gos- pel ; * and the Huns of Pannonia were soon afterwards driven by the same victorious compulsion to the same necessity. When we behold the limits of Christendom extended by the writings of its ministers, or the eloquence of its missionaries, we record such conquests with pure and grateful satis- faction ; when we observe a mass of Pagans, or other unbelievers, suddenly, but peaceful- ly, melting into the bosom of the Church, we question their motives, we lament the stain which they may bring with them, and we censure any unworthy compromise which has been made to conciliate them ; yet we are consoled to reflect that no immediate misery has been occasioned by a change which is pregnant at least with future im- provement. But when we see the sword employed to propagate a religion of which the very essence is peace, we are at once disgusted and revolted by the cruel and impious mockery. THE INTERNAL, CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY FROM THE REIGN OF JUSTINIAN TO THAT OF CHARLEMAGNE. In an endeavor to compress into a few short chapters the ever-varying records of fifteen centuries, it might, perhaps, be thought suf- ficient to exhibit a mere chronological series of events and names ; but we consider it a more profitable, as it is certainly a more attractive employment, to select and illustrate what is material and consequential, and to pass, as it were, from eminence to eminence, dwelling for some short space on each, and delineating its features with some exactness, though we may thus be compelled to treat with little minuteness the periods interven- * Charlemagne was occasionally troubled by the contumacy of his converts, even to the end of his reign ; and in the civil wars among his grandsons, we find Lothaire proclaiming liberty of conscience to the Saxons of the succeeding generation (in 841). Many of them eagerly cast away the mask of Chris- tianity, and flew to his standard. Compulsion has filled the world with hypocrites, but it has never made a true convert to any faith or any form of faith. See Millot, Hist. France. 138 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. ing ; but it is certain that there are many secondary names and many occurrences of mere temporary importance, which may be consigned to silence without any danger to the integrity and usefulness of history. On this principle we shall proceed, without delay, from the death of Justinian to the accession of Gregory the First to the pontifical chair. That prelate presided over the Church of Rome from the year 590 to 604 ; and he illustrated that short period by so many splendid qualities, and pursued his various purposes with such bold and successful ex- ertion, that he has acquired, and perhaps deserved, the deep and faithful veneration of the Catholic Church. At least it has been found so difficult to estimate his character with moderation, and we observe so much intemperance, both in the eulogies and the insults * which are offered to it, that its mere strength and energy, which are thus sufficiently proved, assert its claim to a more considerate and impartial examination. Gregory the Great. Two prominent vices overshadowed and counteracted the nume- rous excellences of Gregory — superstition and ambition. For the former of these some excuse may be found in the spirit and prin- ciples of the age in which he lived ; the latter was the produce of the same vigorous nature which gave birth to his virtues ; and it was urged in him to an excess, which it would not have reached in a feebler mind. His virtues were his own, and those of his religion ; and if we should discredit, as affect- ed, that humility which preferred the cloister to the chair of St. Peter, and so long rejected the proffered mitre,f at least we must praise the generosity which led him, in early life, to bestow his large possessions on the Church, and we must admire his ardent piety, and sincere, though often misdirected, devotion. The extreme severity of his moral practice has not been contested, nor his honest en- * ' Pope Gregory the Great, called St. Gregory, was remarkable for many tilings ; for exalting his own authority, for running down human learning and polite literature, for burning classic authors, for pat- ronizing ignorance and stupidity, for persecuting heretics, for flattering the most execrable princes, and for relating a multitude of absurd, monstrous and ridiculous lies, called miracles. He was an ambi- tious, insolent Prelate, under the mask of humility.' Jortin, Remarks, vol. iv., p. 403. Most, though by no means all, of the above charges are true ; but the counterpoise of good and powerful qualities is left almost entirely unnoticed by their author. t Baron, aim. 590, sect. vii. &c. &c. deavors to enforce the same practice in every rank and order of his clergy. Circumstances, political as well as religious, had introduced abuses into the system of ecclesiastical disci- pline, which a weak and narrow mind might have thought it expedient to protect, but which Gregory knew that it was wiser to reform. Indeed we may observe, that the best friends of every Church in every age and those whose services are most gratefully acknowledged by posterity, however ungra- ciously they may be accepted by interested contemporaries, are men who dare to distin- guish between the system and its corruptions, and to administer those vigorous measures of renovation which are necessary for its health and perpetuity. And thus would it have been still happier for the fame of that Pope had he taken a still bolder view of the imperfections of his Church, and applied to the cure of its deeper and spiritual diseases the remedial attention which he confined to its discipline and its ceremonies. The character of Gregory was distinguish- ed by the fervor of his charity ; the virtue which surrounded his palace with crowds of sufferers of every rank and profession, and distributed for their relief* the funds, which with little scandal might have been lavished on selfish purposes, has never been disputed, and ought never to have been disparaged. Nor was he contented to exercise this alone, but strove, on the contrary, to extend its practice by powerful exhortations among his episcopal brethren — ' Let not the Bishop think that reading and preaching alone suf- fice, or studiously to maintain himself in retirement, while the hand which enriches and fructifies is closed. But let his hand be bountiful ; let him make advances to those who are in necessity; let him consider the wants of others as his own ; for without these qualities the name of Bishop is a vain and empty title.'f We should also remark, that this Pope exerted himself on more than one occasion to redeem Christian prisoners from captivity, and to alleviate their suffer- ings during it. He was diligent in his efforts to propagate the Catholic faith. His most important spirit- ual conquest was that of England ; and if it be a reproach to him that he there permitted the first converts to retain, under other names * See Baronius, ami. 591, sect. iii. xxiv. &c. ; aim 592, sect, ii.; ami. 596, sect. viii. Fleury, 1. xxxv sect. xvi. Gibbon, chap. xlv. ■)■ Lib. v., Epist. 29, apud Baron, ann. 592, 6ect INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 139 the substance of some of their superstitious practices,* in France, where the longer and more general diffusion of the religion left less excuse for such a concession, he zealously endeavored to extirpate the remains of idol- atry.f The conversion of the Jews \ was another favorite object with him ; and in one respect he adopted the most promising means for that purpose, by treating them with mild- ness and humanity ; in another he insulted their principles, while he disgraced his own, by the direct offer of gain, as the reward of their apostacy. His zeal for the unity of the Church is a very ambiguous excellence ; but it was warmly, and (as Roman Catholic histo- rians assert) successfully exerted, both against the remnant of the Donatists, and against certain schismatics who had seceded from the Church on the controversy respecting the Three Chapters. § We may add to this, that his activity in ennobling the services of religion, and adding splendor to its cere- monies, however unworthy a method of recommending a spiritual religion, found some excuse in the degenerate principles of the sixth century. Through the disturbed condition of Italy, the aggressions of the Lombard invaders, and the weakness of the Imperial power, the direction of the political interests of Rome devolved for- the most part upon Gregory. It appears not that he sought that charge, so eagerly grasped by many of his successors, but rather that he entered with reluctance upon duties which, if not at direct variance, were at least little in accordance with a spiritual office. But, having once undertaken * Altaria destruantur, relliquia ponantur. He allows even sacrifices on Saints days — substituting, however, a convivial, for a superstitious, motive — nee diabolo tain animalia immolent, sed ad laudem Dei in esu suo animalia occidant, &c. Baron, ann. 601. xxii. t Fleury, H. E.., lib. xxxv., sect. xxi. He com- plains of immolations to idols, worship of trees, sac- rifices of the heads of animals, &c. — Quia pervenit ad nos quod multi Christianoruin et ad Ecclesias occur- rant, et (quod dici nefas est) a culturis dxmonum non discedant. See Baron, ann. 597. xviii. ^ Baron, ann. 594, sect. viii. ann. 598, sect. xiv. § The subject of the fifth General Council. One of these schismatics, named Stcphanus, came to Rome, and offered to Gregory to return to the Church, if the Bishop would take upon himself the risk of his soul, and intercede with God as his sponsor and fidejussor, that his return to the Catholic Church, should be sanctioned in Heaven ; which Gregory undertook without any hesitation — quod Gregoriusininime facere cunctatus est. Baronius, ann. 590, sect. xxvi. them, he discharged them with the ability and in the spirit which became his character and his profession ; he presented himself as a mediator and pacificator, and by his faith- ful, ministry to the God of peace,* he suc- ceeded in averting the arms of his enemies, and in preserving his country from servitude. He professed to reject from the service of religion that profane learning of which his writings prove him to have been ignorant ; and hence probably proceeded the charge so commonly believed, though insufficiently f supported, that he burnt the Palatine Library, and destroyed some of the most valuable remains of classical antiquity. But it is ad- mitted, that he was inferior to none in the learning of his own age ;J and his diligence and energy are abundantly attested by the voluminous and even vigorous compositions which he has left behind him. § Use of Images. We shall proceed to point out some instances in which Gregory deviat- ed even farther than his predecessors from that ancient faith and practice of which his See, since it now claimed exclusively the denomination of Apostolical, professed a pe- culiar observance. Before the end of the sixth century, the dangerous usage which had originated in the fourth, || of exposing images of saints, of the virgin, and even of Christ, in places consecrated to worship, had taken deep root, as well in the Western as in * The following is his boast to Sabinianus, his Apocrisiarius or Envoy at Constantinople. ' Unum est quod breviter suggeras serenissimis Dominis nos- tris : quia (that) si ego servus eorum in mortem Lon- gobardorum me miscere voluissem, hodie Longobar- dorum gens nee regem, nee duces, nee comites habuisset, atque in suinma confusione esset divisa. Scd quia Deum timeo,in mortem cujuslibefhomin- is me miscere formido.' See Baronius (ann. 595, sect, xviii.), who details his various negotiations with the Lombards very accurately. f There seems to be no authority for this accusa- tion older than the twelfth century. See Bayle, Vie de Greg. I. % ' Disciplinis vero liberalibus, hoc est grammatica, rhetorica, dialectica, ita a puero est institutus, ut quamvis eo tempore florerent adhuc Romre studia 1 it— erarum, tamen nulli in urbe sua secundus putaretur.' Paul. Diac. Vit. St. Greg. Gibbon, c. xlv. § There are greater remains of the works of Gre- gory than of any other Pope ; and a diligent and judicious study of his Epistles might still throw much new light on the early History of his Church. Barp- nius attributes the rudeness of his style to the barba- rism of the age in which he lived. II We shall treat this and some other of the Ro- man Catholic corruptions more fully in the thirteenth Chapter. 140 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. the Eastern Church. Serenus, the Bishop of Marseilles, caused some of them to he re- moved, and complaint was made to Gregory. The Pope at once, and very explicitly, declar- ed, that images should on no account be ap- proached as objects of worship, and strongly exhorted the Bishop to press that consider- ation on all who might possibly mistake their use — which was, when truly understood, to impart knowledge to the ignorant, and learn- ing to the illiterate. At the same time, such being their professed end and purpose, he strenuously opposed their removal. By this determination, he impressed upon a popular corruption that sanction and authority which alone was wanting to make it permanent and universal. The belief in the fire of Purgatory was seriously inculcated by the same Pontiff; and to him more justly than to any individ- ual, we may attribute the practical system to which that speculative opinion gave birth. He also exalted the merit of pilgrimages * to the Holy Places ; but the superstition which he most ardently sustained, was, a reverential respect for relics, founded for the most part on their miraculous qualities. The deep and earnest solemnity with which one of the greatest characters of his age and church, was not ashamed to enforce so very gross a delusion, -cannot so well be depicted to the reader as in his own language. Reverence for Relics. The Empress Con- stantiua, who was building a Church at Con- stantinople to St. Paul, made application to Gregory for the head of that Apostle, f or at least for some portion of his body. The Pope begins his answer by a very polite expression of his sorrow 'that he neither could nor dar- ed to grant that favor ; for the bodies of the holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, are so resplen- dent with miracles and terrific prodigies in their own Churches, that no one can approach them without great awe, even for the purpose of adoring them. When my predecessor, of happy memory, wished to change some silver ornament which was placed over the most holy body of St. Peter, * Baronius, ann. 592, sect. xix. t Baronius, who cites the Pope's reply with con- siderable admiration, attributes the Empress's exor- bitant request to Ecclesiastical ambition, — to a desire to exalt the See of Constantinople to a level with that of Rome, by getting into her possession so im- portant a portion of so great an Apostle. Fleury quotes the letter chiefly in proof that the transfer of relics was forbidden in the Roman Church, while that abuse was permitted in the East. though at the distance of almost fifteen feet, a warning of no small terror appeared to him. Even I myself wished to make some alteration near the most holy body of St. Paul, and it was necessary to dig rather deeply near his tomb. The Superior of the place found some bones which were not at all connected with that tornb; and, having presumed to disturb and remove them to some other place, he was visited by certain fearful apparitions, and died suddenly. My predecessor, of holy memory, also undertook to make some repairs near the tomb of St. Lawrence : as they were digging, without knowing precisely where the venerable body was placed, they happened to open his sepulchre. The monks and guardians who were at the work, only because they had seen the body of that martyr, though they did not presume so much as to touch it, all died within ten days ; to the end that no man might remain in life who had beheld the body of that just man. Be it then known to you, that it is the custom of the Romans, when they give any relics, not to venture to touch any portion of the body ; only they put into a box a piece of linen (called brandeum), which is placed near the holy bodies ; then it is withdrawn, and shut up with due vene- ration in the Church which is to be dedicat- ed, and as many prodigies are then wrought by it as if the bodies themselves had been carried thither ; whence it happened, that in the time of St. Leo, (as we learn from our ancestors,) when some Greeks doubted the virtue of such relics, that Pope called for a pair of scissors, and cut the linen, and blood flowed from the incision. And not at Rome only, but throughout the whole of the West, it is held sacrilegious to touch the bodies of the Saints, nor does such temerity ever remain unpunished. For which reason we are much astonished at the custom of the Greeks to take away the bones of the Saints, and we scarcely give credit to it. But what shall I say respecting the bodies of the holy Apostles, when it is a known fact, that at the time of their martyrdom, a number of the faithful came from the East to claim them ? But when they had carried them out of the city, to the second milestone, to a place called the Catacombs, the whole multitude was un- able to move them farther, — such a tempest of thunder and lightning terrified and dispers- ed them. The napkin, too, which you wished to be sent at the same time, is with the body and cannot be touched more than the body can be approached. But that your religious INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 141 desire may not be wholly frustrated, I will lias- ten to send to you some part of those chains which St. Paul wore on his neck and hands, if indeed I shall succeed in getting off any filings from them. For since many contin- ually solicit as a blessing that they may carry off from those chains some small portion of their filings, a priest stands by ivith a file ; and sometimes it happens that some portions fill off from the chains instantly, and with- out delay ; while, at other times, the file is long drawn over the chains, and yet nothing is at last scraped off from them.' The pages * of Ecclesiastical History are so full of such idle fables, that the repetition even of the smallest portion of them is a task as tedious as it is unworthy of a reasonable mind ; but when such absurdities are propa- gated and dignified by the pen of Gregory the Great — of him whom the Roman Church reveres almost as the first among her saints, and whose writings for so many centuries di- rected, and even still direct, the principles of her Ministers — it would be a neglect of his- torical duty to pass them over in complete silence.f *Eligius or Eloi, Bishop of Noyon (or Limoges,) a contemporary of Gregory, and also a Saint, acquired extraordinary celebrity by his ardor in searching after tne bodies of martyrs, and his miraculous sagacity in the discovery of them. And as he thus became a person of influence in his day, we may venture to re- cord what, in his opinion, was the sum and substance of true religion. 'He is a good Christian (says St. Eligius) who goes frequently to church, and makes his oblations at God's altar; who never tastes of his own fruit until he has presented some to God ; who, for i many days before the solemn festivals, observes strict chastity, though he be married, that he may approach the altar with a safe conscience; lastly, who can re- peat the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. Redeem your souls from punishment whilst you have it in your power; offer your free gifts and tithes; contribute towards the luminaries in holy places; repair fre- quently to church, and humbly implore the protection of the Saints. If you observe these things, you may appear boldly at God's tribunal in the day of judg- ment, and say — Give, Lord, according as we have given.' The original is quoted by Mosh. Cent, vii., p. ii. c. iii. t The Dialogues of Gregory abound with mirac- ulous narratives ; and Fleury excuses this practice by pleading that he had not philosophers for his antago- nists, who needed argument for confutation, but that the pagans then to be found were chiefly peasants, serfs, or soldiers, and were more moved by a mirac- ulous story than by the most conclusive s\ llogism. In process of time, Gregory, from being the relater, rose to be the performer of miracles. About one hundred and eighty years after his death, Paulus Diaconus re- cords, that a Roman lady, on some occasion, receiving The public worship of God was still cele- brated by every nation in its own language ; but its forms were enlarged from time to time by new prayers and offices, as well as hymns and psalmody, and such other additions as were found proper to enliven devotion. Gregory introduced a more imposing method of administering the Communion, with a magnificent assemblage of pompous ceremo- nies. This institution was called the Canon of the Mass; and such as it appears in the Sacramentaries of St. Gregory, such, word for word (says Fleury,*) we say it still. Af- ter regulating the prayers, the Pope descend- ed to the modulation of the chant; and to give some permanency to his success in this matter, he established a school of chanters, which subsisted for at least three centuries after his death.f Other alterations were made by the same pontiff in the distribution of the parishes, the calendar of festivals, the order of processions, the service of the priests and deacons, the variety and change of sacer- dotal garments ; and as most' of them were permanent, we may consider the system properly called Roman Catholic as having assumed its peculiar character at this time. And thus, while the Antiquity of the univer- the Communion from Gregory, and hearing him say the customary words, could not forbear smiling, when he called that the body of Christ which she had made with her own hands — for at that time the people used to bring to the Communion their own bread, which was a small, round, flat cake. The Pope, perceiving her behaviour, took the bread out of her hands, and, having prayed over it, showed it to her turned into flesh, in the sight of the whole people. *H. E. lib. xxxvi., s. xix. Fleury describes the alterations of Gregory at length and clearly. The great pains which the Pope took in these matters, and especially in the composition of his celebrated chant, are zealously related by Maimbourg, in his History of the Pontificate of St. Gregory. j Fleury, lib. xxxvi., sect. xxi. ' In the time of John the Deacon (about 900,) the original of his Antiphonarius was preserved with great respect, as well as the couch on which he reposed while chanting, and the whip with which he menaced the children.' Pope Gelasius (says the same historian in sect, xv.) had made a collection of the office of the masses, into which St. Gregory introduced many changes and ad- ditions. He collected the whole in one volume, which is his Sacramentarius, for so they formerly called the book which contained the prayers used in the admin- istration of the sacraments, and chiefly of the Eu- charist. All that was to be chanted was marked in another volume, called the ' Antiphonaire, parce que l'on chantoit alternativement; d'ou^ient le now d'antiphones on antiennes (anthems) cornme il a ete explique.' 142 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. sal Church may justly be regarded as hav- ing ceased at the accession of Constantine, it is not a fanciful position that its Middle Age — that indistinct period, during which the principles that were hereafter to give it a more lasting and definite form were collect- ing strength, but were not yet developed — was brought to a close by the splendid pon- tificate of Gregory. Elements of Papacy. If, then, it be not incorrect to date the modern history of the Catholic Church from this epoch, it will be reasonably inquired what elements then ex- isted, or, at least, what indications may be discovered, of the monarchical or papal gov- ernment, which formed the characteristic of the Communion in later ages? We shall, therefore, proceed to point out such of these as were most perceptible during the time of Gregory. We have noticed an early jealousy subsisting between the Sees of Rome and Constantinople, and the sort of superiority which was conferred upon the former by the council of Chalcedon. It appears, too, that St. Leo was addressed by certain oriental correspondents by the title of (Ecumenic, or Universal Patriarch, though his immediate successors refrained from adopting that lofty appellation. Matters rested thus till the year 588, when the Emperor Maurice conferred that same title upon his own Patriarch John, commonly called the Faster,* an austere and ambitious prelate. Pope Pelagius opposed those pretensions ; and, eight years after- wards, the contest was much more vigorously renewed by Gregory. In 595, he addressed five epistles on tins subject to John himself, to the Emperor and Empress, and to the ri- val Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch ; in all vehemently inveighing against the arro- gance of the Faster, and professing the very purest spirit of Christian humility. In his letter to the Emperor he declares that the public calamities are to be ascribed to no oth- er cause than the ambition of the Bishops. ' We destroy (he says) by example that which * John the Faster, disputing an unmeaning title with Gregory, is assimilated by Baronius (aim. 595,' sect, xxvii.) to the apostate angel rising against the Most High God — a comparison not far removed from blasphemy. In more than thirty sections, which that historian devotes to the subject, he labors to depress the See of Constantinople even below that of Alexan- dria, and continually advances the obtrusiveness of Rome, as a proof of her rightful authority. However, it is true enough that the power of Rome was now growing real and substantial — a fact much more easily shown than either its antiquity or legitimacy. we preach in word ; our bones are consumed with fastings, and our soul is puffed up with pride ; beneath the meanest garments we conceal a haughty heart ; we repose on ash- es, and we pretend to grandeur ; under the aspect of the sheep Ave nourish the fangs of the wolf.' (He proceeds) 'The direction and primacy of the whole Church has been given to St. Peter ; nevertheless we do not call him the Universal Apostle, and yet the holy man John, my brother, is ambitious to be called the Universal Bishop.'* To Constantina he mournfully complains of the insult which has been offered to the See of Rome ; and while he humbly confesses ' that the sins of Gregory have merited such chastisement,' he reminds the Empress that St. Peter at least is sinless, and undeserving the outrage which had been offered him. From these and others, even among the few passages which we have cited from Gregory's writ- ings, it appears that the ground on which the Church of Rome rested its assertion of supremacy was already changed very essen- tially. In its early days the sort of superior- ity which it endeavored to assume was foun- ded for the most part on its imperial name and dignity; but when that basis was over- thrown by the conquests of the barbarians, another was substituted, of which the purely spiritual nature was admirably calculated to impose upon the ignorant proselytes. The name of St. Peter became more venerable than that of Augustus or Trajan ; and his chair, as it was occupied by the successors of the Apostle and the vicars of Christ, inspired a deeper awe into the blind and superstitious multitude, than the throne of all the Caesars. This change, no doubt, was gradual — it can- not entirely be ascribed to Gregory, or to any other individual; indications of that assertion may even be discovered in very early eccle- siastical writers ; but that Pope exerted him- self more than any of his predecessors to con- firm it, and to give to that uncertain ground- work a stability which has enabled it to sup- port the mighty papal edifice for so many ages. t It has also been observed that Gregory was the first who asserted the power of the keys, as committed to the successor of St. Peter, rather than to the body of the bishops ; and * St. Gregory could not foresee that, within twelve years from that in which he was writing, the same title would be proudly worn by a successor to the chair of St. Peter (Boniface III.,) though granted to that pontiff by an Emperor who disgraced human nature. INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 143 ne betrayed on many occasions a very ridic- ulous eagerness to secure their honor. Con- sequently, he was profuse in his distribution of certain keys, endowed, as he was not ashamed to assert, with supernatural qualities ; he even ventured to insult Anastasius, the Patriarch of Antioch, by such a gift. ' I have sent you (he says) keys of the blessed Apostle Peter, your guardian, which, when placed upon the sick, are wont to be resplendent with numerous miracles.'* We may attribute this absurdity to the basest superstition, or to the most impudent hypocrisy ; and we would gladly have preferred the more excusable mo- tive, if the supposed advancement of the See, which was clearly concerned in these pre- sents, did not rather lead us to the latter. Two descriptions of papal agents rise into notice during the pontificate of Gregory — the Apocrisiarii (Correspondents), who acted as envoys, or legates, at the Court and at the See of Constantinople ; and the Defensores, or Advocates, who, besides their general commission to protect f the property of St. Peter, appear to have been vested with a kind of appellative jurisdiction, which might sometimes interfere with that of the bishops. The former of these appointments tended to raise the external dignity of the See ; the latter to extend its internal influence. Again, we find sufficient evidence in the records of this age, that a practice which afterwards proved one of the most fruitful sources of pa- pal power, was already gaining ground — that of appeal from episcopal decision to the Ro- man See. It does not, indeed, appear that it was founded on any general law, civil or ec- clesiastical ; but it proceeded very naturally from the prejudice attached to the name of Rome^and the chair of St. Peter; and it was carefully encouraged by the See, whose au- thority was insensibly augmented by it. Be- * ' Amatoris vestri, beati Petri Apostoli, vobis claves transmisi, quae super segros posiue multis solent miraculis coruscare.' He addresses nearly the same words to one Andreas, a nobleman, with a similar present. And in another epistle (to Theotistus) he coolly relates a prodigy which had once been per- formed by one of those keys upon a Lombard soldier. Baronius, ami. 585, sect, iv., ami. 597, sect, xiv., ann. 591., sect, vii., viii. The historian (in the first of those places) eagerly attaches to the keys the no- tion and omen of possession, which probably did not occur to a Pope (even to Pope Gregory) in the sixth Century. f Baron, ann. 598, sect. xv. xix. Gibbon (chap, xlv.) considers them to have possessed not a civil only, but a criminal jurisdiction over the- tenants and hus- bandmen of the Holy See. fore we quit the subject of papal aggrandise- ment, we shall mention one other circum- stance only.* Great relaxation in the mo- nastic discipline of the age justified the very sedulous interference of Gregory to restrain it ; and so much address did that pontiff com- bine with his diligence, as not only to reform the order, but also to secure and protect it. For, while he enforced the severity of the an- cient rules with judicious rigor,f he took measures to shelter it from episcopal oppres- sion, and taught it hereafter to look to Rome for redress and favor. As none are ignorant how firm a support to papal power was furnished in later ages by the devotion of the monasteries, it is important to record the origin of that connexion ; and it is difficult to discover any earlier trace of it than that which we have mentioned. Gibbon, who has drawn with vigor and impartiality the character of Gregory, has probably over-rated his qualities when he designates him as the greatest of that name. It is very true that the mixture of simplicity and cunning, of pride and humility,^ °f sense and superstition, which singularly distinguish- ed him, was happily suited both to his station and to the temper of the times; and it might perhaps be pleaded, that he did no more than yield to that evil temper, when he gave sanc- tion to opinions and usages which were at variance with the spirit of Scripture. But this was to consult his present convenience * ' The bishops of Italy and the adjacent islands acknowledged the Roman Pontiff as their special Metropolitan. Even the existence, the union, and the translation of episcopal seats was decided by his absolute discretion; and his successful inroads into the provinces of Greece, of Spain, and of Gaul, might countenance the more lofty pretensions of suc- ceeding popes. He interposed to prevent the abuses of popular elections; his zealous care maintained the purity of faith and discipline; and the apostolic shep- herd assiduously watched over the faith and discipline of the subordinate pastors.' Gibbon, chap. xlv. t Fleury, H. E. lib. xxxvi. sect. 33 and 34. | His humility Sometimes descended to baseness. The abject adulation with which he courted Phocas, the usurper of the Eastern throne, the most execrable par- ricide in history, proved (as Bavle ha3 malignantly remarked) that those who prevailed with him to ac- cept the Popedom, knew him better than he knew himself. ' lis voyoicnt en lui le foods de toutes les ruses et de toutes les souplesses dont on a besoin pour se faire de grands protecteurs, et pour attirer sur l'Eglise les benedictions de la terre.' The motive of his flattery was jealousy of the Patriarch of Con- stantinople. He addressed, with the same servility, Brunehaud, a very wicked Queen of France, and again found his excuse in the interests of his Church. 144 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. or popularity, not his perpetual fame. Those who follow the stream of prejudice may be excused or pitied, but they can establish no claim to greatness, no title to the respect or gratitude of a posterity to which they trans- mit, without correction, the errors or vices of their ancestors. So far as he applied himself to remedy those vices or imperfec- tions, so far as he reformed the discipline and repressed the a-varice of his clergy, and intro- duced such improvements into other depart- ments of the system as were consistent with the Gospel truth on which it stood, his name is deservedly celebrated by every honest Christian ; but his eagerness in the encourage- ment of superstitious corruptions (for he was not even contented to tolerate, still less did he make any effort to repress them) must not be treated with indifference or indulgence ; because the diffusion of error* has afar more pernicious consequence in religious than in other matters. A mere speculative falsehood will mislead the understanding of the studi- ous, but it will not reach his principles of ac- tion ; a wrong political principle will unques- tionably influence for a time the happiness of a nation ; but on the discovery of its falsity, it is not difficult to modify or reject it, because it can seldom become rooted in the habits or the prejudices of the people. But the religious impostures which were authorized and propa- gated by Gregory, affected not the belief on- ly, but the conduct and character of the great- er portion of Christendom through a long succession of ages ; and while their certain and necessary tendency was to debase the mass of believers, and to deliver them over in blindness and bondage to the control of their spiritual tyrants, their final and most disastrous effect has been to enlarge the path of infidelity, by dissociating the use of reason from the belief in Revelation. * In his Epistle to the King of England; Gregory (cited by Baronius, Ann. 601. sect, xix.) thus ex- presses his own millennarian opinions. ' Besides, we wish you (vestram gloriam) to know as we learn from the words of Almighty God, in the Holy Scriptures, that the end of the present world is already near, and the kingdom of the Saints is at hand, which can know no end. But as the end of the world is now approaching, many things hang over us which before were not, — to wit, change of atmosphere, and terrors from Heaven, and unseasonable tempests, war, fam- ine, pestilence and earthquakes, — which however shall not all fall out in our days, but will certainly follow afterwards.' The caution of the concluding sentence would almost prove the Pope's distrust in his own prophecy. Changes from Gregory to Charlemagne. Ecclesiastical History is not distinguished by any character of very great eminence for the period of above a hundred and fifty years, which separates Gregory from Charlemagne ; nor is that period marked by any single oc- currence of striking importance, excepting the separation of the Roman states from the Eastern empire, and the Donation made by Pepin to the Holy See. Yet very considera- ble changes were gradually taking place in the constitution of the Church, which it is the more necessary to detect and notice, be- cause they are not discovered without some care, and have indeed commonly escaped the observation which is due to them. The con- quest of the Western Empire by the barba- rians, its subdivision into numerous Princi- palities and Provinces, and the prevalence of the institutions and habits of the conquerors, could not fail to influence, in many respects, the religious establishment of those countries. And hence it is, that the distinction between the Eastern and Western Churches, which may be traced in name, at least, to the divi- sion of the Empire, was afterwards extended and widened by many substantial points of difference. In the former, indeed, very few alterations took place after the time of Jus- tinian, even in the form of administering the Church, and none in the principles of its con- stitution: if some new privileges, or additional revenues, seemed to swell the importance of the clergy, yet the Emperors maintained so firmly their undisputed supremacy,* and ex- erted, moreover, such frequent interference in spiritual affairs, that the power of the hier- archy received no real increase ; nor did any other circumstances accidentally intrude, to enlarge beyond its just limits their influence over the people. But the policy for the most part pursued by the Western kings was dif- ferent— they were usually watchful in preserv- ing their temporal rights over the Church, and even in usurping others which they did not possess, especially that of episcopal election but they abstained from all intervention in matters strictly spiritual, and in committing to the priesthood the entire regulation of doc- trine, and consigning to their uncontrolled direction the consciences of their ignorant and uncivilized subjects, they left to that Body much larger means of despotic and permanent authority than any of those of which they deprived it. In the more enlightened provin- ces of the East, the discussion of theological * Giannone, Stor. di Nap. lib., iii., cap. vi. INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY, 145 subjects was not uncommonly shared by in- telligent laymen ; but in the West it became exclusively confined to the clergy, and their dictates, howsoever remote from scripture or reason, were submissively and blindly receiv- ed. Again, in the aristocratical assemblies, by which political affairs were chiefly regu- lated, the property and intelligence of the Bishops acquired for them both rank and in- fluence ; and thus also were they placed in a different position from their brethren in the East, where the original spiritual character of the hierarchy was more rigidly preserved. It has been already remarked, that the limits of the spiritual and temporal powers were, even from the very establishment of Chris- tianity, liable to some confusion and per- plexity. They were long maintained, how- ever, with tolerable distinctness in the coun- tries which escaped from barbarian invasion ; but in the West, from the circumstances just mentioned, and from the unsettled and ar- bitrary form of the civil governments, the causes of discord, and temptations to mutual aggression were incalculably multiplied. The clergy were very early divided into the major and minor orders, of which the lat- ter consisted of the acolyths, porters, exor- cists, and readers : between the sixth and eighth century this lost its whole weight and almost name in the Church ; and even the higher order of subdeacons, deacons, and priests, suffered great degradation. The kings of the West, in their desire to devote the whole of their free subjects to military service, forbade the ordination of a freeman without their particular consent ; and hence proceeded the debasing, but not uncommon practice, of conferring the office of priesthood on serfs of the Church, emancipated for that purpose. Nor did the Bishops contend against this innovation so vigorously as the interests of the Church required, because their own authority was obviously augmented by the humiliation of the order next below them. Add to this, that the Priests were in some places, and perhaps generally, bound, on their ordination, by a solemn obligation to remain attached as it were to the Church, to which they were originally appointed — a sort of servitude which subjected even their per- sons to the authority of the Bishop. No such changes in the constitution of the clergy took place in the Eastern Church. Another order was rapidly increasing in the seventh and eighth centuries, which probably exercised more influence in Church matters than is usually attributed to it. The tonsure 19 was originally considered as a sign of desti- nation for orders, (signum destinationis ad ordiuem,) and was given to those only who were intended for the sacred profession ; but in aftertimes it was less discriminately admin- istered, and was made the means of connect- ing with the Church a large body of persons who received some of the immunities without any of the restrictions of the sacerdotal con- dition, and became clerks without being ec- clesiastics. It may be true,* that they intro- duced to a certain extent a sort of lay influence into the ecclesiastical administration ; but they had probably a much greater effect in diffus- ing that of the clergy among the private and sacred relations of domestic life. The grand priuciple of the ' Unity of the Church ' — existing as one mighty spiritual communion undivided by any diversity in place, time, language, government, or other circumstances — though it was broached as early as the third century, did not enter into full operation till the dissolution of the West- ern Empire. Its worst effects had, indeed, been developed before that time in the perse- cutions to which it gave birth on both sides of the Adriatic. But the good which it was capable of producing was not felt until the Western Provinces were broken up into nu- merous, and independent, and hostile states, with no political bond of union, and little friendly or commercial intercourse. It was then that the notion of one universal religious society contributed to supply the want of in- ternational sympathy and cooperation, and, through the means of a common belief, intro- duced the feeling of common interests, and * Guizot (Hist, de la Civilisation en France, 13 Leeon) mentions four avenues through which the laity still continued, in the seventh and eighth centuries, to exert an influence in ecclesiastical matters. (1.) The distinction between the Ordination and the Tonsure, and the numbers of those who received the latter only. (2.) The founder of a Church or Chapel, whether Bishop or Layman, possessed the privilege of appoint- ing the minister to serve it. (3.) Chaplains were very commonly resident in noble families for the service of the private oratories. (4.) Certain laymen, under the names of Causidici, Tutores, and Vicedomini were ap- pointed at an early period for the protection of the Church property. They originated, it would seem, in the African Church; at Rome they were called Defensores, and they were afterwards employed in Gaul, under the title of Advocates. Fleury (end of liv. xliv,) mentions that they were originally Scholastics or Lawyers; but that after the barbarian conquests they possessed also a military character — to the end that, in case of necessity, they might also be qualified to defend the interests of the Church by material weapons. 146 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. the exercise of common virtues. Subse- quently, during the seventh and eighth cen- turies, the principle was more rapidly pro- gressive; and it presently gave birth to a sec- ond principle, which naturally sprang from it, that the one Body could have only one Head ; and the general footing which this acquired, at least, throughout the West, con- tributed in no small degree to prepare and smooth the way to papal despotism. Much of the history of this period is col- lected from the Canons of the Councils held in all the kingdoms of the West, and es- pecially in Spain — for the ecclesiastical af- fairs of Gaul * were also in part regulated by these last. Those of Toledo were the most celebrated and influential, and the attention which was paid to their proceedings even by the Roman See sufficiently proves the authority which they held in the Church. The fifteenth of these was assembled in 688, and the last, not long before the invasion of the Saracens, in 696. But upon the whole the number of Councils diminished during the seventh and eighth centuries, and in Gaul especially, we find that, whereas fifty-four were held in the sixth, twenty only assem- bled in the seventh century, and only seven during the first half of the eighth. This gradual disuse of one of the most ancient and legitimate methods of governing the Church, and one of the best guarantees both for its inward purity and external independence, was a proof of its growing corruption, and a fearful omen for its future prosperity. It arose in some measure from a cause which we are about to mention. The early origin and office of the Metro- politans have already been noticed ; they were the Prelates resident in the capital of the Province, and their legitimate office was to preside in provincial councils; but they endeavored to extend their consequence by usurping a judicial authority in charges against Bishops, and other matters properly lying under the cognizance of the Council ; and they had some success until the sixth century. But. from this period we may date their downfall : the ambition of the Popes,f * The fourth Council of Toledo, held in 633, or- dains an uniformity of rites and ceremonies, prayer and psalmody, throughout Spain and Gaul — the same office of the mass, and other services. Fleury, 1, xxxvii., sect. 46. •f The progress of this usurpation is so well de- scribed by Giannone, (Storia cli Nap., lib. iii. c. vi.) that we shall here give the substance of his account. In the fifth century the title of Patriarch was univer- always jealous of their power, and anxious to transfer it to the Holy See, pressed and assailed them from above : from below, the episcopal order, preferring a distant and in- dulgent control to the more rigid scrutiny of a domestic censor, were equally eager for their overthrow ; and this was greatly facil- itated by the minute subdivisions of some of the Western Provinces, which in many cases politically separated the Metropolitan from the Bishops who were placed under his superintendence, and thus at once annihila- ted his influence. From these causes the Metropolitan system fell into decay, so that sally acknowledged to belong, in common with the four oriental prelates, to the Bishop of Rome. His ordinary power indeed did not extend beyond the Provinces called Suburban (Suburbicarie,) those which obeyed the Vicar-General of Rome; and to these limits it was confined till the reign of Valentin- ian. But in process of time, as the prerogatives of primacy were united in his person, it was easy to stretch them farther. It belonged to him as Primate to have regard and attention ; on this»ground he be- gan to send into such provinces as seemed to require such superintendence his own vicars; in Illvria first, afterwards in Thessalv and Macedonia, the delegates of the Roman Pontiff exercised Patriarchal authori- ty. This he presently afterwards extended over the whole of Italy, over Gaul and Spain; as well as over all countries newly converted by his missionaries; so that the Greeks themselves acknowledged him to be sole Patriarch of the West. The next step of the Popes, which occasioned no small disturbances, was to usurp the power of ordaining Bishops throughout all the Western Church, which was no less than to sub- vert the rights of all the Metropolitans. They pro- ceeded farther, and claimed the office of ordaining the Metropolitans themselves. The method they made use of to usurp the rights of the Metropolitans regarding ordination was, to send them the Vest or Pallium — for it was by means of this that the Metropolitans were invested by the Holy Pontiff" with the power of ordaining the Bishops of the Province; whence it followed that such power was not possessed by them unless by this grant ol the Pallium. Here another point was gained — the Metro- politans had not the power of exercising all the episco- pal functions until they had received the Pallium from the Pope. The last step naturally followed this — that the Pope would not grant the Pallium until the Metro- politans had taken an oath of fidelity such as he requir- ed. Another ground on which he advanced was this — he contrived that appeals from the decisions of the Metropolitans, especially relating to disputed elections of Bishops, should be brought before himself; that if the electors had been negligent, or the elected unfit, the election should devolve on the Pope ; that he alone should possess the right of accepting the cessions of Sees, of determining translations, and the coadjutor- ships in the next succession ; and lastly, that the con- firmation of all episcopal elections should be vested in the Holy See. INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 147 little more than its name remained at the end of the eighth century — and closely connected with its fall was the disuse of Provincial Councils. The great result which was hrought about by die above circumstances, and which showed itself early in the West — as to the West were also confined the changes which we have mentioned — was the undue aggran- dizement of the episcopal order, and its con- sequent deformity and corruption. From the moment that the princes succeeded in usurping the" appointment to vacant Sees, the mutual awe and dependence of the Bishop and his clergy were at an end. The original method of election, according to which the dignity was generally conferred on some emi- nent ecclesiastic who had long resided in the diocese, secured at least some degree of de- ference in the elected to the office and priv- ileges of the priesthood ; but the practice of regal appointment broke that tie, and the stranger, who was frequently intruded, with few common interests or affections, gave loose without any restraint to his insolence or his avarice, in an age and condition of society in which public opinion had no in- fluence. Accoi'diugly we collect, even from the Councils of those times which were en- tirely composed of Bishops, the violent ex- cesses to which many members of that order proceeded. ' We have learnt (says the Coun- cil of Toledo, in 589) that the Bishops treat their parishes not episcopal ly but cruelly, and oppress their dioceses with losses and exac-^ tions. Wherefore, let all that the Bishops would appropriate to themselves be refused, excepting that which the ancient constitutions grant to them ; and let the clergy, whether parochial or diocesan, who are tormented by the Bishop, carry their complaints to the Metropolitan, and let the Metropolitan hasten to repress such excesses.' Nearly a century afterwards the fourth Coun- cil of Braga (in 675) inveighs against the brutality of certain Bishops who treated honorable men like robbers, and lacerated priests, abbots, and deacons, with personal chastisement. 'Avarice (says the Council of Toledo in 633) is the root of all evils, and that detestable thirst takes possession even of the hearts of Bishops. Many of the faithful, through the love of Christ and the martyrs, build chapels in the parishes of the Bishops, and leave offerings there ; but the Bishops seize them and turn them to their own use. Hence it follows that Clerks are wanting to perform the divine offices, for they receive not their fees ; and the chapels when dilap- idated are not repaired, because sacerdota. avidity has carried away the resources, &c Besides these and similar proofs, which might be brought in great abundance, the tyrannical oppressions of the Bishops are sufficiently evinced by the conspiracies or coalitions of the priesthood to resist them, which are sometimes mentioned, of course with reprehension and menace, by the Coun- cils of the sixth and seventh centuries. Notwithstanding the measures taken to re- press it, the license and the demoralization of the episcopal order gradually increased, and towards the close of the eighth century it had reached perhaps the farthest limit to which it ever proceeded. The restraint which had formerly been imposed by the watchful superintendence of provincial Coun- cils and Metropolitans, was feebly supplied by the rare, and cautious, and often ineffectual interference of the Roman See. The prac- tice of regal election freed the Bishop from any check with which either respect or grat- itude towards his clergy and people might otherwise have supplied him — and the pos- itive degradation of the clergy itself removed him still farther from any deference to the feelings, or even the rights, of that Body. Sole administrator of the revenues of the Church, he possessed the most ample means of plunder and usurpation ; while his close connexion with political transactions, and the weight which he exerted in the most im- portant deliberations of the State, so inter- wove the temporal with the spiritual office and duties, and also added to his legitimate authority so much temporal power, that there were few excesses which he might not hope to commit with impunity.* It is therefore without surprise that we find him at one time advancing to battle at the head of his armed attendants, and at another engaged in ma- rauding expeditions from motives of plunder or private hostility. His habits and his man- ners alike departed from the ecclesiastical character, and he grew to resemble the rude Barons who surrounded him, both in the ex- tent of his power, and the insolence with which he exercised it. The Papal Principle. We now turn to Rome — the centre to which most of our at- tention must hereafter be directed — and hav- * It should not be forgotten, however, that this character was sometimes assumed on royal compul- sion; nor was this the only stain which the Church received from its contact with the wild barbarism of those ages. 148 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. ing shown the progress of the religious aris- tocracy during the seventh and eighth ages, let us observe whether any corresponding advance was made by the monarchical prin- ciple. Gregory the Great died in the year 604 ; and certainly if his immediate suc- cessors had equalled him in energy and am- bition, the period of papal usurpation might have been greatly anticipated. But the fact was so far otherwise, that through a dreary period of almost five centuries the Vatican was never ruled by any character of sufficient transcendency to assert its single superemi- nence, and seize the sceptre which was so long presented to it by superstition and igno- rance. But this accident, though it retarded the maturity of the Roman Church, did not prevent the gradual operation of the princi- ples on which it was now firmly founded ; and if it be the province of genius alone to create those commanding situations and cir- cumstances by which systems are formed or established, a very ordinary mind may turn them to advantage when created and pre- sented. And thus the long succession of ob- scure pontiffs, who presided in the West for the century and a half which followed, may have profited by such occasions as were of- fered to extend the authority of the Church and exalt the supremacy of its head. At least we have reason to believe, that both the one and the other of those objects were, upon the whole, advanced during the period in question. Within fifty years from the death of Greg- ory, Pope St. Martin assembled a Council at Rome, in which, among various expositions of doctrine, he condemned a certain heresy at that time maintained by Constans, the Emperor of the East. That Prince, little disposed to pardon the offence, sent his Ex- arch into Italy with orders to seize the per- son of the Pontiff. By the employment of some address he succeeded in his mission ; in the year 653 St. Martin was carried away from Rome a captive to Constantinople, and thence, after enduring, according to the Cath- olic historians, a multitude of insults, he was exiled to the Chersonesus. In the year fol- lowing (655) he died there; and his successor Eugenius was appointed by the Emperor. The singularity of this circumstance has lci'-ojumended it to our notice, rather than its imjjCrtance. It was an isolated event, de- pending solely on the political power which the Emperor of the day might happen to possess over his Italian subjects, and not at all affecting the influence which the Holy See was now acquiring in every quarter of the West — for that was the ground on which its battles were to be fought and its conquests gained, and to that they were destined to be confined ; and so long as it suffered no re- verses in that field, it mattered little what might be the result of an occasional dispute either with the Patriarch or the Emperor of the East. We have already mentioned that, during the seventh and eighth centuries, some suc- cessful inroads were made by the Popes on the privileges of Metropolitans, especially in their election or confirmation;* and the influ- ence of St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, was warmly exerted about the year 742 among the Bishops of France and Germany, to extend the authority of the See. Another occurrence, which tended much more effect- ually, though by a very different course, to the same result, took place almost immedi- tely afterwards. The Donation of Pepin. Pepin, who was mayor of the palace to Childeric III., King of France, was desirous to dethrone his im- becile master, aud to usurp the name, after having long exercised the power of royalty. Accordingly he assembled the States of the realm, and they gave it as their opinion that the Bishop of Rome should previously be consulted respecting the lawfulness of the project. In consequence, ambassadors were sent to Zachary with a question to the fol- lowing import — 'Whether the divine law did not permit a valiant and warlike people to dethrone a pusillanimous and indolent mon- arch who was incapable of discharging any of the functions of royalty, and to substitute in his place one more worthy of rule, and who had already rendered most important services to, the State ? ' The answer of the Pope was such as the usurper desired : Chil- deric was stripped of royalty without any opposition, and Pepin took undisputed pos- session of the throne. This occurrence is generally related as the first instance of the temporal ambition of the Vatican, or at least of its interference with the rights of princes and the allegiance o> * The pallium or peculiar vest was requested of the Pope by the Metropolitans, at first merely, as it would seem, in token of an honor to which no con- dition was annexed, but afterwards in attestation of their subjection to the See, and obedience to its ca nonical commands. The virtues of the pallium are described at length in an Epistle from Pope Zacha- ry to Boniface. Baron, ami. 742, sect. v. See above, note on p. 146. INTERNAL CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 149 subjects — and therefore the conduct of the Pope has commonly been treated (by Protest- ant writers) with unmeasured reprehension. But certainly if we consider the act of Zach- ary distinct from those subsequent usurpa- tions, to which in truth it did neither neces- sarily lead, nor even furnish a plausible pre- cedent— if we consider the act, as historical justice requires of us, with a fair regard to the circumstances of France and Italy, and to the principles of the times, we shall be surprised indeed that a Pope of the eighth century should so easily assent to the most popular principle of republicanism, and we may reject perhaps the political axiom which he has laid down ; but we shall not accuse him of ambitious or unchristian arrogance for having resolved a difficulty which he did not create ; for having answered a question which was proposed to him, as the highest human authority, and proposed without any interference or solicitation on his own part. It is true that the nature of his answer may have been influenced by his manifest inter- ests, and the necessity in which the See then stood of a powerful protector — but this is a consideration quite distinct from the original broad charge of intrusion in temporal con- cerns— and even in this matter, the mere ab- sence of that splendid disinterestedness, which is rare in every age, and almost impossible in bad ages, is not to be stigmatized as inexcus- ably criminal, nor to be placed on the same level with the active, intriguing intrusiveness of guilty ambition. It is not probable that Pope Zachary fore- saw all the advantages which soon afterwards accrued to the Holy See from his decision — but pressed by the Greeks on one hand, and the Lombards on the other, he was no doubt glad of the occasion to create a substantial friendship beyond the Alps. The Lombards had gradually possessed themselves of those provinces of Italy which had remained long- est attached to the Greek empire, under the name of the Exarchate of Ravenna ; * and those warlike foreigners were now projecting the extension of their conquest to the whole peninsula. Stephen II., the successor of Zachary, applied to the Court of France for protection ; and instantly, Pepin, at the head of a numerous army, crossed the Alps, and * The strict limits of the Exarchate were included in the territories of Ravenna, Bologna and Ferrara: dependent on it was the Pentapolis, which extended along the Adriatic from Rimini to Ancona, and ad- vanced into die interior as far as the ridges of the Apennines. Gibbon c. 49. overthrew the Lombards, and recovered the Exarchate from their hands. Pepin might have restored this valuable spoil to the throne of Constantinople with great praise of justice; or by the indulgence of ambition he might have retained permanent possession of it himself, without any reproach and with much profit — he did neither; but, mindful of his obligation to the Holy See, and sensible of the advantage of intimate alliance with it, he transferred the sovereignty over the provinc- es in question to the Bishop of Rome. This celebrated donation took place in 754-5 ; and thus we observe that the earliest interference of the Vatican in temporal matters brought after it, in the course of three years only, a rich and solid reward of temporal power, which has never since been either greatly in- creased or greatly diminished. The degree of authority which individual Pontiffs have exerted in their States has indeed been liable in different ages to extreme diversities ; still the authority itself has, in some shape, been perpetuated ; and it has survived the splendid pretensions of the spiritual despotism, by whose infancy it was created, whose maturity it assisted to swell and pamper, and whose expiring influence will propably be confined to the same limits with itself. Charlemagne's liberality to the Church. The donation of Pepin awaited the confirmation of his son Charlemagne ; for in the year 774 the Lombards again threatened the Roman territories ; the aid of France was again in- voked, and the monarch who now afforded it, did not pause till he had entirely and fin- ally subverted the empire of those conquer- ors, and proclaimed himself their King. Charlemagne was so far from disapproving his father's munificence to the Pope, that he renewed and even increased the grant by some accession of territory ; he drew still closer the bonds which allied him with a Bishop whose power was real and solid, how- ever fanciful may have been the claims on which it stood ; and thus he secured the zealous assistance of the See, when circum- stances at length allowed him to mature the projects of his own ambition, and to pro- claim himself, in the year 800, the Emperor of the West. Charlemagne did not confine his benefac- tions to the Bishop of Rome, but distributed them among all the orders of the hierarchy. He augmented their wealth, he enlarged their privileges, he exalted their dignity, he con- firmed and extended their immunities; and were it not beyond contradiction established, 150 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH that lie was one of the greatest and wisest princes who ever reigned, some writers would not have hesitated to place him among the weakest of mankind. But the motives of his liberality were such as became a mag- nanimous and a benevolent monarch. Su- perstition has never been accounted among them, nor any unfounded fears or undue reverence of the ecclesiastical order — from the former he was perhaps more nearly ex- empt than would have appeared possible in so rude an age ; and in his transactions with the clergy, even with the Pope himself, he never forgot, or allowed them to forget, his own supremacy. But he was desirous to civilize his barbarous subjects ; he was anx- ious to influence their rude manners, and correct their vicious morals, by the more general diffusion and comprehension of the Christian truths ; and he was willing also to sow the seeds of secular learning, and dispel the ignorance which oppressed his people. As the first step towards this regeneration he presented to them the example of his own piety and his own learning.* But when he looked round for the means of communicat- ing those blessings, the first and the only one which presented itself was the agency of the clergy. All that was influential among his subjects was contained in the two orders, military and ecclesiastical ; and the wild tur- bulence of the former pointed them out rather as objects than instruments of reformation. The little of literary taste or acquirement which his kingdom contained was confined to the clergy ; and there he labored to en- courage its increase, and to distribute it, * Many writers assert that he yielded not to any ".ontemporary in either of those merits; the former, however, does not appear greatly to have influenced his moral practices; and as to his proficiency in the latter, we may at least venture to prefer to him his own master and preceptor Alcuin, an Englishman, the most celebrated divine of the day; and since we are assured that Charlemagne did not learn to write till late in life, doubtless we might make other excep- tions. Alcuin is regarded as the restorer of letters in France, or at least the principal instrument of Charles in that work. In a letter to that Prince he avers that it rested with those two alone to raise up in France a Christian Athens. And his own writings attest his industry in restoring almost every branch of study. (Fleury, Hist. Eccl., liv. 45, sect, xviii.) The devotion of Charlemagne to the services of reli- gion is not disputed; through his whole life he was a regular attendant on the offices, even the nocturnal ceremonies, of the Church, and his last days were passed in correcting the text of the Gospel with the assistance of certain Greeks and Syrians. Fleury, H. E. 1. 45, s. viii. through the only channel that was open, for the moral improvement of his subjects. It was chiefly with this view that he augment- ed the power and revenues of the Church, and raised its ministers to a more exalted rank and influence — influence which they subsequently studied to improve by methods not always honorable, but which, as circum- stances then existed, it was pardonable if not commendable, it was magnanimous if it was not also politic, in Charlemagne to bestow. Reformation of the Clergy. But we shall readily admit, that that monarch's munifi- cence would have been very dangerously be- stowed, had he not taken vigorous measures to reform, at the same time that he enriched, the ecclesiastical body ; and some of those measures, though we had proposed to defer the particulars of his legislation till a subse- quent Chapter, may be mentioned with no less propriety in the present. In the year 789, at an assembly at Aix-la-Chapelle, Char- lemagne published a Capitulary in eighty articles, chiefly with a view to restore the ancient discipline of the Church.* It was addressed to all ecclesiastics, and carried by the officers of the monarch into all the Prov- inces. The instructions which most nearly affected the peculiar abuses of the age were those, perhaps, which exhorted the Bishops to select their clergy from freemen rather than from slaves ; and which forbade bishops and abbots and abbesses to possess dogs, or hawks, or buffoons, or jugglers. By the cele- brated Council of Francfort (Sur le Mein) held in 794, it was enacted, among many other wholesome regulations, that Bishops should not be translated from city to city ; that the Bishop should never be absent from his Church for more than three weeks ; that he should so diligently instruct his clergy, that a worthy successor might ever be found among them ; and that after his death his heirs should only succeed to such portion of his property as he possessed before his ordi- nation — all acquisitions subsequently made were to return to his Church. Other articles regulated the discipline of the inferior clergy. We shall conclude with one additional and very singular instance. Towards the close of the year 803 the Emperor held a parlia- ment at Worms, when a petition was pre- sented to him by all the people of his States, of which the following was the substance — ' We pray your Majesty that henceforward Bishops may not be constrained to join the * Fleury, H. E. liv. 44, sect. 46, and liv. 45 sect. 26. DISSENSIONS. 151 army, as they have been hitherto. But when we march with you against the enemy, let them remain in their dioceses, occupied with their holy ministry, and praying for you and your army, singing masses, and making processions, and almsgiving. For we have beheld some among them wounded and kil- led in battle, God is our witness with how much terror ! and these accidents cause many to fly before the enemy. So that you will have more combatants if they remain in their dioceses, since many are employed in guarding them ; and they will aid you more effectually by their prayers, raising their hands to heaven, after the manner of Moses. We make the same petition with respect to the priests, that they come not to the army, unless by the choice of their Bishops, and that those be such in learning and morals that we may place full confidence in them, &c.' Charlemagne replied as follows — 'In our desire both to reform ourselves, and to leave an example to our successors, we ordain that no ecclesiastic shall join the army, ex- cept two or three Bishops chosen by the others, to give the benediction, preach and conciliate, and with them some chosen priests to impose penance, celebrate mass, take care of the sick, and give the unction of holy oil and the viaticum. But these shall carry no arms, neither shall they go to battle nor shed any blood, but shall be contented to carry relics and holy vessels, and to pray for the combatants. The other Bishops who remain at their churches shall send their vassals well armed with us or at our disposal, and shall pray for us and our army. For the people and the kings who have permitted their priests to fight along with them have not gained the advantage in their wars, as we know from what has happened in Gaul, in Spain, and in Lombardy. In adopting the contrary practice we hope to obtain victory over the pagans, and finally everlasting life.' If CHAPTER XL On the Dissensions of the Church from the Age of Constantine to that of Charlemagne. Division of the subject :— T. Schism of the Donatists— its real origin — progress — Circumcellions — conduct of Constantine— and his successor— of Julian— conference of Carthage — St. Augustin— the Vandals— Saracens- real extent of the offences of the Donatists : some ac- count of St. Augustin.— II. Priscillian— his persecution and death— probable opinions— the first Martyr to reli- gious dissent — how truly so — Ithakius — Martin of Tours — effect of Priscillian's death on his followers. — III. Jo- vinian — his opinions — by whom chiefly opposed — Edict of Honorius— Vigilantius— his character — abuses oppos- ed by him — St. Jerome. — IV. Pelagian Controversy — its importance — and perplexity — Pelagius and Celestius — opposition of St. Augustin — Councils of Jerusalem and Diospolis — reference to Zosimus, Bishop of Rome — perseverance of St. Augustin — and his success— the sum of the Pelagian opinions — opposite doctrine of Fatalism — Semi-Pelagianism — Doctrine of the East- indifference of Greek Church to this Controversy. — V. Controversy respecting the Incarnation — early origin — Apollinaris — his doctrine — Nestorius — his rash asser- tion— Cyril of Alexandria— Council of Ephesus — con- demnation and banishment of Nestorius — progress of his opinions — what they really amounted to — Euty- ches — the Monophysite heresy — Dioscorus of Alexan- dria— second Council of Ephesus— interference of Pope Leo — Council of Chalcedon — condemnation and sub- sequent conduct of the Eutychians — Henoticon of Zeno — its object — effect— Heraclius and the Monothelites — Council of Constantinople — general remarks on this Controversy — apology for those engaged in it — some of its consequences. — VI. Worship of Images — its spe- cious origin — its progress in East and West — Leo the Isaurian — effects of his Edict — Constantine Coprony- mus — Synod of Constantinople — the Empress Irene — second Council of Nice, or Seventh General Council — Remarks on the Seven General Councils — Leo the Ar- menian— Michel — his Epistle to Louis le Debonnaire — The Empress Theodora — Feast of Orthodoxy — general remarks — John Damascenus — miracles — conduct of se- cular clergy — of monastic orders — of the common peo- ple— of Papal See — contrast between the Italian and French clergy. The controversies which occasioned the widest divisions in the Church during the five centuries following its establishment, were on two subjects — the Incarnation of our bles- sed Saviour, and the Worship of Images. Indeed, if we except the Pelagian opinions, there were none other than these which left any lasting consequences behind them. Still we are not justified in confining our notice entirely to those three, but we must extend it, though more concisely, to some other dissensions, of less importance and earlier date, which animated the passions of Church- men during the interval between the Arian and the Incarnation controversies. We shall mention them in the following order : — 1. The schism of the Donatists ; 2. the heresy of the Priscillianists ; 3. the opinions of the Reformers, Jovinian and Vigilantius; and shall then proceed to the doctrines of Pelagi- us and Celestius. To these we shall limit our curiosity ; for the various disputes, creat- ed directly or indirectly, by the writings of Origen, and the many real (or supposed) ramifications of the Manichrean heresy, are not such as to claim a place in this work. I. The Donatists. On the death of Men- surius, Bishop of Carthage, in 311, the clergy and people of that city and district elected in 152 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. his place the Archdeacon Caecilianus, and proceeded to his consecration without wait- ing, as it would seem, for the consent of the Bishops of Nurnidia, a contiguous and subor- dinate province. Probably custom or cour- tesy was violated by this neglect ; but the Numidians considered it also as an infringe- ment of their right, and hastened to resent it as such. This was no doubt the real found- ation of the schism — an objection taken against the character* of one Felix, a Bishop who had been prominent in the consecration of Caecilianus, though it was repeatedly brought forward in the course of the contro- versy, was obviously a vain and contemptible pretext. The dissentients, headed by a cer- tain Donatus, assembled a Council of their own, condemned Caecilianus, and appointed his deacon, Majorinus, for his successor. Both parties then proceeded to great extrem- ities, and as there appeared no other pros- pect of reconciliation, they agreed to bring the dispute before the Emperor Constantine, who had just then proclaimed the establish- ment of Christianity. Constantine inquired into the affair, first by means of a Synod at Rome, consisting of three Gaulish and fifteen Italian prelates,f at which the Bishop of the capital presided ; and presently afterwards, by an inquiry into the truth of the charges against Felix, before the civil magistrate iElian, proconsul of Africa, assisted by seve- ral lay, and for the most part military asses- sors: the decision, on both investigations, was unfavorable to the Donatists. They were discontented; seventy venerable Nu- midian prelates, assembled in council in the heart and light of Africa, had rejected the authority of Caecilianus — could so solemn an act be superseded by a commission of a small number of obscure Bishops meeting in a dif- ferent province, and perhaps ignorant of the leading circumstances ? They submitted the matter to the Emperor's reconsideration. His patience was not yet exhausted ; he im- mediately summoned a much more nume- rous synod at Aries, in Gaul, and here again, after much serious debate, the Donatists lost their cause. Still dissatisfied, they had re- course to the final expedient, an appeal to the personal justice of Constantine. The Empe- ror again consented to their request ; but on this occasion the motive of his indulgence * He was accused of being a Traditor; i. e. of having delivered up copies of the Scriptures during Diocletian's persecution. t Fleury, lib. x., sect. 11., records the names of most of them ; and die order of precedence. may be liable to some suspicion, since the very application admitted the power of the Emperor to reverse the decision of an ec- clesiastical council — a right which he might very naturally choose to assert at that mo- ment— at least it is certain that, in the year 316, he condescended to investigate the affair at Milan, iu the presence of the contending parties. He deliberately confirmed the for- mer decisions; and then, as these repeated condemnations had no other effect than to increase the perversity of the schismatics, he applied the secular power to their correction.* This measure led to some violent disturbanc- es; many joined, as persecuted, those whom they loved not as schismatics, and the confu- sion thus generally occasioned gave license to a number of lawless ruffians, the refuse of Africa, of no sect, and probably of no faith, to range their weapons and their crimes on the side of the contumacious. These men, the soldiers of the Donatists, were called Cir- cumcellions ; and their savage excesses went very far to convert the schism into a rebel- lion. When the quarrel arrived at this point, it is well worthy of notice, that Constantine, instead of proceeding to extinguish the mal- contents by the sword, attended to the advice of the governors of Africa, so as to repeal the laws which had been enacted against them — and to allow the people full liberty to adhere to the party which they might prefer.f Not so his successor Constans : during his reign we read of the defeat of the Donatists at the battle of Bagnia, and of thirteen years of tumult and bloodshed, and uninterrupted persecution. These severe measures, which the fury of the Circumcellions could scarcely justify, destroyed many, and dispersed into other countries a still greater number of the perverse schismatics — but converted prob- ably none. The moment of reaction was not far distant ; the numerous and revengeful exiles were restored to their home by the suspicious justice of Julian; J and the sect appears to * He certainly exiled some, and is said to have de- prived them of their churches, and even to have shed some blood. See Mosh., cent, iv., p. ii., ch. v. t This change in his policy seems to have taken place in 321 — after five years experience of the oppo- site system. J The horrors which they committed on their res- toration are very vividly and seriously related by Fleury, (1. xv., s. 32.) • They expelled the Catholic people, violated the women, and murdered the chil- dren. They threw the Eucharist to the dogs, but the dogs became mad, and turning against their masteie tore them in pieces. One of diem threw out of ike DISSENSIOAS. 153 bave sprung up, during the few following years, to the highest eminence which it at any time attained. Towards the conclusion of the fourth century Africa was covered with its churches, and its spiritual interests were guarded by a body of four hundred Bishops. Let us observe the consequence of this prosperity — a violent division grew up among them, respecting some very insignificant person or thing, and opened a breach in their fortress to the persevering assaults of the Catholics. Besides which, the method of assault was now somewhat changed and re- fined ; the weapons of reason and disputation were now again admitted into the service of the Church ; and they were not without ef- fect, since they were directed and sharpened by the genius of Augustin. The Bishop of Hippo * attacked the Donatists in his writ- ings, in his public discourses, in his private conversation ; and so vigorously exposed their dangerous and seditious spirit, as to lessen their popularity in Africa, and to destroy any sympathy which their former sufferings might have created in the rest of Christendom. From this period they fell gradually into dishonor ; somewhat they still endured from the unjust application of the laws against heresy, of which no one has ever accused them ; but a dangerous wound was inflicted by the celebrated conference held at Carthage in 411. The tribune IVlarcellinus was sent into Africa by the Emperor Honorius, with full power to terminate the controversy ; he convoked an assembly of the heads of both parties, and two hundred and eighty-six Catholic, andjjjgBBt-'tw.o hundred and seven- ty-nine Donatist bishops, preseuted them- selves in defence of their respective opinions. The most solemn preparations were made to give weight and dignity to this meeting, and its deliberations were watched with profound anxiety by the people of Africa.f For three window a phial of the holy ointment, which fell among the stones without breaking, &c. They exorcised the faithful in order to baptize them anew; they washed the walls of the Churches, and broke the. al- tars and burnt them — for most of those in Africa were then of wood — thpy broke the consecrated chalices and melted them down, to convert them to other purposes — in a word they held as profane all that the Catholic Bishops had consecrated, &c.' * He seems first to have taken the field while a simple presbyter, in the year 394. | ' Let the Bishops (says Marcel I inus in a previous proclamation) signify to the people in their sermons to keep themselves quiet and silent. 1 will publish 20 days the Tribune listened with respectful at- tention to the arguments advanced by both parties, and then proceeded to confirm the decisions of the former century, by pronounc- ing in favor of the Catholics. Augustin4ms deserved the glory of this spiritual triumph — and, that no means might be wanting to make it decisive, it was vigorously pursued by the myrmidons of civil authority, who in- flicted almost every punishment on the con- tumacious, excepting the last.* The survivors took breath under the gov- ernment of the Vandals, who conquered that part of Africa from the Romans about the year 427 ; and when it was recovered by Belisarius, more than a hundred years after- wards, the sect of the Donatists was still found to exist there as a separate communion. It was again exposed to the jealousy of the Catholics, and particularly attracted the hos- tility of Gregory the Great; but we do not learn that it suffered further persecution. We are told that it dwindled into insignifi- cance about the end of the sixth century ; but it is not improbable, that the Saracen invad- ers of Numidia found the»*, some few years later, the remnant of a sect not ill-disposed to favor any invader, nor unmindful of the sufferings of their ancestors. The Donatists have never been charged, with the slightest show of truth, with any error of doctrine, or any defect in Church government or discipline, or any depravity of moral practice ; they agreed in every re- spect with their adversaries, except in one — they did not acknowledge as legitimate the ministry of the African Church, but consid- my sentence and expose it to the judgment of all the people of Carthage.' St. Augustin himself addressed an epistle or tract on this controversy, to the Donatist laity. The particulars of the conference are detailed at great length by Fleury in his twenty-second book. * An exception little more than nominal ; for though the infliction of death, as the direct punishment of schism, is not enjoined by the Edict of Honorius, it necessarily followed, as the punishment of contumacy and rebellion. The Edict, however, even without that penalty, was so severe, and threatened to drive the Donatists to such extremities, that the civil mag- istrate, Duicilius, hesitated to enforce it, until he should have taken counsel of Augustin. That prelate exhorted him to proceed — ' since it was much better (he said) that some should perish by their own fires, than that the whole body should burn in the everlast- ing flames of Gehenna, through the desert of their impious dissension.' Epist. 61, (alias 204.) Hono- rius' Edict appears in the Theodosian Code, and a very sufficient specimen of it may be found in Jortin, H. E. ad. ann. 414. 154 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. ered their own body to be the true, uncor- rupted, universal Church. It is quite clear, that they pushed their schism to very great extremities — even to that of rejecting the communion of all who were in communion with the Church which they called false ; but this was the extent of their spiritual offence, even from the assertion of their enemies. The excesses of the Circumcellions lost them much of the sympathy which would other- wise have been bestowed on their misfor- tunes ; but the outrages and association of those outlaws were generally disclaimed by the most respectable leaders of the sect. One strange sin, indeed, they are accused of en- couraging, and of indulging with dreadful frequency— an uncontrollable inclination to suicide.* But suicide is the resource of the desperate ; and it is unlikely that it found any favor among them, until oppression had per- suaded them, that death was not the greatest among human evils. In the fortunes of the Donatists do we not trace the usual history of persecution? In its commencement fearful and reluctant, and, as it were, conscious of its corrupt ori- gin, it irritates without depressing; then it hesitates, and next suspends the attack ; thereon its object rises up and takes strength and courage. The same process is then re- peated, under circumstances slightly different I —with the same result. Then follows the j passionate and sanguinary assault which de- stroys the noblest among the recusants, while the most active and dangerous are preserved by hypocrisy or exile — and thus the sect spreads secretly "and widely; it secures a sympathy which it may not have merited by its excellence, and on the first occasion breaks out again with fresh force and fury. Then indeed, if recourse be had to argument, if greater right be on the stronger side, and if the secular sword be only employed to pur- sue the victory of reason, the cause of the sufferers becomes more feeble and less pop- ular—but still, unless the pursuit be carried to absolute, individual extermination, the ex- tinction even of the silliest heresy can only be effected by time— and time itself will com- * Mosheim, cent, v., p. ii, ch. v. An authority for this fact is Augustin in his Epistle to Boniface, ch. iii. Quidam etiam se trucidandos arraatis viatorlbus inn-e- rebairt, percussuros eos se, nisi ab iis perimerentur, terribiliter comminantes. Nonnunquam et ab judici- bus transeuntibus extorquebant violenter, ut a carnifi- cibus vel ab officio ferirentur. Jam vero per abrupta prsecipitia, per aquas et Mammas occidere seipsos quotidianus illis ludus fuit. plete its work, at least as much by calming passion as by correcting judgment. Notice of St. Augustin. The above narra- tive has introduced us to the name of St. Au- gustin, who was the most celebrated amongst the ancient Christian fathers, and who de- serves even now a more than usual attention, from the influence which his writings have unceasingly exerted in the Roman Catholic Church. But the notice which can here be bestowed upon him must necessarily be con- fined to very few points. He was born in Numidia, in the year 354, and his early youth was distinguished by his aversion from all study, and especially that of the Greek lan- guage. But an ardent passion for poetry at length opened the gate through which he en- tered into the fields of general literature. From profane, he directed his attention to religious subjects; and when we recollect that Tertulliau, the greatest amongst his Af- rican predecessors, seceded from the Church in the maturity of his judgment and learning, in order to embrace the visions of a raving fanatic, we are scarcely astonished to learn, that the youthful imagination of Augustin was seduced by the Manichsean opinions. He appears to have retained them for nine or ten years, during which time his rhetorical tal- ents had raised him into notice ; and it was not till the year 386, that he was persuaded (as it is said) by the sermons of St. Ambrose, and the writings of St. Paul, to return to the communion of the Church. His baptism (he was previously a catechumen only) speedily followed his conversion ; his ordi- nation took place soon afterwards, and the city of Hippo, in Africa, which owes most of its celebrity to its association with his name, was that in which he first ministered as Priest, and afterwards presided as Bishop. He died in 430, in the thirty-fifth year of his episcopate. The first recorded exploit in his ecclesias- tical life was the destruction of an inveterate and consecrated abuse. We have mentioned the innocent origin of the Agapae or feasts of charity, and the good purposes to which, in early times, they contributed. But as the in- flux of the Pagan converts grew more rapid, and as these naturally sought in the new religion for any resemblance to the popular ceremonies of the old, the solemnity in ques- tion insensibly changed its character under j their influence, and degenerated into the li- : cense and debauchery of a heathen festival. ! Augustin, while yet a presbyter, undertook ; the difficult office of persuading the people to DISSENSIONS. 155 abandon a favorite and hereditary practice, and by the simple exertion of his eloquence he succeeded. Services of reading and chanting were substituted in its place ; and while the churches of the heretics* resound- ed with the customary revelry, the voice of devotion alone proceeded from the assem- blies of the Catholics. This change took place in the year 395 ; and from that moment the reputation of Agustin spread rapidly throughout the African Church, and thence, as his labors proceeded, was diffused with no less of splendor to the most distant part of Christendom. Besides the faithful discharge of his epis- copal and his private duties, the Bishop of Hippo engaged deeply in the controversies of the day ; and his attacks are chiefly direct- ed against the Manichreans, the Donatists, and the Pelagians. His familiarity with the errors of the first may have qualified him more effectually to confute them — but it is at the same time curious to observe the motives which he advances for his own adhesion to the Catholic Church. They are the follow- ing : the consent of the people ; the authority which began in the faith of miracles, which was nourished by hope, augmented by char- ity, confirmed by antiquity ; the succession in the Chair of St. Peter : and the name of Catholic so established, that if a stranger should ask where is the Catholic Church ? no heretic would certainly dare to claim that title for his own Church, f These argu- ments, and such as these, have been so com- monly repeated in later ages, that, without at all entering (for such is not our province) in- to the question of their real value, we are contented to record their high antiquity, and the sanction which they received from the name of Angustin. His exertions against the Donatists,! which we have already noticed, have attached to the character of that father the stain of * Fleury, H. E., liv. xx., s. 11. This is the oc- casion on which it is recorded, that as long as his el- oquence was honored only hy the acclamations of the listening multitudes, Augustin was sensible of its im- perfection, and despaired of success; and his hopes were only revived by the sight of their tears. ■f- Fleury, liv. xx., s. 23. No heretic was so like- ly to have laid that claim as a Donatist— yet even a Donatist, while he maintained that the true Catho- lic spirit and purity was alone perpetuated and inher- ent in his own communion, would scarcely have af- firmed, that that was bona fide the universal Church, which did not extend beyond the shores of Africa, and which had not the majority even there. JCent. iv., p. ii., ch. iii. persecution. The maxim (says Mosheim. which justified the chastisement of religious errors by civil penalties, was confirmed and established by the authority of Augustin, and thus transmitted to following ages. He can- not be vindicated from that charge ; * he un- questionably maintained the general princi- ple, that the Unity of the Church should be preserved by secular interference, and that its adversaries should be crushed by the ma- terial sword. But his natural humanity in some degree counteracted the barbarity of his ecclesiastical principles ; and there is still extant an epistle addressed by him to Mar- cellinus (in 412), in which he earnestly en- treated that magistrate to extend mercy to certain Donatists, who had been convicted of some sanguinary excesses against the Catholics ; but the misfortune was, that, while his private philanthropy preserved the lives perhaps of a few individuals, the effica- cy which he assisted in giving to the worst maxim of Church policy not only sharpened the shafts of injustice in his own time, but tempered them for long and fatal service in after ages. The Pelagians, the third class of his religious adversaries, will receive a sepa- rate notice in the following pages. Of the numerous works which he composed, uncon- nected with these controversies, that entitled De Civitate Dei has justly acquired the great- est celebrity. We may also mention his book on the Trinity among his most impor- tant productions. He devoted much dili- gence and judgment to the interpretation of Scripture ; and his writings contain many excellent arguments for the truth of the re- ligion, and of the evangelical history ; but the mere barren enumeration of his works would convey neither amusement nor profit to the reader, and we have no space for abstracts sufficiently copious to make him familiar with the mind of the author. Erasmus lias drawn a parallel between Au- gustin and his great contemporary, the monk of Palestine, which is certainly too favorable to the latter. 'No one can deny (he says) that there is great importance in the country and education of men. Jerome was born at Stridona, which is so near to Italy, that the Italians claim him as a compatriot; he was educated at Rome under very learned mas- ters. Augustin was born in Africa, abarbar- * Besides (lie epistle to Dulcitius, see his letter, or rather tract to Boniface, ' de Correctione Donatista- rum;' and that to Vincentius (113, alias 48). The principle is avowed and defended in both — at least pro\ ided the animus be to correct, not to revenge! 166 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. ous region, and singularly indifferent to liter- ary | 'rsuits, as he avows in his epistles. Je- rome a Christian, the child of Christians, imhibed with his very milk the philosophy of Christ: Augustin began to read St. Paul's epistles with no instructer when nearly thirty years of age. Jerome devoted his great tal- ents for thirty years to the study of the Scrip- tures : Augustin was immediately hurried to the episcopal office, and compelled to teach to others what he had not yet learned him- self. We observe then, even supposing a parity of country, talents, masters, education, how much more learning was brought to the task by Jerome ; for it is no trifling matter that he was skilled in the Greek and Hebrew languages ; since in those days all theology, as well as all philosophy, was in possession of the Greeks. Augustin was ignorant of Greek ;* at least the very trifling knowledge which he possessed of it was insufficient for the study of the commentaries of the Greek writers.f The merit of more profound learn- ing was unquestionably on the side of Je- rome, but we cannot justly attribute to him any other superiority ; in soundness of reas- oning and in natural judgment he certainly yielded to the Bishop of Hippo, and in the only recorded point of difference J between them he was very properly corrected by that *Dr. Lardner makes, we think, a very ineffectual attempt to prove that Augustin knew much more of that language than he even himself professed to have known — for a kw happy translations of Greek words, and even sentences, he was probably obliged to the learning of a friend or secretary. t Erasmus ends his comparison by affirmincr, ' that for his own part he learns more of Christian philoso- phy from one page of Origen than from ten of Augus- tin;' and others, perhaps, will add, from their own experience, ' and from one page of Augustin, than from ten of Jerome.' i This dispute was on the verse (ch. ii., v. 11.) of St. Paul's epistle to the Galatians: 'When Peter came to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, be- cause he was to be blamed.' Jerome had published his opinion, that the apostles had this public differ- ence on a previous understanding, and by a charitable artifice; and that St. Paul in fact saw the policy and propriety of St. Peter's adhesion to the Jews, at the moment when he professed to condemn it. Ac- cording to Augustin, this interpretation goes to over- throw the whole authority of Scripture; for if it is once allowed to admit there the existence of service- able falsehoods, and to say that St. Paul in that passage spoke what he did not mean, and treated St. Peter as reprehensible when he did not think hiin so, there is no passage which may not be similarly eluded. The heretics who condemn marriage would assert that St. Paul only approved it through condescension to prelate. In depth of moral feeling and ener- gy of affecting eloquence the advantage is al- so due to Augustin ; and the natural suavity of his disposition, which forms so strong a contrast with what might almost be desig- nated the ferocity of Jerome, tended to soften the acrimony of religious difference,* and to throw some sparks of charity into the con- troversies in which he found himself almost necessarily engaged. Some particulars relating to his private life are recorded by historians, on the evidence of his own writings, and other respectable authority. His furniture and his dress were plain, without affectation either of fineness or of poverty. He wore, like other people, a linen garment underneath, and one of wool without ; he wore shoes and stockings, and exhorted those, who thought better to obey the Gospel by walking with naked feet, to assume no merit from that practice. 'Let us observe charity, he said — I admire your courage — endure my weakness.' His table was frugal, and ordinarily served with vege- tables ; meat was seldom prepared, unless for guests or for the infirm, but there was always wine. Excepting his spoons, which were of silver, all the service was earthen, or of wood or marble, not by necessity, but from a love for poverty. On his table were written two verses, to forbid any scandal to be spok- en of the absent — proving that it was with- out a cloth, according to the usage of anti- quity. He never forgot the poor, and aided them from the same fund on which he sub- sisted with his clergy ; that is, from the rev- enues of the Church or the oblations of the faithful. He paid great regard to hospitality, and held it as a maxim, that it was a much preferable error to entertain a rogue, than to refuse an honest man. His usual occupation was arbitration among Christians and per- sons of all religions, who submitted their dif- ferences to him. But he liked much better to decide between strangers than between his friends — 'for of the two strangers I may make one a friend ; of the two friends I shall make one an enemy.' He applied himself little to the temporal interests of the Church, but busied himself much more in study, and in the meditation of spiritual concerns.-) II. The Priscillianists. Priscillian, a Spa- nish Bishop of birth and fortune and elo- the imperfection of the first Christians — and so of others. * Compare, for instance, the manner of his opposi- tion to the opinions of Jovinian with that of Jerome. t Fleury, liv. xxiv., chap, xxxviii. xxxix. DISSENSIONS. 157 quence, was accused by certain other Bish- ops of the heresy of the Manichseans ; he was condemned by a Council held at Saragossa (in 380), and a rescript was then obtained flu- ids banishment, from the Emperor Gratian ; but he was speedily restored to his country and his dignity. Gratian was assassinated, and succeeded by Maximus, a tyrant worthy of the throne of Domitian ; and before him* Idacius and Ithakius, the two ecclesiastics most persevering in their zeal or malignity, again accused Priscillian. His followers were probably not very numerous, but they presented themselves to plead their cause and prove their innocence, before Damasus, Bishop of Rome, and the celebrated Am- brose, at Milan — from neither of them could they obtain a hearing, f Perhaps their un- fortuuate instructer was not more successful at the court of Maximus ; at least it is certain that, in the year 384, he was put to death at Treves, with some of his associates, on no other pretext than his heretical opinions. J It is now disputed what those opinions were ; and it is probable that the same dis- pute existed in his own time ; since no an- cient writer has given us any clear account of them — and none of the works of Priscil- lian or any of his followers have reached us. It seems likely, however, that the Priscillian- ists made some approaches, perhaps very distant ones, to the wild errors of the Mani- chaeans,§ respecting the two principles, the doctrine of oeons, or emanations from the di- vine nature, and the creation of the world. It is possible that they disputed the reality of *Sulpicius Severus mentions Magnus and Rufus as the two Bishops who were finally the successful agents in procuring the condemnation of Priscillian. t Their opinions may have been adopted by sever- al both among the nobility and the people, and by a vast multitude of women (as is also asserted) in Spain; but they obtained no footing elsewhere. They are said to have been introduced into that country by one Marc, an Egyptian of Memphis, and a ManichcEan. % We need not pause to notice some monstrous charges of immorality — such as we have seen so com- monly affixed to an unpopular heresy. § It is a curious reflection, that at the same mo- ment when Priscillian was suffering the pangs of death, for opinions resembling the Manicluean her- esy, St. Augustin, the destined bulwark of the Catho- lic Church, — the man whose future writings were to become a storehouse of the true doctrine for so many countries and ages — was actually and deeply involv- ed in the very intricacies of the heresy itself. He re- turned to reason — but Priscillian, who was nearer to it than himself, was hastily executed. Christ's birth and incarnation — though they professed to receive the Scriptures both of the o. IU5 01 JNestorius. He carried the doctrine of the Egyptian school to its extreme interpretation, and appears to have exceeded the obscure limits of the error of Apollinaris. * For that heresiarch affected to draw some distinction between an intellectual and a sensitive soul, which, however subtile, may seem to remove his doctrine one step from that of the Mo- nophysites; but Eutyches at once boldly pronounced 'that in Christ there was but onef nature — that of the incarnate word.' Dioscorus, who had succeeded to the throne of Alexandria and to the character of Cyril, gave his decided support to Eutyches, and as both parties grew violent, Theodosius was exhorted to convoke another Council to de- termine the difference. He did so ; and, as if to prove the inefficacy of experience to confer wisdom, he again appointed Ephesus as the place of the meeting, and again select- ed the Bishop of Alexandria to preside in it. The tumults which had disgraced the Church in 431 were repeated with some additional brutalities in 449 ; the Egyptians again were triumphant ; and the assembly at length dis- persed, after having sanctioned the doctrine of Eutyches, and acquired the title, by which it has been stigmatized in every age of the Church, as ' The Assembly of Robbers.' This meeting, we should observe, has not obtained a place among the general Councils of the Church.J: The western Bishops had hitherto inter- fered, not very warmly, in these disputes, which were indeed peculiarly oriental both in their origin and character. But Leo the Great, sensible of the scandal now brought * In the meantime, Eutyches was so far from acknowledging this resemblance, that in his letter to St. Leo, and in the presence of the Council, he anathematized Apollinaris, together with Valentinus, Manes, Nestorius, and Simon the magician. He had reached his seventy-first year, when his opinions ■were attacked by the very same man who had first Bounded the trumpet against Nestorius — Eusebius, now Bishop of Doryleum. ■f A necessary consequence of this doctrine seems to be the ascription of the passion and sufferings of Christ to the Divine (the only) nature, and this could scarcely be avoided without taking refuge in the heresy of the Phantastics. In fact, the dissensions between the Corruptibles and Incorruptibles, in the reign of Justinian, were little else than a continuation of the Eutychian controversy, in ITS consequen- ces. These disputes chiefly prevailed in Egypt, the hot-bed of the Monophysite heresy. J 2vroSug /.ijoto(X(;', Conventus Latronum, Latro- cinium Ephesinum, are the terms in which it is usu- ally mentioned by the writers of both Churches. upon the whole Church even by the tempo rary establishment of an erroneous doctrine, saw the necessity of more zealous interposi- tion. He therefore prevailed upon Marciab, the successor of Theodosius, to summon another Council on the same subject. It met at Chalcedon in 451 ; and the Pope's Legates (under the usual superintendence of the Imperial Officers) presided there. The pro- ceedings were conducted with greater decen- cy ; Eutyches and Dioscorus were condemn- ed, and the orthodox * doctrine of ' Christ in one person and two natures ' was finally es- tablished. Henoticon of Zeno. As before with the Nestorians, so now with the followers of Eutyches, their energy, and perhaps their numbers, increased on the public condemna- tion of their opinions. Some monks of that persuasion obtained possession of Jerusalem, and indulged in the most violent excesses; and the Catholic successor of Dioscorus, after a contention of five years with his Al- exandrian subjects, was at length sacrificed to their religious fury. Presently afterwards, in the year 482, the Emperor Zeno made a fruitless but memorable attempt to extinguish all religious dissension, by the publication of an Edict of Union, called the Henoticon. In this proclamation he confirmed the estab- lished doctrines, and anathematized alike the Arians, Phantastics, Nestorians, and Euty- chians ; but out of tenderness to the feelings of the last, he avoided any particular mention of the Council of Chalcedon. The more moderate men, both among the Catholics and Monophysites, f (still the two prevailing parties) subscribed this decree ; but the fruits of their moderation were not such as, by their principles and example, they deserved, and perhaps expected. Among the latter a * Admitting, as we do, that the opinions of Nesto- rius were in fact very little, if at all, removed from orthodoxy, we cannot at all assent to the reasoning of Le Clerc, who would persuade us (and who ap- pears to have persuaded both Jortin and Gibbon) that Eutyches also held the same doctrine with both Nestorius and the orthodox — for in this last dispute there is no confusion of terms; in the very same words the one party plainly asserts one, the other tivo natures of Christ; and the same train and de- scription of argument, which is applied to reconcile this difference, would, in our mind, be equally suc- cessful in removing every religious difference. f The Eutychians, or Monophysites, are also known in history by the appellation of Jacobites, from the name of one of their teachers, Jame9 Bara- daeus. 166 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. violent schism arose, and this speedily gave birth to numerous other schisms which divided into several sects the followers of Eutyches; while among the Catholics very great and general indignation was excited, by the omission of the name of Chalcedon, against all who had signed so imperfect a declaration of orthodoxy. And thus, to the disgrace of the disputants, and almost to the scandal of human nature, it proved that an attempt, judiciously conceived by a benevo- lent Prince, to compose the religious differ- ences of his subjects, produced no other effect than to inflame the character and multiply the grounds of dissension. And that unhappy result was not in this case attributable to the infliction of any civil penalties in the arbitrary enforcement of the decree, but solely to the vehemence of the passions engaged on both sides, which had Hardened the greater number against any representations of wisdom or reason, and even against the ordinary influence of their human feelings. Tke Monothelites. However, time effected much towards the healing of these animosi- ties, and they were diverted during the reign of Justinian into other channels. After the lapse of nearly two hundred years the agita- tions of the tempest had seemingly subsided, and the differences, and even the malevo- lence, which may still have existed, no long- er broke out into open outrage. The vain curiosity of the Emperor Heraclius threaten- ed the revival of those evils. On his return from the Persian war in the year 629, that Prince proposed to his Bishops the unprofit- able question—' Whether Christ, of one per- son but two natures, was actuated by a single or a double will ? ' The Greeks in general favored the former opinion, but not with their-usual impetuosity ; indeed they seem at jength to have been so far exhausted by such fruitless contests, as to have considered the question trifling and superfluous. And it was not until the year 680, that, through the angry opposition of the Latins to this dogma, the Sixth General Council was assembled at Constantinople, which formally pronounced that two wills were harmonized in the person of Christ. Such is still the doctrine both of the Greek and Latin Churches ; and with the establishment of that doctrine the contro- versy respecting the incarnation, after an in- terrupted duration of about three hundred years, expired.* * Accurately speaking, the Monothelite Controver- sy was rattier a consequence, than a part, of that The heretics who advocated the one will were called Monothelites, and by this name the dispute is generally known. It lasted about fifty years ; and it is a painful but ne- cessary reflection, that during its continuance, while the attention of Christendom was in some degree engaged by it, the Mahometans had found time to convert Arabia and to complete the conquest of Persia, Syria, Pal- estine, and Egypt: the three patriarchal thrones, Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, had fallen into their hands ; and Carthage it- self was already on the point of undergoing the same fate. Having treated the conduct of the parties engaged in these dissensions with unrestrain- ed freedom, we shall conclude with some considerations not unfavorable to them, and not less just than our censure. 1. None of the disputants at any time relapsed into any heresy respecting the Trinity — the doctrine which had been established by the first and second General Councils was followed with equal fidelity by those who deviated from the Church respecting the Incarnation, and by those who adhered to it. 2. As the manner, in which this controversy was conducted, exhibited the earnest devotion of all parties to their respective opinions, so the origin of all those opinions may be traced to an anxie- ty (oftentimes indeed a very injudicious anx- iety) to acquire accurate notions respecting the Redeemer, so as neither to exaggerate nor disparage his dignity. It may be traced to an excess of the religious feeling, even to a tendency to superstitious enthusiasm, but at least it was free from the infection of that cold, indifferent apathy, which sometimes shelters itself under the name of philosophy, but which, in fact, is not far removed from skepticism. 3. The very individuals who, under the excitement of religious dissension and the bustle of public councils, heated too by the various passions which the mere spirit of resistance will create in the calmest tem- perament, ran loose into scandalous excesses, might very consistently be endued with the purest piety, and habituated, in the private exercise of their sacerdotal functions, to the fervent discharge of every Christian duty. It argues a very slight or a very partial view respecting the Incarnation, since those who adopted the doctrine of one will, did not in consequence reject the decisions either of Ephesus or Chalcedon, but adhered, on the contrary, to both, — so as to unite (in profession at least, if not in reason) the strictest or- thodoxy respecting the nature and person of Christ with their perverse opinion respecting his will DISSENSIONS. 1G7 of human nature to infer, from the occasional extravagance of public feeling, the general destitution of moral principle or the absence of virtuous habits ; and we must be careful not to be misled by those historians who bid us judge the general character of the Eastern Clergy by their conduct at the Councils of Ephesus. Lastly, Whatever may have been the original policy of convoking General Councils for the suppression of religious difference, it cannot be asserted that such Councils were wholly useless — for besides the particular doctrine which they were call- ed upon to settle, and which on some occa- sions was fundamentally important, they also published numerous canons and ordinan- ces for the regulation and reform of the Church. These were disseminated and re- ceived through every part of Christendom, and very often proved of the highest utility ; and even as to the doctrines on such occa- sions established, we should observe, that after the first tumult of opposition had sub- sided, they met with general acquiescence ; that they were almost universally adopted in succeeding ages, and still constitute the creed of the great majority of Christians.* VI. Controversy on Images. We proceed to the contest respecting the Worship of Images, which claims our careful attention, partly from the extreme agitation which it excited throughout Christendom during the eighth and ninth centuries — partly, because it occasioned (should we not rather say ac- celerated ?) the separation of the Roman States from the Greek Empire. Among the various superstitions which had gradually grown up in the Church, and of which the * The Controversy, which we have described, branched out into various theories respecting the manner of the union of the two natures, which amu- sed the refined imaginations of the Greeks. But it was reserved for the grosser absurdity of a German to originate the following offensive speculation: — * Eodem tempore aliud ex Germania certamen in Gallias inferebatur de modo quo Sanctissimus Serva- tor ex utero Matris in lucem prodiit. German! qui- dam Jesuni Christum non communi reliquorum homi- nuin lege, sed singulari et extraordinaria, utero Matris exiisse statuebant. Qua senlentia in Galliam delata, Ratramnus earn oppugnabat, atque Christum per naturae januam in muiidum ingressum esse tueba- tur. Germania subveniebat Paschasius Radbertus, libro singulari, &c. &c.' Jortin, vol. iv., p. 489. This occurred about the year 840, and it is worthy of notice, if it were only that we find the great patron of Trausubstantiation, Paschasius Radbertus, advo- cating such extravagant and impious nonsense. vestiges may, in some cases, be traced to its earliest ages, none had obtained such general influence and firm footing among the lower orders (especially in the East) as Image- worship. It was an idle distinction to up- hold a respect for images, as means and not as objects of devotion, when they were pre- sented to the uninstructed and undiscrimi- nating vulgar. When the understanding has never been enlightened, when the heart has never been informed with the genuine feel- ings of religion, the devotee will surely address his prayer to the Deity which is placed before his eyes, and turn, in the dark- ness of his intellect, to that which is percep- tible by his mere senses. And it was there- fore the greatest among the crimes of the ancient directors of the Church, and that which appears more peculiarly to have brought down upon it the chastisement from Arabia, that they filled the temples with their detested idols, and obtruded them upon the eyes and into the hands of the most ignorant. Nor can their advocates plead the necessity of this conduct ; for the example of the Mahometan faith alone has proved, that a people may be barbarous without being idolatrous, when idolatry is discouraged by the ministers of religion. And if any excuse be furnished by the general and deeply-root- ed influence of the ancient superstition, it is at least none for those who exerted their power and their talents to extend and per- petuate it. Unhappily, those exertions were attended by too easy success ; before the year GOO, idolatry was firmly established in the Eastern Church, and during the follow- ing century it made a gradual and very gen- eral progress in the West, where it had pre- viously gained some footing. Leo the Isaurian. It was not till the year 726 that any vigorous attempt was made to disturb its sway, and then the minds of men were become weakened by long acquies- cence in superstitious maxims, even so far as to regard with submissive reverence the sins and follies of their ancestors. Never- theless, the Emperor Leo, surnamed the Isaurian, a prince of sense and energy, had the boldness to undertake,* in the face of so * Roman Catholic historians attribute Leo's reso- lution to the sudden appearance of a new island in the Archipelago, from volcanic causes. This phe- nomenon the superstitious Emperor ascribed to the Divine wrath, excited by the idolatrous impiety of his subjects. He is also supposed to have derived his prejudice from the Mahometan religion, to which his attachment is more than insinuated. 168 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. many difficulties, the purification of the Church ; and he began his pious enterprise by an attack on its most flagrant corruption. It is disputed, whether the first measur^ of Leo was prudently confined to the abolition of idolatrous worship, and the removal of its objects to higher and more distant situations in the Churches, wherein they were suspend- ed ; or whether, without any indulgence to prejudice, he entirely concealed them from view, and even destroyed them. The effect of the edict would rather lead us to the latter conclusion — for it immediately occasioned a civil war, both in the East and in the West. In the East, the islands of the Archipelago, and even a part of Asia, broke out into a tumultuous insurrection, which however was speedily suppressed ; but in the West, the more deliberate resistance of the Bishop of Rome (Gregory II.) encouraged the rebellion of the Italian provinces (in 730,) and led to the defeat of the Imperial troops before Ravenna; the tribute paid to the Eastern Emperor was then withdrawn, and his au- thority was never afterwards acknowledged in the Ecclesiastical States. This reverse did not abate the zeal of Leo, who proceeded at least to enforce his resolu- tions, so far as his power extended ; and as he found the strongest opposition to proceed from the monastic orders, he extended his scheme of reformation to them. And in spite of various tumults, excited partly by their influence and partly through a popular prejudice in favor of superstition, he persist- ed in his project, with uncompromising perseverance, and even with some prospect of success, until his death. In the year 741 he was succeeded by his son Constantine, surnamed Copronymus, who faithfully fol- lowed his footsteps. Thirteen years after- wards that Prince assembled a synod in the suburbs of Constantinople, at which three hundred and thirty-eight Bishops attended. They decreed the destruction of images,* and the decision, which has sometimes been attributed to their loyalty, may with equal justice be ascribed to their sense and their piety. They were called Iconoclasts, or image-breakers ; and the execution of their decrees occasioned many calumnies against * Some of the arguments seriously advanced on this occasion by the Iconoclasts seem intended to surpass the absurdity of their adversaries; according to them, even the painter is convicted of several and even the most opposite heresies. They may be found in Fleury, liv. xliii., sect. 7. the Emperor's character, and many tumults, which disturbed the peace and even endan- gered the security of his reign. Neverthe- less, that reign lasted thirty-four years; and the whole space was perseveringly employed in contention with idols, with the monks who protected them, and with the pernicious influence of Rome, which was active and constant in the support of both. Seventh General Council. Leo, who suc- ceeded, was guided by the principles of Con- stantine ; but he died soon after his accession, and the education of his son, a boy of ten years old, as well as the direction of public affairs, was entrusted to the Empress Irene. Immediately the religious policy of the pal- ace was changed ; and as fifty years of vigor- ous opposition had not availed to extirpate corruptions which were the gradual growth of four centuries, the change was hailed with delight by a large proportion of the people. In the year 787, a General Council was as- sembled at Nice, by which the images were reinstated in their former honors * through the united exertions of the monks and the mob, and the Pope and the Empress. This Council, the second of Nice, is accounted in the East as the seventh and last General Council, and its decisions completed the body of doctrine and discipline which con- stitutes the system of the Greek Church. It may be proper, in this place, very brief- ly, to remind our readers of the particular objects for which these seven celebrated councils were severally summoned ; not merely as matters of barren recollection, but because we perceive in them, if we are not greatly in error, an indication of the gradual departure of the Church, first from scriptural simplicity, and then from truth. Between the first and the last of them the space of 462 years intervened, an interval full of im- portant, and for the most part, pernicious * The following is a part of the Confession of Faith published with the authority of this Council: — ' We receive, besides the figure of the cross, the relics of saints, and their images ; we embrace them according to the ancient tradition of our fathers, who have placed them in all the Churches of God, and all the places where he is served. We honor and adore them, viz. that of Jesus Christ, of his holy Mother, of the angels, — for though they are incorporeal, they have revealed themselves in a hu- man form ; those of the apostles, the prophets, the martyrs, and other saints ; because those paintings recall to us the memory of the originals and make us participate in their sanctity.' Fleury, liv. xliv sect 34 DISSENSIONS. 169 changes in the ecclesiastical constitution ; but most of these were imperceptibly introduced, especially into the Western Church, without the authority or cognizance of any general assembly, and they involved many circum- stances of power, property, or discipline, to which we do not here intend any reference. The professed purpose for which the general councils were in every instance convoked, was to compose the controversy of the day, and to pronounce a final decision upon the doctrine which happened to be disputed ; and thus, in the history of those councils, we fol- low the track of theological investigation, and observe it gradually receding from soberness and sense. (1.) The object for which the two first were assembled was to ascertain and promul- gate the scriptural doctrine of the Trinity ; and a more important inquiry, and one more worthy of the deliberate consideration of the directors of Christendom, was not ever pro- pounded to any religious assembly : and their decisions respecting this doctrine were in ac- cordance with the sense of Scripture, as it has been interpreted by the great majority of Christians in every following age. (2.) The questions proposed for the investi- gation of the third and fourth Councils were of less importance to truth, and, in the same proportion precisely, more difficult to com- prehend and determine, — the nature of Christ's existence on earth. The manner in which they were argued was not calculated to diminish this difficulty ; and the violence with which even the more decorous* of these meetings was disgraced was such as would * We might refer to the whole account of the ses- sions of the Council of Chalcedon, even as it is given by Fleury (lib. xx. 8.). One short passage may serve as a specimen. The assembly was divided into two parties; the Bishops of Egypt, Illyrium, and Palestine formed one ; those of the East — of Pontus, Asia, and Thrace — the other. Theodoret was obnoxious to the former party, as being suspected of the Nestorian heresy. Nevertheless, he was allowed a seat in the Council by the Emperor. When he took his place the Orientals cried out, ' He is worthy of it.' The Egyptians exclaimed, ' Call him not Bishop — he is no Bishop; expel the enemy of God- expel the Jew! ' The Orientals cried, 'Expel the seditious — drive out the murderers! ' And they con- tinued for some time to vent such exclamations on both sides. At length the magistrates interfered: ' These popnlar cries are unworthy of the episcopal character, and are of no use to either party — allow the paper to be read to you.' The Egyptians ex- claimed, ' Expel that one man only, and we will all listen; our voice is raised for the Catholic flJith,' &c. 22 naturally result from eager disputation on a matter of mysterious and almost impenetra- ble abstruseness. The subject of the labors of the Sixth Council grew out of that which occupied the third and fourth ; and while it surpassed the other in metaphysical intrica- cy, it presented even less prospect of any practical advantage from its decision. (3.) The matters which employed the Fifth Council were derived from the individual opinions of Origen ; and if these should be thought by some not to have merited by their importance the cognizance of so solemn a tri- bunal, they had at least a far greater claim on general attention than the foolish specu- lation of the Monothelites. (4.) The seventh and last * established idol- atry as the law of the Christian Church : and thus was completed the structure of oriental orthodoxy. It rose from the most solid and substantial foundation ; it advanced, by the labors of a busy but unwise generation, through the mid ah- and mist of metaphysics, and terminated in a still blinder age, in clear and manifest superstition. The same seven Councils are also received by the Roman Church, but not as a perfect rule, either of faith or discipline ; and, indeed, when we consider that they were held, with- out exception, in the East, on the occasion of controversies originating in the East, and al- most confined to it ; that their deliberations were closely surveyed and influenced, if not directed, by the Eastern emperor ; and that the prelates who framed them were almost exclusively Orientals,! we shall be disposed, perhaps, to feel some surprise that the West- ern Church, with so many causes of variance with her rival, should have acquiesced so submissively in their decisions. * It would seem very strange, were we not accus- tomed to such phenomena, that the last public act of the united Greek and Latin Communions, the last which was, in truth, binding on the universal Church, was the establishment of the grossest practical corrup- tion which the religion has ever suffered. Let us add, too, that it was established solely on the authority of tradition, while it was that, of all others, for which even the traditional authority is most defective, since it cannot be traced higher than the fourth century. f At Nice, among 318 members, three were of the Western Church; at Constantinople (1), among 150, one only; at Ephesus, among 68, one; at Ghalcedon, among 353, three ; at Constantinople (2), among 164, six; at Constantinople (3) among 56, five; and even at the last, among the 377 who assisted, we can ob- serve no Occidentals, except the Pope's legates, a very small number of Sicilian Bishops, and a deputy of the Bishop of Sardinia. 170 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. The edicts of the last general Council did not secure immediate ohedience. Leo the Armenian, who reigned from 814 to 820, re- lapsed into the heresy of the Isaurian. He fell an early victim to conspiracy ; but his successor, Michael, fearlessly proceeded in the same difficult endeavor; and the earnest- ness of his wishes and the perplexities of his situation are naturally displayed in an epistle addressed by him to the son of Charlemagne, Louis, Emperor of the west. As this docu- ment throws great general light on the eccle- siastical history of that age, we shall transcribe it here. ' Many of our clergy and laity, departing from the apostolical traditions, have intro- duced pernicious novelties. They took down the crosses in the churches and put images in their room, before which they lighted up lamps and burned incense, honoring them as the cross. They sang before them, worship- ped them, and implored their succor. Many dressed the female images with robes, and made them stand godmothers to their chil- dren. They offered up hair to them when they cut it off for the first time. Some Presbyters scratched off the paint from the images and mixed it with the holy Eucharist, and gave it in the Communion. Others put the body of the Lord into the hands* of the images, and made the communicants take it out thence. Others used boards with pic- tures painted on them, instead of an altar, on which they consecrated the elements : and many such-like abuses were committed. Therefore, the orthodox Emperors and the most learned Bishops, assembled in council, have forbidden these enormities, and have removed the images to higher places in the church, where they stood formerly, and when they were not worshipped, as they have been of late, by ignorant people. ' Some of the complainers are gone to Rome to calumniate us there ; but we are orthodox ; we believe the Trinity, one God in three persons, the incarnation of the Word, his two wills and two operations ; we implore the intercession of the Holy Virgin, the mother of God, and of all the Saints ; we reverence their relics ; we receive all the * Thus it appears that the distinction at present so broadly drawn by the Greek Church between the •worship of painted and of graven images did not then exist. The distinction is, indeed, very old in the writings of the Church; but it is probable that it was not practically iutroduced until after the Mahometan conquest. apostolical traditions and the decrees of the six Councils.'* The spirit of appeal and justification in which the above epistle is conceived, indi- cates the weakness of a falling cause ; and so. indeed, it proved : for in the year 842 the Empress Theodora reestablished the author- ity of the Seventh Council, and replaced the images with so firm a hand that they have never since been shaken. In celebration of this achievement, a new festival was institut- ed under the name of the 'Feast of Ortho- doxy,'! and the most riotous enthusiasm generally attended the proclamation of idola- try. The malice of historians has not failed to observe, that as the first success over the reviving reason and religion had been obtain- ed under the auspices of Irene ; so the second and mortal wound was inflicted by the rash- ness of a second woman. J The charge is true and remarkable ; but the strenuous and systematic exertions of a long succession of Popes in the same cause will easily excuse the blindness of two empresses. Indeed, a general view of history rather tends to raise our astonishment that so many princes were found wise and bold enough to stem the popular torrent. But this attempt at reform- ation commenced so late, and under circum- stances so unfavorable, that even another century of judicious exertion, continued with- out pause or vacillation, might scarcely have sufficed for its success. We shall conclude the chapter with a few additional remarks on this controversy. The * See Jortin, Eccl. Hist, ad ann. 814. From this concluding confession we observe how many were the abuses to which even a reformer of die Church felt obliged to publish his adhesion. + There seems some reason to believe that this feast was not established until after the Council which was assembled by Photius, in 879, in further confirmation of idolatry. tin favor at least of the consistency of that sex, we must mention that it declared itself for idolatry from the very commencement of the contest, and very strongly too, as will be seen. Leo the Isaurian began his enterprise by an attack upon a very celebrated image of Jesus Christ, called the Antiphonetes, or Respondent; and he despatched one of his officers, named Jovinus, to break it down. Several women who were present endeavored to avert his design by their supplications; but Jovinus, nothing moved by them, ascended a ladder and dealt some severe blows on the image. On this the women became furious ; they pulled down the ladder, massacred the officer on the spot, and tore him in pieces. The image fell notwithstanding, and the woman were led away to execution. DISSENSIONS. 171 best writer in the Eastern Church during this most critical period in its history, — indeed, the only writer of any reputation even in his own day, — was Johu Damascenus; * and with his name the long list of Greek Fathers may properly be said to terminate. His la- borious and subtile works (of which the prin- cipal are ' Four Books concerning the Or- thodox Faith,' and 'Sacred Parallels') are tainted by the infection of the Aristotelian philosophy, and by a strong superstitious ten- dency ; and, therefore, we are not surprised to observe that his elocoience and influence were zealously engaged in the defence of images. He possessed considerable learning ; and his sophistry, no less than his authority, may really have blinded the reason of some, while many more would feed, under the shel- ter of his name, a previous inclination to idol- atry.f We believe it to be true, that of the mir- acles which are recorded to have abundant- ly signalized this prolonged dispute, the very great proportion, if we should not rather say the whole, were performed by the friends of the idols, — a fact which, while it proves the higher principles of the other party, will also assist in accounting for their unpopularity. The people in the East were not, indeed, at this time so stupid and unenlightened as the serfs of the Western Empire ; but they were by nature more disposed to fanaticism ; they were familial-, by long habits of deception, with preternatural appearances, and disposed, by a controlling imagination, to eager credu- lity. The Bishops, and, in general, the secular clergy of the East, appear to have taken no violent part in the contest. Indeed, we are persuaded that that numerous body contained * He was a monk, and contemporary with Leo the Isaurian, against whom he vented his indignation with great impunity, as his ordinary residence was the monastery of St. Sabas, near Jerusalem, beyond the limits of the imperial control. He condescends to ap- peal to the authority of older fathers in his defence of im- ages— to that of Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Anastasius of Antioch, and others. But we believe that he has not even affected to advance any name of higher antiquity than the fourth century, — not, by the way, that his cause would have been much better if he had. He was anathematized by the Iconoclast Council in 754. f Theodore Studites, a monk and abbot, has ac- quired great reputation in the history of the Eastern Church by his obstinate defence of the orthodox prac- tice, chiefly during the second contest. Exile was the punishment of his zeal, and severer punishment was very seldom, if ever, inflicted on the contumacious. many pious and rational individuals who were shocked by the degradation of Chris- tianity and human nature, and who watched with an anxious eye the endeavors which were made to remove it. But such charac- ters, which are among the best of the sacred profession, are seldom busy or ambitious ; and the anxiety of those excellent men may have been often confined to their own bosoms, or at least to the narrow limits of their diocese. On the other hand, the monastic orders have too generally attested the spuriousness of their origin by their alliance with impurity and imposture. And thus, in the present in- stance, they were furious advocates for a sys- tem so necessary to their influence and their avarice ; and it is chiefly, no doubt, to their perseverance that we are to attribute the evil result of the conflict. The common people, partly from a natural tendency to a sensible worship, partly from the inveteracy of long habit, were strongly disposed to the same party ; and that dispo- sition was effectually improved by the monks, who, from a greater show of austerity, had the greatest hold upon their minds. Nor is the circumstance to be slightly noticed, that the contest in this case was for an intelligible and visible object. Unlike the metaphysical intricacies of some former controversies, it carried a direct appeal to the understanding of the vulgar, because its subject was the sub- ject of their senses. If they positively wor- shipped the image, its destruction deprived them of their god ; and even if the worship was only relative, it was extremely easy to persuade them that, in parting with the sym- bols of their faith, with the book of their re- ligion, they were rashly casting away religion itself. Their enthusiasm was heated by false miracles ; and when we think of the violence which the populace of the East were wont to exhibit even at their public spectacles, in the frivolous contests of the Hippodrome, we shall understand to what excesses they might be hurried by the agitation of religious excitement. The Papal Chair perseveringly supported the cause of superstition ; and this, perhaps, is the first occasion on which the close alli- ance of principle between the Pope and th monastic orders displayed itself. The Pope's legates were present at the last general Coun- cil, and his Italian clergy appear to have given him very cordial assistance. Not so the more rational Prelates of France. Less awed by the presence of the spiritual direct- or, more so by the dictates of real piety, they 172 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. established, under the guidance of Charle- magne,* a very broad distinction between positive and relative worship; and without entirely disclaiming the authority of the Sev- enth Council, they endeavored to obviate, as much as possible, the great practical evil which directly flowed from it. This differ- ence in the conduct of the French and Italian Churches on so great a question is a fact of some importance in history and deserving of attentive notice ; and it is but justice to our own ancestors, as well as to the German di- vines of the age, to admit that they gener- ally endeavored to follow the same difficult course. But their resistance was not long effectual, nor indeed could it reasonably ex- pect success ; because, by permitting the use of images and their presence in the congre- gations of the converts, they made that first concession to error, of which all the others were remote, perhaps, but necessary conse- quences, f CHAPTER XII. On the Schism between the Greek and Latin Churches. Preliminary considerations — political causes — Ecclesias- tical— Origin of the Dispute — Dignity and Jurisdiction of the See of Constantinople — Council of Chalcedon — Ambition of the Patriarch — Oriental dissensions — prof- itable to the Pope — Popish legate at Constantinople — Disputes between the two Sees — Title of CEcumenical Bishop assumed by John the Faster — Opposition of Gregory the Great — Emperor Phocas — Limits of papal influence in Greece — Ground of controversy changed — Procession of the Holy Spirit — the original doctrine — Process of the change — Spain — France — Charlemagne — Moderation of Pope Leo III. — Perseverance of the Greeks — Forgery of the Latins — the Patriarch Photius — his character — his excommunication of Pope Nicholas I. — Five heresies charged on the Roman Church — Transfer of several provinces from papal to patriarchal jurisdiction — Bulgaria — Dissensions of the Greeks — Fortunes of Photius — Connexion of Rome with Greek parties — defeat of the designs of the former — Subse- quent differences — Michael Cerularius — Anathema of Leo IX. by his legates at Constantinople. We have so frequently had occasion, espec- ially in our later pages, to distinguish between * The Council of Francfort, whose deliberations were held under the eye of that monarch, went, in- deed, somewhat further than this, and, though it per- mitted the images to remain, forbade any sort of ado- ration to be addressed to them. t Dupin (Nouv. Bibl. on second Council of Nice) gives a tolerably fair historical view of the subject of image worship. He admits that, during the three first ages and the beginning of the fourth, images were the conduct and character of the Greek and Roman Churches, that it becomes necessary to enter still further into the causes of this dis- tinction, and to trace the differences which had for some time disturbed their harmony, and which ended in their entire separation. In so doing, we must, in the first place, be careful not to confound the division of the churches with that of the empires ; for the former, in fact, did not take place until more than a century after the final alienation of the ecclesiastical States from the sceptre of Leo the Isaurian. Nor, on the other hand, should we be correct in considering these events as perfectly unconnected. Doubtless, political causes had great influence both in opening and widening the spiritual breach. The di- vision of the empire under Arcadiusand Ho- norius, though not immediately affecting the unity of the Church, operated indirectly to its disturbance by weakening the bonds of connexion and destroying the complete com- munity of interests which more naturally subsists under a single government. Again, the circumstance that the seat of the Western Empire was removed from Rome to Ravenna communicated that sort of independence to the Roman Bishop, which, though it confer- red not, in fact, any temporal authority, fail- ed not to give nourishment to his pride and some countenance to his general claims of supremacy. A further alienation was neces- sarily occasioned by the barbarian conquest of the West ; because this event not only an- nihilated the former relations and the reci- procal dependence of the two empires, but also produced a great and rapid change in the character of the Western clergy, and even in the principles of the Church. Lastly, the common violence and mutual insults of Leo the Isaurian and Pope Greg- ory II., the civil war which broke out be- tween them, the complete triumph of the lat- ter and the consequent transfer of certain ju- very rare among Christians ; that towards the end of the fifth, pictures and images made their appear- ance, chiefly in the East, and became common in the sixth ; they represented combats of martyrs and oth- er sacred stories, for the instruction of those who were unable to read. The simple vulgar were touch- ed by these representations ; and when they beheld the Saints so vividly, and, as it were, bodily presented to them, they could not prevent themselves from tes- tifying, by exterior signs, the esteem, the respect, and the veneration which they felt for them. Thus the worship of images insensibly established itself, and it was still further confirmed by the miracles which were attributed to them. GREEK AND LATIN CHURCHES. 173 risdiction in Sicily and the South of Italy, from the Roman to the Constantinopolitan See, greatly tended to weaken the spirit which had hitherto identified the Churches, and to remove any notion of their insepara- bility. These are some of the political caus- es which undoubtedly prepared the way for the Grand Schism, and contributed to accel- erate and inflame it. But there are others, of a nature purely ecclesiastical, to which it is more usually ascribed, and which had doubtless the principal share in its accom- plishment. The earliest recorded difference between the churches was that already noticed by us respecting the celebration of Easter; and we also remarked the tone of authority which the Bishop of the imperial city arrogated even in those days ; but their connexion, and even their harmony, was not seriously endangered by that dispute, nor, indeed, can we trace the origin of the fatal controversy with any cer- tainty to an earlier period than the fifth cen- tury. On the foundation of the new capital at Byzantium, the Bishop was, of course, in- vested with some power and dignity, which gradually increased through the consent or the neglect of the immediate successors of Constantine ; however, the superior rank and precedence of the Roman Pontiff" was not yet disputed. But in the beginning of the fifth century the spiritual jurisdiction of the See of Constantinople was much more widely ex- tended ; it then comprehended Asia, Thrace, and Pontus, and advanced on the west with- in the confines of Illyricum ; and in 451 the Council of Chalcedon not only confirmed that jurisdiction, but conferred on the Bish- op of Constantinople the same honors and privileges which were already possessed by that of Rome ; the equality of the Pontiffs was justified by the equal dignity and lustre of the two capitals. The legates of Leo the Great were present, and had considerable in- fluence in that council ; but neither their ex- ertions, nor those of the Pope himself, were able to prevent this affront to his dignity. Having attained so elevated a situation, the patriarch very soon proceeded to exalt him- self still higher; the method which he took to extend his authority was, to humble, if possible, his brethren of Antioch and Alex- andria,* and thus the same ambition was * It was not till a little before this time that Juve- nal, Bishop of Jerusalem, usurped the title of patri- arch, which, however, was confirmed to him by The- odosius the Younsrer. found to pursue the same course at Constan- tinople as at Rome. But there it was liable to severer mortifications and more effectual control from the immediate presence of the Emperor, from his power and supremacy, and his habitual interference in church affairs. Again, the grasping ambition of the patri- arch, and the dissensions which, from other causes no less than from that, so continually disturbed the Oriental Church, were product- ive of great influence to the Pope, not only through the positive weakness occasioned to that Church by such divisions, but chiefly because the injured or discontented party very generally made its appeal to the Roman See, where it met with most willing and par- tial attention. We may recollect that Atha- nasius, when persecuted in the east, fled to the western Church for refuge ; and this ex- ample was not lost on those who thought themselves aggrieved in after ages. It is true that Roman interference was, on every occa- sion, indignantly rejected by the rival Pontiff; nevertheless the habit of interposing would lead many to suppose that it was founded on some indefinite, unacknowledged right, and disaffection was encouraged in the east by the certainty of a powerful protector. Very soon after the Council of Chalcedon, Leo appointed a resident legate at Constanti- nople to watch over the papal interests, and to communicate with the Vatican on matters of spiritual importance. That useful priv- ilege, as we have already seen, was not aban- doned by succeeding Popes: and those ec- clesiastical ambassadors, or 'Correspondents,' continued for some time to represent the Pa- pal chair in the eastern capital. For the next hundred and thirty years the disputes respecting the equality of the two Sees, as well as the limits of their jurisdiction, were carried on with little interruption per- haps, but with little violence. But in 588, at a Synod called at Constantinople respect- ing the conduct of a patriarch of Antioch, John, surnamed the Faster, who was then Primate of the East, adopted, as we have ob- served, the title of CEcumenical, or Universal Bishop. It appears that this title had been conferred on the patriarchs by the Emperors Leo and Justinian, without any accession of power; nor was it, in fact, understood to in- dicate any claim to supremacy beyond the limits of the Eastern Church. But Gregory could not brook such assumption in an East- ern Prelate, and used every endeavor to de- prive his rival of the obnoxious tide, and at the same time to establish his own superi- 174 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. ority. He failed in both these attempts— at least his success in the latter was confined to the Western clergy, and to the interested and precarious assent of the discontented subjects of the Eastern Church. The quarrel proceeded during the seventh century, and Roman Catholic writers confi- dently assert, that the Emperor Phocas (a sanguinary usurper) through the influence of Pope Boniface III. transferred the disputed title from the Greek to the Roman Pontiff. It seems probable that he acknowledged the preeminence of the latter — and early usage justified him in so doing — without at all de- rogating from the independence of the for- mer. But the alliance of the Eastern Empe- ror with a foreign Bishop against his own patriarch could not possibly be of long dura- tion ; and, accordingly, throughout the con- troversy about images (which presently fol- lowed) we find the Pope in direct and open opposition to the Emperor, and to the power- ful party in his Church which favored him. On the other hand, the ecclesiastical orders in the East were so widely and passionately divided on the subject of this dispute, and the hopes of the weaker and more violent party were obliged for so many years to fix themselves on Rome, that the Pope must again have acquired great influence in that quarter. It was great, but it was temporary only; for the popular prejudice, especially in Greece itself, was still strong and general against any acknowledgment of papal supre- macy, and the national vanity was still jeal- ous of the name and ascendency of Rome. And thus the actual influence of the Pope was generally confined to those who stood in need of his assistance, and seldom survived the crisis during which they needed it. Thus far the disputes between the Pope and the Patriarch were confined almost en- tirely to the question of supremacy in the Universal Church, pertinaciously claimed by the one, and perseveringly refused by the other ; and to this difference we need not doubt that a great proportion of the violence which disgraced the controversy may be as- cribed. But during the eighth century the contention assumed a different aspect, and took a ground and character less discreditable to either party. The double Procession. According to the original creed of the Latin as well as of the Greek Church, the Holy Spirit was believ- ed to proceed from the Father only ; and the question, though of great theological impor- tance, does not appear to have been generally investigated until the eighth century — at least to that period we must refer the origin of the controversy respecting it. It is true that the change in the established doctrine was first in troduced into the Church of Spain,* an even which must have taken place before the Ma- hometan conquest. Thence it proceeded in- to France, and in the year 767 it was agitated in the Council of Gentilli, near Paris ; it then received the assent of the French clergy. Soon afterwards it was warmly advocated by Charlemagne himself; and in the year 809, at the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle,f Pope Leo III. acknowledged the truth of the doctrine, but still objected to making it an article of faith, observing, with great reason, ' that every doctrine which is true should not, for that reason, be inserted in a creed ; ' nevertheless, as it had previously obtained place in the Latin creeds, his authority, or his inclination, was not sufficiently strong to effect its gen- eral erasure. It was maintained in France, and its rejection by Rome was feeble and tem- porary. But the Greeks obstinately adhered to their original faith, as established by the Council of Constantinople ; and what gave them great advantage in the subsequent con- troversy was, that their adversaries had be- gun the contest by abandoning the defensible ground of argument ; they forgot the author- ity of scripture, and took refuge under a fals- ified copy of the Canons of that Council, into which (through that obtuse craft which be- comes a principle in ignorant ages) the words Filioque (and the Son) had been interpolated. The fraud was instantly detected, and the homage which they had thus reluctantly of- fered to the Council in question was convert- ed into a conclusive argument by an adver- sary, who rested his own faith on no better ground than its antiquity. Photius. A controversy conducted on such principles could hope for no rational discus- sion, nor any friendly termination, its only effect was to inflame the enmity already too hotly kindled, and to accelerate the certain hour of separation. This consummation was presently secured by the promotion of a very * Baronius asserts, that the words Filioque were first added by the Council of Toledo, by the author- ity of Pope Leo I., about the year 447; but he con- fesses that the doctrine was not expressly received by the Roman Church until some ages afterwards. 1 Fleury, Hist. Eccl. liv. xlv. sect. 48. The Pope defended his opinion by the argument, that two Gen- eral Councils, that of Chalcedon and the Fifth, had forbidden any addition to the creed GREEK AND LATIN CHURCHES. 175 extraordinary person to the patriarchal throne. In the year 853, Photius,* a layman of splen- did talents, unusual extent of erudition both secular and theological, and unimpeachable moral character, was raised to that dignity r>y the Emperor Michael, who, with that new, removed and banished the actual Bish- op, Ignatius. The exile appealed to Rome. And if the jealousy of the Vatican was excit- ed by the splendid reputation of the new patriarch, its anxiety might also be awakened by his ambitious and fearless character : therefore Pope Nicholas I., who was as proud and aspiring as his rival, listened to the ap- peal, and eagerly espoused the cause of Igna- tius. He assembled a Council at Romef in 862, in which he pronounced the election of Photius illegal, and excommunicated him with all his abettors. The patriarch was not inuch disturbed by this violence, and four years afterwards, in a Council summoned at Constantinople, he retorted the anathemas of his rival, pronounced his deposition, and re- moved him from the communion of all Chris- tians. Photius justified this extremely bold mea- sure by a circular letter addressed to his brother patriarchs, in which, besides some strong reflections on other grievances, he charged the Roman Church with five direct heresies. We shall here enumerate them, both that we may more clearly show what were held to be the principal points on which the Churches were divided, and also that we may observe how low the malevolence of controversy will sometimes condescend to stoop : 1. That the Romans fasted on the Sab- bath, or seventh day of the week ; 2. that in the first week of Lent they permitted the use of milk and cheese ; 3. that they prohibited their priests to marry, and separated from their wives such as were married when they went into orders ; 4. that they authorized the Bishops alone to anoint baptized persons with * ' Photius, than whom Greece, the parent of so much genius, has never produced, perhaps, a more accomplished man, is singularly recommended by talents applicable to every object, sound judgment, extreme acuteness, infinite reading, incredible dili- gence. He had held nearly all the offices of state, he had thoroughly investigated all the records of the Church; in his Bibliotheca alone still extant, he has brought together nearly two hundred and eighty writers, chiefly ecclesiastical, which he has studied, reviewed, and abstracted, and pronounced a most accurate judgment on their arguments, style1, fidelity, authority.' Caop, ap. Jortin, in A. D. 861. f Mosheim, cent. ix. p. ii., c. iii. the holy chrism, withholding that power from Presbyters ; 5. that they had interpolated the creed of Constantinople by the insertion of the words Filioque, and held the doctrine of the procession of the Holy Spirit from th Son as well as the Father. These charges, and the consequent recrim- inations, itnbittered as they also were by national animosity, had, of course, no other effect than to exasperate the violence of both parties ; but we should be mistaken if we were wholly to attribute that fury to the dif- ferences either in doctrine or discipline. Its deepest motive is, perhaps, to be traced to another source. The Emperor, with the as- sistance, and probably through the influence of his ambitious Primate, had lately and defin- itively withdrawn from the papal jurisdiction various provinces to the east of the Adriatic, Illyricum, Macedonia, Epirus, Achaia, Thes- saly, and either transferred them to the pa- triarch, or (for the point is disputed) confirm- ed his previous authority over them ; and this, indeed, was an ecclesiastical offence of a description little calculated to find forgive- ness at Rome. Moreover, it happened that this sensible injury was immediately succeed- ed by another of the same nature. The heathen inhabitants of Bulgaria, a province of the Eastern Empire not far distant from Constantinople, had very lately been convert- ed to Christianity by Greek missionaries; or, if it be admitted that some very imperfect ef- forts had been previously made there by the emissaries of Charlemagne, the Greeks at least had the merit of completing the spirit- ual conquest : * consequently, Photius placed Bulgaria under his own jurisdiction; nor will the impartial historian blame that Prelate for his endeavor to make the limits of the Church coextensive with those of the empire, and to repel the intrusive invasions of Rome. But the influence of the Pope was still maintained, and nourished by the dissensions of the Greeks ; and the flame of controversy had not at all abated, when Basilius, the Ma- cedonian, on his accession to the throne, de- posed Photius, and restored Ignatius to his former dignity. This act was confirmed by a Council assembled at Constantinople in 869, * It appears, indeed, from Roman Catholic histo- rians, that the Pope maintained a sort of communica- tion with the Bulgarians, by means of missionaries, and that their King actually sent his son to Rome in acknowledgment (as those assert) of spiritual obedi- ence. The utmost that can be truly alleged is, that the field, which both parties had exerted themselves to cultivate, was the subject of equal claims. 176 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. in which the papal legates had great influ- ence, and which the Roman Church still ac- knowledges as the Eighth General Council. In 878 Photius was recalled, and in 886 again deposed ; but neither his recall nor his depo- sition had the effect of conferring on the pa- pal chair the jurisdiction for which it had struggled so pertinaciously. And, indeed, we may again observe, that throughout her long succession of interferences in the religious affairs of Greece, Rome has, on no occasion, gained any substantial or permanent advan- tage. In fact, even at the moment when she seemed to be playing her part most artfully, she was little more than a tool in the more artful hands of a Greek party, who flattered her as long as their own interests required her support, but were always ready to reject her intervention when they required it no longer. Cerularius. We might have closed the account of this controversy with the mutual excommunications of Photius and Nicholas ; indeed the schism did properly commence at that period; and though the Popes contin- ued to prosecute, through the two succeed- ing centuries, their unsuccessful schemes of ambition, they produced little mischief, and have, consequently, little attracted the notice of history. About the middle of the eleventh century the attention of Rome seems to have been particularly directed to the reduction of the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch under its own supremacy. * Michael Cerularius, a man of lofty, perhaps turbulent, spirit, was at that time patriarch, and after some angry correspondence between him and Pope Leo IX., the latter pronounced at Rome the sen- tence of excommunication. Nevertheless, his legates were invited to Constantinople with a view to heal the schism ; there they asserted some insolent claims, which Cerula- rius indignantly rejected ; as the conference continued, the differences grew deeper and wider, and at length the legates in the heart of Constantinople, in the Church of St. So- | phia, publicly excommunicated the patriarch j and all his adherents. They then solemnly deposited the written act of their anathema on the grand altar of the Temple, and, having shaken off the dust from their feet, departed. This event took place in 1054, and con- firmed and consummated the separation ; and though some degree of friendly intercourse has been occasionally resumed since that time, as political rather than religious exi- gences have required it, the imputed errors of the Greeks (of which the most offensive was their independence) have never been se- riously retracted by their Church, nor ever have been pardoned by its rival. * While the Pontiffs were contending for authority, the Churches were debating with extreme ardor a point of difference posterior in origin to the time of Photius, viz. whether the bread used at the Eucharist should be leavened or unleavened! The Greek clergy held the former opinion, and objected the latter to the Latins as an unpardonable error. Some other abuses are also imputed to them by Cerularius, and they are among the most frivolous which could have been select- ed out of the long and dark list of their corruptions — a proof that the spirit of the Greek Church in that age was as far from the true comprehension of Christ- ianity as that of its rival. CHAPTER XIII. The Constitution of the Church as fixed by Charlemagne. I. Review of the ante-Nicene Church — Its construction and government — its real character and utility — Doc- trines and heresies — moral excellences — Origin of various abuses — Early false miracles — their nature and object — Exorcism — Literary forgeries — Distinction of the converts — mysteries — Original Sacraments — their gradual corruption — Reverence for martyrs — celebration of their nativities — Prayers and offerings for the dead — Fasts, occasional and general — Certain terms and usages borrowed from Jewish and Pagan systems — In- ferences — the ante-Nicene Church had imperfections which might easily have been remedied. — II. From Constantine to Gregory the Great — (1.) Some particular innovations — Celibacy of the Clergy — practices of the Eastern and Western Churches — Gregory I. and VII. — Relaxation of Penitential discipline — Purgatory — Use and consequent worship of images — (2.) The Church in connexion with the State — Origin of distinction between temporal and spiritual power — sources of ecclesiastical power and influence— increased authority of the Church — abuse of civil power for spiritual pur- poses — (3.) Internal government of the Church — decrease of popular, increase of episcopal, power — causes of this change — Elements of the Papal system — the most obvious causes of its rise and progress. — III. From Gregory to Charlemagne — Differences between the Eastern and Western Churches — Further growth of episcopal authority in the latter — Further exaltation of the See of Rome — The Athanasian creed. — IV. Jurisdiction and immunities of the Clergy — Arbitration of ancient Bishops — confirmed by Constantine — en- larged by Justinian — Great extent of privilege conferred by Charlemagne — his probable motives — The False Decretals — Donation of Constantine — their objects and effects. — V. Revenues of the Church — oblations — fixed property — Donations — various descriptions and objects of — other sources of wealth — Early distribution and application of ecclesiastical funds — Payment and esta- blishment of Tithes — Various advantages conferred upon the world by the Church during the ages preceding Charlemagne. We shall depart from that important position in our history which is occupied by the acts of Charlemagne, with a clearer view of their nature and a better comprehension of the THE ANTE-NICENE CHURCH. 177 character of the Roman Church, if we pre- viously throw even a hasty retrospect over some portion of the path which we have traced ; and thus, after faintly retouching some parts which may not have been suffi- ciently illustrated, and noticing others with more care than has yet been bestowed on them, we shall complete the account which we propose to give of the first eight centuries of the Church. Some particulars also will be introduced, of which all mention has pur- posely been deferred till this occasion, in order to bring them into contact with those more remarkable events to which they are allied in principle, though separated by time or other circumstances. We shall commence this review from the earliest ages. I. The Ante-Nicene Church. The Primi- tive Assemblies [ixzlifiuu) of the converts were called Churches. These, in the first instance, were scattered, as the religion spread itself, in perfect equality and independence, and their affairs were, for the most part, regu- lated by a body of presbyters, who acted with the consent of the people, and under the guidance of the Apostles. This form of gov- ernment was, to a certain extent, modelled on that of the Jewish Synagogues, and it was natural that it should be so ; since most of the first converts were Jews ; since Christ himself had not laid down any general rules of ecclesiastical polity ; and since his Apostles were more intent on enlarging the numbers of the believers, and informing their piety, than on constructing partial laws for the external constitution of a society which was destined to comprehend every race and vari- ety of Man. Over two at least among the original Churches presidents were apostolically ap- pointed under the name of Bishops ; and presently, as the Apostles were gradually withdrawn, it is certain that all the principal Churches, with one or two exceptions, elected for themselves a superintendent under the same name. That custom prevailed very commonly even before the death of St. John, and became almost universal before the end of the first century ; still, for a certain time longer, the various Churches continued to conduct their own affairs without any mutual dependence, and with little other correspond- ence than that of counsel and charity ; and the Bishop, in almost all matters, acted in concert with the Presbytery in the internal administration of each. Thus, in the unsettled constitution of the 23 Primitive Church, we may observe the ele- ments of three * forms of government subsist- ing under apostolical direction, the Episcopal, the Presbyterian, and the Independent. But of these the second scarcely survived the de- parture of the inspired directors, and imme- diately subsided into a limited episcopacy ; and the third, though it continued somewhat longer, so coalesced with the other two, that the greater part, if not the whole, of the Inde- pendent Churches during the first half of the second century, were ruled by a Bishop and a Presbytery: that is to say, the various societies which constituted the body of Chris- tendom were so ruled, though as yet they exercised no control over each other. In a very short time, as new circumstances rapidly sprang up, it was found necessary for the common interest to facilitate a more gen- eral communication between societies, which, though separate in government, were united by far more powerful ties. This was most reasonably accomplished by the assembling of occasional Councils, called Synods, com- posed for the most part of Bishops, each of whom represented his own Church, and ac- knowledged no superiority of power or rank in any of his brethren. These associations of Churches cannot be traced to the first cen- tury ; but before the time of Tertullian f they were very common and extensive, at least in Greece, and the custom rapidly spread over every part of Christendom. The rules or canons enacted by these Synods were re- ceived as laws of the Church throughout the province which had sent its deputies to the meeting ; they were frequently published and communicated to other provinces, and the correspondence and co-operation thus created united, in a certain measure, the whole body, and combined the many scattered Churches into that one, which, even in those early days, was called the Catholic\ Church. But from this description we observe both the inde- pendent equality of the members composing it, and also, that it had no acknowledged * Perhaps we might even say four — at least those, who maintain the sufficiency of the occasional and spontaneous exhortation of any zealous member of any congregation for spiritual instruction, also seek their authority in the partial and transient practice of the Primitive Church. f De Jejuniis. — • Aguntur per Grrccias ilia in locis concilia ex universis ecclesiis, per qua? et altiora quseqtie in commune tractantur, et ipsa repnesentatio totius nomiuis Christian] magna veneratione celebra- tur.' % See Bingham, Antiq. b. i., c. i. sect. 7 178 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. chief or head. For though the Metropolitans might assume, each in his own province, some superiority in rank, perhaps even in authority, yet these among themselves were equal, and their precedence and power were strictly confined to their own district. The principal bond which united the orig- inal Catholic Church was the possession of a common canon or catalogue of sacred books ; and thus, when everywhere tried by the same test, the opinions which might be stigmatized as heretical by any one of the Churches were, for the same reason, condemned by the Universal Church ; and the spiritual delin- quents, who were removed from the com- munion by a part of the Catholic body, were consequently repudiated by the whole. It is true, that those who combined and directed this external system of Catholicism were the ecclesiastical ministers, and chiefly the Bish- ops ; it is also true, that the influence of all these over the people, and the power of the latter in the government of their dioceses, were augmented beyond their original moderation by the circumstances which led the clergy to so general a co-operation. But, on the other hand, it is extremely doubtful whether, with- out such a confederation, the faith itself loosely scattered over so broad a space, could have withstood the various tempests which were levelled against it; and it certainly was not possible, that any general confederation could have been formed among the Churches, unless by the exertions of their directors — and those, too, in each instance invested with some personal authority ; so that if there are any who inveigh against the original Catholic Church as the first corruption of Christianity, and the parent of all that have followed, they do not appear sufficiently to consider either the simple objects and character of that Church, or the perilous circumstances under which it coalesced, and combined many de- fenceless members into one powerful body. Under any circumstances, a close association and unity among religious societies possessing the same canon of faith and the same form of administration would have been natural and desirable; but, under the pressure of common danger and calamity, it was not only reasonable, but necessary. * * Semler (Observations Novae in Historiam III. primor. ssec.) considers it to have been the worst consequence of the formation of the early Church as a single body, that it restrained the liberty of individual judgment, or what he calls internal religion; that it imposed certain rules, both of doctrine and disci- pline, upon the more ignorant and worldly Christians, The writings of the ante-Nicene fathers contain all the most important doctrines of Christianity; but we should vainly search those books for a complete and consistent system of theology. In fact, their writers did not commonly handle the dogmas of faith, unless with a view to the confutation of some new or prevalent heresy. * Thus their arguments were usually directed to a particular purpose, and addressed to the views and prejudices of the time or place in which they were published. Many of them were uninstructed in the art of reasoning, and almost all were, in some degree, infected either with the narrow spirit of Judaism, or the loose and speculative genius of philoso- phy ; so that, in correcting the errors of others, they often deviated very widely from sense and truth themselves, f Those contro- and discouraged any laxity, or, as he would say, freedom, of interpretation or practice. And on that principle he exalts the character of the bolder and more mystical writers, Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen, who were not partisans of the Church, at the expense of Tertullian, Cyprian, and others, and praises the independence of the heretics in thinking and reasoning for themselves. We are not, however, able to discover that the expositions of Scripture con- tained in the Alexandrian, are, upon the whole, more sound and rational than those of the Carthaginian, Fathers, while they certainly abound with many fanci- ful extravagances from which the latter are free; and we have shown that the tenets of many of the early heretics were incalculably remote from the precincts of reason and Scripture. At the same time, we are willing to agree with Semler, that it were better far for religion to endure all those irregular absurdities, than to support the Unity of the Church as it was proclaimed in the Roman Catholic sense, and as it was upheld by execution and massacre. But it can- not be asserted that the papal system was the necessa- ry offspring of the early Catholic Church ; for, if so, it would have arisen in the Eastern as surely as in the Western communion. The worst principles of that system proceeded from causes posterior far to the second century : and the union of the religious socie- ties which at that time constituted the Church was, in our opinion, an instrument in God's hands both for the preservation of sound doctrine amidst the numerous and irrational deviations of heresy, and also for the association of the faithful in discipline, and in devoted resistance to the attacks of persecution. * ' C'est la matiere de tous les Sermons des Peres la morale et les heresies du terns. Sans cette clef souvent on ne les entend pas; ou du inoins on ne les peut guuter. Et c'est encore tine utilite considerable de l'Histoire Ecclesiastique. Car quand on scait les heresies qui regnoient en chaque terns et en chaque pais on voit pourquoi les peres revenoient toujours a certains points de doctrine.' Fleury, Disc. 1. sur PHist. Eccles.,s. xiv. t Even Irenaeus, almost the earliest among them, is THE ANTE-NICENE CHURCH. 179 versies, however, though not always conduct- ed with becoming moderation, were not, per- haps, without their use even in those days, since they warmed the zeal and animated the industry of the parties without endangering their personal security. And to us their re- trospect may bring some increase of charity, if the consideration of the very broad and essential points, on which they turned, should haply lead us to attach less weight to those less momentous differences, which have raised such heats in later times, and which even yet have not entirely lost their bitterness. It is certain that a very important moral improvement was immediately introduced by Christianity, wheresoever it gained foot- ing. The earliest societies of the converts furnished an example of rigid, but simple and unaffected piety, to which the history of man can, perhaps, produce no parallel ; and even in the following century we need not hesitate to assert the incomparable superiori- ty of the Christians over their Pagan contem- poraries: the principles of their religion, the severity of their discipline, the peculiarity of their civil condition, confirm the evidence which assures us that such was the fact. But the golden days of Christianity were confined to its infancy, and it is a great delu- sion to imagine that its perfect integrity con- tinued throughout the whole period of its persecution, or to refer indiscriminately to the history of the three first centuries for a model of Evangelical purity. We must also be careful not to exaggerate the merits of the early Church, nor to extenuate the abuses which it certainly admitted, nor to exculpate the ministers who created or encouraged them. So far, indeed, are we from any such inten- tion, that we consider the present as a proper opportunity to examine with more specific notice the innovations which successively ap- peared either in doctrine or discipline: that we may ascribe to its proper age each of the several abuses which at length combined to deform the structure of the Catholic Church ; and that we may perceive how gradual was their growth, and how deep and ancient the root from which many of them proceeded. That to which we shall first recall the reader's attention (for there are few, if any, of which some mention has not already been made) is the claim to miraculous power, as not exempt from this charge ; hia errors are enume- rated by Dupin, Nouv. Biblioth., Vie S. Irenee, vol. i. p. 73. inherent in the Church, which was asserted by several among the early Christians, from Justin Martyr downwards, and asserted (as evidence and reason have persuaded us) * without any truth. According to the Apolo- ! gists, and other writers of the second and third centuries, the sick were commonly healed, the dead were raised,! and evil spirits cast out, through the prayers of the faithful in the name of Jesus. Men of unquestiona- ble piety eagerly retailed, and may possibly have believed, each other's fabrications. Vis- i ions and dreams became the motives of action | or belief, and the commonest feelings and res- olutions were ascribed to the immediate im- pulse and inspiration of the Deity. Some nominal converts may thus have been en- rolled under the banners of the Church ; * See Chap. ii. p. 40. t The following is part of the celebrated testimony of Irenaeus (lib. ii. cap. 31 or 57) as cited by Euse- bius (lib. v. cap. 7): — ut uiv yuo Satuorag ikaivovnt pepa'iwg xat. uhfiiog- wars noi.Xuy.ig xal niareveir avrovg ixilvovg xa6aQio&ivrag ana twv itovifBmv TryevfiuToJV xat tlrai iv tij ixy.Xrpla- oi Si y.al n-Juyratoiv i' ^ovai riav ueXXurrov, xal hnraolag y.al Qitasig noocptjTiy.ug' IxXXoi Si rovg xuiirovrag Sia rijg Tcov xuqcov imSiciiug Icorrai, y.al vynig anoy.u&LOraaiv. ?;; Si xa&cog gcpausv xal tcxqoI iyinQrjaav, y.al nanhitirav avv frfitv Ixavotg 'irsat. Kal ti yuq; ovx liariv aQi6uor tinitv Tcov xaQiflu- uTiav 6>v xara navTog tov xuauov i/ ixxXtjaca nana 0iov Xapovoa, &c. &c. " Some effectually expel devils, so that the very persons who are cleansed from evil spirits believe and are in the Church; others have foreknowledge of the future, and visions and prophetic declarations ; others heal the sick by imposition of hands ; and it has happened (as we have said) that the dead have been raised and con- tinued among us for some years. It is impossible to enumerate the grace which the Church throughout the whole world has received from God, &c." We shall here only remark (as Jortin has remarked before us) that in speaking of resurrection, the writer uses the past tense, while the other miracles are de- scribed as in the actual course of present occurrence; yet the words avv i;utv cannot, without great violence, be understood of any preceding generation, and we doubt no't that Irenaeus intended to assert that dead persons had been brought to life in his own time. In a subsequent paragraph, that father also claims the gift of tongues for his age. xadwg xal noXXwv axavofLiv aStXifiov iv tiJ ixy.Xrfi'ia nQoifrjTix'a yraqlauara ixuvtwv, xal navroSanaig XaXovvTuiv Sia IIvevpaToc ylioooaig. After this passage, there is scarcely any mention made of that gift in ecclesias- tical history. We should observe, that Eusebius makes the above citation in proof of his assertion ' that miraculous powers iv ixy.Xr]oiaig noiv vnt- lunro as late as the time of Irenaeus.' He does not appear disposed to claim them for the Church at any later period. 180 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. but the evil of the practice overbalanced its [ profit, even its momentary profit ; since the , minds of men were thereby hurried away • from the proper understanding of the Gospel, \ and the true character of the religion, to gaze I after marvels and prodigies, and prepared to ' ascribe to fallacious impressions a belief, i which can only be sound when it is founded ; in reason. It is proper, however, to point out j one general distinction between these early ' miracles and those which clouded the Church j in later ages ; for, though it is insufficient to ! establish their credit, it may lead us to regard j their authors with more charity. There ap- pears to have been nothing absurd or super- stitious in the manner of their performance, nor base or wicked in their object. They are related to have been usually wrought by the simple invocation of Christ's name; and it does not appear that their accomplishment directly tended to feed avarice or individual ambition — neither to augment the power of j the clergy, nor to decide religious controversy, ' nor to subvert any obnoxious heresy, nor to i establish any new doctrine, nor to recom- j mend any foolish practice or superstitious j observance. * We can seldom trace them to j any other motive than an injudicious zeal for j the propagation of the faith. The triumphs of the Exorcists over the i powers of darkness are so loudly and perpet- ually celebrated by the oldest Church writers, that they may deserve a separate notice. It seems, indeed, probable that the Jews, espe- cially after their intercourse with the Chal- dseans during the captivity, attributed to the direct operation of evil spirits a great number of those disorders of which the causes were not obvious ; and such particularly as were attended by distortion of body, or extraordi- nary mental agitation and frenzy, f This delusion necessarily created a large and vari- ous multitude of ' Demoniacs,' whose mani- fold diseases could hope for no relief from ordinary remedies, as they proceeded not from human accidents. The language even of Scripture, when literally understood, ap- pears to sanction such an opinion, and the literal interpretation has had its advocates among the learned and pious in every age of the Church. But the notion of real Daemo- niacal agency was carried to an extreme of absurdity, and led, we fear, to many acts of deceit in the second and third centuries. * This subject is very fairly treated by Dr. Jortin in the beginning of his second book, t See Lightfoot, Horre Hebraicae. 1 Oh, could you but hear (says Cyprian)* and see those daemons when they are tortured by us, and afflicted with spiritual chastisement and verbal anguish, and thus ejected from the bodies of the possessed (obsessorum ;) moan- ing and lamenting with human voice, through the power divine, as they feel the rods and stripes, they confess the judgment to come. The exorcists rule with commanding right over the whole army of the insolent adversa- ry. Oftentimes the devil promises to depart, but departs not ; but when we come to bap- tism, then indeed we ought to be assured and confident, because the daemon is then op- pressed, and the man is consecrated to God and liberated.' The invocation of Christ, at- tended by the sign of the cross, and pro- nounced by persons formally appointed to the office, was the method by which those stu- pendous effects were usually produced ; and one among the many evils which proceeded from this absurd practice was an opinion, which gained some prevalence among the less enlightened converts, that the object of Christ's mission was to emancipate mankind from the yoke of their invisible enemy, and that the promised Redemption was nothing more than a sensible liberation from the manifest influence of evil spirits. Of the literary forgeries which corrupted and disgraced the ante-Nicene Church, we have made frequent and sorrowful mention ; and the great number f and popularity of such apocryphal works seem indeed to prove that the Canon of the New Testament, though very early received among the clergy, was not in general circulation among the people. They arose in the second, even more, per- haps, than in the following age, and originat- ed partly in the still remaining influence of Judaism, partly in the connexion between Christianity and philosophy, which at that time commenced. Almost all the Church writers partook more or less of one or the other of these tendencies ; Justin Martyr, Tatian, Irenaeus, and even Tertullian himself, * Epist. 76. Both Irenaeus and Tertullian are very animated on the same subject. f Among these, besides the Epistle to Abgarus, die works ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, the Sibyl- line Prophesies, Hydaspis, the Apostolical Canons and Constitutions, we may mention various apocry- phal histories of Jesus, of Mary, and his other rela- tives— of Tiberius, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arima- thea — of the Apostles, especially St. Peter — the origin of the Apostles' Creed — the Synods of the Apostles — the Epistle of Seneca to Paul — the Acts of Pilate, &c. &c. THE ANTE-NICEXE CHURCH. 181 were in some degree tainted by the former infection, and Clemens Alexandrimis and Or- igen were deeply vitiated by the latter. But we do not intend to ascribe the forgeries in question to those respectable fathers, nor even wholly to any members of the Church, though we admit that some of them received undue countenance from that quarter. We shall here only remark, without pausing again to condemn the principle which created them, that their immediate effect was exceedingly injurious, since they contributed, together with the other abuses just mentioned, to dis- seminate false and unworthy notions respect- ing the nature of Christianity. Foremost among them, the gross Millenarian doctrine, which was the firstborn child of tradition, was supported and diffused by those writ- ings ; and it did not cease to exercise, in va- rious parts of Christendom, a pernicious and perhaps powerful influence, until it was checked by the pen of Origen and succeed- ing writers. The distinction of the converts into ' Cat- echumens,' and ' Faithful,' or ' Believers,' (IIiotuI) was introduced after the age of Jus- tin, and before or during that of Tertullian.* Its motive was probably twofold ; — first, to prove the sincerity, to instruct the ignorance, to ascertain or correct the morality of the ruder proselytes, who were now numerous and eager for baptism, and so to restrain the indiscriminate performance of that rite; next, to conciliate reverence and excite curiosity by the temporary concealment of the most solemn ceremonies of the new religion. To this end the Catechumens were only admit- ted to the previous part of the service, and, before the celebration of the Holy Sacra- ments, were dismissed : f all that followed * De Prescrip. adv. Hreret. cap. 41. He censures the heretics for not making the distinction in question in their congregations. f Ite, Missa est. (i. e. Ecclesia.) Go — it is dis- missed. This seems, upon the whole, the most prob- able origin of the words, Missal, Mass; though many others have been proposed. (See Bingham, b. xiii., chap, i.) Ol axoivaiVTjTOi, TctQiTTctTi'^aTc — Non- communicants, depart — was the Greek form of sepa- rating the two classes. Bingham is very minute, and probably very faithful, in describing the nature of the Missa Catechumenorum and the Missa Fidelium, or Communion Service — though the forms, as he gives them, probably belonged to the fourth and the subse- quent, rather than the preceding, centuries. But a summary of the instructions delivered to the former is given by the author of the Constit. Apostol., lib. vii., c. 39. It embraces the knowledge of the Trinity, the order of the world's creation and series of Divine was strictly veiled from them, until the time of their own initiation. Even from the above short description it is easy to discover in this early Christian practice an imitation of the system of Pagan mysteries. These, as is well known, were twofold in number and impor- tance— the first or lesser being of common notoriety, and easy access to all conditions and ages, while the greater were revealed, with considerable discrimination, to such only as were thought qualified for the privi- lege, by their rank, or knowledge, or virtue. The name also passed into the Liturgies of the Church; and the Sacraments, which were withdrawn from the profane eye of the Catechumens, were denominated mysteries. These mysteries continued for some time, perhaps till the beginning of the fourth centu- ry, to be two only, Baptism and the Eucharist. We have proofs, indeed, that in that age the ceremonies, at least of Penitential Absolution, of Ordination, and Confirmation,* were con- cealed from the uninitiated, as carefully as the two original Sacraments ; and hence no doubt arose the error which has sanctified them by the same name. Regarding the rite of Baptism, we have noticed in a former chapter a misapprehension of its true nature and object, which gained very early footing in the Church ; and the consequent abuse of deferring it until the hour of death was clear- ly customary before the days of Constantine ; we need not pause to point out the evils which obviously proceeded from it. f The original simple character of the eucharistical assemblies of the primitive Christians, such as they are described by Justin Martyr, Providence, as exhibited in the Old Testament: the Doctrine of Christ's Incarnation, Passion, Resurrec- tion, and Assumption, and what it is to renounce the devil and to enter into the Covenant of Christ. * The passages which respectively prove these three facts are from Optatus contr. Parmen., liv. ii., p. 57; Chrysostom Horn., 18, in ii. Cor. p. 872; and Innocent I., Epist. i., ad Decentium Eugubin: and are cited by Bingham, Antiq., book x., chapter v. St. Basil (De Spir. Sanct., c. 27) places the Oil of Chrism among the things which the uninitiated might not look upon; while St. Augustin (Coram, in Psalm ciii., Concio. i.) says, ' Quid est quod occul- tum est et non publicum in Ecclesial Sacramentum Baptismi, Sacramentum Eucharistia. Opera nos- tra bona vident ct Pagani, Sacramenta vero occultan- tur illis.' The practice probably varied in different Churches ; but the whole proves that the Seven Sac- raments were not yet acknowledged in any. f Gibbon somewhere proposes, a question, which we profess our inability to resolve, whether this per- nicious practice was at any time condemned by any Council of the Church'? 182 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. was first exalted by the strong and almost ambiguous language of Irenseus, and still further by the exaggerated though vague ex- pressions of subsequent writers. # By such means the Eucharist gradually rose to be considered the most abstruse and awful of the mysteries. Yet is it still doubtful wheth- er this grew to be a great abuse before the establishment of the Church ; though the secrecy and exclusiveness which surrounded its most holy ceremony offended the open character of the religion, and even lessened its estimation among the wise and virtuous, by introducing an unworthy assimilation to the mummeries of Paganism. It was an opinion in the third century, originating, perhaps, with Tertullian, but more expressly declared by Dionysius, ' That the holy martyrs were the assessors of Christ and participators in his kingdom, and partak- ers in his judgment, sitting in judgment with him.'f While we read this extravagant con- ceit of that early age, we might almost be disposed to praise the moderation of later times, which were contented to invest those holy sufferers with the character of media- tors. But long even before the age of Dio- nysius, and probably before any thought had been raised respecting their immediate exal- tation or beatification, it had been a natural and even pious custom to celebrate the birth- days of those who had offered themselves up as sacrifices for their religion. By their birth- days (their ytviG/U/x) were understood, not the days of their introduction to the sins and af- flictions of earth, but of their release from such bondage and their resurrection to glory. These days of their nativity to everlasting life were observed (as indeed it was fit) in joyous commemoration of the piety of the departed, and of the example which they had bequeathed to posterity. Assemblies were held for this purpose at the tombs of the mar- tyrs, or on the spots where they had perished, and their frequency is attested by Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen, and others of the oldest fathers. The Maqruqwv yiriSXta were the saints' days of the early Christians, and may be traced at least as far back as the execution * The passages in Irenaeus which have given occa- sion to the warmest controversy, and not wholly with- out ground, are lib. iv., c. 17 (or 32) and 18 (or 34), and lib. v., c. 2, Miracula Sacra Coena? vel Cyprianus audet narrare. Semler. Observ. Nov., &c. t Tertull. de Resurrectione Carnis, cap. 43. Nemo enim peregrinatus a corpore statim immoratur penes Dominum, nisi ex martyrii prerogativa, Paradiso scilicet non Inferis deversurus. And lib. de Anima, of Polycarp ; * and as the places of meeting were not then consecrated by chapels or sanctuaries, and as the mortal, whose eutha- nasia was commemorated, was not yet made an object of superstitious adoration, it would be too severe to charge upon those innocent demonstrations of popular reverence the sys- tem of idolatrous impiety which was built in later ages on that foundation, f The use of prayers and even of offerings for the dead was earlier than the age of Ter- tullian ; X nor is it any wonder that the nu- merous converts from Paganism should bring over with them some fragments of their for- mer observances. But there is no just rea- son to suspect that the ante-Nicene Church studied to turn them to its own profit, or at least that they were made to minister to the avarice of the clergy. If they were encour- aged, it was rather through the hope of in creasing by such indulgence the number of the proselytes. The mortification of occasional fasting was probably enjoined in the earliest age. For the ceremony of Baptism, as we learn from Justin, both the neophyte and the congrega- tion were prepared by abstinence ; and in the time of Tertullian, the Bishops, if he belies § them not, found their advantage in increasing the number of such observances. The first general fast was on Good Friday, and it does not appear that any others were very soon added, or at least universally received. Yet cap. 55. Dionys. ap. Euseb., liv. vi., cap. 42. TotJ XmOTov nuQidnoi, xai rijg fiactiXeiag avTov y.oivuitol y.ai f.iiroj(oi ri]g xolozwg avroii, y.al ovvdixixLovreg avTco. * In the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna to that of Philomelium (in Euseb., liv. iv., cap. 15), the writers, after mention of the martyrdom of Polycarp, express their intention, ' by God's permission, to meet at his tomb and celebrate his birth-day.' See Cave, Primitive Christianity, p. ii., ch. 7. f We do not mean that there was no tendency to superstition in the honors paid to martyrs even in the third century. Relics were already coming into consideration, the blood of the sufferers was eagerly collected in sponges, and other similar extravagances are recorded ; but these were the natural excesses of popular enthusiasm, and would have ceased with the cessation of persecution, if they had not afterwards been perpetuated and systematized by the arts of a corrupt priesthood. % Tertull. de Monogamia, c. 10. § He may do so, for in his ' Liber de Jejuniis ' he is writing in favor of Montanism against the Church. Bene autem quod et Episcopi universae plebi mandare jejunia assolent ; non dico de industria stipium confer endarum, ut vestrcE captures est, sed inter- dum et ex aliqua solicitudinis Ecclesiastics causa. See Thomassin, Traite d«s Jeunes de l'Eglise. THE ANTE-NICENE CHURCH. 183 there can be no doubt, that long before the fourth century at least some * part of Lent was strictly observed, and a partial fast (till three in the afternoon) on the fourth and sixth days of every week, is by some referred to very high antiquity. Upon the whole it would seem, however, that, until the esta- blishment of the Church, a great variety pre- vailed in this department of its discipline, dependent in some measure on the circum- stances of particular provinces, and the indi- vidual regulations of the Bishops presiding there. When we consider in what countries the religion was revealed, and among what peo- ple it first spread, it is natural to search for the oldest forms of its external economy in the Jewish, and for those somewhat less an- cient in the Pagan, system ; — and thus we find them to have originated, so far at least as the origin of either can be discovered with any certainty. There cau be little doubt, for instance, that the very early distinction be- tween Clergy and Laity was immediately de- rived from the corresponding institution of Judaism. The gradations and offices of the original Priesthood, and the power of the Presbytery, proceeded from the same source,f and the subsequent introduction of the more dignified term Sacerdos attested the continu- ation of the same influence. Again, ' There seems to be nothing more uncontested among learned men than that the Jews had set forms of worship in all parts of Divine Ser- vice, and that the Apostles freely used these in all instances in which they thought it nec- essary or becoming to join with them. Their ordinary service was of two sorts — the ser- vice of the Temple and the service of the Synagogue. These differed in many re- spects ; but both agreed in this, that the pub- lic prayers in both were offered up in a certain constant form of words.' J To what * The Quadragesimal Fast (■zianaoay.oarij) is by some supposed to indicate the number of hours of abstinence which preceded the festival of the Resur- rection. But in the time of Chrysostom (who calls Lent ' the remedy and physic of the soul ') and of Theodosius the Great (who suspended all criminal proceedings and punishments during its continuance) the entire period was unquestionably observed. See Cave on the Early Church, chapter vii. •f- There is a passage in St. Clement's First Epistle to the Corinthians, chap. 40, in which the system of Jewish discipline is indirectly proposed as a model for the imitation of Christians. J Bingham (Church Antiq. Book xiii., chap, v.) in prosecution of this subject, exhibits too warmly the zeal of an advocate. extent this practice was imitated in the prim- itive Church remains extremely uncertain, notwithstanding the controversial labors of many learned men. Perhaps this very un- certainty should be sufficient to convince us, that the earliest forms of services were ex- tremely short and variable — otherwise more ample specimens of them would have reach- ed posterity. On the other hand, the scanty passages which are adduced from Ignatius, Justin, Irenoeus, and Tertullian, certainly prove, that there were some fixed prayers in use in some of the ancient Churches, which may or may not have been common to them all. And this usage was an imitation, imper- fect as it was, of the Jewish offices. On the other hand there are many of the early Ec- clesiastical terms, and some few ceremonies chiefly of the third century, which are more usually considered of Pagan derivation, though some of them may with equal Justice be as- cribed to a Jewish original. The oldest name for the chancel was bvaiaon'oiov, Ara Dei, or Altare ; oblations were made there, and ' the unbloody sacrifice ' offered up, and frankin- cense smoked, and lamps were lighted, even during the persecutions of the Church ; even votive donations (donaria — av«^,'«ara) were suspended in the yet rude and ill-constructed temples of Christ. But the simple superstition of the Faithful in those ages did not proceed to more dangerous excesses. It was reserved for the following century to fill those temples with images, and to introduce into the Sanc- tuaries of God the predominating spirit of Paganism. In reference to the facts which we have now stated, and which carry with them the plain conclusions to which we proceed, it seems only necessary to observe — first, that we are not to attend to those writers who represent the ante-Nicene Church as the per- fect model of a Christian society — as the unfailing storehouse whence universal and perpetual rules of doctrine and discipline may be derived with confidence, and follow- ed with submission. The truth is far other- wise ; and though we ought assuredly to distinguish the authority of the apostolical from that of the later uninspired writers, still even the works of those first Fathers are not without much imperfection, and furnish, be- sides, very insufficient materials for the con- struction or defence of any system ; and in the extensive variety both of opinions and arguments which distinguishes their success- ors from Justin to Eusebius, we cannot fail to observe, that the former are sometimes 184 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. erroneous, and the latter very commonly feeble and inconsequential. From such facts we are compelled to infer, that the true na- ture and design of Christ's mission on earth were not yet very perfectly comprehended by the mass of Christians in the second and third centuries. Indeed, it was scarcely pos- sible that it could be otherwise, since they consisted of converts, or the children of con- verts, many of whom were imbued with the deep and unbending prejudices of Judaism, and the others attached by long hereditary affection to the splendid ceremonies of Pa- ganism. To either of these classes it was necessary to address a peculiar form of argu- ment, and to present a peculiar view of the religion, that there might be any just hope of persuading them to embrace it. We should also mention that some of the errors of the third, and even of the second century, may be ascribed to the undue weight already at- tached to apostolical tradition, and the au- thority that was blindly attributed to any precept or usage, however obscurely traced to that uncertain source. But, in the second place, we are equally bound to remark, that the fundamental doc- trines of Christianity shine with a steady and continuous light through the strange mists in which the ante-Nicene Church has some- times involved them ; it was a great advan- tage which that age possessed over those which followed, that it confined itself to plain and scriptural expressions, and was contented to deliver the truths of God in the language of the holy writings. Moreover, we should add, that among the abuses which we have described, though some were shame- ful to their inventors, and injurious to the cause, there were many which, in their ori- gin, were comparatively, if not absolutely, innocent : in many instances they arose rath- er from the circumstances of the converts than from the design of the priesthood, and there were few, if any, among them which might not have been arrested after the esta- blishment of Christianity, if that security which gave power to the ministers of re- ligion had conferred wisdom and true piety along with it. To conclude, then : — a general view of the Church of the three first ages presents to us a body always unconnected with the State, frequently at variance with it ; surrounded by multitudes of heresies, many of them very monstrous, which it combated with the sword of the Spirit alone ; under a govern- ment in which the gradually-increasing in- fluence of the Bishop was still for the most part extremely limited by the power of his presbytery ; with a rule of faith not curiously definite on abstruse questions, but simply conceived and scripturally expressed — rising into strength and confirming its consistency, and, finally, making good its long-neglected claims to toleration and respect. A closer examination of the same body discloses to us a number of stains and defects, proceeding at different moments from various causes, and spreading, in some degree, as that advanced in magnitude: but they had not yet pene- trated to its heart, they might still have been checked, and even removed, by an influential and truly Christian priesthood. It is true that the substantial and fatal corruptions of after ages sprang, in many instances, directly from them; but the crime of those conse- quences must rest, for the most part, with those who combined and perpetuated the first abuses ; for these were indeed rather the produce of circumstances than the work of men. We have also observed, in the vari- ous conditions of apostolical Christianity, the scattered elements of some forms of govern- ment and discipline, which, though they were very early absorbed by the episcopal system, should not be passed over in silence, since they are still pleaded as precedents and imi- tated as models by many excellent Christians. II. From Constantine to Gregory the Great. Fleury, who is the most moderate and rea- sonable of the Roman Catholic historians, laments that after the first six centuries the brightest days of the Church were passed away.* In his first Discourse he represents the brilliancy of that period in vivid and exaggerated colors. The reverence due to the sanctified martyr — the solemn aspect of monastic solitude — the piety and disinterest- ed poverty of the early prelates — the purity of their election — the austerity of their life — the magnificence of the offices — the severity of discipline — the venerable names of tradi- tion f and antiquity — are objects of his warm * Discours sur l'Hist. Eccles. depuis l'an 600 jus- ques a l'an 1100. ' Les beaux jours de l'Eglise sont passes, mais Dieu n'a pas rejette son peuple ni oublie ses promesses,' &c. &c. f ' It was one of the rules of discipline not to com- mit it to writing, but to preserve it by a secret tra- dition among the Bishops and Priests, chiefly that regarding the administration of the sacraments; and the better to keep that secret, that the Bishops should confide their ecclesiastical letters to the Clergy only. So, when the ancients speak of observing the canons , PARTICULAR INNOVATIONS. 185 and indiscriminate eulogy. But it was an error (for to Fleury we would not willingly ascribe the intention of deceiving) to con- found the three earliest with the three fol- lowing centuries ; as if the same had been the government, discipline, spirit of the Cath- olic Church from the age of St. Clement to that of St. Gregory. Even the first of thfc ipsa non perpetuo, sed temporal! ter, donee vixerint, perfruan- tur.' But the establishment of the modern system of Benefices is not commonly referred to an earlier pe- riod than the end of the tenth, or the beginning of the eleventh century. age,* was nourished and multiplied princi- pally with that object; and the state of the Church at that period affords just grounds for the melancholy reflection, that the grossest perversions of religious truth were carefully fostered, if they were not actually produced, by the most sordid of human motives. The Monastic orders did not lag behind their secular competitors in the race of ava- rice ; it appears indeed that a great proportion of the rewards, at least during the seventh and eighth centuries, flowed into their establish- ments ; and though their members did not possess the same facilities of private acquisi- tion, the communities have obtained their full share of the profits of ecclesiastical corruption in all ages of the Church. It would be unjust, however, to suppose that any very material part of the property of the Church was amassed by the shameful methods which we have mentioned; they have contributed, indeed, somewhat to swell its treasures and greatly to soil its reputation ; but the most solid, and by far the largest por- tion of its riches was derived from sources not only lawful but honorable. The most abundant of these was the pious or politic munificence of those Princes who employed the Clergy as the means of improving, or of governing, their people. Such were extreme- ly common during the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries ; and the respect and prefer- ence which they thus demonstrated for the sacred order, evince its moral as well as in- tellectual superiority over other classes of their subjects. Again, the voluntary dona- tions of wealthy individuals were not always made from superstitious hope or idle persua- sion ; but much more frequently, because the Church was the only channel through which the charity of the rich could effectually re- lieve the poor. This object was connected with many even of the earliest donations, and * Pilgrimages, chiefly to the shrines of St. Peter at Rome, and St. Martin at Tours, were, in the eighth age, so common, that it is made a matter al- most of reproach to Charlemagne himself (by his historian Eginhart,) that in the course of his long reign he had undertaken only four. The Council of Chalons (in 813) acknowledges the abuses of pilgrim- age. ' The clergy pretend thereby to purge them- selves from sin, and to be restored to their functions; the laity to acquire impunity for sins past or future; the powerful convert them into a pretext of extor- tion, the poor of mendicity. Still, we praise the devotion of those, who, to accomplish the penance which their priest has imposed on them, make such pilgrimages accompanied by prayer, alms, and cor- rection of morals ' Fleury, H. E., 1. xlvi., sect, v 200 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. is conspicuous in the numerous monuments of the eighth and ninth centuries ; * and the large sums which were thus entrusted to reli- gious persons or establishments for that pur- pose, while they multiplied and maintained the indigent dependants of the Church, became the safest and the noblest ground of its influence and popularity. Again, a great proportion of the territorial endowments of the cathedrals and monasteries consisted of unappropriated and uncultivated lands. These were gradu- ally brought to fertility by the superior skill and industry of their new possessors ; and they thus acquired the most substantial right of possession by labors which were beneficial to society. Lastly — the abundance of some establishments and the economy of others frequently enabled the community to amass sums which were expended from time to time in the purchase of additional estates. These were annexed to the original patrimo- ny ; and since, in the general insecurity of property prevailing in turbulent ages, there were few individuals who exercised foresight or economy, these virtues, almost peculiar to the ecclesiastical establishments, were a sure and effective instrument of their prosperity. On the other hand, they were peculiarly exposed to the evils of that turbulence, both by their wealth and their defencelessness. Amidst the tumults of unsettled governments and uncivilized society, what had been lav- ished by the bounty of one was frequently torn away by the rapacity of another ; and not the nobles only, and other powerful sub- jects engaged in the work of spoliation, but even princes f would sometimes reward their greedy followers by grants of Church proper- ty. By such injustice its increasing dimen- sions were restrained ; and if we have suffi- cient reason to lament that the means by which it was acquired were not all without reproach, there may at least be room for rea- sonable doubt, whether, upon the whole, the Church did not suffer as much by violence as it gained by fraud, in ages equally favor- able to the exercise of both. * See Muratori's Dissert, xxxvii. De Hospitali- bus, &c; and also his lvith, De Religione per Itali- ain, post ann. 500. t Charles Martel, for instance, very amply com- pensated his military followers for their successful defence of Christianity by the monasteries and other ecclesiastical endowments, which he distributed among them. He thus incurred the indignation of St. Boni- face; but as to the celebrated vision of Pulcherius, there seems great reason to doubt whether the Bishop did not precede the Prince in the race of mortality. See Baron, apud Selden, ch. v There is another source of ecclesiastical Avealth which we have not yet mentioned, because it acquired no certain existence be- fore the reign of Charlemagne — the posses- sion of Tithes ; but it is here proper to employ a few sentences on that subject. It seems quite clear that no sort of tithe was paid to the ante-Nicene Church, nor imposed by any of its councils, nor even directly claimed by its leading ministers. The Levitical insti- tution is indeed mentioned both by Cyprian and Origen ; by the former * slightly and al- most incidentally ; by the latter with rather more fulness, f in a homily respecting the first-fruits in the law. But even Origen goes no farther in his conclusion, than 'that the command concerning the first-fruits of corn and cattle should still be observed according to the letter ;' and we have no evidence to persuade us that even that limited position was carried into general practice. In the records of Constantine's generosity to the new establishment there is no mention made of tithes : nevertheless, the expressions both of St. Ambrose and St. Augustin on this subject forbid us to doubt, that such payment was voluntarily, though perhaps very partially made, at least in the Western Church, before the end of the fourth century. St. Ambrose boldly claims it as due by the law of God — ' It is not enough that we bear the name of Christians, if we do not Christian works: the Lord exacts of us the annual tithe of all our corn, cattle,' &c. &c. ' Whosoever is con- scious that he hath not faithfully given his tithes, let him supply what is deficient; and what is the faithful payment of tithes, except to offer to God neither more nor less than "that portion, whether of your corn or your wine, or the fruit of your trees, or your cattle, or of the produce of your garden, your busi- * Epist. 66. De Unitat. Eccles. sec. xxm. In the former place he is reproaching one Geminius Fausti- nus, a priest, for having undertaken the discharge of a secular office — 'qure nunc ratio et forma in Clero ten- etur, ut qui in Ecclesia Domini ad ordinationem Cler- icalem promoventur, nullo modo ab administratione divina avocentur, sed, in honore sportulantium fra- trum, tanquam Decimas ex fructibus accipientes ab altari et sacrificiis non recedant. . . .' In the latter, while deploring the lukewarm devotion of the faith- ful, he complains, ' at nunc de patrimonio nee deci- mas damus.' See Selden, chap. 4. f This may surprise those historians who distin- guish Origen from the Church writers, and exalt him accordingly. Had Cyprian published a homily to in- culcate the divine obligation of paying first-fruits to the priest, he would have been stigmatized as the most avaricious (he is already denounced as the most am bitious) among those early churchmen. REVENUES. 201 ness, or your hunting ? Of all substance which God has given to man, he has reserved the tenth part to himself, and, therefore, man may not retain that which God has appro- priated to his own use.' St. Augustin, in a homily on that subject, presses the same right to the same extent, * in terms not less posi- tive; with this difference, however, that he puts forward more zealously the charitable purpose of the institution. About the same time St. Chrysostom and St. Jerome added their exhortations to the same effect, though they did not specify so exactly the nature of the contribution, nor insist so strongly on the divine obligation. There can be no question that the exertions of individual ministers ef- fectually influenced the more devout among their listeners, especially in the Western na- tions, and in somewhat later ages: according- ly we find that in sundry places Tithes f were paid both to monasteries, to the poor, and to the clergy, by many pious individuals during the four centuries which followed. It has also been asserted (though the evidence is not sufficiently clear) that they already en- gaged the attention, and even claimed the authority, of one or two provincial J councils. Moreover, it seems probable, that some spe- cial endowments of them were made on par- ticular Churches before the time of Charle- magne, though these were few in number, and scarcely earlier than the end of the seventh age. But, on the other hand, it is unquestionably certain that no canon or other law for the purpose of compelling the payment of tithes were generally received before the concluding part of the eighth cen- tury. The offerings hitherto contributed un- der that name were made in compliance with the doctrine which pleaded the divine right, * Quodcunque te pascit ingenium Dei est; et inde decimas expetit unde vivis; de militia, de negotio, de artificio redde decimas: aliud eniin pro terra dependi- mus, aliud pro usura vitae pensamus. Selden appears to share in a doubt which has been raised, whether the Homily in question be really the production of Augustin. \ These may not have been in fact exactly tenths, but some indefinite proportion of things titheable, va- rying according to the abundance or devotion of the contributor. % We refer particularly to Seidell's oth chap., and his remarks on the Council of Mascon (in 586). Thomassin (Vetus et Nova Ecclesia? Disciplina, P. III. 1. i. c. vi.) presses the authority of the Second Council of Tours. At any rate the prelates on that occasion proceeded no farther than exhortation — commonemus, — those of Macon decree — statuimus et decern imus. 26 or with the precepts, or perhaps even with the practice of particular Churches, but they were not yet exacted either by civil or eccle- siastical legislation — not even in the West ; and in the Eastern Church we have not ob- served that any law has at any time been promulgated on this subject. The first strictly legislative act which con- ferred on the clergy the right to tithe was passed by Charlemagne. In the year 778, the eleventh of his reign over France and Germany, in a general assembly of estates, both spiritual and temporal, held under him, it was ordained, ' That every one should give his tenth, and that it should be disposed of according to the orders of his bishop.' * Other constitutions to the same effect were afterwards published by the same prince, and repeated and confirmed by some of his de- scendants ; they were iterated by the canons of numerous provincial councils, f and re- echoed from the pulpits of France and Italy. Nevertheless, it was found exceedingly dif- ficult to enforce them. \ The laity were * Ut uuusquisque suam decimam donet; atque per jussionem Episcopi sni (or Pontificis, as some copies read) dispensetur. This must be understood with some limitation, since the tripartite division of tithes seems to be properly ascribed to Charlemagne ; that of one share for the bishop, and clergy, a second for the poor, a third for the fabric of the Church. It seems uncertain what part of these was at first in- tended for the maintenance of a resident clergy. Parochial divisions, such as they now exist, were still not very common, though they may be traced to the endowment of churches by individuals as early as the time of Justinian. The rural churches were, in the first instance, chapels dependent on the neighbor- ing cathedral, and were served by itinerant ministers of the bishop's appointment. It was some time be- fore any of them obtained the privileges of baptism and burial; but these were indeed accompanied by a fixed share of the tithes, and appear to have implied in each case the independence of the Church and the residence of a minister. f The celebrated Council of Francfort (in 794) published a canon for the universal payment of tithes, besides the rents due to the Church for benefices. See Fleury, 1. xliv. s. lx. and Thomassin, P. III. 1 i. cap. vii. J There is an epistle of Alcuin, in which he exhorts his master not yet to impose upon the tender faith of his new converts, the Saxons and Huns, what he calls the ' yoke of tithes.' The passage deserves ci- tation— ' Vestra sanctissima pietas sapienti consilio prasvideat, si melius sit rudibus populis in principio fidei jugum imponere Decimarum, ut plena fiat per singulas domus exactio illarum; an apostoli quoqtie ab ipso Deo Christo edocti et ad pravlicandum mundo missi exactioncs Decimarum exegissent, vel alicui demandassent dari, considerandum est. Scimus quia 202 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. strongly disposed to disobey such commands as went to diminish their revenues, and the violation of any law was easy in those disor- dered times. But the long and lawful perse- verance of the clergy at length prevailed; and, during a contest of nearly four centuries, they gradually entered into the possession of an unpopular, but unquestioned right. We can scarcely consider the payment of tithes to have been universally enforced until the end of the twelfth century, when ecclesi- astical authority had risen to a great height, through the exaltation of the See of Rome. The first of the General Councils which men- tions them is the Ninth, that of Lateran, held under Calixtus II., about the year 1119 ; but even there they are spoken of only as they were received by special consecrations. Nor does it appear that the payment was expressly commanded as ' a duty of common * right ' before the Pontifical Council held in the year 1215. It was held under Innocent III. ; and in that age, and especially during that pon- tificate, the canons of the church were not lightly received nor contemned with security. Such are the principal quarters from which the revenues of the Western church were derived. They varied in fruitfulness in dif- ferent times and provinces, according to the extent of ecclesiastical influence, or the de- gree of civil anarchy which prevailed. In the ages immediately following the barbarian conquests, they may have lost by the violence of the invaders more than they gained by their piety or superstition ; but those losses were afterwards compensated by a liberality Decimatio substantive nostra valde bona est. Sed melius est illam amittere quam fidem perdere. Nos vero in fide Catholica nati, nutriti et edocti vix con- sentimus substantiam nostram pleniter decimari ; quanto magis tenera fides et infantilis animus et avara mens illorum largitati non consentitT The passage is quoted by Selden in Chapter v. * See Selden, chap. vi. There were various pon- tifical decrees respecting Tithes by Nicholas II., Alexander II., and Gregory VII. in the eleventh century. Selden mentions the direct command of Nicholas in 1059. ' Pra?cipimus ut Decinwe et Prim- itise sen oblationes vivorum et mortuoruin Ecclesiis Dei fideliter reddantur a Laicis, et ut in dispositione Episcoporum sint: quas qui retinuerint a S. Ecelesioe Communione separentur.' Ten years earlier we ob- serve that Leo IX., in his council against Simony, restored Tithes to all the Churches, with I lie admis- sion, ' that no mention was at that time made of them in Apulia, and some other parts of the world.' A double division of them is on that occasion mentioned — between the Bishop, and the Altar, or Minister of the Church. See Wibertus, ap. Pagi., Vit. Leo IX. which was sometimes heedless, sometimes political ; and, upon the whole, in spite of oc- casional spoliations, the funds of the Church continued to extend themselves. They did not, however, reach any unreasonable extent until the reign of Charlemagne and those of his successors; but thenceforward, as their security increased with their magnitude, they swelled to such inordinate dimensions, and assumed so substantial a shape, that they are not incredibly asserted to have comprehended, in the twelfth century, one half of the culti- vated soil of Europe. Nevertheless, it is im- possible to dispute, that by far the greater proportion of that property was acquired by just and lawful means; and that we may not depart from this inquiry with the impression, that the prosperity of the Church was either universally abused, or wholly unmerited, it is proper to mention some of the blessings which it conferred upon society, during a period when the condition of man stood most in need of aid and consolation. General Benefits conferred by the Church. We do not here propose to enumerate the beneficial effects of the religion itself, which are scarcely contested by any one ; but only to mention some of the good fruits of the Institution called the Church — benefits pro- duced in subservience to Christianity, in as far as its principles and motives were derived from that source, but in contradistinction to it, in as far as its outward form, government and discipline were of human creation. With all its earthly imperfections and impurities, the Church was still a powerful, if not neces- sary, instrument for the support of the relig- ion and the diffusion of its principles ; and even among those very imperfections there were some which it pleased Providence to turn to its own honor, by converting them to the service of man. Before the end of the fifth century, the ecclesiastical body was in possession of very considerable dignity and power throughout the whole of Christendom ; and in that body the episcopal order had risen into a pre- eminence, not indeed in unison with its an- cient humility, but attributable to its activity and its virtues more than to its ambition, and perhaps to the circumstances of the empire even more than to either. In the enjoyment of extensive revenues, of some * municipal * See Cod. Justin. 1. i., tit. iv. De Episcopali Audientia, s. 26, SO. The superintendence of public works, and of the funds for defraying their expenses, was intrusted to the bishop, together with some of the leading men in the city. BENEFITS CONFERRED BY THE CHURCH. 203 authority, of certain judicial privileges and immunities, of high rank and reputation, and of very powerful influence over the people, and united for all grand purposes by common principles and common interests, the hierar- chy occupied the first station among the sub- jects of the empire. Its weight was felt and acknowledged by every rank of society, from the court downwards: the more so, as it formed the only moral tie which bound them together. The Unity of the Church was not •Merely the watchword of bigotry, the signal for injustice and oppression, but also a princi- ple of some effect in maintaining the unity of Christendom. Such was the position of the Church, and such the means at its disposal, when the Western Empire was overthrown and occupied by unbelieving barbarians. At this crisis it is not too much to assert, that the Church was the instrument of Heav- en for the preservation of the Religion. Chris- tianity itself (unless miraculously sustained) would have been swept away from the surface of the West,* had it not been rescued by an established body of ministers, or had that body been less zealous or less influential. Among the conquered, the common people were, for the most part, recent and not always very serious converts from polytheism ; the higher classes were neither numerous nor powerful, nor had any interest in the support of Christianity : the clergy alone composed the vital and efficient portion of the aristocra- cy. Among the conquerors, the rudest sol- dier brought with him a superstitious rever- ence for the office and person of a religious minister, which prepared him for adhesion to the religion itself, especially where the minis- ters were honored and the ceremonies splen- did ; and the illiterate prince readily gave attention to the counsels of the bishops, who * Guizot — who treats ecclesiastical matters with profoundness, ingenuity, and judgment, and has brought to that subject (a rarer merit) a mind unbias- sed by the prejudices of a churchman, or the antipa- thies of a sectarian or an infidel, and that fearless, uncompromising candor which becomes a philosopher and a historian — Guizot (Histoire Generate, &c. Le- con II.) has expressed the same opinion with the same confidence. ' Je ne crois pas tiop dire en af- firmant qu'a la fin du quatrieme et commencement du cinquieme siecle, c'est l'Eglise Chretinne qui a sauve le Christanisme. C'est l'Eglise, avec ses institutions, ses magislrats, son pouvoir qui s'est defendue vigour- eusement contre la dissolution interieure de l'empire, contre la Barbarie; qui a conquis les barbares, qui est devenue le lien, le moyen, le principe de civilisa- tion entre le monde Romain et le monde barbare,' &c. &c. were the most learned and the most respected among his new subjects. Thence resulted the gradual conversion * of the invaders, by the agency of the visible Church. Without those means — had Christianity then existed as a mere individual belief, or even under a less vigorous form of human government — the religious society woidd have possessed neither the energy nor discipline necessary for resistance to the deluge which endangered it. Let us next inquire, what influence did the Church afterwards exert on the society which it had assembled in the name of Christ ? by what exertions, by what habits, did it enforce the principles of the religion which it had preserved ? First — by the general exercise of charity. The generosity of its benefactors had often been directed, in part at least, to that purpose. That excellent rule which had been received from the earliest ages was not discontinued ; the relief of the poor was as- sociated with the ministry of religion ; the worldly necessities of the wretched were al- leviated by their spiritual Pastors, and the most excellent virtue of Christianity was in- culcated by the practice of its Ministers. We intend not to exalt the merit of that body in dispensing among the indigent the funds en- trusted to them for that purpose ; we only as- sert its great utility as a channel for the trans- mission of blessings, which in those ages could not otherwise have reached their object — as a sacred repository, where the treasures of the devout were stored up for the mitiga- tion of misery which had no other resource or hope. Secondly — the penitential discipline of the Church was extremely efficacious in enforcing the moral precepts of the religion ; and whatsoever advantage may have been conferred on ancient Rome by the venerable office of the Censor, whatsoever restraints may have been imposed on the habits of a high-minded people by the fear of ignomini- ous reproach ; awe more deep and lasting must have been impressed upon the supersti- tious crowd by the terrible denunciations of the Church, by the deep humiliation of the penitent, by his prolonged exposure to public shame, by the bitterness and intensity of his remorse. Without affecting to regret, as some have done, the present disuse of the penitential system in the present enlightened * That their Conversion was, in the first instance, imperfect, perhaps in many cases merely nominal, has been already admitted. Still,, where the affair was with a nation, and that too a very barbarous nation it was impossible, humanly speaking, that it could have been otherwise than imperfect. 204 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. state both of society and religion, we cannot close our eyes against its extraordinary pow- er, as an instrument of moral improvement, in ages when the true spirit of religion was less felt and comprehended ; when education furnished very slender means for self-correc- tion ; and when even the secular laws were feebly or partially executed. Thirdly — After the fifth century the office of Legislation throughout the Western provinces devolved in a great measure on the ecclesiastical body —directly, in so far as they composed, or as- sisted in, public assemblies ; indirectly, as they influenced the councils of Princes and their nobility. Their power was effectually exerted for the improvement of the barbarous system of the invaders, the suppression of ab- surd practices, and the substitution of reason- able principles. ' I have already spoken,' says Guizot, ' of the difference which may be observed between the laws of the Visigoths, proceeding in a great measure from the Coun- cils of Toledo, and those of the other barba- rians. It is impossible to compare them with- out being struck by the immense superiority in the ideas of the Church in matters of legis- lation and justice, in all that affects the pursuit of truth and the destiny of man. It is true that the greater part of these ideas were bor- rowed from the Roman legislation ; but if the Church had not preserved and defended them, if it had not labored to propagate them, they would have perished.' Fourthly — In further- ance of this faithful discharge of its duties to the human race, the Church unceasingly strove to correct the vices of the social sys- tem. The worst of these, and the principal object of her hostility, was the abomination of slavery ; and if it be too much entirely to attribute its final extirpation to the persever- ance of the Church in pressing the principles of the Faith, and if it has been speciously in- sinuated that her motives in the contest were not always disinterested, at least it is impossi- ble to dispute either her zeal in the righteous cause, or the power and success with which she pleaded it,* or the great probability that, * II y en a line preuve irrecusable: la plupart des formules d'affranchissement, a diverses epoques, se without such advocacy so steadily pursued through so long and hopeless a period, the complete emancipation of the lowest classes would have been accomplished much later, perhaps not wholly accomplished even at this moment. Fifthly — The same spirit which was so well directed to improve the internal fabric of society turned itself also to the pre- vention of civil outrage and even of interna- tional warfare. In this attempt, indeed, it had not equal success, since it had to contend with the most intractable of human passions ; but the pages even of profane history abound with proofs of the pacific policy and interpo- sitions of the Church : nor were they entirely suspended even after the fatal moment, when it engaged as a party in the temporal affairs of Europe, and so frequently found its own policy and strength and triumph in the dis- cord, devastation, and misery of its neigh- bors. Lastly — From considerations which are more immediately connected with the happiness of mankind, we may descend to mention a theme of praise which is seldom withheld from the Church by any description of historians — that of having preserved many valuable monuments of ancient genius ; and also of having nourished, even in the worst times, such sort of literary instruction and acquirement as was then perhaps attainable. It is true that these advantages were not gen- erally diffused among the people ; that little desire was evinced by the Clergy to com- municate such knowledge, or by the Laity to share in it : still was it a possession useful, as well as honorable, to those who cherished and maintained it, and through them, in some degree, to their fellow-subjects. Some lan- guid rays it must have reflected even at the moment upon the surface of society; at least it was preserved as a certain pledge of future improvement, as an inviolable and everlasting treasure, consecrated to the brighter destinies of a£;es to come. fondent sur un motif religieux ; c'est an nom des idees retigieuses, des esperances de l'avenir, de l'egalite religieuse des hommes, que l'affranchissement est presque toujours prononce. — Guizot, Hist. Generate, Lecon VI. INDEPENDENCE OF PAPAL ELECTION. 205 PART III. FROM THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE TO TILAT OF POPE GREGORY VII. 814—1085. CHAPTER XIV. On the Government and Projects of the Church during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries. Division of the Subject into Three Parts. (I.) Indepen- dence of Papal Election — Original Law and Practice — First Violation — Posterity of Charlemagne — Charles the Bald — Otho the Great — Henry III. — Alterations under Nicholas II. — Reflections. (II.) Encroachment of Eccle- siastical on Civil Authority — Indistinct Limits of Tem- poral and Spiritual Power — Till the time of Charle- magne— After that time — Influence of Feudal System — Kind of Authority conferred by it on the Clergy — Military Service — of Church Vassals — of Clergy — lat- ter forbidden by Charlemagne — Superstitious Methods of Trial — By Hot Iron — the Cross — the Eucharist — Po- litical Offices of the Clergy — Influence from Intellectual Superiority — Plunder of Church Property — Lay Impro- priators— Advocates — Louis le Debonnaire — his Pe- nance— Council at Paris in 820 — Charles the Bald — Council of Aix la Chapelle — Lothaire, King of Lorraine — his Excommunication — Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims — his Conduct on two occasions— Charles the Bald accepts the Empire from the Pope — General Re- flections— Robert, King of France — his Excommunica- tion and Submission — Episcopal distinct from Papal Encroachment. (III.) Internal Usurpation of the Ro- man See — Its Original Dignity — Metropolitan Privileges — Appellant Jurisdiction of Pope — The False Decretals — Contest between Gregory IV. and the French Bish- ops— between Adrian II. and Hincmar — Character of Hincmar — Consequence of regular Appeals to the Pope — Vicars of the Roman See — Exemption of Monasteries from Episcopal Superintendence — Remarks. That we may avoid the confusion usually attending the compression of a long series of incidents, we shall here endeavor to dis- tinguish the points which chiefly claim our notice, rather than follow chronologically the course of events ; and though it may not he possible, nor even desirable, to prevent the occasional encroachments of subjects in some respects similar, yet in others very different, we shall not allow it to perplex our narra- tive. It is an obscure and melancholy region into which we now enter ; but it is not al- together destitute of interest and instruction, since we can discern, through the ambiguous twilight, those misshapen masses and dis- orderly elements out of which the fabric of Papal despotism presently arose, and even trace the irregular progress of that stupen- dous structure. We shall best attain this end by giving a se- parate consideration to three subjects, which will be found to include the whole ecclesias- tical policy of the ninth and tenth centuries. Other matters relating to that period, and possessing perhaps even greater general im- portance, will be treated in the next chapter ; but at present we shall confine our inquiry to the following objects : — I. The endeavors of the Popes to free their own election from Imperial interference of every description, whether to nominate or to confirm. II. The efforts of the Church to usurp dominion over the Western empire; and generally to ad- vance the spiritual as loftier and more legiti- mate than the highest temporal authority. HI. The exertions of the See of Rome to sub- due to itself the ecclesiastical body, and thus to establish a despotism within the Church. In the two first of these objects we may re- gard the Church as waging for the most part an external warfare : the last occasioned her intestine or domestic struggles , and the ex- amination of them will necessarily lead to some mention of the peculiarities introduced by the feudal system ; of its influence on the manners, morals, and property of the clergy. I. On the independency of Papal election. The original law and practice in this matter had passed, with some variations but little lasting alteration, through the succession both of the Greek and barbarian sovereigns of Rome, from the time of Constantine to that of Charlemagne, and that Prince also trans- mitted it unchanged to his posterity. It was this — that the Pope should be elected by the priests, nobles, and people of Rome, but that he should not be consecrated without the consent of the Emperor. This arrangement was found, for above eight centuries, to be consistent with the dignity of the Roman Bishop, and it was not till his spiritual pride had been inflated by temporal power, that it was discovered to be doubly objectionable — it was no longer to be endured, either that laymen should interfere in the election of the Pope, or the Emperor in his consecration Both these restraints became offensive to the lofty principles of ecclesiastical independence; but the latter was that which it was first at- tempted to remove. Charlemagne was succeeded by his son 206 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. Lewis, commonly called the Meek, a feeble and superstitious monarch ; and of these de- fects both Stephen V.* and Pascal I. so far availed themselves, as to exercise the pontifi- cal functions without awaiting his confirma- tion. But when Eugene II. would have followed their example, Lothaire, who was associated to the empire, complained of the usurpation and resumed the Imperial right. Lewis died in 840, and was succeeded on the throne of France by Charles the Bald. That Prince reigned for thirty-seven years with scarcely greater vigor than his prede- cessor; but his reign is on several accounts important in the history of Popery, and chief- ly on the following. Two years before his death the Imperial throne became vacant. Charles was ambitious to possess it ; he went to Rome, accepted it at the hands of John VIII. ; and then, that he might make a wor- thy return for this office, he released the See from the necessity of Imperial consent to the consecration of its Bishop. The claims which were derived by subsequent Popes from John's assumed donation of the empire will be mentioned hereafter, and it will appear on how slight a ground they rested ; but the interference of the Emperor in Papal elec- tions was on this occasion directly and un- equivocally withdrawn. Neither the interests nor the honor of the See gained any thing by its independence. From that time (the event took place in 875) till 960, the most disgraceful confusion pre- vailed in the elections, and clearly proved that the restraint heretofore imposed by civil superintendence, had been salutary ; and if the emperors during that stormy period did not reclaim their former right, we should rather attribute the neglect to their weakness than to their acknowledged cession of it. For in the year 960, Otho the Great, on the invi- tation of John XII., resumed the Imperial authority in Italy, and exercised, as long as he lived, the most arbitrary discretion in the election, and even appointment, of the Pon- tiff. He presently degraded John, and sub- stituted in his place Leo VIII. ; and under that Pope (or anti-Pope — for it is disputed) a Lateran council f was held in 964, which conferred on Otho and all his successors not merely the kingdom of Italy, but the regula- tion of the Holy See and the arbitrary elec- tion of its bishops. And for the guidance of * Generally called Stephen IV. See Baron, ami. 816. s. 96. t Giannone, Stor. Nap., lib. viii., cap. vi. their successors, Otho left an edict prohib- iting the election of any Pope without the previous* knowledge and consent of the em- peror, which was enforced during the next eighty years by all who possessed the power to do so. But in the century following, in the year 1047, we observe that the same right was once more conceded to an emperor, Hen- ry III. ; and on this occasion an artful dis- tinction was drawn by the Italians, which led, no doubt, to the ultimate independence of election : the privilege of nominating the Pope was granted to Henry personally, f not to the throne. This important advantage was followed almost immediately by another of still great- er consequence. Nicholas II., under the di- rection of Hildebrand, found means to restore the original principle of election, modified as follows : the right of appointment was vested in the College of cardinals, with the consent of the people, and the approbation of the em- peror. But the last mentioned restriction was expressly understood to extend only to the emperor of the time being, and to such of his successors as should personally obtain the privilege. This grand measure was ac- complished in a council held at Rome in 1059, fourteen years before the accession of Gregory VII. ; and so the matter rested, when he took possession of the chair. We observe from this short account, that, after an interrupted struggle of two hundred and fifty years, an absolute independence of election was not yet confessedly effected. The contest had fluctuated very consider- ably ; the first advantages were entirely on the side of the Pope ; in fact, at the death of Charles the Bald, the victory seemed perfect- ly secure : and the century which followed was so clouded by the mutual dissensions of the princes; it was marked by such positive weakness in their states, such vices in their personal character and internal administra- tion, as to be in the highest degree favor- able to the confirmation and extension of papal privileges. Why then was it, that the privilege in question was not at that time extended nor even permanently confirmed ? Why was it even that the next interference of the emperor took place at the solicitation of a Pope ? Chiefly because the removal of Imperial superintendence had thrown the election entirely into the hands of an unprin- ♦Mosheim, Cent, x., p. ii.,c. ii. t He had occasion to exert it three times. See J below, chap. xvi. ECCLESIASTICAL ENCROACHMENTS. 207 cipled nobility,* an intriguing clergy, and a ve- nal populace, whose united fraud and violence usually favored the most flagitious candi- date, and promoted his success by means the most shameful. And, therefore, through this lawless period we read of Popes tumultuous- ly chosen and hastily deposed ; hurried from the monastery to the chair, from the chair to prison or to death. Their reigns were usual- ly short and wasted in fruitless endeavors to prolong them ; their sacred duties were for- gotten or despised, and their personal char- acters were even more detestable than those of the princes their contemporaries. Fur- ther, we may observe, that when the Church began to recover from the delirium of the tenth century; when one great man did at length arise within it, Hildebrand, the future Gregory, his influence was immediately ex- erted, not only against Imperial interference to confirm, but against popular license to elect : for he had learned from long and late experience, that no scheme for the universal extension of Papal authority could be made effective, until the Popes themselves were secured from the capricious insolence of a domestic tyrant. If things had not been * From the deposition of the last Carlovingian king to the reign of Otho the Great, (a space of near- ly fifty years,) the authority of the princes who held the imperial title was always vacillating and con- tested. In the meantime the city of Rome was no part of the kingdom of Italy, but depended on the imperial crown only; so that during the vacancy of the empire it recovered its independence, and thus fell under the turbulent oligarchy of its own nobles. These provided the candidates for the pontifical throne ; and whosoever among them succeeded in obtaining it, secured, by means of the church rev- enues, a great preponderance over all the others, and became as it were the chiefs of the republic. (See Sismondi, Repub. Ital. chap, iii.; to whose work we are compelled to refer the reader for the few facts which are ascertained respecting the revolutions of the Roman Government during this period.) For the further degradation of the Roman See the influ- ence of female arts and charms was triumphantly ex- erted. * Jamais les femmes n'eurent autant de credit Buir aucun gouvernement que celles de Rome en ob- tinrent, dans le dixieme siecle, sur celui de leur pa- trie. Or auroit dit que la beaute avoit succede a tous les droits de 1' empire.' The names and scandals of Theodora and Marozia are distinguished in the ecclesiastical annals of the tenth century. In the rapid succession of popes, those most marked by dis- grace or misfortune may have been Leo V., John X., John XL, John XII., Benedict VI., John XIV.; but to pursue the details of their history would be alike painful and unprofitable: for their crimes would teach us no lessons, and even their sufferings would scarcely raise our compassion. thus — if Papal elections had been regularly and conscientiously conducted when the civil governments of Europe were at the lowest point of contentious and stupid im becility — the aera of Pontifical despotism would have been anticipated by nearly three centuries, and the empire of opinion would have been more oppressive and more last- ing, as the age was more deeply immersed in ignorance and barbarism. II. Encroachment of Ecclesiastical on Civil Authority. We proceed to examine the en- croachments of Church upon State during the same period ; and this part of our subject might again be subdivided under three heads — the general usurpations of the See of Rome on any temporal rights — the particular usur- pations of national councils of Bishops on the civil authorities — and the individual usurpa- tions of the episcopal office on that of the secular magistrate. But, not to perplex this matter by an attempt at exceeding minute- ness, we shall rather follow the course of events and illustrate them with such obser- vations as they may appear severally to de- mand. The first edict which permitted legal jurisdiction to the Episcopal order, and sup- ported its decisions by civil authority, sowed the seeds of that confusion which afterwards involved and nearly obliterated the limits of temporal and spiritual power. There is scarcely any crime which an ingenious cas- uist might not construe into an offence against religion, and subject to ecclesiastical cogni- zance, in a rude and illiterate age ; while, on the other hand, the best defined and most certain rights of an unarmed and dependent authority were liable to continual outrage either from a sovereign possessing no fixed principles of government, or from a lawless aristocracy more powerful than the sove- reign. In the Eastern empire, indeed, this evil was greatly neutralized by the decided and unvarying supremacy of the civil power, nor was it immediately felt even in the West ; at least we read little or nothing about the usurpation of the Clergy, until after the death of Charlemagne. The Popes, it is true, had • displayed, from a very early period, great anxiety to enlarge their authority ; but the efforts of Leo and even of Gregory were confined to the acquisition of some privilege from their own Metropolitans, or some title or province from their rival at Constanti- nople. The dream of universal empire seems at no time to have warmed the imagination of those more moderate Pontiffs. It is not £03 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. that we may not occasionally discover both in the writings and in the conduct of the pre- lates of earlier days an abundance of spiritual zeal ever ready to overflow its just bounds, and gain somewhat upon the secular empire. The latter, too, found its occasions to retort ; but we may remark, that while its operations were o-enerally violent and interrupted, those of the clergy were more systematic and con- tinuous. In the meantime the distinction be- tween the two parties was becoming wider, and their differences were approaching near to dissension, before, and even during, the reign of Charlemagne : howbeit, the vigor- ous grasp of that monarch so firmly wielded the double sceptre, that the rent which was beginning to divide it * was barely percepti- ble, when it fell from his hand ; but scarcely had it begun to tremble with the feeble touch of Lewis his son, when its ill-cemented ma- terials exhibited a wide and irreparable in- coherence. The extraordinary change which had tak- en place in the institutions of the Western Empire during the two preceding, and which was progressive during the two present, cen- turies, greatly increased both to church and state the facility of mutual encroachment. Until the permanent settlement of the north- ern nations generally introduced the feudal system of government, the Clergy, though enjoying great immunities and ample pos- sessions, yet, as they lived under absolute rule, had little real, and no independent pow- er, excepting such as indirectly accrued to * In die ' Capitularies of Interrogations' proposed bv Charlemagne, three years before his death, — ' First,' (he says) ' I will separate the bishops, the abbots, and the secular nobles, and speak to them in private. I will ask them why they are not willing to assist each other, whether at home or in the camp, when the interests of their country demand itl Whence come those frequent complaints which 1 hear, either concerning their property or the vassals which pass from the one to the other'? In what the ecclesiastics impede the service of the laity, the laity that of the ecclesiastics'? To what extent a bishop or abbot ought to interfere in secular affairs ; or a count or other layman in ecclesiastical matters,' &c. (Fleury, H. Eccl. 1. xiv. sect. 51. Guizot, Hist. Mod. Lecon 21.) Soon afterwards, in 826, the Council of Paris, after proposing some very extravagant epis- copal claims, observes, as one great obstacle to har- mony, that the princes have long mixed too much in ecclesiastical matters, and that the clergy, whether through avarice or ignorance, take unbecoming in- terest in secular matters. Again, at the Synod of Aix-la-Chapelle (in 836) all the evils of the time are expressly attributed to the mutual encroachments of the spiritual and secular power3. them through their influence. If they had lands, no jurisdiction was necessarily annex- ed to them ; they had no place in legislative assemblies ; they had no control, as a body, in the direction of the state. The devout spirit of the Barbarians pres- ently increased the extent of their landed possessions without withholding from them any of the rights which, according to their system, were inseparable from land ; and thus they entered upon temporal jurisdiction co- extensive with their estates. By these means the Episcopal Courts became possessed of a double jurisdiction — over the Clergy and Laity of their diocese for the cognizance of crimes against the ecclesiastical law, and over the vassals of their barony as lords para- mount ; and these two departments they fre- quently so far confounded as to use the spirit- ual weapon of excommunication to enforce the judgments of both.* In the next place the Clergy became an order in the state, and thus entered into the enjoyment of privileges en- tirely unconnected with their spiritual char- acter. Yet the necessary effect of the union of ecclesiastical with secular dignities was to blend two powers in the same person almost undistinguishably ; and to confound, by in- discriminate use, the prerogatives of the bish- op with those of the baron. Again, the Bish- ops being once established as feudal lords, had great advantages in increasing their pos- sessions, owing to the influence which neces- sarily devolved on them, not only from their greater virtues and knowledge, but also from the command of spiritual authority. And as the vassals of the Church grew gradually to be better secured from oppression and out- rage than those of the lay nobility, its pro- tection was more courted and its patrimonial domain more amply extended. At the first establishment of the system, vassalage to an ecclesiastic conferred exemp- tion from military service ; but, among rude and warlike nations, when the greater force was generally the better law, this privilege * This subject is treated clearly, though shortly, by Burke, in his Abridgment of English History. Mos- heim, who ascribes the secular encroachments of the Bishops to their acquisition of secular titles, de- nies that such titles were conferred on them before the tenth age. Louis Thomassin (De Disciplin. Eccles. Vet. et Nova) endeavors to trace the prac- tice to the ninth and even to the eighth century. Whatever may be the fact respecting the titles, the jurisdiction certainly gained great ground during the ninth age; more, perhaps, through the superstition of the people, and the weakness of the princes, than by its own legitimacy. ECCLESIASTICAL ENCROACHMENTS. 209 could not possibly be of long duration. It was withdrawn universally, at different times, by different princes, according to their power or their necessities. The Church fiefdoms thus assumed a very different appearance, and the spirituality of the sacred character became still further corrupted ; for, as soon as the vassals became military, it was found difficult to hold them in subjection to an un- armed lord, and the Clergy were, in many instances, obliged to descend from their peaceful condition, assume the sword and helmet, and conduct their subjects into bat- tle : in many instances they did so without any such obligation. * This direct derelic- tion of the pastoral character became the im- mediate means of securing their property f and increasing their power; but, notwith- standing the contempt to which the peaceful virtues are occasionally exposed among rude and military nations, it is probable that they lost thereby as much in influence as they gained in power. Again, the strange and irrational method of Trials which even now came generally into use, must have tended, by the inter- mixture of superstition, to enlarge the do- minion of ecclesiastical influence. The or- dinary proofs by fire, by water, by hot iron, indicate some imposture perhaps only prac- ticable by the more informed craft of the clergy. The proofs of the Cross and the Eucharist bear more obvious marks of sa- cerdotal superintendence.]; The clergy dis- graced themselves by upholding such abuses * The practice crept, without the same excuse, and of course with much less frequency, into the Greek Church. In the year 713 a Subdeacon commanded the troops of Naples ; and the Admiral of the Em- peror's fleet was a Deacon. (Fleury, ix. 172, &c.) But the low ecclesiastical rank which these officers held would prove, if it were necessary, that they did not take the field as feudal lords. In the West this practice appears to have commenced soon after the admission of barbarians to the clerical order; which, if we are to judge by names, scarcely took place be- fore the seventh century. f In the address (already mentioned) which was presented on this subject to Charlemagne by his peo- ple, it is remarkable that the petitioners felt it neces- sary to offer a solemn assurance, that their motive for disarming the Clergy was not (as might, it seems, have been suspected) a design to plunder their prop- erty. We may add, that the indecent violation of the sacerdotal character is a reason, which seems to have been overlooked by both parties. X Even the trial by Duel, which seems the farthest removed from priestly interference, was preceded by eorne religious forms ; great precautions were taken to prevent the arms from being enchanted ; and in 27 of their judicial authority, and they divide that disgrace with the Kings and the civil magistrates of the time ; but they had not the crime of introducing them. They re- ceived and executed them as they were hand- ed down from a remote and blind antiquity and it is but justice to add, that they made frequent attempts to abolish them. * Moreover, through the free spirit which formed the only merit of the feudal system, the affairs of the state were more or less regulated by public assemblies, and the high- er ranks of the clergy found a place in these. Thus, again, were they placed in contact with the great temporal interests of their country, and invited to examine and direct them ; and no doubt their feudal temporal- ities, as well as their spiritual influence, added weight and authority to their counsel. But, besides these, which some might overbear and others might affect to despise, their po- litical consideration was derived from an- other— a more honorable and a more certain instrument of power — their intellectual su- periority. The learning of the age continued still to be confined to their order ;f few among the laity could even read, and there- fore few were qualified for any public duty, and thus the various offices requiring any degree of literature fell necessarily into the hands of the clergy. Those who consider their advance to such offices as usurpations do not sufficiently weigh the circumstances of the times ; they do not reflect that there are moral as well as physical necessities, and that a state of society is not even possible, in case of any injustice a miracle was constantly ex- pected to remedy it. * A council held at Attigni, probably in 822, un- der Lewis the Meek, especially prohibited the Trial by the Cross; according to which, the two parties stood up before a cross, and whichever of them fell first lost his cause. Again, at the Council of Worms (in 829,) these judgments were strongly discouraged. Agobard, Archbishop of Lyons, an influential pre- late, had written expressly against them. The Coun- cil of Valence, held in 855, published the following canon. ' Duels shall not be suffered, though author- ized by custom. He who shall have slain his adver- sary shall be subject to the penance of homicide; he who shall have been slain, shall be deprived of the prayers and sepulture of the church. The Emperor shall be prayed to abolish that abuse by public ordi- nance.' See Fkury, 1. xlvi., s. 48. 1. xlvii, s. 30. 1. xlix., s. 23. f In many of the councils held during the ninth century, canons were enacted enjoining die Bishop to suspend a Priest for ignorance, and to promote ana regulate the schools which were established for die education of the clergy. 210 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. which the only persons at all qualified to fill the offices of the state should be the only persons excluded from them. It is far from our intention to advocate any general depar- ture from the spiritual character in the sacred orders ; and the divines of the ninth and tenth centuries would undoubtedly have been great gainers both in virtue and in happiness, had they preserved that character pure and uncontaminated. But it was made impos- sible by the political system under which they lived, that it could be so ; and without seeking any excuse for the individual mis- conduct of thousands among them, we can- not avoid perceiving, that their interference in temporal affairs, to a certain extent, was absolutely unavoidable — and where and by whom, in those unsettled ages, were the lim- its of that interference to be drawn and pre- served ? If the clergy were in many respects gainers by the imperfection of civil government, it would be partial to conceal, that they were sufferers by it also. In times of confusion (and those days were seldom tranquil) the property of the Church was the constant ob- ject of cupidity and invasion.* On such oc- casions no inconsiderable portion of its rev- enues passed into the hands of lay impropri- ators, who employed curates at the cheapest rate, f And both Bishops and Monasteries were obliged to invest powerful lay protec- * The councils of the ninth century abound with complaints of the spoliation of Church property by laymen, who are frequently specified ; and new Ca- pitularies were continually enacted to prevent or allay differences between the Clergy and the laity. The confusion generally prevalent is proved by the capit- ularies published at Quercy (in 857,) by which every diocesan is exhorted to preach against pillage and violence, as well as by the Letters of Hincmar pub- lished in 859, and that of the Bishops of France to King Lewis, attributed to the same prelate. The frequency too of personal assaults on the Clergy is evinced by various regulations for their protection, and even more so, perhaps, by the slight punishment attached to such offences. Some promulgated in France (probably in S22) ordain as follows — ' the murderer of a Deacon or Priest is condemned to a penance of twelve years and a fine of 900 sous ; the murderer of a Bishop is to abstain from flesh and wine for the whole of his life, to quit the profession of arms, and abstain from marriage.' Yet the confir- mation of this canon was thought highly important by the episcopal order. Fleury 1. xlvi,s. 48; l.xlix, 6.40. t An abuse (as Mr. Hallam remarks) which has never ceased in the Church. Middle Ages, chap. vii. We take this opportunity of acknowledging various obligations to that historian. tors, under the name of Advocates, with con- siderable fiefs, as the price of their protection against depredators. But those Advocates became themselves too often the spoilers, and oppressed the helpless ecclesiastics for whose defence they had been engaged. We have thought it right, though at the risk of some repetition, to premise this gen- eral view of the relative situation of the cler- gy and laity during the period which we are describing ; otherwise it would be difficult to form any just and impartial views, or even any very definite notions, of the real charac- ter of the events which it contains. Penance of Lewis the Meek. In the civil war which took place in the year 833 be- tween Lewis the Meek * and his sons, Pope Gregory IV. presented himself in France at the camp of the rebels. The motive which he pretended was to reconcile the combatants and terminate a dissension f so scandalous to Christendom ; and such really may have been his design. At least it is certain that his interference was a single and inconse- quent act, unaccompanied by any insolence of pretension ; the Pope offered his media- tion, and, though we may suspect his impar- tiality, he advanced no claim of apostolical authority to dispose of the crown. We shall, therefore, pass on from this event to one which immediately followed it, and which French historians consider as the first in- stance of ecclesiastical aggression on the rights of their sovereign. Lewis was betray- ed by his soldiers into the hands of his sons, who immediately deposed him and divided the empire amongst themselves: but fearing that he might hereafter be restored by popu- lar favor, they determined to inflict upon him a still deeper and even hopeless humiliation. An assembly held at Compiegne condemned him to perform public penance, and he sub- mitted with some reluctance to the sentence. Having received a paper containing the list * Charlemagne died in 814; Lewis the Meek in 840, and his successor, Charles the Bald, in S77. The empire passed from Charlemagne's descendants to the German Conrad just a century after his death ; and in 987 his dynasty was extinguished in France by the accession of Hugh Capet. fBaron., ann. 833, s. v. Gregory held the See from 828 to 844. It was made a complaint against the Emperor by Agobard, the Archbishop of Lyons (ap. Baron., ann. 833, s. vi.) that he did not address the Pope with the due expressions of respect — since he saluted him, in a letter, Brother and Papa indis- criminately: the paternal appellation should alone, it seems, have been adopted. ECCLESIASTICAL ENCROACHMENTS. 211 of his pretended crimes, and confessed his guilt, he prostrated himself on a rough mat at the foot of the altar, cast aside his baldric, his sword, and his secular vestments, and as- sumed the garb of a penitent. And, after the Bishops had placed their hands on him, and the customary psalms and prayers had been performed, he was conducted in sackcloth to the cell assigned for his perpetual i-esidence. It was intended by those who condemned him to this ignominy, thereby to disqualify their former sovereign for every office both civil and military. But neither does it ap- pear that such was the necessary conse- quence of canonical penance, unless when imposed for life ; * nor could they have for- gotten that eleven years previously the same monarch had already performed a public penance, for certain political offences then charged on him. It proved then, as might have been expected, that the ceremony de- scribed had no more important effect than the temporary humiliation of the royal person. Probably his popularity was increased by the show of persecution ; and, as soon as politi- cal circumstances changed in his favor, the Bishops immediately reconciled the penitent to the Church, and replaced him on the throne, f This stretch of Episcopal power is blamed by many Roman Catholic historians, who, at the same time, are careful to show that it was simply an act of penance, not of deposi- tion, justified by the memorable submission of Theodosius to ecclesiastical discipline. Nevertheless, we cannot injustice otherwise consider it, than as a daring outrage commit- ted on the highest temporal authority, with the intention of perpetuating the deposition of Lewis by the pretext of penance. Yet it had been surpassed in azi earlier age and in a different country, by a measure of episcopal usurpation which is less generally recorded. At the twelfth. Council of Toledo, in G82, the bishops undertook to decide on the succes- sion to the crown. Vamba, king of the Vis- igoths, having done penance and assumed the monastic habit, formally abdicated in favor of Ejwigius ; on which matter the prelates pronounced as follows — ' We have read this * The prohibition to carry arms or discharge civil offices did not extend beyond the duration of the pen- ance. See Fleury, 1. xlvii. s. 40. Baron, ami. SS2. s. i. ; aim. 833. s. xix. f We read in Baronius (ann. 834, s. i.,) that, dur- ing the time of his deposition, violent and unseason- able tempests prevailed, which instantly dispersed at his restoration. act and think right to give it our confirmation. Wherefore we declare that the people is ab- solved from all obligation and oath by which it was engaged to Vamba, and that it should re- cognise fur its only master Ervigius, whom God has chosen, whom his predecessor has appointed, and, what is still more, whom the whole people desires.' * Still we may observe that, even in this instance, the prelates did not professedly proceed to the whole length of deposition, though such was unquestion- ably the real nature of the measure. We may also remind the reader, that the aggres- sions which have been thus far mentioned were entirely the work of the episcopal or- der, not in any way directed or influenced by the See of Rome. It is very true that they may have prepared the way for the more extensive usurpations of Papacy, and the au- thority which had been insulted by provincial bishops could scarcely hope to be long held sacred by the Chief of the whole body: still the Pope had not yet found himself sufficient- ly powerful to engage in the enterprise. Charles the Bald. The long reign of Charles the Bald furnishes more numerous instances of the exercise of ecclesiastical influence in affairs of state, some of which deserve our notice. That prince and Lewis of Bavaria being desirous to dispossess their brother Lothaire of a portion of his dominions, did not presume, notwithstanding great military advantages which they had obtained over him, to proceed in their design without the sanction of the Clergy. To that end they summoned a council of Bishops and Priests f at Aix-la-Chapelle, in the year 842, and sub- mitted the question to their consideration. The assembly condemned the crimes and incapacity of Lothaire, and declared that God had justly withdrawn his protection from him ; but it would not permit his bro- thers to occupy his kingdom until they had made a public vow to govern it, not after the example of Lothaire, but accordiug to the will of God. The Bishops then pronounced their final decision in these words — ' Receive the kingdom by the authority of God, and govern it according to his will ; we counsel, we exhort, we command you to do so.' The effect of this sentence was not, indeed, the entire spoliation of Lothaire, who retained his throne to the end of his life ; but certain pro- vinces, already in the occupation of the con- * It is the first canon of the Council, and is cited by Fleury, 1. xl. s. 29. f Fleury, H. E. 1. xlviii. s. 11. Baron., ann. 842. s. 1,2,3. 212 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. querors, were immediately, and, as it would seem, permanently transferred to their scep- tre in consequence of the episcopal award. In the year 859 Charles presented to the Council of Savonieres a formal complaint against Venilo, Archbishop of Sens, which breathes the lowest spirit of humiliation. 'By his own election' (the King says,) ' and that of the other Bishops, and by the will and consent and acclamation of the rest of my subjects, Venilo, with the other Bishops and Archbishops, consecrated me King, accord- ing to the tradition of the Church, and anoint- ed me to the kingdom with the holy chrism, and raised me to the throne with the diadem and sceptre. After which consecration and regal elevation I ought to have been degraded by no one without the hearing and judgment of the Bishops, by whose ministry I was consecrated to royalty, who are called the thrones of God. In them God sits ; by them he makes known his judgments ; and to their paternal corrections and penal authority I was prepared to subject myself, and am now subject.' * These words (as Fleury admits) are remarkable in the mouth of a king, and es- pecially of a king of France ; but the example of his predecessor, enforced by his own mis- fortunes f and feebleness, may have reduced Charles to the necessity of such degradation. But, on the other hand, can we feel astonish- ment that the Hierarchy took advantage of what appeared the voluntary and gratuitous prostration of royalty ? When we blame the ambition of those who received the offering, should we forget the weakness and pusillan- imity of those who presented it? A year or two afterwards, Lothaire, King of Lorraine, grandson of Lewis the Meek, divorced his wife in order to espouse his con- cubine. It appears that no less than three Councils of Bishops sanctioned the act of their monarch ; nevertheless the repudiated queen made her appeal to Rome. Nicholas I. was then Pope, and he interfered in her favour with his usual vehemence and per- *The original is cited by Baronius, aim. 859. s. xxvi. The Bishops had a very simple process of reasoning, by which they proved their supremacy. A Bishop can consecrate a King, but a King cannot consecrate a Bishop: therefore a Bishop is superior to a King. We might well wonder that any serious attention should ever have been paid to such undis- guised nonsense, if we did not recollect what undue weight is always attached to ceremony in ignorant ages. t It should also be recollected that this was the crisis of the general dissolution of government and society into the feudal form. severance: the threat of excommunication was long suspended over the king, who em- ployed submissive language and persisted in disobedience. There is some * reason to be- lieve that the Pope, towards the end of his life, executed his menace ; and if so, it may seem a strange return for the generosity of Charlemagne to the Holy See, that the first discharge of its deadliest bolt should have been directed, within fifty years from his death, against one of his own descendants. But he had in some degree secured this re- tribution by his own imprudence : for it was his custom to engage the Bishops to pervert the ecclesiastical censures to the service of the civil government. The confusion between the two powers was thus augmented ; and the misapplication of the great spiritual wea- pon to the purposes of the state naturally led to the second abuse, which turned it, for Church purposes, against the state. On the death of Lothaire, Adrian II. en- deavored to exclude Charles the Bald from the succession to his states, and to confer them on the Emperor Lewis. To effect this object he addressed one letter to the nobles of the kingdom of Lothaire, in which he ex- horted them to adhere to the Emperor on pain of anathema and excommunication ; and a second to the subjects of Charles, in which he eidogized the Emperor, and repeated the same menaces. He continued to the follow- ing purpose ; — ' If any one shall oppose him- self to the just pretensions of the Emperor, let him know that the Holy See is in favor of that Prince, and that the arms which God has placed in our hands are prepared for his defence.' We may consider this as the first attempt of papal ambition to regulate the successions of princes. It was unsuccessful ; Charles, with the aid of Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, and other Prelates, had already placed himself in possession of the throne when the legates of Adrian arrived ; and the subsequent efforts of the Pontiff to oblige him to abdication were repelled with courage and constancy both by the king and his metro- politan, f * Fleury (1. li. s. 7.) collects the fact from the Pope's letter to Charles, in favor of Heltrude, widow of Count Berenger, and sister of Lothaire. But many historians are silent respecting it, and in the first in- tercourse between Lothaire and Adrian II. the suc- cessor of Nicholas, we can discover no proof that the King was then lying under the sentence. t The Pope commanded Hincrnar to abstain from the communion of Charles, if he continued refractory. The Archbishop (professedly in the name of his fel- ECCLESIASTICAL ENCROACHMENTS. 213 Lewis III. and Hincmar o/Rheims. These events took place about the year 870 ; and ten years afterwards the same Hincmar was equally firm in defending the rights of the Church when they were in opposition to the claims of the king, Lewis III. That Prince was desirous to intrude into the See of Beau- vais an unworthy minister, and pressed his appointment by supplication and menace. Hincmar defended the original liberty of elec- tions which had been restored by Lewis the Meek, and the independence of the Church. ' That you are the master of the elections, and of the ecclesiastical property, are assertions proceeding from hell and from the mouth of the serpent. Remember the promise which you made at your consecration, which you subscribed with your hand, and presented to God on the altar in the presence of the Bish- ops. Reconsider it with the aid of your Council, and pretend not to introduce into the Church that which the mighty Emperors, your predecessors, pretended not in their time. I trust that I shall always preserve towards you the fidelity and devotion which are due ; I labored much for your election ; do not then return me evil for good by per- suading me to abandon in my old age the ho- ly regulations which I have followed, through low-subjects) replied, among other matters, — ' Let the Pope consider that he is not at the same time king and bishop; that his predecessors have regulated the Church, which is their concern — not the State, which is the heritage of kings ; and consequently that he should neither command us to obey a king too distant to protect us against the sudden attacks of the Pagans, nor pretend to subjugate us — us who are Franks If a Bishop excommunicates a Christian, contrary to rule, he abuses his power; but he can deprive no one of eternal life who is not deprived of it by his sins. It is improper in a Bishop to say that any man not incorrigible should be separated from the Christian name and consigned to condemnation; and that too, not on account of his crimes, but for the sake of with- holding or conferring a temporal sovereignty. If then the Pope is really desirous to establish concord, let him not attempt it by fomenting dissensions; for he will never persuade us that we cannot arrive at the kingdom of Heaven except by receiving the king whom he may choose to give us on earth.' Again, in an answer of Charles to an epistle of Adrian, that Prince argues respecting the distinction between the temporal and the spiritual power, and also alleges the peculiar supremacy of the kings of France. To prove these and similar points, he refers not only to the Archives of the Roman Church, but to the writings of St. Gelasius, St. Leo, St. Gregory, and even St. Au- gustin himself. (See Hist. Litteraire de la France. Fleury, 1. lii., s. 8, 22.) Hincmar wrote many of that king's letters, and may probably have been the author of this. the grace of God, during six and thirty years of episcopacy ' A subsequent letter by the same Prelate contained even stronger expressions to the following effect — 'It is not you who have chosen meto govern the Church ; but it is I and my colleagues and the rest of the faithful who have chosen you to govern the kingdom, on the condition of observing the laws. We fear not to give account of our conduct before the Bishops, because we have not violated the Canons. But as to you, if you change not what you have ill done, God will redress it in his own good time. The Emperor Lewis lived not so long as his father Charles ; your grandfather Charles lived not so long as his father, nor your father* as his father; and when you are at Compiegne, where they repose, cast down your eyes and look where lies your father and where your grandfather is buried ; and presume not to exalt yourself in the presence of Him who died for you and for us all, and who was raised again, and dies no more You will pass away speedily ; but the Holy Church and its ministers under Jesus Christ their Chief will subsist eternally according to his promise.' This vain menace of temporal retribution (for as such it was obviously in- tended) was however singularly accomplish- ed ; Lewis, in the vigor of youth, died in the following year; and the strange coincidence may have encouraged future Prelates to in- dulge in similar predictions which proved not equally fortunate. We have already mentioned that Charles the Bald, about fifteen years after his contest with Pope Nicholas, condescended to accept the vacant empire as the donation of John VIII. The immediate result of this act was, that the government of Italy and the Imperial throne were, for some years afterwards, placed in a great measure at the disposal of the Pope, who shamelessly abused his influence.f But it had a more lasting and still more per- nicious consequence, in so far as it furnished to the more powerful Pontiffs of after ages one of their pretexts for interference in the succession to the Imperial throne. The cere- mony of coronation to which Charlemagne had consented to submit at Rome was their only foundation for the pretension that the empire had been transferred from the Greeks to the Latins by papal authority ; and on the same ground it was subsequently transferred * Lewis the Stammerer. t See Mosh. Cent. ix. p. ii. c. ii. Giannone Stor. Nap. lib. viii. Introduct. 214 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. by the same agency from the French to the Italians, from the Italians to Otho I. and the Germans. The mere act of ministry in a customary, and, as was then thought, a neces- sary solemnity, was exalted into a display of superiority and an exercise of power ; and many among the ignorant vulgar were really led to believe that the rights of sovereignty were conferred by the form of consecration. But the condescension of Charles the Bald, though conceding no very definite privilege, nor any which could be reasonably binding on his successors, yet furnished a pretence which was somewhat more substantial than a mere ceremony.* On a review of this short narrative, we perceive that the Prelates of the ninth century advanced, for the first time, claims of temporal authority ; that such claims were asserted by national assemblies of Bishops even more daringly than by the Popes ; and that they were so immoderate as to be inconsistent with the necessary rights of Princes, and the vigor and stability of civil government. We ob- serve, moreover, that the Hierarchy, though on some particular occasions their efforts were frustrated, had made, during the period of sixty-three years from the death of Charle- magne to that of Charles the Bald, very con- siderable strides in the advancement of their power and privileges. The immediate suc- cessor of Charles, Lewis the Stammerer, was consecrated to the throne of France by the Pope ; and a Council of Bishops assembled at Troyes about the same time (in 878,) publish- ed, as the first Canon, ' that the Powers of the world should treat the Bishops with every sort of respect, and that no one should pre- sume to sit down in their presence unless by their command ; ' as the last, ' that all those Canons be observed, under pain of deposition for clerks, and privation of all dignity for laymen. ' The Pope and the King were both * Some of the expressions of the Pope delivered on this occasion should be cited. ' Unde nos, tantis indiciis divinitus incumbentibus, luce clarius agnitis, superni decreti consilium manifest^ cognovimus. Et quia pridem Apostolicse memorise Decessori nostro Papre Nicolao idipsum jam inspiratione divina revelatnm fuisse comperimus, clegimus merito et approbavimus una cum annisu et voto omnium Fra- trum et Coepiscoporum nostrorum et aliorum Sanctce Rom. Ecclesise Ministrorum, amplique senatus, toti- usqueRom. populi gentisque togata;, et secundum pris- cam consuetudinem, solemniter ad Imperii Romani Sceptra proveximus, et Augustali nomine decoravi- masj ungentes eum oleo extrinsecus, ut interioris quoque Spiritus Sancti unctionis monstraremus virtu- tem, &c ' See Baron. Ann. 876, s. 6. present at this Council, and the latter appeaj-a to have sanctioned the very bold usurpation contained in the last clause. Soon after this period the Popes became sj much embarrassed by domestic inquietude and disorder, that they had little leisure to extend their conquests abroad ; and thus for above a century the thunders of the Vatican murmured with extreme faintness, or alto- gether slept. But the principle of ecclesias- tical supremacy, and the disposition to submit to it were not extinguished in the tumults of the tenth age ; and the storm, when it again broke forth, seemed even to have gained strength from the sullen repose which had preceded it. The occasion was this — Robert, King of France, had married a relative, four degrees removed, indeed, but still too near akin for the severity of canonical morality. Gregory V. in a Council of Italian Bishops, held at Rome in the year 998, launched a peremptory order, that the king should put away his wife, and both parties perform seven years of penance. The king resisted ; but so united was the Church at that time, and so powerful, that he was presently excommuni- cated by his own Prelates, and shunned by his nobles and people. At length, after some ineffectual struggles, he submitted to anathe- mas so generally respected and enforced,* and complied with both the injunctions of the Pontiff. This is the third instance of an authoritative interference on the part of the Popes in the concerns of sovereigns which we have had occasion to mention, and we may here remind the reader that two of them were on the ground of uncanonical mar- riages. It is not our intention to enumerate the many trifling occasions on which the claims of the Church were brought into collision with the rights or dignity of monarchs : the instances which have been produced are the most important, and they are worthy of more particular reflection than can here be bes- towed on them. But at present it must suffice to have noticed, even thus briefly, the earliest movements by which the spirit of ecclesias- * Petrus Damiani, who wrote about sixty years afterwards, relates, that the ecclesiastical censure was so exactly observed, that no one would hold any com- munion with the king, excepting two servants who carried him the necessaries of life, and that even these burnt the vessels which he had used. But that au- thor throws suspicion on a narration not improbable, by adding that the fruit of the marriage was a mon- ster which had the head and neck of a goose. See Fleury, 1. lvii.,s. 57. USURPATIONS OF THE ROMAN SEE. 215 tical ambition pressed towards universal do- mination, and to have called some attention to those bold, but irregular, encroachments, which furnished to after ages precedents for wider and more systematic usurpation. III. Internal usurpations of the Roman See. We have already mentioned that, from a very early period, the Bishop of Rome possessed the first rank among the rulers of the Church ; and if, after the Council of Chalcedon, it was disputed with him by the Patriarch of Con- stantinople, it was at no time contested (at least after the time of Constantine) in the western Churches. It is equally true, that his preeminence in rank was unattended by any sort of authority beyond the limits of his own diocese ; and the sort of superintendence which it might seem his duty to exercise over ecclesiastical affairs, was confined to the sim- ple right of remonstrance. More than this is not asserted by moderate Catholics, nor can an impartial Protestant concede less. We have also noticed some of the steps which were taken by early Popes, not only to extend the boundaries of their jurisdiction, but to establish an absolute authority within them. Their earliest success was the transfer to the Holy See of the Metropolitan privileges throughout the diocese. Among these the most important were the consecration of bishops, the convocation of synods, and the ultimate decision of appeals — privileges which might, obviously be applied to restrain the power and independence of the bishops. During the fifth and sixth centuries some lit- tle progress was made towards that object. Valentinian III. made to Leo I. some conces- sions which were valuable, though that Pope had no means of enforcing them ; but the acquisitions of Gregory the Great were more substantial, and that most especially so was the establishment of the appellant jurisdiction of the see. A more general subjection of Metropolitan to Papal authority was intro- duced by the Council of Frankfort ; and such was the relative situation of the parties on the accession of Charlemagne to the empire. But presently afterwards, as if impatient of the tedious progress of gradual usurpation, the Spirit of Papacy called into existence, by an effort of amazing audacity, a new system of government, and a new code of principles, which led by a single step to the most abso- lute power. The false Decretals were im- posed on the credulity* of mankind. Still * Hincmar was not, indeed, blindly submissive to the moment was not yet arrived in which it was possible to enforce all the rights so boldly claimed on their authority ; and though some ground was gained by Pope Nicholas I., their efforts were not brought into full operation till the pontificate of Gregory VII. In recording some instances of the temporal interference of the Church, we have remarked the success of episcopal, as distinct from papal presumption, and observed the independence, as well as the force, with which the Councils of Bishops acted against the secular powers. The ninth has been peculiarly characterized as the Age of the Bishops; it becomes there- fore more important to examine the relation in which they then stood, even in the moment of their highest glory, to the power which was now spreading in every direction from Rome. It has been mentioned that when the sons of Lewis the Meek were in revolt against their father, Pope Gregory IV. presented himself (as has been mentioned) at the camp of the rebels, and under pretence of mediation, fa- vored (as was thought) their party. On this occasion, certain French prelates, who re- mained faithful to Lewis, addressed an epistle to the Pope, wherein they accused him of having violated the oath which he had taken to the Emperor; they denied his power to excommunicate any person, or make any disposition in their dioceses, without their permission ; they boldly declared that if he came with the intention of excommunicating them, he should return himself excommuni- cated ; and even proceeded so far as to threat- en him with deposition. The Pope was alarmed ; but, on the assurance of his attend- ants that he had received power from God to superintend the affairs of all nations and the concord of all Churches, and that, with au- thority to judge every one, he was not himself subject to any judgment, he wrote in answer, that ecclesiastical is placed high above secular power, and that the obedience of the Bishops was due to him rather than to the Emperor; that he could not better discharge his oath than by restoring concord ; and that none could withdraw themselves from the Church of Rome without incurring the guilt of schism. The irritation of the parties is sufficiently discovered in their letters ; but their firmness was not put to trial ; for the rebels obtained by treachery a temporary success, and the the Decretals; but it was their authority which he questioned rather than their authenticity — proving that his national or episcopal spirit of independence was greater than his critical sagacity. 216 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. Pope returned to Italy without either pro- nouncing or receiving excommunication. The occurrence which we shall next men- tion took place thirty years afterwards ; and it is the more remarkable, because the two greatest ecclesiastics of that age, Nicholas I. and Hincmar of Rheims, were placed in di- rect opposition to each other. The circum- stances were nearly the following. A Bishop of Soissons, named Rothadus, incurred the displeasure of Hincmar, and after being con- demned in two Councils held at Soissons in 862, under the direction of the Metropolitan, was first excommunicated, and very soon af- terwards deposed and imprisoned. Rothadus, on the first sentence, appealed to the see of Rome, and found a very willing and proba- bly partial judge in Nicholas. The Pope in- stantly despatched to Hincmar a peremptory order, either to restore Rothadus within thirty days, or to appear at Rome in person or by legatt for the determination of the difference, on pain of suspension from his ministry. In the year following, Hincmar sent Odo, Bishop of Beauvais, to Rome, with the commission to request the Pope's confirmation of the acts of the synod of Soissons. But Nicholas, on the contrary, rescinded its decisions, and de- manded, with repeated menaces, the imme- diate liberation of Rothadus, in order to the personel prosecution of his appeal at Rome. Through the interference of Charles the Bald, tie prisoner was released; and after some delays, the deputies of Hincmar also appeared before the pontifical tribunal. The decision was such as all probably anticipated : all the charges against Rothadus were ascrib- ed to the malice and perfidy of his enemy ; he was ordered to resume the episcopal vest- ments, and a legate was sent to escort him on his return to his country and his see. It does not appear, from the particulars * of this con- test, that Hincmar and the Bishops who sup- ported him went so far as to deny the right of a deposed Bishop to appeal to Rome against the sentence of his Metropolitan ; indeed, they rested their defence on much lower ground, * Besides the ecclesiastical historians, see the Life of Nicholas in the Breviarium Pontif. Romanor. R. P. Francisci Pagi, tome ii. That Pope, in his Epis- tle ' Ad nniversos Galliae Episcopos,' admits, how- ever, that the authority of the Decretals was not yet universally received in the Gallican Church. We •:ead in the same author, that Adrian II. commanded the Gallican Bishops to raise Actardus of Nantes to the first Metropolitan see which might be vacant; and that, in the year 871, he was raised to that of Tours, hut with the addition — Regc, clero, ac populo postu- lantibus. and thus conceded that which was most im- portant. At any rate, the triumph of Nich- olas was complete ; and though the right in question was first advanced by him, and on no more solid authority than the (forged) 'De- cretals of the Ancient Pontiffs,' he prevailed with scarcely any difficulty against the most learned canonist and the most independent ecclesiastic of those days. About five years after the restoration of Rothadus, Hincmar found himself once more in contest with the Holy See ; * and his zeal on this occasion may possibly have been an- imated by the recollection of his former hu- miliation. His vigorous opposition to Adrian II., respecting the succession to the crowrn of Lorraine, has been already noticed ; and if he failed when he would have vindicated the independence of the Church of France from Roman superintendence, his success was even more remarkable when he defend- ed the rights of the throne from similar in- vasion. The visit of John VIII. to France, during the year 878, certainly confirmed, and prob- ably extended, papal authority in that coun- try. Before the Council had assembled at Troyes, he obtained the consent of the king to some regulations, one of which was, that no metropolitan should be permitted to or- dain, until he had received the pallium or vest from Rome. During the Session of the Council we observe the following declaration to have been made by Hincmar himself: — ;In obedience to the Holy Canons, I condemn those whom the Holy See has condemned, and receive those whom it receives, and hold that which it holds in conformity with Scrip- ture and the Canons.' The Bishops who were present professed the strictest unanimity with the Pontiff; and the good understand- ing which was then, perhaps, established be- tween the Churches of Rome and France, and which assumed the inferiority, f if not * In 853, Hincmar had deposed a number of Clerks ordained by his predecessor, whose canonical right to the See was disputed. In 866, Pope Nicholas order- ed a revision of that affair; Hincmar maintained the sentence vigorously ; but Nicholas, having Charles on his side, obtained once more a complete triumph, and restored the Ecclesiastics to their rank in the Church. In both these disputes it would appear that the popu- lar voice was against Hincmar. t The following is the substance of an Address to the Pope, made by the Bishops at this Council — the original may be found in Baronius. Ann. 878, s. 17, &c. : 'We, the Bishops of Gaul and Belgium, your sons, servants, and disciples, deeply suffer through the wounds which have been inflicted upon our Holy USURPATIONS OF THE ROMAN SEE. 217 the dependence of the latter, appears to have subsisted long, with no material interruption. Character of Hincmar. Hincmar died a few years afterwards. He was descended from a noble family ; and the early part of his life he so divided between the Court and the Cloister, and displayed so much ability and enthusiasm in the discharge of the duties attached to either situation, as to combine the practical penetration of a Statesman with the rigor of a zealous Ecclesiastic. He was rais- ed to the See of Rheims in the year 845, at the age of thirty-nine, and filled it for nearly forty years with firmness and vigor. In the ninth century, when the mightiest events were brought about by ecclesiastical guid- ance, he stands among the leading charac- ters, if, indeed, we should not rather consider him as the most eminent. He was the great Churchman of the age : on all public occa- sions of weighty deliberation, at all public ceremonies of coronation or consecration, Hincmar is invariably to be found as the ac- tive and directing spirit. His great know- ledge of canonical law enabled him to rule the Councils of the Clergy ; his universal talents rendered him necessary to the state, and gave him more influence in political af- fairs than any other subject : while his cor- respondence * attests his close intercourse with all the leading characters of his age. In the management of his Diocese, he was no less careful to instruct and enlighten than strict to regulate ; and while he issued and enforced his Capitularies of Discipline with the air and authority of a civil despot, he waged incessant warfare with ignorance. It is indeed probable that he possessed less the- ological learning than his less celebrated con- temporary, Rabanus Maurus ; but he had much more of that active energy of character Mother, the mistress of all Churches, and unanimous- ly repeat the sentence which you have launched against your enemies, excommunicating those whom you have excommunicated, and anathematizing those whom you have anathematized And since we also have matter for lamentation in our own Churches, we hum- bly supplicate you to assist us with your authority, and promulgate an ordinance (Capitulum) to show in what manner we ought to act against the spoliators of the Church ; that, being fortified by the censure of the Apostolical See, we may be more powerful and confident,' &c. * Frodoard mentions 423 letters of Hincmar, be- sides many others not specified. He was present at thirty-nine important Councils, at most of which he presided. His history and character are very well illustrated by Guizot in his 28th Lecon de la Civil, en France. 28 so seldom associated with contemplative hab- its. It is also true that he was crafty, imperi- ous, and intolerant ; that he paid his sedulous devotions to the Virgin,* and was infected with other superstitions of his age. His occasional resistance to the see of Rome has acquired for him much of his celebrity ; but if Divine Providence had so disposed, that Hincmar had been Bishop of Rome for as long a space as he was Primate of France, he would unquestionably have exalted papal supremacy with more courage, consistency, and success, than he opposed it. Popish usurpations. We have observed that one of the most successful means of papal usurpation within the Church was the en- couragement of appeals to Rome. It is in- deed scarcely possible to measure the advan- tages which the see derived from that prac- tice ; and perhaps we do not value it too highly when we ascribe to it chiefly a vague notion of the Pope's omnipotence, which seems to have made some impression among the laity during the ninth century. Before we quit this subject, we should mention a remon- strance from the pen of Hincmar, which was addressed to the Pope under the name of Charles the Bald, and towards the end of his life. In this letter the Emperor is made to complain, that it is no longer deemed suffi- cient that Bishops, condemned by their Metro- politans, should cross the Alps for redress, but that every Priest, who has been canonically sentenced by his Bishop,now hurries to Rome for a repeal of the sentence. The origin of appeals to Rome is traced to the Council of Sardica ; but by that authority they were properly liable to two restrictions — they were permitted to Bishops only, and were necessa- rily determined on the spot. The inferior orders were amenable to their respective Bishops, who judged in conjunction with their Clergy ; and the only lawful appeal from the decision was to a Provincial Council. The second restriction had been confirmed by the Canons of the African Church, which in former days had defended its independence against the aggressions of Rome, and which now furnished weapons to the Prelates of Gaul, invaded after so long an interval by the persevering ambition of the same adversary. Another method of papal encroachment was the appointment of a Vicar in distant provinces, to whom the Pope delegated his assumed authority, and by whose acknow- * This appears from his epitaph, written by himself, in some very indifferent hexameter and pentameter verses. 213 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. ledgment the existence of that authority was in fact admitted. In the year 876, John VIII. designated the Archbishop of Sens as Primate of the Gauls and Germany, and Vicar of the Pope for the Convocation of Councils and other ecclesias- tical affairs ; and especially to promulgate the pontifical edicts, and superintend their execu- tion. The Bishops of France hesitated to receive the yoke so manifestly prepared for them ; and on this occasion we again observe Hincmar of Rheims defending and directing their opposition. He protested before the assembled Council, that this attempt was contrary to the Holy Canons ; he appealed to the regulations of Nice, which subjected every province to its own Metropolitan, and con- firmed the original privileges of the Church- es ; he fortified the decisions of Nice by the authority of St. Leo and other Popes ; he deuied that the particular jurisdiction which the Pontiff confessedly exercised over certain distant provinces (as Macedonia and parts of Illyria) absorbed the rights of the Metropoli- tans ; and, while he admitted that the Popes had more than once established their Vicars in Gaul itself, he contended that the office was temporary, instituted for occasional and specific purposes, such as the prevention of simony, the conversion of unbelievers, the restoration of discipline, and that it ceased with the particular abuses which had made it necessary.* The weight of antiquity, which furnishes a conclusive argument in ignorant ages, was, without question, on the side of Hincmar. On the other hand, the Pope had engaged the Emperor in the defence of his claims; and, as it was one part of his policy to coalesce with the national hierarchy when- ever the rights of princes could be assailed with advantage, so was it another to draw the princes into his own designs against the power and independence of their Clergy. And here it is proper to notice another privilege, which, though its origin may be traced to Gregory the Great, was little exer- cised by the Popes until the ninth, or the beginning of the tenth age. Hitherto the monasteries, with very few exceptions, were subject to the Bishop of the diocese in which they stood, and who in many cases had been their founders. Exemptions from episcopal jurisdiction were now granted with some frequency, and the establishments thus privi- *Fleury, H. E. lib. lii., s. 33. Frodoardus (in a passage cited by Baronius, Ann. 876. s. 24) admits the powerful resistance of Hincmar on this occasion. ledged acknowledged a direct dependence on the Pope. He had many motives for this policy, but that which most concerns our present subject is the following. To secure his triumph over the liberties of the Church, it was necessary to divide it ; and his scheme of reducing the higher ranks of the Clergy was mainly promoted by a practice which curtailed their authority in a very important branch, which transferred that authority to himself, and at the same time created lasting jealousy and dissension between the regular and secular orders. Two other objects may be mentioned to which the ambition of Rome was steadily and effectually directed — to establish the princi- ple that Bishops derived their power entirely from the Pope, and to prevent the convoca- tion of Councils without his express command. Towards the accomplishment of the second, very great though very gradual progress was made during the ninth age by a series of usurpations, of which the earliest served as precedents whereon to found the practice. The greater obscurity and confusion of the tenth century were more favorable to the suc- cess of the first ; * and if it be true that, even after that time, there were to be found some bolder Prelates, both in France and Germany, who disputed these and others among the pontifical claims, it cannot be questioned that they had then acquired so much prevalence, and had struck so deeply into the prejudices and habits of men, that a powerful hand alone was wanted to call them into light and action, and to give them the most fatal efficacy. The preceding pages have presented to us a variety of incidents hitherto nearly novel in the history of the Church, but with which experience will presently render us familiar. We have been astonished by the arrogant claims of the Episcopal Order and the extent of political power which it actually possessed, and shocked by the ill purpose to which it sometimes applied that power. But our most thoughtful attention has still been fixed upon the proceedings of the Pope. We have ob- served him, in the first place, contending with the Emperor for the independence of his own election with a great degree of success ; next we have beheld him engaged in occasional contests with the most powerful Sovereigns of the age, not only in those domestic concerns which might seem to give some plea for ecclesiastical interference, but about affairs strictly secular, and the very successions to *See Mosheim, Cent, x., p. 2, c. 2. ITS OPINIONS. 219 their thrones; and, lastly, we have noticed the movements of that more confined, but scarcely more legitimate ambition, which pretended to depress the superior ranks of the Clergy, to despoil them of their privi- leges, and to remove them to so humble a distance from the Roman See, that the Pope might seem to concentrate (if it were possi- ble) in his own person the entire authority of the ecclesiastical order. The particular facts by which these designs were manifested be- long, for the most part, to the ninth century ; but the grand pontifical principles, if they suffered a partial suspension, yet lost none of their force and vitality during that which fol- lowed. And upon the whole it is a true and unavoidable observation, that the period dur- ing which the mighty scheme first grew and developed itself, embraced that portion of pa- pal history which, above all others, is most scandalously eminent for the disorders * of the See, and for the weakness and undis- guised profligacy of those who occupied it. f CHAPTER XV. On. the Opinions, Literature, Discipline, and External Fortunes of the Church. I. On the Eucharist — Original Opinions of the Church — Doctrine of Paschasius Radbert combated by Ratram and John Scotus — Conclusion of the Controversy — Pre- destination— Opinions and persecution of Gotteschal- cus — Millennarianism in the Tenth Century — its strange and general Effect. II. Literature — Rabanus Maurus, John Scotus, Alfred — its Progress among the Saracens — Spain — South of Italy — France — Rome — Pope Sylvester II. III. Discipline of the Church — Conduct of Charlemagne and his Successors — St. Ben- edict of Aniane. Institution of Canons regular — Epis- copal election — Translations by Bishops prohibited. Pope Stephen VI. — Claudius Bishop of Turin — Peniten- tial System. IV. Conversion of the North of Europe — of Denmark, Sweden, Russia — of Poland and Hun- gary— how accomplished and to what Extent — The Normans — The Turks. The particulars contained in the preceding Chapter present an imperfect picture of the * This is more particularly true of the tenth cen- tury, but even the ninth was not exempt from the same charge. To this age belongs the popular story of the female Pope; the pontificate of Joan is record- ed to have commenced on the death of Leo IV., in 855, and to have lasted for about two years. Histori- ans agree that very great confusion prevailed at Rome respecting the election of Leo's successor, and that Benedict III. cfid not prevail without a severe and tumultuous struggle with a rival named Anastasius. The rule of Pope Joan is now indeed generally dis- credited; but the early invention of the tale, and the belief so long attached to it, attest a condition of things which made it at least possible. t The Lives of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis) were condition of Religion during the ninth and tenth centuries. They are sufficient, perhaps, to exhibit the outlines of the visible Church, as it was gradually changing its shape and constitution, and passing through a region of disorder and darkness, from a state of con- tested rights and restricted authority to a sit- uation of acknowledged might and unbound- ed pretension. They may also have discov- ered to us, in some manner, the process of the change, and certain of the less obvious means and causes through which it was accomplish- ed : still the inquiry has been confined to the external Church ; it has gone to examine a human and perishable institution — no far- ther ; it has illustrated the outworks which man had thrown up for the protection (as he imagined) of God's fortress — nothing more. It remains, then, to complete the task, and to notice some circumstances in the history of this period unconnected with the ambitious struggles of Popes or Bishops. It is observable that, during the seventh and eighth ages, Religion lost much of its vigor and efficacy in France and Italy, while it took root and spread in Britain ; during the ninth, it arose, through the institutions of Charlemagne, with renovated power in France; in the course of the tenth, its pro- gress in Germany made some amends for its general degradation. These fluctuations corresponded, upon the whole, with the lite- rary revolutions of those countries. Learning was, in those days, the only faithful ally and support of religion, and the causes which withered the one never failed to blight the other. Indeed, as learning was then almost wholly confined to the Clergy, it naturally partook of a theological character ; and as the season of scholastic sophistry had not yet set in, the theology did not so commonly ob- scure, it even commonly illustrated, the re- ligion. Religious zeal, when informed by imper- fect education, and unrestrained by a mod- erate and charitable temper, is rarely unat- tended by religious dissension ; and thus it happened, that, while the intellectual torpor of the tenth century was little or nothing agitated by such disputes, the ninth, which was partially enlightened, witnessed three written by Anastasius, a librarian, who died before 882 ; they reach as far as the death of Nicholas I. in 867. The lives of some other Popes, as far as 889, were added by another librarian named Guillaume. From 889 to 1050 (where the Collection of Cardinal d'Aragon begins) there is a suspension of pontifical biography. 220 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. important controversies. The first was that which Photius carried on with the Roman See, regarding Image worship and other differences, the work of preceding genera- tions ; and it has been already treated. The other two respected the manner of Christ's presence at the Eucharist, and the doctrine of Salvation by Grace, and they shall now be noticed : it will afterwards be necessary to say a few words on the Discipline of the Church ; and we shall then observe the pro- gress of Christianity among distant and bar- barous nations, as well as the severe reverse which afflicted it. I. Ecclesiastical Controversies. Mosheim * asserts without hesitation, that it had been hitherto the unanimous opinion of the Church, that the body and blood of Christ were really administered to those who re- ceived the Sacrament, and that they were consequently present at the administration, but that the sentiments of Christians concern- ing the nature and manner of this presence were various and contradictory. No Council had yet determined with precision the man- ner in which that presence was to be under- stood ; both reason and folly were hitherto left free in this matter ; nor had any imperi- ous mode of faith suspended the exercise of the one, or controlled the extravagance of the other. The historian's first position is laid down, perhaps, somewhat too peremptorily ; for though many passages may be adduced from very ancient fathers in affirmation of the bodily presence, the obscurity or different tendency of others would rather persuade us, that even that doctrine was also left a good deal to individual judgment. The second is strictly true ; and the question which had escaped the vain and intrusive curiosity of oriental theologians, was at length engendered in a Convent in Gaul. In the year 831, Pas- chasius Radbert, a Benedictine Monk, after- wards Abbot of Corbie, published a treatise ' concerning the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ,' which he presented, fifteen years afterwards, carefully revised and aug- mented, to Charles the Bald. The doctrine advanced by Paschasius may be expressed in the two following propositions: — First, that after the consecration of the bread and wine, nothing remains of those symbols except the outward figure, under which the body and blood of Christ were really and locally pres- ent. Secondly, that the body of Christ, thus present, is the same body which was born of *Cent. ix. p. 2, c. 3. the Virgin, which suffered upon the cross, and was raised from the dead.* Charles ap- pears decidedly to have disapproved of this doctrine. And it might perhaps have been expected that, after the example of so many princes, he would have summoned a Council, stigmatized it as heresy, and persecuted its author. He did not do so; but, on the con- trary, adopted a method of opposition worthy of a wiser Prince and a more enlightened age. He commissioned two of the ablest writers of the day, Ratramn f and Johannes Scotus, I to investigate by arguments the sus- * Pachasius derived three consequences from his doctrine. 1. That Jesus Christ was immolated anew every day, in reality but in mystery. 2. That the Eucharist is both truth and figure together. 3. That it is not liable to the consequences of digestion. The first of these positions assumes a new and express creation on every occasion of the celebration of the Sacrament. The disputes arising from the third af- terwards gave birth to the heresy named Stercoranism. — Fleury, 1. xlvii., s. 35. Sender (sec. ix. cap. iii.) is willing to deduce Paschasius' doctrine from the Monophysite Controversy, and the opinions respect- ing ' one incarnate nature of Christ,' which had still some prevalence in the East. ■f A monk of Corbie. His book was long received under the name of Bertram ; and some have even supposed it to be the work of John Scotus on the same subject, but clearly without reason. Dupin, Hist. Eccl., Cent. ix. c. vii. Fleury, 1. xlix., s. 52, 53. Semler, loc. cit. Ratramn proposes the sub- ject in the following manner: — " Your Majesty in- quires whether the body and blood of Jesus Christ, which is received in the Church by the mouth of the faithful, is made in mystery — that is, if it contains any thing secret which only appears to the eyes of faith — or if, without any veil of mystery, the eyes of the body perceive without, that which the view of the spirit perceives within; so that all which is made is manifestly apparent. You inquire besides, whether it is the same body which was born of the Virgin Mary, which suffered, died, and was buried; and which, after its resurrection, ascended to Heaven, and sat on the right hand of the Father." Respect- ing the second question, the opinion of Ratramn was in direct opposition to that of Paschasius ; but, in the treatment of the first, it would be difficult certain- ly to pronounce on what they differed, or indeed on what they agreed. There is moreover extant an anonymous composition, which combats the second proposition of Paschasius — first in itself, and then in its consequence — that Jesus Christ suffers anew on every occasion that mass is celebrated. The writer acknowledges the real presence as a necessary tenet. • Every Christian' (thus he commences) ' ought to believe and confess that the body and blood of the Lord is true flesh and true blood; whoever denies this proves himself to be without faith.' It appears indeed true that Paschasius' second proposition gave much more general offence than the first. % John Scotus Erigena (i. e. John the Irishman) ITS OFLMONS. 221 picious opinion. The composition of the former is still extant, and has exercised the ingenuity of the learned even in recent times ; but they have not succeeded in extricating from the perplexities of his reasoning, and, perhaps, the uncertainty of his belief, the real opinious of the author. The work of Johan- nes Scotus is lost ; but we learn that his arguments were more direct, and his senti- ments more perspicuous and consistent ; he plainly declared, that the bread and wine were no more than symbols of the absent body and blood of Christ, and memorials of the last supper. Other theologians engaged in the dispute, and a decided superiority, both in number and talents,* was opposed to the doctrine of Paschasius — yet so opposed, that there was little unanimity among its adversa- ries, and no very perfect consistency even in their several writings.f The controversy died away before the end of the ninth century, without having occa- sioned any great mischief, and the subject was left open to individual inquiry or neglect, as it had even been. The intellectual lethargy of the century following was not to be dis- turbed by an argument demanding some acuteness, and susceptible of much sophistry ; and an age of entire ignorance has at least this advantage over one of superficial learn- ing, I that it suffers nothing from the abuse of the human understanding. But very early in the eleventh century, the dispute was again awakened : it assumed, under different cir- cumstances and other principles, another aspect and character, and closed in a very was a layman of great acuteness and much profane learn- ing, and irreproachable moral character. He was in high estimation at the court of Charles the Bald, and honored by the personal partiality of that prince. He is described in the Hist. Litt. de la France, to have been of * tres petite taille, vif, penetrant, et enjoue.' Fleury (1. xlviii., s. 48) disputes the great extent of his theological acquirements, and perhaps with justice. His book on the Eucharist was burnt about two hun- dred years afterwards by the hand of his disciple Berenger, on ecclesiastical compulsion. * Hincmar appears to have held the doctrine of the real presence; and it is difficult to pronounce whether or not he confined his meaning to a spiritual presence. t The worship of the elements is not mentioned by any of the disputants — it was an extravagance of superstition too violent for the controversialists of the ninth century. % As early as the conclusion of the eighth century, ix .ieresy respecting the nature of Jesus Christ appear- ed in the Western Church — that of the Adoptians. It was condemned by Charlemagne in three Councils, between the years 790 and 800, and presently disap- peared. different termination. But as this event be- longs more properly to the life of Gregory VII. we shall not anticipate the triumph of that Pontiff, nor deprive his name of any ray of that ambiguous splendor which illustrates it. Opinions of Godeschalcus. The subject of Predestination and Divine Grace, which had already * been controverted in France with some acuteness, and, what is much better, with candor and charity, was subjected to another investigation in the ninth century. Godeschalcus, otherwise called Fulgentius, was a native of Germany, and a monk of Orbais, in the diocese of Soissons. He was admitted to orders, during the vacancy of the See, by the Chorepiscopus — a circumstance to which the subsequent animosity of Hinc- mar is sometimes attributed. He possessed considerable learning, but a mind withal too prone to pursue abstruse and unprofitable inquiries. Early in life he consulted Lupus, Abbot of Ferrara, on the question, whether, after the resurrection, the blessed shall see God with the eyes of the body ? The Abbot concluded a reluctant reply to the following effect : — ' I exhort you, my venerable brother, no longer to weary your spirit with suchlike speculations, lest, through too great devotion to them, you become incapacitated for exam- ining and teaching things more useful. Why waste so many researches on matters, which it is not yet, perhaps, expedient that we should know ? Let us rather exercise our talents in the spacious fields of Holy Writ ; let us apply entirely to that meditation, and let prayer be associated to our studies. God will not fail in his goodness to manifest himself in the manner which shall be best for us, though we should cease to pry into things which are placed above us.' The speculations of Godeschalcus were diverted by this judicious rebuke, but not repressed ; and the books of Scripture were still rivalled or superseded in his atten- tion by those of Augustin. Accordingly he involved himself deeply and inextricably in the mazes of fatalism. About the year 846, he made a pilgrimage to Rome, and on his return, soon afterwards, he expressed his opinions on that subject ve^ publicly in the diocese of Verona. Information was instant- ly conveyed to Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mayence, the most profound theologian of the age. That Prelate immediately replied ; and in combating the errror of a professed Augustinian, protected himself also by the authority of Augustin.f * In the fifth century. — See chap. xi. f Rabanus was the most profound divine in the 222 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. Happy had it been for the author of the controversy, if his adversary had allowed it to remain on "that footing ; but the doctrine was becoming too popular, and threatened moral effects too pernicious * to be overlooked by the Church. Rabanus assembled, in 848, a Council at Mayence, at which the king was present, and Godeschalcus was summoned before it. Here he defended, in a written treatise, the docmne of double predestination —that of the elect, to eternal life by the free Grace of God— that of the wicked, to ever- lasting damnation through their own sins. His explanations did not satisfy the Council, and the tenet was rejected and condemned ; but its advocate was not considered amenable to that tribunal, as he had been ordained in the diocese of Rheims ; wherefore Rabanus consigned him to the final custody of Hiuc- mar, who then held that See. The unfortunate heretic (he had now de- served that appellation) profited nothing by this change in jurisdiction. Hincmar, in the following year, caused him to be accused before the Council of Quiercy sur Oise, when he was pronounced incorrigible, and deposed from the priesthood. Moreover, as the pen- alty of his insolence and contumacy, he was condemned to public flagellation and perpetual imprisonment. The sentence was rigidly ex- ecuted, and Charles was not ashamed to countenance it by his royal presence. It is affirmed, that under the prolonged agony of severe torture, the sufferer yielded so far as to commit to the flames the Texts which he had collected in defence of his opinions ; and if he did so, it was human and excusable weakness, f But it is certain that he was ninth century, as Augustin was in the fifth, but the spirit of the one age was original thought and reason- ing— that of the other, blind and servile imitation: therefore Rabanus was contented to cite and explain Augustin; and the controversy descended from lofty philosophical investigation to logical, and even critical subtility. The object in the fifth age was, to solve an abstruse and difficult question; that in the ninth, to penetrate the real opinions of an ancient writer. * In one of the letters written on this subject, Rabanus asserts that the doctrine of Godeschalcus had already driven many to despair, and that several began to inquire — ' Wherefore should I strive and labor for my salvation 1 In what does it profit me to be right- eous, if I am not predestined to happiness 1 What evil may I not safely commit, if I am surely predes- tined to life eternal 1 ' This natural inference, how- ever disavowed by the more ingenious teachers of the doctrine, is very liable to be drawn by the people, even in ages much more enlightened than the ninth. t Godeschalcus solicited permission to maintain confined to the walls of a convent for almost twenty * years, and that at length, during the agonies of his latest moments, he was required to subscribe a formulary of faith, as the only condition of reconciliation with the Church — that he disdained to make any sacrifice, even at that moment, to that consideration, and that his corpse was deprived of Christian sepulture by the unrelenting bigotry of Hinc- mar. The precise extent f of Godeschalcus's errors is, according to the usual history of the truth of his doctrine in the presence of the King, the Clergy, and the whole people, by passing through four barrels filled with boiling water and oil and pitch, and afterwards through a large fire. If he should come out unhurt, let the doctrine be acknowledged and received; if otherwise, let the flames take their course. Milner, whose account of this Controversy should be mentioned with praise, can scarcely pardon this desire of his persecuted favorite — as if the cham- pion of Predestination had been less liable than his neighbors to the superstitious contagion of his age. In this case, however, his imperfection was peculiarly excused by the more deliberate absurdity of Hincmar himself, who had so far degraded his genius as to write a serious treatise on ' Trials by Hot and Cold Water.' See Hist. Litt. de la France. * His death is usually referred to the year 866. We should observe that his sufferings did not escape the compassion of some of hiscontemporaries. Remy, who succeeded Amolon in the see of Lyons, wrote on the subject with some warmth. ' It is an unprece- dented instance of cruelty, which has filled the world with horror, that he was lacerated with stripes, as eye-witnesses attest, until he cast into the fire a me- morial containing the passages from scripture and the fathers which he drew up to present to the Council ; while all former heretics have been convicted by words and reasons. The long and inhuman detention of that wretched man ought at least to be tempered by some consolation, so as rather to win by charity a brother for whom Jesus Christ died, than to overwhelm him with misery.' — See Fleury, 1. xlix., s. 5. f Godeschalcus appears to have propounded three leading questions to Rabanus and the other Doctors. (1.) Whether it could be said that there was any predestination to evil. (2.) Concerning the will and death of Christ for all men ; whether God has a true will to save any but those which are saved. (3.) Con- cerning free will The theologians of Mayence, however, very prudently confined their attention to the first — 'Whether it can be said that God predesti- nates the wicked to damnation 1' (Dupin, H. E., Cen. ix.) About four years afterwards, Amolon, Archbishop of Lyons, in a letter addressed to Hinc- mar, reduced (or rather expanded) the errors to sev- en; one of them being the following — ' that God and the Saints rejoiced in the fall of the reproved.' (Fleury, H. E. lib. xlviii., s. 59.) This was ob- viously a consequence; and no doubt the heretic had easy means of getting rid of it. For a full and per- haps faithful account of the whole controversy, see ITS OPIFIONS. 223 such controversies, a matter of difference, and for the usual reason, that consequences were imputed by his adversaries which his follow- ers disclaimed. But it is certain that his proselytes multiplied during the continuance of his imprisonment, and that some provincial Councils declared in his favor ; and it is pro- bable that his doctrines have been uninter- ruptedly perpetuated, not by sects only, but by individuals in the bosom of the Church, from that age to the present. Millennarian error. The dispute, however, did not long survive its author, and seems to have expired before the end of the century ; and during the concluding part of that which followed, — in the absence of political talent, of piety, of knowledge, of industry, of every virtue, and every motive which might give energy to the human character — in the sup- pression even of the narrow controversial spirit which enlivens the understanding, how- ever it may sometimes pervert the principles, — a very wild and extraordinary delusion arose and spread itself, and at length so far prevail- ed as not only to subdue the reason, but to actuate the conduct of vast multitudes. It proceeded from the misinterpretation of a well-known passage in the Revelations, f 1 And he laid hold on the Dragon, that old Serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled ; And after that he must be loosed a little season.' It does not appear that the earlier Divines derived from this prophecy that specific expectation respecting the mo- ment of the world's dissolution, which now became general ; nor do we learn that the people before this time much busied them- selves about a matter which could not possi- bly affect their own generation ; but about the year 960, as the season approached nearer, one Bernhard, a hermit of Thuringia, a per- son not destitute of knowledge, boldly pro- mulgated (on the faith of a particular revela- tion from God) the certain assurance, that at the end of the thousandth year the fetters of Satan were to be broken ; and, after the reign Hist. Litter, de la France, Cen. ix., vol. iv. p. 263. It is, however, worth remarking, that the Divines on both sides alike professed to support the doctrine of the Church, as taught by the Fathers, and especially St. Augustin; whose authority on this question was universally admitted, while his real opinion was dis- puted. f Chap. xx. 2 and 3. of Antichrist should be terminated, that the world would be consumed by sudden confla- gration. There was something plausible in the doctrine, and it was peculiarly suited to the gloomy superstition of the age ; the Clergy adopted it without delay ; the pulpits loudly resounded with it ; * it was diffused in every direction with astonishing rapidity, and em- braced with an ardor proportioned to the obscurity of the subject, and the greediness of human credulity. The belief pervaded and possessed every rank f of society, not as a cold and indifferent assent, but as a motive for the most important undertakings. Many abandoned their friends and their families, and hastened to the shores of Palestine, with the pious persuasion that Mount Sion would be the throne of Christ when he should descend to judge the world ; and these, in order to secure a more partial sentence from the God of mercy and charity, usually made over their property, before they departed, to some adjacent Church or Monastery. Others, whose pecuniary means were thought, per- haps, insufficient to bribe the justice of Hea- ven, devoted their personal service to the same establishments, and resigned their very liberty to those holy mediators, whose plead- ings, they doubted not, would find favor at the eternal judgment seat. Others permitted their lands to lie waste, and their houses to decay ; or, terrified by some unusual pheno- menon in the Heaven, betook themselves in hasty flight to the shelter of rocks and caverns,! as if the temples of Nature were destined to preservation amidst the wreck of man and his works. The year of terror arrived, and passed away without any extraordinary convulsion ; and at present it is chiefly remarkable as having terminated the most shameful century in the annals of Christianity. The people re- turned to their homes, and repaired their build- ings, and resumed their former occupations ; *Hist. Litt. de la France, x. Sie"cle. Mosheiin (Cen. x.,p. 2, c. iii.) cites a passage from the Apolo- geticum of Abbo, Abbot of Fleury — ' De fine quoque mundi coram populo sermonem in Ecclesia Parisiorum adolescentulus audivi, quod statim finito mille annorum numero Anti-Christus adveniret, et non longo post tempore universale judicium succederet; cui prsedica- tioni ex Evangeliis ac Apocalypsi et libro Danielis, qua potui virtute restiti, &c.' t Not Nobles only, but Princes, and even Bishops, are mentioned as having made a pilgrimage to Pales- tine on this occasion. J An opportune eclipse of the sun produced this effect on the army of Otho the Great. 224 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. and the only lasting effect of this stupendous panic was the augmentation of the temporal prosperity of the Church. * 11. State of Learning. The intellectual energy of Europe (if we except perhaps the British Islands f) was in a condition of gradu- al decay from the fifth till the middle of the seventh and eighth century ; J and it was then that the progress of ignorance reached its widest and darkest boundaries. It was arrested by the genius of Charlemagne ; and the beacon which was set up by his mighty hand shone forth even upon his degenerate descendants, some of whom lighted their torches at its embers. Thus, during the whole of the ninth century, the western world, and France especially, was animated by much literary exertion, and enlightened even by the ill-directed talents of many learn- ed men. The name of Alcuin was not dis- graced by those of his successors, Itabanus, Eginhard, Claudius, Godeschalcus, Pascha- sius, Ratramn, Hincmar, and Johannes Sco- tus.§ The theological works of the first of these were so highly esteemed, as not only to * Almost all the donations which were made to the Church in this century proceeded from this avowed motive. ' Appropinquarite jam mundi termino, &c. Since the end of the world is now at hand.' Mosh., Cen. x., p. 2, ch. iii. These monuments sufficiently attest the generality of the delusion. f The Venerable Bede flourished in the early part of the eighth century. He brought down his Eccle- siastical History as far as 731, and appears to have died four years afterwards. % This decline is very commonly imputed to the despotism of the Church, and the triumph of the papal principle of a blind faith, r.nd absolute submission over the independence of re-son. But this is a mistake pro- ceeding from an imperfect knowledge of ecclesiastical history. At the period in question, the Church had not by any means attained the degree of authority necessa- ry for that purpose: it was not yet sufficiently organized, nor even sufficiently united, to possess any power of universal individual tyranny; the Ro mis h system was still only in its infancy; the Episcopal system, which was predominant, was full of disorder and disunion — the principle in question was certainly to be found in the archives of the Church, but the day was not yet arrived to enforce it. It came indeed into full effect in the twelfth and following ages, and not earlier than the twelfth; but learning then revived in despite of it, and grew up to overthrow it. The truth is, that the degradation of the sixth and seventh centuries are sufficiently accounted for by the political confusion, or rather anarchy, then so generally prevalent, as to make any moral exellence almost impossible, and to debase the Church in common with every thing else. § Guizot has selected Hincmar and Johannes Sco- tus as the two representatives of the learning of the furnish materials for contemporary instruc- tion, but also to maintain great authority in the religious discussions of the four following centuries ; and the last, the friend and com- panion of Charles the Bald, displayed an accuracy of philosophical induction, and a freedom and boldness of original thought, which would have subjected him, in a some- what later age, to ecclesiastical persecution. We should mention, too, that in the same age in which the genius of an Irishman instruct- ed the Court of France, the foundations of English learning were deeply fixed and sub- stantially constructed by the wisdom and piety of Alfred. The comparative languor of Italy was excited by the disputes at that time so warmly waged between the Roman and Eastern Churches, and which served to sharpen the ingenuity, while they degraded the principles, of both. At Constantinople, the Emperor Theophi- lus, and his son, Michael III., made some endeavors towards the revival of letters in the ninth age ; but the scattered rays which may have illustrated the East at that time, were overpowered by the pre-eminence of Photius, so that little has reached posterity excepting his celebrity. It is true that, in the century following, while the advance of learning was almost wholly suspended in Europe, and its growing power paralyzed, Constantine Por- phyrogeneta made some zealous attempts to revive the industry of his country ; but as his encouragement was directed rather to the imitation of ancient models than to the de- velopement of original thought, the impulse was faintly felt ; and, so far from creating any strong and lasting effect, it failed to excite even the momentary energy of the Greeks. But, during the same period, there occurred in the Eastern world a phenomenon which is among the most remarkable in the history of literature, and which no penetration could possibly have foreseen. We have recounted that, in the seventh century, the companions and successors of Mahomet desolated the face of the earth with their arms, and dark- ened it by their ignorance ; and the acts of barbarism ascribed to them, and whether truly ascribed or not,* generally credited, age — the former as the centre of die theological move- ment; the latter as the philosopher of his day. It is,- indeed, impossible to convey any faithful notion of the literature of any age without entering into some such detail. * The burning of the Alexandrian Library by the Saracens stands on authority about as good as the similar Vandalism charged on Gregory the Great. DISCIPLINE. 225 attest at least tlieir contempt of learning, and their aversion for the monuments which they are stated to have destroyed. In the eighth century, the conquerors settled with tranquil- lity in the countries which they had subdued, which, in most instances, they converted, and which they continued to possess and govern. In 'the ninth, under the auspices of a wise and munificent Caliph, they applied the same ardor to the pursuit of literature which had heretofore been confined to the exercise of arms. Ample schools were founded in the principal cities of Asia,* Bagdad, and Cnfa, ami Bassora ; numerous libraries were formed with care and diligence, and men of learning and science were solicitously invited to the splendid court of Almamunis. Greece, which had civilized the Roman republic, and was destined, in a much later age, to enlighten the extremities of the West, was now called upon to turn the stream of her lore into the barren bosom of Asia: for Greece was still the only land possessing an original national lite- rature. Her noblest productions were now translated into the ruling language of the East, and the Arabians took pleasure in pur- suing the speculations, or submitting to the rules, of her philosophy. The impulse thus given to the genius and industry of Asia was communicated with inconceivable rapidity, along the shores of Egypt and Africa, to the schools of Seville and Cordova ; and the shock was not felt least sensibly by those who last received it. Henceforward the genius of learning accompanied even the arms of the Saracens. They conquered Sicily; from Sicily they invaded the Southern Provinces of Italy ; and, as if to complete the eccentric revolution of Grecian literature, the wisdom of Pythagoras was restored to the land of its origin by the descendants of an Arabian warrior. The adopted literature of that ingenious people, augmented by some original discov- eries, passed with a more pacific progress from Spain into France, from France into Italy, even to the pontifical chair. In the year 999, Gerbert, a Frenchman, was raised to that eminence under the title of Sylvester II. This eminent person, whose talents, though peculiarly calculated for the compre- hension of the abstract sciences, were not disqualified for less severe application, stea- dily devoted his industry, his intelligence, * Contemporary with the foundation of Oxford; and where are they now 1 The history and charac- ter of the Turks can answer that question 29 and his power to the acquirement, the ampli- fication, * and the diffusion of knowledge. Among the vulgar, indeed, he obtained a formidable reputation for magical skill ; but he was honored by the wise and the great even of his own days ; and of Sylvester that may be more justly affirmed, which a Roman Catholic writer has rather chosen to predicate of the papal energy of Leo. IX., * that he undertook to repair the ruins of the tenth century.' III. Discipline of the Church. At no for- mer period had the Western Church suffered such complete disorganization as during the first half of the eighth century: the longer it was connected with the barbarous political system of the conquerors — the more closely it became associated with their institutions, their habits, and their persons ; as they were gradually admitted to ecclesiastical dignities — -the more shameful was the license, the deeper the corruption which pervaded it. The progress of the malady was arrested by Charlemagne — not with a reluctant or ir- resolute hand, but with the vigor which the occasion required, and which was justified by his noble designs. He repressed the disorders of the Bishops ; he assembled numerous Coun- cils, and he enforced the observance of their canons ; thus he infused sudden energies into a body too torpid for self-reform ; and he endeavored to perpetuate the impulse by promoting education and rewarding litera- ture. The last, in truth, was that which gave his other measures their efficacy ; for above sixty years after his death, under the feeble sceptres of Lewis and Charles, the spirit sent forth by Charlemagne continued to animate the Church. Very general activity and supe- rior intelligence distinguished the Clergy, especially the higher orders ; and the frequen- cy with which they assembled their Councils, and the important regulations which they enacted, evinced a zeal for the restoration of ecclesiastical discipline, which was not wholly without effect. Lewis was probably sincere in his co-operation for that purpose ; but the merit of having directed, or even vigorously stimulated, the exertions of his prelates cannot * Some ingenious inventions of Gerbert are men- tioned in the Hist. Litt. de la France. His various virtues are highly extolled in the same work; and the only fault which his eulogists can find in his character is, ' that he used too much flattery in making his court to the great.' The grandees of the tenth century appear to have pardoned him this imperfection. « 226 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. justly be ascribed to so weak a prince. Respecting Charles, there seems reason to suspect, that he, as well as his nobles, regard- ed with some jealousy the progress of reform, and that the attempts, so numerous during his reign, should rather be attributed to the perseverance of the Bishops, and especially of Hincmar, than to the virtue or wisdom of the secular government. In proof of this opinion (which, if true, is not without import- ance) we may mention the following circum- stance. In the year 844, Councils were held at Thionville and Verneuil * for the remedy of abuses both in Church and State ; their regulations were confirmed and amplified in the year following at Meaux, and after that at Paris ; and on this last occasion the prelates recurred with some impatience to the exhor- tations which they had frequently and inef- fectually addressed to the Throne, and to that neglect they presumed to ascribe the temporal calamities which then afflicted the country. Presently afterwards, in an assem- bly of Barons held at Epernay, the Canons of Meaux and Paris were taken into consider- ation ; and while those which restricted eccle- siastics received the King's assent, others which touched the vices of the nobility were entirely rejected.f Nevertheless, Councils continued to meet with great frequency J during this reign ; but we must not suppose that all of them had the same grand object ; some were convoked to arrange the disputes of the Bishops, either among themselves, or with the Pope, or with the King ; others met to restrain, had it been possible, the general licentiousness of the times ; § and of many it * It appears from one of the Canons here published, that, in contempt of Charlemagne's Capitulary, the military service of the Bishops was already renewed, if indeed it was ever wholly discontinued. fFleury, 1. xlviii., s. 35. ^ France was at this time the principal scene of ecclesiastical exertion. During the forty-six years of Charlemagne's reign, the number of Councils which met in France was thirty-five. Lewis, in twenty-six years, held twenty-nine; but no less than sixty-nine were assembled during the thirty-seven years of Charles the Bald. Their frequency then gradually decreased ; and in the following hundred and ten years, to the accession of Hugh Capet, we observe no more than fifty-six. § The disorders of the age are vividly depicted in the prefatory Exposition of the Council of Mayence in 888. ' Behold the magnificent edifices, which the servants of God were wont to inhabit, destroyed and burnt to ashes ; the altars overthrown and trampled under foot, the most precious ornaments of the Churches dispersed or consumed ; the Bishops, Priests, was the principal purpose to launch excom- munication and anathema against the spolia- tors of ecclesiastical property, and to protect the persons of clerks and monks and nuns from the violence of the laity. It is not easy either to specify any partic- ular changes introduced into the discipline of the Church during these ages, or precisely to determine the rigor of that discipline ; for such innovations are for the most part of slow and almost insensible growth ; and, though the canonical regulations are in themselves sufficiently explicit, their enforcement de- pended in each diocese on the authority or character of the Bishop. If, indeed, it had been possible at once to force into full oper- ation the principles of the 'False Decretals,' the sudden revolution thus occasioned would have been perceptible to the eye of the most careless historian ; but the pretensions which they contained were utterly disproportioned to the power which the See then possessed of asserting them. Their tacit acknowledg- ment led to their gradual adoption ; and in the patient progress of this usurpation every step that was gained gave fresh vigor, as well as loftier ground, to the usurper ; but in the ninth century the French were too indepen- dent entirely to submit to the servitude in- tended for them, and in the tenth the Popes were too weak and contemptible effectually to impose it. Nevertheless, time and igno- rance were steadily engaged in sanctifying the imposture, and preparing it for more mischievous service in the hand of Hilde- brand. Though we propose to defer a little longer any general account of the Monastic Order, it is proper here to notice that very power and other Clerks, together with Laymen of every age and sex, overtaken by sword or fire, or some other manner of massacre, &c.' Similar calamities are even more particularly detailed by the Council of Trosle in 909, attended with some charges of spiritual negligence in the Bishops themselves. (See Fleury, 1. liv., s. 2 and 44.) In 865, Pope Nicholas address- ed some strong pacific exhortations to the princes of France: — 'Parcite gladio: humanum fundere sangui- nem formidolosius exhorrescite; cesset ira, sedentnr odia, sopiantur jurgia, et omnis ex vobis simultas radicitus evellatur. . . . Non in vobis vana? gloria? typus, non alterius usurpandi terminos ambitio, sed jnstitia, charitas, et concordia regnet et summum pax inter vos teneat omnino fastigium.' But such gener- al addresses had probably little effect; and the first authoritative interference of the Church for the partial restoration of peace, and the institution of the Tr^ve de Dieu, took place in the first half of the eleventh century. DISCIPLINE. 227 ful renovation of the system which was ac- complished about this time by Benedict of Aniane — a venerable name, which yields to none save Benedict of Nursia, in the reve- rence of monkish annalists. He was con- temporary with Charlemagne and his suc- cessor, and was called in 817 to preside at the Council assembled at Aix-la-Chapelle for the reform of monastic abuses. The regula- tions which were then enacted, though they offended the simplicity of the primitive rule by many frivolous injunctions, were still use- ful in recalling to some form of discipline the broken ranks of the regular clergy. We should also mention, that the institution of Canons Regular, by Chrodegand, Bishop of Metz, was undertaken during the same pe- riod, and was completed under Lewis the Meek in a Council, also held at Aix-la-Cha- pelle, in 82G. The original form of Episcopal election had been habitually violated by the barbarian kings ; and if it was nominally restored by Charlemagne, it still appears that he contin- ued in practice to profit by the usurpation of his predecessors, and to fill up vacant sees by his own direct appointment. Lewis, how- ever, had not been long on the throne, when he published (seemingly at the Parliament of Attigni in 822) a capitulary to reinstate the Church in her pristine rights. Nor was this concession merely formal ; on the contrary, it was brought into immediate force, and for some time actually directed the form of elec- tion. For instance, we observe that, in the year 845, Hincmar was raised to the See of Itheims ' by the Clergy and people of Rheims, by the Bishops of the province, with the con- sent of the Archbishop of Sens, the Bishop of Paris, and the Abbot of St. Denis his su- perior, and with the approbation of the King ;' and from several monuments of that age, and especially the letters of Hincmar * himself, * It appears that, as soon as the vacancy was de- clared, the King appointed from among the Bishops a visiter to the vacant see, who presided at the election. The only persons eligible (or very nearly so) were the Clergy of the diocese ; but they were not the only electors ; the monasteries and the Curates, or paro- chial Clergy, sent their deputies. Nor were the no- ble laymen or the citizens of the city excluded — on the principle ' that all should assist in the election of one whom all were bound to obey.' (See Fleury, 1. xlvi.,s. 47; 1. xlviii., s. 38; I. liii., s. 33.) Still it would appear, even from the expression of Hinc- mar, in an epistle to Charles on this subject, as well as from a Canon of the Council of Valence held in 855, that the Church exercised the privilege rather as an indulgence from the Sovereign, than by its own we learn, that, at least during the reign of Charles, the Church continued in the recov- ered possession of her original liberty. Translation of Bishops. The translation of Bishops continued to be prohibited during the ninth century, according to the ancient canons; and though the rule might be occa- sionally violated by the interference of the Prince, and though the Pope did occasion- ally, though rarely, exercise that pernicious power which the Decretals, false as they were, and fatal to ecclesiastical discipline, nevertheless gave him, the clergy and the people labored to maintain the ancient and salutary practice. It appears, however, from a very strange occurrence, which is related to have passed in this age, that the Bishops of Rome, however willing to exert their groundless authority elsewhere, were ex- tremely jealous of any translation to their own See. In the year 892, Formosus was raised from the See of Porto to that of Rome ; he was a prelate of great piety and consid- erable attainments, but he offered the first instance of the elevation of a foreign Bishop to the throne of St. Peter. He held it for about four years, and died in possession of it. But scarcely were his ashes cold, when his successor, Stephen VI., — a name which has earned peculiar distinction even among the pontifical barbarians of those days, — sum- moned a Council to sit in judgment on the deceased. Formosus was dragged from his grave and introduced into the midst of the assembly. He was then solemnly reinvested with the ornaments of office, and placed in the Apostolical chair, and the mockery of an advocate to plead in his defence was added. Then Stephen inquired of his senseless pre- decessor— ' Wherefore, Bishop of Porto, hast thou urged thy ambition so far, as to usurp the See of Rome?' The Council immedi- ately passed the sentence of deposition ; and the condemned carcass, after being stripped of the sacred vestments and brutally mutila- ted, was cast contemptuously into the Tiber. But the day of retribution was near at hand, for, in the order of Providence, the most re- volting offences are sometimes overtaken by the swiftest calamities. Only a few weeks original. and lawful right. ' The Prince shall be pe- titioned to leave to the Clergy and People the liberty of election. • .The Bishop shall be chosen from the Clergy of the Cathedral or of the Diocese, or at least of its immediate neighborhood. If a Clerk attached to the service of the Prince is proposed, his capacity and his morals shall be rigorously examined, &c '— Council of Valence. 228 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. elapsed, and Stephen himself was seized, and driven from the See and thrown into an ob- scure dungeon, loaded with chains, where he was presently strangled. It had been hitherto the practice of the Bishop of Rome to retain on his election the name by which he had been previously known : the first exception to this rule took place in the tenth century. In 956, Octavi- anus, a noble Roman, was raised to the See at the age of eighteen, and expressed his determination to assume the name of John XII. * It does not appear that his boyish inclination was opposed ; and it is certain that the precedent was very soon and very generally followed. Neither was the exam- ple of Formosus forgotten in succeeding elections, though it was not so commonly imitated ; but before the end of this age we find that Gerbert, Archbishop of Ravenna, became, by a double change, Sylvester, Bish- op of Rome, without any offence or reproach. Among the inferior clergy, the canonical discipline was extremely rigid : it was strict- ly forbidden to undertake the charge of two churches, to hold a prebend f in a monastery with a parochial cure, or even to exchange one church for another. That these regu- lations were sometimes, perhaps generally, enforced, appears from the earnestness with which they are pressed by Hincmar ; and it is from his Synodal Statutes, \ even more than * See Pagi. Breviar. Gest. Rom. Pont. Vit. Jo- han. XII. t A Prebend then signified the dividend afforded to a Canon for his subsistence. The prohibition was repeated in 889 by the Council of Metz ; which seems to prove that it was either not generally received, or imperfectly obeyed. % We have very little space for quotations, but the following are curious: — ' I have often notified to you respecting the poor who are inscribed in the Books of the Church, how you ought to treat them and dis- tribute to them a part of the tithe. I have forbidden you to receive, in return for their portion (called ma- tricula,) either present or service, in the house or elsewhere. I persist in forbidding it; since such conduct is to sell charity. I declare to you, that the priest who does so, shall be deposed, and even the portion of the tithe which is given to other paupers shall be refused to him.' Again — ' I learn that some among you neglect their churches and buy private property which they cultivate, and build houses there in which women reside; and that they do' not be- queath their property to the Church, according to the Canons, but to their relatives or others. Be inform- ed that I shall punish with the utmost rigor of the Rules those whom I shall find guilty of this abuse.' It was another of Hincmar's meritorious endeavors to restrict the abuse of private patronage, by refusing from the Canons of Councils, that we learn the practice of the Gallican Church during the ninth century : that of the Churches of Italy was probably less severe. Claudius, Bishop of Turin. The practice of Auricular Confession, which, though gen- erally prevalent, was not universally received in the time of Charlemagne, may be said to have completed its establishment during the two following ages. We observe, too, in the annals of those times, that the transfer * of re- lics from place to place was carried on with extraordinary ardor, proportioned to the sanc- tity attached to them, and to the wonders which they are recorded to have wrought. This superstition was, indeed, boldly assailed by one real Christian, — Claudius, Bishop of Turin, f the Protestant of the ninth century. ordination to every unworthy candidate. See Fleu- ry, 1. Hi., s. 28. * The travels of St. Vitus from Leucadia to Rome, from Rome to Saxony, mav not perhaps deserve to be traced by us ; but we may be excused for pursuing the history of a pious prelate, whose living virtues we found occasion to mention — St. Martin of Tours. About the middle of the ninth century, the approach of the Normans made it expedient to remove the ven- erable relics of that Saint from Tours to Auxerre, where he was confided, as a temporary deposit, to the care of the Bishop. During one-and-thirty years of exile, St. Martin continued to perform the most stu- pendous miracles ; and thus he became so valuable to the Bishop of Auxerre, that when restitution was de- manded, that prelate at once refused it. Hereupon the Archbishop of Tours prevailed upon a powerful Baron, whose domains were adjacent, to avenge the perfidy and to recover the treasure by force. Thii3 St. Martin returned triumphantly to his native city, escorted by a band of six thousand soldiers. The sto- ry is told in the last chapter of Fleury, Book liii. Again, in the year 826, two holy Abbots set out from France to Rome, in order to bring away the bodies of St. Sebastian, and even of St. Gregory himself. They returned triumphant — the former had been sol- emnly granted to the Emperor by the Pope; the lat- ter they had stolen away by a pious artifice. Their success is recorded by Eginhard, or Einhard, the con- temporary biographer of Charlemagne. But the loss has never been acknowledged by the Romans, nor is it probable that they ever sustained it. f He was a native of Spain, and died in his diocese of Turin, about the year 840. His vigorous opposi- tion to the worship of images could not be so gener- ally unpopular on the other side of the Alps as in Ita- ly ; yet we observe that one of his principal opponents was Jonas, a Bishop of Orleans. It was another of his errors that he denied that the power of the priest- hood, to bind and loose, extended beyond this world; and the last, and probably the greatest, that he as- serted the term Apostolical Father to be properly applied, not to him who filled the chair of the Apos- tle, but to him who discharged the duties attached to EXTERNAL FORTUNES. 229 'Wherefore (he indignantly exclaimed) do not the worshippers of the wood of the Cross, in conformity with their new principles, adore chaplets of thorns, because Christ was crown- ed with thorns, — or cradles, linen, or boats, because he made use of them, — or spears, be- cause he was pierced with that weapon ? Or why do they not fall down before the image of an ass, because he rode on that animal ? Christ Jesus did not command us to wor- ship the Cross, but to bear it — to renounce the world and ourselves.' The inconsistency which the pious Bishop objected to his Church was indeed, to a great extent, removed by the multiplied corruptions of after ages ; * but the remonstrances of the Reformer roused the indignation of his contemporaries ; his endeavor to distinguish the corruptions from the substance of the system brought down upon him the usual reproaches of hostility and schism from the more rigid Churchmen of the day ; and had he lived in an age in which the secular power was subservient to to their principles, he would have been va- riously known to posterity, as a chastised heretic or as a blessed martyr. During this same period the penitential system of the Church underwent a more regular organization ; ecclesiastical f punish- ments were adjusted with more discrimina- tion to the offence of the penitent, and greater uniformity of practice was established in the different dioceses. The Liturgy received several improvements ; indeed it assumed at this time the form in which it was transmit- ted, with veiy slight, if any, variation to the more splendid ages of the Roman Church. The celebration of the religious offices, their rules, and their history employed the dili- it. The works for which Claudius was particularly celebrated, were his Commentaries on Scripture, both of the Old and New Testament. * See Gilly's Introduction to the History of the Waldenses. fThe following passage (from Hincmar's Instruc- tions to his Clergy, published about 857) shows the extent to which the arm of the Clergy then reached, as well as the manner in which it acted. ' As soon as a homicide, or any other public crime, shall have been committed, the curate (the resident clergyman) shall signify to the culprit to present himself before the Doyen and the other curates, and to submit to pe- nance; and they shall send information to their supe- riors, who reside in the city, so that, in the course of a fortnight, the offender may appear before us and re- ceive public penance with imposition of hands. The day on which the crime was committed shall be care- fully noted down, as well as that on which the penance was imposed. When the curates shall assemble at the calends they shall confer together respecting their genceof the learned,* and received elaborate and useful illustrations. The credit of these exertions belongs indeed entirely to the theo- logians of the ninth century ; but the works which they raised, after resisting the tempests which followed, continued to constitute an important portion of the ecclesiastical edifice. IV. External progress of Christianity. During the period which we have now des- cribed, while the centre and heart of Chris- tendom was for the most part cold and cor- rupted, the vital stream was ceaselessly flow- ing towards the northern extremities of Eu- rope. It would be an attractive, and it might be a profitable employment to trace the fee- ble and sometimes ineffectual missions, which introduced our holy religion among the Pa- gans of Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and Nor- way, and to observe the other circumstances which, in conjunction with their pious per- severance, finally established it there. This mighty success we may consider to have been obtained before the middle of the eleventh century : not, perhaps, that the faith of Christ was universally embraced by the lowest clas- ses, still less was it thoroughly comprehended or practised; but it had gained such deep and general footing, as to secure its final and perfect triumph. Denmark and Sweden. We shall concisely mention some of the leading circumstances by which this great event was accomplished. Heriold, King of Denmark, an exile and a suppliant at the court of Lewis the Meek, was there prevailed upon to adopt the Chris- tian religion. But as this conversion did not seem calculated to facilitate his restoration -to his throne, Lewis presented him with an es- tate in Friesland, for which he departed. He was accompanied to that retreat by a monk of Corbie, named Anscaire or Ansgarius, a young and fearless enthusiast, ardent for the toils of a missionary and the glory of a mar- tyr. His first exertions were made in Den- penitents, to inform us in what manner each performs his penance, that we may judge when he ought to be reconciled to the Church. If the criminal does not submit to the penance within the days specified, he shall be excommunicated until he does submit.' * Amalarius, a disciple of Alcuin, clerk of the church of Metz, was, among these, the most celebra- ted. His corrected ' Treatise on the Ecclesiastical Offices' was published, under the auspices of Lewis, in the year 831 ; and it is highly valued by Roman Catholic writers as proving the very high antiquity of the greater part of the services of their Church. Fleury gives a short account of this work in 1. xlvii., s. 36. 230 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. *nark; presently afterwards (in 830) he ad- vanced into Sweden ; and such promise of success attended him, that Lewis determined to establish an Archiepiscopal See at Ham- burgh, as the centre of future operations. Gregory IV. gave his consent, and bestowed the pallium, together with the dignity of Pontifical Legate, upon Ansgarius. Thus exalted and strengthened, he persevered in his enterprise, encouraging the exertions of others, and not sparing his own. And what- soever degree of credit '* we may find it pos- sible to attach to the stories of supernatural assistance, continually vouchsafed both to him and his ministers, we may be assured that the character, with which he was occasionally invested, of Ambassador from the Emperor of the West, together with the fame of his private sanctity, gave additional efficacy to his religious labors. The account of Anscaire's successful expedition into Sweden (in the year 854,) as it is transmitted to us from early days, contains much that is curious, and nothing that is improbable. When the Bishop arriv- ed at the capital, he communicated to the King, Olef or Olave, the object of his mis- sion. The King replied—' I would willing- ly consent to your desire, but I can accord nothing until I have consulted our gods by the lot, and till I know the will of the people, who have more influence in public affairs than I have.' Olef first consulted his nobles, and, after the customary probation by lot, the gods were ascertained to be favorable to the proposal. The General Assembly of the people was then convoked ; and the King caused a herald to proclaim the object of the imperial embassy. The people murmured loudly ; and while they were yet divided in their opinions as to the reception of the reli- gion of Christ, an old man rose up among them and said — ' King and people ! listen to me. We are already acquainted with the service of that God, and he has been found of great assistance to those who invoke him. There are many among us who have expe- rienced it in perils by sea and on other occa- sions; why, then, should we reject Him? Formerly there were some who travelled to Dorstadt for the sake of embracing that re- ligion of which they well knew the utility : why, then, should we now refuse that bles- * After relating some extraordinary prodigies (I. xlix., a, 19,) Fleury observes — 'These miracles de- serve belief, if ever there were any which did so, since they are related in the Life of St. Anscaire by Rembort, his disciple and successor; and if we are permitted lo assert, that there is any occasion on sing, when it is here proposed and presented to us ? ' The people were convinced by this discourse, and unanimously consented to the establishment of the Christian religion, and the residence of its ministers among them. Anscarius died ten years afterwards ; and the footsteps which he had traced in that rude soil were greatly defaced during the follow- ing century, though it is too much to assert that they were wholly obliterated. Russia, Poland and Hungary. Some ex- ertions were made for the conversion of the Sclavonians about the middle of the ninth age ; but that event was not finally accom- plished until the conquest of Bohemia by Otho, in the year 950. In the same manner Basil, the Emperor of the East, in conjunc- tion with his patriarch Ignatius, endeavored to introduce into the heart of Russia the knowledge of the Gospel. An Archbishop was purposely ordained and sent on that mis- sion ; and a miracle, which was performed in the presence of the prince and his people, obtained a partial reception for the new reli- gion. This event occurred in 871 ; but the faith made little consequent progress, and its ministers were subjected to insult and perse- cution ; nor are we justified in assigning the complete conversion of that nation to a period earlier than the end of the tenth century. In 989 Vladimer, Prince of the Russians, espous- ed the sister of the Emperors Basil and Con stantine, and embraced, in consequence, the Christian belief. He lived to an extreme ola" age, and during a long reign found many im- itators ; his faith became the rule of their worship ; and the knowledge of its principles and the practice of its precepts were pre ceded, as in so many other instances, by its bare nominal * profession. About twenty years earlier the Duke of Poland, whose con- version is also attributed to the influence of a Christian Queen, promoted the spiritual re- which God might be expected to perform miracles it is doubtless in support of his infant Churches,' — a re- ligious and pious observation, to which we give our full assent. But the work of Rembert is lost, and our only accounts of Ansgarius are derived from the ancient chronicles. — See Baronius, Ann. 858, s. 14, 15, &c. ; and Fleury, 1. xlix., s. 21, and 1. lv , s. 19. * We are not to suppose that even the general pro- fession of the faith was immediate: in fact we ob- serve that a pious missionary of the Roman Church, named Bruno or Boniface, was massacred in the year 1009, with several associates, by certain Russians whom he would have converted. His ardor for mar- tyrdom was roused by the sight of a church, dedica- ted at Rome to the ancient martyr Boniface. — See Petrus Damiani ap. Baron. Ann. 996, s. 33. GREGORY VII. 231 generation of his subjects ; and, during the first year of the following age, Stephen, King or Duke of Hungary, undertook, with still greater zeal and success, the same holy en- terprise. The above facts, though so briefly stated, are perhaps sufficient to prove to ns (and could we pursue them more deeply into de- tail the inference would be still clearer) that, in those days, the public preaching of pious individuals was extremely uncertain in its ef- fect upon the mass of the community, unless when supported by the example or authority of chiefs and princes. Nor is this surprising; for to nations wholly uncivilized and unin- structed it is almost hopeless to address the revelations of truth or the persuasions of rea- son. And accordingly we observe, that the little perceptible success which attended those missionaries in their direct intercourse with the people is usually ascribed to their miracu- lous powers, or possibly to the sanctity of their character; seldom to their arguments or their eloquence. But it would have been the greatest of all miracles had this been otherwise ; the barbarians were too deeply plunged in ignorance and superstition long to listen to any admonitions which were not addressed to them by the voice of power. And thus, when it pleased God in due season to bring them over to his own service, it may be that He vouchsafed to them some faint and occasional manifestations of his own omnipo- tence ; but it was certainly from amongst the powers and principalities of this world, that he selected his most efficient earthly instru- ments. The Normans and Turks. In the mean- time, during the accomplishment of these gradual and distant conquests, the Saracens had wasted the south of Italy, and approached the veiy walls of the pontifical city. On the other side, for their chastisement and expul- sion, a new and vigorous race presented itself, recently sent forth from the extremities of the North. And (what, besides, is a strange co- incidence, and deserving of more curious ob- servation than we can here bestow upon it) while the Norman Pagans were overspread- ing some of the fairest provinces of the West with fire and relentless desolation, the Turk- ish Pagans of the East were entering, even at the same moment, on their pestilential career of conquest. The former adopted the religion of the vanquished, and then, by the infusion of their own vigorous character, they made some compensation to Christendom for the wrongs which they had inflicted. In like manner did the Turks embrace the religion, while they overthrew the dynasty of the Arabs, who preceded them — and not their dynasty only, but their arts, their industry, and their genius. And, in the place of these, they substituted a savage and sullen despotism, alike destructive to the character and the fac- ulties, since its firmest principles are founded in superstition, and bigotry is the legitimate spirit by which it is warmed and animated. It is, indeed, true, that the Arabian invaders had devastated many flourishing Christian countries without justice and without mercy ; but it was no mild or insufficient retribution, which so soon subjected them to the deadly scourge of Turkish oppression. CHAPTER XVI. The Life of Gregory VII. We shall divide this long and important chap- ter into three sections. The first will contain the principal events which were brought about by the Popes who immediately preceded Gre- gory and acted under his influence. The sec- ond will describe the great ecclesiastical and political occurrences of his pontificate. In the third we shall consider separately the con- troversy concerning Berenger,and the general establishment of the Latin Liturgy. Section I. Pope Leo IX.— Early History of Hildebrand — Succession of Victor II. — of Stephen IX. — of Nicholas II. — his Measure respecting Papal Election — the College of Cardinals — imperfection of that Measure — Subsequent and final Regulation — Inconveniences of popular Suf- frage— Restriction of the Imperial Right of Confirma- tion— Homage of Robert Guiscard and the Normans — Dissensions on the Death of Nicholas — Succession of Alexander II. — actual Supremacy of Hildebrand — Measures taken during that Pontificate — Alexander is succeeded by Hildebrand, under the title of Gregory VII. Great hopes were entertained that the disor- ders of Italy and the calamities of the Church would find some respite, if not a final termin- ation, on the accession of Leo IX. This Pope (Bruno, Bishop of Toul), a native of Germany and of splendid reputation, as well for learning as for piety, was appointed by the Emperor Henry III. at the request of the Romans, and ascended the chair in the year 1049; and the dignity of his royal connexion confirmed the hopes which his personal virtues had excited. We are informed* that while he was proceed- * Giannoni, Storia di Napoli, 1. ix., s. 3. Mura- tori, Vit. Rom. Pontif., t. iii., p. 2. The earliest 232 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. ing through France into Italy in his pontifical vestments, he became acquainted at Cluni with a monk named Hildebrand; who pre- vailed upon him to lay aside those ornaments which he had prematurely assumed, to enter Rome in the dress of a pilgrim, and there to receive from the Clergy and people that apos- tolical office which no layman had the right to confer. The Pope was struck by the talents and character of this Monk, and earned him along with him to Rome. Hildebrand was probably a native of Saona, in Tuscany, and (so at least it is generally as- serted) of low origin ; * yet he became early in life the disciple of Laurence, Archbishop of Melpha; presently he gained the notice and even the confidence of Benedict IX. and Gregory VI., and it was not till the death of the latter that he retired to the monastery of Cluni. From a retreat so little suited to his restless spirit he was finally called by Leo IX. to that vast theatre of ecclesiastical ambition, in which so extraordinary a part was destined to himself. Leo presided over the Church for five years : his reign was distinguished by some attempts at salutary reform, and especially by the fam- ous Council which he held at Rheims with that purpose (or under that pretext,) in defi- ance of the royal authority, f On his death the election of a successor was confided by the clergy of Rome to the judgment and ad- dress of Hildebrand. He selected Victor II., and obtained, by a difficult negotiation, J his confirmation from the Emperor. During this Pontificate he was sent into France as legate, and vigorously § maintained the authority of authority for this story seems to be Otho Frisingensis, who flourished in the middle of the following century. Wibertus, who was Leo's archdeacon and biographer, does not mention it. However, the two facts that Hildebrand accompanied him to Rome, and that he entered that city in the habit of a pilgrim, are not disputed. See Pagi, Breviar. Vit. Leo IX. * Both these facts are contested. In the Chronicle of Hugo Flaviniacensis it is expressly asserted that he was a Roman, born of Roman citizens; and Pa- penbrochius thinks it probable that he was of a noble family. Pagi (Vit. Greg. VII. s. 8.) admits that the truth cannot be clearly ascertained. •f- He made an unsuccessful campaign against the Normans, and was defeated by them in person the year before his death. On this occasion Hildebrand may have learnt the policy of cultivating their friend- ship. X Leo Ostiensis, lib. ii., cap. 90. The Emperor professed extreme reluctance to part with his coun- sellor and favorite. § He deposed six Bishops on various charges ' by the Holy See. Victor was succeeded in 1057 by Stephen IX., and on his death, in the year following, a violent division arose among the electors. The nobles of Rome were for the most part united, and appear to have made a hasty and illegal choice ; but several Car- dinals, who had no share in this transaction, assembled at Siena and chose another * can- didate, who was finally confirmed and placed in possession of the See by the Empress, the mother of Henry IV. This candidate was Nicholas II. : and the difficulties which had attended his own election probably led him, under the guidance of Hildebrand, his coun- sellor and patron, to that measure, which was the foundation of Papal independence. Enactment on Papal election. In a late chapter we briefly mentioned what that mea- sure was, and we shall now add a few remarks in illustration of it. ' We have thought prop- er to enact (says the Pontiff) that, upon the decease of the Bishop of this Roman Univer- sal Church, the affair of the election be treat- ed first and with most diligent consideration by the Cardinal Bishops ; who shall afterwards call into their council the Cardinal Clerks ; and finally require the consent of the rest of the Clergy and people.' f The term Cardinal had hitherto been adopted with very great and indefinite latitude in all the Latin Churches, and even applied to the regular orders, as well as to the secular Clergy ; but by this edict it was restrained to the seven Bishops who pre- sided in the city and territory of Rome, and to the twenty-eight Clerks or Presbyters, who were the ministers of the twenty-eight Roman parishes or principal Churches. These five- aud-thirty persons constituted the College of Cardinals. The previous examination of the claims of the candidates rested with the Bish- ops, but they could not proceed to election the authority of the Roman See.' Respecting one of these it is recorded by several writers, that having been guilty of simony he became unable to articulate the offended name of the Holy Ghost, though he could pronounce those of the Father and the Son without any difficulty. Petrus Damiani, Epist. ad Nicolaum Papam. Desiderius Abbas Cassinensis., &c. &c. * ' Pope Stephen, by consent of the Bishops, Clergy, and Roman people, had ordained that at his death no successor should be chosen, except by the counsel of Hildebrand, then Subdeacon of Rome. Hildebrand chose Gerand, Bishop of Florence, who took the name of Nicholas II.' Hist. Litt. de la France, Vie Nich. II. See also Leo Ostiensis, lib. ii., cap. 101. Pagi, Breviar. Vit. Steph. IX. •f- Mosh. Cent, xi., p. ii., c. ii. The Cardinals were to be unanimous in their choice. Hist Litt Franc, Vie Nich. II. GREGORY VII. 233 except in conjunction with the Presbyters. The rest of the Clergy, the nobility, and the people, were excluded from any positive share in the election, but were allowed a negative suffrage in giving or withholding their con- sent. It was obvious, that this last provision would produce frequent disorder and confu- sion, and that those, who had been so sud- denly deprived of the most substantial part of their rights, would lose no opportunity of abusing that which remained to them. And it is probable that Hildebrand, when he coun- selled a measure of imperfect reform, was obliged to confine himself to what was at the moment practicable, reserving the completion of his design to some more favorable period. And so, indeed, it proved ; the nobles, the Clergy, and the populace continued very fre- quently to disturb the elections which they gradually lost the power to influence ; and it was not till the century following that Alex- ander III. found means to perfect the scheme of Hildebrand, and finally purify them from all such interference. Thenceforward the right of election was vested in the College * of Cardinals alone, and so it has continued to the present time. No one acquainted with the frightful f dis- orders which were the scandal of the Roman Church during the two preceding centuries, and which were occasionally felt even at much earlier periods, will affect to censure a mea- sure which removed the principal cause of them by subverting the system of popular election. In defence of a custom, which in principle was not calculated for a numerous society, and which had been condemned by the experience of at least five centuries, it was in vain to plead the venerable institution of antiquity. Universal in its origin, it had for some time been adopted in Episcopal elections throughout the whole of Christendom ; but as its inconveniences were multiplied by the increase of proselytes, it fell into gradual dis- use, first in the East, and afterwards in the Western Church ; and at the period which we are now describing, it was perhaps no- where in full operation except at Rome. The evils, which at Rome it had so pre-eminently produced, abundantly justify the wisdom of the Reformer.:): * The College received, on that occasion, some additions for the purpose of conciliating the aristoc- racy and the civil authorities; but the people gained little or nothing by them. f Giannoni (Hist. Nap., 1. v., c. vi.) details them with great force. % Gibbon seems to have considered the Popes as 30 Imperial Confirmation. We have also men- tioned another important clause contained in the Edict of Nicholas ; that which reduced the imperial confirmation to a mere personal privilege, conferred indeed on Henry III., but liable to be withheld from his successors.* The long minority of that Prince, and the weakness of his government, favoured this usurpation, and accelerated the result which Hildebrand foresaw from it, namely, total emancipation from imperial interference. In fact, the very following Pontiff, Alexander II., maintained himself without the sanction, and even against the will, of the Emperor ; and though Gregory himself vouchsafed to defer his own consecration till Henry had rat- ified his election, succeeding Popes did not on any occasion acknowledge such right as any longer vested in the Throne, but proceeded to the exercise of their office, without await- ing even the form of confirmation from Ger- many. Thus we perceive that the celebrated Council of 1059 was the instrument of finally accomplishing (and that at no very distant period) both the objects at which it aimed, without the power of immediately effecting either — the entire independence of papal elec- tion from the opposite restraints of popular suffrage and imperial confirmation. It is true endeared to the people by the practice of popular election. The affection of the Romans for their Popes (we speak not now of those earlier ages when all episcopal elections were popular) was probably confined to (hat period which intervened between their neglect by the Eastern Emperor and the accession of Charlemagne ; and during that interval, while en- dangered by the constant invasions of the Lombards, they were certainly and strongly attached to their leader by the sense of common peril. There are also other and more respectable reasons for that attach- ment. The, Popes of that time were generally Ro- mans by birth, and known to their subjects, as they are known to posterity, by their piety and their vir- tues. The ecclesiastical revenues were employed to protect the Churches and convents against a barbarous and Arian foe ; and the affection awakened by the merits of the Popes was multiplied by their services. See Sismondi, Republ. Ital., c. iii. * It is important to cite the words of this Edict. ' Cardinales Episcopi diligentissima simul considera- tione tractantes mox sibi Clericos Cardinales adlii- beant, sicque reliquus Clerus et populus ad consensum nova? electionis accedant. . . . Eligant autem de ipsius Ecclesise gremio, si repertus fuerit idoneus; et si de ipsa non invenitur ex alia assumatur; salvo debito honore et reverentia dilecti Filii nostri Henri- ci, qui impnesentiarum Rex habetur, et futiirus Im- perator Deo concedente speratur, sicut jam ipsi con- cessimus, et successorum illius qui ab Apostolica Sede personaliter hoc jus impetraverint.' Pagi, Brev. Vit. Nicolai II., s. 7. 234 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. that Hildebrand lived not to behold with his own eyes the completion of the work which he had projected; but such is commonly the fate of those who engage in comprehensive schemes of reformation, and whose measures are accommodated to their permanent fulfil- ment. The work which they build is not for the gratification of their own vanity, or the profit of their own days — it is enough for them that the structure proceeds with some immediate advantage and great promise of future excellence — the use and enjoyment of its perfection is destined to other generations. Another important event distinguished the pontificate of Nicholas. The Norman con- querors of the South of Italy being harassed on the one hand by the hostility of the Greek Emperor, and by the violent incursions of the Saracens on the other, imagined that they should improve their title to their conquests, and increase their security, if they held them as a fief from the See of Rome. The Pontiff readily availed himself of a concession, which implied the acknowledgement of one of the broadest principles of papal ambition. And thus he consented to receive the homage of the Normans, and solemnly to create Robert Guiscard Duke of Apulia, Calabria and Sicily, on condition that he should observe, as a faith- ful vassal, inviolable allegiance, and pay an an- nual * tribute, in proof of his subjection to the Apostolic See. The permanence of this feu- dal grant increases its claims on our attention ; and the kingdom of the two Sicilies, even as it now subsists, stands on that foundation. The nature of this transaction is so closely al- lied to that of others which we are now ap- proaching, that there is no difficulty in tracing it to the hand of Hildebrand. Alexander 11. On the death of Nicholas in 1061, the dissensions which had disturbed his election were to some extent renewed. The more powerful party, under the guidance of Hildebrand, placed Alexander II. in the chair ; the Nobles resisted, and their opposition was encouraged by the direct support of the Em- peror ; whose confirmation had not been re- quired by the new Pope, and who was justly exasperated at the neglect. Nevertheless, the genius of Hildebrand triumphed over all dif- ficulties ; and after a contest of three years Alexander was firmly established in the chair, * ' Accepla prius ab iis, cum sacramento, Romanes ecclesias fidelitate ; censuque quotannis per juga bourn singula denariis duodecim.' — Leo Ostiensis, lib. iii. cap. 15. The words of the oath are cited by Baron- ius. though it was still feebly disputed with him. He occupied it for twelve years, and passed the greater portion of that time hi the retire- ment of Lucca or Monte Cassino — but the See lost nothing by his secession, since he intrust- ed its various interests and the entire direction of public affairs to the diligent zeal of Hilde- brand, who had been raised by Nicholas to the dignity of Archdeacon of Rome, and who exerted there an unbounded and undisguised authority.* Accordingly we find, during this pontifi cate, (1) that various attempts were made to reform the morals of the Clergy and the abuses of the Church — (2) that the famous question concerning Investitures was first moved — (3} that, by a constitution of Alexan- der, no Bishop in the Catholic Church was permitted to exercise his functions, until he had received the confirmation of the Holy See f — (4) that the Emperor himself was sum- moned to Rome, to answer to the charge of simony, and other complaints which had reached the See respecting him. \ Under these various heads we perceive the operation of the same master-spirit aiming steadily at the reform of the Church, at its independence, at the extension of papal authority over the episcopal order, and over the conduct and sceptre of Princes. Alexander II. died in 1073 ; and thus for four-and-twenty years Hildebrand had exer- cised in the Vatican an unremitting influence whic'n had latterly grown into despotic au- thority— and thus far contented with the real- ity of pontificial power, he had not cared to invest himself with the name and rank. Per- haps he had thought the moment not yet ar- rived in which he could occupy the office with dignity, or fill it with great advantage ; probably he was desirous to complete, under other names, the train which he had been long preparing, and to which he designed to * The following contemporary verses perhaps do not much exaggerate the actual supremacy of Hilde- brand. ' Papam rite colo, sed te prostratus adoro: Tu facis hunc dominum — te facit ille Deum. Vivere vis Romae"? clara depromito voce, Plus Domino Papae,quam Domno pareo Papas.' Petr. Damiani. f St. Marc, p. 460. Hallam (Midd. Ages, c. vii.) considers this provision to have contributed more than any other papal privilege, to the maintenance of the temporal influence, as well as the ecclesiastical su- premacy of Rome. X See Sender, cent. xi. c. 1, and Pagi, Vit. Alex- and. II. sect. 48. This part of Mosheim's history is exceedingly hurried and imperfect. GREGORY'S PONTIFICATE. 235 apply the torch in his own person ; it is even possible, that his severe and imperious char- acter, by alienating popular * favor, rendered his election uncertain. It was not, assuredly, that he valued the security of a humbler post ; for, among the numerous vices with which he has been charged, the baseness of selfish tim- idity has never been accounted as one. At length, on the very day of Alexander's death, Hildebrand was elected his successor by the unanimous suffrage of the Cardinals, and the universal acclamation of the Clergy and peo- ple ; and that he might mark, at least, the beginning of his pontificate by an act of moderation, he waited for the Emperor's con- sent before his consecration. But it is true that he rather claimed than requested that consent, and that it was granted with the graceless reluctance of impotent jealousy. He assumed the title of Gregory VII. ; and, after twelve years of restless exertion, he left that name invested with a portentous celebri- ty which attaches to no other in the annals of the Church. Section II. — Tlie Pontificate of Gregory. Gregory's First Council — its two objects — to prevent (1.) Marriage or Concubinage of the Clergy — (2.) Simon iacal Sale of Benefices— On the Celibacy of the Clergy— why encouraged by Popes — Leo IX. — Severity and Conse- quence of Gregory's Edict — Original Method of ap- pointment to Benefices — Usurpations of Princes — how abused — the Question of Investiture — Explained — Pre- text for Royal Encroachments — Original form of Con- secration by the King and Crown — Right usurped by Otho — State of the Question at the Accession of Greg- ory— Conduct of Henry — further measures of the Pope — Indifference of Henry — Summoned before a Council at Rome — Council of Worms— Excommunication of the Emperor and Absolution of his Subjects from their Al- legiance— Consequence of this Edict — Dissensions in Germany — how suspended — Henry does Penance at Canossa — restored to the Communion of the Church — again takes the field — Rodolphus declared Emperor — Gregory's Neutrality — Remarks on the course of Greg- ory's Measures — Universality of his temporal Claims — his probable project — Considerations in excuse of his Schemes — partial admission of his Claims — Ground on which he founded them — power to bind and to loose — Means by which he supported them — Excommunication — Interdict — Legates i. Latere— Alliance with Matilda — his Norman allies — German Rebels — internal Ad- ministration— Effect of his rigorous Measures of Reform — his grand scheme of Supremacy within the Church — * This is Sismondi's opinion, chap. iii. ; and we can readily believe, that the stern virtues of Gregory were not likely to recommend him to a venal popu- lace. Yet, when at length he did propose himself, we hear nothing of any opposition from that quarter, while the acclamations which, attended his election are universally recorded. But, after all, that severi- ty of manner, which is known to be connected with an austere sanctity of life, is not an unpopular feature in the sacerdotal character. False Decretals — Power conferred by them on the Pope — brought into action by Gregory — Appeals to Pope — Generally encouraged and practised— their pernicious Effects — Gregory's double Scheme of Universal Domin- ion—Return to Narrative— Clement III. anti-Pope — Death of Rodolphus— Henry twice repulsed from before Rome — finally succeeds — his Coronation by Clement — the Normans restore Gregory — he follows them to Sa- lerno and there dies — bis historical importance — his Character— Public— his grand principle in the Admin istration of the Church— Private— as to Morality— as to Religion. In the year following his advancement, Greg- ory assembled a numerous Council at Rome, chiefly for the purpose of correcting two abuses in Church discipline and government, which appeared most to require reform. These were (1) the marriage or concubinage of the Clergy ; (2) the simoniacal sale of bene- fices. 1. Marriage of the Clergy. Most of the early Fathers were diligent in then* endeavors to establish the connexion between celibacy and sanctity, and to persuade men that those who were wedded to the Church were contamin- ated by an earthly union. This notion was readily embraced by the Laity ; and many of the Clergy acted upon it without reluct- ance, owing to the greater commendation of austerity which the practice was found to con- fer upon them : still, in the Eastern Church, where it originated, it was never very rigidly enforced; and a Council of Constantinople held in 691, permitted, with certain limita- tions, the ordination of married men. These Canons were never formally received in the West, where celibacy and strict continence were unrelentingly enjoined on all orders of the priesthood. With whatsoever laxity the latter injunction may have been observed, there are not many complaints of the open violation of the former, at least from the end of the sixth, until the conclusion of the ninth, and the progress of the tenth century : but during this period the irregularity spread widely, and even displayed itself with undis- guised confidence throughout every branch of the Roman Hierarchy. The Popes were naturally averse to this relaxation of discipline — partly from the continued prevalence of the original notion, that those were better qualifi- ed for spiritual meditations and offices who were severed from secular interests and affec- tions ; partly from the scandal thus occasion- ed to the prejudices of the laity ; partly from respect to established ordinances and usages ; partly from attachment to a principle, which, by withdrawing the Clergy from worldly connexions, bound them more closely to each other and to their Head. At any rate the evil 236 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. had now grown to so great a height, that it was become quite necessaiy either to repeal the laws so openly violated, or to enforce them. They chose the latter office, and the first who distinguished himself in the difficult enter- prise was Leo IX. His immediate successors trod in his steps ; but as sufficient measures were not taken (perhaps could not have been taken) to carry these edicts into effect, they seem generally to have fallen to the ground without advantage, except in so far as they prepared the way for the more vigorous exer- tions of Gregory. In the above-mentioned Council it was or- dained— ' that the sacerdotal orders should abstain from marriage ; and that such mem- bers of them as had already wives or con- cubines should immediately dismiss them or quit the priestly office.' The more difficult part remained to enforce this decree ; and herein Gregory did not confine himself to the legitimate weapon of spiritual censure, but also exerted his powerful influence to arm the temporal authorities in his service. Nu- merous disorders were the consequence of this measure ; at Milan * and in Germany the Edict was openly resisted, and many ecclesi- astics were found in eveiy countiy, who pre- ferred the sacrifice of their dignities and inter- ests to the abandonment of those connexions which they held dearer than either.f The * At Milan a violent dispute on this subject had arisen between the Clergy and the Laity, under Ste- phen IX., in the year 1057. (Pagi, Vit. Steph. IX.) The schism continued under Nicholas II., who sent legates to compose it; but it still continued during the pontificate of Alexander. The Popes took part with the Laity against the married Clergy, who were named Nicolaites. ■j- ' Malle se sacerdotium quam conjugium deserere.' Lambert. Schaffn. in Chronico. Gregory is much censured by Mosheim and others for not having dis- tinguished, in his sweeping decree, between the wives and the concubines of the Clergy; and with justice, since he visited the violation of canonical law with the same severity with which he protected the eternal precepts of Christian morality. It must be admitted, however, that as his object was the entire and imme- diate extirpation of what he considered a scandalous abuse, he took the only means at all likely to accom- plish it. It was in vain that the Milanese Clergy pleaded the authority of St. Ambrose and the example of the Greeks — it was well known that the former pro- tected not those who admitted papal supremacy ; and that the Council, which permitted the latter, was never acknowledged by the Roman Church. It seems in- deed probable that St. Gregory was the first Pope who rigidly enforced the practice of celibacy ; but for two centuries after his time, it was both the law and the practice of the Church, and in the two ages which confusion thus created was indeed gradually tranquillized by the progress of time, by the perseverance of the Pontiff, by the aid, per- haps, of the laity, by the indifference of the Sovereigns — but the practice itself was not so easily removed ; and though, through severe restraint, it proceeded constantly to abate, it continued in some degree to disturb the Church during the following century, and to call down the denunciations of her Popes and her Councils. 2. Edict against Simony. Another Edict of the same Council forbade in the severest terms the sale of ecclesiastical benefices ; and the following circumstance made that Edict necessary. The Bishop was originally elect- ed by the Clergy and people of the diocese ; but in process of time, the people, as we have already seen, were in most places excluded, and the election rested with the Clergy alone. Presently, in the anarchy which prevailed after the dissolution of the Western Empire, the wealth which flowed into the coffers of the Church, as it brought with it no propor- tionate security, not only tempted the rapacity of the Nobles, but invited the usurpation of the Sovereigns. Thus, at an early period, long antecedent to the reign of Charlemagne, the Western Princes commenced their in- terference in Episcopal elections — first, as it would seem, by simple recommendation ; then by the interposition of threats and show of authority ; lastly, by positive appointment. The partial restoration of the right which took place in the ninth century, under Lewis the Meek and his successor, was probably confin- ed to the Church of France and to the life of Hincmar. Their next step was to abuse the privilege which they had usurped, and the manner of abuse was alike indecent and scandalous : the spoils of their injustice were retailed to their avarice ; and the most important charg- es and offices of the ministry were commonly and publicly sold to the highest bidder, with- out regard to literary qualification or sanctity of character, or the most obvious interests of religion. This was, in fact, the avowed cor- ruption which Gregory sought to remedy ; and the specious object to which his exertions and those of his successors, through so many conflicts, tended, was to deprive the Prince of his usurped authority in Episcopal election. succeeded, though it had ceased to be the practice, it still continued the law. — See Bayle, Vie Greg. I. Fleury, Discours sur 1' H. E. depuis 600 jusqu'i 1100." GREGORY'S PONTIFICATE. 237 A secondary view was closely attached to this, but not yet so boldly professed — to trans- fer that authority, if not in form, in * sub- stance, to the Pope. Investiture. Thus much appears exceed- ingly simple; but the point on which the dispute did in reality turn, and which has given the name to the contest, was one, as it might seem, of mere formality — the Investi- ture of the Bishop or Abbot. We must now shortly explain this part of the question ; and we shall thus become acquainted with the circumstances which are urged in justifica- tion of the royal claims. When the early conquerors of the West conferred territorial grants upon the Church, the individuals who came to the enjoyment of them were obliged to present themselves at Court, to swear alle- giance to the King, and to receive from his hands some symbol, in proof that the tempo- ralities were placed in their possession. The same ceremony, in fact, was imposed on the ecclesiastical as on the lay proprietor of royal fiefs ; and it was called Investiture. After- wards, when the Princes had usurped the presentation to all valuable benefices, even to those which had not been derived from royal bounty, they introduced no distinction found- ed on the different sources of the revenue, but continued to subject those whom they nominated, to the same oath of allegiance, and the same ceremony of investiture, with the laity. In the meantime it had been an early cus- tom, on the consecration of a Bishop, that the Metropolitan, who by right performed the ceremony, should place in the hands of the Prelate elect a ring and a crosier — symbols of his spiritual connexion with the Church, and of his pastoral duties. This was a form of investiture purely ecclesiastical, and the Princes, even after they had usurped the pre- sentation to benefices, did not at first venture to make use of it; and, it is said, that they were finally led to do so by some artful at- tempts on the part of the Clergy to recover their original right of election. Mosheim (in opposition to many less celebrated writers) is of opinion that Otho the Great was the first Prince who ventured to present with profane hand the emblems of spiritual authority ; at least it is quite certain that this custom had been in very general use for some time before the accession of Gregory. And thus the tem- poral power had gradually succeeded in a double usurpation on ecclesiastical privileges * By conceding to him the right of confirmation. — first, in despoiling the lower Clergy of their right of election — next, in encroaching upon the province of the Metropolitans, and pre- suming to dispense in their place the symbols of a spiritual office. As a partial palliation of the conduct of the throne it is maintained, that the homage re- quired from the Bishop or Abbot at investi- ture was for his temporalities only ; and in so far as these were the feudal grants of former princes, the claim was manifestly just, but no farther than this. The crown could not fairly assert any suzerainty over the vast domains and enormous extent of property which had accrued to the Church from other quarters, before the establishment of the feudal system, and which, therefore, were not held on any feudal tenure ; nor can any sufficient plea be found for its general assumption of the dispo- sal of benefices (to say nothing of the flagi- tious manner in which they were retailed), and its adoption of a form of investiture which was purely ecclesiastical. Such, as nearly as we can collect, was the state of this question, when Gregory pub- lished his edict against Simony in the year 1074. The results of the Council were com- municated to the Emperor * Henry IV., who received the Legates courteously, and bestow- ed some unmeaning praise on the zeal of the Pope for the reform of his Church. But Gregory was not to be satisfied with expres- sions ; and, as he intended to give general effect to his decrees, he desired permission to summon councils in Germany, by which those accused of simony might be convicted and deposed. Henry refused that permission, partly from the consciousness of his own criminality, partly because he was not really anxious for any reform which would curtail his own patronage. This opposition obliged the Pope to proceed one step farther. After pressing the execution of his former ordi- nances in a variety of letters, addressed, with various effect or inefficacy, to different princes and bishops, he convoked, early in the year following, a second council at Rome ; and, with its assistance, he proceeded to those measures which he had proposed to accom- plish by synods in Germany, and, probably, somewhat beyond them. On this occasion he not only deposed the Archbishop of Bre- men and the Bishops of Strasbourg, Spires, and Bamberg, besides some Lombard Bish- * According to the church writers, King only. He had not yet gone through the ceremony of coro- nation at Rome. 238 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. ops, but also excommunicated five of the Im- perial Court, whose ministry the prince had used in simoniacal transactions. At the same time he pronounced his formal anathema against any one who should receive the in- vestiture of a Bishopric or Abbey from the hands of a layman, and also against all by whom such investiture should be performed.* Henry paid no other attention to this edict, than to repeat his former general acknow- ledgment of the existence of simony, and his intention, in future, to discourage it. Henry summoned to Rome. Some partic- ular differences, respecting the appointment to the See of Milan and other matters, tended at this moment to exasperate the growing hostility of Gregory and Henry ; it happened, too, that the latter was disturbed and weak- ened by civil dissensions, occasioned, in some degree, by his own dissolute and profligate rule, which, by distracting his forces, invited the aggression of his foreign enemies. It is even asserted (by Dupin) that the malcontents sent deputies to Rome to solicit the interfer- ence of the Pope. Such an application is rendered probable by the fact which we now proceed to mention, and which is a certain and a memorable monument of papal extrava- gance. Gregory sent Legates into Germany, bearing positive orders to the Emperor to present himself forthwith at Rome, since it became him to clear himself, before the Pope and his Council, from various charges which his subjects had alleged against him. These charges might possibly be confined to ecclesi- astical offences, of which the Emperor had notoriously been guilty ; but never, before the days of Hildebrand, had it been expressly asserted that he was amenable for such of- fences to any ecclesiastical tribunal. Excomynunicated and deposed. He treated the summons as a wanton insult, and wan- * The words of the edict are: ' Si quis deinceps Episcopatum vel Abbatiam de inarm alieujus laica? persona? susceperit, nullatenus inter Episcopos vel Abbates habeatur, nee ulla ei lit Episcopo vel Abbati audientia concedatur. Insuper etiam gratiam B. Pe- tri et introitum Ecclesia; interdicimus, quoad usque locum, quern sub crimine tam ambitionis quam ino- bedientia?, quod est scelus idololatria?, cepit, deserue- rit. Similiter etiam de inferioribus Ecclesiasticis dignitatibus constituimus. Item si quis Imperatorum, Ducum, Marchionum, Comitum, vel quilibet secula- rium potestatum ant personarum investituram Epis- copate, vel alieujus Ecclesiastics dignitatis dare praesumpserit, ejusdem sententise vinculo se adstric- tum sciat.' Hugo Flaviuiacensis, ap. Pag. Vit. Greg. VII., s. 26. tonly retorted it. He collected at Worms * a council of about twenty German Bishops (some of whom were already personally em- broiled with Gregory) ; and these prelates, after passing many censures on the conduct, election, and constitutions of Hildebrand, pro- nounced him unworthy of his dignity, and accordingly deposed him. Gregory was not further disturbed by such empty denuncia- tions, than to take measures to return them much more effectually. In a full assembly of one hundred and ten Bishops, he suspend- ed from their offices the ecclesiastics who had declared against him ; he then pronoun- ced the excommunication of the Emperor; and accompanied his anathema by the un- qualified sentence, 'that he had forfeited the kingdoms of Germany and Italy, and that his subjects were absolved from their oath of fealty.' \ This assertion of control over the allegi ance of subjects was hitherto without prece- dent in the history of the Papal Church ; and it was now, for the first time, advanced to the prejudice of a monarch, whose character, though stained both by vices and weaknesses, was not wholly depraved nor universally odi- ous. Nevertheless, the edict of Gregory was * ■' Qua? legatioRegem vehementer permovit; sta- timque abjectis cum gravi contumelia Legatis, omnes qui in regno suo essent Episcopos el Abbates Wor- metise Dominica Septuagesimse convenire prsecepit, tractare cum eis volens ad deponendum Romamtm Pontificem, si qua sibi via, si qua ratio pateret: in hoc cardine tolam verti ratus salutem suam et regni stabilitatem, si is non esset Episcopus.' Lambert Schaffh. ad aim. 1076. f The words in which this celebrated sentence was conveyed should be recorded : ' Petre Apostolorurn Princeps, etc. etc. Hac fiducia fretus pro Ecclesias lure honore et defensione, ex parte Omnipotentis Dei, Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, per tuam potesta- tem et auctoritatem Henrico Regi, filio Henrici Im- peratoris, qui contra Ecclesiam tam inaudita superbia insurrexit, totius regni Teutonicorum et Italia? gu- bemacula contradico, et omnes Christianos a vinculo juramenti quod sibi fecere vel facient, absolvo; et ut nullus ei sicut Regi serviat, iuterdico. Dignuiu est enim, lit, qui studet honorem Ecclesise tua2 imini- nuere, ipse honorem amittat quern videtur habere. Et quia Christianus contempsit obedire nee ad Dom- inum rediit, quern dimisit participandoexcommunica- tis et multas iniquitates faciendo, mcaque monita, qua: pro salute sua sibi misi, te teste spernendo, seque ab Ecclesia sua, tentans earn scindere separan- do, vinculo eum anathematis vice tua alligo, ut sci- ant Gentes et comprobent quia Tu es Petrus, et super tuam Petram Filius Dei vivi redificavit Eccle- siam suam, et porta; Inferi non prrcvalebunt adversus earn.' Paul. Bernried., cap. 75; Pagi, Vit., Greg. VII., s. 42. GREGORY'S PONTIFICATE. 239 diligently promulgated throughout Germany ; nor was it idly cast into a kingdom already divided, and among a people already discon- tented and accustomed to rebellion. The Dukes of Swabia, headed by Rodolphus, presently rose in arms ; they were supported by a fresh revolt of the Saxons ; and there were those even amoug Henry's best friends, whose fidelity was somewhat paralyzed by the anathema under which he had fallen. After a short but angry struggle, an arrange- ment was made greatly to his disadvantage — that the claims and wrongs of both parties should be subjected to the decision of the Pope, who was invited to preside at a council at Augsbourg for that purpose ; and that, in the meantime, Henry should be suspended from the royal dignity. It is not easy to de- cide how much of this success should be at- tributed to the previous animosity of the parties opposed to Henry, how much to a blind respect for the edict and authority of the Pope ; but the treaty to which all con- sented certainly implied an acknowledgment of the power which Gregory had assumed, and gave a sort of foundation and countenance to his future measures. Henry does penance, at Canossa. Henry, who had little to hope from a public sentence, to be delivered in the midst of his rebellious subjects by his professed enemy, determined to anticipate, or, if possible, to prevent his disgrace by an act of private submission to Pontifical authority. For that purpose he crossed the Alps with few attendants during the severity of an inclement winter, and pro- ceeded to Canossa, a fortress in the neighbor- hood of Parma, in which Gregory was then residing. In penitential garments, with his feet and head bare and unsheltered from the season, the Emperor presented himself at the gate of the fortress, as a sinner and a suppli- ant. His humble request was to be admitted to the presence of the Pontiff and to receive his absolution. For three dreary days, from dawn till sunset, the proudest sovereign in Europe was condemned to continue his fast and his penance before the walls, and proba- bly under the eyes of Gregory, in solitary * * Henry is represented to have traversed the Alps at extreme risk by unfrequented roads, as the ordi- nary passes were guarded by his enemies; and Lam- bertus of Aschaffenbourg, a contemporary historian, describes the castle of Canossa as surrounded by a triple wall, within the second of which the Emperor was admitted to his penance, while the whole of his suite remained without the exterior. See Sismondi, Hist. Rep. Ital. c. iii. Paul. Bernried speaks of the insolita papa duritia shown on this occasion. and helpless humiliation. At length, on the fourth day, he was pertnitted to approach the person of the Pontiff, and was absolved from the sentence of excommunication. Yet even this favour was not vouchsafed him uncon- ditionally : * he was still suspended from the title and offices of royalty, and enjoined to appear at the Congress of Augsbourg and abide by the decision which should then be passed upon him. Henry soon discovered that he had gained nothing by this degradation, except contempt; and after descending to the lowest humiliation which ever Prince had voluntarily undergone, he found himself precisely in his former situ- ation, with the Council of Augsbourg still hanging over his head. Of an useless sub- mission he repented vehemently ; he aban- doned himself to his feelings of shame and indignation, resumed his title and his func- tions and prepared once more to confront his adversaries. The Saxons and Swabians im- mediately declared Rodolphus Emperor of Germany (in 1077) ; Henry was supported by the Lombards in Italy ; and a sanguinary war was carried on in both countries with various success and general devastation. For three years Gregory preserved the show, perhaps the substance, of neutrality ; he received the deputies of both parties with equal courtesy, and seemed to wish to profit so far only by their dissensions, as to engage them to aid him in the execution of his original edicts. * The oath which he took is given at length by Paulus Bernriedensis, Vit. Greg. VII. Sismondi de- signates the conduct of Gregory as ' une trahison insigne,' but not justly so; since it cannot be shown that the Pope had bound himself by any engagement to the Emperor which he did not strictly fulfil ; the latter did penance for his contumacy towards the Church, and the Pope, in consequence, restored him to the Communion of the Church. The Council or Diet to be held at Augsbourg was a measure previ- ously arranged, to which many other eminent persons were parties; and it was intended for the settlement of political, at least as much as of ecclesiastical dif- ferences ; — whereas the penance at Canossa was merely a particular atonement to the See of Rome, not at all connected with the general maladministra- tion of Henry. In fact, Gregory's own words are conclusive on the question. ' Henri cus, confusus et humiliatus ad me veniens absohttionem ah excommu- nicatione quaesivit. Quern ego videns humiliatum, multis ab eo promissionibus acceptis de vitre suae emendatione, solum ei communionem reddidi; non tamen in regno instauravi, nee fidelitatem hominum qui sibi juraverant vel erant juraturi ut sibi serventur pracepi, &c.' See Mabill., Vit. Greg. VII., c. 107. Pagi, Vit. Greg. VII., s. xliii. Denina, Delle Rivol d'ltalia, lib. x., c. vi. 240 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. But m the year 1080, decided, as some say, by the misfortunes, as others assert, by the crimes * of Henry, he pronounced a second sentence of deposition, and conferred upon Rodolphus the crown of Germany, f Temporal claims of Gregory. Thus far we have traced, without much comment, the rapid but regular progress of Gregory. The first measure, as we have seen, in his temporal usurpation (for in his earliest decrees against Church abuses he did not exceed the just limits of his authority,) was to declare the Emperor amenable to a Papal court of judi- cature, and to summon him before it; the next was to deprive him of his throne and to absolve his subjects from their oath of allegi- ance ; the last was to dispose of the empire, with absolute authority, as a fief of St. Peter. Without further examination we might at once have concluded, that claims so extrava- gant and irrational were merely the passionate ebullitions of a feeble spirit, irritated by per- sonal pique or effeminate vanity. But tins was not so ; the claims in question were ad- vanced by the most vigorous and consistent character of his age, and they were pressed with a deliberate and earnest zeal which evinced a conviction of their justice. They were not confined to the dominions of Henry ; they displayed themselves in every state and province of Europe. The kingdom of France was declared tribuatry to the See of Rome, and Papal legates were commissioned to de- mand the annual payment of the tribute, J by virtue of the true obedience due to that See by every Frenchman. And the King himself (Philip I.) was reminded 'that both his king- dom and his soul were under the dominion of St. Peter, who had the power to bind and to loose both in Heaven and on earth.' Saxony was pronounced to be held on feudal tenure from the Apostolic chair and in subjection * Sismondi, whose partialities are against Gregory and the Church, says respecting Henry, that ' his character was generous and noble; but he abandoned himself with too little restraint to the passions of his age ;' and those passions undoubtedly led him to the commission of great political offences. Private excesses may sometimes find their excuse in youth ; but the vices of Kings deserve less indulgence, since they usually influence the morals and happiness of their subjects. A less favorable, but probably a more correct view of the character of Henry is taken by Denina. Delle Rivoluz. d'ltalia, lib. x., c. v. t The act and the authority for it were expressed in a hexameter verse, inscribed on the crown which Gregory sent to Rodolph — Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rodolpho. % Per veram obediential!!. to it. It was pretended that the kingdom of Spain had been the property of the Holy See from the earliest ages of Christianity. Wil- liam the Norman, after the conquest of JEng- land, was astonished to learn that he held that country as a fief of Rome and tributary to it. The entire feudal submission of the kingdom of Naples has been already mentioned. No- thing was so lofty as to daunt the ambition of Gregory, or so low as to escape it. The numerous Dukes or Princes of Germany, those of Hungary, of Denmark, of Russia, of Poland, of Croatia and Dalmatia, were either solicited to subject their states to the suzerainty of St. Peter, or reminded of their actual sub- jection. And the grand object of Gregory is probably not exaggerated by those who believe that he designed to re-establish the Western * empire on the basis of opinion, and to bind by one spiritual chain to the chair of St. Peter the political governments and ever- conflicting interests of the universal kingdom of Christ, f Are we astonished at the magnificence, or do we laugh at the wildness of this project ? Let us first inquire by what means the mighty architect proposed to combine and consolidate his structure. Gregory seriously designed to regulate his truly Catholic empire by a coun- cil of bishops, who were to be assembled at Rome annually, with full power to decide the differences of princes both with each other and with their subjects ; to examine the rights and pretensions of all parties, and to arbitrate in all the perplexed concerns of international policy. If we can, indeed, imagine that Gre- gory was animated by that general spirit of * Thus, in effect, the Western empire of which the foundations were really laid at the coronation of Charlemagne, was not the temporal dominion at which the Prince aspired, and which so soon passed away from his sceptre, but that spiritual despotism, affected by the Priest, and which was much more extensive, as it was much more durable. f Amid this multiplicity of objects, which divided without distracting the mind of Gregory, he did not allow himself to forget either the schism or calamities of the East; he even projected to remedy both by personally conducting an army against the Jlahome- tans. This is mentioned in a letter to Henry, written in 1074, in which, after some mention of his project, he adds — ' Illud enim me ad hoc opus permaxime in- stij naQa&iosi. r)r uns 1 1 1 • (V> oi Tt -~. The . same writer describes the character of a true monk with great minuteness and fervor in his Xllth Oration, (Elnyvixog A, Eni t\ Eulnii Toiy JMoratvvTujr.) 300 HISTORY Of THE CHURCH. cient to break the silence of their deserts ; and the hour of their night-prayer was indi- cated by the declining stars, which shine in that cloudless atmosphere with perpetual lustre. The offices of their worship were undisturbed by any sound of worldly care or irreverent levity. Their devotion, like their pyramids, was simple and solid, and they lived like strangers to the flesh and its attributes, like sojourners on earth and citi- zens of a spiritual community.* Four objects were comprehended in their profession — solitude, manual labor, fasting, and prayer ; and we cannot forbear to ob- serve, how large a portion of their time was devoted to the second. Indeed, so strictly was the necessity of such occupation incul- cated, that the moderation of their other duties might almost appear to have been pre- scribed with that view. A body, debilitated by the excess of fasting or discipline, would have been disqualified for the offices of indus- try which were performed by the monks of Egypt. Without any possessions, and hold- ing it alike discreditable to beg or to accept, f they earned their daily bread by their skill and diligence in making mats or baskets, as cutlers, as fullers ; or as weavers — insomuch, that their houses may seem to have resembled religious manufactories, rather than places consecrated to holy purposes ; and the mo- tive of their establishment is liable to the suspicion of being, in some cases at least, worldly and political. Yet in the descrip- tions of their practice, both objects were so united, that the prayer seems to have been inseparable from the labor. J To that end, the employments which they chose were easy and sedentary, so that the mind might be free to expatiate, while the hands were in exercise. At the same time, they maintained that perpetual occupation was the only effect- ual method to prevent distractions, and fix the soul on worthy considerations ; that thus alone the tediousness of solitude, and its at- tendant evils, can be remedied ; that the monk who works has only one demon to tempt him, while the monk unoccupied is harassed by demons innumerable. § * See Fleury's admirable Eighth Discourse. 1 Cassian. Collat. xxiv. s. 11, 12, 13. J Ita ut quid ex quo pendeat haud facile possit a quopiam discemi — i. e. utrum propter meditationcm spiritalem incessabiliter manuuin opus exerceant; an propter operis^jugitatom tam praeclarum profecunn 6piritus, scientiarque lumen acquirant. Cassian. In- Btit. lib. ii. c. 14. § Unde heec est apud yEgyptum ab antiquis Patri- The Sarabaites. The Sarabaites * are de- scribed by Cassian in language of violent and almost unmitigated censure. Yet if we neg- lect those expressions, which become suspi- cious through their very rancor, and adhere only to the facts which are mentioned as char- acteristic of that monastic sect, it appears, that they were seceders, or at least independent, from the Ccenobitical establishments. They claimed the name of Monks ; but without any emulation of their pursuits, or observance of their discipline. They were not subject to the direction of elders, nor did they strive, under traditional institutions, to subject their inclina- tions to any fixed or legitimate rule. If they publicly renounced the world, it was either to persevere, in their own houses, in their former occupations under the false assumption of the monastic name, or building cells, and calling them monasteries, to dwell there without any abandonment of their secular interests. They labored indeed with industry at least as sedu- lous, as their more regular brethren — but they labored for their own individual profit, not for that of an instituted community, f From this hostile account, it would appear that the Sarabaites, if they were spurious monks, were at least useful members of soci- ety; and the union which they established of the religious profession with worldly occupa- tions, seems to have revived, or rather perpet- uated, the leading principle of ascetism. St. Basil. From Egypt, the popular insti- tution was immediately introduced into Syria by a monk named Hilarion ; but the Syrians appear soon to have deviated from the sim- plicity and moderation of their masters into a sterner practice of mortification, and even torture. From Syria, it was transmitted to Pontus and the shores of the Black Sea, and there it found a respectable patron, the most eminent among its primitive protectors, Ba- silius, Archbishop of Caesarea. bus sancta (al. sancita) sententia — operantem Mona- chum daemone uno pulsari ; otiosum vero innumeris spiritibus devastari. Cassiani Instit. lib. x. c. 23. It appears from Cassian's preceding chapter, that any superfluity which the monks might have acquired was frequently employed in charitable purposes, and espe- cially in the redemption of captives. * The same sect, no doubt, which St. Jerome calls Remoboth, and stigmatizes as ' genus deterrimum at- que neglectum.' Epist. xviii. ad Eustochium. De Custodia Virginitatis. f Cassian. Collat. xviii. c. 7. Cassian's dislike for the Sarabaites was probably contracted in the cells of the Ccenobites, who viewed with a sort of sectarian jealousy the industry and the profits of rebels or o rivals. ' ORIGIN OF MONACHISM. 301 That celebrated ecclesiastic — who was a native of Cappadocia, the brother of Gregory of Nyssa, and the fellow-disciple (as is assert- ed) of the then 'future apostate Julian — has given his name to the single order, which has subsisted in the Greek Church,* with scarcely any variation or addition, from that period to the present moment ; and it is this circumstance, as well as his superior antiqui- ty, which has established him as the most venerable of the patriarchs of Monachism. His claim to that reputation is said to consist in this — he united the Hermits and Coenobites already established in his diocese ; and to his monasteries, so formed, he prescribed a rule, which was rigidly observed by them, and im- itated by others : by this bond, he gave them a consistency and uniformity, which had hitherto been peculiar to the institutions of Egypt, f Besides which, he strongly recom- mended \ the obligation of a vow, on admis- sion to the monastic state — an obligation which, whether it were actually established by St. Basil or not, had certainly no existence before his time. These advancements in the * It is true thai certain heretical orders, Maronites, Jacobites, Nestorians, &c. professed to follow the rule of St. Anthony; but St. Anthony delivered, in fact, no rule. When solicited to impose some code upon his disciples, he is recorded to have presented to them the Bible — an eternal and universal rule. Hospin. lib. ii. c. 4. f It does not, however, appear, that his rule was in the first instance very generally observed. At least we find, that as much as thirty years later, Cassian (Institut. lib. ii. c. 2.) contrasted the diversity, par- ticularly respecting the times and nature of the holy offices, which prevailed elsewhere, with the uniformi- ty of the more ancient institutions of Egypt. ' In hunc mndiiin diversis in locis diversum canonem agnovimus institutum, totque propemodum typos et legulas vidimus usurpatas, quot etiam monasteria ccl- lasque conspeximus. Sunt quibus .... Quapropter necessarium reor antiquissimam patrum proferre con- stitutionem qure nunc usque per totam Egyptum a Dei famulis custoditur,' &c. It is, indeed, the opinion of Hospinian (though it does not seem sufficiently founded), that St. Basil's Coenobia were little more than theological schools, and that his rule was no other than the ordinary form of school discipline. Such, as he thinks, were the monasteries of those days. Lib. iii. c. 2. The Rule commonly ascribed to that saint may be found, in Latin, in the same place. % Bingham, Ch. Antiq. book vii. The author of the Histoire des Ordres Monastiques expressly as- serts, that as monasteries were instituted by Anthony, and congregations by Pachomius, so the three vows (of chastity, poverty, and obedience) were the intro- duction of St. Basil. It is, at least, certain, that the duties of obedience and poverty were early and very rigidly practised by the Eastern monks. system were effected from the years 360 to 370 ; and thus the plant, which had first been nourished by Anthony and Pachomius with imperfect, but not improvident culture, grew up, within the space of twenty years, into vigorous and lasting maturity. Conduct of the ancient Fathers. It is a fact demanding observation, that the Fathers of the ancient Church, who flourished about this period, among whom were many eloquent and learned and pious men, were favorable, without one exception, to the establishment of monasticism : for though it might be be- neath the office of reason to investigate the motives of the illiterate enthusiasts who began the work, it would be improper to pass over without comment the considerate labors of the ecclesiastics who completed it. Moreover, as they were apt enough to differ on some other points, in which the interests of religion were concerned, and as they delivered, on all occasions, their particular opinions with great boldness and independence, their unanimity in the introduction of one grand innovation is, by that circumstance, still further recom- mended to our attention. Yet must we hesi- tate to ascribe to them motives altogether unworthy. We should be wholly mistaken if we were to attribute their conspiracy to any deep design for the establishment of priestly rule, or the increase of the wealth and authority of the Church beyond their just limits. These evil consequences did, in- deed, result from the work, and spread, with fatal influence, over the western world ; but they could not be contemplated by the Fa- thers of the fourth and fifth centuries, because they rose and grew with the growth of papal usurpation, of which, in those days, there was no fear nor thought. It was the alliance be- tween papacy and monasticism which tended more, perhaps, than any other cause, to ele- vate and magnify, and at the same time to vitiate, both. But the eye of Athanasius, or Chrysostom, or Augustin, could not possibly foresee that union, nor penetrate the various circumstances which afterwards concurred to aggrandize the Bishop of Rome. So far may we safely acquit even the most sagacious among the Fathers of monasticism ; and as far as the spirit of the age can be held to ex- cuse those whom, in appearance, it carries along with it, but who, in fact, encourage and influence it, so far may the conduct of those mistaken men be excused. And perhaps we might add, in further palliation, that the gen- eral demoralization of society, over which Christian principles were still contending for 302 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. predominance with the pernicious remnants of paganism, seemed to permit so little hope of righteous conduct to persons busied in the world, as almost to justify retreat and seclu- sion. We should, moreover, in attempting to account for this agreement, always hear in mind, that the early patrons of monasticism were, with very few exceptions, Orientals or Africans ; men of ardent temperament, and impetuous imagination ; among whom the theory of religion too frequently tended to mysticism, and its practice to mere sensible ceremony, and bodily mortification. We have no reason to believe that any worldly premium to the new philosophy was held out by the princes or nobles of those days ; nor even that the influx of oblations from the vulgar was the immediate fruit of the profes- sion of poverty,* as was elsewhere the case in later times. The monasteries of the East were at no period so overgrown with opulence as those of the Roman Church ; and in their origin they certainly offered no imaginable temptations to avarice or sensuality. On these and similar considerations, we may acquit the original founders of the monastic system of those odious motives, with which they have sometimes been charged ; but we must censure their encouragement of popular superstition ; we must condemn that rash enthusiasm, which exceeded what is written ; and we must pronounce those to have been insufficient guides to religious knowledge, who, at a crisis of such infinite importance, inculcated any other rule of life, than such as tended directly, through the plain and prac- tical precepts of the Gospel, to the general welfare of mankind. Early form of Monachism. The earliest age of monachism differed in many particu- lars from those which matured and perfected the system. The vow of Celibacy was either not taken by the original monks, or not uni- versally enforced ; though the practice was usual, and held indicative of a higher condi- tion of sanctity. Community of property was * Not that even the earliest monks have escaped the reproaches of the contemporary Fathers. St. Jerome especially (Epist. xxxv., ad Heliodorum Mo- nachum) notices the birth of corruption: — 'Alii nummum addant nummo, et marsupium suffocantes matronarum opes renentur obsequiis ; sint ditiores Monachi, quam fuerant sseculares; possideant opes sub Christo paupere, quas sub locuplete Diabolo non habuerant ; et suspiret eos Ecclesia divites, quos tenuit muudus ante mendicos.' . . . But notwithstand- ing this and other particular passages, the general expressions used by those writers respecting the mon- astic condition, prove its general respectability. indeed established among them; but that property was chiefly acquired by the labor of their hands. The necessity of manual industry, which was coeval with the institu- tion, was subsequently enforced by St. Au- gustin, as the best safeguard against the snares of the Tempter; and the spiritual motives to strict moral demeanor were encouraged by the absolute poverty of the individuals. Mendicity, which had an early existence in the system, was stigmatized with immediate censure. It does not appear that the primi- tive monks were positively prohibited by any vow from returning, if they thought fit, to the turbulence of the world ; though such desertions were strongly discouraged, as early as the Council of Chalcedon, both by eccle- siastical denunciations, and perpetual exclu- sion from holy orders. Several restrictions were imposed with respect to admission into the monastic order. Of husbands and wives, the mutual agreement was necessary for the seclusion of either ; servants were not ad mitted, unless with the approbation of their masters, nor children without the consent of their parents and themselves. These and other reasonable impediments to the abuse of monachism were first weakened by the super- stitious improvidence of Justinian. The original monks were, without excep- tion, laymen ; but in situations, where the only accessible place of worship was within the walls, one priest was added to the society, and he generally filled the office of Abbot or Hegoumenos. St. Jerome* has expressly distinguished the monastic from the sacerdo- tal order; and Leo I., in a communication to Maximus, bishop of Antioch, forbade monks to usurp the office of religious instruction, which was properly confined to the priests of the Lord. It is true, indeed, that, very early in monastic history, those establishments were considered as schools and nurseries for * Epist. V., ad Heliodorum Monachum. ' Alia Monachorum est causa ; alia clericorum. Clerici pascunt oves; ego pascor. 1 11 i de altario vivunt; mihi, quasi infructuosa? arbori, securis ponitur ad radicem, si munus ad altare non defero. . . . Mihi ante Presbyterum sedere non licet,' &c. . . . Hos- pinian, (lib. iii., c. 13), under the head ' Monachi ab initio non Clerici,' adduces strong reason (in spite of some contradictory decrees) to believe that they were permitted to take orders as early as the time of Pope Siricius, in 390; and that all the privileges of the secular priesthood were subsequently conferred on monastic priests, and confirmed by Gregory the Great. Still, as they continued to be bound by their vows, they acquired the clerical, without losing the monastic, character. ORIGIN OF MONACHISM. 303 the ministry, and that persons were selected for ordination from among their inhabitants ; but those so ordained immediately quitted the cloister, and engaged in the duties of the secular clergy ; and in Greece they were dis- tinguished by the title of Hieromonachoi, or Holy Monks.* Character of Oriental Monachism. There is no doubt, that Orientals are naturally more prone to acts of fanaticism and ascetic austeri- ties, than the more rational, and, at the same time, more sensual nations of Europe ; and we might have expected to find the most extraordinary instances of self-inflicted tor- ture among those who originated that prac- tice, and whose habits and passions peculiarly prepared them for it. It is uncertain whether this be so ; for though it be true that the madness of the Stylites gained no prevalence in the Western Church, and that the Boskoi, or Grazing mouks (an Asiatic order of the fifth century, which proposed to unite the soul to the Deity, by degrading the body to a con- dition below humanity) found no imitators in a more inclement climate ; yet their mortifi- cations and absurdities were rivalled, if not in the cells of the Benedictines, at least by the Flagellants, and some other heretics of the fourteenth century ; and the discipline of the more rigid Franciscans was probably, in the early ages of that order, as severe as human nature could endure. But even among the regular orders of the Western Church, monas- tic austerity was carried, under particular cir- cumstances, and in later times, to a more perfect refinement than it ever attained in the East. It is not difficult to account for this singularity. A variety of motives, and a complication of passions, entered into the monkish system of the Roman Church. Many were unquestionably actuated by su- perstition, many, perhaps, by purer sentiments of piety ; but many more were impelled by personal ambition, by professional zeal, by the jealousy of rival orders, and, above all, by the thirst for that wealth, which so certainly followed the reputation of sanctity. On the other hand, the unvarying constitution, and the more tranquil character of the Eastern Church, presented fewer and feebler induce- ments to excessive severity. The passion which originally founded its monasteries, warm and earnest enthusiasm, continued still to animate and people them ; but its ardor gradually abated ; and the defect was not sup- * The foundation of an order of Canons, attributed to St. Augustin, (which will presently be mentioned,) was a distinct institution. plied in the same abundance, nor by the same sources, which sprang from the rock of St. Peter. From the earliest period, the Head of the Eastern Church was subject to the civil power, and he has always continued so; and thus, as he has at no time asserted any arro- gant claims of temporal authority, nor engag- ed in any contests with the state, he possessed no personal or official interest in the aggran- dizement of the monastic order. Again, the two grand political revolutions of the Eastern and Western empires produced effects pre- cisely opposite on the condition of monachism in either. The overthrow of the latter by the Pagans of the North, the early conversion of the conquerors, and the subsequent establish- ment of the feudal system, became the means of enriching the monasteries, from private as well as royal bounty, with vast territorial en- dowments. Whereas the possessions cf the Oriental Church, which, through less favor- able circumstances, had already been reduced to more moderate limits, were- still further despoiled by the fatal triumph of the Turks. The institution of nunneries was contem- porary with that of monasteries, and is also attributed to St. Anthony ; but the earliest ac- counts incline us to believe that it was not equally flourishing. In countries where ste- rility is common, and the population either scanty or fluctuating, the government would doubtless discourage the seclusion of females. We learn, too, that their houses were less carefully regulated, and their vows less strictly observed in Asia than in the West of Europe. Athens is mentioned as the nurse of several such establishments ; but it was lamented that the ladies of rank and wealth were not easily prevailed upon to devote themselves to re- ligious seclusion. Of a convent which was founded at Constantinople by the Empress Irene (in 1108,) the constitutions still remain.* But the Nuns of St. Basil were more nume- rous and more prosperous in the West, than in the climate of their origin ; and in Sicily especially, and the South of Italy, they arriv- ed, in later ages, at considerable wealth and importance, f * Histoire des Ordres Monastiques, (Prem. Panic, Chap, xxviii.) By a regulation peculiarly oriental, it was herein ordained, that the steward, the confes- sor, and the two chaplains, the only males employed about the convent, should be eunuchs. We do not learn whether this precaution was usual in the nun- neries of the East. ■f- Another class of religious females, called Virgins of the Church, had an early existence in the East They continued to unite the discharge of their social duties with a strict profession of religious chastity — •504 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. The original monastic establishments of every description were subjected, without any exception, to tlie Bishop of the diocese. The exemptions from that authority, which were afterwards introduced, through the pernicious progress of papacy, into the Western Church, had little prevalence, as, indeed, they had no strong motive, in the East. Section II. Institution of Monachism in the West. It is very generally asserted,* that the mon- astic system was introduced into the West by Athanasius, during his compulsory sojourn at Koine, in 341. It is believed, that he carried in his train to the imperial city certain monks and anchorets, representatives of the Egyp- tian commonwealth, whose wild aspect and devout demeanor moved the reverence, and at the same time roused the emulation, of the Romans. Some monasteries were immedi- ately founded ; and many retired to lonely places for the exercise of solitary worship. From Rome, (if the above account be true,) the monastic practice was instantly diffused throughout Italy ; and at Milan especially, it obtained a powerful support in the patronage of Ambrose. It speedily extended itself to France ; and the labors of Martin of Tours, which were zealously directed to its diffusion, received at least this posthumous recompense, that nearly two thousand holy disciples as- sembled to do honor to his obsequies. The establishment, founded by Cassian at Mar- seilles, and in the neighboring islands, were immediately thronged with brethren obedi- ent to his Rule ; and Honoratus, bishop of Aries, bears testimony (about the year 430) to the existence of 'religious old men in the isle of Lerinus, who lived in separate cells, and represented in Gaul the Fathers of Egypt.' + thus advancing one step beyond the ascetism of their forefathers. * Baronius, (ann. 328), Mabillon, and Gibbon hold this opinion ; but Muratori pretends that the first monasteries founded in Italy were erected at Milan. Mosheim more wisely pronounces the uncertainty of the fact. f The following are some of the passages which bear on this subject. St. Jerome, speaking of the time of Athanasius's visit to Rome, says, (in Epist. 16, ad Principiam Virginem,) ' Nulla eo tempore nobilium feminarum noverat Roma? propositum Mo- nachorum, nee audebat, propter rei novitatem, igno- miniosum (ut tunc putabatur) et vile in populis nomen assuinere. Hasc (Marcella) ab Alexandrinis prius sacerdotibus Papaque Athanasio, et poslca Petro, . . We may here observe, that, as in the wide wilderness of the East, a secluded rock, or an unfrequented oasis — a spot cut off by the cir- cumfluous Nile, or breaking the influx of the river into the sea — as such were the places usually selected by the original recluses, so their earliest imitators in the West, under different circumstances of soil and climate, adhered to the ancient preference for insular retirement. The islands of Dalmatia, * and others scattered along the coasts of the Adri- atic, were peopled with holy inhabitants. Along the western shores of Italy, f from vitam B. Antonii adhuc tunc viventis, Monasterior- umque in Thebaide Pachumii et Virginuin ac Vidua- rum didicit disciplinam, nee erubuit profited quod Christo placere agnoverat.' Soon afterwards, when Jerome was at Rome, 'fuerunt tarn crebra Virginum Monacharumque innumerabilis multitudo, ut pia fre- quentia serventium Deo, quod prius ignominia3 fuerat, esset postea glorias.' So also Augustin (De Morib. Eccles. c. 33) ' Roma? etiam plura Monasteria cog- novit, in quibus singuli gravitate alque prudentia et divina scientia pollentes, caeteris secum habitantibus praeerant Christiana caritate, sanctitate et libertate viventibus.' And the same Father (Confess., lib. viii.c. 6) attests, on the authority of one Pontitianus, that there existed at Milan' Monaslerium plenum bo- nis Fratribus, extra urbis moenia sub Ambrosio nutri- tore.' Sulp. Severus mentions the success of St. Martin to have been so great, « ut ad exequias ejus monachorum fere duo millia convenisse dicantur. Spe- cialis Martini gloria, cujus exemplo in Domini servi- tute stirpe tanta fructificaverat.' * Jerome, Epist. xxxv., ad Heliodorum. * Quum- que crederet quotidie aut ad ^Egypti Monasteria per- gere, aut Mesopotamia? invisere choros, aut certe insularum Dalmatiae solitudines occupare,' &c. f See Marsham's n^onvkatov, in Dugd. fllonast. Respecting the monks of the isles of Gorgonia and Capraria, Rutilius Numatianus composed some verses, (in the year 416,) which have more of elegance (says Marsham) than of Christianity. The following are some of them : — Processu pelagi jam se Capraria toll it ; Squallet lucifugis Insula plena viris. Ipsi se Monachos Graio cognoinine dicunt, Quod soli nullo vivere teste volunt. Munera fortunae metuunt, dum damna verentur. Quisquam sponte miser, ne miser esse queat'? Sive suas repetunt ex fato ergastula pcenas; Tristia seu nigro viscera felle tument. ***** Noster enim nuper Juvenis, majoribus amplis, Nee censu inferior, conjugiove minor, Impulsus furiis homines Divosque relinquit, Et turpem latebram credulus exul agit Infelix putat illuvie coelestia pasci, Seque premit caecis saevior ipse Deis. Num, rogo, deterior Circasis secta venenisl Tune mulabantur corpora, nunc animi. Many other islands are mentioned as having been thus consecrated, (or desecrated — as the describer INSTITUTION OF MONACHISM IN THE WEST. 305 Calabria, throughout the islets of the Tuscan Sea, the chants of monastic devotion every- where resounded, as well as at Lerinus and the Stoechades, consecrated by the piety of Cassian. Such, in the first instance, were the favorite nurseries of the new institution. There is even reason to believe, that the rocks on the southern coast of Italy furnish- ed the seeds of monachisni to the churches of Carthage ; and thus was transmitted, af- ter the revolution of half a century, to the more Western Africans, the boon which their brethren of Egypt had first presented to the Christian world. Prevalence and character of Monachism in the West. It is, indeed, unquestionable, that towards the end of the fourth, but especially during the fifth century, the monastic practice obtained universal prevalence, and became almost co-extensive with the belief in Christ. And on this circumstance there is one obser- vation which it is proper to offer, which has indeed been made before, though in a some- what different spirit, by Roman Catholic writ- ers — that the period, which was marked by this great religious innovation, was the same in which the religion itself seemed in immi- nent danger, at least throughout the Western provinces, of utter extirpation. This was the very crisis in which the pagan inundation from the North spread itself most fiercely and fatally, and while it overthrew the bulwarks of the empire, menaced, at the same time, the foundations of the Faith, That the mo- nastic institution was designedly interposed by Providence, in order to stay that wasting calamity, and supply new means of defence to His fainting soldiers, is a vain and even a presumptuous supposition. But it would equally be unjust to assert, that establish- ments of pious men, associated for religious purposes, were without their use in exciting respect in the enemy, and confidence in the Christian. Still less can we hesitate to be- lieve, that they were the means of relieving much individual misery ; that during the might be an ecclesiastical annalist, or a pagan poet). The island Barbara, situated above the conflux of the Rhone and the Arar, boasted to have been one of the most ancient nurseries of the Holy Institution; and Jerome, in an epistle to Heliodorus, speaks of ' Insulas et totum Etruscum mare Volscorumque pro- vinciam, et reconditos curvorum littorum sinus, in quibus monachorum consistebant Chori.' . . . See Mabillon, Pref. in Ann. Bened. Saec. i. Giannone's View of the Origin of the Monastic Life in the West (Stor. di Nap., lib. ii., cap. S.) does not appear to be marked by the accuracy and perspicuity usual to that excellent historian. 39 overthrow of justice and humanity, they de- rived power, as well as protection, from the name of God, and from the trust which they reposed in him ; that their power was gen- erally exerted for good purposes ; and that their gates were thrown open to multitudes, who, in those days of universal desolation, could hope for no other refuge. The rule commonly professed by the orig- inal Western monasteries was unquestionably that of St. Basil ; and though it was not ob- served with any rigid uniformity, there was probably no material variation either in con- stitution or discipline throughout the whole extent of Christendom, excepting such as naturally resulted from the different climate, morals, and temperament of its inhabitants. At least, there was no distinction in order or dignity : all were united by one common ap- pellation, extending from the deserts of Pon- tus to the green valleys of Ireland ; and the monks of those days were sufficiently separat- ed from the rest of mankind, and sufficiently disengaged from secular pursuits, to dispense with the baser motives to which they were afterwards reduced, of partial interest and rivalry. Some wealth, indeed, began already to flow into that channel ; but the still re- maining prevalence of hermits, who dwelt among the mountains in unsocial and inde- pendent seclusion, very clearly proves, that the more attractive system of the Ccenobites had not hitherto attained any luxurious refine- ment. No large territorial endowments had yet been attached to religious houses, and their support was chiefly derived from indi- vidual charity or superstition. And during the course of the fifth century the progression of monachism was probably more popular, and certainly more profitable, among Eastern nations, than it had yet become on this side of the Adriatic. Benedict of Nursia. But in the following age a more determined character was given to that profession. A hermit named Bene- dict, a native of Nursia in the diocese of Rome, instituted, about the year 529, an en- tirely new order, and imposed a rule, which is still extant, for its perpetual observance. . . No permanent and popular institution has ever yet existed, however in its abuse it have set sense and reason at defiance, which has not some pretension to virtue or wisdom, and usually much of the substance of both, in its origin and its infancy. It was thus with the order of St. Benedict. That celebrated rule, which in after ages enslaved the devout and demoralized the Church — which became a 306 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. sign and a watchword for the satellites of Pa- pacy— was designed for purposes which, at the time of its promulgation, might seem truly Christian. Its objects were to form a mon- astic body, which under a milder discipline should possess a more solid establishment and more regular manners, than such as then existed ; and also to ensure for those, who should become members of it, a holy and peaceful life, so divided between prayer, and study, and labor, as to comprehend the prac- tical duties of religious education. Such was the simple foundation, on which all the riches, and luxury, and power, and profligacy of the Benedictines have been unnaturally piled up — consequences, which were entirely unfore- seen by him who founded, and by those who immediately embraced, and by those who first protected,* a pious and useful institution. The Rule of St. Benedict. It is proper to confirm these observations by some account of what is, perhaps, the most celebrated mon- ument of ecclesiastical antiquity. The Rule of St. Benedict f is introduced by a quadru- ple division of those who professed the mo- nastic life. The first class was composed of the Coenobites or Regular Monks ; the second, of the Anchorets or Hermits, to whom he as- signs even superior perfection ; the third, of the Sarabaites, whom he describes as living without any rule, either alone or in small so- cieties, according to their inclination ; the fourth, of Gyro vagi or Vagabonds, a dissolute and degraded body. His regulations for the divine offices were formed, in a great meas- ure, on the practice already described of the Monks of Egypt. J Two hours after midnight they were aroused to vigils, on which occa- sion twelve psalms were chanted, and cer- tain lessons from the Scriptures read or recit- ed. At day-break the matins, a service little differing from the preceding, were perform- ed ; and the intervening space, which in winter was long and tedious, was employed in learning the Psalms by heart,§ or in med- * Gregory the Great was a zealous patron of this institution, and so approved the moderation of the rule, that he has not escaped the suspicion of being its author. t It is given at length by Hospinian. — De Origine Monachatus, lib. iv. cap. v. % See Mabillon, Pref. in sec. II. Annal. Benedict, and Hist, des Ord. Monast. § In England the establishment of Monachism was contemporary with that of Christianity. ' Augustinus, Monasterii Reguliseruditus, instituit conversationem, quae initio nascentis ecclesiss fuit patribus nostris, quibus omnia erant communia — Monasterium fecit itating on their sense, or in some other neces- sary study. But. besides these and the other public services, the duty of private or mental prayer was recognised in the Institutions of of St. Benedict, and regulations were impos- ed which, while they restricted its duration, proposed to purify and spiritualize its char- acter. To the duty of prayer the holy legislator added those of manual labor and reading. The summer's day was so divided, that seven hours were destined to the former occupa- tion, and two at least to the latter.* And should it so happen, (he observes,) that his disciples be compelled to gather their har- vests with their own hands, let not that be any matter of complaint with them ; since it is then that they are indeed monks, when they live by their own handiwork, as did our fathers and the apostles. During the winter season the hours of labor were altered, but not abridged ; and those of study seem to have been somewhat increased, at least during Lent. The sabbath was entirely devoted to reading and prayer. Those whose work was allotted at places too remote from the Monas- tery to admit of their return to the appointed services, bent their knees on the spot and re- peated their prayers at the canonical hours. The description of labor was not left to the choice of the individual, but imposed by the Superior. Thus if any possessed any trade or craft, he could not exercise it, except by permission of the Abbot. If any thing were sold, the whole value was carefully appropri- ated to the common fund ; and it was further directed, that the price should be somewhat lower than that demanded by secular artisans for the same objects — ' to the end that God might be glorified in all things.' In respect to abstinence, f the Rule of St. Benedict ordained not any of those perni- cious austerities, which were sometimes prac- non longe a Doroverniensi Civitate, &c.' Bede, lib. i. c. xxii. * It was ordained, that if any one were unable to read or meditate, some other occupation should be imposed on him. But as Latin, the language of re- ligious study, was at that time the vulgar tongue, at least one great impediment to religious instruction, which was so powerful in after ages, did not then exist. f In this matter St. Benedict relaxed from the rigor of the Eastern observance; but he did so with reluctance, regretting the necessary imperfection of a system, which he was compelled to accommodate to the gradually decreasing vigor of the human frame. Even Fleury (see his Eighth Discourse) does not dis- dain to combat this notion. INSTITUTION OF MONACHISM IN THE WEST. 307 tised by his followers. Notwithstanding the indulgence of a small quantity of wine to those whose imperfect nature might require it, it prescribed a system of rigid temperance, which among those original Coenobites was well enforced by their poverty — but it con- tains no injunction of fasting or mortification. Those vain and superstitious practices, the fruits of mingled enthusiasm and indolence, scarcely gained any prevalence in the mon- asteries of the West, until increasing wealth dispensed with the necessity of daily labor. The monks slept in the same dormitory, in which a lamp was kept constantly burning, and strict silence was imposed. Even in the day, they spake rarely ; and every expression partaking of levity, and calculated at all to disturb the seriousness of the community — every word that was irrelevant to its objects and uses — was absolutely prohibited within the convent walls. The Rule makes no men- tion of any sort of recreation ; but it enjoins that, every evening after supper, while the brothers are still assembled, one among them shall read aloud passages from the Lives of the Saints, or some other book of edification. As the Abbot was then chosen by the whole society without regard to any other considera- tion than personal merit, so in the government of the monastery he was bound to consult the senior brethren on lesser matters, and the whole body on the more important contin- gencies— it was ordained, however, that after he had taken such counsel, the final decision should rest entirely with himself. Obedience was the vow and obligation of the others. The form prescribed for the reception of Novices was not such as to encourage a luke- warm candidate. In the first instance, he was compelled to stand for four or five days before the gates, supplicating only for admission. If he persevered, he was received first into the Chamber of Strangers — then into that of No- vices. An ancient brother was then commis- sioned to examine his vocation, and explain to him how rude and difficult Avas the path to heaven. After a probation of two months the Rule was read to him ; again, after six other months ; and a third time, at the end of the year. If he still persisted, he was received, and made profession in the Oratory before the whole community. And we should remark, that that profession was confined to three subjects — perseverance in the monastic life ; correction of moral delinquencies; and obe- dience.* Offences committed by the brethren * All those ancient brothers were laymen. It does were punished, according to their enormity, by censure, excommunication, or corporal inflictions ; expulsion was reserved for those deemed incorrigible. Nevertheless even then the gate was not closed against repentance ; and the repudiated member was readmitted, on the promise of amendment, even for the third time. . . . Such in substance was the Rule of St. Benedict ; and even the very faint delineation here presented may suffice to give some insight into the real character of the original monasteries. Perhaps too it may serve to allay the bitterness, which we sometimes are too apt to entertain against the founders and advocates of the system, by showing, that though unscriptural in its prin- ciple and pernicious in its abuse, it was yet instituted not without some wisdom and fore- sight ; and was calculated to confer no incon- siderable blessings on those ages in which it first arose. Progress of the Institution. — The monastery of Monte Cassino, which became afterwards so celebrated in Papal History, was the noblest, though not perhaps the earliest, monument of St. Benedict's exertions. The moment was favorable to his undertaking; and his name and his Rule were presently adopted and obeyed throughout the greater part of Italy. By St. Maur, his disciple and associate, an institution on the same principle was im- mediately * introduced into France, and be- came the fruitful parent of dependent es- tablishments. Somewhat later in the same century, St. Columban propounded in Britain a rule resembling in many respects that of St. Benedict, but surpassing it in severity ; and it was propagated with some success on the Continent. But it is the opinion of the most learned writers, that the monasteries, which at first followed it, yielded after no long inter- val to the higher authority and more practica- ble precepts of the Nursian ; whose genuine institution indeed was soon afterwards planted in the south of the island by the monk Au- gustine. At the same time the same system was spreading northward beyond the moun- tains of the Rhine ; and though it may pro- bably be true, that the 'Holy Rule' (regula sancta) was not universally received until the ninth century — until the practice had been not appear that even St. Benedict himself held any rank in the clergy. * About the year 542. It was destroyed by the Danes, but subsequently re-established about the year 934, by the Bishop of Limoges. A great number of abbeys presently grew up under its shadow. — Histoire des Ordres Monasteries. 308 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. vitiated by many corruptions — it is evident, that it obtained great prevalence long before that time, while it yet retained its original in- tegrity; and it is equally clear, that its moral operation upon a lawless and bloodthirsty generation could not possibly be any other, than to restrain and to humanize. During the greater part of the seventh and the beginning of the following age, frightful ravages were committed by the Lombards in Italy, and by the Danes in France and Britain, against which even the sanctity of the monas- tic profession furnished very insufficient pro- tection. Throughout this period of devasta- tion, while all other laws and establishments were overthrown, it was not probable that even those of St. Benedict should remain in- violate. The monastery of Monte Cassino was destroyed about fifty years after its foun- dation, and the holy spot remained desolate for almost a century and a half.* And though the respectable fugitives found an asylum at Rome, where the discipline was perpetuated in security, during that long period of perse- cution, others were less fortunate ; and even in those which escaped destruction a more re- laxed observance naturally gained ground, in the midst of universal licentiousness. Accord- ingly we learn, that, towards the end of the eighth century, the order of St. Benedict had so far degenerated from its pristine purity, that a thorough reform, if not an entire recon- struction of the system, was deemed necessary for the dignity and welfare of the Church. Benedict of Aniane. — The individual to whom this honorable office was destined, was also named Benedict ; he was descended from a powerful Gothic family, and a native of Aniane in the diocese of Montpellier. Born about the year 750, he devoted his early life to religious austerities, exceeding not only the practice of his brethren, but the instruction of the founder. The Rule of St. Benedict was formed, in his opinion, for invalids and no- vices ; and he strove to regulate his discipline after the sublimer models of Basil and Pacho- * See Leo Ostiensis. Chron. Cassinens, lib. i. Gregory III. restored the monastery, and Zachary his successor granted to it (about the year 743) the privilege of exclusive dependence on the Bishop of Rome. But one blessing was still wanting to secure its prosperity — and that was happily supplied by the Abbot Desiderius in 1066. In exploring some ruins about the edifice, he discovered the body of St. Ben- edict! It is true that a pope was soon found to pro- nounce the genuineness of the relic. Nevertheless the fact was long and malevolently disputed by rival impostors. mius. Presently he was chosen to preside over his monastery ; but in disgust, as is re- ported, at the inadequate practice of his sub- jects, he retired to Aniane, and there laid the foundation of a new and more rigid institu- tion. The people reverenced his sanctity and crowded to his cell ; the native nobles assisted him in the construction of a magnificent edi- fice ; and endowments of land were soon con- ferred upon the humble Reformer of Aniane. Moreover, as he enhanced the fame of his austerities by the practice of charity and uni- versal benevolence, * his venerable name de- served the celebrity which it so rapidly ac- quired. His Ascetic disciples were eagerly sought after by other monasteries, as models and instruments for the restoration of dis- cipline ; and as the policy of Charlemagne concurred with the general inclination to im- provement, the decaying system was restored and fortified by a bold and effectual reforma- tion. When Benedict of Aniane undertook to es- tablish a system, he found it prudent to relax from that extreme austerity, which as a sim- ple monk he had both professed and prac- tised. As his youthful enthusiasm abated, he became gradually convinced, that the rule of the Nursian Hermit was as severe as the com- mon infirmities of human nature could en- dure.f He was therefore contented to revive that Rule, or rather to enforce its observance ; and the part which he peculiarly pressed on the practice of his disciples, was the obligation of manual labor. To the neglect of that es- sential portion of monastic discipline the suc- cessive corruptions of the system are with truth attributed ; and the regulations, which were adopted by the Reformer of Aniane, were confirmed (in 817) by the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle. From this epoch \ we ?nay * Besides the general mention of his profuse dona- tions to the poor, it is particularly related respecting this Benedict, that whenever an estale was made over to him, he invariably emancipated all the serfs whom he found on it. Act. SS. Benedict., lorn. v. t The duty of silence was very generally enjoined in monastic institutions. In the Rule of The Breth- ren of the Holy Trinity,' established by Innocent III., we observe for instance — 'Silentium observent sem- per in Ecclesia sua, semper in Refectorio, semper in Dormitorio,' — and even on the most necessary occa- sions for conversation the monks were instructed to speak rem ipsa voce, humiliter, et honeste. — See Dug- dale, vol. ii. p. 830. % It would not appear that these changes very much influenced the condition of monachism in England. The three great reformations in that system which took place in our church were, (1) that of Archbishop INSTITUTION OF MONACHISM IN THE WEST. 309 date the renovation of the Benedictine Order ; and though, even in that ago, it was grown perhaps too rich to adhere very closely to its ancient observance, yet. the sons whom it nourished may nevertheless be accounted, without any exaggeration of their merits, among the most industrious, the most learn- ed, and the most pious of their own genera- tion. It is not our intention to trace the number- less branches * which sprang from the stem of St. Benedict, and overshadowed the sur- face of Europe. But there are three at least among them, which, by their frequent men- tion in ecclesiastical history, demand a sepa- rate notice, — the Order of Cluni, the Cister- cian Order, and that of the Chartreux. The monastery of Corbie, also of great renown, was founded by Charlemagne for the spiritual subjugation of Saxony ; but it is no other way distinguished from the regular Benedic- tine institutions, than by its greater celebrity. The Order of Cluni. — During the ninth cen- tury, the rapid incursions of the Normans, and the downward progress of corruption, once more reduced the level of monastic sanctity ; and a fresh impulse became neces- sary to restore the excellence and save the reputation of the system. The method of reformation was, on this occasion, somewhat different from that previously adopted. A separate order was established, derived indeed immediately from the stock of St. Benedict, yet claiming, as it were, a specific distinction and character — it was the order of Cluni. It was founded about the year 900, in the dis- trict of Macon, in Burgundy, by William, duke of Aquitaine ; but the praise of perfect- ing it is rather due to the abbot, St. Odo. It Cutlibert, in the year 747; (2) that of Dunstan, in 965, promulgated in the Council of Winchester, on which occasion the general constitution, entitled, — Regula Concordia? Anglican Nationis, — was for the first time prescribed. It was founded partly on the Rule of St. Benedict, partly on ancient customs. (3) That of Lanfranc, in 1075, authorised by the Council of London, and founded on the same principle as the second. . . Mahillon, a zealous advocate and an acute critic, sufficiently shows from John the Deacon, (who wrote the Life of Gregory the Great in 875,) that the Rule of St. Benedict was received in Eng- land before the second of those reformations. Our allusions to the ecclesiastical history of England are thus rare and incidental, because that Church is in- tended, we believe, to form the subject of a separate work. * Such as the Camaldulenses, Sylvestrini, Grandi- montenses, Praemonstratenses, the Monks of Vallom- brosa, and a multitude of others. commenced, as usual, by a strict imitation of ancient excellence, a rigid profession of pov- erty, of industry, and of piety ; and it declin- ed, according to the usual course of human institutions, through wealth, into indolence and luxury. In the space of about two cen- turies it fell into obscurity ; and after the name of Peter the Venerable (the contem- porary of St. Bernard,) no eminent ecclesias- tic is mentioned as having issued from its discipline. Besides the riches, which had re- warded and spoiled its original purity, anoth- er cause is mentioned as having contributed to its decline — the corruption of the simple Rule of St. Benedict, by the multiplication of vocal prayers, and the substitution of new offices and ceremonies for the manual labor of former days. The ill effect of that change was indeed admitted by the venerable Abbot in his answer to St. Bernard. But in the meantime, during the long pe- riod of its prosperity, the order of Cluni had reached the highest point of honorable repu- tation ; insomuch that during the eleventh century, a bishop of Ostia (the future Urban II.) being officially present at a council in Germany, suppressed in his signiture his episcopal dignity, and thought that he adopt- ed a prouder title, when he subscribed him- self ' Monk of Cluni, and Legate of Pope Gregory.' * Those two names were well as- sociated ; for it was indeed within the walls of Cluni, that Hildebrand fed his youthful spirit on those dreams of universal dominion, which he afterwards attempted to realize : it was there, too, that he may have meditated those vast crusading projects which were accomplished by Urban, his disciple. But however that may be, the cloister from which he had emerged to change the destinies of Christendom, and the discipline which had formed him (as some might think) to such generous enterprises, acquired a reflected splendor from his celebrity ; and since the same institution was also praised for its zeal- ous and active orthodoxy, and its devotion to the throne of St. Peter, shall we wonder that it flourished far and wide in power and opu- lence; and that it numbered, in the following age, above two thousand monasteries, which followed its appointed Rule and its adopted principles ? Yet is there a sorrowful reflection which attends the spectacle of this prosperity. Through all the parade of wealth and dignity, we penetrate the melancholy truth, that the season of monastic virtue and monastic utility * See Hist. Litter, de la France, Vie Urban II. 310 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. Was passing by, if indeed it was not already passed irrevocably ; and we remark how rap- idly the close embrace of the pontifical power was converting to evil the rational principles and pious purposes of the original institution. The Cistercian Order. Howbeit, we do not read that any flagrant immoralities had yet disgraced the establishment of Cluni. Only it had attained a degree of sumptuous refine- ment very far removed from its first profes- sion. This degeneracy furnished a reason for the creation of a new and rival communi- ty in its neighborhood. The Cistercian order was founded in 1098, * and very soon receiv- ed the pontifical confirmation. In its origin it successfully contrasted its laborious pover- ty and much show of Christian humility with the lordly opulence of Cluni ; and in its pro- gress, it pursued its predecessor through the accustomed circle of austerity, wealth, and corruption. This Institution was peculiarly favored from its very foundation ; since it possessed, among its earliest treasures, the virtues and celebrity of St. Bernard. One of the first of the Cistercian monks, that vener- ated ecclesiastic established, in 1115, the de- pendent abbey of Clairvaux, over which he long presided ; and such was his success in propagating the Cistercian order, that he has sometimes been erroneously considered as its founder. The zeal of his pupils, aided by the authority of his fame, completed the work transmitted to them ; and with so much ea- gerness were the monasteries of the Citeaux filled and endowed, that, before the year 1250, that order yielded nothing, in the num- ber and importance of its dependencies, to its rival of Cluni. Both spread with almost equal prevalence over every province in Christendom ; and the colonies long contin- ued to acknowledge the supremacy of the * Anno milleno, centeno, bis minus uno, Pontifice Urbano, Francomm Rege Philippo, Burgundis Odone duce et fundamina dante, Sub Pane Roberto coepit Cistercius Ordo. Pagi, Vit. Urban II., sect. 73. The date of another celebrated Institution, which we have no space to notice, has been similarly (though less artificially) recorded : — Anno milleno, centeno, bis quoque deno Sub Patre Norberto Praemonstratensis viget Ordo. Norbert was archbishop of Magdeburg, and in great repute with Innocent II. The site of the mon- astery was praemonstrated by a vision — hence the name. The rule was that of St. Augustin ; the Brethren were confirmed by Calixtus II., under the designation of Canonici Regulares Exempti ; and they spread to the extremities of the east and the west. — Hospin. lib. v. c. xii. mother monastery. But the Citeaux was less fortunate in the duration of its authority, and the union of its societies. About the year 1350, some confusion grew up amongst them, arising first from their corruptions, and next from the obstruction of all endeav- ors to reform them. At the end of that cen- tury, they were involved in the grand schism of the Catholic church, and thus became still further alienated from each other ; till at length, about the year 1500, they broke up (first in Spain, arid then in Tuscany and Lombardy) into separate and independent establishments. Order of La Chartreuse. St. Bruno, with a few companions, established a residence at the Chartreuse, in the summer of 1084: the usual duties of labor, temperance, and prayer were enjoined with more perhaps than the usual severity.* But this community did not imme- diately rise into any great eminence ; it was long governed by Priors, subject to the bishop of Grenoble ; and its founder died (in 1101) in a Calabrian monastery. Nearly fifty years after its foundation, its statutes were written by a Prior, named Guigues,f who presided over it for eighteen years. By the faithful observance of those statutes, though in its commencement far outstripped by its Cister- cian competitors, it gradually rose into honor- *The earliest Cistercians, under Alberic, who died in 1109, affected a rigid imitation of the Rule of St. Benedict. They refused all donations of churches and altars, oblations and tithes. It appeared not (they said) that in the ancient quadripartite division the Monasteries had any share — for this reason, that they had lands and cattle, whence they could live by work. They avoided cities and populous districts; but professed their willingness to accept the endow- ment of any remote or waste lands, or of vineyards, meadows, woods, waters (for mills and fishing), as well as horses and cattle. Their only addition to the old rule was that of lay brothers and hired servants. — Freres Convers Laiques. t Fleury, H. E. 1. 67, s. 58. From these statutes it appears, that from September to Easter the monks were allowed only one meal a day; that they drank no pure wine; that fish might not be purchased ex- cept for the sick ; that no superfluous gold or silver was permitted at the service of the altar; that the use of medicine was discouraged; but that, to com- pensate for that prohibition, the monks were bled five times a year. It is proper to add, that during the same period they were permitted to shave only six times. Some statutes of this order are given by Dugdale, Monast. vol. i. p. 951. Among them we observe a strict injunction to manual labor: — Nunc lege, nunc ora, nunc cum fervore labora; Sic erit hora brevis, et labor ille levis. INSTITUTION OF MONACHISM IN THE WEST. 311 able notoriety ; and at length, about tbe year 1.178, its rule was sanctioned by the approba- tion of Alexander III. From tins event, its existence as a separate order in the church is properly to be dated ; and henceforward it went forth from its wild and desolate birth- place, and spread its fruitful branches over the gardens and vineyards of Europe. The rise of the Chartreuse gave fresh cause for emulation to their brethren of older estab- lishment; and the rivalry thus excited and maintained by these repeated innovations, if it caused much professional jealousy and doubtless some personal animosity, furnished the only resource by which the monastic sys- tem could have been brought to preserve even the semblance of its original practice. Still it should be remarked, that these successive additions to the fraternity implied no con- tempt of the institutions of antiquity : they made no profession of novelty, or of any im- provement upon pristine observances ; on the contrary, the more modern orders all claimed, as they respectively started into existence, the authority and the name of St. Benedict. The monk of Cluni, the Cistercian, the Car- thusian, were alike Benedictines ; and the more rigid the reform which they severally boasted to introduce, and the nearer their approximation to the earliest practice, the better were their pretensions founded to a legitimate descent from the Western Patri- arch. Institution of Lay Brethren. The rules of the reformed orders invariably inculcated the performance of manual labor ; and the neg- lect of that injunction invariably led to their corruption. But an alteration had been ef- fected in the general constitution of the body, which alone precluded any faithful emulation of tbe immediate disciples of St. Benedict. As late as the eleventh age the monks were for the most part laymen ; and they perform- ed all the servile offices of the establishment with their own hands. But in the year 1040, St. John of Gualbert introduced into his mon- astery of Vallombrosa a distinction which was fatal to the integrity of former discipline. He divided those of his obedience into two classes • - lay brethren and brethren of the choir ; and while the spiritual and intellectual duties of the institution were more particu- larly enjoined to the latter, the whole bodily labor, whether domestic or agricultural, was imposed upon their lay associates.* Thence- * In the Ordres Monastiques, p. iv. c. 18, two sorts of laymen are mentioned as living in French forward the Monks (for the higher class began to appropriate that name) became entirely composed either of clerks, or of persons des- tined for holy orders; the religious offices were celebrated and chiefly attended by them ; while the servant was commanded to repeat his pater without suspending his work, and presented with a chaplet for the numbering of the canonical hours. A reason was ad- vanced for this change ; and had not a much stronger been afforded by the inordinate ac- cumulation of wealth, it might have seemed perhaps not unsatisfactory. In earlier ages, Latin, the language of prayer, was also the vulgar tongue of all western Christians ; but as that grew into disuse, and became the ob- ject of study, instead of the vehicle of con- versation, the greater part of the laity were unable to comprehend the offices of the church. Accordingly it was deemed neces- sary to distinguish between the educated and the wholly illiterate brethren ; and, in pursu- ance of the principle, which then prevailed, of confining all learning to the sacred pro- fession, the former were raised to the enjoy- ment of leisure and authority, the latter con- demned to ignorance and servitude. This distinction, being earlier than the foundation of the Cistercian, Carthusian, and all subse- quent orders, was admitted at once into their original constitution ; and therefore, however closely they might affect to imitate the most ancient models, there existed, from the very commencement, one essential peculiarity, in which they deviated from it. Papal Exemptions. According to the old- est practice, every monastery was governed by an abbot, chosen by the monks from their own body, and ordained and instituted by the bishop of the diocess. To the superintend- ing authority of the same the abbot was also subject; and thus abuses and contentions were readily repressed by the presence of a resident inspector. But when, in the progress of papal usurpation, those establishments were exempted from episcopal jurisdiction, and placed under the exclusive regulation of the V'atican, the facilities for corruption were multiplied ; and a number of evils were creat- ed, which escaped the observation or correc- tion of a distant and indulgent master. At the same time, the effect of this connexion monasteries: (1) Such as gave themselves over as slaves to the establishment, and were called Oblats or Donnes. (2) Such as were recommended for sup- port to monasteries of royal foundation by the king. But neither of these classes were, properly speaking, lay brethren. 312 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. was to infuse an entirely new spirit into the monastic system. Avarice, and especially ambition, took the place of those pious mo- tives which certainly predominated in earlier days. The inmates of the cloister were as- sociated in the grand schemes of the pontifi- cal policy ; they became its necessary and most obsequious instruments ; they were ex- alted by its success, — they were stained by its vices : and the successive reformations, which professed to renovate the declining fabric, were only vain attempts to restore its ancient character. They could at best only expect to repair its outward front, and replace the sym- bols of its former sanctity ; the spirit, by which it had been really blessed and consecrated, was already departed from it. Great complaints respecting monastic cor- ruption were uttered both at the Council of Paris in 1212, and at that of the Lateran, which met three years afterwards. But, though some vigorous attempts were, on both those occasions, made to repress it, the coun- teracting causes were too powerful ; and the evil continued to extend and become more poisonous during the times which followed. It is singular that, at the second of those councils, it was proclaimed as a great evil in the system, that new orders were too com- monly established, and the forms of monas- ticism multiplied with a dangerous fertility. And therefore, ' lest their too great diversity should introduce confusion into the Church,' it was enacted that their future creation should be discouraged. This is considered by some Catholic writers to have been a provident regulation ; since the jealousy among the rival congregations had by this time degene- rated from pious emulation (if it ever possess- ed that character) into a mere conflict of evil passions. But whatever may have been the policy of the statute, it was at least treated in the observance with such peculiar contempt, that the institution of the Mendicants, the boldest of all the innovations in the annals of monachism, took place almost immediately afterwards. Section III. Canons Regular and Secular. The order of monks was originally so widely distinct from that of clerks, that there were seldom found more than one or two ecclesi- astics in any ancient convent. But presently, in the growing prevalence of the monastic life, persons ordained, or destined to the sacred profession, formed societies on similar princi- ples ; and as they were bound, though with less severity, by certain fixed canons, they were called, in process of time, Canonici* The bishop of the diocese was their abbot and president. It is recorded that St. Augus- tine set the example of living with his clergy in one society, with community of property, according to the canons of the church ; but he prescribed to them no vow, nor any other statutes for then- observance, except such in- structions as are found in his 109th Epistle, f Nevertheless, above a hundred and fifty re- ligious congregations have in succeeding ages professed his rule and claimed his parentage, and assumed, with such slight pretensions, the authority of his venerable name. The true origin of the order is a subject of much uncertainty. Onuphrius, in his letter to Pla- tina, asserts that it was instituted by Gelasius at Rome, about 495, J and that it passed thence into other churches ; and Dugdale appears to acquiesce in this opinion. It is, moreover, certain, that Chrodegangus, Bishop of Metz, prescribed a rule, about the year 750, to the Canons of his own reformation ; and that he made some efforts, though not perhaps very effectually, to extend it more widely. Still some are not persuaded that societies of clerks were subject to one specified form of disci- pline, till the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle, § under the direction of Louis le Debonnaire, confirmed and completed the previous enact- ments of Mayence (in 813,) and imposed on them one general and perpetual rule. The plausible principle on which the order of canons was founded, to withdraw from the contagion of the world those who had pecu- * The term Canon originally included not only all professors of the monastic life, but the very Hierodu- les and inferior officers of the Church. Mosheim (on the authority of Le Bceuf, Memoires sur l'Histoire d'Auxerre, vol. i. p. 174.) asserts that it became pe- culiar to clerical monks (Fratres Dominici) soon after the middle of the eighth century. But we should rather collect from the Histoire des Ordres Monas- tiques, that the distinction was not generally establish- ed till the eleventh age. t It should be observed, that this epistle, which is cited by ecclesiastical writers as containing instruc- tions for an institution of Canons, was in fact addres- sed to a convent of refractory nuns, who had quarrelled with their Abbess, and exhibited some unbecoming violence in the dispute. % See Dugdale. De Canonorum Ordinis Origine. There may be found the Rule which St. Augustin is said to have prescribed. § The rule here published was borrowed, in many particulars, from that of St. Benedict. But the order still retained the name and banners of St. Augustin — Hist, des Ordres Monastiques. ON THE MILITARY ORDERS. 313 liarly devoted themselves to the service of God, was found insufficient to preserve them from degeneracy. A division was early in- troduced (in Germany, according to Trithe- mius, and in the year 977,) hy which the re- formed were separated from the unreformed members of the community, in name as well as in deed. The former, from their return to the original rule, assumed the appellation of Canons-Regular ; the latter, who adhered to the abuse, were termed, in contradistinction, Canons-Secular ; and this sort of schism ex- tended to other countries, and became perma- nent in many. . The discipline of the regular canons was more seriously enforced by Nicholas II. in the year 1059 ; and about eighty years later, Innocent II. subjected them to the additional obligation of a vow ; for they seem hitherto to have been exempt from such profession. Nevertheless, in the course of the two follow- ing centuries, they once more relapsed into such abandoned licentiousness, as to require an entire reconstruction from Benedict XII. After that period, they rose into more con- sideration than hi their earlier history they appear to have attained. There were besides some other orders, both military and mendicant, which professed the rule, or rather the name, of St. Augustine — the Hospitallers, for instance, the Teutonic Knights, and the Hermits of St. Augustine. But they will be mentioned under those heads where we have thought it more convenient to place them, than to follow in this matter the perplexed method of the ' Historian of the Monastic Orders.' Section IV. On the Military Orders. We have thus shortly mentioned the three grand religious Orders, Avhich have been di- versified by so many names and rules, and re- generated by so many reforms ; which began in austerity, and yet fell into the most shame- less debauchery ; which arose in piety, and passed into wicked and lying superstition ; which originated in poverty, and finally fat- tened on the credulity of the faithful, so as to spread their solid territorial acquisitions from one end of Christendom to the other. Found- ed on the genuine monastic principle of de- vout seclusion, so venerable to the ignorant and the vulgar, they presently surpassed the secular clergy in the reputation of sanctity, and in popular influence. Thus were they soon recommended to the Bishop of Home ; and in his ambition to exalt himself above his 40 brother prelates, he discovered an efficient and willing instrument in the regular estab- lishments. At an early period, lie granted them protection, and patronage, and property, with the means of augmenting it: presently, he accorded to certain monasteries exemption from the episcopal authority ; and in process of time, he extended that privilege to almost all. Thus he gradually constituted himself sole visitor, legislator, and guardian of the numberless religious institutions which cov- ered the Christian world. The monks repaid these services by the most implicit obedience — for obedience was that of their three vows which they continued to respect the longest —and to their aid and influence may generally be ascribed the triumphs of the pontiff in his disputes with the secular clergy. In his con- tests with the State, they were not less neces- sary to his cause ; for, as his success in those struggles usually depended on the divisions which he was enabled to sow among the subjects of his enemy, and the strength of the party which he could thus create, so the monks, in every nation in Europe, were his most powerful agents for that purpose. And thus, when we consider the victory, which the spiritual sometimes obtained over the tem- poral power, as a mere triumph of opinion over arms and physical force, we do indeed, at the bottom, consider it rightly ; but our sur- prise at the result is much diminished, when we reflect how extensive a control over men's minds was everywhere possessed by the re- ligious orders, — how fearlessly and unsparing- ly they exercised that control, and with what persevering zeal it was directed to the support and aggrandizement of papal power. The Benedictines and Augustinians were the standing army of the Vatican, and they fought its spiritual battles with constancy and success for nearly six centuries. The first addition which was made to them was that of the Military orders ; and this proceeded not from any sense of the insufficiency of the veteran establishments, nor from any distrust in them, but from circumstances wholly inde- pendent of those or any such causes. They arose in the agitation of the crusades, and they were.nourished by the sort of spirit which first created those expeditions, and then caught from them some additional fury. The union of the military with the ecclesi- astical character was become common, in spite of repeated prohibitions, among all ranks of the clergy. It was exercised by the vices of the feudal system ; which had given them wealth in enviable profusion, but which pro- 314 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. vided by no sufficient Jaws or strength of government for the protection of that which it had bestowed — so that force was necessary to defend what had heen lavished by super- stition. The warlike habits which ecclesias- tics seem really to have first acquired in the defence of their property, were presently car- ried forth by them into distant and offensive campaigns, and exhibited in voluntary feats of arms, to which loyalty did not oblige them, and for which loyalty itself furnished a very insufficient pretext. But these general ex- cesses did not give birth to any distinct order professing to unite religious vows with the exercise of arms ; and even the first of those, which did afterwards make such profession, was in its origin a pacific and charitable in- stitution. The Knights of the Hospital. — This was the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, or the Knights of the Hospital. About the year 1050, at the wish of some merchants of Amalfi trading with Syria, a Latin Church had been erected at Jerusalem, to which a hospital was presently added, with a chapel dedicated to the Baptist. When Godfrey de Bouillon took the city in 1099, lie endowed the hospital: it then as- sumed the form of a new religious order, and immediately received confirmation from Rome, with a rule for its observance. * The revenues were soon found to exceed the ne- cessities of the establishment ; and it was then that the Grand Master changed its principle and design by the infusion of the military character. The Knights of the Hospital were distin- guished by three gradations. The first in dignity were the noble and military ; the sec- ond were ecclesiastical, superintending the original objects of the institution ; the third consisted of the ' Serving Brethren,' whose duties also were chiefly military. To the or- dinary vows of poverty, chastity, and obedi- ence, they added the obligations of charity, fasting, and penitence : and, whatsoever laxity they may have admitted in the observance of them, they unquestionably derived from that profession some real virtues which were not shared by the fanatics who surrounded them ; and they softened the savage features of re- ligious warfare with some faint shades of un- wonted humanity. So long as their residence was Jerusalem, they retained the peaceful name of Hospitallers ; but they were subse- quently better known by the successive appel- * The rule of the Hospitallers (as confirmed by Boniface) may be found in Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. ii. p. 493. lations of Knights of Rhodes and of Malta. Faithful at least to one of the objects of their institution, they valiantly defended the out- works of Christendom against the progress of the invading Mussulman, and never sullied their arms by the massacre of Pagans or here- tics. The Knights Templars. The Knights Templars received their name from their re- sidence in the immediate neighborhood of the Temple at Jerusalem. The foundations of this order were laid in the year 1118; and the rule, to which it was afterwards subjected, was from the pen of St. Bernard. This in- stitution, both in its original purpose and pre- scribed duties, was exclusively military. — To extend the boundaries of Christendom, to preserve the internal tranquillity of Palestine, to secure the public roads from robbers and outlaws, * to protect, the devout on their pil- grimage to the holy places — such were the peculiar offices of the Templar. They were discharged with fearlessness and rewarded by renown. Renown was followed by the most abundant opulence. Corruption came in its train ; and on their final expulsion from Pal- estine, they carried back with them to Europe much of the wild unbridled license, which had been familiar to them in the East. But their unhappy fate, as it is connected with one of the most important periods in papal history, must be reserved for more particular mention in its proper place. The Teutonic Order. The Teutonic, or German Order, had its origin again in the offices of charity. During the siege of Acre, a hospital was erected for the reception of the sick and wounded. This establishment survived the occasion which created it ; and, to confirm its character and its permanency, it obtained a rule (in 1192) from Celestine III., and a place among the ' Orders Hospit- able and Military.' On the termination of the Crusades, these knights returned to Ger- many,! where they enjoyed considerable pos- * An order, with a somewhat similar object, was founded in France about the year 1233, called the Order of the Glorious Virgin Mary. It was confined to young men of family, who associated themselves, under the title of Les Freres Joyeux, for the defence of the injured, and the preservation of public tran- quillity. They took vows of obedience and conjugal chastity, and solemnly pledged themselves to the pro- tection of widows and orphans. f In the treaty between the empire and the pope- dom in 1230, we find that the interests of the three military orders were expressly stipulated for by the Pope; and also, that certain places were held in se- questration by Herman, Master of the Teutonic Order THE MENDICANT ORDERS. 315 sessions ; and soon afterwards, by a deviation lrom the purpose of their institution, which might seem slight perhaps in a superstitious age, they turned their consecrated anus to the conversion of Prussia. That country, and the contiguous Pome- rania, had hitherto resisted the peaceful ex- ertions of successive missionaries, and con- tinued to worship the rude deities, and follow the barbarous manners, of antiquity. But where the language of persuasion had been employed in vain, the disciplined valor of the Teutonic Knights prevailed. It was recom- pensed by the conquest of two rich provinces ; and the faith which was inflicted upon the vanquished in the rage of massacre, was per- petuated under the deliberate oppression of military government. This event took place about the year 1230 ; but in another gener- ation, when the memory of its introduction was effaced, the religion really took root and flourished, by the sure and legitimate autho- rity of its excellence and its truth. After that celebrated exploit, the Teutouic Order con- tinued to subsist in great estimation with the Church; and this patronage was repaid with persevering fidelity, until at length, when they perceived the grand consummation approach- ing, the holy knights generally deserted that tottering fortress, and arrayed their rebellious host under the banners of Luther. Section V. 77ie Mendicant, or Preaching Orders. Until the end of the twelfth century the exertions of the Popes were almost entirely confined to the establishment of their own supremacy in the Church, and of their tem- poral authority over the State : and, through the faithful subservience of the two ancient orders, they had obtained surprising success in both undertakings. But the increasing light of the eleventh and twelfth ages, and the increasing deformities of the Church, brought into existence a number of heresies, occasioning dissensions, such as had not di- vided Christians since the Arian controversy. These moreover presented themselves not with one form, and one front, and one neck, but were scattered under a multitude of de- nominations, throughout all provinces, and among all ranks. The secular clergy, relaxed by habitual indolence and occasional immo- ralities, rather gave cause to this disaffection, until the Emperor should have fulfilled his part of the engagement. Fleury, 1. 79. s. 64. than subdued it ; and the regular orders, be- come sluggish from wealth and indulgence, wanted the activity, perhaps the zeal, which was required of them. To detect the latent error, to pursue it into its secret holds, to drag it forth and consign it to the minister of temporal vengeance, was an office beyond the energy of their luxuriousness ; still less did they possess the talents and the learning to confute and confound it. Wherefore, as the experience of some centuries had now proved, that the existing orders, how often soever and completely reformed and repro- duced, had an immediate tendency to subside again into degeneracy and decay, it seemed expedient to introduce some entirely different organization into the imperfect system. St. Dominic. The first notion of the new institution * was given by that body of eccle- siastics who were commissioned by Innocent III. to convert the Albigeois ; and among these the most distinguished was St. Dominic. . . That favorite champion of the Roman Church, the falsely-reputed inventor of inquisitorial torture, was a Spaniard of a noble family and of the order of Canons-Regular. In his spi- ritual campaigns (it were well bad they been no more than spiritual) against the heretics of Languedoc, he became eminent by an elo- quence which always inflamed and sometimes persuaded ; and having felt the power of that faculty, which through the space of thirteen centuries had so rarely revisited the Roman empire, he became desirous to establish a fraternity devoted to its exercise. His project was not discouraged by Innocent III. ; but that pontiff* hesitated to give the formal sanc- tion necessary to constitute a new order : since the Council of Lateran, acting according to his discretion, had pronounced it generally expedient to reform existing institutions, rather than to augment their number. But immediately after the death of that Pope, Dominic was established in the privileges of a ' Founder,' by the bull of Honorius III. f * Hospinian's Sixth Book comprehends a quantity of valuable matter on the subject of the Mendicants; and chapters iv. v. and vi. should particularly be con- sulted. The author is laborious and learned, but not impartial. In the zeal of the Protestant he has for- gotten the moderation of the Historian, and (might we not sometimes add?) the charity of the Christian. f Fleury asserts, that the Freres Precheurs at first were not so much a new order, as a new congregation of the Canons-Regular; since it was only at a Chap- ter General held in 1220, that St. Dominic and his disciples embraced entire poverty and mendicity. This may be so — but at any rate their original con- dition was so extremely transient and destitute of all 316 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. St. Francis. Contemporary with St. Do- minic was his great compeer in ecclesiastical celebrity, the father of the rival institution. St. Francis was a native of Asisi in Umbra, without rank, without letters, but of an ardent and enthusiastic temperament. It is asserted — perhaps untruly — that his earlier age was consumed in profligacy, from which he was awakened by an opportune sickness, occa- sioned by his vices; and that his fears sud- denly impelled him into the opposite extreme of superstitious * austerity. It is certain, that, as he inculcated by his preaching, so he re- commended by his example, the utmost rigor of the primitive monastic principle, — ' that there was no safe path to heaven, unless by the destitution of all earthly possessions. ' Popularity was the first reward of his humili- ation : he was soon followed by a crowd of imitators ; and the motive, which probably was pure fanaticism in himself, might be want, or vanity, or even avarice, f in his dis- ciples. Howbeit they readily acquired an extensive reputation for sanctity ; and in the year 1210 the formal protection of Innocent was vouchsafed to the new order. It appears probable that the foundation of the Franciscan Order was laid in poverty only — not merely unaccompanied by any obligation of a missionary or predicatory effects and characteristics, as to be wholly insignifi- cant in history. * The story of the Stigmata, or wounds of Christ, miraculously impressed upon his body, is known to all. The text on which this imposture was founded (for it pleaded a text) was Epist. Galat. end. c From henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.' We read in Sender, ami. 1222, that a rustic, who made the same experiment on human credulity at about the same time, was imprisoned for life — felicius cessit Francis- co, sec. xiii. cap. iii. f Giannone, an impartial writer, thus begins a section (lib. xix. cap. v. sec. v.) entitled ' Monaci e Beni Temporal!.' 'Henceforward we shall place together the subjects of " Monks " and " Temporali- ties;" since, as we have already observed, that he who pronounces " Monachism " (Religione,) pro- nounces " Riches," so the Monks were now become in- comparably more expert in the acquisition of wealth, than all the other ecclesiastics ; and the monasteries in these days reaped profits to which those made by the Churches bore no proportion — so that the expres- sions " New Religions " and " New Riches," be- came, properly speaking, synonymous. And this was the more monstrous, because it was in despite of their foundation in mendicity, (whence they had the name of Mendicants,) that their acquisitions and treasures were enormous.' — Polit. Eccles. del decimo terzo Becolo. character, but likewise free from the vow of mendicity. St. Francis himself, in the 'Tes- tament' which he left for the instruction of his followers, enjoined manual labor in pref- erence to beggary ; though he permitted them, in case of great distress, to have recourse to the table of the Lord, begging alms from door to door. * It should be mentioned, too, that he at the same time prohibited them from applying to the Pope for any privilege what- ever. But the sophistical and contentious spirit of the age precluded that simplicity. And their founder was scarcely consigned to the grave, when his disciples obtained from Gregory IX. f a bull, which released them from the observance of his Testament, and placed an arbitrary interpretation on many particulars of his rule. It was thus that the necessity of labor was superseded, and honor and sanctity were preposterously attached to the profession of mendicity. Here then we observe the first point of distinction in the first constitution of the two orders. The Dominicans were, in their earli- est character, a society of itinerant preachers — this was the whole of their profession — they were not bound, as it would seem, by any vow of poverty. But after a short space, when their founder had possibly observed that the Franciscans prospered well under that vow — that without possessing any thing they abounded with many things J — he thought it desirable to imitate such profita- ble self-denial : accordingly, he also imposed upon his disciples the obligation of poverty. Again : when the Franciscans discovered that no little influence accrued to their rivals * Fleury, Dissertat. Sme. St. Francis designated his disciples by the name Fraterculi — Little Broth- ers— and this became, in different languages, Fra- tricelli, Fratres Minores, Freres Mineurs, Friars Minors. t This Pope was at the same time a great patron of the rival order. In 1231 he wrote a letter to the Archbishop of Sorrento, in order to introduce the Dominicans to his patronage, in these terms: — ' Di- lectos Filios Fratres Ordinis Predicatorum velut no- vos Vinitores sua? vinepe suscitavit; qui, non sua sed quy the side of the altar, covered with rich cloths, like bankers', to receive the purchase-money. They then informed the people of the absolute power, with which the Pope had invested them, to deliver souls from purgatory, and give complete remission to all who bought their wares. If the German clergy exclaimed against this base traffic of spiritual favors, they were excommunicated. See Sismondi, Repub. Ital., ch. lxii. t It appeared, on subsequent explanation, that. Boniface saw only one solution of the difficulty, — the expulsion of his rival, and the universal acknowledg- ment of himself. % Nicholas de Clemangis. a General Council. By the first the voluntary resignation of both competitors was recom- mended, in the presence of both colleges; these were then to proceed in conjunction to another election. By the second, the opposite claims might be referred to certain arbitrators appointed by both parties, with the power of final decision. As to the third, it was sug- gested, in case of its adoption, that the As- sembly should no longer consist of prelates only, many of whom were ignorant or pas- sionately partial, but also of several doctors in theology and law, members of the most celebrated universities. Of the above methods, the University pronounced its own decided opinion in favor of the first, — as being the most prompt and expedient, the most proper to prevent expense and other difficulties, the most agreeable to the consciences of the faith- ful in both obediences, the most respectful to the honor of the princes, who had declared for the opposite parties. Yet was there an objec- tion to this method, which, to mauy, as hu- man nature is constituted, might have seemed at once conclusive against it: — was it probable, that, for the attainment of a public good, two men, in the enjoyment of very great power, dignity, and wealth, could both be persuaded to make a voluntary cession of those personal advantages, and to withdraw to a private, and perhaps insecure, retirement, from the loftiest eminence of ambition? Yet this difficulty does not appear to have been much considered in the outset, though it became manifest, even to the most sanguine, long before the termina- tion of the contest. In the same exposition, in which the reme- dies were thus pointed out, some of the mon- strous evils which then afflicted the church were exhibited with little exaggeration ; while all were naturally ascribed to the prevalent disease of the moment — the schism. It was forgotten that the greater number were rooted in the system itself, and only flourished some- what more rankly on account of its accidental derangement. The church, it was declared, had fallen into servitude, poverty, and con- tempt. Unworthy and corrupt men, without the sense of justice or honesty, the servants of their intemperate passions, were commonly exalted to the prelacy ; these plundered indif- ferently churches and monasteries, whatever was profane and whatever was sacred ; and oppressed the inferior ministers of religion with intolerable exactions. The dominion of simony was universal ; benefices and cures were conferred only on those, who had means fto buy them ; while the poor and learned can- 414 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. didate was hated the more for that very learn- ing, which made him dangerous to corruption. And not only were the dignities of the church publicly bartered ; not only were relics and crosses and the sacred vessels commonly ex- posed to sale ; but the very sacraments them- selves, those especially of ordination and pen- ance, had their price in gold. A political circumstance occurred at this moment which was favorable to the hopes of union. A truce for four years was signed between the kings of England and France — the most zealous supporters of the opposite parties. At the same time, the University of Cologne, though it acknowledged Boniface, and had probably profited by his patronage, entered into correspondence with that of Paris for the extinction of the schism ; — and lastly, as if to place the result within the immediate reach of the pacificators, Clement VII. was so violently* affected by the proceedings at Paris, that he was struck with apoplexy, and died. As soon as this intelligence reached Paris, the deputation from the university instantly petitioned the king, that he would cause the cardinals to suspend the election, until some general measures should be taken to ensure the union ; also, that he would assemble his prelates and nobles, and order processions and public prayers to the same end throughout his kingdom. Accordingly, a royal messen- ger was despatched to Avignon, to prevent the meeting of the College, and prepare it for a special embassy ; and on the success of this mission hung the hopes of Christendom. The envoy arrived at Avignon only ten days after the decease of Clement ; but he found the cardinals already in conclave ! Still, as the election was not yet made, he transmitted to them the letter of the king ; but the College, suspecting its contents, and determined at any risk to have a pope of their own creation, de- ferred the opening of the letter, till then- actual business should be completed. They then hastened to a decision ; and Peter of Luna, Cardinal of Arragon, was raised by their unanimous voice to the divided throne. Election of Peter of Luna, Benedict XIII. — Howbeit, they previously took a precaution, which was certainly necessary for their own * When the earnest and reasonable exhortations of the University were pressed upon him — when he was a«ured that the evil had gone so far, that some began almost to advocate a plurality of popes, and the appointment of one to every kingdom — the in- fatuate] bigot only started from his seat in anger, and declared that * the letters were poisoned, and tended to bring the Holy See into discredit ' credit, though there were few, probably, who expected any real advantage from it. Before the election they drew up an act, by which they solemnly engaged to labor for the ex- tinction of the schism, and to give every aid to the future pope for that purpose. It was moreover specified, that if any one among themselves should be raised to the pontificate, this act should be equally binding upon him ; and that he should even be prepared to cede his dignity, if his cardinals should judge it expedient for the concord of the Church. They then took oaths on the altar to observe this engagement. Peter of Luna had long been distinguished for ability and address; he had discharged with vigor the offices intrusted to him ; but there was also an opinion respecting him, which seems more than any other to have procured his elevation, and even at first to have reconciled all parties to it, — this was, that he ardently desired the union of the Church. This zeal he had been forward, while cardinal, to proclaim upon all occasions — even so far as to censure Clement for the want of it ; and many hoped that it would burn with equal fervor under the pontifical robes. The University addressed to him con- gratulations, which were seemingly sincere, and Benedict XIII. (the name assumed by him) repaid them with the strongest protesta- tions of good intention. A grand council was then held at Paris, in which the method of cession again received the approbation of the great majority ; and it was agreed, that an embassy should be sent to Avignon to treat with the Pope. The king added his authority, to give weight to this measure ; and the more certainly to secure its success, he sent his brother and both his uncles (the Dukes of Burgundy and Berri) to conduct the negotiation. Benedict received them with respect and deference ; but when they opened the subject of their mission, and pressed the necessity of the cession, as the only road to concord, he found many reasons to urge against that particular method, as in- deed against the other two, which had also occurred to the university. In the place of them, he proposed a conference with his rivaL at which he affected to believe that matters might be accommodated. The ambassadors persevered in their proposal ; and even the cardinals, on their strong solicitation, de- clared, with one exception, * for the method * The Cardinal Bishop of Pampeluna, a Spaniard and compatriot of the Pope. THE GRAND SCHISM. 415 of cession. Nevertheless Benedict, during several weeks of repeated conferences and debates, inflexibly persisted in his refusal. At length the illustrious mission returned to Paris, without any other result than the dis- covery of Benedict's insincerity. Notwithstanding this failure, the king ad- dressed himself veiy warmly, to unite the dif- ferent courts and learned bodies of Europe in favor of the method, which still seemed to promise the greatest hopes. Messengers tra- versed the country in all directions, and every state and every city in Europe was agitated by the same momentous question. The spec- ulations of the learned and the projects of the powerful were equally engrossed by it ; and it seemed as if the fate of all governments, and the welfare of all subjects, depended on its solution. At this time the University of Paris, which took the foremost part in these discussions, and possessed much more in- fluence than any other learned body, openly expressed dissatisfaction with Benedict, and even threw out some menaces of a general council, in case of his further contumacy. Benedict watched these proceedings with anxiety; but the variety and discordance of the materials, which it was necessary to com- bine for his destruction, gave him the confi- dence to persist ; — upon which the Doctors of Paris advanced one degree towards more efficient measures. And as Luna had unre- servedly sworn to adopt the method of cession, in case his cardinals should hereafter recom- mend it, and as his cardinals had strongly re- commended it, and as he had then unequi- vocally rejected it, little sympathy could be expected from any quarter with a prelate, whose selfish opposition to the interests of religion was made more detestable by an act of deliberate perjury. The measure was, to draw up a strong exposition of Benedict's general delinquency, and of the particular grievances of the complainants, and to appeal from his censures, whether past or future, to the future pope : * a step which very tem- perately opened the path for more vigorous proceedings. Conduct of Boniface. — In the meantime, the courts which acknowledged the rival pope made great exertions to bring him to the arrangement — which to them seemed so reasonable, and to him so unjust and extrava- gant. From Sicily to the extremities of Ger- * On tliis occasion numbers of polemical tracts and pamphlets were published on both sides, con- taining, as Fleury has observed, many words but few reasons. many assemblies were held and resolutions adopted ; and the vows, and talents, and en- ergies of all men were directed to the same object ; consequently, deputations and em- bassies were sent to Rome from all quarters. Boniface at first was contented to reply, that he was the true and only Pope, and that uni- versal obedience was due to him ; but pre- sently, in the year 1398, when the emperor at length interfered more directly, and press- ed the method of cession, he found it expedi- ent to dissemble ; and, by the advice of his cardinals, he promised submission, provided (a very safe proviso) that the Antipope of Avignon should also resign his claims.* Yet, even so guarded a concession alarmed the avaricious fears of the citizens of Rome. They trembled lest their bishop ahd his pro- digal court, and the tram of his dependents, and expectants, and sycophants, should again be seduced to some foreign residence. That event, too, at that moment, would have been peculiarly afflicting, since in two years (in 1400) the second grand and general Jubilee was to take place; and the inhabitants had already begun to make provision for the season of spoliation. Accordingly, a body of the notables of the city waited upon the Pope, and professed towards him the most sincere and unprecedented f affection : they declared that they would never desert hin , but sustain, with their very lives and proper- ty, his just and holy cause. ' My children,' replied Boniface, 'take courage ! rest assured that I will continue to be pope ; and whatever I may say, or however I may play off the King of France and the Emperor against each other, I will never submit to their will.' Subtraction of obedience. — While such was the disposition of the Roman competitor, dur- ing the July of the same year the Court and University of Paris at length perceiving that a mere contest of acts and declarations would never weary the Pontiff* of Avignon, proceed- ed to a measure of greater efficacy — one which no Catholic nation had hitherto, on any occa- sion, dared to adopt against any pope : — ' By the aid and advice of the princes and other nobles, and of the Church of our kingdom, as well clergy as people, we entirely withdraw our obedience from Pope Benedict XIII., as * Spondanus, ann. 1398, s. ii. t Fleury, liv. xcix. s. 18. Boniface artfully avail- ed himself of this unusual display of loyalty on the part of his subjects to secure an extent of temporal authority over them, such as no former pope is said to have possessed. See ^Egidius Card. Viterb, apud Ta'i. Vit. Bonif. IX. s. xliii. 416 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. well as from his adversary, whom indeed we have never acknowledged. And we ordain, that no one henceforward make any payment to Pope Benedict, his collectors, or agents, from the ecclesiastical revenues or emolu- ments. We also strictly prohibit all our sub- jects from offering to him any manner of obedience.' Such was the substance of the royal proclamation ; and arrangements were at the same time made to deprive the pope of the presentation to all benefices, for as long a time as it should remain in force. This edict was received with such general respect and submission, that the very domestics and chap- lains of Benedict retired from their offices ; and what was still more important, the cardi- nals themselves withdrew in a body from his court. But he, nothing moved by that una- nimity, was the more forward on repeated occasions to assert, that he was the true and genuine pope ; that he would remain so, in despite of king, duke, or count — and that he was prepared to renounce his life, rather than his dignity. Recourse was then had to the only method which gave any just hope of success. A mil- itary force was sent against Avignon ; and as the inhabitants of that city also declared their adhesion to the king and the cardinals, noth- ing now remained in opposition to the royal will and the force of the nation, except the pontifical palace. But Benedict had secured some faithful mercenaries for its defence ; and an effective blockade was thought sufficient for the objects of his enemies. Thus for the space of four years he continued a close pris- oner in his own residence, without any strength to resist the means employed against him, or any disposition to yield to them. But at length, the vigor of that powerful confederacy was dissipated by the persevering intrigues of one feeble individual, and the variety of interests and principles in the mass opposed to Bene- dict led by slow degrees to a disunion, which preserved him. The first, who betrayed his party, was a Norman officer, Robinet de Braquemont, — who, through the confidence reposed in him, and his constant access to the palace, found easy means of liberating the pope. It was on March 12, 1403, that the successor of St. Peter concealed his apostoli- cal sanctity under the disguise of a menial ; and, having thus eluded the penetration of his guards, took refuge in a small town near Avignon. As a pope was never wont to tra- vel, unless preceded by the Holy Sacrament, Benedict carried out with him a little box, containing the consecrated element ; and even, for the literal observance of that custom, he placed the box upon his breast As soon as he found himself in safety, he caused his beard, which he had nourished during the persecution of his captivity, to be shaved off; and recovering with his freedom the consciousness of his dignity, he resumed the habits and authority of a pope. No soon- er was the circumstance of his liberation made known, than several noble individuals render- ed to him the accustomed homage. Imme- diately the College of Cardinals passed over to him and sought a reconciliation. The cit- izens of Avignon eagerly tendered their offers of service. Benedict forgave the truancy, and accepted the repentance of all. At the same time, the party in France, which for some time had been opposed to the subtrac- tion * of obedience, and which had lately gained strength, now boldly declared its ad- hesion. The king was privately induced to join it ; and, notwithstanding the resistance of the more consistent promoters of ecclesi- astical concord, it prevailed. By an edict of May 30, an entire and unequivocal restitution of obedience was enjoined : thus after a par- tial interruption of about five years, the tide of papacy resumed for a season, even in France itself, its prescribed and customary f course. Government of Boniface. — The reason which was advanced by the king, to justify so com- plete a change in his policy, was, that the ex- ample of France had not been followed by other nations ; J and that, while the pontiff of * It is the word used by ecclesiastical writers — Subtractio, soustraction. t The first proof of moderation and gratitude which Benedict gave after the Act of Restitution was, to appoint afresh to certain benefices, which had been filled up during the subtraction. The king then sent an ambassy to pray him to confirm such provisions, as had been then made. He returned a direct refusal. On this, Charles published his com- mands, that those who had been so appointed should, at any rate and without any fees to the Pope, remain in possession. This was conclusive. | In 1399, King Richard expressly consulted the University of Oxford on the grand question of the age. The answer of that body was very decided against any refusal of obedience to Boniface, because he was indeed the true Pope. On the same ground, they objected to the method of cession, and insisted in preference on that of a General Council — to be convoked of course by their own genuine Pope. Thus they assumed at once the point at issue — if Boniface had power to convoke a council of universal authority, Boniface was truly Pope — and the schism was at an end. THE GRAND SCHISM. 417 Avignon was confined to his palace walls, the intruder at Rome was acquiring new strength and confidence. We shall, therefore, now recur very briefly to the system of govern- ment which Boniface had adopted. It ap- pears to have been directed by one principle only — to extract the largest possible sums from the superstition of the people and the ambition of the clergy, and the folly and credulity of both. During the first seven years of his pontificate, his proceedings were veiled by some show of decency, through a reluctant respect which he paid to the virtues of some of the ancient cardinals. But as these successively died, and were replaced by others of his own creation and character, he broke out into the undisguised practice of simony.* This was the most copious and constant source of his gains ; but when the simple and honest sale of benefices proved insufficient for his demands, he had recourse, besides, to direct acts of fraud and robbery. In the distribution of graces and expectatives, the poorest candidates were invariably placed at the bottom of the list ; but this was not sufficient — even the promises, that had been made them, were frequently cancelled in favor of some wealthier competitor, to whose more recent patent an earlier date was affixed, with a clause of preference. The fluctuating health and approaching decease of an opu- lent incumbent were watched with impatient anxiety, and appointed couriers hurried to Rome with the welcome intelligence. Im- mediately the benefice was in the market ; and it not uncommonly happened, that the same was sold as %'acant to several rivals, even under the same date. The ravages of a frightful pestilence only contributed to fill the pontifical coffers: and a benefice was sometimes sold in the course of a few weeks to several successive candidates, of whom none survived to take possession. At length, * See Theodoric of Niem, De Schisniat., lib. ii., cap. vii., viii., ix., x., xi., xii., &c. This author, a native of Westphalia, was attached as Secretary to the Roman Court during the whole of the Schism; and besides the History of this Event, in four books, (the last of which is entitled Nemus Unionis) he composed the Life of John XXIII. He exposed pontifical depravity with freedom, it may be with rancor. Spondanus (ann. 1404, s. xvi.) especially ascribes his account of the simony of Boniface to an ulcerosus stomachus, and of course other Roman Catholic writers are scandalized by his little reserve. But we doubt not, that his narrative is essentially true. Spondanus excuses the rapacity of Boniface by his necessities, and brings some authority for the assertion, that he died poor. 53 in the year 1401, the pontiff proceeded so far as to cancel by a single act nearly all the graces, dispensations and expectatives which he had previously granted, and to declare them wholly void — that he might enter afresh and without any restraints upon the task, which seemed almost to be terminated, and reap from the same exhausted soil a second harvest of shame and iniquity. By such methods * Boniface enriched himself, and impoverished his clergy ; and however we may abominate his rapacity, we have little cause to feel any compassion for the suffer- ers ; who were possibly influenced by the same passion, and who were certainly in- volved in the same simoniacal scandal with himself. The superstition of the laity was also taxed to the utmost point of endurance ; the exces- sive abuse of the Jubilee has been mentioned as the favorite resource of Boniface, and the circumstances of the time combined to sharp- en his appetite for that feast. The year 1400 was that destined, according to the original institution of Boniface VIII., for the celebra- tion of the secular solemnity ; and it appears that, though the innovations of later popes had met with very general reverence, there were still several rigid devotees who, holding them in inferior estimation, looked forward with pious impatience to the approach of the legitimate festival. Neither was this impres- sion confined to the nations in the obedience of the Roman competitor ; the followers of Benedict acknowledged by their respect for the apostolical city the authority of the See, though they rejected the usurper who occu- pied it ; and the French especially pressed in great multitudes to obtain the plenary indul- gence at Rome. Charles published an or- donnance to restrain the emigration of his subjects ; he saw with sorrow, not perhaps their slavish superstition, but the exportation of their wealth to a foreign and even hostile treasury. Still in many, the religious zeal * The system of Annates, or the payment of a year's first fruits to die Apostolical Chamber, was brought to perfection by Boniface IX. It did not, however, originate with him; Clement V. having learnt that some bishops in England exacted such claims from their diocesan clergy, felt justified in transferring the right to the See of Rome. This took place in 1306; thirteen years afterwards, John XXII., when he reserved for three years the first fruits of all vacant benefices, excepted the bishoprics and abbeys. Boniface IX. extended the usurpation to the prelacies, and made it perpetual. Fleury, 1. cxix. s. xxvii. Spondanus, ann. 1339, s. ii. 418 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. overpowered the sense of civil duty, and these proceeded on their pilgrimage. But several were intercepted and pillaged on their road by partisans at enmity with the Pope ; and those, who escaped this danger, were exposed, on the termination of their journey, to the pestilence which was laying waste the holy city. Some perished miserably ; and others, whose resources were exhausted through their devotion and their sufferings, when they applied for aid to the apostolical coffers, were dismissed with a cold and contemptuous refusal. Innocent VII. succeeds Boniface. — Four years afterwards Boniface died ; his cardinals immediately entered into conclave, and elect- ed a successor, nearly under the same con- ditions which had been accepted and violated by Benedict. He assumed the name of In- nocent VII. ; but the two years of his imbe- cile government produced no other change, than the secession of Genoa and Pisa to the obedience of his rival. Both parties expressed equal desire for the extinction of the schism ; both were equally insincere ; and the attention of the courts of Christendom and the feelings of the pious friends of the Church, were in- sulted by the verbose correspondence and re- criminations of two aged hypocrites. Inno- cent died in 1406 ; and the Roman cardinals then seriously deliberated on the expediency of deferring the new election, until some measures could be taken in concert with the college at Avignon. Election of Angelo Corrario, or Gregory XII. — But their fears of an interested popu- lace contended with their wisdom and their virtue ; they likewise dreaded the risks, which the temporal sovereignty of the See must in- cur during the interregnum — their indecision terminated in a half-measure. They bound themselves by oath, that whichsoever of them should be chosen, should hold himself in per- petual readiness to resign, in case the concord of the Church and the union of the two Col- leges should require it ; and that he should immediately make public, that such was the condition of his election. This act having been assented to with great solemnity, they threw their eyes upon a prelate, wiiose ad- vanced age, whose holy reputation, * whose habitual integrity, whose ardent love of the * They sought not (says Aretinus) for a man of business or address, but for one of honor and integ- rity; and at length they unanimously fixed their choice upon Angelo Corrario, " virum prisca severitate et sanctimonia reverendum." Church and regard for its best interests, placed him beyond all suspicion, almost beyond the possibility, of perfidy. Angelo Corrario, a Venetian, the titular patriarch of Constanti- nople, was the character which they sought. Seventy years of immaculate piety, by which he was endeared to the whole Church, were a pledge for the extinction of any selfish pas- sions, which at any tune might have lurked in his bosom ; and the austerity of his devo- tion, which emulated the holiness of the an- cient pontiffs, guaranteed the strict observance of his engagement. Accordingly, on the in- stant of his election, he eagerly ratified his covenant, * and proclaimed his intention to restore union to the Church by any risk or sacrifice. Should it be necessary to perform the journey on foot with his staff in his hand, or to encounter the sea in the most wretched bark, he vowed that he would still present himself at the place of conference. His de- clarations were received with joy and confi- * The short account of Leonardus Aretinus, the attendant and faithful adherent of Angelo, should be cited. " Is conclavi egressus promissionem, votum, et juramentum, quae privatus fecerat, tunc in potes- tateconstitutus iterato novavit. Atque ita loquebatur de Unione primo illo tempore, ut, si caetera deessent, pedibus et baculo se iturum ad earn conficiendam asseveraret. Statimque adversario scripsit benigne ilium ad pacem invitans et abdicationem mutuam offerens. Adversarius autem tantisdem ferme syl- labis ad eum rescripsit; eadem invitatio fuit, eadem- que cohortatio . . Locus deinde necessarius visus est in quo et Pontifices ipsi et collegia convenirent. Ad hoc Savona pari consensu recepta est. . . . Prosper^ hue usque et plane ex sententia. Deinde paulatim res labascere ccepit et cuncta indies deteriora fieri. Vo- luntas autem ilia Pontificis recta nequaquani satis habere firmitatis reperta est ad pontificatum deponen- dum; cujus rei culpam multi in propinquos ejus re- ferebant, &c. . . Erat in altero Pontifice non melior sane mens, sed occulebat callidius malam voluntatern, et quia noster fugiebat, ipse obviam ire videbatur. . . . Sed cum de congressu eorum per internuntios agere- tur, noster tanquam terrestre animal ad littus accedere, ille tanquam aquaticum a maridiscedere recusabat . . Cum per hunc modum desideria Christianorum qui pacem unitatemque optabant in longum ducerentur, non tulerunt Cardinales nostri, sed deserto Pontifice Pisas abiere," &c. Leonard Aretin. in Rer. Italicar. Historia. " Ego (the historian presently continues) Pontificem secutus sum polius familiaritatis gratia, quam quod ejus causam probarem. Quanquam fuit in Gregorio permagna vitae morumque honestas et prisca quondam, ut ita dixerim, bonitas, scriptura- rum quoque scientiaet indagatio subtiliset recta" . . - Denique in cunctis ferme rebus mini satisfaciebat, praeterquam in Unionis negotio . . . Id. loc. cit. Gibbon has referred to this passage in his 70th Chap- ter. THE GRAND SCHISM. 419 dence, and it was thought that the flock of Christ had at length obtained a faithful shep- herd. After his restoration to liberty, the policy of Benedict had entirely changed — all his original desire for the extinction of the schism appeared to be revived ; he had made over- tures to that effect both to Boniface and In- nocent ; and when the new Pope (Gregory XII.) addressed him on the subject, he re- newed his usual protestations. But they were no longer able to deceive either the court or the doctors of Paris: it was found that, how- ever profuse in general professions, he inva- riably evaded the cession, whenever it was strongly recommended to him ; and he was not the better loved for the frequent exactions of tenths and annates, to which his necessi- ties even more than his avarice obliged him. At length it was arranged, at a meeting of certain deputies of both parties, that the long- promised conference should be brought about ; and the place selected for the purpose was Savona. Some hopes were entertained from this project, and it was pressed with earnest- ness both at Rome and Avignon. The time was fixed for the Michaelmas of 1407 ; and when it arrived, Benedict was found at the appointed city, full of his customary declara- tions. But where was Angelo Corrario, the sworn advocate of concord, the model of an- cient holiness ? Every solicitation, to observe the direct obligation of his oath, had been urged upon him in vain. To the most over- powering arguments he opposed the most contemptible pretexts. He was secretly de- termined to evade the conference ; and he did finally absent himself. Then followed anoth- er interchange of accusations and protesta- tions, which had no other effect than to per- suade men, that an understanding secretly subsisted between the two Pretenders, and that they had conspired to cajole the world and retain their offices by their common per- jury.* We shall not pursue the tedious details of their elaborate duplicity ; nor is it important to notice the multifarious correspondence which perplexed the dispute, nor even closely to trace the circumstances, which led to its conclusion.f It is enough to mention the leading facts. In the first place, in contempt of one importaut clause J of the oath taken * Spondanus, ann. 1408, s. v. f The celebrated embassy sent from France both to Rome and Avignon, just before the Council of Pisa, is described by Gibbon, chap. lxx. J " That both parties shall promise to make no in conclave, Gregory created four new cardi nals ; on which the others, in just indignation, deserted his court and retired to Pisa, where they fixed their residence. Presently after- wards (in 1408) the King of France took measures to seize the person of Benedict; but that accomplished politician, having con- stantly retained a small fleet in his service on the plea of personal security, set sail on the rumor of this danger, and, after a short cruise on the coast of Italy, found a safer refuge at Perpignan in Spain, — for the Spaniards con- tinued to adhere to their countryman through all his vicissitudes, and through all his perfi- dy. At Perpignan he assembled his bishops, and held his councils, and awaited the termi- nation of the tempest. Tlie Cardinals convoke the Council of Pisa. — But his cardinals remained in France ; and now perceiving that they were abandoned by their master, they turned their attention more zealously than before to the extinction of the schism. To that end, they negotiated in per- fect sincerity with the rival college at Pisa ; and the consequence was an immediate co- alition. By this event, the first substantial ground towards the closing of the schism was gained. It was now clearly ascertained, that the voluntary cession of the pretenders, under any conceivable circumstances, was hopeless. The latest proof of that truth was the strongest ; since Angelo di Corrario, the most unblemished of mankind, had chosen to stain his gray hairs with deliberate perjury, rather than resign the possession — the very short possession — of a disturbed and disputed dignity. No resource henceforward remain- ed, except compulsion ; and the union of the colleges afforded the only prospect of that result. Some difficulties were still to be overcome, but the convocation of a General Council promised to remove them. Accord- ingly the Council was summoned to assemble at Pisa in the March of 1409. The Council of Pisa met under circum- stances wholly different from any other simi- lar assembly. In the division of churchmen it represented the unity of the Church. Dis- regarding the opposite pretensions to indi- vidual legitimacy, it asserted the undivided new cardinals during the treaty of union." Gregory probably considered this part of the obligation as conditional. And, as it is not likely that Benedict should have made any such promise, he might feel that the engagement was not binding upon himself. Had he beea more scrupulous, when the obligation was direct and unequivocal, we might have given him the benefit of this supposition. 420 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. authority of the See ; and thus, since there might be many antipopes, but not possibly more than one pope, the object to which its proceedings necessarily tended, was to reject the two actual claimants, and substitute one true and catholic pontiff. It was summoned by the cardinals, twenty-four of whom were present, and it was attended by a great num- ber of prelates,* as well as by the generals of the Mendicant orders, and the deputies of several universities. Ambassadors from the courts of Germany, France, England, and others, were likewise present; though the object of the first was rather to question the legitimacy, than to sanction the deliberations, of the council. The scruples of these en- voys gave rise to an important discussion, which was occasionally renewed afterwards ; and which, as far as the principles of the dis- putants were concerned, divided the High Papist party from the moderate Catholics. It was argued on the one side, from the lan- guage of the canons and the unvarying prac- tice of the Church, that a general Council could not legally assemble, unless by the au- thority and express summons of the Pope, whereas the meeting at Pisa had received the sanction of no pontiff. On the other hand, it was maintained, that no pope did then in fact exist ; that both pretenders, by their long- continued perfidy and contumacy, had in- volved themselves in the guilt of schism and heresy ;f and that, under such circumstan- ces, if the necessities of the Church demand- ed it, the cardinals had full power to call a council.! Recollecting, as we do, the false foundation on which the claims of the pope really rested, we can scarcely pretend to doubt on which side the reason lay. But among the controversialists of that time, the spuri- ousness of the Decretals was still unknown, and almost unsuspected ; and pretensions directly derived from them were acknow- ledged with respectful acquiescence. Alexander V. — The Council then proceeded to fulfil its object. The first step was, to * Besides the three patriarchs, 180 archbishops and bishops, and about 300 abbots, were present in person or by representatives, and 282 doctors in the- ology.— Spondanus, ann. 1409, s. ii. t This last assertion does not appear, at first sight, so obvious — but the word heresy was now used in a much more comprehensive sense, than in the early church: — perseverance in schism was at this time sufficient to constitute heresy. % That there were cases, in which they possessed that right, does not appear to have been disputed — that, for instance, of the insanity of a pope. summon the pretenders to appear in person or by deputy, and on their non-appearance, to pronounce them contumacious. The next, to trace the proofs of their insincerity and collusion, and to expose their perjury. The next, to command the Christian world to withdraw its obedience from the one and from the other. Then followed the sentence of condemnation ; — and here we may pause to remark, that the prelate, who pronounced it, was the titular Patriarch of Alexandria, supported on either hand by those of Anti- och and Jerusalem. The two schismatics, after a long enumeration of their crimes, were cut off from the Church ; and the Holy See was declared vacant. Then the cardi- nals, after binding themselves by oath to con- tinue the Council after the election, for the general purposes of church reform, entered into conclave. They remained six days in deliberation ; and their choice fell upon the Cardinal of Milan, Peter of Candia, who took the name of Alexander V. Peter, native of Candia, a Venetian subject, had risen from so low an origin, that he pro- fessed to retain no recollection of his parent- age— a circumstance (he boasted) which gave him a great advantage over his predecessors, since it exempted him from all temptation to nepotism. * One day, as he was begging alms, while yet extremely young, an Italian monk took compassion on him, and intro- duced him into his convent. From Candia, as he gave great promise of intellectual at- tainment, be was carried into Italy; and thence, for the gradual completion of his studies, to the universities, first of Oxford, and afterwards of Paris. There he acquired great theological reputation, and retained along with it a mild, liberal, and convivial disposition. He was already advanced in age when raised to the pontificate. . . . After a few more sessions, in which a com- mission was appointed for the investigation of ecclesiastical abuses, and some unimpor- tant regulations enacted, the Council was ad- journed for an interval of three years, till the April of 1412. The authority of the Council of Pisa was recognised by all the national churches of Europe, excepting Arragon, Castille, Bavaria, and Scotland ; and Rome itself, by placing Alexander in the list of its genuine bishops, has offered it the same acknowledgment. Its * It was the boast of his friends, that, from being a rich archbishop, he had become a poor cardinal; and that the popedom had reduced him to beggary. THE GRAND SCHISM. 46^1 proceedings were conducted without any reproach of irregularity or dissension, and it dispersed under the auspices of a legitimate pope. It remains to inquire, what was the effect produced upon the antipopes by de- cisions so solemnly delivered. On the de- termination of an assembly, which expressed the power and united the vows of almost every nation of Europe, what course did the repudiated schismatics adopt? Did they en- deavor to conciliate the party, which they were too weak to resist, aud too infamous longer to cajole ? Did they resign those claims, by which they might still indeed dis- turb the peace of Christendom, but which could scarcely promise any substantial dig- nity to themselves ? — No ; — they clung to the fragments of their fortunes with the same attachment, which had bound them to pros- perity ; and the more generally it was ad- mitted, that both were pretenders and anti- popes, the more violently each proclaimed himself to be the genuine pope. Benedict could still boast of the obedience of Spain ; but this was a narrow field to content the ambition of the successor of the Gregories and the Innocents. But the reverses of his rival were even more remarkable. He only escaped captivity by traversing the ambush of his enemies in the disguise of a merchant ; while his chamberlain, who resembled him in person, and had assumed his robes, was taken in his place, and subjected to some se- verity of treatment. Having in such guise escaped to two galleys which awaited him, and which conveyed him to Gaieta, he then reclaimed his dignity, and imitated, with his scanty train of courtiers, the pomp of the imperial city. He was protected, indeed, by Ladislaus, and neither Germany nor Hungary had yet nominally withdrawn from his obedi- ence. But he was poor, and as he had no patronage, he had no resources ; and his few followers continued to adhere to him through fear of the King of Naples, rather than from any attachment either to his person, or his cause. Alexander V., the feebleness of whose cha- racter made him liable to the influence of any more vigorous spirit, fell almost entirely under the guidance of a Neapolitan, named Baltazar Cossa, Legate at Bologna. This ex- traordinary person, by birth a nobleman, by habit and inclination a soldier, by profession a churchman, and in rank a cardinal, was one of the boldest champions of the Council of Pisa. And when it appeared that the pos- session of Rome could only be recovered from Ladislaus by military measures, Baltazar undertook to couduct an expedition for that purpose. The Roman people acknowledged the authority of Alexander, and sent to him a deputation with the keys of the city. The Pope was then at Bologna. He received the envoys with magnificence ; he expressed his pleasure at their emancipation from the se- ductions of Angelo Corrario ; and in respect to the desire, which they testified, to have their Pope among them, and to receive the Jubilee, * (for these vows were united in their petition,) he appointed the year ]413 for that solemnity. This circumstance is worthy of thus much attention, as it shows how unblushingly the Romans at that time avowed the real motive of their attachment to the Vicar of Christ ; and also, how basely a Pope, who could not plead either weakness or poverty, pandered to their cupidity. But Alexander V. was not destined to witness the execution of his decree, nor even to receive the venal applauses of his people. He died at Bologna the year after his election (May 3d, 1410,) and the cardinals, after a very short deliberation, appointed Baltazar Cossa in his place. Elevation of John XXIII. to the See. — The world was surprised at this election ; for though he possessed good natural talents, and a rapid decision in matters of business and other temporal concerns, Baltazar was of a violent temper, and remarkable for the licentiousness of his morals ; his demeanor and manners corresponded with his repu- tation ; aud the military air, which so little became the habit of the cardinal, seemed wholly to disqualify him for the chair of St. Peter. On the other hand, his fearless cha- racter gave promise of that vigor, which Avas now required for the restoration of the Church ; and it was hoped, that, if he did not awaken to the spiritual duties of his sta- tion, he would at least consent to observe its decencies. John XXIII. (Baltazar assumed that name) did not at first deceive either of those expec- tations ; his manners were softened on his elevation, and his morals ostensibly amended ; and he framed his political arrangements so well, that the king of Naples declared in his favor. Then Gregory, for the second time an exile, embarked his person and his suite in two trading vessels, and sought almost the only spot in Europe which continued to obey him. Charles Malatesta opened to him the gates of Rimini; and there, together with * Flemy, 1. c. sec. xliii. 422 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. three cardinals who still followed him, he had space to deplore the passion or the weak- ness, through which he had exchanged a holy reputation and dignified independence for banishment, insecurity, and infamy. Elevation of Sigismond to the Empire. — The death of the emperor at this moment opened an occasion to the Pope to recom- mend Sigismond as successor ; and as Sigis- mond was actually chosen, a friendly inter- course was immediately established between the two parties. The still disturbed condition of the Church, and the abuses which univer- sally prevailed, demanded indeed their cordial and honest co-operation ; and in this at least they agreed, that a General Council was the only remaining remedy, and that no time should be lost in convoking it. On the dis- solution of that of Pisa, it had been arranged that another should be called after three years- Accordingly, John had summoned the pre- lates to Rome at the appointed time ; but so few presented themselves, that it was not judged expedient to proceed to any important enactments. Convocation of the Council of Constance. — The place, which was now selected for a more efficient meeting, was the city of Con- stance, in Switzerland. Much depended on that selection. Much depended on the local influence which might probably be exercised, and which would certainly affect the deliber- ations of the body. Constance was under the direct control of Sigismond ; and it is well known * that the Pope foresaw some of the * Leonardus Aretinus relates a curious anecdote on this subject, which throws light on the still dis- puted character of John. " The pontiff privately communicated to me his design. The whole matter (said he) depends on the place of the council, and I will not have it where the emperor is the stronger. I shall therefore give to the legates, whom I send to decide this matter, credentials of full power and dis- cretion for public appearance's sake, but I shall pri- vately restrict them to certain specified places — and then he mentioned those places. Afterwards, when the legates came to take leave, having dismissed all excepting myself, he secretly addressed them and showed of what weight the matter was, on which they were sent. Then, speaking kindly to them, he praised their prudence and fidelity, and said that they knew what ought to be done better than himself. While he was thus talking and repeating those civil things to them, he was himself overpowered by a feeling of kindness, and in an instant changed the design so long determined by him. I had meant, he said, to give you a list of certain places, from which list you should on no account depart; but at this very instant 1 change my mind, and commit every thing to consequences of that arrangement, and con- sented to it with extreme reluctance. It is known too, that he felt a much stronger incli- nation to march in arms for the recovery of his capital, which the death of Ladislaus had again opened to him, than to conduct the peaceful procession of his cardinals towards the appointed city. Nevertheless, his out- ward conduct betrayed no disposition to re- cede, whatever may have been his private wishes or his secret intrigues ; and having fixed the first of November, 1414, for the opening of the Council, he was present for the performance of his duties on that day. The situation of Constance in many par- ticulars justified the preference, which the emperor had obtained for it. Its pleasant and healthful situation on the shores of an exten- sive lake ; its central position with respect to France, Germany and Italy; and not least, the circumstance, that it was at that time the grand depot of all commercial intercourse between the two last countries, made it fav- orable for the access and accommodation of a numerous and opulent assembly. As the council lasted for nearly four years, the num- ber of its members and their attendants must have greatly fluctuated ; but if it be true, that at certain times not less than thirty thousand horses * were maintained for its use, we may conceive the splendor as well as the multitude of the assemblage. It was divided into four sections, following the grand national division of Europe ; and all the members were ar- ranged under the banners of Italy, of France, of Germany, or of England. Most of tlie leading ecclesiasticsf of Europe were present; but the greater proportion of eminent laymen, who thronged to Constance, distinguished that your prudence. It is for you to think, what may be safe and what dangerous for me. And thus he tore in pieces the paper, on which he had written the names of the places. The legates therefore going to Sigismond chose Constance — a transalpine city and subject to the emperor. When John heard this, he was incredibly afflicted, and lamented his evil stars, that he had so lightly deviated from his former mind and counsel." Leonard. Aretin., In Rerum Italic. Historia. * Apprehensions being entertained about the means of providing for so many quadrupeds, it was ordered, that the Pope should be limited to twenty horses, the cardinals and princes to ten each, the bishops to five, and the abbots to four only. Raynald. ann. 1414, s. xiii. f Nine and twenty cardinals and three hundred bishops and archbishops were present at the second session, on March 2, when the Pope made his abdi- cation. THE GRAND SCHISM. 423 council, more than any other circumstance, from all that had preceded it. Its professed objects were the extinction of the schism and the Reformation of the Church. The persecutions of John Huss and Jerome of Prague, which formed a part of its labors, will be described and traced to their true motives in a following chapter. Even the subject of the Reformation must for the moment be deferred ; since we must confine our present attention to the thread which we have pursued through so many windings, and trace the history of the Schism to its conclusion. And to some indeed it might appear, and not without specious rea- son, that the schism was virtually extinct already ; and that the feeble anti-popes of Perpignan and of Rimini might have been safely left to waste their complaints and ana- themas unnoticed. And so it might possibly have proved. But, on the other hand, the politics of Europe were at that time so fluc- tuating and faithless, that the slightest cir- cumstance of national interest, or even of personal caprice or jealousy, might at any moment have transferred the obedience of a kingdom, and restored to Gregory or to Be- nedict the adhesion of a powerful party. So that there seemed no positive security for the concord of the Church, until the two schis- matics should be deprived of the faintest shadow of authority. Hence it was, that all parties were chiefly anxious to attend to this subject, and to complete the work which had been so far advanced at Pisa. * But here, at the very outset, a difference arose of the most essential importance, as to the manner of attaining that end. It will be observed, that the present assembly approach- ed that question under circumstances dissimi- lar from those which guided the former. At Pisa, the impossibility of deciding between the two claimants having been admitted, nei- ther of them was recognised by the council. The fathers were indeed personally divided in their obedience ; but as a single legislative * The bare circumstance, that there were three competitors for the chair after the council of Pisa, and only two before it, has led many historians to consider that assembly as having increased the schism. But to us it seems otherwise. It reduced the anti- popes to an insignificance, from which they never recovered, and it united the great body of Christen- dom in the same views, and with a common principle. If it was not immediately successful, neither was the council of Constance perfectly so. But the proceed- ings of Pisa were the foundation of the re-union, and it was by building on them, that the work was finally completed. body they acknowledged neither Peter of Luna nor Angelo Corrario. Thus their course was obvious — to declare the See vacaut, and to proceed to a canonical election. But the council of Constance, being held in continu- ation of that of Pisa, being bound by its de- cisions and resting on its validity, admitted of necessity the rights of John XXIII. And thus, whatsoever course, its deliberations might take, it had to deal with a Pope of undisput- ed legitimacy. For though some feeble mur- murs would be raised at Rimini and Perpig- nan, Constance at least was not the place where they could find an echo. Under these circumstances the council met together, and soon afterwards John caused his own proposition to be laid before it. It was simply this — that the fathers should first of all things confirm all the acts of the coun- cil of Pisa ; that they should next deliberate on the best means of carrying them into ef- fect ; and lastly enter upon their labors for the Reformation of the Church. In this pa- per the pope merely called upon the fathers publicly to declare, what they never for a mo- ment disputed, the legality of that council, from which he derived his authority; and if that declaration were once made, he felt as- sured, that there could be no other method of proceeding against two denounced anti- popes, than by arming the real pope with ad- ditional authority to crush them. It was very natural, that John should take this view of the subject ; indeed, as far as the strict justice of the question was concerned, it was the cor- rect view ; and assuredly the distinction be- tween a pope and a schismatic was sufficient- ly broad, to be made ground for decided ac- tion with an assembly of Roman Catholic ecclesiastics. Nevertheless there were many, and some of the most celebrated doctors of the age were among them, who considered the sub- ject in a widely different light. These loud- ly maintained, that as the council of Constance was a continuation of that of Pisa, it was bound steadily to pursue the same object; that this object had been the extinction of the schism, and that it was still so ; and that a solemn obligation rested on all the prelates present, even on the pope himself, to adopt whatsoever means should appear most effica- cious for that purpose. It was immediately obvious to what end this opinion tended — that the method of cession, which had been at- tempted with such imperfect success at Pisa, would be again brought forward as the only healing measure ; and that the true and re- 424 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. cognised Pope would be called upon for the same humiliation, and probably subjected to the same compulsion, with two anathematiz- ed pretenders. The subject was warmly debated ; but with- out any approach to a decision, because the emperor was not yet arrived ; and as much certainly depended on his views, so the atten- tion and even the hopes of both parties were earnestly fixed upon him. Sigismond pos- sessed considerable talents and accomplish- ments ; he spoke several languages with flu- ency and even eloquence, and was the patron of learning, in an age when it still needed powerful protection. The dignity of his per- sonal appearance has attracted the commen- dations of history ; * and if his moral char- acter was not free from stain, and if his mil- itary enterprises generally ended in disgrace, he has been abundantly honored for his zeal in the service of the Church, and his exer- tions against heresy and schism. His previous intercourse with John, and the obligations which he certainly owed to him, led many to believe, that he would throw his weight into the pontifical scale — nor was reason wanting to incline him to that side. But it proved otherwise. He probably re- flected, that, should he determine unequivo- cally to support and enforce the rights of John, no other method remained to reduce the an- tipopes, except violence — the princes of Ar- ragon and Rimini would not otherwise re- nounce their obedience. The disposition of Sigismond was known ; but matters had not yet proceeded to any determination, when legates presented themselves both from Greg- ory and Benedict. The latter, indeed, merely insulted the council by the usual vague and faithless offers of conference and compro- mise. But the former declared their author- ity to make a formal cession on behalf of their master, in case that both his rivals should ab- dicate also. From that moment the exertions of the great majority of the fathers were di- rected to one object — to accomplish by some means or other the abdication of John. Now, as they never affected on any occa- sion to throw the slightest doubts on his le- gitimacy, it became them to take their mea- sures with deference and caution ; and when * Leonardus Aretinus (Rer. Italicar. Historia) epeaks of him thus: — " Fuit procultlubio vir inclytus, prseclara facie, corpore turn specioso, turn robusto; magnitudine animi sive pace sive bello eximia; lib- eralitate vero tanta, ut hoc unum illi vitio daretur, quod largiendo et erogaudo sibi ipsi facultates detra- heret ad negotia bellaque obeunda." they pressed upon him the general obligations of his office, and argued, that he was bound, as chief of the Church of Christ, willingly to lay down, not his dignity only, but life it- self, if the interests of that Church required it, we shall not wonder, that the Pope was unmoved by so indeterminate an appeal. But the council felt its strength; and the above appeal was accompanied by the new and bold proposition, that a General Council possessed the power, in a peculiar exigency, to compel the Pope to abdication. This assertion gave rise to long and warm discussions ; the Italian prelates maintained the papal cause, but with less vigor and ability, than the circumstances required, and even than the merits of the question admitted. The superiority of learn- ing and genius was on the side of the French ; and the powerful harangues of Pierre d'Ailly and the celebrated Gerson, Chancellor of the University, added weight to a doubtful cause. It seemed clear that the party of John must yield. The Council declares for the cession. — In the meantime, the Archbishop of Mayence, the Primate of the German Church and Elector of the empire, arrived with great pomp at Constance, and immediately declared his ad- herence to the cause of the Pope. Frederic of Austria and the Duke of Burgundy were likewise enlisted on the same side. But Si- gismond had now decidedly espoused the op- posite principles ; and thus the Fmich and Italian, which first divided the Council, now really became the imperial and papal parties. This was the crisis of the contest; and the great majority of three of the nations was manifestly on the side of the Emperor. Still, before they proceeded to the question, it was feared that, as the Italian prelates were the most numerous and under the most direct in- fluence, and would, probably, be unanimous for the Pope, they might be able to outvote the majorities of the other nations. It was, therefore, advanced as a fair proposal, and finally arranged, that each nation should sep- arately ascertain its own sense, and that then, on the general meeting, the majority of na- tions, not the numerical majority of votes, should prevail. On the day appointed, they met together, and it then appeared that the decision in favor of the method of cession was unanimous — to the astonishment of the whole council, the greater portion even of the Italians themselves had adopted that opinion. The Pope abdicates. — During the progress of these deliberations, there were some who judged, from the customary tenacity of other THE GRAND SCHISM. 425 Popes, that still further measures might after- wards be called for. And in that apprehen- sion, a long list of personal charges against John XXIII., some of which involved the most abominable offences, was handed about among the fathers ; and a copy came under the inspection of the Pope himself. John then saw the real nature of the tempest that was hanging over him, and immediately de- termined to avert it by timely submission. He expressed that intention amidst the ac- clamations of the whole assembly ; and after some unimportant disputes respecting the formula of cession, he publicly pronounced (on the 2d of March) his solemn and volun- tary abdication.* Flight of John XXIIL — The cession of John was, of course, conditional on that of the autipopes ; and as no difficulties were any longer offered by Gregory, the accom- plishment of the union rested wholly with Peter of Luna. To this end a conference was proposed at Nice, between Sigismond and the King of Arragon ; and as it seemed that Benedict was to be one of the parties, John claimed his right to be also present on the occasion. This demand excited some suspicions of his sincerity ; and these were confirmed by a proposal, which he soon afterwards made, to transfer the Council from Constance to Nice. It was difficult, after the instances of pontifical duplicity which had disgraced the last forty years, to put trust in the honesty of any Pope ; and the charac- ter of John was not such as to command any peculiar confidence. Consequently, the Council required of him a formal deed or procuration of cession ; and he, without hesi- tation, refused it. Guards were then placed about the gates of the city ; but, on the urgent remonstrance of the Pope, removed. How- beit, whether he had previously meditated an escape from the power of the Council, as * The formula finally agreed on was to the follow- ing effect: " We, John XXIIL, for the repose of the people of Christ, profess, promise, vow, and swear, beforeGod, the Church, and this sacred Council, freely and with our entire good will, to give peace to the Church by the method of a simple and pure cession to be made by us the Sovereign Pontificate, and to accomplish it effectually through the wisdom of the present Council, — whensoever Peter of Luna and Angelo Corrario shall similarly renounce, in person or by their delegates, the Popedom to which they pretend. And we also promise to do the same thing, howsoever that may occur, whether by cession or by death, or by any other way, so that it shall become possible to unite the Church of God through our ces- sion, and thus to extirpate the present schism." 54 soon as it proved too great for him, or whether he was driven to that resolution (as may also have been) by the distrust and even harsh- ness with which he was treated ; it is certain that, on the morning of March 21, the Em- peror and the Fathers learnt with dismay and astonishment, that the Pope was no longer at Constance. He had quitted the city, in the night, in a military disguise ; and, having in- stantly embarked, had descended the Rhine as far as Schaffhausen, a city of his pro- tector, Frederic. The consternation of the Council was somewhat abated by a communication re- ceived from John on the following day, in which he renewed his assurances of sin- cerity, and justified his retreat from Con- stance by the argument, that his personal security was necessary to give obligation to the promise of cession ; and hereupon he was joined by several Cardinals and other prelates. But the great majority remained behind, in close co-operation with the Em- peror; and both they and he immediately engaged in the most vigorous measures. For, on the one hand, Sigismond put in motion the temporal forces of the Assembly, and di- rected a powerful army against the States of Frederic ; and on the other, the Fathers of the Council and the doctors of Paris, with Gerson at their head, advanced in mighty spiritual array against the pontifical deserter. And while the imperial soldiers approached the walls of Schaffhausen, the bulwarks of Popery were assaulted from the pulpits of Constance. The momentous question was now public- ly argued, whether a Council General of the Church did not possess an authority superior to the Pope. The rights of the Council were advocated by the eloquence of Gerson,* and asserted by the general consent of the Fathers of Constance. The opposite opinion was maintained by the seceders at Schaff- hausen ; and these even ventured to assert, that the Council itself was virtually dissolved by the absence of the Pope. It has generally been the error of high churchmen to advance the loftiest pretensions at the most unseason- able moments ; and instead of receding at a crisis of violence and danger, to rush with a sort of effeminate rashness into perils, which would not otherwise have reached them. A decided breach now took place between the two parties ; but after some vain replications and negotiations, it became perfectly clear on * De Auferibilitate Papae ab Ecclesia. 426 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. which side the real strength lay. The Court of Schaffhausen daily diminished, and the Council proceeded by vigorous acts to give efficacy to the principle of its own superi- ority. Nevertheless, the Pope would not ac- knowledge his defeat, but rather determined to risk the experiment by a second flight ; intending, as it would seem, to throw himself on the protection of the Duke of Burgundy, and establish his residence at Avignon. He halted at Brisac, and a deputation from the Council found him there ; he fixed the fol- lowing morning to give them audience, but on the following morning John XXIII. was no longer at Brisac. We shall not trace the fruitless negotiations which followed: it is sufficient to add, that during their progress the Duke of Austria prevailed upon the Pope to take refuge at Fribourg, under his own sacred protection — for the Duke, being se- verely pressed in his contest with the Em- peror, and foreseeing his entire discomfiture, was desirous to possess the means of recon- ciliation. Having succeeded in this desire, he hastened to violate his vows, and to sacri- fice his virtue and reputation, by surrendering the person of his guest. And thus, says Maimbourg, the unfortunate Pope, who, dis- orderly and licentious as he was, failed not to be an object of great compassion through the treachery practised against him by his protector, was betrayed; and found himself a prisoner in the Castle of Fribourg, the very place where he had thought to find an asylum. The Council then turned to the affair of his deposition, observing in this matter the same forms which had been followed at Pisa in the process against Gregory and Benedict. The list of accusations presented against John XXIII. consisted of fifty articles ; but the whole weight of his offences might be com- prised under five or six heads. He was charged with all the various modifications of simony ; with squandering and alienating the property of the Church ; and with oppres- sing the people by unjust acts and exorbitant imposts. His escape from Constance, and his subsequent endeavors to elude the demands of the Council, were urged against him with the greater minuteness, as they were the most ecent and the least pardonable of his offen- ces. Another class of charges related to his official, another to his private delinquencies. It was asserted that, as Pope, he had disre- garded the divine offices, neglected to repeat his breviary, and rarely assisted at the cele- bration of mass ; and that, even when he did so, he recited the service rapidly and careless- ly, like a sportsman or a soldier.* It was added, that he had wholly disregarded the fasts and abstinences of the Church. As to the scandals of his private life, they were traced with minute diligence, even from his childhood to his flight from Constance. In his earliest youth the intemperance of his dis- position betrayed itself: his most innocent years were charged with falsehood, impu- dence, disobedience to his parents, a tenden- cy to every vice. His progress in life was a progress in iniquity. Murder by violence and by poison, adultery, incest, the most abominable impurities were imputed to him, as unquestioned and notorious. Such is the substance of the allegations recorded by Ro- man Catholic writers against their spiritual Father ; but it must not be forgotten, that, in the list formally presented to the Council and to the Pope, these last charges were suppress- ed. This might be with a view to spare the Catholic Church so monstrous a scandal ; or through consideration to the conscience and character of the Cardinals, who had so lately elected such a Pope ; but it might also be, because they rested on slight foundations, and proceeded from that popular license, which so eagerly calumniates the fallen fortunes of the great. John XXIII. accused and deposed. — It is not disputed, that the paper, which Received the approbation of the Council, contained many heinous charges, expressed in very unequiv- ocal language, and confirmed by numerous testimonies. But the Pope, when it was pre- sented to him for inspection and refutation, calmly replied, with the most submissive re- spect for the Council, that he had little curi- osity to read either the charges or the deposi- tions ; but that of this the Fathers might rest assured, that he should receive their decision, whatever it might be, with perfect deference ; in the meantime, that his best defence was in their justice. This was politic, for from the moment in which the Council determined upon the method of cession, John very clear- ly perceived that the Pontificate had passed from his hands. For a time, indeed, he pro- bably hoped, through the support of the Dukes of Austria and Burgundy, to retain a partial obedience and wear a divided mitre ; but no sooner did he become the prisoner of the Council, than even that hope abandoned him ; and his only remaining object was to secure, in a private station, his personal free- * Et si aliquoties celebravit, hoc fuit currenter, more venatoruni et armigerorum. Act. Concil. Const. THE GRAND SCHISM. 427 dom and security. Accordingly, he addres- sed a respectful and even pathetic letter to Sigismond, in which he reminded him of ser- vices formerly conferred, and supplicated in return his friendship, or at least his clemency. This appeal was written in a tone of deep humiliation, and with an affectation of attach- ment, which could scarcely be sincere. But neither Emperor nor Council was softened by this tardy display of obsequiousness. At a full Session, held on the 29th of May, John XXIII. was solemnly deposed from the Pon- tificate. By the same sentence he was con- demned to imprisonment during the pleasure of the Council, which reserved to itself the power of imposing such other penalties as should, in due season, be declared. This sentence was communicated to John in his confinement at Cell ; he perused it without any emotion, and requested a short interval of solitude. After two hours, he or- dered the deputies again into his presence ; and then, after reading all the articles in suc- cession, with a firm voice and unruffled man- ner, he declared to them that there was no particular, which did not receive his complete approbation ; and that, as far as in him lay, he cordially confirmed and ratified the sen- tence. To this assurance he added a volun- tary vow, that he would never at any time protest against that sentence, nor make any attempt to recover the Pontificate — that, on the contrary, he renounced purely and sim- ply, and from the bottom of his heart, any right which he ever had, or might still have, to that dignity ; that, in proof of this, he had already removed from his chamber the pon- tifical cross, and would throw off the pontifi- cal garments as willingly, if he had any oth- ers to put on in their place ; that he wished with all his soul, that he had never been Pope at all, since he had not enjoyed one single happy day since his exaltation ; and so far was he from wishing to be restored to that dignity, that should any desire his re-election, he would never at any time consent to it. He then threw himself, with his former humility, on the mercy of the Council and the Emper- or— not, however, without reminding them, that he possessed legitimate means of defence, of which he had not yet availed himself, but to which he should certainly appeal, should they drive him, by more rigorous measures, to further extremities. This conduct, which was not only politic, but generous, succeeded not in obtaining for him any mitigation of his sentence. He was led away in close confinement, first to Heidel- berg, and afterwards to Manheim, where he was imprisoned for three years. Neither did it avail him any thing to have once possessed the friendship of Sigismond. Nay, so far was the severity of the sentence enforced, that he was deprived of the services of his Italian attendants, and surrounded by Ger- mans, with whom his ignorance of the lan- guage permitted no other intercourse, than by signs.* Such rigor, exercised against a fallen Pope, awakened sympathy and swelled the ranks of his advocates ; and there were many who maintained, both then and after- wards, that his deposition was illegal and compulsory, since the charge of heresy, on which alone a Pope could be canonically de- posed, was not that, which occasioned the degradation of John XXIII. The Court of France openly professed this opinion ; and the offence, which Charles VI. on that occa- sion took at the exceeding zeal of the Uni- versity, repressed the ardor and diminished the credit of that illustrious body. In the meantime, the Council advanced onwards in the course which it had chosen. It had now assumed the despotic f control of the Church ; and in its first exercise of that power, it published a declaration that the Cardinals could not proceed to a new elec- tion without its consent. By its next deci- sion the formalities attending the cession of Gregory were duly completed, and the old man was permitted to resign that which no one acknowledged that he possessed. The attention of the Council and the whole Cath- olic world was then turned entirely towards the determination of Peter of Luna. Conduct of Benedict. — His determination * Platina and Nauclerus assert the severity with which John was treated. Theodoric of Niem gives a different account, on the authority, as he says, of well-informed persons. There are differences, too, on some other particulars, which we have not thought it necessary to specify. The historians who have been principally consulted for the contents of this chapter (besides the original authorities) are Maim- bourg, the Continuator of Fleury, Lenfant (Hist, du Cone, de Constance,) Pagi (Breviar. Gest. Pontif. Roman.,) and Spondanus. f Hence it proceeded, papaliter, to interfere with the State also. Previously to Sigismond's departure for Perpignan, through France, it published an edict — "Quicunque, cujuscunque status aut conditionis existat, etiamsi regalis . . . euntes aut redeuntes impediverit, perturbaverit — sententia excommunica- tionis percellitur — et ulterius omni honoreet dignitate ipso facto est privatus." Act. Concil. Constan., Sess. xvii. This sudden assumption of the power of deposition astonished all sovereigns, but especially insulted the King of France. 428 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. was simply this, — to cling to the ruins of his fortunes — to clasp the name and shadow of the Pontificate — to persevere in his preten- sions and his perjury to the end of his life. Nevertheless, it was necessary to treat him with temper and deference, as long as he was supported even hy a single Prince. The method of conference was that which he still proposed, and the Council now assented to it ; and as the King of Arragon was prevent- ed by sickness from travelling to Nice, Sigis- mond professed his willingness to undertake in person the journey to Perpiguan. It was in vain, that Benedict exhausted the resources of his ingenuity to retard, at least, if he could not impede, the advance of the Emperor : his artifices were foiled by the firmness of a can- did mind resolutely bent on a noble object ; and on the 18th of September Sigismond ar- rived, with a small number of attendants, at the place of conference. An extraordinary scene was then enacted. Ferdinand of Arragon siucerely desired the extinction of the schism ; ambassadors from the courts of Castille and Navarre, and others \ who were present, united their vows for the ' same object. The Emperor pressed it with j all his talents and all his power — Benedict alone opposed himself to the unanimity of Christendom. Whatever was most convin- cing in argument or persuasive in rhetoric was repeatedly urged upon him by the Princes and their deputies. If any pretext for his re- sistance had hitherto been furnished by the pertinacity of his competitors, this, they main- tained, was now removed by the cession and deposition of Gregory and John. The con- dition, on which he had sworn to abdicate, was at length accomplished beyond dispute ; and his honor, his conscience, his promises, his oaths unequivocally obliged him to fulfil his part. Henceforward the concord of Chris- tendom depended wholly upon him. After eight-and-thirty years of schism, disorder, and desolation, Benedict was the only re- maining obstacle to the union, repose, and welfare of the Christian world. The Church herself, if she was iudeed intrusted by the Almighty to his care and guidance, now stretched forth her arms to him, from the abyss of misery in which she was sunk, and sadly supplicated, that he would raise her from her degradation ; that he would volun- tarily sacrifice that dignity, which he could not possibly retain much longer ; and that he would invest his few remaining years with the gratitude and blessings of mankind, rather than adhere, amid universal detestation, to a mere name, which an early death, followed by eternal infamy, was now at hand to tear away from him. These arguments, urged by the highest secular powers, were confirmed by other au- thority, which may have given them addi- tional value in the eyes of a churchman and a Pope. There were two holy brothers named Vincent and Boniface Ferrier,* who had hitherto faithfully adhered to the cause of Benedict, and whose acknowledged piety and supposed inspiration seemed to lend it some sort of sanctity. These venerable per- sons now joined their friendly eloquence to turn the heart of Benedict ; and they fortified their appeal by declaring, that, as the reproach of schism must henceforward rest on his party, they should be compelled, in case of his further opposition, to desert him.f Benedict was not moved by any of these considerations. Whether it was, that in the conscientious belief that he was the true Pope, he considered it a religious, or (what might be equally sacred in his mind) an ecclesiasti- cal duty, to preserve his office to the end of his life ; or whether (as is more probable,) the love of power grew with the progress of his years, and the decay of his vigor, so as finally to close his heart against any repre- sentations of reason or decency, — he main- tained his constant resolution inflexibly. As he had always been the legitimate, so was he now, forsooth, the only, Pontiff: the depo- sition of both his adversaries confirmed him, without competition, in the possession of the See. So that, if the schism were still per- mitted to subsist (he continued,) the scandal must rest with the Council of Constance, not with him. For his own part, he was deter- mined never to abandon the bark of St. Peter, of which the helm had been confided to him by God ; and the older he became, and the nearer he approached to death and the judg- * This same Vincent Ferrier is addressed by Ger- son from Constance, as a patron of the sect of the Flagellants, whom the chancellor earnestly exhorts him to abandon. Nevertheless he is designated as "Theologus et Orator toto orbe inclytus." The documents are given by Von der Hardt, torn, iii., pars vii. t Theodoric of Niem mentions that Vincent Ferrier did then, in fact, take so decided a part against his former master, as to declare it a merit to persecute or kill him. " Quod sit vir pravus et fallax et fictus, decipiendo populum Dei, quodque juste persequendus sit usque ad mortem ab omnibus Christianis,&c." . . Vit. Johann. XXIII. p. 63. This holy zealot had as little charity in his enmity, as discretion in his friendship. THE GRAND SCHISM. 429 merit, the stronger was his obligation to resist the tempest, and avert the anger of Heaven by persevering in the course assigned to him. In conclusion, he enforced the necessity of at once uniting all the faithful in universal obe- dience to himself. Benedict was now in his seventy-eighth year ; nevertheless, he argued his own cause before a public assembly for seven entire hours, with such courage, fer- vor, and impetuosity, as to leave it uncertain whether his extraordinary energy was de- rived from ambition, or from fanaticism, or from a strange combination of both. The result of this singular contest was not yet perfectly manifest. On the one side was the secular and spiritual power of Europe, the authority of kings, the prayers of the people, the consent of the Catholic Church — reason, and justice, and every wise, and every good principle, arrayed against the infatuated obstinacy of one crafty, faithless, old man. Yet the thoughtful were still in some sus- pense, and many had greater fears from the inveterate subtilty of Benedict, than hopes from the union of so many Princes. . . . But it proved otherwise ; the parties engaged in the Conference had no personal interest in favor of that pretender ; and his perversity was so remote from reason, that it served rather to cement the confederacy against him. It was resolved, however, to make one final attempt at persuasion. But here Benedict, perceiving the firmness of his adversaries, and fearing their ultimate design, withdrew his person from their power, and quitted Perpignan. He retired, after some hesitation, to a place called Paniscola, — a fortress situ- ated near Tortosa and the mouth of the Ebro, an ancient possession of the House of Luna. Four cardinals, and a small body of soldiers, followed him. Benedict deposed. — Any hopes which he may have derived from this proceeding, be- yond that of mere personal security, were disappointed. The Assembly at Perpignan, being now relieved from the constraint which his presence still occasioned to those, who still acknowledged him, immediately, and by a formal act, renounced its obedience. Not long afterwards, Scotland, which had taken no part in these measures, but continued to adhere without scruple to its first decision, being now persuaded that Benedict was the only remaining obstacle to the general con- cord, followed the example of the Conference. And then, at length, * the Council of Con- stance felt itself empowered to inflict the final * On July 26th, 1417. blow. The sentence of deposition was pro- nounced against Peter of Luna, according to the prescribed forms ; and the bolt, which had fallen almost harmless from the Assem- bly of Pisa, descended on this occasion with greater efficacy, because its object was already virtually deposed, through the secession of his royal adherents In the meantime, the aged Ecclesiastic, against whom the storm which himself had raised was now in justice directed, was not moved to any act of con- cession, or any show of humiliation. Twice deposed by two General Councils — twice anathematized by the great and almost unani- mous consent of the Catholic Church — deserted by the secular powers, who had so long countenanced his perfidy and protected his adversity — abandoned by the most vener- able, even among his spiritual followers — and confined to a narrow and solitary residence — the Pope of Paniscola still preserved the mockery of a court, and presided in his empty council-hall. And thence, in the magnanim- ity of disappointment and despair, he launch- ed his daily anathema against Ferdinand of Arragon, and retorted, with ludicrous earnest- ness, the excommunications of the Christian world. Election of Martin V. by the Council, and termination of the schism. — The Council of Constance, having thus at length, through the perseverance of its Imperial Director, re- moved the three competitors whose disputes had rent the Church, proceeded to provide for its future integrity ; and, that no pretext might possibly be left for subsequent dissen- sion, it was determined, for this occasion only, to make an addition to the Elective Assem- bly. The entire College of the united Car- dinals consisted, at that time, of thirty mem- bers; and to this body a second, consisting of six ecclesiastics from each of the five * nations, was associated. It was further regu- lated, that the consent of two-thirds both of the sacred college and of the deputies of each nation should be required for the validity of the election, — so many were the interests which it was necessary to reconcile, so severe were the precautions required, to secure for the future Pontiff the undivided obedience of Europe. Accordingly, on the 8th of Novem- ber, 1417, the electors entered into conclave, and after a deliberation of three days, they agreed in the choice of Otho Colonna (Martin V.,) a noble and virtuous Roman. * As soon as the fate of Benedict was decided, the Spanish nation was added to the four, which had hitherto constituted the Assembly. 430 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. The character of Martin pointed him out as the man destined to repair the ruins of the Church. The announcement was received with enthusiastic expressions of delight ; the Emperor was the first to prostrate himself at the holy Prelate's feet, in a transport of rap- ture, which was shared, or affected, by the vast assembly present. And it was not with- out reasonable ground of confidence — it was not without many motives for self-satisfaction, and many just claims on the gratitude of that age and that Church, that Sigismond and the Council at length approached the termination of their labors. To us, indeed, looking back from our brighter elevation upon the means of the disputants and the subject of the strife, it will, perhaps, appear, that so powerful a combination of temporal and spiritual au- thority might have accomplished in a much shorter space the destruction of a profligate Pope and two denounced pretenders — that the force employed was disproportionate to the end — that the methods were indirect and dilatory, marked by too much ceremony and too little vigor. But we should thus determine inconsiderately, and without due regard to the maxims and prejudices of those days. When we reflect, that a century had scarcely yet elapsed since Boniface VIII. was exulting in the plenitude of spiritual despotism ; that, even to the end of the Avignon succession, the lofty attributes of Papacy remained, as heretofore, unviolated and almost unquestion- ed ; when we recollect, too, how slow and difficult are the triumphs of reason over pre- scriptive absurdities, we shall rather admire the firmness exhibited at Constance, and the courage with which some Papal principles were overthrown, than censure that assembly for not having more hastily accomplished, what it did at length accomplish effectually. Fate of the Pretenders. — The Council con- tinued its sessions * for a few months after the election of Martin, and was then dismissed, or rather adjourned, for the space of five years. Pavia was the place appointed for the next meeting; and the Pope proceeded towards Rome, to occupy and refit his shat- tered vessel. Nevertheless, with whatever security he may have approached his See, he must sometimes have reflected, that there still lived three men, who had enjoyed in their turns the dignity which he now held, and who had clung to it with extreme pertinacity. * These were forty-five in number ; lasting, at va- rious intervals, from November 16th, 1414, to August 9th, 1418. It was fair to presume that their ambition would not depart from them, except with life ; and that any casual circumstance, which might offer to any one of them the means of recovering any portion of his power, would find him eager to embrace it. So long as they breathed, the concord of the Church could scarcely be deemed secure ; let us then follow their history to its termination. Gre- gory did not long survive the act of his ces- sion ; he lived long enough to emerge from the condition of dishonor and guilt, into which his weakness had thrown him, and little longer ; and if his last act had been less obviously the effect of compulsion, we might have admitted it as some atonement for his previous delinquency. Peter of Luna continued for about six years to proclaim his legitimacy, and exult in his martyrdom. Every day the walls of Panis- cola were astonished by the repetition of his anathemas ; but the bolts were innocuous : but for the temporary departure of Alfonso of Arragon from the principles of his prede- cessor, they would scarcely have been heard beyond the fortress gates ; nor did they dis- turb, in any degree, the repose of Christen- dom. He died suddenly, in the year 1424, * in extreme old age ; but his vigor, which was still fresh and unabated, gave some color to the suspicion of poison, which attends his death. It is at least certain, that, as soon as he perceived his final hour approaching, he commanded the attendance of his two Car- dinals, the faithful remnant of his court, and addressed them with his wonted intrepidity. And then, even at this last crisis, when am- bition and interest could not possibly sway him longer, he asserted with his parting breath, that he was the true and only Pope, and that it was absolutely essential for the purity of the Church to continue the succes- sion. On this he adjured his two hearers, on pain of his pontifical malediction, to elect a successor. Having secured dieir obedience, he died ; and it is related in ecclesiastical re- cords, that six years afterwards his body was found entire, and without symptom of decay ; * The year is disputed. We follow Spondanus, aim. 1424, s. iii. The circumstance that he held, at least, the name of Pope for thirty years — a space longer than any predecessor — has been seriously urged as an argument against his legitimacy. * Non vide- bis dies Petri,' the prophetic address to the succes- sors of the apostle, had not been accomplished in the case of Luna, therefore he could not be a genuine successor. THE GRAND SCHISM. 431 and that, being then transported to Igluera, a town of Arragon, the property of his family, it long continued, and perchance may still continue, to resist the visitation of corruption. His character has not escaped equally inviolate ; and the censures by which it is perpetually assailed, cannot injustice be sup- pressed or softened. His talents were un- questionably vivid and active ; but they were of a mean description, — the mere machines of intrigue and subtilty, — the energies of a contemptible and contracted soul. He was eminent in sanctity, and the integrity of pri- vate life. But what manner of integrity or sanctity is that, which is found consistent with ambition, and selfishness, and perjury ; which can wrap itself in duplicity at any call of interest, and pursue a seeming expediency through fraud, and faithlessness, and false- hood ? But at least (it is said) Benedict was sincere in believing, that he was the true Pope, and that through his perseverance alone the succession could be preserved uninterrupted. . . . Was he so sincere ? When he advo- cated so warmly the necessity of mutual con- cession, during the reign of his predecessor, then, at least, he was not persuaded, that the purity of the Catholic Church was identical with obedience to the pretenders of Avignon. Had he been so persuaded, he could not him- self have accepted the pontificate as a con- ditional boon ; nor bound himself by oath to cede, on specific terms, that trust, which af- terwards he proclaimed it his religious duty to maintain, under every circumstance. As- suredly, if his sincerity in this respect must be admitted, we must, at the same time, ac- knowledge, that he was not impressed with it till after his elevation ; and that it was then so closely connected with his ambition, as to make it impossible for the historian, as it might be difficult even for himself, to dis- tinguish between them. The two Cardinals obeyed the parting in- junction of their master, and chose for his successor one Gilles Mugnos, who called him- self Clement VIII. But, not long afterwards, Alphonso finally withdrew his protection from his creature ; Mugnos retired, without a strug- gle, to his former obscurity ; and the succes- sion of pretenders, which had been imposed upon the Church by the Conclave at Anagni, was at length at an end. One other object of our curiosity still re- mains, Baltazar Cossa, the President, the ad- versary, and the victim of the Council of Constance. Very soon after the dissolution of that assembly, the Republic of Florence, which had been unceasingly attached to the cause, or at least to the person and suffer- ings, of the captive, earnestly solicited his liberation from Martin V. ; and it appears that, presently afterwards, whether through the imprudence,* the policy, or the gene- rosity of that Pope, Baltazar was restored to liberty. He returned to Italy, and presented himself as a simple ecclesiastic among his former associates and dependants. His pop ular qualities had secured him many ad- herents, and their affection was not shaken by his adversity. In some places he was welcomed with cordial salutations, but Parma was the principal scene of his triumph and temptation ; for there he found a powerful party prepared to revive and support his ab- rogated claims to the chair. These warmly pressed him to resume his dignity, and their solicitations were seconded by several indi- viduals who had tasted his former bounty, or had hopes from his future gratitude ; all joined in protesting against the violence which he had suffered at Constance, and conjured him once more to array himself in the pon- tifical vestments, which were rightfully his own. This was not all : even in the calcu- lations of success there seemed some ground for hope. The independent states of Italy * The account of Leonardus Aretinus (in Reruni Italic. Historia,) who had the means of knowing the truth, is not so favorable to the motives of either party, as that which we would more willingly adopt. " John, after his captivity and abdication, was im- prisoned in Bavaria. But many had a scruple, whether his deposition and abdication, being forcible, was legitimate. And if that was doubtful, the legiti- macy of Martin also came into dispute. With this apprehension, and, at the same time, lest the Princes of Germany, possessing this image (idolum) of a Pope, should some day take some advantage of it, Martin engaged in measures for his redemption and restoration to Italy. Therefore, when on his libera- tion lie arrived in France, and then learnt the counsel of Martin (which was to confine him for life at Mantua,) before he arrived at Mantua, he turned off towards Genoa; and there being free, and his own master, whether induced by conscience, or by despair of success in any hostile enterprise, he volun- tarily came to Florence, and throwing himself at the feel of Martin, recognised him as the true and only Pontiff. In adventu ejus tota civitas obviam profusa multis lacrimis et incredibili commiseratione respexit hominem de tantae dignitatis fastigio in tantas calami- tates prolapsum. Ipse quoque miserabili prope habitu incedebat, &c." . . . The Florentines, on the other hand, were not very fond of Pope Martin; and he is related, by the same historian, to have been almost childishly affected by a song then popular amon» the rabble, of which the burden was — Papa Martinq non val un quattrino. 432 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. would probably declare in his favor, and the numerous petty tyrants, who had usurped the patrimony of the Church, would assur- edly unite against the acknowledged Pope. These circumstances were represented to Baltazar, and he fully comprehended their importance. Some wrongs, too, some un- necessary hardships, he had unquestionably endured at the hands of the emperor and council. Baltazar patiently listened to the seductions of his friends ; and then, without returning them any answer, he suddenly took his resolution. He departed from the city hastily, and without any attendants ; and pro- ceeded to Florence, where the Pope then resided, in the garb of a fugitive and a sup- pliant. Immediately, without requiring any formal security for his person, he sought for Martin, and in the presence of a full assembly cast himself humbly at his feet ; and while he recognised him with due reverence as the legitimate Vicar of Christ, he repeated his solemn ratification of the acts of the Council, and of his own deposition. Most of those, who witnessed this spectacle, were affected to tears ; for they beheld the man, in whose presence all had once been prostrate, now voluntarily humbling himself before the throne, which he had So lately oc- cupied, and before an individual, who had honored him, for nearly five years, as his lord and pontiff. Martin V. shared the general emotion ; and the reciprocal conduct of these two prelates furnishes an instance of mag- nanimous generosity, which too rarely illus- trates the annals of the Church. The Pope resolved to exalt his predecessor as near to his former dignity, as was consistent with his own supremacy. Baltazar Cossa was ap- pointed cardinal and dean of the Sacred Col- lege ; in all public ceremonies, whether of chapels, consistories, or other assemblies, Bal- tazar was placed by the side of the Pontiff, on a loftier seat than any other ecclesiastic ; he was honored by the confidence of his master, and he repaid it by undeviating fidelity. That fidelity may, indeed, have cost him no struggle ; and if we should believe his former declaration, that from the moment of his elevation to the chair he had never enjoy- ed one day of happiness, the most enviable portion of his life may really have been that, iu which he was followed by general com- miseration. But whether he passed his re- maining days in successful conflict with a bad and powerful passion, or whether (as seems to us more probable) he surveyed with philosophical disdain the dignity of whichhe had felt the cares, and had not valued the vanities, — in either case, he exhibited a vigor and expanse of mind, which is rarely found in man. ... It is true, that the usual portraits of John XXIII. would not prepare us to expect such virtue in him. But that Pope has been, in truth, too hardly treated by historians. His enemies, in all ages, have been the powerful party ; and the monstrous imputations, which originated at Constance, have been too eagerly repeated both by Pro- testant and other writers. Baltazar Cossa was a mere soldier, * — deeply stained, no doubt, with the loose immorality which then commonly attached to that profession, but not destitute of candid and manly resolution, nor of those worldly principles, which make men honorable. It is entirely unquestion- able, that he was never actuated, even in ap- pearance, by any sense of religion ; that he was wholly disqualified even for the lowest ministry in God's Church ; but he lived in an age in which the ecclesiastical and mili- tary characters were still deemed consistent, and in a Church, which had long permitted the most dissolute demeanor to its directors. As grand master of a military order, Baltazar Cossa might have descended to posterity with untarnished celebrity ; and even the apostoli- cal chair, had he possessed it some fifty years later, would have pardoned, under the pro- tection of his warlike enterprise, the pollution and scandal of his vices. NOTE ON THE WHITE PENITENTS AND OTHER ENTHUSIASTS. (I.) Giovanni Villani (lib. xi. cap. xxiii.) relates, that in 1334 one Venturius of Ber- gamo, a mendicant preacher, a man of no * He is said to have exercised in hia youth the trade of a pirate. ..." Dum simplex Clericus ac in adolescentia constitutus existeret, cum quibusdaro fratribus suis piraticam in mari Neapolitano, ut fer- tur, exercuit, &c." ... To the habits thus acquired, is attributed a peculiarity which followed him even to the Popedom, of devoting the night to business, and the day to sleep. Theod. of Niem, Vit. Johann. XXIII. His character is fairly discussed by Sis- mondi (Rep. Ital. chap. Ixii.,) who truly remarks, that, had he been as abandoned as he is sometimes described, he would scarcely have been tioice raised to the pontificate (for he was really chosen when Alexander V. was made Pope,) nor retained so many valuable friends to the end of his life. Leonardus Aretinus describes him to have been " Vir in tempo- ralibus quidem magnus; in spiritualibus vero nullus omnino et ineptus." . . Rer. Italic. Historia. THE WHITE PENITENTS AND OTHER ENTHUSIASTS. 433 eminence or family distinction, created a strong, though temporary, sensation in Lom- bardy and Tuscany. The object of his preach- ing was to bring sinners to repentance ; and so great was the success, and so visible were the fruits of his eloquence, that more than ten thousand Lombards, of whom many were of the higher ranks, set out to pass the season of Lent at Rome. They were clad in the habit of St. Domiuic ; they travelled in troops of twenty-five or thirty, preceded by a cross ; and their incessant cry was 'Peace and mercy.' During fifteen successive days, the time of their passage through Florence, they were entertained by tbat enlightened people with respect and charity ; and so great became the renown and influence of the preacher, that they came to the knowledge of the court of Avignon, and awakened the jealousy of Pope Benedict. Venturius was arrested, and sum- moned before the Inquisition on the charge of heresy ; and though acquitted by that tri- bunal, he was still retained in confinement by papal authority. ' Such,' says Villain, 'are the rewards which holy persons receive from the prelates of the Church — unless, in- deed, the above was inflicted as a just chas- tisement upon the overbearing ambition of that friar, though doubtless his intentions were excellent' (II.) We read in Spondanus, that in the year 1374 there arose in Belgium a sect of Dancers, who paraded the streets, entered houses and churches half naked, crowned with garlands, dancing and singiug, uttering unknown names, falling senseless on the ground, and exhibiting other marks of de- moniacal agitation. Many were found to imitate them ; and thus much (says the his- torian) appears certain, that this effect was produced through the visitation of an evil spirit ; for they were healed by the charms of the exorcists, and by the reading of St. John's gospel, or of the expressions by which Christ is recorded to have cast out devils, as also of the Apostle's Creed. The same writer proceeds more reasonably to attribute their disease to the want of religious instruction. But it was needless to seek particular causes for the appearance of one of those distempers, which have disfigured the best ages of the Church, at a time when the disorders of the ecclesiastical government were so generally felt and confessed ; when the people were beginning to exercise in so many quarters a freedom of opinion, yet feebly moderated by reason or knowledge ; and when religion was the subject, to which the greater portion 55 of this irregular independence was direct- ed. (III.) We shall, therefore, content ourselves with mentioning one other eruption of en- thusiasm, which was more violent, indeed, and more celebrated, than the last, but ap- parently even more transient. In the year 1399, when the Christian world was astound- ed by the triumphs of the Turks and the Tartars from without, and shocked by the schism and the vices which it exposed and occasioned within, a body of devotees de- scended the Alps into Italy, and began to preach Peace and Repentance. They were entirely clothed in white, and carried crosses or crucifixes, whence blood appeared to ex- ude like sweat. They were headed by a priest, a foreigner, whom some affirm to have been a Spaniard, others a Provencal, others a Scotsman, and who affirmed himself to be Elias the Prophet, recently returned from Paradise. The awful announcement, which he was commissioned to make, was the immediate destruction of the world by an earthquake ; and his tale and his prophecy were eagerly received by a generation, edu- cated in habits of religious credulity. Loni- bardy was the scene of his first exhortations ; he traversed its cities and villages, followed by multitudes, who assumed at his bidding the cross, the raiment, and at least the show of repentance. From Lombardy he proceed- ed to the Ligurian Alps, and entered Genoa at the head of five thousand enthusiasts, na- tives of an adjacent town. They sang various new hymns in the form of litanies, and anion" them the celebrated Stabat Mater Dolorosa, the reputed composition of St. Gregory ; they passed several days in that city preaching peace, and then returned to their homes. The Genoese caught the contagion, and trans- mitted it onwards to Lucca and Pisa. Those of Lucca immediately proceeded, four thou- sand in number, to Florence, and, after being entertained by the public hospitality, depart- ed. Then the Florentines adopted that new religion (as ecclesiastical writers designate it) with equal fervor; and thus was it propa- gated from one end of Italy to the other, till its course was at length arrested by the sea. This pious frenzy was not confined to the lower classes, nor to the laity, nor even to the inferior orders of the clergy. Prelates and even cardinals are recorded to have followed if they did not guide, the current ; and the numerous procession from Florence was con- ducted by the Archbishop. And if, indeed, we are to believe the wonderful effects which 434 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. are ascribed to the preaching of these fana- tics, we shall scarcely censure the compliance which countenanced, or at least which toler- ated them. All who joined in those pilgrim- ages made confession and testified sincere repentance. Every one pardoned his neigh- bor, and dismissed the recollection of past offences ; so that the work of charity was multiplied with zeal and emulation, and en- mities, which no ordinary means could have reconciled, were put asleep. It was a festiv- ity of general reconciliation. Ambuscades, assassinations, and all other crimes were for the season suspended ; nor was any violence committed nor any treason meditated, so long as the " religion " of the White Penitents continued in honor. But this was not long ; the imposture of the prophet was presently discovered and exposed, and within a very few months from the time of its appearance, the order fell into disregard, and wholly dis- appeared.* CHAPTER XXIV. Attempts of the Church at Self- Reformation. General clamor for Reformation — with different objects — first appearance of a Reform party in the Church — ex- posure of Church abuses by individual Ecclesiastics — Pierre d'Ailli — Nicholas Clemangis — John Gerson — German and English Reformers — Zabarella — the real views and objects of those Ecclesiastics — how limited —position, exertions, and disappointment of the Coun- cil of Pisa — good really effected by it — Council of Con- stance— language of Gerson — The Committee of Reform — its labors — the question as to the priority of the Re- formation or of the election of the new Pope — division of the Council — arguments on both sides — calumnies against the Germans — death of the Bishop of Salisbury — Address to the Emperor — defection of two Cardinals and of the English — final effort of the Germans — tri- umph of the Papal party — and election of Martin V. — necessary result of this — the principles and motives of the Italian clergy — The fortieth Session — object of the Reformers — the Eighteen Articles — remarks — other projects of the Committee — respecting the Court of Rome — their general character — respecting the secular Clergy — ecclesiastical jurisdiction — the monastic es- tablishments— the real difference in principle between the two parties — first proceedings of Martin V. — fresh remonstrances of the nations — Sigismond's reply to the French — the Pope negotiates with the nations separate- ly— publishes in the 43d Session his Articles of Re- formation— and soon afterwards dissolves the Council — the Concordats — character of the Pope's Articles — Annates — exertions of the French — the principle of the superiority of a General Council to the Pope established at Constance — decree for the periodical convocation of General Councils — assemblies of Pavia and Sienna — * The authors who have mentioned these enthusi- asts, arc Theodoric of Niem, an eye-witness, Poggio, in his History of Florence, Sigonius, Platina, Mura- tori. meeting of the Council of Basle — death of Martin V. — crisis of the Church — Accession of Eugenius IV. his character — determines on opposition to the Council of Basle — the objects of that assembly — Cardinal Julian Cesarini — Contest between the Council and the Pope — two epistles of Cardinal Julian to the Pope — citations from them, on the corruption of the German clergy, on the popular discontent, on the transfer or prorogation of the Council, on the danger to the temporalities of the Church, on Eugenius' efforts to destroy the Council — political circumstances interrupt the dispute — the Pope sanctions the Council, and they proceed to the reformation of the Church — Substance of the chief en- actments on that subject — against concubinage, fees paid at Rome — on papal election, &c. — some subsequent canons — Industry of the Pope's party in the Council — his successful negotiations at Constantinople — the quar- rel renewed — the Pope assembles the Council of Ferra- ra — Secession of Cardinal Julian — his example not imitated — Differences about the legitimacy of the Coun- cil of Basle — the Cardinal of Aries — the eight proposi- tions against Eugenius — strong opposition in favor of the Pope — he is deposed — Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, (Felix V.) appointed successor — dissolution of the Council — Nicholas V. succeeds Eugenius, and Felix abdicates — Diet of Mayence — The Council of Bourges — Pragmatic Sanction — its two fundamental principles — character of its leading provisions — its real perma- nence — The intended periodical meeting of General Councils — its probable effects on the condition of the Church — Ecclesiastical principles of the Councils of Constance and Basle — treatment of Huss and Jerome of Prague — Spiritual legislation of the Council of Basle — intolerance of those assemblies — Discovery of the art of printing. Though Churchmen are usually slow to per- ceive the corruptions of their own system, and unwisely dilatory and apprehensive in correcting them, still the abuses of the Ro- man Catholic Church were now become so flagrant — they had so commonly thrown off decency and shame — they were so wholly indefensible by reason or even by sophistry — and at the same time so oppressive and so unpopular, that a cry for Reformation began to be raised by the acknowledged friends, the ministers, and even the dignitaries of the communion. We intend no reference at this moment to the murmurs of those discontented spirits, who saw deeper into the iniquities of the system, and aimed their yet ineffectual resistance at its root — those faithful messen- gers of the Gospel, who prepared the way for Luther and Cranmer, but whose warn- ings were lost upon a selfish and short-sighted hierarchy. The exertions of Wickliffe and Huss, the real reformers of the Church, will be noticed hereafter: at present, we shall confine our attention to the endeavors, by which the wiser and more virtuous among her obedient children strove, through a con- siderable period, to remove her most repulsive deformities, and restore at least the semblance of health and dignity. We shall observe with curiosity and advantage the particular evils, to which the zeal of those reformers ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 435 was directed, and the perverse and narrow and fatal policy which thwarted it. It is not that any effectual remedies could have been applied by those hands — nor any perfect ren- ovation of their Communion accomplished by men, who were ignorant of the actual seat and character of the disease. The restoration of an Evangelical Church was not the object, nor could it have been the result, of their ef- forts ; but the permanence of their own sys- tem was the matter really at stake — for it is very clear that the dominion of Rome would have been greatly strengthened by seasonable self-correction ; and that an authority, so deep- ly fixed in the firmest prejudices of mankind, might have been preserved somewhat longer, had it been exercised with more discretion, and modified according to the changing prin- ciples of the times. In our progress through the earlier annals of the Church, the shadow of reformation is continually before our eyes, and its name pre- sents itself in every page — not only in the re- cords of the monastic establishments, which could not otherwise have been perpetuated, than by an unceasing process of regeneration, but also in the general regulations of Popes and of Councils. The necessity of new enact- ments, the pressure of existing abuses, the excellence of the ancient discipline were ad- mitted in all ages, and the admission was sometimes followed by salutary legislation. Indeed, it is unquestionable, that those among the chiefs of the Church, who have best se- cured the gratitude of their own communion, as well as the commemoration of history, have deserved that distinction, not by a timid acquiescence in the defects of the existing institutions, but by a generous endeavor to correct them : so that the word at least was familiar and respectable in the eyes of Pre- lates and of Popes, and the principle might be avowed, under certain restrictions, with- out any suspicion, or even insinuation, of heresy. General Complaints against the abuses of the Church. — The first occasion, however, on which the advocates of reform can be said to have appeared as a party in the Church, was the first assembly for the extinction of the schism. Among the Fathers of Pisa a powerful spirit of independence prevailed, and the circumstances of the preceding cen- tury had given it a direction and an object. There are, indeed, many earlier instances of the boldness of ecclesiastics in individually denouncing the imperfections of the Church, and in synodically legislating for their remo- val ; but it was not till the secession to Avig- non had lowered the majesty of Rome and impaired the resources of her Pontiffs ; it was not till the division which followed had filled the world with proofs of their weakness and baseness, of their necessities, their vices, and their extortions — that a principle very hostile to papal despotism established itself, not only among princes and enlightened lay- men, but even among the Prelates of the Catholic Church. Indeed, when we observe the language iu which certain eminent eccle- siastical writers, during the conclusion of the 14th and the beginning of the following cen- tury, have exposed and stigmatized ecclesi- astical disorders, our wonder will rather be, that the system, which they so boldly de- nounced, did not sink beneath the burden of its own sinfulness, than that persons, who were interested in its preservation should have combined to amend and restore it. Among these were men of the noblest char- acter and most extended learning ; men of all nations, and, during the schism, of all obe- diences ; at the same time, they were persons attached to Popery and patronized by Popes. Among the French, Pierre d'Ailli, Cardinal of Cambrai, was a moderate, but earnest, ad- vocate for reform ; in his treatise * on that subject, written about 1410, he censured with great severity the luxurious insolence of his own order ; and it was he who has retailed a proverb current in those days, 'that the Church had arrived at such a condition, as to deserve to be governed only by the repro- bate.' f Nicholas of Clemangis, a native of Champagne, who had been secretary to Ben- edict XIII., in an address to the Council of Constauce, ascribed the schism and desolation of the Church to the frightful ungodliness of its pastors. 'The earliest ministers of the Gospel were devout, humble, charitable, lib- eral, disinterested, and they despised the good things of this world. But as riches increas- ed, piety diminished ; luxury, ambition, and * ' De difficultate Reformationis in Concilio Uni- versali.' It was addressed to Gerson, in reply to the Treatise of the latter on the same subject. His more celebrated work was that ' De Ecclesiastica Potestate,' in which he gave his views of the origin of ecclesiastical, as well as of papal power, and of their relation to each other. It iray be found in the 6th volume of Von der Hard' He was born in Picardy in 1350, and buth Gerson and Clemangia were his pupils. Bayle, Vie de Pierre d'Ailly. t * Adeo ut jam horrendum quorundam proverbium sit, ad hunc statum venisse Ecclesiam, ut non sit digna regi nisi per reprobos." The passage is cited by Lenfant, Hist. Cone. Const., 1. vii. g, 1. 436 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. insolence took the place of religion, humility, and charity : poverty became a disgrace, and economy a vice ; avarice came to the aid and support of ambition ; and the property of ec- clesiastics being no longer sufficient for their desires, it grew into practice to seize that of others, to pillage, assault, and oppress the in- feriors, and to plunder every one under every pretext.' Such being the substance of his general * censures, he did not hesitate more particularly to ascribe the first rank in vice and scandal to the Popes. ' When they saw, that the revenues of Rome and the patrimo- ny of St. Peter were inadequate to their de- signs of aggrandizement, it became necessary to discover new resources for the support of that project of universal monarchy. And nothing could be conceived more lucrative, than to deprive metropolitans, bishops, and other ordinaries, of the right of election to benefices, and to reserve the nomination and collation to themselves : and these they never conferred, except for large sums of rnone}' ; which they often obtained in advance, by granting expectative graces to all sorts of per- sons indiscriminately, or at least without any distinction in regard to capacity or morals.' Such was, in truth, the origin of the Apostol- ic Chamber ; and the mysteries of that fiscal inquisition had, no doubt, been intimately revealed to the secretary of Benedict XIII. The last whom we shall mention, and the * Not that his censures were confined to the ava- rice and rapacity of the clergy; a considerable share of them is directed to their incontinence — for instance, " Quid illud, obsecro, quale est! quod plerisquc in Diocesibus rectores parochiarum ex certo etconducto cum suis Pralatis pretio passim et publice Concu- binas tenenl'? Quod subditorum excessus et vitia, omniaque officia, quae judiciis praeesse sunt solita, publice venundanf? Sed adhuc levia hsec sunt." Nor was he more merciful to the canons and monks; he was even particularly severe on the insolence and vanity of the latter, whom he considered as the Pha- risees of their age. Respecting the abominations com- mitted in the nunneries, his expressions are strong and exaggerated. ' Nam quid, obsecro, aliud sunt hoc tempore puellarum monasteria, nisi quaedam, BOB dico Dei sanctuaria, sed Veneris execranda prostibula, sed lascivorum et impudicorum Juvenum ad libidines explendas receptacula. Ut idem hodie sit puellam velarc, quod ad publice scortandum exponere.' (Nicol. de Clemangiis, de Ruina Ecclesiae. cap. xxxvi. Apud Von der Hardt, torn. i. Cone. Con- stan.) Gerson, also, in his sermon at Rheims, used these words: ' Et utinam nulla sint Monasteria mulie- rum, qua; facta sunt prostibula meretricum, et prohi- beat. adhuc deteriora Deus.' Ser. factus in Concil. Remensi. Op. Gers., vol. ii., p. 625. Edit. Paris. See Lerifb.pl, Cone. Const., 1. vii., c. 13. greatest among the reformers of France, was the Chancellor of the University of Paris, John Gerson. In a sermon delivered before the Council of Rheims in 1408, that eloquent Doctor exposed the vices of the clergy, with the same freedom which he afterwards * em- ployed at Constance in defining the legitimate limits of Papal authority. From the expo- sure of the evil he proceeded to investigate its origin ; and as the general degeneracy of every rank in the priesthood was commonly traced by the writers of that age to the licen- tiousness of the Roman Court, so any effort to purify the descending stream was reason- ably directed to its supposed source. If the most distinguished among the re- forming party were natives of France, the Germans engaged in greater numbers, and with greater consistency, hi the same project. They appear, moreover, to have been the earliest in the field; for we observe, that Henry de Langenstein, of Hesse, a German, published in 1381 a vigorous treatise on ' the Union and Reformation of the Church.' f The five last chapters of his work were em- ployed in depicting the universal profligacy of the clergy. After denouncing the simo- nies and other iniquities of the Popes, the Cardinals, and Prelates, he descended to ex- pose the concubinage of the priests and the debaucheries of the monks ; he represented the cathedrals as no better than dens of rob- bers, and the monasteries as taverns and brothels.f From England the voice of re- monstrance proceeded with not less energy. 'The Golden Mirror of the Pope, his Court, the Prelates, and the rest of the Clergy,'§ was composed during the pontificate of Bo- niface IX., the most triumphant era of schism * In 1410 he addressed to Pierre d'A illy his treat- ise ' De Modis Uniendi et Reformandi Ecclesiam in Concilio Universali.' His more celebrated work, ' De Simonia abolenda Constantiensis Concilii Ope,' was written during the Council. Both may be found in Von der Hardt, torn. i. ■f- 'Consilium Pacis de Unione ac Reformatione Ecclesise in Concilio Universali quaerenda.' It oc- cupies sixty columns in the beginning of Von der Hardt's second volume. % This reformer seems also to have looked some- what more deeply into the question ; for he beheld with dissatisfaction the great multitude of images, which he held to be so many incentives to idolatry; and he was offended by the multiplication of festivals, and the frivolous nature of the controversies which divided the Church. § ' Aureum Speculum Papa?, ejus Curias, Praelato- rum, aliorumque Spiritualium.' The work gained great celebrity on the ContiBent. ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATIOX. 437 and simony ; and the Treatise of Richard Ullerstou, an Oxford Doctor, is said to have guided the views of the Bishop of Salisbury, who effectually served the cause by his per- sonal zeal, both at Pisa and Constance. The Italians, as they were the only people who profited by pontifical corruption, so were they more commonly found to defend and uphold it. But even among them were a few splen- did exceptions ; Pileus,* Archbishop of Ge- noa, and Zabarella,t Cardinal of Florence, acknowledged and deplored the general un- worthiness of the order to which they be- longed. Lastly, even the Spaniards them- selves, the perverse adherents of Benedict XIII., vented at Constance, in some satirical compositions, the indignation, which it was not yet politic to express openly. We have thus seen how generally J it was admitted at that period, even by the friends and ministers of the Church, that great abuses existed therein, that they demanded imme- diate and effectual correction, and that such could only be administered by removing the cause of the evil. Let us examine then, for one moment, the view which they took * See his Ingenua Paranesis ad Sigisraund. Irnper. De Reformatione EcclesitB in Cone. Const, prosequenda, apud Von der Hardt, torn, i., part 15. t There still exists a long and elaborate Treatise, published by Zabarella, • De Schismate Innocentii et Benedicti Pontificis,' either before the meeting of the Council of Pisa, or during its earliest delibera- tions. % In the * History of the Council of Constance,' by Theodoric Vrie, written at the time and dedicated to Sigismond, the Church herself is made to speak the following lines, more remarkable for the bold truths which they contain, than for delicacy of ex- pression, or metrical correctness. (Lib. i. Metrum Secundum.) Heu Simon regnat; per munera quaeque reguntur, Judiciumque pium gaza nefanda vetat. Curia Papalis fovet omnia scandala mundi, Delubra sacra facit perfiditate forum. Ordo sacer, baptisma sacrum cum Chrismate Sancto Venduntur, turpi conditione foro. Dives honoralur, pauper contemnitur, atque Qui dare plura valet munera gratus erat. Aurea quae quondam fuit, hinc argentea Papae Curia procedit deteriore modo. Ferrea dehinc facta, dura cervice quievit Tempore non modico; sed modo facta lutum. Postque lutum quid deterius solet esse"? Recoidor — Stercus. Et in tali Curia tola sedet. Semler, in Cap. ii. Secul. xv., « De Publico Ecclesia; Statu,' enumerates a great multitude of compositions produced by the discontented spirits of the 14th and 15th centuries. Several are given at length by Her- man Von der Hardt, Hist. Concil. Constant. of their own imperfections. . . . We may observe that the lamentations and cen- sures, so abundantly poured forth by those writers, were confined almost wholly to one subject — the degeneracy and corruption of the clergy. This, indeed, was acknowledged to extend to the lowest rank from the very highest — this was admitted to comprise every form of sin and degradation — but this, accord- ing to their notions, was the limit of the evil. Under this one head was comprehended (or very nearly so) the sum and substance of the ecclesiastical derangement. The purity of the system was seldom or never questioned ; the perfect integrity and infallible wisdom of the Church, and the divine obligation to be- lieve and obey, without thought or question, all that it had enjoined or should enjoin, in practice, or precept, or ceremony, or disci- pline, was as strongly inculcated by the most eminent reformers, as by the most perverse upholders of the avowed abuses ; only, it was maintained by the former, that the men, who administered this heaven-descended system, were sunk in a depravity from which it was necessary to raise them, and that no measures could effect this benefit, which did not first provide for the re-organization of the highest ranks. After all, it was but the surface of the subject which they surveyed ; and thus the remedies proposed could not be other than ineffectual. At the same time it must be admitted, that those remedies were properly adapted to the end which they were intended to attain. The demoralization of the inferior clergy was un- doubtedly occasioned, in a very great mea- sure, by the non-residence, the avarice, and the venality of their more elevated brethren ; and these views were communicated almost necessarily by the contagion of the Court of Rome. And since it was become the prac- tice of that Court to attract all aspiring eccle- siastics by the undisguised sale of the most honorable dignities, its malignant influence spread like a pestilence through the Church. Those, therefore, who maintained that no reform could have any effect unless it com- menced at the head, and whose first endeavors were turned to extirpate the scandals of the Vatican, pursued their own views with bold- ness and sagacity, and aimed well to uproot the evil which they saw — only, their views were too narrow, and the evil lay deeper than they were able to discover, or than they dared to avow. Tlie Council of Pisa. — One professed ob- ject of the Council of Pisa was ' to reform 438 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. the Church in its head and in its members ; ' and many of the fathers there assembled were earnest in that intention. We have seen, in- deed, to what insufficient limits their project was confined : still was it no inconsiderable design in that age, nor unworthy of a bold and generous character, especially in minis- ters and prelates of the Roman Church, to repress the licentiousness, and to moderate the power, of the successor of St. Peter. The boldness of the enterprise may be measured by its difficulty ; for, if it was little that the reformers attempted, it was much more than they had the means of accomplishing. The moment, however, was exceedingly favora- ble ; and when, after the deposition of the two pretenders, the See was vacant, and the election about to be made under the very eyes of the Council, an oath was imposed upon the Cardinals, that he among them who should be raised to the Pontificate, should not dissolve the Council, until after the reforma- tion of the Church had been completed. The choice of the College, directed by the coun- sels of Baltazar Cossa, fell upon Alexander V. Gerson presently preached before him, and did not omit to press die paramount duty of correcting many abuses. A great number of the fathers held the same expectation. But Alexander, v/ho was a Greek and a Pope, had no design to diminish his own profitable privileges, nor any scruple in evading his solemn obligation. In the 22d and 23d Sessions he published certain declarations, that out of regard for the necessities of the Churches, he remitted all arrears due to the Apostolical Chamber ; that he resigned hence- forward his claim on the property of deceased Prelates, and the revenues of vacant bish- oprics ; that he would make no more trans- fers of benefices, without previously hearing the parties concerned ; and that provincial councils should be more frequently assembled for the salutary regulation of the Church. The consideration of any extensive plan of reform he thought expedient to defer, until the next general Council ; but this was to be assembled in three years. With these unsubstantial concessions — and even from these there was one dissentient Cardinal, — the Prelates of Pisa were dismiss- ed ; and if they returned to their several Sees with the consciousness, that they had not fully accomplished any one of the objects for which they were convoked, yet were they not without consolation, nor were their labors without fruit. They had not, indeed, healed the divisions of the Church ; they had not restrained the abuses of papal power ; they had not checked the profligacy of the Cardi- uals ; they had not imposed any limit on the spreading domination of simony. Neverthe- less, they had fulfilled an important destiny in the declining history of their Church ; they had proclaimed the supremacy of a general Council, and deposed the two disputants who divided the papacy ; they had freely censured the vices of the Apostolical See, and had de- manded its reformation ; they had secured the early convocation of another Council for the remedy of their grievances ; and lastly, and most especially, they had opposed to pontifi- cal despotism that independent constitutional spirit, which was the safeguard of the ancient Church ; and which spreading from Pisa to Constance, from Constance to Basle, and striking deeply, though latently, during the times of iniquity which succeeded, at length achieved, under happier auspices and in a bolder spirit, its great and effectual triumph. The Council of Constance. — A much more numerous congregation of prelates and ec- clesiastics of every rank, of ambassadors, of doctors of law, and other distinguished lay- men, constituted the august assembly of Con- stance. The place was favorable to the hopes of reform ; for the German soil was more auspicious to that cause than the irreligious and interested cities of Italy. Accordingly, we observe that its necessity was more loudly proclaimed, and its principles defined with greater boldness and exactitude. Gerson once more led the assault against papal delinquen- cy. He attacked the Decretals, the Clemen- tines, and most of the constitutions of the Popes ; he overthrew many of the preten- sions thence derived, and he exposed, in a strain now familiar to his audience, their si- mony, their avarice, and anti-Christian usur- pations.* ' All the bulls of John begin with a falsehood ; for, if he was truly the servant of the servants of God, he would employ himself in rendering service to the faithful, and assisting the poor, who are the members * ' Non Christi, sed mores gerunt Antichristi ; ' and again, ' Non iegimus Christum illi conlulisse potestatem beneficia, dignitates, episcopatus, villas, terras dispensandi aut distribuendi, sed nee unquam Iegimus Petrum hsec fecisse. Sed solum banc potes- tatem ei tribuit specialem, scriptam Matt, xvi., quam etiam minimomundi episcopo concessit.' Such expressions might be flattering to the dignity of the surrounding prelates. But he was an injudicious friend to the Roman Catholic Church, who appealed to the Bible as the test of its purity. John Huss,had he been present at this discourse, might have pressed that argument somewhat farther. ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORiMATION. 439 of Christ Jesus. But so far is he from call- ing the poor about him, or persons distin- guished for their learning or their virtue, that he surrounds himself with lords, and tyrants, and soldiers. Let him, then, rather assume the title of Lord of Lords ; since he dares to boast, that he possesses the same power which Christ possessed in his divine and human nature.* It was well, indeed, for Gregory the Great to call himself the Servant of the Servants of God. He nourished the poor, and was poor himself; he conferred benefices only on men of virtue and capacity ; he preached the Gospel himself to his clergy and his people ; he composed works to con- firm believers in their faith ; he held a rein over the luxury of the Roman people, and rescued them by his prayer to God from a pernicious pestilence.' . . . Accustomed to the bitterness of such taunts, the Pope and his luxurious court may have been insensible to their shamefulness, or even questioned their justice ; but, among the mitred multi- * ' Quia praesumit dicere esse tantam suam potes- tatem, quantam Christus habuit, secundum quod Deus et secundum quod homo.' Opera Gersoni, Apud Lenfant, Hist. Cone. Const. 1. vii. s. xiv. The same doctor, in his sermon, ' De Signis Ruinae Ecclesiae,' mentions eight such indications: (1.) Rebellio et inobedientia; (2.) Inverecundia ; (3.) Iinmoderata inaequalitas, qua alius et saepe dignior esurit; alius et frequenter indignior pne multitudine et magm'tu- dine beneficiorum ebrius est; (4.) Fastus et superbia praelatorum et aliorum ecclesiasticorum — tantus fastus in Dei Ecclesia, praecipue in temporibus istis, non tam multos movet ad reverentiam quam multos ad indignationem; et plures invitat ad praedam, qui se reputarent fortasse Deo sacrificium offerre, si possent quosdam divites ecclesiasticos spoliare; (5.) Signum sumitur ex tyrannide praesidentium — tales sunt pasto- res qui non pascunt gregem Domini sed semetipsos ; (6.) Conturbatio principum et commotio populorum; (7.) Recusatio corrections in principibus ecclesiae ; (8.) Novitas opinionum. Moderno quidem tempore unusquisque interpretari et trahere non veretur sacram scripturam, jura, sanctorumque patrum instituta ad libitum suae voluntatis, prout amor, odium, invidia, spes promotionis, ant vindicta eum inclinat Praeter haec sunt alia signa, videlicet recessus justitiae, distinct io studiorum, praelatio puerorum, et ignoran- tium et pravorum, et hac erit destructio Latinorum. Plura alia sunt descripta in Prophetis de dejectione sacerdotalis honoris, ex quibus et praedictis, sapiens potest concludere ruinam temporalium de propinquo iinminere. A mullis annis non fuerunt tot malevoli, tanti corde rebelles et animoaccensi contra ecclesiam eicut his diebus. Quos in longum compesccre nequa- quam valebimus, nisi signis virtu turn manifestis ad benevolentiam eos inclinaverimus.' Gersoni Opera, vol. i. p. 199, Ed. Paris, 1606. This sermon was preached before the Council of Constance. tudes who were present, some were doubtless awakened by the eloquence of Gerson to a better sense of their faith, their duties, and their obedience. The College of Reform. — The Council had not been many months in existence before it entered seriously into this department of its duties; and a Committee of Reform (College Reformatoire) was appointed to examine into particular abuses, and prepare a general pro- ject for the approbation of the whole assem- bly. This College, named on the 15th of June, 1415, was composed of nineteen per- sons, viz. four deputies from each of the four nations, and three Cardinals. The deputies were chosen indifferently from bishops, doc- tors in theology, and doctors in law. There had been some previous contest, whether or not the Cardinals should be at all admitted as members of this body ; since it was now well understood by all parties, that the ques- tion of a general reform practically resolved itself into a reform of the Court of Rome : not only because any other measures would have been wholly useless, unless attended by that, but also because the whole opposition to the removal of abuses proceeded from that quarter. Of the three interested parties who were at length admitted into the committee, Pierre d'Ailli, the Cardinal of Cambrai, was one. The College appears to have held its first deliberations on the 20th of August; and the subject to which they were directed was the translation of bishops. Other important mat- ters were discussed by it during the autumn following ; but whether it was paralyzed by the pontifical intrigues, or whether some of its members were deficient in zeal, its exer- tions did not keep pace with the eagerness of the reformers without. The German ' Nation ' published, about the end of the year, a re- monstrance against the tediousness of its pro- ceedings; the pulpits of Constance resounded with expressions of exhortation and reproof; and elegies, and squibs, and satires were cir- culated to the same effect in the social, and even in the public, meetings of the fathers. Divisions, ending in the election of Martin V. — The labors of the committee were con- tinued through the whole of 141G till late in the succeeding year; and by that time, as we shall see presently, they had produced many wise and salutary resolutions. But in the course of 1417 a new subject, of controversy arose, which deeply affected the success of those measures. As soon as the See, through the cession or deposition of its three claimants. 440 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. was declared vacant, a very important ques- ] tion was moved— whether it were not wise to defer the new election, until after the work of reformation should have heen accomplish- ed. Whatever was honest and intelligent and dispassionate in the party of the reformers maintained the necessity of that expedient. They knew the ambitious and selfish spirit of papacy ; they knew how the elevation to the apostolical chair could blight the best prin- ciples, and contract the noblest heart; they knew that disinterested integrity in that situ- ation was beyond the magnanimity of man. They determined not to create with their own hands a destroyer of their own works. The nations, which took this side in the dis- pute, were the Germans and the English, and they were supported with the utmost sincerity and firmness by the Emperor. The Car- dinals conducted the opposite party with equal constancy and greater craft : they were warmly supported by the Italians ; the Span- iards, who on the deposition of Luna had been admitted to the deliberations, were on the same side ; and even the French, hitherto the most enlightened advocates of reform, * for the most part, threw themselves into the ranks of its opponents. The contest con- tinued during the whole summer — numerous harangues were delivered, and much violence and much sophistry was wasted on both sides. On the one hand, the universal deformity and prostitution of the Church were exhibited and exaggerated in the most furious invectives ; on the other, it was argued that the Church without the Pope was a headless trunk, which was indeed the most frightful of all deformi- ties ; and that it became, in consequence, the first duty of every reformer to supply that deficiency (such was the nonsense seriously propounded by the friends of corruption) and thus restore the spiritual body to its integrity. This was indeed the last ground of hope which remained to the cardinals ; and it was really firm and tenable, because the majority of the nations had declared in their favor. They contested it with every weapon, and with the uncompromising, unscrupulous ac- tivity of men, whose personal interests were concerned in the result. On one occasion they presented a memorial to Sigismond, in which they urged, on the plea of their ma- jority, their right to proceed to immediate election : at the same time they affected to repel, with some loftiness, the imperial inter- * This sudden change is ascribed to their national jealousy of the English, the victors of Agincourt, ference in matters strictly ecclesiastical. On another, they published an offensive libel up- on the Germans, in which they accused that nation of a disposition to favor the opinions of the Hussites — to defer the election of a Pope, in order to reform, without his co- operation, his office and his court, savored strongly (so the cardinals argued) of the anti- papal perversion of those heretics! The stigma of heresy — a weapon which the de- fenders of ecclesiastical abuses have managed with great address in every age of the Church — exasperated those honest and orthodox Christians, and they repelled it with great, and (as they thought) virtuous indignation. About the same time Robert Hallam, Bishop of Salisbury, died. He was among the stout- est of the Reformers of Constance, and had exercised very considerable influence, not only over the councils of his compatriots, but over the mind of the Emperor himself. * On the 9th of September, five days after his decease, an assembly was held on the same subject ; and the result Avas a remon- strance, in the name of the cardinals, to Sigis- mond, on the extreme danger impending over the Church from any delay in the election of a Pope. It is remarkable, that the language of this document expressed a sense of the necessity of reform, and great readiness to undertake it ; but it was urged, that the ques- tion ought to be deferred, until a head had been given to the Church. But the Emperor rose ere the Address was finished, and indig- nantly quitted the Assembly. Howbeit, the cardinals persisted, without any fear or com- promise ; two days afterwards, a second f memorial, more explicit and decided than the former, was presented and read ; and so firm was the attitude of that party, that the only two members of the sacred college, who had hitherto supported the opposite opinions, now joined their colleagues. A still more important defection immediately followed this; the English also passed over to the papal party. From the moment that the decision of the majority of the Council was contravened by Sigismond, it was very easy to persuade even the most honest reformers, that the dignity and authority of the whole assembly was at stake, and that it was the duty of all parties to combine, in order to repel the presumptu- * Von der Hardt calls him Cajsar's fidus Achates. | They may both be found in the first volume of Von der Hardt'sHist. Cons. Constat. Praefat. in part xx, p. 916 et seq. ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 441 ous interference of the Emperor — and many were probably influenced in their change by that motive. But the Germans still maintain- ed their former resolution ; and though many of them also may have been guided by con- siderations (of nationality, or loyalty) foreign to the original question of reform, a fresh memorial, which they immediately presented to tbe Council, pressed very forcibly the real argument on which the contest now turned. In this paper they maintained, with groat boldness and reason, 'that the General Coun- cil stood in the place of the Church and com- pletely represented it ; that the schism had arisen from the general corruption of that body, and that such corruption could only be remedied during the vacancy of the See ; that if a Pope were once elected — however virtu- ous and upright the individual exalted might be, however proved and old in integrity and piety — he would speedily be stained by the vices which infected the Chair, and debased the ecclesiastics surrounding it ; that he would grope in the darkness and solitude of his own honesty, till his private excellence would give way before the overwhelming depravities of a system, which no man could possibly administer, and be virtuous, — while, on the other hand, a substantial reform, pre- viously effected, would shelter him from the pressure of unjust and wicked solicitations.' The wisdom and truth contained in these positions inflamed still further the perversity of the cardinals ; and what they could not hope to effect by reason, or even by menace, they prepared to accomplish by more certain means. Among the German prelates there were two, who possessed, more completely than their brethren, the confidence both of the Emperor and the 'Nation' — the Arch- bishop of Riga and the Bishop of Coire. Each of these respectable persons had private reasons (which were not concealed from the cardinals) for being discontented with his own See. A negotiation was opened. To the former they promised the bishopric of Liege, which he coveted; to the latter, the archbishopric of Riga — both were converted. Their compatriots followed them; and the tumults, which had shaken the Council for so many months, were appeased by the trans- lation of two venal prelates. * The Emperor, thus deserted by the entire Church, still offered an ineffectual show of resistance ; and at length, to throw at least some dignity over his defeat, he stipulated as * Von der Hardt, torn. iv. p. 1426. 5G I the conditions of his consent, that the Pope should enter, without any delay, even before his coronation, upon the work of reform ; that he should conduct it in concert with the Council ; and that he should not depart from Constance, until his task was accomplished. The cardinals, with their coadjutors,* soon afterwards assembled in conclave, and on the 11th of November following, Martin V., an Italian and a Roman, was raised to the pon- tifical throne. The historian cannot fail to perceive, what was indeed obvious at the time to the most intelligent men of both parties, that the battle of reform had in fact been fought on other ground, and that the field, for which so many efforts had been made, and were still to be made, was already lost. Some nominal im- provements might yet, perhaps, be extorted from the reluctant pontiff — some trifling abu- ses he might be brought to sacrifice, in order to save and perpetuate the rest — with some unmeaning shadow he might consent to amuse and delude the world — but the hope of any substantial measure of renovation was gone. Notwithstanding the strong sense of the Church's degradation and danger, with which so many of the fathers were deeply penetrat- ed— notwithstanding the security and even applause, with which their complaints and invectives were uttered and heard — notwith- standing the learning, the virtue, and the powerful talents which were united in the same cause, — it was no difficult matter for a small body of very crafty ecclesiastical poli- ticians, closely bound together by common and personal interests, and wholly unscrupu- lous as to means, to neutralize the exertions of a much more numerous party, which, though earnestly bent on one general purpose, might be divided as to a thousand particulars. For a space of nearly three years numberless causes of discord, personal, professional, na- tional, might spring up, while the watchful cardinals were ever at hand to encourage and mature them. Every change of circumstance presented a new field of action ; and in so harassing and protracted a contest, superior discipline, and a keener sense of interest, might finally supplant or wear away the ad- verse majority. The Italian Clergy. — Moreover, the College could always count, with perfect confidence, on the zeal and fidelity of its Italian allies. The whole multitude of the Transalpine clergy conspired, with scarcely an individual * See the preceding chapter, page 4?7 442 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. exception, in opposition to reform. Yet this combination did not, probably, arise, either because they were very rich, or very power- ful, or very generally demoralized. In riches, the bishops and abbots of Italy could bear no comparison with the lordly hierarchy of Ger- many or England ; partly, because their dis- proportionate numbers diminished the share of each in the common fund, and partly, be- cause the private devotion of ancient days had there been less munificent than among the younger and ruder proselytes of the north. In poiver, and popular influence, they were precluded from any extravagant progress by the wider diffusion of intelligence, and the free and daring spirit of the prevalent repub- licanism. In truth, among the Italian people, the last sparks of religious fervor were at this time nearly extinct ; and whatever attachment they still retained for their Church was with- out enthusiasm, and not uncommonly without faith. The venerable family of Saints, once so fruitful in every province, was now rarely and languidly propagated. The din of po- lemical controversy, the surest indication of theological zeal, was seldom heard ; and even heresy itself, which was building its inde- structible temples in the north and west of Europe, gave little occupation or solicitude to the Churchmen of Italy. Many of the causes which tend generally to swell sacerdotal au- thority (we are not now speaking of the pe- culiar dominion of the Pope) had ceased to operate in that country. In morality, the Ital- ian clergy were upon the whole less dissolute than those to the North of the Alps ; and for that reason they were less deeply impressed with the necessity of reform. To this praise the Court of Rome did, indeed, present an infamous exception. But the pontifical pal- ace may seem to have attracted to its own precincts most of the noxious vapors, which else would have spread more general infec- tion ; and the prelates of Italy found their profit in the very vices of Rome. Besides, they had been so long habituated to consider the authority of that See as national property, and shared with such selfish exultation the glory of its foreign triumphs and the sense of its imposing majesty, that they rallied round it with ardor, on the first rumor of hostility. They saw that some of its dearest prerogatives were threatened — they saw that some of its most profitable usurpations were assailed: but they did not see the frienoliness of the design — they did not perceive that an increase of vigor and stability would assuredly follow the immediate sacrifice: — they snatched at the short-sighted policy of the moment, and, by defending the abuses of their Church, en- sured its downfal. Scheme of Reformation. — On the 30th of October, in the interval between the triumph of the cardinals and the election of the Pope, the fortieth, one of the most important ses- sions of the Council, took place. Then was made a very seasonable effort, on the part of the reformers, to impose some specific obli- gation upon the future Pope ; and on this oc- casion the scheme, which the Committee of Reform had been so long engaged in prepar- ing, was formally approved, and recommend- ed to the immediate adoption of the pontiff and Council — for the majority were still sin- cere in their intentions, though they had blind- ly cast away the means of effecting them. To do justice to this subject, we must shortly mention the heads of this project ; since it may be considered as embracing the utmost extent of change which it was thought expe- dient, or found possible, under any circum- stances to introduce. The Articles, to which the future reformation was to be directed, were eighteen: — (1) The number, the quali- ty, and the nation of the cardinals ; (2) The Reservations of the Holy See ; (3) Annates ; (4) Collations of benefices and expectative graces ; (5) What causes ought to be treated in the Court of Rome ; (6) Appeals to the same Court ; (7) The offices of the Chancery and Penitentiary; (8) Exemptions granted, and unions made, during the schism ; (9) Commendams ; (10) The confirmation of elec- tions ; (11) Intermediates, i. e. revenues dur- ing vacancy ; (12) Alienation of the property of the Roman and other Churches ; (13) In what cases a Pope may be corrected and de- posed, and by what means ; (14) The extir pation of Simony ; (15) Dispensations; (16) Provision for the Pope and the Cardinals ; (17) Indulgences; (18) Tenths. To these it should be added, that, in the session preced- ing, a Decree had passed to regulate, and se- cure, as far as possible, the periodical meeting of General Councils. In the resolutions, which the Committee published respecting the above Articles, a sort of principle is discernible, of throwing aside the new canon law, and reviving in its place the more discreet and venerable institutions of more ancient days. Thus they resolved, that the Popes should judge no important cause without the counsel of his Cardinals— and even, in some instances, without the ap ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 443 probation of a General Council. And again, that there were certain cases in which a Pope might be judged and deposed — decisions wholly at variance with the canons of the Vatican, which committed to the Pope alone all judgment of major causes, and gave au- thority to Bulls, originating with himself; and which also laid it down, that a Pope could not be judged or deposed on any other charge, than that of heresy. Regarding the Pope. — The Committee of Reform also prohibited the Popes from reserv- ing * the spoils of the bishops, the revenues of vacant benefices, and the procurations, or provisions made for bishops during their visi- tations. It imposed some restraint on plu- ralities and dispensations. The Pope was forbidden to permit the same person to hold more than one bishopric or abbey at the same time, unless with the consent of the sacred college, and for important reasons — though even this restriction appears to have been liable to exceptions, in countries especially where the benefices were poor.f Another resolution enforced the residence of the high- er clergy, on pain of deprivation in case of six mouths of absence, unless with special permission from the Pope. Another forbade the Pope to impose tenths on his clergy, without the consent of a General Council. Another revoked, with some trifling excep- tions, all the exemptions which had been granted during the schism. The abuse of exemptions had, indeed, proceeded so far as to awaken the conscience even of the Pope himself, who subsequently ratified this Ar- ticle. The popes had usurped the power of trans- * On the subject of reservations, Lenfant remarks, that Mental Reservations of benefices were not yet introduced. These differed from othere in that they were not published. If a benefice was vacant, and either the ordinary had conferred it, or any one went to Rome to obtain it, the datary would answer, that the Pope had made a mental reservation to present it to whom he thought proper, t In Apulia, for example, and in some parts of Spain, the reformers allowed the Pope to give dis- pensation for four benefices. In England, on the other hand, they would not permit it, on any account, to be granted for more than two. Clemangis asserts (De Corrupto Ecclesia? Statu, cap. xi.) ' that there were at that time ecclesiastics who held as many as five hundred ample benefices.' And the same writer further affirms, ' that the monks of his day were at the same time monks, canons, regular, secular; that, un- der the same habit, they possessed the rights, offices, and benefices of all orders and of all professions.' Lenf. Hist, Cone. Const., 1. vii. s. xxxii. lating from see to see, without consulting the inclination of the prelates affected by the change. These forcible translations were pro- hibited by the committee ; but it does not ap- pear that Martin V. consented even to so slight an encroachment upon his despotism. It had also been a custom, probably established by Innocent III., for the Popes to reserve to the Holy See the power of giving absolution for certain offences (called reserved cases,) which were thought to be placed above episcopal cognizance. The pretext for this innovation was, to invest those crimes with additional terrors, and to repel men from their commis- sion by the difficulty of obtaining absolution. The common effect was this; that many, unable or indisposed to undertake so long a pilgrimage, disregarded entirely both confes- sion and penance ; while others, whose easiei circumstances permitted the journey, poured forth their penitential gold with great profu- sion into the apostolical coffers. This subject was for some time debated in the committee ; but it was at length unanimously decided, that the established usage should remain. The Court of Rome. — As those, here men- tioned, composed the most important restric- tions, which it was designed to impose upon the Pope's authority, so the meditated reform of his cardinals and his court would have in- troduced changes still less considerable. Four resolutions were passed respecting the num- ber of the sacred college, and the qualifica- tions necessary for admission ; as also, that every new nomination should receive the approbation of the majority of the college. Others were enacted for the better administra- tion of the apostolical chancery and chamber, respecting proton otaries and participants ; the auditors, or judges dclla rota (the parliament of the Pope ;) scriptors of the penitentiary ; abbreviators of Bulls ; clerks of the chamber ; correctors of the apostolical letters ; auditores conlradictariorum, and auditors of the cham- ber ; acoluthes, subdeacons, chaplains, refer- endaries', penitentiaries, and registrars — not for the abolition of any of those offices,* or of others which might have been added to the list, but only for their more judicious re- gulation. • Thus Xve observe, that it did not then enter into the views of any party to di- minish the state and dignity of the see, nor to curtail any of the consequence which it might * The only office, as far as. we can observe, which the reformers abolished, was the * Auditorship of the Chamber of Avignon,' which, since the return of the Popes to Rome, had become an obvious sinecure. 444 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. derive from those circumstances; but that the Reformers of those days would have been well satisfied in that matter, had the Pope consented to part with the most obvious and superficial abuses. The Secular Clergy. — The resolutions of the committee respecting the secular clergy, ■while they proclaimed the general corruption, were more especially levelled against two crimes, the same which, from the days of Gregory VII., had been the constant mark for the shafts of Reform — simony and concu- binage. The enactments which were made, particularly against the former of these offen- ces, were reasonable and salutary. But there could be little prospect of their execution, so long as the court of Rome was left in posses- sion of so much pomp and splendor, without any fixed and sufficient funds for its support. Even had it been possible by a single act of the council, at once to extirpate simony from the Church, Rome was the hot-bed where it would of necessity have sprung up again, and thence spread its pestiferous branches over the whole surface of Christendom. Other ecclesiastical abuses were likewise assailed. It had frequently happened,* to the great scandal of the people, that bishops held sees, and incumbents parishes, without hav- ing taken priest's orders. The College of Reform had already regulated, that the pope should grant no dispensation to bishops, on this point, for longer than one year : it ex- tended the same limit to the inferior clergy. Another, and very important task it also un- dertook,— to draw the limits which were hereafter to divide civil from ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and to specify the causes which appertained to either. The want of some definite arrangement on this subject had, for some time, disturbed the course of justice, and led to perpetual broils between the clergy and the laity. Nevertheless, as it was through that very indistinctness, that the former had been enabled to push their claims so far, it might be uncertain whether its removal, though finally advantageous to both parties, would be very popular among them. Several useful regulations were likewise devised for the purification of the various religious bodies, and especially of the Mendicants. It seems, indeed, to have been generally admitted by the leading reformers, that in the universal degeneracy of the Church, the most conspicu- ous instances of profligacy and profaneness were exhibited by the monastic establish- ments. * Lenfant, Hist. Cone. Const., liv. vii., s. 46. Such are the outlines of the project * by which the reformers of Constance proposed to restrain the abuses of papacy, and to re- store, correct, and consolidate the Catholic Church. And here we should again remark, that the authors of that project were them- selves zealous, and even bigoted churchmen. Respecting the divine authority, the power, the infallibility \ of the Church, they profess- ed opinions as lofty, as the loftiest notions of their adversaries. Still the space which di- vided the two parties was broad and clear and it was included in one question — In what does this infallible Church consist ? In what is it fully and faithfully represented ? Does a council-general, without the Pope, possess the mighty attributes in question? Or a council-general with the Pope ? or the Pope without a council-general ? The last opinion, the extreme of high papacy, bad not perhaps very many advocates ; at least the second was that on which the Italians took their stand, as being the more tenable ; the first was the rallying principle of the reformers, who may be designated the low papists. It cannot be too carefully impressed, that the mighty struggles at Constance respected, in as far as principles were concerned, not the character of the Church, on which all were agreed, but the extent to which the Pope possessed the attributes of the Church. And this distinction being rightly understood, we shall find no difficulty in accounting — when we shall arrive at that subject — for the seem- ing inconsistency, with which the council of Constance deposed a legitimate Pope with one hand, while it consigned the heretics, Huss and Jerome, to barbarous execution with the other. The Reformation eluded by Martin V. — We have observed, that at the Fortieth Session eighteen articles, which were the heads of the resolutions of the committee, were sub- mitted, by the approbation of the council, to the future Pope, and that Martin V. was elected a few days afterwards. Again, on the very day following his coronation, the na- tions assembled and pressed the observance * The above account is founded on four authentic documents published by M. Von der Hardt, from the MSS. of the library of Vienna, and recognised by Lenfant as " containing all the resolutions of the committee of reform." — Hist. Cone. Constan., liv. vii., s. xxvii. See Von der Hardt, torn, i., partes x. xi. xii. Collegii Reformatorum Constant, statuta, sive Geminum Reformatorii Constant. Pro- tocollum, &c. &c. f It is only necessary to refer to the writings o, leading reformers, Gerson, Pierre d'Ailli, &c., and the acts of the councils both of Constance and Basle ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 445 of his obligation. The Pope appears to have promised with great facility ; but at the same time he appointed six cardinals to co-operate with the deputies of the nations in revis- ing their former labors. Divisions presently arose ; the cardinals were indefatigable in creating difficulties ; so that the patience of the Germans being once more wearied, they addressed ( about the end of 1417 ) a fresh memorial to the new committee. The sub- jects urged on this occasion principally re- garded reservations, appointment to bene- fices, expectative graces, and other papal usurpations, and abuses of the Church pa- tronage. Very soon afterwards, the French remonstrated with equal warmth against the procrastinations of the committee, and even presented a petition to Sigismond, in which they exhorted him to employ his powerful influence with the Pope. But Sigismond had not forgotten then- late opposition, nor was he unmindful of the fatal wound, which they had inflicted on the cause. He dismissed their deputies without honor ; and while he bade them reflect, how steadily they had thwarted his wish to accomplish the reforma- tion he/ore the Pope should be elected, he recommended them, now that they had ob- tained their Pope, to apply to him for their reform. At the same time, the Spaniards raised a clamor against simony and other abuses, and went so far as to throw out some menaces against the Pontiff' himself; indeed some of them were suspected of still harbor- ing a secret attachment towards their per- verse compatriot, the Pope of Paniscola. Martin was somewhat moved by this show of unanimity; and thinking to gam better terms by dividing his adversaries, he con- trived to open a separate negotiation with each nation, on the plea that he could thus more intimately consult their several interests. The scheme succeeded ; and as all parties were wearied alike with dispute and delay, matters were now hurried to a conclusion. On the 21st of March, 1418, the Pope, no longer disguising his eagerness to dissolve the council, held the 43d session, and publish- ed his own articles of reformation ; and they should be recorded for their very insignifi- cance. The first revoked ( with a large field for exceptions ) such exemptions as had been granted during the schism ; the second com- manded a fresh examination of such unions of benefices as had taken place during the same period. The third prohibited the ap- propriation of the revenues of vacant benefi- ces to the apostolical chamber. The fourth was a general edict against simony. The fifth respected papal dispensations to hold benefices without being in orders. The sixth forbade the imposition of tenths and other taxes on ecclesiastics, unless for some great advantage to the Church, and with the consent of the cardinals and local prelates. The seventh regulated the dress of ecclesias- tics, according to the modesty of the ancient laws ; and the last, and the most shameless of all, declared that, by the above articles, and by the concordats granted to the nations, the Pope had satisfied the demands of the Committee of reform, as expressed in the fortieth session of the council, and discharg- ed his own obligations. Dissolution of the Council. — The Concor- dats were as delusive as the articles;* and Martin, conscious of this, had not yet made them public ; but continued to press the immediate dissolution of the council. It was in vain objected, that many matters of great importance still remained unsettled : it was replied, that the patrimony of the Holy See was in the hands of depredators ; that Rome itself was exposed to the scourges of famine and pestilence, of foreign and intestine war; that it was the paramount duty of him, whom the whole world now acknowledged as the successor of St. Peter, to place himself on the throne of the apostle. Accordingly, on the 22d of April, the council assembled for the forty-fifth and last session ; and the Bull which released the fathers from their unsuccessful labors, showered upon them and their domestics a profusion of indulgen- ces, as if to complete, by an additional mock- ery, the insult with which their hopes had been destroyed.f On the 2d of May the * That granted to the Germans contained twelve articles, which are enumerated by Sender, Secul. xv., cap. ii., p. 38. Since they did not go to the effectual removal of any grand abuse, it is unnecessary to cito them here. t As this memorable Bull happens to be short, it will be well to record it. ' We Martin, Bishop, ser- vant of the servants of God, ad perpetiiam rei memo- riam, by the requisition of the holy council, do hereby dismiss and declare it terminated, giving to every one liberty to return home. Besides, by the authority of God the omnipotent, and of his blessed apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, and by our own, we accord to all the members of the council plenary absolution from all their sins, " seuiel in vita; " so that each among them maj obtain this absolution in form, with- in two months after the gift shall be made known to him. We also give them the same privilege in arti- culo mortis; and we extend it to servants as well as their masters, on condition that, after the day of no- tification, both the one and the other shall fast every 446 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. concordats were published ; and that which was granted to the French was immediately rejected by them, as contrary to the liberties of the Gallican Church. Hut the object of Martin was already accomplished ; the Coun- cil of Constance had ceased to exist; and in defiance of the urgent remonstrances of the emperor, the pontiff turned his footsteps towards Italy. He turned towards the soil, where papacy was national and indigenous, and where, amidst all the turbulence of con- tending cities and factions, the spiritual des- potism of the Vicar of Christ had never yet been contested. Disputes on Annates. — We should here observe that, while very lofty language was employed at Constance on both sides respect- ing the principle on which the government of the Church rested ; while some maintained that it was a pure monarchy, others that it was a monarchy tempered by a mixture of the aristocratical and even republican char- acter; other disputes were less publicly, though not less passionately, agitated between those parties, respecting much more vulgar considerations. The reader cannot fail to have remarked, that of the concessions made by Martin, those which were not absolutely nugatory regarded the temporalities cf the Church, and the power of the Pope to levy contributions upon the clergy. The reform- ing prelates had pressed these from the beginning among other grievances ; but it proved at last, that the subject, on which those pecuniary discussions had chiefly turn- ed, was entirely unnoticed in the Pope's decree. The exaction of Annates, or the first year's income of vacant benefices, seems to have been that, among all the resources of the apostolical chancery, which was most profitable to the receivers, and most unpop- ular among all other ecclesiastics. The claim was of a very modern date ; it could not be traced higher than Clement V. ; and it Friday during one year, for the absolution for life, and another year for the absolution in articulo mortis ; unless there be some legitimate hinderance, in which case they shall perform other pious works. And after the second year, they shall be held to fast every Fri- day during life, or to do other works of piety, on pain of incurring the indignation of the omnipotent God, and of his blessed apostles St. Peter and St. Paul.' Such were the consolations which were offer- ed to the most enlightened body which had ever yet assembled in the name of the Church, in return for their disappointed expectations, by the very man whom they had raised to power, and whose first use of it was to beU'ay them. They demanded a substan- tial reform, and he paid the debt in indulgences. scarcely assumed the shape of a right till tne pontificate of Boniface IX. The French ' nation ' urged the abolition of this tax with especial zeal from the very opening of the council ; and the ambassador of Charles VI. was instructed at all events to carry this measure. The fathers, in a general assem bly, even passed a resolution to that effect , but the cardinals still exclaimed and remon- strated, and protested ; and, as their last resource, they ventured to appeal from the council to the future Pope. The French replied to this appeal with much spirit and reason ;* and had the reformation preceded the election, there can be no doubt that the imposition would have been removed. But the cardinals finally prevailed, and the odious exaction, under some slight and indefinite restrictions, was re-established. But though the reforming party, which really constituted the great majority of the Council, was finally defrauded of all the substance of its project, and dismissed with a very thin veil to cover its defeat, yet the recollection of one great triumph might supply substantial ground of consolation. The superiority of a General Council to the Pope was unequivocally decreed at Constance. The prelates of Pisa had done little more than overthrow two claimants to the See, neither of whom was universally acknow- ledged, or rightfully established. But the legitimacy of John XXIII. was never ques- tioned even by his bitterest enemies ; and Martin, whose succession to the dignity was only legal through the legality of the previous deposition and of the power exercised by the deposing Council, was the least qualified of all men to discredit either the act or the authority ; so that, whatsoever struggles and protestations may afterwards have been made by individual Popes, the general principle was immutably established in the Church.f Decree for the decennial meeting of General Councils. — The fathers of Constance also carried home with them another source of * The substance of the paper is given by the Con- tinuator of Fleury, 1. civ., s. Ixxiv. Some curious particulars of the dispute between the French and the Cardinals on the subject of Annates may be found in Von der Hardt, torn, i., pars xiii. f It is well known that Transalpine divines dispute the principle even to this moment; but they have no ground to stand upon. If they admit the legitimacy of the Council of Constance, they must receive that decision; if not, they impugn the succession of their Popes ever since that Council — for they all flow un- interruptedly from Martin V. No sophistry can lib-- erate them from this dilemma. ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 447 comfort and hope. In the thirty-ninth ses- sion, held on the 9th of October, 1417, it was enacted, as a perpetual law of the Church, that general councils should be held on every tenth year from the termination of the preceding; iu such places as the Pope, with the consent of the Council sitting, should appoint. But in the first instance, as the actual exigencies of the Church did not seem to allow even that short interval, another Council was to be assembled in five years from the dissolution of that of Con- stance, and a third in seven years after the second. In obedience to this constitution, Martin V. twice attempted to collect an obsequious assembly in Italy ; but his sum- mons were disregarded by the foreign pre- lates, to whom neither Pavia nor Sienna offered any prospect of independence. The scanty synods were hastily dissolved, and the only act which is recorded of the latter was to grant as ample indulgences to those, who should contribute gold for the extinction of the Bohemian heretics, as to those, who should serve the crusade in person. Basle, at length, was appointed for the meeting of the real representatives of the Church, and they crowded thither in great multitudes during the spring and summer of 1431. Council of Basle. — In the meantime, on the 19th of the preceding February, Mar- tin V. died. His long pontificate had been principally devoted to two objects, the re- covery of the States of the Church and the amassing of wealth ; and he had succeeded in both. As to the former, he had restored the interests of the See nearly to the condition in which they stood before the schism. As to the latter, he destined the treasures, which he collected, rather for the aggrandizement of his own family, than for the benefit of the Catholic Church, or even of the Pontifical Government. At the same time, it is admitted that he possessed considerable talents, and a vigorous and consistent character ; and he has escaped the imputation of any great vice, ex- cepting avarice. At this crisis, the character of the successor to the chair was of conse- quence almost incalculable to the Church. The Council of Basle was irrevocably sum- moned ; and its principles, its policy, and its power could easily be foreseen from the ex- perience of Constance. What policy, then, was the new Pope to pursue ? Was he openly to oppose, or craftily to elude, or generously to co-operate, in the work of reformation ? The durability of the Roman Catholic Church depended on the answer. Election and Character of Eugenius IV. — The Cardinals were not, indeed, disturbed by such distant considerations; and the views, with which most of them entered the con- clave, extended not beyond their private in- trigues or immediate interests. Being unable at once to agree, they proceeded to the scru- tiny ; and their secret arrangements being not yet satisfactorily concluded, they continued to throw away their votes upon the names which held the lowest consideration, and were the last in the chance of success. And thus it happened, that, at the conclusion of one of these scrutinies, to the astonishment and dis- may of the whole college, one Gabriel Con- dolmieri, the least and most insignificant member of the sacred body, was found in possession of two-thirds of the suffrages.* There was no space to repent or retract ; the election was already valid, and the bark of St. Peter was thus consigned, in the most anxious moment of its destiny, to the hand of Eugenius IV. Had that Pontiff been as deeply impressed with his own incapacity as the rest of the Christian world, he might occasionally have followed the counsel of wiser men ; but, on the contrary, he was the most presumptuous, as he was the most ignorant, of mankind.f The rigorous habits of a- monastic life had equally contracted his principles, and blinded his judgment ; so that he perpetually mistook precipitation for decision, and then thought to redeem his rashness by his obstinacy. Without talents or any steady policy, through the very restlessness of his character', he ex- ercised an influence which was everywhere felt, and everywhere felt for evil.J And if it * It is thus that Sismondi describes the elevation of Eugenius, without any question as to the credi- bility of his authorities. But we are bound to add, that several Ecclesiastical Historians, of various ages, whom we have consulted on this subject, are silent as to the circumstance mentioned in the text. Sismondi (chap. 66.) cites Andrea; Billii Histor. Mediolan. 1. ix. p. 143. f He was remarkable for a downcast look. • Vultti alioqui decoro et venerabili, nunquam oculos in pub- lico attollcbat, ut a parente meo, qui enm sequebatur, accepi.' — Volaterra, lib. xxii., p. 815, ap. Buyle. f Contemporary Italian historians exert all the talents of partisanship iu his favor. But Sismondi, who has estimated with less prejudice his political, as well as his ecclesiastical character, speaks of him very differently. 'Dans les revolutions violentes oil • on le voit sans cesse engage, en guerre avec son clerge, avec sea sujets, avec ses bienfaitcurs, il manque pres- que toujours en meine temps et de la bonne foi, et de la politique. II y a peu de tyrans a qui on peut re- procher plus d'actes de perfidie et de cruaute; il y a 448 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. were just to select from the long list of pon- tifical delinquents one name, to which the downfal of the Church should more partic- ularly be ascribed, we should not greatly err in attaching that stigma to Eugenius. The unexpected accident of his elevation inflated still further an inconstant mind. Some success which he gained in a struggle with the Colonna family for the treasures of his predecessors, filled him with unbounded confidence ; and it was in such a mood that he plunged into hostilities with the Council of Basle. His first endeavors were directed to crush it, ere it came into operation or even existence ; but finding that hopeless, and con- vinced that an assembly so solemnly convok- ed, and so earnestly desired, must meet or seem to meet, he determined to neutralize its character by changing its place. Accord- ingly, he notified to the President, towards the end of the year, that 'by his own full power' he had transferred it to Bologna, in Italy. Julian Cesarini, Cardinal of St. Angelo. — The President was the Cardinal Julian Cesa- rini, a man whose eminent talents qualified him for that office, in which he was placed by Martin, and confirmed by Eugenius, and who may have deserved the reputation which he has received from Bossuet, of being ' the greatest character of his age.' At any rate, he was, on this occasion, more mindful of his duties to the Church, than of his obligations to his master, and respectfully refused obedi- ence to the pontifical mandate. Three purposes were specified, for which the Council of Basle was convoked : * (1.) The reunion of the Latin and Greek church- es; (2.) The reform of the Church in its head and members ; (3.) The reconciliation of the Hussites. We shall confine our account, for the present, to the second of these, and re- sume the thread which was broken at Con- stance : in so doing, it will be our misfortune again to observe the one party furiously con- tending against its own lasting interests, and repelling the friendly hand which would have purified and saved a foul and falling system ; and the other party, thwarted by perpetual peu de monarques imbecilles, qui aient donne plus de preuves d'incapacite et d'inconsequence.' Republ. Ital., cap. lxx. * ' Concilium hoc congregatum est propter extir- pandas hsereses, faciendum pacem, reformandum mo- res.' Epist. (2) Juliani Card, ad Eugen. IV. Julian places first thatwliieh seems to have been in his mind the most important object: the third, the reformation, lie regarded rather as the means of restoring the unity of the Church. impediments, insults, artifices, so as to con- fine its exertions to unworthy objects, and not effectually to accomplish even those. The former, consisting for the most part of Italians, were the myrmidons of absolute papacy; while the latter comprehended almost all that was enlightened and generous and virtuous among the clergy of the rest of Europe. Contention between the Council and the Pope. — Though many of the prelates had been long assembled, the first public session * was not held until the 14th of December, 1431 ; and from that time forwards, for the space of two entire years, the energies and patience of the fathers were wearied, and their passions excited, and their attention wholly diverted from the great object of their meeting, by uninterrupted contentions with Eugenius. They had come together from all parts of Europe, and their numbers were swelled by the addition of many of the inferior clergy ; they arrived, deploring the debasement, and eager for the regeneration, of their Church ; they were confident, too, in their power, and it was to this power that they chiefly trusted to repress the excesses of papacy ; yet, when they would have advanced with ardor to realize these hopes, they found themselves engaged in a tedious and irritating contest for their own independence. In the course of this contest they published and republished those decrees of Constance, which proclaim- ed the superior prerogatives of the Council. They reiterated the authorized assertions, that a Council General represents the Church, and is the Church ; that, as such, it derives its attributes immediately from Jesus Christ; that, as such, it is impeccable ; that it is thus possessed of infallibility — a boon which had been denied, not only to Popes who had erred in matters of faith, but to the angels f themselves, for they had sinned ; that on these accounts the Pope was subject to the Council in all things regarding (1) faith, (2) the extir- pation of schism, and (3) the reformation of the Church ; that he was only the ministerial\ head of the Church, inferior in eminence to * The method in which that very large body pro- ceeded through its deliberations was both generally judicious, and particularly calculated to neutralize the majority of Italian deputies. It is given at length by the Contin. of Fleury, liv. cvi., § 6. f The c synodal response of the Council may be found in substance in the Continuator of Fleury, lib. cvi., § 14. The original is in Labbe's Hist. Concil. % This is urged by ^Lncas Sylvius, Comment, de Gestis Basil. Concil., lib. i., p. 16. The same writer also argues that the Pope is more properly the Vicar of the Church than the Vicar of Christ. ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 449 that mystical body ; * and consequently (for this was the point to which the whole tend- ed,) that he possessed no power over the Council, either to dissolve or transfer it. But all these, and all similar assertions, fell with- out any effect upon the mind of a pontiff, who was in real monastic sincerity persuaded, that there existed in the Church no other legitimate authority whatsoever, excepting his own. It was in vain to appeal to ancient canons against modern usurpations, where ignorance had conspired with interest to over- throw reason and justice. It was in vain, that all the learning and genius and eloquence of the Church were arrayed on the same side — their weapons were unfelt or unheeded by a stupid and selfish bigotry. Cardinal Julian Cesarini. — During this controversy (if such it may be called) Cardi- nal Julian boldly maintained the principles of the Council and the cause of the Catholic Church. His mind was naturally capacious: deep and assiduous study, which so com- monly contracts a feeble understanding, had enlarged and enlightened his; and a mission, which he had personally undertaken for the conciliation of the Bohemians, had brought before his eyes the causes, the obstinacy and the contagiousness of spiritual rebellion. He was one of the few Italians, who had pene- trated the truth, so long manifest to the nor- thern prelates, that a thorough reformation in discipline was necessaiy for the preservation of the Church. We cannot so well illustrate the condition of affairs at that period, as by citing some passages from the two celebrated epistles which he addressed from Basle to Eugenius. f 'One great motive with me to * This last position, together with some of the others, was proved by arguments derived (1) from reason, (2) from experience, (3) from authority, in the synodal response addressed to Eugenius, at the second session. The argument from authority chiefly rested on the text from the 18th chapter of St. Mat- thew— ' If thy brother shall trespass against thee, and will not hear thee, and shall neglect to hear the wit- nesses, tell it unto the Church; but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, whatso- ever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.' . . Still the question remained, what constituted the Church'? t The first Epistle begins in these words — ' Multa me cogimt libera et intrepide loqui ad Sanctitatcm vestram ; periculum videlicet eversionis fidei ac status ecclesiastici, et subtractions obediential a Sede Apos- tolica in iis partibus; denigratio quoque Anna.' ejus- dem Sanctitatis. Cogit et me charitas qua erga V. S. afiiciyr et q'ia mihi affici scio. Ita enim opus est 57 join this Council was the deformity and dis- soluteness of the German clergy, on account of which the laity are immoderately irritated against the ecclesiastical state: so much so, as to make it matter of serious apprehension whether, if they be not reformed, the people will not rush, after the example of the Hus- sites, upon the whole clergy, as they publicly menace to do. Moreover, this deformity gives great audacity to the Bohemians, and great coloring to the errors of those, who are loudest in their invectives against the base- ness of the clergy: on which account, had a general Council not been convoked at this place, it had been necessary to collect a provincial synod for the reform of the Ger- man clergy ; since, in truth, if that clergy be not corrected, even though the heresy of Bo- hemia should be extinguished, others would rise up in its place.' ... 'If you should dissolve this Council, what will the whole world say, when it shall learn the act ? Will 'it not decide, that the clergy is incorrigible, and desirous for ever to grovel in the filth of its own deformity ? Many councils have been celebrated in our days, from which no reform has proceeded ; the nations are expect- ing that some fruit should come from this. But if it is dissolved, all will exclaim that we laugh at God and man. As no hope of our correction will any longer be left, the laity will rush, like Hussites, upon us. This design is already publicly rumored. The minds of men are pregnant ; they are already beginning to vomit the poison intended for our destruc- tion. They will suppose that they are offer- ing a sacrifice to God, when they shall mur- ut, intellecto discrTmine, cautius rebus agendis postea eonsulatur.' The following sentiment is worthy of the best ages of Christianity: ' Et si dicat S. V. Habuimus guerram (bellum) ; ego respondebo, quod etiam si guerrse adhuc durarent, etiam si essetis certi perdere Romam, et totum patrimonium eccleske, po- tius subveniendum est fidei et animabus, pro quibua Dominus noster Jesus Christus mortuus est, quam arcibus et mceniis civitatum. Carior est Christo una am'moquam non solum temporalc ecclesise patri- monium, sed etiam caelum et terra.' . . Again, ' Pro Deo, non permittat sibi V. S. talia peraiaderi, quia timeo dissidium in ecclesia Dei. Vereor ne advenerit tempus, de quo dicit Apostolus, quod oportet primum ut fiat discessio.' The fears of the Cardinal were obviously directed not to a second schism, a mere orthodox division of the Church, but to the ab- solute revolt of its children. But its destiny was not yet accomplished; one more century of turbulent, contested, and flagitious domination was yet required to fill the cup. But if the overflow did not take place at the time, it at least proceeded from the country, indicated by Julian. 450 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. der or despoil the clergy. Sunk in general estimation into the depth of evil, these last will become odious to God and the world ; and the very moderate respect which is now felt for them will entirely perish. This Coun- cil is still some little restraint upon secular men ; but as soon as they shall find their last hope fail them, they will let loose the reins of public persecution.' . . . 'Should the Coun- cil be dissolved, the people of Germany, see- ing themselves not only deserted but deluded by the Church, will join with the heretics, and hate us even more than they. Alas ! how frightful will be the confusion ! how certain the termination ! . . Already I behold the axe laid at the root. The tree is bending to its fall, and can resist no longer. And cer- tainly, though it could stand of itself, we our- selves should precipitate it to earth."1 . . ' Again, should a prorogation be proposed and a trans- fer of place, to the end that in the presence of your holiness greater blessings may be accomplished, no man living will believe it.' 'We have been deluded (they say) in the Council of Sienna; so it is again in this; legates have been sent out, bulls have been issued ; nevertheless, a change in the place is now sought, and a delay in the time. What better hope will there be then ? ' ' Most bless- ed Father, believe me, the scandals which I have mentioned will not be removed by this delay. Let us ask the heretics, whether they will delay for a year and a half the dissem- ination of their virulence ? Let us ask those, who are scandalized at the deformity of the clergy, if they will for so long delay their indignation ? Not a day passes in which some heresy does not sprout forth ; not a day in which they do not seduce or oppress some Catholics ; they do not lose the smallest mo- ment of time. There is not a day, in which new scandals do not arise from the depravity of the Clergy ; yet all measures for their remedy are procrastinated ! Let us do what can be done now. Let the rest be reserved for this year and a half. For I have great fears that, before the end of the year and a half, unless means be taken to prevent it, the greater part of the clergy of Germany will be in desolation. It is certain, that, if the word should be once spread through Germany that the council is dissolved, the whole body of the clergy would be consigned to plunder.' ' But I hear that some are apprehensive lest the temporalities should be taken away from the Church by this council. A strange no- tion! Though, if this council did not consist of ecclesiastics, there might be some question I on the subject. But where shall we find the ecclesiastic, who would consent to such a project? not only from its injustice, but from the loss the body would sustain from it. And where the layman ? there are none, or next to none ? And if some princes should hap- ly send their ambassadors, they will send, for the most part, ecclesiastics, who would in nowise consent. Even the few laymen, who will be present, will not be admitted to vote on matters strictly ecclesiastical ; and I scarcely think that there will be, upon the whole, ten secular lords present, and perhaps not half so many. But if we dismiss the council, the laity will then come and take our temporalities indeed. When God wish- es to inflict any misfortune upon any people, he first so disposes, that their dangers shall not be perceived nor understood. And such is now the condition of ecclesiastics ; they are not blind, but worse than blind ; they see the flame before them, and rush headlong into it.' 'Within these few last days I have received intelligence, which should tend still further to divert you from dissolving the council. The prelates of France have assembled at Bourges, and, after long and scrupulous in- vestigation, have decided that this council is not only legitimate, but .must also of necessi- ty be celebrated both in this place and at this time ; and so the French clergy is about to join it. The reasons which have moved them to this were sent at the same time, and have been forwarded to your holiness. Why then do you longer delay ? You have striven with all your power, by messages, letters, and various other expedients, to keep the clergy away ; you have struggled with your whole force utterly to destroy this council. Never- theless, as you see, it swells and increases day by day, and the more severe the prohibi- tion, the more ardent is the opposite impulse. Tell me now — is not this to resist the will of God? Why do you provoke the Church to indignation ? Why do you irritate the Chris- tian people? Condescend, I implore you, so to act, as to secure for yourself the love and good will, and not the hatred, of mankind.' The eloquent expressions of reason and truth were wasted upon the sordid soul of Eugenius. He persisted in measures of op- position ; they were met by a process of cita- tion on the part of the council ; and this was retorted by a Bull of dissolution ; both were equally ineffectual. At length, on the 12th of July, 1433, the fathers proceeded one step farther ; they suspended the pontiff from his dignity, and prohibited all Christians from ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 451 paying him obedience. Eugenius, in the plenitude of his own power, annulled their decree ; and this noisy but innocuous alter- cation might have continued for some time longer, without any advantage or any honor to either party, had not some accidental cir- cumstances interrupted it. The political enterprises of the Pope had not been more happily conducted, than his ecclesiastical measures. During the winter of 1433 he was threatened by a complication of disasters. The Colonna attacked him at home ; the Duke of Milan assailed him from abroad ; his sub- jects were universally discontented, and their menaces resounded in his capital; while Sig- ismond had declared loudly in favor of the council, and had even countenanced it by his presence. Under these circumstances, Eu- genius suddenly lowered his pretensions, and withdrew his opposition. The offensive Bulls were revoked ; and under the plea of co-ope- rating with the council, and with the design of embarrassing it, he sent two legates to Basle to represent his authority. This hollow reconciliation took place early in 1434 ; and as the difficulties of the Pope increased during the following spring, so far as to oblige him to fly from his capital and take refuge at Florence, the fathers were at length enabled to turn with some reviving hopes to the subject of reformation. Articles of Reformation. — Nineteen * ses- sions, during four invaluable years, had already been consumed without any benefit either to the Pope, the council, or the Church. In the twentieth, which did not meet until January 23, 1435, some edicts were at length published for the repression of ecclesiastical abuses; and during the fourteen months which followed, other canons were enacted to the same end. Their substance may be expressed in very few lines. (1.) Severe pen- alties were proclaimed against concubinary clergy, including all who, having suspicious women in their service, had disregarded the command of the Superior to dismiss them. * We should, perhaps, mention that, in the nine- teenth session, the council renewed the ancient de- crees about the conversion and excommunication of Jews, and the necessary distinction in their dress and residence; and also on the establishment of oriental professorships in the various Universities — the last, in confirmation of a lifeless canon of the council of Vienne. Previously, too — in the twelfth session — a general decree had been promulgated, with a view to restore episcopal elections to their original form, and to deprive the Pope of reservations ; but it was so general, that little practical effect cuuld be expected from it. (2.) It was prohibited (in the name of the Holy Spirit) to pay any fees in the court of Rome, or elsewhere, for confirmation of elec- tions, for admissions, postulations, or presen- tations ; for provision, collation, disposition, &c. &c. by laymen ; for institution, installa- tion, or investiture, in cathedral or metropo- litan churches or monasteries, in dignities, benefices, or other ecclesiastical offices; for holy orders, for benedictions, or concessions of the pallium ; for Bulls, for the seal, for common annates, servitia minuta, first-fruits, deports;* or on any other color or pretext. The exaction, payment or promise, of such fees were forbidden under the penalties of simony. ' And even (it was enacted,) even, which may God prohibit, if the Roman pontiff himself, who is bound more than any other to observe the holy canons, should throw scandal on the Church by violating, in any way, this decree, he shall be brought to trial before a general council.' This passed in the twenty-first ses- sion (June 9, 1435 ;) and it is curious to ob- serve the desperate exertions, with which the Pope and his legates and inferior myrmidons put every resource of craft and intrigue into action, in order to prevent, to annul, or to neutralize this measure. But they were de- * (1.) The deport was the year's income of vacant cures paid to the Pope or bishop. It was a tax in- stituted by the Popes of Avignon, under the pretext of holy wars. (2.) The grace expectative was the Pope's assurance of presentation to a particular bene- fice, when it should become vacant. This ri»lit ori- ginated in simple recommendation ; afterwards it changed into command. To the first letters, called monitory, letters pieceptory were added; and when it was necessary, letters executory were also addressed to some papal commissioners, whose duty it became to compel the ordinary to present, on pain of excom- munication. This procedure gradually gained ground from the twelfth age. (3.) The reservation was a declaration, by which the Pope pretended to appoint to a benefice, when it should become vacant, with prohibition to the chapter to elect, or the ordinary to collate. From special, the Popes proceeded to gene- ral, reservations; from general to universal ; at least John XXII. reserved, by a single edict, all the cathe- drals in Christendom. This usurpation was attacked with success boih at Pisa, Constance, and Basle; and the rights, which the French Church acquired in that matter at Basle, passed into the Pragmatic Sanc- tion, and thence, with some modification, into the Concordat. The council of Trent abolished reserva- tions entirely. The practice is traced as high as Innocent III. . . . Both the second and third of these were contrary to the canons of the third Lateran council, held by Alexander III. in 1179, which pub- lished a general prohibition against all dispositions of benefices previous to vacancy. — Fleury, Institut au Droit Eccles., p. ii., ch. xv. 452 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. feated by the firmness of the majority of the council ill a good cause: and if many more such triumphs had been obtained by the same party; if many more such restrictions on the worst ex- cesses of Rome had been imposed and enforc- ed, her supremacy over the Catholic Church had not so speedily passed away from her. (3.) The twenty-third session (March 25, 1436) regulated the election of the Pope, and confirmed the decree of the thirty-ninth ses- sion of Constance, which had prescribed a formula of faith, to be approved on oath, on the day of election. The oath was to be re- newed every year on the anniversary of the election. It proceeded to moderate the nepo- tism of the pontiff's, — so far, at least, as to confine their secular favors, — the dukedoms, rnarquisates, captaincies, governorships, and other offices which were at their disposal as temporal monarchs — to the second degree of relationship. New laws were also publish- ed for the better constitution of the Sacred College, which differed in very trifling, if in any, respects, from the enactments of Con- stance on the same subject. The legislation of Basle also descended to some less impor- tant subjects : it consulted the delicacy of ' timorous consciences ' by specifying the degree of obedience due to general sentences of excommunication; it restrained the pun- ishment of interdicts to the offences of the city or its government: any sins of an indi- vidual citizen were held insufficient to pro- voke that indiscriminate chastisement. It prohibited appeals, while the causes were yet pending ; it condemned the spectacles, which took place in the churches on particular fes- tivals ; it promulgated decrees for the greater solemnity of the divine offices, and for the more decorous dress and deportment of the officiating ministers. Such is the substance of the enactments of the council of Basle for the reform of the Church. It is true that, at a much later pe- riod of its continuance, it published, in the thirty-first session (January 24, 1438,) two decrees ; the one for the limitation of appeals to Rome, the other to revoke and prohibit expectative graces, and subject the provisions of the Pope to certain specitied restrictions ; but these, even had they been very funda- mental improvements, were passed at a period when the legitimacy of the council itself was much disputed; anil probably they never ac- quired general authority. Those which we have above enumerated may be considered as comprising all that the assembled fathers really accomplished, during deliberations which continued, at least nominally, through the space of nearly twelve years. Conduct of ike Pope's Legates. — The two legates, to whom the pontifical interests had been intrusted by Eugenius, followed with abundant zeal and capacity their private in- structions. No device, which seemed calcu- lated to thwart the progress of reform, had been neglected by them. Every objection bad been magnified into a difficulty, every difficulty had been swelled into an insur- mountable impediment. The meanest soph- istry had been confronted with the boldest reason ; artifice, fraud, seduction had been arrayed against upright purposes and gener- ous principles ; * delays had been created, falsehoods propagated, subterfuges invented, and all that minute machinery set in motion, which is at all times employed in the defence of corrupt systems, by those who find their profit in the corruption, f To the honor of the reformers of Basle be it recorded, that the intrigues which were eternally in operation to divide or to degrade them, were inefficient : the firmness of those respectable ecclesias- tics,:): their intelligence and their honesty re- * ' Scitis vosmetipsi quoties life vobis dilationes nocuerintj quotiesque paucoruin mora dierum longis- simuin traxit spatium; qui jam octavum annum in dilationibus agitis, semper dilationes ex dilationibus vidistis emergere.1 — Cardinalis Arelatensis, ap. JEn. Sylv. Gest. Basil. Concil. f ' Quis est qui existimet Romamim pontificem ad sui emendationem concilium conjugare'? Nempe ut peccant homines, sic etiam impune peccar evolunt.' ./Eneas Sylv. de Gest. Basil. Cone, 1. i., p. 20. % The expressions of iEneas Sylvius almost rise into eloquence. ' Ubinam gentium talis patrum est chorus, ubi tantum sciential lumen, ubi prudentia, ubi bonitas est, qua? nomen patrum sequare virtutibus queatl Oh integerrimam fraternitatem! oh venmi orbis terrarum Senatum! Quam pulchra, quain sua- vis, quam devota res fuit, hie celebrantes episcopos, illic orantes abbates, alibi vero doctores divinas le- gentes historias audire! . . et unum ad lumen can- deUe scribentem cernere, alium vero grande aliquid raeditantem intueri. . . . Illic cum exeuntem cella aut Christianum aut alium quempiam ex antiquior-ibus vidisses, non alium certe videre putasses, ([nam vel magnum Antonium, vel Paulum simplicem ; et ilium sane Hilarioni, ilium Paphnutio, ilium Amoni aequi- parasses. Plus autem hoc in loco quam in Antoniana solitudine reperisses, siquidem Hieronymo etiam et Augustino obviasses, quorum litterse in conclavi fue- runt, in eremo non fuerunt. . Custodiebatur inter dom- inos magna charitas, inter famulos bona dilectio, inter utrosque optimum silentium, &c. &c.' De Gestis Basil. Concil., lib. ii., pag. 57. It should be men- tioned that this description is not general, but relates only to the fathers who constituted the conclave for the election of the new Pope — the elite of the council. ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 453 fleeted upon the Catholic Church a splendid gleam of glory in the moment of her danger and tribulation ; and their perseverance might still have wrought some great advantage, had not a new circumstance arisen to foil it. Final breach between the Pope and the Coun- cil.— The conciliation of the Greek Church was one of the avowed objects of the council ; and as deputies were expected from the east to confer on that subject, their convenience and inclinations as to the place of conference required some attention ; both (it was justly said) would be best consulted by substituting for Basle some city in Italy. It was in vain that the council then proposed Avignon, or Savoy ; the Pope would listen to no such compromise, but pressed the superior advan- tages of an Italian city. . . At the same time, both parties had opened negotiations at Con- stantinople ; and the contests, which had been enacted at Basle, were repeated, with a dif- ferent result, before the patriarch and the emperor. In that refined court, the superior tactics of the papal party prevailed ; and in the intestine commotions of the hierarchy of the west, the oriental autocrat listened more partially to the monarch, than to the senate, of the Church. Besides, while his emissa- ries were thus advancing his views abroad, the Pope's domestic embarrassments had gradually diminished, and with them his fears and his prudence. Thus elated, he deter- mined again to engage with the council in open warfare. Accordingly we observe, that, about the twenty-third and twenty-fourth sessions, his legates assumed a higher tone than formerly : on the other hand, the coun- cil breathed nothing but indignation and de- fiance ; and thus, after a short and feverish suspension, the former quarrels were renew- ed, and not even the semblance of concord was ever afterwards restored. The second contest began nearly where the first had ended. The Pope manoeuvred to transfer the council to Italy. The council cited the Pope to Basle ( July 31, 1437,) to answer for his vexatious opposition to the reform of the Church. And the Pope, in that plenitude of power to which he had never formally abandoned his pretensions, declared the council transferred to Ferrara. In the 28th session ( Oct. 1, 1437,) Eugenius was convicted of contumacy ; and on the 10th of the January following, he celebrated, iu defiance of the sentence, the first session of the council of Ferrara. On that occasion he solemnly annulled every future act of the assembly at Basle, excepting only such, as should have reference to the troubles of Bohemia. Desertion of Cardinal Julian. — On the eve of the opening of the Council of Ferrara, Cardinal Julian, whose fidelity to the body over which he presided, and earnestness in the discharge of that office, had never been questioned, suddenly departed from Basle, and passed over to the party of the Pope. The defection of so considerable a person, at so dangerous a crisis, might naturally have shaken the firmness of the fathers ; and we can also readily believe, that, after Cesarini had taken his resolution, he exerted his great talents to induce as many as he could influ- ence, to follow him. It remains, however, as a memorable fact, that, among the numerous prelates assembled at Basle, four only were persuaded to imitate the example of their president ; nor does it appear that, even after the arrival of the Greeks in Italy, any one bishop, or doctor, or dignified ecclesiastic, deserted the cause in which he had first en- gaged. The sovereigns of Europe remained equally firm, and the king of France even prohibited his subjects from joining the as- sembly at Ferrara. Questions on the legitimacy of the Council. — It is almost needless to say, that the legiti- macy of the Council of Basle has been a subject of dispute among Roman Catholic writers, and that they have differed, accord- ing to the diversity of their opinions on the extent and nature of papal supremacy. It has been commonly designated the Acepha- lous Council ; and some have maintained that its authority expired as early as the tenth session ; but even Bellarmine allows, that its decrees were binding on the Church, until it commenced its deliberations respecting the deposition of the Pope. This last is the more general opinion even among the Trans- alpine divines — of whom none have been found so rash and inconsistent, as to dispute its canonical convocation and origin. If it be admitted, then, thus generally, that, during those few sessions, which it devoted to the reform of the Church, it was a true and in- fallible Council, the controversy, respecting the sessions which followed, can have little importance in the eyes of the historian; since they were consumed in an obstinate contest with a perverse pontiff, without pro- ducing any lasting alteration either in the principles or administration of the govern- ment of the Church. Deposition of Eugenius. — We shall not pursue that contest into any detail. The 454 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. Cardinal Archbishop of Aries, who was born in France near the borders of Savoy, Was elected, no unworthy successor to the Chair of Cesarini.* Eugenius was presently 'superseded from all jurisdiction;' but it was not until the middle of April, 1439, that the Council published its celebrated 'Eight Propositions' against that pontiff, as a meas- ure preparatory to his deposition. On this occasion great dissensions arose; the prelates of Spain combined almost unanimously with the Italian party ; and the opposition was powerfully conducted by the Archbishop of Palermo (Panormus or Panormitanus,)f who had recently made the sacrifice of his private * ' Vir omnium constantissimus et ad guberna- tionem Generalium Conciliorum natus.' ./En. Sylv. Comment, de Gestis Basil. Concil., lib. i. p. 25. This particular commendation is explained by subsequent expressions. We shall select two of a very different character. (1) The Cardinal, on an important occasion, fearing to be left in a minority, out-manoeuvred the opposition, and prorogued the Council. His friends were delighted — ' Alii quidem eum, alii vestimentorum fimbrras, deoseulabantur, secutique ipsum plurimi, prudentiam ejus magnopere commendabant, qui, licet origine esset Gallicus, Italos tamen hac die summa homines astutia, superasset.' Ibid. p. 37. (2) A violent pestilence broke out at Basle, and swept away some distinguished members of the Council. Every one supplicated the Cardinal to retire into the country; all his domestics, all his friends, joined with one voice in the same entreaty — "Quid agis, spectate Pater! fugc hunc saltern lunae defectum, salva tuum caput, quo salvo salvamur oranes ; quo etiain pereunte ornnes perimus. Quod si te pestis opprimat, ad quern confugiemusl quis nos regell quis ductor hujus tidelis exercitus erit'? Jam tuam Cameram irrepsit virus, jam Secretarius tuns, jamque Cubicularius tuus mortem obiit. Considera discrimen, salva teipsum et nos . . . ." Sed neque ilium preces neque domesticorum funera flectere po- tuerunt, volentem potius cum vitaj periculo salvare concilium, quam cum periculo concilii salvare vitam. Sciebat enim, quoniam, se reccdente, pauci re- mansissent, facileque committi fraus in ejus absen- tia potuisset.' Ibid. lib. ii. p. 48. The man, who united more than Italian subtlety with the courage and self-devotion here discovered, was undoubtedly born to rule his fellow creatures. f His speech is reported in the Commentaries of the then admirable advocate for the independence of the Church, ^Eneas Sylvius. His work is chiefly employed on those Acts of the Council, which more immediately preceded the election of Felix V. Pan- ormitanus urged, among other things, that the Pope's error in dissolving the Council was not a heresy; since, though the superiority of the General Council was a truth, it was not an article of faith — so that the Council had not sufficient ground for deposing Eugenius. This seemed unpardonable sophistry to ./Eneas Sylvius — to Pope Pius II. it probably ap- peared a very feeble defence of papal rights. principles to the will of his sovereign. His talents and his eloquence were admired by all ; his sophistry influenced the weak or the wavering ; and when the Fathers next assem- bled for the resumption of the debate, the benches of the prelates were almost deserted; — of the multitudes collected at Basle, scarce- ly twenty mitred heads could be numbered in that congregation.* The Cardinal of Aries was prepared for this defection ; and he had devised a remedy, suited no less to the char- acter of the declining days of Papacy, than of its most prosperous. He commanded the relics of all the Saints in the city to be brought from their sanctuaries, to be carried by the priests to the place of assembly, and deposited by their hands in the vacant seats of the bishops. At this spectacle, ( says iEneas Sylvius,) and on the invocation of the Holy Spirit, the multitudes present were moved by an extraordinary impulse of de- votion, which overflowed in tears. And throughout the whole Church there was a soft and affectionate bewailing of pious men, who implored in sorrow the divine assistance, and deeply supplicated the Omnipotent God to give aid to the Church, whose children they were. The Session (the thirty-third) was then peacefully dissolved; but in that which followed (June 25th, 1439) the con- tested measure was carried ; and, after eight years of open, or disguised hostility, Euge- nius IV. was at length deposed. * The Council of Basle was composed, besides nu- merous prelates and abbots, of a great multitude of inferior clergy, who appear to have formed the ma- jority; and we observe, from the narrative of ^Eneas Sylvius, that, during the violent debates which pre- ceded the deposition of Eugenius, the prelates were for the most part on the side of Panormitanus, that is of the Pope, and the inferior orders on the other. In the session (the thirty-third) described in the text, ' Nullus Arragonensium piselatorum intermit, nullus- que omnino ex tota Hispania. Ex Italia soli Gros- sitanus Episcopuset Abbas de Dona. Doctores autem et cteteri inferiores magno in numcro Anagonenses fuerunt, et omnes fere, qui aderant, ex Italia Hispan- iaque (nee enim inferiores, sicut Pralati, princi- pem timuerunt.) Maximaque tunc Arragonensium et Cathelanorum virtus in inferioribus emicuit, qui sese minime necessitati ecclesise denegaru'nt.' 'Si enim episcopi baud multi erant, plena tamen omnia fuerunt subsellia procuratoribus episenporum, archidiaconis, prsepositis, prioribus, presbyteris et divini et humani juris doctoribus, quos aut qua- dringentos aut certe plures esse dijudicavi, &c.' This republican constitution of the Council must, indeed, have rendered it peculiarly obnoxious to the prejudi- ces of a monastic Pope. — Comment. iEn. Sylvii, 1. ii. p. 43. ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 455 Election of Felix V. and Dissolution of the Council. — On the 5th of November following, Amadeus, duke of Savoy, was elected to the See thus vacated, and assumed the name of Felix V. But as Eugenius retained, with- out any defection, the obedience of Italy and some other countries, the success of the anti- papal party had no other effect, than to create a second schism. Among the sovereigns of Europe, the most powerful, though ill affect- ed to Eugenius, were far from approving the violent proceedings of the Council ; and the German, as well as the French Court, be- came more distant and guarded in its inter- course with the fathers of Basle; while the inferior princes appear to have recognised or rejected the one Pope or the other, as suited the seeming policy of the moment. And this confusion continued with little interrup- tion until May, 1443, when the Council cele- brated its forty-fifth and last Session. It then dissolved itself — or rather transferred its (nominal) sittings to Lyons or Lausanne ; while the rival assembly, which was still lingering at Florence, withdrew, by a simul- taneous secession, to Rome. Nicholas V. Cession of Felix. — Felix V. maintained his scanty Court, and the faint show of pontifical majesty, at Lausanne ; and though the sovereigns both of France and Germany made some exertions to remove the schism, it continued until the death of Eugenius in 1447. Nicholas V. succeeded ; and the more general recognition, which he received from the Courts of Europe, as well as his more popular reputation, induced Felix, whose ambition was destitute of self- ishness, as his character was moderate and virtuous, to negotiate respecting the cession of his dignity. Certain conditions were ac- cordingly proposed and accepted, and in the year 1449, the creature of the Council of Basle for ever resigned his claims on the Chair of St. Peter. The happy escape from this second peril, which menaced the unity of the Church, filled the people with univer- sal joy ; the errors of the Hussites and the scandals of the clergy were for the moment forgotten ; and everywhere, after the fashion of the times, a commemorative verse was chanted, — Fulsit lux mundo; cessit Felix Nicolao. Though the general measures of reform- ation, published by the Council of Basle, were very inadequate to the necessities of the Church, even in the eyes of an orthodox reformer, yet by concurrence with some na- tional assemblies held in Germany, and espe- cially in France, they became instrumental in improving the ecclesiastical government and discipline in both those countries. Diet of Mayence. — In Germany, a project^ which had been prepared at Nuremburg, in 1438, having failed to obtain the approbation either of the Council or the Pope, a Diet was opened at Mayence in the March of the year following. The deputies from Basle, and some emissaries of Eugenius were pre- sent ; and the Assembly, after some delibera- tion, received all the general decrees of the Council.* We do not learn, however, that any means were taken to give them efficacy, or to establish them as the permanent and living code of the German Church. At any rate, its independence was soon afterwards betrayed by Frederic III. ; and in the nego- tiations between the empire and the Holy See, which were conducted by his secretary, ^Eneas Sylvius, that accomplished politician was less faithful to the interests which he thus represented, than to those over which he was destined hereafter to preside. The concordats, arranged at Aschaffenburg in 1448, resigned most of the advantages which the Germans had derived from the proceed- ings at Basle, and left the papal rights nearly in the situation in which they had been placed by Martin V.f Council of Bourges. — The French were at the same time conducting their national ex- ertions with greater method and decision, and with a much better prospect of per- manent effect. The first meeting of their prelates at Bourges was contemporary with that of the Council of Basle. Some useful resolutions were then passed. But the Grand Assembly, which fixed the liberties of the Gallican Church, was held in the same city in the year 1438. It was convoked by Charles VII., who presided in person ; it was thronged by his most illustrious subjects, secular as well as ecclesiastic ; and it was attended by the authorized legates both of Eugenius and the Council. The result of their deliberations was the celebrated Prag- * The Diet of Mayence withheld its sanction from those decrees, which were directly levelled against Eugenius. j- The Annates, the great bone of contention, were retained in substance by the Pope. Instead of the arbitrary reservation of benefices, he obtained the positive right of collation dining six alternate months of every year. Episcopal elections were restored to the chapters — the Pope only nominating in case of translation, or of a person, cauouically disqualified, being presented for confirmation. — See Hallam, Mid- i die Ages, chap. vii. 456 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. matic Sanction,* the great bulwark of the national Church, against the usurpations of Rome — that to which the French divines afterwards clung with so much resolution and tenacity, even after it had been betrayed to the enemy by an interested monarch. The Gallican Liberties, while they embrac- ed a number of particular provisions, were founded on two grand principles : — (1) That the Pope has no authority in the kingdom of France over any thing concerning temporals. (2) That, though the Pope is acknowledged as sovereign lord in spirituals, his power even in these is restricted and controlled by the canons and regulations of the ancient Coun- cils of the Church,f received in this kingdom. The Pragmatic Sanction. — The Articles constituting the Pragmatic Sanction were chiefly founded on the Decrees of the twen- tieth, twenty-first, and twenty-third Sessions of the Council of Basle. Some of these were, indeed, modified, with a view to accom- modate them to the peculiar circumstances of the country, not (as was expressly declar- ed) from any disrespect to the authority of that Assembly. But the greater part were at once adopted into the Church of France, and ardently embraced by the clergy and the nation. Yet can it scarcely be necessary to remind the reader, that most of the abuses thus removed concerned no more vital ques- tion, than the patronage of the Church — that the object of most of those vaunted resolu- tions was only to relieve the clergy (and, to a certain extent, the people of France) from the contributions, which, under a thousand names and pretexts, were exacted by the Apostolical Chancery ; that the avarice of the Holy See was the most unpopular among its * Pragmatic sanction was a general term for all important ordinances of Church or State — those, per- haps, more properly, which were enacted in public assemblies, with the counsel of eminent jurisconsults, or Pragmatici. •f ' La premiere est, Que les Papes ne peuvent rien commander ni ordonner, soit en general soit en par- ticulier, de ce qui concerne les choses temporelles es pays et terres de Pobeyssance et souverainete du Roy Tres-Chrestien: et s'ils y commandent on statuent quelque chose, les sujets du Roy, encores qu'ils fus- sent clercs, ne sont tenus pour obeyr pour ce regard. ' La seconde, Qu'encores que le Pape soit reconnu pour suzerain es choses spirituelles ; toutesfois en France la puissance absolue et infinie n'a point de lieu, mais est retenue et bornee par les canons et regies des anciens conciles de l'Eglise reeeus en ce royaume. Et in hoc maxime consistit Libertas Ec- clesiaj Gallicanre.' See Commentaire stir le Traite des Lib. de l'Eglise Gall, de Pierre Pithov. Paris, 1652. vices ; and that mere pecuniary motives were at the bottom of more than half the grievan- ces, which alienated its children from it. * We shall not here relate the exertions which were made by Pius II. to subvert the prin- ciples, of which, as ./Eneas Sylvius, he had been the warmest advocate, and to overthrow the liberties, which his own hand had plant- ed. The nominal repeal of the Pragmatic Sanction by Louis XL was never ratified by his subjects, nor effected in defiance of their dissent ; and the articles which were enacted at Bourges continued for the most part in force until the reign of Francis I. The con- sequence was, that the French people, being in a great degree sheltered from the extor- tions of Rome, were less disposed to question her general rights, and to rebel against her spiritual prerogatives. The most sordid and disgusting particulars of her system were not so commonly presented to their view. A smaller contribution, indeed, flowed into her treasuries, and her emissaries were more sparingly scattered in that country ; but her name was less odious, as her vices were less obtrusive. And while in Germany, the re- establishment of the Papal despotism, with all its train of annates, reservations, and in- dulgences, produced, by an inevitable neces- sity, the violent revolt and final independence of the oppressed, so the Catholics of France submitted with less reluctance to her mitigat- ed sway. The most important decree promulgated at Constance was, perhaps, that which fixed the periodical meeting of general councils; for it was in vain to have established the supre- macy of those assemblies, unless continual opportunities were afforded them for its ex- ercise. The spirit of Rome was invariable, and in perpetual action ; it could not be coun teracted and restrained, unless by frequent collision with the restraining body. The wis- est resolutions, unless enforced by the con- * The Pragmatic Sanction consisted of twenty- three articles, several of which regarded the police of cathedral churches, the celebration of the divine offices, and other matters not connected with papal prerogatives. There are also some few which are so connected, which have yet no reference to patronage — they respect the periodical assembly, and the supe- rior authority, of General Councils, and the number of the Sacred College. But elections, reservations, collections, expectative graces, and annates formed after all the burden of the grievances — and to those we may fairly add appeals to the Court of Rome, which were now become only an additional method of raising money. — See Histohe de i'Orig. de la Pragm. Sanct., &c. par Pierre Pithov. ATTEMPTS AT SELF-REFORMATION. 457 stant protection of the power which created them, would be neutralized or crushed in the pontifical grasp. The justice of this appre- hension was proved by the fate of the very decree, of which we are now speaking. It was perseveringly eluded by the Popes who followed, and with so much success, that no other general council was convoked before the end of the century. After the separation of the fathers of Basle, the repose and pre- rogatives of the pontiffs were never seriously disturbed, until the destined season at length arrived, in which they were invaded by a harsher voice and a far ruder hand. It has been made a question among eccle- siastical writers, whether the decennial meet- ings of those bodies, as decreed at Constance, would have conferred benefit or the contrary, on the Roman Catholic Church. It is argued on the one hand, that they presented the ouiy check upon the excesses of the Roman court, which were hurrying the Church to its de- struction ; that in the progressive light and information of the age, an absolute spiritual despotism could not possibly endure much longer, and that the monarchy of the Church could only hope for stability through an infu- sion of the popular principle ; since even the clergy themselves were no longer well affected towards an unlimited government; that many abuses in morals and discipline, which were continually growing up, were most effectually corrected by the authority of councils. On the other hand, it is disputed whether the benefits derived from the three assem- blies, which had taken place, were, in fact, so very substantial ? Whether they were at all proportionate to the weighty machinery, which was moved to produce them ? Wheth- er the non-residence of so many prelates and other clergy, during such long periods, was not a new evil of immense importance ? Whether those divisions and passionate con- tests among spiritual ministers, which seemed the necessary fruit of general councils, did not cast as many scandals on the church, as those which were removed? Whether the immediate danger of a positive schism, which had actually been occasioned by the proceed- ings at Basle, did not at least counterbalance those remote perils, which timely remedies might, or might not, perhaps, have averted? To a Protestant impartially comparing these considerations, it is, in the first place, obvious, that a cordial co-operation between an enlightened Pope and a body of intelligent ecclesiastics, for the single purpose of correct- ing abuses in government and discipline, and 58 otherwise modifying the system by season able alterations, would have afforded the best human probability of preserving the papal supremacy undisputed, and deferring the hour of a more perfect reformation. But, on the other hand, it is equally manifest, that, as the court of Rome was at that time constitut- ed, so generous a co-operation, so provident a sacrifice of instant profit for future security, could not possibly have formed the policy of the Vatican. Those, who have long been in possession of usurped prerogatives, have sel- dom the courage, when the moment of retri- bution approaches, to concede a part, though they should thereby save the rest; they cling pertinaciously to their meanest acquisitions, until the hand of the reformer is at length provoked to resume the whole. It was thus with the Bishops of Rome : educated in a profligate court, and in the narrowest princi- ples, they commonly obtained their elevation by intrigue or bribery. The pontifical digni- ty was itself beset by seductions, sufficient to corrupt the most generous mind. So that it was vain to look to Rome for any other policy, than the most contracted and the most selfish. If these conclusions be true, the periodical meetings of general councils would have only introduced periodical convulsions and schisms. And, although some partial benefits would no doubt have proceeded from their deliberations, they would scarcely have pro- longed the duration of a system, of which unity was a necessary characteristic. The manner of its destruction might, indeed, have been different ; it might have been torn in pieces by intestine discord, instead of sinkiug before the impulse from without. But its doom was irrevocably sealed ; and the seeds of dissolution were too amply sown in the very vitals of the papal Church, to admit of any effectual reformation. General Principles of the Councils of Con- stance and Basle. — Again; however justly we may applaud the reforming projects of the fathers of Constance and Basle, as indi- cating some consciousness of shame or of danger, some foresight, at least, if not some virtue, yet it is certain that their general principles were in no respect more moderate than those of the Vatican. We have already observed how the former of those Councils, after investing itself with all the spiritual attributes and authority of. the Church, im- mediately overstepped the boundary," and * If the fathers of Constance offended the King of Prance by the Orders which they issued respecting the safe conduct of Sigismond in his journey to Spain; 458 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. drew, like the Popes whom it superseded, the temporal sword. But we have still to describe the most arbitrary and iniquitous act of the same assembly. The Holy Fathers, be it recollected, had met for the reformation of their Church. The word was perpetually on their lips, and they denounced, with un- sparing vehemence, some of the corruptions of their own system. In the midst of them were two men of learning, genius, integrity, piety, who had intrusted their personal safety to the faith of the council, John Huss and Je- rome of Prague ; and these too were reform- ers. But it happened that they had taken a different view of the condition and exigencies of the Church ; and while the boldest projects of the wisest among the orthodox were con- iined to matters of patronage, discipline, cere- mony, the hand of the Bohemians had probed a deeper wound: they disputed, if not the doctrinal purity,* at least the spiritual omnip- otence of the Church. Those daring inno- vators had crossed the line which separated reformation from heresy — and they had their recompense. In the clamor which was raised against them, all parties joined as with one voice: divided on all other questions, con- tending about all other principles, the grand universal assembly was united, from Gerson himself down to the meanest Italian papal minion, in common detestation of the heresy, in implacable rage against its authors. Those venerable martyrs were imprisoned, arraigned, condemned ; and then by the command, and in the presence of the majestic senate of the Church, the deposer of Popes, the uprooter of corruption, the reformer of Christ's holy Communion — they were deliberately con- signed to the flames. Is there any act record- ed in the blood-stained annals of the Popes more foul and merciless than that ? . . . More than this. The guilt of the murder was enhanced by perfidy; and for the pur- pose of justifying this last offence ( for the former, being fouuded on the established Church principles, required no apology ) they added to those principles another, not less flagitious than any of those already recog- nised— ' that neither faith nor promise, by natural, divine, or human law, was to be observed to the prejudice of the Catholic religion.' f Let us here recollect that this bo did those of Basle irritate the princes of Germany by an assumption of temporal authority; and this was their great mistake. * See the following Chapter. t ' Cum tamen dictus Johannes Huss, fidem ortho- doxam peitiuaciter impugnaus, se ab omni conductu maxim did not proceed from the caprice of an arbitrary individual, and a Pope, — for so it would scarcely have claimed our serious notice — but from the considerate resolution of a very numerous assembly, which embod- ied almost all the learning, wisdom, and mod- eration of the Roman Catholic Church. General councils, claiming to act. under the immediate influence of the Holy Spirit, were consequently infallible, as well as im- peccable. We shall, therefore, mention one or two of the subjects to which their unerring judgment was directed. In the July of 1434, the council of Basle confirmed a Bull, previ- ously published by Eugenius IV., respecting the veneration due to the sacrament of the Eucharist, and the indulgences granted at the feast of the holy sacrament; with an order for its universal observance in the Church. The thirty-sixth session ( Sept. 17, 1439 ) of the same assembly was occupied in drawing up a decree in favor of the immaculate con- ception of the Holy Virgin.* This article of faith was solemnly enjoined to all good Cath- olics ; and an universal festival was instituted in its honor, ' according to the custom of the Roman Church.' Two years afterwards, at their forty-third meeting, the same fathers confirmed, after a very long deliberation, the feast of the visitation of the Holy Virgin. They enacted that it should be celebrated throughout the whole Church by all the faith- ful; and they accorded to those, who should assist at matins, at the processions, at the sermon, at mass, at the first and at the second vespers, a hundred days of indulgences for each of those offices. At the same time, while they were thus extending the reign of superstition over their obedient children, they et privikgio reddiderit alienum, nee aliqua sibi fides ant promissio de jure naturali, divino vel humano, fuerit in prejudicitun Catholiae fidei observanda: idcirco dicta sancta synodus declarat, &c.' The words are cited by Hallam (Middle Ages, chap, vii.), without suspicion. We find it asserted, however, by Roman Catholics, that they exist in no MS. except that in the Imperial Library at Vienna; and that even there the formal signatures, attached to the other articles, are not subscribed to this; hence they infer its epuriousness. We should remark that Von der Hardt has published it (torn, iv., p. 521,) without any expression of doubt. * That is, that the holy Virgin was preserved in her conception from the stain of original sin. We observe that bachelors in theology, and others in the University of Paris, were compelled to subscribe, on oath, to their belief in this doctrine. In Spain it is considered an essential part of die Catholic faith at this moment. THE HUSSITES. 459 were contesting the double communion with the Bohemian rebels, and refusing every con- cession to reason and to scripture, excepting such* as was extorted from them by force. Some individuals must certainly have existed among them, who had penetrated the inward depravity of their system and saw the totter- ing ground on which it stood ; but they be- lieved, no doubt, that things would continue to be, as they had been ; they were blind to the slow but irresistible progress of inquiry and knowledge. From the days of St. Bernard to those of Bossuet the extirpation of heresy formed a part or an object \ of every scheme of Church reform proposed by churchmen. The principle of toleration was unknown in the ecclesiastical policy; it may have guided the private practice of many enlightened in- dividuals, but it was never inscribed in the code of the Church. Those very councils, from whose generous professions and pop- ular constitution a wiser legislation might have been expected, did but exclude it more fiercely, and banish it more hopelessly. But, in return for their adherence to the favorite vice of the Church, did they amend any maxim of its government? Did they uproot any unscriptural tenet, any superstitious be- lief, any profitable imposture, any senseless ceremony, or degrading practice? Did they wash away any spiritual stain from the sanc- tuary, now that the light from abroad was breaking in upon it? On the contrary, they not only persevered in maintaining every absurdity which had been transmitted to * The concession of the council respecting the double communion amounted, at last, only to this, that whether the sacrament was administered in one kind or in both, it was still useful to communicants — • ' for there could be no doubt that Christ was entire in either element; and that the custom of communica- ting the laity in one kind, introduced with reason by the Church and holy fathers, long observed and ap- proved by theologians and canonists, should pass for a law, neither to be censured nor altered without the authority of the Church.' This decree was publish- ed in 1437, in the thirtieth session. t For instance, at Constance it formed a part of the scheme of the reformers. To ' repress simony, and prosecute Jerome of Prague,' were joint subjects of the same remonstrances. To restore the unity of the Church was to reform the Church. But at Basle the reformation in discipline was chiefly recommen- ded as the means of extirpating heresy. (See the passages above cited from Cardinal Julian's two letters.) But it never occurred to either council to consider, whether the heretics might not possibly be risht; or, being wrong, whether they might not safe- ly be tolerated. them, but showed a preposterous anxiety to increase the number. It is perfectly true that, in mere matters of discipline, they were fearless innovators, and that they assailed with ardor the more palpable iniquities of the Vatican. But this was the extent of their daring ; this was the limit, as they thought, of safe and legitimate reform ; all beyond it was inviolable ground. Thus it was, that to question the sanctity of their spiritual corruptions was deemed profane and heretical; and their eyes were wilfully closed against the unalterable truth, that the Church of Christ cannot permanently stand on any other foundation, than the gospel of Christ. In the meantime, while the fathers of Basle, who saw some part of their danger, were ineffectually contending with an infat- uated pontiff, who was blind to the whole, the art of printing was discovered ; and the star of universal knowledge, the future arbiter of Churches and of Empires, arose unheeded from the restless bosom of Germany. CHAPTER XXV. History of the Hussites. ( 1.) General fidelity of England to the Roman See— The beginnings of Wiclif, and the hostility he encountered— To what extent his opposition to Home was popular — His death at Lutterworth, and the exhumation of his remains in pursuance of a decree of the Council of Constance— His opinions on several important points —He was calumniated by the high churchmen — His translation of the Bible.— (II.) The writings of Wiclif introduced into Bohemia— Origin and qualities of John Hups— His sermons in the Chapel of Bethlehem— Di- vision in the University of Prague— Secession of the Germans, in hostility against Huss— lie incurs the dis- pleasure of the Archbishop of Prague— of John XXIII. —is summoned before the Council of Constance— His attachment to the character of Wiclif— Opinions as- cribed to the Vaudois and Hussites by jEneas Sylvius — many of them disclaimed by Huss— Notion respecting tithes— The restoration of the cup to the laity— de- manded not by Huss, but by Jacobellusof Misnia— The principle of persecution advocated by Gerson — Huss proceeds to Constance— The safe conduct of the Em- peror— The motives of Huss— Assurances of protection — nevertheless Huss is placed in confinement — and eight articles alleged against him— Condemnation of Wiclif— A public tiial granted to Huss— The insults and calumnies to which he is exposed — Three articles to which he adhered— Principles of the Council— Huss refuses to tetract— Declaration of Sigismond— Various solicitations and trials to which Huss is subject during his imprisonment— Overture made to him by Sigismond —Interview between Huss and John of Chlurn— The sentence passed on Huss— The process of his degrada- tion—and execution— Two principal causps of his des- truction.—(III.) Jerome of Prague appears before the Council— His retractation— Subsequent avowal of his opinions— and execution— Observations.— (IV.) Move- 460 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. ments occasioned in Bohemia by these executions — The name of Thaborite assumed by the Insurgents — The triumphs of Zisca — Massacre of the Adamites — The Bohemian Deputies proceed to the Council of Basle — The four articles proposed by them — and the consequent ineffectual debate — The scene of negotia- tion then removed to Prague— Various parties there — Defeat and massacre of the Thaborites — A compact concluded between Sigismond and the Separatists — Real principles of Rome — The Pope refuses to confirm the compact, and the dissensions continue — under Pius II. and Paul II. — Many of the opinions of the Hussites perpetuated by the ' Bohemian Brothers,' who became celebrated in the next century. I. The Roman See had been long accus- tomed to consider the English as the most obedient and exemplary among its subjects — an equivocal merit, which it rewarded by more oppressive extortions and more con- temptuous insult. It is true, that our kings and statesmen had made at various times some vigorous exertions to mitigate the Papal dominion ; but the Popes were enabled to thwart or elude their efforts by the fidelity of the clergy and the people.* Nor was it only the praise of ecclesiastical obsequious- ness that our Catholic ancestors deserved of the Holy See ; that of immaculate doctrinal purity was ascribed to them with equal jus- tice. They received with reverence every innovation in their belief, every demand on their credulity, which proceeded from the unerring oracles of the Church ; but they faithfully discouraged any new opinions orig- inating in any other quarter. The conti- nental heresies of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries had not been allowed to deiile their sanctuary ; still less had it been profaned by any weeds of indigenous growth. The land, in which Wiclif was already preparing his immortal weapons for the contest, was that, on which the pontifical regards were fixed with the deepest complacency and most unsuspecting confidence. Wiclif. — John of Wiclif f was born in Yorkshire about the year 1324. He was educated at Oxford ; and the great proficien- cy, which he made in the learning of the * The statutes of provisors and pramunire, en- acted in 1350, anticipated most of the articles of the Pragmatic Sanction of France, — since tlie first res- trained the usurpation of Church patronage by the Pope, and the second protected the temporal rights of the Crown ; but neither of them was observed, and the Pope continued to fill the Sees with foreign pre- lates. t We do not profess, in the present history, to treat in any detail the ecclesiastical affairs of Eng- land; and in the following short account of Wiclif there is little which may not be found much more fully and eloquently expressed in Professor Le Bas' •Life of Wiclif.' schools, did not prevent him from acquiring and deserving the title of the Evangelic, or Gospel, Doctor. His earlier life was distin- guished by a bold attack on the corruptions of the clergy, and by great zeal in the contest with the Mendicants, which, in 1360, dis- turbed the university and the Church. He was raised to the theological chair in 1372; he had previously defended the cause of the Crown against the Pope, respecting the pay- ment of the tribute imposed by Innocent III., and he was known to harbor many anti-papal opinions: but he was not yet committed in direct opposition to Rome. Soon afterwards he formed part of an embassy to Avignon, instructed to represent and remove the griev- ances of the Anglican Church. It was not till his return from that mission, when his language was heated by long-treasured indig- nation, or by the near spectacle of pontifical impurity, that the reformer first incurred the displeasure of the English hierarchy. He was cited before a convocation, held at St. Paul's in 1377; and it seems probable, that he owed his preservation to the powerful protection of John Duke of Lancaster. At the same time the Vatican thundered; and the heresy of Wiclif was compared to that of Marsilius of Padua and others, who had been sheltered against the oppression of John XXII. by the imperial patronage. But the Papal Bull was so little regarded at Oxford,* that it was even made a question, whether it should not be ignominiously rejected ; and when the offender was subsequently sum- moned to Lambeth, he was dismissed with a simple injunction to abstain from diffusing his opinions. Howbeit, the Pope and his myrmidons continued eager and constant in the pursuit ; and there are many who believe, that it was the timely circumstance of the schism, which alone defrauded persecution of its intended victim. On the other hand, the ardor of Wiclif f was still further inflamed by the appearance of this new deformity — when he saw ' the head of Antichrist cloven in twain, and the two parts made to fight against each other.' * ' Din in pendulo ha?rebant, utrum papalem Bul- lam deberent cum honore suscipere, vel ornnino cum dedecore refutare.' Walsingham. f One of the latest labors of his life was another attack on the delinquencies of the clergy, which he described under thirty-three heads in the tract ' How the office of curates is ordained of God.' The more profound sense of those delinquencies which he had derived from inveterate habits and principles of piety, gave an ardor to the expressions of his advancing age which surpassed that of his youthful enthusiasm THE HUSSITES, 461 He even proceeded so far, as to exhort the princes of Europe to seize that signal oppor- tunity of extinguishing the evil entirely. But in their eyes it did not perhaps appear to be an evil at all — at least it was still so dee; ly rooted in the prejudices of the people, thul its extirpation, even had they thought it desir- able, had not yet been practicable. It was the misfortune of Wiclif, as it was his great- est glory, that he anticipated, by almost two centuries, the principles of a more enlightened generation ; and scattered his holy lessons on a soil, nor yet prepared to give them perfect life and maturity. As long as Wiclif confined, or nearly con- fined, his vehement reprehensions to the de- linquencies of the clergy, or the anti-Chris- tian spirit of the Court of Rome— so long he obtained many and powerful disciples, and could count on their attachment and fidelity. But no sooner did he rise from that manifest and intelligible ground of dissent, and ad- vance into the region of doctrinal disputation, than the enthusiasm and number of his fol- lowers declined, and even John of Lancaster strongly enjoined him to desist. In 1381 -2 he opened his Sacramentary Controversy ; some considerable tumults followed; he was cited in consequence before the Convention at Oxford, and banished from that city. He retired to his rectory at Lutterworth ; and after two more years diligently employed in the offices of piety, he died there in peaceful and honorable security — security which was alike honorable to his own character, to the firmness of his illustrious protectors, and to the moderation of the English prelacy. His opinions were never extinguished ; and his name continued so formidable to the cham- pions of the Church, that, after an interval of thirty years— after all personal malice and jealousy had long passed away — the Council of Reformers at Constance published that memorable edict, by which 'the body and bones of Wiclif were to be taken from the ground, and thrown far away from the burial of any Church.'. . . . The decree met with a tardy obedience : after the space of thir- teen years, the remains were disinterred and burnt, and the ashes cast into the adjoining brook. 'The brook (says Fuller, in words which should be engraven on every heart) did convey his ashes into Avon ; Avon into Severn ; Severn into the narrow seas ; they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wiclif are the emblem of his doc- trine, which now is dispersed all the world over.' Opinions of Wiclif. — His doctrine was formed, with an entire disregard of all spir- itual authority, on the foundation of Scrip- ture alone — for ' the Scripture alone (as he said) is truth.' Various innovations of the Roman Church were opposed by him with various degrees of confidence. Respecting images and the invocation of the saints he wrote at no great length, but with resonable- ness and moderation. He rejected transub- stantiation, according to the sense of the Church ; but he admitted a sort of real pre- sence, without affecting to determine the manner. His notion concerning purgatory seems to have gone farther from the belief in which he was educated, as he gradually ad- vanced in knowledge ; but he never entirely threw off his original impressions. At last, indeed, he might appear to have considered it as a place of sleep ; but his expressions are vague and betray the ignorance, which he was not careful to conceal, either from others or from himself. On other matters he ex- pressed much bolder opinions. He rejected auricular confession ; he held pardons and indulgences to be nothing but 'a subtle mer- chandise of anti-Christian clerks, whereby they magnified their own fictitious power; and instead of causing men to dread sin, en- couraged them to wallow therein like hogs.' Excommunication and interdicts were repu- diated with equal disdain. He reprobated the compulsory celibacy of the clergy and the imposition of monastic vows; and visited with the austerity of a Puritan, not only the vain and fantastic ceremonies of the Church, but even the devout use of holy psalmody. In the granting of absolution he treated the office of the priest as strictly ministerial and declaratory ; and he hastily pronounced con- firmation to be a mere ecclesiastical inven- tion, for the purpose of unduly elevating the episcopal dignity. He appears not to have disputed, that the Pope was the highest spir- itual authority in the Church ; but he reject- ed with equal scorn his ghostly infallibility and his secular supremacy; and his abhor- rence of the court of anti-Christ was so strong, as to be a continual incentive to the bitterest censure. According to the original institution he considered bishops and priests as the same order; and he ascribed (through a defect in historical knowledge) the distinc- tion, which afterwards divided them, to the imperial supremacy. He objected to the possession of any fixed property by the cler- gy, and maintained that the ecclesiastical endowments were, in their origin, eleemosy 462 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. nary, and that they remained at the disposal of the secular government.* Such were the opinions which Wiclif pro- mulgated in the theological chair, and in the fourteenth century. His reputation and his dignity raised him far ahove contempt ; but at the same time they imbittered the malig- nity of his enemies. Yet, monstrous as many of his real tenets must have appeared in that age, recourse was had to the usual expedient of charging him with absurd inferences and notions f wholly at variance with any that he professed — as if the churchmen of those days had some secret consciousness of the weak- ness of their cause, and despaired to make the enemies of their system generally detes- table, unless they could also stigmatize them as foes to the acknowledged principles of re- ligion, of morality, and of reason. We are not surprised by such calumnies ; neither is it strange that the dissemination of his actual doctrines (for they were diligently dissemi- nated by emissaries } employed by him for that purpose) was followed by some tumults and disorders. The first open struggles of reason against prescription and prejudice — its first appeals to the sense and virtue of man- kind against particular interests and estab- lished absurdities, are seldom unattended by popular heats and commotions ; and the won- der in this case rather is, that the prematurity of the Reformation did not occasion the mar- tyrdom of the reformer. For many of Wiclif 's opinions were too ad- vanced and ripe for the bleak season in which he lived. They were calculated, indeed, for the consideration of all virtuous and disin- terested men ; and they were sure to create in succeeding generations a disposition towards better principles of belief and practice; but they could look for no general reception among those, to whom they were first ad- * It is observed that, with these opinions, Wiclif held the Divinity Professorship at Oxford, a Preben- dal Stall, and the Rectory of Lutterworth. He thought it excusable, no doubt, to conform to the system which he found established, and his enemies at the time thought it no crime in him that he did so; yet he would have stood higher with posterity, had he dis- dained the plausible excuse, and placed the unequivo- cal seal of private disinterestedness and generosity upon his public principles. f They are to be found in great numbers, chiefly among the articles of impeachment, levelled against his name and memory, and published by Popes and Councils. One error ascribed to him is, ' that he represented God as subject to the devil.' X Men whom he called his ' poor priests.' See chap. x. of Le Bas' Life of Wiclif. dressed. Therefore was it wisely determined by that admirable Christian, when he sent them forth into a prejudiced and ignorant world, to promulgate along with them the sa- cred volume on which they professed to stand. His translation and circulation of the Bible was that among his labors, which secured the efficacy, as it was itself the crown, of all the others. This was the life of the system which he destined to be imperishable — this the trea- sure which he bequeathed to future * and to better ages, for their immortal inheritance. John^ Hass. — II. The queen of Richard II. was a Bohemian princess ; and on the death of her husband, she returned, with a train of attendants, to her native land. It is commonly believed, that these persons intro- duced a precious, but a dearly preserved, possession among their countrymen — the works of Wiclif. Others suppose this pre- sent to have been made by an Englishman who had travelled to Prague; others by a Bohemian who had studied at Oxford. All may possibly have contributed ; but in re- spect to the more important fact, there seems to be no dispute, that the writings of Wiclif kindled the first sparks of the Bohemian her- esies. During the latter days of that venerable teacher, a youth was growing up in an ob- scure village of Bohemia, who was destined to bear, in his turn, the torch of truth, and to transmit it with a martyr's hand to a long succession of disciples — and he was worthy of the heavenly office. John of Huss, or Hussinetz, was very early distinguished by the farce and acuteness of his understanding, the modesty and gravity of his demeanor, the rude and irreproachable austerity of his life. A thoughtful and attenuated counte- nance, a tall and somewhat emaciated form, an uncommon mildness and affability of man- ner added to the authority of his virtues and the persuasiveness of his eloquence. The University of Prague, at that time extremely flourishing, presented a field for the expan- sion of his great qualities; in the year 1401 he was appointed president, or dean, of the philosophical faculty, and was elevated, eight years afterwards, to the rectorship of the University. The Church divided with the academy his talents and his reputation. In the year 1400 * The effect was felt even in the next generation, and the high churchmen began to tremble. By a decree published by the Convocation at St. Paul's in 140S, it was prohibited either to compose or consult any private translation of the Scriptures, on the pen- alties attached to heresy. THE HUSSITES. 463 he was made confessor to Sophia of Bavaria, the Queen of Bohemia: and in 1405 he had obtained general celebrity by many eloquent sermons delivered in the vulgar tongue in his chapel* at Prague. In those fervent ad- dresses to the people, who composed his au- dience, he frequently inveighed against the corruption of the court of Rome, her indul- gences, her crusades, her extortions, and all the multitude of her iniquities; and his har- angues were received with impassioned ac- clamation. Nevertheless, his name was not yet tainted by any charge of heresy ; and as late as the July of 1408, Subinco, (or Suinco,) Archbishop of Prague, declared in a public synod, that the kingdom, over which his spir- itual guardianship extended, was free from the stain of any religious error. But about this time the University of Prague was dis- turbed by a violent dissension. The German students, who formed the majority, and to whom a greater share in the government, the dignities, and emoluments of the institution had been allotted by the original statutes, f were vigorously assailed by the native Bohe- mians ; who claimed, as a national right, that, according to the example of Paris, those en- viable prerogatives should be transferred to themselves. Huss engaged with zeal in the cause of his countrymen. The king decid- ed in favor of his own subjects, and he was considered to have been chiefly influenced to that resolution by Huss. Many German doctors resigned their offices and retired from the kingdom ; and they carried with them, whithersoever they went, deep rancor against the author of their defeat and seces- sion. Again, about the same time, probably in the beginning of 1409, Huss was extremely zealous in bringing over his country from the cause of Gregory XII. , in whose obedience it persisted, to that of the cardinals assembled * Called the Chapel of Bethlehem. An opulent citizen of Prague had built and endowed it for (he maintenance of two preachers, « qui Testis profestisque dicbus verbum Dei Bohemico sermone plebibua in- j sintiarent.' iEn. Sylv., Hist. Bohem., cap. xxxv. t The University, founded in 1347, by the Empe- ror Charles IV., was composed of four nations, Bo- ] hernia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Poland; and as the three last (even the last) were chiefly Germans, and had three votes, in four, three-fourths of the profes- sors, doctors, &c., were Germans. On the other hand, in the economy of the University of Paris (where the division was also quadripartite) the na- tives had three voices. The declaration of Kin" Wenceslas in favor of his subjects was made on Oct. 13, 1409. at Pisa; and this laudable forwardness ap- pears to have been the first offence, which awakened the displeasure of the archbishop. At least it is manifest, that this was the period at which the indignation of that prelate* first broke out ; and in the December of the same year, the Pope himself (Alexander V.) issued some prohibitory decree against Huss and his followers. The existence and circumstances of the great schism, and the obvious evils produced by it, had long been a popular theme of cen- sure for the Bohemian reformer. And after its extinction, John XXIII. furnished him, in 1411, with fresh matter for reprehension. That pontiff sent forth his emissaries to preach a crusade against Ladislaus, King of Naples, and to accord the usual indulgences. The minds of many had been previously in- flamed against this mockery of the cross of Christ by the preaching of Huss; and so it proved, that, on three several occasions, the pontifical missionaries were interrupted by violent exclamations in the midst of their harangues. Three offenders were according- ly seized by the order of the senate, and pri- vately executed; but the blood which flowed from the prison into the street betrayed their fate. The people rose; and having gained possession of their bodies, carried them in procession to the various churches, chanting holy anthems. They then buried them in the chapel of Bethlehem, with the aromatic offer- ings usually deposited on the tombs of mar- tyrs. Other commotions followed ; the cler- gy f of Bohemia conspired very generally against the principles of the reformer ; and * Subinco, Archbishop of Prague, is characterized by Maimbourg as ' a man who feared nothing when the service of God and the interests of the church were at stake.' Such a compliment, from the pen of Maimbourg, is at least suspicious. t If we are to believe .Eneas Sylvius (Historia Bohemica, cap. xxxv,) the clergy, in the first in- stance, were favorable to Huss; and the reason, which he malignantly gives for that fact, seems to prove at least his own conviction of its truth. • Se- qucbantur Johannem clerici fere omnes, are alieno gravati, sceleribus et seditionibus insignes, qui rernm novitate evadere poenaa arbitrabaritur. His et aon- nulli doctrina celebres juncti erant; qui emu Lneccle- sia consequi dignitatem non potuiseent, iniquo animo ferebant saceidolia tnajorum censuuin his committi, | qui,quamvis nobilitate praeirent, scientia tauten vide- bantur inferiores.' The probability seems to be, that }lu>* may have won, ill the beginning of his preach- ing, the partial support of the secular clergy by the i bitterness with which he inveighed against monastic but that they deserted him, as soon as they '■ saw his views more perfectly developed. 464 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. John XXIII. cited him, but without effect, before the tribunal of the Vatican. In fact, so "reat was the agitation which these dis- putes had now excited, that when the Council of Constance assembled presently afterwards, it issued an immediate summons for the ap- pearance of Huss. With whatsoever disre- gard that ecclesiastic may have treated the mandate of the Pope, he proved, without hesitation, his allegiance to the council. He knew the hostility and the faithlessness of the court of Rome ; but in the august represen- tation of the Church, in the full congregation of holy prelates assembled for the reformation of abuses, and the redressing of wrongs, he might find some foundation for confidence, and some hope of justice. Opinions imputed to Huss. — It is proper now to examine, what was the nature of those spiritual offences which excited such atten- tion throughout Christendom, and such terror among the directors of the Church. In the first place, the Bohemian innovator was ac- cused of disseminating the mortal venom which he had imbibed from England. His devotion to the faith and memory of Wiclif, for it was for some years concealed, became at length loo deep and ardent for dissimulation ; and it is even related, that in his discourses from the pulpit of Bethlehem, he was wont to address his earnest vow to Heaven, that, whenever he should be removed from this life, he might be admitted to the same regions where the soul of Wiclif resided ; since he doubted not, that he was a good and holy man, and worthy of a habitation in heaven.* It is certain, that on the first movement against Huss, the archbishop collected all the books of Wiclif, to the number of two hun- dred volumes, embossed and decorated with precious ornaments,f and caused them to be publicly burnt. The same element, which consumed the writings of Wiclif, was destin- ed to prey upon the body of his disciple ; and it came like a signal, that his vow had been registered above, and that his master awaited his coming at the gates of Paradise. * 'Qui, cum se libenter audiri animadverteret, raulta de libris Viclefi in medium attulit, assercns in its omnem veritatem contineri ; adjiciensque crebro inter praedicandum, se, postquam ex luce migraret, ea loca proficisci cupere, ad quae Viclefi anima perve- nisset; quern virum fuisse bonum, sanctum, coeloque dignum non dubitaret.' ./En. Sylv., Hist. Boh., I. xxxv. t ' Quorum major pars argenteis atque inauratis fibulis el pretiosis integumentis omabatur.' Harps- field, ap. Contin. Fleury. /Eneas Sylvius mentions the same fact nearly in the same words. It was another general charge against Huss, that he was ' infected with the leprosy' of the Vaudois : and that it may be seen how many gross offences were thought to be contained in this single accusation, we shall here follow the enumeration of yEneas Sylvius ; only premising that many opinions are there as- cribed to Huss, which, in his examinations before the council, he expressly disavowed. The most important among them were these — that the Pope is on a level with other bishops ; that all priests are equal except in regard to personal merit ; that souls, on quit- ting their bodies, are immediately condemned to eternal punishment, or exalted to everlast- ing happiness ; that the fire of purgatory has no existence ; that prayers for the dead are a vain device, the invention of sacerdotal avarice ; that the images of God and the saints should be destroyed ; that the orders of the mendicants were invented by evil spirits ; that the clergy ought to be poor, sub- sisting on eleemosynary contributions ; that it is free to all men to preach the word of God ; that any one guilty of mortal sin is thereby disqualified for any dignity secular or ecclesi- astical ; that confirmation and extreme unc- tion are not among the holy rites of the Church ; that auricular confession is unprofit- able, since confession to God is sufficient for pardon ; that the use of cemeteries is without reasonable foundation, and inculcated for the sake of profit; that the world itself is the temple of the omnipotent God ; and that those only derogate from his Majesty, who build churches, monasteries, or oratories; that the sacerdotal vestments, the ornaments of the altars, the cups and other sacred uten- sils, are of no more than vulgar estimation ; that the suffrages of the saints who reign with Christ in heaven are unprofitable, and vainly invoked ; that there is no holyday excepting Sunday ; that the festivals of the saints should by no means be observed ; and that the fasts established by the Church are equally desti- tute of divine authority. To these opinions, which he is accused of having habitually propounded in his chapel of Bethlehem, and of which he disclaimed many of the most important, he appears in truth to have subsequently added another, by no means calculated to conciliate the clergy. During a period of suspension from his preachings at Prague, he retired to his native village, and addressed to large rustic congre- gations the popular doctrine, that tithes are strictly eleemosynary, and that it is free for the owner of the land to withhold or to pay THE HUSSITES. 465 them, according to the measure of his charity. But the subject, on which the greatest heats were afterwards excited, and hi which, in- deed, the other points of difference were for the most part forgotten, was the distribution of the sacramental cup to the laity. And this innovation upon the modern practice of the Church is not, as it singularly happens, as- cribed to Huss; though it originated in the same country, and at the same time. A cele- brated preacher of the day, named Jacobellus, whose learning and piety are alike unques- tioned,* first promulgated the tenet, that the communion in both kinds was necessary for salvation ; and as the opinion was shown to rest not only on the authority of Scripture, but also on the practice of the ancient Church, 1 the heretics embraced it with immoderate exultation, as evinciug either the ignorance, or the wickedness, of the Roman See.' . . . Wenceslas, the King of Bohemia, regarded the rise of these principles with a careless and, as some assert, a stupid indifference ; his queen protected the person, if she did not profess the principles, of her confessor ; and thus the secular sword slept peacefully throughout these disputes, though it was loudly evoked by the zeal of the archbishop, and though Gerson f himself raised his voice to awaken it. I The safe-conduct of Huss. — It has been | matter of surprise to many writers, that Huss, with the consciousness that he had taught many of the above tenets, and with the know- ledge how detestable they were held by the churchmen, should have advanced so readily from a position of comparative security, and placed himself at once in the power of his enemies. It was not that he was ignorant of his danger. A letter, which he addressed to a friend immediately before his departure for Constance, contains passages almost prophetic of his imminent fate. He had the precaution, however, to obtain an act of safe-conduct* * ' Per id tempus pnpulum pnedicando instruebat Jacobellus Misnensis, literarum doctrina et morum prastantia juxta clams.' ^En. Sylv., loc. cit. f Sufficient extracts from Gerson's Letter to the archbishop are given by Coehlaeus, Historian Hussita- rum, lib. i., p. 21, (ed. Mogunt. 1549,) and as it is curious to observe in what language the great Church Reformer of his day justified the principle of persecu- tion, we shall cite some passages from it, only premis- ing that, verv nearly at the same moment, the Pope, John XXIII., was inditing an epistle to Wenceslas to the same purport. ' Inveniuntur adhuc luereses extirpate ah agro ecclesiastico diversis viis, veluti falce multiplici. Inveniuntur quidem primitus extir- pate falce vel acuto sarculo miraculorum, attestan- tium divinitus Catholicae veritati, et hoc tempore apostolorum. Inveniuntur extirpate postmodum per falcem disputationis argumentative per doctores. Sunt extirpate deinde per falcem sacrorum Concilio- rum, faventibua imperatoribus, quum disputatio doc- triualis particularium dootorum inefficax videbatur. Tandem accessit, velut in desperata peste, securis hrachii secularis, excidens hereses cum auctoribus suis et in ignem mittens. Providens hac lanta sever itate et misericordi, ut sic dicatur, crudeli- tate ne sermo talium, veluti cancer, serpat in perni- ciern tarn propriam quam alienam. Et ante mulio tempore non sinere peccatoribus ex sententia agere, sed statim ultiones adhibere magni beneficii est indicium.' After showing that none of the ancient methods of extirpation were applicable to the exist- 59 ing heresy, he thus proceeds: — ' Superest igitur, si de pnemissorum nihil prosit, quod ad radicem in- fructuose, iinmo maledictje, arboris ponalur securis brachii secul aris. Quale vos brachium invocare viis omnibus convenit, et expedit ad salu- tern omnium vobis creditorum.' . . . The doctrines attributed to Huss were condemned by the Univer- sity of Paris, and the act was published with the sig- nature of Gerson, as chancellor: it contains the fol- lowing passage: 'For though there appears among the opinions of these heretics some zeal against the vices of the prelates, which in truth are very great and manifest, yet it is a zeal not sufficiently enlight- ened. A discreet zeal tolerates and deplores the sins which it finds in the house of God, when it cannot wholly remove them. It would be impossible to correct vice by vice, and error by error; as the devil is not expelled by Beelzebub, but by the spirit of God, whose will it is that the correction of abuses be undertaken with great prudence and regard to cir- cumstances of time and place.' This, too, is lan- guago which might very well have proceeded from the court of John XXIII. * The following are given as the words of this frequently controverted 'safe-conduct:' — ' Honora- bilem magistrum Johannem Huss, S. T. Baccalaure- um, etc.,de regno Boemie, in Concilium Generale . . transeuntem . . . vobis omnibus et vestrum cuilibet pleno recommandamus afTectu, desiderantes, quatenus ipsum, cum ad vos pervenerit, grate suscipere . . . omnique prorsus impedimento remoto transire, stare, morari et red ire libere permittatis, sibiqne et suis.' — (Act. Public, apud Bzovium,ann. 1414., sect. 17.) It is not at all obvious that the Council was bound by this safe conduct — the less so, as the professed object of Huss's journey was to clear himself of her- esy in the presence and judgment of the Council: but the Emperor was certainly so bound; and that which he committed, and which the Council persuaded him to commit, was direct, unqualified treachery. It was manifestly the duty of Sigismond to receive Huss from the hands of the Council, and restore him to his na- tive country ; then the affair might have been taken up de novo, without any reflection on the faith of any party. The best illustrations of the rights of this question are such facts, as prove the light in which it was viewed by succeeding generations. Thus we observe, that before the assembling of the first Diet of Worms (1521,) the Elector of Saxony privately 466 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. from the Emperor, which was understood to be a pledge for his personal safety during the whole period of his absence from Bohemia. But that admirable Christian was unques- tionably impelled by motives too deep for the calculation of ordinary minds. He felt an intense conviction of the truth of his doctrines, and he was resolved, should need be, to lay down his life for them. That conviction, attended by that resolution, gave a confidence to his character, which, while it left him without fear, might at the same time animate him with the highest hopes. He was filled with that deliberate enthusiasm, which some- times raises the soul of man above that which we call wisdom ; and which, while it provokes the sneer of ordinary beings, has produced those lofty deeds of disinterestedness and self- devotion, which redeem human nature. Doubtless Huss was so influenced, when he published, both before his departure from Bohemia and during his journey, repeated challenges to all his adversaries to appear at Constance, and meet him in the presence of the Pope and the Council ; ' If any shall there convict me of any error, of any doctrine con- trary to the Christian faith, I refuse not (he proclaimed) to undergo the last penalties of heresy.' * These expressions betoken confi- dence in his own principles and in the integ- rity of the Council. He had yet to discover, that his controversy was not with candid opponents, contesting his avowed opinions, before an impartial tribunal ; calumny and secret malice, and ecclesiastical bigotry, were more dangerous enemies ; and his fate was seemingly irrevocable, from the moment in required of the Emperor Charles V., a formal renun- ciation of the Decree of Constance — * that no faith be kept with heretics.' On the same occasion, we find that great pains were again taken by the Cath- olics to induce the Emperor to violate his safe-con- duct to Luther; on which Louis, Elector Palatine, is recorded to have said — ' That all Germany would not stain itself with the shame of public perfidy to oblige a few ecclesiastics;' and Charles himself to have uttered that celebrated apophthegm — 'That if good faith were banished from the rest of the world, it should find refuge in the breast of kings.' — See Beausobre's Hist. Reform, liv. iii. *'Significo toti Boemipe et omnibus nationibus, me velle sisti primo quoque tempore coram Concilio Constantiensi, in celeberrimo loco, prpesidente Papa, etc. ... Eo conferat pedem quisquis suspicionem de me habuerit, quod aliena a Christi fide docuerim vel defenderim. Item doceat ibi, adstante Papa, me ullo unquam tempore erroneam et falsam doctrinam tenuisse. Si me de errore aliquo convicerit, etc. . . . non recusabo quascunque hasretici poenas ferre.'. . — Huss. Bohemic, apud Bzoviuoj, ad aDn. 1414. which he placed his life in the power of that Catholic assembly. Huss is placed under confinement by the Council. — He was attended by some Bohemi- an noblemen, and he received the strongest assurances of protection from John XXIII. 'Though John Huss (said that Pope) should murder my own brother, I would use the whole of my power to preserve him from every injury, during all the time of his resi- dence at Constance . . .'* Nevertheless, within a month from his arrival, after having professed before a meeting of the Council his readiness to repel every charge, he was plac- ed under a surveillance which was immediate- ly changed to strict confinement. It should not be forgotten, that this first violation of the safe-conduct was peculiarly the act of the Council. Sigismond, who was not present, strongly remonstrated against it; and the Pope (from whatever motive) f disclaimed all share in the proceedings. Accused. — This advantage was instantly pursued by his enemies, of whom the most ardent were found among his countrymen ; and accordingly eight J articles of accusation were prepared, and presented to John XXIII. When a copy of them was delivered to the accused, where he lay sick in prison, he re- quested that an advocate might be granted him to defend his cause ; but that was refused, on the plea of a general prohibition by the canon law to undertake the defence of any one suspected of lieresy. And then, instead * Lenfant. Hist. Cone. Constant, lib. i. § xxviii. fThe cardinals were the agents in this affair; and John does not appear to have been present at that congregation. But we should not forget, that when Sigismond wrote to command the immediate liberation of Huss, on the strength of his own safe-conduct, the Pope opposed the execution of the order. Lenfant. Cone. Constant. 1. i. § 50. Jit seems almost unnecessary to enumerate those charges, — they were as follows: — (1) That commu- nion iti both kinds is necessary for salvation; — (2) that the bread remains bread after the consecration; — (3) that ministers in a state of mortal sin cannot administer the sacraments; and that any one in a state of grace can do so; — (4) that the Church does not mean the Pope nor the clergy; that it cannot possess temporal goods, and that the secular powers can rightfully take them away; — (5) that Constantine and other princes erred when they endowed the Church ; — (6) that all priests are equal in authority; so that ordinations and privileges reserved to the Popes and bishops are the pure effect of their ambition; — (7) that the Church loses the power of the keys, when the Pope, cardinals, and the rest of the clergy are in mortal sin; — (8) that excommunications may bo disregarded with safety. THE HUSSITES. 467 of striving to obviate the various intrigues which were employed for his destruction, he devoted the tedious leisure of his imprison- ment, and the resources of a mind superior to ordinary agitations, to the composition of va- rious moral and religious treatises. * The next step in the process against him was the condemnation of the doctrines and memory of Wiclif. It was in the eighth session, held on the 4th of May, 1415, that a list of forty-five articles was drawn up, which embodied all (and more than all) the errors of that reformer ; that it received the solemn censure of the fathers ; and that the vengeance of that orthodox body pursued the spiritual offender even beyond the grave. It is a sin- gular circumstance, and serves well to illus- trate the position in which the Council then stood, as an assembly of reformation, that in the very sermon which opened that session, and which introduced the opinions of Wiclif to universal abhorrence, the Pope and his Court were treated with equal severity, and rebuked in language f which would have been held blasphemous had it proceeded from the lips of a heretic. It was an object of great importance with the Council, bent, as it certainly was, on the destruction of Huss, and conscious, as it pro- bably was, of the weakness of its own cause, to avoid the scandal of a public disputation. Accordingly, Huss was continually persecut- ed by private interrogatories, frequently ac- companied by intimidation and insult; and depositions against his orthodoxy were col- lected with great diligence and great facility, since every kind of information was admitted against a suspected heretic. On the other hand, he vehemently remonstrated against this inquisitorial secrecy, and demanded for his defence an audience of the whole Council. His Bohemian friends pressed the same point with equal earnestness. But in vain would they have solicited from that body this most obvious act of justice, if the emperor had not also been impressed with its propriety, and insisted with great firmness, that the trial should be public. * On marriage — on the Decalogue — on the love and knowledge of God — on penitence — on the three enemies of man — on the Lord's Supper — and others. f The Bishop of Toulon preached the sermon — ' ubi puram dixit veritatem de Papa et cardinalibus.' ' Benedicatur anima Domini Episcopi,' de Papa dixit, — ' Maledicatur caro sua;'et alibi vere — • ita mentitur, sicut si dicerem, Deus non est unus et trinus.' The passage is found in a MS. of Vienna, and is cited by Lenfant. Cone. Const, lib. ii. § 59. Tried. — Consequently the fathers assem- bled very early in June for that purpose. The first charge was read. The defendant was called upon for his reply. But when he ap- pealed in his justification to the authority of the Scriptures, and the venerable testimony of the fathers, his voice was drowned in a tumult of contempt and derision. He was silent ; and it was interpreted as guilt. Again he spoke ; again he was answered by dis- dainful jests and insults ; and the assembly at length separated without any serious deter- mination. The second audience was fixed for the 7th of June ; and that greater decency might be preserved, the Emperor was re- quested to be present on that occasion. It is carefully recorded by historians, and not, per- haps, without some sense of superstitious awe, that the day, on which the fate of that righteous man was in fact decided, was sig- nalized by a total eclipse of the sun — total, as was observed, at Prague, though not quite so at Constance. But the fathers were not mov- ed by that phenomenon to any principle of justice, or any feeling of mercy. The vari- ous charges, already prepared, were pressed upon the culprit, less clamorously, indeed, but not less eagerly than before. His accu- sers were numerous and voluble, and armed with the most minute subtleties of the schools. Many among them were English ; and these urged their arguments as warmly, as if they had thought to redeem the land of Wiclif by the persecution of Huss, and to wash away the stains, which one heretic had cast upon them, in the blood of another. Numerous depositions were likewise pro- duced and read, alleging errors, which he had advanced in his writings or in his sermons, or even in his private conversations. Alone, and unsupported, save by two or three faith- ful Bohemians, and worn and enfeebled by confinement and disease, he presented a spirit which did not bend beneath this oppression. The opinions imputed to him related chiefly to the Eucharist, and the condemned propo- sitions of Wiclif. . . There were some which he entirely disavowed ; others which he ad- mitted under certain modifications; others which he professed his readiness and his ability to maintain. Among the first was the charge respecting transubstantiation. On which subject he repeatedly and unequivo- cally asserted his entire concurrence in the doctrine of the Church. Among the last, the positions (they were ascribed to Wiclif) to which he clung with the greatest pertinacity, appear to have been three. (1.) That Pope 468 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. Sylvester and the Emperor Constantine did evil to the Church when they enriched it. (2.) That, if any ecclesiastic, whether Pope, prelate, or priest, he in a state of mortal sin, he is disqualified for the administration of the sacraments. (3.) That tithes are not dues, but merely eleemosynary. In defence of these, and perhaps some other opinions, the few arguments, which he was permitted to advance, were temperate, if not reasonable and scriptural: at least they proved his up- rightness and the integrity of his heart ; but they were received, as before, with reiterated shouts of derision. The question, indeed, was not, whether the opinions of Huss were founded in truth, or otherwise: that conside- ration seems not to have influenced any one mind in the whole assembly, excepting his own ; the question really to be decided ; the only question with which the council affected any concern, was, whether they were the doctrine of the Church. Whatsoever had once been pronounced by that infallible body was law, and the alternative was obedience or death. On the following day Huss was admitted to the mockery of another and final audience ; and on this occasion he was chiefly pressed on twenty-six articles, derived (fairly or un- fairly) from his 'Book of the Church.' A scene similar to the preceding was terminat- ed, on the part of the judges, by urgent solic- itations to the accused to retract his errors. This act of submission was advised by several of the fathers ; it was strongly recommended by the Emperor ; but Huss was umnoved. ' As to the opinions imputed to me, which I have never held, those I cannot retract; as to those which I do indeed profess, I am ready to retract them, when 1 shall be better in- structed by the Council.' . . . The province of the Council was not to instruct, but to de- cide— to command obedience to its decision, or to enforce the penalty. Condemned. — If Huss had hitherto nour- ished any reasonable hope of safety, it was placed in the moderation of the Emperor; but at this conjuncture, even that prospect was removed. For, towards the conclusion of the session, Sigismond delivered his unqual- ified opinion, ' that among the errors of Huss, which had been in part proved, and in part confessed, there was not one which did not deserve the penal flames;' to which was added, 'that the temporal sword ought in- stantly to be drawn for the chastisement of his disciples, to the end that the branches of the tree might perish together with its root. ' Huss was again conducted to his prison, and thither was still pursued by fresh solic- itations on his constancy ; and that, which had stood firm before public menace and insult, might have yielded to private impor- tunity, to bodily infirmity, to friendship, to solitude. First of all, an official formula of retractation was sent to him by the Council ; it was express as to his abjuration of all the errors which had been proved against him, and as to his unconditional submission to the Council ; but it was free from any harsh or offensive expressions. Huss calmly persisted in his resolution. 'He was prepar- ed to afford an example in himself of that enduring patience, which he had so frequent- ly preached to others, and which he relied upon the grace of God to grant him.' Many individuals, of various characters, but alike anxious to save him from the last infliction, visited his prison, and pressed him with a variety of motives and arguments; but they were all blunted by the rectitude of his con- science and the singleness of his purpose. One of his bitterest enemies, named Paletz,* was among the number; but, though his counsels had been successful in degrading the person of the reformer, they failed when they would have seduced him to infamy. Numerous deputations were sent by the Council, to which he always replied with the same modesty and firmness, equally removed from an obstinate perseverance in acknow- ledged error, and a base retractation of that which he thought truth. About the same time it was resolved to commit his books to the flames, as if to warn him by that prelude of the approaching catastrophe. But in a letter which he wrote to some friend on the occasion, he remarked, that that was no ground for despondency, since the Books of Jeremiah had suffered the same indignity; but the Jews had not thus evaded the ca- lamities, with which the prophet had me- naced them. Notwithstanding his public and recent de- * It was supposed that the spiritual influence of a confessor might possibly be sufficient to lead him to retract; and Huss requested that the same Paletz might be the person so commissioned — partly to prove, that he could pardon his worst enemy ; partly to show, how willing he was to confide the inmost secrets of his heart, even to one who might be dispo- sed to proclaim them most loudly. The Council did not think proper to accede to this generous request. It sent a monk to him, who gave him the same coun- sel as the others, and absolved him, without any penitential imposition. — See Lenfant's Hist. Cone. Const., liv. iii. § xxxv. THE HUSSITES. 469 claration, the Emperor appears, even to the very conclusion of this iniquitous affair, to have entertained some lingering scruples res- pecting his safe-conduct. These had been silenced, it is true, by the sophistry of the doctors; and he had even been taught to believe, that his protection could not lawfully be extended to a man suspected of heresy ; that monstrous charge superseded the ordi- nary economy of government, and dispensed with the imperious obligations of moral duty! Howbeit, notwithstanding the spiritual au- thority on which this principle was advanced, Sigismond would have greatly preferred some reasonable compromise to that violent termi- nation, which was now near at hand. Ac- cordingly, when he saw the fruitlessness of every other attempt to bend the spirit of Huss, he resolved himself to make one final effort for the same purpose. On the 5th of July, on the eve of the day destined for his execution, the prisoner was visited by an im- perial deputation, commissioned to inquire, 'whether he would abjure those articles of which he acknowledged himself guilty?' And in regard to those which he disavowed, ' whether he would swear that he held there- on the doctrine of the Church ? ' One objec- tion, to which Huss had throughout attached great importance, was removed by this pro- posal— the obligation to retract that which he had never maintained. But the grand, the insurmountable difficulty still remained — to abjure against conviction that which he did actually profess. Upon the whole, he saw no reason for any change, and returned to the Emperor the same sort of answer with which he had met all preceding solicitations. It remained for him still to encounter one other trial ; if, indeed, we can so designate the upright counsel of a faithful and virtuous friend — for such was the circumstance, which completed and crowned the history of his imprisonment — and it should be everywhere recorded, for the honor of human nature. A Bohemian nobleman, named John of Chlum, had attended Huss, whose disciple he was, through all his perils and persecutions, and had exerted, throughout the whole affair, every method that he could learn or devise to save him. At length, when every hope was lost, and he was about to separate from the martyr for the last time, he addressed him in these terms: 'My dear master, I am unlettered, and consequently unfit to counsel one so enlightened as you. Nevertheless, if you are secretly conscious of any one of those errors, which have been publicly im- puted to you, I do entreat you not to feel any shame in retracting it ; but if, on the contrary, you are convinced of your innocence, I am so far from advising you to say anything against your conscience, that I exhort you rather to endure every form of torture, thaa to re- nounce anything which you hold to be true.' John Huss replied with tears, 'that God was his witness, how ready he had ever been, and still was, to retract on oath, and with his whole heart, from the moment he should be convicted of any error by evidence from Holy Scripture."1* ... In the whole history of the sufferings and the fortitude of Huss, there is not one discoverable touch of pride or stub- bornness ; the records of his heroism are not infected by a single stain of mere philosophy ; he was firm, indeed, but he was humble also ; he expected death, and he feared it, too ; he neither sought the Martyr's crown, nor af- fected the ambition of the Stoic : his princi- ples of action were drawn from the same source as the articles of his belief; he was a pure and perfect Christian, and he thought it uo merit to be so. Sentenced. — There was a long interval be- tween his imprisonment and his audience, and again a tedious month intervened be- tween his audience and execution. This period was passed in preparation to meet his fate, not in struggles to avoid it. ' God, in his wisdom, has reasons for thus prolonging my life. He wishes to give me time to weep for my sins, and to console myself in this protracted trial by the hope of their remis- sion. He has granted me this interval, that, through meditation on the sufferings of Christ Jesus, I may become better qualified to sup- port my own.'f The time of those sufferings at length arrived. On the morning of July 6, 1415, he was conducted before the Council, then holding its fifteenth session ; and after various articles of accusation had been read, a sentence was passed to the following effect, — 'That for several years John Huss has seduced and scandalized the people by the dissemination of many doctrines manifestly * Huss, on the eve of his execution, wrote to the Senate of Prague to the following effect: — 'Be well assured that I have not retracted or abjured one single article. The Council urged me to declare the false- hood of every article drawn from my books; but I refused, unless their falsehood could l>e demonstrated i from Scripture. So do I now declare, that I detest every meaning which may be proved false in those articles, and I submit in that respect to the correction of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who knows the sincerity of my heart.' See Contin. of Fleury, 1 ciii, Ixxviii. t Opera Job. Huss., epist. 14, apud Lenfant. 470 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. heretical, and condemned by the Church, especially those of John Wiclif. That he has obstinately trampled upon the keys of the Church and the ecclesiastical censures. That he has appealed to Jesus Christ as sovereign judge, to the contempt of the ordi- nary judges of the Church ; and that such an appeal was injurious, scandalous, and made in derision of ecclesiastical authority.* That he has persisted to the last in his errors, and even maintained them in full Council. It is therefore ordained that he be publicly deposed and degraded from holy orders, as an obstinate and incorrigible heretic' . . . The prelates appointed then proceeded to the of- fice of degradation. He was stripped, one by one, of his sacerdotal vestments ; the holy cup, which had been purposely placed in his hands, was taken from them; his hair was cut in such a manner as to lose every mark of the priestly character; and a crown of paper was placed on his head, marked with hideous figures of demons, and that still more frightful superscription, Htresiarch. The pre- lates then piously devoted his soul to the infernal devils ;f he was pronounced to be cut off from the ecclesiastical body, and being released from the grasp of the Church, he was consigned, as a layman, to the ven- geance of the secular arm. It was in the character of 'advocate and defender of the Church,' that the Emperor took charge of the culprit, and commanded his immediate execution. Executed. — The last, which was not per- haps the bitterest, of his sufferings was en- dured with equal constancy and in the same blessed spirit. On his way to the stake he re- peated pious prayers and penitential psalms ; and when the order was given to kindle the flames, he only uttered these words — 'Lord Jesus, I endure with humility this cruel death for thy sake ; and I pray thee to pardon all my enemies.' The ministers executed their office ; the martyr continued in uninter- rupted devotion ; and it was not long before a rising volume of fire and smoke extinguished * Probably, in the long list of Huss's imputed her- esies there was no single article which inflamed the Council against liiin nearly so violently as this appeal. The point which, above all others, that assembly was interested to establish, was its own omnipotence and infallibility — its agency under the immediate opera- tion of the Holy Spirit — in fact, its divine power. Consequently, an appeal to any superior, even though it were Christ himself, was derogatory to the heaven- ly attributes, with which the Council had clothed itself. t ' Animam tuain devovemus iufernis Diabolic.' at the same time his voice and his life. . His ashes were carefully collected and cast into the lake. But the miserable precaution was without any effect ; since his disciples tore up the earth from the spot of his martyr- dom, and adored it with the same reverence and moistened it with those same tears, which would otherwise have sanctified his sepulchre. The points of difference strictly doctrinal between Huss and his persecutors were, after all, neither numerous nor important ; since we are bound in this inquiry to give credit to the solemn disavowals of the accused, rather than to the malignant imputations of his accusers. Lenfant, in his accurate his- tory * of this affair, has investigated very minutely the real extent of the offeuces of Huss, and reduced them under two heads. (1.) He unquestionably refused to subscribe to any general condemnation of the articles of Wiclif. There were many particulars on which he dissented from that reformer, but in several others he professed the same no- tions; and among these last were disparage- ment of the Pope and the Roman Church, and opposition to tithes, indulgences, and ecclesiastical censures. (2.) It was also made a dangerous charge against him, that the spirit of ecclesiastical insubordination, which had already appeared in Bohemia, was prin- cipally occasioned by his preaching. . . . Such was the burden of his offence. And though all the leading authors and orators of the time were as unsparing as Huss himself, in their denunciations of papal and ecclesi- astical enormities, even from the pulpits of Constance ; though it was even usual with them to ascribe to these abuses the heresies of the day ; still the independent exertions of a Bohemian preacher in the same cause were stigmatized by them as indiscreet and im- moderate zeal — because the principles, from which that zeal proceeded, were not in ac- cordance with their own hierarchical preten- sions; because the Bible, and not the Church, was the source from which it flowed. . . . And as to the disaffection of the Bohemians, if the Council really hoped to repress it by the perfidious execution of the most pious and popular of their teachers, the events, which presently followed, were a lesson of bloody and indelible instruction both to those who in- dulged that error, and to then- latest posterity. III. Jerome of Prague. — In less than a year from the execution of Huss, the same * Hist. Cone. Const, lib. iii. § 52, 60. THE HUSSITES. 471 sceue of injustice and barbarity was acted a second time, though with some variety of circumstances, in the same polluted theatre. Jerome, master in theology in the university of Prague, and a layman, was the disciple of Jolin Huss. Huss (says iEneas Sylvius) was superior in age and authority ; but Jerome was held more excellent in learning and eloquence. While the former presided in the chair, the latter delivered his lectures in the schools; and the same opinions were taught with equal zeal and effect by the one and by the other. In the troubles, which had been excited through those opinions, Jerome had had, perhaps, the greater share; there was at least no favorable feature to distinguish his offence from that of his master. Accor- dingly he was summoned to Constance soon after the meeting of the Council ; and he appeared there on the 4th of April, 1415, not unprepared for the treatment which awaited him. It should be observed, that he also obtained a safe-conduct from the Emperor; but that in his case the conditional clause, salva semper justilia, was inserted ; whereas that of Huss contained no such provision. At his first audience (on May 23rd) he exhibited great firmness ; but at the second, which took place only thirteen days after the execution of Huss, it was expected that the impression made by that frightful example would render him more tractable. And so assuredly it proved ; for on his third exam- ination (on September 11th) he submitted, after suffering much insult and intimidation, to make a formal and solemn retractation. He 'anathematized all heresies, and especial- ly that of Wiclif and Huss with which he had been previously infected (infamatus) ; he denounced the various articles which expressed it, as blasphemous, erroneous, scan- dalous, offensive to pious ears, rash, and- se- ditious ; and professed his absolute adhesion to all the tenets of the Roman Church.' . . . It was admitted that, in this mournful ex- hibition of human inconstancy, he had satis- fied every demand which was made upon his weakness, both in substance and in form; nevertheless be was still retained in confine- ment. After a short space, his enemies pressed forward with new charges against him. They found many eager listeners among the members of the Council ; and Gerson* himself again took up the pen of * He composed at this time (in October, 1415) his treatise ' De Protcstatione et llevocatione in Negotio Fidei ad eluendam Haereseos notani.' He sought to bigotry, and again sought to dip it in blood. Matters continued thus until the 23rd of May, 1416, when a final and public audience was granted to his repeated entreaties. On this occasion he recalled, with sorrow and shame, his former retractation, and openly attributed the unworthy act to its real and only motive — the fear of a painful death. His execution. — His bitterest foes desired no further proof against him ; and only seven days were allowed to elapse before he was condemned, and executed on the same spot which had been hallowed by the sufferings of his master. The courage, which had abandoned him in the anticipation of the flames, returned with redoubled force as he approached them. The executioner would have kindled the fagots behind his back: 'Place the fire before me,' he exclaimed ; 'if I had dreaded it, I could have escaped it.' ' Such (says Poggio * the Florentine) ' was the end of a man incredibly excellent. I was an eye-witness to that catastrophe, and beheld every act. I know not whether it was obsti- nacy or incredulity which moved him ; but his death was like that of some one of the philosophers of antiquity. Mutius Scsevola placed his hand in the flame, and Socrates drank the poison with less firmness and spon- taneousness, than Jerome presented his body to the torture of the fire.' Whatsoever may have been the respective excellence, in their living or in their martyr- dom, of those two venerable heralds of the Reformation, the conduct of the Council was not at all less iniquitous in respect to its cast suspicion on such retractations; and this was the first step towards the execution of Jerome. The Composition may be found in Von der Hardt, torn, iii. p. iv. * In a letter addressed to Leonardus Aretinus, of which the whole is valuable, as describing the entire transaction, and painting the character of Jerome. It is cited by Beausobre, Histoire de la Reformation, lib. ii.; by Von der Hardt, torn. iii. pars iii.; and other writers. There was, indeed, a little more of philosophical parade, and a little less of the genuine Christian spirit in the death of Jerome than in that of his master. iEneas Sylvius, however, whose eye was not likely to perceive this distinction, or to value it when perceived, includes both in the same sentence of admiration. ' I'ertuleiunt ambo constant! ammo necem et quasi ad cpulas invitati ad incendium properarunt, millam cmitteutes vocem, qoss iniseri animi posset facere indicium. Ubi ardere cceperunt, hvinnum cecineiunl, quern vix flamma et fragor ignis intercipere potuit. Nemo l'hilosophorum tain fort: anirno mortem pertulisse traditur, quam isti incen- dium.' Hist. Bohem. cap. xxxvi. 472 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. second, than to its first victim. If in the one instance the violation of the safe-conduct dis- played unblushing perfidy, the contempt of the retractation was at least as shameless in the other. The first crime was followed by no remorse ; it seems rather to have led to the more calm and deliberate perpetration of the second. The principle by which the deeds were justified was never, for an instant, questioned in either case. And we should, at the same time, bear in mind (for it is a consideration deserving repeated notice,) that this was not a principle exclusively papal — no peculiar emanation from the apostolical chair or the Court of Rome — it was a principle strictly ecclesiastical, animating the Council as the representative of the Church, and in- flaming the individual bosom of the church- men who composed it. It was embraced by the French and English, as warmly as by the Italians themselves ; nor was it pressed to any greater extremity by the champions of eccle- siastical corruption, than by the men who called themselves its reformers. IV. The condition of Bohemia is describ- ed to have been singularly flourishing at that moment. There was no other region* more abundant in useful productions, or in which the people were blessed with greater com- forts ; none more distinguished for the splen- dor of its churches and monasteries, and the wealth of its clergy. Unhappily, that body had used with little moderation the advantages enjoyed by it ; and its excesses had for many years excited the murmurs of the laity. This disaffection had even shown itself in occa- sional outrages; but no systematic hostility had yet been arrayed either against the per- sons or the property of the sacred order. Howbeit, no sooner were the proceedings of the Council made known throughout the country, than the people gave indications of a ferocious spirit; the nobles f likewise ad- * Cochlaeus (lib. i. p. 314) cites some verses ' Con- radi Celtis primi apud Germanos Poetae Laureati,' in praise of the city of Prague: — Visa non est Urbs meliore coelo; Explicat septem ha?c spatiosa colles, Ambitu murorum imitata magna? Moenia Roma?, f They had previously addressed several remon- strances to the Emperor on the subject of Huss's imprisonment, representing that there was no person, great or small, who did not see the violation of li is safe-conduct with indignation. Their letter to the Council immediately followed the execution of Huss, and was dated September 2. The great considered dressed a bold remonstrance to the fathers ; and as their rising opposition was met by new edicts * of condemnation, which still farmer inflamed it ; and as Martin V. at length pub- lished a Bullf of Crusade against the contu- macious heretics, every hope of reconciliation was removed, and the difference was fairly committed to the decision of the sword. Insurrection of the Bohemians. — It was one of the earliest and most innocent acts of in- subordination to spread three hundred tables in the open air, for the public celebration of the communion in both kinds.f And as the sense of some one specific grievance is ne- cessary for the union of a large multitude in revolt against any established power, so it was wise in the Bohemian insurgents to select one among their spiritual wrongs, as the principal motive of resistance, and to se- lect that which would be most intelligible to the act as an affront to the kingdom of Bohemia; the populace exclaimed against the fathers, as persecutors and executioners, and assembling in the chapel of Bethlehem, decreed to the victim the honors of mar- tyrdom. It is related, that Jerome of Prague was prematurely associated with his master in this popular canonization ; and it is remarkable that this crown was conferred upon him within a few days from that, on which he made his retractation. * Among the edicts published at Constance against the Hussites, there was one, in 1418, which prohibit- ed the singing of songs in derision of the Catholic Church. f The Bull published by Martin in 1421 contained a prohibition to keep faith with heretics, as distinct- ly conveyed as words can express it, — 'Quod si tu aliquo modo inductus defensionem eorum suscipere promisisti ; scito te dare fidem hcereticis, violatori- bus Fidei Sanctae, non potuisse, et idcirco peccare mortaliter , si servabis; quia fideli ad infidelem non potest esse ulla communio.' It is addressed to Alex- ander, Duke of Lithuania, and published by Coch- laeus, a prejudiced Catholic. Lib. v. p. 212. % After all, it appears nearly certain, that Huss was not the author of the restoration of the cup. Lenfant follows the account of yEneas Sylvius, and argues that he was not. The retrenchment of the cup appears to that author to be a necessary conse- quence of the doctrine of transubstantiation, which Huss seems to have professed to the last. The Catholics of Constance, and even Gerson himself, (for he published a very elaborate and artificial trea- tise on the subject,) appear to have been more per- plexed in the defence of this, than of any other of their abuses. Antiquity, of course, is the great ob- ject of appeal; and yet the antiquity of this prac- tice could scarcely reach two centuries (Lenfant, liv. iii., §xxxi.); and it certainly never acquired the force of a law till the contrary was declared to be heresy, in the 10th Session of the Council (May 14, 1415.) THE HUSSITES. 473 the lowest classes. Again, the distinction of a name was useful in rousing enthusiasm, and preserving the show of concord. And so this chostn people stigmatized the surrounding nations as Iduinaeans or Moabites, as Amale- kites or Philistines ; themselves were the well-beloved and elect of God ; Thabor was the mount on which they pitched their tents, and Thaborite the appellation which they adopted. The first effects of their indigna- tion were directed against the monks and clergy. These were plundered and even massacred without pity and without remorse. The sacred buildings were overthrown, tin.1 sanctuaries profaned, the altars stained with blood ; and all those abominations were un- sparingly committed, which commonly attend a premature resistance to inveterate oppres- sion. Their triumphs. — Sigismond conducted the armies of the Church ; Zisea led the rebels against them ; and the name of Zisca is sig- nalized by several triumphs over the imperial crusaders, which evinced not only his great military genius and resolution, but the deep religious enthusiasm and devotion of his fol- lowers. Atrocities were perpetrated by botli parties, as if in emulation of each other, and of the heroes of former holy wars ; and so keen was the thirst for blood, that the Hus- sites indulged it in the massacre of a sect of brother-heretics. A number of unfortunate enthusiasts, usually designated Adamites, were collected in an insular spot, in the neigh- borhood of Zisca's encampment. They are accused by various writers of the habit of nudity, and of many scandalous crimes; and in this matter it is probable that they have been much calumniated. It may be, as Mos- heim is disposed to think, that they were in- fected with some of the absurdities of mys- ticism ; or, as Beausobre * learnedly argues, that their difference from the Catholics was confined to the use of the cup. It is beyond dispute, that they did not maintain all the opinions of the Thaborites; and it would seem that some fatal quarrels had taken place between individuals of the two sects. Zisca * This very ingenious writer, in his dissertation on the 'Adamites,' addressed in two books to M. Lenfant, and published together with the ' History of the Council of Constance ' by the latter, certainly clears the Adamites from the worst charges that have been brought against them, which he shows to have been Catholic calumnies. Still the question, why Zisca destroyed them, is scarcely answered satisfac- torily. surrounded and destroyed them without any discrimination or mercy ; but lest we should on this account consider him as having sur- passed the wickedness of his Catholic adver- saries, we may remark, that by this very act he has incurred the deliberate praise of their historians,* and redeemed in their eyes some portion of the guilt of his apostasy. Divisions. — Zisca died in 1424, and divis- ions immediately ensued among his followers. Two other factions, the Orebites and the Or- phans, distracted the Bohemian reformers; but they united on occasions of common danger. In 1431 they repelled another for- midable crusade, which was conducted by the celebrated cardinal of St. Angelo ; and in this affair the rout was so complete, that the Pope's Bull, as well as the hat, cross, and bell of the cardinal, fell into the hands of the vic- tors, f In the meantime, a more moderate party arose and acquired influence among the Hussites ; its hopes were turned to a pa- cific accommodation with the Church ; and with that view it was arranged, that the Bo- hemians should send deputies to treat with the Council of Basle. . . Accordingly some of the most renowned among their military and ecclesiastical directors appeared at that city on the day appointed. The fame of their fierce exploits made them objects of deep and fearful curiosity with that peaceful assembly; they were treated with respect, for they had earned it by their sword ; and no violation of their safe -conduct, or other breach of faith, was on this occasion meditated. Embassy to Basle. — They were introduced, on February 16, 1433, to a general meeting of the lathers, and immediately proposed the conditions of reconciliation, which were four in number. | (1.) The use of the cup in the administration of the sacrament. (2.) The free preaching of the word of God. (3.) The abolition of the endowments of the clergy. (4.) Thepunishment of heinous transgressions and mortal sins. A separate dehate was then opened upon each of these articles; and John of Rokysan, the most conspicuous among the * See Cochlseus, lib. v., p. 218. f See Lenfant, Guerre des Hussites, 1. xvi. s. v. &c. J According to Cochlteus (lib. v., p. 205,) these were fust agreed upon in a general assembly ' Baro- iiiiiii terras Bohemias et Moravia*, et dominorum in- elvi:<: urbis Pragensis, militarium,clientum, civitatum et comniunitatum,' A. D. 1421. This will account for the moderation of the demands contained in them. 474 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. Hussite divines, commenced by a defence of the double communion, which lasted for three entire mornings. He was afterwards answer- ed by John of Ragusa, an ingenious Domini- can, who so far surpassed the prolixity of his opponent, as to occupy eight mornings in the delivery of his arguments;* six others were then consumed by the reply of Rokysau. The other subjects were contested with scarcely less tediousness ; and when the debate had thus continued for nearly two months, and when it was found that, so far from any pro- gress having been made towards accommoda- tion, the obstinacy of both parties was only confirmed and inflamed, the Duke of Bavaria, the secular protector of the council, sought for other expedients to bring them to terms. But in this attempt he failed likewise; and after the Catholics had advanced some coun- ter propositions, which were rejected by the Hussites, the conference terminated, and the deputies returned to recount to their compa- triots the failure of their mission. The Calixtines. — But the Catholics, being now better informed as to the variety and nature of the dissensions which divided their opponents, thought to profit by that circum- stance, if they should carry the controversy into the hostile territories; a solemn embas- sy was accordingly appointed to proceed to Prague. Negotiations were again opened ; and again the Catholics essayed the arts of persuasion in vain. They then introduced such amendments into the four articles as effectually destroyed their force, or altered their meaning; but these were firmly re- jected by the larger and more determined portion of the separatists. There existed, however, among these last, a more moder- ate and very influential party, which was strongly disposed to waive all other sub- jects of complaint, provided the double com- munion were fairly conceded by the Church. These were called Calixtines f — from the * It is observed that John of Ragusa gave great offence to his opponents by the frequent use of the word heresy, as applied to their opinions. With them it was still a question whether it was not the Church which was in heresy; with the Dominican, the Church was infallible. Willi them it was error to differ from the Scripture; with John, to differ from the Church. Thus the term, taken in a differ- ent sense, was as obnoxious in their eyes as in those of the Dominican. f Cochkeus (lib. v., p. 192) mentions early dif- ferences between the Jlagislri l'ragenses and the Thaborites. The former were the more moderate Dissenters; the Church Hussites and Jacobellus Mis- chalice * to which their demands were confin ed — and they were distinguished from the Thaborites, who constituted the more violent faction ; and the sum of whose grievances was by no means comprehended in the four articles, though they might consent in their public deliberations to suppress the rest. Among the Calixtins were several of the substantial citizens and leading members of the aristocracy ; and of such too the Catholic party was chiefly composed. As these, next after the clergy, were the principal sufferers by the continuance of anarchy and the devas- tations of war, they entered without much dif- ficulty into the designs of the council. And since it was now obvious, that no reconciliation was to be expected from discussion, it was de- termined to make another appeal to the sword. Reneivnl of War. — A civil war was imme- diately kindled throughout the country (in 1434 ; ) the party of the council was directed with ability by a distinguished Bohemian, named Maynard : his schemes were at first advanced by dissensions which raged be- tween the Thaborites and the Orphans ; and he afterwards conducted matters with so much address, that he engaged them when united, and entirely overthrew them. On this occasion it so happened, that the most hardened and desperate among the insurgents fell alive into the power of the conquerors; and as they were numerous, and objects, even in their captivity, of fearful apprehension, Maynard resolved to use artifice for their de- struction. Among the prisoners there were also several, who were innocent of any pre- vious campaigns against the Church, and who were neither hateful as rebels, nor dan- gerous as soldiers. These it was the design of the Catholics to spare ; and the better to distinguish them from the veterans of Zisca, they caused it to be proclaimed, that the gov- ernment intended to confer honors and pen- sions on the more experienced warriors, the heroes of so many fields. These were ac- cordingly invited to separate themselves from their less deserving companions, and to with- nensis, Rokysan, and other distinguished reformers, belonged to them. But the Thaborites, who were the Puritans, and also the soldiers of the party, had Zisca with them, and the two Procopiuses — both eminent warriors — so that they were for some time the stronger faction. * Tot pingit calices Bohemorum Terra per urbes, Ut credas Bacchi numina sola coli — is a contemporary distich. It should be observed, that every other picture was an object of aversion, at least to ihe more rigid reformers. THE HUSSITES. 475 draw to some adjacent buildings, where more abundant entertainment and a worthier residence were prepared for them. They believed these promises ; and then it came to pass (says vEneas * Sylvius,) ' that many thousands of the Thaborites and Orphans en- tered the barns assigned to them ; they were men blackened, and inured and indurated against sun and wind ; hideous and horrible of aspect; who had lived in the smoke of camps ; with eagle eyes, locks uncombed, long beards, lofty stature, shaggy limbs, and skin so hardened and callous as to seem proof, like mail, against hostile weapons. The gates were immediately closed upon them; fire was applied to the buildings ; and by their combustion, that ignominious band, the dregs and draft' of the human race, at length made atonement in the flames, for the crim'es which it had perpetrated, to the religion which it had insulted.'. . . Among the crimes with which the Thaborites are reproached, was there any more foul than that, by which they perished ? or can any deeper insult be cast on the religion of Christ, than to offer up human holocausts in his peaceful name ? In the balance of religious atrocities the mass of guilt must rest at last with those, who es- tablished the practice of violence, and conse- crated the principles of Antichrist. Compact of Iglau. — But the adversaries of Rome were not thus wholly extirpated : un- der the spiritual direction of Rokysan, they were still so considerable, that Sigismond did not disdain to negotiate with them. The result was, that a concordat or compact was concluded at Iglau in the year 143G, by which the Bohemians conceded almost all their claims ; but in return, the use of the cup was conceded to them, not as an essen- tial practice, but only through the indulgence of the Church.f Some arrangement was likewise made respecting the ecclesiastical property, which had been despoiled by the rebels. This affair was conducted with the countenance of the Council. The first result was favorable; and the contest with Rome might then, perhaps, have ceased ; the Bohe- mians, fatigued with tumult and bloodshed, might have returned to the obedience of the Church, contented with one almost nominal concession, if the chiefs of the hierarchy could have endured any independence of thought or action, any shadow of emancipa- tion from their immitigable despotism. For this was, in fact, the spirit which guided the Councils of Rome ; it was not the attachment to any particular tenet or ceremony, which moved her to so much rancor; but it was her general hatred of intellectual freedom, and the just apprehensions with which she saw it directed to the affairs of the Church. In September, 1436, Sigismond made his entry into Prague, amid congratulations al- most universal ; and the calamities which had desolated the country for two-and-twenty years appeared to be at an end.* But the Pope refused his assent to the concordat; he refused to confirm the appointment of Roky san to the See of Prague, though the Empe- ror had promised it; and though all the factions of the people were united in desiring it. Wherever the guilt of the previous dis- sensions may have rested, henceforward we need not hesitate to impute it wholly to the Vatican. Legates and mendicant emissaries f continued to visit the country, and contend with the divines, and tamper with the people. Even Pius II., whose personal \ intercourse * Hist. Boliem., cap. li., ad finem. f The Council of Basle, in its thirtieth session, published its Decree on the Eucharist, in which are these words: — • Sivc autem sub una specie sive du- plici quia communicet, secundum ordinationem sen observationem Ecclesia?, proficit digne communicaut- ibus ad salutern.' Cochlseus, lib. viii. p. 308. Com- municants might be saved according to either method, so long a3 that method was sanctioned by the Church. * The appointment of a double administrator of the Sacrament in every Church, one for the Catholic, the other for the Separatist, was of somewhat later dale. Lenfant places it in 1441, and mentions that great good proceeded from it. \ The most celebrated among these papal mission- aries was John Capistano, a Franciscan, who had gained great distinction in a spiritual campaign against the Fratricelli in the Campagna di Roma and March of Ancona, and had condemned thirty- six of them to the flames. . . . He is described by Cochlaeus (lib. x. ad finem) as a little emaciated old man, full of fire and enthusiasm, and indefatigable in the service of the Chinch. The year of his exertions in Bohemia was 1451. Such emissaries were in those days among the most useful tools of the Roman hie- rarchy. % It was in 1451 that ^Eneas Sylvius made his celebrated visit to Bohemia, as imperial envov. His mission was merely political; but it deserves our notice from the very interesting description which he has drawn of the manners of the Thaborites, among whom he found an asylum when in some danger from bandits: — 'It was a spectacle worthy of attention. They were a rustic and disorderly crew, yet desirous to appear civilized. It was cold and rainy. Some of them were destitute of all covering except their shirts; some wore tunics of skin; some had no sad- dle, others no reins, others no spurs. One had a boot ou his leg, auother none. One was deprived of 476 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. with the sectarians had not softened his ec- clesiastical indignation at their disobedience, exhibited in his negotiations with Pogebrac,* the king, an intolerant and resentful spirit. And at length Paul II., his successor, once more found means to light up a long and deadiy war in the infected country. It was considered, no doubt, as a stigma upon the Church, which all occasions and instruments were proper to efface, that a single sect should anywhere exist, which dared to differ from the faith or practice of Rome on a single article, and which maintained its difference with inpunity. The Bohemian brothers. — It was in 1466 that Paul II. excommunicated and deposed Pogebrac, and transferred the kingdom to the son of Huniades. In that object he was not successful ; but during the discords of almost thirty years which followed, the offensive names of Thaborite, Orphan, and even Hussite, gradually disappeared, and the open resistance to the Catholic predominance became fainter and fainter. But the princi- an eye, another of a hand ; and to use the expression of Virgil, it was unsightly to behold populataque lempora raptis Auribus et truncos inhonesto vulnere nares. There was no regularity in their march, no constraint in their conversation ; they received us in a barbarous and rustic manner. Nevertheless, they offered us hospitable presents of fish, wine and beer. . . On the outer gate of the city were two shields; on one of them was a representation of an angel holding a cup: as it were to exhort the people to this communion in wine, — on the other Zisca was painted an old man, blind of both eyes . . whom the Thaboriles followed, not only after he had lost one eye, but when he became a perfectly blind leader. Nor was there any incon- sistency in the, etc' — (See his 130th Letter.) In the meantime these wild and unseemly sectarians nourished in their rude abodes opinions, which were the glory of the following age, but which were indeed pernicious to themselves. Exactly seven years after the visit of JEneas Sylvius, the King of Bohemia, Pogebrac, willing to bring them to more moderate sentiments of reform, summoned a General Council of Hussites, who condemned some of their tenets; and then, on their refusal to abjure them, the King assaulted Thabor, and destroyed them (as it is relat- ed) with such scrupulous exactness, that not one was left alive. * Pogebrac was a moderate reformer, a Calixtine; he was extremely anxious to be subject to the Church, on the condition only, that it would leave him the cup: he had been brought up, as he said, in that prac- tice, and would never resign it. His persecution of pies were so far from having expired lii this conflict, that they came forth from it in greater purity, and with a show of vigor and consistency, which did not at first distin- guish them. Early in the ensuing century, about the year 1504, a body of sectarians, under the name of the ' United Brethren of Bohemia,' begins to attract the historian's notice. Beausobre * affirms, that this associ- ation was originally formed in the year 1467 ; that it separated itself at that time from the Catholics and Calixtines, and instituted a new ministry; that it made application to the Vaudois, in order to receive through them the true apostolical ordination ; and that Ste- phen, a bishop of that persuasion, did actually ordain Matthew, the first bishop of the 'Uni- ted Brethren.' It is unquestionable, that those among the Thaborites, and the other more determined dissenters, who had escaped the perils of so many disasters, continued with uncompromising constancy to feed and mature the tenets for which they had suf- fered ; and that many of the leading articles of the Reformation were anticipated and preserved by the 'Bohemian Brothers.' It is also true, that the evangelical principles of their faith were not unmixed with some erroneous notions ; but it is no less certain, that when Luther was engaged in the accom- plishment of his mission, he was welcomed by a numerous body of hereditary reformers, who rejected, and whose ancestors had reject- ed, the sacrifice of the mass, purgatory, tran- substantiation, prayers for the dead, the adoration of images ; and who confirmed their spiritual emancipation by renouncing the authority of the Pope.f the Thaborites sufficiently proves how far he was fi-om any anti-ecclesiastical tendency. Yet he seems to have been as much hated at Rome, as if he had gone to the full extent of opposition, and he was certainly much less feared. The Pope had still a powerful party among the aristocracy of Bohemia. * Dissertation sur les Adamites. Part I. f Bossuel (in the eleventh chapter of his Variations) consumes his ingenuity in endeavoring to show that the ' Bohemian Brethren ' were descended from the Calixtines, not from the Thaborites, and had thus only one point of doctrinal difference with Rome. But, at the same time, he admits their disobedience — ' Voila comme ils sont disciples de Jean Huss. Morceau rompu d'un morceau, schisme separe d'un schisme — Hussites divises des Hussites; et qui n'en avoient presque retenu, que la desobeissance et la rupture avec l'Eglise Romaine ' THE GREEK CHURCH. 477 CHAPTER XXVI. History of the Greek Church after its Separation from the Latin. Origin, progress, and sufferings of the Paulicians — They are transplanted to Thrace, and the opinions gain some prevalence there— Their differences from the Manich- ens — and from the Church — Six specific errors charg- ed against them by the latter— Examined— Points of resemblance between the Paulicians and the Hussites— Mysticism at no time extinct in the East— and generally instrumental to piety— Introduction of the mystical books into the West— Opinions of the Echites or Mes- salians— Those of the Hesychasts or Quietists— who are accused before a Council, and acquitted — The mixed character of the heresy of the Bogomiles— Con- troversy respecting the God of Mahomet— terminated by a compromise— Points of distinction between the two Churches— Imperial supremacy constant in the East- Absence of feudal institutions— Superior civilization of the Greeks— They never received the False Decretals, nor suffered from their consequences— Passionate re- verence for antiquity — Animosity against the Latins — Hopes from foundation of the Latin kingdom of Jerusa lem— Its real consequences— Establishment of a Latin Church in the East— Influence of the military orders — Legates a latere — Latin conquest of Constantinople — confirmed by Innocent III. — A Latin Church planted and endowed at Constantinople — Tithes — Dissensions of the Latin Ecclesiastics — Increasing animosity be- tween the Greeks and Latins — Secession of the Greek hierarchy to Nice— Mission from Rome to Nice— Sub- >ecland heat of the controversy, and increased rancor — John of Parma subsequently sent by Innocent IV. — Extinction of the Latin empire— The Church does not still withdraw its claims — Subsequent negotiations between the Emperor and the Pope — Confession of Clement IV. — Conduct of the Oriental Clergy— Am- bassadors from the East to the Second Council of Lyons — Concession of the Emperor presently disavow- ed by the Clergy and People — Subsequent attempts at reconciliation— Arrival of the Emperor and Patriarch at Ferrara— First proceedings of the Council— Private deliberations by Members of the two churches— The four grand Subjects of Division— The Dispute on Purga- tory — Doctrine of the Latins— of the Greeks— First Session of the Council —Grand disputations on the Procession — The Council adjourned to Florence, and the same Discussions repeated there— Sucaestions of compromise by the Emperor, to which the Greeks finally assent— The Common Confession of Faith— A Treaty, by which the Pope engages to furnish Supplies to the Emperor— The Union is then ratified— The man- ner in which the other differences, as the Azyms, Purgatory, and the Pope's Primacy, are arranged— Difficulty as to the last— How far the subject of Tran- substantiation was treated at Florence. On the fate of Cardinal Julian— Return of the Greeks— Their ansry reception— Honors paid to Mark of Ephesus— Insubor- dination of three Patriarchs — Russia also declare* against the Union— Critical situation of the Emperor— The opposite Party gains ground— The prophetic ad- dress of Nicholas V. to the Emperor Constantiue— Per- versity and Fanaticism of the Greek Clergy — They open Negotiations with the Bohemians — Tumult at Constantinople against the Emperor and the Pope's legate— Fall of Constantinople— JYote. On the Arme- nians— and Maronites. While the jealousies, which had so long disturbed the ecclesiastical concord of the east and west, were ripened into open schism by the mutual violence of Nicholas arid Pho- i tins,* the Eastern Church was in the crisis of a dangerous contest with a domestic foe. jj A sect of heretics named Paulicians had ji arisen in the seventh century, and gained j| great prevalence in the Asiatic provinces, I especially Armenia. It was in va'ui that ||they were assailed by imperial edicts and jj penal inflictions. Capstans, Justinian II., ■ and even Leo the Isaurian successively chas- I tised their errors or their contumacy; but they resisted with inflexible fortitude, until at length Nicephorus, in the beginning of the ninth century, relented from the system of his predecessors, and restored the factious dissenters to their civil privileges, and re- ligious liberty. During this transient suspension of their sufferings, they gained strength to endure others, more protracted and far more violent. The oppressive edicts were renewed by- Michael Curopalates, and redoubled by Leo the Armenian ; as if that resolute Iconoclast wished to make amends to bigotry, for his zeal in the internal purification of the Church, by his rancor against its sectarian seceders. The struggles, the victories, and the misfor- tunes of that persecuted race are eloquently unfolded in the pages of Gibbon : we shall not transfer the narrative to this history, for it belongs net to our purpose to trace the de- tails even of religious warfare. It may suf- fice to say, that the sword, which was re- sumed by the enemy of the Images, was most fiercely wielded by their most ardent patroness ; and that, during the fourteen years of the reign of Theodora, about 100,000 Paulicians are believed to have perished by various methods of destruction. The couflict lasted till nearly the end of the century ; ami, at length, the survivors either sought for ref- uge under the government of the Saracens, or were transplanted by the conqueror into the yet uncontaminated provinces of Bulgaria and Thrace. But Dot thus were the doctrines silenced, or the spirit extinguished. The fierce exiles carried with them into their new habitations the sectarian and proselytizing zeal ; and the errors of the East soon took root and flourished in a ruder soil. During the tenth and eleventh centuries the Pauli- cians of Thrace were sufficiently numerous to be objects of suspicion, if not of fear; and in the latter we find it recorded, that Alexius Comnenus did not disdain to employ the talents and learning, with which he adorned the purple, in personal controversy with the * We refer the reader to the 12th chapter of this History. 478 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. heretical doctors. Many are related to have yielded to the force of the imperial eloquence ; many also resigned their opinions on the milder compulsion of rewards and dignities ; but those who, being unmoved by either in- fluence, pertinaciously persisted in error and disloyalty, were corrected by the moderate exercise of despotic authority.* After this period we find little mention of the Paulician sect in the annals of the Ori- ental Church. But we should remark that Armenia, the province of its birth, was never afterwards cordially reconciled to the See of Constantinople ; and that, though it no longer fostered that particular heresy, it continued to nourish some seeds of disaffection, which frequently recommended it in later ages to the interested affection of the Vatican.f Opinions of the Paulicians— ll is generally much easier to describe the fortunes of a suffering sect than to ascertain the offence for which they suffered. The resistance of the Paulicians, their bravery, their cruelty, their overthrow, are circumstances of unquestion- able assurance ; the particulars of their opin- ions are disputed. By their enemies, they were at once designated as Manichffians — it was the name most obnoxious to the Eastern as well as the Western Communion: yet, if we may credit contemporary testimony,-): they * Tiiey were removed to Constantinople, and plac- ed in a sort of honorable exile in the immediate precincts of the imperial palace. Anna Coninena (Alexiad, b. xiv.) describes with filial ardor her father's zeal and patience in converting these Mani- cheans. ToCg fiiv uirXoig rovg [iuQ^novg Ivixa, roig Se Xuyoig ix^^ovTo tou? arri&iovg. aJoirtQ Si tote y.arlx Tiov Mavi/alwv ici'orrXiaTo, anoaro- ?.ixi.v avri fiTOccrqyiz^c araSeiiufii rog aywrun — y.ui ~iytx>yt rovrov rotay.aiSty.urov ttv anoQToZov oiou- aaaifit . . . anh nowiag ovv I'f/ot SeU.7jg fioag t( y.ai hniQccg, Iotiv ov y.ai Stvriqag y.ai To;c ifvXay.ijg rijg vvy.rbg uiTajtiunoutvog avrovg, &c. &c. f See the Note at the end of this chapter. % ' Iidem sunt (says Petrus Siculus, page 764) nee quicquamdiveitunt a Manicha>is Paulliciani,qui hasce recens a se procusas hrereses prioribus assuerunt, et ex sempiterno exitii baratliro eftbderunt: qui,tametsi se a ManichcBorum impuritatibus alienos dictitant, sunt tamen dogmatum ipsorum vigilantissimi custodes, Sec' ' Historia de Manichseis;' a Latin translation of which is published in the Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum Veterum; torn, xvi., ann. 860 — 900. The expressions of Photius are 'MijStlg S' ou'fl9co (m>;c irlqag pXuarrjua firai, 7rao' i,v tyoiLcootr 6 -diuti- a/og Murtjg, Ti',r naQayvuda TavTrjv rltv Svaat(1o>r Stoyiov SoyuuTvn- uia yuQ tart y.ai >; avrln &C.' {Ju)yrtaig, &c, published in the Bibliotheca Cois- liana (Paris, 1715) page 349. earnestly disclaimed the imputation. The truth is, that they are only known, like so many other sects, through the representations of their adversaries.* These have been in- vestigated by Mosheimf with his usual care and impartiality, and the result of his inquiry may be received with as much confidence as is consistent with the nature of the evi- dence. The most obvious difference between the Paulicians and ManichaBans related to the ecclesiastical profession and discipline. The former rejected the government by bishops, priests, and deacons ( to which the Mani- chseans adhered,) and admitted no order or individuals set apart by exclusive consecra- tion for spiritual offices. Neither did the au- thority of councils or synods enter into their system of religious polity. They had, indeed certain doctors, called Synecdemi, or Notarii but these were not distinguished by any pe- culiar dignities or privileges, either from each other or from the body of the people. The oidy singularity attending their appointment was, that they changed, on that occasion, their lay for scriptural names. They received all the books of the New Testament, except the two Epistles of St. Peter ; and the copies of the Gospel in use among them were the same with those authorised by the Church, and free from the numerous interpolations imputed to the Manichseans. The peculiarities already mentioned may appear alone sufficient to have excited the animosity of the established clergy of the East ; but these were by no means the only offences objected to the Paulicians by the Church writers. These last, without pro- fessing to give a perfect delineation of the monstrous system of the Heretics, are con- tented to charge them with six detestable errors: 1. That they denied that either the visible world or the human body was the production of the Supreme Being; and dis- tinguished their Creator from the most High God who dwells in the heavens. 2. That they treated contemptuously the Virgin Mary. 3. That they disparaged the nature and insti- * The books from which our best accounts of the Paulicians are derived, are Photius (^'yja/s T<5v reocpuiTow Mari%a'ian' y.aTap.aari'fitwg), and Petrus Siculus (Historia de Manichseis). By the account of Petrus Siculus we learn, that, in the year 870, un- der the reio-n of Basilus the Macedonian, he was sent as ambassador to the Paulicians at Tibrica, to treat with them concerning the exchange of prisoners, and that he lived among them for nine months f Cent. ix. p. 2. chap. v. THE GREEK CHURCH. 479 tution of the Lord's Supper. * 4. That they loaded the cross of Christ with contempt and reproach. 5. That they rejected, after the example of the greatest part of the Gnostics, the books of the Old Testament, and looked upon the writers of the Sacred History as inspired by the Creator of the world, not by the Supreme God. 6. That they excluded Presbyters and Elders from all part in the administration of the Church.f We are, of course, bound to receive these articles with suspicion, as the allegations of an enemy. Still they had, unquestionably, some foundation. The first and fifth are sufficient to prove that the Paulicians main- tained some opinions resembling those of Manes. It seems, indeed, most probable that they were descended from some one of the ancient Gnostic sects, which, though diver- sified in many particulars, all professed one common characteristic. Again, whether or not they believed the eternity of matter is questionable ; but it was seemingly their opin- ion that matter was the seat and source of all evil ; and that, when endued with life and motion, it had produced an active principle, which was the cause of vice and misery. Respecting the third charge, it appears that, in their passion for the allegorical interpretation of Scripture, they attached merely a figurative sense to the bread aud wine administered by Christ at the last supper, understanding thereby a spiritual food and nourishment for the soul. The second and fourth evince their freedom from some of the popular su- perstitions of the Greeks — adoration of the Virgin, and reverence for the fancied relics of the Cross ; and this, again, had alone been crime sufficient to arm against them, in the * The words of Petrus Siculus are — 'Quod divinam et tretnendam corporis et sanguinis Domini nostri conversionein negent, aliaque de hoc mysterio doceant — A Domino nempe non panem et vinum in cceria dis- cipulis propinatmn, sed figurate symbola tan turn et verba, tanquam panem et vinum, data.' In the arti- cle following — ' Quod fonnam et vim venerandae et vivificaa crucis non solum non agnosrant, sed infinitis etiam contumeliis onerent.' The six articles thus stated by Petrus Siculus are given by Photius in the same order, and with no very important alteration 01 addition: only, the patriarch increases the list by the charge of the most abandoned obscenity and pro- fligacy. t The Sicilian elsewhere admits that the Paulicians professed the principal Catholic doctrines; but aliter ore, aliter corde. These menial heresies, so gra- tuitously imputed where every outward proof is want- ing, are the most wicked invention of ecclesiastical rancor. eighth and ninth centuries, the intemperate zealots of the Oriental Church. Add to this, that they held the images of the Saints in no reverence, and reco no mended to every class of the people the assiduous study of the sa- cred volume ; not suppressing their indigna- tion against the Greeks, who closed the sources of divine knowledge against all, ex- cept the priests*. . . These various subjects of difi'erence duly considered, we shall not wonder that the Paulicians became the vic- tims of the most deadly persecution which ever disgraced the Eastern Church. And since they were, in some manner, the reform- ers of their time, and as their zeal was in- discriminately directed as well against the sacerdotal order as against the corruptions introduced or supported by if, the Schisma- tics of Armenia resembled, both in their prin ciples aud their excesses, the Bohemians of the fifteenth age. The resemblance was in- creased by the violent means which were in both cases adopted to crush them, and which were resisted with the same ferocious he- roism by both. Nor were, their concluding destinies very different ; for, though the sect of the Paulicians was at length expatriated, and finally extinguished or forgotten in the Bulgarian deserts, the Christians of Ar- menia never afterwards returned with any fidelity to the communion from which they had been so violently dissevered. Mysticism prevalent in the East. — Amidst the metaphysical disputes which agitated the Greeks in the sixth and seventh centuries, that strong disposition to mysticism, which is peculiarly congenial with the oriental char- * A considerable proportion of the work of Petrus Siculus is consumed in describing the process, by which the mind of Sergius or Constantino, the foun- der of the sect, was corrupted by the seductions of a Manicha?an woman. The following is an important specimen of the dialogue (page 761): ' Audio, Domine Scrgi, te literarmn scientia et erudflione pra?stantem esse, et boniun prtcterea virum usqttequaque. Die ergo mihi, cur non legis sacra Evangelial Qui- bus ille ita respondit. Nobis profanis ista legere non licet, sed sacerdotibus duntaxat. At ilia — Non est ita ut putas; nee enira personarum acceptio est apud Deum. Omnes siquidein homines vult salvos fieri Dominus et ad agni tionem veritatis venire. At sacerdotes vestri, quoniam Dei vcrbuin adulterant et roysteria occulunt, qua; in Evangel i is continentur, idcirco, vobis audientibus omnia non legunt qua? scripta sunt, &c. It is related that Constantine re- ceived from a deacon, in return for some acts of hos- pitality, the present of the New Testament. Thus it appears that, before the middle of the seventh century, the Eastern clergy had effectually shut up the sources of sacred knowledge. 480 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. acter, gave frequent proofs of its activity, though it never became the predominant spirit. It was principally cherished in the monastic establishments; and when free from the strange notions into which it not uncom- monly seduced irregular minds, it gave birth, without any doubt, to much genuine and ar- dent piety. But in the course of ecclesiasti- cal history, through a painful necessity per- petually imposed upon its writer, it is by the excesses of piety rather than its natural and ordinary fruits, !*y the abuses of religion rather than its daily and individual uses and blessings, that attention is fixed and curiosity excited. In the civil and political records of nations the exploits of patriotism and the deeds which throw dignity on human nature, are proclaimed! and celebrated, because they were performed in the public fields of re- nown, with kings and nations for their wit- nesses. But in a religious society the purest characters are commonly those, which shun celebrity and court oblivion. The noblest patriots in the kingdom of Christ are men who serve their Heavenly Master in holiness and in peace. They have their eternal re- compense; but it is rare that they rise into worldly notice, or throw their modest lustre on the historic page. On this account it is, that, while the absur- dities of mysticism are commonly known and derided, the good effect which it has had, in turning the mind to spiritual resolves and amending the heart of multitudes imbued with it, is generally overlooked. We cannot now recall the names, or publish the pious acts or aspirations, which have been concealed or forgotten ; yet may we approach, in a spirit of benevolence, the follies which have been so carefully recorded ; and while we pursue with unsparing denunciation the crimes of ecclesiastical hypocrites — the ambition, the frauds, the avarice, the bigotry of a secular hierarchy — we may pass with haste and com- passion over the errors and extravagances of piety. Euchites or Messalians. — Mosheim* as- cribes the introduction of the mystical theol- ogy into the Western Church to a copy of the pretended works of Dionysius the Areopa- gite, sent by the Emperor Michael Balbus to Lewis the Meek. Whether this be true or not, it was certainly in the East that, those opinions were most prevalent, not in earlier only, but also in later ages. It is particularly * Cent. ix. p. 2, chap. iii. The works of Diony- sius, though long received as genuine, are a palpable forgery, probably of the filth century. recorded, that, in the twelfth century, nu- merous fanctics disturbed the unity and re- pose of the Oriental Church by errors pro- ceeding from those principles. It is said that they rejected every form of external worship, all the ceremonies, and even the sacraments of the Church : that they placed the whole essence of religion in internal prayer ; and maintained that in the breast of every mortal an evil genius presided, against which no force nor expedient was availing, except unre- mitted prayer and supplication. One Lycop- etrus is believed to have founded this sect, and to have been succeeded by a disciple named Tychicus; and their followers were presently known throughout the East by the denomination of Euchites, or Messalians,* Men of Prayer. The term was considered ignominious ; and it presently came generally into use to designate all who were adverse to the persons of the clergy, or the system of the Church. The Churchmen of the West were at the same period beginning to employ the terms Waldenses and Albigcnses with the same latitude and for the same purpose; and as, in the one instance, we are well as- sured that many holy individuals were in- volved in the indiscriminate scandal, so also may the seeds of a purer worship have lurked in the barren bosom of the Messalian heresy. Hesychasts, or Quietists. — Two centuries afterwards, the eye of Barlaam, an inquisitive ecclesiastic, sharpened by much intercourse with the hierarchy of the West, detected, in the monasteries of Mount Athos, a very sin- gular form of fanaticism. A sect of persons was their discovered, who believed that, through a process of intense contemplation, they had attained the condition of perfect and heavenly repose. The method of their con- templation is conveyed in the following in- structions, handed down to them, as it would seem, from the eleventh century :f — 'Being alone in thy cell, close the door, and seat thyself in the corner. Raise thy spirit above all vain and transient things ; repose thy beard on thy breast, and turn thine eyes with thy whole power of meditation upon thy navel. Retain thy breath, and search in thine entrails for the place of thy heart, wherein all the * This was, in fact, only the revival of an ancient heresy, condemned, under the same name and proba- bly for the same errors, by the Council of Antioch, held towards the end of the fourth age. See Fleury, I. xix. s. 25, 26, and 1. xcv. s. 9. f It is found in a spiritual treatise of Simon, abbot of the monastery of Xerocerka, at Constantinople, and is cited by Fleury, 1. xcv. s. 9. THE GREEK CHURCH. 481 powers of the soul reside. At first thou wilt encounter thick darkness ; but by persevering night and day thou wilt find a marvellous and uninterrupted joy ; for as soon as thy spirit shall have discovered the place of thy heart, it will perceive itself luminous and full of discernment' When interrogated respecting the nature of this light, they replied that it was the glory of God; the same which sur- rounded Christ during the transfiguration. These enthusiasts were originally called Hesychasts, or, in Latin, Quietists ; they after- wards obtained the name of Ou(paX6^v/ot, or Umbilicani, 'men whose souls are in their navels.' They were also known by that of Thaborites, from their belief respecting the nature of their divine light. It might seem beneath the dignity of history to waste a thought or a sigh on such pure fanaticism. Yjft such was it not con- sidered in the age in which it rose; but it occupied, on the contrary, the solemn con- sideration of courts and councils. Barlaam officiously denounced the heresy to the Pa- triarch of Constantinople. The Metropolitan was astounded, and instantly summoned the Hesychasts into his presence. As they argued with confidence, a Council was thought ne- cessary to decide so grave a controversy ; but the Emperor Andronicus hesitated to convoke it, and strongly recommended to both parties silence aud reconciliation. Howbeit, the po- lemics persisted ; the Emperor yielded ; and the Council was assembled.* The Archbish- op of Thessalonica, Gregory Palamas, advo- cated the cause of the Thaborites ; and, what might astonish even those most familiar with the triumphs of religious extravagance, he succeeded. Nay, so signal was his success, that the accuser thought it expedient to retire from the country and return to Italy. . . . The controversy was soon afterwards renew- ed, and became the occasion of other councils, which agreed without exception in the con- demnation of the Barlaamites. But the ques- tion had now assumed a more general form ; the Quietism of the Monks of Mount Athos was no longer the subject of dispute; it ascended to the mysterious inquiry, whether the eternal light with which God was encir- cled, which might be called his energy or operation, and which was manifested to the disciples on Mount Thabor, was distinct from his nature and essence, or identified with it ? f * It was held on June 11, 1341, and the Emperor presided in person, together with the Patriarch and many of the nobility of the empire. f See Mosheim. Cent. xiv. p. 2, eh. v. Gl The former was the opinion of the pious Archbishop Palamas. It grew gradually to be considered as the more reasonable tenet, and finally took its place, after a series of solemn deliberations, among the dogmas of the Oriental Church. Bogomiles. — We must notice one or two other disputes, of greater notoriety than im- portance, which occasioned some transient agitation in the East. A monk named Ba- silius was burnt in the Hippodrome during the reign of Alexius Comnenus for opinions which he refused, on repeated solicitation, to renounce.* They are known to us only from his enemies. He is said to have maintained that the world and all its inhabitants were the creation of an evil and degraded demon, so that the body was no better than the prison house of the immortal spirit: wherefore, it became man to enervate and subject it by fasting, prayer, and contemplation, and there- by to redeem the soul from its degrading captivity. This Heresiarch had many fol- lowers, who were called Bogomiles — as it is said, from a Mysian word signifying ' the in- vocation of divine mercy.' These sectarians also denied, with the Phantastics, the reality of the body of Christ ; while, with the Gnos- tics, they rejected the law of Moses. Upon the whole, it would seem that their creed was formed by an infusion of mysticism into the leading Paulician tenets— a combination which it was natural to expect in an age, when the latter were still in some repute, and in a Church, wherein the former never wholly lost its influence, f About the same time, the same Alexius Comnenus was compelled to apply to the exigencies of the state some of the figures which adorned the churches. Leo, Bishop of Chalcedon, loudly exclaimed against the sacrilege, asserting that the images were en- dued with some portion of inherent sanctity. * 'O di nQug anaouv riuuiQiav xla. arceiMv xaTCMrQovijTixog y.arnfalviTo. ovrs yuQ to tcvq xartuuXa^e xifi oidijQav avrov \pvxitv, ovre at tow Avtuxqujoqos nnbg avrbv diccioimiiiol Siautjn^aitg xaxtdiXqav. The people demanded the execution of all his followers, but the Emperor was contented with a single victim. See the Alexiad. book xx. f Anna Comnena's expression is, to rwv BoyofitXtov Soyuu, Ix MuoaaXiavwv xui Mavixuiwv ovyxtiue- vov. That orthodox princess vituperates in very strong language the persons, the practices, and the opinions of the Bogomiles, and relates how the here- siarch was one night stoned by demons while reposing in his cell. She also particularizes an error respect- ing the Eucharist ; but is not otherwise very specific in her charges. 482 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. The monks re-echoed the charge, and a coun- cil was in consequence assembled at Constan- tinople. It decided that images had only a relative worship ^o^erixwg nqoaxvrovfitv ot; ?.aTQivTixo>g rug tlxurixc) ; and that it was offer- ed not to the substance of the matter, but to the form and features, of which they bear the impression ; that the representatives of Christ, whether in painting or sculpture, did not partake of the nature of Christ, though en- riched by a certain communication of divine grace ; and lastly, that invocations were to be addressed to the saints only as servants of Christ in their relation to their master. This moderate exposition of the doctrine did not, however, satisfy the Bishops, who persisted in their lofty notions, until the secular au- thority interposed to repress them.* The God of Mahomet. — The curious learn- ing of Manuel Comnenus gave birth, in the twelfth century, to several frivolous disputes. There is, however, one which deserves some notice, as well from the singularity of its subject as from the spirit in which it was conducted and concluded. The catechisms of the Greek Church contained a standing anathema against the God of Mahomet. Through the imperfect comprehension of an Arabic word, the Greeks represented that Being as solid and spherical,] and consequent- ly not an object of spiritual adoration. As this anathema tended to add irritation to the subsisting animosity, and offended especially such Mahometans as had embraced, or were disposed to embrace, the Christian faith, the Emperor ordered it to be erased from the pub- lic ritual. The doctors and dignitaries were scandalized at the rashness of the innovation ; they entered eagerly into the most abstruse inquiries respecting the nature of the Deity ; they condemned the imperial decree, and the purple itself was an insufficient shelter against the imputation of heresy. \ But an imperial heretic will never be destitute of supporters ; and the contest was carried on with the ac- customed vehemence and rancor. In this, as in most other controversies, a moderate * Mosh., c. xi., p. 2, ch. iii. f ' OZuOfaiQog. The Arabic word, which bears that signification, also signifies eternal. J Hildebrand himself, in an earlier age, had made himself liable to the same imputation. In a letter to the King of Morocco, expressing thanks for the liber- ation of some Christian captives, he expressed his conviction that the King had been moved thereto by the spirit of God; and that both he and the infidel worshipped the same God, though the modes of their adoration and faith were different. This is mention- ed by Mills in his History of the Crusades. party interposed and proffered a project of conciliation ; but in this, unlike the usual fortune of theological conflicts, the moderate party prevailed. A council was assembled ; and, after an angry and protracted struggle, the Bishops at length consented to the fol- lowing compromise: — 'That the anathema should keep its place in the ritual, but that its object should be changed from the God of Mahomet to Mahomet himself. ' On these conditions the fathers retired, authorized to denounce the impostor, but compelled to spare the Deity. Essential distinctions between the two Churches. — In resuming, after so long an interval, the history of the Oriental Church, it becomes necessary to recur to some of the leading principles of its constitution, and to notice the material feature by which it was early distinguished, as it is still distinguished, from its Roman rival. And as we have before traced the connexion of those commu- nions until the beginning of the schism, and as we now propose shortly to describe the principal attempts which were made to reu- nite them, it is proper to observe the different ground on which they stood, that we may truly estimate the difficulty of those attempts ; for, though the matters of doctrinal dispute may be reduced to a few articles, and though the differences on discipline and government might seem to be virtually absorbed in one — the supremacy of the Pope — nevertheless, the numerous diversities which subsisted in all the principles, as well as the economy, of the two establishments, threw impediments in the way of reconciliation, which, though not always in sight, were ever in active ope- ration. In the first place, we may mention the firm, uninterrupted maintenance of the im- perial supremacy. While the pontiffs of the West were first securing their emancipation, and then asserting their pre-eminence over every secular authority, the Greek ecclesias- tics were the subjects of the civil magistrate ; they were translated, deposed, or even exe- cuted, at his undisputed control; and what- ever wealth or influence they may have obtained, they were never able to withdraw themselves from the temporal yoke, nor to establish, like their Latin brethren, a distinct and independent republic* Hence it results that the individuals who composed the higher order of the clergy, were essentially different in the two communions ; different in their personal habits, in their private views, in * See Gibbon, chap. liii. THE GREEK CHURCH. 483 eir public estimation of the sacerdotal cha- racter, and the true polity of the Church. How much more widely was this distinc- tion extended by the absence in the East of all feudal institutions, and of the character which they so deeply impressed upon every order, and almost every individual, living under them! That patrimonial jurisdiction by which public justice became private pro- perty ; the secular pomp and appendages of baronial state ; and, above all, the practice of military achievement, were circumstances unknown to the hierarchy of the East. They viewed with astonishment the temporal great- ness of the apostolical successors ; they con- demned it with justice and seeming sincerity ; and the envy, which may have mingled with that condemnation, rendered it the more se- vere and malevolent. Notwithstanding the literary degeneracy and languor of the Greeks, their superstitious reverence for the ancient models, the senility with which they copied without daring to emulate — though it be true that 'in the revo- lution of ten centuries not a single discovery was made to exalt the dignity or promote the happiness of mankind, not a single idea added to the speculative systems of antiquity' — yet was it something in those barren ages, to admire, to copy, to praise, even to possess the noblest monuments of human genius. And, though they lay fruitless in the hands of their possessors, and unproductive of any original effort or bold imitation, yet were they not without effect in diffusing light and information, and in raising the people, by which they were cultivated however imper- fectly, far above the prostrate barbarism of the West.* Nor was it only that the educa- * The eleventh age, for instance, produced, be- sides Alexius Comnenus, and others of less renown, Cerularius, Cedrenus, and the illustrator of Aristotle, Michel Psellus. Among the literary names of the twelfth (and thirty-six are enumerated by Dupin as commcndables for their knowledge of theology, canon law, and history) are Cinnamus, Glycas, Zonaras, Nicephorns, Dionysius the geographer, and the cele- brated commentator Eustathins, Bishop of Thessalo- nica. The industry of the Greeks seems ever to be most keenly excited by controversy; and this age was enlivened, not only by some warm disputes with the Latins, but also by a contest between the systems of Plato and Aristotle. During the greater part of the thirteenth age the Latins were in possession of Constantinople; but in the fourteenth, the names of Nicephorus Gregoras, Manuel Chrysoloras, Niceph- orus Callistus, are boasted by the Greeks; and the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, and other scholastic writers, were translated and studied. Yet Plato had still his followers. i tion of the clergy embraced more subjects of useful instruction, but also, that education was not wholly confined to the clergy, but extended generally to the higher classes in society. It was the same with theological as with profane literature. It was an object of very general interest and inquiry ; and the industry to pursue it was kept alive among a disputatious race, by the occasional appear- ance of domestic heresy, and by the long-pro- tracted controversies with the rival Church. A superiority in literary discrimination will account for the circumstance that the forgery called the 'false decretals' was at once re- jected by the Eastern Church. There were, indeed, other sufficient reasons to prevent a code, which conferred supremacy almost un- limited on the Roman Bishop, from being acknowledged either by the Court or the Church of Constantinople: but it is also pro- bable that the penetration of the Greeks at once detected the clumsy imposture. The mention of the Decretals recalls the consideration of the Papal polity, founded in a great measure upon them. We have ob- served, that, after their promulgation, a sys- tem of government and a form of disciplino unknown to earlier ages grew up, and con- tinued, as it grew, to deviate farther and far- ther from the original canons and practices. We have traced the gradual usurpations of the See of Rome, and the changes introduced by pontifical ambition into the very heart and vitals of the Catholic Church. That powerful agency had no existence in the East; before it began to operate with any great success, the separation of the Churches was so decidedly pronounced, and their ani- mosity so strongly marked, that the introduc- tion of a change into the one would have been reason almost sufficient for rejecting it in the other. It was not, indeed, that the Patriarchs of Constantinople were exempt from the ruling passion of their Roman brethren, nor that they failed to profit by any favorable occasion to extend their authority and curtail the in- dependence of their clergy. But such occa- sions were rare, because they could only arise through the co-operation or connivance of the civil authorities ; and what the caprice of one despot had bestowed, might be as easily taken away by the opposite caprice of anoth- er. In the meantime, there was one steady and unvarying principle, on which the eccle- siastical policy of the East was conducted — an inviolable reverence for antiquity. It was by this standard that the excellence of every 484 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. institution was measured. The canons of the Seven General Councils, the precepts of the early fathers, the practice of the primitive Church these were the unalterable rules and models for the guidance and government of the Church. It was not so with the worldly hierarchy of Rome. They presently learned to subject antiquity to the more flexible laws of expediency. When it countenanced the purpose of the moment, they bowed to its venerable name. But whenever its voice was unequivocally raised in opposition to their schemes, then was it readily discovered, that all truth and excellence were not communi- cated in the beginning; but. that something was reserved for more seasonable revelation, or mere human discovery. On the other hand, the Greeks were the bigots of antiquity ; their worship was blind, and therefore both consistent and passionate. Hence it happened, that the least important among the modern opinions or practices * of then- rivals disgust- ed them at least as deeply as the most essen- tial ; and that, while they rejected the change, they detested the innovator. They were as intolerant in their feelings towards the Latins, as were the Latins towards their own here- tics ; and so general were those feelings and so carefully nourished by the clergy, and so continually rekindled by the continuance of schism and controversy, that if a sincere re- conciliation, founded on compromise, could possibly have been effected by the directors of the two Churches, it was scarcely probable that it would be accepted by the inferior clergy and people of Greece. Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. — The founda- tion of the kingdom of Jerusalem at the end of the eleventh century gave to the Latins a substantial footing in the East, and seemed to open the gates of concord. In a close alli- ance against the common enemy of the Chris- tian name, there was hope that the less per- ceptible differences among Christians would altogether vanish and be forgotten. The har- mony of so many sects and tongues united in adoration of the same Saviour, at his birth- place and round his tomb, might have afford- ed a spectacle of charity and a prospect of peace. If any circumstance of place or as- sociation, any reverence of sacred monu- ments, any brotherhood in holy enterprise, could have quenched the fire of sectarian animosities, we might have expected that blessing from the occupation of Palestine and * The Latin practice of Tonsure (y.ovqtvfia) may be particularly mentioned, as exciting the indignation and disdain of a bearded priesthood. the redemption of the Sepulchre of Christ. . . , What was really the result ? The very cir- cumstances, which should have produced re- ligious unanimity, seem to have had no other effect than to multiply the causes of discord, to exasperate its nature, and to aggravate its shame. The first act of the conquerors was to es- tablish, throughout the narrow extent of their new kingdom, a numerous body of Latin clergy. A Latin Patriarch was appointed at Jerusalem, a second at Antioch ; and episco- pal sees were multiplied under the jurisdic- tion of both. Of the native population, those who followed the Christian faith were indis- solubly attached to a different rite, and the authority of the Latin Prelates was confined to a precarious host of crusaders and colonists. Nevertheless, their first care was to place on a solid foundation the temporalities of their Churches ; * and since the feudal institutions were those on which the civil government of Godefroy was formed, so the bishops sought to attach to their sees cities, and fortresses, and baronies, according to the preposterous practice of the West. Then arose the cus- tomary dissensions between the spiritual and secular authorities, on the extent of their pre- rogatives and the limits of their jurisdiction: and they were inflamed in Palestine, even beyond their usual violence, by the peculiar position and character of the Military Orders; for these were endowed with various priv- ileges by the Roman See, and were not dis- posed to concede them. Thence proceeded perpetual appeals to Rome, with all their train of pernicious consequences : legates a latere were profusely poured into the Holy City ; and by their ignorance, their obstinacy, their arrogance, and their avarice, precipitated the downfal of the kingdom. It was dissolved after the battle of Tiberias, in 1187 ; and whatsoever contempt of their * See Fleury's Sixth Discourse on Ecclesiastical History. ' According to the spirit of the Gospel (says that writer) the Latin clergy should have at- tended principally to the instruction and correction of the crusaders; to form, as it were, a new Christi- anity, approaching as nearly as possible to the purity of the early ages, and capable of attracting, by its good example, the surrounding infidels. Next they should have engaged in the reconciliation of heretics and schismatics, and the conversion of the infidels themselves : it was the only method of making the crusade useful. But our Latin clergy was not suf- ficiently well-informed to have views so pure and exalted — as it was on this side of the sea, such was it in Palestine, or even more ignorant and more cor- rupted. . . • THE GREEK CHURCH. 485 Latin brethren the clergy of the East may have previously and perhaps ignorantly en tertained, it was not diminished by the nearer inspection of their character, which was af- forded by the conquest of Palestine. Thus it proved, that the advances towards concilia tion, which were made during this century by the Emperors of the Comnenus family, led to no good result. Negotiations were opened ; but the demands of the Vatican were positive, and they amounted to nothing less than spiritual submission. Perhaps the Em- perors, who had discovered the secret of their own political weakness, and began to tremble at the temporal influence of the Vatican, might have consented even to that condition. But the Prelates of the East, who were sway- ed by different views and interests, indignant- ly rejected it; and the failure of the attempt only increased the asperity of both parties. Of Constantinople. — The reign of the La- this in Palestine was concluded in less than ninety years ; their dominion in Constantino- ple had a still shorter duration ; yet its effects on the ecclesiastical relations of the East and the West were more direct and permanent, without being in auy respect more beneficial. The capital of the East was stormed by the crusaders in the year 1204. Innocent III. was at that time Pope ; and in the first in- stance he strongly reprobated the treacherous achievement: but the conquerors were ac- quainted with a sure expedient to soften his displeasure. Already did Alexis, when raised to the purple which he so soon forfeited, greet the Pontiff with promises of spiritual obe- dieuce for himself and for his Church ; and Innocent, in rejoinder, gave him divine assur- ance of prosperity should he observe his faith,* and of speedy reverse should he violate it. It was also one of the first acts of the Latin conquerors to tender the same submis- sion to the Pontiff, to proffer the same prom- ises, and likewise to solicit, with all humility, his confirmation of the conquest. Innocent professed some embarrassment at this appli- cation ; the perversion of the legitimate object of the crusaders was too scandalous — their excesses in the spoliation of the city too no- torious — their motives too obvious — the of- fence too recent. Accordingly the Pontiff * The express condition prescribed by Innocent to Alexis was, that he should engage the Patriarch to send a solemn deputation to Rome, for the purpose of recognising the supremacy of the Roman Church, promising obedience to the Pope, and soliciting the Pallium, as necessary for the lawful exercise of his patriarchal functions. expressed his disapprobation both of the en- terprise itself and the circumstances attending it; and particularly condemned that sacri- legious violence which had exasperated the Greeks, and turned them away from 'obedi- ence to the Apostolic See.'* Nevertheless, since the deed was perpetrated, he thought it expedient, after mature deliberation, not only with his cardinals, but with all his influential clergy, not to withhold from it his sanction — because, forsooth, the designs of Providence were inscrutable ; and it might be, that, in chastising the long-endured iniquities of the Greeks, a just God had employed the arms of the Latins as the instruments of a holy re- generation, f Iu the year following, the Pope applied himself more directly to reap the fruits of this unprincipled adventure. He excited the zeal of all the faithful for the defence of the new empire. He wrote a circular letter to the leading prelates of France, exhorting them to preach the indulgence for its defence, and at the same time observing, that Providence had transferred the sceptre from the proud, super- stitious, and rebellious Greeks, to the humble Catholic and obedient Latins, to the end that his holy Church might be consoled by the reunion of the schismatics. Establishment of the Latin Church. — In the meantime not a moment was lost in estab- lishing the Latin Communion at Constanti- nople ; in introducing the Latin Liturgy ; in encouraging eminent ecclesiastics to emi- grate to the East, and firmly to plant in the churches and schools of Constantinople the doctrines, the discipline, the polity, and the learning of the West. That the nature of that encouragement was not wholly spiritual — that an establishment founded by Innocent III. held out no inconsiderable temporal al- lurements!— is a circumstance which will * ' Ut jam mcrito Latinos abhorreant plus quam canes.' Epistle to the Marquis of Montserrat. ■f See the Epistle of Innocent to the Marquis of Montserrat, published by Raynaldus, ad. ann. 1205. • Divimun enim videtur fuirsc judicium, ut qui tamdiu misericorditer tolcrali,et toiics nun solum ab aliis sed etiam a nobis studiose commoniti Doluerunt redire ad Ecclesia? universitatem, nee ullum terne sanctre sub- sidium impertiri, per cos, qui ad utrumque pariter intendebant, omitterent locum ct gentem, quatenus pcrdilis male malis terra bona bonis Agricolis loca- ictur, qui fructum reddant tempore opportuno, &c.' % The following are the Pope's expressions, ad- dressed to the Archbishop of Rheims and his suf- fragans:— ' Exhortamur, quatenus tam clericos quam laicos efficaciter inducatis ut ad capessendas spirit' ualct pariter et temporalcs divitias ad prasfatum 486 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. excite no surprise in us; though it did not, perhaps, increase the respect or affection of the Greeks towards their new instructers. A concordat was signed in 1206 by the Latin Patriarch on the one hand, and the regent, barons, knights, and people on the other, by which a fifteenth portion of all domains with- out the walls, of all cities, castles, villages; of corn-fields, vineyards, forests, meadows and other immoveables, was at once bestowed upon the Latin Church. At the same time, all the monasteries, even within the walls, appear to have been transferred to the ascen- dant establishment.* By another article it was regulated, that tithe should also be paid by all Latins — and 'if (it was added) in pro- cess of time it should be found practicable to persuade the Greeks also to contribute their tithe, the laity shall offer them no impedi- ment.' We should here recollect, that this method of remunerating the clergy, so long familiar to the people of the West, had never been sanctioned by any law, or grown into any general use, in the Oriental Church. Dissensions. — If one of the earliest exhibi- tions presented by the Roman Catholic cler- gy to the schismatics of the East was that of their avarice ; another as early, as violent, and almost as revolting, was that of their dissen- sion. Before the storming of the city by the French and Venetians, a sort of convention had been made between those two nations, to this effect — that, if the empire should be vest- ed in a Frenchman, the Church should be under Venetian superintendence. Accord- ingly the first patriarch, Thomas Morosini, was a native of Venice ; and he immediately took measures so to fill the chapter of the Patriarchal Cathedral, as to secure a compa- triot for his successor. Innocent vehemently remonstrated against this design. He sent his legates to Constantinople; and as they acted in opposition to the resident head of the Church, the Schismatics were edified by witnessing the jealous disputes of two inde- pendent authorities. But it was on the death of Morosini (in 1211) that the struggle really commenced. The Venetian Canons entered Imperatorem accedant, qui singulos vult et potest, secundum status suos, &c. augere divitiis et honori- bus ampliare. . . .' * It should be mentioned that the French and Venetians had entered into a convention, by which, after making a decent provision for the Oriental clergy, they proposed to divide between themselves the rest of the Church property. But Innocent took under his own protection the property even of a rival Church, and immediately annulled the convention. the Church of St. Sophia, with arms in their hands, and proceeded to the choice of a Ven- etian successor. Other ecclesiastics of other nations, who also claimed their share in the election, nominated three other candidates, and the matter was referred to Rome. The Pope commanded them to meet and delibe- rate in common, and the result was a second disagreement. The dispute was conducted with the customary violence ; and as it lasted for about three years, during which space the highest office in the Church remained vacant, it furnished the schismatic spectators with another equivocal proof of the superior ex- cellence of the Roman polity. In the mean- time the sectarian antipathy continued to be so strongly manifested on their part, that there were many of their clergy who, before they celebrated the Communion, caused those altars to be washed, which had been polluted by the ceremony of the Latins ; and who likewise insisted on re-baptizing all who had received that sacrament from Latin hands. These proofs of insubordination are men- tioned with censure in one of the canons of the Fourth Lateran Church. While the Roman hierarchy was endeavor- ing to fix and extend its conquest along the western shores of the Bosphorus, the genuine pastors of the oriental Church, the legitimate guardians of its apostolical purity, were as- sembled in honorable exile at Nice. They had witnessed the shame, the pillage, and the desolation of the metropolis of their faith , they had seen their churches despoiled, and their altars violated ; the holy images trampled under foot, the relics of departed saints scat- tered in the dust, the sacred utensils desecrat- ed, and the sanctuary of St. Sophia profaned and plundered by lawless and Latin hands. Such assuredly was not the season for any dreams of reconciliation. But after the lapse of one generation, when these bitter recollec- tions were not quite so recent, an accident occurred which opened the way to a serious negotiation between the churches — if we should not rather say, the courts — of Nice and Rome. Five Franciscan missionaries, in the discharge of their perilous duties among the infidels, were seized by the Turks, and on their liberation, dismissed to Nice. They were humanely received by the patriarch Germanus, who was edified by their poverty and their zeal ; and, in the communications of a friendly intercourse, the division of the two churches was mentioned and deplored by both parties. The emperor (John Vata- ces) had strong political reasons for desiring THE GREEK CHURCH. 487 an accommodation ; and with his consent the patriarch addressed some amicable overtures, though not unmixed with untimely reproach,* both to the Pope and the cardinals. Latin Mission to Nice. — This took place in 1232, during the reign of Gregory IX. ; and in the year following the pontiff sent four mendicants, (two Dominicans, and two Fran- ciscans) to conduct the negotiations in the east. They presented themselves at Nice before the emperor and the patriarch, in the January of 1234; and a series of conferences then commenced, which did not finally ter- minate, though occasionally interrupted, till the middle of May. It were needless to unfold the particulars of this controversy, though they are not destitute of interest and instruc- tion to the theological reader ; nor shall we pursue the intricate manoeuvres of the dis- putants, though the most practised polemic might possibly peruse them with profit. It is sufficient to mention, that the dispute turned entirely on two points, the procession of the Holy Spirit ; and the use of leavened or un- leavened bread in the Eucharist. The Greeks urged the ancient doctrine and practice; the Latins, without conceding their claims to the authority of early writers, rested the weight * ' To go to the bottom of the question (said the patriarch) many powerful and noble persons would obey you, if they did not fear your oppression, and the wanton extortions and undue services which you exact from your subjects. Hence proceed cruel wars, the depopulation of cities, the closing of the churches, the cessation of the divine offices, every thing short of martyrdom, and some things not far short of that. For there is now imminent danger that the tyrannical tribunal will be unclosed, and torments and blood- shed, and the crown of martyrdom proposed to us. Is this the lesson which St. Peter teaches, when he instructs the shepherd to conduct his flock without constraint or domination!' In his letter to the car- dinals he wrote with equal bitterness. * Permit me to speak the truth to you. Our division has arisen from the tyrannical oppression which you exercise, and the exactions of the Roman Church, which, from being a mother, has become a step-mother, and tramples upon others in proportion as they humble themselves before her. We arc scandalized to see you exclusively attached to the good things of this world; heaping up from all quarters gold and silver, and making kingdoms your tributaries.' That such reproaches, however just, should have broken forth in letters expressly conciliatory, might well have led those, to whom they were addressed, to despair of the success of the negotiation. The original epistles are given by Matthew Paris, Histor. Major, ann. 1237; whose remark it is that the animosity of the Greek Church was occasioned by the acts, more than the opinions, of its rival. See also Raynaldus, ann. 1232-3. of their defence on scripture. The debates were broken off, and renewed ; the same ar- guments and assertions were repelled and reiterated ; and the ardor of the opposition increased, as the contest was prolonged. At length the emperor, who was less heated by the theological zeal, and more sincere, as he was more interested, in his desire for reconciliation, personally proposed to the en- voys a compromise. As in political, (said this simple mediator) so be it in theological, negotiations. When princes differ respecting a city or a province, each party relaxes some- what of his pretensions for the attainment of peace. Our differences in this matter are two,* and if you sincerely wish for concord, concede one of them. We will approve and revere your holy sacrament ; abandon to us your creed ; say the creed as we say it, effac- ing the offensive addition. They replied — Let us tell you that the Pope and the Roman Church will not abandon one iota of its faith, or of any thing contained in its creed. But the following proposal we may consent to make to you. You must firmly believe and teach others, that the body of our Lord may be consecrated with unleavened as ivell as leavened bread ; and you must burn all the books which your churchmen have written to the contrary. And in respect to the Holy Spirit, you must believe that it proceeds from the Son as well as from the Father, and teach the people so ; but the Pope will not oblige you to insert the article in your creed — only all books which have been written against it shall be burnt. . . On hearing this final decla- ration, the emperor resigned himself to des- pair ;f but in his prelates it excited only feel- * We should observe, that throughout this dispute, it was always assumed by the Latins, that the result, or rather that the meaning, of the reconciliation would be the obedience of the Greek to the Roman Church; a return to that (supposed) submission which the former had shaken otf. Now this assumption was not (as far as we can see) contested by the Greeks, certainly it was not made matter of argument. And yet that establishment of supremacy was, in fact, the point at which the Roman was ultimately aiming — as it was also that to which his pretensions were most slightly founded. t ' De corpore Christ! ita dicimus — quod oportebit vos firmitcr credere et aliis pnedicare quod Corpus Christi confici potest ita in Azymis sicut in lermeu- tato; et omnes libri, quos vestri scripserunt contra Fidem, oondemnentur et comburantur. De S. Sancto ita dicimus; quod oportebit vos credere S. S. pro- cedere a Filio sicut a Patre, et istud necesse, ut prredicetur in populo; quod autcm cantetis istud in Symbolo, nisi velitis, non compellet vos Dominus Papa; condemnatis et combustis omnibus libris, qui 488 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. ings of indignation and revenge. One other violent conference followed, to which large multitudes of the people were admitted ; and it was broken off by mutual charges of heresy, and confirmations of the ancient anathema. The legates then withdrew ; having increased the evils which they had proposed to remove, and added fresh fuel and fierceness to the controversy. The failure of this enterprise did not pre- vent a similar attempt on the part of Innocent IV., which was conducted with more mode- ration, but with no better success, than the former. The agent, selected for the conduct of this mission, was of great dignity and re- putation in the Church. John of Parma, general of the Franciscan order, and alike eminent for his theological erudition, and the austerity of his life, was a character well calculated to influence the prelates of the East. It is something to be enabled to assert that his sojourn at Nice (in 1249) produced no mischief; but the negotiations, which seemed likely to result from it, were prevented by the death of the Pope and the Emperor. In 1261, the sceptre of the Latins was broken; and, upon the whole, we are unable to ob- serve that their conquest had any spiritual fruits, or any other consequences than bitter- ness and aggravated rancor.* And we may here remark, that as the Latins on their ex- pulsion from the East did not resign their claims to ecclesiastical ascendency, or abolish the titles of the dignities there conferred up- on their own clergy, so there continued long to exist about the Roman court titular patri- archs, and titular bishops, of Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem and other oriental sees, who, by the assumption of those empty names, offended the sensitive vanity of the Greeks, and kept alive the mutual irritation. Subsequent attempts at re-union. — Howbeit, for a short period after the restoration, the huic capitulo sunt contrarii. Quod audiens imperator graviter tulit, &c.' The envoys wrote an account of their own embassy, addressed to the Pope, and con- tained in Libro Censuum; whence Raynaldus (ann. 1232) has made extracts. * Fleury goes so far as to consider the schism, properly speaking, to have commenced only at this period. Such, however, was not the opinion of peo- ple in those days; in the account of the previous ne- gotiations at Nice, we observe, that the emperor, on some occasion, remarked, that the schism had then lasted three hundred years. On the othe1- hand, the emperor did not date with accuracy — from the breach between Photius and Nicholas, the space was above 360 years ; from the dispute between Cerularius and Leo IX., not more than 180. re-union was negotiated with much more ardor than at any former time, and even with a momentary show of success. The reason of this eagerness on the part of Palaeo- logus was the consciousness of his weakness, and the terror of another crusade against his still unsettled government. 'I speak not now,' he said, ' about dogmas or ceremonies of religion. If there is any difference on that subject, we can arrange it more easily, after peace shall have been concluded be- tween us.' The union desired by the em- peror was external and political : a perfect theological concord he might think hopeless, or he might not comprehend its importance. Some Franciscans were once more sent to the East by Urban IV.; and some articles were hastily drawn up. But Clement IV. refused them his ratification, and composed a more accurate formulary of faith, which he proposed for the acceptance of the Greeks. This confession contained not only the dis- puted tenet of the Holy Procession, but also expressed, with great precision, the doctrine of purgatory, and specified the condition of souls after death, according to the degrees of their impurity. Also, the doctrine and name of transubstantiation were marked in it very particularly. Moreover, the plenitude of pontifical power, and the duty of universal appeal to that tribunal were carefully incul- cated. Clement could scarcely have expected so much acquiescence from the clergy of the East; but in a subsequent letter to the empe- ror he failed not to remind him, that the crown possessed power sufficient, and even more than sufficient, to control the inclina- tions both of the clergy and the people. In the earlier part of these negotiations, the clergy had preserved the appearance of neutrality ; because they were unwilling, without great necessity, to oppose any project of the emperor, and because they considered his present project as wholly impracticable. Probably they did not suppose that he was himself sincere in so desperate a scheme. Nevertheless, as his political difficulties in- creased, he became more earnest in his de- sign; and when some of his prelates were at length alarmed into resistance, he employ- ed the secular authority to repress them. Council of Lyons. — In the meantime, the second council of Lyons had been called together, and one of its professed objects was the reconciliation of the churches. It was still assembled, when (on June 24, 1274) the ambassadors from the East arrived. Sev- eral difficulties were still apprehended ; and THE GREEK CHURCH. 439 there were many who reasonably trembled, lest that solemn meeting of the universal church should be distracted by the passionate broils of an endless controversy. But the emperor had arranged it. otherwise; and at the session which immediately followed, the Western fathers were edified and astonished by the voice of the prelates of the East, chanting the Double Procession, in unison with the worship of the orthodox. The policy, which had dictated the humiliating concession, did not hesitate there ; probably there was no depth of spiritual submission to which the emperor was not then prepared to descend : for it seemed to depend on the decision of that council, whether the arma- ment, to which all Europe was contributing, should be directed against Syria or against himself. Accordingly, the Pope's supremacy was acknowledged without any scruple ; and a communication from Palaeologus was pub- licly recited, in which he professed, without any equivocation or cavil, every tenet laid down in the confession of Clement IV. The re-union of the churches was then officially announced; and the Pope pronounced the Te Deum, with his head uncovered, and his eyes suffused with unsuspicious joy. As long as the fears and necessities of the eastern empire continued, as long as the fragile vessel of state lay at the mercy of any tempest from the west, so long did this hollow truce subsist. But not quite ten years after its conclusion, Andronicus, having succeeded to the sceptre of his father, proceeded, with- out delay, to dissolve the union. A council was assembled at Constantinople ; the hateful act of humiliation was repealed ; and the revival of the schism was proclaimed amidst the acclamations of the clergy of Greece. One circumstance, indeed, is here particular- ly forced upon our attention. The motive which chiefly persuaded Andronicus to re- open that ancient wound was, that he might heal a still more dangerous disorder, which the reconciliation with Rome had inflicted upon his own Church. The power of Palae- ologus had secured the outward submission, but it had not changed the opinions, or the principles, or the passions, of his prelates; the great majority remained adverse to the re-union ; and in their importunate and pres- sing clamors, the fears of an ancient and distant rival were forgotten. Howbeit the domestic dissensions of the Greeks were not even thus allayed; there were some too strongly impressed with the policy of their late connexion to applaud its hasty dissolu- 02 tion ; and there remained ever afterwards a party in the East which professed its adhesion to the Roman communion. We shall not pursue the insincere and fruitless overtures which were so often de- feated and renewed during the fourteenth century, and especially under the Popes of Avignon. The pontificates of John XXII., of Clement VI., of Innocent VI., and Bene- dict XII., were particularly marked by those vain negotiations;* and during this period we may remark that the motives of both parties were equally removed from any spir- itual consideration. If political exigencies invariably actuated the one, the other was now chiefly moved by pecuniary necessities. The military succors, which the Pope might be the means of raising, would be recom- pensed by obedient contributions to the apostolical treasury. According to the ap- proach or suspension of immediate danger, the zeal for reconciliation burnt fiercely, or subsided; but the characters were still sus- tained under all circumstances. 'That old song respecting the Greeks (said the fathers of Basle) has already lasted for three hundred years, and every year it is chanted afresh.' At length the progress of the Turks excited a permanent alarm, and a proportionate sincerity; and we shall now shortly trace the chief events to which it led. Council of Ferrara. — After separate nego- tiations with Pope Eugenius and the Council of Basle, the Emperor of the East at length decided to accept the proposals of the former. An oriental despot might well be perplexed by the claims of two rival authorities, both professing to be legitimate and supreme, and both acknowledged by many adherents in their own communion. But whether his im- perial prejudices inclined him towards the Monarch of the church, or from whatsoever other motive, he embarked (in November, * It was on the last occasion that the emperor sent that Barlaain, whom we have already mentioned, (the same who instructed Petrarch in the rudiments of Greek,) to the court of Avignon. Sufficient ac- counts Hi' these various negotiations are given by Bzoyius, ad ami. 1331, s. i. 1339, s. 22, 1345-6-9, and particularly 1356, s. 22. On one occasion (in 1339) great efforts were made to show that the Greek opinions bad always been the same wi'.h the Latin (after so many mutual excommunications!) and this, as we all know, furnished Leo A Hat ins in a later age with a fruitful field for sophistry. The detestation, which the Greeks still entertained for the Pope, is strongly expressed by the Patriarch Gennadius in a document which is cited by Bzovius, aim. 1349, s. 14. 490 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 1427) with his patriarch, and numerous ec- clesiastics, on^the galleys of Eugenius, and arrived in due season at the appointed city, Ferrara. A trifling difference first arose re- specting the seats to be respectively occupied during the conference by its spiritual and temporal presidents. But this was arranged by a compromise, by which the Pope con- ceded a part of his claim, but retained his pre-eminence. They were placed on differ- ent sides of the Church, but the Pope was on the right, and his throne was one step higher than that of the, Emperor. The next pro- ceeding, and it might occasion some surprise, if not distrust, among strangers, unused to the discords of the west, was the promulga- tion of a solemn anathema against the Coun- cil of Basle. All public deliberations were then adjourned for some months ; but it was arranged that, during this interval, a select number of doctors of the two churches should frequently meet, and prepare the way by amicable discussions for a more speedy reconciliation. Accordingly these deputies, who were, in- deed, the leading members of both parties, did meet. On the one side was the celebrated Julian Cesarini, Cardinal of St. Angelo, and so lately the President of the rival Council ; and with him were Andreas, Bishop of Co- lossus (or Rhodes,) John a Doctor of Spain, and some others. Marc of Ephesus, and Bessarion, Archbishop of Nice, conducted the disputations, on the other. It was here agreed, seemingly without difference, that the articles by which the schism was entirely oc- casioned were four. (1) The Procession of the Holy Spirit. (2) The use of leavened or unleavened bread in the Eucharist. (3) Pur- gatory. (4) The Primacy of the Pope. It ■was further settled, that the subject of the first discussion should be Purgatory. Accordingly, Cardinal Julian laid down the doctrine of his Church on that matter as follows: — that the souls of the just, which are pure and without stain, and have been exempt from mortal sin, proceed directly to heaven, to the enjoyment of eternal happi- ness; but that the souls of men who have fallen into sin after their baptism, unless they have fully accomplished the penance neces- sary to expiate that sin, (even though they may have performed some penance,) and also manifested fruits worthy of their penitence, so as to receive entire remission, pass into the fire of purgatory ; that some remain there for a longer, others for a shorter period, ac- cording to the nature of their offences ; and that, being at length purified, they are admit- ted to beatitude. But that the souls of those who die in mortal sin are consigned to im- mediate punishment To this, Marc of Ephesus replied, that the doctrine, in the main, was that of the Greek Church ; only that the latter did not admit the purification by fire, but held that sinful souls were sent into a place of darkness and mourning, where they remained for a season in affliction, de- prived of the light of God. He admitted that they were purified, and delivered from this desolate abode by sacrifice and alms ; but he held that the comdemned would not be wholly miserable ; and that the saints would not be admitted to perfect beatitude until after the resurrection of their bodies. . . . On this last point an unexpected difference arose between Marc of Ephesus and his colleague, Bessarion, as to what really was the doctrine of their Church ; and this was pressed to dis- pute and altercation. In the meantime, the season advanced, and these perliminary con- ferences were discontinued before the dispu- tants had touched on any other subject, or arrived at any specific conclusion even upon that. At length the formal deliberations of the Council commenced, and the first public ses- sion was held on the 8th of October; but there were some among the Greeks who, observing that the Fathers of Basle had shown, in the meantime, no indications of submission, began already to despair of any durable effect from their mission. However, the Prelates assembled in considerable num- bers ; the same were recognised by both parties, as the important subjects of differ- ence, and it was agreed that the Jirst of them was that, in which the whole difficulty of reunion was, in fact, involved. They pre- pared, in consequence, to argue the mystery of the Procession with becoming solemnity : and it was vainly hoped, that a question which had employed the learning and wear- ied the ingenuity of the Christian world for about eight hundred years, would finally be set at rest by the eloquence of the Doctors of Ferrara. It must be admitted that the advocates of both opinions displayed on this occasion abundant talents, unwearied zeal, and re- sources almost inexhaustible, especially the Cardinal of St. Angelo ; * who here exhibited, * Tiraboschi (vol. vi. p. 1,1. ii.) cites the testimony of Sguropulos, who was present at all these discus- sions, and expressed his astonishment at the eloquence of Julian. THE GREEK CHURCH. 491 in defence of the doctrine of his Church, the same commanding faculties and energy with •which he had urged, at Basle, the refor- mation of its discipline. Through fifteen tedious sessions the controversy was main- tained with unahated ardor ; and though the point principally argued was only, whether the words Filioque were, properly speaking, an addition or an explanation, it might have been supposed, from the warmth and prolixity of the orators, that the very existence of the Christian faith was at stake. At length, as no immediate result seemed at all probable, and as Ferrara was found, on many accounts, inconvenient for so large * an assemblage, the Pope, with the consent of the Emperor, ad- journed the Council to Florence. Removed to Florence. — The Council of Flo- rence held its first session on Feb. 26, 1439 ; and it opened with some proposals on the part of the Emperor and Cardinal Julian, for arriving more directly at the practical object of these conferences — a public reconciliation. But no expedient was discovered for attaining that end, and the disputations were accord- ingly renewed. The results of the conferen- ces at Ferrara had not been such, as either to bring the Latins to retrench the contested expression from the creed, or the Greeks to insert it: thus the Procession became once more the subject of debate. For the seven succeeding sessions the same assertions were advanced and denied, the same arguments reiterated and confuted. At length, however, the Latins found a new and powerful cham- yfion in John, provincial of the Dominicans. This learned mendicant, by reference to an- cient manuscripts of St. Basil, and other Greek Fathers, professed to demonstrate, that those venerable Patriarchs had asserted the double Procession. This was an assault up- on that point, on which alone the Greeks were very sensible. Every shaft of reason might be foiled or blunted by sophistry or prejudice; every other authority might be suspected or disavowed; but when the ar- chives of their own unerring Church were cited against them, it was hard indeed to raise any defence, or reply with any confidence. It would appear, too, that Bessarion had for * About one hundred and fifty Bishops, besides numerous Abbots, are said to have been present. We should here mention that the Greeks lived at the ex- pense of the Pope, receiving a regular stipulated allowance from the Apostolical Treasury. Notwith- standing, so great was their despondency as to the result of the embassy, that they betrayed from time to time a strong desire to return to Greece. sometime taken little share in the disputes, and at length even Marc of Ephesus with- drew from the conference. The victory now appeared to rest with the Latins; when the Emperor, who possessed some skill in the- ology, and was sincerely desirous of the re-union, discovered what he considered an equitable method of compromise. In a letter of St. Maximus, that Father was found to have asserted, that 'the Latins, when they declare that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son, do not pretend that the Son is the cause of the Holy Spirit, since they know very well that the Father is the only cause both of the Son and the Holy Spirit — of the Son by generation, of the Holy Spirit by Procession — they only mean, that the Holy Spirit proceeds through the Son, because he is of the same essence.' Soon after this pro- posal had been made, the public sessions of the Council were suspended, and the Greeks held several conferences among themselves, with a view to some honorable accommoda- tion. The Greeks were now openly divided. Bessarion, gained, as his adversaries assert, by the presents and promises of the Pontiff, at once avowed his adhesion to the Latin dogma, and defended it with confidence and eloquence. Of this same party was the Em- peror, through his anxiety to reconcile the Churches on any terms, and at any sacrifice. Marc of Ephesus obstinately maintained his original opinions ; he abhorred the heresy of the Latins, and rejected every overture of compromise. Nevertheless the conferences continued: several attempts were made to devise some explanation of the Oriental doc- trine which might be satisfactory to the La- tins ; and the party of the Unionists gained ground. The Emperor saw his advantage, and pursued it by such means of persuasion as an Emperor may always exercise. And at length, after more than two months of dis- cussion, the Greeks unanimously consented to the terms of reconciliation, with the single honest exception of Marc of Ephesus. Common Confession of Faith. — The con- fession of faith, on which this treaty of con- cord was founded, was as follows : — 'In the name of the Holy Trinity, of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, we, Latins and Greeks, agree in the holy union of these two Churches, and confess that all true Christians ought to receive this genuine doctrine: that the Holy Spirit is eternally of the Father and the Son, and that from all eternity it pro- ceeds from the one and the other as from a 492 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. single principle, and by a single production, which we call Spiration. We also declare that what some of the Holy Fathers have said, viz. that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, should be taken in such manner as to signify, that the Son, as well as the Father, and conjointly with him, is the principle of the Holy Spirit. And since, whatsoever the Father hath, that he communicates to his Son, excepting the pa- ternity which distinguishes him from the Son and the Holy Spirit, so is it from the Father that the Son has received, from all eternity, that productive virtue through which the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son, as well as from the Father.' Treaties of Union. — We should here men- tion, that while this spiritual negotiation was in progress, another convention of a very dif- ferent character was also under considera- tion ; and the two treaties were brought to their conclusion at the same time. It was stipulated by the latter, that his Holiness should furnish the Greeks with resources for their return ; that he should maintain a stand- ing military and naval force for the defence of Constantinople ; that the galleys carrying pilgrims to Jerusalem should be compelled to touch at Constantinople ; that, if the Empe- ror should require twenty galleys for six months, or for a year, the Pope should bind himself to supply them ; and that, if soldiers were wanted, he should use his influence with the princes of the west to procure them. This convention having been officially rati- fied, the emperor announced the consent of his Prelates to the doctrinal accommodation ; and on the 6th of June, 1439, it was an- nounced, that the divisions of so many cen- turies were at length closed for ever. The Confession of Union was recited in Greek and in Latin, and it was hailed by the accla- mations of both parties, who embraced with seeming warmth, and interchanged the salu- tation of peace. It will have been observed, that the public disputations had been entirely confined to one of the four subjects of difference ; and that the arrangement of that, as it was considered by far the most difficult question, was held to be a sufficient pledge of agreement upon all. And so indeed it proved. The difference on the Azyms was removed by the confession of the Greeks, that the Eucharist might be celebrated with unleavened, as worthily as with leavened, bread. Respecting purgatory, it was acknowledged on both sides, that those souls which could neither, through some un- atoned sins, be received into immediate be* atitude, nor yet deserved eternal condemna- tion, were delivered into some abode of temporary durance and purification ; but regarding the method of purification — whether it was by fire, as some thought, or by darkness and tempest, as seemed to be the opinion of others — it was held more prudent to abstain from any positive declaration. The question of the Pope's primacy occasioned somewhat greater embarrassment, because its practical consequence was more directly per- ceptible ; and though the Imperial eye might overlook the importance of doctrinal differ- ences, it was not blind to any encroachment on Imperial prerogative. And thus, though Palseologus readily assented to the general proposition of papal supremacy, he objected to its application in two cases. He would not consent that the Pope should call councils in his dominions without his approbation and that of the Patriarchs ; nor would he permit appeals from the Patriarchal courts to be carried to Rome. He maintained that the Pope should send his legates to decide them on the spot. The pontiff insisted ; but as the Emperor declared that he would prefer to break off" the negotiations even in that their latest stage, rather than yield those points, a method of verbal compromise was discovered, which satisfied the consciences of both par- ties. Question on Transubstantiation. — To the at- tentive reader it will, perhaps, appear strange, that in so many controversies between the two Churches no dispute had yet been raised on the subject of Transubstantiation. And it will thence seem natural to infer, that, on that point, no difference existed between them. In a later age, when the Protestants were contending with the Roman Catholics for the spiritual adhesion of the Greeks, this impor- tant question was thoroughly investigated ; and the result, as it appears to us,* was not quite favorable to either party. For, if some of the ancient Fathers indulged in very lofty expressions on the nature of the Eucharist, yet the Latin dogma was never formally established among the Articles of the other Church. We shall now mention, that dur- ing the conferences at Ferrara and Florence certain expressions fell from the Greek Doc- tors, which excited suspicions of their ortho- doxy so generally, that the Pope deemed it necessary to demand of them a formal decla- * This subject has been shortly treated by tha author of this history, in a work ' On the Condition and Prospects of the Greek Church.' THE GREEK CHURCH. 493 ration on that point, before the ' Decree of Union' should be finally ratified. According- ly, Bessarion of Nice, on the part and in the presence of his brethren, made an affirmation to this effect : — ' Since in the preceding con- gregations we have been suspected of hold- ing an erroneous opinion touching the words of the Consecration, we declare, in the pre- sence of your Holiness, . . . that we have learnt from our ancient Fathers, and especial- ly from St. Chrysostom, that it is the words of our Lord which change the substance of the bread and wine into that of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ ; and that those divine words have the force and virtue to make that wonderful change of substance, or that Tran- substantiation ; and that we follow the senti- ments of that great Teacher.' These expres- sions are, in themselves, sufficiently explicit : but, on the other hand, we are bound to re- collect, that the Greeks at Florence had by this time abandoned in despair every manner of resistance to the Emperor and the Pope ; and also, that the Prelate who read the decla- ration, and whose motives are liable to very well-founded suspicion, was afterwards ex- alted to the dignity of a Cardinal in the Ro- man Church.* * Bessarion, an Asiatic Archbishop, ended his days in the peaceful enjoyment of a Roman dignity. His great antagonist, Julian Cesarini, Cardinal of St. Angelo, under a less auspicious influence, exchanged the field of controversial achievement for that of mili- tary dishonor. Let us here trace his concluding for- lunes. Being appointed by the Pope to superintend, as his legate, the warlike operations against the Turks, he attached himself to the camp of Huniades. Under iiis sanction, and with his consent, (it was a reluctant consent,) a truce for ten years was signed, with religious solemnities, between the contending parties; and Amurat reposed in confidence on the shores of the Bqsphoms, or employed his forces in some other enterprise. Suddenly some new circum- stance came to light, which promised advantage to the Christians from the renewal of hostilities. Here- upon the Cardinal Legate, perceiving some hesitation among the generals, seized a favorable moment to counsel the violation of the truce. To this effect, he urged the impolicy of the secret engagement, the in- fidelity of the party with whom it was contracted. He pressed the injustice thereby offered both to the Pope and the Emperor; the prejudice done to their own reputation, and to the interests of the Church. He maintained that the very compact with the Turk was in itself an act of perfidy to their allies. These and similar arguments he advanced with his custom- ary power. But seeing that his unlettered hearers were not yet persuaded, that a treaty so solemnly ratified could at once be violated without reproach, he proceeded more curiously to distinguish between the obligation due to a mere promise and that which Return of the Greeks. — After this last con- fession of Bessarion, the 'Decree of Union ' was signed and ratified ; and the Greeks, their object accomplished, set forth, with various emotions perhaps, but with general satisfac- tion, on their return to the east. The voyage was favorable ; and on the 20th of February, 1440, they were restored to the altars of Con- stantinople. With what feelings were these messengers of religious concord welcomed ? What salutations hailed them on their ar rival from that holy enterprise ? The joy the gratitude, the affection of their fellow Catholics? Let us turn to the circumstances of their reception : through a general confed eracy of the Clergy, of the people, and par- ticularly of the Monks, who chiefly swayed the conscience and directed the movements of the people, the authors of the Union found themselves excluded even from their ecclesi- astical functions. They were overwhelmed with insults. They were called azymites, apostates, traitors to the true religion ; the sanctuaries which they entered were deserted ; they were shunned, as if convicted of impie- ty, or blasted by excommunication ; and in many of the Churches the spirit went so far, that the very name of the Emperor himself was erased from the Dyptics. On the other hand, Marc of Ephesus, who had fought without concession or compromise the battles of his Church, and persisted inflexibly in his repugnance to the re-union, was rewarded by is demanded by the public welfare, and to show the higher authority of the latter. Whenever these, for- sooth, were at variance, the faith plighted to an in- fidel could have little solid weight. For though, in truth, an oath is binding, when it is just and founded in equity, it is properly considered as null, and dis- pleasing to God, when it leads to private or public calamity, &c. &c! The eloquence of the Cardinal so well enforced his fallacies upon minds which probably were only thirst- ing for conviction, that the whole assembly demanded with acclamations the violation of the truce. The army moved forwards, and immediately engaged in that campaign, which was terminated by the battle of Varna. In that fatal encounter, among thousands of less illustrious victims, fell the Cardinal of St. Angelo. The nature of his death is uncertain. It is variously asserted that he was slain in the field, and in the rout; that he was drowned in the Danube; that he was plundered and murdered by Hungarian robbers. And it had been happier for his memory had the last struggle of his genius been wrapped in the same obscurity — could we forget that it was made for the purpose of corrupting the rude morality of Chris- tian soldiers and statesmen, and leading them into that perjured enterprise, which ended in his destruc- tion and their disaster, and the ihfamy of all. 494 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. universal acclamation. Marc of Ephesus bad alone stood forth as the defender of the faith, and of the honor of the CEcumenic Church. Dissensions in the East. — The controversy •was immediately renewed in the East. Marc placed himself at the head of the schismatics, and many compositions were published, as well by himself as by others, to press the re- peal of the Union. Various polemical treati- ses were also put forth in rejoinder ; and at the same time the Emperor exerted, on the same side, a more equivocal method of per- suasion. He selected for the Patriarch of Constantinople a decided supporter of the Union, and caused the patronage of the See to be conferred exclusively upon ecclesiastics of that party. . . Within the limits of his tem- poral sovereignty the Head of the Oriental Church received a reluctant obedience. But beyond those boundaries, in the Patriarchats of Jerusalem, of Antioch, and Alexandria, his spiritual subjects — for they were no more than spiritual — broke forth into undisguised rebellion. In 1443 those three Prelates united in publishing a Synodal Epistle, in which they pronounced the sentence of deposition against all those, on whom their Brother of Constantinople had conferred ordination ; and then added the threat of excommunication, in case this sentence should be neglected. At the same time they addressed to the Emperor himself a similar menace, should he still con- tinue to protect his Patriarch. A Synod,' which combined the authority of three of their Patriarchs, was reverentially regarded by a people already predisposed to embrace its edicts. Even the resolution of Palseologus appears to have been shaken by so bold an act of insubordination. At the same time, as if to increase his confusion, the Clergy and populace of the Northern Prov- inces of his Church, Russia and Muscovy, loudly declared themselves against the Union, and insulted and imprisoned a Papal Legate who was sent to publish it among them. Thus, after his sojourn under foreign domin- ion, after his personal exertions in allaying the heats of controversy, and conducting it, as he fondly fancied, to a lasting termination, the Emperor of the East discovered that his ecclesiastical influence was confined almost to the city and suburbs of Constantinople; and that the treaty from which he expected such advantage was received even there with a reluctant and precarious, even though it was an interested, submission. It might have been supposed that some sense of political advantage would have mov- ed the feelings of his subjects ; that the pros- pect of a powerful alliance would have exert- ed some influence; that the sight of the advancing Turk would have inspired some moderation; or, if reason was, indeed, ex- cluded from the controversy, that the passion of fear would, in some degree, have counter- acted the passion of bigotry. Some mitiga- tion of the first frenzy might at least have been expected from time ; and in the interval of eleven years, more charitable feelings, and more provident considerations might grad- ually have gained prevalence under the Imperial patronage. But the event was far otherwise : if the heat of either party relaxed during this critical period, it was that of the friends of the Union ; its opponents increased in strength, and remitted nothing of their original rancor. Prediction of Nicholas V., and fall of the Greek Empire. — In the year 1451 Nicholas V., after engaging in some earnest endeavors to rouse the energies of Christendom against the common foe, issued a celebrated address to the Greeks. He exhorted them to pay some regard to their own safety, and not to paralyse the efforts which Providence was making to preserve them; to display their devotion in acts of penitence ; and to receive, without de- lay, the decree of the Council of Florence. To the Emperor Constantine he addressed a menace, dictated, as some have thought, by a prophetic spirit. After complaining, that the Greeks had now too long trifled with the pa- tience of God and man, in deferring their reconciliation with the Church, he announced that, according to the parable in the Gospel, three years of probation would still be grant- ed for the fig-tree, hitherto cultivated in vain, to bring forth fruit. But, if it did not bear fruit in that season — if the Greeks, during the space which God still indulged to thern, did not receive the decree of the Union — that then, indeed, the tree would be cut down even to its root — the nation extirpated by the min- isters of divine justice. This denunciation contemplated no im- probable catastrophe ; and the Emperor took such measures as were left to him to concil- iate the dispositions of the Vatican. But what was the spirit which at this last crisis animat- ed his subjects? It was during this very year that several Greek ecclesiastics address- ed, in the name of the whole Church, a com- munication to the rebels of Bohemia. They praised the zeal of their brother-schismatics ; they applauded them for their rejection of the innovations of Rome, and their adherence to THE ARMENIANS. 495 the true faith ; and, finally, called on tliem to conclude a treaty of Union with themselves — not such union as that mockery of concord dressed up at Florence, from which truth was far removed, but Union, founded on the re- spectable opinions of the ancient Fathers ! And thus, those precious moments, which the Pope devoted to vows and exertions for the salvation of Greece, were employed by her zealous theologians in courting the bitterest enemies of his government. In the year following, the Emperor having received with honor the Papal Legate, and made him some fair promises, they proceed- ed to celebrate the Liturgy in St. Sophia. But as soon as mention was made, in the course of the service, of the names of the Pope and the Latin Patriarch,* the whole city rose in commotion, and the multitude, uncertain what course to take, rushed in a mass to consult a popular fanatic, named Gennadius. This man was a monk; and attached to the door of his cell they found a written rescript, denouncing the last inflictions against all who should receive the impious decree of Florence. Then it was that Priests and Abbots, Monks and Nuns, soldiers and citizens, the entire population, except the im- mediate dependents of the Emperor, shouted, as with a single voice — 'Anathema against all who are united with the Latins ! ' The sanctuary of St. Sophia was proclaimed pro- fane ; all intercourse was suspended with all who had assisted at the service with the La- tins; absolution was refused, and the Church- es were closed against them. This was the madness of a falling empire — this was the heaven-inflicted delirium which prepared the path for destruction. The measure of fanaticism was at length filled up ; the pontifical prophecy f hastened to its ac- complishment. And while the frantic people of Greece were in the highest ferment of theological excitement,— while their religious hatred against their brother Christians was burning most intensely, — while partial dif- ferences were most exaggerated, — while sec- tarian intolerance was most fierce and un- compromising, the banners of the Infidel were * Gregory — then a voluntary exile at Rome, through his reluctance to preside over a rebellious Church. t Constantinople was certainly laken in the third year (inclusive) after the prediction of Nicholas. The Tope wrote some time in 1-151 ; the city fell on May 20, 1453. The coincidence, even with this latitude, was fortunate; but after the battle of Varna, no light from heaven was necessary to foreshow the speedy downfal of the Greek empire. in motion towards the devoted city, and a nation of Christians was consigned in bondage to the common enemy of Christ. NOTE (1) ON THE ARMENIANS. The first occasion on which we can observe the Armenians to have come into contact, as an independent communion, with the Church of Rome, was the following: — In the year 1145, while Pope Eugenius was resident at Viterbo, certain deputies from their patriarch (also called their Catholic,) arrived to salute the Pontiff, and proffer every sort of respect and deference. The particular object of their mission appears, however, to have been this, — to appeal to the decision of the Pope respect- ing their differences with the Greek Church. The differences principally debated were two ; — the Armenians did not mix water with the wine in the eucharist ; they made use of leav- ened bread, excepting on the festivals of Christmas and the Epiphany We do not learn that there were any lasting results from this embassy ; but it is carefully record- ed, * that the Orientals assisted at the Latin Mass celebrated by the Pope in person ; and that one of them beheld on that solemnity a sunbeam resting on the head of the Pontiff", as well as two doves ascending and descend- ing above him, in an inexplicable manner — a marvel which greatly moved him to rever- ence and submission. Notwithstanding, the circumstances under which the Armenians next present themselves to the historian, prove the futility of the for- mer overtures to Rome. For we find that, in the year 1170, the Catholic Norsesis ad- dressed a letter to Manuel Comnenus, in which he mentioned some points, whereon himself and the Greeks were not agreed, and expressed a strong desire for reconciliation. The Emperor intrusted the commission to a philosopher named Theorian, who proceeded to Armenia, and conferred with the patriarch and another influential prelate. On this oc- casion much more important differences were advanced than those discovered at Viterbo; and that, which was most prominent, respect- ed the nature of Christ. From the account of this controversy it would appear, that, in the outset, the Greeks supposed the Armeni- ans to be involved in the Eutychian heresy ; while the Armenians imagined the Greeks to have embraced the opposite error of Nes- * By Otho Frisingensis, who was at that time m Viterbo. 496 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. torius. In the course of the conference both were undeceived. The Armenians did in- deed admit, that they held one incarnate nature ; but not by confusion, like Eutyches, nor by diminution, like ^pollinaris: but in the 'orthodox' sense of Cyril of Alexandria.* The Greeks cleared their own tjnets from the charge of Nestorianism with equal per- spicuity. The result was, that the Catholic acknowledged their orthodoxy, and under- took to bring over all his compatriots to the same opinion. Some other differences of inferior weight were also discussed; and these, too, the Armenian is related to have softened away with equal facility. At length, after an affecting interview, in which many tears were poured forth in pious sympathy by both parties, Theorian returned to Con- stantinople, and Narsesis prepared to com- municate his own convictions to the Church over which he presided. With what little success these negotiations were attended appears from the next glimpse that we catch of the ecclesiastical affairs of the Armenians. On the 23rd of May, 1199, Leo, their king, addressed an epistle to Inno- cent III., expressing his anxiety for the re- union of his Church with that of Rome. At the same time he disclosed the motive of his anxiety ; for he deplored the ravages, to which his kingdom was exposed by the in- roads of the infidels, and proclaimed the absolute need in which he stood of foreign succor. This application was accompanied by one from the Catholic, in which he pro- fessed his wish for reconciliation, and his readiness to make submission to the Vatican. The Pope sent, in reply, many civil expres- sions ; and intended, no doubt, to confer a more substantial service on his militant fellow Christians, when he presented them at the same time with the standard of St. Peter, as a safeguard against the sword of the unbeliever. Some negotiations succeeded: at length (in the year 1205,) the king prevailed upon his subjects to acknowledge their spiritual alle- giance to the Pope ; and the Catholic publicly * See ' Theoriani Orthodoxi cum Catholico Ar- meniorum Colloquium,' in the Maxima Biblioth. P.P. torn. xxii. p. 796—812, (Edit. Lugdun. 1677). ' Dicimus in Christo naturam unam esse, non secun- dum Eutychcn confundentes, nee secundum Apollina- rem detrahentes, sed secundum Alexandrinum Anti- Etitem Cyrillum, in Ortliodoxia, qure in libro contra Nestorium scripsit, unam esse naturam Sermonis incarnatam ' . . . . The controversy turned a good deal on the distinction (real or imaginary) between Christus and Sermo, in this question. placed the act of his submission in the hands of the legate. He accepted the pallium* from the same authority, and engaged to visit the holy See, by his Nuncios, once in every five years, and to assist in person, or by deputy, at all councils which might be held in the west for the regulation of his in- terests. Greater objections appear to have prevailed among those orientals against the introduction of the Roman code of canon law ; but it was arranged that some part of its institution should be received at once, and the rest at some future time, after more ma- ture deliberation among the Armenian pre- lates. Such was the general nature of the reconciliation then effected ; but some dissen- sions presently arose between the king and one of the pontifical legates ; and there seems no reason to believe that the above negotia- tion had any lasting consequences.! As the amicable overtures from Armenia to Rome were entirely occasioned by the political necessities of the former, they were more frequent during the desolation of the East in the fourteenth century. The in- terested obedience of that communion was tendered to John XXII., and accepted by him. A few years afterwards (in 1341) we observe another king, named Leo, soliciting temporal assistance from Benedict XII. The Pope made answer in two letters, respectively addressed to the king and to the Catholic. In the former, he made mention of the errors entertained by the Armenians, and of the ex- ertions which he had made, both by personal inquiry from those professing them, and by the examination of the authorized books, to ascertain their nature and extent. In the lat- ter, he exhorted the clergy to assemble in council, to condemn and extirpate the false opinions which they held, and then, for their * See the Letter from Leo to Innocent, published by Raynaldus, ann. 1205, in which he boasts, that, with great labor, and through divine grace, he had at length brought about that obedience of the Armenians to the Roman Church, which his ancestors had so long attempted in vain. f From the fragment of a Greek writer, named Nico, (probably of the thirteenth century,) translated and published in the Max. Bibliotheca P.P. (torn, xxv. p. 328), and entitled ' De Pessimorum Armeni- orum pessima Religione,' it appears that they still retained all the errors imputed to them by either Church. Among a multitude here enumerated it is one, that ' they do not adore the venerable images, but, on the contrary, that their Catholic anathematizes those who do so. Neither do they worship the Cross, until they have driven a nail into it, and baptized it, &c. THE ARMENIANS. 497 belter instruction in the faith and observances of the Roman Church, to receive the Decree, the Decretals and other Canons used in the West. He expressed a pious persuasion, that when the errors of the Armenians should once he removed, the enemies of the faith would no longer prevail against them ; and .concluded his address by the proposal of a conference. The first of these epistles was accompa- nied hy a memorial, in which the errors in question were enumerated. They were ex- panded into a tedious catalogue of one hun- dred and seventeen ; but they may, without much inaccuracy, be reduced under the fol- lowing heads: — 1. The Armenians were ac- cused of adhesion to the opinions of Eutyches, involving, of course, the Monophysite heresy, the rejection of the council of Chalcedon, the condemnation of St. Leo, and the seces- sion from both the GEcumenic Churches. 2. They were charged with administering the sacraments of confirmation and the eucharist, together with that of baptism — a practice which (as Fleury observes) had very early pre valance in the Church. 3. They mixed no water with the wine in the holy com- munion— which again was an ancient usage. 4. They rejected Transubstantiation, and maintained that it was the figure only, not the real body, that was received by the Com- municants— an opinion which was then na- turally considered as a consequence of the Eutychian error respecting the nature of Christ — for if any doubts were thrown on the reality of Christ's body on earth, the same would extend in an equal (if not in a greater) degree, to the reality of his flesh in the sacra- ment of his supper. The other imputations concerned some fabulous notions respecting the resurrection, the last judgment, the place of punishment, the earthly and heavenly pa- radise, the intermediate state, and other ques- tions of difficult determination. In consequence of the pontifical remon- strances, the Patriarch assembled his council, and condemned all the imputed errors; he then sent deputies to the succeeding Pope (Clement VI.,) charged with a general obliga- tion, to retract any other obnoxious opinions which might thereafter be discovered ; and at the same time to acknowledge the Bishop of Rome as the chief of the Church of Christ, and to solicit copies of the decretals, for the more faithful administration of his own sub- ordinate communion. The Poj>e engaged to send them, and in November, 1346, despatch- ed two legates on a mission to the East. 63 Five years afterwards, the Pontiff, still dis- satisfied with the communications (perhaps equivocal) which he received from his new subjects, and desiring a more express declar- ation of their opinions on those points which most interested himself, addressed the Cath- olic of Lesser Armenia in terms not substan- tially different from the following:— 'Since we are unable clearly to collect your opinions from your answers, we desire distinctly to propose the following questions: — Do you believe that all who at their baptism have received the Catholic faith, and have after- wards separated from the communion, are Schismatics and heretics, if they persist in such separation? and that no one can be saved, who has renounced obedience to the Pope ? Do you believe that St. Peter received from Jesus Christ full power of jurisdiction over all the faithful ? that all the power which the apostles may have possessed in certain provinces was subject to his ? and that all the successors of St. Peter have the same power with himself? Do you believe that, in virtue of that power, the Pope can judge all the faithful immediately, and delegate to that effect such ecclesiastical judges as he may think proper? Do you believe that the Pope can be judged by no one, except God him- self; and that there is no appeal from his decisions to any judge ? Do you believe that he can translate bishops, and abbots, and other ecclesiastics from one dignity to anoth- er, or degrade and depose them, if they de- serve such punishment ? Do you believe that the Pope is not subject to any secular power, even regal or imperial, in respect to institu- tion, correction, or destitution ; that he alone can make general canons, and grant plenary indulgences, and decide disputes on matters of faith?' .... These interrogations were accompanied by the notice of some Armenian errors on the intermediate state, on the sacra- ments, and especially the Eucharist ; and by some complaints, that promises, hitherto made with facility, had not been sufficiently ob- served. But they chiefly merit the historian's attention, as they prove the uncompromising severity with which Rome, even during the exile of her Pontiffs, exacted all her usurped ecclesiastical rights, and imposed the whole weight and pressure of her yoke even on the most distant and most reluctant of her sub- jects. Howbeit, after that period, we do not observe any proof of the continuance or re- newal of friendly negotiation between Rome and Armenia, sufficiently important to deserve a place in this history. 498 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. NOTE (2) ON THE MARONITES. Maro, or Maroun, from whom this sect de- rives its appellation, lived during the latter part of the sixth century on the banks of the Orontes ; and in the disputes then prevailing between the eastern and western Churches, he exerted his influence, which was consid- erable in that part of Syria, in favor of the latter. About a century later, a certain John, surnamed the Maronite, was distinguished by his opposition to the Melchites Greeks ; and it seems to have been under his guidance, that the Syrian ' rebels ' * settled apart m the secure recesses of Libanus and Antilibanus. There they formed a powerful association, formidable alike to the orthodox Greeks and to the Mahometan invader. . .*. . The first crusades brought them once more into im- mediate contact with the Latins ; but not always as allies, nor by any means as mem- bers of the same ecclesiastical communion. For it appears certain, that the Maronites had imbibed, in the first instance, the opinions of the Monothelites, and that they long main- tained them, together with some other pecu- liarities in rites and discipline. At length, however, about the year 1182, they were induced to abandon then* leading error, and were then received into the bosom of the Roman Church. At the same time it was stipulated, that the Pope should in no respect interfere with any of their ancient practices or ceremonies ; consequently they continued to observe the discipline of the Greek Church, regarding the marriage of the clergy, and to administer the eucharist in both kinds, and according to the manner generally in use in the East. They retained, too, in other matters, a much closer resemblance to their original, than to their adopted, communion. Nevertheless, they have faithfully preserved the name of obedience to Rome from that time to the present; and if the contributions, which they have continually received from the apostol- ical treasury, should occasion any suspicion respecting the motives of their fidelity, it is worthy, at least, of observation, that the pecuniary current has invariably set in that direction, and that the more ordinary prin- ciples of the Vatican have never extended to the oppression of its Maronite subjects. * They were then called Mardaites — which means Rebels. The reader is familiar with the picture of the Maronites drawn in Volney's admirable • Travels iu Syria.' CHAPTER XXVII. From the Council of Basle to the beginning oj the Reformation. The real weight of General Councils as a part of the Con- stitution of the Church — Circumstances preceding the accession of Nicholas V. — His popular qualities — Love of all the Arts — His public virtues — Recorded particu- lars of his Election — Concord with Germany — Celebra- tion and abuse of the Jubilee — Death of the Cardinal of Aries — His recorded miracles and canonization — Efforts to unite the Christian States against the Turks — Dis- satisfaction and Death of Nicholas — Caliztus III. Cru- sading enthusiasm of .(Eneas Sylvius — Jealousy be- tween the Pope and Alphonso of Arragon — Nepotism of the former — .(Eneas Sylvius justifies the Pope against the complaints of the Germans — His history — The cir- cumstances of his elevation to the Pontificate — The Council of Mantua, for the purpose of uniting Europe against the Turks — The project of Pius II. — Failure of the whole Scheme — Embassy to Rome from the Princes of the East — Thomas Palsologus arrives at Rome — Canonization of Catharine of Sienna — The Bull of Piua II. against all appeals from the Holy See to General Councils — The Pope retracts the errors into which he fell, as iEneas Sylvius — Probable motive of his aposta- sy— His speech in Consistory — Departure against the Infidels — Arrival at Ancona, and Death — His Character — Compared to Nicholas V., and Cardinal Julian — Con- ditions imposed by the Conclave on the future Pope — Remarks — Paul II. is elected, and immediately violates them — A native of Venice — Principles of his Govern- ment— He diverts the War from the Turks against the Hussites, and persecutes a literary Society at Rome — Sirtus IV. makes a faint attempt to rouse Christendom against the Turks — Violent broil between the Pope and the Florentines — Otranto taken by the Turks — Exces- sive Nepotism of this Pope — Institution of the Minimes — Increased venality of the Court of Rome — The moral character, talents, learning of Sixtus — Elevation of In- nocent VIII. — Violation of the oath taken in Conclave — Preferment conferred on his illegitimate Children — His weakness and his avarice — The great wealth, elec- tion, and reputation of Alexander VI. — Distribution of his Benefices, &c. among the Cardinals who voted for him — Great Festivities at Rome — Moral profligacy and indecency of the Pope — His projected alliance with the Sultan Bajazet — He confers the possession of the New World on the Kings of Spain — The Act contested by the Portuguese — On what ground — His negotiations with Charles VIII. of France— History and fate of Zi- zim, brother of Bajazet — Cssar Borgia, Duke of Valen- tion,or Valentinois — His co-operation with his father — The object of their common ambition — Probable cir cumstances of the death of Alexander VI. — Express- sions of Guicciardini — Pius III. dies immediately after his election — Julian della Rovera, or Julius II. unani- mously elected — His policy and character — His dispute with Louis XII. — Ecclesiastical scruples of the latter — Julius resumes the possession of the States of the Church, and extends them — His extraordinary military and political talents — Encouragement of the Arts — Lays the foundations of St. Peter's— A Council convoked by the Cardinals against the Pope — Its entire failure — Ju- lius convokes the fifth Lateran Council — Subjects dis- cussed by it till his death — Continuation of the Council under Leo X. — A number of constitutions enacted by it — Its edict to restrain the Press — Its abolition of the Pragmatic Sanction, through the co-operation of Francis I.— Dissolution of the Council — Observations — On the gradual degeneracy of the See— Of the Government of the successive Popes— their Nepotism — On the morality of the Conclave — Obligations undertaken there on Oath — Reasons of their perpetual violation — Ignorance of NICHOLAS V. 499 Cisalpines respecting the real character of the Court of Rome— Respectability ascribed to it through the mer- its of its literary Pontiffs— The great use made by the Popes at this period of the dangers of a Turkish inva- sion, in order to suppress the question of Churcli Re- form. The council of Basle, after its protracted and resolute struggle with the Vatican, having at length dissolved itself, and Felix V., its crea- ture, having resigned his ill-supported preten- sions to the Chair of St. Peter, the prospects of the Court of Rome once more brightened, and its authority was again secure from any immediate invasion. As a restraint on papal despotism, a General Council was effectual, so long as the council was assembled ; and even its name and the menace of an appeal to it, as a last resource, have operated, on more occasions than one, with salutary influ- ence on the fears of an arbitrary Pope. But the power of the Monarchy was continuous ; its principles were never suspended ; its ac- tion was uniformly directed to the same object — whereas the controlling body, the Senate of the Church, had only an occasional and very precarious existence; and even when it was more efficaciously in action, it was liable to all the incidents which throw uncertainty into the deliberations of very large assemblies. It is true that the councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basle had endeavored, by express enactments, to make their sittings periodical, so as to erect the Council General into a permanent branch of the constitution of the Church. But as the power of convoking it still remained with the Pope ; as the collect- ing together of so large a body of prelates from all parts of Europe must always have occasioned many local evils ; and as the gen- eral consent, and even private inclinations, of the more powerful sovereigns were not, under such circumstances, to be disregarded, it was easy for the Pontiff to evade an obligation which he detested. So, in fact, it proved; for when they had once shaken off the fetters that were forged for them at Basle, the suc- cessors of Eugenius IV. carefully abstained, for above half a century, from acknowledging any power in the Church, except their own. The moment of the accession of Nicholas V. was even favorable to the unlimited su- premacy (the high Papists called it the In- dependence) of the Court of Rome. The faithful children of the Church had now, for seventy years, been distracted by dissensions almost uninterrupted. The schism which had dissevered kingdoms, and dishonored the Church, had been seemingly aggravated by the council of Pisa ; and no sooner was it appeased, after many fierce disputes at Con- stance, than a third assembly succeeded, which occasioned (to all appearances) a new broil, and which ended by creating a second schism. The spectacle of a Pope and a coun- cil launching anathemas against each other was not calculated to edify the devout Cath- olic, nor even to conciliate towards the coun- cil the affections of the unthinking, who form the majority of mankind. But when the Pope assembled his rival council at Ferrara, and when the two infallible antagonists inter- changed the bolts of excommunication, we may fairly believe that the dignity of those venerable bodies suffered much in popular opinion, and even that their utility was made matter of serious question. Wearied by con- tinual dissension, and disgusted by endless exhibitions of ecclesiastical discord, many were disposed to acquiesce in the unrestrain- ed licentiousness of the Vatican, as the lesser evil. Nicholas V.— Again, the formidable suc- cesses of the Turks, and their near approach to the capital of the East, diverted the atten- tion of men from their spiritual grievances to a more sensible object ; and the zeal which Nicholas displayed in that, the common cause of all Christendom, reconciled many to an authority, so earnestly exercised in so holy a cause. Above all, the personal character of that Pope was of great use in conciliating the disaffected, and rallying them under the pontifical banners. His reputation, his tal- ents, his pursuits, were in accordance with the spirit, which, in Italy, at least, so pecu- liarly prevailed at that time, for the cultivation of ancient literature. His gradual ascent from an inferior origin to the highest dignity was truly ascribed to his literary genius and ac- complishments; and having attained that emi- nence, he surrounded it — not with sensualists or sycophants, — but with men of study and erudition, whose society he loved, and whose affection he obtained. A multitude of tran- scribers and translators were continually in his employment; and the learning of tlie Greeks was placed within the reach of an ordinary education. He founded the Vatican library, and sent his messengers into every country for the collection of rare and valu- able manuscripts; and while he sought to amass the most precious treasures of profane lore, he exerted even greater zeal to multiply authentic copies of the sacred writings. But neither was his polite taste, nor the profusion of his liberality, confined entirely to literary objects. His patronage was bestow- 500 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. cd on the arts, and especially on that of archi- tecture. He embellished his capital with sev- eral superb edifices ; many churches, which had fallen into ruins during the schisms and disorders of preceding generations, were now restored to more than their ancient splendor ; and the ground was prepared, and the foun- dations traced out, on which the least unwor- thy temple which man has ever dedicated to Omnipotence, was destined to rise. The talents of Nicholas were illustrated by private as well as public virtues.* He discouraged the practice of Simony, so long habitual to the Court of Rome ; and the records of his history permit us once more to associate the word ' charity ' with the character of a Pope. Such were purposes on which the revenues of the Church were honorably employed, and for which they were less reluctantly contrib- uted ; and such the character which, being raised at that moment to the pontifical chair, conciliated minds already weary with dissen- sion, and seduced them into a temporary ac- quiescence in acknowledged abuses. When the Cardinals went into conclave, on the death of Eugenius, nothing was farther from their intention, or from general expecta- tion, than the election of Nicholas. Prosper Colonna was the person on whom the choice was expected to fall ; and though the common proverb was not then forgotten, ' that he who enters the conclave Pope, comes out Cardi- nal,' (chi entra Papa, esce Cardinale) still among the names at all connected with suc- cess Thomas of Sarzana was not mentioned. Eighteen Cardinals were present; and, after two or three scrutinies, eleven were united in favor of Colonna ; one only was wanting to give him the requisite majority. At that moment the Cardinal of St. Sixtus is reported to have turned suddenly to Sarzana, and said to him, 'Thomas, I give my vote to you, because this is the eve of St. Thomas ! ' It was, in fact, the eve of St. Thomas Aquinas. The rest of the College immediately followed the example, and Thomas of Sarzana was unanimously elected.! * We may be allowed to cite (from Platina) a part of his epitaph, because the praises it offers were really well founded: — Hie sita sunt Quinti Nicolai Antistitis ossa, Aurea qui dederat saecula, Roma, tibi. Consilio illustris, virtute illustrior omni, Excoluit doctos doctior ipse viros. Abstulit errorem, quo Schisma infecerat orbem. Restituit mores, mcenin, templa, domos. Attica Romans complura vohimina linguae Prodidit — en tumulo fundite thura sacro. t The Roman people were allowed to retain (in re- turn, perhaps, fur their long-lost share in the election) One of the first act of Nicholas was, to sign a Concordat with the German Church. Its provisions did not extend beyond the subject of patronage ; and it was arranged that the Pope should appoint to all great benefices of every description which should become va- cant Ml curia; to all vacated by Cardinals, or other officers of the Roman Court; and to all inferior benefices which should fall during six alternate months of the year. The rest appear to have been left at the disposal of the Ordinaries ; all (except the smallest) being lia- ble to the payment of Annates, according to the tax of the Apostolical Chamber ; and all to Papal confirmation. This Concordat, pro- perly considered, was the substantial effect produced by the Council of Basle upon the constitution of the Church of Germany; it was for this end that the labors of so many pious prelates and learned doctors had been exhausted ! Yet even this result, as we shall presently see, was not such as to secure the satisfaction or bind the faith of the Court of Rome. Jubilees. — In the year 1450 the avarice of the Roman Clergy and people was again i nourished by the celebration of the Jubilee ; and so vast were the multitudes which on this occasion sought the plenary indulgence at the tombs of the apostles, that many are said to have been crushed to death in Church- es, and to have perished by other accidents.* Nevertheless, as there were still many devout persons, particularly in the more remote countries of Europe, who were precluded from reaping the promised rewards by per- sonal disabilities, Nicholas, in imitation of the abuse of his predecessors, afforded them facilities to redeem their omission. To the Poles and Lithuanians a private jubilee was accorded, on the condition, that every pious person should pay for his indulgence only half of the money which the pilgrimage to Rome would have cost him ; but through die licentious privilege of plundering the mansion of the Pope elect. On this occasion it happened, that Prosper Colonna, as first Deacon, had the office of communicating the election from the window to the assembled populace. Now the people, knowing him to be the favorite, thought no other than that he had appeared to announce his own election. Conse- quently they rushed, without further inquiry, to his magnificent palace, and stripped it bare. After they had learned their mistake, they proceeded to atone for it by plundering Sarzana also; but he was a scholar, and had little to lose. * Ninety-seven pilgrims, for instance, were thrown at once by the pressure of the multitude from the bridge of St. Angelo, and drowned. NICHOLAS V. 501 some sense of shame, as is said, at the enor- mous sums which would thus have been raised, the proportion was finally reduced to one quarter. Of the proceeds, which were still considerable, half was consigned to the King of Poland, for the prosecution of the holy war, a fourth to the Queen Sophia, for charitable uses, and a fourth for the repara- tion of the Roman Churches. In this in- stance we have the unusual consolation of believing, that the money thus levied upon superstition, and levied, too, chiefly upon the superstition of the poor, was applied, for the most part, to the purposes professed. There are shades iu the colors of religious impos- ture; and the sin of deluding a credulous race would have been still blacker, had it been followed by perfidy, or had its fruits been expended in pampering the profligacy of the Court of Rome. The Cardinal of Aries.— In that year, also, died the Cardinal of Aries, the same who had succeeded Julian Cesarini as the Presi- dent of the Council of Basle. But the history of that eminent ecclesiastic did not terminate at his death. On the interment of his body at Aries, many extraordinary miracles were performed at his tomb ; and their fame spread so widely, and with such assurance of truth, that the partisans of the rival Council of Florence were struck with confusion. This Prelate had been excommunicated by Pope Eugenius, and stigmatized as the author of schism, the child of perdition, the nursling of iniquity ; he had been condemned by two General Councils for rebellion against the Church, and degraded and deprived of all his dignities. He had continued, notwith- standing, in the exercise of his episcopal functions at Aries; and so lasting was the impression of his sanctity — founded on his charitable disposition, and other Christian excellences — and so pressing was the impor- tunity of his devotees, who had even antici- pated in their prayers the determination of the Vatican, that at length Pope Clement VII. published (in 1527) the Bull of Beatifi- cation ; and by that act exalted among the holy mediators the denounced, anathematized foe of Pontifical corruption and despotism. If Nicholas V. had made some ineffectual exertions to preserve the Eastern empire, while there seemed yet some hope of its preservation, he redoubled his efforts where the shadow of a hope no longer existed. The fall of Constantinople, though long foreseen, fell like an unexpected bolt upon the nations of the West ; and it was quickly perceived that the capital of the ancient Empire, the throne of the Christian religion, the opulent palaces and cities of Italy, pre- sented peculiar temptations to an ambitious, unbelieving depredator. Accordingly nu- merous religious persons began to preach a new crusade ; and while ^Eneas Sylvius was astonishing the Princes of Germany by his polished eloquence, a simple Monk, a hermit of St. Augustine, was exerting a more suc- cessful influence over the republics of Italy. His name was Simonet ; he was destitute of all acquirements ; but his natural address won the confidence of those who listened to him. He traversed the country, in repeated journeys, with unwearied activity. At Ve- nice, at Milan, at Florence, he reiterated his counsels and his arguments. The orator was disinterested, and his object was the concord of his hearers. It was by such simple machinery, that he prevailed in ef- fecting an union among those powerful cities. Yet the practised statesmen of the day were confounded * when they learned, that a hum- ble, undistinguished Monk, without rank, without wealth, without any worldly support, had accomplished an enterprise which the Pope, and his Court of Cardinals, had at- tempted in vain. In the midst of his chivalrous designs to recover Constantinople, and expel the con- queror from Europe, and at a moment when there seemed some prospect of a partial co- operation for that purpose, Nicholas V. died. His complaint was gout ; and it is commonly asserted, that its progress was hastened by the affliction with which he saw the triumphs of the infidel. It is at least certain, that dur- ing the two or three last years of his life the natural suavity of his temper deserted him ; that he became morose, and even cruel ; fear- ful of his enemies, and suspicious of his friends; querulous, and discontented even with the Chair of St. Peter. ' No man (he once said) ever crosses my threshold who tells me a word of truth. I am confounded by the artifices of those who surround me; and if I was not restrained by the fear of scandal, I would resign the Pontificate, and become once more Thomas of Sarzana. Under that name I had more enjoyment in a single day, than any year can henceforth ever bring me.' Nicholas, however amiable in his domestic qualities, had been ever unable to recognise * 'Visum est id omnibus monstri simile humilera et incognitum monachum Italiam pacavisse.' JEne& Sylv. Hist, de Europa, cap. 68, p. 460, edit. Basil. See Platina, Vit. Nic. V. ad finem. 502 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. any political rights in the subjects of the state ; and thus he had persecuted the patriots of his day with precipitate severity. In conse- quence, it is made a natural question by the author of ' The Italian Republics,' whether it was not remorse, rather than commisera- tion, which imbittered and curtailed his de- clining days. Calixtus III. — Alphonso Borgia, a native of Spain, was chosen as his successor, and assumed the name of Calixtus III. Scarce- ly was he established in his dignity, when iEneas Sylvius presented himself at Rome, the bearer of the most flattering assurances on the part of the Emperor, both respecting his own military preparations, and the gen- eral eagerness for the Turkish war. In an animated address to the Pope and Cardinals, the orator depicted the dangers which impen- ded over Europe : he then dilated upon the great numercial superiority of the Christians — that many Princes of Germany had taken the vow ; that the King of Arragon was in readiness ; that the Duke of Burgundy was ardent for the enterprise. Charles of France would not fail to emulate the zeal of his pre- decessors ; the ancient courage of the English would not now desert them ; the Castilians, the Portuguese, all nations, in short, awaited only the pontificial summons to arm for the defence of religion — if his Holiness would only second the vows of the faithful, by un- locking the treasures of the Church, and sending the laborers to the harvest. . . . These magnificent declarations were, for the most part, the spontaneous fruits of the orator's enthusiasm — that they had no result, is not to be entirely ascribed to the lukewarmness of the Pope. Yet it is remarkable that, among the various Princes announced as forming that holy confederacy, the first who withdrew from it, and that, too, in consequence of per- sonal dissension with the Pontiff, was Al- phonso of Arragon. Borgia had been the subject of that monarch — more than that — he had been engaged in his domestic service, and owed his ecclesiastical advancement to the same patronage. On his elevation to the Chair, Alphonso sent ambassadors to inquire of his Holiness, what terms were hereafter to subsist between them ? Calixtus peevishly re- plied, ' Let him rule his kingdom, and leave the government of the Church, without any interference, to me.' Some have considered the reply as too harsh, while others have dis- covered in the overture of Alphonso a want of due veneration for the Vicegerent of Christ. Probably, the monarch had not for- gotten, and perhaps the Pontiff could not for- give, the relation which had formerly subsist- ed between them ; and their knowledge of each other's character may have been too deep and intimate to leave much room for rever- ence on either side. The System of Nepotism. — Calixtus III. reigned only three years, and died in August, 1458, at a very advanced age. His pontificate was signalized by no striking incident, nor were his acts in any respect remarkable, unless, indeed, we should consider him as having introduced into the government of the Church the system of Nepotism. For, though instances of that vice had occasionally occur- red before, it was not till now that it became the practice of the Vatican. Calixtus ex- hausted upon his worthless nephews the riches of the Apostolical Treasury, and lim- ited his ambition to the aggrandizement of his own family. It was to this that the as- pirations of pontificial presumption sank at last ! From that lofty spiritual arrogance, which, in earlier ages, has extorted from us something approaching to admiration, the character of papacy first descended to the grasping after temporal power ; its great ob- ject then became to enlarge the dominions of the See — to secure the obedience of the city. Avarice attended ; still its fruits were, for the most part, applied to ecclesiastical objects — to maintain the interests of the Church, and extend the authority of the Vicar of Christ. Intrigues and wars flowed from the Vatican, and deluged Europe with blood ; still they were designed to extend the power, to aug- ment the dignity, of Rome. It was for the declining years of Papal despotism, that the last and lowest degradation was reserved : it was not till the age of Calixtus III. and Six- tus IV. that the ambition of St. Peter's suc- cessors degenerated into mere family passion, and was confined to the narrowest circle of selfishness. Policy ofJEneas Sylvius. — In the year pre- ceding his death, Calixtus was accused by the Germans of having raised exorbitant contri- butions, under the pretext of a holy war, and violated the Concordat made with his pre- decessor. There was considerable ground for both these complaints. Nevertheless, it was on this occasion that yEneas Sylvius, for- merly the adversary of pontificial oppression, more recently the advocate of the Imperial claims, came forward in defence of the Tope, and vigorously maintained his rights and jus- tified his conduct. In some letters, composed during this dispute, he reproached the Ger- PIUS II. 503 man Prelates for referring to any other au- thority, rather than the Chief of the Church.* He asserted that their grievances, even hail they been real, should have been left to the remedial benevolence of the Holy See; he applied himself to confute some arguments against its authority, which were derived from the Councils of Constance and Basle ; he made mention of a sort of Pragmatic Sanction, established by certain Prelate-Prin- ces of German}, with a view to degrade the Holy See ; and he reproached the nation with an unnatural ingratitude, in having resolved to withold contributions from Rome, to pre- vent appeals, to restore elections to the Ordi- naries, to refuse Annates, and so, in effect, to deprive the Sovereign Pontiff of the plenitude of his power. It is important to notice these particulars, because they indicate the secret working of that spirit, which, in the next generation, broke forth with irresistible violence. Nor is it without a feeling of sorrow, mingled with shame, that we observe the most en- lightened ecclesiastic of his age casting off the wise and generous principles of earlier life, as his ambition was warmed by a nearer prospect of gratification, and as his selfish in- terests became more closely associated with ecclesiastical corruption. iEneas Sylvius Piccolomini was born at Corsigni, near Si- enna, in 1405, and his first laurels were gath- ered at the Council of Basle ; he remained faithful to that Assembly, and promoted its objects, and advanced his own reputation in the conduct of some important missions which were confided to him. In the year 1442 he became secretary to the Emperor Frederic ; but throughout the pontificate of Nicholas V. he was engaged in the service of the Holy See, and zealously exerted himself, as its Nuncio, in a cause which was always dear to him, to confederate the Christian powers against the Turkish aggressor. He was raised to the dignity of Cardinal (of Sienna) by Calixtus III., and on the death of that Pope he entered into Conclave with his brethren. The first scrutiny was indeci- sive ; but it was followed by a very effective * He went to the utmost extent of papal orthodoxy, by asserting, • that none who had disregarded the authority of the Roman Pontiff, could at any time enter the kingdom of heaven, and that those, who had Bpurned the commands of the Apostolical See, should not now have any occasion for exultation. Hos enim Catholica Veritas, nisi resipuerint ante obitum, ignis a? tern i mancipio 9ine intermissione deputat.' JEa. Bylv. Epist. lib. i. Ep. 369, &c intrigue, which seemed likely to terminate in the election of the Archbishop of Rouen, an ambitious and unprincipled Frenchman. Pic- colomini exerted all his eloquence and in- fluence against that choice ; he addressed several of the Cardinals separately; he appeal- ed to their consciences, to their interest, to their vanity; he exaggerated the vices of the Archbishop ; he addressed the national jeal- ousy of his compatriots ; he threatened them with a second secession to Avignon, and painted the approaching shame and desola- tion of Italy. The College proceeded a second time to the scrutiny. The golden chalice was placed upon the altar, and the Cardinals of Rouen, of Rimini, and Colonna remained near it. The others took their ap- pointed seats, and, rising in succession, ac- cording to seniority, they placed in the chalice the paper which expressed their suffrage. When Sylvius went up in his turn, the Car- dinal of Rouen, who knew how bitter an enemy he was, hastily said to him, 'Remem- ber me on this occasion.' ' What,' replied Piccolomini, 'do you address me, who am but a vile worm of earth ! ' He resumed his place ; and when the scrutiny was finished, and the papers examined, it appeared that the Cardinal of Sienna had nine votes, and that of Rouen six only. His Election to the Pontificate. — Three still were wanting to the former to make good his election ; and the Cardinals thezi proceeded to the accessit. For some time they sat in profound silence. One of them at length arose, and gave his voice to Piccolomini ; it was a thunderbolt for the Cardinal of Rouen. There was a second interval of silence, and during it those individuals who had any hopes for themselves, having penetrated the secret, that Piccolomini was on the point of being elected, left their places on various pre- texts. Presently another Cardinal gave his vote to Sylvius ; and only one more being now required, Prosper Colonna rose ; and though the Cardinals of Rouen and Nice en- deavored to prevent his design by a charge of perfidy, he gave his decisive suffrage to Piccolomini. The latter was then saluted Pope by the whole College ; and after reply- ing, with great modesty, to the excuses and congratulations of the opposite party, ten- dered by Bessarion of Nice, he assumed the name of Pius IT., and went through the cus- tomary solemnities. Council of Mantua. — The object to which the exertions of iEneas Sylvius had been faithfully directed in all his subordinate offices, 504 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. equally distinguished his pontificate ; and the gradual progress of the Turks, by increasing his apprehensions, fortified his zeal. Ac- cordingly he allowed not a moment to elapse before he convoked a Council for the promo- tion of a general crusade. Mantua was the place selected for that purpose ; his call was obeyed by the greater number of the Italian Princes ; and, finally, though with more re- luctance, by representatives from most of the European States. Many deputies from the East were also present — from Rhodes, from Cyprus, from Lesbos, from the Peloponnesus, Epirus, and Ulyria — to express their suffer- ings or their fears, and pour out their suppli- cations. Pius II. proceeded with extraor- dinary pomp to the opening of the Council. In various cities through which he passed he was received with the same ostentatious homage which is paid to a temporal Prince ; and the religious motive which may have animated the Pontiff was forgotten in the less questionable policy of his design. Pius II. opened the Council of Mantua on the 1st of June, 1459, just six years after the fall of Constantinople. His first discourse was employed in rebuking the indifference of the Christian Princes ; in contrasting- the devotion of the Turks for their execrable sect with the apathy of the children of the Gos- pel; and in expressing his own resolution never to abandon his project, but to sacrifice his life, if necessary, for the people intrusted to him by God. His earnestness, his activity, his brilliant and commanding eloquence, pro- duced an immediate, though it proved but a temporary, effect. The Council continued its sessions till the end of the January follow- ing : as its deliberations proceeded, it increas- ed in numbers and dignity ; and it grew warmer in the cause, as it was more influenc- ed by the ardor and genius of the Pontiff. The methods by which he proposed to effec- tuate his design contained nothing that was impracticable — much that was reasonable and generous. An army of 50,000 or 60,000 confederates was to be immediately collected for the defence of Hungary and the adjacent provinces; the men were to be raised in Germany, Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary. The pecuniary means were to be furnished chiefly by Italy ; the clergy * were to contri- * The Venetians and Genoese were not included in this engagement. The greatest difficulties were raised by the former, partly owing to their commercial and other intercourse with the Infidel, and partly, perhaps, because they had been accustomed to profit by crusades, not to contribute to them. Again, though the Duke bute a tenth of all their property, the Jews a twentieth, and the laity a thirtieth part. The Pope professed his readiness to conduct the war in person, and to consecrate to that pur- pose all that belonged to him. The Council was then dissolved : and whatsoever may have been the sincerity of its members, while they were awed by the presence of the Pontiff, and animated by his eloquence, the engagements they contracted were, for the most part, violated. The intes- tine dissensions of the Christian Powers were too deeply seated to permit any cordial or general co-operation ; and so far was Pius II. from succeeding in his attempt to heal them, that he did not himself long escape their contagion, but presently became entangled in the malignant politics of Europe. Embassy from the East. — In the same year (1460) a solemn embassy from the Princes of the East arrived at Rome : the respect, which could not be claimed for their power, was offered to their titles and pretentions, and to the object of their mission. The En- voys professed to represent David, Emperor of Trebizond, George, King of Persia, the Sovereigns of the Two Armenias, and many others. They advanced a profusion of hopes and promises — the Turks were to be assailed from the East by a powerful army, through the Hellespont, Thrace, and the Bosphorus ; among their allies they numbered Bendis, King of Mingrelia and Arabia, Pancratius, King of the Georgians, Moiiic, Marquis of Goria, Ismael, Lord of Sinope, and some others ; it was the object of their mission to inform his Holiness of these preparations, and to render homage to the Vicar of God upon earth. Pius II. applauded their zeal, and accepted their homage ; but assuring them that little could be done on his part, un- less in conjunction with the Courts of France and Burgundy, he sent them forth to tell their pompous tale beyond the Alps. It may seem needless to add, that this deputation had no result. The year following, Thomas Palaeologus presented himself at Rome, and he was re- ceived with a munificence which did honor to of Burgundy had given some reluctant promises of aid, neither the French, Castilians, nor Portuguese had offered any hopes. 'As to England (said the Pope), we have nothing to expect from that kingdom, on account of the troubles which divide it ; nor from Scotland, hidden in the depths of the ocean. Den- mark, and Sweden, and Norway, are too distant to send us soldiers, and, content with their fish, they could not send us money, if they would.' PIUS II. 505 the pontifical Court. The Imperial Exile had passed from Corfu to Ancona, and brought to that city the relics of the Apostle St. An- drew. He bestowed the sacred treasure upon the Pope; and accordingly commissioners were appointed, who conducted it with great solemnity to Rome. It was deposited in St. Peter's with every mark of veneration : and though the reader is already familiar with such absurdities ; though he has had frequent occasion to deplore the deference to popu- lar superstition which has been paid by very intelligent, and even very pious, ecclesiastics, we may still record another humiliating act, which it was the fate of Pius II. to perform. Catharine of Sienna had died above eighty years before in perfect odor of sanctity ; con- tinual miracles, certified by sufficient tes- timony, had been performed at her tomb; people were anxiously expecting her canon- ization.* A Duke of Austria and a King of Hungary had successively solicited the Pon- tiff of the day to do that justice to her ex- traordinary qualities ; but the ceremony had been deferred through the confusion of the Church and the disorders of the Holy See. It was reserved to the genius of iEneas Syl- vius at length to perform that office ; and one of the most extravagant enthusiasts, that ever dishonored the profession of Christianity, f was enthroned among the Saints of the Church by one of the most enlightened Pre- lates who has in any age adorned it. From being the zealous advocate of the Council of Basle, we have observed iEneas Sylvius defending the usurpations and exalt- ing the majesty of the Roman See. It was thus that he became qualified to occupy it ; and the enjoyment of its power and preroga- tives was not calculated to revive his ardor for its reformation. To have imposed limits on an authority exercised by himself had been a rare and difficult effort of magnanim- ity : and so far was Pius II. from harboring the design, that he seized an early occasion to discourage those liberal principles of * The first recorded Act of Canonization was per- formed in 993, by John XV., in behalf of Udalrig, Bishop of Augsburg. The right in the first instance was not exclusively vested in the Pope: councils, and even prelates of high rank, were qualified to perform it; till Alexander III. placed this among the more important acts of authority (Causae Majores) to be executed only by the Pope.— See Mosh. Cent, x., p. ii. ch. iii. t The exploits of this fanatic fill twenty-four folio pages in the works of St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence. — (Chronicorum, Tertia Pars, p. 692, et seq.) 64 Church government, which were entertained by many ecclesiastics, and which had so late- ly been propagated by himself. During the Council of Mantua, shortly before its disso- lution, and at a moment when his influence over its members was probably the greatest, he published a celebrated Bull against all appeals from the Holy See to general Coun- cils. ' An execrable abuse, unheard of in an- cient times,* has gained footing in our days, authorized by some, who, acting under a spi- rit of rebellion rather than sound judgment, presume to appeal from the pontiff of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, to whom, in the per son of St. Peter, it has been said, " Feed my sheep;" and again, "Whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ;" to appeal, I say, from his judgments to a future Council — a practice which every man in- structed in law must regard as contrary to the holy canons, aud prejudicial to the Chris- tian republic ' The Pope then proceeded to paiut in vague and glowing expressions the frightful evils occasioned by such appeals ; and finally pronounced to be ipso facto ex- communicated all individuals who might hereafter resort to them, whether their dig- nity were imperial, royal, or pontifical, as well as all Universities and Colleges, and all others who should promote and counsel them. Recantation of Pius 77.— This Edict, pub- lished in January, 1460, was no unworthy prelude to the most remarkable act of the pontificate of Pius — his public retractation of his early opinions. Not contented to leave others to contrast his actual conduct with his former principles, and both were too notori- ous to escape such contrast, he boldly stepped forward as his own judge, and published the most unequivocal condemnation of himself. Before his departure for Ancona, in the year 1463, he addressed to the university of Co- logne a bull to the following effect,- — That being liable to human imperfection, he had said, or written, much which might unques- tionably be censured ; but that, as he had sin- ned, like Paul, and persecuted the Church of God through want of sufficient knowledge, so he now imitated the blessed Augustine, who, having fallen into some erroneous ex- pressions, reft-acted them; that he ingenu- ously acknowledged his former ignorance, lest what he had written while young should lead to some error prejudicial to the Holy See; for if there were any one whom it * ' Execrabilis el pristinis temporibus inauditus ' are the opening words, which give die title to the decree 506 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. peculiarly became to defend and maintain the eminence and glory of the first Throne of the Church, it was assuredly that individual, whom God, in his mercy and goodness, had raised to the dignity of the vicar of Jesus Christ. That, for these reasons, no confi- dence was due to those of his writings, which offended, in any manner, the authority of the Apostolical See, and established opinions which it did not acknowledge. ' Wherefore (he added) if you find anything contrary to its doctrine, either in my dialogues, or my letters, or any other of my writings, — despise those opinions, reject them, and follow that which I now proclaim to you. Believe me now that I am old, rather than then, when I spoke as a youth ; pay more regard to the Sovereign Pontiff than to the individual; reject iEneas — receive Pius. The former name was imposed by my parents — a Gentile name, — and in my infancy : the other I as- sumed as a Christian in my Apostolate.'* In conclusion, the Pope, anticipating the natural suspicion of ambitious motives as the occa- sion of his change, took some pains to remove that notion, by recounting the circumstances of his introduction to the council, and recur- ring to the seductions which misled his ten- der inexperience. If that change, of which the first indication was so nearly coincident with his personal advancement, had been a change to a wiser, from a rash and inconsi- derate opinion; had the adopted principles of the convert been calculated to advance the permanent interests of his See, better than those which he rejected, the historian might have listened with some attention to his as- surances of sincerity. But when we have the soundest reasons to convince us, that the counsels of his youth were sage, and provi- dent, and generous, those of his riper years narrow, and at the same time selfish, there is scarcely space to doubt what the motives really were, which determined his apostasy. His exertions against the Turks. — In the meantime the Turkish arms were making progress in all quarters, and the tide of war was rapidly descending to the Adriatic. Italy lay next in its course ; and her contentious children seemed, for the moment, disposed to suspend their intestine animosities. The Pope renewed his exertions. ' Life itself (thus he spoke in consistory) must be laid down for the safety of the flock intrusted to us. The Turks are wasting the provinces * ' ^Eneam rejicite, Pium recipite — illud Gentile nomen parentes indidere nascenli; hoc Christianura in Apostolatu suscepi.' of Christendom in succession. What expe- dients remain to us? To oppose arms to their invasions? We have no means to pro- vide them. What then? Shall we exhort the princes to confront and expel them ? This has already been attempted in vain : it is in vain that we tell them to go ! Perchance they would listen better, if we should say to them — Come! This, then, shall be our next experiment : we will march in person against the Turks, and invite the Christian monarchs to follow us; not by words only, but by example also. It may be, when they shall behold their master and father — the Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ Jesus — an infirm old man, advancing to the war, they will take up arms through shame, and valiantly defend our holy religion. . . Not that we propose to draw the sword — a task incompatible with our bodily feebleness and sacerdotal charac- ter,— but after the example of the Holy Fath- er Moses, who prayed on the mountain, while Israel was fighting with the Amalekites, we shall stand on some lofty galley or mountain's brow, and holding before our eyes the Divine Eucharist, which is our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall implore Him to grant safety and victory to our contending armies.'* Death of Pius II. — These were not vain expressions; a numerous force was already assembled at Ancona, and the Venetians had at length engaged to furnish maritime suc- cors. The Pontiff departed to assume, in person, the conduct of the expedition. He was preceded by the Cardinal of St. Angelo — an old and venerable prelate, remarkable for his zeal against the Infidel ; he followed at slow journeys, borne in a litter, and debil- itated by sickness ; and on his arrival at the camp, he was received by a multitude im- perfectly armed, without resources, without discipline, and, for the most part, without enthusiasm. Such were the champions of the Cross ; such the human instruments, to which the care of Christendom seemed at that moment to be confided! Many of them Pius immediately dismissed with his pontifi- cal benediction, and a profusion of indulgen- ces, which they no longer affected to value. Those who remained he still proposed to lead against the enemy, and only awaited the arrival of the Venetian galleys. They arrived ; but scarcely were their white sails visible from the towers of Ancona, when the Pope expired. On this event the whole expedition immediately dispersed ; and it seemed as if so many spectators had assem- * Raynaldus, aim. 1463, sect. 25. PAUL II. 507 bled, from such various and distant regions, for no other purpose than to witness the death of their chief, and swell his funeral proces- sion. The treasure which was found in his chest was sent, by his express command, to Cor- vinus, king of Hungary; but it bore no pro- portion to the sums which had been placed at his disposal for crusading purposes; and there was reason to believe that much had been diverted by the pontiff for the establish- ment of Ferdinand on the throne of Naples. And thus Pope Pius II., who was fortunate in many circumstances of his life, may not have been least happy in the moment of his departure ; at least, it is manifest that he had engaged with very slender resources, and little promise of support, in a dangerous en- terprise, which could scarcely have terminat- ed otherwise than in defeat and dishonor. Nevertheless, Pius II. was the most accom- plished, the most liberal, perhaps the most enlightened, individual of his time. Like Nicholas V., he obtained his ecclesiastical advancement by his literary powers, by the acquisition of learning, and the useful appli- cation of it. Like Cardinal Julian, he was intrusted with the conduct of difficult nego- tiations; he influenced the councils of courts; he swayed the deliberations of ecclesiastical assemblies. Like both those eminent church- men, he displayed unremitting zeal for the defence of Christendom against the Turkish aggression. And herein he imitated the merit of the former, that it was his strenuous exertion in this cause, which gave the color and character to his pontificate; and in one respect he accomplished, in some manner, the destiny of the latter, that he died in the heart of a Christian camp; prepared to move, under his own personal direction, in a hope- less enterprise, against the armies of the In- fidel. Conditions imposed in Conclave. — It was now so common for the cardinals, while in conclave, to bind themselves to the observ- ance of certain stipulations, in case of election to the pontificate, and so invariable for the cardinal elected to violate his engagement, that we have ceased to notice acts of habitual — it might almost seem authorized — perjury. But the articles which were imposed by the college, on the death of Pius II., were such as to require attention, from their own im- portance. The following were, in substance, the principal: — 'That the pope shall con- tinue the war with the Turks, re-establish the ancient discipline of the Roman Court, and assemble a Council General within three years. That he shall not augment the num- ber of cardinals to more than twenty-four, nor create any one who is less than thirty years of age, or deficient in the knowledge of civil and canon law and of the Holy Scrip- tures ; nor more than one from among his own relatives. That he shall condemn no cardinal, except according to the legal and canonical forms ; that he shall enter into no war, nor sign any treaty without the consent of the college ; that he shall leave to the sub- jects of the Roman court entire liberty to make their wills; that he shall establish no new imposts, nor increase those existing; that he shall take the votes of the cardinals aloud, and not in a whisper, so that the result of their deliberations may be faithfully ex- pressed ; and lastly, that the cardinals shall assemble twice a year, apart from the Pope, to examine whether these conditions have been observed.' Paid II. — From these stipulations we per- ceive, that it was no light or lenient yoke to which the courtiers of Rome, with all their outward show and pomp of licentiousness were, in fact, subjected; and if they had indeed acquired the efficacy of laws, the constitution of the Vatican would have un- dergone an entire change, — from a slightly limited despotism, it would have assumed much more of the oligarchical character. It may be questioned, whether the Catholic Church would have gained any advantage by that alteration — whether the dominion of the Sacred College would not have been at least as oppressive, as despotic, as fruitful in abuses, as hostile to reformation, as that of the Pope. But the experiment was not made ; the oath was indeed administered with great solemnity, and accepted by all. One among those who had taken it (the cardinal of St. Marc) was immediately raised to the pontificate ; and his first official act was to confirm his obligation. But Paul II. (he assumed that name), alike imperious and vain, pompous and frivolous, was not so con- stituted, as to sacrifice any interest to the sanctity of any engagement. He presently expressed his contempt for the laws imposed by the conclave ; he enacted others on his own authority ; he demanded the approbation of the cardinals, and after a very feeble resist- ance, partly by menaces, partly by promises, partly by granting them some childish indul- gences,* he obtained it. He then proceeded * He permitted them to wear mitres of silk, such as had hitherto been confined to the pontiffs alone 508 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. to administer the Church, according to the established maxims of government.* His abominable policy. — Paul II. was a na- tive of Venice, and his election was, in some measure, occasioned by that circumstance ; for it was manifest, that no Italian confed- eration could act with any vigor against the Turkish power, unless Venice should place herself at its head ; and it was hoped that her co-operation would be effectually secured by the choice of a Venetian pontiff. Italy was now at peace ; the impulse towards the East had been given by Pius II., and all circum- stances seemed favorable to the enterprise. Much unquestionably depended, at that mo- ment, on the character and policy of the Pope. Now the measures taken by Paul II., during his whole pontificate, were precisely those which a council of Mahometans assembled at Constantinople would have dictated. He be- gan his reign by a nefarious attempt to em- broil the states of Italy in civil confusion. He failed ; and then he engaged in a differ- ent project, which has made him more hate- ful, because it was, for the moment, more successful. Corvinus, the son of Huniades, was defending the frontiers of Christendom with courage and honor. He had gained several advantages over the enemy, which he might with efficient succors have converted into substantial triumphs. Let us mark the policy of Paul II. Thirsting, as it would seem, for Christian blood, that Pope proposed to divert the war from the Turks, and turn it against the Hussites. He professed a Cath- olic ardor to punish the priests who fostered those errors, to reduce the rebels to obedience to the Apostolical See, and to extirpate every heresy. Accordingly, he offered to Corvinus the crown of Bohemia on those terms, and the boon, was accepted. For the space of seven infamous years, those arms, which he forbade their use to all other prelates. He like- wise allowed them to adorn their horses and mules with trappings of a scarlet color. * One of his first acts was, to dismiss from their offices all the abbreviators appointed by his pre- decessor. The biographer Platina was one of them. And when he remonstrated with the pontiff, and threatened to bring the case before the judges of the Rota, Paul regarded him fiercely, and said, — ' Nos ad judices revocasl Ac si nescires omnia jura in scrinio pectoris nostri collocata esse ? Sic stat sententia. Loco cedant omnes ; eant quo volunt ; nihil eos moror; pontifex sum ; mihique licet arbitrio animi aliorum acta et rescindere et approbare.' Platina, notwithstanding, was contumacious, and the Pope placed him, for some months, in rigorous con- finement. See his Life of Paul II. might have chastised the foreign aggressor, were fiercely directed against the kings of Bohemia ; and it is no alleviation of the pon- tiffs guilt, that those reiterated efforts were finally defeated. While he pursued the prin- ciples of Innocent III., his conduct was even less pardonable, because he pursued them under circumstances of greater danger to Christendom, and in an age in which the increase of knowledge left less excuse for crime. If it was the object of this pontiff to make his internal government as detestable as his external policy, he took an effectual measure to accomplish it. We have observed with what ardor the taste for polite learning was cultivated in Italy at this time, and what great encouragement it had received from two re- cent pontiffs. In furtherance of those objects a literary society was formed at Rome during the reign of Paul II. But Paul affected to discover in that institution a dangerous con- spiracy against the safety of the Pope and the peace of the Church. The stupid jeal- ousy, which suggested that suspicion, was supported by the cruelty usually inherent in narrow and passionate minds ; and, as if the blood of the Bohemians flowed in too scanty profusion, the Pope commenced the work of inquisition at Rome. Several innocent indi- viduals, of great literary * and moral reputa- tion, suffered on the rack ; one in particular, Agostino Campino, died under the torture. Paul persevered in his persecution, but he did not succeed in eliciting any confession, or discovering any shadow of heresy or con- spiracy, in excuse for so much harbarity ; nor did it produce any other result, than to create one additional motive for execrating his name. He died in 1471, in possession of treasures which he had hoarded through the mere love of gold ; and in the very year preceding his death, he increased an ecclesiastical abuse (in the belief, no doubt, that he should personally reap the fruits of his change,f) by reducing once more the intervals between the cele- brations of the Jubilee, from thirty-three to twenty-five years. Sixtus IF. — Sixtus IV. (a Franciscan Monk) commenced an unusually long pontificate, of * A long account of this affair is given by Platina (himself a sufferer) in his Life of Paul II. That Pope's hatred for learning was so great, that he held the terms studious and heretical to be synonymous, and carefully impressed upon his subjects the advan- tages of ignorance. The historian died in the year 1481. f Thus the year 1475 became a year of jubilee. SIXTUS IV. 509 thirteen years, by professiug the policy and affecting the designs of Pius II. He called for the enforcement of the decrees of Man- tua; he promised indulgences to all who should march against the Turk in person, or find efficient substitutes, or contribute to the expense of the expedition ; he sent letters and legates to all the Courts of Europe. All dis- regarded his solicitations, some through apa- thy, others, perhaps, through suspiciousness ; others through the nearer occupation of civil dissension. The Pope was easily di- verted from an object on which he may have never been sincerely bent. His boiling zeal presently evaporated; his clamors were si- lenced by the first repulse ; and he appeared to resign his daring projects, and subside into the ordinary channel of papal misgovern- ment, without a sigh or a struggle. His dispute with Florence. — In the year 1478, during some disturbances between the Medici and the Pazzi at Florence, the Arch- bishop of Pisa suffered an ignominious death at the hands of the former. There is little doubt, that he had promoted a sanguinary tumult — nevertheless, this was an outrage upon the prerogative of the hierarchy, which, in an earlier age, would have been visited with signal vengeance, and which even Sixtus IV. was not prepared to overlook. He placed the offending city under an interdict, excom- municated Lorenzo de' Medici,* and pub- lished a declaration of war. The Florentines, even the ecclesiastics, defended the cause of their compatriot; they treated with scorn the pontifical menaces; they continued to cele- brate the divine offices in defiance of the in- terdict ; they assembled a Synod of the Bish- ops of Tuscany, in order to appeal with greater solemnity to a general Council. At the same time they retorted all the blame of the original offence upon the Pope himself, and called upon France and Milan to aid them against his oppression. Soon afterwards Louis XI. held an As- sembly at Orleans, principally for the purpose of restoring the Pragmatic Sanction, which he had previously and hastily annulled. Put an embassy, subsequently sent to Rome, was likewise charged to exhort the Pontiff to make peace with Florence, and to assemble, without any delay, ft General Council. These solicitations were seconded by certain mena- ces, to which Louis could have given efficacy, had he so chosen. But he had either no se- rious intention of enforcing his demands, or * The Bull is given at length by Roseoe, Life of Lorenzo de' Medici. Appendix, IS'o. XXVI. he allowed it to melt away before the tempo* rizing policy of the Vatican.* In the meau time the Pope persevered in measures of hos- tility, and the blood of the Archbishop cried so loudly for vengeance, that all external dan- gers were forgotten, and the hosts of Mahomet If. approached unheard to the gates of Italy. The same Pontiff who had so lately preached the blessings of union to the Christian Courts, even while the danger was more remote, per- sisted in hostility against a Christian State, when it was already impending over his head. At length he relented ; but it was not till the city of Otranto had been stormed by the In- fidel that the conditions of peace were dictat- ed,! and the Florentine ambassadors admitted to receive their absolutions at the entrance of St. Peter's ; and even then they appear to have been subjected to more than the cus- tomary circumstances of humiliation. The Pope was presently relieved from immediate apprehension by the death of Mahomet, and he then had leisure to return to what had been, indeed, the favorite object of his ponti- ficate, the aggrandizement of his nephews. His Nepotism. — The nepotism of no former Pontiff had been indulged with so scandalous a sacrifice of the interests of the Church as that of Sixtus IV. One of his nephews, Leonardo della Rovera, he married to a nat- ural daughter of Ferdinand of Naples ; and on this occasion he abandoned to that mon- arch some estates and fiefs, which his prede- cessors had spared no toil to acquire and re- tain. Another, named Julian, the same who was afterwards Julius II., was enriched with several ecclesiastical benefices. For a third, named Jerome Riario, the principality of Imola was purchased from the resources of the Apostolical Treasury. But it was on Pietro Riario, the youngest, that the profusion of his fondness was principally lavished. Without talents, without virtues, from a sim- * The advice tendered to the Pope on this occasion by the Cardinal of Pavia, the most accomplished politician in his Court, affords an excellent illustra- tion of the great principle of ecclesiastical statesman- e/hip — not to remove the grounds of complaint; but to gain time, to preserve the abuse, to defer the hour of danger, rather than avert it altogether h\ limelv concession. •f This scene is described at length by Machiave), Stor. Fiorent., lib. viii. The particulars of the dis- pute are detailed by Paul Jovius, in bis First Book of his Life of Leo X. This connexion of Pope Sixtua with the history of Florence has procured for him a peculiar, and not very enviable, celebrity. « Di grossi conti (eaya Muratori, Anna), v. 9) avra avuto questo j Ponte/ice ncl tribunale di Dio.' 510 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. pie Franciscan Monk, Pietro was immediate- ly elevated to the dignity of Cardinal. He was made titular Patriarch of Constantino- ple ; he was raised to the Archiepiscopal See of Florence ; he received, besides, two other Archbishoprics, and a multitude of inferior benefices. In the meantime his splendid prodigality, the pride of his attendants, his equipage, and his sumptuousness, kept pace with the abundance of his resources, and he expended on the pomp of a single ceremony, or the festivities of a single night, sums which exceeded the revenues of kings. The Minimes. — The same Pope, as if to atone for the laxity of one extreme of the ecclesiastical establishment by the austerity of the other, gave his confirmation to a new religious body, called the Minimes — the least among the servants of Christ. They were founded by one Francisco of Paula ; and to the usual monastic obligations they added a fourth vow, of perpetual fast and abstinence from all nourishment, except herbs and roots. The popular appetite for such extravagance was not yet wholly satiated ; and though the Minitnes never acquired the celebrity which would certainly have attended them in the thirteenth age, there were still not wanting devotees to swell their numbers, and recom- pense their vain enthusiasm by reverence and by gold. When we shall come to examine the spir- itual condition of the Roman Catholic Church during this period, and the character of the papal edicts which were more particularly directed to that object, we shall find that no one descended more deeply into superstition than Sixtus IV. At present we shall only mention the singular venality introduced in- to his government by the creation of certain new offices, which he publicly sold, and which he created for the purpose of selling. This was a new scandal in the history of the Vatican ; and when the same Pontiff" raised to the dignity of Cardinal a youth, named Jacopo di Parma, his own valet, he may seem to have offered the last insult to his Court and his Church. The deeper outrage, which was now continually cast upon the religion of Christ, has almost ceased to be matter of mention with us, because the name of Chirst was now seldom appealed to, unless in sup- port of some monstrous ecclesiastical preten- sion ; and the rulers of the Apostolical Church had for some time learned to dispense, both in their morals and their administration, even with the semblance of holiness, even with a decorous affectation of religious motives. Character of Siodus. — Sixtus IV. was not deficient, as a political character, in quickness and sagacity, and even grandeur of concep- tion. But his character (as Sismondi has well observed) corrupted his talents, and stained his noblest projects with falsehood aud perfi- dy. As he could discern no distinction be- tween virtue and crime, he employed the basest means to attain the best ends, and dis- honored his own designs by the instruments with which he chose to accomplish them. His private life has not escaped the suspicion of the foulest enormities — it cannot, at least, pretend to the praise of piety or innocence. His learning, the exertions which he made, and the funds which he appropriated to en- rich the Library of the Vatican from every quarter ; his architectural labors, and the noble buildings * with which he adorned his capital ; these are the only monuments by which he is honorably known to posterity. His capacity was considerable, and it was enlarged and enlightened by his literary accomplishments. But if these were unable to infuse into his soul any disinterested virtue, or generous principles of action, they failed to accomplish the only purpose, for which they are really- valuable, and they left the possessor the more dangerous aud the more detestable, from the authority which they added to his talents, and the aid which they lent him to abuse them. Election of Innocent VIII. — Sixtus IV. died in 1484, and the election of his successor was attended by some circumstances more scan- dalous than any which had yet polluted the recesses of the Conclave. Julian della Rove- ra, Cardinal of St. Peter ad Vinculo, had un- dertaken the negotiations requisite, and the price of every vote was already arranged, when the College proceeded to invoke the Holy Spirit. The terms are expressly speci- fied by a contemporary writer ;f they were faithfully observed by the successful candi- date ; and they might be ascertained from the various castles and benefices, which he im- mediately bestowed on his supporters. John Baptist Cybo, a native of Genoa, was the * The Ponte Sesto was his great work. His lit- erary monuments were of a less durable construction ; for, indeed, the subjects which he chose were not always the most favorable to their perpetuity. One treatise he composed on The Blood of Jesus Christ; another on Indulgences accorded to Souls in Purga- tory; another on the Conception of the Holy Virgin, &c. &c. Such, however, were the controversies of the day. f The letter of Guidantonio Vespucci to Lorenzo de' Medici on this subject, is given entire by Roscoe, Append. 44, and without suspicion of its truth. ALEXANDER VI. 511 individual thus elevated to the throne of the Church, and he assumed the name of Inno- cent. Notwithstanding the recent perfidy of Paul II., defended by the constitution of Innocent VI.,* and countenanced by the example of so many Pontiffs, the members of the Conclave once more attempted to bind the future Pope by a similar engagement It were tedious to repeat the stipulations which were accepted in the name of God, on his holy altar, and which were even then intended for imme- diate violation. Their object was ever the same — to increase the power of the Cardinals at the expense of that of the Pope — and it was ever frustrated by the most deliberate perjury. On the day of his installation, In- nocent VIII. confirmed and repeated his oath, and bound himself, on pain of anathema, neither to receive nor give absolution from it — for the Pontiff possessed exclusively the power of self-absolution. Howbeit, he no sooner felt his strength, and the independence of his despotism, than he cancelled the treaty, and annulled both his oaths. If Sixtus IV. had wasted the resources of the Church upon his profligate nephews, In- nocent introduced a still more revolting race of dependants, in the persons of his illegiti- mate offspring. Seven children, the fruits of various amors, were publicly recognised by the Vicar of Christ, and became, for the most part, pensioners on the ecclesiastical Treas- ury. This was yet a new scandal for the Apostolical Church! Again, if Sixtus IV. was bold and unprincipled, Innocent was, at least, destitute of any positive virtue ; and the extreme weakness which distinguished him was, in his circumstances, little less pernicious than wickedness. With power so vast and arbitrary, in a Court so utterly depraved, the personal excesses of a vigorous character might even have been less hurtful to the Church, than the unrestrained license of so many masters. Fewer crimes would, per- haps, have been perpetrated, had the Pontiff resolved to be the only criminal. But with all his weakness, Innocent was animated by a spirit of avarice, which attracted observa- tion even in that age of the popedom. And he performed at least one memorable exploit, as it were, in the design to surpass his prede- cessor by a still bolder insult on the sacred College ; he placed among its members a boy, thirteen years old, the brother-in-law of his own bastard.f But the Court of Rome did * Published in 1353. See Chapter XXII. p. 3!>0. t This boy was John, the son of Lorenzo tie' Medici, | not resent the indignity — it was sunk even ; below the sense of its own infamy. The Pontiff sounded, like most of his pre- decessors, the trumpet of a general crusade against the Infidel ; in his addresses to the European ambassadors, he set forth, in elo- quent expressions, the blessings of concord, and the calamities of international warfare ; and he preached with the usual inefficacy. Some Italian States did, indeed, exhibit a slight disposition to support him, owing to the greater proximity of the danger, and In- nocent persisted, to the end of his reign, in pressing his first solicitations. But the only effects proceeding from them were those which flowed into the Apostolical Treasury, and which the Pope consumed, partly ia his own personal expenses, partly in family hos- tilities against the King of Naples. He died in 1492. Mexander VI. — In the downward progress of pontifical impurity, from Paul II. we de- scend to Sixtus IV. ; from Sixtus to Innocent VIII. ; from Innocent to Alexander VI : and here, at length, we are arrested by the limits, the utmost limits, which have been assigned to papal and to human depravity. The eccle- siastical records of fifteen centuries, through which our long journey is now nearly ended, contain no name so loathsome, no crimes so foul as his ; and while the voice of every im- partial writer is loud in his execration, he is, in one respect, singularly consigned to infa- my, since not one among the zealous annalists of the Roman Church has breathed a whisper in his praise. Thus, those who have pursued him with the most unqualified vituperations are thought to have described him most faith- fully ; and the mention of his character has excited a sort of rivalry in the expression of indignation and hatred. The College assembled for this election amidst the tumults of the Roman people, who were venting their curses against the avarice of the deceased Pontiff; and it was not till the Conclave had been garrisoned by soldiers, and fortified by cannon, that the Cardinals ventured to proceed to their deliberations. It was presently discovered that the candidates, who had any prospect of success, were two f the same who became Leo X. It should be observed, that Innocent, on making the creation, stipulated that the boy should not take his seat in Consistory till he was sixteen. Some state the age of creation at fifteen, that of admission at eighteen. See Raynaldus, ann 1489. * Ascagna Sforza, who appeared at first to possess some claims, very soon resigned them in favor of Borgia. 512 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. only. One of them was Roderic Borgia, who was nephew of Calixtus III. ; the other was Julian della Rovera, nephew of Sixtus IV. Nepotism now formed so conspicuous a fea- ture in the pontifical policy, that we shall not be surprised to see the popedom disputed by the nephews of Popes. Roderic was far ad- vanced in years ; he abounded in wealth, ac- cumulated in the service of the Church ; he was, at the same time, in the enjoyment of three archbishoprics in Spain, besides numer- ous other benefices in other quarters of Eu- rope. All these would be vacated by his elevation, and, falling into his patronage, would be bestowed, of course, according to the measure of private services. Borgia was, moreover, a man of some abilities, of great address and versatility in negotiation and in- trigue, and of morals which opposed no im- pediment to any means of compassing any purpose. . . Julian possessed more powerful talents, and, though his habits had been chiefly military, a much less exceptionable charac- ter. But he was younger ; his preferment was not nearly so valuable, and the private wealth at his disposal bore no proportion to that of his competitor. The College was principally composed of the creatures of the two last Popes, Sixtus and Innocent, educated in those principles, on which the morals of the Roman Court were at this time founded. . . . Ac- cordingly the election was not long doubtful ; indeed, Borgia had taken a sure precaution to preclude hesitation, by placing two mules laden with gold * at the disposal of a faithful Cardinal, to be bestowed as occasion might require. Manner of his election. — Alexander VI. immediately proceeded, after the example of his predecessor, to fulfil the conditions pri- vately stipulated with the cardinals, who had simoniacally elected him. On Ascagna Sforza he conferred the profitable dignity of vice-chancellor ; to Cardinal Oraini he ceded his palace at Rome, together with two other mansions; to Cardinal Colonna he gave an abbey, with numerous dependences ; to the cardinal of St. Angelo, the bishopric of Porto, together with his furniture and a cellar of delicious wines ; to others, churches or towns ; to others, undisguised gold. Five only in the whole college — one of whom was Julian, his rival — are believed to have resisted all these varieties of corruption. In the mean- time, the Roman people, as if they gloried in the iniquity of their rulers, hailed the de * Some say, four mules laden with silver. The difference, in a moral point of view, is not important. cision of the Conclave with unusual expres* sions of satisfaction. On no other occasion had the holy city arrayed herself in such festive splendor, or descended to such loath- someness of adulation,* as on that, when she placed in the apostolical chair the most prof- ligate of mankind, and offered the last insult — we say not to the name of Christ, for that had long been scorned, — but to a Church which still called itself Christian, and to the nations which still recognised that Church. In early life, during the pontificate of Pius II., Roderic Borgia, already a cardinal, had been stigmatized by a public censure for his unmuffied debaucheries. Afterwards he publicly cohabited with a Roman matron named Vanozia, by whom he had five ac- knowledged children. Neither in his man- ners nor in his language did he affect any regard for morality or for decency; and one of the earliest acts of his pontificate was, to celebrate, with scandalous magnificence, in his own palace, the marriage of his daughter Lucretia. Those cardinals, who had con- spired for his elevation, could not pretend either surprise or offence at this outrage. But Julian della Rovera refused his counte- nance to thos,e festivities, and shut himself up in the fortress of Ostia. Negotiations with Bajazet. — At this period in the annals of papacy, the spiritual exertions of the See were so very insignificant, com- pared with its struggles for temporal objects, and these struggles were now so interwoven with the general politics of Europe, that to trace, with any accuracy, the exploits of Alexander, or Julius II., would be to trans- cribe the civil history of Italy, France, and Germany. Such a task is consistent neither with the limits of this work, nor its design ; and since the various vices, which peculiarly distinguished this Pope, are chiefly exempli fied in his political transactions, we must refer the reader to the circumstantial narra- tives of Sismondi, or Guicciardinif — con- * The following distich was published on this oc- casion : — Caesare magna fuit, nunc Roma est maxima; Sextus Eegnat Alexander : ille vir, iste Deus. This was the serious flattery of the day: some other verses, published after some little experience of the Pope's divine administration, are 'ess discreditable to the city of Caesar and Pasquin Vendit Alexander Claves, Altat.n, Christum. Emerat ille prius : vendere jure potest. De vitio in vitium, de flamma transit in ignem; Roma sub Hispano deperit imperio. Sextus Tarquinius, Sextus Nero, Sextus et iste — Semper sub Sextis perdita Roma fuit. f We shall cite the words in which this author has drawn the character of Alexander VI. ■ In Alcssan- ALEXANDER VI. 513 tented in our more contracted course to men tion such incidents, as are more closely con- nected either with the religion of Christ, or the economy of the Church, or the preten- sions of the Apostolical See. Thus shall we not pass unnoticed the celebrated project of alliance against Charles VIII. of France, which was proposed by Alexander VI. to Bajazet, emperor of the Turks. The Pope appeared, on this occasion, as the Suzerain Lord of Naples ; and in his overtures he rep- resented to the Sultan, that that kingdom was menaced by foreign invasion ; that it was the design of Charles to subject it to his au- thority, and then to turn his arms into Thrace, against the walls of Constantinople ; that the French king was full of ambition, and careless about the means of indulging it ; while for himself he had nothing more at heart, than the repose of the Turk, in consid- eration of the good-will and mutual friend ship subsisting between them The nature of the engagements, into which Bajazet consequently entered, does not certainly ap pear, but when the crisis arrived, he took no measures to fulfil them ; and the Vicar of Christ, after having invoked the Mahometan irms into the heart of Europe against a Christian prince, was pursued by the addi- tional, and to him more bitter, reflection, that he had incurred that infamy in vain. Donation of the newly discovered Regions. — On the return of Columbus to Spain, Ferdi- nand and Isabella announced to the Pope, their compatriot, the success of his expedition. Alexander VI. hastened to avail himself of so magnificent an occasion to exhibit the plen- itude of his authority : accordingly, he con- ferred upon the crown of Castille the full right to possess all that had been discovered, and all that might hereafter be discovered, whether islands or continents, whether situ- ated in the Indies or in any other region. In a succession of bulls published on this subject, in the year 1493, at a season when the power dro Sesto fu solerzia e sagacita singolare. consiglio eccellente, eificacia a persuadeic mara*'ighosa, e a tutte le faccende gravi sollecitudine e destrezza in- credibile— ma crano quesie virtu avanzate di grande intervallo da' vizii — costumi oscenissimi, non sin- cerita, non vergogna, non verita, non fede, non re- ligione, avarizia insaziabile, ambizione immoderata, crudeltd pi:'' chc barbara, e ardpntissiiua cupidita di esaltare in qualunque medo i iigliuoli, i quali erano molu ; e tra questi qualcuno. . non meno detestabile In parte alcuna del padre.' Storia d' Italia, lib. i. Guicciardini was ten years old when Borgia was raised to the pontificate, and his history begins with that year. of the See bore no proportion to its ancieDl grandeur, and when the character of the pre- lates, who administered it, was not. certain- ly such as to redeem its degradation, Pope Alexander drew a line along the map, from the north to the south, and gave away, by a stroke of his pen, half the habitable world. And so much seriousness did he affect to attach to his donation, that he descended to specify the exact distance from his line, at which the rights of Spain should begin, and those of other nations end. It is proper to add, that the Portuguese contested the validity of the act. Let us in- quire, then, on what ground did they rest their opposition 1 Did they dispute the au- thority by which the edict had been issued? Far otherwise ; only they maintained that, by a similar act, Eugenius IV. had previously bestowed the same rights upon themselves. It was no contest between the king of Portu- gal and the See of Rome, but only a question whether a Pope could confer upon one prince, what a preceding Pope had already bestowed upon anothei. And in this dispute, between a living and a departed pontiff, after many assemblies had been held, and new bounda- ries delineated, and great violence displaced, Alexander persisted, and succeeded, i* defi- ance of every right and every semblance even of pontifical justice. In the yea-' following, Africa became the subject of * very similar dispute ; but on this occasio-n the Pope showed thus much respect to the authority of Pius II., who had conferred the contested provinces upon Portugal, that he confined the conquests of Ferdinand and Isabella to the kingdoms of Algiers and Tunis, leaving Fez and the contiguous regions to the possession of Por- tugal. VTe may smile at the arrogance of a declining despotism ; nor shall we be aston- sbed by the obsequiousness of those who found their interest in obsequiousness. At J the same time, if the right of the See was not i disputed, the motives which it pretended were certainly such as to justify the exercise of its right. For it was expressly stipulated in the act of donation, that holy and pious missiona- ries should be despatched forthwith, for the conversion of the newly conquered tracts, and the extension of the kingdom of Christ, and of the Catholic Church. Charles VIII. at No ,c.— When CMrlcs VIII. entered Rome, in the year 1494, Julian del- la Kovera (as well as some other cardinals) was in his suite, and shared in his counsels.* 65 * Guicciardini (lib. i. cap. iii.) does not hesitate- to ascribe the accomplishment of Charles's designs 514 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. Frcm the determined hostility of Julian; from the wish for reformation, which had so often heen manifested by the court and people of France ; from the undue estimate then formed of the character of the actual king, Alexander felt reason to apprehend the accomplishment of the menace so frequently repeated, — the assembly of a general council ; and he easily foresaw, that the first act of that council would be, to depose himself. From the castle of St. Angelo he opened negotia- tions with the conqueror; but, whether it had never been the intention of Charles to press the Holy See to any extremities, or whether, as is believed by the best writers, Alexander found means to corrupt the most intimate advisers of the king by largesses and pro- mises, the designs of Julian were frustrated, and the dignity of the Pope was preserved by a favorable convention. He returned to the pontifical palace; he resumed his former state ; he gave the king a formal reception at St. Peter's, with the usual solemnities; and the king did not disdain to submit to the usual humiliation. He bent his knees, and kissed the pontiff's foot and hand ; and, sub- sequently, on the celebration of the pontifi- cal moss, took his seat below the first cardinal, and mhustered water to the hands of the pope.* SmcIi were the marks of deference which had long been exacted by Popes, and paid by Sovereigns ; but never, till now, had they been prostituted so gratuitously — never, till now, had they been tendered in the place of chastisement and infamy, by a powerful and victorious prince, to a pontiff as destitute of strength, as he was notoriously polluted with crimes. Zizim the brother of Bajazet.— There was one article in the above treaty which leads to the mention of a singular episode in papal history. The Sultan Bajazet had a brother and ambition, made him dangerous to the throne. The morals of the Seraglio permit- ted the destruction of such rivals; and Zizim, fearing that fate, had escaped to Rhodes, and placed himself in Christian hands. From Rhodes he was carried to France, and thence he passed into the custody of Pope Innocent VIII. It was then that Bajazet, availing him- self of the avarice of the vicars of Christ as the means of preserving the concord of an empire hostile to the Christian faith, engaged to pay to the See a yearly sum of forty thou- sand ducats — nominally, for the keeping and entertainment of his brother; really, to make it the interest of the Vatican to secure the prisoner at Rome, and not to resign him to any enemy of the empire.* The money was faithfully paid, and Zizim remained a safe and profitable captive at the apostolical court. Charles VIII., who seems at that time to have really harbored some ulterior designs against the Turkish power, stipulated with Alexander for the possession of Zizim. The pontiff observed his engagement ; but the prisoner carried with him from bis confine- ment the seeds of a mortal disorder. He died very soon afterwards ; and there seems some reason to believe, that the cause of his death was a slow and subtle poison administered under the superintendence of Alexander.! The Duke Valentino. — Caesar Borgia was the second, and favorite, and worthy son of Alexander VI. He commenced his career as a Churchman ; but in 1498, he found it more politic at once to throw off that profes- sion ; and he then received the title, which he has rendered one of the most famous in history. As Duke Valentino, or Valentiuois, he took the field in Romagna, the temporal champion of the Holy See, for the destruction of its enemies, the confirmation of its author- ity over the city, and the enlargement of its named Zizim, or Jem, (like himself, the son j| territories. _ Supported by the talents and of Mahomet II.,) whose popularity, courage, against Italy to this Cardinal — ' fatale instrumento e allora, e prima, e poi de'mali d'ltalia.' — The King at one moment certainly relaxed in his zeal, and was reanimated by the authority and vehemence of Julian. * Guicciardini mentions, that the Pope, to preserve the memory of these ceremonies to all posterity, caused them to be represented in painting, in one of the cham- bers of the castle of St. Angelo. It is to be remark- ed, that they were the formal ceremonies following the reconciliation of the parties. On their first meet- ing, which was not thoroughly official, some of the most humiliating were dispensed with. The ' Capit- ula Conventionis Papae et Regis Francis, &c.,' are cited from the ' Diary of Burchard,' by Roscoe, Life of Leo X., Appendix, No. xxxv resources of his father, he succeeded in these designs to an extent attained in no preceding age, and by means which are known to every reader. But, in seeking thus to advance the interests of the Church, Alexander had, in truth, no other design than to aggrandize his * Guicciaid., lib. i. cap. iii. t Of course this fact is not, not could it well have been, undisputed. Raynaldus (arm 1495, s. 8, &c.) refers to Burchardus to prove that the captive died from a change of diet. The words of Burchardus are — ' 15 Feburier, le fils du grand Turc vnourut a Naples — ex esu sive potu non convenient naturae suse et consueto ' At the same time, Raynaldus mentions the vulgar account, which is affirmed by Guicciardini. See Roscoe, Life of Leo X., chap, iv ALEXANDER VI. 516 son ; nor did Valentino toil through such a mass of crimes with any more distant object, than to erect a principality for himself.* To this end he had calculated, as seemed to him, every possible contingency ; by much daring, great address, and an entire contempt of every scruple, of all faith, and of all shame, he had al- ready accomplished much : and, to secure the stability of his power, he had employed every expedient within the reach of human fore- sight— when the realization of his schemes was put to an unexpected trial, by the death of his father, and his own dangerous sick- ness. Death of Alexander VI. — The following are the circumstances relating to the death of Alexander, which stand on the most extensive evidence : — The Duke Valentino, being great- ly in want of money to pay his troops, appli- ed to his father for assistance ; but the apos- tolical treasury was exhausted, and neither resources nor credit were then at hand to replenish it. On which the duke suggested * ' Yet what lie did (says Machiavel) turned to tlie Church's advantage; which, after the death of the Pope, and the removal of the Duke, became the heir of all his pains.' The partiality of this writer to the public character of the Duke (with whom he was personally acquainted) is known to every one. Yet there is a passage (in the Prince, chap, vii.) which is worth citing. ' Having thus collected all the Duke's actions, methinks I could not well blame him, but rather set him as a pattern to be followed by all those who, by profane and other means, have been exalted to an empire Whoever, there- fore, deems it necessary, on his entrance into a new principality, to secure himself from his enemies, and gain his friends; to overcome, either by force, or by cunning ; to make himself beloved or feared of his people ; to be followed and reverenced by his soldiers ; to root out those that can hurt him, or owe him any hurt; to change the ancient orders for new ways; to be severe, and yet acceptable, magnanimous, and lib- eral; to extinguish the unfaithful soldiery, and create new; to maintain to himself the amities of kings and princes, so that they shall either with favor benefit, or be wary how they offend him — cannot find more fresh and lively examples than in the actions of this roan.' In a separate narrative, usually published in the same volume, Machiavel relates at length (what is, no doubt, one of those lively example') the methods which the Duke employed to rid himself of certain enemies — Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto of Fermo, Paul, and the Duke of Gravina; and a more black and scandalous tissue of perfidy, cruelty, and villany cannot possibly be imagined. That he was the author of the assassination of his elder brother, the Duke of Gandi.l, is believed by most historians; and thai the \ motive was an incestuous jealousy respecting their common sister is a further imputation advanced by many, and not rejected by Sismondi ; but there is no sufficient evidence to establish either of these charges. to the Pope an easy, and, as it would seem, not very unusual method of supplying their wants. The Cardinal Corneto, as well as some others of the sacred college, had a great reputation for wealth ; and it was then the practice at Koine for the property of cardinals to devolve, on their decease, to the See. He proposed to get rid of this Corneto. The Pope consented ; and, accordingly, invited the cardinals to an entertainment, which he prepared for them in his vineyard of Corneto, for it was near the Vatican. Among the wines sent for this occasion, one bottle was prepared with poison ; and instructions were carefully given to the superintendent of the feast respecting the disposal of that bottle. It happened that, some little time before sup- per, the Pops and his son arrived, and, as it was very hot, they called for wine. And then, whether through the error or the ab- sence of the confidential officer, the poisoued bottle was presented to them. Both drank of it, and both immediately suffered its vio- lent effects. Valentino, who had mixed much water with his wine, and was, besides, young and vigorous, through the immediate use of powerful antidotes,* was saved. But Alex- * He is said to have been inclosed in the belly of a living mule, and so preserved The following is the brief account given by Paul Joviusof this trans- action, in the beginning of lib. ii.,De Vita Leonis X. ' Nam Pontifex inopiae metu rapax atque illo immani ingenio ssevus, ut Caesari filio magnos aleflti exercitus et regio luxu liberalitatem passim ostendenli pecuniam suppeditaret, ditissimura quvrnque Cardinalium veneno stistulerat, haud dubie i» relfquos aulas sacerdotiis at- que opibus insignes naereditatis spe saeviturus, nisi admirabili deorura pjwVidentia homo in religionis causa probrosus et quod omnium fortunae interfuit, ad exitium Italne nattis, sibi mortem, supremam vero Ca?sari lih'o cafainitntem, peperisset — hilariori scilicet in cosiia dnm ad umbrosum Vaticani foutem venenum bibunt, lagena pocillatoris errore commutata, quam dira fraude opulentia aliquot senatoribus honoris spee'e paravissent. Rfortuo Alexandre, et Cajsare exquisitis anlidolis vel in ipso juventae robore veneni iinpetum vix sustincntc, Comitia sunt habila,' &c. &c. The same author describes the same event (De vita Magni Consalvij lib. ii.) with little variation, but with the following addition: — ' Accepi ego ab Ad- riano Cardinal" Cornetano, in cujus villa co?nabatur, se eodeni mortifero poculo petitum ita exarsisse eo sjnbito viscerum fervore, ut obortae caliginea oppressta sensibus sibi rationem excuterent, sese in solium frigitla plenum mergere c retur, neque prius per- usiis inleraneis ad vitain rediisse, quam ei extrema cutis in exiivias alliens toio corpora decideret.' Raphael Voljitcn aims, in his life of Alexander VI., likewise mentions the illness of the cardinal, simul- taneous with that of the Pope. Voltaire disbelieves the whole story, owing to its extreme improbability; 516 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. ander having taken his draught nearly pure, and being likewise enfeebled by age, died in the course of the same evening. It is proper to add, that there are two other accounts of this transaction, differing from that which is here given on the general agree- ment of numerous authorities. One is that of Pietro Martin d'Angleria, a councillor of Ferdinand, of whom an epistle is extant, in which the Pope is exculpated from all par- ticipation in the crime, and the whole guilt thrown upon the duke. And this has been received by some writers as the more prob- able, through consideration of the general hatred then subsisting against Alexander, and the prevalent disposition to propagate and believe any evil rumor respecting him ; but Ave are not aware that it rests on any other original testimony. The other account is extracted by Raynaldus (ann. 1503, sect, xi.,) from a manuscript journal of the house of Borgia;* and herein we are entertained by a circumstantial description of the last na- tural illness of Alexander, the character of the fever, the practice of the physicians, the piety of the departing pontiff, the reverence with which he received the last sacrament, the demeanor of the cardinals and others who were present at the edifying scene. But this family narrative, being at variance with the less partial accounts of the same transac- tion, may be rejected without much hesita- tion. Such, then, was the probable end of Alex- ander VI. : he was poisoned by the cup pre- pared for his own guest by his own hand, or, at least, by the hand of a beloved son, whose notorious crimes he had long endured and fostered, and whom he seems to have loved for those very crimes ; so that, in res- pect to his general character, it imports not very much, whether he was an accomplice or not in that last offence, of which he was the deserving victim. 'All Rome (says Guicciardini) rushed to St. Peter's to behold while he allows that the father and son were ' les deux plus grands scelerats panni les puissances de l'Europe.' Is the story, then, so very improbable'? But if it were, mere probability is a very faithless test of historical truth. Things contrary to all calculation are happen- ing every day, and have always happened. * Sismondi likewise refers to the ' Letters of the Ambassador of the House of Este,' and to Muratori, Annali d' Italia, torn, x. p. 15. According to Guic- ciardini (lib. vi.), the death of Alexander took place on August 17, 1503,— 'e il giorno seguente e portato morto secondo 1' uso dei Pontilic inella Chiesa di San Piero, nero, infiato e bruttissimo segni manifestissirai di veleno.' his corpse with incredible festivity ; nor was there any man who could satiate his eyes with gazing on the remains of a serpent, which, by his immoderate ambition and pes- tiferous perfidy, and every manner of fright- ful cruelty, of monstrous lust and unheard- of avarice, trafficing indiscriminately with things sacred and profane, had impoisoned the whole world.' Yet the world still con- tinued to acknowledge the vicegerent of Christ, and to bow before the throne of St. Peter. The cup was not yet full ; some few remaining iniquities were still to be accom- plished ; the arm of vengeance was still sus- pended, and Luther, the destined instrument, had not yet commenced his noviciate among the Augustinian Mendicants. Election and Death of Pius ///. — After the funeral honors had been duly paid to the departed pontiff, eight and thirty cardinals entered into Conclave to choose a successor. The unusual number of the electors may be one reason why the present election was not charged with simony; but it presented a scene of treacherous intrigue, scarcely less shameful, in which Julian della Rovera was the principal actor — for as no man was more daring in warfare, so was not any one more astute in duplicity, than he. By the success of his machinations, a sick and feeble old man, the nephew of Pius II., was raised to the pontificate on September 22, 1503; and scarcely had he received the ordination to the priesthood, (which, though a cardinal, he had not previously received,) and undergone the ceremony of coronation, and assumed the name of Pius III., when he died — six and twenty days after his election. Great expect- ations were excited by his reputed virtues and piety and his ardently expressed desire for a reformation of the Church ; and it may be fortunate for his memory that they were disappointed by his death, rather than by some act of apostasy, by which he might not improbably have imitated so many of his pre- decessors. Julian II. — Julian celebrated the mass at his obsequies ; and scarcely was that office performed when he re-opened his former intrigues in the design, on this occasion, of procuring his own election. He gained the leading cardinals; he gained the Duke de Valentinois, who directed the Spanish party in the conclave, by magnificent promises, and the confidence that they would be ob- served. On the very first scrutiny, Julian della Rovera was unanimously raised to the chair of Alexauder VI. We should here PIUS III. — JULIUS II. 517 mention that, before the election of Pius III., the cardinals in conclave had bound the future Pope, among other conditions, to con- voke a council general for the reform of the Church, within two years from the time of his election, and to make the assembly of such councils, hereafter, triennial. It appears that Julian, on his elevation, gave his assent to the same stipulations.* His military character. — He took the name of Julius II., thereby intending, as many suppose, to avow his preference of the mili- tary to the sacerdotal character, and to declare his greater disposition to imitate the glories of Pagan, than of Christian, Rome. Assur- edly his whole pontificate was directed by such motives; and if the ten years, through which it extended, are not wholly destitute of events properly appertaining to ecclesias- tical history, those events did scarcely ever originate with the Pope, and were unconnec- ted with the principles of his government. It was not that he neglected, in the progress of his negotiations and campaigns, to carry on his lips the name of St. Peter, to whet the material upon the spiritual sword, and to thunder forth bulls and anathemas with all the majesty of former days ; but it was in this respect only that he was distinguished from the other temporal sovereigns, with whom he leagued or contended. After so long a course of pontifical degen- eracy, in the hands of a Pope so absolutely secular as Julius, it might have been expected that those bolts had lost their force and their terrors; and that the bishop of Rome, having descended to the policy of a secular prince, would have been treated by his brother prin- ces with no superior reverence. Yet was it otherwise; the fetters of the inveterate preju- dice were not yet wholly unloosed, and the spiritual weapon was still an object of appre- hension even to the king of France. So late as the year 1510, Louis XII.,f being deeply embroiled with the Pope, and struck with the sentence of excommunication. assembled a council of his clergy at Tours, and formally demanded their opinions on Mich points as these: — 'Whether the Pope had a right to * The form of the oath deserves to bo cited in its very words. * Pnemissa omnia et singula promitto, voveo et juro observare et adimplere, in omnibus et per omnia, pure et simpliciter et bona fide, realitcr, et cum effectu perjurii et anathematis, a quihus nee me ipsum absolvaui, nee alieni absolutionem commit- tam. Ita me Dens adjuvet, &e.' It appears in Beausobre, Hist. Refov*n. liv. i. f The same who caused a coin to be struck, bear- ing the inscription, Perdam Babylonis nomen. make war, when neither the interests of reli- gion, nor the domains of the Church were in danger? Whether a prince might seize the ecclesiastical states, in case the Pope were his declared enemy, and keep temporary pos- session of them, until he should have hum- bled his adversary ? Whether, under the same circumstances, a subtraction of obedi- ence, under certain restrictions, were lawful? Whether a prince might defend another prince — his ally — against the pontifical arms?' Such were the scruples which still were felt even in the court of France. They were removed by the loyalty of the episcopal assembly: nevertheless, even after their re- moval, enough remained to distinguish the apostolical from all other governments ; and as those distinctions were founded jii popular opinion, fostered by priestly influence, it was not very easy to counteract their effect, or foresee their termination. His successes. — Julius II. knew better than any one the advantage which he thus possessed, and he likewise knew the precise extent of it, so that in using it constantly, he seldom abused it ; and thus it proved that he was successful beyond all expectation in the accomplishment of his most difficult designs. When he ascended the throne, he found the Duke de Valentinois in possession of many cities in the Rcmagna, rfhich the latter had usurped during the reign of Alexander, and of which he appropriated the revenues. Him, the most dissembling of men, Julius in some measure supplanted by dissimulation.* From another nobleman (Paolo Baglioni) he recov- ered the city of Perugia by singular audacity ; he suddenly entered the hold of his enemy with his cardinals only, attended by no es- cort, and in such guise reclaimed and recov- ered his rights of sovereignty. He compelled the Venetians to restore several places which they had conquered from the Holy See — Rimini, Faenza, Ravenna, Cervia; and before the end of bis pontificate, he had established a direct authority over all the cities which constitute the ecclesiastical states. Even in Milan he was almost paramount, while Mo- dena, Reggio, Parma, Piacenza, were held in * Alexander VI., who detested Julian, always ad- 1 1 1 i 1 1 r- . 1 that lie had one, though only one, redeeming quality : it was veracity. This reputation, Guiceiar- diui says, gave him great opportunities of lying with advantage. Nevertheless, in this case, having the Duke's person entirely in his power, lie certainly did not treat him so ill as the principles of his enemies, and even of his age would have justified, nor nearly so severely as many expected and hoped. 518 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. the name of the Church.* And some have supposed, that, had his reign been prolong- ed for a very few years, the whole extent of Italy would have been united under the sceptre of St. Peter. The object, however, which he more open- ly professed, and which was at least honor- able to his patriotism, was the expulsion of all foreigners (Barbari) from the soil of Italy. The measures, by which he pursued that object, belong to civil history, as well as the splendid reputation which they acquired for him. The talents and the qualities of Philip and Alexander are described by the panegyr- ists of Julius, as combined in him: even in their vices he resembled them — anger and intemperance. Respecting the particulars of his policy, it is recorded that he never would listen to any proposal of peace, so long as war, with any promise of success, was open to him : yet that he so conducted war, as to be in perpetual negotiation. Enemies, as well as friends, were made to serve his designs, and distant, as well as neighboring, powers. He was so fierce and indefatigable a warrior, that at an age almost decrepit he did not shrink, when necessary, from sharing the severest toils of the meanest soldiers: but, at the same time, no one ever wielded the spiritual weapon with more imposing author- ity than Julius. His energy in the Vatican was scarcely surpassed by his bravery in the field ; and he dictated a Ynill with the same energy with which he commanded an army. It was, moreover, particularly remarked, that he directed the ecclesiastical functions, and mingled in the holy services, with wonderful decorum and solemnity: thus under no cir- cumstances forgetting the advantages to be derived from his sacred office, nor ever failing to make it the means of raising his personal dignity, or advancing his political purposes. His patronage of the Arts. — Another proof of the expanded mind of Julius II. was, his patronage of the arts of peace, which had suffered in the general degradation of the preceding pontificates. Many celebrated mas- ters flourished during his reign, and his en- couragement was never wanting to animate, nor Iiis liberality to support them. The foun- dations of St. Peter's after being designed by Nicholas V., were finally laid by Julius ; and to prove the value which he attached to that undertaking, he placed the first stone with his own hand. The accumulation of so many and such various qualities in one character * See Denina, Rivol. d' Ital., lib. xix. cap. vii. and lib. xx. cap. i., ii., iii. leaves no space to doubt his extraordinary capacity. And could we be contented to consider him only as a secular prince — could we forget that he was really the chief of the Church of Christ, and that he professed to be his vicegerent — the homage which is ex- torted by his genius, his audacity, and the am- bitious grandeur of his spirit, however qual- ified by his political immorality, would be offered with less reluctance. Some Cardinals convoke a Council at Pisa. — But the Popes, even during this their sea- son of licentiousness, had not wholly forgot- ten the lessons inculcated at Constance and Basle ; and among the various dangers to which they were liable, the name which ever filled them with the deepest apprehension, was that of a general Council. And thus, when Julius engaged * to convoke such an assembly within two years from his election, nothing was farther from his intention than to keep his faith, and in effect he constant- ly eluded every proposition tending to that end. The king of France saw the advantage thus given him ; and as there was also a party in the sacred college, which, through an hon- est regard for the Church, or a personal dis- pleasure against the Pope, (for Julius II., by an ungracious and disdainful manner, fre- quently offended even those whom he in- tended to oblige,) boldly clamored for the redemption of his pledge, Louis at length prevailed upon them to summon the council on their own authority. They were nine in number; and the city which they appointed for the assembly was Pisa ; it was a place convenient to the French and Italian prelates, and it contained, in its own history, the pre- cedent of a general council, summoned by cardinals. The emperor Maximilian gave only a cold assent to these proceedings. Ju- lius exerted every nerve to crush the project : nevertheless, the prelates met together, and the council was formally opened on the 1st of November, 1511. Presently some tumults between the French and Florentine soldiers alarmed the fathers; and after the third ses- sion they retired to Milan, where they were entirely under French protection. During that winter and the following spring they held five other sessions; and then, as the * Raynaldi, Annales, 1503, s. i., ho. It should, perhaps, be mentioned, that Julius published, in 1506, a severe edict against the simoniacal election of Popes. He pronounced Popes so elected to be Here- siarchs, and consequently degraded and deposed. The decree was confirmed in the Latei^n Council which followed. I.EO X. 519 German bishops had never joined them, and as the emperor had at length withdrawn even the equivocal countenance hitherto vouch- safed to them, they retired, for the second time, from Milan to Lyons. But on this last removal, notwithstanding the efforts of Louis to give dignity and power to the refugees, the council became virtually extinct. It is unnecessary to particularize the re- spective acts of the eight sessions of that assembly, not only because they were never carried into effect, but because they were entirely directed to one subject — the relative authority of the council and the Pope. Ju- lius, on his side, thundered from the Vatican ; he excommunicated all the members; he de- graded and deprived the cardinals. They, on their part, alter some verbose declarations, summoned the Pope into their presence, de- clared him contumacious, and finally sus- pended him. But this was their last effort, and the signal, as it were, for their extinction ; and the blow thus impotently dealt by the ex- piring assembly was not felt on the Throne of St. Peter.* The Fifth Lateran Council. — Nevertheless, this short-lived council in some measure achieved its professed purpose. Julius, in the first instance, really feared it ; and he then saw no effectual method of crushing it, ex- cept the convocation of a rival council. He therefore issued a summons to the Catholic hierarchy, to assemble at Rome, in April, 1512, for the celebration of the fifth Lateran council ; and on the 3rd of May he opened it in person, with extraordinary dignity and so- lemnity. Fifteen cardinals, and about eighty archbishops and bishops were present ; but it must not be forgotten, that almost all were Italians. During the nine following months five sessions were held, in which no sub- ject of any ecclesiastical importance was pro- posed, f except the Pragmatic Sanction ; and this was treated in a spirit of such undisguised hostility to the French court and Church, as to show very clearly what were the uses to which Julius intended to turn his council. * The contest, literally speaking, did not cease here. Julius pursued his adversaries into France, and laid the kingdom which harbored them under an interdict. But though some fresh controversies then arose on the old subject — ths comparative auferibil- ity of a council and a Pope, — it was clearly the king, who was now fighting the battle, not the council. f The confirmation of Julius's former decree against the simotiiacal election of Popes, should, perhaps, be considered as important, though there could be no great hope of its efficacy — not, at least, till tl>e con- stitution of the sacred college was wholly changed. But he was interrupted by a fatal sickness. On the nigbl of February 20, 1513, lie died; and it was the last recorded act of his life, to refuse the cardinal's hat to an undeserving claimant When the Pope was on the point of death, the boon was earnestly solicited by a very near relative, — a woman, for her own brother. Julius coldly replied, 'that the per- son was unworthy,' and then turned his head away, and expired. Leo X. — He was succeeded by Leo X. — a name which belongs to the history of the Reformation, and with which, in this work, we are no further concerned, than as we propose to follow the council, assembled by his predecessor, through its remaining delib- erations. Before the end of the year it held three more sessions, under the presidency of the new Pope: the sixth and seventh pro- duced no memorable enactments, but the eighth was somewhat more important. On this occasion the king of France at length announced his adhesion. A bull was like- wise published, for the purpose of establishing the separate existence and immortality of the soul against the dangerous and, as it would seem, prevalent theories of certain philoso- phers; and at the same time an edict of safe-conduct was granted to the Bohemian schismatics, with an invitation to assist at the council: for their heresy was again rising into formidable attention. These measures were followed by a decree, directed against the officers of the apostolical court, for the diminution of their fees or salaries. Canons of Reformation. — On the 5th of May, 1514, the prelates proceeded from the abuses of their dependants to the considera- tion of their own ; and on this occasion they published an imposing body of regulations for the reformation of the Roman court, and the general discipline of the Church. It was enacted, that only persons of worth and mor- ality should be appointed to benefices: to bishoprics, at an age not earlier than twenty- seven years; to abbeys, not earlier than twenty-two; and that care should be taken to ascertain their merit, before their names were proposed in consistory. That depri- vation should only be inflicted after due ex- amination. That monasteries and abbeys should not beheld in commendam, unless for the better preservation of the authority of the Holy See, and by cardinals or other persons qualified; and that cures and dignities of little value (less than 200 ducats a year) should not be so held even by cardinals. That there be no separation or union of 520 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. Churches, unless for a reasonable cause. That no dispensation be granted to hold more than two incompatible benefices, unless to persons qualified, and for sufficient reasons. That persons possessing more than four benefices, cures, or dignities, be obliged, within two years, to reduce them to the number of four, by resigning the rest. It was likewise ordained, that the cardinals should lead an exemplary life, — celebrating mass in their chapels, observing perfect sacerdotal modesty in their house, furniture, and tables, to the exclusion of all secular pomp ; treating with honor and respect those about them ; attentive to the interests of the poor, no less than to those of princes ; visiting in person, or by deputy, their titular church- es ; providing for the prosperity of the mon- asteries, or benefices, which they might hold in commendam ; avoiding every show of luxury, and every suspicion of avarice in their attendants. Respecting the inferior members of the court of Rome, a number of laws were published against blasphemy, con- cubinage, and simony. It was strictly pro- hibited to all kings, princes, and lords, to seize or sequestrate the ecclesiastical property, unless by permission of the Pope. All the laws concerning the exemption of ecclesiasti- cal persons and goods from lay jurisdiction were confirmed. And lastly, the inquisitions were stimulated to proceed zealously against heretics * and Jews ; especially against those who had relapsed, from whom every hope of pardon was withheld On the above regulations, which formed the substance of the most important decree of this council, it is scarcely necessary to observe, that they touched very ineffectually even those few among the multifarious corruptions of the Church, which they touched at all ; that, in respect to the Court of Rome, as no attempt was made to reduce one fraction of its power and wealth, it was superfluous to publish general exhortations of modesty and humili- ty ; and, besides, that the principal points in dispute with France and Germany were en- tirely overlooked in this reformation of the Catholic Church. The Press. — A year afterwards, (on May 4, 1515,) the council held its tenth session. It then published a decree to restrain some of the abuses of chapters; to moderate, though very slightly, the granting of exemp- *' How ill, alas! (says Raynaldus,) these most holy laws were observed, appears from the hydra-birth of the Lutheran heresy, which came so soon afterwards.' Ann. 1514. sect. 31, &c. tions ; to refer the decision of trifling suits respecting the smaller benefices to the ordi- naries ; and to encourage provincial councils. Another decree peremptorily cited the eccle- siastics of France to appear at the council, and show sufficient reasons why the Pragma • tic Sanction should not be wholly abolished Another, promulgated on the same occasion, was levelled against the presumed abuses of the press. The Pope (an enlightened and literary Pope) pronounced to the effect, 'thar, though knowledge was acquired by reading, and though the press much facilitated sucti acquirement, the cultivation of the mind, the instruction of Christians, and the consequent propagation of the faith and the Church ; yet, as it had reached the ears of his Holiness, how some printers had published many Latin translations from the Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldean, which contained false and pernicious dogmas, and offended the reputa- tion of persons in dignity, he was bound to ordain, in his desire to remedy that evil, that no book should be hereafter printed at Rome, or in any other city or diocese, until it had been examined — at Rome by the vicar of his Holiness, and the master of the sacred palace — in other dioceses, by the bishop, or some doctor appointed by him, or by the in- quisitor of the place, on pain of immediate excommunication.' * Abolition of the Pragmatic Sanction. — The next session was not held till the 19th of December, 1516. The Pope found himself at the head of a very tractable assembly, still consisting almost entirely of Italian prelates, and yielding obsequious approbation to de- crees dictated from the Vatican. Thus, with- out any display of impatience, he steadily pursued that which seems to have been the only object of his predecessor in this matter, and which was clearly the leading one with himself, — the abolition of the Pragmatic Sanction. In the present session he accom- plished that design ; and the bull which he published on the occasion is worthy of the proudest days of pontifical despotism. He began by asserting the implicit obedience due by divine authority to the Holy See, and afterwards took occasion especially to con- firm and renew the constitution Unam Saiic- lam of Boniface VIII. He showed the ille- * This was not the first effort of the Popes against what they considered the abuses of the press. In 1501, Alexander VI. ordained, under the severest penalties, that no books should be printed in any diocese, with- out the sanction of the bishop (Raynaldus, 1501, s. 36). But Sixtus IV. has the distinction of being the first who established that inquisition. LEO X. 521 gality and schismatic nature cf the ' Sanc- tion, ' by disparaging the councils of Bourges and Basle, and proclaimed the unlimited control of the Pope over such assemblies : and finally, by his certain knowledge, by the plenitude of his power, and with the appro- bation of the holy council, he annulled all the decrees, statutes, and regulations contained in the offensive enactment. The bull received the assent of the council, with only one dissentient voice. The bishop of a small diocess in Lombardy had the bold- ness to express his veneration for the coun- cils of Bourges and Basle, and his reluctance to disturb their inviolable decisions. But he was immediately overborne; the authority of the present (it was argued) was not inferior to that of preceding assemblies ; and in ancient times St. Leo had revoked at Chalcedon, what had been too rashly ordained at Ephe- sus. Yet such arguments might not effectu- ally have served the Pontiff, had not Francis 1. conspired to betray the liberties of his Church. The abolition of the Sanction was immediately followed by the publication of a concordat, which tacitly restored the posses- sion of Annates to the Pope,* and openly transferred a valuable portion of the eccle- siastical patronage to the king. During the same session, certain restrictions were impos- ed upon the license of preachers, and generally upon the discipline of the monastic orders : but these last were compensated by some pri- vileges, which, though of no great apparent importance, offended the jealousy of the bishops, and roused some opposition in the council. The assembly divided, but the ma- jority was in favor of the papal measures. * The Annates were not expressly mentioned in the Concordat. But as the Pragmatic, which had alone abolished that payment, was itself abolished, the right to the payment was restored ; at least, it was left on the same footing on which it stood before the Sanc- tion, and then it was commonly levied by the Pope. In fact, in the ecclesiastical writers on this subject, the words pragmatic sanction, and annates, are so constantly connected, as to make it very clear, that the recovery of that contribution was a great object with the Popes in their enmity to the Sanction, as the exemption from it may have been a great cause of attachment to their liberties with the clergy of France. The question continued where it was then placed, till the arrangement brought about by Bossuet, in 1682. The arguments by which the conduct of Francis has been defended are — that many of the sees and monasteries were of royal foundation; that much confusion was occasioned by the popular method of election ; that when subjects intrust the sovereign with the government of the state, that of the Church is therein included, &c. kc. 66 Dissolution of the Council. — On the 16th of the following March (1517,) the council met for the twelfth and concluding session, and after prohibiting the popular practice of pil- laging the mansion of the Pope elect, and or- daining nn imposition of tenths for the service of the Turkish war, it was dissolved. The bull of dissolution announced the accomplish- ment of every object of the assembly : peace had been re-established among the princes of Christendom ; the schismatic synod of Pisa abolished ; and, above all, the reformation of the Church and court of Rome had been sufficiently provided for ! There were, indeed, some fathers who ventured to argue, that every abuse had not even yet been removed, and that the lasting interests of the Church would be better promoted by the further con- tinuance of the council — but the majority supported the Pope ; and the last universal assembly of the western Cflurch, after having deliberately regulated all matters requiring any attention, and restored the establishment to perfect health and security, separated with complacency and confidence! And here we may mention, (for the coincidence is remark- able,) that in the very same year, almost be- fore the assembled prelates had concluded their mutual congratulations on the peace, and unity, and purity, of the apostolical Church, Luther commenced, in the schools of Wittenberg, his public preaching against its most revolting corruption. Degeneracy of the See. — Though it is not strictly true, that the history of the Popes, from Nicholas V. to Leo X., presents, so far as their personal characters are concerned, a series of uniform degeneracy ; yet the prin- ciples of their government being bad, and not being corrected, became gradually and necessarily worse. And thus, though the name of Julius II. fills us with much less abhorrence than that of Alexander VI., the policy of the apostolical See was never so directly opposed to every spiritual object, as when guided by the former: ends purely temporal were never pursued with such un- disguised vehemence, or by means so san- guinary ; the keys of St. Peter, though not wholly cast away, were never before so merely subsidiary to the sword of St. Paul;* inso- * The popular story, that Julius II. actually threw the keys into the Tiber, and drew the sword of St. Paul, seems to be bunded (at least so thinks Bayle) on the following utfama est of au obscure poet, Gil- bertus Dttcherius Vulto: — In Galium, ut fama est, helium gesturus acerbum, Armatam educit Julius Urbe manum. 622 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. much, that the hand of a retributive provi- dence might almost seem to be traced in this circumstance — that the long succession of spiritual usurpers, who were the chiefs of a religion of peace and the professed vicegerents of the God of love, should terminate at length in a military pontiff. The patience of angels and of men was exhausted by this last mock- ery ; and the more daring the exploits of the soldier, and the more splendid the conquests of the prince, the more awful was the bolt which was even then descending to rend his spiritual empire. We should also observe, respecting the Popes described in this chapter, that there was scarcely one whose government did not deteriorate as it proceeded. Almost all began their reign with some promises of religious practice, or ecclesiastical reform, or broad European policy ; and some, for the first year or two, observed %uch promises. But their reigns, upon the whole, much exceeded the usual duration of pontifical power, and they had space to imbibe the corruption which surrounded them ; so that even those who carried with them into the Vatican the ordi- nary principles of human conduct, presently forgot them in the society of debauched par- asites, in the iniquities of a simoniacal court, in the administration of a system Full of every impurity. Thus are we in no manner sur- prised, when we observe these sovereigns engrossed by the temporal interests of their states, and engaged in securing their power within the city, and extending their sway without it: this was merely to govern like secular princes, and to pursue the policy which some of the greatest among their own predecessors had bequeathed to them. But the vice peculiarly characteristic of this race, and that which reduced them below the level of former pontiffs, was Nepotism.* It was for this that the keys and the sword co-ope- rated ; that benefices were publicly sold, and the pontificate all but publicly bought — that Accinctus gladio Cloves in Tybridis amnem Projicit, et soevus talia verba facit— Quum Petri nihil efficiant ad pra>lia Claves, Auxilio Pauli forsitan ensis eiit. *(1.) Eugenius IV. was nephew of Gregory XII.; (2.) Paul II., of Eugenius IV.; (3.) Alexander VI., of Calixtus III.; (4.) Pius III., of Pius II.; (5.) Julius II., of Sixtus IV.; (6.) and finally, Leo X. was brother -in-law of the bastard of Innocent VIII. We should remark, however, that the thirst for ag- grandizing their own families was not peculiar lo the Popes, though peculiarly disgraceful to them. It was connected with that general struggle for super-emi- nence among private families which distinguished the history of Italy during this century. the nephews and bastards of a profligate Pope might be enriched and aggrandized. Many fiefs of the Church were alienated for that purpose ; and what was of worse con- sequence than this, the chief of the Church thus acquired a new motive for attachment to its abuses, and repugnance to any serious reformation. If Julius II. was less tainted with this vice than those who immediately preceded him* — for Julius mingled some magnanimity with his worldliness, — it was presently restored to honor by Leo X., and resumed its dominion over the counsels of the Vatican. Degradation of the Sacred College. — Anoth- er circumstance that strikes us, in the consid- eration of this period, is the utter debasement to which the Sacred College finally descend- ed. The influence, which the most wicked Pope invariably acquired in consistory, may be ascribed to the less direct operation of his power and patronage. But the secrets of the conclave, which have been transmitted by contemporary writers, abound with the par- ticulars of intrigue, and undisguised perfidy, and unblushing venality. Such was the mu- tual consciousness with which the Pope and his senate assembled to govern the Church of Christ! such the councils, from which edicts were issued for the suppression of simony and the correction of the morals of the clergy ! . . . . Again, it was now become almost the practice of the Conclave to bind the future Pope by a solemn obligation, in- tended to influence the nature of his govern- ment. The cardinal, while on the point of being elected, voluntarily took this oath, in common with his colleagues ; and immediate- ly after his election he confirmed it. In a similar manner, restrictions were at that time not uncommonly imposed by the elective body on the emperor of Germany and the king of Poland, and they were found effectu- al. But at Rome the result was so far other- wise, that among the many who undertook such engagements, there seems not to have been one, who faithfully observed what he had sworn, first as cardinal, next as Pope. This distinction, so shameful to the Court of Rome, confirms the charges of supereminent immorality commonly brought against it: it * ' Julius designed to make himself master of Bo- logna, and extinguish the Venetians, and chase the French out of Ilaly ; and these projects all proved fortunate to him, and so much the more to his praise, in that he did all for the goo.l of the Church, and in no private regard.' Machiavel (Principe, cap. xi.) is no great eulogist of Julius. LEO X. 523 proceeds, however, from the singular princi- ples of the papal hierarchy. In the first place, the Pope, who enjoyed power unlimited over the obligations of others, might reasonably elaim the right to dispense with bis own. In the next, be bad means of influencing those who might release him from bis engagements, or connive at his contempt of them, such as : the crown did not possess, either in Germany or Poland. The immense extent of his pa- tronage, his authority over the property and persons of the cardinals, and his prerogative of creating others, gave him irresistible in- struments both of seduction and terror. He exercised them unsparingly ; and the result was, that among the various crimes of the Vatican, that which became, as it were, pe- culiarly pontifical, was perjury. While the crimes of the Vatican were in- deed so various, as to embrace almost every denomination of ungodliness, there was not one among the Popes of this period, who made even the slightest pretension to piety ; scarcely one, by whom decency, as well as morality and religion, was not grossly out- raged. Indeed, when we consider the enor- mity of the scandals permitted and perpetrat- ed by Popes and cardinals during the latter years, it seems a matter of wonder that the whole Christian world did not rouse itself, as by an earthquake, and destroy them. But here it must be observed, that however noto- rious was the infamy of the Roman court to the nobles, and even the people of Rome; however generally it might be related and credited, even throughout Italy, that country profited too extensively by the tributes of foreign superstition, to feel any desire to close their sources: besides which, Italy, having long exhibited less regard than any other land for the spiritual treasures and censures of Rome, was less disgusted by the spectacle of her vices. But beyond the Alps, where a just indignation would really have been excited, the private arrangements of the conclave, and even the secrets of the pontifical palace did yet rarely or imperfectly transpire — a sacred veil still continued to conceal the impurities of the Fathers of the Church, nor was it rais- ed, until the barriers were at length broken by Charles VIII., and the natives of every country were admitted to a nearer view of the pontifical mysteries. Literary Popes. — Another circumstance, which made men less disposed to rebellion against the Holy See, was the literary char- acter of some of the later pontiffs. The ge- nius and accomplishments of Nicholas V., of Pius II., and even of Sixtus IV., threw a light round the chair of St. Peter, which dazzled, and for awhile deceived, the Cisalpine na- tions. Besides, the vices of the court were really less general during those reigns ; for if the example of the Pope did not necessarily influence all bis cardinals, at least his own character directed him in the choice of those whom he created ; so that it is not uncommon, during this period, to find respectable au- thors,* as well as patrons of learning, among the members of the Sacred College. But in the example of Sixtus, evil upon the whole predominated ; and those who next succeeded, presented models of flagitiousness almost un- qualified, so that the effect produced upon the Christian world by the brilliancy of those for- mer reigns, gradually faded away ; and when Leo X. restored the image of a splendid pon- tificate, it was too late to prevent the out- breaking of settled, deliberate discontent. Efforts against the Turks. — The period de- scribed in this chapter was also marked by one other feature very deserving of attention; — the hostility of the Turk, and the consequent clamor for a grand Christian confederacy. In former ages the calamities of the Holy Land and the pollution of the tomb of Christ were motives sufficient to arm the indignation of the west. As time proceeded, and knowledge slowly advanced, and wisdom still more slow- ly followed it, that rage at length evaporated : but not till the Popes had turned it, in various manners, to their own profit, to enrich and aggrandize their See, and to units the Catho- lic Church. Precisely after the same fashion, as far as the altered principles of the age would allow, did the Vatican treat the ques- tion of the Turkish conquests. In this case, there was more of reason in the outcry, and proportionally less of superstition ; the danger was sometimes imminent; it was never very remote ; and the projected crusade was vir- tually defensive. It is not that some Popes were not very sincere, especially in the be- ginning of their reigns, in their exhortations to arm against the infidel — and some had been equally earnest in former aires, in their exer- tions for tiie liberation of Palestine — but many * .Sonic of these — for instance Cardinal Bessarion, who died under Sixtiu IV. — were tlie creations of an earlier period — the turbulent times of Constance and Basle, when the Roman court was obliged, in self- defence, to adopt men of some learning and talents. The works of Bessarion are enumerated and describ- ed by the Continuator of Fleury (|>. 113, 126). His defi nee of platonism (in Calumniatorem Platonis) against George of Trebisoiid is the most celebrated of his writings. 524 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. more were not so : yet these raised the same outcry, and repeated as loudly the same ar- guments and declamations. One of them, indeed, Paul II., so closely imitated the worst exploit of Innocent III., as to divert the course of war from its purposed channel, and direct it against Christian heretics. But the others, when not absolutely threatened by invasion, had, for the most part, two objects in their vociferations; the one, to bring money into the apostolical chamber; the other, to drown the reviving demands for Church reform, and turn the thoughts of men to any subject, rather than a general council.* In both these objects they, for a time, succeeded — unhappi- ly for the age in which they lived, unhappily for the permanence of their own empire. But it was God's providence which ordered this — to the end that the reformation should be more full and perfect, owing to the very blindness which had retarded it, and to the very bigotry which thought to withhold it for ever. For, however various the opinions prevalent at the moment, there can now be no question, that if the court of Rome had zea- lously employed itself, during this period of seventy-four years, in removing its scandals, in amending its morals, in retrenching its more extravagant claims, in reducing its ex- penses, and moderating its exactions, it might have continued, according to all human cal- culation, to sway for some time longer the spiritual destinies of Europe. CHAPTER XXVIII. PRELIMINARIES OF THE REFORMATION. Section I. — On the Power and Constitution of the Roman Catholic Church. (1) Origin, progress, and prosperity of the Pope's secular monarchy— Character and policy of Julius II.— Excuse for the union of the two powers in the Pope— Evils pro- ceeding from it. (2) The spiritual supremacy of Rome its rise, character, and extent— Usurpation of Church patronage— pretensions to personal infallibility — con- * Sixtus IV., when pressed, in 1472, by the king of Fiance, to call a general council, openly pleaded, as an objection, the urgency of the Turkish war. « It was out of season (the Pope replied) to demand the convocation of a council, which required considerable time, when the evil was pressing, and the progress of the Turks rendered the slightest delays prejudicial to religion; the other Christian princes had either kept their engagements, or were on the point of keeping them; and the king of France should rather join them in so holy a work, and permit the levying of tenths, and other charitable contributions, throughout his kingdom, &c.' See Contin. Fleury, L. 113, s. 145. trol over the general morality — in Penance, Purgatory, and Indulgences — decline of the power — not of the pre- tensions. (3) Claims of Rome to universal tempora. supremacy — as advanced by Gregory VII. — on what founded — by what means supported— use and abuse of this power. (4) Constitution of the Church. Origin and gradual aggrandizement of the Cardinals — to the rank of kings — The capitulations sworn in Conclave, and invariably violated — Relative interests and influ- ence of the Pope and the Sacred College — to the advan- tage of the former — its usual co-operation with the Pontiff — General Councils — subordinate machinery of the Church — highest dignities accessible to .all ranks — Good and evil of this — Envoys and emissaries — Men- dicants— Inquisition — Moral extremes permitted — Maxims of policy — Methods of securing the obedience of the lowest classes. Section II. — On the Spiritual Character, Disci- pline, and Morals of the Church. (1) Conservation of the most essential doctrines — Various innovations — Original system of penance — the Peniten- tial of Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury — subse- quent abuses — The intermediate state — Purgatory — Original object and gradual abuse of indulgences — in nature and in object — Translation of an indulgence published by Tetzel — Prayers for the dead — Masses, public and private. The mystery of the Eucharist — The elevation of the Host — use of the bell — worship of the Host — Communion in one kind only — its object and impolicy — Prohibition of the Scriptures — Miraculous impostures — Saints, relics, &.c. — More recent disputes and superstitions — on the ring of St. Catharine — and her Stigmata — on the Immaculate Conception — on the Worship due to the blood of Christ — the inscription on the Cross — the reed and sponge. (2; Discipline and morals — Concubinage of the Clergy — Influence of the laity — Perpetual acknowledgment of Church abuses from St. Bernard downwards — Cardinal Ximenes — Benefits conferred by the Church — in ignorant ages — Truce of God — Exercise of charity — Law of asylum — penance, &c. — Original character of Monachism — Merits of the Mendicants — chiefly as Missionaries — their success in the thirteenth and fourteenth ages — Morality in the fifteenth century comprised in the Mystics and the lower Clergy — Progress and preser- vation of Mysticism in the Western Church — Great, though obscure, virtues of many of the inferior Clergy. Section III. — On various Attempts to reform or subvert the Church. (1) Attempts at self-reform — The era of Boniface VIII subsequent decline — Necessity of some reform generally admitted — Designs of the Church reformers, as compar- ed with the real nature of the corruptions — confined wholly to matters of revenue and discipline — very im- perfect even in that respect — and never really enforced — Learning and blindness of the papal party — their momentary success — Progress of improvement and knowledge to final and certain triumph — Tardy re- formation in the Roman Catholic Church. (2) Attempts of Protestants to trace their Church to the Apostolic times — how far successful— where they fail — Vaudois and Albigeois — Bohemian Brethren — JVotc on Bossuet — Errors of those Dissenters— On the Paulicians— On the Mystics — Real value and merit of the sects of the twelfth and following centuries. (3) Treatment of heretics by the Churcn — Canon of Innocent III. — its fair explanation — consequence— Inquisition — Unity of the Church— A more moderate party— Principle of in- tolerance adopted by the Laity also — Conduct of the Church in the fifteenth age. (4) On some individual witnesses of the truth — John of Wesalia — Wesselus — Jean Laillier — Savonarola — his history and pretensions — Erasmus. (5) Particular condition of Germany — Great scene of clerical licentiousness and papal extor- POWER, &c. OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 525 tion — Political hostilities of Rome and the Empire — Violation of the Concordats — ' The Hundred Griev- ances '—Thirst of the people for the Bible— Character of Leo X. — Conclusion. Section I. — On the Powrr and Constitution of the Roman Catholic Church. I- — 1>" retracing the steps by which Papacy descended to that ground whereon it received its effectual overthrow, we shall observe in most of its elements signs of increasing cor- ruption and decay ; but there was one cir- cumstance, in which its singular prosperity ran counter to the general current. The temporal monarchy of the Pope was at no former period so extensive and so secure as at the accession of Leo X. At no time had the limits of the Ecclesiastical states been so widely stretched, or the factions, which alien- ated the capital from the government of its Bishop, so depressed and helpless as then. We have shown, in former chapters, how the Pope's political authority originated under the Exarchs of Ravenna, through the neglect or weakness of the Eastern empire ; and how it was rivetted by the vigor and the virtues of some who then occupied the Chair. Soon afterwards the domains of the See were formed and enlarged by Pepin and Charle- magne, though still held by the latter as a dependent portion of his empire. We have mentioned the donation of Ma- tilda to Gregory VII., and the exertions after- wards made to secure those various posses- sions. In this struggle, Innocent III., and some other Popes of the thirteenth century, obtained partial, though never permanent, successes; and the territories of Boniface VIII. were more respectable in magnitude, than united in allegiance and fidelity. But the secession to Avignon was the signal for general insubordination ; on every side the Barons rose and seized whatever lay within their grasp; and the patrimony of St. Peter was torn in pieces by their petty ambition and rapacity.* The Schism followed : and, if the residence of an Antipope recovered some portion of that authority which had been forfeited by * ' Je regarde Rome (says Voltaire, Pyrrlionisme de l'Histoire) depuis le temps de 1'Empercur Leo III. l'Isaurien, nomine line ville libre, protegee par les Francs, ensuite par les Germnins, qui se gouverne tant qu'elle put en republique, plutot sous le patronage que sous la puissance des Empereurs, dans laquelic le souverain Pontife eut toujours le premier credit, et qui enfin a ete entierement soumise aux Papes.' It is observed, that no Pope ever assumed the title of King of Rome. This subject is remarkably well treated by Gibbon, in his 49th chapter. I the absence of the Pope, yet it was not much that was resumed, nor was it held with firm- ness or confidence. But when the Schism had ceased, and a Bishop of undisputed le- gitimacy became again resident, though Mar- tin, Eugenitis, Nicholas, and Sixtus* even then had some storms and reverses to en- couuter, the machine of temporal power upon the whole moved onwards; and at length, under the guidance of Alexander VI. and Julius II., it reached those ample boundaries, from which it has never since receded. The dangerous feuds of the Colonna and Orsini were extinguished ; the usurpations on the states of the Church were extorted from the nobles who had made them ; even the turbulence of the Roman people was worn down by severity, or softened by luxury and licentiousness; and a compact and fruitful kingdom bowed in secular servitude before the sceptre oi" St. Peter. The emperor Maximilian designed himself as the successor of Julius II. and solicited the votes of several members of the college, some little time before the death of that Pope. He did not strongly press his project ; but the very attempt may show how little neces- sary any pretensions to the spiritual char- acter were then thought for the enjoyment of the loftiest spiritual dignity. Julius was, in all essentials, a temporal prince ; and had he not been so, he could scarcely have crowned his ambition with such extraordi- nary triumphs. Yet the spectacle of a secu- lar aud military Pope f was not well calcu- * Gibbon has remarked, that Eugenius IV. was the last Pope expelled by the tumults of the Roman people (in 1434); and Nicholas V. (in 1447) the last im- portuned by the presence of the Emperor. The same writer places the last disorder of the Nobles of Rome under Sixtus IV. and considers the papal dominion to have become absolute about the year 1500. Ma- chiavel (Prencipc, cap. xi.) lias observed, that the great difficulty in crushing the two rival factions in Rome arose from the short reigns of the Popes, and the inconstancy of their policy: for when any Pontiff had succeeded in humbling one of those families, his successor might, very probably, raise it up again and depress the opposite. On the other hand, the exist- ence of this find Recounted, in a great degree, for the temporal weakness of the Popes. At length, Alexan- der VI. and his sun overthrew the Parous from monies of family ambition, and Julius II. reaped the fruits of their victory for the advantage of the Church. •f A plausible precedent was afforded by the per- sonal expedition made by that simple, pious Pontiff, Leo IX. against the Normans who so signally over. threw li i in. But it should be recollected, that Let never repeated the experiment — his military thirst was satisfied by a single enterprise. 526 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. lated to conciliate to the See, in the most critical moment of its history, the affection or respect of any description of Christians. The deep penetration of Julius may possibly have foreseen the approaching downfall of the spiritual supremacy, and for that reason he may have lahored the more zealously to give strength to the temporal fabric. If he did so. it was a wise and salutary providence ; for, in that controversy so often raised — whether the secular dominion of the Pope has tended, upon the whole, to increase or to diminish his general influence,— there is ample room for difference, in respect to early times ; but after the first movements of the Reformation, it is quite clear that it produced to him no- thing but advantage: and from that moment the question rather becomes, whether any Ehred or fragment of his ghostly authority could have been saved without it.- Argumentfor the Pope's Secular Monarchy. — The enjoyment of secular power and pride by the Vicegerent of Him whose kingdom is not of this world, is justified on the ground of his independence. It is plausibly main- ly appears that they had, for the most part, the plea of justice. It was generally their object, (notwithstanding some deplorable ex- ceptions.) not to make conquests in the do- minions of others, but to defend or to recover their own. There was no province in Eu- rope so harassed by rebellions and usurpa- tions as the states of the Church. We need not pause to account for this circumstance ; but it is unquestionably true that no other prince was so commonly liable to depredation and insult as the Pope. Accordingly, his wars were usually defensive, and (it may be) necessary — hut that very necessity annihilat- ed the pastoral character, and despiritualized the Vicar of Christ. Tlie Tributes which he levied.— Again, these contests were not carried on without great expense ; and the holy See, despoiled of its pa- trimony, was at the same time deprived of its natural resources. Thence arose an obliga- tion to seek supplies in other quarters ; * and I with an obedient clergy and a superstitious j people it was not difficult to make the whole | of Christendom tributary. Once in posses- tainerl, that the Chief of the (Ecumenic i sion of this ample treasury, and of the keys Church, scattered throughout so many na- | which unlocked its innumerable chambers, tions, ought to stand unconstrained by any ! the Pontiffs explored and ransacked it with earthly potentate, and owe no other allegiance than that to Heaven. The principle, which would prevent him from being a subject, compels him to be a monarch, — no other condition can be conceived, which could se- cure him from the control of the temporal sceptre. The above argument acquires some confirmation from the decline which did, in fact, take place in the pontifical domination during the exile at Avignon, though the Pope was there resident rather as a guest than as a subject, free from the direct authority of the prince, the slave only of his influence. In truth, the Catholic, after he has assumed the divine establishment of one spiritual univer- sal monarchy, wants not sufficient plea for the maintenance of the temporal government, as secondary and subsidiary. But the Prot- estant, thoughtfully surveying the perplexities, the intrigues, and the crimes in which a Chris- tian Prelate is thus necessarily involved — the armies which he levies, the contributions when he extorts, the blood which he sheds — receives from the sad spectacle only fresh reason to doubt, whether the family of Christ has really been consigned to the rule of one, who can scarcely rule it in innocence. And this remark is the more striking, be- cause, when we reflect on the different wars which the Popes have waged in Italy, it real- out restraint, without decency, without dis- cretion. Their emissaries were dreaded as the tax-gatherers of the Christian world. Their name was associated with donations, fees, contributions, exactions — with every name that is most vile and unpopular in secu- lar governments. And thus, besides the great scandal thereby reflected upon themselves, they exhausted the affection, the endurance, and almost the credulity of the faithful. It is not that the moneys thus levied were applied entirely to the defence of the Ecclesiastical States, or even that they were generally levied under that pretence ; but in the first instance, during the thirteenth century, and afterwards, more especially under the Avignon succes- sion, a very large proportion was certainly absorbed by the temporal exigencies of the See, and the increasing demands and extra- vagance of the Court of Rome. The same system was continued through the Schism and the century which followed it, as far as the Popes had power to continue it ; and there- fore, when we admire their final success in erecting a permanent principality, we shall, at the same time, recollect the methods which * This system no doubt began soon after the eleventh awe when the Popes were so commonly expelled from Rome, to Orvietto, Viterbo, Anagni, &c., and obliged to look to all parts of Christendom for their resources POWER, &c. OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. they had so long and so vainly employed on that object, and the deep disaffection towards their Government which those methods had every where created. II. The Spiritual Supremacy of Rome. — It is not necessary to retrace the process, by which the spiritual supremacy of Rome was engendered and nourished. We have observed with sufficient distinctness, how equivocal and circumscribed it was in nature and dimensions, when it entered into the ages of gloom and ignorance, — how it grew rod dilated in its mysterious passage through them; — how portentous in magnitude and majesty it emerged from the cloud. We have followed it through its meridian course of disastrous glory ; and wc have seen that, even in its decline, it did not suddenly lose either its fierceness or its ascendency. Indeed, however strange it may seem, that an author- ity, so predominant in its power, so universal and searching in its influence, so extravagant in its pretensions, should have been at all created, and out of materials seemingly so in- congruous ; it would have been much more strange, had it been easily or hastily extin- guished. An authority, which claimed the sanction of Heaven, and which stood on human imposture; which pleaded the holi- ness of antiquity, and which innovated every hour ; which combined, in its composition, learning with fanaticism, the use of reason with its grossest abuse, extreme austerities with lawless licentiousness, much true piety with much vulgar and impious superstition — and which so applied those various qual- ities, as at length to acquire an influence in the policy of every Court, in the institutions of every Government, in the morals of every people, in the habits of every family, in the bosom of almost every individual — an au- thority, so constructed, supported, acknow- ledged, and felt, could not possibly fall in pieces without a protracted struggle and a final convulsion. It was impressed by the perseverance of fraud upon credulous, abject ignorance ; but so deeply impressed, that, before it could be effaced, the substance whereon it was engraven must first change its nature ; so that ages of gradual improve- ment were required to repair the mischief, which ages had conspired to inflict. For if we examine the extent of this power, with respect to the objects on which it was more immediately exerted, shall we find any department, religious or moral, into which, in its triumphant days, it did not penetrate ? In 527 the first place, the Pope was the fountain of all ecclesiastical legislation. All the Canons and Constitutions of the Church were sub- ject to him.* He could enact, suspend, abro- gate, as might seem good to him, and that, not only with the advice or consent of the Consistory, or (as it sometimes happened) merely in its presence, but in the plenitude of his power, and by his own spontaneous movement, f At the same time, while he was supreme in his dominion over the laws, he claimed an entire exemption from their con- trol, and found a powerful party in the Church to support his claim. In the next place, he was the source of all pastoral jurisdiction. The final determination of every spiritual cause rested with him. He was the object of appeal from all the episco- * Immediately after burning the Pope's bull, Luther published several propositions, extracted from the De- cretals, among which are the following: — ' that the successors of St. Peter are not subject to the com- mandment of the apostle to obey the temporal powers; that the power of the emperor is as much below that of the Pope as the moon is below the sun ; that the Pope is superior to councils, and can abolish their decrees; that all authority resides in his person; that no one has a right to judge him or his decrees; that God has given him sovereign power over all the king- doms of the earth, and that of heaven; that he can depose kings, absolve all oaths and vows; that he is not dependent on Scripture, but, on the other hand, Scripture derives all its authority, force, and dignity, from him,' &c. (See Bcausobre, Hist. Reform, liv. iii.) It is unnecessary to repeat, that the above pro- positions were either drawn from the False Decretals, or were of subsequent origin. Till the timeofVal- entinian III. neither the Eastern nor Western Church had any other collection of canons than the ' Code of Canons of the universal Church, ' compiled by Stephen, bishop of Ephesus. In the first year of Justinian, the ' Collection of Dionysius the Little ' was published. He was a monk, In ing at Rome — the same who in- troduced the practice of computing time from the birth of Christ — a friend, fellow-monk, and fellow- student of Cassiodorus. His collection contained the fifty Apostolical Canons, the Canons of Chalcedon, Sardica, and the African Councils ; and the Decretals of Pope Siricius (who died in 398); and it had au- thority in the Wot under the name of ' Codex or Corpus Canomim.' Some other collections, of little repute, or only partial authority, were published soon afterwards. (See Giannone, Stor. Napol. lib. iii. c. v.) Then came the forgeries of the eighth age, and the pretensions — first proceeding from them, presently surpassing them — though it was scarcely till the twelfth century that the new maxims and principles came into full operation. t De motti propria*. It appears that Bulls pro- ceeding dc motu proprio were received with great hesitation in Prance. Put they were held by the high Papists to be as valid as any other Decrees or Canons. 528 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. pal Courts ; and he delivered, confirmed, or reversed decisions, according to the arbitrary dictates of his justice, or his interest. Usurpation of Church Patronage. — The apostolical character of the ministry, perpet- uated by the uninterrupted communication of the Holy Spirit, was held to centre in the successor of St. Peter: and thus not only did all sacerdotal sanctity emanate from him, but all the offices and dignities of the Church were vested in his See. We may observe, however, that there was not one among his pretensions which cost hirn so much toil and conflict to substantiate, as this. In his ear- liest attempts to usurp the ecclesiastical pat- ronage he was contented to proceed by sim- ple recommendation ; and, as he had already great power, his applications were seldom despised. Hence arose the practice ; and from the practice, the right. The prerogative of institution, of which he had gradually de- spoiled the Metropolitans for the augmenta- tion of his own dignity, was serviceable as an instrument of further encroachment. The fierce and protracted contest respecting inves- titures, between the See and the empire, was inflamed by the same design in the former ; and when it terminated, the Pope found him- self in legal possession of that power of oc- casional interference in the collation of ben- efices, which it needed no great address to improve and extend. Still, time and boldness were required to complete the usurpation ; and the merit of achieving that work is per- haps justly attributed to Innocent III.* Soon afterwards the Pragmatic Sanction of St. Louis was levelled against it; and in later periods it has been obtruded so commonly upon our attention, as almost to convert the records of Christ's Church into a detail of disgusting squabbles about its temporalities. A, new vocabulary was introduced into the history of religion ; and as the magnificence of the Court of Rome kept pace with the majesty of the monarch, and as its avarice emulated his ambition, the field of Reserva- tion and Provision3^ was enlarged with no * See Mosheiin, Cent. xiii. p. ii. ch. ii. It was probably at this time that a new pretext for this ex- tension of the papal authority was discovered : viz. that through the Pope's vigilance, the gates of the Church might be secured against the intrusion of any Heretic. f Even by the more moderate and acknowledged claims of the Popes, all benefices in the possession of Cardinals, or any of the officers of the Court of Rome ; those held by persons who happened to die at Rome, or within forty miles from it; and all such as became vacant by translation, were reserved. The invention limit, and the whole patronage of the umver sal Church seemed to be absorbed by the cupidity of one man. The same power which thus created Car- dinals and Bishops, and ail other dignitaries, presumed by the same right to confirm, cen- sure, suspend or depose them ; * so that the whole hierarchy of the west was placed at its arbitrary disposal, f And though this in- ordinate despotism was continually resisted and restrained by the princes and parlia- ments of Europe, it had no effectual check within the Church, nor was there any country of mental reservation demanded the more refined in- genuity of the sixteenth century ; it is ascribed to Leo X., or at least, to bis predecessor. Respecting provisions, we may refer to the history of our own Church, to see with what pertinacity the battle was fought, and how the statutes enacted against them were perpetually confirmed, and perpetually eluded or violated. We may observe, however, that the Kings of Europe were not uncommonly neutral or lukewarm in this quarrel; the Pontiffs were sometimes found more tractable than the chapters, and a concession seasonably made to the former might become the means of reciprocal advantage. Again, we some times find the Universities on the side of the Pope — not from any abstract conviction of his right, but be- cause his appointments were often more judicious, more encouraging to the hopes of learned men, than those of the Ordinaries, who usually chose their own relatives or dependents. The Popes had procurators established in England, and probably in all other countries, to look after their interests; and the fury with which they pursued them during the fifteenth century, is strongly depicted by Giannone, lib. xxx. cap. 6. * The Council of Sardica in 347 (not a General Council) allowed a bishop, deposed by his neighbor- ing prelates, to appeal to the Bishop of Rome — it likewise permitted this last to send legates, to re- examine the case together with those prelates. . . . These decrees (if they be genuine, which Mosheim sees reason to doubt), prove that the power of de- position was not then exercised by the Roman bishop, but by the provincial synods; but they also indicate a disposition in the western clergy even thus early to distinguish the prelate of the imperial city, and to confer greater power on him than on any of his brethren. This inference no one can reasonably dis- pute, neither can any one reasonably infer more than this from the canons in question. See Dr. Cook, Historical View of Christianity, book iii. chap. ii. t The object of the ' Oath of Fidelity' to the Pope, taken by the higher clergy on their admission to be- nefices, was to bind them — that henceforward they would be faithful and obedient to St. Peter, the apostle, and to the Holy Roman Church, and to the Pope and his successors ; that he should suffer no wrong through their advice, consent, or connivance; that they would maintain and promote all his rights, honors, privileges, and authorities, and resist and denounce all attempts against him. POWER, &c. OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 529 in which it was not sometimes practically felt. On the Personal Infallibility of the Pope. — It is more difficult to determine, how far the Pope was held at any particular period to be personally absolute in matters of faith. No doubt, disputed points were perpetually re- ferred to his decision, and the decision was considered as final. But, on the other hand, there have been Popes at various times, who have incurred the charge of heresy from very faithful Catholics. Now the very suspicion of error presumes the fallibility of the person suspected, at least in the opinion of the accu- sers; and in the affair of John XXII. and the process against Boniface VIII., we have not observed that the friends of those Popes de- nied their liability to error. Again, in sotne- what later times, in the councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basle, we find it a principle admitted by both parties, that a Pope might be deposed on conviction of heresy; whence we may draw the same inference respecting other periods of Papal history. The claim of infallibility was not preferred in the delibera- tions at Florence, though conducted in the presence of the Pope and his Court, and en- tering very deeply into the subject of papal authority; nor was it advanced at any later period in the same century. So that, how- ever clearly it might be deduced from the general expressions of various bulls and con- stitutions, and even though it should have been asserted by some individuals and ac- knowledged and maintained by others, yet it would be too much to account it among the authorized pretensions of the Roman See.* Howbeit the doctrines which proceeded from the chair (ex Cathedra) were seldom disput- ed; and the Pontiff might forget the possibil- ity of error in the reverence which awaited and embraced his most questionable decis- ions. * The claim to infallibility is not contained in the Creed of Pius IV., compiled out of the Canons of Trent, which Roman Catholics consider as the most accurate summary of their faith ; and the Universities have generally opposed it. But it has been main- tained (as a matter of opinion, however, not of faith) by many distinguished individuals, among whom the most notorious is, perhaps, Bellarmine. It is mor- tifying to humanity to observe the genius of Pascal stooping to draw elaborate distinctions between in- fallibility in matters of faith and in matters of fact, and exhausting itself to prove, that, though the Pope does really possess the former, it does not follow that he is also invested with the latter — that is, that though he cannot err in judgment, he may possibly be deceiv- ed by falsehood ! 67 Again, in the regulation of the moral duties of the faithful, the same searching hand in- terposed with the same rigorous inquisition. A general power of dissolving obligations was claimed by the successors of St. Peter, and they applied it in various manners, as suited their policy, or, it might be, their conscience — sometimes in divorcing a prince from his queen, sometimes in separating a nation from its monarch. The most sacred oaths were annulled with the same ease, which dispensed with the slightest promise ; and as there were many who profited, or might hope to profit, by that papal prerogative, and as it was made familiar by constant exercise, so were there few who cared to question it, however shame- ful the ends to which it was sometimes ap- plied. Penance and Pnrgaton/. — It is the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church that, besides the eternal punishments denounced against sin, there are also temporal penalties attached to it, which are still due to the justice of God, even after he may have remitted the former; and that those penalties may consist either of evil in this world, or of temporal suffering in the next and intermediate condition of purga- tory. It is also an article of faith, that a sat- isfaction in their place has been instituted by Christ, as a part of the Sacrament of Penance, and that the jurisdiction of the Church as ex- ercised by the Pope, extends to the remission of that satisfaction. The act of remission is called an Indulgence ; it is partial or com- plete, as the indulgence is for a stated time or plenary, and the conditions of repentance and restitution are in strictness annexed to it. Through this doctrine, the Popes were, in fact, invested with a vast control over the human conscience, even in the moderate ex- ercise of their power, because it was a power which overstepped the limits of the visible world. But when they proceeded, as they did soon proceed, flagitiously to abuse it, and when, through the progress of that abuse, people at length were taught to believe, that perfect absolution from all the penalties of sin could be procured from a human being ; and procured too, not through fervent prayer and deep and earnest contrition, but by mil- itary service, or by pilgrimage, or even by gold — it was then that the evil was carried so far, as to leave the historian doubtful, whether any thing be any where recorded more aston- ishing than the wickedness of the clergy, ex- cept the credulity of the vulgar. We shall recur to this scandal, for it was the immediate cause of the Reformation ; but 530 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. it is proper to remark that, in the general pic- ture which has been drawn of Rome's spir- itual despotism and pride, some features had already been effaced before the approach of Luther. From the death of Boniface VIII., the colors had been gradually, though insen- sibly, fading away. The dependent Popes of France sustained the character of Gregory VII. and Innocent IV. with feebleness and degeneracy. The profligacy and rapacity of their Court began to dissolve the hereditary spell, and withdraw the sacred veil, which had hitherto concealed their real weakness. During the Schism, the rival Antipopes railed against each other, while they covered them- selves with crimes ; and the nations who were appealed to, as arbiters of the dispute, could scarcely fail to detect the unworthiness of both parties. In the Councils which follow- ed, some principles were advanced and es- tablished which, though still too narrowly limited by inveterate prejudices, were at least subversive of the absolute monarchy of the Pontiff. When the Councils were dissolved, and the duty of convoking others successfully eluded by the Popes, the Court of Rome, lib- erated from that terror, once more plunged into debauchery, more shameless, yet more notorious, than the abominations of former days ; and the various scandals of the tenth century were surpassed by Innocent VIII., by Alexander, and Julius, in an age of compar- ative civilization. It is true, that in its pre- tensions the See had abated nothing of its ancient arrogance, and we have observed what awe it was sometimes capable of inspir- ing even in its decay. But the light had bro- ken in ; the slow, yet irresistible hand of knowledge had commenced its labors; and the basis of opinion, on which alone the spir- itual despotism rested, was already shaken and shattered. III. Hie claims of Rome to universal Tem- poral Supremacy. — The effect of successful usurpation is to aggravate ambition, and the more disproportionate the success to all rea- sonable hope and calculation, the wilder are the schemes which take their rise from it. The spiritual despotism of the Pope transcends any exhibition of human power described in any history, until we approach the surpassing magnitude of his temporal pretensions. The design of Gregory VII. was the most daring imagination of human ambition. To estab- lish the Chair of St. Peter as the source of all power, secular as well as pastoral, civil as well as ecclesiastical — to subject all kings and all governments to the crosier of an unarmed, aged priest — to regulate the politics of the world by the annual meeting of a Senate of Ecclesiastics, under the eye of that autocrat — to dispose of all countries and of all thrones — to create monarchs and then to suspend, or depose them — to sport, as it were, with all that is sublime and mighty in earthly things — such was a scheme beyond the boldest conception of secular pride ; and it was en- gendered, where alone it could have found any nourishment, in the breast of a monk. The temporal supremacy of the Pope was projected not in the darkest moment of su- perstition and barbarism ; it was promoted during a period more enlightened than that in which it originated; it reached the height of its triumph during the latter part of the thir- teenth century, when Frederic II. had given an impulse to literature, when Dante was earning immortality ; and, but for that French intrigue which transplanted Papacy for a sea- son into a foreign soil, it might have advanced still farther; it would not, at least, have reced- ed so soon. Yet its fate must naturally have followed the decline of the spiritual authority of the See, since it had absolutely no other foundation than that ; and as it was of later origin, and more obviously insulting to every man's reason, so was its overthrow more rapid and more complete. Yet its latest pre- tensions were not unworthy of its ancient insolence ; and the presumption with which it distributed, in the fifteenth century, king- doms and oceans, and continents, is recollect- ed with astonishment even by the Catholics themselves — since the Catholics now for the most part admit, that that branch of the Pon- tifical authority was an indefensible usurpa- tion. Nevertheless, it found much support in the temporary interests of the great; it held forth a plausible pretence in the pacific objects which it professed, and it was really instru- mental in conferring some benefits on man- kind. Probably there is no Court in Europe, in which the Papal right to dispose of thrones has not at some time been virtually recognis- ed. It was never disputed by any prince, who found his immediate profit in its ac- knowledgment— when the crown was offered by the Pontifical hand, the validity of the donation was never questioned ; and thus did sovereigns sharpen for the chastisement of their rivals, a weapon, which was so easily turned against themselves. In the worst periods of feudal government, a mediatory influence over the various chiefs POWER, &c. OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 531 of the European Republic, vested in the head of the universal religion, if exercised wiih moderation, with disinterestedness, with dis- cretion, according to the rules of Evangelical charity, might have conferred the most sub- stantial blessings on society ; and since the Papal interference was sometimes so regu- lated, it had not been wholly destitute of ad- vantage. Divisions have been healed, wars have been prevented, crimes have been pun- ished, justice has been honored, tyranny has oeen checked, by the arbitrary decrees of the Vatican — the Popes were, upon the whole, is wise and as virtuous as the princes around them ; and when we consider the holy ground on which their government professed to stand, it is very shameful, that they were not much more so. But the good which they conferred was confined to evil times, and even then it was alloyed with much mischief. The mo- tives of their mediation were at least as com- monly found in anger or ambition, as in re- ligion or philanthropy ; and it may be ques- tioned whether the political benefits which proceeded from it, such as the establishment of a liberal party in Italy, and occasional re- straints on kingly despotism, were not rather the consequence, than the design, of their policy^. The means employed by their ambi- tion were sometimes lower than the ordinary level of political immorality. To rouse sub- jects against their sovereigns is a detestable method of effecting even a beneficial purpose — yet it is common and human ; but to arm the hands of children against the thrones and lives of their parents is a policy suggested by the counsels of Satan. IV. The Constitution of the Church. — "it was a position advanced by Pierre d'Ailly, that a Council General had no power over the Pontifical dignity, which was of divine authority, but only over the abuse of that dig- nity. ' And on that account (he adds) the monarchical system of the Church is temper- ed by an admixture of the aristocratical and democratical principle.'* In the balance of the Roman Catholic polity, the Papal despo- tism was, in fact, mitigated by two restraining powers — whatever may be the political de- nominations properly belonging to them — the College of Cardinals and General Councils ; bv the former as the electors, the constitutional * ' Et idcirco status monarchicus Ecclesiae regiinine aristocratico et democratico temperatur.' A position laid down by Gerson on the same subject is not at variance with this — ' Ecelesiastica I'olitia ita est nionarchica, ut non mutari possit in aristocraticam But democraticam.' counsellors and coadjutors of the Pope; by the latter as the states-general of the Universal Church. Rise and Progress of the Cardinals. — Until the edict of Nicholas II. in 1059, the name of Cardinal * possessed little dignity or dis- tinction, and the body had no existence, as an acknowledged branch of the Ecclesiastical system. The important share which it then received in the election of the Pope was con- firmed and extended by the further regulations of Alexander III. The consent of two-thirds of the body was made sufficient for a legal choice ; and the College was at the same time enlarged by some considerable permanent ad- ditions. To conciliate the higher class of the clergy, the priors of some of the principal churches .were enrolled among the electors — the acquiescence of the inferior orders was secured by the admission of the cardinal deacons — and the civil authorities, who rep- resented the interests of the people, were appeased by the elevation of the seven Pala- tine judges to the same office. Indeed, it is from this time, more properly than from the decree of Nicholas, that we should date the foundation of the Sacred College. * The sixty-first dissertation of Muratori treats ' De Origine Cardinalatus;' and he arrives, through much learning, at the probable conclusion, that the term was in Italy originally applied to all, whether bishops, priests, or deacons, who were iiDCDOreably, and in perpetuity, established in a cure or dignity, in contradistinction to the Vicarii, or temporary and occasional ministers. Parochial churches (originally called Baptismal) and Diaconia: (pious houses for the reception of the poor, mendicants, infirm, and strang- ers) were respectively administered by the priest and deacon: and when he was fixed therein for life, he was called Cardinal. The term implied the stability of the office — its dignity and superiority was associated with that, and was a secondary accompaniment. So of Bishops. Vacant sees were, originally, often com- mended to some one in the interim, ' donee ibi con- stitueretur proprius et titularis.' But when the permanent prelate was appointed, he was said to be incardinated (incardinari) in the see, and became cardinal. . . . Respecting the subsequent aggran- dizement of the Sacred College, we may mention, that Nicholas IV. in 1289, divided the Roman rev- enues equally between the Pope and the Cardinals (Pagi.Vit. Nic. IV. s. xxii.); and that they profited by the ultra-papal Decretals of Gregory IX. The title of Eminence, in the place of Illustrissimiis, was given them by Urban VIII.; but it is an observation of Floury, (Discours 4me. sur la Discipline,) that their frequent appearance in the character of Legates a latere, on which occasions they took precedence of all ecclesiastical dignitaries, and ruled as the repre- sentatives of the Pope, contributed more than any other cause to their exaltation. 532 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. That event marks an important epoch in the history of the Church ; not only because it secured the more peaceful election of the Popes, and prevented those perpetual broils and schisms which arrested the flight and dimmed the eye of Papacy ; but also because it introduced a new element into the Eccle- siastical polity, which gradually expanded, and acquired in process of time a great and unforeseen preponderance. We observe an edict published by Hono- rius III. in 1225, for the especial protection of the cardinals from all personal assaults and offences ; and other proofs are afforded of the tenderness with which the monarch- popes had begun to regard the Court of St. Peter. But the first public occasion, which was turned to the aggrandizement of the College, and which raised its members to an ideal level with mere worldly princes, was the first Council of Lyons, held (in 1245) by Innocent IV. From that moment they be- came essentially distinguished from the rest of the clergy in rank and in pride ; and the counsellors and associates of that Power which overshadowed the majesty of kings,* looked down with disdain upon the petty bishopsf who occupied the inferior regions of the hierarchy. But their prosperity was not favorable to their virtue or their concord. In the discharge of that very duty, which gave birth to their dignity, they disgraced themselves and scandalized the Church by their dissensions ; and instead of promptly repairing her loss, they frequently allowed long intervals to elapse, in which she remain- ed without a head, and Christ without a vice- gerent upon earth. This had been particu- larly the case before the election of Gregory X. ; and that excellent pontiff accordingly undertook to remedy the evil which had touched himself so closely. And then follow- ed (in 1274) the institution of the Conclave. * Louis II. seems, from Pagi (Vit. Nicolai, s. iii.) to have been the first emperor who held the Pope's bridle; and Nicholas I. (858—867) the first Pope who exacted that proof of inferiority — ' humillima ilia Imperatoris Ludovici erga Nicolaum Pontificem obsequia refert Anastasius Bibliothecarius.' t Episcopelli was the term by which the cardinals loved to designate prelates who had not received the hat — according to Nicholas of Clemangis. About the 6ame time, Pierre d'Ailly in his Discourse De Ec- clesim Auctoritate (Opera Gersoni, vol. i. p. 901) takes some pains to make out, that the cardinals are the legitimate representatives of the Apostles, the Council of the representative of Christ We should never forget that Pierre d'Ailly was a reformer, and decidedly opposed to the high-papist party. The cardinals, after some ineffectual at- tempts to shake off the constraint thereby imposed on them, presently turned their at- tention to lay such restrictions on the Pon- tifical authority, as might still farther enlarge the privileges and interests of the College; and they proposed to make their right of election subservient to this end.* The Con- claves of Avignon were the first in which the future pontiff was invited to bind himself by that sacred oath, which he never hesitated to take, which he never omitted to confirm, and which he never failed to violate. The introduction of that practice demonstrates the power of the Sacred College, as well as its ambition ; but in tempting the morality of its masters, and, exhibiting itself as a fruitful nursery for Pontifical perjurers, it did not well consult either its own interests, or the honor of the holy See, or the stability of the Church. It is true that the mysteries of the Conclave were not, in those days, very gen- erally divulged, nor did they descend, per- haps, to the knowledge of those ranks in so- ciety, which are most sensible to the scandal of great crimes. But as knowledge gained ground, and as the reformers of the Church multiplied, while its enemies grew more powerful, those secret iniquities were brought to light, and the tales of former days were accredited by the deeds of the existing gene- ration. In truth it would seem, that, in the general corruption of the hierarchy of Rome, the disorders of the Court excited louder and more general indignation, even than those of the monarch of the Church. Relative Power and Interests of the Pope and Cardinals. — The relative situation and reciprocal influence of the Pope and the Sacred College were such, in appearance, as to promise a moderate government under a limited monarchy: they were such, in reality, as to present, under that show, an imperious and oppressive despotism. According to an- * The professed object of the oath taken in con- clave previously to the election of Eugenius IV. was ' ad conservandum statum ecclesi?e Romanae et mon- archiam ecclesiasticam cum cardinalium dignitate; qui cum sint lumina et ornamenta prope Papam, Sedem Apostolicam illustriantia, et columna? firmis- simae sustentantes ecclesiam Dei, cum Romano Pon- tifice eadem, ut membra suo capiti, concordia inso- lubili debent esse conjuncti.' On the same occasion it was stipulated that the formula ' de consilio fratrum nostrorum ' should be changed to ' de consensu;' that the Pope should not create new cardinals without the consent of the old ; that half the revenues of the Church should be paid to the College, &c. See Pagi, Vit. Eugenii IV. POWER, &c. OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 533 cient Canons, and the Constitutions of later Councils, the Consistory was the permanent Senate of this Church ; and its sanction was, in strictness, required to give force to all the decrees of the Vatican.* It was likewise re- stricted by the same laws to a fixed and mode- rate number — none were to be admitted into it except men of mature age, acknowledged learning, approved piety ; and its morality (the surest source of ecclesiastical power) was provided for by severe injunctions. These regulations were, indeed, for the most part disregarded ; nevertheless the body did in fact contain many elements of strength. It consisted of individuals, most of whom were in the flower of life, practised in the affairs of the world, familiar with courts, possibly connected with princes; subtle in the con- ception of their designs, unscrupulous in the pursuit of their interests. On the other hand, the Pope was commonly enfeebled by age. f His election was placed entirely in their hands ; and by their perseverance in attempts to make this power the means of abridging his authority, they sufficiently manifested their inclination to do so. Where then was the point of their weak- ness ? How was it, that their design was so effectually frustrated? Of the reasons, which may be mentioned for their failure, the first was the corruption of the College itself; for without that, all the various resources of the Pope could not have upheld his predomi- nance. The second was the power which he possessed over the persons and property of the Cardinals, which reached to imprison- ment, spoliation, torture, and even death, and which was not uncommonly exerted. But this required at least a pretext for its exercise ; whereas that to which we next come, was of easy and universal operation. The patronage of the Church was placed to a great extent at his disposal ; and where menaces might not prevail, the most certain method of persua- sion remained to him. Lastly, he enjoyed the prerogative of multiplying the members of his refractory senate, and thus creating a majority subservient to his views — for the laws, which had been enacted o> restrain that power, do not appear at any time to have been seriously observed. By the dexterous application of these various means, the Pon- tiff was enabled to command with great cer- tainty the suffrages of the Consistory. * The Cardinals were the Brothers of the Pope, and edicts were published by their counsel. f The average reign of the Popes during the first fifteen centuries was of about seven years. General Councils. — Notwithstanding the restraints which the Cardinals endeavored to impose upon the Papa! authority, they were zealously united in its defence, whenever it was assailed from any other quarter ; because their own dignity was essentially involved in the majesty of the See. This was sufficiently proved by the proceedings of Constance and Basle : and on the same principle it became the object of those two Councils to reform the Court, no less than the Chair, of St. Peter. The real extent of the lawful power possessed by those august bodies was furiously contested both in that and succeeding ages ; nor has it yet ceased to be a matter of speculative differ- ence among Roman Catholics. Again, the de- crees which they published for the reformation of the Vatican were, for the most part, eluded, or openly outraged. But the effects which they really produced on the destinies of Pa- pacy, though less immediate, were more dura- ble, and far more extensive, than their authors had contemplated. The association of pow- erful and learned laymen in ecclesiastical deliberations, the habit of free discussion, the popular constitution of the assemblies, espe- cially the last, the public promulgation of anti-papal principles, and the practice of con- tending with Popes and deposing them, pro- duced a deep impression in every quarter of the Catholic world. Rome alone might fail to comprehend the warning, or affect to des- pise it ; and she reaped the fruits of her blindness or perversity. For the truth is, thai the springs which were then opened, had they been allowed by the Papal policy to take the course originally marked out for them, would but have cleansed away some of the corroding abuses of the See, and thus increas- ed its strength ; but being dammed up and diverted by a short-sighted opposition, they were indeed repressed for the moment — yet they presently broke forth in another quarter with redoubled violence, and finally swept away the mansion, which they were at first intended to purify. Various Principles atid Instruments of the Roman Church. — The sketch which is here presented of the general constitution of the Roman Catholic Church, and of its tendency to decline during the two centuries which preceded the Reformation, should be filled up by some of the less preceptible portions of the fabric; that we may not wholly overlook the subordinate machinery, which alone enabled it to subsist so long. First, then, let us men- tion that popular principle in its construction, by which it threw open its benefices and dig 534 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. nities, even the Apostolical Chair, to every rank in society. It appealed to the ambition of all mankind : nor was this any faithless lure, to excite the industry of the faithful, and then to elude their hopes; so far other- wise, that several of the most eminent and honored among the Pontiffs were of ignoble and even unknown origin. As long as the level of ecclesiastical morality approached at all near to the pretensions of ancient purity ; as long as virtue and piety were held requi- site for high offices, no less than talents and learning — so long the emulation awakened among Churchmen was serviceable not only to the prosperity of the Church, but to the general welfare of society, and the general interests of religion. But when, in the first stage of sacerdotal corruption, other paths were discovered of ascending the spiritual pyramid ; * when the bigot or the parasite was found to reach the summit more surely than the man of holy and humble, yet upright, industry — then it became probable that men so promoted would throw scandal on the Church ; and it was certain, that they would confer no benefits on mankind. But when at length, in days of deeper iniquity, the most odious vices formed, as it were, the morals of Rome, ecclesiastical ambition became very closely connected with anti-Christian princi- ples, and avarice, licentiousness, and perfidy, too frequently prepared the way to the throne of St. Peter. Howbeit, the talent and in- genuity of men were still stimulated by the splendid prospect, and all the energies of the mere intellect f were still exercised and abus- ed in the service of the Church. Nor yet were they always abused — the love of letters was sometimes a passport to the most elevated dignities, and the instrument which was des- tined to overthrow the See was sometimes employed to illustrate and support it. Nicho- las V. and Pius II. eminently proved the great advantage which the democratical principle might confer upon the church, even in its worst age. But the occasional success of ge- nius, of even learning, was insufficient for the support of a religious establishment. The springs of morality were poisoned. The vices * It is said, that the tops of pyramids are accessible only to two descriptions of animals — the eagle and the serpent. Both have found their imitators in the his- tory of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. j- The great mass of business, carried from all quarters to Rome, so as to make it for such matters the school of Europe, drew thither men of talents and tnbition, and gave them occupation, and consequently engaged them in the defence of the system, by which they profited. of the ecclesiastics were those least pardon- able, and least pardoned, in the ecclesiastical character. The contrast between the de- meanor of the Hierarchy and its professions and purposes was too violent and too manifest. The tutelary spirit of piety had deserted the temple, and its gates were thrown open to in- vite the invasion of the Reformer. The hand of arbitrary power must some- times be seen as well as felt, in order that its commands may always be obeyed. And the Bishop of Rome soon discovered the policy of visiting the more distant communities of the faithful by envoys and emissaries. In earlier ages, the pomp and haughtiness of his Legates sufficiently represented the pontifi- cal presence. They awed the assemblies of the great, and insulted the dignity of princes. In succeeding times, when reason and heresy raised their heads, and it became necessary to exert a more direct and searching influence over the people, the Mendicants started into existence, and spread like a cloud over the face of Europe. These men were zealous and indefatigable ministers of a master, whom, if many served from interest, many revered with honest enthusiasm. They prac- tised great austerities; they preached with fervor, sometimes with eloquence ; above all, they eagerly embraced and appropriated the scholastic erudition of the day: aud thus it was that by feeding the false appetite for fal- lacies and subtleties, they converted learning, which was the natural enemy of Papacy, into its useful instrument. Among the accidents (if accident it can properly be called) which conspired to prolong the dominion of Rome, the most fortunate was assuredly this, that the first efforts of reviving reason were so perplexed and tortuous, as to be capable of ssrving falsehood no less effectually than truth. The Scholastic system was in due season supplanted by a better — but the influence of the Mendicants fell still earlier into decay: because they insensibly departed from the show of moral excellence, which had recom- mended them to popular favor; because the Pope had gradually converted them into the instruments of his cruelty, and the represent- atives of his avarice. It was thus that they lost their hold on the affections of the vulgar. For the lowest classes of mankind, though they may sometimes judge wrong, will al- ways feel right; their principles may be shaken by the example of their superiors, but they will always tend to rectitude ; and if they ever show favor to any crime or base- POWER, &c. OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 535 ness, it is because they are deceived, not because they are depraved. The discipline of the Church of Rome practically permitted the utmost latitude of rigor and laxity. In the same community, under the same government, within the walls of the same monastery, licentiousness was tolerated and austerity encouraged. The lordly Prelate transcended the pomp of secu- lar luxury ; the genuine disciple of St. Fran- cis disclaimed all right even to the use of earthly possessions. The Cardinal and the Carmelite were united by the same ministry, by devotion to the same master, by the same professional hatred of heresy. But this start- ling inconsistency was not without its use, nor perchance without its design. For since, in the diversity of the human character, the vulgar may either be dazzled by pageantry, or moved to reverence by mortification and humility, so also the exhibition of the one was a guarantee against contempt, that of the other against envy and reproach. So that the Church, in this respect truly universal, had space aud occupation for every character and every faculty ; whilst it nourished a mul- tiform and incongruous progeny, who con- futed (while at the same time they confirmed) the most opposite accusations. The poverty of the Mendicant, and the piety of the Mis- sionary, redeemed in public estimation the wealth and vices of the Hierarchy. Policy of the Fatican. — We pass over the maxims of policy usually ascribed to the Vatican — to confound the marks of filial and feudal obligation ; to accept respect as obe- dience, and offer counsels as commands; to obscure the limits of temporal and spiritual jurisdiction-,* to keep all disputed rights in * Though, in the progress of this work, the author has purposely abstained from any particular notice of the ecclesiastical affairs of England, in the belief that they are intended to form the subject of a separate history, yet the following remarks on the nature of one branch of spiritual jurisdiction, as exercised in this kingdom, having been kindly furnished him by a leo-al friend, are too valuable not to be accepted and inserted with gratitude. « It is asserted in several of the old law books, that the spiritual jurisdiction within the English realm is derived from the king, and that such jurisdiction, when exceeded, is subject to the control of the king's temporal courts. The latter assertion is of course true at present; the former perhaps relates to a ques- tion of words rather than of fact. If the Church in earlv times claimed the authority, and the king as- sented to the claim, the result might be staled as an act either of obedience or of favor on the part of the crown. ' With respect to one particular subject matter of suspense and perplexity, so that the greater craft might never want pretexts for encroach- ment ; to crush the obstinate and gain the mercenary, to plunder the subject without ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the wills of deceased per- sons, and the disposition of the goods of those who died intestate — its origin has been the occasion of much controversy. The question relates simply to personal property. A freehold interest in land was, in early times, with a few exceptions, not subject to the will of the dying owner. The superior lord's rights, as they existed during the vigor of the feudal institutions, would have been prejudiced by permitting such a power of devising. The restriction was only to be evaded by a transfer of the property, during the owner's life, to a person who was to hold it subject to particular purposes to be declared by will ; and the courts of equity, by a proceeding which seems to have originated with the ecclesiastical chancellors, com- pelled the party so holding to apply the estate as the will directed, treating the matter as a question of conscience. The statute passed in the thirty-second year of the reign of king Henry VIII. first gave the direct power of devising freehold interests in land. But a devise deriving its validity from the provisions of this statute has been always considered as a con- veyance of the property, not a designation of the heir. It prevents the land from being inherited at all. This distinction, although it may appear rather technical, leads to many practical results of importance; and it is a point in which the English law differs from the civil Jaw. But it is here sufficient to state that de- vises of freehold estates are in no way the subject matter of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Even where a will contains a disposition of both realty and person- alty, the authority of the spiritual courts operates only so far as the will affects the personalty. ' The present authority of the spiritual courts over the personal property of deceased persons amounts to this. If there be a claim to establish a will, it is to be proved before the spiritual court ; that is, the spiritual court determines whether it be a valid will of the de- ceased. The recognition of the validity is technically expressed by saying that the executor proves the will, or obtains probate, which is granted by the court. The authenticity of the will, as to personalty, cannot be directly questioned in the temporal courts, after probate has boon granted; nor can it be asserted there, before probate is granted. If there be no iv- cutor named in the will, or if the executor named will not or cannot act, the spiritual court gives the admin- istration (or disposal) of the effects to an administra- tor, who is to administer according to the directions of the will. Again, if there be no will, the spiritual court invests an administrator with the power of ad- ministering. ' This jurisdiction of the spiritual courts is certainly very ancient. Authorities have been produced to show that, by the Saxon laws, the probate of testaments (») was given by the old county court.-. The bishop and the sheriff sat together in these courts, as presidents. A charter of William the Conqueror separated the ' (») Originally, the form of bequeathing personal pro- perty extended only to n part ; the law regulated the dis- tribution of the remainder 536 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. offending the vanity of the prince; to manage by treaties those who had been insulted by bulls ; to provoke war and mediate peace — such were the ordinary rules of its govern- ecclesiastical court from tlie civil ; giving to the former the cognizance of suits prosecuted pro salute anima. But testamentary questions are not expressly men- tioned. In the second year of the reign of Richard the Second, the law of William the Conqueror was established and confirmed ; and it was directed by the king's charter that no matters of ecclesiastical cognizance should be transacted in the county courts. This re-enactment seems to furnish evidence of the spiritual authority having fallen into desuetude, so far as regarded the courts. Whether or not it had been originally understood, at the time of William's char- ter, that wills were matter of spiritual jurisdiction, it is clear that the question had been raised before the time of Richard the second. For by a charter of king Henry the first, the king's tenants (who were the suitors in the county courts) were enabled to dis- pose of their personalty for the good of their souls. It can scarcely be doubted that this was effected by the activity of the clergy; and, even if we could be- lieve that they had been at first unconcerned in the matter, it was quite certain that they would instantly apply such an enactment to their own purposes. Pro- bably, therefore, the charter of Richard the second was at once interpreted to apply to testaments. And, on the whole, it seems that this is the epoch to which we ought to assign the undisputed jurisdiction of these courts in testamentary matters. This history of the origin of the power explains and accounts for the opinions of most of our old lawyers, that the probate of wills came to the ecclesiastical courts, not by ec- clesiastical law, but by devolution from the temporal law of the realm, or, as they express it, by the custom of England. And it receives strong confirmation from the fact that, by the local custom of some par- ticular manors, acknowledged by the English law, the probate of wills and the granting of administra- tion belongs to the court baron or manor court. And a power of the same sort belongs, in some boroughs, to the mayor, as to the goods of the burgesses. ' That the disposal by will of a dying man's goods is a matter relating to the good of his soul, is a truth in no other sense than that in which every earthly act has a relation to the spiritual welfare of the agent. But a will, being frequently an act performed shortly before death, might, by a natural association, be con- nected most closely with the eternal destiny of the testator. Besides which, the Roman Catholic doc- trines asserted the dependence of the fate of the de- parted soul upon the intercession of the living. Now this intercession might be purchased from the clergy, by an application of the goods of the deceased. From these causes, the will was asserted by the ecclesiastics to be a matter of peculiarly spiritual interest. When this was acknowledged, it must have been, according to priestly logic, a very plain inference that the dis- posal of the goods of a man who left no will, was a matter in which the clergy, for the sake of his eternal interests, were bound to interfere. It was beyond the skill of the priests, or at any rate of those whom ment, and they are best exemplified in the exploits of its most honored champions. But there is one peculiarity in the construction of its power, to which sufficient attention is they had to influence, to distinguish between the mo- tive and the result; so that a man, whose property had been applied to pious purposes without his own consent, was thought to derive some merit from the application. Again, it was thought highly important that a part of the property should be applied to the performance of religious rites, for the good of the soul of the deceased ; the clergy were the persons most fitted to ensure such an application. Hence the ordinary (or spiritual judge) had the absolute disposal of the intestate's property ; and this, according to Lord Coke, was a power previously exercised by the kings of England. But, in the thirteenth year of the reign of Edward I. a statute was passed (commonly called the statute of Westminster the second,) by one of the provisions of which the ordinary was bound, as far as the goods extended, to satisfy the debts of the intestate (b). Hence, says Lord North, what was formerly found very beneficial to the ordinaries, began to be very troublesome, which obliged them to put the administration into other hands, taking security to save them harmless from suits. This, however, did not entirely put an end to the ordinary's trouble; for the persons named by him were considered merely aa his servants or attorneys. But a statute, passed in the thirty-first year of the reign of Edward III. pro- vided that the ordinary should depute the next and most lawful friends of the intestate to administer his goods; and it gave the minister so appointed power to act in his own right. A statute, passed in the twenty-first year of Henry VIII., enacted similar provisions for the case of a will, where the executor should refuse to act. The power of the ordinary was thus limited to deputing an administrator ; but he had still some choice in the selection; for he was entitled to elect as he pleased where persons of equal proxim- ity to the deceased made claim. The ordinaries are said to have availed themselves of this power, by ap- pointing such as they expected to find most obsequi- ous ; and they further derived an advantage from calling the administrator to account for the overplus, which they insisted upon his applying to pious uses for the good of the deceased's soul. At last, the tem- poral courts of law decided that the ordinary, after granting administration, could not exercise any au- thority over the administrator in his disposal of the property. This shifted the dangprous power to the hands of the administrator absolutely. In the twenty- second year of the reign of Charles II. a statute was passed to prevent this mischief. By this act, the ' (<>) Cum post mortem alicujus decedentis intestati, et obligati aliquibus in debito, bona deveniant ad ordinarium disponenda, obligetur de caetero ordinarius ad responden- dum de debitis quatenus bona defuncti sufficiunt, eodem modo quo executores respondere tenerentur si testamen- tum fecisset. Cap. 19. Lord Coke says that this was only an affirmance of the common law (2nd Inst. 3!J7). ft however was so far a new enactment that it put a de- cisive end to any question on the point. Many enact- ments of the same statute are clearly intended to settle disputed rights. POWER, &c. OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 537 not always directed. Every on<- has per- ceived, how it towered above all earthly prin- cipalities, and veiled its sublime front in the most inscrutable mysteries of the spiritual world ; but few have observed the real secret of its strength, which lay in the devotion of the lowest ranks of mankind. This general conquest over the affections of the vulgar was no doubt greatly facilitated by the general ignorance ; but it was achieved through the zeal of the inferior clergy : and if in some degree ascribable to the peculiar character assumed by the Romish priesthood, it was no less effectually advanced through their ple- beian condition and humble manner of life. Mediatorial character assumed by the Romish Priesthood. — According to the literal inter- pretation of the New Testament, Christ is the only sacrificing priest, as he is also the only sacrifice ; thus, likewise, is he the only mediator between God and man. Hence it followed that the proper character of the ministers of his religion is essentially differ- ent from that of the Jewish or Pagan priests. The prerogative of the latter was to offer the sacrifice to God, and to intercede with him for the sins of the people. It is the office of the former to interpret and dispense his word, to be the stewards of his mysteries, and to point out the only path through faith to sal- vation— and such were the earliest ministers of the Christian Church. But it was not very long before the elder* insensibly assumed the loftier office of the Hiereus, or Sacerdos, and affected the expiatory, and, at the same time, the mediatory character. Such were the priests of the Eastern Church — ftealrai, Mediators — no less than those of the West- ern; and we are at no loss to perceive what an access of reverence and authority accrued to them through the change. They were supposed to be alone, initiated in the mvste- method in which the administrator is to distribute the personalty is pointed out. By these successive steps, the power of the spiritual authority has been almost reduced to the exercise of a limited discretion in the appointment of a deputy, who is to act according to prescribed rules. The ecclesiastical courts have ceased, for some ages, to l>e any instruments of power to the Church, for good or for evil. Their share in the distribution of justice is very limited; but they are still characterized, by die peculiarity of their forms of process ; and by their total departure from the rules of evidence which prevail in the courts of com- mon law.' * The original meaning of the won! Priest (Pres- bytes) is ■ Elder.' This subject in very well treated by Archbishop Whately, in bis ' Errors of ism,' book ii. 68 ries of the faith — they were supposed to be in more immediate communication with its divine founder — they were supposed to influ- ence, if not actually to administer, the judg- ments of Heaven. But we must also observe, that, if such a character was well calculated to overawe an ignorant age, or the ignorant classes in any age, it was sure to be stripped off, whenever any intellectual independence should be exercised, and to be accounted among the impostures fabricated by an artful priesthood for the delusion of mankind. Advantages of a Plebeian Clergy. — We shall readily acknowledge, that all sacerdotal influence is vicious and dangerous, except that which is acquired by the religious and moral excellence of the priest: yet even the highest qualities will often miss that end, when the condition of the pastor is very far removed above that of his flock. And thus was it the profoundest policy of the Roman Church to maintain a faithful ministry of the same origin, the same language, almost the same habits with the people. The ecclesias- tical chain extended through every gradation of society, till it was folded round the Apos- tolical throne; but it was that lowest link which, being fixed in a substantial support, gave firmness and tenacity to the rest. To possess some habits of familiarity with those intrusted to his guidance; to approach them without constraint, to be received without diffidence ; to have the same thoughts, the same expressions, the same sympathies; to observe the birth of sin; to watch the work- ings of remorse ; to distinguish the moments proper for censnr*', or consolation ; to be near at hand in times of doubt, or sickness, or do- mestic calamity — these, and such as these, are advantages peculiarly belonging to a plebeian clergy. Such an order of pastors, under the superintendence of a vigilant hier- archy, may at all times be made serviceable to the best purposes of religion ; and it diffused many spiritual blessings, even in the most secular ages of Home. But to the Church — the external and human establish- ment— it was the very origin of strength, and principle of vitality: it was the root which spread underground in Becrecy and silence; while nations and their princes worshipped under the golden bronchi s, gathered the bitter fruit which sometimes tell from them. Serviceable abuses. — The very corruptions in the ecclesiastical system were for a season serviceable in rivettingits influence. Auric- ular confession, the various abuses of penance, 538 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. the adoration of the Host and the attributes ascribed to it, all furnished additional instru- ments to the clergy; and as long as they were used with moderation, extended their dominion. But it is ever the mistake of the usurper to despise the people, whose confi- dence he has deceived or insulted; and the error is seldom discovered till the moment for correcting it has passed by. It was thus with the Hierarchs of Rome. They increas- ed the measure of degradation and imposture, till they exhausted the affection, and then the patience of mankind. And it was the last excess of their wickedness and folly to make the inferior clergy their accomplices, and thus to poison the only wholesome fountain of their own authority. Popular foundation of the Roman Despotism. — The above outline of the constitution of the Roman Church represents it not such, perhaps, as it is sometimes painted in the theo- ries of its advocates ; but such as it is really and long existed in its practical operation on society. Nor will it seem strange to any reflecting mind, that that Government, which was, in. appearance, and in fact, the most per- fect despotism ever conceived by the mind of man, should be found at the bottom to rest on a popular basis. Even in civil govern- ments there are instances of the same anoma- ly; but in an empire, essentially and peculiar- ly the empire of opinion, the support of the multitude was not so much the only source of strength, as the only principle of existence. If the Roman Church had been more evan- gelical in doctrine, more consistent in disci- pline, more moderate in pretension, it might have appealed with greater safety to the reason of mankind. But as it appealed to their ignorance, to their earliest and deepest prejudices, so was it, that it urged the irre- sistible predominance of authority — the in- violable holiness of antiquity, — all those principles and all those motives, which awe, when they do not irritate, the human under- standing. Nevertheless, the appeal, howso- ever insidiously made, was still an appeal to the mind : and thus was it seductive and universal. And so long as it found hearers and believers ; so long as it retained its hold, by whatsoever means, on the devotion of the people; the dominion of Rome was not less substantial, and more secure, than if the sword had raised or upheld it. But from the mo- ment that the spiritual bond was loosened, the mere worldly fabric, having no longer any element of coherence, subsided in progressive decay and dissolution. Section II. On the (I.) Spiritual Character, (II.) Discipline^ and Morals of the Church. I. The Doctrine of the Roman Church. — The Roman Catholics assert with great truth, that their Church has preserved, through the most perilous times, the essential mysteries and tenets of the Christian faith. It is with reverence that we have received them from her hands, and with gratitude that we ac- knowledge the inestimable obligation. Yet the most zealous Catholic must be contented to share that praise with the schismatics of the east. The same treasure has been guard- ed with the same fidelity by the Church of Greece ; and would thus have been equally perpetuated, if the purity of the Roman creed had been corrupted by the barbarian con- quest. But while those rival churches may divide the merit of having transmitted the apostolical doctrines to the latest generations, there is this difference in the manner of that tradition — the one has transmitted them such as she received them from the highest anti- quity, not daring to violate by any important innovation the integrity of the pristine faith ; the other augmented her confession by some articles, which were left by the discretion of early times to the liberty of private judgment. We have endeavored (in the Thirteenth Chapter) to indicate the sources whence many of those innovations proceeded. We shall now remark upon one or two others, which, though of distant origin also, did not acquire any general, or at least any very per- ceptible, prevalence till a later age.* Gradual changes in the Penitential System. — According to the original system of penance, it was inculcated, that transgressions could be expiated by prayer, fasting, and alms — there was no period in the history of the Church, in which pious works were not held efficacious to redeem sin, and imposed for that purpose, either directly, or by a partial substitution for bodily mortifications. To this circumstance many holy structures owed their origin, many poor-houses and hospitals — the Xenodochia, Nosocomia, Gerontoco- mia, &c, of the ancient establishment; and these works were considered satisfactory to * It was a general, but not quite correct, opinion of the early reformers, that the Scholastics had in- vented the new Dogmas, and the Monks the new practices. But it is quite certain, that the immediate causes of the insurrection against Rome were the later corruptions in her doctrine — just as most of the edicts of Constance and Basle were levelled against the later innovations in her discipline. ITS SPIRITUAL CHARACTER, DISCIPLINE, &c. 539 God. This system was gradually corrupted, and fell, especially in the westf ni nations, into great disorder; when Theodore of Tar- sus, Archbishop of Canterbury, published, about the year C80, his celebrated Peniten- tial. By the instructions herein delivered, the clergy were taught to distinguish sins into various classes, and to judge them according to their nature, to the intention of the offen- der, and other circumstances. The Peniten- tial likewise pointed out the penalties proper for every sort of offence ; prescribed the forms of consolation, exhortation, absolution, and set forth the duties of the Confessor. (Mosh. Cent. vii. p. ii. ch. iii.) this new disci- pline, though of Greek origin, was eagerly embraced in the Latin churches, and it was immediately corrupted. The method of re- demption of penance waa presently reduced to a regular system : iu the place of so many dcivs of lasting, so much alms were to be given ; or so many psalms sung, or so many masses celebrated, by others, who were to be rewarded for the office ; or so much money to be paid down. The-number of the Pen- itentials was increased, and their character altered, according to the caprice of individual confessors; and, in spite of some attempts* * Murntori (Dissertat. 68,) from whom several of these remarks are borrowed, cites the following as the 26th Canon, Concil. II. Cloveshoviensis, A. D. 747. ' Sicuti nova atlinventio, juxta placitom scili- cet propria? voluntatis sua;, nunc plurimis perrcnlo3a cotisuetudo est, non sit eleemosyna porrecta ad inin- uendam sed ad mutandam salisfaclionem per j;\me place, without any hesitation, — ' Indui- gentiae ad ptenas ex corruptione naturse non extendunt.' f We find it proclaimed by the Protestants at Augsbourg (1530,) that there is no instance of pri- vate masses iii ecclesiastical history earlier than the time of Gregory the Great. Mosheim is mm m, >l to assert, that manifest Hares of them may be found in the eighth century, though it be difficult to decide whether they were instituted by public law, or in- troduced by private authority We are not aware of the existence d" any earlier public regula- tion on iliis subject, than the 4Sd Oanon of the Coun- cil of Mayence, held in 818, and this is expressly prohibitory, — ' V> priest shall say mass alone.' % The following is a part of the celebrated Canon (Can. i. Lat. Concil. IV.) in question — ' Una est Ii,!, lei.ii Universalis Eccfeflia, extra quam nullus omnino snlvatur. In qua idem ipse gacerdos et Bacrificiura .Jesus Chi'istus; CUJHS corpus et sanguis in sanramento altaria Biib speciehm panis et vini reraciter continental-. trmissubstnntiatisY.anc in cor- pue et vino i:i sanguinem, potestate divina,' &c &c 542 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. universal reception in the west, but also coun- tenanced the superstitious practices which flowed from it. It appears to have been dur- ing his pontificate, that the custom was intro- duced of elevating the Host after consecration. The use of the bell to signify to the people to prostrate themselves, while the Holy Sacra- ment was passing, is ascribed to an ordinance published in 1201, by Guy Pare\ the legate of the same at Cologne. And that it may be shown how early this practice was supported by the direct authority of the See, and how widely it was thought expedient to extend it, we may mention that Honorius, the successor of Innocent, addressed an epistle to the Latin prelates of the east, in the Patriarchat of An- tioch, in which he instructed them to oblige the people to incline, on the appearance of the Host.* In that age, and at that distance from the centre of orthodoxy, it was not held advisable to inculcate the necessity of absolute genuflexion. A simpler act of devotion was deemed sufficient to recognise the divinity of the consecrated elements. The Retrenchment of the Cup. — The suffi- ciency of the Sacrament administered in one kind only is by many considered as an imme- diate inference from the doctrine of transub- stantiation, since the bread, when converted into the body of Christ, of necessity contains his blood ; so that, the object of the sacrifice being thus satisfied, the communication of the cup may be safely retrenched, as a vain and superfluous ceremony. At what pre- cise period this change in the practice of the Church (it was maintained to be no more than that,) was introduced, we cannot pronounce with certainty ; j but its antiquity was pleaded by its defenders at Constance and Basle, and it may be ascribed, without any great error, to the beginning of the thirteenth century. We may consider it as completing the list of those peculiar observances, which the Church of Rome has thought proper, on her own in- fallible authority, to impose upon her adher- ents. Probably the motive for this innovation was to add solemnity to the mystery, by ex- * Fleury, 1. lxxviii. s. 24. The Institution of the Festival of the Holy Sacrament or Body of Christ, another early consequence of the universal establish- ment of TiansubstantiatioD, is generally ascribed to Robert, Bishop of Liege — who is said to have been moved thereto by the pretended revelations of a fanat- ical woman, named Juliana. The event took place in the year 1246. Mosli. Cent. xiii. p. 2, chap. iv. f We have not observed that it was formally and universally established by the highest ecclesiastical authority, till it attracted the attention of the Council of Constance. eluding the profane from perfect initiation, and at the same time to exalt the dignity of the priesthood, by giving them some exclu- sive prerogative, even in communion at the Lord's table. Nevertheless, even with that view its policy was extremely questionable; it was founded on the ignorance of preced- ing ages ; it had no foresight of the character of those which were to come. And thus it proved, that, after the lapse of some few generations, men were rather shocked by the public, practical disregard of one of the plainest instructions delivered in the Gospel, than edified by the spectacle of sacerdotal usurpation. The innovation was too rash, too openly at variance with an express com- mand, intelligible to the lowest classes of the vulgar, and sacred with all who thought their Bible more venerable than their Church. Accordingly we have observed, that the de- privation of this privilege, so clearly granted by Christ to all believers, was the grievance which united the discordant sects of the Hus- sites— the restoration of the cup was the manifest, incontestable right, round which they rallied. To this extent too, they were successful ; and their success afforded the first example of any usurpation having been wrested from the hands of Rome by the open rebellion of her subjects. Prohibition of the Scriptures. — Neither was there any one among the peculiar tenets or observances of Rome, which so taxed the in- genuity of her advocates, as the retrenchment of the cup. This perplexity is attested by the records of Constance and Basle ; and it deserves particular remark, that Gerson, in his very elaborate treatise against the Double Communion, discloses the source of his diffi- culty in this simple complaint. 'There are many laymen among the heretics who have a version of the Bible in the vulgar tongue, to the great prejudice and offence of the Cath- olic faith. It has been proposed (he adds) to reprove that scandal in the committee of re- form.' That scandal was as old as the heresy of Peter Waldensis ; but the practice which it offended certainly grew up in much more distant ages, nor was it peculiar to the Church of Rome. As early as the seventh century the appropriation of the Scriptures to the use of the priesthood was a practice generally established throughout the east,* and the La- tins speedily adopted (if they had not already enforced) a precaution so necessary for pre- serving the. unity of the Church and con- cealing its abuses. It was authorized by the * See Chapter XXVI., p. 479. ITS SPIRITUAL CHARACTER, DISCIPLINE, &c. 543 Council of Toulouse in 1229; but the spirit of independence nevertheless gained ground. From the time of Wiclif the unhallowed veil was gradually withdrawn ; curiosity was more keenly excited, as il had been more tyranni- cally repressed ; the invention of the press in- creased the facility of possessing the sacred oracles ; and before the preaching of Luther, the scandal, which had been deplored a ceu- tury earlier by the orthodox reformer of the Church, had made very general progress amongst the educated classes, in almost every nation in Europe. False Miracles. — Those prodigious impos- tures, which in the eyes of Laurentiits Valla* surpassed the impiety of the Pagans, and which were ascribed by Gerson to the phan- tastic somnolency of a decrepit world, were continued with unrestrained temerity, even to the days of Erasmus. The impostures were the same, which had so long been em- ployed to delude the people of Christ — but the people were changed. A spirit of in- quiry was spreading over the surface of Eu- rope, and it was seen and felt by all, except the monks and bigots, to whom alone it was dangerous. But these persevered in the same blind path of habitual fraud and momentary profit, which at length conducted them to the precipice, whither it had always tended. Certain other unscriptural practices, long inherent in the Romish system, never had flourished with greater luxuriance, than at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The abuse of images had been carried at no pe- riod to a more unpardonable extent. The popular adoration of the saints had never de- viated farther from the professed moderation of the Churchf — relics had never been ap- * De Donatione Constantini. ' Nostri Fabula- torcs passim inducunt Idola loquentia; quod ipsi Gentiles et idolorum cultores non dicunt, et sinccrius negant, quam Christian! affirmant.' The p. - Gerson is, — * Mundus senescens palitnr phantasias falsoruin iniraciilonnn, sicut homo senex phtintaxi- atur in somno; propterea sunt habenda miracola valde suspecta.' Both these passages are cited l>\ Semler. The detection of the artilices practised upon Jetzer at Berne, for the confirmation of the Dominican opinion respecting the iinmacula ception, created a notorious scandal, which assisted in preparing the path for Zuinglius. t The following is the doctrine of modern Roman Catholic Divines: — 'That the saints reigning with Christ ofler up their prayers to God for men: that it is good and useful supplianlly to invoke them an. I to have recourse to their prayers, help and assistance, to obtain favors from God, through his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is alone our Redeemer and Savior.' Alas! ask the peasant of Romagna or the proached with a reverence more superstitious, or one more directly encouraged by the priest- In od. The pomp and order of the ceremo- nies had been at no time more entirely at va- riance with the character of a spiritual reli- gion. Indeed, some of the festivals which were instituted or revived during the fifteenth century, seem designedly established to turn away men's minds from the substance of Christianity to vain formalities, or wicked fables. And in this place it will be proper to instance, more particularly, in what manner the highest ecclesiastical authorities were sup- plying the spiritual necessities of the faith- ful, at. the very moment when the cry for re- formation was resounding (in various notes indeed, but with general concord) from one end of Europe to the other. Later Festivals, Disputes, Controvci-sies, £>t. — The first regulation for the 'Exposition of the Holy Sacrament ' was published in 1452, by the Pope's Legate in Germany, at a Coun- cil held at Cologne ; and the expressions of the edict f are entirely worthy of its object. If a comet appeared (as in 1456,) or the country was ravaged by inundation or pesti- lence (as happened twenty years later,) the Pope of the day immediately pressed to offer his indulgences to all who should celebrate the feast of the Holy Sacrament, or of the Immaculate Conception — to all who should thrice repeat the Lord's prayer, or the Ange- lic Salutation. Ahout the end of the year 1480 Sixtus IV. was invited to settle a dispute between the inhabitants of Perugia and Sien- na, on a very remarkable subject. The former were accused of having obtained fraudulent possession of the nuptial ring of St. Catha- rine, the hereditary properly of the latter, her compatriots. The object was holy ; anil its sanctity was enhanced (as a grave historian \ Sicilian mariner for his explanation of the doc- trine! * We refer the reader to Beausobre's account (Hist. Reform, lib. iv. p. 243) of the holy contents of the {.'lunch of All Saints at Wittenberg, which had been most profusely enriched by the hulls of Julius II. and Leo X. The whole number of relics exceeded 19,000; divided into twelve classes, accord- ing to the dignity of the saints. There were bulls to the effect 'that all who visited this Church on certain da_\s, might retain all properly dishonestly d, to the amount of twenty-five gol len ducats • an I lh.it any one who doubted the validity of such indulgences was ipso facto excommunicated, without power of ohsolution even by the Pope himself, and in articulo mortis* t See the continuator ofFlenry, lib. ex. s. 97. % Raynaldus, ami. 1480, n. •«. See Semler, cent xv. cap. ii., and Bzovius, ann. 1480. 544 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. informs us) by its various virtues, frequently experienced by the faithful, especially that of reconciling conjugal differences. This quarrel was prolonged for some time under Sixtus and his successor. In the 'Book of Conformities' between the life of Jesus Christ and that of St. Fran- cis, the fanatic is exalted to the level, if not above the level, of die Saviour. To complete the resemblance, the former carried about with him the marks of the five wounds of Christ ; and the belief in these stigmata was enjoined to all the faithful by Alexander V. But, in the age following St. Francis, the same miraculous impressions were claimed, on the same authority, by the female impos- tor of Sienna.* And when Catharine was at length canonized by Pius II., an office was instituted in her honor, of which the hymns affirmed that she had received the stigmata. This was to offer an unpardonable indignity to the Franciscans — for they were jealous of the glory of their patron, f and asserted his exclusive pretension to that intimate sympathy with Christ. Immediately the Dominicans rose in defence of St. Catharine. The office was, nevertheless, denounced to Sixtus IV. ; and that Pope presently published an edict, prohibiting any one, under severe penalties, from representing the stigmata of St. Catha- rine in painting ; but he seems afterwards to have retracted his prohibition. These matters took place about the year 1483 — it was the same which gave birth to Luther. About the year 1050, a daily office was instituted to the blessed Virgin, distinguished by seven canonical hours, in a form anciently used in honor of divine majesty ; and in the course of the next hundred years the r*'f Segovia addressed this expression to the Fathers of Trent, who, under still more dan- gerous circumstances, were following the same policy. See Padre Paolo, b. vi. * It might seeem unnecessary to fortify this position by any authority- Yet the opinion of one of the most clear-sighted prelates, who have ever adorned and defended the Roman Catholic Church, may not by some be thought superfluous. ' C'est ainsi (saya Bossuet) que dans le qufnzieme siecle le Cardinal (Julien), le plus grand bomme de son temps, en deplorait lea maux, el en prevoyait la suite fnneste: par on il scmblc avoir predit ceux, que Luther allait appreter a toote la Cbrestient6, en commeneant par PAilemagne; et il ne sVst pas trompe1 lorsqu'il a ert, que la Reformation miprisie, et la hainr rvdoublve contre le Clergi allait enfanler unr &ecle plus redoutable a VEglisc, que cellc des Bohimiens. Elle est venue celle secte sous la con- duite de Luther; et en prenant le litre ing notion to it. In the same manner, the term Heresy (in its origin equally inoffensive,) we have commonly applied to those, whom the church has denounced as heretics — without any reference what- ever to the nature of their opinions. 70 the perils of four centuries of oppression. The ashes of Wiclill' were not lost in their rough il' scent into the ocean ; and the spirit, which rose out of the funeral flames of Huss, sur- vived to expand in the bosoms of his com- patriots. From this short catalogue we have pur- posely excluded innumerable denominations of heresy, of which there were scarcely any which did not, in some one respect, or in more than one, anticipate the Confession of Augsbourg. The various forms of 3Iysticism were universally opposed, in their progress as in their origin, to the outward pageantry of the Roman Church. The spiritual Francis- cans, who questioned the omnipotence of the Pope, and denounced the corruptions, no less than the wealth, of the Clergy, are even plac- ed by Mosheim among the forerunners of tho Reformation. At least, it is certain, that their continued insubordination, combined with such high pretensions to sanctity, had its effect in preparing the downfal of Papacy; and thus they may properly be numbered among the instruments appointed to divide its strength, and betray its fortress by intestine discord to the foe without. Again, among the sects, which we have mentioned as the more genuine precursors of Luther and ZuJQgliss,* there was not one which furnished in all respects a faithful mo- del for their more perfect reformation. There were points on which the}' differed from each other. There were points on which they dif- fered both from Roman Catholics and Protes- tants. There were even points in which they agreed with the former, ami fell far short of the subsequent doctrine of the latter. Rut there Were also many articles of essential impor- tance^! which they opposed, with premature independence, their reason and their Rible, to the abuses and even to the authority, of the Church. Such were the sects, from which the Pro- testants claim their descent, and to which they are justly grateful for having prepared their path, and set the example of nou-i •onlbrmity. Rut they sprang up before their season ; their imperfect lights were unable to preserve them from error; curiosity and knowledge were * Sender (Secul. w. cap. it. p. 218) enumerates u variety of opinions hostile to the Chinch, in the design to show that I.utlicr was n. it so much the first w ho came into the design of vindicating the public Christian religion, as thai lie trod in footsteps clearly traced before him — so that those are in error, who the Reformation as a political, rather than a • meiit. 554 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. yet too scantily distributed among the mass of the people to give them a substantial foot- ing there; and thus they fell before the es- tablished despotism, and shed their precious blood, both as an eternal testimony against the Church, and as the seed of more enlarged principles in a happier age. The Vaudois. — In our journey back towards the apostolical times, these separatists conduct us as far as the beginning of the twelfth centu- ry ; but when we would advance farther, we are intercepted by a broad region of darkness and uncertainty. A spark of hope is indeed sug- gested by the history of the Vaudois. Their origin is not ascertained by any authentic re- cord ; and being immemorial, it may have been coeval with the introduction of Christianity. Among their own traditions there is one, which agrees well with their original and fa- vorite tenet, which objects to the possession of property by ecclesiastics. It is this — that their earliest fathers, offended at the liberality with which Constantine endowed the Church of Rome, and at the worldliness with which Pope Sylvester accepted those endowments, seceded into the Alpine solitudes; that they there lay concealed and secure for so many ages through their insignificance and their innocence. This may have been so — it is not even very improbable, that it was so. But since there is not one direct proof of their existence during that long space ; since they have never been certainly discovered by the curiosity of any writer, nor detected by the inquisitorial eye of any orthodox bishop, nor named by any Pope or Council, or any Church record, chronicle, or memorial, we are not justified in attaching any historical credit to their mere unsupported tradition. It is suffi- cient to prove, that they had an earlier exist- ence than the twelfth century ; but that they had then been perpetuated through eight or nine centuries, uncommemorated abroad, and without any national monument to attest their existence, is much more than we can venture, on such evidence, to assert. Here then the golden chain of our apostolical descent dis- appears ; and though it may exist, buried in the darkness of those previous ages, and though some writers have seemed to discern a few detached links which they have dilli- gently exhibited, there is still much wanting to complete the continuity.* The Mbigeois. — When we turn to the his- tory of the Albigeois, we find there still less to flatter our hopes, or encourage our pursuit. For if we adopt the more probable opinion respecting the origin of that sect — that it was engendered by the contrast, so perceptible even to the least instructed, between the cha- racter of the Church and the first principles * Tlie claims of the Protestant Mountaineers in Pauphine appear to be somewhat stronger than those of the Vaudois; because (as has been mentioned) neither the worship of images, nor the pontifical jurisdiction was established in France, so early as in Italy — probably not till the middle of the ninth century. Now, as soon afterwards as the year 1025 we have records of the existence, at Arras, of certain erroneous opinions, which were supposed to have proceeded from ' the Alpine borders of Italy.' In this case, the interval of silence is reduced to rather less than two centuries: and though this space will seem to many sufficient to destroy all historical ground for asserting an uninterrupted succession, nevertheless, upon the whole, we are disposed to consider it aR very probable, that on the sides and under the brows of those desolate mountains there may have existed in every age a few obscure peasants, whom all the innovations of Rome have never reached. Different persons will attach different degrees of importance to this result — we therefore refer the curious reader, with great pleasure, to Mr. Gilly's ' Memoirs of Neff,' where the subject is argued with learning and earnestness. At the same time it is proper to men- tion what those opinions really were which were condemned at Anas in 1025; lest it should be sup- posed, that they were at variance only with the Roman Catholic Church, and strictly in accordance with apostolical truth. (1.) It was asserted, that the sacrament of baptism was useless, and of no efficacy to salvation. (2.) That the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was equally unnecessary. (It would seem that the objections of the heretics on this point went beyond the mere denial of the change of substance.) (3.) That there was no peculiar sanc- tity in churches, (4.) nor holiness in the altar. (5.) That the use of bells, &c, to summon the people to worship, was objectionable. (6.) That the sacred orders of the ministry were not of divine institution (7.) That the Church rites of sepulture are to be ascribed to the avarice of the clergy. (8.) That penance was altogether inefficacious. (This appears to have been an inference from their denial of the efficacy of baptism.) (9.) That alms, vicarious penance, &c, are of no use to the dead (which in- volved the denial of purgatory.) (10.) That mar- riage in general was contrary to the evangelical and apostolical laws. (11.) That saint-worship is to be confined to the apostles and martyrs — not extended to the confessors, i. e. holy men, not martyrs (12.) That church music is reprehensible. (13.) That the cross is not an object of worship, (14.) nor the Saviour's image on the cross, nor any other image. (15.) That the orders of the hierarchy are objection- able. (16.) That the doctrine of works (Justilia) supersedes that of divine grace, and every man's hope of salvation lies in his own deserts (see Labbaei Concil. torn. xix. p. 423. Ex Dacherii Spicileg. 2 ed. vol. i. p. 607.) So mixed and various is the substance of those opinions, to which learned writers on this subject appeal with so much satisfaction. ITS TREATMENT OF HERETICS. 555 of Christianity— its birth must at least have succeeded the manifest corruption of the Church ; nor is there any evidence to prove it more ancient, than the twelfth or perhaps eleventh century. If, on the other hand, we should identity those Dissenters (as sonic ha\e done) with the Cathari, the Gazari, Paterini, Publicaui, and others of the same age, who were collateral branches of the Paulician family, we are not, indeed, any longer at a loss to trace the succession to very high an- tiquity. It is also true, that the contempt of images, the disbelief in transubstantiation, and some other protestant principles, were faith- fully perpetuated in that heretical race. But these attractive characteristics were tainted, more or less deeply, by the poison of Man- ichajism : and since it is our object to establish a connexion with the primitive Church, we shall scarcely attain it through those, whose fundamental principle was unequivocally re- jected by that Church, as irrational and im- pious.* Mysticism.— If the claim again be reduced from a succession of sects to a series of pious individuals, who in every age of the Church may have secretly protested against its abuses and its worldliness, it becomes equally im- possible to prove its existence, and to deny its probability. The aspirations of mysticism, sometimes degraded into absurdity, sometimes exalted into the purest piety, have unques- tionably pervaded and warmed every portion of the ecclesiastical system, from the earliest sera even to the present. Its perpetual exist- ence alone shows, that in private bosoms, and especially in the abstractions of the mon- astery, a disaffection towards the ceremonies, towards the grosser abuses, and perhaps to- wards some of the sacraments of the Church, has been unceasingly nourished, even within its own precincts. But the names of these con- templative and unambitious individuals are, for the most part, lost in oblivion ; and eveu if they were not so, the truth of the Protes- tant principles would gain little assurance, * Manes, a Persian, (the pretended Paraclete,) propounded his system, for reconciling the Magian with the Christian opinions, in the third century. The system was, indeed, original, in as far only as it was a new application of the doctrine of the two principles — but the doctrine itself had been (as we have seen) employed by the Gnostics for the corrup- tion of Christianity, long before the time of Mains. It is for this reason, that we have not bestowed thai attention on the system of the Persian fanatic, which it usually receives from ecclesiastical writers. It may suffice to refer the ordinary reader to Mosheim, cent, iii. p. 11. chap, v., and Bay le, Article — Jlanichcens. and their dignity little increase, from so slen- der, imperfect and precarious a connexion with the apostolical purity. Upon the whole, then, it seems impossible to establish on historical ground the theory of an uninterrupted transmission of the or- riginal faith from the primitive times to those of Luther. Indications of its occasional ex- istence may be discovered, but no proof of its continuity. Yet is this no disparagement to those faithful witnesses, who were called into existence in the iron days of the Church. They bequeathed to their more fortunate suc- cessors their principles and their example. Nor were they in their own times without influence, nor even without peril to the pon- tifical predominance. Innocent III. did not despise their iufancy: he beheld it, on the contrary, with such anxious apprehension, as to divert the engine, with which he was armed for other purposes, to their destruction. He knew the real character of his own des- potism, and the secret of its weakness ; aud while, by his clamor for the crusades, he sub- dued the understanding of mankind, his own deeper penetration taught him, from what quarter the storm must really issue, which would finally overthrow his throne: and in the lineaments of that little cloud, which raised its prophetic hand in the horizon of heresy, he read the denunciation of future wrath, and heard the distant murmur of ad- vancing reason. III. On the treatment of Heretics by the Church.— It was not till the Popes had estab- lished their authority in most of the Courts of Europe, that the principles of persecution were displayed in their full extent, or the practice attended with much barbarity. The previous efforts of Alexander III. and Ca- lixtus II. betrayed the disposition and show- ed the sting — but it was not yet armed and poisoned. The execution of the mystics of Orleans, at a still earlier period, was perpe- trated by the king and the bishop, without any excuse of pontifical interference. In fact, the unity of the Church was not protected by the authorized use of the sword, until the reign of Innocent III. His great power en- abled him not only to turn a casual storm against a particular sect of the heretics of the day; but to engage the temporal weapon, by a general and perpetual edict, in the service of the spiritual. The third Canon of the Lateran council, held by that Pontiff, contained an injunction to the effect, 'that temporal lords be admon- 556 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. ished, and, if necessary, compelled by cen- sures, to take a public oath to exterminate heretics from their territories. If any one, being thus required, shall refuse to purge his land, he shall be excommunicated by the Me- tropolitan and his suffragans ; and if he shall give proofs of still further contumacy, the Pope shall absolve his subjects from their fealty*. . .' Of Roman Catholic writers, those who would willingly cleanse their Church from the stain of blood, and those who dis- approve of its claims to temporal authority, are equally perplexed by this edict. But while there are some who affect to doubt its genuineness ; while others affirm, that it was directed only against feudatories, not against the supreme Lord ; others, that it was dic- tated by Innocent to a council so servile, as even to impeach its authority ; others again, that it was only levelled against the contem- porary heretics, whose detested Manicheism deserved the sentence — a more plausible ex- cuse may be alleged in the consent or silence of the princes and ambassadors, who were present at the council. In fact, on Innocent's death, which followed soon afterwards, Hon- orius, his successor, applied to Frederic II. to insert the Canon among the constitutions of the empire. He did so. And having thus embarked the State in the same conspiracy with the Church, and degraded it, besides, to be the mere executioner of the sentences of its accomplice, he loaded the former with ignominy, and shared without in any respect diminishing the guilt of the latter. Henceforward, the ecclesiastical and civil authorities legally and systematically co-op- erated in the destruction of many bold and virtuous spirits, who for three successive centuries asserted, under different forms and names, the private right of reading and inter- preting the Gospel. Henceforward, the se- cular arm was ever in subservient attendance on the decisions of sacerdotal barbarity ; and it was in this subordinate ministry of an in- * The words are these: — ' Si vero Dominus Tem- poralis requisitns et monitus ab ecclesia terram suara purgare neglexerit ab hac heretica fceditate, per metropolitanos et cueteros episcopos comprovinciales excommunicationis vinculo innodetur. Et si satis- facere contempserit infra annum, signifieetur hoc summo pontifici: et extunc ipse vassallos ab ejus fidelitate denuntiet absolutos, et terram exponet ca- tholicis occupendam . . . salvo jure domini principa- lis, dummodo super hoc ipse nullum pra?stet obsta- culum, nee aliquod irnpedimentuni opponat: eadern nihilominus lege servata circa eos, qui non habent dominos principales.' See Labb. Concil. Collect, torn, xxii. p. 981, et seq., et supra chap, xviii. p. 349. dependent power, that the real executioners found a pretext to proclaim their own unsul- lied charity — that their hands, at least, were undefiled ; that the Church was merciful and long-suffering, and that the penal flames were lighted by the vengeance of the temporal powers! The Inquisition embodied the principles and practice of persecution ; and, notwith- standing the abhorrence which it raised in some places, it was an engine of good service in protecting the Unity of the Roman Catho- lic Church. That fatal principle, of which the name, at least, and even the seeds may be traced to the earliest ages, occasioned more than half the crimes that stain the ecclesias- tical annals. Every hope of salvation was confined to the bosom of the Church ; should any dare to abandon that exclusive sanctuary, their heritage was eternal perdition — if, then, by the fear or endurance of mere temporary torture men could be preserved from eternal inflictions, was not the office salutary ? was not the duty peremptory ? Alas ! for the pre- sumption of those who were sincere in this profession. But, if any there were who falsely joined the cry, with no further object, than to support the system by which they profited, there may be pardon reserved for them in the mercy of God, but there is no term in the vocabulary of crime which can express their guilt. It would be an insult on human nature not to suppose, that among the ministers of the Roman Church there were many, who indi- vidually abhorred the practice, and softened by their private tolerance the rigor of the ecclesiastical code. But the high and domi- nant party in the Church was always that, which stretched the principle of its 'Unity' to its extreme length, and pursued the victims of that principle with as much severity, as the policy of princes and the endurance of the laity would permit. As in the thirteenth century, so was it in the fifteenth ; as in the Lateran, so was it in the halls of Constance; as with Innocent, so with Gerson and Cle- niangis, and the reformers of Innocent's abuses.* The spirit possessed the Church: * It must not be understood that Innocent III. deliberately corrupted, or even relaxed, the ecclesias- tical discipline — on the contrary, he published many excellent decrees for its severer observance — only, by unduly aggrandizing papal authority he rendered those decrees in effect nugatory. Thus, for instance, respecting the abuses of pluralities and non-residence — the fourteenth canon of the Third Lateran Council (held by Alexander III.) denounced both those prac- tices in very strong terms, as in direct violation of INDIVIDUAL REFORMERS. 557 thence it emanated and swelled the bosoms of its ministers ; and the more devoted was the individual to the service of that Church, the more thoroughly was his soul impregnat- ed with the venom. It was not, that even these Ecclesiastics were necessarily destitute of private virtues, or that they lost, in the exercise of official barbarity, all sense of justice and all feeling of mercy. They might be compassionate, they might even be charitable. It might be, that they were only cruel and unjust, and uncharitable, in as far as they were imbued with the high ecclesiastical principle— in as far as they identified the religion of the Gos- pel with their own modification of it — in as far as they mistook the interests of their order for the honor of Christ. A practice sanctified by the authority, and enforced by the zeal of the sacred body, found innumerable advocates among the laity, and it was never in more general favor, than at the end of the fifteenth century. Even the philosophers of that age were hostile to the exercise, or perhaps ignorant of the name, of tolerance. The Popes pressed with unre- lenting rigor the hereditary usage ; and the arm of the Inquisition was lengthened, and its ingenuity sharpened and refined. In the rarity of Christian* victims — for the Hussites the ancient canons — and added: 'Cum igitur eccle- sia, vel eoclesiasticum rainisterium committi debuerit, talis ad hoc persona quaeratur, quae residere in loco, et curam ejus per seipsum valeat exercere ' — on the penalty of deprivation to the minister, and loss of patronage to the patron. Innocent III., thirty-six years afterwards, published a canon (tl>e twenty- ninth) in the Fourth Lateral), on the same subject. Herein, lie referred to the law of Alexander, men- tioned the little fruit which it had produced, and decreed in confirmation of it, ' at quicunque receperit aliqtiod beneficiuiu habeas curam animarum annex- am, si prius tale beneficium obtinebat, eo sit jure ipso privatua: et si forte illud retinere contenderit, alio etiam spolietur.' He added, moreover, that no one should hold two dignities in the same church, even without cure of bouIs. But then he concluded with a salvo, which Alexander had not interposed, in favor of the Pope's dispensing power; " Circa sub- limes tamen et literates peisonas, qu;e majoribus sunt beneficiis honorandae, cum ratio postulaverit, per tedem apostolicam poterit dispensari.' » It should not, however, be forgotten that the Vaudois suffered several severe outrages during this period. In 1400 they were attacked in the Valley of Tragela and driven to the summits of the moun- tains, where many died from starvation. In 14C0 the Separatists in the Val Fressiniere (on the French side) were persecuted by a Franciscan, under the authority of the Archbishop of Amhrun. Every were not victims, but enemies and warriors attention was turned to the perversity of the Jews; and Sixtus IV'., Innocent VIII. and Alexander VI. added to their other offences the crime of persecution. Persecution was, indeed, at this time almost the only proof which the Court of Rome affected to exhibit of its attachment to religion. It was become the apparent object of the spiritual govern- ment ; and the perpetrator of every enormity sought atonement for his guilt in the blood of the misbeliever. It was become a part of ecclesiastical morality; and it was now founded not so much on hostility to any par- ticular opinion, or any bigoted belief in the opposite, as on the determination, that no new opinion should be broached with impunity. It was not against the results of thought, but against the liberty of thinking, that the bolts were now really levelled. The rebellion was more detestable than the heresy; and the wretches, who dared to plead their Bible against their Church, were marked out, not for conversion, but for massacre.* The end, being holy, sanctified the means ; and in pur- suing the details of religious warfare, we shall commonly observe, that, if the deeds of pure atrocity are equally balanced, the superiority in fraud, perfidy and perjury, is without any comparison on the side of the Catholics. IV. Some individual Reformers of the Fif- teenth Century. — It is needless here to re- that occasion to have been practised against them. In 1487 and 14S8 fresh bulls were issued, followed by military violence. Albert de Capitaneis, Archdeacon of Cremona, was deputed by Innocent VIII. to com- mand the attack. But the fortune of war appears For this time to have favored the oppressed. See Milner, Cent. xiii. chap. iii. * ' On ne voulait point eonvertir les BoheaiieM (says Sismondi,) on voulait les trainer sur le biicher.' We may plead the authority of that historian for the justice of some of these last remarks. See likewise Sender, Secul. xv. cap. iii. p. 51, &c. &c. Still it should he observed, that a certain latitude of private it, on certain subjects, was generally indulg- ed to the members of the Church, as, for instance, (o many Mystics; but this was either when die ' Latitudinal inns ' were in themselves deemed inno- cent, or when the opinions touched none of the essen- tials of tlic ecclesiastical system, none of the .-■ of dignity, revenue, &c. Thus, for example, in the dispute between Luther and Cardinal Carvajal, there wire two grand subjects of difference, indulgences and justification. Luther was disposed to attach by far the highest importance to the latter; but the Cardinal assured him, that if be would retract his error respecting indulgences, the other affair could thing that fraud and calumny could invent teems on II be c.isiU arranged. 558 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. peat the names of the anti-papal adherents of Louis the Bavarian, or of the more eminent reformers of Constance and Basle. Nor shall we recur to the premature, hut not fruitless, efforts of Wiclif and Huss. But it is proper to make some mention of those individuals who were distinguished for their opposition to ecclesiastical abuses during the latter part of the fifteenth century. These were the immediate precursors of Luther; and though differing on many matters from each other and from him ; and though his inferiors in evangelical wisdom, in intellectual power and personal character, they were not with- out their use in preparing the path for his triumph. John of Wesalia. — In 1479, John of Wes- alia incurred, by some opinions unfavorable to the pretensions of the hierarchy, the in- dignation of the Monastic Orders. He pro- nounced indulgences to be of no avail — that the Pope, bishops and priests were not instru- ments for the obtaining of salvation. He spoke with disparagement of the fasts, of the holy oil, of pilgrimages, of the Pope and his Councils. He advocated the Greek doctrine on the procession of the Holy Ghost. More- over, he was a zealous Nominalist, at a mo- ment when the violence of the rival scholastics equalled any recorded display of theological rancor. He was brought to trial ; among his judges Monks and Realists preponderated; ' if Christ (said he) were now present, and ye were to treat him as ye treat me, He might be condemned by you as a heretic' He was pronounced guilty ; and, in spite of a tardy retractation, was committed to penitential confinement in a monastery, where he pre- sently died. John Wesselus. — John Wesselus, of Gron- ingen, was more eminent in genius and learn- ing, and more fortunate in the circumstances of his fate; since he enjoyed the friendship of Sixtus IV., and died in peace (in 1489) in his native city. His general attainments were such as to acquire for him the title of the 'Light of the World; 'and among the numerous witnesses of the truth,* it is he * The ' Catalogus Testiuin Veritalis,' by Flacius, is intended, we presume, to contain every name and thing which has in any age and by any means done any ill to Papacy. Out of the various particulars of this Catalogue (which begins with Sacra Scriptura and ends with Concilia XV. Seculi,) we select as specimens the following names: — Coustantine, Greg- ory the Great, Bede, Charlemagne, Claudius of Turin, Hincmar, Paschasius Radbertus, Otho Frisingensis, Nicholaus Orem., Scotus, Occam, Dante, Petrarch, Wiclif, Gerson, Ziska, Peter of Lima, ^Eneas Syl- who has been more peculiarly designated the Forerunner of Luther. The resemblance between them was, indeed, remarkable, not only as to the conclusions at which they arrived, but as to the steps by which they reached them. Insomuch, that Luther him- self, in a preface, in which he recommended to more general attention some of the works of Wesselus, used the following expressions: — ' It is very plain that he was taught of God, as Isaiah prophesied that Christians should be ; and as in my case, so with him, it can- not be supposed that he received his doctrines from men. If I had read his works before, my enemies might have supposed that I had learnt every thing from Wesselus, such a perfect coincidence there is in our opinions. As to myself, I not only derive pleasure, but strength and courage from this publication. It is now impossible for me to doubt, whether I am right in the points which I have incul- cated, when I see so entire an agreement in sentiment, and almost the same words used by this eminent person, who lived in a dif- ferent age, in a distant country, and in cir- cumstances very unlike my own. I am surprised that this excellent Christian writer should be so little known — the reason may be that he lived without blood and contention, for this is the only thing in which he differed from me ' This was written in 1522, when Luther had made some progress to- wards evangelical perfection. His testimony makes it unnecessary to particularize the opinions of Wesselus; but we may relate one anecdote respecting him, which proves that the humbie, unambitious spirit of the Gospel had penetrated to his heart, and influenced his conduct under powerful temptation. When Sixtus IV. was raised to the chair, not forgetful of his ancient friendship with Wesselus, he offered to grant him any re- quest. Wesselus replied by a solemn exhor- tation to the Pontiff, faithfully to discharge his weighty duties. 'That (replied Sixtus) shall be my care: but do you ask something for yourself — 'Then (rejoined Wesselus), I beg you to give me out of the Vatican library, a Greek and a Hebrew Bible.' — 'You shall have them (said Sixtus) ; but, is not this folly ? Why do you not ask for some Bishopric, or something of that sort?' — 'Because I want not such things.' — It is recorded, that the He- brew Bible, which was given in consequence vius, Plalina, Trithemius, Wesalia, Wesselus, Savo- narola, Machiavel, and above all Germania vulgus Reasons are alleged under each of these names for its insertion in the honorable list INDIVIDUAL REFORMERS. 559 of this dialogue, was long preserved in the library at Groningen.* John Laillier. — John Laillier, licentiate in theology, advanced, at Paris, in July, 1483, various offensive positions, derogating from the power and primacy of St. Peter; assert- ing an equality of ranks in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the uselessness of even pontifical indulgences, and the human institution of confession. He argued, that the decrees and decretals were mere mockeries, that the Ro- man Church was not the key of the other churches, with other matters of a like nature, and he defended his opinions in public dis- putation against the doctors of the Sorbonne. We find nine of his propositions expressly specified, together with the censure affixed to each of them, and we shall here insert two or three of the most curious: — Proposition (III.) 'Rich saints are now canonized and poor saints abandoned ; wherefore I am not .obliged to believe that such are saints, if the Pope receives money, though he should mount on twenty scaffolds to canonize a saint, I am not bound to believe him such ; ' nor is he, who disbelieves, in sin.' Censure. 'This proposition is false, offensive to pious ears, injurious to the holy apostolical See, contrary to the piety of the faithful, — and the third part of it, according to the sense which it presents, is heretical.' Proposition (V.) ' The priests of the Eastern Church do no sin in marrying; and I think that we, in the Western Church, should be equally free from sin, if we were to marry.' Censure. ' The first part of the proposition in the sense which it presents, viz. that the Eastern priests marry after taking orders, is false. The second, which is the profession of the author's faith, makes him guilty of error; if he adds obsti- nacy, of heresy.' Proposition (IX.) 'One is no more obliged to believe the legends of the saints, than the chronicles of the kings of France.' Censure. 'This proposition is false, and capable of offending pious ears ; it dero- * ' Ha?c nobis erunt curse; tu pro te aliquot! pete. Rogo, ergo, intuit WesseluB, ut mini detia ex Bibli- otheca Vaticana Grpeca et Hebrnea Bibliu. Ea, inquit Sextus, tibi dabuptur — Sed tu atulte; quare nou petis episcopalum aliquem, aut simile quidpiaml Respondit Wesseltts, quia iis non indigeo.' See Vita Wesseli inter Vitas Professorum Gronin- gens. The story is there related as one, that was frequently told by Wesselus himself. Some valuable abstracts from the writings of this reformer are given by Milner, History of the Church, end of cenr. xv. and Sender, cent. xv. cap. iv. p. 212 — 219. Bayle calls him ' un de3 plus habiles homines du quiuzieme siecle.' gates from the authority of the Church, and, if taken universally, is even heretical.' Sentence of condemnation was passed in the following year, and the offender was com- manded to retract He did so with perfect humility. The Bishop of Paris immediately granted him full and unconditional absolution. Hut tln> faculty, less placable, prohibited him from proceeding to his doctor's degree, and appealed from the bishop's decision to the Pope. Innocent VIII. seems even to have surpassed the hopes of his petitioners; for he issued an order that Laillier should be thrown into prison. But whether the sen- tence was executed, or whether the protec- tion of the bishop availed to preserve him from it, does not appear from the records of this transaction.* They are sufficient, how- ever, to show us, that the theological faculty of Paris, notwithstanding the boasted Liber- ties of the Church, was very little disposed to encourage, or even to endure any evangelical truth, which might endanger the spiritual despotism of Rome. Nor is this wonderful ; since Paris was the very centre and nursery of the scholastic system. Jerome Savonarola. — Such were the prin- cipal Cisalpine f ' witnesses' of that age; and their obscurity may be ascribed to their own timidity or to the overwhelming power of the hierarchy. But Italy, at the same time, produced a far more celebrated champion of reform; such a man, so enthusiastic in his piety, so wild in his enthusiasm, so daring in his spiritual pretensions, — as might have been expected to rise up in that country, where the vices of the Church were best known ; and among that people, which h;is seldom tempered religious zeal with any discretion; which loves to be addressed through the im- agination rather than the reason, and whose emotions, if strong, are always violent and generally transient Jerome Savonarola was horn at Ferrara in 1453, the descendant of an illustrious family. His early years gave * This account ia taken from the continuator of Firm;, (liv. c\\i. s. 30 — 38) who refers to D^Ar- genlrd Cottectio. Judir., torn. i. p. 308. ann. 1484. t Lest Spain should seem to have had no candidate for adaiisMnn into this Venerable bust, We should mention that one Peter of Oama, profecaor of theolo- gy at Salamanca, published some anti-papal and anti- ecclesiasncal opiniona in the year 147!). It is re- markable, that the Pope, in condemning, refused to spicily them, ou account of their enormity — 'to the end, that those, who already know thcui, may the sooner forg t them; and that those, who know them not, may learn no new sin.' See the continuator of lib. cxv. s. J. ::. &c. 560 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. indications of a profound religious feeling, and lie presently assumed the habit of a Do- minican. In 1483 he first felt those impulses, which gave the peculiar character to his mis- sion ; he began to preach on prophecy, and himself assumed the mission of a prophet. His first effusions were delivered at Brescia; but in 1489 he desired a more extensive field for his powers, and proceeded to Florence. Most of the Italian cities were distracted by political factions, and none, perhaps, so fierce- ly as Florence. These agitations reached down to the lowest classes, and in the bosom of the meanest citizen there was a nerve ex- quisitely sensible to all appeals, respecting his public rights. Thus, whether in the design to enlarge the range of his influence, or be- cause he really shared the popular passion, Savonarola combined the politician's with the prophet's character,* and made each, as the circumstances of the moment required, sub- servient to the other. Reform was the sub- ject on which he preached, reform and peni- tence— reform in the discipline of the Church, in the disorders of the clergy, in the morals of the people — reform instant and immediate, ere the tempest of divine vengeance, which was already impending over Italy, should de- scend and overwhelm it. He made no ap- peals to reason, none to the ordinary princi- ples, or even passions of men — it was in the name of heaven, that he commanded them to amend; it was inspiration from above — the unerring prescience of imminent calamities — which filled him with eloquence, and armed his eloquence with authority and terror. It was no dew of persuasion that fell from his lips — it was the word of an offended God, clothed in thunder and hail, announcing the approach of desolation. At the same time he promised the divine protection to the republican party. He de- nounced the usurpation of Lorenzo de' Med- ici, and refused to acknowledge his power, or show deference to his person. He pursued with fierce anathemas the luxury and despo- tism of the aristocracy ; and his genius was so extraordinary and his enthusiasm so resistless, as almost to give a color to his claims of su- pernatural communications. At least we need * ' 11 vouloit (as a French writer observes) jouer a la fois le role de Jeremie et de Demosthenes.' We may recollect that Arnold of Brescia, who, like Savonarola, was an Italian, a reformer, and a martyr, like him also denounced, in the same breath, political and ecclesiastical abuses. And we should retnind the reader, that Sismondi compares the sort of mixed influence, acquired by Savonarola over the people of Florence, to that exercised by Calvin at Geneva. not discredit the accounts we read of his con- trolling influence over the people, and of the various acts by which their devotion was dis- played. Multitudes believed in his heavenly mission ;* and the effect of his moral exhor- tations was speedily perceptible throughout the city. 'By the modesty of their dress, their discourse, their countenance, the Flo- rentines gave evidence, that they had embrac- ed the reform of Savonarola ; and it was easy to forsee (says Sismondi) that the political lessons of the preacher would not produce less impression on his audience, than his moral instructions.' The political impression was more violent, and proportionally less beneficial. Savona- rola had promised the citizens of Florence — or they understood him to have promised — that a pure theocracy should be substituted for their actual government, and that Christ himself should deign to rule over them. On this, the popular fury rose beyond all restraint. < It was in vain, that the Pope thundered from the Vatican. It was in vain, that the clergy refused to bury the bodies of any, who believ- ed the announcement of the prophet. The people thronged to listen to his sermons ; and not unfrequently, when the harangue was concluded, rushed forth from the churches and assembled in the squares and public places, with tumultuous cries of Viva Christo .' They would then dance in circles, formed by a citizen and a friar placed alternately, and commit every kind of absurdity, f Savonarola's interview with Charles VIII. — In 1494, Savonarola conducted the Florentine embassy to Charles VIII. at Lucca. It was in Charles that his prophecies (as he confi- dently declared) were accomplished — Charles was the promised minister of vengeance, * It seems probable that the enthusiasm for this man — we may even call it, the belief in him — was not confined to the lowest classes. The story of his interview with Benvieni, (told by Nardi, Stor. Fiorent. lib. ii., and cited by Roscoe,) proves, at least, his authority over those in command. Nardi likewise mentions the hesitation, and even apprehen- sion, with which the inquisitors themselves made the first application of the torture. f Roscoe (whom we have consulted with profit on the subject of Savonarola) cites from Girolamo Ben- vieni, who composed songs for these occasions, the following specimen (it can scarcely be a fair speci- men) of the popular effusions: — ' Non fit mai piu bel solazzo Piu grande, nd maggiore, Che per zelo e per amore Di JESU — diventar pazzo— Ognun gridi, com' io grido, Sempre1 pazzo, pazzo, pazzo.' INDIVIDUAL REFORMERS. 561 commissioned to chastise the crimes of Italy. The monk presented himself before the vic- torious monarch, as the ambassador of a sup- pliant city — but he did not lose in the char- acter of the monk or of the envoy the con- sciousness of his heavenly mission: he did not forget, that the man whom he addressed was the mere instrument sent to fulfil his pre- dictions, and accomplish the work of Provi- dence. Himself was the prophet of the Lord — he maintained the superiority, communi- cated by a nearer intercourse with God, and preserved his customary tone of admonition and command.* In the meantime, the enemies of Savona- rola, if less numerous and enthusiastic, were more constant and determined than his friends. The aristocracy of Florence, supported by the Pope and all the superior clergy, were patiently watching for the moment to destroy him. A ready weapon was furnished by monastic dissension : the Franciscans, already jealous of the fame of a rival, were eager to enter the lists against him. At the proper season they commenced their attack — and the object, of course, was to withdraw from their adversary the only foundation of his strength, the confidence of the people. It was not by assailing him from the pulpit, that this could be effected ; his great powers and irresistible authority forbade any hope of overthrowing him in a field which was peculiarly his own. Accordingly, the Francis- cans proceeded by a very different method ; agaiust the popular impostor they made their appeal to the grossest popular superstition. A Franciscan challenged Savonarola to go through his trial by fire, together with him- self. The prophet reserved his own person for greater occasions ; but a faithful Domini- can undertook the ordeal in his place: and had he not thus anticipated the general devo- tion, a multitude of citizens, of women, and even of priests, would have pressed to the flames with eagerness, as the substitutes of Savonarola. The government gave its sanc- * ' Come, come with confidence, come with joy and triumph; for the Being who sends dice is even he, who, for our salvation, triumphed on the cross. Nevertheless, listen to my words, most Christian king, and engrave them in thy heart. The perroal of God, to whom these things have been revealed by divine communication, warns even thee, who art sent by the Majesty of heaven, that, after his exam- ple, it is thy duty to show mercy every where,' &c. Such were the opening ser:.jnces of the prophet's harangue. Sismondi (who displays even more than his usual eloquence in his account of this enthusiast) has translated the whole address, chap, xciii. 71 tion ; the day (April 17, 1498) was fixed for the trial ; the necessary preparations were made ; and the entire population of Florence and the neighboring towns and villages thronged to the spot, in devout expectation of some visible sign of the divine interposition. The two parties presented themselves ; the flames were kindled — but even then, in the presence of the chiefs of the Republic and the impatient multitudes, a dispute arose, which finally prevented the exhibition. The people dispersed, disappointed and irritated. It also happened, that the subject of the dis- pute had been such, as to raise a prejudice against Savonarola. The Dominican, his substitute, had, in the first instance, required to enter the flames in his sacerdotal habits, to which the Franciscans reasonably objected. The former then expressed his readiness to enter naked, on the condition only that he should carry the host in his hand. The Fran- ciscans again refused their consent ; and, as Savonarola persisted in that condition, the ordeal did not take place. Now, besides the appearance of some secret design in his per- severance in this last demand, the people were easily taught to believe that it contained no slight mixture of impiety. To commit the body of Christ, under any human guarantee for its security, to the raging flames, was, to treat with irreverence, to profane, nay per- haps to expose to destruction, the most holy of all things. Savonarola was not, indeed, without his advocates ; but it was clear, that the popular current had turned. The advan- tage was instantly pursued ; the prophet was seized, imprisoned, tortured ; and immediate- ly on the arrival of two legates from Alexan- der VI. he was condemned to death, and ex- ecuted. His ashes, according to the usual precaution, were cast into the Arno — and it does not appear, that his exertions, either re- ligious or political, extraordinary as they cer- tainly were, and for the time successful too, impressed any lasting trace of any description even on the history of that city, to which they were exclusively confined. Reuchlin and Erasmus. — John Reuchlin (or Capnio, as he was called,) a German of great reputation and integrity, lent his indi- rect assistance to the cause of religion by his labors for the restoration of learning.* He * It was Reuchlin (in the representation) who threw down the straight and crooked billets, which Erasmus, tried in vain to accommodate: then camo Luther, and set fire to the crooked ones, &c. Reuch- lin was honored by the hatred of the monks, who would willingly have fixed upon him the imputation of heresy. 662 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. died in 1522, and received his apotheosis from the pen of Erasmus, who had entered on the same career with still higher powers and greater celebrity. Of Erasmus much need not here be said, since his merits and weak- nesses are generally known and not improperly estimated. His writings rendered the highest service to the first reformers — he had already stigmatized numerous abuses ; he had reject- ed the Scholastic divinity, and recommended and facilitated the study of the Bible and the Fathers; he had covered with ridicule and contempt the vices of the monks, and their love for the ignorance in which they groveled. By such means as these he had contributed to the success of the Reformation, even more perhaps than he had himself designed; for his predominant passion was that for litera- ture ; and though by no means indifferent to the interests of religion, he was fearful of all great practical changes, and could never shake off that irresolute timidity so commonly as- sociated with literary habits. V. The Abuses of the Church especially displayed in Germany. — If the oppression of Rome was now generally felt and acknow- ledged throughout Europe ; if the scandals of the court were now becoming every where notorious, and the vices of the monks and clergy had inflamed the general hatred of Christendom ; there was no country in which either the tyranny or the licentiousness of the Church was so shamelessly exhibited and so deeply detested as in Germany. While the first Othos imitated the policy of Charlemagne in exalting the sacred order,* they even ex- ceeded his generosity ; and some of the lead- ing German ecclesiastics became at the same time bishops and powerful princes. Nor was there any region more pregnant with popular superstitiou, and with the fruits so diligently gathered from it by a worldly priesthood. From these causes the wealth of the German Clergy had grown to an inordinate excess ; and their secular habits and vulgar vices f * Their motive too was the same, to counterpoise the power of the barons; and it is a deed, for which they are almost invariably praised by ecclesiastical, and condemned by civil, historians. f The Bavarian ambassador, addressing the Coun- cil of Trent in 1562, asserted, respecting the morality of his clerical fellow subjects, that there were not more than three or four in a hundred who were not either secretly or openly married, or living in a state of concubinage (P. Paolo, Hist. Cone. Trident. ib. vi.) The saying of Pius II. on this subject, that if there were good reasons, for enacting the law of celibacy, there were better for repealing it, was now in every man's mouth. are stigmatized in every age of history. The proceedings of the Council of Vienne — the remonstrance of the Emperor Charles IV. to the archbishop of Mayence, and, above all, the prophetic denunciations of Cardinal Ju- lian, at the Council of Basle, display at the same time the immorality and the insecurity of the German Church. From the time of Gregory VII. the politi- cal interests of the empire and the Popedom had been at perpetual variance. And not only was Italy divided between their conflict- ing parties, but even the internal concord of Germany had been incessantly disturbed by pontifical interference. Its emperors had been insulted and deposed; Italian intrigues had distracted all its provinces ; children had been raised up against their parents ; and the battles and miseries of four centuries had been inseparably associated with the name and enmity of Rome. It was the consequence of this inveterate hostility, not only to nour- ish public animosity, but also to raise up pri- vate opponents against the See, who had at various times uncloked its abuses and de- nounced them to the people. So that, when the appointed season at length arrived, the prejudices of the lower classes had been in a great degree removed ; and they listened without repugnance, and frequently with in- tense satisfaction, to any thing that reflected upon the See or Court of Rome. Concordats violated. — The Germans had endeavored to protect their Church against the pontifical depredators by the Concordats of Constance and Aschaffenburg ; and how- ever narrow the field of amendment which they comprehended, still, had they been strict- ly observed, some advantage would have been produced, and some irritation allayed. But so far were the Popes from any desire to correct usurpation by timely concession, or sincerely to conciliate those whom they had injured, and whom they ought to have feared, that they made it their policy to elude the conditions which they had reluctantly accord- ed, and to resume in substance the spoils which they had in semblance restored. By this conduct they not only nourished without any remission the prevalent animosity agaiust them, but they inflamed it still further, when they aggravated former oppressions by recent perfidy. There was, indeed, no part of Chris- tendom, wherein the whole machinery of the apostolical chancery* had worked with such * About the time of the Diet of Augsbourg (in 1518) an archbishop of Mayence declared, during his last moments, that his greatest regret in dying ABUSES DISPLAYED IN GERMANY. 563 pernicious efficacy as in Germany. The privileges of the Jubilee, so fruitful to the See which granted, so expensive to the districts which enjoyed them, were dispensed during the schism principally to that country ; the fathers of Constance and Basle published, though they failed to remove, its complaints and the circumstances of its oppression ; and the 'Hundred Grievances'* which were af- terwards presented to the Diet of Nuremberg (in 1523) formed only a catalogue of heredi- tary wrongs, the subjects of perpetual remon- strance, and of remonstrance which was per- petually despised. The People of Germany. — The papal usur- pations enumerated in that celebrated doc- ument are severally placed under three heads — such as tended to enthral the people; such as impoverished and despoiled them ; such as withdrew them from the secular jurisdic- tion. Thus the interests of the people were become the foundation of the remonstrances of their rulers; thus, too, was it in their af- fections that the Reformer had fixed his surest asylum.f At a somewhat earlier moment (on April 1, 1520,) Frederic, Elector of Sax- ony, addressed to his Envoy at Rome the fol- lowing remarkable expressions : — ' Germany is no longer such as it has been ; it is full of accomplished men in all the sciences. The people exhibit an extraordinary passion for reading the Scriptures ; \ and if the Court was to leave to liis poor subjects the burden of buying the pallium of his successor. About 27,000 florins appear to have been advanced on these occasions, and it was chiefly levied upon the poor. Robertson asserts (Hist. Charles V.) that companies of mer- chants openly bought the benefices of different dis- tricts from the Pope's agents, and retailed them at advanced prices. * The Centum Gravamina comprehended the following abuses: — Payments for dispensations and absolutions; sums of money drawn by indulgences; appeals to Rome ; reservations, coiiimenJums, annates ; exemptions of ecclesiastics from the legal punish- ments; excommunications and unlawful interdicts; secular causes tried before ecclesiastical tribunals; great expenses in consecrating churches aud cemete- ries; pecuniary penance; fees for sacraments, burials, &c. P. Paolo, Hist. Cone i I. Trident, lib. i. n. 65. f On Aug. 23, 1520, Luther wrote to Spalatin, * that he dreaded neither censures nor violence; that he had a safe asylum in the hearts of the Germans, and that his enemies should beware, lest, in destroy- ing one adversary, they should give birth to man;,.' Beausobre, Hist, de la Reformation, liv. ii. X ' The world (said Erasmus in 1521, in his Ad- vice to the Emperor) is weary of the ancient theolo- gy, which is only a mass of useless questions and vain subtleties, in which the sn|jlil~is exercise their ingenuity. The people are thirsting for the doc- of Rome shall obstinately persist in rejecting the offers of Luther and in treating the affair with haughtiness, instead of replying to his arguments, .she must prepare herself for trou- bles which will hardly be appeased, and for revolutions which will be no less fatal to her- self than to others.' To this wise admonition Leo X. addressed a reply, in which he desig- nated Luther ' as the most wicked and detes- table of all heretics — a man who had no other mission than that which he had received from the Devil ! ' The condition of Germany being such as the Elector represented it, and the disposition of the Vatican such as is betrayed in the an- swer of the Pope, it is not difficult to com- prehend the nature or the result of the con- flict which fallowed. On the one side, we are led to expect a succession of just demands commencing in moderation, and rising in ex- act proportion to the contempt with which tiny were rejected— on the other, a fierce and selfish determination to maintain the estab- lished system in its full integrity, without distinction of good or evil, of use or abuse, of truth or falsehood, of divine or human authority. And the conclusion was such as must certainly follow, sooner or later, from collision between such principles. Conclusion. — When the train is thus pre- pared, the moment of explosion will com- monly depend on what is called accident ; and thus it will frequently arrive when it is least expected. Thus was it in the begin- ning of the Reformation. Never was the Court of Rome more confident in the sense of security, than at that instant. The various heresies which had so long disturbed the Church were, for the most part, dismayed and silenced ; the complaints and petitions of the faithful had long been rejected with insolent impunity; the Council which had last been held had effaced by its subservience the memory of Basle and Constance; and the warnings of Julian Cesarini were despised or forgotten. The temporal monarchy of Rome was more firmly established than at any former period, and her power and influ- ence were still considerable in every part of Europe — her ecclesiastical agents were never more numerous or more zealous iu her ser- vice. The pillars of her strength were vis- ible and palpable, and she surveyed them with exultation from her golden palaces; but trine of the Gospel, and if it shall be attempted to close the source against them, they will open it for themselves by force.' This letter is translated by Beausobre. Hist. Kef. liv. iv. 664 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. she did not so readily discern the mora] cau- ses which were combining for her dissolution, and slowly and secretly sapping the founda- tions of her pride. The qualities of Leo X., though not des- picable, were not calculated for that crisis — fond of letters, devoted to pleasure, contemp- tuous of morality — ignorant of the science, careless of the duties, neglectful even of the decencies, of religion; vain, extravagant, necessitous and venal, he had not the char- acter which could prevent the rebellion, or crush the rebel. Tempered in the schools of courtly negotiation, the weapons of the Vatican were of no service against a popular enemy ; and the Pcpe himself at length con- descended to complain,* that 'the present dis- ease was not in the princes and" great prelates, with whom familiarity and interest prevailed, but in the people, with whom it was neces- sary to use reality, and make a true reforma- * Padre Paolo, Hist. Concil. Trident, liv. i. tion.' In that people, so long the object of pontifical contempt and spoliation, new en- ergies had insensibly replaced the incurious and servile ignorance of former days.* An occasion and an instrument were alone re- quired to bring them into action. The for- mer was furnished by the vices and blindness of the Church ; the latter was raised up by Providence in the person of Luther. Yet Luther himself, endowed as he was with great and ardent qualities, was but the voice that called the laborers to their office. The abuses were so ripe and pregnant, and the perception of them so deep and so general, that, even had Luther never been born, the harvest could not long have needed bold and holy ministers to gather it. 'I do not doubt, (they are the words of the Reformer himself addressed to Melancthon,) that if we are unworthy to bring this work to its con- clusion, God will raise up others, worthier than we are, who will accomplish it.' A CRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EMINENT MEN, AND OF THE PRINCIPAL COUNCILS. Popes. Died. Eminent Persons connected with Ecclesiastical History. Important Councils Linus - - • - 78 Anacletus _ 91 Clement Alexander Sixtus - - 100 116 126 Pliny the Younger. Ignatius. Tacitus. Telesphorus - 137 Hyginus _ 141 Justin Martyr. Pius _ 157 Polycarp. Anicetus - 168 Montanus. Soter Eleutherus* Victor - 177 192 196 219 224 231 Pantaenus. Irenaeus. Ammonias Saccas. Clemens Alexandrinus. Zephyrinus Callistus Urban - - Tertullian. Origen. Celsus. Pontianus . 235 Anterus _ 236 Fabianus . 251 Sabellius. A Synod at Rome Cornelius _ 253 Cyprian. against Novatian A Schism between Corne- (251). lius and Novatian. Lucius - Stephen - Sixtus II. 255 257 259 271 275 283 Paul of Samosata. Synod at Carthage (•!>), held by the A Schism between Liber Chrysostom. Snni-arians. and Felix. Gregory Nazianzenus. Basil Gregory of Nyssa. Priscillian. Council of Rimini (360). Synod of Saras'—a (380) against Priscil- lian. * The succession of the earliest Bishops of Rome and the duration of their government arc involved in inexplica- ble confusion. We have followed Spanheim. t The Imliction was a cycle of three lustres, or a revolution of fifteen years. It was Instituted by Constantine soon after his victory over Maxentius (September 94. 319), ami the financial account* for tli«' payment of tribute wen' reg ulated by this term. At the Council of Nice the method of hldicUofl was substituted lor that of Olympiads. The year of the first Indiction began January 1,313; consequently, to find this [ndtctf on, subtract 319 from the given year or add three to it ; divide the difference, or sum by 15, and the remainder, if any, will be the year of the Indic- tion.' The Popes still use this cycle in th«ir bulls and diplomas. X The Italics designate the Councils held General by the Latin Church. 566 A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EMINENT MEN, Popes. Damasus - Schism between Damasus and Ursicinus Siricius - - - - Anastasius - Innocent ... Zosimus ... Boniface ... Schism between Boniface and Eulalius Celestine - Sixtus III. Leo the Great Hilary - Simplicius - Felix II. Gelasius - Anastasius II. Schism between Symma- chus and Laurentius Symmachus - Hormisdas ... John - Felix III. Boniface II. - A Schism between Boni- face and Dioscoras. John II. Agapetus ... Sylverius ... Schism between Sylverius and Vigilius. Vigilius - Pelagius - John III. Benedict - Pelagius II. - Gregory the Great Sabinianus Boniface III. - Boniface IV. - Deodatus Boniface V. Honorius Severinus John IV. Theodore Martin Eugenius Vitalianus Adrodatus Domnus Agatho - 385 398 402 417 418 423 432 440 461 467 483 492 496 498 514 523 526 530 532 535 536 540 555 559 573 577 590 604 605 606 614 617 625 638 639 641 648 655 656 669 676 678 682 Eminent Persons connected with Ecclesiastical History. Theodosius the Great. Ambrose of Milan. St. Martin, A. B., of Tours. Jerome. Jovinian. Vigilantius. Augustin. Donatus. John Cassian, author of the In- stitutions. Pelagius and Celestius. Sulpicius Severus. Socrates. Sozomen. Nestorius. Theodoret. Zosimus. Eutyches. Sidonius Apollinaris (Bishop of Clermont). Paulinus of Nola. Clovis. Vigilius Tapsensis. Boethius. Benedict of Nursia. Justinian. St. Gregory, Bishop of Tours. Isidore of Seville. John the Faster, Ph. of C. P. St. Columban. St. Austin, Apostle of England. Mahomet. St. Eligius, Bishop of Noyon. Fredegarius of Burgundy. Heraclius. Important Councils. II. First of Constanti- nople (381), on the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. Council of Milan (390), against Jovinian. Council of Carthage (398), prohibited se- cular studies. Conference at Car- thage, against the Donatists (411). III. Council ofEphe- sus (431 ), against Nestorius. Second (False) Coun- cil of Ephesus (449). IV. Council of Chalce- don ( 451 ), against Eutyches. Orleans (511), convok- ed by Clovis, chiefly on Discipline. Oth- ers held there, on the same subject, in 538, 541, and 549 V. Constantinople, (553) against Origen and others. On the Resurrection of the Flesh and Pre- ex- istence of the Soul. Council of Toledo (589), against tho Arians. VI. Constantinople, (680), against the Monothelites. AND OF THE PRINCIPAL COUNCILS. 567 Popes. Eminent Persons connected with Died. Ecclesiastical History. Important Councils. Leo II. 684 Council of Toledo Benedict II. - IW (682), deposed Vam- John V. ... 686 ba, King of the Vis- igoths. Conon ... 687 Constantinople] in Trullo (693) (Qui- Sergius ... 701 ni-sextum)* on the JohnVI. 704 marriage of the Cler- John VII. - 707 gy, &c. Sisinnius ... 707 The Venerable Bede. The last Council of Constantine - - - 714 St. Boniface, the Apostle of Toledo (696). Gregory II. - 7:31 Germany. Gregory III. - 7-11 Leo the Isaurian. Zachary ... 752 Charles Martel. Stephen II. - 752 Archbishop Cuthbert. Stephen III. - - - 757 Pepin, king of France. Constantinople (754), Paul - 767 John Damascenus. against Images. Schism between Paul and Paul the Lombard. Theophylact. Stephen IV. - 772 Charlemagne. VII. ATce (787), Adrian - 795 Alcuin. Eginhardt. Seventh General, for the restoration 8888 of Images. Aix la Chapelle (789) for Reformation. Leo III. 816 Francfort (794), against Image-wor- ship. Others at Aix la Cha- Stephen V. 817 Benedict of Aniane. Paschal ... 824 pelle (in 797, 799, • Lewis the Meek. 802, 809, 816, 817 818, 819). Eugenius II. 827 Five Councils, held in 813, at Aries, Mayence, Rheims, 00 noGO qo 88 oo Tours, and Cha Ions. Valentine . . - 827 Claudius Bishop of Turin. Paris (824), on Image worship. Gregory IV. 844 Rabanus Maurus. Ansgarius. Mayence (848), against Paschasius Radbertus. Godeschalcus Sergius II. - 847 Ratramn. John Scorus. Godcschalcus. Rabanus Mau- Leo IV. 854 rus. Photius raised to see of C. P. Charles the Bald. Hincmar of Rheims. f Benedict 858 Lupus of Ferrara. Schism. Petrus Siculus. Nicholas - 867 VIII. (Latin) Con- Adrian II. - 872 Anastasius the Librarian. stanimo/ila (869), for the condemnation of John the Deacon. Photius. John VIII. - 882 Constantinople (879) Martin II. 884 held by Photius, Adrian [II. - 885 Alfred. called by the Latins Stephen VI. - 890 the False Eighth. * Neither the fifth nor sixth general council had published any canons respecting ecclesiastical discipline or re- ligious ceremonies. To supply this defect, Justinian II. assembled another in a hall of the Imperial Palace, called Truliv.fi (Cupola) j and it was called Quini-Sextum, as being supplementary to the fifth and sixth. It passed one hundred and two laws, of which six are in opposition to certain rites and opinions of Koine ; on u liich account the Latins do not hold it general. Mosh., cent. vii. p. 2, eh. 5. t It is to this place that the fable of the female pope, Joan, seems properly to belong. 568 A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EMINENT MEN, Popes Formosus Schism. Boniface VI. Stephen VII. Schism. John IX. Benedict IV. - Leo V. Schism. Christopher - Schism. Sergius III. - Anastasius III. Lardo John X. Leo VI. Stephen VIII. John XI. Leo VII. Stephen IX. Martin III. - Agapetus II. - John XII. - Schism. Benedict V. - Leo VIII. John XIII. - Bomnus II. - Benedict VI. - Boniface VII. Benedict VII. John XIV. - John XV. John XVI. - Gregory V. Schism. Sylvester II. - John XVIII. - John XII. - Sergius IV. - Benedict VIII. Schism. John XX. - Benedict XI. - Schism. Gregory VI. - Clement II. - Damasus II. - Leo IX. Victor II. Stephen X. - Benedict X. - Nicholas II. - Schism. Alexander II. Gregory VII. Schism. Victor III. Urban II. 897 897 901 903 906 906 906 910 912 913 927 928 930 935 939 943 946 955 963 964 965 972 972 974 975 984 985 985 995 998 1003 1003 1009 1012 1024 1033 1044 1046 1048 1049 1054 1057 1058 1059 1061 1073 1086 1087 1099 Eminent Persona connected with Ecclesiastical History. Important Councils . St. Odo, Abbot of Cluni. Frodoard, Canon of Rheims. Otho the Great. Bernhard of Thuringia. Liutprand,Otho's Legate at C. P. St. Dunstan. Michel Cerularius. Petrus Damiani. Lanfranc. Berenger. Henry IV. of Germany. St. Bruno. Roscellinus. Anselm. Peter the Hermit. Council at Orleans — some Heretics burnt (1017). Council of Nich. II. (1059) regulating Papal election. At Rome, against Ber- enger. Placentia and Cler- mont (1095) orig- inate first crusade. AND OF THE PRINCIPAL COUNCILS. 569 Popes. Died. Eminent Persons connected with Ecclesiastical History. Important Councils. A Lateran Council Paschal 11. - 1118 (1111), which can- Schism. celled Pasclial's treaty with Henry V. At Worms (1122), on question of Investi- tures. Calixt. II. Gelasius II. - 1119 Pierre de Bruis. Peter the Venerable. Calixtus II. - 1124 IX. {Latin). First Lateran Council (1123), on Investi- tures. Twenty-two canons. Honorius II. - 1130 Abelard. Council of Pisa (1134). Innocent II. - Celestine 11. - 1143 1144 Bernard of Clairval. *>. Henri the Heretic. X. (Latin). Second Lateran (1139), Lucius II. - Eugenius III. Anastasius IV. Adrian IV. - j - Schism. 1145 1153 1154 1159 Otho Frisingensis. Gratian of Bologna. Peter the Lombard. Arnold of Brescia. 4P* Frederic Barbarossa. against Heretics; for the general Reformation of the Church. 30 can- ons are extant. XL (Latin). Third Alexander III. Lucius III. - 1181 1185 Thomas a Becket. Peter Waldus. Lateran (1179), for the arrangement Urban III. - 1187 of Papal Election ; Gregory VIII. 1188 against Heretics ; Clement III. 1191 Dominic. and for the Re- Celestine III. 1199 Simon de Montfort. formation of the • Francis d'Assisi. «>» Church.* Council of Paris (1212). Innocent III. 1216 XII. (Latiri). Fourth Honorius III. 122/ Lateran (1215), un- Gregory IX. Celestine IV. 1241 der Innocent III. 1243 John of Parma. XIII. [Latin). First Robert Grossetete. Council of Lyons Innocent IV. 1254 Frederic II. (1245), under Inno- Louis IX. of France. cent IV. Alexander IV. 1261 Robert of Sorbonne. Urban IV. 1264 Clement IV. 1268 Thomas Aquinas. ^ XIV. (Latin). Strand Gregory X. - Innocent V. - 1276 Bonaventura. of Lyons (1274), 1276 Roger Bacon. under Gregory X. Adrian V. 1276 John XXI. - 1277 Matthew Paris. Nicholas III. - 1280 Martin IV. - - 1285 Honorius IV. 1288 Nicholas IV. 1292 Celestine V. (abdicted) 1294 Boniface VIII. 1303 Philip the Fair Benedict XI. - 1304 Dante. ^ Clement V.- 1314 Louis of Bavaria. XV. (Latin). Council John XXII. - 1334 John Duns Scotus. of Vienne (1311), William Occam. under Clement V. Benedict XII. 1342 Marsilius of Padua. * The substance of the principal Canons of the First Lateran is briefly piven i at page 257. Of the Second, the Ninth CMoVprSterMonk8PaDd Canons Hernial from practising Civil Law or Medirme ; the Thirteenth was directed a. st usurers ■ the Fifteenth protected &e persons of the Clergy and the right of Awlum. . he condemnation of Pe Lo an f Arnold of Rrescia were separate Arts of Legislation. M tiM / W, the ]■ ,rst .anon ordained, Jcsnect ," , ipa election, that If the Cardinals should no) be unanimous in their choice, two-thirds oi the votes and no e^s than two-thirds, should be suliicient. Of the Fourth, the most important Canons have been mentioned In various places. 72 570 A CHRONOLOU1CAL TABLE OF EMINENT MEN, &c. Popes. Clement VI. Innocent VI. Urban V. ... Gregory IX. Urban VI. (Rome.) Clement VII. (Avignon.) Boniface IX. (Rome.) Innocent VII. (Rome.) Benedict XIII. (deposed, Avignon.) Gregory XII. (deposed, Rome.) Alexander V. - John XXIII. Deposition and Vacancy till 1417. - - . Martin V. - - . Eugenius IV. Schism. Nicholas V. Calixtus III. Pius II. ... Paul II. ... Sixtus IV. Innocent VIII. Alexander VI. Pius III. - Julius It Leo X. ... 1352 1362 1370 1378 1389 1394 1404 1406 1409 1409 M10 15 1431 1447 1455 1458 1464 1471 1503 1503 1513 Eminent Persons connected with Ecciesiastical History. Jovanni and Matteo Villani. Petrarch. St. Brigida. John Wiclif. St. Catharine of Sienna. Theodoric of Niem. Pierre dAilly. Nicholas de Clemangis. John Gerson. John Huss. Jerome of Prague. Sigismond. Poggio of Florence. Leonard us Aretinus. Julian Cesarini. The Cardinal of Aries. iEneas Sylvius. Laurentius Valla. St. Antoninus, A. B. of Flor- ence. John of Wesalia. John Wesselus. John Laillier. Jerome Savonarola, m Cardinal Ximenes. Erasmus. • Luther. Important Councils. Pisa (1407). XVI. (Latin), stance (1414). Con- XVII. (Latin). Basle (1431). XVIII. (Latin). Fifth Lateran, by Julius II. (1512.) INDEX Abbesses, 324 Abbots, their office, 311 Abelard, account of, 270 ; his disputes with St. Bernard. 27] Adamites, the, a sect of Bohemian fanatics, 473 Adrian I., 195 IV. (Nicholas Breakspeare) 256 iElia Capitolina, new city founded by Adrian from the ruins of Jerusalem, 30 ./Eneas Sylvius (Piccolomini) espouses the pre- tensions of the pope after advocating the im- j perial claims, 502 ; account of him, 503 ; raised to the pontificate on the death of Calixtus III., | with the name of Pius II., 503. ; convokes the council of Mantua for a crusade against the Turks, 504 ; an embassy from the East arrives at Rome, 504 ; Pius canonizes St. Catharine of Sienna, 505 ; discourages attempts at reform in the church, formerly advocated by him, 505 ; recants his early opinions, 505 ; his exertions against the Turks, 506; and death, 506 Agapa?, or Love Feasts, 46 Ailly, Pierre d', cardinal of Cambrai,an advocate for reform in the church, 435 Albigeois, or Albigenses, sect of, 291, Bossuet's error respecting them, 553, note Alexander III. excommunicates Frederic Barba- rossa, 260 ; encoupages learning, 261 V. (Peter of Candia) elected by the council of Pisa in opposition to the two anti- popes, 420 ; his death, 421 VI. (Roderic Borgia, nephew of Calix- tus III.,) his infamous character, 511 ; elected on the death of Sixtus IV., 512; enters into negotiations with Bajazet against Charles VIII. of France, 513; his donation of the Indies to Ferdinand and Isabella, 513 ; its validity con- tested by the Portuguese, 513; he retires to the Castle of St. Angelo on Charles's entry into Rome, 514 ; is suspected of poisoning Zizini, the brother of Bajazet, 514 ; his death occasioned by a scheme of his own for poisoning a cardi- nal, 515 Alexandria, introduction of Christianity at, 37 Ambrose, St., account of, 128 Ammianus Marcellinus, account of, 115 Anchorets, 298 Andrew, St., his relics brought from Greece by Palffiologus, Angelo, St., cardinal of. See Cesarini. Annates, or first year's income of vacant bene- fices, disputes relative to, between the pope and the council of Constance, 446; restored after being abolished by the Pragmatic Sanc- tion, 521 . note Anselm, his writings, 270, note Ansorarius introduces Christianity into Denmark and Sweden in the ninth century, 229 Ante-Nicene Church, 177 Anthony, St., monachism instituted by, 298; also nunneries, 303 Antioch, church of, 31 Antoninus Pius, his edicts in favor of the Chris- tians, 61 Marcus, his strict persecution of the Christians, 61 ; his character, 62 Apocrisiarii, papal envoys, 143 Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicoea, his opinions re- garding the Incarnation, 163 Apostles' Creed, 46 Aquinas, St. Thomas, 378 Arian Controversy, 93; decided by the council of Nice, 95 Arians. divisions among them, 98; Semi-Arians, 98 ; character of the Arians, 109 Arianism, opposed by Theodosius the Great, 100; spreads among the Goths, 101 ; extirpated from Spain by the council of Toledo, 101 Arius, account of. 93 Aries, cardinal of, president of the council of Basic. 454 ; his death, 501 Armenians, their negotiations with the pope, after separating from the Greek church, 495 ; Leo expresses to Innocent IV. a desire for a re- union with the Latin church, 496 ; doctrinal errors imphted to them by the pontiff, 4'J0 Arnold of Brescia, an early reformer, 256 ; put to death, 250 ; political as well as religious re- former, 516, note Artemon, his heresy, 76 Ascetics, 297 Asia, the seven churches of, 31 Asylum, practice of, 547 Athanasian Creed, 192 Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, account of, 97 ; banished by Constantius, 97; Julian's en- mity to him, 114 Athens, progress of Christianity at, 34 Avignon, removal of the papal see to, by Cle- ment V., 381 ; decline of the papal power at this period, 393 ; one of its causes the profligacy of the* court of Avignon, 394 Augustin, St., bishop of Hippo, opposes the Do- natists, 153; account of him, 154; Erasmus's parallel between him and St. Jerome, 155 ; his private life, 156; opposes the doctrines of Ce- lestius, 160; and those of Pelagianism, 161 hermits of, a religious order, 391 Auricular confession established, 228 Austin, St. introduces Christianity into England, 133; Jortin's character of him, 134, note Bajazet, offer of alliance made to him by Alexan- der VI., 513 ; his brother Zizini detained as a hostage by Alexander, and supposed to have been poisoned by him, 514 Baptism, sacrament of, 46 ; efficacv imputed to it, 54 Basil, St., archbishop of Ccsarea, introduces mo- nachism into the Greek church, 300 Basle, council of, convoked, 447; its objects, 447; contentions with F.ugenius IV., 448; its arti- cles of reformation, 451 ; final breach with the pope, 453; the president, cardinal of St. An- gelo, deserts to the pontiff, 453 ; questions as to the legitimacy of the council, 453 ; it deposes Eugenius, 454 ; and elects Amadens, duke of Savoy (Felix V.,) 455; and dissolves itself, 455; general principles of this council and that of Constance, 457 Beghards, a sect so called, 400 Benedict of Aniane, 227 ; founds a more rigid in- stitution of monachism, 308 . St., of Mnreia, founder of an order of monks, 300 ; its rule, 300 All. attempts to reform some of the abu- ses in the church and the monastic orders, 388 572 INDEX. Benedict XIII. (Peter of Luna, a Spaniard) elect- ed on the death of Clement VII, 414 ; refuses to accede to the measures proposed for healing the schism in the church, 415; the French court withdraws its obedience. 415; persists in asserting his authority in opposition to the de- cision of the council of Constance, 428; he is deposed, 429; his death and character, 430 Benefices, foundation of, 198 Benincasa, Ursula, the Ursuline nuns derive their title from her, 325 Berenger, archdeacon of Angers, opposes the doctrine of transubstantiation, 247; twice re- tracts his opinions, and again returns to them, 248 Bernard, St., account of, 269; his writings, 269; his disputation with Abelard, 271 ; his zeal in support of papal authority, 271 ; censures ap- peal to the see of Rome, 273; declaims against the degeneracy of the clergy, 274 ; his char- acter, 275 ; his character of the Romans, 279 ; preaches against Henry (founder of the Hen- ricians), 287; preaches the second crusade, 363 Bishops, their office and authority in the early church, 43 ; their oppressive conduct, 147 ; their gradual assumption of power, 190; trans- lation of bishops prohibited in the ninth cen- tury, 227 Bohemia, religious insurrection in, 472; sect of the Thaborites, 473 ; the Adamites massacred by Zisca, 473; embassy to the council of Basle for the purpose of healing religious dissensions, 473; the Calixtins, 474 ; renewal of the war, 474 ; the reformers concede most of their claims by the compact of Iglau, 475; the pope refuses to agree to the concordat, 475 ; Pogebrac deposed by Paul II., 476 ; sect of the United Brethren, 476; the schismatics of Bohemia in- vited to enter into a union with the. Greek church, 494 Bonaventura, St., theological writer, 379 Boniface VIII., his ambition and insolence, 348 ; his temporal pretensions, 349; lays claim to Scotland, 349; his disputes with Philip the Fair of France, 350 ; publishes a bull against him, which the other burns, 351 ; persists in summoning the French clergy to Rome, 352; his bull Unam Sunctam. 352; he is seized by the French, 353; his singular death, 354 IX. ( Pietro Toinacelli ) elected on the death of Urban VI., 412; his avarice, 412; permits Cologne and Magdeburg to Jiold a jubilee, 412; promises to resign on condition of Benedict XIII. doing the same, 415; his government, 416; his death, 418 Borgia Rodrigo. See Alexander VI. ■ Caesar, natural son of the preceding, quits the ecclesiastical profession and is made duke Valentino, 514 ; in danger of being poisoned at the same time with his father, 515 ; he pro- motes the election of Julius II., 516 Bourges, council of, which fixes the liberties of the Gallican church, convoked by Charles VII., 455; the Pragmatic Sanction passed by it, 456 Brescia, Angela di, founder of the Ursuline nuns, 325 Bruno, St., founds the order of La Chartreuse, 310 Bruys, Pierre de, an early reformer, and founder of the sect of Petiobrussians, burnt alive, 287 Burgundians, converted to Christianity, 116, note Calixtins, sect of reformers in Bohemia, 474 Calixtus II. appoints a Diet at Worms for set- ling the disputes regarding Investiture, 256 Calixtus III. (Alphonso Borgia) succeeds Nicholas V., 502 ; introduces the system of Nepotism, 502 Calumnies against the early Christians, 65 Cambalu (Pekin,) see of, founded by Clement V.,548_ Canonization, first instance of, 50b,note Canons, regular and secular, 312 Capucines, order of, 321 , note Cardinals, college of, 232 ; rise and progress of their power, 531 ; Muratori's explanation of the origin of the t?tle, 531, note; institution of the conclave, 532 Carmelites, order of, 391 Catechumens, one of the two classes of a congre- gation, 53 Chathari, sect of, 288 Catharine, St., of Sienna, 324 ; her fanaticism, 391; sent on a mission to Gregory XL, 392; supports the claims of Urban VI. against Cle- ment VII., 411 Celestine V. ( Pietro di Morone,) the hermit pope, succeeds Nicholas IV., 346; his character and incapacity, 347; resigns his office, 347; kept in prison for the rest of his life by his successor Boniface VIII., 348 Celibacy, 55, note of the clergy, 185 Cesarini, Julian, cardinal of St. Angelo, presi- dent of the council of Basle, refuses to transfer it to Bologna, 448 ; his zeal for reform in the Catholic church, 449; passes over to the papal party, 450; distinguishes himself at the coun- cil of Ferrara, 490 ; killed at the battle of Var- na, 493, note Charlemagne, his liberality to the church, 149 ; his Capitulary for the reform of the clergy, 150 ; extends their jurisdiction, 194 ; corrects the discipline of the church, 225 Charles Martel, his victory over the Saracens, 136 the Bald , dispossesses his brother Lothaire , with the sanction of the council of Aix-la-Cha- pelle, 211 ; Adrian II. endeavors to exclude him from his succession, 212 VIII. of France, alliance against him be- tween Alexander VI. and Bajazet, 513; he enters Rome, 513 ; does homage to Alexander, 514 ; Savonarola's interview with him, 560 Chartreuse, or Carthusian order, 310 Christians, the early, their unpopularity, and the calumnies and charges against them, 65, &c. Chrysostom, St. John, account of, 130; his doc- trine, 131 Church, difference between Eastern and West- tern, 144; schism between the Greek and Latin churches, 72 ; the Ante-Nicene church, 176; the church in connexion with the state, 187; its internal administration, 189 ; general benefits derived from the church, 202. See Roman Catholic church. Church government, 41 ; at the beginning of the third century, 52; ditto fourth ditto, 85; alterations in it under Constantine, and its alliance with the state, 86 ; abuses in the church in latter times, 383 Circumcellions, 152 Cistercian order of monks, 310 Claudius, bishop of Turin, a reformer in the ninth century, 228 Clement V., archbishop of Bourdeaux, conditiona imposed upon him by Philip the Fair, 381 ; re- moves the papal see to Avignon, 381 ; appoints a council at Vienne to inquire into the conduct of the Templars, 382 ; his death and wealth, 384; note INDEX. 573 Clement VI. shortens the period of the Jubilee to fitly years, 389 ; his quarrels with Louis of Bavaria, 389 ; his profligate character, 390 VII. elected at Fondi by the cardinals, in opposition to Urban VI., 409 acknowledged in France, 410 ; his death, 414 Clergy, origin of the distinction between them and the laity, 42; Charlemagne's reform of the clergy, 150; jurisdiction of the clergy, 193; extended by Charlemagne, llJ4 ; condition and morals in the ninth century, 204 ; their general immorality, 540 Clovis, king of the Franks, converted to Chris- tianity, 110 Cluni, monastic order of, founded. 310 Coenobites, 299 Communion, the cup forbidden to the laity, 54:2 Community of property among the early Chris- tians doubtful, 43 Conclave, the, institution of, 532 Concubinage of the clergy, 54(3 Confession introduced by St. Leo, 120; estab- lished, 228,280 Constance, council of, convoked by John XXIII. to settle the schism in the church and papacy, 422 ; it declares for the cession of the three popes, 424 ; further account of the proceedings of this council, 438 ; it appoints a college of reform, 439 ; it is dissolved, 446 Constantine the Great, 82; his character, 83; constitution of the church in his time, o5; al- terations introduced into it, 86; his division of its administration, 87; state of Christianity and paganism in his reign, 105 ; his edict of tolera- tion, 1U5 Constantius patronises Arianism, 96; removes Athanasius, 97; convokes the council of Rimini, 99 Controversies, religious, their origin, 92 Corinth, establishment of Christianity at, 34 Councils and Synods, origin of, 44 , Nice, 94 , second ditto, 168 ; Rimini, 99; Constantinople, 1U0 ; Chalcedon, 120 j fourth council of Carthage, 124; Toledo, 146; Pla- centia, 253; Clermont, 253 ; the first Lateran, 257; Vienne, 3c2; Constance, 422; Feirara, 453 -, ceneral, remarks on, 169 Creeds, 45; the Apostles' Creed, 46 Cross, sign of, efficacy imputed to, 54 inscription of the true, pretended to be found at Rome, 545 Crusades, origin of, 253 ; account of, 363 ; St. Bernard preaches the second crusade, 363; subsequent crusades, 365 ; those of St. Lewis, 365; causes of the crusades, 366 ; favored by the superstitious zeal of the times, 368: ob- jects of the first crusade, 369; of the others, 369; policy of the popes in regard to them, 370 ; decline of the crusading spirit, 371 ; effects of the crusades, 371 ; privileges of crusades, 372, note; the crusades productive of intolerance, 373 Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, 52; his zeal in behalf of episcopal power, 52; his martyrdom, 64 Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, opposes the doc- trine of Nestorius, 163 Doemoniacs, 180 Damascenus, John, last of the Greek fathers, 171 Dancers, sect of, in Belgium, 433 Dauphine, protestants in, 554, note Deacons, their office, 42 Dead, prayers for, first introduced, 54 Decretals, papal, 374 ; Gratian's collection of, 375 ; that of Circa, bishop of Faenza, 376 ; and of Gregory IX., 376 , the false, 195, 242; rejected by the Greek church, 483 Denmark, Christianity introduced into, in the ninth century, 229 Diocletian, his persecution, 64 Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, his epistles, 35 Docetaj, sect of, 75 Dominic, St., ''>I5 Dominicans, 316, 317 ; their dispute with the university of Paris, 318 Donation of Constantine, the forgery so called, 195 Donatists, the, 152; persecuted by Constans, 152 ; their influence lessened by Augustin, 153 ; decision against them by the conference of Carthage, 153; their doctrine, 154; frequency of suicide among them, 154 Double procession, the, account of, 174 Dulcinus, his heresy, 401 ; and death, 401 Easter, disputes respecting the celebration of, 36 Ebionites, their doctrines, 75 Eclectics, sect of, 54 Education and theological learning, 262 Ecclesiastical property, 276 Egypt, monks of, 2'.t'.> Election, papal, independence of, 205; regula- tions regarding, passed by the second council of Lyons, 344 Eligius, St., bishop of Noyon, specimen of his sermons, 251 Encratites, sect of, 74 England, Christianity introduced into, 133; spirit- ual jurisdiction in, 535, note Ephesus, church of, 31 ; council of, 163 Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis, 104 Episcopal government, earliest form of, 43 Erasmus, 562 Eucharist, sacrament of, 46 Euchites, a sect of mystics in the Greek church, 480 Eugenius IV. succeeds Martin V. 447; his char- acter, 447.; his disputes with the council of Basle, 448 ; the intrigues of his legate to thwart its measures for reform, 452; he appoints a coun- cil at Ferrara, 453 ; is deposed by that of Basle, 455 Eusebius, account of, 90 Eutyches, opposes Nestorius, 164 ; condemned by the council of Chalcedon, 165 Exorcism, 180 Fathers, the apostolical, 79 Felix V. (Amadeus. duke of Savoy) elected on the deposition of Eugenius IV. by the council of Basle, 455; but resigns atler the election of Nicholas V., 455 Ferrara, council of, convoked by Eugenius IV. in opposition to that of Basle, 453 ; deputies from the Greek church arrive to settle the differences between the two churches, 490 Festivals, the two first, 45 Flagellants, the, account of, 402 ; eight thousand massacred by the Teutonic order, 402 Forgeries, religious, 54, 180 Prance, Christianity introduced into, 37 Francis, St., of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order, 316 J his stigmata, 544 Franciscans, order of, 316 ; dissensions among them, 319 574 INDEX. Frederic Barbarossa, his jealousy of the papal authority, 259 ; sets up the antipope Octavian, 259 • II. engages to make a crusade, 336; his letter to Henry III. of England, accusing the Roman see of rapacity, 336 ; proceeds to Pa- lestine, 336 ; deposed by Innocent IV., his former adherent, 338 ; his death and character, 338 Frisingensis, Otho, introduces the scholastic method into Germany, 378, note Gallican church, it independence founded by Lewis IX., 362 Germany, progress of Christianity in, 134 ; the abuses of the church particularly displayed in, 562 Gerson, chancellor of the university of Paris, exposes the vices of the clergy, 436 ; attacks the decretals, &c, 438; exhorts to severity against the Bohemian schismatics, 455, note Gladiatorial games abolished by Honorius, 112 Gnosticism, 72 Gnostics, their doctrines, 73 Godeschalcus, his opinions, 221; tried before a council at Mayence, 222 Gospel, the Eternal, account of the work so called, 404 Goths, early converts to Christianity, 116 Gratian, his collection of decretals, 375 Greek church, its history after its separation from the Latin, 477; persecution against the Pauli- cians, 478; heresies imputed to them, 478; prevalence of mysticism in the east, 479; Euchites, or Messalians, 480 ; Hesychasts, or (iuietists, 480 ; the sect of Bogomiles founded by Basilius, 481 ; distinctions between the Greek and the Latin church, 482; the reverence of the former for antiquity, 483 ; dominion of the Latins in Constantinople, 484 ; the Latin communion established there, 485; the chief of the Greek church retire to Nice, 486; Latin mission to Nice, 487 Gregory Nazianzen, 128 ■ the Great, 138; Jortin's character of him, 138, note ; maintains the doctrine of purga- tory, 140, 186; his reverence for relics, 140; canon of the mass instituted by him, 141 ; ■ VII. (see Hildebrand) interdicts the mar- riage of the clergy, 235 ; and simony, 236 ; excommunicates the Emperor Henry IV., 238 ; his temporal usurpations, 240 ; his objects in the interna] administration of the church, 242; avails himself of the false decretals, 242; his double scheme of universal dominion, 243; liberated from Henry , who enters Rome, by Robert Guiscard, 244; dies at Salerno, 244; his character, 245 ; the Latin liturgy estab- lished by him, 249 ■ IX., his splendid coronation, 335; ex- communicates Frederic II. for not proceeding to his crusades, 336 ; persists in persecuting him, 336 X. elected while in Palestine, 343 ; en- deavors to reconcile the Greek and Latin church, 343 ; his death, 344 IX., St. Catharine of Sienna sent on a mis- sion to him, 391 ; violence of the populace, and of party in conclave after his death, 406 XII., Angelo Corrario, titular patriarch of Constantinople, succeeds Innocent VII., 418; refuses to heal the schism in the church, caused by the pretensions of the antipopes, 419; the cardinals convoke the council of Pisa, 419 ; and elect Alexander V., 420 Hale, Albert, the irrefragable doctor, 379, note Henricians, the sect of, 287 Henry IV., emperor, calls a council at Worms, which deposes Gregory VII., 238; is excom- municated by him, 236; does penance at Can- ossa, 239; elects an antipope, Clement III., 243 ; enters Rome, but is expelled by the Nor- mans, 244 ; his misfortunes and death, 244 V., son of the preceding, quarrels with Paschal II., and takes him prisoner, 255 Heresy, origin of the term, 459 Heretics, early, their numbers, 70; three classes of, 72 ; various heretical sects in the twelfth century, 287; treatment of heretics, 555 ; canon of the fourth Lateran council against, 556 Hermits of St. Augustin, order of, 391 Hesychasts, or Quietists, sect of, in Greece, 480 Hierapolis, bishops of, 32 Hilary, bishop of Poictiers, 104 Hildebrand, a monk of Cluni, carried to Rome by Leo IX., 232 ; his policy for extending the papal power, 234 ; succeeds Alexander II., 235 ; See Gregory VII. Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, asserts the inde- pendence of the church against Lewis III., 213 ; his character, 217 Honorius, gladiatorial games abolished by, 112 III., 335 Host, elevation of the, 542 Hungary, Christianity first introduced into, 230 Huss, John, account of, 462; summoned by the Council of Constance, 464 ; his opinions and attachment to those of Wiclif, 464.; imprisoned by the Council of Constance, 466; accused, 466; his trial; 467; condemnation, 469; and execution, 470 Iconoclasts, 168 Ignatius, St., bishop of Antioch, 31 ; his epistle to the Smyrnians, 32; his writings, 80 Images, use of, 139; controversy on, 167; edict of Constantine Copronymus against, 168 ; restored by the empress Irene, 168; the em- peror Michael attempts to discard them, 170; their worship restored by Theodora, 170 Immorality, general, of the clergy, 546 Incarnation, the, controversy on, 162 Indulgence, plenary, traffic in, 373 adopted by Boniface IX., 412; remarks on, 529 Infallibility of the Pope, 529 Innocent III., his pontificate, 276; lays France under interdict, for Philippe Auguste refusing to take back his divorced bride, 282 ; excom- municates the English king, John, 284 ; impo- ses the Saladin tax, 284 ; convokes the fourth Lateran council, 285 ; urges Simon de Mont- fort against the heretics, 293 ; his death and character, 294 ; his policy in regard to the cru- sades, 370 ; his apprehension of the mystics, 555 IV., excommunicates and deposes Frederic II. in the Council of Lyons, 338 ; his conduct, 341 ; and character, 342 ; estab- lishes the Inquisition iu the North of Italy, 359 VI., his dispute with the German Clergy, 390 VIII. succeeds Sixtus IV., 510; vio- lates the engagements made at his election, 511; pensions his illegitimate children on the Apostolical treasury, 511; succeeded by Alex- ander VI., 511 Inquisition, the, 359 ; the title of Inquisitors first given to the emissaries of Innocent III., 358 INDEX. 575 Interdicts, papal, 282, note Intolerance of the ancient Romans, 58 Investiture, 237; right of, extorted from Paschal II. by Henry V., 255; conclusion of the quarrels regarding it, 256 Irenasus, bishop of Lyons, account of, 81 James, St., first bishop of Jerusalem, 29 Jerome, St., account of, 131 ; Erasmus's parallel between him and St. Augustin, 155 Jerome of Prague, disciple of Huss, tried before the council of Prague, 471 ; and executed, 471 Jerusalem, the Latin kingdom of, 4t4 church of, 30 John XXII., succeeds Clement V., after a lapse of two years, 384; his avarice and rapacity, 334 ; he extends the power of the Apostolical Chancery, 385; his contest with Louis of Ba- varia, who appoints a new pope, Nicholas V., 385; John formally charged with heresy, by the assembly of Milan, 3d0 ; his death, 387 XXIII., (Baltazar Cossa) succeeds Alexan- der V, 421; consents to a council for deciding the schism in the church, 422 ; and abdicates, 425 ; escapes from Constance, 425; is given up by the duke of Austria, 42(3; is deposed, 426; acknowledges Martin V., 432 ; his character, 432 Jortin, his character of St. Austin, 134, note; of Gregory the Great, 138 ; note Jovinian, his attempt to reform monastic asceti- cism, 158 Jubilee, institution of the, 374 Julian the Apostate, 100 ; his efforts to restore paganism, 107; and to reform it, 107; attempts to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem, 108 ; his writings, 113 Julius 11., (Julian della Rovera) a candidate for the papal crown, with Roderic Borgia, 512; attaches himself to Charles V11I., 514 ; succeeds Pius III., 51(3 ; his military character, 517; his patronage of the arts, 518 ; he excommunicates a council convoked by same cardinals at Pisa, 510 ; convokes the fifth Lateran council, 510; .dies, 510; his character and policy, 526 Justin Martyr, 81 Justinian, account of, 121 ; his edict against the schools at Athens, 125 Knights of the Hospital, 314 - Templars, 314 of the Order of the Virgin, 314; note Lactantius, his character as a writer, 127 Laillier, John, a reformer, his disputations with the Sorbonne, 559 Lateran councils, 27G ; the fourth, 285; the fifth convoked by Julius II., 510 ; its canons of re- formation, 510; its decree against the press, 520 ; the council dissolved, 521 Lay brethren in monasteries, institution of, 311 Learning, state of, after the subversion of the western empire, 263 Leo the Great, 110 ; introduces private confession 12i I the Isaurian, (emperor) attempts to abolish idolatrous worship, 167 IX., attempt at church reform by, 232 X., (see .Medici, Giovanni de') succeeds Julius II , 510; his decree against the press. 520; he abolishes the Pragmatic Sanction. 530 ; degradation of the sacred college, 522 ; Leo's unfitness for stemming the reformation, 564 Lewis the Meek, deposed by his sons, and subject- ed to ignominious ecclesiastical penance, 210 Lewis IX., (St.) account of, 355 ; obtains the orig- inal crown of thorns, 356; his death, 357; canonized by Boniface \ 111., 357 Libanhu, Ins apology for paganism, 111, note Literature, decline of. 122; the clergy interdic- ted from secular literature, 124 ; state of learning before the tenth century, 224 Christian, in the third century, 56, theological, three reras of, 267 Liturgy, the Latin, established by Gregory VIl., 240 Lollards, their origin and opinions, 400; horri- ble doctrines imputed to them, 400, note Louis of Bavaria, his contest with John XXII against whom he sets up another pope, 385; his disputes with Clement VI., 389; patroni- ses the enemies of papacy, 300 Lyons, first council of, deposes Frederic II., 337 ; second ditto, 344 ; law respecting the' election of popes, 344 second council for reconciling the Greek and Latin churches, 488 Lucian, his account of the early Christians, 48 Mahomet, his conquests, 135 Manes, his system, 555, note Mantua, council of, convened by Pius II., to form a crusade against the Turks, 504 Manuscripts, scarcity of, in the middle ages, 266 Mark, St., preaches at Alexandria, 37 Maronites, the, account of, 408 Marriage of the clergy prohibited, 235 Martin, St., (pope) carried captive to Constanti- nople, 148 St., (of Tours) 157 IV., miracles said to be worked at iiis tomb, 345 V., elected during the session of the council of Constance, 441 ; he eludes the articles of reform proposed by it, 444 Martyrs, veneration for, 111 Mass, canon of the, instituted by Gregory the Great, 141 Masses, private, 541 Mayence, diet of, 455 Medici. Lorenzo de', excommunicated by Sixtus IV., 509 Giovanni, son of the preceding, dude cardinal by Innocent VIII., at the age of thir- teen, 511, note; succeeds Julius If., by the title of Leo X., 519 Melito, bishop of Sardis, his works, 32 Mendicants, order of', 315 ; their early merits, and subsequent degeneracy, 320 ; dispute in Eng- land between them and the clergy, 320, note , their contest with the cures about confession, 404 Metropolitans, decline of their power, 146 Millennium, opinions regarding. .56 ; general ex- pectation of, in tin' tenth century, 223 Minimes, order of, founded by Franc i: sen of Pau- la, and confirmed by Si.xtus IV'., 510 Minorites, or F ratricelli, the, condemned by John XXII. as heretics, 307 ; persecuted by the In- quisition, 398 Miracles, pretended, 40, note; remarks on the cessation of miracles, 40; ditto false miracles, 543 Miraculous claims of the early church, 40 Missionaries, the mendicants distinguished as, 549 Monachism, its origin, and progress in the East, 207; monks of Egypt, 299; of Syria, 300; 676 INDEX. early forms of monachism, 302 ; character of it in the East, 302 ; introduced in the West, 304 ; its prevalence and character there, 305; account of the Rule of St. Benedict, 305 ; pro- gress of monachism in the West, 307 ; order of Cluni, 309; general remarks on monachism, 326 ; successive reformations in the system. 327; advantages produced by it, 323; super- stition encouraged by it, 332 ; the monastic orders gradually become dependent on the pope, 333 ; their wealth, 334 ; principles of monachism, 547 Monothelites, 166 Montanists, their doctrines, 78 Monte Cassino, celebrated monastery of, 307 Montfort, Simon de, commissioned to extirpate the heretics, 293 Morality of the primitive church, 47 ; begins to decline, 53 Morals, state of, during the fourth and fifth cen- turies, 126 Mosheim, his garbled extracts from St. Elitmis, 251 Mysticism, prevalence of in the East, 479 ; re- marks on, 549 ; the mystics oppose the schol- astics, 549 ; mysticism prevails in the Catholic church, 555 Nepotism, system of, 502 Nero, his persecution against the Christians, 58 Nestorianism, spread of, 164 Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, 163; ex- communicated by Cyril and the council of Ephesus, 164 Nice, council of, 94 Nicholas II., elected in opposition to the Roman nobility, &c.,232 ; his edict in regard to future elections. 232 III., 344 V., (Thomas of Sarzana) elected on the death of Eugenius IV., the deposed pope, and Felix V. resigns, 455 ; his patronage of literature and the arts, 500 ; founds the Vati- can library, 500.; makes a concordat with the German church, 500 ; his efforts to recover Constantinople from the Turks, 501 ; his death, 501 Nogaret, William of, seizes Boniface VIII., 353 Normans, converted to Christianity, 231 Novations, sect of, 78 Nunneries, institution of, attributed to St. An- thony, 303 Nuns, establishment of, 322 origin of the name, 323, note; their vow of chastity, 323 ; Bene- dictine nuns, 323 ; canonesses, 324 ; nuns of the hospital, 324 ; of the Holy Trinity, 324 ; of St. Dominic, 324 ; of St. Brigida, 325 ; Ursuli- nes, 325 Olive, Pierre d', his work against the Romish Church, 404 Orders, monastic, St. Benedict, 305; Cluni, 309; Cistercian, 310 ; La Chartreuse, 310 ; St. Do- minic, 315 ; St. Francis, 316 military, 313 ; knights of the hospital, 314 ; Templars, 314 ; Teutonic order, 314 Ordination, rite of, in the early church, 43, note Origen, account of, 51; his theological system, 51 Osma, Peter of, a Spanish reformer, 559, note Otho the Great, reassumes the imperial authori- ty in regard to papal elections, 206 ; bestows ecclesiastical investiture, 237 Paganism, its decline and fall, 104; Julian's at- tempt to revive it, 107; a decisive blow given to it by Theodosius's edict, 110 ; its extinction 113 ; its influence on Christianity, 187 Papacy, elements of, 154 ; the papal principle. 148 ' Papal power, increase of, 195 ; pretensions of the popes for interfering with the succession to the imperial throne, 213 ; internal usurpation of the Roman see, 215 Papias, the father of traditions, and the origina- tor of the doctrine of the millennium, 56 Paris, University of, 376 Paschal II., 254 ; his dispute with the emperor Henry V., 255 ; made prisoner by him, 255 Paul II. succeeds Pius II., 507; diverts the war against the Turks to persecution of the Huss- ites, 508; discourages literature as dangerous to the church, 508 ; his death, 508 Paulicians, sect of heretics in the Greek church, 288, 477 ; numbers of them destroyed in the reign of Theodora, 477 ; their opinions, 478 Pelagian controversy, the, 159 Pelagianism, 161 Pelagius, account of, 159 Pepin, his donation to the church, 148 Persecutions against the Christians : Nero's, 58 ; Domitian's, 60 ; Trajan's rescript favorable to them, 60; Marcus Antoninus's, 61 ; Severus', 62; Decius',63; Valerian's, 64; Diocletian's, 64 ; indirect advantages of these persecutions, 69 Peter, the Lombard theological writer, 378 ; his book of the sentences, 378 Petrobrussians, followers of Pierre de Bruys, 267 Philip the Fair of France, his disputes with Boni- face VIII., 350 ; he bums the Pope's bull. 351 ; conditions imposed by him on Clement V. whose election he favors, 381 ; causes all the Templars in his dominions to be seized, 382 ; and several to be burnt alive, 382 Photius succeeds Ignatius as patriarch of Con- stantinople, 175 ; charges the Romish church with heresy, 175 ; deposed and recalled, 175 Piccolomini, iEneas Sylvius, ( Pius II.) see JEneas. Pilgrimages, 199, note, 366 Pisa, council of, convened by the Cardinals, to settle the schism in the church, 419; it elects Alexander V., in opposition to Benedict XIII., and Gregory XII. 420 ; character and results of this assembly, 437 Pius II., see JEneas Sylvius. Pius III., elected as successor to Alexander VI., but dies almost immediately afterwards, 516 Platonics, new, sect of, 55 Plenary Indulgence, 373 Pliny the younger, his account of the early Christians, 33 Poland, Christianity first introduced into, 230 Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, 32 Polytheism, character of, 57; its intolerance among the Romans, 58 Popes, when they first assumed new names on their election, 228 ; regulations as to their election, 232; which becomes independent of the imperial sanction, 233 Pragmatic Sanction, the, passed by the Council of Bourges, 456 ; annulled and afterwards res- tored by Louis XL, 509 ; abolished by Leo X., 520 Praxeas, his heresy, 77 Priscillian, Spanish bishop, put to death, 157 Priscillianists, the, 157 Prophets, class of ministers so called, 42 INDEX. 577 Protestantism, attempts to trace its opinions back to the apostolical times, 552 ; no histori- cal proofs in their favor, 555 Provincial Synods, 52 Prussia, Christianity introduced into, by the Teutonic order, 315 Purgatory, belief in, inculcated by Gregory the Great, 140, 186 ; disputation on at the Council of Ferrara, 490 ; doctrine of, 529, 540 Radbert, Paschasius, his doctrine of the real pre- sence, 220 Ratramn, appointed to examine the opinions of Radbert, 220 Reform, college of, appointed by the council of Constance, 439 Reformation : attempts at self-reformation in the Romish church, 434 ; general complaints against abuses, 435 ; council of Pisa appointed for measures of reform, 437 ; of Constance, ditto, 438 ; college of reform appointed by it, 439 ; futility of the plan of reform, 441 ; arti- cles of reformation, 442, 450 , restrictions upon the pope, 450 ; this scheme of reformation elu- ded by Martin V., 445 ; council of Basle. 447 ; its contest with Eugenius IV., 448 ; its articles of reformation, 451 ; final breach with the pope, 453 ; nature of the reform attempted by the church itself, 500 Reformers, early papal, Claudius of Turin, 228; Berenger, 248 ; Arnold of Brescia, 258 ; John of Wesalia, 558 ; Wesselus, 558.; Laillier, 559 ; Savonarola, 559 ; Reuchlin, 561 ; Erasmus, 562 Relics, superstitious reverence for, 140 Reuchlin a reformer, 561 Revenues of the church, 196 Riario, Pietro, favorite nephew of Sixtus IV , his prodigality, 510 Roman people, their character in the middle ages, 278 Roman Catholic church, its power and constitu- tion, 525 ; secular authority of the popes, 526 ; spiritual supremacy of Rome, 526 ; infallibility of the pope, 529 ; his dispensing power, 529 ; penance and purgatory, 529; claims of the popes to universal temporal supremacy, 530; the cardinals and conclave, 531 ; relative power of the cardinals and the pope, 533 ; general coun- cils, 533; various causes of the influence of Romanism, 533; policy of the Vatican, 535, mediatorial character of the Romish priesthood, 536 ; power arising to the church from a ple- beian order of clergy, 537 ; doctrines of the Romish church, 539; penance, 539; indulgen- ces, 539; purgatory, 540 ; discipline and morals, 546 ; benefits conferred by the Roman Catho- lic church, 546 Rome, persecutions at, under Nero, 35 ; empe- rors favorable to Christianity, 51, note Rome, church of, authority early claimed by, 50 ; causes of the increase of the authority of the Roman see, 190 Russia, Christianity first introduced into, 230 Sabellius, his heresy, 77 Saccas, Ammonius, founder of the Eclectics or new Platonics, 55 Sacraments of the primitive church, 46 Saladin tax, the, imposed by Innocent III. on church property, 284 Sarabaites, a kind of oriental monks, 300 Saracens, their conquests, 136 Savonarola, Jerome, Italian reformer, 559; his interview with Charles VIII. 560 ; and execu- tion, 561 73 Schism of the Roman Catholic church, account of, 405 Schools, Christian, 45 Scotus, John, appointed to examine the opinions of Radbert, 221 Scotus, John Duns, 380 Scriptures, the reading them prohibited, 542 Semi-Arians, 98 Semi-Pelagians, 162 Sigismond, recommended as emperor by John XXIII., 422; he appoints Constance as the place for a council to decide the schism in the papal see, and on the two antipopes, 422 ; las character, 424 ; opposes John's interest. 425 Simon Magus, the heresiarch, 73 Simony, edict against, 236 Sixtus IV. succeeds Paul II., 508 ; lays Florence under interdict, and excommunicates Lorenzo de' Medici, 509; his nepotism, 509 ; confirms the order of Minimes, 510, his character, 510 ; and death, 510 Socrates, the historian, 103 Sorbonne, Robert de, 376 Sozomen, Hermias, 103 Spiritual courts, their jurisdiction, 277, note in England, 535, note Sylvester II., his encouragement of learning, 225 originates the scheme of the crusades, 253 Symeon the Stylite, 118 Synesius, a platonic philosopher, made bishop, 112, note Sylvius, vEneas. See JEneas. Tartary, Christianity introduced into, 135 Tatian founds the sect of the Encratites, 74 Templars, knights, 314 ; council appointed by Clement V., to inquire into their conduct, 382; Philip the Fair causes all in his dominions to be seized, 382; their probable innocence, 386 Tertullian, account of, 52 Teutonic order, the, 314 Theodoret, ecclesiastical historian, 104 Theodosius the Great, his edict against paganisr. 110 ; compelled by St. Ambrose to perform penance, 129 Theological writers, 377 Therapeutre or Essenes, Tlwmists and Scotists, 380 Tithes, 200 ; the first legally established by Char- lemagne, 201 ; their payment not universally enforced till the end of the twelfth century, 202 Toledo, councils of, 146 Toulouse, councils of, 293 Transubstantiation, Radbert's doctrine of, 220 ; opposed by Berenger, 248 ; the doctrine of, confirmed by Innocent III., 285 Truce of God, 546 Turks, exertions of Pius II. against, 506 ; and of other popes, 523 Ulphilas, bishop, spreads the tenets of Arianism among the Goths, 101, 115 United Brethren, sect in Bohemia, 476 University of Paris, 376 ; it condemns Aristotle's metaphysical Works, 378; its projects for heal- ing the schism in the church, 413 Urban II., 953 Urban V. restores the papal residence from Avig- non to Rome, 391 Urban VI., archbishop of Barj, his election, 407, arraigns the bishops for their misconduct, 408 ; the cardinals cancel his election, 409; Ins cause espoused by St. Catharine of Sienna, 410 ; 518 INDEX. hnprisons six cardinals, 411 ; dies at Rome, Ursuline Nuns, 325 Valentinian I., 110 Vaudois, or Waldenses, 289; crimes alleged gainst them by Rainer , 290, 291 , note ; account ot them, 554; persecutions, 556, note Ventunus of Bergamo, founder of a sect of fana- tics, Vienna, council of, to inquire into the conduct of the Templars, &c., 382 Vigilantius, boldly inveighs against the supersti- tious practises of the church, 159 Virgin, office instituted to the, 544 Waldenses, the, account of that sect, 289 Waldus, Peter, account of, 289 ; his death, 292 wesaaa, John of, a reformer, account of, 558 Wesselus, John, a reformer, 558 ; deaifmnfawi *u forerunner of Luther, 558 aesiS™tei the White Penitents, a sect of religious enthusiasts Wiclif John account of, 560 ; his bones dug up by order of the council of Constance, 461- his rmam462 ' his doctrine3 carr^d into Bohe- Wilfri'd, St., 134, note Winfnd, an English missionary in Germany, 134 Ximenes, cardinal, 546 Zeno, emperor, his Henoticon, or edict of union Zisca, heads the insurgent reformers in Bohemia Zosimus, the historian, 115 New- York 1842 BOOKS PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, FOR SALE BY THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES AND THE CANADAS. ALISON'S HISTORY OP EU- ROPE.—History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Rerolution in 1789 to the Pres- ent Time. By Archibald Alison, F.R.S.E. In 4 volumes 8vo. [In press.] MOSHEIM'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.-Mosheim's Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, Ancient and Modern. A new and literal Translation from the original Lat- in, with copious Additional Notes, original and selected. By James Murdock, D.D. 3 vols. 8vo. GIBBON'S ROME.— Gibbon's His- tory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. New Edition, with Notes, by Rev. H. H. Mil- man and M. Guizot. In 4 vols. 8vo, with Maps and Engravings. RUSSELL'S MODERN EUROPE. — History of Modern Europe : with a View ef the Progress of Society, from the Rise of the modern King- doms to the Peace of Paris in 1763. By William Russell, LL.D. With a Continuation of the History, by William Jones, Esq. 3 vols. 8vo. Engravings. ROBERTSON'S WORKS. — The Historical Works of William Rob- ertson, D.D. 3 vols. 8vo. Maps and EngTavings. ROBERTSON'S AMERICA.— His- tory of the Discovery and Settle- ment of America. By William Robertson, D.D. With an Account of his Life and Writings. To widen are added, Questions for the Examination of Students. By John Frost, A.M. 8vo. Portrait and EngTavings. ROBERTSON'S CHARLES V — History of the Reign of the Em- peror Charles V. ; with a View of the Progress of Society in Europe, from the Subversion of the Roman Empire to the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century. By William Robertson, D.D. To which are added, Questions for the Examina- tion of Students. By John Frost, A.M. 8vo. Engravings. ROBERTSON'S SCOTLAND and INDIA.— History of Scotland, du- ring the Reigns of Queen Mary and of King James VI. till his Ac- cession to the Crown of England. With a Review of the Scottish Hit- HISTORY. tory previous to that Period. In- cluded in the same Volume is a Disquisition concerning Ancient India. By William Robertson, D.D. 8vo. ROLLIN'S ANCIENT HISTORY. — The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyr- ians, Babylonians, Medes and Per- sians, Grecians, and Macedonians ; including the History of the Arts and Sciences of the Ancients. By Charles Rollin. With a Life of the Author, by James Bell. Only complete American Edition. 8vo. Maps and Engravings. HALLAM'S MIDDLE AGES.— View of the State of Europe du- ring the Middle Ages. By Henry Hallam. 8vo. HALLAM'S LITERATURE OF EUROPE.— Introduction to the Literature of Europe, during the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seven- teenth Centuries. By Henry Hal- lam. 2 vols. 8vo. PRIDEAUX'S CONNECTION.— The Old and New Testaments connected, in the History of the Jews and neighbouring Nations, from the Declension of the King- doms of Judah and Israel to the Time of Christ. By Humphrey Prideaux, D.D. 2 vols. 8vo. Maps and Engravings. MILMAN'S CHRISTIANITY.— The History of Christianity, from the Birth of Christ to the Aboli- tion of Paganism in the Roman Empire. By the Rev. H. H. Mil- man. With Notes, &c, by James Murdock, D.D. 8vo. WADDINGTON'S CHURCH HIS- TORY.—A History of the Church, from the Earliest Ages to the Ref- ormation. By Rev. George Wad- dington, M.A. 8vo. HAWKS'S PROTESTANT EPIS- COPAL CHURCH IN VIRGIN- IA.— A Narrative of Events con- nected with the Rise and Prog- ress of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia. To which is added an Appendix, containing the Journals of the Conventions in Vir- ginia. By F.L. Hawks, D.D. 8vo. SCOTT'S SCOTLAND.— Historv of Scotland. By Sir Walter Scott. S vols. 12mo. I DUNLAP'S AMERICAN THEA TRE. — History of the American Theatre. By William Dunlap 8vo. CROWE'S FRANCE.— History of France. By E.E.Crowe. 3 vols 12mo. BULWER'S ATHENS.— Athens its Rise and Fall. With Views of the Literature, Philosophy, and Social Life of the Athenian Peo- ple. By Sir E . L . Bulwer. 2 vols. 12mo. ITALIAN REPUBLICS.— History of the Italian Republics. By J C. L. de Sismondi. 12mo. GRATTAN'S NETHERLANDS. — History of the Netherlands tc the Revolution of 1830. By T. C. Grattan. 12mo. MACKINTOSH'S ENGLAND.— History of England to the Seven- teenth Century. By Sir James Mackintosh. 3 vols. 12mo. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.— His- tory of Spain and Portugal. By S. A. Dunham, LL.D. 5 voU. 12mo. SWITZERLAND.— History ef Switzerland. From the Cabinet Cyclopedia. 12nio. VERPLANCK'S DISCOURSES. — Discourses and Addresses on Subjects of American History, Arts, and Antiquities. By (Julian C. Verplanck. 12uio. HOWITT'S PRIESTCRAFT.— History of Priestcraft in all Ages and Countries. By William How itt. 12mo. MILLER'S GREECE.— The Con- dition of Greece. By Col. J. P. Millf-r. 12mo. FRENCH REVOLUTION of 1830. — Full Annals of the Revolution in France, 1830. To which is added, a particular Account of the Celebration in the City of New- York, Nov. 25, 1830. By Myoj Moses. 12mo. THE BIBLE.— History of the Bible. By Rev. G. R. Gleig. 2 vols. lSino. Map. [Family Library, Nos. 12 and 13.] CHIVALRY.— History of Chivalry and the Crusades. By G. P. R. James, Esq. 18mo. Engraving [Family Library, No 20.) History — Continued. THE JEWS.— History of the Jews By Rev. H. H. Milman. 3 vols. 18rno. With Maps and Engra- vings. [Family Library, Nos. 1, 2, and 3.] EGYPT. — View of Ancient and Modern Egypt. By Rev. M. Rus- sell, LL.D. 18mo. Engravings. [Family Library, No. 23.] POLAND.— History of Poland. By James Fletcher, Esq. 18mo. Por- trait of Kosciusko. [Family Li- brary, No. 24.] FESTIVALS, &c — Festivals, Gaines, and Amusements, Ancient and Modem. By Horatio Smith, Esq. With Additions, by Samuel Woodworth, Esq., of New-York. 18mo. Engravings. [Family Li- brary, No. 25.] PALESTINE.— Palestine, or the Holy Land. By Rev. M. Russell, LL.D. 18mo. With Engravings. [Family Library, No. 27.] TURNER'S SACRED HISTORY. — Sacred History of the World. Attempted to be philosophically considered. By Sharon Turner. 3 vols. 18mo. [Family Library, Nos. 32, 72, and 84.] VENETIAN HISTORY.— Sketch- es from Venetian History. By Rev. Edward Smedley, M.A. 2 vols. 18mo. Engravings. [Fam- ily Library, Nos. 43 and 44.] BRITISH INDIA.— Historical and Descriptive Account of British In- dia. By Hugh Murray, James Wilson, R. K. Greville, LL.D., Whitelaw Ainslie, M.D., William Rhind, Professor Jameson, Profes- sor Wallace, and Capt. Clarence Dalrymple. 3 vols. 18mo. En- gravings. [Family Library, Nos. 47, 48, and 49.] IRELAND. — History of Ireland, from the Anglo-Norman Invasion to the Union of the Country with Great Britain. By W. C. Tay- lor. With Additions, by Will- iam Sampson, Esq. 2 vols. 18mo. [Family Library, Nos. 51 and 52.] NORTHERN COASTS OF AMERICA.— Historical View of the Progress of Discovery on the more Northern Coasts of America. By P. F. Tytler, Esq. 18mo. Map, »»•- ^<~« ° .., „..,.. muim ration ot Mr. Mad isori in 1817. By Salrna Hale. 2 vols. 18mo. [Family Library, Nos. 119 and 120.] ICELAND, GREENLAND, &c- An historical and descriptive Ac- count of Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands. 18mo. Map and Engravings. [Family Libra- ry, No. 13L] JAPAN. — Manners and Customs of the Japanese, in the Nineteenth Century. From the Accounts of recent Dutch Residents in Japan, and from the German Work of Dr. Ph. Fr. Von Siebold. 18mo [Family Library, No. 132.] CONNECTICUT -History of Con necticut, from the first Settlement to the Present Time. By Theo- dore Dwight, Jr. 18mo. [Family Library, No 133.] RUINED CITIES— Ruins of An cient Cities ; with General and Particular Accounts of their Rise, Fall, and Present Condition. By Charles Bucke. 2 vols. 18mo. [Family Library, Nos. 134 and 135.] DENMARK, SWEDEN, AND NORWAY. — Scandinavia, An- cient and Modern ; being a Histo- ry of Denmark, Sweden, i>td Nor- way: comprehending a Descrip- tion of these Countries — an Ac- count of the Mythology, Govern- ment, Laws, Manners, and Insti- tutions of the early Inhabitants — and of the Present State of Socie- ty, Religion, Literature, Arts, and Commerce : with Illustrations of their Natural History. By An- drew Crichton, LL.D., and Henrv Wheaton, LL.D. 2 vols. 18mo. Map and Engravings. [Family Library, Nos. 136 and 137.] MICHIGAN.— History of Michigan, from its earliest Colonization to the Present Time. By James H. Lanman. 18mo. [Family Libra ry, No. 139.] NAPOLEON'S RUSSIAN EXPE- DITION.—History of the Expedi- tion to Russia, undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the year 1812. By General Count Philip de Segur. 2 vols. 18mo. Map. [Family Library, Nos. 141 and 142.] HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY.- An Epitome of the History of Phi- losophy. Being the Work adopt- ed by the University of France for Instruction in the Colleges and High Schools. Translated frora the French, with Additions, and \ Continuation of the History. By C. S. Henry, D.D. 2 vols. 16mo [Family Libraiy, Nos. 143 and 144.] SPALDING'S ITALY.— Italy and the Italian Islands. By W'illiam Spalding, Esq. 3 vols. 18mo. Map, ^ BW921 .Wll 1843 A history of the church : from the Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 00070 1955